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Formula fiction
|
In popular culture, formula fiction is literature in which the storylines and plots have been reused to the extent that the narratives are predictable. It is similar to genre fiction, which identifies a number of specific settings that are frequently reused. The label of formula fiction is used in literary criticism as a mild pejorative to imply lack of originality.
The formula is defined specifically by predictable narrative structure. Formulaic tales incorporate plots that have been reused so often as to be easily recognizable. Perhaps the most clearly formulaic plots characterize the romantic comedy genre; in a book or film labeled as such, viewers already know its most basic central plot, including to some extent the ending. This does not always prove to be detrimental to a given work's reception however, as the popularity of the aforementioned genre demonstrates.
Formula fiction is often stereotypically associated with early pulp magazine markets, though some works published in that medium, such as "The Cold Equations", subvert the supposed expectations of the common narrative formula of that time.
The formula is limited to structure of the plot itself. It does not include conventional, stereotypical elements of the genre used for the story background. Genres like high fantasy, westerns, and space opera (an adventure story in a science fiction setting) often have specific settings, such as a pseudo-Medieval European setting, the Old West, or outer space.
For any given genre, certain assumed background information covers the nature and purpose of predictable elements of the story, such as the appearance of dragons and wizards in high fantasy, warp drives and rayguns in science fiction, or shootouts at high noon in Westerns. These are taken as conventional in the genre and do not need to be explained anew to the reader, they may be included implicitly as part of the genre's formula, but they do not constitute the plot structure that makes a story formulaic.
Note however that stereotypical elements can also easily be treated subversively, to contradict some of the expectations inherent in the genre's formula.
Formula fiction should not be confused with pastiche: Fiction mimicking another work or author's style. Comedy as a whole – including parody, satire, and subgenres such as romantic comedy – often relies on either formulaic elements, or mocking contradiction of such elements.
Though pastiche may naturally include formulaic elements, the same holds true of parody and satire. All may well include formulaic elements such as common stereotypes or caricatures, or which may use formulaic elements in order to mock them or point out their supposedly cliché or unrealistic natures.
|
[
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "In popular culture, formula fiction is literature in which the storylines and plots have been reused to the extent that the narratives are predictable. It is similar to genre fiction, which identifies a number of specific settings that are frequently reused. The label of formula fiction is used in literary criticism as a mild pejorative to imply lack of originality.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "The formula is defined specifically by predictable narrative structure. Formulaic tales incorporate plots that have been reused so often as to be easily recognizable. Perhaps the most clearly formulaic plots characterize the romantic comedy genre; in a book or film labeled as such, viewers already know its most basic central plot, including to some extent the ending. This does not always prove to be detrimental to a given work's reception however, as the popularity of the aforementioned genre demonstrates.",
"title": "Varieties"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "Formula fiction is often stereotypically associated with early pulp magazine markets, though some works published in that medium, such as \"The Cold Equations\", subvert the supposed expectations of the common narrative formula of that time.",
"title": "Varieties"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "The formula is limited to structure of the plot itself. It does not include conventional, stereotypical elements of the genre used for the story background. Genres like high fantasy, westerns, and space opera (an adventure story in a science fiction setting) often have specific settings, such as a pseudo-Medieval European setting, the Old West, or outer space.",
"title": "Distinct from genre conventions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "For any given genre, certain assumed background information covers the nature and purpose of predictable elements of the story, such as the appearance of dragons and wizards in high fantasy, warp drives and rayguns in science fiction, or shootouts at high noon in Westerns. These are taken as conventional in the genre and do not need to be explained anew to the reader, they may be included implicitly as part of the genre's formula, but they do not constitute the plot structure that makes a story formulaic.",
"title": "Distinct from genre conventions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "Note however that stereotypical elements can also easily be treated subversively, to contradict some of the expectations inherent in the genre's formula.",
"title": "Distinct from genre conventions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "Formula fiction should not be confused with pastiche: Fiction mimicking another work or author's style. Comedy as a whole – including parody, satire, and subgenres such as romantic comedy – often relies on either formulaic elements, or mocking contradiction of such elements.",
"title": "Distinct from pastiche fiction"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "Though pastiche may naturally include formulaic elements, the same holds true of parody and satire. All may well include formulaic elements such as common stereotypes or caricatures, or which may use formulaic elements in order to mock them or point out their supposedly cliché or unrealistic natures.",
"title": "Distinct from pastiche fiction"
}
] |
In popular culture, formula fiction is literature in which the storylines and plots have been reused to the extent that the narratives are predictable. It is similar to genre fiction, which identifies a number of specific settings that are frequently reused. The label of formula fiction is used in literary criticism as a mild pejorative to imply lack of originality.
|
2023-02-01T13:40:54Z
|
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"Template:Appropriation in the Arts",
"Template:Redirect",
"Template:Multiple issues"
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formula_fiction
|
|
10,603 |
Field (mathematics)
|
In mathematics, a field is a set on which addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division are defined and behave as the corresponding operations on rational and real numbers do. A field is thus a fundamental algebraic structure which is widely used in algebra, number theory, and many other areas of mathematics.
The best known fields are the field of rational numbers, the field of real numbers and the field of complex numbers. Many other fields, such as fields of rational functions, algebraic function fields, algebraic number fields, and p-adic fields are commonly used and studied in mathematics, particularly in number theory and algebraic geometry. Most cryptographic protocols rely on finite fields, i.e., fields with finitely many elements.
The relation of two fields is expressed by the notion of a field extension. Galois theory, initiated by Évariste Galois in the 1830s, is devoted to understanding the symmetries of field extensions. Among other results, this theory shows that angle trisection and squaring the circle cannot be done with a compass and straightedge. Moreover, it shows that quintic equations are, in general, algebraically unsolvable.
Fields serve as foundational notions in several mathematical domains. This includes different branches of mathematical analysis, which are based on fields with additional structure. Basic theorems in analysis hinge on the structural properties of the field of real numbers. Most importantly for algebraic purposes, any field may be used as the scalars for a vector space, which is the standard general context for linear algebra. Number fields, the siblings of the field of rational numbers, are studied in depth in number theory. Function fields can help describe properties of geometric objects.
Informally, a field is a set, along with two operations defined on that set: an addition operation written as a + b, and a multiplication operation written as a ⋅ b, both of which behave similarly as they behave for rational numbers and real numbers, including the existence of an additive inverse −a for all elements a, and of a multiplicative inverse b for every nonzero element b. This allows one to also consider the so-called inverse operations of subtraction, a − b, and division, a / b, by defining:
Formally, a field is a set F together with two binary operations on F called addition and multiplication. A binary operation on F is a mapping F × F → F, that is, a correspondence that associates with each ordered pair of elements of F a uniquely determined element of F. The result of the addition of a and b is called the sum of a and b, and is denoted a + b. Similarly, the result of the multiplication of a and b is called the product of a and b, and is denoted ab or a ⋅ b. These operations are required to satisfy the following properties, referred to as field axioms (in these axioms, a, b, and c are arbitrary elements of the field F):
An equivalent, and more succinct, definition is: a field has two commutative operations, called addition and multiplication; it is a group under addition with 0 as the additive identity; the nonzero elements are a group under multiplication with 1 as the multiplicative identity; and multiplication distributes over addition.
Even more succinctly: a field is a commutative ring where 0 ≠ 1 and all nonzero elements are invertible under multiplication.
Fields can also be defined in different, but equivalent ways. One can alternatively define a field by four binary operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division) and their required properties. Division by zero is, by definition, excluded. In order to avoid existential quantifiers, fields can be defined by two binary operations (addition and multiplication), two unary operations (yielding the additive and multiplicative inverses respectively), and two nullary operations (the constants 0 and 1). These operations are then subject to the conditions above. Avoiding existential quantifiers is important in constructive mathematics and computing. One may equivalently define a field by the same two binary operations, one unary operation (the multiplicative inverse), and two (not necessarily distinct) constants 1 and −1, since 0 = 1 + (−1) and −a = (−1)a.
Rational numbers have been widely used a long time before the elaboration of the concept of field. They are numbers that can be written as fractions a/b, where a and b are integers, and b ≠ 0. The additive inverse of such a fraction is −a/b, and the multiplicative inverse (provided that a ≠ 0) is b/a, which can be seen as follows:
The abstractly required field axioms reduce to standard properties of rational numbers. For example, the law of distributivity can be proven as follows:
The real numbers R, with the usual operations of addition and multiplication, also form a field. The complex numbers C consist of expressions
where i is the imaginary unit, i.e., a (non-real) number satisfying i = −1. Addition and multiplication of real numbers are defined in such a way that expressions of this type satisfy all field axioms and thus hold for C. For example, the distributive law enforces
It is immediate that this is again an expression of the above type, and so the complex numbers form a field. Complex numbers can be geometrically represented as points in the plane, with Cartesian coordinates given by the real numbers of their describing expression, or as the arrows from the origin to these points, specified by their length and an angle enclosed with some distinct direction. Addition then corresponds to combining the arrows to the intuitive parallelogram (adding the Cartesian coordinates), and the multiplication is – less intuitively – combining rotating and scaling of the arrows (adding the angles and multiplying the lengths). The fields of real and complex numbers are used throughout mathematics, physics, engineering, statistics, and many other scientific disciplines.
In antiquity, several geometric problems concerned the (in)feasibility of constructing certain numbers with compass and straightedge. For example, it was unknown to the Greeks that it is, in general, impossible to trisect a given angle in this way. These problems can be settled using the field of constructible numbers. Real constructible numbers are, by definition, lengths of line segments that can be constructed from the points 0 and 1 in finitely many steps using only compass and straightedge. These numbers, endowed with the field operations of real numbers, restricted to the constructible numbers, form a field, which properly includes the field Q of rational numbers. The illustration shows the construction of square roots of constructible numbers, not necessarily contained within Q. Using the labeling in the illustration, construct the segments AB, BD, and a semicircle over AD (center at the midpoint C), which intersects the perpendicular line through B in a point F, at a distance of exactly h = p {\displaystyle h={\sqrt {p}}} from B when BD has length one.
Not all real numbers are constructible. It can be shown that 2 3 {\displaystyle {\sqrt[{3}]{2}}} is not a constructible number, which implies that it is impossible to construct with compass and straightedge the length of the side of a cube with volume 2, another problem posed by the ancient Greeks.
In addition to familiar number systems such as the rationals, there are other, less immediate examples of fields. The following example is a field consisting of four elements called O, I, A, and B. The notation is chosen such that O plays the role of the additive identity element (denoted 0 in the axioms above), and I is the multiplicative identity (denoted 1 in the axioms above). The field axioms can be verified by using some more field theory, or by direct computation. For example,
This field is called a finite field or Galois field with four elements, and is denoted F4 or GF(4). The subset consisting of O and I (highlighted in red in the tables at the right) is also a field, known as the binary field F2 or GF(2). In the context of computer science and Boolean algebra, O and I are often denoted respectively by false and true, and the addition is then denoted XOR (exclusive or). In other words, the structure of the binary field is the basic structure that allows computing with bits.
In this section, F denotes an arbitrary field and a and b are arbitrary elements of F.
One has a ⋅ 0 = 0 and −a = (−1) ⋅ a. In particular, one may deduce the additive inverse of every element as soon as one knows −1.
If ab = 0 then a or b must be 0, since, if a ≠ 0, then b = (aa)b = a(ab) = a ⋅ 0 = 0. This means that every field is an integral domain.
In addition, the following properties are true for any elements a and b:
The axioms of a field F imply that it is an abelian group under addition. This group is called the additive group of the field, and is sometimes denoted by (F, +) when denoting it simply as F could be confusing.
Similarly, the nonzero elements of F form an abelian group under multiplication, called the multiplicative group, and denoted by (F ∖ {0}, ⋅) or just F ∖ {0}, or F.
A field may thus be defined as set F equipped with two operations denoted as an addition and a multiplication such that F is an abelian group under addition, F ∖ {0} is an abelian group under multiplication (where 0 is the identity element of the addition), and multiplication is distributive over addition. Some elementary statements about fields can therefore be obtained by applying general facts of groups. For example, the additive and multiplicative inverses −a and a are uniquely determined by a.
The requirement 1 ≠ 0 is imposed by convention to exclude the trivial ring, which consists of a single element; this guides any choice of the axioms that define fields.
Every finite subgroup of the multiplicative group of a field is cyclic (see Root of unity § Cyclic groups).
In addition to the multiplication of two elements of F, it is possible to define the product n ⋅ a of an arbitrary element a of F by a positive integer n to be the n-fold sum
If there is no positive integer such that
then F is said to have characteristic 0. For example, the field of rational numbers Q has characteristic 0 since no positive integer n is zero. Otherwise, if there is a positive integer n satisfying this equation, the smallest such positive integer can be shown to be a prime number. It is usually denoted by p and the field is said to have characteristic p then. For example, the field F4 has characteristic 2 since (in the notation of the above addition table) I + I = O.
If F has characteristic p, then p ⋅ a = 0 for all a in F. This implies that
since all other binomial coefficients appearing in the binomial formula are divisible by p. Here, a := a ⋅ a ⋅ ⋯ ⋅ a (p factors) is the pth power, i.e., the p-fold product of the element a. Therefore, the Frobenius map
is compatible with the addition in F (and also with the multiplication), and is therefore a field homomorphism. The existence of this homomorphism makes fields in characteristic p quite different from fields of characteristic 0.
A subfield E of a field F is a subset of F that is a field with respect to the field operations of F. Equivalently E is a subset of F that contains 1, and is closed under addition, multiplication, additive inverse and multiplicative inverse of a nonzero element. This means that 1 ∊ E, that for all a, b ∊ E both a + b and a ⋅ b are in E, and that for all a ≠ 0 in E, both −a and 1/a are in E.
Field homomorphisms are maps φ: E → F between two fields such that φ(e1 + e2) = φ(e1) + φ(e2), φ(e1e2) = φ(e1) φ(e2), and φ(1E) = 1F, where e1 and e2 are arbitrary elements of E. All field homomorphisms are injective. If φ is also surjective, it is called an isomorphism (or the fields E and F are called isomorphic).
A field is called a prime field if it has no proper (i.e., strictly smaller) subfields. Any field F contains a prime field. If the characteristic of F is p (a prime number), the prime field is isomorphic to the finite field Fp introduced below. Otherwise the prime field is isomorphic to Q.
Finite fields (also called Galois fields) are fields with finitely many elements, whose number is also referred to as the order of the field. The above introductory example F4 is a field with four elements. Its subfield F2 is the smallest field, because by definition a field has at least two distinct elements, 0 and 1.
The simplest finite fields, with prime order, are most directly accessible using modular arithmetic. For a fixed positive integer n, arithmetic "modulo n" means to work with the numbers
The addition and multiplication on this set are done by performing the operation in question in the set Z of integers, dividing by n and taking the remainder as result. This construction yields a field precisely if n is a prime number. For example, taking the prime n = 2 results in the above-mentioned field F2. For n = 4 and more generally, for any composite number (i.e., any number n which can be expressed as a product n = r ⋅ s of two strictly smaller natural numbers), Z/nZ is not a field: the product of two non-zero elements is zero since r ⋅ s = 0 in Z/nZ, which, as was explained above, prevents Z/nZ from being a field. The field Z/pZ with p elements (p being prime) constructed in this way is usually denoted by Fp.
Every finite field F has q = p elements, where p is prime and n ≥ 1. This statement holds since F may be viewed as a vector space over its prime field. The dimension of this vector space is necessarily finite, say n, which implies the asserted statement.
A field with q = p elements can be constructed as the splitting field of the polynomial
Such a splitting field is an extension of Fp in which the polynomial f has q zeros. This means f has as many zeros as possible since the degree of f is q. For q = 2 = 4, it can be checked case by case using the above multiplication table that all four elements of F4 satisfy the equation x = x, so they are zeros of f. By contrast, in F2, f has only two zeros (namely 0 and 1), so f does not split into linear factors in this smaller field. Elaborating further on basic field-theoretic notions, it can be shown that two finite fields with the same order are isomorphic. It is thus customary to speak of the finite field with q elements, denoted by Fq or GF(q).
Historically, three algebraic disciplines led to the concept of a field: the question of solving polynomial equations, algebraic number theory, and algebraic geometry. A first step towards the notion of a field was made in 1770 by Joseph-Louis Lagrange, who observed that permuting the zeros x1, x2, x3 of a cubic polynomial in the expression
(with ω being a third root of unity) only yields two values. This way, Lagrange conceptually explained the classical solution method of Scipione del Ferro and François Viète, which proceeds by reducing a cubic equation for an unknown x to a quadratic equation for x. Together with a similar observation for equations of degree 4, Lagrange thus linked what eventually became the concept of fields and the concept of groups. Vandermonde, also in 1770, and to a fuller extent, Carl Friedrich Gauss, in his Disquisitiones Arithmeticae (1801), studied the equation
for a prime p and, again using modern language, the resulting cyclic Galois group. Gauss deduced that a regular p-gon can be constructed if p = 2 + 1. Building on Lagrange's work, Paolo Ruffini claimed (1799) that quintic equations (polynomial equations of degree 5) cannot be solved algebraically; however, his arguments were flawed. These gaps were filled by Niels Henrik Abel in 1824. Évariste Galois, in 1832, devised necessary and sufficient criteria for a polynomial equation to be algebraically solvable, thus establishing in effect what is known as Galois theory today. Both Abel and Galois worked with what is today called an algebraic number field, but conceived neither an explicit notion of a field, nor of a group.
In 1871 Richard Dedekind introduced, for a set of real or complex numbers that is closed under the four arithmetic operations, the German word Körper, which means "body" or "corpus" (to suggest an organically closed entity). The English term "field" was introduced by Moore (1893).
By a field we will mean every infinite system of real or complex numbers so closed in itself and perfect that addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division of any two of these numbers again yields a number of the system.
In 1881 Leopold Kronecker defined what he called a domain of rationality, which is a field of rational fractions in modern terms. Kronecker's notion did not cover the field of all algebraic numbers (which is a field in Dedekind's sense), but on the other hand was more abstract than Dedekind's in that it made no specific assumption on the nature of the elements of a field. Kronecker interpreted a field such as Q(π) abstractly as the rational function field Q(X). Prior to this, examples of transcendental numbers were known since Joseph Liouville's work in 1844, until Charles Hermite (1873) and Ferdinand von Lindemann (1882) proved the transcendence of e and π, respectively.
The first clear definition of an abstract field is due to Weber (1893). In particular, Heinrich Martin Weber's notion included the field Fp. Giuseppe Veronese (1891) studied the field of formal power series, which led Hensel (1904) to introduce the field of p-adic numbers. Steinitz (1910) synthesized the knowledge of abstract field theory accumulated so far. He axiomatically studied the properties of fields and defined many important field-theoretic concepts. The majority of the theorems mentioned in the sections Galois theory, Constructing fields and Elementary notions can be found in Steinitz's work. Artin & Schreier (1927) linked the notion of orderings in a field, and thus the area of analysis, to purely algebraic properties. Emil Artin redeveloped Galois theory from 1928 through 1942, eliminating the dependency on the primitive element theorem.
A commutative ring is a set that is equipped with an addition and multiplication operation and satisfes all the axioms of a field, except for the existence of multiplicative inverses a. For example, the integers Z form a commutative ring, but not a field: the reciprocal of an integer n is not itself an integer, unless n = ±1.
In the hierarchy of algebraic structures fields can be characterized as the commutative rings R in which every nonzero element is a unit (which means every element is invertible). Similarly, fields are the commutative rings with precisely two distinct ideals, (0) and R. Fields are also precisely the commutative rings in which (0) is the only prime ideal.
Given a commutative ring R, there are two ways to construct a field related to R, i.e., two ways of modifying R such that all nonzero elements become invertible: forming the field of fractions, and forming residue fields. The field of fractions of Z is Q, the rationals, while the residue fields of Z are the finite fields Fp.
Given an integral domain R, its field of fractions Q(R) is built with the fractions of two elements of R exactly as Q is constructed from the integers. More precisely, the elements of Q(R) are the fractions a/b where a and b are in R, and b ≠ 0. Two fractions a/b and c/d are equal if and only if ad = bc. The operation on the fractions work exactly as for rational numbers. For example,
It is straightforward to show that, if the ring is an integral domain, the set of the fractions form a field.
The field F(x) of the rational fractions over a field (or an integral domain) F is the field of fractions of the polynomial ring F[x]. The field F((x)) of Laurent series
over a field F is the field of fractions of the ring F[[x]] of formal power series (in which k ≥ 0). Since any Laurent series is a fraction of a power series divided by a power of x (as opposed to an arbitrary power series), the representation of fractions is less important in this situation, though.
In addition to the field of fractions, which embeds R injectively into a field, a field can be obtained from a commutative ring R by means of a surjective map onto a field F. Any field obtained in this way is a quotient R / m, where m is a maximal ideal of R. If R has only one maximal ideal m, this field is called the residue field of R.
The ideal generated by a single polynomial f in the polynomial ring R = E[X] (over a field E) is maximal if and only if f is irreducible in E, i.e., if f cannot be expressed as the product of two polynomials in E[X] of smaller degree. This yields a field
This field F contains an element x (namely the residue class of X) which satisfies the equation
For example, C is obtained from R by adjoining the imaginary unit symbol i, which satisfies f(i) = 0, where f(X) = X + 1. Moreover, f is irreducible over R, which implies that the map that sends a polynomial f(X) ∊ R[X] to f(i) yields an isomorphism
Fields can be constructed inside a given bigger container field. Suppose given a field E, and a field F containing E as a subfield. For any element x of F, there is a smallest subfield of F containing E and x, called the subfield of F generated by x and denoted E(x). The passage from E to E(x) is referred to by adjoining an element to E. More generally, for a subset S ⊂ F, there is a minimal subfield of F containing E and S, denoted by E(S).
The compositum of two subfields E and E′ of some field F is the smallest subfield of F containing both E and E′. The compositum can be used to construct the biggest subfield of F satisfying a certain property, for example the biggest subfield of F, which is, in the language introduced below, algebraic over E.
The notion of a subfield E ⊂ F can also be regarded from the opposite point of view, by referring to F being a field extension (or just extension) of E, denoted by
and read "F over E".
A basic datum of a field extension is its degree [F : E], i.e., the dimension of F as an E-vector space. It satisfies the formula
Extensions whose degree is finite are referred to as finite extensions. The extensions C / R and F4 / F2 are of degree 2, whereas R / Q is an infinite extension.
A pivotal notion in the study of field extensions F / E are algebraic elements. An element x ∈ F is algebraic over E if it is a root of a polynomial with coefficients in E, that is, if it satisfies a polynomial equation
with en, ..., e0 in E, and en ≠ 0. For example, the imaginary unit i in C is algebraic over R, and even over Q, since it satisfies the equation
A field extension in which every element of F is algebraic over E is called an algebraic extension. Any finite extension is necessarily algebraic, as can be deduced from the above multiplicativity formula.
The subfield E(x) generated by an element x, as above, is an algebraic extension of E if and only if x is an algebraic element. That is to say, if x is algebraic, all other elements of E(x) are necessarily algebraic as well. Moreover, the degree of the extension E(x) / E, i.e., the dimension of E(x) as an E-vector space, equals the minimal degree n such that there is a polynomial equation involving x, as above. If this degree is n, then the elements of E(x) have the form
For example, the field Q(i) of Gaussian rationals is the subfield of C consisting of all numbers of the form a + bi where both a and b are rational numbers: summands of the form i (and similarly for higher exponents) do not have to be considered here, since a + bi + ci can be simplified to a − c + bi.
The above-mentioned field of rational fractions E(X), where X is an indeterminate, is not an algebraic extension of E since there is no polynomial equation with coefficients in E whose zero is X. Elements, such as X, which are not algebraic are called transcendental. Informally speaking, the indeterminate X and its powers do not interact with elements of E. A similar construction can be carried out with a set of indeterminates, instead of just one.
Once again, the field extension E(x) / E discussed above is a key example: if x is not algebraic (i.e., x is not a root of a polynomial with coefficients in E), then E(x) is isomorphic to E(X). This isomorphism is obtained by substituting x to X in rational fractions.
A subset S of a field F is a transcendence basis if it is algebraically independent (do not satisfy any polynomial relations) over E and if F is an algebraic extension of E(S). Any field extension F / E has a transcendence basis. Thus, field extensions can be split into ones of the form E(S) / E (purely transcendental extensions) and algebraic extensions.
A field is algebraically closed if it does not have any strictly bigger algebraic extensions or, equivalently, if any polynomial equation
has a solution x ∊ F. By the fundamental theorem of algebra, C is algebraically closed, i.e., any polynomial equation with complex coefficients has a complex solution. The rational and the real numbers are not algebraically closed since the equation
does not have any rational or real solution. A field containing F is called an algebraic closure of F if it is algebraic over F (roughly speaking, not too big compared to F) and is algebraically closed (big enough to contain solutions of all polynomial equations).
By the above, C is an algebraic closure of R. The situation that the algebraic closure is a finite extension of the field F is quite special: by the Artin–Schreier theorem, the degree of this extension is necessarily 2, and F is elementarily equivalent to R. Such fields are also known as real closed fields.
Any field F has an algebraic closure, which is moreover unique up to (non-unique) isomorphism. It is commonly referred to as the algebraic closure and denoted F. For example, the algebraic closure Q of Q is called the field of algebraic numbers. The field F is usually rather implicit since its construction requires the ultrafilter lemma, a set-theoretic axiom that is weaker than the axiom of choice. In this regard, the algebraic closure of Fq, is exceptionally simple. It is the union of the finite fields containing Fq (the ones of order q). For any algebraically closed field F of characteristic 0, the algebraic closure of the field F((t)) of Laurent series is the field of Puiseux series, obtained by adjoining roots of t.
Since fields are ubiquitous in mathematics and beyond, several refinements of the concept have been adapted to the needs of particular mathematical areas.
A field F is called an ordered field if any two elements can be compared, so that x + y ≥ 0 and xy ≥ 0 whenever x ≥ 0 and y ≥ 0. For example, the real numbers form an ordered field, with the usual ordering ≥. The Artin–Schreier theorem states that a field can be ordered if and only if it is a formally real field, which means that any quadratic equation
only has the solution x1 = x2 = ⋯ = xn = 0. The set of all possible orders on a fixed field F is isomorphic to the set of ring homomorphisms from the Witt ring W(F) of quadratic forms over F, to Z.
An Archimedean field is an ordered field such that for each element there exists a finite expression
whose value is greater than that element, that is, there are no infinite elements. Equivalently, the field contains no infinitesimals (elements smaller than all rational numbers); or, yet equivalent, the field is isomorphic to a subfield of R.
An ordered field is Dedekind-complete if all upper bounds, lower bounds (see Dedekind cut) and limits, which should exist, do exist. More formally, each bounded subset of F is required to have a least upper bound. Any complete field is necessarily Archimedean, since in any non-Archimedean field there is neither a greatest infinitesimal nor a least positive rational, whence the sequence 1/2, 1/3, 1/4, ..., every element of which is greater than every infinitesimal, has no limit.
Since every proper subfield of the reals also contains such gaps, R is the unique complete ordered field, up to isomorphism. Several foundational results in calculus follow directly from this characterization of the reals.
The hyperreals R form an ordered field that is not Archimedean. It is an extension of the reals obtained by including infinite and infinitesimal numbers. These are larger, respectively smaller than any real number. The hyperreals form the foundational basis of non-standard analysis.
Another refinement of the notion of a field is a topological field, in which the set F is a topological space, such that all operations of the field (addition, multiplication, the maps a ↦ −a and a ↦ a) are continuous maps with respect to the topology of the space. The topology of all the fields discussed below is induced from a metric, i.e., a function
that measures a distance between any two elements of F.
The completion of F is another field in which, informally speaking, the "gaps" in the original field F are filled, if there are any. For example, any irrational number x, such as x = √2, is a "gap" in the rationals Q in the sense that it is a real number that can be approximated arbitrarily closely by rational numbers p/q, in the sense that distance of x and p/q given by the absolute value |x − p/q| is as small as desired. The following table lists some examples of this construction. The fourth column shows an example of a zero sequence, i.e., a sequence whose limit (for n → ∞) is zero.
The field Qp is used in number theory and p-adic analysis. The algebraic closure Qp carries a unique norm extending the one on Qp, but is not complete. The completion of this algebraic closure, however, is algebraically closed. Because of its rough analogy to the complex numbers, it is sometimes called the field of complex p-adic numbers and is denoted by Cp.
The following topological fields are called local fields:
These two types of local fields share some fundamental similarities. In this relation, the elements p ∈ Qp and t ∈ Fp((t)) (referred to as uniformizer) correspond to each other. The first manifestation of this is at an elementary level: the elements of both fields can be expressed as power series in the uniformizer, with coefficients in Fp. (However, since the addition in Qp is done using carrying, which is not the case in Fp((t)), these fields are not isomorphic.) The following facts show that this superficial similarity goes much deeper:
Differential fields are fields equipped with a derivation, i.e., allow to take derivatives of elements in the field. For example, the field R(X), together with the standard derivative of polynomials forms a differential field. These fields are central to differential Galois theory, a variant of Galois theory dealing with linear differential equations.
Galois theory studies algebraic extensions of a field by studying the symmetry in the arithmetic operations of addition and multiplication. An important notion in this area is that of finite Galois extensions F / E, which are, by definition, those that are separable and normal. The primitive element theorem shows that finite separable extensions are necessarily simple, i.e., of the form
where f is an irreducible polynomial (as above). For such an extension, being normal and separable means that all zeros of f are contained in F and that f has only simple zeros. The latter condition is always satisfied if E has characteristic 0.
For a finite Galois extension, the Galois group Gal(F/E) is the group of field automorphisms of F that are trivial on E (i.e., the bijections σ : F → F that preserve addition and multiplication and that send elements of E to themselves). The importance of this group stems from the fundamental theorem of Galois theory, which constructs an explicit one-to-one correspondence between the set of subgroups of Gal(F/E) and the set of intermediate extensions of the extension F/E. By means of this correspondence, group-theoretic properties translate into facts about fields. For example, if the Galois group of a Galois extension as above is not solvable (cannot be built from abelian groups), then the zeros of f cannot be expressed in terms of addition, multiplication, and radicals, i.e., expressions involving n {\displaystyle {\sqrt[{n}]{~}}} . For example, the symmetric groups Sn is not solvable for n ≥ 5. Consequently, as can be shown, the zeros of the following polynomials are not expressible by sums, products, and radicals. For the latter polynomial, this fact is known as the Abel–Ruffini theorem:
The tensor product of fields is not usually a field. For example, a finite extension F / E of degree n is a Galois extension if and only if there is an isomorphism of F-algebras
This fact is the beginning of Grothendieck's Galois theory, a far-reaching extension of Galois theory applicable to algebro-geometric objects.
Basic invariants of a field F include the characteristic and the transcendence degree of F over its prime field. The latter is defined as the maximal number of elements in F that are algebraically independent over the prime field. Two algebraically closed fields E and F are isomorphic precisely if these two data agree. This implies that any two uncountable algebraically closed fields of the same cardinality and the same characteristic are isomorphic. For example, Qp, Cp and C are isomorphic (but not isomorphic as topological fields).
In model theory, a branch of mathematical logic, two fields E and F are called elementarily equivalent if every mathematical statement that is true for E is also true for F and conversely. The mathematical statements in question are required to be first-order sentences (involving 0, 1, the addition and multiplication). A typical example, for n > 0, n an integer, is
The set of such formulas for all n expresses that E is algebraically closed. The Lefschetz principle states that C is elementarily equivalent to any algebraically closed field F of characteristic zero. Moreover, any fixed statement φ holds in C if and only if it holds in any algebraically closed field of sufficiently high characteristic.
If U is an ultrafilter on a set I, and Fi is a field for every i in I, the ultraproduct of the Fi with respect to U is a field. It is denoted by
since it behaves in several ways as a limit of the fields Fi: Łoś's theorem states that any first order statement that holds for all but finitely many Fi, also holds for the ultraproduct. Applied to the above sentence φ, this shows that there is an isomorphism
The Ax–Kochen theorem mentioned above also follows from this and an isomorphism of the ultraproducts (in both cases over all primes p)
In addition, model theory also studies the logical properties of various other types of fields, such as real closed fields or exponential fields (which are equipped with an exponential function exp : F → F).
For fields that are not algebraically closed (or not separably closed), the absolute Galois group Gal(F) is fundamentally important: extending the case of finite Galois extensions outlined above, this group governs all finite separable extensions of F. By elementary means, the group Gal(Fq) can be shown to be the Prüfer group, the profinite completion of Z. This statement subsumes the fact that the only algebraic extensions of Gal(Fq) are the fields Gal(Fq) for n > 0, and that the Galois groups of these finite extensions are given by
A description in terms of generators and relations is also known for the Galois groups of p-adic number fields (finite extensions of Qp).
Representations of Galois groups and of related groups such as the Weil group are fundamental in many branches of arithmetic, such as the Langlands program. The cohomological study of such representations is done using Galois cohomology. For example, the Brauer group, which is classically defined as the group of central simple F-algebras, can be reinterpreted as a Galois cohomology group, namely
Milnor K-theory is defined as
The norm residue isomorphism theorem, proved around 2000 by Vladimir Voevodsky, relates this to Galois cohomology by means of an isomorphism
Algebraic K-theory is related to the group of invertible matrices with coefficients the given field. For example, the process of taking the determinant of an invertible matrix leads to an isomorphism K1(F) = F. Matsumoto's theorem shows that K2(F) agrees with K2(F). In higher degrees, K-theory diverges from Milnor K-theory and remains hard to compute in general.
If a ≠ 0, then the equation
has a unique solution x in a field F, namely x = a − 1 b . {\displaystyle x=a^{-1}b.} This immediate consequence of the definition of a field is fundamental in linear algebra. For example, it is an essential ingredient of Gaussian elimination and of the proof that any vector space has a basis.
The theory of modules (the analogue of vector spaces over rings instead of fields) is much more complicated, because the above equation may have several or no solutions. In particular systems of linear equations over a ring are much more difficult to solve than in the case of fields, even in the specially simple case of the ring Z of the integers.
A widely applied cryptographic routine uses the fact that discrete exponentiation, i.e., computing
in a (large) finite field Fq can be performed much more efficiently than the discrete logarithm, which is the inverse operation, i.e., determining the solution n to an equation
In elliptic curve cryptography, the multiplication in a finite field is replaced by the operation of adding points on an elliptic curve, i.e., the solutions of an equation of the form
Finite fields are also used in coding theory and combinatorics.
Functions on a suitable topological space X into a field F can be added and multiplied pointwise, e.g., the product of two functions is defined by the product of their values within the domain:
This makes these functions a F-commutative algebra.
For having a field of functions, one must consider algebras of functions that are integral domains. In this case the ratios of two functions, i.e., expressions of the form
form a field, called field of functions.
This occurs in two main cases. When X is a complex manifold X. In this case, one considers the algebra of holomorphic functions, i.e., complex differentiable functions. Their ratios form the field of meromorphic functions on X.
The function field of an algebraic variety X (a geometric object defined as the common zeros of polynomial equations) consists of ratios of regular functions, i.e., ratios of polynomial functions on the variety. The function field of the n-dimensional space over a field F is F(x1, ..., xn), i.e., the field consisting of ratios of polynomials in n indeterminates. The function field of X is the same as the one of any open dense subvariety. In other words, the function field is insensitive to replacing X by a (slightly) smaller subvariety.
The function field is invariant under isomorphism and birational equivalence of varieties. It is therefore an important tool for the study of abstract algebraic varieties and for the classification of algebraic varieties. For example, the dimension, which equals the transcendence degree of F(X), is invariant under birational equivalence. For curves (i.e., the dimension is one), the function field F(X) is very close to X: if X is smooth and proper (the analogue of being compact), X can be reconstructed, up to isomorphism, from its field of functions. In higher dimension the function field remembers less, but still decisive information about X. The study of function fields and their geometric meaning in higher dimensions is referred to as birational geometry. The minimal model program attempts to identify the simplest (in a certain precise sense) algebraic varieties with a prescribed function field.
Global fields are in the limelight in algebraic number theory and arithmetic geometry. They are, by definition, number fields (finite extensions of Q) or function fields over Fq (finite extensions of Fq(t)). As for local fields, these two types of fields share several similar features, even though they are of characteristic 0 and positive characteristic, respectively. This function field analogy can help to shape mathematical expectations, often first by understanding questions about function fields, and later treating the number field case. The latter is often more difficult. For example, the Riemann hypothesis concerning the zeros of the Riemann zeta function (open as of 2017) can be regarded as being parallel to the Weil conjectures (proven in 1974 by Pierre Deligne).
Cyclotomic fields are among the most intensely studied number fields. They are of the form Q(ζn), where ζn is a primitive nth root of unity, i.e., a complex number ζ that satisfies ζ = 1 and ζ ≠ 1 for all 0 < m < n. For n being a regular prime, Kummer used cyclotomic fields to prove Fermat's Last Theorem, which asserts the non-existence of rational nonzero solutions to the equation
Local fields are completions of global fields. Ostrowski's theorem asserts that the only completions of Q, a global field, are the local fields Qp and R. Studying arithmetic questions in global fields may sometimes be done by looking at the corresponding questions locally. This technique is called the local–global principle. For example, the Hasse–Minkowski theorem reduces the problem of finding rational solutions of quadratic equations to solving these equations in R and Qp, whose solutions can easily be described.
Unlike for local fields, the Galois groups of global fields are not known. Inverse Galois theory studies the (unsolved) problem whether any finite group is the Galois group Gal(F/Q) for some number field F. Class field theory describes the abelian extensions, i.e., ones with abelian Galois group, or equivalently the abelianized Galois groups of global fields. A classical statement, the Kronecker–Weber theorem, describes the maximal abelian Q extension of Q: it is the field
obtained by adjoining all primitive nth roots of unity. Kronecker's Jugendtraum asks for a similarly explicit description of F of general number fields F. For imaginary quadratic fields, F = Q ( − d ) {\displaystyle F=\mathbf {Q} ({\sqrt {-d}})} , d > 0, the theory of complex multiplication describes F using elliptic curves. For general number fields, no such explicit description is known.
In addition to the additional structure that fields may enjoy, fields admit various other related notions. Since in any field 0 ≠ 1, any field has at least two elements. Nonetheless, there is a concept of field with one element, which is suggested to be a limit of the finite fields Fp, as p tends to 1. In addition to division rings, there are various other weaker algebraic structures related to fields such as quasifields, near-fields and semifields.
There are also proper classes with field structure, which are sometimes called Fields, with a capital 'F'. The surreal numbers form a Field containing the reals, and would be a field except for the fact that they are a proper class, not a set. The nimbers, a concept from game theory, form such a Field as well.
Dropping one or several axioms in the definition of a field leads to other algebraic structures. As was mentioned above, commutative rings satisfy all field axioms except for the existence of multiplicative inverses. Dropping instead commutativity of multiplication leads to the concept of a division ring or skew field; sometimes associativity is weakened as well. The only division rings that are finite-dimensional R-vector spaces are R itself, C (which is a field), and the quaternions H (in which multiplication is non-commutative). This result is known as the Frobenius theorem. The octonions O, for which multiplication is neither commutative nor associative, is a normed alternative division algebra, but is not a division ring. This fact was proved using methods of algebraic topology in 1958 by Michel Kervaire, Raoul Bott, and John Milnor. The non-existence of an odd-dimensional division algebra is more classical. It can be deduced from the hairy ball theorem illustrated at the right.
|
[
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "In mathematics, a field is a set on which addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division are defined and behave as the corresponding operations on rational and real numbers do. A field is thus a fundamental algebraic structure which is widely used in algebra, number theory, and many other areas of mathematics.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "The best known fields are the field of rational numbers, the field of real numbers and the field of complex numbers. Many other fields, such as fields of rational functions, algebraic function fields, algebraic number fields, and p-adic fields are commonly used and studied in mathematics, particularly in number theory and algebraic geometry. Most cryptographic protocols rely on finite fields, i.e., fields with finitely many elements.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "The relation of two fields is expressed by the notion of a field extension. Galois theory, initiated by Évariste Galois in the 1830s, is devoted to understanding the symmetries of field extensions. Among other results, this theory shows that angle trisection and squaring the circle cannot be done with a compass and straightedge. Moreover, it shows that quintic equations are, in general, algebraically unsolvable.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "Fields serve as foundational notions in several mathematical domains. This includes different branches of mathematical analysis, which are based on fields with additional structure. Basic theorems in analysis hinge on the structural properties of the field of real numbers. Most importantly for algebraic purposes, any field may be used as the scalars for a vector space, which is the standard general context for linear algebra. Number fields, the siblings of the field of rational numbers, are studied in depth in number theory. Function fields can help describe properties of geometric objects.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "Informally, a field is a set, along with two operations defined on that set: an addition operation written as a + b, and a multiplication operation written as a ⋅ b, both of which behave similarly as they behave for rational numbers and real numbers, including the existence of an additive inverse −a for all elements a, and of a multiplicative inverse b for every nonzero element b. This allows one to also consider the so-called inverse operations of subtraction, a − b, and division, a / b, by defining:",
"title": "Definition"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "Formally, a field is a set F together with two binary operations on F called addition and multiplication. A binary operation on F is a mapping F × F → F, that is, a correspondence that associates with each ordered pair of elements of F a uniquely determined element of F. The result of the addition of a and b is called the sum of a and b, and is denoted a + b. Similarly, the result of the multiplication of a and b is called the product of a and b, and is denoted ab or a ⋅ b. These operations are required to satisfy the following properties, referred to as field axioms (in these axioms, a, b, and c are arbitrary elements of the field F):",
"title": "Definition"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "An equivalent, and more succinct, definition is: a field has two commutative operations, called addition and multiplication; it is a group under addition with 0 as the additive identity; the nonzero elements are a group under multiplication with 1 as the multiplicative identity; and multiplication distributes over addition.",
"title": "Definition"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "Even more succinctly: a field is a commutative ring where 0 ≠ 1 and all nonzero elements are invertible under multiplication.",
"title": "Definition"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "Fields can also be defined in different, but equivalent ways. One can alternatively define a field by four binary operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division) and their required properties. Division by zero is, by definition, excluded. In order to avoid existential quantifiers, fields can be defined by two binary operations (addition and multiplication), two unary operations (yielding the additive and multiplicative inverses respectively), and two nullary operations (the constants 0 and 1). These operations are then subject to the conditions above. Avoiding existential quantifiers is important in constructive mathematics and computing. One may equivalently define a field by the same two binary operations, one unary operation (the multiplicative inverse), and two (not necessarily distinct) constants 1 and −1, since 0 = 1 + (−1) and −a = (−1)a.",
"title": "Definition"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "Rational numbers have been widely used a long time before the elaboration of the concept of field. They are numbers that can be written as fractions a/b, where a and b are integers, and b ≠ 0. The additive inverse of such a fraction is −a/b, and the multiplicative inverse (provided that a ≠ 0) is b/a, which can be seen as follows:",
"title": "Examples"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "The abstractly required field axioms reduce to standard properties of rational numbers. For example, the law of distributivity can be proven as follows:",
"title": "Examples"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "The real numbers R, with the usual operations of addition and multiplication, also form a field. The complex numbers C consist of expressions",
"title": "Examples"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "where i is the imaginary unit, i.e., a (non-real) number satisfying i = −1. Addition and multiplication of real numbers are defined in such a way that expressions of this type satisfy all field axioms and thus hold for C. For example, the distributive law enforces",
"title": "Examples"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "It is immediate that this is again an expression of the above type, and so the complex numbers form a field. Complex numbers can be geometrically represented as points in the plane, with Cartesian coordinates given by the real numbers of their describing expression, or as the arrows from the origin to these points, specified by their length and an angle enclosed with some distinct direction. Addition then corresponds to combining the arrows to the intuitive parallelogram (adding the Cartesian coordinates), and the multiplication is – less intuitively – combining rotating and scaling of the arrows (adding the angles and multiplying the lengths). The fields of real and complex numbers are used throughout mathematics, physics, engineering, statistics, and many other scientific disciplines.",
"title": "Examples"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "In antiquity, several geometric problems concerned the (in)feasibility of constructing certain numbers with compass and straightedge. For example, it was unknown to the Greeks that it is, in general, impossible to trisect a given angle in this way. These problems can be settled using the field of constructible numbers. Real constructible numbers are, by definition, lengths of line segments that can be constructed from the points 0 and 1 in finitely many steps using only compass and straightedge. These numbers, endowed with the field operations of real numbers, restricted to the constructible numbers, form a field, which properly includes the field Q of rational numbers. The illustration shows the construction of square roots of constructible numbers, not necessarily contained within Q. Using the labeling in the illustration, construct the segments AB, BD, and a semicircle over AD (center at the midpoint C), which intersects the perpendicular line through B in a point F, at a distance of exactly h = p {\\displaystyle h={\\sqrt {p}}} from B when BD has length one.",
"title": "Examples"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 15,
"text": "Not all real numbers are constructible. It can be shown that 2 3 {\\displaystyle {\\sqrt[{3}]{2}}} is not a constructible number, which implies that it is impossible to construct with compass and straightedge the length of the side of a cube with volume 2, another problem posed by the ancient Greeks.",
"title": "Examples"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 16,
"text": "In addition to familiar number systems such as the rationals, there are other, less immediate examples of fields. The following example is a field consisting of four elements called O, I, A, and B. The notation is chosen such that O plays the role of the additive identity element (denoted 0 in the axioms above), and I is the multiplicative identity (denoted 1 in the axioms above). The field axioms can be verified by using some more field theory, or by direct computation. For example,",
"title": "Examples"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 17,
"text": "This field is called a finite field or Galois field with four elements, and is denoted F4 or GF(4). The subset consisting of O and I (highlighted in red in the tables at the right) is also a field, known as the binary field F2 or GF(2). In the context of computer science and Boolean algebra, O and I are often denoted respectively by false and true, and the addition is then denoted XOR (exclusive or). In other words, the structure of the binary field is the basic structure that allows computing with bits.",
"title": "Examples"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 18,
"text": "In this section, F denotes an arbitrary field and a and b are arbitrary elements of F.",
"title": "Elementary notions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 19,
"text": "One has a ⋅ 0 = 0 and −a = (−1) ⋅ a. In particular, one may deduce the additive inverse of every element as soon as one knows −1.",
"title": "Elementary notions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 20,
"text": "If ab = 0 then a or b must be 0, since, if a ≠ 0, then b = (aa)b = a(ab) = a ⋅ 0 = 0. This means that every field is an integral domain.",
"title": "Elementary notions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 21,
"text": "In addition, the following properties are true for any elements a and b:",
"title": "Elementary notions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 22,
"text": "The axioms of a field F imply that it is an abelian group under addition. This group is called the additive group of the field, and is sometimes denoted by (F, +) when denoting it simply as F could be confusing.",
"title": "Elementary notions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 23,
"text": "Similarly, the nonzero elements of F form an abelian group under multiplication, called the multiplicative group, and denoted by (F ∖ {0}, ⋅) or just F ∖ {0}, or F.",
"title": "Elementary notions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 24,
"text": "A field may thus be defined as set F equipped with two operations denoted as an addition and a multiplication such that F is an abelian group under addition, F ∖ {0} is an abelian group under multiplication (where 0 is the identity element of the addition), and multiplication is distributive over addition. Some elementary statements about fields can therefore be obtained by applying general facts of groups. For example, the additive and multiplicative inverses −a and a are uniquely determined by a.",
"title": "Elementary notions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 25,
"text": "The requirement 1 ≠ 0 is imposed by convention to exclude the trivial ring, which consists of a single element; this guides any choice of the axioms that define fields.",
"title": "Elementary notions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 26,
"text": "Every finite subgroup of the multiplicative group of a field is cyclic (see Root of unity § Cyclic groups).",
"title": "Elementary notions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 27,
"text": "In addition to the multiplication of two elements of F, it is possible to define the product n ⋅ a of an arbitrary element a of F by a positive integer n to be the n-fold sum",
"title": "Elementary notions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 28,
"text": "If there is no positive integer such that",
"title": "Elementary notions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 29,
"text": "then F is said to have characteristic 0. For example, the field of rational numbers Q has characteristic 0 since no positive integer n is zero. Otherwise, if there is a positive integer n satisfying this equation, the smallest such positive integer can be shown to be a prime number. It is usually denoted by p and the field is said to have characteristic p then. For example, the field F4 has characteristic 2 since (in the notation of the above addition table) I + I = O.",
"title": "Elementary notions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 30,
"text": "If F has characteristic p, then p ⋅ a = 0 for all a in F. This implies that",
"title": "Elementary notions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 31,
"text": "since all other binomial coefficients appearing in the binomial formula are divisible by p. Here, a := a ⋅ a ⋅ ⋯ ⋅ a (p factors) is the pth power, i.e., the p-fold product of the element a. Therefore, the Frobenius map",
"title": "Elementary notions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 32,
"text": "is compatible with the addition in F (and also with the multiplication), and is therefore a field homomorphism. The existence of this homomorphism makes fields in characteristic p quite different from fields of characteristic 0.",
"title": "Elementary notions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 33,
"text": "A subfield E of a field F is a subset of F that is a field with respect to the field operations of F. Equivalently E is a subset of F that contains 1, and is closed under addition, multiplication, additive inverse and multiplicative inverse of a nonzero element. This means that 1 ∊ E, that for all a, b ∊ E both a + b and a ⋅ b are in E, and that for all a ≠ 0 in E, both −a and 1/a are in E.",
"title": "Elementary notions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 34,
"text": "Field homomorphisms are maps φ: E → F between two fields such that φ(e1 + e2) = φ(e1) + φ(e2), φ(e1e2) = φ(e1) φ(e2), and φ(1E) = 1F, where e1 and e2 are arbitrary elements of E. All field homomorphisms are injective. If φ is also surjective, it is called an isomorphism (or the fields E and F are called isomorphic).",
"title": "Elementary notions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 35,
"text": "A field is called a prime field if it has no proper (i.e., strictly smaller) subfields. Any field F contains a prime field. If the characteristic of F is p (a prime number), the prime field is isomorphic to the finite field Fp introduced below. Otherwise the prime field is isomorphic to Q.",
"title": "Elementary notions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 36,
"text": "Finite fields (also called Galois fields) are fields with finitely many elements, whose number is also referred to as the order of the field. The above introductory example F4 is a field with four elements. Its subfield F2 is the smallest field, because by definition a field has at least two distinct elements, 0 and 1.",
"title": "Finite fields"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 37,
"text": "The simplest finite fields, with prime order, are most directly accessible using modular arithmetic. For a fixed positive integer n, arithmetic \"modulo n\" means to work with the numbers",
"title": "Finite fields"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 38,
"text": "The addition and multiplication on this set are done by performing the operation in question in the set Z of integers, dividing by n and taking the remainder as result. This construction yields a field precisely if n is a prime number. For example, taking the prime n = 2 results in the above-mentioned field F2. For n = 4 and more generally, for any composite number (i.e., any number n which can be expressed as a product n = r ⋅ s of two strictly smaller natural numbers), Z/nZ is not a field: the product of two non-zero elements is zero since r ⋅ s = 0 in Z/nZ, which, as was explained above, prevents Z/nZ from being a field. The field Z/pZ with p elements (p being prime) constructed in this way is usually denoted by Fp.",
"title": "Finite fields"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 39,
"text": "Every finite field F has q = p elements, where p is prime and n ≥ 1. This statement holds since F may be viewed as a vector space over its prime field. The dimension of this vector space is necessarily finite, say n, which implies the asserted statement.",
"title": "Finite fields"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 40,
"text": "A field with q = p elements can be constructed as the splitting field of the polynomial",
"title": "Finite fields"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 41,
"text": "Such a splitting field is an extension of Fp in which the polynomial f has q zeros. This means f has as many zeros as possible since the degree of f is q. For q = 2 = 4, it can be checked case by case using the above multiplication table that all four elements of F4 satisfy the equation x = x, so they are zeros of f. By contrast, in F2, f has only two zeros (namely 0 and 1), so f does not split into linear factors in this smaller field. Elaborating further on basic field-theoretic notions, it can be shown that two finite fields with the same order are isomorphic. It is thus customary to speak of the finite field with q elements, denoted by Fq or GF(q).",
"title": "Finite fields"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 42,
"text": "Historically, three algebraic disciplines led to the concept of a field: the question of solving polynomial equations, algebraic number theory, and algebraic geometry. A first step towards the notion of a field was made in 1770 by Joseph-Louis Lagrange, who observed that permuting the zeros x1, x2, x3 of a cubic polynomial in the expression",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 43,
"text": "(with ω being a third root of unity) only yields two values. This way, Lagrange conceptually explained the classical solution method of Scipione del Ferro and François Viète, which proceeds by reducing a cubic equation for an unknown x to a quadratic equation for x. Together with a similar observation for equations of degree 4, Lagrange thus linked what eventually became the concept of fields and the concept of groups. Vandermonde, also in 1770, and to a fuller extent, Carl Friedrich Gauss, in his Disquisitiones Arithmeticae (1801), studied the equation",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 44,
"text": "for a prime p and, again using modern language, the resulting cyclic Galois group. Gauss deduced that a regular p-gon can be constructed if p = 2 + 1. Building on Lagrange's work, Paolo Ruffini claimed (1799) that quintic equations (polynomial equations of degree 5) cannot be solved algebraically; however, his arguments were flawed. These gaps were filled by Niels Henrik Abel in 1824. Évariste Galois, in 1832, devised necessary and sufficient criteria for a polynomial equation to be algebraically solvable, thus establishing in effect what is known as Galois theory today. Both Abel and Galois worked with what is today called an algebraic number field, but conceived neither an explicit notion of a field, nor of a group.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 45,
"text": "In 1871 Richard Dedekind introduced, for a set of real or complex numbers that is closed under the four arithmetic operations, the German word Körper, which means \"body\" or \"corpus\" (to suggest an organically closed entity). The English term \"field\" was introduced by Moore (1893).",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 46,
"text": "By a field we will mean every infinite system of real or complex numbers so closed in itself and perfect that addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division of any two of these numbers again yields a number of the system.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 47,
"text": "In 1881 Leopold Kronecker defined what he called a domain of rationality, which is a field of rational fractions in modern terms. Kronecker's notion did not cover the field of all algebraic numbers (which is a field in Dedekind's sense), but on the other hand was more abstract than Dedekind's in that it made no specific assumption on the nature of the elements of a field. Kronecker interpreted a field such as Q(π) abstractly as the rational function field Q(X). Prior to this, examples of transcendental numbers were known since Joseph Liouville's work in 1844, until Charles Hermite (1873) and Ferdinand von Lindemann (1882) proved the transcendence of e and π, respectively.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 48,
"text": "The first clear definition of an abstract field is due to Weber (1893). In particular, Heinrich Martin Weber's notion included the field Fp. Giuseppe Veronese (1891) studied the field of formal power series, which led Hensel (1904) to introduce the field of p-adic numbers. Steinitz (1910) synthesized the knowledge of abstract field theory accumulated so far. He axiomatically studied the properties of fields and defined many important field-theoretic concepts. The majority of the theorems mentioned in the sections Galois theory, Constructing fields and Elementary notions can be found in Steinitz's work. Artin & Schreier (1927) linked the notion of orderings in a field, and thus the area of analysis, to purely algebraic properties. Emil Artin redeveloped Galois theory from 1928 through 1942, eliminating the dependency on the primitive element theorem.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 49,
"text": "A commutative ring is a set that is equipped with an addition and multiplication operation and satisfes all the axioms of a field, except for the existence of multiplicative inverses a. For example, the integers Z form a commutative ring, but not a field: the reciprocal of an integer n is not itself an integer, unless n = ±1.",
"title": "Constructing fields"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 50,
"text": "In the hierarchy of algebraic structures fields can be characterized as the commutative rings R in which every nonzero element is a unit (which means every element is invertible). Similarly, fields are the commutative rings with precisely two distinct ideals, (0) and R. Fields are also precisely the commutative rings in which (0) is the only prime ideal.",
"title": "Constructing fields"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 51,
"text": "Given a commutative ring R, there are two ways to construct a field related to R, i.e., two ways of modifying R such that all nonzero elements become invertible: forming the field of fractions, and forming residue fields. The field of fractions of Z is Q, the rationals, while the residue fields of Z are the finite fields Fp.",
"title": "Constructing fields"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 52,
"text": "Given an integral domain R, its field of fractions Q(R) is built with the fractions of two elements of R exactly as Q is constructed from the integers. More precisely, the elements of Q(R) are the fractions a/b where a and b are in R, and b ≠ 0. Two fractions a/b and c/d are equal if and only if ad = bc. The operation on the fractions work exactly as for rational numbers. For example,",
"title": "Constructing fields"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 53,
"text": "It is straightforward to show that, if the ring is an integral domain, the set of the fractions form a field.",
"title": "Constructing fields"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 54,
"text": "The field F(x) of the rational fractions over a field (or an integral domain) F is the field of fractions of the polynomial ring F[x]. The field F((x)) of Laurent series",
"title": "Constructing fields"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 55,
"text": "over a field F is the field of fractions of the ring F[[x]] of formal power series (in which k ≥ 0). Since any Laurent series is a fraction of a power series divided by a power of x (as opposed to an arbitrary power series), the representation of fractions is less important in this situation, though.",
"title": "Constructing fields"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 56,
"text": "In addition to the field of fractions, which embeds R injectively into a field, a field can be obtained from a commutative ring R by means of a surjective map onto a field F. Any field obtained in this way is a quotient R / m, where m is a maximal ideal of R. If R has only one maximal ideal m, this field is called the residue field of R.",
"title": "Constructing fields"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 57,
"text": "The ideal generated by a single polynomial f in the polynomial ring R = E[X] (over a field E) is maximal if and only if f is irreducible in E, i.e., if f cannot be expressed as the product of two polynomials in E[X] of smaller degree. This yields a field",
"title": "Constructing fields"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 58,
"text": "This field F contains an element x (namely the residue class of X) which satisfies the equation",
"title": "Constructing fields"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 59,
"text": "For example, C is obtained from R by adjoining the imaginary unit symbol i, which satisfies f(i) = 0, where f(X) = X + 1. Moreover, f is irreducible over R, which implies that the map that sends a polynomial f(X) ∊ R[X] to f(i) yields an isomorphism",
"title": "Constructing fields"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 60,
"text": "Fields can be constructed inside a given bigger container field. Suppose given a field E, and a field F containing E as a subfield. For any element x of F, there is a smallest subfield of F containing E and x, called the subfield of F generated by x and denoted E(x). The passage from E to E(x) is referred to by adjoining an element to E. More generally, for a subset S ⊂ F, there is a minimal subfield of F containing E and S, denoted by E(S).",
"title": "Constructing fields"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 61,
"text": "The compositum of two subfields E and E′ of some field F is the smallest subfield of F containing both E and E′. The compositum can be used to construct the biggest subfield of F satisfying a certain property, for example the biggest subfield of F, which is, in the language introduced below, algebraic over E.",
"title": "Constructing fields"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 62,
"text": "The notion of a subfield E ⊂ F can also be regarded from the opposite point of view, by referring to F being a field extension (or just extension) of E, denoted by",
"title": "Constructing fields"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 63,
"text": "and read \"F over E\".",
"title": "Constructing fields"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 64,
"text": "A basic datum of a field extension is its degree [F : E], i.e., the dimension of F as an E-vector space. It satisfies the formula",
"title": "Constructing fields"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 65,
"text": "Extensions whose degree is finite are referred to as finite extensions. The extensions C / R and F4 / F2 are of degree 2, whereas R / Q is an infinite extension.",
"title": "Constructing fields"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 66,
"text": "A pivotal notion in the study of field extensions F / E are algebraic elements. An element x ∈ F is algebraic over E if it is a root of a polynomial with coefficients in E, that is, if it satisfies a polynomial equation",
"title": "Constructing fields"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 67,
"text": "with en, ..., e0 in E, and en ≠ 0. For example, the imaginary unit i in C is algebraic over R, and even over Q, since it satisfies the equation",
"title": "Constructing fields"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 68,
"text": "A field extension in which every element of F is algebraic over E is called an algebraic extension. Any finite extension is necessarily algebraic, as can be deduced from the above multiplicativity formula.",
"title": "Constructing fields"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 69,
"text": "The subfield E(x) generated by an element x, as above, is an algebraic extension of E if and only if x is an algebraic element. That is to say, if x is algebraic, all other elements of E(x) are necessarily algebraic as well. Moreover, the degree of the extension E(x) / E, i.e., the dimension of E(x) as an E-vector space, equals the minimal degree n such that there is a polynomial equation involving x, as above. If this degree is n, then the elements of E(x) have the form",
"title": "Constructing fields"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 70,
"text": "For example, the field Q(i) of Gaussian rationals is the subfield of C consisting of all numbers of the form a + bi where both a and b are rational numbers: summands of the form i (and similarly for higher exponents) do not have to be considered here, since a + bi + ci can be simplified to a − c + bi.",
"title": "Constructing fields"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 71,
"text": "The above-mentioned field of rational fractions E(X), where X is an indeterminate, is not an algebraic extension of E since there is no polynomial equation with coefficients in E whose zero is X. Elements, such as X, which are not algebraic are called transcendental. Informally speaking, the indeterminate X and its powers do not interact with elements of E. A similar construction can be carried out with a set of indeterminates, instead of just one.",
"title": "Constructing fields"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 72,
"text": "Once again, the field extension E(x) / E discussed above is a key example: if x is not algebraic (i.e., x is not a root of a polynomial with coefficients in E), then E(x) is isomorphic to E(X). This isomorphism is obtained by substituting x to X in rational fractions.",
"title": "Constructing fields"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 73,
"text": "A subset S of a field F is a transcendence basis if it is algebraically independent (do not satisfy any polynomial relations) over E and if F is an algebraic extension of E(S). Any field extension F / E has a transcendence basis. Thus, field extensions can be split into ones of the form E(S) / E (purely transcendental extensions) and algebraic extensions.",
"title": "Constructing fields"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 74,
"text": "A field is algebraically closed if it does not have any strictly bigger algebraic extensions or, equivalently, if any polynomial equation",
"title": "Constructing fields"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 75,
"text": "has a solution x ∊ F. By the fundamental theorem of algebra, C is algebraically closed, i.e., any polynomial equation with complex coefficients has a complex solution. The rational and the real numbers are not algebraically closed since the equation",
"title": "Constructing fields"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 76,
"text": "does not have any rational or real solution. A field containing F is called an algebraic closure of F if it is algebraic over F (roughly speaking, not too big compared to F) and is algebraically closed (big enough to contain solutions of all polynomial equations).",
"title": "Constructing fields"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 77,
"text": "By the above, C is an algebraic closure of R. The situation that the algebraic closure is a finite extension of the field F is quite special: by the Artin–Schreier theorem, the degree of this extension is necessarily 2, and F is elementarily equivalent to R. Such fields are also known as real closed fields.",
"title": "Constructing fields"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 78,
"text": "Any field F has an algebraic closure, which is moreover unique up to (non-unique) isomorphism. It is commonly referred to as the algebraic closure and denoted F. For example, the algebraic closure Q of Q is called the field of algebraic numbers. The field F is usually rather implicit since its construction requires the ultrafilter lemma, a set-theoretic axiom that is weaker than the axiom of choice. In this regard, the algebraic closure of Fq, is exceptionally simple. It is the union of the finite fields containing Fq (the ones of order q). For any algebraically closed field F of characteristic 0, the algebraic closure of the field F((t)) of Laurent series is the field of Puiseux series, obtained by adjoining roots of t.",
"title": "Constructing fields"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 79,
"text": "Since fields are ubiquitous in mathematics and beyond, several refinements of the concept have been adapted to the needs of particular mathematical areas.",
"title": "Fields with additional structure"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 80,
"text": "A field F is called an ordered field if any two elements can be compared, so that x + y ≥ 0 and xy ≥ 0 whenever x ≥ 0 and y ≥ 0. For example, the real numbers form an ordered field, with the usual ordering ≥. The Artin–Schreier theorem states that a field can be ordered if and only if it is a formally real field, which means that any quadratic equation",
"title": "Fields with additional structure"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 81,
"text": "only has the solution x1 = x2 = ⋯ = xn = 0. The set of all possible orders on a fixed field F is isomorphic to the set of ring homomorphisms from the Witt ring W(F) of quadratic forms over F, to Z.",
"title": "Fields with additional structure"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 82,
"text": "An Archimedean field is an ordered field such that for each element there exists a finite expression",
"title": "Fields with additional structure"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 83,
"text": "whose value is greater than that element, that is, there are no infinite elements. Equivalently, the field contains no infinitesimals (elements smaller than all rational numbers); or, yet equivalent, the field is isomorphic to a subfield of R.",
"title": "Fields with additional structure"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 84,
"text": "An ordered field is Dedekind-complete if all upper bounds, lower bounds (see Dedekind cut) and limits, which should exist, do exist. More formally, each bounded subset of F is required to have a least upper bound. Any complete field is necessarily Archimedean, since in any non-Archimedean field there is neither a greatest infinitesimal nor a least positive rational, whence the sequence 1/2, 1/3, 1/4, ..., every element of which is greater than every infinitesimal, has no limit.",
"title": "Fields with additional structure"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 85,
"text": "Since every proper subfield of the reals also contains such gaps, R is the unique complete ordered field, up to isomorphism. Several foundational results in calculus follow directly from this characterization of the reals.",
"title": "Fields with additional structure"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 86,
"text": "The hyperreals R form an ordered field that is not Archimedean. It is an extension of the reals obtained by including infinite and infinitesimal numbers. These are larger, respectively smaller than any real number. The hyperreals form the foundational basis of non-standard analysis.",
"title": "Fields with additional structure"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 87,
"text": "Another refinement of the notion of a field is a topological field, in which the set F is a topological space, such that all operations of the field (addition, multiplication, the maps a ↦ −a and a ↦ a) are continuous maps with respect to the topology of the space. The topology of all the fields discussed below is induced from a metric, i.e., a function",
"title": "Fields with additional structure"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 88,
"text": "that measures a distance between any two elements of F.",
"title": "Fields with additional structure"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 89,
"text": "The completion of F is another field in which, informally speaking, the \"gaps\" in the original field F are filled, if there are any. For example, any irrational number x, such as x = √2, is a \"gap\" in the rationals Q in the sense that it is a real number that can be approximated arbitrarily closely by rational numbers p/q, in the sense that distance of x and p/q given by the absolute value |x − p/q| is as small as desired. The following table lists some examples of this construction. The fourth column shows an example of a zero sequence, i.e., a sequence whose limit (for n → ∞) is zero.",
"title": "Fields with additional structure"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 90,
"text": "The field Qp is used in number theory and p-adic analysis. The algebraic closure Qp carries a unique norm extending the one on Qp, but is not complete. The completion of this algebraic closure, however, is algebraically closed. Because of its rough analogy to the complex numbers, it is sometimes called the field of complex p-adic numbers and is denoted by Cp.",
"title": "Fields with additional structure"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 91,
"text": "The following topological fields are called local fields:",
"title": "Fields with additional structure"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 92,
"text": "These two types of local fields share some fundamental similarities. In this relation, the elements p ∈ Qp and t ∈ Fp((t)) (referred to as uniformizer) correspond to each other. The first manifestation of this is at an elementary level: the elements of both fields can be expressed as power series in the uniformizer, with coefficients in Fp. (However, since the addition in Qp is done using carrying, which is not the case in Fp((t)), these fields are not isomorphic.) The following facts show that this superficial similarity goes much deeper:",
"title": "Fields with additional structure"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 93,
"text": "Differential fields are fields equipped with a derivation, i.e., allow to take derivatives of elements in the field. For example, the field R(X), together with the standard derivative of polynomials forms a differential field. These fields are central to differential Galois theory, a variant of Galois theory dealing with linear differential equations.",
"title": "Fields with additional structure"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 94,
"text": "Galois theory studies algebraic extensions of a field by studying the symmetry in the arithmetic operations of addition and multiplication. An important notion in this area is that of finite Galois extensions F / E, which are, by definition, those that are separable and normal. The primitive element theorem shows that finite separable extensions are necessarily simple, i.e., of the form",
"title": "Galois theory"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 95,
"text": "where f is an irreducible polynomial (as above). For such an extension, being normal and separable means that all zeros of f are contained in F and that f has only simple zeros. The latter condition is always satisfied if E has characteristic 0.",
"title": "Galois theory"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 96,
"text": "For a finite Galois extension, the Galois group Gal(F/E) is the group of field automorphisms of F that are trivial on E (i.e., the bijections σ : F → F that preserve addition and multiplication and that send elements of E to themselves). The importance of this group stems from the fundamental theorem of Galois theory, which constructs an explicit one-to-one correspondence between the set of subgroups of Gal(F/E) and the set of intermediate extensions of the extension F/E. By means of this correspondence, group-theoretic properties translate into facts about fields. For example, if the Galois group of a Galois extension as above is not solvable (cannot be built from abelian groups), then the zeros of f cannot be expressed in terms of addition, multiplication, and radicals, i.e., expressions involving n {\\displaystyle {\\sqrt[{n}]{~}}} . For example, the symmetric groups Sn is not solvable for n ≥ 5. Consequently, as can be shown, the zeros of the following polynomials are not expressible by sums, products, and radicals. For the latter polynomial, this fact is known as the Abel–Ruffini theorem:",
"title": "Galois theory"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 97,
"text": "The tensor product of fields is not usually a field. For example, a finite extension F / E of degree n is a Galois extension if and only if there is an isomorphism of F-algebras",
"title": "Galois theory"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 98,
"text": "This fact is the beginning of Grothendieck's Galois theory, a far-reaching extension of Galois theory applicable to algebro-geometric objects.",
"title": "Galois theory"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 99,
"text": "Basic invariants of a field F include the characteristic and the transcendence degree of F over its prime field. The latter is defined as the maximal number of elements in F that are algebraically independent over the prime field. Two algebraically closed fields E and F are isomorphic precisely if these two data agree. This implies that any two uncountable algebraically closed fields of the same cardinality and the same characteristic are isomorphic. For example, Qp, Cp and C are isomorphic (but not isomorphic as topological fields).",
"title": "Invariants of fields"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 100,
"text": "In model theory, a branch of mathematical logic, two fields E and F are called elementarily equivalent if every mathematical statement that is true for E is also true for F and conversely. The mathematical statements in question are required to be first-order sentences (involving 0, 1, the addition and multiplication). A typical example, for n > 0, n an integer, is",
"title": "Invariants of fields"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 101,
"text": "The set of such formulas for all n expresses that E is algebraically closed. The Lefschetz principle states that C is elementarily equivalent to any algebraically closed field F of characteristic zero. Moreover, any fixed statement φ holds in C if and only if it holds in any algebraically closed field of sufficiently high characteristic.",
"title": "Invariants of fields"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 102,
"text": "If U is an ultrafilter on a set I, and Fi is a field for every i in I, the ultraproduct of the Fi with respect to U is a field. It is denoted by",
"title": "Invariants of fields"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 103,
"text": "since it behaves in several ways as a limit of the fields Fi: Łoś's theorem states that any first order statement that holds for all but finitely many Fi, also holds for the ultraproduct. Applied to the above sentence φ, this shows that there is an isomorphism",
"title": "Invariants of fields"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 104,
"text": "The Ax–Kochen theorem mentioned above also follows from this and an isomorphism of the ultraproducts (in both cases over all primes p)",
"title": "Invariants of fields"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 105,
"text": "In addition, model theory also studies the logical properties of various other types of fields, such as real closed fields or exponential fields (which are equipped with an exponential function exp : F → F).",
"title": "Invariants of fields"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 106,
"text": "For fields that are not algebraically closed (or not separably closed), the absolute Galois group Gal(F) is fundamentally important: extending the case of finite Galois extensions outlined above, this group governs all finite separable extensions of F. By elementary means, the group Gal(Fq) can be shown to be the Prüfer group, the profinite completion of Z. This statement subsumes the fact that the only algebraic extensions of Gal(Fq) are the fields Gal(Fq) for n > 0, and that the Galois groups of these finite extensions are given by",
"title": "Invariants of fields"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 107,
"text": "A description in terms of generators and relations is also known for the Galois groups of p-adic number fields (finite extensions of Qp).",
"title": "Invariants of fields"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 108,
"text": "Representations of Galois groups and of related groups such as the Weil group are fundamental in many branches of arithmetic, such as the Langlands program. The cohomological study of such representations is done using Galois cohomology. For example, the Brauer group, which is classically defined as the group of central simple F-algebras, can be reinterpreted as a Galois cohomology group, namely",
"title": "Invariants of fields"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 109,
"text": "Milnor K-theory is defined as",
"title": "Invariants of fields"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 110,
"text": "The norm residue isomorphism theorem, proved around 2000 by Vladimir Voevodsky, relates this to Galois cohomology by means of an isomorphism",
"title": "Invariants of fields"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 111,
"text": "Algebraic K-theory is related to the group of invertible matrices with coefficients the given field. For example, the process of taking the determinant of an invertible matrix leads to an isomorphism K1(F) = F. Matsumoto's theorem shows that K2(F) agrees with K2(F). In higher degrees, K-theory diverges from Milnor K-theory and remains hard to compute in general.",
"title": "Invariants of fields"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 112,
"text": "If a ≠ 0, then the equation",
"title": "Applications"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 113,
"text": "has a unique solution x in a field F, namely x = a − 1 b . {\\displaystyle x=a^{-1}b.} This immediate consequence of the definition of a field is fundamental in linear algebra. For example, it is an essential ingredient of Gaussian elimination and of the proof that any vector space has a basis.",
"title": "Applications"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 114,
"text": "The theory of modules (the analogue of vector spaces over rings instead of fields) is much more complicated, because the above equation may have several or no solutions. In particular systems of linear equations over a ring are much more difficult to solve than in the case of fields, even in the specially simple case of the ring Z of the integers.",
"title": "Applications"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 115,
"text": "A widely applied cryptographic routine uses the fact that discrete exponentiation, i.e., computing",
"title": "Applications"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 116,
"text": "in a (large) finite field Fq can be performed much more efficiently than the discrete logarithm, which is the inverse operation, i.e., determining the solution n to an equation",
"title": "Applications"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 117,
"text": "In elliptic curve cryptography, the multiplication in a finite field is replaced by the operation of adding points on an elliptic curve, i.e., the solutions of an equation of the form",
"title": "Applications"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 118,
"text": "Finite fields are also used in coding theory and combinatorics.",
"title": "Applications"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 119,
"text": "Functions on a suitable topological space X into a field F can be added and multiplied pointwise, e.g., the product of two functions is defined by the product of their values within the domain:",
"title": "Applications"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 120,
"text": "This makes these functions a F-commutative algebra.",
"title": "Applications"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 121,
"text": "For having a field of functions, one must consider algebras of functions that are integral domains. In this case the ratios of two functions, i.e., expressions of the form",
"title": "Applications"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 122,
"text": "form a field, called field of functions.",
"title": "Applications"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 123,
"text": "This occurs in two main cases. When X is a complex manifold X. In this case, one considers the algebra of holomorphic functions, i.e., complex differentiable functions. Their ratios form the field of meromorphic functions on X.",
"title": "Applications"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 124,
"text": "The function field of an algebraic variety X (a geometric object defined as the common zeros of polynomial equations) consists of ratios of regular functions, i.e., ratios of polynomial functions on the variety. The function field of the n-dimensional space over a field F is F(x1, ..., xn), i.e., the field consisting of ratios of polynomials in n indeterminates. The function field of X is the same as the one of any open dense subvariety. In other words, the function field is insensitive to replacing X by a (slightly) smaller subvariety.",
"title": "Applications"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 125,
"text": "The function field is invariant under isomorphism and birational equivalence of varieties. It is therefore an important tool for the study of abstract algebraic varieties and for the classification of algebraic varieties. For example, the dimension, which equals the transcendence degree of F(X), is invariant under birational equivalence. For curves (i.e., the dimension is one), the function field F(X) is very close to X: if X is smooth and proper (the analogue of being compact), X can be reconstructed, up to isomorphism, from its field of functions. In higher dimension the function field remembers less, but still decisive information about X. The study of function fields and their geometric meaning in higher dimensions is referred to as birational geometry. The minimal model program attempts to identify the simplest (in a certain precise sense) algebraic varieties with a prescribed function field.",
"title": "Applications"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 126,
"text": "Global fields are in the limelight in algebraic number theory and arithmetic geometry. They are, by definition, number fields (finite extensions of Q) or function fields over Fq (finite extensions of Fq(t)). As for local fields, these two types of fields share several similar features, even though they are of characteristic 0 and positive characteristic, respectively. This function field analogy can help to shape mathematical expectations, often first by understanding questions about function fields, and later treating the number field case. The latter is often more difficult. For example, the Riemann hypothesis concerning the zeros of the Riemann zeta function (open as of 2017) can be regarded as being parallel to the Weil conjectures (proven in 1974 by Pierre Deligne).",
"title": "Applications"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 127,
"text": "Cyclotomic fields are among the most intensely studied number fields. They are of the form Q(ζn), where ζn is a primitive nth root of unity, i.e., a complex number ζ that satisfies ζ = 1 and ζ ≠ 1 for all 0 < m < n. For n being a regular prime, Kummer used cyclotomic fields to prove Fermat's Last Theorem, which asserts the non-existence of rational nonzero solutions to the equation",
"title": "Applications"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 128,
"text": "Local fields are completions of global fields. Ostrowski's theorem asserts that the only completions of Q, a global field, are the local fields Qp and R. Studying arithmetic questions in global fields may sometimes be done by looking at the corresponding questions locally. This technique is called the local–global principle. For example, the Hasse–Minkowski theorem reduces the problem of finding rational solutions of quadratic equations to solving these equations in R and Qp, whose solutions can easily be described.",
"title": "Applications"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 129,
"text": "Unlike for local fields, the Galois groups of global fields are not known. Inverse Galois theory studies the (unsolved) problem whether any finite group is the Galois group Gal(F/Q) for some number field F. Class field theory describes the abelian extensions, i.e., ones with abelian Galois group, or equivalently the abelianized Galois groups of global fields. A classical statement, the Kronecker–Weber theorem, describes the maximal abelian Q extension of Q: it is the field",
"title": "Applications"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 130,
"text": "obtained by adjoining all primitive nth roots of unity. Kronecker's Jugendtraum asks for a similarly explicit description of F of general number fields F. For imaginary quadratic fields, F = Q ( − d ) {\\displaystyle F=\\mathbf {Q} ({\\sqrt {-d}})} , d > 0, the theory of complex multiplication describes F using elliptic curves. For general number fields, no such explicit description is known.",
"title": "Applications"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 131,
"text": "In addition to the additional structure that fields may enjoy, fields admit various other related notions. Since in any field 0 ≠ 1, any field has at least two elements. Nonetheless, there is a concept of field with one element, which is suggested to be a limit of the finite fields Fp, as p tends to 1. In addition to division rings, there are various other weaker algebraic structures related to fields such as quasifields, near-fields and semifields.",
"title": "Related notions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 132,
"text": "There are also proper classes with field structure, which are sometimes called Fields, with a capital 'F'. The surreal numbers form a Field containing the reals, and would be a field except for the fact that they are a proper class, not a set. The nimbers, a concept from game theory, form such a Field as well.",
"title": "Related notions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 133,
"text": "Dropping one or several axioms in the definition of a field leads to other algebraic structures. As was mentioned above, commutative rings satisfy all field axioms except for the existence of multiplicative inverses. Dropping instead commutativity of multiplication leads to the concept of a division ring or skew field; sometimes associativity is weakened as well. The only division rings that are finite-dimensional R-vector spaces are R itself, C (which is a field), and the quaternions H (in which multiplication is non-commutative). This result is known as the Frobenius theorem. The octonions O, for which multiplication is neither commutative nor associative, is a normed alternative division algebra, but is not a division ring. This fact was proved using methods of algebraic topology in 1958 by Michel Kervaire, Raoul Bott, and John Milnor. The non-existence of an odd-dimensional division algebra is more classical. It can be deduced from the hairy ball theorem illustrated at the right.",
"title": "Related notions"
}
] |
In mathematics, a field is a set on which addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division are defined and behave as the corresponding operations on rational and real numbers do. A field is thus a fundamental algebraic structure which is widely used in algebra, number theory, and many other areas of mathematics. The best known fields are the field of rational numbers, the field of real numbers and the field of complex numbers. Many other fields, such as fields of rational functions, algebraic function fields, algebraic number fields, and p-adic fields are commonly used and studied in mathematics, particularly in number theory and algebraic geometry. Most cryptographic protocols rely on finite fields, i.e., fields with finitely many elements. The relation of two fields is expressed by the notion of a field extension. Galois theory, initiated by Évariste Galois in the 1830s, is devoted to understanding the symmetries of field extensions. Among other results, this theory shows that angle trisection and squaring the circle cannot be done with a compass and straightedge. Moreover, it shows that quintic equations are, in general, algebraically unsolvable. Fields serve as foundational notions in several mathematical domains. This includes different branches of mathematical analysis, which are based on fields with additional structure. Basic theorems in analysis hinge on the structural properties of the field of real numbers. Most importantly for algebraic purposes, any field may be used as the scalars for a vector space, which is the standard general context for linear algebra. Number fields, the siblings of the field of rational numbers, are studied in depth in number theory. Function fields can help describe properties of geometric objects.
|
2001-10-14T18:26:24Z
|
2023-12-15T08:03:50Z
|
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Field_(mathematics)
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10,606 |
Factorial
|
In mathematics, the factorial of a non-negative integer n {\displaystyle n} , denoted by n ! {\displaystyle n!} , is the product of all positive integers less than or equal to n {\displaystyle n} . The factorial of n {\displaystyle n} also equals the product of n {\displaystyle n} with the next smaller factorial:
For example,
The value of 0! is 1, according to the convention for an empty product.
Factorials have been discovered in several ancient cultures, notably in Indian mathematics in the canonical works of Jain literature, and by Jewish mystics in the Talmudic book Sefer Yetzirah. The factorial operation is encountered in many areas of mathematics, notably in combinatorics, where its most basic use counts the possible distinct sequences – the permutations – of n {\displaystyle n} distinct objects: there are n ! {\displaystyle n!} In mathematical analysis, factorials are used in power series for the exponential function and other functions, and they also have applications in algebra, number theory, probability theory, and computer science.
Much of the mathematics of the factorial function was developed beginning in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Stirling's approximation provides an accurate approximation to the factorial of large numbers, showing that it grows more quickly than exponential growth. Legendre's formula describes the exponents of the prime numbers in a prime factorization of the factorials, and can be used to count the trailing zeros of the factorials. Daniel Bernoulli and Leonhard Euler interpolated the factorial function to a continuous function of complex numbers, except at the negative integers, the (offset) gamma function.
Many other notable functions and number sequences are closely related to the factorials, including the binomial coefficients, double factorials, falling factorials, primorials, and subfactorials. Implementations of the factorial function are commonly used as an example of different computer programming styles, and are included in scientific calculators and scientific computing software libraries. Although directly computing large factorials using the product formula or recurrence is not efficient, faster algorithms are known, matching to within a constant factor the time for fast multiplication algorithms for numbers with the same number of digits.
The concept of factorials has arisen independently in many cultures:
From the late 15th century onward, factorials became the subject of study by Western mathematicians. In a 1494 treatise, Italian mathematician Luca Pacioli calculated factorials up to 11!, in connection with a problem of dining table arrangements. Christopher Clavius discussed factorials in a 1603 commentary on the work of Johannes de Sacrobosco, and in the 1640s, French polymath Marin Mersenne published large (but not entirely correct) tables of factorials, up to 64!, based on the work of Clavius. The power series for the exponential function, with the reciprocals of factorials for its coefficients, was first formulated in 1676 by Isaac Newton in a letter to Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz. Other important works of early European mathematics on factorials include extensive coverage in a 1685 treatise by John Wallis, a study of their approximate values for large values of n {\displaystyle n} by Abraham de Moivre in 1721, a 1729 letter from James Stirling to de Moivre stating what became known as Stirling's approximation, and work at the same time by Daniel Bernoulli and Leonhard Euler formulating the continuous extension of the factorial function to the gamma function. Adrien-Marie Legendre included Legendre's formula, describing the exponents in the factorization of factorials into prime powers, in an 1808 text on number theory.
The notation n ! {\displaystyle n!} for factorials was introduced by the French mathematician Christian Kramp in 1808. Many other notations have also been used. Another later notation | n _ {\displaystyle \vert \!{\underline {\,n}}} , in which the argument of the factorial was half-enclosed by the left and bottom sides of a box, was popular for some time in Britain and America but fell out of use, perhaps because it is difficult to typeset. The word "factorial" (originally French: factorielle) was first used in 1800 by Louis François Antoine Arbogast, in the first work on Faà di Bruno's formula, but referring to a more general concept of products of arithmetic progressions. The "factors" that this name refers to are the terms of the product formula for the factorial.
The factorial function of a positive integer n {\displaystyle n} is defined by the product of all positive integers not greater than n {\displaystyle n}
This may be written more concisely in product notation as
If this product formula is changed to keep all but the last term, it would define a product of the same form, for a smaller factorial. This leads to a recurrence relation, according to which each value of the factorial function can be obtained by multiplying the previous value by n {\displaystyle n} :
For example, 5 ! = 5 ⋅ 4 ! = 5 ⋅ 24 = 120 {\displaystyle 5!=5\cdot 4!=5\cdot 24=120} .
The factorial of 0 {\displaystyle 0} is 1 {\displaystyle 1} , or in symbols, 0 ! = 1 {\displaystyle 0!=1} . There are several motivations for this definition:
The earliest uses of the factorial function involve counting permutations: there are n ! {\displaystyle n!} different ways of arranging n {\displaystyle n} distinct objects into a sequence. Factorials appear more broadly in many formulas in combinatorics, to account for different orderings of objects. For instance the binomial coefficients ( n k ) {\displaystyle {\tbinom {n}{k}}} count the k {\displaystyle k} -element combinations (subsets of k {\displaystyle k} elements) from a set with n {\displaystyle n} elements, and can be computed from factorials using the formula
The Stirling numbers of the first kind sum to the factorials, and count the permutations of n {\displaystyle n} grouped into subsets with the same numbers of cycles. Another combinatorial application is in counting derangements, permutations that do not leave any element in its original position; the number of derangements of n {\displaystyle n} items is the nearest integer to n ! / e {\displaystyle n!/e} . In algebra, the factorials arise through the binomial theorem, which uses binomial coefficients to expand powers of sums. They also occur in the coefficients used to relate certain families of polynomials to each other, for instance in Newton's identities for symmetric polynomials. Their use in counting permutations can also be restated algebraically: the factorials are the orders of finite symmetric groups. In calculus, factorials occur in Faà di Bruno's formula for chaining higher derivatives. In mathematical analysis, factorials frequently appear in the denominators of power series, most notably in the series for the exponential function,
and in the coefficients of other Taylor series (in particular those of the trigonometric and hyperbolic functions), where they cancel factors of n ! {\displaystyle n!} coming from the n {\displaystyle n} th derivative of x n {\displaystyle x^{n}} . This usage of factorials in power series connects back to analytic combinatorics through the exponential generating function, which for a combinatorial class with n i {\displaystyle n_{i}} elements of size i {\displaystyle i} is defined as the power series
In number theory, the most salient property of factorials is the divisibility of n ! {\displaystyle n!} by all positive integers up to n {\displaystyle n} , described more precisely for prime factors by Legendre's formula. It follows that arbitrarily large prime numbers can be found as the prime factors of the numbers n ! ± 1 {\displaystyle n!\pm 1} , leading to a proof of Euclid's theorem that the number of primes is infinite. When n ! ± 1 {\displaystyle n!\pm 1} is itself prime it is called a factorial prime; relatedly, Brocard's problem, also posed by Srinivasa Ramanujan, concerns the existence of square numbers of the form n ! + 1 {\displaystyle n!+1} . In contrast, the numbers n ! + 2 , n ! + 3 , … n ! + n {\displaystyle n!+2,n!+3,\dots n!+n} must all be composite, proving the existence of arbitrarily large prime gaps. An elementary proof of Bertrand's postulate on the existence of a prime in any interval of the form [ n , 2 n ] {\displaystyle [n,2n]} , one of the first results of Paul Erdős, was based on the divisibility properties of factorials. The factorial number system is a mixed radix notation for numbers in which the place values of each digit are factorials.
Factorials are used extensively in probability theory, for instance in the Poisson distribution and in the probabilities of random permutations. In computer science, beyond appearing in the analysis of brute-force searches over permutations, factorials arise in the lower bound of log 2 n ! = n log 2 n − O ( n ) {\displaystyle \log _{2}n!=n\log _{2}n-O(n)} on the number of comparisons needed to comparison sort a set of n {\displaystyle n} items, and in the analysis of chained hash tables, where the distribution of keys per cell can be accurately approximated by a Poisson distribution. Moreover, factorials naturally appear in formulae from quantum and statistical physics, where one often considers all the possible permutations of a set of particles. In statistical mechanics, calculations of entropy such as Boltzmann's entropy formula or the Sackur–Tetrode equation must correct the count of microstates by dividing by the factorials of the numbers of each type of indistinguishable particle to avoid the Gibbs paradox. Quantum physics provides the underlying reason for why these corrections are necessary.
As a function of n {\displaystyle n} , the factorial has faster than exponential growth, but grows more slowly than a double exponential function. Its growth rate is similar to n n {\displaystyle n^{n}} , but slower by an exponential factor. One way of approaching this result is by taking the natural logarithm of the factorial, which turns its product formula into a sum, and then estimating the sum by an integral:
Exponentiating the result (and ignoring the negligible + 1 {\displaystyle +1} term) approximates n ! {\displaystyle n!} as ( n / e ) n {\displaystyle (n/e)^{n}} . More carefully bounding the sum both above and below by an integral, using the trapezoid rule, shows that this estimate needs a correction factor proportional to n {\displaystyle {\sqrt {n}}} . The constant of proportionality for this correction can be found from the Wallis product, which expresses π {\displaystyle \pi } as a limiting ratio of factorials and powers of two. The result of these corrections is Stirling's approximation:
Here, the ∼ {\displaystyle \sim } symbol means that, as n {\displaystyle n} goes to infinity, the ratio between the left and right sides approaches one in the limit. Stirling's formula provides the first term in an asymptotic series that becomes even more accurate when taken to greater numbers of terms:
An alternative version uses only odd exponents in the correction terms:
Many other variations of these formulas have also been developed, by Srinivasa Ramanujan, Bill Gosper, and others.
The binary logarithm of the factorial, used to analyze comparison sorting, can be very accurately estimated using Stirling's approximation. In the formula below, the O ( 1 ) {\displaystyle O(1)} term invokes big O notation.
The product formula for the factorial implies that n ! {\displaystyle n!} is divisible by all prime numbers that are at most n {\displaystyle n} , and by no larger prime numbers. More precise information about its divisibility is given by Legendre's formula, which gives the exponent of each prime p {\displaystyle p} in the prime factorization of n ! {\displaystyle n!} as
Here s p ( n ) {\displaystyle s_{p}(n)} denotes the sum of the base- p {\displaystyle p} digits of n {\displaystyle n} , and the exponent given by this formula can also be interpreted in advanced mathematics as the p-adic valuation of the factorial. Applying Legendre's formula to the product formula for binomial coefficients produces Kummer's theorem, a similar result on the exponent of each prime in the factorization of a binomial coefficient. Grouping the prime factors of the factorial into prime powers in different ways produces the multiplicative partitions of factorials.
The special case of Legendre's formula for p = 5 {\displaystyle p=5} gives the number of trailing zeros in the decimal representation of the factorials. According to this formula, the number of zeros can be obtained by subtracting the base-5 digits of n {\displaystyle n} from n {\displaystyle n} , and dividing the result by four. Legendre's formula implies that the exponent of the prime p = 2 {\displaystyle p=2} is always larger than the exponent for p = 5 {\displaystyle p=5} , so each factor of five can be paired with a factor of two to produce one of these trailing zeros. The leading digits of the factorials are distributed according to Benford's law. Every sequence of digits, in any base, is the sequence of initial digits of some factorial number in that base.
Another result on divisibility of factorials, Wilson's theorem, states that ( n − 1 ) ! + 1 {\displaystyle (n-1)!+1} is divisible by n {\displaystyle n} if and only if n {\displaystyle n} is a prime number. For any given integer x {\displaystyle x} , the Kempner function of x {\displaystyle x} is given by the smallest n {\displaystyle n} for which x {\displaystyle x} divides n ! {\displaystyle n!} . For almost all numbers (all but a subset of exceptions with asymptotic density zero), it coincides with the largest prime factor of x {\displaystyle x} .
The product of two factorials, m ! ⋅ n ! {\displaystyle m!\cdot n!} , always evenly divides ( m + n ) ! {\displaystyle (m+n)!} . There are infinitely many factorials that equal the product of other factorials: if n {\displaystyle n} is itself any product of factorials, then n ! {\displaystyle n!} equals that same product multiplied by one more factorial, ( n − 1 ) ! {\displaystyle (n-1)!} . The only known examples of factorials that are products of other factorials but are not of this "trivial" form are 9 ! = 7 ! ⋅ 3 ! ⋅ 3 ! ⋅ 2 ! {\displaystyle 9!=7!\cdot 3!\cdot 3!\cdot 2!} , 10 ! = 7 ! ⋅ 6 ! = 7 ! ⋅ 5 ! ⋅ 3 ! {\displaystyle 10!=7!\cdot 6!=7!\cdot 5!\cdot 3!} , and 16 ! = 14 ! ⋅ 5 ! ⋅ 2 ! {\displaystyle 16!=14!\cdot 5!\cdot 2!} . It would follow from the abc conjecture that there are only finitely many nontrivial examples.
The greatest common divisor of the values of a primitive polynomial of degree d {\displaystyle d} over the integers evenly divides d ! {\displaystyle d!} .
There are infinitely many ways to extend the factorials to a continuous function. The most widely used of these uses the gamma function, which can be defined for positive real numbers as the integral
The resulting function is related to the factorial of a non-negative integer n {\displaystyle n} by the equation
which can be used as a definition of the factorial for non-integer arguments. At all values x {\displaystyle x} for which both Γ ( x ) {\displaystyle \Gamma (x)} and Γ ( x − 1 ) {\displaystyle \Gamma (x-1)} are defined, the gamma function obeys the functional equation
generalizing the recurrence relation for the factorials.
The same integral converges more generally for any complex number z {\displaystyle z} whose real part is positive. It can be extended to the non-integer points in the rest of the complex plane by solving for Euler's reflection formula
However, this formula cannot be used at integers because, for them, the sin π z {\displaystyle \sin \pi z} term would produce a division by zero. The result of this extension process is an analytic function, the analytic continuation of the integral formula for the gamma function. It has a nonzero value at all complex numbers, except for the non-positive integers where it has simple poles. Correspondingly, this provides a definition for the factorial at all complex numbers other than the negative integers. One property of the gamma function, distinguishing it from other continuous interpolations of the factorials, is given by the Bohr–Mollerup theorem, which states that the gamma function (offset by one) is the only log-convex function on the positive real numbers that interpolates the factorials and obeys the same functional equation. A related uniqueness theorem of Helmut Wielandt states that the complex gamma function and its scalar multiples are the only holomorphic functions on the positive complex half-plane that obey the functional equation and remain bounded for complex numbers with real part between 1 and 2.
Other complex functions that interpolate the factorial values include Hadamard's gamma function, which is an entire function over all the complex numbers, including the non-positive integers. In the p-adic numbers, it is not possible to continuously interpolate the factorial function directly, because the factorials of large integers (a dense subset of the p-adics) converge to zero according to Legendre's formula, forcing any continuous function that is close to their values to be zero everywhere. Instead, the p-adic gamma function provides a continuous interpolation of a modified form of the factorial, omitting the factors in the factorial that are divisible by p.
The digamma function is the logarithmic derivative of the gamma function. Just as the gamma function provides a continuous interpolation of the factorials, offset by one, the digamma function provides a continuous interpolation of the harmonic numbers, offset by the Euler–Mascheroni constant.
The factorial function is a common feature in scientific calculators. It is also included in scientific programming libraries such as the Python mathematical functions module and the Boost C++ library. If efficiency is not a concern, computing factorials is trivial: just successively multiply a variable initialized to 1 {\displaystyle 1} by the integers up to n {\displaystyle n} . The simplicity of this computation makes it a common example in the use of different computer programming styles and methods.
The computation of n ! {\displaystyle n!} can be expressed in pseudocode using iteration as
or using recursion based on its recurrence relation as
Other methods suitable for its computation include memoization, dynamic programming, and functional programming. The computational complexity of these algorithms may be analyzed using the unit-cost random-access machine model of computation, in which each arithmetic operation takes constant time and each number uses a constant amount of storage space. In this model, these methods can compute n ! {\displaystyle n!} in time O ( n ) {\displaystyle O(n)} , and the iterative version uses space O ( 1 ) {\displaystyle O(1)} . Unless optimized for tail recursion, the recursive version takes linear space to store its call stack. However, this model of computation is only suitable when n {\displaystyle n} is small enough to allow n ! {\displaystyle n!} to fit into a machine word. The values 12! and 20! are the largest factorials that can be stored in, respectively, the 32-bit and 64-bit integers. Floating point can represent larger factorials, but approximately rather than exactly, and will still overflow for factorials larger than 170 ! {\displaystyle 170!} .
The exact computation of larger factorials involves arbitrary-precision arithmetic, because of fast growth and integer overflow. Time of computation can be analyzed as a function of the number of digits or bits in the result. By Stirling's formula, n ! {\displaystyle n!} has b = O ( n log n ) {\displaystyle b=O(n\log n)} bits. The Schönhage–Strassen algorithm can produce a b {\displaystyle b} -bit product in time O ( b log b log log b ) {\displaystyle O(b\log b\log \log b)} , and faster multiplication algorithms taking time O ( b log b ) {\displaystyle O(b\log b)} are known. However, computing the factorial involves repeated products, rather than a single multiplication, so these time bounds do not apply directly. In this setting, computing n ! {\displaystyle n!} by multiplying the numbers from 1 to n {\displaystyle n} in sequence is inefficient, because it involves n {\displaystyle n} multiplications, a constant fraction of which take time O ( n log 2 n ) {\displaystyle O(n\log ^{2}n)} each, giving total time O ( n 2 log 2 n ) {\displaystyle O(n^{2}\log ^{2}n)} . A better approach is to perform the multiplications as a divide-and-conquer algorithm that multiplies a sequence of i {\displaystyle i} numbers by splitting it into two subsequences of i / 2 {\displaystyle i/2} numbers, multiplies each subsequence, and combines the results with one last multiplication. This approach to the factorial takes total time O ( n log 3 n ) {\displaystyle O(n\log ^{3}n)} : one logarithm comes from the number of bits in the factorial, a second comes from the multiplication algorithm, and a third comes from the divide and conquer.
Even better efficiency is obtained by computing n! from its prime factorization, based on the principle that exponentiation by squaring is faster than expanding an exponent into a product. An algorithm for this by Arnold Schönhage begins by finding the list of the primes up to n {\displaystyle n} , for instance using the sieve of Eratosthenes, and uses Legendre's formula to compute the exponent for each prime. Then it computes the product of the prime powers with these exponents, using a recursive algorithm, as follows:
The product of all primes up to n {\displaystyle n} is an O ( n ) {\displaystyle O(n)} -bit number, by the prime number theorem, so the time for the first step is O ( n log 2 n ) {\displaystyle O(n\log ^{2}n)} , with one logarithm coming from the divide and conquer and another coming from the multiplication algorithm. In the recursive calls to the algorithm, the prime number theorem can again be invoked to prove that the numbers of bits in the corresponding products decrease by a constant factor at each level of recursion, so the total time for these steps at all levels of recursion adds in a geometric series to O ( n log 2 n ) {\displaystyle O(n\log ^{2}n)} . The time for the squaring in the second step and the multiplication in the third step are again O ( n log 2 n ) {\displaystyle O(n\log ^{2}n)} , because each is a single multiplication of a number with O ( n log n ) {\displaystyle O(n\log n)} bits. Again, at each level of recursion the numbers involved have a constant fraction as many bits (because otherwise repeatedly squaring them would produce too large a final result) so again the amounts of time for these steps in the recursive calls add in a geometric series to O ( n log 2 n ) {\displaystyle O(n\log ^{2}n)} . Consequentially, the whole algorithm takes time O ( n log 2 n ) {\displaystyle O(n\log ^{2}n)} , proportional to a single multiplication with the same number of bits in its result.
Several other integer sequences are similar to or related to the factorials:
|
[
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "In mathematics, the factorial of a non-negative integer n {\\displaystyle n} , denoted by n ! {\\displaystyle n!} , is the product of all positive integers less than or equal to n {\\displaystyle n} . The factorial of n {\\displaystyle n} also equals the product of n {\\displaystyle n} with the next smaller factorial:",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "For example,",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "The value of 0! is 1, according to the convention for an empty product.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "Factorials have been discovered in several ancient cultures, notably in Indian mathematics in the canonical works of Jain literature, and by Jewish mystics in the Talmudic book Sefer Yetzirah. The factorial operation is encountered in many areas of mathematics, notably in combinatorics, where its most basic use counts the possible distinct sequences – the permutations – of n {\\displaystyle n} distinct objects: there are n ! {\\displaystyle n!} In mathematical analysis, factorials are used in power series for the exponential function and other functions, and they also have applications in algebra, number theory, probability theory, and computer science.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "Much of the mathematics of the factorial function was developed beginning in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Stirling's approximation provides an accurate approximation to the factorial of large numbers, showing that it grows more quickly than exponential growth. Legendre's formula describes the exponents of the prime numbers in a prime factorization of the factorials, and can be used to count the trailing zeros of the factorials. Daniel Bernoulli and Leonhard Euler interpolated the factorial function to a continuous function of complex numbers, except at the negative integers, the (offset) gamma function.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "Many other notable functions and number sequences are closely related to the factorials, including the binomial coefficients, double factorials, falling factorials, primorials, and subfactorials. Implementations of the factorial function are commonly used as an example of different computer programming styles, and are included in scientific calculators and scientific computing software libraries. Although directly computing large factorials using the product formula or recurrence is not efficient, faster algorithms are known, matching to within a constant factor the time for fast multiplication algorithms for numbers with the same number of digits.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "The concept of factorials has arisen independently in many cultures:",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "From the late 15th century onward, factorials became the subject of study by Western mathematicians. In a 1494 treatise, Italian mathematician Luca Pacioli calculated factorials up to 11!, in connection with a problem of dining table arrangements. Christopher Clavius discussed factorials in a 1603 commentary on the work of Johannes de Sacrobosco, and in the 1640s, French polymath Marin Mersenne published large (but not entirely correct) tables of factorials, up to 64!, based on the work of Clavius. The power series for the exponential function, with the reciprocals of factorials for its coefficients, was first formulated in 1676 by Isaac Newton in a letter to Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz. Other important works of early European mathematics on factorials include extensive coverage in a 1685 treatise by John Wallis, a study of their approximate values for large values of n {\\displaystyle n} by Abraham de Moivre in 1721, a 1729 letter from James Stirling to de Moivre stating what became known as Stirling's approximation, and work at the same time by Daniel Bernoulli and Leonhard Euler formulating the continuous extension of the factorial function to the gamma function. Adrien-Marie Legendre included Legendre's formula, describing the exponents in the factorization of factorials into prime powers, in an 1808 text on number theory.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "The notation n ! {\\displaystyle n!} for factorials was introduced by the French mathematician Christian Kramp in 1808. Many other notations have also been used. Another later notation | n _ {\\displaystyle \\vert \\!{\\underline {\\,n}}} , in which the argument of the factorial was half-enclosed by the left and bottom sides of a box, was popular for some time in Britain and America but fell out of use, perhaps because it is difficult to typeset. The word \"factorial\" (originally French: factorielle) was first used in 1800 by Louis François Antoine Arbogast, in the first work on Faà di Bruno's formula, but referring to a more general concept of products of arithmetic progressions. The \"factors\" that this name refers to are the terms of the product formula for the factorial.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "The factorial function of a positive integer n {\\displaystyle n} is defined by the product of all positive integers not greater than n {\\displaystyle n}",
"title": "Definition"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "This may be written more concisely in product notation as",
"title": "Definition"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "If this product formula is changed to keep all but the last term, it would define a product of the same form, for a smaller factorial. This leads to a recurrence relation, according to which each value of the factorial function can be obtained by multiplying the previous value by n {\\displaystyle n} :",
"title": "Definition"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "For example, 5 ! = 5 ⋅ 4 ! = 5 ⋅ 24 = 120 {\\displaystyle 5!=5\\cdot 4!=5\\cdot 24=120} .",
"title": "Definition"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "The factorial of 0 {\\displaystyle 0} is 1 {\\displaystyle 1} , or in symbols, 0 ! = 1 {\\displaystyle 0!=1} . There are several motivations for this definition:",
"title": "Definition"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "The earliest uses of the factorial function involve counting permutations: there are n ! {\\displaystyle n!} different ways of arranging n {\\displaystyle n} distinct objects into a sequence. Factorials appear more broadly in many formulas in combinatorics, to account for different orderings of objects. For instance the binomial coefficients ( n k ) {\\displaystyle {\\tbinom {n}{k}}} count the k {\\displaystyle k} -element combinations (subsets of k {\\displaystyle k} elements) from a set with n {\\displaystyle n} elements, and can be computed from factorials using the formula",
"title": "Applications"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 15,
"text": "The Stirling numbers of the first kind sum to the factorials, and count the permutations of n {\\displaystyle n} grouped into subsets with the same numbers of cycles. Another combinatorial application is in counting derangements, permutations that do not leave any element in its original position; the number of derangements of n {\\displaystyle n} items is the nearest integer to n ! / e {\\displaystyle n!/e} . In algebra, the factorials arise through the binomial theorem, which uses binomial coefficients to expand powers of sums. They also occur in the coefficients used to relate certain families of polynomials to each other, for instance in Newton's identities for symmetric polynomials. Their use in counting permutations can also be restated algebraically: the factorials are the orders of finite symmetric groups. In calculus, factorials occur in Faà di Bruno's formula for chaining higher derivatives. In mathematical analysis, factorials frequently appear in the denominators of power series, most notably in the series for the exponential function,",
"title": "Applications"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 16,
"text": "and in the coefficients of other Taylor series (in particular those of the trigonometric and hyperbolic functions), where they cancel factors of n ! {\\displaystyle n!} coming from the n {\\displaystyle n} th derivative of x n {\\displaystyle x^{n}} . This usage of factorials in power series connects back to analytic combinatorics through the exponential generating function, which for a combinatorial class with n i {\\displaystyle n_{i}} elements of size i {\\displaystyle i} is defined as the power series",
"title": "Applications"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 17,
"text": "In number theory, the most salient property of factorials is the divisibility of n ! {\\displaystyle n!} by all positive integers up to n {\\displaystyle n} , described more precisely for prime factors by Legendre's formula. It follows that arbitrarily large prime numbers can be found as the prime factors of the numbers n ! ± 1 {\\displaystyle n!\\pm 1} , leading to a proof of Euclid's theorem that the number of primes is infinite. When n ! ± 1 {\\displaystyle n!\\pm 1} is itself prime it is called a factorial prime; relatedly, Brocard's problem, also posed by Srinivasa Ramanujan, concerns the existence of square numbers of the form n ! + 1 {\\displaystyle n!+1} . In contrast, the numbers n ! + 2 , n ! + 3 , … n ! + n {\\displaystyle n!+2,n!+3,\\dots n!+n} must all be composite, proving the existence of arbitrarily large prime gaps. An elementary proof of Bertrand's postulate on the existence of a prime in any interval of the form [ n , 2 n ] {\\displaystyle [n,2n]} , one of the first results of Paul Erdős, was based on the divisibility properties of factorials. The factorial number system is a mixed radix notation for numbers in which the place values of each digit are factorials.",
"title": "Applications"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 18,
"text": "Factorials are used extensively in probability theory, for instance in the Poisson distribution and in the probabilities of random permutations. In computer science, beyond appearing in the analysis of brute-force searches over permutations, factorials arise in the lower bound of log 2 n ! = n log 2 n − O ( n ) {\\displaystyle \\log _{2}n!=n\\log _{2}n-O(n)} on the number of comparisons needed to comparison sort a set of n {\\displaystyle n} items, and in the analysis of chained hash tables, where the distribution of keys per cell can be accurately approximated by a Poisson distribution. Moreover, factorials naturally appear in formulae from quantum and statistical physics, where one often considers all the possible permutations of a set of particles. In statistical mechanics, calculations of entropy such as Boltzmann's entropy formula or the Sackur–Tetrode equation must correct the count of microstates by dividing by the factorials of the numbers of each type of indistinguishable particle to avoid the Gibbs paradox. Quantum physics provides the underlying reason for why these corrections are necessary.",
"title": "Applications"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 19,
"text": "As a function of n {\\displaystyle n} , the factorial has faster than exponential growth, but grows more slowly than a double exponential function. Its growth rate is similar to n n {\\displaystyle n^{n}} , but slower by an exponential factor. One way of approaching this result is by taking the natural logarithm of the factorial, which turns its product formula into a sum, and then estimating the sum by an integral:",
"title": "Properties"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 20,
"text": "Exponentiating the result (and ignoring the negligible + 1 {\\displaystyle +1} term) approximates n ! {\\displaystyle n!} as ( n / e ) n {\\displaystyle (n/e)^{n}} . More carefully bounding the sum both above and below by an integral, using the trapezoid rule, shows that this estimate needs a correction factor proportional to n {\\displaystyle {\\sqrt {n}}} . The constant of proportionality for this correction can be found from the Wallis product, which expresses π {\\displaystyle \\pi } as a limiting ratio of factorials and powers of two. The result of these corrections is Stirling's approximation:",
"title": "Properties"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 21,
"text": "Here, the ∼ {\\displaystyle \\sim } symbol means that, as n {\\displaystyle n} goes to infinity, the ratio between the left and right sides approaches one in the limit. Stirling's formula provides the first term in an asymptotic series that becomes even more accurate when taken to greater numbers of terms:",
"title": "Properties"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 22,
"text": "An alternative version uses only odd exponents in the correction terms:",
"title": "Properties"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 23,
"text": "Many other variations of these formulas have also been developed, by Srinivasa Ramanujan, Bill Gosper, and others.",
"title": "Properties"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 24,
"text": "The binary logarithm of the factorial, used to analyze comparison sorting, can be very accurately estimated using Stirling's approximation. In the formula below, the O ( 1 ) {\\displaystyle O(1)} term invokes big O notation.",
"title": "Properties"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 25,
"text": "The product formula for the factorial implies that n ! {\\displaystyle n!} is divisible by all prime numbers that are at most n {\\displaystyle n} , and by no larger prime numbers. More precise information about its divisibility is given by Legendre's formula, which gives the exponent of each prime p {\\displaystyle p} in the prime factorization of n ! {\\displaystyle n!} as",
"title": "Properties"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 26,
"text": "Here s p ( n ) {\\displaystyle s_{p}(n)} denotes the sum of the base- p {\\displaystyle p} digits of n {\\displaystyle n} , and the exponent given by this formula can also be interpreted in advanced mathematics as the p-adic valuation of the factorial. Applying Legendre's formula to the product formula for binomial coefficients produces Kummer's theorem, a similar result on the exponent of each prime in the factorization of a binomial coefficient. Grouping the prime factors of the factorial into prime powers in different ways produces the multiplicative partitions of factorials.",
"title": "Properties"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 27,
"text": "The special case of Legendre's formula for p = 5 {\\displaystyle p=5} gives the number of trailing zeros in the decimal representation of the factorials. According to this formula, the number of zeros can be obtained by subtracting the base-5 digits of n {\\displaystyle n} from n {\\displaystyle n} , and dividing the result by four. Legendre's formula implies that the exponent of the prime p = 2 {\\displaystyle p=2} is always larger than the exponent for p = 5 {\\displaystyle p=5} , so each factor of five can be paired with a factor of two to produce one of these trailing zeros. The leading digits of the factorials are distributed according to Benford's law. Every sequence of digits, in any base, is the sequence of initial digits of some factorial number in that base.",
"title": "Properties"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 28,
"text": "Another result on divisibility of factorials, Wilson's theorem, states that ( n − 1 ) ! + 1 {\\displaystyle (n-1)!+1} is divisible by n {\\displaystyle n} if and only if n {\\displaystyle n} is a prime number. For any given integer x {\\displaystyle x} , the Kempner function of x {\\displaystyle x} is given by the smallest n {\\displaystyle n} for which x {\\displaystyle x} divides n ! {\\displaystyle n!} . For almost all numbers (all but a subset of exceptions with asymptotic density zero), it coincides with the largest prime factor of x {\\displaystyle x} .",
"title": "Properties"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 29,
"text": "The product of two factorials, m ! ⋅ n ! {\\displaystyle m!\\cdot n!} , always evenly divides ( m + n ) ! {\\displaystyle (m+n)!} . There are infinitely many factorials that equal the product of other factorials: if n {\\displaystyle n} is itself any product of factorials, then n ! {\\displaystyle n!} equals that same product multiplied by one more factorial, ( n − 1 ) ! {\\displaystyle (n-1)!} . The only known examples of factorials that are products of other factorials but are not of this \"trivial\" form are 9 ! = 7 ! ⋅ 3 ! ⋅ 3 ! ⋅ 2 ! {\\displaystyle 9!=7!\\cdot 3!\\cdot 3!\\cdot 2!} , 10 ! = 7 ! ⋅ 6 ! = 7 ! ⋅ 5 ! ⋅ 3 ! {\\displaystyle 10!=7!\\cdot 6!=7!\\cdot 5!\\cdot 3!} , and 16 ! = 14 ! ⋅ 5 ! ⋅ 2 ! {\\displaystyle 16!=14!\\cdot 5!\\cdot 2!} . It would follow from the abc conjecture that there are only finitely many nontrivial examples.",
"title": "Properties"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 30,
"text": "The greatest common divisor of the values of a primitive polynomial of degree d {\\displaystyle d} over the integers evenly divides d ! {\\displaystyle d!} .",
"title": "Properties"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 31,
"text": "There are infinitely many ways to extend the factorials to a continuous function. The most widely used of these uses the gamma function, which can be defined for positive real numbers as the integral",
"title": "Properties"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 32,
"text": "The resulting function is related to the factorial of a non-negative integer n {\\displaystyle n} by the equation",
"title": "Properties"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 33,
"text": "which can be used as a definition of the factorial for non-integer arguments. At all values x {\\displaystyle x} for which both Γ ( x ) {\\displaystyle \\Gamma (x)} and Γ ( x − 1 ) {\\displaystyle \\Gamma (x-1)} are defined, the gamma function obeys the functional equation",
"title": "Properties"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 34,
"text": "generalizing the recurrence relation for the factorials.",
"title": "Properties"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 35,
"text": "The same integral converges more generally for any complex number z {\\displaystyle z} whose real part is positive. It can be extended to the non-integer points in the rest of the complex plane by solving for Euler's reflection formula",
"title": "Properties"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 36,
"text": "However, this formula cannot be used at integers because, for them, the sin π z {\\displaystyle \\sin \\pi z} term would produce a division by zero. The result of this extension process is an analytic function, the analytic continuation of the integral formula for the gamma function. It has a nonzero value at all complex numbers, except for the non-positive integers where it has simple poles. Correspondingly, this provides a definition for the factorial at all complex numbers other than the negative integers. One property of the gamma function, distinguishing it from other continuous interpolations of the factorials, is given by the Bohr–Mollerup theorem, which states that the gamma function (offset by one) is the only log-convex function on the positive real numbers that interpolates the factorials and obeys the same functional equation. A related uniqueness theorem of Helmut Wielandt states that the complex gamma function and its scalar multiples are the only holomorphic functions on the positive complex half-plane that obey the functional equation and remain bounded for complex numbers with real part between 1 and 2.",
"title": "Properties"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 37,
"text": "Other complex functions that interpolate the factorial values include Hadamard's gamma function, which is an entire function over all the complex numbers, including the non-positive integers. In the p-adic numbers, it is not possible to continuously interpolate the factorial function directly, because the factorials of large integers (a dense subset of the p-adics) converge to zero according to Legendre's formula, forcing any continuous function that is close to their values to be zero everywhere. Instead, the p-adic gamma function provides a continuous interpolation of a modified form of the factorial, omitting the factors in the factorial that are divisible by p.",
"title": "Properties"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 38,
"text": "The digamma function is the logarithmic derivative of the gamma function. Just as the gamma function provides a continuous interpolation of the factorials, offset by one, the digamma function provides a continuous interpolation of the harmonic numbers, offset by the Euler–Mascheroni constant.",
"title": "Properties"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 39,
"text": "The factorial function is a common feature in scientific calculators. It is also included in scientific programming libraries such as the Python mathematical functions module and the Boost C++ library. If efficiency is not a concern, computing factorials is trivial: just successively multiply a variable initialized to 1 {\\displaystyle 1} by the integers up to n {\\displaystyle n} . The simplicity of this computation makes it a common example in the use of different computer programming styles and methods.",
"title": "Properties"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 40,
"text": "The computation of n ! {\\displaystyle n!} can be expressed in pseudocode using iteration as",
"title": "Properties"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 41,
"text": "or using recursion based on its recurrence relation as",
"title": "Properties"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 42,
"text": "Other methods suitable for its computation include memoization, dynamic programming, and functional programming. The computational complexity of these algorithms may be analyzed using the unit-cost random-access machine model of computation, in which each arithmetic operation takes constant time and each number uses a constant amount of storage space. In this model, these methods can compute n ! {\\displaystyle n!} in time O ( n ) {\\displaystyle O(n)} , and the iterative version uses space O ( 1 ) {\\displaystyle O(1)} . Unless optimized for tail recursion, the recursive version takes linear space to store its call stack. However, this model of computation is only suitable when n {\\displaystyle n} is small enough to allow n ! {\\displaystyle n!} to fit into a machine word. The values 12! and 20! are the largest factorials that can be stored in, respectively, the 32-bit and 64-bit integers. Floating point can represent larger factorials, but approximately rather than exactly, and will still overflow for factorials larger than 170 ! {\\displaystyle 170!} .",
"title": "Properties"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 43,
"text": "The exact computation of larger factorials involves arbitrary-precision arithmetic, because of fast growth and integer overflow. Time of computation can be analyzed as a function of the number of digits or bits in the result. By Stirling's formula, n ! {\\displaystyle n!} has b = O ( n log n ) {\\displaystyle b=O(n\\log n)} bits. The Schönhage–Strassen algorithm can produce a b {\\displaystyle b} -bit product in time O ( b log b log log b ) {\\displaystyle O(b\\log b\\log \\log b)} , and faster multiplication algorithms taking time O ( b log b ) {\\displaystyle O(b\\log b)} are known. However, computing the factorial involves repeated products, rather than a single multiplication, so these time bounds do not apply directly. In this setting, computing n ! {\\displaystyle n!} by multiplying the numbers from 1 to n {\\displaystyle n} in sequence is inefficient, because it involves n {\\displaystyle n} multiplications, a constant fraction of which take time O ( n log 2 n ) {\\displaystyle O(n\\log ^{2}n)} each, giving total time O ( n 2 log 2 n ) {\\displaystyle O(n^{2}\\log ^{2}n)} . A better approach is to perform the multiplications as a divide-and-conquer algorithm that multiplies a sequence of i {\\displaystyle i} numbers by splitting it into two subsequences of i / 2 {\\displaystyle i/2} numbers, multiplies each subsequence, and combines the results with one last multiplication. This approach to the factorial takes total time O ( n log 3 n ) {\\displaystyle O(n\\log ^{3}n)} : one logarithm comes from the number of bits in the factorial, a second comes from the multiplication algorithm, and a third comes from the divide and conquer.",
"title": "Properties"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 44,
"text": "Even better efficiency is obtained by computing n! from its prime factorization, based on the principle that exponentiation by squaring is faster than expanding an exponent into a product. An algorithm for this by Arnold Schönhage begins by finding the list of the primes up to n {\\displaystyle n} , for instance using the sieve of Eratosthenes, and uses Legendre's formula to compute the exponent for each prime. Then it computes the product of the prime powers with these exponents, using a recursive algorithm, as follows:",
"title": "Properties"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 45,
"text": "The product of all primes up to n {\\displaystyle n} is an O ( n ) {\\displaystyle O(n)} -bit number, by the prime number theorem, so the time for the first step is O ( n log 2 n ) {\\displaystyle O(n\\log ^{2}n)} , with one logarithm coming from the divide and conquer and another coming from the multiplication algorithm. In the recursive calls to the algorithm, the prime number theorem can again be invoked to prove that the numbers of bits in the corresponding products decrease by a constant factor at each level of recursion, so the total time for these steps at all levels of recursion adds in a geometric series to O ( n log 2 n ) {\\displaystyle O(n\\log ^{2}n)} . The time for the squaring in the second step and the multiplication in the third step are again O ( n log 2 n ) {\\displaystyle O(n\\log ^{2}n)} , because each is a single multiplication of a number with O ( n log n ) {\\displaystyle O(n\\log n)} bits. Again, at each level of recursion the numbers involved have a constant fraction as many bits (because otherwise repeatedly squaring them would produce too large a final result) so again the amounts of time for these steps in the recursive calls add in a geometric series to O ( n log 2 n ) {\\displaystyle O(n\\log ^{2}n)} . Consequentially, the whole algorithm takes time O ( n log 2 n ) {\\displaystyle O(n\\log ^{2}n)} , proportional to a single multiplication with the same number of bits in its result.",
"title": "Properties"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 46,
"text": "Several other integer sequences are similar to or related to the factorials:",
"title": "Related sequences and functions"
}
] |
In mathematics, the factorial of a non-negative integer n , denoted by n ! , is the product of all positive integers less than or equal to n . The factorial of n also equals the product of n with the next smaller factorial: For example, The value of 0! is 1, according to the convention for an empty product. Factorials have been discovered in several ancient cultures, notably in Indian mathematics in the canonical works of Jain literature, and by Jewish mystics in the Talmudic book Sefer Yetzirah. The factorial operation is encountered in many areas of mathematics, notably in combinatorics, where its most basic use counts the possible distinct sequences – the permutations – of n distinct objects: there are n ! In mathematical analysis, factorials are used in power series for the exponential function and other functions, and they also have applications in algebra, number theory, probability theory, and computer science. Much of the mathematics of the factorial function was developed beginning in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
Stirling's approximation provides an accurate approximation to the factorial of large numbers, showing that it grows more quickly than exponential growth. Legendre's formula describes the exponents of the prime numbers in a prime factorization of the factorials, and can be used to count the trailing zeros of the factorials. Daniel Bernoulli and Leonhard Euler interpolated the factorial function to a continuous function of complex numbers, except at the negative integers, the (offset) gamma function. Many other notable functions and number sequences are closely related to the factorials, including the binomial coefficients, double factorials, falling factorials, primorials, and subfactorials. Implementations of the factorial function are commonly used as an example of different computer programming styles, and are included in scientific calculators and scientific computing software libraries. Although directly computing large factorials using the product formula or recurrence is not efficient, faster algorithms are known, matching to within a constant factor the time for fast multiplication algorithms for numbers with the same number of digits.
|
2001-08-09T14:04:02Z
|
2023-12-30T22:31:51Z
|
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Factorial
|
10,612 |
Cinema of Germany
|
The film industry in Germany can be traced back to the late 19th century. German cinema made major technical and artistic contributions to early film, broadcasting and television technology. Babelsberg became a household synonym for the early 20th century film industry in Europe, similar to Hollywood later.
Germany witnessed major changes to its identity during the 20th and 21st century. Those changes determined the periodisation of national cinema into a succession of distinct eras and movements.
The history of cinema in Germany can be traced back to the years shortly after the medium's birth. On 1 November 1895, Max Skladanowsky and his brother Emil demonstrated their self-invented film projector, the Bioscop, at the Wintergarten music hall in Berlin. A 15-minute series of eight short films were shown – the first screening of films to a paying audience. This performance pre-dated the first paying public display of the Lumière brothers' Cinematographe in Paris on 28 December of the same year, a performance that Max Skladanowsky attended and at which he was able to ascertain that the Cinematographe was technically superior to his Bioscop. Other German film pioneers included the Berliners Oskar Messter and Max Gliewe, two of several individuals who independently in 1896 first used a Geneva drive (which allows the film to be advanced intermittently one frame at a time) in a projector, and the cinematographer Guido Seeber.
In its earliest days, the cinematograph was perceived as an attraction for upper class audiences, but the novelty of moving pictures did not last long. Soon, trivial short films were being shown as fairground attractions aimed at the working class and lower-middle class. The booths in which these films were shown were known in Germany somewhat disparagingly as Kintopps. Film-makers with an artistic bent attempted to counter this view of cinema with longer films based on literary models, and the first German "artistic" films began to be produced from around 1910, an example being the Edgar Allan Poe adaptation The Student of Prague (1913) which was co-directed by Paul Wegener and Stellan Rye, photographed by Guido Seeber and starring actors from Max Reinhardt's company.
Early film theorists in Germany began to write about the significance of Schaulust, or "visual pleasure", for the audience, including the Dada movement writer Walter Serner: "If one looks to where cinema receives its ultimate power, into these strangely flickering eyes that point far back into human history, suddenly it stands there in all its massiveness: visual pleasure." Visually striking sets and makeup were key to the style of the expressionist films that were produced shortly after the First World War.
Cinemas themselves began to be established landmarks in the years immediately before World War I. Before this, German filmmakers would tour with their works, travelling from fairground to fairground. The earliest ongoing cinemas were set up in cafes and pubs by owners who saw a way of attracting more customers. The storefront cinema was called a Kientopp, and this is where films were viewed for the most part before the First World War broke out. The first standalone, dedicated cinema in Germany was opened in Mannheim in 1906, and by 1910, there were over 1000 cinemas operating in Germany. Henny Porten and Asta Nielsen (the latter originally from Denmark) were the first major film stars in Germany.
Prior to 1914, however, many foreign films were imported. In the era of the silent film there were no language boundaries and Danish and Italian films were particularly popular in Germany. The public's desire to see more films with particular actors led to the development in Germany, as elsewhere, of the phenomenon of the film star; the actress Henny Porten was one of the earliest German stars. Public desire to see popular film stories being continued encouraged the production of film serials, especially in the genre of mystery films, which is where the director Fritz Lang began his illustrious career.
The outbreak of World War I and the subsequent boycott of, for example, French films left a noticeable gap in the market. By 1916, there already existed some 2000 fixed venues for movie performances and initially film screenings were supplemented or even replaced by variety turns. In 1917 a process of concentration and partial nationalisation of the German film industry began with the founding of Universum Film AG (UFA), which was partly a reaction to the very effective use that the Allied Powers had found for the new medium for the purpose of propaganda. Under the aegis of the military, so-called Vaterland films were produced, which equalled the Allies' films in the matter of propaganda and disparagement of the enemy. Audiences however did not care to swallow the patriotic medicine without the accompanying sugar of the light-entertainment films which, consequently, Ufa also promoted. The German film industry soon became the largest in Europe.
The German film industry, which was protected during the war by the ban on foreign films import, became exposed at the end of the war to the international film industry while having to face an embargo, this time on its own films. Many countries banned the import of German films and audiences themselves were resisting anything that was "German". But the ban imposed on German films involved commercial considerations as well – as an American president of one of the film companies was quoted, "an influx of such films in the United States would throw thousands of our own... out of work, because it would be absolutely impossible for the American producers to compete with the German producers". At home, the German film industry confronted an unstable economic situation and the devaluation of the currency made it difficult for the smaller production companies to function. Film industry financing was a fragile business and expensive productions occasionally led to bankruptcy. In 1925 UFA itself was forced to go into a disadvantageous partnership called Parufamet with the American studios Paramount and MGM, before being taken over by the nationalist industrialist and newspaper owner Alfred Hugenberg in 1927.
Nevertheless, the German film industry enjoyed an unprecedented development – during the 14 years which comprise the Weimar period, an average of 250 film were being produced each year, a total of 3,500 full-feature films. Apart from UFA, about 230 film companies were active in Berlin alone. This industry was attracting producers and directors from all over Europe. The fact that the films were silent and language was not a factor, enabled even foreign actors, like the Danish film star Asta Nielsen or the American Louise Brooks, to be hired even for leading roles. This period can also be noted for new technological developments in film making and experimentation in set design and lighting, led by UFA. Babelsberg Studio, which was incorporated into UFA, expanded massively and gave the German film industry a highly developed infrastructure. Babelsberg remained the centre of German filmmaking for many years, became the largest film studio in Europe and produced most of the films in this "golden era" of German cinema. In essence it was "the German equivalent to Hollywood".
Films about an exaggerated version of Japanese culture that included "geishas, samurai, and Shinto shrines" were popular in Germany during this era.
Due to the unstable economic condition and in an attempt to deal with modest production budgets, filmmakers were trying to reach the largest audience possible and in that, to maximize their revenues. This led to films being made in a vast array of genres and styles.
One of the main film genres associated with the Weimar Republic cinema is German Expressionism which was inspired by the expressionist movement in art. Expressionist movies relied heavily on symbolism and artistic imagery rather than stark realism to tell their stories. Given the grim mood in post-World War I, it was not surprising that these films focused heavily on crime and horror. The film usually credited with sparking the popularity of expressionism is Robert Wiene's The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920), produced by Erich Pommer. The film tells the story of a demented hypnotist who is using a sleepwalker to perform a series of murders. The film featured a dark and twisted visual style – the set was unrealistic with geometric images painted on the floor and shapes in light and shadow cast on walls, the acting was exaggerated and the costumes bizarre. These stylistic elements became trademarks of this cinematic movement. Other notable works of Expressionism are Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau's Nosferatu (1922), a classic period-piece horror film that remains the first feature-length film adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula, Carl Boese and Paul Wegener's The Golem: How He Came Into the World (1920), a Gothic retelling of the Jewish folktale, and Metropolis (1927), a legendary science-fiction epic directed by Fritz Lang. The Expressionist movement began to wane during the mid-1920s, but perhaps the fact that its main creators moved to Hollywood, California, allowed this style to remain influential in world cinema for years to come, particularly in American horror films and film noir and in the works of European directors such as Jean Cocteau and Ingmar Bergman.
Despite its significance, expressionist cinema was not the dominant genre of this era. Many other genres such as period dramas, melodramas, romantic comedies, and films of social and political nature, were much more prevalent and definitely more popular.
The "master" of period-dramas was undoubtedly Ernst Lubitsch. His most notable films of this genre were Madame DuBarry (1919) which portrayed the French Revolution through the eyes of the King of France's mistress, and the film Anna Boleyn (1920) on the tragic end of King Henry VIII's second wife. In these films, Lubitsch presented prominent historic personalities who are caught up by their weaknesses and petty urges and thus, ironically, become responsible for huge historical events. Despite modest budgets, his films included extravagant scenes which were meant to appeal to a wide audience and insure a wide international distribution.
As the genre of expressionism began to diminish, the genre of the New Objectivity (die neue Sachlichkeit) began to take its place. It was influenced by new issues which occupied the public in those years, as the rampant inflation caused deterioration in the economic status of the middle class. These films, often called "street films" or "asphalt films", tried to reflect reality in all its complexity and ugliness. They focused on objects surrounding the characters and cynically symbolized the despair felt by the German people, whose lives were shattered after the war. The most prominent film maker who is associated with this genre is Georg Wilhelm Pabst in his films such as: Joyless Street (1925), Pandora's Box (1929), and The Loves of Jeanne Ney (1927). Pabst is also credited with innovations in film editing, such as reversing the angle of the camera or cutting between two camera angles, which enhanced film continuity and later became standards of the industry.
Pabst is also identified with another genre which branched from the New Objectivity – that of social and political films. These filmmakers dared to confront sensitive and controversial social issues which engaged the public in those days; such as anti-Semitism, prostitution and homosexuality. To a large extent, Weimar cinema was playing a vibrant and important role by leading public debate on those issues. Pabst, in his film Diary of a Lost Girl (1929), tells the story of a young woman who has a child out of wedlock, is thrown out into the street by her family and has to resort to prostitution to survive. As early as 1919, Richard Oswald's film Different from the Others portrayed a man torn between his homosexual tendencies and the moral and social conventions. It is considered to be the first German film to deal with homosexuality and some researchers even believe it to be the first in the world to examine this issue explicitly. That same year, the film Ritual Murder (1919) by Jewish film producer Max Nivelli came to the screen. This film was the first to make the German public aware of the consequences of anti-Semitism and xenophobia. It portrayed a "pogrom" which is carried out against the Jewish inhabitants of a village in Tsarist Russia. In the background, a love story also evolves between a young Russian student and the daughter of the leader of the Jewish community, something that was considered a taboo at the time. Later on, in an attempt to reflect the rapidly growing anti-Semitic atmosphere, Oswald confronted the same issue with his film Dreyfus (1930), which portrayed the 1894 political scandal of the "Dreyfus affair", which until today remains one of the most striking examples of miscarriage of justice and blatant anti-Semitism.
The polarised politics of the Weimar period were also reflected in some of its films. A series of patriotic films about Prussian history, starring Otto Gebühr as Frederick the Great were produced throughout the 1920s and were popular with the nationalist right-wing, who strongly criticised the "asphalt" films' decadence. Another dark chapter of the Weimar period was reflected in Joseph Delmont's film Humanity Unleashed (1920). The film was an adaptation of a novel by the same name, written by Max Glass and published in 1919. The novel described a dark world consumed by disease and war. The filmmakers decided to take the story to a more contemporary context by reflecting the growing fear among the German public of political radicalization. They produced what was to become the first fictional account of the events of January 1919 in Berlin, the so-called "Spartacist Uprising". This film is also considered one of the anti-Bolshevik films of that era.
Another important film genre of the Weimar years was the Kammerspiel or "chamber drama", which was borrowed from the theater and developed by stage director, who would later become a film producer and director himself, Max Reinhardt. This style was in many ways a reaction against the spectacle of expressionism and thus tended to revolve around ordinary people from the lower-middle-class. Films of this genre were often called "instinct" films because they emphasized the impulses and intimate psychology of the characters. The sets were kept to a minimum and there was abundant use of camera movements to add complexity to the rather intimate and simple spaces. Associated with this particular style is also screenwriter Carl Mayer and films such as Murnau's Last Laugh (1924).
Nature films, a genre referred to as Bergfilm, also became popular. Most known in this category are the films by director Arnold Fanck, in which individuals were shown battling against nature in the mountains. Animators and directors of experimental films such as; Lotte Reiniger, Oskar Fischinger and Walter Ruttmann, were also very active in Germany in the 1920s. Ruttman's experimental documentary Berlin: Symphony of a Metropolis (1927) epitomised the energy of 1920s Berlin.
The arrival of sound at the very end of the 1920s, produced a final artistic flourish of German film before the collapse of the Weimar Republic in 1933. As early as 1918, three inventors came up with the Tri-Ergon sound-on-film system and tried to introduce it to the industry between 1922 and 1926. UFA showed an interest, but possibly due to financial difficulties, never made a sound film. But in the late 1920s, sound production and distribution were starting to be adopted by the German film industry and by 1932 Germany had 3,800 cinemas equipped to play sound films. The first filmmakers who experimented with the new technology often shot the film in several versions, using several soundtracks in different languages. The film The Blue Angel (1930), directed by the Austrian Josef von Sternberg and produced by Erich Pommer, was also shot in two versions – German and English, with a different supporting cast in each version. It is considered to be Germany's first "talkie" and will always be remembered as the film that made an international superstar of its lead actress Marlene Dietrich. Other notable early sound films, all from 1931, include Jutzi's adaptation to Alfred Döblin's novel Berlin Alexanderplatz, Pabst's Bertolt Brecht adaptation The Threepenny Opera and Lang's M, as well as Hochbaum's Raid in St. Pauli (1932). Brecht was also one of the creators of the explicitly communist film Kuhle Wampe (1932), which was banned soon after its release.
In addition to developments in the industry itself, the Weimar period saw the birth of film criticism as a serious discipline whose practitioners included Rudolf Arnheim in Die Weltbühne and in Film als Kunst (1932), Béla Balázs in Der Sichtbare Mensch (1924), Siegfried Kracauer in the Frankfurter Zeitung, and Lotte H. Eisner in the Filmkurier.
The uncertain economic and political situation in Weimar Germany had already led to a number of film-makers and performers leaving the country, primarily for the United States; Ernst Lubitsch moved to Hollywood as early as 1923, the Hungarian-born Michael Curtiz in 1926. Some 1,500 directors, producers, actors and other film professionals emigrated in the years after the Nazis came to power. Among them were such key figures as the producer Erich Pommer, the studio head of Ufa, stars Marlene Dietrich and Peter Lorre, and director Fritz Lang. Lang's exodus to America is legendary; it is said that Metropolis so greatly impressed Joseph Goebbels that he asked Lang to become the head of his propaganda film unit. Lang fled to America instead, where he had a long and prosperous career. Many up-and-coming German directors also fled to the U.S., having a major influence on American film as a result. A number of the Universal Horror films of the 1930s were directed by German emigrees, including Karl Freund, Joe May and Robert Siodmak. Directors Edgar Ulmer and Douglas Sirk and the Austrian-born screenwriter (and later director) Billy Wilder also emigrated from Nazi Germany to Hollywood success. Not all those in the film industry threatened by the Nazi regime were able to escape; the actor and director Kurt Gerron, for example, perished in a concentration camp.
Within weeks of the Machtergreifung, Alfred Hugenberg had effectively turned over Ufa to the ends of the Nazis, excluding Jews from employment in the company in March 1933, several months before the foundation in June of the Reichsfilmkammer (Reich Chamber of Film), the body of the Nazi state charged with control of the film industry, which marked the official exclusion of Jews and foreigners from employment in the German film industry. As part of the process of Gleichschaltung all film production in Germany was subordinate to the Reichsfilmkammer, which was directly responsible to Goebbel's Propaganda ministry, and all those employed in the industry had to be members of the Reichsfachschaft Film. "Non-Aryan" film professionals and those whose politics or personal life were unacceptable to the Nazis were excluded from the Reichsfachschaft and thus denied employment in the industry. Some 3,000 individuals were affected by this employment ban. In addition, as journalists were also organised as a division of the Propaganda Ministry, Goebbels was able to abolish film criticism in 1936 and replace it with Filmbeobachtung (film observation); journalists could only report on the content of a film, not offer judgement on its artistic or other worth.
With the German film industry now effectively an arm of the totalitarian state, no films could be made that were not ostensibly in accord with the views of the ruling regime. However, despite the existence of anti-semitic propaganda works such as The Eternal Jew (1940)—which was a box-office flop—and the more sophisticated but equally anti-semitic Jud Süß (1940), which achieved commercial success at home and elsewhere in Europe, the majority of German films from the National Socialist period were intended principally as works of entertainment. The import of foreign films was legally restricted after 1936 and the German industry, which was effectively nationalised in 1937, had to make up for the missing foreign films (above all American productions). Entertainment also became increasingly important in the later years of World War II when the cinema provided a distraction from Allied bombing and a string of German defeats. In both 1943 and 1944 cinema admissions in Germany exceeded a billion, and the biggest box office hits of the war years were Die große Liebe (1942) and Wunschkonzert (1941), which both combine elements of the musical, wartime romance and patriotic propaganda, Frauen sind doch bessere Diplomaten (1941), a comic musical which was one of the earliest German films in colour, and Vienna Blood (1942), the adaptation of a Johann Strauß comic operetta. Titanic (1943) was another big-budget epic that arguably inspired other films about the ill-fated ocean liner. The importance of the cinema as a tool of the state, both for its propaganda value and its ability to keep the populace entertained, can be seen in the filming history of Veit Harlan's Kolberg (1945), the most expensive film of the Nazi era, for the shooting of which tens of thousands of soldiers were diverted from their military positions to appear as extras.
Despite the emigration of many film-makers and the political restrictions, the period was not without technical and aesthetic innovations, the introduction of Agfacolor film production being a notable example. Technical and aesthetic achievement could also be turned to the specific ends of the Nazi state, most spectacularly in the work of Leni Riefenstahl. Riefenstahl's Triumph of the Will (1935), documenting the 1934 Nuremberg Rally, and Olympia (1938), documenting the 1936 Summer Olympics, pioneered techniques of camera movement and editing that have influenced many later films. Both films, particularly Triumph of the Will, remain highly controversial, as their aesthetic merit is inseparable from their propagandising of Nazi ideals.
East German cinema initially profited from the fact that much of the country's film infrastructure, notably the former UFA studios, lay in the Soviet occupation zone which enabled film production to get off the ground more quickly than in the Western sectors. The authorities in the Soviet Zone were keen to re-establish the film industry in their sector and an order was issued to re-open cinemas in Berlin in May 1945 within three weeks of German capitulation. The film production company DEFA was founded on 17 May 1946, and took control of the film production facilities in the Soviet Zone which had been confiscated by order of the Soviet Military Administration in Germany in October 1945. A joint-stock company on paper, the majority interest in DEFA was actually held by the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) which became the ruling party of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) after 1949, formally placing DEFA as the state-owned monopoly for film production in East Germany. A sister "company", Progress Film, had also been established as a similar monopoly for domestic film distribution, its principal "competition" being Sovexportfilm, which handled distribution of Soviet films.
In total, DEFA produced some 900 feature films during its existence as well as around 800 animated films and over 3000 documentaries and short films. In 1946 DEFA produced The Murderers are Among Us, which was the first German film released after World War II and created the groundwork for the so-called Trümmerfilme, or rubble films, which were filmed amidst the rubble of structures bombed during World War II. Early on, production of East German film was limited due to strict controls imposed by the authorities which restricted the subject-matter of films to topics that directly contributed to the Communist project of the state. Excluding newsreels and educational films, only 50 films were produced between 1948 and 1953. However, in later years numerous films were produced on a variety of themes. DEFA had particular strengths in children's films, notably fairy tale adaptations such as Drei Haselnüsse für Aschenbrödel (Three Hazelnuts for Cinderella) (1973), but it also attempted other genre works: science-fiction, for example Der schweigende Stern (The Silent Star) (1960), an adaptation of a Stanisław Lem novel, or "red westerns" such as The Sons of the Great Mother Bear (1966) in which, in contrast to the typical American western, the heroes tended to be Native Americans. Many of these genre films were co-productions with other Warsaw Pact countries.
Notable non-genre films produced by DEFA include Wolfgang Staudte's adaptation of Heinrich Mann's Der Untertan (1951); Konrad Wolf's Der geteilte Himmel (Divided Heaven) (1964), an adaptation of Christa Wolf's novel; Frank Beyer's adaptation of Jurek Becker's Jacob the Liar (1975), the only East German film to be nominated for an Oscar; The Legend of Paul and Paula (1973), directed by Heiner Carow from Ulrich Plenzdorf's novel; and Solo Sunny (1980), again the work of Konrad Wolf.
However, film-making in the GDR was always constrained and oriented by the political situation in the country at any given time. Ernst Thälmann, the communist leader in the Weimar period, was the subject of several hagiographical films in the 1950s (Ernst Thälmann, 1954), and although East German filmmaking moved away from this overtly Stalinist approach in the 1960s, filmmakers were still subject to the changing political positions, and indeed the whims, of the SED leadership. For example, DEFA's full slate of contemporary films from 1966 were denied distribution, among them Frank Beyer's Traces of Stones (1966) which was pulled from distribution after three days, not because it was antipathetic to communist principles, but because it showed that such principles, which it fostered, were not put into practice at all times in East Germany. The huge box-office hit The Legend of Paul and Paula was initially threatened with a distribution ban because of its satirical elements and supposedly only allowed a release on the say-so of Party General Secretary Erich Honecker.
In the late 1970s, numerous film-makers left the GDR for the West as a result of restrictions on their work, among them director Egon Günther and actors Angelica Domröse, Eva-Maria Hagen, Katharina Thalbach, Hilmar Thate, Manfred Krug and Armin Mueller-Stahl. Many had been signatories of a 1976 petition opposing the expatriation of socially critical singer-songwriter Wolf Biermann and had had their ability to work restricted as a result.
In the final years of the GDR, the availability of television and the programming and films on television broadcasts reaching into the GDR via the uncontrollable airwaves, reduced the influence of DEFA productions, although its continuing role in producing shows for East German television channel remained. Following the Wende, DEFA had ceased production altogether, and its studios and equipment was sold off by the Treuhand in 1992, but its intellectual property rights were handed to the charitable DEFA-Stiftung (DEFA Foundation) which exploits these rights in conjunction with a series of private companies, especially the quickly privatized Progress Film GmbH, which has issued several East German films with English subtitles since the mid-1990s.
The occupation and reconstruction of Germany by the Four Powers in the period immediately after the end of World War II brought a major and long-lasting change to the economic conditions under which the industry in Germany had previously operated. The holdings of Ufa were confiscated by the Allies and, as part of the process of decartelisation, licences to produce films were shared between a range of much smaller companies. In addition, the Occupation Statute of 1949, which granted partial independence to the newly created Federal Republic of Germany, specifically forbade the imposition of import quotas to protect German film production from foreign competition, the result of lobbying by the American industry as represented by the MPAA.
Amidst the devastation of the Stunde Null year of 1945 cinema attendance was unsurprisingly down to a fraction of its wartime heights, but already by the end of the decade it had reached levels that exceeded the pre-war period. For the first time in many years, German audiences had free access to cinema from around the world and in this period the films of Charlie Chaplin remained popular, as were melodramas from the United States. Nonetheless, the share of the film market for German films in this period and into the 1950s remained relatively large, taking up some 40 percent of the total market. American films took up around 30 percent of the market despite having around twice as many films in distribution as the German industry in the same time frame.
Many of the German films of the immediate post-war period can be characterised as belonging to the genre of the Trümmerfilm (literally "rubble film"). These films show strong affinities with the work of Italian neorealists, not least Roberto Rossellini's neorealist trilogy which included Germany Year Zero (1948), and are concerned primarily with day-to-day life in the devastated Germany and an initial reaction to the events of the Nazi period (the full horror of which was first experienced by many in documentary footage from liberated concentration camps). Such films include Wolfgang Staudte's Die Mörder sind unter uns (The Murderers are among us) (1946), the first film made in post-war Germany (produced in the soviet sector), and Wolfgang Liebeneiner's Liebe 47 (Love 47) (1949), an adaptation of Wolfgang Borchert's play Draußen vor der Tür.
Despite the advent of a regular television service in the Federal Republic in 1952, cinema attendances continued to grow through much of the 1950s, reaching a peak of 817.5 million visits in 1956. The majority of the films of this period set out to do no more than entertain the audience and had few pretensions to artistry or active engagement with social issues. The defining genre of the period was arguably the Heimatfilm ("homeland film"), in which morally simplistic tales of love and family were played out in a rural setting, often in the mountains of Bavaria, Austria or Switzerland. In their day Heimatfilms were of little interest to more scholarly film critics, but in recent years they have been the subject of study in relation to what they say about the culture of West Germany in the years of the Wirtschaftswunder. Other film genres typical of this period were adaptations of operettas, hospital melodramas, comedies and musicals. Many films were remakes of earlier Ufa productions.
Rearmament and the founding of the Bundeswehr in 1955 brought with it a wave of war films which tended to depict the ordinary German soldiers of World War II as brave and apolitical. The Israeli historian Omer Bartov wrote that German films of the 1950s showed the average German soldier as a heroic victim: noble, tough, brave, honourable, and patriotic while fighting hard in a senseless war for a regime that he did not care for. The 08/15 film trilogy of 1954–55 concerns a sensitive young German soldier who would rather play the piano than fight, and who fights on the Eastern Front without understanding why; however, no mention is made of the genocidal aspects of Germany's war in East. The last of the 08/15 films ends with Germany occupied by a gang of American soldiers portrayed as bubble-gum chewing, slack-jawed morons and uncultured louts, totally inferior in every respect to the heroic German soldiers shown in the 08/15 films. The only exception is the Jewish American officer, who is shown as both hyper-intelligent and very unscrupulous, which Bartov noted seems to imply that the real tragedy of World War II was the Nazis did not get a chance to exterminate all of the Jews, who have now returned with Germany's defeat to once more exploit the German people.
In The Doctor of Stalingrad (1958) dealing with German POWs in the Soviet Union, Germans are portrayed as more civilized, humane and intelligent than the Soviets, who are shown for the most part as Mongol savages who brutalized the German POWs. One of the German POWs successfully seduces the beautiful and tough Red Army Captain Alexandra Kasalniskaya (Eva Bartok) who prefers him to the sadistic camp commandant, which as Bartov comments also is meant to show that even in defeat, German men were more sexually virile and potent than their Russian counterparts. In Hunde, wollt ihr ewig leben? (Dogs, do you want to live forever?) of 1959, which deals with the Battle of Stalingrad, the focus is on celebrating the heroism of the German soldier in that battle, who are shown as valiantly holding out against overwhelming odds with no mention at all of what those soldiers were fighting for, namely National Socialist ideology or the Holocaust. This period also saw a number of films that depicted the military resistance to Hitler. In Des Teufels General (The Devil's General) of 1954, a Luftwaffe general named Harras loosely modeled after Ernst Udet, appears at first to be cynical fool, but turns out to an anti-Nazi who is secretly sabotaging the German war effort by designing faulty planes. Bartov commented that in this film, the German officer corps is shown as a group of fundamentally noble and civilized men who happened to be serving an evil regime made up of a small gang of gangsterish misfits totally unrepresentative of German society, which served to exculpate both the officer corps and by extension Germany society. Bartov wrote that no German film of the 1950s showed the deep commitment felt by many German soldiers to National Socialism, the utter ruthless way the German Army fought the war and the mindless nihilist brutality of the later Wehrmacht. Bartov wrote that German film-makers liked to show the heroic last stand of the 6th Army at Stalingrad, but none has so far showed the 6th Army's massive co-operation with the Einsatzgruppen in murdering Soviet Jews in 1941.
Even though there are countless film adaptations of Edgar Wallace novels worldwide, the crime films produced by the German company Rialto Film between 1959 and 1972 are the best-known of those, to the extent that they form their own subgenre known as Krimis (abbreviation for the German term "Kriminalfilm" (or "Kriminalroman"). Other Edgar Wallace adaptations in a similar style were made by the Germans Artur Brauner and Kurt Ulrich, and the British producer Harry Alan Towers.
The international significance of the West German film industry of the 1950s could no longer measure up to that of France, Italy, or Japan. German films were only rarely distributed internationally as they were perceived as provincial. International co-productions of the kind which were becoming common in France and Italy tended to be rejected by German producers (Schneider 1990:43). However a few German films and film-makers did achieve international recognition at this time, among them Bernhard Wicki's Oscar-nominated Die Brücke (The Bridge) (1959), and the actresses Hildegard Knef and Romy Schneider.
In the late 1950s, the growth in cinema attendance of the preceding decade first stagnated and then went into freefall throughout the 1960s. By 1969 West German cinema attendance at 172.2 million visits per year was less than a quarter of its 1956 post-war peak. As a consequence of this, numerous German production and distribution companies went out of business in the 1950s and 1960s and cinemas across the Federal Republic closed their doors; the number of screens in West Germany almost halved between the beginning and the end of the decade.
Initially, the crisis was perceived as a problem of overproduction. Consequently, the German film industry cut back on production. 123 German movies were produced in 1955, only 65 in 1965. However, many German film companies followed the 1960s trends of international co-productions with Italy and Spain in such genres as spaghetti westerns and Eurospy films with films shot in those nations or in Yugoslavia that featured German actors in the casts.
The roots of the problem lay deeper in changing economic and social circumstances. Average incomes in the Federal Republic rose sharply and this opened up alternative leisure activities to compete with cinema-going. At this time too, television was developing into a mass medium that could compete with the cinema. In 1953 there were only 1,000,000 sets in West Germany; by 1962 there were 7 million (Connor 1990:49) (Hoffman 1990:69).
The majority of films produced in the Federal Republic in the 1960s were genre works: westerns, especially the series of movies adapted from Karl May's popular genre novels which starred Pierre Brice as the Apache Winnetou and Lex Barker as his white blood brother Old Shatterhand; thrillers and crime films, notably a series of Edgar Wallace movies from Rialto Film in which Klaus Kinski, Heinz Drache, Karin Dor and Joachim Fuchsberger were among the regular players. The traditional Krimi films expanded into series based on German pulp fiction heroes such as Jerry Cotton played by George Nader and Kommissar X played by Tony Kendall and Brad Harris. West Germany also made several horror films including ones starring Christopher Lee. The two genres were combined in the return of Doctor Mabuse in a series of several films of the early 1960s.
At the end of the 1960s softcore sex films, both the relatively serious Aufklärungsfilme (sex education films) of Oswalt Kolle and such exploitation films as Schulmädchen-Report (Schoolgirl Report) (1970) and its successors were produced into the 1970s. Such movies were commercially successful and often enjoyed international distribution, but won little acclaim from critics.
In the 1960s more than three-quarters of the regular cinema audience were lost as consequence of the rising popularity of TV sets at home. As a reaction to the artistic and economic stagnation of German cinema, a group of young film-makers issued the Oberhausen Manifesto on 28 February 1962. This call to arms, which included Alexander Kluge, Edgar Reitz, Peter Schamoni and Franz-Josef Spieker among its signatories, provocatively declared "Der alte Film ist tot. Wir glauben an den neuen" ("The old cinema is dead. We believe in the new cinema"). Other up-and-coming filmmakers allied themselves to this Oberhausen group, among them Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Volker Schlöndorff, Werner Herzog, Jean-Marie Straub, Wim Wenders, Werner Schroeter and Hans-Jürgen Syberberg in their rejection of the existing German film industry and their determination to build a new cinema founded on artistic and social measures rather than commercial success. Most of these directors organized themselves in, or partially co-operated with, the film production and distribution company Filmverlag der Autoren established in 1971, which throughout the 1970s brought forth a number of critically acclaimed films. Rosa von Praunheim, who formed the German lesbian and gay movement with his film It Is Not the Homosexual Who Is Perverse, But the Society in Which He Lives (1971), also plays an important role.
Despite the foundation of the Kuratorium Junger Deutscher Film (Young German Film Committee) in 1965, set up under the auspices of the Federal Ministry of the Interior to support new German films financially, the directors of this New German Cinema were consequently often dependent on money from television. Young filmmakers had the opportunity to test their mettle in such programmes as the stand-alone drama and documentary series Das kleine Fernsehspiel (The Little TV Play) or the television films of the crime series Tatort. However, the broadcasters sought TV premieres for the films which they had supported financially, with theatrical showings only occurring later. As a consequence, such films tended to be unsuccessful at the box office.
This situation changed after 1974 when the Film-Fernseh-Abkommen (Film and Television Accord) was agreed between the Federal Republic's main broadcasters, ARD and ZDF, and the German Federal Film Board (a government body created in 1968 to support film-making in Germany). This accord, which has been repeatedly extended up to the present day, provides for the television companies to make available an annual sum to support the production of films which are suitable for both theatrical distribution and television presentation. (The amount of money provided by the public broadcasters has varied between 4.5 and 12.94 million euros per year. Under the terms of the accord, films produced using these funds can only be screened on television 24 months after their theatrical release. They may appear on video or DVD no sooner than six months after cinema release. Nevertheless, the New German Cinema found it difficult to attract a large domestic or international audience.
The socially critical films of the New German Cinema strove to delineate themselves from what had gone before and the works of auteur film-makers such as Kluge and Fassbinder are examples of this, although Fassbinder in his use of stars from German cinema history also sought a reconciliation between the new cinema and the old. In addition, a distinction is sometimes drawn between the avantgarde "Young German Cinema" of the 1960s and the more accessible "New German Cinema" of the 1970s. For their influences the new generation of film-makers looked to Italian neorealism, the French Nouvelle Vague and the British New Wave but combined this eclectically with references to the well-established genres of Hollywood cinema. The New German Cinema dealt with contemporary German social problems in a direct way; the Nazi past, the plight of the Gastarbeiter ("guest workers"), and modern social developments, were all subjects prominent in New German Cinema films.
Films such as Kluge's Abschied von Gestern (1966), Herzog's Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972), Fassbinder's Fear Eats the Soul (1974) and The Marriage of Maria Braun (1979), and Wenders' Paris, Texas (1984) found critical approval. Often the work of these auteurs was first recognised abroad rather than in Germany itself. The work of post-war Germany's leading novelists Heinrich Böll and Günter Grass provided source material for the adaptations The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum (1975) (by Schlöndorff and Margarethe von Trotta) and The Tin Drum (1979) (by Schlöndorff alone) respectively, the latter becoming the first German film to win the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. The New German Cinema also allowed for female directors to come to the fore and for the development of a feminist cinema which encompassed the works of directors such as Margarethe von Trotta, Helma Sanders-Brahms, Jutta Brückner, Helke Sander and Cristina Perincioli.
German production companies have been quite commonly involved in expensive French and Italian productions from Spaghetti Westerns to French comic book adaptations.
Having achieved some of its goals, among them the establishment of state funding for the film industry and renewed international recognition for German films, the New German Cinema had begun to show signs of fatigue by the 1980s, even though many of its proponents continued to enjoy individual success.
Among the commercial successes for German films of the 1980s were the Otto film series beginning in 1985 starring comedian Otto Waalkes, Wolfgang Petersen's adaptation of The NeverEnding Story (1984), and the internationally successful Das Boot (1981), which still holds the record for most Academy Award nominations for a German film (six). Other notable film-makers who came to prominence in the 1980s include producer Bernd Eichinger and directors Doris Dörrie, Uli Edel, and Loriot.
Away from the mainstream, the splatter film director Jörg Buttgereit came to prominence in the 1980s. The development of arthouse cinemas (Programmkinos) from the 1970s onwards provided a venue for the works of less mainstream film-makers like Herbert Achternbusch, Hark Bohm, Dominik Graf, Oliver Herbrich, Rosa von Praunheim or Christoph Schlingensief.
From the mid-1980s the spread of videocassette recorders and the arrival of private TV channels such as RTL Television provided new competition for theatrical film distribution. Cinema attendance, having rallied slightly in the late 1970s after an all-time low of 115.1 million visits in 1976, dropped sharply again from the mid-1980s to end at just 101.6 million visits in 1989. However, the availability of a back catalogue of films on video also allowed for a different relationship between the viewer and an individual film, while private TV channels brought new money into the film industry and provided a launch pad from which new talent could later move into film.
Today's biggest German production studios include Babelsberg Studio, Bavaria Film, Constantin Film and UFA. Film releases such as Run Lola Run by Tom Tykwer, Good Bye Lenin! by Wolfgang Becker, Head-On by Fatih Akin, Perfume by Tom Tykwer and The Lives of Others by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, have arguably managed to recapture a provocative and innovative nature. Movies like The Baader Meinhof Complex produced by Bernd Eichinger achieved some popular success.
Notable directors working in German currently include Sönke Wortmann, Caroline Link (winner of an Academy Award), Romuald Karmakar, Dani Levy, Hans-Christian Schmid, Andreas Dresen, Dennis Gansel and Uli Edel as well as comedy directors Michael Herbig and Til Schweiger.
Internationally, German filmmakers such as Roland Emmerich or Wolfgang Petersen or Uwe Boll built successful careers as directors and producers. Hans Zimmer, a film composer, has become one of the world's most acclaimed producers of movie scores. Michael Ballhaus became a renowned cinematographer.
Germany has a long tradition of cooperation with the European-based film industry, which started as early as during the 1960s. Since 1990 the number of international projects financed and co-produced by German filmmakers has expanded.
The new millennium since 2000 has seen a general resurgence of the German film industry, with a higher output and improved returns at the German box office.
The collapse of the GDR had a large effect on the German cinema industry. The viewer count increased with the new population's access to western movies. The movies produced in the United States were the most popular, due to the fact that the market was dominated by them and the production was more advanced than Germany's. Some other genres that were popular consisted of Romantic Comedies, and Social Commentaries. Wolfgang Petersen and Roland Emmerich both established international success.
Internationally though, German productions are widely unknown and unsuccessful. Even domestically, the German movies hold only a market share of about 20–25%. The movie culture is recognized to be underfunded, problem laden and rather inward looking. Since its golden age in the 1920s, the German film industry has never regained the technical excellence, the star system appeal, or the popular narratives suitable for a German, European or global audience.
The main production incentive provided by governmental authorities is the Deutscher Filmförderfonds (DFFF) (German Federal Film Fund). The DFFF is a grant given by the Staatsministerin für Kultur und Medien (Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media). To receive the grant a producer has to fulfill different requirements including a cultural eligibility test. The fund offers 50 million euros a year to film producers and or co-producers and grants can amount to up to 20% of the approved German production costs. At least 25% the production costs must be spent in Germany, or only 20%, if the production costs are higher than 20 million euros. The DFFF has been established in 2007 and supported projects in all categories and genres.
In 2015, the Deutsche Filmförderungsfond was reduced from 60 million euros to 50 million euros. To compensate, Finance minister Gabriel announced that the difference will be made up from the budget of the Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Klimaschutz (Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action). For the first time in Germany high-profile tv series and digital filmmaking will be funded at a federal level in the same manner as feature films. Funding is also increasingly flowing to international co-productions.
In 1979, the German states also began to establish funding institutions, often with the intention of supporting their own production locations. Today, film funding by the federal states makes up the largest share of film funding in Germany. A total of more than 200 million euros in grants are distributed annually, with an upward trend.
The history of film funding began in Germany with the founding of the UFA GmbH (1917), which was to produce pro-German propaganda films - equipped with funds from industry and banks. During the period of National Socialism (1933-1945), the state indirectly promoted the financing of film projects by establishing the Filmkreditbank GmbH (FKB) (Film Credit Bank).
After the end of World War II, many feature films were initially supported by federal guarantees. However, film funding in its current form did not develop until the 1950s, when television began to supplant motion pictures. In 1967, a film funding law was passed for the first time. The Berlin-based Filmförderungsanstalt (FFA) (Film Funding Agency) was the first major funding institution to be founded in 1968.
Critics accuse film funding in Germany of being institutionally fragmented, making it virtually impossible to coordinate all measures, which would ultimately benefit the quality of productions. They also say that a blanket distribution of grants stifles the incentive to produce films that recoup their production costs.
Film funding in Germany is provided, among others, by the following institutions:
Lokal:
The Berlin International Film Festival, also called Berlinale, is one of the world's leading film festivals and most reputable media events. It is held in Berlin, Germany. Founded in West Berlin in 1951, the festival has been celebrated annually in February since 1978. With 274,000 tickets sold and 487,000 admissions it is considered the largest publicly attended film festival worldwide. Up to 400 films are shown in several sections, representing a comprehensive array of the cinematic world. Around twenty films compete for the awards called the Golden and Silver Bears. Since 2001 the director of the festival has been Dieter Kosslick.
The festival, the EFM and other satellite events are attended by around 20,000 professionals from over 130 countries. More than 4200 journalists are responsible for the media exposure in over 110 countries. At high-profile feature film premieres, movie stars and celebrities are present at the red carpet.
The Deutsche Filmakademie was founded in 2003 in Berlin and aims to provide native filmmakers a forum for discussion and a way to promote the reputation of German cinema through publications, presentations, discussions and regular promotion of the subject in the schools.
Since 2005, the winners of the Deutscher Filmpreis, also known as the Lolas are elected by the members of the Deutsche Filmakademie. With a cash prize of three million euros it is the most highly endowed German cultural award.
Several institutions, both government run and private, provide formal education in various aspects of filmmaking.
|
[
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "The film industry in Germany can be traced back to the late 19th century. German cinema made major technical and artistic contributions to early film, broadcasting and television technology. Babelsberg became a household synonym for the early 20th century film industry in Europe, similar to Hollywood later.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "Germany witnessed major changes to its identity during the 20th and 21st century. Those changes determined the periodisation of national cinema into a succession of distinct eras and movements.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "The history of cinema in Germany can be traced back to the years shortly after the medium's birth. On 1 November 1895, Max Skladanowsky and his brother Emil demonstrated their self-invented film projector, the Bioscop, at the Wintergarten music hall in Berlin. A 15-minute series of eight short films were shown – the first screening of films to a paying audience. This performance pre-dated the first paying public display of the Lumière brothers' Cinematographe in Paris on 28 December of the same year, a performance that Max Skladanowsky attended and at which he was able to ascertain that the Cinematographe was technically superior to his Bioscop. Other German film pioneers included the Berliners Oskar Messter and Max Gliewe, two of several individuals who independently in 1896 first used a Geneva drive (which allows the film to be advanced intermittently one frame at a time) in a projector, and the cinematographer Guido Seeber.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "In its earliest days, the cinematograph was perceived as an attraction for upper class audiences, but the novelty of moving pictures did not last long. Soon, trivial short films were being shown as fairground attractions aimed at the working class and lower-middle class. The booths in which these films were shown were known in Germany somewhat disparagingly as Kintopps. Film-makers with an artistic bent attempted to counter this view of cinema with longer films based on literary models, and the first German \"artistic\" films began to be produced from around 1910, an example being the Edgar Allan Poe adaptation The Student of Prague (1913) which was co-directed by Paul Wegener and Stellan Rye, photographed by Guido Seeber and starring actors from Max Reinhardt's company.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "Early film theorists in Germany began to write about the significance of Schaulust, or \"visual pleasure\", for the audience, including the Dada movement writer Walter Serner: \"If one looks to where cinema receives its ultimate power, into these strangely flickering eyes that point far back into human history, suddenly it stands there in all its massiveness: visual pleasure.\" Visually striking sets and makeup were key to the style of the expressionist films that were produced shortly after the First World War.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "Cinemas themselves began to be established landmarks in the years immediately before World War I. Before this, German filmmakers would tour with their works, travelling from fairground to fairground. The earliest ongoing cinemas were set up in cafes and pubs by owners who saw a way of attracting more customers. The storefront cinema was called a Kientopp, and this is where films were viewed for the most part before the First World War broke out. The first standalone, dedicated cinema in Germany was opened in Mannheim in 1906, and by 1910, there were over 1000 cinemas operating in Germany. Henny Porten and Asta Nielsen (the latter originally from Denmark) were the first major film stars in Germany.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "Prior to 1914, however, many foreign films were imported. In the era of the silent film there were no language boundaries and Danish and Italian films were particularly popular in Germany. The public's desire to see more films with particular actors led to the development in Germany, as elsewhere, of the phenomenon of the film star; the actress Henny Porten was one of the earliest German stars. Public desire to see popular film stories being continued encouraged the production of film serials, especially in the genre of mystery films, which is where the director Fritz Lang began his illustrious career.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "The outbreak of World War I and the subsequent boycott of, for example, French films left a noticeable gap in the market. By 1916, there already existed some 2000 fixed venues for movie performances and initially film screenings were supplemented or even replaced by variety turns. In 1917 a process of concentration and partial nationalisation of the German film industry began with the founding of Universum Film AG (UFA), which was partly a reaction to the very effective use that the Allied Powers had found for the new medium for the purpose of propaganda. Under the aegis of the military, so-called Vaterland films were produced, which equalled the Allies' films in the matter of propaganda and disparagement of the enemy. Audiences however did not care to swallow the patriotic medicine without the accompanying sugar of the light-entertainment films which, consequently, Ufa also promoted. The German film industry soon became the largest in Europe.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "The German film industry, which was protected during the war by the ban on foreign films import, became exposed at the end of the war to the international film industry while having to face an embargo, this time on its own films. Many countries banned the import of German films and audiences themselves were resisting anything that was \"German\". But the ban imposed on German films involved commercial considerations as well – as an American president of one of the film companies was quoted, \"an influx of such films in the United States would throw thousands of our own... out of work, because it would be absolutely impossible for the American producers to compete with the German producers\". At home, the German film industry confronted an unstable economic situation and the devaluation of the currency made it difficult for the smaller production companies to function. Film industry financing was a fragile business and expensive productions occasionally led to bankruptcy. In 1925 UFA itself was forced to go into a disadvantageous partnership called Parufamet with the American studios Paramount and MGM, before being taken over by the nationalist industrialist and newspaper owner Alfred Hugenberg in 1927.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "Nevertheless, the German film industry enjoyed an unprecedented development – during the 14 years which comprise the Weimar period, an average of 250 film were being produced each year, a total of 3,500 full-feature films. Apart from UFA, about 230 film companies were active in Berlin alone. This industry was attracting producers and directors from all over Europe. The fact that the films were silent and language was not a factor, enabled even foreign actors, like the Danish film star Asta Nielsen or the American Louise Brooks, to be hired even for leading roles. This period can also be noted for new technological developments in film making and experimentation in set design and lighting, led by UFA. Babelsberg Studio, which was incorporated into UFA, expanded massively and gave the German film industry a highly developed infrastructure. Babelsberg remained the centre of German filmmaking for many years, became the largest film studio in Europe and produced most of the films in this \"golden era\" of German cinema. In essence it was \"the German equivalent to Hollywood\".",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "Films about an exaggerated version of Japanese culture that included \"geishas, samurai, and Shinto shrines\" were popular in Germany during this era.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "Due to the unstable economic condition and in an attempt to deal with modest production budgets, filmmakers were trying to reach the largest audience possible and in that, to maximize their revenues. This led to films being made in a vast array of genres and styles.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "One of the main film genres associated with the Weimar Republic cinema is German Expressionism which was inspired by the expressionist movement in art. Expressionist movies relied heavily on symbolism and artistic imagery rather than stark realism to tell their stories. Given the grim mood in post-World War I, it was not surprising that these films focused heavily on crime and horror. The film usually credited with sparking the popularity of expressionism is Robert Wiene's The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920), produced by Erich Pommer. The film tells the story of a demented hypnotist who is using a sleepwalker to perform a series of murders. The film featured a dark and twisted visual style – the set was unrealistic with geometric images painted on the floor and shapes in light and shadow cast on walls, the acting was exaggerated and the costumes bizarre. These stylistic elements became trademarks of this cinematic movement. Other notable works of Expressionism are Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau's Nosferatu (1922), a classic period-piece horror film that remains the first feature-length film adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula, Carl Boese and Paul Wegener's The Golem: How He Came Into the World (1920), a Gothic retelling of the Jewish folktale, and Metropolis (1927), a legendary science-fiction epic directed by Fritz Lang. The Expressionist movement began to wane during the mid-1920s, but perhaps the fact that its main creators moved to Hollywood, California, allowed this style to remain influential in world cinema for years to come, particularly in American horror films and film noir and in the works of European directors such as Jean Cocteau and Ingmar Bergman.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "Despite its significance, expressionist cinema was not the dominant genre of this era. Many other genres such as period dramas, melodramas, romantic comedies, and films of social and political nature, were much more prevalent and definitely more popular.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "The \"master\" of period-dramas was undoubtedly Ernst Lubitsch. His most notable films of this genre were Madame DuBarry (1919) which portrayed the French Revolution through the eyes of the King of France's mistress, and the film Anna Boleyn (1920) on the tragic end of King Henry VIII's second wife. In these films, Lubitsch presented prominent historic personalities who are caught up by their weaknesses and petty urges and thus, ironically, become responsible for huge historical events. Despite modest budgets, his films included extravagant scenes which were meant to appeal to a wide audience and insure a wide international distribution.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 15,
"text": "As the genre of expressionism began to diminish, the genre of the New Objectivity (die neue Sachlichkeit) began to take its place. It was influenced by new issues which occupied the public in those years, as the rampant inflation caused deterioration in the economic status of the middle class. These films, often called \"street films\" or \"asphalt films\", tried to reflect reality in all its complexity and ugliness. They focused on objects surrounding the characters and cynically symbolized the despair felt by the German people, whose lives were shattered after the war. The most prominent film maker who is associated with this genre is Georg Wilhelm Pabst in his films such as: Joyless Street (1925), Pandora's Box (1929), and The Loves of Jeanne Ney (1927). Pabst is also credited with innovations in film editing, such as reversing the angle of the camera or cutting between two camera angles, which enhanced film continuity and later became standards of the industry.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 16,
"text": "Pabst is also identified with another genre which branched from the New Objectivity – that of social and political films. These filmmakers dared to confront sensitive and controversial social issues which engaged the public in those days; such as anti-Semitism, prostitution and homosexuality. To a large extent, Weimar cinema was playing a vibrant and important role by leading public debate on those issues. Pabst, in his film Diary of a Lost Girl (1929), tells the story of a young woman who has a child out of wedlock, is thrown out into the street by her family and has to resort to prostitution to survive. As early as 1919, Richard Oswald's film Different from the Others portrayed a man torn between his homosexual tendencies and the moral and social conventions. It is considered to be the first German film to deal with homosexuality and some researchers even believe it to be the first in the world to examine this issue explicitly. That same year, the film Ritual Murder (1919) by Jewish film producer Max Nivelli came to the screen. This film was the first to make the German public aware of the consequences of anti-Semitism and xenophobia. It portrayed a \"pogrom\" which is carried out against the Jewish inhabitants of a village in Tsarist Russia. In the background, a love story also evolves between a young Russian student and the daughter of the leader of the Jewish community, something that was considered a taboo at the time. Later on, in an attempt to reflect the rapidly growing anti-Semitic atmosphere, Oswald confronted the same issue with his film Dreyfus (1930), which portrayed the 1894 political scandal of the \"Dreyfus affair\", which until today remains one of the most striking examples of miscarriage of justice and blatant anti-Semitism.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 17,
"text": "The polarised politics of the Weimar period were also reflected in some of its films. A series of patriotic films about Prussian history, starring Otto Gebühr as Frederick the Great were produced throughout the 1920s and were popular with the nationalist right-wing, who strongly criticised the \"asphalt\" films' decadence. Another dark chapter of the Weimar period was reflected in Joseph Delmont's film Humanity Unleashed (1920). The film was an adaptation of a novel by the same name, written by Max Glass and published in 1919. The novel described a dark world consumed by disease and war. The filmmakers decided to take the story to a more contemporary context by reflecting the growing fear among the German public of political radicalization. They produced what was to become the first fictional account of the events of January 1919 in Berlin, the so-called \"Spartacist Uprising\". This film is also considered one of the anti-Bolshevik films of that era.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 18,
"text": "Another important film genre of the Weimar years was the Kammerspiel or \"chamber drama\", which was borrowed from the theater and developed by stage director, who would later become a film producer and director himself, Max Reinhardt. This style was in many ways a reaction against the spectacle of expressionism and thus tended to revolve around ordinary people from the lower-middle-class. Films of this genre were often called \"instinct\" films because they emphasized the impulses and intimate psychology of the characters. The sets were kept to a minimum and there was abundant use of camera movements to add complexity to the rather intimate and simple spaces. Associated with this particular style is also screenwriter Carl Mayer and films such as Murnau's Last Laugh (1924).",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 19,
"text": "Nature films, a genre referred to as Bergfilm, also became popular. Most known in this category are the films by director Arnold Fanck, in which individuals were shown battling against nature in the mountains. Animators and directors of experimental films such as; Lotte Reiniger, Oskar Fischinger and Walter Ruttmann, were also very active in Germany in the 1920s. Ruttman's experimental documentary Berlin: Symphony of a Metropolis (1927) epitomised the energy of 1920s Berlin.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 20,
"text": "The arrival of sound at the very end of the 1920s, produced a final artistic flourish of German film before the collapse of the Weimar Republic in 1933. As early as 1918, three inventors came up with the Tri-Ergon sound-on-film system and tried to introduce it to the industry between 1922 and 1926. UFA showed an interest, but possibly due to financial difficulties, never made a sound film. But in the late 1920s, sound production and distribution were starting to be adopted by the German film industry and by 1932 Germany had 3,800 cinemas equipped to play sound films. The first filmmakers who experimented with the new technology often shot the film in several versions, using several soundtracks in different languages. The film The Blue Angel (1930), directed by the Austrian Josef von Sternberg and produced by Erich Pommer, was also shot in two versions – German and English, with a different supporting cast in each version. It is considered to be Germany's first \"talkie\" and will always be remembered as the film that made an international superstar of its lead actress Marlene Dietrich. Other notable early sound films, all from 1931, include Jutzi's adaptation to Alfred Döblin's novel Berlin Alexanderplatz, Pabst's Bertolt Brecht adaptation The Threepenny Opera and Lang's M, as well as Hochbaum's Raid in St. Pauli (1932). Brecht was also one of the creators of the explicitly communist film Kuhle Wampe (1932), which was banned soon after its release.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 21,
"text": "In addition to developments in the industry itself, the Weimar period saw the birth of film criticism as a serious discipline whose practitioners included Rudolf Arnheim in Die Weltbühne and in Film als Kunst (1932), Béla Balázs in Der Sichtbare Mensch (1924), Siegfried Kracauer in the Frankfurter Zeitung, and Lotte H. Eisner in the Filmkurier.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 22,
"text": "",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 23,
"text": "The uncertain economic and political situation in Weimar Germany had already led to a number of film-makers and performers leaving the country, primarily for the United States; Ernst Lubitsch moved to Hollywood as early as 1923, the Hungarian-born Michael Curtiz in 1926. Some 1,500 directors, producers, actors and other film professionals emigrated in the years after the Nazis came to power. Among them were such key figures as the producer Erich Pommer, the studio head of Ufa, stars Marlene Dietrich and Peter Lorre, and director Fritz Lang. Lang's exodus to America is legendary; it is said that Metropolis so greatly impressed Joseph Goebbels that he asked Lang to become the head of his propaganda film unit. Lang fled to America instead, where he had a long and prosperous career. Many up-and-coming German directors also fled to the U.S., having a major influence on American film as a result. A number of the Universal Horror films of the 1930s were directed by German emigrees, including Karl Freund, Joe May and Robert Siodmak. Directors Edgar Ulmer and Douglas Sirk and the Austrian-born screenwriter (and later director) Billy Wilder also emigrated from Nazi Germany to Hollywood success. Not all those in the film industry threatened by the Nazi regime were able to escape; the actor and director Kurt Gerron, for example, perished in a concentration camp.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 24,
"text": "Within weeks of the Machtergreifung, Alfred Hugenberg had effectively turned over Ufa to the ends of the Nazis, excluding Jews from employment in the company in March 1933, several months before the foundation in June of the Reichsfilmkammer (Reich Chamber of Film), the body of the Nazi state charged with control of the film industry, which marked the official exclusion of Jews and foreigners from employment in the German film industry. As part of the process of Gleichschaltung all film production in Germany was subordinate to the Reichsfilmkammer, which was directly responsible to Goebbel's Propaganda ministry, and all those employed in the industry had to be members of the Reichsfachschaft Film. \"Non-Aryan\" film professionals and those whose politics or personal life were unacceptable to the Nazis were excluded from the Reichsfachschaft and thus denied employment in the industry. Some 3,000 individuals were affected by this employment ban. In addition, as journalists were also organised as a division of the Propaganda Ministry, Goebbels was able to abolish film criticism in 1936 and replace it with Filmbeobachtung (film observation); journalists could only report on the content of a film, not offer judgement on its artistic or other worth.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 25,
"text": "With the German film industry now effectively an arm of the totalitarian state, no films could be made that were not ostensibly in accord with the views of the ruling regime. However, despite the existence of anti-semitic propaganda works such as The Eternal Jew (1940)—which was a box-office flop—and the more sophisticated but equally anti-semitic Jud Süß (1940), which achieved commercial success at home and elsewhere in Europe, the majority of German films from the National Socialist period were intended principally as works of entertainment. The import of foreign films was legally restricted after 1936 and the German industry, which was effectively nationalised in 1937, had to make up for the missing foreign films (above all American productions). Entertainment also became increasingly important in the later years of World War II when the cinema provided a distraction from Allied bombing and a string of German defeats. In both 1943 and 1944 cinema admissions in Germany exceeded a billion, and the biggest box office hits of the war years were Die große Liebe (1942) and Wunschkonzert (1941), which both combine elements of the musical, wartime romance and patriotic propaganda, Frauen sind doch bessere Diplomaten (1941), a comic musical which was one of the earliest German films in colour, and Vienna Blood (1942), the adaptation of a Johann Strauß comic operetta. Titanic (1943) was another big-budget epic that arguably inspired other films about the ill-fated ocean liner. The importance of the cinema as a tool of the state, both for its propaganda value and its ability to keep the populace entertained, can be seen in the filming history of Veit Harlan's Kolberg (1945), the most expensive film of the Nazi era, for the shooting of which tens of thousands of soldiers were diverted from their military positions to appear as extras.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 26,
"text": "Despite the emigration of many film-makers and the political restrictions, the period was not without technical and aesthetic innovations, the introduction of Agfacolor film production being a notable example. Technical and aesthetic achievement could also be turned to the specific ends of the Nazi state, most spectacularly in the work of Leni Riefenstahl. Riefenstahl's Triumph of the Will (1935), documenting the 1934 Nuremberg Rally, and Olympia (1938), documenting the 1936 Summer Olympics, pioneered techniques of camera movement and editing that have influenced many later films. Both films, particularly Triumph of the Will, remain highly controversial, as their aesthetic merit is inseparable from their propagandising of Nazi ideals.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 27,
"text": "East German cinema initially profited from the fact that much of the country's film infrastructure, notably the former UFA studios, lay in the Soviet occupation zone which enabled film production to get off the ground more quickly than in the Western sectors. The authorities in the Soviet Zone were keen to re-establish the film industry in their sector and an order was issued to re-open cinemas in Berlin in May 1945 within three weeks of German capitulation. The film production company DEFA was founded on 17 May 1946, and took control of the film production facilities in the Soviet Zone which had been confiscated by order of the Soviet Military Administration in Germany in October 1945. A joint-stock company on paper, the majority interest in DEFA was actually held by the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) which became the ruling party of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) after 1949, formally placing DEFA as the state-owned monopoly for film production in East Germany. A sister \"company\", Progress Film, had also been established as a similar monopoly for domestic film distribution, its principal \"competition\" being Sovexportfilm, which handled distribution of Soviet films.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 28,
"text": "In total, DEFA produced some 900 feature films during its existence as well as around 800 animated films and over 3000 documentaries and short films. In 1946 DEFA produced The Murderers are Among Us, which was the first German film released after World War II and created the groundwork for the so-called Trümmerfilme, or rubble films, which were filmed amidst the rubble of structures bombed during World War II. Early on, production of East German film was limited due to strict controls imposed by the authorities which restricted the subject-matter of films to topics that directly contributed to the Communist project of the state. Excluding newsreels and educational films, only 50 films were produced between 1948 and 1953. However, in later years numerous films were produced on a variety of themes. DEFA had particular strengths in children's films, notably fairy tale adaptations such as Drei Haselnüsse für Aschenbrödel (Three Hazelnuts for Cinderella) (1973), but it also attempted other genre works: science-fiction, for example Der schweigende Stern (The Silent Star) (1960), an adaptation of a Stanisław Lem novel, or \"red westerns\" such as The Sons of the Great Mother Bear (1966) in which, in contrast to the typical American western, the heroes tended to be Native Americans. Many of these genre films were co-productions with other Warsaw Pact countries.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 29,
"text": "Notable non-genre films produced by DEFA include Wolfgang Staudte's adaptation of Heinrich Mann's Der Untertan (1951); Konrad Wolf's Der geteilte Himmel (Divided Heaven) (1964), an adaptation of Christa Wolf's novel; Frank Beyer's adaptation of Jurek Becker's Jacob the Liar (1975), the only East German film to be nominated for an Oscar; The Legend of Paul and Paula (1973), directed by Heiner Carow from Ulrich Plenzdorf's novel; and Solo Sunny (1980), again the work of Konrad Wolf.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 30,
"text": "However, film-making in the GDR was always constrained and oriented by the political situation in the country at any given time. Ernst Thälmann, the communist leader in the Weimar period, was the subject of several hagiographical films in the 1950s (Ernst Thälmann, 1954), and although East German filmmaking moved away from this overtly Stalinist approach in the 1960s, filmmakers were still subject to the changing political positions, and indeed the whims, of the SED leadership. For example, DEFA's full slate of contemporary films from 1966 were denied distribution, among them Frank Beyer's Traces of Stones (1966) which was pulled from distribution after three days, not because it was antipathetic to communist principles, but because it showed that such principles, which it fostered, were not put into practice at all times in East Germany. The huge box-office hit The Legend of Paul and Paula was initially threatened with a distribution ban because of its satirical elements and supposedly only allowed a release on the say-so of Party General Secretary Erich Honecker.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 31,
"text": "In the late 1970s, numerous film-makers left the GDR for the West as a result of restrictions on their work, among them director Egon Günther and actors Angelica Domröse, Eva-Maria Hagen, Katharina Thalbach, Hilmar Thate, Manfred Krug and Armin Mueller-Stahl. Many had been signatories of a 1976 petition opposing the expatriation of socially critical singer-songwriter Wolf Biermann and had had their ability to work restricted as a result.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 32,
"text": "In the final years of the GDR, the availability of television and the programming and films on television broadcasts reaching into the GDR via the uncontrollable airwaves, reduced the influence of DEFA productions, although its continuing role in producing shows for East German television channel remained. Following the Wende, DEFA had ceased production altogether, and its studios and equipment was sold off by the Treuhand in 1992, but its intellectual property rights were handed to the charitable DEFA-Stiftung (DEFA Foundation) which exploits these rights in conjunction with a series of private companies, especially the quickly privatized Progress Film GmbH, which has issued several East German films with English subtitles since the mid-1990s.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 33,
"text": "The occupation and reconstruction of Germany by the Four Powers in the period immediately after the end of World War II brought a major and long-lasting change to the economic conditions under which the industry in Germany had previously operated. The holdings of Ufa were confiscated by the Allies and, as part of the process of decartelisation, licences to produce films were shared between a range of much smaller companies. In addition, the Occupation Statute of 1949, which granted partial independence to the newly created Federal Republic of Germany, specifically forbade the imposition of import quotas to protect German film production from foreign competition, the result of lobbying by the American industry as represented by the MPAA.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 34,
"text": "Amidst the devastation of the Stunde Null year of 1945 cinema attendance was unsurprisingly down to a fraction of its wartime heights, but already by the end of the decade it had reached levels that exceeded the pre-war period. For the first time in many years, German audiences had free access to cinema from around the world and in this period the films of Charlie Chaplin remained popular, as were melodramas from the United States. Nonetheless, the share of the film market for German films in this period and into the 1950s remained relatively large, taking up some 40 percent of the total market. American films took up around 30 percent of the market despite having around twice as many films in distribution as the German industry in the same time frame.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 35,
"text": "Many of the German films of the immediate post-war period can be characterised as belonging to the genre of the Trümmerfilm (literally \"rubble film\"). These films show strong affinities with the work of Italian neorealists, not least Roberto Rossellini's neorealist trilogy which included Germany Year Zero (1948), and are concerned primarily with day-to-day life in the devastated Germany and an initial reaction to the events of the Nazi period (the full horror of which was first experienced by many in documentary footage from liberated concentration camps). Such films include Wolfgang Staudte's Die Mörder sind unter uns (The Murderers are among us) (1946), the first film made in post-war Germany (produced in the soviet sector), and Wolfgang Liebeneiner's Liebe 47 (Love 47) (1949), an adaptation of Wolfgang Borchert's play Draußen vor der Tür.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 36,
"text": "Despite the advent of a regular television service in the Federal Republic in 1952, cinema attendances continued to grow through much of the 1950s, reaching a peak of 817.5 million visits in 1956. The majority of the films of this period set out to do no more than entertain the audience and had few pretensions to artistry or active engagement with social issues. The defining genre of the period was arguably the Heimatfilm (\"homeland film\"), in which morally simplistic tales of love and family were played out in a rural setting, often in the mountains of Bavaria, Austria or Switzerland. In their day Heimatfilms were of little interest to more scholarly film critics, but in recent years they have been the subject of study in relation to what they say about the culture of West Germany in the years of the Wirtschaftswunder. Other film genres typical of this period were adaptations of operettas, hospital melodramas, comedies and musicals. Many films were remakes of earlier Ufa productions.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 37,
"text": "Rearmament and the founding of the Bundeswehr in 1955 brought with it a wave of war films which tended to depict the ordinary German soldiers of World War II as brave and apolitical. The Israeli historian Omer Bartov wrote that German films of the 1950s showed the average German soldier as a heroic victim: noble, tough, brave, honourable, and patriotic while fighting hard in a senseless war for a regime that he did not care for. The 08/15 film trilogy of 1954–55 concerns a sensitive young German soldier who would rather play the piano than fight, and who fights on the Eastern Front without understanding why; however, no mention is made of the genocidal aspects of Germany's war in East. The last of the 08/15 films ends with Germany occupied by a gang of American soldiers portrayed as bubble-gum chewing, slack-jawed morons and uncultured louts, totally inferior in every respect to the heroic German soldiers shown in the 08/15 films. The only exception is the Jewish American officer, who is shown as both hyper-intelligent and very unscrupulous, which Bartov noted seems to imply that the real tragedy of World War II was the Nazis did not get a chance to exterminate all of the Jews, who have now returned with Germany's defeat to once more exploit the German people.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 38,
"text": "In The Doctor of Stalingrad (1958) dealing with German POWs in the Soviet Union, Germans are portrayed as more civilized, humane and intelligent than the Soviets, who are shown for the most part as Mongol savages who brutalized the German POWs. One of the German POWs successfully seduces the beautiful and tough Red Army Captain Alexandra Kasalniskaya (Eva Bartok) who prefers him to the sadistic camp commandant, which as Bartov comments also is meant to show that even in defeat, German men were more sexually virile and potent than their Russian counterparts. In Hunde, wollt ihr ewig leben? (Dogs, do you want to live forever?) of 1959, which deals with the Battle of Stalingrad, the focus is on celebrating the heroism of the German soldier in that battle, who are shown as valiantly holding out against overwhelming odds with no mention at all of what those soldiers were fighting for, namely National Socialist ideology or the Holocaust. This period also saw a number of films that depicted the military resistance to Hitler. In Des Teufels General (The Devil's General) of 1954, a Luftwaffe general named Harras loosely modeled after Ernst Udet, appears at first to be cynical fool, but turns out to an anti-Nazi who is secretly sabotaging the German war effort by designing faulty planes. Bartov commented that in this film, the German officer corps is shown as a group of fundamentally noble and civilized men who happened to be serving an evil regime made up of a small gang of gangsterish misfits totally unrepresentative of German society, which served to exculpate both the officer corps and by extension Germany society. Bartov wrote that no German film of the 1950s showed the deep commitment felt by many German soldiers to National Socialism, the utter ruthless way the German Army fought the war and the mindless nihilist brutality of the later Wehrmacht. Bartov wrote that German film-makers liked to show the heroic last stand of the 6th Army at Stalingrad, but none has so far showed the 6th Army's massive co-operation with the Einsatzgruppen in murdering Soviet Jews in 1941.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 39,
"text": "Even though there are countless film adaptations of Edgar Wallace novels worldwide, the crime films produced by the German company Rialto Film between 1959 and 1972 are the best-known of those, to the extent that they form their own subgenre known as Krimis (abbreviation for the German term \"Kriminalfilm\" (or \"Kriminalroman\"). Other Edgar Wallace adaptations in a similar style were made by the Germans Artur Brauner and Kurt Ulrich, and the British producer Harry Alan Towers.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 40,
"text": "The international significance of the West German film industry of the 1950s could no longer measure up to that of France, Italy, or Japan. German films were only rarely distributed internationally as they were perceived as provincial. International co-productions of the kind which were becoming common in France and Italy tended to be rejected by German producers (Schneider 1990:43). However a few German films and film-makers did achieve international recognition at this time, among them Bernhard Wicki's Oscar-nominated Die Brücke (The Bridge) (1959), and the actresses Hildegard Knef and Romy Schneider.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 41,
"text": "In the late 1950s, the growth in cinema attendance of the preceding decade first stagnated and then went into freefall throughout the 1960s. By 1969 West German cinema attendance at 172.2 million visits per year was less than a quarter of its 1956 post-war peak. As a consequence of this, numerous German production and distribution companies went out of business in the 1950s and 1960s and cinemas across the Federal Republic closed their doors; the number of screens in West Germany almost halved between the beginning and the end of the decade.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 42,
"text": "Initially, the crisis was perceived as a problem of overproduction. Consequently, the German film industry cut back on production. 123 German movies were produced in 1955, only 65 in 1965. However, many German film companies followed the 1960s trends of international co-productions with Italy and Spain in such genres as spaghetti westerns and Eurospy films with films shot in those nations or in Yugoslavia that featured German actors in the casts.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 43,
"text": "The roots of the problem lay deeper in changing economic and social circumstances. Average incomes in the Federal Republic rose sharply and this opened up alternative leisure activities to compete with cinema-going. At this time too, television was developing into a mass medium that could compete with the cinema. In 1953 there were only 1,000,000 sets in West Germany; by 1962 there were 7 million (Connor 1990:49) (Hoffman 1990:69).",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 44,
"text": "The majority of films produced in the Federal Republic in the 1960s were genre works: westerns, especially the series of movies adapted from Karl May's popular genre novels which starred Pierre Brice as the Apache Winnetou and Lex Barker as his white blood brother Old Shatterhand; thrillers and crime films, notably a series of Edgar Wallace movies from Rialto Film in which Klaus Kinski, Heinz Drache, Karin Dor and Joachim Fuchsberger were among the regular players. The traditional Krimi films expanded into series based on German pulp fiction heroes such as Jerry Cotton played by George Nader and Kommissar X played by Tony Kendall and Brad Harris. West Germany also made several horror films including ones starring Christopher Lee. The two genres were combined in the return of Doctor Mabuse in a series of several films of the early 1960s.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 45,
"text": "At the end of the 1960s softcore sex films, both the relatively serious Aufklärungsfilme (sex education films) of Oswalt Kolle and such exploitation films as Schulmädchen-Report (Schoolgirl Report) (1970) and its successors were produced into the 1970s. Such movies were commercially successful and often enjoyed international distribution, but won little acclaim from critics.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 46,
"text": "In the 1960s more than three-quarters of the regular cinema audience were lost as consequence of the rising popularity of TV sets at home. As a reaction to the artistic and economic stagnation of German cinema, a group of young film-makers issued the Oberhausen Manifesto on 28 February 1962. This call to arms, which included Alexander Kluge, Edgar Reitz, Peter Schamoni and Franz-Josef Spieker among its signatories, provocatively declared \"Der alte Film ist tot. Wir glauben an den neuen\" (\"The old cinema is dead. We believe in the new cinema\"). Other up-and-coming filmmakers allied themselves to this Oberhausen group, among them Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Volker Schlöndorff, Werner Herzog, Jean-Marie Straub, Wim Wenders, Werner Schroeter and Hans-Jürgen Syberberg in their rejection of the existing German film industry and their determination to build a new cinema founded on artistic and social measures rather than commercial success. Most of these directors organized themselves in, or partially co-operated with, the film production and distribution company Filmverlag der Autoren established in 1971, which throughout the 1970s brought forth a number of critically acclaimed films. Rosa von Praunheim, who formed the German lesbian and gay movement with his film It Is Not the Homosexual Who Is Perverse, But the Society in Which He Lives (1971), also plays an important role.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 47,
"text": "Despite the foundation of the Kuratorium Junger Deutscher Film (Young German Film Committee) in 1965, set up under the auspices of the Federal Ministry of the Interior to support new German films financially, the directors of this New German Cinema were consequently often dependent on money from television. Young filmmakers had the opportunity to test their mettle in such programmes as the stand-alone drama and documentary series Das kleine Fernsehspiel (The Little TV Play) or the television films of the crime series Tatort. However, the broadcasters sought TV premieres for the films which they had supported financially, with theatrical showings only occurring later. As a consequence, such films tended to be unsuccessful at the box office.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 48,
"text": "This situation changed after 1974 when the Film-Fernseh-Abkommen (Film and Television Accord) was agreed between the Federal Republic's main broadcasters, ARD and ZDF, and the German Federal Film Board (a government body created in 1968 to support film-making in Germany). This accord, which has been repeatedly extended up to the present day, provides for the television companies to make available an annual sum to support the production of films which are suitable for both theatrical distribution and television presentation. (The amount of money provided by the public broadcasters has varied between 4.5 and 12.94 million euros per year. Under the terms of the accord, films produced using these funds can only be screened on television 24 months after their theatrical release. They may appear on video or DVD no sooner than six months after cinema release. Nevertheless, the New German Cinema found it difficult to attract a large domestic or international audience.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 49,
"text": "The socially critical films of the New German Cinema strove to delineate themselves from what had gone before and the works of auteur film-makers such as Kluge and Fassbinder are examples of this, although Fassbinder in his use of stars from German cinema history also sought a reconciliation between the new cinema and the old. In addition, a distinction is sometimes drawn between the avantgarde \"Young German Cinema\" of the 1960s and the more accessible \"New German Cinema\" of the 1970s. For their influences the new generation of film-makers looked to Italian neorealism, the French Nouvelle Vague and the British New Wave but combined this eclectically with references to the well-established genres of Hollywood cinema. The New German Cinema dealt with contemporary German social problems in a direct way; the Nazi past, the plight of the Gastarbeiter (\"guest workers\"), and modern social developments, were all subjects prominent in New German Cinema films.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 50,
"text": "Films such as Kluge's Abschied von Gestern (1966), Herzog's Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972), Fassbinder's Fear Eats the Soul (1974) and The Marriage of Maria Braun (1979), and Wenders' Paris, Texas (1984) found critical approval. Often the work of these auteurs was first recognised abroad rather than in Germany itself. The work of post-war Germany's leading novelists Heinrich Böll and Günter Grass provided source material for the adaptations The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum (1975) (by Schlöndorff and Margarethe von Trotta) and The Tin Drum (1979) (by Schlöndorff alone) respectively, the latter becoming the first German film to win the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. The New German Cinema also allowed for female directors to come to the fore and for the development of a feminist cinema which encompassed the works of directors such as Margarethe von Trotta, Helma Sanders-Brahms, Jutta Brückner, Helke Sander and Cristina Perincioli.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 51,
"text": "German production companies have been quite commonly involved in expensive French and Italian productions from Spaghetti Westerns to French comic book adaptations.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 52,
"text": "Having achieved some of its goals, among them the establishment of state funding for the film industry and renewed international recognition for German films, the New German Cinema had begun to show signs of fatigue by the 1980s, even though many of its proponents continued to enjoy individual success.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 53,
"text": "Among the commercial successes for German films of the 1980s were the Otto film series beginning in 1985 starring comedian Otto Waalkes, Wolfgang Petersen's adaptation of The NeverEnding Story (1984), and the internationally successful Das Boot (1981), which still holds the record for most Academy Award nominations for a German film (six). Other notable film-makers who came to prominence in the 1980s include producer Bernd Eichinger and directors Doris Dörrie, Uli Edel, and Loriot.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 54,
"text": "Away from the mainstream, the splatter film director Jörg Buttgereit came to prominence in the 1980s. The development of arthouse cinemas (Programmkinos) from the 1970s onwards provided a venue for the works of less mainstream film-makers like Herbert Achternbusch, Hark Bohm, Dominik Graf, Oliver Herbrich, Rosa von Praunheim or Christoph Schlingensief.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 55,
"text": "From the mid-1980s the spread of videocassette recorders and the arrival of private TV channels such as RTL Television provided new competition for theatrical film distribution. Cinema attendance, having rallied slightly in the late 1970s after an all-time low of 115.1 million visits in 1976, dropped sharply again from the mid-1980s to end at just 101.6 million visits in 1989. However, the availability of a back catalogue of films on video also allowed for a different relationship between the viewer and an individual film, while private TV channels brought new money into the film industry and provided a launch pad from which new talent could later move into film.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 56,
"text": "Today's biggest German production studios include Babelsberg Studio, Bavaria Film, Constantin Film and UFA. Film releases such as Run Lola Run by Tom Tykwer, Good Bye Lenin! by Wolfgang Becker, Head-On by Fatih Akin, Perfume by Tom Tykwer and The Lives of Others by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, have arguably managed to recapture a provocative and innovative nature. Movies like The Baader Meinhof Complex produced by Bernd Eichinger achieved some popular success.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 57,
"text": "Notable directors working in German currently include Sönke Wortmann, Caroline Link (winner of an Academy Award), Romuald Karmakar, Dani Levy, Hans-Christian Schmid, Andreas Dresen, Dennis Gansel and Uli Edel as well as comedy directors Michael Herbig and Til Schweiger.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 58,
"text": "Internationally, German filmmakers such as Roland Emmerich or Wolfgang Petersen or Uwe Boll built successful careers as directors and producers. Hans Zimmer, a film composer, has become one of the world's most acclaimed producers of movie scores. Michael Ballhaus became a renowned cinematographer.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 59,
"text": "Germany has a long tradition of cooperation with the European-based film industry, which started as early as during the 1960s. Since 1990 the number of international projects financed and co-produced by German filmmakers has expanded.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 60,
"text": "The new millennium since 2000 has seen a general resurgence of the German film industry, with a higher output and improved returns at the German box office.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 61,
"text": "The collapse of the GDR had a large effect on the German cinema industry. The viewer count increased with the new population's access to western movies. The movies produced in the United States were the most popular, due to the fact that the market was dominated by them and the production was more advanced than Germany's. Some other genres that were popular consisted of Romantic Comedies, and Social Commentaries. Wolfgang Petersen and Roland Emmerich both established international success.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 62,
"text": "Internationally though, German productions are widely unknown and unsuccessful. Even domestically, the German movies hold only a market share of about 20–25%. The movie culture is recognized to be underfunded, problem laden and rather inward looking. Since its golden age in the 1920s, the German film industry has never regained the technical excellence, the star system appeal, or the popular narratives suitable for a German, European or global audience.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 63,
"text": "",
"title": "Film funding"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 64,
"text": "The main production incentive provided by governmental authorities is the Deutscher Filmförderfonds (DFFF) (German Federal Film Fund). The DFFF is a grant given by the Staatsministerin für Kultur und Medien (Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media). To receive the grant a producer has to fulfill different requirements including a cultural eligibility test. The fund offers 50 million euros a year to film producers and or co-producers and grants can amount to up to 20% of the approved German production costs. At least 25% the production costs must be spent in Germany, or only 20%, if the production costs are higher than 20 million euros. The DFFF has been established in 2007 and supported projects in all categories and genres.",
"title": "Film funding"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 65,
"text": "In 2015, the Deutsche Filmförderungsfond was reduced from 60 million euros to 50 million euros. To compensate, Finance minister Gabriel announced that the difference will be made up from the budget of the Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Klimaschutz (Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action). For the first time in Germany high-profile tv series and digital filmmaking will be funded at a federal level in the same manner as feature films. Funding is also increasingly flowing to international co-productions.",
"title": "Film funding"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 66,
"text": "In 1979, the German states also began to establish funding institutions, often with the intention of supporting their own production locations. Today, film funding by the federal states makes up the largest share of film funding in Germany. A total of more than 200 million euros in grants are distributed annually, with an upward trend.",
"title": "Film funding"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 67,
"text": "The history of film funding began in Germany with the founding of the UFA GmbH (1917), which was to produce pro-German propaganda films - equipped with funds from industry and banks. During the period of National Socialism (1933-1945), the state indirectly promoted the financing of film projects by establishing the Filmkreditbank GmbH (FKB) (Film Credit Bank).",
"title": "Film funding"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 68,
"text": "After the end of World War II, many feature films were initially supported by federal guarantees. However, film funding in its current form did not develop until the 1950s, when television began to supplant motion pictures. In 1967, a film funding law was passed for the first time. The Berlin-based Filmförderungsanstalt (FFA) (Film Funding Agency) was the first major funding institution to be founded in 1968.",
"title": "Film funding"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 69,
"text": "Critics accuse film funding in Germany of being institutionally fragmented, making it virtually impossible to coordinate all measures, which would ultimately benefit the quality of productions. They also say that a blanket distribution of grants stifles the incentive to produce films that recoup their production costs.",
"title": "Film funding"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 70,
"text": "Film funding in Germany is provided, among others, by the following institutions:",
"title": "Film funding"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 71,
"text": "Lokal:",
"title": "Film funding"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 72,
"text": "The Berlin International Film Festival, also called Berlinale, is one of the world's leading film festivals and most reputable media events. It is held in Berlin, Germany. Founded in West Berlin in 1951, the festival has been celebrated annually in February since 1978. With 274,000 tickets sold and 487,000 admissions it is considered the largest publicly attended film festival worldwide. Up to 400 films are shown in several sections, representing a comprehensive array of the cinematic world. Around twenty films compete for the awards called the Golden and Silver Bears. Since 2001 the director of the festival has been Dieter Kosslick.",
"title": "Festival"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 73,
"text": "The festival, the EFM and other satellite events are attended by around 20,000 professionals from over 130 countries. More than 4200 journalists are responsible for the media exposure in over 110 countries. At high-profile feature film premieres, movie stars and celebrities are present at the red carpet.",
"title": "Festival"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 74,
"text": "The Deutsche Filmakademie was founded in 2003 in Berlin and aims to provide native filmmakers a forum for discussion and a way to promote the reputation of German cinema through publications, presentations, discussions and regular promotion of the subject in the schools.",
"title": "German Film Academy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 75,
"text": "Since 2005, the winners of the Deutscher Filmpreis, also known as the Lolas are elected by the members of the Deutsche Filmakademie. With a cash prize of three million euros it is the most highly endowed German cultural award.",
"title": "German Film Academy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 76,
"text": "Several institutions, both government run and private, provide formal education in various aspects of filmmaking.",
"title": "Film schools"
}
] |
The film industry in Germany can be traced back to the late 19th century. German cinema made major technical and artistic contributions to early film, broadcasting and television technology. Babelsberg became a household synonym for the early 20th century film industry in Europe, similar to Hollywood later. Germany witnessed major changes to its identity during the 20th and 21st century. Those changes determined the periodisation of national cinema into a succession of distinct eras and movements.
|
2001-03-15T22:05:22Z
|
2023-12-29T17:07:46Z
|
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinema_of_Germany
|
10,616 |
Frivolous litigation
|
Frivolous litigation is the use of legal processes with apparent disregard for the merit of one's own arguments. It includes presenting an argument with reason to know that it would certainly fail, or acting without a basic level of diligence in researching the relevant law and facts. That an argument was lost does not imply the argument was frivolous; a party may present an argument with a low chance of success, so long as it proceeds from applicable law.
Frivolous litigation may be based on absurd legal theories, may involve a superabundance or repetition of motions or additional suits, may be uncivil or harassing to the court, or may claim extreme remedies. A claim or defense may be frivolous because it had no underlying justification in fact, or because it was not presented with an argument for a reasonable extension or reinterpretation of the law. A claim may be deemed frivolous because existing laws unequivocally prohibit such a claim, such as a so-called Good Samaritan law.
In the United States, Rule 11 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and similar state rules require that an attorney perform a due diligence investigation concerning the factual basis for any claim or defense. Jurisdictions differ on whether a claim or defense can be frivolous if the attorney acted in good faith. Because such a defense or claim wastes the court's and the other parties' time, resources and legal fees, sanctions may be imposed by a court upon the party or the lawyer who presents the frivolous defense or claim. The law firm may also be sanctioned, or even held in contempt.
In the United States Tax Court, frivolous arguments may result in a penalty of up to $25,000 under 26 U.S.C. § 6673(a)(1). Similarly, section 7482 of the Internal Revenue Code provides that the U.S. Supreme Court and the U.S. Courts of Appeals may impose penalties in which the taxpayer's appeal of a U.S. Tax Court decision was "maintained primarily for delay" or where "the taxpayer's position in the appeal is frivolous or groundless." A common example, as shown below, is an argument based on tax protestor claims.
In a noncriminal case in a U.S. District Court, a litigant (or a litigant's attorney) who presents any pleading, written motion or other paper to the court is required, under Rule 11 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, to certify that, to the best of the presenter's knowledge and belief, the legal contentions "are warranted by existing law or by a nonfrivolous argument for the extension, modification, or reversal of existing law or the establishment of new law". Monetary civil penalties for violation of this rule may in some cases be imposed on the litigant or the attorney under Rule 11.
In one case, the Seventh Circuit Court issued an order giving such an attorney "14 days to show cause why he should not be fined $10,000 for his frivolous arguments". A similar rule penalizing frivolous litigation applies in U.S. Bankruptcy Court under Rule 9011.
The U.S. Congress has enacted section 1912 of Title 28 of the U.S.C. providing that in the U.S. Supreme Court and in the U.S. Courts of Appeals where litigation by the losing party has caused damage to the prevailing party, the court may impose a requirement that the losing party pay the prevailing party for those damages.
Litigants who represent themselves (in forma pauperis and pro se) sometimes make frivolous arguments due to their limited knowledge of the law and procedure. The particular tendency of prisoners to bring baseless lawsuits led to passage of the Prison Litigation Reform Act of 1995, which limits the ability of prisoners to bring actions without payment.
An example of a Court's treatment of frivolous arguments is found in the case of Crain v. Commissioner, 737 F.2d 1417 (1984), from the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit:
Glenn Crain appeals from the dismissal of his Tax Court petition challenging the constitutional authority of that body and defying the jurisdiction of the Internal Revenue Service to levy taxes on his income. Crain asserts that he "is not subject to the jurisdiction, taxation, nor regulation of the state," that the "Internal Revenue Service, Incorporated" lacks authority to exercise the judicial power of the United States, that the Tax Court is unconstitutionally attempting to exercise Article III powers, and that jurisdiction over his person has never been affirmatively proven.
We perceive no need to refute these arguments with somber reasoning and copious citation of precedent; to do so might suggest that these arguments have some colorable merit. The constitutionality of our income tax system—including the role played within that system by the Internal Revenue Service and the Tax Court—has long been established. We affirm the dismissal of Crain's spurious "petition" and the assessment of a penalty imposed by the Tax Court for instituting a frivolous proceeding. 26 U.S.C. § 6673.
The government asks us to assess penalties against Crain for bringing this frivolous appeal, as is authorized by Fed. R. App. P. 38. In Parker v. C. I. R., 724 F. 2d 469, 472 (5th Cir. 1984), we sounded "a cautionary note to those who would persistently raise arguments against the income tax which have been put to rest for years. The full range of sanctions in Rule 38 hereafter shall be summoned in response to a totally frivolous appeal."
We are sensitive to the need for the courts to remain open to all who seek in good faith to invoke the protection of law. An appeal that lacks merit is not always—or often—frivolous. However, we are not obliged to suffer in silence the filing of baseless, insupportable appeals presenting no colorable claims of error and designed only to delay, obstruct, or incapacitate the operations of the courts or any other governmental authority. Crain's present appeal is of this sort. It is a hodgepodge of unsupported assertions, irrelevant platitudes, and legalistic gibberish. The government should not have been put to the trouble of responding to such spurious arguments, nor this court to the trouble of "adjudicating" this meritless appeal.
Accordingly, we grant the government's request. The United States shall recover from appellant Crain twice its cost of this appeal. Additionally, we assess against Crain a damage award of $2000 in favor of the appellee United States.
Filing a claim that is ultimately deemed frivolous can be highly damaging to the attorney so filing. Most frivolous lawsuits that are successful are filed without an attorney. Attorney Daniel Evans writes:
[W]hen a judge calls an argument "ridiculous" or "frivolous," it is absolutely the worst thing the judge could say. It means that the person arguing the position has absolutely no idea of what he is doing, and has completely wasted everyone's time. It doesn't mean that the case wasn't well argued, or that judge simply decided for the other side, it means that there was no other side. The argument was absolutely, positively, incompetent. The judge is not telling you that you were "wrong." The judge is telling you that you are out of your mind.
In Washington v. Alaimo the court listed more than seventy-five frivolous "motions" (a request for a court to issue an order), all of which required the attention of the Court, including the following:
Washington, an inmate from Georgia, was eventually prohibited from filing any future lawsuits or motions in any district court unless he first posted a contempt bond of $1,500. To be deemed frivolous, a litigant's arguments must strike beyond the pale.
In 2005, in Pearson v. Chung, Roy Pearson, a Washington, D.C. judge, sued a dry cleaning business for $67 million for allegedly losing a pair of his pants. This case has been cited as an example of frivolous litigation. According to Pearson, the dry cleaners lost his pants (which he brought in for a $10.50 alteration) and refused his demands for a large refund. Pearson believed that a sign saying "Satisfaction Guaranteed" in the window of the shop legally entitled him to a refund for the cost of the pants, estimated at $1,000. The $54 million total also included $2.0 million in "mental distress" and $15,000 which he estimated to be the cost of renting a car every weekend to go to another dry cleaners. The court ultimately ruled against Pearson, whose judgeship was subsequently not renewed due to this case and several other actions he filed during his divorce, which were found to demonstrate a lack of "judicial temperament".
In 2010, federal prosecutors asked a judge to help them stop Jonathan Lee Riches from filing any more lawsuits, arguing that his frequent filings were frivolous.
In July 2013, the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario dismissed a complaint laid by a man posing as Gloria Dawn Ironbox, a fictional feminist attorney on television series Family Guy. The claimant alleged that a marketing scheme by A&W Restaurants was "heteronormative", "phallocentric" and promoted "cross-sectional hegemony". Citing feelings of distress and alienation over the lack of "LGBT" representation in A&W naming conventions, he demanded $50,000 in damages for injury to dignity and self-respect as well as an order requiring A&W to adopt naming conventions which include non-traditional families. One such product the claimant demanded was the "Pillow Biter", described by the claimant as "a large, dark slab of meat stuffed firmly between two, white, clenched buns".
In January 2014, Sirgiorgio Sanford Clardy, who is serving a 100-year prison sentence for a beating of a prostitute and her customer, filed a $100 million lawsuit against Nike, in which he claimed that Nike was partially responsible for the assault he committed. Clardy said that Nike should have placed a label in his Jordan shoes warning consumers that they could be used as a dangerous weapon. He was wearing a pair when he repeatedly stomped the face of a client who was trying to leave a Portland hotel without paying Clardy's prostitute in June 2012. This lawsuit gained "considerable attention across the nation and the world".
In March 2016, James Romine, one-half of the independent video games developer Digital Homicide Studios, sued video game critic James Stephanie Sterling for criticizing the games published under his studios' name, seeking $10 million in damages for "assault, libel, and slander" to Romine's business. He claimed that Sterling's coverage of his studio's game The Slaughtering Grounds as "Worst Game of 2014 Contender" was not protected under fair use law because he did not believe it was "fair" criticism. An additional lawsuit for $18 million was filed against 100 users on the Steam gaming platform for criticizing their games and business practices, which he had interpreted as "harassment". The judge issued a subpoena against Valve to disclose the identities of those 100 users. This resulted in Valve removing all published games from Digital Homicide Studios. In addition, Romine filed the lawsuit as an individual and not as a corporation, so such criticism was protected under the right to freedom of speech. The case was dismissed with prejudice in February 2017. This case is also an example of abuse of DMCA takedown requests on YouTube.
In June 2020, Erik Estavillo filed a lawsuit against Twitch, claiming that the streaming platform was responsible for his sex addiction, with damages of $25 million, which was to be split between him, Twitch Prime subscribers, and COVID-19 charities. He claimed that Twitch's "twisted programming and net code" made it "nearly impossible to use Twitch without being exposed to sexual content". Other claims included him "chaffing his penis every day with [a fleshlight]" and causing a fire by ejaculating on his computer monitor. The filing contained pictures of the female Twitch streamers (such as Amouranth and Pokimane), who he wanted banned from the platform. Estavillo had previously sued Blizzard, Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo. All of these lawsuits were dismissed with prejudice. This case was dismissed as frivolous in January of 2021.
|
[
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "Frivolous litigation is the use of legal processes with apparent disregard for the merit of one's own arguments. It includes presenting an argument with reason to know that it would certainly fail, or acting without a basic level of diligence in researching the relevant law and facts. That an argument was lost does not imply the argument was frivolous; a party may present an argument with a low chance of success, so long as it proceeds from applicable law.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "Frivolous litigation may be based on absurd legal theories, may involve a superabundance or repetition of motions or additional suits, may be uncivil or harassing to the court, or may claim extreme remedies. A claim or defense may be frivolous because it had no underlying justification in fact, or because it was not presented with an argument for a reasonable extension or reinterpretation of the law. A claim may be deemed frivolous because existing laws unequivocally prohibit such a claim, such as a so-called Good Samaritan law.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "In the United States, Rule 11 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and similar state rules require that an attorney perform a due diligence investigation concerning the factual basis for any claim or defense. Jurisdictions differ on whether a claim or defense can be frivolous if the attorney acted in good faith. Because such a defense or claim wastes the court's and the other parties' time, resources and legal fees, sanctions may be imposed by a court upon the party or the lawyer who presents the frivolous defense or claim. The law firm may also be sanctioned, or even held in contempt.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "In the United States Tax Court, frivolous arguments may result in a penalty of up to $25,000 under 26 U.S.C. § 6673(a)(1). Similarly, section 7482 of the Internal Revenue Code provides that the U.S. Supreme Court and the U.S. Courts of Appeals may impose penalties in which the taxpayer's appeal of a U.S. Tax Court decision was \"maintained primarily for delay\" or where \"the taxpayer's position in the appeal is frivolous or groundless.\" A common example, as shown below, is an argument based on tax protestor claims.",
"title": "US Federal statutes and rules of court penalizing frivolous litigation"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "In a noncriminal case in a U.S. District Court, a litigant (or a litigant's attorney) who presents any pleading, written motion or other paper to the court is required, under Rule 11 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, to certify that, to the best of the presenter's knowledge and belief, the legal contentions \"are warranted by existing law or by a nonfrivolous argument for the extension, modification, or reversal of existing law or the establishment of new law\". Monetary civil penalties for violation of this rule may in some cases be imposed on the litigant or the attorney under Rule 11.",
"title": "US Federal statutes and rules of court penalizing frivolous litigation"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "In one case, the Seventh Circuit Court issued an order giving such an attorney \"14 days to show cause why he should not be fined $10,000 for his frivolous arguments\". A similar rule penalizing frivolous litigation applies in U.S. Bankruptcy Court under Rule 9011.",
"title": "US Federal statutes and rules of court penalizing frivolous litigation"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "The U.S. Congress has enacted section 1912 of Title 28 of the U.S.C. providing that in the U.S. Supreme Court and in the U.S. Courts of Appeals where litigation by the losing party has caused damage to the prevailing party, the court may impose a requirement that the losing party pay the prevailing party for those damages.",
"title": "US Federal statutes and rules of court penalizing frivolous litigation"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "Litigants who represent themselves (in forma pauperis and pro se) sometimes make frivolous arguments due to their limited knowledge of the law and procedure. The particular tendency of prisoners to bring baseless lawsuits led to passage of the Prison Litigation Reform Act of 1995, which limits the ability of prisoners to bring actions without payment.",
"title": "US Federal statutes and rules of court penalizing frivolous litigation"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "An example of a Court's treatment of frivolous arguments is found in the case of Crain v. Commissioner, 737 F.2d 1417 (1984), from the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit:",
"title": "Court treatment of frivolous arguments"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "Glenn Crain appeals from the dismissal of his Tax Court petition challenging the constitutional authority of that body and defying the jurisdiction of the Internal Revenue Service to levy taxes on his income. Crain asserts that he \"is not subject to the jurisdiction, taxation, nor regulation of the state,\" that the \"Internal Revenue Service, Incorporated\" lacks authority to exercise the judicial power of the United States, that the Tax Court is unconstitutionally attempting to exercise Article III powers, and that jurisdiction over his person has never been affirmatively proven.",
"title": "Court treatment of frivolous arguments"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "We perceive no need to refute these arguments with somber reasoning and copious citation of precedent; to do so might suggest that these arguments have some colorable merit. The constitutionality of our income tax system—including the role played within that system by the Internal Revenue Service and the Tax Court—has long been established. We affirm the dismissal of Crain's spurious \"petition\" and the assessment of a penalty imposed by the Tax Court for instituting a frivolous proceeding. 26 U.S.C. § 6673.",
"title": "Court treatment of frivolous arguments"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "The government asks us to assess penalties against Crain for bringing this frivolous appeal, as is authorized by Fed. R. App. P. 38. In Parker v. C. I. R., 724 F. 2d 469, 472 (5th Cir. 1984), we sounded \"a cautionary note to those who would persistently raise arguments against the income tax which have been put to rest for years. The full range of sanctions in Rule 38 hereafter shall be summoned in response to a totally frivolous appeal.\"",
"title": "Court treatment of frivolous arguments"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "We are sensitive to the need for the courts to remain open to all who seek in good faith to invoke the protection of law. An appeal that lacks merit is not always—or often—frivolous. However, we are not obliged to suffer in silence the filing of baseless, insupportable appeals presenting no colorable claims of error and designed only to delay, obstruct, or incapacitate the operations of the courts or any other governmental authority. Crain's present appeal is of this sort. It is a hodgepodge of unsupported assertions, irrelevant platitudes, and legalistic gibberish. The government should not have been put to the trouble of responding to such spurious arguments, nor this court to the trouble of \"adjudicating\" this meritless appeal.",
"title": "Court treatment of frivolous arguments"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "Accordingly, we grant the government's request. The United States shall recover from appellant Crain twice its cost of this appeal. Additionally, we assess against Crain a damage award of $2000 in favor of the appellee United States.",
"title": "Court treatment of frivolous arguments"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "Filing a claim that is ultimately deemed frivolous can be highly damaging to the attorney so filing. Most frivolous lawsuits that are successful are filed without an attorney. Attorney Daniel Evans writes:",
"title": "Impact upon filing attorney"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 15,
"text": "[W]hen a judge calls an argument \"ridiculous\" or \"frivolous,\" it is absolutely the worst thing the judge could say. It means that the person arguing the position has absolutely no idea of what he is doing, and has completely wasted everyone's time. It doesn't mean that the case wasn't well argued, or that judge simply decided for the other side, it means that there was no other side. The argument was absolutely, positively, incompetent. The judge is not telling you that you were \"wrong.\" The judge is telling you that you are out of your mind.",
"title": "Impact upon filing attorney"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 16,
"text": "In Washington v. Alaimo the court listed more than seventy-five frivolous \"motions\" (a request for a court to issue an order), all of which required the attention of the Court, including the following:",
"title": "Examples"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 17,
"text": "Washington, an inmate from Georgia, was eventually prohibited from filing any future lawsuits or motions in any district court unless he first posted a contempt bond of $1,500. To be deemed frivolous, a litigant's arguments must strike beyond the pale.",
"title": "Examples"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 18,
"text": "In 2005, in Pearson v. Chung, Roy Pearson, a Washington, D.C. judge, sued a dry cleaning business for $67 million for allegedly losing a pair of his pants. This case has been cited as an example of frivolous litigation. According to Pearson, the dry cleaners lost his pants (which he brought in for a $10.50 alteration) and refused his demands for a large refund. Pearson believed that a sign saying \"Satisfaction Guaranteed\" in the window of the shop legally entitled him to a refund for the cost of the pants, estimated at $1,000. The $54 million total also included $2.0 million in \"mental distress\" and $15,000 which he estimated to be the cost of renting a car every weekend to go to another dry cleaners. The court ultimately ruled against Pearson, whose judgeship was subsequently not renewed due to this case and several other actions he filed during his divorce, which were found to demonstrate a lack of \"judicial temperament\".",
"title": "Examples"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 19,
"text": "In 2010, federal prosecutors asked a judge to help them stop Jonathan Lee Riches from filing any more lawsuits, arguing that his frequent filings were frivolous.",
"title": "Examples"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 20,
"text": "In July 2013, the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario dismissed a complaint laid by a man posing as Gloria Dawn Ironbox, a fictional feminist attorney on television series Family Guy. The claimant alleged that a marketing scheme by A&W Restaurants was \"heteronormative\", \"phallocentric\" and promoted \"cross-sectional hegemony\". Citing feelings of distress and alienation over the lack of \"LGBT\" representation in A&W naming conventions, he demanded $50,000 in damages for injury to dignity and self-respect as well as an order requiring A&W to adopt naming conventions which include non-traditional families. One such product the claimant demanded was the \"Pillow Biter\", described by the claimant as \"a large, dark slab of meat stuffed firmly between two, white, clenched buns\".",
"title": "Examples"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 21,
"text": "In January 2014, Sirgiorgio Sanford Clardy, who is serving a 100-year prison sentence for a beating of a prostitute and her customer, filed a $100 million lawsuit against Nike, in which he claimed that Nike was partially responsible for the assault he committed. Clardy said that Nike should have placed a label in his Jordan shoes warning consumers that they could be used as a dangerous weapon. He was wearing a pair when he repeatedly stomped the face of a client who was trying to leave a Portland hotel without paying Clardy's prostitute in June 2012. This lawsuit gained \"considerable attention across the nation and the world\".",
"title": "Examples"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 22,
"text": "In March 2016, James Romine, one-half of the independent video games developer Digital Homicide Studios, sued video game critic James Stephanie Sterling for criticizing the games published under his studios' name, seeking $10 million in damages for \"assault, libel, and slander\" to Romine's business. He claimed that Sterling's coverage of his studio's game The Slaughtering Grounds as \"Worst Game of 2014 Contender\" was not protected under fair use law because he did not believe it was \"fair\" criticism. An additional lawsuit for $18 million was filed against 100 users on the Steam gaming platform for criticizing their games and business practices, which he had interpreted as \"harassment\". The judge issued a subpoena against Valve to disclose the identities of those 100 users. This resulted in Valve removing all published games from Digital Homicide Studios. In addition, Romine filed the lawsuit as an individual and not as a corporation, so such criticism was protected under the right to freedom of speech. The case was dismissed with prejudice in February 2017. This case is also an example of abuse of DMCA takedown requests on YouTube.",
"title": "Examples"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 23,
"text": "In June 2020, Erik Estavillo filed a lawsuit against Twitch, claiming that the streaming platform was responsible for his sex addiction, with damages of $25 million, which was to be split between him, Twitch Prime subscribers, and COVID-19 charities. He claimed that Twitch's \"twisted programming and net code\" made it \"nearly impossible to use Twitch without being exposed to sexual content\". Other claims included him \"chaffing his penis every day with [a fleshlight]\" and causing a fire by ejaculating on his computer monitor. The filing contained pictures of the female Twitch streamers (such as Amouranth and Pokimane), who he wanted banned from the platform. Estavillo had previously sued Blizzard, Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo. All of these lawsuits were dismissed with prejudice. This case was dismissed as frivolous in January of 2021.",
"title": "Examples"
}
] |
Frivolous litigation is the use of legal processes with apparent disregard for the merit of one's own arguments. It includes presenting an argument with reason to know that it would certainly fail, or acting without a basic level of diligence in researching the relevant law and facts. That an argument was lost does not imply the argument was frivolous; a party may present an argument with a low chance of success, so long as it proceeds from applicable law. Frivolous litigation may be based on absurd legal theories, may involve a superabundance or repetition of motions or additional suits, may be uncivil or harassing to the court, or may claim extreme remedies. A claim or defense may be frivolous because it had no underlying justification in fact, or because it was not presented with an argument for a reasonable extension or reinterpretation of the law. A claim may be deemed frivolous because existing laws unequivocally prohibit such a claim, such as a so-called Good Samaritan law. In the United States, Rule 11 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and similar state rules require that an attorney perform a due diligence investigation concerning the factual basis for any claim or defense. Jurisdictions differ on whether a claim or defense can be frivolous if the attorney acted in good faith. Because such a defense or claim wastes the court's and the other parties' time, resources and legal fees, sanctions may be imposed by a court upon the party or the lawyer who presents the frivolous defense or claim. The law firm may also be sanctioned, or even held in contempt.
|
2001-03-12T18:37:42Z
|
2023-12-02T21:28:38Z
|
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frivolous_litigation
|
10,618 |
Fiddle
|
A fiddle is a bowed string musical instrument, most often a violin. It is a colloquial term for the violin, used by players in all genres, including classical music. Although in many cases violins and fiddles are essentially synonymous, the style of the music played may determine specific construction differences between fiddles and classical violins. For example, fiddles may optionally be set up with a bridge with a flatter arch to reduce the range of bow-arm motion needed for techniques such as the double shuffle, a form of bariolage involving rapid alternation between pairs of adjacent strings. To produce a "brighter" tone than the deep tones of gut or synthetic core strings, fiddlers often use steel strings. The fiddle is part of many traditional (folk) styles, which are typically aural traditions—taught "by ear" rather than via written music.
Fiddling is the act of playing the fiddle, and fiddlers are musicians that play it. Among musical styles, fiddling tends to produce rhythms that focus on dancing, with associated quick note changes, whereas classical music tends to contain more vibrato and sustained notes. Fiddling is also open to improvisation and embellishment with ornamentation at the player's discretion, in contrast to orchestral performances, which adhere to the composer's notes to reproduce a work faithfully. It is less common for a classically trained violinist to play folk music, but today, many fiddlers (e.g., Alasdair Fraser, Brittany Haas, and Alison Krauss) have classical training.
The medieval fiddle emerged in 10th-century Europe, deriving from the Byzantine lira (Ancient Greek: λύρα, Latin: lira, English: lyre), a bowed string instrument of the Byzantine Empire and ancestor of most European bowed instruments.
The first recorded reference to the bowed lira was in the 9th century by the Persian geographer Ibn Khurradadhbih (d. 911); in his lexicographical discussion of instruments he cited the lira (lūrā) as a typical instrument of the Byzantines and equivalent to the rabāb played in the Islamic Empires.
Lira spread widely westward to Europe; in the 11th and 12th centuries European writers use the terms fiddle and lira interchangeably when referring to bowed instruments.
West African fiddlers have accompanied singing and dancing with one-string gourd fiddles since the twelfth century , and many black musicians in America learned on similar homemade fiddles before switching over to the European violin. As early as the mid-1600s, black fiddlers ("exquisite performers on three-stringed fiddles") were playing for both black and white dancers at street celebrations in the Dutch settlement of New Amsterdam (New York City), and by 1690 slave fiddlers were routinely providing the music at plantation balls in Virginia.
Over the centuries, Europe continued to have two distinct types of fiddles: one, relatively square-shouldered, held in the arms, became known as the viola da braccio (arm viol) family and evolved into the violin; the other, with sloping shoulders and held between the knees, was the viola da gamba (leg viol) group. During the Renaissance the gambas were important and elegant instruments; they eventually lost ground to the louder (and originally less aristocratic) viola da braccio family.
The etymology of fiddle is uncertain: it probably derives from the Latin fidula, which is the early word for violin, or it may be natively Germanic.
The name appears to be related to Icelandic Fiðla and also Old English fiðele. A native Germanic ancestor of fiddle might even be the ancestor of the early Romance form of violin.
In medieval times, fiddle also referred to a predecessor of today's violin. Like the violin, it tended to have four strings, but came in a variety of shapes and sizes. Another family of instruments that contributed to the development of the modern fiddle are the viols, which are held between the legs and played vertically, and have fretted fingerboards.
In performance, a solo fiddler, or one or two with a group of other instrumentalists, is the norm, though twin fiddling is represented in some North American, Scandinavian, Scottish and Irish styles. Following the folk revivals of the second half of the 20th century, it became common for less formal situations to find large groups of fiddlers playing together—see for example the Calgary Fiddlers, Swedish Spelmanslag folk-musician clubs, and the worldwide phenomenon of Irish sessions.
Orchestral violins, on the other hand, are commonly grouped in sections, or "chairs". These contrasting traditions may be vestiges of historical performance settings: large concert halls where violins were played required more instruments, before electronic amplification, than did more intimate dance halls and houses that fiddlers played in.
The difference was likely compounded by the different sounds expected of violin music and fiddle music. Historically, the majority of fiddle music was dance music, while violin music had either grown out of dance music or was something else entirely. Violin music came to value a smoothness that fiddling, with its dance-driven clear beat, did not always follow. In situations that required greater volume, a fiddler (as long as they kept the beat) could push their instrument harder than could a violinist. Various fiddle traditions have differing values.
In the very late 20th century, a few artists have successfully attempted a reconstruction of the Scottish tradition of violin and "big fiddle", or cello. Notable recorded examples include Iain Fraser and Christine Hanson, Amelia Kaminski and Christine Hanson's Bonnie Lasses, Alasdair Fraser and Natalie Haas' Fire and Grace, and Tim Macdonald and Jeremy Ward's The Wilds.
Hungarian, Slovenian, and Romanian fiddle players are often accompanied by a three-stringed variant of the viola—known as the kontra—and by double bass, with cimbalom and clarinet being less standard yet still common additions to a band. In Hungary, a three-stringed viola variant with a flat bridge, called the kontra or háromhúros brácsa makes up part of a traditional rhythm section in Hungarian folk music. The flat bridge lets the musician play three-string chords. A three-stringed double bass variant is also used.
To a greater extent than classical violin playing, fiddle playing is characterized by a huge variety of ethnic or folk music traditions, each of which has its own distinctive sound.
American fiddling, a broad category including traditional and modern styles
Fiddling remains popular in Canada, and the various homegrown styles of Canadian fiddling are seen as an important part of the country's cultural identity, as celebrated during the opening ceremony of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics.
Mexican fiddling includes
|
[
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "A fiddle is a bowed string musical instrument, most often a violin. It is a colloquial term for the violin, used by players in all genres, including classical music. Although in many cases violins and fiddles are essentially synonymous, the style of the music played may determine specific construction differences between fiddles and classical violins. For example, fiddles may optionally be set up with a bridge with a flatter arch to reduce the range of bow-arm motion needed for techniques such as the double shuffle, a form of bariolage involving rapid alternation between pairs of adjacent strings. To produce a \"brighter\" tone than the deep tones of gut or synthetic core strings, fiddlers often use steel strings. The fiddle is part of many traditional (folk) styles, which are typically aural traditions—taught \"by ear\" rather than via written music.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "Fiddling is the act of playing the fiddle, and fiddlers are musicians that play it. Among musical styles, fiddling tends to produce rhythms that focus on dancing, with associated quick note changes, whereas classical music tends to contain more vibrato and sustained notes. Fiddling is also open to improvisation and embellishment with ornamentation at the player's discretion, in contrast to orchestral performances, which adhere to the composer's notes to reproduce a work faithfully. It is less common for a classically trained violinist to play folk music, but today, many fiddlers (e.g., Alasdair Fraser, Brittany Haas, and Alison Krauss) have classical training.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "The medieval fiddle emerged in 10th-century Europe, deriving from the Byzantine lira (Ancient Greek: λύρα, Latin: lira, English: lyre), a bowed string instrument of the Byzantine Empire and ancestor of most European bowed instruments.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "The first recorded reference to the bowed lira was in the 9th century by the Persian geographer Ibn Khurradadhbih (d. 911); in his lexicographical discussion of instruments he cited the lira (lūrā) as a typical instrument of the Byzantines and equivalent to the rabāb played in the Islamic Empires.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "Lira spread widely westward to Europe; in the 11th and 12th centuries European writers use the terms fiddle and lira interchangeably when referring to bowed instruments.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "West African fiddlers have accompanied singing and dancing with one-string gourd fiddles since the twelfth century , and many black musicians in America learned on similar homemade fiddles before switching over to the European violin. As early as the mid-1600s, black fiddlers (\"exquisite performers on three-stringed fiddles\") were playing for both black and white dancers at street celebrations in the Dutch settlement of New Amsterdam (New York City), and by 1690 slave fiddlers were routinely providing the music at plantation balls in Virginia.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "Over the centuries, Europe continued to have two distinct types of fiddles: one, relatively square-shouldered, held in the arms, became known as the viola da braccio (arm viol) family and evolved into the violin; the other, with sloping shoulders and held between the knees, was the viola da gamba (leg viol) group. During the Renaissance the gambas were important and elegant instruments; they eventually lost ground to the louder (and originally less aristocratic) viola da braccio family.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "The etymology of fiddle is uncertain: it probably derives from the Latin fidula, which is the early word for violin, or it may be natively Germanic.",
"title": "Etymology"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "The name appears to be related to Icelandic Fiðla and also Old English fiðele. A native Germanic ancestor of fiddle might even be the ancestor of the early Romance form of violin.",
"title": "Etymology"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "In medieval times, fiddle also referred to a predecessor of today's violin. Like the violin, it tended to have four strings, but came in a variety of shapes and sizes. Another family of instruments that contributed to the development of the modern fiddle are the viols, which are held between the legs and played vertically, and have fretted fingerboards.",
"title": "Etymology"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "In performance, a solo fiddler, or one or two with a group of other instrumentalists, is the norm, though twin fiddling is represented in some North American, Scandinavian, Scottish and Irish styles. Following the folk revivals of the second half of the 20th century, it became common for less formal situations to find large groups of fiddlers playing together—see for example the Calgary Fiddlers, Swedish Spelmanslag folk-musician clubs, and the worldwide phenomenon of Irish sessions.",
"title": "Ensembles"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "Orchestral violins, on the other hand, are commonly grouped in sections, or \"chairs\". These contrasting traditions may be vestiges of historical performance settings: large concert halls where violins were played required more instruments, before electronic amplification, than did more intimate dance halls and houses that fiddlers played in.",
"title": "Ensembles"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "The difference was likely compounded by the different sounds expected of violin music and fiddle music. Historically, the majority of fiddle music was dance music, while violin music had either grown out of dance music or was something else entirely. Violin music came to value a smoothness that fiddling, with its dance-driven clear beat, did not always follow. In situations that required greater volume, a fiddler (as long as they kept the beat) could push their instrument harder than could a violinist. Various fiddle traditions have differing values.",
"title": "Ensembles"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "In the very late 20th century, a few artists have successfully attempted a reconstruction of the Scottish tradition of violin and \"big fiddle\", or cello. Notable recorded examples include Iain Fraser and Christine Hanson, Amelia Kaminski and Christine Hanson's Bonnie Lasses, Alasdair Fraser and Natalie Haas' Fire and Grace, and Tim Macdonald and Jeremy Ward's The Wilds.",
"title": "Ensembles"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "Hungarian, Slovenian, and Romanian fiddle players are often accompanied by a three-stringed variant of the viola—known as the kontra—and by double bass, with cimbalom and clarinet being less standard yet still common additions to a band. In Hungary, a three-stringed viola variant with a flat bridge, called the kontra or háromhúros brácsa makes up part of a traditional rhythm section in Hungarian folk music. The flat bridge lets the musician play three-string chords. A three-stringed double bass variant is also used.",
"title": "Ensembles"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 15,
"text": "To a greater extent than classical violin playing, fiddle playing is characterized by a huge variety of ethnic or folk music traditions, each of which has its own distinctive sound.",
"title": "Styles"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 16,
"text": "American fiddling, a broad category including traditional and modern styles",
"title": "Styles"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 17,
"text": "Fiddling remains popular in Canada, and the various homegrown styles of Canadian fiddling are seen as an important part of the country's cultural identity, as celebrated during the opening ceremony of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics.",
"title": "Styles"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 18,
"text": "Mexican fiddling includes",
"title": "Styles"
}
] |
A fiddle is a bowed string musical instrument, most often a violin. It is a colloquial term for the violin, used by players in all genres, including classical music. Although in many cases violins and fiddles are essentially synonymous, the style of the music played may determine specific construction differences between fiddles and classical violins. For example, fiddles may optionally be set up with a bridge with a flatter arch to reduce the range of bow-arm motion needed for techniques such as the double shuffle, a form of bariolage involving rapid alternation between pairs of adjacent strings. To produce a "brighter" tone than the deep tones of gut or synthetic core strings, fiddlers often use steel strings. The fiddle is part of many traditional (folk) styles, which are typically aural traditions—taught "by ear" rather than via written music. Fiddling is the act of playing the fiddle, and fiddlers are musicians that play it. Among musical styles, fiddling tends to produce rhythms that focus on dancing, with associated quick note changes, whereas classical music tends to contain more vibrato and sustained notes. Fiddling is also open to improvisation and embellishment with ornamentation at the player's discretion, in contrast to orchestral performances, which adhere to the composer's notes to reproduce a work faithfully. It is less common for a classically trained violinist to play folk music, but today, many fiddlers have classical training.
|
2001-05-07T10:51:27Z
|
2023-11-01T16:07:41Z
|
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiddle
|
10,620 |
List of female tennis players
|
This is a list of female tennis players who meet one or more of the following criteria:
|
[
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "This is a list of female tennis players who meet one or more of the following criteria:",
"title": ""
}
] |
This is a list of female tennis players who meet one or more of the following criteria: Singles:
Officially ranked among the top 25 by the Women's Tennis Association
Ranked among the top 10 by an expert before 1975
Reached the quarterfinals of a Grand Slam tournament
Reached the finals of or won the year-end championships
Won a medal at the Olympic Games
Doubles:
Won a Grand Slam tournament or year-end championship
Officially ranked No. 1 by the WTA
Won a medal at the Olympic Games
|
2001-02-06T20:21:23Z
|
2023-12-25T16:34:10Z
|
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_female_tennis_players
|
10,622 |
Flugelhorn
|
The flugelhorn (/ˈfluːɡəlhɔːrn/), also spelled fluegelhorn, flugel horn, or flügelhorn, is a brass instrument that resembles the trumpet and cornet but has a wider, more conical bore. Like trumpets and cornets, most flugelhorns are pitched in B♭, though some are in C. It is a type of valved bugle, developed in Germany in the early 19th century from a traditional English valveless bugle. The first version of a valved bugle was sold by Heinrich Stölzel in Berlin in 1828. The valved bugle provided Adolphe Sax (creator of the saxophone) with the inspiration for his B♭ soprano (contralto) saxhorns, on which the modern-day flugelhorn is modeled.
The German word Flügel means wing or flank in English. In early 18th century Germany, a ducal hunt leader known as a Flügelmeister blew the Flügelhorn, a large semicircular brass or silver valveless horn, to direct the wings of the hunt. Military use dates from the Seven Years' War, where this instrument was employed as a predecessor of the bugle.
The flugelhorn is generally pitched in B♭, like most trumpets and cornets. It usually has three piston valves and employs the same fingering system as other brass instruments, although four-valve versions and rotary-valve versions also exist. It can therefore be played by trumpet and cornet players, although it has different playing characteristics. The flugelhorn's mouthpiece is more deeply conical than either trumpet or cornet mouthpieces, but not as conical as a French horn mouthpiece. The shank of the flugelhorn mouthpiece is similar in size to a cornet mouthpiece shank.
Some modern flugelhorns feature a fourth valve that lowers the pitch by a perfect fourth (similar to the fourth valve on some euphoniums, tubas, and piccolo trumpets, or the trigger on trombones). This adds a useful low range that, coupled with the flugelhorn's dark sound, extends the instrument's abilities. Players can also use the fourth valve in place of the first and third valve combination (which is somewhat sharp).
A compact version of the rotary valve flugelhorn is the oval shaped kuhlohorn in B♭. It was developed for the German protestant trombone choirs.
A pair of bass flugelhorns in C, called fiscorns, are played in the Catalan cobla bands which provide music for sardana dancers.
The tone is fatter and usually regarded as more mellow and dark than the trumpet or cornet. The sound of the flugelhorn has been described as halfway between a trumpet and a French horn, whereas the cornet's sound is halfway between a trumpet and a flugelhorn. The flugelhorn is as agile as the cornet but more difficult to control in the high register (from approximately written G5), where in general it locks onto notes less easily.
The flugelhorn is a standard member of the British-style brass band, and it is also used frequently in jazz. It also appears occasionally in orchestral and concert band music. Famous orchestral works with flugelhorn include Igor Stravinsky's Threni, Ralph Vaughan Williams's Ninth Symphony, and Michael Tippett's third symphony. The flugelhorn is sometimes substituted for the post horn in Mahler's Third Symphony, and for the soprano Roman buccine in Ottorino Respighi's Pines of Rome. In HK Gruber's trumpet concerto Busking (2007) the soloist is directed to play a flugelhorn in the slow middle movement. The flugelhorn figured prominently in many of Burt Bacharach's 1960s pop song arrangements. It is featured in a solo role in Bert Kaempfert's 1962 recording of "That Happy Feeling". Flugelhorns have occasionally been used as the alto or low soprano voice in a drum and bugle corps.
Another use of the flugelhorn is found in the Dutch and Belgian "Fanfareorkesten" or fanfare orchestras. In these orchestras the flugelhorns, often between 10 and 20 in number, have a significant role, forming the base of the orchestra. They are pitched in B♭, with sporadically an E♭ soloist. Due to poor intonation, these E♭ flugelhorns are mostly replaced by the E♭ trumpet or cornet.
The 1996 film Brassed Off features a flugelhorn performance of Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranjuez, Adagio, as a key moment. The solo is played by Paul Hughes.
Joe Bishop, as a member of the Woody Herman band in 1936, was one of the earliest jazz musicians to use the flugelhorn. Shorty Rogers and Kenny Baker began playing it in the early fifties, and Clark Terry used it in Duke Ellington's orchestra in the mid-1950s. Chet Baker recorded several albums on the instrument in the 1950s and 1960s. Miles Davis further popularized the instrument in jazz on the albums Miles Ahead and Sketches of Spain, (both arranged by Gil Evans) though he did not use it much on later projects. Other prominent flugelhorn players include Donald Byrd, Freddy Buzon, Freddie Hubbard, Tom Browne, Lee Morgan, Bill Dixon, Wilbur Harden, Art Farmer, Roy Hargrove, Randy Brecker, Hugh Masekela, Feya Faku, Tony Guerrero, Gary Lord, Jimmy Owens, Maynard Ferguson, Terumasa Hino, Woody Shaw, Bobby Shew, Guido Basso, Kenny Wheeler, Tom Harrell, Bill Coleman, Thad Jones, Arturo Sandoval, Lee Loughnane of the rock band Chicago, Roddy Lorimer of The Kick Horns, Mike Metheny, Harry Beckett, Till Brönner and Ack van Rooyen. Most jazz flugelhorn players use the instrument as an auxiliary to the trumpet, but in the 1970s Chuck Mangione gave up playing the trumpet and concentrated on the flugelhorn alone, notably on his jazz-pop hit song "Feels So Good". Mangione, in an interview on ABC during the 1980 Winter Olympics, for which he wrote the theme "Give It All You Got", referred to the flugelhorn as "the right baseball glove".
Pop flugelhorn players include Probyn Gregory (Brian Wilson Band), Ronnie Wilson of the Gap Band, Rick Braun, Mic Gillette, Jeff Oster, Zach Condon of the band Beirut, Scott Spillane of the band Neutral Milk Hotel, Terry Kirkman of the band The Association, and Rashawn Ross of the band Dave Matthews Band. Marvin Stamm played the flugelhorn solo on "Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey" by Paul and Linda McCartney.
Classical flugelhorn players include Sergei Nakariakov and Kirill Soldatov.
|
[
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "The flugelhorn (/ˈfluːɡəlhɔːrn/), also spelled fluegelhorn, flugel horn, or flügelhorn, is a brass instrument that resembles the trumpet and cornet but has a wider, more conical bore. Like trumpets and cornets, most flugelhorns are pitched in B♭, though some are in C. It is a type of valved bugle, developed in Germany in the early 19th century from a traditional English valveless bugle. The first version of a valved bugle was sold by Heinrich Stölzel in Berlin in 1828. The valved bugle provided Adolphe Sax (creator of the saxophone) with the inspiration for his B♭ soprano (contralto) saxhorns, on which the modern-day flugelhorn is modeled.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "The German word Flügel means wing or flank in English. In early 18th century Germany, a ducal hunt leader known as a Flügelmeister blew the Flügelhorn, a large semicircular brass or silver valveless horn, to direct the wings of the hunt. Military use dates from the Seven Years' War, where this instrument was employed as a predecessor of the bugle.",
"title": "Etymology"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "The flugelhorn is generally pitched in B♭, like most trumpets and cornets. It usually has three piston valves and employs the same fingering system as other brass instruments, although four-valve versions and rotary-valve versions also exist. It can therefore be played by trumpet and cornet players, although it has different playing characteristics. The flugelhorn's mouthpiece is more deeply conical than either trumpet or cornet mouthpieces, but not as conical as a French horn mouthpiece. The shank of the flugelhorn mouthpiece is similar in size to a cornet mouthpiece shank.",
"title": "Structure and variants"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "Some modern flugelhorns feature a fourth valve that lowers the pitch by a perfect fourth (similar to the fourth valve on some euphoniums, tubas, and piccolo trumpets, or the trigger on trombones). This adds a useful low range that, coupled with the flugelhorn's dark sound, extends the instrument's abilities. Players can also use the fourth valve in place of the first and third valve combination (which is somewhat sharp).",
"title": "Structure and variants"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "A compact version of the rotary valve flugelhorn is the oval shaped kuhlohorn in B♭. It was developed for the German protestant trombone choirs.",
"title": "Structure and variants"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "A pair of bass flugelhorns in C, called fiscorns, are played in the Catalan cobla bands which provide music for sardana dancers.",
"title": "Structure and variants"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "The tone is fatter and usually regarded as more mellow and dark than the trumpet or cornet. The sound of the flugelhorn has been described as halfway between a trumpet and a French horn, whereas the cornet's sound is halfway between a trumpet and a flugelhorn. The flugelhorn is as agile as the cornet but more difficult to control in the high register (from approximately written G5), where in general it locks onto notes less easily.",
"title": "Timbre"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "The flugelhorn is a standard member of the British-style brass band, and it is also used frequently in jazz. It also appears occasionally in orchestral and concert band music. Famous orchestral works with flugelhorn include Igor Stravinsky's Threni, Ralph Vaughan Williams's Ninth Symphony, and Michael Tippett's third symphony. The flugelhorn is sometimes substituted for the post horn in Mahler's Third Symphony, and for the soprano Roman buccine in Ottorino Respighi's Pines of Rome. In HK Gruber's trumpet concerto Busking (2007) the soloist is directed to play a flugelhorn in the slow middle movement. The flugelhorn figured prominently in many of Burt Bacharach's 1960s pop song arrangements. It is featured in a solo role in Bert Kaempfert's 1962 recording of \"That Happy Feeling\". Flugelhorns have occasionally been used as the alto or low soprano voice in a drum and bugle corps.",
"title": "Use and performances"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "Another use of the flugelhorn is found in the Dutch and Belgian \"Fanfareorkesten\" or fanfare orchestras. In these orchestras the flugelhorns, often between 10 and 20 in number, have a significant role, forming the base of the orchestra. They are pitched in B♭, with sporadically an E♭ soloist. Due to poor intonation, these E♭ flugelhorns are mostly replaced by the E♭ trumpet or cornet.",
"title": "Use and performances"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "The 1996 film Brassed Off features a flugelhorn performance of Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranjuez, Adagio, as a key moment. The solo is played by Paul Hughes.",
"title": "Use and performances"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "Joe Bishop, as a member of the Woody Herman band in 1936, was one of the earliest jazz musicians to use the flugelhorn. Shorty Rogers and Kenny Baker began playing it in the early fifties, and Clark Terry used it in Duke Ellington's orchestra in the mid-1950s. Chet Baker recorded several albums on the instrument in the 1950s and 1960s. Miles Davis further popularized the instrument in jazz on the albums Miles Ahead and Sketches of Spain, (both arranged by Gil Evans) though he did not use it much on later projects. Other prominent flugelhorn players include Donald Byrd, Freddy Buzon, Freddie Hubbard, Tom Browne, Lee Morgan, Bill Dixon, Wilbur Harden, Art Farmer, Roy Hargrove, Randy Brecker, Hugh Masekela, Feya Faku, Tony Guerrero, Gary Lord, Jimmy Owens, Maynard Ferguson, Terumasa Hino, Woody Shaw, Bobby Shew, Guido Basso, Kenny Wheeler, Tom Harrell, Bill Coleman, Thad Jones, Arturo Sandoval, Lee Loughnane of the rock band Chicago, Roddy Lorimer of The Kick Horns, Mike Metheny, Harry Beckett, Till Brönner and Ack van Rooyen. Most jazz flugelhorn players use the instrument as an auxiliary to the trumpet, but in the 1970s Chuck Mangione gave up playing the trumpet and concentrated on the flugelhorn alone, notably on his jazz-pop hit song \"Feels So Good\". Mangione, in an interview on ABC during the 1980 Winter Olympics, for which he wrote the theme \"Give It All You Got\", referred to the flugelhorn as \"the right baseball glove\".",
"title": "Notable players"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "Pop flugelhorn players include Probyn Gregory (Brian Wilson Band), Ronnie Wilson of the Gap Band, Rick Braun, Mic Gillette, Jeff Oster, Zach Condon of the band Beirut, Scott Spillane of the band Neutral Milk Hotel, Terry Kirkman of the band The Association, and Rashawn Ross of the band Dave Matthews Band. Marvin Stamm played the flugelhorn solo on \"Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey\" by Paul and Linda McCartney.",
"title": "Notable players"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "Classical flugelhorn players include Sergei Nakariakov and Kirill Soldatov.",
"title": "Notable players"
}
] |
The flugelhorn, also spelled fluegelhorn, flugel horn, or flügelhorn, is a brass instrument that resembles the trumpet and cornet but has a wider, more conical bore. Like trumpets and cornets, most flugelhorns are pitched in B♭, though some are in C. It is a type of valved bugle, developed in Germany in the early 19th century from a traditional English valveless bugle. The first version of a valved bugle was sold by Heinrich Stölzel in Berlin in 1828. The valved bugle provided Adolphe Sax with the inspiration for his B♭ soprano (contralto) saxhorns, on which the modern-day flugelhorn is modeled.
|
2001-06-30T00:25:26Z
|
2023-12-21T13:44:13Z
|
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|
10,623 |
Folk music
|
Folk music is a music genre that includes traditional folk music and the contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be called world music. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted orally, music with unknown composers, music that is played on traditional instruments, music about cultural or national identity, music that changes between generations (folk process), music associated with a people's folklore, or music performed by custom over a long period of time. It has been contrasted with commercial and classical styles. The term originated in the 19th century, but folk music extends beyond that.
Starting in the mid-20th century, a new form of popular folk music evolved from traditional folk music. This process and period is called the (second) folk revival and reached a zenith in the 1960s. This form of music is sometimes called contemporary folk music or folk revival music to distinguish it from earlier folk forms. Smaller, similar revivals have occurred elsewhere in the world at other times, but the term folk music has typically not been applied to the new music created during those revivals. This type of folk music also includes fusion genres such as folk rock, folk metal, and others. While contemporary folk music is a genre generally distinct from traditional folk music, in U.S. English it shares the same name, and it often shares the same performers and venues as traditional folk music.
The terms folk music, folk song, and folk dance are comparatively recent expressions. They are extensions of the term folklore, which was coined in 1846 by the English antiquarian William Thoms to describe "the traditions, customs, and superstitions of the uncultured classes". The term further derives from the German expression volk, in the sense of "the people as a whole" as applied to popular and national music by Johann Gottfried Herder and the German Romantics over half a century earlier. Though it is understood that folk music is the music of the people, observers find a more precise definition to be elusive. Some do not even agree that the term folk music should be used. Folk music may tend to have certain characteristics but it cannot clearly be differentiated in purely musical terms. One meaning often given is that of "old songs, with no known composers," another is that of music that has been submitted to an evolutionary "process of oral transmission.... the fashioning and re-fashioning of the music by the community that give it its folk character."
Such definitions depend upon "(cultural) processes rather than abstract musical types...", upon "continuity and oral transmission...seen as characterizing one side of a cultural dichotomy, the other side of which is found not only in the lower layers of feudal, capitalist and some oriental societies but also in 'primitive' societies and in parts of 'popular cultures'". One widely used definition is simply "Folk music is what the people sing."
For Scholes, as well as for Cecil Sharp and Béla Bartók, there was a sense of the music of the country as distinct from that of the town. Folk music was already, "...seen as the authentic expression of a way of life now past or about to disappear (or in some cases, to be preserved or somehow revived)," particularly in "a community uninfluenced by art music" and by commercial and printed song. Lloyd rejected this in favor of a simple distinction of economic class yet for him, true folk music was, in Charles Seeger's words, "associated with a lower class" in culturally and socially stratified societies. In these terms, folk music may be seen as part of a "schema comprising four musical types: 'primitive' or 'tribal'; 'elite' or 'art'; 'folk'; and 'popular'."
Music in this genre is also often called traditional music. Although the term is usually only descriptive, in some cases people use it as the name of a genre. For example, the Grammy Award previously used the terms "traditional music" and "traditional folk" for folk music that is not contemporary folk music. Folk music may include most indigenous music.
From a historical perspective, traditional folk music had these characteristics:
As a side-effect, the following characteristics are sometimes present:
In folk music, a tune is a short instrumental piece, a melody, often with repeating sections, and usually played a number of times. A collection of tunes with structural similarities is known as a tune-family. America's Musical Landscape says "the most common form for tunes in folk music is AABB, also known as binary form."
In some traditions, tunes may be strung together in medleys or "sets."
Throughout most of human prehistory and history, listening to recorded music was not possible. Music was made by common people during both their work and leisure, as well as during religious activities. The work of economic production was often manual and communal. Manual labor often included singing by the workers, which served several practical purposes. It reduced the boredom of repetitive tasks, it kept the rhythm during synchronized pushes and pulls, and it set the pace of many activities such as planting, weeding, reaping, threshing, weaving, and milling. In leisure time, singing and playing musical instruments were common forms of entertainment and history-telling—even more common than today when electrically enabled technologies and widespread literacy make other forms of entertainment and information-sharing competitive.
Some believe that folk music originated as art music that was changed and probably debased by oral transmission while reflecting the character of the society that produced it. In many societies, especially preliterate ones, the cultural transmission of folk music requires learning by ear, although notation has evolved in some cultures. Different cultures may have different notions concerning a division between "folk" music on the one hand and of "art" and "court" music on the other. In the proliferation of popular music genres, some traditional folk music became also referred to as "World music" or "Roots music".
The English term "folklore", to describe traditional folk music and dance, entered the vocabulary of many continental European nations, each of which had its folk-song collectors and revivalists. The distinction between "authentic" folk and national and popular song in general has always been loose, particularly in America and Germany – for example, popular songwriters such as Stephen Foster could be termed "folk" in America. The International Folk Music Council definition allows that the term can also apply to music that, "...has originated with an individual composer and has subsequently been absorbed into the unwritten, living tradition of a community. But the term does not cover a song, dance, or tune that has been taken over ready-made and remains unchanged."
The post–World War II folk revival in America and in Britain started a new genre, Contemporary Folk Music, and brought an additional meaning to the term "folk music": newly composed songs, fixed in form and by known authors, which imitated some form of traditional music. The popularity of "contemporary folk" recordings caused the appearance of the category "Folk" in the Grammy Awards of 1959; in 1970 the term was dropped in favor of "Best Ethnic or Traditional Recording (including Traditional Blues)", while 1987 brought a distinction between "Best Traditional Folk Recording" and "Best Contemporary Folk Recording". After that, they had a "Traditional music" category that subsequently evolved into others. The term "folk", by the start of the 21st century, could cover singer-songwriters, such as Donovan from Scotland and American Bob Dylan, who emerged in the 1960s and much more. This completed a process to where "folk music" no longer meant only traditional folk music.
Traditional folk music often includes sung words, although folk instrumental music occurs commonly in dance music traditions. Narrative verse looms large in the traditional folk music of many cultures. This encompasses such forms as traditional epic poetry, much of which was meant originally for oral performance, sometimes accompanied by instruments. Many epic poems of various cultures were pieced together from shorter pieces of traditional narrative verse, which explains their episodic structure, repetitive elements, and their frequent in medias res plot developments. Other forms of traditional narrative verse relate the outcomes of battles or lament tragedies or natural disasters.
Sometimes, as in the triumphant Song of Deborah found in the Biblical Book of Judges, these songs celebrate victory. Laments for lost battles and wars, and the lives lost in them, are equally prominent in many traditions; these laments keep alive the cause for which the battle was fought. The narratives of traditional songs often also remember folk heroes such as John Henry or Robin Hood. Some traditional song narratives recall supernatural events or mysterious deaths.
Hymns and other forms of religious music are often of traditional and unknown origin. Western musical notation was originally created to preserve the lines of Gregorian chant, which before its invention was taught as an oral tradition in monastic communities. Traditional songs such as Green grow the rushes, O present religious lore in a mnemonic form, as do Western Christmas carols and similar traditional songs.
Work songs frequently feature call and response structures and are designed to enable the laborers who sing them to coordinate their efforts in accordance with the rhythms of the songs. They are frequently, but not invariably, composed. In the American armed forces, a lively oral tradition preserves jody calls ("Duckworth chants") which are sung while soldiers are on the march. Professional sailors made similar use of a large body of sea shanties. Love poetry, often of a tragic or regretful nature, prominently figures in many folk traditions. Nursery rhymes and nonsense verse used to amuse or quiet children also are frequent subjects of traditional songs.
Music transmitted by word of mouth through a community, in time, develops many variants, since this transmission cannot produce word-for-word and note-for-note accuracy. In addition, folk singers may choose to modify the songs they hear.
For example, the words of "I'm a Man You Don't Meet Every Day" (Roud 975) were written down in a broadside in the 18th century, and seem to have an Irish origin. In 1958 the song was recorded in Canada (My Name is Pat and I'm Proud of That). Scottish traveler Jeannie Robertson from Aberdeen, made the next recorded version in 1961. She has changed it to make reference to "Jock Stewart", one of her relatives, and there are no Irish references. In 1976 Scottish artist Archie Fisher deliberately altered the song to remove the reference to a dog being shot. In 1985 The Pogues took it full circle by restoring the Irish references.
Because variants proliferate naturally, there is generally no "authoritative" version of song. Researchers in traditional songs have encountered countless versions of the Barbara Allen ballad throughout the English-speaking world, and these versions often differ greatly from each other. The original is not known; many versions can lay an equal claim to authenticity.
Influential folklorist Cecil Sharp felt that these competing variants of a traditional song would undergo a process of improvement akin to biological natural selection: only those new variants that were the most appealing to ordinary singers would be picked up by others and transmitted onward in time. Thus, over time we would expect each traditional song to become more aesthetically appealing, due to incremental community improvement.
Literary interest in the popular ballad form dates back at least to Thomas Percy and William Wordsworth. English Elizabethan and Stuart composers had often evolved their music from folk themes, the classical suite was based upon stylised folk-dances, and Joseph Haydn's use of folk melodies is noted. But the emergence of the term "folk" coincided with an "outburst of national feeling all over Europe" that was particularly strong at the edges of Europe, where national identity was most asserted. Nationalist composers emerged in Central Europe, Russia, Scandinavia, Spain and Britain: the music of Dvořák, Smetana, Grieg, Rimsky-Korsakov, Brahms, Liszt, de Falla, Wagner, Sibelius, Vaughan Williams, Bartók, and many others drew upon folk melodies.
While the loss of traditional folk music in the face of the rise of popular music is a worldwide phenomenon, it is not one occurring at a uniform rate throughout the world. The process is most advanced "where industrialization and commercialisation of culture are most advanced" but also occurs more gradually even in settings of lower technological advancement. However, the loss of traditional music is slowed in nations or regions where traditional folk music is a badge of cultural or national identity.
Much of what is known about folk music prior to the development of audio recording technology in the 19th century comes from fieldwork and writings of scholars, collectors and proponents.
Starting in the 19th century, academics and amateur scholars, taking note of the musical traditions being lost, initiated various efforts to preserve the music of the people. One such effort was the collection by Francis James Child in the late 19th century of the texts of over three hundred ballads in the English and Scots traditions (called the Child Ballads), some of which predated the 16th century.
Contemporaneously with Child, the Reverend Sabine Baring-Gould and later Cecil Sharp worked to preserve a great body of English rural traditional song, music and dance, under the aegis of what became and remains the English Folk Dance and Song Society (EFDSS). Sharp campaigned with some success to have English traditional songs (in his own heavily edited and expurgated versions) to be taught to school children in hopes of reviving and prolonging the popularity of those songs. Throughout the 1960s and early to mid-1970s, American scholar Bertrand Harris Bronson published an exhaustive four-volume collection of the then-known variations of both the texts and tunes associated with what came to be known as the Child Canon. He also advanced some significant theories concerning the workings of oral-aural tradition.
Similar activity was also under way in other countries. One of the most extensive was perhaps the work done in Riga by Krisjanis Barons, who between the years 1894 and 1915 published six volumes that included the texts of 217,996 Latvian folk songs, the Latvju dainas. In Norway the work of collectors such as Ludvig Mathias Lindeman was extensively used by Edvard Grieg in his Lyric Pieces for piano and in other works, which became immensely popular.
Around this time, composers of classical music developed a strong interest in collecting traditional songs, and a number of composers carried out their own field work on traditional music. These included Percy Grainger and Ralph Vaughan Williams in England and Béla Bartók in Hungary. These composers, like many of their predecessors, both made arrangements of folk songs and incorporated traditional material into original classical compositions.
The advent of audio recording technology provided folklorists with a revolutionary tool to preserve vanishing musical forms. The earliest American folk music scholars were with the American Folklore Society (AFS), which emerged in the late 1800s. Their studies expanded to include Native American music, but still treated folk music as a historical item preserved in isolated societies as well. In North America, during the 1930s and 1940s, the Library of Congress worked through the offices of traditional music collectors Robert Winslow Gordon, Alan Lomax and others to capture as much North American field material as possible. John Lomax (the father of Alan Lomax) was the first prominent scholar to study distinctly American folk music such as that of cowboys and southern blacks. His first major published work was in 1911, Cowboy Songs and Other Frontier Ballads. and was arguably the most prominent US folk music scholar of his time, notably during the beginnings of the folk music revival in the 1930s and early 1940s. Cecil Sharp also worked in America, recording the traditional songs of the Appalachian Mountains in 1916–1918 in collaboration with Maud Karpeles and Olive Dame Campbell and is considered the first major scholar covering American folk music. Campbell and Sharp are represented under other names by actors in the modern movie Songcatcher.
One strong theme amongst folk scholars in the early decades of the 20th century was regionalism, the analysis of the diversity of folk music (and related cultures) based on regions of the US rather than based on a given song's historical roots. Later, a dynamic of class and circumstances was added to this. The most prominent regionalists were literary figures with a particular interest in folklore. Carl Sandburg often traveled the U.S. as a writer and a poet. He also collected songs in his travels and, in 1927, published them in the book The American Songbag. Rachel Donaldson, a historian who worked for Vanderbilt, later stated this about The American Songbird in her analysis of the folk music revival. "In his collections of folk songs, Sandburg added a class dynamic to popular understandings of American folk music. This was the final element of the foundation upon which the early folk music revivalists constructed their own view of Americanism. Sandburg's working-class Americans joined with the ethnically, racially, and regionally diverse citizens that other scholars, public intellectuals, and folklorists celebrated their own definitions of the American folk, definitions that the folk revivalists used in constructing their own understanding of American folk music, and an overarching American identity".
Prior to the 1930s, the study of folk music was primarily the province of scholars and collectors. The 1930s saw the beginnings of larger scale themes, commonalities, and linkages in folk music developing in the populace and practitioners as well, often related to the Great Depression. Regionalism and cultural pluralism grew as influences and themes. During this time folk music began to become enmeshed with political and social activism themes and movements. Two related developments were the U.S. Communist Party's interest in folk music as a way to reach and influence Americans, and politically active prominent folk musicians and scholars seeing communism as a possible better system, through the lens of the Great Depression. Woody Guthrie exemplifies songwriters and artists with such an outlook.
Folk music festivals proliferated during the 1930s. President Franklin Roosevelt was a fan of folk music, hosted folk concerts at the White House, and often patronized folk festivals. One prominent festival was Sarah Gertrude Knott's National Folk Festival, established in St. Louis, Missouri in 1934. Under the sponsorship of the Washington Post, the festival was held in Washington, DC at Constitution Hall from 1937 to 1942. The folk music movement, festivals, and the wartime effort were seen as forces for social goods such as democracy, cultural pluralism, and the removal of culture and race-based barriers.
The American folk music revivalists of the 1930s approached folk music in different ways. Three primary schools of thought emerged: "Traditionalists" (e.g. Sarah Gertrude Knott and John Lomax) emphasized the preservation of songs as artifacts of deceased cultures. "Functional" folklorists (e.g. Botkin and Alan Lomax) maintained that songs only retain relevance when used by those cultures which retain the traditions which birthed those songs. "Left-wing" folk revivalists (e.g. Charles Seeger and Lawrence Gellert) emphasized music's role "in 'people's' struggles for social and political rights". By the end of the 1930s these and others had turned American folk music into a social movement.
Sometimes folk musicians became scholars and advocates themselves. For example, Jean Ritchie (1922–2015) was the youngest child of a large family from Viper, Kentucky that had preserved many of the old Appalachian traditional songs. Ritchie, living in a time when the Appalachians had opened up to outside influence, was university educated and ultimately moved to New York City, where she made a number of classic recordings of the family repertoire and published an important compilation of these songs.
In January 2012, the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress, with the Association for Cultural Equity, announced that they would release Lomax's vast archive of 1946 and later recording in digital form. Lomax spent the last 20 years of his life working on an Interactive Multimedia educational computer project he called the Global Jukebox, which included 5,000 hours of sound recordings, 400,000 feet of film, 3,000 videotapes, and 5,000 photographs. As of March 2012, this has been accomplished. Approximately 17,400 of Lomax's recordings from 1946 and later have been made available free online. This material from Alan Lomax's independent archive, begun in 1946, which has been digitized and offered by the Association for Cultural Equity, is "distinct from the thousands of earlier recordings on acetate and aluminum discs he made from 1933 to 1942 under the auspices of the Library of Congress. This earlier collection—which includes the famous Jelly Roll Morton, Woody Guthrie, Lead Belly, and Muddy Waters sessions, as well as Lomax's prodigious collections made in Haiti and Eastern Kentucky (1937) — is the provenance of the American Folklife Center" at the library of Congress.
Africa is a vast continent and its regions and nations have distinct musical traditions. The music of North Africa for the most part has a different history from Sub-Saharan African music traditions.
The music and dance forms of the African diaspora, including African American music and many Caribbean genres like soca, calypso and Zouk; and Latin American music genres like the samba, Cuban rumba, salsa; and other clave (rhythm)-based genres, were founded to varying degrees on the music of African slaves, which has in turn influenced African popular music.
Many Asian civilizations distinguish between art/court/classical styles and "folk" music. For example, the late Alam Lohar is an example of a South Asian singer who was classified as a folk singer.
Khunung Eshei/Khuland Eshei is an ancient folk song from India, a country of Asia, of Meiteis of Manipur, that is an example of Asian folk music, and how they put it into its own genre.
Archaeological discoveries date Chinese folk music back 7000 years; it is largely based on the pentatonic scale.
Han traditional weddings and funerals usually include a form of oboe called a suona, and apercussive ensembles called a chuigushou. Ensembles consisting of mouth organs (sheng), shawms (suona), flutes (dizi) and percussion instruments (especially yunluo gongs) are popular in northern villages; their music is descended from the imperial temple music of Beijing, Xi'an, Wutai shan and Tianjin. Xi'an drum music, consisting of wind and percussive instruments, is popular around Xi'an, and has received some commercial popularity outside of China. Another important instrument is the sheng, a type of Chinese pipe, an ancient instrument that is ancestor of all Western free reed instruments, such as the accordion. Parades led by Western-type brass bands are common, often competing in volume with a shawm/chuigushou band.
In southern Fujian and Taiwan, Nanyin or Nanguan is a genre of traditional ballads. They are sung by a woman accompanied by a xiao and a pipa, as well as other traditional instruments. The music is generally sorrowful and typically deals with love-stricken people. Further south, in Shantou, Hakka and Chaozhou, zheng ensembles are popular. Sizhu ensembles use flutes and bowed or plucked string instruments to make harmonious and melodious music that has become popular in the West among some listeners. These are popular in Nanjing and Hangzhou, as well as elsewhere along the southern Yangtze area. Jiangnan Sizhu (silk and bamboo music from Jiangnan) is a style of instrumental music, often played by amateur musicians in tea houses in Shanghai. Guangdong Music or Cantonese Music is instrumental music from Guangzhou and surrounding areas. The music from this region influenced Yueju (Cantonese Opera) music, which would later grow popular during the self-described "Golden Age" of China under the PRC.
Folk songs have been recorded since ancient times in China. The term Yuefu was used for a broad range of songs such as ballads, laments, folk songs, love songs, and songs performed at court. China is a vast country, with a multiplicity of linguistic and geographic regions. Folk songs are categorized by geographic region, language type, ethnicity, social function (e.g. work song, ritual song, courting song) and musical type. Modern anthologies collected by Chinese folklorists distinguish between traditional songs, revolutionary songs, and newly-invented songs. The songs of northwest China are known as "flower songs" (hua'er), a reference to beautiful women, while in the past they were notorious for their erotic content. The village "mountain songs" (shan'ge) of Jiangsu province were also well-known for their amorous themes. Other regional song traditions include the "strummed lyrics" (tanci) of the Lower Yangtze Delta, the Cantonese Wooden Fish tradition (muyu or muk-yu) and the Drum Songs (guci) of north China.
In the twenty-first century many cherished Chinese folk songs have been inscribed in the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. In the process, songs once seen as vulgar are now being reconstructed as romantic courtship songs. Regional song competitions, popular in many communities, have promoted professional folk singing as a career, with some individual folk singers having gained national prominence.
The art, music and dance of Sri Lanka derive from the elements of nature, and have been enjoyed and developed in the Buddhist environment. The music is of several types and uses only a few types of instruments. The folk songs and poems were used in social gatherings to work together. The Indian influenced classical music has grown to be unique. The traditional drama, music and songs of Sinhala Light Music are typically Sri Lankan. The temple paintings and carvings feature birds, elephants, wild animals, flowers, and trees, and the Traditional 18 Dances display the dancing of birds and animals. For example:
Musical types include:
The classical Sinhalese orchestra consists of five categories of instruments, but among the percussion instruments, the drum is essential for dance. The vibrant beat of the rhythm of the drums form the basic of the dance. The dancers' feet bounce off the floor and they leap and swirl in patterns that reflect the complex rhythms of the drum beat. This drum beat may seem simple on the first hearing but it takes a long time to master the intricate rhythms and variations, which the drummer sometimes can bring to a crescendo of intensity. There are six common types of drums falling within 3 styles (one-faced, two-faced, and flat-faced):
Other instruments include:
Folk song traditions were taken to Australia by early settlers from England, Scotland and Ireland and gained particular foothold in the rural outback. The rhyming songs, poems and tales written in the form of bush ballads often relate to the itinerant and rebellious spirit of Australia in The Bush, and the authors and performers are often referred to as bush bards. The 19th century was the golden age of bush ballads. Several collectors have catalogued the songs including John Meredith whose recording in the 1950s became the basis of the collection in the National Library of Australia.
The songs tell personal stories of life in the wide open country of Australia. Typical subjects include mining, raising and droving cattle, sheep shearing, wanderings, war stories, the 1891 Australian shearers' strike, class conflicts between the landless working class and the squatters (landowners), and outlaws such as Ned Kelly, as well as love interests and more modern fare such as trucking. The most famous bush ballad is "Waltzing Matilda", which has been called "the unofficial national anthem of Australia".
Indigenous Australian music includes the music of Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islanders, who are collectively called Indigenous Australians; it incorporates a variety of distinctive traditional music styles practiced by Indigenous Australian peoples, as well as a range of contemporary musical styles of and fusion with European traditions as interpreted and performed by indigenous Australian artists. Music has formed an integral part of the social, cultural and ceremonial observances of these peoples, down through the millennia of their individual and collective histories to the present day. The traditional forms include many aspects of performance and musical instruments unique to particular regions or Indigenous Australian groups. Equal elements of musical tradition are common through much of the Australian continent, and even beyond. The culture of the Torres Strait Islanders is related to that of adjacent parts of New Guinea and so their music is also related. Music is a vital part of Indigenous Australians' cultural maintenance.
Celtic music is a term used by artists, record companies, music stores and music magazines to describe a broad grouping of musical genres that evolved out of the folk musical traditions of the Celtic peoples. These traditions include Irish, Scottish, Manx, Cornish, Welsh, and Breton traditions. Asturian and Galician music is often included, though there is no significant research showing that this has any close musical relationship. Brittany's Folk revival began in the 1950s with the "bagadoù" and the "kan-ha-diskan" before growing to world fame through Alan Stivell's work since the mid-1960s.
In Ireland, The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem (although its members were all Irish-born, the group became famous while based in New York's Greenwich Village), The Dubliners, Clannad, Planxty, The Chieftains, The Pogues, The Corrs, The Irish Rovers, and a variety of other folk bands have done much over the past few decades to revitalise and re-popularise Irish traditional music. These bands were rooted, to a greater or lesser extent, in a tradition of Irish music and benefited from the efforts of artists such as Seamus Ennis and Peter Kennedy.
In Scotland, The Corries, Silly Wizard, Capercaillie, Runrig, Jackie Leven, Julie Fowlis, Karine Polwart, Alasdair Roberts, Dick Gaughan, Wolfstone, Boys of the Lough, and The Silencers have kept Scottish folk vibrant and fresh by mixing traditional Scottish and Gaelic folk songs with more contemporary genres. These artists have also been commercially successful in continental Europe and North America. There is an emerging wealth of talent in the Scottish traditional music scene, with bands such as Mànran, Skipinnish, Barluath and Breabach and solo artists such as Patsy Reid, Robyn Stapleton and Mischa MacPherson gaining a lot of success in recent years.
During the Eastern Bloc era, national folk dancing was actively promoted by the state. Dance troupes from Russia and Poland toured non-communist Europe from about 1937 to 1990. The Red Army Choir recorded many albums, becoming the most popular military band. Eastern Europe is also the origin of the Jewish Klezmer tradition.
The polka is a central European dance and also a genre of dance music familiar throughout Europe and the Americas. It originated in the middle of the 19th century in Bohemia. Polka is still a popular genre of folk music in many European countries and is performed by folk artists in Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Czech Republic, Netherlands, Croatia, Slovenia, Germany, Hungary, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Ukraine, Belarus, Russia and Slovakia. Local varieties of this dance are also found in the Nordic countries, United Kingdom, Republic of Ireland, Latin America (especially Mexico), and in the United States.
German Volkslieder perpetuated by Liederhandschriften manuscripts like Carmina Burana date back to medieval Minnesang and Meistersinger traditions. Those folk songs revived in the late 18th century period of German Romanticism, first promoted by Johann Gottfried Herder and other advocates of the Enlightenment, later compiled by Achim von Arnim and Clemens Brentano (Des Knaben Wunderhorn) as well as by Ludwig Uhland.
The Volksmusik and folk dances genre, especially in the Alpine regions of Bavaria, Austria, Switzerland (Kuhreihen) and South Tyrol, up to today has lingered in rustic communities against the backdrop of industrialisation—Low German shanties or the Wienerlied (Schrammelmusik) being notable exceptions. Slovene folk music in Upper Carniola and Styria also originated from the Alpine traditions, like the prolific Lojze Slak Ensemble. Traditional Volksmusik is not to be confused with commercial Volkstümliche Musik, which is a derivation of that.
The Hungarian group Muzsikás played numerous American tours and participated in the Hollywood movie The English Patient while the singer Márta Sebestyén worked with the band Deep Forest. The Hungarian táncház movement, started in the 1970s, involves strong cooperation between musicology experts and enthusiastic amateurs. However, traditional Hungarian folk music and folk culture barely survived in some rural areas of Hungary, and it has also begun to disappear among the ethnic Hungarians in Transylvania. The táncház movement revived broader folk traditions of music, dance, and costume together and created a new kind of music club. The movement spread to ethnic Hungarian communities elsewhere in the world.
Balkan folk music was influenced by the mingling of Balkan ethnic groups in the period of the Ottoman Empire. It comprises the music of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Montenegro, Serbia, Romania, North Macedonia, Albania, some of the historical states of Yugoslavia or Serbia and Montenegro and geographical regions such as Thrace. Some music is characterised by complex rhythm.
A notable act is the Mystery of the Bulgarian Voices, which won the Grammy Award for Best Traditional Folk Recording at the 32nd annual ceremony.
An important part of the whole Balkan folk music is the music of the local Romani ethnic minority, which is called tallava and brass band music.
Nordic folk music includes a number of traditions in Northern European, especially Scandinavian, countries. The Nordic countries are generally taken to include Iceland, Norway, Finland, Sweden, Denmark and Greenland. Sometimes it is taken to include the Baltic countries of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
The many regions of the Nordic countries share certain traditions, many of which have diverged significantly, like Psalmodicon of Denmark, Sweden, and Norway. It is possible to group together the Baltic states (or, sometimes, only Estonia) and parts of northwest Russia as sharing cultural similarities, although the relationship has gone cold in recent years. Contrast with Norway, Sweden, Denmark and the Atlantic islands of Iceland and the Faroe Islands, which share virtually no similarities of that kind. Greenland's Inuit culture has its own unique musical traditions. Finland shares many cultural similarities with both the Baltic nations and the Scandinavian nations. The Sami of Sweden, Norway, Finland and Russia have their own unique culture, with ties to the neighboring cultures.
Swedish folk music is a genre of music based largely on folkloric collection work that began in the early 19th century in Sweden. The primary instrument of Swedish folk music is the fiddle. Another common instrument, unique to Swedish traditions, is the nyckelharpa. Most Swedish instrumental folk music is dance music; the signature music and dance form within Swedish folk music is the polska. Vocal and instrumental traditions in Sweden have tended to share tunes historically, though they have been performed separately. Beginning with the folk music revival of the 1970s, vocalists and instrumentalists have also begun to perform together in folk music ensembles.
The folk music of the Americas consists of the encounter and union of three main musical types: European traditional music, traditional music of the American natives, and tribal African music that arrived with slaves from that continent.
The particular case of Latin and South American music points to Andean music among other native musical styles (such as Caribbean and pampean), Iberian music of Spain and Portugal, and generally speaking African tribal music, the three of which fused together evolving in differentiated musical forms in Central and South America.
Andean music comes from the region of the Quechuas, Aymaras, and other peoples that inhabit the general area of the Inca Empire prior to European contact. It includes folklore music of parts of Bolivia, Ecuador, Chile, Colombia, Peru and Venezuela. Andean music is popular to different degrees across Latin America, having its core public in rural areas and among indigenous populations. The Nueva Canción movement of the 1970s revived the genre across Latin America and brought it to places where it was unknown or forgotten.
Nueva canción (Spanish for 'new song') is a movement and genre within Latin American and Iberian folk music, folk-inspired music, and socially committed music. In some respects its development and role is similar to the second folk music revival in North America. This includes evolution of this new genre from traditional folk music, essentially contemporary folk music except that that English genre term is not commonly applied to it. Nueva cancion is recognized as having played a powerful role in the social upheavals in Portugal, Spain and Latin America during the 1970s and 1980s.
Nueva cancion first surfaced during the 1960s as "The Chilean New Song" in Chile. The musical style emerged shortly afterwards in Spain and areas of Latin America where it came to be known under similar names. Nueva canción renewed traditional Latin American folk music, and with its political lyrics it was soon associated with revolutionary movements, the Latin American New Left, Liberation Theology, hippie and human rights movements. It would gain great popularity throughout Latin America, and it is regarded as a precursor to Rock en español.
Cueca is a family of musical styles and associated dances from Chile, Bolivia and Peru.
Trova and Son are styles of traditional Cuban music originating in the province of Oriente that includes influences from Spanish song and dance, such as Bolero and contradanza as well as Afro-Cuban rhythm and percussion elements.
Moda de viola is the name designated to Brazilian folk music. It is often performed with a 6-string nylon acoustic guitar, but the most traditional instrument is the viola caipira. The songs basically detailed the difficulties of life of those who work in the country. The themes are usually associated with the land, animals, folklore, impossible love and separation. Although there are some upbeat songs, most of them are nostalgic and melancholic.
Canada's traditional folk music is particularly diverse. Even prior to liberalizing its immigration laws in the 1960s, Canada was ethnically diverse with dozens of different Indigenous and European groups present. In terms of music, academics do not speak of a Canadian tradition, but rather ethnic traditions (Acadian music, Irish-Canadian music, Blackfoot music, Innu music, Inuit music, Métis fiddle, etc.) and later in Eastern Canada regional traditions (Newfoundland music, Cape Breton fiddling, Quebecois music, etc.)
Traditional folk music of European origin has been present in Canada since the arrival of the first French and British settlers in the 16th and 17th centuries....They fished the coastal waters and farmed the shores of what became Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and the St Lawrence River valley of Quebec.
The fur trade and its voyageurs brought this farther north and west into Canada; later lumbering operations and lumberjacks continued this process.
Agrarian settlement in eastern and southern Ontario and western Quebec in the early 19th century established a favorable milieu for the survival of many Anglo-Canadian folksongs and broadside ballads from Great Britain and the US. Despite massive industrialization, folk music traditions have persisted in many areas until today. In the north of Ontario, a large Franco-Ontarian population kept folk music of French origin alive.
Populous Acadian communities in the Atlantic provinces contributed their song variants to the huge corpus of folk music of French origin centred in the province of Quebec. A rich source of Anglo-Canadian folk music can be found in the Atlantic region, especially Newfoundland. Completing this mosaic of musical folklore is the Gaelic music of Scottish settlements, particularly in Cape Breton, and the hundreds of Irish songs whose presence in eastern Canada dates from the Irish famine of the 1840s, which forced the large migrations of Irish to North America.
"Knowledge of the history of Canada", wrote Isabelle Mills in 1974, "is essential in understanding the mosaic of Canadian folk song. Part of this mosaic is supplied by the folk songs of Canada brought by European and Anglo-Saxon settlers to the new land." She describes how the French colony at Québec brought French immigrants, followed before long by waves of immigrants from Great Britain, Germany, and other European countries, all bringing music from their homelands, some of which survives into the present day. Ethnographer and folklorist Marius Barbeau estimated that well over ten thousand French folk songs and their variants had been collected in Canada. Many of the older ones had by then died out in France.
Music as professionalized paid entertainment grew relatively slowly in Canada, especially remote rural areas, through the 19th and early 20th centuries. While in urban music clubs of the dance hall/vaudeville variety became popular, followed by jazz, rural Canada remained mostly a land of traditional music. Yet when American radio networks began broadcasting into Canada in the 1920s and 1930s, the audience for Canadian traditional music progressively declined in favour of American Nashville-style country music and urban styles like jazz. The Americanization of Canadian music led the Canadian Radio League to lobby for a national public broadcaster in the 1930s, eventually leading to the creation of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) in 1936. The CBC promoted Canadian music, including traditional music, on its radio and later television services, but the mid-century craze for all things "modern" led to the decline of folk music relative to rock and pop. Canada was however influenced by the folk music revival of the 1960s, when local venues such as the Montreal Folk Workshop, and other folk clubs and coffee houses across the country, became crucibles for emerging songwriters and performers as well as for interchange with artists visiting from abroad.
American traditional music is also called roots music. Roots music is a broad category of music including bluegrass, country music, gospel, old time music, jug bands, Appalachian folk, blues, Cajun and Native American music. The music is considered American either because it is native to the United States or because it developed there, out of foreign origins, to such a degree that it struck musicologists as something distinctly new. It is considered "roots music" because it served as the basis of music later developed in the United States, including rock and roll, contemporary folk music, rhythm and blues, and jazz. Some of these genres are considered to be traditional folk music.
"It's self-perpetuating, regenerative. It's what you'd call a perennial American song. I don't think it needs a revival, resuscitation. It lives and flourishes. It really just needs people who are 18 years old to get exposed to it. But it will go on with or without them. The folk song is more powerful than anything on the radio, than anything that's released...It's that distillation of the voices that goes on for a long, long time, and that's what makes them strong."
— Ketch Secor
"Folk music revival" refers to either a period of renewed interest in traditional folk music, or to an event or period which transforms it; the latter usually includes a social activism component. A prominent example of the former is the British folk revival of approximately 1890–1920. The most prominent and influential example of the latter (to the extent that it is usually called "the folk music revival") is the folk revival of the mid 20th century, centered in the English-speaking world which gave birth to contemporary folk music. See the "Contemporary folk music" article for a description of this revival.
One earlier revival influenced western classical music. Such composers as Percy Grainger, Ralph Vaughan Williams and Béla Bartók, made field recordings or transcriptions of folk singers and musicians.
In Spain, Isaac Albéniz (1860–1909) produced piano works reflect his Spanish heritage, including the Suite Iberia (1906–1909). Enrique Granados (1867–1918) composed zarzuela, Spanish light opera, and Danzas Españolas – Spanish Dances. Manuel de Falla (1876–1946) became interested in the cante jondo of Andalusian flamenco, the influence of which can be strongly felt in many of his works, which include Nights in the Gardens of Spain and Siete canciones populares españolas ("Seven Spanish Folksongs", for voice and piano). Composers such as Fernando Sor and Francisco Tarrega established the guitar as Spain's national instrument. Modern Spanish folk artists abound (Mil i Maria, Russian Red, et al.) modernizing while respecting the traditions of their forebears.
Flamenco grew in popularity through the 20th century, as did northern styles such as the Celtic music of Galicia. French classical composers, from Bizet to Ravel, also drew upon Spanish themes, and distinctive Spanish genres became universally recognized.
Folk music revivals or roots revivals also encompass a range of phenomena around the world where there is a renewed interest in traditional music. This is often by the young, often in the traditional music of their own country, and often included new incorporation of social awareness, causes, and evolutions of new music in the same style. Nueva canción, a similar evolution of a new form of socially committed music occurred in several Spanish-speaking countries.
It is sometimes claimed that the earliest United States folk music festival was the Mountain Dance and Folk Festival, 1928, in Asheville, North Carolina, founded by Bascom Lamar Lunsford. The National Folk Festival (USA) is an itinerant folk festival in the United States. Since 1934, it has been run by the National Council for the Traditional Arts (NCTA) and has been presented in 26 communities around the nation. After leaving some of these communities, the National Folk Festival has spun off several locally run folk festivals in its wake including the Lowell Folk Festival, the Richmond Folk Festival, the American Folk Festival and, most recently, the Montana Folk Festival.
The Newport Folk Festival is an annual folk festival held near Newport, Rhode Island. It ran most years from 1959 to 1970 and from 1985 to the present, with an attendance of approximately 10,000 people each year.
The four-day Philadelphia Folk Festival began in 1962. It is sponsored by the non-profit Philadelphia Folksong Society. The event hosts contemporary and traditional artists in genres including World/Fusion, Celtic, Singer-Songwriter, Folk Rock, Country, Klezmer, and Dance. It is held annually on the third weekend in August. The event now hosts approximately 12,000 visitors, presenting bands on 6 stages.
The Feast of the Hunters' Moon in Indiana draws approximately 60,000 visitors per year.
Sidmouth Festival began in 1954, and Cambridge Folk Festival began in 1965. The Cambridge Folk Festival in Cambridge, England is noted for having a very wide definition of who can be invited as folk musicians. The "club tents" allow attendees to discover large numbers of unknown artists, who, for ten or 15 minutes each, present their work to the festival audience.
The National Folk Festival is Australia's premier folk festival event and is attended by over 50,000 people. The Woodford Folk Festival and Port Fairy Folk Festival are similarly amongst Australia's largest major annual events, attracting top international folk performers as well as many local artists.
Stan Rogers is a lasting fixture of the Canadian folk festival Summerfolk, held annually in Owen Sound, Ontario, where the main stage and amphitheater are dedicated as the "Stan Rogers Memorial Canopy". The festival is firmly fixed in tradition, with Rogers' song "The Mary Ellen Carter" being sung by all involved, including the audience and a medley of acts at the festival. The Canmore Folk Music Festival is Alberta's longest running folk music festival.
Urkult Näsåker, Ångermanland held August each year is purportedly Sweden's largest world-music festival.
(does not include those used as references)
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"text": "Folk music is a music genre that includes traditional folk music and the contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be called world music. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted orally, music with unknown composers, music that is played on traditional instruments, music about cultural or national identity, music that changes between generations (folk process), music associated with a people's folklore, or music performed by custom over a long period of time. It has been contrasted with commercial and classical styles. The term originated in the 19th century, but folk music extends beyond that.",
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"text": "Starting in the mid-20th century, a new form of popular folk music evolved from traditional folk music. This process and period is called the (second) folk revival and reached a zenith in the 1960s. This form of music is sometimes called contemporary folk music or folk revival music to distinguish it from earlier folk forms. Smaller, similar revivals have occurred elsewhere in the world at other times, but the term folk music has typically not been applied to the new music created during those revivals. This type of folk music also includes fusion genres such as folk rock, folk metal, and others. While contemporary folk music is a genre generally distinct from traditional folk music, in U.S. English it shares the same name, and it often shares the same performers and venues as traditional folk music.",
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{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "The terms folk music, folk song, and folk dance are comparatively recent expressions. They are extensions of the term folklore, which was coined in 1846 by the English antiquarian William Thoms to describe \"the traditions, customs, and superstitions of the uncultured classes\". The term further derives from the German expression volk, in the sense of \"the people as a whole\" as applied to popular and national music by Johann Gottfried Herder and the German Romantics over half a century earlier. Though it is understood that folk music is the music of the people, observers find a more precise definition to be elusive. Some do not even agree that the term folk music should be used. Folk music may tend to have certain characteristics but it cannot clearly be differentiated in purely musical terms. One meaning often given is that of \"old songs, with no known composers,\" another is that of music that has been submitted to an evolutionary \"process of oral transmission.... the fashioning and re-fashioning of the music by the community that give it its folk character.\"",
"title": "Traditional folk music"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "Such definitions depend upon \"(cultural) processes rather than abstract musical types...\", upon \"continuity and oral transmission...seen as characterizing one side of a cultural dichotomy, the other side of which is found not only in the lower layers of feudal, capitalist and some oriental societies but also in 'primitive' societies and in parts of 'popular cultures'\". One widely used definition is simply \"Folk music is what the people sing.\"",
"title": "Traditional folk music"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "For Scholes, as well as for Cecil Sharp and Béla Bartók, there was a sense of the music of the country as distinct from that of the town. Folk music was already, \"...seen as the authentic expression of a way of life now past or about to disappear (or in some cases, to be preserved or somehow revived),\" particularly in \"a community uninfluenced by art music\" and by commercial and printed song. Lloyd rejected this in favor of a simple distinction of economic class yet for him, true folk music was, in Charles Seeger's words, \"associated with a lower class\" in culturally and socially stratified societies. In these terms, folk music may be seen as part of a \"schema comprising four musical types: 'primitive' or 'tribal'; 'elite' or 'art'; 'folk'; and 'popular'.\"",
"title": "Traditional folk music"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "Music in this genre is also often called traditional music. Although the term is usually only descriptive, in some cases people use it as the name of a genre. For example, the Grammy Award previously used the terms \"traditional music\" and \"traditional folk\" for folk music that is not contemporary folk music. Folk music may include most indigenous music.",
"title": "Traditional folk music"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "From a historical perspective, traditional folk music had these characteristics:",
"title": "Traditional folk music"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "As a side-effect, the following characteristics are sometimes present:",
"title": "Traditional folk music"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "In folk music, a tune is a short instrumental piece, a melody, often with repeating sections, and usually played a number of times. A collection of tunes with structural similarities is known as a tune-family. America's Musical Landscape says \"the most common form for tunes in folk music is AABB, also known as binary form.\"",
"title": "Traditional folk music"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "In some traditions, tunes may be strung together in medleys or \"sets.\"",
"title": "Traditional folk music"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "Throughout most of human prehistory and history, listening to recorded music was not possible. Music was made by common people during both their work and leisure, as well as during religious activities. The work of economic production was often manual and communal. Manual labor often included singing by the workers, which served several practical purposes. It reduced the boredom of repetitive tasks, it kept the rhythm during synchronized pushes and pulls, and it set the pace of many activities such as planting, weeding, reaping, threshing, weaving, and milling. In leisure time, singing and playing musical instruments were common forms of entertainment and history-telling—even more common than today when electrically enabled technologies and widespread literacy make other forms of entertainment and information-sharing competitive.",
"title": "Traditional folk music"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "Some believe that folk music originated as art music that was changed and probably debased by oral transmission while reflecting the character of the society that produced it. In many societies, especially preliterate ones, the cultural transmission of folk music requires learning by ear, although notation has evolved in some cultures. Different cultures may have different notions concerning a division between \"folk\" music on the one hand and of \"art\" and \"court\" music on the other. In the proliferation of popular music genres, some traditional folk music became also referred to as \"World music\" or \"Roots music\".",
"title": "Traditional folk music"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "The English term \"folklore\", to describe traditional folk music and dance, entered the vocabulary of many continental European nations, each of which had its folk-song collectors and revivalists. The distinction between \"authentic\" folk and national and popular song in general has always been loose, particularly in America and Germany – for example, popular songwriters such as Stephen Foster could be termed \"folk\" in America. The International Folk Music Council definition allows that the term can also apply to music that, \"...has originated with an individual composer and has subsequently been absorbed into the unwritten, living tradition of a community. But the term does not cover a song, dance, or tune that has been taken over ready-made and remains unchanged.\"",
"title": "Traditional folk music"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "The post–World War II folk revival in America and in Britain started a new genre, Contemporary Folk Music, and brought an additional meaning to the term \"folk music\": newly composed songs, fixed in form and by known authors, which imitated some form of traditional music. The popularity of \"contemporary folk\" recordings caused the appearance of the category \"Folk\" in the Grammy Awards of 1959; in 1970 the term was dropped in favor of \"Best Ethnic or Traditional Recording (including Traditional Blues)\", while 1987 brought a distinction between \"Best Traditional Folk Recording\" and \"Best Contemporary Folk Recording\". After that, they had a \"Traditional music\" category that subsequently evolved into others. The term \"folk\", by the start of the 21st century, could cover singer-songwriters, such as Donovan from Scotland and American Bob Dylan, who emerged in the 1960s and much more. This completed a process to where \"folk music\" no longer meant only traditional folk music.",
"title": "Traditional folk music"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "Traditional folk music often includes sung words, although folk instrumental music occurs commonly in dance music traditions. Narrative verse looms large in the traditional folk music of many cultures. This encompasses such forms as traditional epic poetry, much of which was meant originally for oral performance, sometimes accompanied by instruments. Many epic poems of various cultures were pieced together from shorter pieces of traditional narrative verse, which explains their episodic structure, repetitive elements, and their frequent in medias res plot developments. Other forms of traditional narrative verse relate the outcomes of battles or lament tragedies or natural disasters.",
"title": "Traditional folk music"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 15,
"text": "Sometimes, as in the triumphant Song of Deborah found in the Biblical Book of Judges, these songs celebrate victory. Laments for lost battles and wars, and the lives lost in them, are equally prominent in many traditions; these laments keep alive the cause for which the battle was fought. The narratives of traditional songs often also remember folk heroes such as John Henry or Robin Hood. Some traditional song narratives recall supernatural events or mysterious deaths.",
"title": "Traditional folk music"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 16,
"text": "Hymns and other forms of religious music are often of traditional and unknown origin. Western musical notation was originally created to preserve the lines of Gregorian chant, which before its invention was taught as an oral tradition in monastic communities. Traditional songs such as Green grow the rushes, O present religious lore in a mnemonic form, as do Western Christmas carols and similar traditional songs.",
"title": "Traditional folk music"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 17,
"text": "Work songs frequently feature call and response structures and are designed to enable the laborers who sing them to coordinate their efforts in accordance with the rhythms of the songs. They are frequently, but not invariably, composed. In the American armed forces, a lively oral tradition preserves jody calls (\"Duckworth chants\") which are sung while soldiers are on the march. Professional sailors made similar use of a large body of sea shanties. Love poetry, often of a tragic or regretful nature, prominently figures in many folk traditions. Nursery rhymes and nonsense verse used to amuse or quiet children also are frequent subjects of traditional songs.",
"title": "Traditional folk music"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 18,
"text": "Music transmitted by word of mouth through a community, in time, develops many variants, since this transmission cannot produce word-for-word and note-for-note accuracy. In addition, folk singers may choose to modify the songs they hear.",
"title": "Traditional folk music"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 19,
"text": "For example, the words of \"I'm a Man You Don't Meet Every Day\" (Roud 975) were written down in a broadside in the 18th century, and seem to have an Irish origin. In 1958 the song was recorded in Canada (My Name is Pat and I'm Proud of That). Scottish traveler Jeannie Robertson from Aberdeen, made the next recorded version in 1961. She has changed it to make reference to \"Jock Stewart\", one of her relatives, and there are no Irish references. In 1976 Scottish artist Archie Fisher deliberately altered the song to remove the reference to a dog being shot. In 1985 The Pogues took it full circle by restoring the Irish references.",
"title": "Traditional folk music"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 20,
"text": "Because variants proliferate naturally, there is generally no \"authoritative\" version of song. Researchers in traditional songs have encountered countless versions of the Barbara Allen ballad throughout the English-speaking world, and these versions often differ greatly from each other. The original is not known; many versions can lay an equal claim to authenticity.",
"title": "Traditional folk music"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 21,
"text": "Influential folklorist Cecil Sharp felt that these competing variants of a traditional song would undergo a process of improvement akin to biological natural selection: only those new variants that were the most appealing to ordinary singers would be picked up by others and transmitted onward in time. Thus, over time we would expect each traditional song to become more aesthetically appealing, due to incremental community improvement.",
"title": "Traditional folk music"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 22,
"text": "Literary interest in the popular ballad form dates back at least to Thomas Percy and William Wordsworth. English Elizabethan and Stuart composers had often evolved their music from folk themes, the classical suite was based upon stylised folk-dances, and Joseph Haydn's use of folk melodies is noted. But the emergence of the term \"folk\" coincided with an \"outburst of national feeling all over Europe\" that was particularly strong at the edges of Europe, where national identity was most asserted. Nationalist composers emerged in Central Europe, Russia, Scandinavia, Spain and Britain: the music of Dvořák, Smetana, Grieg, Rimsky-Korsakov, Brahms, Liszt, de Falla, Wagner, Sibelius, Vaughan Williams, Bartók, and many others drew upon folk melodies.",
"title": "Traditional folk music"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 23,
"text": "While the loss of traditional folk music in the face of the rise of popular music is a worldwide phenomenon, it is not one occurring at a uniform rate throughout the world. The process is most advanced \"where industrialization and commercialisation of culture are most advanced\" but also occurs more gradually even in settings of lower technological advancement. However, the loss of traditional music is slowed in nations or regions where traditional folk music is a badge of cultural or national identity.",
"title": "Traditional folk music"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 24,
"text": "Much of what is known about folk music prior to the development of audio recording technology in the 19th century comes from fieldwork and writings of scholars, collectors and proponents.",
"title": "Traditional folk music"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 25,
"text": "Starting in the 19th century, academics and amateur scholars, taking note of the musical traditions being lost, initiated various efforts to preserve the music of the people. One such effort was the collection by Francis James Child in the late 19th century of the texts of over three hundred ballads in the English and Scots traditions (called the Child Ballads), some of which predated the 16th century.",
"title": "Traditional folk music"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 26,
"text": "Contemporaneously with Child, the Reverend Sabine Baring-Gould and later Cecil Sharp worked to preserve a great body of English rural traditional song, music and dance, under the aegis of what became and remains the English Folk Dance and Song Society (EFDSS). Sharp campaigned with some success to have English traditional songs (in his own heavily edited and expurgated versions) to be taught to school children in hopes of reviving and prolonging the popularity of those songs. Throughout the 1960s and early to mid-1970s, American scholar Bertrand Harris Bronson published an exhaustive four-volume collection of the then-known variations of both the texts and tunes associated with what came to be known as the Child Canon. He also advanced some significant theories concerning the workings of oral-aural tradition.",
"title": "Traditional folk music"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 27,
"text": "Similar activity was also under way in other countries. One of the most extensive was perhaps the work done in Riga by Krisjanis Barons, who between the years 1894 and 1915 published six volumes that included the texts of 217,996 Latvian folk songs, the Latvju dainas. In Norway the work of collectors such as Ludvig Mathias Lindeman was extensively used by Edvard Grieg in his Lyric Pieces for piano and in other works, which became immensely popular.",
"title": "Traditional folk music"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 28,
"text": "Around this time, composers of classical music developed a strong interest in collecting traditional songs, and a number of composers carried out their own field work on traditional music. These included Percy Grainger and Ralph Vaughan Williams in England and Béla Bartók in Hungary. These composers, like many of their predecessors, both made arrangements of folk songs and incorporated traditional material into original classical compositions.",
"title": "Traditional folk music"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 29,
"text": "The advent of audio recording technology provided folklorists with a revolutionary tool to preserve vanishing musical forms. The earliest American folk music scholars were with the American Folklore Society (AFS), which emerged in the late 1800s. Their studies expanded to include Native American music, but still treated folk music as a historical item preserved in isolated societies as well. In North America, during the 1930s and 1940s, the Library of Congress worked through the offices of traditional music collectors Robert Winslow Gordon, Alan Lomax and others to capture as much North American field material as possible. John Lomax (the father of Alan Lomax) was the first prominent scholar to study distinctly American folk music such as that of cowboys and southern blacks. His first major published work was in 1911, Cowboy Songs and Other Frontier Ballads. and was arguably the most prominent US folk music scholar of his time, notably during the beginnings of the folk music revival in the 1930s and early 1940s. Cecil Sharp also worked in America, recording the traditional songs of the Appalachian Mountains in 1916–1918 in collaboration with Maud Karpeles and Olive Dame Campbell and is considered the first major scholar covering American folk music. Campbell and Sharp are represented under other names by actors in the modern movie Songcatcher.",
"title": "Traditional folk music"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 30,
"text": "One strong theme amongst folk scholars in the early decades of the 20th century was regionalism, the analysis of the diversity of folk music (and related cultures) based on regions of the US rather than based on a given song's historical roots. Later, a dynamic of class and circumstances was added to this. The most prominent regionalists were literary figures with a particular interest in folklore. Carl Sandburg often traveled the U.S. as a writer and a poet. He also collected songs in his travels and, in 1927, published them in the book The American Songbag. Rachel Donaldson, a historian who worked for Vanderbilt, later stated this about The American Songbird in her analysis of the folk music revival. \"In his collections of folk songs, Sandburg added a class dynamic to popular understandings of American folk music. This was the final element of the foundation upon which the early folk music revivalists constructed their own view of Americanism. Sandburg's working-class Americans joined with the ethnically, racially, and regionally diverse citizens that other scholars, public intellectuals, and folklorists celebrated their own definitions of the American folk, definitions that the folk revivalists used in constructing their own understanding of American folk music, and an overarching American identity\".",
"title": "Traditional folk music"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 31,
"text": "Prior to the 1930s, the study of folk music was primarily the province of scholars and collectors. The 1930s saw the beginnings of larger scale themes, commonalities, and linkages in folk music developing in the populace and practitioners as well, often related to the Great Depression. Regionalism and cultural pluralism grew as influences and themes. During this time folk music began to become enmeshed with political and social activism themes and movements. Two related developments were the U.S. Communist Party's interest in folk music as a way to reach and influence Americans, and politically active prominent folk musicians and scholars seeing communism as a possible better system, through the lens of the Great Depression. Woody Guthrie exemplifies songwriters and artists with such an outlook.",
"title": "Traditional folk music"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 32,
"text": "Folk music festivals proliferated during the 1930s. President Franklin Roosevelt was a fan of folk music, hosted folk concerts at the White House, and often patronized folk festivals. One prominent festival was Sarah Gertrude Knott's National Folk Festival, established in St. Louis, Missouri in 1934. Under the sponsorship of the Washington Post, the festival was held in Washington, DC at Constitution Hall from 1937 to 1942. The folk music movement, festivals, and the wartime effort were seen as forces for social goods such as democracy, cultural pluralism, and the removal of culture and race-based barriers.",
"title": "Traditional folk music"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 33,
"text": "The American folk music revivalists of the 1930s approached folk music in different ways. Three primary schools of thought emerged: \"Traditionalists\" (e.g. Sarah Gertrude Knott and John Lomax) emphasized the preservation of songs as artifacts of deceased cultures. \"Functional\" folklorists (e.g. Botkin and Alan Lomax) maintained that songs only retain relevance when used by those cultures which retain the traditions which birthed those songs. \"Left-wing\" folk revivalists (e.g. Charles Seeger and Lawrence Gellert) emphasized music's role \"in 'people's' struggles for social and political rights\". By the end of the 1930s these and others had turned American folk music into a social movement.",
"title": "Traditional folk music"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 34,
"text": "Sometimes folk musicians became scholars and advocates themselves. For example, Jean Ritchie (1922–2015) was the youngest child of a large family from Viper, Kentucky that had preserved many of the old Appalachian traditional songs. Ritchie, living in a time when the Appalachians had opened up to outside influence, was university educated and ultimately moved to New York City, where she made a number of classic recordings of the family repertoire and published an important compilation of these songs.",
"title": "Traditional folk music"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 35,
"text": "In January 2012, the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress, with the Association for Cultural Equity, announced that they would release Lomax's vast archive of 1946 and later recording in digital form. Lomax spent the last 20 years of his life working on an Interactive Multimedia educational computer project he called the Global Jukebox, which included 5,000 hours of sound recordings, 400,000 feet of film, 3,000 videotapes, and 5,000 photographs. As of March 2012, this has been accomplished. Approximately 17,400 of Lomax's recordings from 1946 and later have been made available free online. This material from Alan Lomax's independent archive, begun in 1946, which has been digitized and offered by the Association for Cultural Equity, is \"distinct from the thousands of earlier recordings on acetate and aluminum discs he made from 1933 to 1942 under the auspices of the Library of Congress. This earlier collection—which includes the famous Jelly Roll Morton, Woody Guthrie, Lead Belly, and Muddy Waters sessions, as well as Lomax's prodigious collections made in Haiti and Eastern Kentucky (1937) — is the provenance of the American Folklife Center\" at the library of Congress.",
"title": "Traditional folk music"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 36,
"text": "Africa is a vast continent and its regions and nations have distinct musical traditions. The music of North Africa for the most part has a different history from Sub-Saharan African music traditions.",
"title": "Traditional folk music"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 37,
"text": "The music and dance forms of the African diaspora, including African American music and many Caribbean genres like soca, calypso and Zouk; and Latin American music genres like the samba, Cuban rumba, salsa; and other clave (rhythm)-based genres, were founded to varying degrees on the music of African slaves, which has in turn influenced African popular music.",
"title": "Traditional folk music"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 38,
"text": "Many Asian civilizations distinguish between art/court/classical styles and \"folk\" music. For example, the late Alam Lohar is an example of a South Asian singer who was classified as a folk singer.",
"title": "Traditional folk music"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 39,
"text": "Khunung Eshei/Khuland Eshei is an ancient folk song from India, a country of Asia, of Meiteis of Manipur, that is an example of Asian folk music, and how they put it into its own genre.",
"title": "Traditional folk music"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 40,
"text": "Archaeological discoveries date Chinese folk music back 7000 years; it is largely based on the pentatonic scale.",
"title": "Traditional folk music"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 41,
"text": "Han traditional weddings and funerals usually include a form of oboe called a suona, and apercussive ensembles called a chuigushou. Ensembles consisting of mouth organs (sheng), shawms (suona), flutes (dizi) and percussion instruments (especially yunluo gongs) are popular in northern villages; their music is descended from the imperial temple music of Beijing, Xi'an, Wutai shan and Tianjin. Xi'an drum music, consisting of wind and percussive instruments, is popular around Xi'an, and has received some commercial popularity outside of China. Another important instrument is the sheng, a type of Chinese pipe, an ancient instrument that is ancestor of all Western free reed instruments, such as the accordion. Parades led by Western-type brass bands are common, often competing in volume with a shawm/chuigushou band.",
"title": "Traditional folk music"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 42,
"text": "In southern Fujian and Taiwan, Nanyin or Nanguan is a genre of traditional ballads. They are sung by a woman accompanied by a xiao and a pipa, as well as other traditional instruments. The music is generally sorrowful and typically deals with love-stricken people. Further south, in Shantou, Hakka and Chaozhou, zheng ensembles are popular. Sizhu ensembles use flutes and bowed or plucked string instruments to make harmonious and melodious music that has become popular in the West among some listeners. These are popular in Nanjing and Hangzhou, as well as elsewhere along the southern Yangtze area. Jiangnan Sizhu (silk and bamboo music from Jiangnan) is a style of instrumental music, often played by amateur musicians in tea houses in Shanghai. Guangdong Music or Cantonese Music is instrumental music from Guangzhou and surrounding areas. The music from this region influenced Yueju (Cantonese Opera) music, which would later grow popular during the self-described \"Golden Age\" of China under the PRC.",
"title": "Traditional folk music"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 43,
"text": "Folk songs have been recorded since ancient times in China. The term Yuefu was used for a broad range of songs such as ballads, laments, folk songs, love songs, and songs performed at court. China is a vast country, with a multiplicity of linguistic and geographic regions. Folk songs are categorized by geographic region, language type, ethnicity, social function (e.g. work song, ritual song, courting song) and musical type. Modern anthologies collected by Chinese folklorists distinguish between traditional songs, revolutionary songs, and newly-invented songs. The songs of northwest China are known as \"flower songs\" (hua'er), a reference to beautiful women, while in the past they were notorious for their erotic content. The village \"mountain songs\" (shan'ge) of Jiangsu province were also well-known for their amorous themes. Other regional song traditions include the \"strummed lyrics\" (tanci) of the Lower Yangtze Delta, the Cantonese Wooden Fish tradition (muyu or muk-yu) and the Drum Songs (guci) of north China.",
"title": "Traditional folk music"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 44,
"text": "In the twenty-first century many cherished Chinese folk songs have been inscribed in the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. In the process, songs once seen as vulgar are now being reconstructed as romantic courtship songs. Regional song competitions, popular in many communities, have promoted professional folk singing as a career, with some individual folk singers having gained national prominence.",
"title": "Traditional folk music"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 45,
"text": "The art, music and dance of Sri Lanka derive from the elements of nature, and have been enjoyed and developed in the Buddhist environment. The music is of several types and uses only a few types of instruments. The folk songs and poems were used in social gatherings to work together. The Indian influenced classical music has grown to be unique. The traditional drama, music and songs of Sinhala Light Music are typically Sri Lankan. The temple paintings and carvings feature birds, elephants, wild animals, flowers, and trees, and the Traditional 18 Dances display the dancing of birds and animals. For example:",
"title": "Traditional folk music"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 46,
"text": "Musical types include:",
"title": "Traditional folk music"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 47,
"text": "The classical Sinhalese orchestra consists of five categories of instruments, but among the percussion instruments, the drum is essential for dance. The vibrant beat of the rhythm of the drums form the basic of the dance. The dancers' feet bounce off the floor and they leap and swirl in patterns that reflect the complex rhythms of the drum beat. This drum beat may seem simple on the first hearing but it takes a long time to master the intricate rhythms and variations, which the drummer sometimes can bring to a crescendo of intensity. There are six common types of drums falling within 3 styles (one-faced, two-faced, and flat-faced):",
"title": "Traditional folk music"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 48,
"text": "Other instruments include:",
"title": "Traditional folk music"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 49,
"text": "Folk song traditions were taken to Australia by early settlers from England, Scotland and Ireland and gained particular foothold in the rural outback. The rhyming songs, poems and tales written in the form of bush ballads often relate to the itinerant and rebellious spirit of Australia in The Bush, and the authors and performers are often referred to as bush bards. The 19th century was the golden age of bush ballads. Several collectors have catalogued the songs including John Meredith whose recording in the 1950s became the basis of the collection in the National Library of Australia.",
"title": "Traditional folk music"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 50,
"text": "The songs tell personal stories of life in the wide open country of Australia. Typical subjects include mining, raising and droving cattle, sheep shearing, wanderings, war stories, the 1891 Australian shearers' strike, class conflicts between the landless working class and the squatters (landowners), and outlaws such as Ned Kelly, as well as love interests and more modern fare such as trucking. The most famous bush ballad is \"Waltzing Matilda\", which has been called \"the unofficial national anthem of Australia\".",
"title": "Traditional folk music"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 51,
"text": "Indigenous Australian music includes the music of Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islanders, who are collectively called Indigenous Australians; it incorporates a variety of distinctive traditional music styles practiced by Indigenous Australian peoples, as well as a range of contemporary musical styles of and fusion with European traditions as interpreted and performed by indigenous Australian artists. Music has formed an integral part of the social, cultural and ceremonial observances of these peoples, down through the millennia of their individual and collective histories to the present day. The traditional forms include many aspects of performance and musical instruments unique to particular regions or Indigenous Australian groups. Equal elements of musical tradition are common through much of the Australian continent, and even beyond. The culture of the Torres Strait Islanders is related to that of adjacent parts of New Guinea and so their music is also related. Music is a vital part of Indigenous Australians' cultural maintenance.",
"title": "Traditional folk music"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 52,
"text": "Celtic music is a term used by artists, record companies, music stores and music magazines to describe a broad grouping of musical genres that evolved out of the folk musical traditions of the Celtic peoples. These traditions include Irish, Scottish, Manx, Cornish, Welsh, and Breton traditions. Asturian and Galician music is often included, though there is no significant research showing that this has any close musical relationship. Brittany's Folk revival began in the 1950s with the \"bagadoù\" and the \"kan-ha-diskan\" before growing to world fame through Alan Stivell's work since the mid-1960s.",
"title": "Traditional folk music"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 53,
"text": "In Ireland, The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem (although its members were all Irish-born, the group became famous while based in New York's Greenwich Village), The Dubliners, Clannad, Planxty, The Chieftains, The Pogues, The Corrs, The Irish Rovers, and a variety of other folk bands have done much over the past few decades to revitalise and re-popularise Irish traditional music. These bands were rooted, to a greater or lesser extent, in a tradition of Irish music and benefited from the efforts of artists such as Seamus Ennis and Peter Kennedy.",
"title": "Traditional folk music"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 54,
"text": "In Scotland, The Corries, Silly Wizard, Capercaillie, Runrig, Jackie Leven, Julie Fowlis, Karine Polwart, Alasdair Roberts, Dick Gaughan, Wolfstone, Boys of the Lough, and The Silencers have kept Scottish folk vibrant and fresh by mixing traditional Scottish and Gaelic folk songs with more contemporary genres. These artists have also been commercially successful in continental Europe and North America. There is an emerging wealth of talent in the Scottish traditional music scene, with bands such as Mànran, Skipinnish, Barluath and Breabach and solo artists such as Patsy Reid, Robyn Stapleton and Mischa MacPherson gaining a lot of success in recent years.",
"title": "Traditional folk music"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 55,
"text": "During the Eastern Bloc era, national folk dancing was actively promoted by the state. Dance troupes from Russia and Poland toured non-communist Europe from about 1937 to 1990. The Red Army Choir recorded many albums, becoming the most popular military band. Eastern Europe is also the origin of the Jewish Klezmer tradition.",
"title": "Traditional folk music"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 56,
"text": "The polka is a central European dance and also a genre of dance music familiar throughout Europe and the Americas. It originated in the middle of the 19th century in Bohemia. Polka is still a popular genre of folk music in many European countries and is performed by folk artists in Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Czech Republic, Netherlands, Croatia, Slovenia, Germany, Hungary, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Ukraine, Belarus, Russia and Slovakia. Local varieties of this dance are also found in the Nordic countries, United Kingdom, Republic of Ireland, Latin America (especially Mexico), and in the United States.",
"title": "Traditional folk music"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 57,
"text": "German Volkslieder perpetuated by Liederhandschriften manuscripts like Carmina Burana date back to medieval Minnesang and Meistersinger traditions. Those folk songs revived in the late 18th century period of German Romanticism, first promoted by Johann Gottfried Herder and other advocates of the Enlightenment, later compiled by Achim von Arnim and Clemens Brentano (Des Knaben Wunderhorn) as well as by Ludwig Uhland.",
"title": "Traditional folk music"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 58,
"text": "The Volksmusik and folk dances genre, especially in the Alpine regions of Bavaria, Austria, Switzerland (Kuhreihen) and South Tyrol, up to today has lingered in rustic communities against the backdrop of industrialisation—Low German shanties or the Wienerlied (Schrammelmusik) being notable exceptions. Slovene folk music in Upper Carniola and Styria also originated from the Alpine traditions, like the prolific Lojze Slak Ensemble. Traditional Volksmusik is not to be confused with commercial Volkstümliche Musik, which is a derivation of that.",
"title": "Traditional folk music"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 59,
"text": "The Hungarian group Muzsikás played numerous American tours and participated in the Hollywood movie The English Patient while the singer Márta Sebestyén worked with the band Deep Forest. The Hungarian táncház movement, started in the 1970s, involves strong cooperation between musicology experts and enthusiastic amateurs. However, traditional Hungarian folk music and folk culture barely survived in some rural areas of Hungary, and it has also begun to disappear among the ethnic Hungarians in Transylvania. The táncház movement revived broader folk traditions of music, dance, and costume together and created a new kind of music club. The movement spread to ethnic Hungarian communities elsewhere in the world.",
"title": "Traditional folk music"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 60,
"text": "Balkan folk music was influenced by the mingling of Balkan ethnic groups in the period of the Ottoman Empire. It comprises the music of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Montenegro, Serbia, Romania, North Macedonia, Albania, some of the historical states of Yugoslavia or Serbia and Montenegro and geographical regions such as Thrace. Some music is characterised by complex rhythm.",
"title": "Traditional folk music"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 61,
"text": "A notable act is the Mystery of the Bulgarian Voices, which won the Grammy Award for Best Traditional Folk Recording at the 32nd annual ceremony.",
"title": "Traditional folk music"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 62,
"text": "An important part of the whole Balkan folk music is the music of the local Romani ethnic minority, which is called tallava and brass band music.",
"title": "Traditional folk music"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 63,
"text": "Nordic folk music includes a number of traditions in Northern European, especially Scandinavian, countries. The Nordic countries are generally taken to include Iceland, Norway, Finland, Sweden, Denmark and Greenland. Sometimes it is taken to include the Baltic countries of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.",
"title": "Traditional folk music"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 64,
"text": "The many regions of the Nordic countries share certain traditions, many of which have diverged significantly, like Psalmodicon of Denmark, Sweden, and Norway. It is possible to group together the Baltic states (or, sometimes, only Estonia) and parts of northwest Russia as sharing cultural similarities, although the relationship has gone cold in recent years. Contrast with Norway, Sweden, Denmark and the Atlantic islands of Iceland and the Faroe Islands, which share virtually no similarities of that kind. Greenland's Inuit culture has its own unique musical traditions. Finland shares many cultural similarities with both the Baltic nations and the Scandinavian nations. The Sami of Sweden, Norway, Finland and Russia have their own unique culture, with ties to the neighboring cultures.",
"title": "Traditional folk music"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 65,
"text": "Swedish folk music is a genre of music based largely on folkloric collection work that began in the early 19th century in Sweden. The primary instrument of Swedish folk music is the fiddle. Another common instrument, unique to Swedish traditions, is the nyckelharpa. Most Swedish instrumental folk music is dance music; the signature music and dance form within Swedish folk music is the polska. Vocal and instrumental traditions in Sweden have tended to share tunes historically, though they have been performed separately. Beginning with the folk music revival of the 1970s, vocalists and instrumentalists have also begun to perform together in folk music ensembles.",
"title": "Traditional folk music"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 66,
"text": "The folk music of the Americas consists of the encounter and union of three main musical types: European traditional music, traditional music of the American natives, and tribal African music that arrived with slaves from that continent.",
"title": "Traditional folk music"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 67,
"text": "The particular case of Latin and South American music points to Andean music among other native musical styles (such as Caribbean and pampean), Iberian music of Spain and Portugal, and generally speaking African tribal music, the three of which fused together evolving in differentiated musical forms in Central and South America.",
"title": "Traditional folk music"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 68,
"text": "Andean music comes from the region of the Quechuas, Aymaras, and other peoples that inhabit the general area of the Inca Empire prior to European contact. It includes folklore music of parts of Bolivia, Ecuador, Chile, Colombia, Peru and Venezuela. Andean music is popular to different degrees across Latin America, having its core public in rural areas and among indigenous populations. The Nueva Canción movement of the 1970s revived the genre across Latin America and brought it to places where it was unknown or forgotten.",
"title": "Traditional folk music"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 69,
"text": "Nueva canción (Spanish for 'new song') is a movement and genre within Latin American and Iberian folk music, folk-inspired music, and socially committed music. In some respects its development and role is similar to the second folk music revival in North America. This includes evolution of this new genre from traditional folk music, essentially contemporary folk music except that that English genre term is not commonly applied to it. Nueva cancion is recognized as having played a powerful role in the social upheavals in Portugal, Spain and Latin America during the 1970s and 1980s.",
"title": "Traditional folk music"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 70,
"text": "Nueva cancion first surfaced during the 1960s as \"The Chilean New Song\" in Chile. The musical style emerged shortly afterwards in Spain and areas of Latin America where it came to be known under similar names. Nueva canción renewed traditional Latin American folk music, and with its political lyrics it was soon associated with revolutionary movements, the Latin American New Left, Liberation Theology, hippie and human rights movements. It would gain great popularity throughout Latin America, and it is regarded as a precursor to Rock en español.",
"title": "Traditional folk music"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 71,
"text": "Cueca is a family of musical styles and associated dances from Chile, Bolivia and Peru.",
"title": "Traditional folk music"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 72,
"text": "Trova and Son are styles of traditional Cuban music originating in the province of Oriente that includes influences from Spanish song and dance, such as Bolero and contradanza as well as Afro-Cuban rhythm and percussion elements.",
"title": "Traditional folk music"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 73,
"text": "Moda de viola is the name designated to Brazilian folk music. It is often performed with a 6-string nylon acoustic guitar, but the most traditional instrument is the viola caipira. The songs basically detailed the difficulties of life of those who work in the country. The themes are usually associated with the land, animals, folklore, impossible love and separation. Although there are some upbeat songs, most of them are nostalgic and melancholic.",
"title": "Traditional folk music"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 74,
"text": "Canada's traditional folk music is particularly diverse. Even prior to liberalizing its immigration laws in the 1960s, Canada was ethnically diverse with dozens of different Indigenous and European groups present. In terms of music, academics do not speak of a Canadian tradition, but rather ethnic traditions (Acadian music, Irish-Canadian music, Blackfoot music, Innu music, Inuit music, Métis fiddle, etc.) and later in Eastern Canada regional traditions (Newfoundland music, Cape Breton fiddling, Quebecois music, etc.)",
"title": "Traditional folk music"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 75,
"text": "Traditional folk music of European origin has been present in Canada since the arrival of the first French and British settlers in the 16th and 17th centuries....They fished the coastal waters and farmed the shores of what became Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and the St Lawrence River valley of Quebec.",
"title": "Traditional folk music"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 76,
"text": "The fur trade and its voyageurs brought this farther north and west into Canada; later lumbering operations and lumberjacks continued this process.",
"title": "Traditional folk music"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 77,
"text": "Agrarian settlement in eastern and southern Ontario and western Quebec in the early 19th century established a favorable milieu for the survival of many Anglo-Canadian folksongs and broadside ballads from Great Britain and the US. Despite massive industrialization, folk music traditions have persisted in many areas until today. In the north of Ontario, a large Franco-Ontarian population kept folk music of French origin alive.",
"title": "Traditional folk music"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 78,
"text": "Populous Acadian communities in the Atlantic provinces contributed their song variants to the huge corpus of folk music of French origin centred in the province of Quebec. A rich source of Anglo-Canadian folk music can be found in the Atlantic region, especially Newfoundland. Completing this mosaic of musical folklore is the Gaelic music of Scottish settlements, particularly in Cape Breton, and the hundreds of Irish songs whose presence in eastern Canada dates from the Irish famine of the 1840s, which forced the large migrations of Irish to North America.",
"title": "Traditional folk music"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 79,
"text": "\"Knowledge of the history of Canada\", wrote Isabelle Mills in 1974, \"is essential in understanding the mosaic of Canadian folk song. Part of this mosaic is supplied by the folk songs of Canada brought by European and Anglo-Saxon settlers to the new land.\" She describes how the French colony at Québec brought French immigrants, followed before long by waves of immigrants from Great Britain, Germany, and other European countries, all bringing music from their homelands, some of which survives into the present day. Ethnographer and folklorist Marius Barbeau estimated that well over ten thousand French folk songs and their variants had been collected in Canada. Many of the older ones had by then died out in France.",
"title": "Traditional folk music"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 80,
"text": "Music as professionalized paid entertainment grew relatively slowly in Canada, especially remote rural areas, through the 19th and early 20th centuries. While in urban music clubs of the dance hall/vaudeville variety became popular, followed by jazz, rural Canada remained mostly a land of traditional music. Yet when American radio networks began broadcasting into Canada in the 1920s and 1930s, the audience for Canadian traditional music progressively declined in favour of American Nashville-style country music and urban styles like jazz. The Americanization of Canadian music led the Canadian Radio League to lobby for a national public broadcaster in the 1930s, eventually leading to the creation of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) in 1936. The CBC promoted Canadian music, including traditional music, on its radio and later television services, but the mid-century craze for all things \"modern\" led to the decline of folk music relative to rock and pop. Canada was however influenced by the folk music revival of the 1960s, when local venues such as the Montreal Folk Workshop, and other folk clubs and coffee houses across the country, became crucibles for emerging songwriters and performers as well as for interchange with artists visiting from abroad.",
"title": "Traditional folk music"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 81,
"text": "American traditional music is also called roots music. Roots music is a broad category of music including bluegrass, country music, gospel, old time music, jug bands, Appalachian folk, blues, Cajun and Native American music. The music is considered American either because it is native to the United States or because it developed there, out of foreign origins, to such a degree that it struck musicologists as something distinctly new. It is considered \"roots music\" because it served as the basis of music later developed in the United States, including rock and roll, contemporary folk music, rhythm and blues, and jazz. Some of these genres are considered to be traditional folk music.",
"title": "Traditional folk music"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 82,
"text": "\"It's self-perpetuating, regenerative. It's what you'd call a perennial American song. I don't think it needs a revival, resuscitation. It lives and flourishes. It really just needs people who are 18 years old to get exposed to it. But it will go on with or without them. The folk song is more powerful than anything on the radio, than anything that's released...It's that distillation of the voices that goes on for a long, long time, and that's what makes them strong.\"",
"title": "Folk music revivals"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 83,
"text": "— Ketch Secor",
"title": "Folk music revivals"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 84,
"text": "\"Folk music revival\" refers to either a period of renewed interest in traditional folk music, or to an event or period which transforms it; the latter usually includes a social activism component. A prominent example of the former is the British folk revival of approximately 1890–1920. The most prominent and influential example of the latter (to the extent that it is usually called \"the folk music revival\") is the folk revival of the mid 20th century, centered in the English-speaking world which gave birth to contemporary folk music. See the \"Contemporary folk music\" article for a description of this revival.",
"title": "Folk music revivals"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 85,
"text": "One earlier revival influenced western classical music. Such composers as Percy Grainger, Ralph Vaughan Williams and Béla Bartók, made field recordings or transcriptions of folk singers and musicians.",
"title": "Folk music revivals"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 86,
"text": "In Spain, Isaac Albéniz (1860–1909) produced piano works reflect his Spanish heritage, including the Suite Iberia (1906–1909). Enrique Granados (1867–1918) composed zarzuela, Spanish light opera, and Danzas Españolas – Spanish Dances. Manuel de Falla (1876–1946) became interested in the cante jondo of Andalusian flamenco, the influence of which can be strongly felt in many of his works, which include Nights in the Gardens of Spain and Siete canciones populares españolas (\"Seven Spanish Folksongs\", for voice and piano). Composers such as Fernando Sor and Francisco Tarrega established the guitar as Spain's national instrument. Modern Spanish folk artists abound (Mil i Maria, Russian Red, et al.) modernizing while respecting the traditions of their forebears.",
"title": "Folk music revivals"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 87,
"text": "Flamenco grew in popularity through the 20th century, as did northern styles such as the Celtic music of Galicia. French classical composers, from Bizet to Ravel, also drew upon Spanish themes, and distinctive Spanish genres became universally recognized.",
"title": "Folk music revivals"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 88,
"text": "Folk music revivals or roots revivals also encompass a range of phenomena around the world where there is a renewed interest in traditional music. This is often by the young, often in the traditional music of their own country, and often included new incorporation of social awareness, causes, and evolutions of new music in the same style. Nueva canción, a similar evolution of a new form of socially committed music occurred in several Spanish-speaking countries.",
"title": "Folk music revivals"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 89,
"text": "It is sometimes claimed that the earliest United States folk music festival was the Mountain Dance and Folk Festival, 1928, in Asheville, North Carolina, founded by Bascom Lamar Lunsford. The National Folk Festival (USA) is an itinerant folk festival in the United States. Since 1934, it has been run by the National Council for the Traditional Arts (NCTA) and has been presented in 26 communities around the nation. After leaving some of these communities, the National Folk Festival has spun off several locally run folk festivals in its wake including the Lowell Folk Festival, the Richmond Folk Festival, the American Folk Festival and, most recently, the Montana Folk Festival.",
"title": "Festivals"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 90,
"text": "The Newport Folk Festival is an annual folk festival held near Newport, Rhode Island. It ran most years from 1959 to 1970 and from 1985 to the present, with an attendance of approximately 10,000 people each year.",
"title": "Festivals"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 91,
"text": "The four-day Philadelphia Folk Festival began in 1962. It is sponsored by the non-profit Philadelphia Folksong Society. The event hosts contemporary and traditional artists in genres including World/Fusion, Celtic, Singer-Songwriter, Folk Rock, Country, Klezmer, and Dance. It is held annually on the third weekend in August. The event now hosts approximately 12,000 visitors, presenting bands on 6 stages.",
"title": "Festivals"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 92,
"text": "The Feast of the Hunters' Moon in Indiana draws approximately 60,000 visitors per year.",
"title": "Festivals"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 93,
"text": "Sidmouth Festival began in 1954, and Cambridge Folk Festival began in 1965. The Cambridge Folk Festival in Cambridge, England is noted for having a very wide definition of who can be invited as folk musicians. The \"club tents\" allow attendees to discover large numbers of unknown artists, who, for ten or 15 minutes each, present their work to the festival audience.",
"title": "Festivals"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 94,
"text": "The National Folk Festival is Australia's premier folk festival event and is attended by over 50,000 people. The Woodford Folk Festival and Port Fairy Folk Festival are similarly amongst Australia's largest major annual events, attracting top international folk performers as well as many local artists.",
"title": "Festivals"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 95,
"text": "Stan Rogers is a lasting fixture of the Canadian folk festival Summerfolk, held annually in Owen Sound, Ontario, where the main stage and amphitheater are dedicated as the \"Stan Rogers Memorial Canopy\". The festival is firmly fixed in tradition, with Rogers' song \"The Mary Ellen Carter\" being sung by all involved, including the audience and a medley of acts at the festival. The Canmore Folk Music Festival is Alberta's longest running folk music festival.",
"title": "Festivals"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 96,
"text": "Urkult Näsåker, Ångermanland held August each year is purportedly Sweden's largest world-music festival.",
"title": "Festivals"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 97,
"text": "(does not include those used as references)",
"title": "Further reading"
}
] |
Folk music is a music genre that includes traditional folk music and the contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be called world music. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted orally, music with unknown composers, music that is played on traditional instruments, music about cultural or national identity, music that changes between generations, music associated with a people's folklore, or music performed by custom over a long period of time. It has been contrasted with commercial and classical styles. The term originated in the 19th century, but folk music extends beyond that. Starting in the mid-20th century, a new form of popular folk music evolved from traditional folk music. This process and period is called the (second) folk revival and reached a zenith in the 1960s. This form of music is sometimes called contemporary folk music or folk revival music to distinguish it from earlier folk forms. Smaller, similar revivals have occurred elsewhere in the world at other times, but the term folk music has typically not been applied to the new music created during those revivals. This type of folk music also includes fusion genres such as folk rock, folk metal, and others. While contemporary folk music is a genre generally distinct from traditional folk music, in U.S. English it shares the same name, and it often shares the same performers and venues as traditional folk music.
|
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folk_music
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Frank
|
Frank or Franks may refer to:
|
[
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "Frank or Franks may refer to:",
"title": ""
}
] |
Frank or Franks may refer to:
|
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|
[
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank
|
10,628 |
Fullerene
|
A fullerene is an allotrope of carbon whose molecules consist of carbon atoms connected by single and double bonds so as to form a closed or partially closed mesh, with fused rings of five to seven atoms. The molecules may be hollow spheres, ellipsoids, tubes, or other shapes.
Fullerenes with a closed mesh topology are informally denoted by their empirical formula Cn, often written Cn, where n is the number of carbon atoms. However, for some values of n there may be more than one isomer.
The family is named after buckminsterfullerene (C60), the most famous member, which in turn is named after Buckminster Fuller. The closed fullerenes, especially C60, are also informally called buckyballs for their resemblance to the standard ball of association football ("soccer"). Nested closed fullerenes have been named bucky onions. Cylindrical fullerenes are also called carbon nanotubes or buckytubes. The bulk solid form of pure or mixed fullerenes is called fullerite.
Fullerenes had been predicted for some time, but only after their accidental synthesis in 1985 were they detected in nature and outer space. The discovery of fullerenes greatly expanded the number of known allotropes of carbon, which had previously been limited to graphite, diamond, and amorphous carbon such as soot and charcoal. They have been the subject of intense research, both for their chemistry and for their technological applications, especially in materials science, electronics, and nanotechnology.
IUPAC defines fullerenes as "polyhedral closed cages made up entirely of n three-coordinate carbon atoms and having 12 pentagonal and (n/2-10) hexagonal faces, where n ≥ 20."
The icosahedral C60H60 cage was mentioned in 1965 as a possible topological structure. Eiji Osawa predicted the existence of C60 in 1970. He noticed that the structure of a corannulene molecule was a subset of the shape of a football, and hypothesised that a full ball shape could also exist. Japanese scientific journals reported his idea, but neither it nor any translations of it reached Europe or the Americas.
Also in 1970, R.W.Henson (then of the UK Atomic Energy Research Establishment) proposed the C60 structure and made a model of it. Unfortunately, the evidence for that new form of carbon was very weak at the time, so the proposal was met with skepticism, and was never published. It was acknowledged only in 1999.
In 1973, independently from Henson, D. A. Bochvar and E. G. Galpern made a quantum-chemical analysis of the stability of C60 and calculated its electronic structure. The paper was published in 1973, but the scientific community did not give much importance to this theoretical prediction.
Around 1980, Sumio Iijima identified the molecule of C60 from an electron microscope image of carbon black, where it formed the core of a particle with the structure of a "bucky onion".
Also in the 1980s at MIT, Mildred Dresselhaus and Morinobu Endo, collaborating with T. Venkatesan, directed studies blasting graphite with lasers, producing carbon clusters of atoms, which would be later identified as "fullerenes."
In 1985, Harold Kroto of the University of Sussex, working with James R. Heath, Sean O'Brien, Robert Curl and Richard Smalley from Rice University, discovered fullerenes in the sooty residue created by vaporising carbon in a helium atmosphere. In the mass spectrum of the product, discrete peaks appeared corresponding to molecules with the exact mass of sixty or seventy or more carbon atoms, namely C60 and C70. The team identified their structure as the now familiar "buckyballs".
The name "buckminsterfullerene" was eventually chosen for C60 by the discoverers as an homage to American architect Buckminster Fuller for the vague similarity of the structure to the geodesic domes which he popularized; which, if they were extended to a full sphere, would also have the icosahedral symmetry group. The "ene" ending was chosen to indicate that the carbons are unsaturated, being connected to only three other atoms instead of the normal four. The shortened name "fullerene" eventually came to be applied to the whole family.
Kroto, Curl, and Smalley were awarded the 1996 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their roles in the discovery of this class of molecules.
Kroto and the Rice team already discovered other fullerenes besides C60, and the list was much expanded in the following years. Carbon nanotubes were first discovered and synthesized in 1991.
After their discovery, minute quantities of fullerenes were found to be produced in sooty flames, and by lightning discharges in the atmosphere. In 1992, fullerenes were found in a family of mineraloids known as shungites in Karelia, Russia.
The production techniques were improved by many scientists, including Donald Huffman, Wolfgang Krätschmer, Lowell D. Lamb, and Konstantinos Fostiropoulos. Thanks to their efforts, by 1990 it was relatively easy to produce gram-sized samples of fullerene powder. Fullerene purification remains a challenge to chemists and to a large extent determines fullerene prices.
In 2010, the spectral signatures of C60 and C70 were observed by NASA's Spitzer infrared telescope in a cloud of cosmic dust surrounding a star 6500 light years away. Kroto commented: "This most exciting breakthrough provides convincing evidence that the buckyball has, as I long suspected, existed since time immemorial in the dark recesses of our galaxy." According to astronomer Letizia Stanghellini, "It’s possible that buckyballs from outer space provided seeds for life on Earth." In 2019, ionized C60 molecules were detected with the Hubble Space Telescope in the space between those stars.
There are two major families of fullerenes, with fairly distinct properties and applications: the closed buckyballs and the open-ended cylindrical carbon nanotubes. However, hybrid structures exist between those two classes, such as carbon nanobuds — nanotubes capped by hemispherical meshes or larger "buckybuds".
Buckminsterfullerene is the smallest fullerene molecule containing pentagonal and hexagonal rings in which no two pentagons share an edge (which can be destabilizing, as in pentalene). It is also most common in terms of natural occurrence, as it can often be found in soot.
The empirical formula of buckminsterfullerene is C60 and its structure is a truncated icosahedron, which resembles an association football ball of the type made of twenty hexagons and twelve pentagons, with a carbon atom at the vertices of each polygon and a bond along each polygon edge.
The van der Waals diameter of a buckminsterfullerene molecule is about 1.1 nanometers (nm). The nucleus to nucleus diameter of a buckminsterfullerene molecule is about 0.71 nm.
The buckminsterfullerene molecule has two bond lengths. The 6:6 ring bonds (between two hexagons) can be considered "double bonds" and are shorter than the 6:5 bonds (between a hexagon and a pentagon). Its average bond length is 1.4 Å.
Another fairly common fullerene has empirical formula C70, but fullerenes with 72, 76, 84 and even up to 100 carbon atoms are commonly obtained.
The smallest possible fullerene is the dodecahedral C20. There are no fullerenes with 22 vertices. The number of different fullerenes C2n grows with increasing n = 12, 13, 14, ..., roughly in proportion to n (sequence A007894 in the OEIS). For instance, there are 1812 non-isomorphic fullerenes C60. Note that only one form of C60, buckminsterfullerene, has no pair of adjacent pentagons (the smallest such fullerene). To further illustrate the growth, there are 214,127,713 non-isomorphic fullerenes C200, 15,655,672 of which have no adjacent pentagons. Optimized structures of many fullerene isomers are published and listed on the web.
Heterofullerenes have heteroatoms substituting carbons in cage or tube-shaped structures. They were discovered in 1993 and greatly expand the overall fullerene class of compounds and can have dangling bonds on their surfaces. Notable examples include boron, nitrogen (azafullerene), oxygen, and phosphorus derivatives.
Carbon nanotubes are cylindrical fullerenes. These tubes of carbon are usually only a few nanometres wide, but they can range from less than a micrometer to several millimeters in length. They often have closed ends, but can be open-ended as well. There are also cases in which the tube reduces in diameter before closing off. Their unique molecular structure results in extraordinary macroscopic properties, including high tensile strength, high electrical conductivity, high ductility, high heat conductivity, and relative chemical inactivity (as it is cylindrical and "planar" — that is, it has no "exposed" atoms that can be easily displaced). One proposed use of carbon nanotubes is in paper batteries, developed in 2007 by researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Another highly speculative proposed use in the field of space technologies is to produce high-tensile carbon cables required by a space elevator.
Buckyballs and carbon nanotubes have been used as building blocks for a great variety of derivatives and larger structures, such as
After the discovery of C60, many fullerenes have been synthesized (or studied theoretically by molecular modeling methods) in which some or all the carbon atoms are replaced by other elements. Non-carbon nanotubes, in particular, have attracted much attention.
A type of buckyball which uses boron atoms, instead of the usual carbon, was predicted and described in 2007. The B80 structure, with each atom forming 5 or 6 bonds, was predicted to be more stable than the C60 buckyball. However, subsequent analysis found that the predicted Ih symmetric structure was vibrationally unstable and the resulting cage would undergo a spontaneous symmetry break, yielding a puckered cage with rare Th symmetry (symmetry of a volleyball). The number of six-member rings in this molecule is 20 and number of five-member rings is 12. There is an additional atom in the center of each six-member ring, bonded to each atom surrounding it. By employing a systematic global search algorithm, it was later found that the previously proposed 80 fullerene is not a global maximum for 80-atom boron clusters and hence can not be found in nature; the most stable configurations have complex. The same paper concluded that boron's energy landscape, unlike others, has many disordered low-energy structures, hence pure boron fullerenes are unlikely to exist in nature.
However, an irregular B40 complex dubbed borospherene was prepared in 2014. This complex has two hexagonal faces and four heptagonal faces with in D2d symmetry interleaved with a network of 48 triangles.
Inorganic (carbon-free) fullerene-type structures have been built with the molybdenum(IV) sulfide (MoS2), long used as a graphite-like lubricant, tungsten (WS2), titanium (TiS2) and niobium (NbS2). These materials were found to be stable up to at least 350 tons/cm (34.3 GPa).
Icosahedral or distorted-icosahedral fullerene-like complexes have also been prepared for germanium, tin, and lead; some of these complexes are spacious enough to hold most transition metal atoms.
Below is a table of main closed carbon fullerenes synthesized and characterized so far, with their CAS number when known. Fullerenes with fewer than 60 carbon atoms have been called "lower fullerenes", and those with more than 70 atoms "higher fullerenes".
In the table, "Num.Isom." is the number of possible isomers within the "isolated pentagon rule", which states that two pentagons in a fullerene should not share edges. "Mol.Symm." is the symmetry of the molecule, whereas "Cryst.Symm." is that of the crystalline framework in the solid state. Both are specified for the most experimentally abundant form(s). The asterisk * marks symmetries with more than one chiral form.
When C76 or C82 crystals are grown from toluene solution they have a monoclinic symmetry. The crystal structure contains toluene molecules packed between the spheres of the fullerene. However, evaporation of the solvent from C76 transforms it into a face-centered cubic form. Both monoclinic and face-centered cubic (fcc) phases are known for better-characterized C60 and C70 fullerenes.
Schlegel diagrams are often used to clarify the 3D structure of closed-shell fullerenes, as 2D projections are often not ideal in this sense.
In mathematical terms, the combinatorial topology (that is, the carbon atoms and the bonds between them, ignoring their positions and distances) of a closed-shell fullerene with a simple sphere-like mean surface (orientable, genus zero) can be represented as a convex polyhedron; more precisely, its one-dimensional skeleton, consisting of its vertices and edges. The Schlegel diagram is a projection of that skeleton onto one of the faces of the polyhedron, through a point just outside that face; so that all other vertices project inside that face.
The Schlegel diagram of a closed fullerene is a graph that is planar and 3-regular (or "cubic"; meaning that all vertices have degree 3).
A closed fullerene with sphere-like shell must have at least some cycles that are pentagons or heptagons. More precisely, if all the faces have 5 or 6 sides, it follows from Euler's polyhedron formula, V−E+F=2 (where V, E, F are the numbers of vertices, edges, and faces), that V must be even, and that there must be exactly 12 pentagons and V/2−10 hexagons. Similar constraints exist if the fullerene has heptagonal (seven-atom) cycles.
Since each carbon atom is connected to only three neighbors, instead of the usual four, it is customary to describe those bonds as being a mixture of single and double covalent bonds. The hybridization of carbon in C60 has been reported to be sp. The bonding state can be analyzed by Raman spectroscopy, IR spectroscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy.
Additional atoms, ions, clusters, or small molecules can be trapped inside fullerenes to form inclusion compounds known as endohedral fullerenes. An unusual example is the egg-shaped fullerene Tb3N@C84, which violates the isolated pentagon rule. Evidence for a meteor impact at the end of the Permian period was found by analyzing noble gases preserved by being trapped in fullerenes.
In the field of nanotechnology, heat resistance and superconductivity are some of the more heavily studied properties.
There are many calculations that have been done using ab-initio quantum methods applied to fullerenes. By DFT and TD-DFT methods one can obtain IR, Raman and UV spectra. Results of such calculations can be compared with experimental results.
Fullerene is an unusual reactant in many organic reactions such as the Bingel reaction discovered in 1993.
Researchers have been able to increase the reactivity of fullerenes by attaching active groups to their surfaces. Buckminsterfullerene does not exhibit "superaromaticity": that is, the electrons in the hexagonal rings do not delocalize over the whole molecule.
A spherical fullerene of n carbon atoms has n pi-bonding electrons, free to delocalize. These should try to delocalize over the whole molecule. The quantum mechanics of such an arrangement should be like only one shell of the well-known quantum mechanical structure of a single atom, with a stable filled shell for n = 2, 8, 18, 32, 50, 72, 98, 128, etc. (i.e., twice a perfect square number), but this series does not include 60. This 2(N + 1) rule (with N integer) for spherical aromaticity is the three-dimensional analogue of Hückel's rule. The 10+ cation would satisfy this rule, and should be aromatic. This has been shown to be the case using quantum chemical modelling, which showed the existence of strong diamagnetic sphere currents in the cation.
As a result, C60 in water tends to pick up two more electrons and become an anion. The nC60 described below may be the result of C60 trying to form a loose metallic bond.
Under high pressure and temperature, buckyballs collapse to form various one-, two-, or three-dimensional carbon frameworks. Single-strand polymers are formed using the Atom Transfer Radical Addition Polymerization (ATRAP) route.
"Ultrahard fullerite" is a coined term frequently used to describe material produced by high-pressure high-temperature (HPHT) processing of fullerite. Such treatment converts fullerite into a nanocrystalline form of diamond which has been reported to exhibit remarkable mechanical properties.
Fullerenes are stable, but not totally unreactive. The sp-hybridized carbon atoms, which are at their energy minimum in planar graphite, must be bent to form the closed sphere or tube, which produces angle strain. The characteristic reaction of fullerenes is electrophilic addition at 6,6-double bonds, which reduces angle strain by changing sp-hybridized carbons into sp-hybridized ones. The change in hybridized orbitals causes the bond angles to decrease from about 120° in the sp orbitals to about 109.5° in the sp orbitals. This decrease in bond angles allows for the bonds to bend less when closing the sphere or tube, and thus, the molecule becomes more stable.
Fullerenes are soluble in many organic solvents, such as toluene, chlorobenzene, and 1,2,3-trichloropropane. Solubilities are generally rather low, such as 8 g/L for C60 in carbon disulfide. Still, fullerenes are the only known allotrope of carbon that can be dissolved in common solvents at room temperature. Among the best solvents is 1-chloronaphthalene, which will dissolve 51 g/L of C60.
Solutions of pure buckminsterfullerene have a deep purple color. Solutions of C70 are a reddish brown. The higher fullerenes C76 to C84 have a variety of colors.
Millimeter-sized crystals of C60 and C70, both pure and solvated, can be grown from benzene solution. Crystallization of C60 from benzene solution below 30 °C (when solubility is maximum) yields a triclinic solid solvate C60·4C6H6. Above 30 °C one obtains solvate-free fcc C60.
In 1999, researchers from the University of Vienna demonstrated that wave-particle duality applied to molecules such as fullerene.
Fullerenes are normally electrical insulators, but when crystallized with alkali metals, the resultant compound can be conducting or even superconducting.
Some fullerenes (e.g. C76, C78, C80, and C84) are inherently chiral because they are D2-symmetric, and have been successfully resolved. Research efforts are ongoing to develop specific sensors for their enantiomers.
Two theories have been proposed to describe the molecular mechanisms that make fullerenes. The older, “bottom-up” theory proposes that they are built atom-by-atom. The alternative “top-down” approach claims that fullerenes form when much larger structures break into constituent parts.
In 2013 researchers discovered that asymmetrical fullerenes formed from larger structures settle into stable fullerenes. The synthesized substance was a particular metallofullerene consisting of 84 carbon atoms with two additional carbon atoms and two yttrium atoms inside the cage. The process produced approximately 100 micrograms.
However, they found that the asymmetrical molecule could theoretically collapse to form nearly every known fullerene and metallofullerene. Minor perturbations involving the breaking of a few molecular bonds cause the cage to become highly symmetrical and stable. This insight supports the theory that fullerenes can be formed from graphene when the appropriate molecular bonds are severed.
According to the IUPAC, to name a fullerene, one must cite the number of member atoms for the rings which comprise the fullerene, its symmetry point group in the Schoenflies notation, and the total number of atoms. For example, buckminsterfullerene C60 is systematically named (C60-Ih)[5,6]fullerene. The name of the point group should be retained in any derivative of said fullerene, even if that symmetry is lost by the derivation.
To indicate the position of substituted or attached elements, the fullerene atoms are usually numbered in a spiral path, usually starting with the ring on one of the main axes. If the structure of the fullerene does not allow such numbering, another starting atom was chosen to still achieve a spiral path sequence.
The latter is the case for C70, which is (C70-D5h(6))[5,6]fullerene in IUPAC notation. The symmetry D5h(6) means that this is the isomer where the C5 axis goes through a pentagon surrounded by hexagons rather than pentagons.
In IUPAC's nomenclature, fully saturated analogues of fullerenes are called fulleranes. If the mesh has other element(s) substituted for one or more carbons, the compound is named a heterofullerene. If a double bond is replaced by a methylene bridge −CH2−, the resulting structure is a homofullerene. If an atom is fully deleted and missing valences saturated with hydrogen atoms, it is a norfullerene. When bonds are removed (both sigma and pi), the compound becomes secofullerene; if some new bonds are added in an unconventional order, it is a cyclofullerene.
Fullerene production generally starts by producing fullerene-rich soot. The original (and still current) method was to send a large electric current between two nearby graphite electrodes in an inert atmosphere. The resulting electric arc vaporizes the carbon into a plasma that then cools into sooty residue. Alternatively, soot is produced by laser ablation of graphite or pyrolysis of aromatic hydrocarbons. Combustion of benzene is the most efficient process, developed at MIT.
These processes yield a mixture of various fullerenes and other forms of carbon. The fullerenes are then extracted from the soot using appropriate organic solvents and separated by chromatography. One can obtain milligram quantities of fullerenes with 80 atoms or more. C76, C78 and C84 are available commercially.
Fullerenes have been extensively used for several biomedical applications including the design of high-performance MRI contrast agents, X-ray imaging contrast agents, photodynamic therapy and drug and gene delivery, summarized in several comprehensive reviews.
While past cancer research has involved radiation therapy, photodynamic therapy is important to study because breakthroughs in treatments for tumor cells will give more options to patients with different conditions. Recent experiments using HeLa cells in cancer research involves the development of new photosensitizers with increased ability to be absorbed by cancer cells and still trigger cell death. It is also important that a new photosensitizer does not stay in the body for a long time to prevent unwanted cell damage.
Fullerenes can be made to be absorbed by HeLa cells. The C60 derivatives can be delivered to the cells by using the functional groups L-phenylalanine, folic acid, and L-arginine among others.
Functionalizing the fullerenes aims to increase the solubility of the molecule by the cancer cells. Cancer cells take up these molecules at an increased rate because of an upregulation of transporters in the cancer cell, in this case amino acid transporters will bring in the L-arginine and L-phenylalanine functional groups of the fullerenes.
Once absorbed by the cells, the C60 derivatives would react to light radiation by turning molecular oxygen into reactive oxygen which triggers apoptosis in the HeLa cells and other cancer cells that can absorb the fullerene molecule. This research shows that a reactive substance can target cancer cells and then be triggered by light radiation, minimizing damage to surrounding tissues while undergoing treatment.
When absorbed by cancer cells and exposed to light radiation, the reaction that creates reactive oxygen damages the DNA, proteins, and lipids that make up the cancer cell. This cellular damage forces the cancerous cell to go through apoptosis, which can lead to the reduction in size of a tumor. Once the light radiation treatment is finished the fullerene will reabsorb the free radicals to prevent damage of other tissues. Since this treatment focuses on cancer cells, it is a good option for patients whose cancer cells are within reach of light radiation. As this research continues, the treatment may penetrate deeper into the body and be absorbed by cancer cells more effectively.
In 2013, a comprehensive review on the toxicity of fullerene was published reviewing work beginning in the early 1990s to present and concluded that very little evidence gathered since the discovery of fullerenes indicate that C60 is toxic. The toxicity of these carbon nanoparticles is not only dose- and time-dependent, but also depends on a number of other factors such as:
It was recommended to assess the pharmacology of every new fullerene- or metallofullerene-based complex individually as a different compound.
Examples of fullerenes appear frequently in popular culture. Fullerenes appeared in fiction well before scientists took serious interest in them. In a humorously speculative 1966 column for New Scientist, David Jones suggested the possibility of making giant hollow carbon molecules by distorting a plane hexagonal net with the addition of impurity atoms.
|
[
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "A fullerene is an allotrope of carbon whose molecules consist of carbon atoms connected by single and double bonds so as to form a closed or partially closed mesh, with fused rings of five to seven atoms. The molecules may be hollow spheres, ellipsoids, tubes, or other shapes.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "Fullerenes with a closed mesh topology are informally denoted by their empirical formula Cn, often written Cn, where n is the number of carbon atoms. However, for some values of n there may be more than one isomer.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "The family is named after buckminsterfullerene (C60), the most famous member, which in turn is named after Buckminster Fuller. The closed fullerenes, especially C60, are also informally called buckyballs for their resemblance to the standard ball of association football (\"soccer\"). Nested closed fullerenes have been named bucky onions. Cylindrical fullerenes are also called carbon nanotubes or buckytubes. The bulk solid form of pure or mixed fullerenes is called fullerite.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "Fullerenes had been predicted for some time, but only after their accidental synthesis in 1985 were they detected in nature and outer space. The discovery of fullerenes greatly expanded the number of known allotropes of carbon, which had previously been limited to graphite, diamond, and amorphous carbon such as soot and charcoal. They have been the subject of intense research, both for their chemistry and for their technological applications, especially in materials science, electronics, and nanotechnology.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "IUPAC defines fullerenes as \"polyhedral closed cages made up entirely of n three-coordinate carbon atoms and having 12 pentagonal and (n/2-10) hexagonal faces, where n ≥ 20.\"",
"title": "Definition"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "The icosahedral C60H60 cage was mentioned in 1965 as a possible topological structure. Eiji Osawa predicted the existence of C60 in 1970. He noticed that the structure of a corannulene molecule was a subset of the shape of a football, and hypothesised that a full ball shape could also exist. Japanese scientific journals reported his idea, but neither it nor any translations of it reached Europe or the Americas.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "Also in 1970, R.W.Henson (then of the UK Atomic Energy Research Establishment) proposed the C60 structure and made a model of it. Unfortunately, the evidence for that new form of carbon was very weak at the time, so the proposal was met with skepticism, and was never published. It was acknowledged only in 1999.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "In 1973, independently from Henson, D. A. Bochvar and E. G. Galpern made a quantum-chemical analysis of the stability of C60 and calculated its electronic structure. The paper was published in 1973, but the scientific community did not give much importance to this theoretical prediction.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "Around 1980, Sumio Iijima identified the molecule of C60 from an electron microscope image of carbon black, where it formed the core of a particle with the structure of a \"bucky onion\".",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "Also in the 1980s at MIT, Mildred Dresselhaus and Morinobu Endo, collaborating with T. Venkatesan, directed studies blasting graphite with lasers, producing carbon clusters of atoms, which would be later identified as \"fullerenes.\"",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "In 1985, Harold Kroto of the University of Sussex, working with James R. Heath, Sean O'Brien, Robert Curl and Richard Smalley from Rice University, discovered fullerenes in the sooty residue created by vaporising carbon in a helium atmosphere. In the mass spectrum of the product, discrete peaks appeared corresponding to molecules with the exact mass of sixty or seventy or more carbon atoms, namely C60 and C70. The team identified their structure as the now familiar \"buckyballs\".",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "The name \"buckminsterfullerene\" was eventually chosen for C60 by the discoverers as an homage to American architect Buckminster Fuller for the vague similarity of the structure to the geodesic domes which he popularized; which, if they were extended to a full sphere, would also have the icosahedral symmetry group. The \"ene\" ending was chosen to indicate that the carbons are unsaturated, being connected to only three other atoms instead of the normal four. The shortened name \"fullerene\" eventually came to be applied to the whole family.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "Kroto, Curl, and Smalley were awarded the 1996 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their roles in the discovery of this class of molecules.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "Kroto and the Rice team already discovered other fullerenes besides C60, and the list was much expanded in the following years. Carbon nanotubes were first discovered and synthesized in 1991.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "After their discovery, minute quantities of fullerenes were found to be produced in sooty flames, and by lightning discharges in the atmosphere. In 1992, fullerenes were found in a family of mineraloids known as shungites in Karelia, Russia.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 15,
"text": "The production techniques were improved by many scientists, including Donald Huffman, Wolfgang Krätschmer, Lowell D. Lamb, and Konstantinos Fostiropoulos. Thanks to their efforts, by 1990 it was relatively easy to produce gram-sized samples of fullerene powder. Fullerene purification remains a challenge to chemists and to a large extent determines fullerene prices.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 16,
"text": "In 2010, the spectral signatures of C60 and C70 were observed by NASA's Spitzer infrared telescope in a cloud of cosmic dust surrounding a star 6500 light years away. Kroto commented: \"This most exciting breakthrough provides convincing evidence that the buckyball has, as I long suspected, existed since time immemorial in the dark recesses of our galaxy.\" According to astronomer Letizia Stanghellini, \"It’s possible that buckyballs from outer space provided seeds for life on Earth.\" In 2019, ionized C60 molecules were detected with the Hubble Space Telescope in the space between those stars.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 17,
"text": "There are two major families of fullerenes, with fairly distinct properties and applications: the closed buckyballs and the open-ended cylindrical carbon nanotubes. However, hybrid structures exist between those two classes, such as carbon nanobuds — nanotubes capped by hemispherical meshes or larger \"buckybuds\".",
"title": "Types"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 18,
"text": "Buckminsterfullerene is the smallest fullerene molecule containing pentagonal and hexagonal rings in which no two pentagons share an edge (which can be destabilizing, as in pentalene). It is also most common in terms of natural occurrence, as it can often be found in soot.",
"title": "Types"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 19,
"text": "The empirical formula of buckminsterfullerene is C60 and its structure is a truncated icosahedron, which resembles an association football ball of the type made of twenty hexagons and twelve pentagons, with a carbon atom at the vertices of each polygon and a bond along each polygon edge.",
"title": "Types"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 20,
"text": "The van der Waals diameter of a buckminsterfullerene molecule is about 1.1 nanometers (nm). The nucleus to nucleus diameter of a buckminsterfullerene molecule is about 0.71 nm.",
"title": "Types"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 21,
"text": "The buckminsterfullerene molecule has two bond lengths. The 6:6 ring bonds (between two hexagons) can be considered \"double bonds\" and are shorter than the 6:5 bonds (between a hexagon and a pentagon). Its average bond length is 1.4 Å.",
"title": "Types"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 22,
"text": "Another fairly common fullerene has empirical formula C70, but fullerenes with 72, 76, 84 and even up to 100 carbon atoms are commonly obtained.",
"title": "Types"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 23,
"text": "The smallest possible fullerene is the dodecahedral C20. There are no fullerenes with 22 vertices. The number of different fullerenes C2n grows with increasing n = 12, 13, 14, ..., roughly in proportion to n (sequence A007894 in the OEIS). For instance, there are 1812 non-isomorphic fullerenes C60. Note that only one form of C60, buckminsterfullerene, has no pair of adjacent pentagons (the smallest such fullerene). To further illustrate the growth, there are 214,127,713 non-isomorphic fullerenes C200, 15,655,672 of which have no adjacent pentagons. Optimized structures of many fullerene isomers are published and listed on the web.",
"title": "Types"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 24,
"text": "Heterofullerenes have heteroatoms substituting carbons in cage or tube-shaped structures. They were discovered in 1993 and greatly expand the overall fullerene class of compounds and can have dangling bonds on their surfaces. Notable examples include boron, nitrogen (azafullerene), oxygen, and phosphorus derivatives.",
"title": "Types"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 25,
"text": "Carbon nanotubes are cylindrical fullerenes. These tubes of carbon are usually only a few nanometres wide, but they can range from less than a micrometer to several millimeters in length. They often have closed ends, but can be open-ended as well. There are also cases in which the tube reduces in diameter before closing off. Their unique molecular structure results in extraordinary macroscopic properties, including high tensile strength, high electrical conductivity, high ductility, high heat conductivity, and relative chemical inactivity (as it is cylindrical and \"planar\" — that is, it has no \"exposed\" atoms that can be easily displaced). One proposed use of carbon nanotubes is in paper batteries, developed in 2007 by researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Another highly speculative proposed use in the field of space technologies is to produce high-tensile carbon cables required by a space elevator.",
"title": "Types"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 26,
"text": "Buckyballs and carbon nanotubes have been used as building blocks for a great variety of derivatives and larger structures, such as",
"title": "Derivatives"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 27,
"text": "After the discovery of C60, many fullerenes have been synthesized (or studied theoretically by molecular modeling methods) in which some or all the carbon atoms are replaced by other elements. Non-carbon nanotubes, in particular, have attracted much attention.",
"title": "Heterofullerenes and non-carbon fullerenes"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 28,
"text": "A type of buckyball which uses boron atoms, instead of the usual carbon, was predicted and described in 2007. The B80 structure, with each atom forming 5 or 6 bonds, was predicted to be more stable than the C60 buckyball. However, subsequent analysis found that the predicted Ih symmetric structure was vibrationally unstable and the resulting cage would undergo a spontaneous symmetry break, yielding a puckered cage with rare Th symmetry (symmetry of a volleyball). The number of six-member rings in this molecule is 20 and number of five-member rings is 12. There is an additional atom in the center of each six-member ring, bonded to each atom surrounding it. By employing a systematic global search algorithm, it was later found that the previously proposed 80 fullerene is not a global maximum for 80-atom boron clusters and hence can not be found in nature; the most stable configurations have complex. The same paper concluded that boron's energy landscape, unlike others, has many disordered low-energy structures, hence pure boron fullerenes are unlikely to exist in nature.",
"title": "Heterofullerenes and non-carbon fullerenes"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 29,
"text": "However, an irregular B40 complex dubbed borospherene was prepared in 2014. This complex has two hexagonal faces and four heptagonal faces with in D2d symmetry interleaved with a network of 48 triangles.",
"title": "Heterofullerenes and non-carbon fullerenes"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 30,
"text": "Inorganic (carbon-free) fullerene-type structures have been built with the molybdenum(IV) sulfide (MoS2), long used as a graphite-like lubricant, tungsten (WS2), titanium (TiS2) and niobium (NbS2). These materials were found to be stable up to at least 350 tons/cm (34.3 GPa).",
"title": "Heterofullerenes and non-carbon fullerenes"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 31,
"text": "Icosahedral or distorted-icosahedral fullerene-like complexes have also been prepared for germanium, tin, and lead; some of these complexes are spacious enough to hold most transition metal atoms.",
"title": "Heterofullerenes and non-carbon fullerenes"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 32,
"text": "Below is a table of main closed carbon fullerenes synthesized and characterized so far, with their CAS number when known. Fullerenes with fewer than 60 carbon atoms have been called \"lower fullerenes\", and those with more than 70 atoms \"higher fullerenes\".",
"title": "Main fullerenes"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 33,
"text": "In the table, \"Num.Isom.\" is the number of possible isomers within the \"isolated pentagon rule\", which states that two pentagons in a fullerene should not share edges. \"Mol.Symm.\" is the symmetry of the molecule, whereas \"Cryst.Symm.\" is that of the crystalline framework in the solid state. Both are specified for the most experimentally abundant form(s). The asterisk * marks symmetries with more than one chiral form.",
"title": "Main fullerenes"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 34,
"text": "When C76 or C82 crystals are grown from toluene solution they have a monoclinic symmetry. The crystal structure contains toluene molecules packed between the spheres of the fullerene. However, evaporation of the solvent from C76 transforms it into a face-centered cubic form. Both monoclinic and face-centered cubic (fcc) phases are known for better-characterized C60 and C70 fullerenes.",
"title": "Main fullerenes"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 35,
"text": "Schlegel diagrams are often used to clarify the 3D structure of closed-shell fullerenes, as 2D projections are often not ideal in this sense.",
"title": "Properties"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 36,
"text": "In mathematical terms, the combinatorial topology (that is, the carbon atoms and the bonds between them, ignoring their positions and distances) of a closed-shell fullerene with a simple sphere-like mean surface (orientable, genus zero) can be represented as a convex polyhedron; more precisely, its one-dimensional skeleton, consisting of its vertices and edges. The Schlegel diagram is a projection of that skeleton onto one of the faces of the polyhedron, through a point just outside that face; so that all other vertices project inside that face.",
"title": "Properties"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 37,
"text": "The Schlegel diagram of a closed fullerene is a graph that is planar and 3-regular (or \"cubic\"; meaning that all vertices have degree 3).",
"title": "Properties"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 38,
"text": "A closed fullerene with sphere-like shell must have at least some cycles that are pentagons or heptagons. More precisely, if all the faces have 5 or 6 sides, it follows from Euler's polyhedron formula, V−E+F=2 (where V, E, F are the numbers of vertices, edges, and faces), that V must be even, and that there must be exactly 12 pentagons and V/2−10 hexagons. Similar constraints exist if the fullerene has heptagonal (seven-atom) cycles.",
"title": "Properties"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 39,
"text": "Since each carbon atom is connected to only three neighbors, instead of the usual four, it is customary to describe those bonds as being a mixture of single and double covalent bonds. The hybridization of carbon in C60 has been reported to be sp. The bonding state can be analyzed by Raman spectroscopy, IR spectroscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy.",
"title": "Properties"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 40,
"text": "Additional atoms, ions, clusters, or small molecules can be trapped inside fullerenes to form inclusion compounds known as endohedral fullerenes. An unusual example is the egg-shaped fullerene Tb3N@C84, which violates the isolated pentagon rule. Evidence for a meteor impact at the end of the Permian period was found by analyzing noble gases preserved by being trapped in fullerenes.",
"title": "Properties"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 41,
"text": "In the field of nanotechnology, heat resistance and superconductivity are some of the more heavily studied properties.",
"title": "Properties"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 42,
"text": "There are many calculations that have been done using ab-initio quantum methods applied to fullerenes. By DFT and TD-DFT methods one can obtain IR, Raman and UV spectra. Results of such calculations can be compared with experimental results.",
"title": "Properties"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 43,
"text": "Fullerene is an unusual reactant in many organic reactions such as the Bingel reaction discovered in 1993.",
"title": "Properties"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 44,
"text": "Researchers have been able to increase the reactivity of fullerenes by attaching active groups to their surfaces. Buckminsterfullerene does not exhibit \"superaromaticity\": that is, the electrons in the hexagonal rings do not delocalize over the whole molecule.",
"title": "Properties"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 45,
"text": "A spherical fullerene of n carbon atoms has n pi-bonding electrons, free to delocalize. These should try to delocalize over the whole molecule. The quantum mechanics of such an arrangement should be like only one shell of the well-known quantum mechanical structure of a single atom, with a stable filled shell for n = 2, 8, 18, 32, 50, 72, 98, 128, etc. (i.e., twice a perfect square number), but this series does not include 60. This 2(N + 1) rule (with N integer) for spherical aromaticity is the three-dimensional analogue of Hückel's rule. The 10+ cation would satisfy this rule, and should be aromatic. This has been shown to be the case using quantum chemical modelling, which showed the existence of strong diamagnetic sphere currents in the cation.",
"title": "Properties"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 46,
"text": "As a result, C60 in water tends to pick up two more electrons and become an anion. The nC60 described below may be the result of C60 trying to form a loose metallic bond.",
"title": "Properties"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 47,
"text": "Under high pressure and temperature, buckyballs collapse to form various one-, two-, or three-dimensional carbon frameworks. Single-strand polymers are formed using the Atom Transfer Radical Addition Polymerization (ATRAP) route.",
"title": "Reactions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 48,
"text": "\"Ultrahard fullerite\" is a coined term frequently used to describe material produced by high-pressure high-temperature (HPHT) processing of fullerite. Such treatment converts fullerite into a nanocrystalline form of diamond which has been reported to exhibit remarkable mechanical properties.",
"title": "Reactions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 49,
"text": "Fullerenes are stable, but not totally unreactive. The sp-hybridized carbon atoms, which are at their energy minimum in planar graphite, must be bent to form the closed sphere or tube, which produces angle strain. The characteristic reaction of fullerenes is electrophilic addition at 6,6-double bonds, which reduces angle strain by changing sp-hybridized carbons into sp-hybridized ones. The change in hybridized orbitals causes the bond angles to decrease from about 120° in the sp orbitals to about 109.5° in the sp orbitals. This decrease in bond angles allows for the bonds to bend less when closing the sphere or tube, and thus, the molecule becomes more stable.",
"title": "Reactions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 50,
"text": "Fullerenes are soluble in many organic solvents, such as toluene, chlorobenzene, and 1,2,3-trichloropropane. Solubilities are generally rather low, such as 8 g/L for C60 in carbon disulfide. Still, fullerenes are the only known allotrope of carbon that can be dissolved in common solvents at room temperature. Among the best solvents is 1-chloronaphthalene, which will dissolve 51 g/L of C60.",
"title": "Reactions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 51,
"text": "Solutions of pure buckminsterfullerene have a deep purple color. Solutions of C70 are a reddish brown. The higher fullerenes C76 to C84 have a variety of colors.",
"title": "Reactions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 52,
"text": "Millimeter-sized crystals of C60 and C70, both pure and solvated, can be grown from benzene solution. Crystallization of C60 from benzene solution below 30 °C (when solubility is maximum) yields a triclinic solid solvate C60·4C6H6. Above 30 °C one obtains solvate-free fcc C60.",
"title": "Reactions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 53,
"text": "In 1999, researchers from the University of Vienna demonstrated that wave-particle duality applied to molecules such as fullerene.",
"title": "Reactions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 54,
"text": "Fullerenes are normally electrical insulators, but when crystallized with alkali metals, the resultant compound can be conducting or even superconducting.",
"title": "Reactions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 55,
"text": "Some fullerenes (e.g. C76, C78, C80, and C84) are inherently chiral because they are D2-symmetric, and have been successfully resolved. Research efforts are ongoing to develop specific sensors for their enantiomers.",
"title": "Reactions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 56,
"text": "Two theories have been proposed to describe the molecular mechanisms that make fullerenes. The older, “bottom-up” theory proposes that they are built atom-by-atom. The alternative “top-down” approach claims that fullerenes form when much larger structures break into constituent parts.",
"title": "Reactions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 57,
"text": "In 2013 researchers discovered that asymmetrical fullerenes formed from larger structures settle into stable fullerenes. The synthesized substance was a particular metallofullerene consisting of 84 carbon atoms with two additional carbon atoms and two yttrium atoms inside the cage. The process produced approximately 100 micrograms.",
"title": "Reactions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 58,
"text": "However, they found that the asymmetrical molecule could theoretically collapse to form nearly every known fullerene and metallofullerene. Minor perturbations involving the breaking of a few molecular bonds cause the cage to become highly symmetrical and stable. This insight supports the theory that fullerenes can be formed from graphene when the appropriate molecular bonds are severed.",
"title": "Reactions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 59,
"text": "According to the IUPAC, to name a fullerene, one must cite the number of member atoms for the rings which comprise the fullerene, its symmetry point group in the Schoenflies notation, and the total number of atoms. For example, buckminsterfullerene C60 is systematically named (C60-Ih)[5,6]fullerene. The name of the point group should be retained in any derivative of said fullerene, even if that symmetry is lost by the derivation.",
"title": "Systematic naming"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 60,
"text": "To indicate the position of substituted or attached elements, the fullerene atoms are usually numbered in a spiral path, usually starting with the ring on one of the main axes. If the structure of the fullerene does not allow such numbering, another starting atom was chosen to still achieve a spiral path sequence.",
"title": "Systematic naming"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 61,
"text": "The latter is the case for C70, which is (C70-D5h(6))[5,6]fullerene in IUPAC notation. The symmetry D5h(6) means that this is the isomer where the C5 axis goes through a pentagon surrounded by hexagons rather than pentagons.",
"title": "Systematic naming"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 62,
"text": "In IUPAC's nomenclature, fully saturated analogues of fullerenes are called fulleranes. If the mesh has other element(s) substituted for one or more carbons, the compound is named a heterofullerene. If a double bond is replaced by a methylene bridge −CH2−, the resulting structure is a homofullerene. If an atom is fully deleted and missing valences saturated with hydrogen atoms, it is a norfullerene. When bonds are removed (both sigma and pi), the compound becomes secofullerene; if some new bonds are added in an unconventional order, it is a cyclofullerene.",
"title": "Systematic naming"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 63,
"text": "Fullerene production generally starts by producing fullerene-rich soot. The original (and still current) method was to send a large electric current between two nearby graphite electrodes in an inert atmosphere. The resulting electric arc vaporizes the carbon into a plasma that then cools into sooty residue. Alternatively, soot is produced by laser ablation of graphite or pyrolysis of aromatic hydrocarbons. Combustion of benzene is the most efficient process, developed at MIT.",
"title": "Production"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 64,
"text": "These processes yield a mixture of various fullerenes and other forms of carbon. The fullerenes are then extracted from the soot using appropriate organic solvents and separated by chromatography. One can obtain milligram quantities of fullerenes with 80 atoms or more. C76, C78 and C84 are available commercially.",
"title": "Production"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 65,
"text": "Fullerenes have been extensively used for several biomedical applications including the design of high-performance MRI contrast agents, X-ray imaging contrast agents, photodynamic therapy and drug and gene delivery, summarized in several comprehensive reviews.",
"title": "Applications"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 66,
"text": "While past cancer research has involved radiation therapy, photodynamic therapy is important to study because breakthroughs in treatments for tumor cells will give more options to patients with different conditions. Recent experiments using HeLa cells in cancer research involves the development of new photosensitizers with increased ability to be absorbed by cancer cells and still trigger cell death. It is also important that a new photosensitizer does not stay in the body for a long time to prevent unwanted cell damage.",
"title": "Applications"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 67,
"text": "Fullerenes can be made to be absorbed by HeLa cells. The C60 derivatives can be delivered to the cells by using the functional groups L-phenylalanine, folic acid, and L-arginine among others.",
"title": "Applications"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 68,
"text": "Functionalizing the fullerenes aims to increase the solubility of the molecule by the cancer cells. Cancer cells take up these molecules at an increased rate because of an upregulation of transporters in the cancer cell, in this case amino acid transporters will bring in the L-arginine and L-phenylalanine functional groups of the fullerenes.",
"title": "Applications"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 69,
"text": "Once absorbed by the cells, the C60 derivatives would react to light radiation by turning molecular oxygen into reactive oxygen which triggers apoptosis in the HeLa cells and other cancer cells that can absorb the fullerene molecule. This research shows that a reactive substance can target cancer cells and then be triggered by light radiation, minimizing damage to surrounding tissues while undergoing treatment.",
"title": "Applications"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 70,
"text": "When absorbed by cancer cells and exposed to light radiation, the reaction that creates reactive oxygen damages the DNA, proteins, and lipids that make up the cancer cell. This cellular damage forces the cancerous cell to go through apoptosis, which can lead to the reduction in size of a tumor. Once the light radiation treatment is finished the fullerene will reabsorb the free radicals to prevent damage of other tissues. Since this treatment focuses on cancer cells, it is a good option for patients whose cancer cells are within reach of light radiation. As this research continues, the treatment may penetrate deeper into the body and be absorbed by cancer cells more effectively.",
"title": "Applications"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 71,
"text": "In 2013, a comprehensive review on the toxicity of fullerene was published reviewing work beginning in the early 1990s to present and concluded that very little evidence gathered since the discovery of fullerenes indicate that C60 is toxic. The toxicity of these carbon nanoparticles is not only dose- and time-dependent, but also depends on a number of other factors such as:",
"title": "Safety and toxicity"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 72,
"text": "It was recommended to assess the pharmacology of every new fullerene- or metallofullerene-based complex individually as a different compound.",
"title": "Safety and toxicity"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 73,
"text": "Examples of fullerenes appear frequently in popular culture. Fullerenes appeared in fiction well before scientists took serious interest in them. In a humorously speculative 1966 column for New Scientist, David Jones suggested the possibility of making giant hollow carbon molecules by distorting a plane hexagonal net with the addition of impurity atoms.",
"title": "Popular culture"
}
] |
A fullerene is an allotrope of carbon whose molecules consist of carbon atoms connected by single and double bonds so as to form a closed or partially closed mesh, with fused rings of five to seven atoms. The molecules may be hollow spheres, ellipsoids, tubes, or other shapes. Fullerenes with a closed mesh topology are informally denoted by their empirical formula Cn, often written Cn, where n is the number of carbon atoms. However, for some values of n there may be more than one isomer. The family is named after buckminsterfullerene (C60), the most famous member, which in turn is named after Buckminster Fuller. The closed fullerenes, especially C60, are also informally called buckyballs for their resemblance to the standard ball of association football ("soccer"). Nested closed fullerenes have been named bucky onions. Cylindrical fullerenes are also called carbon nanotubes or buckytubes. The bulk solid form of pure or mixed fullerenes is called fullerite. Fullerenes had been predicted for some time, but only after their accidental synthesis in 1985 were they detected in nature and outer space. The discovery of fullerenes greatly expanded the number of known allotropes of carbon, which had previously been limited to graphite, diamond, and amorphous carbon such as soot and charcoal. They have been the subject of intense research, both for their chemistry and for their technological applications, especially in materials science, electronics, and nanotechnology.
|
2001-10-24T17:44:23Z
|
2023-12-12T10:25:23Z
|
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fullerene
|
10,629 |
Francis II
|
Francis II may refer to:
|
[
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "Francis II may refer to:",
"title": ""
}
] |
Francis II may refer to: Francis II, Duke of Brittany (1433–1488)
Francesco II Gonzaga, Marquess of Mantua (1466–1519), ruler of the Italian city of Mantua
Francis II of France (1544–1560), king of France
Francis II, Duke of Lorraine (1572–1632), son of Charles III, Duke of Lorraine, and Claude of Valois
Francesco II d'Este, Duke of Modena (1660–1694)
Francis II Rákóczi (1676–1735), Prince of Transylvania
Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor (1768–1835), last Holy Roman Emperor
Francis II of the Two Sicilies (1836–1894), last king of the Two Sicilies
Franz, Duke of Bavaria, called "Francis II" by supporters of the Jacobite claim to the thrones of England, Scotland, Ireland, and France
Francis II, Duke of Saxe-Lauenburg (1547–1619), third son of Francis I of Saxe-Lauenburg and Sybille of Saxe-Freiberg
|
2021-01-17T09:12:59Z
|
[
"Template:Human name disambiguation"
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_II
|
|
10,632 |
Fallacies of definition
|
Fallacies of definition are the various ways in which definitions can fail to explain terms. The phrase is used to suggest an analogy with an informal fallacy. Definitions may fail to have merit, because they: are overly broad, use obscure or ambiguous language, or contain circular reasoning; those are called fallacies of definition. Three major fallacies are: overly broad, overly narrow, and mutually exclusive definitions, a fourth is: incomprehensible definitions, and one of the most common is circular definitions.
If one concept is defined by another, and the other is defined by the first, this is known as a circular definition, akin to circular reasoning: neither offers enlightenment about what one wanted to know. "It is a fallacy because by using a synonym in the definiens the reader is told nothing significantly new."
A straightforward example would be to define Jew as "a person believing in Judaism", and Judaism as "the religion of the Jewish people", which would make Judaism "the religion of the people believing in Judaism".
A definition intended to describe a given set of individuals fails if its description of matching individuals is incongruous: too broad (excessively loose with parameters) or too narrow (excessively strict with parameters). For example, "a shape with four sides of equal length" is not a sufficient definition for square, because squares are not the only shapes that can have four sides of equal length; rhombi do as well. Likewise, defining rectangle as "a shape with four perpendicular sides of equal length" is inappropriate because it is too narrow, as it describes only squares while excluding all other kinds of rectangles, thus being a plainly incorrect definition.
If a cow were defined as an animal with horns, this would be overly broad (including goats, for example), while if a cow were defined as a black-and-white quadruped, this would be both overly narrow (excluding: all-black, all-white, all-brown and white-brown cows, for example) and overly broad (including Dalmatians, for example).
Definitions can go wrong by using ambiguous, obscure, or figurative language. This can lead to circular definitions. Definitions should be defined in the most prosaic form of language to be understood, as failure to elucidate provides fallacious definitions. Figurative language can also be misinterpreted. For example, golden eyes in a biography may lead the reader to think that the person was fictional.
An example of obscurity is Samuel Johnson's definition for oats: "A grain, which in England is generally given to horses, but in Scotland supports the people." The thing defined (oats) should be pointed out rather than remain obscure.
The definition completely excludes what is being defined. For example, a cow might be defined as a flying animal with no legs. In reality a cow has legs and cannot fly, but this example claims to define a cow using a definition that is opposite to what a cow actually is. "Cow" and "flying animal with no legs" are mutually exclusive to each other: they cannot refer to the same thing.
Definitions may fail by imposing conflicting requirements, making it impossible for them to apply to anything at all. For example, a cow being defined as a legless quadruped, or the term dynamic equilibrium – equilibrium state cannot be dynamic. These requirements may also be mutually exclusive.
The definist fallacy is a logical fallacy, coined by William Frankena in 1939, that involves the definition of one property in terms of another.
|
[
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "Fallacies of definition are the various ways in which definitions can fail to explain terms. The phrase is used to suggest an analogy with an informal fallacy. Definitions may fail to have merit, because they: are overly broad, use obscure or ambiguous language, or contain circular reasoning; those are called fallacies of definition. Three major fallacies are: overly broad, overly narrow, and mutually exclusive definitions, a fourth is: incomprehensible definitions, and one of the most common is circular definitions.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "If one concept is defined by another, and the other is defined by the first, this is known as a circular definition, akin to circular reasoning: neither offers enlightenment about what one wanted to know. \"It is a fallacy because by using a synonym in the definiens the reader is told nothing significantly new.\"",
"title": "Circularity"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "A straightforward example would be to define Jew as \"a person believing in Judaism\", and Judaism as \"the religion of the Jewish people\", which would make Judaism \"the religion of the people believing in Judaism\".",
"title": "Circularity"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "A definition intended to describe a given set of individuals fails if its description of matching individuals is incongruous: too broad (excessively loose with parameters) or too narrow (excessively strict with parameters). For example, \"a shape with four sides of equal length\" is not a sufficient definition for square, because squares are not the only shapes that can have four sides of equal length; rhombi do as well. Likewise, defining rectangle as \"a shape with four perpendicular sides of equal length\" is inappropriate because it is too narrow, as it describes only squares while excluding all other kinds of rectangles, thus being a plainly incorrect definition.",
"title": "Incongruity: overly broad or narrow"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "If a cow were defined as an animal with horns, this would be overly broad (including goats, for example), while if a cow were defined as a black-and-white quadruped, this would be both overly narrow (excluding: all-black, all-white, all-brown and white-brown cows, for example) and overly broad (including Dalmatians, for example).",
"title": "Incongruity: overly broad or narrow"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "Definitions can go wrong by using ambiguous, obscure, or figurative language. This can lead to circular definitions. Definitions should be defined in the most prosaic form of language to be understood, as failure to elucidate provides fallacious definitions. Figurative language can also be misinterpreted. For example, golden eyes in a biography may lead the reader to think that the person was fictional.",
"title": "Obscurity"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "An example of obscurity is Samuel Johnson's definition for oats: \"A grain, which in England is generally given to horses, but in Scotland supports the people.\" The thing defined (oats) should be pointed out rather than remain obscure.",
"title": "Obscurity"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "The definition completely excludes what is being defined. For example, a cow might be defined as a flying animal with no legs. In reality a cow has legs and cannot fly, but this example claims to define a cow using a definition that is opposite to what a cow actually is. \"Cow\" and \"flying animal with no legs\" are mutually exclusive to each other: they cannot refer to the same thing.",
"title": "Mutual exclusivity"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "Definitions may fail by imposing conflicting requirements, making it impossible for them to apply to anything at all. For example, a cow being defined as a legless quadruped, or the term dynamic equilibrium – equilibrium state cannot be dynamic. These requirements may also be mutually exclusive.",
"title": "Self-contradictory requirements"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "The definist fallacy is a logical fallacy, coined by William Frankena in 1939, that involves the definition of one property in terms of another.",
"title": "Definist fallacy"
}
] |
Fallacies of definition are the various ways in which definitions can fail to explain terms. The phrase is used to suggest an analogy with an informal fallacy. Definitions may fail to have merit, because they: are overly broad, use obscure or ambiguous language, or contain circular reasoning; those are called fallacies of definition. Three major fallacies are: overly broad, overly narrow, and mutually exclusive definitions, a fourth is: incomprehensible definitions, and one of the most common is circular definitions.
|
2002-02-02T17:43:17Z
|
2023-08-16T05:11:05Z
|
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallacies_of_definition
|
10,633 |
Fredericton
|
Fredericton (/ˈfrɛ.drɪk.tən/; French pronunciation: [fʁedeʁiktœn]) is the capital city of the Canadian province of New Brunswick. The city is situated in the west-central portion of the province along the Saint John River, also known by its Indigenous name of Wolastoq, which flows west to east as it bisects the city. The river is the dominant natural feature of the area. One of the main urban centres in New Brunswick, the city had a population of 63,116 and a metropolitan population of 108,610 in the 2021 Canadian Census. It is the third-largest city in the province after Moncton and Saint John.
On 1 January 2023, Fredericton annexed parts of five local service districts; revised census figures have not been released.
An important cultural, artistic, and educational centre for the province, Fredericton is home to two universities, the New Brunswick College of Craft and Design, and cultural institutions such as the Beaverbrook Art Gallery, the Fredericton Region Museum, and The Playhouse, a performing arts venue. The city hosts the annual Harvest Jazz & Blues Festival, attracting regional and international jazz, blues, rock, and world artists. Fredericton is also an important and vibrant centre point for the region's top visual artists; many of New Brunswick's notable artists live and work there today. Fredericton has also been home to some great historical Canadian painters as well, including Goodridge Roberts, and Molly and Bruno Bobak.
As a provincial capital, its economy is tied to the public sector; however, the city also contains a growing IT and commercial sector. The city has the highest percentage of residents with post-secondary education in the province and the highest per capita income of any city in New Brunswick.
There is archaeological evidence of a camp in the area 12,000 years ago, and Maliseets farmed several kilometres upriver.
Colonists from the Kingdom of France in the late 1600s built Fort Nashwaak on the north side of the Saint John River, as the capital of Acadia. It withstood a British attack in 1696, but the capital was later moved to Port Royal. In 1713, Acadians escaping the British takeover of Nova Scotia settled the site, naming it Pointe Ste-Anne. It was destroyed in 1758 when the population of about 83 were exiled during the expulsion of the Acadians.
It was in 1783, when United Empire Loyalists arrived from New England, that the history of modern Fredericton began. The following year, New Brunswick was partitioned from Nova Scotia and became its own colony. Pointe-Ste-Anne was renamed "Fredericstown", after Frederick, second son of King George III. It became the capital of the new colony, being considered to have a better defensive position than larger Saint John.
The streets were laid out in the typical grid pattern of the time, with the names reflecting loyalist tendencies: Charlotte, Brunswick, George, King, and Queen.
In 1785, it became the shire town of York County. In 1790 the New Brunswick Legislative Building was constructed. As a centre of government, it attracted educational institutions, with King's College (now the University of New Brunswick) being the first English-language university in Canada, and religious institutions, with Christ Church Cathedral being built as the seat of the Anglican Diocese of Fredericton in 1853.
It was a British garrison town from 1784 to 1869, and the military compound is preserved as a National Historic Site of Canada.
With the New Brunswick Equal Opportunity program in the 1960s, county councils were abolished, and government services were centralized provincially in Fredericton, increasing jobs and population.
The Saint John River runs through Fredericton, with most of the city's post-war suburban development occurring on the gently sloping hills on either side of the river (although the downtown core is flat and lies low to the river).
At an altitude of about 17 m (56 ft) above sea level, Fredericton is nestled in the Pennsylvanian Basin. It differs markedly from the geologically older parts of the province. There are prominently two distinct areas in the region that are divided around the area of Wilsey Road, in the east end of the city. In the west side, the bedrock underneath the earth is topographically dominant, whereas the other is controlled by Pleistocene and recent deposits leading to the rivers (resulting in the area being shallow and wide). Fredericton and its surroundings are rich in water resources, which, coupled with highly arable soil, make the Fredericton region ideal for agriculture. The Saint John River and one of its major tributaries, the Nashwaak River, come together in Fredericton. The uninhabited parts of the city are heavily forested.
Fredericton has a warm-summer humid continental climate (Dfb under the Köppen climate classification system), with short, warm summers and long, cold winters. The city has high humidity and precipitation year-round; on average, Fredericton receives approximately 1,100 mm (43 in) of precipitation per year.
In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, Fredericton had a population of 63,116 living in 28,478 of its 29,892 total private dwellings, a change of 7.5% from its 2016 population of 58,721. With a land area of 133.93 km (51.71 sq mi), it had a population density of 471.3/km (1,220.6/sq mi) in 2021.
At the census metropolitan area (CMA) level in the 2021 census, the Fredericton CMA had a population of 108,610 living in 46,357 of its 48,761 total private dwellings, a change of 5.8% from its 2016 population of 102,690. With a land area of 6,014.66 km (2,322.27 sq mi), it had a population density of 18.1/km (46.8/sq mi) in 2021.
The 2021 census reported that immigrants (individuals born outside Canada) comprise 7,790 persons or 12.6% of the total population of Fredericton. Of the total immigrant population, the top countries of origin were United Kingdom (765 persons or 9.8%), China (645 persons or 8.3%), United States of America (570 persons or 7.3%), Syria (505 persons or 6.5%), Philippines (500 persons or 6.4%), India (460 persons or 5.9%), Egypt (300 persons or 3.9%), Iran (245 persons or 3.1%), Lebanon (205 persons or 2.6%), and Democratic Republic of the Congo (180 persons or 2.3%).
In 2021, Fredericton was 82.5% white/European, 3.5% Indigenous and 14.0% visible minorities. The largest visible minority groups were Black (2.9%), South Asian (2.9%), Arab (2.5%), Chinese (1.8%) and Filipino (1.0%).
Fredericton accepted the highest number of refugees from the Syrian Civil War per capita of any Canadian city.
English is spoken as a mother tongue by 80.2% of residents. Other mother tongues spoken are French (6.1%), Arabic (2.1%), Chinese languages (1.4%), Spanish (0.7%), Russian (0.6%), and Persian languages (0.5%). 1.4% of the population listed both English and French as mother tongues.
According to the 2021 census, religious groups in Fredericton included:
Those who declare a religion are predominantly Protestant. Fredericton has a synagogue, a mosque, a Hindu temple, a Unitarian fellowship, and a Shambhala Buddhist meditation centre.
The Government of New Brunswick and the universities are the primary employers. The policies of centralizing provincial government functions during the 1960s led to an expansion of the population.
The 1960s also saw an expansion of the University of New Brunswick due to increased post-war university enrolment, as well as the construction of Saint Thomas University. The Law School, now the University of New Brunswick Faculty of Law moved from Saint John to the Fredericton area.
The city has been investing actively in IT infrastructure. The City of Fredericton won the "Judges Innovation Award" at the 2004 Canadian Information Productivity Awards due to their "Fred-eZone" free municipality wide Wi-Fi initiative. This and other innovations by the city's utelco, e-Novations, led Intel to do a case study on their successes. Fred-eZone spans much of the city's downtown and parts of surrounding residential areas, as well as peripheral commercial areas such as Fredericton's Regent Mall. In 2008 and 2009 the Intelligent Community Forum selected Fredericton as a Top 7 Intelligent Community, based partly on the city's work in the IT sector.
The Playhouse is the main venue for Theatre New Brunswick, the province's largest professional theatre company.
Festivals include the Harvest Jazz & Blues Festival, the New Brunswick Summer Music Festival, the Silver Wave Film Festival, the Flourish Arts & Music Festival, and Symphony New Brunswick.
Fredericton has a long literary tradition, having been home to Jonathan Odell, Charles G. D. Roberts, Bliss Carman, and Francis Sherman. Writers living in Fredericton include Raymond Fraser, Herb Curtis, David Adams Richards, Mark Anthony Jarman, and Gerard Beirne.
Fredericton's beloved fountain "Freddy the Nude Dude", officially known as "Putto with Fish" sits outside City Hall at 397 Queen St. "Freddy the Nude Dude" was donated to the city by Mayor George Edward Fentey, in 1885. The statue depicts a nude Cherub and is a beloved fixture of downtown Fredericton. The famed statue has had some trouble since its historic arrival in 1885. In January 2013, "Freddy the Nude Dude" was taken south to Alabama for a replication of the original statue after 128 winters worth of damage. The original Freddy is kept safely inside City Hall where it is protected from further weather damage.
Styles range from Victorian to modern. There are 12 National Historic Sites in the city, beyond the dozen National Historic People and two National Historic Events honored there.
There are no professional sports teams in Fredericton, although both universities have extensive athletic programs. The UNB Reds play in the Atlantic University Sport conference of U Sports and St. Thomas Tommies play in the Atlantic Collegiate Athletic Association conference of the Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association for most sports, although their women's hockey team, cross-country teams, and track & field teams play in the Atlantic University Sports conference of U Sports.
Fredericton's high schools compete in a variety of sports in the New Brunswick Interscholastic Athletic Association.
UNB's men's hockey team are 8 time National Champions, and the highest attended sporting events in the city.
The Junior A hockey team is the Fredericton Red Wings. The former Fredericton Express and Fredericton Canadiens were American Hockey League teams.
Each summer the Fredericton Loyalists host the New Brunswick Timber team which competes in the Rugby Canada Super League.
Fredericton has a network of 25 trails totalling more than 85 km (53 mi) on both sides of the Saint John and Nashwaak Rivers. Many of the city trails are rail trails that follow old railway lines. These include the Fredericton Railway Bridge that spans 0.6 km (0.37 mi) across the Saint John River. The rail trail system in Fredericton is part of the Sentier NB Trail system and some of these trails are also part of the larger Trans-Canada Trail network.
Fredericton has a non-partisan and Mayor–council government. The mayor and council serve four-year terms with elections in May. The city is divided into 12 wards, (six on each side of the river, one councillor per ward.
The city includes the provincial ridings of Fredericton North, Fredericton-Grand Lake, Fredericton West-Hanwell, Oromocto-Lincoln-Fredericton, New Maryland-Sunbury and Fredericton South, which in 2014 elected the first-ever MLA for the Green Party of New Brunswick, party leader David Coon.
Federally, the city forms most of the riding of Fredericton.
The Anglophone West School District and the District Scolaire Francophone Sud (District 1) run schools including Fredericton High School, École des Bâtisseurs, and the École Sainte-Anne. Leo Hayes High School is a public–private partnership
There are two universities, the UNB, and St. Thomas, the province's only Catholic university.
Colleges include the New Brunswick College of Craft and Design, the New Brunswick Community College, and the Maritime College of Forest Technology.
For-profit universities include University of Fredericton and Yorkville University.
The Hugh John Flemming Forestry Centre researches in forestry management. Fredericton's Provincial Research Organization specializes in aquaculture, mining, manufacturing, energy and the environment.
Air service is provided out of the Fredericton International Airport.
Fredericton Transit provides bus service, though not on Sundays.
Fredericton started installing bicycle lanes in July 2008.
Passenger rail service ended in the 1960s, and freight in 1996. All railway tracks have been abandoned and removed.
Fredericton is served by the Maritime Bus fleet which provides connections to points throughout Eastern Canada.
The Trans-Canada Highway passes along the southern municipal boundary. Routes 7 and 8 (the latter being a former alignment of the Trans-Canada) also pass through the city. Two highway bridges, the Westmorland Street Bridge and the Princess Margaret Bridge, cross the Saint John River. Those bridges feed into controlled-access roads (Routes 8 and 105 serving the city's north side).
|
[
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "Fredericton (/ˈfrɛ.drɪk.tən/; French pronunciation: [fʁedeʁiktœn]) is the capital city of the Canadian province of New Brunswick. The city is situated in the west-central portion of the province along the Saint John River, also known by its Indigenous name of Wolastoq, which flows west to east as it bisects the city. The river is the dominant natural feature of the area. One of the main urban centres in New Brunswick, the city had a population of 63,116 and a metropolitan population of 108,610 in the 2021 Canadian Census. It is the third-largest city in the province after Moncton and Saint John.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "On 1 January 2023, Fredericton annexed parts of five local service districts; revised census figures have not been released.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "An important cultural, artistic, and educational centre for the province, Fredericton is home to two universities, the New Brunswick College of Craft and Design, and cultural institutions such as the Beaverbrook Art Gallery, the Fredericton Region Museum, and The Playhouse, a performing arts venue. The city hosts the annual Harvest Jazz & Blues Festival, attracting regional and international jazz, blues, rock, and world artists. Fredericton is also an important and vibrant centre point for the region's top visual artists; many of New Brunswick's notable artists live and work there today. Fredericton has also been home to some great historical Canadian painters as well, including Goodridge Roberts, and Molly and Bruno Bobak.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "As a provincial capital, its economy is tied to the public sector; however, the city also contains a growing IT and commercial sector. The city has the highest percentage of residents with post-secondary education in the province and the highest per capita income of any city in New Brunswick.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "There is archaeological evidence of a camp in the area 12,000 years ago, and Maliseets farmed several kilometres upriver.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "Colonists from the Kingdom of France in the late 1600s built Fort Nashwaak on the north side of the Saint John River, as the capital of Acadia. It withstood a British attack in 1696, but the capital was later moved to Port Royal. In 1713, Acadians escaping the British takeover of Nova Scotia settled the site, naming it Pointe Ste-Anne. It was destroyed in 1758 when the population of about 83 were exiled during the expulsion of the Acadians.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "It was in 1783, when United Empire Loyalists arrived from New England, that the history of modern Fredericton began. The following year, New Brunswick was partitioned from Nova Scotia and became its own colony. Pointe-Ste-Anne was renamed \"Fredericstown\", after Frederick, second son of King George III. It became the capital of the new colony, being considered to have a better defensive position than larger Saint John.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "The streets were laid out in the typical grid pattern of the time, with the names reflecting loyalist tendencies: Charlotte, Brunswick, George, King, and Queen.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "In 1785, it became the shire town of York County. In 1790 the New Brunswick Legislative Building was constructed. As a centre of government, it attracted educational institutions, with King's College (now the University of New Brunswick) being the first English-language university in Canada, and religious institutions, with Christ Church Cathedral being built as the seat of the Anglican Diocese of Fredericton in 1853.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "It was a British garrison town from 1784 to 1869, and the military compound is preserved as a National Historic Site of Canada.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "With the New Brunswick Equal Opportunity program in the 1960s, county councils were abolished, and government services were centralized provincially in Fredericton, increasing jobs and population.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "The Saint John River runs through Fredericton, with most of the city's post-war suburban development occurring on the gently sloping hills on either side of the river (although the downtown core is flat and lies low to the river).",
"title": "Geography"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "At an altitude of about 17 m (56 ft) above sea level, Fredericton is nestled in the Pennsylvanian Basin. It differs markedly from the geologically older parts of the province. There are prominently two distinct areas in the region that are divided around the area of Wilsey Road, in the east end of the city. In the west side, the bedrock underneath the earth is topographically dominant, whereas the other is controlled by Pleistocene and recent deposits leading to the rivers (resulting in the area being shallow and wide). Fredericton and its surroundings are rich in water resources, which, coupled with highly arable soil, make the Fredericton region ideal for agriculture. The Saint John River and one of its major tributaries, the Nashwaak River, come together in Fredericton. The uninhabited parts of the city are heavily forested.",
"title": "Geography"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "Fredericton has a warm-summer humid continental climate (Dfb under the Köppen climate classification system), with short, warm summers and long, cold winters. The city has high humidity and precipitation year-round; on average, Fredericton receives approximately 1,100 mm (43 in) of precipitation per year.",
"title": "Geography"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, Fredericton had a population of 63,116 living in 28,478 of its 29,892 total private dwellings, a change of 7.5% from its 2016 population of 58,721. With a land area of 133.93 km (51.71 sq mi), it had a population density of 471.3/km (1,220.6/sq mi) in 2021.",
"title": "Demographics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 15,
"text": "At the census metropolitan area (CMA) level in the 2021 census, the Fredericton CMA had a population of 108,610 living in 46,357 of its 48,761 total private dwellings, a change of 5.8% from its 2016 population of 102,690. With a land area of 6,014.66 km (2,322.27 sq mi), it had a population density of 18.1/km (46.8/sq mi) in 2021.",
"title": "Demographics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 16,
"text": "The 2021 census reported that immigrants (individuals born outside Canada) comprise 7,790 persons or 12.6% of the total population of Fredericton. Of the total immigrant population, the top countries of origin were United Kingdom (765 persons or 9.8%), China (645 persons or 8.3%), United States of America (570 persons or 7.3%), Syria (505 persons or 6.5%), Philippines (500 persons or 6.4%), India (460 persons or 5.9%), Egypt (300 persons or 3.9%), Iran (245 persons or 3.1%), Lebanon (205 persons or 2.6%), and Democratic Republic of the Congo (180 persons or 2.3%).",
"title": "Demographics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 17,
"text": "In 2021, Fredericton was 82.5% white/European, 3.5% Indigenous and 14.0% visible minorities. The largest visible minority groups were Black (2.9%), South Asian (2.9%), Arab (2.5%), Chinese (1.8%) and Filipino (1.0%).",
"title": "Demographics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 18,
"text": "Fredericton accepted the highest number of refugees from the Syrian Civil War per capita of any Canadian city.",
"title": "Demographics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 19,
"text": "English is spoken as a mother tongue by 80.2% of residents. Other mother tongues spoken are French (6.1%), Arabic (2.1%), Chinese languages (1.4%), Spanish (0.7%), Russian (0.6%), and Persian languages (0.5%). 1.4% of the population listed both English and French as mother tongues.",
"title": "Demographics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 20,
"text": "According to the 2021 census, religious groups in Fredericton included:",
"title": "Demographics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 21,
"text": "Those who declare a religion are predominantly Protestant. Fredericton has a synagogue, a mosque, a Hindu temple, a Unitarian fellowship, and a Shambhala Buddhist meditation centre.",
"title": "Demographics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 22,
"text": "The Government of New Brunswick and the universities are the primary employers. The policies of centralizing provincial government functions during the 1960s led to an expansion of the population.",
"title": "Economy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 23,
"text": "The 1960s also saw an expansion of the University of New Brunswick due to increased post-war university enrolment, as well as the construction of Saint Thomas University. The Law School, now the University of New Brunswick Faculty of Law moved from Saint John to the Fredericton area.",
"title": "Economy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 24,
"text": "The city has been investing actively in IT infrastructure. The City of Fredericton won the \"Judges Innovation Award\" at the 2004 Canadian Information Productivity Awards due to their \"Fred-eZone\" free municipality wide Wi-Fi initiative. This and other innovations by the city's utelco, e-Novations, led Intel to do a case study on their successes. Fred-eZone spans much of the city's downtown and parts of surrounding residential areas, as well as peripheral commercial areas such as Fredericton's Regent Mall. In 2008 and 2009 the Intelligent Community Forum selected Fredericton as a Top 7 Intelligent Community, based partly on the city's work in the IT sector.",
"title": "Economy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 25,
"text": "The Playhouse is the main venue for Theatre New Brunswick, the province's largest professional theatre company.",
"title": "Arts and culture"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 26,
"text": "Festivals include the Harvest Jazz & Blues Festival, the New Brunswick Summer Music Festival, the Silver Wave Film Festival, the Flourish Arts & Music Festival, and Symphony New Brunswick.",
"title": "Arts and culture"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 27,
"text": "Fredericton has a long literary tradition, having been home to Jonathan Odell, Charles G. D. Roberts, Bliss Carman, and Francis Sherman. Writers living in Fredericton include Raymond Fraser, Herb Curtis, David Adams Richards, Mark Anthony Jarman, and Gerard Beirne.",
"title": "Arts and culture"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 28,
"text": "Fredericton's beloved fountain \"Freddy the Nude Dude\", officially known as \"Putto with Fish\" sits outside City Hall at 397 Queen St. \"Freddy the Nude Dude\" was donated to the city by Mayor George Edward Fentey, in 1885. The statue depicts a nude Cherub and is a beloved fixture of downtown Fredericton. The famed statue has had some trouble since its historic arrival in 1885. In January 2013, \"Freddy the Nude Dude\" was taken south to Alabama for a replication of the original statue after 128 winters worth of damage. The original Freddy is kept safely inside City Hall where it is protected from further weather damage.",
"title": "Arts and culture"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 29,
"text": "Styles range from Victorian to modern. There are 12 National Historic Sites in the city, beyond the dozen National Historic People and two National Historic Events honored there.",
"title": "Arts and culture"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 30,
"text": "There are no professional sports teams in Fredericton, although both universities have extensive athletic programs. The UNB Reds play in the Atlantic University Sport conference of U Sports and St. Thomas Tommies play in the Atlantic Collegiate Athletic Association conference of the Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association for most sports, although their women's hockey team, cross-country teams, and track & field teams play in the Atlantic University Sports conference of U Sports.",
"title": "Sports"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 31,
"text": "Fredericton's high schools compete in a variety of sports in the New Brunswick Interscholastic Athletic Association.",
"title": "Sports"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 32,
"text": "UNB's men's hockey team are 8 time National Champions, and the highest attended sporting events in the city.",
"title": "Sports"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 33,
"text": "The Junior A hockey team is the Fredericton Red Wings. The former Fredericton Express and Fredericton Canadiens were American Hockey League teams.",
"title": "Sports"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 34,
"text": "Each summer the Fredericton Loyalists host the New Brunswick Timber team which competes in the Rugby Canada Super League.",
"title": "Sports"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 35,
"text": "Fredericton has a network of 25 trails totalling more than 85 km (53 mi) on both sides of the Saint John and Nashwaak Rivers. Many of the city trails are rail trails that follow old railway lines. These include the Fredericton Railway Bridge that spans 0.6 km (0.37 mi) across the Saint John River. The rail trail system in Fredericton is part of the Sentier NB Trail system and some of these trails are also part of the larger Trans-Canada Trail network.",
"title": "Parks and recreation"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 36,
"text": "Fredericton has a non-partisan and Mayor–council government. The mayor and council serve four-year terms with elections in May. The city is divided into 12 wards, (six on each side of the river, one councillor per ward.",
"title": "Government"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 37,
"text": "The city includes the provincial ridings of Fredericton North, Fredericton-Grand Lake, Fredericton West-Hanwell, Oromocto-Lincoln-Fredericton, New Maryland-Sunbury and Fredericton South, which in 2014 elected the first-ever MLA for the Green Party of New Brunswick, party leader David Coon.",
"title": "Government"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 38,
"text": "Federally, the city forms most of the riding of Fredericton.",
"title": "Government"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 39,
"text": "The Anglophone West School District and the District Scolaire Francophone Sud (District 1) run schools including Fredericton High School, École des Bâtisseurs, and the École Sainte-Anne. Leo Hayes High School is a public–private partnership",
"title": "Education and research"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 40,
"text": "There are two universities, the UNB, and St. Thomas, the province's only Catholic university.",
"title": "Education and research"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 41,
"text": "Colleges include the New Brunswick College of Craft and Design, the New Brunswick Community College, and the Maritime College of Forest Technology.",
"title": "Education and research"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 42,
"text": "For-profit universities include University of Fredericton and Yorkville University.",
"title": "Education and research"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 43,
"text": "The Hugh John Flemming Forestry Centre researches in forestry management. Fredericton's Provincial Research Organization specializes in aquaculture, mining, manufacturing, energy and the environment.",
"title": "Education and research"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 44,
"text": "Air service is provided out of the Fredericton International Airport.",
"title": "Transportation"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 45,
"text": "Fredericton Transit provides bus service, though not on Sundays.",
"title": "Transportation"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 46,
"text": "Fredericton started installing bicycle lanes in July 2008.",
"title": "Transportation"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 47,
"text": "Passenger rail service ended in the 1960s, and freight in 1996. All railway tracks have been abandoned and removed.",
"title": "Transportation"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 48,
"text": "Fredericton is served by the Maritime Bus fleet which provides connections to points throughout Eastern Canada.",
"title": "Transportation"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 49,
"text": "The Trans-Canada Highway passes along the southern municipal boundary. Routes 7 and 8 (the latter being a former alignment of the Trans-Canada) also pass through the city. Two highway bridges, the Westmorland Street Bridge and the Princess Margaret Bridge, cross the Saint John River. Those bridges feed into controlled-access roads (Routes 8 and 105 serving the city's north side).",
"title": "Transportation"
}
] |
Fredericton is the capital city of the Canadian province of New Brunswick. The city is situated in the west-central portion of the province along the Saint John River, also known by its Indigenous name of Wolastoq, which flows west to east as it bisects the city. The river is the dominant natural feature of the area. One of the main urban centres in New Brunswick, the city had a population of 63,116 and a metropolitan population of 108,610 in the 2021 Canadian Census. It is the third-largest city in the province after Moncton and Saint John. On 1 January 2023, Fredericton annexed parts of five local service districts; revised census figures have not been released. An important cultural, artistic, and educational centre for the province, Fredericton is home to two universities, the New Brunswick College of Craft and Design, and cultural institutions such as the Beaverbrook Art Gallery, the Fredericton Region Museum, and The Playhouse, a performing arts venue. The city hosts the annual Harvest Jazz & Blues Festival, attracting regional and international jazz, blues, rock, and world artists. Fredericton is also an important and vibrant centre point for the region's top visual artists; many of New Brunswick's notable artists live and work there today. Fredericton has also been home to some great historical Canadian painters as well, including Goodridge Roberts, and Molly and Bruno Bobak. As a provincial capital, its economy is tied to the public sector; however, the city also contains a growing IT and commercial sector. The city has the highest percentage of residents with post-secondary education in the province and the highest per capita income of any city in New Brunswick.
|
2001-03-27T18:00:10Z
|
2023-12-10T18:11:02Z
|
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fredericton
|
10,635 |
Free software
|
Free software, libre software, or libreware is computer software distributed under terms that allow users to run the software for any purpose as well as to study, change, and distribute it and any adapted versions. Free software is a matter of liberty, not price; all users are legally free to do what they want with their copies of a free software (including profiting from them) regardless of how much is paid to obtain the program. Computer programs are deemed "free" if they give end-users (not just the developer) ultimate control over the software and, subsequently, over their devices.
The right to study and modify a computer program entails that the source code—the preferred format for making changes—be made available to users of that program. While this is often called "access to source code" or "public availability", the Free Software Foundation (FSF) recommends against thinking in those terms, because it might give the impression that users have an obligation (as opposed to a right) to give non-users a copy of the program.
Although the term "free software" had already been used loosely in the past and other permissive software like the Berkeley Software Distribution released in 1978 existed, Richard Stallman is credited with tying it to the sense under discussion and starting the free software movement in 1983, when he launched the GNU Project: a collaborative effort to create a freedom-respecting operating system, and to revive the spirit of cooperation once prevalent among hackers during the early days of computing.
Free software thus differs from:
For software under the purview of copyright to be free, it must carry a software license whereby the author grants users the aforementioned rights. Software that is not covered by copyright law, such as software in the public domain, is free as long as the source code is also in the public domain, or otherwise available without restrictions.
Proprietary software uses restrictive software licences or EULAs and usually does not provide users with the source code. Users are thus legally or technically prevented from changing the software, and this results in reliance on the publisher to provide updates, help, and support. (See also vendor lock-in and abandonware). Users often may not reverse engineer, modify, or redistribute proprietary software. Beyond copyright law, contracts and a lack of source code, there can exist additional obstacles keeping users from exercising freedom over a piece of software, such as software patents and digital rights management (more specifically, tivoization).
Free software can be a for-profit, commercial activity or not. Some free software is developed by volunteer computer programmers while other is developed by corporations; or even by both.
Although both definitions refer to almost equivalent corpora of programs, the Free Software Foundation recommends using the term "free software" rather than "open-source software" (an alternative, yet similar, concept coined in 1998), because the goals and messaging are quite dissimilar. According to the Free Software Foundation, "Open source" and its associated campaign mostly focus on the technicalities of the public development model and marketing free software to businesses, while taking the ethical issue of user rights very lightly or even antagonistically. Stallman has also stated that considering the practical advantages of free software is like considering the practical advantages of not being handcuffed, in that it is not necessary for an individual to consider practical reasons in order to realize that being handcuffed is undesirable in itself.
The FSF also notes that "Open Source" has exactly one specific meaning in common English, namely that "you can look at the source code." It states that while the term "Free Software" can lead to two different interpretations, at least one of them is consistent with the intended meaning unlike the term "Open Source". The loan adjective "libre" is often used to avoid the ambiguity of the word "free" in the English language, and the ambiguity with the older usage of "free software" as public-domain software. (See Gratis versus libre.)
The first formal definition of free software was published by FSF in February 1986. That definition, written by Richard Stallman, is still maintained today and states that software is free software if people who receive a copy of the software have the following four freedoms. The numbering begins with zero, not only as a spoof on the common usage of zero-based numbering in programming languages, but also because "Freedom 0" was not initially included in the list, but later added first in the list as it was considered very important.
Freedoms 1 and 3 require source code to be available because studying and modifying software without its source code can range from highly impractical to nearly impossible.
Thus, free software means that computer users have the freedom to cooperate with whom they choose, and to control the software they use. To summarize this into a remark distinguishing libre (freedom) software from gratis (zero price) software, the Free Software Foundation says: "Free software is a matter of liberty, not price. To understand the concept, you should think of 'free' as in 'free speech', not as in 'free beer'". (See Gratis versus libre.)
In the late 1990s, other groups published their own definitions that describe an almost identical set of software. The most notable are Debian Free Software Guidelines published in 1997, and The Open Source Definition, published in 1998.
The BSD-based operating systems, such as FreeBSD, OpenBSD, and NetBSD, do not have their own formal definitions of free software. Users of these systems generally find the same set of software to be acceptable, but sometimes see copyleft as restrictive. They generally advocate permissive free software licenses, which allow others to use the software as they wish, without being legally forced to provide the source code. Their view is that this permissive approach is more free. The Kerberos, X11, and Apache software licenses are substantially similar in intent and implementation.
There are thousands of free applications and many operating systems available on the Internet. Users can easily download and install those applications via a package manager that comes included with most Linux distributions.
The Free Software Directory maintains a large database of free-software packages. Some of the best-known examples include Linux-libre, Linux-based operating systems, the GNU Compiler Collection and C library; the MySQL relational database; the Apache web server; and the Sendmail mail transport agent. Other influential examples include the Emacs text editor; the GIMP raster drawing and image editor; the X Window System graphical-display system; the LibreOffice office suite; and the TeX and LaTeX typesetting systems.
From the 1950s up until the early 1970s, it was normal for computer users to have the software freedoms associated with free software, which was typically public-domain software. Software was commonly shared by individuals who used computers and by hardware manufacturers who welcomed the fact that people were making software that made their hardware useful. Organizations of users and suppliers, for example, SHARE, were formed to facilitate exchange of software. As software was often written in an interpreted language such as BASIC, the source code was distributed to use these programs. Software was also shared and distributed as printed source code (Type-in program) in computer magazines (like Creative Computing, SoftSide, Compute!, Byte, etc.) and books, like the bestseller BASIC Computer Games. By the early 1970s, the picture changed: software costs were dramatically increasing, a growing software industry was competing with the hardware manufacturer's bundled software products (free in that the cost was included in the hardware cost), leased machines required software support while providing no revenue for software, and some customers able to better meet their own needs did not want the costs of "free" software bundled with hardware product costs. In United States vs. IBM, filed January 17, 1969, the government charged that bundled software was anti-competitive. While some software might always be free, there would henceforth be a growing amount of software produced primarily for sale. In the 1970s and early 1980s, the software industry began using technical measures (such as only distributing binary copies of computer programs) to prevent computer users from being able to study or adapt the software applications as they saw fit. In 1980, copyright law was extended to computer programs.
In 1983, Richard Stallman, one of the original authors of the popular Emacs program and a longtime member of the hacker community at the MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, announced the GNU Project, the purpose of which was to produce a completely non-proprietary Unix-compatible operating system, saying that he had become frustrated with the shift in climate surrounding the computer world and its users. In his initial declaration of the project and its purpose, he specifically cited as a motivation his opposition to being asked to agree to non-disclosure agreements and restrictive licenses which prohibited the free sharing of potentially profitable in-development software, a prohibition directly contrary to the traditional hacker ethic. Software development for the GNU operating system began in January 1984, and the Free Software Foundation (FSF) was founded in October 1985. He developed a free software definition and the concept of "copyleft", designed to ensure software freedom for all. Some non-software industries are beginning to use techniques similar to those used in free software development for their research and development process; scientists, for example, are looking towards more open development processes, and hardware such as microchips are beginning to be developed with specifications released under copyleft licenses (see the OpenCores project, for instance). Creative Commons and the free-culture movement have also been largely influenced by the free software movement.
In 1983, Richard Stallman, longtime member of the hacker community at the MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, announced the GNU Project, saying that he had become frustrated with the effects of the change in culture of the computer industry and its users. Software development for the GNU operating system began in January 1984, and the Free Software Foundation (FSF) was founded in October 1985. An article outlining the project and its goals was published in March 1985 titled the GNU Manifesto. The manifesto included significant explanation of the GNU philosophy, Free Software Definition and "copyleft" ideas.
The Linux kernel, started by Linus Torvalds, was released as freely modifiable source code in 1991. The first licence was a proprietary software licence. However, with version 0.12 in February 1992, he relicensed the project under the GNU General Public License. Much like Unix, Torvalds' kernel attracted the attention of volunteer programmers. FreeBSD and NetBSD (both derived from 386BSD) were released as free software when the USL v. BSDi lawsuit was settled out of court in 1993. OpenBSD forked from NetBSD in 1995. Also in 1995, The Apache HTTP Server, commonly referred to as Apache, was released under the Apache License 1.0.
All free-software licenses must grant users all the freedoms discussed above. However, unless the applications' licenses are compatible, combining programs by mixing source code or directly linking binaries is problematic, because of license technicalities. Programs indirectly connected together may avoid this problem.
The majority of free software falls under a small set of licenses. The most popular of these licenses are:
The Free Software Foundation and the Open Source Initiative both publish lists of licenses that they find to comply with their own definitions of free software and open-source software respectively:
The FSF list is not prescriptive: free-software licenses can exist that the FSF has not heard about, or considered important enough to write about. So it is possible for a license to be free and not in the FSF list. The OSI list only lists licenses that have been submitted, considered and approved. All open-source licenses must meet the Open Source Definition in order to be officially recognized as open source software. Free software, on the other hand, is a more informal classification that does not rely on official recognition. Nevertheless, software licensed under licenses that do not meet the Free Software Definition cannot rightly be considered free software.
Apart from these two organizations, the Debian project is seen by some to provide useful advice on whether particular licenses comply with their Debian Free Software Guidelines. Debian does not publish a list of approved licenses, so its judgments have to be tracked by checking what software they have allowed into their software archives. That is summarized at the Debian web site.
It is rare that a license announced as being in-compliance with the FSF guidelines does not also meet the Open Source Definition, although the reverse is not necessarily true (for example, the NASA Open Source Agreement is an OSI-approved license, but non-free according to FSF).
There are different categories of free software.
There is debate over the security of free software in comparison to proprietary software, with a major issue being security through obscurity. A popular quantitative test in computer security is to use relative counting of known unpatched security flaws. Generally, users of this method advise avoiding products that lack fixes for known security flaws, at least until a fix is available.
Free software advocates strongly believe that this methodology is biased by counting more vulnerabilities for the free software systems, since their source code is accessible and their community is more forthcoming about what problems exist, (This is called "Security Through Disclosure") and proprietary software systems can have undisclosed societal drawbacks, such as disenfranchising less fortunate would-be users of free programs. As users can analyse and trace the source code, many more people with no commercial constraints can inspect the code and find bugs and loopholes than a corporation would find practicable. According to Richard Stallman, user access to the source code makes deploying free software with undesirable hidden spyware functionality far more difficult than for proprietary software.
Some quantitative studies have been done on the subject.
In 2006, OpenBSD started the first campaign against the use of binary blobs in kernels. Blobs are usually freely distributable device drivers for hardware from vendors that do not reveal driver source code to users or developers. This restricts the users' freedom effectively to modify the software and distribute modified versions. Also, since the blobs are undocumented and may have bugs, they pose a security risk to any operating system whose kernel includes them. The proclaimed aim of the campaign against blobs is to collect hardware documentation that allows developers to write free software drivers for that hardware, ultimately enabling all free operating systems to become or remain blob-free.
The issue of binary blobs in the Linux kernel and other device drivers motivated some developers in Ireland to launch gNewSense, a Linux-based distribution with all the binary blobs removed. The project received support from the Free Software Foundation and stimulated the creation, headed by the Free Software Foundation Latin America, of the Linux-libre kernel. As of October 2012, Trisquel is the most popular FSF endorsed Linux distribution ranked by Distrowatch (over 12 months). While Debian is not endorsed by the FSF and does not use Linux-libre, it is also a popular distribution available without kernel blobs by default since 2011.
The Linux community uses the term "blob" to refer to all nonfree firmware in a kernel whereas OpenBSD uses the term to refer to device drivers. The FSF does not consider OpenBSD to be blob free under the Linux community's definition of blob.
Selling software under any free-software licence is permissible, as is commercial use. This is true for licenses with or without copyleft.
Since free software may be freely redistributed, it is generally available at little or no fee. Free software business models are usually based on adding value such as customization, accompanying hardware, support, training, integration, or certification. Exceptions exist however, where the user is charged to obtain a copy of the free application itself.
Fees are usually charged for distribution on compact discs and bootable USB drives, or for services of installing or maintaining the operation of free software. Development of large, commercially used free software is often funded by a combination of user donations, crowdfunding, corporate contributions, and tax money. The SELinux project at the United States National Security Agency is an example of a federally funded free-software project.
Proprietary software, on the other hand, tends to use a different business model, where a customer of the proprietary application pays a fee for a license to legally access and use it. This license may grant the customer the ability to configure some or no parts of the software themselves. Often some level of support is included in the purchase of proprietary software, but additional support services (especially for enterprise applications) are usually available for an additional fee. Some proprietary software vendors will also customize software for a fee.
The Free Software Foundation encourages selling free software. As the Foundation has written, "distributing free software is an opportunity to raise funds for development. Don't waste it!". For example, the FSF's own recommended license (the GNU GPL) states that "[you] may charge any price or no price for each copy that you convey, and you may offer support or warranty protection for a fee."
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer stated in 2001 that "open source is not available to commercial companies. The way the license is written, if you use any open-source software, you have to make the rest of your software open source." This misunderstanding is based on a requirement of copyleft licenses (like the GPL) that if one distributes modified versions of software, they must release the source and use the same license. This requirement does not extend to other software from the same developer. The claim of incompatibility between commercial companies and free software is also a misunderstanding. There are several large companies, e.g. Red Hat and IBM (IBM acquired RedHat in 2019), which do substantial commercial business in the development of free software.
Free software played a significant part in the development of the Internet, the World Wide Web and the infrastructure of dot-com companies. Free software allows users to cooperate in enhancing and refining the programs they use; free software is a pure public good rather than a private good. Companies that contribute to free software increase commercial innovation.
"We migrated key functions from Windows to Linux because we needed an operating system that was stable and reliable – one that would give us in-house control. So if we needed to patch, adjust, or adapt, we could."
Official statement of the United Space Alliance, which manages the computer systems for the International Space Station (ISS), regarding their May 2013 decision to migrate ISS computer systems from Windows to Linux
The economic viability of free software has been recognized by large corporations such as IBM, Red Hat, and Sun Microsystems. Many companies whose core business is not in the IT sector choose free software for their Internet information and sales sites, due to the lower initial capital investment and ability to freely customize the application packages. Most companies in the software business include free software in their commercial products if the licenses allow that.
Free software is generally available at no cost and can result in permanently lower TCO (total cost of ownership) compared to proprietary software. With free software, businesses can fit software to their specific needs by changing the software themselves or by hiring programmers to modify it for them. Free software often has no warranty, and more importantly, generally does not assign legal liability to anyone. However, warranties are permitted between any two parties upon the condition of the software and its usage. Such an agreement is made separately from the free software license.
A report by Standish Group estimates that adoption of free software has caused a drop in revenue to the proprietary software industry by about $60 billion per year. Eric S. Raymond argued that the term free software is too ambiguous and intimidating for the business community. Raymond promoted the term open-source software as a friendlier alternative for the business and corporate world.
|
[
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "Free software, libre software, or libreware is computer software distributed under terms that allow users to run the software for any purpose as well as to study, change, and distribute it and any adapted versions. Free software is a matter of liberty, not price; all users are legally free to do what they want with their copies of a free software (including profiting from them) regardless of how much is paid to obtain the program. Computer programs are deemed \"free\" if they give end-users (not just the developer) ultimate control over the software and, subsequently, over their devices.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "The right to study and modify a computer program entails that the source code—the preferred format for making changes—be made available to users of that program. While this is often called \"access to source code\" or \"public availability\", the Free Software Foundation (FSF) recommends against thinking in those terms, because it might give the impression that users have an obligation (as opposed to a right) to give non-users a copy of the program.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "Although the term \"free software\" had already been used loosely in the past and other permissive software like the Berkeley Software Distribution released in 1978 existed, Richard Stallman is credited with tying it to the sense under discussion and starting the free software movement in 1983, when he launched the GNU Project: a collaborative effort to create a freedom-respecting operating system, and to revive the spirit of cooperation once prevalent among hackers during the early days of computing.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "Free software thus differs from:",
"title": "Context"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "For software under the purview of copyright to be free, it must carry a software license whereby the author grants users the aforementioned rights. Software that is not covered by copyright law, such as software in the public domain, is free as long as the source code is also in the public domain, or otherwise available without restrictions.",
"title": "Context"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "Proprietary software uses restrictive software licences or EULAs and usually does not provide users with the source code. Users are thus legally or technically prevented from changing the software, and this results in reliance on the publisher to provide updates, help, and support. (See also vendor lock-in and abandonware). Users often may not reverse engineer, modify, or redistribute proprietary software. Beyond copyright law, contracts and a lack of source code, there can exist additional obstacles keeping users from exercising freedom over a piece of software, such as software patents and digital rights management (more specifically, tivoization).",
"title": "Context"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "Free software can be a for-profit, commercial activity or not. Some free software is developed by volunteer computer programmers while other is developed by corporations; or even by both.",
"title": "Context"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "Although both definitions refer to almost equivalent corpora of programs, the Free Software Foundation recommends using the term \"free software\" rather than \"open-source software\" (an alternative, yet similar, concept coined in 1998), because the goals and messaging are quite dissimilar. According to the Free Software Foundation, \"Open source\" and its associated campaign mostly focus on the technicalities of the public development model and marketing free software to businesses, while taking the ethical issue of user rights very lightly or even antagonistically. Stallman has also stated that considering the practical advantages of free software is like considering the practical advantages of not being handcuffed, in that it is not necessary for an individual to consider practical reasons in order to realize that being handcuffed is undesirable in itself.",
"title": "Context"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "The FSF also notes that \"Open Source\" has exactly one specific meaning in common English, namely that \"you can look at the source code.\" It states that while the term \"Free Software\" can lead to two different interpretations, at least one of them is consistent with the intended meaning unlike the term \"Open Source\". The loan adjective \"libre\" is often used to avoid the ambiguity of the word \"free\" in the English language, and the ambiguity with the older usage of \"free software\" as public-domain software. (See Gratis versus libre.)",
"title": "Context"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "The first formal definition of free software was published by FSF in February 1986. That definition, written by Richard Stallman, is still maintained today and states that software is free software if people who receive a copy of the software have the following four freedoms. The numbering begins with zero, not only as a spoof on the common usage of zero-based numbering in programming languages, but also because \"Freedom 0\" was not initially included in the list, but later added first in the list as it was considered very important.",
"title": "Definition and the Four Essential Freedoms of Free Software"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "Freedoms 1 and 3 require source code to be available because studying and modifying software without its source code can range from highly impractical to nearly impossible.",
"title": "Definition and the Four Essential Freedoms of Free Software"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "Thus, free software means that computer users have the freedom to cooperate with whom they choose, and to control the software they use. To summarize this into a remark distinguishing libre (freedom) software from gratis (zero price) software, the Free Software Foundation says: \"Free software is a matter of liberty, not price. To understand the concept, you should think of 'free' as in 'free speech', not as in 'free beer'\". (See Gratis versus libre.)",
"title": "Definition and the Four Essential Freedoms of Free Software"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "In the late 1990s, other groups published their own definitions that describe an almost identical set of software. The most notable are Debian Free Software Guidelines published in 1997, and The Open Source Definition, published in 1998.",
"title": "Definition and the Four Essential Freedoms of Free Software"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "The BSD-based operating systems, such as FreeBSD, OpenBSD, and NetBSD, do not have their own formal definitions of free software. Users of these systems generally find the same set of software to be acceptable, but sometimes see copyleft as restrictive. They generally advocate permissive free software licenses, which allow others to use the software as they wish, without being legally forced to provide the source code. Their view is that this permissive approach is more free. The Kerberos, X11, and Apache software licenses are substantially similar in intent and implementation.",
"title": "Definition and the Four Essential Freedoms of Free Software"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "There are thousands of free applications and many operating systems available on the Internet. Users can easily download and install those applications via a package manager that comes included with most Linux distributions.",
"title": "Examples"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 15,
"text": "The Free Software Directory maintains a large database of free-software packages. Some of the best-known examples include Linux-libre, Linux-based operating systems, the GNU Compiler Collection and C library; the MySQL relational database; the Apache web server; and the Sendmail mail transport agent. Other influential examples include the Emacs text editor; the GIMP raster drawing and image editor; the X Window System graphical-display system; the LibreOffice office suite; and the TeX and LaTeX typesetting systems.",
"title": "Examples"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 16,
"text": "From the 1950s up until the early 1970s, it was normal for computer users to have the software freedoms associated with free software, which was typically public-domain software. Software was commonly shared by individuals who used computers and by hardware manufacturers who welcomed the fact that people were making software that made their hardware useful. Organizations of users and suppliers, for example, SHARE, were formed to facilitate exchange of software. As software was often written in an interpreted language such as BASIC, the source code was distributed to use these programs. Software was also shared and distributed as printed source code (Type-in program) in computer magazines (like Creative Computing, SoftSide, Compute!, Byte, etc.) and books, like the bestseller BASIC Computer Games. By the early 1970s, the picture changed: software costs were dramatically increasing, a growing software industry was competing with the hardware manufacturer's bundled software products (free in that the cost was included in the hardware cost), leased machines required software support while providing no revenue for software, and some customers able to better meet their own needs did not want the costs of \"free\" software bundled with hardware product costs. In United States vs. IBM, filed January 17, 1969, the government charged that bundled software was anti-competitive. While some software might always be free, there would henceforth be a growing amount of software produced primarily for sale. In the 1970s and early 1980s, the software industry began using technical measures (such as only distributing binary copies of computer programs) to prevent computer users from being able to study or adapt the software applications as they saw fit. In 1980, copyright law was extended to computer programs.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 17,
"text": "In 1983, Richard Stallman, one of the original authors of the popular Emacs program and a longtime member of the hacker community at the MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, announced the GNU Project, the purpose of which was to produce a completely non-proprietary Unix-compatible operating system, saying that he had become frustrated with the shift in climate surrounding the computer world and its users. In his initial declaration of the project and its purpose, he specifically cited as a motivation his opposition to being asked to agree to non-disclosure agreements and restrictive licenses which prohibited the free sharing of potentially profitable in-development software, a prohibition directly contrary to the traditional hacker ethic. Software development for the GNU operating system began in January 1984, and the Free Software Foundation (FSF) was founded in October 1985. He developed a free software definition and the concept of \"copyleft\", designed to ensure software freedom for all. Some non-software industries are beginning to use techniques similar to those used in free software development for their research and development process; scientists, for example, are looking towards more open development processes, and hardware such as microchips are beginning to be developed with specifications released under copyleft licenses (see the OpenCores project, for instance). Creative Commons and the free-culture movement have also been largely influenced by the free software movement.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 18,
"text": "In 1983, Richard Stallman, longtime member of the hacker community at the MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, announced the GNU Project, saying that he had become frustrated with the effects of the change in culture of the computer industry and its users. Software development for the GNU operating system began in January 1984, and the Free Software Foundation (FSF) was founded in October 1985. An article outlining the project and its goals was published in March 1985 titled the GNU Manifesto. The manifesto included significant explanation of the GNU philosophy, Free Software Definition and \"copyleft\" ideas.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 19,
"text": "The Linux kernel, started by Linus Torvalds, was released as freely modifiable source code in 1991. The first licence was a proprietary software licence. However, with version 0.12 in February 1992, he relicensed the project under the GNU General Public License. Much like Unix, Torvalds' kernel attracted the attention of volunteer programmers. FreeBSD and NetBSD (both derived from 386BSD) were released as free software when the USL v. BSDi lawsuit was settled out of court in 1993. OpenBSD forked from NetBSD in 1995. Also in 1995, The Apache HTTP Server, commonly referred to as Apache, was released under the Apache License 1.0.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 20,
"text": "All free-software licenses must grant users all the freedoms discussed above. However, unless the applications' licenses are compatible, combining programs by mixing source code or directly linking binaries is problematic, because of license technicalities. Programs indirectly connected together may avoid this problem.",
"title": "Licensing"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 21,
"text": "The majority of free software falls under a small set of licenses. The most popular of these licenses are:",
"title": "Licensing"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 22,
"text": "The Free Software Foundation and the Open Source Initiative both publish lists of licenses that they find to comply with their own definitions of free software and open-source software respectively:",
"title": "Licensing"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 23,
"text": "The FSF list is not prescriptive: free-software licenses can exist that the FSF has not heard about, or considered important enough to write about. So it is possible for a license to be free and not in the FSF list. The OSI list only lists licenses that have been submitted, considered and approved. All open-source licenses must meet the Open Source Definition in order to be officially recognized as open source software. Free software, on the other hand, is a more informal classification that does not rely on official recognition. Nevertheless, software licensed under licenses that do not meet the Free Software Definition cannot rightly be considered free software.",
"title": "Licensing"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 24,
"text": "Apart from these two organizations, the Debian project is seen by some to provide useful advice on whether particular licenses comply with their Debian Free Software Guidelines. Debian does not publish a list of approved licenses, so its judgments have to be tracked by checking what software they have allowed into their software archives. That is summarized at the Debian web site.",
"title": "Licensing"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 25,
"text": "It is rare that a license announced as being in-compliance with the FSF guidelines does not also meet the Open Source Definition, although the reverse is not necessarily true (for example, the NASA Open Source Agreement is an OSI-approved license, but non-free according to FSF).",
"title": "Licensing"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 26,
"text": "There are different categories of free software.",
"title": "Licensing"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 27,
"text": "There is debate over the security of free software in comparison to proprietary software, with a major issue being security through obscurity. A popular quantitative test in computer security is to use relative counting of known unpatched security flaws. Generally, users of this method advise avoiding products that lack fixes for known security flaws, at least until a fix is available.",
"title": "Security and reliability"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 28,
"text": "Free software advocates strongly believe that this methodology is biased by counting more vulnerabilities for the free software systems, since their source code is accessible and their community is more forthcoming about what problems exist, (This is called \"Security Through Disclosure\") and proprietary software systems can have undisclosed societal drawbacks, such as disenfranchising less fortunate would-be users of free programs. As users can analyse and trace the source code, many more people with no commercial constraints can inspect the code and find bugs and loopholes than a corporation would find practicable. According to Richard Stallman, user access to the source code makes deploying free software with undesirable hidden spyware functionality far more difficult than for proprietary software.",
"title": "Security and reliability"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 29,
"text": "Some quantitative studies have been done on the subject.",
"title": "Security and reliability"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 30,
"text": "In 2006, OpenBSD started the first campaign against the use of binary blobs in kernels. Blobs are usually freely distributable device drivers for hardware from vendors that do not reveal driver source code to users or developers. This restricts the users' freedom effectively to modify the software and distribute modified versions. Also, since the blobs are undocumented and may have bugs, they pose a security risk to any operating system whose kernel includes them. The proclaimed aim of the campaign against blobs is to collect hardware documentation that allows developers to write free software drivers for that hardware, ultimately enabling all free operating systems to become or remain blob-free.",
"title": "Security and reliability"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 31,
"text": "The issue of binary blobs in the Linux kernel and other device drivers motivated some developers in Ireland to launch gNewSense, a Linux-based distribution with all the binary blobs removed. The project received support from the Free Software Foundation and stimulated the creation, headed by the Free Software Foundation Latin America, of the Linux-libre kernel. As of October 2012, Trisquel is the most popular FSF endorsed Linux distribution ranked by Distrowatch (over 12 months). While Debian is not endorsed by the FSF and does not use Linux-libre, it is also a popular distribution available without kernel blobs by default since 2011.",
"title": "Security and reliability"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 32,
"text": "The Linux community uses the term \"blob\" to refer to all nonfree firmware in a kernel whereas OpenBSD uses the term to refer to device drivers. The FSF does not consider OpenBSD to be blob free under the Linux community's definition of blob.",
"title": "Security and reliability"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 33,
"text": "Selling software under any free-software licence is permissible, as is commercial use. This is true for licenses with or without copyleft.",
"title": "Business model"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 34,
"text": "Since free software may be freely redistributed, it is generally available at little or no fee. Free software business models are usually based on adding value such as customization, accompanying hardware, support, training, integration, or certification. Exceptions exist however, where the user is charged to obtain a copy of the free application itself.",
"title": "Business model"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 35,
"text": "Fees are usually charged for distribution on compact discs and bootable USB drives, or for services of installing or maintaining the operation of free software. Development of large, commercially used free software is often funded by a combination of user donations, crowdfunding, corporate contributions, and tax money. The SELinux project at the United States National Security Agency is an example of a federally funded free-software project.",
"title": "Business model"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 36,
"text": "Proprietary software, on the other hand, tends to use a different business model, where a customer of the proprietary application pays a fee for a license to legally access and use it. This license may grant the customer the ability to configure some or no parts of the software themselves. Often some level of support is included in the purchase of proprietary software, but additional support services (especially for enterprise applications) are usually available for an additional fee. Some proprietary software vendors will also customize software for a fee.",
"title": "Business model"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 37,
"text": "The Free Software Foundation encourages selling free software. As the Foundation has written, \"distributing free software is an opportunity to raise funds for development. Don't waste it!\". For example, the FSF's own recommended license (the GNU GPL) states that \"[you] may charge any price or no price for each copy that you convey, and you may offer support or warranty protection for a fee.\"",
"title": "Business model"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 38,
"text": "Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer stated in 2001 that \"open source is not available to commercial companies. The way the license is written, if you use any open-source software, you have to make the rest of your software open source.\" This misunderstanding is based on a requirement of copyleft licenses (like the GPL) that if one distributes modified versions of software, they must release the source and use the same license. This requirement does not extend to other software from the same developer. The claim of incompatibility between commercial companies and free software is also a misunderstanding. There are several large companies, e.g. Red Hat and IBM (IBM acquired RedHat in 2019), which do substantial commercial business in the development of free software.",
"title": "Business model"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 39,
"text": "Free software played a significant part in the development of the Internet, the World Wide Web and the infrastructure of dot-com companies. Free software allows users to cooperate in enhancing and refining the programs they use; free software is a pure public good rather than a private good. Companies that contribute to free software increase commercial innovation.",
"title": " Economic aspects and adoption"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 40,
"text": "\"We migrated key functions from Windows to Linux because we needed an operating system that was stable and reliable – one that would give us in-house control. So if we needed to patch, adjust, or adapt, we could.\"",
"title": " Economic aspects and adoption"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 41,
"text": "Official statement of the United Space Alliance, which manages the computer systems for the International Space Station (ISS), regarding their May 2013 decision to migrate ISS computer systems from Windows to Linux",
"title": " Economic aspects and adoption"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 42,
"text": "The economic viability of free software has been recognized by large corporations such as IBM, Red Hat, and Sun Microsystems. Many companies whose core business is not in the IT sector choose free software for their Internet information and sales sites, due to the lower initial capital investment and ability to freely customize the application packages. Most companies in the software business include free software in their commercial products if the licenses allow that.",
"title": " Economic aspects and adoption"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 43,
"text": "Free software is generally available at no cost and can result in permanently lower TCO (total cost of ownership) compared to proprietary software. With free software, businesses can fit software to their specific needs by changing the software themselves or by hiring programmers to modify it for them. Free software often has no warranty, and more importantly, generally does not assign legal liability to anyone. However, warranties are permitted between any two parties upon the condition of the software and its usage. Such an agreement is made separately from the free software license.",
"title": " Economic aspects and adoption"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 44,
"text": "A report by Standish Group estimates that adoption of free software has caused a drop in revenue to the proprietary software industry by about $60 billion per year. Eric S. Raymond argued that the term free software is too ambiguous and intimidating for the business community. Raymond promoted the term open-source software as a friendlier alternative for the business and corporate world.",
"title": " Economic aspects and adoption"
}
] |
Free software, libre software, or libreware is computer software distributed under terms that allow users to run the software for any purpose as well as to study, change, and distribute it and any adapted versions. Free software is a matter of liberty, not price; all users are legally free to do what they want with their copies of a free software regardless of how much is paid to obtain the program. Computer programs are deemed "free" if they give end-users ultimate control over the software and, subsequently, over their devices. The right to study and modify a computer program entails that the source code—the preferred format for making changes—be made available to users of that program. While this is often called "access to source code" or "public availability", the Free Software Foundation (FSF) recommends against thinking in those terms, because it might give the impression that users have an obligation to give non-users a copy of the program. Although the term "free software" had already been used loosely in the past and other permissive software like the Berkeley Software Distribution released in 1978 existed, Richard Stallman is credited with tying it to the sense under discussion and starting the free software movement in 1983, when he launched the GNU Project: a collaborative effort to create a freedom-respecting operating system, and to revive the spirit of cooperation once prevalent among hackers during the early days of computing.
|
2001-09-28T20:29:53Z
|
2023-12-29T21:52:09Z
|
[
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"Template:Cite journal",
"Template:Independent production",
"Template:As of",
"Template:Div col",
"Template:Div col end",
"Template:Further",
"Template:Webarchive",
"Template:Commons category",
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_software
|
10,636 |
Free
|
Free may refer to:
|
[
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "Free may refer to:",
"title": ""
}
] |
Free may refer to:
|
2001-09-25T23:36:49Z
|
2023-12-19T05:56:52Z
|
[
"Template:Wiktionary",
"Template:TOC right",
"Template:Canned search",
"Template:Srt",
"Template:Disambiguation"
] |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free
|
10,638 |
Free software movement
|
The free software movement is a social movement with the goal of obtaining and guaranteeing certain freedoms for software users, namely the freedoms to run, study, modify, and share copies of software. Software which meets these requirements, The Four Essential Freedoms of Free Software, is termed free software.
Although drawing on traditions and philosophies among members of the 1970s hacker culture and academia, Richard Stallman formally founded the movement in 1983 by launching the GNU Project. Stallman later established the Free Software Foundation in 1985 to support the movement.
The philosophy of the Free Software Movement is based on promoting collaboration between programmers and computer users. This process necessitates the rejection of proprietary software and the promotion of free software. Stallman notes that this action would not hinder the progression of technology, as he states, "Wasteful duplication of system programming effort will be avoided. This effort can go instead into advancing the state of the art."
Members of the Free Software Movement believe that all software users should have the freedoms listed in The Free Software Definition. Members hold the belief that it is immoral to prohibit or prevent people from exercising these freedoms, and that they are required in creating a community where software users can help each other and have control over their technology. Regarding proprietary software, some believe that it is not strictly immoral, citing increased profitability in the business models available for proprietary software, along with technical features and convenience.
The Free Software Foundation espouses the principle that all software needs free documentation, as programmers should have the ability to update manuals to reflect modifications made to the software. Within the movement, the FLOSS Manuals foundation specializes in providing such documentation.
The core work of the free software movement is focused on software development. The free software movement also rejects proprietary software, refusing to install software that does not give them the freedoms of free software. According to Stallman, "The only thing in the software field that is worse than an unauthorised copy of a proprietary program, is an authorised copy of the proprietary program because this does the same harm to its whole community of users, and in addition, usually the developer, the perpetrator of this evil, profits from it."
Some supporters of the free software movement take up public speaking, or host a stall at software-related conferences to raise awareness of software freedom. This is seen as important since people who receive free software, but who are not aware that it is free software, will later accept a non-free replacement or will add software that is not free software.
A lot of lobbying work has been done against software patents and expansions of copyright law. Other lobbying focuses directly on the use of free software by government agencies and government-funded projects.
In June 1997, the Society for Study, Application, and Development of Free Software was established under the China Software Industry Association in Beijing. Through this organization, the website freesoft.cei.gov.cn was developed, though the website is currently inaccessible on IP addresses located in the United States. The use of open-source software Linux in China has moved beyond government and educational institutions and has extended to other organizations such as financial institutions, telecommunications, and public security. Several Chinese researchers and scholars have claimed that the existence of FOSS in China has been important in challenging the presence of Microsoft, which Guangnan Ni, a member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering stated, "The monopoly of (Microsoft Windows) is even more powerful in China than other places in the world". Yi Zhou, a professor of mathematics at Fudan University, has also alleged that, "Government procurement of FLOSS for a number of years in China has compelled Microsoft to cut its prices of Office software substantially"
Government of India had issued Policy on Adoption of Open Source Software for Government of India in 2015 to drive uptake within the government. With the vision to transform India as a Software Product Nation, National Policy on Software Products-2019 was approved by the Government.
Free and Open Source Software (Foss) is crucial for countries such as Pakistan which is set up by Union of Information Technology. For the case of Pakistan, Pakistan Software Export Board (PSEB) aids in the creation and advocate of FOSS usage in various government departments in addition to curbing illegality of copying that is software piracy.Promotion of adoption of FOSS is essential however it comes with problems of proprietary anti competition software practices including indulging in bribing and corruption by government departments.Pakistan works on the introduction of usage of open type basis of source Solutions in the curricula in schools and colleges. This is because of FOSS uniqueness in terms of political, democratic and social varieties of aspect regarding information communication and technology.
In the United States, there have been efforts to pass legislation at the state level encouraging the use of free software by state government agencies.
On January 11, 2022, two bills were shown on the New Hampshire legislating floor. The first bill called “HB 1273” was introduced by Democratic New Hampshire representative Eric Gallager, the bill prioritized “replacing proprietary software used by state agencies with free software.” Gallager stated that to an extent, the proposed legislation will help distinguish “free software" and “open-source software”, this will also put these two into state regulation. The second bill called “HB 1581” was proposed by Grafton Republican representative Lex Berezhny. The bill would’ve restored a requisite forcing “state agencies to use proprietary software” and as Lex put it, “when it is the most effective solution.” He also said that requisite was happening between 2012 and 2018. According to the Concord Monitor, the state of New Hampshire had an already “thriving open source software community” with a view of “live free or die” but they had difficulty getting that notion with the state.
Congressmen Edgar David Villanueva and Jacques Rodrich Ackerman have been instrumental in introducing free software in Peru, with bill 1609 on "Free Software in Public Administration". The incident invited the attention of Microsoft, Peru, whose general manager wrote a letter to Villanueva. His response received worldwide attention and is seen as a classic piece of argumentation favouring use of free software in governments.
Uruguay has a sanctioned law requiring that the state give priority to free software. It also requires that information be exchanged in open formats.
The Government of Venezuela implemented a free software law in January 2006. Decree No. 3,390 mandated all government agencies to migrate to free software over a two-year period.
Publiccode.eu is a campaign launched demanding a legislation requiring that publicly financed software developed for the public sector be made publicly available under a Free and Open Source Software licence. If it is public money, it should be public code as well.
The French Gendarmerie and the French National Assembly utilize the open source operating system Linux.
Gov.uk keeps a list of "key components, tools and services that have gone into the construction of GOV.UK".
Free Software events happening all around the world connects people to increase visibility for Free software projects and foster collaborations.
The free software movement has been extensively analyzed using economic methodologies, including perspectives from heterodox economics. Of particular interest to economists is the willingness of programmers in the free software movement to work, often producing higher-quality than proprietary programmers, without financial compensation.
In his 1998 article "The High-Tech Gift Economy", Richard Barbrook suggested that the then-nascent free software movement represented a return to the gift economy building on hobbyism and the absence of economic scarcity on the internet.
Gabriella Coleman has emphasized the importance of accreditation, respect, and honour within the free software community as a form of compensation for contributions to projects, over and against financial motivations.
The Swedish Marxian economist Johan Söderberg has argued that the free software movement represents a complete alternative to capitalism that may be expanded to create a post-work society. He argues that the combination of a manipulation of intellectual property law and private property to make goods available to the public and a thorough blend between labor and fun make the free software movement a communist economy.
Since its inception, there is an ongoing contention between the many FLOSS organizations (FSF, OSI, Debian, Mozilla Foundation, Apache Foundation, etc.) within the free software movement, with the main conflicts centered around the organization's needs for compromise and pragmatism rather than adhering to founding values and philosophies.
The Open Source Initiative (OSI) was founded in February 1998 by Eric Raymond and Bruce Perens to promote the term "open-source software" as an alternative term for free software. The OSI aimed to address the perceived shortcomings and ambiguity of the term "free software", as well as shifting the focus of free software from a social and ethical issue to instead emphasize open source as a superior model for software development. The latter became the view of Eric Raymond and Linus Torvalds, while Bruce Perens argued that open source was meant to popularize free software under a new brand and called for a return to basic ethical principles.
Some free software advocates use the terms "Free and Open-Source Software" (FOSS) or "Free/Libre and Open-Source Software" (FLOSS) as a form of inclusive compromise, which brings free and open-source software advocates together to work on projects cohesively. Some users believe this is an ideal solution in order to promote both the user's freedom with the software and the pragmatic efficiency of an open-source development model. This view is reinforced by fact that majority of OSI-approved licenses and self-avowed open-source programs are also compatible with the free software formalisms and vice versa.
While free and open source software are often linked together, they offer two separate ideas and values. Richard Stallman has referred to open source as "a non-movement", as it "does not campaign for anything".
"Open source" addresses software being open as a practical question rather than an ethical dilemma – non-free software is not the best solution but nonetheless a solution. The free software movement views free software as a moral imperative: that proprietary software should be rejected, and that only free software should be developed and taught in order to make computing technology beneficial to the general public.
Although the movements have differing values and goals, collaborations between the Free Software Movement and Open Source Initiative have taken place when it comes to practical projects. By 2005, Richard Glass considered the differences to be a "serious fracture" but "vitally important to those on both sides of the fracture" and "of little importance to anyone else studying the movement from a software engineering perspective" since they have had "little effect on the field".
Eric Raymond criticises the speed at which the free software movement is progressing, suggesting that temporary compromises should be made for long-term gains. Raymond argues that this could raise awareness of the software and thus increase the free software movement's influence on relevant standards and legislation.
Richard Stallman, on the other hand, sees the current level of compromise as a greater cause for worry.
Stallman said that this is where people get the misconception of "free": there is no wrong in programmers' requesting payment for a proposed project, or charging for copies of free software. Restricting and controlling the user's decisions on use is the actual violation of freedom. Stallman defends that in some cases, monetary incentive is not necessary for motivation since the pleasure in expressing creativity is a reward in itself. Conversely, Stallman admits that it is not easy to raise money for free software projects.
The free software movement champions copyleft licensing schema (often pejoratively called "viral licenses"). In its strongest form, copyleft mandates that any works derived from copyleft-licensed software must also carry a copyleft license, so the license spreads from work to work like a computer virus might spread from machine to machine. Stallman has previously stated his opposition to describing the GNU GPL as "viral". These licensing terms can only be enforced through asserting copyrights.
Critics of copyleft licensing challenge the idea that restricting modifications is in line with the free software movement's emphasis on various "freedoms", especially when alternatives like MIT, BSD, and Apache licenses are more permissive. Proponents enjoy the assurance that copylefted work cannot usually be incorporated into non-free software projects. They emphasize that copyleft licenses may not attach for all uses and that in any case, developers can simply choose not to use copyleft-licensed software.
FLOSS license proliferation is a serious concern in the FLOSS domain due to increased complexity of license compatibility considerations which limits and complicates source code reuse between FLOSS projects. The OSI and the FSF maintain their own lists of dozens of existing and acceptable FLOSS licenses. There is an agreement among most that the creation of new licenses should be minimized and those created should be made compatible with the major existing FLOSS licenses. Therefore, there was a strong controversy around the update of the GNU GPLv2 to the GNU GPLv3 in 2007, as the updated license is not compatible with the previous version. Several projects (mostly of the open source faction like the Linux kernel) decided to not adopt the GPLv3 while almost all of the GNU project's packages adopted it.
|
[
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "The free software movement is a social movement with the goal of obtaining and guaranteeing certain freedoms for software users, namely the freedoms to run, study, modify, and share copies of software. Software which meets these requirements, The Four Essential Freedoms of Free Software, is termed free software.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "Although drawing on traditions and philosophies among members of the 1970s hacker culture and academia, Richard Stallman formally founded the movement in 1983 by launching the GNU Project. Stallman later established the Free Software Foundation in 1985 to support the movement.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "The philosophy of the Free Software Movement is based on promoting collaboration between programmers and computer users. This process necessitates the rejection of proprietary software and the promotion of free software. Stallman notes that this action would not hinder the progression of technology, as he states, \"Wasteful duplication of system programming effort will be avoided. This effort can go instead into advancing the state of the art.\"",
"title": "Philosophy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "Members of the Free Software Movement believe that all software users should have the freedoms listed in The Free Software Definition. Members hold the belief that it is immoral to prohibit or prevent people from exercising these freedoms, and that they are required in creating a community where software users can help each other and have control over their technology. Regarding proprietary software, some believe that it is not strictly immoral, citing increased profitability in the business models available for proprietary software, along with technical features and convenience.",
"title": "Philosophy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "The Free Software Foundation espouses the principle that all software needs free documentation, as programmers should have the ability to update manuals to reflect modifications made to the software. Within the movement, the FLOSS Manuals foundation specializes in providing such documentation.",
"title": "Philosophy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "The core work of the free software movement is focused on software development. The free software movement also rejects proprietary software, refusing to install software that does not give them the freedoms of free software. According to Stallman, \"The only thing in the software field that is worse than an unauthorised copy of a proprietary program, is an authorised copy of the proprietary program because this does the same harm to its whole community of users, and in addition, usually the developer, the perpetrator of this evil, profits from it.\"",
"title": "Actions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "Some supporters of the free software movement take up public speaking, or host a stall at software-related conferences to raise awareness of software freedom. This is seen as important since people who receive free software, but who are not aware that it is free software, will later accept a non-free replacement or will add software that is not free software.",
"title": "Actions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "A lot of lobbying work has been done against software patents and expansions of copyright law. Other lobbying focuses directly on the use of free software by government agencies and government-funded projects.",
"title": "Legislation and government"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "In June 1997, the Society for Study, Application, and Development of Free Software was established under the China Software Industry Association in Beijing. Through this organization, the website freesoft.cei.gov.cn was developed, though the website is currently inaccessible on IP addresses located in the United States. The use of open-source software Linux in China has moved beyond government and educational institutions and has extended to other organizations such as financial institutions, telecommunications, and public security. Several Chinese researchers and scholars have claimed that the existence of FOSS in China has been important in challenging the presence of Microsoft, which Guangnan Ni, a member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering stated, \"The monopoly of (Microsoft Windows) is even more powerful in China than other places in the world\". Yi Zhou, a professor of mathematics at Fudan University, has also alleged that, \"Government procurement of FLOSS for a number of years in China has compelled Microsoft to cut its prices of Office software substantially\"",
"title": "Legislation and government"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "Government of India had issued Policy on Adoption of Open Source Software for Government of India in 2015 to drive uptake within the government. With the vision to transform India as a Software Product Nation, National Policy on Software Products-2019 was approved by the Government.",
"title": "Legislation and government"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "Free and Open Source Software (Foss) is crucial for countries such as Pakistan which is set up by Union of Information Technology. For the case of Pakistan, Pakistan Software Export Board (PSEB) aids in the creation and advocate of FOSS usage in various government departments in addition to curbing illegality of copying that is software piracy.Promotion of adoption of FOSS is essential however it comes with problems of proprietary anti competition software practices including indulging in bribing and corruption by government departments.Pakistan works on the introduction of usage of open type basis of source Solutions in the curricula in schools and colleges. This is because of FOSS uniqueness in terms of political, democratic and social varieties of aspect regarding information communication and technology.",
"title": "Legislation and government"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "In the United States, there have been efforts to pass legislation at the state level encouraging the use of free software by state government agencies.",
"title": "Legislation and government"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "On January 11, 2022, two bills were shown on the New Hampshire legislating floor. The first bill called “HB 1273” was introduced by Democratic New Hampshire representative Eric Gallager, the bill prioritized “replacing proprietary software used by state agencies with free software.” Gallager stated that to an extent, the proposed legislation will help distinguish “free software\" and “open-source software”, this will also put these two into state regulation. The second bill called “HB 1581” was proposed by Grafton Republican representative Lex Berezhny. The bill would’ve restored a requisite forcing “state agencies to use proprietary software” and as Lex put it, “when it is the most effective solution.” He also said that requisite was happening between 2012 and 2018. According to the Concord Monitor, the state of New Hampshire had an already “thriving open source software community” with a view of “live free or die” but they had difficulty getting that notion with the state.",
"title": "Legislation and government"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "Congressmen Edgar David Villanueva and Jacques Rodrich Ackerman have been instrumental in introducing free software in Peru, with bill 1609 on \"Free Software in Public Administration\". The incident invited the attention of Microsoft, Peru, whose general manager wrote a letter to Villanueva. His response received worldwide attention and is seen as a classic piece of argumentation favouring use of free software in governments.",
"title": "Legislation and government"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "Uruguay has a sanctioned law requiring that the state give priority to free software. It also requires that information be exchanged in open formats.",
"title": "Legislation and government"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 15,
"text": "The Government of Venezuela implemented a free software law in January 2006. Decree No. 3,390 mandated all government agencies to migrate to free software over a two-year period.",
"title": "Legislation and government"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 16,
"text": "Publiccode.eu is a campaign launched demanding a legislation requiring that publicly financed software developed for the public sector be made publicly available under a Free and Open Source Software licence. If it is public money, it should be public code as well.",
"title": "Legislation and government"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 17,
"text": "The French Gendarmerie and the French National Assembly utilize the open source operating system Linux.",
"title": "Legislation and government"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 18,
"text": "Gov.uk keeps a list of \"key components, tools and services that have gone into the construction of GOV.UK\".",
"title": "Legislation and government"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 19,
"text": "",
"title": "Legislation and government"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 20,
"text": "Free Software events happening all around the world connects people to increase visibility for Free software projects and foster collaborations.",
"title": "Events"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 21,
"text": "The free software movement has been extensively analyzed using economic methodologies, including perspectives from heterodox economics. Of particular interest to economists is the willingness of programmers in the free software movement to work, often producing higher-quality than proprietary programmers, without financial compensation.",
"title": "Economics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 22,
"text": "In his 1998 article \"The High-Tech Gift Economy\", Richard Barbrook suggested that the then-nascent free software movement represented a return to the gift economy building on hobbyism and the absence of economic scarcity on the internet.",
"title": "Economics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 23,
"text": "Gabriella Coleman has emphasized the importance of accreditation, respect, and honour within the free software community as a form of compensation for contributions to projects, over and against financial motivations.",
"title": "Economics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 24,
"text": "The Swedish Marxian economist Johan Söderberg has argued that the free software movement represents a complete alternative to capitalism that may be expanded to create a post-work society. He argues that the combination of a manipulation of intellectual property law and private property to make goods available to the public and a thorough blend between labor and fun make the free software movement a communist economy.",
"title": "Economics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 25,
"text": "Since its inception, there is an ongoing contention between the many FLOSS organizations (FSF, OSI, Debian, Mozilla Foundation, Apache Foundation, etc.) within the free software movement, with the main conflicts centered around the organization's needs for compromise and pragmatism rather than adhering to founding values and philosophies.",
"title": "Subgroups and schisms"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 26,
"text": "The Open Source Initiative (OSI) was founded in February 1998 by Eric Raymond and Bruce Perens to promote the term \"open-source software\" as an alternative term for free software. The OSI aimed to address the perceived shortcomings and ambiguity of the term \"free software\", as well as shifting the focus of free software from a social and ethical issue to instead emphasize open source as a superior model for software development. The latter became the view of Eric Raymond and Linus Torvalds, while Bruce Perens argued that open source was meant to popularize free software under a new brand and called for a return to basic ethical principles.",
"title": "Subgroups and schisms"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 27,
"text": "Some free software advocates use the terms \"Free and Open-Source Software\" (FOSS) or \"Free/Libre and Open-Source Software\" (FLOSS) as a form of inclusive compromise, which brings free and open-source software advocates together to work on projects cohesively. Some users believe this is an ideal solution in order to promote both the user's freedom with the software and the pragmatic efficiency of an open-source development model. This view is reinforced by fact that majority of OSI-approved licenses and self-avowed open-source programs are also compatible with the free software formalisms and vice versa.",
"title": "Subgroups and schisms"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 28,
"text": "While free and open source software are often linked together, they offer two separate ideas and values. Richard Stallman has referred to open source as \"a non-movement\", as it \"does not campaign for anything\".",
"title": "Subgroups and schisms"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 29,
"text": "\"Open source\" addresses software being open as a practical question rather than an ethical dilemma – non-free software is not the best solution but nonetheless a solution. The free software movement views free software as a moral imperative: that proprietary software should be rejected, and that only free software should be developed and taught in order to make computing technology beneficial to the general public.",
"title": "Subgroups and schisms"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 30,
"text": "Although the movements have differing values and goals, collaborations between the Free Software Movement and Open Source Initiative have taken place when it comes to practical projects. By 2005, Richard Glass considered the differences to be a \"serious fracture\" but \"vitally important to those on both sides of the fracture\" and \"of little importance to anyone else studying the movement from a software engineering perspective\" since they have had \"little effect on the field\".",
"title": "Subgroups and schisms"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 31,
"text": "Eric Raymond criticises the speed at which the free software movement is progressing, suggesting that temporary compromises should be made for long-term gains. Raymond argues that this could raise awareness of the software and thus increase the free software movement's influence on relevant standards and legislation.",
"title": "Criticism and controversy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 32,
"text": "Richard Stallman, on the other hand, sees the current level of compromise as a greater cause for worry.",
"title": "Criticism and controversy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 33,
"text": "Stallman said that this is where people get the misconception of \"free\": there is no wrong in programmers' requesting payment for a proposed project, or charging for copies of free software. Restricting and controlling the user's decisions on use is the actual violation of freedom. Stallman defends that in some cases, monetary incentive is not necessary for motivation since the pleasure in expressing creativity is a reward in itself. Conversely, Stallman admits that it is not easy to raise money for free software projects.",
"title": "Criticism and controversy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 34,
"text": "The free software movement champions copyleft licensing schema (often pejoratively called \"viral licenses\"). In its strongest form, copyleft mandates that any works derived from copyleft-licensed software must also carry a copyleft license, so the license spreads from work to work like a computer virus might spread from machine to machine. Stallman has previously stated his opposition to describing the GNU GPL as \"viral\". These licensing terms can only be enforced through asserting copyrights.",
"title": "Criticism and controversy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 35,
"text": "Critics of copyleft licensing challenge the idea that restricting modifications is in line with the free software movement's emphasis on various \"freedoms\", especially when alternatives like MIT, BSD, and Apache licenses are more permissive. Proponents enjoy the assurance that copylefted work cannot usually be incorporated into non-free software projects. They emphasize that copyleft licenses may not attach for all uses and that in any case, developers can simply choose not to use copyleft-licensed software.",
"title": "Criticism and controversy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 36,
"text": "FLOSS license proliferation is a serious concern in the FLOSS domain due to increased complexity of license compatibility considerations which limits and complicates source code reuse between FLOSS projects. The OSI and the FSF maintain their own lists of dozens of existing and acceptable FLOSS licenses. There is an agreement among most that the creation of new licenses should be minimized and those created should be made compatible with the major existing FLOSS licenses. Therefore, there was a strong controversy around the update of the GNU GPLv2 to the GNU GPLv3 in 2007, as the updated license is not compatible with the previous version. Several projects (mostly of the open source faction like the Linux kernel) decided to not adopt the GPLv3 while almost all of the GNU project's packages adopted it.",
"title": "Criticism and controversy"
}
] |
The free software movement is a social movement with the goal of obtaining and guaranteeing certain freedoms for software users, namely the freedoms to run, study, modify, and share copies of software. Software which meets these requirements, The Four Essential Freedoms of Free Software, is termed free software. Although drawing on traditions and philosophies among members of the 1970s hacker culture and academia, Richard Stallman formally founded the movement in 1983 by launching the GNU Project. Stallman later established the Free Software Foundation in 1985 to support the movement.
|
2001-08-24T23:38:53Z
|
2023-11-23T21:59:46Z
|
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_software_movement
|
10,646 |
Food
|
Food is any substance consumed by an organism for nutritional support. Food is usually of plant, animal, or fungal origin and contains essential nutrients such as carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, or minerals. The substance is ingested by an organism and assimilated by the organism's cells to provide energy, maintain life, or stimulate growth. Different species of animals have different feeding behaviours that satisfy the needs of their metabolisms and have evolved to fill a specific ecological niche within specific geographical contexts.
Omnivorous humans are highly adaptable and have adapted to obtain food in many different ecosystems. Humans generally use cooking to prepare food for consumption. The majority of the food energy required is supplied by the industrial food industry, which produces food through intensive agriculture and distributes it through complex food processing and food distribution systems. This system of conventional agriculture relies heavily on fossil fuels, which means that the food and agricultural systems are one of the major contributors to climate change, accounting for as much as 37% of total greenhouse gas emissions.
The food system has significant impacts on a wide range of other social and political issues, including sustainability, biological diversity, economics, population growth, water supply, and food security. Food safety and security are monitored by international agencies like the International Association for Food Protection, the World Resources Institute, the World Food Programme, the Food and Agriculture Organization, and the International Food Information Council.
Food is any substance consumed to provide nutritional support and energy to an organism. It can be raw, processed, or formulated and is consumed orally by animals for growth, health, or pleasure. Food is mainly composed of water, lipids, proteins, and carbohydrates. Minerals (e.g., salts) and organic substances (e.g., vitamins) can also be found in food. Plants, algae, and some microorganisms use photosynthesis to make some of their own nutrients. Water is found in many foods and has been defined as a food by itself. Water and fiber have low energy densities, or calories, while fat is the most energy-dense component. Some inorganic (non-food) elements are also essential for plant and animal functioning.
Human food can be classified in various ways, either by related content or by how it is processed. The number and composition of food groups can vary. Most systems include four basic groups that describe their origin and relative nutritional function: Vegetables and Fruit, Cereals and Bread, Dairy, and Meat. Studies that look into diet quality group food into whole grains/cereals, refined grains/cereals, vegetables, fruits, nuts, legumes, eggs, dairy products, fish, red meat, processed meat, and sugar-sweetened beverages. The Food and Agriculture Organization and World Health Organization use a system with nineteen food classifications: cereals, roots, pulses and nuts, milk, eggs, fish and shellfish, meat, insects, vegetables, fruits, fats and oils, sweets and sugars, spices and condiments, beverages, foods for nutritional uses, food additives, composite dishes and savoury snacks.
In a given ecosystem, food forms a web of interlocking chains with primary producers at the bottom and apex predators at the top. Other aspects of the web include detrovores (that eat detritis) and decomposers (that break down dead organisms). Primary producers include algae, plants, bacteria and protists that acquire their energy from sunlight. Primary consumers are the herbivores that consume the plants, and secondary consumers are the carnivores that consume those herbivores. Some organisms, including most mammals and birds, diet consists of both animals and plants, and they are considered omnivores. The chain ends with the apex predators, the animals that have no known predators in its ecosystem. Humans are considered apex predators.
Humans are omnivores, finding sustenance in vegetables, fruits, cooked meat, milk, eggs, mushrooms and seaweed. Cereal grain is a staple food that provides more food energy worldwide than any other type of crop. Corn (maize), wheat, and rice account for 87% of all grain production worldwide. Just over half of the world's crops are used to feed humans (55 percent), with 36 percent grown as animal feed and 9 percent for biofuels. Fungi and bacteria are also used in the preparation of fermented foods like bread, wine, cheese and yogurt.
Without bacteria, life would scarcely exist because bacteria convert atmospheric nitrogen into nutritious ammonia. Ammonia is the precursor to proteins, nucleic acids, and most vitamins. Since the advent of industrial process for nitrogen fixation, the Haber-Bosch Process, the majority of ammonia in the world is human-made.
Photosynthesis is the source of most energy and food for nearly all life on earth. Photosynthesis is one main source of biomass, the food for plants, algae and certain bacteria and, indirectly, organisms higher in the food chain. Energy from the sun is absorbed and used to transform water and carbon dioxide in the air or soil into oxygen and glucose. The oxygen is then released, and the glucose stored as an energy reserve.
Plants also absorb important nutrients and minerals from the air, natural waters, and soil. Carbon, oxygen and hydrogen are absorbed from the air or water and are the basic nutrients needed for plant survival. The three main nutrients absorbed from the soil for plant growth are nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, with other important nutrients including calcium, sulfur, magnesium, iron boron, chlorine, manganese, zinc, copper molybdenum and nickel.
Plants as a food source are divided into seeds, fruits, vegetables, legumes, grains and nuts. Where plants fall within these categories can vary, with botanically described fruits such as the tomato, squash, pepper and eggplant or seeds like peas commonly considered vegetables. Food is a fruit if the part eaten is derived from the reproductive tissue, so seeds, nuts and grains are technically fruit. From a culinary perspective, fruits are generally considered the remains of botanically described fruits after grains, nuts, seeds and fruits used as vegetables are removed. Grains can be defined as seeds that humans eat or harvest, with cereal grains (oats, wheat, rice, corn, barley, rye, sorghum and millet) belonging to the Poaceae (grass) family and pulses coming from the Fabaceae (legume) family. Whole grains are foods that contain all the elements of the original seed (bran, germ, and endosperm). Nuts are dry fruits, distinguishable by their woody shell.
Fleshy fruits (distinguishable from dry fruits like grain, seeds and nuts) can be further classified as stone fruits (cherries and peaches), pome fruits (apples, pears), berries (blackberry, strawberry), citrus (oranges, lemon), melons (watermelon, cantaloupe), Mediterranean fruits (grapes, fig), tropical fruits (banana, pineapple). Vegetables refer to any other part of the plant that can be eaten, including roots, stems, leaves, flowers, bark or the entire plant itself. These include root vegetables (potatoes and carrots), bulbs (onion family), flowers (cauliflower and broccoli), leaf vegetables (spinach and lettuce) and stem vegetables (celery and asparagus).
The carbohydrate, protein and lipid content of plants is highly variable. Carbohydrates are mainly in the form of starch, fructose, glucose and other sugars. Most vitamins are found from plant sources, with exceptions of vitamin D and vitamin B12. Minerals can also be plentiful or not. Fruit can consist of up to 90% water, contain high levels of simple sugars that contribute to their sweet taste, and have a high vitamin C content. Compared to fleshy fruit (excepting Bananas) vegetables are high in starch, potassium, dietary fiber, folate and vitamins and low in fat and calories. Grains are more starch based and nuts have a high protein, fibre, vitamin E and B content. Seeds are a good source of food for animals because they are abundant and contain fibre and healthful fats, such as omega-3 fats. Complicated chemical interactions can enhance or depress bioavailability of certain nutrients. Phytates can prevent the release of some sugars and vitamins.
Animals that only eat plants are called herbivores, with those that mostly just eat fruits known as frugivores, leaves, while shoot eaters are folivores (pandas) and wood eaters termed xylophages (termites). Frugivores include a diverse range of species from annelids to elephants, chimpanzees and many birds. About 182 fish consume seeds or fruit. Animals (domesticated and wild) use as many types of grasses that have adapted to different locations as their main source of nutrients.
Humans eat thousands of plant species; there may be as many as 75,000 edible species of angiosperms, of which perhaps 7,000 are often eaten. Plants can be processed into breads, pasta, cereals, juices and jams or raw ingredients such as sugar, herbs, spices and oils can be extracted. Oilseeds are pressed to produce rich oils – sunflower, flaxseed, rapeseed (including canola oil) and sesame.
Many plants and animals have coevolved in such a way that the fruit is a good source of nutrition to the animal who then excretes the seeds some distance away, allowing greater dispersal. Even seed predation can be mutually beneficial, as some seeds can survive the digestion process. Insects are major eaters of seeds, with ants being the only real seed dispersers. Birds, although being major dispersers, only rarely eat seeds as a source of food and can be identified by their thick beak that is used to crack open the seed coat. Mammals eat a more diverse range of seeds, as they are able to crush harder and larger seeds with their teeth.
Animals are used as food either directly or indirectly. This includes meat, eggs, shellfish and dairy products like milk and cheese. They are an important source of protein and are considered complete proteins for human consumption as they contain all the essential amino acids that the human body needs. One 4-ounce (110 g) steak, chicken breast or pork chop contains about 30 grams of protein. One large egg has 7 grams of protein. A 4-ounce (110 g) serving of cheese has about 15 grams of protein. And 1 cup of milk has about 8 grams of protein. Other nutrients found in animal products include calories, fat, essential vitamins (including B12) and minerals (including zinc, iron, calcium, magnesium).
Food products produced by animals include milk produced by mammary glands, which in many cultures is drunk or processed into dairy products (cheese, butter, etc.). Eggs laid by birds and other animals are eaten and bees produce honey, a reduced nectar from flowers that is used as a popular sweetener in many cultures. Some cultures consume blood, such as in blood sausage, as a thickener for sauces, or in a cured, salted form for times of food scarcity, and others use blood in stews such as jugged hare.
Animals, specifically humans, typically have five different types of tastes: sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and umami. The differing tastes are important for distinguishing between foods that are nutritionally beneficial and those which may contain harmful toxins. As animals have evolved, the tastes that provide the most energy are the most pleasant to eat while others are not enjoyable, although humans in particular can acquire a preference for some substances which are initially unenjoyable. Water, while important for survival, has no taste.
Sweetness is almost always caused by a type of simple sugar such as glucose or fructose, or disaccharides such as sucrose, a molecule combining glucose and fructose. Sourness is caused by acids, such as vinegar in alcoholic beverages. Sour foods include citrus, specifically lemons and limes. Sour is evolutionarily significant as it can signal a food that may have gone rancid due to bacteria. Saltiness is the taste of alkali metal ions such as sodium and potassium. It is found in almost every food in low to moderate proportions to enhance flavor. Bitter taste is a sensation considered unpleasant characterised by having a sharp, pungent taste. Unsweetened dark chocolate, caffeine, lemon rind, and some types of fruit are known to be bitter. Umami, commonly described as savory, is a marker of proteins and characteristic of broths and cooked meats. Foods that have a strong umami flavor include cheese, meat and mushrooms.
While most animals taste buds are located in their mouth, some insects taste receptors are located on their legs and some fish have taste buds along their entire body. Dogs, cats and birds have relatively few taste buds (chickens have about 30), adult humans have between 2000 and 4000, while catfish can have more than a million. Herbivores generally have more than carnivores as they need to tell which plants may be poisonous. Not all mammals share the same tastes: some rodents can taste starch, cats cannot taste sweetness, and several carnivores (including hyenas, dolphins, and sea lions) have lost the ability to sense up to four of the five taste modalities found in humans.
Food is broken into nutrient components through digestive process. Proper digestion consists of mechanical processes (chewing, peristalsis) and chemical processes (digestive enzymes and microorganisms). The digestive systems of herbivores and carnivores are very different as plant matter is harder to digest. Carnivores mouths are designed for tearing and biting compared to the grinding action found in herbivores. Herbivores however have comparatively longer digestive tracts and larger stomachs to aid in digesting the cellulose in plants.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), about 600 million people worldwide get sick and 420,000 die each year from eating contaminated food. Diarrhea is the most common illness caused by consuming contaminated food, with about 550 million cases and 230,000 deaths from diarrhea each year. Children under 5 years of age account for 40% of the burden of foodborne illness, with 125,000 deaths each year.
A 2003 World Health Organization (WHO) report concluded that about 30% of reported food poisoning outbreaks in the WHO European Region occur in private homes. According to the WHO and CDC, in the USA alone, annually, there are 76 million cases of foodborne illness leading to 325,000 hospitalizations and 5,000 deaths.
From 2011 to 2016, on average, there were 668,673 cases of foodborne illness and 21 deaths each year. In addition, during this period, 1,007 food poisoning outbreaks with 30,395 cases of food poisoning were reported.
In Vietnam, from 2011 to 2016, there were 7 foodborne diseases reported with 4,012,038 cases of illness, including 123 deaths.
|
[
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "Food is any substance consumed by an organism for nutritional support. Food is usually of plant, animal, or fungal origin and contains essential nutrients such as carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, or minerals. The substance is ingested by an organism and assimilated by the organism's cells to provide energy, maintain life, or stimulate growth. Different species of animals have different feeding behaviours that satisfy the needs of their metabolisms and have evolved to fill a specific ecological niche within specific geographical contexts.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "Omnivorous humans are highly adaptable and have adapted to obtain food in many different ecosystems. Humans generally use cooking to prepare food for consumption. The majority of the food energy required is supplied by the industrial food industry, which produces food through intensive agriculture and distributes it through complex food processing and food distribution systems. This system of conventional agriculture relies heavily on fossil fuels, which means that the food and agricultural systems are one of the major contributors to climate change, accounting for as much as 37% of total greenhouse gas emissions.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "The food system has significant impacts on a wide range of other social and political issues, including sustainability, biological diversity, economics, population growth, water supply, and food security. Food safety and security are monitored by international agencies like the International Association for Food Protection, the World Resources Institute, the World Food Programme, the Food and Agriculture Organization, and the International Food Information Council.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "Food is any substance consumed to provide nutritional support and energy to an organism. It can be raw, processed, or formulated and is consumed orally by animals for growth, health, or pleasure. Food is mainly composed of water, lipids, proteins, and carbohydrates. Minerals (e.g., salts) and organic substances (e.g., vitamins) can also be found in food. Plants, algae, and some microorganisms use photosynthesis to make some of their own nutrients. Water is found in many foods and has been defined as a food by itself. Water and fiber have low energy densities, or calories, while fat is the most energy-dense component. Some inorganic (non-food) elements are also essential for plant and animal functioning.",
"title": "Definition and classification"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "Human food can be classified in various ways, either by related content or by how it is processed. The number and composition of food groups can vary. Most systems include four basic groups that describe their origin and relative nutritional function: Vegetables and Fruit, Cereals and Bread, Dairy, and Meat. Studies that look into diet quality group food into whole grains/cereals, refined grains/cereals, vegetables, fruits, nuts, legumes, eggs, dairy products, fish, red meat, processed meat, and sugar-sweetened beverages. The Food and Agriculture Organization and World Health Organization use a system with nineteen food classifications: cereals, roots, pulses and nuts, milk, eggs, fish and shellfish, meat, insects, vegetables, fruits, fats and oils, sweets and sugars, spices and condiments, beverages, foods for nutritional uses, food additives, composite dishes and savoury snacks.",
"title": "Definition and classification"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "In a given ecosystem, food forms a web of interlocking chains with primary producers at the bottom and apex predators at the top. Other aspects of the web include detrovores (that eat detritis) and decomposers (that break down dead organisms). Primary producers include algae, plants, bacteria and protists that acquire their energy from sunlight. Primary consumers are the herbivores that consume the plants, and secondary consumers are the carnivores that consume those herbivores. Some organisms, including most mammals and birds, diet consists of both animals and plants, and they are considered omnivores. The chain ends with the apex predators, the animals that have no known predators in its ecosystem. Humans are considered apex predators.",
"title": "Food sources"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "Humans are omnivores, finding sustenance in vegetables, fruits, cooked meat, milk, eggs, mushrooms and seaweed. Cereal grain is a staple food that provides more food energy worldwide than any other type of crop. Corn (maize), wheat, and rice account for 87% of all grain production worldwide. Just over half of the world's crops are used to feed humans (55 percent), with 36 percent grown as animal feed and 9 percent for biofuels. Fungi and bacteria are also used in the preparation of fermented foods like bread, wine, cheese and yogurt.",
"title": "Food sources"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "Without bacteria, life would scarcely exist because bacteria convert atmospheric nitrogen into nutritious ammonia. Ammonia is the precursor to proteins, nucleic acids, and most vitamins. Since the advent of industrial process for nitrogen fixation, the Haber-Bosch Process, the majority of ammonia in the world is human-made.",
"title": "Food sources"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "Photosynthesis is the source of most energy and food for nearly all life on earth. Photosynthesis is one main source of biomass, the food for plants, algae and certain bacteria and, indirectly, organisms higher in the food chain. Energy from the sun is absorbed and used to transform water and carbon dioxide in the air or soil into oxygen and glucose. The oxygen is then released, and the glucose stored as an energy reserve.",
"title": "Food sources"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "Plants also absorb important nutrients and minerals from the air, natural waters, and soil. Carbon, oxygen and hydrogen are absorbed from the air or water and are the basic nutrients needed for plant survival. The three main nutrients absorbed from the soil for plant growth are nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, with other important nutrients including calcium, sulfur, magnesium, iron boron, chlorine, manganese, zinc, copper molybdenum and nickel.",
"title": "Food sources"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "Plants as a food source are divided into seeds, fruits, vegetables, legumes, grains and nuts. Where plants fall within these categories can vary, with botanically described fruits such as the tomato, squash, pepper and eggplant or seeds like peas commonly considered vegetables. Food is a fruit if the part eaten is derived from the reproductive tissue, so seeds, nuts and grains are technically fruit. From a culinary perspective, fruits are generally considered the remains of botanically described fruits after grains, nuts, seeds and fruits used as vegetables are removed. Grains can be defined as seeds that humans eat or harvest, with cereal grains (oats, wheat, rice, corn, barley, rye, sorghum and millet) belonging to the Poaceae (grass) family and pulses coming from the Fabaceae (legume) family. Whole grains are foods that contain all the elements of the original seed (bran, germ, and endosperm). Nuts are dry fruits, distinguishable by their woody shell.",
"title": "Food sources"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "Fleshy fruits (distinguishable from dry fruits like grain, seeds and nuts) can be further classified as stone fruits (cherries and peaches), pome fruits (apples, pears), berries (blackberry, strawberry), citrus (oranges, lemon), melons (watermelon, cantaloupe), Mediterranean fruits (grapes, fig), tropical fruits (banana, pineapple). Vegetables refer to any other part of the plant that can be eaten, including roots, stems, leaves, flowers, bark or the entire plant itself. These include root vegetables (potatoes and carrots), bulbs (onion family), flowers (cauliflower and broccoli), leaf vegetables (spinach and lettuce) and stem vegetables (celery and asparagus).",
"title": "Food sources"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "The carbohydrate, protein and lipid content of plants is highly variable. Carbohydrates are mainly in the form of starch, fructose, glucose and other sugars. Most vitamins are found from plant sources, with exceptions of vitamin D and vitamin B12. Minerals can also be plentiful or not. Fruit can consist of up to 90% water, contain high levels of simple sugars that contribute to their sweet taste, and have a high vitamin C content. Compared to fleshy fruit (excepting Bananas) vegetables are high in starch, potassium, dietary fiber, folate and vitamins and low in fat and calories. Grains are more starch based and nuts have a high protein, fibre, vitamin E and B content. Seeds are a good source of food for animals because they are abundant and contain fibre and healthful fats, such as omega-3 fats. Complicated chemical interactions can enhance or depress bioavailability of certain nutrients. Phytates can prevent the release of some sugars and vitamins.",
"title": "Food sources"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "Animals that only eat plants are called herbivores, with those that mostly just eat fruits known as frugivores, leaves, while shoot eaters are folivores (pandas) and wood eaters termed xylophages (termites). Frugivores include a diverse range of species from annelids to elephants, chimpanzees and many birds. About 182 fish consume seeds or fruit. Animals (domesticated and wild) use as many types of grasses that have adapted to different locations as their main source of nutrients.",
"title": "Food sources"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "Humans eat thousands of plant species; there may be as many as 75,000 edible species of angiosperms, of which perhaps 7,000 are often eaten. Plants can be processed into breads, pasta, cereals, juices and jams or raw ingredients such as sugar, herbs, spices and oils can be extracted. Oilseeds are pressed to produce rich oils – sunflower, flaxseed, rapeseed (including canola oil) and sesame.",
"title": "Food sources"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 15,
"text": "Many plants and animals have coevolved in such a way that the fruit is a good source of nutrition to the animal who then excretes the seeds some distance away, allowing greater dispersal. Even seed predation can be mutually beneficial, as some seeds can survive the digestion process. Insects are major eaters of seeds, with ants being the only real seed dispersers. Birds, although being major dispersers, only rarely eat seeds as a source of food and can be identified by their thick beak that is used to crack open the seed coat. Mammals eat a more diverse range of seeds, as they are able to crush harder and larger seeds with their teeth.",
"title": "Food sources"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 16,
"text": "Animals are used as food either directly or indirectly. This includes meat, eggs, shellfish and dairy products like milk and cheese. They are an important source of protein and are considered complete proteins for human consumption as they contain all the essential amino acids that the human body needs. One 4-ounce (110 g) steak, chicken breast or pork chop contains about 30 grams of protein. One large egg has 7 grams of protein. A 4-ounce (110 g) serving of cheese has about 15 grams of protein. And 1 cup of milk has about 8 grams of protein. Other nutrients found in animal products include calories, fat, essential vitamins (including B12) and minerals (including zinc, iron, calcium, magnesium).",
"title": "Food sources"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 17,
"text": "Food products produced by animals include milk produced by mammary glands, which in many cultures is drunk or processed into dairy products (cheese, butter, etc.). Eggs laid by birds and other animals are eaten and bees produce honey, a reduced nectar from flowers that is used as a popular sweetener in many cultures. Some cultures consume blood, such as in blood sausage, as a thickener for sauces, or in a cured, salted form for times of food scarcity, and others use blood in stews such as jugged hare.",
"title": "Food sources"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 18,
"text": "Animals, specifically humans, typically have five different types of tastes: sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and umami. The differing tastes are important for distinguishing between foods that are nutritionally beneficial and those which may contain harmful toxins. As animals have evolved, the tastes that provide the most energy are the most pleasant to eat while others are not enjoyable, although humans in particular can acquire a preference for some substances which are initially unenjoyable. Water, while important for survival, has no taste.",
"title": "Taste"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 19,
"text": "Sweetness is almost always caused by a type of simple sugar such as glucose or fructose, or disaccharides such as sucrose, a molecule combining glucose and fructose. Sourness is caused by acids, such as vinegar in alcoholic beverages. Sour foods include citrus, specifically lemons and limes. Sour is evolutionarily significant as it can signal a food that may have gone rancid due to bacteria. Saltiness is the taste of alkali metal ions such as sodium and potassium. It is found in almost every food in low to moderate proportions to enhance flavor. Bitter taste is a sensation considered unpleasant characterised by having a sharp, pungent taste. Unsweetened dark chocolate, caffeine, lemon rind, and some types of fruit are known to be bitter. Umami, commonly described as savory, is a marker of proteins and characteristic of broths and cooked meats. Foods that have a strong umami flavor include cheese, meat and mushrooms.",
"title": "Taste"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 20,
"text": "While most animals taste buds are located in their mouth, some insects taste receptors are located on their legs and some fish have taste buds along their entire body. Dogs, cats and birds have relatively few taste buds (chickens have about 30), adult humans have between 2000 and 4000, while catfish can have more than a million. Herbivores generally have more than carnivores as they need to tell which plants may be poisonous. Not all mammals share the same tastes: some rodents can taste starch, cats cannot taste sweetness, and several carnivores (including hyenas, dolphins, and sea lions) have lost the ability to sense up to four of the five taste modalities found in humans.",
"title": "Taste"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 21,
"text": "Food is broken into nutrient components through digestive process. Proper digestion consists of mechanical processes (chewing, peristalsis) and chemical processes (digestive enzymes and microorganisms). The digestive systems of herbivores and carnivores are very different as plant matter is harder to digest. Carnivores mouths are designed for tearing and biting compared to the grinding action found in herbivores. Herbivores however have comparatively longer digestive tracts and larger stomachs to aid in digesting the cellulose in plants.",
"title": "Digestion"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 22,
"text": "According to the World Health Organization (WHO), about 600 million people worldwide get sick and 420,000 die each year from eating contaminated food. Diarrhea is the most common illness caused by consuming contaminated food, with about 550 million cases and 230,000 deaths from diarrhea each year. Children under 5 years of age account for 40% of the burden of foodborne illness, with 125,000 deaths each year.",
"title": "Food safety"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 23,
"text": "A 2003 World Health Organization (WHO) report concluded that about 30% of reported food poisoning outbreaks in the WHO European Region occur in private homes. According to the WHO and CDC, in the USA alone, annually, there are 76 million cases of foodborne illness leading to 325,000 hospitalizations and 5,000 deaths.",
"title": "Food safety"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 24,
"text": "From 2011 to 2016, on average, there were 668,673 cases of foodborne illness and 21 deaths each year. In addition, during this period, 1,007 food poisoning outbreaks with 30,395 cases of food poisoning were reported.",
"title": "Food safety"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 25,
"text": "In Vietnam, from 2011 to 2016, there were 7 foodborne diseases reported with 4,012,038 cases of illness, including 123 deaths.",
"title": "Food safety"
}
] |
Food is any substance consumed by an organism for nutritional support. Food is usually of plant, animal, or fungal origin and contains essential nutrients such as carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, or minerals. The substance is ingested by an organism and assimilated by the organism's cells to provide energy, maintain life, or stimulate growth. Different species of animals have different feeding behaviours that satisfy the needs of their metabolisms and have evolved to fill a specific ecological niche within specific geographical contexts. Omnivorous humans are highly adaptable and have adapted to obtain food in many different ecosystems. Humans generally use cooking to prepare food for consumption. The majority of the food energy required is supplied by the industrial food industry, which produces food through intensive agriculture and distributes it through complex food processing and food distribution systems. This system of conventional agriculture relies heavily on fossil fuels, which means that the food and agricultural systems are one of the major contributors to climate change, accounting for as much as 37% of total greenhouse gas emissions. The food system has significant impacts on a wide range of other social and political issues, including sustainability, biological diversity, economics, population growth, water supply, and food security. Food safety and security are monitored by international agencies like the International Association for Food Protection, the World Resources Institute, the World Food Programme, the Food and Agriculture Organization, and the International Food Information Council.
|
2001-09-27T02:18:17Z
|
2023-12-28T04:44:10Z
|
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food
|
10,651 |
Floating Point
|
Floating Point is an album by John McLaughlin, released in 2008 through the record label Abstract Logix. The album reached number fourteen on Billboard's Top Jazz Albums chart.
Regarding the recording, McLaughlin commented: "while this CD features predominantly Indian musicians, we are in quite another form compared to the group Shakti... The music is for the most part 'Jazz-Fusion' if a label has to be put on it. But with the musicians involved in this project, it has also a 'world' kind of atmosphere." Concerning the album title, McLaughlin remarked: "Every now and then a group of musicians will gel together in such an incredible way, and at that point it's like you lose normal gravity... you've got your own gravity happening and you're kind of like floating with the other guys."
Michael G. Nastos of AllMusic called the album "a surprisingly fine effort, ebbing and flowing from track to track, with McLaughlin's high-level musicianship shining through, same as it ever was."
In a 5-star review for DownBeat, Ken Micallef commented: "this brilliant collective plays as a single unit, not a band of hired studio guns... This is a case of Indian musicians using their extraordinary skills to explore U.S. fusion, giving the now 70-year-old guitarist an amazing platform for compositional/improvisational development. This is a landmark recording, marked by detail, subtlety and extraordinarily moving performances."
John Kelman in All About Jazz wrote "One of the most fluent, evocative and powerful albums in a career filled with high points," and concluded: "McLaughlin's Indian friends may not have jazz in their blood the way it is in the guitarist's, but by approaching unmistakably western-informed music with an eastern mindset, they make Floating Point an album that, in McLaughlin's lengthy discography, is one of his most successful fusion records".
Writing for The Guardian, John Fordham awarded the album 5 stars, and stated: "this boiling new set sounds as if it's driven at least as much by cutting-edge Indian crossover musicians as by McLaughlin himself... this is 99% an absolute cracker, and not just for guitar nuts either."
All tracks are written by John McLaughlin.
|
[
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "Floating Point is an album by John McLaughlin, released in 2008 through the record label Abstract Logix. The album reached number fourteen on Billboard's Top Jazz Albums chart.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "Regarding the recording, McLaughlin commented: \"while this CD features predominantly Indian musicians, we are in quite another form compared to the group Shakti... The music is for the most part 'Jazz-Fusion' if a label has to be put on it. But with the musicians involved in this project, it has also a 'world' kind of atmosphere.\" Concerning the album title, McLaughlin remarked: \"Every now and then a group of musicians will gel together in such an incredible way, and at that point it's like you lose normal gravity... you've got your own gravity happening and you're kind of like floating with the other guys.\"",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "Michael G. Nastos of AllMusic called the album \"a surprisingly fine effort, ebbing and flowing from track to track, with McLaughlin's high-level musicianship shining through, same as it ever was.\"",
"title": "Reception"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "In a 5-star review for DownBeat, Ken Micallef commented: \"this brilliant collective plays as a single unit, not a band of hired studio guns... This is a case of Indian musicians using their extraordinary skills to explore U.S. fusion, giving the now 70-year-old guitarist an amazing platform for compositional/improvisational development. This is a landmark recording, marked by detail, subtlety and extraordinarily moving performances.\"",
"title": "Reception"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "John Kelman in All About Jazz wrote \"One of the most fluent, evocative and powerful albums in a career filled with high points,\" and concluded: \"McLaughlin's Indian friends may not have jazz in their blood the way it is in the guitarist's, but by approaching unmistakably western-informed music with an eastern mindset, they make Floating Point an album that, in McLaughlin's lengthy discography, is one of his most successful fusion records\".",
"title": "Reception"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "Writing for The Guardian, John Fordham awarded the album 5 stars, and stated: \"this boiling new set sounds as if it's driven at least as much by cutting-edge Indian crossover musicians as by McLaughlin himself... this is 99% an absolute cracker, and not just for guitar nuts either.\"",
"title": "Reception"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "All tracks are written by John McLaughlin.",
"title": "Track listing"
}
] |
Floating Point is an album by John McLaughlin, released in 2008 through the record label Abstract Logix. The album reached number fourteen on Billboard's Top Jazz Albums chart. Regarding the recording, McLaughlin commented: "while this CD features predominantly Indian musicians, we are in quite another form compared to the group Shakti... The music is for the most part 'Jazz-Fusion' if a label has to be put on it. But with the musicians involved in this project, it has also a 'world' kind of atmosphere." Concerning the album title, McLaughlin remarked: "Every now and then a group of musicians will gel together in such an incredible way, and at that point it's like you lose normal gravity... you've got your own gravity happening and you're kind of like floating with the other guys."
|
2023-05-04T18:20:52Z
|
[
"Template:For multi",
"Template:Track listing",
"Template:Reflist",
"Template:Authority control",
"Template:Use mdy dates",
"Template:Infobox album",
"Template:Album ratings",
"Template:Cite web",
"Template:John McLaughlin"
] |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floating_Point
|
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10,653 |
Fantasy sport
|
A fantasy sport (also known less commonly as rotisserie or roto) is a game, often played using the Internet, where participants assemble imaginary or virtual teams composed of proxies of real players of a professional sport. These teams compete based on the statistical performance of those players in actual games. This performance is converted into points that are compiled and totaled according to a roster selected by each fantasy team's manager. These point systems can be simple enough to be manually calculated by a "league commissioner" who coordinates and manages the overall league, or points can be compiled and calculated using computers tracking actual results of the professional sport. In fantasy sports, as in real sports team owners draft, trade, and cut (drop) players.
The history of fantasy games can be traced to the 19th century. The tabletop game Sebring Parlor Base Ball, introduced in 1866, allowed participants to simulate games by propelling a coin into slots on a wooden board. Later games featured outcomes determined by dice rolls or spinners. In 1930, Clifford Van Beek designed the board game National Pastime, which contained customized baseball cards of Major League Baseball (MLB) players. After rolling a pair of dice, participants would consult the card of the MLB player "at bat" to determine an outcome, which could range from a single, double, triple, or home run to a strikeout, putout, walk, or error. Players with better statistics in the previous season were more likely to receive favorable outcomes; this allowed National Pastime to become one of the first games to try to simulate the performances of real-life MLB players.
An example of such games was APBA, which was first released in 1951 and also contained cards of MLB players with in-game outcomes correlated to their stats from past seasons. Participants could compose fantasy teams from the cards and play against each other or recreate previous seasons using the statistics on the cards. Individual player cards and dice roll simulations were also emulated in the Strat-O-Matic game, which was first released in 1961. Daniel Okrent, who would later be credited with developing modern fantasy baseball, was an avid Strat-O-Matic player, telling Sports Illustrated in 2011 that "if there hadn't been Strat-O-Matic, I still think I would have come up with rotisserie, but unquestionably it helped."
In 1961, another early form of fantasy baseball was coded for the IBM 1620 computer by John Burgeson, then working for IBM. A user would select a team from a limited roster of retired players to play against a team randomly chosen by the computer. The computer would then use random number generation and player statistics to simulate a game's outcome and print a play-by-play description of it.
While some of these fantasy games produced outcomes based on the performances of real athletes, they were not designed to be played out over the course of a season, nor did they take current statistics into account, relying instead on those from previous years.
In the 1950s, Oakland, California businessman and future limited partner in the Oakland Raiders Wilfred "Bill" Winkenbach developed a fantasy golf game in which participants would select a roster of professional golfers and compare their scores at the end of a given tournament, with the lowest combined total of strokes winning. He also created a baseball game in which players drafted hitters and pitchers, comparing their real-life statistics against each other. These early experiments, however, failed to spread to the general public.
In 1960, sociologist William A. Gamson developed the Baseball Seminar league, in which participants would draft rosters of active MLB players and compare results at the end of the season based on the players' final batting averages, earned run averages, runs batted in, and win totals. Gamson would go on to play the game as a professor at the University of Michigan, where another competitor was Bob Sklar. One of Sklar's students was Daniel Okrent. According to Alan Schwarz's The Numbers Game: Baseball’s Lifelong Fascination with Statistics, Sklar told Okrent about the Baseball Seminar league.
Two years later, in a New York City hotel room during a 1962 Raiders cross-country trip, Winkenbach, along with Raiders public relations employee Bill Tunnel and Oakland Tribune reporter Scotty Stirling, developed the rules that would eventually be the basis of modern fantasy football. The inaugural league was called the Greater Oakland Professional Pigskin Prognosticators League (GOPPPL), and the first draft took place at Winkenbach's home in Oakland in August 1963. One of the league's original members, Andy Mousalimas, owned a sports bar in Oakland called the King's X, where the first public fantasy football league was founded in 1969. The idea spread by word of mouth when the patrons of other Bay Area bars visited the King's X for trivia contests.
Modern fantasy baseball was developed and popularized in the 1980s by a group of journalists who created Rotisserie League Baseball in 1980. The league was named after the New York City restaurant La Rotisserie Française, where its founders met for lunch and first played the game. Magazine writer-editor Daniel Okrent is credited with introducing the rotisserie league concept to the group and inventing the scoring system. Players in the Rotisserie League drafted teams of active MLB players and tracked their statistics during the season to compile their scores. Like the Baseball Seminar league, rather than using statistics for seasons whose outcomes were already known to simulate in-game outcomes, team owners would have to make predictions about the statistics that MLB players would accumulate during the upcoming season.
Rotisserie baseball, nicknamed roto, proved to be popular despite the difficulties of compiling statistics by hand, which was an early drawback to participation. Okrent credits the idea's rapid spread to the fact that the initial league was created by sports journalists, telling Vanity Fair in 2008 that "most of us in the league were in the media, and we got a lot of press coverage that first season. The second season, there were rotisserie leagues in every Major League press box." According to Okrent, rotisserie baseball afforded sportswriters the opportunity to write about baseball-related material during the 1981 Major League Baseball strike, saying "the writers who were covering baseball had nothing to write about, so they began writing about the teams they had assembled in their own leagues. And that was what popularized it and spread it around very, very widely."
Before the advent of the Internet, fantasy sports grew through print publications, such as magazines and newspapers. In 1987, Fantasy Football Index, the first national magazine dedicated to fantasy football, was launched by Ian Allan and Bruce Taylor. Fantasy Sports Magazine debuted in 1989 as the first regular publication covering more than one fantasy sport.
In 1990, a pair of nationwide fantasy games, Dugout Derby and Pigskin Playoff, were launched in a variety of newspapers across the United States, including the Arizona Republic, the Hartford Courant, the Los Angeles Times, and the Miami Herald. Players chose their teams by calling a toll-free phone number and entering four-digit codes for each of their player selections. The games served as an early version of today's daily fantasy sports by rewarding each week's highest-scoring participants with prizes.
In 1993, the magazine Fantasy Football Weekly was launched. Also that year, USA Today added a weekly fantasy baseball columnist, John Hunt. Hunt started a league among sports personalities called the League of Alternate Baseball Reality, which first included Peter Gammons, Keith Olbermann and Bill James, among others.
The growth of the Internet during the 1990s brought a "broad demographic shift in fantasy sports participation" because it enabled fantasy sports participants to instantaneously download tabulated statistics, rather than having to search for box scores of individual games in newspapers and keep track of cumulative statistics on paper.
In 1995, ESPN launched its first entirely Internet-based fantasy baseball game, with other major sports and entertainment companies following suit in the ensuing years. In October of that year, a fantasy hockey website was released by Molson Breweries as part of the company's "I am Online" marketing strategy centered around its I am Canadian advertising campaign. The site focused on music, entertainment and hockey in general in addition to fantasy competitions. It allowed users to register accounts and participate in fantasy leagues of nine teams. The site included updates of National Hockey League (NHL) statistics and provided content from the Hockey Hall of Fame.
CBS Sports began offering fantasy football leagues in 1997, the same year that the fantasy news website now known as RotoWire was launched. In July 1999, Yahoo began offering its fantasy football product for free, a decision that gave the site an advantage over its competitors. The creators of Fantasy Football Weekly launched Fanball.com later that year. While some sites abandoned a paid model in the wake of Yahoo's decision, some smaller sites, such as RotoWire, began offering paid products as they started losing business to larger competitors. CBS, which had transitioned to a free model for its league commissioner services, switched back to a paid model before the 2002 MLB season.
A trade group for the industry, the Fantasy Sports Trade Association, was formed in 1998. Now known as the Fantasy Sports & Gaming Association (FSGA), the organization estimates that in 2003, there were 15.2 million fantasy sports players in the United States and Canada.
During the first decade of the 2000s, fantasy sports started to become a mainstream hobby. In 2002, the National Football League (NFL) found that while the average male surveyed on its website spent 6.6 hours a week watching the league on television, fantasy players surveyed said they watched 8.4 hours of NFL football per week. "This is the first time we've been able to demonstrate specifically that fantasy play drives TV viewing," said Chris Russo, the NFL's senior vice president at the time. As a result of the survey's findings, the league made fantasy offerings more prominent on its website and produced television ads for fantasy football featuring active players. Prior to these developments, fantasy sports were largely viewed negatively by major sports leagues, with Russo later recalling that "there were concerns about whether it would be right for the fans or could it be construed as gambling." However, leagues began to embrace fantasy sports as their value towards increasing fans' consumption of sports became more evident.
Daily fantasy sports are accelerated versions of the traditional fantasy format in which contests are conducted over shorter periods than a full season, often lasting one week or even a single day. Daily fantasy games are typically subject to an entry fee, a portion of which funds a prize pool that is distributed among the game's winner or winners.
In June 2007, Fantasy Sports Live, one of the first daily fantasy sites, was launched. In November 2008, NBC launched a daily fantasy site called SnapDraft, and FanDuel was founded in 2009 as a spin-off of a Scottish prediction market company. DraftKings was founded in 2012.
Following venture capital investments from various firms, including from professional sports leagues such as MLB and the National Basketball Association (NBA), DraftKings and FanDuel launched an aggressive marketing campaign prior to the 2015 NFL season. At its peak, the two companies collectively ran an ad on national television in the United States once every 90 seconds. In addition to receiving direct investments from sports leagues, the two companies have reached sponsorship deals with several leagues and teams. In November 2014, DraftKings entered into a multi-year sponsorship deal with the NHL. In April 2015, after the NFL began to allow daily fantasy providers to sign multi-year team sponsorship deals, FanDuel reached deals with sixteen teams for placements on team-oriented digital properties, radio broadcasts, and within their stadiums. DraftKings has also received investments from Jerry Jones and Robert Kraft, who own the Dallas Cowboys and New England Patriots, respectively.
The legality of daily fantasy sports has been questioned, with critics arguing that they more closely resemble proposition wagering on athlete performance than a traditional fantasy sports game. However, following the 2018 United States Supreme Court decision in Murphy v. National Collegiate Athletic Association, which allowed states to legalize sports betting, questions surrounding the legality of daily fantasy sports, as well as fantasy sports in general, within the United States have largely been settled.
As of May 2023, while 33 US states have operational legalized sports betting, 45 states have legalized daily fantasy sports. As of May 2023, DraftKings and FanDuel operate daily fantasy contests in 44 states each. Only one state, Montana, has officially banned online fantasy sports.
In May 2015, Australian market research firm IBISWorld reported that fantasy sports comprised a $2 billion industry in the United States, experiencing 10.7% annual growth and employing 4,386 people in 292 businesses.
According to the Fantasy Sports Trade Association, in 2016, the size of the fantasy sports industry reached $7.22 billion, per research by Ipsos. The study estimated that there were 59.3 million fantasy sports players in the United States and Canada as of 2016.
The Fantasy Sports & Gaming Association estimates that the number of fantasy sports players in the US and Canada grew from 500,000 in 1988 to 15.2 million in 2003, declining slightly over the next few years before growing to 29.9 million in 2008 and 59.3 million in 2017. In 2015, Forbes estimated that the number of yearly non-betting fantasy sports users had grown 25% since 2011. This growth encouraged hundreds of millions of dollars in investments into emerging daily fantasy sports leagues, such as FanDuel and DraftKings.
Outside of North America, the fantasy industry has also experienced a recent period of growth. The development of daily fantasy sports has encouraged growth in European markets. ESPN Super Selector launched in 2001 for fantasy cricket and had 500,000 users during the 2003 Cricket World Cup. By 2017, there were 40 million fantasy sports players in India. In 2019, the number had grown to 90 million, and in 2020, an estimated 100 million Indians participated in fantasy sports. The market leader in fantasy sports in India, Dream11, signed a four year sponsorship deal for the IPL in 2019.
The Fantasy Sports Trade Association was formed in 1998 to represent the growing industry in the United States and Canada. Now known as the Fantasy Sports & Gaming Association, the organization aims to support fantasy sports, sports gambling in general, and its associated businesses and participants.
The Fantasy Sports Writers Association was formed in 2004 to represent the growing numbers of journalists covering fantasy sports exclusively. The Fantasy Sports Association was formed in 2006 as a rival trade group. However, the organization folded in 2010.
According to the Fantasy Sports & Gaming Association (FSGA), of the 59.3 million people who played fantasy sports in the US and Canada in 2017, 43.2 million were American adults. In 2019, 45.9 million American adults participated. The FSGA estimated that 19% of American adults played fantasy sports in 2019, compared to 13% in 2014. A 2019 FSGA survey found that 81% of fantasy sports players were male, 50% were between the ages of 18 and 34 (with an average age of 37.7), 67% were employed full-time, and 47% made more than $75,000 per year. A 2015 analysis found that 89.8% were white and 51.5% were unmarried.
According to the FSGA, the most popular fantasy sport in the US and Canada is gridiron football, which is played by approximately 78% of fantasy participants. The next most popular sports are baseball (39%), basketball (19%), ice hockey (18%), and association football (14%).
Research has shown that fantasy players are also generally stronger consumers alcoholic beverages, fast food, airline travel, video games, sports periodicals, athletic shoes, and cell phones relative to the general population. The FSGA reported in 2019 that fantasy players were also far more likely to use Instagram or Snapchat, visit a sports bar, and get food delivered than the general population.
Due to the popularity of fantasy sports, major sports networks such as ESPN, NFL Network, and Fox Sports have created dedicated weekly fantasy programming to analyze player performance and predict outcomes in relation to particular scoring systems. ESPN's on-demand streaming platform ESPN+ offers a fantasy program called The Fantasy Show hosted by long time staff writer Matthew Berry. The Fantasy Show utilizes puppets and comedy to present statistical information about NFL players. ESPN also aires a show on Sunday mornings during the NFL season called Fantasy Football Now. "Fantasy Football Now" airs live on Sunday mornings during the NFL season, a time when fans are making last-minute roster moves and need the latest news from around the league. Providing the latest info are analysts Matthew Berry, Field Yates and licensed physical therapist Stephania Bell, who gives injury updates.
NFL Network aires NFL Fantasy Live as an hour long program containing a consistent weekly segment list that viewers can count on to help them manage their team. NFL Fantasy Live is hosted by Cole Wright and features Michael Fabiano, Adam Rank, Marcas Grant, Akbar Gbaja-Biamila, Graham Barfield and statistics analytics expert Cynthia Frelund. Fox Sports Net aires Fantasy Football Hour on a weekly basis during the NFL season hosted by Katy Winge and features industry experts Brad Evans and Nate Lundy.
Fantasy sports are generally considered to be a form of gambling, though they are far less strictly regulated than other forms of sports betting. Unlike traditional sports betting, fantasy sports are generally viewed as "games of skill," rather than "games of chance," thus exempting them from gambling bans and regulations in many jurisdictions.
The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 (UIGEA), was enacted as part of the "American Values Agenda" of 2006 and was added as an amendment to the unrelated SAFE Port Act. The UIGEA generally prohibits funds transfers to businesses engaged in unlawful internet wagering. However the UIGEA does not itself define unlawful internet wagering, and expressly refrains from altering the legality of any underlying conduct other than funds transfers.
While the act does not alter the legality of any particular activity permitted or prohibited under other laws, it does contain some express exemptions to its funds transfer prohibitions. One of these exemptions from the UIGEA prohibitions is for fantasy sports that meet certain criteria. Specifically, fantasy sports that are based on teams of real multiple athletes from multiple real world teams, that have prizes established before the event starts, that use the skill of participants to determine the outcome, are exempted from the definition of a bet or wager that is the basis for requiring banks to identify and block funds transfers. According to Congressman Jim Leach, an author of the UIGEA, exemptions, particularly one for fantasy sports, were included to relieve the burden of enforcement on banks and the UIGEA does not make fantasy sports legal.
Because the UIGEA exempted fantasy sports from its definition of a bet or wager, there is a misconception that fantasy sports were made legal by the UIGEA. However the UIGEA is not a criminal gambling statute, and it specifically does not alter any criminal gambling laws and thus does not make fantasy sports legal. Federal criminal gambling statutes are found in Title 18 of U.S. Code, such as the Federal Wire Act 18 U.S. Code § 1084 (which prohibits interstate sports wagering) and the Illegal Gambling Business Act 18 U.S. Code § 1955 (which prohibits the interstate conduct of wagering activity prohibited under state law). By contrast, the UIGEA is found in Title 31 with other anti-money laundering and financial crimes statutes.
Whether state laws can regulate fantasy sports conducted across state lines depends on whether fantasy sports are a form of sports wagering under federal law. This is because the Federal Wire Act prohibits the conduct of sports wagering in interstate or foreign commerce. With regard to intrastate sports wagering, in 2018 the United States Supreme Court in Murphy v. National Collegiate Athletic Association struck down the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act, which had prohibited states from authorizing any wagering, lottery, betting, sweepstakes or other wagering scheme that is based directly or indirectly on games in which professional or amateur athletes participate or on the performance of any athletes in such games.
Where states have not expressly authorized fantasy sports contests, usually general gambling laws prohibit lotteries or wagering if three elements are present: an entry fee (known as "consideration"), a prize (a "reward," in legal terms) and chance. Whether fantasy sports are legal under these laws hinges on the definition of "chance" that the state applies. For some states, if skill dominates the outcome of the event, then the contest is legal, and passes what is called the "dominant factor test." Other states with a stricter definition of chance, called "any chance test," have made fantasy football illegal.
Several states have clarified that paid fantasy sports contests are games of skill and exempt from gambling laws, beginning with Maryland in 2012.
One exception is the state of Nevada, which has an exemption in PASPA to allow for sports betting. The Nevada attorney general issued an opinion that found Daily Fantasy Sports to be a form of sports wagering, similar to the current wagering offered by Nevada Sports Books. The opinions states that Daily Fantasy Sports are not illegal in Nevada; however, a sports pool license is required to conduct the activity in Nevada.
Several Attorneys General have also issued opinions that Daily Fantasy Sports are a form of sports wagering. A Florida state attorney general's opinion in 1991 called into doubt the legality of fantasy football contests, but companies have operated in the state without any legal action. Since then nine other AGs have issued options, statements or formal opinions that equate DFS with gambling.
However, several other Attorneys General have issued opinions that DFS are legal games of skill. In August 2015 in Kansas, due to uncertainty with the state's Racing and Gaming Commission position, the state's attorney general issued an opinion that daily fantasy sports was a skill game and thus permitted under state law. Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback signed legislation a month later authorizing fantasy gaming. The Attorneys General of West Virginia and Rhode Island have also issued opinions that clarified the legality of DFS and paid fantasy sports.
As of January 2022, online fantasy sports are legal in 49 of the 50 US states. The only state with a ban on online fantasy sports that is codified in statute is Montana. As of January 2022, daily fantasy sports are legal in 45 US states, with 23 of those states explicitly passing legislation legalizing the practice.
There have been other legal cases involving fantasy sports and the use of professional athletes' statistics for purposes of scoring.
In 1996, STATS, Inc., a major statistical provider to fantasy sports companies, won a court case, along with Motorola, on appeal against the NBA in which the NBA was trying to stop STATS from distributing in game score information via a special wireless device created by Motorola. The victory played a large part in defending other cases where sports leagues have tried to suppress live in-game information from their events being distributed by other outlets. The victory also accelerated the demand for real-time statistics amid the growth of the fantasy sports industry.
The development of fantasy sports produced tension between fantasy sports companies and professional leagues and players associations over the rights to player profiles and statistics. The players associations of the major sports leagues believed that fantasy games using player names were subject to licensing due to the right of publicity of the players involved. Since the player names were being used as a group, the players had assigned their publicity rights to the players association who then signed licensing deals. During the 1980s and 1990s many companies signed licensing deals with the player associations, but some companies did not. The issue came to a head with the lawsuit of Major League Baseball Advanced Media (MLBAM), MLB's Internet company, vs. St. Louis-based CBC Distribution and Marketing Inc., the parent company of CDM Sports. When CBC was denied a new licensing agreement with MLBAM (they had acquired the rights from the baseball players' association) for its fantasy baseball game, CBC filed suit.
CBC argued that intellectual property laws and so-called "right of publicity" laws don't apply to the statistics used in fantasy sports. The FSTA filed an amicus curiae in support of CBC, also arguing that if MLBAM won the lawsuit it would have a dramatic impact on the industry, which was largely ignored by the major sports leagues for years while a number of smaller entrepreneurs grew it into a multibillion-dollar industry, and a ruling could allow the MLBAM to have a monopoly over the industry.
"This will be a defining moment in the fantasy sports industry," said Charlie Wiegert, executive vice president of CBC. "The other leagues are all watching this case. If MLB prevailed, it just would have been a matter of time before they followed up. Their player unions are just waiting for the opportunity."
CBC won the lawsuit as US District Court Judge Mary Ann Medler ruled that statistics are part of the public domain and can be used at no cost by fantasy companies. "The names and playing records of major-league baseball players as used in CBC's fantasy games are not copyrightable," Medler wrote. "Therefore, federal copyright law does not pre-empt the players' claimed right of publicity."
The 8th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the decision in October 2007. "It would be strange law that a person would not have a First Amendment right to use information that is available to everyone," a three-judge panel said in its ruling. The Supreme Court upheld the circuit court's decision by declining to hear the case in June 2008. In 2009, CBS Interactive won a lawsuit against the NFL Players’ Association over whether CBS had a First Amendment right to use players’ names and playing records in its fantasy sports offerings without paying licensing fees.
|
[
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "A fantasy sport (also known less commonly as rotisserie or roto) is a game, often played using the Internet, where participants assemble imaginary or virtual teams composed of proxies of real players of a professional sport. These teams compete based on the statistical performance of those players in actual games. This performance is converted into points that are compiled and totaled according to a roster selected by each fantasy team's manager. These point systems can be simple enough to be manually calculated by a \"league commissioner\" who coordinates and manages the overall league, or points can be compiled and calculated using computers tracking actual results of the professional sport. In fantasy sports, as in real sports team owners draft, trade, and cut (drop) players.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "The history of fantasy games can be traced to the 19th century. The tabletop game Sebring Parlor Base Ball, introduced in 1866, allowed participants to simulate games by propelling a coin into slots on a wooden board. Later games featured outcomes determined by dice rolls or spinners. In 1930, Clifford Van Beek designed the board game National Pastime, which contained customized baseball cards of Major League Baseball (MLB) players. After rolling a pair of dice, participants would consult the card of the MLB player \"at bat\" to determine an outcome, which could range from a single, double, triple, or home run to a strikeout, putout, walk, or error. Players with better statistics in the previous season were more likely to receive favorable outcomes; this allowed National Pastime to become one of the first games to try to simulate the performances of real-life MLB players.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "An example of such games was APBA, which was first released in 1951 and also contained cards of MLB players with in-game outcomes correlated to their stats from past seasons. Participants could compose fantasy teams from the cards and play against each other or recreate previous seasons using the statistics on the cards. Individual player cards and dice roll simulations were also emulated in the Strat-O-Matic game, which was first released in 1961. Daniel Okrent, who would later be credited with developing modern fantasy baseball, was an avid Strat-O-Matic player, telling Sports Illustrated in 2011 that \"if there hadn't been Strat-O-Matic, I still think I would have come up with rotisserie, but unquestionably it helped.\"",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "In 1961, another early form of fantasy baseball was coded for the IBM 1620 computer by John Burgeson, then working for IBM. A user would select a team from a limited roster of retired players to play against a team randomly chosen by the computer. The computer would then use random number generation and player statistics to simulate a game's outcome and print a play-by-play description of it.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "While some of these fantasy games produced outcomes based on the performances of real athletes, they were not designed to be played out over the course of a season, nor did they take current statistics into account, relying instead on those from previous years.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "In the 1950s, Oakland, California businessman and future limited partner in the Oakland Raiders Wilfred \"Bill\" Winkenbach developed a fantasy golf game in which participants would select a roster of professional golfers and compare their scores at the end of a given tournament, with the lowest combined total of strokes winning. He also created a baseball game in which players drafted hitters and pitchers, comparing their real-life statistics against each other. These early experiments, however, failed to spread to the general public.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "In 1960, sociologist William A. Gamson developed the Baseball Seminar league, in which participants would draft rosters of active MLB players and compare results at the end of the season based on the players' final batting averages, earned run averages, runs batted in, and win totals. Gamson would go on to play the game as a professor at the University of Michigan, where another competitor was Bob Sklar. One of Sklar's students was Daniel Okrent. According to Alan Schwarz's The Numbers Game: Baseball’s Lifelong Fascination with Statistics, Sklar told Okrent about the Baseball Seminar league.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "Two years later, in a New York City hotel room during a 1962 Raiders cross-country trip, Winkenbach, along with Raiders public relations employee Bill Tunnel and Oakland Tribune reporter Scotty Stirling, developed the rules that would eventually be the basis of modern fantasy football. The inaugural league was called the Greater Oakland Professional Pigskin Prognosticators League (GOPPPL), and the first draft took place at Winkenbach's home in Oakland in August 1963. One of the league's original members, Andy Mousalimas, owned a sports bar in Oakland called the King's X, where the first public fantasy football league was founded in 1969. The idea spread by word of mouth when the patrons of other Bay Area bars visited the King's X for trivia contests.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "Modern fantasy baseball was developed and popularized in the 1980s by a group of journalists who created Rotisserie League Baseball in 1980. The league was named after the New York City restaurant La Rotisserie Française, where its founders met for lunch and first played the game. Magazine writer-editor Daniel Okrent is credited with introducing the rotisserie league concept to the group and inventing the scoring system. Players in the Rotisserie League drafted teams of active MLB players and tracked their statistics during the season to compile their scores. Like the Baseball Seminar league, rather than using statistics for seasons whose outcomes were already known to simulate in-game outcomes, team owners would have to make predictions about the statistics that MLB players would accumulate during the upcoming season.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "Rotisserie baseball, nicknamed roto, proved to be popular despite the difficulties of compiling statistics by hand, which was an early drawback to participation. Okrent credits the idea's rapid spread to the fact that the initial league was created by sports journalists, telling Vanity Fair in 2008 that \"most of us in the league were in the media, and we got a lot of press coverage that first season. The second season, there were rotisserie leagues in every Major League press box.\" According to Okrent, rotisserie baseball afforded sportswriters the opportunity to write about baseball-related material during the 1981 Major League Baseball strike, saying \"the writers who were covering baseball had nothing to write about, so they began writing about the teams they had assembled in their own leagues. And that was what popularized it and spread it around very, very widely.\"",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "Before the advent of the Internet, fantasy sports grew through print publications, such as magazines and newspapers. In 1987, Fantasy Football Index, the first national magazine dedicated to fantasy football, was launched by Ian Allan and Bruce Taylor. Fantasy Sports Magazine debuted in 1989 as the first regular publication covering more than one fantasy sport.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "In 1990, a pair of nationwide fantasy games, Dugout Derby and Pigskin Playoff, were launched in a variety of newspapers across the United States, including the Arizona Republic, the Hartford Courant, the Los Angeles Times, and the Miami Herald. Players chose their teams by calling a toll-free phone number and entering four-digit codes for each of their player selections. The games served as an early version of today's daily fantasy sports by rewarding each week's highest-scoring participants with prizes.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "In 1993, the magazine Fantasy Football Weekly was launched. Also that year, USA Today added a weekly fantasy baseball columnist, John Hunt. Hunt started a league among sports personalities called the League of Alternate Baseball Reality, which first included Peter Gammons, Keith Olbermann and Bill James, among others.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "The growth of the Internet during the 1990s brought a \"broad demographic shift in fantasy sports participation\" because it enabled fantasy sports participants to instantaneously download tabulated statistics, rather than having to search for box scores of individual games in newspapers and keep track of cumulative statistics on paper.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "In 1995, ESPN launched its first entirely Internet-based fantasy baseball game, with other major sports and entertainment companies following suit in the ensuing years. In October of that year, a fantasy hockey website was released by Molson Breweries as part of the company's \"I am Online\" marketing strategy centered around its I am Canadian advertising campaign. The site focused on music, entertainment and hockey in general in addition to fantasy competitions. It allowed users to register accounts and participate in fantasy leagues of nine teams. The site included updates of National Hockey League (NHL) statistics and provided content from the Hockey Hall of Fame.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 15,
"text": "CBS Sports began offering fantasy football leagues in 1997, the same year that the fantasy news website now known as RotoWire was launched. In July 1999, Yahoo began offering its fantasy football product for free, a decision that gave the site an advantage over its competitors. The creators of Fantasy Football Weekly launched Fanball.com later that year. While some sites abandoned a paid model in the wake of Yahoo's decision, some smaller sites, such as RotoWire, began offering paid products as they started losing business to larger competitors. CBS, which had transitioned to a free model for its league commissioner services, switched back to a paid model before the 2002 MLB season.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 16,
"text": "A trade group for the industry, the Fantasy Sports Trade Association, was formed in 1998. Now known as the Fantasy Sports & Gaming Association (FSGA), the organization estimates that in 2003, there were 15.2 million fantasy sports players in the United States and Canada.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 17,
"text": "During the first decade of the 2000s, fantasy sports started to become a mainstream hobby. In 2002, the National Football League (NFL) found that while the average male surveyed on its website spent 6.6 hours a week watching the league on television, fantasy players surveyed said they watched 8.4 hours of NFL football per week. \"This is the first time we've been able to demonstrate specifically that fantasy play drives TV viewing,\" said Chris Russo, the NFL's senior vice president at the time. As a result of the survey's findings, the league made fantasy offerings more prominent on its website and produced television ads for fantasy football featuring active players. Prior to these developments, fantasy sports were largely viewed negatively by major sports leagues, with Russo later recalling that \"there were concerns about whether it would be right for the fans or could it be construed as gambling.\" However, leagues began to embrace fantasy sports as their value towards increasing fans' consumption of sports became more evident.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 18,
"text": "Daily fantasy sports are accelerated versions of the traditional fantasy format in which contests are conducted over shorter periods than a full season, often lasting one week or even a single day. Daily fantasy games are typically subject to an entry fee, a portion of which funds a prize pool that is distributed among the game's winner or winners.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 19,
"text": "In June 2007, Fantasy Sports Live, one of the first daily fantasy sites, was launched. In November 2008, NBC launched a daily fantasy site called SnapDraft, and FanDuel was founded in 2009 as a spin-off of a Scottish prediction market company. DraftKings was founded in 2012.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 20,
"text": "Following venture capital investments from various firms, including from professional sports leagues such as MLB and the National Basketball Association (NBA), DraftKings and FanDuel launched an aggressive marketing campaign prior to the 2015 NFL season. At its peak, the two companies collectively ran an ad on national television in the United States once every 90 seconds. In addition to receiving direct investments from sports leagues, the two companies have reached sponsorship deals with several leagues and teams. In November 2014, DraftKings entered into a multi-year sponsorship deal with the NHL. In April 2015, after the NFL began to allow daily fantasy providers to sign multi-year team sponsorship deals, FanDuel reached deals with sixteen teams for placements on team-oriented digital properties, radio broadcasts, and within their stadiums. DraftKings has also received investments from Jerry Jones and Robert Kraft, who own the Dallas Cowboys and New England Patriots, respectively.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 21,
"text": "The legality of daily fantasy sports has been questioned, with critics arguing that they more closely resemble proposition wagering on athlete performance than a traditional fantasy sports game. However, following the 2018 United States Supreme Court decision in Murphy v. National Collegiate Athletic Association, which allowed states to legalize sports betting, questions surrounding the legality of daily fantasy sports, as well as fantasy sports in general, within the United States have largely been settled.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 22,
"text": "As of May 2023, while 33 US states have operational legalized sports betting, 45 states have legalized daily fantasy sports. As of May 2023, DraftKings and FanDuel operate daily fantasy contests in 44 states each. Only one state, Montana, has officially banned online fantasy sports.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 23,
"text": "In May 2015, Australian market research firm IBISWorld reported that fantasy sports comprised a $2 billion industry in the United States, experiencing 10.7% annual growth and employing 4,386 people in 292 businesses.",
"title": "Industry overview"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 24,
"text": "According to the Fantasy Sports Trade Association, in 2016, the size of the fantasy sports industry reached $7.22 billion, per research by Ipsos. The study estimated that there were 59.3 million fantasy sports players in the United States and Canada as of 2016.",
"title": "Industry overview"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 25,
"text": "The Fantasy Sports & Gaming Association estimates that the number of fantasy sports players in the US and Canada grew from 500,000 in 1988 to 15.2 million in 2003, declining slightly over the next few years before growing to 29.9 million in 2008 and 59.3 million in 2017. In 2015, Forbes estimated that the number of yearly non-betting fantasy sports users had grown 25% since 2011. This growth encouraged hundreds of millions of dollars in investments into emerging daily fantasy sports leagues, such as FanDuel and DraftKings.",
"title": "Industry overview"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 26,
"text": "Outside of North America, the fantasy industry has also experienced a recent period of growth. The development of daily fantasy sports has encouraged growth in European markets. ESPN Super Selector launched in 2001 for fantasy cricket and had 500,000 users during the 2003 Cricket World Cup. By 2017, there were 40 million fantasy sports players in India. In 2019, the number had grown to 90 million, and in 2020, an estimated 100 million Indians participated in fantasy sports. The market leader in fantasy sports in India, Dream11, signed a four year sponsorship deal for the IPL in 2019.",
"title": "Industry overview"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 27,
"text": "",
"title": "Industry overview"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 28,
"text": "The Fantasy Sports Trade Association was formed in 1998 to represent the growing industry in the United States and Canada. Now known as the Fantasy Sports & Gaming Association, the organization aims to support fantasy sports, sports gambling in general, and its associated businesses and participants.",
"title": "Industry overview"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 29,
"text": "The Fantasy Sports Writers Association was formed in 2004 to represent the growing numbers of journalists covering fantasy sports exclusively. The Fantasy Sports Association was formed in 2006 as a rival trade group. However, the organization folded in 2010.",
"title": "Industry overview"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 30,
"text": "According to the Fantasy Sports & Gaming Association (FSGA), of the 59.3 million people who played fantasy sports in the US and Canada in 2017, 43.2 million were American adults. In 2019, 45.9 million American adults participated. The FSGA estimated that 19% of American adults played fantasy sports in 2019, compared to 13% in 2014. A 2019 FSGA survey found that 81% of fantasy sports players were male, 50% were between the ages of 18 and 34 (with an average age of 37.7), 67% were employed full-time, and 47% made more than $75,000 per year. A 2015 analysis found that 89.8% were white and 51.5% were unmarried.",
"title": "Industry overview"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 31,
"text": "According to the FSGA, the most popular fantasy sport in the US and Canada is gridiron football, which is played by approximately 78% of fantasy participants. The next most popular sports are baseball (39%), basketball (19%), ice hockey (18%), and association football (14%).",
"title": "Industry overview"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 32,
"text": "Research has shown that fantasy players are also generally stronger consumers alcoholic beverages, fast food, airline travel, video games, sports periodicals, athletic shoes, and cell phones relative to the general population. The FSGA reported in 2019 that fantasy players were also far more likely to use Instagram or Snapchat, visit a sports bar, and get food delivered than the general population.",
"title": "Industry overview"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 33,
"text": "Due to the popularity of fantasy sports, major sports networks such as ESPN, NFL Network, and Fox Sports have created dedicated weekly fantasy programming to analyze player performance and predict outcomes in relation to particular scoring systems. ESPN's on-demand streaming platform ESPN+ offers a fantasy program called The Fantasy Show hosted by long time staff writer Matthew Berry. The Fantasy Show utilizes puppets and comedy to present statistical information about NFL players. ESPN also aires a show on Sunday mornings during the NFL season called Fantasy Football Now. \"Fantasy Football Now\" airs live on Sunday mornings during the NFL season, a time when fans are making last-minute roster moves and need the latest news from around the league. Providing the latest info are analysts Matthew Berry, Field Yates and licensed physical therapist Stephania Bell, who gives injury updates.",
"title": "Industry overview"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 34,
"text": "NFL Network aires NFL Fantasy Live as an hour long program containing a consistent weekly segment list that viewers can count on to help them manage their team. NFL Fantasy Live is hosted by Cole Wright and features Michael Fabiano, Adam Rank, Marcas Grant, Akbar Gbaja-Biamila, Graham Barfield and statistics analytics expert Cynthia Frelund. Fox Sports Net aires Fantasy Football Hour on a weekly basis during the NFL season hosted by Katy Winge and features industry experts Brad Evans and Nate Lundy.",
"title": "Industry overview"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 35,
"text": "Fantasy sports are generally considered to be a form of gambling, though they are far less strictly regulated than other forms of sports betting. Unlike traditional sports betting, fantasy sports are generally viewed as \"games of skill,\" rather than \"games of chance,\" thus exempting them from gambling bans and regulations in many jurisdictions.",
"title": "Legal issues in the United States"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 36,
"text": "The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 (UIGEA), was enacted as part of the \"American Values Agenda\" of 2006 and was added as an amendment to the unrelated SAFE Port Act. The UIGEA generally prohibits funds transfers to businesses engaged in unlawful internet wagering. However the UIGEA does not itself define unlawful internet wagering, and expressly refrains from altering the legality of any underlying conduct other than funds transfers.",
"title": "Legal issues in the United States"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 37,
"text": "While the act does not alter the legality of any particular activity permitted or prohibited under other laws, it does contain some express exemptions to its funds transfer prohibitions. One of these exemptions from the UIGEA prohibitions is for fantasy sports that meet certain criteria. Specifically, fantasy sports that are based on teams of real multiple athletes from multiple real world teams, that have prizes established before the event starts, that use the skill of participants to determine the outcome, are exempted from the definition of a bet or wager that is the basis for requiring banks to identify and block funds transfers. According to Congressman Jim Leach, an author of the UIGEA, exemptions, particularly one for fantasy sports, were included to relieve the burden of enforcement on banks and the UIGEA does not make fantasy sports legal.",
"title": "Legal issues in the United States"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 38,
"text": "Because the UIGEA exempted fantasy sports from its definition of a bet or wager, there is a misconception that fantasy sports were made legal by the UIGEA. However the UIGEA is not a criminal gambling statute, and it specifically does not alter any criminal gambling laws and thus does not make fantasy sports legal. Federal criminal gambling statutes are found in Title 18 of U.S. Code, such as the Federal Wire Act 18 U.S. Code § 1084 (which prohibits interstate sports wagering) and the Illegal Gambling Business Act 18 U.S. Code § 1955 (which prohibits the interstate conduct of wagering activity prohibited under state law). By contrast, the UIGEA is found in Title 31 with other anti-money laundering and financial crimes statutes.",
"title": "Legal issues in the United States"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 39,
"text": "Whether state laws can regulate fantasy sports conducted across state lines depends on whether fantasy sports are a form of sports wagering under federal law. This is because the Federal Wire Act prohibits the conduct of sports wagering in interstate or foreign commerce. With regard to intrastate sports wagering, in 2018 the United States Supreme Court in Murphy v. National Collegiate Athletic Association struck down the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act, which had prohibited states from authorizing any wagering, lottery, betting, sweepstakes or other wagering scheme that is based directly or indirectly on games in which professional or amateur athletes participate or on the performance of any athletes in such games.",
"title": "Legal issues in the United States"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 40,
"text": "Where states have not expressly authorized fantasy sports contests, usually general gambling laws prohibit lotteries or wagering if three elements are present: an entry fee (known as \"consideration\"), a prize (a \"reward,\" in legal terms) and chance. Whether fantasy sports are legal under these laws hinges on the definition of \"chance\" that the state applies. For some states, if skill dominates the outcome of the event, then the contest is legal, and passes what is called the \"dominant factor test.\" Other states with a stricter definition of chance, called \"any chance test,\" have made fantasy football illegal.",
"title": "Legal issues in the United States"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 41,
"text": "Several states have clarified that paid fantasy sports contests are games of skill and exempt from gambling laws, beginning with Maryland in 2012.",
"title": "Legal issues in the United States"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 42,
"text": "One exception is the state of Nevada, which has an exemption in PASPA to allow for sports betting. The Nevada attorney general issued an opinion that found Daily Fantasy Sports to be a form of sports wagering, similar to the current wagering offered by Nevada Sports Books. The opinions states that Daily Fantasy Sports are not illegal in Nevada; however, a sports pool license is required to conduct the activity in Nevada.",
"title": "Legal issues in the United States"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 43,
"text": "Several Attorneys General have also issued opinions that Daily Fantasy Sports are a form of sports wagering. A Florida state attorney general's opinion in 1991 called into doubt the legality of fantasy football contests, but companies have operated in the state without any legal action. Since then nine other AGs have issued options, statements or formal opinions that equate DFS with gambling.",
"title": "Legal issues in the United States"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 44,
"text": "However, several other Attorneys General have issued opinions that DFS are legal games of skill. In August 2015 in Kansas, due to uncertainty with the state's Racing and Gaming Commission position, the state's attorney general issued an opinion that daily fantasy sports was a skill game and thus permitted under state law. Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback signed legislation a month later authorizing fantasy gaming. The Attorneys General of West Virginia and Rhode Island have also issued opinions that clarified the legality of DFS and paid fantasy sports.",
"title": "Legal issues in the United States"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 45,
"text": "As of January 2022, online fantasy sports are legal in 49 of the 50 US states. The only state with a ban on online fantasy sports that is codified in statute is Montana. As of January 2022, daily fantasy sports are legal in 45 US states, with 23 of those states explicitly passing legislation legalizing the practice.",
"title": "Legal issues in the United States"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 46,
"text": "There have been other legal cases involving fantasy sports and the use of professional athletes' statistics for purposes of scoring.",
"title": "Legal issues in the United States"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 47,
"text": "In 1996, STATS, Inc., a major statistical provider to fantasy sports companies, won a court case, along with Motorola, on appeal against the NBA in which the NBA was trying to stop STATS from distributing in game score information via a special wireless device created by Motorola. The victory played a large part in defending other cases where sports leagues have tried to suppress live in-game information from their events being distributed by other outlets. The victory also accelerated the demand for real-time statistics amid the growth of the fantasy sports industry.",
"title": "Legal issues in the United States"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 48,
"text": "The development of fantasy sports produced tension between fantasy sports companies and professional leagues and players associations over the rights to player profiles and statistics. The players associations of the major sports leagues believed that fantasy games using player names were subject to licensing due to the right of publicity of the players involved. Since the player names were being used as a group, the players had assigned their publicity rights to the players association who then signed licensing deals. During the 1980s and 1990s many companies signed licensing deals with the player associations, but some companies did not. The issue came to a head with the lawsuit of Major League Baseball Advanced Media (MLBAM), MLB's Internet company, vs. St. Louis-based CBC Distribution and Marketing Inc., the parent company of CDM Sports. When CBC was denied a new licensing agreement with MLBAM (they had acquired the rights from the baseball players' association) for its fantasy baseball game, CBC filed suit.",
"title": "Legal issues in the United States"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 49,
"text": "CBC argued that intellectual property laws and so-called \"right of publicity\" laws don't apply to the statistics used in fantasy sports. The FSTA filed an amicus curiae in support of CBC, also arguing that if MLBAM won the lawsuit it would have a dramatic impact on the industry, which was largely ignored by the major sports leagues for years while a number of smaller entrepreneurs grew it into a multibillion-dollar industry, and a ruling could allow the MLBAM to have a monopoly over the industry.",
"title": "Legal issues in the United States"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 50,
"text": "\"This will be a defining moment in the fantasy sports industry,\" said Charlie Wiegert, executive vice president of CBC. \"The other leagues are all watching this case. If MLB prevailed, it just would have been a matter of time before they followed up. Their player unions are just waiting for the opportunity.\"",
"title": "Legal issues in the United States"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 51,
"text": "CBC won the lawsuit as US District Court Judge Mary Ann Medler ruled that statistics are part of the public domain and can be used at no cost by fantasy companies. \"The names and playing records of major-league baseball players as used in CBC's fantasy games are not copyrightable,\" Medler wrote. \"Therefore, federal copyright law does not pre-empt the players' claimed right of publicity.\"",
"title": "Legal issues in the United States"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 52,
"text": "The 8th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the decision in October 2007. \"It would be strange law that a person would not have a First Amendment right to use information that is available to everyone,\" a three-judge panel said in its ruling. The Supreme Court upheld the circuit court's decision by declining to hear the case in June 2008. In 2009, CBS Interactive won a lawsuit against the NFL Players’ Association over whether CBS had a First Amendment right to use players’ names and playing records in its fantasy sports offerings without paying licensing fees.",
"title": "Legal issues in the United States"
}
] |
A fantasy sport is a game, often played using the Internet, where participants assemble imaginary or virtual teams composed of proxies of real players of a professional sport. These teams compete based on the statistical performance of those players in actual games. This performance is converted into points that are compiled and totaled according to a roster selected by each fantasy team's manager. These point systems can be simple enough to be manually calculated by a "league commissioner" who coordinates and manages the overall league, or points can be compiled and calculated using computers tracking actual results of the professional sport. In fantasy sports, as in real sports team owners draft, trade, and cut (drop) players.
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2023-07-15T17:19:48Z
|
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fantasy_sport
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10,654 |
Forward pass
|
In several forms of football, a forward pass is the throwing of the ball in the direction in which the offensive team is trying to move, towards the defensive team's goal line. The legal and widespread use of the forward pass distinguishes gridiron football (American football and Canadian football) from rugby football (union and league) from which the gridiron code evolved, in which the play is illegal.
Illegal and experimental forward passes had been attempted as early as 1876, but the first legal forward pass in American football took place in 1906, after a change in the rules. Another rule change on January 18, 1951, established that no center or guard could receive a forward pass, and a tackle may only do so if he announces his intent to the referee beforehand that he will be an eligible receiver, called a tackle-eligible play. The only linemen who can receive a forward pass are the ends (tight ends and wide receivers). The rules regulate who may throw and who may receive a forward pass, and under what circumstances, as well as how the defensive team may try to prevent a pass from being completed. The primary passer is the quarterback, and statistical analysis is used to determine a quarterback's success rate at passing in various situations, as well as a team's overall success at the passing game.
In gridiron football, a forward pass is usually referred to simply as a pass, and consists of a player throwing the football towards the opponent's goal line. This is permitted only once during a scrimmage down by the offensive team before team possession has changed, provided the pass is thrown from behind the line of scrimmage; a pass is legal as long as some part of the passer's body is behind the line of scrimmage. The person passing the ball must be a member of the offensive team, and the recipient of the forward pass must be an eligible receiver and must touch the passed ball before any ineligible player. An illegal forward pass can incur a yardage penalty and the loss of a down, although it may be legally intercepted by the opponents and advanced.
If an eligible receiver on the passing team legally catches the ball, the pass is completed and the receiver may attempt to advance the ball. If an opposing player legally catches the ball – all defensive players are eligible receivers – it is an interception. That player's team immediately gains possession of the ball and he may attempt to advance the ball toward his opponent's goal. If no player is able to legally catch the ball it is an incomplete pass and the ball becomes dead the moment it touches the ground. It will then be returned to the original line of scrimmage for the next down. If any player interferes with an eligible receiver's ability to catch the ball it is pass interference which draws a penalty of varying degrees, depending upon the particular league's rules.
The moment that a forward pass begins is important to the game. The pass begins the moment the passer's arm begins to move forward. If the passer drops the ball before this moment it is a fumble and therefore a loose ball. In this case anybody can gain possession of the ball before or after it touches the ground. If the passer drops the ball while his arm is moving forward it is a forward pass, regardless of where the ball lands or is first touched. At some levels of play, a video replay may be required for the game's officials to conclusively determine if a play is a fumble or a forward pass.
The quarterback generally either starts a few paces behind the line of scrimmage or drops back a few steps after the ball is snapped. This places him in an area called the "pocket", which is a specific protective region formed by the offensive blockers up front and between the tackles on each side. A quarterback who runs out of this pocket is said to be scrambling. Under NFL and NCAA rules, once the quarterback moves out of the pocket the ball may be legally thrown away to prevent a sack. NFHS (high school) rules do not allow for a passer to intentionally throw an incomplete forward pass to save loss of yardage or conserve time, except for a spike to conserve time after a hand-to-hand snap. If he throws the ball away while still in the pocket then a foul called "intentional grounding" is assessed. In Canadian football the passer must simply throw the ball across the line of scrimmage – whether he is inside or outside of the "pocket"—to avoid the foul of "intentionally grounding".
If a forward pass is caught near a sideline or endline it is a complete pass (or an interception) only if a receiver catches the ball "in bounds". For a pass to be ruled complete in-bounds, either one or two feet must touch the ground within the field boundaries after the ball is first grasped, depending on the league rules. In the NFL the receiver must touch the ground with both feet, but in most other codes – CFL, NCAA and high school – one foot in bounds is sufficient.
Common to all gridiron codes is the notion of control: a receiver must demonstrate control of the ball in order to be ruled in "possession" of it, while still in bounds. If the receiver handles the ball but the official determines that he was still "bobbling" it prior to the end of the play, then the pass will be ruled incomplete. Similarly, if the receiver fails to continue to control the ball after falling to the ground, the pass may be ruled incomplete.
The forward pass had been attempted at least 30 years before the play was actually made legal. Passes "had been carried out successfully but illegally several times, including the 1876 Yale–Princeton game in which Yale's Walter Camp threw forward to teammate Oliver Thompson as he was being tackled. Princeton's protest, one account said, went for naught when the referee 'tossed a coin to make his decision and allowed the touchdown to stand' ".
The University of North Carolina used the forward pass in an 1895 game against the University of Georgia. However, the play was still illegal at the time. Bob Quincy stakes Carolina's claim in his 1973 book They Made the Bell Tower Chime:
John Heisman, namesake of the Heisman Trophy, wrote 30 years later that, indeed, the Tar Heels had given birth to the forward pass against the Bulldogs (UGA). It was conceived to break a scoreless deadlock and give UNC a 6–0 win. The Carolinians were in a punting situation and a Georgia rush seemed destined to block the ball. The punter, with an impromptu dash to his right, tossed the ball and it was caught by George Stephens, who ran 70 yards for a touchdown.
In a 1905 experimental game at Wichita, Kansas, Washburn University and Fairmount College (what would become Wichita State) used the pass before new rules allowing the play were approved in early 1906. Credit for the first pass goes to Fairmount's Bill Davis, who completed a pass to Art Solter.
1905 had been a bloody year on the gridiron; the Chicago Tribune reported 19 players had been killed and 159 seriously injured that season. There were moves to outlaw the game, but United States President Theodore Roosevelt personally intervened and demanded that the rules of the game be reformed. In a meeting of more than 60 schools in late 1905, the commitment was made to make the game safer. This meeting was the first step toward the establishment of what would become the NCAA and was followed by several sessions to work out "the new rules."
The final meeting of the Rules Committee tasked with reshaping the game was held on April 6, 1906, at which time the forward pass officially became a legal play. The New York Times reported in September 1906 on the rationale for the changes: "The main efforts of the football reformers have been to 'open up the game'—that is to provide for the natural elimination of the so-called mass plays and bring about a game in which speed and real skill shall supersede so far as possible mere brute strength and force of weight." However, the Times also reflected widespread skepticism as to whether the forward pass could be effectively integrated into the game: "There has been no team that has proved that the forward pass is anything but a doubtful, dangerous play to be used only in the last extremity." John Heisman was instrumental in the rules' acceptance.
In Canadian football, the first exhibition game using a forward pass was held on November 5, 1921, at McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, between the McGill Redmen football team and visiting American college football team the Syracuse Orangemen from Syracuse University. The game was organized by Frank Shaughnessy, the head coach of McGill. McGill player Robert "Boo" Anderson is credited with the first forward pass attempt in Canadian football history.
The forward pass was not officially allowed in Canadian football until 1929.
Most sources credit Saint Louis University's Bradbury Robinson from Bellevue, Ohio with throwing the first legal forward pass. On September 5, 1906, in a game against Carroll College, Robinson's first attempt at a forward pass fell incomplete and resulted in a turnover under the 1906 rules. In the same game, Robinson later completed a 20-yard touchdown pass to Jack Schneider. The 1906 Saint Louis University team, coached by Eddie Cochems, was undefeated at 11–0 and featured the most potent offense in the country, outscoring their opponents 407–11. Football authority and College Football Hall of Fame coach David M. Nelson wrote that "E. B. Cochems is to forward passing what the Wright brothers are to aviation and Thomas Edison is to the electric light."
While Saint Louis University completed the first legal forward pass in the first half of September, this accomplishment was in part because most schools did not begin their football schedule until early October.
In 1952, football coach Amos Alonzo Stagg discounted accounts crediting any particular coach with being the innovator of the forward pass. Stagg noted that he had Walter Eckersall working on pass plays and saw Pomeroy Sinnock of Illinois throw many passes in 1906. Stagg summed up his view as follows: "I have seen statements giving credit to certain people originating the forward pass. The fact is that all coaches were working on it. The first season, 1906, I personally had sixty-four different forward pass patterns." In 1954, Stagg disputed Cochems' claim to have invented the forward pass:
Eddie Cochems, who coached at [Saint] Louis University in 1906, also claimed to have invented the pass as we know it today ... It isn't so, because after the forward pass was legalized in 1906, most of the schools commenced experimenting with it and nearly all used.
Stagg asserted that, as far back as 1894, before the rules committee even considered the forward pass, one of his players used to throw the ball "like a baseball pitcher."
On the other hand, Hall of Fame coach Gus Dorais told the United Press that "Eddie Cochems of the [Saint] Louis University team of 1906–07–08 deserves the full credit." Writing in Collier's more than 20 years earlier, Dorais' Notre Dame teammate Knute Rockne acknowledged Cochems as the early leader in the use of the pass, observing, "One would have thought that so effective a play would have been instantly copied and become the vogue. The East, however, had not learned much or cared much about Midwest and Western football. Indeed, the East scarcely realized that football existed beyond the Alleghanies ..."
Once the 1906 season got underway, many programs began experimenting with the forward pass. On September 26, 1906, Villanova's game against the Carlisle Indians was billed as "the first real game of football under the new rules." In the first play from scrimmage after the opening kicks, Villanova completed a pass that "succeeded in gaining ten yards." Following the Villanova-Carlisle game, The New York Times described the new passing game this way:
The passing was more of the character of that familiar in basket ball than that which has hitherto characterized football. Apparently it is the intention of football coaches to try repeatedly these frequent long and risky passes. Well executed they are undoubtedly highly spectacular, but the risk of dropping the ball is so great as to make the practice extremely hazardous and its desirability doubtful.
Another coach sometimes credited with popularizing the overhead spiral pass in 1906 is former Princeton All-American "Bosey" Reiter. Reiter claimed to have invented the overhead spiral pass while playing professional football as a player-coach for Connie Mack's Philadelphia Athletics of the original National Football League (1902). While playing for the Athletics, Reiter was a teammate of Hawley Pierce, a former star for the Carlisle Indian School. Pierce, a Native American, taught Reiter to throw an underhand spiral pass, but Reiter had short arms and was unable to throw for distance from an underhand delivery. Accordingly, Reiter began working on an overhand spiral pass. Reiter recalled trying to imitate the motion of a baseball catcher throwing to second base. After practice and experimentation, Reiter "discovered he could get greater distance and accuracy throwing that way." In 1906, Reiter was the head coach at Wesleyan University. In the opening game of the 1906 season against Yale, Reiter's quarterback Sammy Moore completed a forward pass to Irvin van Tassell for a thirty-yard gain. The New York Times called it "the prettiest play of the day", as Wesleyan's quarterback "deftly passed the ball past the whole Yale team to his mate Van Tassel." Van Tassel later described the historic play to the United Press:
I was the right halfback, and on this formation played one yard back of our right tackle. The quarterback, Sam Moore, took the ball from center and faded eight or 10 yards back of our line. Our two ends angled down the field toward the sidelines as a decoy, and I slipped through the strong side of our line straight down the center and past the secondary defense. The pass worked perfectly. However, the quarterback coming up fast nailed me as I caught it. This brought the ball well into Yale territory, about the 20-yard line.
The football season opened for most schools during the first week of October, and the impact of the forward pass was immediate:
Some publications credit Yale All-American Paul Veeder with the "first forward pass in a major game." Veeder threw a 20- to 30-yard completion in leading Yale past Harvard 6–0 before 32,000 fans in New Haven on November 24, 1906. However, that Yale/Harvard game was played three weeks after St. Louis completed 45- and 48-yard passes against Kansas before a crowd of 7,000 at Sportsman's Park.
The forward pass was a central feature of Cochems' offensive scheme in 1906 as his St. Louis University team compiled an undefeated 11–0 season in which they outscored opponents by a combined score 407 to 11. The highlight of the campaign was St. Louis' 39–0 win over Iowa. Cochems' team reportedly completed eight passes in ten attempts for four touchdowns. "The average flight distance of the passes was twenty yards." Nelson continues, "the last play demonstrated the dramatic effect that the forward pass was having on football. St. Louis was on Iowa's thirty-five-yard line with a few seconds to play. Timekeeper Walter McCormack walked onto the field to end the game when the ball was thrown twenty-five yards and caught on the dead run for a touchdown."
The 1906 Iowa game was refereed by one of the top football officials in the country, West Point's Lt. Horatio B. "Stuffy" Hackett. He had officiated games involving the top Eastern powers that year. Hackett, who would become a member of the football rules committee in December 1907 and officiated games into the 1930s, was quoted the next day in Ed Wray's Globe-Democrat article: "It was the most perfect exhibition ... of the new rules ... that I have seen all season and much better than that of Yale and Harvard. St. Louis' style of pass differs entirely from that in use in the east. ... The St. Louis university players shoot the ball hard and accurately to the man who is to receive it ... The fast throw by St. Louis enables the receiving player to dodge the opposing players, and it struck me as being all but perfect."
Hackett is the only known expert witness to the passing offenses of both Cochems' 1906 squads and that of Stagg, who dismissed any special role for the St. Louis coach in the development of the pass. Hackett was an official in games involving both teams. As Wray recalled almost 40 years later: "Hackett told this writer that in no other game that he handled had he seen the forward pass as used by St. Louis U. nor such bewildering variations of it."
"Cochems said that the poor Iowa showing resulted from its use of the old style play and its failure to effectively use the forward pass", Nelson writes. "Iowa did attempt two basketball-style forward passes."
"During the 1906 season [Robinson] threw a sixty-seven yard pass ... and ... Schneider tossed a sixty-five yarder. Considering the size, shape and weight of the ball, these were extraordinary passes."
In 1907, after the first season of the forward pass, one football writer noted that, "with the single exception of Cochems, football teachers were groping in the dark."
Because St. Louis was geographically isolated from both the dominant teams and the major sports media (newspapers) of the era, all centered in and focused on the East, Cochems' groundbreaking offensive strategy was not picked up by the major teams. Pass-oriented offenses would not be adopted by the Eastern football powers until the next decade.
But that does not mean that other teams in the Midwest did not pick it up. Arthur Schabinger, quarterback for the College of Emporia in Kansas, was reported to have regularly used the forward pass in 1910. Coach H. W. "Bill" Hargiss' "Presbies" are said to have featured the play in a 17–0 victory over Washburn University and in a 107–0 destruction of Pittsburg State University. Coach Pop Warner at Carlisle had quarterback Frank Mount Pleasant, one of the first regular spiral pass quarterbacks in football.
Knute Rockne and Gus Dorais worked on the pass while lifeguarding on a Lake Erie beach at Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio, during the summer of 1913. That year, Jesse Harper, Notre Dame head coach, also showed how the pass could be used by a smaller team to beat a bigger one, first utilizing it to defeat rival Army. After it was used against a major school on a national stage in this game, the forward pass rapidly gained popularity.
The 1919 and 1920 Notre Dame teams had George Gipp, an ideal handler of the forward pass, who threw for 1,789 yards.
John Mohardt led the 1921 Notre Dame team to a 10–1 record with 781 rushing yards, 995 passing yards, 12 rushing touchdowns, and nine passing touchdowns. Grantland Rice wrote that "Mohardt could throw the ball to within a foot or two of any given space" and noted that the 1921 team was the first at Notre Dame "to build its attack around a forward passing game, rather than use a forward passing game as a mere aid to the running game." Mohardt had both Eddie Anderson and Roger Kiley at end to receive his passes.
From 1915 to 1916, Pudge Wyman and end Bert Baston of Minnesota were "one of the greatest forward-passing combinations in the history of the gridiron."
In the 1921 Rose Bowl, California's Brick Muller completed a touchdown against Washington & Jefferson which went 53 yards in the air, a feat previously thought impossible.
In a 1925, 62–13 victory over Cornell, Dartmouth's Andy Oberlander had 477 yards in total offense, including six touchdown passes, a Dartmouth record which still stands.
The 1925 Michigan team was coach Fielding H. Yost's favorite and featured the passing tandem of Benny Friedman and Bennie Oosterbaan.
Yost disciple Dan McGugin coached Vanderbilt and was one of the first emphasize the forward pass. His 1907 team beat Sewanee on a double pass play Grantland Rice cited as his biggest thrill in his years of watching sports. McGugin's 1927 team was piloted by Bill Spears, who threw for over a thousand yards. According to one writer, Vanderbilt produced "almost certainly the legit top Heisman candidate in Spears, if there had been a Heisman Trophy to award in 1927." McGugin disciple and former quarterback Ray Morrison brought the pass to the southwest when he coached Gerald Mann at Southern Methodist.
The first forward pass in a professional football game may have been thrown in an Ohio League game played on October 25, 1906. The Ohio League, which traced its history to the 1890s, was a direct predecessor of the NFL. According to Robert W. Peterson in his book Pigskin The Early Years of Pro Football, the "passer was George W. (Peggy) Parratt, probably the best quarterback of the era", who played for the Massillon, Ohio Tigers, one of pro football's first franchises. Citing the Professional Football Researchers Association as his source, Peterson writes that "Parratt completed a short pass to end Dan Riley (real name, Dan Policowski)" in a game played at Massillon against a team from West Virginia. Since the Tigers "ran up a 61 to 0 score on the hapless Mountain Staters, the pass played no important part in the result."
According to National Football League history, it legalized the forward pass from anywhere behind the line of scrimmage on February 25, 1933. Before that rule change, a forward pass had to be made from 5 or more yards behind the line of scrimmage.
Forward passes were first permitted in Canadian football in 1929, but the tactic remained a minor part of the game for several years. Jack Jacobs of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers is recognized, not for inventing the forward pass, but for popularizing it in the Western Interprovincial Football Union (one of the forerunner leagues to the modern Canadian Football League) in the early 1950s, thus changing the Canadian game from a more run-dominated game to a more passing-dominant game.
Specification of the size of the ball for the American game came in 1912, but it was still essentially a rugby ball. Increased use of the forward pass encouraged adoption of a narrower ball, starting with changes in the 1920s which enhanced rifled throwing and also spiral punting. This had the consequence of all but eliminating the drop kick from the American game.
In the two codes of rugby (union and league), a forward pass is against the rules. Normally this results in a scrum to the opposing team, but on rare occasions a penalty may be awarded if the referee is of the belief that the ball was deliberately thrown forward.
In both codes of rugby the direction of the pass is relative to the player making the pass and not to the actual path relative to the ground. A forward pass occurs when the player passes the ball forward in relation to himself. (This applies only to the movement of the player, not to the direction in which the passer is facing, i.e. if the player is facing backwards and passes toward their team's goal area, it is not forward; and conversely, if the player passes toward the opponent's goal area, it is forward.) In rugby league, the video referee may not make judgements on whether a pass is forward.
The garryowen, as well as the cross-field kick, while not as reliable as the forward pass and more difficult to execute successfully, can provide some of the function that a forward pass does in American and Canadian football.
In some other football codes, such as association football (soccer), Australian rules football and Gaelic football, the kicked forward pass is used so ubiquitously that it is not thought of as a distinct kind of play at all. In association football and its variants, the concept of offside is used to regulate who can be in front of the play or be nearest to the goal. Historically some earlier incarnations of football allowed unlimited forward passing, and present-day Australian rules football and Gaelic football do not have an offside rule.
Notes
Bibliography
|
[
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "In several forms of football, a forward pass is the throwing of the ball in the direction in which the offensive team is trying to move, towards the defensive team's goal line. The legal and widespread use of the forward pass distinguishes gridiron football (American football and Canadian football) from rugby football (union and league) from which the gridiron code evolved, in which the play is illegal.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "Illegal and experimental forward passes had been attempted as early as 1876, but the first legal forward pass in American football took place in 1906, after a change in the rules. Another rule change on January 18, 1951, established that no center or guard could receive a forward pass, and a tackle may only do so if he announces his intent to the referee beforehand that he will be an eligible receiver, called a tackle-eligible play. The only linemen who can receive a forward pass are the ends (tight ends and wide receivers). The rules regulate who may throw and who may receive a forward pass, and under what circumstances, as well as how the defensive team may try to prevent a pass from being completed. The primary passer is the quarterback, and statistical analysis is used to determine a quarterback's success rate at passing in various situations, as well as a team's overall success at the passing game.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "In gridiron football, a forward pass is usually referred to simply as a pass, and consists of a player throwing the football towards the opponent's goal line. This is permitted only once during a scrimmage down by the offensive team before team possession has changed, provided the pass is thrown from behind the line of scrimmage; a pass is legal as long as some part of the passer's body is behind the line of scrimmage. The person passing the ball must be a member of the offensive team, and the recipient of the forward pass must be an eligible receiver and must touch the passed ball before any ineligible player. An illegal forward pass can incur a yardage penalty and the loss of a down, although it may be legally intercepted by the opponents and advanced.",
"title": "Gridiron football"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "If an eligible receiver on the passing team legally catches the ball, the pass is completed and the receiver may attempt to advance the ball. If an opposing player legally catches the ball – all defensive players are eligible receivers – it is an interception. That player's team immediately gains possession of the ball and he may attempt to advance the ball toward his opponent's goal. If no player is able to legally catch the ball it is an incomplete pass and the ball becomes dead the moment it touches the ground. It will then be returned to the original line of scrimmage for the next down. If any player interferes with an eligible receiver's ability to catch the ball it is pass interference which draws a penalty of varying degrees, depending upon the particular league's rules.",
"title": "Gridiron football"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "The moment that a forward pass begins is important to the game. The pass begins the moment the passer's arm begins to move forward. If the passer drops the ball before this moment it is a fumble and therefore a loose ball. In this case anybody can gain possession of the ball before or after it touches the ground. If the passer drops the ball while his arm is moving forward it is a forward pass, regardless of where the ball lands or is first touched. At some levels of play, a video replay may be required for the game's officials to conclusively determine if a play is a fumble or a forward pass.",
"title": "Gridiron football"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "The quarterback generally either starts a few paces behind the line of scrimmage or drops back a few steps after the ball is snapped. This places him in an area called the \"pocket\", which is a specific protective region formed by the offensive blockers up front and between the tackles on each side. A quarterback who runs out of this pocket is said to be scrambling. Under NFL and NCAA rules, once the quarterback moves out of the pocket the ball may be legally thrown away to prevent a sack. NFHS (high school) rules do not allow for a passer to intentionally throw an incomplete forward pass to save loss of yardage or conserve time, except for a spike to conserve time after a hand-to-hand snap. If he throws the ball away while still in the pocket then a foul called \"intentional grounding\" is assessed. In Canadian football the passer must simply throw the ball across the line of scrimmage – whether he is inside or outside of the \"pocket\"—to avoid the foul of \"intentionally grounding\".",
"title": "Gridiron football"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "If a forward pass is caught near a sideline or endline it is a complete pass (or an interception) only if a receiver catches the ball \"in bounds\". For a pass to be ruled complete in-bounds, either one or two feet must touch the ground within the field boundaries after the ball is first grasped, depending on the league rules. In the NFL the receiver must touch the ground with both feet, but in most other codes – CFL, NCAA and high school – one foot in bounds is sufficient.",
"title": "Gridiron football"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "Common to all gridiron codes is the notion of control: a receiver must demonstrate control of the ball in order to be ruled in \"possession\" of it, while still in bounds. If the receiver handles the ball but the official determines that he was still \"bobbling\" it prior to the end of the play, then the pass will be ruled incomplete. Similarly, if the receiver fails to continue to control the ball after falling to the ground, the pass may be ruled incomplete.",
"title": "Gridiron football"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "The forward pass had been attempted at least 30 years before the play was actually made legal. Passes \"had been carried out successfully but illegally several times, including the 1876 Yale–Princeton game in which Yale's Walter Camp threw forward to teammate Oliver Thompson as he was being tackled. Princeton's protest, one account said, went for naught when the referee 'tossed a coin to make his decision and allowed the touchdown to stand' \".",
"title": "Gridiron football"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "The University of North Carolina used the forward pass in an 1895 game against the University of Georgia. However, the play was still illegal at the time. Bob Quincy stakes Carolina's claim in his 1973 book They Made the Bell Tower Chime:",
"title": "Gridiron football"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "John Heisman, namesake of the Heisman Trophy, wrote 30 years later that, indeed, the Tar Heels had given birth to the forward pass against the Bulldogs (UGA). It was conceived to break a scoreless deadlock and give UNC a 6–0 win. The Carolinians were in a punting situation and a Georgia rush seemed destined to block the ball. The punter, with an impromptu dash to his right, tossed the ball and it was caught by George Stephens, who ran 70 yards for a touchdown.",
"title": "Gridiron football"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "In a 1905 experimental game at Wichita, Kansas, Washburn University and Fairmount College (what would become Wichita State) used the pass before new rules allowing the play were approved in early 1906. Credit for the first pass goes to Fairmount's Bill Davis, who completed a pass to Art Solter.",
"title": "Gridiron football"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "1905 had been a bloody year on the gridiron; the Chicago Tribune reported 19 players had been killed and 159 seriously injured that season. There were moves to outlaw the game, but United States President Theodore Roosevelt personally intervened and demanded that the rules of the game be reformed. In a meeting of more than 60 schools in late 1905, the commitment was made to make the game safer. This meeting was the first step toward the establishment of what would become the NCAA and was followed by several sessions to work out \"the new rules.\"",
"title": "Gridiron football"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "The final meeting of the Rules Committee tasked with reshaping the game was held on April 6, 1906, at which time the forward pass officially became a legal play. The New York Times reported in September 1906 on the rationale for the changes: \"The main efforts of the football reformers have been to 'open up the game'—that is to provide for the natural elimination of the so-called mass plays and bring about a game in which speed and real skill shall supersede so far as possible mere brute strength and force of weight.\" However, the Times also reflected widespread skepticism as to whether the forward pass could be effectively integrated into the game: \"There has been no team that has proved that the forward pass is anything but a doubtful, dangerous play to be used only in the last extremity.\" John Heisman was instrumental in the rules' acceptance.",
"title": "Gridiron football"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "In Canadian football, the first exhibition game using a forward pass was held on November 5, 1921, at McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, between the McGill Redmen football team and visiting American college football team the Syracuse Orangemen from Syracuse University. The game was organized by Frank Shaughnessy, the head coach of McGill. McGill player Robert \"Boo\" Anderson is credited with the first forward pass attempt in Canadian football history.",
"title": "Gridiron football"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 15,
"text": "The forward pass was not officially allowed in Canadian football until 1929.",
"title": "Gridiron football"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 16,
"text": "Most sources credit Saint Louis University's Bradbury Robinson from Bellevue, Ohio with throwing the first legal forward pass. On September 5, 1906, in a game against Carroll College, Robinson's first attempt at a forward pass fell incomplete and resulted in a turnover under the 1906 rules. In the same game, Robinson later completed a 20-yard touchdown pass to Jack Schneider. The 1906 Saint Louis University team, coached by Eddie Cochems, was undefeated at 11–0 and featured the most potent offense in the country, outscoring their opponents 407–11. Football authority and College Football Hall of Fame coach David M. Nelson wrote that \"E. B. Cochems is to forward passing what the Wright brothers are to aviation and Thomas Edison is to the electric light.\"",
"title": "Gridiron football"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 17,
"text": "While Saint Louis University completed the first legal forward pass in the first half of September, this accomplishment was in part because most schools did not begin their football schedule until early October.",
"title": "Gridiron football"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 18,
"text": "In 1952, football coach Amos Alonzo Stagg discounted accounts crediting any particular coach with being the innovator of the forward pass. Stagg noted that he had Walter Eckersall working on pass plays and saw Pomeroy Sinnock of Illinois throw many passes in 1906. Stagg summed up his view as follows: \"I have seen statements giving credit to certain people originating the forward pass. The fact is that all coaches were working on it. The first season, 1906, I personally had sixty-four different forward pass patterns.\" In 1954, Stagg disputed Cochems' claim to have invented the forward pass:",
"title": "Gridiron football"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 19,
"text": "Eddie Cochems, who coached at [Saint] Louis University in 1906, also claimed to have invented the pass as we know it today ... It isn't so, because after the forward pass was legalized in 1906, most of the schools commenced experimenting with it and nearly all used.",
"title": "Gridiron football"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 20,
"text": "Stagg asserted that, as far back as 1894, before the rules committee even considered the forward pass, one of his players used to throw the ball \"like a baseball pitcher.\"",
"title": "Gridiron football"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 21,
"text": "On the other hand, Hall of Fame coach Gus Dorais told the United Press that \"Eddie Cochems of the [Saint] Louis University team of 1906–07–08 deserves the full credit.\" Writing in Collier's more than 20 years earlier, Dorais' Notre Dame teammate Knute Rockne acknowledged Cochems as the early leader in the use of the pass, observing, \"One would have thought that so effective a play would have been instantly copied and become the vogue. The East, however, had not learned much or cared much about Midwest and Western football. Indeed, the East scarcely realized that football existed beyond the Alleghanies ...\"",
"title": "Gridiron football"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 22,
"text": "Once the 1906 season got underway, many programs began experimenting with the forward pass. On September 26, 1906, Villanova's game against the Carlisle Indians was billed as \"the first real game of football under the new rules.\" In the first play from scrimmage after the opening kicks, Villanova completed a pass that \"succeeded in gaining ten yards.\" Following the Villanova-Carlisle game, The New York Times described the new passing game this way:",
"title": "Gridiron football"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 23,
"text": "The passing was more of the character of that familiar in basket ball than that which has hitherto characterized football. Apparently it is the intention of football coaches to try repeatedly these frequent long and risky passes. Well executed they are undoubtedly highly spectacular, but the risk of dropping the ball is so great as to make the practice extremely hazardous and its desirability doubtful.",
"title": "Gridiron football"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 24,
"text": "Another coach sometimes credited with popularizing the overhead spiral pass in 1906 is former Princeton All-American \"Bosey\" Reiter. Reiter claimed to have invented the overhead spiral pass while playing professional football as a player-coach for Connie Mack's Philadelphia Athletics of the original National Football League (1902). While playing for the Athletics, Reiter was a teammate of Hawley Pierce, a former star for the Carlisle Indian School. Pierce, a Native American, taught Reiter to throw an underhand spiral pass, but Reiter had short arms and was unable to throw for distance from an underhand delivery. Accordingly, Reiter began working on an overhand spiral pass. Reiter recalled trying to imitate the motion of a baseball catcher throwing to second base. After practice and experimentation, Reiter \"discovered he could get greater distance and accuracy throwing that way.\" In 1906, Reiter was the head coach at Wesleyan University. In the opening game of the 1906 season against Yale, Reiter's quarterback Sammy Moore completed a forward pass to Irvin van Tassell for a thirty-yard gain. The New York Times called it \"the prettiest play of the day\", as Wesleyan's quarterback \"deftly passed the ball past the whole Yale team to his mate Van Tassel.\" Van Tassel later described the historic play to the United Press:",
"title": "Gridiron football"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 25,
"text": "I was the right halfback, and on this formation played one yard back of our right tackle. The quarterback, Sam Moore, took the ball from center and faded eight or 10 yards back of our line. Our two ends angled down the field toward the sidelines as a decoy, and I slipped through the strong side of our line straight down the center and past the secondary defense. The pass worked perfectly. However, the quarterback coming up fast nailed me as I caught it. This brought the ball well into Yale territory, about the 20-yard line.",
"title": "Gridiron football"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 26,
"text": "The football season opened for most schools during the first week of October, and the impact of the forward pass was immediate:",
"title": "Gridiron football"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 27,
"text": "Some publications credit Yale All-American Paul Veeder with the \"first forward pass in a major game.\" Veeder threw a 20- to 30-yard completion in leading Yale past Harvard 6–0 before 32,000 fans in New Haven on November 24, 1906. However, that Yale/Harvard game was played three weeks after St. Louis completed 45- and 48-yard passes against Kansas before a crowd of 7,000 at Sportsman's Park.",
"title": "Gridiron football"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 28,
"text": "The forward pass was a central feature of Cochems' offensive scheme in 1906 as his St. Louis University team compiled an undefeated 11–0 season in which they outscored opponents by a combined score 407 to 11. The highlight of the campaign was St. Louis' 39–0 win over Iowa. Cochems' team reportedly completed eight passes in ten attempts for four touchdowns. \"The average flight distance of the passes was twenty yards.\" Nelson continues, \"the last play demonstrated the dramatic effect that the forward pass was having on football. St. Louis was on Iowa's thirty-five-yard line with a few seconds to play. Timekeeper Walter McCormack walked onto the field to end the game when the ball was thrown twenty-five yards and caught on the dead run for a touchdown.\"",
"title": "Gridiron football"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 29,
"text": "The 1906 Iowa game was refereed by one of the top football officials in the country, West Point's Lt. Horatio B. \"Stuffy\" Hackett. He had officiated games involving the top Eastern powers that year. Hackett, who would become a member of the football rules committee in December 1907 and officiated games into the 1930s, was quoted the next day in Ed Wray's Globe-Democrat article: \"It was the most perfect exhibition ... of the new rules ... that I have seen all season and much better than that of Yale and Harvard. St. Louis' style of pass differs entirely from that in use in the east. ... The St. Louis university players shoot the ball hard and accurately to the man who is to receive it ... The fast throw by St. Louis enables the receiving player to dodge the opposing players, and it struck me as being all but perfect.\"",
"title": "Gridiron football"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 30,
"text": "Hackett is the only known expert witness to the passing offenses of both Cochems' 1906 squads and that of Stagg, who dismissed any special role for the St. Louis coach in the development of the pass. Hackett was an official in games involving both teams. As Wray recalled almost 40 years later: \"Hackett told this writer that in no other game that he handled had he seen the forward pass as used by St. Louis U. nor such bewildering variations of it.\"",
"title": "Gridiron football"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 31,
"text": "\"Cochems said that the poor Iowa showing resulted from its use of the old style play and its failure to effectively use the forward pass\", Nelson writes. \"Iowa did attempt two basketball-style forward passes.\"",
"title": "Gridiron football"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 32,
"text": "\"During the 1906 season [Robinson] threw a sixty-seven yard pass ... and ... Schneider tossed a sixty-five yarder. Considering the size, shape and weight of the ball, these were extraordinary passes.\"",
"title": "Gridiron football"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 33,
"text": "In 1907, after the first season of the forward pass, one football writer noted that, \"with the single exception of Cochems, football teachers were groping in the dark.\"",
"title": "Gridiron football"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 34,
"text": "Because St. Louis was geographically isolated from both the dominant teams and the major sports media (newspapers) of the era, all centered in and focused on the East, Cochems' groundbreaking offensive strategy was not picked up by the major teams. Pass-oriented offenses would not be adopted by the Eastern football powers until the next decade.",
"title": "Gridiron football"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 35,
"text": "But that does not mean that other teams in the Midwest did not pick it up. Arthur Schabinger, quarterback for the College of Emporia in Kansas, was reported to have regularly used the forward pass in 1910. Coach H. W. \"Bill\" Hargiss' \"Presbies\" are said to have featured the play in a 17–0 victory over Washburn University and in a 107–0 destruction of Pittsburg State University. Coach Pop Warner at Carlisle had quarterback Frank Mount Pleasant, one of the first regular spiral pass quarterbacks in football.",
"title": "Gridiron football"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 36,
"text": "Knute Rockne and Gus Dorais worked on the pass while lifeguarding on a Lake Erie beach at Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio, during the summer of 1913. That year, Jesse Harper, Notre Dame head coach, also showed how the pass could be used by a smaller team to beat a bigger one, first utilizing it to defeat rival Army. After it was used against a major school on a national stage in this game, the forward pass rapidly gained popularity.",
"title": "Gridiron football"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 37,
"text": "The 1919 and 1920 Notre Dame teams had George Gipp, an ideal handler of the forward pass, who threw for 1,789 yards.",
"title": "Gridiron football"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 38,
"text": "John Mohardt led the 1921 Notre Dame team to a 10–1 record with 781 rushing yards, 995 passing yards, 12 rushing touchdowns, and nine passing touchdowns. Grantland Rice wrote that \"Mohardt could throw the ball to within a foot or two of any given space\" and noted that the 1921 team was the first at Notre Dame \"to build its attack around a forward passing game, rather than use a forward passing game as a mere aid to the running game.\" Mohardt had both Eddie Anderson and Roger Kiley at end to receive his passes.",
"title": "Gridiron football"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 39,
"text": "From 1915 to 1916, Pudge Wyman and end Bert Baston of Minnesota were \"one of the greatest forward-passing combinations in the history of the gridiron.\"",
"title": "Gridiron football"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 40,
"text": "In the 1921 Rose Bowl, California's Brick Muller completed a touchdown against Washington & Jefferson which went 53 yards in the air, a feat previously thought impossible.",
"title": "Gridiron football"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 41,
"text": "In a 1925, 62–13 victory over Cornell, Dartmouth's Andy Oberlander had 477 yards in total offense, including six touchdown passes, a Dartmouth record which still stands.",
"title": "Gridiron football"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 42,
"text": "The 1925 Michigan team was coach Fielding H. Yost's favorite and featured the passing tandem of Benny Friedman and Bennie Oosterbaan.",
"title": "Gridiron football"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 43,
"text": "Yost disciple Dan McGugin coached Vanderbilt and was one of the first emphasize the forward pass. His 1907 team beat Sewanee on a double pass play Grantland Rice cited as his biggest thrill in his years of watching sports. McGugin's 1927 team was piloted by Bill Spears, who threw for over a thousand yards. According to one writer, Vanderbilt produced \"almost certainly the legit top Heisman candidate in Spears, if there had been a Heisman Trophy to award in 1927.\" McGugin disciple and former quarterback Ray Morrison brought the pass to the southwest when he coached Gerald Mann at Southern Methodist.",
"title": "Gridiron football"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 44,
"text": "The first forward pass in a professional football game may have been thrown in an Ohio League game played on October 25, 1906. The Ohio League, which traced its history to the 1890s, was a direct predecessor of the NFL. According to Robert W. Peterson in his book Pigskin The Early Years of Pro Football, the \"passer was George W. (Peggy) Parratt, probably the best quarterback of the era\", who played for the Massillon, Ohio Tigers, one of pro football's first franchises. Citing the Professional Football Researchers Association as his source, Peterson writes that \"Parratt completed a short pass to end Dan Riley (real name, Dan Policowski)\" in a game played at Massillon against a team from West Virginia. Since the Tigers \"ran up a 61 to 0 score on the hapless Mountain Staters, the pass played no important part in the result.\"",
"title": "Gridiron football"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 45,
"text": "According to National Football League history, it legalized the forward pass from anywhere behind the line of scrimmage on February 25, 1933. Before that rule change, a forward pass had to be made from 5 or more yards behind the line of scrimmage.",
"title": "Gridiron football"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 46,
"text": "Forward passes were first permitted in Canadian football in 1929, but the tactic remained a minor part of the game for several years. Jack Jacobs of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers is recognized, not for inventing the forward pass, but for popularizing it in the Western Interprovincial Football Union (one of the forerunner leagues to the modern Canadian Football League) in the early 1950s, thus changing the Canadian game from a more run-dominated game to a more passing-dominant game.",
"title": "Gridiron football"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 47,
"text": "Specification of the size of the ball for the American game came in 1912, but it was still essentially a rugby ball. Increased use of the forward pass encouraged adoption of a narrower ball, starting with changes in the 1920s which enhanced rifled throwing and also spiral punting. This had the consequence of all but eliminating the drop kick from the American game.",
"title": "Gridiron football"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 48,
"text": "In the two codes of rugby (union and league), a forward pass is against the rules. Normally this results in a scrum to the opposing team, but on rare occasions a penalty may be awarded if the referee is of the belief that the ball was deliberately thrown forward.",
"title": "Rugby football"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 49,
"text": "In both codes of rugby the direction of the pass is relative to the player making the pass and not to the actual path relative to the ground. A forward pass occurs when the player passes the ball forward in relation to himself. (This applies only to the movement of the player, not to the direction in which the passer is facing, i.e. if the player is facing backwards and passes toward their team's goal area, it is not forward; and conversely, if the player passes toward the opponent's goal area, it is forward.) In rugby league, the video referee may not make judgements on whether a pass is forward.",
"title": "Rugby football"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 50,
"text": "The garryowen, as well as the cross-field kick, while not as reliable as the forward pass and more difficult to execute successfully, can provide some of the function that a forward pass does in American and Canadian football.",
"title": "Rugby football"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 51,
"text": "In some other football codes, such as association football (soccer), Australian rules football and Gaelic football, the kicked forward pass is used so ubiquitously that it is not thought of as a distinct kind of play at all. In association football and its variants, the concept of offside is used to regulate who can be in front of the play or be nearest to the goal. Historically some earlier incarnations of football allowed unlimited forward passing, and present-day Australian rules football and Gaelic football do not have an offside rule.",
"title": "Other football codes"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 52,
"text": "Notes",
"title": "References"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 53,
"text": "Bibliography",
"title": "References"
}
] |
In several forms of football, a forward pass is the throwing of the ball in the direction in which the offensive team is trying to move, towards the defensive team's goal line. The legal and widespread use of the forward pass distinguishes gridiron football from rugby football from which the gridiron code evolved, in which the play is illegal. Illegal and experimental forward passes had been attempted as early as 1876, but the first legal forward pass in American football took place in 1906, after a change in the rules. Another rule change on January 18, 1951, established that no center or guard could receive a forward pass, and a tackle may only do so if he announces his intent to the referee beforehand that he will be an eligible receiver, called a tackle-eligible play. The only linemen who can receive a forward pass are the ends. The rules regulate who may throw and who may receive a forward pass, and under what circumstances, as well as how the defensive team may try to prevent a pass from being completed. The primary passer is the quarterback, and statistical analysis is used to determine a quarterback's success rate at passing in various situations, as well as a team's overall success at the passing game.
|
2001-04-04T23:01:41Z
|
2023-12-30T09:20:38Z
|
[
"Template:Cite journal",
"Template:Reflist",
"Template:Cite web",
"Template:Cite news",
"Template:Commons category-inline",
"Template:Short description",
"Template:About",
"Template:Webarchive",
"Template:Isbn",
"Template:Gridiron football plays",
"Template:Multiple image",
"Template:Cite book",
"Template:Closed access",
"Template:Use mdy dates",
"Template:Blockquote"
] |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forward_pass
|
10,660 |
Telecommunications in Fiji
|
Telecommunications in Fiji include radio, television, fixed and mobile telephones, and the Internet.
Radio is a key source of information, particularly on the outer islands. There are publicly and privately owned stations. State-owned Fiji Broadcasting Corporation operates Fijian-language Radio Fiji One, Hindi-language Radio Fiji Two, music-based Bula FM, Hindi station Mirchi FM, and music-based 2day FM.
Communications Fiji Limited, a public listed company on the South Pacific Stock Exchange was established in 1996 and is located in 231 Waimanu Road, Suva. It broadcasts English speaking stations FM96 and LegendFM on 96.2FM and 98.6FM respectively, Fijian language station, VitiFM, Navtarang and Radio Sargam - Hindi speaking stations. The BBC World Service broadcasts on 88.2 FM in the capital, Suva.
Under the military government's Media Decree, the directors and 90 percent of the shareholders of locally based media must be citizens of, and permanently reside in Fiji. The Media Industry Development Authority of Fiji is responsible for enforcing these provisions. The authority has the power to investigate journalists and media outlets for alleged violations of the decree, including powers of search and seizure of equipment.
A code of ethics contained in the Media Decree requires that all stories run by the media be balanced, with comment obtained from both sides where there is any disagreement on the facts. This requirement enables government departments and private businesses to prevent stories from being published by not responding to media questions, thus making it impossible for the media to fulfill the decree's requirement for comment from both sides. However, media sources report that if the story is positive toward the government, the balance requirement could be ignored without consequence.
The Internet is widely available and used in and around urban centers, but its availability and use are minimal or nonexistent outside these areas.
The government in a parliament sitting on March 15, 2018 passed a bill known as the Online Safety Bill to the Standing Committee on Justice, Law and Human Rights that was tabled in the Parliament of Fiji to enforce tougher restrictions on those that may share explicit photos of individuals on social media or spread anti- government remarks as well.
Currently, there are no government restrictions on general public access to the Internet, but evidence suggests that the government monitors private e-mails of citizens as well as Internet traffic in an attempt to control antigovernment reports by anonymous bloggers.
The country has operated under a military-led government since 2006 and has had no constitution or functioning parliament since 2009. A series of decrees have been issued, including the Public Order Amendment Decree (POAD), the Media Decree, and the Crime Decree.
By decree all telephone and Internet service users must register their personal details with telephone and Internet providers, including their name, birth date, home address, left thumbprint, and photographic identification. The decree imposes fines of up to F$100,000 ($56,721) on providers who continue to provide services to unregistered users and up to F$10,000 ($5,672) on users who do not update their registration information as required. Vodafone, one of two mobile telephone providers, also requires users to register their nationality, postal address, employment details, and both thumbprints.
The POAD gives the government the power to detain persons on suspicion of "endangering public safety or the preservation of the peace"; defines terrorism as any act designed to advance a political, religious, or ideological cause that could "reasonably be regarded" as intended to compel a government to do or refrain from doing any act or to intimidate the public or a section thereof; and makes religious vilification and attempts to sabotage or undermine the economy offenses punishable by a maximum F$10,000 ($5,672) fine or five years’ imprisonment. The Media Decree prohibits "irresponsible reporting" and provides for government censorship of the media. The Crimes Decree includes criticism of the government in its definition of the crime of sedition, including statements made in other countries by any person, who can be prosecuted on return to Fiji. The government uses the threat of prosecution under these provisions to intimidate government critics and limit public criticism of the government. Journalists and media organizations practice varying degrees of self-censorship, with many reportedly fearing retribution if they criticize the government.
In May 2007 it was reported that the military in Fiji had blocked access to blogs critical of the regime.
In 2012 police investigated former University of the South Pacific (USP) professor Wadan Narsey, a prominent Fijian economist and long-time critic of the military government, for alleged sedition in writings published on his personal blog.
The POAD permits military personnel to search persons and premises without a warrant from a court and to take photographs, fingerprints, and measurements of any person. Police and military officers may enter private premises to break up any meeting considered unlawful.
|
[
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "Telecommunications in Fiji include radio, television, fixed and mobile telephones, and the Internet.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "Radio is a key source of information, particularly on the outer islands. There are publicly and privately owned stations. State-owned Fiji Broadcasting Corporation operates Fijian-language Radio Fiji One, Hindi-language Radio Fiji Two, music-based Bula FM, Hindi station Mirchi FM, and music-based 2day FM.",
"title": "Radio and television"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "Communications Fiji Limited, a public listed company on the South Pacific Stock Exchange was established in 1996 and is located in 231 Waimanu Road, Suva. It broadcasts English speaking stations FM96 and LegendFM on 96.2FM and 98.6FM respectively, Fijian language station, VitiFM, Navtarang and Radio Sargam - Hindi speaking stations. The BBC World Service broadcasts on 88.2 FM in the capital, Suva.",
"title": "Radio and television"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "Under the military government's Media Decree, the directors and 90 percent of the shareholders of locally based media must be citizens of, and permanently reside in Fiji. The Media Industry Development Authority of Fiji is responsible for enforcing these provisions. The authority has the power to investigate journalists and media outlets for alleged violations of the decree, including powers of search and seizure of equipment.",
"title": "Radio and television"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "A code of ethics contained in the Media Decree requires that all stories run by the media be balanced, with comment obtained from both sides where there is any disagreement on the facts. This requirement enables government departments and private businesses to prevent stories from being published by not responding to media questions, thus making it impossible for the media to fulfill the decree's requirement for comment from both sides. However, media sources report that if the story is positive toward the government, the balance requirement could be ignored without consequence.",
"title": "Radio and television"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "The Internet is widely available and used in and around urban centers, but its availability and use are minimal or nonexistent outside these areas.",
"title": "Internet"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "The government in a parliament sitting on March 15, 2018 passed a bill known as the Online Safety Bill to the Standing Committee on Justice, Law and Human Rights that was tabled in the Parliament of Fiji to enforce tougher restrictions on those that may share explicit photos of individuals on social media or spread anti- government remarks as well.",
"title": "Internet"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "Currently, there are no government restrictions on general public access to the Internet, but evidence suggests that the government monitors private e-mails of citizens as well as Internet traffic in an attempt to control antigovernment reports by anonymous bloggers.",
"title": "Internet"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "The country has operated under a military-led government since 2006 and has had no constitution or functioning parliament since 2009. A series of decrees have been issued, including the Public Order Amendment Decree (POAD), the Media Decree, and the Crime Decree.",
"title": "Internet"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "By decree all telephone and Internet service users must register their personal details with telephone and Internet providers, including their name, birth date, home address, left thumbprint, and photographic identification. The decree imposes fines of up to F$100,000 ($56,721) on providers who continue to provide services to unregistered users and up to F$10,000 ($5,672) on users who do not update their registration information as required. Vodafone, one of two mobile telephone providers, also requires users to register their nationality, postal address, employment details, and both thumbprints.",
"title": "Internet"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "The POAD gives the government the power to detain persons on suspicion of \"endangering public safety or the preservation of the peace\"; defines terrorism as any act designed to advance a political, religious, or ideological cause that could \"reasonably be regarded\" as intended to compel a government to do or refrain from doing any act or to intimidate the public or a section thereof; and makes religious vilification and attempts to sabotage or undermine the economy offenses punishable by a maximum F$10,000 ($5,672) fine or five years’ imprisonment. The Media Decree prohibits \"irresponsible reporting\" and provides for government censorship of the media. The Crimes Decree includes criticism of the government in its definition of the crime of sedition, including statements made in other countries by any person, who can be prosecuted on return to Fiji. The government uses the threat of prosecution under these provisions to intimidate government critics and limit public criticism of the government. Journalists and media organizations practice varying degrees of self-censorship, with many reportedly fearing retribution if they criticize the government.",
"title": "Internet"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "In May 2007 it was reported that the military in Fiji had blocked access to blogs critical of the regime.",
"title": "Internet"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "In 2012 police investigated former University of the South Pacific (USP) professor Wadan Narsey, a prominent Fijian economist and long-time critic of the military government, for alleged sedition in writings published on his personal blog.",
"title": "Internet"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "The POAD permits military personnel to search persons and premises without a warrant from a court and to take photographs, fingerprints, and measurements of any person. Police and military officers may enter private premises to break up any meeting considered unlawful.",
"title": "Internet"
}
] |
Telecommunications in Fiji include radio, television, fixed and mobile telephones, and the Internet.
|
2001-04-29T15:45:26Z
|
2023-11-15T15:27:43Z
|
[
"Template:See also",
"Template:Webarchive",
"Template:Fiji topics",
"Template:Update after",
"Template:Reflist",
"Template:Oceania topic",
"Template:Internet censorship by country",
"Template:CIA World Factbook",
"Template:Cite news",
"Template:Update",
"Template:Circa",
"Template:Cite web",
"Template:Clear",
"Template:Telecommunications"
] |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telecommunications_in_Fiji
|
10,661 |
Transport in Fiji
|
Modes of transport in Fiji include rail, road, water, and air. The rail network is mainly used for movement of sugar cane. Suva and Lautoka are the largest seaports. There are 122km of navigable inland waterways. There are two international airports, one other paved airport, and over 20 with unpaved runways. With 333 tropical islands that make up this country, one can expect to use various modes of transport to get to their destination.
Buses are the main mode of transport in Fiji's main islands.
Total: 597 km; 597 km 0.610-m gauge (1995)
Narrow gauge: Note: belongs to the government-owned Fiji Sugar Corporation The railway is not for passenger or public use.
203 km; 122 km navigable by motorized craft and 200-metric-ton barges
Labasa, Lautoka, Levuka, Savusavu, Suva
Total: 6 ships (1,000 GT or over) totaling 11,870 GT/14,787 tonnes deadweight (DWT) Ships by type: chemical tanker 2, passenger 1, petroleum tanker 1, roll-on/roll-off 1, specialized tanker 1 (1999 est.)
Fiji has two airports that cater to international air traffic, the main one being Nadi International Airport and a secondary one, Nausori Airport, which receives a small number of international flights. There are 13 other smaller domestic airports spread throughout the country's outer islands and these mainly cater for small prop aircraft. Airports Fiji Limited (AFL), a state-owned enterprise owns and operates Nadi International Airport and manages the other 14 airports for the Government.
Major airports include:
Total 25 (1999 est.)
Total: 3 Over 3,047 m: 1 1,524 to 2,437 m: 1 914 to 1,523 m: 1 (1999 est.)
Total: 22 914 to 1,523 m: 5 Under 914 m: 17 (1999 est.)
Public transport in Fiji
|
[
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "Modes of transport in Fiji include rail, road, water, and air. The rail network is mainly used for movement of sugar cane. Suva and Lautoka are the largest seaports. There are 122km of navigable inland waterways. There are two international airports, one other paved airport, and over 20 with unpaved runways. With 333 tropical islands that make up this country, one can expect to use various modes of transport to get to their destination.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "Buses are the main mode of transport in Fiji's main islands.",
"title": "Buses"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "Total: 597 km; 597 km 0.610-m gauge (1995)",
"title": "Railways"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "Narrow gauge: Note: belongs to the government-owned Fiji Sugar Corporation The railway is not for passenger or public use.",
"title": "Railways"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "203 km; 122 km navigable by motorized craft and 200-metric-ton barges",
"title": "Waterways"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "Labasa, Lautoka, Levuka, Savusavu, Suva",
"title": "Ports and harbors"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "Total: 6 ships (1,000 GT or over) totaling 11,870 GT/14,787 tonnes deadweight (DWT) Ships by type: chemical tanker 2, passenger 1, petroleum tanker 1, roll-on/roll-off 1, specialized tanker 1 (1999 est.)",
"title": "Merchant marine"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "Fiji has two airports that cater to international air traffic, the main one being Nadi International Airport and a secondary one, Nausori Airport, which receives a small number of international flights. There are 13 other smaller domestic airports spread throughout the country's outer islands and these mainly cater for small prop aircraft. Airports Fiji Limited (AFL), a state-owned enterprise owns and operates Nadi International Airport and manages the other 14 airports for the Government.",
"title": "Airports"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "Major airports include:",
"title": "Airports"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "Total 25 (1999 est.)",
"title": "Airports"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "Total: 3 Over 3,047 m: 1 1,524 to 2,437 m: 1 914 to 1,523 m: 1 (1999 est.)",
"title": "Airports"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "Total: 22 914 to 1,523 m: 5 Under 914 m: 17 (1999 est.)",
"title": "Airports"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "Public transport in Fiji",
"title": "See also"
}
] |
Modes of transport in Fiji include rail, road, water, and air. The rail network is mainly used for movement of sugar cane. Suva and Lautoka are the largest seaports. There are 122km of navigable inland waterways. There are two international airports, one other paved airport, and over 20 with unpaved runways. With 333 tropical islands that make up this country, one can expect to use various modes of transport to get to their destination.
|
2002-02-25T15:43:11Z
|
2023-08-07T10:07:15Z
|
[
"Template:Commons category",
"Template:Fiji topics",
"Template:Oceania in topic",
"Template:Fiji-stub",
"Template:More footnotes",
"Template:Main article",
"Template:DWT",
"Template:ISBN"
] |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transport_in_Fiji
|
10,662 |
Republic of Fiji Military Forces
|
The Republic of Fiji Military Forces (RFMF, formerly the Royal Fiji Military Forces) is the military force of the Pacific island nation of Fiji. With a total manpower of about 4,500 active soldiers and approximately 6,200 reservists, it is one of the smallest militaries in the world and the third largest in the South Pacific region. The Ground Force is organised into six infantry and one engineer battalions.
The first two regular battalions of the Fiji Infantry Regiment are traditionally stationed overseas on peacekeeping duties; the 1st Battalion has been posted to Lebanon, Iraq, Syria, and East Timor under the command of the UN, while the 2nd Battalion is stationed in Sinai with the MFO. Peacekeepers income represents an important source of income for Fiji. The 3rd Battalion is stationed in the capital, Suva, and the remaining three are spread throughout the islands.
The Fiji Infantry Regiment is the main combat element of the Republic of Fiji Military Forces. The regiment was formed with the foundation of the Fijian armed forces in 1920. The regiment, as it is today, goes back to 1978 following Fiji's independence.
The Republic of Fiji Navy was formed in 1975, following the government's ratification of the United Nations Law of the Sea convention. The Navy is responsible for maritime needs in border control, such as watching over Fiji's exclusive economic zone and organising task and rescue missions. It currently operates 9 patrol boats. Military aid is received from Australia, the People's Republic of China, and the United Kingdom (although the latter has suspended aid as a result of the 2006 military coup against the civilian government).
Speaking at 30th anniversary celebrations on 26 July 2006, Commander Bradley Bower said that the greatest challenge facing the navy of a maritime country like Fiji was to maintain sovereignty and the maritime environment, to acquire, restore, and replace equipment, and to train officers to keep pace with changing situations.
In January 2019 five of Fiji's naval vessels were operational. In 2020 Australia will provide two new Guardian-class patrol vessels to replace the three vessels it provided over thirty years ago In December 2019 Fiji took delivery of RFNS Volasiga, boosting the number of operational vessels to six. The Guardian-class patrol boat RFNS Savenaca was officially handed over to Fijian officials, in Henderson, Australia, on 6 March 2020.
Northern Air operates search and rescue flights for the Navy.
3 x Pacific-class patrol boat (Australia, displacement 162 t, length 31.5 metres (103 ft 4 in), width 8.1 metres (26 ft 7 in) draught 1.8 metres (5 ft 11 in), power 2 x 1,050 kilowatts (1,410 shp), maximal speed 20 knots (37 km/h), crew 17-man, armament machine guns 1 x 12.7 mm). These boats replaced discharged Redwing-class minesweepers FNS Kula, Kikau and Kiro, gained 1975 – 1976 from the United States Navy.
2 patrol boat (US, displacement 97 t, crew 11-man, armament machine guns 1 x 12.7 mm)
4 Dabur-class patrol boat (Israel, displacement 39 t, crew 9-man, armament 2 x cannon 20 mm, 2 x machine guns 7.62 mm)
2 Oceanic survey vessels
Rank designation based on the British tradition.
The rank insignia for commissioned officers for the army and navy respectively. They are based on the rank structure of Royal Navy and British Army.
The rank insignia for enlisted personnel for the army and navy respectively. They are based on the ranks of the Royal Navy and British Army.
Fiji's military has a history of political intervention. In 1987, soldiers were responsible for two military coups, and in 2000, the military organised a countercoup to quash George Speight's civilian coup. Since 2000, the military has had a sometimes tense relationship with the Qarase government, and has strongly opposed its plans to establish a Commission with the power to compensate victims and pardon perpetrators of the coup. Among other objections, the military claims that its integrity and discipline would be undermined if soldiers who mutinied in the 2000 upheaval were to be pardoned.
On 4 August 2005, Opposition Leader Mahendra Chaudhry called for more Indo-Fijians, who presently comprise less than one percent of the military personnel, to be recruited. (Specifically, as of October 2007, Fiji's military had 3527 full-time members, of whom only 15 were Indo-Fijians.) This would help guarantee political stability, he considered. He also spoke against government plans to downsize the military. Military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Orisi Rabukawaqa responded the next day by saying that the military was not an ethnic Fijian body, that it stood to serve the entire nation, and that there was no colour bar in its recruitment or promotion. He said that many Indo-Fijians had been reluctant to commit themselves to a military career because of the slow progress of promotion, often preferring to be discharged and to use their record as a stepping stone to a successful career in some other field. Nevertheless, he appreciated the Indo-Fijian contribution to the military, and noted the success of Lieutenant Colonel Mohammed Aziz, the head of the military's legal unit who was a pivotal figure in the court martial of soldiers who mutinied in 2000. Ironically the rate of promotion of indigenous Fijian officers had been very rapid after the 1987 coup, and subsequent expansion of the Republic of Fiji Military Forces.
On 26 August 2005, the government announced plans to study ways to reduce the size of the military. Military engineers would be transferred to the Regional Development Ministry, said Home Affair Minister Josefa Vosanibola, and the reduction of the military forces would coincide with an increase in the numbers of the police force.
On 26 September 2005, Rabukawaqa revealed that the military had decided to curtail certain operations to stay within its budget. The cuts would affect maritime patrols, search and rescue operations, training and exercises, School Cadet training, and the deployment of military engineers to rural areas. These cuts would be made to ensure that activities accorded a higher priority, such as peacekeeping operations in the Sinai Peninsula and Iraq, officer cadet training with the New Zealand Defence Forces, and the prosecution of soldiers charged with mutiny, would not be affected, Rabukawaqa said.
The next day, Lesi Korovavala, chief executive officer of the Ministry of Home Affairs, told the Fiji Village news service that the military had undertaken the reductions on its own initiative, in consultation with the department, an explanation corroborated by Lieutenant Colonel Rabukawaqa.
On 5 December 2006, the Fijian army staged a third coup d'état. On 7 February 2008, the head of the RFMF and post-coup interim Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama stated: "Qarase [...] does not understand the role of the Military and as such is misinforming the nation. [...] [I]f there are practices and policies which have potential to undermine the national security and territorial integrity of Fiji, the RFMF has every right under the Constitution to intervene." In August 2009, with Bainimarama still controlling the government as prime minister and the constitution abrogated, Epeli Nailatikau, a former military commander, was appointed acting president on the retirement of Iloilo.
Fiji committed troops to the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq. Australia agreed to transport those troops.
Fiji sent 54 individuals to Australia, to help fight wildfires there.
The Air Wing of the Republic of Fiji Military Forces, founded in 1987, had a base at the airport in Nausori, but was abolished in 1997. Yehonatan Shimʻon Frenḳel writes that the "Air Wing was formed after the 1987 coup, when the French provided two helicopters as part of its military aid package." Frenkel goes on to say that the air wing was disbanded after both helicopters crashed and after subsequent revelations of huge debts incurred as a result of the aircraft.
The two helicopters were:
Helicopter AS-365 N2 Dauphin crashed off the coast of the main island in July 1994; a smaller AS-355F-2 continued in service until mid-1997 and in 1999 was sold to France.
The Air Wing did not have its own roundel or ensign and its only marking was the national flag used as a fin flash.
|
[
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "The Republic of Fiji Military Forces (RFMF, formerly the Royal Fiji Military Forces) is the military force of the Pacific island nation of Fiji. With a total manpower of about 4,500 active soldiers and approximately 6,200 reservists, it is one of the smallest militaries in the world and the third largest in the South Pacific region. The Ground Force is organised into six infantry and one engineer battalions.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "The first two regular battalions of the Fiji Infantry Regiment are traditionally stationed overseas on peacekeeping duties; the 1st Battalion has been posted to Lebanon, Iraq, Syria, and East Timor under the command of the UN, while the 2nd Battalion is stationed in Sinai with the MFO. Peacekeepers income represents an important source of income for Fiji. The 3rd Battalion is stationed in the capital, Suva, and the remaining three are spread throughout the islands.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "The Fiji Infantry Regiment is the main combat element of the Republic of Fiji Military Forces. The regiment was formed with the foundation of the Fijian armed forces in 1920. The regiment, as it is today, goes back to 1978 following Fiji's independence.",
"title": "Fiji Infantry Regiment"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "The Republic of Fiji Navy was formed in 1975, following the government's ratification of the United Nations Law of the Sea convention. The Navy is responsible for maritime needs in border control, such as watching over Fiji's exclusive economic zone and organising task and rescue missions. It currently operates 9 patrol boats. Military aid is received from Australia, the People's Republic of China, and the United Kingdom (although the latter has suspended aid as a result of the 2006 military coup against the civilian government).",
"title": "Fijian Navy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "Speaking at 30th anniversary celebrations on 26 July 2006, Commander Bradley Bower said that the greatest challenge facing the navy of a maritime country like Fiji was to maintain sovereignty and the maritime environment, to acquire, restore, and replace equipment, and to train officers to keep pace with changing situations.",
"title": "Fijian Navy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "In January 2019 five of Fiji's naval vessels were operational. In 2020 Australia will provide two new Guardian-class patrol vessels to replace the three vessels it provided over thirty years ago In December 2019 Fiji took delivery of RFNS Volasiga, boosting the number of operational vessels to six. The Guardian-class patrol boat RFNS Savenaca was officially handed over to Fijian officials, in Henderson, Australia, on 6 March 2020.",
"title": "Fijian Navy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "Northern Air operates search and rescue flights for the Navy.",
"title": "Fijian Navy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "3 x Pacific-class patrol boat (Australia, displacement 162 t, length 31.5 metres (103 ft 4 in), width 8.1 metres (26 ft 7 in) draught 1.8 metres (5 ft 11 in), power 2 x 1,050 kilowatts (1,410 shp), maximal speed 20 knots (37 km/h), crew 17-man, armament machine guns 1 x 12.7 mm). These boats replaced discharged Redwing-class minesweepers FNS Kula, Kikau and Kiro, gained 1975 – 1976 from the United States Navy.",
"title": "Fijian Navy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "2 patrol boat (US, displacement 97 t, crew 11-man, armament machine guns 1 x 12.7 mm)",
"title": "Fijian Navy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "4 Dabur-class patrol boat (Israel, displacement 39 t, crew 9-man, armament 2 x cannon 20 mm, 2 x machine guns 7.62 mm)",
"title": "Fijian Navy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "2 Oceanic survey vessels",
"title": "Fijian Navy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "Rank designation based on the British tradition.",
"title": "Rank insignia"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "The rank insignia for commissioned officers for the army and navy respectively. They are based on the rank structure of Royal Navy and British Army.",
"title": "Rank insignia"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "The rank insignia for enlisted personnel for the army and navy respectively. They are based on the ranks of the Royal Navy and British Army.",
"title": "Rank insignia"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "Fiji's military has a history of political intervention. In 1987, soldiers were responsible for two military coups, and in 2000, the military organised a countercoup to quash George Speight's civilian coup. Since 2000, the military has had a sometimes tense relationship with the Qarase government, and has strongly opposed its plans to establish a Commission with the power to compensate victims and pardon perpetrators of the coup. Among other objections, the military claims that its integrity and discipline would be undermined if soldiers who mutinied in the 2000 upheaval were to be pardoned.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 15,
"text": "On 4 August 2005, Opposition Leader Mahendra Chaudhry called for more Indo-Fijians, who presently comprise less than one percent of the military personnel, to be recruited. (Specifically, as of October 2007, Fiji's military had 3527 full-time members, of whom only 15 were Indo-Fijians.) This would help guarantee political stability, he considered. He also spoke against government plans to downsize the military. Military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Orisi Rabukawaqa responded the next day by saying that the military was not an ethnic Fijian body, that it stood to serve the entire nation, and that there was no colour bar in its recruitment or promotion. He said that many Indo-Fijians had been reluctant to commit themselves to a military career because of the slow progress of promotion, often preferring to be discharged and to use their record as a stepping stone to a successful career in some other field. Nevertheless, he appreciated the Indo-Fijian contribution to the military, and noted the success of Lieutenant Colonel Mohammed Aziz, the head of the military's legal unit who was a pivotal figure in the court martial of soldiers who mutinied in 2000. Ironically the rate of promotion of indigenous Fijian officers had been very rapid after the 1987 coup, and subsequent expansion of the Republic of Fiji Military Forces.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 16,
"text": "On 26 August 2005, the government announced plans to study ways to reduce the size of the military. Military engineers would be transferred to the Regional Development Ministry, said Home Affair Minister Josefa Vosanibola, and the reduction of the military forces would coincide with an increase in the numbers of the police force.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 17,
"text": "On 26 September 2005, Rabukawaqa revealed that the military had decided to curtail certain operations to stay within its budget. The cuts would affect maritime patrols, search and rescue operations, training and exercises, School Cadet training, and the deployment of military engineers to rural areas. These cuts would be made to ensure that activities accorded a higher priority, such as peacekeeping operations in the Sinai Peninsula and Iraq, officer cadet training with the New Zealand Defence Forces, and the prosecution of soldiers charged with mutiny, would not be affected, Rabukawaqa said.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 18,
"text": "The next day, Lesi Korovavala, chief executive officer of the Ministry of Home Affairs, told the Fiji Village news service that the military had undertaken the reductions on its own initiative, in consultation with the department, an explanation corroborated by Lieutenant Colonel Rabukawaqa.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 19,
"text": "On 5 December 2006, the Fijian army staged a third coup d'état. On 7 February 2008, the head of the RFMF and post-coup interim Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama stated: \"Qarase [...] does not understand the role of the Military and as such is misinforming the nation. [...] [I]f there are practices and policies which have potential to undermine the national security and territorial integrity of Fiji, the RFMF has every right under the Constitution to intervene.\" In August 2009, with Bainimarama still controlling the government as prime minister and the constitution abrogated, Epeli Nailatikau, a former military commander, was appointed acting president on the retirement of Iloilo.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 20,
"text": "Fiji committed troops to the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq. Australia agreed to transport those troops.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 21,
"text": "Fiji sent 54 individuals to Australia, to help fight wildfires there.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 22,
"text": "The Air Wing of the Republic of Fiji Military Forces, founded in 1987, had a base at the airport in Nausori, but was abolished in 1997. Yehonatan Shimʻon Frenḳel writes that the \"Air Wing was formed after the 1987 coup, when the French provided two helicopters as part of its military aid package.\" Frenkel goes on to say that the air wing was disbanded after both helicopters crashed and after subsequent revelations of huge debts incurred as a result of the aircraft.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 23,
"text": "The two helicopters were:",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 24,
"text": "Helicopter AS-365 N2 Dauphin crashed off the coast of the main island in July 1994; a smaller AS-355F-2 continued in service until mid-1997 and in 1999 was sold to France.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 25,
"text": "The Air Wing did not have its own roundel or ensign and its only marking was the national flag used as a fin flash.",
"title": "History"
}
] |
The Republic of Fiji Military Forces is the military force of the Pacific island nation of Fiji. With a total manpower of about 4,500 active soldiers and approximately 6,200 reservists, it is one of the smallest militaries in the world and the third largest in the South Pacific region. The Ground Force is organised into six infantry and one engineer battalions. The first two regular battalions of the Fiji Infantry Regiment are traditionally stationed overseas on peacekeeping duties; the 1st Battalion has been posted to Lebanon, Iraq, Syria, and East Timor under the command of the UN, while the 2nd Battalion is stationed in Sinai with the MFO. Peacekeepers income represents an important source of income for Fiji. The 3rd Battalion is stationed in the capital, Suva, and the remaining three are spread throughout the islands.
|
2002-02-25T15:43:11Z
|
2023-11-29T18:39:30Z
|
[
"Template:Convert",
"Template:Sclass",
"Template:Ranks and Insignia of Non NATO Armies/OF/Fiji",
"Template:Ranks and Insignia of Non NATO Navies/OF/Fiji",
"Template:Ranks and Insignia of Non NATO Armies/OR/Fiji",
"Template:Ranks and Insignia of Non NATO Navies/OR/Fiji",
"Template:Short description",
"Template:Sclass2",
"Template:Cite news",
"Template:Cite book",
"Template:Military of Oceania",
"Template:Ranks and Insignia of Non NATO Air Forces/OR/Blank",
"Template:Notelist",
"Template:Infobox national military",
"Template:RFNS",
"Template:Cite web",
"Template:EngvarB",
"Template:Use dmy dates",
"Template:Flag",
"Template:Cite press release",
"Template:Ranks and Insignia of Non NATO Armies/OR/Blank",
"Template:Reflist",
"Template:Fiji topics",
"Template:Center",
"Template:Ranks and Insignia of Non NATO Armed Forces/OF/Blank"
] |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_of_Fiji_Military_Forces
|
10,663 |
Foreign relations of Fiji
|
Fiji has experienced many coups recently, in 1987, 2000, and 2006. Fiji has been suspended various times from the Commonwealth of Nations, a grouping of mostly former British colonies. It was readmitted to the Commonwealth in December 2001, following the parliamentary election held to restore democracy in September that year, and has been suspended again because of the 2006 coup, but has been readmitted a second time after the 2014 election. Other Pacific Island governments have generally been sympathetic to Fiji's internal political problems and have declined to take public positions.
Fiji became the 127th member of the United Nations on 13 October 1970, and participates actively in the organization. Fiji's contributions to UN peacekeeping are unique for a nation of its size. A nation with a population of less than one million, it maintains nearly 1,000 soldiers overseas in UN peacekeeping missions, mainly in the Middle East.
Since Fiji's independence, the country has been a leader in the South Pacific region, and has played a leading role in the formation of the South Pacific Forum. Fiji has championed causes of common interest to Pacific Island countries.
Since 2005, Fiji has become embroiled in a number of disagreements with other countries, including Australia, China, New Zealand, South Korea, the United States, and Vanuatu.
The country's foreign relations and diplomatic missions are maintained by its Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation.
List of countries which have established diplomatic relations with Fiji:
Fiji maintains direct diplomatic or consular relations with countries with historical, cultural, or trading ties to Fiji; Ambassadors stationed in such countries are often accredited to neighbouring countries. Fiji maintains embassies in Belgium (taking care of Fiji's relations with the entire European Union), China, Japan, South Korea, and the United States; and High Commissions in Australia, India, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, the United Kingdom and New Zealand (in keeping with the Commonwealth practice of calling missions in fellow-commonwealth countries High Commissions rather than Embassies). Fiji also has a Permanent Mission to the United Nations.
Australia and New Zealand have both expressed concern over legislation currently before the Fijian Parliament (as of June 2005), which proposes to establish a Reconciliation and Unity Commission, with the power (subject to presidential approval) to compensate victims and pardon persons convicted of crimes related to the coup d'état which deposed the elected government in 2000.
On 30 August 2005, the then Commonwealth Secretary-General Don McKinnon called on the Fijian government to ensure that the legislation reflected the views of its citizens. He emphasized, however, that the Commonwealth did not have a position on the bill.
|
[
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "Fiji has experienced many coups recently, in 1987, 2000, and 2006. Fiji has been suspended various times from the Commonwealth of Nations, a grouping of mostly former British colonies. It was readmitted to the Commonwealth in December 2001, following the parliamentary election held to restore democracy in September that year, and has been suspended again because of the 2006 coup, but has been readmitted a second time after the 2014 election. Other Pacific Island governments have generally been sympathetic to Fiji's internal political problems and have declined to take public positions.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "Fiji became the 127th member of the United Nations on 13 October 1970, and participates actively in the organization. Fiji's contributions to UN peacekeeping are unique for a nation of its size. A nation with a population of less than one million, it maintains nearly 1,000 soldiers overseas in UN peacekeeping missions, mainly in the Middle East.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "Since Fiji's independence, the country has been a leader in the South Pacific region, and has played a leading role in the formation of the South Pacific Forum. Fiji has championed causes of common interest to Pacific Island countries.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "Since 2005, Fiji has become embroiled in a number of disagreements with other countries, including Australia, China, New Zealand, South Korea, the United States, and Vanuatu.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "The country's foreign relations and diplomatic missions are maintained by its Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "List of countries which have established diplomatic relations with Fiji:",
"title": "Diplomatic relations list"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "Fiji maintains direct diplomatic or consular relations with countries with historical, cultural, or trading ties to Fiji; Ambassadors stationed in such countries are often accredited to neighbouring countries. Fiji maintains embassies in Belgium (taking care of Fiji's relations with the entire European Union), China, Japan, South Korea, and the United States; and High Commissions in Australia, India, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, the United Kingdom and New Zealand (in keeping with the Commonwealth practice of calling missions in fellow-commonwealth countries High Commissions rather than Embassies). Fiji also has a Permanent Mission to the United Nations.",
"title": "Fijian missions abroad"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "Australia and New Zealand have both expressed concern over legislation currently before the Fijian Parliament (as of June 2005), which proposes to establish a Reconciliation and Unity Commission, with the power (subject to presidential approval) to compensate victims and pardon persons convicted of crimes related to the coup d'état which deposed the elected government in 2000.",
"title": "Foreign reaction to Fijian legislation"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "On 30 August 2005, the then Commonwealth Secretary-General Don McKinnon called on the Fijian government to ensure that the legislation reflected the views of its citizens. He emphasized, however, that the Commonwealth did not have a position on the bill.",
"title": "Foreign reaction to Fijian legislation"
}
] |
Fiji has experienced many coups recently, in 1987, 2000, and 2006. Fiji has been suspended various times from the Commonwealth of Nations, a grouping of mostly former British colonies. It was readmitted to the Commonwealth in December 2001, following the parliamentary election held to restore democracy in September that year, and has been suspended again because of the 2006 coup, but has been readmitted a second time after the 2014 election. Other Pacific Island governments have generally been sympathetic to Fiji's internal political problems and have declined to take public positions. Fiji became the 127th member of the United Nations on 13 October 1970, and participates actively in the organization. Fiji's contributions to UN peacekeeping are unique for a nation of its size. A nation with a population of less than one million, it maintains nearly 1,000 soldiers overseas in UN peacekeeping missions, mainly in the Middle East. Since Fiji's independence, the country has been a leader in the South Pacific region, and has played a leading role in the formation of the South Pacific Forum. Fiji has championed causes of common interest to Pacific Island countries. Since 2005, Fiji has become embroiled in a number of disagreements with other countries, including Australia, China, New Zealand, South Korea, the United States, and Vanuatu. The country's foreign relations and diplomatic missions are maintained by its Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation.
|
2001-04-29T15:46:18Z
|
2023-12-09T23:30:35Z
|
[
"Template:Cite web",
"Template:Fiji topics",
"Template:Short description",
"Template:Flag",
"Template:Main",
"Template:Cite book",
"Template:Webarchive",
"Template:Foreign relations of the Commonwealth of Nations",
"Template:DTS",
"Template:Dts",
"Template:Dead link",
"Template:Fiji bilateral relations",
"Template:Reflist",
"Template:Cite news",
"Template:Foreign relations of Oceania",
"Template:Use dmy dates",
"Template:Politics of Fiji"
] |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_relations_of_Fiji
|
10,664 |
Goal line (gridiron football)
|
The goal line is the chalked or painted line dividing the end zone from the field of play in gridiron football. In American football the goal lines run 10 yards (9.1 m) parallel to the end lines, while in Canadian football they run 20 yards (18 m) parallel to the dead lines. In both football codes the distance is measured from the inside edge of the end line to the far edge of the goal line so that the line itself is part of the end zone. It is the line that must be crossed in order to score a touchdown.
If any part of the ball reaches any part of the imaginary vertical plane transected by this line while in-bounds and in possession of a player whose team is striving toward that end of the field, this is considered a touchdown and scores six points for the team whose player has advanced the ball to, or recovered the ball in, this position. This is in contrast with other sports like Association football and ice hockey, which require the puck or ball to pass completely over the goal line to count as a score.
If any member of the offensive team is downed while in possession of the ball behind his own team's goal line, this is called a safety and scores two points for the defensive team.
If, during the course of play, a loose ball travels past the goal line and is recovered within the end zone, then it is a touchdown if recovered by the team that scores in that end zone, or a touchback if recovered and downed by the opposing team
In the event of a kick recovered in one's own end zone, the entirety of the ball must pass the goal line in order for the ball to be considered a touchback, and to not be in the field of play.
|
[
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "The goal line is the chalked or painted line dividing the end zone from the field of play in gridiron football. In American football the goal lines run 10 yards (9.1 m) parallel to the end lines, while in Canadian football they run 20 yards (18 m) parallel to the dead lines. In both football codes the distance is measured from the inside edge of the end line to the far edge of the goal line so that the line itself is part of the end zone. It is the line that must be crossed in order to score a touchdown.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "If any part of the ball reaches any part of the imaginary vertical plane transected by this line while in-bounds and in possession of a player whose team is striving toward that end of the field, this is considered a touchdown and scores six points for the team whose player has advanced the ball to, or recovered the ball in, this position. This is in contrast with other sports like Association football and ice hockey, which require the puck or ball to pass completely over the goal line to count as a score.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "If any member of the offensive team is downed while in possession of the ball behind his own team's goal line, this is called a safety and scores two points for the defensive team.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "If, during the course of play, a loose ball travels past the goal line and is recovered within the end zone, then it is a touchdown if recovered by the team that scores in that end zone, or a touchback if recovered and downed by the opposing team",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "In the event of a kick recovered in one's own end zone, the entirety of the ball must pass the goal line in order for the ball to be considered a touchback, and to not be in the field of play.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "",
"title": "See also"
}
] |
The goal line is the chalked or painted line dividing the end zone from the field of play in gridiron football. In American football the goal lines run 10 yards (9.1 m) parallel to the end lines, while in Canadian football they run 20 yards (18 m) parallel to the dead lines. In both football codes the distance is measured from the inside edge of the end line to the far edge of the goal line so that the line itself is part of the end zone. It is the line that must be crossed in order to score a touchdown. If any part of the ball reaches any part of the imaginary vertical plane transected by this line while in-bounds and in possession of a player whose team is striving toward that end of the field, this is considered a touchdown and scores six points for the team whose player has advanced the ball to, or recovered the ball in, this position. This is in contrast with other sports like Association football and ice hockey, which require the puck or ball to pass completely over the goal line to count as a score. If any member of the offensive team is downed while in possession of the ball behind his own team's goal line, this is called a safety and scores two points for the defensive team. If, during the course of play, a loose ball travels past the goal line and is recovered within the end zone, then it is a touchdown if recovered by the team that scores in that end zone, or a touchback if recovered and downed by the opposing team In the event of a kick recovered in one's own end zone, the entirety of the ball must pass the goal line in order for the ball to be considered a touchback, and to not be in the field of play.
|
2023-03-01T00:44:37Z
|
[
"Template:Reflist",
"Template:Cite book",
"Template:American football concepts",
"Template:Americanfootball-stub",
"Template:Convert"
] |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goal_line_(gridiron_football)
|
|
10,667 |
Tackle (football move)
|
Most forms of football have a move known as a tackle. The primary purposes of tackling are to dispossess an opponent of the ball, to stop the player from gaining ground towards goal or to stop them from carrying out what they intend.
The word is used in some contact variations of football to describe the act of physically holding or wrestling a player to the ground. In others, it simply describes one or more methods of contesting for possession of the ball. It can therefore be used as both a defensive or attacking move.
In Middle Dutch, the verb tacken meant to grab or to handle. By the 14th century, this had come to be used for the equipment used for fishing, referring to the rod and reel, etc., and also for that used in sailing, referring to rigging, equipment, or gear used on ships. By the 18th century, a similar use was applied to harnesses or equipment used with horses. Modern use in football comes from the earlier sport of rugby, where the word was used in the 19th century.
Unlike other codes, tackles in association football have to be predominantly directed against the ball rather than the player in possession of it. This is achieved by using either leg to wrest possession from the opponent, or sliding in on the grass to knock the ball away. A defender is permitted to use their body to obstruct the motion of a player with the ball, and this may be part of a successful tackle. Pulling a player to the ground in the style of tackle common to other codes is completely absent from the game (this would be considered "violent conduct" and result in a red card (dismissal)).
Although some contact between players is allowed, the rules of association football significantly limit the physicality of tackles, explicitly forbidding contacts which are "careless, reckless or [use] excessive force". Almost all tackles where the tackler's legs make contact with the opponent before the ball are considered illegal, and heavy contact after initially touching the ball may also be penalised.
Illegal tackles are fouls and are punished with a direct free kick (or penalty if committed within the penalty area) for the opponent's team. Such incidents are common, with dozens of occurrences in a typical match. In most cases these fouls are not considered misconducts, however yellow cards (cautions) may be delivered for more egregious fouls that constitute "unsporting behaviour". If a foul tackle endangers the tackled player's safety, it is likely to be considered as "serious foul play" by the referee and punished with a red card (dismissal).
Tackles that involve lunging at an opponent with both legs, regardless of whether the ball is won, are generally considered to constitute serious foul play and hence result in a sending-off. This explicitly includes "scissoring" (tackling with legs apart, so as to trap the opponent's leg or legs in between), which is likely to be punished with a sending-off (red card), as it poses a high risk of severe knee injury to the player being tackled. Tackling with studs up is considered dangerous. A studs up tackle is made when a player lunges into a tackle with a leg or both legs outstretched exposing the soles of their boots. Referees are encouraged to at the very least caution (yellow card) players who commit such challenges.
Additionally, an illegal tackle which is also a professional foul is considered misconduct.
The most spectacular form of tackle in association football is the slide tackle, wherein a tackler slides, leg extended, along the ground, aiming to hit the ball away. This form of tackle carries a high risk of committing a foul.
"Diving" in association football involves tackled players exaggerating the physicality of tackles, so as to gain favourable decisions from the referee.
In Australian rules football, the move commonly described as a "tackle" is similar to in rugby and involves wrapping, holding or wrestling a player who has possession of the ball to the ground. Tackling players not in possession of the ball is not allowed, this is considered “holding the man” and penalised with a free kick to the opposition.
As there is no offside rule in Australian rules football, players can be tackled from any direction, and are often blindsided. For this reason, the sport allows players to shepherd and bump their opponents within 5 metres of the ball, to protect the ball carrier.
A tackled player must immediately dispose of the ball legally, by kicking or handballing, but not by throwing or dropping the ball. If this is not done, a holding the ball free kick will be awarded to the tackler. If the ball is knocked free by the tackler, pinned to the player by the tackler, or the player unsuccessfully attempts a kick or handball, a free kick will only be awarded if the ball carrier is deemed to have had a prior opportunity to dispose of the ball prior to being tackled. If a player has not had prior opportunity to dispose of the ball and a tackler knocks the ball free during a tackle then no free kick is paid and the game continues.
A tackle must only contact below the shoulders and above the knees, and a player is able to be thrown to the ground, so long as the tackle is deemed not to be reckless or likely to cause injury. There are also rules outlawing pushing in the back making tackling more difficult. Tripping, by both hand or foot, is not allowed and can be a reportable offence.
Players wear little to no padding to cushion the impact of tackles, however players generally wear mouthguards to protect their teeth.
There are many types of tackles in Australian rules football:
Although the term "tackle" is used in Australian rules to exclusively describe wrapping, holding or wrestling a player in possession, there are also several other ways of contesting possession in Australian rules that other sports would describe as a "tackle" and that also involve a degree of contact.
Other defensive actions are generally categorised as one percenters. The defensive tactic of punching away (commonly known as spoiling) from a player is allowed. Smothering, which involves using the arms or body to get in the way of an opponent's kick as it leaves their boot, is similar to a charge down in rugby football.
Gaelic football defines tackling as wresting the ball from an opponent's hands. Bumping is allowed on the player with the ball, but a player cannot be grabbed.
In American football and Canadian football, to tackle is to physically interfere with the forward progress of a player in possession of the ball, such that his forward progress ceases and is not resumed, or such that he is caused to touch some part of his body to the ground other than his feet or hands, or such that he is forced to go out of bounds. In any such case, the ball becomes dead, the down is over, and play ceases until the beginning of the next play.
A tackle is known as a quarterback sack when the quarterback is tackled at or behind the line of scrimmage while attempting to throw a pass. A tackle for loss is a tackle that causes a loss of yardage for the opposing running back or wide receiver. This happens when the quarterback is sacked, when either a rusher or a receiver is tackled behind the line of scrimmage, or when the ball is fumbled behind the line of scrimmage and was picked up by an offensive player who does not manage to move past the line before being tackled. When a player who does not have the ball is taken down, it is generally referred to as a block.
Tacklers are not required to wrap their arms around the ball carrier before bringing him to the ground; in fact, the ball carrier is often "tackled" by the defender taking a running start and hitting the ball carrier to knock them to the ground. Tackles can also be made by grabbing the ball carrier's jersey (or even hair, should it be long enough and allowed to dangle freely from beneath the helmet) and pulling him to the ground. As mentioned above, the referee can declare that a play is dead if the ball carrier's forward progress has been stopped, even if he has not actually been taken to the ground.
To protect players from potentially catastrophic injury, there are some restrictions on tackles and blocks. At no time may a defensive player tackle an offensive player by grabbing the facemask of their helmet; doing so incurs a 15-yard penalty and the victimized team is awarded a new set of downs. Although spear tackles are allowed in gridiron football, a player may not use his helmet to tackle an opponent as the technique can cause serious injury to both players (more often the tackler, due to the force of reaction on the tackler, which is apt to be beyond the limit that the neck can handle) and also warrants a 15-yard penalty as well as a fresh set of downs if committed by the defending team; this is known as "spearing the player". A similar penalty is assessed to any player attempting to make contact with his helmet against another opponent's helmet, which is known as a helmet-to-helmet collision. Grabbing a ball carrier by the pads behind his neck and pulling him down is known as a "horse collar", a method which has been made illegal at all levels of American football.
It is also illegal to tackle a player who has thrown a forward pass (generally a quarterback) after he has released the ball; doing so is called "roughing the passer" and incurs a 15-yard penalty and a fresh set of downs for the team with the ball. However, in the NFL a player can continue forward for one step, which means that often a player who is committed to attacking the quarterback will still make a tackle. Place kickers and punters are afforded an even greater protection from being tackled.
Once the play is ruled complete, no contact is permitted; a player who makes contact with an opponent after the play is charged with "unnecessary roughness" and his team is assessed a 15-yard penalty.
Blocks that occur in the back of the legs and below the knees, initiated below the waist, or clotheslines are also generally prohibited and players who use them are subject to much more severe penalties than other illegal tackles. However, a player who plays on the line can block below the knees (cut block) as long the block is within five yards of the line and the player they block is in front of them and not engaged by another blocker (chop block).
In the National Football League (NFL), tackles are tracked as an unofficial statistic by a scorekeeper hired by the home team. Though the statistic is widely cited, the league does not verify that the counts are accurate.
On November 12, 2022, Carlton Martial of Troy recorded his 546th tackle to break the Division I FBS record for most tackles in a career.
International rules football is a hybrid game between Australian rules football and Gaelic football. Tackling in International Rules is subject to similar rules as Australian rules football, but with some subtle differences. Tackling is only allowed as low as the waist, whereas it is allowed down to the knees in Aussie Rules. One handed tackling has been banned in International Rules since the 2008 International Rules Series.
In rugby league the ball-carrier can be tackled by any number of defenders from any direction. The initial contact in the tackle must be made below the ball carrier's neck or it will be deemed a high tackle and penalised. A tackle in rugby league is completed when any of the following occurs:
Once the tackle is completed, the ball-carrier must be allowed to get to his feet to 'play-the-ball' and the defensive team must retreat 10 metres (except 2 markers, facing the tackled player). Spear tackles are illegal in rugby league, with most tackles in which the defender is lifted 'above the horizontal' bringing about penalties in the modern game. A stiff arm tackle is an offence. A 2012 New Zealand study found that over 659 tackles are made per game in professional rugby league. Of all the rugby league positions, second-row averages the most tackles.
In rugby union, a player must be brought to ground for a tackle to be completed. The tackled player must release the ball, but the ball is not dead and a ruck forms to contest possession of it. If the ball carrier is not brought to the ground a maul will usually form. High/reckless or stiff arm tackles laws once dictated any contact made above the shoulders was an offence. Now, even if contact starts below the shoulders, if the head is involved in any reckless tackle it results in the offending player being given a yellow card and therefore sin binned. World Rugby now defines a reckless tackle as being any contact where the tackler "knew or should have known that there was a risk of making contact with the head of an opponent, but did so anyway"
For various codes of football, variant codes have been developed which substitute out the tackling element, making the game less physical. In these games, either a being touched by an opponent or, in some codes, having a tag on the player's person removed, has effects similar to a tackle in the parent code.
Other non-football games that feature tackling or similar concepts include hurling, hockey and shinty. With the increasing popularity of football in the late 19th century, tackling had been integrated into field-based chasing games such as British Bulldog (game), Pom-Pom-Pull-Away and British Bulldog. For younger boys, these children's games became essential for the acquisition of football skills.
Some illegal tackle moves result in a penalty play, however others may be "reportable" offences — that is, the option exists for an official to penalise a player's conduct individually rather than during the game refer it to a tribunal for deferred penalty.
|
[
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "Most forms of football have a move known as a tackle. The primary purposes of tackling are to dispossess an opponent of the ball, to stop the player from gaining ground towards goal or to stop them from carrying out what they intend.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "The word is used in some contact variations of football to describe the act of physically holding or wrestling a player to the ground. In others, it simply describes one or more methods of contesting for possession of the ball. It can therefore be used as both a defensive or attacking move.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "In Middle Dutch, the verb tacken meant to grab or to handle. By the 14th century, this had come to be used for the equipment used for fishing, referring to the rod and reel, etc., and also for that used in sailing, referring to rigging, equipment, or gear used on ships. By the 18th century, a similar use was applied to harnesses or equipment used with horses. Modern use in football comes from the earlier sport of rugby, where the word was used in the 19th century.",
"title": "Name origin"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "Unlike other codes, tackles in association football have to be predominantly directed against the ball rather than the player in possession of it. This is achieved by using either leg to wrest possession from the opponent, or sliding in on the grass to knock the ball away. A defender is permitted to use their body to obstruct the motion of a player with the ball, and this may be part of a successful tackle. Pulling a player to the ground in the style of tackle common to other codes is completely absent from the game (this would be considered \"violent conduct\" and result in a red card (dismissal)).",
"title": "Association football"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "Although some contact between players is allowed, the rules of association football significantly limit the physicality of tackles, explicitly forbidding contacts which are \"careless, reckless or [use] excessive force\". Almost all tackles where the tackler's legs make contact with the opponent before the ball are considered illegal, and heavy contact after initially touching the ball may also be penalised.",
"title": "Association football"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "Illegal tackles are fouls and are punished with a direct free kick (or penalty if committed within the penalty area) for the opponent's team. Such incidents are common, with dozens of occurrences in a typical match. In most cases these fouls are not considered misconducts, however yellow cards (cautions) may be delivered for more egregious fouls that constitute \"unsporting behaviour\". If a foul tackle endangers the tackled player's safety, it is likely to be considered as \"serious foul play\" by the referee and punished with a red card (dismissal).",
"title": "Association football"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "Tackles that involve lunging at an opponent with both legs, regardless of whether the ball is won, are generally considered to constitute serious foul play and hence result in a sending-off. This explicitly includes \"scissoring\" (tackling with legs apart, so as to trap the opponent's leg or legs in between), which is likely to be punished with a sending-off (red card), as it poses a high risk of severe knee injury to the player being tackled. Tackling with studs up is considered dangerous. A studs up tackle is made when a player lunges into a tackle with a leg or both legs outstretched exposing the soles of their boots. Referees are encouraged to at the very least caution (yellow card) players who commit such challenges.",
"title": "Association football"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "Additionally, an illegal tackle which is also a professional foul is considered misconduct.",
"title": "Association football"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "The most spectacular form of tackle in association football is the slide tackle, wherein a tackler slides, leg extended, along the ground, aiming to hit the ball away. This form of tackle carries a high risk of committing a foul.",
"title": "Association football"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "\"Diving\" in association football involves tackled players exaggerating the physicality of tackles, so as to gain favourable decisions from the referee.",
"title": "Association football"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "In Australian rules football, the move commonly described as a \"tackle\" is similar to in rugby and involves wrapping, holding or wrestling a player who has possession of the ball to the ground. Tackling players not in possession of the ball is not allowed, this is considered “holding the man” and penalised with a free kick to the opposition.",
"title": "Australian rules football"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "As there is no offside rule in Australian rules football, players can be tackled from any direction, and are often blindsided. For this reason, the sport allows players to shepherd and bump their opponents within 5 metres of the ball, to protect the ball carrier.",
"title": "Australian rules football"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "A tackled player must immediately dispose of the ball legally, by kicking or handballing, but not by throwing or dropping the ball. If this is not done, a holding the ball free kick will be awarded to the tackler. If the ball is knocked free by the tackler, pinned to the player by the tackler, or the player unsuccessfully attempts a kick or handball, a free kick will only be awarded if the ball carrier is deemed to have had a prior opportunity to dispose of the ball prior to being tackled. If a player has not had prior opportunity to dispose of the ball and a tackler knocks the ball free during a tackle then no free kick is paid and the game continues.",
"title": "Australian rules football"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "A tackle must only contact below the shoulders and above the knees, and a player is able to be thrown to the ground, so long as the tackle is deemed not to be reckless or likely to cause injury. There are also rules outlawing pushing in the back making tackling more difficult. Tripping, by both hand or foot, is not allowed and can be a reportable offence.",
"title": "Australian rules football"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "Players wear little to no padding to cushion the impact of tackles, however players generally wear mouthguards to protect their teeth.",
"title": "Australian rules football"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 15,
"text": "There are many types of tackles in Australian rules football:",
"title": "Australian rules football"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 16,
"text": "Although the term \"tackle\" is used in Australian rules to exclusively describe wrapping, holding or wrestling a player in possession, there are also several other ways of contesting possession in Australian rules that other sports would describe as a \"tackle\" and that also involve a degree of contact.",
"title": "Australian rules football"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 17,
"text": "Other defensive actions are generally categorised as one percenters. The defensive tactic of punching away (commonly known as spoiling) from a player is allowed. Smothering, which involves using the arms or body to get in the way of an opponent's kick as it leaves their boot, is similar to a charge down in rugby football.",
"title": "Australian rules football"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 18,
"text": "Gaelic football defines tackling as wresting the ball from an opponent's hands. Bumping is allowed on the player with the ball, but a player cannot be grabbed.",
"title": "Gaelic football"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 19,
"text": "In American football and Canadian football, to tackle is to physically interfere with the forward progress of a player in possession of the ball, such that his forward progress ceases and is not resumed, or such that he is caused to touch some part of his body to the ground other than his feet or hands, or such that he is forced to go out of bounds. In any such case, the ball becomes dead, the down is over, and play ceases until the beginning of the next play.",
"title": "Gridiron football"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 20,
"text": "A tackle is known as a quarterback sack when the quarterback is tackled at or behind the line of scrimmage while attempting to throw a pass. A tackle for loss is a tackle that causes a loss of yardage for the opposing running back or wide receiver. This happens when the quarterback is sacked, when either a rusher or a receiver is tackled behind the line of scrimmage, or when the ball is fumbled behind the line of scrimmage and was picked up by an offensive player who does not manage to move past the line before being tackled. When a player who does not have the ball is taken down, it is generally referred to as a block.",
"title": "Gridiron football"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 21,
"text": "Tacklers are not required to wrap their arms around the ball carrier before bringing him to the ground; in fact, the ball carrier is often \"tackled\" by the defender taking a running start and hitting the ball carrier to knock them to the ground. Tackles can also be made by grabbing the ball carrier's jersey (or even hair, should it be long enough and allowed to dangle freely from beneath the helmet) and pulling him to the ground. As mentioned above, the referee can declare that a play is dead if the ball carrier's forward progress has been stopped, even if he has not actually been taken to the ground.",
"title": "Gridiron football"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 22,
"text": "To protect players from potentially catastrophic injury, there are some restrictions on tackles and blocks. At no time may a defensive player tackle an offensive player by grabbing the facemask of their helmet; doing so incurs a 15-yard penalty and the victimized team is awarded a new set of downs. Although spear tackles are allowed in gridiron football, a player may not use his helmet to tackle an opponent as the technique can cause serious injury to both players (more often the tackler, due to the force of reaction on the tackler, which is apt to be beyond the limit that the neck can handle) and also warrants a 15-yard penalty as well as a fresh set of downs if committed by the defending team; this is known as \"spearing the player\". A similar penalty is assessed to any player attempting to make contact with his helmet against another opponent's helmet, which is known as a helmet-to-helmet collision. Grabbing a ball carrier by the pads behind his neck and pulling him down is known as a \"horse collar\", a method which has been made illegal at all levels of American football.",
"title": "Gridiron football"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 23,
"text": "It is also illegal to tackle a player who has thrown a forward pass (generally a quarterback) after he has released the ball; doing so is called \"roughing the passer\" and incurs a 15-yard penalty and a fresh set of downs for the team with the ball. However, in the NFL a player can continue forward for one step, which means that often a player who is committed to attacking the quarterback will still make a tackle. Place kickers and punters are afforded an even greater protection from being tackled.",
"title": "Gridiron football"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 24,
"text": "Once the play is ruled complete, no contact is permitted; a player who makes contact with an opponent after the play is charged with \"unnecessary roughness\" and his team is assessed a 15-yard penalty.",
"title": "Gridiron football"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 25,
"text": "Blocks that occur in the back of the legs and below the knees, initiated below the waist, or clotheslines are also generally prohibited and players who use them are subject to much more severe penalties than other illegal tackles. However, a player who plays on the line can block below the knees (cut block) as long the block is within five yards of the line and the player they block is in front of them and not engaged by another blocker (chop block).",
"title": "Gridiron football"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 26,
"text": "In the National Football League (NFL), tackles are tracked as an unofficial statistic by a scorekeeper hired by the home team. Though the statistic is widely cited, the league does not verify that the counts are accurate.",
"title": "Gridiron football"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 27,
"text": "On November 12, 2022, Carlton Martial of Troy recorded his 546th tackle to break the Division I FBS record for most tackles in a career.",
"title": "Gridiron football"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 28,
"text": "International rules football is a hybrid game between Australian rules football and Gaelic football. Tackling in International Rules is subject to similar rules as Australian rules football, but with some subtle differences. Tackling is only allowed as low as the waist, whereas it is allowed down to the knees in Aussie Rules. One handed tackling has been banned in International Rules since the 2008 International Rules Series.",
"title": "International rules football"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 29,
"text": "In rugby league the ball-carrier can be tackled by any number of defenders from any direction. The initial contact in the tackle must be made below the ball carrier's neck or it will be deemed a high tackle and penalised. A tackle in rugby league is completed when any of the following occurs:",
"title": "Rugby football"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 30,
"text": "Once the tackle is completed, the ball-carrier must be allowed to get to his feet to 'play-the-ball' and the defensive team must retreat 10 metres (except 2 markers, facing the tackled player). Spear tackles are illegal in rugby league, with most tackles in which the defender is lifted 'above the horizontal' bringing about penalties in the modern game. A stiff arm tackle is an offence. A 2012 New Zealand study found that over 659 tackles are made per game in professional rugby league. Of all the rugby league positions, second-row averages the most tackles.",
"title": "Rugby football"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 31,
"text": "In rugby union, a player must be brought to ground for a tackle to be completed. The tackled player must release the ball, but the ball is not dead and a ruck forms to contest possession of it. If the ball carrier is not brought to the ground a maul will usually form. High/reckless or stiff arm tackles laws once dictated any contact made above the shoulders was an offence. Now, even if contact starts below the shoulders, if the head is involved in any reckless tackle it results in the offending player being given a yellow card and therefore sin binned. World Rugby now defines a reckless tackle as being any contact where the tackler \"knew or should have known that there was a risk of making contact with the head of an opponent, but did so anyway\"",
"title": "Rugby football"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 32,
"text": "For various codes of football, variant codes have been developed which substitute out the tackling element, making the game less physical. In these games, either a being touched by an opponent or, in some codes, having a tag on the player's person removed, has effects similar to a tackle in the parent code.",
"title": "Non-tackling variants"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 33,
"text": "Other non-football games that feature tackling or similar concepts include hurling, hockey and shinty. With the increasing popularity of football in the late 19th century, tackling had been integrated into field-based chasing games such as British Bulldog (game), Pom-Pom-Pull-Away and British Bulldog. For younger boys, these children's games became essential for the acquisition of football skills.",
"title": "Other uses"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 34,
"text": "Some illegal tackle moves result in a penalty play, however others may be \"reportable\" offences — that is, the option exists for an official to penalise a player's conduct individually rather than during the game refer it to a tribunal for deferred penalty.",
"title": "Tackle types"
}
] |
Most forms of football have a move known as a tackle. The primary purposes of tackling are to dispossess an opponent of the ball, to stop the player from gaining ground towards goal or to stop them from carrying out what they intend. The word is used in some contact variations of football to describe the act of physically holding or wrestling a player to the ground. In others, it simply describes one or more methods of contesting for possession of the ball. It can therefore be used as both a defensive or attacking move.
|
2001-04-05T01:15:46Z
|
2023-09-19T06:22:36Z
|
[
"Template:Citation needed",
"Template:Refn",
"Template:Yes",
"Template:Reflist",
"Template:More footnotes needed",
"Template:See also",
"Template:Australian rules football terminology",
"Template:Cite journal",
"Template:Cite book",
"Template:Multiple image",
"Template:Cite news",
"Template:Cite web",
"Template:Gridiron football maneuvers",
"Template:Short description",
"Template:Distinguish",
"Template:Rlp",
"Template:Original research",
"Template:No",
"Template:Depends",
"Template:Nowrap",
"Template:Isbn",
"Template:Lang",
"Template:Anchor",
"Template:Commons category multi",
"Template:Authority control"
] |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tackle_(football_move)
|
10,668 |
Play from scrimmage
|
A play from scrimmage is the sequence in the game of gridiron football during which one team tries to advance the ball, get a first down, or score, and the other team tries to stop them or take the ball away. Once a play is over, and before the next play starts, the football is considered dead. A game of American football (or Canadian Football) consists of many (about 120–150) such plays.
The term is also used to denote a specific plan of action, or its execution, under a particular set of circumstances faced by either team. For instance, the offensive team may be faced with one or two downs left in a possession and still ten or more yards to go to earn a new set of downs. In this instance, they may decide to employ a forward pass. Well in advance of the particular game, a number of different kinds of forward pass plays will have been planned out and practiced by the team. They will be designated by obscure words, letters and/or numbers so that the name of a play does not reveal its exact execution to outsiders. The team's coach, or perhaps the quarterback, will choose one of the planned forward passing strategies, and tell the team, during the huddle which one has been chosen. Because of planning and practice, each player is expected to know what his role in the play is to be, and how to execute it. This will be the offensive play.
Conversely, the defensive team will know that the offense has to cover a good deal of ground in a single play, will expect a forward pass, and will know from earlier study something of the propensities of the offense they face. The defensive captain is likely to call out a specific formation or defensive play, to anticipate and counteract the expected action by the offense.
The play will begin with the snap of the ball (typically but not exclusively to the quarterback), and it will end when the effort by the offensive squad to advance the ball has either succeeded in scoring, or has been frustrated by the ball being downed before the aim of the offensive play is accomplished, or by the defensive squad having managed to come into possession of the ball without first downing it. In the event of change of possession during a play, the team newly in possession of the ball may try to advance it toward their opponent's goal, which the team formerly in possession will naturally resist. Change of possession during a routine play may occur by interception or by fumble (often collectively referred to as turnovers).
Change of possession may also occur in other ways. A change of possession can occur "on downs", if the offensive team fails to achieve a first down or a touchdown in a specified number of consecutive attempts, known as "downs" (four in American football; three in Canadian football). Another way is through a change of possession play, when the offensive team (having perhaps surmised the unlikelihood of scoring or of achieving a first down within the allowed consecutive attempts to do so) kicks the ball away in what is known as a punt. A touchdown (and subsequent conversion attempt, whether successful or not) or successful field goal attempt will be followed by a kickoff. Kickoffs and field goal attempts are not considered true change of possession plays. An unsuccessful field goal attempt will usually also result in a change of possession (without a kickoff), but is usually not counted as a turnover.
|
[
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "A play from scrimmage is the sequence in the game of gridiron football during which one team tries to advance the ball, get a first down, or score, and the other team tries to stop them or take the ball away. Once a play is over, and before the next play starts, the football is considered dead. A game of American football (or Canadian Football) consists of many (about 120–150) such plays.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "The term is also used to denote a specific plan of action, or its execution, under a particular set of circumstances faced by either team. For instance, the offensive team may be faced with one or two downs left in a possession and still ten or more yards to go to earn a new set of downs. In this instance, they may decide to employ a forward pass. Well in advance of the particular game, a number of different kinds of forward pass plays will have been planned out and practiced by the team. They will be designated by obscure words, letters and/or numbers so that the name of a play does not reveal its exact execution to outsiders. The team's coach, or perhaps the quarterback, will choose one of the planned forward passing strategies, and tell the team, during the huddle which one has been chosen. Because of planning and practice, each player is expected to know what his role in the play is to be, and how to execute it. This will be the offensive play.",
"title": "Specifications"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "Conversely, the defensive team will know that the offense has to cover a good deal of ground in a single play, will expect a forward pass, and will know from earlier study something of the propensities of the offense they face. The defensive captain is likely to call out a specific formation or defensive play, to anticipate and counteract the expected action by the offense.",
"title": "Specifications"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "The play will begin with the snap of the ball (typically but not exclusively to the quarterback), and it will end when the effort by the offensive squad to advance the ball has either succeeded in scoring, or has been frustrated by the ball being downed before the aim of the offensive play is accomplished, or by the defensive squad having managed to come into possession of the ball without first downing it. In the event of change of possession during a play, the team newly in possession of the ball may try to advance it toward their opponent's goal, which the team formerly in possession will naturally resist. Change of possession during a routine play may occur by interception or by fumble (often collectively referred to as turnovers).",
"title": "The play"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "Change of possession may also occur in other ways. A change of possession can occur \"on downs\", if the offensive team fails to achieve a first down or a touchdown in a specified number of consecutive attempts, known as \"downs\" (four in American football; three in Canadian football). Another way is through a change of possession play, when the offensive team (having perhaps surmised the unlikelihood of scoring or of achieving a first down within the allowed consecutive attempts to do so) kicks the ball away in what is known as a punt. A touchdown (and subsequent conversion attempt, whether successful or not) or successful field goal attempt will be followed by a kickoff. Kickoffs and field goal attempts are not considered true change of possession plays. An unsuccessful field goal attempt will usually also result in a change of possession (without a kickoff), but is usually not counted as a turnover.",
"title": "The play"
}
] |
A play from scrimmage is the sequence in the game of gridiron football during which one team tries to advance the ball, get a first down, or score, and the other team tries to stop them or take the ball away. Once a play is over, and before the next play starts, the football is considered dead. A game of American football consists of many such plays.
|
2002-02-25T15:51:15Z
|
2023-08-11T08:11:16Z
|
[
"Template:Gridiron football plays",
"Template:Short description",
"Template:Reflist"
] |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Play_from_scrimmage
|
10,669 |
Football player
|
A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby league, and rugby union.
It has been estimated that there are 250 million association football players in the world, and many play other forms of football.
Jean-Pierre Papin has described football as a "universal language". Footballers across the world and at almost any level may regularly attract large crowds of spectators, and players are the focal points of widespread social phenomena such as association football culture.
Footballers generally begin as amateurs and the best players progress to become professional players. Normally they start at a youth team (any local team) and from there, based on skill and talent, scouts offer contracts. Once signed, some learn to play better football and a few advance to the senior or professional teams.
Pay in some top men's leagues is significantly higher than in other jobs. Players in the Premier League earn an average of $3 million per year. In the wealthiest clubs in European football leagues, men earn an average $7.19 million per year. The best players of those clubs can earn up to $260 million per year.
However, only a fraction of men's professional football players are paid at this level. Wages may be somewhat more moderate in other divisions and leagues. For example, the average annual salary for footballers in Major League Soccer (MLS) is $530,262 as of May 2023.
Average salaries in women's leagues are far lower. For example, players in the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL), which started in 2012, earn an average of $54,000 per year as of May 2022. For the first time in 2022, the NWSL guaranteed players a living wage. The minimum salary in 2023 is $36,400 to ensure players do not need second or third jobs to survive.
A minority of retired footballers continue working full-time in football, for instance as football managers. A 1979 study reported that former first-team ballplayers were over-represented as top-ranking executives in their companies and had greater income mobility than second-teamers and reserves. However, some experience chronic health issues, see below.
In association football, there are four traditional types of specialties (positions): goalkeepers (goalies), defenders (full-backs), midfielders (half-backs), and forwards (attackers). Special purpose positions include such performers as sweepers, stoppers, second forwards (under-attackers), wingers, insiders, etc.
The American football teams' positions are categorized by a form of play where each of them has its spectrum of positions. Those are offensive, defensive, and special teams.
Research shows that association football players who take less than 200 milliseconds after the referee blows their whistle to make a penalty kick are significantly less likely to score than those who take over a second.
An Irish 2002 study of association and Gaelic football players characterized players as "lean and muscular with a reasonably high level of capacity in all areas of physical performance". The opposite is the case for American football, where obesity could be the cause of grave health problems.
A 2000 study documented injuries sustained by Czech [association] football players at all levels:
Trauma was the cause of 81.5% of the injuries, and overuse was the cause of 18.5%. Joint sprains predominated (30%), followed by fractures (16%), muscle strains (15%), ligament ruptures (12%), meniscal tears and contusions (8%), and other injuries. Injuries to the knee were most prevalent (29%), followed by injuries to the ankle (19%) and spine (9%). More injuries occurred during games (59%) than in practice.
Patellar tendinitis (knee pain) is considered an injury that comes from overexertion, which also happens to other athletes of virtually every sport. It is a common problem that football players develop and can usually be treated by a quadriceps strengthening program. Jumping activities place particularly high strains on the tendon and with repetitive jumping, tearing and injury of the tendon can occur. The chronic injury and healing response results in inflammation and localized pain.
Although levels of depression and pain in retired football players are on par with the societal average, some players suffer from post-retirement chronic injuries. Head injuries are a particular concern.
Studies have long shown former American football NFL players have a longer life expectancy than the general public or males with a similar age and race distribution, but a higher rate of cardiovascular issues. A study comparing the deaths of former Major League Baseball players found baseball players lived longer still, perhaps suggesting a "healthy worker" bias where NFL athletes lived less long than they would otherwise have, despite their longer than average life expectancy. A 2009 review of the evidence in the American Journal of Medicine concluded the existing evidence "did not suggest an increased mortality" but does "suggest increased cardiovascular risk..., particularly the heavier linemen."
In association football, a 2011 German study found that German national team players lived 1.9 years less than the general male population.
Football players participating in international matches for Germany have reduced longevity compared to the general population. This disadvantage was the larger, the earlier the international football player started his international career. This finding is in line with the current knowledge of life expectancy in major athletes, especially those from other team sports
A 1983 study of rugby players found that the life expectancy of All Blacks was the same as for the general population.
Australian rules footballers have lower death rates than the general population.
American football players are prone to head injuries such as concussions. In later life, this increases the risk of dementia and Alzheimer's. Professional American football players self-reporting concussions are at greater risk for having depressive episodes later in life compared with those retired players self-reporting no concussions.
Probably due to the repeated trauma associated with heading balls, professional association football has been suggested to increase the incidence of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. In a 1987 study of former Norwegian association football national team players, one third of the players were found to have central cerebral atrophy, i.e. brain damage. A 1999 study connected soccer to chronic traumatic head injury (CTHI):
[P]articipation in amateur association football in general and concussion specifically is associated with impaired performance in memory and planning functions. Due to the worldwide popularity of soccer, these observations may have important public health implications
Anterior cruciate ligaments are particularly vulnerable in most types of football due to injuries that can be sustained during tackles.
An increased incidence of osteoarthritis in the hip joint has been found in retired football players.
A 2012 study of association football injuries found that 19% of all injuries were muscle injuries, of which 54% affected the thigh muscles.
In a 2009 study, association football was found to be associated with favourable sleep patterns and psychological functioning in adolescent male football players.
The rate of suicide among NFL vets has been found to be 59% lower than in the general population.
In 2012, FIFA released a paper intended to identify key risk factors for association football players.
In 2015, a systematic review of a sample of fifty-four peer-reviewed publications and three articles on elite athletes’ mortality and longevity, resulted in major longevity outcomes for the elite athletes (baseball, football, soccer, basketball, and cycling) "compared to age and sex-matched controls from the general population and other athletes." The span longevities were influenced by factors like the type of sport, the playing position, the race, and the energy system.
An observational study held from professional footballers -active (during their career) and recently retired (post-career, aged more than 45 years)- in 70 countries between 2007 and 2013, elaborated on data from the World Footballers' Union (FIFPro), recorded 214 deaths of which 25% was caused by accidents, 11% by suicides and 33% by a suspected cardiac pathology (on an overall 55% of deaths caused by some sort of disease).
Clinical evaluation, ECG , and echocardiography are required for the athletes as pre-participation tools in order to prevent sudden cardiac deaths in people aged less than 35. To evaluate the risk of myocardial fibrosis, may use and recommend the additional use of late gadolinium enhancement (LGE) with pre- and post-contrast and extracellular volume fraction (ECV) images. Even encouraged, it wasn't yet made mandatory.
In 2015, 205 deaths among North American professional athletes who were registered as active at the time of their decease were analysed. Data were collected for the four major sports: National Basketball Association (NBA), National Football League (NFL), National Hockey League (NHL), and Major League Baseball (MLB). The NFL and NBA active players had "a higher likelihood of dying in a car accident" and a significantly higher likelihood of dying from a cardiac-related illness compared to the NHL and MLB active populations.
In 2013, a study on 3,439 retired athletes of the National Football Leagues with at least five credited playing seasons between 1959 and 1988 did not show a statistical correlation between suicide mortality and professional activity, particularly football-related compared with the general control sample. No stratification was reported between speed and non-speed position players.
Until the 2000s a very limited number of formal studies has been published on mortality from all causes in soccer players, despite the high interest of the public to the matter. An extended study held in Italy between 1975 and 2003 on a total of 5.389 players, aged 14–35 years, highlighted that, while the mortality for cancer and cardiovascular diseases among the football players cohort was significantly lower than the general Italian population, the "mortality rates for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and car accidents were significantly higher than expected, and for ALS the risk is 18 times than expected."
|
[
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby league, and rugby union.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "It has been estimated that there are 250 million association football players in the world, and many play other forms of football.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "Jean-Pierre Papin has described football as a \"universal language\". Footballers across the world and at almost any level may regularly attract large crowds of spectators, and players are the focal points of widespread social phenomena such as association football culture.",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "Footballers generally begin as amateurs and the best players progress to become professional players. Normally they start at a youth team (any local team) and from there, based on skill and talent, scouts offer contracts. Once signed, some learn to play better football and a few advance to the senior or professional teams.",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "Pay in some top men's leagues is significantly higher than in other jobs. Players in the Premier League earn an average of $3 million per year. In the wealthiest clubs in European football leagues, men earn an average $7.19 million per year. The best players of those clubs can earn up to $260 million per year.",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "However, only a fraction of men's professional football players are paid at this level. Wages may be somewhat more moderate in other divisions and leagues. For example, the average annual salary for footballers in Major League Soccer (MLS) is $530,262 as of May 2023.",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "Average salaries in women's leagues are far lower. For example, players in the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL), which started in 2012, earn an average of $54,000 per year as of May 2022. For the first time in 2022, the NWSL guaranteed players a living wage. The minimum salary in 2023 is $36,400 to ensure players do not need second or third jobs to survive.",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "A minority of retired footballers continue working full-time in football, for instance as football managers. A 1979 study reported that former first-team ballplayers were over-represented as top-ranking executives in their companies and had greater income mobility than second-teamers and reserves. However, some experience chronic health issues, see below.",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "In association football, there are four traditional types of specialties (positions): goalkeepers (goalies), defenders (full-backs), midfielders (half-backs), and forwards (attackers). Special purpose positions include such performers as sweepers, stoppers, second forwards (under-attackers), wingers, insiders, etc.",
"title": "Skills and specialties"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "The American football teams' positions are categorized by a form of play where each of them has its spectrum of positions. Those are offensive, defensive, and special teams.",
"title": "Skills and specialties"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "Research shows that association football players who take less than 200 milliseconds after the referee blows their whistle to make a penalty kick are significantly less likely to score than those who take over a second.",
"title": "Psychological aspects of performance"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "An Irish 2002 study of association and Gaelic football players characterized players as \"lean and muscular with a reasonably high level of capacity in all areas of physical performance\". The opposite is the case for American football, where obesity could be the cause of grave health problems.",
"title": "Health issues"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "A 2000 study documented injuries sustained by Czech [association] football players at all levels:",
"title": "Health issues"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "Trauma was the cause of 81.5% of the injuries, and overuse was the cause of 18.5%. Joint sprains predominated (30%), followed by fractures (16%), muscle strains (15%), ligament ruptures (12%), meniscal tears and contusions (8%), and other injuries. Injuries to the knee were most prevalent (29%), followed by injuries to the ankle (19%) and spine (9%). More injuries occurred during games (59%) than in practice.",
"title": "Health issues"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "Patellar tendinitis (knee pain) is considered an injury that comes from overexertion, which also happens to other athletes of virtually every sport. It is a common problem that football players develop and can usually be treated by a quadriceps strengthening program. Jumping activities place particularly high strains on the tendon and with repetitive jumping, tearing and injury of the tendon can occur. The chronic injury and healing response results in inflammation and localized pain.",
"title": "Health issues"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 15,
"text": "Although levels of depression and pain in retired football players are on par with the societal average, some players suffer from post-retirement chronic injuries. Head injuries are a particular concern.",
"title": "Health issues"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 16,
"text": "Studies have long shown former American football NFL players have a longer life expectancy than the general public or males with a similar age and race distribution, but a higher rate of cardiovascular issues. A study comparing the deaths of former Major League Baseball players found baseball players lived longer still, perhaps suggesting a \"healthy worker\" bias where NFL athletes lived less long than they would otherwise have, despite their longer than average life expectancy. A 2009 review of the evidence in the American Journal of Medicine concluded the existing evidence \"did not suggest an increased mortality\" but does \"suggest increased cardiovascular risk..., particularly the heavier linemen.\"",
"title": "Health issues"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 17,
"text": "In association football, a 2011 German study found that German national team players lived 1.9 years less than the general male population.",
"title": "Health issues"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 18,
"text": "Football players participating in international matches for Germany have reduced longevity compared to the general population. This disadvantage was the larger, the earlier the international football player started his international career. This finding is in line with the current knowledge of life expectancy in major athletes, especially those from other team sports",
"title": "Health issues"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 19,
"text": "A 1983 study of rugby players found that the life expectancy of All Blacks was the same as for the general population.",
"title": "Health issues"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 20,
"text": "Australian rules footballers have lower death rates than the general population.",
"title": "Health issues"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 21,
"text": "American football players are prone to head injuries such as concussions. In later life, this increases the risk of dementia and Alzheimer's. Professional American football players self-reporting concussions are at greater risk for having depressive episodes later in life compared with those retired players self-reporting no concussions.",
"title": "Health issues"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 22,
"text": "Probably due to the repeated trauma associated with heading balls, professional association football has been suggested to increase the incidence of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. In a 1987 study of former Norwegian association football national team players, one third of the players were found to have central cerebral atrophy, i.e. brain damage. A 1999 study connected soccer to chronic traumatic head injury (CTHI):",
"title": "Health issues"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 23,
"text": "[P]articipation in amateur association football in general and concussion specifically is associated with impaired performance in memory and planning functions. Due to the worldwide popularity of soccer, these observations may have important public health implications",
"title": "Health issues"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 24,
"text": "Anterior cruciate ligaments are particularly vulnerable in most types of football due to injuries that can be sustained during tackles.",
"title": "Health issues"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 25,
"text": "An increased incidence of osteoarthritis in the hip joint has been found in retired football players.",
"title": "Health issues"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 26,
"text": "A 2012 study of association football injuries found that 19% of all injuries were muscle injuries, of which 54% affected the thigh muscles.",
"title": "Health issues"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 27,
"text": "In a 2009 study, association football was found to be associated with favourable sleep patterns and psychological functioning in adolescent male football players.",
"title": "Health issues"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 28,
"text": "The rate of suicide among NFL vets has been found to be 59% lower than in the general population.",
"title": "Health issues"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 29,
"text": "In 2012, FIFA released a paper intended to identify key risk factors for association football players.",
"title": "Health issues"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 30,
"text": "In 2015, a systematic review of a sample of fifty-four peer-reviewed publications and three articles on elite athletes’ mortality and longevity, resulted in major longevity outcomes for the elite athletes (baseball, football, soccer, basketball, and cycling) \"compared to age and sex-matched controls from the general population and other athletes.\" The span longevities were influenced by factors like the type of sport, the playing position, the race, and the energy system.",
"title": "Longevity and factors of mortality"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 31,
"text": "An observational study held from professional footballers -active (during their career) and recently retired (post-career, aged more than 45 years)- in 70 countries between 2007 and 2013, elaborated on data from the World Footballers' Union (FIFPro), recorded 214 deaths of which 25% was caused by accidents, 11% by suicides and 33% by a suspected cardiac pathology (on an overall 55% of deaths caused by some sort of disease).",
"title": "Longevity and factors of mortality"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 32,
"text": "Clinical evaluation, ECG , and echocardiography are required for the athletes as pre-participation tools in order to prevent sudden cardiac deaths in people aged less than 35. To evaluate the risk of myocardial fibrosis, may use and recommend the additional use of late gadolinium enhancement (LGE) with pre- and post-contrast and extracellular volume fraction (ECV) images. Even encouraged, it wasn't yet made mandatory.",
"title": "Longevity and factors of mortality"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 33,
"text": "In 2015, 205 deaths among North American professional athletes who were registered as active at the time of their decease were analysed. Data were collected for the four major sports: National Basketball Association (NBA), National Football League (NFL), National Hockey League (NHL), and Major League Baseball (MLB). The NFL and NBA active players had \"a higher likelihood of dying in a car accident\" and a significantly higher likelihood of dying from a cardiac-related illness compared to the NHL and MLB active populations.",
"title": "Longevity and factors of mortality"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 34,
"text": "In 2013, a study on 3,439 retired athletes of the National Football Leagues with at least five credited playing seasons between 1959 and 1988 did not show a statistical correlation between suicide mortality and professional activity, particularly football-related compared with the general control sample. No stratification was reported between speed and non-speed position players.",
"title": "Longevity and factors of mortality"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 35,
"text": "Until the 2000s a very limited number of formal studies has been published on mortality from all causes in soccer players, despite the high interest of the public to the matter. An extended study held in Italy between 1975 and 2003 on a total of 5.389 players, aged 14–35 years, highlighted that, while the mortality for cancer and cardiovascular diseases among the football players cohort was significantly lower than the general Italian population, the \"mortality rates for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and car accidents were significantly higher than expected, and for ALS the risk is 18 times than expected.\"",
"title": "Longevity and factors of mortality"
}
] |
A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby league, and rugby union. It has been estimated that there are 250 million association football players in the world, and many play other forms of football.
|
2002-02-25T15:51:15Z
|
2023-12-31T07:28:53Z
|
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Football_player
|
10,671 |
Friedrich Nietzsche
|
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (/ˈniːtʃə, ˈniːtʃi/ NEE-chə, NEE-chee, German: [ˈfʁiːdʁɪç ˈvɪlhɛlm ˈniːtʃə] or [ˈniːtsʃə]; 15 October 1844 – 25 August 1900) was a German philosopher. He began his career as a classical philologist before turning to philosophy. He became the youngest person to hold the Chair of Classical Philology at the University of Basel in 1869 at the age of 24, but resigned in 1879 due to health problems that plagued him most of his life; he completed much of his core writing in the following decade. In 1889, at age 44, he suffered a collapse and afterward a complete loss of his mental faculties, with paralysis and probably vascular dementia. He lived his remaining years in the care of his mother until her death in 1897 and then with his sister Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche. Nietzsche died in 1900, after experiencing pneumonia and multiple strokes.
Nietzsche's work spans philosophical polemics, poetry, cultural criticism, and fiction while displaying a fondness for aphorism and irony. Prominent elements of his philosophy include his radical critique of truth in favour of perspectivism; a genealogical critique of religion and Christian morality and a related theory of master–slave morality; the aesthetic affirmation of life in response to both the "death of God" and the profound crisis of nihilism; the notion of Apollonian and Dionysian forces; and a characterisation of the human subject as the expression of competing wills, collectively understood as the will to power. He also developed influential concepts such as the Übermensch and his doctrine of eternal return. In his later work, he became increasingly preoccupied with the creative powers of the individual to overcome cultural and moral mores in pursuit of new values and aesthetic health. His body of work touched a wide range of topics, including art, philology, history, music, religion, tragedy, culture, and science, and drew inspiration from Greek tragedy as well as figures such as Zoroaster, Arthur Schopenhauer, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Richard Wagner, and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
After his death, Nietzsche's sister Elisabeth became the curator and editor of his manuscripts. She edited his unpublished writings to fit her German ultranationalist ideology, often contradicting or obfuscating Nietzsche's stated opinions, which were explicitly opposed to antisemitism and nationalism. Through her published editions, Nietzsche's work became associated with fascism and Nazism. 20th-century scholars such as Walter Kaufmann, R. J. Hollingdale, and Georges Bataille defended Nietzsche against this interpretation, and corrected editions of his writings were soon made available. Nietzsche's thought enjoyed renewed popularity in the 1960s and his ideas have since had a profound impact on 20th- and early 21st-century thinkers across philosophy—especially in schools of continental philosophy such as existentialism, postmodernism, and post-structuralism—as well as art, literature, poetry, politics, and popular culture.
Born on 15 October 1844, Nietzsche grew up in the town of Röcken (now part of Lützen), near Leipzig, in the Prussian Province of Saxony. He was named after King Friedrich Wilhelm IV of Prussia, who turned 49 on the day of Nietzsche's birth (Nietzsche later dropped his middle name Wilhelm). Nietzsche's parents, Carl Ludwig Nietzsche (1813–1849), a Lutheran pastor and former teacher; and Franziska Nietzsche (née Oehler) (1826–1897), married in 1843, the year before their son's birth. They had two other children: a daughter, Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche, born in 1846; and a second son, Ludwig Joseph, born in 1848. Nietzsche's father died from a brain ailment in 1849; Ludwig Joseph died six months later at age two. The family then moved to Naumburg, where they lived with Nietzsche's maternal grandmother and his father's two unmarried sisters. After the death of Nietzsche's grandmother in 1856, the family moved into their own house, now Nietzsche-Haus, a museum and Nietzsche study centre.
Nietzsche attended a boys' school and then a private school, where he became friends with Gustav Krug and Wilhelm Pinder, all three of whom came from highly respected families. Academic records from one of the schools attended by Nietzsche noted that he excelled in Christian theology.
In 1854, he began to attend the Domgymnasium in Naumburg. Because his father had worked for the state (as a pastor) the now-fatherless Nietzsche was offered a scholarship to study at the internationally recognised Schulpforta. The claim that Nietzsche was admitted on the strength of his academic competence has been debunked: his grades were not near the top of the class. He studied there from 1858 to 1864, becoming friends with Paul Deussen and Carl von Gersdorff (1844-1904), who later became a jurist. He also found time to work on poems and musical compositions. Nietzsche led "Germania", a music and literature club, during his summers in Naumburg. At Schulpforta, Nietzsche received an important grounding in languages—Greek, Latin, Hebrew, and French—so as to be able to read important primary sources; he also experienced for the first time being away from his family life in a small-town conservative environment. His end-of-semester exams in March 1864 showed a 1 in Religion and German; a 2a in Greek and Latin; a 2b in French, History, and Physics; and a "lackluster" 3 in Hebrew and Mathematics.
Nietzsche was an amateur composer. He composed several works for voice, piano, and violin beginning in 1858 at the Schulpforta in Naumburg when he started to work on musical compositions. Richard Wagner was dismissive of Nietzsche's music, allegedly mocking a birthday gift of a piano composition sent by Nietzsche in 1871 to his wife Cosima. German conductor and pianist Hans von Bülow also described another of Nietzsche's pieces as "the most undelightful and the most anti-musical draft on musical paper that I have faced in a long time".
While at Schulpforta, Nietzsche pursued subjects that were considered unbecoming. He became acquainted with the work of the then almost-unknown poet Friedrich Hölderlin, calling him "my favorite poet" and writing an essay in which he said that the poet raised consciousness to "the most sublime ideality". The teacher who corrected the essay gave it a good mark but commented that Nietzsche should concern himself in the future with healthier, more lucid, and more "German" writers. Additionally, he became acquainted with Ernst Ortlepp, an eccentric, blasphemous, and often drunken poet who was found dead in a ditch weeks after meeting the young Nietzsche but who may have introduced Nietzsche to the music and writing of Richard Wagner. Perhaps under Ortlepp's influence, he and a student named Richter returned to school drunk and encountered a teacher, resulting in Nietzsche's demotion from first in his class and the end of his status as a prefect.
After graduation in September 1864, Nietzsche began studying theology and classical philology at the University of Bonn in the hope of becoming a minister. For a short time, he and Deussen became members of the Burschenschaft Frankonia. After one semester (and to the anger of his mother), he stopped his theological studies and lost his faith. As early as his 1862 essay "Fate and History", Nietzsche had argued that historical research had discredited the central teachings of Christianity, but David Strauss's Life of Jesus also seems to have had a profound effect on the young man. In addition, Ludwig Feuerbach's The Essence of Christianity influenced young Nietzsche with its argument that people created God, and not the other way around. In June 1865, at the age of 20, Nietzsche wrote to his sister Elisabeth, who was deeply religious, a letter regarding his loss of faith. This letter contains the following statement:
Hence the ways of men part: if you wish to strive for peace of soul and pleasure, then believe; if you wish to be a devotee of truth, then inquire....
Nietzsche subsequently concentrated on studying philology under Professor Friedrich Wilhelm Ritschl, whom he followed to the University of Leipzig in 1865. There he became close friends with his fellow student Erwin Rohde. Nietzsche's first philological publications appeared soon after.
In 1865, Nietzsche thoroughly studied the works of Arthur Schopenhauer. He owed the awakening of his philosophical interest to reading Schopenhauer's The World as Will and Representation and later admitted that Schopenhauer was one of the few thinkers whom he respected, dedicating the essay "Schopenhauer as Educator" in the Untimely Meditations to him.
In 1866, he read Friedrich Albert Lange's History of Materialism. Lange's descriptions of Kant's anti-materialistic philosophy, the rise of European Materialism, Europe's increased concern with science, Charles Darwin's theory of evolution, and the general rebellion against tradition and authority intrigued Nietzsche greatly. Nietzsche would ultimately argue the impossibility of an evolutionary explanation of the human aesthetic sense.
In 1867, Nietzsche signed up for one year of voluntary service with the Prussian artillery division in Naumburg. He was regarded as one of the finest riders among his fellow recruits, and his officers predicted that he would soon reach the rank of captain. However, in March 1868, while jumping into the saddle of his horse, Nietzsche struck his chest against the pommel and tore two muscles in his left side, leaving him exhausted and unable to walk for months. Consequently, he turned his attention to his studies again, completing them in 1868. Nietzsche also met Richard Wagner for the first time later that year.
In 1869, with Ritschl's support, Nietzsche received an offer to become a professor of classical philology at the University of Basel in Switzerland. He was only 24 years old and had neither completed his doctorate nor received a teaching certificate ("habilitation"). He was awarded an honorary doctorate by Leipzig University in March 1869, again with Ritschl's support.
Despite his offer coming at a time when he was considering giving up philology for science, he accepted. To this day, Nietzsche is still among the youngest of the tenured Classics professors on record.
Nietzsche's 1870 projected doctoral thesis, "Contribution toward the Study and the Critique of the Sources of Diogenes Laertius" ("Beiträge zur Quellenkunde und Kritik des Laertius Diogenes"), examined the origins of the ideas of Diogenes Laërtius. Though never submitted, it was later published as a Gratulationsschrift ('congratulatory publication') in Basel.
Before moving to Basel, Nietzsche renounced his Prussian citizenship: for the rest of his life he remained officially stateless.
Nevertheless, Nietzsche served in the Prussian forces during the Franco-Prussian War (1870–1871) as a medical orderly. In his short time in the military, he experienced much and witnessed the traumatic effects of battle. He also contracted diphtheria and dysentery. Walter Kaufmann speculates that he also contracted syphilis at a brothel along with his other infections at this time. On returning to Basel in 1870, Nietzsche observed the establishment of the German Empire and Otto von Bismarck's subsequent policies as an outsider and with a degree of scepticism regarding their genuineness. His inaugural lecture at the university was "Homer and Classical Philology". Nietzsche also met Franz Overbeck, a professor of theology who remained his friend throughout his life. Afrikan Spir, a little-known Russian philosopher responsible for the 1873 Thought and Reality and Nietzsche's colleague, the historian Jacob Burckhardt, whose lectures Nietzsche frequently attended, began to exercise significant influence on him.
Nietzsche had already met Richard Wagner in Leipzig in 1868 and later Wagner's wife, Cosima. Nietzsche admired both greatly and during his time at Basel frequently visited Wagner's house in Tribschen in Lucerne. The Wagners brought Nietzsche into their most intimate circle—including Franz Liszt, of whom Nietzsche colloquially described: "Liszt or the art of running after women!" Nietzsche enjoyed the attention he gave to the beginning of the Bayreuth Festival. In 1870, he gave Cosima Wagner the manuscript of "The Genesis of the Tragic Idea" as a birthday gift. In 1872, Nietzsche published his first book, The Birth of Tragedy. However, his colleagues within his field, including Ritschl, expressed little enthusiasm for the work in which Nietzsche eschewed the classical philologic method in favour of a more speculative approach. In his polemic Philology of the Future, Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff damped the book's reception and increased its notoriety. In response, Rohde (then a professor in Kiel) and Wagner came to Nietzsche's defence. Nietzsche remarked freely about the isolation he felt within the philological community and attempted unsuccessfully to transfer to a position in philosophy at Basel.
In 1873, Nietzsche began to accumulate notes that would be posthumously published as Philosophy in the Tragic Age of the Greeks. Between 1873 and 1876, he published four separate long essays: "David Strauss: the Confessor and the Writer", "On the Use and Abuse of History for Life", "Schopenhauer as Educator", and "Richard Wagner in Bayreuth". These four later appeared in a collected edition under the title Untimely Meditations. The essays shared the orientation of a cultural critique, challenging the developing German culture suggested by Schopenhauer and Wagner. During this time in the circle of the Wagners, he met Malwida von Meysenbug and Hans von Bülow. He also began a friendship with Paul Rée who, in 1876, influenced him into dismissing the pessimism in his early writings. However, he was deeply disappointed by the Bayreuth Festival of 1876, where the banality of the shows and baseness of the public repelled him. He was also alienated by Wagner's championing of "German culture", which Nietzsche felt a contradiction in terms, as well as by Wagner's celebration of his fame among the German public. All this contributed to his subsequent decision to distance himself from Wagner.
With the publication in 1878 of Human, All Too Human (a book of aphorisms ranging from metaphysics to morality to religion), a new style of Nietzsche's work became clear, highly influenced by Afrikan Spir's Thought and Reality and reacting against the pessimistic philosophy of Wagner and Schopenhauer. Nietzsche's friendship with Deussen and Rohde cooled as well. In 1879, after a significant decline in health, Nietzsche had to resign his position at Basel and was pensioned. Since his childhood, various disruptive illnesses had plagued him, including moments of shortsightedness that left him nearly blind, migraine headaches, and violent indigestion. The 1868 riding accident and diseases in 1870 may have aggravated these persistent conditions, which continued to affect him through his years at Basel, forcing him to take longer and longer holidays until regular work became impractical.
Living on his pension from Basel along with aid from friends, Nietzsche travelled frequently to find climates more conducive to his health. He lived until 1889 as an independent author in different cities. He spent many summers in Sils Maria near St. Moritz in Switzerland, and many of his winters in the Italian cities of Genoa, Rapallo, and Turin and the French city of Nice. In 1881, when France occupied Tunisia, he planned to travel to Tunis to view Europe from the outside but later abandoned that idea, probably for health reasons. Nietzsche occasionally returned to Naumburg to visit his family, and, especially during this time, he and his sister Elisabeth had repeated periods of conflict and reconciliation.
While in Genoa, Nietzsche's failing eyesight prompted him to explore the use of typewriters as a means of continuing to write. He is known to have tried using the Hansen Writing Ball, a contemporary typewriter device. In the end, a past student of his, Peter Gast, became a private secretary to Nietzsche. In 1876, Gast transcribed the crabbed, nearly illegible handwriting of Nietzsche's first time with Richard Wagner in Bayreuth. He subsequently transcribed and proofread the galleys for almost all of Nietzsche's work. On at least one occasion, on 23 February 1880, the usually poor Gast received 200 marks from their mutual friend, Paul Rée. Gast was one of the very few friends Nietzsche allowed to criticise him. In responding most enthusiastically to Also Sprach Zarathustra ("Thus Spoke Zarathustra"), Gast did feel it necessary to point out that what were described as "superfluous" people were in fact quite necessary. He went on to list the number of people Epicurus, for example, had to rely on to supply his simple diet of goat cheese.
To the end of his life, Gast and Overbeck remained consistently faithful friends. Malwida von Meysenbug remained like a motherly patron even outside the Wagner circle. Soon Nietzsche made contact with the music-critic Carl Fuchs. Nietzsche stood at the beginning of his most productive period. Beginning with Human, All Too Human in 1878, Nietzsche published one book or major section of a book each year until 1888, his last year of writing; that year, he completed five.
In 1882, Nietzsche published the first part of The Gay Science. That year he also met Lou Andreas-Salomé, through Malwida von Meysenbug and Paul Rée.
Salomé's mother took her to Rome when Salomé was 21. At a literary salon in the city, Salomé became acquainted with Paul Rée. Rée proposed marriage to her, but she, instead, proposed that they should live and study together as "brother and sister", along with another man for company, where they would establish an academic commune. Rée accepted the idea and suggested that they be joined by his friend Nietzsche. The two met Nietzsche in Rome in April 1882, and Nietzsche is believed to have instantly fallen in love with Salomé, as Rée had done. Nietzsche asked Rée to propose marriage to Salomé, which she rejected. She had been interested in Nietzsche as a friend, but not as a husband. Nietzsche nonetheless was content to join with Rée and Salomé touring through Switzerland and Italy together, planning their commune. The three travelled with Salomé's mother through Italy and considered where they would set up their "Winterplan" commune. They intended to set up their commune in an abandoned monastery, but no suitable location was found. On 13 May, in Lucerne, when Nietzsche was alone with Salomé, he earnestly proposed marriage to her again, which she rejected. He nonetheless was happy to continue with the plans for an academic commune. After discovering the relationship, Nietzsche's sister Elisabeth became determined to get Nietzsche away from the "immoral woman". Nietzsche and Salomé spent the summer together in Tautenburg in Thuringia, often with Nietzsche's sister Elisabeth as a chaperone. Salomé reports that he asked her to marry him on three separate occasions and that she refused, though the reliability of her reports of events is questionable. Arriving in Leipzig (Germany) in October, Salomé and Rée separated from Nietzsche after a falling-out between Nietzsche and Salomé, in which Salomé believed that Nietzsche was desperately in love with her.
While the three spent a number of weeks together in Leipzig in October 1882, the following month Rée and Salomé left Nietzsche, leaving for Stibbe (today Zdbowo in Poland) without any plans to meet again. Nietzsche soon fell into a period of mental anguish, although he continued to write to Rée, stating "We shall see one another from time to time, won't we?" In later recriminations, Nietzsche would blame on separate occasions the failure in his attempts to woo Salomé on Salomé, Rée, and on the intrigues of his sister (who had written letters to the families of Salomé and Rée to disrupt the plans for the commune). Nietzsche wrote of the affair in 1883, that he now felt "genuine hatred for my sister".
Amidst renewed bouts of illness, living in near-isolation after a falling out with his mother and sister regarding Salomé, Nietzsche fled to Rapallo, where he wrote the first part of Also Sprach Zarathustra in only ten days.
By 1882, Nietzsche was taking huge doses of opium and continued to have trouble sleeping. In 1883, while staying in Nice, he was writing out his own prescriptions for the sedative chloral hydrate, signing them "Dr. Nietzsche".
He turned away from the influence of Schopenhauer, and after he severed his social ties with Wagner, Nietzsche had few remaining friends. Now, with the new style of Zarathustra, his work became even more alienating, and the market received it only to the degree required by politeness. Nietzsche recognised this and maintained his solitude, though he often complained. His books remained largely unsold. In 1885, he printed only 40 copies of the fourth part of Zarathustra and distributed a fraction of them among close friends, including Helene von Druskowitz.
In 1883, he tried and failed to obtain a lecturing post at the University of Leipzig. According to a letter he wrote to Peter Gast, this was due to his "attitude towards Christianity and the concept of God".
In 1886, Nietzsche broke with his publisher Ernst Schmeitzner, disgusted by his antisemitic opinions. Nietzsche saw his own writings as "completely buried and in this anti-Semitic dump" of Schmeitzner—associating the publisher with a movement that should be "utterly rejected with cold contempt by every sensible mind". He then printed Beyond Good and Evil at his own expense. He also acquired the publication rights for his earlier works and over the next year issued second editions of The Birth of Tragedy, Human, All Too Human, Daybreak, and of The Gay Science with new prefaces placing the body of his work in a more coherent perspective. Thereafter, he saw his work as completed for a time and hoped that soon a readership would develop. In fact, interest in Nietzsche's thought did increase at this time, if rather slowly and imperceptibly to him. During these years Nietzsche met Meta von Salis, Carl Spitteler, and Gottfried Keller.
In 1886, his sister Elisabeth married the antisemite Bernhard Förster and travelled to Paraguay to found Nueva Germania, a "Germanic" colony. Through correspondence, Nietzsche's relationship with Elisabeth continued through cycles of conflict and reconciliation, but they met again only after his collapse. He continued to have frequent and painful attacks of illness, which made prolonged work impossible.
In 1887, Nietzsche wrote the polemic On the Genealogy of Morality. During the same year, he encountered the work of Fyodor Dostoyevsky, to whom he felt an immediate kinship. He also exchanged letters with Hippolyte Taine and Georg Brandes. Brandes, who had started to teach the philosophy of Søren Kierkegaard in the 1870s, wrote to Nietzsche asking him to read Kierkegaard, to which Nietzsche replied that he would come to Copenhagen and read Kierkegaard with him. However, before fulfilling this promise, Nietzsche slipped too far into illness. At the beginning of 1888, Brandes delivered in Copenhagen one of the first lectures on Nietzsche's philosophy.
Although Nietzsche had previously announced at the end of On the Genealogy of Morality a new work with the title The Will to Power: Attempt at a Revaluation of All Values, he seems to have abandoned this idea and, instead, used some of the draft passages to compose Twilight of the Idols and The Antichrist in 1888.
His health improved and he spent the summer in high spirits. In the autumn of 1888, his writings and letters began to reveal a higher estimation of his own status and "fate". He overestimated the increasing response to his writings, however, especially to the recent polemic, The Case of Wagner. On his 44th birthday, after completing Twilight of the Idols and The Antichrist, he decided to write the autobiography Ecce Homo. In its preface—which suggests Nietzsche was well aware of the interpretive difficulties his work would generate—he declares, "Hear me! For I am such and such a person. Above all, do not mistake me for someone else." In December, Nietzsche began a correspondence with August Strindberg and thought that, short of an international breakthrough, he would attempt to buy back his older writings from the publisher and have them translated into other European languages. Moreover, he planned the publication of the compilation Nietzsche contra Wagner and of the poems that made up his collection Dionysian-Dithyrambs.
On 3 January 1889, Nietzsche suffered a mental breakdown. Two policemen approached him after he caused a public disturbance in the streets of Turin. What happened remains unknown, but an often-repeated tale from shortly after his death states that Nietzsche witnessed the flogging of a horse at the other end of the Piazza Carlo Alberto, ran to the horse, threw his arms around its neck to protect it, then collapsed to the ground. In the following few days, Nietzsche sent short writings—known as the Wahnzettel or Wahnbriefe (literally "Delusion notes" or "letters")—to a number of friends including Cosima Wagner and Jacob Burckhardt. Most of them were signed "Dionysus", though some were also signed "der Gekreuzigte" meaning "the crucified one". To his former colleague Burckhardt, Nietzsche wrote:
I have had Caiaphas put in fetters. Also, last year I was crucified by the German doctors in a very drawn-out manner. Wilhelm, Bismarck, and all anti-Semites abolished.
Additionally, he commanded the German emperor to go to Rome to be shot and summoned the European powers to take military action against Germany, writing also that the pope should be put in jail and that he, Nietzsche, created the world and was in the process of having all anti-Semites shot dead.
On 6 January 1889, Burckhardt showed the letter he had received from Nietzsche to Overbeck. The following day, Overbeck received a similar letter and decided that Nietzsche's friends had to bring him back to Basel. Overbeck travelled to Turin and brought Nietzsche to a psychiatric clinic in Basel. By that time Nietzsche appeared fully in the grip of a serious mental illness, and his mother Franziska decided to transfer him to a clinic in Jena under the direction of Otto Binswanger. In January 1889, they proceeded with the planned release of Twilight of the Idols, by that time already printed and bound. From November 1889 to February 1890, the art historian Julius Langbehn attempted to cure Nietzsche, claiming that the methods of the medical doctors were ineffective in treating Nietzsche's condition. Langbehn assumed progressively greater control of Nietzsche until his secretiveness discredited him. In March 1890, Franziska removed Nietzsche from the clinic and, in May 1890, brought him to her home in Naumburg. During this process Overbeck and Gast contemplated what to do with Nietzsche's unpublished works. In February, they ordered a fifty-copy private edition of Nietzsche contra Wagner, but the publisher C. G. Naumann secretly printed one hundred. Overbeck and Gast decided to withhold publishing The Antichrist and Ecce Homo because of their more radical content. Nietzsche's reception and recognition enjoyed their first surge.
In 1893, Nietzsche's sister Elisabeth returned from Nueva Germania in Paraguay following the suicide of her husband. She studied Nietzsche's works and, piece by piece, took control of their publication. Overbeck was dismissed and Gast finally co-operated. After the death of Franziska in 1897, Nietzsche lived in Weimar, where Elisabeth cared for him and allowed visitors, including Rudolf Steiner (who in 1895 had written Friedrich Nietzsche: a Fighter Against His Time, one of the first books praising Nietzsche), to meet her uncommunicative brother. Elisabeth employed Steiner as a tutor to help her to understand her brother's philosophy. Steiner abandoned the attempt after only a few months, declaring that it was impossible to teach her anything about philosophy.
Nietzsche's insanity was originally diagnosed as tertiary syphilis, in accordance with a prevailing medical paradigm of the time. Although most commentators regard his breakdown as unrelated to his philosophy, Georges Bataille dropped dark hints ("'Man incarnate' must also go mad") and René Girard's postmortem psychoanalysis posits a worshipful rivalry with Richard Wagner. Nietzsche had previously written, "All superior men who were irresistibly drawn to throw off the yoke of any kind of morality and to frame new laws had, if they were not actually mad, no alternative but to make themselves or pretend to be mad." (Daybreak, 14) The diagnosis of syphilis has since been challenged and a diagnosis of "manic-depressive illness with periodic psychosis followed by vascular dementia" was put forward by Cybulska prior to Schain's study. Leonard Sax suggested the slow growth of a right-sided retro-orbital meningioma as an explanation of Nietzsche's dementia; Orth and Trimble postulated frontotemporal dementia while other researchers have proposed a hereditary stroke disorder called CADASIL. Poisoning by mercury, a treatment for syphilis at the time of Nietzsche's death, has also been suggested.
In 1898 and 1899, Nietzsche suffered at least two strokes. They partially paralysed him, leaving him unable to speak or walk. He likely suffered from clinical hemiparesis/hemiplegia on the left side of his body by 1899. After contracting pneumonia in mid-August 1900, he had another stroke during the night of 24–25 August and died at about noon on 25 August. Elisabeth had him buried beside his father at the church in Röcken near Lützen. His friend and secretary Gast gave his funeral oration, proclaiming: "Holy be your name to all future generations!"
Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche compiled The Will to Power from Nietzsche's unpublished notebooks and published it posthumously in 1901. Because his sister arranged the book based on her own conflation of several of Nietzsche's early outlines and took liberties with the material, the scholarly consensus has been that it does not reflect Nietzsche's intent. (For example, Elisabeth removed aphorism 35 of The Antichrist, where Nietzsche rewrote a passage of the Bible.) Indeed, Mazzino Montinari, the editor of Nietzsche's Nachlass, called it a forgery. Yet, the endeavour to rescue Nietzsche's reputation by discrediting The Will to Power often leads to scepticism about the value of his late notes, even of his whole Nachlass. However, his Nachlass and The Will to Power are distinct.
General commentators and Nietzsche scholars, whether emphasising his cultural background or his language, overwhelmingly label Nietzsche as a "German philosopher". Others do not assign him a national category. While Germany had not yet been unified into a nation-state, Nietzsche was born a citizen of Prussia, which was mostly part of the German Confederation. His birthplace, Röcken, is in the modern German state of Saxony-Anhalt. When he accepted his post at Basel, Nietzsche applied for annulment of his Prussian citizenship. The official revocation of his citizenship came in a document dated 17 April 1869, and for the rest of his life he remained officially stateless.
At least toward the end of his life, Nietzsche believed his ancestors were Polish. He wore a signet ring bearing the Radwan coat of arms, traceable back to Polish nobility of medieval times and the surname "Nicki" of the Polish noble (szlachta) family bearing that coat of arms. Gotard Nietzsche, a member of the Nicki family, left Poland for Prussia. His descendants later settled in the Electorate of Saxony circa the year 1700. Nietzsche wrote in 1888, "My ancestors were Polish noblemen (Nietzky); the type seems to have been well preserved despite three generations of German mothers." At one point, Nietzsche becomes even more adamant about his Polish identity. "I am a pure-blooded Polish nobleman, without a single drop of bad blood, certainly not German blood." On yet another occasion, Nietzsche stated, "Germany is a great nation only because its people have so much Polish blood in their veins.... I am proud of my Polish descent." Nietzsche believed his name might have been Germanised, in one letter claiming, "I was taught to ascribe the origin of my blood and name to Polish noblemen who were called Niëtzky and left their home and nobleness about a hundred years ago, finally yielding to unbearable suppression: they were Protestants."
Most scholars dispute Nietzsche's account of his family's origins. Hans von Müller debunked the genealogy put forward by Nietzsche's sister in favour of Polish noble heritage. Max Oehler, Nietzsche's cousin and curator of the Nietzsche Archive at Weimar, argued that all of Nietzsche's ancestors bore German names, including the wives' families. Oehler claims that Nietzsche came from a long line of German Lutheran clergymen on both sides of his family, and modern scholars regard the claim of Nietzsche's Polish ancestry as "pure invention". Colli and Montinari, the editors of Nietzsche's assembled letters, gloss Nietzsche's claims as a "mistaken belief" and "without foundation." The name Nietzsche itself is not a Polish name, but an exceptionally common one throughout central Germany, in this and cognate forms (such as Nitsche and Nitzke). The name derives from the forename Nikolaus, abbreviated to Nick; assimilated with the Slavic Nitz; it first became Nitsche and then Nietzsche.
It is not known why Nietzsche wanted to be thought of as Polish nobility. According to biographer R. J. Hollingdale, Nietzsche's propagation of the Polish ancestry myth may have been part of his "campaign against Germany". Nicholas D. More states that Nietzsche's claims of having an illustrious lineage were a parody on autobiographical conventions, and suspects Ecce Homo, with its self-laudatory titles, such as "Why I Am So Wise", as being a work of satire. He concludes that Nietzsche's supposed Polish genealogy was a joke—not a delusion.
Nietzsche was never married. He proposed to Lou Salomé three times and each time was rejected. One theory blames Salomé's view on sexuality as one of the reasons for her alienation from Nietzsche. As articulated in her 1898 novella Fenitschka, Salomé viewed the idea of sexual intercourse as prohibitive and marriage as a violation, with some suggesting that they indicated sexual repression and neurosis. Reflecting on unrequited love, Nietzsche considered that "indispensable ... to the lover is his unrequited love, which he would at no price relinquish for a state of indifference".
Deussen cited the episode of Cologne's brothel in February 1865 as instrumental to understanding the philosopher's way of thinking, mostly about women. Nietzsche was surreptitiously accompanied to a "call house" from which he clumsily escaped upon seeing "a half dozen apparitions dressed in sequins and veils." According to Deussen, Nietzsche "never decided to remain unmarried all his life. For him, women had to sacrifice themselves to the care and benefit of men." Nietzsche scholar Joachim Köhler [de] has attempted to explain Nietzsche's life history and philosophy by claiming that he was homosexual. Köhler argues that Nietzsche's supposed syphilis, which is "... usually considered to be the product of his encounter with a prostitute in a brothel in Cologne or Leipzig, is equally likely. Some maintain that Nietzsche contracted it in a male brothel in Genoa." The acquisition of the infection from a homosexual brothel was the theory believed by Sigmund Freud, who cited Otto Binswanger as his source. Köhler also suggests that Nietzsche had a romantic relationship, as well as a friendship, with Paul Rée. There is the claim that Nietzsche's homosexuality was widely known in the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society, with Nietzsche's friend Paul Deussen claiming that "he was a man who had never touched a woman."
Köhler's views have not found wide acceptance among Nietzsche scholars and commentators. Allan Megill argues that, while Köhler's claim that Nietzsche was conflicted about his homosexual desire cannot simply be dismissed, "the evidence is very weak," and Köhler may be projecting twentieth-century understandings of sexuality on nineteenth-century notions of friendship. It is also rumoured that Nietzsche frequented heterosexual brothels. Nigel Rodgers and Mel Thompson have argued that continuous sickness and headaches hindered Nietzsche from engaging much with women. Yet they offer other examples in which Nietzsche expressed his affections to women, including Wagner's wife Cosima Wagner.
Other scholars have argued that Köhler's sexuality-based interpretation is not helpful in understanding Nietzsche's philosophy. However, there are also those who stress that, if Nietzsche preferred men—with this preference constituting his psycho-sexual make-up—but could not admit his desires to himself, it meant he acted in conflict with his philosophy.
Because of Nietzsche's evocative style and provocative ideas, his philosophy generates passionate reactions. His works remain controversial, due to varying interpretations and misinterpretations. In Western philosophy, Nietzsche's writings have been described as a case of free revolutionary thought, that is, revolutionary in its structure and problems, although not tied to any revolutionary project. His writings have also been described as a revolutionary project in which his philosophy serves as the foundation of a European cultural rebirth.
The Apollonian and Dionysian is a two-fold philosophical concept based on two figures in ancient Greek mythology, Apollo and Dionysus. This relationship takes the form of a dialectic. Even though the concept is related to The Birth of Tragedy, the poet Hölderlin had already spoken of it, and Winckelmann had talked of Bacchus.
Nietzsche found in classical Athenian tragedy an art form that transcended the pessimism found in the so-called wisdom of Silenus. The Greek spectators, by looking into the abyss of human suffering depicted by characters on stage, passionately and joyously affirmed life, finding it worth living. The main theme in The Birth of Tragedy is that the fusion of Dionysian and Apollonian Kunsttriebe ("artistic impulses") forms dramatic arts or tragedies. He argued that this fusion has not been achieved since the ancient Greek tragedians. Apollo represents harmony, progress, clarity, logic and the principle of individuation, whereas Dionysus represents disorder, intoxication, emotion, ecstasy and unity (hence the omission of the principle of individuation). Nietzsche used these two forces because, for him, the world of mind and order on one side, and passion and chaos on the other, formed principles that were fundamental to the Greek culture: the Apollonian a dreaming state, full of illusions; and Dionysian a state of intoxication, representing the liberations of instinct and dissolution of boundaries. In this mould, a man appears as the satyr. He is the horror of the annihilation of the principle of individuality and at the same time someone who delights in its destruction.
Apollonian and Dionysian juxtapositions appear in the interplay of tragedy: the tragic hero of the drama, the main protagonist, struggles to make (Apollonian) order of his unjust and chaotic (Dionysian) fate, though he dies unfulfilled. Elaborating on the conception of Hamlet as an intellectual who cannot make up his mind, and is a living antithesis to the man of action, Nietzsche argues that a Dionysian figure possesses the knowledge that his actions cannot change the eternal balance of things, and it disgusts him enough not to act at all. Hamlet falls under this category—he glimpsed the supernatural reality through the Ghost; he has gained true knowledge and knows that no action of his has the power to change this. For the audience of such drama, this tragedy allows them to sense what Nietzsche called the Primordial Unity, which revives Dionysian nature. He describes primordial unity as the increase of strength, the experience of fullness and plenitude bestowed by frenzy. Frenzy acts as intoxication and is crucial for the physiological condition that enables the creation of any art. Stimulated by this state, a person's artistic will is enhanced:
In this state one enriches everything out of one's own fullness: whatever one sees, whatever wills is seen swelled, taut, strong, overloaded with strength. A man in this state transforms things until they mirror his power—until they are reflections of his perfection. This having to transform into perfection is—art.
Nietzsche is adamant that the works of Aeschylus and Sophocles represent the apex of artistic creation, the true realisation of tragedy; it is with Euripides, that tragedy begins its Untergang (literally 'going under' or 'downward-way;' meaning decline, deterioration, downfall, death, etc.). Nietzsche objects to Euripides' use of Socratic rationalism and morality in his tragedies, claiming that the infusion of ethics and reason robs tragedy of its foundation, namely the fragile balance of the Dionysian and Apollonian. Socrates emphasised reason to such a degree that he diffused the value of myth and suffering to human knowledge. Plato continued along this path in his dialogues, and the modern world eventually inherited reason at the expense of artistic impulses found in the Apollonian and Dionysian dichotomy. He notes that without the Apollonian, the Dionysian lacks the form and structure to make a coherent piece of art, and without the Dionysian, the Apollonian lacks the necessary vitality and passion. Only the fertile interplay of these two forces brought together as an art represented the best of Greek tragedy.
An example of the impact of this idea can be seen in the book Patterns of Culture, where anthropologist Ruth Benedict acknowledges Nietzschean opposites of "Apollonian" and "Dionysian" as the stimulus for her thoughts about Native American cultures. Carl Jung has written extensively on the dichotomy in Psychological Types. Michel Foucault commented that his own book Madness and Civilization should be read "under the sun of the great Nietzschean inquiry". Here Foucault referenced Nietzsche's description of the birth and death of tragedy and his explanation that the subsequent tragedy of the Western world was the refusal of the tragic and, with that, refusal of the sacred. Painter Mark Rothko was influenced by Nietzsche's view of tragedy presented in The Birth of Tragedy.
Nietzsche claimed the death of God would eventually lead to the realisation that there can never be a universal perspective on things and that the traditional idea of objective truth is incoherent. Nietzsche rejected the idea of objective reality, arguing that knowledge is contingent and conditional, relative to various fluid perspectives or interests. This leads to constant reassessment of rules (i.e., those of philosophy, the scientific method, etc.) according to the circumstances of individual perspectives. This view has acquired the name perspectivism.
In Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Nietzsche proclaimed that a table of values hangs above every great person. He pointed out that what is common among different peoples is the act of esteeming, of creating values, even if the values are different from one person to the next. Nietzsche asserted that what made people great was not the content of their beliefs, but the act of valuing. Thus the values a community strives to articulate are not as important as the collective will to see those values come to pass. The willingness is more essential than the merit of the goal itself, according to Nietzsche. "A thousand goals have there been so far", says Zarathustra, "for there are a thousand peoples. Only the yoke for the thousand necks is still lacking: the one goal is lacking. Humanity still has no goal." Hence, the title of the aphorism, "On The Thousand And One Goal". The idea that one value-system is no more worthy than the next, although it may not be directly ascribed to Nietzsche, has become a common premise in modern social science. Max Weber and Martin Heidegger absorbed it and made it their own. It shaped their philosophical and cultural endeavours, as well as their political understanding. Weber, for example, relied on Nietzsche's perspectivism by maintaining that objectivity is still possible—but only after a particular perspective, value, or end has been established.
Among his critique of traditional philosophy of Kant, Descartes, and Plato in Beyond Good and Evil, Nietzsche attacked the thing in itself and cogito ergo sum ("I think, therefore I am") as unfalsifiable beliefs based on naive acceptance of previous notions and fallacies. Philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre put Nietzsche in a high place in the history of philosophy. While criticising nihilism and Nietzsche together as a sign of general decay, he still commended him for recognising psychological motives behind Kant and Hume's moral philosophy:
For it was Nietzsche's historic achievement to understand more clearly than any other philosopher ... not only that what purported to be appeals of objectivity were in fact expressions of subjective will, but also the nature of the problems that this posed for philosophy.
In Beyond Good and Evil and On the Genealogy of Morality, Nietzsche's genealogical account of the development of modern moral systems occupies a central place. For Nietzsche, a fundamental shift took place during the human history from thinking in terms of "good and bad" toward "good and evil".
The initial form of morality was set by a warrior aristocracy and other ruling castes of ancient civilisations. Aristocratic values of good and bad coincided with and reflected their relationship to lower castes such as slaves. Nietzsche presented this "master morality" as the original system of morality—perhaps best associated with Homeric Greece. To be "good" was to be happy and to have the things related to happiness: wealth, strength, health, power, etc. To be "bad" was to be like the slaves over whom the aristocracy ruled: poor, weak, sick, pathetic—objects of pity or disgust rather than hatred.
"Slave morality" developed as a reaction to master morality. Value emerges from the contrast between good and evil: good being associated with other-worldliness, charity, piety, restraint, meekness, and submission; while evil is worldly, cruel, selfish, wealthy, and aggressive. Nietzsche saw slave morality as pessimistic and fearful, its values emerging to improve the self-perception of slaves. He associated slave morality with the Jewish and Christian traditions, as it is born out of the ressentiment of slaves. Nietzsche argued that the idea of equality allowed slaves to overcome their own conditions without despising themselves. By denying the inherent inequality of people—in success, strength, beauty, and intelligence—slaves acquired a method of escape, namely by generating new values on the basis of rejecting master morality, which frustrated them. It was used to overcome the slave's sense of inferiority before their (better-off) masters. It does so by depicting slave weakness, for example, as a matter of choice, by relabelling it as "meekness". The "good man" of master morality is precisely the "evil man" of slave morality, while the "bad man" is recast as the "good man".
Nietzsche saw slave morality as a source of the nihilism that has overtaken Europe. Modern Europe and Christianity exist in a hypocritical state due to a tension between master and slave morality, both contradictory values determining, to varying degrees, the values of most Europeans (who are "motley"). Nietzsche called for exceptional people not to be ashamed in the face of a supposed morality-for-all, which he deems to be harmful to the flourishing of exceptional people. He cautioned, however, that morality, per se, is not bad; it is good for the masses and should be left to them. Exceptional people, in contrast, should follow their own "inner law". A favourite motto of Nietzsche, taken from Pindar, reads: "Become what you are."
A long-standing assumption about Nietzsche is that he preferred master over slave morality. However, eminent Nietzsche scholar Walter Kaufmann rejected this interpretation, writing that Nietzsche's analyses of these two types of morality were used only in a descriptive and historic sense; they were not meant for any kind of acceptance or glorification. On the other hand, Nietzsche called master morality "a higher order of values, the noble ones, those that say Yes to life, those that guarantee the future". Just as "there is an order of rank between man and man", there is also an order of rank "between morality and morality". Nietzsche waged a philosophic war against the slave morality of Christianity in his "revaluation of all values" to bring about the victory of a new master morality that he called the "philosophy of the future" (Beyond Good and Evil is subtitled Prelude to a Philosophy of the Future).
In Daybreak, Nietzsche began his "Campaign against Morality". He called himself an "immoralist" and harshly criticised the prominent moral philosophies of his day: Christianity, Kantianism, and utilitarianism. Nietzsche's concept "God is dead" applies to the doctrines of Christendom, though not to all other faiths: he claimed that Buddhism is a successful religion that he complimented for fostering critical thought. Still, Nietzsche saw his philosophy as a counter-movement to nihilism through appreciation of art:
Art as the single superior counterforce against all will to negation of life, art as the anti-Christian, anti-Buddhist, anti-Nihilist par excellence.
Nietzsche claimed that the Christian faith as practised was not a proper representation of Jesus' teachings, as it forced people merely to believe in the way of Jesus but not to act as Jesus did; in particular, his example of refusing to judge people, something that Christians constantly did. He condemned institutionalised Christianity for emphasising a morality of pity (Mitleid), which assumes an inherent illness in society:
Christianity is called the religion of pity. Pity stands opposed to the tonic emotions which heighten our vitality: it has a depressing effect. We are deprived of strength when we feel pity. That loss of strength in which suffering as such inflicts on life is still further increased and multiplied by pity. Pity makes suffering contagious.
In Ecce Homo Nietzsche called the establishment of moral systems based on a dichotomy of good and evil a "calamitous error", and wished to initiate a re-evaluation of the values of the Christian world. He indicated his desire to bring about a new, more naturalistic source of value in the vital impulses of life itself.
While Nietzsche attacked the principles of Judaism, he was not antisemitic: in his work On the Genealogy of Morality, he explicitly condemned antisemitism and pointed out that his attack on Judaism was not an attack on contemporary Jewish people but specifically an attack upon the ancient Jewish priesthood who he claimed antisemitic Christians paradoxically based their views upon. An Israeli historian who performed a statistical analysis of everything Nietzsche wrote about Jews claims that cross-references and context make clear that 85% of the negative comments are attacks on Christian doctrine or, sarcastically, on Richard Wagner.
Nietzsche felt that modern antisemitism was "despicable" and contrary to European ideals. Its cause, in his opinion, was the growth in European nationalism and the endemic "jealousy and hatred" of Jewish success. He wrote that Jews should be thanked for helping uphold a respect for the philosophies of ancient Greece, and for giving rise to "the noblest human being (Christ), the purest philosopher (Baruch Spinoza), the mightiest book, and the most effective moral code in the world".
The statement "God is dead," occurring in several of Nietzsche's works (notably in The Gay Science), has become one of his best-known remarks. On the basis of it, many commentators regard Nietzsche as an atheist; others (such as Kaufmann) suggest that this statement might reflect a more subtle understanding of divinity. Scientific developments and the increasing secularisation of Europe had effectively 'killed' the Abrahamic God, who had served as the basis for meaning and value in the West for more than a thousand years. The death of God may lead beyond bare perspectivism to outright nihilism, the belief that nothing has any inherent importance and that life lacks purpose. While Nietzsche rejected the traditional Christian morality and theology, he also rejected the nihilism which many thought was the only alternative to it.
Nietzsche believed that Christian moral doctrine was originally constructed to counteract nihilism. It provides people with traditional beliefs about the moral values of good and evil, belief in God (whose existence one might appeal to in justifying the evil in the world), and a framework with which one might claim to have objective knowledge. In constructing a world where objective knowledge is supposed to be possible, Christianity is an antidote to a primal form of nihilism—the despair of meaninglessness. As Heidegger put the problem, "If God as the supra sensory ground and goal of all reality is dead if the supra sensory world of the ideas has suffered the loss of its obligatory and above it its vitalising and upbuilding power, then nothing more remains to which man can cling and by which he can orient himself."
One such reaction to the loss of meaning is what Nietzsche called passive nihilism, which he recognised in the pessimistic philosophy of Schopenhauer. Schopenhauer's doctrine—which Nietzsche also referred to as Western Buddhism—advocates separating oneself from will and desires to reduce suffering. Nietzsche characterised this ascetic attitude as a "will to nothingness". Life turns away from itself as there is nothing of value to be found in the world. This moving away of all value in the world is characteristic of the nihilist, although, in this, the nihilist appears to be inconsistent; this "will to nothingness" is still a (disavowed) form of willing.
A nihilist is a man who judges that the real world ought not to be and that the world as it ought to do not exist. According to this view, our existence (action, suffering, willing, feeling) has no meaning: this 'in vain' is the nihilists' pathos—an inconsistency on the part of the nihilists.
Nietzsche approached the problem of nihilism as a deeply personal one, stating that this problem of the modern world had "become conscious" in him. Furthermore, he emphasised the danger of nihilism and the possibilities it offers, as seen in his statement that "I praise, I do not reproach, [nihilism's] arrival. I believe it is one of the greatest crises, a moment of the deepest self-reflection of humanity. Whether man recovers from it, whether he becomes a master of this crisis, is a question of his strength!" According to Nietzsche, it is only when nihilism is overcome that a culture can have a true foundation on which to thrive. He wished to hasten its coming only so that he could also hasten its ultimate departure. Heidegger interpreted the death of God with what he explained as the death of metaphysics. He concluded that metaphysics has reached its potential and that the ultimate fate and downfall of metaphysics was proclaimed with the statement "God is dead."
Scholars such as Nishitani and Parkes have aligned Nietzsche's religious thought with Buddhist thinkers, particularly those of the Mahayana tradition. Occasionally, Nietzsche has also been considered in relation to Catholic mystics such as Meister Eckhart. Milne has argued against such interpretations on the grounds that such thinkers from Western and Eastern religious traditions strongly emphasise the divestment of will and the loss of ego, while Nietzsche offers a robust defence of egoism. Milne argues that Nietzsche's religious thought is better understood in relation to his self-professed ancestors: “Heraclitus, Empedocles, Spinoza, Goethe". Milne plays particularly close attention to Nietzsche’s relationship to Goethe, who has typically been neglected in research by academic philosophers. Milne shows that Goethe’s views on the one and the many allow a reciprocal determinism between part and whole, meaning that a claimed identity between part and whole does not give the part value solely in terms of belonging to the whole. In essence, this allows for a unitive sense of the individual’s relationship to the universe, while also fostering a sense of “self-esteem” which Nietzsche found lacking in mystics such as Eckhart.
With regard to Nietzsche's development of thought, it has been noted in research that although he dealt with "nihilistic" themes ("pessimism, with nirvana and with nothingness and non-being") from 1869 onwards, a conceptual use of nihilism first took place in handwritten notes in mid-1880. This period saw the publication of a then popular work that reconstructed so-called "Russian nihilism" on the basis of Russian newspaper reports (N. Karlowitsch: The Development of Nihilism. Berlin 1880), which is significant for Nietzsche's terminology .
A basic element in Nietzsche's philosophical outlook is the "will to power" (der Wille zur Macht), which he maintained provides a basis for understanding human behaviour—more so than competing explanations, such as the ones based on pressure for adaptation or survival. As such, according to Nietzsche, the drive for conservation appears as the major motivator of human or animal behaviour only in exceptions, as the general condition of life is not one of a 'struggle for existence.' More often than not, self-conservation is a consequence of a creature's will to exert its strength on the outside world.
In presenting his theory of human behaviour, Nietzsche also addressed and attacked concepts from philosophies then popularly embraced, such as Schopenhauer's notion of an aimless will or that of utilitarianism. Utilitarians claim that what moves people is the desire to be happy and accumulate pleasure in their lives. But such a conception of happiness Nietzsche rejected as something limited to, and characteristic of, the bourgeois lifestyle of the English society, and instead put forth the idea that happiness is not an aim per se. It is a consequence of overcoming hurdles to one's actions and the fulfilment of the will.
Related to his theory of the will to power is his speculation, which he did not deem final, regarding the reality of the physical world, including inorganic matter—that, like man's affections and impulses, the material world is also set by the dynamics of a form of the will to power. At the core of his theory is a rejection of atomism—the idea that matter is composed of stable, indivisible units (atoms). Instead, he seemed to have accepted the conclusions of Ruđer Bošković, who explained the qualities of matter as a result of an interplay of forces. One study of Nietzsche defines his fully developed concept of the will to power as "the element from which derive both the quantitative difference of related forces and the quality that devolves into each force in this relation" revealing the will to power as "the principle of the synthesis of forces". Of such forces Nietzsche said they could perhaps be viewed as a primitive form of the will. Likewise, he rejected the view that the movement of bodies is ruled by inexorable laws of nature, positing instead that movement was governed by the power relations between bodies and forces.
Other scholars disagree that Nietzsche considered the material world to be a form of the will to power: Nietzsche thoroughly criticised metaphysics, and by including the will to power in the material world, he would simply be setting up a new metaphysics. Other than Aphorism 36 in Beyond Good and Evil, where he raised a question regarding will to power as being in the material world, they argue, it was only in his notes (unpublished by himself), where he wrote about a metaphysical will to power. And they also claim that Nietzsche directed his landlord to burn those notes in 1888 when he left Sils Maria. According to these scholars, the "burning" story supports their thesis that Nietzsche rejected his project on the will to power at the end of his lucid life. However, a recent study (Huang 2019) shows that although it is true that in 1888 Nietzsche wanted some of his notes burned, this indicates little about his project on the will to power, not only because only 11 "aphorisms" saved from the flames were ultimately incorporated into The Will to Power (this book contains 1067 "aphorisms"), but also because these abandoned notes mainly focus on topics such as the critique of morality while touching upon the "feeling of power" only once.
"Eternal return" (also known as "eternal recurrence") is a hypothetical concept that posits that the universe has been recurring, and will continue to recur, for an infinite number of times across infinite time or space. It is a purely physical concept, involving no supernatural reincarnation, but the return of beings in the same bodies. Nietzsche first proposed the idea of eternal return in a parable in Section 341 of The Gay Science, and also in the chapter "Of the Vision and the Riddle" in Thus Spoke Zarathustra, among other places. Nietzsche considered it as potentially "horrifying and paralyzing", and said that its burden is the "heaviest weight" imaginable (" das schwerste Gewicht"). The wish for the eternal return of all events would mark the ultimate affirmation of life, a reaction to Schopenhauer's praise of denying the will-to-live. To comprehend eternal recurrence, and to not only come to peace with it but to embrace it, requires amor fati, "love of fate". As Heidegger pointed out in his lectures on Nietzsche, Nietzsche's first mention of eternal recurrence presents this concept as a hypothetical question rather than stating it as fact. According to Heidegger, it is the burden imposed by the question of eternal recurrence – the mere possibility of it, and the reality of speculating on that possibility – which is so significant in modern thought: "The way Nietzsche here patterns the first communication of the thought of the 'greatest burden' [of eternal recurrence] makes it clear that this 'thought of thoughts' is at the same time 'the most burdensome thought.'"
Alexander Nehamas writes in Nietzsche: Life as Literature of three ways of seeing the eternal recurrence:
Nehamas concluded that, if individuals constitute themselves through their actions, they can only maintain themselves in their current state by living in a recurrence of past actions (Nehamas, 153). Nietzsche's thought is the negation of the idea of a history of salvation.
Another concept important to understanding Nietzsche is the Übermensch (Superman). Writing about nihilism in Also Sprach Zarathustra, Nietzsche introduced an Übermensch. According to Laurence Lampert, "the death of God must be followed by a long twilight of piety and nihilism (II. 19; III. 8). Zarathustra's gift of the overman is given to mankind not aware of the problem to which the overman is the solution." Zarathustra presents the Übermensch as the creator of new values, and he appears as a solution to the problem of the death of God and nihilism. The Übermensch does not follow the morality of common people since that favours mediocrity but rises above the notion of good and evil and above the "herd". In this way Zarathustra proclaims his ultimate goal as the journey towards the state of the Übermensch. He wants a kind of spiritual evolution of self-awareness and overcoming of traditional views on morality and justice that stem from the superstitious beliefs still deeply rooted or related to the notion of God and Christianity.
From Thus Spoke Zarathustra (Zarathustra's Prologue; pp. 9–11):
I teach you the Übermensch. Man is something that shall be overcome. What have you done to overcome him? All beings so far have created something beyond themselves: and you want to be the ebb of that great tide, and would rather go back to the beast than overcome man? What is the ape to man? A laughing-stock or a painful embarrassment. And just the same shall man be to the Übermensch: a laughing-stock or a painful embarrassment. You have made your way from worm to man, and much within you is still worm. Once you were apes, and even yet man is more of an ape than any ape. Even the wisest among you is only a conflict and hybrid of plant and ghost. But do I bid you become ghosts or plants? Behold, I teach you the Übermensch! The Übermensch is the meaning of the earth. Let your will say: The Übermensch shall be the meaning of the earth... Man is a rope stretched between the animal and the Übermensch—a rope over an abyss... What is great in man is that he is a bridge and not a goal: what is lovable in man is that he is an over-going and a going under.
Zarathustra contrasts the Übermensch with the last man of egalitarian modernity (the most obvious example being democracy), an alternative goal humanity might set for itself. The last man is possible only by mankind's having bred an apathetic creature who has no great passion or commitment, who is unable to dream, who merely earns his living and keeps warm. This concept appears only in Thus Spoke Zarathustra, and is presented as a condition that would render the creation of the Übermensch impossible.
Some have suggested that the eternal return is related to the Übermensch, since willing the eternal return of the same is a necessary step if the Übermensch is to create new values untainted by the spirit of gravity or asceticism. Values involve a rank-ordering of things, and so are inseparable from approval and disapproval, yet it was dissatisfaction that prompted men to seek refuge in other-worldliness and embrace other-worldly values. It could seem that the Übermensch, in being devoted to any values at all, would necessarily fail to create values that did not share some bit of asceticism. Willing the eternal recurrence is presented as accepting the existence of the low while still recognising it as the low, and thus as overcoming the spirit of gravity or asceticism. One must have the strength of the Übermensch to will the eternal recurrence. Only the Übermensch will have the strength to fully accept all of his past life, including his failures and misdeeds, and to truly will their eternal return. This action nearly kills Zarathustra, for example, and most human beings cannot avoid other-worldliness because they really are sick, not because of any choice they made.
The Nazis attempted to incorporate the concept into their ideology by means of taking Nietzsche's figurative form of speech and creating a literal superiority over other ethnicities. After his death, Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche became the curator and editor of her brother's manuscripts. She reworked Nietzsche's unpublished writings to fit her own German nationalist ideology while often contradicting or obfuscating Nietzsche's stated opinions, which were explicitly opposed to antisemitism and nationalism. Through her published editions, Nietzsche's work became associated with fascism and Nazism; 20th-century scholars contested this interpretation of his work and corrected editions of his writings were soon made available.
Although Nietzsche has been misrepresented as a predecessor to Nazism, he criticised antisemitism, pan-Germanism and, to a lesser extent, nationalism. Thus, he broke with his editor in 1886 because of his opposition to his editor's antisemitic stances, and his rupture with Richard Wagner, expressed in The Case of Wagner and Nietzsche contra Wagner, both of which he wrote in 1888, had much to do with Wagner's endorsement of pan-Germanism and antisemitism—and also of his rallying to Christianity. In a 29 March 1887 letter to Theodor Fritsch, Nietzsche mocked antisemites, Fritsch, Eugen Dühring, Wagner, Ebrard, Wahrmund, and the leading advocate of pan-Germanism, Paul de Lagarde, who would become, along with Wagner and Houston Chamberlain, the main official influences of Nazism. This 1887 letter to Fritsch ended by: "And finally, how do you think I feel when the name Zarathustra is mouthed by anti-Semites?" In contrast to these examples, Nietzsche's close friend Franz Overbeck recalled in his memoirs, "When he speaks frankly, the opinions he expresses about Jews go, in their severity, beyond any anti-Semitism. The foundation of his anti-Christianity is essentially anti-Semitic."
Friedrich Nietzsche held a pessimistic view of modern society and culture. He believed the press and mass culture led to conformity, brought about mediocrity, and the lack of intellectual progress was leading to the decline of the human species. In his opinion, some people would be able to become superior individuals through the use of willpower. By rising above mass culture, those persons would produce higher, brighter, and healthier human beings.
A trained philologist, Nietzsche had a thorough knowledge of Greek philosophy. He read Kant, Plato, Mill, Schopenhauer and Spir, who became the main opponents in his philosophy, and later engaged, via the work of Kuno Fischer in particular, with the thought of Baruch Spinoza, whom he saw as his "precursor" in many respects but as a personification of the "ascetic ideal" in others. However, Nietzsche referred to Kant as a "moral fanatic", Plato as "boring", Mill as a "blockhead", and of Spinoza, he asked: "How much of personal timidity and vulnerability does this masquerade of a sickly recluse betray?" He likewise expressed contempt for British author George Eliot.
Nietzsche's philosophy, while innovative and revolutionary, was indebted to many predecessors. While at Basel, Nietzsche lectured on pre-Platonic philosophers for several years, and the text of this lecture series has been characterised as a "lost link" in the development of his thought. "In it, concepts such as the will to power, the eternal return of the same, the overman, gay science, self-overcoming and so on receive rough, unnamed formulations and are linked to specific pre-Platonic, especially Heraclitus, who emerges as a pre-Platonic Nietzsche." The pre-Socratic thinker Heraclitus was known for rejecting the concept of being as a constant and eternal principle of the universe and embracing "flux" and incessant change. His symbolism of the world as "child play" marked by amoral spontaneity and lack of definite rules was appreciated by Nietzsche. Due to his Heraclitean sympathies, Nietzsche was also a vociferous critic of Parmenides, who, in contrast to Heraclitus, viewed the world as a single, unchanging Being.
In his Egotism in German Philosophy, George Santayana claimed that Nietzsche's whole philosophy was a reaction to Schopenhauer. Santayana wrote that Nietzsche's work was "an emendation of that of Schopenhauer. The will to live would become the will to dominate; pessimism founded on reflection would become optimism founded on courage; the suspense of the will in contemplation would yield to a more biological account of intelligence and taste; finally in the place of pity and asceticism (Schopenhauer's two principles of morals) Nietzsche would set up the duty of asserting the will at all costs and being cruelly but beautifully strong. These points of difference from Schopenhauer cover the whole philosophy of Nietzsche."
The superficial similarity of Nietzsche's Übermensch to Thomas Carlyle's Hero as well as both authors' rhetorical prose style has led to speculation concerning the degree to which Nietzsche might have been influenced by his reading of Carlyle. G. K. Chesterton believed that "Out of [Carlyle] flows most of the philosophy of Nietzsche", qualifying his statement by adding that they were "profoundly different" in character. Ruth apRoberts has shown that Carlyle anticipated Nietzsche in asserting the importance of metaphor (with Nietzsche's metaphor-fiction theory "appear[ing] to owe something to Carlyle"), announcing the death of God, and recognising both Goethe's Entsagen (renunciation) and Novalis's Selbsttödtung (self-annihilation) as prerequisites for engaging in philosophy. apRoberts writes that "Nietzsche and Carlyle had the same German sources, but Nietzsche may owe more to Carlyle than he cares to admit", noting that "[Nietzsche] takes the trouble to repudiate Carlyle with malicious emphasis." Ralph Jessop, senior lecturer at the University of Glasgow, has recently argued that a reassessment of Carlyle's influence on Nietzsche is "long-overdue".
Nietzsche expressed admiration for 17th-century French moralists such as La Rochefoucauld, La Bruyère and Vauvenargues, as well as for Stendhal. The organicism of Paul Bourget influenced Nietzsche, as did that of Rudolf Virchow and Alfred Espinas. In 1867 Nietzsche wrote in a letter that he was trying to improve his German style of writing with the help of Lessing, Lichtenberg and Schopenhauer. It was probably Lichtenberg (along with Paul Rée) whose aphoristic style of writing contributed to Nietzsche's own use of aphorism. Nietzsche early learned of Darwinism through Friedrich Albert Lange. The essays of Ralph Waldo Emerson had a profound influence on Nietzsche, who "loved Emerson from first to last", wrote "Never have I felt so much at home in a book", and called him "[the] author who has been richest in ideas in this century so far". Hippolyte Taine influenced Nietzsche's view on Rousseau and Napoleon. Notably, he also read some of the posthumous works of Charles Baudelaire, Tolstoy's My Religion, Ernest Renan's Life of Jesus, and Fyodor Dostoyevsky's Demons. Nietzsche called Dostoyevsky "the only psychologist from whom I have anything to learn". While Nietzsche never mentions Max Stirner, the similarities in their ideas have prompted a minority of interpreters to suggest a relationship between the two.
In 1861, Nietzsche wrote an enthusiastic essay on his "favorite poet," Friedrich Hölderlin, mostly forgotten at that time. He also expressed deep appreciation for Stifter's Indian Summer, Byron's Manfred and Twain's Tom Sawyer.
A Louis Jacolliot translation of the Calcutta version of the ancient Hindu text called the Manusmriti was reviewed by Friedrich Nietzsche. He commented on it both favourably and unfavorably:
Nietzsche's works did not reach a wide readership during his active writing career. However, in 1888 the influential Danish critic Georg Brandes aroused considerable excitement about Nietzsche through a series of lectures he gave at the University of Copenhagen. In the years after Nietzsche's death in 1900, his works became better known, and readers have responded to them in complex and sometimes controversial ways. Many Germans eventually discovered his appeals for greater individualism and personality development in Thus Spoke Zarathustra, but responded to them divergently. He had some following among left-wing Germans in the 1890s; in 1894–1895 German conservatives wanted to ban his work as subversive. During the late 19th century Nietzsche's ideas were commonly associated with anarchist movements and appear to have had influence within them, particularly in France, Germany, Great Britain and the United States. Gustav Landauer is credited with the most in-depth appreciation and critique of Nietzsche's ideas from an anarchist perspective. H.L. Mencken produced the first book on Nietzsche in English in 1907, The Philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche, and in 1910 a book of translated paragraphs from Nietzsche, increasing knowledge of his philosophy in the United States. Nietzsche is known today as a precursor to existentialism, post-structuralism and postmodernism.
W. B. Yeats and Arthur Symons described Nietzsche as the intellectual heir to William Blake. Symons went on to compare the ideas of the two thinkers in The Symbolist Movement in Literature, while Yeats tried to raise awareness of Nietzsche in Ireland. A similar notion was espoused by W. H. Auden who wrote of Nietzsche in his New Year Letter (released in 1941 in The Double Man): "O masterly debunker of our liberal fallacies ... all your life you stormed, like your English forerunner Blake." Nietzsche made an impact on composers during the 1890s. Writer Donald Mitchell noted that Gustav Mahler was "attracted to the poetic fire of Zarathustra, but repelled by the intellectual core of its writings". He also quoted Mahler himself, and adds that he was influenced by Nietzsche's conception and affirmative approach to nature, which Mahler presented in his Third Symphony using Zarathustra's roundelay. Frederick Delius produced a piece of choral music, A Mass of Life, based on a text of Thus Spoke Zarathustra, while Richard Strauss (who also based his Also sprach Zarathustra on the same book), was only interested in finishing "another chapter of symphonic autobiography". Writers and poets influenced by Nietzsche include André Gide, August Strindberg, Robinson Jeffers, Pío Baroja, D.H. Lawrence, Edith Södergran and Yukio Mishima.
Nietzsche was an early influence on the poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke. Knut Hamsun counted Nietzsche, along with Strindberg and Dostoyevsky, as his primary influences. Author Jack London wrote that he was more stimulated by Nietzsche than by any other writer. Critics have suggested that the character of David Grief in A Son of the Sun was based on Nietzsche. Nietzsche's influence on Muhammad Iqbal is most evidenced in Asrar-i-Khudi (The Secrets of the Self). Wallace Stevens was another reader of Nietzsche, and elements of Nietzsche's philosophy were found throughout Stevens's poetry collection Harmonium. Olaf Stapledon was influenced by the idea of the Übermensch and it is a central theme in his books Odd John and Sirius. In Russia, Nietzsche influenced Russian symbolism and figures such as Dmitry Merezhkovsky, Andrei Bely, Vyacheslav Ivanov and Alexander Scriabin incorporated or discussed parts of Nietzsche philosophy in their works. Thomas Mann's novel Death in Venice shows a use of Apollonian and Dionysian, and in Doctor Faustus Nietzsche was a central source for the character of Adrian Leverkühn. Hermann Hesse, similarly, in his Narcissus and Goldmund presents two main characters as opposite yet intertwined Apollonian and Dionysian spirits. Painter Giovanni Segantini was fascinated by Thus Spoke Zarathustra, and he drew an illustration for the first Italian translation of the book. The Russian painter Lena Hades created the oil painting cycle Also Sprach Zarathustra dedicated to the book Thus Spoke Zarathustra.
By World War I, Nietzsche had acquired a reputation as an inspiration for right-wing German militarism and leftist politics. German soldiers received copies of Thus Spoke Zarathustra as gifts during World War I. The Dreyfus affair provided a contrasting example of his reception: the French antisemitic Right labelled the Jewish and leftist intellectuals who defended Alfred Dreyfus as "Nietzscheans". Nietzsche had a distinct appeal for many Zionist thinkers around the start of the 20th century, most notable being Ahad Ha'am, Hillel Zeitlin, Micha Josef Berdyczewski, A.D. Gordon and Martin Buber, who went so far as to extoll Nietzsche as a "creator" and "emissary of life". Chaim Weizmann was a great admirer of Nietzsche; the first president of Israel sent Nietzsche's books to his wife, adding a comment in a letter that "This was the best and finest thing I can send to you." Israel Eldad, the ideological chief of the Stern Gang that fought the British in Palestine in the 1940s, wrote about Nietzsche in his underground newspaper and later translated most of Nietzsche's books into Hebrew. Eugene O'Neill remarked that Zarathustra influenced him more than any other book he ever read. He also shared Nietzsche's view of tragedy. The plays The Great God Brown and Lazarus Laughed are examples of Nietzsche's influence on him. The First International claimed Nietzsche as ideologically one of their own. From 1888 through the 1890s there were more publications of Nietzsche works in Russia than in any other country. Nietzsche was influential among the Bolsheviks. Among the Nietzschean Bolsheviks were Vladimir Bazarov, Anatoly Lunacharsky and Aleksandr Bogdanov. Nietzsche's influence on the works of Frankfurt School philosophers Max Horkheimer and Theodor W. Adorno can be seen in the Dialectic of Enlightenment. Adorno summed up Nietzsche's philosophy as expressing the "humane in a world in which humanity has become a sham".
Nietzsche's growing prominence suffered a severe setback when his works became closely associated with Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany. Many political leaders of the twentieth century were at least superficially familiar with Nietzsche's ideas, although it is not always possible to determine whether they actually read his work. It is debated among scholars whether Hitler read Nietzsche, although if he did, it may not have been extensively. He was a frequent visitor to the Nietzsche museum in Weimar and used expressions of Nietzsche's, such as "lords of the earth" in Mein Kampf. The Nazis made selective use of Nietzsche's philosophy. Alfred Baeumler was perhaps the most notable exponent of Nietzschean thought in Nazi Germany. Baeumler had published his book "Nietzsche, Philosopher and Politician" in 1931, before the Nazis' rise to power, and subsequently published several editions of Nietzsche's work during the Third Reich. Mussolini, Charles de Gaulle and Huey P. Newton read Nietzsche. Richard Nixon read Nietzsche with "curious interest", and his book Beyond Peace might have taken its title from Nietzsche's book Beyond Good and Evil which Nixon read beforehand. Bertrand Russell wrote that Nietzsche had exerted great influence on philosophers and on people of literary and artistic culture, but warned that the attempt to put Nietzsche's philosophy of aristocracy into practice could only be done by an organisation similar to the Fascist or the Nazi party.
A decade after World War II, there was a revival of Nietzsche's philosophical writings thanks to translations and analyses by Walter Kaufmann and R.J. Hollingdale. Georges Bataille was also influential in this revival, defending Nietzsche against appropriation by the Nazis with his notable 1937 essay "Nietzsche and Fascists". Others, well known philosophers in their own right, wrote commentaries on Nietzsche's philosophy, including Martin Heidegger, who produced a four-volume study, and Lev Shestov, who wrote a book called Dostoyevski, Tolstoy and Nietzsche where he portrays Nietzsche and Dostoyevski as the "thinkers of tragedy". Georg Simmel compares Nietzsche's importance to ethics to that of Copernicus for cosmology. Sociologist Ferdinand Tönnies read Nietzsche avidly from his early life, and later frequently discussed many of his concepts in his own works. Nietzsche has influenced philosophers such as Martin Heidegger, Jean-Paul Sartre, Oswald Spengler, George Grant, Emil Cioran, Albert Camus, Ayn Rand, Jacques Derrida, Sarah Kofman, Leo Strauss, Max Scheler, Michel Foucault, Bernard Williams, and Nick Land.
Camus described Nietzsche as "the only artist to have derived the extreme consequences of an aesthetics of the absurd". Paul Ricœur called Nietzsche one of the masters of the "school of suspicion", alongside Karl Marx and Sigmund Freud. Carl Jung was also influenced by Nietzsche. In Memories, Dreams, Reflections, a biography transcribed by his secretary, he cites Nietzsche as a large influence. Aspects of Nietzsche's philosophy, especially his ideas of the self and his relation to society, run through much of late-twentieth and early twenty-first century thought. Nietzsche's writings have also been influential to some advancers of Accelerationist thought through his influence on Deleuze and Guattari. His deepening of the romantic-heroic tradition of the nineteenth century, for example, as expressed in the ideal of the "grand striver" appears in the work of thinkers from Cornelius Castoriadis to Roberto Mangabeira Unger. For Nietzsche, this grand striver overcomes obstacles, engages in epic struggles, pursues new goals, embraces recurrent novelty, and transcends existing structures and contexts.
•Review of modern philosophy, Atusa Mousai Ghale: Shahrekord 1402
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"text": "Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (/ˈniːtʃə, ˈniːtʃi/ NEE-chə, NEE-chee, German: [ˈfʁiːdʁɪç ˈvɪlhɛlm ˈniːtʃə] or [ˈniːtsʃə]; 15 October 1844 – 25 August 1900) was a German philosopher. He began his career as a classical philologist before turning to philosophy. He became the youngest person to hold the Chair of Classical Philology at the University of Basel in 1869 at the age of 24, but resigned in 1879 due to health problems that plagued him most of his life; he completed much of his core writing in the following decade. In 1889, at age 44, he suffered a collapse and afterward a complete loss of his mental faculties, with paralysis and probably vascular dementia. He lived his remaining years in the care of his mother until her death in 1897 and then with his sister Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche. Nietzsche died in 1900, after experiencing pneumonia and multiple strokes.",
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{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "Nietzsche's work spans philosophical polemics, poetry, cultural criticism, and fiction while displaying a fondness for aphorism and irony. Prominent elements of his philosophy include his radical critique of truth in favour of perspectivism; a genealogical critique of religion and Christian morality and a related theory of master–slave morality; the aesthetic affirmation of life in response to both the \"death of God\" and the profound crisis of nihilism; the notion of Apollonian and Dionysian forces; and a characterisation of the human subject as the expression of competing wills, collectively understood as the will to power. He also developed influential concepts such as the Übermensch and his doctrine of eternal return. In his later work, he became increasingly preoccupied with the creative powers of the individual to overcome cultural and moral mores in pursuit of new values and aesthetic health. His body of work touched a wide range of topics, including art, philology, history, music, religion, tragedy, culture, and science, and drew inspiration from Greek tragedy as well as figures such as Zoroaster, Arthur Schopenhauer, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Richard Wagner, and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "After his death, Nietzsche's sister Elisabeth became the curator and editor of his manuscripts. She edited his unpublished writings to fit her German ultranationalist ideology, often contradicting or obfuscating Nietzsche's stated opinions, which were explicitly opposed to antisemitism and nationalism. Through her published editions, Nietzsche's work became associated with fascism and Nazism. 20th-century scholars such as Walter Kaufmann, R. J. Hollingdale, and Georges Bataille defended Nietzsche against this interpretation, and corrected editions of his writings were soon made available. Nietzsche's thought enjoyed renewed popularity in the 1960s and his ideas have since had a profound impact on 20th- and early 21st-century thinkers across philosophy—especially in schools of continental philosophy such as existentialism, postmodernism, and post-structuralism—as well as art, literature, poetry, politics, and popular culture.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "Born on 15 October 1844, Nietzsche grew up in the town of Röcken (now part of Lützen), near Leipzig, in the Prussian Province of Saxony. He was named after King Friedrich Wilhelm IV of Prussia, who turned 49 on the day of Nietzsche's birth (Nietzsche later dropped his middle name Wilhelm). Nietzsche's parents, Carl Ludwig Nietzsche (1813–1849), a Lutheran pastor and former teacher; and Franziska Nietzsche (née Oehler) (1826–1897), married in 1843, the year before their son's birth. They had two other children: a daughter, Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche, born in 1846; and a second son, Ludwig Joseph, born in 1848. Nietzsche's father died from a brain ailment in 1849; Ludwig Joseph died six months later at age two. The family then moved to Naumburg, where they lived with Nietzsche's maternal grandmother and his father's two unmarried sisters. After the death of Nietzsche's grandmother in 1856, the family moved into their own house, now Nietzsche-Haus, a museum and Nietzsche study centre.",
"title": "Life"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "Nietzsche attended a boys' school and then a private school, where he became friends with Gustav Krug and Wilhelm Pinder, all three of whom came from highly respected families. Academic records from one of the schools attended by Nietzsche noted that he excelled in Christian theology.",
"title": "Life"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "In 1854, he began to attend the Domgymnasium in Naumburg. Because his father had worked for the state (as a pastor) the now-fatherless Nietzsche was offered a scholarship to study at the internationally recognised Schulpforta. The claim that Nietzsche was admitted on the strength of his academic competence has been debunked: his grades were not near the top of the class. He studied there from 1858 to 1864, becoming friends with Paul Deussen and Carl von Gersdorff (1844-1904), who later became a jurist. He also found time to work on poems and musical compositions. Nietzsche led \"Germania\", a music and literature club, during his summers in Naumburg. At Schulpforta, Nietzsche received an important grounding in languages—Greek, Latin, Hebrew, and French—so as to be able to read important primary sources; he also experienced for the first time being away from his family life in a small-town conservative environment. His end-of-semester exams in March 1864 showed a 1 in Religion and German; a 2a in Greek and Latin; a 2b in French, History, and Physics; and a \"lackluster\" 3 in Hebrew and Mathematics.",
"title": "Life"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "Nietzsche was an amateur composer. He composed several works for voice, piano, and violin beginning in 1858 at the Schulpforta in Naumburg when he started to work on musical compositions. Richard Wagner was dismissive of Nietzsche's music, allegedly mocking a birthday gift of a piano composition sent by Nietzsche in 1871 to his wife Cosima. German conductor and pianist Hans von Bülow also described another of Nietzsche's pieces as \"the most undelightful and the most anti-musical draft on musical paper that I have faced in a long time\".",
"title": "Life"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "While at Schulpforta, Nietzsche pursued subjects that were considered unbecoming. He became acquainted with the work of the then almost-unknown poet Friedrich Hölderlin, calling him \"my favorite poet\" and writing an essay in which he said that the poet raised consciousness to \"the most sublime ideality\". The teacher who corrected the essay gave it a good mark but commented that Nietzsche should concern himself in the future with healthier, more lucid, and more \"German\" writers. Additionally, he became acquainted with Ernst Ortlepp, an eccentric, blasphemous, and often drunken poet who was found dead in a ditch weeks after meeting the young Nietzsche but who may have introduced Nietzsche to the music and writing of Richard Wagner. Perhaps under Ortlepp's influence, he and a student named Richter returned to school drunk and encountered a teacher, resulting in Nietzsche's demotion from first in his class and the end of his status as a prefect.",
"title": "Life"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "After graduation in September 1864, Nietzsche began studying theology and classical philology at the University of Bonn in the hope of becoming a minister. For a short time, he and Deussen became members of the Burschenschaft Frankonia. After one semester (and to the anger of his mother), he stopped his theological studies and lost his faith. As early as his 1862 essay \"Fate and History\", Nietzsche had argued that historical research had discredited the central teachings of Christianity, but David Strauss's Life of Jesus also seems to have had a profound effect on the young man. In addition, Ludwig Feuerbach's The Essence of Christianity influenced young Nietzsche with its argument that people created God, and not the other way around. In June 1865, at the age of 20, Nietzsche wrote to his sister Elisabeth, who was deeply religious, a letter regarding his loss of faith. This letter contains the following statement:",
"title": "Life"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "Hence the ways of men part: if you wish to strive for peace of soul and pleasure, then believe; if you wish to be a devotee of truth, then inquire....",
"title": "Life"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "Nietzsche subsequently concentrated on studying philology under Professor Friedrich Wilhelm Ritschl, whom he followed to the University of Leipzig in 1865. There he became close friends with his fellow student Erwin Rohde. Nietzsche's first philological publications appeared soon after.",
"title": "Life"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "In 1865, Nietzsche thoroughly studied the works of Arthur Schopenhauer. He owed the awakening of his philosophical interest to reading Schopenhauer's The World as Will and Representation and later admitted that Schopenhauer was one of the few thinkers whom he respected, dedicating the essay \"Schopenhauer as Educator\" in the Untimely Meditations to him.",
"title": "Life"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "In 1866, he read Friedrich Albert Lange's History of Materialism. Lange's descriptions of Kant's anti-materialistic philosophy, the rise of European Materialism, Europe's increased concern with science, Charles Darwin's theory of evolution, and the general rebellion against tradition and authority intrigued Nietzsche greatly. Nietzsche would ultimately argue the impossibility of an evolutionary explanation of the human aesthetic sense.",
"title": "Life"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "In 1867, Nietzsche signed up for one year of voluntary service with the Prussian artillery division in Naumburg. He was regarded as one of the finest riders among his fellow recruits, and his officers predicted that he would soon reach the rank of captain. However, in March 1868, while jumping into the saddle of his horse, Nietzsche struck his chest against the pommel and tore two muscles in his left side, leaving him exhausted and unable to walk for months. Consequently, he turned his attention to his studies again, completing them in 1868. Nietzsche also met Richard Wagner for the first time later that year.",
"title": "Life"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "",
"title": "Life"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 15,
"text": "In 1869, with Ritschl's support, Nietzsche received an offer to become a professor of classical philology at the University of Basel in Switzerland. He was only 24 years old and had neither completed his doctorate nor received a teaching certificate (\"habilitation\"). He was awarded an honorary doctorate by Leipzig University in March 1869, again with Ritschl's support.",
"title": "Life"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 16,
"text": "Despite his offer coming at a time when he was considering giving up philology for science, he accepted. To this day, Nietzsche is still among the youngest of the tenured Classics professors on record.",
"title": "Life"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 17,
"text": "Nietzsche's 1870 projected doctoral thesis, \"Contribution toward the Study and the Critique of the Sources of Diogenes Laertius\" (\"Beiträge zur Quellenkunde und Kritik des Laertius Diogenes\"), examined the origins of the ideas of Diogenes Laërtius. Though never submitted, it was later published as a Gratulationsschrift ('congratulatory publication') in Basel.",
"title": "Life"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 18,
"text": "Before moving to Basel, Nietzsche renounced his Prussian citizenship: for the rest of his life he remained officially stateless.",
"title": "Life"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 19,
"text": "Nevertheless, Nietzsche served in the Prussian forces during the Franco-Prussian War (1870–1871) as a medical orderly. In his short time in the military, he experienced much and witnessed the traumatic effects of battle. He also contracted diphtheria and dysentery. Walter Kaufmann speculates that he also contracted syphilis at a brothel along with his other infections at this time. On returning to Basel in 1870, Nietzsche observed the establishment of the German Empire and Otto von Bismarck's subsequent policies as an outsider and with a degree of scepticism regarding their genuineness. His inaugural lecture at the university was \"Homer and Classical Philology\". Nietzsche also met Franz Overbeck, a professor of theology who remained his friend throughout his life. Afrikan Spir, a little-known Russian philosopher responsible for the 1873 Thought and Reality and Nietzsche's colleague, the historian Jacob Burckhardt, whose lectures Nietzsche frequently attended, began to exercise significant influence on him.",
"title": "Life"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 20,
"text": "Nietzsche had already met Richard Wagner in Leipzig in 1868 and later Wagner's wife, Cosima. Nietzsche admired both greatly and during his time at Basel frequently visited Wagner's house in Tribschen in Lucerne. The Wagners brought Nietzsche into their most intimate circle—including Franz Liszt, of whom Nietzsche colloquially described: \"Liszt or the art of running after women!\" Nietzsche enjoyed the attention he gave to the beginning of the Bayreuth Festival. In 1870, he gave Cosima Wagner the manuscript of \"The Genesis of the Tragic Idea\" as a birthday gift. In 1872, Nietzsche published his first book, The Birth of Tragedy. However, his colleagues within his field, including Ritschl, expressed little enthusiasm for the work in which Nietzsche eschewed the classical philologic method in favour of a more speculative approach. In his polemic Philology of the Future, Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff damped the book's reception and increased its notoriety. In response, Rohde (then a professor in Kiel) and Wagner came to Nietzsche's defence. Nietzsche remarked freely about the isolation he felt within the philological community and attempted unsuccessfully to transfer to a position in philosophy at Basel.",
"title": "Life"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 21,
"text": "In 1873, Nietzsche began to accumulate notes that would be posthumously published as Philosophy in the Tragic Age of the Greeks. Between 1873 and 1876, he published four separate long essays: \"David Strauss: the Confessor and the Writer\", \"On the Use and Abuse of History for Life\", \"Schopenhauer as Educator\", and \"Richard Wagner in Bayreuth\". These four later appeared in a collected edition under the title Untimely Meditations. The essays shared the orientation of a cultural critique, challenging the developing German culture suggested by Schopenhauer and Wagner. During this time in the circle of the Wagners, he met Malwida von Meysenbug and Hans von Bülow. He also began a friendship with Paul Rée who, in 1876, influenced him into dismissing the pessimism in his early writings. However, he was deeply disappointed by the Bayreuth Festival of 1876, where the banality of the shows and baseness of the public repelled him. He was also alienated by Wagner's championing of \"German culture\", which Nietzsche felt a contradiction in terms, as well as by Wagner's celebration of his fame among the German public. All this contributed to his subsequent decision to distance himself from Wagner.",
"title": "Life"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 22,
"text": "With the publication in 1878 of Human, All Too Human (a book of aphorisms ranging from metaphysics to morality to religion), a new style of Nietzsche's work became clear, highly influenced by Afrikan Spir's Thought and Reality and reacting against the pessimistic philosophy of Wagner and Schopenhauer. Nietzsche's friendship with Deussen and Rohde cooled as well. In 1879, after a significant decline in health, Nietzsche had to resign his position at Basel and was pensioned. Since his childhood, various disruptive illnesses had plagued him, including moments of shortsightedness that left him nearly blind, migraine headaches, and violent indigestion. The 1868 riding accident and diseases in 1870 may have aggravated these persistent conditions, which continued to affect him through his years at Basel, forcing him to take longer and longer holidays until regular work became impractical.",
"title": "Life"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 23,
"text": "",
"title": "Life"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 24,
"text": "Living on his pension from Basel along with aid from friends, Nietzsche travelled frequently to find climates more conducive to his health. He lived until 1889 as an independent author in different cities. He spent many summers in Sils Maria near St. Moritz in Switzerland, and many of his winters in the Italian cities of Genoa, Rapallo, and Turin and the French city of Nice. In 1881, when France occupied Tunisia, he planned to travel to Tunis to view Europe from the outside but later abandoned that idea, probably for health reasons. Nietzsche occasionally returned to Naumburg to visit his family, and, especially during this time, he and his sister Elisabeth had repeated periods of conflict and reconciliation.",
"title": "Life"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 25,
"text": "While in Genoa, Nietzsche's failing eyesight prompted him to explore the use of typewriters as a means of continuing to write. He is known to have tried using the Hansen Writing Ball, a contemporary typewriter device. In the end, a past student of his, Peter Gast, became a private secretary to Nietzsche. In 1876, Gast transcribed the crabbed, nearly illegible handwriting of Nietzsche's first time with Richard Wagner in Bayreuth. He subsequently transcribed and proofread the galleys for almost all of Nietzsche's work. On at least one occasion, on 23 February 1880, the usually poor Gast received 200 marks from their mutual friend, Paul Rée. Gast was one of the very few friends Nietzsche allowed to criticise him. In responding most enthusiastically to Also Sprach Zarathustra (\"Thus Spoke Zarathustra\"), Gast did feel it necessary to point out that what were described as \"superfluous\" people were in fact quite necessary. He went on to list the number of people Epicurus, for example, had to rely on to supply his simple diet of goat cheese.",
"title": "Life"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 26,
"text": "To the end of his life, Gast and Overbeck remained consistently faithful friends. Malwida von Meysenbug remained like a motherly patron even outside the Wagner circle. Soon Nietzsche made contact with the music-critic Carl Fuchs. Nietzsche stood at the beginning of his most productive period. Beginning with Human, All Too Human in 1878, Nietzsche published one book or major section of a book each year until 1888, his last year of writing; that year, he completed five.",
"title": "Life"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 27,
"text": "In 1882, Nietzsche published the first part of The Gay Science. That year he also met Lou Andreas-Salomé, through Malwida von Meysenbug and Paul Rée.",
"title": "Life"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 28,
"text": "Salomé's mother took her to Rome when Salomé was 21. At a literary salon in the city, Salomé became acquainted with Paul Rée. Rée proposed marriage to her, but she, instead, proposed that they should live and study together as \"brother and sister\", along with another man for company, where they would establish an academic commune. Rée accepted the idea and suggested that they be joined by his friend Nietzsche. The two met Nietzsche in Rome in April 1882, and Nietzsche is believed to have instantly fallen in love with Salomé, as Rée had done. Nietzsche asked Rée to propose marriage to Salomé, which she rejected. She had been interested in Nietzsche as a friend, but not as a husband. Nietzsche nonetheless was content to join with Rée and Salomé touring through Switzerland and Italy together, planning their commune. The three travelled with Salomé's mother through Italy and considered where they would set up their \"Winterplan\" commune. They intended to set up their commune in an abandoned monastery, but no suitable location was found. On 13 May, in Lucerne, when Nietzsche was alone with Salomé, he earnestly proposed marriage to her again, which she rejected. He nonetheless was happy to continue with the plans for an academic commune. After discovering the relationship, Nietzsche's sister Elisabeth became determined to get Nietzsche away from the \"immoral woman\". Nietzsche and Salomé spent the summer together in Tautenburg in Thuringia, often with Nietzsche's sister Elisabeth as a chaperone. Salomé reports that he asked her to marry him on three separate occasions and that she refused, though the reliability of her reports of events is questionable. Arriving in Leipzig (Germany) in October, Salomé and Rée separated from Nietzsche after a falling-out between Nietzsche and Salomé, in which Salomé believed that Nietzsche was desperately in love with her.",
"title": "Life"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 29,
"text": "While the three spent a number of weeks together in Leipzig in October 1882, the following month Rée and Salomé left Nietzsche, leaving for Stibbe (today Zdbowo in Poland) without any plans to meet again. Nietzsche soon fell into a period of mental anguish, although he continued to write to Rée, stating \"We shall see one another from time to time, won't we?\" In later recriminations, Nietzsche would blame on separate occasions the failure in his attempts to woo Salomé on Salomé, Rée, and on the intrigues of his sister (who had written letters to the families of Salomé and Rée to disrupt the plans for the commune). Nietzsche wrote of the affair in 1883, that he now felt \"genuine hatred for my sister\".",
"title": "Life"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 30,
"text": "Amidst renewed bouts of illness, living in near-isolation after a falling out with his mother and sister regarding Salomé, Nietzsche fled to Rapallo, where he wrote the first part of Also Sprach Zarathustra in only ten days.",
"title": "Life"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 31,
"text": "By 1882, Nietzsche was taking huge doses of opium and continued to have trouble sleeping. In 1883, while staying in Nice, he was writing out his own prescriptions for the sedative chloral hydrate, signing them \"Dr. Nietzsche\".",
"title": "Life"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 32,
"text": "He turned away from the influence of Schopenhauer, and after he severed his social ties with Wagner, Nietzsche had few remaining friends. Now, with the new style of Zarathustra, his work became even more alienating, and the market received it only to the degree required by politeness. Nietzsche recognised this and maintained his solitude, though he often complained. His books remained largely unsold. In 1885, he printed only 40 copies of the fourth part of Zarathustra and distributed a fraction of them among close friends, including Helene von Druskowitz.",
"title": "Life"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 33,
"text": "In 1883, he tried and failed to obtain a lecturing post at the University of Leipzig. According to a letter he wrote to Peter Gast, this was due to his \"attitude towards Christianity and the concept of God\".",
"title": "Life"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 34,
"text": "In 1886, Nietzsche broke with his publisher Ernst Schmeitzner, disgusted by his antisemitic opinions. Nietzsche saw his own writings as \"completely buried and in this anti-Semitic dump\" of Schmeitzner—associating the publisher with a movement that should be \"utterly rejected with cold contempt by every sensible mind\". He then printed Beyond Good and Evil at his own expense. He also acquired the publication rights for his earlier works and over the next year issued second editions of The Birth of Tragedy, Human, All Too Human, Daybreak, and of The Gay Science with new prefaces placing the body of his work in a more coherent perspective. Thereafter, he saw his work as completed for a time and hoped that soon a readership would develop. In fact, interest in Nietzsche's thought did increase at this time, if rather slowly and imperceptibly to him. During these years Nietzsche met Meta von Salis, Carl Spitteler, and Gottfried Keller.",
"title": "Life"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 35,
"text": "In 1886, his sister Elisabeth married the antisemite Bernhard Förster and travelled to Paraguay to found Nueva Germania, a \"Germanic\" colony. Through correspondence, Nietzsche's relationship with Elisabeth continued through cycles of conflict and reconciliation, but they met again only after his collapse. He continued to have frequent and painful attacks of illness, which made prolonged work impossible.",
"title": "Life"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 36,
"text": "In 1887, Nietzsche wrote the polemic On the Genealogy of Morality. During the same year, he encountered the work of Fyodor Dostoyevsky, to whom he felt an immediate kinship. He also exchanged letters with Hippolyte Taine and Georg Brandes. Brandes, who had started to teach the philosophy of Søren Kierkegaard in the 1870s, wrote to Nietzsche asking him to read Kierkegaard, to which Nietzsche replied that he would come to Copenhagen and read Kierkegaard with him. However, before fulfilling this promise, Nietzsche slipped too far into illness. At the beginning of 1888, Brandes delivered in Copenhagen one of the first lectures on Nietzsche's philosophy.",
"title": "Life"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 37,
"text": "Although Nietzsche had previously announced at the end of On the Genealogy of Morality a new work with the title The Will to Power: Attempt at a Revaluation of All Values, he seems to have abandoned this idea and, instead, used some of the draft passages to compose Twilight of the Idols and The Antichrist in 1888.",
"title": "Life"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 38,
"text": "His health improved and he spent the summer in high spirits. In the autumn of 1888, his writings and letters began to reveal a higher estimation of his own status and \"fate\". He overestimated the increasing response to his writings, however, especially to the recent polemic, The Case of Wagner. On his 44th birthday, after completing Twilight of the Idols and The Antichrist, he decided to write the autobiography Ecce Homo. In its preface—which suggests Nietzsche was well aware of the interpretive difficulties his work would generate—he declares, \"Hear me! For I am such and such a person. Above all, do not mistake me for someone else.\" In December, Nietzsche began a correspondence with August Strindberg and thought that, short of an international breakthrough, he would attempt to buy back his older writings from the publisher and have them translated into other European languages. Moreover, he planned the publication of the compilation Nietzsche contra Wagner and of the poems that made up his collection Dionysian-Dithyrambs.",
"title": "Life"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 39,
"text": "",
"title": "Life"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 40,
"text": "On 3 January 1889, Nietzsche suffered a mental breakdown. Two policemen approached him after he caused a public disturbance in the streets of Turin. What happened remains unknown, but an often-repeated tale from shortly after his death states that Nietzsche witnessed the flogging of a horse at the other end of the Piazza Carlo Alberto, ran to the horse, threw his arms around its neck to protect it, then collapsed to the ground. In the following few days, Nietzsche sent short writings—known as the Wahnzettel or Wahnbriefe (literally \"Delusion notes\" or \"letters\")—to a number of friends including Cosima Wagner and Jacob Burckhardt. Most of them were signed \"Dionysus\", though some were also signed \"der Gekreuzigte\" meaning \"the crucified one\". To his former colleague Burckhardt, Nietzsche wrote:",
"title": "Life"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 41,
"text": "I have had Caiaphas put in fetters. Also, last year I was crucified by the German doctors in a very drawn-out manner. Wilhelm, Bismarck, and all anti-Semites abolished.",
"title": "Life"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 42,
"text": "Additionally, he commanded the German emperor to go to Rome to be shot and summoned the European powers to take military action against Germany, writing also that the pope should be put in jail and that he, Nietzsche, created the world and was in the process of having all anti-Semites shot dead.",
"title": "Life"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 43,
"text": "On 6 January 1889, Burckhardt showed the letter he had received from Nietzsche to Overbeck. The following day, Overbeck received a similar letter and decided that Nietzsche's friends had to bring him back to Basel. Overbeck travelled to Turin and brought Nietzsche to a psychiatric clinic in Basel. By that time Nietzsche appeared fully in the grip of a serious mental illness, and his mother Franziska decided to transfer him to a clinic in Jena under the direction of Otto Binswanger. In January 1889, they proceeded with the planned release of Twilight of the Idols, by that time already printed and bound. From November 1889 to February 1890, the art historian Julius Langbehn attempted to cure Nietzsche, claiming that the methods of the medical doctors were ineffective in treating Nietzsche's condition. Langbehn assumed progressively greater control of Nietzsche until his secretiveness discredited him. In March 1890, Franziska removed Nietzsche from the clinic and, in May 1890, brought him to her home in Naumburg. During this process Overbeck and Gast contemplated what to do with Nietzsche's unpublished works. In February, they ordered a fifty-copy private edition of Nietzsche contra Wagner, but the publisher C. G. Naumann secretly printed one hundred. Overbeck and Gast decided to withhold publishing The Antichrist and Ecce Homo because of their more radical content. Nietzsche's reception and recognition enjoyed their first surge.",
"title": "Life"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 44,
"text": "In 1893, Nietzsche's sister Elisabeth returned from Nueva Germania in Paraguay following the suicide of her husband. She studied Nietzsche's works and, piece by piece, took control of their publication. Overbeck was dismissed and Gast finally co-operated. After the death of Franziska in 1897, Nietzsche lived in Weimar, where Elisabeth cared for him and allowed visitors, including Rudolf Steiner (who in 1895 had written Friedrich Nietzsche: a Fighter Against His Time, one of the first books praising Nietzsche), to meet her uncommunicative brother. Elisabeth employed Steiner as a tutor to help her to understand her brother's philosophy. Steiner abandoned the attempt after only a few months, declaring that it was impossible to teach her anything about philosophy.",
"title": "Life"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 45,
"text": "Nietzsche's insanity was originally diagnosed as tertiary syphilis, in accordance with a prevailing medical paradigm of the time. Although most commentators regard his breakdown as unrelated to his philosophy, Georges Bataille dropped dark hints (\"'Man incarnate' must also go mad\") and René Girard's postmortem psychoanalysis posits a worshipful rivalry with Richard Wagner. Nietzsche had previously written, \"All superior men who were irresistibly drawn to throw off the yoke of any kind of morality and to frame new laws had, if they were not actually mad, no alternative but to make themselves or pretend to be mad.\" (Daybreak, 14) The diagnosis of syphilis has since been challenged and a diagnosis of \"manic-depressive illness with periodic psychosis followed by vascular dementia\" was put forward by Cybulska prior to Schain's study. Leonard Sax suggested the slow growth of a right-sided retro-orbital meningioma as an explanation of Nietzsche's dementia; Orth and Trimble postulated frontotemporal dementia while other researchers have proposed a hereditary stroke disorder called CADASIL. Poisoning by mercury, a treatment for syphilis at the time of Nietzsche's death, has also been suggested.",
"title": "Life"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 46,
"text": "In 1898 and 1899, Nietzsche suffered at least two strokes. They partially paralysed him, leaving him unable to speak or walk. He likely suffered from clinical hemiparesis/hemiplegia on the left side of his body by 1899. After contracting pneumonia in mid-August 1900, he had another stroke during the night of 24–25 August and died at about noon on 25 August. Elisabeth had him buried beside his father at the church in Röcken near Lützen. His friend and secretary Gast gave his funeral oration, proclaiming: \"Holy be your name to all future generations!\"",
"title": "Life"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 47,
"text": "Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche compiled The Will to Power from Nietzsche's unpublished notebooks and published it posthumously in 1901. Because his sister arranged the book based on her own conflation of several of Nietzsche's early outlines and took liberties with the material, the scholarly consensus has been that it does not reflect Nietzsche's intent. (For example, Elisabeth removed aphorism 35 of The Antichrist, where Nietzsche rewrote a passage of the Bible.) Indeed, Mazzino Montinari, the editor of Nietzsche's Nachlass, called it a forgery. Yet, the endeavour to rescue Nietzsche's reputation by discrediting The Will to Power often leads to scepticism about the value of his late notes, even of his whole Nachlass. However, his Nachlass and The Will to Power are distinct.",
"title": "Life"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 48,
"text": "General commentators and Nietzsche scholars, whether emphasising his cultural background or his language, overwhelmingly label Nietzsche as a \"German philosopher\". Others do not assign him a national category. While Germany had not yet been unified into a nation-state, Nietzsche was born a citizen of Prussia, which was mostly part of the German Confederation. His birthplace, Röcken, is in the modern German state of Saxony-Anhalt. When he accepted his post at Basel, Nietzsche applied for annulment of his Prussian citizenship. The official revocation of his citizenship came in a document dated 17 April 1869, and for the rest of his life he remained officially stateless.",
"title": "Life"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 49,
"text": "At least toward the end of his life, Nietzsche believed his ancestors were Polish. He wore a signet ring bearing the Radwan coat of arms, traceable back to Polish nobility of medieval times and the surname \"Nicki\" of the Polish noble (szlachta) family bearing that coat of arms. Gotard Nietzsche, a member of the Nicki family, left Poland for Prussia. His descendants later settled in the Electorate of Saxony circa the year 1700. Nietzsche wrote in 1888, \"My ancestors were Polish noblemen (Nietzky); the type seems to have been well preserved despite three generations of German mothers.\" At one point, Nietzsche becomes even more adamant about his Polish identity. \"I am a pure-blooded Polish nobleman, without a single drop of bad blood, certainly not German blood.\" On yet another occasion, Nietzsche stated, \"Germany is a great nation only because its people have so much Polish blood in their veins.... I am proud of my Polish descent.\" Nietzsche believed his name might have been Germanised, in one letter claiming, \"I was taught to ascribe the origin of my blood and name to Polish noblemen who were called Niëtzky and left their home and nobleness about a hundred years ago, finally yielding to unbearable suppression: they were Protestants.\"",
"title": "Life"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 50,
"text": "Most scholars dispute Nietzsche's account of his family's origins. Hans von Müller debunked the genealogy put forward by Nietzsche's sister in favour of Polish noble heritage. Max Oehler, Nietzsche's cousin and curator of the Nietzsche Archive at Weimar, argued that all of Nietzsche's ancestors bore German names, including the wives' families. Oehler claims that Nietzsche came from a long line of German Lutheran clergymen on both sides of his family, and modern scholars regard the claim of Nietzsche's Polish ancestry as \"pure invention\". Colli and Montinari, the editors of Nietzsche's assembled letters, gloss Nietzsche's claims as a \"mistaken belief\" and \"without foundation.\" The name Nietzsche itself is not a Polish name, but an exceptionally common one throughout central Germany, in this and cognate forms (such as Nitsche and Nitzke). The name derives from the forename Nikolaus, abbreviated to Nick; assimilated with the Slavic Nitz; it first became Nitsche and then Nietzsche.",
"title": "Life"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 51,
"text": "It is not known why Nietzsche wanted to be thought of as Polish nobility. According to biographer R. J. Hollingdale, Nietzsche's propagation of the Polish ancestry myth may have been part of his \"campaign against Germany\". Nicholas D. More states that Nietzsche's claims of having an illustrious lineage were a parody on autobiographical conventions, and suspects Ecce Homo, with its self-laudatory titles, such as \"Why I Am So Wise\", as being a work of satire. He concludes that Nietzsche's supposed Polish genealogy was a joke—not a delusion.",
"title": "Life"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 52,
"text": "Nietzsche was never married. He proposed to Lou Salomé three times and each time was rejected. One theory blames Salomé's view on sexuality as one of the reasons for her alienation from Nietzsche. As articulated in her 1898 novella Fenitschka, Salomé viewed the idea of sexual intercourse as prohibitive and marriage as a violation, with some suggesting that they indicated sexual repression and neurosis. Reflecting on unrequited love, Nietzsche considered that \"indispensable ... to the lover is his unrequited love, which he would at no price relinquish for a state of indifference\".",
"title": "Life"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 53,
"text": "Deussen cited the episode of Cologne's brothel in February 1865 as instrumental to understanding the philosopher's way of thinking, mostly about women. Nietzsche was surreptitiously accompanied to a \"call house\" from which he clumsily escaped upon seeing \"a half dozen apparitions dressed in sequins and veils.\" According to Deussen, Nietzsche \"never decided to remain unmarried all his life. For him, women had to sacrifice themselves to the care and benefit of men.\" Nietzsche scholar Joachim Köhler [de] has attempted to explain Nietzsche's life history and philosophy by claiming that he was homosexual. Köhler argues that Nietzsche's supposed syphilis, which is \"... usually considered to be the product of his encounter with a prostitute in a brothel in Cologne or Leipzig, is equally likely. Some maintain that Nietzsche contracted it in a male brothel in Genoa.\" The acquisition of the infection from a homosexual brothel was the theory believed by Sigmund Freud, who cited Otto Binswanger as his source. Köhler also suggests that Nietzsche had a romantic relationship, as well as a friendship, with Paul Rée. There is the claim that Nietzsche's homosexuality was widely known in the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society, with Nietzsche's friend Paul Deussen claiming that \"he was a man who had never touched a woman.\"",
"title": "Life"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 54,
"text": "Köhler's views have not found wide acceptance among Nietzsche scholars and commentators. Allan Megill argues that, while Köhler's claim that Nietzsche was conflicted about his homosexual desire cannot simply be dismissed, \"the evidence is very weak,\" and Köhler may be projecting twentieth-century understandings of sexuality on nineteenth-century notions of friendship. It is also rumoured that Nietzsche frequented heterosexual brothels. Nigel Rodgers and Mel Thompson have argued that continuous sickness and headaches hindered Nietzsche from engaging much with women. Yet they offer other examples in which Nietzsche expressed his affections to women, including Wagner's wife Cosima Wagner.",
"title": "Life"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 55,
"text": "Other scholars have argued that Köhler's sexuality-based interpretation is not helpful in understanding Nietzsche's philosophy. However, there are also those who stress that, if Nietzsche preferred men—with this preference constituting his psycho-sexual make-up—but could not admit his desires to himself, it meant he acted in conflict with his philosophy.",
"title": "Life"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 56,
"text": "Because of Nietzsche's evocative style and provocative ideas, his philosophy generates passionate reactions. His works remain controversial, due to varying interpretations and misinterpretations. In Western philosophy, Nietzsche's writings have been described as a case of free revolutionary thought, that is, revolutionary in its structure and problems, although not tied to any revolutionary project. His writings have also been described as a revolutionary project in which his philosophy serves as the foundation of a European cultural rebirth.",
"title": "Philosophy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 57,
"text": "The Apollonian and Dionysian is a two-fold philosophical concept based on two figures in ancient Greek mythology, Apollo and Dionysus. This relationship takes the form of a dialectic. Even though the concept is related to The Birth of Tragedy, the poet Hölderlin had already spoken of it, and Winckelmann had talked of Bacchus.",
"title": "Philosophy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 58,
"text": "Nietzsche found in classical Athenian tragedy an art form that transcended the pessimism found in the so-called wisdom of Silenus. The Greek spectators, by looking into the abyss of human suffering depicted by characters on stage, passionately and joyously affirmed life, finding it worth living. The main theme in The Birth of Tragedy is that the fusion of Dionysian and Apollonian Kunsttriebe (\"artistic impulses\") forms dramatic arts or tragedies. He argued that this fusion has not been achieved since the ancient Greek tragedians. Apollo represents harmony, progress, clarity, logic and the principle of individuation, whereas Dionysus represents disorder, intoxication, emotion, ecstasy and unity (hence the omission of the principle of individuation). Nietzsche used these two forces because, for him, the world of mind and order on one side, and passion and chaos on the other, formed principles that were fundamental to the Greek culture: the Apollonian a dreaming state, full of illusions; and Dionysian a state of intoxication, representing the liberations of instinct and dissolution of boundaries. In this mould, a man appears as the satyr. He is the horror of the annihilation of the principle of individuality and at the same time someone who delights in its destruction.",
"title": "Philosophy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 59,
"text": "Apollonian and Dionysian juxtapositions appear in the interplay of tragedy: the tragic hero of the drama, the main protagonist, struggles to make (Apollonian) order of his unjust and chaotic (Dionysian) fate, though he dies unfulfilled. Elaborating on the conception of Hamlet as an intellectual who cannot make up his mind, and is a living antithesis to the man of action, Nietzsche argues that a Dionysian figure possesses the knowledge that his actions cannot change the eternal balance of things, and it disgusts him enough not to act at all. Hamlet falls under this category—he glimpsed the supernatural reality through the Ghost; he has gained true knowledge and knows that no action of his has the power to change this. For the audience of such drama, this tragedy allows them to sense what Nietzsche called the Primordial Unity, which revives Dionysian nature. He describes primordial unity as the increase of strength, the experience of fullness and plenitude bestowed by frenzy. Frenzy acts as intoxication and is crucial for the physiological condition that enables the creation of any art. Stimulated by this state, a person's artistic will is enhanced:",
"title": "Philosophy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 60,
"text": "In this state one enriches everything out of one's own fullness: whatever one sees, whatever wills is seen swelled, taut, strong, overloaded with strength. A man in this state transforms things until they mirror his power—until they are reflections of his perfection. This having to transform into perfection is—art.",
"title": "Philosophy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 61,
"text": "Nietzsche is adamant that the works of Aeschylus and Sophocles represent the apex of artistic creation, the true realisation of tragedy; it is with Euripides, that tragedy begins its Untergang (literally 'going under' or 'downward-way;' meaning decline, deterioration, downfall, death, etc.). Nietzsche objects to Euripides' use of Socratic rationalism and morality in his tragedies, claiming that the infusion of ethics and reason robs tragedy of its foundation, namely the fragile balance of the Dionysian and Apollonian. Socrates emphasised reason to such a degree that he diffused the value of myth and suffering to human knowledge. Plato continued along this path in his dialogues, and the modern world eventually inherited reason at the expense of artistic impulses found in the Apollonian and Dionysian dichotomy. He notes that without the Apollonian, the Dionysian lacks the form and structure to make a coherent piece of art, and without the Dionysian, the Apollonian lacks the necessary vitality and passion. Only the fertile interplay of these two forces brought together as an art represented the best of Greek tragedy.",
"title": "Philosophy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 62,
"text": "An example of the impact of this idea can be seen in the book Patterns of Culture, where anthropologist Ruth Benedict acknowledges Nietzschean opposites of \"Apollonian\" and \"Dionysian\" as the stimulus for her thoughts about Native American cultures. Carl Jung has written extensively on the dichotomy in Psychological Types. Michel Foucault commented that his own book Madness and Civilization should be read \"under the sun of the great Nietzschean inquiry\". Here Foucault referenced Nietzsche's description of the birth and death of tragedy and his explanation that the subsequent tragedy of the Western world was the refusal of the tragic and, with that, refusal of the sacred. Painter Mark Rothko was influenced by Nietzsche's view of tragedy presented in The Birth of Tragedy.",
"title": "Philosophy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 63,
"text": "Nietzsche claimed the death of God would eventually lead to the realisation that there can never be a universal perspective on things and that the traditional idea of objective truth is incoherent. Nietzsche rejected the idea of objective reality, arguing that knowledge is contingent and conditional, relative to various fluid perspectives or interests. This leads to constant reassessment of rules (i.e., those of philosophy, the scientific method, etc.) according to the circumstances of individual perspectives. This view has acquired the name perspectivism.",
"title": "Philosophy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 64,
"text": "In Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Nietzsche proclaimed that a table of values hangs above every great person. He pointed out that what is common among different peoples is the act of esteeming, of creating values, even if the values are different from one person to the next. Nietzsche asserted that what made people great was not the content of their beliefs, but the act of valuing. Thus the values a community strives to articulate are not as important as the collective will to see those values come to pass. The willingness is more essential than the merit of the goal itself, according to Nietzsche. \"A thousand goals have there been so far\", says Zarathustra, \"for there are a thousand peoples. Only the yoke for the thousand necks is still lacking: the one goal is lacking. Humanity still has no goal.\" Hence, the title of the aphorism, \"On The Thousand And One Goal\". The idea that one value-system is no more worthy than the next, although it may not be directly ascribed to Nietzsche, has become a common premise in modern social science. Max Weber and Martin Heidegger absorbed it and made it their own. It shaped their philosophical and cultural endeavours, as well as their political understanding. Weber, for example, relied on Nietzsche's perspectivism by maintaining that objectivity is still possible—but only after a particular perspective, value, or end has been established.",
"title": "Philosophy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 65,
"text": "Among his critique of traditional philosophy of Kant, Descartes, and Plato in Beyond Good and Evil, Nietzsche attacked the thing in itself and cogito ergo sum (\"I think, therefore I am\") as unfalsifiable beliefs based on naive acceptance of previous notions and fallacies. Philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre put Nietzsche in a high place in the history of philosophy. While criticising nihilism and Nietzsche together as a sign of general decay, he still commended him for recognising psychological motives behind Kant and Hume's moral philosophy:",
"title": "Philosophy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 66,
"text": "For it was Nietzsche's historic achievement to understand more clearly than any other philosopher ... not only that what purported to be appeals of objectivity were in fact expressions of subjective will, but also the nature of the problems that this posed for philosophy.",
"title": "Philosophy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 67,
"text": "In Beyond Good and Evil and On the Genealogy of Morality, Nietzsche's genealogical account of the development of modern moral systems occupies a central place. For Nietzsche, a fundamental shift took place during the human history from thinking in terms of \"good and bad\" toward \"good and evil\".",
"title": "Philosophy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 68,
"text": "The initial form of morality was set by a warrior aristocracy and other ruling castes of ancient civilisations. Aristocratic values of good and bad coincided with and reflected their relationship to lower castes such as slaves. Nietzsche presented this \"master morality\" as the original system of morality—perhaps best associated with Homeric Greece. To be \"good\" was to be happy and to have the things related to happiness: wealth, strength, health, power, etc. To be \"bad\" was to be like the slaves over whom the aristocracy ruled: poor, weak, sick, pathetic—objects of pity or disgust rather than hatred.",
"title": "Philosophy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 69,
"text": "\"Slave morality\" developed as a reaction to master morality. Value emerges from the contrast between good and evil: good being associated with other-worldliness, charity, piety, restraint, meekness, and submission; while evil is worldly, cruel, selfish, wealthy, and aggressive. Nietzsche saw slave morality as pessimistic and fearful, its values emerging to improve the self-perception of slaves. He associated slave morality with the Jewish and Christian traditions, as it is born out of the ressentiment of slaves. Nietzsche argued that the idea of equality allowed slaves to overcome their own conditions without despising themselves. By denying the inherent inequality of people—in success, strength, beauty, and intelligence—slaves acquired a method of escape, namely by generating new values on the basis of rejecting master morality, which frustrated them. It was used to overcome the slave's sense of inferiority before their (better-off) masters. It does so by depicting slave weakness, for example, as a matter of choice, by relabelling it as \"meekness\". The \"good man\" of master morality is precisely the \"evil man\" of slave morality, while the \"bad man\" is recast as the \"good man\".",
"title": "Philosophy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 70,
"text": "Nietzsche saw slave morality as a source of the nihilism that has overtaken Europe. Modern Europe and Christianity exist in a hypocritical state due to a tension between master and slave morality, both contradictory values determining, to varying degrees, the values of most Europeans (who are \"motley\"). Nietzsche called for exceptional people not to be ashamed in the face of a supposed morality-for-all, which he deems to be harmful to the flourishing of exceptional people. He cautioned, however, that morality, per se, is not bad; it is good for the masses and should be left to them. Exceptional people, in contrast, should follow their own \"inner law\". A favourite motto of Nietzsche, taken from Pindar, reads: \"Become what you are.\"",
"title": "Philosophy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 71,
"text": "A long-standing assumption about Nietzsche is that he preferred master over slave morality. However, eminent Nietzsche scholar Walter Kaufmann rejected this interpretation, writing that Nietzsche's analyses of these two types of morality were used only in a descriptive and historic sense; they were not meant for any kind of acceptance or glorification. On the other hand, Nietzsche called master morality \"a higher order of values, the noble ones, those that say Yes to life, those that guarantee the future\". Just as \"there is an order of rank between man and man\", there is also an order of rank \"between morality and morality\". Nietzsche waged a philosophic war against the slave morality of Christianity in his \"revaluation of all values\" to bring about the victory of a new master morality that he called the \"philosophy of the future\" (Beyond Good and Evil is subtitled Prelude to a Philosophy of the Future).",
"title": "Philosophy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 72,
"text": "In Daybreak, Nietzsche began his \"Campaign against Morality\". He called himself an \"immoralist\" and harshly criticised the prominent moral philosophies of his day: Christianity, Kantianism, and utilitarianism. Nietzsche's concept \"God is dead\" applies to the doctrines of Christendom, though not to all other faiths: he claimed that Buddhism is a successful religion that he complimented for fostering critical thought. Still, Nietzsche saw his philosophy as a counter-movement to nihilism through appreciation of art:",
"title": "Philosophy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 73,
"text": "Art as the single superior counterforce against all will to negation of life, art as the anti-Christian, anti-Buddhist, anti-Nihilist par excellence.",
"title": "Philosophy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 74,
"text": "Nietzsche claimed that the Christian faith as practised was not a proper representation of Jesus' teachings, as it forced people merely to believe in the way of Jesus but not to act as Jesus did; in particular, his example of refusing to judge people, something that Christians constantly did. He condemned institutionalised Christianity for emphasising a morality of pity (Mitleid), which assumes an inherent illness in society:",
"title": "Philosophy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 75,
"text": "Christianity is called the religion of pity. Pity stands opposed to the tonic emotions which heighten our vitality: it has a depressing effect. We are deprived of strength when we feel pity. That loss of strength in which suffering as such inflicts on life is still further increased and multiplied by pity. Pity makes suffering contagious.",
"title": "Philosophy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 76,
"text": "In Ecce Homo Nietzsche called the establishment of moral systems based on a dichotomy of good and evil a \"calamitous error\", and wished to initiate a re-evaluation of the values of the Christian world. He indicated his desire to bring about a new, more naturalistic source of value in the vital impulses of life itself.",
"title": "Philosophy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 77,
"text": "While Nietzsche attacked the principles of Judaism, he was not antisemitic: in his work On the Genealogy of Morality, he explicitly condemned antisemitism and pointed out that his attack on Judaism was not an attack on contemporary Jewish people but specifically an attack upon the ancient Jewish priesthood who he claimed antisemitic Christians paradoxically based their views upon. An Israeli historian who performed a statistical analysis of everything Nietzsche wrote about Jews claims that cross-references and context make clear that 85% of the negative comments are attacks on Christian doctrine or, sarcastically, on Richard Wagner.",
"title": "Philosophy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 78,
"text": "Nietzsche felt that modern antisemitism was \"despicable\" and contrary to European ideals. Its cause, in his opinion, was the growth in European nationalism and the endemic \"jealousy and hatred\" of Jewish success. He wrote that Jews should be thanked for helping uphold a respect for the philosophies of ancient Greece, and for giving rise to \"the noblest human being (Christ), the purest philosopher (Baruch Spinoza), the mightiest book, and the most effective moral code in the world\".",
"title": "Philosophy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 79,
"text": "The statement \"God is dead,\" occurring in several of Nietzsche's works (notably in The Gay Science), has become one of his best-known remarks. On the basis of it, many commentators regard Nietzsche as an atheist; others (such as Kaufmann) suggest that this statement might reflect a more subtle understanding of divinity. Scientific developments and the increasing secularisation of Europe had effectively 'killed' the Abrahamic God, who had served as the basis for meaning and value in the West for more than a thousand years. The death of God may lead beyond bare perspectivism to outright nihilism, the belief that nothing has any inherent importance and that life lacks purpose. While Nietzsche rejected the traditional Christian morality and theology, he also rejected the nihilism which many thought was the only alternative to it.",
"title": "Philosophy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 80,
"text": "Nietzsche believed that Christian moral doctrine was originally constructed to counteract nihilism. It provides people with traditional beliefs about the moral values of good and evil, belief in God (whose existence one might appeal to in justifying the evil in the world), and a framework with which one might claim to have objective knowledge. In constructing a world where objective knowledge is supposed to be possible, Christianity is an antidote to a primal form of nihilism—the despair of meaninglessness. As Heidegger put the problem, \"If God as the supra sensory ground and goal of all reality is dead if the supra sensory world of the ideas has suffered the loss of its obligatory and above it its vitalising and upbuilding power, then nothing more remains to which man can cling and by which he can orient himself.\"",
"title": "Philosophy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 81,
"text": "One such reaction to the loss of meaning is what Nietzsche called passive nihilism, which he recognised in the pessimistic philosophy of Schopenhauer. Schopenhauer's doctrine—which Nietzsche also referred to as Western Buddhism—advocates separating oneself from will and desires to reduce suffering. Nietzsche characterised this ascetic attitude as a \"will to nothingness\". Life turns away from itself as there is nothing of value to be found in the world. This moving away of all value in the world is characteristic of the nihilist, although, in this, the nihilist appears to be inconsistent; this \"will to nothingness\" is still a (disavowed) form of willing.",
"title": "Philosophy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 82,
"text": "A nihilist is a man who judges that the real world ought not to be and that the world as it ought to do not exist. According to this view, our existence (action, suffering, willing, feeling) has no meaning: this 'in vain' is the nihilists' pathos—an inconsistency on the part of the nihilists.",
"title": "Philosophy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 83,
"text": "Nietzsche approached the problem of nihilism as a deeply personal one, stating that this problem of the modern world had \"become conscious\" in him. Furthermore, he emphasised the danger of nihilism and the possibilities it offers, as seen in his statement that \"I praise, I do not reproach, [nihilism's] arrival. I believe it is one of the greatest crises, a moment of the deepest self-reflection of humanity. Whether man recovers from it, whether he becomes a master of this crisis, is a question of his strength!\" According to Nietzsche, it is only when nihilism is overcome that a culture can have a true foundation on which to thrive. He wished to hasten its coming only so that he could also hasten its ultimate departure. Heidegger interpreted the death of God with what he explained as the death of metaphysics. He concluded that metaphysics has reached its potential and that the ultimate fate and downfall of metaphysics was proclaimed with the statement \"God is dead.\"",
"title": "Philosophy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 84,
"text": "Scholars such as Nishitani and Parkes have aligned Nietzsche's religious thought with Buddhist thinkers, particularly those of the Mahayana tradition. Occasionally, Nietzsche has also been considered in relation to Catholic mystics such as Meister Eckhart. Milne has argued against such interpretations on the grounds that such thinkers from Western and Eastern religious traditions strongly emphasise the divestment of will and the loss of ego, while Nietzsche offers a robust defence of egoism. Milne argues that Nietzsche's religious thought is better understood in relation to his self-professed ancestors: “Heraclitus, Empedocles, Spinoza, Goethe\". Milne plays particularly close attention to Nietzsche’s relationship to Goethe, who has typically been neglected in research by academic philosophers. Milne shows that Goethe’s views on the one and the many allow a reciprocal determinism between part and whole, meaning that a claimed identity between part and whole does not give the part value solely in terms of belonging to the whole. In essence, this allows for a unitive sense of the individual’s relationship to the universe, while also fostering a sense of “self-esteem” which Nietzsche found lacking in mystics such as Eckhart.",
"title": "Philosophy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 85,
"text": "With regard to Nietzsche's development of thought, it has been noted in research that although he dealt with \"nihilistic\" themes (\"pessimism, with nirvana and with nothingness and non-being\") from 1869 onwards, a conceptual use of nihilism first took place in handwritten notes in mid-1880. This period saw the publication of a then popular work that reconstructed so-called \"Russian nihilism\" on the basis of Russian newspaper reports (N. Karlowitsch: The Development of Nihilism. Berlin 1880), which is significant for Nietzsche's terminology .",
"title": "Philosophy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 86,
"text": "A basic element in Nietzsche's philosophical outlook is the \"will to power\" (der Wille zur Macht), which he maintained provides a basis for understanding human behaviour—more so than competing explanations, such as the ones based on pressure for adaptation or survival. As such, according to Nietzsche, the drive for conservation appears as the major motivator of human or animal behaviour only in exceptions, as the general condition of life is not one of a 'struggle for existence.' More often than not, self-conservation is a consequence of a creature's will to exert its strength on the outside world.",
"title": "Philosophy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 87,
"text": "In presenting his theory of human behaviour, Nietzsche also addressed and attacked concepts from philosophies then popularly embraced, such as Schopenhauer's notion of an aimless will or that of utilitarianism. Utilitarians claim that what moves people is the desire to be happy and accumulate pleasure in their lives. But such a conception of happiness Nietzsche rejected as something limited to, and characteristic of, the bourgeois lifestyle of the English society, and instead put forth the idea that happiness is not an aim per se. It is a consequence of overcoming hurdles to one's actions and the fulfilment of the will.",
"title": "Philosophy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 88,
"text": "Related to his theory of the will to power is his speculation, which he did not deem final, regarding the reality of the physical world, including inorganic matter—that, like man's affections and impulses, the material world is also set by the dynamics of a form of the will to power. At the core of his theory is a rejection of atomism—the idea that matter is composed of stable, indivisible units (atoms). Instead, he seemed to have accepted the conclusions of Ruđer Bošković, who explained the qualities of matter as a result of an interplay of forces. One study of Nietzsche defines his fully developed concept of the will to power as \"the element from which derive both the quantitative difference of related forces and the quality that devolves into each force in this relation\" revealing the will to power as \"the principle of the synthesis of forces\". Of such forces Nietzsche said they could perhaps be viewed as a primitive form of the will. Likewise, he rejected the view that the movement of bodies is ruled by inexorable laws of nature, positing instead that movement was governed by the power relations between bodies and forces.",
"title": "Philosophy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 89,
"text": "Other scholars disagree that Nietzsche considered the material world to be a form of the will to power: Nietzsche thoroughly criticised metaphysics, and by including the will to power in the material world, he would simply be setting up a new metaphysics. Other than Aphorism 36 in Beyond Good and Evil, where he raised a question regarding will to power as being in the material world, they argue, it was only in his notes (unpublished by himself), where he wrote about a metaphysical will to power. And they also claim that Nietzsche directed his landlord to burn those notes in 1888 when he left Sils Maria. According to these scholars, the \"burning\" story supports their thesis that Nietzsche rejected his project on the will to power at the end of his lucid life. However, a recent study (Huang 2019) shows that although it is true that in 1888 Nietzsche wanted some of his notes burned, this indicates little about his project on the will to power, not only because only 11 \"aphorisms\" saved from the flames were ultimately incorporated into The Will to Power (this book contains 1067 \"aphorisms\"), but also because these abandoned notes mainly focus on topics such as the critique of morality while touching upon the \"feeling of power\" only once.",
"title": "Philosophy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 90,
"text": "\"Eternal return\" (also known as \"eternal recurrence\") is a hypothetical concept that posits that the universe has been recurring, and will continue to recur, for an infinite number of times across infinite time or space. It is a purely physical concept, involving no supernatural reincarnation, but the return of beings in the same bodies. Nietzsche first proposed the idea of eternal return in a parable in Section 341 of The Gay Science, and also in the chapter \"Of the Vision and the Riddle\" in Thus Spoke Zarathustra, among other places. Nietzsche considered it as potentially \"horrifying and paralyzing\", and said that its burden is the \"heaviest weight\" imaginable (\" das schwerste Gewicht\"). The wish for the eternal return of all events would mark the ultimate affirmation of life, a reaction to Schopenhauer's praise of denying the will-to-live. To comprehend eternal recurrence, and to not only come to peace with it but to embrace it, requires amor fati, \"love of fate\". As Heidegger pointed out in his lectures on Nietzsche, Nietzsche's first mention of eternal recurrence presents this concept as a hypothetical question rather than stating it as fact. According to Heidegger, it is the burden imposed by the question of eternal recurrence – the mere possibility of it, and the reality of speculating on that possibility – which is so significant in modern thought: \"The way Nietzsche here patterns the first communication of the thought of the 'greatest burden' [of eternal recurrence] makes it clear that this 'thought of thoughts' is at the same time 'the most burdensome thought.'\"",
"title": "Philosophy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 91,
"text": "Alexander Nehamas writes in Nietzsche: Life as Literature of three ways of seeing the eternal recurrence:",
"title": "Philosophy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 92,
"text": "Nehamas concluded that, if individuals constitute themselves through their actions, they can only maintain themselves in their current state by living in a recurrence of past actions (Nehamas, 153). Nietzsche's thought is the negation of the idea of a history of salvation.",
"title": "Philosophy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 93,
"text": "Another concept important to understanding Nietzsche is the Übermensch (Superman). Writing about nihilism in Also Sprach Zarathustra, Nietzsche introduced an Übermensch. According to Laurence Lampert, \"the death of God must be followed by a long twilight of piety and nihilism (II. 19; III. 8). Zarathustra's gift of the overman is given to mankind not aware of the problem to which the overman is the solution.\" Zarathustra presents the Übermensch as the creator of new values, and he appears as a solution to the problem of the death of God and nihilism. The Übermensch does not follow the morality of common people since that favours mediocrity but rises above the notion of good and evil and above the \"herd\". In this way Zarathustra proclaims his ultimate goal as the journey towards the state of the Übermensch. He wants a kind of spiritual evolution of self-awareness and overcoming of traditional views on morality and justice that stem from the superstitious beliefs still deeply rooted or related to the notion of God and Christianity.",
"title": "Philosophy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 94,
"text": "From Thus Spoke Zarathustra (Zarathustra's Prologue; pp. 9–11):",
"title": "Philosophy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 95,
"text": "I teach you the Übermensch. Man is something that shall be overcome. What have you done to overcome him? All beings so far have created something beyond themselves: and you want to be the ebb of that great tide, and would rather go back to the beast than overcome man? What is the ape to man? A laughing-stock or a painful embarrassment. And just the same shall man be to the Übermensch: a laughing-stock or a painful embarrassment. You have made your way from worm to man, and much within you is still worm. Once you were apes, and even yet man is more of an ape than any ape. Even the wisest among you is only a conflict and hybrid of plant and ghost. But do I bid you become ghosts or plants? Behold, I teach you the Übermensch! The Übermensch is the meaning of the earth. Let your will say: The Übermensch shall be the meaning of the earth... Man is a rope stretched between the animal and the Übermensch—a rope over an abyss... What is great in man is that he is a bridge and not a goal: what is lovable in man is that he is an over-going and a going under.",
"title": "Philosophy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 96,
"text": "Zarathustra contrasts the Übermensch with the last man of egalitarian modernity (the most obvious example being democracy), an alternative goal humanity might set for itself. The last man is possible only by mankind's having bred an apathetic creature who has no great passion or commitment, who is unable to dream, who merely earns his living and keeps warm. This concept appears only in Thus Spoke Zarathustra, and is presented as a condition that would render the creation of the Übermensch impossible.",
"title": "Philosophy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 97,
"text": "Some have suggested that the eternal return is related to the Übermensch, since willing the eternal return of the same is a necessary step if the Übermensch is to create new values untainted by the spirit of gravity or asceticism. Values involve a rank-ordering of things, and so are inseparable from approval and disapproval, yet it was dissatisfaction that prompted men to seek refuge in other-worldliness and embrace other-worldly values. It could seem that the Übermensch, in being devoted to any values at all, would necessarily fail to create values that did not share some bit of asceticism. Willing the eternal recurrence is presented as accepting the existence of the low while still recognising it as the low, and thus as overcoming the spirit of gravity or asceticism. One must have the strength of the Übermensch to will the eternal recurrence. Only the Übermensch will have the strength to fully accept all of his past life, including his failures and misdeeds, and to truly will their eternal return. This action nearly kills Zarathustra, for example, and most human beings cannot avoid other-worldliness because they really are sick, not because of any choice they made.",
"title": "Philosophy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 98,
"text": "The Nazis attempted to incorporate the concept into their ideology by means of taking Nietzsche's figurative form of speech and creating a literal superiority over other ethnicities. After his death, Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche became the curator and editor of her brother's manuscripts. She reworked Nietzsche's unpublished writings to fit her own German nationalist ideology while often contradicting or obfuscating Nietzsche's stated opinions, which were explicitly opposed to antisemitism and nationalism. Through her published editions, Nietzsche's work became associated with fascism and Nazism; 20th-century scholars contested this interpretation of his work and corrected editions of his writings were soon made available.",
"title": "Philosophy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 99,
"text": "Although Nietzsche has been misrepresented as a predecessor to Nazism, he criticised antisemitism, pan-Germanism and, to a lesser extent, nationalism. Thus, he broke with his editor in 1886 because of his opposition to his editor's antisemitic stances, and his rupture with Richard Wagner, expressed in The Case of Wagner and Nietzsche contra Wagner, both of which he wrote in 1888, had much to do with Wagner's endorsement of pan-Germanism and antisemitism—and also of his rallying to Christianity. In a 29 March 1887 letter to Theodor Fritsch, Nietzsche mocked antisemites, Fritsch, Eugen Dühring, Wagner, Ebrard, Wahrmund, and the leading advocate of pan-Germanism, Paul de Lagarde, who would become, along with Wagner and Houston Chamberlain, the main official influences of Nazism. This 1887 letter to Fritsch ended by: \"And finally, how do you think I feel when the name Zarathustra is mouthed by anti-Semites?\" In contrast to these examples, Nietzsche's close friend Franz Overbeck recalled in his memoirs, \"When he speaks frankly, the opinions he expresses about Jews go, in their severity, beyond any anti-Semitism. The foundation of his anti-Christianity is essentially anti-Semitic.\"",
"title": "Philosophy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 100,
"text": "Friedrich Nietzsche held a pessimistic view of modern society and culture. He believed the press and mass culture led to conformity, brought about mediocrity, and the lack of intellectual progress was leading to the decline of the human species. In his opinion, some people would be able to become superior individuals through the use of willpower. By rising above mass culture, those persons would produce higher, brighter, and healthier human beings.",
"title": "Philosophy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 101,
"text": "A trained philologist, Nietzsche had a thorough knowledge of Greek philosophy. He read Kant, Plato, Mill, Schopenhauer and Spir, who became the main opponents in his philosophy, and later engaged, via the work of Kuno Fischer in particular, with the thought of Baruch Spinoza, whom he saw as his \"precursor\" in many respects but as a personification of the \"ascetic ideal\" in others. However, Nietzsche referred to Kant as a \"moral fanatic\", Plato as \"boring\", Mill as a \"blockhead\", and of Spinoza, he asked: \"How much of personal timidity and vulnerability does this masquerade of a sickly recluse betray?\" He likewise expressed contempt for British author George Eliot.",
"title": "Reading and influence"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 102,
"text": "Nietzsche's philosophy, while innovative and revolutionary, was indebted to many predecessors. While at Basel, Nietzsche lectured on pre-Platonic philosophers for several years, and the text of this lecture series has been characterised as a \"lost link\" in the development of his thought. \"In it, concepts such as the will to power, the eternal return of the same, the overman, gay science, self-overcoming and so on receive rough, unnamed formulations and are linked to specific pre-Platonic, especially Heraclitus, who emerges as a pre-Platonic Nietzsche.\" The pre-Socratic thinker Heraclitus was known for rejecting the concept of being as a constant and eternal principle of the universe and embracing \"flux\" and incessant change. His symbolism of the world as \"child play\" marked by amoral spontaneity and lack of definite rules was appreciated by Nietzsche. Due to his Heraclitean sympathies, Nietzsche was also a vociferous critic of Parmenides, who, in contrast to Heraclitus, viewed the world as a single, unchanging Being.",
"title": "Reading and influence"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 103,
"text": "In his Egotism in German Philosophy, George Santayana claimed that Nietzsche's whole philosophy was a reaction to Schopenhauer. Santayana wrote that Nietzsche's work was \"an emendation of that of Schopenhauer. The will to live would become the will to dominate; pessimism founded on reflection would become optimism founded on courage; the suspense of the will in contemplation would yield to a more biological account of intelligence and taste; finally in the place of pity and asceticism (Schopenhauer's two principles of morals) Nietzsche would set up the duty of asserting the will at all costs and being cruelly but beautifully strong. These points of difference from Schopenhauer cover the whole philosophy of Nietzsche.\"",
"title": "Reading and influence"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 104,
"text": "The superficial similarity of Nietzsche's Übermensch to Thomas Carlyle's Hero as well as both authors' rhetorical prose style has led to speculation concerning the degree to which Nietzsche might have been influenced by his reading of Carlyle. G. K. Chesterton believed that \"Out of [Carlyle] flows most of the philosophy of Nietzsche\", qualifying his statement by adding that they were \"profoundly different\" in character. Ruth apRoberts has shown that Carlyle anticipated Nietzsche in asserting the importance of metaphor (with Nietzsche's metaphor-fiction theory \"appear[ing] to owe something to Carlyle\"), announcing the death of God, and recognising both Goethe's Entsagen (renunciation) and Novalis's Selbsttödtung (self-annihilation) as prerequisites for engaging in philosophy. apRoberts writes that \"Nietzsche and Carlyle had the same German sources, but Nietzsche may owe more to Carlyle than he cares to admit\", noting that \"[Nietzsche] takes the trouble to repudiate Carlyle with malicious emphasis.\" Ralph Jessop, senior lecturer at the University of Glasgow, has recently argued that a reassessment of Carlyle's influence on Nietzsche is \"long-overdue\".",
"title": "Reading and influence"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 105,
"text": "Nietzsche expressed admiration for 17th-century French moralists such as La Rochefoucauld, La Bruyère and Vauvenargues, as well as for Stendhal. The organicism of Paul Bourget influenced Nietzsche, as did that of Rudolf Virchow and Alfred Espinas. In 1867 Nietzsche wrote in a letter that he was trying to improve his German style of writing with the help of Lessing, Lichtenberg and Schopenhauer. It was probably Lichtenberg (along with Paul Rée) whose aphoristic style of writing contributed to Nietzsche's own use of aphorism. Nietzsche early learned of Darwinism through Friedrich Albert Lange. The essays of Ralph Waldo Emerson had a profound influence on Nietzsche, who \"loved Emerson from first to last\", wrote \"Never have I felt so much at home in a book\", and called him \"[the] author who has been richest in ideas in this century so far\". Hippolyte Taine influenced Nietzsche's view on Rousseau and Napoleon. Notably, he also read some of the posthumous works of Charles Baudelaire, Tolstoy's My Religion, Ernest Renan's Life of Jesus, and Fyodor Dostoyevsky's Demons. Nietzsche called Dostoyevsky \"the only psychologist from whom I have anything to learn\". While Nietzsche never mentions Max Stirner, the similarities in their ideas have prompted a minority of interpreters to suggest a relationship between the two.",
"title": "Reading and influence"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 106,
"text": "In 1861, Nietzsche wrote an enthusiastic essay on his \"favorite poet,\" Friedrich Hölderlin, mostly forgotten at that time. He also expressed deep appreciation for Stifter's Indian Summer, Byron's Manfred and Twain's Tom Sawyer.",
"title": "Reading and influence"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 107,
"text": "A Louis Jacolliot translation of the Calcutta version of the ancient Hindu text called the Manusmriti was reviewed by Friedrich Nietzsche. He commented on it both favourably and unfavorably:",
"title": "Reading and influence"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 108,
"text": "Nietzsche's works did not reach a wide readership during his active writing career. However, in 1888 the influential Danish critic Georg Brandes aroused considerable excitement about Nietzsche through a series of lectures he gave at the University of Copenhagen. In the years after Nietzsche's death in 1900, his works became better known, and readers have responded to them in complex and sometimes controversial ways. Many Germans eventually discovered his appeals for greater individualism and personality development in Thus Spoke Zarathustra, but responded to them divergently. He had some following among left-wing Germans in the 1890s; in 1894–1895 German conservatives wanted to ban his work as subversive. During the late 19th century Nietzsche's ideas were commonly associated with anarchist movements and appear to have had influence within them, particularly in France, Germany, Great Britain and the United States. Gustav Landauer is credited with the most in-depth appreciation and critique of Nietzsche's ideas from an anarchist perspective. H.L. Mencken produced the first book on Nietzsche in English in 1907, The Philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche, and in 1910 a book of translated paragraphs from Nietzsche, increasing knowledge of his philosophy in the United States. Nietzsche is known today as a precursor to existentialism, post-structuralism and postmodernism.",
"title": "Reception and legacy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 109,
"text": "W. B. Yeats and Arthur Symons described Nietzsche as the intellectual heir to William Blake. Symons went on to compare the ideas of the two thinkers in The Symbolist Movement in Literature, while Yeats tried to raise awareness of Nietzsche in Ireland. A similar notion was espoused by W. H. Auden who wrote of Nietzsche in his New Year Letter (released in 1941 in The Double Man): \"O masterly debunker of our liberal fallacies ... all your life you stormed, like your English forerunner Blake.\" Nietzsche made an impact on composers during the 1890s. Writer Donald Mitchell noted that Gustav Mahler was \"attracted to the poetic fire of Zarathustra, but repelled by the intellectual core of its writings\". He also quoted Mahler himself, and adds that he was influenced by Nietzsche's conception and affirmative approach to nature, which Mahler presented in his Third Symphony using Zarathustra's roundelay. Frederick Delius produced a piece of choral music, A Mass of Life, based on a text of Thus Spoke Zarathustra, while Richard Strauss (who also based his Also sprach Zarathustra on the same book), was only interested in finishing \"another chapter of symphonic autobiography\". Writers and poets influenced by Nietzsche include André Gide, August Strindberg, Robinson Jeffers, Pío Baroja, D.H. Lawrence, Edith Södergran and Yukio Mishima.",
"title": "Reception and legacy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 110,
"text": "Nietzsche was an early influence on the poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke. Knut Hamsun counted Nietzsche, along with Strindberg and Dostoyevsky, as his primary influences. Author Jack London wrote that he was more stimulated by Nietzsche than by any other writer. Critics have suggested that the character of David Grief in A Son of the Sun was based on Nietzsche. Nietzsche's influence on Muhammad Iqbal is most evidenced in Asrar-i-Khudi (The Secrets of the Self). Wallace Stevens was another reader of Nietzsche, and elements of Nietzsche's philosophy were found throughout Stevens's poetry collection Harmonium. Olaf Stapledon was influenced by the idea of the Übermensch and it is a central theme in his books Odd John and Sirius. In Russia, Nietzsche influenced Russian symbolism and figures such as Dmitry Merezhkovsky, Andrei Bely, Vyacheslav Ivanov and Alexander Scriabin incorporated or discussed parts of Nietzsche philosophy in their works. Thomas Mann's novel Death in Venice shows a use of Apollonian and Dionysian, and in Doctor Faustus Nietzsche was a central source for the character of Adrian Leverkühn. Hermann Hesse, similarly, in his Narcissus and Goldmund presents two main characters as opposite yet intertwined Apollonian and Dionysian spirits. Painter Giovanni Segantini was fascinated by Thus Spoke Zarathustra, and he drew an illustration for the first Italian translation of the book. The Russian painter Lena Hades created the oil painting cycle Also Sprach Zarathustra dedicated to the book Thus Spoke Zarathustra.",
"title": "Reception and legacy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 111,
"text": "By World War I, Nietzsche had acquired a reputation as an inspiration for right-wing German militarism and leftist politics. German soldiers received copies of Thus Spoke Zarathustra as gifts during World War I. The Dreyfus affair provided a contrasting example of his reception: the French antisemitic Right labelled the Jewish and leftist intellectuals who defended Alfred Dreyfus as \"Nietzscheans\". Nietzsche had a distinct appeal for many Zionist thinkers around the start of the 20th century, most notable being Ahad Ha'am, Hillel Zeitlin, Micha Josef Berdyczewski, A.D. Gordon and Martin Buber, who went so far as to extoll Nietzsche as a \"creator\" and \"emissary of life\". Chaim Weizmann was a great admirer of Nietzsche; the first president of Israel sent Nietzsche's books to his wife, adding a comment in a letter that \"This was the best and finest thing I can send to you.\" Israel Eldad, the ideological chief of the Stern Gang that fought the British in Palestine in the 1940s, wrote about Nietzsche in his underground newspaper and later translated most of Nietzsche's books into Hebrew. Eugene O'Neill remarked that Zarathustra influenced him more than any other book he ever read. He also shared Nietzsche's view of tragedy. The plays The Great God Brown and Lazarus Laughed are examples of Nietzsche's influence on him. The First International claimed Nietzsche as ideologically one of their own. From 1888 through the 1890s there were more publications of Nietzsche works in Russia than in any other country. Nietzsche was influential among the Bolsheviks. Among the Nietzschean Bolsheviks were Vladimir Bazarov, Anatoly Lunacharsky and Aleksandr Bogdanov. Nietzsche's influence on the works of Frankfurt School philosophers Max Horkheimer and Theodor W. Adorno can be seen in the Dialectic of Enlightenment. Adorno summed up Nietzsche's philosophy as expressing the \"humane in a world in which humanity has become a sham\".",
"title": "Reception and legacy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 112,
"text": "Nietzsche's growing prominence suffered a severe setback when his works became closely associated with Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany. Many political leaders of the twentieth century were at least superficially familiar with Nietzsche's ideas, although it is not always possible to determine whether they actually read his work. It is debated among scholars whether Hitler read Nietzsche, although if he did, it may not have been extensively. He was a frequent visitor to the Nietzsche museum in Weimar and used expressions of Nietzsche's, such as \"lords of the earth\" in Mein Kampf. The Nazis made selective use of Nietzsche's philosophy. Alfred Baeumler was perhaps the most notable exponent of Nietzschean thought in Nazi Germany. Baeumler had published his book \"Nietzsche, Philosopher and Politician\" in 1931, before the Nazis' rise to power, and subsequently published several editions of Nietzsche's work during the Third Reich. Mussolini, Charles de Gaulle and Huey P. Newton read Nietzsche. Richard Nixon read Nietzsche with \"curious interest\", and his book Beyond Peace might have taken its title from Nietzsche's book Beyond Good and Evil which Nixon read beforehand. Bertrand Russell wrote that Nietzsche had exerted great influence on philosophers and on people of literary and artistic culture, but warned that the attempt to put Nietzsche's philosophy of aristocracy into practice could only be done by an organisation similar to the Fascist or the Nazi party.",
"title": "Reception and legacy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 113,
"text": "A decade after World War II, there was a revival of Nietzsche's philosophical writings thanks to translations and analyses by Walter Kaufmann and R.J. Hollingdale. Georges Bataille was also influential in this revival, defending Nietzsche against appropriation by the Nazis with his notable 1937 essay \"Nietzsche and Fascists\". Others, well known philosophers in their own right, wrote commentaries on Nietzsche's philosophy, including Martin Heidegger, who produced a four-volume study, and Lev Shestov, who wrote a book called Dostoyevski, Tolstoy and Nietzsche where he portrays Nietzsche and Dostoyevski as the \"thinkers of tragedy\". Georg Simmel compares Nietzsche's importance to ethics to that of Copernicus for cosmology. Sociologist Ferdinand Tönnies read Nietzsche avidly from his early life, and later frequently discussed many of his concepts in his own works. Nietzsche has influenced philosophers such as Martin Heidegger, Jean-Paul Sartre, Oswald Spengler, George Grant, Emil Cioran, Albert Camus, Ayn Rand, Jacques Derrida, Sarah Kofman, Leo Strauss, Max Scheler, Michel Foucault, Bernard Williams, and Nick Land.",
"title": "Reception and legacy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 114,
"text": "Camus described Nietzsche as \"the only artist to have derived the extreme consequences of an aesthetics of the absurd\". Paul Ricœur called Nietzsche one of the masters of the \"school of suspicion\", alongside Karl Marx and Sigmund Freud. Carl Jung was also influenced by Nietzsche. In Memories, Dreams, Reflections, a biography transcribed by his secretary, he cites Nietzsche as a large influence. Aspects of Nietzsche's philosophy, especially his ideas of the self and his relation to society, run through much of late-twentieth and early twenty-first century thought. Nietzsche's writings have also been influential to some advancers of Accelerationist thought through his influence on Deleuze and Guattari. His deepening of the romantic-heroic tradition of the nineteenth century, for example, as expressed in the ideal of the \"grand striver\" appears in the work of thinkers from Cornelius Castoriadis to Roberto Mangabeira Unger. For Nietzsche, this grand striver overcomes obstacles, engages in epic struggles, pursues new goals, embraces recurrent novelty, and transcends existing structures and contexts.",
"title": "Reception and legacy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 115,
"text": "•Review of modern philosophy, Atusa Mousai Ghale: Shahrekord 1402",
"title": "Further reading"
}
] |
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche was a German philosopher. He began his career as a classical philologist before turning to philosophy. He became the youngest person to hold the Chair of Classical Philology at the University of Basel in 1869 at the age of 24, but resigned in 1879 due to health problems that plagued him most of his life; he completed much of his core writing in the following decade. In 1889, at age 44, he suffered a collapse and afterward a complete loss of his mental faculties, with paralysis and probably vascular dementia. He lived his remaining years in the care of his mother until her death in 1897 and then with his sister Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche. Nietzsche died in 1900, after experiencing pneumonia and multiple strokes. Nietzsche's work spans philosophical polemics, poetry, cultural criticism, and fiction while displaying a fondness for aphorism and irony. Prominent elements of his philosophy include his radical critique of truth in favour of perspectivism; a genealogical critique of religion and Christian morality and a related theory of master–slave morality; the aesthetic affirmation of life in response to both the "death of God" and the profound crisis of nihilism; the notion of Apollonian and Dionysian forces; and a characterisation of the human subject as the expression of competing wills, collectively understood as the will to power. He also developed influential concepts such as the Übermensch and his doctrine of eternal return. In his later work, he became increasingly preoccupied with the creative powers of the individual to overcome cultural and moral mores in pursuit of new values and aesthetic health. His body of work touched a wide range of topics, including art, philology, history, music, religion, tragedy, culture, and science, and drew inspiration from Greek tragedy as well as figures such as Zoroaster, Arthur Schopenhauer, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Richard Wagner, and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. After his death, Nietzsche's sister Elisabeth became the curator and editor of his manuscripts. She edited his unpublished writings to fit her German ultranationalist ideology, often contradicting or obfuscating Nietzsche's stated opinions, which were explicitly opposed to antisemitism and nationalism. Through her published editions, Nietzsche's work became associated with fascism and Nazism. 20th-century scholars such as Walter Kaufmann, R. J. Hollingdale, and Georges Bataille defended Nietzsche against this interpretation, and corrected editions of his writings were soon made available. Nietzsche's thought enjoyed renewed popularity in the 1960s and his ideas have since had a profound impact on 20th- and early 21st-century thinkers across philosophy—especially in schools of continental philosophy such as existentialism, postmodernism, and post-structuralism—as well as art, literature, poetry, politics, and popular culture.
|
2001-09-26T22:35:27Z
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2023-12-31T17:25:46Z
|
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedrich_Nietzsche
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Frank Zappa
|
Frank Vincent Zappa (December 21, 1940 – December 4, 1993) was an American musician, composer, and bandleader. His work is characterized by nonconformity, free-form improvisation, sound experimentation, musical virtuosity and satire of American culture. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Zappa composed rock, pop, jazz, jazz fusion, orchestral and musique concrète works; he also produced almost all of the 60-plus albums that he released with his band the Mothers of Invention and as a solo artist. Zappa also directed feature-length films and music videos, and designed album covers. He is considered one of the most innovative and stylistically diverse musicians of his generation.
As a mostly self-taught composer and performer, Zappa had diverse musical influences that led him to create music that was sometimes difficult to categorize. While in his teens, he acquired a taste for 20th-century classical modernism, African-American rhythm and blues, and doo-wop music. He began writing classical music in high school, while at the same time playing drums in rhythm and blues bands, later switching to electric guitar. His debut studio album with the Mothers of Invention, Freak Out! (1966), combined songs in conventional rock and roll format with collective improvisations and studio-generated sound collages. He continued this eclectic and experimental approach whether the fundamental format was rock, jazz, or classical.
Zappa's output is unified by a conceptual continuity he termed "Project/Object", with numerous musical phrases, ideas, and characters reappearing across his albums. His lyrics reflected his iconoclastic views of established social and political processes, structures and movements, often humorously so, and he has been described as the "godfather" of comedy rock. He was a strident critic of mainstream education and organized religion, and a forthright and passionate advocate for freedom of speech, self-education, political participation and the abolition of censorship. Unlike many other rock musicians of his generation, he disapproved of recreational drug use, but supported decriminalization and regulation.
Zappa was a highly productive and prolific artist with a controversial critical standing; supporters of his music admired its compositional complexity, while detractors found it lacking emotional depth. He had greater commercial success outside the US, particularly in Europe. Though he worked as an independent artist, Zappa mostly relied on distribution agreements he had negotiated with the major record labels. He remains a major influence on musicians and composers. His many honors include his posthumous 1995 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the 1997 Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.
Zappa was born on December 21, 1940, in Baltimore, Maryland. His mother, Rose Marie (née Colimore), was of Italian (Neapolitan and Sicilian) and French ancestry; his father, whose name was anglicized to Francis Vincent Zappa, was an immigrant from Partinico, near Palermo on the Italian island of Sicily, and was of Greek and Arab descent.
Frank, the eldest of four children, was raised in an Italian-American household where Italian was often spoken by his grandparents. The family moved often because his father, a chemist and mathematician, worked in the defense industry. After a time in Florida in the 1940s, the family returned to Maryland, where Zappa's father worked at the Edgewood Arsenal chemical warfare facility of the Aberdeen Proving Ground run by the U.S. Army. Due to their home's proximity to the arsenal, which stored mustard gas, gas masks were kept in the home in case of an accident. This living arrangement had a profound effect on Zappa, and references to germs, germ warfare, ailments and the defense industry occur frequently throughout his work.
Zappa's father often brought mercury-filled lab equipment home from his workplace and gave it to Zappa to play with. Zappa said that as a child he "used to play with it all the time", often by putting liquid mercury on the floor and using a hammer to spray out mercury droplets in a circular pattern, eventually covering the entire floor of his bedroom with them.
Zappa was often sick as a child, suffering from asthma, earaches and sinus problems. A doctor treated his sinusitis by inserting a pellet of radium into each of Zappa's nostrils. At the time, little was known about the potential dangers of even small amounts of therapeutic radiation.
Nasal imagery and references appear in his music and lyrics, as well as in the collage album covers created by his long-time collaborator Cal Schenkel. Zappa believed his childhood diseases might have been due to exposure to mustard gas, released by the nearby chemical warfare facility, and his health worsened when he lived in Baltimore. In 1952, his family relocated for reasons of health to Monterey, California, where his father taught metallurgy at the Naval Postgraduate School. They soon moved to the San Diego neighborhood of Clairemont, and then to the nearby city of El Cajon, before finally returning to San Diego.
Since I didn't have any kind of formal training, it didn't make any difference to me if I was listening to Lightnin' Slim, or a vocal group called the Jewels ..., or Webern, or Varèse, or Stravinsky. To me it was all good music.
— Frank Zappa, 1989
Zappa joined his first band at Mission Bay High School in San Diego as a drummer. At about the same time, his parents bought a phonograph, which allowed him to develop his interest in music, and to begin building his record collection. According to The Rough Guide to Rock (2003), "as a teenager Zappa was simultaneously enthralled by black R&B (Johnny 'Guitar' Watson, Guitar Slim), doo-wop (The Channels, The Velvets), and modern composers, such as Igor Stravinsky, Anton Webern and Edgard Varèse."
R&B singles were early purchases for Zappa, starting a large collection he kept for the rest of his life. He was interested in sounds for their own sake, particularly the sounds of drums and other percussion instruments. By age twelve, he had obtained a snare drum and began learning the basics of orchestral percussion. Zappa's deep interest in modern classical music began when he read a LOOK magazine article about the Sam Goody record store chain that lauded its ability to sell an LP as obscure as The Complete Works of Edgard Varèse, Volume One. The article described Varèse's percussion composition Ionisation, produced by EMS Recordings, as "a weird jumble of drums and other unpleasant sounds". Zappa decided to seek out Varèse's music. After searching for over a year, Zappa found a copy (he noticed the LP because of the "mad scientist" looking photo of Varèse on the cover). Not having enough money with him, he persuaded the salesman to sell him the record at a discount. Thus began his lifelong passion for Varèse's music and that of other modern classical composers. He also liked the Italian classical music listened to by his grandparents, especially Puccini's opera arias.
By 1956, the Zappa family had moved to Lancaster, a small aerospace and farming town in the Antelope Valley of the Mojave Desert close to Edwards Air Force Base; he would later refer to Sun Village (a town close to Lancaster) in the 1973 track "Village of the Sun". Zappa's mother encouraged him in his musical interests. Although she disliked Varèse's music, she was indulgent enough to give her son a long-distance call to the New York composer as a fifteenth birthday present. Unfortunately, Varèse was in Europe at the time, so Zappa spoke to the composer's wife and she suggested he call back later. In a letter, Varèse thanked him for his interest, and told him about a composition he was working on called "Déserts". Living in the desert town of Lancaster, Zappa found this very exciting. Varèse invited him to visit if he ever came to New York. The meeting never took place (Varèse died in 1965), but Zappa framed the letter and kept it on display for the rest of his life.
At Antelope Valley High School, Zappa met Don Glen Vliet (who later changed his name to Don Van Vliet and adopted the stage name Captain Beefheart). Zappa and Vliet became close friends, sharing an interest in R&B records and influencing each other musically throughout their careers. Around the same time, Zappa started playing drums in a local band, the Blackouts. The band was racially diverse and included Euclid James "Motorhead" Sherwood who later became a member of the Mothers of Invention. Zappa's interest in the guitar grew, and in 1957 he was given his first instrument. Among his early influences were Johnny "Guitar" Watson, Howlin' Wolf and Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown. In the 1970s/1980s, he invited Watson to perform on several albums. Zappa considered soloing the equivalent of forming "air sculptures", and developed an eclectic, innovative and highly personal style. He was also influenced by Egyptian composer Halim El-Dabh.
Zappa's interest in composing and arranging flourished in his last high-school years. By his final year, he was writing, arranging and conducting avant-garde performance pieces for the school orchestra. He graduated from Antelope Valley High School in 1958, and later acknowledged two of his music teachers on the sleeve of the 1966 album Freak Out! Due to his family's frequent moves, Zappa attended at least six different high schools, and as a student he was often bored and given to distracting the rest of the class with juvenile antics. In 1959, he attended Chaffey College but left after one semester, and maintained thereafter a disdain for formal education, taking his children out of school at age 15 and refusing to pay for their college. While in college, Zappa met Terry Kirkman and played gigs at local coffee houses with him.
Zappa left home in 1959, and moved into a small apartment in Echo Park, Los Angeles. After he met Kathryn J. "Kay" Sherman during his short period of private composition study with Prof. Karl Kohn of Pomona College, they moved in together in Ontario, and were married December 28, 1960. Zappa worked for a short period in advertising as a copywriter. His sojourn in the commercial world was brief, but gave him valuable insights into its workings. Throughout his career, he took a keen interest in the visual presentation of his work, designing some of his album covers and directing his own films and videos.
Zappa attempted to earn a living as a musician and composer, and played different nightclub gigs, some with a new version of the Blackouts. Zappa's earliest professional recordings, two soundtracks for the low-budget films The World's Greatest Sinner (1962) and Run Home Slow (1965) were more financially rewarding. The former score was commissioned by actor-producer Timothy Carey and recorded in 1961. It contains many themes that appeared on later Zappa records. The latter soundtrack was recorded in 1963 after the film was completed, but it was commissioned by one of Zappa's former high school teachers in 1959 and Zappa may have worked on it before the film was shot. Excerpts from the soundtrack can be heard on the posthumous album The Lost Episodes (1996).
During the early 1960s, Zappa wrote and produced songs for other local artists, often working with singer-songwriter Ray Collins and producer Paul Buff. Their "Memories of El Monte" was recorded by the Penguins, although only Cleve Duncan of the original group was featured. Buff owned the small Pal Recording Studio in Cucamonga, which included a unique five-track tape recorder he had built. At that time, only a handful of the most sophisticated commercial studios had multi-track facilities; the industry standard for smaller studios was still mono or two-track. Although none of the recordings from the period achieved major commercial success, Zappa earned enough money to allow him in 1963 to stage a concert of his orchestral music and to broadcast and record it. In March of that same year Zappa appeared on Steve Allen's syndicated late night show playing a bicycle as a musical instrument— using drum sticks and a bow borrowed from the band's bass player he proceeded to pluck, bang, and bow the spokes of the bike, producing strange, comical sounds from his newfound instrument. With Captain Beefheart, Zappa recorded some songs under the name of the Soots. They were rejected by Dot Records. Later, the Mothers were also rejected by Columbia Records for having "no commercial potential", a verdict Zappa subsequently quoted on the sleeve of Freak Out!
In 1964, after his marriage started to break up, he moved into the Pal studio and began routinely working 12 hours or more per day recording and experimenting with overdubbing and audio tape manipulation. This established a work pattern that endured for most of his life. Aided by his income from film composing, Zappa took over the studio from Paul Buff, who was now working with Art Laboe at Original Sound. It was renamed Studio Z. Studio Z was rarely booked for recordings by other musicians. Instead, friends moved in, notably James "Motorhead" Sherwood. Zappa started performing in local bars as a guitarist with a power trio, the Muthers, to support himself.
An article in the local press describing Zappa as "the Movie King of Cucamonga" prompted the local police to suspect that he was making pornographic films. In March 1965, Zappa was approached by a vice squad undercover officer, and accepted an offer of $100 (equivalent to $930 in 2022) to produce a suggestive audio tape for an alleged stag party. Zappa and a female friend recorded a faked erotic episode. When Zappa was about to hand over the tape, he was arrested, and the police stripped the studio of all recorded material. The press was tipped off beforehand, and next day's The Daily Report wrote that "Vice Squad investigators stilled the tape recorders of a free-swinging, a-go-go film and recording studio here Friday and arrested a self-styled movie producer". Zappa was charged with "conspiracy to commit pornography". This felony charge was reduced and he was sentenced to six months in jail on a misdemeanor, with all but ten days suspended. His brief imprisonment left a permanent mark, and was central to the formation of his anti-authoritarian stance. Zappa lost several recordings made at Studio Z in the process, as the police returned only 30 of 80 hours of tape seized. Eventually, he could no longer afford to pay the rent on the studio and was evicted. Zappa managed to recover some of his possessions before the studio was torn down in 1966.
In April 1965, Ray Collins asked Zappa to take over as guitarist in local R&B band the Soul Giants, following a fight between Collins and the group's original guitarist. Zappa accepted, and soon assumed leadership and the role as co-lead singer (even though he never considered himself a singer, then or later). He convinced the other members that they should play his music to increase the chances of getting a record contract. The band debuted at the Broadside Club in Pomona, California and was renamed the Mothers since this gig took place on May 10, 1965 – Mother's Day. They increased their bookings after beginning an association with manager Herb Cohen, and gradually gained attention on the burgeoning Los Angeles underground music scene. In early 1966, they were spotted by leading record producer Tom Wilson when playing "Trouble Every Day", a song about the Watts riots. Wilson had earned acclaim as the producer for Bob Dylan and Simon & Garfunkel, and was one of the few African-Americans working as a major label pop music producer at this time. Wilson signed the Mothers to the Verve division of MGM, which had built up a strong reputation for its releases of modern jazz recordings in the 1940s and 1950s, but was attempting to diversify into pop and rock audiences. Verve insisted that the band officially rename themselves the Mothers of Invention as Mother was short for motherfucker—a term that, apart from its profane meanings, can denote a skilled musician.
With Wilson credited as producer, the Mothers of Invention, augmented by a studio orchestra, recorded the groundbreaking Freak Out! (1966), which, after Bob Dylan's Blonde on Blonde, was the second rock double album ever released. It mixed R&B, doo-wop, musique concrète, and experimental sound collages that captured the "freak" subculture of Los Angeles at that time. Although he was dissatisfied with the final product, Freak Out immediately established Zappa as a radical new voice in rock music, providing an antidote to the "relentless consumer culture of America". The sound was raw, but the arrangements were sophisticated. While recording in the studio, some of the additional session musicians were shocked that they were expected to read the notes on sheet music from charts with Zappa conducting them, since it was not standard when recording rock music. The lyrics praised non-conformity, disparaged authorities, and had dadaist elements. Yet, there was a place for seemingly conventional love songs. Most compositions are Zappa's, which set a precedent for the rest of his recording career. He had full control over the arrangements and musical decisions and did most overdubs. Wilson provided the industry clout and connections and was able to provide the group with the financial resources needed. Although Wilson was able to provide Zappa and the Mothers with an extraordinary degree of artistic freedom for the time, the recording did not go entirely as planned. In a 1967 radio interview, Zappa explained that the album's outlandish 11-minute closing track, "Return of the Son of Monster Magnet" was not finished. The track as it appears on the album was only a backing track for a much more complex piece, but MGM refused to allow the additional recording time needed for completion. Much to Zappa's chagrin, it was issued in its unfinished state.
During the recording of Freak Out!, Zappa moved into a house in Laurel Canyon with friend Pamela Zarubica, who appeared on the album. The house became a meeting (and living) place for many LA musicians and groupies of the time, despite Zappa's disapproval of their illicit drug use. After a short promotional tour following the release of Freak Out!, Zappa met Adelaide Gail Sloatman. He fell in love within "a couple of minutes", and she moved into the house over the summer. They married in 1967, had four children and remained together until Zappa's death.
Wilson nominally produced the Mothers' second album Absolutely Free (1967), which was recorded in November 1966, and later mixed in New York, although by this time Zappa was in de facto control of most facets of the production. It featured extended playing by the Mothers of Invention and focused on songs that defined Zappa's compositional style of introducing abrupt, rhythmical changes into songs that were built from diverse elements. Examples are "Plastic People" and "Brown Shoes Don't Make It", which contained lyrics critical of the hypocrisy and conformity of American society, but also of the counterculture of the 1960s. As Zappa put it, "[W]e're satirists, and we are out to satirize everything." At the same time, Zappa had recorded material for an album of orchestral works to be released under his own name, Lumpy Gravy, released by Capitol Records in 1967. Due to contractual problems, the album was pulled. Zappa took the opportunity to radically restructure the contents, adding newly recorded, improvised dialogue. After the contractual problems were resolved, a new album of the same name was issued by Verve in 1968. It is an "incredible ambitious musical project", a "monument to John Cage", which intertwines orchestral themes, spoken words and electronic noises through radical audio editing techniques.
The Mothers of Invention played in New York in late 1966 and were offered a contract at the Garrick Theater (at 152 Bleecker Street, above the Cafe au Go Go) during Easter 1967. This proved successful and Herb Cohen extended the booking, which eventually lasted half a year. As a result, Zappa and his wife Gail, along with the Mothers of Invention, moved to New York. Their shows became a combination of improvised acts showcasing individual talents of the band as well as tight performances of Zappa's music. Everything was directed by Zappa using hand signals. Guest performers and audience participation became a regular part of the Garrick Theater shows. One evening, Zappa managed to entice some U.S. Marines from the audience onto the stage, where they proceeded to dismember a big baby doll, having been told by Zappa to pretend that it was a "gook baby".
In 1967, filmmaker Ed Seeman paid Zappa $2,000 to produce music for a Luden's cough drops television commercial. Zappa's music was matched with Seeman's animation and the advertisement won a Clio Award for "Best Use of Sound". An alternate version of the soundtrack, called "The Big Squeeze", later appeared on Zappa's posthumous 1996 album "The Lost Episodes". This version lacks Seeman's narration.
While living in New York City, and interrupted by the band's first European tour, the Mothers of Invention recorded the album widely regarded as the peak of the group's late 1960s work, We're Only in It for the Money (released 1968). It was produced by Zappa, with Wilson credited as executive producer. From then on, Zappa produced all albums released by the Mothers of Invention and as a solo artist. We're Only in It for the Money featured some of the most creative audio editing and production yet heard in pop music, and the songs ruthlessly satirized the hippie and flower power phenomena. He sampled surf music from his Studio Z days in the audio collage Nasal Retentive Caliope Music. The cover photo parodied that of the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. The cover art was provided by Cal Schenkel whom Zappa met in New York. This initiated a lifelong collaboration in which Schenkel designed covers for numerous Zappa and Mothers albums.
Reflecting Zappa's eclectic approach to music, the next album, Cruising with Ruben & the Jets (1968), was very different. It represented a collection of doo-wop songs; listeners and critics were not sure whether the album was a satire or a tribute. Zappa later remarked that the album was conceived like Stravinsky's compositions in his neo-classical period: "If he could take the forms and clichés of the classical era and pervert them, why not do the same ... to doo-wop in the fifties?" The opening theme from Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring is sung in "Fountain of Love".
In 1967 and 1968, Zappa made two appearances with the Monkees. The first appearance was on an episode of their TV series, "The Monkees Blow Their Minds", where Zappa, dressed up as Mike Nesmith, interviews Nesmith who is dressed up as Zappa. After the interview, Zappa destroys a car with a sledgehammer as the song "Mother People" plays. He later provided a cameo in the Monkees' movie Head where, leading a cow, he tells Davy Jones "the youth of America depends on you to show them the way." Zappa respected the Monkees and recruited Micky Dolenz to the Mothers but RCA/Columbia/Colgems would not release Dolenz from his contract.
During the late 1960s, Zappa continued to develop the business side of his career. He and Herb Cohen formed the Bizarre Records and Straight Records labels to increase creative control and produce recordings by other artists. These labels were distributed in the US by Warner Bros. Records. Zappa/Mothers recordings appeared on Bizarre along with Wild Man Fischer and Lenny Bruce. Straight released the double album Trout Mask Replica for Captain Beefheart, and releases by Alice Cooper, The Persuasions, and the GTOs. The Mothers' first album on Bizarre was 1969's Uncle Meat, which Zappa described as "most of the music from the Mothers' movie of the same name which we haven't got enough money to finish yet". A version of the Uncle Meat film was released direct-to-video in 1987. Principal photography having never been completed, the VHS videocassette is a "making of" documentary showing rehearsals and background footage from 1968 and interviews with people involved with the uncompleted production.
In the Mothers' second European tour in September/October 1968 they performed for the Internationale Essener Songtage [de] at the Grugahalle in Essen, Germany; at the Tivoli in Copenhagen, Denmark; for TV programs in Germany (Beat-Club), France, and England; at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam; at the Royal Festival Hall in London; and at the Olympia in Paris.
Zappa and the Mothers of Invention returned to Los Angeles in mid-1968, and the Zappas moved into a house on Laurel Canyon Boulevard, only to move again to Woodrow Wilson Drive. This was Zappa's home for the rest of his life. Despite being successful in Europe, the Mothers of Invention were not doing well financially. Their first records were vocally oriented, but as Zappa wrote more instrumental jazz and classical style music for the band's concerts, audiences were confused. Zappa felt that audiences failed to appreciate his "electrical chamber music".
In 1969, there were nine band members and Zappa was supporting the group from his publishing royalties whether they played or not. In late 1969, Zappa broke up the band. He often cited the financial strain as the main reason, but also commented on the band members' lack of diligence. Many band members were bitter about Zappa's decision, and some took it as a sign of Zappa's perfectionism at the expense of human feeling. Others were irritated by 'his autocratic ways', exemplified by Zappa's never staying at the same hotel as the band members. Several members would play with Zappa again in subsequent years, while guitarist/vocalist Lowell George and bassist Roy Estrada went on to form the band Little Feat. Zappa assembled remaining unreleased recordings of the band on the albums Burnt Weeny Sandwich and Weasels Ripped My Flesh, both released in 1970.
After he disbanded the Mothers of Invention, Zappa released the acclaimed solo album Hot Rats (1969). It features, for the first time on record, Zappa playing extended guitar solos and contains one of his most enduring compositions, "Peaches en Regalia", which reappeared several times on future recordings. He was backed by jazz, blues and R&B session players including violinist Don "Sugarcane" Harris, drummers John Guerin and Paul Humphrey, multi-instrumentalist and former Mothers of Invention member Ian Underwood, and multi-instrumentalist Shuggie Otis on bass, along with a guest appearance by Captain Beefheart on the only vocal track, "Willie the Pimp". It became a popular album in England, and had a major influence on the development of jazz-rock fusion.
In 1970, Zappa met conductor Zubin Mehta. They arranged a May 1970 concert where Mehta conducted the Los Angeles Philharmonic augmented by a rock band. According to Zappa, the music was mostly written in motel rooms while on tour with the Mothers of Invention. Some of it was later featured in the movie 200 Motels. Although the concert was a success, Zappa's experience working with a symphony orchestra was not a happy one. His dissatisfaction became a recurring theme throughout his career; he often felt that the quality of performance of his material delivered by orchestras was not commensurate with the money he spent on orchestral concerts and recordings.
Later in 1970, Zappa formed a new version of the Mothers (from then on, he mostly dropped the "of Invention"). It included British drummer Aynsley Dunbar, jazz keyboardist George Duke, Ian Underwood, Jeff Simmons (bass, rhythm guitar), and three members of the Turtles: bass player Jim Pons, and singers Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan, who, due to persistent legal and contractual problems, adopted the stage name "The Phlorescent Leech and Eddie", or "Flo & Eddie".
This version of the Mothers debuted on Zappa's next solo album Chunga's Revenge (1970), which was followed by the double-album soundtrack to the movie 200 Motels (1971), featuring the Mothers, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Ringo Starr, Theodore Bikel, and Keith Moon. Co-directed by Zappa and Tony Palmer, it was filmed in a week at Pinewood Studios outside London. Tensions between Zappa and several cast and crew members arose before and during shooting. The film deals loosely with life on the road as a rock musician. It was the first feature film photographed on videotape and transferred to 35 mm film, a process that allowed for novel visual effects. It was released to mixed reviews. The score relied extensively on orchestral music, and Zappa's dissatisfaction with the classical music world intensified when a concert, scheduled at the Royal Albert Hall after filming, was canceled because a representative of the venue found some of the lyrics obscene. In 1975, he lost a lawsuit against the Royal Albert Hall for breach of contract.
After 200 Motels, the band went on tour, which resulted in two live albums, Fillmore East – June 1971 and Just Another Band from L.A.; the latter included the 20-minute track "Billy the Mountain", Zappa's satire on rock opera set in Southern California. This track was representative of the band's theatrical performances—which used songs to build sketches based on 200 Motels scenes, as well as new situations that often portrayed the band members' sexual encounters on the road.
On December 4, 1971, Zappa suffered his first of two serious setbacks. While performing at Casino de Montreux in Switzerland, the Mothers' equipment was destroyed when a flare set off by an audience member started a fire that burned down the casino. Rock band Deep Purple were in the audience that night, and would immortalize the event on their classic 1972 song "Smoke on the Water". A recording of the incident and immediate aftermath can be heard on the bootleg album Swiss Cheese/Fire, released legally as part of Zappa's Beat the Boots II box set. After losing $50,000 (equivalent to $361,000 in 2022) worth of equipment and a week's break, the Mothers played at the Rainbow Theatre, London, with rented gear. During the encore, an audience member, jealous because of his girlfriend's infatuation with Zappa, pushed him off the stage and into the concrete-floored orchestra pit. The band thought Zappa had been killed—he had suffered serious fractures, head trauma and injuries to his back, leg, and neck, as well as a crushed larynx, which ultimately caused his voice to drop a third after healing.
After the attack Zappa needed to use a wheelchair for an extended period, making touring impossible for over half a year. Upon return to the stage in September 1972, Zappa was still wearing a leg brace, had a noticeable limp and could not stand for very long while on stage. Zappa noted that one leg healed "shorter than the other" (a reference later found in the lyrics of songs "Zomby Woof" and "Dancin' Fool"), resulting in chronic back pain. Meanwhile, the Mothers were left in limbo and eventually formed the core of Flo and Eddie's band as they set out on their own.
In December 1972, David Walley published the first biography of Zappa, titled No Commercial Potential. Zappa was severely critical, calling it "a quickie, paperback, sensational book". He said that it contained "gross inaccuracies", described the writing as "not quality workmanship" and claimed that Walley had "just slung together a bunch of quotes". Despite Zappa's complaints, the book was later published in an updated edition in 1980 and again in 1996 after Zappa's death.
During 1971–1972, Zappa released two strongly jazz-oriented solo LPs, Waka/Jawaka and The Grand Wazoo, which were recorded during the forced layoff from concert touring, using floating line-ups of session players and Mothers alumni. Musically, the albums were akin to Hot Rats, in that they featured extended instrumental tracks with extended soloing. Zappa began touring again in late 1972. His first effort was a series of concerts in September 1972 with a 20-piece big band referred to as the Grand Wazoo. This was followed by a scaled-down version known as the Petit Wazoo that toured the U.S. for five weeks from October to December 1972.
Zappa then formed and toured with smaller groups that variously included Ian Underwood (reeds, keyboards), Ruth Underwood (vibes, marimba), Sal Marquez (trumpet, vocals), Napoleon Murphy Brock (sax, flute and vocals), Bruce Fowler (trombone), Tom Fowler (bass), Chester Thompson (drums), Ralph Humphrey (drums), George Duke (keyboards, vocals), and Jean-Luc Ponty (violin).
By 1973, the Bizarre and Straight labels were discontinued. Zappa and Cohen then created DiscReet Records, also distributed by Warner. Zappa continued a high rate of production through the first half of the 1970s, including the solo album Apostrophe (') (1974), which reached a career-high No. 10 on the Billboard pop album charts helped by the No. 86 chart hit "Don't Eat The Yellow Snow". Other albums from the period are Over-Nite Sensation (1973), which contained several future concert favorites, such as "Dinah-Moe Humm" and "Montana", and the albums Roxy & Elsewhere (1974) and One Size Fits All (1975) which feature ever-changing versions of a band still called the Mothers, and are notable for the tight renditions of highly difficult jazz fusion songs in such pieces as "Inca Roads", "Echidna's Arf (Of You)" and "Be-Bop Tango (Of the Old Jazzmen's Church)". A live recording from 1974, You Can't Do That on Stage Anymore, Vol. 2 (1988), captures "the full spirit and excellence of the 1973–1975 band". Zappa released Bongo Fury (1975), which featured a live recording at the Armadillo World Headquarters in Austin from a tour the same year that reunited him with Captain Beefheart for a brief period. They later became estranged for a period of years, but were in contact at the end of Zappa's life. After 1975, Zappa dropped the "Mothers (of Invention)" name from his bands.
In 1976, Zappa produced the album Good Singin', Good Playin' for Grand Funk Railroad. Zappa's relationship with long-time manager Herb Cohen ended in May 1976. After Cohen cashed one of Zappa's royalty checks from Warner and kept the money for himself, Zappa sued Cohen. Zappa was also upset with Cohen for signing acts he did not approve. Cohen filed a lawsuit against Zappa in return, which froze the money Zappa and Cohen were expecting to receive from an out-of-court settlement with MGM/Verve over the rights to Zappa's early Mothers of Invention recordings. The MGM settlement was finalized in mid-1977 after two years of negotiations. Litigation with Cohen also prevented Zappa having access to any of his previously recorded material during the trials. Zappa therefore took his personal master copies of the album Zoot Allures (1976) directly to Warner, while bypassing DiscReet. Following the split with Cohen, Zappa hired Bennett Glotzer as new manager.
By late 1976, Zappa was upset with Warner over inadequate promotion of his recordings and he was eager to move on as soon as possible. In March 1977 Zappa delivered four albums (five full-length LPs) to Warner to complete his contract. These albums contained recordings mostly made between 1972 and 1976. Warner failed to meet contractual obligations to Zappa, and in response he filed a multi-million dollar breach of contract lawsuit. During a lengthy legal debate Warner eventually released the four disputed albums during 1978 and 1979, one of them in censored form. Also, in 1977 Zappa prepared a four-LP box set called Läther (pronounced "leather") and negotiated distribution with Phonogram Inc. for release on the Zappa Records label. The Läther box set was scheduled for release on Halloween 1977, but legal action from Warner forced Zappa to shelve this project.
In December 1977, Zappa appeared on the Pasadena, California radio station KROQ-FM and played the entire Läther album, while encouraging listeners to make tape recordings of the broadcast. Both sets of recordings (five-LP and four-LP) have much of the same material, but each also has unique content. The albums integrate many aspects of Zappa's 1970s work: heavy rock, orchestral works, and complex jazz instrumentals, along with Zappa's distinctive guitar solos. Läther was officially released posthumously in 1996. It is still debated as to whether Zappa had conceived the material as a four-LP set from the beginning, or only later when working with Phonogram.
Although Zappa eventually gained the rights to all his material created under the MGM and Warner contracts, the various lawsuits meant that for a period Zappa's only income came from touring, which he therefore did extensively in 1975–1977 with relatively small, mainly rock-oriented, bands. Drummer Terry Bozzio became a regular band member, Napoleon Murphy Brock stayed on for a while, and original Mothers of Invention bassist Roy Estrada joined. Among other musicians were bassist Patrick O'Hearn, singer-guitarist Ray White and keyboardist/violinist Eddie Jobson. In December 1976, Zappa appeared as a featured musical guest on the NBC television show Saturday Night Live. Zappa's song "I'm the Slime" was performed with a voice-over by SNL booth announcer Don Pardo, who also introduced "Peaches En Regalia" on the same airing. In 1978, Zappa served both as host and musical act on the show, and as an actor in various sketches. The performances included an impromptu musical collaboration with cast member John Belushi during the instrumental piece "The Purple Lagoon". Belushi appeared as his Samurai Futaba character playing the tenor sax with Zappa conducting. However, he earned a ban from the show after the latter episode because he had done what producers called "a disastrous job of hosting" (Zappa reportedly did not get along with cast and crew in the lead-up to recording, then told the audience he was simply reading from cue cards).
Zappa's band had a series of Christmas shows in New York City in 1976, recordings of which appear on Zappa in New York (1978) and also on the four-LP Läther project. The band included Ruth Underwood and a horn section (featuring Michael and Randy Brecker). It mixes complex instrumentals such as "The Black Page" and humorous songs like "Titties and Beer". The former composition, written originally for drum kit but later developed for larger bands, is notorious for its complexity in rhythmic structure and short, densely arranged passages.
Zappa in New York also featured a song about sex criminal Michael H. Kenyon, "The Illinois Enema Bandit", in which Don Pardo provides the opening narrative. Like many songs on the album, it contained numerous sexual references, leading to many critics objecting and being offended by the content. Zappa dismissed the criticism by noting that he was a journalist reporting on life as he saw it. Predating his later fight against censorship, he remarked: "What do you make of a society that is so primitive that it clings to the belief that certain words in its language are so powerful that they could corrupt you the moment you hear them?" The remaining albums released by Warner without Zappa's approval were Studio Tan in 1978 and Sleep Dirt and Orchestral Favorites in 1979. These releases were not promoted and were largely overlooked in midst of the press about Zappa's legal problems.
Zappa released two of his most important projects in 1979. These were the best-selling albums of his career, Sheik Yerbouti, and what author Kelley Lowe called the "bona fide masterpiece", Joe's Garage.
The double album Sheik Yerbouti appeared in March 1979 and was the first release to appear on Zappa Records. It contained the Grammy-nominated single "Dancin' Fool", which reached No. 45 on the Billboard charts. It also contained "Jewish Princess", which received attention when a Jewish group, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), attempted to prevent the song from receiving radio airplay due to its alleged anti-Semitic lyrics. Zappa vehemently denied any anti-Semitic sentiments, and dismissed the ADL as a "noisemaking organization that tries to apply pressure on people in order to manufacture a stereotype image of Jews that suits their idea of a good time." The album's commercial success was attributable in part to "Bobby Brown". Due to its explicit lyrics about a young man's encounter with a "dyke by the name of Freddie", the song did not get airplay in the U.S., but it topped the charts in several European countries where English is not the primary language.
Joe's Garage initially had to be released in two parts due to economic conditions. The first was a single LP Joe's Garage Act I in September 1979, followed by a double LP Joe's Garage Acts II and III in November 1979. The albums feature singer Ike Willis as lead character "Joe" in a rock opera about the danger of political systems, the suppression of freedom of speech and music—inspired in part by the 1979 Islamic Iranian revolution that had made music illegal—and about the "strange relationship Americans have with sex and sexual frankness". The first act contains the song "Catholic Girls" (a riposte to the controversies of "Jewish Princess"), and the title track, which was also released as a single. The second and third acts have extended guitar improvisations, which were recorded live, then combined with studio backing tracks. Zappa described this process as xenochrony. In this period the band included drummer Vinnie Colaiuta (with whom Zappa had a particularly strong musical rapport) Joe's Garage contains one of Zappa's most famous guitar "signature pieces", "Watermelon in Easter Hay". This work later appeared as a three-LP, or two-CD set.
Zappa had been known for his long hair since the mid-1960s, but he had Gail cut it short around August 1979. That fall he cancelled tour plans and stayed home to celebrate two of his children's birthdays in September. At this time Zappa also completed the Utility Muffin Research Kitchen (UMRK) studios, which were located at his house, thereby giving him complete freedom in his work.
On December 21, 1979, Zappa's movie Baby Snakes premiered in New York. The movie's tagline was "A movie about people who do stuff that is not normal". The 2 hour and 40 minutes movie was based on footage from concerts in New York around Halloween 1977, with a band featuring keyboardist Tommy Mars and percussionist Ed Mann (who would both return on later tours) as well as guitarist Adrian Belew. It also contained several extraordinary sequences of clay animation by Bruce Bickford who had earlier provided animation sequences to Zappa for a 1974 TV special (which became available on the 1982 video The Dub Room Special). The movie did not do well in theatrical distribution, but won the Premier Grand Prix at the First International Music Festival in Paris in 1981.
Zappa cut ties with Phonogram after the distributor refused to release his song "I Don't Wanna Get Drafted", which was recorded in February 1980. The single was released independently by Zappa in the United States and was picked up by CBS Records internationally.
After spending much of 1980 on the road, Zappa released Tinsel Town Rebellion in 1981. It was the first release on his own Barking Pumpkin Records, and it contains songs taken from a 1979 tour, one studio track and material from the 1980 tours. The album is a mixture of complicated instrumentals and Zappa's use of sprechstimme (speaking song or voice)—a compositional technique utilized by such composers as Arnold Schoenberg and Alban Berg—showcasing some of the most accomplished bands Zappa ever had (mostly featuring drummer Vinnie Colaiuta). While some lyrics still raised controversy among critics, some of whom found them sexist, the political and sociological satire in songs like the title track and "The Blue Light" have been described as a "hilarious critique of the willingness of the American people to believe anything". The album is also notable for the presence of guitarist Steve Vai, who joined Zappa's touring band in late 1980.
The same year the double album You Are What You Is was released. The album included one complex instrumental, "Theme from the 3rd Movement of Sinister Footwear", but mainly consisted of rock songs with Zappa's sardonic social commentary—satirical lyrics directed at teenagers, the media, and religious and political hypocrisy. "Dumb All Over" is a tirade on religion, as is "Heavenly Bank Account", wherein Zappa rails against TV evangelists such as Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson for their purported influence on the U.S. administration as well as their use of religion as a means of raising money. Songs like "Society Pages" and "I'm a Beautiful Guy" show Zappa's dismay with the Reagan era and its "obscene pursuit of wealth and happiness". Zappa made his only music video for a song from this album – "You Are What You Is" – directed by Jerry Watson, produced by Paul Flattery. The video was banned from MTV, though was later featured by Mike Judge in the Beavis & Butthead episode "Canoe".
In 1981, Zappa also released three instrumental albums, Shut Up 'n Play Yer Guitar, Shut Up 'N Play Yer Guitar Some More, and The Return of the Son of Shut Up 'N Play Yer Guitar, which were initially sold via mail order, but later released through CBS Records (now Sony Music Entertainment) due to popular demand.
The albums focus exclusively on Frank Zappa as a guitar soloist, and the tracks are predominantly live recordings from 1979 to 1980; they highlight Zappa's improvisational skills with "beautiful performances from the backing group as well". Another guitar-only album, Guitar, was released in 1988, and a third, Trance-Fusion, which Zappa completed shortly before his death, was released in 2006.
Zappa later expanded on his television appearances in a non-musical role. He was an actor or voice artist in episodes of Shelley Duvall's Faerie Tale Theatre, Miami Vice and The Ren & Stimpy Show. A voice part in The Simpsons never materialized, to creator Matt Groening's disappointment (Groening was a neighbor of Zappa and a lifelong fan).
In May 1982, Zappa released Ship Arriving Too Late to Save a Drowning Witch, which featured his biggest selling single ever, the Grammy Award-nominated song "Valley Girl" (topping out at No. 32 on the Billboard charts). In her improvised lyrics to the song, Zappa's daughter Moon satirized the patois of teenage girls from the San Fernando Valley, which popularized many "Valleyspeak" expressions such as "gag me with a spoon", "fer sure, fer sure", "grody to the max", and "barf out".
In 1983, two different projects were released, beginning with The Man from Utopia, a rock-oriented work. The album is eclectic, featuring the vocal-led "Dangerous Kitchen" and "The Jazz Discharge Party Hats", both continuations of the sprechstimme excursions on Tinseltown Rebellion. The second album, London Symphony Orchestra, Vol. I, contained orchestral Zappa compositions conducted by Kent Nagano and performed by the London Symphony Orchestra (LSO). A second record of these sessions, London Symphony Orchestra, Vol. II was released in 1987. The material was recorded under a tight schedule with Zappa providing all funding, helped by the commercial success of "Valley Girl". Zappa was not satisfied with the LSO recordings. One reason is "Strictly Genteel", which was recorded after the trumpet section had been out for drinks on a break: the track took 40 edits to hide out-of-tune notes.
Conductor Nagano, who was pleased with the experience, noted that "in fairness to the orchestra, the music is humanly very, very difficult". Some reviews noted that the recordings were the best representation of Zappa's orchestral work so far. In 1984 Zappa teamed again with Nagano and the Berkeley Symphony Orchestra for a live performance of A Zappa Affair with augmented orchestra, life-size puppets, and moving stage sets. Although critically acclaimed the work was a financial failure, and only performed twice. Zappa was invited by conference organizer Thomas Wells to be the keynote speaker at the American Society of University Composers at the Ohio State University. It was there Zappa delivered his famous "Bingo! There Goes Your Tenure" address, and had two of his orchestra pieces, "Dupree's Paradise" and "Naval Aviation in Art?" performed by the Columbus Symphony Orchestra and ProMusica Chamber Orchestra of Columbus. Zappa's management relationship with Bennett Glotzer ended in 1984. Starting in 1985 Gail began managing much of the Zappa business empire, which included a record label, a mail-order company, a video company and a music publishing firm.
For the remainder of his career, much of Zappa's work was influenced by his use of the Synclavier, an early digital synthesizer, as a compositional and performance tool. According to Zappa, "With the Synclavier, any group of imaginary instruments can be invited to play the most difficult passages ... with one-millisecond accuracy—every time". Even though it essentially did away with the need for musicians, Zappa viewed the Synclavier and real-life musicians as separate.
In 1984, he released four albums. Boulez Conducts Zappa: The Perfect Stranger contains orchestral works commissioned and conducted by celebrated conductor, composer and pianist Pierre Boulez (who was listed as an influence on Freak Out!), and performed by his Ensemble intercontemporain. These were juxtaposed with premiere Synclavier pieces. Again, Zappa was not satisfied with the performances of his orchestral works, regarding them as under-rehearsed, but in the album liner notes he respectfully thanks Boulez's demands for precision. The Synclavier pieces stood in contrast to the orchestral works, as the sounds were electronically generated and not, as became possible shortly thereafter, sampled.
The album Thing-Fish was an ambitious three-record set in the style of a Broadway play dealing with a dystopian "what-if" scenario involving feminism, homosexuality, manufacturing and distribution of the AIDS virus, and a eugenics program conducted by the United States government. New vocals were combined with previously released tracks and new Synclavier music; "the work is an extraordinary example of bricolage".
Francesco Zappa, a Synclavier rendition of works by 18th-century composer Francesco Zappa, was also released in 1984.
Zappa's mail-order merchandise business, Barfko-Swill, established during the 1980s by Zappa's wife Gail, offers t-shirts, videos, posters, sheet music, and collector's recordings, most of them unavailable through other media. Gail has explained why Barfko-Swill was founded: "Just piles and piles of fan mail sitting around unanswered or with no response. The first thing that we did was put a list together from the fan mail and made a Barking Pumpkin t-shirt available which we still have – same old shirt, same old logo, same old price – just to see what would happen. Everybody would write to us and ask us if there was something they could get besides records. ... That was really the primary reason for getting into the business – for setting up Barfko-Swill – in those days was to be independent. To not have to rely on a major record company's interest and ability to promote your product. And that was what the challenge was for me. I prefer the autonomy."
From 1983 to 1993, Barfko-Swill was run by Gerry Fialka, who also worked for Zappa as archivist, production assistant, tour assistant, and factotum, and answered the phone for Zappa's Barking Pumpkin Records hotline. Fialka appears giving a tour of Barfko-Swill in the 1987 VHS release (but not the original 1979 film release) of Zappa's film Baby Snakes. He is credited on-screen as "GERALD FIALKA Cool Guy Who Wraps Stuff So It Doesn't Break". A short clip of this tour is also included in the 2020 documentary film Zappa.
Around 1986, Zappa undertook a comprehensive re-release program of his earlier vinyl recordings. He personally oversaw the remastering of all his 1960s, 1970s and early 1980s albums for the new digital compact disc medium. Certain aspects of these re-issues were criticized by some fans as being unfaithful to the original recordings, with changes made to We're Only in It for the Money, Cruising with Ruben & the Jets, Uncle Meat and Sleep Dirt being the most strongly criticized. Nearly twenty years before the advent of online music stores, Zappa had proposed to replace "phonographic record merchandising" of music by "direct digital-to-digital transfer" through phone or cable TV (with royalty payments and consumer billing automatically built into the accompanying software). In 1989, Zappa considered his idea a "miserable flop".
The album Jazz from Hell, released in 1986, earned Zappa his first Grammy Award in 1988 for Best Rock Instrumental Performance. Except for one live guitar solo ("St. Etienne"), the album exclusively featured compositions brought to life by the Synclavier.
Zappa's last tour in a rock and jazz band format took place in 1988 with a 12-piece group which had a repertoire of over 100 (mostly Zappa) compositions, but which split under acrimonious circumstances before the tour was completed. The tour was documented on the albums Broadway the Hard Way (new material featuring songs with strong political emphasis); The Best Band You Never Heard in Your Life (Zappa "standards" and an eclectic collection of cover tunes, ranging from Maurice Ravel's Boléro to Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven"; and Make a Jazz Noise Here (Zappa's more instrumentally complex and jazz orientated material). An album of guitar solos from this tour also appeared as the posthumous 2006 album Trance-Fusion, a follow-up to the Shut Up 'n Play Yer Guitar and Guitar albums.
More recordings from the 1988 tour would appear as part of You Can't Do That on Stage Anymore, a series of six double CDs complied by Zappa from unreleased live recordings dating back to the earliest Mothers recordings from 1965. The six volumes were released between 1988 and 1992. Two further archival live albums, Playground Psychotics and Ahead of Their Time, were released in 1992 and 1993 respectively. The former collected recordings by the early 1970s "Flo and Eddie" era Mothers, while the latter was a complete concert by the original Mothers at the Royal Albert Hall in 1968 (footage from which has been used in the Uncle Meat movie).
In 1990, Zappa was diagnosed with terminal prostate cancer. The disease had been developing unnoticed for years and was considered inoperable. After the diagnosis, Zappa devoted most of his energy to modern orchestral and Synclavier works. Shortly before his death in 1993 he completed Civilization Phaze III, a major Synclavier work which he had begun in the 1980s.
In 1991, Zappa was chosen to be one of four featured composers at the Frankfurt Festival in 1992 (the others were John Cage, Karlheinz Stockhausen, and Alexander Knaifel). Zappa was approached by the German chamber ensemble Ensemble Modern which was interested in playing his music for the event. Although ill, he invited them to Los Angeles for rehearsals of new compositions and new arrangements of older material. Zappa also got along with the musicians, and the concerts in Germany and Austria were set up for later in the year. Zappa also performed in 1991 in Prague, claiming that "was the first time that he had a reason to play his guitar in 3 years", and that that moment was just "the beginning of a new country", and asked the public to "try to keep your country unique, do not change it into something else".
In September 1992, the concerts went ahead as scheduled but Zappa could only appear at two in Frankfurt due to illness. At the first concert, he conducted the opening "Overture", and the final "G-Spot Tornado" as well as the theatrical "Food Gathering in Post-Industrial America, 1992" and "Welcome to the United States" (the remainder of the program was conducted by the ensemble's regular conductor Peter Rundel). Zappa received a 20-minute ovation. G-Spot Tornado was performed with Canadian dancer Louise Lecavalier. It was Zappa's last professional public appearance as the cancer was spreading to such an extent that he was in too much pain to enjoy an event that he otherwise found "exhilarating". Recordings from the concerts appeared on The Yellow Shark (1993), Zappa's last release during his lifetime, and some material from studio rehearsals appeared on the posthumous Everything Is Healing Nicely (1999).
Zappa died from prostate cancer on December 4, 1993, 17 days shy of his 53rd birthday, at his home with his wife and children by his side. At a private ceremony the following day, his body was buried in a grave at the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery, in Los Angeles. The grave has since been unmarked. On December 6, his family publicly announced that "Composer Frank Zappa left for his final tour just before 6:00 pm on Saturday".
The general phases of Zappa's music have been variously categorized under blues rock, experimental rock, jazz, classical, avant-pop, experimental pop, comedy rock, doo-wop, jazz fusion, progressive rock, proto-prog, avant-jazz, and psychedelic rock.
Zappa grew up influenced by avant-garde composers such as Edgard Varèse, Igor Stravinsky, and Anton Webern; 1950s blues artists Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown, Guitar Slim, Howlin' Wolf, Johnny "Guitar" Watson, and B.B. King; Egyptian composer Halim El-Dabh; R&B and doo-wop groups (particularly local pachuco groups); and modern jazz. His own heterogeneous ethnic background, and the diverse social and cultural mix in and around greater Los Angeles, were crucial in the formation of Zappa as a practitioner of underground music and of his later distrustful and openly critical attitude towards "mainstream" social, political and musical movements. He frequently lampooned musical fads like psychedelia, rock opera and disco. Television also exerted a strong influence, as demonstrated by quotations from show themes and advertising jingles found in his later works.
In his book The Real Frank Zappa Book, Frank credited composer Spike Jones for Zappa's frequent use of funny sound effects, mouth noises, and humorous percussion interjections. After explaining his ideas on this, he said "I owe this part of my musical existence to Spike Jones."
Zappa's albums make extensive use of segued tracks, breaklessly joining the elements of his albums. His total output is unified by a conceptual continuity he termed "Project/Object", with numerous musical phrases, ideas, and characters reappearing across his albums. He also called it a "conceptual continuity", meaning that any project or album was part of a larger project. Everything was connected, and musical themes and lyrics reappeared in different form on later albums. Conceptual continuity clues are found throughout Zappa's entire œuvre.
Zappa is widely recognized as one of the most significant electric guitar soloists. In a 1983 issue of Guitar World, John Swenson declared: "the fact of the matter is that [Zappa] is one of the greatest guitarists we have and is sorely unappreciated as such." His idiosyncratic style developed gradually and was mature by the early 1980s, by which time his live performances featured lengthy improvised solos during many songs. A November 2016 feature by the editors of Guitar Player magazine wrote: "Brimming with sophisticated motifs and convoluted rhythms, Zappa's extended excursions are more akin to symphonies than they are to guitar solos." The symphonic comparison stems from his habit of introducing melodic themes that, like a symphony's main melodies, were repeated with variations throughout his solos. He was further described as using a wide variety of scales and modes, enlivened by "unusual rhythmic combinations". His left hand was capable of smooth legato technique, while Zappa's right was "one of the fastest pick hands in the business." In 2016, Dweezil Zappa explained a distinctive element of his father's guitar improvisation technique was relying heavily on upstrokes much more than many other guitarists, who are more likely to use downstrokes with their picking.
His song "Outside Now" from Joe's Garage poked fun at the negative reception of Zappa's guitar technique by those more commercially minded, as the song's narrator lives in a world where music is outlawed and he imagines "imaginary guitar notes that would irritate/An executive kind of guy", lyrics that are followed by one of Zappa's characteristically quirky solos in 11/8 time. Zappa transcriptionist Kasper Sloots wrote, "Zappa's guitar solos aren't meant to show off technically (Zappa hasn't claimed to be a big virtuoso on the instrument), but for the pleasure it gives trying to build a composition right in front of an audience without knowing what the outcome will be."
Zappa's guitar style was not without its critics. English guitarist and bandleader John McLaughlin, whose band Mahavishnu Orchestra toured with the Mothers of Invention in 1973, opined that Zappa was "very interesting as a human being and a very interesting composer" and that he "was a very good musician but he was a dictator in his band," and that he "was taking very long guitar solos [when performing live]—10–15 minute guitar solos and really he should have taken two or three minute guitar solos, because they were a little bit boring."
In 2000, he was ranked number 36 on VH1's 100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock. In 2004, Rolling Stone magazine ranked him at number 71 on its list of the "100 Greatest Artists of All Time", and in 2011 at number 22 on its list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time".
In New York, Zappa increasingly used tape editing as a compositional tool. A prime example is found on the double album Uncle Meat (1969), where the track "King Kong" is edited from various studio and live performances. Zappa had begun regularly recording concerts, and because of his insistence on precise tuning and timing, he was able to augment his studio productions with excerpts from live shows, and vice versa. Later, he combined recordings of different compositions into new pieces, irrespective of the tempo or meter of the sources. He dubbed this process "xenochrony" (strange synchronizations)—reflecting the Greek "xeno" (alien or strange) and "chronos" (time).
Zappa was married to Kathryn J. "Kay" Sherman from 1960 to 1963. In 1967, he married Adelaide Gail Sloatman. He and his second wife had four children: Moon Unit, Dweezil, Ahmet, and Diva.
Following Zappa's death, his widow Gail created the Zappa Family Trust, which owns the rights to Zappa's music and some other creative output: more than 60 albums were released during Zappa's lifetime and 65 posthumously as of November 2023. Upon Gail's death in October 2015, the Zappa children received shares of the trust; Ahmet and Diva received 30% each, Moon Unit and Dweezil received 20% each.
Zappa stated, "Drugs do not become a problem until the person who uses the drugs does something to you, or does something that would affect your life that you don't want to have happen to you, like an airline pilot who crashes because he was full of drugs." Zappa was a heavy tobacco smoker for most of his life, and critical of anti-tobacco campaigns.
While he disapproved of drug use, he criticized the War on Drugs, comparing it to alcohol prohibition, and stated that the United States Treasury would benefit from the decriminalization and regulation of drugs. Describing his philosophical views, Zappa stated, "I believe that people have a right to decide their own destinies; people own themselves. I also believe that, in a democracy, government exists because (and only so long as) individual citizens give it a 'temporary license to exist'—in exchange for a promise that it will behave itself. In a democracy, you own the government—it doesn't own you."
In a 1991 interview, Zappa reported that he was a registered Democrat but added "that might not last long—I'm going to shred that." Describing his political views, Zappa categorized himself as a "practical conservative." He favored limited government and low taxes; he also stated that he approved of national defense, social security, and other federal programs, but only if recipients of such programs are willing and able to pay for them. He opposed military drafts, saying that military service should be voluntary. He favored capitalism, entrepreneurship, and independent business, stating that musicians could make more from owning their own businesses than from collecting royalties. He opposed communism, stating, "A system that doesn't allow ownership... has—to put it mildly—a fatal design flaw." He always encouraged his fans to register to vote on album covers, and throughout 1988, he had registration booths at his concerts. He even considered running for president of the United States as an independent.
Zappa was an atheist. He recalled his parents being "pretty religious" and trying to make him go to Catholic school despite his resentment. He felt disgust towards organized religion (Christianity in particular) because he believed that it promoted ignorance and anti-intellectualism. He held the view that the Garden of Eden story shows that the essence of Christianity is to oppose gaining knowledge. Some of his songs, concert performances, interviews and public debates in the 1980s criticized and derided Republicans and their policies—President Ronald Reagan, the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), televangelism, and the Christian Right—and warned that the United States government was in danger of becoming a "fascist theocracy."
In early 1990, Zappa visited Czechoslovakia at the request of President Václav Havel. A longtime admirer of Zappa's commitment to individualism, Havel designated him as Czechoslovakia's "Special Ambassador to the West on Trade, Culture and Tourism." Havel was a lifelong fan of Zappa, who had great influence in the avant-garde and underground scene in Central Europe in the 1970s and 1980s. The Plastic People of the Universe, a Czechoslovakian jazz rock group associated with Prague underground culture, took its name from Zappa's 1968 song "Plastic People"). Under pressure from Secretary of State, James Baker, Zappa's posting (as Czech 'Special Ambassador') was withdrawn. Havel made Zappa an unofficial cultural attaché instead. Zappa planned to develop an international consulting enterprise to facilitate trade between the former Eastern Bloc and Western businesses.
Zappa expressed opinions on censorship when he appeared on CNN's Crossfire TV series and debated issues with Washington Times commentator John Lofton in 1986. On September 19, 1985, Zappa testified before the United States Senate Commerce, Technology, and Transportation committee, attacking the Parents Music Resource Center or PMRC, a music organization co-founded by Tipper Gore, wife of then-senator Al Gore. The PMRC consisted of many wives of politicians, including the wives of five members of the committee, and was founded to address the issue of song lyrics with sexual or satanic content. During Zappa's testimony, he stated that there was a clear conflict of interest between the PMRC due to the relations of its founders to the politicians who were then trying to pass what he referred to as the "Blank Tape Tax." Kandy Stroud, a spokeswoman for the PMRC, announced that Senator Gore (who co-founded the committee) was a co-sponsor of that legislation. Zappa suggested that record labels were trying to get the bill passed quickly through committees, one of which was chaired by Senator Strom Thurmond, who was also affiliated with the PMRC. Zappa further said that this committee was being used as a distraction from that bill being passed, which would lead only to the benefit of a select few in the music industry.
Zappa saw their activities as on a path towards censorship and called their proposal for voluntary labelling of records with explicit content "extortion" of the music industry.
In his prepared statement, he said:
The PMRC proposal is an ill-conceived piece of nonsense which fails to deliver any real benefits to children, infringes the civil liberties of people who are not children, and promises to keep the courts busy for years dealing with the interpretational and enforcemental problems inherent in the proposal's design. It is my understanding that, in law, First Amendment issues are decided with a preference for the least restrictive alternative. In this context, the PMRC's demands are the equivalent of treating dandruff by decapitation. ... The establishment of a rating system, voluntary or otherwise, opens the door to an endless parade of moral quality control programs based on things certain Christians do not like. What if the next bunch of Washington wives demands a large yellow "J" on all material written or performed by Jews, in order to save helpless children from exposure to concealed Zionist doctrine?
Zappa set excerpts from the PMRC hearings to Synclavier music in his composition "Porn Wars" on the 1985 album Frank Zappa Meets the Mothers of Prevention, and the full recording was released in 2010 as Congress Shall Make No Law... Zappa is heard interacting with Senators Fritz Hollings, Slade Gorton and Al Gore.
Zappa had a controversial critical standing during his lifetime. As Geoffrey Himes noted in 1993 after the artist's death, Zappa was hailed as a genius by conductor Kent Nagano and nominated by Czechoslovakian President Václav Havel to the country's cultural ambassadorship, but he was in his lifetime rejected twice for admission into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and been found by critics to lack emotional depth. In Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies (1981), Robert Christgau dismissed Zappa's music as "sexist adolescent drivel ... with meters and voicings and key changes that are as hard to play as they are easy to forget." According to Himes:
Admirers and detractors agree that Zappa's music—with its odd time signatures, unorthodox harmonies and fiendishly difficult lines—boasts a rare cerebral complexity. But that's where the agreement ends. Some fans find his sophomoric jokes ("Don't Eat the Yellow Snow") and pop music parodies ("Sheik Yerbouti") a crucial counterbalance to the rarefied density of the music; other devotees find the jokes an irrelevant sideshow to music best appreciated in a chamber or orchestral setting. The critics find the humor's smug iconoclasm a symptom of the essential emptiness of Zappa's intellectual exercises.
Frank Zappa was one of the first to try tearing down the barriers between rock, jazz, and classical music. In the late Sixties his Mothers of Invention would slip from Stravinsky's "Petroushka" into The Dovells' "Bristol Stomp" before breaking down into saxophone squeals inspired by Albert Ayler
— The Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock & Roll, p. 497
The Rolling Stone Album Guide (2004) writes: "Frank Zappa dabbled in virtually all kinds of music—and, whether guised as a satirical rocker, jazz-rock fusionist, guitar virtuoso, electronics wizard, or orchestral innovator, his eccentric genius was undeniable." Even though his work drew inspiration from many different genres, Zappa was seen as establishing a coherent and personal expression.
In 1980, biographer David Walley noted that "The whole structure of his music is unified, not neatly divided by dates or time sequences and it is all building into a composite".
On commenting on Zappa's music, politics and philosophy, Barry Miles noted in 2004 that they cannot be separated: "It was all one; all part of his 'conceptual continuity'."
Guitar Player devoted a special issue to Zappa in 1992, and asked on the cover "Is FZ America's Best Kept Musical Secret?" Editor Don Menn remarked that the issue was about "The most important composer to come out of modern popular music".
Among those contributing to the issue was composer and musicologist Nicolas Slonimsky, who conducted premiere performances of works of Ives and Varèse in the 1930s. He became friends with Zappa in the 1980s, and said, "I admire everything Frank does, because he practically created the new musical millennium. He does beautiful, beautiful work ... It has been my luck to have lived to see the emergence of this totally new type of music."
Conductor Kent Nagano remarked in the same issue that "Frank is a genius. That's a word I don't use often ... In Frank's case it is not too strong ... He is extremely literate musically. I'm not sure if the general public knows that." Pierre Boulez told Musician magazine's posthumous Zappa tribute article that Zappa "was an exceptional figure because he was part of the worlds of rock and classical music and that both types of his work would survive."
In 1994, jazz magazine DownBeat's critics poll placed Zappa in its Hall of Fame. Zappa was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995. There, it was written that "Frank Zappa was rock and roll's sharpest musical mind and most astute social critic. He was the most prolific composer of his age, and he bridged genres—rock, jazz, classical, avant-garde and even novelty music—with masterful ease". He was ranked number 36 on VH1's 100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock in 2000.
In 2005, the U.S. National Recording Preservation Board included We're Only in It for the Money in the National Recording Registry as "Frank Zappa's inventive and iconoclastic album presents a unique political stance, both anti-conservative and anti-counterculture, and features a scathing satire on hippiedom and America's reactions to it". The same year, Rolling Stone magazine ranked him at No. 71 on its list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.
In 2011, he was ranked at No. 22 on the list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time by the same magazine. In 2016, Guitar World magazine placed Zappa atop its list of "15 of the best progressive rock guitarists through the years."
The street of Partinico where his father lived at number 13, Via Zammatà, has been renamed to Via Frank Zappa.
Since his death, several musicians have been considered by critics as filling the artistic niche left behind by Zappa, in view of their prolific output, eclecticism and other qualities, including Devin Townsend, Mike Patton and Omar Rodríguez-López.
In the course of his career, Zappa was nominated for nine competitive Grammy Awards, which resulted in two wins (one posthumous). In 1998, he received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.
Many musicians, bands and orchestras from diverse genres have been influenced by Zappa's music. Rock artists such as The Plastic People of the Universe, Alice Cooper, Larry LaLonde of Primus, Fee Waybill of the Tubes all cite Zappa's influence, as do progressive, alternative, electronic and avant-garde/experimental rock artists like Can, Pere Ubu, Yes, Soft Machine, Henry Cow, Faust, Devo, Kraftwerk, Trey Anastasio and Jon Fishman of Phish, Jeff Buckley, John Frusciante, Steven Wilson, and The Aristocrats.
Paul McCartney regarded Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band as the Beatles' Freak Out!. Jimi Hendrix and heavy rock and metal acts like Black Sabbath, Living Colour, Simon Phillips, Mike Portnoy, Warren DeMartini, Alex Skolnick, Steve Vai, Strapping Young Lad, System of a Down, and Clawfinger have acknowledged Zappa as inspiration. On the classical music scene, Tomas Ulrich, Meridian Arts Ensemble, Ensemble Ambrosius and the Fireworks Ensemble regularly perform Zappa's compositions and quote his influence. Contemporary jazz musicians and composers Bobby Sanabria, Bill Frisell and John Zorn are inspired by Zappa, as is funk legend George Clinton.
Other artists affected by Zappa include ambient composer Brian Eno, new age pianist George Winston, electronic composer Bob Gluck, parodist artist and disk jockey Dr. Demento, parodist and novelty composer "Weird Al" Yankovic, industrial music pioneer Genesis P-Orridge, singer Cree Summer, noise music artist Masami Akita of Merzbow, the Italian band Elio e le Storie Tese and Chilean composer Cristián Crisosto from Fulano and Mediabanda.
Scientists from various fields have honored Zappa by naming new discoveries after him. In 1967, paleontologist Leo P. Plas Jr., identified an extinct mollusc in Nevada and named it Amaurotoma zappa with the motivation that, "The specific name, zappa, honors Frank Zappa".
In the 1980s, biologist Ed Murdy named a genus of gobiid fishes of New Guinea Zappa, with a species named Zappa confluentus. Biologist Ferdinando Boero named a Californian jellyfish Phialella zappai (1987), noting that he had "pleasure in naming this species after the modern music composer".
Belgian biologists Bosmans and Bosselaers discovered in the early 1980s a Cameroonese spider, which they in 1994 named Pachygnatha zappa because "the ventral side of the abdomen of the female of this species strikingly resembles the artist's legendary moustache".
A gene of the bacterium Proteus mirabilis that causes urinary tract infections was in 1995 named zapA by three biologists from Maryland. In their scientific article, they "especially thank the late Frank Zappa for inspiration and assistance with genetic nomenclature". Repeating regions of the genome of the human tumor virus KSHV were named frnk, vnct and zppa in 1996 by Yuan Chang and Patrick S. Moore who discovered the virus. Also, a 143 base pair repeat sequence occurring at two positions was named waka/jwka. In the late 1990s, American paleontologists Marc Salak and Halard L. Lescinsky discovered a metazoan fossil, and named it Spygori zappania to honor "the late Frank Zappa ... whose mission paralleled that of the earliest paleontologists: to challenge conventional and traditional beliefs when such beliefs lacked roots in logic and reason".
In 1994, lobbying efforts initiated by psychiatrist John Scialli led the International Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Center to name an asteroid in Zappa's honor: 3834 Zappafrank. The asteroid was discovered in 1980 by Czechoslovakian astronomer Ladislav Brožek, and the citation for its naming says that "Zappa was an eclectic, self-trained artist and composer ... Before 1989 he was regarded as a symbol of democracy and freedom by many people in Czechoslovakia". In 1995, a bust of Zappa by sculptor Konstantinas Bogdanas was installed in Vilnius, the Lithuanian capital 54°40′59″N 25°16′33″E / 54.683°N 25.2759°E / 54.683; 25.2759. The choice of Zappa was explained as "a symbol that would mark the end of communism, but at the same time express that it wasn't always doom and gloom." A replica was offered to the city of Baltimore in 2008, and on September 19, 2010—the twenty-fifth anniversary of Zappa's testimony to the U.S. Senate—a ceremony dedicating the replica was held, and the bust was unveiled at a library in the city.
In 2002, a bronze bust was installed in German city Bad Doberan, location of the Zappanale since 1990, an annual music festival celebrating Zappa. At the initiative of musicians community ORWOhaus, the city of Berlin named a street in the Marzahn district "Frank-Zappa-Straße" in 2007. The same year, Baltimore mayor Sheila Dixon proclaimed August 9 as the city's official "Frank Zappa Day" citing Zappa's musical accomplishments as well as his defense of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.
The biographical documentary Zappa, directed by Alex Winter and released on November 27, 2020, includes previously unreleased footage from Zappa's personal vault, to which he was granted access by the Zappa Family Trust.
During his lifetime, Zappa released 62 albums. Since 1994, the Zappa Family Trust has released 64 posthumous albums, making a total of 126 albums. The distributor of Zappa's recorded output is Universal Music Enterprises. In June 2022 the Zappa Trust announced that it had sold Zappa's entire catalog to Universal Music, including master tapes, song copyrights and trademarks.
Tour and the relative video:
Timeline of videos with tour:
|
[
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "Frank Vincent Zappa (December 21, 1940 – December 4, 1993) was an American musician, composer, and bandleader. His work is characterized by nonconformity, free-form improvisation, sound experimentation, musical virtuosity and satire of American culture. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Zappa composed rock, pop, jazz, jazz fusion, orchestral and musique concrète works; he also produced almost all of the 60-plus albums that he released with his band the Mothers of Invention and as a solo artist. Zappa also directed feature-length films and music videos, and designed album covers. He is considered one of the most innovative and stylistically diverse musicians of his generation.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "As a mostly self-taught composer and performer, Zappa had diverse musical influences that led him to create music that was sometimes difficult to categorize. While in his teens, he acquired a taste for 20th-century classical modernism, African-American rhythm and blues, and doo-wop music. He began writing classical music in high school, while at the same time playing drums in rhythm and blues bands, later switching to electric guitar. His debut studio album with the Mothers of Invention, Freak Out! (1966), combined songs in conventional rock and roll format with collective improvisations and studio-generated sound collages. He continued this eclectic and experimental approach whether the fundamental format was rock, jazz, or classical.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "Zappa's output is unified by a conceptual continuity he termed \"Project/Object\", with numerous musical phrases, ideas, and characters reappearing across his albums. His lyrics reflected his iconoclastic views of established social and political processes, structures and movements, often humorously so, and he has been described as the \"godfather\" of comedy rock. He was a strident critic of mainstream education and organized religion, and a forthright and passionate advocate for freedom of speech, self-education, political participation and the abolition of censorship. Unlike many other rock musicians of his generation, he disapproved of recreational drug use, but supported decriminalization and regulation.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "Zappa was a highly productive and prolific artist with a controversial critical standing; supporters of his music admired its compositional complexity, while detractors found it lacking emotional depth. He had greater commercial success outside the US, particularly in Europe. Though he worked as an independent artist, Zappa mostly relied on distribution agreements he had negotiated with the major record labels. He remains a major influence on musicians and composers. His many honors include his posthumous 1995 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the 1997 Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "Zappa was born on December 21, 1940, in Baltimore, Maryland. His mother, Rose Marie (née Colimore), was of Italian (Neapolitan and Sicilian) and French ancestry; his father, whose name was anglicized to Francis Vincent Zappa, was an immigrant from Partinico, near Palermo on the Italian island of Sicily, and was of Greek and Arab descent.",
"title": "1940–1965: Early life and career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "Frank, the eldest of four children, was raised in an Italian-American household where Italian was often spoken by his grandparents. The family moved often because his father, a chemist and mathematician, worked in the defense industry. After a time in Florida in the 1940s, the family returned to Maryland, where Zappa's father worked at the Edgewood Arsenal chemical warfare facility of the Aberdeen Proving Ground run by the U.S. Army. Due to their home's proximity to the arsenal, which stored mustard gas, gas masks were kept in the home in case of an accident. This living arrangement had a profound effect on Zappa, and references to germs, germ warfare, ailments and the defense industry occur frequently throughout his work.",
"title": "1940–1965: Early life and career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "Zappa's father often brought mercury-filled lab equipment home from his workplace and gave it to Zappa to play with. Zappa said that as a child he \"used to play with it all the time\", often by putting liquid mercury on the floor and using a hammer to spray out mercury droplets in a circular pattern, eventually covering the entire floor of his bedroom with them.",
"title": "1940–1965: Early life and career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "Zappa was often sick as a child, suffering from asthma, earaches and sinus problems. A doctor treated his sinusitis by inserting a pellet of radium into each of Zappa's nostrils. At the time, little was known about the potential dangers of even small amounts of therapeutic radiation.",
"title": "1940–1965: Early life and career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "Nasal imagery and references appear in his music and lyrics, as well as in the collage album covers created by his long-time collaborator Cal Schenkel. Zappa believed his childhood diseases might have been due to exposure to mustard gas, released by the nearby chemical warfare facility, and his health worsened when he lived in Baltimore. In 1952, his family relocated for reasons of health to Monterey, California, where his father taught metallurgy at the Naval Postgraduate School. They soon moved to the San Diego neighborhood of Clairemont, and then to the nearby city of El Cajon, before finally returning to San Diego.",
"title": "1940–1965: Early life and career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "Since I didn't have any kind of formal training, it didn't make any difference to me if I was listening to Lightnin' Slim, or a vocal group called the Jewels ..., or Webern, or Varèse, or Stravinsky. To me it was all good music.",
"title": "1940–1965: Early life and career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "— Frank Zappa, 1989",
"title": "1940–1965: Early life and career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "Zappa joined his first band at Mission Bay High School in San Diego as a drummer. At about the same time, his parents bought a phonograph, which allowed him to develop his interest in music, and to begin building his record collection. According to The Rough Guide to Rock (2003), \"as a teenager Zappa was simultaneously enthralled by black R&B (Johnny 'Guitar' Watson, Guitar Slim), doo-wop (The Channels, The Velvets), and modern composers, such as Igor Stravinsky, Anton Webern and Edgard Varèse.\"",
"title": "1940–1965: Early life and career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "R&B singles were early purchases for Zappa, starting a large collection he kept for the rest of his life. He was interested in sounds for their own sake, particularly the sounds of drums and other percussion instruments. By age twelve, he had obtained a snare drum and began learning the basics of orchestral percussion. Zappa's deep interest in modern classical music began when he read a LOOK magazine article about the Sam Goody record store chain that lauded its ability to sell an LP as obscure as The Complete Works of Edgard Varèse, Volume One. The article described Varèse's percussion composition Ionisation, produced by EMS Recordings, as \"a weird jumble of drums and other unpleasant sounds\". Zappa decided to seek out Varèse's music. After searching for over a year, Zappa found a copy (he noticed the LP because of the \"mad scientist\" looking photo of Varèse on the cover). Not having enough money with him, he persuaded the salesman to sell him the record at a discount. Thus began his lifelong passion for Varèse's music and that of other modern classical composers. He also liked the Italian classical music listened to by his grandparents, especially Puccini's opera arias.",
"title": "1940–1965: Early life and career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "By 1956, the Zappa family had moved to Lancaster, a small aerospace and farming town in the Antelope Valley of the Mojave Desert close to Edwards Air Force Base; he would later refer to Sun Village (a town close to Lancaster) in the 1973 track \"Village of the Sun\". Zappa's mother encouraged him in his musical interests. Although she disliked Varèse's music, she was indulgent enough to give her son a long-distance call to the New York composer as a fifteenth birthday present. Unfortunately, Varèse was in Europe at the time, so Zappa spoke to the composer's wife and she suggested he call back later. In a letter, Varèse thanked him for his interest, and told him about a composition he was working on called \"Déserts\". Living in the desert town of Lancaster, Zappa found this very exciting. Varèse invited him to visit if he ever came to New York. The meeting never took place (Varèse died in 1965), but Zappa framed the letter and kept it on display for the rest of his life.",
"title": "1940–1965: Early life and career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "At Antelope Valley High School, Zappa met Don Glen Vliet (who later changed his name to Don Van Vliet and adopted the stage name Captain Beefheart). Zappa and Vliet became close friends, sharing an interest in R&B records and influencing each other musically throughout their careers. Around the same time, Zappa started playing drums in a local band, the Blackouts. The band was racially diverse and included Euclid James \"Motorhead\" Sherwood who later became a member of the Mothers of Invention. Zappa's interest in the guitar grew, and in 1957 he was given his first instrument. Among his early influences were Johnny \"Guitar\" Watson, Howlin' Wolf and Clarence \"Gatemouth\" Brown. In the 1970s/1980s, he invited Watson to perform on several albums. Zappa considered soloing the equivalent of forming \"air sculptures\", and developed an eclectic, innovative and highly personal style. He was also influenced by Egyptian composer Halim El-Dabh.",
"title": "1940–1965: Early life and career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 15,
"text": "Zappa's interest in composing and arranging flourished in his last high-school years. By his final year, he was writing, arranging and conducting avant-garde performance pieces for the school orchestra. He graduated from Antelope Valley High School in 1958, and later acknowledged two of his music teachers on the sleeve of the 1966 album Freak Out! Due to his family's frequent moves, Zappa attended at least six different high schools, and as a student he was often bored and given to distracting the rest of the class with juvenile antics. In 1959, he attended Chaffey College but left after one semester, and maintained thereafter a disdain for formal education, taking his children out of school at age 15 and refusing to pay for their college. While in college, Zappa met Terry Kirkman and played gigs at local coffee houses with him.",
"title": "1940–1965: Early life and career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 16,
"text": "Zappa left home in 1959, and moved into a small apartment in Echo Park, Los Angeles. After he met Kathryn J. \"Kay\" Sherman during his short period of private composition study with Prof. Karl Kohn of Pomona College, they moved in together in Ontario, and were married December 28, 1960. Zappa worked for a short period in advertising as a copywriter. His sojourn in the commercial world was brief, but gave him valuable insights into its workings. Throughout his career, he took a keen interest in the visual presentation of his work, designing some of his album covers and directing his own films and videos.",
"title": "1940–1965: Early life and career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 17,
"text": "Zappa attempted to earn a living as a musician and composer, and played different nightclub gigs, some with a new version of the Blackouts. Zappa's earliest professional recordings, two soundtracks for the low-budget films The World's Greatest Sinner (1962) and Run Home Slow (1965) were more financially rewarding. The former score was commissioned by actor-producer Timothy Carey and recorded in 1961. It contains many themes that appeared on later Zappa records. The latter soundtrack was recorded in 1963 after the film was completed, but it was commissioned by one of Zappa's former high school teachers in 1959 and Zappa may have worked on it before the film was shot. Excerpts from the soundtrack can be heard on the posthumous album The Lost Episodes (1996).",
"title": "1940–1965: Early life and career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 18,
"text": "During the early 1960s, Zappa wrote and produced songs for other local artists, often working with singer-songwriter Ray Collins and producer Paul Buff. Their \"Memories of El Monte\" was recorded by the Penguins, although only Cleve Duncan of the original group was featured. Buff owned the small Pal Recording Studio in Cucamonga, which included a unique five-track tape recorder he had built. At that time, only a handful of the most sophisticated commercial studios had multi-track facilities; the industry standard for smaller studios was still mono or two-track. Although none of the recordings from the period achieved major commercial success, Zappa earned enough money to allow him in 1963 to stage a concert of his orchestral music and to broadcast and record it. In March of that same year Zappa appeared on Steve Allen's syndicated late night show playing a bicycle as a musical instrument— using drum sticks and a bow borrowed from the band's bass player he proceeded to pluck, bang, and bow the spokes of the bike, producing strange, comical sounds from his newfound instrument. With Captain Beefheart, Zappa recorded some songs under the name of the Soots. They were rejected by Dot Records. Later, the Mothers were also rejected by Columbia Records for having \"no commercial potential\", a verdict Zappa subsequently quoted on the sleeve of Freak Out!",
"title": "1940–1965: Early life and career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 19,
"text": "In 1964, after his marriage started to break up, he moved into the Pal studio and began routinely working 12 hours or more per day recording and experimenting with overdubbing and audio tape manipulation. This established a work pattern that endured for most of his life. Aided by his income from film composing, Zappa took over the studio from Paul Buff, who was now working with Art Laboe at Original Sound. It was renamed Studio Z. Studio Z was rarely booked for recordings by other musicians. Instead, friends moved in, notably James \"Motorhead\" Sherwood. Zappa started performing in local bars as a guitarist with a power trio, the Muthers, to support himself.",
"title": "1940–1965: Early life and career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 20,
"text": "An article in the local press describing Zappa as \"the Movie King of Cucamonga\" prompted the local police to suspect that he was making pornographic films. In March 1965, Zappa was approached by a vice squad undercover officer, and accepted an offer of $100 (equivalent to $930 in 2022) to produce a suggestive audio tape for an alleged stag party. Zappa and a female friend recorded a faked erotic episode. When Zappa was about to hand over the tape, he was arrested, and the police stripped the studio of all recorded material. The press was tipped off beforehand, and next day's The Daily Report wrote that \"Vice Squad investigators stilled the tape recorders of a free-swinging, a-go-go film and recording studio here Friday and arrested a self-styled movie producer\". Zappa was charged with \"conspiracy to commit pornography\". This felony charge was reduced and he was sentenced to six months in jail on a misdemeanor, with all but ten days suspended. His brief imprisonment left a permanent mark, and was central to the formation of his anti-authoritarian stance. Zappa lost several recordings made at Studio Z in the process, as the police returned only 30 of 80 hours of tape seized. Eventually, he could no longer afford to pay the rent on the studio and was evicted. Zappa managed to recover some of his possessions before the studio was torn down in 1966.",
"title": "1940–1965: Early life and career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 21,
"text": "In April 1965, Ray Collins asked Zappa to take over as guitarist in local R&B band the Soul Giants, following a fight between Collins and the group's original guitarist. Zappa accepted, and soon assumed leadership and the role as co-lead singer (even though he never considered himself a singer, then or later). He convinced the other members that they should play his music to increase the chances of getting a record contract. The band debuted at the Broadside Club in Pomona, California and was renamed the Mothers since this gig took place on May 10, 1965 – Mother's Day. They increased their bookings after beginning an association with manager Herb Cohen, and gradually gained attention on the burgeoning Los Angeles underground music scene. In early 1966, they were spotted by leading record producer Tom Wilson when playing \"Trouble Every Day\", a song about the Watts riots. Wilson had earned acclaim as the producer for Bob Dylan and Simon & Garfunkel, and was one of the few African-Americans working as a major label pop music producer at this time. Wilson signed the Mothers to the Verve division of MGM, which had built up a strong reputation for its releases of modern jazz recordings in the 1940s and 1950s, but was attempting to diversify into pop and rock audiences. Verve insisted that the band officially rename themselves the Mothers of Invention as Mother was short for motherfucker—a term that, apart from its profane meanings, can denote a skilled musician.",
"title": "1965–1970: The Mothers of Invention"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 22,
"text": "With Wilson credited as producer, the Mothers of Invention, augmented by a studio orchestra, recorded the groundbreaking Freak Out! (1966), which, after Bob Dylan's Blonde on Blonde, was the second rock double album ever released. It mixed R&B, doo-wop, musique concrète, and experimental sound collages that captured the \"freak\" subculture of Los Angeles at that time. Although he was dissatisfied with the final product, Freak Out immediately established Zappa as a radical new voice in rock music, providing an antidote to the \"relentless consumer culture of America\". The sound was raw, but the arrangements were sophisticated. While recording in the studio, some of the additional session musicians were shocked that they were expected to read the notes on sheet music from charts with Zappa conducting them, since it was not standard when recording rock music. The lyrics praised non-conformity, disparaged authorities, and had dadaist elements. Yet, there was a place for seemingly conventional love songs. Most compositions are Zappa's, which set a precedent for the rest of his recording career. He had full control over the arrangements and musical decisions and did most overdubs. Wilson provided the industry clout and connections and was able to provide the group with the financial resources needed. Although Wilson was able to provide Zappa and the Mothers with an extraordinary degree of artistic freedom for the time, the recording did not go entirely as planned. In a 1967 radio interview, Zappa explained that the album's outlandish 11-minute closing track, \"Return of the Son of Monster Magnet\" was not finished. The track as it appears on the album was only a backing track for a much more complex piece, but MGM refused to allow the additional recording time needed for completion. Much to Zappa's chagrin, it was issued in its unfinished state.",
"title": "1965–1970: The Mothers of Invention"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 23,
"text": "During the recording of Freak Out!, Zappa moved into a house in Laurel Canyon with friend Pamela Zarubica, who appeared on the album. The house became a meeting (and living) place for many LA musicians and groupies of the time, despite Zappa's disapproval of their illicit drug use. After a short promotional tour following the release of Freak Out!, Zappa met Adelaide Gail Sloatman. He fell in love within \"a couple of minutes\", and she moved into the house over the summer. They married in 1967, had four children and remained together until Zappa's death.",
"title": "1965–1970: The Mothers of Invention"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 24,
"text": "Wilson nominally produced the Mothers' second album Absolutely Free (1967), which was recorded in November 1966, and later mixed in New York, although by this time Zappa was in de facto control of most facets of the production. It featured extended playing by the Mothers of Invention and focused on songs that defined Zappa's compositional style of introducing abrupt, rhythmical changes into songs that were built from diverse elements. Examples are \"Plastic People\" and \"Brown Shoes Don't Make It\", which contained lyrics critical of the hypocrisy and conformity of American society, but also of the counterculture of the 1960s. As Zappa put it, \"[W]e're satirists, and we are out to satirize everything.\" At the same time, Zappa had recorded material for an album of orchestral works to be released under his own name, Lumpy Gravy, released by Capitol Records in 1967. Due to contractual problems, the album was pulled. Zappa took the opportunity to radically restructure the contents, adding newly recorded, improvised dialogue. After the contractual problems were resolved, a new album of the same name was issued by Verve in 1968. It is an \"incredible ambitious musical project\", a \"monument to John Cage\", which intertwines orchestral themes, spoken words and electronic noises through radical audio editing techniques.",
"title": "1965–1970: The Mothers of Invention"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 25,
"text": "The Mothers of Invention played in New York in late 1966 and were offered a contract at the Garrick Theater (at 152 Bleecker Street, above the Cafe au Go Go) during Easter 1967. This proved successful and Herb Cohen extended the booking, which eventually lasted half a year. As a result, Zappa and his wife Gail, along with the Mothers of Invention, moved to New York. Their shows became a combination of improvised acts showcasing individual talents of the band as well as tight performances of Zappa's music. Everything was directed by Zappa using hand signals. Guest performers and audience participation became a regular part of the Garrick Theater shows. One evening, Zappa managed to entice some U.S. Marines from the audience onto the stage, where they proceeded to dismember a big baby doll, having been told by Zappa to pretend that it was a \"gook baby\".",
"title": "1965–1970: The Mothers of Invention"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 26,
"text": "In 1967, filmmaker Ed Seeman paid Zappa $2,000 to produce music for a Luden's cough drops television commercial. Zappa's music was matched with Seeman's animation and the advertisement won a Clio Award for \"Best Use of Sound\". An alternate version of the soundtrack, called \"The Big Squeeze\", later appeared on Zappa's posthumous 1996 album \"The Lost Episodes\". This version lacks Seeman's narration.",
"title": "1965–1970: The Mothers of Invention"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 27,
"text": "While living in New York City, and interrupted by the band's first European tour, the Mothers of Invention recorded the album widely regarded as the peak of the group's late 1960s work, We're Only in It for the Money (released 1968). It was produced by Zappa, with Wilson credited as executive producer. From then on, Zappa produced all albums released by the Mothers of Invention and as a solo artist. We're Only in It for the Money featured some of the most creative audio editing and production yet heard in pop music, and the songs ruthlessly satirized the hippie and flower power phenomena. He sampled surf music from his Studio Z days in the audio collage Nasal Retentive Caliope Music. The cover photo parodied that of the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. The cover art was provided by Cal Schenkel whom Zappa met in New York. This initiated a lifelong collaboration in which Schenkel designed covers for numerous Zappa and Mothers albums.",
"title": "1965–1970: The Mothers of Invention"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 28,
"text": "Reflecting Zappa's eclectic approach to music, the next album, Cruising with Ruben & the Jets (1968), was very different. It represented a collection of doo-wop songs; listeners and critics were not sure whether the album was a satire or a tribute. Zappa later remarked that the album was conceived like Stravinsky's compositions in his neo-classical period: \"If he could take the forms and clichés of the classical era and pervert them, why not do the same ... to doo-wop in the fifties?\" The opening theme from Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring is sung in \"Fountain of Love\".",
"title": "1965–1970: The Mothers of Invention"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 29,
"text": "In 1967 and 1968, Zappa made two appearances with the Monkees. The first appearance was on an episode of their TV series, \"The Monkees Blow Their Minds\", where Zappa, dressed up as Mike Nesmith, interviews Nesmith who is dressed up as Zappa. After the interview, Zappa destroys a car with a sledgehammer as the song \"Mother People\" plays. He later provided a cameo in the Monkees' movie Head where, leading a cow, he tells Davy Jones \"the youth of America depends on you to show them the way.\" Zappa respected the Monkees and recruited Micky Dolenz to the Mothers but RCA/Columbia/Colgems would not release Dolenz from his contract.",
"title": "1965–1970: The Mothers of Invention"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 30,
"text": "During the late 1960s, Zappa continued to develop the business side of his career. He and Herb Cohen formed the Bizarre Records and Straight Records labels to increase creative control and produce recordings by other artists. These labels were distributed in the US by Warner Bros. Records. Zappa/Mothers recordings appeared on Bizarre along with Wild Man Fischer and Lenny Bruce. Straight released the double album Trout Mask Replica for Captain Beefheart, and releases by Alice Cooper, The Persuasions, and the GTOs. The Mothers' first album on Bizarre was 1969's Uncle Meat, which Zappa described as \"most of the music from the Mothers' movie of the same name which we haven't got enough money to finish yet\". A version of the Uncle Meat film was released direct-to-video in 1987. Principal photography having never been completed, the VHS videocassette is a \"making of\" documentary showing rehearsals and background footage from 1968 and interviews with people involved with the uncompleted production.",
"title": "1965–1970: The Mothers of Invention"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 31,
"text": "In the Mothers' second European tour in September/October 1968 they performed for the Internationale Essener Songtage [de] at the Grugahalle in Essen, Germany; at the Tivoli in Copenhagen, Denmark; for TV programs in Germany (Beat-Club), France, and England; at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam; at the Royal Festival Hall in London; and at the Olympia in Paris.",
"title": "1965–1970: The Mothers of Invention"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 32,
"text": "Zappa and the Mothers of Invention returned to Los Angeles in mid-1968, and the Zappas moved into a house on Laurel Canyon Boulevard, only to move again to Woodrow Wilson Drive. This was Zappa's home for the rest of his life. Despite being successful in Europe, the Mothers of Invention were not doing well financially. Their first records were vocally oriented, but as Zappa wrote more instrumental jazz and classical style music for the band's concerts, audiences were confused. Zappa felt that audiences failed to appreciate his \"electrical chamber music\".",
"title": "1965–1970: The Mothers of Invention"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 33,
"text": "In 1969, there were nine band members and Zappa was supporting the group from his publishing royalties whether they played or not. In late 1969, Zappa broke up the band. He often cited the financial strain as the main reason, but also commented on the band members' lack of diligence. Many band members were bitter about Zappa's decision, and some took it as a sign of Zappa's perfectionism at the expense of human feeling. Others were irritated by 'his autocratic ways', exemplified by Zappa's never staying at the same hotel as the band members. Several members would play with Zappa again in subsequent years, while guitarist/vocalist Lowell George and bassist Roy Estrada went on to form the band Little Feat. Zappa assembled remaining unreleased recordings of the band on the albums Burnt Weeny Sandwich and Weasels Ripped My Flesh, both released in 1970.",
"title": "1965–1970: The Mothers of Invention"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 34,
"text": "After he disbanded the Mothers of Invention, Zappa released the acclaimed solo album Hot Rats (1969). It features, for the first time on record, Zappa playing extended guitar solos and contains one of his most enduring compositions, \"Peaches en Regalia\", which reappeared several times on future recordings. He was backed by jazz, blues and R&B session players including violinist Don \"Sugarcane\" Harris, drummers John Guerin and Paul Humphrey, multi-instrumentalist and former Mothers of Invention member Ian Underwood, and multi-instrumentalist Shuggie Otis on bass, along with a guest appearance by Captain Beefheart on the only vocal track, \"Willie the Pimp\". It became a popular album in England, and had a major influence on the development of jazz-rock fusion.",
"title": "1965–1970: The Mothers of Invention"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 35,
"text": "In 1970, Zappa met conductor Zubin Mehta. They arranged a May 1970 concert where Mehta conducted the Los Angeles Philharmonic augmented by a rock band. According to Zappa, the music was mostly written in motel rooms while on tour with the Mothers of Invention. Some of it was later featured in the movie 200 Motels. Although the concert was a success, Zappa's experience working with a symphony orchestra was not a happy one. His dissatisfaction became a recurring theme throughout his career; he often felt that the quality of performance of his material delivered by orchestras was not commensurate with the money he spent on orchestral concerts and recordings.",
"title": "1970–1980: A decade of highs and lows"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 36,
"text": "Later in 1970, Zappa formed a new version of the Mothers (from then on, he mostly dropped the \"of Invention\"). It included British drummer Aynsley Dunbar, jazz keyboardist George Duke, Ian Underwood, Jeff Simmons (bass, rhythm guitar), and three members of the Turtles: bass player Jim Pons, and singers Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan, who, due to persistent legal and contractual problems, adopted the stage name \"The Phlorescent Leech and Eddie\", or \"Flo & Eddie\".",
"title": "1970–1980: A decade of highs and lows"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 37,
"text": "This version of the Mothers debuted on Zappa's next solo album Chunga's Revenge (1970), which was followed by the double-album soundtrack to the movie 200 Motels (1971), featuring the Mothers, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Ringo Starr, Theodore Bikel, and Keith Moon. Co-directed by Zappa and Tony Palmer, it was filmed in a week at Pinewood Studios outside London. Tensions between Zappa and several cast and crew members arose before and during shooting. The film deals loosely with life on the road as a rock musician. It was the first feature film photographed on videotape and transferred to 35 mm film, a process that allowed for novel visual effects. It was released to mixed reviews. The score relied extensively on orchestral music, and Zappa's dissatisfaction with the classical music world intensified when a concert, scheduled at the Royal Albert Hall after filming, was canceled because a representative of the venue found some of the lyrics obscene. In 1975, he lost a lawsuit against the Royal Albert Hall for breach of contract.",
"title": "1970–1980: A decade of highs and lows"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 38,
"text": "After 200 Motels, the band went on tour, which resulted in two live albums, Fillmore East – June 1971 and Just Another Band from L.A.; the latter included the 20-minute track \"Billy the Mountain\", Zappa's satire on rock opera set in Southern California. This track was representative of the band's theatrical performances—which used songs to build sketches based on 200 Motels scenes, as well as new situations that often portrayed the band members' sexual encounters on the road.",
"title": "1970–1980: A decade of highs and lows"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 39,
"text": "On December 4, 1971, Zappa suffered his first of two serious setbacks. While performing at Casino de Montreux in Switzerland, the Mothers' equipment was destroyed when a flare set off by an audience member started a fire that burned down the casino. Rock band Deep Purple were in the audience that night, and would immortalize the event on their classic 1972 song \"Smoke on the Water\". A recording of the incident and immediate aftermath can be heard on the bootleg album Swiss Cheese/Fire, released legally as part of Zappa's Beat the Boots II box set. After losing $50,000 (equivalent to $361,000 in 2022) worth of equipment and a week's break, the Mothers played at the Rainbow Theatre, London, with rented gear. During the encore, an audience member, jealous because of his girlfriend's infatuation with Zappa, pushed him off the stage and into the concrete-floored orchestra pit. The band thought Zappa had been killed—he had suffered serious fractures, head trauma and injuries to his back, leg, and neck, as well as a crushed larynx, which ultimately caused his voice to drop a third after healing.",
"title": "1970–1980: A decade of highs and lows"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 40,
"text": "After the attack Zappa needed to use a wheelchair for an extended period, making touring impossible for over half a year. Upon return to the stage in September 1972, Zappa was still wearing a leg brace, had a noticeable limp and could not stand for very long while on stage. Zappa noted that one leg healed \"shorter than the other\" (a reference later found in the lyrics of songs \"Zomby Woof\" and \"Dancin' Fool\"), resulting in chronic back pain. Meanwhile, the Mothers were left in limbo and eventually formed the core of Flo and Eddie's band as they set out on their own.",
"title": "1970–1980: A decade of highs and lows"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 41,
"text": "In December 1972, David Walley published the first biography of Zappa, titled No Commercial Potential. Zappa was severely critical, calling it \"a quickie, paperback, sensational book\". He said that it contained \"gross inaccuracies\", described the writing as \"not quality workmanship\" and claimed that Walley had \"just slung together a bunch of quotes\". Despite Zappa's complaints, the book was later published in an updated edition in 1980 and again in 1996 after Zappa's death.",
"title": "1970–1980: A decade of highs and lows"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 42,
"text": "During 1971–1972, Zappa released two strongly jazz-oriented solo LPs, Waka/Jawaka and The Grand Wazoo, which were recorded during the forced layoff from concert touring, using floating line-ups of session players and Mothers alumni. Musically, the albums were akin to Hot Rats, in that they featured extended instrumental tracks with extended soloing. Zappa began touring again in late 1972. His first effort was a series of concerts in September 1972 with a 20-piece big band referred to as the Grand Wazoo. This was followed by a scaled-down version known as the Petit Wazoo that toured the U.S. for five weeks from October to December 1972.",
"title": "1970–1980: A decade of highs and lows"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 43,
"text": "Zappa then formed and toured with smaller groups that variously included Ian Underwood (reeds, keyboards), Ruth Underwood (vibes, marimba), Sal Marquez (trumpet, vocals), Napoleon Murphy Brock (sax, flute and vocals), Bruce Fowler (trombone), Tom Fowler (bass), Chester Thompson (drums), Ralph Humphrey (drums), George Duke (keyboards, vocals), and Jean-Luc Ponty (violin).",
"title": "1970–1980: A decade of highs and lows"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 44,
"text": "By 1973, the Bizarre and Straight labels were discontinued. Zappa and Cohen then created DiscReet Records, also distributed by Warner. Zappa continued a high rate of production through the first half of the 1970s, including the solo album Apostrophe (') (1974), which reached a career-high No. 10 on the Billboard pop album charts helped by the No. 86 chart hit \"Don't Eat The Yellow Snow\". Other albums from the period are Over-Nite Sensation (1973), which contained several future concert favorites, such as \"Dinah-Moe Humm\" and \"Montana\", and the albums Roxy & Elsewhere (1974) and One Size Fits All (1975) which feature ever-changing versions of a band still called the Mothers, and are notable for the tight renditions of highly difficult jazz fusion songs in such pieces as \"Inca Roads\", \"Echidna's Arf (Of You)\" and \"Be-Bop Tango (Of the Old Jazzmen's Church)\". A live recording from 1974, You Can't Do That on Stage Anymore, Vol. 2 (1988), captures \"the full spirit and excellence of the 1973–1975 band\". Zappa released Bongo Fury (1975), which featured a live recording at the Armadillo World Headquarters in Austin from a tour the same year that reunited him with Captain Beefheart for a brief period. They later became estranged for a period of years, but were in contact at the end of Zappa's life. After 1975, Zappa dropped the \"Mothers (of Invention)\" name from his bands.",
"title": "1970–1980: A decade of highs and lows"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 45,
"text": "In 1976, Zappa produced the album Good Singin', Good Playin' for Grand Funk Railroad. Zappa's relationship with long-time manager Herb Cohen ended in May 1976. After Cohen cashed one of Zappa's royalty checks from Warner and kept the money for himself, Zappa sued Cohen. Zappa was also upset with Cohen for signing acts he did not approve. Cohen filed a lawsuit against Zappa in return, which froze the money Zappa and Cohen were expecting to receive from an out-of-court settlement with MGM/Verve over the rights to Zappa's early Mothers of Invention recordings. The MGM settlement was finalized in mid-1977 after two years of negotiations. Litigation with Cohen also prevented Zappa having access to any of his previously recorded material during the trials. Zappa therefore took his personal master copies of the album Zoot Allures (1976) directly to Warner, while bypassing DiscReet. Following the split with Cohen, Zappa hired Bennett Glotzer as new manager.",
"title": "1970–1980: A decade of highs and lows"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 46,
"text": "By late 1976, Zappa was upset with Warner over inadequate promotion of his recordings and he was eager to move on as soon as possible. In March 1977 Zappa delivered four albums (five full-length LPs) to Warner to complete his contract. These albums contained recordings mostly made between 1972 and 1976. Warner failed to meet contractual obligations to Zappa, and in response he filed a multi-million dollar breach of contract lawsuit. During a lengthy legal debate Warner eventually released the four disputed albums during 1978 and 1979, one of them in censored form. Also, in 1977 Zappa prepared a four-LP box set called Läther (pronounced \"leather\") and negotiated distribution with Phonogram Inc. for release on the Zappa Records label. The Läther box set was scheduled for release on Halloween 1977, but legal action from Warner forced Zappa to shelve this project.",
"title": "1970–1980: A decade of highs and lows"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 47,
"text": "In December 1977, Zappa appeared on the Pasadena, California radio station KROQ-FM and played the entire Läther album, while encouraging listeners to make tape recordings of the broadcast. Both sets of recordings (five-LP and four-LP) have much of the same material, but each also has unique content. The albums integrate many aspects of Zappa's 1970s work: heavy rock, orchestral works, and complex jazz instrumentals, along with Zappa's distinctive guitar solos. Läther was officially released posthumously in 1996. It is still debated as to whether Zappa had conceived the material as a four-LP set from the beginning, or only later when working with Phonogram.",
"title": "1970–1980: A decade of highs and lows"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 48,
"text": "Although Zappa eventually gained the rights to all his material created under the MGM and Warner contracts, the various lawsuits meant that for a period Zappa's only income came from touring, which he therefore did extensively in 1975–1977 with relatively small, mainly rock-oriented, bands. Drummer Terry Bozzio became a regular band member, Napoleon Murphy Brock stayed on for a while, and original Mothers of Invention bassist Roy Estrada joined. Among other musicians were bassist Patrick O'Hearn, singer-guitarist Ray White and keyboardist/violinist Eddie Jobson. In December 1976, Zappa appeared as a featured musical guest on the NBC television show Saturday Night Live. Zappa's song \"I'm the Slime\" was performed with a voice-over by SNL booth announcer Don Pardo, who also introduced \"Peaches En Regalia\" on the same airing. In 1978, Zappa served both as host and musical act on the show, and as an actor in various sketches. The performances included an impromptu musical collaboration with cast member John Belushi during the instrumental piece \"The Purple Lagoon\". Belushi appeared as his Samurai Futaba character playing the tenor sax with Zappa conducting. However, he earned a ban from the show after the latter episode because he had done what producers called \"a disastrous job of hosting\" (Zappa reportedly did not get along with cast and crew in the lead-up to recording, then told the audience he was simply reading from cue cards).",
"title": "1970–1980: A decade of highs and lows"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 49,
"text": "Zappa's band had a series of Christmas shows in New York City in 1976, recordings of which appear on Zappa in New York (1978) and also on the four-LP Läther project. The band included Ruth Underwood and a horn section (featuring Michael and Randy Brecker). It mixes complex instrumentals such as \"The Black Page\" and humorous songs like \"Titties and Beer\". The former composition, written originally for drum kit but later developed for larger bands, is notorious for its complexity in rhythmic structure and short, densely arranged passages.",
"title": "1970–1980: A decade of highs and lows"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 50,
"text": "Zappa in New York also featured a song about sex criminal Michael H. Kenyon, \"The Illinois Enema Bandit\", in which Don Pardo provides the opening narrative. Like many songs on the album, it contained numerous sexual references, leading to many critics objecting and being offended by the content. Zappa dismissed the criticism by noting that he was a journalist reporting on life as he saw it. Predating his later fight against censorship, he remarked: \"What do you make of a society that is so primitive that it clings to the belief that certain words in its language are so powerful that they could corrupt you the moment you hear them?\" The remaining albums released by Warner without Zappa's approval were Studio Tan in 1978 and Sleep Dirt and Orchestral Favorites in 1979. These releases were not promoted and were largely overlooked in midst of the press about Zappa's legal problems.",
"title": "1970–1980: A decade of highs and lows"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 51,
"text": "Zappa released two of his most important projects in 1979. These were the best-selling albums of his career, Sheik Yerbouti, and what author Kelley Lowe called the \"bona fide masterpiece\", Joe's Garage.",
"title": "1970–1980: A decade of highs and lows"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 52,
"text": "The double album Sheik Yerbouti appeared in March 1979 and was the first release to appear on Zappa Records. It contained the Grammy-nominated single \"Dancin' Fool\", which reached No. 45 on the Billboard charts. It also contained \"Jewish Princess\", which received attention when a Jewish group, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), attempted to prevent the song from receiving radio airplay due to its alleged anti-Semitic lyrics. Zappa vehemently denied any anti-Semitic sentiments, and dismissed the ADL as a \"noisemaking organization that tries to apply pressure on people in order to manufacture a stereotype image of Jews that suits their idea of a good time.\" The album's commercial success was attributable in part to \"Bobby Brown\". Due to its explicit lyrics about a young man's encounter with a \"dyke by the name of Freddie\", the song did not get airplay in the U.S., but it topped the charts in several European countries where English is not the primary language.",
"title": "1970–1980: A decade of highs and lows"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 53,
"text": "Joe's Garage initially had to be released in two parts due to economic conditions. The first was a single LP Joe's Garage Act I in September 1979, followed by a double LP Joe's Garage Acts II and III in November 1979. The albums feature singer Ike Willis as lead character \"Joe\" in a rock opera about the danger of political systems, the suppression of freedom of speech and music—inspired in part by the 1979 Islamic Iranian revolution that had made music illegal—and about the \"strange relationship Americans have with sex and sexual frankness\". The first act contains the song \"Catholic Girls\" (a riposte to the controversies of \"Jewish Princess\"), and the title track, which was also released as a single. The second and third acts have extended guitar improvisations, which were recorded live, then combined with studio backing tracks. Zappa described this process as xenochrony. In this period the band included drummer Vinnie Colaiuta (with whom Zappa had a particularly strong musical rapport) Joe's Garage contains one of Zappa's most famous guitar \"signature pieces\", \"Watermelon in Easter Hay\". This work later appeared as a three-LP, or two-CD set.",
"title": "1970–1980: A decade of highs and lows"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 54,
"text": "Zappa had been known for his long hair since the mid-1960s, but he had Gail cut it short around August 1979. That fall he cancelled tour plans and stayed home to celebrate two of his children's birthdays in September. At this time Zappa also completed the Utility Muffin Research Kitchen (UMRK) studios, which were located at his house, thereby giving him complete freedom in his work.",
"title": "1970–1980: A decade of highs and lows"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 55,
"text": "On December 21, 1979, Zappa's movie Baby Snakes premiered in New York. The movie's tagline was \"A movie about people who do stuff that is not normal\". The 2 hour and 40 minutes movie was based on footage from concerts in New York around Halloween 1977, with a band featuring keyboardist Tommy Mars and percussionist Ed Mann (who would both return on later tours) as well as guitarist Adrian Belew. It also contained several extraordinary sequences of clay animation by Bruce Bickford who had earlier provided animation sequences to Zappa for a 1974 TV special (which became available on the 1982 video The Dub Room Special). The movie did not do well in theatrical distribution, but won the Premier Grand Prix at the First International Music Festival in Paris in 1981.",
"title": "1970–1980: A decade of highs and lows"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 56,
"text": "Zappa cut ties with Phonogram after the distributor refused to release his song \"I Don't Wanna Get Drafted\", which was recorded in February 1980. The single was released independently by Zappa in the United States and was picked up by CBS Records internationally.",
"title": "1980–1993: Later years"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 57,
"text": "After spending much of 1980 on the road, Zappa released Tinsel Town Rebellion in 1981. It was the first release on his own Barking Pumpkin Records, and it contains songs taken from a 1979 tour, one studio track and material from the 1980 tours. The album is a mixture of complicated instrumentals and Zappa's use of sprechstimme (speaking song or voice)—a compositional technique utilized by such composers as Arnold Schoenberg and Alban Berg—showcasing some of the most accomplished bands Zappa ever had (mostly featuring drummer Vinnie Colaiuta). While some lyrics still raised controversy among critics, some of whom found them sexist, the political and sociological satire in songs like the title track and \"The Blue Light\" have been described as a \"hilarious critique of the willingness of the American people to believe anything\". The album is also notable for the presence of guitarist Steve Vai, who joined Zappa's touring band in late 1980.",
"title": "1980–1993: Later years"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 58,
"text": "The same year the double album You Are What You Is was released. The album included one complex instrumental, \"Theme from the 3rd Movement of Sinister Footwear\", but mainly consisted of rock songs with Zappa's sardonic social commentary—satirical lyrics directed at teenagers, the media, and religious and political hypocrisy. \"Dumb All Over\" is a tirade on religion, as is \"Heavenly Bank Account\", wherein Zappa rails against TV evangelists such as Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson for their purported influence on the U.S. administration as well as their use of religion as a means of raising money. Songs like \"Society Pages\" and \"I'm a Beautiful Guy\" show Zappa's dismay with the Reagan era and its \"obscene pursuit of wealth and happiness\". Zappa made his only music video for a song from this album – \"You Are What You Is\" – directed by Jerry Watson, produced by Paul Flattery. The video was banned from MTV, though was later featured by Mike Judge in the Beavis & Butthead episode \"Canoe\".",
"title": "1980–1993: Later years"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 59,
"text": "In 1981, Zappa also released three instrumental albums, Shut Up 'n Play Yer Guitar, Shut Up 'N Play Yer Guitar Some More, and The Return of the Son of Shut Up 'N Play Yer Guitar, which were initially sold via mail order, but later released through CBS Records (now Sony Music Entertainment) due to popular demand.",
"title": "1980–1993: Later years"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 60,
"text": "The albums focus exclusively on Frank Zappa as a guitar soloist, and the tracks are predominantly live recordings from 1979 to 1980; they highlight Zappa's improvisational skills with \"beautiful performances from the backing group as well\". Another guitar-only album, Guitar, was released in 1988, and a third, Trance-Fusion, which Zappa completed shortly before his death, was released in 2006.",
"title": "1980–1993: Later years"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 61,
"text": "Zappa later expanded on his television appearances in a non-musical role. He was an actor or voice artist in episodes of Shelley Duvall's Faerie Tale Theatre, Miami Vice and The Ren & Stimpy Show. A voice part in The Simpsons never materialized, to creator Matt Groening's disappointment (Groening was a neighbor of Zappa and a lifelong fan).",
"title": "1980–1993: Later years"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 62,
"text": "In May 1982, Zappa released Ship Arriving Too Late to Save a Drowning Witch, which featured his biggest selling single ever, the Grammy Award-nominated song \"Valley Girl\" (topping out at No. 32 on the Billboard charts). In her improvised lyrics to the song, Zappa's daughter Moon satirized the patois of teenage girls from the San Fernando Valley, which popularized many \"Valleyspeak\" expressions such as \"gag me with a spoon\", \"fer sure, fer sure\", \"grody to the max\", and \"barf out\".",
"title": "1980–1993: Later years"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 63,
"text": "In 1983, two different projects were released, beginning with The Man from Utopia, a rock-oriented work. The album is eclectic, featuring the vocal-led \"Dangerous Kitchen\" and \"The Jazz Discharge Party Hats\", both continuations of the sprechstimme excursions on Tinseltown Rebellion. The second album, London Symphony Orchestra, Vol. I, contained orchestral Zappa compositions conducted by Kent Nagano and performed by the London Symphony Orchestra (LSO). A second record of these sessions, London Symphony Orchestra, Vol. II was released in 1987. The material was recorded under a tight schedule with Zappa providing all funding, helped by the commercial success of \"Valley Girl\". Zappa was not satisfied with the LSO recordings. One reason is \"Strictly Genteel\", which was recorded after the trumpet section had been out for drinks on a break: the track took 40 edits to hide out-of-tune notes.",
"title": "1980–1993: Later years"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 64,
"text": "Conductor Nagano, who was pleased with the experience, noted that \"in fairness to the orchestra, the music is humanly very, very difficult\". Some reviews noted that the recordings were the best representation of Zappa's orchestral work so far. In 1984 Zappa teamed again with Nagano and the Berkeley Symphony Orchestra for a live performance of A Zappa Affair with augmented orchestra, life-size puppets, and moving stage sets. Although critically acclaimed the work was a financial failure, and only performed twice. Zappa was invited by conference organizer Thomas Wells to be the keynote speaker at the American Society of University Composers at the Ohio State University. It was there Zappa delivered his famous \"Bingo! There Goes Your Tenure\" address, and had two of his orchestra pieces, \"Dupree's Paradise\" and \"Naval Aviation in Art?\" performed by the Columbus Symphony Orchestra and ProMusica Chamber Orchestra of Columbus. Zappa's management relationship with Bennett Glotzer ended in 1984. Starting in 1985 Gail began managing much of the Zappa business empire, which included a record label, a mail-order company, a video company and a music publishing firm.",
"title": "1980–1993: Later years"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 65,
"text": "For the remainder of his career, much of Zappa's work was influenced by his use of the Synclavier, an early digital synthesizer, as a compositional and performance tool. According to Zappa, \"With the Synclavier, any group of imaginary instruments can be invited to play the most difficult passages ... with one-millisecond accuracy—every time\". Even though it essentially did away with the need for musicians, Zappa viewed the Synclavier and real-life musicians as separate.",
"title": "1980–1993: Later years"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 66,
"text": "In 1984, he released four albums. Boulez Conducts Zappa: The Perfect Stranger contains orchestral works commissioned and conducted by celebrated conductor, composer and pianist Pierre Boulez (who was listed as an influence on Freak Out!), and performed by his Ensemble intercontemporain. These were juxtaposed with premiere Synclavier pieces. Again, Zappa was not satisfied with the performances of his orchestral works, regarding them as under-rehearsed, but in the album liner notes he respectfully thanks Boulez's demands for precision. The Synclavier pieces stood in contrast to the orchestral works, as the sounds were electronically generated and not, as became possible shortly thereafter, sampled.",
"title": "1980–1993: Later years"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 67,
"text": "The album Thing-Fish was an ambitious three-record set in the style of a Broadway play dealing with a dystopian \"what-if\" scenario involving feminism, homosexuality, manufacturing and distribution of the AIDS virus, and a eugenics program conducted by the United States government. New vocals were combined with previously released tracks and new Synclavier music; \"the work is an extraordinary example of bricolage\".",
"title": "1980–1993: Later years"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 68,
"text": "Francesco Zappa, a Synclavier rendition of works by 18th-century composer Francesco Zappa, was also released in 1984.",
"title": "1980–1993: Later years"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 69,
"text": "Zappa's mail-order merchandise business, Barfko-Swill, established during the 1980s by Zappa's wife Gail, offers t-shirts, videos, posters, sheet music, and collector's recordings, most of them unavailable through other media. Gail has explained why Barfko-Swill was founded: \"Just piles and piles of fan mail sitting around unanswered or with no response. The first thing that we did was put a list together from the fan mail and made a Barking Pumpkin t-shirt available which we still have – same old shirt, same old logo, same old price – just to see what would happen. Everybody would write to us and ask us if there was something they could get besides records. ... That was really the primary reason for getting into the business – for setting up Barfko-Swill – in those days was to be independent. To not have to rely on a major record company's interest and ability to promote your product. And that was what the challenge was for me. I prefer the autonomy.\"",
"title": "1980–1993: Later years"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 70,
"text": "From 1983 to 1993, Barfko-Swill was run by Gerry Fialka, who also worked for Zappa as archivist, production assistant, tour assistant, and factotum, and answered the phone for Zappa's Barking Pumpkin Records hotline. Fialka appears giving a tour of Barfko-Swill in the 1987 VHS release (but not the original 1979 film release) of Zappa's film Baby Snakes. He is credited on-screen as \"GERALD FIALKA Cool Guy Who Wraps Stuff So It Doesn't Break\". A short clip of this tour is also included in the 2020 documentary film Zappa.",
"title": "1980–1993: Later years"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 71,
"text": "Around 1986, Zappa undertook a comprehensive re-release program of his earlier vinyl recordings. He personally oversaw the remastering of all his 1960s, 1970s and early 1980s albums for the new digital compact disc medium. Certain aspects of these re-issues were criticized by some fans as being unfaithful to the original recordings, with changes made to We're Only in It for the Money, Cruising with Ruben & the Jets, Uncle Meat and Sleep Dirt being the most strongly criticized. Nearly twenty years before the advent of online music stores, Zappa had proposed to replace \"phonographic record merchandising\" of music by \"direct digital-to-digital transfer\" through phone or cable TV (with royalty payments and consumer billing automatically built into the accompanying software). In 1989, Zappa considered his idea a \"miserable flop\".",
"title": "1980–1993: Later years"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 72,
"text": "The album Jazz from Hell, released in 1986, earned Zappa his first Grammy Award in 1988 for Best Rock Instrumental Performance. Except for one live guitar solo (\"St. Etienne\"), the album exclusively featured compositions brought to life by the Synclavier.",
"title": "1980–1993: Later years"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 73,
"text": "Zappa's last tour in a rock and jazz band format took place in 1988 with a 12-piece group which had a repertoire of over 100 (mostly Zappa) compositions, but which split under acrimonious circumstances before the tour was completed. The tour was documented on the albums Broadway the Hard Way (new material featuring songs with strong political emphasis); The Best Band You Never Heard in Your Life (Zappa \"standards\" and an eclectic collection of cover tunes, ranging from Maurice Ravel's Boléro to Led Zeppelin's \"Stairway to Heaven\"; and Make a Jazz Noise Here (Zappa's more instrumentally complex and jazz orientated material). An album of guitar solos from this tour also appeared as the posthumous 2006 album Trance-Fusion, a follow-up to the Shut Up 'n Play Yer Guitar and Guitar albums.",
"title": "1980–1993: Later years"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 74,
"text": "More recordings from the 1988 tour would appear as part of You Can't Do That on Stage Anymore, a series of six double CDs complied by Zappa from unreleased live recordings dating back to the earliest Mothers recordings from 1965. The six volumes were released between 1988 and 1992. Two further archival live albums, Playground Psychotics and Ahead of Their Time, were released in 1992 and 1993 respectively. The former collected recordings by the early 1970s \"Flo and Eddie\" era Mothers, while the latter was a complete concert by the original Mothers at the Royal Albert Hall in 1968 (footage from which has been used in the Uncle Meat movie).",
"title": "1980–1993: Later years"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 75,
"text": "In 1990, Zappa was diagnosed with terminal prostate cancer. The disease had been developing unnoticed for years and was considered inoperable. After the diagnosis, Zappa devoted most of his energy to modern orchestral and Synclavier works. Shortly before his death in 1993 he completed Civilization Phaze III, a major Synclavier work which he had begun in the 1980s.",
"title": "1980–1993: Later years"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 76,
"text": "In 1991, Zappa was chosen to be one of four featured composers at the Frankfurt Festival in 1992 (the others were John Cage, Karlheinz Stockhausen, and Alexander Knaifel). Zappa was approached by the German chamber ensemble Ensemble Modern which was interested in playing his music for the event. Although ill, he invited them to Los Angeles for rehearsals of new compositions and new arrangements of older material. Zappa also got along with the musicians, and the concerts in Germany and Austria were set up for later in the year. Zappa also performed in 1991 in Prague, claiming that \"was the first time that he had a reason to play his guitar in 3 years\", and that that moment was just \"the beginning of a new country\", and asked the public to \"try to keep your country unique, do not change it into something else\".",
"title": "1980–1993: Later years"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 77,
"text": "In September 1992, the concerts went ahead as scheduled but Zappa could only appear at two in Frankfurt due to illness. At the first concert, he conducted the opening \"Overture\", and the final \"G-Spot Tornado\" as well as the theatrical \"Food Gathering in Post-Industrial America, 1992\" and \"Welcome to the United States\" (the remainder of the program was conducted by the ensemble's regular conductor Peter Rundel). Zappa received a 20-minute ovation. G-Spot Tornado was performed with Canadian dancer Louise Lecavalier. It was Zappa's last professional public appearance as the cancer was spreading to such an extent that he was in too much pain to enjoy an event that he otherwise found \"exhilarating\". Recordings from the concerts appeared on The Yellow Shark (1993), Zappa's last release during his lifetime, and some material from studio rehearsals appeared on the posthumous Everything Is Healing Nicely (1999).",
"title": "1980–1993: Later years"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 78,
"text": "Zappa died from prostate cancer on December 4, 1993, 17 days shy of his 53rd birthday, at his home with his wife and children by his side. At a private ceremony the following day, his body was buried in a grave at the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery, in Los Angeles. The grave has since been unmarked. On December 6, his family publicly announced that \"Composer Frank Zappa left for his final tour just before 6:00 pm on Saturday\".",
"title": "Death"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 79,
"text": "The general phases of Zappa's music have been variously categorized under blues rock, experimental rock, jazz, classical, avant-pop, experimental pop, comedy rock, doo-wop, jazz fusion, progressive rock, proto-prog, avant-jazz, and psychedelic rock.",
"title": "Musical style and development"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 80,
"text": "Zappa grew up influenced by avant-garde composers such as Edgard Varèse, Igor Stravinsky, and Anton Webern; 1950s blues artists Clarence \"Gatemouth\" Brown, Guitar Slim, Howlin' Wolf, Johnny \"Guitar\" Watson, and B.B. King; Egyptian composer Halim El-Dabh; R&B and doo-wop groups (particularly local pachuco groups); and modern jazz. His own heterogeneous ethnic background, and the diverse social and cultural mix in and around greater Los Angeles, were crucial in the formation of Zappa as a practitioner of underground music and of his later distrustful and openly critical attitude towards \"mainstream\" social, political and musical movements. He frequently lampooned musical fads like psychedelia, rock opera and disco. Television also exerted a strong influence, as demonstrated by quotations from show themes and advertising jingles found in his later works.",
"title": "Musical style and development"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 81,
"text": "In his book The Real Frank Zappa Book, Frank credited composer Spike Jones for Zappa's frequent use of funny sound effects, mouth noises, and humorous percussion interjections. After explaining his ideas on this, he said \"I owe this part of my musical existence to Spike Jones.\"",
"title": "Musical style and development"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 82,
"text": "Zappa's albums make extensive use of segued tracks, breaklessly joining the elements of his albums. His total output is unified by a conceptual continuity he termed \"Project/Object\", with numerous musical phrases, ideas, and characters reappearing across his albums. He also called it a \"conceptual continuity\", meaning that any project or album was part of a larger project. Everything was connected, and musical themes and lyrics reappeared in different form on later albums. Conceptual continuity clues are found throughout Zappa's entire œuvre.",
"title": "Musical style and development"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 83,
"text": "Zappa is widely recognized as one of the most significant electric guitar soloists. In a 1983 issue of Guitar World, John Swenson declared: \"the fact of the matter is that [Zappa] is one of the greatest guitarists we have and is sorely unappreciated as such.\" His idiosyncratic style developed gradually and was mature by the early 1980s, by which time his live performances featured lengthy improvised solos during many songs. A November 2016 feature by the editors of Guitar Player magazine wrote: \"Brimming with sophisticated motifs and convoluted rhythms, Zappa's extended excursions are more akin to symphonies than they are to guitar solos.\" The symphonic comparison stems from his habit of introducing melodic themes that, like a symphony's main melodies, were repeated with variations throughout his solos. He was further described as using a wide variety of scales and modes, enlivened by \"unusual rhythmic combinations\". His left hand was capable of smooth legato technique, while Zappa's right was \"one of the fastest pick hands in the business.\" In 2016, Dweezil Zappa explained a distinctive element of his father's guitar improvisation technique was relying heavily on upstrokes much more than many other guitarists, who are more likely to use downstrokes with their picking.",
"title": "Musical style and development"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 84,
"text": "His song \"Outside Now\" from Joe's Garage poked fun at the negative reception of Zappa's guitar technique by those more commercially minded, as the song's narrator lives in a world where music is outlawed and he imagines \"imaginary guitar notes that would irritate/An executive kind of guy\", lyrics that are followed by one of Zappa's characteristically quirky solos in 11/8 time. Zappa transcriptionist Kasper Sloots wrote, \"Zappa's guitar solos aren't meant to show off technically (Zappa hasn't claimed to be a big virtuoso on the instrument), but for the pleasure it gives trying to build a composition right in front of an audience without knowing what the outcome will be.\"",
"title": "Musical style and development"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 85,
"text": "Zappa's guitar style was not without its critics. English guitarist and bandleader John McLaughlin, whose band Mahavishnu Orchestra toured with the Mothers of Invention in 1973, opined that Zappa was \"very interesting as a human being and a very interesting composer\" and that he \"was a very good musician but he was a dictator in his band,\" and that he \"was taking very long guitar solos [when performing live]—10–15 minute guitar solos and really he should have taken two or three minute guitar solos, because they were a little bit boring.\"",
"title": "Musical style and development"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 86,
"text": "In 2000, he was ranked number 36 on VH1's 100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock. In 2004, Rolling Stone magazine ranked him at number 71 on its list of the \"100 Greatest Artists of All Time\", and in 2011 at number 22 on its list of the \"100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time\".",
"title": "Musical style and development"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 87,
"text": "In New York, Zappa increasingly used tape editing as a compositional tool. A prime example is found on the double album Uncle Meat (1969), where the track \"King Kong\" is edited from various studio and live performances. Zappa had begun regularly recording concerts, and because of his insistence on precise tuning and timing, he was able to augment his studio productions with excerpts from live shows, and vice versa. Later, he combined recordings of different compositions into new pieces, irrespective of the tempo or meter of the sources. He dubbed this process \"xenochrony\" (strange synchronizations)—reflecting the Greek \"xeno\" (alien or strange) and \"chronos\" (time).",
"title": "Musical style and development"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 88,
"text": "Zappa was married to Kathryn J. \"Kay\" Sherman from 1960 to 1963. In 1967, he married Adelaide Gail Sloatman. He and his second wife had four children: Moon Unit, Dweezil, Ahmet, and Diva.",
"title": "Personal life"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 89,
"text": "Following Zappa's death, his widow Gail created the Zappa Family Trust, which owns the rights to Zappa's music and some other creative output: more than 60 albums were released during Zappa's lifetime and 65 posthumously as of November 2023. Upon Gail's death in October 2015, the Zappa children received shares of the trust; Ahmet and Diva received 30% each, Moon Unit and Dweezil received 20% each.",
"title": "Personal life"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 90,
"text": "Zappa stated, \"Drugs do not become a problem until the person who uses the drugs does something to you, or does something that would affect your life that you don't want to have happen to you, like an airline pilot who crashes because he was full of drugs.\" Zappa was a heavy tobacco smoker for most of his life, and critical of anti-tobacco campaigns.",
"title": "Beliefs and politics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 91,
"text": "While he disapproved of drug use, he criticized the War on Drugs, comparing it to alcohol prohibition, and stated that the United States Treasury would benefit from the decriminalization and regulation of drugs. Describing his philosophical views, Zappa stated, \"I believe that people have a right to decide their own destinies; people own themselves. I also believe that, in a democracy, government exists because (and only so long as) individual citizens give it a 'temporary license to exist'—in exchange for a promise that it will behave itself. In a democracy, you own the government—it doesn't own you.\"",
"title": "Beliefs and politics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 92,
"text": "In a 1991 interview, Zappa reported that he was a registered Democrat but added \"that might not last long—I'm going to shred that.\" Describing his political views, Zappa categorized himself as a \"practical conservative.\" He favored limited government and low taxes; he also stated that he approved of national defense, social security, and other federal programs, but only if recipients of such programs are willing and able to pay for them. He opposed military drafts, saying that military service should be voluntary. He favored capitalism, entrepreneurship, and independent business, stating that musicians could make more from owning their own businesses than from collecting royalties. He opposed communism, stating, \"A system that doesn't allow ownership... has—to put it mildly—a fatal design flaw.\" He always encouraged his fans to register to vote on album covers, and throughout 1988, he had registration booths at his concerts. He even considered running for president of the United States as an independent.",
"title": "Beliefs and politics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 93,
"text": "Zappa was an atheist. He recalled his parents being \"pretty religious\" and trying to make him go to Catholic school despite his resentment. He felt disgust towards organized religion (Christianity in particular) because he believed that it promoted ignorance and anti-intellectualism. He held the view that the Garden of Eden story shows that the essence of Christianity is to oppose gaining knowledge. Some of his songs, concert performances, interviews and public debates in the 1980s criticized and derided Republicans and their policies—President Ronald Reagan, the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), televangelism, and the Christian Right—and warned that the United States government was in danger of becoming a \"fascist theocracy.\"",
"title": "Beliefs and politics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 94,
"text": "In early 1990, Zappa visited Czechoslovakia at the request of President Václav Havel. A longtime admirer of Zappa's commitment to individualism, Havel designated him as Czechoslovakia's \"Special Ambassador to the West on Trade, Culture and Tourism.\" Havel was a lifelong fan of Zappa, who had great influence in the avant-garde and underground scene in Central Europe in the 1970s and 1980s. The Plastic People of the Universe, a Czechoslovakian jazz rock group associated with Prague underground culture, took its name from Zappa's 1968 song \"Plastic People\"). Under pressure from Secretary of State, James Baker, Zappa's posting (as Czech 'Special Ambassador') was withdrawn. Havel made Zappa an unofficial cultural attaché instead. Zappa planned to develop an international consulting enterprise to facilitate trade between the former Eastern Bloc and Western businesses.",
"title": "Beliefs and politics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 95,
"text": "Zappa expressed opinions on censorship when he appeared on CNN's Crossfire TV series and debated issues with Washington Times commentator John Lofton in 1986. On September 19, 1985, Zappa testified before the United States Senate Commerce, Technology, and Transportation committee, attacking the Parents Music Resource Center or PMRC, a music organization co-founded by Tipper Gore, wife of then-senator Al Gore. The PMRC consisted of many wives of politicians, including the wives of five members of the committee, and was founded to address the issue of song lyrics with sexual or satanic content. During Zappa's testimony, he stated that there was a clear conflict of interest between the PMRC due to the relations of its founders to the politicians who were then trying to pass what he referred to as the \"Blank Tape Tax.\" Kandy Stroud, a spokeswoman for the PMRC, announced that Senator Gore (who co-founded the committee) was a co-sponsor of that legislation. Zappa suggested that record labels were trying to get the bill passed quickly through committees, one of which was chaired by Senator Strom Thurmond, who was also affiliated with the PMRC. Zappa further said that this committee was being used as a distraction from that bill being passed, which would lead only to the benefit of a select few in the music industry.",
"title": "Beliefs and politics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 96,
"text": "Zappa saw their activities as on a path towards censorship and called their proposal for voluntary labelling of records with explicit content \"extortion\" of the music industry.",
"title": "Beliefs and politics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 97,
"text": "In his prepared statement, he said:",
"title": "Beliefs and politics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 98,
"text": "The PMRC proposal is an ill-conceived piece of nonsense which fails to deliver any real benefits to children, infringes the civil liberties of people who are not children, and promises to keep the courts busy for years dealing with the interpretational and enforcemental problems inherent in the proposal's design. It is my understanding that, in law, First Amendment issues are decided with a preference for the least restrictive alternative. In this context, the PMRC's demands are the equivalent of treating dandruff by decapitation. ... The establishment of a rating system, voluntary or otherwise, opens the door to an endless parade of moral quality control programs based on things certain Christians do not like. What if the next bunch of Washington wives demands a large yellow \"J\" on all material written or performed by Jews, in order to save helpless children from exposure to concealed Zionist doctrine?",
"title": "Beliefs and politics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 99,
"text": "Zappa set excerpts from the PMRC hearings to Synclavier music in his composition \"Porn Wars\" on the 1985 album Frank Zappa Meets the Mothers of Prevention, and the full recording was released in 2010 as Congress Shall Make No Law... Zappa is heard interacting with Senators Fritz Hollings, Slade Gorton and Al Gore.",
"title": "Beliefs and politics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 100,
"text": "Zappa had a controversial critical standing during his lifetime. As Geoffrey Himes noted in 1993 after the artist's death, Zappa was hailed as a genius by conductor Kent Nagano and nominated by Czechoslovakian President Václav Havel to the country's cultural ambassadorship, but he was in his lifetime rejected twice for admission into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and been found by critics to lack emotional depth. In Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies (1981), Robert Christgau dismissed Zappa's music as \"sexist adolescent drivel ... with meters and voicings and key changes that are as hard to play as they are easy to forget.\" According to Himes:",
"title": "Legacy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 101,
"text": "Admirers and detractors agree that Zappa's music—with its odd time signatures, unorthodox harmonies and fiendishly difficult lines—boasts a rare cerebral complexity. But that's where the agreement ends. Some fans find his sophomoric jokes (\"Don't Eat the Yellow Snow\") and pop music parodies (\"Sheik Yerbouti\") a crucial counterbalance to the rarefied density of the music; other devotees find the jokes an irrelevant sideshow to music best appreciated in a chamber or orchestral setting. The critics find the humor's smug iconoclasm a symptom of the essential emptiness of Zappa's intellectual exercises.",
"title": "Legacy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 102,
"text": "Frank Zappa was one of the first to try tearing down the barriers between rock, jazz, and classical music. In the late Sixties his Mothers of Invention would slip from Stravinsky's \"Petroushka\" into The Dovells' \"Bristol Stomp\" before breaking down into saxophone squeals inspired by Albert Ayler",
"title": "Legacy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 103,
"text": "— The Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock & Roll, p. 497",
"title": "Legacy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 104,
"text": "The Rolling Stone Album Guide (2004) writes: \"Frank Zappa dabbled in virtually all kinds of music—and, whether guised as a satirical rocker, jazz-rock fusionist, guitar virtuoso, electronics wizard, or orchestral innovator, his eccentric genius was undeniable.\" Even though his work drew inspiration from many different genres, Zappa was seen as establishing a coherent and personal expression.",
"title": "Legacy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 105,
"text": "In 1980, biographer David Walley noted that \"The whole structure of his music is unified, not neatly divided by dates or time sequences and it is all building into a composite\".",
"title": "Legacy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 106,
"text": "On commenting on Zappa's music, politics and philosophy, Barry Miles noted in 2004 that they cannot be separated: \"It was all one; all part of his 'conceptual continuity'.\"",
"title": "Legacy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 107,
"text": "Guitar Player devoted a special issue to Zappa in 1992, and asked on the cover \"Is FZ America's Best Kept Musical Secret?\" Editor Don Menn remarked that the issue was about \"The most important composer to come out of modern popular music\".",
"title": "Legacy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 108,
"text": "Among those contributing to the issue was composer and musicologist Nicolas Slonimsky, who conducted premiere performances of works of Ives and Varèse in the 1930s. He became friends with Zappa in the 1980s, and said, \"I admire everything Frank does, because he practically created the new musical millennium. He does beautiful, beautiful work ... It has been my luck to have lived to see the emergence of this totally new type of music.\"",
"title": "Legacy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 109,
"text": "Conductor Kent Nagano remarked in the same issue that \"Frank is a genius. That's a word I don't use often ... In Frank's case it is not too strong ... He is extremely literate musically. I'm not sure if the general public knows that.\" Pierre Boulez told Musician magazine's posthumous Zappa tribute article that Zappa \"was an exceptional figure because he was part of the worlds of rock and classical music and that both types of his work would survive.\"",
"title": "Legacy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 110,
"text": "In 1994, jazz magazine DownBeat's critics poll placed Zappa in its Hall of Fame. Zappa was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995. There, it was written that \"Frank Zappa was rock and roll's sharpest musical mind and most astute social critic. He was the most prolific composer of his age, and he bridged genres—rock, jazz, classical, avant-garde and even novelty music—with masterful ease\". He was ranked number 36 on VH1's 100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock in 2000.",
"title": "Legacy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 111,
"text": "In 2005, the U.S. National Recording Preservation Board included We're Only in It for the Money in the National Recording Registry as \"Frank Zappa's inventive and iconoclastic album presents a unique political stance, both anti-conservative and anti-counterculture, and features a scathing satire on hippiedom and America's reactions to it\". The same year, Rolling Stone magazine ranked him at No. 71 on its list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.",
"title": "Legacy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 112,
"text": "In 2011, he was ranked at No. 22 on the list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time by the same magazine. In 2016, Guitar World magazine placed Zappa atop its list of \"15 of the best progressive rock guitarists through the years.\"",
"title": "Legacy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 113,
"text": "The street of Partinico where his father lived at number 13, Via Zammatà, has been renamed to Via Frank Zappa.",
"title": "Legacy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 114,
"text": "Since his death, several musicians have been considered by critics as filling the artistic niche left behind by Zappa, in view of their prolific output, eclecticism and other qualities, including Devin Townsend, Mike Patton and Omar Rodríguez-López.",
"title": "Legacy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 115,
"text": "In the course of his career, Zappa was nominated for nine competitive Grammy Awards, which resulted in two wins (one posthumous). In 1998, he received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.",
"title": "Legacy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 116,
"text": "Many musicians, bands and orchestras from diverse genres have been influenced by Zappa's music. Rock artists such as The Plastic People of the Universe, Alice Cooper, Larry LaLonde of Primus, Fee Waybill of the Tubes all cite Zappa's influence, as do progressive, alternative, electronic and avant-garde/experimental rock artists like Can, Pere Ubu, Yes, Soft Machine, Henry Cow, Faust, Devo, Kraftwerk, Trey Anastasio and Jon Fishman of Phish, Jeff Buckley, John Frusciante, Steven Wilson, and The Aristocrats.",
"title": "Legacy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 117,
"text": "Paul McCartney regarded Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band as the Beatles' Freak Out!. Jimi Hendrix and heavy rock and metal acts like Black Sabbath, Living Colour, Simon Phillips, Mike Portnoy, Warren DeMartini, Alex Skolnick, Steve Vai, Strapping Young Lad, System of a Down, and Clawfinger have acknowledged Zappa as inspiration. On the classical music scene, Tomas Ulrich, Meridian Arts Ensemble, Ensemble Ambrosius and the Fireworks Ensemble regularly perform Zappa's compositions and quote his influence. Contemporary jazz musicians and composers Bobby Sanabria, Bill Frisell and John Zorn are inspired by Zappa, as is funk legend George Clinton.",
"title": "Legacy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 118,
"text": "Other artists affected by Zappa include ambient composer Brian Eno, new age pianist George Winston, electronic composer Bob Gluck, parodist artist and disk jockey Dr. Demento, parodist and novelty composer \"Weird Al\" Yankovic, industrial music pioneer Genesis P-Orridge, singer Cree Summer, noise music artist Masami Akita of Merzbow, the Italian band Elio e le Storie Tese and Chilean composer Cristián Crisosto from Fulano and Mediabanda.",
"title": "Legacy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 119,
"text": "Scientists from various fields have honored Zappa by naming new discoveries after him. In 1967, paleontologist Leo P. Plas Jr., identified an extinct mollusc in Nevada and named it Amaurotoma zappa with the motivation that, \"The specific name, zappa, honors Frank Zappa\".",
"title": "Legacy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 120,
"text": "In the 1980s, biologist Ed Murdy named a genus of gobiid fishes of New Guinea Zappa, with a species named Zappa confluentus. Biologist Ferdinando Boero named a Californian jellyfish Phialella zappai (1987), noting that he had \"pleasure in naming this species after the modern music composer\".",
"title": "Legacy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 121,
"text": "Belgian biologists Bosmans and Bosselaers discovered in the early 1980s a Cameroonese spider, which they in 1994 named Pachygnatha zappa because \"the ventral side of the abdomen of the female of this species strikingly resembles the artist's legendary moustache\".",
"title": "Legacy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 122,
"text": "A gene of the bacterium Proteus mirabilis that causes urinary tract infections was in 1995 named zapA by three biologists from Maryland. In their scientific article, they \"especially thank the late Frank Zappa for inspiration and assistance with genetic nomenclature\". Repeating regions of the genome of the human tumor virus KSHV were named frnk, vnct and zppa in 1996 by Yuan Chang and Patrick S. Moore who discovered the virus. Also, a 143 base pair repeat sequence occurring at two positions was named waka/jwka. In the late 1990s, American paleontologists Marc Salak and Halard L. Lescinsky discovered a metazoan fossil, and named it Spygori zappania to honor \"the late Frank Zappa ... whose mission paralleled that of the earliest paleontologists: to challenge conventional and traditional beliefs when such beliefs lacked roots in logic and reason\".",
"title": "Legacy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 123,
"text": "In 1994, lobbying efforts initiated by psychiatrist John Scialli led the International Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Center to name an asteroid in Zappa's honor: 3834 Zappafrank. The asteroid was discovered in 1980 by Czechoslovakian astronomer Ladislav Brožek, and the citation for its naming says that \"Zappa was an eclectic, self-trained artist and composer ... Before 1989 he was regarded as a symbol of democracy and freedom by many people in Czechoslovakia\". In 1995, a bust of Zappa by sculptor Konstantinas Bogdanas was installed in Vilnius, the Lithuanian capital 54°40′59″N 25°16′33″E / 54.683°N 25.2759°E / 54.683; 25.2759. The choice of Zappa was explained as \"a symbol that would mark the end of communism, but at the same time express that it wasn't always doom and gloom.\" A replica was offered to the city of Baltimore in 2008, and on September 19, 2010—the twenty-fifth anniversary of Zappa's testimony to the U.S. Senate—a ceremony dedicating the replica was held, and the bust was unveiled at a library in the city.",
"title": "Legacy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 124,
"text": "In 2002, a bronze bust was installed in German city Bad Doberan, location of the Zappanale since 1990, an annual music festival celebrating Zappa. At the initiative of musicians community ORWOhaus, the city of Berlin named a street in the Marzahn district \"Frank-Zappa-Straße\" in 2007. The same year, Baltimore mayor Sheila Dixon proclaimed August 9 as the city's official \"Frank Zappa Day\" citing Zappa's musical accomplishments as well as his defense of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.",
"title": "Legacy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 125,
"text": "The biographical documentary Zappa, directed by Alex Winter and released on November 27, 2020, includes previously unreleased footage from Zappa's personal vault, to which he was granted access by the Zappa Family Trust.",
"title": "Legacy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 126,
"text": "During his lifetime, Zappa released 62 albums. Since 1994, the Zappa Family Trust has released 64 posthumous albums, making a total of 126 albums. The distributor of Zappa's recorded output is Universal Music Enterprises. In June 2022 the Zappa Trust announced that it had sold Zappa's entire catalog to Universal Music, including master tapes, song copyrights and trademarks.",
"title": "Discography"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 127,
"text": "Tour and the relative video:",
"title": "Tour"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 128,
"text": "Timeline of videos with tour:",
"title": "Tour"
}
] |
Frank Vincent Zappa was an American musician, composer, and bandleader. His work is characterized by nonconformity, free-form improvisation, sound experimentation, musical virtuosity and satire of American culture. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Zappa composed rock, pop, jazz, jazz fusion, orchestral and musique concrète works; he also produced almost all of the 60-plus albums that he released with his band the Mothers of Invention and as a solo artist. Zappa also directed feature-length films and music videos, and designed album covers. He is considered one of the most innovative and stylistically diverse musicians of his generation. As a mostly self-taught composer and performer, Zappa had diverse musical influences that led him to create music that was sometimes difficult to categorize. While in his teens, he acquired a taste for 20th-century classical modernism, African-American rhythm and blues, and doo-wop music. He began writing classical music in high school, while at the same time playing drums in rhythm and blues bands, later switching to electric guitar. His debut studio album with the Mothers of Invention, Freak Out! (1966), combined songs in conventional rock and roll format with collective improvisations and studio-generated sound collages. He continued this eclectic and experimental approach whether the fundamental format was rock, jazz, or classical. Zappa's output is unified by a conceptual continuity he termed "Project/Object", with numerous musical phrases, ideas, and characters reappearing across his albums. His lyrics reflected his iconoclastic views of established social and political processes, structures and movements, often humorously so, and he has been described as the "godfather" of comedy rock. He was a strident critic of mainstream education and organized religion, and a forthright and passionate advocate for freedom of speech, self-education, political participation and the abolition of censorship. Unlike many other rock musicians of his generation, he disapproved of recreational drug use, but supported decriminalization and regulation. Zappa was a highly productive and prolific artist with a controversial critical standing; supporters of his music admired its compositional complexity, while detractors found it lacking emotional depth. He had greater commercial success outside the US, particularly in Europe. Though he worked as an independent artist, Zappa mostly relied on distribution agreements he had negotiated with the major record labels. He remains a major influence on musicians and composers. His many honors include his posthumous 1995 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the 1997 Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.
|
2001-10-03T08:50:09Z
|
2023-12-24T00:36:59Z
|
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Zappa
|
10,673 |
Fagales
|
The Fagales are an order of flowering plants, including some of the best-known trees. The order name is derived from genus Fagus, beeches. They belong among the rosid group of dicotyledons. The families and genera currently included are as follows:
The older Cronquist system only included four families (Betulaceae, Corylaceae, Fagaceae, Ticodendraceae; Corylaceae now being included within Betulaceae); this arrangement is followed by, for example, the World Checklist of selected plant families. The other families were split into three different orders, placed among the Hamamelidae. The Casuarinales comprised the single family Casuarinaceae, the Juglandales comprised the Juglandaceae and Rhoipteleaceae, and the Myricales comprised the remaining forms (plus Balanops). The change is due to studies suggesting the Myricales, so defined, are paraphyletic to the other two groups.
Most Fagales are wind pollinated and are monoecious with unisexual flowers.
The oldest member of the order is the flower Soepadmoa cupulata preserved in the late Turonian-Coniacian New Jersey amber, which is a mosaic with characteristics characteristic of both Nothofagus and other Fagales, suggesting that the ancestor of all Fagales was Nothofagus-like.
Modern molecular phylogenetics suggest the following relationships:
|
[
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "The Fagales are an order of flowering plants, including some of the best-known trees. The order name is derived from genus Fagus, beeches. They belong among the rosid group of dicotyledons. The families and genera currently included are as follows:",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "The older Cronquist system only included four families (Betulaceae, Corylaceae, Fagaceae, Ticodendraceae; Corylaceae now being included within Betulaceae); this arrangement is followed by, for example, the World Checklist of selected plant families. The other families were split into three different orders, placed among the Hamamelidae. The Casuarinales comprised the single family Casuarinaceae, the Juglandales comprised the Juglandaceae and Rhoipteleaceae, and the Myricales comprised the remaining forms (plus Balanops). The change is due to studies suggesting the Myricales, so defined, are paraphyletic to the other two groups.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "Most Fagales are wind pollinated and are monoecious with unisexual flowers.",
"title": "Characteristics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "The oldest member of the order is the flower Soepadmoa cupulata preserved in the late Turonian-Coniacian New Jersey amber, which is a mosaic with characteristics characteristic of both Nothofagus and other Fagales, suggesting that the ancestor of all Fagales was Nothofagus-like.",
"title": "Evolutionary history"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "Modern molecular phylogenetics suggest the following relationships:",
"title": "Systematics"
}
] |
The Fagales are an order of flowering plants, including some of the best-known trees. The order name is derived from genus Fagus, beeches. They belong among the rosid group of dicotyledons. The families and genera currently included are as follows: Betulaceae – birch family
Casuarinaceae – she-oak family
Fagaceae – beech family
Juglandaceae – walnut family
Myricaceae – bayberry family
Nothofagaceae – southern beech family (Nothofagus)
Ticodendraceae – ticodendron family (Ticodendron) The older Cronquist system only included four families; this arrangement is followed by, for example, the World Checklist of selected plant families. The other families were split into three different orders, placed among the Hamamelidae. The Casuarinales comprised the single family Casuarinaceae, the Juglandales comprised the Juglandaceae and Rhoipteleaceae, and the Myricales comprised the remaining forms. The change is due to studies suggesting the Myricales, so defined, are paraphyletic to the other two groups.
|
2001-06-06T04:55:26Z
|
2023-10-14T20:51:45Z
|
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fagales
|
10,674 |
Fabales
|
Fabales is an order of flowering plants included in the rosid group of the eudicots in the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group II classification system. In the APG II circumscription, this order includes the families Fabaceae or legumes (including the subfamilies Caesalpinioideae, Mimosoideae, and Faboideae), Quillajaceae, Polygalaceae or milkworts (including the families Diclidantheraceae, Moutabeaceae, and Xanthophyllaceae), and Surianaceae. Under the Cronquist system and some other plant classification systems, the order Fabales contains only the family Fabaceae. In the classification system of Dahlgren the Fabales were in the superorder Fabiflorae (also called Fabanae) with three families corresponding to the subfamilies of Fabaceae in APG II. The other families treated in the Fabales by the APG II classification were placed in separate orders by Cronquist, the Polygalaceae within its own order, the Polygalales, and the Quillajaceae and Surianaceae within the Rosales.
The Fabaceae, as the third-largest plant family in the world, contain most of the diversity of the Fabales, the other families making up a comparatively small portion of the order's diversity. Research in the order is largely focused on the Fabaceae, due in part to its great biological diversity, and to its importance as food plants. The Polygalaceae are fairly well researched among plant families, in part due to the large diversity of the genus Polygala, and other members of the family being food plants for various Lepidoptera (butterfly and moth) species. While taxonomists using molecular phylogenetic techniques find strong support for the order, questions remain about the morphological relationships of the Quillajaceae and Surianaceae to the rest of the order, due in part to limited research on these families.
The Fabales are a cosmopolitan order of plants, except only the subfamily Papilionoideae (Faboideae) of the Fabaceae are well dispersed throughout the northern part of the North Temperate Zone.
The phylogeny of the Fabales is shown below.
|
[
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "Fabales is an order of flowering plants included in the rosid group of the eudicots in the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group II classification system. In the APG II circumscription, this order includes the families Fabaceae or legumes (including the subfamilies Caesalpinioideae, Mimosoideae, and Faboideae), Quillajaceae, Polygalaceae or milkworts (including the families Diclidantheraceae, Moutabeaceae, and Xanthophyllaceae), and Surianaceae. Under the Cronquist system and some other plant classification systems, the order Fabales contains only the family Fabaceae. In the classification system of Dahlgren the Fabales were in the superorder Fabiflorae (also called Fabanae) with three families corresponding to the subfamilies of Fabaceae in APG II. The other families treated in the Fabales by the APG II classification were placed in separate orders by Cronquist, the Polygalaceae within its own order, the Polygalales, and the Quillajaceae and Surianaceae within the Rosales.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "The Fabaceae, as the third-largest plant family in the world, contain most of the diversity of the Fabales, the other families making up a comparatively small portion of the order's diversity. Research in the order is largely focused on the Fabaceae, due in part to its great biological diversity, and to its importance as food plants. The Polygalaceae are fairly well researched among plant families, in part due to the large diversity of the genus Polygala, and other members of the family being food plants for various Lepidoptera (butterfly and moth) species. While taxonomists using molecular phylogenetic techniques find strong support for the order, questions remain about the morphological relationships of the Quillajaceae and Surianaceae to the rest of the order, due in part to limited research on these families.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "The Fabales are a cosmopolitan order of plants, except only the subfamily Papilionoideae (Faboideae) of the Fabaceae are well dispersed throughout the northern part of the North Temperate Zone.",
"title": "Distribution"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "The phylogeny of the Fabales is shown below.",
"title": "Phylogeny"
}
] |
Fabales is an order of flowering plants included in the rosid group of the eudicots in the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group II classification system. In the APG II circumscription, this order includes the families Fabaceae or legumes, Quillajaceae, Polygalaceae or milkworts, and Surianaceae. Under the Cronquist system and some other plant classification systems, the order Fabales contains only the family Fabaceae. In the classification system of Dahlgren the Fabales were in the superorder Fabiflorae with three families corresponding to the subfamilies of Fabaceae in APG II. The other families treated in the Fabales by the APG II classification were placed in separate orders by Cronquist, the Polygalaceae within its own order, the Polygalales, and the Quillajaceae and Surianaceae within the Rosales. The Fabaceae, as the third-largest plant family in the world, contain most of the diversity of the Fabales, the other families making up a comparatively small portion of the order's diversity. Research in the order is largely focused on the Fabaceae, due in part to its great biological diversity, and to its importance as food plants. The Polygalaceae are fairly well researched among plant families, in part due to the large diversity of the genus Polygala, and other members of the family being food plants for various Lepidoptera species. While taxonomists using molecular phylogenetic techniques find strong support for the order, questions remain about the morphological relationships of the Quillajaceae and Surianaceae to the rest of the order, due in part to limited research on these families.
|
2001-04-12T15:59:21Z
|
2023-10-14T21:23:54Z
|
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fabales
|
10,676 |
French
|
French may refer to:
|
[
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "French may refer to:",
"title": ""
}
] |
French may refer to: Something of, from, or related to France
French language, which originated in France
French people, a nation and ethnic group
French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices
|
2001-04-13T20:15:13Z
|
2023-12-11T17:00:15Z
|
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French
|
10,678 |
List of French people
|
French people of note include:
For collaboration with Nazi Germany see also the politicians section.
Resistance workers during the German occupation of France in World War II
O.P. (Ordo Praedicatorum) is the abbreviation used to indicate that someone is/was a member of the Dominican order, a Catholic religious order. S.J. (Societas Iesu) is the abbreviation used to indicate that someone is/was a member of the Society of Jesus, another Catholic religious order.
|
[
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "French people of note include:",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "For collaboration with Nazi Germany see also the politicians section.",
"title": "Criminals"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "Resistance workers during the German occupation of France in World War II",
"title": "Resistance workers"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "O.P. (Ordo Praedicatorum) is the abbreviation used to indicate that someone is/was a member of the Dominican order, a Catholic religious order. S.J. (Societas Iesu) is the abbreviation used to indicate that someone is/was a member of the Society of Jesus, another Catholic religious order.",
"title": "Theologians"
}
] |
French people of note include:
|
2001-10-22T16:13:40Z
|
2023-12-17T22:45:04Z
|
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_French_people
|
10,679 |
Five-card draw
|
Five-card draw (also known as Cantrell draw) is a poker variant that is considered the simplest variant of poker, and is the basis for video poker. As a result, it is often the first variant learned by new players. It is commonly played in home games but rarely played in casino and tournament play. The variant is also offered by some online venues, although it is not as popular as other variants such as seven-card stud and Texas hold 'em.
In casino play the first betting round begins with the player to the left of the big blind, and subsequent rounds begin with the player to the dealer's left. Home games typically use an ante; the first betting round begins with the player to the dealer's left, and the second round begins with the player who opened the first round.
Play begins with each player being dealt five cards, one at a time, all face down. The remaining deck is placed aside, often protected by placing a chip or other marker on it. Players pick up the cards and hold them in their hands, being careful to keep them concealed from the other players, then a round of betting occurs.
If more than one player remains after the first round, the "draw" phase begins. Each player specifies how many of their cards they wish to replace and discards them. The deck is retrieved, and each player is dealt in turn from the deck the same number of cards they discarded so that each player again has five cards.
A second "after the draw" betting round occurs beginning with the player to the dealer's left or else beginning with the player who opened the first round (the latter is common when antes are used instead of blinds). This is followed by a showdown, if more than one player remains, in which the player with the best hand wins the pot.
A common "house rule" in some places is that a player may not replace more than three cards, unless they draw four cards while keeping an ace (or wild card). This rule is useful for low-stakes social games where many players will stay for the draw, and will help avoid depletion of the deck. In more serious games such as those played in casinos it is unnecessary and generally not used. However, a rule used by many casinos is that a player is not allowed to draw five consecutive cards from the deck. In this case, if a player wishes to replace all five of their cards, that player is given four of them in turn, the other players are given their draws, and then the dealer returns to that player to give the fifth replacement card; if no other player draws it is necessary to deal a burn card first.
Another common house rule is that the bottom card of the deck is never given as a replacement, to avoid the possibility of someone who might have seen it during the deal using that information. If the deck is depleted during the draw before all players have received their replacements, the last players can receive cards chosen randomly from among those discarded by previous players. For example, if the last player to draw wants three replacements but there are only two cards remaining in the deck, the dealer gives the player the one top card he can give, then shuffles together the bottom card of the deck, the burn card, and the earlier players' discards (but not the player's own discards), and finally deals two more replacements to the last player.
The sample deal is being played by four players as shown to the right with Alice dealing. All four players ante $1. Alice deals five cards to each player and places the deck aside.
Bob opens the betting round by betting $5. Carol folds, David calls, and Alice calls, closing the betting round.
Bob now declares that he wishes to replace three of his cards, so he removes those three cards from his hand and discards them. Alice retrieves the deck, deals a burn card, then deals three cards directly to Bob, who puts them in his hand. David discards one card, and Alice deals one card to him from the deck. Alice now discards three of her own cards, and replaces them with three from the top of the deck.
Now a second betting round begins. Bob checks, David checks, Alice bets $10, Bob folds, David raises $16, and Alice calls, ending the second betting round and going directly into a showdown. David shows a flush, and Alice shows two pair, so David takes the pot.
Five-card draw is sometimes played with a stripped deck. This variant is commonly known as "seven-to-ace" or "ace-to-seven" (abbreviated as A-7 or 7-A). It can be played by up to five players. When four or fewer players play, a normal 32-card deck without jokers, with ranks ranging from ace to seven, is used. With five players, the sixes are added to make a 36-card deck. The deck thus contains only eight or nine different card ranks, compared to 13 in a standard deck. This affects the probabilities of making specific hands, so a flush ranks above a full house and below four of a kind. Many smaller online poker rooms, such as Boss Media, spread the variant, although it is unheard of in terrestrial casinos.
|
[
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "Five-card draw (also known as Cantrell draw) is a poker variant that is considered the simplest variant of poker, and is the basis for video poker. As a result, it is often the first variant learned by new players. It is commonly played in home games but rarely played in casino and tournament play. The variant is also offered by some online venues, although it is not as popular as other variants such as seven-card stud and Texas hold 'em.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "In casino play the first betting round begins with the player to the left of the big blind, and subsequent rounds begin with the player to the dealer's left. Home games typically use an ante; the first betting round begins with the player to the dealer's left, and the second round begins with the player who opened the first round.",
"title": "Gameplay"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "Play begins with each player being dealt five cards, one at a time, all face down. The remaining deck is placed aside, often protected by placing a chip or other marker on it. Players pick up the cards and hold them in their hands, being careful to keep them concealed from the other players, then a round of betting occurs.",
"title": "Gameplay"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "If more than one player remains after the first round, the \"draw\" phase begins. Each player specifies how many of their cards they wish to replace and discards them. The deck is retrieved, and each player is dealt in turn from the deck the same number of cards they discarded so that each player again has five cards.",
"title": "Gameplay"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "A second \"after the draw\" betting round occurs beginning with the player to the dealer's left or else beginning with the player who opened the first round (the latter is common when antes are used instead of blinds). This is followed by a showdown, if more than one player remains, in which the player with the best hand wins the pot.",
"title": "Gameplay"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "A common \"house rule\" in some places is that a player may not replace more than three cards, unless they draw four cards while keeping an ace (or wild card). This rule is useful for low-stakes social games where many players will stay for the draw, and will help avoid depletion of the deck. In more serious games such as those played in casinos it is unnecessary and generally not used. However, a rule used by many casinos is that a player is not allowed to draw five consecutive cards from the deck. In this case, if a player wishes to replace all five of their cards, that player is given four of them in turn, the other players are given their draws, and then the dealer returns to that player to give the fifth replacement card; if no other player draws it is necessary to deal a burn card first.",
"title": "House rules"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "Another common house rule is that the bottom card of the deck is never given as a replacement, to avoid the possibility of someone who might have seen it during the deal using that information. If the deck is depleted during the draw before all players have received their replacements, the last players can receive cards chosen randomly from among those discarded by previous players. For example, if the last player to draw wants three replacements but there are only two cards remaining in the deck, the dealer gives the player the one top card he can give, then shuffles together the bottom card of the deck, the burn card, and the earlier players' discards (but not the player's own discards), and finally deals two more replacements to the last player.",
"title": "House rules"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "The sample deal is being played by four players as shown to the right with Alice dealing. All four players ante $1. Alice deals five cards to each player and places the deck aside.",
"title": "Sample deal"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "Bob opens the betting round by betting $5. Carol folds, David calls, and Alice calls, closing the betting round.",
"title": "Sample deal"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "Bob now declares that he wishes to replace three of his cards, so he removes those three cards from his hand and discards them. Alice retrieves the deck, deals a burn card, then deals three cards directly to Bob, who puts them in his hand. David discards one card, and Alice deals one card to him from the deck. Alice now discards three of her own cards, and replaces them with three from the top of the deck.",
"title": "Sample deal"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "Now a second betting round begins. Bob checks, David checks, Alice bets $10, Bob folds, David raises $16, and Alice calls, ending the second betting round and going directly into a showdown. David shows a flush, and Alice shows two pair, so David takes the pot.",
"title": "Sample deal"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "Five-card draw is sometimes played with a stripped deck. This variant is commonly known as \"seven-to-ace\" or \"ace-to-seven\" (abbreviated as A-7 or 7-A). It can be played by up to five players. When four or fewer players play, a normal 32-card deck without jokers, with ranks ranging from ace to seven, is used. With five players, the sixes are added to make a 36-card deck. The deck thus contains only eight or nine different card ranks, compared to 13 in a standard deck. This affects the probabilities of making specific hands, so a flush ranks above a full house and below four of a kind. Many smaller online poker rooms, such as Boss Media, spread the variant, although it is unheard of in terrestrial casinos.",
"title": "Stripped deck variant"
}
] |
Five-card draw is a poker variant that is considered the simplest variant of poker, and is the basis for video poker. As a result, it is often the first variant learned by new players. It is commonly played in home games but rarely played in casino and tournament play. The variant is also offered by some online venues, although it is not as popular as other variants such as seven-card stud and Texas hold 'em.
|
2023-02-13T16:48:42Z
|
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five-card_draw
|
|
10,680 |
Flaming (Internet)
|
Flaming, also known as roasting, is the act of posting insults, often including profanity or other offensive language, on the internet. This term should not be confused with the term trolling, which is the act of someone causing discord online or in person. Flaming emerged from the anonymity that Internet forums provide cover for users to act more aggressively. Anonymity can lead to disinhibition, which results in the swearing, offensive, and hostile language characteristic of flaming. Lack of social cues, less accountability of face-to-face communications, textual mediation and deindividualization are also likely factors. Deliberate flaming is carried out by individuals known as flamers, which are specifically motivated to incite flaming. These users specialize in flaming and target specific aspects of a controversial conversation.
While these behaviors may be typical or expected in certain types of forums, they can have dramatic, adverse effects in others. Flame wars can have a lasting impact on some internet communities where even once a flame war has concluded a division or even dissolution may occur.
The pleasant commentaries within a chat room or message board can be limited by a "war of words" fight or "flaming" with the intent to seek out a negative reaction from the reader. Humphreys defines flaming as "the use of hostile language online, including swearing, insults and otherwise offensive language"etc. Flaming by perpetrators within the online community is commonly received by messaging through text and rarely by face to face or video communication. By basing their conversations on text and not taking full accountability as the "flamer", they have a reduced self-awareness of others feelings, emotions and reactions based on the comments that they provide within the virtual community. The reader now has the perception that this "flamer" is difficult, rude and possibly a bully. The flamer may have limited social cues, emotional intelligence to adapt to others reactions and lack of awareness of how they are being perceived. Their personal social norms, may be considered disrespectful to the reader that has different social norms, education and experience with what is and is not appropriate within virtual communities.
The individuals that create an environment of flaming and hostility, lead the readers to disengage with the offender and may potentially leave the message board and chat room. The continual use of flaming within the online community can create a disruptive and negative experience for those involved and can lead to limited involvement and engagement within the original chat room and program.
Social researchers have investigated flaming, coming up with several different theories about the phenomenon. These include deindividuation and reduced awareness of other people's feelings (online disinhibition effect), conformance to perceived norms, miscommunication caused by the lack of social cues available in face-to-face communication, and anti-normative behavior.
Jacob Borders, in discussing participants' internal modeling of a discussion, says:
Mental models are fuzzy, incomplete, and imprecisely stated. Furthermore, within a single individual, mental models change with time, even during the flow of a single conversation. The human mind assembles a few relationships to fit the context of a discussion. As debate shifts, so do the mental models. Even when only a single topic is being discussed, each participant in a conversation employs a different mental model to interpret the subject. Fundamental assumptions differ but are never brought into the open. Goals are different but left unstated. It is little wonder that compromise takes so long. And even when consensus is reached, the underlying assumptions may be fallacies that lead to laws and programs that fail. The human mind is not adapted to understanding correctly the consequences implied by a mental model. A mental model may be correct in structure and assumptions but, even so, the human mind—either individually or as a group consensus—is apt to draw the wrong implications for the future.
Thus, online conversations often involve a variety of assumptions and motives unique to each individual user. Without social context, users are often helpless to know the intentions of their counterparts. In addition to the problems of conflicting mental models often present in online discussions, the inherent lack of face-to-face communication online can encourage hostility. Professor Norman Johnson, commenting on the propensity of Internet posters to flame one another, states:
The literature suggests that, compared to face-to-face, the increased incidence of flaming when using computer-mediated communication is due to reductions in the transfer of social cues, which decrease individuals' concern for social evaluation and fear of social sanctions or reprisals. When social identity and ingroup status are salient, computer mediation can decrease flaming because individuals focus their attention on the social context (and associated norms) rather than themselves.
A lack of social context creates an element of anonymity, which allows users to feel insulated from the forms of punishment they might receive in a more conventional setting. Johnson identifies several precursors to flaming between users, whom he refers to as "negotiation partners," since Internet communication typically involves back-and-forth interactions similar to a negotiation. Flaming incidents usually arise in response to a perception of one or more negotiation partners being unfair. Perceived unfairness can include a lack of consideration for an individual's vested interests, unfavorable treatment (especially when the flamer has been considerate of other users), and misunderstandings aggravated by the inability to convey subtle indicators like non-verbal cues and facial expressions.
There are multiple factors that play into why people would get involved with flaming. For instance, there is the anonymity factor and that people can use different means to have their identity hidden. Through the hiding of one's identity people can build a new persona and act in a way that they normally would not when they have their identity known. Another factor in flaming is proactive aggression "which is initiated without perceived threat or provocation" and those who are recipients of flaming may counter with flaming of their own and utilize reactive aggression. Another factor that goes into flaming are the different communication variables. For instance, offline communications networks can impact the way people act online and can lead them to engage in flaming. Finally, there is the factor of verbal aggression and how people who engage in verbal aggression will use those tactics when they engage in flaming online.
Flaming can range from subtle to extremely aggressive in online behaviors, such as derogatory images, certain emojis used in combination, and even the use of capital letters. These things can show a pattern of behavior used to convey certain emotions online. Victims should do their best to avoid fighting back in an attempt to prevent a war of words. Flaming extends past social media interactions. Flaming can also take place through emails, and it may not matter so much whether someone calls an email a "flame", is based on whether she or he considers an email to be hostile, aggressive, insulting, or offensive. What matters is how the person receives the interaction. So much is lost in translation when communicating online versus in person, that it is hard to distinguish someone's intent.
Evidence of debates which resulted in insults being exchanged quickly back and forth between two parties can be found throughout history. Arguments over the ratification of the United States Constitution were often socially and emotionally heated and intense, with many attacking one another through local newspapers. Such interactions have always been part of literary criticism. For example, Ralph Waldo Emerson's contempt for Jane Austen's works often extended to the author herself, with Emerson describing her as "without genius, wit, or knowledge of the world". In turn, Thomas Carlyle called Emerson a "hoary-headed toothless baboon"
In the modern era, "flaming" was used at East Coast engineering schools in the United States as a present participle in a crude expression to describe an irascible individual and by extension to such individuals on the earliest Internet chat rooms and message boards. Internet flaming was mostly observed in Usenet newsgroups although it was known to occur in the WWIVnet and FidoNet computer networks as well. It was subsequently used in other parts of speech with much the same meaning.
The term "flaming" was seen on Usenet newsgroups in the eighties, where the start of a flame was sometimes indicated by typing "FLAME ON", then "FLAME OFF" when the flame section of the post was complete. This is a reference to both The Human Torch of the Fantastic Four, who used those words when activating his flame abilities, and to the way text processing programs of the time worked, by placing commands before and after text to indicate how it should appear when printed.
The term "flaming" is documented in The Hacker's Dictionary, which in 1983 defined it as "to speak rabidly or incessantly on an uninteresting topic or with a patently ridiculous attitude". The meaning of the word has diverged from this definition since then.
Jerry Pournelle in 1986 explained why he wanted a kill file for BIX:
whereas an open computer conference begins with a small number of well-informed and highly interested participants, it soon attracts others. That's all right; it's supposed to attract others. Where else would you get new ideas? But soon it attracts too many, far too many, and some of them are not only ignorant but aggressively misinformed. Dilution takes place. Arguments replace discussions. Tempers are frayed. The result is that while computer conferencing began by saving time, it starts to eat up all the time it saved and more. Communications come from dozens of sources. Much of it is redundant. Some of it is stupid. The user spends more and more time dealing with irrelevancies. One day the user wakes up, decides the initial euphoria was spurious, and logs off, never to return. This is known as burnout, and it's apparently quite common.
He added, "I noticed something: most of the irritation came from a handful of people, sometimes only one or two. If I could only ignore them, the computer conferences were still valuable. Alas, it's not always easy to do".
Computer-mediated communication (CMC) research has spent a significant amount of time and effort describing and predicting engagement in uncivil, aggressive online communication. Specifically, the literature has described aggressive, insulting behavior as "flaming", which has been defined as hostile verbal behaviors, the uninhibited expression of hostility, insults, and ridicule, and hostile comments directed towards a person or organization within the context of CMC.
Flame trolling is the posting of a provocative or offensive message, known as flamebait, to a public Internet discussion group, such as a forum, newsgroup or mailing list, with the intent of provoking an angry response (a "flame") or argument.
Flamebait can provide the poster with a controlled trigger-and-response setting in which to anonymously engage in conflicts and indulge in aggressive behavior without facing the consequences that such behavior might bring in a face-to-face encounter. In other instances, flamebait may be used to reduce a forum's use by angering the forum users. In 2012, it was announced that the US State Department would start flame trolling jihadists as part of Operation Viral Peace.
Among the characteristics of inflammatory behavior, the use of entirely capitalized messages, or the multiple repetition of exclamation marks, along with profanity have been identified as typical.
A flame war results when multiple users engage in provocative responses to an original post, which is sometimes flamebait. Flame wars often draw in many users, including those trying to defuse the flame war, and can quickly turn into a mass flame war that overshadows regular forum discussion.
Resolving a flame war can be difficult, as it is often hard to determine who is really responsible for the degradation of a reasonable discussion into a flame war. Someone who posts a contrary opinion in a strongly focused discussion forum may be easily labeled a "baiter", "flamer", or "troll".
Flame wars can become intense and can include "death threats, ad hominem invective, and textual amplifiers,” but to some sociologists flame wars can actually bring people together. What is being said in a flame war should not be taken too seriously since the harsh words are a part of flaming.
An approach to resolving a flame war or responding to flaming is to communicate openly with the offending users. Acknowledging mistakes, offering to help resolve the disagreement, making clear, reasoned arguments, and even self-deprecation have all been noted as worthwhile strategies to end such disputes. However, others prefer to simply ignore flaming, noting that, in many cases, if the flamebait receives no attention, it will quickly be forgotten as forum discussions carry on. Unfortunately, this can motivate trolls to intensify their activities, creating additional distractions.
"Taking the bait" or "feeding the troll" refers to someone who responds to the original message regardless of whether they are aware the original message was intended to provoke a response. Often when someone takes the bait, others will point this out to them with the acronym "YHBT", which is short for "You have been trolled", or reply with "don't feed the trolls". Forum users will usually not give the troll acknowledgement; that just "feeds the troll".
In sociology, history, or any kind of online ethnographic academic study, flame wars as a corpus, in a STS approach of controversies, may be used to understand what is at stake in a community. The idea is that the flame war drives the actors into abandoning a polite stance and forces them to engage into debate and to unveil otherwise concealed arguments. In this respect, the most interesting parts of an online corpus are the flame wars as "outbursts of heated, short and dense debates, in an ocean of evenly distributed polite messages".
A mass flamewar is a flamewar that grows out of a single post or comment into multiple other comments or posts quickly, in the same area where the original post was in. A mass flamewar usually lasts for multiple weeks, months, or even years after the first post was posted and died out.
Political flaming typically occur when people have their views challenged and they seek to have their anger known. Through the covering of one's identity people may be more likely to engage in political flaming. In a 2015 study conducted by Hutchens, Cicchirillo, and Hmielowski, they found that "those who were more experienced with political discussions—either online or offline—were more likely to indicate they would respond with a flame", and they also found that verbal aggression also played a role in a person engaging in political flaming.
Corporate flaming is when a large number of critical comments, usually aggressive or insulting, are directed at a company's employees, products, or brands. Common causes include inappropriate behavior of company employees, negative customer experiences, inadequate care of customers and influencers, violation of ethical principles, along with apparent injustices and inappropriate reactions. Flame wars can result in reputational damage, decreased consumer confidence, drops in stock prices and company assets, increased liabilities, increased lawsuits, and a decrease in customers, influencers and sponsors. Based on an assessment of the damage, companies can take years to recover from a flame war that may detract from their core purpose. Kayser notes that companies should prepare for possible flame wars by creating alerts for a predefined "blacklist" of words and monitoring fast-growing topics about their company. Alternatively, Kayser, points out that a flame war can lead to a positive experience for the company. Based on the content, it could be shared across multiple platforms and increase company recognition, social media fans/followers, brand presence, purchases, and brand loyalty. Therefore, the type of marketing that results from a flame war can lead to higher profits and brand recognition on a broader scale. Nevertheless, it is encouraged that when a company utilizes social media they should be aware that their content could be used in a flame war and should be treated as an emergency.
Any subject of a polarizing nature can feasibly cause flaming. As one would expect in the medium of the Internet, technology is a common topic. The perennial debates between users of competing operating systems, such as Windows, Classic Mac OS and macOS operating system, or operating systems based on the Linux kernel and iOS or Android operating system, users of Intel and AMD processors, and users of the Nintendo Switch, Wii U, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One video game systems, often escalate into seemingly unending "flame wars", also called software wars. As each successive technology is released, it develops its own outspoken fan base, allowing arguments to begin anew.
Popular culture continues to generate large amounts of flaming and countless flame wars across the Internet, such as the constant debates between fans of Star Trek and Star Wars. Ongoing discussion of current celebrities and television personalities within popular culture also frequently sparks debate.
In 2005, author Anne Rice became involved in a flame war of sorts on the review boards of online retailer Amazon.com after several reviewers posted scathing comments about her latest novel. Rice responded to the comments with her own lengthy response, which was quickly met with more feedback from users.
In 2007, tech expert Kathy Sierra was a victim of flaming as an image of her depicted as a mutilated body was spread around online forums. In addition to the doctored photo being spread virally, her social security number and home address were made public as well. Consequently, Sierra effectively gave up her technology career in response to the ensuing harassment and threats that she received as a result of the flaming.
In November 2007, the popular audio-visual discussion site AVS Forum temporarily closed its HD DVD and Blu-ray discussion forums because of, as the site reported, "physical threats that have involved police and possible legal action" between advocates of the rival formats.
The 2016 Presidential election, saw a flame war take place between Republican candidate Donald Trump and the Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. The barbs exchanged between the two was highly publicized and is an example of political flaming and a flame war.
Flaming varies in severity and as such so too does the reaction of states in imposing any sort of sanction. Laws vary from country to country, but in most cases, constant flaming can be considered cyber harassment, which can result in Internet Service Provider action to prevent access to the site being flamed. However, as social networks become more and more closely connected to people and their real life, the more harsh words may be considered defamation of the person. For instance, a South Korean Identity Verification law was created to help control flaming and to stop "malicious use of the internet" but opponents to the law argue that the law infringes on the right to free speech.
|
[
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "Flaming, also known as roasting, is the act of posting insults, often including profanity or other offensive language, on the internet. This term should not be confused with the term trolling, which is the act of someone causing discord online or in person. Flaming emerged from the anonymity that Internet forums provide cover for users to act more aggressively. Anonymity can lead to disinhibition, which results in the swearing, offensive, and hostile language characteristic of flaming. Lack of social cues, less accountability of face-to-face communications, textual mediation and deindividualization are also likely factors. Deliberate flaming is carried out by individuals known as flamers, which are specifically motivated to incite flaming. These users specialize in flaming and target specific aspects of a controversial conversation.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "While these behaviors may be typical or expected in certain types of forums, they can have dramatic, adverse effects in others. Flame wars can have a lasting impact on some internet communities where even once a flame war has concluded a division or even dissolution may occur.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "The pleasant commentaries within a chat room or message board can be limited by a \"war of words\" fight or \"flaming\" with the intent to seek out a negative reaction from the reader. Humphreys defines flaming as \"the use of hostile language online, including swearing, insults and otherwise offensive language\"etc. Flaming by perpetrators within the online community is commonly received by messaging through text and rarely by face to face or video communication. By basing their conversations on text and not taking full accountability as the \"flamer\", they have a reduced self-awareness of others feelings, emotions and reactions based on the comments that they provide within the virtual community. The reader now has the perception that this \"flamer\" is difficult, rude and possibly a bully. The flamer may have limited social cues, emotional intelligence to adapt to others reactions and lack of awareness of how they are being perceived. Their personal social norms, may be considered disrespectful to the reader that has different social norms, education and experience with what is and is not appropriate within virtual communities.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "The individuals that create an environment of flaming and hostility, lead the readers to disengage with the offender and may potentially leave the message board and chat room. The continual use of flaming within the online community can create a disruptive and negative experience for those involved and can lead to limited involvement and engagement within the original chat room and program.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "Social researchers have investigated flaming, coming up with several different theories about the phenomenon. These include deindividuation and reduced awareness of other people's feelings (online disinhibition effect), conformance to perceived norms, miscommunication caused by the lack of social cues available in face-to-face communication, and anti-normative behavior.",
"title": "Purpose"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "Jacob Borders, in discussing participants' internal modeling of a discussion, says:",
"title": "Purpose"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "Mental models are fuzzy, incomplete, and imprecisely stated. Furthermore, within a single individual, mental models change with time, even during the flow of a single conversation. The human mind assembles a few relationships to fit the context of a discussion. As debate shifts, so do the mental models. Even when only a single topic is being discussed, each participant in a conversation employs a different mental model to interpret the subject. Fundamental assumptions differ but are never brought into the open. Goals are different but left unstated. It is little wonder that compromise takes so long. And even when consensus is reached, the underlying assumptions may be fallacies that lead to laws and programs that fail. The human mind is not adapted to understanding correctly the consequences implied by a mental model. A mental model may be correct in structure and assumptions but, even so, the human mind—either individually or as a group consensus—is apt to draw the wrong implications for the future.",
"title": "Purpose"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "Thus, online conversations often involve a variety of assumptions and motives unique to each individual user. Without social context, users are often helpless to know the intentions of their counterparts. In addition to the problems of conflicting mental models often present in online discussions, the inherent lack of face-to-face communication online can encourage hostility. Professor Norman Johnson, commenting on the propensity of Internet posters to flame one another, states:",
"title": "Purpose"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "The literature suggests that, compared to face-to-face, the increased incidence of flaming when using computer-mediated communication is due to reductions in the transfer of social cues, which decrease individuals' concern for social evaluation and fear of social sanctions or reprisals. When social identity and ingroup status are salient, computer mediation can decrease flaming because individuals focus their attention on the social context (and associated norms) rather than themselves.",
"title": "Purpose"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "A lack of social context creates an element of anonymity, which allows users to feel insulated from the forms of punishment they might receive in a more conventional setting. Johnson identifies several precursors to flaming between users, whom he refers to as \"negotiation partners,\" since Internet communication typically involves back-and-forth interactions similar to a negotiation. Flaming incidents usually arise in response to a perception of one or more negotiation partners being unfair. Perceived unfairness can include a lack of consideration for an individual's vested interests, unfavorable treatment (especially when the flamer has been considerate of other users), and misunderstandings aggravated by the inability to convey subtle indicators like non-verbal cues and facial expressions.",
"title": "Purpose"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "There are multiple factors that play into why people would get involved with flaming. For instance, there is the anonymity factor and that people can use different means to have their identity hidden. Through the hiding of one's identity people can build a new persona and act in a way that they normally would not when they have their identity known. Another factor in flaming is proactive aggression \"which is initiated without perceived threat or provocation\" and those who are recipients of flaming may counter with flaming of their own and utilize reactive aggression. Another factor that goes into flaming are the different communication variables. For instance, offline communications networks can impact the way people act online and can lead them to engage in flaming. Finally, there is the factor of verbal aggression and how people who engage in verbal aggression will use those tactics when they engage in flaming online.",
"title": "Factors"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "Flaming can range from subtle to extremely aggressive in online behaviors, such as derogatory images, certain emojis used in combination, and even the use of capital letters. These things can show a pattern of behavior used to convey certain emotions online. Victims should do their best to avoid fighting back in an attempt to prevent a war of words. Flaming extends past social media interactions. Flaming can also take place through emails, and it may not matter so much whether someone calls an email a \"flame\", is based on whether she or he considers an email to be hostile, aggressive, insulting, or offensive. What matters is how the person receives the interaction. So much is lost in translation when communicating online versus in person, that it is hard to distinguish someone's intent.",
"title": "Factors"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "Evidence of debates which resulted in insults being exchanged quickly back and forth between two parties can be found throughout history. Arguments over the ratification of the United States Constitution were often socially and emotionally heated and intense, with many attacking one another through local newspapers. Such interactions have always been part of literary criticism. For example, Ralph Waldo Emerson's contempt for Jane Austen's works often extended to the author herself, with Emerson describing her as \"without genius, wit, or knowledge of the world\". In turn, Thomas Carlyle called Emerson a \"hoary-headed toothless baboon\"",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "In the modern era, \"flaming\" was used at East Coast engineering schools in the United States as a present participle in a crude expression to describe an irascible individual and by extension to such individuals on the earliest Internet chat rooms and message boards. Internet flaming was mostly observed in Usenet newsgroups although it was known to occur in the WWIVnet and FidoNet computer networks as well. It was subsequently used in other parts of speech with much the same meaning.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "The term \"flaming\" was seen on Usenet newsgroups in the eighties, where the start of a flame was sometimes indicated by typing \"FLAME ON\", then \"FLAME OFF\" when the flame section of the post was complete. This is a reference to both The Human Torch of the Fantastic Four, who used those words when activating his flame abilities, and to the way text processing programs of the time worked, by placing commands before and after text to indicate how it should appear when printed.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 15,
"text": "The term \"flaming\" is documented in The Hacker's Dictionary, which in 1983 defined it as \"to speak rabidly or incessantly on an uninteresting topic or with a patently ridiculous attitude\". The meaning of the word has diverged from this definition since then.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 16,
"text": "Jerry Pournelle in 1986 explained why he wanted a kill file for BIX:",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 17,
"text": "whereas an open computer conference begins with a small number of well-informed and highly interested participants, it soon attracts others. That's all right; it's supposed to attract others. Where else would you get new ideas? But soon it attracts too many, far too many, and some of them are not only ignorant but aggressively misinformed. Dilution takes place. Arguments replace discussions. Tempers are frayed. The result is that while computer conferencing began by saving time, it starts to eat up all the time it saved and more. Communications come from dozens of sources. Much of it is redundant. Some of it is stupid. The user spends more and more time dealing with irrelevancies. One day the user wakes up, decides the initial euphoria was spurious, and logs off, never to return. This is known as burnout, and it's apparently quite common.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 18,
"text": "He added, \"I noticed something: most of the irritation came from a handful of people, sometimes only one or two. If I could only ignore them, the computer conferences were still valuable. Alas, it's not always easy to do\".",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 19,
"text": "Computer-mediated communication (CMC) research has spent a significant amount of time and effort describing and predicting engagement in uncivil, aggressive online communication. Specifically, the literature has described aggressive, insulting behavior as \"flaming\", which has been defined as hostile verbal behaviors, the uninhibited expression of hostility, insults, and ridicule, and hostile comments directed towards a person or organization within the context of CMC.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 20,
"text": "",
"title": "Types"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 21,
"text": "Flame trolling is the posting of a provocative or offensive message, known as flamebait, to a public Internet discussion group, such as a forum, newsgroup or mailing list, with the intent of provoking an angry response (a \"flame\") or argument.",
"title": "Types"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 22,
"text": "Flamebait can provide the poster with a controlled trigger-and-response setting in which to anonymously engage in conflicts and indulge in aggressive behavior without facing the consequences that such behavior might bring in a face-to-face encounter. In other instances, flamebait may be used to reduce a forum's use by angering the forum users. In 2012, it was announced that the US State Department would start flame trolling jihadists as part of Operation Viral Peace.",
"title": "Types"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 23,
"text": "Among the characteristics of inflammatory behavior, the use of entirely capitalized messages, or the multiple repetition of exclamation marks, along with profanity have been identified as typical.",
"title": "Types"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 24,
"text": "A flame war results when multiple users engage in provocative responses to an original post, which is sometimes flamebait. Flame wars often draw in many users, including those trying to defuse the flame war, and can quickly turn into a mass flame war that overshadows regular forum discussion.",
"title": "Types"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 25,
"text": "Resolving a flame war can be difficult, as it is often hard to determine who is really responsible for the degradation of a reasonable discussion into a flame war. Someone who posts a contrary opinion in a strongly focused discussion forum may be easily labeled a \"baiter\", \"flamer\", or \"troll\".",
"title": "Types"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 26,
"text": "Flame wars can become intense and can include \"death threats, ad hominem invective, and textual amplifiers,” but to some sociologists flame wars can actually bring people together. What is being said in a flame war should not be taken too seriously since the harsh words are a part of flaming.",
"title": "Types"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 27,
"text": "An approach to resolving a flame war or responding to flaming is to communicate openly with the offending users. Acknowledging mistakes, offering to help resolve the disagreement, making clear, reasoned arguments, and even self-deprecation have all been noted as worthwhile strategies to end such disputes. However, others prefer to simply ignore flaming, noting that, in many cases, if the flamebait receives no attention, it will quickly be forgotten as forum discussions carry on. Unfortunately, this can motivate trolls to intensify their activities, creating additional distractions.",
"title": "Types"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 28,
"text": "\"Taking the bait\" or \"feeding the troll\" refers to someone who responds to the original message regardless of whether they are aware the original message was intended to provoke a response. Often when someone takes the bait, others will point this out to them with the acronym \"YHBT\", which is short for \"You have been trolled\", or reply with \"don't feed the trolls\". Forum users will usually not give the troll acknowledgement; that just \"feeds the troll\".",
"title": "Types"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 29,
"text": "In sociology, history, or any kind of online ethnographic academic study, flame wars as a corpus, in a STS approach of controversies, may be used to understand what is at stake in a community. The idea is that the flame war drives the actors into abandoning a polite stance and forces them to engage into debate and to unveil otherwise concealed arguments. In this respect, the most interesting parts of an online corpus are the flame wars as \"outbursts of heated, short and dense debates, in an ocean of evenly distributed polite messages\".",
"title": "Types"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 30,
"text": "A mass flamewar is a flamewar that grows out of a single post or comment into multiple other comments or posts quickly, in the same area where the original post was in. A mass flamewar usually lasts for multiple weeks, months, or even years after the first post was posted and died out.",
"title": "Types"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 31,
"text": "Political flaming typically occur when people have their views challenged and they seek to have their anger known. Through the covering of one's identity people may be more likely to engage in political flaming. In a 2015 study conducted by Hutchens, Cicchirillo, and Hmielowski, they found that \"those who were more experienced with political discussions—either online or offline—were more likely to indicate they would respond with a flame\", and they also found that verbal aggression also played a role in a person engaging in political flaming.",
"title": "Types"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 32,
"text": "Corporate flaming is when a large number of critical comments, usually aggressive or insulting, are directed at a company's employees, products, or brands. Common causes include inappropriate behavior of company employees, negative customer experiences, inadequate care of customers and influencers, violation of ethical principles, along with apparent injustices and inappropriate reactions. Flame wars can result in reputational damage, decreased consumer confidence, drops in stock prices and company assets, increased liabilities, increased lawsuits, and a decrease in customers, influencers and sponsors. Based on an assessment of the damage, companies can take years to recover from a flame war that may detract from their core purpose. Kayser notes that companies should prepare for possible flame wars by creating alerts for a predefined \"blacklist\" of words and monitoring fast-growing topics about their company. Alternatively, Kayser, points out that a flame war can lead to a positive experience for the company. Based on the content, it could be shared across multiple platforms and increase company recognition, social media fans/followers, brand presence, purchases, and brand loyalty. Therefore, the type of marketing that results from a flame war can lead to higher profits and brand recognition on a broader scale. Nevertheless, it is encouraged that when a company utilizes social media they should be aware that their content could be used in a flame war and should be treated as an emergency.",
"title": "Types"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 33,
"text": "Any subject of a polarizing nature can feasibly cause flaming. As one would expect in the medium of the Internet, technology is a common topic. The perennial debates between users of competing operating systems, such as Windows, Classic Mac OS and macOS operating system, or operating systems based on the Linux kernel and iOS or Android operating system, users of Intel and AMD processors, and users of the Nintendo Switch, Wii U, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One video game systems, often escalate into seemingly unending \"flame wars\", also called software wars. As each successive technology is released, it develops its own outspoken fan base, allowing arguments to begin anew.",
"title": "Examples"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 34,
"text": "Popular culture continues to generate large amounts of flaming and countless flame wars across the Internet, such as the constant debates between fans of Star Trek and Star Wars. Ongoing discussion of current celebrities and television personalities within popular culture also frequently sparks debate.",
"title": "Examples"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 35,
"text": "In 2005, author Anne Rice became involved in a flame war of sorts on the review boards of online retailer Amazon.com after several reviewers posted scathing comments about her latest novel. Rice responded to the comments with her own lengthy response, which was quickly met with more feedback from users.",
"title": "Examples"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 36,
"text": "In 2007, tech expert Kathy Sierra was a victim of flaming as an image of her depicted as a mutilated body was spread around online forums. In addition to the doctored photo being spread virally, her social security number and home address were made public as well. Consequently, Sierra effectively gave up her technology career in response to the ensuing harassment and threats that she received as a result of the flaming.",
"title": "Examples"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 37,
"text": "In November 2007, the popular audio-visual discussion site AVS Forum temporarily closed its HD DVD and Blu-ray discussion forums because of, as the site reported, \"physical threats that have involved police and possible legal action\" between advocates of the rival formats.",
"title": "Examples"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 38,
"text": "The 2016 Presidential election, saw a flame war take place between Republican candidate Donald Trump and the Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. The barbs exchanged between the two was highly publicized and is an example of political flaming and a flame war.",
"title": "Examples"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 39,
"text": "Flaming varies in severity and as such so too does the reaction of states in imposing any sort of sanction. Laws vary from country to country, but in most cases, constant flaming can be considered cyber harassment, which can result in Internet Service Provider action to prevent access to the site being flamed. However, as social networks become more and more closely connected to people and their real life, the more harsh words may be considered defamation of the person. For instance, a South Korean Identity Verification law was created to help control flaming and to stop \"malicious use of the internet\" but opponents to the law argue that the law infringes on the right to free speech.",
"title": "Legal implications"
}
] |
Flaming, also known as roasting, is the act of posting insults, often including profanity or other offensive language, on the internet. This term should not be confused with the term trolling, which is the act of someone causing discord online or in person. Flaming emerged from the anonymity that Internet forums provide cover for users to act more aggressively. Anonymity can lead to disinhibition, which results in the swearing, offensive, and hostile language characteristic of flaming. Lack of social cues, less accountability of face-to-face communications, textual mediation and deindividualization are also likely factors. Deliberate flaming is carried out by individuals known as flamers, which are specifically motivated to incite flaming. These users specialize in flaming and target specific aspects of a controversial conversation. While these behaviors may be typical or expected in certain types of forums, they can have dramatic, adverse effects in others. Flame wars can have a lasting impact on some internet communities where even once a flame war has concluded a division or even dissolution may occur. The pleasant commentaries within a chat room or message board can be limited by a "war of words" fight or "flaming" with the intent to seek out a negative reaction from the reader. Humphreys defines flaming as "the use of hostile language online, including swearing, insults and otherwise offensive language"etc. Flaming by perpetrators within the online community is commonly received by messaging through text and rarely by face to face or video communication. By basing their conversations on text and not taking full accountability as the "flamer", they have a reduced self-awareness of others feelings, emotions and reactions based on the comments that they provide within the virtual community. The reader now has the perception that this "flamer" is difficult, rude and possibly a bully. The flamer may have limited social cues, emotional intelligence to adapt to others reactions and lack of awareness of how they are being perceived. Their personal social norms, may be considered disrespectful to the reader that has different social norms, education and experience with what is and is not appropriate within virtual communities. The individuals that create an environment of flaming and hostility, lead the readers to disengage with the offender and may potentially leave the message board and chat room. The continual use of flaming within the online community can create a disruptive and negative experience for those involved and can lead to limited involvement and engagement within the original chat room and program.
|
2001-04-17T19:35:40Z
|
2023-12-26T23:27:28Z
|
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Frank Lloyd Wright
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Frank Lloyd Wright (June 8, 1867 – April 9, 1959) was an American architect, designer, writer, and educator. He designed more than 1,000 structures over a creative period of 70 years. Wright played a key role in the architectural movements of the twentieth century, influencing architects worldwide through his works and hundreds of apprentices in his Taliesin Fellowship. Wright believed in designing in harmony with humanity and the environment, a philosophy he called organic architecture. This philosophy was exemplified in Fallingwater (1935), which has been called "the best all-time work of American architecture".
Wright was the pioneer of what came to be called the Prairie School movement of architecture and also developed the concept of the Usonian home in Broadacre City, his vision for urban planning in the United States. He also designed original and innovative offices, churches, schools, skyscrapers, hotels, museums, and other commercial projects. Wright-designed interior elements (including leaded glass windows, floors, furniture and even tableware) were integrated into these structures. He wrote several books and numerous articles and was a popular lecturer in the United States and in Europe. Wright was recognized in 1991 by the American Institute of Architects as "the greatest American architect of all time". In 2019, a selection of his work became a listed World Heritage Site as The 20th-Century Architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright.
Raised in rural Wisconsin, Wright studied civil engineering at the University of Wisconsin and then apprenticed in Chicago, briefly with Joseph Lyman Silsbee, and then with Louis Sullivan at Adler & Sullivan. Wright opened his own successful Chicago practice in 1893 and established a studio in his Oak Park, Illinois home in 1898. His fame increased and his personal life sometimes made headlines: leaving his first wife Catherine "Kitty" Tobin for Mamah Cheney in 1909; the murder of Mamah and her children and others at his Taliesin estate by a staff member in 1914; his tempestuous marriage with second wife Miriam Noel (m. 1923–1927); and his courtship and marriage with Olgivanna Lazović (m. 1928–1959).
Wright was born on June 8, 1867, in the town of Richland Center, Wisconsin, but maintained throughout his life that he was born in 1869. In 1987 a biographer of Wright suggested that he may have been christened as "Frank Lincoln Wright" or "Franklin Lincoln Wright" but these assertions were not supported by any evidence.
Wright's father, William Cary Wright (1825–1904), was a "gifted musician, orator, and sometime preacher who had been admitted to the bar in 1857." He was also a published composer. Originally from Massachusetts, William Wright had been a Baptist minister, but he later joined his wife's family in the Unitarian faith.
Wright's mother, Anna Lloyd Jones (1838/39–1923) was a teacher and a member of the Lloyd Jones clan; her parents had emigrated from Wales to Wisconsin. One of Anna's brothers was Jenkin Lloyd Jones, an important figure in the spread of the Unitarian faith in the Midwest.
According to Wright's autobiography, his mother declared when she was expecting that her first child would grow up to build beautiful buildings. She decorated his nursery with engravings of English cathedrals torn from a periodical to encourage the infant's ambition.
Wright grew up in an "unstable household, [...] constant lack of resources, [...] unrelieved poverty and anxiety" and had a "deeply disturbed and obviously unhappy childhood". His father held pastorates in McGregor, Iowa (1869), Pawtucket, Rhode Island (1871), and Weymouth, Massachusetts (1874). Because the Wright family struggled financially also in Weymouth, they returned to Spring Green, where the supportive Lloyd Jones family could help William find employment. In 1877, they settled in Madison, where William gave music lessons and served as the secretary to the newly formed Unitarian society. Although William was a distant parent, he shared his love of music with his children.
In 1876, Anna saw an exhibit of educational blocks called the Froebel Gifts, the foundation of an innovative kindergarten curriculum. Anna, a trained teacher, was excited by the program and bought a set with which the 9-year old Wright spent much time playing. The blocks in the set were geometrically shaped and could be assembled in various combinations to form two- and three-dimensional compositions. In his autobiography, Wright described the influence of these exercises on his approach to design: "For several years, I sat at the little kindergarten table-top... and played... with the cube, the sphere and the triangle – these smooth wooden maple blocks... All are in my fingers to this day... "
In 1881, soon after Wright turned 14, his parents separated. In 1884, his father sued for a divorce from Anna on the grounds of "... emotional cruelty and physical violence and spousal abandonment". Wright attended Madison High School, but there is no evidence that he graduated. His father left Wisconsin after the divorce was granted in 1885. Wright said that he never saw his father again.
In 1886, at age 19, Wright was admitted to the University of Wisconsin–Madison as a special student. He worked under Allan D. Conover, a professor of civil engineering, before leaving the school without taking a degree; in 1955, the university presented Wright, then 88 years old, with an honorary doctorate of fine arts.
Wright's uncle Jenkin Lloyd Jones had commissioned the Chicago architectural firm of Joseph Lyman Silsbee to design the All Souls Church in Chicago in 1885. In 1886, the Silsbee firm was commissioned by Jones to design the Unity Chapel as his private family chapel in Wyoming, Wisconsin.
Although not officially employed by Silsbee, Wright was an accomplished draftsman and "looked after the interior [drawings and construction]" in Wisconsin. This chapel is thus Wright's earliest known work.
After the chapel was finished, Wright moved to Chicago.
In 1887, Wright arrived in Chicago in search of employment. As a result of the devastating Great Chicago Fire of 1871 and a population boom, new development was plentiful. Wright later recorded in his autobiography that his first impression of Chicago was as an ugly and chaotic city. Within days of his arrival, and after interviews with several prominent firms, he was hired as a draftsman with Joseph Lyman Silsbee. While with the firm, he also worked on two other family projects: All Souls Church in Chicago for his uncle, Jenkin Lloyd Jones, and the Hillside Home School I in Spring Green for two of his aunts. Other draftsmen who worked for Silsbee in 1887 included future architects Cecil Corwin, George W. Maher, and George G. Elmslie. Wright soon befriended Corwin, with whom he lived until he found a permanent home.
Feeling that he was underpaid for the quality of his work for Silsbee at $8 a week, the young draftsman quit and found work as an architectural designer at the firm of Beers, Clay, and Dutton. However, Wright soon realized that he was not ready to handle building design by himself; he left his new job to return to Joseph Silsbee – this time with a raise in salary. Although Silsbee adhered mainly to Victorian and Revivalist architecture, Wright found his work to be more "gracefully picturesque" than the other "brutalities" of the period.
Wright learned that the Chicago firm of Adler & Sullivan was "... looking for someone to make the finished drawings for the interior of the Auditorium Building". Wright demonstrated that he was a competent impressionist of Louis Sullivan's ornamental designs and two short interviews later, was an official apprentice in the firm. Wright did not get along well with Sullivan's other draftsmen; he wrote that several violent altercations occurred between them during the first years of his apprenticeship. For that matter, Sullivan showed very little respect for his own employees as well. In spite of this, "Sullivan took [Wright] under his wing and gave him great design responsibility." As an act of respect, Wright would later refer to Sullivan as Lieber Meister (German for "Dear Master"). He also formed a bond with office foreman Paul Mueller. Wright later engaged Mueller in the construction of several of his public and commercial buildings between 1903 and 1923.
By 1890, Wright had an office next to Sullivan's that he shared with friend and draftsman George Elmslie, who had been hired by Sullivan at Wright's request. Wright had risen to head draftsman and handled all residential design work in the office. As a general rule, the firm of Adler & Sullivan did not design or build houses, but would oblige when asked by the clients of their important commercial projects. Wright was occupied by the firm's major commissions during office hours, so house designs were relegated to evening and weekend overtime hours at his home studio. He later claimed total responsibility for the design of these houses, but a careful inspection of their architectural style (and accounts from historian Robert Twombly) suggests that Sullivan dictated the overall form and motifs of the residential works; Wright's design duties were often reduced to detailing the projects from Sullivan's sketches. During this time, Wright worked on Sullivan's bungalow (1890) and the James A. Charnley bungalow (1890) in Ocean Springs, Mississippi, the Berry-MacHarg House, James A. Charnley House (both 1891), and the Louis Sullivan House (1892), all in Chicago.
Despite Sullivan's loan and overtime salary, Wright was constantly short on funds. Wright admitted that his poor finances were likely due to his expensive tastes in wardrobe and vehicles, and the extra luxuries he designed into his house. To supplement his income and repay his debts, Wright accepted independent commissions for at least nine houses. These "bootlegged" houses, as he later called them, were conservatively designed in variations of the fashionable Queen Anne and Colonial Revival styles. Nevertheless, unlike the prevailing architecture of the period, each house emphasized simple geometric massing and contained features such as bands of horizontal windows, occasional cantilevers, and open floor plans, which would become hallmarks of his later work. Eight of these early houses remain today, including the Thomas Gale, Robert Parker, George Blossom, and Walter Gale houses.
As with the residential projects for Adler & Sullivan, he designed his bootleg houses on his own time. Sullivan knew nothing of the independent works until 1893, when he recognized that one of the houses was unmistakably a Frank Lloyd Wright design. This particular house, built for Allison Harlan, was only blocks away from Sullivan's townhouse in the Chicago community of Kenwood. Aside from the location, the geometric purity of the composition and balcony tracery in the same style as the Charnley House likely gave away Wright's involvement. Since Wright's five-year contract forbade any outside work, the incident led to his departure from Sullivan's firm. Several stories recount the break in the relationship between Sullivan and Wright; even Wright later told two different versions of the occurrence. In An Autobiography, Wright claimed that he was unaware that his side ventures were a breach of his contract. When Sullivan learned of them, he was angered and offended; he prohibited any further outside commissions and refused to issue Wright the deed to his Oak Park house until after he completed his five years. Wright could not bear the new hostility from his master and thought that the situation was unjust. He "... threw down [his] pencil and walked out of the Adler & Sullivan office never to return". Dankmar Adler, who was more sympathetic to Wright's actions, later sent him the deed. However, Wright told his Taliesin apprentices (as recorded by Edgar Tafel) that Sullivan fired him on the spot upon learning of the Harlan House. Tafel also recounted that Wright had Cecil Corwin sign several of the bootleg jobs, indicating that Wright was aware of their forbidden nature. Regardless of the correct series of events, Wright and Sullivan did not meet or speak for 12 years.
After leaving Adler & Sullivan, Wright established his own practice on the top floor of the Sullivan-designed Schiller Building on Randolph Street in Chicago. Wright chose to locate his office in the building because the tower location reminded him of the office of Adler & Sullivan. Cecil Corwin followed Wright and set up his architecture practice in the same office, but the two worked independently and did not consider themselves partners.
In 1896, Wright moved from the Schiller Building to the nearby and newly completed Steinway Hall building. The loft space was shared with Robert C. Spencer, Jr., Myron Hunt, and Dwight H. Perkins. These young architects, inspired by the Arts and Crafts Movement and the philosophies of Louis Sullivan, formed what became known as the Prairie School. They were joined by Perkins' apprentice Marion Mahony, who in 1895 transferred to Wright's team of drafters and took over production of his presentation drawings and watercolor renderings. Mahony, the third woman to be licensed as an architect in Illinois and one of the first licensed female architects in the U.S., also designed furniture, leaded glass windows, and light fixtures, among other features, for Wright's houses. Between 1894 and the early 1910s, several other leading Prairie School architects and many of Wright's future employees launched their careers in the offices of Steinway Hall.
Wright's projects during this period followed two basic models. His first independent commission, the Winslow House, combined Sullivanesque ornamentation with the emphasis on simple geometry and horizontal lines. The Francis Apartments (1895, demolished 1971), Heller House (1896), Rollin Furbeck House (1897) and Husser House (1899, demolished 1926) were designed in the same mode. For his more conservative clients, Wright designed more traditional dwellings. These included the Dutch Colonial Revival style Bagley House (1894), Tudor Revival style Moore House I (1895), and Queen Anne style Charles E. Roberts House (1896). While Wright could not afford to turn down clients over disagreements in taste, even his most conservative designs retained simplified massing and occasional Sullivan-inspired details.
Soon after the completion of the Winslow House in 1894, Edward Waller, a friend and former client, invited Wright to meet Chicago architect and planner Daniel Burnham. Burnham had been impressed by the Winslow House and other examples of Wright's work; he offered to finance a four-year education at the École des Beaux-Arts and two years in Rome. To top it off, Wright would have a position in Burnham's firm upon his return. In spite of guaranteed success and support of his family, Wright declined the offer. Burnham, who had directed the classical design of the World's Columbian Exposition and was a major proponent of the Beaux Arts movement, thought that Wright was making a foolish mistake. Yet for Wright, the classical education of the École lacked creativity and was altogether at odds with his vision of modern American architecture.
Wright relocated his practice to his home in 1898 to bring his work and family lives closer. This move made further sense as the majority of the architect's projects at that time were in Oak Park or neighboring River Forest. The birth of three more children prompted Wright to sacrifice his original home studio space for additional bedrooms and necessitated his design and construction of an expansive studio addition to the north of the main house. The space, which included a hanging balcony within the two-story drafting room, was one of Wright's first experiments with innovative structure. The studio embodied Wright's developing aesthetics and would become the laboratory from which his next 10 years of architectural creations would emerge.
By 1901, Wright had completed about 50 projects, including many houses in Oak Park. As his son John Lloyd Wright wrote:
William Eugene Drummond, Francis Barry Byrne, Walter Burley Griffin, Albert Chase McArthur, Marion Mahony, Isabel Roberts, and George Willis were the draftsmen. Five men, two women. They wore flowing ties, and smocks suitable to the realm. The men wore their hair like Papa, all except Albert, he didn't have enough hair. They worshiped Papa! Papa liked them! I know that each one of them was then making valuable contributions to the pioneering of the modern American architecture for which my father gets the full glory, headaches, and recognition today!
Between 1900 and 1901, Frank Lloyd Wright completed four houses, which have since been identified as the onset of the "Prairie Style". Two, the Hickox and Bradley Houses, were the last transitional step between Wright's early designs and the Prairie creations. Meanwhile, the Thomas House and Willits House received recognition as the first mature examples of the new style. At the same time, Wright gave his new ideas for the American house widespread awareness through two publications in the Ladies' Home Journal. The articles were in response to an invitation from the president of Curtis Publishing Company, Edward Bok, as part of a project to improve modern house design. "A Home in a Prairie Town" and "A Small House with Lots of Room in it" appeared respectively in the February and July 1901 issues of the journal. Although neither of the affordable house plans was ever constructed, Wright received increased requests for similar designs in following years. Wright came to Buffalo and designed homes for three of the company's executives: the Darwin D. Martin House (1904), the William R. Heath House 1905), and the Walter V. Davidson House (1908). Other Wright houses considered to be masterpieces of the Prairie Style are the Frederick Robie House in Chicago and the Avery and Queene Coonley House in Riverside, Illinois. The Robie House, with its extended cantilevered roof lines supported by a 110-foot-long (34 m) channel of steel, is the most dramatic. Its living and dining areas form virtually one uninterrupted space. With this and other buildings, included in the publication of the Wasmuth Portfolio (1910), Wright's work became known to European architects and had a profound influence on them after World War I.
Wright's residential designs of this era were known as "prairie houses" because the designs complemented the land around Chicago. Prairie Style houses often have a combination of these features: one or two stories with one-story projections, an open floor plan, low-pitched roofs with broad, overhanging eaves, strong horizontal lines, ribbons of windows (often casements), a prominent central chimney, built-in stylized cabinetry, and a wide use of natural materials – especially stone and wood.
By 1909, Wright had begun to reject the upper-middle-class Prairie Style single-family house model, shifting his focus to a more democratic architecture. Wright went to Europe in 1909 with a portfolio of his work and presented it to Berlin publisher Ernst Wasmuth. Studies and Executed Buildings of Frank Lloyd Wright, published in 1911, was the first major exposure of Wright's work in Europe. The work contained more than 100 lithographs of Wright's designs and is commonly known as the Wasmuth Portfolio.
Wright designed the house of Cornell's chapter of Alpha Delta Phi literary society (1900), the Hillside Home School II (built for his aunts) in Spring Green, Wisconsin (1901) and the Unity Temple (1905) in Oak Park, Illinois. As a lifelong Unitarian and member of Unity Temple, Wright offered his services to the congregation after their church burned down, working on the building from 1905 to 1909. Wright later said that Unity Temple was the edifice in which he ceased to be an architect of structure, and became an architect of space.
Some other early notable public buildings and projects in this era: the Larkin Administration Building (1905); the Geneva Inn (Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, 1911); the Midway Gardens (Chicago, Illinois, 1913); the Banff National Park Pavilion (Alberta, Canada, 1914).
While working in Japan, Wright left an impressive architectural heritage. The Imperial Hotel, completed in 1923, is the most important. Thanks to its solid foundations and steel construction, the hotel survived the Great Kanto Earthquake almost unscathed. The hotel was damaged during the bombing of Tokyo and by the subsequent US military occupation of it after World War II. As land in the center of Tokyo increased in value the hotel was deemed obsolete and was demolished in 1968 but the lobby was saved and later re-constructed at the Meiji Mura architecture museum in Nagoya in 1976.
Jiyu Gakuen was founded as a girls' school in 1921. The construction of the main building began in 1921 under Wright's direction and, after his departure, was continued by Endo. The school building, like the Imperial Hotel, is covered with Ōya stones.
The Yodoko Guesthouse (designed in 1918 and completed in 1924) was built as the summer villa for Tadzaemon Yamamura.
Frank Lloyd Wright's architecture had a strong influence on young Japanese architects. The Japanese architects Wright commissioned to carry out his designs were Arata Endo, Takehiko Okami, Taue Sasaki and Kameshiro Tsuchiura. Endo supervised the completion of the Imperial Hotel after Wright's departure in 1922 and also supervised the construction of the Jiyu Gakuen Girls' School and the Yodokō Guest House. Tsuchiura went on to create so-called "light" buildings, which had similarities to Wright's later work.
In the early 1920s, Wright designed a "textile" concrete block system. The system of precast blocks, reinforced by an internal system of bars, enabled "fabrication as infinite in color, texture, and variety as in that rug." Wright first used his textile block system on the Millard House in Pasadena, California, in 1923. Typically Wrightian is the joining of the structure to its site by a series of terraces that reach out into and reorder the landscape, making it an integral part of the architect's vision. With the Ennis House and the Samuel Freeman House (both 1923), Wright had further opportunities to test the limits of the textile block system, including limited use in the Arizona Biltmore Hotel in 1927. The Ennis house is often used in films, television, and print media to represent the future. Wright's son, Lloyd Wright, supervised construction for the Storer, Freeman, and Ennis Houses. Architectural historian Thomas Hines has suggested that Lloyd's contribution to these projects is often overlooked.
After World War II, Wright updated the concrete block system, calling it the Usonian Automatic system, resulting in the construction of several notable homes. As he explained in The Natural House (1954), "The original blocks are made on the site by ramming concrete into wood or metal wrap-around forms, with one outside face (which may be pattered), and one rear or inside face, generally coffered, for lightness."
In 1903, while Wright was designing a house for Edwin Cheney (a neighbor in Oak Park), he became enamored of Cheney's wife, Mamah Borthwick Cheney. Mamah was a modern woman with interests outside the home. She was an early feminist, and Wright viewed her as his intellectual equal. Their relationship became the talk of the town; they often could be seen taking rides in Wright's automobile through Oak Park. In 1909, Wright and Mamah Cheney met up in Europe, leaving their spouses and children behind. Wright remained in Europe for almost a year, first in Florence, Italy (where he lived with his eldest son Lloyd) and, later, in Fiesole, Italy, where he lived with Mamah. During this time, Edwin Cheney granted Mamah a divorce, though Kitty still refused to grant one to her husband. After Wright returned to the United States in October 1910, he persuaded his mother to buy land for him in Spring Green, Wisconsin. The land, bought on April 10, 1911, was adjacent to land held by his mother's family, the Lloyd-Joneses. Wright began to build himself a new home, which he called Taliesin, by May 1911. The recurring theme of Taliesin also came from his mother's side: Taliesin in Welsh mythology was a poet, magician, and priest. The family motto, "Y Gwir yn Erbyn y Byd" ("The Truth Against the World"), was taken from the Welsh poet Iolo Morganwg, who also had a son named Taliesin. The motto is still used today as the cry of the druids and chief bard of the Eisteddfod in Wales.
On August 15, 1914, while Wright was working in Chicago, a servant (Julian Carlton) set fire to the living quarters of Taliesin and then murdered seven people with an axe as the fire burned. The dead included Mamah; her two children, John and Martha Cheney; a gardener (David Lindblom); a draftsman (Emil Brodelle); a workman (Thomas Brunker); and another workman's son (Ernest Weston). Two people survived the mayhem, one of whom, William Weston, helped to put out the fire that almost completely consumed the residential wing of the house. Carlton swallowed hydrochloric acid immediately following the attack in an attempt to kill himself. He was nearly lynched on the spot, but was taken to the Dodgeville jail. Carlton died from starvation seven weeks after the attack.
In 1922, Kitty Wright finally granted Wright a divorce. Under the terms of the divorce, Wright was required to wait one year before he could marry his then-mistress, Maude "Miriam" Noel. In 1923, Wright's mother, Anna (Lloyd Jones) Wright, died. Wright wed Miriam Noel in November 1923, but her addiction to morphine led to the failure of the marriage in less than one year. In 1924, after the separation, but while still married, Wright met Olga (Olgivanna) Lazovich Hinzenburg. They moved in together at Taliesin in 1925, and soon after Olgivanna became pregnant. Their daughter, Iovanna, was born on December 3, 1925.
On April 20, 1925, another fire destroyed the bungalow at Taliesin. Crossed wires from a newly installed telephone system were deemed to be responsible for the blaze, which destroyed a collection of Japanese prints that Wright estimated to be worth $250,000 to $500,000 ($4,172,000 to $8,343,000 in 2022). Wright rebuilt the living quarters, naming the home "Taliesin III".
In 1926, Olga's ex-husband, Vlademar Hinzenburg, sought custody of his daughter, Svetlana. In October 1926, Wright and Olgivanna were accused of violating the Mann Act and arrested in Tonka Bay, Minnesota. The charges were later dropped.
The divorce of Wright and Miriam Noel was finalized in 1927. Wright was again required to wait for one year before remarrying. Wright and Olgivanna married in 1928.
In 1932, Wright and his wife Olgivanna put out a call for students to come to Taliesin to study and work under Wright while they learned architecture and spiritual development. Olgivanna Wright had been a student of G. I. Gurdjieff who had previously established a similar school. Twenty-three came to live and work that year, including John (Jack) H. Howe, who would become Wright's chief draftsman. A total of 625 people joined The Fellowship in Wright's lifetime. The Fellowship was a source of workers for Wright's later projects, including: Fallingwater; The Johnson Wax Headquarters; and The Guggenheim Museum in New York City.
Considerable controversy exists over the living conditions and education of the fellows. Wright was reputedly a difficult person to work with. One apprentice wrote: "He is devoid of consideration and has a blind spot regarding others' qualities. Yet I believe, that a year in his studio would be worth any sacrifice." The Fellowship evolved into The School of Architecture at Taliesin which was an accredited school until it closed under acrimonious circumstances in 2020. Taking on the name "The School of Architecture" in June 2020, the school moved to the Cosanti Foundation, which it had worked with in the past.
Wright is responsible for a series of concepts of suburban development united under the term Broadacre City. He proposed the idea in his book The Disappearing City in 1932 and unveiled a 12-square-foot (1.1 m) model of this community of the future, showing it in several venues in the following years. Concurrent with the development of Broadacre City, also referred to as Usonia, Wright conceived a new type of dwelling that came to be known as the Usonian House. Although an early version of the form can be seen in the Malcolm Willey House (1934) in Minneapolis, the Usonian ideal emerged most completely in the Herbert and Katherine Jacobs First House (1937) in Madison, Wisconsin. Designed on a gridded concrete slab that integrated the house's radiant heating system, the house featured new approaches to construction, including walls composed of a "sandwich" of wood siding, plywood cores and building paper – a significant change from typically framed walls. Usonian houses commonly featured flat roofs and were usually constructed without basements or attics, all features that Wright had been promoting since the early 20th century.
Usonian houses were Wright's response to the transformation of domestic life that occurred in the early 20th century when servants had become less prominent or completely absent from most American households. By developing homes with progressively more open plans, Wright allotted the woman of the house a "workspace", as he often called the kitchen, where she could keep track of and be available for the children and/or guests in the dining room. As in the Prairie Houses, Usonian living areas had a fireplace as a point of focus. Bedrooms, typically isolated and relatively small, encouraged the family to gather in the main living areas. The conception of spaces instead of rooms was a development of the Prairie ideal. The built-in furnishings related to the Arts and Crafts movement's principles that influenced Wright's early work. Spatially and in terms of their construction, the Usonian houses represented a new model for independent living and allowed dozens of clients to live in a Wright-designed house at relatively low cost. His Usonian homes set a new style for suburban design that influenced countless postwar developers. Many features of modern American homes date back to Wright: open plans, slab-on-grade foundations, and simplified construction techniques that allowed more mechanization and efficiency in building.
Fallingwater, one of Wright's most famous private residences (completed 1937), was built for Mr. and Mrs. Edgar J. Kaufmann, Sr., at Mill Run, Pennsylvania. Constructed over a 30-foot waterfall, it was designed according to Wright's desire to place the occupants close to the natural surroundings. The house was intended to be more of a family getaway, rather than a live-in home. The construction is a series of cantilevered balconies and terraces, using limestone for all verticals and concrete for the horizontals. The house cost $155,000 (equivalent to $3,155,000 in 2022), including the architect's fee of $8,000 (equivalent to $163,000 in 2022). It was one of Wright's most expensive pieces. Kaufmann's own engineers argued that the design was not sound. They were overruled by Wright, but the contractor secretly added extra steel to the horizontal concrete elements. In 1994, Robert Silman and Associates examined the building and developed a plan to restore the structure. In the late 1990s, steel supports were added under the lowest cantilever until a detailed structural analysis could be done. In March 2002, post-tensioning of the lowest terrace was completed.
Taliesin West, Wright's winter home and studio complex in Scottsdale, Arizona, was a laboratory for Wright from 1937 to his death in 1959. It is now the home of the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation.
The design and construction of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City occupied Wright from 1943 until 1959 and is probably his most recognized masterpiece. The building's unique central geometry was meant to allow visitors to easily experience Guggenheim's collection of nonobjective geometric paintings by taking an elevator to the top level and then viewing artworks by walking down the slowly descending, central spiral ramp.
The only realized skyscraper designed by Wright is the Price Tower, a 19-story tower in Bartlesville, Oklahoma. It is also one of the two existing vertically oriented Wright structures (the other is the S.C. Johnson Wax Research Tower in Racine, Wisconsin). The Price Tower was commissioned by Harold C. Price of the H. C. Price Company, a local oil pipeline and chemical firm. On March 29, 2007, Price Tower was designated a National Historic Landmark by the United States Department of the Interior, one of only 20 such properties in Oklahoma.
Monona Terrace, originally designed in 1937 as municipal offices for Madison, Wisconsin, was completed in 1997 on the original site, using a variation of Wright's final design for the exterior, with the interior design altered by its new purpose as a convention center. The "as-built" design was carried out by Wright's apprentice Tony Puttnam. Monona Terrace was accompanied by controversy throughout the 60 years between the original design and the completion of the structure.
Florida Southern College, located in Lakeland, Florida, constructed 12 (out of 18 planned) Frank Lloyd Wright buildings between 1941 and 1958 as part of the Child of the Sun project. It is the world's largest single-site collection of Frank Lloyd Wright architecture.
His Prairie houses use themed, coordinated design elements (often based on plant forms) that are repeated in windows, carpets, and other fittings. He made innovative use of new building materials such as precast concrete blocks, glass bricks, and zinc cames (instead of the traditional lead) for his leadlight windows, and he famously used Pyrex glass tubing as a major element in the Johnson Wax Headquarters. Wright was also one of the first architects to design and install custom-made electric light fittings, including some of the first electric floor lamps, and his very early use of the then-novel spherical glass lampshade (a design previously not possible due to the physical restrictions of gas lighting). In 1897, Wright received a patent for "Prism Glass Tiles" that were used in storefronts to direct light toward the interior. Wright fully embraced glass in his designs and found that it fit well into his philosophy of organic architecture. According to Wright's organic theory, all components of the building should appear unified, as though they belong together. Nothing should be attached to it without considering the effect on the whole. To unify the house to its site, Wright often used large expanses of glass to blur the boundary between the indoors and outdoors. Glass allowed for interaction and viewing of the outdoors while still protecting from the elements. In 1928, Wright wrote an essay on glass in which he compared it to the mirrors of nature: lakes, rivers and ponds. One of Wright's earliest uses of glass in his works was to string panes of glass along whole walls in an attempt to create light screens to join solid walls. By using this large amount of glass, Wright sought to achieve a balance between the lightness and airiness of the glass and the solid, hard walls. Arguably, Wright's best-known art glass is that of the Prairie style. The simple geometric shapes that yield to very ornate and intricate windows represent some of the most integral ornamentation of his career. Wright also designed some of his own clothing.
Wright strongly believed in individualism and did not affiliate with the American Institute of Architects during his career, going so far as to call the organization "a harbor of refuge for the incompetent," and "a form of refined gangsterism". When an associate referred to him as "an old amateur" Wright confirmed, "I am the oldest." Wright rarely credited any influences on his designs, but most architects, historians and scholars agree he had five major influences:
Wright was given a set of Froebel gifts at about age nine, and in his autobiography he cited them indirectly in explaining that he learned the geometry of architecture in kindergarten play:
For several years I sat at the little kindergarten table-top ruled by lines about four inches apart each way making four-inch squares; and, among other things, played upon these 'unit-lines' with the square (cube), the circle (sphere) and the triangle (tetrahedron or tripod)—these were smooth maple-wood blocks. All are in my fingers to this day.
Wright later wrote, "The virtue of all this lay in the awakening of the child-mind to rhythmic structures in Nature… I soon became susceptible to constructive pattern evolving in everything I saw."
He routinely claimed the work of architects and architectural designers who were his employees as his own designs, and believed that the rest of the Prairie School architects were merely his followers, imitators, and subordinates. As with any architect, though, Wright worked in a collaborative process and drew his ideas from the work of others. In his earlier days, Wright worked with some of the top architects of the Chicago School, including Sullivan. In his Prairie School days, Wright's office was populated by many talented architects, including William Eugene Drummond, John Van Bergen, Isabel Roberts, Francis Barry Byrne, Albert McArthur, Marion Mahony Griffin, and Walter Burley Griffin. The Czech-born architect Antonin Raymond worked for Wright at Taliesin and led the construction of the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo. He subsequently stayed in Japan and opened his own practice. Rudolf Schindler also worked for Wright on the Imperial Hotel and his own work is often credited as influencing Wright's Usonian houses. Schindler's friend Richard Neutra also worked briefly for Wright and became an internationally successful architect. In the Taliesin days, Wright employed many architects and artists who later become notable, such as Aaron Green, John Lautner, E. Fay Jones, Henry Klumb, William Bernoudy, John Underhill Ottenheimer, and Paolo Soleri.
Wright was a passionate Japanophile — he once proclaimed Japan to be "the most romantic, artistic, nature-inspired country on earth" — and throughout his entire career, Japanese art and architecture held a strong sway over him. He was particularly interested in ukiyo-e woodblock prints, to which he claimed he was "enslaved." Wright spent much of his free time selling, collecting, and appreciating these prints — he held parties and other events centered around them, proclaiming their pedagogical value to his guests and students, and before arriving in Japan, his impressions of the nation were based almost entirely on them.
Wright found particular inspiration in the formal aspects of Japanese art. He described ukiyo-e prints as "organic," because of their understatedness, harmony, and ability to be appreciated on a purely aesthetic level. Additionally, he cherished their freeform compositions, where elements of the scene would frequently breach in front of one another, and their lack of extraneous detail, which he called a "gospel of elimination." His interpretation of chashitsu (tea ceremony venues), mediated by the ideas of Okakura Kakuzō, was that of an architecture which emphasized openness, the "vacant space between the roof and walls." Wright applied these principles on a large scale, and they became trademarks of his practice.
Wright's floor plans exhibit strong similarities to their presumed Japanese forebears. The open living spaces of his early homes were likely appropriated from the World's Columbian Exposition's Ho-O-Den Pavilion, whose sliding-screen dividers were removed in preparation for the event. Likewise, Unity Temple follows a gongen-zukuri layout, characteristic of Shinto shrines and likely inspired by his 1905 visit to the Rinnō-ji temple complex, and the shape of many of his cantilevered towers, including the Johnson Research Tower, may have been inspired by Japanese pagodas. Wright's ornamental flourishes, as seen in his leaded glass windows and lively architectural drawings, demonstrate a technical indebtedness to ukiyo-e. One modern commentator, discussing the Robie House, suggests that such elements combined allow Wright's architecture to exhibit iki, a particularly Japanese aesthetic value marked by a subdued stylishness.
His ideas about the art of Japan appear to have drawn greatly from the activities of Ernest Fenollosa, whose work he likely first encountered between 1890 and 1893. Many of Fenollosa's ideas are quite similar to those of Wright: these include his view of architecture as a "mother art," his condemnation of the West's "separation of construction and decoration," and his identification of an "organic wholeness" within ukiyo-e prints. Also like Wright, Fenollosa perceived a "degeneracy" in Western architecture, with particular emphasis on Renaissance architecture; Wright himself admitted that Japanese prints helped to "vulgarize" the Renaissance for him. Wright's art criticism treatise, The Japanese Print: An Interpretation, may be read as a straightforward expansion upon Fenollosa's ideas.
Though Wright always acknowledged his indebtedness to Japanese art and architecture, he took offense to claims that he copied or adapted it. In his view, Japanese art simply validated his personal principles especially well, and as such it was not a source of special inspiration. Responding to a claim by Charles Robert Ashbee that he was "trying to adapt Japanese forms to the United States," Wright said that such borrowing was "against [his] very religion." Nonetheless, his insistence did not stop others from observing the same throughout his life.
Frank Lloyd Wright was interested in site and community planning throughout his career. His commissions and theories on urban design began as early as 1900 and continued until his death. He had 41 commissions on the scale of community planning or urban design.
His thoughts on suburban design started in 1900 with a proposed subdivision layout for Charles E. Roberts entitled the "Quadruple Block Plan". This design strayed from traditional suburban lot layouts and set houses on small square blocks of four equal-sized lots surrounded on all sides by roads instead of straight rows of houses on parallel streets. The houses, which used the same design as published in "A Home in a Prairie Town" from the Ladies' Home Journal, were set toward the center of the block to maximize the yard space and included private space in the center. This also allowed for far more interesting views from each house. Although this plan was never realized, Wright published the design in the Wasmuth Portfolio in 1910.
The more ambitious designs of entire communities were exemplified by his entry into the City Club of Chicago Land Development Competition in 1913. The contest was for the development of a suburban quarter section. This design expanded on the Quadruple Block Plan and included several social levels. The design shows the placement of the upscale homes in the most desirable areas and the blue collar homes and apartments separated by parks and common spaces. The design also included all the amenities of a small city: schools, museums, markets, etc. This view of decentralization was later reinforced by theoretical Broadacre City design. The philosophy behind his community planning was decentralization. The new development must be away from the cities. In this decentralized America, all services and facilities could coexist "factories side by side with farm and home".
Notable community planning designs:
Wright's fashion sense was unique and he usually wore expensive suits, flowing neckties, and capes. He also had a fascination with automobiles, purchasing his first car in 1909, a Stoddard-Dayton roadster, and owned many exotic vehicles over the years. During the cash-strapped Depression, Wright drove cheaper vehicles. Some of his last cars in the 1950s included four Volkswagens and a Chevrolet Nomad station wagon along with flashier articles such as a Jaguar Mark VII. He owned some 50 cars between 1909 and his death, of which 10 are known to survive.
Frank Lloyd Wright was married three times, fathering four sons and three daughters. He also adopted Svetlana Milanoff, the daughter of his third wife, Olgivanna Lloyd Wright.
His wives/partners were:
His children with Catherine were:
His children with Olgivanna were:
Though most famous as an architect, Wright was also an active dealer in Japanese art, primarily ukiyo-e. He frequently served as both architect and art dealer to the same clients: he designed a home, then provided the art to fill it. For a time, Wright made more from selling art than from his work as an architect. He also kept a personal collection, which he used as a teaching aid with his apprentices in what were called "print parties"; to better suit his taste, he sometimes modified these personal prints using colored pencils and crayons. Wright owned prints from masters such as Okumura Masanobu, Torii Kiyomasu I, Katsukawa Shunshō, Utagawa Toyoharu, Utagawa Kunisada, Katsushika Hokusai, and Utagawa Hiroshige; he was especially fond of Hiroshige, whom he considered "the greatest artist in the world."
Wright first traveled to Japan in 1905, where he bought hundreds of prints. The following year, he helped organize the world's first retrospective exhibition on Hiroshige, held at the Art Institute of Chicago, a job which strengthened his reputation as an expert in Japanese art. Wright did not cease buying prints in his return trips to Japan, and for many years, he was a major presence in the art world, selling a great number of works both to prominent private collectors and to museums such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In sum, Wright spent over five hundred thousand dollars on prints between 1905 and 1923. He penned a book on Japanese art, The Japanese Print: An Interpretation, in 1912.
In 1920, many of the prints Wright sold had been found to exhibit signs of retouching, including pinholes and unoriginal pigments. These retouched prints were likely made in retribution by some of his Japanese dealers, who were disgruntled by the architect's under-the-table sales. In an attempt to clear his name, Wright took one of his dealers, Kyūgo Hayashi, to court over the issue; Hayashi was subsequently sentenced to one year in prison, and barred from selling prints for an extended period of time.
Though Wright protested his innocence, and provided his clients with genuine prints as replacements for those he was accused of retouching, the incident marked the end of the high point of his career as an art dealer. He was forced to sell off much of his art collection to pay off outstanding debts: in 1928, the Bank of Wisconsin claimed Taliesin and sold thousands of his prints — for only one dollar a piece — to collector Edward Burr Van Vleck. Nonetheless, Wright continued to collect and deal in prints until his death in 1959, using them as bartering chips and collateral for loans; he often relied upon his art business to remain financially solvent. He once claimed that Taliesin I and II were "practically built" by his prints.
The extent of his dealings in Japanese art went largely unknown, or underestimated, among art historians for decades. In 1980, Julia Meech, then associate curator of Japanese art at the Metropolitan Museum, began researching the history of the museum's collection of Japanese prints. She discovered "a three-inch-deep 'clump of 400 cards' from 1918, each listing a print bought from the same seller — 'F. L. Wright'" — and a number of letters exchanged between Wright and the museum's first curator of Far Eastern Art, Sigisbert C. Bosch Reitz. These discoveries and subsequent research led to a renewed understanding of Wright's career as an art dealer.
On April 4, 1959, Wright was hospitalized for abdominal pains and was operated on April 6. He seemed to be recovering, but he died quietly on April 9 at the age of 91 years. The New York Times then reported he was 89.
After his death, Wright's legacy was engulfed in turmoil for years. His third wife Olgivanna's dying wish had been that she, Wright, and her daughter by her first marriage would all be cremated and interred together in a memorial garden being built at Taliesin West. According to his own wishes, Wright's body had lain in the Lloyd-Jones cemetery, next to the Unity Chapel, within view of Taliesin in Wisconsin. Although Olgivanna had taken no legal steps to move Wright's remains (and against the wishes of other family members and the Wisconsin legislature), his remains were removed from his grave in 1985 by members of the Taliesin Fellowship. They were cremated and sent to Scottsdale where they were later interred as per Olgivanna's instructions. The original gravesite in Wisconsin is now empty but is still marked with Wright's name.
After Wright's death, most of his archives were stored at the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation in Taliesin (in Wisconsin), and Taliesin West (in Arizona). These collections included more than 23,000 architectural drawings, some 44,000 photographs, 600 manuscripts, and more than 300,000 pieces of office and personal correspondence. It also contained about 40 large-scale architectural models, most of which were constructed for MoMA's retrospective of Wright in 1940. In 2012, to guarantee a high level of conservation and access, as well as to transfer the considerable financial burden of maintaining the archive, the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation partnered with the Museum of Modern Art and the Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library of Columbia University to move the archive's content to New York. Wright's furniture and art collection remains with the foundation, which will also have a role in monitoring the archive. These three parties established an advisory group to oversee exhibitions, symposiums, events, and publications.
Photographs and other archival materials are held by the Ryerson and Burnham Libraries at the Art Institute of Chicago. The architect's personal archives are located at Taliesin West in Scottsdale, Arizona. The Frank Lloyd Wright archives include photographs of his drawings, indexed correspondence beginning in the 1880s and continuing through Wright's life, and other ephemera. The Getty Research Center, Los Angeles, also has copies of Wright's correspondence and photographs of his drawings in their Frank Lloyd Wright Special Collection. Wright's correspondence is indexed in An Index to the Taliesin Correspondence, ed. by Professor Anthony Alofsin, which is available at larger libraries.
Wright designed over 400 built structures of which about 300 survived as of 2023. At least five have been lost to forces of nature: the waterfront house for W. L. Fuller in Pass Christian, Mississippi, destroyed by Hurricane Camille in August 1969; the Louis Sullivan Bungalow of Ocean Springs, Mississippi, destroyed by Hurricane Katrina in 2005; and the Arinobu Fukuhara House (1918) in Hakone, Japan, destroyed in the 1923 Great Kantō earthquake. In January 2006, the Wilbur Wynant House in Gary, Indiana was destroyed by fire. In 2018 the Arch Oboler complex in Malibu, California was gutted in the Woolsey Fire.
Many other notable Wright buildings were intentionally demolished: Midway Gardens (built 1913, demolished 1929), the Larkin Administration Building (built 1903, demolished 1950), the Francis Apartments and Francisco Terrace Apartments (Chicago, built 1895, demolished 1971 and 1974, respectively), the Geneva Inn (Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, built 1911, demolished 1970), and the Banff National Park Pavilion (built 1914, demolished 1934). The Imperial Hotel (built 1923) survived the 1923 Great Kantō earthquake, but was demolished in 1968 due to urban developmental pressures. The Hoffman Auto Showroom in New York City (built 1954) was demolished in 2013.
Several of Wright's projects were either built after his death, or remain unbuilt. These include:
Later in his life (and after his death in 1959), Wright was accorded significant honorary recognition for his lifetime achievements. He received a Gold Medal award from The Royal Institute of British Architects in 1941. The American Institute of Architects awarded him the AIA Gold Medal in 1949. That medal was a symbolic "burying the hatchet" between Wright and the AIA. In a radio interview, he commented, "Well, the AIA I never joined, and they know why. When they gave me the gold medal in Houston, I told them frankly why. Feeling that the architecture profession is all that's the matter with architecture, why should I join them?" He was awarded the Franklin Institute's Frank P. Brown Medal in 1953. He received honorary degrees from several universities (including his alma mater, the University of Wisconsin), and several nations named him as an honorary board member to their national academies of art and/or architecture. In 2000, Fallingwater was named "The Building of the 20th century" in an unscientific "Top-Ten" poll taken by members attending the AIA annual convention in Philadelphia. On that list, Wright was listed along with many of the USA's other greatest architects including Eero Saarinen, I.M. Pei, Louis Kahn, Philip Johnson, and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe; he was the only architect who had more than one building on the list. The other three buildings were the Guggenheim Museum, the Frederick C. Robie House, and the Johnson Wax Building.
In 1992, the Madison Opera in Madison, Wisconsin, commissioned and premiered the opera Shining Brow, by composer Daron Hagen and librettist Paul Muldoon based on events early in Wright's life. The work has since received numerous revivals, including a June 2013 revival at Fallingwater, in Bull Run, Pennsylvania, by Opera Theater of Pittsburgh. In 2000, Work Song: Three Views of Frank Lloyd Wright, a play based on the relationship between the personal and working aspects of Wright's life, debuted at the Milwaukee Repertory Theater.
In 1966, the United States Postal Service honored Wright with a Prominent Americans series 2¢ postage stamp.
"So Long, Frank Lloyd Wright" is a song written by Paul Simon. Art Garfunkel has stated that the origin of the song came from his request that Simon write a song about the famous architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Simon himself stated that he knew nothing about Wright, but proceeded to write the song anyway.
In 1957, Arizona made plans to construct a new capitol building. Believing that the submitted plans for the new capitol were tombs to the past, Frank Lloyd Wright offered Oasis as an alternative to the people of Arizona. In 2004, one of the spires included in his design was erected in Scottsdale.
The city of Scottsdale, Arizona renamed a portion of Bell Road, a major east–west thoroughfare in the Phoenix metropolitan area, in honor of Frank Lloyd Wright.
Eight of Wright's buildings – Fallingwater, the Guggenheim Museum, the Hollyhock House, the Jacobs House, the Robie House, Taliesin, Taliesin West, and the Unity Temple – were inscribed on the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites under the title The 20th-century Architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright in July 2019. UNESCO stated that these buildings were "innovative solutions to the needs for housing, worship, work or leisure" and "had a strong impact on the development of modern architecture in Europe".
|
[
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "Frank Lloyd Wright (June 8, 1867 – April 9, 1959) was an American architect, designer, writer, and educator. He designed more than 1,000 structures over a creative period of 70 years. Wright played a key role in the architectural movements of the twentieth century, influencing architects worldwide through his works and hundreds of apprentices in his Taliesin Fellowship. Wright believed in designing in harmony with humanity and the environment, a philosophy he called organic architecture. This philosophy was exemplified in Fallingwater (1935), which has been called \"the best all-time work of American architecture\".",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "Wright was the pioneer of what came to be called the Prairie School movement of architecture and also developed the concept of the Usonian home in Broadacre City, his vision for urban planning in the United States. He also designed original and innovative offices, churches, schools, skyscrapers, hotels, museums, and other commercial projects. Wright-designed interior elements (including leaded glass windows, floors, furniture and even tableware) were integrated into these structures. He wrote several books and numerous articles and was a popular lecturer in the United States and in Europe. Wright was recognized in 1991 by the American Institute of Architects as \"the greatest American architect of all time\". In 2019, a selection of his work became a listed World Heritage Site as The 20th-Century Architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "Raised in rural Wisconsin, Wright studied civil engineering at the University of Wisconsin and then apprenticed in Chicago, briefly with Joseph Lyman Silsbee, and then with Louis Sullivan at Adler & Sullivan. Wright opened his own successful Chicago practice in 1893 and established a studio in his Oak Park, Illinois home in 1898. His fame increased and his personal life sometimes made headlines: leaving his first wife Catherine \"Kitty\" Tobin for Mamah Cheney in 1909; the murder of Mamah and her children and others at his Taliesin estate by a staff member in 1914; his tempestuous marriage with second wife Miriam Noel (m. 1923–1927); and his courtship and marriage with Olgivanna Lazović (m. 1928–1959).",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "Wright was born on June 8, 1867, in the town of Richland Center, Wisconsin, but maintained throughout his life that he was born in 1869. In 1987 a biographer of Wright suggested that he may have been christened as \"Frank Lincoln Wright\" or \"Franklin Lincoln Wright\" but these assertions were not supported by any evidence.",
"title": "Early life and education"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "Wright's father, William Cary Wright (1825–1904), was a \"gifted musician, orator, and sometime preacher who had been admitted to the bar in 1857.\" He was also a published composer. Originally from Massachusetts, William Wright had been a Baptist minister, but he later joined his wife's family in the Unitarian faith.",
"title": "Early life and education"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "Wright's mother, Anna Lloyd Jones (1838/39–1923) was a teacher and a member of the Lloyd Jones clan; her parents had emigrated from Wales to Wisconsin. One of Anna's brothers was Jenkin Lloyd Jones, an important figure in the spread of the Unitarian faith in the Midwest.",
"title": "Early life and education"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "According to Wright's autobiography, his mother declared when she was expecting that her first child would grow up to build beautiful buildings. She decorated his nursery with engravings of English cathedrals torn from a periodical to encourage the infant's ambition.",
"title": "Early life and education"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "Wright grew up in an \"unstable household, [...] constant lack of resources, [...] unrelieved poverty and anxiety\" and had a \"deeply disturbed and obviously unhappy childhood\". His father held pastorates in McGregor, Iowa (1869), Pawtucket, Rhode Island (1871), and Weymouth, Massachusetts (1874). Because the Wright family struggled financially also in Weymouth, they returned to Spring Green, where the supportive Lloyd Jones family could help William find employment. In 1877, they settled in Madison, where William gave music lessons and served as the secretary to the newly formed Unitarian society. Although William was a distant parent, he shared his love of music with his children.",
"title": "Early life and education"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "In 1876, Anna saw an exhibit of educational blocks called the Froebel Gifts, the foundation of an innovative kindergarten curriculum. Anna, a trained teacher, was excited by the program and bought a set with which the 9-year old Wright spent much time playing. The blocks in the set were geometrically shaped and could be assembled in various combinations to form two- and three-dimensional compositions. In his autobiography, Wright described the influence of these exercises on his approach to design: \"For several years, I sat at the little kindergarten table-top... and played... with the cube, the sphere and the triangle – these smooth wooden maple blocks... All are in my fingers to this day... \"",
"title": "Early life and education"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "In 1881, soon after Wright turned 14, his parents separated. In 1884, his father sued for a divorce from Anna on the grounds of \"... emotional cruelty and physical violence and spousal abandonment\". Wright attended Madison High School, but there is no evidence that he graduated. His father left Wisconsin after the divorce was granted in 1885. Wright said that he never saw his father again.",
"title": "Early life and education"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "In 1886, at age 19, Wright was admitted to the University of Wisconsin–Madison as a special student. He worked under Allan D. Conover, a professor of civil engineering, before leaving the school without taking a degree; in 1955, the university presented Wright, then 88 years old, with an honorary doctorate of fine arts.",
"title": "Early life and education"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "Wright's uncle Jenkin Lloyd Jones had commissioned the Chicago architectural firm of Joseph Lyman Silsbee to design the All Souls Church in Chicago in 1885. In 1886, the Silsbee firm was commissioned by Jones to design the Unity Chapel as his private family chapel in Wyoming, Wisconsin.",
"title": "Early life and education"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "Although not officially employed by Silsbee, Wright was an accomplished draftsman and \"looked after the interior [drawings and construction]\" in Wisconsin. This chapel is thus Wright's earliest known work.",
"title": "Early life and education"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "After the chapel was finished, Wright moved to Chicago.",
"title": "Early life and education"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "In 1887, Wright arrived in Chicago in search of employment. As a result of the devastating Great Chicago Fire of 1871 and a population boom, new development was plentiful. Wright later recorded in his autobiography that his first impression of Chicago was as an ugly and chaotic city. Within days of his arrival, and after interviews with several prominent firms, he was hired as a draftsman with Joseph Lyman Silsbee. While with the firm, he also worked on two other family projects: All Souls Church in Chicago for his uncle, Jenkin Lloyd Jones, and the Hillside Home School I in Spring Green for two of his aunts. Other draftsmen who worked for Silsbee in 1887 included future architects Cecil Corwin, George W. Maher, and George G. Elmslie. Wright soon befriended Corwin, with whom he lived until he found a permanent home.",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 15,
"text": "Feeling that he was underpaid for the quality of his work for Silsbee at $8 a week, the young draftsman quit and found work as an architectural designer at the firm of Beers, Clay, and Dutton. However, Wright soon realized that he was not ready to handle building design by himself; he left his new job to return to Joseph Silsbee – this time with a raise in salary. Although Silsbee adhered mainly to Victorian and Revivalist architecture, Wright found his work to be more \"gracefully picturesque\" than the other \"brutalities\" of the period.",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 16,
"text": "Wright learned that the Chicago firm of Adler & Sullivan was \"... looking for someone to make the finished drawings for the interior of the Auditorium Building\". Wright demonstrated that he was a competent impressionist of Louis Sullivan's ornamental designs and two short interviews later, was an official apprentice in the firm. Wright did not get along well with Sullivan's other draftsmen; he wrote that several violent altercations occurred between them during the first years of his apprenticeship. For that matter, Sullivan showed very little respect for his own employees as well. In spite of this, \"Sullivan took [Wright] under his wing and gave him great design responsibility.\" As an act of respect, Wright would later refer to Sullivan as Lieber Meister (German for \"Dear Master\"). He also formed a bond with office foreman Paul Mueller. Wright later engaged Mueller in the construction of several of his public and commercial buildings between 1903 and 1923.",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 17,
"text": "By 1890, Wright had an office next to Sullivan's that he shared with friend and draftsman George Elmslie, who had been hired by Sullivan at Wright's request. Wright had risen to head draftsman and handled all residential design work in the office. As a general rule, the firm of Adler & Sullivan did not design or build houses, but would oblige when asked by the clients of their important commercial projects. Wright was occupied by the firm's major commissions during office hours, so house designs were relegated to evening and weekend overtime hours at his home studio. He later claimed total responsibility for the design of these houses, but a careful inspection of their architectural style (and accounts from historian Robert Twombly) suggests that Sullivan dictated the overall form and motifs of the residential works; Wright's design duties were often reduced to detailing the projects from Sullivan's sketches. During this time, Wright worked on Sullivan's bungalow (1890) and the James A. Charnley bungalow (1890) in Ocean Springs, Mississippi, the Berry-MacHarg House, James A. Charnley House (both 1891), and the Louis Sullivan House (1892), all in Chicago.",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 18,
"text": "Despite Sullivan's loan and overtime salary, Wright was constantly short on funds. Wright admitted that his poor finances were likely due to his expensive tastes in wardrobe and vehicles, and the extra luxuries he designed into his house. To supplement his income and repay his debts, Wright accepted independent commissions for at least nine houses. These \"bootlegged\" houses, as he later called them, were conservatively designed in variations of the fashionable Queen Anne and Colonial Revival styles. Nevertheless, unlike the prevailing architecture of the period, each house emphasized simple geometric massing and contained features such as bands of horizontal windows, occasional cantilevers, and open floor plans, which would become hallmarks of his later work. Eight of these early houses remain today, including the Thomas Gale, Robert Parker, George Blossom, and Walter Gale houses.",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 19,
"text": "As with the residential projects for Adler & Sullivan, he designed his bootleg houses on his own time. Sullivan knew nothing of the independent works until 1893, when he recognized that one of the houses was unmistakably a Frank Lloyd Wright design. This particular house, built for Allison Harlan, was only blocks away from Sullivan's townhouse in the Chicago community of Kenwood. Aside from the location, the geometric purity of the composition and balcony tracery in the same style as the Charnley House likely gave away Wright's involvement. Since Wright's five-year contract forbade any outside work, the incident led to his departure from Sullivan's firm. Several stories recount the break in the relationship between Sullivan and Wright; even Wright later told two different versions of the occurrence. In An Autobiography, Wright claimed that he was unaware that his side ventures were a breach of his contract. When Sullivan learned of them, he was angered and offended; he prohibited any further outside commissions and refused to issue Wright the deed to his Oak Park house until after he completed his five years. Wright could not bear the new hostility from his master and thought that the situation was unjust. He \"... threw down [his] pencil and walked out of the Adler & Sullivan office never to return\". Dankmar Adler, who was more sympathetic to Wright's actions, later sent him the deed. However, Wright told his Taliesin apprentices (as recorded by Edgar Tafel) that Sullivan fired him on the spot upon learning of the Harlan House. Tafel also recounted that Wright had Cecil Corwin sign several of the bootleg jobs, indicating that Wright was aware of their forbidden nature. Regardless of the correct series of events, Wright and Sullivan did not meet or speak for 12 years.",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 20,
"text": "After leaving Adler & Sullivan, Wright established his own practice on the top floor of the Sullivan-designed Schiller Building on Randolph Street in Chicago. Wright chose to locate his office in the building because the tower location reminded him of the office of Adler & Sullivan. Cecil Corwin followed Wright and set up his architecture practice in the same office, but the two worked independently and did not consider themselves partners.",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 21,
"text": "In 1896, Wright moved from the Schiller Building to the nearby and newly completed Steinway Hall building. The loft space was shared with Robert C. Spencer, Jr., Myron Hunt, and Dwight H. Perkins. These young architects, inspired by the Arts and Crafts Movement and the philosophies of Louis Sullivan, formed what became known as the Prairie School. They were joined by Perkins' apprentice Marion Mahony, who in 1895 transferred to Wright's team of drafters and took over production of his presentation drawings and watercolor renderings. Mahony, the third woman to be licensed as an architect in Illinois and one of the first licensed female architects in the U.S., also designed furniture, leaded glass windows, and light fixtures, among other features, for Wright's houses. Between 1894 and the early 1910s, several other leading Prairie School architects and many of Wright's future employees launched their careers in the offices of Steinway Hall.",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 22,
"text": "Wright's projects during this period followed two basic models. His first independent commission, the Winslow House, combined Sullivanesque ornamentation with the emphasis on simple geometry and horizontal lines. The Francis Apartments (1895, demolished 1971), Heller House (1896), Rollin Furbeck House (1897) and Husser House (1899, demolished 1926) were designed in the same mode. For his more conservative clients, Wright designed more traditional dwellings. These included the Dutch Colonial Revival style Bagley House (1894), Tudor Revival style Moore House I (1895), and Queen Anne style Charles E. Roberts House (1896). While Wright could not afford to turn down clients over disagreements in taste, even his most conservative designs retained simplified massing and occasional Sullivan-inspired details.",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 23,
"text": "Soon after the completion of the Winslow House in 1894, Edward Waller, a friend and former client, invited Wright to meet Chicago architect and planner Daniel Burnham. Burnham had been impressed by the Winslow House and other examples of Wright's work; he offered to finance a four-year education at the École des Beaux-Arts and two years in Rome. To top it off, Wright would have a position in Burnham's firm upon his return. In spite of guaranteed success and support of his family, Wright declined the offer. Burnham, who had directed the classical design of the World's Columbian Exposition and was a major proponent of the Beaux Arts movement, thought that Wright was making a foolish mistake. Yet for Wright, the classical education of the École lacked creativity and was altogether at odds with his vision of modern American architecture.",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 24,
"text": "Wright relocated his practice to his home in 1898 to bring his work and family lives closer. This move made further sense as the majority of the architect's projects at that time were in Oak Park or neighboring River Forest. The birth of three more children prompted Wright to sacrifice his original home studio space for additional bedrooms and necessitated his design and construction of an expansive studio addition to the north of the main house. The space, which included a hanging balcony within the two-story drafting room, was one of Wright's first experiments with innovative structure. The studio embodied Wright's developing aesthetics and would become the laboratory from which his next 10 years of architectural creations would emerge.",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 25,
"text": "By 1901, Wright had completed about 50 projects, including many houses in Oak Park. As his son John Lloyd Wright wrote:",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 26,
"text": "William Eugene Drummond, Francis Barry Byrne, Walter Burley Griffin, Albert Chase McArthur, Marion Mahony, Isabel Roberts, and George Willis were the draftsmen. Five men, two women. They wore flowing ties, and smocks suitable to the realm. The men wore their hair like Papa, all except Albert, he didn't have enough hair. They worshiped Papa! Papa liked them! I know that each one of them was then making valuable contributions to the pioneering of the modern American architecture for which my father gets the full glory, headaches, and recognition today!",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 27,
"text": "Between 1900 and 1901, Frank Lloyd Wright completed four houses, which have since been identified as the onset of the \"Prairie Style\". Two, the Hickox and Bradley Houses, were the last transitional step between Wright's early designs and the Prairie creations. Meanwhile, the Thomas House and Willits House received recognition as the first mature examples of the new style. At the same time, Wright gave his new ideas for the American house widespread awareness through two publications in the Ladies' Home Journal. The articles were in response to an invitation from the president of Curtis Publishing Company, Edward Bok, as part of a project to improve modern house design. \"A Home in a Prairie Town\" and \"A Small House with Lots of Room in it\" appeared respectively in the February and July 1901 issues of the journal. Although neither of the affordable house plans was ever constructed, Wright received increased requests for similar designs in following years. Wright came to Buffalo and designed homes for three of the company's executives: the Darwin D. Martin House (1904), the William R. Heath House 1905), and the Walter V. Davidson House (1908). Other Wright houses considered to be masterpieces of the Prairie Style are the Frederick Robie House in Chicago and the Avery and Queene Coonley House in Riverside, Illinois. The Robie House, with its extended cantilevered roof lines supported by a 110-foot-long (34 m) channel of steel, is the most dramatic. Its living and dining areas form virtually one uninterrupted space. With this and other buildings, included in the publication of the Wasmuth Portfolio (1910), Wright's work became known to European architects and had a profound influence on them after World War I.",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 28,
"text": "Wright's residential designs of this era were known as \"prairie houses\" because the designs complemented the land around Chicago. Prairie Style houses often have a combination of these features: one or two stories with one-story projections, an open floor plan, low-pitched roofs with broad, overhanging eaves, strong horizontal lines, ribbons of windows (often casements), a prominent central chimney, built-in stylized cabinetry, and a wide use of natural materials – especially stone and wood.",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 29,
"text": "By 1909, Wright had begun to reject the upper-middle-class Prairie Style single-family house model, shifting his focus to a more democratic architecture. Wright went to Europe in 1909 with a portfolio of his work and presented it to Berlin publisher Ernst Wasmuth. Studies and Executed Buildings of Frank Lloyd Wright, published in 1911, was the first major exposure of Wright's work in Europe. The work contained more than 100 lithographs of Wright's designs and is commonly known as the Wasmuth Portfolio.",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 30,
"text": "Wright designed the house of Cornell's chapter of Alpha Delta Phi literary society (1900), the Hillside Home School II (built for his aunts) in Spring Green, Wisconsin (1901) and the Unity Temple (1905) in Oak Park, Illinois. As a lifelong Unitarian and member of Unity Temple, Wright offered his services to the congregation after their church burned down, working on the building from 1905 to 1909. Wright later said that Unity Temple was the edifice in which he ceased to be an architect of structure, and became an architect of space.",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 31,
"text": "Some other early notable public buildings and projects in this era: the Larkin Administration Building (1905); the Geneva Inn (Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, 1911); the Midway Gardens (Chicago, Illinois, 1913); the Banff National Park Pavilion (Alberta, Canada, 1914).",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 32,
"text": "While working in Japan, Wright left an impressive architectural heritage. The Imperial Hotel, completed in 1923, is the most important. Thanks to its solid foundations and steel construction, the hotel survived the Great Kanto Earthquake almost unscathed. The hotel was damaged during the bombing of Tokyo and by the subsequent US military occupation of it after World War II. As land in the center of Tokyo increased in value the hotel was deemed obsolete and was demolished in 1968 but the lobby was saved and later re-constructed at the Meiji Mura architecture museum in Nagoya in 1976.",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 33,
"text": "Jiyu Gakuen was founded as a girls' school in 1921. The construction of the main building began in 1921 under Wright's direction and, after his departure, was continued by Endo. The school building, like the Imperial Hotel, is covered with Ōya stones.",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 34,
"text": "The Yodoko Guesthouse (designed in 1918 and completed in 1924) was built as the summer villa for Tadzaemon Yamamura.",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 35,
"text": "Frank Lloyd Wright's architecture had a strong influence on young Japanese architects. The Japanese architects Wright commissioned to carry out his designs were Arata Endo, Takehiko Okami, Taue Sasaki and Kameshiro Tsuchiura. Endo supervised the completion of the Imperial Hotel after Wright's departure in 1922 and also supervised the construction of the Jiyu Gakuen Girls' School and the Yodokō Guest House. Tsuchiura went on to create so-called \"light\" buildings, which had similarities to Wright's later work.",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 36,
"text": "In the early 1920s, Wright designed a \"textile\" concrete block system. The system of precast blocks, reinforced by an internal system of bars, enabled \"fabrication as infinite in color, texture, and variety as in that rug.\" Wright first used his textile block system on the Millard House in Pasadena, California, in 1923. Typically Wrightian is the joining of the structure to its site by a series of terraces that reach out into and reorder the landscape, making it an integral part of the architect's vision. With the Ennis House and the Samuel Freeman House (both 1923), Wright had further opportunities to test the limits of the textile block system, including limited use in the Arizona Biltmore Hotel in 1927. The Ennis house is often used in films, television, and print media to represent the future. Wright's son, Lloyd Wright, supervised construction for the Storer, Freeman, and Ennis Houses. Architectural historian Thomas Hines has suggested that Lloyd's contribution to these projects is often overlooked.",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 37,
"text": "After World War II, Wright updated the concrete block system, calling it the Usonian Automatic system, resulting in the construction of several notable homes. As he explained in The Natural House (1954), \"The original blocks are made on the site by ramming concrete into wood or metal wrap-around forms, with one outside face (which may be pattered), and one rear or inside face, generally coffered, for lightness.\"",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 38,
"text": "In 1903, while Wright was designing a house for Edwin Cheney (a neighbor in Oak Park), he became enamored of Cheney's wife, Mamah Borthwick Cheney. Mamah was a modern woman with interests outside the home. She was an early feminist, and Wright viewed her as his intellectual equal. Their relationship became the talk of the town; they often could be seen taking rides in Wright's automobile through Oak Park. In 1909, Wright and Mamah Cheney met up in Europe, leaving their spouses and children behind. Wright remained in Europe for almost a year, first in Florence, Italy (where he lived with his eldest son Lloyd) and, later, in Fiesole, Italy, where he lived with Mamah. During this time, Edwin Cheney granted Mamah a divorce, though Kitty still refused to grant one to her husband. After Wright returned to the United States in October 1910, he persuaded his mother to buy land for him in Spring Green, Wisconsin. The land, bought on April 10, 1911, was adjacent to land held by his mother's family, the Lloyd-Joneses. Wright began to build himself a new home, which he called Taliesin, by May 1911. The recurring theme of Taliesin also came from his mother's side: Taliesin in Welsh mythology was a poet, magician, and priest. The family motto, \"Y Gwir yn Erbyn y Byd\" (\"The Truth Against the World\"), was taken from the Welsh poet Iolo Morganwg, who also had a son named Taliesin. The motto is still used today as the cry of the druids and chief bard of the Eisteddfod in Wales.",
"title": "Midlife problems"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 39,
"text": "On August 15, 1914, while Wright was working in Chicago, a servant (Julian Carlton) set fire to the living quarters of Taliesin and then murdered seven people with an axe as the fire burned. The dead included Mamah; her two children, John and Martha Cheney; a gardener (David Lindblom); a draftsman (Emil Brodelle); a workman (Thomas Brunker); and another workman's son (Ernest Weston). Two people survived the mayhem, one of whom, William Weston, helped to put out the fire that almost completely consumed the residential wing of the house. Carlton swallowed hydrochloric acid immediately following the attack in an attempt to kill himself. He was nearly lynched on the spot, but was taken to the Dodgeville jail. Carlton died from starvation seven weeks after the attack.",
"title": "Midlife problems"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 40,
"text": "In 1922, Kitty Wright finally granted Wright a divorce. Under the terms of the divorce, Wright was required to wait one year before he could marry his then-mistress, Maude \"Miriam\" Noel. In 1923, Wright's mother, Anna (Lloyd Jones) Wright, died. Wright wed Miriam Noel in November 1923, but her addiction to morphine led to the failure of the marriage in less than one year. In 1924, after the separation, but while still married, Wright met Olga (Olgivanna) Lazovich Hinzenburg. They moved in together at Taliesin in 1925, and soon after Olgivanna became pregnant. Their daughter, Iovanna, was born on December 3, 1925.",
"title": "Midlife problems"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 41,
"text": "On April 20, 1925, another fire destroyed the bungalow at Taliesin. Crossed wires from a newly installed telephone system were deemed to be responsible for the blaze, which destroyed a collection of Japanese prints that Wright estimated to be worth $250,000 to $500,000 ($4,172,000 to $8,343,000 in 2022). Wright rebuilt the living quarters, naming the home \"Taliesin III\".",
"title": "Midlife problems"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 42,
"text": "In 1926, Olga's ex-husband, Vlademar Hinzenburg, sought custody of his daughter, Svetlana. In October 1926, Wright and Olgivanna were accused of violating the Mann Act and arrested in Tonka Bay, Minnesota. The charges were later dropped.",
"title": "Midlife problems"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 43,
"text": "The divorce of Wright and Miriam Noel was finalized in 1927. Wright was again required to wait for one year before remarrying. Wright and Olgivanna married in 1928.",
"title": "Midlife problems"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 44,
"text": "In 1932, Wright and his wife Olgivanna put out a call for students to come to Taliesin to study and work under Wright while they learned architecture and spiritual development. Olgivanna Wright had been a student of G. I. Gurdjieff who had previously established a similar school. Twenty-three came to live and work that year, including John (Jack) H. Howe, who would become Wright's chief draftsman. A total of 625 people joined The Fellowship in Wright's lifetime. The Fellowship was a source of workers for Wright's later projects, including: Fallingwater; The Johnson Wax Headquarters; and The Guggenheim Museum in New York City.",
"title": "Later career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 45,
"text": "Considerable controversy exists over the living conditions and education of the fellows. Wright was reputedly a difficult person to work with. One apprentice wrote: \"He is devoid of consideration and has a blind spot regarding others' qualities. Yet I believe, that a year in his studio would be worth any sacrifice.\" The Fellowship evolved into The School of Architecture at Taliesin which was an accredited school until it closed under acrimonious circumstances in 2020. Taking on the name \"The School of Architecture\" in June 2020, the school moved to the Cosanti Foundation, which it had worked with in the past.",
"title": "Later career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 46,
"text": "Wright is responsible for a series of concepts of suburban development united under the term Broadacre City. He proposed the idea in his book The Disappearing City in 1932 and unveiled a 12-square-foot (1.1 m) model of this community of the future, showing it in several venues in the following years. Concurrent with the development of Broadacre City, also referred to as Usonia, Wright conceived a new type of dwelling that came to be known as the Usonian House. Although an early version of the form can be seen in the Malcolm Willey House (1934) in Minneapolis, the Usonian ideal emerged most completely in the Herbert and Katherine Jacobs First House (1937) in Madison, Wisconsin. Designed on a gridded concrete slab that integrated the house's radiant heating system, the house featured new approaches to construction, including walls composed of a \"sandwich\" of wood siding, plywood cores and building paper – a significant change from typically framed walls. Usonian houses commonly featured flat roofs and were usually constructed without basements or attics, all features that Wright had been promoting since the early 20th century.",
"title": "Later career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 47,
"text": "Usonian houses were Wright's response to the transformation of domestic life that occurred in the early 20th century when servants had become less prominent or completely absent from most American households. By developing homes with progressively more open plans, Wright allotted the woman of the house a \"workspace\", as he often called the kitchen, where she could keep track of and be available for the children and/or guests in the dining room. As in the Prairie Houses, Usonian living areas had a fireplace as a point of focus. Bedrooms, typically isolated and relatively small, encouraged the family to gather in the main living areas. The conception of spaces instead of rooms was a development of the Prairie ideal. The built-in furnishings related to the Arts and Crafts movement's principles that influenced Wright's early work. Spatially and in terms of their construction, the Usonian houses represented a new model for independent living and allowed dozens of clients to live in a Wright-designed house at relatively low cost. His Usonian homes set a new style for suburban design that influenced countless postwar developers. Many features of modern American homes date back to Wright: open plans, slab-on-grade foundations, and simplified construction techniques that allowed more mechanization and efficiency in building.",
"title": "Later career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 48,
"text": "Fallingwater, one of Wright's most famous private residences (completed 1937), was built for Mr. and Mrs. Edgar J. Kaufmann, Sr., at Mill Run, Pennsylvania. Constructed over a 30-foot waterfall, it was designed according to Wright's desire to place the occupants close to the natural surroundings. The house was intended to be more of a family getaway, rather than a live-in home. The construction is a series of cantilevered balconies and terraces, using limestone for all verticals and concrete for the horizontals. The house cost $155,000 (equivalent to $3,155,000 in 2022), including the architect's fee of $8,000 (equivalent to $163,000 in 2022). It was one of Wright's most expensive pieces. Kaufmann's own engineers argued that the design was not sound. They were overruled by Wright, but the contractor secretly added extra steel to the horizontal concrete elements. In 1994, Robert Silman and Associates examined the building and developed a plan to restore the structure. In the late 1990s, steel supports were added under the lowest cantilever until a detailed structural analysis could be done. In March 2002, post-tensioning of the lowest terrace was completed.",
"title": "Later career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 49,
"text": "Taliesin West, Wright's winter home and studio complex in Scottsdale, Arizona, was a laboratory for Wright from 1937 to his death in 1959. It is now the home of the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation.",
"title": "Later career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 50,
"text": "The design and construction of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City occupied Wright from 1943 until 1959 and is probably his most recognized masterpiece. The building's unique central geometry was meant to allow visitors to easily experience Guggenheim's collection of nonobjective geometric paintings by taking an elevator to the top level and then viewing artworks by walking down the slowly descending, central spiral ramp.",
"title": "Later career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 51,
"text": "The only realized skyscraper designed by Wright is the Price Tower, a 19-story tower in Bartlesville, Oklahoma. It is also one of the two existing vertically oriented Wright structures (the other is the S.C. Johnson Wax Research Tower in Racine, Wisconsin). The Price Tower was commissioned by Harold C. Price of the H. C. Price Company, a local oil pipeline and chemical firm. On March 29, 2007, Price Tower was designated a National Historic Landmark by the United States Department of the Interior, one of only 20 such properties in Oklahoma.",
"title": "Later career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 52,
"text": "Monona Terrace, originally designed in 1937 as municipal offices for Madison, Wisconsin, was completed in 1997 on the original site, using a variation of Wright's final design for the exterior, with the interior design altered by its new purpose as a convention center. The \"as-built\" design was carried out by Wright's apprentice Tony Puttnam. Monona Terrace was accompanied by controversy throughout the 60 years between the original design and the completion of the structure.",
"title": "Later career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 53,
"text": "Florida Southern College, located in Lakeland, Florida, constructed 12 (out of 18 planned) Frank Lloyd Wright buildings between 1941 and 1958 as part of the Child of the Sun project. It is the world's largest single-site collection of Frank Lloyd Wright architecture.",
"title": "Later career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 54,
"text": "His Prairie houses use themed, coordinated design elements (often based on plant forms) that are repeated in windows, carpets, and other fittings. He made innovative use of new building materials such as precast concrete blocks, glass bricks, and zinc cames (instead of the traditional lead) for his leadlight windows, and he famously used Pyrex glass tubing as a major element in the Johnson Wax Headquarters. Wright was also one of the first architects to design and install custom-made electric light fittings, including some of the first electric floor lamps, and his very early use of the then-novel spherical glass lampshade (a design previously not possible due to the physical restrictions of gas lighting). In 1897, Wright received a patent for \"Prism Glass Tiles\" that were used in storefronts to direct light toward the interior. Wright fully embraced glass in his designs and found that it fit well into his philosophy of organic architecture. According to Wright's organic theory, all components of the building should appear unified, as though they belong together. Nothing should be attached to it without considering the effect on the whole. To unify the house to its site, Wright often used large expanses of glass to blur the boundary between the indoors and outdoors. Glass allowed for interaction and viewing of the outdoors while still protecting from the elements. In 1928, Wright wrote an essay on glass in which he compared it to the mirrors of nature: lakes, rivers and ponds. One of Wright's earliest uses of glass in his works was to string panes of glass along whole walls in an attempt to create light screens to join solid walls. By using this large amount of glass, Wright sought to achieve a balance between the lightness and airiness of the glass and the solid, hard walls. Arguably, Wright's best-known art glass is that of the Prairie style. The simple geometric shapes that yield to very ornate and intricate windows represent some of the most integral ornamentation of his career. Wright also designed some of his own clothing.",
"title": "Personal style and concepts"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 55,
"text": "Wright strongly believed in individualism and did not affiliate with the American Institute of Architects during his career, going so far as to call the organization \"a harbor of refuge for the incompetent,\" and \"a form of refined gangsterism\". When an associate referred to him as \"an old amateur\" Wright confirmed, \"I am the oldest.\" Wright rarely credited any influences on his designs, but most architects, historians and scholars agree he had five major influences:",
"title": "Personal style and concepts"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 56,
"text": "Wright was given a set of Froebel gifts at about age nine, and in his autobiography he cited them indirectly in explaining that he learned the geometry of architecture in kindergarten play:",
"title": "Personal style and concepts"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 57,
"text": "For several years I sat at the little kindergarten table-top ruled by lines about four inches apart each way making four-inch squares; and, among other things, played upon these 'unit-lines' with the square (cube), the circle (sphere) and the triangle (tetrahedron or tripod)—these were smooth maple-wood blocks. All are in my fingers to this day.",
"title": "Personal style and concepts"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 58,
"text": "Wright later wrote, \"The virtue of all this lay in the awakening of the child-mind to rhythmic structures in Nature… I soon became susceptible to constructive pattern evolving in everything I saw.\"",
"title": "Personal style and concepts"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 59,
"text": "He routinely claimed the work of architects and architectural designers who were his employees as his own designs, and believed that the rest of the Prairie School architects were merely his followers, imitators, and subordinates. As with any architect, though, Wright worked in a collaborative process and drew his ideas from the work of others. In his earlier days, Wright worked with some of the top architects of the Chicago School, including Sullivan. In his Prairie School days, Wright's office was populated by many talented architects, including William Eugene Drummond, John Van Bergen, Isabel Roberts, Francis Barry Byrne, Albert McArthur, Marion Mahony Griffin, and Walter Burley Griffin. The Czech-born architect Antonin Raymond worked for Wright at Taliesin and led the construction of the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo. He subsequently stayed in Japan and opened his own practice. Rudolf Schindler also worked for Wright on the Imperial Hotel and his own work is often credited as influencing Wright's Usonian houses. Schindler's friend Richard Neutra also worked briefly for Wright and became an internationally successful architect. In the Taliesin days, Wright employed many architects and artists who later become notable, such as Aaron Green, John Lautner, E. Fay Jones, Henry Klumb, William Bernoudy, John Underhill Ottenheimer, and Paolo Soleri.",
"title": "Personal style and concepts"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 60,
"text": "Wright was a passionate Japanophile — he once proclaimed Japan to be \"the most romantic, artistic, nature-inspired country on earth\" — and throughout his entire career, Japanese art and architecture held a strong sway over him. He was particularly interested in ukiyo-e woodblock prints, to which he claimed he was \"enslaved.\" Wright spent much of his free time selling, collecting, and appreciating these prints — he held parties and other events centered around them, proclaiming their pedagogical value to his guests and students, and before arriving in Japan, his impressions of the nation were based almost entirely on them.",
"title": "Personal style and concepts"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 61,
"text": "Wright found particular inspiration in the formal aspects of Japanese art. He described ukiyo-e prints as \"organic,\" because of their understatedness, harmony, and ability to be appreciated on a purely aesthetic level. Additionally, he cherished their freeform compositions, where elements of the scene would frequently breach in front of one another, and their lack of extraneous detail, which he called a \"gospel of elimination.\" His interpretation of chashitsu (tea ceremony venues), mediated by the ideas of Okakura Kakuzō, was that of an architecture which emphasized openness, the \"vacant space between the roof and walls.\" Wright applied these principles on a large scale, and they became trademarks of his practice.",
"title": "Personal style and concepts"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 62,
"text": "Wright's floor plans exhibit strong similarities to their presumed Japanese forebears. The open living spaces of his early homes were likely appropriated from the World's Columbian Exposition's Ho-O-Den Pavilion, whose sliding-screen dividers were removed in preparation for the event. Likewise, Unity Temple follows a gongen-zukuri layout, characteristic of Shinto shrines and likely inspired by his 1905 visit to the Rinnō-ji temple complex, and the shape of many of his cantilevered towers, including the Johnson Research Tower, may have been inspired by Japanese pagodas. Wright's ornamental flourishes, as seen in his leaded glass windows and lively architectural drawings, demonstrate a technical indebtedness to ukiyo-e. One modern commentator, discussing the Robie House, suggests that such elements combined allow Wright's architecture to exhibit iki, a particularly Japanese aesthetic value marked by a subdued stylishness.",
"title": "Personal style and concepts"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 63,
"text": "His ideas about the art of Japan appear to have drawn greatly from the activities of Ernest Fenollosa, whose work he likely first encountered between 1890 and 1893. Many of Fenollosa's ideas are quite similar to those of Wright: these include his view of architecture as a \"mother art,\" his condemnation of the West's \"separation of construction and decoration,\" and his identification of an \"organic wholeness\" within ukiyo-e prints. Also like Wright, Fenollosa perceived a \"degeneracy\" in Western architecture, with particular emphasis on Renaissance architecture; Wright himself admitted that Japanese prints helped to \"vulgarize\" the Renaissance for him. Wright's art criticism treatise, The Japanese Print: An Interpretation, may be read as a straightforward expansion upon Fenollosa's ideas.",
"title": "Personal style and concepts"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 64,
"text": "Though Wright always acknowledged his indebtedness to Japanese art and architecture, he took offense to claims that he copied or adapted it. In his view, Japanese art simply validated his personal principles especially well, and as such it was not a source of special inspiration. Responding to a claim by Charles Robert Ashbee that he was \"trying to adapt Japanese forms to the United States,\" Wright said that such borrowing was \"against [his] very religion.\" Nonetheless, his insistence did not stop others from observing the same throughout his life.",
"title": "Personal style and concepts"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 65,
"text": "Frank Lloyd Wright was interested in site and community planning throughout his career. His commissions and theories on urban design began as early as 1900 and continued until his death. He had 41 commissions on the scale of community planning or urban design.",
"title": "Personal style and concepts"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 66,
"text": "His thoughts on suburban design started in 1900 with a proposed subdivision layout for Charles E. Roberts entitled the \"Quadruple Block Plan\". This design strayed from traditional suburban lot layouts and set houses on small square blocks of four equal-sized lots surrounded on all sides by roads instead of straight rows of houses on parallel streets. The houses, which used the same design as published in \"A Home in a Prairie Town\" from the Ladies' Home Journal, were set toward the center of the block to maximize the yard space and included private space in the center. This also allowed for far more interesting views from each house. Although this plan was never realized, Wright published the design in the Wasmuth Portfolio in 1910.",
"title": "Personal style and concepts"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 67,
"text": "The more ambitious designs of entire communities were exemplified by his entry into the City Club of Chicago Land Development Competition in 1913. The contest was for the development of a suburban quarter section. This design expanded on the Quadruple Block Plan and included several social levels. The design shows the placement of the upscale homes in the most desirable areas and the blue collar homes and apartments separated by parks and common spaces. The design also included all the amenities of a small city: schools, museums, markets, etc. This view of decentralization was later reinforced by theoretical Broadacre City design. The philosophy behind his community planning was decentralization. The new development must be away from the cities. In this decentralized America, all services and facilities could coexist \"factories side by side with farm and home\".",
"title": "Personal style and concepts"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 68,
"text": "Notable community planning designs:",
"title": "Personal style and concepts"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 69,
"text": "Wright's fashion sense was unique and he usually wore expensive suits, flowing neckties, and capes. He also had a fascination with automobiles, purchasing his first car in 1909, a Stoddard-Dayton roadster, and owned many exotic vehicles over the years. During the cash-strapped Depression, Wright drove cheaper vehicles. Some of his last cars in the 1950s included four Volkswagens and a Chevrolet Nomad station wagon along with flashier articles such as a Jaguar Mark VII. He owned some 50 cars between 1909 and his death, of which 10 are known to survive.",
"title": "Personal life and death"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 70,
"text": "Frank Lloyd Wright was married three times, fathering four sons and three daughters. He also adopted Svetlana Milanoff, the daughter of his third wife, Olgivanna Lloyd Wright.",
"title": "Personal life and death"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 71,
"text": "His wives/partners were:",
"title": "Personal life and death"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 72,
"text": "His children with Catherine were:",
"title": "Personal life and death"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 73,
"text": "His children with Olgivanna were:",
"title": "Personal life and death"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 74,
"text": "Though most famous as an architect, Wright was also an active dealer in Japanese art, primarily ukiyo-e. He frequently served as both architect and art dealer to the same clients: he designed a home, then provided the art to fill it. For a time, Wright made more from selling art than from his work as an architect. He also kept a personal collection, which he used as a teaching aid with his apprentices in what were called \"print parties\"; to better suit his taste, he sometimes modified these personal prints using colored pencils and crayons. Wright owned prints from masters such as Okumura Masanobu, Torii Kiyomasu I, Katsukawa Shunshō, Utagawa Toyoharu, Utagawa Kunisada, Katsushika Hokusai, and Utagawa Hiroshige; he was especially fond of Hiroshige, whom he considered \"the greatest artist in the world.\"",
"title": "Personal life and death"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 75,
"text": "Wright first traveled to Japan in 1905, where he bought hundreds of prints. The following year, he helped organize the world's first retrospective exhibition on Hiroshige, held at the Art Institute of Chicago, a job which strengthened his reputation as an expert in Japanese art. Wright did not cease buying prints in his return trips to Japan, and for many years, he was a major presence in the art world, selling a great number of works both to prominent private collectors and to museums such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In sum, Wright spent over five hundred thousand dollars on prints between 1905 and 1923. He penned a book on Japanese art, The Japanese Print: An Interpretation, in 1912.",
"title": "Personal life and death"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 76,
"text": "In 1920, many of the prints Wright sold had been found to exhibit signs of retouching, including pinholes and unoriginal pigments. These retouched prints were likely made in retribution by some of his Japanese dealers, who were disgruntled by the architect's under-the-table sales. In an attempt to clear his name, Wright took one of his dealers, Kyūgo Hayashi, to court over the issue; Hayashi was subsequently sentenced to one year in prison, and barred from selling prints for an extended period of time.",
"title": "Personal life and death"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 77,
"text": "Though Wright protested his innocence, and provided his clients with genuine prints as replacements for those he was accused of retouching, the incident marked the end of the high point of his career as an art dealer. He was forced to sell off much of his art collection to pay off outstanding debts: in 1928, the Bank of Wisconsin claimed Taliesin and sold thousands of his prints — for only one dollar a piece — to collector Edward Burr Van Vleck. Nonetheless, Wright continued to collect and deal in prints until his death in 1959, using them as bartering chips and collateral for loans; he often relied upon his art business to remain financially solvent. He once claimed that Taliesin I and II were \"practically built\" by his prints.",
"title": "Personal life and death"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 78,
"text": "The extent of his dealings in Japanese art went largely unknown, or underestimated, among art historians for decades. In 1980, Julia Meech, then associate curator of Japanese art at the Metropolitan Museum, began researching the history of the museum's collection of Japanese prints. She discovered \"a three-inch-deep 'clump of 400 cards' from 1918, each listing a print bought from the same seller — 'F. L. Wright'\" — and a number of letters exchanged between Wright and the museum's first curator of Far Eastern Art, Sigisbert C. Bosch Reitz. These discoveries and subsequent research led to a renewed understanding of Wright's career as an art dealer.",
"title": "Personal life and death"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 79,
"text": "On April 4, 1959, Wright was hospitalized for abdominal pains and was operated on April 6. He seemed to be recovering, but he died quietly on April 9 at the age of 91 years. The New York Times then reported he was 89.",
"title": "Personal life and death"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 80,
"text": "After his death, Wright's legacy was engulfed in turmoil for years. His third wife Olgivanna's dying wish had been that she, Wright, and her daughter by her first marriage would all be cremated and interred together in a memorial garden being built at Taliesin West. According to his own wishes, Wright's body had lain in the Lloyd-Jones cemetery, next to the Unity Chapel, within view of Taliesin in Wisconsin. Although Olgivanna had taken no legal steps to move Wright's remains (and against the wishes of other family members and the Wisconsin legislature), his remains were removed from his grave in 1985 by members of the Taliesin Fellowship. They were cremated and sent to Scottsdale where they were later interred as per Olgivanna's instructions. The original gravesite in Wisconsin is now empty but is still marked with Wright's name.",
"title": "Personal life and death"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 81,
"text": "After Wright's death, most of his archives were stored at the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation in Taliesin (in Wisconsin), and Taliesin West (in Arizona). These collections included more than 23,000 architectural drawings, some 44,000 photographs, 600 manuscripts, and more than 300,000 pieces of office and personal correspondence. It also contained about 40 large-scale architectural models, most of which were constructed for MoMA's retrospective of Wright in 1940. In 2012, to guarantee a high level of conservation and access, as well as to transfer the considerable financial burden of maintaining the archive, the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation partnered with the Museum of Modern Art and the Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library of Columbia University to move the archive's content to New York. Wright's furniture and art collection remains with the foundation, which will also have a role in monitoring the archive. These three parties established an advisory group to oversee exhibitions, symposiums, events, and publications.",
"title": "Legacy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 82,
"text": "Photographs and other archival materials are held by the Ryerson and Burnham Libraries at the Art Institute of Chicago. The architect's personal archives are located at Taliesin West in Scottsdale, Arizona. The Frank Lloyd Wright archives include photographs of his drawings, indexed correspondence beginning in the 1880s and continuing through Wright's life, and other ephemera. The Getty Research Center, Los Angeles, also has copies of Wright's correspondence and photographs of his drawings in their Frank Lloyd Wright Special Collection. Wright's correspondence is indexed in An Index to the Taliesin Correspondence, ed. by Professor Anthony Alofsin, which is available at larger libraries.",
"title": "Legacy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 83,
"text": "Wright designed over 400 built structures of which about 300 survived as of 2023. At least five have been lost to forces of nature: the waterfront house for W. L. Fuller in Pass Christian, Mississippi, destroyed by Hurricane Camille in August 1969; the Louis Sullivan Bungalow of Ocean Springs, Mississippi, destroyed by Hurricane Katrina in 2005; and the Arinobu Fukuhara House (1918) in Hakone, Japan, destroyed in the 1923 Great Kantō earthquake. In January 2006, the Wilbur Wynant House in Gary, Indiana was destroyed by fire. In 2018 the Arch Oboler complex in Malibu, California was gutted in the Woolsey Fire.",
"title": "Legacy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 84,
"text": "Many other notable Wright buildings were intentionally demolished: Midway Gardens (built 1913, demolished 1929), the Larkin Administration Building (built 1903, demolished 1950), the Francis Apartments and Francisco Terrace Apartments (Chicago, built 1895, demolished 1971 and 1974, respectively), the Geneva Inn (Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, built 1911, demolished 1970), and the Banff National Park Pavilion (built 1914, demolished 1934). The Imperial Hotel (built 1923) survived the 1923 Great Kantō earthquake, but was demolished in 1968 due to urban developmental pressures. The Hoffman Auto Showroom in New York City (built 1954) was demolished in 2013.",
"title": "Legacy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 85,
"text": "Several of Wright's projects were either built after his death, or remain unbuilt. These include:",
"title": "Legacy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 86,
"text": "Later in his life (and after his death in 1959), Wright was accorded significant honorary recognition for his lifetime achievements. He received a Gold Medal award from The Royal Institute of British Architects in 1941. The American Institute of Architects awarded him the AIA Gold Medal in 1949. That medal was a symbolic \"burying the hatchet\" between Wright and the AIA. In a radio interview, he commented, \"Well, the AIA I never joined, and they know why. When they gave me the gold medal in Houston, I told them frankly why. Feeling that the architecture profession is all that's the matter with architecture, why should I join them?\" He was awarded the Franklin Institute's Frank P. Brown Medal in 1953. He received honorary degrees from several universities (including his alma mater, the University of Wisconsin), and several nations named him as an honorary board member to their national academies of art and/or architecture. In 2000, Fallingwater was named \"The Building of the 20th century\" in an unscientific \"Top-Ten\" poll taken by members attending the AIA annual convention in Philadelphia. On that list, Wright was listed along with many of the USA's other greatest architects including Eero Saarinen, I.M. Pei, Louis Kahn, Philip Johnson, and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe; he was the only architect who had more than one building on the list. The other three buildings were the Guggenheim Museum, the Frederick C. Robie House, and the Johnson Wax Building.",
"title": "Legacy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 87,
"text": "In 1992, the Madison Opera in Madison, Wisconsin, commissioned and premiered the opera Shining Brow, by composer Daron Hagen and librettist Paul Muldoon based on events early in Wright's life. The work has since received numerous revivals, including a June 2013 revival at Fallingwater, in Bull Run, Pennsylvania, by Opera Theater of Pittsburgh. In 2000, Work Song: Three Views of Frank Lloyd Wright, a play based on the relationship between the personal and working aspects of Wright's life, debuted at the Milwaukee Repertory Theater.",
"title": "Legacy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 88,
"text": "In 1966, the United States Postal Service honored Wright with a Prominent Americans series 2¢ postage stamp.",
"title": "Legacy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 89,
"text": "\"So Long, Frank Lloyd Wright\" is a song written by Paul Simon. Art Garfunkel has stated that the origin of the song came from his request that Simon write a song about the famous architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Simon himself stated that he knew nothing about Wright, but proceeded to write the song anyway.",
"title": "Legacy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 90,
"text": "In 1957, Arizona made plans to construct a new capitol building. Believing that the submitted plans for the new capitol were tombs to the past, Frank Lloyd Wright offered Oasis as an alternative to the people of Arizona. In 2004, one of the spires included in his design was erected in Scottsdale.",
"title": "Legacy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 91,
"text": "The city of Scottsdale, Arizona renamed a portion of Bell Road, a major east–west thoroughfare in the Phoenix metropolitan area, in honor of Frank Lloyd Wright.",
"title": "Legacy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 92,
"text": "Eight of Wright's buildings – Fallingwater, the Guggenheim Museum, the Hollyhock House, the Jacobs House, the Robie House, Taliesin, Taliesin West, and the Unity Temple – were inscribed on the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites under the title The 20th-century Architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright in July 2019. UNESCO stated that these buildings were \"innovative solutions to the needs for housing, worship, work or leisure\" and \"had a strong impact on the development of modern architecture in Europe\".",
"title": "Legacy"
}
] |
Frank Lloyd Wright was an American architect, designer, writer, and educator. He designed more than 1,000 structures over a creative period of 70 years. Wright played a key role in the architectural movements of the twentieth century, influencing architects worldwide through his works and hundreds of apprentices in his Taliesin Fellowship. Wright believed in designing in harmony with humanity and the environment, a philosophy he called organic architecture. This philosophy was exemplified in Fallingwater (1935), which has been called "the best all-time work of American architecture". Wright was the pioneer of what came to be called the Prairie School movement of architecture and also developed the concept of the Usonian home in Broadacre City, his vision for urban planning in the United States. He also designed original and innovative offices, churches, schools, skyscrapers, hotels, museums, and other commercial projects. Wright-designed interior elements were integrated into these structures. He wrote several books and numerous articles and was a popular lecturer in the United States and in Europe. Wright was recognized in 1991 by the American Institute of Architects as "the greatest American architect of all time". In 2019, a selection of his work became a listed World Heritage Site as The 20th-Century Architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright. Raised in rural Wisconsin, Wright studied civil engineering at the University of Wisconsin and then apprenticed in Chicago, briefly with Joseph Lyman Silsbee, and then with Louis Sullivan at Adler & Sullivan. Wright opened his own successful Chicago practice in 1893 and established a studio in his Oak Park, Illinois home in 1898. His fame increased and his personal life sometimes made headlines: leaving his first wife Catherine "Kitty" Tobin for Mamah Cheney in 1909; the murder of Mamah and her children and others at his Taliesin estate by a staff member in 1914; his tempestuous marriage with second wife Miriam Noel; and his courtship and marriage with Olgivanna Lazović.
|
2001-09-04T22:03:39Z
|
2023-12-19T05:24:08Z
|
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Lloyd_Wright
|
10,685 |
Filk music
|
Filk music is a musical culture, genre, and community tied to science fiction, fantasy, and horror fandom and a type of fan labor. The genre has existed since the early 1950s and been played primarily since the mid-1970s. The genre has a niche but faithful popularity in the underground.
The term "filk" (originally a typographical error) predates 1955. (See also below.)
Interfilk, a charity registered in California to "[promote] cultural exchange through filk music", offered multiple sources of definitions, without summary, for filk music c. 2002 – c. 2012, but since relies almost entirely on an article by Jordin Kare titled "Filk Music", originally published by Sing Out! magazine, for their definition. Kare quotes Nick Smith of the Los Angeles Filkharmonics as stating:
It is a mixture of song parodies and original music, humorous and serious, about subjects like science fiction, fantasy, computers, cats, politics, the space program, books, movies, TV shows, love, war, death...
and summarizes that "almost anything goes at a filksing".
Filk has been defined as what is sung or performed by the network of people who originally gathered to sing at science fiction or fantasy conventions.
Another definition focuses on filking as a community of those who are interested in filk music and who form part of the social network self-identified with filking. As described later in this article, the origins of filk in science fiction conventions and its current organization emphasizes the social-network aspect of filking. The social aspect of filk as contrasted with the "performer vs. audience" dichotomy of much of modern music was described in a speech by ethnomusicologist Sally Childs-Helton.
The range of topics in filk songs stems from its cultural roots in fandom. Many songs honor specific works in science fiction, fantasy, or speculative fiction. Other songs are about science, fantasy, computers, technology in general, or values related to technological change.
A significant number of filk songs are parodies, whether in the original sense of simply re-using a tune or in the modern sense of specifically humorous re-use.
One subtype of filk songs is the "ose" song, one on themes of death and gloom. The term derives from the word "morose", as in "ose, morose, even-more-ose".
In the early 1950s, the term filk music started as a misspelling of folk music in an essay by Lee Jacobs, "The Influence of Science Fiction on Modern American Filk Music". Wrai Ballard, then editor of the Spectator Amateur Press Society refused to publish it for fear that the article's bawdy content could get them into trouble with the Post Office under the Comstock Laws, but found the typo itself amusing, and mentioned it repeatedly; thus, Jacobs' typo became the self-identified term for the genre/subculture while it was still an informal, unrecognized activity at conventions. Its first documented deliberate use was by Karen Anderson in Die Zeitschrift für vollständigen Unsinn (The Journal for Utter Nonsense) No. 774 (June 1953), for a song written by her husband Poul Anderson.
At the 1974 World Science Fiction Convention author Bob Asprin announced publicly the creation of a group of volunteers he dubbed the Dorsai Irregulars, and a singing session ensued later that night. In the 1970s and 1980s, filking slowly became established as an acknowledged activity at science fiction conventions. Some convention organizers allotted hotel function space late at night for filkers, or filking occurred in hallways, bars or any other place that the filkers could find. Some convention organizers in the 1980s began inviting guests specifically for their filking. Some specialized conventions focused entirely on filk, beginning with FilkCon in Chicago in 1979, organized by Margaret Middleton and Curt Clemmer, later joined by BayFilk in Northern California; the Ohio Valley Filk Fest (OVFF) in Columbus, Ohio; ConChord in Los Angeles and in San Diego, California; GAFilk in Atlanta, Georgia; Musicon in Nashville, Tennessee; FilKONtario near Toronto, Ontario; a rotating British filkcon, and one (NEFilk) in the northeastern US; and the German FilkCONtinental.
As the name implies, a rough circle of chairs is usually formed. Traditionally, filk circles are started in the evening and tend to continue very late into the night.
A wide range of instruments can be found in a filk circle, although the most common is the acoustic guitar. Acoustic instruments are more common than electric instruments, although portable keyboards and even theremins are not unheard of.
Filk circles are often given an organizational structure to make it easier for participants to know when it is time to perform or time to listen to other performers. There are many ways to accomplish this, but the most common types of filk circle are listed below.
The advantage of the bardic circle is that it has a clear structure, which enforces politeness. It ensures everyone in the circle gets their turn so that even shy people can have a chance to request or perform. There are disadvantages, however. A bardic circle with large numbers of participants will take a long time to traverse the entire circle, making people wait too long for their turn. Such a circle was lamented in a filk by Suzette Haden Elgin: "I've been here with my song at the ready since day before yesterday night."
In a chaos circle, there is no sequential organization. Any performer can simply begin playing a song after the prior song is finished, or any participant can shout out a request. Care must be taken to prevent two songs from starting at the same time. Frequently the word "follower!" is shouted in a chaos circle, meaning that a performer believes they have the perfect song to follow the prior song, and they want to play it now.
The chaos circle's advantage is its spontaneity and energy. "Runs" of songs will frequently get started, with each new song intended to make some sort of connection to or commentary on the prior song's topic. The disadvantage is that it takes concentration and effort to be polite and respectful in a chaos circle: It is easy to accidentally interrupt another performer who's trying to start up a song of their own, especially in a very large circle where one might not be able to easily hear the other performer on the opposite side of the room. Chaos circles thus have a reputation of favoring bold, loud performers who can command attention. One countermeasure to such conflicts is for someone, generally not one of the current/starting-up performers, to shout "Filker up!", possibly pointing to the one being interrupted. This alerts the room, and specifically the (usually unintentional) interrupter, to be quiet and pay attention to the filker who has started performing.
A token bardic circle, also known as a "poker-chip" bardic circle, attempts to combine the enforced politeness of the bardic circle with the freeform nature of the chaos circle. A container full of some type of token such as poker chips is supplied for the circle. Each person participating in the circle is given a fixed number of tokens when they enter the room (frequently two tokens) and can throw a token into the center of the circle at any time to claim a pick or play turn. When all the active tokens in the circle are used up, they are scooped up and redistributed for the next round.
The etiquette of the filk circle begins with a respect for all music, including (and perhaps especially) amateur music and amateur performers. Everyone is encouraged to perform, regardless of their skill level. No one is criticized except to occasionally give tips or suggestions.
At a deep level, the folk culture of filk validates creative arts in the midst of an explicitly technological culture. When accepting induction into the Filk Hall of Fame in 2003, ethnomusicologist Sally Childs-Helton said, "We have taken our right to be creative and to literally 'play' in the best sense of that word." Filk combines folk roots, live music circles, and dominant acoustical instrumentation, on the one hand, with high-tech cultural maintenance, on the other hand—a dense network of filkers' web pages, recordings, sound reinforcement at filk conventions, e-mail lists, and so on. The eclectic content of filk frequently contains that assertion of human creativity, especially in connection with technology. (See for example Leslie Fish's "Hope Eyrie".) While there are significant numbers of memorial songs, pessimistic songs blame carelessness, incompetence, and corruption, only rarely considering the frailties of a society built on technology or hopes for the future. Because these themes cross international boundaries in filk, they are not explainable as a purely American optimism vis-a-vis technology (in contrast to Nye, 1996).
That openness to participation is a marked norm in filking.
Occasional discussions over the boundaries of filk indicates the extent to which participants in filking are both aware of and keenly interested in the definition of filk as a community. Newsgroup debates over such topics as whether "Weird Al" Yankovic is a filker suggest the deep feelings involved. In practice, most formal recognition of filkers in various awards are to those who regularly attend self-identified filk events, not to professional artists whose work may be considered found filk.
The OVFF convention committee solicits nominations for finalists for the Pegasus Awards (the nominating ballot) during the late spring and summer. There is an opinion poll that runs during the year as well to help interested folk brainstorm ideas for the nominating ballot. The finalist ballot is distributed in the early fall and must be returned by the opening night of OVFF. Voting can be done online—either to nominate finalists or to vote for the finalists themselves. The final round of voting happens at OVFF itself, where handwritten ballots are collected after the annual Pegasus concert. The entire process is administered by the OVFF convention committee.
The Filk Hall of Fame was created by David Hayman in 1995 as a complement to the Pegasus Awards.
Anyone may make a nomination.
|
[
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "Filk music is a musical culture, genre, and community tied to science fiction, fantasy, and horror fandom and a type of fan labor. The genre has existed since the early 1950s and been played primarily since the mid-1970s. The genre has a niche but faithful popularity in the underground.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "The term \"filk\" (originally a typographical error) predates 1955. (See also below.)",
"title": "Etymology and definitions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "Interfilk, a charity registered in California to \"[promote] cultural exchange through filk music\", offered multiple sources of definitions, without summary, for filk music c. 2002 – c. 2012, but since relies almost entirely on an article by Jordin Kare titled \"Filk Music\", originally published by Sing Out! magazine, for their definition. Kare quotes Nick Smith of the Los Angeles Filkharmonics as stating:",
"title": "Etymology and definitions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "It is a mixture of song parodies and original music, humorous and serious, about subjects like science fiction, fantasy, computers, cats, politics, the space program, books, movies, TV shows, love, war, death...",
"title": "Etymology and definitions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "and summarizes that \"almost anything goes at a filksing\".",
"title": "Etymology and definitions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "Filk has been defined as what is sung or performed by the network of people who originally gathered to sing at science fiction or fantasy conventions.",
"title": "Etymology and definitions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "Another definition focuses on filking as a community of those who are interested in filk music and who form part of the social network self-identified with filking. As described later in this article, the origins of filk in science fiction conventions and its current organization emphasizes the social-network aspect of filking. The social aspect of filk as contrasted with the \"performer vs. audience\" dichotomy of much of modern music was described in a speech by ethnomusicologist Sally Childs-Helton.",
"title": "Etymology and definitions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "The range of topics in filk songs stems from its cultural roots in fandom. Many songs honor specific works in science fiction, fantasy, or speculative fiction. Other songs are about science, fantasy, computers, technology in general, or values related to technological change.",
"title": "Styles and subjects"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "A significant number of filk songs are parodies, whether in the original sense of simply re-using a tune or in the modern sense of specifically humorous re-use.",
"title": "Styles and subjects"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "One subtype of filk songs is the \"ose\" song, one on themes of death and gloom. The term derives from the word \"morose\", as in \"ose, morose, even-more-ose\".",
"title": "Styles and subjects"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "In the early 1950s, the term filk music started as a misspelling of folk music in an essay by Lee Jacobs, \"The Influence of Science Fiction on Modern American Filk Music\". Wrai Ballard, then editor of the Spectator Amateur Press Society refused to publish it for fear that the article's bawdy content could get them into trouble with the Post Office under the Comstock Laws, but found the typo itself amusing, and mentioned it repeatedly; thus, Jacobs' typo became the self-identified term for the genre/subculture while it was still an informal, unrecognized activity at conventions. Its first documented deliberate use was by Karen Anderson in Die Zeitschrift für vollständigen Unsinn (The Journal for Utter Nonsense) No. 774 (June 1953), for a song written by her husband Poul Anderson.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "At the 1974 World Science Fiction Convention author Bob Asprin announced publicly the creation of a group of volunteers he dubbed the Dorsai Irregulars, and a singing session ensued later that night. In the 1970s and 1980s, filking slowly became established as an acknowledged activity at science fiction conventions. Some convention organizers allotted hotel function space late at night for filkers, or filking occurred in hallways, bars or any other place that the filkers could find. Some convention organizers in the 1980s began inviting guests specifically for their filking. Some specialized conventions focused entirely on filk, beginning with FilkCon in Chicago in 1979, organized by Margaret Middleton and Curt Clemmer, later joined by BayFilk in Northern California; the Ohio Valley Filk Fest (OVFF) in Columbus, Ohio; ConChord in Los Angeles and in San Diego, California; GAFilk in Atlanta, Georgia; Musicon in Nashville, Tennessee; FilKONtario near Toronto, Ontario; a rotating British filkcon, and one (NEFilk) in the northeastern US; and the German FilkCONtinental.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "As the name implies, a rough circle of chairs is usually formed. Traditionally, filk circles are started in the evening and tend to continue very late into the night.",
"title": "Filk circles"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "A wide range of instruments can be found in a filk circle, although the most common is the acoustic guitar. Acoustic instruments are more common than electric instruments, although portable keyboards and even theremins are not unheard of.",
"title": "Filk circles"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "Filk circles are often given an organizational structure to make it easier for participants to know when it is time to perform or time to listen to other performers. There are many ways to accomplish this, but the most common types of filk circle are listed below.",
"title": "Filk circles"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 15,
"text": "The advantage of the bardic circle is that it has a clear structure, which enforces politeness. It ensures everyone in the circle gets their turn so that even shy people can have a chance to request or perform. There are disadvantages, however. A bardic circle with large numbers of participants will take a long time to traverse the entire circle, making people wait too long for their turn. Such a circle was lamented in a filk by Suzette Haden Elgin: \"I've been here with my song at the ready since day before yesterday night.\"",
"title": "Filk circles"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 16,
"text": "In a chaos circle, there is no sequential organization. Any performer can simply begin playing a song after the prior song is finished, or any participant can shout out a request. Care must be taken to prevent two songs from starting at the same time. Frequently the word \"follower!\" is shouted in a chaos circle, meaning that a performer believes they have the perfect song to follow the prior song, and they want to play it now.",
"title": "Filk circles"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 17,
"text": "The chaos circle's advantage is its spontaneity and energy. \"Runs\" of songs will frequently get started, with each new song intended to make some sort of connection to or commentary on the prior song's topic. The disadvantage is that it takes concentration and effort to be polite and respectful in a chaos circle: It is easy to accidentally interrupt another performer who's trying to start up a song of their own, especially in a very large circle where one might not be able to easily hear the other performer on the opposite side of the room. Chaos circles thus have a reputation of favoring bold, loud performers who can command attention. One countermeasure to such conflicts is for someone, generally not one of the current/starting-up performers, to shout \"Filker up!\", possibly pointing to the one being interrupted. This alerts the room, and specifically the (usually unintentional) interrupter, to be quiet and pay attention to the filker who has started performing.",
"title": "Filk circles"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 18,
"text": "A token bardic circle, also known as a \"poker-chip\" bardic circle, attempts to combine the enforced politeness of the bardic circle with the freeform nature of the chaos circle. A container full of some type of token such as poker chips is supplied for the circle. Each person participating in the circle is given a fixed number of tokens when they enter the room (frequently two tokens) and can throw a token into the center of the circle at any time to claim a pick or play turn. When all the active tokens in the circle are used up, they are scooped up and redistributed for the next round.",
"title": "Filk circles"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 19,
"text": "The etiquette of the filk circle begins with a respect for all music, including (and perhaps especially) amateur music and amateur performers. Everyone is encouraged to perform, regardless of their skill level. No one is criticized except to occasionally give tips or suggestions.",
"title": "Filk circles"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 20,
"text": "At a deep level, the folk culture of filk validates creative arts in the midst of an explicitly technological culture. When accepting induction into the Filk Hall of Fame in 2003, ethnomusicologist Sally Childs-Helton said, \"We have taken our right to be creative and to literally 'play' in the best sense of that word.\" Filk combines folk roots, live music circles, and dominant acoustical instrumentation, on the one hand, with high-tech cultural maintenance, on the other hand—a dense network of filkers' web pages, recordings, sound reinforcement at filk conventions, e-mail lists, and so on. The eclectic content of filk frequently contains that assertion of human creativity, especially in connection with technology. (See for example Leslie Fish's \"Hope Eyrie\".) While there are significant numbers of memorial songs, pessimistic songs blame carelessness, incompetence, and corruption, only rarely considering the frailties of a society built on technology or hopes for the future. Because these themes cross international boundaries in filk, they are not explainable as a purely American optimism vis-a-vis technology (in contrast to Nye, 1996).",
"title": "Cultural perspective"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 21,
"text": "That openness to participation is a marked norm in filking.",
"title": "Cultural perspective"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 22,
"text": "Occasional discussions over the boundaries of filk indicates the extent to which participants in filking are both aware of and keenly interested in the definition of filk as a community. Newsgroup debates over such topics as whether \"Weird Al\" Yankovic is a filker suggest the deep feelings involved. In practice, most formal recognition of filkers in various awards are to those who regularly attend self-identified filk events, not to professional artists whose work may be considered found filk.",
"title": "Cultural perspective"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 23,
"text": "The OVFF convention committee solicits nominations for finalists for the Pegasus Awards (the nominating ballot) during the late spring and summer. There is an opinion poll that runs during the year as well to help interested folk brainstorm ideas for the nominating ballot. The finalist ballot is distributed in the early fall and must be returned by the opening night of OVFF. Voting can be done online—either to nominate finalists or to vote for the finalists themselves. The final round of voting happens at OVFF itself, where handwritten ballots are collected after the annual Pegasus concert. The entire process is administered by the OVFF convention committee.",
"title": "Pegasus Awards"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 24,
"text": "The Filk Hall of Fame was created by David Hayman in 1995 as a complement to the Pegasus Awards.",
"title": "Filk Hall of Fame"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 25,
"text": "Anyone may make a nomination.",
"title": "Filk Hall of Fame"
}
] |
Filk music is a musical culture, genre, and community tied to science fiction, fantasy, and horror fandom and a type of fan labor. The genre has existed since the early 1950s and been played primarily since the mid-1970s. The genre has a niche but faithful popularity in the underground.
|
2001-11-14T18:22:28Z
|
2023-09-10T00:42:30Z
|
[
"Template:Curlie",
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"Template:Nerd music",
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"Template:Annotated link",
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"Template:Folk music",
"Template:Circa",
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] |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filk_music
|
10,687 |
Frisbee
|
A frisbee (pronounced FRIZ-bee), also called a flying disc or simply a disc, is a gliding toy or sporting item that is generally made of injection-molded plastic and roughly 8 to 10 inches (20 to 25 cm) in diameter with a pronounced lip. It is used recreationally and competitively for throwing and catching, as in flying disc games. The shape of the disc is an airfoil in cross-section which allows it to fly by reducing the drag and increasing lift as it moves through the air, compared to a flat plate. Spinning the disc imparts a stabilizing gyroscopic force, allowing it to be both aimed with accuracy and thrown for distance.
A wide range is available of flying disc variants. Those for disc golf are usually smaller but denser compared to ultimate frisbee, and tailored for particular flight profiles to increase or decrease stability and distance. The longest recorded disc throw is by David Wiggins Jr. with a distance of 1,109 feet (338 m). Disc dog sports use relatively slow-flying discs made of more pliable material to better resist a dog's bite and prevent injury to the dog. Flying rings are also available which typically travel significantly farther than any traditional flying disc. Illuminated discs are made of phosphorescent plastic or contain chemiluminescent fluid or battery-powered LEDs for play after dark. Others whistle when they reach a certain velocity in flight.
The term frisbee is often used generically to describe all flying discs, but Frisbee is a registered trademark of the Wham-O toy company. This protection results in organized sports such as ultimate or disc golf having to forgo use of the word "Frisbee".
Walter Frederick Morrison and his future wife Lucile had fun tossing a popcorn can lid after a Thanksgiving Day dinner in 1937. They soon discovered a market for a light-duty flying disc when they were offered 25 cents (equivalent to $5 in 2022) for a cake pan that they were tossing back and forth on a beach near Los Angeles. In 2007, in an interview in The Virginian-Pilot newspaper, Morrison compared that with the 5 cents (equivalent to $1 in 2022) it cost at the time:
"That got the wheels turning, because you could buy a cake pan for five cents, and if people on the beach were willing to pay a quarter for it, well—there was a business."
The Morrisons continued their business until World War II, when Walter served in the Army Air Force flying P-47s, and then was a prisoner of war. After the war, Morrison sketched a design for an aerodynamically improved flying disc that he called the Whirlo-Way, after the famous racehorse. He and business partner Warren Franscioni began producing the first plastic discs by 1948, after design modifications and experimentation with several prototypes. They renamed them the Flyin-Saucer in the wake of reported unidentified flying object sightings.
"We worked fairs, demonstrating it," Morrison told the Virginian-Pilot. The two of them once overheard someone saying that the pair were using wires to make the discs hover, so they developed a sales pitch: "The Flyin-Saucer is free, but the invisible wire is $1." (equivalent to $12 in 2022) "That's where we learned we could sell these things," he said, because people were enthusiastic about them.
Morrison and Franscioni ended their partnership in early 1950, and Morrison formed his own company in 1954 called American Trends to buy and sell Flyin Saucers (no hyphen after 1953), which were being made of a flexible polypropylene plastic by Southern California Plastics, the original molder. He discovered that he could produce his own disc more cheaply, and he designed a new model in 1955 called the Pluto Platter, the archetype of all modern flying discs. He sold the rights to Wham-O on January 23, 1957.
In 1958, Morrison was awarded U.S. Design Patent D183,626 for his product.
In June 1957, Wham-O co-founders Richard Knerr and Arthur "Spud" Melin gave the disc the brand name "Frisbee" after learning that college students were calling the Pluto Platter by that term, which was derived from the Connecticut-based pie manufacturer Frisbie Pie Company, a supplier of pies to Yale University, where students had started a campus craze tossing empty pie tins stamped with the company's logo—the way that Morrison and his wife had in 1937.
In November 1957, in what may be the first rock musical ever performed, Anything & Everything, written by visionary pioneer of information technology Ted Nelson (Theodor H. Nelson) when he was a junior at Swarthmore College (with Richard L. Capian), the game of Frisbee (spelled Frisby) is described (perhaps for the first time that the frisbee appeared in a formal manuscript) in the song "Friz Me the Frisby,” as a frisbee was passed among stooges in the audience. The scene was expressly intended as a way to introduce the game to the audience.
The man behind the Frisbee's success, however, was the Southern Californian Ed Headrick, hired in 1964 as Wham-O's general manager and vice president of marketing. Headrick redesigned the Pluto Platter by reworking the mold, mainly to remove the names of the planets, but fortuitously increasing the rim thickness and mass in the process, creating a more controllable disc that could be thrown more accurately.
Wham-O changed their marketing strategy to promote Frisbee use as a new sport, and sales increased. In 1964, the first professional model went on sale. Headrick patented its design; it featured raised ridges (the "Rings of Headrick") that were claimed to stabilize flight.
Headrick became known as the father of Frisbee sports; he founded the International Frisbee Association and appointed Dan Roddick as its head. Roddick began establishing North American Series (NAS) tournament standards for various Frisbee sports, such as Freestyle, Guts, Double Disc Court, and overall events. Headrick later helped to develop the sport of disc golf, which was first played with Frisbees and later with more aerodynamic beveled-rim discs, by inventing standardized targets called "pole holes". When Headrick died, he was cremated, and his ashes were molded into memorial discs and given to family and close friends and sold to benefit The Ed Headrick Memorial Museum.
In 1998, the Frisbee was inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame.
Flying discs, or known as Frisbee, have variations produced for different purposes to optimize variations between branches of disc sports. The three main categories are: ultimate disc, golf disc, and freestyle disc. Disc types are distinguished by differences in weight, diameter, and density. But all types of discs are created by designing molds in factories where plastic materials are melted and then injected into the molding machine.
Ultimate discs are designed to be used in the sport of Ultimate. Ultimate discs are made of durable plastic (often polyethylene) and are designed to be thrown for maximum distance and accuracy.
Ultimate has a unique standard with a diameter of 10.75 inches (27.3 cm) and a weight of 175 grams (6.2 oz). For competitive uses, WFDF or other official organizations set disc standards to ensure quality.
Ultimate discs have a convexed rim and a flat top, which allows for precise throws and catches. The unit price for an ultimate disc is normally bounded within US$10-20.
Another type of flying disc is the disc golf disc, which is used in the sport of disc golf. Disc golf discs are similar in size and shape to ultimate discs, but have different weights and designs. The material often used to make golf discs is polypropylene. There are three main types of disc golf discs: drivers, mid-range discs, and putters.
Each type is designed for a specific purpose, with drivers being used for long-distance throws, mid-range discs for more controlled shots, and putters for short and accurate throws into the target. The rim for golf discs are sharper than ultimate frisbee, to reduce wind drag.
Each type of golf disc has hundreds of variations, subject to a uniform requirement in the size of discs: the minimum diameter of a golf disc is 21 cm (8.3 in). A typical price for a single golf disc is around US$8-20, depending on quality and brand.
Freestyle discs are another variation of flying discs that are used in freestyle Frisbee competitions. These discs are usually smaller and lighter than other types of flying discs. Most freestyle discs have a diameter of 10 inches (25 cm) or less and a weight of around 160 grams (5.6 oz), but this is subject to change according to the performer's need. They are designed to be highly maneuverable, with a more rounded shape and a low profile that makes them easy to catch and with which to perform tricks.
Overall, all ultimate frisbees share the same size, weight, and shape. In contrast, golf disc has many variations for different uses, just as with different golf shafts in the traditional sport of golf. Freestyle disc depends more on performer needs and weather conditions.
The IFT guts competitions in Northern Michigan, the Canadian Open Frisbee Championships (1972), Toronto, Ontario, the Vancouver Open Frisbee Championships (1974), Vancouver, British Columbia, the Octad (1974), New Jersey, the American Flying Disc Open (1974), Rochester, New York, and the World Frisbee Championships (1974), Pasadena, California, are the earliest Frisbee competitions that presented the Frisbee as a new disc sport. Before these tournaments, the Frisbee was considered a toy and used for recreation.
Double disc court was invented and introduced in 1974 by Jim Palmeri, a sport played with two flying discs and two teams of two players. Each team defends its court and tries to land a flying disc in the opposing court.
Dogs and their human flying disc throwers compete in events such as distance catching and somewhat choreographed freestyle catching.
This is a precision and accuracy sport in which individual players throw a flying disc at a target pole hole. In 1926, In Bladworth, Saskatchewan, Canada, Ronald Gibson and a group of his Bladworth Elementary school chums played a game using metal lids, they called "Tin Lid Golf". In 1976, the game of disc golf was standardized with targets called "pole holes" invented and developed by Wham-O's Ed Headrick.
In 1974, freestyle competition was created and introduced by Ken Westerfield and Discraft's Jim Kenner. Teams of two or three players are judged as they perform a routine that consists of a series of creative throwing and catching techniques set to music.
A half-court disc game derived from ultimate, similar to hot box. The object is to advance the disc on the field of play by passing, and score points by throwing the flying disc to a teammate in a small scoring area.
The game of guts was invented by the Healy Brothers in the 1950s and developed at the International Frisbee Tournament (IFT) in Eagle Harbor, Michigan. Two teams of one to five team members stand in parallel lines facing each other across a court and throw flying discs at members of the opposing team.
A patented game scoring points by throwing and deflecting the flying disc and hitting or entering the goal. The game ends when a team scores exactly 21 points or "chogs" the disc for an instant win.
The most widely played disc game began in the late 1960s with Joel Silver and Jared Kass. In the 1970s, it developed as an organized sport with the creation of the Ultimate Players Association by Dan Roddick, Tom Kennedy and Irv Kalb.
The object of the game is to advance the disc and score points by eventually passing the disc to a team member in the opposing team's end zone. Players may not run while holding the disc.
|
[
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "A frisbee (pronounced FRIZ-bee), also called a flying disc or simply a disc, is a gliding toy or sporting item that is generally made of injection-molded plastic and roughly 8 to 10 inches (20 to 25 cm) in diameter with a pronounced lip. It is used recreationally and competitively for throwing and catching, as in flying disc games. The shape of the disc is an airfoil in cross-section which allows it to fly by reducing the drag and increasing lift as it moves through the air, compared to a flat plate. Spinning the disc imparts a stabilizing gyroscopic force, allowing it to be both aimed with accuracy and thrown for distance.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "A wide range is available of flying disc variants. Those for disc golf are usually smaller but denser compared to ultimate frisbee, and tailored for particular flight profiles to increase or decrease stability and distance. The longest recorded disc throw is by David Wiggins Jr. with a distance of 1,109 feet (338 m). Disc dog sports use relatively slow-flying discs made of more pliable material to better resist a dog's bite and prevent injury to the dog. Flying rings are also available which typically travel significantly farther than any traditional flying disc. Illuminated discs are made of phosphorescent plastic or contain chemiluminescent fluid or battery-powered LEDs for play after dark. Others whistle when they reach a certain velocity in flight.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "The term frisbee is often used generically to describe all flying discs, but Frisbee is a registered trademark of the Wham-O toy company. This protection results in organized sports such as ultimate or disc golf having to forgo use of the word \"Frisbee\".",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "Walter Frederick Morrison and his future wife Lucile had fun tossing a popcorn can lid after a Thanksgiving Day dinner in 1937. They soon discovered a market for a light-duty flying disc when they were offered 25 cents (equivalent to $5 in 2022) for a cake pan that they were tossing back and forth on a beach near Los Angeles. In 2007, in an interview in The Virginian-Pilot newspaper, Morrison compared that with the 5 cents (equivalent to $1 in 2022) it cost at the time:",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "\"That got the wheels turning, because you could buy a cake pan for five cents, and if people on the beach were willing to pay a quarter for it, well—there was a business.\"",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "The Morrisons continued their business until World War II, when Walter served in the Army Air Force flying P-47s, and then was a prisoner of war. After the war, Morrison sketched a design for an aerodynamically improved flying disc that he called the Whirlo-Way, after the famous racehorse. He and business partner Warren Franscioni began producing the first plastic discs by 1948, after design modifications and experimentation with several prototypes. They renamed them the Flyin-Saucer in the wake of reported unidentified flying object sightings.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "\"We worked fairs, demonstrating it,\" Morrison told the Virginian-Pilot. The two of them once overheard someone saying that the pair were using wires to make the discs hover, so they developed a sales pitch: \"The Flyin-Saucer is free, but the invisible wire is $1.\" (equivalent to $12 in 2022) \"That's where we learned we could sell these things,\" he said, because people were enthusiastic about them.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "Morrison and Franscioni ended their partnership in early 1950, and Morrison formed his own company in 1954 called American Trends to buy and sell Flyin Saucers (no hyphen after 1953), which were being made of a flexible polypropylene plastic by Southern California Plastics, the original molder. He discovered that he could produce his own disc more cheaply, and he designed a new model in 1955 called the Pluto Platter, the archetype of all modern flying discs. He sold the rights to Wham-O on January 23, 1957.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "In 1958, Morrison was awarded U.S. Design Patent D183,626 for his product.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "In June 1957, Wham-O co-founders Richard Knerr and Arthur \"Spud\" Melin gave the disc the brand name \"Frisbee\" after learning that college students were calling the Pluto Platter by that term, which was derived from the Connecticut-based pie manufacturer Frisbie Pie Company, a supplier of pies to Yale University, where students had started a campus craze tossing empty pie tins stamped with the company's logo—the way that Morrison and his wife had in 1937.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "In November 1957, in what may be the first rock musical ever performed, Anything & Everything, written by visionary pioneer of information technology Ted Nelson (Theodor H. Nelson) when he was a junior at Swarthmore College (with Richard L. Capian), the game of Frisbee (spelled Frisby) is described (perhaps for the first time that the frisbee appeared in a formal manuscript) in the song \"Friz Me the Frisby,” as a frisbee was passed among stooges in the audience. The scene was expressly intended as a way to introduce the game to the audience.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "The man behind the Frisbee's success, however, was the Southern Californian Ed Headrick, hired in 1964 as Wham-O's general manager and vice president of marketing. Headrick redesigned the Pluto Platter by reworking the mold, mainly to remove the names of the planets, but fortuitously increasing the rim thickness and mass in the process, creating a more controllable disc that could be thrown more accurately.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "Wham-O changed their marketing strategy to promote Frisbee use as a new sport, and sales increased. In 1964, the first professional model went on sale. Headrick patented its design; it featured raised ridges (the \"Rings of Headrick\") that were claimed to stabilize flight.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "Headrick became known as the father of Frisbee sports; he founded the International Frisbee Association and appointed Dan Roddick as its head. Roddick began establishing North American Series (NAS) tournament standards for various Frisbee sports, such as Freestyle, Guts, Double Disc Court, and overall events. Headrick later helped to develop the sport of disc golf, which was first played with Frisbees and later with more aerodynamic beveled-rim discs, by inventing standardized targets called \"pole holes\". When Headrick died, he was cremated, and his ashes were molded into memorial discs and given to family and close friends and sold to benefit The Ed Headrick Memorial Museum.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "In 1998, the Frisbee was inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 15,
"text": "Flying discs, or known as Frisbee, have variations produced for different purposes to optimize variations between branches of disc sports. The three main categories are: ultimate disc, golf disc, and freestyle disc. Disc types are distinguished by differences in weight, diameter, and density. But all types of discs are created by designing molds in factories where plastic materials are melted and then injected into the molding machine.",
"title": "Variations of flying discs"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 16,
"text": "Ultimate discs are designed to be used in the sport of Ultimate. Ultimate discs are made of durable plastic (often polyethylene) and are designed to be thrown for maximum distance and accuracy.",
"title": "Variations of flying discs"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 17,
"text": "Ultimate has a unique standard with a diameter of 10.75 inches (27.3 cm) and a weight of 175 grams (6.2 oz). For competitive uses, WFDF or other official organizations set disc standards to ensure quality.",
"title": "Variations of flying discs"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 18,
"text": "Ultimate discs have a convexed rim and a flat top, which allows for precise throws and catches. The unit price for an ultimate disc is normally bounded within US$10-20.",
"title": "Variations of flying discs"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 19,
"text": "Another type of flying disc is the disc golf disc, which is used in the sport of disc golf. Disc golf discs are similar in size and shape to ultimate discs, but have different weights and designs. The material often used to make golf discs is polypropylene. There are three main types of disc golf discs: drivers, mid-range discs, and putters.",
"title": "Variations of flying discs"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 20,
"text": "Each type is designed for a specific purpose, with drivers being used for long-distance throws, mid-range discs for more controlled shots, and putters for short and accurate throws into the target. The rim for golf discs are sharper than ultimate frisbee, to reduce wind drag.",
"title": "Variations of flying discs"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 21,
"text": "Each type of golf disc has hundreds of variations, subject to a uniform requirement in the size of discs: the minimum diameter of a golf disc is 21 cm (8.3 in). A typical price for a single golf disc is around US$8-20, depending on quality and brand.",
"title": "Variations of flying discs"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 22,
"text": "Freestyle discs are another variation of flying discs that are used in freestyle Frisbee competitions. These discs are usually smaller and lighter than other types of flying discs. Most freestyle discs have a diameter of 10 inches (25 cm) or less and a weight of around 160 grams (5.6 oz), but this is subject to change according to the performer's need. They are designed to be highly maneuverable, with a more rounded shape and a low profile that makes them easy to catch and with which to perform tricks.",
"title": "Variations of flying discs"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 23,
"text": "Overall, all ultimate frisbees share the same size, weight, and shape. In contrast, golf disc has many variations for different uses, just as with different golf shafts in the traditional sport of golf. Freestyle disc depends more on performer needs and weather conditions.",
"title": "Variations of flying discs"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 24,
"text": "The IFT guts competitions in Northern Michigan, the Canadian Open Frisbee Championships (1972), Toronto, Ontario, the Vancouver Open Frisbee Championships (1974), Vancouver, British Columbia, the Octad (1974), New Jersey, the American Flying Disc Open (1974), Rochester, New York, and the World Frisbee Championships (1974), Pasadena, California, are the earliest Frisbee competitions that presented the Frisbee as a new disc sport. Before these tournaments, the Frisbee was considered a toy and used for recreation.",
"title": "Disc sports"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 25,
"text": "Double disc court was invented and introduced in 1974 by Jim Palmeri, a sport played with two flying discs and two teams of two players. Each team defends its court and tries to land a flying disc in the opposing court.",
"title": "Disc sports"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 26,
"text": "Dogs and their human flying disc throwers compete in events such as distance catching and somewhat choreographed freestyle catching.",
"title": "Disc sports"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 27,
"text": "This is a precision and accuracy sport in which individual players throw a flying disc at a target pole hole. In 1926, In Bladworth, Saskatchewan, Canada, Ronald Gibson and a group of his Bladworth Elementary school chums played a game using metal lids, they called \"Tin Lid Golf\". In 1976, the game of disc golf was standardized with targets called \"pole holes\" invented and developed by Wham-O's Ed Headrick.",
"title": "Disc sports"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 28,
"text": "In 1974, freestyle competition was created and introduced by Ken Westerfield and Discraft's Jim Kenner. Teams of two or three players are judged as they perform a routine that consists of a series of creative throwing and catching techniques set to music.",
"title": "Disc sports"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 29,
"text": "A half-court disc game derived from ultimate, similar to hot box. The object is to advance the disc on the field of play by passing, and score points by throwing the flying disc to a teammate in a small scoring area.",
"title": "Disc sports"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 30,
"text": "The game of guts was invented by the Healy Brothers in the 1950s and developed at the International Frisbee Tournament (IFT) in Eagle Harbor, Michigan. Two teams of one to five team members stand in parallel lines facing each other across a court and throw flying discs at members of the opposing team.",
"title": "Disc sports"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 31,
"text": "A patented game scoring points by throwing and deflecting the flying disc and hitting or entering the goal. The game ends when a team scores exactly 21 points or \"chogs\" the disc for an instant win.",
"title": "Disc sports"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 32,
"text": "The most widely played disc game began in the late 1960s with Joel Silver and Jared Kass. In the 1970s, it developed as an organized sport with the creation of the Ultimate Players Association by Dan Roddick, Tom Kennedy and Irv Kalb.",
"title": "Disc sports"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 33,
"text": "The object of the game is to advance the disc and score points by eventually passing the disc to a team member in the opposing team's end zone. Players may not run while holding the disc.",
"title": "Disc sports"
}
] |
A frisbee, also called a flying disc or simply a disc, is a gliding toy or sporting item that is generally made of injection-molded plastic and roughly 8 to 10 inches in diameter with a pronounced lip. It is used recreationally and competitively for throwing and catching, as in flying disc games. The shape of the disc is an airfoil in cross-section which allows it to fly by reducing the drag and increasing lift as it moves through the air, compared to a flat plate. Spinning the disc imparts a stabilizing gyroscopic force, allowing it to be both aimed with accuracy and thrown for distance. A wide range is available of flying disc variants. Those for disc golf are usually smaller but denser compared to ultimate frisbee, and tailored for particular flight profiles to increase or decrease stability and distance. The longest recorded disc throw is by David Wiggins Jr. with a distance of 1,109 feet (338 m). Disc dog sports use relatively slow-flying discs made of more pliable material to better resist a dog's bite and prevent injury to the dog. Flying rings are also available which typically travel significantly farther than any traditional flying disc. Illuminated discs are made of phosphorescent plastic or contain chemiluminescent fluid or battery-powered LEDs for play after dark. Others whistle when they reach a certain velocity in flight. The term frisbee is often used generically to describe all flying discs, but Frisbee is a registered trademark of the Wham-O toy company. This protection results in organized sports such as ultimate or disc golf having to forgo use of the word "Frisbee".
|
2001-04-24T19:39:13Z
|
2023-12-24T04:18:07Z
|
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] |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frisbee
|
10,689 |
History of the Falkland Islands
|
The history of the Falkland Islands (Spanish: Islas Malvinas) goes back at least five hundred years, with active exploration and colonisation only taking place in the 18th century. Nonetheless, the Falkland Islands have been a matter of controversy, as they have been claimed by the French, British, Spaniards and Argentines at various points.
The islands were uninhabited when discovered by Europeans. France established a colony on the islands in 1764. In 1765, a British captain claimed the islands for Britain. In early 1770 a Spanish commander arrived from Buenos Aires with five ships and 1,400 soldiers forcing the British to leave Port Egmont. Britain and Spain almost went to war over the islands, but the British government decided that it should withdraw its presence from many overseas settlements in 1774. Spain, which had a garrison at Puerto Soledad on East Falklands, administered the garrison from Montevideo until 1811 when it was compelled to withdraw as a result of the war against Argentine independence and the pressures of Peninsular War. Luis Vernet attempted to establish a settlement in 1826, seeking support from both the Argentine and British Governments but most of his settlers took the opportunity to leave in 1831 following a raid by the USS Lexington. An attempt made by Argentina to establish a penal colony in 1832 failed due to a mutiny. The Argentine military garrison was ejected by the 1833 British occupation of the Falklands. Argentina invaded the islands on 2 April 1982. The British responded with an expeditionary force that forced the Argentines to surrender.
When the world sea level was lower in the Ice Age, the Falkland Islands may have been joined to the mainland of South America.
While Fuegians from Patagonia could have visited the Falklands, the islands were uninhabited when discovered by Europeans. Recent discoveries of arrowheads in Lafonia (on the southern half of East Falkland) as well as the remains of a wooden canoe provide evidence that the Yaghan people of Tierra del Fuego may have made the journey to the islands. It is not known if these are evidence of one-way journeys, but there is no known evidence of pre-Columbian buildings or structures. However, it is not certain that the discovery predates arrival of Europeans. A Patagonian Missionary Society mission station was founded on Keppel Island (off the west coast of West Falkland) in 1856. Yahgan people were at this station from 1856 to 1898 so this may be the source of the artifacts that have been found. In 2021, a paper was published on deposits of marine animal bones (primarily South American sea lion and Southern rockhopper penguin) on New Island off the coast of West Falkland, at the same site where a quartzite arrowhead made of local stone had been found in 1979. The sites dated to 1275 to 1420 CE, and were interpreted as processing or midden sites where marine animals had been butchered. A charcoal spike consistent with anthropogenic causes (i.e. caused by humans) on New Island was also dated to 550 BP (1400 CE). The Yaghan people were capable seafarers, and are known to have travelled to the Diego Ramírez Islands around 105 km (65 mi) south of Cape Horn, and were suggested to be responsible for the creation of the mounds. Other authors have suggested that the mounds and arrowheads do not provide unambiguous evidence of pre-European presence.
The past presence of the Falkland Islands wolf, Dusicyon australis, has often been cited as evidence of pre-European occupation of the islands, but this is contested. The animal was observed in the Falklands by Charles Darwin, but is now extinct.
The islands had no native trees when discovered but there is some ambiguous evidence of past forestation, which may be due to wood being transported by oceanic currents from Patagonia. All modern trees have been introduced by Europeans.
An archipelago in the region of the Falkland Islands appeared on Portuguese maps from the early 16th century. Researchers Pepper and Pascoe cite the possibility that an unknown Portuguese expedition may have sighted the islands, based on the existence of a French copy of a Portuguese map from 1516. Maps from this period show islands known as the Sanson islands in a position that could be interpreted as the Falklands.
Sightings of the islands are attributed to Ferdinand Magellan or Estêvão Gomes of San Antonio, one of the captains in the expedition, as the Falklands fit the description of those visited to gather supplies. The account given by Antonio Pigafetta, the chronicler of Magellan's voyage, contradicts attribution to either Gomes or Magellan, since it describes the position of islands close to the Patagonia coast, with the expedition following the mainland coast and the islands visited between a latitude of 49° and 51°S and also refers to meeting "giants" (described as Sansón or Samsons in the chronicle) who are believed to be the Tehuelche Indians. Although acknowledging that Pigafetta's account casts doubt upon the claim, the Argentine historian Laurio H. Destefani asserts it probable that a ship from the Magellan expedition discovered the islands citing the difficulty in measuring longitude accurately, which means that islands described as close to the coast could be further away. Destefani dismisses attribution to Gomes since the course taken by him on his return would not have taken the ships near the Falklands.
Destefani also attributes an early visit to the Falklands by an unknown Spanish ship, although Destefani's firm conclusions are contradicted by authors who conclude the sightings refer to the Beagle Channel.
The name of the archipelago derives from Lord Falkland, the Treasurer of the Admiralty, who organized the first expedition to South Atlantic with the intention to explore the Islands.
When English explorer John Davis, commander of Desire, one of the ships belonging to Thomas Cavendish's second expedition to the New World, separated from Cavendish off the coast of what is now southern Argentina, he decided to make for the Strait of Magellan in order to find Cavendish. On 9 August 1592 a severe storm battered his ship, and Davis drifted under bare masts, taking refuge "among certain Isles never before discovered". Davis did not provide the latitude of these islands, indicating they were 50 leagues (240 km) away from the Patagonian coast (they are actually 75 leagues, 360 km away). Navigational errors due to the longitude problem were a common problem until the late 18th century, when accurate marine chronometers became readily available, although Destefani asserts the error here to be "unusually large".
In 1594, they may have been visited by English commander Richard Hawkins with his ship the Dainty, who, combining his own name with that of Queen Elizabeth I, the "Virgin Queen", gave a group of islands the name of "Hawkins' Maidenland". However, the latitude given was off by at least 3 degrees and the description of the shore (including the sighting of bonfires) casts doubts on his discovery. Errors in the latitude measured can be attributed to a simple mistake reading a cross staff divided into minutes, meaning the latitude measured could have been 50° 48' S. The description of bonfires can also be attributed to peat fires caused by lightning, which is not uncommon in the outer islands of the Falklands in February. In 1925, Conor O'Brian analysed the voyage of Hawkins and concluded that the only land he could have sighted was Steeple Jason Island. The British historian Mary Cawkell also points out that criticism of the account of Hawkins' discovery should be tempered by the fact it was written nine years after the event; Hawkins was captured by the Spanish and spent eight years in prison.
On 24 January 1600, the Dutchman Sebald de Weert visited the Jason Islands and called them the Sebald Islands (in Spanish, "Islas Sebaldinas" or "Sebaldes"). This name remained in use for the entire Falkland Islands for a long time; William Dampier used the name Sibbel de Wards in his reports of his visits in 1684 and 1703, while James Cook still referred to the Sebaldine Islands in the 1770s. The latitude that De Weert provided (50° 40') was close enough as to be considered, for the first time beyond doubt, the Falkland Islands.
English Captain John Strong, commander of Welfare, sailed between the two principal islands in 1690 and called the passage "Falkland Channel" (now Falkland Sound), after Anthony Cary, 5th Viscount Falkland (1656–1694), who as Commissioner of the Admiralty had financed the expedition and later became First Lord of the Admiralty. From this body of water the island group later took its collective name.
The French explorer Louis Antoine de Bougainville established a colony at Port St. Louis, on East Falkland's Berkeley Sound coast in 1764. The French name Îles Malouines was given to the islands – malouin being the adjective for the Breton port of Saint-Malo. The Spanish name Islas Malvinas is a translation of the French name of Îles Malouines.
In 1765, Captain John Byron, who was unaware the French had established Port Saint Louis on East Falkland, explored Saunders Island around West Falkland. After discovering a natural harbour, he named the area Port Egmont and claimed the islands for Britain on the grounds of prior discovery. The next year Captain John MacBride established a permanent British settlement at Port Egmont.
Under the alliance established by the Pacte de Famille, in 1766 France agreed to leave after the Spanish complained about French presence in territories they considered their own. Spain agreed to compensate Louis de Bougainville, the French admiral and explorer who had established the settlement on East Falkland at his own expense. In 1767, the Spanish formally assumed control of Port St. Louis and renamed it Puerto Soledad (English: Port Solitude).
In early 1770 Spanish commander, Don Juan Ignacio de Madariaga, briefly visited Port Egmont. On 10 June he returned from Argentina with five armed ships and 1400 soldiers forcing the British to leave Port Egmont. This action sparked the Falkland Crisis between 10 July 1770 to 22 January 1771 when Britain and Spain almost went to war over the islands. However, conflict was averted when the colony was re-established by Captain John Stott with the ships HMS Juno, HMS Hound and HMS Florida (a mail ship which had already been at the founding of the original settlement). Egmont quickly became an important port-of-call for British ships sailing around Cape Horn.
With the growing economic pressures stemming from the upcoming American War of Independence, the British government decided that it should withdraw its presence from many overseas settlements in 1774. On 20 May 1776 the British forces under the command of Royal Naval Lieutenant Clayton formally left Port Egmont, while leaving a plaque asserting Britain's continuing sovereignty over the islands. For the next four years, British sealers used Egmont as a base for their activities in the South Atlantic. This ended in 1780 when they were forced to leave by Spanish authorities who then ordered that the British colony be destroyed.
The Spanish withdrew from the islands under pressure as a result of the Napoleonic invasion and the Argentine War of Independence. The Spanish garrison of Puerto Soledad was removed to Montevideo in 1811 aboard the brigantine Gálvez under an order signed by Francisco Javier de Elío. On departure, the Spanish also left a plaque proclaiming Spain's sovereignty over the islands as the British had done 35 years before. The total depopulation of the Falkland Islands took place.
Following the departure of the Spanish settlers, the Falkland Islands became the domain of whalers and sealers who used the islands to shelter from the worst of the South Atlantic weather. By merit of their location, the Falkland Islands have often been the last refuge for ships damaged at sea. Most numerous among those using the islands were British and American sealers, where typically between 40 and 50 ships were engaged in exploiting fur seals. This represents an itinerant population of up to 1,000 sailors.
On 8 February 1813 Isabella, a British ship of 193 tons en route from Sydney to London, ran aground off the coast of Speedwell Island, then known as Eagle Island. Among the ship's 54 passengers and crew, all of whom survived the wreck, was the United Irish general and exile Joseph Holt, who subsequently detailed the ordeal in his memoirs. Also aboard had been the heavily pregnant Joanna Durie, who on 21 February 1813 gave birth to Elizabeth Providence Durie.
The next day, 22 February 1813, six men who had volunteered to seek help from any nearby Spanish outposts that they could find set out in one of the Isabella's longboats. Braving the South Atlantic in a boat little more than 17 feet (5.2 m) long, they made landfall on the mainland at the River Plate just over a month later. The British gun brig HMS Nancy under the command of Lieutenant William D'Aranda was sent to rescue the survivors.
On 5 April Captain Charles Barnard of the American sealer Nanina was sailing off the shore of Speedwell Island, with a discovery boat deployed looking for seals. Having seen smoke and heard gunshots the previous day, he was alert to the possibility of survivors of a ship wreck. This suspicion was heightened when the crew of the boat came aboard and informed Barnard that they had come across a new moccasin as well as the partially butchered remains of a seal. At dinner that evening, the crew observed a man approaching the ship who was shortly joined by eight to ten others. Both Barnard and the survivors from Isabella had harboured concerns the other party was Spanish and were relieved to discover their respective nationalities.
Barnard dined with the Isabella survivors that evening and finding that the British party were unaware of the War of 1812 informed the survivors that technically they were at war with each other. Nevertheless, Barnard promised to rescue the British party and set about preparations for the voyage to the River Plate. Realising that they had insufficient stores for the voyage he set about hunting wild pigs and otherwise acquiring additional food. While Barnard was gathering supplies, however, the British took the opportunity to seize Nanina and departed leaving Barnard, along with one member of his own crew and three from Isabella, marooned. Shortly thereafter, Nancy arrived from the River Plate and encountered Nanina, whereupon Lieutenant D'Aranda rescued the erstwhile survivors of Isabella and took Nanina itself as a prize of war.
Barnard and his party survived for eighteen months marooned on the islands until the British whalers Indispensable and Asp rescued them in November 1814. The British admiral in Rio de Janeiro had requested their masters to divert to the area to search for the American crew. In 1829, Barnard published an account of his survival entitled A Narrative of the Sufferings and Adventures of Capt Charles H. Barnard.
In March 1820, Heroína, a privately owned frigate that was operated as a privateer under a license issued by the United Provinces of the River Plate, under the command of American Colonel David Jewett, set sail looking to capture Spanish ships as prizes. He captured Carlota, a Portuguese ship, which was considered an act of piracy. A storm resulted in severe damage to Heroína and sank the prize Carlota, forcing Jewett to put into Puerto Soledad for repairs in October 1820.
Captain Jewett sought assistance from the British explorer James Weddell. Weddell reported the letter he received from Jewett as:
Sir, I have the honor of informing you that I have arrived in this port with a commission from the Supreme Government of the United Provinces of the Rio de la Plata to take possession of these islands on behalf of the country to which they belong by Natural Law. While carrying out this mission I want to do so with all the courtesy and respect all friendly nations; one of the objectives of my mission is to prevent the destruction of resources necessary for all ships passing by and forced to cast anchor here, as well as to help them to obtain the necessary supplies, with minimum expenses and inconvenience. Since your presence here is not in competition with these purposes and in the belief that a personal meeting will be fruitful for both of us, I invite you to come aboard, where you'll be welcomed to stay as long as you wish; I would also greatly appreciate your extending this invitation to any other British subject found in the vicinity; I am, respectfully yours. Signed, Jewett, Colonel of the Navy of the United Provinces of South America and commander of the frigate Heroína.
Many modern authors report this letter as representing the declaration issued by Jewett.
Jewett's ship received Weddell's assistance in obtaining anchorage off Port Louis. Weddell reported only 30 seamen and 40 soldiers fit for duty out of a crew of 200, and how Jewett slept with pistols over his head following an attempted mutiny earlier in the voyage. On 6 November 1820, Jewett raised the flag of the United Provinces of the River Plate (a predecessor of modern-day Argentina) and claimed possession of the islands. In the words of Weddell, "In a few days, he took formal possession of these islands for the patriot government of Buenos Ayres, read a declaration under their colours, planted on a port in ruins, and fired a salute of twenty-one guns."
Jewett departed from the Falkland Islands in April 1821. In total he had spent no more than six months on the island, entirely at Port Louis. In 1822, Jewett was accused of piracy by a Portuguese court, but by that time he was in Brazil.
In 1823, the United Provinces of the River Plate granted fishing rights to Jorge Pacheco and Luis Vernet. Travelling to the islands in 1824, the first expedition failed almost as soon as it landed, and Pacheco chose not to continue with the venture. Vernet persisted, but the second attempt, delayed until winter 1826 by a Brazilian blockade, was also unsuccessful. The expedition intended to exploit the feral cattle on the islands but the boggy conditions meant the gauchos could not catch cattle in their traditional way. Vernet was by now aware of conflicting British claims to the islands and sought permission from the British consulate before departing for the islands.
In 1828, the United Provinces government granted Vernet all of East Falkland including all its resources, and exempted him from taxation if a colony could be established within three years. He took settlers, including British Captain Matthew Brisbane (who had sailed to the islands earlier with Weddell), and before leaving once again sought permission from the British Consulate in Buenos Aires. The British asked for a report for the British government on the islands, and Vernet asked for British protection should they return.
On 10 June 1829, Vernet was designated as 'civil and military commandant' of the islands (no governor was ever appointed) and granted a monopoly on seal hunting rights. A protest was lodged by the British Consulate in Buenos Aires. By 1831, the colony was successful enough to be advertising for new colonists, although USS Lexington's report suggests that the conditions on the islands were quite miserable. Charles Darwin's visit in 1833 confirmed the squalid conditions in the settlement, although Captain Matthew Brisbane (Vernet's deputy) later claimed that this was the result of the Lexington raid.
In 1831, Vernet attempted to assert his monopoly on seal hunting rights. This led him to capture the American ships Harriet, Superior and Breakwater. As a reprisal, the United States consul in Buenos Aires sent Captain Silas Duncan of USS Lexington to recover the confiscated property. After finding what he considered proof that at least four American fishing ships had been captured, plundered, and even outfitted for war, Duncan took seven prisoners aboard Lexington and charged them with piracy.
Also taken on board, Duncan reported, "were the whole of the (Falklands') population consisting of about forty persons, with the exception of some 'gauchos', or cowboys who were encamped in the interior." The group, principally German citizens from Buenos Aires, "appeared greatly rejoiced at the opportunity thus presented of removing with their families from a desolate region where the climate is always cold and cheerless and the soil extremely unproductive". However, about 24 people did remain on the island, mainly gauchos and several Charrúa Indians, who continued to trade on Vernet's account.
Measures were taken against the settlement. The log of Lexington reports destruction of arms and a powder store, while settlers remaining later said that there was great damage to private property. Towards the end of his life, Luis Vernet authorised his sons to claim on his behalf for his losses stemming from the raid. In the case lodged against the US Government for compensation, rejected by the US Government of President Cleveland in 1885, Vernet stated that the settlement was destroyed.
In the aftermath of the Lexington incident, Major Esteban Mestivier was commissioned by the Buenos Aires government to set up a penal colony. He arrived at his destination on 15 November 1832 but his soldiers mutinied and killed him. The mutiny was suppressed by armed sailors from the French whaler Jean Jacques, whilst Mestivier's widow was taken on board the British sealer Rapid. Sarandí returned on 30 December 1832 and Major José María Pinedo took charge of the settlement.
The Argentinian assertions of sovereignty provided the spur for Britain to send a naval task force in order to finally and permanently return to the islands.
On 3 January 1833, Captain James Onslow, of the brig-sloop HMS Clio, arrived at Vernet's settlement at Port Louis to request that the flag of the United Provinces of the River Plate be replaced with the British one, and for the administration to leave the islands. While Major José María Pinedo, commander of the schooner Sarandí, wanted to resist, his numerical disadvantage was obvious, particularly as a large number of his crew were British mercenaries who were unwilling to fight their own countrymen. Such a situation was not unusual in the newly independent states in Latin America, where land forces were strong, but navies were frequently quite undermanned. As such he protested verbally, but departed without a fight on 5 January. Argentina claims that Vernet's colony was also expelled at this time, though sources from the time appear to dispute this, suggesting that the colonists were encouraged to remain initially under the authority of Vernet's storekeeper, William Dickson and later his deputy, Matthew Brisbane.
Initial British plans for the Islands were based upon the continuation of Vernet's settlement at Port Louis. An Argentine immigrant of Irish origin, William Dickson, was appointed as the British representative and provided with a flagpole and flag to be flown whenever ships were in harbour. In March 1833, Vernet's Deputy, Matthew Brisbane returned and presented his papers to Captain Robert FitzRoy of HMS Beagle, which coincidentally happened to be in harbour at the time. Fitzroy encouraged Brisbane to continue with Vernet's enterprise with the proviso that whilst private enterprise was encouraged, Argentine assertions of sovereignty would not be welcome.
Brisbane reasserted his authority over Vernet's settlement and recommenced the practice of paying employees in promissory notes. Due to Vernet's reduced status, the promissory notes were devalued, which meant that the employees received fewer goods at Vernet's stores for their wages. After months of freedom following the Lexington raid this accentuated dissatisfaction with the leadership of the settlement. In August 1833, under the leadership of Antonio Rivero, a gang of Creole and Indian gauchos ran amok in the settlement. Armed with muskets obtained from American sealers, the gang killed five members of Vernet's settlement including both Dickson and Brisbane. Shortly afterward the survivors fled Port Louis, seeking refuge on Turf Island in Berkeley Sound until rescued by the British sealer Hopeful in October 1833.
Lt Henry Smith was installed as the first British resident in January 1834. One of his first actions was to pursue and arrest Rivero's gang for the murders committed the previous August. The gang was sent for trial in London but could not be tried as the Crown Court did not have jurisdiction over the Falkland Islands. In the British colonial system, colonies had their own, distinct governments, finances, and judicial systems. Rivero was not tried and sentenced because the British local government and local judiciary had not yet been installed in 1834; these were created later, by the 1841 British Letters Patent. Subsequently, Rivero has acquired the status of a folk hero in Argentina, where he is portrayed as leading a rebellion against British rule. Ironically it was the actions of Rivero that were responsible for the ultimate demise of Vernet's enterprise on the Falklands.
Charles Darwin revisited the Falklands in 1834; the settlements Darwin and Fitzroy both take their names from this visit.
After the arrest of Rivero, Smith set about restoring the settlement at Port Louis, repairing the damage done by the Lexington raid and renaming it 'Anson's Harbour'. Lt Lowcay succeeded Smith in April 1838, followed by Lt Robinson in September 1839 and Lt Tyssen in December 1839.
Vernet later attempted to return to the Islands but was refused permission to return. The British Crown reneged on promises and refused to recognise rights granted by Captain Onslow at the time of the reoccupation. Eventually, after travelling to London, Vernet received paltry compensation for horses shipped to Port Louis many years before. G.T. Whittington obtained a concession of 6,400 acres (26 km) from Vernet that he later exploited with the formation of the Falkland Islands Commercial Fishery and Agricultural Association.
Immediately following their return to the Falkland Islands and the failure of Vernet's settlement, the British maintained Port Louis as a military outpost. There was no attempt to colonise the islands following the intervention, instead there was a reliance upon the remaining rump of Vernet's settlement. Lt. Smith received little support from the Royal Navy and the islands developed largely on his initiative but he had to rely on a group of armed gauchos to enforce authority and protect British interests. Smith received advice from Vernet in this regard, and in turn continued to administer Vernet's property and provide him with regular accounts. His superiors later rebuked him for his ideas and actions in promoting the development of the small settlement in Port Louis. In frustration, Smith resigned but his successors Lt. Lowcay and Lt. Tyssen did not continue with the initiatives Smith had pursued and the settlement began to stagnate.
In 1836, East Falkland was surveyed by Admiral George Grey, and further in 1837 by Lowcay. Admiral George Grey, conducting the geographic survey in November 1836 had the following to say about their first view of East Falkland:
We anchored a little after sunset off a creek called 'Johnson's Harbour'. The day having been cloudy with occasional showers, these islands at all times dreary enough, looked particularly so on our first view of them, the shores of sound, steep, with bare hills intersected with ravines rising from them, these hills without a tree and the clouds hanging low, gave them exactly the appearance of the Cheviots or a Scotch moor on a winter's day and considering we were in the May of these latitudes, the first impression of the climate was not favourable, the weather however, was not called, the thermometer was 63 °F (17 °C) [17 °C] which is Howick mid-summer temperature.
Pressure to develop the islands as a colony began to build as the result of a campaign mounted by British merchant G. T. Whittington. Whittington formed the Falkland Islands Commercial Fishery and Agricultural Association and (based on information indirectly obtained from Vernet) published a pamphlet entitled "The Falkland Islands". Later a petition signed by London merchants was presented to the British Government demanding the convening of a public meeting to discuss the future development of the Falkland Islands. Whittington petitioned the Colonial Secretary, Lord Russell, proposing that his association be allowed to colonise the islands. In May 1840, the British Government made the decision to colonise the Falkland Islands.
Unaware of the decision by the British Government to colonise the islands, Whittington grew impatient and decided to take action of his own initiative. Obtaining two ships, he sent his brother, J. B. Whittington, on a mission to land stores and settlers at Port Louis. On arrival he presented his claim to land that his brother had bought from Vernet. Lt. Tyssen was taken aback by Whittington's arrival, indicating that he had no authority to allow this; however, he was unable to prevent the party from landing. Whittington constructed a large house for his party, and using a salting house built by Vernet established a fish-salting business.
In 1833 the United Kingdom asserted authority over the Falkland Islands and Richard Clement Moody, a highly esteemed Royal Engineer, was appointed as Lieutenant Governor of the islands. This post was renamed Governor of the Falkland Islands in 1843, when he also became Commander-in-Chief of the Falkland Islands. Moody left England for Falkland on 1 October 1841 aboard the ship Hebe and arrived in Anson's Harbour later that month. He was accompanied by twelve sappers and miners and their families; together with Whittington's colonists this brought the population of Anson's Harbour to approximately 50. When Moody arrived, the Falklands was 'almost in a state of anarchy', but he used his powers 'with great wisdom and moderation' to develop the Islands' infrastructure and, commanding detachment of sappers, erected government offices, a school and barracks, residences, ports, and a new road system.
In 1842, Moody was instructed by Lord Stanley the British Secretary of State for War and the Colonies to report on the potential of the Port William area as the site of the new capital. Moody assigned the task of surveying the area to Captain Ross, leader of the Antarctic Expedition. Captain Ross delivered his report in 1843, concluding that Port William afforded a good deep-water anchorage for naval vessels, and that the southern shores of Port Jackson was a suitable location for the proposed settlement. Moody accepted the recommendation of Ross and construction of the new settlement started in July 1843. Inn July 1845, at Moody's suggestion, the new capital of the islands was officially named Port Stanley after Lord Stanley. Not everyone was enthused with the selection of the location of the new capital, J. B. Whittington famously remarked that "Of all the miserable bog holes, I believe that Mr Moody has selected one of the worst for the site of his town."
The structure of the Colonial Government was established in 1845 with the formation of the Legislative Council and Executive Council and work on the construction of Government House commenced. The following year, the first officers appointed to the Colonial Government took their posts; by this time a number of residences, a large storage shed, carpenter's shop and blacksmith's shop had been completed and the Government Dockyard laid out. In 1845 Moody introduced tussock grass into Great Britain from Falkland, for which he received the gold medal of the Royal Agricultural Society. The Coat of arms of the Falkland Islands notably includes an image of tussock grass. Moody returned to England in February 1849. Moody Brook is named after him.
With the establishment of the deep-water anchorage and improvements in port facilities, Stanley saw a dramatic increase in the number of visiting ships in the 1840s in part due to the California Gold Rush. A boom in ship provisioning and ship-repair resulted, aided by the notoriously bad weather in the South Atlantic and around Cape Horn. Stanley and the Falkland Islands are famous as the repository of many wrecks of 19th-century ships that reached the islands only to be condemned as unseaworthy and were often employed as floating warehouses by local merchants.
At one point in the 19th century, Stanley became one of the world's busiest ports. However, the ship-repair trade began to slacken off in 1876 with the establishment of the Plimsoll line, which saw the elimination of the so-called coffin ships and unseaworthy vessels that might otherwise have ended up in Stanley for repair. With the introduction of increasingly reliable iron steamships in the 1890s the trade declined further and was no longer viable following the opening of the Panama Canal in 1914. Port Stanley continued to be a busy port supporting whaling and sealing activities in the early part of the 20th century, British warships (and garrisons) in the First and Second World War and the fishing and cruise ship industries in the latter half of the century.
Government House opened as the offices of the Lieutenant Governor in 1847. Government House continued to develop with various additions, formally becoming the Governor's residence in 1859 when Governor Moore took residence. Government House remains the residence of the Governor.
Many of the colonists begin to move from Ansons' Harbour to Port Stanley. As the new town expanded, the population grew rapidly, reaching 200 by 1849. The population was further expanded by the arrival of 30 married Chelsea Pensioners and their families. The Royal Falkland Islands Police were established in November 1846 with the appointment of Francis Parry as Chief Constable. The force was initially staffed by three officers – the Chief Constable, the Gaoler (responsible for prisoners), and the Night Constable (responsible for policing during the night). The Constables Ordinance 1846, which had been enacted by the colony's Legislative Council on 27 October of that year. The Chelsea Pensioners were to form the permanent garrison and police force, taking over from the Royal Sappers and Miners Regiment which had garrisoned the early colony.
The Exchange Building opened in 1854; part of the building was later used as a church. 1854 also saw the establishment of Marmont Row, including the Eagle Inn, now known as the Upland Goose Hotel. In 1887, Jubilee Villas were built to celebrate the Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria. Jubilee Villas are a row of brick built houses that follow a traditional British pattern; positioned on Ross road near the waterfront, they became an iconic image during the Falklands War.
Peat is common on the islands and has traditionally been exploited as a fuel. Uncontrolled exploitation of this natural resource led to peat slips in 1878 and 1886. The 1878 peat slip resulted in the destruction of several houses, whilst the 1886 peat slip resulted in the deaths of two women and the destruction of the Exchange Building.
Christ Church Cathedral was consecrated in 1892 and completed in 1903. It received its famous whalebone arch, constructed from the jaws of two blue whales, in 1933 to commemorate the centenary of continuous British administration. Also consecrated in 1892 was the Tabernacle United Free Church, constructed from an imported timber kit.
A few years after the British had established themselves in the islands, a number of new British settlements were started. Initially many of these settlements were established in order to exploit the feral cattle on the islands. Following the introduction of the Cheviot breed of sheep to the islands in 1852, sheep farming became the dominant form of agriculture on the Islands.
Salvador Settlement was one of the earliest, being started in the 1830s, by a Gibraltarian immigrant (hence its other name of "Gibraltar Settlement"), and it is still run by his descendants, the Pitalugas.
Cattle were concentrated in the southern part of East Falkland, an area that became known as Lafonia. Lafone was an absentee landlord and never actually set foot on the islands. His activities were not monitored by the British and rather than introducing more British settlers as he promised, he brought large numbers of Spanish and Indian gauchos to hunt cattle. In 1846, they established Hope Place on the south shores of Brenton Loch. Vernet furnished Samuel Fisher Lafone, a British merchant operating from Montevideo, with details of the Falkland Islands including a map. Sensing that the exploitation of feral cattle on the islands would be a lucrative venture, in 1846 he negotiated a contract with the British Government that gave him exclusive rights to this resource. Until 1846 Moody had allotted feral cattle to new settlers and the new agreement not only prevented this but made Stanley dependent upon Lafone for supplies of beef. In 1849 a sod wall (the Boca wall) was built across the isthmus at Darwin to control the movement of cattle.
Lafone continued to develop his business interests and in 1849 looked to establish a joint stock company with his London creditors. The company was launched as The Royal Falkland Land, Cattle, Seal and Fishery Company in 1850 but soon thereafter was incorporated under Royal Charter as The Falkland Islands Company Limited. Lafone became a director and his brother-in-law J.P. Dale the company's first manager in the islands. By 1852, the feral cattle had been hunted virtually to extinction by gauchos and the company switched to sheep farming with the introduction of the Cheviot breed of sheep. Hope Place proved to be an unsuitable location and the operation moved to Darwin. In 1860, the Lafone Beef contract was terminated but the Falkland Islands Company was given a grant to Lafonia. Ownership of the remaining cattle outside of Lafonia reverted to the Crown and hunting cattle without permission was banned.
In the second half of the 19th century, Darwin, Goose Green, Fox Bay and Port Howard were established. Port Howard was founded by James Lovegrove Waldron, and his brother in 1866; the Waldron brothers later left for Patagonia, but left the farm under local management.
Darwin was initially the haunt of gauchos and cattle farmers, but sheep farming came to dominate the area, and Scottish shepherds were brought in. A few years later, the first large tallow works in the islands (though not the first) was set up by the FIC in 1874. It handled 15,891 sheep in 1880.
From the 1880s, until 1972, Darwin and Fox Bay had their own separate medical officers. Nowadays, most medical care is based in Stanley.
The Falkland Islands were used as a base for whaling ships hunting the southern right whale and sperm whale from the 1770s until British authority was established over the islands and surrounding seas. Whaling was briefly revived with the establishment of a whaling station on New Island from 1909 to 1917 until whaling operations moved to South Georgia.
Fur seals had long been exploited for their pelts but numbers entered a drastic decline in the early 19th century. As a result, seal hunting died off, although continuing at a low level. In order to conserve stocks, a ban on the hunting of fur seals during summers months was enacted in 1881, but it was not until 1921 that hunting was banned entirely.
Elephant seals were exploited for oil but like the fur seals their numbers declined drastically in the mid-1850s. Sealers instead turned their attention to the South American sea lion resulting in a dramatic decline in their numbers that made sealing uneconomic. Attempts to revive the trade, including a sealing station at Port Albemarle, were unsuccessful.
Even penguins were exploited for oil. Rockhopper and gentoo penguins were rendered down in trypots from 1860 until the 1880s.
Although the first telephone lines were installed by the Falkland Islands Company in the 1880s, the Falkland Islands Government was slow to embrace telephony. It was not until 1897 that a telephone line was installed between Cape Pembroke lighthouse and the police station. The islands isolation was broken in 1911 when Guglielmo Marconi installed a wireless telegraphy station that enabled telegrams to be sent to mainland Uruguay.
A line was laid between Darwin and Stanley, with the ship Consort landing poles on the coast. Construction commenced in 1906 and was finished in 1907 (a length of nearly 50 miles or 80 kilometres). The line was initially only for business but the public could make calls occasionally. Lines continued to be laid to most of the major settlements in the islands, with the Falkland Islands police responsible for their maintenance until 1927. Communications among the settlements relied on the telephone network until radio telephones were introduced in the 1950s, although the telephone network continued until 1982. Telecommunications improved dramatically after the Falklands War, when an earth station was installed to allow direct dialling for the first time. In 1997, an Internet service was launched and by 2002 nearly 90% of Falkland homes had Internet access.
In 1911 the islands had 3,275 inhabitants of whom 916 lived in Port Stanley. A canning factory was opened in 1911 at Goose Green and was initially extremely successful. It absorbed a large proportion of surplus sheep but during the postwar slump it suffered a serious loss and closed in 1921.
Despite this setback, a mere year later, the settlement grew after it became the base for the Falkland Islands Company's sheep farm in Lafonia in 1922, with improved sheep handling and wool shed being built. In 1927, the settlement's huge sheep shearing shed was built, which is claimed to be the world's largest, with a capacity of five thousand sheep. In 1979, 100,598 sheep were shorn at Goose Green.
The mid-20th century saw a number of abortive attempts to diversify the islands' economy away from large scale sheep ranching.
In the period just after the Second World War, Port Albemarle, in the south west of West Falkland, was enlarged by the Colonial Development Company and included its own power station, jetty, Nissen huts etc.; this was an attempt to revive the old sealing industry which had flourished during the 19th century. However, the project proved to be nonviable, not least because seal numbers had declined massively.
Similarly, Ajax Bay on Falkland Sound, was developed by the Colonial Development Corporation in the 1950s, which was also responsible for developing Port Albemarle. It was mainly a refrigeration plant, and was supposed to freeze Falkland mutton, but this was found to be economically nonviable, despite the huge expense incurred. Many of the pre-fabricated houses here were moved to Stanley. The site later became a British field hospital during the landings of Operation Sutton.
The seas around the Falkland Islands were not well policed prior to the Falklands War, and many foreign boats fished off the islands, despite protests that potential revenue was being lost. Fishing licences were only later to be introduced.
In 1956, J. L. Waldron Ltd built a school at Port Howard, possibly inspired by the "gift" of the FIC at Darwin, a few years earlier.
Up until the 1970s, Goose Green was the site of a boarding school, run by the state. "Camp" children boarded here, and there were 40 spaces. The boarding school was later transferred to Stanley, although the recent emphasis has been on locally based education. The school itself became an Argentine HQ, and was burnt down. A new (day) school has been built for local children.
Port Stanley became an important coaling station for the Royal Navy. This led to ships based there being involved in major naval engagements in both the First and Second World Wars.
The strategic significance of the Falkland Islands was confirmed by the second major naval engagement of the First World War. Admiral Graf Maximilian von Spee's East Asia Squadron called at the islands on its trip from the Pacific Ocean back to Germany, intending to destroy the Royal Navy radio relay station and coaling depot there. Unknown to von Spee, a British squadron, including two battlecruisers considerably more powerful than his forces, had been sent to hunt down his squadron and happened to be in the harbour coaling. In the one-sided battle which followed, most of von Spee's squadron was sunk. Canopus Hill, south of Stanley, is named after HMS Canopus, which had fired the first shot in the battle.
The Falkland Islands Defence Force was called out to man gun positions and signalling posts around Stanley as soon as word was received of Britain's declaration of war on 3 September 1939. Mounted patrols were carried out in the Camp, and coast-watching stations were created around the islands to guard against the approach of enemy ships and the landing of enemy forces. The Falkland Islanders experienced much the same kind of war-time privations and restrictions as the British population, including black-outs, travel restrictions, and rationing.
In December 1939, in the immediate aftermath of the Battle of the River Plate, County-class heavy cruiser HMS Cumberland, which had been self-refitting in the Falkland Islands at the time of the battle, steamed to join HMS Ajax and HMS Achilles at the mouth of the River Plate, trapping the German cruiser Admiral Graf Spee. Convinced by British propaganda and false intelligence that a major naval task force awaited his ship and short of ammunition, Captain Langsdorf of Admiral Graf Spee chose instead to scuttle the ship rather than face the Royal Navy.
Operation Tabarin, an expedition to the Antarctic, was mounted from the islands during the war. The purpose of the expedition was to assert Britain's claims on the continent, as well as gather scientific data. Operation Tabarin was later replaced by the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey, which was later renamed the British Antarctic Survey.
In 1942, in response to the Japanese entry into the war, additional forces were sent to the islands to strengthen their defence against invasion. The largest component of these additional forces was a battalion of the West Yorkshire Regiment. In 1944, as a result of the reduced threat of invasion from Japan, the West Yorks were replaced by a smaller contingent of the Royal Scots.
Over the whole war more than 150 Falkland Islanders out of a population of only 2,300 volunteered for the British armed forces - 6.5% of the entire population - 24 of whom did not return. In July 1944, all volunteers were given the right to be identified by a "Falkland Islands" shoulder-flash. In addition to these contributions to the British war-effort, the Falkland Islands also donated five Supermarine Spitfires to the British Royal Air Force.
With the exception of an attempt by President Juan Perón to buy the Falkland Islands in 1953 which was rejected as inconceivable by the British government, the immediate post-war period was fairly uneventful. However, a series of incidents in the 1960s marked the intensification of Argentine sovereignty claims.
The first of these took place in 1964, when a light plane piloted by Miguel Fitzgerald touched down on the racecourse at Stanley. Leaping from the aircraft, he handed a letter claiming sovereignty to a bemused islander before flying off again. The stunt was timed to coincide with Argentine diplomatic efforts at the UN Decolonisation Committee.
A more serious incident took place on 28 September 1966 when eighteen young Peronists staged a symbolic invasion of the Islands by hijacking an Aerolíneas Argentinas airliner and landing it in Stanley; the group called this action Operativo Cóndor. There, they raised seven Argentine flags and took four islanders hostage. The planning had been done during a trip to the islands that one of the leaders had made as a tourist. The airliner left at from Buenos Aires, bound for Río Gallegos with 48 passengers on board, including Argentine Rear Admiral José María Guzmán, who was on his way to Tierra del Fuego, an Argentine territory of which he was governor. Two armed men entered the flight deck and ordered the pilot to change course toward the Falklands. The pilot attempted to land at the racecourse but the plane hit telegraph poles, and the undercarriage sank into the mud. Islanders, assuming that the plane was in trouble, rushed to assist but found themselves taken hostage by the hijackers (included in the group of four was a young police sergeant, Terry Peck, who became a local hero in the Falklands War). Les Gleadell, acting Governor of the Falkland Islands, ordered that the DC-4 be surrounded. He received three of the invaders, who announced that they had as much right as anyone to be there and in reply were firmly told that they should disarm and give up. The result of this meeting was an agreement that seven men, including Peck and Captain Ian Martin, commanding a four-man Royal Marines detachment, should be exchanged for the hostages aboard the aircraft. The 26 passengers were then allowed to disembark and sent to lodge with local families, as the island had no hotel. On being taken past the governor's residence, Guzmán laughingly commented: "Mi casa" ("my house").
After a bitterly cold night in the aircraft, which contained only brandy, wine, orange juice and a few biscuits, the kidnappers surrendered. They were kept locked up in an annex to St Mary's Church for a week until they were put aboard an Argentine ship, the Bahía Buen Suceso, which had lingered outside the harbor awaiting conclusion of the affair. The men were tried in Argentina on crimes that included illegal deprivation of freedom, possession of weapons of war, illegal association, piracy, and robbery in the open. The leaders were sentenced to three years in prison and the others to nine months.
On October of the same year a group of Argentine naval special forces conducted covert landings from the submarine ARA Santiago del Estero. The 12-man team, which landed some 40 kilometres (25 mi) from Stanley, was led by Juan José Lombardo who later, as Chief of Naval Operations, planned the 1982 invasion of the Falkland Islands.
In November 1968, Miguel Fitzgerald was hired by the Argentine press to attempt a reprise of his 1964 landing. Accompanied by one of the 1966 hijackers, he flew to Stanley but on arrival found he could not land at the racecourse due to obstacles placed following the hijacking. The plane was forced to crash land on Eliza Cove Road, but the two occupants were unharmed. The stunt was intended to coincide with the visit of Lord Chalfont to the islands.
The latter incident proved counter-productive to the Argentine sovereignty push, as Lord Chalfont had been talking to a public meeting at the time of the plane's arrival. The islanders made it plain to Lord Chalfont that they rejected a Memorandum of Agreement negotiated between Britain and Argentina that August which stated that Britain was prepared to discuss sovereignty provided the islanders' wishes were respected. This spurred the formation of the Falkland Islands Committee by London barrister Bill Hunter-Christie and others. The Emergency Committee, as it became known, proved to be an effective lobbying organisation, constantly undermining Foreign Office initiatives on sovereignty negotiations. In December 1968, the lobbying effort managed to force the British Government to state that the islanders' wishes would be paramount.
Partly as the result of diplomatic pressure, economic and political links with Argentina increased in the 1960s and 1970s. These became severed after the end of the Falklands War, but before the war they were not entirely negative, and some islanders sent their children to boarding schools in Argentina.
Realising that any talks on the sovereignty issue would be derailed if it did not meet with the islanders' wishes, the British and Argentine Governments enacted a series of measures designed to encourage dependence on Argentina. In 1971, following secret talks between the two Governments (and without consulting the islanders), the communications agreement was signed. The thrust of the agreement was the establishment of direct air and sea links between the islands and Argentina, together with agreements on postal and telephony services. Following the agreement the subsidised shipping link with Montevideo ended, a passenger and cargo ship service to the mainland (that would ameliorate any dependence on Argentina) was promised by the British but never provided.
Líneas Aéreas del Estado (LADE), the airline operated by the Argentine Air Force (Fuerza Aérea Argentina or FAA), began an air link to the islands. Initially this service operated amphibious aircraft between Comodoro Rivadavia and Stanley using Grumman HU-16 Albatross aircraft. The inauguration of the service was commemorated by a series of stamps issued by both the Argentine and Falkland Island postal services. In 1972, a temporary airstrip was constructed by Argentina near Stanley. Britain constructed a small permanent airstrip in 1976 suitable only for short haul flights.
As part of the agreement, islanders had to travel via Argentina and were forced to carry Argentine Identity Cards issued in Buenos Aires. The Tarjeta Provisoria or "white card" as they were known were hated by the islanders, who felt they were a de facto Argentine passport, since only islanders were required to use them and not other temporary residents of the islands. Tensions were raised further with the agreement that male Falkland Islanders would not have to undertake conscription into the Argentine Army, since this carried the implication that Falkland Islanders were Argentine citizens.
LADE set up an office in Stanley and mail was routed through Argentina. Medical treatments unavailable in the islands were provided in Argentina and scholarships were made available for study in Buenos Aires, Córdoba and other Argentine cities. Spanish language teachers were provided by Argentina. Foreign Office officials in Stanley were instructed to do everything possible to foster good relations between the Falkland Islands and Argentina.
The islands became more dependent upon Argentina, when the British and Argentine governments agreed that the islands would be supplied with petrol, diesel and oil by YPF, the Argentine national oil and gas company.
Despite these tensions relationships between the islanders and the Argentines operating the new services in the islands were cordial. Although there was apprehension, politics were generally avoided and on a one-to-one basis there was never any real hostility.
On the international level, relations began to sour in 1975 when Argentine delegates at the London meeting of the International Parliamentary Union condemned Britain's "act of international piracy" in establishing a colony in the Falkland Islands. Diplomatic relations between Britain and Argentina were broken but resumed in 1976.
In October 1975, the British Government tasked Lord Shackleton (son of the Antarctic explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton) with an economic survey of the Falkland Islands. The Argentine Government reacted furiously and refused permission for Lord Shackleton to travel via Argentina. Later the ship transporting Shackleton to the islands, RRS Shackleton, was fired upon by the Argentine destroyer ARA Almirante Storni.
In 1976, after a military junta took control of the country, Argentina covertly established a military base on Southern Thule. It was discovered by the British Antarctic Survey ship RRS Bransfield in 1977. The British protested but restricted their response to a diplomatic protest. Backing up the diplomatic efforts, the British Prime Minister Jim Callaghan sent a naval task force consisting of surface ships and a nuclear submarine. Nevertheless, Argentine aircraft and warships harassed ships fishing in Falkland waters.
Lord Shackleton's report was delivered in 1977 and documented the economic stagnation in the islands. It nevertheless concluded that the islands made a net contribution to the British economy and had economic potential for development. Recommendations included oil exploration, exploitation of the fisheries, extension of the Stanley runway, the creation of a development agency, the expansion of the road network, expansion of the facilities at Stanley harbour and the breakdown of absentee landlord owned farms into family units. The report was largely ignored at the time, as it was felt that acting upon it would sour relations with Argentina. A reprise of the report by Lord Shackleton in 1982 following the Falklands War became the blueprint for subsequent economic development of the islands.
Argentina invaded the islands on 2 April 1982, using special forces, which landed at Mullet Creek and advanced on Government House in Stanley, with a secondary force coming in from Yorke Bay. They encountered little opposition, there being only a small force of fifty-seven British marines and eleven sailors, in addition to the Falkland Islands Defence Force (who were later sent to Fox Bay). There was only one Argentine fatality. The event garnered international attention at a level which the islands had never experienced before, and made them a household name in the UK.
For a brief period, the Falkland Islands found themselves under Argentine control. This included Spanish-language signage, and attempts to make the islanders drive on the right (although few roads in the Falklands at the time actually had two lanes). In many parts of the Camp, such as Goose Green and Pebble Island, the islanders found themselves under house arrest.
The British responded with an expeditionary force that landed seven weeks later and, after fierce fighting, forced the Argentine garrison to surrender on 14 June 1982. The war proved to be an anomaly in a number of different respects, not least that it proved that small arms still had a role to play. It also had major consequences for the military junta, which was toppled soon afterwards.
Margaret Thatcher's general political legacy remains controversial and divisive within the UK and within the context of the Falklands her government's withdrawal of HMS Endurance is a stated contributing factor to the causes of the conflict because it gave the wrong signals about the UK attitude towards maintaining its possession. However, within the Falklands, she is considered a heroine because of the determination of her response to the Argentine invasion. The islanders celebrate Margaret Thatcher Day on 10 January; and Thatcher Drive in Stanley is named after her.
Following the war, Britain focused on improving its facilities on the islands. It increased its military presence significantly, building a large base at RAF Mount Pleasant and its port at Mare Harbour. It also invested heavily in improving facilities in Stanley and transportation and infrastructure around the islands, tarmacking the Stanley–Mount Pleasant road and many roads within Stanley. The population has risen due to the growth of Stanley, but has declined in Camp (the countryside). Since November 2008, a regular ferry service has linked East and West Falkland, carrying cars, passengers and cargo serviced by MV Concordia Bay, a 42.45 m (139 ft 3 in) twin-screw shallow draught landing craft.
A major change to the governance of the Falkland Islands was introduced by the 1985 constitution. The Falkland Islands Government (FIG) became a parliamentary representative dependency, whose members are democratically elected; while the governor, as head of government and representative of the Queen, is purely a figurehead without executive powers. Effectively, the Falkland Islands are self-governing, with the exception of foreign policy. (The FIG represents itself at the United Nations Special Committee on Decolonisation, as the British Government no longer attends.)
Links with Argentina were severed in the post-war period, and laws introduced forbidding Argentine citizens from buying land. An alternative trading partner was found in Chile, with links developing over the years, including flights to Punta Arenas (in the far south of Patagonian Chile, near Tierra del Fuego). In recent years, Argentines have been allowed to visit the islands again, often to visit the military cemeteries where their friends and loved ones are buried.
Land mines were a persistent problem for 38 years following the war. Land mine clearance was completed by November 2020.
In 1983, the UK passed the British Nationality (Falkland Islands) Act granting full British citizenship to the islanders. High-profile dignitaries visited to show British commitment to the islands, including Margaret Thatcher, the Prince of Wales, and Princess Alexandra. In 1985, the Falkland Islands Dependency was split into the Falkland Islands proper and a newly separate territory of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands.
Relations between the UK and Argentina remained hostile after 1982. Although the United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution calling on the UK and Argentina to return to negotiations over the Islands' future, the UK ruled out further talks over the islands' sovereignty. The UK also maintained the arms embargo against Argentina that they initiated during the war, compelling the Argentine armed forces (a traditional UK buyer) to switch to other markets. Diplomatic relations were restored in 1989.
Relations between the UK and Argentina improved further in the 1990s. In 1998, Argentine President Carlos Menem visited London, where he reaffirmed Argentina claims to the Islands, but stated that only peaceful means would be used for their recovery. In 2001, UK Prime Minister Tony Blair visited Argentina, where he stated his hope that the UK and Argentina could resolve their differences. However, no talks on sovereignty took place during the visit.
After the war, the British still faced potential future aggression, so an aircraft carrier was kept on station guarding the islands with its squadron of Sea Harriers, while the local airfield was prepared for jet aircraft. HMS Hermes took guard duty first, whilst HMS Invincible went north to change a gearbox. Invincible then returned to relieve Hermes, which urgently needed to have its boilers cleaned. Invincible remained until HMS Illustrious was rushed south (being commissioned during the journey). Once the Port Stanley runway was ready for jets, several RAF F-4 Phantoms were stationed there, relieving Illustrious.
The islands lacked barracks for a permanent garrison, so the Ministry of defence chartered two former car ferries as barracks ships: Rangatira from the Union Company of New Zealand and Saint Edmund from Sealink in Britain. Rangatira arrived in Port Stanley on 11 July 1982 and stayed until 26 September 1983.
Later, the British government decided to construct a new RAF base as the centrepiece of plans to strengthen the island defences and deter any further attempts to take the Falklands by force. This was a massive undertaking — including construction of the world's longest corridor, one-half mile (800 metres) linking the barracks, messes, recreation and welfare areas of the base. The base is occasionally referred to by residents as "the Death Star" because of its vast size and sometimes confusing layout.
Mount Pleasant, to the west of Stanley, was chosen as the site for the new base. The airfield was opened by The Duke of York in 1985, and became fully operational in 1986.
Using the IATA airport code MPN, RAF Mount Pleasant also acts as the Falkland Islands' only international airport, in addition to its military role. Flights open to civilian passengers are operated twice-weekly. These flights are currently operated by a civilian airline on behalf of the Royal Air Force, and fly to and from RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire, UK with a refuelling stop at RAF Ascension Island in the south-central Atlantic Ocean. Chilean airline LAN Airlines also operate weekly flights from Santiago.
Before the Falklands War, sheep-farming was the Falkland Islands' only industry. Since the late 1980s, when two species of squid popular with consumers were discovered in substantial numbers near the Falklands, fishing has become the largest part of the economy.
On 14 September 2011, Rockhopper Exploration announced plans under way for oil production to commence in 2016, through the use of Floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) technology, replicating the methodology used on the Foinaven field off the Shetland Islands. The production site will require approximately 110 people working offshore and another 40 working onshore. The oil is expected to trade at 90–105% of the Brent crude price.
Some small businesses attempted at Fox Bay have included a market garden, a salmon farm and a knitting mill with "Warrah Knitwear".
Tourism is the second-largest part of the economy. The war brought the islands newfound fame; now tourists come both to see wildlife and go on war tours. Cruise ships often visit, frequently as a tie-in to Antarctica. Nonetheless, the remoteness of the archipelago, and the lack of direct flights to major cities, make the Falklands an expensive destination.
In line with increasing global interest in environmental issues, some nature reserves have been established around the islands, although there are no national parks. In 1990, the Clifton family who owned Sea Lion Island sold it to the Falkland Island Development Company. They had planted 60,000 stands of tussac grass, considered important because on the main islands much tussac has been depredated by grazing. A similar trend may be seen on Bleaker Island, where the farm "went organic" in 1999. Also in the 1990s, Steeple Jason Island and Grand Jason Island were bought by New York philanthropist Michael Steinhardt, who later donated them to the Bronx Zoo-based Wildlife Conservation Society. He also gave them US$425,000 to build a conservation station named after himself and his wife Judy.
|
[
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "The history of the Falkland Islands (Spanish: Islas Malvinas) goes back at least five hundred years, with active exploration and colonisation only taking place in the 18th century. Nonetheless, the Falkland Islands have been a matter of controversy, as they have been claimed by the French, British, Spaniards and Argentines at various points.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "The islands were uninhabited when discovered by Europeans. France established a colony on the islands in 1764. In 1765, a British captain claimed the islands for Britain. In early 1770 a Spanish commander arrived from Buenos Aires with five ships and 1,400 soldiers forcing the British to leave Port Egmont. Britain and Spain almost went to war over the islands, but the British government decided that it should withdraw its presence from many overseas settlements in 1774. Spain, which had a garrison at Puerto Soledad on East Falklands, administered the garrison from Montevideo until 1811 when it was compelled to withdraw as a result of the war against Argentine independence and the pressures of Peninsular War. Luis Vernet attempted to establish a settlement in 1826, seeking support from both the Argentine and British Governments but most of his settlers took the opportunity to leave in 1831 following a raid by the USS Lexington. An attempt made by Argentina to establish a penal colony in 1832 failed due to a mutiny. The Argentine military garrison was ejected by the 1833 British occupation of the Falklands. Argentina invaded the islands on 2 April 1982. The British responded with an expeditionary force that forced the Argentines to surrender.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "When the world sea level was lower in the Ice Age, the Falkland Islands may have been joined to the mainland of South America.",
"title": "Claims of pre-Columbian discovery"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "While Fuegians from Patagonia could have visited the Falklands, the islands were uninhabited when discovered by Europeans. Recent discoveries of arrowheads in Lafonia (on the southern half of East Falkland) as well as the remains of a wooden canoe provide evidence that the Yaghan people of Tierra del Fuego may have made the journey to the islands. It is not known if these are evidence of one-way journeys, but there is no known evidence of pre-Columbian buildings or structures. However, it is not certain that the discovery predates arrival of Europeans. A Patagonian Missionary Society mission station was founded on Keppel Island (off the west coast of West Falkland) in 1856. Yahgan people were at this station from 1856 to 1898 so this may be the source of the artifacts that have been found. In 2021, a paper was published on deposits of marine animal bones (primarily South American sea lion and Southern rockhopper penguin) on New Island off the coast of West Falkland, at the same site where a quartzite arrowhead made of local stone had been found in 1979. The sites dated to 1275 to 1420 CE, and were interpreted as processing or midden sites where marine animals had been butchered. A charcoal spike consistent with anthropogenic causes (i.e. caused by humans) on New Island was also dated to 550 BP (1400 CE). The Yaghan people were capable seafarers, and are known to have travelled to the Diego Ramírez Islands around 105 km (65 mi) south of Cape Horn, and were suggested to be responsible for the creation of the mounds. Other authors have suggested that the mounds and arrowheads do not provide unambiguous evidence of pre-European presence.",
"title": "Claims of pre-Columbian discovery"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "The past presence of the Falkland Islands wolf, Dusicyon australis, has often been cited as evidence of pre-European occupation of the islands, but this is contested. The animal was observed in the Falklands by Charles Darwin, but is now extinct.",
"title": "Claims of pre-Columbian discovery"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "The islands had no native trees when discovered but there is some ambiguous evidence of past forestation, which may be due to wood being transported by oceanic currents from Patagonia. All modern trees have been introduced by Europeans.",
"title": "Claims of pre-Columbian discovery"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "An archipelago in the region of the Falkland Islands appeared on Portuguese maps from the early 16th century. Researchers Pepper and Pascoe cite the possibility that an unknown Portuguese expedition may have sighted the islands, based on the existence of a French copy of a Portuguese map from 1516. Maps from this period show islands known as the Sanson islands in a position that could be interpreted as the Falklands.",
"title": "European discovery"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "Sightings of the islands are attributed to Ferdinand Magellan or Estêvão Gomes of San Antonio, one of the captains in the expedition, as the Falklands fit the description of those visited to gather supplies. The account given by Antonio Pigafetta, the chronicler of Magellan's voyage, contradicts attribution to either Gomes or Magellan, since it describes the position of islands close to the Patagonia coast, with the expedition following the mainland coast and the islands visited between a latitude of 49° and 51°S and also refers to meeting \"giants\" (described as Sansón or Samsons in the chronicle) who are believed to be the Tehuelche Indians. Although acknowledging that Pigafetta's account casts doubt upon the claim, the Argentine historian Laurio H. Destefani asserts it probable that a ship from the Magellan expedition discovered the islands citing the difficulty in measuring longitude accurately, which means that islands described as close to the coast could be further away. Destefani dismisses attribution to Gomes since the course taken by him on his return would not have taken the ships near the Falklands.",
"title": "European discovery"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "Destefani also attributes an early visit to the Falklands by an unknown Spanish ship, although Destefani's firm conclusions are contradicted by authors who conclude the sightings refer to the Beagle Channel.",
"title": "European discovery"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "The name of the archipelago derives from Lord Falkland, the Treasurer of the Admiralty, who organized the first expedition to South Atlantic with the intention to explore the Islands.",
"title": "European discovery"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "When English explorer John Davis, commander of Desire, one of the ships belonging to Thomas Cavendish's second expedition to the New World, separated from Cavendish off the coast of what is now southern Argentina, he decided to make for the Strait of Magellan in order to find Cavendish. On 9 August 1592 a severe storm battered his ship, and Davis drifted under bare masts, taking refuge \"among certain Isles never before discovered\". Davis did not provide the latitude of these islands, indicating they were 50 leagues (240 km) away from the Patagonian coast (they are actually 75 leagues, 360 km away). Navigational errors due to the longitude problem were a common problem until the late 18th century, when accurate marine chronometers became readily available, although Destefani asserts the error here to be \"unusually large\".",
"title": "European discovery"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "In 1594, they may have been visited by English commander Richard Hawkins with his ship the Dainty, who, combining his own name with that of Queen Elizabeth I, the \"Virgin Queen\", gave a group of islands the name of \"Hawkins' Maidenland\". However, the latitude given was off by at least 3 degrees and the description of the shore (including the sighting of bonfires) casts doubts on his discovery. Errors in the latitude measured can be attributed to a simple mistake reading a cross staff divided into minutes, meaning the latitude measured could have been 50° 48' S. The description of bonfires can also be attributed to peat fires caused by lightning, which is not uncommon in the outer islands of the Falklands in February. In 1925, Conor O'Brian analysed the voyage of Hawkins and concluded that the only land he could have sighted was Steeple Jason Island. The British historian Mary Cawkell also points out that criticism of the account of Hawkins' discovery should be tempered by the fact it was written nine years after the event; Hawkins was captured by the Spanish and spent eight years in prison.",
"title": "European discovery"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "On 24 January 1600, the Dutchman Sebald de Weert visited the Jason Islands and called them the Sebald Islands (in Spanish, \"Islas Sebaldinas\" or \"Sebaldes\"). This name remained in use for the entire Falkland Islands for a long time; William Dampier used the name Sibbel de Wards in his reports of his visits in 1684 and 1703, while James Cook still referred to the Sebaldine Islands in the 1770s. The latitude that De Weert provided (50° 40') was close enough as to be considered, for the first time beyond doubt, the Falkland Islands.",
"title": "European discovery"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "English Captain John Strong, commander of Welfare, sailed between the two principal islands in 1690 and called the passage \"Falkland Channel\" (now Falkland Sound), after Anthony Cary, 5th Viscount Falkland (1656–1694), who as Commissioner of the Admiralty had financed the expedition and later became First Lord of the Admiralty. From this body of water the island group later took its collective name.",
"title": "European discovery"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "The French explorer Louis Antoine de Bougainville established a colony at Port St. Louis, on East Falkland's Berkeley Sound coast in 1764. The French name Îles Malouines was given to the islands – malouin being the adjective for the Breton port of Saint-Malo. The Spanish name Islas Malvinas is a translation of the French name of Îles Malouines.",
"title": "Early colonisation"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 15,
"text": "In 1765, Captain John Byron, who was unaware the French had established Port Saint Louis on East Falkland, explored Saunders Island around West Falkland. After discovering a natural harbour, he named the area Port Egmont and claimed the islands for Britain on the grounds of prior discovery. The next year Captain John MacBride established a permanent British settlement at Port Egmont.",
"title": "Early colonisation"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 16,
"text": "Under the alliance established by the Pacte de Famille, in 1766 France agreed to leave after the Spanish complained about French presence in territories they considered their own. Spain agreed to compensate Louis de Bougainville, the French admiral and explorer who had established the settlement on East Falkland at his own expense. In 1767, the Spanish formally assumed control of Port St. Louis and renamed it Puerto Soledad (English: Port Solitude).",
"title": "Early colonisation"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 17,
"text": "In early 1770 Spanish commander, Don Juan Ignacio de Madariaga, briefly visited Port Egmont. On 10 June he returned from Argentina with five armed ships and 1400 soldiers forcing the British to leave Port Egmont. This action sparked the Falkland Crisis between 10 July 1770 to 22 January 1771 when Britain and Spain almost went to war over the islands. However, conflict was averted when the colony was re-established by Captain John Stott with the ships HMS Juno, HMS Hound and HMS Florida (a mail ship which had already been at the founding of the original settlement). Egmont quickly became an important port-of-call for British ships sailing around Cape Horn.",
"title": "Early colonisation"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 18,
"text": "With the growing economic pressures stemming from the upcoming American War of Independence, the British government decided that it should withdraw its presence from many overseas settlements in 1774. On 20 May 1776 the British forces under the command of Royal Naval Lieutenant Clayton formally left Port Egmont, while leaving a plaque asserting Britain's continuing sovereignty over the islands. For the next four years, British sealers used Egmont as a base for their activities in the South Atlantic. This ended in 1780 when they were forced to leave by Spanish authorities who then ordered that the British colony be destroyed.",
"title": "Early colonisation"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 19,
"text": "The Spanish withdrew from the islands under pressure as a result of the Napoleonic invasion and the Argentine War of Independence. The Spanish garrison of Puerto Soledad was removed to Montevideo in 1811 aboard the brigantine Gálvez under an order signed by Francisco Javier de Elío. On departure, the Spanish also left a plaque proclaiming Spain's sovereignty over the islands as the British had done 35 years before. The total depopulation of the Falkland Islands took place.",
"title": "Early colonisation"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 20,
"text": "Following the departure of the Spanish settlers, the Falkland Islands became the domain of whalers and sealers who used the islands to shelter from the worst of the South Atlantic weather. By merit of their location, the Falkland Islands have often been the last refuge for ships damaged at sea. Most numerous among those using the islands were British and American sealers, where typically between 40 and 50 ships were engaged in exploiting fur seals. This represents an itinerant population of up to 1,000 sailors.",
"title": "Inter-colonial period"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 21,
"text": "On 8 February 1813 Isabella, a British ship of 193 tons en route from Sydney to London, ran aground off the coast of Speedwell Island, then known as Eagle Island. Among the ship's 54 passengers and crew, all of whom survived the wreck, was the United Irish general and exile Joseph Holt, who subsequently detailed the ordeal in his memoirs. Also aboard had been the heavily pregnant Joanna Durie, who on 21 February 1813 gave birth to Elizabeth Providence Durie.",
"title": "Inter-colonial period"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 22,
"text": "The next day, 22 February 1813, six men who had volunteered to seek help from any nearby Spanish outposts that they could find set out in one of the Isabella's longboats. Braving the South Atlantic in a boat little more than 17 feet (5.2 m) long, they made landfall on the mainland at the River Plate just over a month later. The British gun brig HMS Nancy under the command of Lieutenant William D'Aranda was sent to rescue the survivors.",
"title": "Inter-colonial period"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 23,
"text": "On 5 April Captain Charles Barnard of the American sealer Nanina was sailing off the shore of Speedwell Island, with a discovery boat deployed looking for seals. Having seen smoke and heard gunshots the previous day, he was alert to the possibility of survivors of a ship wreck. This suspicion was heightened when the crew of the boat came aboard and informed Barnard that they had come across a new moccasin as well as the partially butchered remains of a seal. At dinner that evening, the crew observed a man approaching the ship who was shortly joined by eight to ten others. Both Barnard and the survivors from Isabella had harboured concerns the other party was Spanish and were relieved to discover their respective nationalities.",
"title": "Inter-colonial period"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 24,
"text": "Barnard dined with the Isabella survivors that evening and finding that the British party were unaware of the War of 1812 informed the survivors that technically they were at war with each other. Nevertheless, Barnard promised to rescue the British party and set about preparations for the voyage to the River Plate. Realising that they had insufficient stores for the voyage he set about hunting wild pigs and otherwise acquiring additional food. While Barnard was gathering supplies, however, the British took the opportunity to seize Nanina and departed leaving Barnard, along with one member of his own crew and three from Isabella, marooned. Shortly thereafter, Nancy arrived from the River Plate and encountered Nanina, whereupon Lieutenant D'Aranda rescued the erstwhile survivors of Isabella and took Nanina itself as a prize of war.",
"title": "Inter-colonial period"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 25,
"text": "Barnard and his party survived for eighteen months marooned on the islands until the British whalers Indispensable and Asp rescued them in November 1814. The British admiral in Rio de Janeiro had requested their masters to divert to the area to search for the American crew. In 1829, Barnard published an account of his survival entitled A Narrative of the Sufferings and Adventures of Capt Charles H. Barnard.",
"title": "Inter-colonial period"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 26,
"text": "In March 1820, Heroína, a privately owned frigate that was operated as a privateer under a license issued by the United Provinces of the River Plate, under the command of American Colonel David Jewett, set sail looking to capture Spanish ships as prizes. He captured Carlota, a Portuguese ship, which was considered an act of piracy. A storm resulted in severe damage to Heroína and sank the prize Carlota, forcing Jewett to put into Puerto Soledad for repairs in October 1820.",
"title": "Argentine colonisation attempts"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 27,
"text": "Captain Jewett sought assistance from the British explorer James Weddell. Weddell reported the letter he received from Jewett as:",
"title": "Argentine colonisation attempts"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 28,
"text": "Sir, I have the honor of informing you that I have arrived in this port with a commission from the Supreme Government of the United Provinces of the Rio de la Plata to take possession of these islands on behalf of the country to which they belong by Natural Law. While carrying out this mission I want to do so with all the courtesy and respect all friendly nations; one of the objectives of my mission is to prevent the destruction of resources necessary for all ships passing by and forced to cast anchor here, as well as to help them to obtain the necessary supplies, with minimum expenses and inconvenience. Since your presence here is not in competition with these purposes and in the belief that a personal meeting will be fruitful for both of us, I invite you to come aboard, where you'll be welcomed to stay as long as you wish; I would also greatly appreciate your extending this invitation to any other British subject found in the vicinity; I am, respectfully yours. Signed, Jewett, Colonel of the Navy of the United Provinces of South America and commander of the frigate Heroína.",
"title": "Argentine colonisation attempts"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 29,
"text": "Many modern authors report this letter as representing the declaration issued by Jewett.",
"title": "Argentine colonisation attempts"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 30,
"text": "Jewett's ship received Weddell's assistance in obtaining anchorage off Port Louis. Weddell reported only 30 seamen and 40 soldiers fit for duty out of a crew of 200, and how Jewett slept with pistols over his head following an attempted mutiny earlier in the voyage. On 6 November 1820, Jewett raised the flag of the United Provinces of the River Plate (a predecessor of modern-day Argentina) and claimed possession of the islands. In the words of Weddell, \"In a few days, he took formal possession of these islands for the patriot government of Buenos Ayres, read a declaration under their colours, planted on a port in ruins, and fired a salute of twenty-one guns.\"",
"title": "Argentine colonisation attempts"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 31,
"text": "Jewett departed from the Falkland Islands in April 1821. In total he had spent no more than six months on the island, entirely at Port Louis. In 1822, Jewett was accused of piracy by a Portuguese court, but by that time he was in Brazil.",
"title": "Argentine colonisation attempts"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 32,
"text": "In 1823, the United Provinces of the River Plate granted fishing rights to Jorge Pacheco and Luis Vernet. Travelling to the islands in 1824, the first expedition failed almost as soon as it landed, and Pacheco chose not to continue with the venture. Vernet persisted, but the second attempt, delayed until winter 1826 by a Brazilian blockade, was also unsuccessful. The expedition intended to exploit the feral cattle on the islands but the boggy conditions meant the gauchos could not catch cattle in their traditional way. Vernet was by now aware of conflicting British claims to the islands and sought permission from the British consulate before departing for the islands.",
"title": "Argentine colonisation attempts"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 33,
"text": "In 1828, the United Provinces government granted Vernet all of East Falkland including all its resources, and exempted him from taxation if a colony could be established within three years. He took settlers, including British Captain Matthew Brisbane (who had sailed to the islands earlier with Weddell), and before leaving once again sought permission from the British Consulate in Buenos Aires. The British asked for a report for the British government on the islands, and Vernet asked for British protection should they return.",
"title": "Argentine colonisation attempts"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 34,
"text": "On 10 June 1829, Vernet was designated as 'civil and military commandant' of the islands (no governor was ever appointed) and granted a monopoly on seal hunting rights. A protest was lodged by the British Consulate in Buenos Aires. By 1831, the colony was successful enough to be advertising for new colonists, although USS Lexington's report suggests that the conditions on the islands were quite miserable. Charles Darwin's visit in 1833 confirmed the squalid conditions in the settlement, although Captain Matthew Brisbane (Vernet's deputy) later claimed that this was the result of the Lexington raid.",
"title": "Argentine colonisation attempts"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 35,
"text": "In 1831, Vernet attempted to assert his monopoly on seal hunting rights. This led him to capture the American ships Harriet, Superior and Breakwater. As a reprisal, the United States consul in Buenos Aires sent Captain Silas Duncan of USS Lexington to recover the confiscated property. After finding what he considered proof that at least four American fishing ships had been captured, plundered, and even outfitted for war, Duncan took seven prisoners aboard Lexington and charged them with piracy.",
"title": "Argentine colonisation attempts"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 36,
"text": "Also taken on board, Duncan reported, \"were the whole of the (Falklands') population consisting of about forty persons, with the exception of some 'gauchos', or cowboys who were encamped in the interior.\" The group, principally German citizens from Buenos Aires, \"appeared greatly rejoiced at the opportunity thus presented of removing with their families from a desolate region where the climate is always cold and cheerless and the soil extremely unproductive\". However, about 24 people did remain on the island, mainly gauchos and several Charrúa Indians, who continued to trade on Vernet's account.",
"title": "Argentine colonisation attempts"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 37,
"text": "Measures were taken against the settlement. The log of Lexington reports destruction of arms and a powder store, while settlers remaining later said that there was great damage to private property. Towards the end of his life, Luis Vernet authorised his sons to claim on his behalf for his losses stemming from the raid. In the case lodged against the US Government for compensation, rejected by the US Government of President Cleveland in 1885, Vernet stated that the settlement was destroyed.",
"title": "Argentine colonisation attempts"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 38,
"text": "In the aftermath of the Lexington incident, Major Esteban Mestivier was commissioned by the Buenos Aires government to set up a penal colony. He arrived at his destination on 15 November 1832 but his soldiers mutinied and killed him. The mutiny was suppressed by armed sailors from the French whaler Jean Jacques, whilst Mestivier's widow was taken on board the British sealer Rapid. Sarandí returned on 30 December 1832 and Major José María Pinedo took charge of the settlement.",
"title": "Argentine colonisation attempts"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 39,
"text": "The Argentinian assertions of sovereignty provided the spur for Britain to send a naval task force in order to finally and permanently return to the islands.",
"title": "British return"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 40,
"text": "On 3 January 1833, Captain James Onslow, of the brig-sloop HMS Clio, arrived at Vernet's settlement at Port Louis to request that the flag of the United Provinces of the River Plate be replaced with the British one, and for the administration to leave the islands. While Major José María Pinedo, commander of the schooner Sarandí, wanted to resist, his numerical disadvantage was obvious, particularly as a large number of his crew were British mercenaries who were unwilling to fight their own countrymen. Such a situation was not unusual in the newly independent states in Latin America, where land forces were strong, but navies were frequently quite undermanned. As such he protested verbally, but departed without a fight on 5 January. Argentina claims that Vernet's colony was also expelled at this time, though sources from the time appear to dispute this, suggesting that the colonists were encouraged to remain initially under the authority of Vernet's storekeeper, William Dickson and later his deputy, Matthew Brisbane.",
"title": "British return"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 41,
"text": "Initial British plans for the Islands were based upon the continuation of Vernet's settlement at Port Louis. An Argentine immigrant of Irish origin, William Dickson, was appointed as the British representative and provided with a flagpole and flag to be flown whenever ships were in harbour. In March 1833, Vernet's Deputy, Matthew Brisbane returned and presented his papers to Captain Robert FitzRoy of HMS Beagle, which coincidentally happened to be in harbour at the time. Fitzroy encouraged Brisbane to continue with Vernet's enterprise with the proviso that whilst private enterprise was encouraged, Argentine assertions of sovereignty would not be welcome.",
"title": "British return"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 42,
"text": "Brisbane reasserted his authority over Vernet's settlement and recommenced the practice of paying employees in promissory notes. Due to Vernet's reduced status, the promissory notes were devalued, which meant that the employees received fewer goods at Vernet's stores for their wages. After months of freedom following the Lexington raid this accentuated dissatisfaction with the leadership of the settlement. In August 1833, under the leadership of Antonio Rivero, a gang of Creole and Indian gauchos ran amok in the settlement. Armed with muskets obtained from American sealers, the gang killed five members of Vernet's settlement including both Dickson and Brisbane. Shortly afterward the survivors fled Port Louis, seeking refuge on Turf Island in Berkeley Sound until rescued by the British sealer Hopeful in October 1833.",
"title": "British return"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 43,
"text": "Lt Henry Smith was installed as the first British resident in January 1834. One of his first actions was to pursue and arrest Rivero's gang for the murders committed the previous August. The gang was sent for trial in London but could not be tried as the Crown Court did not have jurisdiction over the Falkland Islands. In the British colonial system, colonies had their own, distinct governments, finances, and judicial systems. Rivero was not tried and sentenced because the British local government and local judiciary had not yet been installed in 1834; these were created later, by the 1841 British Letters Patent. Subsequently, Rivero has acquired the status of a folk hero in Argentina, where he is portrayed as leading a rebellion against British rule. Ironically it was the actions of Rivero that were responsible for the ultimate demise of Vernet's enterprise on the Falklands.",
"title": "British return"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 44,
"text": "Charles Darwin revisited the Falklands in 1834; the settlements Darwin and Fitzroy both take their names from this visit.",
"title": "British return"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 45,
"text": "After the arrest of Rivero, Smith set about restoring the settlement at Port Louis, repairing the damage done by the Lexington raid and renaming it 'Anson's Harbour'. Lt Lowcay succeeded Smith in April 1838, followed by Lt Robinson in September 1839 and Lt Tyssen in December 1839.",
"title": "British return"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 46,
"text": "Vernet later attempted to return to the Islands but was refused permission to return. The British Crown reneged on promises and refused to recognise rights granted by Captain Onslow at the time of the reoccupation. Eventually, after travelling to London, Vernet received paltry compensation for horses shipped to Port Louis many years before. G.T. Whittington obtained a concession of 6,400 acres (26 km) from Vernet that he later exploited with the formation of the Falkland Islands Commercial Fishery and Agricultural Association.",
"title": "British return"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 47,
"text": "Immediately following their return to the Falkland Islands and the failure of Vernet's settlement, the British maintained Port Louis as a military outpost. There was no attempt to colonise the islands following the intervention, instead there was a reliance upon the remaining rump of Vernet's settlement. Lt. Smith received little support from the Royal Navy and the islands developed largely on his initiative but he had to rely on a group of armed gauchos to enforce authority and protect British interests. Smith received advice from Vernet in this regard, and in turn continued to administer Vernet's property and provide him with regular accounts. His superiors later rebuked him for his ideas and actions in promoting the development of the small settlement in Port Louis. In frustration, Smith resigned but his successors Lt. Lowcay and Lt. Tyssen did not continue with the initiatives Smith had pursued and the settlement began to stagnate.",
"title": "British colonisation"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 48,
"text": "In 1836, East Falkland was surveyed by Admiral George Grey, and further in 1837 by Lowcay. Admiral George Grey, conducting the geographic survey in November 1836 had the following to say about their first view of East Falkland:",
"title": "British colonisation"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 49,
"text": "We anchored a little after sunset off a creek called 'Johnson's Harbour'. The day having been cloudy with occasional showers, these islands at all times dreary enough, looked particularly so on our first view of them, the shores of sound, steep, with bare hills intersected with ravines rising from them, these hills without a tree and the clouds hanging low, gave them exactly the appearance of the Cheviots or a Scotch moor on a winter's day and considering we were in the May of these latitudes, the first impression of the climate was not favourable, the weather however, was not called, the thermometer was 63 °F (17 °C) [17 °C] which is Howick mid-summer temperature.",
"title": "British colonisation"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 50,
"text": "Pressure to develop the islands as a colony began to build as the result of a campaign mounted by British merchant G. T. Whittington. Whittington formed the Falkland Islands Commercial Fishery and Agricultural Association and (based on information indirectly obtained from Vernet) published a pamphlet entitled \"The Falkland Islands\". Later a petition signed by London merchants was presented to the British Government demanding the convening of a public meeting to discuss the future development of the Falkland Islands. Whittington petitioned the Colonial Secretary, Lord Russell, proposing that his association be allowed to colonise the islands. In May 1840, the British Government made the decision to colonise the Falkland Islands.",
"title": "British colonisation"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 51,
"text": "Unaware of the decision by the British Government to colonise the islands, Whittington grew impatient and decided to take action of his own initiative. Obtaining two ships, he sent his brother, J. B. Whittington, on a mission to land stores and settlers at Port Louis. On arrival he presented his claim to land that his brother had bought from Vernet. Lt. Tyssen was taken aback by Whittington's arrival, indicating that he had no authority to allow this; however, he was unable to prevent the party from landing. Whittington constructed a large house for his party, and using a salting house built by Vernet established a fish-salting business.",
"title": "British colonisation"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 52,
"text": "In 1833 the United Kingdom asserted authority over the Falkland Islands and Richard Clement Moody, a highly esteemed Royal Engineer, was appointed as Lieutenant Governor of the islands. This post was renamed Governor of the Falkland Islands in 1843, when he also became Commander-in-Chief of the Falkland Islands. Moody left England for Falkland on 1 October 1841 aboard the ship Hebe and arrived in Anson's Harbour later that month. He was accompanied by twelve sappers and miners and their families; together with Whittington's colonists this brought the population of Anson's Harbour to approximately 50. When Moody arrived, the Falklands was 'almost in a state of anarchy', but he used his powers 'with great wisdom and moderation' to develop the Islands' infrastructure and, commanding detachment of sappers, erected government offices, a school and barracks, residences, ports, and a new road system.",
"title": "British colonisation"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 53,
"text": "In 1842, Moody was instructed by Lord Stanley the British Secretary of State for War and the Colonies to report on the potential of the Port William area as the site of the new capital. Moody assigned the task of surveying the area to Captain Ross, leader of the Antarctic Expedition. Captain Ross delivered his report in 1843, concluding that Port William afforded a good deep-water anchorage for naval vessels, and that the southern shores of Port Jackson was a suitable location for the proposed settlement. Moody accepted the recommendation of Ross and construction of the new settlement started in July 1843. Inn July 1845, at Moody's suggestion, the new capital of the islands was officially named Port Stanley after Lord Stanley. Not everyone was enthused with the selection of the location of the new capital, J. B. Whittington famously remarked that \"Of all the miserable bog holes, I believe that Mr Moody has selected one of the worst for the site of his town.\"",
"title": "British colonisation"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 54,
"text": "The structure of the Colonial Government was established in 1845 with the formation of the Legislative Council and Executive Council and work on the construction of Government House commenced. The following year, the first officers appointed to the Colonial Government took their posts; by this time a number of residences, a large storage shed, carpenter's shop and blacksmith's shop had been completed and the Government Dockyard laid out. In 1845 Moody introduced tussock grass into Great Britain from Falkland, for which he received the gold medal of the Royal Agricultural Society. The Coat of arms of the Falkland Islands notably includes an image of tussock grass. Moody returned to England in February 1849. Moody Brook is named after him.",
"title": "British colonisation"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 55,
"text": "With the establishment of the deep-water anchorage and improvements in port facilities, Stanley saw a dramatic increase in the number of visiting ships in the 1840s in part due to the California Gold Rush. A boom in ship provisioning and ship-repair resulted, aided by the notoriously bad weather in the South Atlantic and around Cape Horn. Stanley and the Falkland Islands are famous as the repository of many wrecks of 19th-century ships that reached the islands only to be condemned as unseaworthy and were often employed as floating warehouses by local merchants.",
"title": "British colonisation"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 56,
"text": "At one point in the 19th century, Stanley became one of the world's busiest ports. However, the ship-repair trade began to slacken off in 1876 with the establishment of the Plimsoll line, which saw the elimination of the so-called coffin ships and unseaworthy vessels that might otherwise have ended up in Stanley for repair. With the introduction of increasingly reliable iron steamships in the 1890s the trade declined further and was no longer viable following the opening of the Panama Canal in 1914. Port Stanley continued to be a busy port supporting whaling and sealing activities in the early part of the 20th century, British warships (and garrisons) in the First and Second World War and the fishing and cruise ship industries in the latter half of the century.",
"title": "British colonisation"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 57,
"text": "Government House opened as the offices of the Lieutenant Governor in 1847. Government House continued to develop with various additions, formally becoming the Governor's residence in 1859 when Governor Moore took residence. Government House remains the residence of the Governor.",
"title": "British colonisation"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 58,
"text": "Many of the colonists begin to move from Ansons' Harbour to Port Stanley. As the new town expanded, the population grew rapidly, reaching 200 by 1849. The population was further expanded by the arrival of 30 married Chelsea Pensioners and their families. The Royal Falkland Islands Police were established in November 1846 with the appointment of Francis Parry as Chief Constable. The force was initially staffed by three officers – the Chief Constable, the Gaoler (responsible for prisoners), and the Night Constable (responsible for policing during the night). The Constables Ordinance 1846, which had been enacted by the colony's Legislative Council on 27 October of that year. The Chelsea Pensioners were to form the permanent garrison and police force, taking over from the Royal Sappers and Miners Regiment which had garrisoned the early colony.",
"title": "British colonisation"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 59,
"text": "The Exchange Building opened in 1854; part of the building was later used as a church. 1854 also saw the establishment of Marmont Row, including the Eagle Inn, now known as the Upland Goose Hotel. In 1887, Jubilee Villas were built to celebrate the Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria. Jubilee Villas are a row of brick built houses that follow a traditional British pattern; positioned on Ross road near the waterfront, they became an iconic image during the Falklands War.",
"title": "British colonisation"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 60,
"text": "Peat is common on the islands and has traditionally been exploited as a fuel. Uncontrolled exploitation of this natural resource led to peat slips in 1878 and 1886. The 1878 peat slip resulted in the destruction of several houses, whilst the 1886 peat slip resulted in the deaths of two women and the destruction of the Exchange Building.",
"title": "British colonisation"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 61,
"text": "Christ Church Cathedral was consecrated in 1892 and completed in 1903. It received its famous whalebone arch, constructed from the jaws of two blue whales, in 1933 to commemorate the centenary of continuous British administration. Also consecrated in 1892 was the Tabernacle United Free Church, constructed from an imported timber kit.",
"title": "British colonisation"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 62,
"text": "A few years after the British had established themselves in the islands, a number of new British settlements were started. Initially many of these settlements were established in order to exploit the feral cattle on the islands. Following the introduction of the Cheviot breed of sheep to the islands in 1852, sheep farming became the dominant form of agriculture on the Islands.",
"title": "British colonisation"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 63,
"text": "Salvador Settlement was one of the earliest, being started in the 1830s, by a Gibraltarian immigrant (hence its other name of \"Gibraltar Settlement\"), and it is still run by his descendants, the Pitalugas.",
"title": "British colonisation"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 64,
"text": "Cattle were concentrated in the southern part of East Falkland, an area that became known as Lafonia. Lafone was an absentee landlord and never actually set foot on the islands. His activities were not monitored by the British and rather than introducing more British settlers as he promised, he brought large numbers of Spanish and Indian gauchos to hunt cattle. In 1846, they established Hope Place on the south shores of Brenton Loch. Vernet furnished Samuel Fisher Lafone, a British merchant operating from Montevideo, with details of the Falkland Islands including a map. Sensing that the exploitation of feral cattle on the islands would be a lucrative venture, in 1846 he negotiated a contract with the British Government that gave him exclusive rights to this resource. Until 1846 Moody had allotted feral cattle to new settlers and the new agreement not only prevented this but made Stanley dependent upon Lafone for supplies of beef. In 1849 a sod wall (the Boca wall) was built across the isthmus at Darwin to control the movement of cattle.",
"title": "British colonisation"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 65,
"text": "Lafone continued to develop his business interests and in 1849 looked to establish a joint stock company with his London creditors. The company was launched as The Royal Falkland Land, Cattle, Seal and Fishery Company in 1850 but soon thereafter was incorporated under Royal Charter as The Falkland Islands Company Limited. Lafone became a director and his brother-in-law J.P. Dale the company's first manager in the islands. By 1852, the feral cattle had been hunted virtually to extinction by gauchos and the company switched to sheep farming with the introduction of the Cheviot breed of sheep. Hope Place proved to be an unsuitable location and the operation moved to Darwin. In 1860, the Lafone Beef contract was terminated but the Falkland Islands Company was given a grant to Lafonia. Ownership of the remaining cattle outside of Lafonia reverted to the Crown and hunting cattle without permission was banned.",
"title": "British colonisation"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 66,
"text": "In the second half of the 19th century, Darwin, Goose Green, Fox Bay and Port Howard were established. Port Howard was founded by James Lovegrove Waldron, and his brother in 1866; the Waldron brothers later left for Patagonia, but left the farm under local management.",
"title": "British colonisation"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 67,
"text": "Darwin was initially the haunt of gauchos and cattle farmers, but sheep farming came to dominate the area, and Scottish shepherds were brought in. A few years later, the first large tallow works in the islands (though not the first) was set up by the FIC in 1874. It handled 15,891 sheep in 1880.",
"title": "British colonisation"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 68,
"text": "From the 1880s, until 1972, Darwin and Fox Bay had their own separate medical officers. Nowadays, most medical care is based in Stanley.",
"title": "British colonisation"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 69,
"text": "The Falkland Islands were used as a base for whaling ships hunting the southern right whale and sperm whale from the 1770s until British authority was established over the islands and surrounding seas. Whaling was briefly revived with the establishment of a whaling station on New Island from 1909 to 1917 until whaling operations moved to South Georgia.",
"title": "British colonisation"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 70,
"text": "Fur seals had long been exploited for their pelts but numbers entered a drastic decline in the early 19th century. As a result, seal hunting died off, although continuing at a low level. In order to conserve stocks, a ban on the hunting of fur seals during summers months was enacted in 1881, but it was not until 1921 that hunting was banned entirely.",
"title": "British colonisation"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 71,
"text": "Elephant seals were exploited for oil but like the fur seals their numbers declined drastically in the mid-1850s. Sealers instead turned their attention to the South American sea lion resulting in a dramatic decline in their numbers that made sealing uneconomic. Attempts to revive the trade, including a sealing station at Port Albemarle, were unsuccessful.",
"title": "British colonisation"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 72,
"text": "Even penguins were exploited for oil. Rockhopper and gentoo penguins were rendered down in trypots from 1860 until the 1880s.",
"title": "British colonisation"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 73,
"text": "Although the first telephone lines were installed by the Falkland Islands Company in the 1880s, the Falkland Islands Government was slow to embrace telephony. It was not until 1897 that a telephone line was installed between Cape Pembroke lighthouse and the police station. The islands isolation was broken in 1911 when Guglielmo Marconi installed a wireless telegraphy station that enabled telegrams to be sent to mainland Uruguay.",
"title": "Twentieth century"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 74,
"text": "A line was laid between Darwin and Stanley, with the ship Consort landing poles on the coast. Construction commenced in 1906 and was finished in 1907 (a length of nearly 50 miles or 80 kilometres). The line was initially only for business but the public could make calls occasionally. Lines continued to be laid to most of the major settlements in the islands, with the Falkland Islands police responsible for their maintenance until 1927. Communications among the settlements relied on the telephone network until radio telephones were introduced in the 1950s, although the telephone network continued until 1982. Telecommunications improved dramatically after the Falklands War, when an earth station was installed to allow direct dialling for the first time. In 1997, an Internet service was launched and by 2002 nearly 90% of Falkland homes had Internet access.",
"title": "Twentieth century"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 75,
"text": "In 1911 the islands had 3,275 inhabitants of whom 916 lived in Port Stanley. A canning factory was opened in 1911 at Goose Green and was initially extremely successful. It absorbed a large proportion of surplus sheep but during the postwar slump it suffered a serious loss and closed in 1921.",
"title": "Twentieth century"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 76,
"text": "Despite this setback, a mere year later, the settlement grew after it became the base for the Falkland Islands Company's sheep farm in Lafonia in 1922, with improved sheep handling and wool shed being built. In 1927, the settlement's huge sheep shearing shed was built, which is claimed to be the world's largest, with a capacity of five thousand sheep. In 1979, 100,598 sheep were shorn at Goose Green.",
"title": "Twentieth century"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 77,
"text": "The mid-20th century saw a number of abortive attempts to diversify the islands' economy away from large scale sheep ranching.",
"title": "Twentieth century"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 78,
"text": "In the period just after the Second World War, Port Albemarle, in the south west of West Falkland, was enlarged by the Colonial Development Company and included its own power station, jetty, Nissen huts etc.; this was an attempt to revive the old sealing industry which had flourished during the 19th century. However, the project proved to be nonviable, not least because seal numbers had declined massively.",
"title": "Twentieth century"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 79,
"text": "Similarly, Ajax Bay on Falkland Sound, was developed by the Colonial Development Corporation in the 1950s, which was also responsible for developing Port Albemarle. It was mainly a refrigeration plant, and was supposed to freeze Falkland mutton, but this was found to be economically nonviable, despite the huge expense incurred. Many of the pre-fabricated houses here were moved to Stanley. The site later became a British field hospital during the landings of Operation Sutton.",
"title": "Twentieth century"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 80,
"text": "The seas around the Falkland Islands were not well policed prior to the Falklands War, and many foreign boats fished off the islands, despite protests that potential revenue was being lost. Fishing licences were only later to be introduced.",
"title": "Twentieth century"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 81,
"text": "In 1956, J. L. Waldron Ltd built a school at Port Howard, possibly inspired by the \"gift\" of the FIC at Darwin, a few years earlier.",
"title": "Twentieth century"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 82,
"text": "Up until the 1970s, Goose Green was the site of a boarding school, run by the state. \"Camp\" children boarded here, and there were 40 spaces. The boarding school was later transferred to Stanley, although the recent emphasis has been on locally based education. The school itself became an Argentine HQ, and was burnt down. A new (day) school has been built for local children.",
"title": "Twentieth century"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 83,
"text": "Port Stanley became an important coaling station for the Royal Navy. This led to ships based there being involved in major naval engagements in both the First and Second World Wars.",
"title": "Twentieth century"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 84,
"text": "The strategic significance of the Falkland Islands was confirmed by the second major naval engagement of the First World War. Admiral Graf Maximilian von Spee's East Asia Squadron called at the islands on its trip from the Pacific Ocean back to Germany, intending to destroy the Royal Navy radio relay station and coaling depot there. Unknown to von Spee, a British squadron, including two battlecruisers considerably more powerful than his forces, had been sent to hunt down his squadron and happened to be in the harbour coaling. In the one-sided battle which followed, most of von Spee's squadron was sunk. Canopus Hill, south of Stanley, is named after HMS Canopus, which had fired the first shot in the battle.",
"title": "Twentieth century"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 85,
"text": "The Falkland Islands Defence Force was called out to man gun positions and signalling posts around Stanley as soon as word was received of Britain's declaration of war on 3 September 1939. Mounted patrols were carried out in the Camp, and coast-watching stations were created around the islands to guard against the approach of enemy ships and the landing of enemy forces. The Falkland Islanders experienced much the same kind of war-time privations and restrictions as the British population, including black-outs, travel restrictions, and rationing.",
"title": "Twentieth century"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 86,
"text": "In December 1939, in the immediate aftermath of the Battle of the River Plate, County-class heavy cruiser HMS Cumberland, which had been self-refitting in the Falkland Islands at the time of the battle, steamed to join HMS Ajax and HMS Achilles at the mouth of the River Plate, trapping the German cruiser Admiral Graf Spee. Convinced by British propaganda and false intelligence that a major naval task force awaited his ship and short of ammunition, Captain Langsdorf of Admiral Graf Spee chose instead to scuttle the ship rather than face the Royal Navy.",
"title": "Twentieth century"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 87,
"text": "Operation Tabarin, an expedition to the Antarctic, was mounted from the islands during the war. The purpose of the expedition was to assert Britain's claims on the continent, as well as gather scientific data. Operation Tabarin was later replaced by the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey, which was later renamed the British Antarctic Survey.",
"title": "Twentieth century"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 88,
"text": "In 1942, in response to the Japanese entry into the war, additional forces were sent to the islands to strengthen their defence against invasion. The largest component of these additional forces was a battalion of the West Yorkshire Regiment. In 1944, as a result of the reduced threat of invasion from Japan, the West Yorks were replaced by a smaller contingent of the Royal Scots.",
"title": "Twentieth century"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 89,
"text": "Over the whole war more than 150 Falkland Islanders out of a population of only 2,300 volunteered for the British armed forces - 6.5% of the entire population - 24 of whom did not return. In July 1944, all volunteers were given the right to be identified by a \"Falkland Islands\" shoulder-flash. In addition to these contributions to the British war-effort, the Falkland Islands also donated five Supermarine Spitfires to the British Royal Air Force.",
"title": "Twentieth century"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 90,
"text": "With the exception of an attempt by President Juan Perón to buy the Falkland Islands in 1953 which was rejected as inconceivable by the British government, the immediate post-war period was fairly uneventful. However, a series of incidents in the 1960s marked the intensification of Argentine sovereignty claims.",
"title": "Twentieth century"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 91,
"text": "The first of these took place in 1964, when a light plane piloted by Miguel Fitzgerald touched down on the racecourse at Stanley. Leaping from the aircraft, he handed a letter claiming sovereignty to a bemused islander before flying off again. The stunt was timed to coincide with Argentine diplomatic efforts at the UN Decolonisation Committee.",
"title": "Twentieth century"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 92,
"text": "A more serious incident took place on 28 September 1966 when eighteen young Peronists staged a symbolic invasion of the Islands by hijacking an Aerolíneas Argentinas airliner and landing it in Stanley; the group called this action Operativo Cóndor. There, they raised seven Argentine flags and took four islanders hostage. The planning had been done during a trip to the islands that one of the leaders had made as a tourist. The airliner left at from Buenos Aires, bound for Río Gallegos with 48 passengers on board, including Argentine Rear Admiral José María Guzmán, who was on his way to Tierra del Fuego, an Argentine territory of which he was governor. Two armed men entered the flight deck and ordered the pilot to change course toward the Falklands. The pilot attempted to land at the racecourse but the plane hit telegraph poles, and the undercarriage sank into the mud. Islanders, assuming that the plane was in trouble, rushed to assist but found themselves taken hostage by the hijackers (included in the group of four was a young police sergeant, Terry Peck, who became a local hero in the Falklands War). Les Gleadell, acting Governor of the Falkland Islands, ordered that the DC-4 be surrounded. He received three of the invaders, who announced that they had as much right as anyone to be there and in reply were firmly told that they should disarm and give up. The result of this meeting was an agreement that seven men, including Peck and Captain Ian Martin, commanding a four-man Royal Marines detachment, should be exchanged for the hostages aboard the aircraft. The 26 passengers were then allowed to disembark and sent to lodge with local families, as the island had no hotel. On being taken past the governor's residence, Guzmán laughingly commented: \"Mi casa\" (\"my house\").",
"title": "Twentieth century"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 93,
"text": "After a bitterly cold night in the aircraft, which contained only brandy, wine, orange juice and a few biscuits, the kidnappers surrendered. They were kept locked up in an annex to St Mary's Church for a week until they were put aboard an Argentine ship, the Bahía Buen Suceso, which had lingered outside the harbor awaiting conclusion of the affair. The men were tried in Argentina on crimes that included illegal deprivation of freedom, possession of weapons of war, illegal association, piracy, and robbery in the open. The leaders were sentenced to three years in prison and the others to nine months.",
"title": "Twentieth century"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 94,
"text": "On October of the same year a group of Argentine naval special forces conducted covert landings from the submarine ARA Santiago del Estero. The 12-man team, which landed some 40 kilometres (25 mi) from Stanley, was led by Juan José Lombardo who later, as Chief of Naval Operations, planned the 1982 invasion of the Falkland Islands.",
"title": "Twentieth century"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 95,
"text": "In November 1968, Miguel Fitzgerald was hired by the Argentine press to attempt a reprise of his 1964 landing. Accompanied by one of the 1966 hijackers, he flew to Stanley but on arrival found he could not land at the racecourse due to obstacles placed following the hijacking. The plane was forced to crash land on Eliza Cove Road, but the two occupants were unharmed. The stunt was intended to coincide with the visit of Lord Chalfont to the islands.",
"title": "Twentieth century"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 96,
"text": "The latter incident proved counter-productive to the Argentine sovereignty push, as Lord Chalfont had been talking to a public meeting at the time of the plane's arrival. The islanders made it plain to Lord Chalfont that they rejected a Memorandum of Agreement negotiated between Britain and Argentina that August which stated that Britain was prepared to discuss sovereignty provided the islanders' wishes were respected. This spurred the formation of the Falkland Islands Committee by London barrister Bill Hunter-Christie and others. The Emergency Committee, as it became known, proved to be an effective lobbying organisation, constantly undermining Foreign Office initiatives on sovereignty negotiations. In December 1968, the lobbying effort managed to force the British Government to state that the islanders' wishes would be paramount.",
"title": "Twentieth century"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 97,
"text": "Partly as the result of diplomatic pressure, economic and political links with Argentina increased in the 1960s and 1970s. These became severed after the end of the Falklands War, but before the war they were not entirely negative, and some islanders sent their children to boarding schools in Argentina.",
"title": "Twentieth century"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 98,
"text": "Realising that any talks on the sovereignty issue would be derailed if it did not meet with the islanders' wishes, the British and Argentine Governments enacted a series of measures designed to encourage dependence on Argentina. In 1971, following secret talks between the two Governments (and without consulting the islanders), the communications agreement was signed. The thrust of the agreement was the establishment of direct air and sea links between the islands and Argentina, together with agreements on postal and telephony services. Following the agreement the subsidised shipping link with Montevideo ended, a passenger and cargo ship service to the mainland (that would ameliorate any dependence on Argentina) was promised by the British but never provided.",
"title": "Twentieth century"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 99,
"text": "Líneas Aéreas del Estado (LADE), the airline operated by the Argentine Air Force (Fuerza Aérea Argentina or FAA), began an air link to the islands. Initially this service operated amphibious aircraft between Comodoro Rivadavia and Stanley using Grumman HU-16 Albatross aircraft. The inauguration of the service was commemorated by a series of stamps issued by both the Argentine and Falkland Island postal services. In 1972, a temporary airstrip was constructed by Argentina near Stanley. Britain constructed a small permanent airstrip in 1976 suitable only for short haul flights.",
"title": "Twentieth century"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 100,
"text": "As part of the agreement, islanders had to travel via Argentina and were forced to carry Argentine Identity Cards issued in Buenos Aires. The Tarjeta Provisoria or \"white card\" as they were known were hated by the islanders, who felt they were a de facto Argentine passport, since only islanders were required to use them and not other temporary residents of the islands. Tensions were raised further with the agreement that male Falkland Islanders would not have to undertake conscription into the Argentine Army, since this carried the implication that Falkland Islanders were Argentine citizens.",
"title": "Twentieth century"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 101,
"text": "LADE set up an office in Stanley and mail was routed through Argentina. Medical treatments unavailable in the islands were provided in Argentina and scholarships were made available for study in Buenos Aires, Córdoba and other Argentine cities. Spanish language teachers were provided by Argentina. Foreign Office officials in Stanley were instructed to do everything possible to foster good relations between the Falkland Islands and Argentina.",
"title": "Twentieth century"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 102,
"text": "The islands became more dependent upon Argentina, when the British and Argentine governments agreed that the islands would be supplied with petrol, diesel and oil by YPF, the Argentine national oil and gas company.",
"title": "Twentieth century"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 103,
"text": "Despite these tensions relationships between the islanders and the Argentines operating the new services in the islands were cordial. Although there was apprehension, politics were generally avoided and on a one-to-one basis there was never any real hostility.",
"title": "Twentieth century"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 104,
"text": "On the international level, relations began to sour in 1975 when Argentine delegates at the London meeting of the International Parliamentary Union condemned Britain's \"act of international piracy\" in establishing a colony in the Falkland Islands. Diplomatic relations between Britain and Argentina were broken but resumed in 1976.",
"title": "Twentieth century"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 105,
"text": "In October 1975, the British Government tasked Lord Shackleton (son of the Antarctic explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton) with an economic survey of the Falkland Islands. The Argentine Government reacted furiously and refused permission for Lord Shackleton to travel via Argentina. Later the ship transporting Shackleton to the islands, RRS Shackleton, was fired upon by the Argentine destroyer ARA Almirante Storni.",
"title": "Twentieth century"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 106,
"text": "In 1976, after a military junta took control of the country, Argentina covertly established a military base on Southern Thule. It was discovered by the British Antarctic Survey ship RRS Bransfield in 1977. The British protested but restricted their response to a diplomatic protest. Backing up the diplomatic efforts, the British Prime Minister Jim Callaghan sent a naval task force consisting of surface ships and a nuclear submarine. Nevertheless, Argentine aircraft and warships harassed ships fishing in Falkland waters.",
"title": "Twentieth century"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 107,
"text": "Lord Shackleton's report was delivered in 1977 and documented the economic stagnation in the islands. It nevertheless concluded that the islands made a net contribution to the British economy and had economic potential for development. Recommendations included oil exploration, exploitation of the fisheries, extension of the Stanley runway, the creation of a development agency, the expansion of the road network, expansion of the facilities at Stanley harbour and the breakdown of absentee landlord owned farms into family units. The report was largely ignored at the time, as it was felt that acting upon it would sour relations with Argentina. A reprise of the report by Lord Shackleton in 1982 following the Falklands War became the blueprint for subsequent economic development of the islands.",
"title": "Twentieth century"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 108,
"text": "Argentina invaded the islands on 2 April 1982, using special forces, which landed at Mullet Creek and advanced on Government House in Stanley, with a secondary force coming in from Yorke Bay. They encountered little opposition, there being only a small force of fifty-seven British marines and eleven sailors, in addition to the Falkland Islands Defence Force (who were later sent to Fox Bay). There was only one Argentine fatality. The event garnered international attention at a level which the islands had never experienced before, and made them a household name in the UK.",
"title": "Twentieth century"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 109,
"text": "For a brief period, the Falkland Islands found themselves under Argentine control. This included Spanish-language signage, and attempts to make the islanders drive on the right (although few roads in the Falklands at the time actually had two lanes). In many parts of the Camp, such as Goose Green and Pebble Island, the islanders found themselves under house arrest.",
"title": "Twentieth century"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 110,
"text": "The British responded with an expeditionary force that landed seven weeks later and, after fierce fighting, forced the Argentine garrison to surrender on 14 June 1982. The war proved to be an anomaly in a number of different respects, not least that it proved that small arms still had a role to play. It also had major consequences for the military junta, which was toppled soon afterwards.",
"title": "Twentieth century"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 111,
"text": "Margaret Thatcher's general political legacy remains controversial and divisive within the UK and within the context of the Falklands her government's withdrawal of HMS Endurance is a stated contributing factor to the causes of the conflict because it gave the wrong signals about the UK attitude towards maintaining its possession. However, within the Falklands, she is considered a heroine because of the determination of her response to the Argentine invasion. The islanders celebrate Margaret Thatcher Day on 10 January; and Thatcher Drive in Stanley is named after her.",
"title": "Twentieth century"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 112,
"text": "Following the war, Britain focused on improving its facilities on the islands. It increased its military presence significantly, building a large base at RAF Mount Pleasant and its port at Mare Harbour. It also invested heavily in improving facilities in Stanley and transportation and infrastructure around the islands, tarmacking the Stanley–Mount Pleasant road and many roads within Stanley. The population has risen due to the growth of Stanley, but has declined in Camp (the countryside). Since November 2008, a regular ferry service has linked East and West Falkland, carrying cars, passengers and cargo serviced by MV Concordia Bay, a 42.45 m (139 ft 3 in) twin-screw shallow draught landing craft.",
"title": "Post-war"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 113,
"text": "A major change to the governance of the Falkland Islands was introduced by the 1985 constitution. The Falkland Islands Government (FIG) became a parliamentary representative dependency, whose members are democratically elected; while the governor, as head of government and representative of the Queen, is purely a figurehead without executive powers. Effectively, the Falkland Islands are self-governing, with the exception of foreign policy. (The FIG represents itself at the United Nations Special Committee on Decolonisation, as the British Government no longer attends.)",
"title": "Post-war"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 114,
"text": "Links with Argentina were severed in the post-war period, and laws introduced forbidding Argentine citizens from buying land. An alternative trading partner was found in Chile, with links developing over the years, including flights to Punta Arenas (in the far south of Patagonian Chile, near Tierra del Fuego). In recent years, Argentines have been allowed to visit the islands again, often to visit the military cemeteries where their friends and loved ones are buried.",
"title": "Post-war"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 115,
"text": "Land mines were a persistent problem for 38 years following the war. Land mine clearance was completed by November 2020.",
"title": "Post-war"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 116,
"text": "In 1983, the UK passed the British Nationality (Falkland Islands) Act granting full British citizenship to the islanders. High-profile dignitaries visited to show British commitment to the islands, including Margaret Thatcher, the Prince of Wales, and Princess Alexandra. In 1985, the Falkland Islands Dependency was split into the Falkland Islands proper and a newly separate territory of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands.",
"title": "Post-war"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 117,
"text": "Relations between the UK and Argentina remained hostile after 1982. Although the United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution calling on the UK and Argentina to return to negotiations over the Islands' future, the UK ruled out further talks over the islands' sovereignty. The UK also maintained the arms embargo against Argentina that they initiated during the war, compelling the Argentine armed forces (a traditional UK buyer) to switch to other markets. Diplomatic relations were restored in 1989.",
"title": "Post-war"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 118,
"text": "Relations between the UK and Argentina improved further in the 1990s. In 1998, Argentine President Carlos Menem visited London, where he reaffirmed Argentina claims to the Islands, but stated that only peaceful means would be used for their recovery. In 2001, UK Prime Minister Tony Blair visited Argentina, where he stated his hope that the UK and Argentina could resolve their differences. However, no talks on sovereignty took place during the visit.",
"title": "Post-war"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 119,
"text": "After the war, the British still faced potential future aggression, so an aircraft carrier was kept on station guarding the islands with its squadron of Sea Harriers, while the local airfield was prepared for jet aircraft. HMS Hermes took guard duty first, whilst HMS Invincible went north to change a gearbox. Invincible then returned to relieve Hermes, which urgently needed to have its boilers cleaned. Invincible remained until HMS Illustrious was rushed south (being commissioned during the journey). Once the Port Stanley runway was ready for jets, several RAF F-4 Phantoms were stationed there, relieving Illustrious.",
"title": "Post-war"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 120,
"text": "The islands lacked barracks for a permanent garrison, so the Ministry of defence chartered two former car ferries as barracks ships: Rangatira from the Union Company of New Zealand and Saint Edmund from Sealink in Britain. Rangatira arrived in Port Stanley on 11 July 1982 and stayed until 26 September 1983.",
"title": "Post-war"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 121,
"text": "Later, the British government decided to construct a new RAF base as the centrepiece of plans to strengthen the island defences and deter any further attempts to take the Falklands by force. This was a massive undertaking — including construction of the world's longest corridor, one-half mile (800 metres) linking the barracks, messes, recreation and welfare areas of the base. The base is occasionally referred to by residents as \"the Death Star\" because of its vast size and sometimes confusing layout.",
"title": "Post-war"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 122,
"text": "Mount Pleasant, to the west of Stanley, was chosen as the site for the new base. The airfield was opened by The Duke of York in 1985, and became fully operational in 1986.",
"title": "Post-war"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 123,
"text": "Using the IATA airport code MPN, RAF Mount Pleasant also acts as the Falkland Islands' only international airport, in addition to its military role. Flights open to civilian passengers are operated twice-weekly. These flights are currently operated by a civilian airline on behalf of the Royal Air Force, and fly to and from RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire, UK with a refuelling stop at RAF Ascension Island in the south-central Atlantic Ocean. Chilean airline LAN Airlines also operate weekly flights from Santiago.",
"title": "Post-war"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 124,
"text": "Before the Falklands War, sheep-farming was the Falkland Islands' only industry. Since the late 1980s, when two species of squid popular with consumers were discovered in substantial numbers near the Falklands, fishing has become the largest part of the economy.",
"title": "Post-war"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 125,
"text": "On 14 September 2011, Rockhopper Exploration announced plans under way for oil production to commence in 2016, through the use of Floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) technology, replicating the methodology used on the Foinaven field off the Shetland Islands. The production site will require approximately 110 people working offshore and another 40 working onshore. The oil is expected to trade at 90–105% of the Brent crude price.",
"title": "Post-war"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 126,
"text": "Some small businesses attempted at Fox Bay have included a market garden, a salmon farm and a knitting mill with \"Warrah Knitwear\".",
"title": "Post-war"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 127,
"text": "Tourism is the second-largest part of the economy. The war brought the islands newfound fame; now tourists come both to see wildlife and go on war tours. Cruise ships often visit, frequently as a tie-in to Antarctica. Nonetheless, the remoteness of the archipelago, and the lack of direct flights to major cities, make the Falklands an expensive destination.",
"title": "Post-war"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 128,
"text": "In line with increasing global interest in environmental issues, some nature reserves have been established around the islands, although there are no national parks. In 1990, the Clifton family who owned Sea Lion Island sold it to the Falkland Island Development Company. They had planted 60,000 stands of tussac grass, considered important because on the main islands much tussac has been depredated by grazing. A similar trend may be seen on Bleaker Island, where the farm \"went organic\" in 1999. Also in the 1990s, Steeple Jason Island and Grand Jason Island were bought by New York philanthropist Michael Steinhardt, who later donated them to the Bronx Zoo-based Wildlife Conservation Society. He also gave them US$425,000 to build a conservation station named after himself and his wife Judy.",
"title": "Post-war"
}
] |
The history of the Falkland Islands goes back at least five hundred years, with active exploration and colonisation only taking place in the 18th century. Nonetheless, the Falkland Islands have been a matter of controversy, as they have been claimed by the French, British, Spaniards and Argentines at various points. The islands were uninhabited when discovered by Europeans. France established a colony on the islands in 1764. In 1765, a British captain claimed the islands for Britain. In early 1770 a Spanish commander arrived from Buenos Aires with five ships and 1,400 soldiers forcing the British to leave Port Egmont. Britain and Spain almost went to war over the islands, but the British government decided that it should withdraw its presence from many overseas settlements in 1774. Spain, which had a garrison at Puerto Soledad on East Falklands, administered the garrison from Montevideo until 1811 when it was compelled to withdraw as a result of the war against Argentine independence and the pressures of Peninsular War. Luis Vernet attempted to establish a settlement in 1826, seeking support from both the Argentine and British Governments but most of his settlers took the opportunity to leave in 1831 following a raid by the USS Lexington. An attempt made by Argentina to establish a penal colony in 1832 failed due to a mutiny. The Argentine military garrison was ejected by the 1833 British occupation of the Falklands. Argentina invaded the islands on 2 April 1982. The British responded with an expeditionary force that forced the Argentines to surrender.
|
2001-04-29T15:35:01Z
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2023-11-28T21:46:12Z
|
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Falkland_Islands
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10,690 |
Geography of the Falkland Islands
|
The Falkland Islands are located in the South Atlantic Ocean between 51°S and 53°S on a projection of the Patagonian Shelf, part of the South American continental shelf. In ancient geological time this shelf was part of Gondwana, and around 400 million years ago split from what is now Africa and drifted westwards from it. Today the islands are subjected to the Roaring Forties, winds that shape both their geography and climate.
The Falklands comprise two main islands, West Falkland and East Falkland, and about 776 small islands.
The geological history of the Falkland Islands began during the Precambrian era more than 1 billion years ago, when Proterozoic granites and gneisses were laid down in Gondwana. These rocks became part of the Cape Meredith/ formation and outcrop at the Cape. During the Siluro-Devonian era, these rocks were overlain with quartzose and subarkosic sandstones with some siltstone and mudstone, rocks that are particularly erosion- and weather-resistant, giving these parts of the islands a rugged landscape and coastline.
Tectonic forces continued to form the region: a mountain chain formed, part of which now creates Wickham Heights on East Falkland Island and extends westwards through West Falkland into the Jason Islands. A basin developed and was filled with land-based, or terrigenous, sediments. These layers of sand and mud filled the basin as it sank and as they hardened they produced the rocks of the sedimentary Lafonia Group of the Falklands. These rocks are similar to those in southern Africa's Karoo basin.
About 290 million years ago, in the Carboniferous period, an ice age engulfed the area as glaciers advanced from the polar region eroding and transporting rocks. These rocks were deposited as extensive moraines and glacial till, or they sank in the sea while the glacier floated in a layer of ice. When the glacial sediments were turned into stone they formed the rocks that now make up the Fitzroy Tillite Formation in the Falklands. Identical rocks are found in southern Africa.
During the break-up of Gondwana and the formation of the Atlantic Ocean some 200 million years ago, minor crustal fragments that were to become the Falkland Islands detached themselves from the nascent African continent and drifted westwards, dividing and rotating as they did so before settling on the Patagonian Shelf. Most of the layers of West Falkland and its surrounding islands are slightly inclined from the horizontal. This inclination shows different types of rocks in different places. The quartzites of Port Stephens and Stanley are more resistant than the arenaceous sediments of the formation at Fox Bay. The Hornby Mountains, near Falkland Sound have experienced tectonic forces of uplift and folding which has inclined the quartzite beds of Stanley to the vertical.
Rocks from more recent geological periods such as the Jurassic, Cretaceous, and Tertiary periods usually contain lime-rich rocks. The absence of such rocks has led to an acidic substrate which manifests itself in the nature of the soil.
The Falkland Islands are an archipelago of 778 islands with an area of 12,173 km (4,700 sq mi) located in the South Atlantic Ocean on a projection of the Patagonian Shelf. The two principal islands, East Falkland and West Falkland, account for 91% of the land area. These two islands, which have a combined distance of 220 km (140 mi) from east to west and 140 km (87 mi) from north to south, are separated by the Falkland Sound, a channel that averages 20 km (12 mi) in width and has a typical depth of 40 metres (22 fathoms). Cape Meredith on West Falkland is about 400 km (250 mi) north-west of the tip of Tierra del Fuego and Westpoint, also on West Falkland and adjacent to West Point Island, is about 500 km (310 mi) from the Patagonian coast. It is believed that at times during the Pleistocene epoch, relative sea level was some 46 metres (151 ft) lower than the present time–sufficient for the sound to be bridged.
East Falkland, which has an area of 6,605 km (2,550 square miles), a little over half the total area of the islands consists of two land masses of approximately equal size – the southerly part known as Lafonia, but the northerly part has no specific name. These land masses are joined by an isthmus of width 2.2 kilometres (1.4 mi) that separates two deep fjords, Choiseul Sound and Brenton Loch-Grantham Sound from each other. The island's 1,668.7 km (1,036.9 miles) coastline has many smaller bays, inlets and headlands. Over 70% of the population of the Falkland Islands live in the capital, Stanley, which is located in East Falkland.
The northern part of the island, apart from the coastal strip bordering the Choiseul Sound, is largely underlain by Palaeozoic rocks in the form of quartzite and slate, which tend to form rugged landscapes and coastlines and to cause the soil to be poor and acidic. The principal range of hills, the 600 m (2,000 feet) Wickham Heights runs from north-east to south-west. The highest point of the range (also the highest point in the Falklands), is Mount Usborne which has a height of 705 m (2,313 ft). The area away from the mountain range consists chiefly of low undulating ground, a mixture of pasture and morass, with many shallow freshwater tarns, and small streams running in the valleys. Two inlets, Berkeley Sound and Port William, run far into the land at the north-eastern extremity of the island and provide anchorage for shipping.
In contrast, Lafonia is underlain by Mesozoic age sandstone, a younger rock than the Palaeozoic rock to the north, giving a flatter landscape than is seen elsewhere on the island. Sheets of liquid basalt intruded into the cracks that formed between the sedimentary layers. The resulting solidified sheets can now be seen in the form of dikes that cut the oldest sedimentary layers, those that lie principally in the southern part of East Falkland and in South Africa.
West Falkland has an area of 4,532 square kilometres (1,750 square miles), making it smaller than East Falkland. Mount Adam, the highest point in the island and part of the Hornby Hills, is 700 metres (2,300 ft) above sea level. The Hornby Hills which are the principal range on the island run approximately north–south parallel with Falkland Sound. Geologically this range is a continuation of the Wickham Heights on East Falkland.
In West Falkland there are several dykes that cut the rocks of the western islands, but these dykes, unlike the previous ones, are chemically more unstable and have been eroded. The only indications of their existence are the aligned linear depressions. In the margins of these depressions there is evidence of contact baking or hornfels formation adjacent to the once molten basalt dyke.
West Falkland is more hilly on the side closest to East Falkland. The southernmost point of West Falkland is Cape Meredith, and the most south-westerly point is Calm Head. On the southerly side lie high cliffs with an abundance of seabirds.
In addition to the two main islands, the Falkland Islands have over 700 further islands, many no more than a few hectares in area. The islands to the north west of West Falkland include Pebble Island (103 km), Keppel Island (36 km), Saunders Island (131 km), Carcass Island, West Point Island and the Jason group of islands (33 km) that lie some 40 kilometres (25 mi) from West Falkland.
The principal islands to the south west of West Falkland include New Island (22 km), Weddell Island (265 km), Beaver Island (48 km) and Staats Island. The group of islands that are separated from Lafonia by the Eagle Passage include Speedwell Island (51 km), and George Island (24 km). Other islands off the Lafonia coast include Bleaker Island (21 km), Sealion Island, Lively Island (56 km), Barren Island. In addition, Beauchene Island, a rocky outcrop lies some 60 kilometres (37 mi) from the Lafonia coast.
Many of the islands are nature reserves, either in whole or in part.
The Patagonian Shelf, which in ancient geological time was part of Gondwana and which broke from what is now Africa, drifted westwards relative to Africa. It is now the widest continental shelf in the world covering 1,200,000 km. It protrudes some 760 km (470 mi) into the South Atlantic Ocean from the Patagonian coastline and slopes gently to 200 metres (110 fathoms) before falling away; the Falkland Islands being located two thirds of the way along this protrusion. The base of the plateau is about 100 metres (55 fathoms) below sea level to the west of the islands (400 km from the Patagonian coast), sloping to 200 metres (110 fathoms) to the east of the islands where it falls away into the South Atlantic Ocean. The Falklands Plateau, a slightly shallower stretch of water lies to the immediate east of the Falkland Islands.
To the immediate south of the islands, the Falklands Plateau is split into two by the Falklands Trough, a submarine valley that separates the plateau proper from the Scotia Arc – an underwater ridge that links Tierra Del Fuego with the Burdwood Bank (where the water is only 20 metres (11 fathoms) deep) and, further into the Atlantic Ocean/Great Southern Ocean, with a number of islands including South Orkneys, South Sandwich Islands and South Georgia.
Burdwood Bank was the location of several landslides some three million years ago. This in turn produced tsunami like events that hit the Falkland Islands on its southern coast. Estimates of the size of the waves vary from up to 40 metres (130 ft) at the southern coast and up to 10 metres (33 ft) where the capital, Port Stanley, is located.
Licences to harvest the large variety of fish that live on the shelf provides a major source of income for the islands as does the licensing of oil exploration.
The Falkland Islands have a maritime climate in the transition region between the tundra and subarctic zones (Köppen classifications ET and Cfc respectively) which is characterised by both low seasonal and diurnal temperature ranges and no marked wet and dry season while in the sub-arctic zone the average monthly maximum temperature exceeds 10 °C (50 °F) for no more than four months of the year and the average monthly minimum does not drop below −3 °C (27 °F). The Falkland Islands climate is very much influenced by both the cool ocean currents and the shielding effect of the Andes.
The cold Antarctic Coastal Current flows in an easterly direction around Cape Horn where part of it is diverted northwards as the Falklands Current. Subsurface temperatures in the vicinity of the Falklands are of the order of 6 °C. The Falklands Current meets the warm South Brazilian Current at about 40°S (see Brazil–Falkland Confluence), some 1,000 km (620 mi) north of the islands. The prevailing winds at the Falklands' latitude are the westerlies that gather moisture across the Pacific Ocean, but the Andes form a 4,000 m (13,000 ft) barrier causing a rain shadow across the Patagonia and to a lesser extent, the Falkland Islands.
The January average maximum temperature is about 13 °C (55 °F), and the July maximum average temperature is about 4 °C (39 °F). The rainfall varies between 300 mm in parts of Lafonia to 1400 mm in the mountain ranges with an average annual rainfall of 573 mm. Humidity and winds, however, are constantly high. Snow is rare but can occur at almost any time of year. Gales are very frequent, particularly in winter.
In addition to parts of the Falklands, a maritime subarctic climatic zone is found in parts of coastal Iceland, Faroe Islands, north western coastal Norway, southern islands of Alaska and parts of the Alaskan Panhandle, the southern tip of South America and mountainous areas of Europe including the Scottish Highlands and south-western Norway.
Biogeographically, the Falkland Islands are classified as part of the Antarctic ecozone and Antarctic Floristic Kingdom. Strong connections exist with the flora and fauna of Patagonia in South America. The only terrestrial mammal upon the arrival of Europeans was the warrah, the loup-renard of Louis Antoine de Bougainville, a kind of fox found on both major islands that became extinct in the mid-19th century. Slater suggests that the warrah was introduced into the Falkland Islands either by rafting or by dispersal of glacial ice during one of the glaciations of the late Pleistocene epoch (2.5 million and 15,000 years ago).
A total of 14 species of marine mammals have been identified in the surrounding waters: elephant seal, fur seal and sea lions all breed on the islands with the largest elephant seal breeding site has over 500 animals. A total of 227 bird species have been seen on the islands, over 60 of which are known to breed on the islands. There are two endemic species and 14 endemic subspecies of bird. Five penguin species including the Magellanic penguin breed on the islands as do over 60% of the global black-browed albatross population.
There are no native reptiles or amphibians on the islands. Over 200 species of insects have been recorded, along with 43 spider species and 12 worm species. Only 13 terrestrial invertebrates are recognised as endemic, although information on many species is lacking and it is suspected up to two thirds of species found are actually endemic. Due to the island environment, many insect species have developed reduced or absent wings. There are around 129 freshwater invertebrates, the majority being rotifer; however, the identification of some species remains in dispute. Six species of fish are found in freshwater areas, including zebra trout and falklands minnows.
The islands claim a territorial sea of 12 nautical miles (22 km) and an exclusive fishing zone of 200 nautical miles (370 km), which has been a source of disagreement with Argentina. Different species of krill are found in Falkland waters, with Lobster Krill inhabiting the warmer waters in the north. The waters around the Falkland Islands are part of the Patagonian Shelf Large Marine Environment. Fin fish that are harvested in the Falkland waters include southern blue whiting (Micromesistius australis), rock cod (Patagonotothen), Blue grenadier or Hoki (Macruronus magellanicus) and the principal species of squid that are harvested are the Illex squid (Illex argentinus) and the Patagonian squid (Loligo gahi). The squid spawn in the mouth of the Río de la Plata close to the confluence of the cold Falklands current and the warm Brazilian current, migrate southwards along the Patagonian Shelf into the Falklands waters and then return to their spawning grounds along that lies off the continental shelf.
There are no native tree species on the archipelago, although two species of bushes, fachine and native box are found. Other vegetation consists of grasses and ferns. Around 363 species of vascular plants, 21 species of ferns and clubmosses and 278 species of flowering plants have been recorded on the islands. Of the vascular plants, 171 are believed to be native and 13 to be endemic. Some bogs and fens exist, freshwater plants include the soft-camp bog, Astelia pumila (Asteliaceae) dwarf marigold Caltha appendiculata (Ranunculaceae) and gaimardia Gaimardia australis (Centrolepidaceae) and the carnivorous sundew Drosera uniflora (Droseraceae). Tussac grass, which averages 2 m (6.6 ft) in height but can reach up to 4 m (13 ft), is found within 300 m (1,000 ft) of the coast where it forms bands around larger islands. The dense canopies formed create an insulated micro-climate suitable for many birds and invertebrates. The pale maiden (Olsynium filifolium) is the islands' proposed national flower.
Prior to 1812, various colonial powers had small settlements on the Falkland Islands. In that year the islands were abandoned but within twenty years the British had re-established a settlement. In the 1851 census, the settlement's population was recorded as 287, increasing to 2,043 in 1901 and 2,563 in 2012.
The main settlements in the islands are at Stanley which as of 2012 had a population of 2,121, and RAF Mount Pleasant, which in 2006 had a population of about 1,700. A further 351 people lived in "Camp" (outside Stanley) − just over half in East Falkland, a third in West Falkland and the remainder on outlying islands. The principal settlements on East Falkland (excluding Stanley and Mount Pleasant) are at Darwin and Goose Green, on West Falkland at Port Howard and Fox Bay and elsewhere, the Pebble Island Settlement. At the time of the Falklands War, the settlements in Camp were connected by tracks that were often impassable in wet weather, but by 2007 the Falkland Islands had a road network of 786 kilometres (488 mi), with further roads planned for construction to link all occupied mainland settlements by 2013.
In the early nineteenth century, the main economic activity on the islands was seal hunting. Later the islands became a re-provisioning depot for clippers sailing from Australia to the United Kingdom via Cape Horn.
Over 80% of the islands' land is given over to sheep farming, with half a million animals being supported on 11,239 km of farmland, of which 40 km was perennial pasture. Roughly 40% of the national flock are on West Falkland and 60% on East Falkland. In addition to dairy and pig farming, a small amount of reindeer farming is carried out, for example on the Beaver group of islands. This herd was the only herd in the world that was unaffected by the Chernobyl disaster.
In the last decade of the twentieth century and the early twenty-first century tourism and fishing have made a major economic impact on the islands and as of 2012 an oil exploration industry was developing.
There is little long-term data on habitat changes, so the extent of human impact is unclear. Vegetation such as tussac grass, fachine, and native box (Veronica elliptica) have been heavily affected by introduced grazing animals. Many breeding birds similarly only live on offshore islands, where introduced animals such as cats and rats are not found. Virtually the entire area of the islands is used as pasture for sheep. There is also an introduced reindeer population, which was brought to the islands in 2001 for commercial purposes. Rats and grey foxes have been introduced and are having a detrimental impact on birds that nest on the shores, as are feral cats. Twenty-two introduced plant species are thought to provide a significant threat to local flora.
|
[
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "The Falkland Islands are located in the South Atlantic Ocean between 51°S and 53°S on a projection of the Patagonian Shelf, part of the South American continental shelf. In ancient geological time this shelf was part of Gondwana, and around 400 million years ago split from what is now Africa and drifted westwards from it. Today the islands are subjected to the Roaring Forties, winds that shape both their geography and climate.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "The Falklands comprise two main islands, West Falkland and East Falkland, and about 776 small islands.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "The geological history of the Falkland Islands began during the Precambrian era more than 1 billion years ago, when Proterozoic granites and gneisses were laid down in Gondwana. These rocks became part of the Cape Meredith/ formation and outcrop at the Cape. During the Siluro-Devonian era, these rocks were overlain with quartzose and subarkosic sandstones with some siltstone and mudstone, rocks that are particularly erosion- and weather-resistant, giving these parts of the islands a rugged landscape and coastline.",
"title": "Geology"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "Tectonic forces continued to form the region: a mountain chain formed, part of which now creates Wickham Heights on East Falkland Island and extends westwards through West Falkland into the Jason Islands. A basin developed and was filled with land-based, or terrigenous, sediments. These layers of sand and mud filled the basin as it sank and as they hardened they produced the rocks of the sedimentary Lafonia Group of the Falklands. These rocks are similar to those in southern Africa's Karoo basin.",
"title": "Geology"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "About 290 million years ago, in the Carboniferous period, an ice age engulfed the area as glaciers advanced from the polar region eroding and transporting rocks. These rocks were deposited as extensive moraines and glacial till, or they sank in the sea while the glacier floated in a layer of ice. When the glacial sediments were turned into stone they formed the rocks that now make up the Fitzroy Tillite Formation in the Falklands. Identical rocks are found in southern Africa.",
"title": "Geology"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "During the break-up of Gondwana and the formation of the Atlantic Ocean some 200 million years ago, minor crustal fragments that were to become the Falkland Islands detached themselves from the nascent African continent and drifted westwards, dividing and rotating as they did so before settling on the Patagonian Shelf. Most of the layers of West Falkland and its surrounding islands are slightly inclined from the horizontal. This inclination shows different types of rocks in different places. The quartzites of Port Stephens and Stanley are more resistant than the arenaceous sediments of the formation at Fox Bay. The Hornby Mountains, near Falkland Sound have experienced tectonic forces of uplift and folding which has inclined the quartzite beds of Stanley to the vertical.",
"title": "Geology"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "Rocks from more recent geological periods such as the Jurassic, Cretaceous, and Tertiary periods usually contain lime-rich rocks. The absence of such rocks has led to an acidic substrate which manifests itself in the nature of the soil.",
"title": "Geology"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "The Falkland Islands are an archipelago of 778 islands with an area of 12,173 km (4,700 sq mi) located in the South Atlantic Ocean on a projection of the Patagonian Shelf. The two principal islands, East Falkland and West Falkland, account for 91% of the land area. These two islands, which have a combined distance of 220 km (140 mi) from east to west and 140 km (87 mi) from north to south, are separated by the Falkland Sound, a channel that averages 20 km (12 mi) in width and has a typical depth of 40 metres (22 fathoms). Cape Meredith on West Falkland is about 400 km (250 mi) north-west of the tip of Tierra del Fuego and Westpoint, also on West Falkland and adjacent to West Point Island, is about 500 km (310 mi) from the Patagonian coast. It is believed that at times during the Pleistocene epoch, relative sea level was some 46 metres (151 ft) lower than the present time–sufficient for the sound to be bridged.",
"title": "Topographical description"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "East Falkland, which has an area of 6,605 km (2,550 square miles), a little over half the total area of the islands consists of two land masses of approximately equal size – the southerly part known as Lafonia, but the northerly part has no specific name. These land masses are joined by an isthmus of width 2.2 kilometres (1.4 mi) that separates two deep fjords, Choiseul Sound and Brenton Loch-Grantham Sound from each other. The island's 1,668.7 km (1,036.9 miles) coastline has many smaller bays, inlets and headlands. Over 70% of the population of the Falkland Islands live in the capital, Stanley, which is located in East Falkland.",
"title": "Topographical description"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "The northern part of the island, apart from the coastal strip bordering the Choiseul Sound, is largely underlain by Palaeozoic rocks in the form of quartzite and slate, which tend to form rugged landscapes and coastlines and to cause the soil to be poor and acidic. The principal range of hills, the 600 m (2,000 feet) Wickham Heights runs from north-east to south-west. The highest point of the range (also the highest point in the Falklands), is Mount Usborne which has a height of 705 m (2,313 ft). The area away from the mountain range consists chiefly of low undulating ground, a mixture of pasture and morass, with many shallow freshwater tarns, and small streams running in the valleys. Two inlets, Berkeley Sound and Port William, run far into the land at the north-eastern extremity of the island and provide anchorage for shipping.",
"title": "Topographical description"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "In contrast, Lafonia is underlain by Mesozoic age sandstone, a younger rock than the Palaeozoic rock to the north, giving a flatter landscape than is seen elsewhere on the island. Sheets of liquid basalt intruded into the cracks that formed between the sedimentary layers. The resulting solidified sheets can now be seen in the form of dikes that cut the oldest sedimentary layers, those that lie principally in the southern part of East Falkland and in South Africa.",
"title": "Topographical description"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "West Falkland has an area of 4,532 square kilometres (1,750 square miles), making it smaller than East Falkland. Mount Adam, the highest point in the island and part of the Hornby Hills, is 700 metres (2,300 ft) above sea level. The Hornby Hills which are the principal range on the island run approximately north–south parallel with Falkland Sound. Geologically this range is a continuation of the Wickham Heights on East Falkland.",
"title": "Topographical description"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "In West Falkland there are several dykes that cut the rocks of the western islands, but these dykes, unlike the previous ones, are chemically more unstable and have been eroded. The only indications of their existence are the aligned linear depressions. In the margins of these depressions there is evidence of contact baking or hornfels formation adjacent to the once molten basalt dyke.",
"title": "Topographical description"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "West Falkland is more hilly on the side closest to East Falkland. The southernmost point of West Falkland is Cape Meredith, and the most south-westerly point is Calm Head. On the southerly side lie high cliffs with an abundance of seabirds.",
"title": "Topographical description"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "In addition to the two main islands, the Falkland Islands have over 700 further islands, many no more than a few hectares in area. The islands to the north west of West Falkland include Pebble Island (103 km), Keppel Island (36 km), Saunders Island (131 km), Carcass Island, West Point Island and the Jason group of islands (33 km) that lie some 40 kilometres (25 mi) from West Falkland.",
"title": "Topographical description"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 15,
"text": "The principal islands to the south west of West Falkland include New Island (22 km), Weddell Island (265 km), Beaver Island (48 km) and Staats Island. The group of islands that are separated from Lafonia by the Eagle Passage include Speedwell Island (51 km), and George Island (24 km). Other islands off the Lafonia coast include Bleaker Island (21 km), Sealion Island, Lively Island (56 km), Barren Island. In addition, Beauchene Island, a rocky outcrop lies some 60 kilometres (37 mi) from the Lafonia coast.",
"title": "Topographical description"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 16,
"text": "Many of the islands are nature reserves, either in whole or in part.",
"title": "Topographical description"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 17,
"text": "The Patagonian Shelf, which in ancient geological time was part of Gondwana and which broke from what is now Africa, drifted westwards relative to Africa. It is now the widest continental shelf in the world covering 1,200,000 km. It protrudes some 760 km (470 mi) into the South Atlantic Ocean from the Patagonian coastline and slopes gently to 200 metres (110 fathoms) before falling away; the Falkland Islands being located two thirds of the way along this protrusion. The base of the plateau is about 100 metres (55 fathoms) below sea level to the west of the islands (400 km from the Patagonian coast), sloping to 200 metres (110 fathoms) to the east of the islands where it falls away into the South Atlantic Ocean. The Falklands Plateau, a slightly shallower stretch of water lies to the immediate east of the Falkland Islands.",
"title": "Topographical description"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 18,
"text": "To the immediate south of the islands, the Falklands Plateau is split into two by the Falklands Trough, a submarine valley that separates the plateau proper from the Scotia Arc – an underwater ridge that links Tierra Del Fuego with the Burdwood Bank (where the water is only 20 metres (11 fathoms) deep) and, further into the Atlantic Ocean/Great Southern Ocean, with a number of islands including South Orkneys, South Sandwich Islands and South Georgia.",
"title": "Topographical description"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 19,
"text": "Burdwood Bank was the location of several landslides some three million years ago. This in turn produced tsunami like events that hit the Falkland Islands on its southern coast. Estimates of the size of the waves vary from up to 40 metres (130 ft) at the southern coast and up to 10 metres (33 ft) where the capital, Port Stanley, is located.",
"title": "Topographical description"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 20,
"text": "Licences to harvest the large variety of fish that live on the shelf provides a major source of income for the islands as does the licensing of oil exploration.",
"title": "Topographical description"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 21,
"text": "The Falkland Islands have a maritime climate in the transition region between the tundra and subarctic zones (Köppen classifications ET and Cfc respectively) which is characterised by both low seasonal and diurnal temperature ranges and no marked wet and dry season while in the sub-arctic zone the average monthly maximum temperature exceeds 10 °C (50 °F) for no more than four months of the year and the average monthly minimum does not drop below −3 °C (27 °F). The Falkland Islands climate is very much influenced by both the cool ocean currents and the shielding effect of the Andes.",
"title": "Climate"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 22,
"text": "The cold Antarctic Coastal Current flows in an easterly direction around Cape Horn where part of it is diverted northwards as the Falklands Current. Subsurface temperatures in the vicinity of the Falklands are of the order of 6 °C. The Falklands Current meets the warm South Brazilian Current at about 40°S (see Brazil–Falkland Confluence), some 1,000 km (620 mi) north of the islands. The prevailing winds at the Falklands' latitude are the westerlies that gather moisture across the Pacific Ocean, but the Andes form a 4,000 m (13,000 ft) barrier causing a rain shadow across the Patagonia and to a lesser extent, the Falkland Islands.",
"title": "Climate"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 23,
"text": "The January average maximum temperature is about 13 °C (55 °F), and the July maximum average temperature is about 4 °C (39 °F). The rainfall varies between 300 mm in parts of Lafonia to 1400 mm in the mountain ranges with an average annual rainfall of 573 mm. Humidity and winds, however, are constantly high. Snow is rare but can occur at almost any time of year. Gales are very frequent, particularly in winter.",
"title": "Climate"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 24,
"text": "In addition to parts of the Falklands, a maritime subarctic climatic zone is found in parts of coastal Iceland, Faroe Islands, north western coastal Norway, southern islands of Alaska and parts of the Alaskan Panhandle, the southern tip of South America and mountainous areas of Europe including the Scottish Highlands and south-western Norway.",
"title": "Climate"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 25,
"text": "Biogeographically, the Falkland Islands are classified as part of the Antarctic ecozone and Antarctic Floristic Kingdom. Strong connections exist with the flora and fauna of Patagonia in South America. The only terrestrial mammal upon the arrival of Europeans was the warrah, the loup-renard of Louis Antoine de Bougainville, a kind of fox found on both major islands that became extinct in the mid-19th century. Slater suggests that the warrah was introduced into the Falkland Islands either by rafting or by dispersal of glacial ice during one of the glaciations of the late Pleistocene epoch (2.5 million and 15,000 years ago).",
"title": "Flora and fauna"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 26,
"text": "A total of 14 species of marine mammals have been identified in the surrounding waters: elephant seal, fur seal and sea lions all breed on the islands with the largest elephant seal breeding site has over 500 animals. A total of 227 bird species have been seen on the islands, over 60 of which are known to breed on the islands. There are two endemic species and 14 endemic subspecies of bird. Five penguin species including the Magellanic penguin breed on the islands as do over 60% of the global black-browed albatross population.",
"title": "Flora and fauna"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 27,
"text": "There are no native reptiles or amphibians on the islands. Over 200 species of insects have been recorded, along with 43 spider species and 12 worm species. Only 13 terrestrial invertebrates are recognised as endemic, although information on many species is lacking and it is suspected up to two thirds of species found are actually endemic. Due to the island environment, many insect species have developed reduced or absent wings. There are around 129 freshwater invertebrates, the majority being rotifer; however, the identification of some species remains in dispute. Six species of fish are found in freshwater areas, including zebra trout and falklands minnows.",
"title": "Flora and fauna"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 28,
"text": "The islands claim a territorial sea of 12 nautical miles (22 km) and an exclusive fishing zone of 200 nautical miles (370 km), which has been a source of disagreement with Argentina. Different species of krill are found in Falkland waters, with Lobster Krill inhabiting the warmer waters in the north. The waters around the Falkland Islands are part of the Patagonian Shelf Large Marine Environment. Fin fish that are harvested in the Falkland waters include southern blue whiting (Micromesistius australis), rock cod (Patagonotothen), Blue grenadier or Hoki (Macruronus magellanicus) and the principal species of squid that are harvested are the Illex squid (Illex argentinus) and the Patagonian squid (Loligo gahi). The squid spawn in the mouth of the Río de la Plata close to the confluence of the cold Falklands current and the warm Brazilian current, migrate southwards along the Patagonian Shelf into the Falklands waters and then return to their spawning grounds along that lies off the continental shelf.",
"title": "Flora and fauna"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 29,
"text": "There are no native tree species on the archipelago, although two species of bushes, fachine and native box are found. Other vegetation consists of grasses and ferns. Around 363 species of vascular plants, 21 species of ferns and clubmosses and 278 species of flowering plants have been recorded on the islands. Of the vascular plants, 171 are believed to be native and 13 to be endemic. Some bogs and fens exist, freshwater plants include the soft-camp bog, Astelia pumila (Asteliaceae) dwarf marigold Caltha appendiculata (Ranunculaceae) and gaimardia Gaimardia australis (Centrolepidaceae) and the carnivorous sundew Drosera uniflora (Droseraceae). Tussac grass, which averages 2 m (6.6 ft) in height but can reach up to 4 m (13 ft), is found within 300 m (1,000 ft) of the coast where it forms bands around larger islands. The dense canopies formed create an insulated micro-climate suitable for many birds and invertebrates. The pale maiden (Olsynium filifolium) is the islands' proposed national flower.",
"title": "Flora and fauna"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 30,
"text": "Prior to 1812, various colonial powers had small settlements on the Falkland Islands. In that year the islands were abandoned but within twenty years the British had re-established a settlement. In the 1851 census, the settlement's population was recorded as 287, increasing to 2,043 in 1901 and 2,563 in 2012.",
"title": "Human geography"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 31,
"text": "The main settlements in the islands are at Stanley which as of 2012 had a population of 2,121, and RAF Mount Pleasant, which in 2006 had a population of about 1,700. A further 351 people lived in \"Camp\" (outside Stanley) − just over half in East Falkland, a third in West Falkland and the remainder on outlying islands. The principal settlements on East Falkland (excluding Stanley and Mount Pleasant) are at Darwin and Goose Green, on West Falkland at Port Howard and Fox Bay and elsewhere, the Pebble Island Settlement. At the time of the Falklands War, the settlements in Camp were connected by tracks that were often impassable in wet weather, but by 2007 the Falkland Islands had a road network of 786 kilometres (488 mi), with further roads planned for construction to link all occupied mainland settlements by 2013.",
"title": "Human geography"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 32,
"text": "In the early nineteenth century, the main economic activity on the islands was seal hunting. Later the islands became a re-provisioning depot for clippers sailing from Australia to the United Kingdom via Cape Horn.",
"title": "Human geography"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 33,
"text": "Over 80% of the islands' land is given over to sheep farming, with half a million animals being supported on 11,239 km of farmland, of which 40 km was perennial pasture. Roughly 40% of the national flock are on West Falkland and 60% on East Falkland. In addition to dairy and pig farming, a small amount of reindeer farming is carried out, for example on the Beaver group of islands. This herd was the only herd in the world that was unaffected by the Chernobyl disaster.",
"title": "Human geography"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 34,
"text": "In the last decade of the twentieth century and the early twenty-first century tourism and fishing have made a major economic impact on the islands and as of 2012 an oil exploration industry was developing.",
"title": "Human geography"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 35,
"text": "There is little long-term data on habitat changes, so the extent of human impact is unclear. Vegetation such as tussac grass, fachine, and native box (Veronica elliptica) have been heavily affected by introduced grazing animals. Many breeding birds similarly only live on offshore islands, where introduced animals such as cats and rats are not found. Virtually the entire area of the islands is used as pasture for sheep. There is also an introduced reindeer population, which was brought to the islands in 2001 for commercial purposes. Rats and grey foxes have been introduced and are having a detrimental impact on birds that nest on the shores, as are feral cats. Twenty-two introduced plant species are thought to provide a significant threat to local flora.",
"title": "Human geography"
}
] |
The Falkland Islands are located in the South Atlantic Ocean between 51°S and 53°S on a projection of the Patagonian Shelf, part of the South American continental shelf. In ancient geological time this shelf was part of Gondwana, and around 400 million years ago split from what is now Africa and drifted westwards from it. Today the islands are subjected to the Roaring Forties, winds that shape both their geography and climate. The Falklands comprise two main islands, West Falkland and East Falkland, and about 776 small islands.
|
2001-04-29T15:35:25Z
|
2023-12-08T06:44:41Z
|
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geography_of_the_Falkland_Islands
|
10,692 |
Politics of the Falkland Islands
|
The politics of the Falkland Islands takes place in a framework of a constitutional monarchy and parliamentary representative democratic dependency as set out by the constitution, whereby the Governor exercises the duties of head of state in the absence of the monarch and the Chief Executive is the head of the Civil Service, with an elected Legislative Assembly to propose new laws, national policy, approve finance and hold the executive to account.
The Falkland Islands, an archipelago in the southern Atlantic Ocean, are a self-governing British overseas territory. Executive power is exercised on behalf of the King by an appointed Governor, who primarily acts on the advice of the Executive Council. Legislative power is vested in both the government and the Legislative Assembly. The judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature. The military defence and foreign policy of the islands is the responsibility of the United Kingdom. No political parties exist on the islands currently and so Members stand as independents, however the governmental and legal proceedings very closely resemble British standards.
Following the Falklands War in 1982, Lord Shackleton published a report on the economy of the Falkland Islands which recommended many modernisations. On 1 January 1983 the Falkland Islanders gained British citizenship under the British Nationality (Falkland Islands) Act 1983, and on 3 October 1985 the Constitution of the Falkland Islands was established. A new constitution came into force on 1 January 2009 which modernised the Chapter on fundamental rights and freedoms of the individual, embedding self-determination in the main body of the constitution. The new constitution also replaced the Legislative Council with the Legislative Assembly, and better explained the role of the Governor and the Chief Executive.
The Argentine Republic claims the Falkland Islands (known in Spanish as Islas Malvinas) to be part of its territory. This claim is disputed by the Falkland Islanders and the United Kingdom. In 1982, Argentina invaded and occupied the islands, starting the Falklands War. The islands were subsequently liberated by British forces just 74 days after the start of the war, which led to the collapse of the military dictatorship in Argentina.
The sovereignty of the Falklands remains in dispute, with Argentina claiming the islands are an integral and indivisible part of its territory, 'illegally occupied by an occupying power'. The United Kingdom and the Government of the Falkland Islands maintains that the Islanders have the right to determine the sovereignty of their birthplace. In a referendum in 2013 the people of the Falkland Islands soundly rejected Argentina's claim to the islands, with 99.8% of voters supporting the Falklands remaining an Overseas Territory of the United Kingdom.
Executive authority on the Falkland Islands is vested in Charles III, who has been the head of state since his accession to the British throne on 8 September 2022. As the King is absent from the islands for most of the time, executive authority is exercised "in His Majesty's name and on His Majesty's behalf" by the Governor of the Falkland Islands. Alison Blake has been Governor since 23 July 2022.
The Governor normally acts only on the advice of the Executive Council of the Falkland Islands, which is composed of three Members of the Legislative Assembly elected by the Assembly to serve on the Council every year, the Chief Executive, the Director of Finance and the Governor, who acts as presiding officer. The only members with a vote to progress a change in law or policy are the democratically elected Members of the Legislative Assembly who are serving on Executive Council. The constitution does permit the Governor to act without consulting the Executive Council and even going against its instructions, but in both cases the Governor must immediately inform the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs in the United Kingdom, who can overrule the Governor's actions.
Government policy and the execution thereof is primarily decided by the 3 officio Executive Council MLAs. The Chief Executive leads the civil service and undertakes actions from Executive Council.
The legislative branch consists of a unicameral Legislative Assembly. General elections must take place at least once every four years, in which the islanders elect eight members to the Legislative Assembly (five from Stanley and three from Camp) through universal suffrage using block voting. There are also two ex officio members of the Assembly (the Chief Executive and the Director of Finance) who take part in proceedings but are not permitted to vote in the Assembly.
The following major conventions apply to the Falkland Islands and should be taken into account during the drafting of legislation:
Until 2009, when the new constitution came into force and created the Legislative Assembly, the legislature of the islands was the Legislative Council, which had existed since the 19th century.
The judicial branch consists of the Supreme Court, the Court of Appeal, the Summary Court and the Magistrates' Court. The judiciary is strictly independent of the executive and legislature, although it has links with the other branches of the government through the Advisory Committee on the Prerogative of Mercy. The government also employs six lawyers (the Attorney General, Law Commissioner, two Crown Counsels and two Legislative Drafters), a Policy Adviser and one Policy Officer.
The court system of the Falklands is set out by Chapter VIII of the Constitution and closely resembles the system in England and Wales. The Supreme Court of the Falkland Islands has unlimited jurisdiction to hear and determine any civil or criminal proceedings, and consists of the Chief Justice (CJ) who is generally a senior barrister or solicitor with a good amount of judicial experience in the United Kingdom. The CJ is not resident in the Falkland Islands but travels to the islands if and when necessary to hear cases. The most serious criminal and civil matters are reserved for the Supreme Court. In civil matters, generally there is no jury however, in criminal matters, the defendant can elect trial by judge and jury or judge alone. There are only a few criminal cases which must be heard before the Supreme Court; these are murder, manslaughter, rape, piracy, treason and arson with the intent to endanger life. The CJ also hears appeals from the Magistrates' Court.
From the Supreme Court, appeals are sent to the Falkland Islands Court of Appeal, which is based on the Court of Appeal of England and Wales. The Court of Appeal consists of a President and two Justices of Appeal, as well as the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court who serves as an ex officio member. The President and Justices of Appeal are normally from the UK and are Judges of the Court of Appeal of England and Wales. Appeals from the Court of Appeal are sent to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council.
The Falkland Islands does not have its own bar or law society, but has a "Falkland Islands Legal Community". There is no differentiation between being a barrister or a solicitor; the private practitioners being called legal practitioners. The Legal Practitioners Ordinance defines who can hold themselves out as being a legal practitioner and therefore have rights of audience before the Falkland Islands courts. Only the Chief Justice of the Falkland Islands can prohibit a legal practitioner from practising.
In the court system on the islands, there is a panel of Justices of the Peace (JPs) who sit in the Summary Court, which has no jury. JPs are all non-lawyers and are made up of "upstanding members of the community". They hear the most simple of criminal cases (or sit when the Senior Magistrate is not in the Islands) and they also act as the Licensing Justices who deal with alcohol-related applications, such as extended opening hours, special occasion licences, etc.
The Senior Magistrate (SM) is appointed by the Governor and presides over the Magistrates' Court, which again has no jury. The SM is usually a UK qualified lawyer, with at least 10 years experience as an advocate and, usually, with some judicial experience. The SM holds office for a maximum of three years and is then replaced. The SM is resident in the Islands and hears the majority of cases from simple criminal and civil matters right up to very serious criminal matters or complex civil cases. The SM also hears appeals from the Summary Court.
The Governor has the power to grant a pardon to any person concerned in or convicted of an offence, but the Governor can only use this power after consultation with the Advisory Committee on the Prerogative of Mercy. The Committee consist of two elected members of the Legislative Assembly (appointed by the Governor on the advice of the Legislative Assembly), the Chief Executive, the Attorney General and the Chief Medical Officer.
The Attorney General (AG), appointed by the Governor, is the main legal adviser to the Falkland Islands Government. The AG's primary role is to determine the legality of government proceedings and action, and has the power to institute and undertake criminal proceedings before any court of law, to take over and continue any criminal proceedings that may have been instituted by another person or authority, or to discontinue at any stage before judgment any criminal proceedings instituted or undertaken by another person or authority. In the exercise of his or her powers, the AG is not subject to the direction or control of any other person or authority.
The Attorney General is also a member of the Advisory Committee on the Prerogative of Mercy and acts as presiding officer during Speaker elections in the Legislative Assembly, and has a constitutional right to attend all meetings of the Assembly and all meetings of the Executive Council.
The current Attorney General is Simon Young, who took office in December 2017.
The Director of Finance of the Falkland Islands is responsible for government expenditure on the islands, acting with authorisation from the Legislative Assembly. The Director is also an ex officio member of both the Legislative Assembly and the Executive Council.
There is also a Public Accounts Committee consisting of a chairman and two other members appointed by the Governor (in consultation with the elected MLAs) and two elected members of the Legislative Assembly. Reporting to the Legislative Assembly, the Committee overseas the economy, government expenditure, all public accounts and audit reports on the islands. The Director of Finance is not permitted to be a member of the Public Accounts Committee.
As in many parliamentary democracies, there are no direct elections for the executive branch of the Falkland Islands Government. Instead the people elect the legislature which then advises and forms part of the executive. General elections, which elect the Legislative Assembly, must take place at least once every four years. Suffrage is universal in the Falklands, with the minimum voting age at eighteen. The Legislative Assembly has ten members, eight of which are elected using block voting (five from the Stanley constituency and three from the Camp constituency) and two ex officio members (the Chief Executive and the Director of Finance).
In the last general election, which took place on 4 November 2021, only non-partisans were elected as there are no active political parties in the Falkland Islands. The next elections will take place in 2025.
|
[
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "The politics of the Falkland Islands takes place in a framework of a constitutional monarchy and parliamentary representative democratic dependency as set out by the constitution, whereby the Governor exercises the duties of head of state in the absence of the monarch and the Chief Executive is the head of the Civil Service, with an elected Legislative Assembly to propose new laws, national policy, approve finance and hold the executive to account.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "The Falkland Islands, an archipelago in the southern Atlantic Ocean, are a self-governing British overseas territory. Executive power is exercised on behalf of the King by an appointed Governor, who primarily acts on the advice of the Executive Council. Legislative power is vested in both the government and the Legislative Assembly. The judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature. The military defence and foreign policy of the islands is the responsibility of the United Kingdom. No political parties exist on the islands currently and so Members stand as independents, however the governmental and legal proceedings very closely resemble British standards.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "Following the Falklands War in 1982, Lord Shackleton published a report on the economy of the Falkland Islands which recommended many modernisations. On 1 January 1983 the Falkland Islanders gained British citizenship under the British Nationality (Falkland Islands) Act 1983, and on 3 October 1985 the Constitution of the Falkland Islands was established. A new constitution came into force on 1 January 2009 which modernised the Chapter on fundamental rights and freedoms of the individual, embedding self-determination in the main body of the constitution. The new constitution also replaced the Legislative Council with the Legislative Assembly, and better explained the role of the Governor and the Chief Executive.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "The Argentine Republic claims the Falkland Islands (known in Spanish as Islas Malvinas) to be part of its territory. This claim is disputed by the Falkland Islanders and the United Kingdom. In 1982, Argentina invaded and occupied the islands, starting the Falklands War. The islands were subsequently liberated by British forces just 74 days after the start of the war, which led to the collapse of the military dictatorship in Argentina.",
"title": "Sovereignty issues"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "The sovereignty of the Falklands remains in dispute, with Argentina claiming the islands are an integral and indivisible part of its territory, 'illegally occupied by an occupying power'. The United Kingdom and the Government of the Falkland Islands maintains that the Islanders have the right to determine the sovereignty of their birthplace. In a referendum in 2013 the people of the Falkland Islands soundly rejected Argentina's claim to the islands, with 99.8% of voters supporting the Falklands remaining an Overseas Territory of the United Kingdom.",
"title": "Sovereignty issues"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "Executive authority on the Falkland Islands is vested in Charles III, who has been the head of state since his accession to the British throne on 8 September 2022. As the King is absent from the islands for most of the time, executive authority is exercised \"in His Majesty's name and on His Majesty's behalf\" by the Governor of the Falkland Islands. Alison Blake has been Governor since 23 July 2022.",
"title": "Executive"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "The Governor normally acts only on the advice of the Executive Council of the Falkland Islands, which is composed of three Members of the Legislative Assembly elected by the Assembly to serve on the Council every year, the Chief Executive, the Director of Finance and the Governor, who acts as presiding officer. The only members with a vote to progress a change in law or policy are the democratically elected Members of the Legislative Assembly who are serving on Executive Council. The constitution does permit the Governor to act without consulting the Executive Council and even going against its instructions, but in both cases the Governor must immediately inform the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs in the United Kingdom, who can overrule the Governor's actions.",
"title": "Executive"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "Government policy and the execution thereof is primarily decided by the 3 officio Executive Council MLAs. The Chief Executive leads the civil service and undertakes actions from Executive Council.",
"title": "Executive"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "The legislative branch consists of a unicameral Legislative Assembly. General elections must take place at least once every four years, in which the islanders elect eight members to the Legislative Assembly (five from Stanley and three from Camp) through universal suffrage using block voting. There are also two ex officio members of the Assembly (the Chief Executive and the Director of Finance) who take part in proceedings but are not permitted to vote in the Assembly.",
"title": "Legislature"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "The following major conventions apply to the Falkland Islands and should be taken into account during the drafting of legislation:",
"title": "Legislature"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "Until 2009, when the new constitution came into force and created the Legislative Assembly, the legislature of the islands was the Legislative Council, which had existed since the 19th century.",
"title": "Legislature"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "The judicial branch consists of the Supreme Court, the Court of Appeal, the Summary Court and the Magistrates' Court. The judiciary is strictly independent of the executive and legislature, although it has links with the other branches of the government through the Advisory Committee on the Prerogative of Mercy. The government also employs six lawyers (the Attorney General, Law Commissioner, two Crown Counsels and two Legislative Drafters), a Policy Adviser and one Policy Officer.",
"title": "Judiciary"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "The court system of the Falklands is set out by Chapter VIII of the Constitution and closely resembles the system in England and Wales. The Supreme Court of the Falkland Islands has unlimited jurisdiction to hear and determine any civil or criminal proceedings, and consists of the Chief Justice (CJ) who is generally a senior barrister or solicitor with a good amount of judicial experience in the United Kingdom. The CJ is not resident in the Falkland Islands but travels to the islands if and when necessary to hear cases. The most serious criminal and civil matters are reserved for the Supreme Court. In civil matters, generally there is no jury however, in criminal matters, the defendant can elect trial by judge and jury or judge alone. There are only a few criminal cases which must be heard before the Supreme Court; these are murder, manslaughter, rape, piracy, treason and arson with the intent to endanger life. The CJ also hears appeals from the Magistrates' Court.",
"title": "Judiciary"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "From the Supreme Court, appeals are sent to the Falkland Islands Court of Appeal, which is based on the Court of Appeal of England and Wales. The Court of Appeal consists of a President and two Justices of Appeal, as well as the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court who serves as an ex officio member. The President and Justices of Appeal are normally from the UK and are Judges of the Court of Appeal of England and Wales. Appeals from the Court of Appeal are sent to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council.",
"title": "Judiciary"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "The Falkland Islands does not have its own bar or law society, but has a \"Falkland Islands Legal Community\". There is no differentiation between being a barrister or a solicitor; the private practitioners being called legal practitioners. The Legal Practitioners Ordinance defines who can hold themselves out as being a legal practitioner and therefore have rights of audience before the Falkland Islands courts. Only the Chief Justice of the Falkland Islands can prohibit a legal practitioner from practising.",
"title": "Judiciary"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 15,
"text": "In the court system on the islands, there is a panel of Justices of the Peace (JPs) who sit in the Summary Court, which has no jury. JPs are all non-lawyers and are made up of \"upstanding members of the community\". They hear the most simple of criminal cases (or sit when the Senior Magistrate is not in the Islands) and they also act as the Licensing Justices who deal with alcohol-related applications, such as extended opening hours, special occasion licences, etc.",
"title": "Judiciary"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 16,
"text": "The Senior Magistrate (SM) is appointed by the Governor and presides over the Magistrates' Court, which again has no jury. The SM is usually a UK qualified lawyer, with at least 10 years experience as an advocate and, usually, with some judicial experience. The SM holds office for a maximum of three years and is then replaced. The SM is resident in the Islands and hears the majority of cases from simple criminal and civil matters right up to very serious criminal matters or complex civil cases. The SM also hears appeals from the Summary Court.",
"title": "Judiciary"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 17,
"text": "The Governor has the power to grant a pardon to any person concerned in or convicted of an offence, but the Governor can only use this power after consultation with the Advisory Committee on the Prerogative of Mercy. The Committee consist of two elected members of the Legislative Assembly (appointed by the Governor on the advice of the Legislative Assembly), the Chief Executive, the Attorney General and the Chief Medical Officer.",
"title": "Judiciary"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 18,
"text": "The Attorney General (AG), appointed by the Governor, is the main legal adviser to the Falkland Islands Government. The AG's primary role is to determine the legality of government proceedings and action, and has the power to institute and undertake criminal proceedings before any court of law, to take over and continue any criminal proceedings that may have been instituted by another person or authority, or to discontinue at any stage before judgment any criminal proceedings instituted or undertaken by another person or authority. In the exercise of his or her powers, the AG is not subject to the direction or control of any other person or authority.",
"title": "Judiciary"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 19,
"text": "The Attorney General is also a member of the Advisory Committee on the Prerogative of Mercy and acts as presiding officer during Speaker elections in the Legislative Assembly, and has a constitutional right to attend all meetings of the Assembly and all meetings of the Executive Council.",
"title": "Judiciary"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 20,
"text": "The current Attorney General is Simon Young, who took office in December 2017.",
"title": "Judiciary"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 21,
"text": "The Director of Finance of the Falkland Islands is responsible for government expenditure on the islands, acting with authorisation from the Legislative Assembly. The Director is also an ex officio member of both the Legislative Assembly and the Executive Council.",
"title": "Finances"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 22,
"text": "There is also a Public Accounts Committee consisting of a chairman and two other members appointed by the Governor (in consultation with the elected MLAs) and two elected members of the Legislative Assembly. Reporting to the Legislative Assembly, the Committee overseas the economy, government expenditure, all public accounts and audit reports on the islands. The Director of Finance is not permitted to be a member of the Public Accounts Committee.",
"title": "Finances"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 23,
"text": "As in many parliamentary democracies, there are no direct elections for the executive branch of the Falkland Islands Government. Instead the people elect the legislature which then advises and forms part of the executive. General elections, which elect the Legislative Assembly, must take place at least once every four years. Suffrage is universal in the Falklands, with the minimum voting age at eighteen. The Legislative Assembly has ten members, eight of which are elected using block voting (five from the Stanley constituency and three from the Camp constituency) and two ex officio members (the Chief Executive and the Director of Finance).",
"title": "Elections and parties"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 24,
"text": "In the last general election, which took place on 4 November 2021, only non-partisans were elected as there are no active political parties in the Falkland Islands. The next elections will take place in 2025.",
"title": "Elections and parties"
}
] |
The politics of the Falkland Islands takes place in a framework of a constitutional monarchy and parliamentary representative democratic dependency as set out by the constitution, whereby the Governor exercises the duties of head of state in the absence of the monarch and the Chief Executive is the head of the Civil Service, with an elected Legislative Assembly to propose new laws, national policy, approve finance and hold the executive to account. The Falkland Islands, an archipelago in the southern Atlantic Ocean, are a self-governing British overseas territory. Executive power is exercised on behalf of the King by an appointed Governor, who primarily acts on the advice of the Executive Council. Legislative power is vested in both the government and the Legislative Assembly. The judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature. The military defence and foreign policy of the islands is the responsibility of the United Kingdom. No political parties exist on the islands currently and so Members stand as independents, however the governmental and legal proceedings very closely resemble British standards. Following the Falklands War in 1982, Lord Shackleton published a report on the economy of the Falkland Islands which recommended many modernisations. On 1 January 1983 the Falkland Islanders gained British citizenship under the British Nationality Act 1983, and on 3 October 1985 the Constitution of the Falkland Islands was established. A new constitution came into force on 1 January 2009 which modernised the Chapter on fundamental rights and freedoms of the individual, embedding self-determination in the main body of the constitution. The new constitution also replaced the Legislative Council with the Legislative Assembly, and better explained the role of the Governor and the Chief Executive.
|
2001-04-29T15:36:06Z
|
2023-09-19T15:20:31Z
|
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|
10,693 |
Economy of the Falkland Islands
|
The economy of the Falkland Islands, which first involved sealing, whaling and provisioning ships, became heavily dependent on sheep farming from the 1870s to 1980. It then diversified and now has income from tourism, commercial fishing, and servicing the fishing industry as well as agriculture. The Falkland Islands use the Falkland pound, which is backed by the British pound.
During the 19th century, the supply and maintenance depot for ships at Stanley developed into a port serving ships rounding Cape Horn. There was also trade in cow hides from the wild descendants of cattle introduced by French settlers in the late 18th century. Sheep farming was then introduced, taking over from the cattle trade in the 1870s and becoming self-supporting by 1885. The islands also provided a base for whaling and sealing, with factories being built on East Falkland and South Georgia Island, but these industries ended.
By the Falklands War of 1982 sheep farming was the islands' only industry and their economic viability was in doubt, but after the war there was a new commitment from the Government of the United Kingdom. The Falkland Islands Development Corporation was formed in mid 1984 and in its annual report at the end of that year it set out to increase employment opportunities by encouraging diversification, to increase population levels through selective immigration, to aim for long-term self-sufficiency and to improve community facilities. To achieve this, the Corporation identified agricultural improvements, tourism, self-sufficiency in energy, development of the industrial and service sector, fisheries, and land subdivision as areas to tackle.
The largest company in the islands used to be the Falkland Islands Company (FIC), a publicly quoted company on the London Stock Exchange. The company was responsible for the majority of the economic activity on the islands, though its farms were sold in 1991 to the Falkland Islands Government. The company now operates several retail outlets in Stanley and is involved in port services and shipping operations.
By 2002 the Falklands' economy was booming, with income from tourism and the sale of squid fishing licences as well as from indigenous fishing companies with locally registered boats. Fishing boats visit the islands from Spain, Korea, Taiwan and Japan, and obtain supplies and services from the islands. An islander told the BBC that "we were the luckiest people that was ever mixed up in a war", and British diplomats joked that the Falklands should have a monument to Leopoldo Galtieri, the Argentinean dictator who invaded the islands. In 2007, Argentina withdrew from a 1995 agreement that set terms for exploitation of offshore resources. It is thought that there might be up to 60 billion barrels (9.5 km) of oil under the sea bed surrounding the islands. Desire Petroleum and Rockhopper Exploration began drilling for oil in the vicinity of the Falklands in the first half of 2010, sparking strong protest from the Argentine government. Diplomatic disputes with Argentina disrupted tourism slightly in 2004. Buenos Aires refused permission for charter flights from Chile that served cruise ships to fly over Argentina to reach the islands.
The Falkland Islands have a GDP of $164.5 million, and a per capita GDP of $70,800 (2015 estimate) compared with the United Kingdom GDP per capita of $35,200 (2009 estimate). The contributors to the GDP by sector (2010 forecast) are:
In the 2009/10 financial year, the government revenue was £42.4 million of which £14.5 million came from fishery licences and services and £10.5 million from taxes. During the same period the government expenditure was £47.6 million.
Other economic indicators include:
Electricity – production: 19 million kWh (2016 est.)
Electricity – production by source: (2016 est.)
Electricity – consumption: 17.67 million kWh (2016 est.)
Installed nameplate capacity of electric generation
12,100 kW (2016 est.)
The Falkland Islands do not have a central bank but the Standard Chartered Bank has a single branch in Stanley that offers retail, commercial and wholesale banking facilities.
The constitution requires the governor of the islands to seek the approval of a British Secretary of State before assenting to any bill that affects "the currency of the Falkland Islands or relating to the issue of banknotes" or any bill that establishes "any banking association or altering the constitution, rights or duties of any such association". These restrictions effectively give the British Government the ability to prevent the island's government from declaring the islands to be a tax haven or from establishing a central bank.
Farmland accounts for a little over 80% of the Falklands land area and a sheep appears on the islands' coat of arms, but agriculture is now less than 2% of the economy. As of 2007, 670,000 sheep resided on the islands; a 2011 report estimated the sheep population at over one million. Roughly 40% of the national flock are on West Falkland and 60% on East Falkland. The base flock are Corriedale and Polwarth breeds with Dohne Merino, South African Meat Merinos, Afrinos and other breeds having been introduced to improve the fineness of wool and meat characteristics. The wool price suffered a slump in 2005/6 and a peak in 2008. Since 2003 the relative premium commanded by higher quality wool has increased with coarser wool missing out on the high prices in 2008. A summary of the prices for the period 2002 to 2010, which are often dictated by Australian exchange rate and weather conditions is shown below:
Although the production of wool is spread across the islands, the breeding of animals for slaughter is concentrated on East Falkland where the EU accredited Send Bay abattoir is situated. An additional cost borne by producers on West Falklands is the fare charged for crossing the Falklands Sound. As of 2010, the ferry company making the crossing charged commercial vehicles £30 per metre for a single trip plus £2 per head of sheep. Wool on the other hand is charged "£45 per tonne delivered to Stanley".
An increasing number of farmers are supplying lamb to the Falkland Islands Meat Company. The abattoir received export accreditation in December 2002 and began exporting meat in May 2003. The number of farms supplying lambs increased from 6 in 2003 to 27 in 2007 while the number of lambs sent to the abattoir rose from 2600 to 11,963 in the same period.
Selected statistics for the year 2008/9 relating to sheep farming are given below:
There are also a small number of cows, pigs and horses on the islands that are reared for local use.
Fishing is the largest part of the economy. Although Lord Shackleton's Report (1982) recommended the setting up of a 200-nautical-mile (370 km; 230 mi) fisheries limit which gave an impetus to the fishing industry, the report did not go into much detail regarding the expansion of the industry. The Falkland Islands Development Corporation which formed as a result of the Shackleton Report provided the impetus for the Falkland Islands to exploit their marine environment.
The Falkland Islands' fishing waters form part of the 2.7 million square kilometre Patagonian Shelf large marine ecosystem and are located on a spur from the Patagonian Continental Shelf. Most of the fishing takes place in water up to 200 metres (660 ft) deep on this spur or on the Burdwood Bank - another spur lying on an undersea ridge to the south of the Falkland Islands and separated from the islands by a deep channel known as the Falklands Trough. At its highest point, the Burdwood Bank is 46 metres (151 ft) below sea level.
The principal ocean currents in the Falkland Island waters are the West Wind Drift, a cold current from the Southern Pacific Ocean that flows westwards to the south of the Burdwood Bank and the north flowing cold Falklands current, an offshoot of the West Wind Drift that curls around the east of Falklands Plateau and along the Falklands and Patagonian escarpments. It joins the saltier warm Brazil Current in the vicinity of the mouth of the Río de la Plata to form the South Atlantic Current.
In 1986 the Falklands opened up their fishing industry to outsiders with the declaration of a 160-nautical-mile (300 km; 180 mi) radius Fisheries Conservation & Management Zone centered on the Falkland Sound. This zone was later to become the Falklands Inner Conservation Zone (FICZ). Apart from the Falkland Trough, this zone lies within the continental shelf. In 1990 the Falklands Outer Conservation Zone (FOCZ) was declared – a zone that lay between the perimeter of the FICZ and the Falklands 200-nautical-mile economic zone boundary. The FOCZ includes part of the Burdwood Bank, borders on the confines of the continental shelf and includes part of the Falklands Escarpment - a 2,000-metre (6,600 ft) undersea escarpment running east–west.
At the same time that the FOCZ was declared, the Argentine declared its 200-nautical-mile Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) and together with the British Government (acting on behalf of the Falkland Islands) set up the South Atlantic Fisheries Commission (SAFC) to coordinate the management of fishing stocks in the area.
Most of the fish that are harvested in the Falkland Islands waters are either squid or finfish. Other types of fish form an insignificant part of the Falkland Islands' catch. A significant number of the fish that are taken are migratory with the spawning grounds and feeding grounds of some species being highly dependent on the water temperature.
The Illex squid (Illex argentinus) which typically has a mantle length of 20 to 28 centimetres (8 to 11 in) and a weight of 150 to 500 grams (5 to 18 oz) is the most important fish to the Falklands economy followed by its smaller cousin, the Patagonian squid (Doryteuthis gahi) which typically has a mantle length of 10 to 15 centimetres (4 to 6 in) and a weight of 75 to 150 grams (3 to 5 oz). Neither species was discovered in substantial numbers near the Falklands until the late 1980s.
The lllex squid has its spawning grounds at the mouth of the Río de la Plata and a migratory pattern that takes it southwards along the Patagonian Shelf as far as the FICZ to its feeding grounds. It then returns to its spawning grounds via a route that lies off the continental shelf. In some years, such as 2007, it enters the FICZ with a resultant good harvest, it other years, such as 2009, it does not migrate as far south as the FICZ at all. The catch for the 2010 season in the Falklands recovered to 12105 tonnes, but still the fourth lowest since the beginning of the licensing system. This has been attributed to the lower than usual sea temperatures during the feeding season in February–May.
The Patagonian squid, unlike the Illex, remain in Falkland Island waters all year and are concentrated in the Loloigo box—an area within the Falklands Plateau to the east and south-east of the islands and are harvested during both the austral spring and autumn.
In the 1970s many fin fish, particularly the rock cod, a high volume low value fish were exploited to near-extinction. The levels of rock cod taken in the whole of the South Atlantic dropped by 99.3% in the space of two years between the 1969–70 and 1971–72 seasons. while the patagonian rockcod was fished to near-extinction in the Shag Rock area. This resulted in a ban on fishing which was lifted in 2005. Following the collapse of the Illex industry in 2008/9, the rock cod has become, by weight, the most heavily harvested species in the area.
In 2006, a Spanish vessel on an exploratory trawl found commercial quantities of grenadiers (Macrourus spp., Coelorhynchus spp.) to the south and east of the Falkland Islands at depths between 750 and 830 metres (2,460 and 2,720 ft) depths in the eastern part of FICZ. It has been estimated that this species needs a stock biomass of 40000 tonnes to produce a sustainable harvest of 3000 tonnes per annum and is now reflected as a separate entry in the tables below.
With the establishment of the FICZ, the Falklands Fisheries Department issued licences that enable foreign vessels to fish in Falklands waters. Initially there were seven classes of licence, but as of the 2009 season, this was increased to ten classes of licence. Each class of licence has its own characteristics – species or combination of species that may be taken, net sizes that may be used and seasons when the licence is valid. The main fishing areas are in waters that are up to 200 metres (660 ft) deep with principal concentrations close to the confluence of the FOCZ, FICZ and EEZ to the north west of the Islands and also on the Burwood Bank – a shallow water to the south of the Islands. Initially licences were issued on a total allowable effort (TAE) but in 2007, the toothfish longline fishery became the first fishery in the Falkland Islands to be issued on a total allowable catch (TAC) basis. Apart from the Islander's own fleet, the principal fishing fleets come from Spain, Korea and Taiwan. When the Falkland Islands first opened up her waters, the Polish fishing fleet had a presence as did the Japanese, but the Poles stopped fishing in the area in the mid-1990s and the Japanese in the middle of the first decade of the twenty-first century. By 2002 the license revenue was so great that the island government had no debt and had built up more than £80 million in savings.
Since 1993, the principal licence classes have been:
Revenue from licence fees (£ millions)
The Antarctic Treaty was signed by both the United Kingdom and Argentina in 1959. In its wake, the Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR), a treaty signed by 24 nations and covering the area that includes most of the Falkland Islands waters, came into force in 1982, having been signed by the United Kingdom on 31 August 1981 and Argentina on 28 May 1982. The convention covers Southern Ocean ecosystem which is generally accepted as being south of approximately 50° to 55°S. The CCAMLR provides a forum for exchanging information regarding marine life in the Antarctic region and has the authority to ban the harvesting of certain type of fish and also to ban or put restrictions on the use of certain methods of harvesting. The convention requires that member states who are not parties to the Antarctic Treaty accept certain provisions of that treaty.
The South Atlantic Fisheries Commission (SAFC) was set up in 1990 between the Argentine and the United Kingdom (acting on behalf of the Falkland Islands) to exchange information and to coordinate fishing activities in the South Atlantic. One of their prime activities was the monitoring of the Illex spawning stock biomass (SSB). If the SSB drops below a threshold of 40000 tonnes the SAFC recommend will early closure of the fishing season. Since 2005 the SAFC has been largely moribund as the Argentine Government reduced co-operation, declining to continue the routine joint meeting process and suspending joint scientific activities. She has since extended her claim to all of the Falkland Island waters.
The table below shows the average catch in tonnes of various species (as categorised by FIFD - Falkland Island Fishing Department) for successive five-year periods.
Tourism is the second-largest part of the economy. In 1982, an average of only 500 tourists visited the Falklands per annum but by 2007, this figure had grown to 55,000 and the Falkland Islands Tourist Board hired its first tourism director that year. In 2010, the transport and hospitality sector was expected to contribute £7.8 million or 7.7% of the island's GDP. Tourism forms a significant part of this figure with land-based visitors expected to contribute £2.7 million to the Islands' economy in 2010. The islands have become a regular port of call for the growing market of cruise ships to Antarctica and elsewhere in the South Atlantic. Attractions include the scenery and wildlife conservation including 1,000,000 penguins, seabirds, seals, and sea lions, as well as visits to battlefields, golf, fishing and wreck diving. In addition to accommodation in Stanley, there are tourist lodges at Port Howard, Darwin, Pebble Island, Carcass Island, and Sea Lion Island. Self-catering accommodation at holiday cottages on island farms. The total contribution of tourism to the Islands' is expected to reach £5.4 million in 2010.
During the 2008–2009 season almost 69,000 tourists visited the Falklands, with 62,600 of these arriving onboard cruise or expedition vessels. Since cruise liners have their own accommodation, substantial numbers of tourists can be accommodated at once, such as an occasion in 2005 when 3000 tourists visited the islands in one day. In 2013 passengers from cruise ships faced protests in Latin American ports over the British military presence. The cruise industry is expecting passenger numbers to decline from 39,500 in 2013–2014 to 34,000 for 2014–2015. However land tourism is increasing which is offsetting the effect of a decrease in cruise tourism.
Other sources of "tourist" revenue include spending by the British military personnel based on the islands, by business travellers and by pilgrims to the graves of both British and Argentine soldiers who fell in the 1982 Falklands War. Although there is still a resentment in the Islands to the Argentine occupation, the Falkland Islands Government continues "to respect the need for Argentine veterans of the 1982 conflict and their next of kin to visit the battlefield sites and the cemetery at Darwin". Such visits are arranged in conjunction with LAN Airlines (Chile) who, on such occasions, use larger aircraft than normal for the weekly flights.
Four sedimentary basins that could potentially contain hydrocarbons have been identified in the Falkland Island waters. They are:
The latter three basins are part of a larger contiguous formation.
An agreement signed in 1995 with Argentina had set the terms for exploitation of offshore resources including large oil reserves as it was thought that there might be up to 60 billion barrels (9.5 km) of oil under the sea bed surrounding the islands. However, in 2007 Argentina unilaterally withdrew from the agreement. In response, Falkland Oil & Gas has signed an agreement with BHP Billiton to investigate the potential exploitation of oil reserves. Climatic conditions of the southern seas mean that exploitation will be a difficult task, though economically viable, and the continuing Falkland Islands sovereignty dispute with Argentina is hampering progress.
Some 2012 exploration results have indicated that taxation on oil revenues, even though they will be amongst the lowest in the world, are expected to more than double the country's revenue.
In February 2010, exploratory drilling for oil was begun by Desire Petroleum, but the results from the first test well were disappointing. Two months later, on 6 May 2010, when Rockhopper Exploration announced that "it may have struck oil", Argentina's Foreign Minister warned that his country would take all possible lawful steps to impede British oil exploration and production there. On 17 September 2010, Rockhopper Exploration published the results of the borehole analysis – the well was drilled in water 451 m deep and a flow test showed that a payable oil column of 53 m was capable of producing over 2,000 barrels per day (320 m/d). In February 2011 Rockhopper Exploration commenced an appraisal programme of the Sea-Lion discovery. An update of the first appraisal drill was released on Monday 21 March 2011 indicating a significant reservoir package with a downhole mini Drill Stern Test flowing oil at better rates then the September 2010 flow test: confidence in the commerciality of the Sea Lion discovery has been increased by this first appraisal.
On 14 September 2011 Rockhopper Exploration announced plans are under way for oil production to commence in 2016, through the use of Floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) technology, replicating the methodology used on the Foinaven oilfield off the Shetland Islands. The proposal envisages a FPSO vessel located 200 km offshore servicing 24 production wells and 12 water injection wells in about 450 m of water. The wells will be arranged in clusters of 6 wells per drill centre. The two water injection well clusters will be 3.0 km from the four oil well clusters. Oil will be transferred from the FPSO vessel to shuttle oil tankers. Each year thereafter the production date has been pushed back another year.
The production site will require approximately 110 people working offshore and another 40 working onshore. The oil expected to trade at 90 - 105% of the Brent crude price.
In May 2015 oil was discovered in Isobel deep by a consortium of oil companies including Falkland Oil & Gas, Premier Oil, and Rockhopper Oil & Gas. In 2023, Rockhopper (working with Tel Aviv-listed Navitas Petroleum) indicated that it had been presented with a new development plan for its Sea Lion project that aimed to cut costs and proceed in phases. It was stated that: "If realized, the new plan — with a total price tag of $2.2 billion — could lead to 80,000 barrels per day of production (up to 100,000 b/d at peak) via a leased floating production, storage and offloading unit". A final investment decision was targeted for early 2024.
As of 2011 the East and South Falklands Fields had not been fully evaluated; Leiv Eiriksson, a 5th generation semi-submersible drilling rig, had been expected to drill two exploratory wells for Falkland oil and gas in 2012.
The islands have been investing in windpower – in 2010, three 330 kW wind turbines were installed at Sand Bay, about 10 kilometres (6 mi) from Stanley on the opposite side of the valley from three turbines that were installed in 2007. The island's government has plans to install a 2 MWh battery storage system which will allow surplus wind energy to be stored. The first three turbines resulted in a 20% reduction in the Stanley power station's fuel consumption and it was hoped that the second set of three turbines would double this figure. In parallel, there are on-going investigations into other forms of renewable energy for remote locations on the islands.
The Falkland Islands currently has three primary means of transport - road, sea and air. There is now an international airport, a domestic airport, a number of airstrips, a growing road network and a much-improved ferry service between the two main islands.
In October 1877, the Secretary of State of the Colonial Office, the Earl of Carnarvon began the process of application for the Falkland Islands to join the General Postal Union (renamed Universal Postal Union in 1879). The first stamps, 1d, 6d, and 1 shilling values featuring the usual profile of Queen Victoria, were issued 19 June 1878. Since then the islands have issued their own stamps, which are a source of revenue from overseas collectors. Between 2000 and 2008, the islands issued between six and eight sets of commemorative stamps. The workload placed on the Falkland Islands Post Office by overseas collectors led to the establishments in 1978 of the Falkland Islands Philatelic Bureau. The Bureau also handles philately-related sales on behalf of the governments of Government of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands and of the British Antarctic Territory.
Coins and banknotes may only be issued by the Falkland Islands Government with the authorisation of the British Government. Coins for local use were first struck in 1974 and are the same size as the corresponding British coins. There is a flourishing business in the issue of commemorative coins struck on behalf of the Falkland Island Government for collectors – in particular the 2007 series of coins that commemorated the 25th anniversary of the liberation of islands attracted much attention. The Falkland Islands Government (FIG) is required to deposit 110% of the face value of any coins struck on its behalf into its currency fund, thereby effectively backing the Falkland pound with the pound sterling. In the case of commemorative coins that are unlikely to be redeemed, this money represents a long-term investment. In many cases the set-up and production costs are carried by the mint concerned, who pay the FIG a royalty on coins that it sells to collectors.
|
[
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "The economy of the Falkland Islands, which first involved sealing, whaling and provisioning ships, became heavily dependent on sheep farming from the 1870s to 1980. It then diversified and now has income from tourism, commercial fishing, and servicing the fishing industry as well as agriculture. The Falkland Islands use the Falkland pound, which is backed by the British pound.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "During the 19th century, the supply and maintenance depot for ships at Stanley developed into a port serving ships rounding Cape Horn. There was also trade in cow hides from the wild descendants of cattle introduced by French settlers in the late 18th century. Sheep farming was then introduced, taking over from the cattle trade in the 1870s and becoming self-supporting by 1885. The islands also provided a base for whaling and sealing, with factories being built on East Falkland and South Georgia Island, but these industries ended.",
"title": "Historical development"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "By the Falklands War of 1982 sheep farming was the islands' only industry and their economic viability was in doubt, but after the war there was a new commitment from the Government of the United Kingdom. The Falkland Islands Development Corporation was formed in mid 1984 and in its annual report at the end of that year it set out to increase employment opportunities by encouraging diversification, to increase population levels through selective immigration, to aim for long-term self-sufficiency and to improve community facilities. To achieve this, the Corporation identified agricultural improvements, tourism, self-sufficiency in energy, development of the industrial and service sector, fisheries, and land subdivision as areas to tackle.",
"title": "Historical development"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "The largest company in the islands used to be the Falkland Islands Company (FIC), a publicly quoted company on the London Stock Exchange. The company was responsible for the majority of the economic activity on the islands, though its farms were sold in 1991 to the Falkland Islands Government. The company now operates several retail outlets in Stanley and is involved in port services and shipping operations.",
"title": "Historical development"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "By 2002 the Falklands' economy was booming, with income from tourism and the sale of squid fishing licences as well as from indigenous fishing companies with locally registered boats. Fishing boats visit the islands from Spain, Korea, Taiwan and Japan, and obtain supplies and services from the islands. An islander told the BBC that \"we were the luckiest people that was ever mixed up in a war\", and British diplomats joked that the Falklands should have a monument to Leopoldo Galtieri, the Argentinean dictator who invaded the islands. In 2007, Argentina withdrew from a 1995 agreement that set terms for exploitation of offshore resources. It is thought that there might be up to 60 billion barrels (9.5 km) of oil under the sea bed surrounding the islands. Desire Petroleum and Rockhopper Exploration began drilling for oil in the vicinity of the Falklands in the first half of 2010, sparking strong protest from the Argentine government. Diplomatic disputes with Argentina disrupted tourism slightly in 2004. Buenos Aires refused permission for charter flights from Chile that served cruise ships to fly over Argentina to reach the islands.",
"title": "Historical development"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "The Falkland Islands have a GDP of $164.5 million, and a per capita GDP of $70,800 (2015 estimate) compared with the United Kingdom GDP per capita of $35,200 (2009 estimate). The contributors to the GDP by sector (2010 forecast) are:",
"title": "Economic overview"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "In the 2009/10 financial year, the government revenue was £42.4 million of which £14.5 million came from fishery licences and services and £10.5 million from taxes. During the same period the government expenditure was £47.6 million.",
"title": "Economic overview"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "Other economic indicators include:",
"title": "Economic overview"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "Electricity – production: 19 million kWh (2016 est.)",
"title": "Economic overview"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "Electricity – production by source: (2016 est.)",
"title": "Economic overview"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "Electricity – consumption: 17.67 million kWh (2016 est.)",
"title": "Economic overview"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "Installed nameplate capacity of electric generation",
"title": "Economic overview"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "12,100 kW (2016 est.)",
"title": "Economic overview"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "The Falkland Islands do not have a central bank but the Standard Chartered Bank has a single branch in Stanley that offers retail, commercial and wholesale banking facilities.",
"title": "Banking"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "The constitution requires the governor of the islands to seek the approval of a British Secretary of State before assenting to any bill that affects \"the currency of the Falkland Islands or relating to the issue of banknotes\" or any bill that establishes \"any banking association or altering the constitution, rights or duties of any such association\". These restrictions effectively give the British Government the ability to prevent the island's government from declaring the islands to be a tax haven or from establishing a central bank.",
"title": "Banking"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 15,
"text": "Farmland accounts for a little over 80% of the Falklands land area and a sheep appears on the islands' coat of arms, but agriculture is now less than 2% of the economy. As of 2007, 670,000 sheep resided on the islands; a 2011 report estimated the sheep population at over one million. Roughly 40% of the national flock are on West Falkland and 60% on East Falkland. The base flock are Corriedale and Polwarth breeds with Dohne Merino, South African Meat Merinos, Afrinos and other breeds having been introduced to improve the fineness of wool and meat characteristics. The wool price suffered a slump in 2005/6 and a peak in 2008. Since 2003 the relative premium commanded by higher quality wool has increased with coarser wool missing out on the high prices in 2008. A summary of the prices for the period 2002 to 2010, which are often dictated by Australian exchange rate and weather conditions is shown below:",
"title": "Agriculture"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 16,
"text": "Although the production of wool is spread across the islands, the breeding of animals for slaughter is concentrated on East Falkland where the EU accredited Send Bay abattoir is situated. An additional cost borne by producers on West Falklands is the fare charged for crossing the Falklands Sound. As of 2010, the ferry company making the crossing charged commercial vehicles £30 per metre for a single trip plus £2 per head of sheep. Wool on the other hand is charged \"£45 per tonne delivered to Stanley\".",
"title": "Agriculture"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 17,
"text": "An increasing number of farmers are supplying lamb to the Falkland Islands Meat Company. The abattoir received export accreditation in December 2002 and began exporting meat in May 2003. The number of farms supplying lambs increased from 6 in 2003 to 27 in 2007 while the number of lambs sent to the abattoir rose from 2600 to 11,963 in the same period.",
"title": "Agriculture"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 18,
"text": "Selected statistics for the year 2008/9 relating to sheep farming are given below:",
"title": "Agriculture"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 19,
"text": "There are also a small number of cows, pigs and horses on the islands that are reared for local use.",
"title": "Agriculture"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 20,
"text": "Fishing is the largest part of the economy. Although Lord Shackleton's Report (1982) recommended the setting up of a 200-nautical-mile (370 km; 230 mi) fisheries limit which gave an impetus to the fishing industry, the report did not go into much detail regarding the expansion of the industry. The Falkland Islands Development Corporation which formed as a result of the Shackleton Report provided the impetus for the Falkland Islands to exploit their marine environment.",
"title": "Fishing"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 21,
"text": "The Falkland Islands' fishing waters form part of the 2.7 million square kilometre Patagonian Shelf large marine ecosystem and are located on a spur from the Patagonian Continental Shelf. Most of the fishing takes place in water up to 200 metres (660 ft) deep on this spur or on the Burdwood Bank - another spur lying on an undersea ridge to the south of the Falkland Islands and separated from the islands by a deep channel known as the Falklands Trough. At its highest point, the Burdwood Bank is 46 metres (151 ft) below sea level.",
"title": "Fishing"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 22,
"text": "The principal ocean currents in the Falkland Island waters are the West Wind Drift, a cold current from the Southern Pacific Ocean that flows westwards to the south of the Burdwood Bank and the north flowing cold Falklands current, an offshoot of the West Wind Drift that curls around the east of Falklands Plateau and along the Falklands and Patagonian escarpments. It joins the saltier warm Brazil Current in the vicinity of the mouth of the Río de la Plata to form the South Atlantic Current.",
"title": "Fishing"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 23,
"text": "In 1986 the Falklands opened up their fishing industry to outsiders with the declaration of a 160-nautical-mile (300 km; 180 mi) radius Fisheries Conservation & Management Zone centered on the Falkland Sound. This zone was later to become the Falklands Inner Conservation Zone (FICZ). Apart from the Falkland Trough, this zone lies within the continental shelf. In 1990 the Falklands Outer Conservation Zone (FOCZ) was declared – a zone that lay between the perimeter of the FICZ and the Falklands 200-nautical-mile economic zone boundary. The FOCZ includes part of the Burdwood Bank, borders on the confines of the continental shelf and includes part of the Falklands Escarpment - a 2,000-metre (6,600 ft) undersea escarpment running east–west.",
"title": "Fishing"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 24,
"text": "At the same time that the FOCZ was declared, the Argentine declared its 200-nautical-mile Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) and together with the British Government (acting on behalf of the Falkland Islands) set up the South Atlantic Fisheries Commission (SAFC) to coordinate the management of fishing stocks in the area.",
"title": "Fishing"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 25,
"text": "Most of the fish that are harvested in the Falkland Islands waters are either squid or finfish. Other types of fish form an insignificant part of the Falkland Islands' catch. A significant number of the fish that are taken are migratory with the spawning grounds and feeding grounds of some species being highly dependent on the water temperature.",
"title": "Fishing"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 26,
"text": "The Illex squid (Illex argentinus) which typically has a mantle length of 20 to 28 centimetres (8 to 11 in) and a weight of 150 to 500 grams (5 to 18 oz) is the most important fish to the Falklands economy followed by its smaller cousin, the Patagonian squid (Doryteuthis gahi) which typically has a mantle length of 10 to 15 centimetres (4 to 6 in) and a weight of 75 to 150 grams (3 to 5 oz). Neither species was discovered in substantial numbers near the Falklands until the late 1980s.",
"title": "Fishing"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 27,
"text": "The lllex squid has its spawning grounds at the mouth of the Río de la Plata and a migratory pattern that takes it southwards along the Patagonian Shelf as far as the FICZ to its feeding grounds. It then returns to its spawning grounds via a route that lies off the continental shelf. In some years, such as 2007, it enters the FICZ with a resultant good harvest, it other years, such as 2009, it does not migrate as far south as the FICZ at all. The catch for the 2010 season in the Falklands recovered to 12105 tonnes, but still the fourth lowest since the beginning of the licensing system. This has been attributed to the lower than usual sea temperatures during the feeding season in February–May.",
"title": "Fishing"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 28,
"text": "The Patagonian squid, unlike the Illex, remain in Falkland Island waters all year and are concentrated in the Loloigo box—an area within the Falklands Plateau to the east and south-east of the islands and are harvested during both the austral spring and autumn.",
"title": "Fishing"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 29,
"text": "In the 1970s many fin fish, particularly the rock cod, a high volume low value fish were exploited to near-extinction. The levels of rock cod taken in the whole of the South Atlantic dropped by 99.3% in the space of two years between the 1969–70 and 1971–72 seasons. while the patagonian rockcod was fished to near-extinction in the Shag Rock area. This resulted in a ban on fishing which was lifted in 2005. Following the collapse of the Illex industry in 2008/9, the rock cod has become, by weight, the most heavily harvested species in the area.",
"title": "Fishing"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 30,
"text": "In 2006, a Spanish vessel on an exploratory trawl found commercial quantities of grenadiers (Macrourus spp., Coelorhynchus spp.) to the south and east of the Falkland Islands at depths between 750 and 830 metres (2,460 and 2,720 ft) depths in the eastern part of FICZ. It has been estimated that this species needs a stock biomass of 40000 tonnes to produce a sustainable harvest of 3000 tonnes per annum and is now reflected as a separate entry in the tables below.",
"title": "Fishing"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 31,
"text": "With the establishment of the FICZ, the Falklands Fisheries Department issued licences that enable foreign vessels to fish in Falklands waters. Initially there were seven classes of licence, but as of the 2009 season, this was increased to ten classes of licence. Each class of licence has its own characteristics – species or combination of species that may be taken, net sizes that may be used and seasons when the licence is valid. The main fishing areas are in waters that are up to 200 metres (660 ft) deep with principal concentrations close to the confluence of the FOCZ, FICZ and EEZ to the north west of the Islands and also on the Burwood Bank – a shallow water to the south of the Islands. Initially licences were issued on a total allowable effort (TAE) but in 2007, the toothfish longline fishery became the first fishery in the Falkland Islands to be issued on a total allowable catch (TAC) basis. Apart from the Islander's own fleet, the principal fishing fleets come from Spain, Korea and Taiwan. When the Falkland Islands first opened up her waters, the Polish fishing fleet had a presence as did the Japanese, but the Poles stopped fishing in the area in the mid-1990s and the Japanese in the middle of the first decade of the twenty-first century. By 2002 the license revenue was so great that the island government had no debt and had built up more than £80 million in savings.",
"title": "Fishing"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 32,
"text": "Since 1993, the principal licence classes have been:",
"title": "Fishing"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 33,
"text": "Revenue from licence fees (£ millions)",
"title": "Fishing"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 34,
"text": "The Antarctic Treaty was signed by both the United Kingdom and Argentina in 1959. In its wake, the Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR), a treaty signed by 24 nations and covering the area that includes most of the Falkland Islands waters, came into force in 1982, having been signed by the United Kingdom on 31 August 1981 and Argentina on 28 May 1982. The convention covers Southern Ocean ecosystem which is generally accepted as being south of approximately 50° to 55°S. The CCAMLR provides a forum for exchanging information regarding marine life in the Antarctic region and has the authority to ban the harvesting of certain type of fish and also to ban or put restrictions on the use of certain methods of harvesting. The convention requires that member states who are not parties to the Antarctic Treaty accept certain provisions of that treaty.",
"title": "Fishing"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 35,
"text": "The South Atlantic Fisheries Commission (SAFC) was set up in 1990 between the Argentine and the United Kingdom (acting on behalf of the Falkland Islands) to exchange information and to coordinate fishing activities in the South Atlantic. One of their prime activities was the monitoring of the Illex spawning stock biomass (SSB). If the SSB drops below a threshold of 40000 tonnes the SAFC recommend will early closure of the fishing season. Since 2005 the SAFC has been largely moribund as the Argentine Government reduced co-operation, declining to continue the routine joint meeting process and suspending joint scientific activities. She has since extended her claim to all of the Falkland Island waters.",
"title": "Fishing"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 36,
"text": "The table below shows the average catch in tonnes of various species (as categorised by FIFD - Falkland Island Fishing Department) for successive five-year periods.",
"title": "Fishing"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 37,
"text": "Tourism is the second-largest part of the economy. In 1982, an average of only 500 tourists visited the Falklands per annum but by 2007, this figure had grown to 55,000 and the Falkland Islands Tourist Board hired its first tourism director that year. In 2010, the transport and hospitality sector was expected to contribute £7.8 million or 7.7% of the island's GDP. Tourism forms a significant part of this figure with land-based visitors expected to contribute £2.7 million to the Islands' economy in 2010. The islands have become a regular port of call for the growing market of cruise ships to Antarctica and elsewhere in the South Atlantic. Attractions include the scenery and wildlife conservation including 1,000,000 penguins, seabirds, seals, and sea lions, as well as visits to battlefields, golf, fishing and wreck diving. In addition to accommodation in Stanley, there are tourist lodges at Port Howard, Darwin, Pebble Island, Carcass Island, and Sea Lion Island. Self-catering accommodation at holiday cottages on island farms. The total contribution of tourism to the Islands' is expected to reach £5.4 million in 2010.",
"title": "Tourism"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 38,
"text": "During the 2008–2009 season almost 69,000 tourists visited the Falklands, with 62,600 of these arriving onboard cruise or expedition vessels. Since cruise liners have their own accommodation, substantial numbers of tourists can be accommodated at once, such as an occasion in 2005 when 3000 tourists visited the islands in one day. In 2013 passengers from cruise ships faced protests in Latin American ports over the British military presence. The cruise industry is expecting passenger numbers to decline from 39,500 in 2013–2014 to 34,000 for 2014–2015. However land tourism is increasing which is offsetting the effect of a decrease in cruise tourism.",
"title": "Tourism"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 39,
"text": "Other sources of \"tourist\" revenue include spending by the British military personnel based on the islands, by business travellers and by pilgrims to the graves of both British and Argentine soldiers who fell in the 1982 Falklands War. Although there is still a resentment in the Islands to the Argentine occupation, the Falkland Islands Government continues \"to respect the need for Argentine veterans of the 1982 conflict and their next of kin to visit the battlefield sites and the cemetery at Darwin\". Such visits are arranged in conjunction with LAN Airlines (Chile) who, on such occasions, use larger aircraft than normal for the weekly flights.",
"title": "Tourism"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 40,
"text": "Four sedimentary basins that could potentially contain hydrocarbons have been identified in the Falkland Island waters. They are:",
"title": "Energy and minerals"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 41,
"text": "The latter three basins are part of a larger contiguous formation.",
"title": "Energy and minerals"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 42,
"text": "An agreement signed in 1995 with Argentina had set the terms for exploitation of offshore resources including large oil reserves as it was thought that there might be up to 60 billion barrels (9.5 km) of oil under the sea bed surrounding the islands. However, in 2007 Argentina unilaterally withdrew from the agreement. In response, Falkland Oil & Gas has signed an agreement with BHP Billiton to investigate the potential exploitation of oil reserves. Climatic conditions of the southern seas mean that exploitation will be a difficult task, though economically viable, and the continuing Falkland Islands sovereignty dispute with Argentina is hampering progress.",
"title": "Energy and minerals"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 43,
"text": "Some 2012 exploration results have indicated that taxation on oil revenues, even though they will be amongst the lowest in the world, are expected to more than double the country's revenue.",
"title": "Energy and minerals"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 44,
"text": "In February 2010, exploratory drilling for oil was begun by Desire Petroleum, but the results from the first test well were disappointing. Two months later, on 6 May 2010, when Rockhopper Exploration announced that \"it may have struck oil\", Argentina's Foreign Minister warned that his country would take all possible lawful steps to impede British oil exploration and production there. On 17 September 2010, Rockhopper Exploration published the results of the borehole analysis – the well was drilled in water 451 m deep and a flow test showed that a payable oil column of 53 m was capable of producing over 2,000 barrels per day (320 m/d). In February 2011 Rockhopper Exploration commenced an appraisal programme of the Sea-Lion discovery. An update of the first appraisal drill was released on Monday 21 March 2011 indicating a significant reservoir package with a downhole mini Drill Stern Test flowing oil at better rates then the September 2010 flow test: confidence in the commerciality of the Sea Lion discovery has been increased by this first appraisal.",
"title": "Energy and minerals"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 45,
"text": "On 14 September 2011 Rockhopper Exploration announced plans are under way for oil production to commence in 2016, through the use of Floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) technology, replicating the methodology used on the Foinaven oilfield off the Shetland Islands. The proposal envisages a FPSO vessel located 200 km offshore servicing 24 production wells and 12 water injection wells in about 450 m of water. The wells will be arranged in clusters of 6 wells per drill centre. The two water injection well clusters will be 3.0 km from the four oil well clusters. Oil will be transferred from the FPSO vessel to shuttle oil tankers. Each year thereafter the production date has been pushed back another year.",
"title": "Energy and minerals"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 46,
"text": "The production site will require approximately 110 people working offshore and another 40 working onshore. The oil expected to trade at 90 - 105% of the Brent crude price.",
"title": "Energy and minerals"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 47,
"text": "In May 2015 oil was discovered in Isobel deep by a consortium of oil companies including Falkland Oil & Gas, Premier Oil, and Rockhopper Oil & Gas. In 2023, Rockhopper (working with Tel Aviv-listed Navitas Petroleum) indicated that it had been presented with a new development plan for its Sea Lion project that aimed to cut costs and proceed in phases. It was stated that: \"If realized, the new plan — with a total price tag of $2.2 billion — could lead to 80,000 barrels per day of production (up to 100,000 b/d at peak) via a leased floating production, storage and offloading unit\". A final investment decision was targeted for early 2024.",
"title": "Energy and minerals"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 48,
"text": "As of 2011 the East and South Falklands Fields had not been fully evaluated; Leiv Eiriksson, a 5th generation semi-submersible drilling rig, had been expected to drill two exploratory wells for Falkland oil and gas in 2012.",
"title": "Energy and minerals"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 49,
"text": "The islands have been investing in windpower – in 2010, three 330 kW wind turbines were installed at Sand Bay, about 10 kilometres (6 mi) from Stanley on the opposite side of the valley from three turbines that were installed in 2007. The island's government has plans to install a 2 MWh battery storage system which will allow surplus wind energy to be stored. The first three turbines resulted in a 20% reduction in the Stanley power station's fuel consumption and it was hoped that the second set of three turbines would double this figure. In parallel, there are on-going investigations into other forms of renewable energy for remote locations on the islands.",
"title": "Energy and minerals"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 50,
"text": "The Falkland Islands currently has three primary means of transport - road, sea and air. There is now an international airport, a domestic airport, a number of airstrips, a growing road network and a much-improved ferry service between the two main islands.",
"title": "Transport in the Falkland Islands"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 51,
"text": "In October 1877, the Secretary of State of the Colonial Office, the Earl of Carnarvon began the process of application for the Falkland Islands to join the General Postal Union (renamed Universal Postal Union in 1879). The first stamps, 1d, 6d, and 1 shilling values featuring the usual profile of Queen Victoria, were issued 19 June 1878. Since then the islands have issued their own stamps, which are a source of revenue from overseas collectors. Between 2000 and 2008, the islands issued between six and eight sets of commemorative stamps. The workload placed on the Falkland Islands Post Office by overseas collectors led to the establishments in 1978 of the Falkland Islands Philatelic Bureau. The Bureau also handles philately-related sales on behalf of the governments of Government of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands and of the British Antarctic Territory.",
"title": "Philately and numismatics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 52,
"text": "Coins and banknotes may only be issued by the Falkland Islands Government with the authorisation of the British Government. Coins for local use were first struck in 1974 and are the same size as the corresponding British coins. There is a flourishing business in the issue of commemorative coins struck on behalf of the Falkland Island Government for collectors – in particular the 2007 series of coins that commemorated the 25th anniversary of the liberation of islands attracted much attention. The Falkland Islands Government (FIG) is required to deposit 110% of the face value of any coins struck on its behalf into its currency fund, thereby effectively backing the Falkland pound with the pound sterling. In the case of commemorative coins that are unlikely to be redeemed, this money represents a long-term investment. In many cases the set-up and production costs are carried by the mint concerned, who pay the FIG a royalty on coins that it sells to collectors.",
"title": "Philately and numismatics"
}
] |
The economy of the Falkland Islands, which first involved sealing, whaling and provisioning ships, became heavily dependent on sheep farming from the 1870s to 1980. It then diversified and now has income from tourism, commercial fishing, and servicing the fishing industry as well as agriculture. The Falkland Islands use the Falkland pound, which is backed by the British pound.
|
2001-04-29T15:36:32Z
|
2023-11-16T18:24:46Z
|
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_the_Falkland_Islands
|
10,694 |
Telecommunications in the Falkland Islands
|
Telecommunications in the Falkland Islands includes radio, television, fixed and mobile telephones, and the Internet.
The Falkland Islands Radio Service (FIRS) operates a radio network in conjunction with the BBC World Service, while the British Forces Broadcasting Service (BFBS) operates three networks of its own. KTV Ltd. also operates two relay stations, KTV Radio Nova, a rebroadcast of BBC World Service, and KTV Radio Nova Saint FM, a rebroadcast of Saint FM.
Six free-to-air digital channels are provided by BFBS: BBC One, BBC Two, ITV, Channel 4, Sky News and BFBS Extra for non-military audiences. Entitled personnel within British Forces South Atlantic can also receive Sky Sports 1, Sky Sports 2 and BFBS Sport.
A local subscription service, KTV carries satellite channels such as ESPN, Discovery, CNN International and Turner Classic Movies (from the United States) along with BBC World News from the United Kingdom.
This article incorporates public domain material from The World Factbook (2023 ed.). CIA. (Archived 2013 edition)
|
[
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "Telecommunications in the Falkland Islands includes radio, television, fixed and mobile telephones, and the Internet.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "The Falkland Islands Radio Service (FIRS) operates a radio network in conjunction with the BBC World Service, while the British Forces Broadcasting Service (BFBS) operates three networks of its own. KTV Ltd. also operates two relay stations, KTV Radio Nova, a rebroadcast of BBC World Service, and KTV Radio Nova Saint FM, a rebroadcast of Saint FM.",
"title": "Radio and television"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "Six free-to-air digital channels are provided by BFBS: BBC One, BBC Two, ITV, Channel 4, Sky News and BFBS Extra for non-military audiences. Entitled personnel within British Forces South Atlantic can also receive Sky Sports 1, Sky Sports 2 and BFBS Sport.",
"title": "Radio and television"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "A local subscription service, KTV carries satellite channels such as ESPN, Discovery, CNN International and Turner Classic Movies (from the United States) along with BBC World News from the United Kingdom.",
"title": "Radio and television"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "This article incorporates public domain material from The World Factbook (2023 ed.). CIA. (Archived 2013 edition)",
"title": "References"
}
] |
Telecommunications in the Falkland Islands includes radio, television, fixed and mobile telephones, and the Internet.
|
2001-07-22T21:41:19Z
|
2023-10-30T13:31:29Z
|
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telecommunications_in_the_Falkland_Islands
|
10,695 |
Transport in the Falkland Islands
|
The Falkland Islands currently has three primary means of transport - road, sea and air. However, in 1946, when Sir Miles Clifford arrived as governor, there were no air services, no roads outside Stanley and an indifferent sea service. Sir Miles was instrumental in starting the Falkland Islands Government Air Service in December 1948. The inaugural flight involved a mercy flight from North Arm Settlement to Stanley to bring a girl with peritonitis to life-saving medical help in Stanley. There is now an international airport, a domestic airport, a number of airstrips, a growing road network and a much-improved ferry service between the two main islands.
In 1982, the Falkland Islands had no roads outside Stanley, only tracks. By 2007, the Falkland Islands had a road network of 488 miles (786 km) with a further roads planned for construction link to all occupied mainland settlements by 2013. In 2012, the Falkland Islands Government classified the 536 miles (862 km) road network - East Falkland 304 miles (489 km) and West Falkland 232 miles (373 km) - into "A" roads, "B" roads and "C" roads for purposes of Highways Asset Management Plan. The "A" roads are the 75 miles (121 km) link between Stanley and New Haven (East Falkland) and the 48 miles (78 km) link between Port Howard and Fox Bay (West Falkland). All roads within Stanley are asphalted as are the ones at Mount Pleasant Airport (MPA). The road between Stanley and MPA is mostly gravel all-weather roads (as like the rest of the roads in the islands) with some short asphalted sections. The road between Stanley and MPA has a large trench on either side, which will ground any vehicle driving into it. These trenches were allegedly dug deeper than they needed to be as annual rainfall was taken as a number for the monthly rainfall.
Stanley has two taxi services which can be used for travel within the town and the surrounding areas. A variety of four-wheel drive vehicles can be hired in Stanley, which are essential for travel along unpaved roads that are potentially badly potholed. A bus service ferries passengers between the main airport for international flights at Mount Pleasant and Stanley. Bicycles can also be hired, though because of the unsealed roads and hilly terrain, these are more suitable for use around the Stanley area.
Speed limits are 25 mph (40 km/h) in built-up areas and 40 mph (64 km/h) elsewhere.
There are two seaports in the Falkland Islands, Stanley (East Falkland) and Fox Bay (West Falkland). The designated harbours in Stanley area include Berkeley Sound, Port William and Stanley Harbour itself. Fox Bay is also a customs entry point for West Falkland. In 2020 the Government awarded a contract to BAM Nuttall to design and build a new port for the Falklands. The Falkland Islands do not have a merchant navy.
Since November 2008, a regular ferry service has linked the two main islands, carrying cars, passengers and cargo. The ferry, MV Concordia Bay, a 42.45 m twin-screw shallow draft (2.59 m) landing craft runs between Port Howard in West Falkland and New Haven in East Falkland. She has a deck, 30 m in length and 10 m in width which is sufficient for 16 one-ten Land Rovers (or equivalent) and accommodation for 30 passengers. She also has a crane that is capable of lifting 10 tonnes at 7 m. She also visits some of the smaller islands.
Other smaller boats may be chartered in advance.
Tourist cruise ships often visit many of the islands, making use of inflatable boats where adequate docking facilities are not available.
A 2-foot (610 mm) gauge railway, known as the Camber Railway, was built along the north side of Stanley Harbour in 1915-1916 and used until the 1920s. It was about 3.5 miles (5.6 km) long. The trackbed is still visible.
The Falkland Islands have two airports with paved runways. The main international airport is RAF Mount Pleasant, 27 miles (43 km) west of Stanley. LAN Airlines operate weekly flights to Punta Arenas. Once a month, this flight also stops in Río Gallegos, Argentina.
The Royal Air Force operates flights from RAF Mount Pleasant to RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire, England, with a refuelling stop at RAF Ascension Island. This service is called the South Atlantic Airbridge.
Bristow Helicopters also operate two Sikorsky S-92 helicopters, based at RAF Mount Pleasant, under contract to the United Kingdom Ministry of Defence, primarily for moving military personnel, equipment and supplies around the islands.
The smaller Port Stanley Airport, outside the city, is used mainly for internal flights. The Falkland Islands Government Air Service (FIGAS) operates Islander aircraft that can use the grass airstrips that most settlements have. Flight schedules are decided a day in advance according to passenger needs and the next day's timetable is published every evening. The schedules are based on three routes - a Northern Shuttle and the Southern Shuttle that each have one flight a day and the East - West Shuttle that has a morning and an evening flight every day.
The British Antarctic Survey operates a transcontinental air link between Port Stanley Airport and the Rothera Research Station on the Antarctic Peninsula and servicing also other British bases in the British Antarctic Territory using a de Havilland Canada Dash 7.
Media related to Transport in the Falkland Islands at Wikimedia Commons
|
[
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "The Falkland Islands currently has three primary means of transport - road, sea and air. However, in 1946, when Sir Miles Clifford arrived as governor, there were no air services, no roads outside Stanley and an indifferent sea service. Sir Miles was instrumental in starting the Falkland Islands Government Air Service in December 1948. The inaugural flight involved a mercy flight from North Arm Settlement to Stanley to bring a girl with peritonitis to life-saving medical help in Stanley. There is now an international airport, a domestic airport, a number of airstrips, a growing road network and a much-improved ferry service between the two main islands.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "In 1982, the Falkland Islands had no roads outside Stanley, only tracks. By 2007, the Falkland Islands had a road network of 488 miles (786 km) with a further roads planned for construction link to all occupied mainland settlements by 2013. In 2012, the Falkland Islands Government classified the 536 miles (862 km) road network - East Falkland 304 miles (489 km) and West Falkland 232 miles (373 km) - into \"A\" roads, \"B\" roads and \"C\" roads for purposes of Highways Asset Management Plan. The \"A\" roads are the 75 miles (121 km) link between Stanley and New Haven (East Falkland) and the 48 miles (78 km) link between Port Howard and Fox Bay (West Falkland). All roads within Stanley are asphalted as are the ones at Mount Pleasant Airport (MPA). The road between Stanley and MPA is mostly gravel all-weather roads (as like the rest of the roads in the islands) with some short asphalted sections. The road between Stanley and MPA has a large trench on either side, which will ground any vehicle driving into it. These trenches were allegedly dug deeper than they needed to be as annual rainfall was taken as a number for the monthly rainfall.",
"title": "Road"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "Stanley has two taxi services which can be used for travel within the town and the surrounding areas. A variety of four-wheel drive vehicles can be hired in Stanley, which are essential for travel along unpaved roads that are potentially badly potholed. A bus service ferries passengers between the main airport for international flights at Mount Pleasant and Stanley. Bicycles can also be hired, though because of the unsealed roads and hilly terrain, these are more suitable for use around the Stanley area.",
"title": "Road"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "Speed limits are 25 mph (40 km/h) in built-up areas and 40 mph (64 km/h) elsewhere.",
"title": "Road"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "There are two seaports in the Falkland Islands, Stanley (East Falkland) and Fox Bay (West Falkland). The designated harbours in Stanley area include Berkeley Sound, Port William and Stanley Harbour itself. Fox Bay is also a customs entry point for West Falkland. In 2020 the Government awarded a contract to BAM Nuttall to design and build a new port for the Falklands. The Falkland Islands do not have a merchant navy.",
"title": "Sea"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "Since November 2008, a regular ferry service has linked the two main islands, carrying cars, passengers and cargo. The ferry, MV Concordia Bay, a 42.45 m twin-screw shallow draft (2.59 m) landing craft runs between Port Howard in West Falkland and New Haven in East Falkland. She has a deck, 30 m in length and 10 m in width which is sufficient for 16 one-ten Land Rovers (or equivalent) and accommodation for 30 passengers. She also has a crane that is capable of lifting 10 tonnes at 7 m. She also visits some of the smaller islands.",
"title": "Sea"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "Other smaller boats may be chartered in advance.",
"title": "Sea"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "Tourist cruise ships often visit many of the islands, making use of inflatable boats where adequate docking facilities are not available.",
"title": "Sea"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "A 2-foot (610 mm) gauge railway, known as the Camber Railway, was built along the north side of Stanley Harbour in 1915-1916 and used until the 1920s. It was about 3.5 miles (5.6 km) long. The trackbed is still visible.",
"title": "Rail"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "The Falkland Islands have two airports with paved runways. The main international airport is RAF Mount Pleasant, 27 miles (43 km) west of Stanley. LAN Airlines operate weekly flights to Punta Arenas. Once a month, this flight also stops in Río Gallegos, Argentina.",
"title": "Air"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "The Royal Air Force operates flights from RAF Mount Pleasant to RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire, England, with a refuelling stop at RAF Ascension Island. This service is called the South Atlantic Airbridge.",
"title": "Air"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "Bristow Helicopters also operate two Sikorsky S-92 helicopters, based at RAF Mount Pleasant, under contract to the United Kingdom Ministry of Defence, primarily for moving military personnel, equipment and supplies around the islands.",
"title": "Air"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "The smaller Port Stanley Airport, outside the city, is used mainly for internal flights. The Falkland Islands Government Air Service (FIGAS) operates Islander aircraft that can use the grass airstrips that most settlements have. Flight schedules are decided a day in advance according to passenger needs and the next day's timetable is published every evening. The schedules are based on three routes - a Northern Shuttle and the Southern Shuttle that each have one flight a day and the East - West Shuttle that has a morning and an evening flight every day.",
"title": "Air"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "The British Antarctic Survey operates a transcontinental air link between Port Stanley Airport and the Rothera Research Station on the Antarctic Peninsula and servicing also other British bases in the British Antarctic Territory using a de Havilland Canada Dash 7.",
"title": "Air"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "Media related to Transport in the Falkland Islands at Wikimedia Commons",
"title": "External links"
}
] |
The Falkland Islands currently has three primary means of transport - road, sea and air. However, in 1946, when Sir Miles Clifford arrived as governor, there were no air services, no roads outside Stanley and an indifferent sea service. Sir Miles was instrumental in starting the Falkland Islands Government Air Service in December 1948. The inaugural flight involved a mercy flight from North Arm Settlement to Stanley to bring a girl with peritonitis to life-saving medical help in Stanley. There is now an international airport, a domestic airport, a number of airstrips, a growing road network and a much-improved ferry service between the two main islands.
|
2002-02-25T15:51:15Z
|
2023-08-31T14:03:46Z
|
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|
10,696 |
Military of the Falkland Islands
|
The Falkland Islands are a British overseas territory and, as such, rely on the United Kingdom for the guarantee of their security. The other UK territories in the South Atlantic, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, fall under the protection of British Forces South Atlantic Islands (BFSAI), formerly known as British Forces Falkland Islands (BFFI), which includes commitments from the British Army, Royal Air Force and Royal Navy. They are headed by the Commander, British Forces South Atlantic Islands (CBFSAI), a brigadier-equivalent appointment that rotates among all three services (Navy, British Army, and RAF).
Argentina invaded and took control of the Falklands on 2 April 1982. After recapturing the territory in June 1982, the UK invested heavily in the defence of the islands, the centrepiece of which was a new airfield at RAF Mount Pleasant, 27 miles (43 km) west of Stanley. The base was opened in 1985, and became fully operational in 1986.
The Falkland Islands maintains its own part-time volunteer force, the Falkland Islands Defence Force (FIDF), previously known as the Falkland Islands Volunteer Corps. Although this unit existed in 1982 as a reinforcement for the Governor's detachment of Royal Marines, it did not play any part in the main conflict during the war of 1982, its members having spent the duration of the hostilities under house arrest by the Argentines after their surrender on the Argentine capture of the islands. The FIDF is now a platoon to company-strength light infantry unit with a permanent training Warrant Officer seconded from the Royal Marines. The FIDF operates in a number of roles and is fully integrated into the defence scheme for the islands.
FIDF soldiers can deploy aboard the Falklands Government patrol vessel for sovereignty protection duties if the vessel requires an armed presence. As of 2023, the Falklands Government sovereignty and fisheries patrol vessel is the FPV Lilibet, which arrived in the islands in April and is tasked with policing the exclusive economic zone around the islands. The ship is named in honour of the late Queen Elizabeth II, and has been leased to the Falklands Government by Seagull Maritime Limited for fifteen years. Civilian-crewed, the vessel is a Damen Stan 5009 patrol ship with a maximum speed of up to 29.5 knots (54.6 km/h; 33.9 mph) and a crew of up to 28 persons. She has an endurance of 30 days, though sixty days of provisions can be carried. If patrolling at 10 knots she can reportedly operate for 42 days with a range of up to 10,000 nautical miles. She is fitted with two Browning .50 caliber heavy machine gun mounts though she routinely deploys unarmed.
RAF Mount Pleasant has its own port facility called Mare Harbour, operated by Naval Party 2010 (NP2010). The Royal Navy deploys a River-class offshore patrol vessel, HMS Forth, in the south Atlantic and the ship is the principal naval presence permanently close to the islands. In addition, an Ice Patrol Ship, HMS Protector, is on station close to Antarctica during the regional summer months.
Prior to 2015 a major warship and RFA vessel commonly carried out the Atlantic Patrol Task (South) mission, which provides for "a maritime presence to protect the UK's interests in the region". The Type 42 destroyer HMS Edinburgh took over the South Atlantic Patrol Task in October 2006, replacing HMS Southampton. Prior to Southampton's deployment in August 2005, the role was filled by HMS Cardiff, which was decommissioned on return to the UK. As of February 2010, the on-station warship was the Type 42 destroyer HMS York. In late April 2010, York was relieved by the Type 23 frigate HMS Portland. In August 2010, Portland was relieved by the Type 42 destroyer HMS Gloucester. On 21 April 2011, York returned to the East Cove Military Port in the Falkland Islands, beginning patrol duties for the islands. October 2011 saw the arrival of the Type 23 frigate HMS Montrose, generating a statement from UNASUR (Union of South American Nations). The Type 45 guided missile destroyer HMS Dauntless replaced Montrose as of April 2012. In the second half of 2013, HMS Richmond was deployed on the Royal Navy's south Atlantic patrol duty. Portland was again deployed in January 2014 and HMS Lancaster deployed in 2015. As of 2023, Lancaster's deployment was the last time a frigate deployed on this tasking.
Since 2015, with the commitment to deploy a destroyer or frigate scaled back, HMS Forth has been the principal Royal Navy asset permanently in the south Atlantic having replaced HMS Clyde in 2020. HMS Forth is expected to be tasked to the south Atlantic mission for a decade or more. HMS Clyde returned to Britain in late 2019 for decommissioning, after itself having relieved the Castle-class patrol vessels HMS Dumbarton Castle and HMS Leeds Castle which maintained the patrol vessel commitment on rotation up to 2007. HMS Medway temporarily replaced Forth in 2023 during her refit.
The Royal Navy also has Trafalgar and Astute-class nuclear submarines that it can deploy to the area, though such deployments are classified and likely rare. In February 2012, a Trafalgar-class submarine may have been deployed to the Falkland Islands. The threat posed by submarines to hostile ships was demonstrated during the Falklands War when HMS Conqueror sank the Argentine cruiser ARA General Belgrano. The Royal Navy's current fleet submarines also carry BGM-109 Tomahawk cruise missiles, which have a range of 1,500 miles (2,400 km).
The British Army maintains a garrison on the Falkland Islands based at Mount Pleasant. The force is made up of a roulement infantry company, an engineer squadron, a signals unit (part of the Joint Communications Unit – see below), a logistics group and supporting services.
Ground-based air defence of RAF Mount Pleasant is provided by the 16th Regiment Royal Artillery of the British Army's 7th Air Defence Group. Up until 2021, the detachment was equipped with the Rapier FSC surface-to-air missile system. Rapier has been replaced with the new Sky Sabre surface-to-air missile system incorporating an expanded capability. Sky Sabre achieved informal initial operating capability at RAF Mount Pleasant in October 2021. In the same month Rapier was fully withdrawn from service on the Falklands.
The British Army contributed to the Joint Service Explosive Ordnance Disposal group in the Falkland Islands, providing 33 Engineer Regiment (EOD) and RLC EOD teams. This was subsequently reduced to a team of 11 personnel. In November 2020, it was announced that all remaining land mines had been cleared from the islands.
Main article: Land mines in the Falkland Islands
Royal Air Force elements in the Falklands are under the command of No. 905 Expeditionary Air Wing which, as of 2023, consists of two flights: Typhoon multi-role fighters of No. 1435 Flight RAF and Voyager KC.2/A400M Atlas aircraft of No. 1312 Flight RAF.
RAF Mount Pleasant was built in 1985–86, able to accept large trans-Atlantic aircraft such as the Lockheed TriStar. The TriStar was initially purchased mainly for the UK-Falklands route; until their entry into service, the UK used leased 747s and 767s. As of early 2023, all major RAF transport aircraft are able to fly into RAF Mount Pleasant, as may be required. Utilizing RAF Ascension Island, a station which reports to the Commander BFSAI, these aircraft maintain direct air links between the U.K. and the Falklands.
Four Typhoon multi-role fighter aircraft of No. 1435 Flight RAF provide air defence for the islands and surrounding territories and have a secondary ground attack/anti-ship role.
Originally Lockheed Hercules C.1K were used for air-to-air refuelling missions, but these were later replaced by a VC10. On 31 August 2013 the VC10 was temporarily replaced by a TriStar K.1, which was itself replaced by a Voyager KC.2 in March 2014. The Voyager is deployed in the islands for air refueling operations but is unable to fit within a hangar at RAF Mount Pleasant due to its size.
Initially, a C-130 Hercules was used for transport, search and rescue and maritime patrol until replaced with an A400M Atlas aircraft in April 2018. The aircraft is used for both regional operations, as well as for providing support for the British Antarctic Survey. In August 2022, an RAF A400M aircraft flying from RAF Ascension Island was refueled for the first time by a Voyager KC.2 aircraft flying out of RAF Mount Pleasant. In January 2023, an RAF A400M Atlas supported by a Voyager tanker aircraft, dropped the first of 300 fuel drums as part of a tasking to resupply the Sky Blu facility of the British Antarctic Survey.
For a lengthy period, the helicopters of No. 1564 Flight (formerly No. 78 Squadron) provided tactial air transport support. The Sea Kings carried out short and medium range search and rescue missions, until their retirement. AAR Corp was awarded a contract for helicopter search and rescue services in the Falkland Islands to replace 1564 Flight, using AgustaWestland AW189 helicopters in the role from 2016. In March 2015, the UK announced that a pair of Chinooks would be stationed in the Falklands again, the first of which started flying in June 2016. 1564 Flight disbanded in March 2016 being subsequently replaced by the Chinooks of No. 1310 Flight.
These military helicopters only remained on the islands for a short period and, as of 2022, Chinooks are no longer based in the Falklands. In lieu of this military capability, the firms AAR Corp and British International Helicopters (part of Bristow Helicopters), jointly provide two AW189s (in the Search and Rescue role) and two Sikiorsky S92A helicopters (in the support role) from RAF Mount Pleasant. The latter helicopter replaced the formerly used S61N helicopter in 2023.
There were initially two air defence radar units, both located on West Falkland; No. 7 Signals Unit at Byron Heights and No. 751 Signals Unit at Mount Alice. Byron Heights and Mount Alice were later augmented by a further radar installation on Mount Kent, designated No. 303 Signals Unit. No. 7 Signals Unit and No. 751 Signals Unit were eventually disbanded and all three radar installations were reduced to Remote Radar Heads under the control of No. 303 Signals Unit who moved into a purpose-built operations building at Mount Pleasant Complex to form the Control and Reporting Centre. The building was officially opened on 4 October 1998 by Air Chief Marshall Sir Richard Johns, then Chief of the Air Staff.
The Joint Communications Unit Falkland Islands (JCUFI) provides the electronic warfare and command and control systems for the Royal Navy, Army and RAF stationed there. It incorporates the Army's signals unit and RAF personnel.
The following have served as Commander British Forces Falkland Islands/South Atlantic Islands:
|
[
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "The Falkland Islands are a British overseas territory and, as such, rely on the United Kingdom for the guarantee of their security. The other UK territories in the South Atlantic, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, fall under the protection of British Forces South Atlantic Islands (BFSAI), formerly known as British Forces Falkland Islands (BFFI), which includes commitments from the British Army, Royal Air Force and Royal Navy. They are headed by the Commander, British Forces South Atlantic Islands (CBFSAI), a brigadier-equivalent appointment that rotates among all three services (Navy, British Army, and RAF).",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "Argentina invaded and took control of the Falklands on 2 April 1982. After recapturing the territory in June 1982, the UK invested heavily in the defence of the islands, the centrepiece of which was a new airfield at RAF Mount Pleasant, 27 miles (43 km) west of Stanley. The base was opened in 1985, and became fully operational in 1986.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "The Falkland Islands maintains its own part-time volunteer force, the Falkland Islands Defence Force (FIDF), previously known as the Falkland Islands Volunteer Corps. Although this unit existed in 1982 as a reinforcement for the Governor's detachment of Royal Marines, it did not play any part in the main conflict during the war of 1982, its members having spent the duration of the hostilities under house arrest by the Argentines after their surrender on the Argentine capture of the islands. The FIDF is now a platoon to company-strength light infantry unit with a permanent training Warrant Officer seconded from the Royal Marines. The FIDF operates in a number of roles and is fully integrated into the defence scheme for the islands.",
"title": "Falkland Islands Defence Force"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "FIDF soldiers can deploy aboard the Falklands Government patrol vessel for sovereignty protection duties if the vessel requires an armed presence. As of 2023, the Falklands Government sovereignty and fisheries patrol vessel is the FPV Lilibet, which arrived in the islands in April and is tasked with policing the exclusive economic zone around the islands. The ship is named in honour of the late Queen Elizabeth II, and has been leased to the Falklands Government by Seagull Maritime Limited for fifteen years. Civilian-crewed, the vessel is a Damen Stan 5009 patrol ship with a maximum speed of up to 29.5 knots (54.6 km/h; 33.9 mph) and a crew of up to 28 persons. She has an endurance of 30 days, though sixty days of provisions can be carried. If patrolling at 10 knots she can reportedly operate for 42 days with a range of up to 10,000 nautical miles. She is fitted with two Browning .50 caliber heavy machine gun mounts though she routinely deploys unarmed.",
"title": "Falkland Islands Defence Force"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "RAF Mount Pleasant has its own port facility called Mare Harbour, operated by Naval Party 2010 (NP2010). The Royal Navy deploys a River-class offshore patrol vessel, HMS Forth, in the south Atlantic and the ship is the principal naval presence permanently close to the islands. In addition, an Ice Patrol Ship, HMS Protector, is on station close to Antarctica during the regional summer months.",
"title": "Royal Navy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "Prior to 2015 a major warship and RFA vessel commonly carried out the Atlantic Patrol Task (South) mission, which provides for \"a maritime presence to protect the UK's interests in the region\". The Type 42 destroyer HMS Edinburgh took over the South Atlantic Patrol Task in October 2006, replacing HMS Southampton. Prior to Southampton's deployment in August 2005, the role was filled by HMS Cardiff, which was decommissioned on return to the UK. As of February 2010, the on-station warship was the Type 42 destroyer HMS York. In late April 2010, York was relieved by the Type 23 frigate HMS Portland. In August 2010, Portland was relieved by the Type 42 destroyer HMS Gloucester. On 21 April 2011, York returned to the East Cove Military Port in the Falkland Islands, beginning patrol duties for the islands. October 2011 saw the arrival of the Type 23 frigate HMS Montrose, generating a statement from UNASUR (Union of South American Nations). The Type 45 guided missile destroyer HMS Dauntless replaced Montrose as of April 2012. In the second half of 2013, HMS Richmond was deployed on the Royal Navy's south Atlantic patrol duty. Portland was again deployed in January 2014 and HMS Lancaster deployed in 2015. As of 2023, Lancaster's deployment was the last time a frigate deployed on this tasking.",
"title": "Royal Navy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "Since 2015, with the commitment to deploy a destroyer or frigate scaled back, HMS Forth has been the principal Royal Navy asset permanently in the south Atlantic having replaced HMS Clyde in 2020. HMS Forth is expected to be tasked to the south Atlantic mission for a decade or more. HMS Clyde returned to Britain in late 2019 for decommissioning, after itself having relieved the Castle-class patrol vessels HMS Dumbarton Castle and HMS Leeds Castle which maintained the patrol vessel commitment on rotation up to 2007. HMS Medway temporarily replaced Forth in 2023 during her refit.",
"title": "Royal Navy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "The Royal Navy also has Trafalgar and Astute-class nuclear submarines that it can deploy to the area, though such deployments are classified and likely rare. In February 2012, a Trafalgar-class submarine may have been deployed to the Falkland Islands. The threat posed by submarines to hostile ships was demonstrated during the Falklands War when HMS Conqueror sank the Argentine cruiser ARA General Belgrano. The Royal Navy's current fleet submarines also carry BGM-109 Tomahawk cruise missiles, which have a range of 1,500 miles (2,400 km).",
"title": "Royal Navy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "The British Army maintains a garrison on the Falkland Islands based at Mount Pleasant. The force is made up of a roulement infantry company, an engineer squadron, a signals unit (part of the Joint Communications Unit – see below), a logistics group and supporting services.",
"title": "British Army"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "Ground-based air defence of RAF Mount Pleasant is provided by the 16th Regiment Royal Artillery of the British Army's 7th Air Defence Group. Up until 2021, the detachment was equipped with the Rapier FSC surface-to-air missile system. Rapier has been replaced with the new Sky Sabre surface-to-air missile system incorporating an expanded capability. Sky Sabre achieved informal initial operating capability at RAF Mount Pleasant in October 2021. In the same month Rapier was fully withdrawn from service on the Falklands.",
"title": "British Army"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "The British Army contributed to the Joint Service Explosive Ordnance Disposal group in the Falkland Islands, providing 33 Engineer Regiment (EOD) and RLC EOD teams. This was subsequently reduced to a team of 11 personnel. In November 2020, it was announced that all remaining land mines had been cleared from the islands.",
"title": "British Army"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "Main article: Land mines in the Falkland Islands",
"title": "British Army"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "Royal Air Force elements in the Falklands are under the command of No. 905 Expeditionary Air Wing which, as of 2023, consists of two flights: Typhoon multi-role fighters of No. 1435 Flight RAF and Voyager KC.2/A400M Atlas aircraft of No. 1312 Flight RAF.",
"title": "Royal Air Force"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "RAF Mount Pleasant was built in 1985–86, able to accept large trans-Atlantic aircraft such as the Lockheed TriStar. The TriStar was initially purchased mainly for the UK-Falklands route; until their entry into service, the UK used leased 747s and 767s. As of early 2023, all major RAF transport aircraft are able to fly into RAF Mount Pleasant, as may be required. Utilizing RAF Ascension Island, a station which reports to the Commander BFSAI, these aircraft maintain direct air links between the U.K. and the Falklands.",
"title": "Royal Air Force"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "Four Typhoon multi-role fighter aircraft of No. 1435 Flight RAF provide air defence for the islands and surrounding territories and have a secondary ground attack/anti-ship role.",
"title": "Royal Air Force"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 15,
"text": "Originally Lockheed Hercules C.1K were used for air-to-air refuelling missions, but these were later replaced by a VC10. On 31 August 2013 the VC10 was temporarily replaced by a TriStar K.1, which was itself replaced by a Voyager KC.2 in March 2014. The Voyager is deployed in the islands for air refueling operations but is unable to fit within a hangar at RAF Mount Pleasant due to its size.",
"title": "Royal Air Force"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 16,
"text": "Initially, a C-130 Hercules was used for transport, search and rescue and maritime patrol until replaced with an A400M Atlas aircraft in April 2018. The aircraft is used for both regional operations, as well as for providing support for the British Antarctic Survey. In August 2022, an RAF A400M aircraft flying from RAF Ascension Island was refueled for the first time by a Voyager KC.2 aircraft flying out of RAF Mount Pleasant. In January 2023, an RAF A400M Atlas supported by a Voyager tanker aircraft, dropped the first of 300 fuel drums as part of a tasking to resupply the Sky Blu facility of the British Antarctic Survey.",
"title": "Royal Air Force"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 17,
"text": "For a lengthy period, the helicopters of No. 1564 Flight (formerly No. 78 Squadron) provided tactial air transport support. The Sea Kings carried out short and medium range search and rescue missions, until their retirement. AAR Corp was awarded a contract for helicopter search and rescue services in the Falkland Islands to replace 1564 Flight, using AgustaWestland AW189 helicopters in the role from 2016. In March 2015, the UK announced that a pair of Chinooks would be stationed in the Falklands again, the first of which started flying in June 2016. 1564 Flight disbanded in March 2016 being subsequently replaced by the Chinooks of No. 1310 Flight.",
"title": "Royal Air Force"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 18,
"text": "These military helicopters only remained on the islands for a short period and, as of 2022, Chinooks are no longer based in the Falklands. In lieu of this military capability, the firms AAR Corp and British International Helicopters (part of Bristow Helicopters), jointly provide two AW189s (in the Search and Rescue role) and two Sikiorsky S92A helicopters (in the support role) from RAF Mount Pleasant. The latter helicopter replaced the formerly used S61N helicopter in 2023.",
"title": "Royal Air Force"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 19,
"text": "There were initially two air defence radar units, both located on West Falkland; No. 7 Signals Unit at Byron Heights and No. 751 Signals Unit at Mount Alice. Byron Heights and Mount Alice were later augmented by a further radar installation on Mount Kent, designated No. 303 Signals Unit. No. 7 Signals Unit and No. 751 Signals Unit were eventually disbanded and all three radar installations were reduced to Remote Radar Heads under the control of No. 303 Signals Unit who moved into a purpose-built operations building at Mount Pleasant Complex to form the Control and Reporting Centre. The building was officially opened on 4 October 1998 by Air Chief Marshall Sir Richard Johns, then Chief of the Air Staff.",
"title": "Royal Air Force"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 20,
"text": "The Joint Communications Unit Falkland Islands (JCUFI) provides the electronic warfare and command and control systems for the Royal Navy, Army and RAF stationed there. It incorporates the Army's signals unit and RAF personnel.",
"title": "Joint Service"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 21,
"text": "The following have served as Commander British Forces Falkland Islands/South Atlantic Islands:",
"title": "Commanders"
}
] |
The Falkland Islands are a British overseas territory and, as such, rely on the United Kingdom for the guarantee of their security. The other UK territories in the South Atlantic, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, fall under the protection of British Forces South Atlantic Islands (BFSAI), formerly known as British Forces Falkland Islands (BFFI), which includes commitments from the British Army, Royal Air Force and Royal Navy. They are headed by the Commander, British Forces South Atlantic Islands (CBFSAI), a brigadier-equivalent appointment that rotates among all three services. Argentina invaded and took control of the Falklands on 2 April 1982. After recapturing the territory in June 1982, the UK invested heavily in the defence of the islands, the centrepiece of which was a new airfield at RAF Mount Pleasant, 27 miles (43 km) west of Stanley. The base was opened in 1985, and became fully operational in 1986.
|
2001-08-23T15:43:54Z
|
2023-10-30T00:36:20Z
|
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_of_the_Falkland_Islands
|
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History of the Faroe Islands
|
The early details of the history of the Faroe Islands are unclear. It is possible that Brendan, an Irish monk, sailed past the islands during his North Atlantic voyage in the 6th century. He saw an 'Island of Sheep' and a 'Paradise of Birds', which some say could be the Faroes with its dense bird population and sheep. This does suggest however that other sailors had got there before him, to bring the sheep. Norsemen settled the Faroe Islands in the 9th or 10th century. The islands were officially converted to Christianity around the year 1000, and became a part of the Kingdom of Norway in 1035. Norwegian rule on the islands continued until 1380, when the islands became part of the dual Denmark–Norway kingdom, under king Olaf II of Denmark.
Following the 1814 Treaty of Kiel that ended the dual Denmark–Norway kingdom, the Faroe Islands remained under the administration of Denmark as a county. During World War II, after Denmark was occupied by Nazi Germany, the British invaded and occupied the Faroe Islands until shortly after the end of the war. Following an independence referendum in 1946 that took place unrecognized by Denmark, the Faroe Islands were in 1948 granted extended self-governance with the Danish Realm with the signing of the Home Rule Act of the Faroe Islands.
There is some evidence of settlement on the Faroe Islands before Norse Viking settlers arrived in the ninth century AD. Scientific researchers found burnt grains of domesticated barley and peat ash deposited in two phases: the first dated between the mid-fourth and mid-sixth centuries, and another between the late-sixth and late-eighth centuries. Researchers have also found sheep DNA in lake-bed sediments, which were dated to around the year 500. Barley and sheep had to have been brought to the islands by humans. It is unlikely the Norse would have sailed near the Faroes long before the early 800s. The first settlers may have come from the British Isles. Archaeologist Mike Church suggested that the people living there might have been from Ireland, Scotland or Scandinavia, or from all three.
According to a ninth-century voyage tale, the Irish saint Brendan visited islands resembling the Faroes in the sixth century. This description, however, is not conclusive.
The earliest text which has been claimed to be a description of the Faroe Islands was written by the Irish monk Dicuil c.825 in his work Liber de Mensura Orbis Terrae (description of the sphere of the earth). Dicuil had met a "man worthy of trust" who related to his master, the abbot Sweeney (Suibhne), how he had landed on islands in the far north after sailing "two days and a summer night in a little vessel of two banks of oars" (in duobus aestivis diebus, et una intercedente nocte, navigans in duorum navicula transtrorum).
"Many other islands lie in the northerly British Ocean. One reaches them from the northerly islands of Britain, by sailing directly for two days and two nights with a full sail in a favourable wind the whole time.... Most of these islands are small, they are separated by narrow channels, and for nearly a hundred years hermits lived there, coming from our land, Ireland, by boat. But just as these islands have been uninhabited from the beginning of the world, so now the Norwegian pirates have driven away the monks; but countless sheep and many different species of sea-fowl are to be found there..."
Norse settlement of the Faroe Islands is recorded in the Færeyinga saga, whose original manuscript is lost. Portions of the tale were inscribed in three other sagas: the Flateyjarbók, the Saga of Óláfr Tryggvason, and AM 62 fol. Similar to other sagas, the historical credibility of the Færeyinga saga is highly questioned.
Both the Saga of Ólafr Tryggvason and the Flateyjarbók claim that Grímr Kamban was the first man to discover the Faroe Islands. The two sources disagree, however, on the year in which he left and the circumstances of his departure. The Flateyjarbók details the emigration of Grímr Kamban as sometime during the reign of Harald Hårfagre, between 872 and 930 AD. The Saga of Óláfr Tryggvason indicates that Kamban was residing in the Faroes long before the rule of Harald Hårfagre, and that other Norse were driven to the Faroe Islands due to his chaotic rule. This mass migration to the Faroe Islands shows a prior knowledge of the Viking settlements' locations, furthering the claim of Grímr Kamban's settlement much earlier. While Kamban is recognized as the first Viking settler of the Faroe Islands, his surname is of Gaelic origin. Writings from the Papar, an order of Irish monks, show that they left the Faroe Islands due to ongoing Viking raids.
The name of the islands is first recorded on the Hereford Mappa Mundi (1280), where they are labelled farei. The name has long been understood as based on Old Norse fár "livestock", thus fær-øer "sheep islands".
The main historical source for this period is the 13th-century work Færeyinga saga (Saga of the Faroese), though it is disputed as to how much of this work is historical fact. Færeyinga saga only exists today as copies in other sagas, in particular the manuscripts called Saga of Óláfr Tryggvason, Flateyjarbók and one registered as AM 62 fol.
According to Flateyjarbók, Grímr Kamban settled in Faroe when Harald Hårfagre was king of Norway (872–930). A slightly different account is found in the version of Færeyinga saga in Ólafs Saga Tryggvasonar:
Maður er nefndur Grímur kamban; hann byggði fyrstur manna Færeyjar. En á dögum Haralds hins hárfagra flýðu fyrir hans ofríki fjöldi manna; settust sumir í Færeyjum og byggðu þar, en sumir leituðu til annarra eyðilanda.
The text suggests that Grímr Kamban settled in the Faroes some time before the flight from Harald Hårfagre, perhaps even hundreds of years before. His first name, Grímr, is Norse, but his last, Kamban, suggests a Gaelic origin (Cambán). He may have been of mixed Norse and Irish origin and have come from a settlement in the British Isles: a so-called Norse-Gael. The Norse-Gaels had intermarried with speakers of Irish, a language also spoken at the time in Scotland (being the ancestor of Scottish Gaelic). Evidence of a mixed cultural background in later settlers may be found in the Norse-Irish ring pins found in the Faroe Islands, and in features of Faroese vocabulary. Examples of such words (derived from Middle Irish) are: "blak/blaðak" (buttermilk), Irish bláthach; "drunnur" (animal tail), Irish dronn (chine); "grúkur" (head), Irish gruaig (hair); "lámur" (hand, paw), Irish lámh (hand); "tarvur" (bull), Irish tarbh; and "ærgi" (pasture in the outfield), Irish áirge (byre, milking place: Mod. Irish áirí). The discovery at Toftanes on Eysturoy of wooden devotional crosses apparently modelled on Irish or Scottish exemplars suggests that some of the settlers were Christian. It has also been suggested that the typical curvilinear stone-built walls enclosing early ecclesiastical sites in the Faroes (as in Norse settlements elsewhere) reflect a Celtic Christian style, seen in the circular enclosures of early ecclesiastical sites in Ireland. Indirect support for this theory has been found in genetic research showing that many Norse settler women in the Faroe Islands had Celtic forebears.
If there was settlement in the Faroes in the reign of Harald Hårfagre, it is possible that people already knew about the Faroes because of previous visitors or settlers.
The fact that immigrants from Norway also settled in the Faroe Islands is proven by a runestone (see Sandavágur stone) found in the village of Sandavágur on Vágoy Island. It says:
Þorkil Onundsson, austmaþr af Hrua-lande, byggþe þe(n)a staþ fyrst.
This description "eastman" (from Norway) has to be seen together with the description "westman" (from Ireland/Scotland), which is to be found in local place-names such as "Vestmanna-havn" i.e. "Irishmen's harbour" in the Faroe Isles, and "Vestmannaeyjar" i.e. "Irishmen's islands" in Iceland.
According to Færeyinga saga there was an ancient institution on the headland called Tinganes in Tórshavn on the island of Streymoy. This was an Alþing or Althing (All-council.) This was the place where laws were made and disputes solved. All free men had the right to meet in the Alþing. It was a parliament and law court for all, thus the name. Historians estimate the Alþing to have been established from 800 to 900.
The islands were officially converted to Christianity around the year 1000, with the Diocese of the Faroe Islands based at Kirkjubøur, southern Streymoy, of which there were 33 Catholic bishops.
The Faroes became a part of the Kingdom of Norway in 1035. Early in the 11th century Sigmund or Sigmundur Brestisson, whose family had flourished in the southern islands but had been almost exterminated by invaders from the islands of the north, was sent from Norway, to where he had escaped, to take possession of the islands for Olaf Tryggvason, king of Norway. He introduced Christianity, and, though he was subsequently murdered, Norwegian supremacy was upheld and continued.
King Sverre of Norway was brought up in the Faroes, being stepson of a Faroese man, and relative to Roe, bishop of the islands.
The 14th century saw the start of what would prove to be a long era of foreign encroachment on the Faroese economy. At this time trading regulations were set up so that all Faroese commerce had to pass through Bergen, Norway in order to collect customs tax. Meanwhile, the Hanseatic League was gaining in power, threatening Scandinavian commerce. Though Norway tried to halt this, it was forced to desist after the Black Death decimated its population.
Norwegian supremacy continued until 1380, when the islands became part of the Kalmar Union. The islands were still a possession of the Norwegian crown since the crowns had not been joined. In 1380 the Alþting was renamed the Løgting, though it was by now little more than a law court.
In 1390s, Henry I Sinclair, Earl of Orkney, took possession of the islands (as vassal of Norway, however) and for some time they were part of the Sinclair principality in the North Atlantic.
Archaeological excavations on the islands indicate sustained pig keeping up to and beyond the 13th century, a unique situation when compared to Iceland and Greenland. The Faroese at Junkarinsfløtti remained dependent upon bird resources, especially puffins, far longer and to a greater degree than with any of the other Viking Age settlers of the North Atlantic islands.
English adventurers gave great trouble to the inhabitants in the 16th century, and the name of Magnus Heinason, a native of Streymoy, who was sent by Frederick II to clear the seas, is still celebrated in many songs and stories.
In 1535 Christian II, the deposed monarch, tried to regain power from King Christian III who had just succeeded his father Frederick I. Several of the powerful German companies backed Christian II, but he eventually lost. In 1537 the new King Christian III gave the German trader Thomas Köppen exclusive trading rights in the Faroes. These rights were subject to the following conditions: only good quality goods were to be supplied by the Faroese and were to be made in numbers proportionate to the rest of the market; the goods were to be bought at their market value; and the traders were to deal fairly and honestly with the Faroese.
Christian III also introduced Lutheranism to the Faroes, to replace Catholicism. This process took five years to complete, in which time Danish was used instead of Latin and church property was transferred to the state. The bishopric at Kirkjubøur, south of Tórshavn, where remains of the cathedral may be seen, was also abolished.
After Köppen, others took over the trading monopoly, though the economy suffered as a result of the Dano-Swedish war between Denmark–Norway and Sweden. During this period of the monopoly most Faroese goods (wool products, fish, meat) were taken to the Netherlands, where they were sold at pre-determined prices. The guidelines of the trading agreement, however, were often ignored or corrupted. This caused delays and shortages in the supply of Faroese goods and a reduction in quality. With the trading monopoly nearing collapse smuggling and piracy were rife.
The Danish king tried to solve the problem by giving the Faroes to the courtier Christoffer Gabel (and later on his son, Frederick) as a personal feudal estate. However, the Gabel rule was harsh and repressive, breeding much resentment in the Faroese. This caused Denmark–Norway, in 1708, to entrust the islands and trading monopoly once more to the central government. However, they too struggled to keep the economy going, and many merchants were trading at a loss. Finally, on 1 January 1856 the trading monopoly was abolished.
The Faroe Islands, Iceland and Greenland became a part of Denmark at the Peace of Kiel in 1814, when the union of Denmark–Norway was dissolved.
In 1816 the Løgting (the Faroese parliament) was officially abolished and replaced by a Danish judiciary. Danish was introduced as the main language, whilst Faroese was discouraged. In 1849 a new constitution came into use in Denmark and was promulgated in the Faroes in 1850, giving the Faroese two seats in the Rigsdag (Danish parliament). The Faroese, however, managed in 1852 to re-establish the Løgting as a county council with an advisory role, with many people hoping for eventual independence. The late 19th century saw increasing support for the home rule/independence movement, though not all were in favour. Meanwhile, the Faroese economy was growing with the introduction of large-scale fishing. The Faroese were allowed access to the large Danish waters in the North Atlantic. Living standards subsequently improved and there was a population increase. Though Faroese was standardized as a written language in 1890, it was not allowed to be used in public schools until 1938, or in the church (Fólkakirkjan) until 1939.
During the Second World War, Denmark was invaded and occupied by Nazi Germany. The British subsequently made a pre-emptive invasion and occupation of the Faroes, known as Operation Valentine, to prevent a German invasion. Given their strategic location in the North Atlantic, the Faroes could have proved useful to Germany in the Battle of the Atlantic, possibly as a submarine base. Instead, the British forces built an airbase on Vágar, which is still in use as Vágar Airport. Faroese fishing boats also provided a large amount of fish to the UK, which was crucial given food rationing.
The Løgting gained legislative powers, with the Danish prefect Carl Aage Hilbert retaining executive power. The Faroese flag was recognized by British authorities. There were some attempts to declare complete independence in this period, but the UK had given an undertaking not to interfere in the internal affairs of the Faroe Islands nor to act without the permission of a liberated Denmark. The experience of wartime self-government was crucial in paving the way for formal autonomy in 1948.
The British presence was broadly popular (particularly given the alternative of a German occupation). Approximately 150 marriages took place between British soldiers and Faroese women, although the scale of the British presence on Vágar did lead to some local tensions. The British presence also left a lasting popularity for British chocolate and sweets, which are readily available in Faroese shops but uncommon in Denmark.
Following the liberation of Denmark and the end of World War II, the last British troops left in September 1945. Until 1948 the Faroes had the official status of a Danish amt (county). A referendum on full independence was held in 1946, which produced a majority in favour. This was, however, not recognised by the Danish Government or king due to only 2/3 of the population participating in the referendum, so the Danish king abolished the government of the Faroes. The subsequent elections Løgting were won by an anti-independence majority and instead a high degree of self-governance was attained in 1948 with the passing of the Act of Faroese Home Rule. Faroese was now an official language, though Danish is still taught as a second language in schools. The Faroese flag was also officially recognised by Danish authorities.
In 1973 Denmark joined the European Community (now European Union). The Faroes refused to join, mainly over the issue of fishing limits.
The 1980s saw an increase in support for Faroese independence. Unemployment was very low, and the Faroese were enjoying one of the world's highest standards of living, but the Faroese economy was almost entirely reliant on fishing. The early 1990s saw a dramatic slump in fish stocks, which were being overfished with new high-tech equipment. During the same period the government was also engaged in massive overspending. National debt was now at 9.4 billion Danish krones (DKK). Finally, in October 1992, the Faroese national bank (Sjóvinnurbankin) called in receivers and was forced to ask Denmark for a huge financial bailout. The initial sum was 500 million DKK, though this eventually grew to 1.8 billion DKK (this was in addition to the annual grant of 1 billion DKK). Austerity measures were introduced: public spending was cut, there was a tax and VAT increase and public employees were given a 10% wage-cut. Much of the fishing industry was put into receivership, with talk of cutting down the number of fish-farms and ships.
It was during this period that many Faroese (6%) decided to emigrate, mainly to Denmark. Unemployment rose to as much as 20% in Tórshavn, and even higher in the outlying islands. In 1993 the Sjóvinnurbankin merged with the Faroe Islands' second largest bank, Føroya Banki. A third was declared bankrupt. Meanwhile, there was a growing international boycott of Faroese produce because of the grindadráp (whaling) issue. The independence movement dissolved on the one hand while Denmark found itself left with the Faroe Islands' unpaid bills on the other.
Recuperative measures were put in place and largely worked. Unemployment peaked in January 1994 at 26%, since which it fell (10% in mid-1996, 5% in April 2000). The fishing industry survived largely intact. Fish stocks also rose, with the annual catch being 100,000 in 1994, rising to 150,000 in 1995. In 1998 it was 375,000. Emigration also fell to 1% in 1995, and there was a small population increase in 1996. In addition, oil was discovered nearby. By the early 21st century weaknesses in the Faroese economy had been eliminated and, accordingly, many minds turned once again to the possibility of independence from Denmark. However, a planned referendum in 2001 on first steps towards independence was called off following Danish Prime Minister Poul Nyrup Rasmussen saying that Danish money grants would be phased out within four years if there were a 'yes' vote.
|
[
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "The early details of the history of the Faroe Islands are unclear. It is possible that Brendan, an Irish monk, sailed past the islands during his North Atlantic voyage in the 6th century. He saw an 'Island of Sheep' and a 'Paradise of Birds', which some say could be the Faroes with its dense bird population and sheep. This does suggest however that other sailors had got there before him, to bring the sheep. Norsemen settled the Faroe Islands in the 9th or 10th century. The islands were officially converted to Christianity around the year 1000, and became a part of the Kingdom of Norway in 1035. Norwegian rule on the islands continued until 1380, when the islands became part of the dual Denmark–Norway kingdom, under king Olaf II of Denmark.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "Following the 1814 Treaty of Kiel that ended the dual Denmark–Norway kingdom, the Faroe Islands remained under the administration of Denmark as a county. During World War II, after Denmark was occupied by Nazi Germany, the British invaded and occupied the Faroe Islands until shortly after the end of the war. Following an independence referendum in 1946 that took place unrecognized by Denmark, the Faroe Islands were in 1948 granted extended self-governance with the Danish Realm with the signing of the Home Rule Act of the Faroe Islands.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "There is some evidence of settlement on the Faroe Islands before Norse Viking settlers arrived in the ninth century AD. Scientific researchers found burnt grains of domesticated barley and peat ash deposited in two phases: the first dated between the mid-fourth and mid-sixth centuries, and another between the late-sixth and late-eighth centuries. Researchers have also found sheep DNA in lake-bed sediments, which were dated to around the year 500. Barley and sheep had to have been brought to the islands by humans. It is unlikely the Norse would have sailed near the Faroes long before the early 800s. The first settlers may have come from the British Isles. Archaeologist Mike Church suggested that the people living there might have been from Ireland, Scotland or Scandinavia, or from all three.",
"title": "Early Gaelic and Norse settlements"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "According to a ninth-century voyage tale, the Irish saint Brendan visited islands resembling the Faroes in the sixth century. This description, however, is not conclusive.",
"title": "Early Gaelic and Norse settlements"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "The earliest text which has been claimed to be a description of the Faroe Islands was written by the Irish monk Dicuil c.825 in his work Liber de Mensura Orbis Terrae (description of the sphere of the earth). Dicuil had met a \"man worthy of trust\" who related to his master, the abbot Sweeney (Suibhne), how he had landed on islands in the far north after sailing \"two days and a summer night in a little vessel of two banks of oars\" (in duobus aestivis diebus, et una intercedente nocte, navigans in duorum navicula transtrorum).",
"title": "Early Gaelic and Norse settlements"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "\"Many other islands lie in the northerly British Ocean. One reaches them from the northerly islands of Britain, by sailing directly for two days and two nights with a full sail in a favourable wind the whole time.... Most of these islands are small, they are separated by narrow channels, and for nearly a hundred years hermits lived there, coming from our land, Ireland, by boat. But just as these islands have been uninhabited from the beginning of the world, so now the Norwegian pirates have driven away the monks; but countless sheep and many different species of sea-fowl are to be found there...\"",
"title": "Early Gaelic and Norse settlements"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "Norse settlement of the Faroe Islands is recorded in the Færeyinga saga, whose original manuscript is lost. Portions of the tale were inscribed in three other sagas: the Flateyjarbók, the Saga of Óláfr Tryggvason, and AM 62 fol. Similar to other sagas, the historical credibility of the Færeyinga saga is highly questioned.",
"title": "Early Gaelic and Norse settlements"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "Both the Saga of Ólafr Tryggvason and the Flateyjarbók claim that Grímr Kamban was the first man to discover the Faroe Islands. The two sources disagree, however, on the year in which he left and the circumstances of his departure. The Flateyjarbók details the emigration of Grímr Kamban as sometime during the reign of Harald Hårfagre, between 872 and 930 AD. The Saga of Óláfr Tryggvason indicates that Kamban was residing in the Faroes long before the rule of Harald Hårfagre, and that other Norse were driven to the Faroe Islands due to his chaotic rule. This mass migration to the Faroe Islands shows a prior knowledge of the Viking settlements' locations, furthering the claim of Grímr Kamban's settlement much earlier. While Kamban is recognized as the first Viking settler of the Faroe Islands, his surname is of Gaelic origin. Writings from the Papar, an order of Irish monks, show that they left the Faroe Islands due to ongoing Viking raids.",
"title": "Early Gaelic and Norse settlements"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "The name of the islands is first recorded on the Hereford Mappa Mundi (1280), where they are labelled farei. The name has long been understood as based on Old Norse fár \"livestock\", thus fær-øer \"sheep islands\".",
"title": "Pre-14th century"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "The main historical source for this period is the 13th-century work Færeyinga saga (Saga of the Faroese), though it is disputed as to how much of this work is historical fact. Færeyinga saga only exists today as copies in other sagas, in particular the manuscripts called Saga of Óláfr Tryggvason, Flateyjarbók and one registered as AM 62 fol.",
"title": "Pre-14th century"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "According to Flateyjarbók, Grímr Kamban settled in Faroe when Harald Hårfagre was king of Norway (872–930). A slightly different account is found in the version of Færeyinga saga in Ólafs Saga Tryggvasonar:",
"title": "Pre-14th century"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "Maður er nefndur Grímur kamban; hann byggði fyrstur manna Færeyjar. En á dögum Haralds hins hárfagra flýðu fyrir hans ofríki fjöldi manna; settust sumir í Færeyjum og byggðu þar, en sumir leituðu til annarra eyðilanda.",
"title": "Pre-14th century"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "The text suggests that Grímr Kamban settled in the Faroes some time before the flight from Harald Hårfagre, perhaps even hundreds of years before. His first name, Grímr, is Norse, but his last, Kamban, suggests a Gaelic origin (Cambán). He may have been of mixed Norse and Irish origin and have come from a settlement in the British Isles: a so-called Norse-Gael. The Norse-Gaels had intermarried with speakers of Irish, a language also spoken at the time in Scotland (being the ancestor of Scottish Gaelic). Evidence of a mixed cultural background in later settlers may be found in the Norse-Irish ring pins found in the Faroe Islands, and in features of Faroese vocabulary. Examples of such words (derived from Middle Irish) are: \"blak/blaðak\" (buttermilk), Irish bláthach; \"drunnur\" (animal tail), Irish dronn (chine); \"grúkur\" (head), Irish gruaig (hair); \"lámur\" (hand, paw), Irish lámh (hand); \"tarvur\" (bull), Irish tarbh; and \"ærgi\" (pasture in the outfield), Irish áirge (byre, milking place: Mod. Irish áirí). The discovery at Toftanes on Eysturoy of wooden devotional crosses apparently modelled on Irish or Scottish exemplars suggests that some of the settlers were Christian. It has also been suggested that the typical curvilinear stone-built walls enclosing early ecclesiastical sites in the Faroes (as in Norse settlements elsewhere) reflect a Celtic Christian style, seen in the circular enclosures of early ecclesiastical sites in Ireland. Indirect support for this theory has been found in genetic research showing that many Norse settler women in the Faroe Islands had Celtic forebears.",
"title": "Pre-14th century"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "If there was settlement in the Faroes in the reign of Harald Hårfagre, it is possible that people already knew about the Faroes because of previous visitors or settlers.",
"title": "Pre-14th century"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "The fact that immigrants from Norway also settled in the Faroe Islands is proven by a runestone (see Sandavágur stone) found in the village of Sandavágur on Vágoy Island. It says:",
"title": "Pre-14th century"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 15,
"text": "Þorkil Onundsson, austmaþr af Hrua-lande, byggþe þe(n)a staþ fyrst.",
"title": "Pre-14th century"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 16,
"text": "This description \"eastman\" (from Norway) has to be seen together with the description \"westman\" (from Ireland/Scotland), which is to be found in local place-names such as \"Vestmanna-havn\" i.e. \"Irishmen's harbour\" in the Faroe Isles, and \"Vestmannaeyjar\" i.e. \"Irishmen's islands\" in Iceland.",
"title": "Pre-14th century"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 17,
"text": "According to Færeyinga saga there was an ancient institution on the headland called Tinganes in Tórshavn on the island of Streymoy. This was an Alþing or Althing (All-council.) This was the place where laws were made and disputes solved. All free men had the right to meet in the Alþing. It was a parliament and law court for all, thus the name. Historians estimate the Alþing to have been established from 800 to 900.",
"title": "Pre-14th century"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 18,
"text": "The islands were officially converted to Christianity around the year 1000, with the Diocese of the Faroe Islands based at Kirkjubøur, southern Streymoy, of which there were 33 Catholic bishops.",
"title": "Pre-14th century"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 19,
"text": "The Faroes became a part of the Kingdom of Norway in 1035. Early in the 11th century Sigmund or Sigmundur Brestisson, whose family had flourished in the southern islands but had been almost exterminated by invaders from the islands of the north, was sent from Norway, to where he had escaped, to take possession of the islands for Olaf Tryggvason, king of Norway. He introduced Christianity, and, though he was subsequently murdered, Norwegian supremacy was upheld and continued.",
"title": "Pre-14th century"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 20,
"text": "King Sverre of Norway was brought up in the Faroes, being stepson of a Faroese man, and relative to Roe, bishop of the islands.",
"title": "Pre-14th century"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 21,
"text": "The 14th century saw the start of what would prove to be a long era of foreign encroachment on the Faroese economy. At this time trading regulations were set up so that all Faroese commerce had to pass through Bergen, Norway in order to collect customs tax. Meanwhile, the Hanseatic League was gaining in power, threatening Scandinavian commerce. Though Norway tried to halt this, it was forced to desist after the Black Death decimated its population.",
"title": "Foreign commercial interest: 14th century to Second World War"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 22,
"text": "Norwegian supremacy continued until 1380, when the islands became part of the Kalmar Union. The islands were still a possession of the Norwegian crown since the crowns had not been joined. In 1380 the Alþting was renamed the Løgting, though it was by now little more than a law court.",
"title": "Foreign commercial interest: 14th century to Second World War"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 23,
"text": "In 1390s, Henry I Sinclair, Earl of Orkney, took possession of the islands (as vassal of Norway, however) and for some time they were part of the Sinclair principality in the North Atlantic.",
"title": "Foreign commercial interest: 14th century to Second World War"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 24,
"text": "Archaeological excavations on the islands indicate sustained pig keeping up to and beyond the 13th century, a unique situation when compared to Iceland and Greenland. The Faroese at Junkarinsfløtti remained dependent upon bird resources, especially puffins, far longer and to a greater degree than with any of the other Viking Age settlers of the North Atlantic islands.",
"title": "Foreign commercial interest: 14th century to Second World War"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 25,
"text": "English adventurers gave great trouble to the inhabitants in the 16th century, and the name of Magnus Heinason, a native of Streymoy, who was sent by Frederick II to clear the seas, is still celebrated in many songs and stories.",
"title": "Foreign commercial interest: 14th century to Second World War"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 26,
"text": "In 1535 Christian II, the deposed monarch, tried to regain power from King Christian III who had just succeeded his father Frederick I. Several of the powerful German companies backed Christian II, but he eventually lost. In 1537 the new King Christian III gave the German trader Thomas Köppen exclusive trading rights in the Faroes. These rights were subject to the following conditions: only good quality goods were to be supplied by the Faroese and were to be made in numbers proportionate to the rest of the market; the goods were to be bought at their market value; and the traders were to deal fairly and honestly with the Faroese.",
"title": "Foreign commercial interest: 14th century to Second World War"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 27,
"text": "Christian III also introduced Lutheranism to the Faroes, to replace Catholicism. This process took five years to complete, in which time Danish was used instead of Latin and church property was transferred to the state. The bishopric at Kirkjubøur, south of Tórshavn, where remains of the cathedral may be seen, was also abolished.",
"title": "Foreign commercial interest: 14th century to Second World War"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 28,
"text": "After Köppen, others took over the trading monopoly, though the economy suffered as a result of the Dano-Swedish war between Denmark–Norway and Sweden. During this period of the monopoly most Faroese goods (wool products, fish, meat) were taken to the Netherlands, where they were sold at pre-determined prices. The guidelines of the trading agreement, however, were often ignored or corrupted. This caused delays and shortages in the supply of Faroese goods and a reduction in quality. With the trading monopoly nearing collapse smuggling and piracy were rife.",
"title": "Foreign commercial interest: 14th century to Second World War"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 29,
"text": "The Danish king tried to solve the problem by giving the Faroes to the courtier Christoffer Gabel (and later on his son, Frederick) as a personal feudal estate. However, the Gabel rule was harsh and repressive, breeding much resentment in the Faroese. This caused Denmark–Norway, in 1708, to entrust the islands and trading monopoly once more to the central government. However, they too struggled to keep the economy going, and many merchants were trading at a loss. Finally, on 1 January 1856 the trading monopoly was abolished.",
"title": "Foreign commercial interest: 14th century to Second World War"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 30,
"text": "The Faroe Islands, Iceland and Greenland became a part of Denmark at the Peace of Kiel in 1814, when the union of Denmark–Norway was dissolved.",
"title": "Foreign commercial interest: 14th century to Second World War"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 31,
"text": "In 1816 the Løgting (the Faroese parliament) was officially abolished and replaced by a Danish judiciary. Danish was introduced as the main language, whilst Faroese was discouraged. In 1849 a new constitution came into use in Denmark and was promulgated in the Faroes in 1850, giving the Faroese two seats in the Rigsdag (Danish parliament). The Faroese, however, managed in 1852 to re-establish the Løgting as a county council with an advisory role, with many people hoping for eventual independence. The late 19th century saw increasing support for the home rule/independence movement, though not all were in favour. Meanwhile, the Faroese economy was growing with the introduction of large-scale fishing. The Faroese were allowed access to the large Danish waters in the North Atlantic. Living standards subsequently improved and there was a population increase. Though Faroese was standardized as a written language in 1890, it was not allowed to be used in public schools until 1938, or in the church (Fólkakirkjan) until 1939.",
"title": "Foreign commercial interest: 14th century to Second World War"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 32,
"text": "During the Second World War, Denmark was invaded and occupied by Nazi Germany. The British subsequently made a pre-emptive invasion and occupation of the Faroes, known as Operation Valentine, to prevent a German invasion. Given their strategic location in the North Atlantic, the Faroes could have proved useful to Germany in the Battle of the Atlantic, possibly as a submarine base. Instead, the British forces built an airbase on Vágar, which is still in use as Vágar Airport. Faroese fishing boats also provided a large amount of fish to the UK, which was crucial given food rationing.",
"title": "World War II"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 33,
"text": "The Løgting gained legislative powers, with the Danish prefect Carl Aage Hilbert retaining executive power. The Faroese flag was recognized by British authorities. There were some attempts to declare complete independence in this period, but the UK had given an undertaking not to interfere in the internal affairs of the Faroe Islands nor to act without the permission of a liberated Denmark. The experience of wartime self-government was crucial in paving the way for formal autonomy in 1948.",
"title": "World War II"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 34,
"text": "The British presence was broadly popular (particularly given the alternative of a German occupation). Approximately 150 marriages took place between British soldiers and Faroese women, although the scale of the British presence on Vágar did lead to some local tensions. The British presence also left a lasting popularity for British chocolate and sweets, which are readily available in Faroese shops but uncommon in Denmark.",
"title": "World War II"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 35,
"text": "Following the liberation of Denmark and the end of World War II, the last British troops left in September 1945. Until 1948 the Faroes had the official status of a Danish amt (county). A referendum on full independence was held in 1946, which produced a majority in favour. This was, however, not recognised by the Danish Government or king due to only 2/3 of the population participating in the referendum, so the Danish king abolished the government of the Faroes. The subsequent elections Løgting were won by an anti-independence majority and instead a high degree of self-governance was attained in 1948 with the passing of the Act of Faroese Home Rule. Faroese was now an official language, though Danish is still taught as a second language in schools. The Faroese flag was also officially recognised by Danish authorities.",
"title": "Post-World War II: Home Rule"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 36,
"text": "In 1973 Denmark joined the European Community (now European Union). The Faroes refused to join, mainly over the issue of fishing limits.",
"title": "Post-World War II: Home Rule"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 37,
"text": "The 1980s saw an increase in support for Faroese independence. Unemployment was very low, and the Faroese were enjoying one of the world's highest standards of living, but the Faroese economy was almost entirely reliant on fishing. The early 1990s saw a dramatic slump in fish stocks, which were being overfished with new high-tech equipment. During the same period the government was also engaged in massive overspending. National debt was now at 9.4 billion Danish krones (DKK). Finally, in October 1992, the Faroese national bank (Sjóvinnurbankin) called in receivers and was forced to ask Denmark for a huge financial bailout. The initial sum was 500 million DKK, though this eventually grew to 1.8 billion DKK (this was in addition to the annual grant of 1 billion DKK). Austerity measures were introduced: public spending was cut, there was a tax and VAT increase and public employees were given a 10% wage-cut. Much of the fishing industry was put into receivership, with talk of cutting down the number of fish-farms and ships.",
"title": "Post-World War II: Home Rule"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 38,
"text": "It was during this period that many Faroese (6%) decided to emigrate, mainly to Denmark. Unemployment rose to as much as 20% in Tórshavn, and even higher in the outlying islands. In 1993 the Sjóvinnurbankin merged with the Faroe Islands' second largest bank, Føroya Banki. A third was declared bankrupt. Meanwhile, there was a growing international boycott of Faroese produce because of the grindadráp (whaling) issue. The independence movement dissolved on the one hand while Denmark found itself left with the Faroe Islands' unpaid bills on the other.",
"title": "Post-World War II: Home Rule"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 39,
"text": "Recuperative measures were put in place and largely worked. Unemployment peaked in January 1994 at 26%, since which it fell (10% in mid-1996, 5% in April 2000). The fishing industry survived largely intact. Fish stocks also rose, with the annual catch being 100,000 in 1994, rising to 150,000 in 1995. In 1998 it was 375,000. Emigration also fell to 1% in 1995, and there was a small population increase in 1996. In addition, oil was discovered nearby. By the early 21st century weaknesses in the Faroese economy had been eliminated and, accordingly, many minds turned once again to the possibility of independence from Denmark. However, a planned referendum in 2001 on first steps towards independence was called off following Danish Prime Minister Poul Nyrup Rasmussen saying that Danish money grants would be phased out within four years if there were a 'yes' vote.",
"title": "Post-World War II: Home Rule"
}
] |
The early details of the history of the Faroe Islands are unclear. It is possible that Brendan, an Irish monk, sailed past the islands during his North Atlantic voyage in the 6th century. He saw an 'Island of Sheep' and a 'Paradise of Birds', which some say could be the Faroes with its dense bird population and sheep. This does suggest however that other sailors had got there before him, to bring the sheep. Norsemen settled the Faroe Islands in the 9th or 10th century. The islands were officially converted to Christianity around the year 1000, and became a part of the Kingdom of Norway in 1035. Norwegian rule on the islands continued until 1380, when the islands became part of the dual Denmark–Norway kingdom, under king Olaf II of Denmark. Following the 1814 Treaty of Kiel that ended the dual Denmark–Norway kingdom, the Faroe Islands remained under the administration of Denmark as a county. During World War II, after Denmark was occupied by Nazi Germany, the British invaded and occupied the Faroe Islands until shortly after the end of the war. Following an independence referendum in 1946 that took place unrecognized by Denmark, the Faroe Islands were in 1948 granted extended self-governance with the Danish Realm with the signing of the Home Rule Act of the Faroe Islands.
|
2001-04-29T15:39:29Z
|
2023-11-28T00:14:40Z
|
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Faroe_Islands
|
10,699 |
Geography of the Faroe Islands
|
The Faroe Islands are an island group consisting of eighteen islands between the Norwegian Sea and the North Atlantic, about half-way between Iceland and Norway. Its coordinates are 62°N 7°W / 62°N 7°W / 62; -7. It is 1,393 square kilometres in area, and includes small lakes and rivers, but no major ones. There are 1,117 kilometres of coastline, and no land boundaries with any other country.
The Faroe Islands generally have cool summers and mild winters, with a usually overcast sky and frequent fog and strong winds. Although at a high latitude, due to the Gulf Stream their climate is ameliorated. The islands are rugged and rocky with some low peaks; the coasts are mostly bordered by cliffs. The Faroe Islands are notable for having the highest sea cliffs in Europe, and some of the highest in the world otherwise. The lowest point is at sea level, and the highest is at Slættaratindur, which is 882 metres above sea level. The landscape made roadbuilding difficult, and only recently has this been remedied by building tunnels.
Many of the Faroese islands tend to be elongated in shape. Natural resources include fish and hydropower.
The climate is classed as subpolar oceanic climate (Köppen climate classification Cfc), with areas having a tundra climate, especially in the mountains, although some coastal or low-lying areas may have very mild-winter versions of a tundra climate. The overall character of the climate of the islands is influenced by the strong warming influence of the Atlantic Ocean, which produces the North Atlantic Current. This, together with the remoteness of any source of landmass-induced warm or cold airflows, ensures that winters are mild (mean temperature 3.0 to 4.0 °C or 37 to 39 °F) while summers are cool (mean temperature 9.5 to 10.5 °C or 49 to 51 °F).
The islands are windy, cloudy and cool throughout the year with an average of 210 rainy or snowy days per year. The islands lie in the path of depressions moving northeast, making strong winds and heavy rain possible at all times of the year. Sunny days are rare and overcast days are common. Hurricane Faith struck the Faroe Islands on 5 September 1966 with sustained winds over 100 mph (160 km/h) and only then did the storm cease to be a tropical system.
Due to the altitude, ocean currents, topography, and winds, the islands exhibit a variety of microclimates. Precipitation varies considerably throughout the archipelago. In some highland areas, snow cover may last for months with snowfalls possible for the greater part of the year (on the highest peaks, summer snowfall is by no means rare), while in some sheltered coastal locations, several years pass without any snowfall whatsoever.
Tórshavn receives frosts more often than other areas just a short distance to the south. Snow is also seen at a much higher frequency than outlying islands nearby. The area receives on average 49 frosts a year.
While receiving more frost than most of the Faroe Islands, Mykines is more temperate in the winter than nearby Vágar. Snow is also less common despite the relatively lower winter temperatures due to the relatively low precipitation in the area. It also has a very mild tundra climate bordering on subpolar oceanic. Frost occurs on 46 days in an average year It is also likely that the lower areas of the island experience less than this, as the weather station is located at 105 meters above sea level.
Akraberg is milder than much of the Faroe Islands and experiences frost on 38 days in an average year, possibly less in lower areas, as the weather station is located at an elevation of 101 meters above sea level.
Vágar has colder and snowier winters than most other places in the archipelago. Lower temperatures combined with higher precipitation are responsible for this, and measurable snow cover can be seen- a rarity in the Faroe Islands, in which snow cover (in areas which regularly experience it) is usually limited to a thin coating. The airport, at which data is recorded, is also located at a higher altitude on the island (84 meters above sea level), which might result in lower temperatures and higher precipitation than lower-lying areas on the island. Frost occurs on average on 62 days of the year, the most out of all stations included in the records of the Danish Meteorological Institute.
Kirkja has a very mild climate, similar to Akraberg. It has the lowest frequency of frosts out of all weather stations included in the records by the Danish Meteorological Institute, with 36 days of frost in an average year. Snowfall is uncommon, due to mild temperatures and relatively low precipitation. The weather station is somewhat high at 53 meters above sea level, which could possibly affect the data, but not as much as the previous stations.
Nólsoy experiences a climate that is quite typical of the surrounding area and the Faroe Islands in general, and is similar to nearby Tórshavn. There are on average 44 days of frost a year. Also, as in the case of previous weather stations, the location is higher on its respective island, and the climate of the lower areas of the island differs slightly.
The climate of Sandur is typical for a low-lying coastal location in the south of the Faroe Islands, as the weather station for Sandur is located at 5 meters above sea level. On average, Sandur experiences 41 days of frost a year.
|
[
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "The Faroe Islands are an island group consisting of eighteen islands between the Norwegian Sea and the North Atlantic, about half-way between Iceland and Norway. Its coordinates are 62°N 7°W / 62°N 7°W / 62; -7. It is 1,393 square kilometres in area, and includes small lakes and rivers, but no major ones. There are 1,117 kilometres of coastline, and no land boundaries with any other country.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "The Faroe Islands generally have cool summers and mild winters, with a usually overcast sky and frequent fog and strong winds. Although at a high latitude, due to the Gulf Stream their climate is ameliorated. The islands are rugged and rocky with some low peaks; the coasts are mostly bordered by cliffs. The Faroe Islands are notable for having the highest sea cliffs in Europe, and some of the highest in the world otherwise. The lowest point is at sea level, and the highest is at Slættaratindur, which is 882 metres above sea level. The landscape made roadbuilding difficult, and only recently has this been remedied by building tunnels.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "Many of the Faroese islands tend to be elongated in shape. Natural resources include fish and hydropower.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "The climate is classed as subpolar oceanic climate (Köppen climate classification Cfc), with areas having a tundra climate, especially in the mountains, although some coastal or low-lying areas may have very mild-winter versions of a tundra climate. The overall character of the climate of the islands is influenced by the strong warming influence of the Atlantic Ocean, which produces the North Atlantic Current. This, together with the remoteness of any source of landmass-induced warm or cold airflows, ensures that winters are mild (mean temperature 3.0 to 4.0 °C or 37 to 39 °F) while summers are cool (mean temperature 9.5 to 10.5 °C or 49 to 51 °F).",
"title": "Climate"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "The islands are windy, cloudy and cool throughout the year with an average of 210 rainy or snowy days per year. The islands lie in the path of depressions moving northeast, making strong winds and heavy rain possible at all times of the year. Sunny days are rare and overcast days are common. Hurricane Faith struck the Faroe Islands on 5 September 1966 with sustained winds over 100 mph (160 km/h) and only then did the storm cease to be a tropical system.",
"title": "Climate"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "Due to the altitude, ocean currents, topography, and winds, the islands exhibit a variety of microclimates. Precipitation varies considerably throughout the archipelago. In some highland areas, snow cover may last for months with snowfalls possible for the greater part of the year (on the highest peaks, summer snowfall is by no means rare), while in some sheltered coastal locations, several years pass without any snowfall whatsoever.",
"title": "Climate"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "Tórshavn receives frosts more often than other areas just a short distance to the south. Snow is also seen at a much higher frequency than outlying islands nearby. The area receives on average 49 frosts a year.",
"title": "Climate"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "While receiving more frost than most of the Faroe Islands, Mykines is more temperate in the winter than nearby Vágar. Snow is also less common despite the relatively lower winter temperatures due to the relatively low precipitation in the area. It also has a very mild tundra climate bordering on subpolar oceanic. Frost occurs on 46 days in an average year It is also likely that the lower areas of the island experience less than this, as the weather station is located at 105 meters above sea level.",
"title": "Climate"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "Akraberg is milder than much of the Faroe Islands and experiences frost on 38 days in an average year, possibly less in lower areas, as the weather station is located at an elevation of 101 meters above sea level.",
"title": "Climate"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "Vágar has colder and snowier winters than most other places in the archipelago. Lower temperatures combined with higher precipitation are responsible for this, and measurable snow cover can be seen- a rarity in the Faroe Islands, in which snow cover (in areas which regularly experience it) is usually limited to a thin coating. The airport, at which data is recorded, is also located at a higher altitude on the island (84 meters above sea level), which might result in lower temperatures and higher precipitation than lower-lying areas on the island. Frost occurs on average on 62 days of the year, the most out of all stations included in the records of the Danish Meteorological Institute.",
"title": "Climate"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "Kirkja has a very mild climate, similar to Akraberg. It has the lowest frequency of frosts out of all weather stations included in the records by the Danish Meteorological Institute, with 36 days of frost in an average year. Snowfall is uncommon, due to mild temperatures and relatively low precipitation. The weather station is somewhat high at 53 meters above sea level, which could possibly affect the data, but not as much as the previous stations.",
"title": "Climate"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "Nólsoy experiences a climate that is quite typical of the surrounding area and the Faroe Islands in general, and is similar to nearby Tórshavn. There are on average 44 days of frost a year. Also, as in the case of previous weather stations, the location is higher on its respective island, and the climate of the lower areas of the island differs slightly.",
"title": "Climate"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "The climate of Sandur is typical for a low-lying coastal location in the south of the Faroe Islands, as the weather station for Sandur is located at 5 meters above sea level. On average, Sandur experiences 41 days of frost a year.",
"title": "Climate"
}
] |
The Faroe Islands are an island group consisting of eighteen islands between the Norwegian Sea and the North Atlantic, about half-way between Iceland and Norway. Its coordinates are 62°N 7°W. It is 1,393 square kilometres in area, and includes small lakes and rivers, but no major ones. There are 1,117 kilometres of coastline, and no land boundaries with any other country. The Faroe Islands generally have cool summers and mild winters, with a usually overcast sky and frequent fog and strong winds. Although at a high latitude, due to the Gulf Stream their climate is ameliorated. The islands are rugged and rocky with some low peaks; the coasts are mostly bordered by cliffs. The Faroe Islands are notable for having the highest sea cliffs in Europe, and some of the highest in the world otherwise. The lowest point is at sea level, and the highest is at Slættaratindur, which is 882 metres above sea level. The landscape made roadbuilding difficult, and only recently has this been remedied by building tunnels. Many of the Faroese islands tend to be elongated in shape. Natural resources include fish and hydropower.
|
2001-04-29T15:39:51Z
|
2023-11-16T19:24:44Z
|
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geography_of_the_Faroe_Islands
|
10,700 |
Demographics of the Faroe Islands
|
Demographic features of the population of the Faroe Islands include population density, ethnicity, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population. The vast majority of the population are ethnic Faroese, of North Germanic descent. Ethnic Faroese are, in genetic terms, among the most homogenous groups ever found.
A 2004 DNA analysis revealed that Y chromosomes, tracing male descent, are 87% Scandinavian. The studies show that mitochondrial DNA, tracing female descent, is 84% Scottish/Irish.
Of the approximately 48,000 inhabitants of the Faroe Islands (16,921 private households (2004)), 98% are Danish realm citizens, meaning Faroese, Danish, or Greenlandic. By birthplace one can derive the following origins of the inhabitants: born on the Faroes 91.7%, in Denmark 5.8%, and in Greenland 0.3%. The largest group of foreigners are Icelanders comprising 0.4% of the population, followed by Norwegians and Poles, each comprising 0.2%. Altogether, on the Faroe Islands there are people from 77 different nationalities. The Faroe Islands have the highest rate of adoption in the world, despite a relatively high fertility rate of 2.6 children.
Faroese is spoken in the entire country as a first language. It is not possible to say exactly how many people worldwide speak the Faroese language.
The 2011 census, called Manntal, shows that 10% were not born in the Faroe Islands, but of these only 3% were born outside the Kingdom of Denmark. 6.5% of people older than 15 did not speak Faroese as their mother tongue. 33 persons said that they did not understand Faroese at all. According to the 2011 census, 45 361 Faroese people (people living in the Faroes) spoke Faroese as their first language and 1546 spoke Danish as their first language.
The following demographic statistics are from the CIA World Factbook, unless otherwise indicated.
5.4 deaths/1,000 live births (2017 est.)
– Faroese (mixed Scandinavian – Celtic)
– Danes
The official languages are Faroese (derived from Old Norse), and Danish.
According to the Faroese census of 2011, here is the breakdown of people in the Faroe Islands by language:
The percentages have been calculated based on the total number of respondents, which was 48,345 residents of the Faroe Islands who were asked to reply to the questions in November 2011.
definition: NA total population: NA% male: NA% female: NA% note: similar to Denmark proper
|
[
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "Demographic features of the population of the Faroe Islands include population density, ethnicity, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population. The vast majority of the population are ethnic Faroese, of North Germanic descent. Ethnic Faroese are, in genetic terms, among the most homogenous groups ever found.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "A 2004 DNA analysis revealed that Y chromosomes, tracing male descent, are 87% Scandinavian. The studies show that mitochondrial DNA, tracing female descent, is 84% Scottish/Irish.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "Of the approximately 48,000 inhabitants of the Faroe Islands (16,921 private households (2004)), 98% are Danish realm citizens, meaning Faroese, Danish, or Greenlandic. By birthplace one can derive the following origins of the inhabitants: born on the Faroes 91.7%, in Denmark 5.8%, and in Greenland 0.3%. The largest group of foreigners are Icelanders comprising 0.4% of the population, followed by Norwegians and Poles, each comprising 0.2%. Altogether, on the Faroe Islands there are people from 77 different nationalities. The Faroe Islands have the highest rate of adoption in the world, despite a relatively high fertility rate of 2.6 children.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "Faroese is spoken in the entire country as a first language. It is not possible to say exactly how many people worldwide speak the Faroese language.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "The 2011 census, called Manntal, shows that 10% were not born in the Faroe Islands, but of these only 3% were born outside the Kingdom of Denmark. 6.5% of people older than 15 did not speak Faroese as their mother tongue. 33 persons said that they did not understand Faroese at all. According to the 2011 census, 45 361 Faroese people (people living in the Faroes) spoke Faroese as their first language and 1546 spoke Danish as their first language.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "",
"title": "Vital statistics since 1900"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "The following demographic statistics are from the CIA World Factbook, unless otherwise indicated.",
"title": "CIA World Factbook demographic statistics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "5.4 deaths/1,000 live births (2017 est.)",
"title": "CIA World Factbook demographic statistics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "– Faroese (mixed Scandinavian – Celtic)",
"title": "CIA World Factbook demographic statistics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "– Danes",
"title": "CIA World Factbook demographic statistics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "The official languages are Faroese (derived from Old Norse), and Danish.",
"title": "CIA World Factbook demographic statistics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "According to the Faroese census of 2011, here is the breakdown of people in the Faroe Islands by language:",
"title": "CIA World Factbook demographic statistics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "The percentages have been calculated based on the total number of respondents, which was 48,345 residents of the Faroe Islands who were asked to reply to the questions in November 2011.",
"title": "CIA World Factbook demographic statistics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "definition: NA total population: NA% male: NA% female: NA% note: similar to Denmark proper",
"title": "CIA World Factbook demographic statistics"
}
] |
Demographic features of the population of the Faroe Islands include population density, ethnicity, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population. The vast majority of the population are ethnic Faroese, of North Germanic descent. Ethnic Faroese are, in genetic terms, among the most homogenous groups ever found. A 2004 DNA analysis revealed that Y chromosomes, tracing male descent, are 87% Scandinavian. The studies show that mitochondrial DNA, tracing female descent, is 84% Scottish/Irish. Of the approximately 48,000 inhabitants of the Faroe Islands, 98% are Danish realm citizens, meaning Faroese, Danish, or Greenlandic. By birthplace one can derive the following origins of the inhabitants: born on the Faroes 91.7%, in Denmark 5.8%, and in Greenland 0.3%. The largest group of foreigners are Icelanders comprising 0.4% of the population, followed by Norwegians and Poles, each comprising 0.2%. Altogether, on the Faroe Islands there are people from 77 different nationalities. The Faroe Islands have the highest rate of adoption in the world, despite a relatively high fertility rate of 2.6 children. Faroese is spoken in the entire country as a first language. It is not possible to say exactly how many people worldwide speak the Faroese language. The 2011 census, called Manntal, shows that 10% were not born in the Faroe Islands, but of these only 3% were born outside the Kingdom of Denmark. 6.5% of people older than 15 did not speak Faroese as their mother tongue. 33 persons said that they did not understand Faroese at all. According to the 2011 census, 45 361 Faroese people spoke Faroese as their first language and 1546 spoke Danish as their first language.
|
2001-04-29T15:40:12Z
|
2023-12-20T18:48:17Z
|
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_the_Faroe_Islands
|
10,701 |
Politics of the Faroe Islands
|
The politics of the Faroe Islands, an autonomous country (Danish: land) of the Kingdom of Denmark, function within the framework of a parliamentary, representative democratic dependency, whereby the Prime Minister of the Faroe Islands is the head of government, and of a multi-party system. The Faroe Islands are politically associated with the Kingdom of Denmark but have been self-governing since 1948. Executive power is exercised by the government. Legislative power is vested in both the government and the Løgting. The judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature and the responsibility of Denmark. As of October 25, 2007, the Faroe Islands became one electoral district.
The high commissioner is appointed by the Monarch of Denmark. The High Commissioner has a seat in the Løgting, with the ability to speak in the Løgting regarding common Danish/Faroese affairs, but is unable to vote. Following legislative elections, the leader of the party that wins the most seats is usually given the initiative to establish a new coalition by the Faroese Parliament, unless the current Løgmaður (Prime Minister in English) is still in power. However, if he or she fails, the Chairman of the parliament asks all chairmen of the parties elected to the parliament, and asks them to point to another chairman who they feel can rightly form a new coalition. The chairman with the most votes is then handed the initiative. After forming the coalition, the Løgmaður leads the landsstýri. The landsstýri will often consist of around 7 members. The coalition parties divide the various ministries among themselves and after this, the parties elect their representative to these ministries. Any other member of the cabinet is called a landsstýrismaður if the person is a man, or landsstýriskvinna if the person is a woman. The word ráðharri is also used for a member of the cabinet, i.e. mentamálaráðharri (minister of culture) or heilsumálaráðharri (minister of health).
Following the 2019 Faroese general election, a new government, consisting of three parties (Union Party, People's Party, and Centre Party) under Prime Minister Bárður á Steig Nielsen was created
The Faroese Parliament (Løgtingið in Faroese) has 33 MPs (members of parliament), elected for a four-year term by proportional representation.
Election of 2 seats to the Danish Parliament was last held 31 october 2022: Social Democrat 1, Unionist 1.
The Faroe Islands have a multi-party system (disputing on independence and unionism as well as left and right), with numerous parties in which no one party often has a chance of gaining power alone, and parties must work with each other to form coalition governments. The Faroese Parliament (Løgting) has 33 seats. Members are elected by popular vote to serve four-year terms. For the Løgting elections, there were seven electoral districts, each one comprehending asýslur, while Streymoy is divided into northern and southern parts (Tórshavn region), but since 2008, the Faroes constitute a single district.
The islands are administratively divided into 29 municipalities with about 120 cities and villages.
Traditionally, there are also the 6 sýslur (Norðoyar, Eysturoy, Streymoy, Vágar, Sandoy, and Suðuroy). Sýsla means district and although it is only a police district today, it is still commonly understood as a geographical region. In earlier times, each sýsla had its own ting, the so-called várting (spring ting).
The nation continues to be intimately tied with the Nordic countries of Europe and the European Union.
Along with diplomatic missions to Iceland, the Court of St. James's (United Kingdom), Russia, and the European Union, the Faroe Islands participate in the Nordic Council, NIB, International Maritime Organization, International Whaling Commission (Complete list of participation of the Faroe Islands in international organisations).
|
[
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "The politics of the Faroe Islands, an autonomous country (Danish: land) of the Kingdom of Denmark, function within the framework of a parliamentary, representative democratic dependency, whereby the Prime Minister of the Faroe Islands is the head of government, and of a multi-party system. The Faroe Islands are politically associated with the Kingdom of Denmark but have been self-governing since 1948. Executive power is exercised by the government. Legislative power is vested in both the government and the Løgting. The judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature and the responsibility of Denmark. As of October 25, 2007, the Faroe Islands became one electoral district.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "The high commissioner is appointed by the Monarch of Denmark. The High Commissioner has a seat in the Løgting, with the ability to speak in the Løgting regarding common Danish/Faroese affairs, but is unable to vote. Following legislative elections, the leader of the party that wins the most seats is usually given the initiative to establish a new coalition by the Faroese Parliament, unless the current Løgmaður (Prime Minister in English) is still in power. However, if he or she fails, the Chairman of the parliament asks all chairmen of the parties elected to the parliament, and asks them to point to another chairman who they feel can rightly form a new coalition. The chairman with the most votes is then handed the initiative. After forming the coalition, the Løgmaður leads the landsstýri. The landsstýri will often consist of around 7 members. The coalition parties divide the various ministries among themselves and after this, the parties elect their representative to these ministries. Any other member of the cabinet is called a landsstýrismaður if the person is a man, or landsstýriskvinna if the person is a woman. The word ráðharri is also used for a member of the cabinet, i.e. mentamálaráðharri (minister of culture) or heilsumálaráðharri (minister of health).",
"title": "Executive branch"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "Following the 2019 Faroese general election, a new government, consisting of three parties (Union Party, People's Party, and Centre Party) under Prime Minister Bárður á Steig Nielsen was created",
"title": "Executive branch"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "The Faroese Parliament (Løgtingið in Faroese) has 33 MPs (members of parliament), elected for a four-year term by proportional representation.",
"title": "Legislative branch"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "Election of 2 seats to the Danish Parliament was last held 31 october 2022: Social Democrat 1, Unionist 1.",
"title": "Legislative branch"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "The Faroe Islands have a multi-party system (disputing on independence and unionism as well as left and right), with numerous parties in which no one party often has a chance of gaining power alone, and parties must work with each other to form coalition governments. The Faroese Parliament (Løgting) has 33 seats. Members are elected by popular vote to serve four-year terms. For the Løgting elections, there were seven electoral districts, each one comprehending asýslur, while Streymoy is divided into northern and southern parts (Tórshavn region), but since 2008, the Faroes constitute a single district.",
"title": "Political parties and elections"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "The islands are administratively divided into 29 municipalities with about 120 cities and villages.",
"title": "Administrative divisions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "Traditionally, there are also the 6 sýslur (Norðoyar, Eysturoy, Streymoy, Vágar, Sandoy, and Suðuroy). Sýsla means district and although it is only a police district today, it is still commonly understood as a geographical region. In earlier times, each sýsla had its own ting, the so-called várting (spring ting).",
"title": "Administrative divisions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "The nation continues to be intimately tied with the Nordic countries of Europe and the European Union.",
"title": "International affairs"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "Along with diplomatic missions to Iceland, the Court of St. James's (United Kingdom), Russia, and the European Union, the Faroe Islands participate in the Nordic Council, NIB, International Maritime Organization, International Whaling Commission (Complete list of participation of the Faroe Islands in international organisations).",
"title": "International affairs"
}
] |
The politics of the Faroe Islands, an autonomous country of the Kingdom of Denmark, function within the framework of a parliamentary, representative democratic dependency, whereby the Prime Minister of the Faroe Islands is the head of government, and of a multi-party system. The Faroe Islands are politically associated with the Kingdom of Denmark but have been self-governing since 1948. Executive power is exercised by the government. Legislative power is vested in both the government and the Løgting. The judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature and the responsibility of Denmark. As of October 25, 2007, the Faroe Islands became one electoral district.
|
2001-04-29T15:40:37Z
|
2023-10-18T15:39:46Z
|
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics_of_the_Faroe_Islands
|
10,702 |
Economy of the Faroe Islands
|
The economy of the Faroe Islands was the 166th largest in the world in 2014, having a nominal gross domestic product (GDP) of $2.613 billion per annum. GDP increased from DKK 8 billion in 1999, to 21 billion in 2019. The vast majority of Faroese exports, around 90%, consists of fishery products.
After the severe economic troubles of the early 1990s, brought on by a drop in the vital fish catch and poor management of the economy, the Faroe Islands have recently recovered, with unemployment down to 5% in mid-1998, and holding below 3% since 2006, one of the lowest rates in Europe.
Salaries by industry, 2019
High dependence on fishing (including salmon farming) means the Faroe Islands' economy remains vulnerable. The Faroese hope to broaden their economic base by building new fish-processing plants. The islands allow up to 25% foreign ownership of ocean industry decreasing gradually until 2032 when foreign ownership must end. Petroleum found close to the Faroese area gives hope for deposits in the immediate area, which may lay the basis for sustained economic prosperity. Also important are the annual subsidy from Denmark, which amounted to about 3% of the GDP.
The Faroes have one of the lowest unemployment rates in Europe (1% in 2019), but this is not necessarily a sign of a recovering economy, as many young students move to Denmark and other countries once they are finished with high school. This leaves a largely middle-aged and elderly population that may lack the skills and knowledge to take IT positions in business and industry. Since 2000, new information technology and business projects have been fostered in the Faroe Islands to attract new investment. The result from these projects is not yet known but is hoped to bring a better market economy to the Faroe Islands. The population was around 52,000 by 2019.
General salaries increased from DKK 7 billion in 2013 to DKK 10 billion in 2019. In 2020, salmon exports were DKK 3.3 billion. Fishing industries occupied 1,441 people on land and 1,341 at sea.
In 2014 the Faroe Islands had a trade surplus of 401 million DKK, a figure that rose to 1.43 billion DKK in 2016. As of 2016, the Faroe Islands mainly imported goods from Denmark (2,467 million DKK), Germany (877 million DKK), and Norway (610 million DKK). The country's top export destinations were Russia (1,907 million DKK), the United States (898 million DKK), the United Kingdom (851 million DKK), and Denmark (697 million DKK). European Union countries constituted 72.9% of total Faroese imports, while the exports of the Faroe Islands were more equally distributed between European Union (44.4%) and non-European Union countries (55.6%). The vast majority of Faroese exports, around 90%, consists of fishery products. Russian countersanctions on food imports from Norway and the European Union, saw the Faroe Islands increase its fresh salmon exports to Russia. The Faroe Islands has a free trade agreement with Iceland since 2005.
Oil consumption peaked at over 300,000 tonnes in 2020, of which 30% was for fishing vessels. In 2014 217,547 tonnes of oil products were consumed in the Faroe Islands. Of this 31.58% was consumed by fishing vessels, 14.73% was used by SEV for electricity production, 23.23% was consumed in air, sea or land transport, 9.6% was used in the industry, and the rest was used in public or private buildings.
The islands have 6 hydroelectric plants, 4 diesel plants and several wind power plants with a capacity factor above 40%. In 2014, a 12MW wind farm for DKK 180 million became operational near Torshavn and increased wind capacity from 6.6 to 18.6MW. It decreases oil consumption by 8,000 ton (approximately 4M€) per year. A 2.3MW 700 kWh lithium-ion battery became operational in 2016. Planners also consider converting the existing hydropower to pumped-storage hydroelectricity. Tidal power and Thermal energy storage solutions are also considered. The islands have a goal of 100% green electricity production by 2030.
In 2014 and 2017 50.8% of the electricity production of SEV in the Faroe Islands came from green energy like hydro and wind, while 49.2% was produced by the thermal power plants, which was 12.4% less than in 2013.
Total annual production: 305.4 GWh (2014) of which the production of thermal, hydropower and wind power was:
The Faroe Islands have no electricity connections to other areas, and thus operate in island condition. Some islands are also not connected to the other islands, and must maintain their own electric system.
Agriculture - products: milk, potatoes, vegetables; sheep; salmon, other fish
Currency: 1 Danish krone (DKr) = 100 ører
Exchange rates: Danish kroner (DKr) per US$1 – 5.560 (2008), 7.336 (January 2000), 6.976 (1999), 6.701 (1998), 6.604 (1997), 5.799 (1996), 5.602 (1995)
|
[
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "The economy of the Faroe Islands was the 166th largest in the world in 2014, having a nominal gross domestic product (GDP) of $2.613 billion per annum. GDP increased from DKK 8 billion in 1999, to 21 billion in 2019. The vast majority of Faroese exports, around 90%, consists of fishery products.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "After the severe economic troubles of the early 1990s, brought on by a drop in the vital fish catch and poor management of the economy, the Faroe Islands have recently recovered, with unemployment down to 5% in mid-1998, and holding below 3% since 2006, one of the lowest rates in Europe.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "Salaries by industry, 2019",
"title": "Challenges and opportunities"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "High dependence on fishing (including salmon farming) means the Faroe Islands' economy remains vulnerable. The Faroese hope to broaden their economic base by building new fish-processing plants. The islands allow up to 25% foreign ownership of ocean industry decreasing gradually until 2032 when foreign ownership must end. Petroleum found close to the Faroese area gives hope for deposits in the immediate area, which may lay the basis for sustained economic prosperity. Also important are the annual subsidy from Denmark, which amounted to about 3% of the GDP.",
"title": "Challenges and opportunities"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "The Faroes have one of the lowest unemployment rates in Europe (1% in 2019), but this is not necessarily a sign of a recovering economy, as many young students move to Denmark and other countries once they are finished with high school. This leaves a largely middle-aged and elderly population that may lack the skills and knowledge to take IT positions in business and industry. Since 2000, new information technology and business projects have been fostered in the Faroe Islands to attract new investment. The result from these projects is not yet known but is hoped to bring a better market economy to the Faroe Islands. The population was around 52,000 by 2019.",
"title": "Challenges and opportunities"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "General salaries increased from DKK 7 billion in 2013 to DKK 10 billion in 2019. In 2020, salmon exports were DKK 3.3 billion. Fishing industries occupied 1,441 people on land and 1,341 at sea.",
"title": "Challenges and opportunities"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "In 2014 the Faroe Islands had a trade surplus of 401 million DKK, a figure that rose to 1.43 billion DKK in 2016. As of 2016, the Faroe Islands mainly imported goods from Denmark (2,467 million DKK), Germany (877 million DKK), and Norway (610 million DKK). The country's top export destinations were Russia (1,907 million DKK), the United States (898 million DKK), the United Kingdom (851 million DKK), and Denmark (697 million DKK). European Union countries constituted 72.9% of total Faroese imports, while the exports of the Faroe Islands were more equally distributed between European Union (44.4%) and non-European Union countries (55.6%). The vast majority of Faroese exports, around 90%, consists of fishery products. Russian countersanctions on food imports from Norway and the European Union, saw the Faroe Islands increase its fresh salmon exports to Russia. The Faroe Islands has a free trade agreement with Iceland since 2005.",
"title": "Trade"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "Oil consumption peaked at over 300,000 tonnes in 2020, of which 30% was for fishing vessels. In 2014 217,547 tonnes of oil products were consumed in the Faroe Islands. Of this 31.58% was consumed by fishing vessels, 14.73% was used by SEV for electricity production, 23.23% was consumed in air, sea or land transport, 9.6% was used in the industry, and the rest was used in public or private buildings.",
"title": "Energy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "The islands have 6 hydroelectric plants, 4 diesel plants and several wind power plants with a capacity factor above 40%. In 2014, a 12MW wind farm for DKK 180 million became operational near Torshavn and increased wind capacity from 6.6 to 18.6MW. It decreases oil consumption by 8,000 ton (approximately 4M€) per year. A 2.3MW 700 kWh lithium-ion battery became operational in 2016. Planners also consider converting the existing hydropower to pumped-storage hydroelectricity. Tidal power and Thermal energy storage solutions are also considered. The islands have a goal of 100% green electricity production by 2030.",
"title": "Energy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "In 2014 and 2017 50.8% of the electricity production of SEV in the Faroe Islands came from green energy like hydro and wind, while 49.2% was produced by the thermal power plants, which was 12.4% less than in 2013.",
"title": "Energy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "Total annual production: 305.4 GWh (2014) of which the production of thermal, hydropower and wind power was:",
"title": "Energy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "The Faroe Islands have no electricity connections to other areas, and thus operate in island condition. Some islands are also not connected to the other islands, and must maintain their own electric system.",
"title": "Energy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "Agriculture - products: milk, potatoes, vegetables; sheep; salmon, other fish",
"title": "Other"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "Currency: 1 Danish krone (DKr) = 100 ører",
"title": "Other"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "Exchange rates: Danish kroner (DKr) per US$1 – 5.560 (2008), 7.336 (January 2000), 6.976 (1999), 6.701 (1998), 6.604 (1997), 5.799 (1996), 5.602 (1995)",
"title": "Other"
}
] |
The economy of the Faroe Islands was the 166th largest in the world in 2014, having a nominal gross domestic product (GDP) of $2.613 billion per annum. GDP increased from DKK 8 billion in 1999, to 21 billion in 2019. The vast majority of Faroese exports, around 90%, consists of fishery products.
|
2001-04-29T15:41:03Z
|
2023-12-26T12:38:37Z
|
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|
10,703 |
Telecommunications in the Faroe Islands
|
Telephones - main lines in use: 22,000 (1995)
Telephones - mobile cellular: 35,000 (2004) est.
Telephone system: good international communications; good domestic facilities domestic: digitalization was to have been completed in 1998 international: satellite earth stations - 1 Orion; 2 fiber-optic submarine cable linking the Faroe Islands with Denmark, Iceland and Scotland
Radio broadcast stations: AM 1, FM 13, shortwave 0 (1998)
Radios: 26,000 (1997)
Television broadcast stations: 7 (plus 51 low-power repeaters) (September 1995)
Televisions: 15,000 (1997)
Internet Service Providers (ISPs): DataNet El & Tele Føroya Tele Hey Teletech
Country code (TLD): FO
|
[
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "Telephones - main lines in use: 22,000 (1995)",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "Telephones - mobile cellular: 35,000 (2004) est.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "Telephone system: good international communications; good domestic facilities domestic: digitalization was to have been completed in 1998 international: satellite earth stations - 1 Orion; 2 fiber-optic submarine cable linking the Faroe Islands with Denmark, Iceland and Scotland",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "Radio broadcast stations: AM 1, FM 13, shortwave 0 (1998)",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "Radios: 26,000 (1997)",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "Television broadcast stations: 7 (plus 51 low-power repeaters) (September 1995)",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "Televisions: 15,000 (1997)",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "Internet Service Providers (ISPs): DataNet El & Tele Føroya Tele Hey Teletech",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "Country code (TLD): FO",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "",
"title": "References"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "",
"title": "References"
}
] |
Telephones - main lines in use:
22,000 (1995) Telephones - mobile cellular:
35,000 (2004) est. Telephone system:
good international communications; good domestic facilities
domestic:
digitalization was to have been completed in 1998
international:
satellite earth stations - 1 Orion; 2 fiber-optic submarine cable linking the Faroe Islands with Denmark, Iceland and Scotland Radio broadcast stations:
AM 1, FM 13, shortwave 0 (1998) Radios:
26,000 (1997) Television broadcast stations:
7 Televisions:
15,000 (1997) Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
DataNet El & Tele Føroya Tele Hey Teletech Country code (TLD): FO
|
2021-02-21T08:38:21Z
|
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|
|
10,704 |
Transport in the Faroe Islands
|
The Faroe Islands is served by an internal transport system based on roads, ferries, and helicopters. As of the 1970s, the majority of the population centres of the Faroe Islands have been joined to a single road network, connected by bridges and tunnels.
International transport, both for passengers and freight, remains difficult due to high costs, long distances, and bad weather, especially during the winter. Exporting domestically produced goods is thus expensive; this limits the development of a commodity-based economy.
The general history of the Faroese transportation system can be divided into four periods:
During this first period, transportation was rather primitive; it consisted of row boats, walking, and, in certain places, horse transport (for the upper class). Boats were used for transport between villages, even on the same island, as land transport was difficult due to the steep mountains.
The second period commenced in the late-19th century, when ferry connections began to emerge. The ferries were largely private initiatives, but they increasingly came to be operated by the public sector. This was supplemented by an emerging culture of automobiles. After World War II, a large part of the Faroe Islands was accessible via ferries and automobiles; private buses and taxis operated as well.
The third period was characterized by modernization. The introduction of the car ferry made it possible to drive between the various city centres of the country. It became possible to drive from the capital Tórshavn to Vágur and Tvøroyri in the south, to Fuglafjørður and Klaksvík in the north, and to the airport at Sørvágur in the west. Vágar Airport was built by the British during World War II; it was reopened as a civilian international airport in 1963. Additionally, the road network was further developed. Tunnels to distant valleys and firths such as Hvalba, Sandvík, and Norðdepil were constructed in the 1960s.
The fourth period saw the emergence of a "mainland" thanks to tunnels and bridges. In 1973 the Streymin Bridge, the first bridge between two Faroese islands, was established between Norðskáli on Eysturoy and Nesvík on Streymoy; in 1976 the new tunnel between Norðskáli and Eysturoy was completed. The Faroes' two largest islands were connected into what is now referred to as "Meginlandið", the Mainland. In 1975 the causeway between Viðoy and Borðoy was constructed, in 1986 a similar one between Borðoy and Kunoy was established, and in 1992 the capital Tórshavn was granted a first-class connection to the northern parts of the islands, creating the infrastructural prerequisites for a mobile society on the mainland.
The newest developments of the Faroese transportation network are the sub-sea tunnels. In 2002 the tunnel between Streymoy and Vágar—the latter is the airport island—was finished, and in 2006 the Norðoyatunnilin between Eysturoy and Borðoy was finished. A toll, payable at petrol stations, of 170 DKK (130 DKK in June 2013) is charged to drive through these two tunnels; the others are free. Now more than 85% of the Faroese population is accessible by automobile. On 19 December 2020 the Eysturoyartunnilin between Streymoy and Eysturoy opened for traffic.
In early 2014 all political parties of the Løgting agreed to the construction of two tunnels: Eysturoyartunnilin, a tunnel connecting Eysturoy and Streymoy, which was completed in 2020, and Sandoyartunnilin, a tunnel connecting Streymoy and Sandoy, will be completed by 2023. The combined cost of the project is estimated at almost 3 billion DKK, and will be the most expensive construction project in Faroese history. Eysturoyartunnilin has the world's first under-sea roundabout. Its three tubes are 7.1 km, 2.1 km and 1.8 km long, linked together by the roundabout. Sandoyartunnilin will be 10.6 km long.
There have been talks about a possible tunnel between Sandoy and Suðuroy. The tunnel would be around 20–25 km long. If completed this would mean that 99% of the Faroes would be connected by road.
There are no passenger railways on the Faroe Islands due to the difficult landscape, small population, and relatively short distances.
Two railways have operated on the islands. A tunnel and rail system supplied a NATO radar installation, now decommissioned, which previously existed on a mountaintop in the southern part of Streymoy Island. The Gjógv incline railway operates a freight service between the harbour and the village of Gjógv on Eysturoy island.
Roads have become the main method of transportation on the islands, replacing boats. In 2021, there were 16,289 petrol cars, 9,795 diesel cars, and 567 electric cars. Google Street View became available for some roads in November 2017, supplied by residents and sheep rather than Google cars.
total: 960 km (600 mi)
The national bus network (Bygdaleiðir, Village routes) is operated by Strandfaraskip Landsins operating the characteristic blue buses. Most buses are modern and were built by the Volvo company. The principal route is Tórshavn-Klaksvík (via the Norðoyatunnilin tunnel and Streymin Bridge). Although individual buses are generally owned by individuals or small companies, the timetables, fares, and levels of service are set by Strandfaraskip Landsins and the government.
The municipalities of Tórshavn, Klaksvík, Eysturkommuna and Sunda operate their own free-of-charge local services, usually referred to as Bussleiðin. Tórshavn's Bussleiðin has five routes and is operated by the Tórshavn municipality. Like Bygdaleiðir, the actual buses are privately owned, but contracted to Bussleiðin. Klaksvík's service commenced in 2014.
total: 6 ships (1,000 gross tonnage (GT) or over) totaling 22,853 GT/13,481 tonnes deadweight (DWT) (1999 est.)
The Faroese ferry company Strandfaraskip Landsins operates a network of ferries, in addition to the rural blue buses, called Bygdaleiðir (Villagelines). Their largest vessel is the Smyril, a roll-on/roll-off ferry which maintains the link between Tórshavn and the southern island, Suðuroy. This vessel entered service in 2005. Another ferry, Teistin, a roll-on-off ferry, maintains the link between the island of Sandoy and Streymoy; the ferry port on Streymoy is at Gamlarætt near Kirkjubøur and Velbastaður on the south-west coast of Streymoy. A sub-sea tunnel is under construction between Sandoy and Streymoy, it will open in 2023 according to the plan. After that there will not be need of a ferry between the two islands. The proposed Suðuroyartunnilin would also remove the ferry services to Skúvoy and Suðuroy.
Since the early 1980s, Smyril Line has operated a regular international passenger, car and freight service using a large, modern, multipurpose ferry, the Norröna. The weekly service links the Faroe Islands with Seyðisfjörður, Iceland, and Hirtshals, Denmark.
Atlantic Airways is the national airline of the Faroe Islands, and has its operating base at Vágar Airport. It operates regular flights to Iceland, Denmark, Norway, and Scotland while there are also seasonal flights connecting the Faroe Islands with destinations including Barcelona, Mallorca, Lisbon, and Stewart International Airport, New York.
Originally state-owned, the airline has been partially privatised. The Government has plans to continue selling its remaining share in the airline. As a private company, Atlantic Airways continues to provide the Faroe Islands search and rescue capability, under contract to the government.
The Faroe Islands has only one commercial airport. Vágar Airport is located close to the village of Sørvágur, on the island of Vágar. It has a paved 1,799 m / 5,902 ft runway, and was originally built by British Royal Engineers during the Second World War. The main airlines operating regular scheduled flights are Atlantic Airways and Scandinavian Airlines. Other airlines operate charter flights.
Helicopters provide domestic scheduled transportation, medical evacuation, and search & rescue activities.
There are public (passenger and freight) heliports at Froðba, Hattarvík, Kirkja, Klaksvík, Mykines, Skúvoy, Stóra Dímun, Svínoy, and Tórshavn (Boðanes). There are air ambulance heliports at Skopun and Tórshavn (hospital).
|
[
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "The Faroe Islands is served by an internal transport system based on roads, ferries, and helicopters. As of the 1970s, the majority of the population centres of the Faroe Islands have been joined to a single road network, connected by bridges and tunnels.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "International transport, both for passengers and freight, remains difficult due to high costs, long distances, and bad weather, especially during the winter. Exporting domestically produced goods is thus expensive; this limits the development of a commodity-based economy.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "The general history of the Faroese transportation system can be divided into four periods:",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "During this first period, transportation was rather primitive; it consisted of row boats, walking, and, in certain places, horse transport (for the upper class). Boats were used for transport between villages, even on the same island, as land transport was difficult due to the steep mountains.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "The second period commenced in the late-19th century, when ferry connections began to emerge. The ferries were largely private initiatives, but they increasingly came to be operated by the public sector. This was supplemented by an emerging culture of automobiles. After World War II, a large part of the Faroe Islands was accessible via ferries and automobiles; private buses and taxis operated as well.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "The third period was characterized by modernization. The introduction of the car ferry made it possible to drive between the various city centres of the country. It became possible to drive from the capital Tórshavn to Vágur and Tvøroyri in the south, to Fuglafjørður and Klaksvík in the north, and to the airport at Sørvágur in the west. Vágar Airport was built by the British during World War II; it was reopened as a civilian international airport in 1963. Additionally, the road network was further developed. Tunnels to distant valleys and firths such as Hvalba, Sandvík, and Norðdepil were constructed in the 1960s.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "The fourth period saw the emergence of a \"mainland\" thanks to tunnels and bridges. In 1973 the Streymin Bridge, the first bridge between two Faroese islands, was established between Norðskáli on Eysturoy and Nesvík on Streymoy; in 1976 the new tunnel between Norðskáli and Eysturoy was completed. The Faroes' two largest islands were connected into what is now referred to as \"Meginlandið\", the Mainland. In 1975 the causeway between Viðoy and Borðoy was constructed, in 1986 a similar one between Borðoy and Kunoy was established, and in 1992 the capital Tórshavn was granted a first-class connection to the northern parts of the islands, creating the infrastructural prerequisites for a mobile society on the mainland.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "The newest developments of the Faroese transportation network are the sub-sea tunnels. In 2002 the tunnel between Streymoy and Vágar—the latter is the airport island—was finished, and in 2006 the Norðoyatunnilin between Eysturoy and Borðoy was finished. A toll, payable at petrol stations, of 170 DKK (130 DKK in June 2013) is charged to drive through these two tunnels; the others are free. Now more than 85% of the Faroese population is accessible by automobile. On 19 December 2020 the Eysturoyartunnilin between Streymoy and Eysturoy opened for traffic.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "In early 2014 all political parties of the Løgting agreed to the construction of two tunnels: Eysturoyartunnilin, a tunnel connecting Eysturoy and Streymoy, which was completed in 2020, and Sandoyartunnilin, a tunnel connecting Streymoy and Sandoy, will be completed by 2023. The combined cost of the project is estimated at almost 3 billion DKK, and will be the most expensive construction project in Faroese history. Eysturoyartunnilin has the world's first under-sea roundabout. Its three tubes are 7.1 km, 2.1 km and 1.8 km long, linked together by the roundabout. Sandoyartunnilin will be 10.6 km long.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "There have been talks about a possible tunnel between Sandoy and Suðuroy. The tunnel would be around 20–25 km long. If completed this would mean that 99% of the Faroes would be connected by road.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "There are no passenger railways on the Faroe Islands due to the difficult landscape, small population, and relatively short distances.",
"title": "Railways"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "Two railways have operated on the islands. A tunnel and rail system supplied a NATO radar installation, now decommissioned, which previously existed on a mountaintop in the southern part of Streymoy Island. The Gjógv incline railway operates a freight service between the harbour and the village of Gjógv on Eysturoy island.",
"title": "Railways"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "Roads have become the main method of transportation on the islands, replacing boats. In 2021, there were 16,289 petrol cars, 9,795 diesel cars, and 567 electric cars. Google Street View became available for some roads in November 2017, supplied by residents and sheep rather than Google cars.",
"title": "Roads"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "total: 960 km (600 mi)",
"title": "Roads"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "The national bus network (Bygdaleiðir, Village routes) is operated by Strandfaraskip Landsins operating the characteristic blue buses. Most buses are modern and were built by the Volvo company. The principal route is Tórshavn-Klaksvík (via the Norðoyatunnilin tunnel and Streymin Bridge). Although individual buses are generally owned by individuals or small companies, the timetables, fares, and levels of service are set by Strandfaraskip Landsins and the government.",
"title": "Roads"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 15,
"text": "The municipalities of Tórshavn, Klaksvík, Eysturkommuna and Sunda operate their own free-of-charge local services, usually referred to as Bussleiðin. Tórshavn's Bussleiðin has five routes and is operated by the Tórshavn municipality. Like Bygdaleiðir, the actual buses are privately owned, but contracted to Bussleiðin. Klaksvík's service commenced in 2014.",
"title": "Roads"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 16,
"text": "total: 6 ships (1,000 gross tonnage (GT) or over) totaling 22,853 GT/13,481 tonnes deadweight (DWT) (1999 est.)",
"title": "Sea"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 17,
"text": "The Faroese ferry company Strandfaraskip Landsins operates a network of ferries, in addition to the rural blue buses, called Bygdaleiðir (Villagelines). Their largest vessel is the Smyril, a roll-on/roll-off ferry which maintains the link between Tórshavn and the southern island, Suðuroy. This vessel entered service in 2005. Another ferry, Teistin, a roll-on-off ferry, maintains the link between the island of Sandoy and Streymoy; the ferry port on Streymoy is at Gamlarætt near Kirkjubøur and Velbastaður on the south-west coast of Streymoy. A sub-sea tunnel is under construction between Sandoy and Streymoy, it will open in 2023 according to the plan. After that there will not be need of a ferry between the two islands. The proposed Suðuroyartunnilin would also remove the ferry services to Skúvoy and Suðuroy.",
"title": "Sea"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 18,
"text": "Since the early 1980s, Smyril Line has operated a regular international passenger, car and freight service using a large, modern, multipurpose ferry, the Norröna. The weekly service links the Faroe Islands with Seyðisfjörður, Iceland, and Hirtshals, Denmark.",
"title": "Sea"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 19,
"text": "Atlantic Airways is the national airline of the Faroe Islands, and has its operating base at Vágar Airport. It operates regular flights to Iceland, Denmark, Norway, and Scotland while there are also seasonal flights connecting the Faroe Islands with destinations including Barcelona, Mallorca, Lisbon, and Stewart International Airport, New York.",
"title": "Air"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 20,
"text": "Originally state-owned, the airline has been partially privatised. The Government has plans to continue selling its remaining share in the airline. As a private company, Atlantic Airways continues to provide the Faroe Islands search and rescue capability, under contract to the government.",
"title": "Air"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 21,
"text": "The Faroe Islands has only one commercial airport. Vágar Airport is located close to the village of Sørvágur, on the island of Vágar. It has a paved 1,799 m / 5,902 ft runway, and was originally built by British Royal Engineers during the Second World War. The main airlines operating regular scheduled flights are Atlantic Airways and Scandinavian Airlines. Other airlines operate charter flights.",
"title": "Air"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 22,
"text": "Helicopters provide domestic scheduled transportation, medical evacuation, and search & rescue activities.",
"title": "Air"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 23,
"text": "There are public (passenger and freight) heliports at Froðba, Hattarvík, Kirkja, Klaksvík, Mykines, Skúvoy, Stóra Dímun, Svínoy, and Tórshavn (Boðanes). There are air ambulance heliports at Skopun and Tórshavn (hospital).",
"title": "Air"
}
] |
The Faroe Islands is served by an internal transport system based on roads, ferries, and helicopters. As of the 1970s, the majority of the population centres of the Faroe Islands have been joined to a single road network, connected by bridges and tunnels. International transport, both for passengers and freight, remains difficult due to high costs, long distances, and bad weather, especially during the winter. Exporting domestically produced goods is thus expensive; this limits the development of a commodity-based economy.
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2023-06-27T14:44:12Z
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transport_in_the_Faroe_Islands
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Fiji
|
Fiji (/ˈfiːdʒi/ FEE-jee, /fiːˈdʒiː/ fee-JEE; Fijian: Viti, [ˈβitʃi]; Fiji Hindi: फ़िजी, Fijī), officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies about 1,100 nautical miles (2,000 km; 1,300 mi) north-northeast of New Zealand. Fiji consists of an archipelago of more than 330 islands—of which about 110 are permanently inhabited—and more than 500 islets, amounting to a total land area of about 18,300 square kilometres (7,100 sq mi). The most outlying island group is Ono-i-Lau. About 87% of the total population of 924,610 live on the two major islands, Viti Levu and Vanua Levu. About three-quarters of Fijians live on Viti Levu's coasts, either in the capital city of Suva, or in smaller urban centres such as Nadi (where tourism is the major local industry) or Lautoka (where the sugar-cane industry is dominant). The interior of Viti Levu is sparsely inhabited because of its terrain.
The majority of Fiji's islands were formed by volcanic activity starting around 150 million years ago. Some geothermal activity still occurs today on the islands of Vanua Levu and Taveuni. The geothermal systems on Viti Levu are non-volcanic in origin and have low-temperature surface discharges (of between roughly 35 and 60 degrees Celsius (95 and 140 °F)).
Humans have lived in Fiji since the second millennium BC—first Austronesians and later Melanesians, with some Polynesian influences. Europeans first visited Fiji in the 17th century. In 1874, after a brief period in which Fiji was an independent kingdom, the British established the Colony of Fiji. Fiji operated as a Crown colony until 1970, when it gained independence and became known as the Dominion of Fiji. In 1987, following a series of coups d'état, the military government that had taken power declared it a republic. In a 2006 coup, Commodore Frank Bainimarama seized power. In 2009, the Fijian High Court ruled that the military leadership was unlawful. At that point, President Ratu Josefa Iloilo, whom the military had retained as the nominal head of state, formally abrogated the 1997 Constitution and re-appointed Bainimarama as interim prime minister. Later in 2009, Ratu Epeli Nailatikau succeeded Iloilo as president. On 17 September 2014, after years of delays, a democratic election took place. Bainimarama's FijiFirst party won 59.2% of the vote, and international observers deemed the election credible.
Fiji has one of the most developed economies in the Pacific through its abundant forest, mineral, and fish resources. The currency is the Fijian dollar, with the main sources of foreign exchange being the tourist industry, remittances from Fijians working abroad, bottled water exports, and sugar cane. The Ministry of Local Government and Urban Development supervises Fiji's local government, which takes the form of city and town councils.
The name of Fiji's main island, Viti Levu, served as the origin of the name "Fiji", though the common English pronunciation is based on that of Fiji's island neighbours in Tonga. An official account of the emergence of the name states:
Fijians first impressed themselves on European consciousness through the writings of the members of the expeditions of Cook who met them in Tonga. They were described as formidable warriors and ferocious cannibals, builders of the finest vessels in the Pacific, but not great sailors. They inspired awe amongst the Tongans, and all their Manufactures, especially bark cloth and clubs, were highly valued and much in demand. They called their home Viti, but the Tongans called it Fisi, and it was by this foreign pronunciation, Fiji, first promulgated by Captain James Cook, that these islands are now known.
"Feejee", the Anglicised spelling of the Tongan pronunciation, occurred in accounts and other writings by missionaries and other travellers visiting Fiji until the late-19th century.
Pottery art from Fijian towns shows that Fiji was settled by Austronesian peoples by at least 3500 to 1000 BC, with Melanesians following around a thousand years later, although there are still many open questions about the specific dates and patterns of human migration. It is believed that either the Lapita people or the ancestors of the Polynesians settled the islands first, but not much is known of what became of them after the Melanesians arrived; the old culture may have had some influence on the new one, and archaeological evidence shows that some of the migrants moved on to Samoa, Tonga and even Hawai'i. Archeological evidence also shows signs of human settlement on Moturiki Island beginning at least by 600 BC and possibly as far back as 900 BC. Although some aspects of Fijian culture are similar to the Melanesian culture of the western Pacific, Fijian culture has a stronger connection to the older Polynesian cultures. The evidence is clear that there was trade between Fiji and neighbouring archipelagos long before Europeans made contact with Fiji.
In the 10th century, the Tu'i Tonga Empire was established in Tonga, and Fiji came within its sphere of influence. The Tongan influence brought Polynesian customs and language into Fiji. That empire began to decline in the 13th century.
Fiji has long had permanent settlements, but its peoples also have a history of mobility. Over the centuries, unique Fijian cultural practices developed. Fijians constructed large, elegant watercraft, with rigged sails called drua and exported some to Tonga. Fijians also developed a distinctive style of village architecture, consisting of communal and individual bure and vale housing, and an advanced system of ramparts and moats that were usually constructed around the more important settlements. Pigs were domesticated for food, and a variety of agricultural endeavors, such as banana plantations, existed from an early stage. Villages were supplied with water brought in by constructed wooden aqueducts. Fijians lived in societies led by chiefs, elders and notable warriors. Spiritual leaders, often called bete, were also important cultural figures, and the production and consumption of yaqona was part of their ceremonial and community rites. Fijians developed a monetary system where the polished teeth of the sperm whale, called tambua, became an active currency. A type of writing existed which can be seen today in various petroglyphs around the islands. Fijians developed a refined masi cloth textile industry, and used the cloth they produced to make sails and clothes such as the malo and the liku. As with most other ancient human civilisations, warfare or preparation for warfare was an important part of everyday life in pre-colonial Fiji. The Fijians were noted for their distinctive use of weapons, especially war clubs. Fijians used many different types of clubs that can be broadly divided into two groups, two handed clubs and small specialised throwing clubs called ula.
With the arrival of Europeans in the 17th century, and European colonization in the late 19th century, many elements of Fijian culture were either repressed or modified to ensure European – specifically, British – control. This was especially the case with respect to traditional Fijian spiritual beliefs. Early colonists and missionaries pointed to the practice of cannibalism in Fiji as providing a moral imperative justifying colonization. Europeans labelled many native Fijian customs as debased or primitive, enabling many colonists to see Fiji as a "paradise wasted on savage cannibals". Authors such as Deryck Scarr have perpetuated 19th century claims of "freshly killed corpses piled up for eating" and ceremonial mass human sacrifice on the construction of new houses and boats. In fact, during colonial times, Fiji was known as the Cannibal Isles. Modern archaeological research conducted on Fijian sites has shown that Fijians did in fact practice cannibalism, which has helped modern scholars to assess the accuracy of some of these colonial European accounts. Studies conducted by scholars including Degusta, Cochrane, and Jones provide evidence of burnt or cut human skeletons, suggesting that cannibalism was practised in Fiji. However, these archaeological accounts indicate that cannibalistic practices were likely more intermittent and less ubiquitous than European settlers had implied; it appears that the cannibalism may more often have been nonviolent and ritualistic.
Dutch explorer Abel Tasman was the first known European visitor to Fiji, sighting the northern island of Vanua Levu and the North Taveuni archipelago in 1643 while looking for the Great Southern Continent.
James Cook, the British navigator, visited one of the southern Lau islands in 1774. It was not until 1789, however, that the islands were charted and plotted, when William Bligh, the castaway captain of HMS Bounty, passed Ovalau and sailed between the main islands of Viti Levu and Vanua Levu en route to Batavia, in what is now Indonesia. Bligh Water, the strait between the two main islands, is named after him and for a time, the Fiji Islands were known as the Bligh Islands.
The first Europeans to maintain substantial contact with the Fijians were sandalwood merchants, whalers and "beche-de-mer" (sea cucumber) traders. The first whaling vessel known to have visited was the Ann and Hope in 1799, and she was followed by many others in the 19th century. These ships came for drinking water, food and firewood and, later, for men to help man their ships. Some of the Europeans who came to Fiji in this period were accepted by the locals and were allowed to stay as residents.
By the 1820s, Levuka was established as the first European-style town in Fiji, on the island of Ovalau. The market for "beche-de-mer" in China was lucrative, and British and American merchants set up processing stations on various islands. Local Fijians were utilised to collect, prepare and pack the product which would then be shipped to Asia. A good cargo would result in a half-yearly profit of around $25,000 for the dealer. The Fijian workers were often given firearms and ammunition as an exchange for their labour, and by the end of the 1820s most of the Fijian chiefs had muskets and many were skilled at using them. Some Fijian chiefs soon felt confident enough with their new weapons to forcibly obtain more destructive weaponry from the Europeans. In 1834, men from Viwa and Bau were able to take control of the French ship L'amiable Josephine and use its cannon against their enemies on the Rewa River, although they later ran it aground.
Christian missionaries like David Cargill also arrived in the 1830s from recently converted regions such as Tonga and Tahiti, and by 1840 the European settlement at Levuka had grown to about 40 houses with former whaler David Whippey being a notable resident. The religious conversion of the Fijians was a gradual process which was observed first-hand by Captain Charles Wilkes of the United States Exploring Expedition. Wilkes wrote that "all the chiefs seemed to look upon Christianity as a change in which they had much to lose and little to gain". Christianised Fijians, in addition to forsaking their spiritual beliefs, were pressured into cutting their hair short, adopting the sulu form of dress from Tonga and fundamentally changing their marriage and funeral traditions. This process of enforced cultural change was called lotu. Intensification of conflict between the cultures increased, and Wilkes was involved in organising a large punitive expedition against the people of Malolo. He ordered an attack with rockets which acted as makeshift incendiary devices. The village, with the occupants trapped inside, quickly became an inferno with Wilkes noting that the "shouts of men were intermingled with the cries and shrieks of the women and children" as they burnt to death. Wilkes demanded the survivors should "sue for mercy" and if not "they must expect to be exterminated". Around 57 to 87 Maloloan people were killed in this encounter.
The 1840s was a time of conflict where various Fiji clans attempted to assert dominance over each other. Eventually, a warlord named Seru Epenisa Cakobau of Bau Island was able to become a powerful influence in the region. His father was Ratu Tanoa Visawaqa, the Vunivalu (a chiefly title meaning warlord, often translated also as paramount chief) who had previously subdued much of western Fiji. Cakobau, following on from his father, became so dominant that he was able to expel the Europeans from Levuka for five years over a dispute about their giving of weapons to his local enemies. In the early 1850s, Cakobau went one step further and declared war on all Christians. His plans were thwarted after the missionaries in Fiji received support from the already converted Tongans and the presence of a British warship. The Tongan Prince Enele Maʻafu, a Christian, had established himself on the island of Lakeba in 1848, forcibly converting the local people to the Methodist Church. Cakobau and other chiefs in the west of Fiji regarded Maʻafu as a threat to their power and resisted his attempts to expand Tonga's dominion. Cakobau's influence, however, began to wane, and his heavy imposition of taxes on other Fijian chiefs, who saw him at best as first among equals, caused them to defect from him.
Around this time the United States also became interested in asserting their power in the region, and they threatened intervention following a number of incidents involving their consul in the Fiji islands, John Brown Williams. In 1849, Williams had his trading store looted following an accidental fire, caused by stray cannon fire during a Fourth of July celebration, and in 1853 the European settlement of Levuka was burnt to the ground. Williams blamed Cakobau for both these incidents, and the U.S. representative wanted Cakobau's capital at Bau destroyed in retaliation. A naval blockade was instead set up around the island which put further pressure on Cakobau to give up on his warfare against the foreigners and their Christian allies. Finally, on 30 April 1854, Cakobau offered his soro (supplication) and yielded to these forces. He underwent the lotu and converted to Christianity. The traditional Fijian temples in Bau were destroyed, and the sacred nokonoko trees were cut down. Cakobau and his remaining men were then compelled to join with the Tongans, backed by the Americans and British, to subjugate the remaining chiefs in the region who still refused to convert. These chiefs were soon defeated with Qaraniqio of the Rewa being poisoned and Ratu Mara of Kaba being hanged in 1855. After these wars, most regions of Fiji, except for the interior highland areas, had been forced into giving up much of their traditional systems and were now vassals of Western interest. Cakobau was retained as a largely symbolic representative of a few Fijian peoples and was allowed to take the ironic and self proclaimed title of "Tui Viti" ("King of Fiji"), but the overarching control now lay with foreign powers.
The rising price of cotton in the wake of the American Civil War (1861–1865) caused an influx of hundreds of settlers to Fiji in the 1860s from Australia and the United States in order to obtain land and grow cotton. Since there was still a lack of functioning government in Fiji, these planters were often able to get the land in violent or fraudulent ways such as exchanging weapons or alcohol with Fijians who may or may not have been the true owners. Although this made for cheap land acquisition, competing land claims between the planters became problematic with no unified government to resolve the disputes. In 1865, the settlers proposed a confederacy of the seven main native kingdoms in Fiji to establish some sort of government. This was initially successful, and Cakobau was elected as the first president of the confederacy.
With the demand for land high, the white planters started to push into the hilly interior of Viti Levu. This put them into direct confrontation with the Kai Colo, which was a general term to describe the various Fijian clans resident to these inland districts. The Kai Colo were still living a mostly traditional lifestyle, they were not Christianised, and they were not under the rule of Cakobau or the confederacy. In 1867, a travelling missionary named Thomas Baker was killed by Kai Colo in the mountains at the headwaters of the Sigatoka River. The acting British consul, John Bates Thurston, demanded that Cakobau lead a force of Fijians from coastal areas to suppress the Kai Colo. Cakobau eventually led a campaign into the mountains but suffered a humiliating loss with 61 of his fighters being killed. Settlers also came into conflict with the local eastern Kai Colo people called the Wainimala. Thurston called in the Australia Station section of the Royal Navy for assistance. The Navy duly sent Commander Rowley Lambert and HMS Challenger to conduct a punitive mission against the Wainimala. An armed force of 87 men shelled and burnt the village of Deoka, and a skirmish ensued which resulted in the deaths of over 40 Wainimala.
After the collapse of the confederacy, Enele Maʻafu established a stable administration in the Lau Islands and the Tongans. Other foreign powers such as the United States were considering the possibility of annexing Fiji. This situation was not appealing to many settlers, almost all of whom were British subjects from Australia. Britain, however, refused to annex the country, and a compromise was needed.
In June 1871, George Austin Woods, an ex-lieutenant of the Royal Navy, managed to influence Cakobau and organise a group of like-minded settlers and chiefs into forming a governing administration. Cakobau was declared the monarch (Tui Viti) and the Kingdom of Fiji was established. Most Fijian chiefs agreed to participate, and even Ma'afu chose to recognise Cakobau and participate in the constitutional monarchy. However, many of the settlers had come from Australia, where negotiation with the indigenous people almost universally involved forced coercion. As a result, several aggressive, racially motivated opposition groups, such as the British Subjects Mutual Protection Society, sprouted up. One group called themselves the Ku Klux Klan in a homage to the white supremacist group in America. However, when respected individuals such as Charles St Julian, Robert Sherson Swanston and John Bates Thurston were appointed by Cakobau, a degree of authority was established.
With the rapid increase in white settlers into the country, the desire for land acquisition also intensified. Once again, conflict with the Kai Colo in the interior of Viti Levu ensued. In 1871, the killing of two settlers near the Ba River in the northwest of the island prompted a large punitive expedition of white farmers, imported slave labourers, and coastal Fijians to be organised. This group of around 400 armed vigilantes, including veterans of the U.S. Civil War, had a battle with the Kai Colo near the village of Cubu, in which both sides had to withdraw. The village was destroyed, and the Kai Colo, despite being armed with muskets, received numerous casualties. The Kai Colo responded by making frequent raids on the settlements of the whites and Christian Fijians throughout the district of Ba. Likewise, in the east of the island on the upper reaches of the Rewa River, villages were burnt, and many Kai Colo were shot by the vigilante settler squad called the Rewa Rifles.
Although the Cakobau government did not approve of the settlers taking justice into their own hands, it did want the Kai Colo subjugated and their land sold. The solution was to form an army. Robert S. Swanston, the minister for Native Affairs in the Kingdom, organised the training and arming of suitable Fijian volunteers and prisoners to become soldiers in what was variably called the King's Troops or the Native Regiment. In a similar system to the Native Police that was present in the colonies of Australia, two white settlers, James Harding and W. Fitzgerald, were appointed as the head officers of this paramilitary brigade. The formation of this force did not sit well with many of the white plantation owners as they did not trust an army of Fijians to protect their interests.
The situation intensified further in early 1873 when the Burns family was killed by a Kai Colo raid in the Ba River area. The Cakobau government deployed 50 King's Troopers to the region under the command of Major Fitzgerald to restore order. The local whites refused their posting, and deployment of another 50 troops under Captain Harding was sent to emphasise the government's authority. To prove the worth of the Native Regiment, this augmented force went into the interior and massacred about 170 Kai Colo people at Na Korowaiwai. Upon returning to the coast, the force was met by the white settlers who still saw the government troops as a threat. A skirmish between the government's troops and the white settlers' brigade was only prevented by the intervention of Captain William Cox Chapman of HMS Dido, who detained the leaders of the locals, forcing the group to disband. The authority of the King's Troops and the Cakobau government to crush the Kai Colo was now total.
From March to October 1873, a force of about 200 King's Troops under the general administration of Swanston with around 1,000 coastal Fijian and white volunteer auxiliaries, led a campaign throughout the highlands of Viti Levu to annihilate the Kai Colo. Major Fitzgerald and Major H.C. Thurston (the brother of John Bates Thurston) led a two pronged attack throughout the region. The combined forces of the different clans of the Kai Colo made a stand at the village of Na Culi. The Kai Colo were defeated with dynamite and fire being used to flush them out from their defensive positions amongst the mountain caves. Many Kai Colo were killed, and one of the main leaders of the hill clans, Ratu Dradra, was forced to surrender with around 2,000 men, women and children being taken prisoner and sent to the coast. In the months after this defeat, the only main resistance was from the clans around the village of Nibutautau. Major Thurston crushed this resistance in the two months following the battle at Na Culi. Villages were burnt, Kai Colo were killed, and a further large number of prisoners were taken. About 1,000 of the prisoners (men, women and children) were sent to Levuka where some were hanged and the rest were sold into slavery and forced to work on various plantations throughout the islands.
The blackbirding era began in Fiji in 1865 when the first New Hebridean and Solomon Islands labourers were transported there to work on cotton plantations. The American Civil War had cut off the supply of cotton to the international market when the Union blockaded Confederate ports. Cotton cultivation was potentially an extremely profitable business. Thousands of European planters flocked to Fiji to establish plantations but found the natives unwilling to adapt to their plans. They sought labour from the Melanesian islands. On 5 July 1865 Ben Pease received the first licence to provide 40 labourers from the New Hebrides to Fiji.
The British and Queensland governments tried to regulate this recruiting and transport of labour. Melanesian labourers were to be recruited for a term of three years, paid three pounds per year, issued basic clothing, and given access to the company store for supplies. Most Melanesians were recruited by deceit, usually being enticed aboard ships with gifts, and then locked up. In 1875, the chief medical officer in Fiji, Sir William MacGregor, listed a mortality rate of 540 out of every 1,000 labourers. After the expiry of the three-year contract, the government required captains to transport the labourers back to their villages, but most ship captains dropped them off at the first island they sighted off the Fiji waters. The British sent warships to enforce the law (Pacific Islanders' Protection Act of 1872), but only a small proportion of the culprits were prosecuted.
A notorious incident of the blackbirding trade was the 1871 voyage of the brig Carl, organised by Dr. James Patrick Murray to recruit labourers to work in the plantations of Fiji. Murray had his men reverse their collars and carry black books, to appear as church missionaries. When islanders were enticed to a religious service, Murray and his men would produce guns and force the islanders onto boats. During the voyage Murray shot about 60 islanders. He was never brought to trial for his actions, as he was given immunity in return for giving evidence against his crew members. The captain of the Carl, Joseph Armstrong, was later sentenced to death.
In addition to the blackbirded labour from other Pacific islands, thousands of people indigenous to the Fijian archipelago were sold into slavery on the plantations. As the white settler backed Cakobau government, and later the British colonial government, subjugated areas in Fiji under its power, the resultant prisoners of war were regularly sold at auction to the planters. This provided a source of revenue for the government and also dispersed the rebels to different, often isolated islands where the plantations were located. The land that was occupied by these people before they became slaves was then also sold for additional revenue. An example of this is the Lovoni people of Ovalau, who after being defeated in a war with the Cakobau government in 1871, were rounded up and sold to the settlers at £6 per head. Two thousand Lovoni men, women and children were sold, and their period of slavery lasted five years. Likewise, after the Kai Colo wars in 1873, thousands of people from the hill tribes of Viti Levu were sent to Levuka and sold into slavery. Warnings from the Royal Navy stationed in the area that buying these people was illegal were largely given without enforcement, and the British consul in Fiji, Edward Bernard Marsh, regularly turned a blind eye to this type of labour trade.
Despite achieving military victories over the Kai Colo, the Cakobau government was faced with problems of legitimacy and economic viability. Indigenous Fijians and white settlers refused to pay taxes, and the cotton price had collapsed. With these major issues in mind, John Bates Thurston approached the British government, at Cakobau's request, with another offer to cede the islands. The newly elected Tory British government under Benjamin Disraeli encouraged expansion of the empire and was therefore much more sympathetic to annexing Fiji than it had been previously. The murder of Bishop John Patteson of the Melanesian Mission at Nukapu in the Reef Islands had provoked public outrage, which was compounded by the massacre by crew members of more than 150 Fijians on board the brig Carl. Two British commissioners were sent to Fiji to investigate the possibility of an annexation. The question was complicated by maneuverings for power between Cakobau and his old rival, Ma'afu, with both men vacillating for many months. On 21 March 1874, Cakobau made a final offer, which the British accepted. On 23 September, Sir Hercules Robinson, soon to be appointed the British Governor of Fiji, arrived on HMS Dido and received Cakobau with a royal 21-gun salute. After some vacillation, Cakobau agreed to renounce his Tui Viti title, retaining the title of Vunivalu, or Protector. The formal cession took place on 10 October 1874, when Cakobau, Ma'afu, and some of the senior chiefs of Fiji signed two copies of the Deed of Cession. Thus the Colony of Fiji was founded; 96 years of British rule followed.
To celebrate the annexation of Fiji, Hercules Robinson, who was Governor of New South Wales at the time, took Cakobau and his two sons to Sydney. There was a measles outbreak in that city and the three Fijians all came down with the disease. On returning to Fiji, the colonial administrators decided not to quarantine the ship on which the convalescents travelled. This was despite the British having a very extensive knowledge of the devastating effect of infectious disease on an unexposed population. In 1875–76 the resulting epidemic of measles killed over 40,000 Fijians, about one-third of the Fijian population. Some Fijians allege that this failure of quarantine was a deliberate action to introduce the disease into the country. Historians have found no such evidence; the disease spread before the new British governor and colonial medical officers had arrived, and no quarantine rules existed under the outgoing regime.
Robinson was replaced as Governor of Fiji in June 1875 by Sir Arthur Hamilton Gordon. Gordon was immediately faced with an insurgency of the Qalimari and Kai Colo people. In early 1875, colonial administrator Edgar Leopold Layard had met with thousands of highland clans at Navuso to formalise their subjugation to British rule and Christianity. Layard and his delegation managed to spread the measles epidemic to the highlanders, causing mass deaths in this population. As a result, anger at the British colonists flared throughout the region, and a widespread uprising quickly took hold. Villages along the Sigatoka River and in the highlands above this area refused British control, and Gordon was tasked with quashing this rebellion.
In what Gordon termed the "Little War", the suppression of this uprising took the form of two co-ordinated military campaigns in the western half of Viti Levu. The first was conducted by Gordon's second cousin, Arthur John Lewis Gordon, against the Qalimari insurgents along the Sigatoka River. The second campaign was led by Louis Knollys against the Kai Colo in the mountains to the north of the river. Governor Gordon invoked a type of martial law in the area where Arthur John Lewis Gordon and Knollys had absolute power to conduct their missions outside of any restrictions of legislation. The two groups of rebels were kept isolated from each other by a force led by Walter Carew and George Le Hunte who were stationed at Nasaucoko. Carew also ensured the rebellion did not spread east by securing the loyalty of the Wainimala people of the eastern highlands. The war involved the use of the soldiers of the old Native Regiment of Cakobau supported by around 1,500 Christian Fijian volunteers from other areas of Viti Levu. The colonial New Zealand Government provided most of the advanced weapons for the army including 100 Snider rifles.
The campaign along the Sigatoka River was conducted under a scorched earth policy whereby numerous rebel villages were burnt and their fields ransacked. After the capture and destruction of the main fortified towns of Koroivatuma, Bukutia and Matanavatu, the Qalimari surrendered en masse. Those not killed in the fighting were taken prisoner and sent to the coastal town of Cuvu. This included 827 men, women and children as well as Mudu, the leader of the insurgents. The women and children were distributed to places like Nadi and Nadroga. Of the men, 15 were sentenced to death at a hastily conducted trial at Sigatoka. Governor Gordon was present, but chose to leave the judicial responsibility to his relative, Arthur John Lewis Gordon. Four were hanged and ten, including Mudu, were shot with one prisoner managing to escape. By the end of proceedings the governor noted that "my feet were literally stained with the blood that I had shed".
The northern campaign against the Kai Colo in the highlands was similar but involved removing the rebels from large, well protected caves in the region. Knollys managed to clear the caves "after some considerable time and large expenditure of ammunition". The occupants of these caves included whole communities, and as a result many men, women and children were either killed or wounded in these operations. The rest were taken prisoner and sent to the towns on the northern coast. The chief medical officer in British Fiji, William MacGregor, also took part both in killing Kai Colo and tending to their wounded. After the caves were taken, the Kai Colo surrendered and their leader, Bisiki, was captured. Various trials were held, mostly at Nasaucoko under Le Hunte, and 32 men were either hanged or shot including Bisiki, who was killed trying to escape.
By the end of October 1876, the "Little War" was over, and Gordon had succeeded in vanquishing the rebels in the interior of Viti Levu. Remaining insurgents were sent into exile with hard labour for up to 10 years. Some non-combatants were allowed to return to rebuild their villages, but many areas in the highlands were ordered by Gordon to remain depopulated and in ruins. Gordon also constructed a military fortress, Fort Canarvon, at the headwaters of the Sigatoka River where a large contingent of soldiers were based to maintain British control. He renamed the Native Regiment, the Armed Native Constabulary to lessen its appearance of being a military force.
To further consolidate social control throughout the colony, Governor Gordon introduced a system of appointed chiefs and village constables in the various districts to both enact his orders and report any disobedience from the populace. Gordon adopted the chiefly titles Roko and Buli to describe these deputies and established a Great Council of Chiefs which was directly subject to his authority as Supreme Chief. This body remained in existence until being suspended by the military-backed interim government in 2007 and only abolished in 2012. Gordon also extinguished the ability of Fijians to own, buy or sell land as individuals, the control being transferred to colonial authorities.
Gordon decided in 1878 to import indentured labourers from India to work on the sugarcane fields that had taken the place of the cotton plantations. The 463 Indians arrived on 14 May 1879 – the first of some 61,000 that were to come before the scheme ended in 1916. The plan involved bringing the Indian workers to Fiji on a five-year contract, after which they could return to India at their own expense; if they chose to renew their contract for a second five-year term, they would be given the option of returning to India at the government's expense, or remaining in Fiji. The great majority chose to stay. The Queensland Act, which regulated indentured labour in Queensland, was made law in Fiji also.
Between 1879 and 1916, tens of thousands of Indians moved to Fiji to work as indentured labourers, especially on sugarcane plantations. Given the steady influx of ships carrying indentured Indians to Fiji up until 1916, repatriated Indians generally boarded these same ships on their return voyage. The total number of repatriates under the Fiji indenture system is recorded as 39,261, while the number of arrivals is said to have been 60,553. Because the return figure includes children born in Fiji, many of the indentured Indians never returned to India.
With almost all aspects of indigenous Fijian social life being controlled by the British colonial authorities, a number of charismatic individuals preaching dissent and return to pre-colonial culture were able to forge a following amongst the disenfranchised. These movements were called Tuka, which roughly translates as "those who stand up". The first Tuka movement was led by Ndoongumoy, better known as Navosavakandua, which means "he who speaks only once". He told his followers that if they returned to traditional ways and worshipped traditional deities such as Degei and Rokola, their current condition would be transformed, with the whites and their puppet Fijian chiefs being subservient to them. Navosavakandua was previously exiled from the Viti Levu highlands in 1878 for disturbing the peace, and the British quickly arrested him and his followers after this open display of rebellion. He was again exiled, this time to Rotuma where he died soon after his 10-year sentence ended.
Other Tuka organisations, however, soon appeared. The British colonial administration ruthlessly suppressed both the leaders and followers, with figureheads such as Sailose being banished to an asylum for 12 years. In 1891, entire populations of villages who were sympathetic to the Tuka ideology were deported as punishment. Three years later in the highlands of Vanua Levu, where locals had re-engaged in traditional religion, Governor Thurston ordered in the Armed Native Constabulary to destroy the towns and the religious relics. Leaders were jailed and villagers exiled or forced to amalgamate into government-run communities. Later, in 1914, Apolosi Nawai came to the forefront of Fijian Tuka resistance by founding Viti Kabani, a co-operative company that would legally monopolise the agricultural sector and boycott European planters. The British and their proxy Council of Chiefs were not able to prevent the Viti Kabani's rise, and again the colonists were forced to send in the Armed Native Constabulary. Apolosi and his followers were arrested in 1915, and the company collapsed in 1917. Over the next 30 years, Apolosi was re-arrested, jailed and exiled, with the British viewing him as a threat right up to his death in 1946.
Fiji was only peripherally involved in World War I. One memorable incident occurred in September 1917 when Count Felix von Luckner arrived at Wakaya Island, off the eastern coast of Viti Levu, after his raider, SMS Seeadler, had run aground in the Cook Islands following the shelling of Papeete in the French colony of Tahiti. On 21 September, the district police inspector took a number of Fijians to Wakaya, and von Luckner, not realising that they were unarmed, unwittingly surrendered.
Citing unwillingness to exploit the Fijian people, the colonial authorities did not permit Fijians to enlist. One Fijian of chiefly rank, a great-grandson of Cakobau, joined the French Foreign Legion and received France's highest military decoration, the Croix de Guerre. After going on to complete a law degree at Oxford University, this same chief returned to Fiji in 1921 as both a war hero and the country's first-ever university graduate. In the years that followed, Ratu Sir Lala Sukuna, as he was later known, established himself as the most powerful chief in Fiji and forged embryonic institutions for what would later become the modern Fijian nation.
By the time of World War II, the United Kingdom had reversed its policy of not enlisting natives, and many thousands of Fijians volunteered for the Fiji Infantry Regiment, which was under the command of Ratu Sir Edward Cakobau, another great-grandson of Cakobau. The regiment was attached to New Zealand and Australian army units during the war. Because of its central location, Fiji was selected as a training base for the Allies. An airstrip was built at Nadi (later to become an international airport), and gun emplacements studded the coast. Fijians gained a reputation for bravery in the Solomon Islands campaign, with one war correspondent describing their ambush tactics as "death with velvet gloves". Corporal Sefanaia Sukanaivalu, of Yucata, was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross, as a result of his bravery in the Battle of Bougainville.
A constitutional conference was held in London in July 1965 to discuss constitutional changes with a view to introducing responsible government. Indo-Fijians, led by A. D. Patel, demanded the immediate introduction of full self-government, with a fully elected legislature, to be elected by universal suffrage on a common voters' roll. These demands were vigorously rejected by the ethnic Fijian delegation, who still feared loss of control over natively owned land and resources should an Indo-Fijian dominated government come to power. The British made it clear, however, that they were determined to bring Fiji to self-government and eventual independence. Realizing that they had no choice, Fiji's chiefs decided to negotiate for the best deal they could get.
A series of compromises led to the establishment of a cabinet system of government in 1967, with Ratu Kamisese Mara as the first Chief Minister. Ongoing negotiations between Mara and Sidiq Koya, who had taken over the leadership of the mainly Indo-Fijian National Federation Party on Patel's death in 1969, led to a second constitutional conference in London, in April 1970, at which Fiji's Legislative Council agreed on a compromise electoral formula and a timetable for independence as a fully sovereign and independent nation within the Commonwealth. The Legislative Council would be replaced with a bicameral Parliament, with a Senate dominated by Fijian chiefs and a popularly elected House of Representatives. In the 52-member House, Native Fijians and Indo-Fijians would each be allocated 22 seats, of which 12 would represent communal constituencies comprising voters registered on strictly ethnic roles, and another 10 representing national constituencies to which members were allocated by ethnicity but elected by universal suffrage. A further 8 seats were reserved for "general electors" – Europeans, Chinese, Banaban Islanders, and other minorities; 3 of these were "communal" and 5 "national". With this compromise, it was agreed that Fiji would become independent.
The British flag, the Union Jack, was lowered for the last time at sunset on 9 October 1970 in the capital Suva. The Fijian flag was raised after dawn on the morning of 10 October 1970; the country had officially become independent at midnight.
The British granted Fiji independence in 1970. Democratic rule was interrupted by two military coups in 1987 precipitated by a growing perception that the government was dominated by the Indo-Fijian (Indian) community. The second 1987 coup saw both the Fijian monarchy and the Governor General replaced by a non-executive president and the name of the country changed from Dominion of Fiji to Republic of Fiji and then in 1997 to Republic of the Fiji Islands. The two coups and the accompanying civil unrest contributed to heavy Indo-Fijian emigration; the resulting population loss resulted in economic difficulties and ensured that Melanesians became the majority.
In 1990, the new constitution institutionalised ethnic Fijian domination of the political system. The Group Against Racial Discrimination (GARD) was formed to oppose the unilaterally imposed constitution and to restore the 1970 constitution. In 1992 Sitiveni Rabuka, the Lieutenant Colonel who had carried out the 1987 coup, became Prime Minister following elections held under the new constitution. Three years later, Rabuka established the Constitutional Review Commission, which in 1997 wrote a new constitution which was supported by most leaders of the indigenous Fijian and Indo-Fijian communities. Fiji was re-admitted to the Commonwealth of Nations.
In 2000, a coup was instigated by George Speight, which effectively toppled the government of Mahendra Chaudhry, who in 1997 had become the country's first Indo-Fijian Prime Minister following the adoption of the new constitution. Commodore Frank Bainimarama assumed executive power after the resignation, possibly forced, of President Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara. Later in 2000, Fiji was rocked by two mutinies when rebel soldiers went on a rampage at Suva's Queen Elizabeth Barracks. The High Court ordered the reinstatement of the constitution, and in September 2001, to restore democracy, a general election was held which was won by interim Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase's Soqosoqo Duavata ni Lewenivanua party.
In 2005, the Qarase government amid much controversy proposed a Reconciliation and Unity Commission with power to recommend compensation for victims of the 2000 coup and amnesty for its perpetrators. However, the military, especially the nation's top military commander, Frank Bainimarama, strongly opposed this bill. Bainimarama agreed with detractors who said that to grant amnesty to supporters of the present government who had played a role in the violent coup was a sham. His attack on the legislation, which continued unremittingly throughout May and into June and July, further strained his already tense relationship with the government.
In late November and early December 2006, Bainimarama was instrumental in the 2006 Fijian coup d'état. Bainimarama handed down a list of demands to Qarase after a bill was put forward to parliament, part of which would have offered pardons to participants in the 2000 coup attempt. He gave Qarase an ultimatum date of 4 December to accede to these demands or to resign from his post. Qarase adamantly refused either to concede or resign, and on 5 December President Ratu Josefa Iloilo signed a legal order dissolving the parliament after meeting with Bainimarama.
Citing corruption in the government, Bainimarama staged a military takeover on 5 December 2006 against the prime minister that he had installed after a 2000 coup. The commodore took over the powers of the presidency and dissolved the parliament, paving the way for the military to continue the takeover. The coup was the culmination of weeks of speculation following conflict between the elected prime minister, Laisenia Qarase, and Bainimarama. Bainimarama had repeatedly issued demands and deadlines to the prime minister. A particular issue was previously pending legislation to pardon those involved in the 2000 coup. Bainimarama named Jona Senilagakali as caretaker prime minister. The next week Bainimarama said he would ask the Great Council of Chiefs to restore executive powers to the president, Ratu Josefa Iloilo.
On 4 January 2007, the military announced that it was restoring executive power to Iloilo, who made a broadcast endorsing the actions of the military. The next day, Iloilo named Bainimarama as the interim prime minister, indicating that the military was still effectively in control. In the wake of the takeover, reports emerged of alleged intimidation of some of those critical of the interim regime.
In April 2009, the Fiji Court of Appeal overturned the High Court decision that Bainimarama's takeover of Qarase's government was lawful and declared the interim government to be illegal. Bainimarama agreed to step down as interim prime minister immediately, along with his government, and President Iloilo was to appoint a new prime minister. President Iloilo abrogated the constitution, and removed all office holders under the constitution including all judges and the governor of the Central Bank. In his own words, he "appoint[ed] [him]self as the Head of the State of Fiji under a new legal order". He then reappointed Bainimarama under his "New Order" as interim prime minister and imposed a "Public Emergency Regulation" limiting internal travel and allowing press censorship.
On 2 May 2009, Fiji became the first nation ever to have been suspended from participation in the Pacific Islands Forum, for its failure to hold democratic elections by the date promised. Nevertheless, it remains a member of the Forum.
On 1 September 2009, Fiji was suspended from the Commonwealth of Nations. The action was taken because Bainimarama failed to hold elections by 2010 as the Commonwealth of Nations had demanded after the 2006 coup. Bainimarama stated a need for more time to end a voting system that heavily favoured ethnic Fijians at the expense of the multi-ethnic minorities. Critics claimed that he had suspended the constitution and was responsible for human rights violations by arresting and detaining opponents.
In his 2010 New Year's address, Bainimarama announced the lifting of the Public Emergency Regulations (PER). However, the PER was not rescinded until January 2012, and the Suva Philosophy Club was the first organisation to reorganise and convene public meetings. The PER had been put in place in April 2009 when the former constitution was abrogated. The PER had allowed restrictions on speech, public gatherings, and censorship of news media and had given security forces added powers. He also announced a nationwide consultation process leading to a new constitution under which the 2014 elections were held.
The official name of the country was reverted to Republic of Fiji in February 2011.
On 14 March 2014, the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group voted to change Fiji's full suspension from the Commonwealth of Nations to a suspension from the councils of the Commonwealth, allowing them to participate in a number of Commonwealth activities, including the 2014 Commonwealth Games. The suspension was lifted in September 2014.
The FijiFirst party, led by Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama, won outright majority in the country's 51-seat parliament both in 2014 election and narrowly in 2018 election. In October 2021, Tui Macuata Ratu Wiliame Katonivere was elected the new President of Fiji by the parliament.
On 24 December 2022, Sitiveni Rabuka, the head of the People's Alliance (PAP), became Fiji's 12th prime minister, succeeding Bainimarama, following the December 2022 general election.
Fiji lies approximately 5,100 km (3,200 mi) southwest of Hawaii and roughly 3,150 km (1,960 mi) from Sydney, Australia. Fiji is the hub of the Southwest Pacific, midway between Vanuatu and Tonga. The archipelago is located between 176° 53′ east and 178° 12′ west. The archipelago is roughly 498,000 square miles (1,290,000 km) and less than 2 percent is dry land. The 180° meridian runs through Taveuni, but the International Date Line is bent to give uniform time (UTC+12) to all of the Fiji group. With the exception of Rotuma, the Fiji group lies between 15° 42′ and 20° 02′ south. Rotuma is located 220 nautical miles (410 km; 250 mi) north of the group, 360 nautical miles (670 km; 410 mi) from Suva, 12° 30′ south of the equator.
Fiji covers a total area of some 194,000 square kilometres (75,000 sq mi) of which around 10% is land. Fiji consists of 332 islands (of which 106 are inhabited) and 522 smaller islets. The two most important islands are Viti Levu and Vanua Levu, which account for about three-quarters of the total land area of the country. The islands are mountainous, with peaks up to 1,324 metres (4,341 ft), and covered with thick tropical forests.
The highest point is Mount Tomanivi on Viti Levu. Viti Levu hosts the capital city of Suva and is home to nearly three-quarters of the population. Other important towns include Nadi (the location of the international airport), and Lautoka, Fiji's second largest city with large sugar cane mills and a seaport.
The main towns on Vanua Levu are Labasa and Savusavu. Other islands and island groups include Taveuni and Kadavu (the third and fourth largest islands, respectively), the Mamanuca Group (just off Nadi) and Yasawa Group, which are popular tourist destinations, the Lomaiviti Group, off Suva, and the remote Lau Group. Rotuma has special administrative status in Fiji. Ceva-i-Ra, an uninhabited reef, is located about 250 nautical miles (460 km; 290 mi) southwest of the main archipelago.
Fiji contains two ecoregions: Fiji tropical moist forests and Fiji tropical dry forests. It had a 2018 Forest Landscape Integrity Index mean score of 8.35/10, ranking it 24th globally out of 172 countries.
The climate in Fiji is tropical marine and warm year round with minimal extremes. The warm season is from November to April, and the cooler season lasts from May to October. Temperatures in the cool season average 22 °C (72 °F). Rainfall is variable, with the warm season experiencing heavier rainfall, especially inland. For the larger islands, rainfall is heavier on the southeast portions of the islands than on the northwest portions, with consequences for agriculture in those areas. Winds are moderate, though cyclones occur about once annually (10–12 times per decade).
Climate change in Fiji is an exceptionally pressing issue for the country - as an island nation, Fiji is particularly vulnerable to rising sea levels, coastal erosion and extreme weather. These changes, along with temperature rise, will displace Fijian communities and will prove disruptive to the national economy - tourism, agriculture and fisheries, the largest contributors to the nation's GDP, will be severely impacted by climate change causing increases in poverty and food insecurity. As a party to both the Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Climate Agreement, Fiji hopes to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050 which, along with national policies, will help to mitigate the impacts of climate change. The governments of Fiji and other climate other island states at risk from climate change (Niue, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Tonga and Vanuatu) launched the "Port Vila Call for a Just Transition to a Fossil Fuel Free Pacific", calling for the phase out fossil fuels and the 'rapid and just transition' to renewable energy and strengthening environmental law including introducing the crime of ecocide.
Politics in Fiji normally take place in the framework of a parliamentary representative democratic republic wherein the Prime Minister of Fiji is the head of government and the President the Head of State, and of a multi-party system. Executive power is exercised by the government, legislative power is vested in both the government and the Parliament of Fiji, and the judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature.
A general election took place on 17 September 2014. Bainimarama's FijiFirst party won with 59.2% of the vote, and the election was deemed credible by a group of international observers from Australia, India and Indonesia.
In the 2018 election FijiFirst won with 50.02 per cent of the total votes cast. It held its outright majority in the parliament, winning 27 of the 51 seats. The Social Democratic Liberal Party (SODELPA) came in second with 39.85 per cent of the vote.
In the 2022 election FijiFirst lost its parliamentary majority. Sitiveni Rabuka of People's Alliance party, with the backing of the Social Liberal Democratic party (Sodelpa), became Fiji's new Prime Minister to succeed Frank Bainimarama.
The military consists of the Republic of Fiji Military Forces with a total manpower of 3,500 active soldiers and 6,000 reservists, and includes a Navy unit of 300 personnel. The land force comprises the Fiji Infantry Regiment (regular and territorial force organised into six light infantry battalions), Fiji Engineer Regiment, Logistic Support Unit and Force Training Group. Relative to its size, Fiji has fairly large armed forces and has been a major contributor to UN peacekeeping missions in various parts of the world. In addition, a significant number of former military personnel have served in the lucrative security sector in Iraq following the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.
The law enforcement branch is composed of the Fiji Police Force and Fiji Corrections Service.
Fiji is divided into four major divisions which are further divided into 14 provinces. They are:
Fiji was divided into three confederacies or governments during the reign of Seru Epenisa Cakobau, though these are not considered political divisions, they are still considered important in the social divisions of the indigenous Fijians:
Endowed with forest, mineral, and fish resources, Fiji is one of the most developed of the Pacific island economies, though still with a large subsistence sector. Some progress was experienced by this sector when Marion M. Ganey introduced credit unions to the islands in the 1950s. Natural resources include timber, fish, gold, copper, offshore oil, and hydropower. Fiji experienced a period of rapid growth in the 1960s and 1970s but stagnated in the 1980s. The coups of 1987 caused further contraction.
Economic liberalisation in the years following the coups created a boom in the garment industry and a steady growth rate despite growing uncertainty regarding land tenure in the sugar industry. The expiration of leases for sugar cane farmers (along with reduced farm and factory efficiency) has led to a decline in sugar production despite subsidies for sugar provided by the EU. Fiji's gold mining industry is based in Vatukoula.
Urbanisation and expansion in the service sector have contributed to recent GDP growth. Sugar exports and a rapidly growing tourist industry – with tourists numbering 430,800 in 2003 and increasing in the subsequent years – are the major sources of foreign exchange. Fiji is highly dependent on tourism for revenue. Sugar processing makes up one-third of industrial activity. Long-term problems include low investment and uncertain property rights.
The South Pacific Stock Exchange (SPSE) is the only licensed securities exchange in Fiji and is based in Suva. Its vision is to become a regional exchange.
Fiji has a significant amount of tourism with the popular regions being Nadi, the Coral Coast, Denarau Island, and Mamanuca Islands. The biggest sources of international visitors by country are Australia, New Zealand and the United States. Fiji has a significant number of soft coral reefs, and scuba diving is a common tourist activity. Fiji's main attractions to tourists are primarily white sandy beaches and aesthetically pleasing islands with all-year tropical weather. In general, Fiji is a mid-range priced holiday/vacation destination with most of the accommodations in this range. It also has a variety of world-class five-star resorts and hotels. More budget resorts are being opened in remote areas, which will provide more tourism opportunities. CNN named Fiji's Laucala Island Resort as one of the fifteen world's most beautiful island hotels.
Official statistics show that in 2012, 75% of visitors stated that they came for a holiday/vacation. Honeymoons are very popular as are romantic getaways in general. There are also family-friendly resorts with facilities for young children including kids' clubs and nanny options. Fiji has several popular tourism destinations. The Botanical Gardens of Thursten in Suva, Sigatoka Sand Dunes, and Colo-I-Suva Forest Park are three options on the mainland (Viti Levu). A major attraction on the outer islands is scuba diving.
According to the Fiji Bureau of Statistics, most visitors arriving to Fiji on a short-term basis are from the following countries or regions of residence:
Fiji has also served as a location for various Hollywood movies starting from the Mr Robinson Crusoe in 1932 to The Blue Lagoon (1980) starring Brooke Shields and Return to the Blue Lagoon (1991) with Milla Jovovich. Other popular movies shot in Fiji include Cast Away (2000) and Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid (2004).
The U.S. version of the reality television show Survivor has filmed all of its semiannual seasons in the Mamanuca Islands since its 33rd season in 2016. Typically, two 39-day competitions will be filmed back to back, with the first season airing in the fall of that year, and the second airing in the spring of the following year. This marks the longest consecutive period that Survivor has filmed in one location. Before the airing of the 35th season (Survivor: Heroes vs. Healers vs. Hustlers), host Jeff Probst said in an interview with Entertainment Weekly that the Mamanucas are the optimal location for the show and he would like to stay there permanently.
The Nadi International Airport is located 9 kilometres (5.6 mi) north of central Nadi and is the largest Fijian hub. Nausori International Airport is about 23 kilometres (14 mi) northeast of downtown Suva and serves mostly domestic traffic with flights from Australia and New Zealand. The main airport in the second largest island of Vanua Levu is Labasa Airport located at Waiqele, southwest of Labasa Town. The largest aircraft handled by Labasa Airport is the ATR 72. Airports Fiji Limited (AFL) is responsible for the operation of 15 public airports in the Fiji Islands. These include two international airports: Nadi international Airport, Fiji's main international gateway, and Nausori Airport, Fiji's domestic hub, and 13 outer island airports. Fiji's main airline is Fiji Airways.
Fiji's larger islands have extensive bus routes that are affordable and consistent in service. There are bus stops, and in rural areas buses are often simply hailed as they approach. Buses are the principal form of public transport and passenger movement between the towns on the main islands. Buses also serve on inter-island ferries. Bus fares and routes are regulated by the Land Transport Authority (LTA). Bus and taxi drivers hold Public Service Licenses issued by the LTA. Taxis are licensed by the LTA and operate widely all over the country. Apart from urban, town-based taxis, there are others that are licensed to serve rural or semi-rural areas.
Inter-island ferries provide services between Fiji's principal islands, and large vessels operate roll-on-roll-off services such as Patterson Brothers Shipping Company LTD, transporting vehicles and large amounts of cargo between the main island of Viti Levu and Vanua Levu, and other smaller islands.
Fiji is the only developing Pacific Island country with recent data for gross domestic expenditure on research and development (GERD), with the exception of Papua New Guinea. The national Bureau of Statistics cites a GERD/GDP ratio of 0.15% in 2012. Private-sector research and development (R&D) is negligible. Government investment in research and development tends to favour agriculture. In 2007, agriculture and primary production accounted for just under half of government expenditure on R&D, according to the Fijian National Bureau of Statistics. This share had risen to almost 60% by 2012. However, scientists publish much more in the field of geosciences and health than in agriculture. The rise in government spending on agricultural research has come to the detriment of research in education, which dropped to 35% of total research spending between 2007 and 2012. Government expenditure on health research has remained fairly constant, at about 5% of total government research spending, according to the Fijian National Bureau of Statistics.
The Fijian Ministry of Health is seeking to develop endogenous research capacity through the Fiji Journal of Public Health, which it launched in 2012. A new set of guidelines are now in place to help build endogenous capacity in health research through training and access to new technology.
Fiji is also planning to diversify its energy sector through the use of science and technology. In 2015, the Secretariat of the Pacific Community observed that "while Fiji, Papua New Guinea and Samoa are leading the way with large-scale hydropower projects, there is enormous potential to expand the deployment of other renewable energy options such as solar, wind, geothermal and ocean-based energy sources."
In 2014, the Centre of Renewable Energy became operational at the University of Fiji, with the assistance of the Renewable Energy in Pacific Island Countries Developing Skills and Capacity programme (EPIC) funded by the European Union. From 2013 to 2017, the European Union funded the EPIC programme, which developed two master's programmes in renewable energy management, one at the University of Papua New Guinea and the other at the University of Fiji, both accredited in 2016. In Fiji, 45 students have enrolled for the master's degree since the launch of the programme and a further 21 students have undertaken a related diploma programme introduced in 2019.
In 2020, the Regional Pacific Nationally Determined Contributions Hub Office in Fiji was launched to support climate change mitigation and adaptation. Pacific authors on the frontlines of climate change remain underrepresented in the scientific literature on the impact of disasters and on climate resilience strategies.
The 2017 census found that the population of Fiji was 884,887, compared to the population of 837,271 in the 2007 census. The population density at the time of the 2007 census was 45.8 inhabitants per square kilometre. The life expectancy in Fiji was 72.1 years. Since the 1930s the population of Fiji has increased at a rate of 1.1% per year. The median age of the population was 29.9, and the gender ratio was 1.03 males per 1 female.
The population of Fiji is mostly made up of native Fijians, who are Melanesians (54.3%), although many also have Polynesian ancestry; and Indo-Fijians (38.1%), descendants of Indian contract labourers brought to the islands by the British colonial powers in the 19th century. The percentage of the population of Indo-Fijian descent has declined significantly over the last two decades through migration for various reasons. Indo-Fijians suffered reprisals for a period after the coup of 2000. Relationships between ethnic Fijians and Indo-Fijians in the political arena have often been strained, and the tension between the two communities has dominated politics in the islands for the past generation. The level of political tension varies among different regions of the country.
About 1.2% of the population is Rotuman – natives of Rotuma Island, whose culture has more in common with countries such as Tonga or Samoa than with the rest of Fiji. There are also small but economically significant groups of Europeans, Chinese, and other Pacific island minorities. The membership of other ethnic groups is about 4.5%. 3,000 people or 0.3% of the people living in Fiji are from Australia.
The concept of family and community is of great importance to Fijian culture. Within the indigenous communities many members of the extended family will adopt particular titles and roles of direct guardians. Kinship is determined through a child's lineage to a particular spiritual leader, so that a clan is based on traditional customary ties as opposed to actual biological links. These clans, based on the spiritual leader, are known as a matangali. Within the matangali are a number of smaller collectives, known as the mbito. The descent is patrilineal, and all the status is derived from the father's side.
Constitutionally, citizens of Fiji were previously referred to as "Fiji Islanders" though the term Fiji Nationals was used for official purposes. However, the current constitution refers to all Fijian citizens as "Fijians". In August 2008, shortly before the proposed People's Charter for Change, Peace and Progress was due to be released to the public, it was announced that it recommended a change in the name of Fiji's citizens. If the proposal were adopted, all citizens of Fiji, whatever their ethnicity, would be called "Fijians". The proposal would change the English name of indigenous Fijians from "Fijians" to itaukei, the Fijian language endonym for indigenous Fijians. Deposed Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase reacted by stating that the name "Fijian" belonged exclusively to indigenous Fijians, and that he would oppose any change in legislation enabling non-indigenous Fijians to use it. The Methodist Church, to which a large majority of indigenous Fijians belong, also reacted strongly to the proposal, stating that allowing any Fiji citizen to call themselves "Fijian" would be "daylight robbery" inflicted on the indigenous population.
In an address to the nation during the constitutional crisis of April 2009, military leader and interim Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama, who has been at the forefront of the attempt to change the definition of "Fijian", stated:
I know we all have our different ethnicities, our different cultures and we should, we must, celebrate our diversity and richness. However, at the same time we are all Fijians. We are all equal citizens. We must all be loyal to Fiji; we must be patriotic; we must put Fiji first.
In May 2010, Attorney-General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum reiterated that the term "Fijian" should apply to all Fiji nationals, but the statement was again met with protest. A spokesperson for the Viti Landowners and Resource Owners Association claimed that even fourth-generation descendants of migrants did not fully understand "what it takes to be a Fijian", and added that the term refers to a legal standing, since legislation affords specific rights to "Fijians" (meaning, in legislation, indigenous Fijians).
Fiji has three official languages under the 1997 constitution (and not revoked by the 2013 Constitution): English, Fijian (iTaukei) and Fiji Hindi. Fijian is an Austronesian language of the Malayo-Polynesian family spoken in Fiji. It has 350,000 native speakers, and another 200,000 speak it as a second language.
There are many dialects of the language across the Fiji Islands, which may be classified in two major branches—eastern and western. Missionaries in the 1840s chose an eastern dialect, the speech of Bau Island to be the written standard of the Fijian language. Bau Island was home to Seru Epenisa Cakobau, the chief who eventually became the self-proclaimed King of Fiji.
Fiji Hindi, also known as Fijian Baat or Fijian Hindustani, is the language spoken by most Fijian citizens of Indian descent. It is derived mainly from the Awadhi and Bhojpuri varieties of Hindi. It has also borrowed a large number of words from Fijian and English. The relation between Fiji Hindi and Standard Hindi is similar to the relation between Afrikaans and Dutch. Indian indentured labourers were initially brought to Fiji mainly from districts of eastern Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, North-West Frontier and South India such as from Andhra and Tamil Nadu. They spoke numerous, mainly Hindi, dialects and languages depending on their district of origin.
English, a remnant of British colonial rule over the islands, was the sole official language until 1997 and is widely used in government, business and education as a lingua franca.
Religion in Fiji (2007)
According to the 2007 census, 64.4% of the population at the time was Christian, while 27.9% was Hindu, 6.3% Muslim, 0.8% non-religious, 0.3% Sikh, and the remaining 0.3% belonged to other religions. Among Christians, 54% were counted as Methodist, followed by 14.2% Catholic, 8.9% Assemblies of God, 6.0% Seventh-day Adventist, 1.2% Anglican with the remaining 16.1% belonging to other denominations.
The largest Christian denomination is the Methodist Church of Fiji and Rotuma. With 34.6% of the population (including almost two-thirds of ethnic Fijians), the proportion of the population adhering to Methodism is higher in Fiji than in any other nation. Fijian Catholics are administered by the Archdiocese of Suva. The archdiocese is the metropolitan see of an ecclesiastical province which includes the Dioceses of Rarotonga (on the Cook Islands, for those and Niue, both New Zealand-associated countries) and Tarawa and Nauru (with see at Tarawa on Kiribati, also for Nauru) and the Mission sui iuris of Tokelau (New Zealand).
The Assemblies of God and the Seventh-day Adventist denominations are significantly represented. Fiji is the base for the Anglican Diocese of Polynesia (part of the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia).These and other denominations have small numbers of Indo-Fijian members; Christians of all kinds comprised 6.1% of the Indo-Fijian population in the 1996 census. Hindus in Fiji mostly belong to the Sanatan sect (74.3% of all Hindus) or else are unspecified (22%). Muslims in Fiji are mostly Sunni (96.4%).
Fiji has a high literacy rate (91.6 percent), and although there is no compulsory education, more than 85 percent of the children between the ages of 6 and 13 attend primary school. Schooling is free and provided by both public and church-run schools. Generally, the Fijian and Hindu children attend separate schools, reflecting the political split that exists in the nation.
In Fiji, the role of government in education is to provide an environment in which children realise their full potential, and school is free from age 6 to 14. The primary school system consists of eight years of schooling and is attended by children from the ages of 6 to 14 years. Upon completion of primary school, a certificate is awarded and the student is eligible to take the secondary school examination.
High school education may continue for a total of five years following an entry examination. Students either leave after three years with a Fiji school leaving certificate, or remain on to complete their final two years and qualify for tertiary education. Entry into the secondary school system, which is a total of five years, is determined by a competitive examination. Students passing the exam then follow a three-year course that leads to the Fiji School Leaving Certificate and the opportunity to attend senior secondary school. At the end of this level, they may take the Form VII examination, which covers four or five subjects. Successful completion of this process gains students access to higher education.
The University of the South Pacific, called the crossroads of the South Pacific because it serves ten English-speaking territories in the South Pacific, is the major provider of higher education. Admission to the university requires a secondary school diploma, and all students must take a one-year foundation course at the university regardless of their major. Financing for the university is derived from school fees, funds from the Fiji government and other territories, and aid from Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and the United Kingdom. In addition to the university, Fiji also has teacher-training colleges, as well as medical, technological, and agricultural schools. Primary school teachers are trained for two years, whereas secondary school teachers train for three years; they then have the option to receive a diploma in education or read for a bachelor's degree in arts or science and continue for an additional year to earn a postgraduate certificate of education.
The Fiji Polytechnic School offers training in various trades, apprenticeship courses, and other courses that lead to diplomas in engineering, hotel catering, and business studies. Some of the course offerings can also lead to several City and Guilds of London Institute Examinations. In addition to the traditional educational system, Fiji also offers the opportunity to obtain an education through distance learning. The University Extension Service provides centres and a network of terminals in most regional areas. For students taking non-credit courses, no formal qualifications are necessary. However, students who enroll in the credit courses may be awarded the appropriate degree or certificate upon successful completion of their studies through the extension services.
While indigenous Fijian culture and traditions are very vibrant and are integral components of everyday life for the majority of Fiji's population, Fijian society has evolved over the past century with the introduction of traditions such as Indian and Chinese as well as significant influences from Europe and Fiji's Pacific neighbours, particularly Tonga and Samoa. Thus, the various cultures of Fiji have come together to create a unique multicultural national identity.
Fiji's culture was showcased at the World Exposition held in Vancouver, Canada, in 1986 and more recently at the Shanghai World Expo 2010, along with other Pacific countries in the Pacific Pavilion.
Sports are very popular in Fiji, particularly sports involving physical contact. Fiji's national sport is Rugby sevens. Cricket is a minor sport in Fiji. Cricket Fiji is an associate member of the International Cricket Council ("ICC"). Netball is the most popular women's participation sport in Fiji. The national team has been internationally competitive, at Netball World Cup competitions reaching 6th position in 1999, its highest level to date. The team won gold medals at the 2007 and 2015 Pacific Games.
Because of the success of Fiji's national basketball teams, the popularity of basketball has experienced rapid growth in recent years. In the past, the country only had few basketball courts, which severely limited Fijians who desired to practice the sport more frequently. Through recent efforts by the national federation Basketball Fiji and with the support of the Australian government, many schools have been able to construct courts and provide their students with basketball equipment.
Vijay Singh, a PGA golfer from Fiji, was ranked the world number one male golfer for a total of 32 weeks.
Rugby Union is the most-popular team sport played in Fiji. The Fiji national sevens side is a popular and successful international rugby sevens team and has won the Hong Kong Sevens a record eighteen times since its inception in 1976. Fiji has also won the Rugby World Cup Sevens twice – in 1997 and 2005. The Fiji national rugby union sevens team is the reigning Sevens World Series Champions in World Rugby. In 2016, they won Fiji's first ever Olympic medal in the Rugby sevens at the Summer Olympics, winning gold by defeating Great Britain 43–7 in the final.
The national rugby union team is a member of the Pacific Islands Rugby Alliance formerly along with Samoa and Tonga. In 2009, Samoa announced their departure from the Pacific Islands Rugby Alliance, leaving just Fiji and Tonga in the union. Fiji is currently ranked eleventh in the world by the IRB (as of 28 December 2015). The national rugby union team has competed at five Rugby World Cup competitions, the first being in 1987, where they reached the quarter-finals. The team again qualified in the 2007 Rugby World Cup when they upset Wales 38–34 to progress to the quarter-finals where they lost to the eventual Rugby World Cup winners, South Africa.
Fiji competes in the Pacific Tri-Nations and the IRB Pacific Nations Cup. The sport is governed by the Fiji Rugby Union which is a member of the Pacific Islands Rugby Alliance, and contributes to the Pacific Islanders rugby union team. At the club level there are the Skipper Cup and Farebrother Trophy Challenge.
The Fiji national rugby league team, nicknamed the Bati (pronounced [mˈbatʃi]), represents Fiji in the sport of rugby league football and has been participating in international competition since 1992. It has competed in the Rugby League World Cup on three occasions, with their best results coming when they made consecutive semi-final appearances in the 2008 Rugby League World Cup, 2013 Rugby League World Cup and 2019 Rugby League World Cup. The team also competes in the Pacific Cup.
Association football was traditionally a minor sport in Fiji, popular largely amongst the Indo-Fijian community, but with international funding from FIFA and sound local management over the past decade, the sport has grown in popularity in the wider Fijian community. It is now the second most-popular sport in Fiji, after rugby for men and after netball for women.
The Fiji Football Association is a member of the Oceania Football Confederation. The national football team defeated New Zealand 2–0 in the 2008 OFC Nations Cup, on their way to a joint-record third-place finish. However, they have never reached a FIFA World Cup to date. Fiji won the Pacific Games football tournament in 1991 and 2003. Fiji qualified for the 2016 Summer Olympics men's tournament for the first time in history.
18°S 179°E / 18°S 179°E / -18; 179
|
[
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "Fiji (/ˈfiːdʒi/ FEE-jee, /fiːˈdʒiː/ fee-JEE; Fijian: Viti, [ˈβitʃi]; Fiji Hindi: फ़िजी, Fijī), officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies about 1,100 nautical miles (2,000 km; 1,300 mi) north-northeast of New Zealand. Fiji consists of an archipelago of more than 330 islands—of which about 110 are permanently inhabited—and more than 500 islets, amounting to a total land area of about 18,300 square kilometres (7,100 sq mi). The most outlying island group is Ono-i-Lau. About 87% of the total population of 924,610 live on the two major islands, Viti Levu and Vanua Levu. About three-quarters of Fijians live on Viti Levu's coasts, either in the capital city of Suva, or in smaller urban centres such as Nadi (where tourism is the major local industry) or Lautoka (where the sugar-cane industry is dominant). The interior of Viti Levu is sparsely inhabited because of its terrain.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "The majority of Fiji's islands were formed by volcanic activity starting around 150 million years ago. Some geothermal activity still occurs today on the islands of Vanua Levu and Taveuni. The geothermal systems on Viti Levu are non-volcanic in origin and have low-temperature surface discharges (of between roughly 35 and 60 degrees Celsius (95 and 140 °F)).",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "Humans have lived in Fiji since the second millennium BC—first Austronesians and later Melanesians, with some Polynesian influences. Europeans first visited Fiji in the 17th century. In 1874, after a brief period in which Fiji was an independent kingdom, the British established the Colony of Fiji. Fiji operated as a Crown colony until 1970, when it gained independence and became known as the Dominion of Fiji. In 1987, following a series of coups d'état, the military government that had taken power declared it a republic. In a 2006 coup, Commodore Frank Bainimarama seized power. In 2009, the Fijian High Court ruled that the military leadership was unlawful. At that point, President Ratu Josefa Iloilo, whom the military had retained as the nominal head of state, formally abrogated the 1997 Constitution and re-appointed Bainimarama as interim prime minister. Later in 2009, Ratu Epeli Nailatikau succeeded Iloilo as president. On 17 September 2014, after years of delays, a democratic election took place. Bainimarama's FijiFirst party won 59.2% of the vote, and international observers deemed the election credible.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "Fiji has one of the most developed economies in the Pacific through its abundant forest, mineral, and fish resources. The currency is the Fijian dollar, with the main sources of foreign exchange being the tourist industry, remittances from Fijians working abroad, bottled water exports, and sugar cane. The Ministry of Local Government and Urban Development supervises Fiji's local government, which takes the form of city and town councils.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "The name of Fiji's main island, Viti Levu, served as the origin of the name \"Fiji\", though the common English pronunciation is based on that of Fiji's island neighbours in Tonga. An official account of the emergence of the name states:",
"title": "Etymology"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "Fijians first impressed themselves on European consciousness through the writings of the members of the expeditions of Cook who met them in Tonga. They were described as formidable warriors and ferocious cannibals, builders of the finest vessels in the Pacific, but not great sailors. They inspired awe amongst the Tongans, and all their Manufactures, especially bark cloth and clubs, were highly valued and much in demand. They called their home Viti, but the Tongans called it Fisi, and it was by this foreign pronunciation, Fiji, first promulgated by Captain James Cook, that these islands are now known.",
"title": "Etymology"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "\"Feejee\", the Anglicised spelling of the Tongan pronunciation, occurred in accounts and other writings by missionaries and other travellers visiting Fiji until the late-19th century.",
"title": "Etymology"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "Pottery art from Fijian towns shows that Fiji was settled by Austronesian peoples by at least 3500 to 1000 BC, with Melanesians following around a thousand years later, although there are still many open questions about the specific dates and patterns of human migration. It is believed that either the Lapita people or the ancestors of the Polynesians settled the islands first, but not much is known of what became of them after the Melanesians arrived; the old culture may have had some influence on the new one, and archaeological evidence shows that some of the migrants moved on to Samoa, Tonga and even Hawai'i. Archeological evidence also shows signs of human settlement on Moturiki Island beginning at least by 600 BC and possibly as far back as 900 BC. Although some aspects of Fijian culture are similar to the Melanesian culture of the western Pacific, Fijian culture has a stronger connection to the older Polynesian cultures. The evidence is clear that there was trade between Fiji and neighbouring archipelagos long before Europeans made contact with Fiji.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "In the 10th century, the Tu'i Tonga Empire was established in Tonga, and Fiji came within its sphere of influence. The Tongan influence brought Polynesian customs and language into Fiji. That empire began to decline in the 13th century.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "Fiji has long had permanent settlements, but its peoples also have a history of mobility. Over the centuries, unique Fijian cultural practices developed. Fijians constructed large, elegant watercraft, with rigged sails called drua and exported some to Tonga. Fijians also developed a distinctive style of village architecture, consisting of communal and individual bure and vale housing, and an advanced system of ramparts and moats that were usually constructed around the more important settlements. Pigs were domesticated for food, and a variety of agricultural endeavors, such as banana plantations, existed from an early stage. Villages were supplied with water brought in by constructed wooden aqueducts. Fijians lived in societies led by chiefs, elders and notable warriors. Spiritual leaders, often called bete, were also important cultural figures, and the production and consumption of yaqona was part of their ceremonial and community rites. Fijians developed a monetary system where the polished teeth of the sperm whale, called tambua, became an active currency. A type of writing existed which can be seen today in various petroglyphs around the islands. Fijians developed a refined masi cloth textile industry, and used the cloth they produced to make sails and clothes such as the malo and the liku. As with most other ancient human civilisations, warfare or preparation for warfare was an important part of everyday life in pre-colonial Fiji. The Fijians were noted for their distinctive use of weapons, especially war clubs. Fijians used many different types of clubs that can be broadly divided into two groups, two handed clubs and small specialised throwing clubs called ula.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "With the arrival of Europeans in the 17th century, and European colonization in the late 19th century, many elements of Fijian culture were either repressed or modified to ensure European – specifically, British – control. This was especially the case with respect to traditional Fijian spiritual beliefs. Early colonists and missionaries pointed to the practice of cannibalism in Fiji as providing a moral imperative justifying colonization. Europeans labelled many native Fijian customs as debased or primitive, enabling many colonists to see Fiji as a \"paradise wasted on savage cannibals\". Authors such as Deryck Scarr have perpetuated 19th century claims of \"freshly killed corpses piled up for eating\" and ceremonial mass human sacrifice on the construction of new houses and boats. In fact, during colonial times, Fiji was known as the Cannibal Isles. Modern archaeological research conducted on Fijian sites has shown that Fijians did in fact practice cannibalism, which has helped modern scholars to assess the accuracy of some of these colonial European accounts. Studies conducted by scholars including Degusta, Cochrane, and Jones provide evidence of burnt or cut human skeletons, suggesting that cannibalism was practised in Fiji. However, these archaeological accounts indicate that cannibalistic practices were likely more intermittent and less ubiquitous than European settlers had implied; it appears that the cannibalism may more often have been nonviolent and ritualistic.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "Dutch explorer Abel Tasman was the first known European visitor to Fiji, sighting the northern island of Vanua Levu and the North Taveuni archipelago in 1643 while looking for the Great Southern Continent.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "James Cook, the British navigator, visited one of the southern Lau islands in 1774. It was not until 1789, however, that the islands were charted and plotted, when William Bligh, the castaway captain of HMS Bounty, passed Ovalau and sailed between the main islands of Viti Levu and Vanua Levu en route to Batavia, in what is now Indonesia. Bligh Water, the strait between the two main islands, is named after him and for a time, the Fiji Islands were known as the Bligh Islands.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "The first Europeans to maintain substantial contact with the Fijians were sandalwood merchants, whalers and \"beche-de-mer\" (sea cucumber) traders. The first whaling vessel known to have visited was the Ann and Hope in 1799, and she was followed by many others in the 19th century. These ships came for drinking water, food and firewood and, later, for men to help man their ships. Some of the Europeans who came to Fiji in this period were accepted by the locals and were allowed to stay as residents.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "By the 1820s, Levuka was established as the first European-style town in Fiji, on the island of Ovalau. The market for \"beche-de-mer\" in China was lucrative, and British and American merchants set up processing stations on various islands. Local Fijians were utilised to collect, prepare and pack the product which would then be shipped to Asia. A good cargo would result in a half-yearly profit of around $25,000 for the dealer. The Fijian workers were often given firearms and ammunition as an exchange for their labour, and by the end of the 1820s most of the Fijian chiefs had muskets and many were skilled at using them. Some Fijian chiefs soon felt confident enough with their new weapons to forcibly obtain more destructive weaponry from the Europeans. In 1834, men from Viwa and Bau were able to take control of the French ship L'amiable Josephine and use its cannon against their enemies on the Rewa River, although they later ran it aground.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 15,
"text": "Christian missionaries like David Cargill also arrived in the 1830s from recently converted regions such as Tonga and Tahiti, and by 1840 the European settlement at Levuka had grown to about 40 houses with former whaler David Whippey being a notable resident. The religious conversion of the Fijians was a gradual process which was observed first-hand by Captain Charles Wilkes of the United States Exploring Expedition. Wilkes wrote that \"all the chiefs seemed to look upon Christianity as a change in which they had much to lose and little to gain\". Christianised Fijians, in addition to forsaking their spiritual beliefs, were pressured into cutting their hair short, adopting the sulu form of dress from Tonga and fundamentally changing their marriage and funeral traditions. This process of enforced cultural change was called lotu. Intensification of conflict between the cultures increased, and Wilkes was involved in organising a large punitive expedition against the people of Malolo. He ordered an attack with rockets which acted as makeshift incendiary devices. The village, with the occupants trapped inside, quickly became an inferno with Wilkes noting that the \"shouts of men were intermingled with the cries and shrieks of the women and children\" as they burnt to death. Wilkes demanded the survivors should \"sue for mercy\" and if not \"they must expect to be exterminated\". Around 57 to 87 Maloloan people were killed in this encounter.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 16,
"text": "The 1840s was a time of conflict where various Fiji clans attempted to assert dominance over each other. Eventually, a warlord named Seru Epenisa Cakobau of Bau Island was able to become a powerful influence in the region. His father was Ratu Tanoa Visawaqa, the Vunivalu (a chiefly title meaning warlord, often translated also as paramount chief) who had previously subdued much of western Fiji. Cakobau, following on from his father, became so dominant that he was able to expel the Europeans from Levuka for five years over a dispute about their giving of weapons to his local enemies. In the early 1850s, Cakobau went one step further and declared war on all Christians. His plans were thwarted after the missionaries in Fiji received support from the already converted Tongans and the presence of a British warship. The Tongan Prince Enele Maʻafu, a Christian, had established himself on the island of Lakeba in 1848, forcibly converting the local people to the Methodist Church. Cakobau and other chiefs in the west of Fiji regarded Maʻafu as a threat to their power and resisted his attempts to expand Tonga's dominion. Cakobau's influence, however, began to wane, and his heavy imposition of taxes on other Fijian chiefs, who saw him at best as first among equals, caused them to defect from him.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 17,
"text": "Around this time the United States also became interested in asserting their power in the region, and they threatened intervention following a number of incidents involving their consul in the Fiji islands, John Brown Williams. In 1849, Williams had his trading store looted following an accidental fire, caused by stray cannon fire during a Fourth of July celebration, and in 1853 the European settlement of Levuka was burnt to the ground. Williams blamed Cakobau for both these incidents, and the U.S. representative wanted Cakobau's capital at Bau destroyed in retaliation. A naval blockade was instead set up around the island which put further pressure on Cakobau to give up on his warfare against the foreigners and their Christian allies. Finally, on 30 April 1854, Cakobau offered his soro (supplication) and yielded to these forces. He underwent the lotu and converted to Christianity. The traditional Fijian temples in Bau were destroyed, and the sacred nokonoko trees were cut down. Cakobau and his remaining men were then compelled to join with the Tongans, backed by the Americans and British, to subjugate the remaining chiefs in the region who still refused to convert. These chiefs were soon defeated with Qaraniqio of the Rewa being poisoned and Ratu Mara of Kaba being hanged in 1855. After these wars, most regions of Fiji, except for the interior highland areas, had been forced into giving up much of their traditional systems and were now vassals of Western interest. Cakobau was retained as a largely symbolic representative of a few Fijian peoples and was allowed to take the ironic and self proclaimed title of \"Tui Viti\" (\"King of Fiji\"), but the overarching control now lay with foreign powers.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 18,
"text": "The rising price of cotton in the wake of the American Civil War (1861–1865) caused an influx of hundreds of settlers to Fiji in the 1860s from Australia and the United States in order to obtain land and grow cotton. Since there was still a lack of functioning government in Fiji, these planters were often able to get the land in violent or fraudulent ways such as exchanging weapons or alcohol with Fijians who may or may not have been the true owners. Although this made for cheap land acquisition, competing land claims between the planters became problematic with no unified government to resolve the disputes. In 1865, the settlers proposed a confederacy of the seven main native kingdoms in Fiji to establish some sort of government. This was initially successful, and Cakobau was elected as the first president of the confederacy.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 19,
"text": "With the demand for land high, the white planters started to push into the hilly interior of Viti Levu. This put them into direct confrontation with the Kai Colo, which was a general term to describe the various Fijian clans resident to these inland districts. The Kai Colo were still living a mostly traditional lifestyle, they were not Christianised, and they were not under the rule of Cakobau or the confederacy. In 1867, a travelling missionary named Thomas Baker was killed by Kai Colo in the mountains at the headwaters of the Sigatoka River. The acting British consul, John Bates Thurston, demanded that Cakobau lead a force of Fijians from coastal areas to suppress the Kai Colo. Cakobau eventually led a campaign into the mountains but suffered a humiliating loss with 61 of his fighters being killed. Settlers also came into conflict with the local eastern Kai Colo people called the Wainimala. Thurston called in the Australia Station section of the Royal Navy for assistance. The Navy duly sent Commander Rowley Lambert and HMS Challenger to conduct a punitive mission against the Wainimala. An armed force of 87 men shelled and burnt the village of Deoka, and a skirmish ensued which resulted in the deaths of over 40 Wainimala.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 20,
"text": "After the collapse of the confederacy, Enele Maʻafu established a stable administration in the Lau Islands and the Tongans. Other foreign powers such as the United States were considering the possibility of annexing Fiji. This situation was not appealing to many settlers, almost all of whom were British subjects from Australia. Britain, however, refused to annex the country, and a compromise was needed.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 21,
"text": "In June 1871, George Austin Woods, an ex-lieutenant of the Royal Navy, managed to influence Cakobau and organise a group of like-minded settlers and chiefs into forming a governing administration. Cakobau was declared the monarch (Tui Viti) and the Kingdom of Fiji was established. Most Fijian chiefs agreed to participate, and even Ma'afu chose to recognise Cakobau and participate in the constitutional monarchy. However, many of the settlers had come from Australia, where negotiation with the indigenous people almost universally involved forced coercion. As a result, several aggressive, racially motivated opposition groups, such as the British Subjects Mutual Protection Society, sprouted up. One group called themselves the Ku Klux Klan in a homage to the white supremacist group in America. However, when respected individuals such as Charles St Julian, Robert Sherson Swanston and John Bates Thurston were appointed by Cakobau, a degree of authority was established.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 22,
"text": "With the rapid increase in white settlers into the country, the desire for land acquisition also intensified. Once again, conflict with the Kai Colo in the interior of Viti Levu ensued. In 1871, the killing of two settlers near the Ba River in the northwest of the island prompted a large punitive expedition of white farmers, imported slave labourers, and coastal Fijians to be organised. This group of around 400 armed vigilantes, including veterans of the U.S. Civil War, had a battle with the Kai Colo near the village of Cubu, in which both sides had to withdraw. The village was destroyed, and the Kai Colo, despite being armed with muskets, received numerous casualties. The Kai Colo responded by making frequent raids on the settlements of the whites and Christian Fijians throughout the district of Ba. Likewise, in the east of the island on the upper reaches of the Rewa River, villages were burnt, and many Kai Colo were shot by the vigilante settler squad called the Rewa Rifles.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 23,
"text": "Although the Cakobau government did not approve of the settlers taking justice into their own hands, it did want the Kai Colo subjugated and their land sold. The solution was to form an army. Robert S. Swanston, the minister for Native Affairs in the Kingdom, organised the training and arming of suitable Fijian volunteers and prisoners to become soldiers in what was variably called the King's Troops or the Native Regiment. In a similar system to the Native Police that was present in the colonies of Australia, two white settlers, James Harding and W. Fitzgerald, were appointed as the head officers of this paramilitary brigade. The formation of this force did not sit well with many of the white plantation owners as they did not trust an army of Fijians to protect their interests.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 24,
"text": "The situation intensified further in early 1873 when the Burns family was killed by a Kai Colo raid in the Ba River area. The Cakobau government deployed 50 King's Troopers to the region under the command of Major Fitzgerald to restore order. The local whites refused their posting, and deployment of another 50 troops under Captain Harding was sent to emphasise the government's authority. To prove the worth of the Native Regiment, this augmented force went into the interior and massacred about 170 Kai Colo people at Na Korowaiwai. Upon returning to the coast, the force was met by the white settlers who still saw the government troops as a threat. A skirmish between the government's troops and the white settlers' brigade was only prevented by the intervention of Captain William Cox Chapman of HMS Dido, who detained the leaders of the locals, forcing the group to disband. The authority of the King's Troops and the Cakobau government to crush the Kai Colo was now total.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 25,
"text": "From March to October 1873, a force of about 200 King's Troops under the general administration of Swanston with around 1,000 coastal Fijian and white volunteer auxiliaries, led a campaign throughout the highlands of Viti Levu to annihilate the Kai Colo. Major Fitzgerald and Major H.C. Thurston (the brother of John Bates Thurston) led a two pronged attack throughout the region. The combined forces of the different clans of the Kai Colo made a stand at the village of Na Culi. The Kai Colo were defeated with dynamite and fire being used to flush them out from their defensive positions amongst the mountain caves. Many Kai Colo were killed, and one of the main leaders of the hill clans, Ratu Dradra, was forced to surrender with around 2,000 men, women and children being taken prisoner and sent to the coast. In the months after this defeat, the only main resistance was from the clans around the village of Nibutautau. Major Thurston crushed this resistance in the two months following the battle at Na Culi. Villages were burnt, Kai Colo were killed, and a further large number of prisoners were taken. About 1,000 of the prisoners (men, women and children) were sent to Levuka where some were hanged and the rest were sold into slavery and forced to work on various plantations throughout the islands.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 26,
"text": "The blackbirding era began in Fiji in 1865 when the first New Hebridean and Solomon Islands labourers were transported there to work on cotton plantations. The American Civil War had cut off the supply of cotton to the international market when the Union blockaded Confederate ports. Cotton cultivation was potentially an extremely profitable business. Thousands of European planters flocked to Fiji to establish plantations but found the natives unwilling to adapt to their plans. They sought labour from the Melanesian islands. On 5 July 1865 Ben Pease received the first licence to provide 40 labourers from the New Hebrides to Fiji.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 27,
"text": "The British and Queensland governments tried to regulate this recruiting and transport of labour. Melanesian labourers were to be recruited for a term of three years, paid three pounds per year, issued basic clothing, and given access to the company store for supplies. Most Melanesians were recruited by deceit, usually being enticed aboard ships with gifts, and then locked up. In 1875, the chief medical officer in Fiji, Sir William MacGregor, listed a mortality rate of 540 out of every 1,000 labourers. After the expiry of the three-year contract, the government required captains to transport the labourers back to their villages, but most ship captains dropped them off at the first island they sighted off the Fiji waters. The British sent warships to enforce the law (Pacific Islanders' Protection Act of 1872), but only a small proportion of the culprits were prosecuted.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 28,
"text": "A notorious incident of the blackbirding trade was the 1871 voyage of the brig Carl, organised by Dr. James Patrick Murray to recruit labourers to work in the plantations of Fiji. Murray had his men reverse their collars and carry black books, to appear as church missionaries. When islanders were enticed to a religious service, Murray and his men would produce guns and force the islanders onto boats. During the voyage Murray shot about 60 islanders. He was never brought to trial for his actions, as he was given immunity in return for giving evidence against his crew members. The captain of the Carl, Joseph Armstrong, was later sentenced to death.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 29,
"text": "In addition to the blackbirded labour from other Pacific islands, thousands of people indigenous to the Fijian archipelago were sold into slavery on the plantations. As the white settler backed Cakobau government, and later the British colonial government, subjugated areas in Fiji under its power, the resultant prisoners of war were regularly sold at auction to the planters. This provided a source of revenue for the government and also dispersed the rebels to different, often isolated islands where the plantations were located. The land that was occupied by these people before they became slaves was then also sold for additional revenue. An example of this is the Lovoni people of Ovalau, who after being defeated in a war with the Cakobau government in 1871, were rounded up and sold to the settlers at £6 per head. Two thousand Lovoni men, women and children were sold, and their period of slavery lasted five years. Likewise, after the Kai Colo wars in 1873, thousands of people from the hill tribes of Viti Levu were sent to Levuka and sold into slavery. Warnings from the Royal Navy stationed in the area that buying these people was illegal were largely given without enforcement, and the British consul in Fiji, Edward Bernard Marsh, regularly turned a blind eye to this type of labour trade.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 30,
"text": "Despite achieving military victories over the Kai Colo, the Cakobau government was faced with problems of legitimacy and economic viability. Indigenous Fijians and white settlers refused to pay taxes, and the cotton price had collapsed. With these major issues in mind, John Bates Thurston approached the British government, at Cakobau's request, with another offer to cede the islands. The newly elected Tory British government under Benjamin Disraeli encouraged expansion of the empire and was therefore much more sympathetic to annexing Fiji than it had been previously. The murder of Bishop John Patteson of the Melanesian Mission at Nukapu in the Reef Islands had provoked public outrage, which was compounded by the massacre by crew members of more than 150 Fijians on board the brig Carl. Two British commissioners were sent to Fiji to investigate the possibility of an annexation. The question was complicated by maneuverings for power between Cakobau and his old rival, Ma'afu, with both men vacillating for many months. On 21 March 1874, Cakobau made a final offer, which the British accepted. On 23 September, Sir Hercules Robinson, soon to be appointed the British Governor of Fiji, arrived on HMS Dido and received Cakobau with a royal 21-gun salute. After some vacillation, Cakobau agreed to renounce his Tui Viti title, retaining the title of Vunivalu, or Protector. The formal cession took place on 10 October 1874, when Cakobau, Ma'afu, and some of the senior chiefs of Fiji signed two copies of the Deed of Cession. Thus the Colony of Fiji was founded; 96 years of British rule followed.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 31,
"text": "To celebrate the annexation of Fiji, Hercules Robinson, who was Governor of New South Wales at the time, took Cakobau and his two sons to Sydney. There was a measles outbreak in that city and the three Fijians all came down with the disease. On returning to Fiji, the colonial administrators decided not to quarantine the ship on which the convalescents travelled. This was despite the British having a very extensive knowledge of the devastating effect of infectious disease on an unexposed population. In 1875–76 the resulting epidemic of measles killed over 40,000 Fijians, about one-third of the Fijian population. Some Fijians allege that this failure of quarantine was a deliberate action to introduce the disease into the country. Historians have found no such evidence; the disease spread before the new British governor and colonial medical officers had arrived, and no quarantine rules existed under the outgoing regime.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 32,
"text": "Robinson was replaced as Governor of Fiji in June 1875 by Sir Arthur Hamilton Gordon. Gordon was immediately faced with an insurgency of the Qalimari and Kai Colo people. In early 1875, colonial administrator Edgar Leopold Layard had met with thousands of highland clans at Navuso to formalise their subjugation to British rule and Christianity. Layard and his delegation managed to spread the measles epidemic to the highlanders, causing mass deaths in this population. As a result, anger at the British colonists flared throughout the region, and a widespread uprising quickly took hold. Villages along the Sigatoka River and in the highlands above this area refused British control, and Gordon was tasked with quashing this rebellion.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 33,
"text": "In what Gordon termed the \"Little War\", the suppression of this uprising took the form of two co-ordinated military campaigns in the western half of Viti Levu. The first was conducted by Gordon's second cousin, Arthur John Lewis Gordon, against the Qalimari insurgents along the Sigatoka River. The second campaign was led by Louis Knollys against the Kai Colo in the mountains to the north of the river. Governor Gordon invoked a type of martial law in the area where Arthur John Lewis Gordon and Knollys had absolute power to conduct their missions outside of any restrictions of legislation. The two groups of rebels were kept isolated from each other by a force led by Walter Carew and George Le Hunte who were stationed at Nasaucoko. Carew also ensured the rebellion did not spread east by securing the loyalty of the Wainimala people of the eastern highlands. The war involved the use of the soldiers of the old Native Regiment of Cakobau supported by around 1,500 Christian Fijian volunteers from other areas of Viti Levu. The colonial New Zealand Government provided most of the advanced weapons for the army including 100 Snider rifles.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 34,
"text": "The campaign along the Sigatoka River was conducted under a scorched earth policy whereby numerous rebel villages were burnt and their fields ransacked. After the capture and destruction of the main fortified towns of Koroivatuma, Bukutia and Matanavatu, the Qalimari surrendered en masse. Those not killed in the fighting were taken prisoner and sent to the coastal town of Cuvu. This included 827 men, women and children as well as Mudu, the leader of the insurgents. The women and children were distributed to places like Nadi and Nadroga. Of the men, 15 were sentenced to death at a hastily conducted trial at Sigatoka. Governor Gordon was present, but chose to leave the judicial responsibility to his relative, Arthur John Lewis Gordon. Four were hanged and ten, including Mudu, were shot with one prisoner managing to escape. By the end of proceedings the governor noted that \"my feet were literally stained with the blood that I had shed\".",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 35,
"text": "The northern campaign against the Kai Colo in the highlands was similar but involved removing the rebels from large, well protected caves in the region. Knollys managed to clear the caves \"after some considerable time and large expenditure of ammunition\". The occupants of these caves included whole communities, and as a result many men, women and children were either killed or wounded in these operations. The rest were taken prisoner and sent to the towns on the northern coast. The chief medical officer in British Fiji, William MacGregor, also took part both in killing Kai Colo and tending to their wounded. After the caves were taken, the Kai Colo surrendered and their leader, Bisiki, was captured. Various trials were held, mostly at Nasaucoko under Le Hunte, and 32 men were either hanged or shot including Bisiki, who was killed trying to escape.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 36,
"text": "By the end of October 1876, the \"Little War\" was over, and Gordon had succeeded in vanquishing the rebels in the interior of Viti Levu. Remaining insurgents were sent into exile with hard labour for up to 10 years. Some non-combatants were allowed to return to rebuild their villages, but many areas in the highlands were ordered by Gordon to remain depopulated and in ruins. Gordon also constructed a military fortress, Fort Canarvon, at the headwaters of the Sigatoka River where a large contingent of soldiers were based to maintain British control. He renamed the Native Regiment, the Armed Native Constabulary to lessen its appearance of being a military force.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 37,
"text": "To further consolidate social control throughout the colony, Governor Gordon introduced a system of appointed chiefs and village constables in the various districts to both enact his orders and report any disobedience from the populace. Gordon adopted the chiefly titles Roko and Buli to describe these deputies and established a Great Council of Chiefs which was directly subject to his authority as Supreme Chief. This body remained in existence until being suspended by the military-backed interim government in 2007 and only abolished in 2012. Gordon also extinguished the ability of Fijians to own, buy or sell land as individuals, the control being transferred to colonial authorities.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 38,
"text": "Gordon decided in 1878 to import indentured labourers from India to work on the sugarcane fields that had taken the place of the cotton plantations. The 463 Indians arrived on 14 May 1879 – the first of some 61,000 that were to come before the scheme ended in 1916. The plan involved bringing the Indian workers to Fiji on a five-year contract, after which they could return to India at their own expense; if they chose to renew their contract for a second five-year term, they would be given the option of returning to India at the government's expense, or remaining in Fiji. The great majority chose to stay. The Queensland Act, which regulated indentured labour in Queensland, was made law in Fiji also.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 39,
"text": "Between 1879 and 1916, tens of thousands of Indians moved to Fiji to work as indentured labourers, especially on sugarcane plantations. Given the steady influx of ships carrying indentured Indians to Fiji up until 1916, repatriated Indians generally boarded these same ships on their return voyage. The total number of repatriates under the Fiji indenture system is recorded as 39,261, while the number of arrivals is said to have been 60,553. Because the return figure includes children born in Fiji, many of the indentured Indians never returned to India.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 40,
"text": "With almost all aspects of indigenous Fijian social life being controlled by the British colonial authorities, a number of charismatic individuals preaching dissent and return to pre-colonial culture were able to forge a following amongst the disenfranchised. These movements were called Tuka, which roughly translates as \"those who stand up\". The first Tuka movement was led by Ndoongumoy, better known as Navosavakandua, which means \"he who speaks only once\". He told his followers that if they returned to traditional ways and worshipped traditional deities such as Degei and Rokola, their current condition would be transformed, with the whites and their puppet Fijian chiefs being subservient to them. Navosavakandua was previously exiled from the Viti Levu highlands in 1878 for disturbing the peace, and the British quickly arrested him and his followers after this open display of rebellion. He was again exiled, this time to Rotuma where he died soon after his 10-year sentence ended.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 41,
"text": "Other Tuka organisations, however, soon appeared. The British colonial administration ruthlessly suppressed both the leaders and followers, with figureheads such as Sailose being banished to an asylum for 12 years. In 1891, entire populations of villages who were sympathetic to the Tuka ideology were deported as punishment. Three years later in the highlands of Vanua Levu, where locals had re-engaged in traditional religion, Governor Thurston ordered in the Armed Native Constabulary to destroy the towns and the religious relics. Leaders were jailed and villagers exiled or forced to amalgamate into government-run communities. Later, in 1914, Apolosi Nawai came to the forefront of Fijian Tuka resistance by founding Viti Kabani, a co-operative company that would legally monopolise the agricultural sector and boycott European planters. The British and their proxy Council of Chiefs were not able to prevent the Viti Kabani's rise, and again the colonists were forced to send in the Armed Native Constabulary. Apolosi and his followers were arrested in 1915, and the company collapsed in 1917. Over the next 30 years, Apolosi was re-arrested, jailed and exiled, with the British viewing him as a threat right up to his death in 1946.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 42,
"text": "Fiji was only peripherally involved in World War I. One memorable incident occurred in September 1917 when Count Felix von Luckner arrived at Wakaya Island, off the eastern coast of Viti Levu, after his raider, SMS Seeadler, had run aground in the Cook Islands following the shelling of Papeete in the French colony of Tahiti. On 21 September, the district police inspector took a number of Fijians to Wakaya, and von Luckner, not realising that they were unarmed, unwittingly surrendered.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 43,
"text": "Citing unwillingness to exploit the Fijian people, the colonial authorities did not permit Fijians to enlist. One Fijian of chiefly rank, a great-grandson of Cakobau, joined the French Foreign Legion and received France's highest military decoration, the Croix de Guerre. After going on to complete a law degree at Oxford University, this same chief returned to Fiji in 1921 as both a war hero and the country's first-ever university graduate. In the years that followed, Ratu Sir Lala Sukuna, as he was later known, established himself as the most powerful chief in Fiji and forged embryonic institutions for what would later become the modern Fijian nation.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 44,
"text": "By the time of World War II, the United Kingdom had reversed its policy of not enlisting natives, and many thousands of Fijians volunteered for the Fiji Infantry Regiment, which was under the command of Ratu Sir Edward Cakobau, another great-grandson of Cakobau. The regiment was attached to New Zealand and Australian army units during the war. Because of its central location, Fiji was selected as a training base for the Allies. An airstrip was built at Nadi (later to become an international airport), and gun emplacements studded the coast. Fijians gained a reputation for bravery in the Solomon Islands campaign, with one war correspondent describing their ambush tactics as \"death with velvet gloves\". Corporal Sefanaia Sukanaivalu, of Yucata, was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross, as a result of his bravery in the Battle of Bougainville.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 45,
"text": "A constitutional conference was held in London in July 1965 to discuss constitutional changes with a view to introducing responsible government. Indo-Fijians, led by A. D. Patel, demanded the immediate introduction of full self-government, with a fully elected legislature, to be elected by universal suffrage on a common voters' roll. These demands were vigorously rejected by the ethnic Fijian delegation, who still feared loss of control over natively owned land and resources should an Indo-Fijian dominated government come to power. The British made it clear, however, that they were determined to bring Fiji to self-government and eventual independence. Realizing that they had no choice, Fiji's chiefs decided to negotiate for the best deal they could get.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 46,
"text": "A series of compromises led to the establishment of a cabinet system of government in 1967, with Ratu Kamisese Mara as the first Chief Minister. Ongoing negotiations between Mara and Sidiq Koya, who had taken over the leadership of the mainly Indo-Fijian National Federation Party on Patel's death in 1969, led to a second constitutional conference in London, in April 1970, at which Fiji's Legislative Council agreed on a compromise electoral formula and a timetable for independence as a fully sovereign and independent nation within the Commonwealth. The Legislative Council would be replaced with a bicameral Parliament, with a Senate dominated by Fijian chiefs and a popularly elected House of Representatives. In the 52-member House, Native Fijians and Indo-Fijians would each be allocated 22 seats, of which 12 would represent communal constituencies comprising voters registered on strictly ethnic roles, and another 10 representing national constituencies to which members were allocated by ethnicity but elected by universal suffrage. A further 8 seats were reserved for \"general electors\" – Europeans, Chinese, Banaban Islanders, and other minorities; 3 of these were \"communal\" and 5 \"national\". With this compromise, it was agreed that Fiji would become independent.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 47,
"text": "The British flag, the Union Jack, was lowered for the last time at sunset on 9 October 1970 in the capital Suva. The Fijian flag was raised after dawn on the morning of 10 October 1970; the country had officially become independent at midnight.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 48,
"text": "The British granted Fiji independence in 1970. Democratic rule was interrupted by two military coups in 1987 precipitated by a growing perception that the government was dominated by the Indo-Fijian (Indian) community. The second 1987 coup saw both the Fijian monarchy and the Governor General replaced by a non-executive president and the name of the country changed from Dominion of Fiji to Republic of Fiji and then in 1997 to Republic of the Fiji Islands. The two coups and the accompanying civil unrest contributed to heavy Indo-Fijian emigration; the resulting population loss resulted in economic difficulties and ensured that Melanesians became the majority.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 49,
"text": "In 1990, the new constitution institutionalised ethnic Fijian domination of the political system. The Group Against Racial Discrimination (GARD) was formed to oppose the unilaterally imposed constitution and to restore the 1970 constitution. In 1992 Sitiveni Rabuka, the Lieutenant Colonel who had carried out the 1987 coup, became Prime Minister following elections held under the new constitution. Three years later, Rabuka established the Constitutional Review Commission, which in 1997 wrote a new constitution which was supported by most leaders of the indigenous Fijian and Indo-Fijian communities. Fiji was re-admitted to the Commonwealth of Nations.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 50,
"text": "In 2000, a coup was instigated by George Speight, which effectively toppled the government of Mahendra Chaudhry, who in 1997 had become the country's first Indo-Fijian Prime Minister following the adoption of the new constitution. Commodore Frank Bainimarama assumed executive power after the resignation, possibly forced, of President Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara. Later in 2000, Fiji was rocked by two mutinies when rebel soldiers went on a rampage at Suva's Queen Elizabeth Barracks. The High Court ordered the reinstatement of the constitution, and in September 2001, to restore democracy, a general election was held which was won by interim Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase's Soqosoqo Duavata ni Lewenivanua party.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 51,
"text": "In 2005, the Qarase government amid much controversy proposed a Reconciliation and Unity Commission with power to recommend compensation for victims of the 2000 coup and amnesty for its perpetrators. However, the military, especially the nation's top military commander, Frank Bainimarama, strongly opposed this bill. Bainimarama agreed with detractors who said that to grant amnesty to supporters of the present government who had played a role in the violent coup was a sham. His attack on the legislation, which continued unremittingly throughout May and into June and July, further strained his already tense relationship with the government.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 52,
"text": "In late November and early December 2006, Bainimarama was instrumental in the 2006 Fijian coup d'état. Bainimarama handed down a list of demands to Qarase after a bill was put forward to parliament, part of which would have offered pardons to participants in the 2000 coup attempt. He gave Qarase an ultimatum date of 4 December to accede to these demands or to resign from his post. Qarase adamantly refused either to concede or resign, and on 5 December President Ratu Josefa Iloilo signed a legal order dissolving the parliament after meeting with Bainimarama.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 53,
"text": "Citing corruption in the government, Bainimarama staged a military takeover on 5 December 2006 against the prime minister that he had installed after a 2000 coup. The commodore took over the powers of the presidency and dissolved the parliament, paving the way for the military to continue the takeover. The coup was the culmination of weeks of speculation following conflict between the elected prime minister, Laisenia Qarase, and Bainimarama. Bainimarama had repeatedly issued demands and deadlines to the prime minister. A particular issue was previously pending legislation to pardon those involved in the 2000 coup. Bainimarama named Jona Senilagakali as caretaker prime minister. The next week Bainimarama said he would ask the Great Council of Chiefs to restore executive powers to the president, Ratu Josefa Iloilo.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 54,
"text": "On 4 January 2007, the military announced that it was restoring executive power to Iloilo, who made a broadcast endorsing the actions of the military. The next day, Iloilo named Bainimarama as the interim prime minister, indicating that the military was still effectively in control. In the wake of the takeover, reports emerged of alleged intimidation of some of those critical of the interim regime.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 55,
"text": "In April 2009, the Fiji Court of Appeal overturned the High Court decision that Bainimarama's takeover of Qarase's government was lawful and declared the interim government to be illegal. Bainimarama agreed to step down as interim prime minister immediately, along with his government, and President Iloilo was to appoint a new prime minister. President Iloilo abrogated the constitution, and removed all office holders under the constitution including all judges and the governor of the Central Bank. In his own words, he \"appoint[ed] [him]self as the Head of the State of Fiji under a new legal order\". He then reappointed Bainimarama under his \"New Order\" as interim prime minister and imposed a \"Public Emergency Regulation\" limiting internal travel and allowing press censorship.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 56,
"text": "On 2 May 2009, Fiji became the first nation ever to have been suspended from participation in the Pacific Islands Forum, for its failure to hold democratic elections by the date promised. Nevertheless, it remains a member of the Forum.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 57,
"text": "On 1 September 2009, Fiji was suspended from the Commonwealth of Nations. The action was taken because Bainimarama failed to hold elections by 2010 as the Commonwealth of Nations had demanded after the 2006 coup. Bainimarama stated a need for more time to end a voting system that heavily favoured ethnic Fijians at the expense of the multi-ethnic minorities. Critics claimed that he had suspended the constitution and was responsible for human rights violations by arresting and detaining opponents.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 58,
"text": "In his 2010 New Year's address, Bainimarama announced the lifting of the Public Emergency Regulations (PER). However, the PER was not rescinded until January 2012, and the Suva Philosophy Club was the first organisation to reorganise and convene public meetings. The PER had been put in place in April 2009 when the former constitution was abrogated. The PER had allowed restrictions on speech, public gatherings, and censorship of news media and had given security forces added powers. He also announced a nationwide consultation process leading to a new constitution under which the 2014 elections were held.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 59,
"text": "The official name of the country was reverted to Republic of Fiji in February 2011.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 60,
"text": "On 14 March 2014, the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group voted to change Fiji's full suspension from the Commonwealth of Nations to a suspension from the councils of the Commonwealth, allowing them to participate in a number of Commonwealth activities, including the 2014 Commonwealth Games. The suspension was lifted in September 2014.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 61,
"text": "The FijiFirst party, led by Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama, won outright majority in the country's 51-seat parliament both in 2014 election and narrowly in 2018 election. In October 2021, Tui Macuata Ratu Wiliame Katonivere was elected the new President of Fiji by the parliament.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 62,
"text": "On 24 December 2022, Sitiveni Rabuka, the head of the People's Alliance (PAP), became Fiji's 12th prime minister, succeeding Bainimarama, following the December 2022 general election.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 63,
"text": "Fiji lies approximately 5,100 km (3,200 mi) southwest of Hawaii and roughly 3,150 km (1,960 mi) from Sydney, Australia. Fiji is the hub of the Southwest Pacific, midway between Vanuatu and Tonga. The archipelago is located between 176° 53′ east and 178° 12′ west. The archipelago is roughly 498,000 square miles (1,290,000 km) and less than 2 percent is dry land. The 180° meridian runs through Taveuni, but the International Date Line is bent to give uniform time (UTC+12) to all of the Fiji group. With the exception of Rotuma, the Fiji group lies between 15° 42′ and 20° 02′ south. Rotuma is located 220 nautical miles (410 km; 250 mi) north of the group, 360 nautical miles (670 km; 410 mi) from Suva, 12° 30′ south of the equator.",
"title": "Geography"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 64,
"text": "Fiji covers a total area of some 194,000 square kilometres (75,000 sq mi) of which around 10% is land. Fiji consists of 332 islands (of which 106 are inhabited) and 522 smaller islets. The two most important islands are Viti Levu and Vanua Levu, which account for about three-quarters of the total land area of the country. The islands are mountainous, with peaks up to 1,324 metres (4,341 ft), and covered with thick tropical forests.",
"title": "Geography"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 65,
"text": "The highest point is Mount Tomanivi on Viti Levu. Viti Levu hosts the capital city of Suva and is home to nearly three-quarters of the population. Other important towns include Nadi (the location of the international airport), and Lautoka, Fiji's second largest city with large sugar cane mills and a seaport.",
"title": "Geography"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 66,
"text": "The main towns on Vanua Levu are Labasa and Savusavu. Other islands and island groups include Taveuni and Kadavu (the third and fourth largest islands, respectively), the Mamanuca Group (just off Nadi) and Yasawa Group, which are popular tourist destinations, the Lomaiviti Group, off Suva, and the remote Lau Group. Rotuma has special administrative status in Fiji. Ceva-i-Ra, an uninhabited reef, is located about 250 nautical miles (460 km; 290 mi) southwest of the main archipelago.",
"title": "Geography"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 67,
"text": "Fiji contains two ecoregions: Fiji tropical moist forests and Fiji tropical dry forests. It had a 2018 Forest Landscape Integrity Index mean score of 8.35/10, ranking it 24th globally out of 172 countries.",
"title": "Geography"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 68,
"text": "The climate in Fiji is tropical marine and warm year round with minimal extremes. The warm season is from November to April, and the cooler season lasts from May to October. Temperatures in the cool season average 22 °C (72 °F). Rainfall is variable, with the warm season experiencing heavier rainfall, especially inland. For the larger islands, rainfall is heavier on the southeast portions of the islands than on the northwest portions, with consequences for agriculture in those areas. Winds are moderate, though cyclones occur about once annually (10–12 times per decade).",
"title": "Geography"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 69,
"text": "Climate change in Fiji is an exceptionally pressing issue for the country - as an island nation, Fiji is particularly vulnerable to rising sea levels, coastal erosion and extreme weather. These changes, along with temperature rise, will displace Fijian communities and will prove disruptive to the national economy - tourism, agriculture and fisheries, the largest contributors to the nation's GDP, will be severely impacted by climate change causing increases in poverty and food insecurity. As a party to both the Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Climate Agreement, Fiji hopes to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050 which, along with national policies, will help to mitigate the impacts of climate change. The governments of Fiji and other climate other island states at risk from climate change (Niue, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Tonga and Vanuatu) launched the \"Port Vila Call for a Just Transition to a Fossil Fuel Free Pacific\", calling for the phase out fossil fuels and the 'rapid and just transition' to renewable energy and strengthening environmental law including introducing the crime of ecocide.",
"title": "Geography"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 70,
"text": "Politics in Fiji normally take place in the framework of a parliamentary representative democratic republic wherein the Prime Minister of Fiji is the head of government and the President the Head of State, and of a multi-party system. Executive power is exercised by the government, legislative power is vested in both the government and the Parliament of Fiji, and the judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature.",
"title": "Government and politics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 71,
"text": "A general election took place on 17 September 2014. Bainimarama's FijiFirst party won with 59.2% of the vote, and the election was deemed credible by a group of international observers from Australia, India and Indonesia.",
"title": "Government and politics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 72,
"text": "In the 2018 election FijiFirst won with 50.02 per cent of the total votes cast. It held its outright majority in the parliament, winning 27 of the 51 seats. The Social Democratic Liberal Party (SODELPA) came in second with 39.85 per cent of the vote.",
"title": "Government and politics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 73,
"text": "In the 2022 election FijiFirst lost its parliamentary majority. Sitiveni Rabuka of People's Alliance party, with the backing of the Social Liberal Democratic party (Sodelpa), became Fiji's new Prime Minister to succeed Frank Bainimarama.",
"title": "Government and politics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 74,
"text": "The military consists of the Republic of Fiji Military Forces with a total manpower of 3,500 active soldiers and 6,000 reservists, and includes a Navy unit of 300 personnel. The land force comprises the Fiji Infantry Regiment (regular and territorial force organised into six light infantry battalions), Fiji Engineer Regiment, Logistic Support Unit and Force Training Group. Relative to its size, Fiji has fairly large armed forces and has been a major contributor to UN peacekeeping missions in various parts of the world. In addition, a significant number of former military personnel have served in the lucrative security sector in Iraq following the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.",
"title": "Government and politics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 75,
"text": "The law enforcement branch is composed of the Fiji Police Force and Fiji Corrections Service.",
"title": "Government and politics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 76,
"text": "Fiji is divided into four major divisions which are further divided into 14 provinces. They are:",
"title": "Government and politics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 77,
"text": "Fiji was divided into three confederacies or governments during the reign of Seru Epenisa Cakobau, though these are not considered political divisions, they are still considered important in the social divisions of the indigenous Fijians:",
"title": "Government and politics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 78,
"text": "Endowed with forest, mineral, and fish resources, Fiji is one of the most developed of the Pacific island economies, though still with a large subsistence sector. Some progress was experienced by this sector when Marion M. Ganey introduced credit unions to the islands in the 1950s. Natural resources include timber, fish, gold, copper, offshore oil, and hydropower. Fiji experienced a period of rapid growth in the 1960s and 1970s but stagnated in the 1980s. The coups of 1987 caused further contraction.",
"title": "Economy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 79,
"text": "Economic liberalisation in the years following the coups created a boom in the garment industry and a steady growth rate despite growing uncertainty regarding land tenure in the sugar industry. The expiration of leases for sugar cane farmers (along with reduced farm and factory efficiency) has led to a decline in sugar production despite subsidies for sugar provided by the EU. Fiji's gold mining industry is based in Vatukoula.",
"title": "Economy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 80,
"text": "Urbanisation and expansion in the service sector have contributed to recent GDP growth. Sugar exports and a rapidly growing tourist industry – with tourists numbering 430,800 in 2003 and increasing in the subsequent years – are the major sources of foreign exchange. Fiji is highly dependent on tourism for revenue. Sugar processing makes up one-third of industrial activity. Long-term problems include low investment and uncertain property rights.",
"title": "Economy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 81,
"text": "The South Pacific Stock Exchange (SPSE) is the only licensed securities exchange in Fiji and is based in Suva. Its vision is to become a regional exchange.",
"title": "Economy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 82,
"text": "Fiji has a significant amount of tourism with the popular regions being Nadi, the Coral Coast, Denarau Island, and Mamanuca Islands. The biggest sources of international visitors by country are Australia, New Zealand and the United States. Fiji has a significant number of soft coral reefs, and scuba diving is a common tourist activity. Fiji's main attractions to tourists are primarily white sandy beaches and aesthetically pleasing islands with all-year tropical weather. In general, Fiji is a mid-range priced holiday/vacation destination with most of the accommodations in this range. It also has a variety of world-class five-star resorts and hotels. More budget resorts are being opened in remote areas, which will provide more tourism opportunities. CNN named Fiji's Laucala Island Resort as one of the fifteen world's most beautiful island hotels.",
"title": "Economy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 83,
"text": "Official statistics show that in 2012, 75% of visitors stated that they came for a holiday/vacation. Honeymoons are very popular as are romantic getaways in general. There are also family-friendly resorts with facilities for young children including kids' clubs and nanny options. Fiji has several popular tourism destinations. The Botanical Gardens of Thursten in Suva, Sigatoka Sand Dunes, and Colo-I-Suva Forest Park are three options on the mainland (Viti Levu). A major attraction on the outer islands is scuba diving.",
"title": "Economy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 84,
"text": "According to the Fiji Bureau of Statistics, most visitors arriving to Fiji on a short-term basis are from the following countries or regions of residence:",
"title": "Economy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 85,
"text": "Fiji has also served as a location for various Hollywood movies starting from the Mr Robinson Crusoe in 1932 to The Blue Lagoon (1980) starring Brooke Shields and Return to the Blue Lagoon (1991) with Milla Jovovich. Other popular movies shot in Fiji include Cast Away (2000) and Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid (2004).",
"title": "Economy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 86,
"text": "The U.S. version of the reality television show Survivor has filmed all of its semiannual seasons in the Mamanuca Islands since its 33rd season in 2016. Typically, two 39-day competitions will be filmed back to back, with the first season airing in the fall of that year, and the second airing in the spring of the following year. This marks the longest consecutive period that Survivor has filmed in one location. Before the airing of the 35th season (Survivor: Heroes vs. Healers vs. Hustlers), host Jeff Probst said in an interview with Entertainment Weekly that the Mamanucas are the optimal location for the show and he would like to stay there permanently.",
"title": "Economy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 87,
"text": "The Nadi International Airport is located 9 kilometres (5.6 mi) north of central Nadi and is the largest Fijian hub. Nausori International Airport is about 23 kilometres (14 mi) northeast of downtown Suva and serves mostly domestic traffic with flights from Australia and New Zealand. The main airport in the second largest island of Vanua Levu is Labasa Airport located at Waiqele, southwest of Labasa Town. The largest aircraft handled by Labasa Airport is the ATR 72. Airports Fiji Limited (AFL) is responsible for the operation of 15 public airports in the Fiji Islands. These include two international airports: Nadi international Airport, Fiji's main international gateway, and Nausori Airport, Fiji's domestic hub, and 13 outer island airports. Fiji's main airline is Fiji Airways.",
"title": "Economy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 88,
"text": "Fiji's larger islands have extensive bus routes that are affordable and consistent in service. There are bus stops, and in rural areas buses are often simply hailed as they approach. Buses are the principal form of public transport and passenger movement between the towns on the main islands. Buses also serve on inter-island ferries. Bus fares and routes are regulated by the Land Transport Authority (LTA). Bus and taxi drivers hold Public Service Licenses issued by the LTA. Taxis are licensed by the LTA and operate widely all over the country. Apart from urban, town-based taxis, there are others that are licensed to serve rural or semi-rural areas.",
"title": "Economy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 89,
"text": "Inter-island ferries provide services between Fiji's principal islands, and large vessels operate roll-on-roll-off services such as Patterson Brothers Shipping Company LTD, transporting vehicles and large amounts of cargo between the main island of Viti Levu and Vanua Levu, and other smaller islands.",
"title": "Economy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 90,
"text": "Fiji is the only developing Pacific Island country with recent data for gross domestic expenditure on research and development (GERD), with the exception of Papua New Guinea. The national Bureau of Statistics cites a GERD/GDP ratio of 0.15% in 2012. Private-sector research and development (R&D) is negligible. Government investment in research and development tends to favour agriculture. In 2007, agriculture and primary production accounted for just under half of government expenditure on R&D, according to the Fijian National Bureau of Statistics. This share had risen to almost 60% by 2012. However, scientists publish much more in the field of geosciences and health than in agriculture. The rise in government spending on agricultural research has come to the detriment of research in education, which dropped to 35% of total research spending between 2007 and 2012. Government expenditure on health research has remained fairly constant, at about 5% of total government research spending, according to the Fijian National Bureau of Statistics.",
"title": "Science and technology"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 91,
"text": "The Fijian Ministry of Health is seeking to develop endogenous research capacity through the Fiji Journal of Public Health, which it launched in 2012. A new set of guidelines are now in place to help build endogenous capacity in health research through training and access to new technology.",
"title": "Science and technology"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 92,
"text": "Fiji is also planning to diversify its energy sector through the use of science and technology. In 2015, the Secretariat of the Pacific Community observed that \"while Fiji, Papua New Guinea and Samoa are leading the way with large-scale hydropower projects, there is enormous potential to expand the deployment of other renewable energy options such as solar, wind, geothermal and ocean-based energy sources.\"",
"title": "Science and technology"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 93,
"text": "In 2014, the Centre of Renewable Energy became operational at the University of Fiji, with the assistance of the Renewable Energy in Pacific Island Countries Developing Skills and Capacity programme (EPIC) funded by the European Union. From 2013 to 2017, the European Union funded the EPIC programme, which developed two master's programmes in renewable energy management, one at the University of Papua New Guinea and the other at the University of Fiji, both accredited in 2016. In Fiji, 45 students have enrolled for the master's degree since the launch of the programme and a further 21 students have undertaken a related diploma programme introduced in 2019.",
"title": "Science and technology"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 94,
"text": "In 2020, the Regional Pacific Nationally Determined Contributions Hub Office in Fiji was launched to support climate change mitigation and adaptation. Pacific authors on the frontlines of climate change remain underrepresented in the scientific literature on the impact of disasters and on climate resilience strategies.",
"title": "Science and technology"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 95,
"text": "The 2017 census found that the population of Fiji was 884,887, compared to the population of 837,271 in the 2007 census. The population density at the time of the 2007 census was 45.8 inhabitants per square kilometre. The life expectancy in Fiji was 72.1 years. Since the 1930s the population of Fiji has increased at a rate of 1.1% per year. The median age of the population was 29.9, and the gender ratio was 1.03 males per 1 female.",
"title": "Society"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 96,
"text": "The population of Fiji is mostly made up of native Fijians, who are Melanesians (54.3%), although many also have Polynesian ancestry; and Indo-Fijians (38.1%), descendants of Indian contract labourers brought to the islands by the British colonial powers in the 19th century. The percentage of the population of Indo-Fijian descent has declined significantly over the last two decades through migration for various reasons. Indo-Fijians suffered reprisals for a period after the coup of 2000. Relationships between ethnic Fijians and Indo-Fijians in the political arena have often been strained, and the tension between the two communities has dominated politics in the islands for the past generation. The level of political tension varies among different regions of the country.",
"title": "Society"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 97,
"text": "About 1.2% of the population is Rotuman – natives of Rotuma Island, whose culture has more in common with countries such as Tonga or Samoa than with the rest of Fiji. There are also small but economically significant groups of Europeans, Chinese, and other Pacific island minorities. The membership of other ethnic groups is about 4.5%. 3,000 people or 0.3% of the people living in Fiji are from Australia.",
"title": "Society"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 98,
"text": "The concept of family and community is of great importance to Fijian culture. Within the indigenous communities many members of the extended family will adopt particular titles and roles of direct guardians. Kinship is determined through a child's lineage to a particular spiritual leader, so that a clan is based on traditional customary ties as opposed to actual biological links. These clans, based on the spiritual leader, are known as a matangali. Within the matangali are a number of smaller collectives, known as the mbito. The descent is patrilineal, and all the status is derived from the father's side.",
"title": "Society"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 99,
"text": "Constitutionally, citizens of Fiji were previously referred to as \"Fiji Islanders\" though the term Fiji Nationals was used for official purposes. However, the current constitution refers to all Fijian citizens as \"Fijians\". In August 2008, shortly before the proposed People's Charter for Change, Peace and Progress was due to be released to the public, it was announced that it recommended a change in the name of Fiji's citizens. If the proposal were adopted, all citizens of Fiji, whatever their ethnicity, would be called \"Fijians\". The proposal would change the English name of indigenous Fijians from \"Fijians\" to itaukei, the Fijian language endonym for indigenous Fijians. Deposed Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase reacted by stating that the name \"Fijian\" belonged exclusively to indigenous Fijians, and that he would oppose any change in legislation enabling non-indigenous Fijians to use it. The Methodist Church, to which a large majority of indigenous Fijians belong, also reacted strongly to the proposal, stating that allowing any Fiji citizen to call themselves \"Fijian\" would be \"daylight robbery\" inflicted on the indigenous population.",
"title": "Society"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 100,
"text": "In an address to the nation during the constitutional crisis of April 2009, military leader and interim Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama, who has been at the forefront of the attempt to change the definition of \"Fijian\", stated:",
"title": "Society"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 101,
"text": "I know we all have our different ethnicities, our different cultures and we should, we must, celebrate our diversity and richness. However, at the same time we are all Fijians. We are all equal citizens. We must all be loyal to Fiji; we must be patriotic; we must put Fiji first.",
"title": "Society"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 102,
"text": "In May 2010, Attorney-General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum reiterated that the term \"Fijian\" should apply to all Fiji nationals, but the statement was again met with protest. A spokesperson for the Viti Landowners and Resource Owners Association claimed that even fourth-generation descendants of migrants did not fully understand \"what it takes to be a Fijian\", and added that the term refers to a legal standing, since legislation affords specific rights to \"Fijians\" (meaning, in legislation, indigenous Fijians).",
"title": "Society"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 103,
"text": "Fiji has three official languages under the 1997 constitution (and not revoked by the 2013 Constitution): English, Fijian (iTaukei) and Fiji Hindi. Fijian is an Austronesian language of the Malayo-Polynesian family spoken in Fiji. It has 350,000 native speakers, and another 200,000 speak it as a second language.",
"title": "Society"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 104,
"text": "There are many dialects of the language across the Fiji Islands, which may be classified in two major branches—eastern and western. Missionaries in the 1840s chose an eastern dialect, the speech of Bau Island to be the written standard of the Fijian language. Bau Island was home to Seru Epenisa Cakobau, the chief who eventually became the self-proclaimed King of Fiji.",
"title": "Society"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 105,
"text": "Fiji Hindi, also known as Fijian Baat or Fijian Hindustani, is the language spoken by most Fijian citizens of Indian descent. It is derived mainly from the Awadhi and Bhojpuri varieties of Hindi. It has also borrowed a large number of words from Fijian and English. The relation between Fiji Hindi and Standard Hindi is similar to the relation between Afrikaans and Dutch. Indian indentured labourers were initially brought to Fiji mainly from districts of eastern Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, North-West Frontier and South India such as from Andhra and Tamil Nadu. They spoke numerous, mainly Hindi, dialects and languages depending on their district of origin.",
"title": "Society"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 106,
"text": "English, a remnant of British colonial rule over the islands, was the sole official language until 1997 and is widely used in government, business and education as a lingua franca.",
"title": "Society"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 107,
"text": "Religion in Fiji (2007)",
"title": "Society"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 108,
"text": "According to the 2007 census, 64.4% of the population at the time was Christian, while 27.9% was Hindu, 6.3% Muslim, 0.8% non-religious, 0.3% Sikh, and the remaining 0.3% belonged to other religions. Among Christians, 54% were counted as Methodist, followed by 14.2% Catholic, 8.9% Assemblies of God, 6.0% Seventh-day Adventist, 1.2% Anglican with the remaining 16.1% belonging to other denominations.",
"title": "Society"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 109,
"text": "The largest Christian denomination is the Methodist Church of Fiji and Rotuma. With 34.6% of the population (including almost two-thirds of ethnic Fijians), the proportion of the population adhering to Methodism is higher in Fiji than in any other nation. Fijian Catholics are administered by the Archdiocese of Suva. The archdiocese is the metropolitan see of an ecclesiastical province which includes the Dioceses of Rarotonga (on the Cook Islands, for those and Niue, both New Zealand-associated countries) and Tarawa and Nauru (with see at Tarawa on Kiribati, also for Nauru) and the Mission sui iuris of Tokelau (New Zealand).",
"title": "Society"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 110,
"text": "The Assemblies of God and the Seventh-day Adventist denominations are significantly represented. Fiji is the base for the Anglican Diocese of Polynesia (part of the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia).These and other denominations have small numbers of Indo-Fijian members; Christians of all kinds comprised 6.1% of the Indo-Fijian population in the 1996 census. Hindus in Fiji mostly belong to the Sanatan sect (74.3% of all Hindus) or else are unspecified (22%). Muslims in Fiji are mostly Sunni (96.4%).",
"title": "Society"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 111,
"text": "Fiji has a high literacy rate (91.6 percent), and although there is no compulsory education, more than 85 percent of the children between the ages of 6 and 13 attend primary school. Schooling is free and provided by both public and church-run schools. Generally, the Fijian and Hindu children attend separate schools, reflecting the political split that exists in the nation.",
"title": "Society"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 112,
"text": "In Fiji, the role of government in education is to provide an environment in which children realise their full potential, and school is free from age 6 to 14. The primary school system consists of eight years of schooling and is attended by children from the ages of 6 to 14 years. Upon completion of primary school, a certificate is awarded and the student is eligible to take the secondary school examination.",
"title": "Society"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 113,
"text": "High school education may continue for a total of five years following an entry examination. Students either leave after three years with a Fiji school leaving certificate, or remain on to complete their final two years and qualify for tertiary education. Entry into the secondary school system, which is a total of five years, is determined by a competitive examination. Students passing the exam then follow a three-year course that leads to the Fiji School Leaving Certificate and the opportunity to attend senior secondary school. At the end of this level, they may take the Form VII examination, which covers four or five subjects. Successful completion of this process gains students access to higher education.",
"title": "Society"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 114,
"text": "The University of the South Pacific, called the crossroads of the South Pacific because it serves ten English-speaking territories in the South Pacific, is the major provider of higher education. Admission to the university requires a secondary school diploma, and all students must take a one-year foundation course at the university regardless of their major. Financing for the university is derived from school fees, funds from the Fiji government and other territories, and aid from Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and the United Kingdom. In addition to the university, Fiji also has teacher-training colleges, as well as medical, technological, and agricultural schools. Primary school teachers are trained for two years, whereas secondary school teachers train for three years; they then have the option to receive a diploma in education or read for a bachelor's degree in arts or science and continue for an additional year to earn a postgraduate certificate of education.",
"title": "Society"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 115,
"text": "The Fiji Polytechnic School offers training in various trades, apprenticeship courses, and other courses that lead to diplomas in engineering, hotel catering, and business studies. Some of the course offerings can also lead to several City and Guilds of London Institute Examinations. In addition to the traditional educational system, Fiji also offers the opportunity to obtain an education through distance learning. The University Extension Service provides centres and a network of terminals in most regional areas. For students taking non-credit courses, no formal qualifications are necessary. However, students who enroll in the credit courses may be awarded the appropriate degree or certificate upon successful completion of their studies through the extension services.",
"title": "Society"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 116,
"text": "While indigenous Fijian culture and traditions are very vibrant and are integral components of everyday life for the majority of Fiji's population, Fijian society has evolved over the past century with the introduction of traditions such as Indian and Chinese as well as significant influences from Europe and Fiji's Pacific neighbours, particularly Tonga and Samoa. Thus, the various cultures of Fiji have come together to create a unique multicultural national identity.",
"title": "Culture"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 117,
"text": "Fiji's culture was showcased at the World Exposition held in Vancouver, Canada, in 1986 and more recently at the Shanghai World Expo 2010, along with other Pacific countries in the Pacific Pavilion.",
"title": "Culture"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 118,
"text": "Sports are very popular in Fiji, particularly sports involving physical contact. Fiji's national sport is Rugby sevens. Cricket is a minor sport in Fiji. Cricket Fiji is an associate member of the International Cricket Council (\"ICC\"). Netball is the most popular women's participation sport in Fiji. The national team has been internationally competitive, at Netball World Cup competitions reaching 6th position in 1999, its highest level to date. The team won gold medals at the 2007 and 2015 Pacific Games.",
"title": "Culture"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 119,
"text": "Because of the success of Fiji's national basketball teams, the popularity of basketball has experienced rapid growth in recent years. In the past, the country only had few basketball courts, which severely limited Fijians who desired to practice the sport more frequently. Through recent efforts by the national federation Basketball Fiji and with the support of the Australian government, many schools have been able to construct courts and provide their students with basketball equipment.",
"title": "Culture"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 120,
"text": "Vijay Singh, a PGA golfer from Fiji, was ranked the world number one male golfer for a total of 32 weeks.",
"title": "Culture"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 121,
"text": "Rugby Union is the most-popular team sport played in Fiji. The Fiji national sevens side is a popular and successful international rugby sevens team and has won the Hong Kong Sevens a record eighteen times since its inception in 1976. Fiji has also won the Rugby World Cup Sevens twice – in 1997 and 2005. The Fiji national rugby union sevens team is the reigning Sevens World Series Champions in World Rugby. In 2016, they won Fiji's first ever Olympic medal in the Rugby sevens at the Summer Olympics, winning gold by defeating Great Britain 43–7 in the final.",
"title": "Culture"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 122,
"text": "The national rugby union team is a member of the Pacific Islands Rugby Alliance formerly along with Samoa and Tonga. In 2009, Samoa announced their departure from the Pacific Islands Rugby Alliance, leaving just Fiji and Tonga in the union. Fiji is currently ranked eleventh in the world by the IRB (as of 28 December 2015). The national rugby union team has competed at five Rugby World Cup competitions, the first being in 1987, where they reached the quarter-finals. The team again qualified in the 2007 Rugby World Cup when they upset Wales 38–34 to progress to the quarter-finals where they lost to the eventual Rugby World Cup winners, South Africa.",
"title": "Culture"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 123,
"text": "Fiji competes in the Pacific Tri-Nations and the IRB Pacific Nations Cup. The sport is governed by the Fiji Rugby Union which is a member of the Pacific Islands Rugby Alliance, and contributes to the Pacific Islanders rugby union team. At the club level there are the Skipper Cup and Farebrother Trophy Challenge.",
"title": "Culture"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 124,
"text": "The Fiji national rugby league team, nicknamed the Bati (pronounced [mˈbatʃi]), represents Fiji in the sport of rugby league football and has been participating in international competition since 1992. It has competed in the Rugby League World Cup on three occasions, with their best results coming when they made consecutive semi-final appearances in the 2008 Rugby League World Cup, 2013 Rugby League World Cup and 2019 Rugby League World Cup. The team also competes in the Pacific Cup.",
"title": "Culture"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 125,
"text": "Association football was traditionally a minor sport in Fiji, popular largely amongst the Indo-Fijian community, but with international funding from FIFA and sound local management over the past decade, the sport has grown in popularity in the wider Fijian community. It is now the second most-popular sport in Fiji, after rugby for men and after netball for women.",
"title": "Culture"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 126,
"text": "The Fiji Football Association is a member of the Oceania Football Confederation. The national football team defeated New Zealand 2–0 in the 2008 OFC Nations Cup, on their way to a joint-record third-place finish. However, they have never reached a FIFA World Cup to date. Fiji won the Pacific Games football tournament in 1991 and 2003. Fiji qualified for the 2016 Summer Olympics men's tournament for the first time in history.",
"title": "Culture"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 127,
"text": "18°S 179°E / 18°S 179°E / -18; 179",
"title": "External links"
}
] |
Fiji, officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies about 1,100 nautical miles north-northeast of New Zealand. Fiji consists of an archipelago of more than 330 islands—of which about 110 are permanently inhabited—and more than 500 islets, amounting to a total land area of about 18,300 square kilometres (7,100 sq mi). The most outlying island group is Ono-i-Lau. About 87% of the total population of 924,610 live on the two major islands, Viti Levu and Vanua Levu. About three-quarters of Fijians live on Viti Levu's coasts, either in the capital city of Suva, or in smaller urban centres such as Nadi or Lautoka. The interior of Viti Levu is sparsely inhabited because of its terrain. The majority of Fiji's islands were formed by volcanic activity starting around 150 million years ago. Some geothermal activity still occurs today on the islands of Vanua Levu and Taveuni. The geothermal systems on Viti Levu are non-volcanic in origin and have low-temperature surface discharges. Humans have lived in Fiji since the second millennium BC—first Austronesians and later Melanesians, with some Polynesian influences. Europeans first visited Fiji in the 17th century. In 1874, after a brief period in which Fiji was an independent kingdom, the British established the Colony of Fiji. Fiji operated as a Crown colony until 1970, when it gained independence and became known as the Dominion of Fiji. In 1987, following a series of coups d'état, the military government that had taken power declared it a republic. In a 2006 coup, Commodore Frank Bainimarama seized power. In 2009, the Fijian High Court ruled that the military leadership was unlawful. At that point, President Ratu Josefa Iloilo, whom the military had retained as the nominal head of state, formally abrogated the 1997 Constitution and re-appointed Bainimarama as interim prime minister. Later in 2009, Ratu Epeli Nailatikau succeeded Iloilo as president. On 17 September 2014, after years of delays, a democratic election took place. Bainimarama's FijiFirst party won 59.2% of the vote, and international observers deemed the election credible. Fiji has one of the most developed economies in the Pacific through its abundant forest, mineral, and fish resources. The currency is the Fijian dollar, with the main sources of foreign exchange being the tourist industry, remittances from Fijians working abroad, bottled water exports, and sugar cane. The Ministry of Local Government and Urban Development supervises Fiji's local government, which takes the form of city and town councils.
|
2001-09-08T18:26:14Z
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2023-12-06T04:10:02Z
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiji
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10,709 |
Geography of Finland
|
The geography of Finland is characterized by its northern position, its ubiquitous landscapes of intermingled boreal forests and lakes, and its low population density. Finland can be divided into three areas: archipelagoes and coastal lowlands, a slightly higher central lake plateau and uplands to north and northeast. Bordering the Baltic Sea, Gulf of Bothnia, and Gulf of Finland, as well as Sweden, Norway, and Russia, Finland is the northernmost country in the European Union. Most of the population and agricultural resources are concentrated in the south. Northern and eastern Finland are sparsely populated containing vast wilderness areas. Taiga forest is the dominant vegetation type.
Finland's total area is 337,030 km (130,128 sq mi). Of this area 10% is water, 69% forest, 8% cultivated land and 13% other. Finland is the eighth largest country in Europe after Russia, France, Ukraine, Spain, Sweden, Norway and Germany.
As a whole, the shape of Finland's boundaries resembles a figure of a one-armed human. In Finnish, parallels are drawn between the figure and the national personification of Finland – Finnish Maiden (Suomi-neito) – and the country as a whole can be referred in the Finnish language by her name. Even in official context the area around Enontekiö in northwestern part of the country between Sweden and Norway can be referred to as the "Arm" (käsivarsi). After the Continuation War Finland lost major land areas to Russia in the Moscow Armistice of 1944, and the figure was said to have lost the other of her arms, as well as a hem of her "skirt".
The bedrock of Finland belong to the Baltic Shield and was formed by a succession of orogenies in Precambrian time. The oldest rocks of Finland, those of Archean age, are found in the east and north. These rocks are chiefly granitoids and migmatitic gneiss. Rocks in central and western Finland originated or came to place during the Svecokarelian orogeny. Following this last orogeny Rapakivi granites intruded various locations of Finland during the Mesoproterozoic and Neoproterozoic, specially at Åland and the southeast. So-called Jotnian sediments occur usually together with Rapakivi granites. The youngest rocks in Finland are those found in the northwestern arm which belong to Scandinavian Caledonides that assembled in Paleozoic times. During the Caledonian orogeny Finland was likely a sunken foreland basin covered by sediments, subsequent uplift and erosion would have eroded all of these sediments.
About one third of Finland lies below 100 m, and about two thirds lies under 200 m. Finland can be divided into three topographical areas; the coastal landscapes, the interior lake plateau also known as Finnish lake district and Upland Finland. The coastal landscapes are made up mostly of plains below 20 m. These plains tilt gently towards the sea so that where its irregularities surpasses sea-level groups of islands like the Kvarken Archipelago or the Åland Islands are found. Åland is connected to the Finnish mainland by a shallow submarine plateau that does not exceed 20 m in depth. Next to the Gulf of Bothnia the landscape of Finland is extremely flat with height differences no larger than 50 m. This region called the Ostrobothnian Plain extends inland about 100 km and constitute the largest plain in the Nordic countries.
The interior lake plateau is dominated by undulating hilly terrain with valley to top height differences of 100 or less and occasionally up to 200 m. Only the area around the lakes Pielinen and Päijänne stand with a subtly more pronounced relief. The relief of the interior lake plateau bears some resemblance to the Swedish Norrland terrain. Upland Finland and areas higher than 200 m are found mostly in the north and east of the country. A limited number of hills and mountains exceed 500 m in height in these regions. Inselberg plains are common in the northern half of the country. In the far north hills reach 200 to 400 m and the landscape is a förfjäll (fore-fell). Only the extreme northwest contains a more dramatic mountain landscape.
The subdued landscape of Finland is the result of protracted erosion that has leveled down ancient mountain massifs into near-flat landforms called peneplains. The last major leveling event resulted in the formation of the Sub-Cambrian peneplain in Late Neoproterozoic time. While Finland has remained very close to sea-level since the formation of this last peneplain some further relief was formed by a slight uplift resulting in the carving of valleys by rivers. The slight uplift also means that at parts the uplifted peneplain can be traced as summit accordances. The Quaternary ice ages resulted in the erosion of weak rock and loose materials by glaciers. When the ice masses retreated eroded depressions turned into lakes. Fractures in Finland's bedrock were particularly affected by weathering and erosion, leaving as result trace straight sea and lake inlets.
Except a few rivers along the coasts most rivers in Finland drain at some stage into one or more lakes. The drainage basins drain into various directions. Much of Finland drains into the Gulf of Bothnia including the country's largest and longest rivers, Kokemäenjoki and Kemijoki respectively. Finland's largest lake drains by Vuoksi River into Lake Ladoga in Russia. Upland Finland in the east drains east across Russian Republic of Karelia into the White Sea. In the northeast Lake Inari discharges by Paatsjoki into Barents Sea in the Arctic.
The ice sheet that covered Finland intermittently during the Quaternary grew out from the Scandinavian Mountains. During the last deglaciation the first parts of Finland to become ice-free, the southeastern coast, did so slightly prior to the Younger Dryas cold-spell 12,700 years before present (BP). The retreat of the ice cover occurred simultaneously from the north-east, the east and southeast. The retreat was fastest from the southeast resulting in the lower course of Tornio being the last part of Finland to be deglaciated. Finally by 10,100 years BP the ice cover had all but left Finland to concentrate in Sweden and Norway before fading away.
As the ice sheet became thinner and retreated the land begun to rise by effect of isostacy. Much of Finland was under water when the ice retreated and was gradually uplifted in a process that continues today. Albeit not all areas were drowned at the same time it is estimated at time or another about 62% has been under water. Depending on location in Finland the ancient shoreline reached different maximum heights. In southern Finland 150 to 160 m, in central Finland about 200 m and in eastern Finland up to 220 m.
Latitude is the principal influence on Finland's climate. Because of Finland's northern location, winter is the longest season. Only in the south coast is summer as long as winter. On the average, winter lasts from early December to mid March in the archipelago and the southwestern coast and from early October to early May in Lapland. This means that southern portions of the country are snow-covered about three months of the year and the northern, about seven months. The long winter causes about half of the annual 500 to 600 millimetres (19.7 to 23.6 in) of precipitation in the north to fall as snow. Precipitation in the south amounts to about 600 to 700 millimetres (23.6 to 27.6 in) annually. Like that of the north, it occurs all through the year, though not so much of it is snow.
The Atlantic Ocean to the west and the Eurasian continent to the east interact to modify the climate of the country. The warm waters of the Gulf Stream and the North Atlantic Drift Current, which warm Norway and Sweden, also warm Finland. Westerly winds bring the warm air currents into the Baltic areas and to the country's shores, moderating winter temperatures, especially in the south. These winds, because of clouds associated with weather systems accompanying the westerlies, also decrease the amount of sunshine received during the summer. By contrast, the continental high pressure system situated over the Eurasian continent counteracts the maritime influences, occasionally causing severe winters and high temperatures in the summer.
The highest ever recorded temperature is 37.2 °C (99.0 °F) (Liperi, 29 July 2010). The lowest, −51.5 °C (−60.7 °F) (Kittilä, 28 January 1999). The annual middle temperature is relatively high in the southwestern part of the country (5.0 to 7.5 °C or 41.0 to 45.5 °F), with quite mild winters and warm summers, and low in the northeastern part of Lapland (0 to −4 °C or 32 to 25 °F).
Temperature extremes for every month:
Extreme highs:
Extreme lows:
Area: total: 338,145 km (130,559 sq mi) land: 303,815 km (117,304 sq mi) water: 34,330 km (13,250 sq mi)
Area – comparative: slightly smaller than Germany, Montana, and Newfoundland and Labrador
Land boundaries: total: 2,563 km (1,593 mi) border countries: Norway 709 km (441 mi), Sweden 545 km (339 mi), Russia 1,309 km (813 mi)
Coastline: 31.119 km (19.336 mi)
Maritime claims: Territorial sea: 12 nmi (22.2 km; 13.8 mi), 3 nmi (5.56 km; 3.45 mi) in the Gulf of Finland; there is a stretch of international waters between Finnish and Estonian claims; Bogskär has separate internal waters and 3 nmi of territorial waters Contiguous zone: 24 nmi (44.4 km; 27.6 mi) Exclusive economic zone: 87,171 km (33,657 sq mi); extends to continental shelf boundary with Sweden, Estonia, and Russia Continental shelf: 200 m (660 ft) depth or to the depth of exploitation
Elevation extremes: lowest point: Baltic Sea 0 m highest point: Haltitunturi 1,328 m (4,357 ft)
Natural resources: timber, iron ore, copper, lead, zinc, chromite, nickel, gold, silver, limestone
Land use:
agricultural land: 7.5% (2018 est.)
arable land: 7.4% (2018 est.)
permanent crops: 0% (2018 est.)
permanent pasture: 0.1% (2018 est.)
forest: 72.9% (2018 est.)
other: 19.6% (2018 est.)
Irrigated land: 690 km (2012)
Total renewable water resources: 110 billion m (2017 est.)
Freshwater withdrawal (domestic/industrial/agricultural):
municipal: 400 million m (2017 est.)
industrial: 1.417 billion m (2017 est.)
agricultural: 50 million m (2017 est.)
Natural hazards: Cold periods in winter pose a threat to the unprepared.
Environment – current issues: Air pollution from manufacturing and power plants contributing to acid rain; water pollution from industrial wastes, agricultural chemicals; habitat loss threatens wildlife populations.
Environment – international agreements: party to: Air Pollution, Air Pollution-Heavy Metals, Air Pollution-Multi-effect Protocol, Air Pollution-Nitrogen Oxides, Air Pollution-Persistent Organic Pollutants (signed 2001, ratified 2002), Air Pollution-Sulphur 85, Air Pollution-Sulphur 94, Air Pollution-Volatile Organic Compounds, Antarctic-Environmental Protection, Antarctic-Marine Living Resources, Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol (signed May 1998, ratified together with 14 other EU countries May 31, 2002), Climate Change-Paris Agreement, Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban, Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping-London Convention, Marine Dumping-London Protocol, Marine Life Conservation, Nuclear Test Ban, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 2006, Wetlands, Whaling.
|
[
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "The geography of Finland is characterized by its northern position, its ubiquitous landscapes of intermingled boreal forests and lakes, and its low population density. Finland can be divided into three areas: archipelagoes and coastal lowlands, a slightly higher central lake plateau and uplands to north and northeast. Bordering the Baltic Sea, Gulf of Bothnia, and Gulf of Finland, as well as Sweden, Norway, and Russia, Finland is the northernmost country in the European Union. Most of the population and agricultural resources are concentrated in the south. Northern and eastern Finland are sparsely populated containing vast wilderness areas. Taiga forest is the dominant vegetation type.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "Finland's total area is 337,030 km (130,128 sq mi). Of this area 10% is water, 69% forest, 8% cultivated land and 13% other. Finland is the eighth largest country in Europe after Russia, France, Ukraine, Spain, Sweden, Norway and Germany.",
"title": "Size and external boundaries"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "As a whole, the shape of Finland's boundaries resembles a figure of a one-armed human. In Finnish, parallels are drawn between the figure and the national personification of Finland – Finnish Maiden (Suomi-neito) – and the country as a whole can be referred in the Finnish language by her name. Even in official context the area around Enontekiö in northwestern part of the country between Sweden and Norway can be referred to as the \"Arm\" (käsivarsi). After the Continuation War Finland lost major land areas to Russia in the Moscow Armistice of 1944, and the figure was said to have lost the other of her arms, as well as a hem of her \"skirt\".",
"title": "Size and external boundaries"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "The bedrock of Finland belong to the Baltic Shield and was formed by a succession of orogenies in Precambrian time. The oldest rocks of Finland, those of Archean age, are found in the east and north. These rocks are chiefly granitoids and migmatitic gneiss. Rocks in central and western Finland originated or came to place during the Svecokarelian orogeny. Following this last orogeny Rapakivi granites intruded various locations of Finland during the Mesoproterozoic and Neoproterozoic, specially at Åland and the southeast. So-called Jotnian sediments occur usually together with Rapakivi granites. The youngest rocks in Finland are those found in the northwestern arm which belong to Scandinavian Caledonides that assembled in Paleozoic times. During the Caledonian orogeny Finland was likely a sunken foreland basin covered by sediments, subsequent uplift and erosion would have eroded all of these sediments.",
"title": "Relief and geology"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "About one third of Finland lies below 100 m, and about two thirds lies under 200 m. Finland can be divided into three topographical areas; the coastal landscapes, the interior lake plateau also known as Finnish lake district and Upland Finland. The coastal landscapes are made up mostly of plains below 20 m. These plains tilt gently towards the sea so that where its irregularities surpasses sea-level groups of islands like the Kvarken Archipelago or the Åland Islands are found. Åland is connected to the Finnish mainland by a shallow submarine plateau that does not exceed 20 m in depth. Next to the Gulf of Bothnia the landscape of Finland is extremely flat with height differences no larger than 50 m. This region called the Ostrobothnian Plain extends inland about 100 km and constitute the largest plain in the Nordic countries.",
"title": "Relief and geology"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "The interior lake plateau is dominated by undulating hilly terrain with valley to top height differences of 100 or less and occasionally up to 200 m. Only the area around the lakes Pielinen and Päijänne stand with a subtly more pronounced relief. The relief of the interior lake plateau bears some resemblance to the Swedish Norrland terrain. Upland Finland and areas higher than 200 m are found mostly in the north and east of the country. A limited number of hills and mountains exceed 500 m in height in these regions. Inselberg plains are common in the northern half of the country. In the far north hills reach 200 to 400 m and the landscape is a förfjäll (fore-fell). Only the extreme northwest contains a more dramatic mountain landscape.",
"title": "Relief and geology"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "The subdued landscape of Finland is the result of protracted erosion that has leveled down ancient mountain massifs into near-flat landforms called peneplains. The last major leveling event resulted in the formation of the Sub-Cambrian peneplain in Late Neoproterozoic time. While Finland has remained very close to sea-level since the formation of this last peneplain some further relief was formed by a slight uplift resulting in the carving of valleys by rivers. The slight uplift also means that at parts the uplifted peneplain can be traced as summit accordances. The Quaternary ice ages resulted in the erosion of weak rock and loose materials by glaciers. When the ice masses retreated eroded depressions turned into lakes. Fractures in Finland's bedrock were particularly affected by weathering and erosion, leaving as result trace straight sea and lake inlets.",
"title": "Relief and geology"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "Except a few rivers along the coasts most rivers in Finland drain at some stage into one or more lakes. The drainage basins drain into various directions. Much of Finland drains into the Gulf of Bothnia including the country's largest and longest rivers, Kokemäenjoki and Kemijoki respectively. Finland's largest lake drains by Vuoksi River into Lake Ladoga in Russia. Upland Finland in the east drains east across Russian Republic of Karelia into the White Sea. In the northeast Lake Inari discharges by Paatsjoki into Barents Sea in the Arctic.",
"title": "Relief and geology"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "The ice sheet that covered Finland intermittently during the Quaternary grew out from the Scandinavian Mountains. During the last deglaciation the first parts of Finland to become ice-free, the southeastern coast, did so slightly prior to the Younger Dryas cold-spell 12,700 years before present (BP). The retreat of the ice cover occurred simultaneously from the north-east, the east and southeast. The retreat was fastest from the southeast resulting in the lower course of Tornio being the last part of Finland to be deglaciated. Finally by 10,100 years BP the ice cover had all but left Finland to concentrate in Sweden and Norway before fading away.",
"title": "Relief and geology"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "As the ice sheet became thinner and retreated the land begun to rise by effect of isostacy. Much of Finland was under water when the ice retreated and was gradually uplifted in a process that continues today. Albeit not all areas were drowned at the same time it is estimated at time or another about 62% has been under water. Depending on location in Finland the ancient shoreline reached different maximum heights. In southern Finland 150 to 160 m, in central Finland about 200 m and in eastern Finland up to 220 m.",
"title": "Relief and geology"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "Latitude is the principal influence on Finland's climate. Because of Finland's northern location, winter is the longest season. Only in the south coast is summer as long as winter. On the average, winter lasts from early December to mid March in the archipelago and the southwestern coast and from early October to early May in Lapland. This means that southern portions of the country are snow-covered about three months of the year and the northern, about seven months. The long winter causes about half of the annual 500 to 600 millimetres (19.7 to 23.6 in) of precipitation in the north to fall as snow. Precipitation in the south amounts to about 600 to 700 millimetres (23.6 to 27.6 in) annually. Like that of the north, it occurs all through the year, though not so much of it is snow.",
"title": "Climate"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "The Atlantic Ocean to the west and the Eurasian continent to the east interact to modify the climate of the country. The warm waters of the Gulf Stream and the North Atlantic Drift Current, which warm Norway and Sweden, also warm Finland. Westerly winds bring the warm air currents into the Baltic areas and to the country's shores, moderating winter temperatures, especially in the south. These winds, because of clouds associated with weather systems accompanying the westerlies, also decrease the amount of sunshine received during the summer. By contrast, the continental high pressure system situated over the Eurasian continent counteracts the maritime influences, occasionally causing severe winters and high temperatures in the summer.",
"title": "Climate"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "The highest ever recorded temperature is 37.2 °C (99.0 °F) (Liperi, 29 July 2010). The lowest, −51.5 °C (−60.7 °F) (Kittilä, 28 January 1999). The annual middle temperature is relatively high in the southwestern part of the country (5.0 to 7.5 °C or 41.0 to 45.5 °F), with quite mild winters and warm summers, and low in the northeastern part of Lapland (0 to −4 °C or 32 to 25 °F).",
"title": "Climate"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "Temperature extremes for every month:",
"title": "Climate"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "Extreme highs:",
"title": "Climate"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 15,
"text": "Extreme lows:",
"title": "Climate"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 16,
"text": "Area: total: 338,145 km (130,559 sq mi) land: 303,815 km (117,304 sq mi) water: 34,330 km (13,250 sq mi)",
"title": "Area and boundaries"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 17,
"text": "Area – comparative: slightly smaller than Germany, Montana, and Newfoundland and Labrador",
"title": "Area and boundaries"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 18,
"text": "Land boundaries: total: 2,563 km (1,593 mi) border countries: Norway 709 km (441 mi), Sweden 545 km (339 mi), Russia 1,309 km (813 mi)",
"title": "Area and boundaries"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 19,
"text": "Coastline: 31.119 km (19.336 mi)",
"title": "Area and boundaries"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 20,
"text": "Maritime claims: Territorial sea: 12 nmi (22.2 km; 13.8 mi), 3 nmi (5.56 km; 3.45 mi) in the Gulf of Finland; there is a stretch of international waters between Finnish and Estonian claims; Bogskär has separate internal waters and 3 nmi of territorial waters Contiguous zone: 24 nmi (44.4 km; 27.6 mi) Exclusive economic zone: 87,171 km (33,657 sq mi); extends to continental shelf boundary with Sweden, Estonia, and Russia Continental shelf: 200 m (660 ft) depth or to the depth of exploitation",
"title": "Area and boundaries"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 21,
"text": "Elevation extremes: lowest point: Baltic Sea 0 m highest point: Haltitunturi 1,328 m (4,357 ft)",
"title": "Area and boundaries"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 22,
"text": "Natural resources: timber, iron ore, copper, lead, zinc, chromite, nickel, gold, silver, limestone",
"title": "Resources and land use"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 23,
"text": "Land use:",
"title": "Resources and land use"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 24,
"text": "agricultural land: 7.5% (2018 est.)",
"title": "Resources and land use"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 25,
"text": "arable land: 7.4% (2018 est.)",
"title": "Resources and land use"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 26,
"text": "permanent crops: 0% (2018 est.)",
"title": "Resources and land use"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 27,
"text": "permanent pasture: 0.1% (2018 est.)",
"title": "Resources and land use"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 28,
"text": "forest: 72.9% (2018 est.)",
"title": "Resources and land use"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 29,
"text": "other: 19.6% (2018 est.)",
"title": "Resources and land use"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 30,
"text": "Irrigated land: 690 km (2012)",
"title": "Resources and land use"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 31,
"text": "Total renewable water resources: 110 billion m (2017 est.)",
"title": "Resources and land use"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 32,
"text": "Freshwater withdrawal (domestic/industrial/agricultural):",
"title": "Resources and land use"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 33,
"text": "municipal: 400 million m (2017 est.)",
"title": "Resources and land use"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 34,
"text": "industrial: 1.417 billion m (2017 est.)",
"title": "Resources and land use"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 35,
"text": "agricultural: 50 million m (2017 est.)",
"title": "Resources and land use"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 36,
"text": "Natural hazards: Cold periods in winter pose a threat to the unprepared.",
"title": "Environmental concerns"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 37,
"text": "Environment – current issues: Air pollution from manufacturing and power plants contributing to acid rain; water pollution from industrial wastes, agricultural chemicals; habitat loss threatens wildlife populations.",
"title": "Environmental concerns"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 38,
"text": "Environment – international agreements: party to: Air Pollution, Air Pollution-Heavy Metals, Air Pollution-Multi-effect Protocol, Air Pollution-Nitrogen Oxides, Air Pollution-Persistent Organic Pollutants (signed 2001, ratified 2002), Air Pollution-Sulphur 85, Air Pollution-Sulphur 94, Air Pollution-Volatile Organic Compounds, Antarctic-Environmental Protection, Antarctic-Marine Living Resources, Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol (signed May 1998, ratified together with 14 other EU countries May 31, 2002), Climate Change-Paris Agreement, Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban, Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping-London Convention, Marine Dumping-London Protocol, Marine Life Conservation, Nuclear Test Ban, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 2006, Wetlands, Whaling.",
"title": "Environmental concerns"
}
] |
The geography of Finland is characterized by its northern position, its ubiquitous landscapes of intermingled boreal forests and lakes, and its low population density. Finland can be divided into three areas: archipelagoes and coastal lowlands, a slightly higher central lake plateau and uplands to north and northeast. Bordering the Baltic Sea, Gulf of Bothnia, and Gulf of Finland, as well as Sweden, Norway, and Russia, Finland is the northernmost country in the European Union. Most of the population and agricultural resources are concentrated in the south. Northern and eastern Finland are sparsely populated containing vast wilderness areas. Taiga forest is the dominant vegetation type.
|
2001-09-26T14:19:35Z
|
2023-12-15T09:27:40Z
|
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geography_of_Finland
|
10,710 |
Demographics of Finland
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The demographics of Finland is monitored by the Statistics Finland (Finnish: Tilastokeskus, Swedish: Statistikcentralen). Finland has a population of almost 5.6 million people, ranking it 19th out of 27 within the European Union. The average population density in Finland is 19 inhabitants per square kilometre (49/sq mi), making it the third most sparsely populated country in Europe, after Iceland and Norway. Population distribution is extremely uneven, with the majority of the population concentrated in the southern and western regions of the country. The majority of the Finnish population - approximately 73% - lives in urban areas. Approximately 1.6 million, or almost 30%, reside solely in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area. Conversely, the Arctic Lapland region contains only two inhabitants per square kilometre (5.2/sq mi).
Finland is a predominantly ethnically homogeneous country with a dominant ethnicity of Finnish descent. However, there are notable minority groups in the form of Finland-Swedes, Sámi, and Roma people, with important historical significance. The official languages are Finnish and Swedish, with the latter being the mother tongue of roughly 5.2% of the Finnish populace. Finland was a part of the Swedish kingdom for around 500 years.
Due to recent immigration, significant populations of ethnic Estonians, Russians, Iraqis, Chinese and Somalis now reside in the country. Furthermore, by 2023, Ukrainians had become the second-largest ethnic group in the region, following closely behind the Estonian population.
As of 2022, Statistics Finland publishes data on the foreign population using three distinct methodologies. The Finnish population includes persons of foreign origin and background, who make up 9.1% of the total population. In additional calculations, the proportion of persons born outside Finland is 8.6%. Individuals who have a first language other than Finnish, Swedish or Sámi account for 8.9%.
In the history of Finland, the first human settlement originated approximately 11,000 BC, following the end of the Ice Age. The initial settlers of present-day Finland were presumably hunter-gatherers. They were later replaced by the Sámi, followed by Finnic populations from the east, south and west. The initial dependable population information dates back to 1749 when Swedish officials initially recorded population statistics. Finland was a part of the Swedish Kingdom until it became an autonomous state within the Russian Empire in 1809, and finally gained independence in 1917.
In the late 19th and 20th centuries, significant emigration, primarily from rural areas, occurred to Sweden and North America, while Finland's primary immigrant source was other European countries. Approximately 300,000 Finnish nationals reside abroad and, according to estimates, the number of individuals of Finnish ancestry worldwide ranges from 1.6 to 2 million. Currently, Sweden, the United Kingdom, Germany, the United States, and Spain are the preferred destinations for most Finnish emigrates.
One of the primary challenges facing society in the future is adapting to demographic changes, particularly the aging of the population. The proportion of the working-age population is decreasing, resulting in projected labour shortages. However, immigration has significantly increased in recent years. If the current trend persists, the population of Finland will continue to increase and could even reach the milestone of 6 million people by 2040.
As of 2022, there is an 5,563,970 people in Finland.
Demographic statistics according to the World Population Review in 2022.
The first human settlement in Finland originated around 11,000 BC, following the end of the Ice Age. The initial inhabitants of modern-day Finland were presumably hunter-gatherers. There is no information about the language spoken by the first inhabitants. However, it is known that the Finnish and Sámi languages emerged thousands of years later. Archaeological, linguistic, and genetic studies support the notion that the country was inhabited from south to north, with a population of a few thousand during prehistoric times. The Sámi people then succeeded the previous inhabitants, followed by the influx of Finnic people from the east, west, and south who eventually replaced them. Currently, the Sámi people number around 10,000 in Finland as a minority. Although they have lived north of the Arctic Circle for 7,000 years, they make up only 5% of the population of the province of Lapland.
The reliable population data is available from 1749, when Sweden first compiled population statistics. At that time, the population of Finland stood at 410,400 individuals. The threshold of one million inhabitants was surpassed subsequent to the Finnish War (1808-1809) in 1811, upon the annexation of the Old Finland region. The milestone of five million inhabitants was reached in 1991.
Exceeding the million population milestones:
Until the beginning of the 20th century, annual population growth fluctuated between 1% and 2%. There were a few exceptional years of negative growth during times of war and destruction. The significant demographic and economic transformations that took place in Finland post-World War II impacted the composition of Finnish families. Over time, family sizes reduced noticeably, declining from an average of 3.6 individuals in 1950 to an average of 2.7 in 1975. Despite this change, family structures remained relatively constant during the 25-year period, with 24.4% of families consisting of a man and a woman, 61.9% comprising a couple and children, 11.8% consisting of a woman with offspring, and 1.9% consisting of a man with offspring. There were no substantial differences in percentages compared to 1950.
Nonetheless, fewer children were born per family; the average decreased from 2.24 in 1950 to 1.7 in the 1980s. Large families were infrequent, with only 2% having four or more children, while 51% had a single child; 38% had two children, and 9% had three children. Population growth declined to below 0.5% in the 1970s, and to approximately 0.2% in the 1990s. In recent years, however, population growth has recovered partially, rising to approximately 0.5%, partly due to increased immigration.
As of 2022, the population density of Finland was 18.3 persons per square kilometre. The region of Uusimaa was the most densely populated region with around 190 persons per square kilometre, while Lapland was the least densely populated region with only around two persons per square kilometre. The populace is heavily clustered in the west and south of Finland, where the largest urban centres are situated. There are a total of nine cities in Finland with more than 100,000 residents.
The geographical center of population (Weber point) of the Finnish population is currently located in Hauho, in the village of Sappee, now part of the town of Hämeenlinna. The coordinates of this point are 61' 17" N, 25' 07" E.
As of 2022, the birth rate dropped to its lowest level on record since 1776 with a total fertility rate of 1.32. A total of 44,951 children were born, and 38,179 (85%) of them were delivered by women who speak Finnish, Swedish or Sámi, the country's national languages. As of 2020, the average age of first-time mothers was 29.7 years old. The mean age of women who have given birth to a live child was 31.3 years.
As of 2021, people with a foreign background in Finland had higher fertility rates than those with Finnish roots. Women of foreign descent, either born abroad (1.7) or in Finland (1.65), had the most substantial total fertility rates, averaging 1.45 for all women in Finland. Women of Finnish lineage had a slightly higher fertility rate of 1.4. For men, the total fertility rate was just above 1.3, with Finnish men slightly under the average. In contrast, men of foreign origin, whether born abroad or in Finland, exhibited a fertility rate of approximately 1.45 each. Since 2018, the most frequent countries of affiliation for women of foreign origin delivering infants have been former Soviet Union countries, Somalia, and Iraq.
In the 18th century, Finland recorded a fertility rate of 5-6 children per woman, but population growth was hindered by high infant mortality, with approximately 1 in 5 infants dying before their first birthday. Fertility remained relatively steady in the 19th century, with occasional variations. During times of conflict, such as the Finnish war, and periods of famine, birth rates declined, but eventually normalised. Presently, some developing countries have fertility rates similar to those of Finland in the 18th and 19th centuries.
As the 19th century drew to a close, the traditional agrarian society began to crumble. Simultaneously, the industrial and service sectors witnessed a surge in job opportunities, and urban migration intensified. Manufacturing plants mushroomed in proximity to rivers. Fewer children being born played a role in the rising living standards. However, it is important to note that contraceptive methods were limited to the rhythm method and interrupted intercourse.
The decline in fertility experienced a noteworthy acceleration in the early 20th century. In 1900, the fertility rate stood at 4.8, which plummeted to 2.3 by 1933. In the late 1930s, fertility rates experienced an uptick, but it later plummeted due to the war, particularly in 1940 as a result of the Winter War. Although the ceasefire caused a spike in births, the resumption of hostilities stalled family planning efforts. Post-war in autumn 1944, there was a resurgence in births, leading to a total fertility rate of 3.1 in 1945, reaching a peak of 3.5 in 1947-1948, a record that remains unbroken. However, fertility rates began a steady decline, dipping below the generational renewal threshold of 2.1 by 1969. Finnish fertility rates have not recovered to this level since.
The decline persisted until 1973, when it hit a historic low of 1.5 children per woman. In recent years, there have been fluctuations, with fertility rates fluctuating between 1.7 and 1.9. As of the 2020s, Finland's overall fertility rate has fallen below 1.4.
The fertility rate in Finland exceeded that of neighbouring countries for the duration of the 20th century. However, since 2010, there has been a significant decline, whereas other Nordic countries have not experienced such a trend until more recently. It is a recent development that Sweden and Finland have similar social policies and incomes, however, Finland is the only country experiencing natural population decrease (excluding immigration).
The Finnish population is ageing. Life expectancy has also increased in recent decades. Population growth has mainly been driven by immigration. Furthermore, the population is increasingly concentrated in urban areas in southern and western Finland.
In the mid-18th century, when population statistics were initially recorded, Finland recorded an annual death rate of over 10,000, with yearly fluctuations. The overall mortality rate was at 26 and men had a life expectancy of 36.1 years during the 1750s, while women had an expectancy of 38.4 years. The gender gap in life expectancy was a few years at that time.
The rapid spread of various infectious diseases such as cholera caused mortality up until the 1870s. The war years significantly increased mortality rates in the civilian population. During this time, the highest mortality rates were recorded during the Finnish War of 1808-09 and the cholera outbreak of 1832-33, which caused the deaths of a significant portion of the population. The years 1867-68 were marked as years of high death rates, with the latter year seeing a peak of 137,700 deaths.
Before the turn of the 20th century, mortality rates were notably high, but they gradually decreased thereafter. During that time period, the life expectancy of a newborn saw a significant increase to 42.8 years for men and 45.7 years for women. The gender gap in life expectancy already stood at three years. Starting from the beginning of the 20th century, improvements in hygiene, prevention of communicable diseases, and advancements in vaccinations and medicines played crucial roles in accelerating the decline in mortality rates, as compared to previous decades. On the eve of World War II, life expectancy for males stood at 53.4 years and for females, 59.0 years, constituting a five-year gap between them. The life expectancy took almost two centuries to increase by 20 years since the 18th century. In contrast, the succeeding two decades only required 40 years to attain the same growth by the mid-20th century.
Data from Statistics Finland, which is the official agency for the collection of statistics in Finland.
Finland has two official languages (national languages): Finnish and Swedish. In addition, there are other languages that are officially recognised by the authorities, but are not national languages. The Sámi languages are those of Finland's indigenous people. Indigenous languages with a long history in Finland include Finnish Romani (Kalo), Finnish Sign Language, Finnish-Swedish Sign Language and Karelian. Finnish, which belongs to the Uralic languages, is spoken by approximately 4.9 million people in Finland as a first language and by more than 0.5 million as a second language. It's also spoken in Sweden, Norway, Eastern Karelia, Ingria (Russia), the USA and Australia, with various dialects. Written Finnish dates back 500 years.
Swedish, an Indo-European language within the North Germanic branch, is spoken by approximately 9 million people worldwide, including 296,000 speakers in Finland. Finland Swedish is a regional variety that aims to remain similar to the Swedish spoken in Sweden. The Sámi languages, which are indigenous to Europe and closely related to the Finnic languages, have approximately 60,000-100,000 speakers, of whom 10,000 live in Finland. There are three Sámi languages in Finland: Inari Sámi, Skolt Sámi and Northern Sámi, each with its own written form. Since 1992 they have had official status in certain areas of Lapland.
Karelian, spoken in Finland and Russia, is the closest linguistic relative of Finnish. There are fewer than 100,000 speakers of Karelian, with approximately 5,000 in Finland. Romani, an Indo-European language, belongs to the Indo-Aryan subgroup of the Indo-Iranian branch. Finnish Romani is one of the Northern Romani dialects and has been spoken in Finland for approximately 450 years. Efforts to preserve it as a literary language began in the 1970s. Finnish Sign Language serves as the primary language for 4,000-5,000 deaf Finns and is used as a first or second language by 6,000-9,000 hearing Finns. Finnish-Swedish Sign Language, on the other hand, is endangered, with only 90 users left.
All mainland municipalities are monolingual in Finnish or bilingual in Finnish and Swedish. None is monolingual Swedish. However, Swedish is the only official language on the autonomous island of Åland.
Population by mother tongue (2022)
As of 2022, 495,992 people, or 8.9%, live in Finland with a first language other than Finnish, Swedish or Sámi. More than 150 foreign languages are spoken in Finland. However, most of them have only few speakers. Historically, Finland has been a bilingual country where only Finnish or Swedish was spoken. This is slowly changing as the rate of immigration has increased in last three decades. The majority of the Finnish population is able to communicate in English. However, the foreign population is expected to study and speak Finnish or Swedish if they want to integrate into Finnish society.
As of 2022, the most common foreign languages are Russian (1.7%), Estonian (0.9%), Arabic (0.7%) and English (0.5%). Approximately 70% of the country's foreign speakers live in Finland's six largest cities.
As of 2022, Statistics Finland produces statistics on foreign nationals in three different ways:
No official statistics exist on ethnicities. Nonetheless, the Finnish population statistics are available according to the birth countries of the residents' parents (foreign background/origin statistics). International census recommendations define an ethnic group by the perception of its members of historical, regional, or national origin. Therefore, data on ethnic status should always be sourced from a person's own statement. Due to the fact that Finland's census is registry-based, official statistics regarding ethnic groups cannot be provided.
Origin and background country - the definition used by Statistics Finland includes all individuals with at least one parent born in Finland as being of Finnish background. Individuals with both parents or only one known parent born abroad are classified as having foreign heritage. If both parents of an individual were born abroad, the mother's country of birth is primarily considered as the background country. For all individuals of Finnish heritage, the background country is Finland.
The definition used by Statistics Finland for country of birth is based on the mother's country of permanent residence at the time of birth. Consequently, Estonian immigrants born before Estonian independence are recorded as being born in the Soviet Union, and those born in territories ceded by Finland are listed as being born in Finland, regardless of subsequent territorial changes. This information reflects the government in power at the time of birth and is devoid of subjective evaluations.
Historically, Finnish emigration began in the 16th century, when Finns worked in Swedish mines, and continued until the 1970s. About 100,000 Finns emigrated to Russia during the Tsarist period, mainly to St Petersburg. Large-scale emigration began in the late 19th century, with about 400,000 Finns moving to the United States and Canada by 1980. After the Second World War, many Finns emigrated to Sweden, reaching a peak in 1970 when 41,000 settled there. An estimated 250,000 to 300,000 Finns became permanent residents of Sweden after the war. However, migration slowed in the 1980s, with more Finns returning than leaving.
The impact of emigration on the Finnish labour force and birth rate has been significant. Finland has experienced two major waves of emigration: one at the beginning of the 20th century, when more than 300,000 Finns went to North America, and another from the 1950s to the 1970s, when 400,000 Finns moved to Sweden, forming large expatriate communities.
Apart from these major flows, there have been smaller migrations around the world and some Finns live in different countries. In the 21st century about 14,000 people, mostly of Finnish origin, emigrate every year. Many are well-educated and may return to Finland after a few years. About 300,000 Finnish citizens live abroad and it's estimated that about 1.5 million people of Finnish origin live overseas.
Migration has played an important role in shaping Finnish society throughout its history. Notable instances are the Forest Finns' migration to Sweden during the 15th century and the relocation of Ingrians to the present-day St Petersburg region during the 17th century. Changes in borders resulted in the formation of Finnish settlements outside its territory. Wars and political conflicts led to massive population movements, such as the Karelian evacuation during World War II, which exiled roughly 420,000 individuals within Finland's borders.
Until the 1960s, Finland was predominantly an agricultural society. However, waves of urbanization and political transitions have contributed to migration movements. Currently, urbanization continues to be a significant internal migration pattern, with growth centers and sparsely populated regions. Approximately 250,000 people, mainly young adults, make annual municipal moves, which have notable implications for regional development in the 21st century.
Religions in Finland (2022)
Before Christianisation, Finnish paganism prevailed, venerating deities such as Ukko, the god of thunder and sky. Currently, most of the Finnish population consider themselves nominal Christians, though the proportion of non-religious individuals has increased since the 1980s. As of 2022, 65.2% of the population were affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church, 1.0% with the Orthodox Church and 1.8% were members of another religious group. A total of 32.0% have no religious affiliation. The Evangelical Lutheran Church and the Orthodox Church are both entitled to collect church tax. There are around 140 registered religious communities, including Islam, Catholicism, and Jehovah's Witnesses.
In Finland, there are also revival movements, which began as spiritual reform movements and are now organized and active within the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland. The historic Finnish revivalist movements emerged in the late 1700s and 1800s and consisted of the Prayer Movement, the Awakened Movement, the Lutheran Evangelical Movement, and the Laestadian Movement. These movements laid out an important religious and social influence on Finnish society during this period.
Religious freedom is highly valued in Finland and all residents have the right to choose and practice their faith. Religious education is mandatory in Finnish schools, customized to a student's registered denomination if there are a minimum of three pupils who profess that religion.
The Finnish educational framework encompasses several developmental phases, from early childhood through pre-primary, primary, and lower secondary (basic education), to gymnasium (lukio), vocational, higher, and adult education. Compulsory education is mandatory for 6 to 18-year-olds, covering pre-primary to upper secondary levels.
Upon completion of the nine-year basic education, students may opt between gymnasium, culminating in a matriculation exam, or vocational upper secondary, culminating in a vocational qualification. Higher education in Finland consists of universities and universities of applied sciences, which place emphasis on education and research. While universities are authorized to grant doctorates, universities of applied sciences offer vocational education and practical research.
In 2012 OECD survey, adults aged 16 to 65 in Finland exhibit exceptional literacy, numeracy, and problem-solving skills in technology compared to other countries surveyed. Young adults aged 16-24 have above-average literacy, whereas those aged 55-65 perform at an average level, resulting in a massive 37-point age-related gap. In contrast, foreign-language immigrants in Finland demonstrate lower literacy proficiency than native Finns, consistent with the international average.
Low literacy is correlated with poor health, with individuals reporting low literacy being twice as likely to experience health problems. Furthermore, in Finland, individuals with advanced skill sets have a significantly higher likelihood of being employed when compared to those with lower skill sets, with a difference of almost double.
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[
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "The demographics of Finland is monitored by the Statistics Finland (Finnish: Tilastokeskus, Swedish: Statistikcentralen). Finland has a population of almost 5.6 million people, ranking it 19th out of 27 within the European Union. The average population density in Finland is 19 inhabitants per square kilometre (49/sq mi), making it the third most sparsely populated country in Europe, after Iceland and Norway. Population distribution is extremely uneven, with the majority of the population concentrated in the southern and western regions of the country. The majority of the Finnish population - approximately 73% - lives in urban areas. Approximately 1.6 million, or almost 30%, reside solely in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area. Conversely, the Arctic Lapland region contains only two inhabitants per square kilometre (5.2/sq mi).",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "Finland is a predominantly ethnically homogeneous country with a dominant ethnicity of Finnish descent. However, there are notable minority groups in the form of Finland-Swedes, Sámi, and Roma people, with important historical significance. The official languages are Finnish and Swedish, with the latter being the mother tongue of roughly 5.2% of the Finnish populace. Finland was a part of the Swedish kingdom for around 500 years.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "Due to recent immigration, significant populations of ethnic Estonians, Russians, Iraqis, Chinese and Somalis now reside in the country. Furthermore, by 2023, Ukrainians had become the second-largest ethnic group in the region, following closely behind the Estonian population.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "As of 2022, Statistics Finland publishes data on the foreign population using three distinct methodologies. The Finnish population includes persons of foreign origin and background, who make up 9.1% of the total population. In additional calculations, the proportion of persons born outside Finland is 8.6%. Individuals who have a first language other than Finnish, Swedish or Sámi account for 8.9%.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "In the history of Finland, the first human settlement originated approximately 11,000 BC, following the end of the Ice Age. The initial settlers of present-day Finland were presumably hunter-gatherers. They were later replaced by the Sámi, followed by Finnic populations from the east, south and west. The initial dependable population information dates back to 1749 when Swedish officials initially recorded population statistics. Finland was a part of the Swedish Kingdom until it became an autonomous state within the Russian Empire in 1809, and finally gained independence in 1917.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "In the late 19th and 20th centuries, significant emigration, primarily from rural areas, occurred to Sweden and North America, while Finland's primary immigrant source was other European countries. Approximately 300,000 Finnish nationals reside abroad and, according to estimates, the number of individuals of Finnish ancestry worldwide ranges from 1.6 to 2 million. Currently, Sweden, the United Kingdom, Germany, the United States, and Spain are the preferred destinations for most Finnish emigrates.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "One of the primary challenges facing society in the future is adapting to demographic changes, particularly the aging of the population. The proportion of the working-age population is decreasing, resulting in projected labour shortages. However, immigration has significantly increased in recent years. If the current trend persists, the population of Finland will continue to increase and could even reach the milestone of 6 million people by 2040.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "As of 2022, there is an 5,563,970 people in Finland.",
"title": "Population"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "Demographic statistics according to the World Population Review in 2022.",
"title": "Population"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "The first human settlement in Finland originated around 11,000 BC, following the end of the Ice Age. The initial inhabitants of modern-day Finland were presumably hunter-gatherers. There is no information about the language spoken by the first inhabitants. However, it is known that the Finnish and Sámi languages emerged thousands of years later. Archaeological, linguistic, and genetic studies support the notion that the country was inhabited from south to north, with a population of a few thousand during prehistoric times. The Sámi people then succeeded the previous inhabitants, followed by the influx of Finnic people from the east, west, and south who eventually replaced them. Currently, the Sámi people number around 10,000 in Finland as a minority. Although they have lived north of the Arctic Circle for 7,000 years, they make up only 5% of the population of the province of Lapland.",
"title": "Population"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "The reliable population data is available from 1749, when Sweden first compiled population statistics. At that time, the population of Finland stood at 410,400 individuals. The threshold of one million inhabitants was surpassed subsequent to the Finnish War (1808-1809) in 1811, upon the annexation of the Old Finland region. The milestone of five million inhabitants was reached in 1991.",
"title": "Population"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "Exceeding the million population milestones:",
"title": "Population"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "Until the beginning of the 20th century, annual population growth fluctuated between 1% and 2%. There were a few exceptional years of negative growth during times of war and destruction. The significant demographic and economic transformations that took place in Finland post-World War II impacted the composition of Finnish families. Over time, family sizes reduced noticeably, declining from an average of 3.6 individuals in 1950 to an average of 2.7 in 1975. Despite this change, family structures remained relatively constant during the 25-year period, with 24.4% of families consisting of a man and a woman, 61.9% comprising a couple and children, 11.8% consisting of a woman with offspring, and 1.9% consisting of a man with offspring. There were no substantial differences in percentages compared to 1950.",
"title": "Population"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "Nonetheless, fewer children were born per family; the average decreased from 2.24 in 1950 to 1.7 in the 1980s. Large families were infrequent, with only 2% having four or more children, while 51% had a single child; 38% had two children, and 9% had three children. Population growth declined to below 0.5% in the 1970s, and to approximately 0.2% in the 1990s. In recent years, however, population growth has recovered partially, rising to approximately 0.5%, partly due to increased immigration.",
"title": "Population"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "As of 2022, the population density of Finland was 18.3 persons per square kilometre. The region of Uusimaa was the most densely populated region with around 190 persons per square kilometre, while Lapland was the least densely populated region with only around two persons per square kilometre. The populace is heavily clustered in the west and south of Finland, where the largest urban centres are situated. There are a total of nine cities in Finland with more than 100,000 residents.",
"title": "Population"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 15,
"text": "The geographical center of population (Weber point) of the Finnish population is currently located in Hauho, in the village of Sappee, now part of the town of Hämeenlinna. The coordinates of this point are 61' 17\" N, 25' 07\" E.",
"title": "Population"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 16,
"text": "",
"title": "Population"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 17,
"text": "As of 2022, the birth rate dropped to its lowest level on record since 1776 with a total fertility rate of 1.32. A total of 44,951 children were born, and 38,179 (85%) of them were delivered by women who speak Finnish, Swedish or Sámi, the country's national languages. As of 2020, the average age of first-time mothers was 29.7 years old. The mean age of women who have given birth to a live child was 31.3 years.",
"title": "Fertility"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 18,
"text": "As of 2021, people with a foreign background in Finland had higher fertility rates than those with Finnish roots. Women of foreign descent, either born abroad (1.7) or in Finland (1.65), had the most substantial total fertility rates, averaging 1.45 for all women in Finland. Women of Finnish lineage had a slightly higher fertility rate of 1.4. For men, the total fertility rate was just above 1.3, with Finnish men slightly under the average. In contrast, men of foreign origin, whether born abroad or in Finland, exhibited a fertility rate of approximately 1.45 each. Since 2018, the most frequent countries of affiliation for women of foreign origin delivering infants have been former Soviet Union countries, Somalia, and Iraq.",
"title": "Fertility"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 19,
"text": "In the 18th century, Finland recorded a fertility rate of 5-6 children per woman, but population growth was hindered by high infant mortality, with approximately 1 in 5 infants dying before their first birthday. Fertility remained relatively steady in the 19th century, with occasional variations. During times of conflict, such as the Finnish war, and periods of famine, birth rates declined, but eventually normalised. Presently, some developing countries have fertility rates similar to those of Finland in the 18th and 19th centuries.",
"title": "Fertility"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 20,
"text": "As the 19th century drew to a close, the traditional agrarian society began to crumble. Simultaneously, the industrial and service sectors witnessed a surge in job opportunities, and urban migration intensified. Manufacturing plants mushroomed in proximity to rivers. Fewer children being born played a role in the rising living standards. However, it is important to note that contraceptive methods were limited to the rhythm method and interrupted intercourse.",
"title": "Fertility"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 21,
"text": "The decline in fertility experienced a noteworthy acceleration in the early 20th century. In 1900, the fertility rate stood at 4.8, which plummeted to 2.3 by 1933. In the late 1930s, fertility rates experienced an uptick, but it later plummeted due to the war, particularly in 1940 as a result of the Winter War. Although the ceasefire caused a spike in births, the resumption of hostilities stalled family planning efforts. Post-war in autumn 1944, there was a resurgence in births, leading to a total fertility rate of 3.1 in 1945, reaching a peak of 3.5 in 1947-1948, a record that remains unbroken. However, fertility rates began a steady decline, dipping below the generational renewal threshold of 2.1 by 1969. Finnish fertility rates have not recovered to this level since.",
"title": "Fertility"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 22,
"text": "The decline persisted until 1973, when it hit a historic low of 1.5 children per woman. In recent years, there have been fluctuations, with fertility rates fluctuating between 1.7 and 1.9. As of the 2020s, Finland's overall fertility rate has fallen below 1.4.",
"title": "Fertility"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 23,
"text": "The fertility rate in Finland exceeded that of neighbouring countries for the duration of the 20th century. However, since 2010, there has been a significant decline, whereas other Nordic countries have not experienced such a trend until more recently. It is a recent development that Sweden and Finland have similar social policies and incomes, however, Finland is the only country experiencing natural population decrease (excluding immigration).",
"title": "Fertility"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 24,
"text": "The Finnish population is ageing. Life expectancy has also increased in recent decades. Population growth has mainly been driven by immigration. Furthermore, the population is increasingly concentrated in urban areas in southern and western Finland.",
"title": "Age"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 25,
"text": "In the mid-18th century, when population statistics were initially recorded, Finland recorded an annual death rate of over 10,000, with yearly fluctuations. The overall mortality rate was at 26 and men had a life expectancy of 36.1 years during the 1750s, while women had an expectancy of 38.4 years. The gender gap in life expectancy was a few years at that time.",
"title": "Age"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 26,
"text": "The rapid spread of various infectious diseases such as cholera caused mortality up until the 1870s. The war years significantly increased mortality rates in the civilian population. During this time, the highest mortality rates were recorded during the Finnish War of 1808-09 and the cholera outbreak of 1832-33, which caused the deaths of a significant portion of the population. The years 1867-68 were marked as years of high death rates, with the latter year seeing a peak of 137,700 deaths.",
"title": "Age"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 27,
"text": "Before the turn of the 20th century, mortality rates were notably high, but they gradually decreased thereafter. During that time period, the life expectancy of a newborn saw a significant increase to 42.8 years for men and 45.7 years for women. The gender gap in life expectancy already stood at three years. Starting from the beginning of the 20th century, improvements in hygiene, prevention of communicable diseases, and advancements in vaccinations and medicines played crucial roles in accelerating the decline in mortality rates, as compared to previous decades. On the eve of World War II, life expectancy for males stood at 53.4 years and for females, 59.0 years, constituting a five-year gap between them. The life expectancy took almost two centuries to increase by 20 years since the 18th century. In contrast, the succeeding two decades only required 40 years to attain the same growth by the mid-20th century.",
"title": "Age"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 28,
"text": "Data from Statistics Finland, which is the official agency for the collection of statistics in Finland.",
"title": "Vital statistics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 29,
"text": "",
"title": "Vital statistics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 30,
"text": "Finland has two official languages (national languages): Finnish and Swedish. In addition, there are other languages that are officially recognised by the authorities, but are not national languages. The Sámi languages are those of Finland's indigenous people. Indigenous languages with a long history in Finland include Finnish Romani (Kalo), Finnish Sign Language, Finnish-Swedish Sign Language and Karelian. Finnish, which belongs to the Uralic languages, is spoken by approximately 4.9 million people in Finland as a first language and by more than 0.5 million as a second language. It's also spoken in Sweden, Norway, Eastern Karelia, Ingria (Russia), the USA and Australia, with various dialects. Written Finnish dates back 500 years.",
"title": "Languages"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 31,
"text": "Swedish, an Indo-European language within the North Germanic branch, is spoken by approximately 9 million people worldwide, including 296,000 speakers in Finland. Finland Swedish is a regional variety that aims to remain similar to the Swedish spoken in Sweden. The Sámi languages, which are indigenous to Europe and closely related to the Finnic languages, have approximately 60,000-100,000 speakers, of whom 10,000 live in Finland. There are three Sámi languages in Finland: Inari Sámi, Skolt Sámi and Northern Sámi, each with its own written form. Since 1992 they have had official status in certain areas of Lapland.",
"title": "Languages"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 32,
"text": "Karelian, spoken in Finland and Russia, is the closest linguistic relative of Finnish. There are fewer than 100,000 speakers of Karelian, with approximately 5,000 in Finland. Romani, an Indo-European language, belongs to the Indo-Aryan subgroup of the Indo-Iranian branch. Finnish Romani is one of the Northern Romani dialects and has been spoken in Finland for approximately 450 years. Efforts to preserve it as a literary language began in the 1970s. Finnish Sign Language serves as the primary language for 4,000-5,000 deaf Finns and is used as a first or second language by 6,000-9,000 hearing Finns. Finnish-Swedish Sign Language, on the other hand, is endangered, with only 90 users left.",
"title": "Languages"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 33,
"text": "All mainland municipalities are monolingual in Finnish or bilingual in Finnish and Swedish. None is monolingual Swedish. However, Swedish is the only official language on the autonomous island of Åland.",
"title": "Languages"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 34,
"text": "Population by mother tongue (2022)",
"title": "Languages"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 35,
"text": "As of 2022, 495,992 people, or 8.9%, live in Finland with a first language other than Finnish, Swedish or Sámi. More than 150 foreign languages are spoken in Finland. However, most of them have only few speakers. Historically, Finland has been a bilingual country where only Finnish or Swedish was spoken. This is slowly changing as the rate of immigration has increased in last three decades. The majority of the Finnish population is able to communicate in English. However, the foreign population is expected to study and speak Finnish or Swedish if they want to integrate into Finnish society.",
"title": "Languages"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 36,
"text": "As of 2022, the most common foreign languages are Russian (1.7%), Estonian (0.9%), Arabic (0.7%) and English (0.5%). Approximately 70% of the country's foreign speakers live in Finland's six largest cities.",
"title": "Languages"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 37,
"text": "As of 2022, Statistics Finland produces statistics on foreign nationals in three different ways:",
"title": "Immigration"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 38,
"text": "No official statistics exist on ethnicities. Nonetheless, the Finnish population statistics are available according to the birth countries of the residents' parents (foreign background/origin statistics). International census recommendations define an ethnic group by the perception of its members of historical, regional, or national origin. Therefore, data on ethnic status should always be sourced from a person's own statement. Due to the fact that Finland's census is registry-based, official statistics regarding ethnic groups cannot be provided.",
"title": "Immigration"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 39,
"text": "Origin and background country - the definition used by Statistics Finland includes all individuals with at least one parent born in Finland as being of Finnish background. Individuals with both parents or only one known parent born abroad are classified as having foreign heritage. If both parents of an individual were born abroad, the mother's country of birth is primarily considered as the background country. For all individuals of Finnish heritage, the background country is Finland.",
"title": "Immigration"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 40,
"text": "The definition used by Statistics Finland for country of birth is based on the mother's country of permanent residence at the time of birth. Consequently, Estonian immigrants born before Estonian independence are recorded as being born in the Soviet Union, and those born in territories ceded by Finland are listed as being born in Finland, regardless of subsequent territorial changes. This information reflects the government in power at the time of birth and is devoid of subjective evaluations.",
"title": "Immigration"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 41,
"text": "Historically, Finnish emigration began in the 16th century, when Finns worked in Swedish mines, and continued until the 1970s. About 100,000 Finns emigrated to Russia during the Tsarist period, mainly to St Petersburg. Large-scale emigration began in the late 19th century, with about 400,000 Finns moving to the United States and Canada by 1980. After the Second World War, many Finns emigrated to Sweden, reaching a peak in 1970 when 41,000 settled there. An estimated 250,000 to 300,000 Finns became permanent residents of Sweden after the war. However, migration slowed in the 1980s, with more Finns returning than leaving.",
"title": "Emigration"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 42,
"text": "The impact of emigration on the Finnish labour force and birth rate has been significant. Finland has experienced two major waves of emigration: one at the beginning of the 20th century, when more than 300,000 Finns went to North America, and another from the 1950s to the 1970s, when 400,000 Finns moved to Sweden, forming large expatriate communities.",
"title": "Emigration"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 43,
"text": "Apart from these major flows, there have been smaller migrations around the world and some Finns live in different countries. In the 21st century about 14,000 people, mostly of Finnish origin, emigrate every year. Many are well-educated and may return to Finland after a few years. About 300,000 Finnish citizens live abroad and it's estimated that about 1.5 million people of Finnish origin live overseas.",
"title": "Emigration"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 44,
"text": "Migration has played an important role in shaping Finnish society throughout its history. Notable instances are the Forest Finns' migration to Sweden during the 15th century and the relocation of Ingrians to the present-day St Petersburg region during the 17th century. Changes in borders resulted in the formation of Finnish settlements outside its territory. Wars and political conflicts led to massive population movements, such as the Karelian evacuation during World War II, which exiled roughly 420,000 individuals within Finland's borders.",
"title": "Internal migration"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 45,
"text": "Until the 1960s, Finland was predominantly an agricultural society. However, waves of urbanization and political transitions have contributed to migration movements. Currently, urbanization continues to be a significant internal migration pattern, with growth centers and sparsely populated regions. Approximately 250,000 people, mainly young adults, make annual municipal moves, which have notable implications for regional development in the 21st century.",
"title": "Internal migration"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 46,
"text": "Religions in Finland (2022)",
"title": "Religion"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 47,
"text": "Before Christianisation, Finnish paganism prevailed, venerating deities such as Ukko, the god of thunder and sky. Currently, most of the Finnish population consider themselves nominal Christians, though the proportion of non-religious individuals has increased since the 1980s. As of 2022, 65.2% of the population were affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church, 1.0% with the Orthodox Church and 1.8% were members of another religious group. A total of 32.0% have no religious affiliation. The Evangelical Lutheran Church and the Orthodox Church are both entitled to collect church tax. There are around 140 registered religious communities, including Islam, Catholicism, and Jehovah's Witnesses.",
"title": "Religion"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 48,
"text": "In Finland, there are also revival movements, which began as spiritual reform movements and are now organized and active within the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland. The historic Finnish revivalist movements emerged in the late 1700s and 1800s and consisted of the Prayer Movement, the Awakened Movement, the Lutheran Evangelical Movement, and the Laestadian Movement. These movements laid out an important religious and social influence on Finnish society during this period.",
"title": "Religion"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 49,
"text": "Religious freedom is highly valued in Finland and all residents have the right to choose and practice their faith. Religious education is mandatory in Finnish schools, customized to a student's registered denomination if there are a minimum of three pupils who profess that religion.",
"title": "Religion"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 50,
"text": "The Finnish educational framework encompasses several developmental phases, from early childhood through pre-primary, primary, and lower secondary (basic education), to gymnasium (lukio), vocational, higher, and adult education. Compulsory education is mandatory for 6 to 18-year-olds, covering pre-primary to upper secondary levels.",
"title": "Education"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 51,
"text": "Upon completion of the nine-year basic education, students may opt between gymnasium, culminating in a matriculation exam, or vocational upper secondary, culminating in a vocational qualification. Higher education in Finland consists of universities and universities of applied sciences, which place emphasis on education and research. While universities are authorized to grant doctorates, universities of applied sciences offer vocational education and practical research.",
"title": "Education"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 52,
"text": "In 2012 OECD survey, adults aged 16 to 65 in Finland exhibit exceptional literacy, numeracy, and problem-solving skills in technology compared to other countries surveyed. Young adults aged 16-24 have above-average literacy, whereas those aged 55-65 perform at an average level, resulting in a massive 37-point age-related gap. In contrast, foreign-language immigrants in Finland demonstrate lower literacy proficiency than native Finns, consistent with the international average.",
"title": "Education"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 53,
"text": "Low literacy is correlated with poor health, with individuals reporting low literacy being twice as likely to experience health problems. Furthermore, in Finland, individuals with advanced skill sets have a significantly higher likelihood of being employed when compared to those with lower skill sets, with a difference of almost double.",
"title": "Education"
}
] |
The demographics of Finland is monitored by the Statistics Finland. Finland has a population of almost 5.6 million people, ranking it 19th out of 27 within the European Union. The average population density in Finland is 19 inhabitants per square kilometre (49/sq mi), making it the third most sparsely populated country in Europe, after Iceland and Norway. Population distribution is extremely uneven, with the majority of the population concentrated in the southern and western regions of the country. The majority of the Finnish population - approximately 73% - lives in urban areas. Approximately 1.6 million, or almost 30%, reside solely in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area. Conversely, the Arctic Lapland region contains only two inhabitants per square kilometre (5.2/sq mi). Finland is a predominantly ethnically homogeneous country with a dominant ethnicity of Finnish descent. However, there are notable minority groups in the form of Finland-Swedes, Sámi, and Roma people, with important historical significance. The official languages are Finnish and Swedish, with the latter being the mother tongue of roughly 5.2% of the Finnish populace. Finland was a part of the Swedish kingdom for around 500 years. Due to recent immigration, significant populations of ethnic Estonians, Russians, Iraqis, Chinese and Somalis now reside in the country. Furthermore, by 2023, Ukrainians had become the second-largest ethnic group in the region, following closely behind the Estonian population. As of 2022, Statistics Finland publishes data on the foreign population using three distinct methodologies. The Finnish population includes persons of foreign origin and background, who make up 9.1% of the total population. In additional calculations, the proportion of persons born outside Finland is 8.6%. Individuals who have a first language other than Finnish, Swedish or Sámi account for 8.9%. In the history of Finland, the first human settlement originated approximately 11,000 BC, following the end of the Ice Age. The initial settlers of present-day Finland were presumably hunter-gatherers. They were later replaced by the Sámi, followed by Finnic populations from the east, south and west. The initial dependable population information dates back to 1749 when Swedish officials initially recorded population statistics. Finland was a part of the Swedish Kingdom until it became an autonomous state within the Russian Empire in 1809, and finally gained independence in 1917. In the late 19th and 20th centuries, significant emigration, primarily from rural areas, occurred to Sweden and North America, while Finland's primary immigrant source was other European countries. Approximately 300,000 Finnish nationals reside abroad and, according to estimates, the number of individuals of Finnish ancestry worldwide ranges from 1.6 to 2 million. Currently, Sweden, the United Kingdom, Germany, the United States, and Spain are the preferred destinations for most Finnish emigrates. One of the primary challenges facing society in the future is adapting to demographic changes, particularly the aging of the population. The proportion of the working-age population is decreasing, resulting in projected labour shortages. However, immigration has significantly increased in recent years. If the current trend persists, the population of Finland will continue to increase and could even reach the milestone of 6 million people by 2040.
|
2002-02-25T15:43:11Z
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2023-12-22T21:22:59Z
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Finland
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Politics of Finland
|
The politics of Finland take place within the framework of a parliamentary representative democracy. Finland is a republic whose head of state is President Sauli Niinistö, who leads the nation's foreign policy and is the supreme commander of the Finnish Defence Forces. Finland's head of government is Prime Minister Petteri Orpo, who leads the nation's executive branch, called the Finnish Government. Legislative power is vested in the Parliament of Finland (Finnish: Suomen eduskunta, Swedish: Finlands riksdag), and the Government has limited rights to amend or extend legislation. The Constitution of Finland vests power to both the President and Government: the President has veto power over parliamentary decisions, although this power can be overruled by a majority vote in the Parliament.
The judiciary is independent of the executive and legislative branches. The judiciary consists of two systems: regular courts and administrative courts. The judiciary's two systems are headed by the Supreme Court and the Supreme Administrative Court, respectively. Administrative courts process cases in which official decisions are contested. There is no constitutional court in Finland: the constitutionality of a law can be contested only as applied to an individual court case.
The citizens of Finland enjoy many individual and political freedoms, and suffrage is universal at the age of 18; Finnish women became the first in the world to have unrestricted rights both to vote and to run for public office.
The country's population is ethnically homogeneous with no sizable immigrant population. Few tensions exist between the Finnish-speaking majority and the Swedish-speaking minority, although in certain circles there is an unending debate about the status of the Swedish language.
Finland's labor agreements are based on collective bargaining. Bargaining is highly centralized, and often the government participates to coordinate fiscal policy. Finland has universal validity of collective labour agreements and often, but not always, the trade unions, employers, and the Government reach a national income policy agreement. Significant Finnish trade unions include SAK, STTK, AKAVA, and EK.
The Economist Intelligence Unit rated Finland a "full democracy" in 2022.
A Finnish political identity and distinctively Finnish politics first developed under the Russian rule in the country from 1809 to 1917. During the era Finland had an autonomous position within the Russian Empire with its own legislative powers. However, all bills had to be signed into law by the Russian Emperor who was the Grand Duke of Finland. Also, military power was firmly in Russian hands. Previously Finland had been a part of Sweden and did not have any political institutions of its own, rather people of Finnish ethnicity participated in Swedish politics.
The Finnish Senate issued a declaration of independence on 6 December 1917, after Russia's second revolution in October 1917. The Council of People's Commissars of Soviet Russia, chaired by Lenin, recognized Finland's independence on 31 December 1917, and soon after that many other states followed.
On 28 January 1918, a civil war broke out that ended in the victory of German-backed Whites against Bolsheviks-backed Reds. In the same year the volunteers made some armed expeditions into Soviet Russia, including Karelia, and also Estonia. The Finnish Civil War was part of the First World War. The war was fought between the Finnish Senate, i.e. the forces led by the government, and the Finnish People's Delegation, from 27 January to 16 May 1918. The Senate forces were called Whites and the People's Delegation forces Reds.
During the Second World War, Finland fought three wars: the Winter War, the Continuation War and the Lapland War.
According to the ceasefire agreement, in addition to the territorial losses following the Winter War, Finland had to hand over Petsamo and lease Porkkala as a base for 50 years. War reparations were set at USD 300 million. The terms of the ceasefire agreement were finally confirmed in the 1947 Paris Peace Treaty.
After the wars, Finland became a Nordic welfare state.
At the beginning of 1973, Kekkonen was exceptionally elected president without elections or candidates, which today is considered by some to be the nadir of Finnish democracy and marked the beginning of the final era for Kekkonen.
In 1982, Mauno Koivisto was elected president, promising to reduce the powers of the president and increase those of the prime minister.
The convergence of Finland and the European Community began in the autumn of 1989 with the decision to join the European Economic Area (EEA).
Following a positive vote in Parliament, Finland's application for EC membership was submitted on 18 March 1992, and membership negotiations began on 1 February 1993 at the same time as with Sweden and Austria.
Finland joined the European Union in 1995. In 2002, the euro replaced the markka as Finland's official currency.
The current version of the constitution of Finland was written on 1 March 2000. The first iteration of the constitution was adopted on 17 July 1919. The original comprised four constitutional laws and several amendments, which the latter replaced.
According to the constitution, the legislative powers are exercised by the Parliament, the governmental powers are exercised by the President of the Republic and the Government, and the judicial powers are exercised by government-independent courts of law. The Supreme Court may request legislation that interprets or modifies existing laws. Judges are appointed by the President.
The constitution of Finland and its place in the judicial system are unusual in that there is no constitutional court and the Supreme Court does not have the explicit right to declare a law unconstitutional. In principle, the constitutionality of laws in Finland is verified by a simple vote by Parliament (see parliamentary sovereignty). However, the Parliament's Constitutional Law Committee reviews any doubtful bills and recommends changes, if needed. In practice, the Constitutional Law Committee fulfils the duties of a constitutional court. A Finnish peculiarity is the possibility of making exceptions to the constitution in ordinary laws that are enacted in the same procedure as constitutional amendments. An example of such a law is the State of Preparedness Act, which gives the Government certain exceptional powers in cases of national emergency. As these powers, which correspond to US executive orders, affect constitutional basic rights, the law was enacted in the same manner as a constitutional amendment. However, it can be repealed in the same manner as an ordinary law. In addition to preview by the Constitutional Law Committee, all Finnish courts are obligated to give precedence to the constitution when there is an obvious conflict between the constitution and a regular law. Such a case is, however, very rare.
Some matters are decided by the President of Finland, the Head of State, in plenary meetings with the government, echoing the constitutional history of a privy council. The President is otherwise not present in the government, but decides on issues such as personal appointments and pardons on the advice of the relevant minister. In the ministries, matters of secondary importance are decided by individual ministers, advised by the minister's State Secretary. The Prime Minister and the other ministers in the government are responsible for their actions in office to the Parliament.
Finland has a parliamentary system, even if the President of Finland is formally responsible for foreign policy. Most executive power lies in the cabinet (the Finnish Government) headed by the prime minister. Responsibility for forming the cabinet out of several political parties and negotiating its platform is granted to the leader of the party gaining largest support in the elections for the parliament. This person also becomes prime minister of the cabinet. Any minister and the cabinet as a whole, however, must have continuing trust of the parliament and may be voted out, resign or be replaced. The Government is made up of the prime minister and the ministers for the various departments of the central government as well as an ex officio member, the Chancellor of Justice.
In the official usage, the "cabinet" (valtioneuvosto) are the ministers including the prime minister and the Chancellor of Justice, while the "government" (hallitus) is the cabinet presided by the president. In the popular usage, hallitus (with the president) may also refer to valtioneuvosto (without the president).
Though Finland has a primarily parliamentary system, the President has some notable powers. The foreign policy is led by the President in co-operation with the government, and the same applies to matters concerning national security. The main executive power lies in the cabinet, which is headed by the Prime Minister. Before the 2000 constitutional rewrite, the President enjoyed more governing power.
Elected for a six-year term, the president:
The Government is made up of the Prime Minister and other ministers for the various ministries of the central government as well as an ex officio member, the Chancellor of Justice. Ministers are not obliged to be members of Parliament and need not be formally identified with any political party.
The Government produces most of the material that the Parliament deals with, such as proposals for new laws or legislative reforms, and the annual budget. The ministers each direct their ministries with relative independence. The current cabinet has 19 ministers in 12 ministries. The number of ministers can be decided by the Government.
The Prime Minister's Office and eleven other ministries make up the Government of Finland.
The head of government is the Prime Minister, currently Petteri Orpo. The Prime Minister designate is subject to election by the Parliament and subsequent appointment by the President of Finland. All the ministers shall be Finnish citizens, known to be honest and competent.
The ministries function as administrative and political experts and prepare Government decisions within their mandates. They also represent their relevant administrative sectors in domestic and international cooperation.
New laws are drafted in ministries. There is a tradition of substantial ministerial independence in law drafting. The drafts are then reviewed by government and parliament before enactment. The final legislative power is vested in Parliament, in conjunction with the President of the Republic, according to the Finnish Constitution.
There are 12 ministries in Finland. As the government tends to have more ministers than ministries, some ministries, such as the Ministry of Finance, are associated with multiple ministers.
The 200-member unicameral Parliament of Finland (Eduskunta (Finnish), Riksdag (Swedish)) is the supreme legislative authority in Finland. The parliament may alter the Constitution of Finland, bring about the resignation of the Government, and override presidential vetoes. Its acts are not subject to judicial review. Legislation may be initiated by the Government, or one of the members of Parliament, who are elected for a four-year term on the basis of proportional representation through open list multi-member districts. Persons 18 or older, except military personnel on active duty and a few high judicial officials, are eligible for election. The regular parliamentary term is four years; however, the president may dissolve the eduskunta and order new elections at the request of the prime minister and after consulting the speaker of parliament.
The parliament has, since equal and common suffrage was introduced in 1906, been dominated by secular Conservatives, the Centre Party (former Agrarian Union), and Social Democrats. Nevertheless, none of these has held a single-party majority, with the notable exception of 1916 elections where Social Democrats gained 103 of the 200 seats. After 1944, Communists were a factor to consider for a few decades, and the Finnish People's Democratic League, formed by Communists and others to the left of Social Democrats, was the largest party after 1958 elections. Support for Communists decreased sharply in the early 1980s, while later in the same decade environmentalists formed the Green League, which is now one of the largest parties. The Swedish People's Party represents the Finland-Swedes, especially in language politics. The relative strengths of the parties vary only slightly in the elections due to the proportional election from multi-member districts, but there are some visible long-term trends.
There is no constitutional court; matters concerning constitutional rights or constitutional law are processed by the Constitutional Committee of the Parliament (perustuslakivaliokunta). Additionally, the Constitutional Committee has the sole power to refer a case to the High Court of Impeachment (valtakunnanoikeus) and to authorize police investigations for this purpose.
In addition to the parliament, the Cabinet and President may produce regulations (asetus) through a rulemaking process. These give more specific instructions on how to apply statutes, which often explicitly delegate regulation of specific details to the government. Regulations must be based on existing law, and they can clarify and specify, but not contradict the statute. Furthermore, the rights of an individual must always be based on a statute, not a regulation. Often the statute and the regulation come in similarly named pairs. For example, the law on primary education lists the subjects to be taught, and the regulation specifies the required number of teaching hours. Most of regulations are given by the Cabinet, but the President may give regulations concerning national security. Before 2000, the President had the right to enact regulations on matters not governed by parliamentary law, but this power was removed, and existing regulations were converted into regular statutes by the Parliament.
Finland's proportional representation system encourages a multitude of political parties and since about 1980 the trend has been that the same coalition rules for the whole period between elections.
Finland elects on national level a head of state—the president—and a legislature. The president is elected for a six-year term by the people. The Parliament has 200 members, elected for a four-year term by proportional representation in multi-seat constituencies. Finland has a multi-party system, with multiple strong parties, in which no one party often has a chance of gaining power alone, and parties must work with each other to form coalition governments.
In addition to the presidential and parliamentary elections, there are European Parliament elections every five years, and local municipal elections (held simultaneously in every municipality) every four years.
Finland has a civil law system, which is based on Swedish law, with the judiciary exercising limited powers. Proceedings are inquisitorial, where judges preside, conduct finding of fact, adjudication and giving of sanctions such as sentences; no juries are used. In e.g. criminal and family-related proceedings in local courts, the panel of judges may include both lay judges and professional judges, while all appeals courts and administrative courts consist only of professional judges. Precedent is not binding, with the exception of Supreme Court and Supreme Administrative Court decisions.
The judicial system of Finland is divided between courts with regular civil and criminal jurisdiction and administrative courts with responsibility for litigation between the individuals and the administrative organs of the state and the communities. Finnish law is codified and its court system consists of local courts, regional appellate courts, and the Supreme Court. The administrative branch of justice consists of administrative courts and the Supreme Administrative Court. The administrative process has more popularity as it is cheaper and has lower financial risk to the person making claims. In addition to the regular courts, there are a few special courts in certain branches of administration. There is also a High Court of Impeachment for criminal charges (for an offence in office) against the President of the Republic, the justices of the supreme courts, members of the Government, the Chancellor of Justice and the Ombudsman of Parliament.
Although there is no writ of habeas corpus or bail, the maximum period of pre-trial detention has been reduced to four days. For further detention, a court must order the imprisonment. One does not have the right for one phonecall: the police officer leading the investigation may inform relatives or similar if the investigation permits. However, a lawyer can be invited. Search warrants are not strictly needed, and are usually issued by a police officer. Wiretapping does need a court order.
Finland has a civil law (Roman law) system with an inquisitorial procedure. In accordance with the separation of powers, the trias politica principle, courts of law are independent of other administration. They base their decisions solely on the law in force. Criminal cases, civil cases and petitionary matters are dealt in 27 district courts, and then, if the decision is not satisfactory to the involved parties, can be applied in six Courts of Appeal. The Supreme Court of Finland serves as the court of last instance. Appeals against decisions by authorities are considered in six regional administrative courts, with the Supreme Administrative Court of Finland as the court of last instance. The President appoints all professional judges for life. Municipal councils appoint lay judges to district courts.
Finland is divided into 313 democratically independent municipalities, which are grouped into 70 sub-regions.
As the highest-level division, Finland is divided into 19 counties.
A municipality in Finland can choose to call itself either a "city" or "municipality". A municipality is governed by a municipal council (or a city council) elected by proportional representation once every four years. Democratic decision-making takes place on either the municipal or national level with few exceptions.
Until 2009, the state organization was divided into six provinces. However, the provinces were abolished altogether in 2010. Today, state local presence on mainland Finland is provided by 6 regional state administrative agencies (aluehallintovirasto, avi), and 15 Centres for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment (elinkeino-, liikenne- ja ympäristökeskus, ely-keskus). Regional state administrative agencies have mostly law enforcement, rescue and judicial duties: police, fire and rescue, emergency readiness, basic services, environmental permits and enforcement and occupational health and safety protection. The Centres implement labor and industrial policy, provide employment and immigration services, and promote culture; maintain highways, other transport networks and infrastructure; and protect, monitor and manage the environment, land use and water resources.
Åland is located near the 60th parallel between Sweden and Finland. It enjoys local autonomy by virtue of an international convention of 1921, implemented most recently by the Act on Åland Self-Government of 1951. The islands are further distinguished by the fact that they are entirely Swedish-speaking. Government is vested in the provincial council, which consists of 30 delegates elected directly by Åland's citizens.
Finland is divided between six Regional State Administrative Agencies, which are responsible for basic public services and legal permits, such as rescue services and environmental permits. The 15 Centres for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment (ELY Centres) are responsible for the regional implementation and development tasks of the central government.
The basic units for organising government and public services in Finland are the municipalities. As of 2017, there are 311 municipalities, which incorporate the entire country.
Indirect public administration supplements and supports the authorities in managing the tasks of the welfare society. It comprises organisations which are not authorities, but which carry out public tasks or execute public powers. Examples of this are issuing hunting licences or carrying out motor vehicle inspection.
Wellbeing services counties are responsible for organising health, social and emergency services. There are 21 Wellbeing services counties, and the county structure is mainly based on the region structure. Wellbeing services districts are self-governing. They do not have the right to levy taxes. Their funding is based on central government funding. Central government allocates different amounts of funding to the different Wellbeing services counties depending on the structure of their population.
The County Council is the highest decision-making body in the county and is responsible for operations, administration and finance. The delegates and deputy commissioners of the County Council are elected in county elections for a term of four years. The number of delegates varies from 59 to 89. It depends on the population of the county.
After the second world war, Paasikivi–Kekkonen doctrine was the foreign policy doctrine which aimed at Finland's survival as an independent sovereign, democratic, and capitalist country in the immediate proximity of the Soviet Union. After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Finland freed itself from the last restrictions imposed on it by the Paris peace treaties of 1947. The Finnish-Soviet Agreement of Friendship, Co-operation, and Mutual Assistance (and the restrictions included therein) was annulled but Finland recognised the Russian Federation as the successor of the USSR and was quick to draft bilateral treaties of goodwill as well as reallocating Soviet debts.
Finland deepened her participation in the European integration by joining the European Union with Sweden and Austria in 1995. It could be perhaps said that the country's policy of neutrality has been moderated to "military non-alignment" with an emphasis on maintaining a competent independent defence. Peacekeeping under the auspices of the United Nations is the only real extra-national military responsibility which Finland undertakes.
Finland is highly dependent on foreign trade and actively participates in international cooperation. Finland is a member of the European Union, United Nations and World Bank Group and in many of their member organizations.
Finland-Russia relations have been under pressure with annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation, which Finland considers illegal. Together with the rest of the European Union, Finland enforces sanctions against Russia that followed. Still, economic relations have not entirely deteriorated: 11.2% of imports to Finland are from Russia, and 5.7% of exports from Finland are to Russia, and cooperation between Finnish and Russian authorities continues.
After almost 30 years of close partnership with NATO, Finland joined the Alliance on 4 April 2023. Finland's partnership with NATO was historically based on its policy of military non-alignment, which changed following Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
|
[
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "The politics of Finland take place within the framework of a parliamentary representative democracy. Finland is a republic whose head of state is President Sauli Niinistö, who leads the nation's foreign policy and is the supreme commander of the Finnish Defence Forces. Finland's head of government is Prime Minister Petteri Orpo, who leads the nation's executive branch, called the Finnish Government. Legislative power is vested in the Parliament of Finland (Finnish: Suomen eduskunta, Swedish: Finlands riksdag), and the Government has limited rights to amend or extend legislation. The Constitution of Finland vests power to both the President and Government: the President has veto power over parliamentary decisions, although this power can be overruled by a majority vote in the Parliament.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "The judiciary is independent of the executive and legislative branches. The judiciary consists of two systems: regular courts and administrative courts. The judiciary's two systems are headed by the Supreme Court and the Supreme Administrative Court, respectively. Administrative courts process cases in which official decisions are contested. There is no constitutional court in Finland: the constitutionality of a law can be contested only as applied to an individual court case.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "The citizens of Finland enjoy many individual and political freedoms, and suffrage is universal at the age of 18; Finnish women became the first in the world to have unrestricted rights both to vote and to run for public office.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "The country's population is ethnically homogeneous with no sizable immigrant population. Few tensions exist between the Finnish-speaking majority and the Swedish-speaking minority, although in certain circles there is an unending debate about the status of the Swedish language.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "Finland's labor agreements are based on collective bargaining. Bargaining is highly centralized, and often the government participates to coordinate fiscal policy. Finland has universal validity of collective labour agreements and often, but not always, the trade unions, employers, and the Government reach a national income policy agreement. Significant Finnish trade unions include SAK, STTK, AKAVA, and EK.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "The Economist Intelligence Unit rated Finland a \"full democracy\" in 2022.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "A Finnish political identity and distinctively Finnish politics first developed under the Russian rule in the country from 1809 to 1917. During the era Finland had an autonomous position within the Russian Empire with its own legislative powers. However, all bills had to be signed into law by the Russian Emperor who was the Grand Duke of Finland. Also, military power was firmly in Russian hands. Previously Finland had been a part of Sweden and did not have any political institutions of its own, rather people of Finnish ethnicity participated in Swedish politics.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "The Finnish Senate issued a declaration of independence on 6 December 1917, after Russia's second revolution in October 1917. The Council of People's Commissars of Soviet Russia, chaired by Lenin, recognized Finland's independence on 31 December 1917, and soon after that many other states followed.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "On 28 January 1918, a civil war broke out that ended in the victory of German-backed Whites against Bolsheviks-backed Reds. In the same year the volunteers made some armed expeditions into Soviet Russia, including Karelia, and also Estonia. The Finnish Civil War was part of the First World War. The war was fought between the Finnish Senate, i.e. the forces led by the government, and the Finnish People's Delegation, from 27 January to 16 May 1918. The Senate forces were called Whites and the People's Delegation forces Reds.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "During the Second World War, Finland fought three wars: the Winter War, the Continuation War and the Lapland War.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "According to the ceasefire agreement, in addition to the territorial losses following the Winter War, Finland had to hand over Petsamo and lease Porkkala as a base for 50 years. War reparations were set at USD 300 million. The terms of the ceasefire agreement were finally confirmed in the 1947 Paris Peace Treaty.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "After the wars, Finland became a Nordic welfare state.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "At the beginning of 1973, Kekkonen was exceptionally elected president without elections or candidates, which today is considered by some to be the nadir of Finnish democracy and marked the beginning of the final era for Kekkonen.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "In 1982, Mauno Koivisto was elected president, promising to reduce the powers of the president and increase those of the prime minister.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "The convergence of Finland and the European Community began in the autumn of 1989 with the decision to join the European Economic Area (EEA).",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 15,
"text": "Following a positive vote in Parliament, Finland's application for EC membership was submitted on 18 March 1992, and membership negotiations began on 1 February 1993 at the same time as with Sweden and Austria.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 16,
"text": "Finland joined the European Union in 1995. In 2002, the euro replaced the markka as Finland's official currency.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 17,
"text": "The current version of the constitution of Finland was written on 1 March 2000. The first iteration of the constitution was adopted on 17 July 1919. The original comprised four constitutional laws and several amendments, which the latter replaced.",
"title": "Constitution"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 18,
"text": "According to the constitution, the legislative powers are exercised by the Parliament, the governmental powers are exercised by the President of the Republic and the Government, and the judicial powers are exercised by government-independent courts of law. The Supreme Court may request legislation that interprets or modifies existing laws. Judges are appointed by the President.",
"title": "Constitution"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 19,
"text": "The constitution of Finland and its place in the judicial system are unusual in that there is no constitutional court and the Supreme Court does not have the explicit right to declare a law unconstitutional. In principle, the constitutionality of laws in Finland is verified by a simple vote by Parliament (see parliamentary sovereignty). However, the Parliament's Constitutional Law Committee reviews any doubtful bills and recommends changes, if needed. In practice, the Constitutional Law Committee fulfils the duties of a constitutional court. A Finnish peculiarity is the possibility of making exceptions to the constitution in ordinary laws that are enacted in the same procedure as constitutional amendments. An example of such a law is the State of Preparedness Act, which gives the Government certain exceptional powers in cases of national emergency. As these powers, which correspond to US executive orders, affect constitutional basic rights, the law was enacted in the same manner as a constitutional amendment. However, it can be repealed in the same manner as an ordinary law. In addition to preview by the Constitutional Law Committee, all Finnish courts are obligated to give precedence to the constitution when there is an obvious conflict between the constitution and a regular law. Such a case is, however, very rare.",
"title": "Constitution"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 20,
"text": "Some matters are decided by the President of Finland, the Head of State, in plenary meetings with the government, echoing the constitutional history of a privy council. The President is otherwise not present in the government, but decides on issues such as personal appointments and pardons on the advice of the relevant minister. In the ministries, matters of secondary importance are decided by individual ministers, advised by the minister's State Secretary. The Prime Minister and the other ministers in the government are responsible for their actions in office to the Parliament.",
"title": "Constitution"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 21,
"text": "Finland has a parliamentary system, even if the President of Finland is formally responsible for foreign policy. Most executive power lies in the cabinet (the Finnish Government) headed by the prime minister. Responsibility for forming the cabinet out of several political parties and negotiating its platform is granted to the leader of the party gaining largest support in the elections for the parliament. This person also becomes prime minister of the cabinet. Any minister and the cabinet as a whole, however, must have continuing trust of the parliament and may be voted out, resign or be replaced. The Government is made up of the prime minister and the ministers for the various departments of the central government as well as an ex officio member, the Chancellor of Justice.",
"title": "Executive branch"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 22,
"text": "In the official usage, the \"cabinet\" (valtioneuvosto) are the ministers including the prime minister and the Chancellor of Justice, while the \"government\" (hallitus) is the cabinet presided by the president. In the popular usage, hallitus (with the president) may also refer to valtioneuvosto (without the president).",
"title": "Executive branch"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 23,
"text": "Though Finland has a primarily parliamentary system, the President has some notable powers. The foreign policy is led by the President in co-operation with the government, and the same applies to matters concerning national security. The main executive power lies in the cabinet, which is headed by the Prime Minister. Before the 2000 constitutional rewrite, the President enjoyed more governing power.",
"title": "Executive branch"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 24,
"text": "Elected for a six-year term, the president:",
"title": "Executive branch"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 25,
"text": "The Government is made up of the Prime Minister and other ministers for the various ministries of the central government as well as an ex officio member, the Chancellor of Justice. Ministers are not obliged to be members of Parliament and need not be formally identified with any political party.",
"title": "Executive branch"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 26,
"text": "The Government produces most of the material that the Parliament deals with, such as proposals for new laws or legislative reforms, and the annual budget. The ministers each direct their ministries with relative independence. The current cabinet has 19 ministers in 12 ministries. The number of ministers can be decided by the Government.",
"title": "Executive branch"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 27,
"text": "The Prime Minister's Office and eleven other ministries make up the Government of Finland.",
"title": "Executive branch"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 28,
"text": "The head of government is the Prime Minister, currently Petteri Orpo. The Prime Minister designate is subject to election by the Parliament and subsequent appointment by the President of Finland. All the ministers shall be Finnish citizens, known to be honest and competent.",
"title": "Executive branch"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 29,
"text": "The ministries function as administrative and political experts and prepare Government decisions within their mandates. They also represent their relevant administrative sectors in domestic and international cooperation.",
"title": "Executive branch"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 30,
"text": "New laws are drafted in ministries. There is a tradition of substantial ministerial independence in law drafting. The drafts are then reviewed by government and parliament before enactment. The final legislative power is vested in Parliament, in conjunction with the President of the Republic, according to the Finnish Constitution.",
"title": "Executive branch"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 31,
"text": "There are 12 ministries in Finland. As the government tends to have more ministers than ministries, some ministries, such as the Ministry of Finance, are associated with multiple ministers.",
"title": "Executive branch"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 32,
"text": "The 200-member unicameral Parliament of Finland (Eduskunta (Finnish), Riksdag (Swedish)) is the supreme legislative authority in Finland. The parliament may alter the Constitution of Finland, bring about the resignation of the Government, and override presidential vetoes. Its acts are not subject to judicial review. Legislation may be initiated by the Government, or one of the members of Parliament, who are elected for a four-year term on the basis of proportional representation through open list multi-member districts. Persons 18 or older, except military personnel on active duty and a few high judicial officials, are eligible for election. The regular parliamentary term is four years; however, the president may dissolve the eduskunta and order new elections at the request of the prime minister and after consulting the speaker of parliament.",
"title": "Parliament"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 33,
"text": "The parliament has, since equal and common suffrage was introduced in 1906, been dominated by secular Conservatives, the Centre Party (former Agrarian Union), and Social Democrats. Nevertheless, none of these has held a single-party majority, with the notable exception of 1916 elections where Social Democrats gained 103 of the 200 seats. After 1944, Communists were a factor to consider for a few decades, and the Finnish People's Democratic League, formed by Communists and others to the left of Social Democrats, was the largest party after 1958 elections. Support for Communists decreased sharply in the early 1980s, while later in the same decade environmentalists formed the Green League, which is now one of the largest parties. The Swedish People's Party represents the Finland-Swedes, especially in language politics. The relative strengths of the parties vary only slightly in the elections due to the proportional election from multi-member districts, but there are some visible long-term trends.",
"title": "Parliament"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 34,
"text": "There is no constitutional court; matters concerning constitutional rights or constitutional law are processed by the Constitutional Committee of the Parliament (perustuslakivaliokunta). Additionally, the Constitutional Committee has the sole power to refer a case to the High Court of Impeachment (valtakunnanoikeus) and to authorize police investigations for this purpose.",
"title": "Parliament"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 35,
"text": "In addition to the parliament, the Cabinet and President may produce regulations (asetus) through a rulemaking process. These give more specific instructions on how to apply statutes, which often explicitly delegate regulation of specific details to the government. Regulations must be based on existing law, and they can clarify and specify, but not contradict the statute. Furthermore, the rights of an individual must always be based on a statute, not a regulation. Often the statute and the regulation come in similarly named pairs. For example, the law on primary education lists the subjects to be taught, and the regulation specifies the required number of teaching hours. Most of regulations are given by the Cabinet, but the President may give regulations concerning national security. Before 2000, the President had the right to enact regulations on matters not governed by parliamentary law, but this power was removed, and existing regulations were converted into regular statutes by the Parliament.",
"title": "Parliament"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 36,
"text": "Finland's proportional representation system encourages a multitude of political parties and since about 1980 the trend has been that the same coalition rules for the whole period between elections.",
"title": "Political parties and elections"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 37,
"text": "Finland elects on national level a head of state—the president—and a legislature. The president is elected for a six-year term by the people. The Parliament has 200 members, elected for a four-year term by proportional representation in multi-seat constituencies. Finland has a multi-party system, with multiple strong parties, in which no one party often has a chance of gaining power alone, and parties must work with each other to form coalition governments.",
"title": "Political parties and elections"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 38,
"text": "In addition to the presidential and parliamentary elections, there are European Parliament elections every five years, and local municipal elections (held simultaneously in every municipality) every four years.",
"title": "Political parties and elections"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 39,
"text": "Finland has a civil law system, which is based on Swedish law, with the judiciary exercising limited powers. Proceedings are inquisitorial, where judges preside, conduct finding of fact, adjudication and giving of sanctions such as sentences; no juries are used. In e.g. criminal and family-related proceedings in local courts, the panel of judges may include both lay judges and professional judges, while all appeals courts and administrative courts consist only of professional judges. Precedent is not binding, with the exception of Supreme Court and Supreme Administrative Court decisions.",
"title": "Judiciary"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 40,
"text": "The judicial system of Finland is divided between courts with regular civil and criminal jurisdiction and administrative courts with responsibility for litigation between the individuals and the administrative organs of the state and the communities. Finnish law is codified and its court system consists of local courts, regional appellate courts, and the Supreme Court. The administrative branch of justice consists of administrative courts and the Supreme Administrative Court. The administrative process has more popularity as it is cheaper and has lower financial risk to the person making claims. In addition to the regular courts, there are a few special courts in certain branches of administration. There is also a High Court of Impeachment for criminal charges (for an offence in office) against the President of the Republic, the justices of the supreme courts, members of the Government, the Chancellor of Justice and the Ombudsman of Parliament.",
"title": "Judiciary"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 41,
"text": "Although there is no writ of habeas corpus or bail, the maximum period of pre-trial detention has been reduced to four days. For further detention, a court must order the imprisonment. One does not have the right for one phonecall: the police officer leading the investigation may inform relatives or similar if the investigation permits. However, a lawyer can be invited. Search warrants are not strictly needed, and are usually issued by a police officer. Wiretapping does need a court order.",
"title": "Judiciary"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 42,
"text": "Finland has a civil law (Roman law) system with an inquisitorial procedure. In accordance with the separation of powers, the trias politica principle, courts of law are independent of other administration. They base their decisions solely on the law in force. Criminal cases, civil cases and petitionary matters are dealt in 27 district courts, and then, if the decision is not satisfactory to the involved parties, can be applied in six Courts of Appeal. The Supreme Court of Finland serves as the court of last instance. Appeals against decisions by authorities are considered in six regional administrative courts, with the Supreme Administrative Court of Finland as the court of last instance. The President appoints all professional judges for life. Municipal councils appoint lay judges to district courts.",
"title": "Judiciary"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 43,
"text": "Finland is divided into 313 democratically independent municipalities, which are grouped into 70 sub-regions.",
"title": "Administrative divisions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 44,
"text": "As the highest-level division, Finland is divided into 19 counties.",
"title": "Administrative divisions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 45,
"text": "A municipality in Finland can choose to call itself either a \"city\" or \"municipality\". A municipality is governed by a municipal council (or a city council) elected by proportional representation once every four years. Democratic decision-making takes place on either the municipal or national level with few exceptions.",
"title": "Administrative divisions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 46,
"text": "Until 2009, the state organization was divided into six provinces. However, the provinces were abolished altogether in 2010. Today, state local presence on mainland Finland is provided by 6 regional state administrative agencies (aluehallintovirasto, avi), and 15 Centres for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment (elinkeino-, liikenne- ja ympäristökeskus, ely-keskus). Regional state administrative agencies have mostly law enforcement, rescue and judicial duties: police, fire and rescue, emergency readiness, basic services, environmental permits and enforcement and occupational health and safety protection. The Centres implement labor and industrial policy, provide employment and immigration services, and promote culture; maintain highways, other transport networks and infrastructure; and protect, monitor and manage the environment, land use and water resources.",
"title": "Administrative divisions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 47,
"text": "Åland is located near the 60th parallel between Sweden and Finland. It enjoys local autonomy by virtue of an international convention of 1921, implemented most recently by the Act on Åland Self-Government of 1951. The islands are further distinguished by the fact that they are entirely Swedish-speaking. Government is vested in the provincial council, which consists of 30 delegates elected directly by Åland's citizens.",
"title": "Administrative divisions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 48,
"text": "Finland is divided between six Regional State Administrative Agencies, which are responsible for basic public services and legal permits, such as rescue services and environmental permits. The 15 Centres for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment (ELY Centres) are responsible for the regional implementation and development tasks of the central government.",
"title": "Administrative divisions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 49,
"text": "The basic units for organising government and public services in Finland are the municipalities. As of 2017, there are 311 municipalities, which incorporate the entire country.",
"title": "Administrative divisions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 50,
"text": "Indirect public administration supplements and supports the authorities in managing the tasks of the welfare society. It comprises organisations which are not authorities, but which carry out public tasks or execute public powers. Examples of this are issuing hunting licences or carrying out motor vehicle inspection.",
"title": "Administrative divisions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 51,
"text": "Wellbeing services counties are responsible for organising health, social and emergency services. There are 21 Wellbeing services counties, and the county structure is mainly based on the region structure. Wellbeing services districts are self-governing. They do not have the right to levy taxes. Their funding is based on central government funding. Central government allocates different amounts of funding to the different Wellbeing services counties depending on the structure of their population.",
"title": "Administrative divisions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 52,
"text": "The County Council is the highest decision-making body in the county and is responsible for operations, administration and finance. The delegates and deputy commissioners of the County Council are elected in county elections for a term of four years. The number of delegates varies from 59 to 89. It depends on the population of the county.",
"title": "Administrative divisions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 53,
"text": "After the second world war, Paasikivi–Kekkonen doctrine was the foreign policy doctrine which aimed at Finland's survival as an independent sovereign, democratic, and capitalist country in the immediate proximity of the Soviet Union. After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Finland freed itself from the last restrictions imposed on it by the Paris peace treaties of 1947. The Finnish-Soviet Agreement of Friendship, Co-operation, and Mutual Assistance (and the restrictions included therein) was annulled but Finland recognised the Russian Federation as the successor of the USSR and was quick to draft bilateral treaties of goodwill as well as reallocating Soviet debts.",
"title": "Foreign relations"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 54,
"text": "Finland deepened her participation in the European integration by joining the European Union with Sweden and Austria in 1995. It could be perhaps said that the country's policy of neutrality has been moderated to \"military non-alignment\" with an emphasis on maintaining a competent independent defence. Peacekeeping under the auspices of the United Nations is the only real extra-national military responsibility which Finland undertakes.",
"title": "Foreign relations"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 55,
"text": "Finland is highly dependent on foreign trade and actively participates in international cooperation. Finland is a member of the European Union, United Nations and World Bank Group and in many of their member organizations.",
"title": "Foreign relations"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 56,
"text": "Finland-Russia relations have been under pressure with annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation, which Finland considers illegal. Together with the rest of the European Union, Finland enforces sanctions against Russia that followed. Still, economic relations have not entirely deteriorated: 11.2% of imports to Finland are from Russia, and 5.7% of exports from Finland are to Russia, and cooperation between Finnish and Russian authorities continues.",
"title": "Foreign relations"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 57,
"text": "After almost 30 years of close partnership with NATO, Finland joined the Alliance on 4 April 2023. Finland's partnership with NATO was historically based on its policy of military non-alignment, which changed following Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.",
"title": "Foreign relations"
}
] |
The politics of Finland take place within the framework of a parliamentary representative democracy. Finland is a republic whose head of state is President Sauli Niinistö, who leads the nation's foreign policy and is the supreme commander of the Finnish Defence Forces. Finland's head of government is Prime Minister Petteri Orpo, who leads the nation's executive branch, called the Finnish Government. Legislative power is vested in the Parliament of Finland, and the Government has limited rights to amend or extend legislation. The Constitution of Finland vests power to both the President and Government: the President has veto power over parliamentary decisions, although this power can be overruled by a majority vote in the Parliament. The judiciary is independent of the executive and legislative branches. The judiciary consists of two systems: regular courts and administrative courts. The judiciary's two systems are headed by the Supreme Court and the Supreme Administrative Court, respectively. Administrative courts process cases in which official decisions are contested. There is no constitutional court in Finland: the constitutionality of a law can be contested only as applied to an individual court case. The citizens of Finland enjoy many individual and political freedoms, and suffrage is universal at the age of 18; Finnish women became the first in the world to have unrestricted rights both to vote and to run for public office. The country's population is ethnically homogeneous with no sizable immigrant population. Few tensions exist between the Finnish-speaking majority and the Swedish-speaking minority, although in certain circles there is an unending debate about the status of the Swedish language. Finland's labor agreements are based on collective bargaining. Bargaining is highly centralized, and often the government participates to coordinate fiscal policy. Finland has universal validity of collective labour agreements and often, but not always, the trade unions, employers, and the Government reach a national income policy agreement. Significant Finnish trade unions include SAK, STTK, AKAVA, and EK. The Economist Intelligence Unit rated Finland a "full democracy" in 2022.
|
2001-04-29T15:49:35Z
|
2023-12-12T09:25:57Z
|
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics_of_Finland
|
10,712 |
Economy of Finland
|
The economy of Finland is a highly industrialised, mixed economy with a per capita output similar to that of western European economies such as France, Germany, and the United Kingdom. The largest sector of Finland's economy is its service sector, which contributes 72.7% to the country's gross domestic product (GDP); followed by manufacturing and refining at 31.4%; and concluded with the country's primary sector at 2.9%.
Finland's key economic sector is manufacturing. The largest industries are electronics (21.6% - very old data), machinery, vehicles and other engineered metal products (21.1%), forest industry (13.1%), and chemicals (10.9%). Finland has timber and several mineral and freshwater resources. Forestry, paper factories, and the agricultural sector (on which taxpayers spend around 2 billion euro annually) are politically sensitive to rural residents. The Greater Helsinki area generates around a third of GDP.
In a 2004 OECD comparison, high-technology manufacturing in Finland ranked second largest in the world, after Ireland. Investment was below the expected levels. The overall short-term outlook was good and GDP growth has been above many of its peers in the European Union. Finland has the 4th largest knowledge economy in Europe, behind Sweden, Denmark and the UK. The economy of Finland tops the ranking of the Global Information Technology 2014 report by the World Economic Forum for concerted output between the business sector, the scholarly production and the governmental assistance on information and communications technology.
Finland is highly integrated in the global economy, and international trade represents a third of the GDP. Trade with the European Union represents 60% of the country's total trade. The largest trade flows are with Germany, Russia, Sweden, the United Kingdom, the United States, the Netherlands and China. The trade policy is managed by the European Union, where Finland has traditionally been among the free trade supporters, except for agriculture. Finland is the only Nordic country to have joined the Eurozone; Denmark and Sweden have retained their traditional currencies, whereas Iceland and Norway are not members of the EU at all.
Being geographically distant from Western and Central Europe in relation to other Nordic countries, Finland struggled behind in terms of industrialization apart from the production of paper, which partially replaced the export of timber solely as a raw material towards the end of the nineteenth century. But as a relatively poor country, it was vulnerable to shocks to the economy such as the great famine of 1867–1868, which killed around 15% of the country's population. Until the 1930s, the Finnish economy was predominantly agrarian and, as late as in the 1950s, more than half the population and 40% of output were still in the primary sector.
Property rights were strong. While nationalization committees were set up in France and the United Kingdom, Finland avoided nationalizations. Finnish industry recovered quickly after Second World War. By the end of 1946, industrial output had surpassed pre-war numbers. In the immediate post-war period of 1946 to 1951, industry continued to grow rapidly. Many factors contributed to the rapid industrial growth such as war reparations which were largely paid in manufactured products, devaluation of currency in 1945 and 1949, which made dollar rise by 70% against Finnish markka and thus boosted exports to the West as well as rebuilding the country, which increased demand for industrial products. In 1951, the Korean War boosted exports. Finland practiced an active exchange rate policy and devaluation was used several times to raise the competitiveness of exporting industries.
Between 1950 and 1975, Finland's industry was at the mercy of international economic trends. The fast industrial growth in 1953-1955 was followed by a period of more moderate growth which started in 1956. The causes for the deceleration of growth were the general strike of 1956, as well as weakened export trends and easing of the strict regulation of Finland's foreign trade in 1957, which compelled industry to compete against ever toughening international challengers. An economic recession brought industrial output down by 3.4% in 1958. Industry, however, recovered quickly during the international economic boom that followed the recession. One reason for this was the devaluation of the Finnish markka which increased the value of the US dollar up by 39% against the Finnish markka.
International economy was stable in the 1960s. This trend can be seen in Finland as well, where steady growth of industrial output throughout the decade was recorded.
After failed experiments with protectionism, Finland eased restrictions and concluded a free trade agreement with the European Community in 1973, making its markets more competitive. Finland's industrial output declined in 1975. The decline was caused by the free trade agreement that was made between Finland and the European Community in 1973. The agreement subjected Finnish industry to ever toughening international competition and a strong contraction duly followed in Finland's exports to the West. In 1976 and 1977 growth of industrial output was almost zero, but in 1978 it swung back towards strong growth again. In 1978 and 1979 industrial output grew at above average rate. The stimuli for this were three devaluations of Finnish markka, which lowered value of the markka by a total of 19%. Impacts from the Oil Crisis on Finnish industry were also alleviated by Finland's bilateral trade with the Soviet Union.
Local education markets expanded, and an increasing number of Finns also went abroad to study in the United States or Western Europe, bringing back advanced skills. There was a quite common, but pragmatic-minded, credit and investment cooperation by state and corporations, though it was considered with suspicion. Support for capitalism was widespread. On the other hand, communists (Finnish People's Democratic League) have received the most votes (23.2%) in 1958 parliamentary elections. Savings rate hovered among the world's highest, at around 8% until the 1980s. In the beginning of the 1970s, Finland's GDP per capita reached the level of Japan and the UK. Finland's economic development shared many aspects with export-led Asian countries. The official policy of neutrality enabled Finland to trade both with Western and Comecon markets. Significant bilateral trade was conducted with the Soviet Union, but this did not grow into a dependence.
Like other Nordic countries, Finland has liberalized its system of economic regulation since late 1980s. Financial and product market regulations were modified. Some state enterprises were privatized and some tax rates were altered. In 1991, the Finnish economy fell into a severe recession. This was caused by a combination of economic overheating (largely due to a change in the banking laws in 1986 which made credit much more accessible), depressed markets with key trading partners (particularly the Swedish and Soviet markets) as well as local markets, slow growth with other trading partners, and the disappearance of the Soviet bilateral trade. Stock market and housing prices declined by 50%. The growth in the 1980s was based on debt, and when the defaults began rolling in, GDP declined by 13% and unemployment increased from a virtual full employment to one fifth of the workforce. The crisis was amplified by trade unions' initial opposition to any reforms. Politicians struggled to cut spending and the public debt doubled to around 60% of GDP. Much of the economic growth in the 1980s was based on debt financing, and the debt defaults led to a savings and loan crisis. A total of over 10 billion euros were used to bail out failing banks, which led to banking sector consolidation. After devaluations, the depression bottomed out in 1993.
Finland joined the European Union in 1995. The central bank was given an inflation-targeting mandate until Finland joined the euro zone. The growth rate has since been one of the highest of OECD countries and Finland has topped many indicators of national performance.
Finland was one of the 11 countries joining the third phase of the Economic and Monetary Union of the European Union, adopting the euro as the country's currency, on 1 January 1999. The national currency markka (FIM) was withdrawn from circulation and replaced by the euro (EUR) at the beginning of 2002.
The following table shows the main economic indicators in 1980–2017. Inflation under 2% is in green. Estimates begin after 2021.
Finland's climate and soils make growing crops a particular challenge. The country lies between 60° and 70° north latitude - as far north as Alaska - and has severe winters and relatively short growing seasons that are sometimes interrupted by frosts. However, because the Gulf Stream and the North Atlantic Drift Current moderate the climate, and because of the relatively low elevation of the land area, Finland contains half of the world's arable land north of 60° north latitude. In response to the climate, farmers have relied on quick-ripening and frost-resistant varieties of crops. Most farmland had originally been either forest or swamp, and the soil had usually required treatment with lime and years of cultivation to neutralise excess acid and to develop fertility. Irrigation was generally not necessary, but drainage systems were often needed to remove excess water.
Until the late nineteenth century, Finland's isolation required that most farmers concentrate on producing grains to meet the country's basic food needs. In the fall, farmers planted rye; in the spring, southern and central farmers started oats, while northern farmers seeded barley. Farms also grew small quantities of potatoes, other root crops, and legumes. Nevertheless, the total area under cultivation was still small. Cattle grazed in the summer and consumed hay in the winter. Essentially self-sufficient, Finland engaged in very limited agricultural trade.
This traditional, almost autarkic, production pattern shifted sharply during the late nineteenth century, when inexpensive imported grain from Russia and the United States competed effectively with local grain. At the same time, rising domestic and foreign demand for dairy products and the availability of low-cost imported cattle feed made dairy and meat production much more profitable. These changes in market conditions induced Finland's farmers to switch from growing staple grains to producing meat and dairy products, setting a pattern that persisted into the late 1980s.
In response to the agricultural depression of the 1930s, the government encouraged domestic production by imposing tariffs on agricultural imports. This policy enjoyed some success: the total area under cultivation increased, and farm incomes fell less sharply in Finland than in most other countries. Barriers to grain imports stimulated a return to mixed farming, and by 1938 Finland's farmers were able to meet roughly 90% of the domestic demand for grain.
The disruptions caused by the Winter War and the Continuation War caused further food shortages, especially when Finland ceded territory, including about one-tenth of its farmland, to the Soviet Union. The experiences of the depression and the war years persuaded the Finns to secure independent food supplies to prevent shortages in future conflicts.
After the war, the first challenge was to resettle displaced farmers. Most refugee farmers were given farms that included some buildings and land that had already been in production, but some had to make do with "cold farms," that is, land not in production that usually had to be cleared or drained before crops could be sown. The government sponsored large-scale clearing and draining operations that expanded the area suitable for farming. As a result of the resettlement and land-clearing programs, the area under cultivation expanded by about 450,000 hectares, reaching about 2.4 million hectares by the early 1960s. Finland thus came to farm more land than ever before, an unusual development in a country that was simultaneously experiencing rapid industrial growth.
During this period of expansion, farmers introduced modern production practices. The widespread use of modern inputs—chemical fertilisers and insecticides, agricultural machinery, and improved seed varieties—sharply improved crop yields. Yet the modernisation process again made farm production dependent on supplies from abroad, this time on imports of petroleum and fertilisers. By 1984 domestic sources of energy covered only about 20% of farm needs, while in 1950 domestic sources had supplied 70% of them. In the aftermath of the oil price increases of the early 1970s, farmers began to return to local energy sources such as firewood. The existence of many farms that were too small to allow efficient use of tractors also limited mechanisation. Another weak point was the existence of many fields with open drainage ditches needing regular maintenance; in the mid-1980s, experts estimated that half of the cropland needed improved drainage works. At that time, about 1 million hectares had underground drainage, and agricultural authorities planned to help install such works on another million hectares. Despite these shortcomings, Finland's agriculture was efficient and productive—at least when compared with farming in other European countries.
Forests play a key role in the country's economy, making it one of the world's leading wood producers and providing raw materials at competitive prices for the crucial wood processing industries. As in agriculture, the government has long played a leading role in forestry, regulating tree cutting, sponsoring technical improvements, and establishing long-term plans to ensure that the country's forests continue to supply the wood-processing industries.
Finland's wet climate and rocky soils are ideal for forests. Tree stands do well throughout the country, except in some areas north of the Arctic Circle. In 1980 the forested area totaled about 19.8 million hectares, providing 4 hectares of forest per capita—far above the European average of about 0.5 hectares. The proportion of forest land varied considerably from region to region. In the central lake plateau and in the eastern and northern provinces, forests covered up to 80% of the land area, but in areas with better conditions for agriculture, especially in the southwest, forests accounted for only 50 to 60% of the territory. The main commercial tree species—pine, spruce, and birch—supplied raw material to the sawmill, pulp, and paper industries. The forests also produced sizable aspen and elder crops.
The heavy winter snows and the network of waterways were used to move logs to the mills. Loggers were able to drag cut trees over the winter snow to the roads or water bodies. In the southwest, the sledding season lasted about 100 days per year; the season was even longer to the north and the east. The country's network of lakes and rivers facilitated log floating, a cheap and rapid means of transport. Each spring, crews floated the logs downstream to collection points; tugs towed log bundles down rivers and across lakes to processing centers. The waterway system covered much of the country, and by the 1980s Finland had extended roadways and railroads to areas not served by waterways, effectively opening up all of the country's forest reserves to commercial use.
Forestry and farming were closely linked. During the twentieth century, government land redistribution programmes had made forest ownership widespread, allotting forestland to most farms. In the 1980s, private farmers controlled 35% of the country's forests; other persons held 27%; the government, 24%; private corporations, 9%; and municipalities and other public bodies, 5%. The forestlands owned by farmers and by other people—some 350,000 plots—were the best, producing 75 to 80% of the wood consumed by industry; the state owned much of the poorer land, especially that in the north.
The ties between forestry and farming were mutually beneficial. Farmers supplemented their incomes with earnings from selling their wood, caring for forests, or logging; forestry made many otherwise marginal farms viable. At the same time, farming communities maintained roads and other infrastructure in rural areas, and they provided workers for forest operations. Indeed, without the farming communities in sparsely populated areas, it would have been much more difficult to continue intensive logging operations and reforestation in many prime forest areas.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry has carried out forest inventories and drawn up silvicultural plans. According to surveys, between 1945 and the late 1970s foresters had cut trees faster than the forests could regenerate them. Nevertheless, between the early 1950s and 1981, Finland was able to boost the total area of its forests by some 2.7 million hectares and to increase forest stands under 40 years of age by some 3.2 million hectares. Beginning in 1965, the country instituted plans that called for expanding forest cultivation, draining peatland and waterlogged areas, and replacing slow-growing trees with faster-growing varieties. By the mid-1980s, the Finns had drained 5.5 million hectares, fertilized 2.8 million hectares, and cultivated 3.6 million hectares. Thinning increased the share of trees that would produce suitable lumber, while improved tree varieties increased productivity by as much as 30%.
Comprehensive silvicultural programmes had made it possible for the Finns simultaneously to increase forest output and to add to the amount and value of the growing stock. By the mid-1980s, Finland's forests produced nearly 70 million cubic meters of new wood each year, considerably more than was being cut. During the postwar period, the annual cut increased by about 120% to about 50 million cubic meters. Wood burning fell to one-fifth the level of the immediate postwar years, freeing up wood supplies for the wood-processing industries, which consumed between 40 million and 45 million cubic meters per year. Indeed, industry demand was so great that Finland needed to import 5 million to 6 million cubic meters of wood each year.
To maintain the country's comparative advantage in forest products, Finnish authorities moved to raise lumber output toward the country's ecological limits. In 1984 the government published the Forest 2000 plan, drawn up by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry. The plan aimed at increasing forest harvests by about 3% per year, while conserving forestland for recreation and other uses. It also called for enlarging the average size of private forest holdings, increasing the area used for forests, and extending forest cultivation and thinning. If successful, the plan would make it possible to raise wood deliveries by roughly one-third by the end of the twentieth century. Finnish officials believed that such growth was necessary if Finland was to maintain its share in world markets for wood and paper products.
Since the 1990s, Finnish industry, which for centuries had relied on the country's vast forests, has become increasingly dominated by electronics and services, as globalization lead to a decline of more traditional industries. Outsourcing resulted in more manufacturing being transferred abroad, with Finnish-based industry focusing to a greater extent on R&D and hi-tech electronics.
The Finnish electronics and electrotechnics industry relies on heavy investment in R&D, and has been accelerated by the liberalisation of global markets. Electrical engineering started in the late 19th century with generators and electric motors built by Gottfried Strömberg, now part of the ABB. Other Finnish companies – such as Instru, Vaisala and Neles (now part of Metso) - have succeeded in areas such as industrial automation, medical and meteorological technology. Nokia was once a world leader in mobile telecommunications.
Finland has an abundance of minerals, but many large mines have closed down, and most raw materials are now imported. For this reason, companies now tend to focus on high added-value processing of metals. The exports include steel, copper, chromium, gold, zinc and nickel, and finished products such as steel roofing and cladding, welded steel pipes, copper pipe and coated sheets. Outokumpu is known for developing the flash smelting process for copper production and stainless steel.
In 2019, the country was the world's 5th largest producer of chromium, the 17th largest world producer of sulfur and the 20th largest world producer of phosphate
With regard to vehicles, the Finnish motor industry consists mostly of manufacturers of tractors (Valtra, formerly Valmet tractor), forest machines (f.ex. Ponsse), military vehicles (Sisu, Patria), trucks (Sisu Auto), buses and Valmet Automotive, a contract manufacturer, whose factory in Uusikaupunki produces Mercedes-Benz cars. Shipbuilding is an important industry: the world's largest cruise ships are built in Finland; also, the Finnish company Wärtsilä produces the world's largest diesel engines and has market share of 47%. In addition, Finland also produces train rolling stock.
The manufacturing industry is a significant employer of about 400,000 people.
The chemical industry is one of the Finland's largest industrial sectors with its roots in tar making in the 17th century. It produces an enormous range of products for the use of other industrial sectors, especially for forestry and agriculture. In addition, its produces plastics, chemicals, paints, oil products, pharmaceuticals, environmental products, biotech products and petrochemicals. In the beginning of this millennium, biotechnology was regarded as one of the most promising high-tech sectors in Finland. In 2006 it was still considered promising, even though it had not yet become "the new Nokia".
Forest products has been the major export industry in the past, but diversification and growth of the economy has reduced its share. In the 1970s, the pulp and paper industry accounted for half of Finnish exports. Although this share has shrank, pulp and paper is still a major industry with 52 sites across the country. Furthermore, several of large international corporations in this business are based in Finland. Stora Enso and UPM were placed No. 1 and No. 3 by output in the world, both producing more than ten million tons. M-real and Myllykoski also appear on the top 100 list.
Finland's energy supply is divided as follows: nuclear power 26%, net imports 20%, hydroelectric power 16%, combined production district heat 18%, combined production industry 13%, condensing power 6%. One half of all the energy consumed in Finland goes to industry, one fifth to heating buildings and one fifth to transport. Lacking indigenous fossil fuel resources, Finland has been an energy importer. This might change in the future since Finland is currently building its fifth nuclear reactor, and approved building permits for its sixth and seventh ones. There are some uranium resources in Finland, but to date no commercially viable deposits have been identified for exclusive mining of uranium. However, permits have been granted to Talvivaara to produce uranium from the tailings of their nickel-cobalt mine.
Notable companies in Finland include Nokia, the former market leader in mobile telephony; Stora Enso, the largest paper manufacturer in the world; Neste Oil, an oil refining and marketing company; UPM-Kymmene, the third largest paper manufacturer in the world; Aker Finnyards, the manufacturer of the world's largest cruise ships (such as Royal Caribbean's Freedom of the Seas); Rovio Mobile, video game developer most notable for creating Angry Birds; KONE, a manufacturer of elevators and escalators; Wärtsilä, a producer of power plants and ship engines; and Finnair, the largest Helsinki-Vantaa based international airline. Additionally, many Nordic design firms are headquartered in Finland. These include the Fiskars owned Iittala Group, Artek a furniture design firm co-created by Alvar Aalto, and Marimekko made famous by Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. Finland has sophisticated financial markets comparable to the UK in efficiency. Though foreign investment is not as high as some other European countries, the largest foreign-headquartered companies included names such as ABB, Tellabs, Carlsberg and Siemens.
Around 70-80% of the equity quoted on the Helsinki Stock Exchange are owned by foreign-registered entities. The larger companies get most of their revenue from abroad, and the majority of their employees work outside the country. Cross-shareholding has been abolished and there is a trend towards an Anglo-Saxon style of corporate governance. However, only around 15% of residents have invested in stock market, compared to 20% in France, and 50% in the US.
Between 2000 and 2003, early stage venture capital investments relative to GDP were 8.5% against 4% in the EU and 11.5 in the US. Later stage investments fell to the EU median. Invest in Finland and other programs attempt to attract investment. In 2000 FDI from Finland to overseas was 20 billion euro and from overseas to Finland 7 billion euro. Acquisitions and mergers have internationalized business in Finland.
Although some privatization has been gradually done, there are still several state-owned companies of importance. The government keeps them as strategic assets or because they are natural monopoly. These include e.g. Neste (oil refining and marketing), VR (rail), Finnair, VTT (research) and Posti Group (mail). Depending on the strategic importance, the government may hold either 100%, 51% or less than 50% stock. Most of these have been transformed into regular limited companies, but some are quasi-governmental (liikelaitos), with debt backed by the state, as in the case of VTT.
In 2022, the sector with the highest number of companies registered in Finland is Services with 191,796 companies followed by Finance, Insurance, and Real Estate and Agriculture, Forestry, and Fishing with 159,158 and 102,452 companies respectively.
Finland's income is generated by the approximately 1.8 million private sector workers, who make an average 25.1 euro per hour (before the median 60% tax wedge) in 2007. According to a 2003 report, residents worked on average around 10 years for the same employer and around 5 different jobs over a lifetime. 62% worked for small and medium-sized enterprises. Female employment rate was high and gender segregation on career choices was higher than in the US. In 1999 part-time work rate was one of the smallest in OECD.
Future liabilities are dominated by the pension deficit. Unlike in Sweden, where pension savers can manage their investments, in Finland employers choose a pension fund for the employee. The pension funding rate is higher than in most Western European countries, but still only a portion of it is funded and pensions exclude health insurances and other unaccounted promises. Directly held public debt has been reduced to around 32% in 2007. In 2007, the average household savings rate was -3.8 and household debt 101% of annual disposable income, a typical level in Europe.
In 2008, the OECD reported that "the gap between rich and poor has widened more in Finland than in any other wealthy industrialised country over the past decade" and that "Finland is also one of the few countries where inequality of incomes has grown between the rich and the middle-class, and not only between rich and poor."
In 2006, there were 2,381,500 households of average size 2.1 people. Forty% of households consisted of single person, 32% two and 28% three or more. There were 1.2 million residential buildings in Finland and the average residential space was 38 square metres per person. The average residential property (without land) cost 1,187 euro per square metre and residential land on 8.6 euro per square metre. Consumer energy prices were 8-12 euro cent per kilowatt hour. 74% of households had a car. There were 2.5 million cars and 0.4 other vehicles. Around 92% have mobile phones and 58% Internet connection at home. The average total household consumption was 20,000 euro, out of which housing at around 5500 euro, transport at around 3000 euro, food and beverages excluding alcoholic at around 2500 euro, recreation and culture at around 2000 euro. Upper-level white-collar households (409,653) consumed an average 27,456 euro, lower-level white-collar households (394,313) 20,935 euro, and blue-collar households (471,370) 19,415 euro.
The unemployment rate was 10.3% in 2015. The employment rate is (persons aged 15–64) 66.8%. Unemployment security benefits for those seeking employment are at an average OECD level. The labor administration funds labour market training for unemployed job seekers, the training for unemployed job seeker can last up to 6 months, which is often vocational. The aim of the training is to improve the channels of finding employment.
The American economist and The New York Times columnist Paul Krugman has suggested that the short term costs of euro membership to the Finnish economy outweigh the large gains caused by greater integration with the European economy. Krugman notes that Sweden, which has yet to join the single currency, had similar rates of growth compared to Finland for the period since the introduction of the euro.
Membership of the euro protects Finland from currency fluctuations, which is particularly important for small member states of the European Union like Finland that are highly integrated into the larger European economy. If Finland had retained its own currency, unpredictable exchange rates would prevent the country from selling its products at competitive prices on the European market. In fact, business leaders in Sweden, which is obliged to join the euro when its economy has converged with the eurozone, are almost universal in their support for joining the euro. Although Sweden's currency is not officially pegged to the euro like Denmark's currency the Swedish government maintains an unofficial peg. This exchange rate policy has in the short term benefited the Swedish economy in two ways; (1) much of Sweden's European trade is already denominated in euros and therefore bypasses any currency fluctuation and exchange rate losses, (2) it allows Sweden's non-euro-area exports to remain competitive by dampening any pressure from the financial markets to increase the value of the currency.
Maintaining this balance has allowed the Swedish government to borrow on the international financial markets at record low interest rates and allowed the Swedish central bank to quantitatively ease into a fundamentally sound economy. This has led Sweden's economy to prosper at the expense of less sound economies who have been impacted by the 2008 financial crisis. Sweden's economic performance has therefore been slightly better than Finland's since the financial crisis of 2008. Much of this disparity has, however, been due to the economic dominance of Nokia, Finland's largest company and Finland's only major multinational. Nokia supported and greatly benefited from the euro and the European single market, particularly from a common European digital mobile phone standard (GSM), but it failed to adapt when the market shifted to mobile computing.
One reason for the popularity of the euro in Finland is the memory of a 'great depression' which began in 1990, with Finland not regaining it competitiveness until approximately a decade later when Finland joined the single currency. Some American economists like Paul Krugman claim not to understand the benefits of a single currency and allege that poor economic performance is the result of membership of the single currency. These economists do not, however, advocate separate currencies for the states of the United States, many of which have quite disparate economies.
Finnish politicians have often emulated other Nordics and the Nordic model. Nordic's have been free-trading and relatively welcoming to skilled migrants for over a century, though in Finland immigration is a relatively new phenomenon. This is due largely to Finland's less hospitable climate and the fact that the Finnish language shares roots with none of the major world languages, making it more challenging than average for most to learn. The level of protection in commodity trade has been low, except for agricultural products.
As an economic environment, Finland's judiciary is efficient and effective. Finland is highly open to investment and free trade. Finland has top levels of economic freedom in many areas, although there is a heavy tax burden and inflexible job market. Finland is ranked 16th (ninth in Europe) in the 2008 Index of Economic Freedom. Recently, Finland has topped the patents per capita statistics, and overall productivity growth has been strong in areas such as electronics. While the manufacturing sector is thriving, OECD points out that the service sector would benefit substantially from policy improvements. The IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook 2007 ranked Finland 17th most competitive, next to Germany, and lowest of the Nordics. while the World Economic Forum report has ranked Finland the most competitive country. Finland is one of the most fiscally responsible EU countries.
Economists attribute much growth to reforms in the product markets. According to OECD, only four EU-15 countries have less regulated product markets (UK, Ireland, Denmark and Sweden) and only one has less regulated financial markets (Denmark). Nordic countries were pioneers in liberalising energy, postal, and other markets in Europe. The legal system is clear and business bureaucracy less than most countries. For instance, starting a business takes an average of 14 days, compared to the world average of 43 days and Denmark's average of 6 days. Property rights are well protected and contractual agreements are strictly honored. Finland is rated one of the least corrupted countries in Corruption Perceptions Index. Finland is rated 13th in the Ease of Doing Business Index. It indicates exceptional ease to trade across borders (5th), enforce contracts (7th), and close a business (5th), and exceptional hardship to employ workers (127th) and pay taxes (83rd).
According to the OECD, Finland's job market is the least flexible of the Nordic countries. Finland increased job market regulation in the 1970s to provide stability to manufacturers. In contrast, during the 1990s, Denmark liberalised its job market, Sweden moved to more decentralised contracts, whereas Finnish trade unions blocked many reforms. Many professions have legally recognized industry-wide contracts that lay down common terms of employment including seniority levels, holiday entitlements, and salary levels, usually as part of a Comprehensive Income Policy Agreement. Those who favor less centralized labor market policies consider these agreements bureaucratic, inflexible, and along with tax rates, a key contributor to unemployment and distorted prices. Centralized agreements may hinder structural change as there are fewer incentives to acquire better skills, although Finland already enjoys one of the highest skill-levels in the world.
Tax is collected mainly from municipal income tax, state income tax, state value added tax, customs fees, corporate taxes and special taxes. There are also property taxes, but municipal income tax pays most of municipal expenses. Taxation is conducted by a state agency, Verohallitus, which collects income taxes from each paycheck, and then pays the difference between tax liability and taxes paid as tax rebate or collects as tax arrears afterward. Municipal income tax is a flat tax of nominally 15-20%, with deductions applied, and directly funds the municipality (a city or rural locality). The state income tax is a progressive tax; low-income individuals do not necessarily pay any. The state transfers some of its income as state support to municipalities, particularly the poorer ones. Additionally, the state churches - Finnish Evangelical Lutheran Church and Finnish Orthodox Church - are integrated to the taxation system in order to tax their members.
The middle income worker's tax wedge is 46% and effective marginal tax rates are very high. Value-added tax is 24% for most items. Capital gains tax is 30-34% and corporate tax is 20%, about the EU median. Property taxes are low, but there is a transfer tax (1.6% for apartments or 4% for individual houses) for home buyers. There are high excise taxes on alcoholic beverages, tobacco, automobiles and motorcycles, motor fuels, lotteries, sweets and insurances. For instance, McKinsey estimates that a worker has to pay around 1600 euro for another's 400 euro service - restricting service supply and demand - though some taxation is avoided in the black market and self-service culture. Another study by Karlson, Johansson & Johnsson estimates that the fraction of the buyer's income entering the service vendor's wallet (inverted tax wedge) is slightly over 15%, compared to 10% in Belgium, 25% in France, 40% in Switzerland and 50% in the United States. Tax cuts have been in every post-depression government's agenda and the overall tax burden is now around 43% of GDP compared to 51.1% in Sweden, 34.7% in Germany, 33.5% in Canada, and 30.5% in Ireland.
High income workers, for instance someone making 10000€/month gross, living in the city of Vantaa and using 3000€/year on commuting to work, pay 60% income tax plus 8.65% social security payments (this varies mildly depending on the age of the worker, but for someone born in 1975, it is currently in the year 2022, 8.65%). This means that 68.65% of the gross income goes to taxes and tax like payments.
State and municipal politicians have struggled to cut their consumption, which is very high at 51.7% of GDP compared to 56.6% in Sweden, 46.9 in Germany, 39.3 in Canada, and 33.5% in Ireland. Much of the taxes are spent on public sector employees, which amount to 124,000 state employees and 430,000 municipal employees. That is 113 per 1000 residents (over a quarter of workforce) compared to 74 in the US, 70 in Germany, and 42 in Japan (8% of workforce). The Economist Intelligence Unit's ranking for Finland's e-readiness is high at 13th, compared to 1st for United States, 3rd for Sweden, 5th for Denmark, and 14th for Germany. Also, early and generous retirement schemes have contributed to high pension costs. Social spending such as health or education is around OECD median. Social transfers are also around OECD median. In 2001 Finland's outsourced proportion of spending was below Sweden's and above most other Western European countries. Finland's health care is more bureaucrat-managed than in most Western European countries, though many use private insurance or cash to enjoy private clinics. Some reforms toward more equal marketplace have been made in 2007–2008. In education, child nurseries, and elderly nurseries private competition is bottom-ranking compared to Sweden and most other Western countries. Some public monopolies such Alko remain, and are sometimes challenged by the European Union. The state has a programme where the number of jobs decreases by attrition: for two retirees, only one new employee is hired.
Finland's export-dependent economy continuously adapted to the world market; in doing so, it changed Finnish society as well. The prolonged worldwide boom, beginning in the late 1940s and lasting until the first oil crisis in 1973, was a challenge that Finland met and from which it emerged with a highly sophisticated and diversified economy, including a new occupational structure. Some sectors kept a fairly constant share of the work force. Transportation and construction, for example, each accounted for between 7 and 8% in both 1950 and 1985, and manufacturing's share rose only from 22 to 24%. However, both the commercial and the service sectors more than doubled their share of the work force, accounting, respectively, for 21 and 28% in 1985. The greatest change was the decline of the economically active population employed in agriculture and forestry, from approximately 50% in 1950 to 10% in 1985. The exodus from farms and forests provided the labour power needed for the growth of other sectors.
Studies of Finnish mobility patterns since World War II have confirmed the significance of this exodus. Sociologists have found that people with a farming background were present in other occupations to a considerably greater extent in Finland than in other West European countries. Finnish data for the early 1980s showed that 30 to 40% of those in occupations not requiring much education were the children of farmers, as were about 25% in upper-level occupations, a rate two to three times that of France and noticeably higher than that even of neighboring Sweden. Finland also differed from the other Nordic countries in that the generational transition from the rural occupations to white-collar positions was more likely to be direct, bypassing manual occupations.
The most important factor determining social mobility in Finland was education. Children who attained a higher level of education than their parents were often able to rise in the hierarchy of occupations. In the Helsinki Metropolitan Area, those who are more educated, in the long-run, will move to newer centrally located buildings. A tripling or quadrupling in any one generation of the numbers receiving schooling beyond the required minimum reflected the needs of a developing economy for skilled employees. Obtaining advanced training or education was easier for some than for others, however, and the children of white-collar employees still were more likely to become white-collar employees themselves than were the children of farmers and blue-collar workers. In addition, children of white-collar professionals were more likely than not to remain in that class.
The economic transformation also altered income structure. A noticeable shift was the reduction in wage differentials. The increased wealth produced by an advanced economy was distributed to wage earners via the system of broad income agreements that evolved in the postwar era. Organized sectors of the economy received wage hikes even greater than the economy's growth rate. As a result, blue-collar workers' income came, in time, to match more closely the pay of lower level white-collar employees, and the income of the upper middle class declined in relation to that of other groups.
The long trend of growth in living standards paired with diminishing differences between social classes was dramatically reversed during the 1990s. For the first time in the history of Finland income differences have sharply grown. This change has been mostly driven by the growth of income from capital to the wealthiest segment of the population.
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"text": "The economy of Finland is a highly industrialised, mixed economy with a per capita output similar to that of western European economies such as France, Germany, and the United Kingdom. The largest sector of Finland's economy is its service sector, which contributes 72.7% to the country's gross domestic product (GDP); followed by manufacturing and refining at 31.4%; and concluded with the country's primary sector at 2.9%.",
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"text": "Finland's key economic sector is manufacturing. The largest industries are electronics (21.6% - very old data), machinery, vehicles and other engineered metal products (21.1%), forest industry (13.1%), and chemicals (10.9%). Finland has timber and several mineral and freshwater resources. Forestry, paper factories, and the agricultural sector (on which taxpayers spend around 2 billion euro annually) are politically sensitive to rural residents. The Greater Helsinki area generates around a third of GDP.",
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{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "In a 2004 OECD comparison, high-technology manufacturing in Finland ranked second largest in the world, after Ireland. Investment was below the expected levels. The overall short-term outlook was good and GDP growth has been above many of its peers in the European Union. Finland has the 4th largest knowledge economy in Europe, behind Sweden, Denmark and the UK. The economy of Finland tops the ranking of the Global Information Technology 2014 report by the World Economic Forum for concerted output between the business sector, the scholarly production and the governmental assistance on information and communications technology.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "Finland is highly integrated in the global economy, and international trade represents a third of the GDP. Trade with the European Union represents 60% of the country's total trade. The largest trade flows are with Germany, Russia, Sweden, the United Kingdom, the United States, the Netherlands and China. The trade policy is managed by the European Union, where Finland has traditionally been among the free trade supporters, except for agriculture. Finland is the only Nordic country to have joined the Eurozone; Denmark and Sweden have retained their traditional currencies, whereas Iceland and Norway are not members of the EU at all.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "Being geographically distant from Western and Central Europe in relation to other Nordic countries, Finland struggled behind in terms of industrialization apart from the production of paper, which partially replaced the export of timber solely as a raw material towards the end of the nineteenth century. But as a relatively poor country, it was vulnerable to shocks to the economy such as the great famine of 1867–1868, which killed around 15% of the country's population. Until the 1930s, the Finnish economy was predominantly agrarian and, as late as in the 1950s, more than half the population and 40% of output were still in the primary sector.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "Property rights were strong. While nationalization committees were set up in France and the United Kingdom, Finland avoided nationalizations. Finnish industry recovered quickly after Second World War. By the end of 1946, industrial output had surpassed pre-war numbers. In the immediate post-war period of 1946 to 1951, industry continued to grow rapidly. Many factors contributed to the rapid industrial growth such as war reparations which were largely paid in manufactured products, devaluation of currency in 1945 and 1949, which made dollar rise by 70% against Finnish markka and thus boosted exports to the West as well as rebuilding the country, which increased demand for industrial products. In 1951, the Korean War boosted exports. Finland practiced an active exchange rate policy and devaluation was used several times to raise the competitiveness of exporting industries.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "Between 1950 and 1975, Finland's industry was at the mercy of international economic trends. The fast industrial growth in 1953-1955 was followed by a period of more moderate growth which started in 1956. The causes for the deceleration of growth were the general strike of 1956, as well as weakened export trends and easing of the strict regulation of Finland's foreign trade in 1957, which compelled industry to compete against ever toughening international challengers. An economic recession brought industrial output down by 3.4% in 1958. Industry, however, recovered quickly during the international economic boom that followed the recession. One reason for this was the devaluation of the Finnish markka which increased the value of the US dollar up by 39% against the Finnish markka.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "International economy was stable in the 1960s. This trend can be seen in Finland as well, where steady growth of industrial output throughout the decade was recorded.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "After failed experiments with protectionism, Finland eased restrictions and concluded a free trade agreement with the European Community in 1973, making its markets more competitive. Finland's industrial output declined in 1975. The decline was caused by the free trade agreement that was made between Finland and the European Community in 1973. The agreement subjected Finnish industry to ever toughening international competition and a strong contraction duly followed in Finland's exports to the West. In 1976 and 1977 growth of industrial output was almost zero, but in 1978 it swung back towards strong growth again. In 1978 and 1979 industrial output grew at above average rate. The stimuli for this were three devaluations of Finnish markka, which lowered value of the markka by a total of 19%. Impacts from the Oil Crisis on Finnish industry were also alleviated by Finland's bilateral trade with the Soviet Union.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "Local education markets expanded, and an increasing number of Finns also went abroad to study in the United States or Western Europe, bringing back advanced skills. There was a quite common, but pragmatic-minded, credit and investment cooperation by state and corporations, though it was considered with suspicion. Support for capitalism was widespread. On the other hand, communists (Finnish People's Democratic League) have received the most votes (23.2%) in 1958 parliamentary elections. Savings rate hovered among the world's highest, at around 8% until the 1980s. In the beginning of the 1970s, Finland's GDP per capita reached the level of Japan and the UK. Finland's economic development shared many aspects with export-led Asian countries. The official policy of neutrality enabled Finland to trade both with Western and Comecon markets. Significant bilateral trade was conducted with the Soviet Union, but this did not grow into a dependence.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "Like other Nordic countries, Finland has liberalized its system of economic regulation since late 1980s. Financial and product market regulations were modified. Some state enterprises were privatized and some tax rates were altered. In 1991, the Finnish economy fell into a severe recession. This was caused by a combination of economic overheating (largely due to a change in the banking laws in 1986 which made credit much more accessible), depressed markets with key trading partners (particularly the Swedish and Soviet markets) as well as local markets, slow growth with other trading partners, and the disappearance of the Soviet bilateral trade. Stock market and housing prices declined by 50%. The growth in the 1980s was based on debt, and when the defaults began rolling in, GDP declined by 13% and unemployment increased from a virtual full employment to one fifth of the workforce. The crisis was amplified by trade unions' initial opposition to any reforms. Politicians struggled to cut spending and the public debt doubled to around 60% of GDP. Much of the economic growth in the 1980s was based on debt financing, and the debt defaults led to a savings and loan crisis. A total of over 10 billion euros were used to bail out failing banks, which led to banking sector consolidation. After devaluations, the depression bottomed out in 1993.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "Finland joined the European Union in 1995. The central bank was given an inflation-targeting mandate until Finland joined the euro zone. The growth rate has since been one of the highest of OECD countries and Finland has topped many indicators of national performance.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "Finland was one of the 11 countries joining the third phase of the Economic and Monetary Union of the European Union, adopting the euro as the country's currency, on 1 January 1999. The national currency markka (FIM) was withdrawn from circulation and replaced by the euro (EUR) at the beginning of 2002.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "The following table shows the main economic indicators in 1980–2017. Inflation under 2% is in green. Estimates begin after 2021.",
"title": "Data"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "Finland's climate and soils make growing crops a particular challenge. The country lies between 60° and 70° north latitude - as far north as Alaska - and has severe winters and relatively short growing seasons that are sometimes interrupted by frosts. However, because the Gulf Stream and the North Atlantic Drift Current moderate the climate, and because of the relatively low elevation of the land area, Finland contains half of the world's arable land north of 60° north latitude. In response to the climate, farmers have relied on quick-ripening and frost-resistant varieties of crops. Most farmland had originally been either forest or swamp, and the soil had usually required treatment with lime and years of cultivation to neutralise excess acid and to develop fertility. Irrigation was generally not necessary, but drainage systems were often needed to remove excess water.",
"title": "Agriculture"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 15,
"text": "Until the late nineteenth century, Finland's isolation required that most farmers concentrate on producing grains to meet the country's basic food needs. In the fall, farmers planted rye; in the spring, southern and central farmers started oats, while northern farmers seeded barley. Farms also grew small quantities of potatoes, other root crops, and legumes. Nevertheless, the total area under cultivation was still small. Cattle grazed in the summer and consumed hay in the winter. Essentially self-sufficient, Finland engaged in very limited agricultural trade.",
"title": "Agriculture"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 16,
"text": "This traditional, almost autarkic, production pattern shifted sharply during the late nineteenth century, when inexpensive imported grain from Russia and the United States competed effectively with local grain. At the same time, rising domestic and foreign demand for dairy products and the availability of low-cost imported cattle feed made dairy and meat production much more profitable. These changes in market conditions induced Finland's farmers to switch from growing staple grains to producing meat and dairy products, setting a pattern that persisted into the late 1980s.",
"title": "Agriculture"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 17,
"text": "In response to the agricultural depression of the 1930s, the government encouraged domestic production by imposing tariffs on agricultural imports. This policy enjoyed some success: the total area under cultivation increased, and farm incomes fell less sharply in Finland than in most other countries. Barriers to grain imports stimulated a return to mixed farming, and by 1938 Finland's farmers were able to meet roughly 90% of the domestic demand for grain.",
"title": "Agriculture"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 18,
"text": "The disruptions caused by the Winter War and the Continuation War caused further food shortages, especially when Finland ceded territory, including about one-tenth of its farmland, to the Soviet Union. The experiences of the depression and the war years persuaded the Finns to secure independent food supplies to prevent shortages in future conflicts.",
"title": "Agriculture"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 19,
"text": "After the war, the first challenge was to resettle displaced farmers. Most refugee farmers were given farms that included some buildings and land that had already been in production, but some had to make do with \"cold farms,\" that is, land not in production that usually had to be cleared or drained before crops could be sown. The government sponsored large-scale clearing and draining operations that expanded the area suitable for farming. As a result of the resettlement and land-clearing programs, the area under cultivation expanded by about 450,000 hectares, reaching about 2.4 million hectares by the early 1960s. Finland thus came to farm more land than ever before, an unusual development in a country that was simultaneously experiencing rapid industrial growth.",
"title": "Agriculture"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 20,
"text": "During this period of expansion, farmers introduced modern production practices. The widespread use of modern inputs—chemical fertilisers and insecticides, agricultural machinery, and improved seed varieties—sharply improved crop yields. Yet the modernisation process again made farm production dependent on supplies from abroad, this time on imports of petroleum and fertilisers. By 1984 domestic sources of energy covered only about 20% of farm needs, while in 1950 domestic sources had supplied 70% of them. In the aftermath of the oil price increases of the early 1970s, farmers began to return to local energy sources such as firewood. The existence of many farms that were too small to allow efficient use of tractors also limited mechanisation. Another weak point was the existence of many fields with open drainage ditches needing regular maintenance; in the mid-1980s, experts estimated that half of the cropland needed improved drainage works. At that time, about 1 million hectares had underground drainage, and agricultural authorities planned to help install such works on another million hectares. Despite these shortcomings, Finland's agriculture was efficient and productive—at least when compared with farming in other European countries.",
"title": "Agriculture"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 21,
"text": "Forests play a key role in the country's economy, making it one of the world's leading wood producers and providing raw materials at competitive prices for the crucial wood processing industries. As in agriculture, the government has long played a leading role in forestry, regulating tree cutting, sponsoring technical improvements, and establishing long-term plans to ensure that the country's forests continue to supply the wood-processing industries.",
"title": "Agriculture"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 22,
"text": "Finland's wet climate and rocky soils are ideal for forests. Tree stands do well throughout the country, except in some areas north of the Arctic Circle. In 1980 the forested area totaled about 19.8 million hectares, providing 4 hectares of forest per capita—far above the European average of about 0.5 hectares. The proportion of forest land varied considerably from region to region. In the central lake plateau and in the eastern and northern provinces, forests covered up to 80% of the land area, but in areas with better conditions for agriculture, especially in the southwest, forests accounted for only 50 to 60% of the territory. The main commercial tree species—pine, spruce, and birch—supplied raw material to the sawmill, pulp, and paper industries. The forests also produced sizable aspen and elder crops.",
"title": "Agriculture"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 23,
"text": "The heavy winter snows and the network of waterways were used to move logs to the mills. Loggers were able to drag cut trees over the winter snow to the roads or water bodies. In the southwest, the sledding season lasted about 100 days per year; the season was even longer to the north and the east. The country's network of lakes and rivers facilitated log floating, a cheap and rapid means of transport. Each spring, crews floated the logs downstream to collection points; tugs towed log bundles down rivers and across lakes to processing centers. The waterway system covered much of the country, and by the 1980s Finland had extended roadways and railroads to areas not served by waterways, effectively opening up all of the country's forest reserves to commercial use.",
"title": "Agriculture"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 24,
"text": "Forestry and farming were closely linked. During the twentieth century, government land redistribution programmes had made forest ownership widespread, allotting forestland to most farms. In the 1980s, private farmers controlled 35% of the country's forests; other persons held 27%; the government, 24%; private corporations, 9%; and municipalities and other public bodies, 5%. The forestlands owned by farmers and by other people—some 350,000 plots—were the best, producing 75 to 80% of the wood consumed by industry; the state owned much of the poorer land, especially that in the north.",
"title": "Agriculture"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 25,
"text": "The ties between forestry and farming were mutually beneficial. Farmers supplemented their incomes with earnings from selling their wood, caring for forests, or logging; forestry made many otherwise marginal farms viable. At the same time, farming communities maintained roads and other infrastructure in rural areas, and they provided workers for forest operations. Indeed, without the farming communities in sparsely populated areas, it would have been much more difficult to continue intensive logging operations and reforestation in many prime forest areas.",
"title": "Agriculture"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 26,
"text": "The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry has carried out forest inventories and drawn up silvicultural plans. According to surveys, between 1945 and the late 1970s foresters had cut trees faster than the forests could regenerate them. Nevertheless, between the early 1950s and 1981, Finland was able to boost the total area of its forests by some 2.7 million hectares and to increase forest stands under 40 years of age by some 3.2 million hectares. Beginning in 1965, the country instituted plans that called for expanding forest cultivation, draining peatland and waterlogged areas, and replacing slow-growing trees with faster-growing varieties. By the mid-1980s, the Finns had drained 5.5 million hectares, fertilized 2.8 million hectares, and cultivated 3.6 million hectares. Thinning increased the share of trees that would produce suitable lumber, while improved tree varieties increased productivity by as much as 30%.",
"title": "Agriculture"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 27,
"text": "Comprehensive silvicultural programmes had made it possible for the Finns simultaneously to increase forest output and to add to the amount and value of the growing stock. By the mid-1980s, Finland's forests produced nearly 70 million cubic meters of new wood each year, considerably more than was being cut. During the postwar period, the annual cut increased by about 120% to about 50 million cubic meters. Wood burning fell to one-fifth the level of the immediate postwar years, freeing up wood supplies for the wood-processing industries, which consumed between 40 million and 45 million cubic meters per year. Indeed, industry demand was so great that Finland needed to import 5 million to 6 million cubic meters of wood each year.",
"title": "Agriculture"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 28,
"text": "To maintain the country's comparative advantage in forest products, Finnish authorities moved to raise lumber output toward the country's ecological limits. In 1984 the government published the Forest 2000 plan, drawn up by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry. The plan aimed at increasing forest harvests by about 3% per year, while conserving forestland for recreation and other uses. It also called for enlarging the average size of private forest holdings, increasing the area used for forests, and extending forest cultivation and thinning. If successful, the plan would make it possible to raise wood deliveries by roughly one-third by the end of the twentieth century. Finnish officials believed that such growth was necessary if Finland was to maintain its share in world markets for wood and paper products.",
"title": "Agriculture"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 29,
"text": "Since the 1990s, Finnish industry, which for centuries had relied on the country's vast forests, has become increasingly dominated by electronics and services, as globalization lead to a decline of more traditional industries. Outsourcing resulted in more manufacturing being transferred abroad, with Finnish-based industry focusing to a greater extent on R&D and hi-tech electronics.",
"title": "Industry"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 30,
"text": "The Finnish electronics and electrotechnics industry relies on heavy investment in R&D, and has been accelerated by the liberalisation of global markets. Electrical engineering started in the late 19th century with generators and electric motors built by Gottfried Strömberg, now part of the ABB. Other Finnish companies – such as Instru, Vaisala and Neles (now part of Metso) - have succeeded in areas such as industrial automation, medical and meteorological technology. Nokia was once a world leader in mobile telecommunications.",
"title": "Industry"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 31,
"text": "Finland has an abundance of minerals, but many large mines have closed down, and most raw materials are now imported. For this reason, companies now tend to focus on high added-value processing of metals. The exports include steel, copper, chromium, gold, zinc and nickel, and finished products such as steel roofing and cladding, welded steel pipes, copper pipe and coated sheets. Outokumpu is known for developing the flash smelting process for copper production and stainless steel.",
"title": "Industry"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 32,
"text": "In 2019, the country was the world's 5th largest producer of chromium, the 17th largest world producer of sulfur and the 20th largest world producer of phosphate",
"title": "Industry"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 33,
"text": "With regard to vehicles, the Finnish motor industry consists mostly of manufacturers of tractors (Valtra, formerly Valmet tractor), forest machines (f.ex. Ponsse), military vehicles (Sisu, Patria), trucks (Sisu Auto), buses and Valmet Automotive, a contract manufacturer, whose factory in Uusikaupunki produces Mercedes-Benz cars. Shipbuilding is an important industry: the world's largest cruise ships are built in Finland; also, the Finnish company Wärtsilä produces the world's largest diesel engines and has market share of 47%. In addition, Finland also produces train rolling stock.",
"title": "Industry"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 34,
"text": "The manufacturing industry is a significant employer of about 400,000 people.",
"title": "Industry"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 35,
"text": "The chemical industry is one of the Finland's largest industrial sectors with its roots in tar making in the 17th century. It produces an enormous range of products for the use of other industrial sectors, especially for forestry and agriculture. In addition, its produces plastics, chemicals, paints, oil products, pharmaceuticals, environmental products, biotech products and petrochemicals. In the beginning of this millennium, biotechnology was regarded as one of the most promising high-tech sectors in Finland. In 2006 it was still considered promising, even though it had not yet become \"the new Nokia\".",
"title": "Industry"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 36,
"text": "Forest products has been the major export industry in the past, but diversification and growth of the economy has reduced its share. In the 1970s, the pulp and paper industry accounted for half of Finnish exports. Although this share has shrank, pulp and paper is still a major industry with 52 sites across the country. Furthermore, several of large international corporations in this business are based in Finland. Stora Enso and UPM were placed No. 1 and No. 3 by output in the world, both producing more than ten million tons. M-real and Myllykoski also appear on the top 100 list.",
"title": "Industry"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 37,
"text": "Finland's energy supply is divided as follows: nuclear power 26%, net imports 20%, hydroelectric power 16%, combined production district heat 18%, combined production industry 13%, condensing power 6%. One half of all the energy consumed in Finland goes to industry, one fifth to heating buildings and one fifth to transport. Lacking indigenous fossil fuel resources, Finland has been an energy importer. This might change in the future since Finland is currently building its fifth nuclear reactor, and approved building permits for its sixth and seventh ones. There are some uranium resources in Finland, but to date no commercially viable deposits have been identified for exclusive mining of uranium. However, permits have been granted to Talvivaara to produce uranium from the tailings of their nickel-cobalt mine.",
"title": "Industry"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 38,
"text": "Notable companies in Finland include Nokia, the former market leader in mobile telephony; Stora Enso, the largest paper manufacturer in the world; Neste Oil, an oil refining and marketing company; UPM-Kymmene, the third largest paper manufacturer in the world; Aker Finnyards, the manufacturer of the world's largest cruise ships (such as Royal Caribbean's Freedom of the Seas); Rovio Mobile, video game developer most notable for creating Angry Birds; KONE, a manufacturer of elevators and escalators; Wärtsilä, a producer of power plants and ship engines; and Finnair, the largest Helsinki-Vantaa based international airline. Additionally, many Nordic design firms are headquartered in Finland. These include the Fiskars owned Iittala Group, Artek a furniture design firm co-created by Alvar Aalto, and Marimekko made famous by Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. Finland has sophisticated financial markets comparable to the UK in efficiency. Though foreign investment is not as high as some other European countries, the largest foreign-headquartered companies included names such as ABB, Tellabs, Carlsberg and Siemens.",
"title": "Companies"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 39,
"text": "Around 70-80% of the equity quoted on the Helsinki Stock Exchange are owned by foreign-registered entities. The larger companies get most of their revenue from abroad, and the majority of their employees work outside the country. Cross-shareholding has been abolished and there is a trend towards an Anglo-Saxon style of corporate governance. However, only around 15% of residents have invested in stock market, compared to 20% in France, and 50% in the US.",
"title": "Companies"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 40,
"text": "Between 2000 and 2003, early stage venture capital investments relative to GDP were 8.5% against 4% in the EU and 11.5 in the US. Later stage investments fell to the EU median. Invest in Finland and other programs attempt to attract investment. In 2000 FDI from Finland to overseas was 20 billion euro and from overseas to Finland 7 billion euro. Acquisitions and mergers have internationalized business in Finland.",
"title": "Companies"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 41,
"text": "Although some privatization has been gradually done, there are still several state-owned companies of importance. The government keeps them as strategic assets or because they are natural monopoly. These include e.g. Neste (oil refining and marketing), VR (rail), Finnair, VTT (research) and Posti Group (mail). Depending on the strategic importance, the government may hold either 100%, 51% or less than 50% stock. Most of these have been transformed into regular limited companies, but some are quasi-governmental (liikelaitos), with debt backed by the state, as in the case of VTT.",
"title": "Companies"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 42,
"text": "In 2022, the sector with the highest number of companies registered in Finland is Services with 191,796 companies followed by Finance, Insurance, and Real Estate and Agriculture, Forestry, and Fishing with 159,158 and 102,452 companies respectively.",
"title": "Companies"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 43,
"text": "Finland's income is generated by the approximately 1.8 million private sector workers, who make an average 25.1 euro per hour (before the median 60% tax wedge) in 2007. According to a 2003 report, residents worked on average around 10 years for the same employer and around 5 different jobs over a lifetime. 62% worked for small and medium-sized enterprises. Female employment rate was high and gender segregation on career choices was higher than in the US. In 1999 part-time work rate was one of the smallest in OECD.",
"title": "Household income and consumption"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 44,
"text": "Future liabilities are dominated by the pension deficit. Unlike in Sweden, where pension savers can manage their investments, in Finland employers choose a pension fund for the employee. The pension funding rate is higher than in most Western European countries, but still only a portion of it is funded and pensions exclude health insurances and other unaccounted promises. Directly held public debt has been reduced to around 32% in 2007. In 2007, the average household savings rate was -3.8 and household debt 101% of annual disposable income, a typical level in Europe.",
"title": "Household income and consumption"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 45,
"text": "In 2008, the OECD reported that \"the gap between rich and poor has widened more in Finland than in any other wealthy industrialised country over the past decade\" and that \"Finland is also one of the few countries where inequality of incomes has grown between the rich and the middle-class, and not only between rich and poor.\"",
"title": "Household income and consumption"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 46,
"text": "In 2006, there were 2,381,500 households of average size 2.1 people. Forty% of households consisted of single person, 32% two and 28% three or more. There were 1.2 million residential buildings in Finland and the average residential space was 38 square metres per person. The average residential property (without land) cost 1,187 euro per square metre and residential land on 8.6 euro per square metre. Consumer energy prices were 8-12 euro cent per kilowatt hour. 74% of households had a car. There were 2.5 million cars and 0.4 other vehicles. Around 92% have mobile phones and 58% Internet connection at home. The average total household consumption was 20,000 euro, out of which housing at around 5500 euro, transport at around 3000 euro, food and beverages excluding alcoholic at around 2500 euro, recreation and culture at around 2000 euro. Upper-level white-collar households (409,653) consumed an average 27,456 euro, lower-level white-collar households (394,313) 20,935 euro, and blue-collar households (471,370) 19,415 euro.",
"title": "Household income and consumption"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 47,
"text": "The unemployment rate was 10.3% in 2015. The employment rate is (persons aged 15–64) 66.8%. Unemployment security benefits for those seeking employment are at an average OECD level. The labor administration funds labour market training for unemployed job seekers, the training for unemployed job seeker can last up to 6 months, which is often vocational. The aim of the training is to improve the channels of finding employment.",
"title": "Unemployment"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 48,
"text": "The American economist and The New York Times columnist Paul Krugman has suggested that the short term costs of euro membership to the Finnish economy outweigh the large gains caused by greater integration with the European economy. Krugman notes that Sweden, which has yet to join the single currency, had similar rates of growth compared to Finland for the period since the introduction of the euro.",
"title": "Gross domestic product"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 49,
"text": "Membership of the euro protects Finland from currency fluctuations, which is particularly important for small member states of the European Union like Finland that are highly integrated into the larger European economy. If Finland had retained its own currency, unpredictable exchange rates would prevent the country from selling its products at competitive prices on the European market. In fact, business leaders in Sweden, which is obliged to join the euro when its economy has converged with the eurozone, are almost universal in their support for joining the euro. Although Sweden's currency is not officially pegged to the euro like Denmark's currency the Swedish government maintains an unofficial peg. This exchange rate policy has in the short term benefited the Swedish economy in two ways; (1) much of Sweden's European trade is already denominated in euros and therefore bypasses any currency fluctuation and exchange rate losses, (2) it allows Sweden's non-euro-area exports to remain competitive by dampening any pressure from the financial markets to increase the value of the currency.",
"title": "Gross domestic product"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 50,
"text": "Maintaining this balance has allowed the Swedish government to borrow on the international financial markets at record low interest rates and allowed the Swedish central bank to quantitatively ease into a fundamentally sound economy. This has led Sweden's economy to prosper at the expense of less sound economies who have been impacted by the 2008 financial crisis. Sweden's economic performance has therefore been slightly better than Finland's since the financial crisis of 2008. Much of this disparity has, however, been due to the economic dominance of Nokia, Finland's largest company and Finland's only major multinational. Nokia supported and greatly benefited from the euro and the European single market, particularly from a common European digital mobile phone standard (GSM), but it failed to adapt when the market shifted to mobile computing.",
"title": "Gross domestic product"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 51,
"text": "One reason for the popularity of the euro in Finland is the memory of a 'great depression' which began in 1990, with Finland not regaining it competitiveness until approximately a decade later when Finland joined the single currency. Some American economists like Paul Krugman claim not to understand the benefits of a single currency and allege that poor economic performance is the result of membership of the single currency. These economists do not, however, advocate separate currencies for the states of the United States, many of which have quite disparate economies.",
"title": "Gross domestic product"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 52,
"text": "Finnish politicians have often emulated other Nordics and the Nordic model. Nordic's have been free-trading and relatively welcoming to skilled migrants for over a century, though in Finland immigration is a relatively new phenomenon. This is due largely to Finland's less hospitable climate and the fact that the Finnish language shares roots with none of the major world languages, making it more challenging than average for most to learn. The level of protection in commodity trade has been low, except for agricultural products.",
"title": "Public policy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 53,
"text": "As an economic environment, Finland's judiciary is efficient and effective. Finland is highly open to investment and free trade. Finland has top levels of economic freedom in many areas, although there is a heavy tax burden and inflexible job market. Finland is ranked 16th (ninth in Europe) in the 2008 Index of Economic Freedom. Recently, Finland has topped the patents per capita statistics, and overall productivity growth has been strong in areas such as electronics. While the manufacturing sector is thriving, OECD points out that the service sector would benefit substantially from policy improvements. The IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook 2007 ranked Finland 17th most competitive, next to Germany, and lowest of the Nordics. while the World Economic Forum report has ranked Finland the most competitive country. Finland is one of the most fiscally responsible EU countries.",
"title": "Public policy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 54,
"text": "Economists attribute much growth to reforms in the product markets. According to OECD, only four EU-15 countries have less regulated product markets (UK, Ireland, Denmark and Sweden) and only one has less regulated financial markets (Denmark). Nordic countries were pioneers in liberalising energy, postal, and other markets in Europe. The legal system is clear and business bureaucracy less than most countries. For instance, starting a business takes an average of 14 days, compared to the world average of 43 days and Denmark's average of 6 days. Property rights are well protected and contractual agreements are strictly honored. Finland is rated one of the least corrupted countries in Corruption Perceptions Index. Finland is rated 13th in the Ease of Doing Business Index. It indicates exceptional ease to trade across borders (5th), enforce contracts (7th), and close a business (5th), and exceptional hardship to employ workers (127th) and pay taxes (83rd).",
"title": "Public policy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 55,
"text": "According to the OECD, Finland's job market is the least flexible of the Nordic countries. Finland increased job market regulation in the 1970s to provide stability to manufacturers. In contrast, during the 1990s, Denmark liberalised its job market, Sweden moved to more decentralised contracts, whereas Finnish trade unions blocked many reforms. Many professions have legally recognized industry-wide contracts that lay down common terms of employment including seniority levels, holiday entitlements, and salary levels, usually as part of a Comprehensive Income Policy Agreement. Those who favor less centralized labor market policies consider these agreements bureaucratic, inflexible, and along with tax rates, a key contributor to unemployment and distorted prices. Centralized agreements may hinder structural change as there are fewer incentives to acquire better skills, although Finland already enjoys one of the highest skill-levels in the world.",
"title": "Public policy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 56,
"text": "Tax is collected mainly from municipal income tax, state income tax, state value added tax, customs fees, corporate taxes and special taxes. There are also property taxes, but municipal income tax pays most of municipal expenses. Taxation is conducted by a state agency, Verohallitus, which collects income taxes from each paycheck, and then pays the difference between tax liability and taxes paid as tax rebate or collects as tax arrears afterward. Municipal income tax is a flat tax of nominally 15-20%, with deductions applied, and directly funds the municipality (a city or rural locality). The state income tax is a progressive tax; low-income individuals do not necessarily pay any. The state transfers some of its income as state support to municipalities, particularly the poorer ones. Additionally, the state churches - Finnish Evangelical Lutheran Church and Finnish Orthodox Church - are integrated to the taxation system in order to tax their members.",
"title": "Taxation"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 57,
"text": "The middle income worker's tax wedge is 46% and effective marginal tax rates are very high. Value-added tax is 24% for most items. Capital gains tax is 30-34% and corporate tax is 20%, about the EU median. Property taxes are low, but there is a transfer tax (1.6% for apartments or 4% for individual houses) for home buyers. There are high excise taxes on alcoholic beverages, tobacco, automobiles and motorcycles, motor fuels, lotteries, sweets and insurances. For instance, McKinsey estimates that a worker has to pay around 1600 euro for another's 400 euro service - restricting service supply and demand - though some taxation is avoided in the black market and self-service culture. Another study by Karlson, Johansson & Johnsson estimates that the fraction of the buyer's income entering the service vendor's wallet (inverted tax wedge) is slightly over 15%, compared to 10% in Belgium, 25% in France, 40% in Switzerland and 50% in the United States. Tax cuts have been in every post-depression government's agenda and the overall tax burden is now around 43% of GDP compared to 51.1% in Sweden, 34.7% in Germany, 33.5% in Canada, and 30.5% in Ireland.",
"title": "Taxation"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 58,
"text": "High income workers, for instance someone making 10000€/month gross, living in the city of Vantaa and using 3000€/year on commuting to work, pay 60% income tax plus 8.65% social security payments (this varies mildly depending on the age of the worker, but for someone born in 1975, it is currently in the year 2022, 8.65%). This means that 68.65% of the gross income goes to taxes and tax like payments.",
"title": "Taxation"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 59,
"text": "State and municipal politicians have struggled to cut their consumption, which is very high at 51.7% of GDP compared to 56.6% in Sweden, 46.9 in Germany, 39.3 in Canada, and 33.5% in Ireland. Much of the taxes are spent on public sector employees, which amount to 124,000 state employees and 430,000 municipal employees. That is 113 per 1000 residents (over a quarter of workforce) compared to 74 in the US, 70 in Germany, and 42 in Japan (8% of workforce). The Economist Intelligence Unit's ranking for Finland's e-readiness is high at 13th, compared to 1st for United States, 3rd for Sweden, 5th for Denmark, and 14th for Germany. Also, early and generous retirement schemes have contributed to high pension costs. Social spending such as health or education is around OECD median. Social transfers are also around OECD median. In 2001 Finland's outsourced proportion of spending was below Sweden's and above most other Western European countries. Finland's health care is more bureaucrat-managed than in most Western European countries, though many use private insurance or cash to enjoy private clinics. Some reforms toward more equal marketplace have been made in 2007–2008. In education, child nurseries, and elderly nurseries private competition is bottom-ranking compared to Sweden and most other Western countries. Some public monopolies such Alko remain, and are sometimes challenged by the European Union. The state has a programme where the number of jobs decreases by attrition: for two retirees, only one new employee is hired.",
"title": "Taxation"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 60,
"text": "Finland's export-dependent economy continuously adapted to the world market; in doing so, it changed Finnish society as well. The prolonged worldwide boom, beginning in the late 1940s and lasting until the first oil crisis in 1973, was a challenge that Finland met and from which it emerged with a highly sophisticated and diversified economy, including a new occupational structure. Some sectors kept a fairly constant share of the work force. Transportation and construction, for example, each accounted for between 7 and 8% in both 1950 and 1985, and manufacturing's share rose only from 22 to 24%. However, both the commercial and the service sectors more than doubled their share of the work force, accounting, respectively, for 21 and 28% in 1985. The greatest change was the decline of the economically active population employed in agriculture and forestry, from approximately 50% in 1950 to 10% in 1985. The exodus from farms and forests provided the labour power needed for the growth of other sectors.",
"title": "Occupational and income structure"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 61,
"text": "Studies of Finnish mobility patterns since World War II have confirmed the significance of this exodus. Sociologists have found that people with a farming background were present in other occupations to a considerably greater extent in Finland than in other West European countries. Finnish data for the early 1980s showed that 30 to 40% of those in occupations not requiring much education were the children of farmers, as were about 25% in upper-level occupations, a rate two to three times that of France and noticeably higher than that even of neighboring Sweden. Finland also differed from the other Nordic countries in that the generational transition from the rural occupations to white-collar positions was more likely to be direct, bypassing manual occupations.",
"title": "Occupational and income structure"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 62,
"text": "The most important factor determining social mobility in Finland was education. Children who attained a higher level of education than their parents were often able to rise in the hierarchy of occupations. In the Helsinki Metropolitan Area, those who are more educated, in the long-run, will move to newer centrally located buildings. A tripling or quadrupling in any one generation of the numbers receiving schooling beyond the required minimum reflected the needs of a developing economy for skilled employees. Obtaining advanced training or education was easier for some than for others, however, and the children of white-collar employees still were more likely to become white-collar employees themselves than were the children of farmers and blue-collar workers. In addition, children of white-collar professionals were more likely than not to remain in that class.",
"title": "Occupational and income structure"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 63,
"text": "The economic transformation also altered income structure. A noticeable shift was the reduction in wage differentials. The increased wealth produced by an advanced economy was distributed to wage earners via the system of broad income agreements that evolved in the postwar era. Organized sectors of the economy received wage hikes even greater than the economy's growth rate. As a result, blue-collar workers' income came, in time, to match more closely the pay of lower level white-collar employees, and the income of the upper middle class declined in relation to that of other groups.",
"title": "Occupational and income structure"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 64,
"text": "The long trend of growth in living standards paired with diminishing differences between social classes was dramatically reversed during the 1990s. For the first time in the history of Finland income differences have sharply grown. This change has been mostly driven by the growth of income from capital to the wealthiest segment of the population.",
"title": "Occupational and income structure"
}
] |
The economy of Finland is a highly industrialised, mixed economy with a per capita output similar to that of western European economies such as France, Germany, and the United Kingdom. The largest sector of Finland's economy is its service sector, which contributes 72.7% to the country's gross domestic product (GDP); followed by manufacturing and refining at 31.4%; and concluded with the country's primary sector at 2.9%. Finland's key economic sector is manufacturing. The largest industries are electronics, machinery, vehicles and other engineered metal products (21.1%), forest industry (13.1%), and chemicals (10.9%). Finland has timber and several mineral and freshwater resources. Forestry, paper factories, and the agricultural sector are politically sensitive to rural residents. The Greater Helsinki area generates around a third of GDP. In a 2004 OECD comparison, high-technology manufacturing in Finland ranked second largest in the world, after Ireland. Investment was below the expected levels. The overall short-term outlook was good and GDP growth has been above many of its peers in the European Union. Finland has the 4th largest knowledge economy in Europe, behind Sweden, Denmark and the UK. The economy of Finland tops the ranking of the Global Information Technology 2014 report by the World Economic Forum for concerted output between the business sector, the scholarly production and the governmental assistance on information and communications technology. Finland is highly integrated in the global economy, and international trade represents a third of the GDP. Trade with the European Union represents 60% of the country's total trade. The largest trade flows are with Germany, Russia, Sweden, the United Kingdom, the United States, the Netherlands and China. The trade policy is managed by the European Union, where Finland has traditionally been among the free trade supporters, except for agriculture. Finland is the only Nordic country to have joined the Eurozone; Denmark and Sweden have retained their traditional currencies, whereas Iceland and Norway are not members of the EU at all.
|
2001-04-29T15:49:55Z
|
2023-12-22T05:22:08Z
|
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Finland
|
10,713 |
Telecommunications in Finland
|
Finland has excellent communications, and is considered one of the most advanced information societies in the world.
Telephones – main lines in use: 2.368 million (2004)
Telephones – mobile cellular: 4.988 million (2004)
Telephone system: General Assessment: Modern system with excellent service.
Domestic: Digital fiber-optic fixed-line network and an extensive cellular network provide domestic needs. There are three major cellular network providers with independent networks (Elisa Oyj, Telia Finland and DNA Oyj). There are several smaller providers which may have independent networks in smaller areas, but are generally dependent on rented networks. There is a great variety of cellular providers and contracts, and competition is particularly fierce.
International: Country code – 358; 2 submarine cable (Finland-Estonia and Finland-Sweden Connection); satellite earth stations – access to Intelsat transmission service via a Swedish satellite earth station, 1 Inmarsat (Atlantic and Indian Ocean regions); note – Finland shares the Inmarsat earth station with the other Nordic countries (Denmark, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden).
There is a national public radio and television company Yleisradio (Yle), which was previously funded by television license fees, but nowadays via the YLE tax. and two major private media companies, Alma Media and Sanoma, with national TV channels. Yle maintains four TV channels YLE1, YLE2, Teema and FST5. There are four commercial, national channels: Alma Media has MTV3 and SubTV, and Sanoma has Nelonen and Jim. There are also a lot of pay-TV channels. News Corporation introduced itself to the market in 2012 with the Fox channel, which was preceded by Finnish-owned SuomiTV.
AM 2, FM 186, shortwave 1 (1998)
120 (plus 431 repeaters) (1999)
Television is broadcast as digital (DVB-T) only since August 2007. On cable, only digital (DVB-C) will be broadcast from 2008 on.
Internet country code: .fi
Internet hosts: 1,503,976 (2005)
Internet users: 3.286 million (2005)
In 2011, there were over 3.5 million broadband subscriptions in Finland, and the number of both them and mobile data transmission subscriptions continued to grow.
|
[
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "Finland has excellent communications, and is considered one of the most advanced information societies in the world.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "Telephones – main lines in use: 2.368 million (2004)",
"title": "Telephones"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "Telephones – mobile cellular: 4.988 million (2004)",
"title": "Telephones"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "Telephone system: General Assessment: Modern system with excellent service.",
"title": "Telephones"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "Domestic: Digital fiber-optic fixed-line network and an extensive cellular network provide domestic needs. There are three major cellular network providers with independent networks (Elisa Oyj, Telia Finland and DNA Oyj). There are several smaller providers which may have independent networks in smaller areas, but are generally dependent on rented networks. There is a great variety of cellular providers and contracts, and competition is particularly fierce.",
"title": "Telephones"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "International: Country code – 358; 2 submarine cable (Finland-Estonia and Finland-Sweden Connection); satellite earth stations – access to Intelsat transmission service via a Swedish satellite earth station, 1 Inmarsat (Atlantic and Indian Ocean regions); note – Finland shares the Inmarsat earth station with the other Nordic countries (Denmark, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden).",
"title": "Telephones"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "There is a national public radio and television company Yleisradio (Yle), which was previously funded by television license fees, but nowadays via the YLE tax. and two major private media companies, Alma Media and Sanoma, with national TV channels. Yle maintains four TV channels YLE1, YLE2, Teema and FST5. There are four commercial, national channels: Alma Media has MTV3 and SubTV, and Sanoma has Nelonen and Jim. There are also a lot of pay-TV channels. News Corporation introduced itself to the market in 2012 with the Fox channel, which was preceded by Finnish-owned SuomiTV.",
"title": "Radio and television"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "AM 2, FM 186, shortwave 1 (1998)",
"title": "Radio and television"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "120 (plus 431 repeaters) (1999)",
"title": "Radio and television"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "Television is broadcast as digital (DVB-T) only since August 2007. On cable, only digital (DVB-C) will be broadcast from 2008 on.",
"title": "Radio and television"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "Internet country code: .fi",
"title": "Internet"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "Internet hosts: 1,503,976 (2005)",
"title": "Internet"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "Internet users: 3.286 million (2005)",
"title": "Internet"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "In 2011, there were over 3.5 million broadband subscriptions in Finland, and the number of both them and mobile data transmission subscriptions continued to grow.",
"title": "Internet"
}
] |
Finland has excellent communications, and is considered one of the most advanced information societies in the world.
|
2023-07-25T14:01:04Z
|
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telecommunications_in_Finland
|
|
10,714 |
Transport in Finland
|
The transport system of Finland is well-developed. Factors affecting traffic include the sparse population and long distance between towns and cities, and the cold climate with waterways freezing and land covered in snow for winter.
The extensive road system is utilized by most internal cargo and passenger traffic. As of 2010, the country's network of main roads has a total length of around 78,162 kilometres (48,568 mi) and all public roads 104,161 kilometres (64,723 mi). The motorway network totals 779 kilometres (484 mi) with additional 124 kilometres (77 mi) reserved only for motor traffic. Road network expenditure of around €1 billion is paid with vehicle and fuel taxes that amount to around €1.5 billion and €1 billion, respectively.
The main international passenger gateway is Helsinki-Vantaa Airport with over 20 million passengers in 2018. About 25 airports have scheduled passenger services. They are financed by competitive fees and rural airport may be subsidized. The Helsinki-Vantaa based Finnair (known for an Asia-focused strategy), Nordic Regional Airlines provide air services both domestically and internationally. Helsinki has an optimal location for great circle routes between Western Europe and the Far East. Hence, many international travelers visit Helsinki on a stop-over between Asia and Europe.
Despite low population density, taxpayers spend annually around €350 million in maintaining 5,865 kilometres (3,644 mi) railway tracks even to many rural towns. Operations are privatized and currently the only operator is the state-owned VR. It has 5 percent passenger market share (out of which 80 percent are urban trips in Greater Helsinki) and 25 percent cargo market share. Helsinki has an urban rail network.
Icebreakers keep the 23 ports open all year round. There is passenger traffic from Helsinki and Turku, which have ferry connections to Tallinn, Mariehamn, Sweden and several other destinations.
Road transport in Finland is the most popular method of transportation, particularly in rural areas where the railway network does not extend to. As of 2011 there are 78,162 kilometres (48,568 mi) of public roads, of which 51,016 kilometres (31,700 mi) are paved. The main road network comprises over 13,329 kilometres (8,282 mi) of road.
64% of all traffic on public roads takes place on main roads, which are divided into class I (valtatie/riksväg) and class II (kantatie/stamväg) main roads. Motorways have been constructed in the country since the 1960s, but they are still reasonably rare because traffic volumes are not large enough to motivate their construction. There are 863 kilometres (536 mi) of motorways. Longest stretches are Helsinki–Turku (Main road 1/E18), Vantaa–Ylöjärvi (Main road 3/E12), Helsinki–Heinola (Main road 4/E75), and Helsinki–Vaalimaa (Main road 7/E18). The world's northernmost motorway is also located in Finland between Keminmaa and Tornio (Main road 29/E8).
There are no toll roads in Finland.
Speed limits change depending on the time of the year; the maximum speed limit on motorways is 120 km/h (75 mph) in the summer and 100 km/h (62 mph) in the winter. The main roads usually have speed limits of either 100 km/h or 80 km/h (50 mph). Speed limits in urban areas range between 30 km/h (19 mph) and 60 km/h (37 mph). If no other speed limit is signposted, the general speed limit in Finland is 50 km/h (31 mph) in built-up areas and 80 km/h (50 mph) outside.
As of 2013, there are 4,95 million registered automobiles, of which 2,58 million cars. Average age of cars (museum cars excluded) is 12,5 years (in some regions even 15 years), and typically the cars are destroyed in age of 24 years. In 2015, ca. 123 000 new vehicles were registered in Finland. About 550,000–600,000 used automobiles are sold each year in Finland. During 2011–2014 the most sold car brand was Volkswagen. It had a market share of 12% of new cars.
Coaches are mainly operated by private companies and provide services widely across the country. There is a large network of ExpressBus services with connections to all major cities and the most important rural areas as well as a burgeoning OnniBus 'cheap bus' network. Coach stations are operated by Matkahuolto.
Local bus services inside cities and towns have often been tightly regulated by the councils. Many councils also have their own bus operators, such as Tampere City Transit (TKL), which operates some bus lines on a commercial basis in competition with privately owned providers. Regional bus lines have been regulated by the provincial administration to protect old transit companies, leading to cartel situations like TLO in the Turku region, but strong regional regulating bodies, like the Helsinki Regional Transport Authority (HSL/HRT), whose routes are put out to tender exist as well and will become the norm after the transitional period during the 2010s.
In 2015, number of road traffic accidents involving personal injury was 5,164. In them, 266 persons were killed. The number of road deaths per million inhabitants is just below the European average. Traffic safety has improved significantly since the early 1970s, when more than one thousand people died in road traffic every year.
Municipal law 30-31 § gives right to Referendum since year 1990. Citizens of Turku collected 15,000 names in one month for referendum against the underground car park. Politicians with in the elections unknown financing from the parking company neglected the citizens opinion. According to International Association of Public Transport UITP parking places are among the most effective ways to promote private car use in the city. Therefore, many European cities have cancelled the expensive underground car parking after the 1990s. The EU recommended actions cover develop guidance for concrete measures for the internalisation of external costs for car traffic also in urban areas. In Finland the shops routinely offer free parking for private cars.
In Finland, where 13% of the population reports cycling as their primary form of movement. In 2016, the first Bicycle-sharing system, Helsinki City Bikes was opened in Finland.
The Finnish railway network consists of a total of 5,919 kilometres (3,678 mi) of railways built with 1,524 mm (5 ft). 3,072 km (1,909 mi) of track is electrified. In 2010, passengers made 13.4 million long-distance voyages and 55.5 million trips in local traffic. On the same year, over 35,000,000 tonnes (34,000,000 long tons; 39,000,000 short tons) of freight were transported.
Finland's first railway was opened between Helsinki and Hämeenlinna in 1862, and today it forms part of the Finnish Main Line (päärata), which is more than 800 kilometers long. Nowadays, passenger trains are operated by the state-owned VR. They serve all the major cities and many rural areas, complemented by bus connections where needed. Most passenger train services originate or terminate at Helsinki Central railway station, and a large proportion of the passenger rail network radiates out of Helsinki. High-speed Pendolino services are operated from Helsinki to other major cities like Jyväskylä, Joensuu, Kuopio, Oulu, Tampere and Turku. Modern InterCity services complement the Pendolino network, and cheaper and older long and short-distance trains operate in areas with fewer passengers.
The Helsinki area has three urban rail systems: a tramway, a metro, and a commuter rail system. Light rail systems are currently being planned for Helsinki and also for Turku and Tampere, two of the country's other major urban centres.
The Helsinki metro is a 43-kilometer broad-gauge metro system that connects the center of Helsinki with the eastern districts and the western Espoo. The capital region has the northernmost metro system in the world and the only one in Finland. The Helsinki metro was opened on August 2, 1982, initially between Rautatientori and Itäkeskus. On November 18, 2017, Länsimetro extended the metro lines from the inner city to the west, via Lauttasaari to Tapiola and Matinkylä, and on December 3, 2022, all the way to Kivenlahti.
There are plans to link Helsinki to Turku and Tampere by high-speed lines resulting in journey times of an hour between the capital and the two cities. A link to Kouvola is also planned. The estimated cost of these lines is €10 billion.
In Finland there have been four cities with trams: Helsinki, Turku, Viipuri and Tampere. Of the older systems only Helsinki has retained its tramway network. The trams in Viipuri, having been lost to Soviet Union in 1945, ceased operations in 1957, while the Turku tramway network shut down in 1972.
In November 2016, Tampere city council approved the construction of a new light rail system. Construction of phase 1 begun late 2016 and finished in 2021. Tampere trams are already operating but the official opening date is 9 August 2021. Turku also has preliminary plans for new tram system, but no decision to build it has been made.
Helsinki currently operates 10 tramlines on a network of approximately 90 kilometres (56 mi) of track in passenger service. The trams have annually 57 million passengers.
There are 148 airfields, 74 of which have paved runways. 21 airports are served by scheduled passenger flights. By far the largest airport is Helsinki-Vantaa Airport, and the second largest by passenger volume is Oulu Airport. The larger airports are managed by the state-owned Finavia (formerly the Finnish Civil Aviation Administration). Finnair, Nordic Regional Airlines and Norwegian Air Shuttle are the main carriers for domestic flights.
Helsinki-Vantaa airport is Finland's global gateway with scheduled non-stop flights to such places as Bangkok, Beijing, Guangzhou, Nagoya, New York, Osaka, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Tokyo. Helsinki has an optimal location for great circle airline traffic routes between Western Europe and the Far East. The airport is located approximately 19 kilometers north of Helsinki's downtown in the city of Vantaa, thus the name Helsinki-Vantaa.
Other airports with regular scheduled international connections are Kokkola-Pietarsaari Airport, Mariehamn Airport, Tampere-Pirkkala Airport, Turku Airport and Vaasa Airport.
The Finnish Maritime Administration is responsible for the maintenance of Finland's waterway network. Finland's waterways includes some 7,600 kilometres (4,700 mi) of coastal fairways and 7,900 kilometres (4,900 mi) of Finland waterways (on rivers, canals, and lakes). Saimaa Canal connects Lake Saimaa, and thus much of the inland waterway system of Finland, with the Baltic Sea at Vyborg (Viipuri). However, the lower part of the canal is currently located in Russia. To facilitate through shipping, Finland leases the Russian section of the canal from Russia (the original agreement with the Soviet Union dates to 1963).
The largest general port is Port of Hamina-Kotka. Port of Helsinki is the busiest passenger harbour, and it also has significant cargo traffic. By cargo tons, the five busiest ports are Hamina-Kotka, Helsinki, Rauma, Kilpilahti and Naantali.
Icebreakers keep 23 ports open for traffic even in winter. The ports in Gulf of Bothnia need icebreakers in average six months a year, while in Gulf of Finland icebreakers are needed for three months a year.
Frequent ferry service connects Finland with Estonia and Sweden. Baltic cruise liners regularly call on the port of Helsinki as well. In domestic service, ferries connect Finland's islands with the mainland. Finland's cargo ports move freight both for Finland's own needs and for transshipment to Russia.
Finland's canals are primarily located in inland waters. The canals of the Finnish sea area are mostly made for small boating. In terms of water traffic, a significant reason for canalization has been floating operations. For water management, canals have been built especially for Log driving and hydropower projects.
In order to lower and drain Lake Pohjalanjärvi, the depression of Rautajoki was deepened by canalization. The Finnish Waterways Association was founded in 1981 to promote the development of waterways and the construction of canals.
|
[
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "The transport system of Finland is well-developed. Factors affecting traffic include the sparse population and long distance between towns and cities, and the cold climate with waterways freezing and land covered in snow for winter.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "The extensive road system is utilized by most internal cargo and passenger traffic. As of 2010, the country's network of main roads has a total length of around 78,162 kilometres (48,568 mi) and all public roads 104,161 kilometres (64,723 mi). The motorway network totals 779 kilometres (484 mi) with additional 124 kilometres (77 mi) reserved only for motor traffic. Road network expenditure of around €1 billion is paid with vehicle and fuel taxes that amount to around €1.5 billion and €1 billion, respectively.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "The main international passenger gateway is Helsinki-Vantaa Airport with over 20 million passengers in 2018. About 25 airports have scheduled passenger services. They are financed by competitive fees and rural airport may be subsidized. The Helsinki-Vantaa based Finnair (known for an Asia-focused strategy), Nordic Regional Airlines provide air services both domestically and internationally. Helsinki has an optimal location for great circle routes between Western Europe and the Far East. Hence, many international travelers visit Helsinki on a stop-over between Asia and Europe.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "Despite low population density, taxpayers spend annually around €350 million in maintaining 5,865 kilometres (3,644 mi) railway tracks even to many rural towns. Operations are privatized and currently the only operator is the state-owned VR. It has 5 percent passenger market share (out of which 80 percent are urban trips in Greater Helsinki) and 25 percent cargo market share. Helsinki has an urban rail network.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "Icebreakers keep the 23 ports open all year round. There is passenger traffic from Helsinki and Turku, which have ferry connections to Tallinn, Mariehamn, Sweden and several other destinations.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "Road transport in Finland is the most popular method of transportation, particularly in rural areas where the railway network does not extend to. As of 2011 there are 78,162 kilometres (48,568 mi) of public roads, of which 51,016 kilometres (31,700 mi) are paved. The main road network comprises over 13,329 kilometres (8,282 mi) of road.",
"title": "Roads"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "64% of all traffic on public roads takes place on main roads, which are divided into class I (valtatie/riksväg) and class II (kantatie/stamväg) main roads. Motorways have been constructed in the country since the 1960s, but they are still reasonably rare because traffic volumes are not large enough to motivate their construction. There are 863 kilometres (536 mi) of motorways. Longest stretches are Helsinki–Turku (Main road 1/E18), Vantaa–Ylöjärvi (Main road 3/E12), Helsinki–Heinola (Main road 4/E75), and Helsinki–Vaalimaa (Main road 7/E18). The world's northernmost motorway is also located in Finland between Keminmaa and Tornio (Main road 29/E8).",
"title": "Roads"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "There are no toll roads in Finland.",
"title": "Roads"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "Speed limits change depending on the time of the year; the maximum speed limit on motorways is 120 km/h (75 mph) in the summer and 100 km/h (62 mph) in the winter. The main roads usually have speed limits of either 100 km/h or 80 km/h (50 mph). Speed limits in urban areas range between 30 km/h (19 mph) and 60 km/h (37 mph). If no other speed limit is signposted, the general speed limit in Finland is 50 km/h (31 mph) in built-up areas and 80 km/h (50 mph) outside.",
"title": "Roads"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "As of 2013, there are 4,95 million registered automobiles, of which 2,58 million cars. Average age of cars (museum cars excluded) is 12,5 years (in some regions even 15 years), and typically the cars are destroyed in age of 24 years. In 2015, ca. 123 000 new vehicles were registered in Finland. About 550,000–600,000 used automobiles are sold each year in Finland. During 2011–2014 the most sold car brand was Volkswagen. It had a market share of 12% of new cars.",
"title": "Roads"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "Coaches are mainly operated by private companies and provide services widely across the country. There is a large network of ExpressBus services with connections to all major cities and the most important rural areas as well as a burgeoning OnniBus 'cheap bus' network. Coach stations are operated by Matkahuolto.",
"title": "Roads"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "Local bus services inside cities and towns have often been tightly regulated by the councils. Many councils also have their own bus operators, such as Tampere City Transit (TKL), which operates some bus lines on a commercial basis in competition with privately owned providers. Regional bus lines have been regulated by the provincial administration to protect old transit companies, leading to cartel situations like TLO in the Turku region, but strong regional regulating bodies, like the Helsinki Regional Transport Authority (HSL/HRT), whose routes are put out to tender exist as well and will become the norm after the transitional period during the 2010s.",
"title": "Roads"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "In 2015, number of road traffic accidents involving personal injury was 5,164. In them, 266 persons were killed. The number of road deaths per million inhabitants is just below the European average. Traffic safety has improved significantly since the early 1970s, when more than one thousand people died in road traffic every year.",
"title": "Roads"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "Municipal law 30-31 § gives right to Referendum since year 1990. Citizens of Turku collected 15,000 names in one month for referendum against the underground car park. Politicians with in the elections unknown financing from the parking company neglected the citizens opinion. According to International Association of Public Transport UITP parking places are among the most effective ways to promote private car use in the city. Therefore, many European cities have cancelled the expensive underground car parking after the 1990s. The EU recommended actions cover develop guidance for concrete measures for the internalisation of external costs for car traffic also in urban areas. In Finland the shops routinely offer free parking for private cars.",
"title": "Roads"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "In Finland, where 13% of the population reports cycling as their primary form of movement. In 2016, the first Bicycle-sharing system, Helsinki City Bikes was opened in Finland.",
"title": "Cycling"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 15,
"text": "The Finnish railway network consists of a total of 5,919 kilometres (3,678 mi) of railways built with 1,524 mm (5 ft). 3,072 km (1,909 mi) of track is electrified. In 2010, passengers made 13.4 million long-distance voyages and 55.5 million trips in local traffic. On the same year, over 35,000,000 tonnes (34,000,000 long tons; 39,000,000 short tons) of freight were transported.",
"title": "Rail transport"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 16,
"text": "Finland's first railway was opened between Helsinki and Hämeenlinna in 1862, and today it forms part of the Finnish Main Line (päärata), which is more than 800 kilometers long. Nowadays, passenger trains are operated by the state-owned VR. They serve all the major cities and many rural areas, complemented by bus connections where needed. Most passenger train services originate or terminate at Helsinki Central railway station, and a large proportion of the passenger rail network radiates out of Helsinki. High-speed Pendolino services are operated from Helsinki to other major cities like Jyväskylä, Joensuu, Kuopio, Oulu, Tampere and Turku. Modern InterCity services complement the Pendolino network, and cheaper and older long and short-distance trains operate in areas with fewer passengers.",
"title": "Rail transport"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 17,
"text": "The Helsinki area has three urban rail systems: a tramway, a metro, and a commuter rail system. Light rail systems are currently being planned for Helsinki and also for Turku and Tampere, two of the country's other major urban centres.",
"title": "Rail transport"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 18,
"text": "The Helsinki metro is a 43-kilometer broad-gauge metro system that connects the center of Helsinki with the eastern districts and the western Espoo. The capital region has the northernmost metro system in the world and the only one in Finland. The Helsinki metro was opened on August 2, 1982, initially between Rautatientori and Itäkeskus. On November 18, 2017, Länsimetro extended the metro lines from the inner city to the west, via Lauttasaari to Tapiola and Matinkylä, and on December 3, 2022, all the way to Kivenlahti.",
"title": "Rail transport"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 19,
"text": "There are plans to link Helsinki to Turku and Tampere by high-speed lines resulting in journey times of an hour between the capital and the two cities. A link to Kouvola is also planned. The estimated cost of these lines is €10 billion.",
"title": "Rail transport"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 20,
"text": "In Finland there have been four cities with trams: Helsinki, Turku, Viipuri and Tampere. Of the older systems only Helsinki has retained its tramway network. The trams in Viipuri, having been lost to Soviet Union in 1945, ceased operations in 1957, while the Turku tramway network shut down in 1972.",
"title": "Rail transport"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 21,
"text": "In November 2016, Tampere city council approved the construction of a new light rail system. Construction of phase 1 begun late 2016 and finished in 2021. Tampere trams are already operating but the official opening date is 9 August 2021. Turku also has preliminary plans for new tram system, but no decision to build it has been made.",
"title": "Rail transport"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 22,
"text": "Helsinki currently operates 10 tramlines on a network of approximately 90 kilometres (56 mi) of track in passenger service. The trams have annually 57 million passengers.",
"title": "Rail transport"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 23,
"text": "There are 148 airfields, 74 of which have paved runways. 21 airports are served by scheduled passenger flights. By far the largest airport is Helsinki-Vantaa Airport, and the second largest by passenger volume is Oulu Airport. The larger airports are managed by the state-owned Finavia (formerly the Finnish Civil Aviation Administration). Finnair, Nordic Regional Airlines and Norwegian Air Shuttle are the main carriers for domestic flights.",
"title": "Air transport"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 24,
"text": "Helsinki-Vantaa airport is Finland's global gateway with scheduled non-stop flights to such places as Bangkok, Beijing, Guangzhou, Nagoya, New York, Osaka, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Tokyo. Helsinki has an optimal location for great circle airline traffic routes between Western Europe and the Far East. The airport is located approximately 19 kilometers north of Helsinki's downtown in the city of Vantaa, thus the name Helsinki-Vantaa.",
"title": "Air transport"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 25,
"text": "Other airports with regular scheduled international connections are Kokkola-Pietarsaari Airport, Mariehamn Airport, Tampere-Pirkkala Airport, Turku Airport and Vaasa Airport.",
"title": "Air transport"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 26,
"text": "The Finnish Maritime Administration is responsible for the maintenance of Finland's waterway network. Finland's waterways includes some 7,600 kilometres (4,700 mi) of coastal fairways and 7,900 kilometres (4,900 mi) of Finland waterways (on rivers, canals, and lakes). Saimaa Canal connects Lake Saimaa, and thus much of the inland waterway system of Finland, with the Baltic Sea at Vyborg (Viipuri). However, the lower part of the canal is currently located in Russia. To facilitate through shipping, Finland leases the Russian section of the canal from Russia (the original agreement with the Soviet Union dates to 1963).",
"title": "Water transport"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 27,
"text": "The largest general port is Port of Hamina-Kotka. Port of Helsinki is the busiest passenger harbour, and it also has significant cargo traffic. By cargo tons, the five busiest ports are Hamina-Kotka, Helsinki, Rauma, Kilpilahti and Naantali.",
"title": "Water transport"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 28,
"text": "Icebreakers keep 23 ports open for traffic even in winter. The ports in Gulf of Bothnia need icebreakers in average six months a year, while in Gulf of Finland icebreakers are needed for three months a year.",
"title": "Water transport"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 29,
"text": "Frequent ferry service connects Finland with Estonia and Sweden. Baltic cruise liners regularly call on the port of Helsinki as well. In domestic service, ferries connect Finland's islands with the mainland. Finland's cargo ports move freight both for Finland's own needs and for transshipment to Russia.",
"title": "Water transport"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 30,
"text": "Finland's canals are primarily located in inland waters. The canals of the Finnish sea area are mostly made for small boating. In terms of water traffic, a significant reason for canalization has been floating operations. For water management, canals have been built especially for Log driving and hydropower projects.",
"title": "Water transport"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 31,
"text": "In order to lower and drain Lake Pohjalanjärvi, the depression of Rautajoki was deepened by canalization. The Finnish Waterways Association was founded in 1981 to promote the development of waterways and the construction of canals.",
"title": "Water transport"
}
] |
The transport system of Finland is well-developed. Factors affecting traffic include the sparse population and long distance between towns and cities, and the cold climate with waterways freezing and land covered in snow for winter. The extensive road system is utilized by most internal cargo and passenger traffic. As of 2010, the country's network of main roads has a total length of around 78,162 kilometres (48,568 mi) and all public roads 104,161 kilometres (64,723 mi). The motorway network totals 779 kilometres (484 mi) with additional 124 kilometres (77 mi) reserved only for motor traffic. Road network expenditure of around €1 billion is paid with vehicle and fuel taxes that amount to around €1.5 billion and €1 billion, respectively. The main international passenger gateway is Helsinki-Vantaa Airport with over 20 million passengers in 2018. About 25 airports have scheduled passenger services. They are financed by competitive fees and rural airport may be subsidized. The Helsinki-Vantaa based Finnair, Nordic Regional Airlines provide air services both domestically and internationally. Helsinki has an optimal location for great circle routes between Western Europe and the Far East. Hence, many international travelers visit Helsinki on a stop-over between Asia and Europe. Despite low population density, taxpayers spend annually around €350 million in maintaining 5,865 kilometres (3,644 mi) railway tracks even to many rural towns. Operations are privatized and currently the only operator is the state-owned VR. It has 5 percent passenger market share and 25 percent cargo market share. Helsinki has an urban rail network. Icebreakers keep the 23 ports open all year round. There is passenger traffic from Helsinki and Turku, which have ferry connections to Tallinn, Mariehamn, Sweden and several other destinations.
|
2002-02-25T15:43:11Z
|
2023-12-31T10:42:38Z
|
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transport_in_Finland
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10,715 |
Finnish Defence Forces
|
The Finnish Defence Forces (FDF) (Finnish: Puolustusvoimat, Swedish: Försvarsmakten) are the military of Finland. The Finnish Defence Forces consist of the Finnish Army, the Finnish Navy, and the Finnish Air Force. In wartime, the Finnish Border Guard becomes part of the Finnish Defence Forces.
Universal male conscription is in place, under which all mentally and physically capable men serve for 165, 255, or 347 days, from the year they turn 18 until the year they turn 29. Alternative non-military service for men and voluntary service for women is available.
Finland's official policy states that a wartime military strength of 280,000 personnel constitutes a sufficient deterrent. The army consists of a highly mobile field army backed up by local defence units. The army defends the national territory and its military strategy employs the use of the heavily forested terrain and numerous lakes to wear down an aggressor, instead of attempting to hold the attacking army on the frontier.
Finland's defence budget for 2022 equals approximately €5.8 billion. The voluntary overseas service is highly popular and troops serve around the world in UN, NATO, and EU missions. With an arsenal of 700 howitzers, 700 heavy mortars and 100 multiple rocket launchers, Finland has the largest artillery capability in western Europe. Homeland defence willingness against a superior enemy is at 83%, one of the highest rates in Europe.
The Finnish Defence Forces cooperate closely with the Finnish Border Guard. The Finnish Border Guard has its own yearly and long term investment budget.
After Finland's declaration of independence on 6 December 1917, the Civic Guards were proclaimed the troops of the government on 25 January 1918 and then Lieutenant General of the Russian Imperial Army Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim was appointed as Commander-in-Chief of these forces the next day. Fighting between the White Guards (as the Civic Guards were commonly known) and the Red Guards had already broken out about a week before around Viipuri, in what became known as the Finnish Civil War.
In the war, the Whites were victorious in large part thanks to the leadership of General Mannerheim and the lead by example offensive mindedness of 1,800 German-trained Finnish Jägers, who brought with them German tactical doctrine and military culture. The post-war years were characterized by the Volunteer Campaigns that came to an end in 1920 with the signing of the Treaty of Tartu, which ended the state of war between Finland and Soviet Russia and defined the internationally recognized borders of Finland.
After winning the Civil War, the Finnish peacetime army was organized as three divisions and a brigade by professional German officers. It became the basic structure for the next 20 years. The coast was guarded by former czarist coastal fortifications and ships taken as prizes of war. The Air Force had already been formed in March 1918, but remained a part of the Army and did not become a fully independent fighting force until 1928. The White Guard (Suojeluskunta) played a key role in interwar Finnish defence policy, as they essentially served as local/territorial militia forces, and some had higher readiness and training for quick mobilization.
The new government instituted conscription after the Civil War and also introduced a mobilization system and compulsory refresher courses for reservists. An academy providing basic officer training (Kadettikoulu) was established in 1919, the founding of a General Staff College (Sotakorkeakoulu) followed in 1924, and in 1927 a tactical training school (Taistelukoulu) for company-grade and junior officers and NCOs was set up. The requirement of one year of compulsory service was greater than that imposed by any other Scandinavian country in the 1920s and the 1930s, but political opposition to defense spending left the military badly equipped to resist an attack by the Soviet Union, the only security threat in Finnish eyes.
When the Soviets invaded in November 1939, the Finns, led by Marshal Mannerheim, defeated the Red Army on numerous occasions, including at the crucial Battle of Suomussalmi. These successes were in large part thanks to the application of motti tactics. Finland successfully defended its independence but ceded 9% of its territory per the Moscow Peace Treaty. During the war, the Finns lost 25,904 men, while the Soviet losses were 167,976 dead.
Finland fought in the Continuation War alongside Germany from 1941 to 1944. Thanks to Nazi-German aid, the army was much better equipped, and the period of conscription was increased to two years, making possible the formation of sixteen infantry divisions. Having initially deployed on the defensive, the Finns took advantage of the weakened Soviet positions as a consequence of Operation Barbarossa, swiftly recovering their lost territories and invading Soviet territory in Karelia, after settling into defensive positions in December 1941. The Soviet offensive of June 1944 undid these Finnish gains and, while failing in its objective of destroying the Finnish army and forcing Finland's unconditional surrender, forced Finland out of the war. The Finns were able to preserve their independence with key defensive victories over the Red Army, the Battle of Tali-Ihantala being very significant.
These conflicts involving Finland had a significant impact on the modern Finnish defense force. While other European militaries have reduced their forces, Finland has maintained a large conscript-based reserve army. As a Swedish report stated: "The reason why the FDF chose to maintain this model while its Nordic neighbors jumped on the expeditionary bandwagon is not hard to see. Sharing a 1340km border with Russia, the need for large ground forces is self-explanatory. Furthermore, memories of World War II – in which over 2 percent of the population perished in two brutal wars with the Soviet Union – are very much alive in Finland". This same aspect has been highlighted even more strongly after the Russian invasion of Ukraine and Finland's decision to join NATO. With quotes like; "After World War II, having thwarted the advance of the mighty Red Army in the Winter War of 1939-40 and then seeking to recapture the territory the Soviets eventually claimed, Finland had to settle for neutrality imposed by Moscow. But to almost everyone's surprise, it succeeded in this degrading task, too, building up armed forces that were highly capable and were energetically supported by civil society—while at the same time managing to maintain dialogue with Moscow.", "Finland still has compulsory military service. Finland would be in a position to mobilize an army of 280,000 soldiers. That's quite a big army in modern Europe,", with similar views being expressed elsewhere as well, often referring to the fact that Finland has kept its conscript-based armed force or other readiness-related units, contrasting with other European countries that now have to re-arm, such as Germany as an example. During the events of 2022 all this has received attention internationally as well.
The demobilization and regrouping of the Finnish Defence Forces were carried out in late 1944 under the supervision of the Soviet-dominated Allied Control Commission. Following the Treaty of Paris in 1947, which imposed restrictions on the size and equipment of the armed forces and required disbandment of the Civic Guard, Finland reorganized its defense forces. The fact that the conditions of the peace treaty did not include prohibitions on reserves or mobilization made it possible to contemplate an adequate defense establishment within the prescribed limits. The reorganization resulted in the adoption of the brigade -in place of the division- as the standard formation.
For the first two decades after the Second World War, the Finnish Defence Forces relied largely on obsolete wartime material. Defence spending remained minimal until the early 1960s. During the peak of the Cold War, the Finnish government made a conscious effort to increase defence capability. This resulted in the commissioning of several new weapons systems and the strengthening of the defence of Finnish Lapland by the establishment of new garrisons in the area. From 1968 onwards, the Finnish government adopted the doctrine of territorial defence, which requires the use of large land areas to delay and wear out a potential aggressor. The doctrine was complemented by the concept of total defence which calls for the use of all resources of society for national defence in case of a crisis. From the mid-1960s onwards the Finnish Defence Forces also began to specifically prepare to defeat a strategic strike, the kind which the Soviet Union employed successfully to topple the government of Czechoslovakia in 1968. In an all-out confrontation between the two major blocs, Finnish objective would have been to prevent any military incursions to Finnish territory and thereby keep Finland outside the war.
The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 did not eliminate the military threat perceived by the government, but the nature of the threat had changed. While the concept of total, territorial defence was not dropped, military planning has moved towards the capability to prevent and frustrate a strategic attack toward the vital regions of the country.
The end of the Cold War also allowed new opportunities which would have previously been seen as breaking Finland's stance of neutrality, such as participation in the War in Afghanistan and the Nordic Battlegroup.
With the change in the European security environment brought by the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Finnish government officials began voicing increasingly strong support for joining NATO, buttressed by polls showing a rapid increase in Finnish citizens' willingness to join NATO. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg voiced his support in April 2022 for the inclusion of Finland into the Euro-Atlantic defence alliance and stated that NATO member countries would likely enthusiastically support a Finland bid for membership.
On 11 May 2022, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Finnish President Sauli Niinistö signed a new mutual defence agreement "to reinforce their security and fortify northern Europe's defences, in the face of renewed threats." This has helped to address concerns within Finland that the delay between application and acceptance to NATO, during which time Finland would not yet be able to invoke NATO Article 5 and may present an opportunity for a Russian invasion.
On 12 May 2022, President Sauli Niinistö and Prime Minister Sanna Marin issued a joint statement supporting Finland's application for membership of NATO, saying "As a member of NATO, Finland would strengthen the entire defence alliance. Finland must apply for NATO membership without delay." On 17 May 2022, the Parliament of Finland voted overwhelmingly to apply for membership of NATO, with 188 votes in favour of the motion and 8 against. The following morning, the Finnish ambassador to NATO, Klaus Korhonen, formally submitted Finland's application to NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. Sweden also submitted its application at the same time.
On 29 June 2022, 30 NATO countries extended a formal invitation for Finland along with Sweden to join NATO. Both nations received the status of aspiring members while attending the annual NATO summit in Madrid as guest nations. Finland became a full NATO member on 4 April 2023.
The Defence Forces are currently undergoing key procurement programmes for all the three branches. The Navy is scheduled to get its largest vessels since the WW2-era Väinämöinen class with the new Pohjanmaa class. The Air Force has made the decision to acquire the Lockheed Martin F-35A to replace all McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet fighter jets for 10€ billion. Meanwhile, the Army is planning to complement the modernized Patria Pasi armoured vehicles with the Finnish Patria 6×6. The standard issue assault rifle RK 62 is also being upgraded to a new variant. A new high altitude air defence missile system was selected in April 2023, Rafael's David's Sling system.
The Finnish Defence Forces are under the command of the Chief of Defence, who is directly subordinate to the President of the Republic in matters related to the military command. Decisions concerning military orders are made by the President of the Republic in consultation with the Prime Minister and the Minister of Defence.
Apart from the Defence Command (Finnish: Pääesikunta, Swedish: Huvudstaben), the military branches are the Finnish Army (Finnish: Maavoimat, Swedish: Armén), the Finnish Navy (Finnish: Merivoimat, Swedish: Marinen) and the Finnish Air Force (Finnish: Ilmavoimat, Swedish: Flygvapnet). The Border Guard (Finnish: Rajavartiolaitos, Swedish: Gränsbevakningsväsendet) (including the coast guard) is under the authority of the Ministry of the Interior, but can be incorporated fully or in part into the defence forces when required by defence readiness. All logistical duties of the Defence Forces are carried out by the Defence Forces Logistics Command (Finnish: Puolustusvoimien logistiikkalaitos), which includes three logistics regiments.
The Army is divided into eight brigade-level units (Finnish: joukko-osasto). Under the brigades, there were 12 military districts, which were responsible for carrying out the draft, training and crisis-time activation of reservists and for planning and executing territorial defence of their areas. The military districts were disbanded in 2014, as a part of the 800 million euro savings the Finnish Defence Forces had to carry out. Their duties are now carried out by regional offices (Finnish: aluetoimisto).
The Navy consists of headquarters and four brigade-level units: Coastal Fleet (Finnish: Rannikkolaivasto), Coastal Brigade (Finnish: Rannikkoprikaati), Nyland Brigade (Finnish: Uudenmaan Prikaati, Swedish: Nylands Brigad), and Naval Academy (Finnish: Merisotakoulu). The Coastal Fleet includes all the surface combatants of the Navy, while Coastal Brigade and Nyland Brigade train coastal troops.
The Air Force consists of headquarters and four brigade-level units: Satakunta, Lapland and Karelian Air Commands (Finnish: lennosto) and Air Force Academy (Finnish: Ilmasotakoulu). They are responsible for securing the integrity of the Finnish airspace during peace and for conducting aerial warfare independently during a crisis.
The military training of the reservists is primarily the duty of the Defence Forces, but it is assisted by the National Defence Training Association of Finland (Finnish: Maanpuolustuskoulutusyhdistys). This association provides reservists with personal, squad, platoon and company level military training. Most of the 2,000 instructors of the association are volunteers certified by the Defence Forces, but when Defence Forces materiel is used, the training always takes place under the supervision of career military personnel. Annually, the Defence Forces requests the Association to run specialized exercises for some 8,500 personnel placed in reserve units, and an additional 16,500 reservists participate in military courses where the participants are not directly selected by the Defence Forces. The legislation concerning the association will require that the chairman and the majority of the members of its board are chosen by the Finnish Government. The other board members are chosen by NGOs active in the national defence.
Chief of Defence General Timo Kivinen
Chief of Defence Command Finland Lieutenant General Vesa Virtanen
Deputy Chief of Staff, Logistics and Armaments Lieutenant General Mikko Heiskanen
Deputy Chief of Staff, Strategy Lieutenant General Janne Jaakkola
Deputy Chief of Staff, Operations Major General Kari Nisula
Deputy Chief of Staff, Personnel Major General Rami Saari
Chief of Planning Brigadier General Tero Ylitalo
Assistant Chief of Staff Operations Commodore Janne Huusko
Defence Command Chief of C5 Brigadier General Jarmo Vähätiitto
Chief of Personnel (J1) Commodore Tuomas Tiilikainen
Chief of Logistics Brigadier General Timo Saarinen
Assistant Chief of Staff, Training (J7) Brigadier General Manu Tuominen
Defence Command Chief of Intelligence Brigadier General Pekka Turunen
Chief Surgeon Commodore Medical Juha-Petri Ruohola
Field Bishop Jukka Pekka Asikainen
Commander of the Finnish Army Lieutenant General Pasi Välimäki
Chief of Staff, Army Major General Jukka Jokinen
Chief of Operations, Army Command Brigadier General Sami-Antti Takamaa
Commander of Karelia Brigade Brigadier General Jyri Raitasalo
Commander of Kainuu Brigade Brigadier General Ari Laaksonen
Commander of Pori Brigade Brigadier General Vesa Valtonen
Commander of the Finnish Navy Rear Admiral Jori Harju
Chief of Staff, Navy Commodore Jukka Anteroinen
Commander of the Finnish Air Force Major General Juha-Pekka Keränen
Chief of Staff, Air Force Brigadier General Timo Herranen
Rector of The National Defence University Major General Mika Kalliomaa
Military Representative to The EU and NATO Lieutenant General Kim Jäämeri
Ministry of Defence, Director, National Defence Unit Brigadier General Sami Nurmi
Chief of Finnish Defence Forces Logistics Command Major General Jari Mikkonen
Deputy Manager, Logistic Command Brigadier General Engineering Juha-Matti Ylitalo
The Finnish defence forces is based on universal male conscription. All men above 18 years of age are liable to serve either six, nine, or 12 months. Some 27,000 conscripts are trained annually. 80% of Finnish men complete their service. The conscripts at first receive basic training, after which they are assigned to various units for special training. Privates who are trained for tasks not requiring special skills serve for six months. In technically demanding tasks the time of service is nine, or in some cases 12 months. Those selected for NCO (non-commissioned officer) or officer training serve 12 months. At the completion of the service, the conscripts receive a reserve military rank of private, lance corporal, corporal, sergeant or second lieutenant, depending on their training and accomplishments. After their military service, the conscripts are placed in reserve until the end of their 50th or 60th living year, depending on their military rank. During their time in reserve, the reservists are liable to participate in military refresher exercises for a total of 40, 75 or 100 days, depending on their military rank. In addition, all reservists are liable for activation in a situation where the military threat against Finland has seriously increased, in full or partial mobilization or in a large-scale disaster or a virulent epidemic. The males who do not belong to the reserve may only be activated in case of full mobilization, and those rank-and-file personnel who have fulfilled 50 years of age only with a specific parliamentary decision.
Military service can be started after turning 18. The service can be delayed due to studies, work or other personal reasons until the 28th birthday, but these reasons do not result in exemptions. In addition to lodging, food, clothes and health care the conscripts receive between 5 and 11.70 euros per day, depending on the time they have served. The state also pays for any rental and electricity bills the conscripts incur during their service. If the conscripts have families, they are entitled to benefits as well. It is illegal to fire an employee due to military service or due to a refresher exercise or activation. Voluntary females in military service receive a small additional benefit, because they are expected to provide their own underwear and other personal items.
The military service consists of lessons, practical training, various cleaning and maintenance duties and field exercises. Most weekends conscripts can leave the barracks on Friday and are expected to return by midnight on Sunday. A small force of conscripts are kept in readiness on weekends to aid civil agencies in various types of emergency situations, to guard the premises and to maintain defence in case of a sudden military emergency. Field exercises can go on regardless of the time of day or week.
The training of conscripts is based on joukkotuotanto-principle (lit. English troop production). In this system, 80% of the conscripts are trained to fulfill a specific role in a specific wartime military unit. Each brigade-level unit is responsible for producing specified reserve units from the conscripts it has been allocated. As the reservists are discharged, they receive a specific wartime placement in the unit with which they have trained during their conscription. As the conscripts age, their unit is given new, different tasks and materiel. Typically, reservists are placed for the first five years in first-line units, then moved to military formations with less demanding tasks, while the reservists unable to serve in the unit are substituted with reservists from the reserve without specific placement. In refresher exercises, the unit is then given new training for these duties, if the defence funding permits this.
The inhabitants of the demilitarized Åland islands are exempt from military service. By the Conscription act of 1950, they are however required to serve a time at a local institution, like the coast guard instead. However, until such service has been arranged, they are freed from service obligation. The non-military service of Åland islands has not been arranged since the introduction of the act, and there are no plans to institute it. The inhabitants of Åland islands can also volunteer for military service on the mainland. Jehovah's Witnesses were exempt until February 2019. It is also possible to serve either weapon-free military service of 255 or 347 days or undergo a 12-month-long non-military service. Finnish law requires that men who do not want to serve the defense of the country in any capacity (so-called total objectors) be sentenced to a prison term of 173 days. As of 1995, women were permitted to serve on a voluntary basis and pursue careers as officers. In conscription, women have consideration time of six weeks, during which they have the choice to halt their service without any other specific reason. After the said six weeks, all the same laws and jurisdictions apply to them as to men. Unlike in many other countries, women are allowed to serve in all combat arms including front-line infantry and special forces.
The Finnish military ranks follow the Western usage in the officer ranks. As a Finnish peculiarity, the rank of lieutenant has three grades: 2nd lieutenant, lieutenant and senior lieutenant. The 2nd lieutenant is a reserve officer rank, active commissioned officers beginning their service as lieutenants.
The basic structure of the NCO ranks is a variant of the German rank structure, but the rank system has some peculiarities due to different personnel groups. The duties carried out by NCOs in most Western armed forces are carried out by
In a case of war, most of the NCO duties would be carried out by reserve NCOs who have received their training during conscription.
The rank and file of the Finnish Defence Forces is composed of conscripts serving in the ranks of private, lance corporal and NCO student.
Finnish Defence Forces Materiel and equipment photos.
Finland does not have attack helicopters or submarines. Legislation forbids nuclear weapons entirely.
In early March 2012 Finland decided to purchase advanced Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missiles (AGM-158 JASSM) from the United States. Other non-USA operators for the JASSM are Australia, Poland and South Korea.Deal also included other sophisticated bombs like glidebomp AGM-154 Joint Standoff Weapon and JDAM (Joint Direct Attack Munition).
Finland has updated its M270 Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS. In Finnish 298 RSRAKH 06) to be able to fire the ATACMS tactical ballistic missile).
The main field uniform is the M05 uniform, introduced in 2005, which is green camouflage uniform used by the army. M05 has cold weather and snow camouflage variants, which are gray-green and white with green flecks, respectively. Older green camouflage uniforms are M91 and M62. The M83 light service uniform remains in use as a service uniform for permanent personnel such as officers and as a dress uniform, but is not commonly issued to troops. This is gray for army, blue for the air force and dark blue for the navy. The navy has separate naval uniforms, while the air force uses army-pattern uniforms. There are also four separate full dress uniforms depending on the dress code.
Finland has taken part in peacekeeping operations since 1956 (the number of Finnish peacekeepers who have served since 1956 amounts to 43,000). In 2003 over a thousand Finnish peacekeepers were involved in peacekeeping operations, including UN and NATO led missions. According to the Finnish law the maximum simultaneous strength of the peacekeeping forces is limited to 2,000 soldiers.
Since 1956, 39 Finnish soldiers have died while serving in peacekeeping operations.
Since 1996 the Pori Brigade has trained parts of the Finnish Rapid Deployment Force (FRDF), which can take part in international crisis management/peacekeeping operations at short notice. The Nyland/Uusimaa Brigade has started training the Amphibious Task Unit (ATU) in recent years, a joint Swedish-Finnish international task unit.
Since 2006, Finland has participated in the formation of European Union Battlegroups. Finland participated in two European Union Battlegroups in 2011.
International operations Finland is participating in by deploying military units (personnel strength in parentheses):
Other international operations Finland is participating in with staff personnel, military observers and similar (personnel strength in parentheses):
The Finnish military doctrine is based on the concept of total defence. The term total means that all sectors of the government and economy are involved in the defence planning. In principle, each ministry has the responsibility for planning its operations during a crisis. There are no special emergency authorities, such as the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) or Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations. Instead, each authority regularly trains for crises and has been allocated a combination of normal and emergency powers it needs to keep functioning in any conceivable situation. In a war, all resources of society may be diverted to ensure the survival of the nation. The legal basis for such measures is found in the Readiness Act and in the State of Defence Act, which would come into force through a presidential decision verified by parliament in the case of a crisis.
The main objective of the doctrine is to establish and maintain a military force capable of deterring any potential aggressor from using Finnish territory or applying military pressure against Finland. To accomplish this, the defence is organised on the doctrine of territorial defence. The stated main principles of the territorial defence doctrine are
The defence planning is organised to counteract three threat situations:
In all cases, the national objective is to keep the vital areas, especially the capital area in Finnish possession. In other areas, the size of the country is used to delay and wear down the invader, until the enemy may be defeated in an area of Finnish choosing. The Army carries most of the responsibility for this task.
The key wartime army units in 2015 are:
The total number of territorial and regional units is undisclosed. The army units are mostly composed of reservists, the career soldiers manning the command and specialty positions.
The role of the Navy is to repel all attacks carried out against Finnish coasts and to safeguard the territorial integrity during peacetime and the "gray" phase of the conflict. The maritime defence relies on combined use of coastal artillery, missile systems and naval mines to wear down the attacker. The Air Force is used to deny the invader the air superiority and to protect most important troops and objects of national importance in conjunction with the ground-based air defence. As the readiness of the Air Force and the Navy is high even during the peacetime, the career personnel have a much more visible role in the wartime duties of these defence branches.
The Border Guard has the responsibility for border security in all situations. During a war, it will contribute to the national defence partially integrated into the army, its total mobilized strength being some 11,600 troops. One of the projected uses for the Border Guard is guerrilla warfare in areas temporarily occupied by enemy.
The army is organised into operative forces, which consist of approximately 61,000 persons, and territorial forces, which consist of 176,000 persons. The following list is the wartime organisation of the Finnish army from January 2008.{{citation needed|date=April 2022}}
Territorial forces:
|
[
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "The Finnish Defence Forces (FDF) (Finnish: Puolustusvoimat, Swedish: Försvarsmakten) are the military of Finland. The Finnish Defence Forces consist of the Finnish Army, the Finnish Navy, and the Finnish Air Force. In wartime, the Finnish Border Guard becomes part of the Finnish Defence Forces.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "Universal male conscription is in place, under which all mentally and physically capable men serve for 165, 255, or 347 days, from the year they turn 18 until the year they turn 29. Alternative non-military service for men and voluntary service for women is available.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "Finland's official policy states that a wartime military strength of 280,000 personnel constitutes a sufficient deterrent. The army consists of a highly mobile field army backed up by local defence units. The army defends the national territory and its military strategy employs the use of the heavily forested terrain and numerous lakes to wear down an aggressor, instead of attempting to hold the attacking army on the frontier.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "Finland's defence budget for 2022 equals approximately €5.8 billion. The voluntary overseas service is highly popular and troops serve around the world in UN, NATO, and EU missions. With an arsenal of 700 howitzers, 700 heavy mortars and 100 multiple rocket launchers, Finland has the largest artillery capability in western Europe. Homeland defence willingness against a superior enemy is at 83%, one of the highest rates in Europe.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "The Finnish Defence Forces cooperate closely with the Finnish Border Guard. The Finnish Border Guard has its own yearly and long term investment budget.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "After Finland's declaration of independence on 6 December 1917, the Civic Guards were proclaimed the troops of the government on 25 January 1918 and then Lieutenant General of the Russian Imperial Army Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim was appointed as Commander-in-Chief of these forces the next day. Fighting between the White Guards (as the Civic Guards were commonly known) and the Red Guards had already broken out about a week before around Viipuri, in what became known as the Finnish Civil War.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "In the war, the Whites were victorious in large part thanks to the leadership of General Mannerheim and the lead by example offensive mindedness of 1,800 German-trained Finnish Jägers, who brought with them German tactical doctrine and military culture. The post-war years were characterized by the Volunteer Campaigns that came to an end in 1920 with the signing of the Treaty of Tartu, which ended the state of war between Finland and Soviet Russia and defined the internationally recognized borders of Finland.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "After winning the Civil War, the Finnish peacetime army was organized as three divisions and a brigade by professional German officers. It became the basic structure for the next 20 years. The coast was guarded by former czarist coastal fortifications and ships taken as prizes of war. The Air Force had already been formed in March 1918, but remained a part of the Army and did not become a fully independent fighting force until 1928. The White Guard (Suojeluskunta) played a key role in interwar Finnish defence policy, as they essentially served as local/territorial militia forces, and some had higher readiness and training for quick mobilization.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "The new government instituted conscription after the Civil War and also introduced a mobilization system and compulsory refresher courses for reservists. An academy providing basic officer training (Kadettikoulu) was established in 1919, the founding of a General Staff College (Sotakorkeakoulu) followed in 1924, and in 1927 a tactical training school (Taistelukoulu) for company-grade and junior officers and NCOs was set up. The requirement of one year of compulsory service was greater than that imposed by any other Scandinavian country in the 1920s and the 1930s, but political opposition to defense spending left the military badly equipped to resist an attack by the Soviet Union, the only security threat in Finnish eyes.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "When the Soviets invaded in November 1939, the Finns, led by Marshal Mannerheim, defeated the Red Army on numerous occasions, including at the crucial Battle of Suomussalmi. These successes were in large part thanks to the application of motti tactics. Finland successfully defended its independence but ceded 9% of its territory per the Moscow Peace Treaty. During the war, the Finns lost 25,904 men, while the Soviet losses were 167,976 dead.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "Finland fought in the Continuation War alongside Germany from 1941 to 1944. Thanks to Nazi-German aid, the army was much better equipped, and the period of conscription was increased to two years, making possible the formation of sixteen infantry divisions. Having initially deployed on the defensive, the Finns took advantage of the weakened Soviet positions as a consequence of Operation Barbarossa, swiftly recovering their lost territories and invading Soviet territory in Karelia, after settling into defensive positions in December 1941. The Soviet offensive of June 1944 undid these Finnish gains and, while failing in its objective of destroying the Finnish army and forcing Finland's unconditional surrender, forced Finland out of the war. The Finns were able to preserve their independence with key defensive victories over the Red Army, the Battle of Tali-Ihantala being very significant.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "These conflicts involving Finland had a significant impact on the modern Finnish defense force. While other European militaries have reduced their forces, Finland has maintained a large conscript-based reserve army. As a Swedish report stated: \"The reason why the FDF chose to maintain this model while its Nordic neighbors jumped on the expeditionary bandwagon is not hard to see. Sharing a 1340km border with Russia, the need for large ground forces is self-explanatory. Furthermore, memories of World War II – in which over 2 percent of the population perished in two brutal wars with the Soviet Union – are very much alive in Finland\". This same aspect has been highlighted even more strongly after the Russian invasion of Ukraine and Finland's decision to join NATO. With quotes like; \"After World War II, having thwarted the advance of the mighty Red Army in the Winter War of 1939-40 and then seeking to recapture the territory the Soviets eventually claimed, Finland had to settle for neutrality imposed by Moscow. But to almost everyone's surprise, it succeeded in this degrading task, too, building up armed forces that were highly capable and were energetically supported by civil society—while at the same time managing to maintain dialogue with Moscow.\", \"Finland still has compulsory military service. Finland would be in a position to mobilize an army of 280,000 soldiers. That's quite a big army in modern Europe,\", with similar views being expressed elsewhere as well, often referring to the fact that Finland has kept its conscript-based armed force or other readiness-related units, contrasting with other European countries that now have to re-arm, such as Germany as an example. During the events of 2022 all this has received attention internationally as well.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "The demobilization and regrouping of the Finnish Defence Forces were carried out in late 1944 under the supervision of the Soviet-dominated Allied Control Commission. Following the Treaty of Paris in 1947, which imposed restrictions on the size and equipment of the armed forces and required disbandment of the Civic Guard, Finland reorganized its defense forces. The fact that the conditions of the peace treaty did not include prohibitions on reserves or mobilization made it possible to contemplate an adequate defense establishment within the prescribed limits. The reorganization resulted in the adoption of the brigade -in place of the division- as the standard formation.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "For the first two decades after the Second World War, the Finnish Defence Forces relied largely on obsolete wartime material. Defence spending remained minimal until the early 1960s. During the peak of the Cold War, the Finnish government made a conscious effort to increase defence capability. This resulted in the commissioning of several new weapons systems and the strengthening of the defence of Finnish Lapland by the establishment of new garrisons in the area. From 1968 onwards, the Finnish government adopted the doctrine of territorial defence, which requires the use of large land areas to delay and wear out a potential aggressor. The doctrine was complemented by the concept of total defence which calls for the use of all resources of society for national defence in case of a crisis. From the mid-1960s onwards the Finnish Defence Forces also began to specifically prepare to defeat a strategic strike, the kind which the Soviet Union employed successfully to topple the government of Czechoslovakia in 1968. In an all-out confrontation between the two major blocs, Finnish objective would have been to prevent any military incursions to Finnish territory and thereby keep Finland outside the war.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 did not eliminate the military threat perceived by the government, but the nature of the threat had changed. While the concept of total, territorial defence was not dropped, military planning has moved towards the capability to prevent and frustrate a strategic attack toward the vital regions of the country.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 15,
"text": "The end of the Cold War also allowed new opportunities which would have previously been seen as breaking Finland's stance of neutrality, such as participation in the War in Afghanistan and the Nordic Battlegroup.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 16,
"text": "With the change in the European security environment brought by the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Finnish government officials began voicing increasingly strong support for joining NATO, buttressed by polls showing a rapid increase in Finnish citizens' willingness to join NATO. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg voiced his support in April 2022 for the inclusion of Finland into the Euro-Atlantic defence alliance and stated that NATO member countries would likely enthusiastically support a Finland bid for membership.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 17,
"text": "On 11 May 2022, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Finnish President Sauli Niinistö signed a new mutual defence agreement \"to reinforce their security and fortify northern Europe's defences, in the face of renewed threats.\" This has helped to address concerns within Finland that the delay between application and acceptance to NATO, during which time Finland would not yet be able to invoke NATO Article 5 and may present an opportunity for a Russian invasion.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 18,
"text": "On 12 May 2022, President Sauli Niinistö and Prime Minister Sanna Marin issued a joint statement supporting Finland's application for membership of NATO, saying \"As a member of NATO, Finland would strengthen the entire defence alliance. Finland must apply for NATO membership without delay.\" On 17 May 2022, the Parliament of Finland voted overwhelmingly to apply for membership of NATO, with 188 votes in favour of the motion and 8 against. The following morning, the Finnish ambassador to NATO, Klaus Korhonen, formally submitted Finland's application to NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. Sweden also submitted its application at the same time.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 19,
"text": "On 29 June 2022, 30 NATO countries extended a formal invitation for Finland along with Sweden to join NATO. Both nations received the status of aspiring members while attending the annual NATO summit in Madrid as guest nations. Finland became a full NATO member on 4 April 2023.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 20,
"text": "The Defence Forces are currently undergoing key procurement programmes for all the three branches. The Navy is scheduled to get its largest vessels since the WW2-era Väinämöinen class with the new Pohjanmaa class. The Air Force has made the decision to acquire the Lockheed Martin F-35A to replace all McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet fighter jets for 10€ billion. Meanwhile, the Army is planning to complement the modernized Patria Pasi armoured vehicles with the Finnish Patria 6×6. The standard issue assault rifle RK 62 is also being upgraded to a new variant. A new high altitude air defence missile system was selected in April 2023, Rafael's David's Sling system.",
"title": "Future"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 21,
"text": "The Finnish Defence Forces are under the command of the Chief of Defence, who is directly subordinate to the President of the Republic in matters related to the military command. Decisions concerning military orders are made by the President of the Republic in consultation with the Prime Minister and the Minister of Defence.",
"title": "Organization"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 22,
"text": "Apart from the Defence Command (Finnish: Pääesikunta, Swedish: Huvudstaben), the military branches are the Finnish Army (Finnish: Maavoimat, Swedish: Armén), the Finnish Navy (Finnish: Merivoimat, Swedish: Marinen) and the Finnish Air Force (Finnish: Ilmavoimat, Swedish: Flygvapnet). The Border Guard (Finnish: Rajavartiolaitos, Swedish: Gränsbevakningsväsendet) (including the coast guard) is under the authority of the Ministry of the Interior, but can be incorporated fully or in part into the defence forces when required by defence readiness. All logistical duties of the Defence Forces are carried out by the Defence Forces Logistics Command (Finnish: Puolustusvoimien logistiikkalaitos), which includes three logistics regiments.",
"title": "Organization"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 23,
"text": "The Army is divided into eight brigade-level units (Finnish: joukko-osasto). Under the brigades, there were 12 military districts, which were responsible for carrying out the draft, training and crisis-time activation of reservists and for planning and executing territorial defence of their areas. The military districts were disbanded in 2014, as a part of the 800 million euro savings the Finnish Defence Forces had to carry out. Their duties are now carried out by regional offices (Finnish: aluetoimisto).",
"title": "Organization"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 24,
"text": "The Navy consists of headquarters and four brigade-level units: Coastal Fleet (Finnish: Rannikkolaivasto), Coastal Brigade (Finnish: Rannikkoprikaati), Nyland Brigade (Finnish: Uudenmaan Prikaati, Swedish: Nylands Brigad), and Naval Academy (Finnish: Merisotakoulu). The Coastal Fleet includes all the surface combatants of the Navy, while Coastal Brigade and Nyland Brigade train coastal troops.",
"title": "Organization"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 25,
"text": "The Air Force consists of headquarters and four brigade-level units: Satakunta, Lapland and Karelian Air Commands (Finnish: lennosto) and Air Force Academy (Finnish: Ilmasotakoulu). They are responsible for securing the integrity of the Finnish airspace during peace and for conducting aerial warfare independently during a crisis.",
"title": "Organization"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 26,
"text": "The military training of the reservists is primarily the duty of the Defence Forces, but it is assisted by the National Defence Training Association of Finland (Finnish: Maanpuolustuskoulutusyhdistys). This association provides reservists with personal, squad, platoon and company level military training. Most of the 2,000 instructors of the association are volunteers certified by the Defence Forces, but when Defence Forces materiel is used, the training always takes place under the supervision of career military personnel. Annually, the Defence Forces requests the Association to run specialized exercises for some 8,500 personnel placed in reserve units, and an additional 16,500 reservists participate in military courses where the participants are not directly selected by the Defence Forces. The legislation concerning the association will require that the chairman and the majority of the members of its board are chosen by the Finnish Government. The other board members are chosen by NGOs active in the national defence.",
"title": "Organization"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 27,
"text": "Chief of Defence General Timo Kivinen",
"title": "General Officers"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 28,
"text": "Chief of Defence Command Finland Lieutenant General Vesa Virtanen",
"title": "General Officers"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 29,
"text": "Deputy Chief of Staff, Logistics and Armaments Lieutenant General Mikko Heiskanen",
"title": "General Officers"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 30,
"text": "Deputy Chief of Staff, Strategy Lieutenant General Janne Jaakkola",
"title": "General Officers"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 31,
"text": "Deputy Chief of Staff, Operations Major General Kari Nisula",
"title": "General Officers"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 32,
"text": "Deputy Chief of Staff, Personnel Major General Rami Saari",
"title": "General Officers"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 33,
"text": "Chief of Planning Brigadier General Tero Ylitalo",
"title": "General Officers"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 34,
"text": "Assistant Chief of Staff Operations Commodore Janne Huusko",
"title": "General Officers"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 35,
"text": "Defence Command Chief of C5 Brigadier General Jarmo Vähätiitto",
"title": "General Officers"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 36,
"text": "Chief of Personnel (J1) Commodore Tuomas Tiilikainen",
"title": "General Officers"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 37,
"text": "Chief of Logistics Brigadier General Timo Saarinen",
"title": "General Officers"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 38,
"text": "Assistant Chief of Staff, Training (J7) Brigadier General Manu Tuominen",
"title": "General Officers"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 39,
"text": "Defence Command Chief of Intelligence Brigadier General Pekka Turunen",
"title": "General Officers"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 40,
"text": "Chief Surgeon Commodore Medical Juha-Petri Ruohola",
"title": "General Officers"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 41,
"text": "Field Bishop Jukka Pekka Asikainen",
"title": "General Officers"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 42,
"text": "",
"title": "General Officers"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 43,
"text": "Commander of the Finnish Army Lieutenant General Pasi Välimäki",
"title": "General Officers"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 44,
"text": "Chief of Staff, Army Major General Jukka Jokinen",
"title": "General Officers"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 45,
"text": "Chief of Operations, Army Command Brigadier General Sami-Antti Takamaa",
"title": "General Officers"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 46,
"text": "Commander of Karelia Brigade Brigadier General Jyri Raitasalo",
"title": "General Officers"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 47,
"text": "Commander of Kainuu Brigade Brigadier General Ari Laaksonen",
"title": "General Officers"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 48,
"text": "Commander of Pori Brigade Brigadier General Vesa Valtonen",
"title": "General Officers"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 49,
"text": "Commander of the Finnish Navy Rear Admiral Jori Harju",
"title": "General Officers"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 50,
"text": "Chief of Staff, Navy Commodore Jukka Anteroinen",
"title": "General Officers"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 51,
"text": "Commander of the Finnish Air Force Major General Juha-Pekka Keränen",
"title": "General Officers"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 52,
"text": "Chief of Staff, Air Force Brigadier General Timo Herranen",
"title": "General Officers"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 53,
"text": "Rector of The National Defence University Major General Mika Kalliomaa",
"title": "General Officers"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 54,
"text": "Military Representative to The EU and NATO Lieutenant General Kim Jäämeri",
"title": "General Officers"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 55,
"text": "Ministry of Defence, Director, National Defence Unit Brigadier General Sami Nurmi",
"title": "General Officers"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 56,
"text": "Chief of Finnish Defence Forces Logistics Command Major General Jari Mikkonen",
"title": "General Officers"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 57,
"text": "Deputy Manager, Logistic Command Brigadier General Engineering Juha-Matti Ylitalo",
"title": "General Officers"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 58,
"text": "The Finnish defence forces is based on universal male conscription. All men above 18 years of age are liable to serve either six, nine, or 12 months. Some 27,000 conscripts are trained annually. 80% of Finnish men complete their service. The conscripts at first receive basic training, after which they are assigned to various units for special training. Privates who are trained for tasks not requiring special skills serve for six months. In technically demanding tasks the time of service is nine, or in some cases 12 months. Those selected for NCO (non-commissioned officer) or officer training serve 12 months. At the completion of the service, the conscripts receive a reserve military rank of private, lance corporal, corporal, sergeant or second lieutenant, depending on their training and accomplishments. After their military service, the conscripts are placed in reserve until the end of their 50th or 60th living year, depending on their military rank. During their time in reserve, the reservists are liable to participate in military refresher exercises for a total of 40, 75 or 100 days, depending on their military rank. In addition, all reservists are liable for activation in a situation where the military threat against Finland has seriously increased, in full or partial mobilization or in a large-scale disaster or a virulent epidemic. The males who do not belong to the reserve may only be activated in case of full mobilization, and those rank-and-file personnel who have fulfilled 50 years of age only with a specific parliamentary decision.",
"title": "Conscription"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 59,
"text": "Military service can be started after turning 18. The service can be delayed due to studies, work or other personal reasons until the 28th birthday, but these reasons do not result in exemptions. In addition to lodging, food, clothes and health care the conscripts receive between 5 and 11.70 euros per day, depending on the time they have served. The state also pays for any rental and electricity bills the conscripts incur during their service. If the conscripts have families, they are entitled to benefits as well. It is illegal to fire an employee due to military service or due to a refresher exercise or activation. Voluntary females in military service receive a small additional benefit, because they are expected to provide their own underwear and other personal items.",
"title": "Conscription"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 60,
"text": "The military service consists of lessons, practical training, various cleaning and maintenance duties and field exercises. Most weekends conscripts can leave the barracks on Friday and are expected to return by midnight on Sunday. A small force of conscripts are kept in readiness on weekends to aid civil agencies in various types of emergency situations, to guard the premises and to maintain defence in case of a sudden military emergency. Field exercises can go on regardless of the time of day or week.",
"title": "Conscription"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 61,
"text": "The training of conscripts is based on joukkotuotanto-principle (lit. English troop production). In this system, 80% of the conscripts are trained to fulfill a specific role in a specific wartime military unit. Each brigade-level unit is responsible for producing specified reserve units from the conscripts it has been allocated. As the reservists are discharged, they receive a specific wartime placement in the unit with which they have trained during their conscription. As the conscripts age, their unit is given new, different tasks and materiel. Typically, reservists are placed for the first five years in first-line units, then moved to military formations with less demanding tasks, while the reservists unable to serve in the unit are substituted with reservists from the reserve without specific placement. In refresher exercises, the unit is then given new training for these duties, if the defence funding permits this.",
"title": "Conscription"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 62,
"text": "The inhabitants of the demilitarized Åland islands are exempt from military service. By the Conscription act of 1950, they are however required to serve a time at a local institution, like the coast guard instead. However, until such service has been arranged, they are freed from service obligation. The non-military service of Åland islands has not been arranged since the introduction of the act, and there are no plans to institute it. The inhabitants of Åland islands can also volunteer for military service on the mainland. Jehovah's Witnesses were exempt until February 2019. It is also possible to serve either weapon-free military service of 255 or 347 days or undergo a 12-month-long non-military service. Finnish law requires that men who do not want to serve the defense of the country in any capacity (so-called total objectors) be sentenced to a prison term of 173 days. As of 1995, women were permitted to serve on a voluntary basis and pursue careers as officers. In conscription, women have consideration time of six weeks, during which they have the choice to halt their service without any other specific reason. After the said six weeks, all the same laws and jurisdictions apply to them as to men. Unlike in many other countries, women are allowed to serve in all combat arms including front-line infantry and special forces.",
"title": "Conscription"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 63,
"text": "The Finnish military ranks follow the Western usage in the officer ranks. As a Finnish peculiarity, the rank of lieutenant has three grades: 2nd lieutenant, lieutenant and senior lieutenant. The 2nd lieutenant is a reserve officer rank, active commissioned officers beginning their service as lieutenants.",
"title": "Military ranks"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 64,
"text": "The basic structure of the NCO ranks is a variant of the German rank structure, but the rank system has some peculiarities due to different personnel groups. The duties carried out by NCOs in most Western armed forces are carried out by",
"title": "Military ranks"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 65,
"text": "In a case of war, most of the NCO duties would be carried out by reserve NCOs who have received their training during conscription.",
"title": "Military ranks"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 66,
"text": "The rank and file of the Finnish Defence Forces is composed of conscripts serving in the ranks of private, lance corporal and NCO student.",
"title": "Military ranks"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 67,
"text": "Finnish Defence Forces Materiel and equipment photos.",
"title": "Equipment"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 68,
"text": "Finland does not have attack helicopters or submarines. Legislation forbids nuclear weapons entirely.",
"title": "Equipment"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 69,
"text": "In early March 2012 Finland decided to purchase advanced Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missiles (AGM-158 JASSM) from the United States. Other non-USA operators for the JASSM are Australia, Poland and South Korea.Deal also included other sophisticated bombs like glidebomp AGM-154 Joint Standoff Weapon and JDAM (Joint Direct Attack Munition).",
"title": "Equipment"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 70,
"text": "Finland has updated its M270 Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS. In Finnish 298 RSRAKH 06) to be able to fire the ATACMS tactical ballistic missile).",
"title": "Equipment"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 71,
"text": "The main field uniform is the M05 uniform, introduced in 2005, which is green camouflage uniform used by the army. M05 has cold weather and snow camouflage variants, which are gray-green and white with green flecks, respectively. Older green camouflage uniforms are M91 and M62. The M83 light service uniform remains in use as a service uniform for permanent personnel such as officers and as a dress uniform, but is not commonly issued to troops. This is gray for army, blue for the air force and dark blue for the navy. The navy has separate naval uniforms, while the air force uses army-pattern uniforms. There are also four separate full dress uniforms depending on the dress code.",
"title": "Equipment"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 72,
"text": "Finland has taken part in peacekeeping operations since 1956 (the number of Finnish peacekeepers who have served since 1956 amounts to 43,000). In 2003 over a thousand Finnish peacekeepers were involved in peacekeeping operations, including UN and NATO led missions. According to the Finnish law the maximum simultaneous strength of the peacekeeping forces is limited to 2,000 soldiers.",
"title": "Peacekeeping operations"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 73,
"text": "Since 1956, 39 Finnish soldiers have died while serving in peacekeeping operations.",
"title": "Peacekeeping operations"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 74,
"text": "Since 1996 the Pori Brigade has trained parts of the Finnish Rapid Deployment Force (FRDF), which can take part in international crisis management/peacekeeping operations at short notice. The Nyland/Uusimaa Brigade has started training the Amphibious Task Unit (ATU) in recent years, a joint Swedish-Finnish international task unit.",
"title": "Peacekeeping operations"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 75,
"text": "Since 2006, Finland has participated in the formation of European Union Battlegroups. Finland participated in two European Union Battlegroups in 2011.",
"title": "Peacekeeping operations"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 76,
"text": "International operations Finland is participating in by deploying military units (personnel strength in parentheses):",
"title": "Peacekeeping operations"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 77,
"text": "Other international operations Finland is participating in with staff personnel, military observers and similar (personnel strength in parentheses):",
"title": "Peacekeeping operations"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 78,
"text": "The Finnish military doctrine is based on the concept of total defence. The term total means that all sectors of the government and economy are involved in the defence planning. In principle, each ministry has the responsibility for planning its operations during a crisis. There are no special emergency authorities, such as the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) or Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations. Instead, each authority regularly trains for crises and has been allocated a combination of normal and emergency powers it needs to keep functioning in any conceivable situation. In a war, all resources of society may be diverted to ensure the survival of the nation. The legal basis for such measures is found in the Readiness Act and in the State of Defence Act, which would come into force through a presidential decision verified by parliament in the case of a crisis.",
"title": "Total defence"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 79,
"text": "The main objective of the doctrine is to establish and maintain a military force capable of deterring any potential aggressor from using Finnish territory or applying military pressure against Finland. To accomplish this, the defence is organised on the doctrine of territorial defence. The stated main principles of the territorial defence doctrine are",
"title": "Total defence"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 80,
"text": "The defence planning is organised to counteract three threat situations:",
"title": "Total defence"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 81,
"text": "In all cases, the national objective is to keep the vital areas, especially the capital area in Finnish possession. In other areas, the size of the country is used to delay and wear down the invader, until the enemy may be defeated in an area of Finnish choosing. The Army carries most of the responsibility for this task.",
"title": "Total defence"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 82,
"text": "The key wartime army units in 2015 are:",
"title": "Total defence"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 83,
"text": "The total number of territorial and regional units is undisclosed. The army units are mostly composed of reservists, the career soldiers manning the command and specialty positions.",
"title": "Total defence"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 84,
"text": "The role of the Navy is to repel all attacks carried out against Finnish coasts and to safeguard the territorial integrity during peacetime and the \"gray\" phase of the conflict. The maritime defence relies on combined use of coastal artillery, missile systems and naval mines to wear down the attacker. The Air Force is used to deny the invader the air superiority and to protect most important troops and objects of national importance in conjunction with the ground-based air defence. As the readiness of the Air Force and the Navy is high even during the peacetime, the career personnel have a much more visible role in the wartime duties of these defence branches.",
"title": "Total defence"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 85,
"text": "The Border Guard has the responsibility for border security in all situations. During a war, it will contribute to the national defence partially integrated into the army, its total mobilized strength being some 11,600 troops. One of the projected uses for the Border Guard is guerrilla warfare in areas temporarily occupied by enemy.",
"title": "Total defence"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 86,
"text": "The army is organised into operative forces, which consist of approximately 61,000 persons, and territorial forces, which consist of 176,000 persons. The following list is the wartime organisation of the Finnish army from January 2008.{{citation needed|date=April 2022}}",
"title": "Key wartime units"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 87,
"text": "Territorial forces:",
"title": "Key wartime units"
}
] |
The Finnish Defence Forces (FDF) are the military of Finland. The Finnish Defence Forces consist of the Finnish Army, the Finnish Navy, and the Finnish Air Force. In wartime, the Finnish Border Guard becomes part of the Finnish Defence Forces. Universal male conscription is in place, under which all mentally and physically capable men serve for 165, 255, or 347 days, from the year they turn 18 until the year they turn 29. Alternative non-military service for men and voluntary service for women is available. Finland's official policy states that a wartime military strength of 280,000 personnel constitutes a sufficient deterrent. The army consists of a highly mobile field army backed up by local defence units. The army defends the national territory and its military strategy employs the use of the heavily forested terrain and numerous lakes to wear down an aggressor, instead of attempting to hold the attacking army on the frontier. Finland's defence budget for 2022 equals approximately €5.8 billion. The voluntary overseas service is highly popular and troops serve around the world in UN, NATO, and EU missions. With an arsenal of 700 howitzers, 700 heavy mortars and 100 multiple rocket launchers, Finland has the largest artillery capability in western Europe. Homeland defence willingness against a superior enemy is at 83%, one of the highest rates in Europe. The Finnish Defence Forces cooperate closely with the Finnish Border Guard. The Finnish Border Guard has its own yearly and long term investment budget.
|
2001-09-08T18:59:36Z
|
2023-12-26T12:55:33Z
|
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] |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finnish_Defence_Forces
|
10,716 |
Foreign relations of Finland
|
The foreign relations of Finland are the responsibility of the president of Finland, who leads foreign policy in cooperation with the government. Implicitly the government is responsible for internal policy and decision making in the European Union. Within the government, preparative discussions are conducted in the government committee of foreign and security policy (ulko- ja turvallisuuspoliittinen ministerivaliokunta), which includes the Prime Minister and at least the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Minister of Defence, and at most four other ministers as necessary. The committee meets with the President as necessary. Laws concerning foreign relations are discussed in the parliamentary committee of foreign relations (ulkoasiainvaliokunta, utrikesutskottet). The Ministry of Foreign Affairs implements the foreign policy.
During the Cold War, Finland's foreign policy was based on official neutrality between the Western powers and the Soviet Union, while simultaneously stressing Nordic cooperation in the framework of the Nordic Council and cautious economic integration with the West as promoted by the Bretton-Woods Agreement and the free trade treaty with the European Economic Community. Finland shares this history with close neighbour Sweden, which Finland was a part of until the split of the Swedish empire in 1809. Finland did not join the Soviet Union's economic sphere (Comecon) but remained a free-market economy and conducted bilateral trade with the Soviet Union. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, Finland unilaterally abrogated the last restrictions imposed on it by the Paris peace treaties of 1947 and the Finno-Soviet Agreement of Friendship, Cooperation, and Mutual Assistance. The government filed an application for membership in the European Union (EU) three months after the dissolution of the Soviet Union and became a member in 1995. Finland did not attempt to join NATO, even though post-Soviet countries on the Baltic Sea and elsewhere joined. Nevertheless, defence policymakers quietly converted to NATO equipment and contributed troops.
President Martti Ahtisaari and the coalition governments led Finland closer to the core EU in the late 1990s. Finland was considered a cooperative model state, and Finland did not oppose proposals for a common EU defence policy. This was reversed in the 2000s, when Tarja Halonen and Erkki Tuomioja made Finland's official policy to resist other EU members' plans for common defense. However, Halonen allowed Finland to join European Union Battlegroups in 2006 and the NATO Response Force in 2008.
Relations with Russia are cordial and common issues include bureaucracy (particularly at the Vaalimaa border crossing), airspace violations, development aid Finland gives to Russia (especially in environmental problems that affect Finland), and Finland's energy dependency on Russian gas and electricity. Behind the scenes, the administration witnessed a resurrection of Soviet-era tactics as recently as 2017. The Finnish Security Intelligence Service, the nation's security agency, says the known number of Russian agents from Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) and GRU now exceeds Cold War levels and there are unknown numbers of others. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in March 2022 that her government would have to respond if Finland became a NATO member.
As of March 2011 Finland maintains diplomatic relations with all UN member states.
All NATO countries approved Finland's accession to the military alliance by April 1, 2023, and it officially joined on April 4. The move was the final process in Finland's transition from conducting a foreign policy of neutrality to clearly standing as an official part of the Western bloc.
After independence from Russia in 1917, the Finnish Civil War, including interventions by Imperial Germany and Soviet Russia, and failure of the Communist revolution, resulted in the official ban on Communism, and strengthening relations with Western countries. Overt alliance with Germany was not possible due to the result of the First World War, but in general the period of 1918 to 1939 was characterised by economic growth and increasing integration to the Western world economy. Relations with Soviet Russia from 1918 to 1939 were icy; voluntary expeditions to Russia called heimosodat ended only in 1922, four years after the conclusion of the Finnish Civil War. However, attempts to establish military alliances were unsuccessful. Thus, when the Winter War broke out, Finland was left alone to resist the Soviet attack. Later, during the Continuation War, Finland declared "co-belligerency" with Nazi Germany, and allowed Northern Finland to be used as a German attack base. For 872 days, the German army, aided indirectly by Finnish forces, besieged Leningrad, the Soviet Union's second-largest city. The peace settlement in 1944 with the Soviet Union led to the Lapland War in 1945, where Finland fought Germans in northern Finland.
From the end of the Continuation War with the Soviet Union in 1944 until 1991, the policy was to avoid superpower conflicts and to build mutual confidence with the Western powers and the Soviet Union. Although the country was culturally, socially, and politically Western, Finns realised they had to live in peace with the Soviets and so could take no action that might be interpreted as a security threat. The dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 opened up dramatic new possibilities for Finland and has resulted in the Finns actively seeking greater participation in Western political and economic structures. The popular support for the strictly self-defensive doctrine remains.
In the 2000 constitution, where diverse constitutional laws were unified into one statute, the leading role of the President was slightly moderated. However, because the constitution still stipulates only that the President leads foreign policy and the government internal policy, the responsibility over European Union affairs is not explicitly resolved. Implicitly this belongs to the powers of the government. In a cohabitation situation as with Matti Vanhanen's recent second government right-wing government and left-wing President Tarja Halonen, there can be friction between government ministers and the president.
The arrangement has been criticised by Risto E. J. Penttilä for not providing a simple answer of who's in charge.
Finnish foreign policy emphasises its participation in multilateral organisations. Finland joined the United Nations in 1955 and the European Union in 1995. As noted, the country also is a member of NATO's Partnership for Peace as well as an observer in the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council. The military has been prepared to be more compatible with NATO, as co-operation with NATO in peacekeeping is needed, but military alliance does not have popular support. Political scientist Teija Tiilikainen has attributed tensions like this one to the importance that Finland's political identity places on sovereignty and the (sometimes competing) stress it places on international cooperation.
In the European Union, Finland is a member of the Eurozone, and in addition, the Schengen treaty abolishing passport controls. 60% of foreign trade is to the EU. Other large trade partners are Russia and the United States.
Finland is well represented in the UN civil service in proportion to its population and belongs to several of its specialised and related agencies. Finnish troops have participated in United Nations peacekeeping activities since 1956, and the Finns continue to be one of the largest per capita contributors of peacekeepers in the world. Finland is an active participant in the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and in early 1995 assumed the co-chairmanship of the OSCE's Minsk Group on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
Cooperation with the other Scandinavian countries also is important to Finland, and it has been a member of the Nordic Council since 1955. Under the council's auspices, the Nordic countries have created a common labor market and have abolished immigration controls among themselves. The council also serves to coordinate social and cultural policies of the participating countries and has promoted increased cooperation in many fields.
In addition to the organisations already mentioned, Finland is a member of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the International Monetary Fund, the World Trade Organization, the International Finance Corporation, the International Development Association, the Bank for International Settlements, the Asian Development Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, the Council of Europe, and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Finland has moved steadily towards integration into Western institutions and abandoned its formal policy of neutrality, which has been recast as a policy of military nonalliance coupled with the maintenance of a credible, independent defence. Finland's 1994 decision to buy 64 F-18 Hornet fighter planes from the United States signalled the abandonment of the country's policy of balanced arms purchases from Communist countries and Western countries.
In 1994, Finland joined NATO's Partnership for Peace; the country is also an observer in the North Atlantic Cooperation Council. Finland became a full member of the EU in January 1995, at the same time acquiring observer status in the EU's defence arm, the Western European Union.
In 2003, Anneli Jäätteenmäki of the Centre Party won the elections after she had accused her rival Paavo Lipponen, who was prime minister at the time, of allying neutral Finland with the United States in the war in Iraq during a meeting with President George W. Bush, and thus associated Finland with what many Finns considered an illegal war of aggression. Lipponen denied the claims and declared that "We support the UN and the UN Secretary-General." Jäätteenmäki resigned as prime minister after 63 days in office amid accusations that she had lied about the leak of the documents about the meeting between Bush and Lipponen. This series of events was considered scandalous and it is named Iraq leak or Iraq-gate.
Generally, Finland has abided by the principle of neutrality and has good relations with nearly all countries, as evidenced by the freedom of travel that a Finnish passport gives; though relations with Russia remain strained and are often tense due to past historical grievances, including Russian threats and past invasion.
After almost 30 years of close partnership with NATO, Finland joined the Alliance on 4 April 2023. Finland’s partnership with NATO was historically based on its policy of military non-alignment, which changed following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
List of countries which Finland maintains diplomatic relations with:
Aland Islands
|
[
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "The foreign relations of Finland are the responsibility of the president of Finland, who leads foreign policy in cooperation with the government. Implicitly the government is responsible for internal policy and decision making in the European Union. Within the government, preparative discussions are conducted in the government committee of foreign and security policy (ulko- ja turvallisuuspoliittinen ministerivaliokunta), which includes the Prime Minister and at least the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Minister of Defence, and at most four other ministers as necessary. The committee meets with the President as necessary. Laws concerning foreign relations are discussed in the parliamentary committee of foreign relations (ulkoasiainvaliokunta, utrikesutskottet). The Ministry of Foreign Affairs implements the foreign policy.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "During the Cold War, Finland's foreign policy was based on official neutrality between the Western powers and the Soviet Union, while simultaneously stressing Nordic cooperation in the framework of the Nordic Council and cautious economic integration with the West as promoted by the Bretton-Woods Agreement and the free trade treaty with the European Economic Community. Finland shares this history with close neighbour Sweden, which Finland was a part of until the split of the Swedish empire in 1809. Finland did not join the Soviet Union's economic sphere (Comecon) but remained a free-market economy and conducted bilateral trade with the Soviet Union. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, Finland unilaterally abrogated the last restrictions imposed on it by the Paris peace treaties of 1947 and the Finno-Soviet Agreement of Friendship, Cooperation, and Mutual Assistance. The government filed an application for membership in the European Union (EU) three months after the dissolution of the Soviet Union and became a member in 1995. Finland did not attempt to join NATO, even though post-Soviet countries on the Baltic Sea and elsewhere joined. Nevertheless, defence policymakers quietly converted to NATO equipment and contributed troops.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "President Martti Ahtisaari and the coalition governments led Finland closer to the core EU in the late 1990s. Finland was considered a cooperative model state, and Finland did not oppose proposals for a common EU defence policy. This was reversed in the 2000s, when Tarja Halonen and Erkki Tuomioja made Finland's official policy to resist other EU members' plans for common defense. However, Halonen allowed Finland to join European Union Battlegroups in 2006 and the NATO Response Force in 2008.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "Relations with Russia are cordial and common issues include bureaucracy (particularly at the Vaalimaa border crossing), airspace violations, development aid Finland gives to Russia (especially in environmental problems that affect Finland), and Finland's energy dependency on Russian gas and electricity. Behind the scenes, the administration witnessed a resurrection of Soviet-era tactics as recently as 2017. The Finnish Security Intelligence Service, the nation's security agency, says the known number of Russian agents from Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) and GRU now exceeds Cold War levels and there are unknown numbers of others. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in March 2022 that her government would have to respond if Finland became a NATO member.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "As of March 2011 Finland maintains diplomatic relations with all UN member states.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "All NATO countries approved Finland's accession to the military alliance by April 1, 2023, and it officially joined on April 4. The move was the final process in Finland's transition from conducting a foreign policy of neutrality to clearly standing as an official part of the Western bloc.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "After independence from Russia in 1917, the Finnish Civil War, including interventions by Imperial Germany and Soviet Russia, and failure of the Communist revolution, resulted in the official ban on Communism, and strengthening relations with Western countries. Overt alliance with Germany was not possible due to the result of the First World War, but in general the period of 1918 to 1939 was characterised by economic growth and increasing integration to the Western world economy. Relations with Soviet Russia from 1918 to 1939 were icy; voluntary expeditions to Russia called heimosodat ended only in 1922, four years after the conclusion of the Finnish Civil War. However, attempts to establish military alliances were unsuccessful. Thus, when the Winter War broke out, Finland was left alone to resist the Soviet attack. Later, during the Continuation War, Finland declared \"co-belligerency\" with Nazi Germany, and allowed Northern Finland to be used as a German attack base. For 872 days, the German army, aided indirectly by Finnish forces, besieged Leningrad, the Soviet Union's second-largest city. The peace settlement in 1944 with the Soviet Union led to the Lapland War in 1945, where Finland fought Germans in northern Finland.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "From the end of the Continuation War with the Soviet Union in 1944 until 1991, the policy was to avoid superpower conflicts and to build mutual confidence with the Western powers and the Soviet Union. Although the country was culturally, socially, and politically Western, Finns realised they had to live in peace with the Soviets and so could take no action that might be interpreted as a security threat. The dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 opened up dramatic new possibilities for Finland and has resulted in the Finns actively seeking greater participation in Western political and economic structures. The popular support for the strictly self-defensive doctrine remains.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "In the 2000 constitution, where diverse constitutional laws were unified into one statute, the leading role of the President was slightly moderated. However, because the constitution still stipulates only that the President leads foreign policy and the government internal policy, the responsibility over European Union affairs is not explicitly resolved. Implicitly this belongs to the powers of the government. In a cohabitation situation as with Matti Vanhanen's recent second government right-wing government and left-wing President Tarja Halonen, there can be friction between government ministers and the president.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "The arrangement has been criticised by Risto E. J. Penttilä for not providing a simple answer of who's in charge.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "Finnish foreign policy emphasises its participation in multilateral organisations. Finland joined the United Nations in 1955 and the European Union in 1995. As noted, the country also is a member of NATO's Partnership for Peace as well as an observer in the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council. The military has been prepared to be more compatible with NATO, as co-operation with NATO in peacekeeping is needed, but military alliance does not have popular support. Political scientist Teija Tiilikainen has attributed tensions like this one to the importance that Finland's political identity places on sovereignty and the (sometimes competing) stress it places on international cooperation.",
"title": "Multilateral relations"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "In the European Union, Finland is a member of the Eurozone, and in addition, the Schengen treaty abolishing passport controls. 60% of foreign trade is to the EU. Other large trade partners are Russia and the United States.",
"title": "Multilateral relations"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "Finland is well represented in the UN civil service in proportion to its population and belongs to several of its specialised and related agencies. Finnish troops have participated in United Nations peacekeeping activities since 1956, and the Finns continue to be one of the largest per capita contributors of peacekeepers in the world. Finland is an active participant in the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and in early 1995 assumed the co-chairmanship of the OSCE's Minsk Group on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.",
"title": "Multilateral relations"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "Cooperation with the other Scandinavian countries also is important to Finland, and it has been a member of the Nordic Council since 1955. Under the council's auspices, the Nordic countries have created a common labor market and have abolished immigration controls among themselves. The council also serves to coordinate social and cultural policies of the participating countries and has promoted increased cooperation in many fields.",
"title": "Multilateral relations"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "In addition to the organisations already mentioned, Finland is a member of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the International Monetary Fund, the World Trade Organization, the International Finance Corporation, the International Development Association, the Bank for International Settlements, the Asian Development Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, the Council of Europe, and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.",
"title": "Multilateral relations"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 15,
"text": "Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Finland has moved steadily towards integration into Western institutions and abandoned its formal policy of neutrality, which has been recast as a policy of military nonalliance coupled with the maintenance of a credible, independent defence. Finland's 1994 decision to buy 64 F-18 Hornet fighter planes from the United States signalled the abandonment of the country's policy of balanced arms purchases from Communist countries and Western countries.",
"title": "Multilateral relations"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 16,
"text": "In 1994, Finland joined NATO's Partnership for Peace; the country is also an observer in the North Atlantic Cooperation Council. Finland became a full member of the EU in January 1995, at the same time acquiring observer status in the EU's defence arm, the Western European Union.",
"title": "Multilateral relations"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 17,
"text": "In 2003, Anneli Jäätteenmäki of the Centre Party won the elections after she had accused her rival Paavo Lipponen, who was prime minister at the time, of allying neutral Finland with the United States in the war in Iraq during a meeting with President George W. Bush, and thus associated Finland with what many Finns considered an illegal war of aggression. Lipponen denied the claims and declared that \"We support the UN and the UN Secretary-General.\" Jäätteenmäki resigned as prime minister after 63 days in office amid accusations that she had lied about the leak of the documents about the meeting between Bush and Lipponen. This series of events was considered scandalous and it is named Iraq leak or Iraq-gate.",
"title": "Multilateral relations"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 18,
"text": "Generally, Finland has abided by the principle of neutrality and has good relations with nearly all countries, as evidenced by the freedom of travel that a Finnish passport gives; though relations with Russia remain strained and are often tense due to past historical grievances, including Russian threats and past invasion.",
"title": "Multilateral relations"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 19,
"text": "After almost 30 years of close partnership with NATO, Finland joined the Alliance on 4 April 2023. Finland’s partnership with NATO was historically based on its policy of military non-alignment, which changed following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.",
"title": "Multilateral relations"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 20,
"text": "List of countries which Finland maintains diplomatic relations with:",
"title": "Diplomatic relations list"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 21,
"text": "Aland Islands",
"title": "International organization participation"
}
] |
The foreign relations of Finland are the responsibility of the president of Finland, who leads foreign policy in cooperation with the government. Implicitly the government is responsible for internal policy and decision making in the European Union. Within the government, preparative discussions are conducted in the government committee of foreign and security policy, which includes the Prime Minister and at least the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Minister of Defence, and at most four other ministers as necessary. The committee meets with the President as necessary. Laws concerning foreign relations are discussed in the parliamentary committee of foreign relations. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs implements the foreign policy. During the Cold War, Finland's foreign policy was based on official neutrality between the Western powers and the Soviet Union, while simultaneously stressing Nordic cooperation in the framework of the Nordic Council and cautious economic integration with the West as promoted by the Bretton-Woods Agreement and the free trade treaty with the European Economic Community. Finland shares this history with close neighbour Sweden, which Finland was a part of until the split of the Swedish empire in 1809. Finland did not join the Soviet Union's economic sphere (Comecon) but remained a free-market economy and conducted bilateral trade with the Soviet Union. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, Finland unilaterally abrogated the last restrictions imposed on it by the Paris peace treaties of 1947 and the Finno-Soviet Agreement of Friendship, Cooperation, and Mutual Assistance. The government filed an application for membership in the European Union (EU) three months after the dissolution of the Soviet Union and became a member in 1995. Finland did not attempt to join NATO, even though post-Soviet countries on the Baltic Sea and elsewhere joined. Nevertheless, defence policymakers quietly converted to NATO equipment and contributed troops. President Martti Ahtisaari and the coalition governments led Finland closer to the core EU in the late 1990s. Finland was considered a cooperative model state, and Finland did not oppose proposals for a common EU defence policy. This was reversed in the 2000s, when Tarja Halonen and Erkki Tuomioja made Finland's official policy to resist other EU members' plans for common defense. However, Halonen allowed Finland to join European Union Battlegroups in 2006 and the NATO Response Force in 2008. Relations with Russia are cordial and common issues include bureaucracy, airspace violations, development aid Finland gives to Russia, and Finland's energy dependency on Russian gas and electricity. Behind the scenes, the administration witnessed a resurrection of Soviet-era tactics as recently as 2017. The Finnish Security Intelligence Service, the nation's security agency, says the known number of Russian agents from Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) and GRU now exceeds Cold War levels and there are unknown numbers of others. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in March 2022 that her government would have to respond if Finland became a NATO member. As of March 2011 Finland maintains diplomatic relations with all UN member states. All NATO countries approved Finland's accession to the military alliance by April 1, 2023, and it officially joined on April 4. The move was the final process in Finland's transition from conducting a foreign policy of neutrality to clearly standing as an official part of the Western bloc.
|
2001-04-29T15:51:14Z
|
2023-12-15T00:01:53Z
|
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_relations_of_Finland
|
10,722 |
Telecommunications in France
|
Telecommunications in France are highly developed. France is served by an extensive system of automatic telephone exchanges connected by modern networks of fiber-optic cable, coaxial cable, microwave radio relay, and a domestic satellite system; cellular telephone service is widely available, expanding rapidly, and includes roaming service to foreign countries.
The telephony system employs an extensive system of modern network elements such as digital telephone exchanges, mobile switching centres, media gateways and signalling gateways at the core, interconnected by a wide variety of transmission systems using fibre-optics or Microwave radio relay networks. The access network, which connects the subscriber to the core, is highly diversified with different copper-pair, optic-fibre and wireless technologies. The fixed-line telecommunications market is dominated by the former state-owned monopoly France Telecom.
Telephones – main lines in use: 36.441 million; 35.5 million (metropolitan France) (2009)
Telephones – mobile cellular: 60.95 million; 59.543 million (metropolitan France) (2009)
Satellite earth stations – 2 Intelsat (with total of 5 antennas – 2 for Indian Ocean and 3 for Atlantic Ocean), NA Eutelsat, 1 Inmarsat (Atlantic Ocean region); HF radiotelephone communications with more than 20 countries
Radio stations: AM 41, FM about 3,500 (this figure is an approximation and includes many repeaters), shortwave 2 (1998)
Radios: 55.3 million (1997)
Television stations: 584 (plus 9,676 repeaters) (1995)
Televisions: 34.8 million (1997)
Internet country code: .fr
Internet service providers (ISPs): 62 (2000)
Internet hosts: 15,182,001; 15.161 million (metropolitan France) (2010)
Internet users: 45.262 million; 44.625 million (metropolitan France) (2009)
France currently has 4 mobile networks, Orange, SFR, Bouygues Telecom and Free all of which are licensed for UMTS. All except Free are also licensed for GSM. In 2016 Q3, Orange had 28.966 million mobile phone customers, SFR had 14.577 million, Bouygues had 12.660 million, Free Mobile had 12.385 million, and the MVNOs had 7.281 million.
Before the launch of Free Mobile in January 2012, the number of physical mobile phone operators was very limited. For example, Sweden currently has 4 licensed operators with their own networks despite a smaller and sparser population than France's, making improved coverage less economically rewarding. However, France has a number of MVNOs which increases competition.
However, Free Mobile obtained its licence in December 2009 and operates since January 2012.
In France, the satellite telecommunications system TELECOM 1 (TC1) will provide high-speed, broadband transfer of digital data between different sections of subscribing companies. Conventional telecommunications links between continental France and its overseas departments will also be supplied.
|
[
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "Telecommunications in France are highly developed. France is served by an extensive system of automatic telephone exchanges connected by modern networks of fiber-optic cable, coaxial cable, microwave radio relay, and a domestic satellite system; cellular telephone service is widely available, expanding rapidly, and includes roaming service to foreign countries.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "The telephony system employs an extensive system of modern network elements such as digital telephone exchanges, mobile switching centres, media gateways and signalling gateways at the core, interconnected by a wide variety of transmission systems using fibre-optics or Microwave radio relay networks. The access network, which connects the subscriber to the core, is highly diversified with different copper-pair, optic-fibre and wireless technologies. The fixed-line telecommunications market is dominated by the former state-owned monopoly France Telecom.",
"title": "Fixed-line telephony"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "Telephones – main lines in use: 36.441 million; 35.5 million (metropolitan France) (2009)",
"title": "Fixed-line telephony"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "Telephones – mobile cellular: 60.95 million; 59.543 million (metropolitan France) (2009)",
"title": "Fixed-line telephony"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "Satellite earth stations – 2 Intelsat (with total of 5 antennas – 2 for Indian Ocean and 3 for Atlantic Ocean), NA Eutelsat, 1 Inmarsat (Atlantic Ocean region); HF radiotelephone communications with more than 20 countries",
"title": "Fixed-line telephony"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "Radio stations: AM 41, FM about 3,500 (this figure is an approximation and includes many repeaters), shortwave 2 (1998)",
"title": "Radio"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "Radios: 55.3 million (1997)",
"title": "Radio"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "Television stations: 584 (plus 9,676 repeaters) (1995)",
"title": "Television"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "Televisions: 34.8 million (1997)",
"title": "Television"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "Internet country code: .fr",
"title": "Internet"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "Internet service providers (ISPs): 62 (2000)",
"title": "Internet"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "Internet hosts: 15,182,001; 15.161 million (metropolitan France) (2010)",
"title": "Internet"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "Internet users: 45.262 million; 44.625 million (metropolitan France) (2009)",
"title": "Internet"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "France currently has 4 mobile networks, Orange, SFR, Bouygues Telecom and Free all of which are licensed for UMTS. All except Free are also licensed for GSM. In 2016 Q3, Orange had 28.966 million mobile phone customers, SFR had 14.577 million, Bouygues had 12.660 million, Free Mobile had 12.385 million, and the MVNOs had 7.281 million.",
"title": "Mobile networks"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "Before the launch of Free Mobile in January 2012, the number of physical mobile phone operators was very limited. For example, Sweden currently has 4 licensed operators with their own networks despite a smaller and sparser population than France's, making improved coverage less economically rewarding. However, France has a number of MVNOs which increases competition.",
"title": "Mobile networks"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 15,
"text": "However, Free Mobile obtained its licence in December 2009 and operates since January 2012.",
"title": "Mobile networks"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 16,
"text": "In France, the satellite telecommunications system TELECOM 1 (TC1) will provide high-speed, broadband transfer of digital data between different sections of subscribing companies. Conventional telecommunications links between continental France and its overseas departments will also be supplied.",
"title": "Mobile networks"
}
] |
Telecommunications in France are highly developed. France is served by an extensive system of automatic telephone exchanges connected by modern networks of fiber-optic cable, coaxial cable, microwave radio relay, and a domestic satellite system; cellular telephone service is widely available, expanding rapidly, and includes roaming service to foreign countries.
|
2023-04-22T03:49:34Z
|
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"Template:Short description",
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"Template:Main",
"Template:Reflist",
"Template:Cite web",
"Template:French mobile phone companies",
"Template:France topics",
"Template:Telecommunications in Europe",
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telecommunications_in_France
|
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10,723 |
Transport in France
|
Transportation in France relies on one of the densest networks in the world with 146 km of road and 6.2 km of rail lines per 100 km. It is built as a web with Paris at its center. Rail, road, air and water are all widely developed forms of transportation in France.
The first important human improvements were the Roman roads linking major settlements and providing quick passage for marching armies.
All through the Middle Ages improvements were few and second rate. Transport became slow and awkward to use. The early modern period saw great improvements. There was a very quick production of canals connecting rivers. It also saw great changes in oceanic shipping. Rather than expensive galleys, wind powered ships that were much faster and had more room for cargo became popular for coastal trade. Transatlantic shipping with the New World turned cities such as Nantes, Bordeaux, Cherbourg-Octeville and Le Havre into major ports.
There is a total of 29,901 kilometres (18,580 mi) of railway in France, mostly operated by SNCF (Société nationale des chemins de fer français), the French national railway company. Like the road system, the French railways are subsidised by the state, receiving €13.2 billion in 2013. The railway system is a small portion of total travel, accounting for less than 10% of passenger travel.
From 1981 onwards, a newly constructed set of high-speed Lignes à Grande Vitesse (LGV) lines linked France's most populous areas with the capital, starting with Paris-Lyon. In 1994, the Channel Tunnel opened, connecting France and Great Britain by rail under the English Channel. The TGV has set many world speed records, the most recent on 3 April 2007, when a new version of the TGV dubbed the V150 with larger wheels than the usual TGV, and a stronger 25,000 hp (18,600 kW) engine, broke the world speed record for conventional rail trains, reaching 574.8 km/h (357.2 mph).
Trains, unlike road traffic, drive on the left (except in Alsace-Moselle). Metro and tramway services are not thought of as trains and usually follow road traffic in driving on the right (except the Lyon Metro).
France was ranked 7th among national European rail systems in the 2017 European Railway Performance Index for intensity of use, quality of service and safety performance, a decrease from previous years.
The French non-TGV intercity service (TET) is in decline, with old infrastructure and trains. It is likely to be hit further as the French government is planning to remove the monopoly that rail currently has on long-distance journeys by letting coach operators compete. Travel to the UK through the Channel Tunnel has grown in recent years, and from May 2015 passengers have been able to travel direct to Marseille, Avignon and Lyon. Eurostar is also introducing new Class 374 trains and refurbishing the current Class 373s.
The French government are making plans to privatise the French railway network, following a similar model Great Britain used from the 1990s until the 2020s.
Six cities in France currently have a rapid transit service (frequently known as a 'metro'). Full metro systems are in operation in Paris (16 lines), Lyon (4 lines) and Marseille (2 lines). Light metro (VAL-type) systems are in use in Lille (2 lines), Toulouse (2 lines) and Rennes (2 lines).
In spite of the closure of most of France's first generation tram systems in earlier years, a fast-growing number of France's major cities have modern tram or light rail networks, including Paris, Lyon (Lyon having the biggest one), Toulouse, Montpellier, Saint-Étienne, Strasbourg and Nantes. Recently the tram has seen a very big revival with many experiments such as ground level power supply in Bordeaux, or trolleybuses pretending to be trams in Nancy.
This way of travelling started disappearing in France at the end of the 1930s. Only Lille, Marseille and Saint-Étienne have never given up their tram systems. Since the 1980s, several cities have re-introduced it.
The following French towns and cities run light rail or tram systems:
Tram systems are planned or under construction in Tours, and Fort-de-France.
The revival of tram networks in France has brought about a number of technical developments both in the traction systems and in the styling of the cars:
Prominent bi-articulated "tram-like" Van Hool vehicles (Mettis) are used in Metz since 2013. They work as classic trams but without needing rails and catenaries, and can transport up to 155 passengers while being ecological thanks to a diesel-electric hybrid engine. In the starting up, batteries feed the engine of the bus, which can then roll 150 meters before the diesel engine takes over.
There are ~950,000 km (590,000 mi) of roads in France. The French motorway network or autoroute system consists largely of toll roads, except around large cities and in parts of the north. It is a network totalling 12,000 km (7,500 mi) of motorways operated by private companies such as Sanef (Société des autoroutes du Nord et de l'Est de la France). It has the 8th largest highway network in the world, trailing only the United States, China, India, Russia, Japan, Canada, Spain and Germany.
France currently counts 30,500 km of major trunk roads or routes nationales and state-owned motorways. By way of comparison, the routes départementales cover a total distance of 365,000 km. The main trunk road network reflects the centralising tradition of France: the majority of them leave the gates of Paris. Indeed, trunk roads begin on the parvis of Notre-Dame of Paris at Kilometre Zero. To ensure an effective road network, new roads not serving Paris were created.
France is believed to be the most car-dependent country in Europe. In 2005, 937 billion vehicle kilometres were travelled in France (85% by car).
In order to overcome this dependence, in France and many more countries the long-distance coaches' market has been liberalised. Since 2015, with the law Macron, the market has exploded: the increasing demand lead to a higher supply of bus services and coach companies.
Black Saturday refers, in France, to the day of the year when road traffic is most dense due to the many departures on holiday. (Traffic problems are exacerbated by France's extreme centralisation, with Paris being the hub of the entire national highway network.) This Saturday is usually at the end of July, though in 2007 both the last Saturday of July and the first Saturday of August are designated as Black Saturdays. The Autoroute du Soleil, the highway to the south of France and Spain, is usually particularly busy. In 2004 there was more than 700 kilometres (430 mi) in accumulated traffic congestion. The black colour is the qualification with which the French government web site Bison Futé designates a day with extrêmement dense (extremely busy) traffic. The French newspapers call this day samedi noir after Bison Futé's designation. Usually, the French call these days les jours de grands départs (days of great departures). In Dutch, this French phenomenon was known as zwarte zaterdag long before the French adopted the term samedi noir, both meaning (literally) Black Saturday.
The term Black Saturday may also refer to Saturday July 31, 1982, when the worst road accident in French history happened. Around 1:45 AM, a coach collided into passenger cars near Beaune in dense holiday traffic during rainfall. The collision and subsequent fire killed 53 people, among which 46 were children. After this crash, a regulation was enforced to prohibit the transportation of groups of children during this part of the year.
France plans to invest 30 to 40 billion euro by 2035 in an electric road system spanning 8,800 kilometers that recharges electric cars, buses and trucks while driving. Two projects for assessment of electric road technologies were announced in 2023. Three technologies are being considered: inductive charging, overhead lines, and ground-level power supply. Inductive charging is not considered a mature technology as it delivers the least power, loses 20%-25% of the supplied power when installed on trucks, and its health effects have yet to be documented. Overhead lines is the most mature technology, but the catenaries and overhead wires pose safety and maintenance issues. Ground-level power supply technologies, provided by Alstom, Elonroad, and others, are considered the most likely candidate for electric roads. A working group of the French Ministry of Ecology recommended adopting a European electric road standard formulated with Sweden, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Poland, and others.
The first standard for electrical equipment on-board a vehicle powered by a rail electric road system (ERS), CENELEC Technical Standard 50717, has been approved in late 2022. Following standards, encompassing "full interoperability" and a "unified and interoperable solution" for ground-level power supply, are scheduled to be published by the end 2024, detailing complete "specifications for communication and power supply through conductive rails embedded in the road".
Alstom has developed a ground-level power supply (alimentation par le sol - APS) system for use with buses and other vehicles. The system has been tested for compatibility with snow plows and for safety under exposure to snow, ice, salting, and saturated brine. Alstom will trial its electric road system (ERS) on the public road RN205 in the Rhône-Alpes region between 2024 and 2027.
Vinci will test two electric road systems (ERS) from 2023 to 2027. Both technologies will initially be tested in laboratory conditions, and upon meeting the test requirements they will be installed along 2 kilometers each on the A10 autoroute south of Paris. Wireless ERS by Electreon will be tested for durability under highway traffic, and will attempt to reach 200kW of power delivery per truck using multiple receivers. Rail ERS by Elonroad, which supplies 350kW of power per receiver, will be tested for skid effects on motorcycles. Both systems will be interoperable with cars, buses, and trucks.
In most, if not all, French cities, urban bus services are provided at a flat-rate charge for individual journeys. Many cities have bus services that operate well out into the suburbs or even the country. Fares are normally cheap, but rural services can be limited, especially on weekends.
Trains have long had a monopoly on inter-regional buses, but in 2015 the French government introduced reforms to allow bus operators to travel these routes.
The French natural and man-made waterways network is the largest in Europe extending to over 8,500 kilometres (5,300 mi) of which (VNF, English: Navigable Waterways of France), the French navigation authority, manages the navigable sections. Some of the navigable rivers include the Loire, Seine and Rhône. The assets managed by VNF comprise 6,700 kilometres (4,200 mi) of waterways, made up of 3,800 kilometres (2,400 mi) of canals and 2,900 kilometres (1,800 mi) of navigable rivers, 494 dams, 1595 locks, 74 navigable aqueducts, 65 reservoirs, 35 tunnels and a land area of 800 km (310 sq mi). Two significant waterways not under VNF's control are the navigable sections of the River Somme and the Brittany Canals, which are both under local management.
Approximately 20% of the network is suitable for commercial boats of over 1000 tonnes and the VNF has an ongoing programme of maintenance and modernisation to increase depth of waterways, widths of locks and headroom under bridges to support France's strategy of encouraging freight onto water.
France has an extensive merchant marine, including 55 ships of size Gross register tonnage 1,000 and above. The country also maintains a captive register for French-owned ships in Iles Kerguelen (French Southern and Antarctic Lands).
French companies operate over 1,400 ships of which 700 are registered in France. France's 110 shipping firms employ 12,500 personnel at sea and 15,500 on shore. Each year, 305 million tonnes of goods and 15 million passengers are transported by sea. Marine transport is responsible for 72% of France's imports and exports.
France also boasts a number of seaports and harbours, including Bayonne, Bordeaux, Boulogne-sur-Mer, Brest, Calais, Cherbourg-Octeville, Dunkerque, Fos-sur-Mer, La Pallice, Le Havre, Lorient, Marseille, Nantes, Nice, Paris, Port-la-Nouvelle, Port-Vendres, Roscoff, Rouen, Saint-Nazaire, Saint-Malo, Sète, Strasbourg and Toulon.
There are approximately 478 airports in France (1999 est.) and by a 2005 estimate, there are three heliports. 288 of the airports have paved runways, with the remaining 199 being unpaved.
Among the airspace governance authorities active in France, one is Aéroports de Paris, which has authority over the Paris region, managing 14 airports including the two busiest in France, Charles de Gaulle Airport and Orly Airport. The former, located in Roissy near Paris, is the fifth busiest airport in the world with 60 million passenger movements in 2008, and France's primary international airport, serving over 100 airlines.
The national carrier of France is Air France, a full service global airline which flies to 20 domestic destinations and 150 international destinations in 83 countries (including Overseas departments and territories of France) across all 6 major continents.
|
[
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "Transportation in France relies on one of the densest networks in the world with 146 km of road and 6.2 km of rail lines per 100 km. It is built as a web with Paris at its center. Rail, road, air and water are all widely developed forms of transportation in France.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "The first important human improvements were the Roman roads linking major settlements and providing quick passage for marching armies.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "All through the Middle Ages improvements were few and second rate. Transport became slow and awkward to use. The early modern period saw great improvements. There was a very quick production of canals connecting rivers. It also saw great changes in oceanic shipping. Rather than expensive galleys, wind powered ships that were much faster and had more room for cargo became popular for coastal trade. Transatlantic shipping with the New World turned cities such as Nantes, Bordeaux, Cherbourg-Octeville and Le Havre into major ports.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "There is a total of 29,901 kilometres (18,580 mi) of railway in France, mostly operated by SNCF (Société nationale des chemins de fer français), the French national railway company. Like the road system, the French railways are subsidised by the state, receiving €13.2 billion in 2013. The railway system is a small portion of total travel, accounting for less than 10% of passenger travel.",
"title": "Railways"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "From 1981 onwards, a newly constructed set of high-speed Lignes à Grande Vitesse (LGV) lines linked France's most populous areas with the capital, starting with Paris-Lyon. In 1994, the Channel Tunnel opened, connecting France and Great Britain by rail under the English Channel. The TGV has set many world speed records, the most recent on 3 April 2007, when a new version of the TGV dubbed the V150 with larger wheels than the usual TGV, and a stronger 25,000 hp (18,600 kW) engine, broke the world speed record for conventional rail trains, reaching 574.8 km/h (357.2 mph).",
"title": "Railways"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "Trains, unlike road traffic, drive on the left (except in Alsace-Moselle). Metro and tramway services are not thought of as trains and usually follow road traffic in driving on the right (except the Lyon Metro).",
"title": "Railways"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "France was ranked 7th among national European rail systems in the 2017 European Railway Performance Index for intensity of use, quality of service and safety performance, a decrease from previous years.",
"title": "Railways"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "The French non-TGV intercity service (TET) is in decline, with old infrastructure and trains. It is likely to be hit further as the French government is planning to remove the monopoly that rail currently has on long-distance journeys by letting coach operators compete. Travel to the UK through the Channel Tunnel has grown in recent years, and from May 2015 passengers have been able to travel direct to Marseille, Avignon and Lyon. Eurostar is also introducing new Class 374 trains and refurbishing the current Class 373s.",
"title": "Railways"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "The French government are making plans to privatise the French railway network, following a similar model Great Britain used from the 1990s until the 2020s.",
"title": "Railways"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "Six cities in France currently have a rapid transit service (frequently known as a 'metro'). Full metro systems are in operation in Paris (16 lines), Lyon (4 lines) and Marseille (2 lines). Light metro (VAL-type) systems are in use in Lille (2 lines), Toulouse (2 lines) and Rennes (2 lines).",
"title": "Railways"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "In spite of the closure of most of France's first generation tram systems in earlier years, a fast-growing number of France's major cities have modern tram or light rail networks, including Paris, Lyon (Lyon having the biggest one), Toulouse, Montpellier, Saint-Étienne, Strasbourg and Nantes. Recently the tram has seen a very big revival with many experiments such as ground level power supply in Bordeaux, or trolleybuses pretending to be trams in Nancy.",
"title": "Railways"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "This way of travelling started disappearing in France at the end of the 1930s. Only Lille, Marseille and Saint-Étienne have never given up their tram systems. Since the 1980s, several cities have re-introduced it.",
"title": "Railways"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "The following French towns and cities run light rail or tram systems:",
"title": "Railways"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "Tram systems are planned or under construction in Tours, and Fort-de-France.",
"title": "Railways"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "The revival of tram networks in France has brought about a number of technical developments both in the traction systems and in the styling of the cars:",
"title": "Railways"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 15,
"text": "Prominent bi-articulated \"tram-like\" Van Hool vehicles (Mettis) are used in Metz since 2013. They work as classic trams but without needing rails and catenaries, and can transport up to 155 passengers while being ecological thanks to a diesel-electric hybrid engine. In the starting up, batteries feed the engine of the bus, which can then roll 150 meters before the diesel engine takes over.",
"title": "Railways"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 16,
"text": "There are ~950,000 km (590,000 mi) of roads in France. The French motorway network or autoroute system consists largely of toll roads, except around large cities and in parts of the north. It is a network totalling 12,000 km (7,500 mi) of motorways operated by private companies such as Sanef (Société des autoroutes du Nord et de l'Est de la France). It has the 8th largest highway network in the world, trailing only the United States, China, India, Russia, Japan, Canada, Spain and Germany.",
"title": "Roads"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 17,
"text": "France currently counts 30,500 km of major trunk roads or routes nationales and state-owned motorways. By way of comparison, the routes départementales cover a total distance of 365,000 km. The main trunk road network reflects the centralising tradition of France: the majority of them leave the gates of Paris. Indeed, trunk roads begin on the parvis of Notre-Dame of Paris at Kilometre Zero. To ensure an effective road network, new roads not serving Paris were created.",
"title": "Roads"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 18,
"text": "France is believed to be the most car-dependent country in Europe. In 2005, 937 billion vehicle kilometres were travelled in France (85% by car).",
"title": "Roads"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 19,
"text": "In order to overcome this dependence, in France and many more countries the long-distance coaches' market has been liberalised. Since 2015, with the law Macron, the market has exploded: the increasing demand lead to a higher supply of bus services and coach companies.",
"title": "Roads"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 20,
"text": "Black Saturday refers, in France, to the day of the year when road traffic is most dense due to the many departures on holiday. (Traffic problems are exacerbated by France's extreme centralisation, with Paris being the hub of the entire national highway network.) This Saturday is usually at the end of July, though in 2007 both the last Saturday of July and the first Saturday of August are designated as Black Saturdays. The Autoroute du Soleil, the highway to the south of France and Spain, is usually particularly busy. In 2004 there was more than 700 kilometres (430 mi) in accumulated traffic congestion. The black colour is the qualification with which the French government web site Bison Futé designates a day with extrêmement dense (extremely busy) traffic. The French newspapers call this day samedi noir after Bison Futé's designation. Usually, the French call these days les jours de grands départs (days of great departures). In Dutch, this French phenomenon was known as zwarte zaterdag long before the French adopted the term samedi noir, both meaning (literally) Black Saturday.",
"title": "Roads"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 21,
"text": "The term Black Saturday may also refer to Saturday July 31, 1982, when the worst road accident in French history happened. Around 1:45 AM, a coach collided into passenger cars near Beaune in dense holiday traffic during rainfall. The collision and subsequent fire killed 53 people, among which 46 were children. After this crash, a regulation was enforced to prohibit the transportation of groups of children during this part of the year.",
"title": "Roads"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 22,
"text": "France plans to invest 30 to 40 billion euro by 2035 in an electric road system spanning 8,800 kilometers that recharges electric cars, buses and trucks while driving. Two projects for assessment of electric road technologies were announced in 2023. Three technologies are being considered: inductive charging, overhead lines, and ground-level power supply. Inductive charging is not considered a mature technology as it delivers the least power, loses 20%-25% of the supplied power when installed on trucks, and its health effects have yet to be documented. Overhead lines is the most mature technology, but the catenaries and overhead wires pose safety and maintenance issues. Ground-level power supply technologies, provided by Alstom, Elonroad, and others, are considered the most likely candidate for electric roads. A working group of the French Ministry of Ecology recommended adopting a European electric road standard formulated with Sweden, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Poland, and others.",
"title": "Roads"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 23,
"text": "The first standard for electrical equipment on-board a vehicle powered by a rail electric road system (ERS), CENELEC Technical Standard 50717, has been approved in late 2022. Following standards, encompassing \"full interoperability\" and a \"unified and interoperable solution\" for ground-level power supply, are scheduled to be published by the end 2024, detailing complete \"specifications for communication and power supply through conductive rails embedded in the road\".",
"title": "Roads"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 24,
"text": "Alstom has developed a ground-level power supply (alimentation par le sol - APS) system for use with buses and other vehicles. The system has been tested for compatibility with snow plows and for safety under exposure to snow, ice, salting, and saturated brine. Alstom will trial its electric road system (ERS) on the public road RN205 in the Rhône-Alpes region between 2024 and 2027.",
"title": "Roads"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 25,
"text": "Vinci will test two electric road systems (ERS) from 2023 to 2027. Both technologies will initially be tested in laboratory conditions, and upon meeting the test requirements they will be installed along 2 kilometers each on the A10 autoroute south of Paris. Wireless ERS by Electreon will be tested for durability under highway traffic, and will attempt to reach 200kW of power delivery per truck using multiple receivers. Rail ERS by Elonroad, which supplies 350kW of power per receiver, will be tested for skid effects on motorcycles. Both systems will be interoperable with cars, buses, and trucks.",
"title": "Roads"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 26,
"text": "In most, if not all, French cities, urban bus services are provided at a flat-rate charge for individual journeys. Many cities have bus services that operate well out into the suburbs or even the country. Fares are normally cheap, but rural services can be limited, especially on weekends.",
"title": "Roads"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 27,
"text": "Trains have long had a monopoly on inter-regional buses, but in 2015 the French government introduced reforms to allow bus operators to travel these routes.",
"title": "Roads"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 28,
"text": "The French natural and man-made waterways network is the largest in Europe extending to over 8,500 kilometres (5,300 mi) of which (VNF, English: Navigable Waterways of France), the French navigation authority, manages the navigable sections. Some of the navigable rivers include the Loire, Seine and Rhône. The assets managed by VNF comprise 6,700 kilometres (4,200 mi) of waterways, made up of 3,800 kilometres (2,400 mi) of canals and 2,900 kilometres (1,800 mi) of navigable rivers, 494 dams, 1595 locks, 74 navigable aqueducts, 65 reservoirs, 35 tunnels and a land area of 800 km (310 sq mi). Two significant waterways not under VNF's control are the navigable sections of the River Somme and the Brittany Canals, which are both under local management.",
"title": "Waterways/Canals"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 29,
"text": "Approximately 20% of the network is suitable for commercial boats of over 1000 tonnes and the VNF has an ongoing programme of maintenance and modernisation to increase depth of waterways, widths of locks and headroom under bridges to support France's strategy of encouraging freight onto water.",
"title": "Waterways/Canals"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 30,
"text": "France has an extensive merchant marine, including 55 ships of size Gross register tonnage 1,000 and above. The country also maintains a captive register for French-owned ships in Iles Kerguelen (French Southern and Antarctic Lands).",
"title": "Marine transport"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 31,
"text": "French companies operate over 1,400 ships of which 700 are registered in France. France's 110 shipping firms employ 12,500 personnel at sea and 15,500 on shore. Each year, 305 million tonnes of goods and 15 million passengers are transported by sea. Marine transport is responsible for 72% of France's imports and exports.",
"title": "Marine transport"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 32,
"text": "France also boasts a number of seaports and harbours, including Bayonne, Bordeaux, Boulogne-sur-Mer, Brest, Calais, Cherbourg-Octeville, Dunkerque, Fos-sur-Mer, La Pallice, Le Havre, Lorient, Marseille, Nantes, Nice, Paris, Port-la-Nouvelle, Port-Vendres, Roscoff, Rouen, Saint-Nazaire, Saint-Malo, Sète, Strasbourg and Toulon.",
"title": "Marine transport"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 33,
"text": "There are approximately 478 airports in France (1999 est.) and by a 2005 estimate, there are three heliports. 288 of the airports have paved runways, with the remaining 199 being unpaved.",
"title": "Air travel"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 34,
"text": "Among the airspace governance authorities active in France, one is Aéroports de Paris, which has authority over the Paris region, managing 14 airports including the two busiest in France, Charles de Gaulle Airport and Orly Airport. The former, located in Roissy near Paris, is the fifth busiest airport in the world with 60 million passenger movements in 2008, and France's primary international airport, serving over 100 airlines.",
"title": "Air travel"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 35,
"text": "The national carrier of France is Air France, a full service global airline which flies to 20 domestic destinations and 150 international destinations in 83 countries (including Overseas departments and territories of France) across all 6 major continents.",
"title": "Air travel"
}
] |
Transportation in France relies on one of the densest networks in the world with 146 km of road and 6.2 km of rail lines per 100 km2. It is built as a web with Paris at its center. Rail, road, air and water are all widely developed forms of transportation in France.
|
2001-04-29T15:55:00Z
|
2023-12-06T10:55:13Z
|
[
"Template:France topics",
"Template:Transportation in Europe",
"Template:Convert",
"Template:Lang-en",
"Template:Reflist",
"Template:Webarchive",
"Template:Cite journal",
"Template:Citation",
"Template:Short description",
"Template:Main",
"Template:Clarify",
"Template:Cite web",
"Template:Cite news"
] |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transport_in_France
|
10,724 |
French Armed Forces
|
The French Armed Forces (French: Forces armées françaises) are the military forces of France. The armed forces consists of four military branches: the Army, Navy, Air and Space Force and the National Gendarmerie. The National Guard serves as the French Armed Forces' military reserve force. As stipulated by France's constitution, the president of France serves as commander-in-chief of the French military. France has the eighth largest defence budget in the world and the second largest in the European Union (EU). It also has the largest military by size in the EU. A 2015 Credit Suisse report ranked the French Armed Forces as the world's sixth-most powerful military.
The military history of France encompasses an immense panorama of conflicts and struggles extending for more than 2,000 years across areas, including modern France, greater Europe, and French territorial possessions overseas. According to British historian Niall Ferguson, the French participated in 50 of the 125 major European wars that have been fought since 1495; more than any other European state. They are followed by the Austrians who fought in 47 of them, the Spanish in 44 and the English (and later British) who were involved in 43. In addition, out of all recorded conflicts which occurred since the year 387 BC, France has fought in 168 of them, won 109, lost 49 and drawn 10.
The Gallo-Roman conflict predominated from 60 BC to 50 BC, with the Romans emerging victorious in the conquest of Gaul by Julius Caesar. After the decline of the Roman Empire, a Germanic tribe known as the Franks took control of Gaul by defeating competing tribes. The "land of Francia," from which France gets its name, had high points of expansion under kings Clovis I and Charlemagne. In the Middle Ages, rivalries with England and the Holy Roman Empire prompted major conflicts such as the Norman Conquest and the Hundred Years' War. With an increasingly centralized monarchy, the first standing army since Roman times, and the use of artillery, France expelled the English from its territory and came out of the Middle Ages as the most powerful nation in Europe, only to lose that status to Spain following defeat in the Italian Wars. The Wars of Religion crippled France in the late 16th century, but a major victory over Spain in the Thirty Years' War made France the most powerful nation on the continent once more. In parallel, France developed its first colonial empire in Asia, Africa, and in the Americas. Under Louis XIV, France achieved military supremacy over its rivals, but escalating conflicts against increasingly powerful enemy coalitions checked French ambitions and left the kingdom bankrupt at the opening of the 18th century.
Resurgent French armies secured victories in dynastic conflicts against the Spanish, Polish, and Austrian crowns. At the same time, France was fending off attacks on its colonies. As the 18th century advanced, global competition with Great Britain led to the Seven Years' War, where France lost its North American holdings. Consolation came in the form of dominance in Europe and the American Revolutionary War, where extensive French aid in the form of money and arms, and the direct participation of its army and navy led to America's independence. Internal political upheaval eventually led to 23 years of nearly continuous conflict in the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars. France reached the zenith of its power during this period, dominating the European continent in an unprecedented fashion under Napoleon Bonaparte, but by 1815 it had been restored to its pre-Revolutionary borders. The rest of the 19th century witnessed the growth of the Second French colonial empire as well as French interventions in Belgium, Spain, and Mexico. Other major wars were fought against Russia in the Crimea, Austria in Italy, and Prussia within France itself.
Following defeat in the Franco-Prussian War, Franco-German rivalry erupted again in the First World War. France and its allies were victorious this time. Social, political, and economic upheaval in the wake of the conflict led to the Second World War, in which the Allies were defeated in the Battle of France and the French government surrendered and was replaced with an authoritarian regime. The Allies, including the government in exile's Free French Forces and later a liberated French nation, eventually emerged victorious over the Axis powers. As a result, France secured an occupation zone in Germany and a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council.
The imperative of avoiding a third Franco-German conflict on the scale of those of two world wars paved the way for European integration starting in the 1950s. France became a nuclear power with its first test of an atomic bomb in Algeria in 1960 Since the 1990s its military action is most often seen in cooperation with NATO and its European partners.
Today, French military doctrine is based on the concepts of national independence, nuclear deterrence (see Force de dissuasion), and military self-sufficiency. France is a charter member of NATO, and has worked actively with its allies to adapt NATO—internally and externally—to the post-Cold War environment. In December 1995, France announced that it would increase its participation in NATO's military wing, including the Military Committee (France withdrew from NATO's military bodies in 1966 whilst remaining full participants in the Organisation's political Councils). France remains a firm supporter of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe and other cooperative efforts. Paris hosted the May 1997 NATO-Russia Summit which sought the signing of the Founding Act on Mutual Relations, Cooperation and Security. Outside of NATO, France has actively and heavily participated in both coalition and unilateral peacekeeping efforts in Africa, the Middle East, and the Balkans, frequently taking a lead role in these operations. France has undertaken a major restructuring to develop a professional military that will be smaller, more rapidly deployable, and better tailored for operations outside of mainland France. Key elements of the restructuring include: reducing personnel, bases and headquarters, and rationalisation of equipment and the armaments industry.
Since the end of the Cold War, France has placed a high priority on arms control and non-proliferation. French Nuclear testing in the Pacific, and the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior strained French relations with its Allies, South Pacific states (namely New Zealand), and world opinion. France agreed to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in 1992 and supported its indefinite extension in 1995. After conducting a controversial final series of six nuclear tests on Mururoa in the South Pacific, the French signed the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty in 1996. Since then, France has implemented a moratorium on the production, export, and use of anti-personnel landmines and supports negotiations leading toward a universal ban. The French are key players in the adaptation of the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe to the new strategic environment. France remains an active participant in: the major programs to restrict the transfer of technologies that could lead to the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction: the Nuclear Suppliers Group, the Australia Group (for chemical and biological weapons), and the Missile Technology Control Regime. France has also signed and ratified the Chemical Weapons Convention.
On 31 July 2007, President Nicolas Sarkozy ordered M. Jean-Claude Mallet, a member of the Council of State, to head up a thirty-five member commission charged with a wide-ranging review of French defence. The commission issued its White Paper in early 2008. Acting upon its recommendations, President Sarkozy began making radical changes in French defense policy and structures starting in the summer of 2008. In keeping with post-Cold War changes in European politics and power structures, the French military's traditional focus on territorial defence will be redirected to meet the challenges of a global threat environment. Under the reorganisation, the identification and destruction of terrorist networks both in metropolitan France and in francophone Africa will be the primary task of the French military. Redundant military bases will be closed and new weapons systems projects put on hold to finance the restructuring and global deployment of intervention forces. In a historic change, Sarkozy furthermore has declared that France "will now participate fully in NATO," four decades after former French president General Charles de Gaulle withdrew from the alliance's command structure and ordered American troops off French soil.
In May 2014, high ranking defence chiefs of the French Armed Forces threatened to resign if the defence budget received further cuts on top of those already announced in the 2013 White Paper. They warned that further cuts would leave the armed forces unable to support operations abroad.
There are currently 36,000 French troops deployed in foreign territories—such operations are known as "OPEX" for Opérations Extérieures ("External Operations"). Among other countries, France provides troops for the United Nations force stationed in Haiti following the 2004 Haiti rebellion. France has sent troops, especially special forces, into Afghanistan to help the United States and NATO forces fight the remains of the Taliban and Al Qaeda. In Opération Licorne a force of a few thousand French soldiers is stationed in Ivory Coast on a UN peacekeeping mission. These troops were initially sent under the terms of a mutual protection pact between France and the Ivory Coast, but the mission has since evolved into the current UN peacekeeping operation. The French Armed Forces have also played a leading role in the ongoing UN peacekeeping mission along the Lebanon-Israel border as part of the cease-fire agreement that brought the 2006 Lebanon War to an end. Currently, France has 2,000 army personnel deployed along the border, including infantry, armour, artillery and air defence. There are also naval and air personnel deployed offshore.
The French Joint Force and Training Headquarters (État-Major Interarmées de Force et d'Entraînement) at Air Base 110 near Creil maintains the ability to command a medium or large-scale international operation, and runs exercises . In 2011, from 19 March, France participated in the enforcement of a no-fly zone over northern Libya, during the Libyan Civil war, in order to prevent forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi from carrying out air attacks on Anti-Gaddafi forces. This operation was known as Opération Harmattan and was part of France's involvement in the conflict in the NATO-led coalition, enforcing UN Security Council Resolution 1973. On 11 January 2013 France begun Operation Serval to fight Islamists in Mali and the Sahal Region with African support but without NATO involvement and launched Operation Barkhane to combat terror in African Sahal from 2014 to 2022.
France participates in several recurring exercises with other nations, including:
In 2023, Exercise Orion, the largest in decades, is to be held in the Champagne-Ardenne region. About 10,000 soldiers are expected to take part, along with the French navy and possibly forces from Belgium, Britain, and the United States.
The head of the French armed forces is the President of the Republic, in his role as chef des armées. However, the Constitution puts civil and military government forces at the disposal of the gouvernement (the executive cabinet of ministers chaired by the Prime Minister, who are not necessarily of the same political side as the president). The Minister of the Armed Forces oversees the military's funding, procurement and operations. Historically, France relied a great deal on conscription to provide manpower for its military, in addition to a minority of professional career soldiers. Following the Algerian War, the use of non-volunteer draftees in foreign operations was ended; if their unit was called up for duty in war zones, draftees were offered the choice between requesting a transfer to another unit or volunteering for the active mission. In 1996, President Jacques Chirac's government announced the end of conscription and in 2001, conscription formally was ended. Young people must still, however, register for possible conscription (should the situation call for it). As of 2017 the French Armed Forces have total manpower of 426,265, and has an active personnel of 368,962 (with the Gendarmerie Nationale).
It breaks down as follows (2022):
The reserve element of the French Armed Forces consists of two structures; the Operational Reserve and the Citizens Reserve. As of 2022 the strength of the Operational Reserve is 25,785 personnel.
Apart from the three main service branches, the French Armed Forces also includes a fourth military branch called the National Gendarmerie. It had a reported strength of 103,000 active personnel and 25,000 reserve personnel in 2018. They are used in everyday law enforcement, and also form a coast guard formation under the command of the French Navy. There are however some elements of the Gendarmerie that participate in French external operations, providing specialised law enforcement and supporting roles.
Historically the National Guard functioned as the Army's reserve national defense and law enforcement militia. After 145 years since its disbandment, due to the risk of terrorist attacks in the country, the Guard was officially reactivated, this time as a service branch of the Armed Forces, on 12 October 2016.
Since 2019 young French citizens can fulfill the mandatory service Service national universel (SNU) within the Armed Forces in the service branch of their choice.
Placed under the command of the staffs, the French armed forces include the five service branches, the Army, the National Navy, the Air and Space Force, the National Gendarmerie, and the National Guard, as well as the support services and joint organizations:
In addition, the National Gendarmerie form a Coast Guard force called the Gendarmerie Maritime which is commanded by the French Navy.
The National Gendarmerie is primarily a military and airborne capable police force which serves as a rural and general purpose police force.
Reactivated in 2016, the National Guard serves as the official primary military and police reserve service of the Armed Forces. It is placed under the jurisdiction of Ministry of the Armed Forces and serves as a reserve force. It also doubles as a force multiplier for law enforcement personnel during contingencies and to reinforce military personnel whenever being deployed within France and abroad.
|
[
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "The French Armed Forces (French: Forces armées françaises) are the military forces of France. The armed forces consists of four military branches: the Army, Navy, Air and Space Force and the National Gendarmerie. The National Guard serves as the French Armed Forces' military reserve force. As stipulated by France's constitution, the president of France serves as commander-in-chief of the French military. France has the eighth largest defence budget in the world and the second largest in the European Union (EU). It also has the largest military by size in the EU. A 2015 Credit Suisse report ranked the French Armed Forces as the world's sixth-most powerful military.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "The military history of France encompasses an immense panorama of conflicts and struggles extending for more than 2,000 years across areas, including modern France, greater Europe, and French territorial possessions overseas. According to British historian Niall Ferguson, the French participated in 50 of the 125 major European wars that have been fought since 1495; more than any other European state. They are followed by the Austrians who fought in 47 of them, the Spanish in 44 and the English (and later British) who were involved in 43. In addition, out of all recorded conflicts which occurred since the year 387 BC, France has fought in 168 of them, won 109, lost 49 and drawn 10.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "The Gallo-Roman conflict predominated from 60 BC to 50 BC, with the Romans emerging victorious in the conquest of Gaul by Julius Caesar. After the decline of the Roman Empire, a Germanic tribe known as the Franks took control of Gaul by defeating competing tribes. The \"land of Francia,\" from which France gets its name, had high points of expansion under kings Clovis I and Charlemagne. In the Middle Ages, rivalries with England and the Holy Roman Empire prompted major conflicts such as the Norman Conquest and the Hundred Years' War. With an increasingly centralized monarchy, the first standing army since Roman times, and the use of artillery, France expelled the English from its territory and came out of the Middle Ages as the most powerful nation in Europe, only to lose that status to Spain following defeat in the Italian Wars. The Wars of Religion crippled France in the late 16th century, but a major victory over Spain in the Thirty Years' War made France the most powerful nation on the continent once more. In parallel, France developed its first colonial empire in Asia, Africa, and in the Americas. Under Louis XIV, France achieved military supremacy over its rivals, but escalating conflicts against increasingly powerful enemy coalitions checked French ambitions and left the kingdom bankrupt at the opening of the 18th century.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "Resurgent French armies secured victories in dynastic conflicts against the Spanish, Polish, and Austrian crowns. At the same time, France was fending off attacks on its colonies. As the 18th century advanced, global competition with Great Britain led to the Seven Years' War, where France lost its North American holdings. Consolation came in the form of dominance in Europe and the American Revolutionary War, where extensive French aid in the form of money and arms, and the direct participation of its army and navy led to America's independence. Internal political upheaval eventually led to 23 years of nearly continuous conflict in the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars. France reached the zenith of its power during this period, dominating the European continent in an unprecedented fashion under Napoleon Bonaparte, but by 1815 it had been restored to its pre-Revolutionary borders. The rest of the 19th century witnessed the growth of the Second French colonial empire as well as French interventions in Belgium, Spain, and Mexico. Other major wars were fought against Russia in the Crimea, Austria in Italy, and Prussia within France itself.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "Following defeat in the Franco-Prussian War, Franco-German rivalry erupted again in the First World War. France and its allies were victorious this time. Social, political, and economic upheaval in the wake of the conflict led to the Second World War, in which the Allies were defeated in the Battle of France and the French government surrendered and was replaced with an authoritarian regime. The Allies, including the government in exile's Free French Forces and later a liberated French nation, eventually emerged victorious over the Axis powers. As a result, France secured an occupation zone in Germany and a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "The imperative of avoiding a third Franco-German conflict on the scale of those of two world wars paved the way for European integration starting in the 1950s. France became a nuclear power with its first test of an atomic bomb in Algeria in 1960 Since the 1990s its military action is most often seen in cooperation with NATO and its European partners.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "Today, French military doctrine is based on the concepts of national independence, nuclear deterrence (see Force de dissuasion), and military self-sufficiency. France is a charter member of NATO, and has worked actively with its allies to adapt NATO—internally and externally—to the post-Cold War environment. In December 1995, France announced that it would increase its participation in NATO's military wing, including the Military Committee (France withdrew from NATO's military bodies in 1966 whilst remaining full participants in the Organisation's political Councils). France remains a firm supporter of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe and other cooperative efforts. Paris hosted the May 1997 NATO-Russia Summit which sought the signing of the Founding Act on Mutual Relations, Cooperation and Security. Outside of NATO, France has actively and heavily participated in both coalition and unilateral peacekeeping efforts in Africa, the Middle East, and the Balkans, frequently taking a lead role in these operations. France has undertaken a major restructuring to develop a professional military that will be smaller, more rapidly deployable, and better tailored for operations outside of mainland France. Key elements of the restructuring include: reducing personnel, bases and headquarters, and rationalisation of equipment and the armaments industry.",
"title": "International stance"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "Since the end of the Cold War, France has placed a high priority on arms control and non-proliferation. French Nuclear testing in the Pacific, and the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior strained French relations with its Allies, South Pacific states (namely New Zealand), and world opinion. France agreed to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in 1992 and supported its indefinite extension in 1995. After conducting a controversial final series of six nuclear tests on Mururoa in the South Pacific, the French signed the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty in 1996. Since then, France has implemented a moratorium on the production, export, and use of anti-personnel landmines and supports negotiations leading toward a universal ban. The French are key players in the adaptation of the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe to the new strategic environment. France remains an active participant in: the major programs to restrict the transfer of technologies that could lead to the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction: the Nuclear Suppliers Group, the Australia Group (for chemical and biological weapons), and the Missile Technology Control Regime. France has also signed and ratified the Chemical Weapons Convention.",
"title": "International stance"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "On 31 July 2007, President Nicolas Sarkozy ordered M. Jean-Claude Mallet, a member of the Council of State, to head up a thirty-five member commission charged with a wide-ranging review of French defence. The commission issued its White Paper in early 2008. Acting upon its recommendations, President Sarkozy began making radical changes in French defense policy and structures starting in the summer of 2008. In keeping with post-Cold War changes in European politics and power structures, the French military's traditional focus on territorial defence will be redirected to meet the challenges of a global threat environment. Under the reorganisation, the identification and destruction of terrorist networks both in metropolitan France and in francophone Africa will be the primary task of the French military. Redundant military bases will be closed and new weapons systems projects put on hold to finance the restructuring and global deployment of intervention forces. In a historic change, Sarkozy furthermore has declared that France \"will now participate fully in NATO,\" four decades after former French president General Charles de Gaulle withdrew from the alliance's command structure and ordered American troops off French soil.",
"title": "International stance"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "In May 2014, high ranking defence chiefs of the French Armed Forces threatened to resign if the defence budget received further cuts on top of those already announced in the 2013 White Paper. They warned that further cuts would leave the armed forces unable to support operations abroad.",
"title": "International stance"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "There are currently 36,000 French troops deployed in foreign territories—such operations are known as \"OPEX\" for Opérations Extérieures (\"External Operations\"). Among other countries, France provides troops for the United Nations force stationed in Haiti following the 2004 Haiti rebellion. France has sent troops, especially special forces, into Afghanistan to help the United States and NATO forces fight the remains of the Taliban and Al Qaeda. In Opération Licorne a force of a few thousand French soldiers is stationed in Ivory Coast on a UN peacekeeping mission. These troops were initially sent under the terms of a mutual protection pact between France and the Ivory Coast, but the mission has since evolved into the current UN peacekeeping operation. The French Armed Forces have also played a leading role in the ongoing UN peacekeeping mission along the Lebanon-Israel border as part of the cease-fire agreement that brought the 2006 Lebanon War to an end. Currently, France has 2,000 army personnel deployed along the border, including infantry, armour, artillery and air defence. There are also naval and air personnel deployed offshore.",
"title": "International stance"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "The French Joint Force and Training Headquarters (État-Major Interarmées de Force et d'Entraînement) at Air Base 110 near Creil maintains the ability to command a medium or large-scale international operation, and runs exercises . In 2011, from 19 March, France participated in the enforcement of a no-fly zone over northern Libya, during the Libyan Civil war, in order to prevent forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi from carrying out air attacks on Anti-Gaddafi forces. This operation was known as Opération Harmattan and was part of France's involvement in the conflict in the NATO-led coalition, enforcing UN Security Council Resolution 1973. On 11 January 2013 France begun Operation Serval to fight Islamists in Mali and the Sahal Region with African support but without NATO involvement and launched Operation Barkhane to combat terror in African Sahal from 2014 to 2022.",
"title": "International stance"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "France participates in several recurring exercises with other nations, including:",
"title": "International stance"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "In 2023, Exercise Orion, the largest in decades, is to be held in the Champagne-Ardenne region. About 10,000 soldiers are expected to take part, along with the French navy and possibly forces from Belgium, Britain, and the United States.",
"title": "International stance"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "The head of the French armed forces is the President of the Republic, in his role as chef des armées. However, the Constitution puts civil and military government forces at the disposal of the gouvernement (the executive cabinet of ministers chaired by the Prime Minister, who are not necessarily of the same political side as the president). The Minister of the Armed Forces oversees the military's funding, procurement and operations. Historically, France relied a great deal on conscription to provide manpower for its military, in addition to a minority of professional career soldiers. Following the Algerian War, the use of non-volunteer draftees in foreign operations was ended; if their unit was called up for duty in war zones, draftees were offered the choice between requesting a transfer to another unit or volunteering for the active mission. In 1996, President Jacques Chirac's government announced the end of conscription and in 2001, conscription formally was ended. Young people must still, however, register for possible conscription (should the situation call for it). As of 2017 the French Armed Forces have total manpower of 426,265, and has an active personnel of 368,962 (with the Gendarmerie Nationale).",
"title": "Personnel"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 15,
"text": "It breaks down as follows (2022):",
"title": "Personnel"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 16,
"text": "The reserve element of the French Armed Forces consists of two structures; the Operational Reserve and the Citizens Reserve. As of 2022 the strength of the Operational Reserve is 25,785 personnel.",
"title": "Personnel"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 17,
"text": "Apart from the three main service branches, the French Armed Forces also includes a fourth military branch called the National Gendarmerie. It had a reported strength of 103,000 active personnel and 25,000 reserve personnel in 2018. They are used in everyday law enforcement, and also form a coast guard formation under the command of the French Navy. There are however some elements of the Gendarmerie that participate in French external operations, providing specialised law enforcement and supporting roles.",
"title": "Personnel"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 18,
"text": "Historically the National Guard functioned as the Army's reserve national defense and law enforcement militia. After 145 years since its disbandment, due to the risk of terrorist attacks in the country, the Guard was officially reactivated, this time as a service branch of the Armed Forces, on 12 October 2016.",
"title": "Personnel"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 19,
"text": "Since 2019 young French citizens can fulfill the mandatory service Service national universel (SNU) within the Armed Forces in the service branch of their choice.",
"title": "Personnel"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 20,
"text": "Placed under the command of the staffs, the French armed forces include the five service branches, the Army, the National Navy, the Air and Space Force, the National Gendarmerie, and the National Guard, as well as the support services and joint organizations:",
"title": "Organisation and service branches"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 21,
"text": "In addition, the National Gendarmerie form a Coast Guard force called the Gendarmerie Maritime which is commanded by the French Navy.",
"title": "Organisation and service branches"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 22,
"text": "The National Gendarmerie is primarily a military and airborne capable police force which serves as a rural and general purpose police force.",
"title": "Organisation and service branches"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 23,
"text": "Reactivated in 2016, the National Guard serves as the official primary military and police reserve service of the Armed Forces. It is placed under the jurisdiction of Ministry of the Armed Forces and serves as a reserve force. It also doubles as a force multiplier for law enforcement personnel during contingencies and to reinforce military personnel whenever being deployed within France and abroad.",
"title": "Organisation and service branches"
}
] |
The French Armed Forces are the military forces of France. The armed forces consists of four military branches: the Army, Navy, Air and Space Force and the National Gendarmerie. The National Guard serves as the French Armed Forces' military reserve force. As stipulated by France's constitution, the president of France serves as commander-in-chief of the French military. France has the eighth largest defence budget in the world and the second largest in the European Union (EU). It also has the largest military by size in the EU. A 2015 Credit Suisse report ranked the French Armed Forces as the world's sixth-most powerful military.
|
2001-09-08T20:52:09Z
|
2023-12-31T10:38:31Z
|
[
"Template:In lang",
"Template:French Military",
"Template:Infobox national military",
"Template:Main",
"Template:Div col end",
"Template:Cite web",
"Template:Cite news",
"Template:Webarchive",
"Template:Militaries of European Union member states",
"Template:Short description",
"Template:Cite report",
"Template:Cite book",
"Template:North Atlantic Treaty Organization",
"Template:Military of Europe",
"Template:Lang-fr",
"Template:See also",
"Template:Legend",
"Template:Div col",
"Template:Reflist",
"Template:France topics"
] |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Armed_Forces
|
10,725 |
Foreign relations of France
|
In the 19th century France built a new French colonial empire second only to the British Empire. It was humiliated in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71, which marked the rise of Germany to dominance in Europe. France allied with Great Britain and Russia and was on the winning side of the First World War. Although it was initially easily defeated early in the Second World War, Free France, through its Free French Forces and the Resistance, continued to fight against the Axis powers as an Allied nation and was ultimately considered one of the victors of the war, as the allocation of a French occupation zone in Germany and West Berlin testifies, as well as the status of permanent member of the United Nations Security Council. It fought losing colonial wars in Indochina (ending in 1954) and Algeria (ending in 1962). The Fourth Republic collapsed and the Fifth Republic began in 1958 to the present. Under Charles De Gaulle it tried to block American and British influence on the European community. Since 1945, France has been a founding member of the United Nations, of NATO, and of the European Coal and Steel Community (the European Union's predecessor). As a charter member of the United Nations, France holds one of the permanent seats in the Security Council and is a member of most of its specialized and related agencies.
France is also a founding member of the Union for the Mediterranean and the La Francophonie and plays a key role, both in regional and in international affairs.
François Mitterrand, a Socialist, emphasized European unity and the preservation of France's special relationships with its former colonies in the face of "Anglo-Saxon influence." A part of the enacted policies was formulated in the Socialist Party's 110 Propositions for France, the electoral program for the 1981 presidential election. He had a warm and effective relationship with the conservative German Chancellor Helmut Kohl. They promoted French-German bilateralism in Europe and strengthened military cooperation between the two countries.
According to Wayne Northcutt, certain domestic circumstances helped shape Mitterrand's foreign policy in four ways: he needed to maintain a political consensus; he kept an eye on economic conditions; he believed in the nationalistic imperative for French policy; and he tried to exploit Gaullism and its heritage that is on political advantage.
Chrirac's foreign policy featured continuity. His most dramatic move was a break with Washington. Along with his friend Vladimir Putin of Russia, Hu Jintao of China, and Gerhard Schröder of Germany, Chirac emerged as a leading voice against the Iraq War of 2003. They opposed George W. Bush of the U.S. and Tony Blair of Britain during the organisation and deployment of a "Coalition of the willing" to forcibly remove the government of Iraq controlled by the Ba'ath Party under the dictatorship of Saddam Hussein. Despite British and American pressure, Chirac threatened to veto a resolution in the UN Security Council that would authorise the use of military force to rid Iraq of alleged weapons of mass destruction. He rallied other governments to his position. "Iraq today does not represent an immediate threat that justifies an immediate war", Chirac said on 18 March 2003. Future Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin acquired much of his popularity for his speech against the war at the United Nations (UN).
Shortly after taking office, President Sarkozy began negotiations with Colombian president Álvaro Uribe and the left-wing guerrilla FARC, regarding the release of hostages held by the rebel group, especially Franco-Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt. According to some sources, Sarkozy himself asked for Uribe to release FARC's "chancellor" Rodrigo Granda. Furthermore, he announced on 24 July 2007, that French and European representatives had obtained the extradition of the Bulgarian nurses detained in Libya to their country. In exchange, he signed with Gaddafi security, health care and immigration pacts – and a $230 million (168 million euros) MILAN antitank missile sale. The contract was the first made by Libya since 2004, and was negotiated with MBDA, a subsidiary of EADS. Another 128 million euros contract would have been signed, according to Tripoli, with EADS for a TETRA radio system. The Socialist Party (PS) and the Communist Party (PCF) criticized a "state affair" and a "barter" with a "Rogue state". The leader of the PS, François Hollande, requested the opening of a parliamentary investigation.
On 8 June 2007, during the 33rd G8 summit in Heiligendamm, Sarkozy set a goal of reducing French CO2 emissions by 50% by 2050 in order to prevent global warming. He then pushed forward the important Socialist figure of Dominique Strauss-Kahn as European nominee to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Critics alleged that Sarkozy proposed to nominate Strauss-Kahn as managing director of the IMF to deprive the Socialist Party of one of its more popular figures.
Sarkozy normalised what had been strained relations with NATO. In 2009, France again was a fully integrated NATO member. François Hollande has continued the same policy.
Socialist François Hollande won election in 2012 as president. He adopted a generally hawkish foreign-policy, in close collaboration with Germany in regard to opposing Russian moves against Ukraine, and in sending the military to fight radical Islamists in Africa. He took a hard line with regard to the Greek debt crisis. François Hollande launched two military operations in Africa: Operation Serval in Mali (the French armed forces stopped an Islamist takeover of Bamako, the nation's capital city); and Operation Sangaris (to restore peace there as tensions between different religious communities had turned into a violent conflict). France was also the first European nation to join the United States in bombing the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. Under President Hollande, France's stances on the civil war in Syria and Iran's nuclear program have been described as "hawkish".
Sophie Meunier in 2017 ponders whether France is still relevant in world affairs:
In July 2019, the UN ambassadors from 22 nations, including France, signed a joint letter to the UNHRC condemning China’s mistreatment of the Uyghurs as well as its mistreatment of other minority groups, urging the Chinese government to close the Xinjiang re-education camps.
On 31 May 2022, due to the reforms pushed by the president and perceived lack of recognition, the French diplomats will go on a strike for the first time in 20 years. This is a bad timing for President Emmanuel Macron as the France is holding the EU Presidency until the end of June.
In November 2023, France's President Emmanuel Macron welcomed the announcement of a significant agreement between Israel and Hamas. The agreement focused on the release of hostages and the implementation of a humanitarian truce.
ACCT, AfDB, AsDB, Australia Group, BDEAC, BIS, CCC, CDB (non-regional), CE, CERN, EAPC, EBRD, ECA (associate), ECE, ECLAC, EIB, EMU, ESA, ESCAP, EU, FAO, FZ, G-5, G-7, G-10, IADB, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICC, ICRM, IDA, IEA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, International Maritime Organization, Inmarsat, InOC, Intelsat, Interpol, IOC, IOM, ISO, ITU, ITUC, MINURSO, MIPONUH, MONUC, NAM (guest), NATO, NEA, NSG, OAS (observer), OECD, OPCW, OSCE, PCA, SPC, UN, UN Security Council, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNIFIL, UNIKOM, UNITAR, UNMIBH, UNMIK, UNOMIG, UNRWA, UNTSO, UNU, UPU, WADB (nonregional), WEU, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTrO, Zangger Committee
France established relations with the Middle East during the reign of Louis XIV. To keep Austria from intervening into its plans regarding Western Europe he lent limited support to the Ottoman Empire, though the victories of Prince Eugene of Savoy destroyed these plans. In the nineteenth century France together with Great Britain tried to strengthen the Ottoman Empire, the now "Sick man of Europe", to resist Russian expansion, culminating in the Crimean War.
France also pursued close relations with the semi-autonomous Egypt. In 1869 Egyptian workers -under the supervision of France- completed the Suez Canal. A rivalry emerged between France and Britain for control of Egypt, and eventually Britain emerged victorious by buying out the Egyptian shares of the company before the French had time to act.
After the unification of Germany in 1871, Germany successfully attempted to co-opt France's relations with the Ottomans. In World War I the Ottoman Empire joined the Central Powers, and was defeated by France and Britain. After the collapse of the Ottoman Empire France and Britain divided the Middle East between themselves. France received Syria and Lebanon.
These colonies were granted independence after 1945, but France still tried to forge cultural and educational bonds between the areas, particularly with Lebanon. Relationships with Syria are more strained, due to the policies of that country. In 2005, France, along with the United States, pressured Syria to evacuate Lebanon. In the post-World War II era French relations with the Arab Middle East reached a very low point. The war in Algeria between Muslim fighters and French colonists deeply concerned the rest of the Muslim world. The Algerian fighters received much of their supplies and funding from Egypt and other Arab powers, much to France's displeasure.
Most damaging to Franco-Arab relations, however, was the Suez Crisis. It greatly diminished France's reputation in the region. France openly supported the Israeli attack on the Sinai peninsula, and was working against Nasser, then a popular figure in the Middle East. The Suez Crisis also made France and the United Kingdom look again like imperialist powers attempting to impose their will upon weaker nations. Another hindrance to France's relations with the Arab Middle East was its close alliance with Israel during the 1950s.
This all changed with the coming of Charles de Gaulle to power. De Gaulle's foreign policy was centered around an attempt to limit the power and influence of both superpowers, and at the same time increase France's international prestige. De Gaulle hoped to move France from being a follower of the United States to becoming the leading nation of a large group of non-aligned countries. The nations de Gaulle looked at as potential participants in this group were those in France's traditional spheres of influence: Africa and the Middle East. The former French colonies in eastern and northern Africa were quite agreeable to these close relations with France. These nations had close economic and cultural ties to France, and they also had few other suitors amongst the major powers. This new orientation of French foreign policy also appealed strongly to the leaders of the Arab nations. None of them wanted to be dominated by either of the superpowers, and they supported France's policy of trying to balance the US and the USSR and to prevent either from becoming dominant in the region. The Middle Eastern leaders wanted to be free to pursue their own goals and objectives, and did not want to be chained to either alliance bloc. De Gaulle hoped to use this common foundation to build strong relations between the nations. He also hoped that good relations would improve France's trade with the region. De Gaulle also imagined that these allies would look up to the more powerful French nation, and would look to it in leadership in matters of foreign policy.
The end of the Algerian conflict in 1962 accomplished much in this regard. France could not portray itself as a leader of the oppressed nations of the world if it still was enforcing its colonial rule upon another nation. The battle against the Muslim separatists that France waged in favour of the minority of French settlers was an extremely unpopular one throughout the Muslim world. With the conflict raging it would have been close to impossible for France to have had positive relations with the nations of the Middle East. The Middle Eastern support for the FLN guerillas was another strain on relations that the end of the conflict removed. Most of the financial and material support for the FLN had come from the nations of the Middle East and North Africa. This was especially true of Nasser's Egypt, which had long supported the separatists. Egypt is also the most direct example of improved relations after the end of hostilities. The end of the war brought an immediate thaw to Franco-Egyptian relations, Egypt ended the trial of four French officers accused of espionage, and France ended its trade embargo against Egypt.
In 1967 de Gaulle completely overturned France's Israel policy. De Gaulle and his ministers reacted very harshly to Israel's actions in the Six-Day War. The French government and de Gaulle condemned Israel's treatment of refugees, warned that it was a mistake to occupy the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and also refused to recognize the Israeli control of Jerusalem. The French government continued to criticize Israel after the war and de Gaulle spoke out against other Israeli actions, such as the operations against the Palestine Liberation Organization in Lebanon. France began to use its veto power to oppose Israel in the UN, and France sided with the Arab states on almost all issues brought to the international body. Most importantly of all, however, de Gaulle's government imposed an arms embargo on the Israeli state. The embargo was in fact applied to all the combatants, but very soon France began selling weaponry to the Arab states again. As early as 1970 France sold Libya a hundred Dassault Mirage fighter jets. However, after 1967 France continued to support Israel's right to exist, as well as Israel's many preferential agreements with France and the European Economic Community.
In the second half of the 20th century, France increased its expenditures in foreign aid greatly, to become second only to the United States in total aid amongst the Western powers and first on a per capita basis. By 1968 France was paying out $855 million per year in aid far more than either West Germany or the United Kingdom. The vast majority of French aid was directed towards Africa and the Middle East, usually either as a lever to promote French interests or to help with the sale of French products (e.g. arms sales). France also increased its expenditures on other forms of aid sending out skilled individuals to developing countries to provide technical and cultural expertise.
The combination of aid money, arms sales, and diplomatic alignments helped to erase the memory of the Suez Crisis and the Algerian War in the Arab world and France successfully developed amicable relationships with the governments of many of the Middle Eastern states. Nasser and de Gaulle, who shared many similarities, cooperated on limiting American power in the region. Nasser proclaimed France as the only friend of Egypt in the West. France and Iraq also developed a close relationship with business ties, joint military training exercises, and French assistance in Iraq's nuclear program in the 1970s. France improved relations with its former colony Syria, and eroded cultural links were partially restored.
In terms of trade France did receive some benefits from the improved relations with the Middle East. French trade with the Middle East increased by over fifty percent after de Gaulle's reforms. The weaponry industries benefited most as France soon had lucrative contracts with many of the regimes in the Middle East and North Africa, though these contracts account for a negligible part of France's economy.
De Gaulle had hoped that by taking a moderate path and not strongly supporting either side France could take part in the Middle East peace process between Israel and the Arab nations. Instead it has been excluded from any major role.
Nicolas de Rivière, the Permanent Representative of France to the United Nations, thanked to Mesdames Bahous, Russell and Kanem for their briefings in Israel-Hamas war, and to reiterate France’s full support for UN Women, UNICEF and UNFPA in their engagement to help the people of Gaza. Furthermore, France welcomed the agreement, which lead to the release of dozens of hostages and a truce.
For France, Middle East has been the major factor of its foreign policy. Over a decade since 2000, France successfully built an influential presence across the MENA region, where the major focus had been on Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar. The Middle East policy of France was essential from the strategic, cultural and economic point of view, where the focus remained on proving itself as an international power. The country invested years in maintaining a strong foothold in the region on the lines of trade, security interests, and cultural and social exchanges. As Emmanuel Macron became the president in 2017, he gave a clear picture about the French relations with the Middle East and its importance, both in his foreign policy speeches and his initiatives. His predecessors, on the other hand, had mostly picked the option of “reassurance” with the region’s governments. Gradually, France began to show increasing interest in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, particularly. The country became actively supportive towards the two Arab nations in their involvement in the Yemen civil war, becoming one of the crucial arms suppliers. There had been a number of calls from the human rights organizations for France to halt their arms sales to both Saudi and the UAE, which were known for causing a humanitarian crisis in Yemen. Even in 2021, Macron continued taking initiatives towards strengthening relations with the Kingdom and the Emirates. During his visit to the region in November 2021, Macron signed a weapons deal worth 16 billion euros with the UAE. The agreement involved transfer of 80 upgraded Rafale warplanes, along with 12 Airbus-built combat helicopters. While France viewed it as a way to deepen ties with the Emirates, rights organizations criticized and raised concerns around the UAE’s involvement in the Yemen and Libyan wars. They objected the deal stating that the Gulf leaders have reflected a constant failure in improving their human rights records.
Despite the improving relations between the Emirates and France, the UAE made extensive efforts towards to showcase its image in a positive light. In light of it, a Franco-Tunisian businessman, Elyes Ben Chedly reportedly ran promotion for two of the Emirates’ cultural campaigns. Reports revealed that the middleman worked to promote the UAE’s “Year of Tolerance” campaign, and was also involved in running the “year Zayed” program in Paris. Reports also revealed that Ben Chedly also used his network of arms contracts to mediate weapons deal between the UAE and other nations.
A report in March 2023 by Mediapart revealed that the UAE had been interfering in France by the means of a Switzerland-based intelligence firm Alp Services. A French journalist, Roland Jacquard connected Alp’s head Mario Brero with the Emirati secret services client, identified as Mohammed. Jacquard maintained a close contact with a network of politicians and diplomats. He was directly in contact with Mohammed, whose emails revealed that Jacquard was supplying the UAE with information from the security services, Emmanuel Macron and the Élysée.
List of countries which France maintains diplomatic relations with:
France plays a significant role in Africa, especially in its former colonies, through extensive aid programs, commercial activities, military agreements, and cultural impact. In those former colonies where the French presence remains important, France contributes to political, military, and social stability. Many think that French policy in Africa – particularly where British interests are also involved – is susceptible to what is known as 'Fashoda syndrome'. Others have criticized the relationship as neocolonialism under the name Françafrique, stressing France's support of various dictatorships, among others: Omar Bongo, Idriss Déby, and Denis Sassou Nguesso.
France has extensive political and economical relations with Asian countries, including China, India, Japan, South Korea and Southeast Asia as well as an increasing presence in regional fora. France was instrumental in launching the Asia–Europe Meeting (ASEM) process which could eventually emerge as a competitor to APEC. France is seeking to broaden its commercial presence in China and will pose a competitive challenge to U.S. business, particularly in aerospace, high-tech, and luxury markets. In Southeast Asia, France was an architect of the Paris Peace Accords, which ended the conflict in Cambodia.
France does not have formal diplomatic relationships with North Korea. North Korea however maintains a delegation (not an embassy nor a consulate) near Paris. As most countries, France does not recognize, nor have formal diplomatic relationships with Taiwan, due to its recognition of China; however, Taiwan maintains a representation office in Paris which is similar to an embassy. Likewise, the French Institute in Taipei has an administrative consular section that delivers visas and fulfills other missions normally dealt with by diplomatic outposts.
France has maintained its status as key power in Western Europe because of its size, location, strong economy, membership in European organizations, strong military posture and energetic diplomacy. France generally has worked to strengthen the global economic and political influence of the EU and its role in common European defense and collective security.
France supports the development of a European Security and Defence Identity (ESDI) as the foundation of efforts to enhance security in the European Union. France cooperates closely with Germany and Spain in this endeavor.
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[
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "In the 19th century France built a new French colonial empire second only to the British Empire. It was humiliated in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71, which marked the rise of Germany to dominance in Europe. France allied with Great Britain and Russia and was on the winning side of the First World War. Although it was initially easily defeated early in the Second World War, Free France, through its Free French Forces and the Resistance, continued to fight against the Axis powers as an Allied nation and was ultimately considered one of the victors of the war, as the allocation of a French occupation zone in Germany and West Berlin testifies, as well as the status of permanent member of the United Nations Security Council. It fought losing colonial wars in Indochina (ending in 1954) and Algeria (ending in 1962). The Fourth Republic collapsed and the Fifth Republic began in 1958 to the present. Under Charles De Gaulle it tried to block American and British influence on the European community. Since 1945, France has been a founding member of the United Nations, of NATO, and of the European Coal and Steel Community (the European Union's predecessor). As a charter member of the United Nations, France holds one of the permanent seats in the Security Council and is a member of most of its specialized and related agencies.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "France is also a founding member of the Union for the Mediterranean and the La Francophonie and plays a key role, both in regional and in international affairs.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "François Mitterrand, a Socialist, emphasized European unity and the preservation of France's special relationships with its former colonies in the face of \"Anglo-Saxon influence.\" A part of the enacted policies was formulated in the Socialist Party's 110 Propositions for France, the electoral program for the 1981 presidential election. He had a warm and effective relationship with the conservative German Chancellor Helmut Kohl. They promoted French-German bilateralism in Europe and strengthened military cooperation between the two countries.",
"title": "Fifth Republic since 1981"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "According to Wayne Northcutt, certain domestic circumstances helped shape Mitterrand's foreign policy in four ways: he needed to maintain a political consensus; he kept an eye on economic conditions; he believed in the nationalistic imperative for French policy; and he tried to exploit Gaullism and its heritage that is on political advantage.",
"title": "Fifth Republic since 1981"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "Chrirac's foreign policy featured continuity. His most dramatic move was a break with Washington. Along with his friend Vladimir Putin of Russia, Hu Jintao of China, and Gerhard Schröder of Germany, Chirac emerged as a leading voice against the Iraq War of 2003. They opposed George W. Bush of the U.S. and Tony Blair of Britain during the organisation and deployment of a \"Coalition of the willing\" to forcibly remove the government of Iraq controlled by the Ba'ath Party under the dictatorship of Saddam Hussein. Despite British and American pressure, Chirac threatened to veto a resolution in the UN Security Council that would authorise the use of military force to rid Iraq of alleged weapons of mass destruction. He rallied other governments to his position. \"Iraq today does not represent an immediate threat that justifies an immediate war\", Chirac said on 18 March 2003. Future Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin acquired much of his popularity for his speech against the war at the United Nations (UN).",
"title": "Fifth Republic since 1981"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "Shortly after taking office, President Sarkozy began negotiations with Colombian president Álvaro Uribe and the left-wing guerrilla FARC, regarding the release of hostages held by the rebel group, especially Franco-Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt. According to some sources, Sarkozy himself asked for Uribe to release FARC's \"chancellor\" Rodrigo Granda. Furthermore, he announced on 24 July 2007, that French and European representatives had obtained the extradition of the Bulgarian nurses detained in Libya to their country. In exchange, he signed with Gaddafi security, health care and immigration pacts – and a $230 million (168 million euros) MILAN antitank missile sale. The contract was the first made by Libya since 2004, and was negotiated with MBDA, a subsidiary of EADS. Another 128 million euros contract would have been signed, according to Tripoli, with EADS for a TETRA radio system. The Socialist Party (PS) and the Communist Party (PCF) criticized a \"state affair\" and a \"barter\" with a \"Rogue state\". The leader of the PS, François Hollande, requested the opening of a parliamentary investigation.",
"title": "Fifth Republic since 1981"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "On 8 June 2007, during the 33rd G8 summit in Heiligendamm, Sarkozy set a goal of reducing French CO2 emissions by 50% by 2050 in order to prevent global warming. He then pushed forward the important Socialist figure of Dominique Strauss-Kahn as European nominee to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Critics alleged that Sarkozy proposed to nominate Strauss-Kahn as managing director of the IMF to deprive the Socialist Party of one of its more popular figures.",
"title": "Fifth Republic since 1981"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "Sarkozy normalised what had been strained relations with NATO. In 2009, France again was a fully integrated NATO member. François Hollande has continued the same policy.",
"title": "Fifth Republic since 1981"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "Socialist François Hollande won election in 2012 as president. He adopted a generally hawkish foreign-policy, in close collaboration with Germany in regard to opposing Russian moves against Ukraine, and in sending the military to fight radical Islamists in Africa. He took a hard line with regard to the Greek debt crisis. François Hollande launched two military operations in Africa: Operation Serval in Mali (the French armed forces stopped an Islamist takeover of Bamako, the nation's capital city); and Operation Sangaris (to restore peace there as tensions between different religious communities had turned into a violent conflict). France was also the first European nation to join the United States in bombing the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. Under President Hollande, France's stances on the civil war in Syria and Iran's nuclear program have been described as \"hawkish\".",
"title": "Fifth Republic since 1981"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "Sophie Meunier in 2017 ponders whether France is still relevant in world affairs:",
"title": "Fifth Republic since 1981"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "In July 2019, the UN ambassadors from 22 nations, including France, signed a joint letter to the UNHRC condemning China’s mistreatment of the Uyghurs as well as its mistreatment of other minority groups, urging the Chinese government to close the Xinjiang re-education camps.",
"title": "Fifth Republic since 1981"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "On 31 May 2022, due to the reforms pushed by the president and perceived lack of recognition, the French diplomats will go on a strike for the first time in 20 years. This is a bad timing for President Emmanuel Macron as the France is holding the EU Presidency until the end of June.",
"title": "Fifth Republic since 1981"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "In November 2023, France's President Emmanuel Macron welcomed the announcement of a significant agreement between Israel and Hamas. The agreement focused on the release of hostages and the implementation of a humanitarian truce.",
"title": "Fifth Republic since 1981"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "ACCT, AfDB, AsDB, Australia Group, BDEAC, BIS, CCC, CDB (non-regional), CE, CERN, EAPC, EBRD, ECA (associate), ECE, ECLAC, EIB, EMU, ESA, ESCAP, EU, FAO, FZ, G-5, G-7, G-10, IADB, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICC, ICRM, IDA, IEA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, International Maritime Organization, Inmarsat, InOC, Intelsat, Interpol, IOC, IOM, ISO, ITU, ITUC, MINURSO, MIPONUH, MONUC, NAM (guest), NATO, NEA, NSG, OAS (observer), OECD, OPCW, OSCE, PCA, SPC, UN, UN Security Council, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNIFIL, UNIKOM, UNITAR, UNMIBH, UNMIK, UNOMIG, UNRWA, UNTSO, UNU, UPU, WADB (nonregional), WEU, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTrO, Zangger Committee",
"title": "International organization participation"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "France established relations with the Middle East during the reign of Louis XIV. To keep Austria from intervening into its plans regarding Western Europe he lent limited support to the Ottoman Empire, though the victories of Prince Eugene of Savoy destroyed these plans. In the nineteenth century France together with Great Britain tried to strengthen the Ottoman Empire, the now \"Sick man of Europe\", to resist Russian expansion, culminating in the Crimean War.",
"title": "Middle East"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 15,
"text": "France also pursued close relations with the semi-autonomous Egypt. In 1869 Egyptian workers -under the supervision of France- completed the Suez Canal. A rivalry emerged between France and Britain for control of Egypt, and eventually Britain emerged victorious by buying out the Egyptian shares of the company before the French had time to act.",
"title": "Middle East"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 16,
"text": "After the unification of Germany in 1871, Germany successfully attempted to co-opt France's relations with the Ottomans. In World War I the Ottoman Empire joined the Central Powers, and was defeated by France and Britain. After the collapse of the Ottoman Empire France and Britain divided the Middle East between themselves. France received Syria and Lebanon.",
"title": "Middle East"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 17,
"text": "These colonies were granted independence after 1945, but France still tried to forge cultural and educational bonds between the areas, particularly with Lebanon. Relationships with Syria are more strained, due to the policies of that country. In 2005, France, along with the United States, pressured Syria to evacuate Lebanon. In the post-World War II era French relations with the Arab Middle East reached a very low point. The war in Algeria between Muslim fighters and French colonists deeply concerned the rest of the Muslim world. The Algerian fighters received much of their supplies and funding from Egypt and other Arab powers, much to France's displeasure.",
"title": "Middle East"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 18,
"text": "Most damaging to Franco-Arab relations, however, was the Suez Crisis. It greatly diminished France's reputation in the region. France openly supported the Israeli attack on the Sinai peninsula, and was working against Nasser, then a popular figure in the Middle East. The Suez Crisis also made France and the United Kingdom look again like imperialist powers attempting to impose their will upon weaker nations. Another hindrance to France's relations with the Arab Middle East was its close alliance with Israel during the 1950s.",
"title": "Middle East"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 19,
"text": "This all changed with the coming of Charles de Gaulle to power. De Gaulle's foreign policy was centered around an attempt to limit the power and influence of both superpowers, and at the same time increase France's international prestige. De Gaulle hoped to move France from being a follower of the United States to becoming the leading nation of a large group of non-aligned countries. The nations de Gaulle looked at as potential participants in this group were those in France's traditional spheres of influence: Africa and the Middle East. The former French colonies in eastern and northern Africa were quite agreeable to these close relations with France. These nations had close economic and cultural ties to France, and they also had few other suitors amongst the major powers. This new orientation of French foreign policy also appealed strongly to the leaders of the Arab nations. None of them wanted to be dominated by either of the superpowers, and they supported France's policy of trying to balance the US and the USSR and to prevent either from becoming dominant in the region. The Middle Eastern leaders wanted to be free to pursue their own goals and objectives, and did not want to be chained to either alliance bloc. De Gaulle hoped to use this common foundation to build strong relations between the nations. He also hoped that good relations would improve France's trade with the region. De Gaulle also imagined that these allies would look up to the more powerful French nation, and would look to it in leadership in matters of foreign policy.",
"title": "Middle East"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 20,
"text": "The end of the Algerian conflict in 1962 accomplished much in this regard. France could not portray itself as a leader of the oppressed nations of the world if it still was enforcing its colonial rule upon another nation. The battle against the Muslim separatists that France waged in favour of the minority of French settlers was an extremely unpopular one throughout the Muslim world. With the conflict raging it would have been close to impossible for France to have had positive relations with the nations of the Middle East. The Middle Eastern support for the FLN guerillas was another strain on relations that the end of the conflict removed. Most of the financial and material support for the FLN had come from the nations of the Middle East and North Africa. This was especially true of Nasser's Egypt, which had long supported the separatists. Egypt is also the most direct example of improved relations after the end of hostilities. The end of the war brought an immediate thaw to Franco-Egyptian relations, Egypt ended the trial of four French officers accused of espionage, and France ended its trade embargo against Egypt.",
"title": "Middle East"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 21,
"text": "In 1967 de Gaulle completely overturned France's Israel policy. De Gaulle and his ministers reacted very harshly to Israel's actions in the Six-Day War. The French government and de Gaulle condemned Israel's treatment of refugees, warned that it was a mistake to occupy the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and also refused to recognize the Israeli control of Jerusalem. The French government continued to criticize Israel after the war and de Gaulle spoke out against other Israeli actions, such as the operations against the Palestine Liberation Organization in Lebanon. France began to use its veto power to oppose Israel in the UN, and France sided with the Arab states on almost all issues brought to the international body. Most importantly of all, however, de Gaulle's government imposed an arms embargo on the Israeli state. The embargo was in fact applied to all the combatants, but very soon France began selling weaponry to the Arab states again. As early as 1970 France sold Libya a hundred Dassault Mirage fighter jets. However, after 1967 France continued to support Israel's right to exist, as well as Israel's many preferential agreements with France and the European Economic Community.",
"title": "Middle East"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 22,
"text": "In the second half of the 20th century, France increased its expenditures in foreign aid greatly, to become second only to the United States in total aid amongst the Western powers and first on a per capita basis. By 1968 France was paying out $855 million per year in aid far more than either West Germany or the United Kingdom. The vast majority of French aid was directed towards Africa and the Middle East, usually either as a lever to promote French interests or to help with the sale of French products (e.g. arms sales). France also increased its expenditures on other forms of aid sending out skilled individuals to developing countries to provide technical and cultural expertise.",
"title": "Middle East"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 23,
"text": "The combination of aid money, arms sales, and diplomatic alignments helped to erase the memory of the Suez Crisis and the Algerian War in the Arab world and France successfully developed amicable relationships with the governments of many of the Middle Eastern states. Nasser and de Gaulle, who shared many similarities, cooperated on limiting American power in the region. Nasser proclaimed France as the only friend of Egypt in the West. France and Iraq also developed a close relationship with business ties, joint military training exercises, and French assistance in Iraq's nuclear program in the 1970s. France improved relations with its former colony Syria, and eroded cultural links were partially restored.",
"title": "Middle East"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 24,
"text": "In terms of trade France did receive some benefits from the improved relations with the Middle East. French trade with the Middle East increased by over fifty percent after de Gaulle's reforms. The weaponry industries benefited most as France soon had lucrative contracts with many of the regimes in the Middle East and North Africa, though these contracts account for a negligible part of France's economy.",
"title": "Middle East"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 25,
"text": "De Gaulle had hoped that by taking a moderate path and not strongly supporting either side France could take part in the Middle East peace process between Israel and the Arab nations. Instead it has been excluded from any major role.",
"title": "Middle East"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 26,
"text": "Nicolas de Rivière, the Permanent Representative of France to the United Nations, thanked to Mesdames Bahous, Russell and Kanem for their briefings in Israel-Hamas war, and to reiterate France’s full support for UN Women, UNICEF and UNFPA in their engagement to help the people of Gaza. Furthermore, France welcomed the agreement, which lead to the release of dozens of hostages and a truce.",
"title": "Middle East"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 27,
"text": "For France, Middle East has been the major factor of its foreign policy. Over a decade since 2000, France successfully built an influential presence across the MENA region, where the major focus had been on Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar. The Middle East policy of France was essential from the strategic, cultural and economic point of view, where the focus remained on proving itself as an international power. The country invested years in maintaining a strong foothold in the region on the lines of trade, security interests, and cultural and social exchanges. As Emmanuel Macron became the president in 2017, he gave a clear picture about the French relations with the Middle East and its importance, both in his foreign policy speeches and his initiatives. His predecessors, on the other hand, had mostly picked the option of “reassurance” with the region’s governments. Gradually, France began to show increasing interest in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, particularly. The country became actively supportive towards the two Arab nations in their involvement in the Yemen civil war, becoming one of the crucial arms suppliers. There had been a number of calls from the human rights organizations for France to halt their arms sales to both Saudi and the UAE, which were known for causing a humanitarian crisis in Yemen. Even in 2021, Macron continued taking initiatives towards strengthening relations with the Kingdom and the Emirates. During his visit to the region in November 2021, Macron signed a weapons deal worth 16 billion euros with the UAE. The agreement involved transfer of 80 upgraded Rafale warplanes, along with 12 Airbus-built combat helicopters. While France viewed it as a way to deepen ties with the Emirates, rights organizations criticized and raised concerns around the UAE’s involvement in the Yemen and Libyan wars. They objected the deal stating that the Gulf leaders have reflected a constant failure in improving their human rights records.",
"title": "Middle East"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 28,
"text": "Despite the improving relations between the Emirates and France, the UAE made extensive efforts towards to showcase its image in a positive light. In light of it, a Franco-Tunisian businessman, Elyes Ben Chedly reportedly ran promotion for two of the Emirates’ cultural campaigns. Reports revealed that the middleman worked to promote the UAE’s “Year of Tolerance” campaign, and was also involved in running the “year Zayed” program in Paris. Reports also revealed that Ben Chedly also used his network of arms contracts to mediate weapons deal between the UAE and other nations.",
"title": "Middle East"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 29,
"text": "A report in March 2023 by Mediapart revealed that the UAE had been interfering in France by the means of a Switzerland-based intelligence firm Alp Services. A French journalist, Roland Jacquard connected Alp’s head Mario Brero with the Emirati secret services client, identified as Mohammed. Jacquard maintained a close contact with a network of politicians and diplomats. He was directly in contact with Mohammed, whose emails revealed that Jacquard was supplying the UAE with information from the security services, Emmanuel Macron and the Élysée.",
"title": "Middle East"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 30,
"text": "List of countries which France maintains diplomatic relations with:",
"title": "Diplomatic relations"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 31,
"text": "France plays a significant role in Africa, especially in its former colonies, through extensive aid programs, commercial activities, military agreements, and cultural impact. In those former colonies where the French presence remains important, France contributes to political, military, and social stability. Many think that French policy in Africa – particularly where British interests are also involved – is susceptible to what is known as 'Fashoda syndrome'. Others have criticized the relationship as neocolonialism under the name Françafrique, stressing France's support of various dictatorships, among others: Omar Bongo, Idriss Déby, and Denis Sassou Nguesso.",
"title": "Bilateral relations"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 32,
"text": "France has extensive political and economical relations with Asian countries, including China, India, Japan, South Korea and Southeast Asia as well as an increasing presence in regional fora. France was instrumental in launching the Asia–Europe Meeting (ASEM) process which could eventually emerge as a competitor to APEC. France is seeking to broaden its commercial presence in China and will pose a competitive challenge to U.S. business, particularly in aerospace, high-tech, and luxury markets. In Southeast Asia, France was an architect of the Paris Peace Accords, which ended the conflict in Cambodia.",
"title": "Bilateral relations"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 33,
"text": "France does not have formal diplomatic relationships with North Korea. North Korea however maintains a delegation (not an embassy nor a consulate) near Paris. As most countries, France does not recognize, nor have formal diplomatic relationships with Taiwan, due to its recognition of China; however, Taiwan maintains a representation office in Paris which is similar to an embassy. Likewise, the French Institute in Taipei has an administrative consular section that delivers visas and fulfills other missions normally dealt with by diplomatic outposts.",
"title": "Bilateral relations"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 34,
"text": "France has maintained its status as key power in Western Europe because of its size, location, strong economy, membership in European organizations, strong military posture and energetic diplomacy. France generally has worked to strengthen the global economic and political influence of the EU and its role in common European defense and collective security.",
"title": "Bilateral relations"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 35,
"text": "France supports the development of a European Security and Defence Identity (ESDI) as the foundation of efforts to enhance security in the European Union. France cooperates closely with Germany and Spain in this endeavor.",
"title": "Bilateral relations"
}
] |
In the 19th century France built a new French colonial empire second only to the British Empire. It was humiliated in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71, which marked the rise of Germany to dominance in Europe. France allied with Great Britain and Russia and was on the winning side of the First World War. Although it was initially easily defeated early in the Second World War, Free France, through its Free French Forces and the Resistance, continued to fight against the Axis powers as an Allied nation and was ultimately considered one of the victors of the war, as the allocation of a French occupation zone in Germany and West Berlin testifies, as well as the status of permanent member of the United Nations Security Council. It fought losing colonial wars in Indochina and Algeria. The Fourth Republic collapsed and the Fifth Republic began in 1958 to the present. Under Charles De Gaulle it tried to block American and British influence on the European community. Since 1945, France has been a founding member of the United Nations, of NATO, and of the European Coal and Steel Community. As a charter member of the United Nations, France holds one of the permanent seats in the Security Council and is a member of most of its specialized and related agencies. France is also a founding member of the Union for the Mediterranean and the La Francophonie and plays a key role, both in regional and in international affairs.
|
2001-07-08T11:17:59Z
|
2023-12-30T18:33:10Z
|
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10,727 |
French Guinea
|
French Guinea (French: Guinée française) was a French colonial possession in West Africa. Its borders, while changed over time, were in 1958 those of the current independent nation of Guinea.
French Guinea was established by France in 1891, within the same borders as its previous colony known as Rivières du Sud (1882–1891). Prior to 1882, the coastal portions of French Guinea were part of the French colony of Senegal.
In 1891, Rivières du Sud was placed under the colonial lieutenant governor at Dakar, who had authority over the French coastal regions east to Porto-Novo (modern Benin). In 1894 Rivières du Sud, Cote d'Ivoire and Dahomey were separated into 'independent' colonies, with Rivières du Sud being renamed as the Colony of French Guinea. In 1895, French Guinea was made one of several dependent colonies and its Governor became one of several Lieutenant Governors who reported to a Governor-General in Dakar. In 1904, this federation of colonies was formalised as French West Africa. French Guinea, Senegal, Dahomey, Cote d'Ivoire and Upper Senegal and Niger, were each ruled by a lieutenant governor, under the Governor General in Dakar.
Guinea was ruled by France until 1958. It became independent from France in 1958 following its voters' rejection of Charles de Gaulle's Constitution of 1958. At the time French Guinea was the only colony to reject the new constitution. French Guinea became the modern-day country of Guinea, keeping French as its official language.
9°30′33″N 13°42′44″W / 9.5092°N 13.7122°W / 9.5092; -13.7122
|
[
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "French Guinea (French: Guinée française) was a French colonial possession in West Africa. Its borders, while changed over time, were in 1958 those of the current independent nation of Guinea.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "French Guinea was established by France in 1891, within the same borders as its previous colony known as Rivières du Sud (1882–1891). Prior to 1882, the coastal portions of French Guinea were part of the French colony of Senegal.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "In 1891, Rivières du Sud was placed under the colonial lieutenant governor at Dakar, who had authority over the French coastal regions east to Porto-Novo (modern Benin). In 1894 Rivières du Sud, Cote d'Ivoire and Dahomey were separated into 'independent' colonies, with Rivières du Sud being renamed as the Colony of French Guinea. In 1895, French Guinea was made one of several dependent colonies and its Governor became one of several Lieutenant Governors who reported to a Governor-General in Dakar. In 1904, this federation of colonies was formalised as French West Africa. French Guinea, Senegal, Dahomey, Cote d'Ivoire and Upper Senegal and Niger, were each ruled by a lieutenant governor, under the Governor General in Dakar.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "Guinea was ruled by France until 1958. It became independent from France in 1958 following its voters' rejection of Charles de Gaulle's Constitution of 1958. At the time French Guinea was the only colony to reject the new constitution. French Guinea became the modern-day country of Guinea, keeping French as its official language.",
"title": "Colonial history"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "9°30′33″N 13°42′44″W / 9.5092°N 13.7122°W / 9.5092; -13.7122",
"title": "References"
}
] |
French Guinea was a French colonial possession in West Africa. Its borders, while changed over time, were in 1958 those of the current independent nation of Guinea. French Guinea was established by France in 1891, within the same borders as its previous colony known as Rivières du Sud (1882–1891). Prior to 1882, the coastal portions of French Guinea were part of the French colony of Senegal. In 1891, Rivières du Sud was placed under the colonial lieutenant governor at Dakar, who had authority over the French coastal regions east to Porto-Novo. In 1894 Rivières du Sud, Cote d'Ivoire and Dahomey were separated into 'independent' colonies, with Rivières du Sud being renamed as the Colony of French Guinea. In 1895, French Guinea was made one of several dependent colonies and its Governor became one of several Lieutenant Governors who reported to a Governor-General in Dakar. In 1904, this federation of colonies was formalised as French West Africa. French Guinea, Senegal, Dahomey, Cote d'Ivoire and Upper Senegal and Niger, were each ruled by a lieutenant governor, under the Governor General in Dakar.
|
2001-04-29T15:56:22Z
|
2023-12-04T00:17:59Z
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|
10,737 |
French Polynesia
|
French Polynesia (/ˌpɒlɪˈniːʒə/ POL-in-EE-zhə; French: Polynésie française [pɔlinezi fʁɑ̃sɛːz]; Tahitian: Pōrīnetia Farāni) is an overseas collectivity of France and its sole overseas country. It comprises 121 geographically dispersed islands and atolls stretching over more than 2,000 kilometres (1,200 mi) in the South Pacific Ocean. The total land area of French Polynesia is 3,521 square kilometres (1,359 sq mi), with a population of 278,786 (Aug. 2022 census).
French Polynesia is divided into five groups of islands:
Among its 121 islands and atolls, 75 were inhabited at the 2017 census. Tahiti, which is in the Society Islands group, is the most populous island, being home to nearly 69% of the population of French Polynesia as of 2017. Papeete, located on Tahiti, is the capital of French Polynesia. Although not an integral part of its territory, Clipperton Island was administered from French Polynesia until 2007.
Hundreds of years after the Great Polynesian Migration, European explorers began traveling through the region, visiting the islands of French Polynesia on several occasions. Traders and whaling ships also visited. In 1842, the French took over the islands and established a French protectorate that they called Établissements français d'Océanie (EFO) (French Establishments/Settlements of Oceania).
In 1946, the EFO became an overseas territory under the constitution of the French Fourth Republic, and Polynesians were granted the right to vote through citizenship. In 1957, the EFO were renamed French Polynesia. In 1983 French Polynesia became a member of the Pacific Community, a regional development organization. Since 28 March 2003, French Polynesia has been an overseas collectivity of the French Republic under the constitutional revision of article 74, and later gained, with law 2004-192 of 27 February 2004, an administrative autonomy, two symbolic manifestations of which are the title of the President of French Polynesia and its additional designation as an overseas country.
Anthropologists and historians believe the Great Polynesian Migration commenced around 1500 BC as Austronesian peoples went on a journey using celestial navigation to find islands in the South Pacific Ocean. The first islands of French Polynesia to be settled were the Marquesas Islands in about 200 BC. The Polynesians later ventured southwest and discovered the Society Islands around AD 300.
European encounters began in 1521 when Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan, sailing at the service of the Spanish Crown, sighted Puka-Puka in the Tuāmotu-Gambier Archipelago. In 1606 another Spanish expedition under Pedro Fernandes de Queirós sailed through Polynesia sighting an inhabited island on 10 February which they called Sagitaria (or Sagittaria), probably the island of Rekareka to the southeast of Tahiti. In 1722, Dutchman Jakob Roggeveen while on an expedition sponsored by the Dutch West India Company, charted the location of six islands in the Tuamotu Archipelago and two islands in the Society Islands, one of which was Bora Bora.
British explorer Samuel Wallis became the first European navigator to visit Tahiti in 1767. French explorer Louis Antoine de Bougainville also visited Tahiti in 1768, while British explorer James Cook arrived in 1769, and observed the transit of Venus. He would stop in Tahiti again in 1773 during his second voyage to the Pacific, and once more in 1777 during his third and last voyage before being killed in Hawaii.
In 1772, the Spanish Viceroy of Peru Don Manuel de Amat ordered a number of expeditions to Tahiti under the command of Domingo de Bonechea who was the first European to explore all of the main islands beyond Tahiti. A short-lived Spanish settlement was created in 1774, and for a time some maps bore the name Isla de Amat after Viceroy Amat. Christian missions began with Spanish priests who stayed in Tahiti for a year. Protestants from the London Missionary Society settled permanently in Polynesia in 1797.
King Pōmare II of Tahiti was forced to flee to Mo'orea in 1803; he and his subjects were converted to Protestantism in 1812. French Catholic missionaries arrived on Tahiti in 1834; their expulsion in 1836 caused France to send a gunboat in 1838. In 1842, Tahiti and Tahuata were declared a French protectorate, to allow Catholic missionaries to work undisturbed. The capital of Papeetē was founded in 1843. In 1880, France annexed Tahiti, changing the status from that of a protectorate to that of a colony. The island groups were not officially united until the establishment of the French protectorate in 1889.
After France declared a protectorate over Tahiti in 1842 and fought a war with Tahiti (1844–1847), the British and French signed the Jarnac Convention in 1847, declaring that the kingdoms of Raiatea, Huahine and Bora Bora were to remain independent from both powers and that no single chief was to be allowed to reign over the entire archipelago. France eventually broke the agreement, and the islands were annexed and became a colony in 1888 (eight years after the Windward Islands) after many native resistances and conflicts called the Leewards War, lasting until 1897.
In the 1880s, France claimed the Tuamotu Archipelago, which formerly belonged to the Pōmare Dynasty, without formally annexing it. Having declared a protectorate over Tahuata in 1842, the French regarded the entire Marquesas Islands as French. In 1885, France appointed a governor and established a general council, thus giving it the proper administration for a colony. The islands of Rimatara and Rūrutu unsuccessfully lobbied for British protection in 1888, so in 1889 they were annexed by France. Postage stamps were first issued in the colony in 1892. The first official name for the colony was Établissements de l'Océanie (Establishments in Oceania); in 1903 the general council was changed to an advisory council and the colony's name was changed to Établissements Français de l'Océanie (French Establishments in Oceania).
In 1940, the administration of French Polynesia recognised the Free French Forces and many Polynesians served in World War II. Unknown at the time to the French and Polynesians, the Konoe Cabinet in Imperial Japan on 16 September 1940 included French Polynesia among the many territories which were to become Japanese possessions, as part of the "Eastern Pacific Government-General" in the post-war world. However, in the course of the war in the Pacific the Japanese were not able to launch an actual invasion of the French islands.
In 1946, Polynesians were granted French citizenship and the islands' status was changed to an overseas territory; the islands' name was changed in 1957 to Polynésie Française (French Polynesia). In 1962, France's early nuclear testing ground in Algeria was no longer usable when Algeria became independent and the Moruroa atoll in the Tuamotu Archipelago was selected as the new testing site; tests were conducted underground after 1974. In 1977, French Polynesia was granted partial internal autonomy; in 1984, the autonomy was extended. French Polynesia became a full overseas collectivity of France in 2003.
In September 1995, France stirred up widespread protests by resuming nuclear testing at Fangataufa atoll after a three-year moratorium. The last test was on 27 January 1996. On 29 January 1996, France announced that it would accede to the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, and no longer test nuclear weapons.
French Polynesia was relisted in the United Nations list of non-self-governing territories in 2013, making it eligible for a UN-backed independence referendum. The relisting was made after the indigenous opposition was voiced and supported by the Polynesian Leaders Group, Pacific Conference of Churches, Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, Non-Aligned Movement, World Council of Churches, and Melanesian Spearhead Group.
Under the terms of Article 74 of the French constitution and the Organic Law 2014–192 on the statute of autonomy of French Polynesia, politics of French Polynesia takes place in a framework of a parliamentary representative democratic French overseas collectivity, whereby the President of French Polynesia is the head of government, and of a multi-party system. Executive power is exercised by the government. Legislative power is vested in both the government and the Assembly of French Polynesia (the territorial assembly).
Political life in French Polynesia was marked by great instability from the mid-2000s to the mid-2010s. The anti-independence right-wing president of French Polynesia, Gaston Flosse, who had been in power since 1991, had supported the resumption of the French nuclear weapons tests in 1995, and had obtained from his longtime friend and political ally Jacques Chirac, then president of France, a status of expanded autonomy for French Polynesia in 2004, failed to secure an absolute majority in the 2004 French Polynesian legislative election, resulting in deadlock at the Assembly of French Polynesia. Flosse's longtime opponent, the pro-independence leader Oscar Temaru, whose pro-independence coalition had won one less seat than Flosse's party in the Assembly, was nonetheless elected president of French Polynesia by the Assembly in June 2004 thanks to the votes of two non-aligned Assembly members. This resulted in several years of political instability, as neither the pro- nor the anti-independence camps were assured of a majority, depending on the votes of smaller non-aligned parties representing the interests of the distant islands of French Polynesia (as opposed to Tahiti). Temaru was toppled from the presidency of French Polynesia in October 2004, succeeded by Flosse who was toppled in March 2005, succeeded by Temaru again who was toppled in December 2006, succeeded by Gaston Tong Sang, a close ally of Flosse.
On 14 September 2007, the pro-independence leader Oscar Temaru was elected president of French Polynesia for the third time in three years (with 27 of 44 votes cast in the territorial assembly). He replaced former president Gaston Tong Sang, opposed to independence, who lost a no-confidence vote in the Assembly of French Polynesia on 31 August after the longtime former president of French Polynesia, Gaston Flosse, hitherto opposed to independence, sided with his long enemy Oscar Temaru to topple the government of Gaston Tong Sang. Oscar Temaru, however, had no stable majority in the Assembly of French Polynesia, and new territorial elections were held in February 2008 to solve the political crisis.
The party of Gaston Tong Sang won the territorial elections, but that did not solve the political crisis: the two minority parties of Oscar Temaru and Gaston Flosse, who together had one more member in the territorial assembly than the political party of Gaston Tong Sang, allied to prevent Gaston Tong Sang from becoming president of French Polynesia. Gaston Flosse was then elected president of French Polynesia by the territorial assembly on 23 February 2008 with the support of the pro-independence party led by Oscar Temaru, while Oscar Temaru was elected speaker of the territorial assembly with the support of the anti-independence party led by Gaston Flosse. Both formed a coalition cabinet. Many observers doubted that the alliance between the anti-independence Gaston Flosse and the pro-independence Oscar Temaru, designed to prevent Gaston Tong Sang from becoming president of French Polynesia, could last very long.
At the French municipal elections held in March 2008, several prominent mayors who were member of the Flosse-Temaru coalition lost their offices in key municipalities of French Polynesia, which was interpreted as a disapproval of the way Gaston Tong Sang, whose party French Polynesian voters had placed first in the territorial elections the month before, had been prevented from becoming president of French Polynesia by the last minute alliance between Flosse and Temaru's parties. Eventually, on 15 April 2008 the government of Gaston Flosse was toppled by a constructive vote of no confidence in the territorial assembly when two members of the Flosse-Temaru coalition left the coalition and sided with Tong Sang's party. Tong Sang's majority in the territorial assembly was very narrow, and he was toppled in February 2009, succeeded by Temaru (supported again by Flosse).
Oscar Temaru's return to power was brief as he fell out with Gaston Flosse and was toppled in November 2009, succeeded by Gaston Tong Sang. Tong Sang remained in power for a year and a half before being toppled in a vote of no confidence in April 2011, and succeeded by Temaru. Oscar Temaru's fifth stint as president of French Polynesia lasted two years, during which he campaigned for the re-inscription of French Polynesia on the United Nations list of non-self-governing territories. Temaru lost the 2013 French Polynesian legislative election by a wide margin, only two weeks before the United Nations re-registered French Polynesia on its list of non-self governing territories. This was interpreted by political analysts as a rejection by French Polynesian voters of Temaru's push for independence as well as the consequence of the socioeconomic crisis affecting French Polynesia after years of political instability and corruption scandals.
Gaston Flosse, whose anti-independence party was the big winner of the 2013 election, succeeded Oscar Temaru as president of French Polynesia in May 2013, but he was removed from office in September 2014 due to a corruption conviction by France's highest court. Flosse was replaced as president of French Polynesia by his second-in-command in the anti-independence camp, Édouard Fritch, who was also Flosse's former son-in-law (divorced from Flosse's daughter). Fritch fell out with Flosse in 2015 as both leaders were vying for control of the anti-independence camp, and Fritch was excluded from Gaston Flosse's party in September 2015, before founding his own anti-independence party, Tapura Huiraatira, in February 2016. His new party managed to keep a majority in the Assembly of French Polynesia, and Fritch remained president of French Polynesia.
Political stability has returned in French Polynesia since the split of the anti-independence camp in 2015–2016. Tapura Huiraatira won 70% of the seats in the Assembly of French Polynesia at the 2018 French Polynesian legislative election, defeating both Oscar Temaru's pro-independence party and Gaston Flosse's anti-independence party, and Édouard Fritch was re-elected president of French Polynesia by the Assembly in May 2018. By 2022, Édouard Fritch was the longest-serving president of French Polynesia since Gaston Flosse in the 1990s and early 2000s.
Between 1946 and 2003, French Polynesia had the status of an overseas territory (territoire d'outre-mer, or TOM). In 2003, it became an overseas collectivity (collectivité d'outre-mer, or COM). Its statutory law of 27 February 2004 gives it the particular designation of overseas country inside the Republic (pays d'outre-mer au sein de la République, or POM), but without legal modification of its status.
Despite a local assembly and government, French Polynesia is not in a free association with France, like the Cook Islands with New Zealand. As a French overseas collectivity, the local government has no competence in justice, university education, security and defense. Services in these areas are directly provided and administered by the Government of France, including the National Gendarmerie (which also polices rural and border areas in metropolitan France), and French military forces. The collectivity government retains control over primary and secondary education, health, town planning, and the environment. The highest representative of the State in the territory is the High Commissioner of the Republic in French Polynesia (French: Haut commissaire de la République en Polynésie française).
French Polynesia also sends three deputies to the French National Assembly in three constituencies, the 1st representing Papeete and its north-eastern suburbs, plus the commune (municipality) of Mo'orea-Mai'ao, the Tuāmotu-Gambier administrative division, and the Marquesas Islands administrative division, the 2nd representing much of Tahiti outside Papeete and the Austral Islands administrative subdivision, and the 3rd representing the Leeward Islands administrative subdivision and the south-western suburbs of Papeete. French Polynesia also sends two senators to the French Senate.
The defence of the collectivity is the responsibility of the French Armed Forces. Some 900 military personnel are deployed in the territory – incorporating the Pacific-Polynesian Marine Infantry Regiment (RIMaP-P) – along with modest air transport and surveillance assets. The latter include three Falcon 200 Gardian maritime surveillance aircraft from French Naval Aviation, which are to be replaced by the more modern Falcon 2000 Albatros starting in 2025. The former is composed of two CN-235 tactical transport aircraft drawn from the Air Force's ET 82 "Maine" transport squadron.
Three principal French Navy vessels are based in the territory, including: the surveillance frigate Prairial, the patrol and support ship Bougainville and the coast guard vessel Arago. As of 2021, two smaller port and coastal tugs (RPCs), Maroa and Manini, were also operational in the territory. Flottille 35F of French naval aviation deploys a detachment of three AS 365N Dauphin helicopters in Tahiti. The helicopters carry out a variety of roles in the territory or may be embarked on Prairial as required. In late 2023 or early 2024, Arago is to be replaced by Teriieroo to Teriierooiterai, a vessel of the new Félix Éboué class of patrol vessels. The French Navy will further reinforce its offshore patrol capabilities in the region by deploying a second vessel of the class (Philip Bernardino) to Tahiti by 2025.
The National Gendarmerie deploys some 500 active personnel and civilians, plus around 150 reservists, in French Polynesia. The patrol boat Jasmin of the Maritime Gendarmerie is also based in the territory and is to be replaced by a new PCG-NG patrol boat in about 2025–2026.
The islands of French Polynesia make up a total land area of 3,521 square kilometres (1,359 sq mi), scattered over more than 2,000 kilometres (1,200 mi) of ocean. There are 121 islands in French Polynesia and many more islets or motus around atolls. The highest point is Mount Orohena on Tahiti.
It is made up of five archipelagos. The largest and most populated island is Tahiti, in the Society Islands. The archipelagos are:
Aside from Tahiti, some other important atolls, islands, and island groups in French Polynesia are: Ahē, Bora Bora, Hiva 'Oa, Huahine, Mai'ao, Maupiti, Meheti'a, Mo'orea, Nuku Hiva, Raiatea, Taha'a, Tetiaroa, Tupua'i and Tūpai.
French Polynesia is home to four terrestrial ecoregions: Marquesas tropical moist forests, Society Islands tropical moist forests, Tuamotu tropical moist forests, and Tubuai tropical moist forests.
French Polynesia is divided in five administrative subdivisions (subdivisions administratives):
The five administrative subdivisions are not local councils; they are solely deconcentrated subdivisions of the French central State. At the head of each administrative subdivision is an administrateur d'État ("State administrator"), generally simply known as administrateur, also sometimes called chef de la subdivision administrative ("head of the administrative subdivision"). The administrateur is a civil servant under the authority of the High Commissioner of the French Republic in French Polynesia in Papeete.
Four administrative subdivisions (Marquesas Islands, Leeward Islands, Tuamotu-Gambier, and Austral Islands) each also form a deconcentrated subdivision of the government of French Polynesia. These are called circonscriptions ("districts"). The head of a circonscription is the tavana hau, known as administrateur territorial in French ("territorial administrator"), but the Tahitian title tavana hau is most often used. The tavana hau is the direct representative of the president of French Polynesia's government who appoints him or her. The Windward Islands, due to their proximity to Papeete, do not form a deconcentrated subdivision of the government of French Polynesia.
The 5 administrative subdivisions are themselves divided in 48 communes. Like all other communes in the French Republic, these are municipalities in which local residents with either a French or another EU citizenship elect a municipal council and a mayor in charge of managing local affairs within the commune. Municipal elections occur every six years on the same date as in the rest of the French Republic (the last municipal elections took place in 2020).
30 communes are further subdivided in 98 associated communes which have each a delegate mayor and a registry office. These 30 communes were subdivided in associated communes either because they have a large land territory (particularly in the larger islands such as Tahiti or Nuku Hiva) or because they are made up of atolls distant from each other (particularly in the Tuamotu archipelago), which led to the creation of associated communes for each inhabited atoll.
17 communes (out of French Polynesia's 48 communes) have banded together in three separate communities of communes. These indirectly elected intercommunal councils are still relatively new in French Polynesia, and unlike in metropolitan France and its overseas regions it is not mandatory for the communes in French Polynesia to join an intercommunal council. The three intercommunal councils in existence as of 2022, all formed on a voluntary basis, were:
These communities of communes, as elsewhere in the French Republic, are not full-fledged territorial collectivities, but only federations of communes. From a legal standpoint, the only territorial collectivities in French Polynesia are the overseas collectivity of French Polynesia and the 48 communes.
Total population was 278,786 according to the August 18, 2022 census, 68.7% of whom lived on the island of Tahiti alone. The urban area of Papeete, the capital city, has 136,771 inhabitants (2017 census).
At the 2017 census, 89.0% of people living in French Polynesia had been born there (up from 87.3% in 2007); 8.1% had been born in Metropolitan France (down from 9.3% in 2007); 1.2% were born elsewhere in overseas France (down from 1.4% in 2007); and 1.7% were from foreign countries (down from 2.0% in 2007). The population of natives of Metropolitan France living in French Polynesia has declined in relative terms since the 1980s, but in absolute terms their population peaked at the 2007 census, when 24,265 lived in French Polynesia (not counting their children born there). With the local economic crisis, their population declined to 22,278 at the 2012 census, and 22,387 at the 2017 census.
At the 1988 census, the last census which asked questions regarding ethnicity, 66.5% of people were ethnically unmixed Polynesians, 7.1% were ethnically Polynesians with light European or East Asian mixing, 11.9% were Europeans (mostly French), 9.3% were people of mixed European and Polynesian descent, the so-called Demis (literally meaning "Half"), and 4.7% were East Asians (mainly Chinese).
Chinese, Demis, and the white populace are essentially concentrated on the island of Tahiti, particularly in the urban area of Papeete, where their share of the population is thus much greater than in French Polynesia overall. Despite a long history of ethnic mixing, ethnic tensions have been growing in recent years, with politicians using a xenophobic discourse and fanning the flame of nationalism.
All the indigenous languages of French Polynesia are Polynesian. French Polynesia has been linguistically diverse since ancient times, with each community having its own local speech variety. These dialects can be grouped into seven languages on the basis of mutual intelligibility: Tahitian, Tuamotuan, Rapa, Austral, North Marquesan, South Marquesan, and Mangarevan. Some of these, especially Tuamotuan, are really dialect continua formed by a patchwork of different dialects. The distinction between languages and dialects is notoriously difficult to establish, and so some authors may view two varieties as dialects of the same language, while others may view them as distinct languages. In this way, North and South Marquesan are often grouped together as a single Marquesan language, and Rapa is often viewed as part of Austral subfamily. At the same time, Ra'ivavae is often viewed as distinct from them.
French is the sole official language of French Polynesia. An organic law of 12 April 1996 states that "French is the official language, Tahitian and other Polynesian languages can be used." At the 2017 census, among the population whose age was 15 and older, 73.9% of people reported that the language they spoke the most at home was French (up from 68.6% at the 2007 census), 20.2% reported that the language they spoke the most at home was Tahitian (down from 24.3% at the 2007 census), 2.6% reported Marquesan and 0.2% the related Mangareva language (same percentages for both at the 2007 census), 1.2% reported any of the Austral languages (down from 1.3% at the 2007 census), 1.0% reported Tuamotuan (down from 1.5% at the 2007 census), 0.6% reported a Chinese dialect (41% of which was Hakka) (down from 1.0% at the 2007 census), and 0.4% another language (more than half of which was English) (down from 0.5% at the 2007 census).
At the same census, 95.2% of people whose age was 15 or older reported that they could speak, read and write French (up from 94.7% at the 2007 census), whereas only 1.3% reported that they had no knowledge of French (down from 2.0% at the 2007 census). 86.5% of people whose age was 15 or older reported that they had some form of knowledge of at least one Polynesian language (up from 86.4% at the 2007 census but down from 87.8% at the 2012 census), whereas 13.5% reported that they had no knowledge of any of the Polynesian languages (down from 13.6% at the 2007 census but up from 12.2% at the 2012 census).
French Polynesia appeared in the world music scene in 1992, recorded by French musicologist Pascal Nabet-Meyer with the release of The Tahitian Choir's recordings of unaccompanied vocal Christian music called himene tārava. This form of singing is common in French Polynesia and the Cook Islands, and is notable for a unique drop in pitch at the end of the phrases, a characteristic formed by several different voices, accompanied by a steady grunting of staccato, nonlexical syllables.
Christianity is the main religion of the islands. A majority of 54% belongs to various Protestant churches, especially the Maohi Protestant Church, which is the largest and accounts for more than 50% of the population. It traces its origins to Pōmare II, the king of Tahiti, who converted from traditional beliefs to the Reformed tradition brought to the islands by the London Missionary Society.
Catholics constitute a large minority of 38.3% of the population (2019) which has its own ecclesiastical province, comprising the Metropolitan Archdiocese of Papeete and its only suffragan, the Diocese of Taiohae. The number and proportion of Catholics has increased significantly since 1950, when they represented 21.6% of the total population.
Data from 1991 revealed that Catholics were in the majority in the Tuamotu Islands, Gambier Islands and the Marquesas Islands, while Protestants formed the majority in the Austral Islands and several of the Society Islands such as Tahiti. This diversity is due to the fact that Protestant missionaries (from England and the United States) first came to one group of islands, and after French colonisation the Catholic Church spread to several more scattered islands, but also to the main island of Tahiti.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints had 28,147 members as of 2018. Community of Christ, another denomination within the Latter-Day Saint tradition, claimed 9,256 total French Polynesian members as of 2018 including Mareva Arnaud Tchong who serves in the church's governing Council of Twelve Apostles. There were about 3,000 Jehovah's Witnesses in Tahiti as of 2014, and an estimated 500 Muslims in French Polynesia.
Due to the island location and the fact that the French Polynesia produce a significant array of fruits and vegetables, natural local produce, especially coconut, features in many of the dishes of the islands as does fresh seafood. foods like Faraoa 'ipo, Poisson cru and Rēti'a.
The sport of football in the island of Tahiti is run by the Fédération Tahitienne de Football.
The Polynesian traditional sport va'a is practiced in all the islands. French Polynesia hosts the Hawaiki nui va'a [fr; it; no] an international race between Tahiti, Huahine and Bora Bora.
French Polynesia is famous for its reef break waves. Teahupo'o is probably the most renowned, regularly ranked in the best waves of the world. This site hosts the annual Billabong Pro Tahiti surf competition, the 7th stop of the World Championship Tour, and is scheduled to host the surfing events of the 2024 Summer Olympics.
There are many spots to practice kitesurfing in French Polynesia, with Tahiti, Moorea, Bora-Bora, Maupiti and Raivavae being among the most iconic.
French Polynesia is internationally known for diving. Each archipelago offers opportunities for divers. Rangiroa and Fakarava in the Tuamotu islands are the most famous spots in the area.
Rugby is also popular in French Polynesia, specifically Rugby union.
Television channels with local programming include Polynésie la 1ère (established in 1965) and Tahiti Nui Television (established in 2000). Channels from metropolitan France are also available.
The legal tender of French Polynesia is the CFP franc which has a fixed exchange rate with the euro. The nominal gross domestic product (or GDP) of French Polynesia in 2019 was 6.01 billion U.S. dollars at market exchange rates, the seventh-largest economy in Oceania after Australia, New Zealand, Hawaii, Papua New Guinea, New Caledonia, and Guam. The GDP per capita was US$21,615 in 2019 (at market exchange rates, not at PPP), lower than in Hawaii, Australia, New Zealand, Guam, and New Caledonia, but higher than in all other independent insular states and dependent territories of Oceania.
French Polynesia was severely affected by the Global Financial Crisis of 2008 and subsequent Great Recession, and experienced as a result 4 years of recession from 2009 to 2012. French Polynesia renewed with economic growth in 2013, and experienced strong economic growth in the 2nd half of the 2010s, with an average real GDP growth rate of +2.8% per year from 2016 to 2019, before being affected by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, which has led to another recession.
French Polynesia has a moderately developed economy, which is dependent on imported goods, tourism, and the financial assistance of mainland France. Tourist facilities are well developed and are available on the major islands. Main agricultural productions are coconuts (copra), vegetables and fruits. French Polynesia exports noni juice, a high quality vanilla, and the famous black Tahitian pearls which accounted for 55% of exports (in value) in 2008.
French Polynesia's seafloor contains rich deposits of nickel, cobalt, manganese, and copper that are not exploited.
In 2008, French Polynesia's imports amounted to 2.2 billion U.S. dollars and exports amounted to 0.2 billion U.S. dollars.
There are 53 airports in French Polynesia; 46 are paved. Fa'a'ā International Airport is the only international airport in French Polynesia. Each island has its own airport that serves flights to other islands. Air Tahiti is the main airline that flies around the islands.
In 2017, Alcatel Submarine Networks, a unit of Nokia, launched a project to connect many of the islands in French Polynesia with underwater fiber optic cable. The project, called NATITUA, is intended to improve French Polynesian broadband connectivity by linking Tahiti to 10 islands in the Tuamotu and Marquesas archipelagos. In August 2018, a celebration was held to commemorate the arrival of a submarine cable from Papeete to the atoll of Hao, extending the network by about 1000 kilometres.
17°32′S 149°34′W / 17.533°S 149.567°W / -17.533; -149.567
|
[
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "French Polynesia (/ˌpɒlɪˈniːʒə/ POL-in-EE-zhə; French: Polynésie française [pɔlinezi fʁɑ̃sɛːz]; Tahitian: Pōrīnetia Farāni) is an overseas collectivity of France and its sole overseas country. It comprises 121 geographically dispersed islands and atolls stretching over more than 2,000 kilometres (1,200 mi) in the South Pacific Ocean. The total land area of French Polynesia is 3,521 square kilometres (1,359 sq mi), with a population of 278,786 (Aug. 2022 census).",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "French Polynesia is divided into five groups of islands:",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "Among its 121 islands and atolls, 75 were inhabited at the 2017 census. Tahiti, which is in the Society Islands group, is the most populous island, being home to nearly 69% of the population of French Polynesia as of 2017. Papeete, located on Tahiti, is the capital of French Polynesia. Although not an integral part of its territory, Clipperton Island was administered from French Polynesia until 2007.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "Hundreds of years after the Great Polynesian Migration, European explorers began traveling through the region, visiting the islands of French Polynesia on several occasions. Traders and whaling ships also visited. In 1842, the French took over the islands and established a French protectorate that they called Établissements français d'Océanie (EFO) (French Establishments/Settlements of Oceania).",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "In 1946, the EFO became an overseas territory under the constitution of the French Fourth Republic, and Polynesians were granted the right to vote through citizenship. In 1957, the EFO were renamed French Polynesia. In 1983 French Polynesia became a member of the Pacific Community, a regional development organization. Since 28 March 2003, French Polynesia has been an overseas collectivity of the French Republic under the constitutional revision of article 74, and later gained, with law 2004-192 of 27 February 2004, an administrative autonomy, two symbolic manifestations of which are the title of the President of French Polynesia and its additional designation as an overseas country.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "Anthropologists and historians believe the Great Polynesian Migration commenced around 1500 BC as Austronesian peoples went on a journey using celestial navigation to find islands in the South Pacific Ocean. The first islands of French Polynesia to be settled were the Marquesas Islands in about 200 BC. The Polynesians later ventured southwest and discovered the Society Islands around AD 300.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "European encounters began in 1521 when Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan, sailing at the service of the Spanish Crown, sighted Puka-Puka in the Tuāmotu-Gambier Archipelago. In 1606 another Spanish expedition under Pedro Fernandes de Queirós sailed through Polynesia sighting an inhabited island on 10 February which they called Sagitaria (or Sagittaria), probably the island of Rekareka to the southeast of Tahiti. In 1722, Dutchman Jakob Roggeveen while on an expedition sponsored by the Dutch West India Company, charted the location of six islands in the Tuamotu Archipelago and two islands in the Society Islands, one of which was Bora Bora.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "British explorer Samuel Wallis became the first European navigator to visit Tahiti in 1767. French explorer Louis Antoine de Bougainville also visited Tahiti in 1768, while British explorer James Cook arrived in 1769, and observed the transit of Venus. He would stop in Tahiti again in 1773 during his second voyage to the Pacific, and once more in 1777 during his third and last voyage before being killed in Hawaii.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "In 1772, the Spanish Viceroy of Peru Don Manuel de Amat ordered a number of expeditions to Tahiti under the command of Domingo de Bonechea who was the first European to explore all of the main islands beyond Tahiti. A short-lived Spanish settlement was created in 1774, and for a time some maps bore the name Isla de Amat after Viceroy Amat. Christian missions began with Spanish priests who stayed in Tahiti for a year. Protestants from the London Missionary Society settled permanently in Polynesia in 1797.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "King Pōmare II of Tahiti was forced to flee to Mo'orea in 1803; he and his subjects were converted to Protestantism in 1812. French Catholic missionaries arrived on Tahiti in 1834; their expulsion in 1836 caused France to send a gunboat in 1838. In 1842, Tahiti and Tahuata were declared a French protectorate, to allow Catholic missionaries to work undisturbed. The capital of Papeetē was founded in 1843. In 1880, France annexed Tahiti, changing the status from that of a protectorate to that of a colony. The island groups were not officially united until the establishment of the French protectorate in 1889.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "After France declared a protectorate over Tahiti in 1842 and fought a war with Tahiti (1844–1847), the British and French signed the Jarnac Convention in 1847, declaring that the kingdoms of Raiatea, Huahine and Bora Bora were to remain independent from both powers and that no single chief was to be allowed to reign over the entire archipelago. France eventually broke the agreement, and the islands were annexed and became a colony in 1888 (eight years after the Windward Islands) after many native resistances and conflicts called the Leewards War, lasting until 1897.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "In the 1880s, France claimed the Tuamotu Archipelago, which formerly belonged to the Pōmare Dynasty, without formally annexing it. Having declared a protectorate over Tahuata in 1842, the French regarded the entire Marquesas Islands as French. In 1885, France appointed a governor and established a general council, thus giving it the proper administration for a colony. The islands of Rimatara and Rūrutu unsuccessfully lobbied for British protection in 1888, so in 1889 they were annexed by France. Postage stamps were first issued in the colony in 1892. The first official name for the colony was Établissements de l'Océanie (Establishments in Oceania); in 1903 the general council was changed to an advisory council and the colony's name was changed to Établissements Français de l'Océanie (French Establishments in Oceania).",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "In 1940, the administration of French Polynesia recognised the Free French Forces and many Polynesians served in World War II. Unknown at the time to the French and Polynesians, the Konoe Cabinet in Imperial Japan on 16 September 1940 included French Polynesia among the many territories which were to become Japanese possessions, as part of the \"Eastern Pacific Government-General\" in the post-war world. However, in the course of the war in the Pacific the Japanese were not able to launch an actual invasion of the French islands.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "In 1946, Polynesians were granted French citizenship and the islands' status was changed to an overseas territory; the islands' name was changed in 1957 to Polynésie Française (French Polynesia). In 1962, France's early nuclear testing ground in Algeria was no longer usable when Algeria became independent and the Moruroa atoll in the Tuamotu Archipelago was selected as the new testing site; tests were conducted underground after 1974. In 1977, French Polynesia was granted partial internal autonomy; in 1984, the autonomy was extended. French Polynesia became a full overseas collectivity of France in 2003.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "In September 1995, France stirred up widespread protests by resuming nuclear testing at Fangataufa atoll after a three-year moratorium. The last test was on 27 January 1996. On 29 January 1996, France announced that it would accede to the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, and no longer test nuclear weapons.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 15,
"text": "French Polynesia was relisted in the United Nations list of non-self-governing territories in 2013, making it eligible for a UN-backed independence referendum. The relisting was made after the indigenous opposition was voiced and supported by the Polynesian Leaders Group, Pacific Conference of Churches, Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, Non-Aligned Movement, World Council of Churches, and Melanesian Spearhead Group.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 16,
"text": "Under the terms of Article 74 of the French constitution and the Organic Law 2014–192 on the statute of autonomy of French Polynesia, politics of French Polynesia takes place in a framework of a parliamentary representative democratic French overseas collectivity, whereby the President of French Polynesia is the head of government, and of a multi-party system. Executive power is exercised by the government. Legislative power is vested in both the government and the Assembly of French Polynesia (the territorial assembly).",
"title": "Governance"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 17,
"text": "Political life in French Polynesia was marked by great instability from the mid-2000s to the mid-2010s. The anti-independence right-wing president of French Polynesia, Gaston Flosse, who had been in power since 1991, had supported the resumption of the French nuclear weapons tests in 1995, and had obtained from his longtime friend and political ally Jacques Chirac, then president of France, a status of expanded autonomy for French Polynesia in 2004, failed to secure an absolute majority in the 2004 French Polynesian legislative election, resulting in deadlock at the Assembly of French Polynesia. Flosse's longtime opponent, the pro-independence leader Oscar Temaru, whose pro-independence coalition had won one less seat than Flosse's party in the Assembly, was nonetheless elected president of French Polynesia by the Assembly in June 2004 thanks to the votes of two non-aligned Assembly members. This resulted in several years of political instability, as neither the pro- nor the anti-independence camps were assured of a majority, depending on the votes of smaller non-aligned parties representing the interests of the distant islands of French Polynesia (as opposed to Tahiti). Temaru was toppled from the presidency of French Polynesia in October 2004, succeeded by Flosse who was toppled in March 2005, succeeded by Temaru again who was toppled in December 2006, succeeded by Gaston Tong Sang, a close ally of Flosse.",
"title": "Governance"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 18,
"text": "On 14 September 2007, the pro-independence leader Oscar Temaru was elected president of French Polynesia for the third time in three years (with 27 of 44 votes cast in the territorial assembly). He replaced former president Gaston Tong Sang, opposed to independence, who lost a no-confidence vote in the Assembly of French Polynesia on 31 August after the longtime former president of French Polynesia, Gaston Flosse, hitherto opposed to independence, sided with his long enemy Oscar Temaru to topple the government of Gaston Tong Sang. Oscar Temaru, however, had no stable majority in the Assembly of French Polynesia, and new territorial elections were held in February 2008 to solve the political crisis.",
"title": "Governance"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 19,
"text": "The party of Gaston Tong Sang won the territorial elections, but that did not solve the political crisis: the two minority parties of Oscar Temaru and Gaston Flosse, who together had one more member in the territorial assembly than the political party of Gaston Tong Sang, allied to prevent Gaston Tong Sang from becoming president of French Polynesia. Gaston Flosse was then elected president of French Polynesia by the territorial assembly on 23 February 2008 with the support of the pro-independence party led by Oscar Temaru, while Oscar Temaru was elected speaker of the territorial assembly with the support of the anti-independence party led by Gaston Flosse. Both formed a coalition cabinet. Many observers doubted that the alliance between the anti-independence Gaston Flosse and the pro-independence Oscar Temaru, designed to prevent Gaston Tong Sang from becoming president of French Polynesia, could last very long.",
"title": "Governance"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 20,
"text": "At the French municipal elections held in March 2008, several prominent mayors who were member of the Flosse-Temaru coalition lost their offices in key municipalities of French Polynesia, which was interpreted as a disapproval of the way Gaston Tong Sang, whose party French Polynesian voters had placed first in the territorial elections the month before, had been prevented from becoming president of French Polynesia by the last minute alliance between Flosse and Temaru's parties. Eventually, on 15 April 2008 the government of Gaston Flosse was toppled by a constructive vote of no confidence in the territorial assembly when two members of the Flosse-Temaru coalition left the coalition and sided with Tong Sang's party. Tong Sang's majority in the territorial assembly was very narrow, and he was toppled in February 2009, succeeded by Temaru (supported again by Flosse).",
"title": "Governance"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 21,
"text": "Oscar Temaru's return to power was brief as he fell out with Gaston Flosse and was toppled in November 2009, succeeded by Gaston Tong Sang. Tong Sang remained in power for a year and a half before being toppled in a vote of no confidence in April 2011, and succeeded by Temaru. Oscar Temaru's fifth stint as president of French Polynesia lasted two years, during which he campaigned for the re-inscription of French Polynesia on the United Nations list of non-self-governing territories. Temaru lost the 2013 French Polynesian legislative election by a wide margin, only two weeks before the United Nations re-registered French Polynesia on its list of non-self governing territories. This was interpreted by political analysts as a rejection by French Polynesian voters of Temaru's push for independence as well as the consequence of the socioeconomic crisis affecting French Polynesia after years of political instability and corruption scandals.",
"title": "Governance"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 22,
"text": "Gaston Flosse, whose anti-independence party was the big winner of the 2013 election, succeeded Oscar Temaru as president of French Polynesia in May 2013, but he was removed from office in September 2014 due to a corruption conviction by France's highest court. Flosse was replaced as president of French Polynesia by his second-in-command in the anti-independence camp, Édouard Fritch, who was also Flosse's former son-in-law (divorced from Flosse's daughter). Fritch fell out with Flosse in 2015 as both leaders were vying for control of the anti-independence camp, and Fritch was excluded from Gaston Flosse's party in September 2015, before founding his own anti-independence party, Tapura Huiraatira, in February 2016. His new party managed to keep a majority in the Assembly of French Polynesia, and Fritch remained president of French Polynesia.",
"title": "Governance"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 23,
"text": "Political stability has returned in French Polynesia since the split of the anti-independence camp in 2015–2016. Tapura Huiraatira won 70% of the seats in the Assembly of French Polynesia at the 2018 French Polynesian legislative election, defeating both Oscar Temaru's pro-independence party and Gaston Flosse's anti-independence party, and Édouard Fritch was re-elected president of French Polynesia by the Assembly in May 2018. By 2022, Édouard Fritch was the longest-serving president of French Polynesia since Gaston Flosse in the 1990s and early 2000s.",
"title": "Governance"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 24,
"text": "Between 1946 and 2003, French Polynesia had the status of an overseas territory (territoire d'outre-mer, or TOM). In 2003, it became an overseas collectivity (collectivité d'outre-mer, or COM). Its statutory law of 27 February 2004 gives it the particular designation of overseas country inside the Republic (pays d'outre-mer au sein de la République, or POM), but without legal modification of its status.",
"title": "Governance"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 25,
"text": "Despite a local assembly and government, French Polynesia is not in a free association with France, like the Cook Islands with New Zealand. As a French overseas collectivity, the local government has no competence in justice, university education, security and defense. Services in these areas are directly provided and administered by the Government of France, including the National Gendarmerie (which also polices rural and border areas in metropolitan France), and French military forces. The collectivity government retains control over primary and secondary education, health, town planning, and the environment. The highest representative of the State in the territory is the High Commissioner of the Republic in French Polynesia (French: Haut commissaire de la République en Polynésie française).",
"title": "Governance"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 26,
"text": "French Polynesia also sends three deputies to the French National Assembly in three constituencies, the 1st representing Papeete and its north-eastern suburbs, plus the commune (municipality) of Mo'orea-Mai'ao, the Tuāmotu-Gambier administrative division, and the Marquesas Islands administrative division, the 2nd representing much of Tahiti outside Papeete and the Austral Islands administrative subdivision, and the 3rd representing the Leeward Islands administrative subdivision and the south-western suburbs of Papeete. French Polynesia also sends two senators to the French Senate.",
"title": "Governance"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 27,
"text": "The defence of the collectivity is the responsibility of the French Armed Forces. Some 900 military personnel are deployed in the territory – incorporating the Pacific-Polynesian Marine Infantry Regiment (RIMaP-P) – along with modest air transport and surveillance assets. The latter include three Falcon 200 Gardian maritime surveillance aircraft from French Naval Aviation, which are to be replaced by the more modern Falcon 2000 Albatros starting in 2025. The former is composed of two CN-235 tactical transport aircraft drawn from the Air Force's ET 82 \"Maine\" transport squadron.",
"title": "Governance"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 28,
"text": "Three principal French Navy vessels are based in the territory, including: the surveillance frigate Prairial, the patrol and support ship Bougainville and the coast guard vessel Arago. As of 2021, two smaller port and coastal tugs (RPCs), Maroa and Manini, were also operational in the territory. Flottille 35F of French naval aviation deploys a detachment of three AS 365N Dauphin helicopters in Tahiti. The helicopters carry out a variety of roles in the territory or may be embarked on Prairial as required. In late 2023 or early 2024, Arago is to be replaced by Teriieroo to Teriierooiterai, a vessel of the new Félix Éboué class of patrol vessels. The French Navy will further reinforce its offshore patrol capabilities in the region by deploying a second vessel of the class (Philip Bernardino) to Tahiti by 2025.",
"title": "Governance"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 29,
"text": "The National Gendarmerie deploys some 500 active personnel and civilians, plus around 150 reservists, in French Polynesia. The patrol boat Jasmin of the Maritime Gendarmerie is also based in the territory and is to be replaced by a new PCG-NG patrol boat in about 2025–2026.",
"title": "Governance"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 30,
"text": "The islands of French Polynesia make up a total land area of 3,521 square kilometres (1,359 sq mi), scattered over more than 2,000 kilometres (1,200 mi) of ocean. There are 121 islands in French Polynesia and many more islets or motus around atolls. The highest point is Mount Orohena on Tahiti.",
"title": "Geography"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 31,
"text": "It is made up of five archipelagos. The largest and most populated island is Tahiti, in the Society Islands. The archipelagos are:",
"title": "Geography"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 32,
"text": "Aside from Tahiti, some other important atolls, islands, and island groups in French Polynesia are: Ahē, Bora Bora, Hiva 'Oa, Huahine, Mai'ao, Maupiti, Meheti'a, Mo'orea, Nuku Hiva, Raiatea, Taha'a, Tetiaroa, Tupua'i and Tūpai.",
"title": "Geography"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 33,
"text": "French Polynesia is home to four terrestrial ecoregions: Marquesas tropical moist forests, Society Islands tropical moist forests, Tuamotu tropical moist forests, and Tubuai tropical moist forests.",
"title": "Geography"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 34,
"text": "French Polynesia is divided in five administrative subdivisions (subdivisions administratives):",
"title": "Administrative divisions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 35,
"text": "The five administrative subdivisions are not local councils; they are solely deconcentrated subdivisions of the French central State. At the head of each administrative subdivision is an administrateur d'État (\"State administrator\"), generally simply known as administrateur, also sometimes called chef de la subdivision administrative (\"head of the administrative subdivision\"). The administrateur is a civil servant under the authority of the High Commissioner of the French Republic in French Polynesia in Papeete.",
"title": "Administrative divisions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 36,
"text": "Four administrative subdivisions (Marquesas Islands, Leeward Islands, Tuamotu-Gambier, and Austral Islands) each also form a deconcentrated subdivision of the government of French Polynesia. These are called circonscriptions (\"districts\"). The head of a circonscription is the tavana hau, known as administrateur territorial in French (\"territorial administrator\"), but the Tahitian title tavana hau is most often used. The tavana hau is the direct representative of the president of French Polynesia's government who appoints him or her. The Windward Islands, due to their proximity to Papeete, do not form a deconcentrated subdivision of the government of French Polynesia.",
"title": "Administrative divisions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 37,
"text": "The 5 administrative subdivisions are themselves divided in 48 communes. Like all other communes in the French Republic, these are municipalities in which local residents with either a French or another EU citizenship elect a municipal council and a mayor in charge of managing local affairs within the commune. Municipal elections occur every six years on the same date as in the rest of the French Republic (the last municipal elections took place in 2020).",
"title": "Administrative divisions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 38,
"text": "30 communes are further subdivided in 98 associated communes which have each a delegate mayor and a registry office. These 30 communes were subdivided in associated communes either because they have a large land territory (particularly in the larger islands such as Tahiti or Nuku Hiva) or because they are made up of atolls distant from each other (particularly in the Tuamotu archipelago), which led to the creation of associated communes for each inhabited atoll.",
"title": "Administrative divisions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 39,
"text": "17 communes (out of French Polynesia's 48 communes) have banded together in three separate communities of communes. These indirectly elected intercommunal councils are still relatively new in French Polynesia, and unlike in metropolitan France and its overseas regions it is not mandatory for the communes in French Polynesia to join an intercommunal council. The three intercommunal councils in existence as of 2022, all formed on a voluntary basis, were:",
"title": "Administrative divisions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 40,
"text": "These communities of communes, as elsewhere in the French Republic, are not full-fledged territorial collectivities, but only federations of communes. From a legal standpoint, the only territorial collectivities in French Polynesia are the overseas collectivity of French Polynesia and the 48 communes.",
"title": "Administrative divisions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 41,
"text": "Total population was 278,786 according to the August 18, 2022 census, 68.7% of whom lived on the island of Tahiti alone. The urban area of Papeete, the capital city, has 136,771 inhabitants (2017 census).",
"title": "Demographics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 42,
"text": "At the 2017 census, 89.0% of people living in French Polynesia had been born there (up from 87.3% in 2007); 8.1% had been born in Metropolitan France (down from 9.3% in 2007); 1.2% were born elsewhere in overseas France (down from 1.4% in 2007); and 1.7% were from foreign countries (down from 2.0% in 2007). The population of natives of Metropolitan France living in French Polynesia has declined in relative terms since the 1980s, but in absolute terms their population peaked at the 2007 census, when 24,265 lived in French Polynesia (not counting their children born there). With the local economic crisis, their population declined to 22,278 at the 2012 census, and 22,387 at the 2017 census.",
"title": "Demographics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 43,
"text": "At the 1988 census, the last census which asked questions regarding ethnicity, 66.5% of people were ethnically unmixed Polynesians, 7.1% were ethnically Polynesians with light European or East Asian mixing, 11.9% were Europeans (mostly French), 9.3% were people of mixed European and Polynesian descent, the so-called Demis (literally meaning \"Half\"), and 4.7% were East Asians (mainly Chinese).",
"title": "Demographics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 44,
"text": "Chinese, Demis, and the white populace are essentially concentrated on the island of Tahiti, particularly in the urban area of Papeete, where their share of the population is thus much greater than in French Polynesia overall. Despite a long history of ethnic mixing, ethnic tensions have been growing in recent years, with politicians using a xenophobic discourse and fanning the flame of nationalism.",
"title": "Demographics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 45,
"text": "All the indigenous languages of French Polynesia are Polynesian. French Polynesia has been linguistically diverse since ancient times, with each community having its own local speech variety. These dialects can be grouped into seven languages on the basis of mutual intelligibility: Tahitian, Tuamotuan, Rapa, Austral, North Marquesan, South Marquesan, and Mangarevan. Some of these, especially Tuamotuan, are really dialect continua formed by a patchwork of different dialects. The distinction between languages and dialects is notoriously difficult to establish, and so some authors may view two varieties as dialects of the same language, while others may view them as distinct languages. In this way, North and South Marquesan are often grouped together as a single Marquesan language, and Rapa is often viewed as part of Austral subfamily. At the same time, Ra'ivavae is often viewed as distinct from them.",
"title": "Culture"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 46,
"text": "French is the sole official language of French Polynesia. An organic law of 12 April 1996 states that \"French is the official language, Tahitian and other Polynesian languages can be used.\" At the 2017 census, among the population whose age was 15 and older, 73.9% of people reported that the language they spoke the most at home was French (up from 68.6% at the 2007 census), 20.2% reported that the language they spoke the most at home was Tahitian (down from 24.3% at the 2007 census), 2.6% reported Marquesan and 0.2% the related Mangareva language (same percentages for both at the 2007 census), 1.2% reported any of the Austral languages (down from 1.3% at the 2007 census), 1.0% reported Tuamotuan (down from 1.5% at the 2007 census), 0.6% reported a Chinese dialect (41% of which was Hakka) (down from 1.0% at the 2007 census), and 0.4% another language (more than half of which was English) (down from 0.5% at the 2007 census).",
"title": "Culture"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 47,
"text": "At the same census, 95.2% of people whose age was 15 or older reported that they could speak, read and write French (up from 94.7% at the 2007 census), whereas only 1.3% reported that they had no knowledge of French (down from 2.0% at the 2007 census). 86.5% of people whose age was 15 or older reported that they had some form of knowledge of at least one Polynesian language (up from 86.4% at the 2007 census but down from 87.8% at the 2012 census), whereas 13.5% reported that they had no knowledge of any of the Polynesian languages (down from 13.6% at the 2007 census but up from 12.2% at the 2012 census).",
"title": "Culture"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 48,
"text": "French Polynesia appeared in the world music scene in 1992, recorded by French musicologist Pascal Nabet-Meyer with the release of The Tahitian Choir's recordings of unaccompanied vocal Christian music called himene tārava. This form of singing is common in French Polynesia and the Cook Islands, and is notable for a unique drop in pitch at the end of the phrases, a characteristic formed by several different voices, accompanied by a steady grunting of staccato, nonlexical syllables.",
"title": "Culture"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 49,
"text": "Christianity is the main religion of the islands. A majority of 54% belongs to various Protestant churches, especially the Maohi Protestant Church, which is the largest and accounts for more than 50% of the population. It traces its origins to Pōmare II, the king of Tahiti, who converted from traditional beliefs to the Reformed tradition brought to the islands by the London Missionary Society.",
"title": "Culture"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 50,
"text": "Catholics constitute a large minority of 38.3% of the population (2019) which has its own ecclesiastical province, comprising the Metropolitan Archdiocese of Papeete and its only suffragan, the Diocese of Taiohae. The number and proportion of Catholics has increased significantly since 1950, when they represented 21.6% of the total population.",
"title": "Culture"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 51,
"text": "Data from 1991 revealed that Catholics were in the majority in the Tuamotu Islands, Gambier Islands and the Marquesas Islands, while Protestants formed the majority in the Austral Islands and several of the Society Islands such as Tahiti. This diversity is due to the fact that Protestant missionaries (from England and the United States) first came to one group of islands, and after French colonisation the Catholic Church spread to several more scattered islands, but also to the main island of Tahiti.",
"title": "Culture"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 52,
"text": "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints had 28,147 members as of 2018. Community of Christ, another denomination within the Latter-Day Saint tradition, claimed 9,256 total French Polynesian members as of 2018 including Mareva Arnaud Tchong who serves in the church's governing Council of Twelve Apostles. There were about 3,000 Jehovah's Witnesses in Tahiti as of 2014, and an estimated 500 Muslims in French Polynesia.",
"title": "Culture"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 53,
"text": "Due to the island location and the fact that the French Polynesia produce a significant array of fruits and vegetables, natural local produce, especially coconut, features in many of the dishes of the islands as does fresh seafood. foods like Faraoa 'ipo, Poisson cru and Rēti'a.",
"title": "Culture"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 54,
"text": "The sport of football in the island of Tahiti is run by the Fédération Tahitienne de Football.",
"title": "Culture"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 55,
"text": "The Polynesian traditional sport va'a is practiced in all the islands. French Polynesia hosts the Hawaiki nui va'a [fr; it; no] an international race between Tahiti, Huahine and Bora Bora.",
"title": "Culture"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 56,
"text": "French Polynesia is famous for its reef break waves. Teahupo'o is probably the most renowned, regularly ranked in the best waves of the world. This site hosts the annual Billabong Pro Tahiti surf competition, the 7th stop of the World Championship Tour, and is scheduled to host the surfing events of the 2024 Summer Olympics.",
"title": "Culture"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 57,
"text": "There are many spots to practice kitesurfing in French Polynesia, with Tahiti, Moorea, Bora-Bora, Maupiti and Raivavae being among the most iconic.",
"title": "Culture"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 58,
"text": "French Polynesia is internationally known for diving. Each archipelago offers opportunities for divers. Rangiroa and Fakarava in the Tuamotu islands are the most famous spots in the area.",
"title": "Culture"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 59,
"text": "Rugby is also popular in French Polynesia, specifically Rugby union.",
"title": "Culture"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 60,
"text": "Television channels with local programming include Polynésie la 1ère (established in 1965) and Tahiti Nui Television (established in 2000). Channels from metropolitan France are also available.",
"title": "Culture"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 61,
"text": "The legal tender of French Polynesia is the CFP franc which has a fixed exchange rate with the euro. The nominal gross domestic product (or GDP) of French Polynesia in 2019 was 6.01 billion U.S. dollars at market exchange rates, the seventh-largest economy in Oceania after Australia, New Zealand, Hawaii, Papua New Guinea, New Caledonia, and Guam. The GDP per capita was US$21,615 in 2019 (at market exchange rates, not at PPP), lower than in Hawaii, Australia, New Zealand, Guam, and New Caledonia, but higher than in all other independent insular states and dependent territories of Oceania.",
"title": "Economy and infrastructure"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 62,
"text": "French Polynesia was severely affected by the Global Financial Crisis of 2008 and subsequent Great Recession, and experienced as a result 4 years of recession from 2009 to 2012. French Polynesia renewed with economic growth in 2013, and experienced strong economic growth in the 2nd half of the 2010s, with an average real GDP growth rate of +2.8% per year from 2016 to 2019, before being affected by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, which has led to another recession.",
"title": "Economy and infrastructure"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 63,
"text": "French Polynesia has a moderately developed economy, which is dependent on imported goods, tourism, and the financial assistance of mainland France. Tourist facilities are well developed and are available on the major islands. Main agricultural productions are coconuts (copra), vegetables and fruits. French Polynesia exports noni juice, a high quality vanilla, and the famous black Tahitian pearls which accounted for 55% of exports (in value) in 2008.",
"title": "Economy and infrastructure"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 64,
"text": "French Polynesia's seafloor contains rich deposits of nickel, cobalt, manganese, and copper that are not exploited.",
"title": "Economy and infrastructure"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 65,
"text": "In 2008, French Polynesia's imports amounted to 2.2 billion U.S. dollars and exports amounted to 0.2 billion U.S. dollars.",
"title": "Economy and infrastructure"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 66,
"text": "There are 53 airports in French Polynesia; 46 are paved. Fa'a'ā International Airport is the only international airport in French Polynesia. Each island has its own airport that serves flights to other islands. Air Tahiti is the main airline that flies around the islands.",
"title": "Economy and infrastructure"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 67,
"text": "In 2017, Alcatel Submarine Networks, a unit of Nokia, launched a project to connect many of the islands in French Polynesia with underwater fiber optic cable. The project, called NATITUA, is intended to improve French Polynesian broadband connectivity by linking Tahiti to 10 islands in the Tuamotu and Marquesas archipelagos. In August 2018, a celebration was held to commemorate the arrival of a submarine cable from Papeete to the atoll of Hao, extending the network by about 1000 kilometres.",
"title": "Economy and infrastructure"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 68,
"text": "17°32′S 149°34′W / 17.533°S 149.567°W / -17.533; -149.567",
"title": "External links"
}
] |
French Polynesia is an overseas collectivity of France and its sole overseas country. It comprises 121 geographically dispersed islands and atolls stretching over more than 2,000 kilometres (1,200 mi) in the South Pacific Ocean. The total land area of French Polynesia is 3,521 square kilometres (1,359 sq mi), with a population of 278,786. French Polynesia is divided into five groups of islands: the Society Islands archipelago, comprising the Windward Islands and the Leeward Islands
the Tuamotu Archipelago
the Gambier Islands
the Marquesas Islands
the Austral Islands. Among its 121 islands and atolls, 75 were inhabited at the 2017 census. Tahiti, which is in the Society Islands group, is the most populous island, being home to nearly 69% of the population of French Polynesia as of 2017. Papeete, located on Tahiti, is the capital of French Polynesia. Although not an integral part of its territory, Clipperton Island was administered from French Polynesia until 2007. Hundreds of years after the Great Polynesian Migration, European explorers began traveling through the region, visiting the islands of French Polynesia on several occasions. Traders and whaling ships also visited. In 1842, the French took over the islands and established a French protectorate that they called Établissements français d'Océanie (EFO). In 1946, the EFO became an overseas territory under the constitution of the French Fourth Republic, and Polynesians were granted the right to vote through citizenship. In 1957, the EFO were renamed French Polynesia. In 1983 French Polynesia became a member of the Pacific Community, a regional development organization. Since 28 March 2003, French Polynesia has been an overseas collectivity of the French Republic under the constitutional revision of article 74, and later gained, with law 2004-192 of 27 February 2004, an administrative autonomy, two symbolic manifestations of which are the title of the President of French Polynesia and its additional designation as an overseas country.
|
2001-04-29T15:59:30Z
|
2023-12-29T19:45:00Z
|
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Polynesia
|
10,739 |
Geography of French Polynesia
|
15°00′S 140°00′W / 15.000°S 140.000°W / -15.000; -140.000
French Polynesia is located in Oceania. It is a group of six archipelagos in the South Pacific Ocean, about halfway between South America and Australia. Its area is about 4,167 km (around 130 islands), of which 3,827 km is land and 340 km is (inland) water. It has a coastline of 2,525 km but no land borders with other countries.
There are 118 islands in French Polynesia (and many more islets or motus around atolls). Four of the islands are volcanic and one island is coral. Makatea in French Polynesia is one of the three great phosphate rock islands in the Pacific Ocean – the others are Banaba (Ocean Island) in Kiribati and Nauru. The terrain consists of a mixture of rugged high islands and low islands with reefs.
It is made up of six archipelagos. The largest and most populated island is Tahiti, in the Society Islands.
The archipelagos are:
Aside from Tahiti, some other important atolls, islands, and island groups in French Polynesia are: Ahē, Bora Bora, Hiva 'Oa, Huahine, Mai'ao, Maupiti, Meheti'a, Mo'orea, Nuku Hiva, Raiatea, Taha'a, Tetiaroa, Tupua'i, and Tūpai. The country's highest point is Mont Orohena on Tahiti at 2,241 meters high.
The country has a tropical, but moderate climate.
This article incorporates public domain material from World Factbook. CIA.
|
[
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "15°00′S 140°00′W / 15.000°S 140.000°W / -15.000; -140.000",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "French Polynesia is located in Oceania. It is a group of six archipelagos in the South Pacific Ocean, about halfway between South America and Australia. Its area is about 4,167 km (around 130 islands), of which 3,827 km is land and 340 km is (inland) water. It has a coastline of 2,525 km but no land borders with other countries.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "There are 118 islands in French Polynesia (and many more islets or motus around atolls). Four of the islands are volcanic and one island is coral. Makatea in French Polynesia is one of the three great phosphate rock islands in the Pacific Ocean – the others are Banaba (Ocean Island) in Kiribati and Nauru. The terrain consists of a mixture of rugged high islands and low islands with reefs.",
"title": "Physical geography"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "It is made up of six archipelagos. The largest and most populated island is Tahiti, in the Society Islands.",
"title": "Physical geography"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "The archipelagos are:",
"title": "Physical geography"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "Aside from Tahiti, some other important atolls, islands, and island groups in French Polynesia are: Ahē, Bora Bora, Hiva 'Oa, Huahine, Mai'ao, Maupiti, Meheti'a, Mo'orea, Nuku Hiva, Raiatea, Taha'a, Tetiaroa, Tupua'i, and Tūpai. The country's highest point is Mont Orohena on Tahiti at 2,241 meters high.",
"title": "Physical geography"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "The country has a tropical, but moderate climate.",
"title": "Climate"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "This article incorporates public domain material from World Factbook. CIA.",
"title": "References"
}
] |
French Polynesia is located in Oceania. It is a group of six archipelagos in the South Pacific Ocean, about halfway between South America and Australia. Its area is about 4,167 km2, of which 3,827 km2 is land and 340 km2 is (inland) water. It has a coastline of 2,525 km but no land borders with other countries.
|
2022-12-19T04:52:03Z
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geography_of_French_Polynesia
|
|
10,740 |
Demographics of French Polynesia
|
Demographic features of the population of French Polynesia include population density, ethnicity, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects.
The following demographic statistics are from the CIA World Factbook, unless otherwise indicated.
|
[
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "Demographic features of the population of French Polynesia include population density, ethnicity, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "",
"title": "Births and deaths"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "The following demographic statistics are from the CIA World Factbook, unless otherwise indicated.",
"title": "CIA World Factbook demographic statistics"
}
] |
Demographic features of the population of French Polynesia include population density, ethnicity, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects.
|
2002-02-25T15:51:15Z
|
2023-09-28T07:37:34Z
|
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_French_Polynesia
|
10,741 |
Politics of French Polynesia
|
Politics of French Polynesia takes place in a framework of a parliamentary representative democratic French overseas collectivity, whereby the President of French Polynesia is the head of government, and of a multi-party system. Executive power is exercised by the government. Legislative power is vested in both the government and the Assembly of French Polynesia.
Between 1946 and 2003, French Polynesia had the status of an overseas territory (French: territoire d'outre-mer, or TOM). In 2003 it became an overseas collectivity (French: collectivité d'outre-mer, or COM). Its statutory law of 27 February 2004 gives it the particular designation of "overseas country" to underline the large autonomy of the territory.
The President of the French Republic is represented by the High Commissioner of the Republic in French Polynesia (Haut-Commissaire de la République en Polynésie française). The government is headed by the President of French Polynesia. He submits as Council of Ministers a list of members of the Territorial Assembly, the Assembly of French Polynesia (Assemblée de la Polynésie française), for approval by them to serve as ministers.
French Polynesia elects the Assembly of French Polynesia (Assemblée de la Polynésie française), the unicameral legislature on the territorial level. The Assembly of French Polynesia has 57 members, elected for a five-year term by proportional representation in multi-seat constituencies. Since the territorial elections of March 6, 2001, the parity bill now binds that the number of women matches the number of men at the Assembly.
The members of the Assembly of French Polynesia are elected in 6 different electoral districts or electoral circumscriptions (French: circonscriptions électorales) which slightly differ from the administrative subdivisions (subdivisions administratives) on the Tuamotus and the Gambier Islands. The 6 electoral circumscriptions (circonscriptions électorales) are:
Court of Appeal or Cour d'Appel; Court of the First Instance or Tribunal de Premiere Instance; Court of Administrative Law or Tribunal Administratif.
French Polynesia has 5 administrative subdivisions (French: subdivisions administratives):
note: Clipperton Island (French: Île de Clipperton), just off the coast of Mexico, was administered by France from French Polynesia.
ESCAP (associate), FZ, ITUC, SPC, WMO
Media related to Politics of French Polynesia at Wikimedia Commons
|
[
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "Politics of French Polynesia takes place in a framework of a parliamentary representative democratic French overseas collectivity, whereby the President of French Polynesia is the head of government, and of a multi-party system. Executive power is exercised by the government. Legislative power is vested in both the government and the Assembly of French Polynesia.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "Between 1946 and 2003, French Polynesia had the status of an overseas territory (French: territoire d'outre-mer, or TOM). In 2003 it became an overseas collectivity (French: collectivité d'outre-mer, or COM). Its statutory law of 27 February 2004 gives it the particular designation of \"overseas country\" to underline the large autonomy of the territory.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "The President of the French Republic is represented by the High Commissioner of the Republic in French Polynesia (Haut-Commissaire de la République en Polynésie française). The government is headed by the President of French Polynesia. He submits as Council of Ministers a list of members of the Territorial Assembly, the Assembly of French Polynesia (Assemblée de la Polynésie française), for approval by them to serve as ministers.",
"title": "Executive branch"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "French Polynesia elects the Assembly of French Polynesia (Assemblée de la Polynésie française), the unicameral legislature on the territorial level. The Assembly of French Polynesia has 57 members, elected for a five-year term by proportional representation in multi-seat constituencies. Since the territorial elections of March 6, 2001, the parity bill now binds that the number of women matches the number of men at the Assembly.",
"title": "Legislative branch"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "The members of the Assembly of French Polynesia are elected in 6 different electoral districts or electoral circumscriptions (French: circonscriptions électorales) which slightly differ from the administrative subdivisions (subdivisions administratives) on the Tuamotus and the Gambier Islands. The 6 electoral circumscriptions (circonscriptions électorales) are:",
"title": "Political parties and elections"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "Court of Appeal or Cour d'Appel; Court of the First Instance or Tribunal de Premiere Instance; Court of Administrative Law or Tribunal Administratif.",
"title": "Judicial branch"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "French Polynesia has 5 administrative subdivisions (French: subdivisions administratives):",
"title": "Administrative divisions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "note: Clipperton Island (French: Île de Clipperton), just off the coast of Mexico, was administered by France from French Polynesia.",
"title": "Administrative divisions"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "ESCAP (associate), FZ, ITUC, SPC, WMO",
"title": "International organization participation"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "Media related to Politics of French Polynesia at Wikimedia Commons",
"title": "External links"
}
] |
Politics of French Polynesia takes place in a framework of a parliamentary representative democratic French overseas collectivity, whereby the President of French Polynesia is the head of government, and of a multi-party system. Executive power is exercised by the government. Legislative power is vested in both the government and the Assembly of French Polynesia. Between 1946 and 2003, French Polynesia had the status of an overseas territory. In 2003 it became an overseas collectivity. Its statutory law of 27 February 2004 gives it the particular designation of "overseas country" to underline the large autonomy of the territory.
|
2023-05-21T21:12:20Z
|
[
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"Template:Reflist",
"Template:Cite web",
"Template:Commonscatinline",
"Template:French Polynesia topics",
"Template:Oceania in topic",
"Template:Short description",
"Template:Office-table",
"Template:For",
"Template:Lang-fr"
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics_of_French_Polynesia
|
|
10,742 |
Economy of French Polynesia
|
The economy of French Polynesia is one of a developed country with a service sector accounting for 75%. French Polynesia's GDP per capita is around $22,000, one of the highest in the Pacific region.
Before French colonisation, the Polynesian islands that constitute nowadays French Polynesia, relied on a subsistence economy. Work was heavily organised and performed by the community as a whole under the direction of the Arii ruling class and the priests. Mountains were terraced for agriculture production, river banks were contained by stone walls, artificial soil was created on atolls in large trenches, and large systems made out of coral stone walls trapped and stocked live fish. Production outputs were divided by the ruling class between the population.
After the contact was established with European ships, foreign diseases killed large portions of the populations, and Christian beliefs and clergy produced a huge shift in the culture of those islands. With fewer population to feed, more land per capita was available, and the land use switched toward the limited production required by a family to live. Habitations moved toward seashores as the population relied more on the lagoon and sea trade. European ships stopped in those islands to purchase water, salt pork meat, dried fish and fresh fruits.
As French, English and Americans settled, part of the agriculture moved towards exports of oranges, coprah, coffee, cotton, and vanilla. They also exported Tahitian black pearls and sandalwood. Santal wood nearly disappeared, cotton production was short-lived, as the US's south recovered from the American Civil War, and coffee and orange trees suffered from imported diseases that stopped those exports. Coprah and vanilla prices and competition worldwide impacted heavily those productions in the second half of the 20th century, although they still exist. The guano mining at Makatea started in 1917 and stopped in 1966 when the stocks were depleted.
In 1962, France stationed military personnel in the region and started nuclear experimentations in Moruroa. French Polynesia's economy switched to services to support the military and the growing tourist industry.
Tourism accounts nowadays for about 13% of the GDP, and is a primary source of foreign currency earnings. The tourist industry was heavily impacted after the 9/11 terrorist attacks and the 2008 economic crises, and never really recovered since. There are around 160,000 tourists per year. The local government mostly focuses its action at developing a high-end market with luxurious hotels built with foreign investment and French tax cut incentives, but many of these investments close after a few years. The subsidized air company Air Tahiti Nui brings tourists from France, Los Angeles, Japan and China. Other companies also operate, like Air France and Air New Zealand.
The small manufacturing sector primarily processes agricultural products. Vanilla and pearls are its main exports.
The public administration is an important part of the GDP and a provider of stable employment. The French republic finances the functionaries working in education, justice, hospitals, gendarmerie (military police), and military. The local government controls its own administration, like the ministry of agriculture, and oversees the administration and buildings of some sectors like schools. The local government also influence a large part of the economy through subsidies and development programs.
Some parts of the economy involve quasi-monopolistic groups due to the small economy size, the challenges of a country of small islands spread in a huge oceanic space, and the action of the government through subsidies and public companies. Some sectors show an important horizontal and vertical integration trend. Recently, the local government tries to maintain a healthy competition and regulate the growth of the biggest groups, but face many challenges. For example, it was unable to prevent a major supermarket group to develop its own vegetable production, ending its supplying contracts with local farmers. But it blocked the merger of two local shipping companies to avoid a monopoly on some trade routes. The price of shipping goods between islands is fixed by the government, and subsidies are provided for transporting some items like farming products or construction materials.
Some products' price margins are controlled by the local government to reduce the disparity of prices between the different archipelagos. Import taxes and VAT are fixed and collected by the local government that also control what imports are allowed to protect its agriculture and nature from diseases and invasive species.
The majority of the population is of mixed Polynesian and European origin. Around 5% of the population is of Asian origin, descending from farm workers imported in the 19th century to work in the cotton fields. They are present in the administration and trading sector of the economy. The recent metropolitan population is mostly involved in the state administration and in small and medium-sized enterprises.
Most Polynesians in agriculture farm traditional products like taro, ufi, casava and sweet potato to feed themselves and small surplus are sold for monetary income alongside a small fishing activity. Farmers of Asian origin tends to produce European and Asian vegetables for the local market.
The Moorea island developed pineapple production for local market and supplying the juice factory. Maupiti and Huahine produce watermelons. Tahiti and Tahaa have a small production of sugarcane for rum distillery.
Tahiti produces a small quantity of fresh milk, mostly for the local yogurt factory, as most of the population is used to drinking UHT and powdered milk from France and New Zealand. French Polynesia has a single slaughterhouse treating beef, pork, and chickens. The local beef meat production is very limited and mostly used to supply the local corned beef factory. Most of the meat comes from New Zealand, amounting to around 10% of the exports of fresh meat of this country. Two charcuteries produce ham, sausages, and pâtés from local and imported pork.
The copra production is heavily subsidized as the local government treats it as a form of social support for the remote islands with a limited range of economic activities possibilities like Tuamotu atolls. The copra is milled by the Huilerie de Tahiti to produce coconut oil mostly used for the monoi. The coconut cake residue is used as a cattle and pork feed, and surplus used to be exported to New Zealand.
Vanilla production depends heavily on the situation in Madagascar. When a typhoon hit this main supplier of vanilla, the market price increased worldwide and the local Polynesian government started a heavy program of subsidies and loans to develop vanilla farms. As the Polynesian production increased and Madagascar recovered, prices dropped and a lot of Polynesian farmers stopped caring for their vanilla plants. The plants are fragile and require regular care of experienced farmers. Diseases and insects can heavily reduce the production, and the cost of chemical products used impact the farmer harder when the vanilla prices are low. As the vanilla production falls, the price increase and the government started a new program of development, starting a new cycle. Despite the high price of Tahitian dried vanilla on the international market, it usually still finds buyers in the high-end market because of the specificities of its cultivar and quality.
In the 1990s, the commercial production of Noni started because of the supposed benefits of the juice of this fruit. Exports were mostly directed toward the North American market. But this production was short-lived, falling quickly from 7000 tonnes in 2005 down to 2000 tonnes in 2008, as the plant can be easily farmed in any tropical climate, especially in countries with lower labor costs and more land.
A small vineyard production exists in Rangiroa atoll and is aimed at the high-end market, capitalizing on its rarity and specificity of a vine grown on coral soil in a tropical island.
French Polynesia's electricity production in 2004 was 477 GWh. In 1998 59.72% of French Polynesia's electricity came from fossil fuel with the remainder from hydropower.
French Polynesia uses the Comptoirs Francais du Pacifique franc (CFPF), with 1 CFP franc subdivided into 100 centimes. The CFP franc was formerly linked at the exact official rate of 0.055 French francs to one Pacifique franc. When France switched its currency to the euro in 1999 this static link remained true, so that the rate is now about 119.26 Pacifique franc to one euro (1 euro being exactly 6.55957 French francs). In 2016 the exchange rate was 110.2 CFP francs per US dollar.
|
[
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "The economy of French Polynesia is one of a developed country with a service sector accounting for 75%. French Polynesia's GDP per capita is around $22,000, one of the highest in the Pacific region.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "Before French colonisation, the Polynesian islands that constitute nowadays French Polynesia, relied on a subsistence economy. Work was heavily organised and performed by the community as a whole under the direction of the Arii ruling class and the priests. Mountains were terraced for agriculture production, river banks were contained by stone walls, artificial soil was created on atolls in large trenches, and large systems made out of coral stone walls trapped and stocked live fish. Production outputs were divided by the ruling class between the population.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "After the contact was established with European ships, foreign diseases killed large portions of the populations, and Christian beliefs and clergy produced a huge shift in the culture of those islands. With fewer population to feed, more land per capita was available, and the land use switched toward the limited production required by a family to live. Habitations moved toward seashores as the population relied more on the lagoon and sea trade. European ships stopped in those islands to purchase water, salt pork meat, dried fish and fresh fruits.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "As French, English and Americans settled, part of the agriculture moved towards exports of oranges, coprah, coffee, cotton, and vanilla. They also exported Tahitian black pearls and sandalwood. Santal wood nearly disappeared, cotton production was short-lived, as the US's south recovered from the American Civil War, and coffee and orange trees suffered from imported diseases that stopped those exports. Coprah and vanilla prices and competition worldwide impacted heavily those productions in the second half of the 20th century, although they still exist. The guano mining at Makatea started in 1917 and stopped in 1966 when the stocks were depleted.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "In 1962, France stationed military personnel in the region and started nuclear experimentations in Moruroa. French Polynesia's economy switched to services to support the military and the growing tourist industry.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "Tourism accounts nowadays for about 13% of the GDP, and is a primary source of foreign currency earnings. The tourist industry was heavily impacted after the 9/11 terrorist attacks and the 2008 economic crises, and never really recovered since. There are around 160,000 tourists per year. The local government mostly focuses its action at developing a high-end market with luxurious hotels built with foreign investment and French tax cut incentives, but many of these investments close after a few years. The subsidized air company Air Tahiti Nui brings tourists from France, Los Angeles, Japan and China. Other companies also operate, like Air France and Air New Zealand.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "The small manufacturing sector primarily processes agricultural products. Vanilla and pearls are its main exports.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "The public administration is an important part of the GDP and a provider of stable employment. The French republic finances the functionaries working in education, justice, hospitals, gendarmerie (military police), and military. The local government controls its own administration, like the ministry of agriculture, and oversees the administration and buildings of some sectors like schools. The local government also influence a large part of the economy through subsidies and development programs.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "Some parts of the economy involve quasi-monopolistic groups due to the small economy size, the challenges of a country of small islands spread in a huge oceanic space, and the action of the government through subsidies and public companies. Some sectors show an important horizontal and vertical integration trend. Recently, the local government tries to maintain a healthy competition and regulate the growth of the biggest groups, but face many challenges. For example, it was unable to prevent a major supermarket group to develop its own vegetable production, ending its supplying contracts with local farmers. But it blocked the merger of two local shipping companies to avoid a monopoly on some trade routes. The price of shipping goods between islands is fixed by the government, and subsidies are provided for transporting some items like farming products or construction materials.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "Some products' price margins are controlled by the local government to reduce the disparity of prices between the different archipelagos. Import taxes and VAT are fixed and collected by the local government that also control what imports are allowed to protect its agriculture and nature from diseases and invasive species.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "The majority of the population is of mixed Polynesian and European origin. Around 5% of the population is of Asian origin, descending from farm workers imported in the 19th century to work in the cotton fields. They are present in the administration and trading sector of the economy. The recent metropolitan population is mostly involved in the state administration and in small and medium-sized enterprises.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "Most Polynesians in agriculture farm traditional products like taro, ufi, casava and sweet potato to feed themselves and small surplus are sold for monetary income alongside a small fishing activity. Farmers of Asian origin tends to produce European and Asian vegetables for the local market.",
"title": "Agriculture"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "The Moorea island developed pineapple production for local market and supplying the juice factory. Maupiti and Huahine produce watermelons. Tahiti and Tahaa have a small production of sugarcane for rum distillery.",
"title": "Agriculture"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "Tahiti produces a small quantity of fresh milk, mostly for the local yogurt factory, as most of the population is used to drinking UHT and powdered milk from France and New Zealand. French Polynesia has a single slaughterhouse treating beef, pork, and chickens. The local beef meat production is very limited and mostly used to supply the local corned beef factory. Most of the meat comes from New Zealand, amounting to around 10% of the exports of fresh meat of this country. Two charcuteries produce ham, sausages, and pâtés from local and imported pork.",
"title": "Agriculture"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "The copra production is heavily subsidized as the local government treats it as a form of social support for the remote islands with a limited range of economic activities possibilities like Tuamotu atolls. The copra is milled by the Huilerie de Tahiti to produce coconut oil mostly used for the monoi. The coconut cake residue is used as a cattle and pork feed, and surplus used to be exported to New Zealand.",
"title": "Agriculture"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 15,
"text": "Vanilla production depends heavily on the situation in Madagascar. When a typhoon hit this main supplier of vanilla, the market price increased worldwide and the local Polynesian government started a heavy program of subsidies and loans to develop vanilla farms. As the Polynesian production increased and Madagascar recovered, prices dropped and a lot of Polynesian farmers stopped caring for their vanilla plants. The plants are fragile and require regular care of experienced farmers. Diseases and insects can heavily reduce the production, and the cost of chemical products used impact the farmer harder when the vanilla prices are low. As the vanilla production falls, the price increase and the government started a new program of development, starting a new cycle. Despite the high price of Tahitian dried vanilla on the international market, it usually still finds buyers in the high-end market because of the specificities of its cultivar and quality.",
"title": "Agriculture"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 16,
"text": "In the 1990s, the commercial production of Noni started because of the supposed benefits of the juice of this fruit. Exports were mostly directed toward the North American market. But this production was short-lived, falling quickly from 7000 tonnes in 2005 down to 2000 tonnes in 2008, as the plant can be easily farmed in any tropical climate, especially in countries with lower labor costs and more land.",
"title": "Agriculture"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 17,
"text": "A small vineyard production exists in Rangiroa atoll and is aimed at the high-end market, capitalizing on its rarity and specificity of a vine grown on coral soil in a tropical island.",
"title": "Agriculture"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 18,
"text": "French Polynesia's electricity production in 2004 was 477 GWh. In 1998 59.72% of French Polynesia's electricity came from fossil fuel with the remainder from hydropower.",
"title": "Electricity"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 19,
"text": "French Polynesia uses the Comptoirs Francais du Pacifique franc (CFPF), with 1 CFP franc subdivided into 100 centimes. The CFP franc was formerly linked at the exact official rate of 0.055 French francs to one Pacifique franc. When France switched its currency to the euro in 1999 this static link remained true, so that the rate is now about 119.26 Pacifique franc to one euro (1 euro being exactly 6.55957 French francs). In 2016 the exchange rate was 110.2 CFP francs per US dollar.",
"title": "Currency"
}
] |
The economy of French Polynesia is one of a developed country with a service sector accounting for 75%. French Polynesia's GDP per capita is around $22,000, one of the highest in the Pacific region.
|
2001-04-29T16:01:14Z
|
2023-11-13T23:28:17Z
|
[
"Template:Portal",
"Template:Oceania in topic",
"Template:EU Dependent economies",
"Template:Refimprove",
"Template:Infobox economy",
"Template:Unreferenced section",
"Template:Reflist",
"Template:Cite web"
] |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_French_Polynesia
|
10,743 |
Telecommunications in French Polynesia
|
This article is about communications systems in French Polynesia.
The Honotua fiber optic cable connected Tahiti to Hawaii in 2010, increasing Internet speeds to 20 gigabits per second from 500 megabits per second. The cable will also connect to Moorea and the Leeward Islands of Huahine, Raiatea and Bora Bora.
Main lines in use: 32,000 (1995)
Mobile cellular: 4,000 (1995)
Telephone system: Domestic: N/A International: Satellite Earth station—1 Intelsat (Pacific Ocean)
Radio stations: AM 2, FM 14, shortwave 2 (1998)
Radios: 128,000 (1997)
Television stations: 7 (plus 17 low-power repeaters) (1997)
Televisions: 40,000 (1997)
Internet Service Providers (ISPs): OPT (national operator),
Country code (Top Level Domain): PF
ITU Prefix: F
Amateur radio prefix (Designated by France): FO
|
[
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "This article is about communications systems in French Polynesia.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "The Honotua fiber optic cable connected Tahiti to Hawaii in 2010, increasing Internet speeds to 20 gigabits per second from 500 megabits per second. The cable will also connect to Moorea and the Leeward Islands of Huahine, Raiatea and Bora Bora.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "Main lines in use: 32,000 (1995)",
"title": "Telephone"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "Mobile cellular: 4,000 (1995)",
"title": "Telephone"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "Telephone system: Domestic: N/A International: Satellite Earth station—1 Intelsat (Pacific Ocean)",
"title": "Telephone"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "Radio stations: AM 2, FM 14, shortwave 2 (1998)",
"title": "Radio"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "Radios: 128,000 (1997)",
"title": "Radio"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "Television stations: 7 (plus 17 low-power repeaters) (1997)",
"title": "Television"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "Televisions: 40,000 (1997)",
"title": "Television"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "Internet Service Providers (ISPs): OPT (national operator),",
"title": "Internet"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "Country code (Top Level Domain): PF",
"title": "Internet"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "ITU Prefix: F",
"title": "Internet"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "Amateur radio prefix (Designated by France): FO",
"title": "Internet"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "",
"title": "Notes"
}
] |
This article is about communications systems in French Polynesia. The Honotua fiber optic cable connected Tahiti to Hawaii in 2010, increasing Internet speeds to 20 gigabits per second from 500 megabits per second. The cable will also connect to Moorea and the Leeward Islands of Huahine, Raiatea and Bora Bora.
|
2022-01-14T04:11:19Z
|
[
"Template:FrenchPolynesia-stub",
"Template:Use dmy dates",
"Template:French Polynesia topics",
"Template:Oceania topic",
"Template:Telecommunications",
"Template:Telecommunications-stub",
"Template:Short description",
"Template:See",
"Template:Reflist",
"Template:Cite web"
] |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telecommunications_in_French_Polynesia
|
|
10,744 |
Transport in French Polynesia
|
Railways: 0 km
Highways: total: 2590 km paved: 1735 km unpaved: 855 km (1999)
Ports and harbours: Mataura, Papeete, Rikitea, Uturoa
Merchant marine: total: 10 ships (1,000 gross tonnage (GT) or over) totaling 17,537 GT/15,150 tonnes deadweight (DWT) ships by type: cargo ship 3, passenger ship 2, passenger/cargo 3, refrigerated cargo 1, roll-on/roll-off ship 1 (2003 est.)
Airports: 49 (2003 est.)
Airports - with paved runways: total: 37 over 3,047 m: 2 1,524 to 2,437 m: 5 914 to 1,523 m: 23 under 914 m: 3 (2004 est.)
Airports - with unpaved runways: total: 13 914 to 1,523 m: 5 under 914 m: 8 (2004 est.)
Heliports 1 (2003 est.)
This article incorporates public domain material from World Factbook (2023 ed.). CIA. (Archived 2004 edition)
|
[
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "Railways: 0 km",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "Highways: total: 2590 km paved: 1735 km unpaved: 855 km (1999)",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "Ports and harbours: Mataura, Papeete, Rikitea, Uturoa",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "Merchant marine: total: 10 ships (1,000 gross tonnage (GT) or over) totaling 17,537 GT/15,150 tonnes deadweight (DWT) ships by type: cargo ship 3, passenger ship 2, passenger/cargo 3, refrigerated cargo 1, roll-on/roll-off ship 1 (2003 est.)",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "Airports: 49 (2003 est.)",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "Airports - with paved runways: total: 37 over 3,047 m: 2 1,524 to 2,437 m: 5 914 to 1,523 m: 23 under 914 m: 3 (2004 est.)",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "Airports - with unpaved runways: total: 13 914 to 1,523 m: 5 under 914 m: 8 (2004 est.)",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "Heliports 1 (2003 est.)",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "This article incorporates public domain material from World Factbook (2023 ed.). CIA. (Archived 2004 edition)",
"title": "External links"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "",
"title": "External links"
}
] |
Railways:
0 km Highways:
total:
2590 km
paved:
1735 km
unpaved:
855 km (1999) Ports and harbours:
Mataura, Papeete, Rikitea, Uturoa Merchant marine:
total:
10 ships totaling 17,537 GT/15,150 tonnes deadweight (DWT) ships by type:
cargo ship 3, passenger ship 2, passenger/cargo 3, refrigerated cargo 1, roll-on/roll-off ship 1 Airports:
49 Airports - with paved runways:
total:
37
over 3,047 m:
2
1,524 to 2,437 m:
5
914 to 1,523 m:
23
under 914 m:
3 Airports - with unpaved runways:
total:
13
914 to 1,523 m:
5
under 914 m:
8 Heliports
1
|
2020-07-27T15:59:28Z
|
[
"Template:French Polynesia topics",
"Template:Oceania in topic",
"Template:FrenchPolynesia-stub",
"Template:CIA",
"Template:GT",
"Template:DWT",
"Template:Commons category",
"Template:CIA World Factbook"
] |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transport_in_French_Polynesia
|
|
10,747 |
French Southern and Antarctic Lands
|
The French Southern and Antarctic Lands (French: Terres australes et antarctiques françaises, TAAF) is an overseas territory (French: Territoire d'outre-mer or TOM) of France. It consists of:
The territory is sometimes referred to as the French Southern Lands (French: Terres australes françaises) or the French Southern Territories, usually to emphasize non-recognition of French sovereignty over Adélie Land as part of the Antarctic Treaty System.
The entire territory has no known permanently settled inhabitants. Approximately 150 (in the winter) to 310 (in the summer) people are usually present in the French Southern and Antarctic Lands at any time, but they are mainly made up of military personnel, officials, scientific researchers and support staff.
On 5 July 2019, the Crozet Islands, the Kerguelen Islands, and the Saint Paul and Amsterdam Islands were inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site as the "French Austral Lands and Seas" because of their pristine wilderness, biodiversity, and enormous bird colonies.
Several of the islands within this territory were originally discovered as part of the Sea Route to India. The Portuguese discovered Saint Paul Island in the sixteenth century; in the seventeenth century, the Dutch became the first to land on (and name) Amsterdam Island. The French discovered the Crozet Islands some time later, in the eighteenth century; the other islands were also first explored by Europeans within this time frame. The last district to be found was Adelie Land in mainland antarctica , found by the French in 1840 lead by Jules Dumont d'Urville who was the future namesake for a research station on the island. The islands were officially recognised on the 6th August 1956 by law. This was overruling the law passed in 1924 that tied the territory with the Government General of France in Madagascar. Since 2000 the biggest area is the Saint-Pierre de La Réunion which houses 65 people and the main governing body of the territory.
The French Southern and Antarctic Lands have formed a territoire d'outre-mer (an overseas territory) of France since 1955. Formerly, they were administered from Paris by an administrateur supérieur assisted by a secretary-general; since December 2004, however, their administrator has been a préfet, currently Florence Jeanblanc-Risler, with headquarters in Saint Pierre on Réunion Island.
The TAAF administration, the French Polar Institute Paul-Émile Victor (IPEV) and the French Navy jointly operate the icebreaker Astrolabe which is based out of Reunion. The vessel is used both to bring personnel and supplies to the Dumont d'Urville Station and for research and patrol duties.
The territory is divided into five districts:
According to new law 2007-224 of February 21, 2007, the Scattered Islands constitute the TAAF's fifth district. The TAAF website does not mention their population. The data are not included in the totals. The Îles Éparses principal station is on Tromelin Island. The headquarters of the district chief lies beyond the TAAF, in Saint Pierre on Réunion Island. The Territory's principal station is Martin-de-Viviès on Amsterdam Island. The capital and headquarters of the territorial administrator lies beyond the TAAF, in Saint Pierre on Réunion Island.
Each district is headed by a district chief, who has powers similar to those of a French mayor (including recording births and deaths and being an officer of judicial police).
Because there is no permanent population, there is no elected assembly, nor does the territory send representatives to the national parliament.
The territory includes the Crozet Islands, the Kerguelen Islands, and the Saint Paul and Amsterdam Islands in the southern Indian Ocean near 43°S, 67°E, along with Adélie Land, the sector of Antarctica claimed by France, named by the French explorer Jules Dumont d'Urville after his wife.
Adélie Land (about 432,000 km or 167,000 sq mi) and the islands, totaling 7,781 km (3,004 sq mi), have no indigenous inhabitants, though in 1997 there were about 100 researchers whose numbers varied from winter (July) to summer (January).
Amsterdam Island and Saint Paul Island are extinct volcanoes and have been delineated as the Amsterdam and Saint-Paul Islands temperate grasslands ecoregion. The highest point in the territory is Mont Ross on Kerguelen Island at 1,850 m (6,070 ft). There are very few airstrips on the islands, only existing on islands with weather stations, and the 1,232 km (766 mi) of coastline have no ports or harbors, only offshore anchorages.
The islands in the Indian Ocean are supplied by the special ship Marion Dufresne sailing out of Le Port in Réunion Island. Terre Adélie is supplied by L'Astrolabe sailing out of Hobart in Tasmania.
However, the territory has a merchant marine fleet totaling (in 1999) 2,892,911 GRT/5,165,713 tonnes deadweight (DWT), including seven bulk carriers, five cargo ships, ten chemical tankers, nine container ships, six liquefied gas carriers, 24 petroleum tankers, one refrigerated cargo ship, and ten roll-on/roll-off (RORO) carriers. This fleet is maintained as a subset of the French register that allows French-owned ships to operate under more liberal taxation and manning regulations than permissible under the main French register. This register, however, is to vanish, replaced by the International French Register (Registre International Français, RIF).
Due to their isolation, the French islands in the southern Indian Ocean comprise one of the last remaining large wilderness areas on Earth. Furthermore, the islands are positioned along the Antarctic Convergence, where upwelling creates nutrient-rich waters. As a result, birds and marine mammals gather on the islands in great abundance. More than 50 million birds of 47 species breed on the islands, including more than half the breeding population of 16 different species. The largest populations of king penguins and the endangered Indian yellow-nosed albatross on Earth are found on the Crozet Islands and Amsterdam Island, respectively. Other threatened bird species with important populations on the islands include Eaton's pintail, MacGillivray's prion, and the Amsterdam albatross, which is one of four bird species endemic to the island group. The French Southern Lands also hold the second largest population of southern elephant seals on Earth, numbering roughly 200,000, and the third largest population of the Antarctic fur seal.
Because of their isolation and subpolar location, the French Southern Lands are relatively depauperate of vegetation, with both Saint-Paul and Crozet having no native tree or shrub species. However, eight of the 36 higher plant species are endemic. Some species of endemic invertebrates have also been recorded on the islands, including moths and flies which have lost their wings in the absence of predators.
The territory's natural resources are limited to fish and crustaceans. Economic activity is limited to servicing meteorological and geophysical research stations and French and other fishing fleets.
The main fish resources are Patagonian toothfish and spiny lobster. Both are poached by foreign fleets; because of this, the French Navy, and occasionally other services, patrol the zone and arrest poaching vessels. Such arrests can result in heavy fines and/or the seizure of the ship.
France previously sold licenses to foreign fisheries to fish the Patagonian toothfish; because of overfishing, it is now restricted to a small number of fisheries from Réunion Island.
The territory takes in revenues of about €16 million a year.
In the territory there is no permanent population but there are some areas that contain research stations. Ile Amsterdam has a meteorological station. Iles Crozet contains the Alfred Faure research station that contains about 20-30 people. One of the most populous research stations is the Iles Kerguelen which contains 50-100 researchers at Port-aux-Francais. The Iles Eparses contains a French military garrison and is a spot for meteorology. The Dumont d’Urville station us a vital area for studying wildlife, the atmosphere and the ice caps.
The French Southern Territories (i.e. the TAAF excluding Adélie Land) have been given the following country codes: FS (FIPS) and TF (ISO 3166-1 alpha-2).
|
[
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "The French Southern and Antarctic Lands (French: Terres australes et antarctiques françaises, TAAF) is an overseas territory (French: Territoire d'outre-mer or TOM) of France. It consists of:",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "The territory is sometimes referred to as the French Southern Lands (French: Terres australes françaises) or the French Southern Territories, usually to emphasize non-recognition of French sovereignty over Adélie Land as part of the Antarctic Treaty System.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "The entire territory has no known permanently settled inhabitants. Approximately 150 (in the winter) to 310 (in the summer) people are usually present in the French Southern and Antarctic Lands at any time, but they are mainly made up of military personnel, officials, scientific researchers and support staff.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "On 5 July 2019, the Crozet Islands, the Kerguelen Islands, and the Saint Paul and Amsterdam Islands were inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site as the \"French Austral Lands and Seas\" because of their pristine wilderness, biodiversity, and enormous bird colonies.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "Several of the islands within this territory were originally discovered as part of the Sea Route to India. The Portuguese discovered Saint Paul Island in the sixteenth century; in the seventeenth century, the Dutch became the first to land on (and name) Amsterdam Island. The French discovered the Crozet Islands some time later, in the eighteenth century; the other islands were also first explored by Europeans within this time frame. The last district to be found was Adelie Land in mainland antarctica , found by the French in 1840 lead by Jules Dumont d'Urville who was the future namesake for a research station on the island. The islands were officially recognised on the 6th August 1956 by law. This was overruling the law passed in 1924 that tied the territory with the Government General of France in Madagascar. Since 2000 the biggest area is the Saint-Pierre de La Réunion which houses 65 people and the main governing body of the territory.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "The French Southern and Antarctic Lands have formed a territoire d'outre-mer (an overseas territory) of France since 1955. Formerly, they were administered from Paris by an administrateur supérieur assisted by a secretary-general; since December 2004, however, their administrator has been a préfet, currently Florence Jeanblanc-Risler, with headquarters in Saint Pierre on Réunion Island.",
"title": "Administration"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "The TAAF administration, the French Polar Institute Paul-Émile Victor (IPEV) and the French Navy jointly operate the icebreaker Astrolabe which is based out of Reunion. The vessel is used both to bring personnel and supplies to the Dumont d'Urville Station and for research and patrol duties.",
"title": "Administration"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "The territory is divided into five districts:",
"title": "Administration"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "According to new law 2007-224 of February 21, 2007, the Scattered Islands constitute the TAAF's fifth district. The TAAF website does not mention their population. The data are not included in the totals. The Îles Éparses principal station is on Tromelin Island. The headquarters of the district chief lies beyond the TAAF, in Saint Pierre on Réunion Island. The Territory's principal station is Martin-de-Viviès on Amsterdam Island. The capital and headquarters of the territorial administrator lies beyond the TAAF, in Saint Pierre on Réunion Island.",
"title": "Administration"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "Each district is headed by a district chief, who has powers similar to those of a French mayor (including recording births and deaths and being an officer of judicial police).",
"title": "Administration"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "Because there is no permanent population, there is no elected assembly, nor does the territory send representatives to the national parliament.",
"title": "Administration"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "The territory includes the Crozet Islands, the Kerguelen Islands, and the Saint Paul and Amsterdam Islands in the southern Indian Ocean near 43°S, 67°E, along with Adélie Land, the sector of Antarctica claimed by France, named by the French explorer Jules Dumont d'Urville after his wife.",
"title": "Geography"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "Adélie Land (about 432,000 km or 167,000 sq mi) and the islands, totaling 7,781 km (3,004 sq mi), have no indigenous inhabitants, though in 1997 there were about 100 researchers whose numbers varied from winter (July) to summer (January).",
"title": "Geography"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "Amsterdam Island and Saint Paul Island are extinct volcanoes and have been delineated as the Amsterdam and Saint-Paul Islands temperate grasslands ecoregion. The highest point in the territory is Mont Ross on Kerguelen Island at 1,850 m (6,070 ft). There are very few airstrips on the islands, only existing on islands with weather stations, and the 1,232 km (766 mi) of coastline have no ports or harbors, only offshore anchorages.",
"title": "Geography"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "The islands in the Indian Ocean are supplied by the special ship Marion Dufresne sailing out of Le Port in Réunion Island. Terre Adélie is supplied by L'Astrolabe sailing out of Hobart in Tasmania.",
"title": "Geography"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 15,
"text": "However, the territory has a merchant marine fleet totaling (in 1999) 2,892,911 GRT/5,165,713 tonnes deadweight (DWT), including seven bulk carriers, five cargo ships, ten chemical tankers, nine container ships, six liquefied gas carriers, 24 petroleum tankers, one refrigerated cargo ship, and ten roll-on/roll-off (RORO) carriers. This fleet is maintained as a subset of the French register that allows French-owned ships to operate under more liberal taxation and manning regulations than permissible under the main French register. This register, however, is to vanish, replaced by the International French Register (Registre International Français, RIF).",
"title": "Geography"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 16,
"text": "Due to their isolation, the French islands in the southern Indian Ocean comprise one of the last remaining large wilderness areas on Earth. Furthermore, the islands are positioned along the Antarctic Convergence, where upwelling creates nutrient-rich waters. As a result, birds and marine mammals gather on the islands in great abundance. More than 50 million birds of 47 species breed on the islands, including more than half the breeding population of 16 different species. The largest populations of king penguins and the endangered Indian yellow-nosed albatross on Earth are found on the Crozet Islands and Amsterdam Island, respectively. Other threatened bird species with important populations on the islands include Eaton's pintail, MacGillivray's prion, and the Amsterdam albatross, which is one of four bird species endemic to the island group. The French Southern Lands also hold the second largest population of southern elephant seals on Earth, numbering roughly 200,000, and the third largest population of the Antarctic fur seal.",
"title": "Flora and fauna"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 17,
"text": "Because of their isolation and subpolar location, the French Southern Lands are relatively depauperate of vegetation, with both Saint-Paul and Crozet having no native tree or shrub species. However, eight of the 36 higher plant species are endemic. Some species of endemic invertebrates have also been recorded on the islands, including moths and flies which have lost their wings in the absence of predators.",
"title": "Flora and fauna"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 18,
"text": "The territory's natural resources are limited to fish and crustaceans. Economic activity is limited to servicing meteorological and geophysical research stations and French and other fishing fleets.",
"title": "Economy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 19,
"text": "The main fish resources are Patagonian toothfish and spiny lobster. Both are poached by foreign fleets; because of this, the French Navy, and occasionally other services, patrol the zone and arrest poaching vessels. Such arrests can result in heavy fines and/or the seizure of the ship.",
"title": "Economy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 20,
"text": "France previously sold licenses to foreign fisheries to fish the Patagonian toothfish; because of overfishing, it is now restricted to a small number of fisheries from Réunion Island.",
"title": "Economy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 21,
"text": "The territory takes in revenues of about €16 million a year.",
"title": "Economy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 22,
"text": "In the territory there is no permanent population but there are some areas that contain research stations. Ile Amsterdam has a meteorological station. Iles Crozet contains the Alfred Faure research station that contains about 20-30 people. One of the most populous research stations is the Iles Kerguelen which contains 50-100 researchers at Port-aux-Francais. The Iles Eparses contains a French military garrison and is a spot for meteorology. The Dumont d’Urville station us a vital area for studying wildlife, the atmosphere and the ice caps.",
"title": "Locations and Scientific Stations"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 23,
"text": "The French Southern Territories (i.e. the TAAF excluding Adélie Land) have been given the following country codes: FS (FIPS) and TF (ISO 3166-1 alpha-2).",
"title": "Codes"
}
] |
The French Southern and Antarctic Lands is an overseas territory of France. It consists of: Adélie Land, the French claim on the continent of Antarctica.
Crozet Islands, a group in the southern Indian Ocean, south of Madagascar.
Kerguelen Islands, a group of volcanic islands in the southern Indian Ocean, southeast of Africa.
Saint Paul and Amsterdam Islands, a group to the north of the Kerguelen Islands.
Scattered Islands, a dispersed group of islands around the coast of Madagascar. The territory is sometimes referred to as the French Southern Lands or the French Southern Territories, usually to emphasize non-recognition of French sovereignty over Adélie Land as part of the Antarctic Treaty System. The entire territory has no known permanently settled inhabitants. Approximately 150 to 310 people are usually present in the French Southern and Antarctic Lands at any time, but they are mainly made up of military personnel, officials, scientific researchers and support staff. On 5 July 2019, the Crozet Islands, the Kerguelen Islands, and the Saint Paul and Amsterdam Islands were inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site as the "French Austral Lands and Seas" because of their pristine wilderness, biodiversity, and enormous bird colonies.
|
2002-02-25T15:51:15Z
|
2023-12-26T16:13:17Z
|
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Southern_and_Antarctic_Lands
|
10,761 |
History of French Guiana
|
The history of French Guiana dates back to the period prior to European colonization. Prior to the arrival of the first Europeans, there was no written history in the territory. It was originally inhabited by a number of Native American peoples, among them the Kalina (Caribs), Arawak, Galibi, Palikur, Teko, Wayampi (also known as Oyampi), and Wayana. The first Europeans arrived in the expeditions of Christopher Columbus, shortly before 1500.
Rumours online proclaim that in 1498, French Guiana was visited by Europeans when Christopher Columbus sailed to the Guiaiean coast, which he named the "Land of Pariahs". Columbus had actually sailed to the coast of Venezuela from Trinidad, and he named the coastline “Ysla Sancta”, as from his view the far away coast appeared to be an island. The term “Land of Pariahs” comes from the Gulf of Paria, the water that the lands Columbus had discovered were facing.
In 1608, the Grand Duchy of Tuscany sent an expedition to the area in order to create an Italian colony for the commerce of Amazonian products to Renaissance Italy, but the sudden death of Ferdinando I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, stopped it. In 1624, the French attempted to settle in the area but were forced to abandon it in the face of hostility from the Portuguese, who viewed it as a violation of the Treaty of Tordesillas. However, French settlers returned in 1630 and in 1643 managed to establish a settlement at Cayenne along with some small-scale plantations. This second attempt would again be abandoned following Amerindian attacks. In 1658, the Dutch West Indies Company seized French territory to establish the Dutch colony of Cayenne. The French returned once more in 1664, and founded a second settlement at Sinnamary (this was attacked by the Dutch in 1665).
In 1667, the English seized the area. Following the Treaty of Breda on 31 July 1667, the area was given back to France. The Dutch briefly occupied it for a period in 1676.
After the Treaty of Paris in 1763, which deprived France of almost all her possessions in the Americas other than Guiana and a few islands, Louis XV sent thousands of settlers to Guiana who were lured there with stories of plentiful gold and easy fortunes to be made. Instead they found a land filled with hostile natives and tropical diseases. One and a half years later only a few hundred survived. These fled to three small islands which could be seen off shore and named them the Iles de Salut (or "Islands of Salvation"). The largest was called Royal Island, another St. Joseph (after the patron saint of the expedition), and the smallest of the islands, surrounded by strong currents, Île du Diable (the infamous "Devil's Island"). When the survivors of this ill-fated expedition returned home, the terrible stories they told of the colony left a lasting impression in France.
In 1776, Pierre-Victor Malouet was appointed to the Colony, who brought in Jean Samuel Guisan to establish agriculture in the colony. The relatively good period ended in 1792 during the French Revolution, when the first prison for priests and political enemies opened in Sinnamary which set a precedent.
During the French Revolution, the National Convention voted to abolish the French slave trade and slavery in France's overseas colonies in February 1794, months after enslaved Haitians had started a slave rebellion in the colony of Saint-Domingue. However, the 1794 decree was only implemented in Saint-Domingue, Guadeloupe, and French Guiana, while the colonies of Senegal, Mauritius, Réunion and Martinique, and French India resisted the imposition of these laws.
In 1794, after the execution of Maximilien Robespierre, 193 of his followers were sent to French Guiana. In 1797, the republican general Pichegru and many deputies and journalists were also sent to the colony. When they arrived, they found that only 54 of the 193 deportées sent out three years earlier were left; 11 had escaped and the rest had died of tropical fevers and other diseases. Pichegru managed to escape to the United States and then returned to France where he was eventually executed for plotting against Napoleon.
Later on, slaves were brought out from Africa, and plantations were established along the more disease-free rivers. Exports of sugar, hardwood, Cayenne pepper, and other spices brought a certain prosperity to the colony for the first time. Cayenne, the capital, was surrounded by plantations, some of which had several thousand slaves.
In 1809, an Anglo-Portuguese naval squadron took French Guiana (ousting governor Victor Hugues) and gave it to the Portuguese in Brazil. However, with the signing of the Treaty of Paris in 1814, the region was handed back to the French, though a Portuguese presence remained until 1817.
In 1848, France abolished slavery and the ex-slaves fled into the rainforest, setting up communities similar to the ones they had come from in Africa. Subsequently, called Maroons, they formed a sort of buffer zone between the Europeans (who settled along the coast and main rivers) and the unconquered (and often hostile) Native American tribes of the inland regions. Deprived of slave labor the plantations were soon taken over by the jungle, and the planters ruined.
In 1850, several shiploads of Indians, Malays, and Chinese were brought out to work the plantations but, instead, they set up shops in Cayenne and other settlements.
In 1852, the first shiploads of chained convicts arrived from France. In 1885, to get rid of habitual criminals and to increase the number of colonists, the French Parliament passed a law that anyone, male or female, who had more than three sentences for theft of more than three months each, would be sent to French Guiana as a relégué. This relégués was to be kept in prison there for six months but then freed to become settlers in the colony. However, this experiment failed dismally. The ex-prisoners, unable to make a living off the land, found themselves forced to revert to crime or to eke out a hand-to-mouth existence until they died. In fact, transportation to French Guiana as a relégué amounted to a life sentence, and usually, a short life sentence, as most of the relégués died very quickly from disease and malnutrition.
The prisoners would arrive at St Laurent du Maroni before being transported to various camps throughout the country. The Iles du Salut was used to house political prisoners and for solitary confinement. The islands became notorious for the brutality of life there, centering on the notorious Devil's Island. Famous figures sent to the islands included Alfred Dreyfus (in 1895) and Henri Charrière (in the 1930s). Charrière managed to escape and later wrote a best-selling book called Papillon.
In 1853, gold was discovered in the interior, precipitating border disputes with Brazil and Suriname (these were later settled in 1891, 1899, and 1915, although a small region of the border with Suriname remains in dispute). The Republic of Independent Guyana, in French La République de la Guyane indépendante and commonly referred to by the name of the capital "Counani", was created in the area which was disputed by France (as part of French Guiana) and Brazil in the late 19th century.
The territory of Inini, consisting of most of the interior of French Guiana, was created in 1930. It was abolished in 1946.
During World War II the local government declared its allegiance to the Vichy government, despite widespread support for Charles de Gaulle. This government was removed on 22 March 1943.
French Guiana became an overseas département of France on 19 March 1946.
The infamous penal colonies, including Devil's Island, were gradually phased out and then formally closed in 1951. At first, only those freed prisoners who could raise the fare for their return passage to France were able to go home, so French Guiana was haunted after the official closing of the prisons by numerous freed convicts leading an aimless existence in the colony.
Visitors to the site in December 1954 reported being deeply shocked by the conditions and the constant screams from the cell block still in use for convicts who had gone insane and which had only tiny ventilation slots at the tops of the walls under the roof. Food was pushed in and bodies removed once a day.
In 1961, Brazilian president Jânio Quadros planned the annexation of French Guiana, but resigned due to "hidden forces" before he could execute the operation.
In 1964, Kourou was chosen to be the launch site for rockets, largely due to its favourable location near the equator. The Guiana Space Centre was built and became operational in 1968. This has provided some local employment and the mainly foreign technicians, and hundreds of troops stationed in the region to prevent sabotage, bring a little income to the local economy.
The 1970s saw the settlement of Hmong refugees from Laos in the county, primarily to the towns of Javouhey and Cacao. The Green Plan (Le Plan Vert) of 1976 aimed to improve production, though it had only limited success. A movement for increased autonomy from France gained momentum in the 70s and 80s, along with the increasing success of the Parti Socialiste Guyanais.
Protests by those calling for more autonomy from France have become increasingly vocal. Protests in 1996, 1997, and 2000 all ended in violence. While many Guianese wish to see more autonomy, support for complete independence is low.
In a 2010 referendum, French Guianans voted against autonomy.
On 20 March 2017, French Guianans began going on strike and demonstrating for more resources and infrastructure. 28 March 2017 saw the largest demonstration ever held in French Guiana.
The first woman to be elected to the Senate was Marie-Laure Phinéra-Horth in 2020.
|
[
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "The history of French Guiana dates back to the period prior to European colonization. Prior to the arrival of the first Europeans, there was no written history in the territory. It was originally inhabited by a number of Native American peoples, among them the Kalina (Caribs), Arawak, Galibi, Palikur, Teko, Wayampi (also known as Oyampi), and Wayana. The first Europeans arrived in the expeditions of Christopher Columbus, shortly before 1500.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "Rumours online proclaim that in 1498, French Guiana was visited by Europeans when Christopher Columbus sailed to the Guiaiean coast, which he named the \"Land of Pariahs\". Columbus had actually sailed to the coast of Venezuela from Trinidad, and he named the coastline “Ysla Sancta”, as from his view the far away coast appeared to be an island. The term “Land of Pariahs” comes from the Gulf of Paria, the water that the lands Columbus had discovered were facing.",
"title": "Beginnings of European involvement"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "In 1608, the Grand Duchy of Tuscany sent an expedition to the area in order to create an Italian colony for the commerce of Amazonian products to Renaissance Italy, but the sudden death of Ferdinando I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, stopped it. In 1624, the French attempted to settle in the area but were forced to abandon it in the face of hostility from the Portuguese, who viewed it as a violation of the Treaty of Tordesillas. However, French settlers returned in 1630 and in 1643 managed to establish a settlement at Cayenne along with some small-scale plantations. This second attempt would again be abandoned following Amerindian attacks. In 1658, the Dutch West Indies Company seized French territory to establish the Dutch colony of Cayenne. The French returned once more in 1664, and founded a second settlement at Sinnamary (this was attacked by the Dutch in 1665).",
"title": "Beginnings of European involvement"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "In 1667, the English seized the area. Following the Treaty of Breda on 31 July 1667, the area was given back to France. The Dutch briefly occupied it for a period in 1676.",
"title": "Beginnings of European involvement"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "After the Treaty of Paris in 1763, which deprived France of almost all her possessions in the Americas other than Guiana and a few islands, Louis XV sent thousands of settlers to Guiana who were lured there with stories of plentiful gold and easy fortunes to be made. Instead they found a land filled with hostile natives and tropical diseases. One and a half years later only a few hundred survived. These fled to three small islands which could be seen off shore and named them the Iles de Salut (or \"Islands of Salvation\"). The largest was called Royal Island, another St. Joseph (after the patron saint of the expedition), and the smallest of the islands, surrounded by strong currents, Île du Diable (the infamous \"Devil's Island\"). When the survivors of this ill-fated expedition returned home, the terrible stories they told of the colony left a lasting impression in France.",
"title": "Consolidation of French rule"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "In 1776, Pierre-Victor Malouet was appointed to the Colony, who brought in Jean Samuel Guisan to establish agriculture in the colony. The relatively good period ended in 1792 during the French Revolution, when the first prison for priests and political enemies opened in Sinnamary which set a precedent.",
"title": "Consolidation of French rule"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "During the French Revolution, the National Convention voted to abolish the French slave trade and slavery in France's overseas colonies in February 1794, months after enslaved Haitians had started a slave rebellion in the colony of Saint-Domingue. However, the 1794 decree was only implemented in Saint-Domingue, Guadeloupe, and French Guiana, while the colonies of Senegal, Mauritius, Réunion and Martinique, and French India resisted the imposition of these laws.",
"title": "Consolidation of French rule"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "In 1794, after the execution of Maximilien Robespierre, 193 of his followers were sent to French Guiana. In 1797, the republican general Pichegru and many deputies and journalists were also sent to the colony. When they arrived, they found that only 54 of the 193 deportées sent out three years earlier were left; 11 had escaped and the rest had died of tropical fevers and other diseases. Pichegru managed to escape to the United States and then returned to France where he was eventually executed for plotting against Napoleon.",
"title": "Consolidation of French rule"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "Later on, slaves were brought out from Africa, and plantations were established along the more disease-free rivers. Exports of sugar, hardwood, Cayenne pepper, and other spices brought a certain prosperity to the colony for the first time. Cayenne, the capital, was surrounded by plantations, some of which had several thousand slaves.",
"title": "Consolidation of French rule"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "In 1809, an Anglo-Portuguese naval squadron took French Guiana (ousting governor Victor Hugues) and gave it to the Portuguese in Brazil. However, with the signing of the Treaty of Paris in 1814, the region was handed back to the French, though a Portuguese presence remained until 1817.",
"title": "1800s and the Penal Era"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "In 1848, France abolished slavery and the ex-slaves fled into the rainforest, setting up communities similar to the ones they had come from in Africa. Subsequently, called Maroons, they formed a sort of buffer zone between the Europeans (who settled along the coast and main rivers) and the unconquered (and often hostile) Native American tribes of the inland regions. Deprived of slave labor the plantations were soon taken over by the jungle, and the planters ruined.",
"title": "1800s and the Penal Era"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "In 1850, several shiploads of Indians, Malays, and Chinese were brought out to work the plantations but, instead, they set up shops in Cayenne and other settlements.",
"title": "1800s and the Penal Era"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "In 1852, the first shiploads of chained convicts arrived from France. In 1885, to get rid of habitual criminals and to increase the number of colonists, the French Parliament passed a law that anyone, male or female, who had more than three sentences for theft of more than three months each, would be sent to French Guiana as a relégué. This relégués was to be kept in prison there for six months but then freed to become settlers in the colony. However, this experiment failed dismally. The ex-prisoners, unable to make a living off the land, found themselves forced to revert to crime or to eke out a hand-to-mouth existence until they died. In fact, transportation to French Guiana as a relégué amounted to a life sentence, and usually, a short life sentence, as most of the relégués died very quickly from disease and malnutrition.",
"title": "1800s and the Penal Era"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "The prisoners would arrive at St Laurent du Maroni before being transported to various camps throughout the country. The Iles du Salut was used to house political prisoners and for solitary confinement. The islands became notorious for the brutality of life there, centering on the notorious Devil's Island. Famous figures sent to the islands included Alfred Dreyfus (in 1895) and Henri Charrière (in the 1930s). Charrière managed to escape and later wrote a best-selling book called Papillon.",
"title": "1800s and the Penal Era"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "In 1853, gold was discovered in the interior, precipitating border disputes with Brazil and Suriname (these were later settled in 1891, 1899, and 1915, although a small region of the border with Suriname remains in dispute). The Republic of Independent Guyana, in French La République de la Guyane indépendante and commonly referred to by the name of the capital \"Counani\", was created in the area which was disputed by France (as part of French Guiana) and Brazil in the late 19th century.",
"title": "1800s and the Penal Era"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 15,
"text": "The territory of Inini, consisting of most of the interior of French Guiana, was created in 1930. It was abolished in 1946.",
"title": "20th century"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 16,
"text": "During World War II the local government declared its allegiance to the Vichy government, despite widespread support for Charles de Gaulle. This government was removed on 22 March 1943.",
"title": "20th century"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 17,
"text": "French Guiana became an overseas département of France on 19 March 1946.",
"title": "20th century"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 18,
"text": "The infamous penal colonies, including Devil's Island, were gradually phased out and then formally closed in 1951. At first, only those freed prisoners who could raise the fare for their return passage to France were able to go home, so French Guiana was haunted after the official closing of the prisons by numerous freed convicts leading an aimless existence in the colony.",
"title": "20th century"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 19,
"text": "Visitors to the site in December 1954 reported being deeply shocked by the conditions and the constant screams from the cell block still in use for convicts who had gone insane and which had only tiny ventilation slots at the tops of the walls under the roof. Food was pushed in and bodies removed once a day.",
"title": "20th century"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 20,
"text": "In 1961, Brazilian president Jânio Quadros planned the annexation of French Guiana, but resigned due to \"hidden forces\" before he could execute the operation.",
"title": "20th century"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 21,
"text": "In 1964, Kourou was chosen to be the launch site for rockets, largely due to its favourable location near the equator. The Guiana Space Centre was built and became operational in 1968. This has provided some local employment and the mainly foreign technicians, and hundreds of troops stationed in the region to prevent sabotage, bring a little income to the local economy.",
"title": "20th century"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 22,
"text": "The 1970s saw the settlement of Hmong refugees from Laos in the county, primarily to the towns of Javouhey and Cacao. The Green Plan (Le Plan Vert) of 1976 aimed to improve production, though it had only limited success. A movement for increased autonomy from France gained momentum in the 70s and 80s, along with the increasing success of the Parti Socialiste Guyanais.",
"title": "20th century"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 23,
"text": "Protests by those calling for more autonomy from France have become increasingly vocal. Protests in 1996, 1997, and 2000 all ended in violence. While many Guianese wish to see more autonomy, support for complete independence is low.",
"title": "20th century"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 24,
"text": "In a 2010 referendum, French Guianans voted against autonomy.",
"title": "21st century"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 25,
"text": "On 20 March 2017, French Guianans began going on strike and demonstrating for more resources and infrastructure. 28 March 2017 saw the largest demonstration ever held in French Guiana.",
"title": "21st century"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 26,
"text": "The first woman to be elected to the Senate was Marie-Laure Phinéra-Horth in 2020.",
"title": "21st century"
}
] |
The history of French Guiana dates back to the period prior to European colonization. Prior to the arrival of the first Europeans, there was no written history in the territory. It was originally inhabited by a number of Native American peoples, among them the Kalina (Caribs), Arawak, Galibi, Palikur, Teko, Wayampi, and Wayana. The first Europeans arrived in the expeditions of Christopher Columbus, shortly before 1500.
|
2001-04-29T15:56:36Z
|
2023-12-23T04:10:15Z
|
[
"Template:Short description",
"Template:Use dmy dates",
"Template:More footnotes",
"Template:Further",
"Template:Reflist",
"Template:History of South America",
"Template:Dubious",
"Template:By whom",
"Template:Cite web",
"Template:ISBN",
"Template:Cite news"
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_French_Guiana
|
10,762 |
Geography of French Guiana
|
French Guiana is an overseas region of France, located on the northern coast of South America between Suriname and Brazil. The country is part of Caribbean South America and borders the North Atlantic Ocean. It has low-lying plains with small mountains to the south. Its climate is split between tropical rainforest and tropical monsoon. French Guiana is mostly unsettled and has low land use.
French Guiana is situated on the northeast coast of South America between 2° and 5° latitude north and covers an area of 35,135 square miles. It is separated from Surinam (Dutch Guiana) by the Maroni River and two of its tributaries, the Aoua and Itany, in the west, and from Brazil by the Tumuc Humac Mountains in the south and the Oyapock River in the east. Its 200-mile Atlantic coastline is bordered by several rocky islands – the Iles du Salut (Devil's Island, Royale and Saint-Joseph), the Père and Mère Islands, Malingre Island and Rémire Island, and the two Connétables—which are all part of French Guiana.
Total: 91,000 km Land: 89,150 km Water: 1,850 km
Total: 1,183 km Border countries: Brazil 673 km, Suriname 510 km (disputed) Coastline: 378 km
Exclusive economic zone: 200 nmi (370.4 km; 230.2 mi) territorial sea: 12 nmi (22.2 km; 13.8 mi).
Arable land: 0% Other: 10% (1996 est.) Irrigated land: 20 km (1993 est.) Geography – note: mostly an unsettled wilderness.
Bauxite, timber, gold (widely scattered), cinnabar, kaolin, fish, shrimp, rice, bananas.
French Guiana's climate is tropical and hot with a Köppen climate classification of tropical rainforest (Af) throughout most of the country. Heavy showers, severe thunderstorms, and floodings are frequent, as is intense heat and humidity.
Although French Guiana is very close to the equator, the trade winds which blow almost the year round refresh the coastal region and prevent the formation of great tropical storms. The annual mean temperature on the coast is 80 °F (27 °C). There are two principal seasons: "summer" from July to December and the "rainy season" the rest of the year, broken only by a Short "March Summer."
French Guiana extends almost 250 miles into the continent and is divided into two natural zones: a small, low, swampy coastal area called the "Terres Basses," varying from ten to thirty miles in width, and a granite peneplain called the "Terres Hautes," worn down by erosion into steps forming a series of low steep hills. Almost the entire country is covered by rain forest and its many large rivers and streams, although their courses are broken by rapids, constitute the only natural means of penetration into the interior. The main rivers, flowing in a general south–north direction, are the Maroni, the Mana, the Iracoubo, the Sinnamary, the Kourou, the Mahury, the Approuague and the Oyapock.
This article incorporates public domain material from The World Factbook. CIA.
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain: France. (1961–1962). France overseas. New York: Ambassade de France, Service de presse et d'information.
4°00′N 53°00′W / 4.000°N 53.000°W / 4.000; -53.000
|
[
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "French Guiana is an overseas region of France, located on the northern coast of South America between Suriname and Brazil. The country is part of Caribbean South America and borders the North Atlantic Ocean. It has low-lying plains with small mountains to the south. Its climate is split between tropical rainforest and tropical monsoon. French Guiana is mostly unsettled and has low land use.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "French Guiana is situated on the northeast coast of South America between 2° and 5° latitude north and covers an area of 35,135 square miles. It is separated from Surinam (Dutch Guiana) by the Maroni River and two of its tributaries, the Aoua and Itany, in the west, and from Brazil by the Tumuc Humac Mountains in the south and the Oyapock River in the east. Its 200-mile Atlantic coastline is bordered by several rocky islands – the Iles du Salut (Devil's Island, Royale and Saint-Joseph), the Père and Mère Islands, Malingre Island and Rémire Island, and the two Connétables—which are all part of French Guiana.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "Total: 91,000 km Land: 89,150 km Water: 1,850 km",
"title": "Statistics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "Total: 1,183 km Border countries: Brazil 673 km, Suriname 510 km (disputed) Coastline: 378 km",
"title": "Statistics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "Exclusive economic zone: 200 nmi (370.4 km; 230.2 mi) territorial sea: 12 nmi (22.2 km; 13.8 mi).",
"title": "Statistics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "Arable land: 0% Other: 10% (1996 est.) Irrigated land: 20 km (1993 est.) Geography – note: mostly an unsettled wilderness.",
"title": "Statistics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "Bauxite, timber, gold (widely scattered), cinnabar, kaolin, fish, shrimp, rice, bananas.",
"title": "Statistics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "French Guiana's climate is tropical and hot with a Köppen climate classification of tropical rainforest (Af) throughout most of the country. Heavy showers, severe thunderstorms, and floodings are frequent, as is intense heat and humidity.",
"title": "Climate"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "Although French Guiana is very close to the equator, the trade winds which blow almost the year round refresh the coastal region and prevent the formation of great tropical storms. The annual mean temperature on the coast is 80 °F (27 °C). There are two principal seasons: \"summer\" from July to December and the \"rainy season\" the rest of the year, broken only by a Short \"March Summer.\"",
"title": "Climate"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "French Guiana extends almost 250 miles into the continent and is divided into two natural zones: a small, low, swampy coastal area called the \"Terres Basses,\" varying from ten to thirty miles in width, and a granite peneplain called the \"Terres Hautes,\" worn down by erosion into steps forming a series of low steep hills. Almost the entire country is covered by rain forest and its many large rivers and streams, although their courses are broken by rapids, constitute the only natural means of penetration into the interior. The main rivers, flowing in a general south–north direction, are the Maroni, the Mana, the Iracoubo, the Sinnamary, the Kourou, the Mahury, the Approuague and the Oyapock.",
"title": "Terrain"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "This article incorporates public domain material from The World Factbook. CIA.",
"title": "References"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain: France. (1961–1962). France overseas. New York: Ambassade de France, Service de presse et d'information.",
"title": "References"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "4°00′N 53°00′W / 4.000°N 53.000°W / 4.000; -53.000",
"title": "References"
}
] |
French Guiana is an overseas region of France, located on the northern coast of South America between Suriname and Brazil. The country is part of Caribbean South America and borders the North Atlantic Ocean. It has low-lying plains with small mountains to the south. Its climate is split between tropical rainforest and tropical monsoon. French Guiana is mostly unsettled and has low land use. French Guiana is situated on the northeast coast of South America between 2° and 5° latitude north and covers an area of 35,135 square miles. It is separated from Surinam by the Maroni River and two of its tributaries, the Aoua and Itany, in the west, and from Brazil by the Tumuc Humac Mountains in the south and the Oyapock River in the east. Its 200-mile Atlantic coastline is bordered by several rocky islands – the Iles du Salut, the Père and Mère Islands, Malingre Island and Rémire Island, and the two Connétables—which are all part of French Guiana.
|
2001-05-04T03:17:30Z
|
2023-12-07T15:46:37Z
|
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geography_of_French_Guiana
|
10,763 |
Demographics of French Guiana
|
The Demographics of French Guiana are characterized by a young population with 44% below the age of 20 as of 2017. The total population stood at 268,700 as of January 1, 2017. The demographic profile is a reflection of the territory's high fertility rates. Regarding nationality, as of 2010, 64.5% of the population had French nationality, while 35.5% were of foreign nationality with significant communities from Suriname, Haiti, and Brazil among others.
According to INSEE the population of French Guiana was 268,700 as of January 1, 2017. The population is very young: 44% are below the age of 20, while only 1.7% are 75 years or older. The age distribution is a reflection of the high fertility rates of French Guiana.
On January 1, 2010, 64.5% of the population had French nationality, while 35.5% had a foreign nationality. Of these, Surinamese (13.8% of the total population), Haitians (8.8%) and Brazilians (8.7%) were the largest groups. Smaller groups included people with nationality of Guyana (1.7%), Colombia (1.0%), China (0.5%), the Dominican Republic (0.4%) and Peru (0.2%).
The total fertility rate in French Guiana has remained high and is today considerably higher than in metropolitan France, and also higher than the average of the French overseas departments. It is largely responsible for the high population growth of French Guiana.
The infant mortality in French Guiana is higher than in metropolitan France:
At birth, life expectancy is 76.2 years for male children, and 82.8 for female (figures for 2011).
Estimates of the percentages of French Guiana ethnic composition vary, a situation compounded by the large proportion of immigrants.
Creoles, or Mulattoes (people of mixed African and French ancestry), are the largest ethnic group, though estimates vary as to the exact percentage, depending upon whether the large Haitian community is included as well. Generally the Creole population is judged to be about 60 to 70% of the total population if Haitians (comprising roughly one-third of Creoles) are included, and 30 to 50% without.
Roughly 41,000 people or 14% of the population of French Guiana is of European ancestry. The vast majority of these are of French heritage, though there are also people of Dutch, British, Spanish and Portuguese ancestry.
The main Asian communities are the Chinese (about 3-4%, primarily from Zhejiang province in mainland China and Hong Kong) and Hmong from Laos (1-2%). There are also smaller groups from various Caribbean islands, mainly Saint Lucia as well as Dominica. Other Asian groups include East Indians, Lebanese and Vietnamese.
The main groups living in the interior are the Maroons (formerly called "Bush Negroes") who are from African descent, and Amerindians. The Maroons, descendants of escaped African slaves, live primarily along the Maroni River. The main Maroon groups are the Saramaka, Ndyuka (both of whom also live in Suriname), and Boni (Aluku). The Maroons are the fastest growing ethnic group, and as of 2018 constitute about one-third of the total population with an estimated population of close to 100,000 people.
The main Amerindian groups (estimated population about 10,000) are the Arawak, Carib, Teko (previously called Emerillon), Galibi (now called the Kaliña), Palikur, Wayampi and Wayana. The estimated population for the beginning of the 17th century was 30,000 people. Until the middle of the 20th century, there was a sharp decline in population to almost 1,200 people in 1961 which was mainly caused by European diseases. Improved health care managed to turn the tide.
French and French Guianese Creole are the most widely spoken languages. There are also several native languages, including Arawakan (Arawak and Palikúr), Cariban (Carib and Wayana), and Tupi-Guarani (Emerillon and Wayampi) languages. Other languages spoken include Hakka Chinese and Javanese. The official language, like for all overseas departments and territories of France, is French.
Religion in French Guiana (ARDA 2015)
The dominant religion of French Guiana is Roman Catholicism; some of the Maroons and Amerindian people maintain their own religions, however large tribes like the Kalina, Ndyuka have been Christianized.
|
[
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "The Demographics of French Guiana are characterized by a young population with 44% below the age of 20 as of 2017. The total population stood at 268,700 as of January 1, 2017. The demographic profile is a reflection of the territory's high fertility rates. Regarding nationality, as of 2010, 64.5% of the population had French nationality, while 35.5% were of foreign nationality with significant communities from Suriname, Haiti, and Brazil among others.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "According to INSEE the population of French Guiana was 268,700 as of January 1, 2017. The population is very young: 44% are below the age of 20, while only 1.7% are 75 years or older. The age distribution is a reflection of the high fertility rates of French Guiana.",
"title": "Population"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "On January 1, 2010, 64.5% of the population had French nationality, while 35.5% had a foreign nationality. Of these, Surinamese (13.8% of the total population), Haitians (8.8%) and Brazilians (8.7%) were the largest groups. Smaller groups included people with nationality of Guyana (1.7%), Colombia (1.0%), China (0.5%), the Dominican Republic (0.4%) and Peru (0.2%).",
"title": "Population"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "The total fertility rate in French Guiana has remained high and is today considerably higher than in metropolitan France, and also higher than the average of the French overseas departments. It is largely responsible for the high population growth of French Guiana.",
"title": "Vital statistics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "The infant mortality in French Guiana is higher than in metropolitan France:",
"title": "Vital statistics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "At birth, life expectancy is 76.2 years for male children, and 82.8 for female (figures for 2011).",
"title": "Vital statistics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "Estimates of the percentages of French Guiana ethnic composition vary, a situation compounded by the large proportion of immigrants.",
"title": "Ethnic groups"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "Creoles, or Mulattoes (people of mixed African and French ancestry), are the largest ethnic group, though estimates vary as to the exact percentage, depending upon whether the large Haitian community is included as well. Generally the Creole population is judged to be about 60 to 70% of the total population if Haitians (comprising roughly one-third of Creoles) are included, and 30 to 50% without.",
"title": "Ethnic groups"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "Roughly 41,000 people or 14% of the population of French Guiana is of European ancestry. The vast majority of these are of French heritage, though there are also people of Dutch, British, Spanish and Portuguese ancestry.",
"title": "Ethnic groups"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "The main Asian communities are the Chinese (about 3-4%, primarily from Zhejiang province in mainland China and Hong Kong) and Hmong from Laos (1-2%). There are also smaller groups from various Caribbean islands, mainly Saint Lucia as well as Dominica. Other Asian groups include East Indians, Lebanese and Vietnamese.",
"title": "Ethnic groups"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "The main groups living in the interior are the Maroons (formerly called \"Bush Negroes\") who are from African descent, and Amerindians. The Maroons, descendants of escaped African slaves, live primarily along the Maroni River. The main Maroon groups are the Saramaka, Ndyuka (both of whom also live in Suriname), and Boni (Aluku). The Maroons are the fastest growing ethnic group, and as of 2018 constitute about one-third of the total population with an estimated population of close to 100,000 people.",
"title": "Ethnic groups"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "The main Amerindian groups (estimated population about 10,000) are the Arawak, Carib, Teko (previously called Emerillon), Galibi (now called the Kaliña), Palikur, Wayampi and Wayana. The estimated population for the beginning of the 17th century was 30,000 people. Until the middle of the 20th century, there was a sharp decline in population to almost 1,200 people in 1961 which was mainly caused by European diseases. Improved health care managed to turn the tide.",
"title": "Ethnic groups"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "French and French Guianese Creole are the most widely spoken languages. There are also several native languages, including Arawakan (Arawak and Palikúr), Cariban (Carib and Wayana), and Tupi-Guarani (Emerillon and Wayampi) languages. Other languages spoken include Hakka Chinese and Javanese. The official language, like for all overseas departments and territories of France, is French.",
"title": "Languages"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "Religion in French Guiana (ARDA 2015)",
"title": "Religion"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "The dominant religion of French Guiana is Roman Catholicism; some of the Maroons and Amerindian people maintain their own religions, however large tribes like the Kalina, Ndyuka have been Christianized.",
"title": "Religion"
}
] |
The Demographics of French Guiana are characterized by a young population with 44% below the age of 20 as of 2017. The total population stood at 268,700 as of January 1, 2017. The demographic profile is a reflection of the territory's high fertility rates. Regarding nationality, as of 2010, 64.5% of the population had French nationality, while 35.5% were of foreign nationality with significant communities from Suriname, Haiti, and Brazil among others.
|
2002-02-25T15:33:19Z
|
2023-10-27T14:54:04Z
|
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_French_Guiana
|
10,764 |
Politics of French Guiana
|
French Guiana is not a separate territory but is both an overseas région and overseas department of France, with the same government institutions as areas on the French mainland. The administrative center is Cayenne.
The President of France appoints a prefect (resident at the prefecture building in Cayenne) as his representative to head the local government of French Guiana. The Assembly of French Guiana replaced the General Council and the Regional Council in 2016.
As of 2020 the prefect is Thierry Queffelec. The President of the Guianese Assembly since 2021 is Gabriel Serville.
Politics in French Guiana are dominated by the Guianese Socialist Party, which has a close association with the Socialist Party in mainland France.
A chronic issue affecting French Guiana is the influx of illegal immigrants and clandestine gold prospectors from Brazil and Suriname. The border between the department and Suriname is formed by the Maroni River, which flows through rain forest and is difficult for the Gendarmerie and the French Foreign Legion to patrol.
There have been several phases launched by the French government to combat illegal gold mining in French Guiana, beginning with Operation Anaconda beginning in 2003, followed by Operation Harpie in 2008, 2009 and Operation Harpie Reinforce in 2010. Colonel François Müller, the commander of French Guiana's gendarme, believes these operations have been successful. However, after each operation ends, Brazilian miners, known as garimpeiros, return. Soon after Operation Harpie Reinforce began, an altercation took place between French authorities and Brazilian miners. On March 12, 2010, a team of French soldiers and border police were attacked while returning from a successful operation, during which "the soldiers had arrested 15 miners, confiscated three boats, and seized 617 grams of gold... currently worth about $22,317". Garimpeiros returned to retrieve the lost loot and colleagues. "The soldiers fired warning shots and rubber "flash balls" but the miners managed to retake one of their boats and about 500 grammes of gold. "The violent reaction by the garimpeiros can be explained by the exceptional take of 617 grammes of gold, about 20 percent of the quantity seized in 2009 during the battle against illegal mining", said Phillipe Duporge, the director of French Guiana's border police, at a press conference the next day."
The General Council of French Guiana is the deliberative executive assembly and is composed of 19 members who are elected by popular vote to serve six-year terms. It is led by the President of the General Council of French Guiana.
The Regional Council of French Guiana is the elected assembly or regional council and is composed of 31 members who are elected by popular vote to serve six-year terms.
Guiana elects two senators to the French Senate. The first woman to be elected to the Senate was Marie-Laure Phinéra-Horth in 2020.
Guiana also elects two deputies to the French National Assembly. The last elections were held in June 2007. The Walwari has one deputy, Christiane Taubira, and the PSG has one deputy, Chantal Berthelot, who defeated long-time UMP incumbent Léon Bertrand.
|
[
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "French Guiana is not a separate territory but is both an overseas région and overseas department of France, with the same government institutions as areas on the French mainland. The administrative center is Cayenne.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "The President of France appoints a prefect (resident at the prefecture building in Cayenne) as his representative to head the local government of French Guiana. The Assembly of French Guiana replaced the General Council and the Regional Council in 2016.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "As of 2020 the prefect is Thierry Queffelec. The President of the Guianese Assembly since 2021 is Gabriel Serville.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "Politics in French Guiana are dominated by the Guianese Socialist Party, which has a close association with the Socialist Party in mainland France.",
"title": "Key issues and players"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "A chronic issue affecting French Guiana is the influx of illegal immigrants and clandestine gold prospectors from Brazil and Suriname. The border between the department and Suriname is formed by the Maroni River, which flows through rain forest and is difficult for the Gendarmerie and the French Foreign Legion to patrol.",
"title": "Key issues and players"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "There have been several phases launched by the French government to combat illegal gold mining in French Guiana, beginning with Operation Anaconda beginning in 2003, followed by Operation Harpie in 2008, 2009 and Operation Harpie Reinforce in 2010. Colonel François Müller, the commander of French Guiana's gendarme, believes these operations have been successful. However, after each operation ends, Brazilian miners, known as garimpeiros, return. Soon after Operation Harpie Reinforce began, an altercation took place between French authorities and Brazilian miners. On March 12, 2010, a team of French soldiers and border police were attacked while returning from a successful operation, during which \"the soldiers had arrested 15 miners, confiscated three boats, and seized 617 grams of gold... currently worth about $22,317\". Garimpeiros returned to retrieve the lost loot and colleagues. \"The soldiers fired warning shots and rubber \"flash balls\" but the miners managed to retake one of their boats and about 500 grammes of gold. \"The violent reaction by the garimpeiros can be explained by the exceptional take of 617 grammes of gold, about 20 percent of the quantity seized in 2009 during the battle against illegal mining\", said Phillipe Duporge, the director of French Guiana's border police, at a press conference the next day.\"",
"title": "Key issues and players"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "The General Council of French Guiana is the deliberative executive assembly and is composed of 19 members who are elected by popular vote to serve six-year terms. It is led by the President of the General Council of French Guiana.",
"title": "General Council of French Guiana"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "The Regional Council of French Guiana is the elected assembly or regional council and is composed of 31 members who are elected by popular vote to serve six-year terms.",
"title": "Regional Council of Guiana"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "Guiana elects two senators to the French Senate. The first woman to be elected to the Senate was Marie-Laure Phinéra-Horth in 2020.",
"title": "Parliamentary representation"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "Guiana also elects two deputies to the French National Assembly. The last elections were held in June 2007. The Walwari has one deputy, Christiane Taubira, and the PSG has one deputy, Chantal Berthelot, who defeated long-time UMP incumbent Léon Bertrand.",
"title": "Parliamentary representation"
}
] |
French Guiana is not a separate territory but is both an overseas région and overseas department of France, with the same government institutions as areas on the French mainland. The administrative center is Cayenne. The President of France appoints a prefect as his representative to head the local government of French Guiana. The Assembly of French Guiana replaced the General Council and the Regional Council in 2016. As of 2020 the prefect is Thierry Queffelec. The President of the Guianese Assembly since 2021 is Gabriel Serville.
|
2022-07-08T13:49:30Z
|
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics_of_French_Guiana
|
|
10,765 |
Economy of French Guiana
|
The economy of French Guiana is tied closely to that of mainland France through subsidies and imports. Besides the French space center at Kourou, fishing and forestry are the most important economic activities in French Guiana. The large reserves of tropical hardwoods, not fully exploited, support an expanding sawmill industry which provides saw logs for export. Cultivation of crops is limited to the coastal area, where the population is largely concentrated; rice and manioc are the major crops. French Guiana is heavily dependent on imports of food and energy. Unemployment is a serious problem, particularly among younger workers. Projects about this contry in schools are popular, especially in Europe.
Budget: revenues: $135,5 million expenditures: $135,5 million, including capital expenditures of $105 million (1996)
Electricity - production: 465,2 GWh (2003)
Electricity - production by source: fossil fuel: 100% hydro: 0% nuclear: 0% other: 0% (1998)
Electricity - consumption: 432,6 GWh (2003)
Electricity - exports: 0 kWh (2003)
Electricity - imports: 0 kWh (2003)
A combined power plant with 55 MW solar, 3 MW hydrogen fuel cell, 20MW/38MWh battery and 16 MW hydrogen electrolyser with 88MWh storage began construction in 2021.
Agriculture - products: rice, manioc (tapioca), sugar, cocoa, vegetables, bananas; cattle, pigs, poultry
Currency: Euro
Fiscal year: calendar year
"The economic accounts of Guyana in 2006: first results" (PDF). Retrieved 2008-01-14.
Media related to Economy of French Guiana at Wikimedia Commons
|
[
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "The economy of French Guiana is tied closely to that of mainland France through subsidies and imports. Besides the French space center at Kourou, fishing and forestry are the most important economic activities in French Guiana. The large reserves of tropical hardwoods, not fully exploited, support an expanding sawmill industry which provides saw logs for export. Cultivation of crops is limited to the coastal area, where the population is largely concentrated; rice and manioc are the major crops. French Guiana is heavily dependent on imports of food and energy. Unemployment is a serious problem, particularly among younger workers. Projects about this contry in schools are popular, especially in Europe.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "Budget: revenues: $135,5 million expenditures: $135,5 million, including capital expenditures of $105 million (1996)",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "Electricity - production: 465,2 GWh (2003)",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "Electricity - production by source: fossil fuel: 100% hydro: 0% nuclear: 0% other: 0% (1998)",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "Electricity - consumption: 432,6 GWh (2003)",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "Electricity - exports: 0 kWh (2003)",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "Electricity - imports: 0 kWh (2003)",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "A combined power plant with 55 MW solar, 3 MW hydrogen fuel cell, 20MW/38MWh battery and 16 MW hydrogen electrolyser with 88MWh storage began construction in 2021.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "Agriculture - products: rice, manioc (tapioca), sugar, cocoa, vegetables, bananas; cattle, pigs, poultry",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "Currency: Euro",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "Fiscal year: calendar year",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "\"The economic accounts of Guyana in 2006: first results\" (PDF). Retrieved 2008-01-14.",
"title": "References"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "Media related to Economy of French Guiana at Wikimedia Commons",
"title": "See also"
}
] |
The economy of French Guiana is tied closely to that of mainland France through subsidies and imports. Besides the French space center at Kourou, fishing and forestry are the most important economic activities in French Guiana. The large reserves of tropical hardwoods, not fully exploited, support an expanding sawmill industry which provides saw logs for export. Cultivation of crops is limited to the coastal area, where the population is largely concentrated; rice and manioc are the major crops. French Guiana is heavily dependent on imports of food and energy. Unemployment is a serious problem, particularly among younger workers. Projects about this contry in schools are popular, especially in Europe. Budget:
revenues:
$135,5 million
expenditures:
$135,5 million, including capital expenditures of $105 million (1996) Electricity - production:
465,2 GWh (2003) Electricity - production by source:
fossil fuel:
100%
hydro:
0%
nuclear:
0%
other:
0% (1998) Electricity - consumption:
432,6 GWh (2003) Electricity - exports:
0 kWh (2003) Electricity - imports:
0 kWh (2003) A combined power plant with 55 MW solar, 3 MW hydrogen fuel cell, 20MW/38MWh battery and 16 MW hydrogen electrolyser with 88MWh storage began construction in 2021. Agriculture - products:
rice, manioc (tapioca), sugar, cocoa, vegetables, bananas; cattle, pigs, poultry Currency:
Euro Fiscal year:
calendar year
|
2002-06-15T11:06:27Z
|
2023-11-13T23:28:51Z
|
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_French_Guiana
|
10,766 |
Telecommunications in French Guiana
|
Telephones – main lines in use: 47,000 (1995)
Telephones – mobile cellular: NA
Telephone system: domestic: fair open wire and microwave radio relay system international: satellite earth station – 1 Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean)
Radio stations: AM 2, FM 14 (including 6 repeaters), shortwave 6 (including 5 repeaters) (1998)
Radios: 104,000 (1997)
Television stations: 3 (plus eight low-power repeaters) (1997)
Televisions: 30,000 (1997)
Internet Service Providers (ISPs): NA
Country code (Top-level domain): GF
|
[
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "Telephones – main lines in use: 47,000 (1995)",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "Telephones – mobile cellular: NA",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "Telephone system: domestic: fair open wire and microwave radio relay system international: satellite earth station – 1 Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean)",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "Radio stations: AM 2, FM 14 (including 6 repeaters), shortwave 6 (including 5 repeaters) (1998)",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "Radios: 104,000 (1997)",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "Television stations: 3 (plus eight low-power repeaters) (1997)",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "Televisions: 30,000 (1997)",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "Internet Service Providers (ISPs): NA",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "Country code (Top-level domain): GF",
"title": ""
}
] |
Telephones – main lines in use:
47,000 (1995) Telephones – mobile cellular:
NA Telephone system:
domestic:
fair open wire and microwave radio relay system
international:
satellite earth station – 1 Intelsat Radio stations:
AM 2, FM 14, shortwave 6 (1998) Radios:
104,000 (1997) Television stations:
3 (1997) Televisions:
30,000 (1997) Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
NA Country code: GF
|
2001-05-04T03:19:14Z
|
2023-12-14T09:32:43Z
|
[
"Template:Americas topic",
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telecommunications_in_French_Guiana
|
10,767 |
Transport in French Guiana
|
Transport in French Guiana consists of transport by road, boat, bus, and airplane. There is a railway line within the Guiana Space Centre to transport spacecraft. The road network is mainly concentrated in the coastal region. The interior of Guiana is accessed by plane or boat. There is one main airport, however there are several smaller airstrips in the interior.
As of 2018, there are 440 kilometres of national roads, 408 kilometres of departmental road, and 1,311 kilometres of municipal roads. There is no motorway.
Following a treaty between France and Brazil signed in July 2005, the Oyapock River Bridge over the Oyapock River was built and completed in 2011, becoming the first land crossing ever between French Guiana and the rest of the world (there is a ferry crossing to Albina, Suriname). The bridge was officially opened on 18 March 2017, however the border post introduction on the Brazilian caused additional delays. As of 2020, it possible to drive uninterrupted from Cayenne to Macapá, the capital of the state of Amapá in Brazil.
A short railway is used within the Guiana Space Centre (this short railway is for transporting spacecraft inside the base to the launch pad, not for passenger use). The railway is double tracked and used by unpowered rail cars (tanker cars, flatcars and launch table transporter platforms fitted with bogies) and are towed by rubber wheeled vehicles with railway wheels or bogies to ride along the rail tracks (Road–rail vehicles).
From 1880s to sometime after 1926 a steam narrow gauge railway was used for gold mines in Saint-Elie and two other lines were partially built and never used.
Two prison railways were built in the 1890s. One line connected Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni to Saint-Jean-du-Maroni. Another line went to Charvein. The railway lines were abandoned after prisons closed and disappeared sometime after 1946.
There are no other railways in French Guiana and none have existed for revenue passenger service, and there are no connections to neighbouring countries. Some maps - including some on Wikipedia - depicting railway density give the impression of railways existing in French Guyana due to conflating the existing railways in the metropole with the lack of same in French Guyana, thus creating a statistical artifact.
The main international airport of French Guiana is Cayenne – Félix Eboué Airport. The secondary international airport is the Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni Airport.
In October 2020, the Camopi Airport was upgraded for regular passenger transport.
There are six smaller restricted airports:
The CACL (Communauté d’Agglomération du Centre Littoral) provides bus service for the urban area of Cayenne and its suburbs. As of 2021, there are six urban bus lines. School transport is also handled by CACL.
Since early 2010, an agreement was established between the General Council, responsible for organizing transport between the towns, and Taxi Co. The new public service became known as TIG (Long Distance Transport of Guyana).
As of 2021, TIG provides nine bus lines to towns outside the urban area of Cayenne.
The main harbour is Degrad des Cannes. The harbour was built in 1972, and handles all international cargo from and to French Guiana. In 2007, the port handled about 700,000 tonnes of cargo. The port also includes as a marina.
Other harbours include Cayenne, Kourou, Larivot in Matoury, and Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni.
|
[
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "Transport in French Guiana consists of transport by road, boat, bus, and airplane. There is a railway line within the Guiana Space Centre to transport spacecraft. The road network is mainly concentrated in the coastal region. The interior of Guiana is accessed by plane or boat. There is one main airport, however there are several smaller airstrips in the interior.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "",
"title": "Highways"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "As of 2018, there are 440 kilometres of national roads, 408 kilometres of departmental road, and 1,311 kilometres of municipal roads. There is no motorway.",
"title": "Highways"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "Following a treaty between France and Brazil signed in July 2005, the Oyapock River Bridge over the Oyapock River was built and completed in 2011, becoming the first land crossing ever between French Guiana and the rest of the world (there is a ferry crossing to Albina, Suriname). The bridge was officially opened on 18 March 2017, however the border post introduction on the Brazilian caused additional delays. As of 2020, it possible to drive uninterrupted from Cayenne to Macapá, the capital of the state of Amapá in Brazil.",
"title": "Highways"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "A short railway is used within the Guiana Space Centre (this short railway is for transporting spacecraft inside the base to the launch pad, not for passenger use). The railway is double tracked and used by unpowered rail cars (tanker cars, flatcars and launch table transporter platforms fitted with bogies) and are towed by rubber wheeled vehicles with railway wheels or bogies to ride along the rail tracks (Road–rail vehicles).",
"title": "Railways"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "From 1880s to sometime after 1926 a steam narrow gauge railway was used for gold mines in Saint-Elie and two other lines were partially built and never used.",
"title": "Railways"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "Two prison railways were built in the 1890s. One line connected Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni to Saint-Jean-du-Maroni. Another line went to Charvein. The railway lines were abandoned after prisons closed and disappeared sometime after 1946.",
"title": "Railways"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "There are no other railways in French Guiana and none have existed for revenue passenger service, and there are no connections to neighbouring countries. Some maps - including some on Wikipedia - depicting railway density give the impression of railways existing in French Guyana due to conflating the existing railways in the metropole with the lack of same in French Guyana, thus creating a statistical artifact.",
"title": "Railways"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "The main international airport of French Guiana is Cayenne – Félix Eboué Airport. The secondary international airport is the Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni Airport.",
"title": "Airports"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "In October 2020, the Camopi Airport was upgraded for regular passenger transport.",
"title": "Airports"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "There are six smaller restricted airports:",
"title": "Airports"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "The CACL (Communauté d’Agglomération du Centre Littoral) provides bus service for the urban area of Cayenne and its suburbs. As of 2021, there are six urban bus lines. School transport is also handled by CACL.",
"title": "Public transport"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "Since early 2010, an agreement was established between the General Council, responsible for organizing transport between the towns, and Taxi Co. The new public service became known as TIG (Long Distance Transport of Guyana).",
"title": "Public transport"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "As of 2021, TIG provides nine bus lines to towns outside the urban area of Cayenne.",
"title": "Public transport"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "The main harbour is Degrad des Cannes. The harbour was built in 1972, and handles all international cargo from and to French Guiana. In 2007, the port handled about 700,000 tonnes of cargo. The port also includes as a marina.",
"title": "Harbours"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 15,
"text": "Other harbours include Cayenne, Kourou, Larivot in Matoury, and Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni.",
"title": "Harbours"
}
] |
Transport in French Guiana consists of transport by road, boat, bus, and airplane. There is a railway line within the Guiana Space Centre to transport spacecraft. The road network is mainly concentrated in the coastal region. The interior of Guiana is accessed by plane or boat. There is one main airport, however there are several smaller airstrips in the interior.
|
2023-07-20T22:48:41Z
|
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transport_in_French_Guiana
|
|
10,770 |
François Truffaut
|
François Roland Truffaut (UK: /ˈtruːfoʊ, ˈtrʊ-/ TROO-foh, TRUU-, US: /truːˈfoʊ/ troo-FOH; French: [fʁɑ̃swa ʁɔlɑ̃ tʁyfo]; 6 February 1932 – 21 October 1984) was a French filmmaker, actor, and critic. He is widely regarded as one of the founders of the French New Wave. With a career of more than 25 years, he is an icon of the French film industry.
Truffaut's film The 400 Blows (1959) is a defining film of the French New Wave movement, and has four sequels: Antoine et Colette (1962), Stolen Kisses (1968), Bed and Board (1970), and Love on the Run (1979). Truffaut's 1973 film Day for Night earned him critical acclaim and several awards, including the BAFTA Award for Best Film and the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. His other notable films include Shoot the Piano Player (1960), Jules and Jim (1962), The Soft Skin (1964), The Wild Child (1970), Two English Girls (1971), The Last Metro (1980), and The Woman Next Door (1981). He played one of the main roles in Steven Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977),
Truffaut wrote the book Hitchcock/Truffaut (1966), based on his interviews with film director Alfred Hitchcock during the 1960s.
Truffaut was born in Paris on 6 February 1932. His mother was Janine de Montferrand. His mother's future husband, Roland Truffaut, accepted him as an adopted son and gave him his surname. He was passed around to live with various nannies and his grandmother for a number of years. His grandmother instilled in him her love of books and music. He lived with her until her death, when Truffaut was eight years old. It was only after her death that he lived with his parents. Truffaut's biological father's identity is unknown, but a private detective agency in 1968 revealed that its inquiry into the matter led to a Roland Levy, a Jewish dentist from Bayonne. Truffaut's mother's family disputed the finding but Truffaut believed and embraced it.
Truffaut often stayed with friends and tried to be out of the house as much as possible. He knew Robert Lachenay from childhood, and they were lifelong best friends. Lachenay was the inspiration for the character René Bigey in The 400 Blows and worked as an assistant on some of Truffaut's films. Cinema offered Truffaut the greatest escape from an unsatisfying home life. He was eight years old when he saw his first movie, Abel Gance's Paradis Perdu (Paradise Lost, 1939), beginning his obsession. He frequently skipped school and snuck into theaters because he lacked the money for admission. After being expelled from several schools, at age 14 he decided to become self-taught. Two of his academic goals were to watch three movies a day and read three books a week.
Truffaut frequented Henri Langlois's Cinémathèque Française, where he was exposed to countless foreign films, becoming familiar with American cinema and directors such as John Ford, Howard Hawks and Nicholas Ray, as well as those of British director Alfred Hitchcock.
After starting his own film club in 1948, Truffaut met André Bazin, who had a great effect on his professional and personal life. Bazin was a critic and the head of another film society at the time. He became a personal friend of Truffaut's and helped him out of various financial and criminal situations during his formative years.
Truffaut joined the French Army in 1950, aged 18, but spent the next two years trying to escape. He was arrested for attempting to desert the army and incarcerated in military prison. Bazin used his political contacts to get Truffaut released and set him up with a job at his new film magazine, Cahiers du cinéma.
Over the next few years, Truffaut became a critic (and later editor) at Cahiers, where he became notorious for his brutal, unforgiving reviews. He was called "The Gravedigger of French Cinema" and was the only French critic not invited to the 1958 Cannes Film Festival. He supported Bazin in developing one of the most influential theories of cinema, the auteur theory.
In 1954, Truffaut wrote an article in Cahiers du cinéma, "Une Certaine Tendance du Cinéma Français" ("A Certain Trend of French Cinema"), in which he attacked the state of French films, lambasting certain screenwriters and producers, and listing eight directors he considered incapable of devising the kinds of "vile" and "grotesque" characters and storylines he called characteristic of the mainstream French film industry: Jean Renoir, Robert Bresson, Jean Cocteau, Jacques Becker, Abel Gance, Max Ophuls, Jacques Tati and Roger Leenhardt. The article caused a storm of controversy, and landed Truffaut an offer to write for the nationally circulated, more widely read cultural weekly Arts-Lettres-Spectacles. Truffaut wrote more than 500 film articles for that publication over the next four years.
Truffaut later devised the auteur theory, according to which the director was the "author" of his work and great directors such as Renoir or Hitchcock have distinct styles and themes that permeate their films. Although his theory was not widely accepted then, it gained some support in the 1960s from American critic Andrew Sarris. In 1967, Truffaut published his book-length interview of Hitchcock, Hitchcock/Truffaut (New York: Simon and Schuster).
After having been a critic, Truffaut decided to make films. He began with the short film Une Visite (1955) and followed it with Les Mistons (1957).
After seeing Orson Welles's Touch of Evil at the Expo 58, Truffaut made his feature film directorial debut with The 400 Blows (1959), which received considerable critical and commercial acclaim. He won the Best Director award at the 1959 Cannes Film Festival. The film follows the character of Antoine Doinel through his perilous misadventures in school, an unhappy home life and later reform school. The film is highly autobiographical. Both Truffaut and Doinel were only children of loveless marriages; they both committed petty crimes of theft and truancy from the military. Truffaut cast Jean-Pierre Léaud as Doinel. Léaud was seen as an ordinary boy of 14 who auditioned for the role after seeing a flyer, but interviews after the film's release (one is included on the Criterion DVD of the film) reveal Léaud's natural sophistication and an instinctive understanding of acting for the camera. Léaud and Truffaut collaborated on several films over the years. Their most noteworthy collaboration was the continuation of Doinel's story in a series of films called "The Antoine Doinel Cycle".
The primary focus of The 400 Blows is Doinel's life. The film follows him through his troubled adolescence. He is caught in between an unstable parental relationship and an isolated youth. From birth Truffaut was thrown into a troublesome situation. As he was born out of wedlock, his birth had to remain a secret because of the stigma of illegitimacy. He was registered as "a child born to an unknown father" in hospital records and looked after by a nurse for an extended period of time. His mother eventually married and her husband gave François his surname, Truffaut.
Although he was legally accepted as a legitimate child, his parents did not accept him. The Truffauts had another child, who died shortly after birth. This experience saddened them greatly and as a result they despised François because of the regret he represented (Knopf 4). He was an outcast from his earliest years, dismissed as an unwanted child. François was sent to live with his grandparents. When his grandmother died, his parents took him in, much to his mother's dismay. His experiences with his mother were harsh. He recalled being treated badly by her but found comfort in his father's laughter and spirit. François had a very depressing childhood after moving in with his parents. They left him alone when they took vacations. He even recalled being alone during Christmas. Being left alone forced François into independence, often doing various tasks around the house to improve it, such as painting or changing the electric outlets. Sadly, these kind gestures often resulted in catastrophic events, causing him to get scolded by his mother. His father mostly laughed them off.
The 400 Blows marked the beginning of the French New Wave movement, which gave directors such as Jean-Luc Godard, Claude Chabrol and Jacques Rivette a wider audience. The New Wave dealt with a self-conscious rejection of traditional cinema structure. This was a topic on which Truffaut had been writing for years.
Following the success of The 400 Blows, Truffaut featured disjunctive editing and seemingly random voiceovers in his next film, Shoot the Piano Player (1960), starring Charles Aznavour. Truffaut has said that in the middle of filming, he realized that he hated gangsters. But since gangsters were a main part of the story, he toned up the comical aspect of the characters and made the movie more to his liking.
Even though Shoot the Piano Player was much appreciated by critics, it performed poorly at the box office. While the film focused on two of the French New Wave's favourite elements, American film noir and themselves, Truffaut never again experimented as heavily.
In 1962, Truffaut directed his third movie, Jules and Jim, a romantic drama starring Jeanne Moreau. The film was very popular and highly influential.
In 1963, Truffaut was approached to direct the American film Bonnie and Clyde, with a treatment written by Esquire journalists David Newman and Robert Benton intended to introduce the French New Wave to Hollywood. Although he was interested enough to help in script development, Truffaut ultimately declined, but not before interesting Jean-Luc Godard and American actor and would-be producer Warren Beatty, who proceeded with the film with director Arthur Penn.
The fourth movie Truffaut directed was The Soft Skin (1964). It was not acclaimed on its release.
Truffaut's first non-French film was a 1966 adaptation of Ray Bradbury's classic science fiction novel Fahrenheit 451, showcasing Truffaut's love of books. His only English-speaking film, made on location in England, was a great challenge for Truffaut, because he barely spoke English himself. Shot by cinematographer Nicolas Roeg, this was Truffaut's first film in colour. The larger-scale production was difficult for Truffaut, who had worked only with small crews and budgets. The shoot was also strained by a conflict with lead actor Oscar Werner, who was unhappy with his character and stormed off set, leaving Truffaut to shoot scenes using a body double shot from behind. The film was a commercial failure, and Truffaut never worked outside France again. The film's cult standing has steadily grown, although some critics remain dubious of it as an adaptation. A 2014 consideration of the film by Charles Silver praises it.
Stolen Kisses (1968) was a continuation of the Antoine Doinel Cycle starring Claude Jade as Antoine's fiancée and later wife Christine Darbon. During its filming Truffaut fell in love with Jade and was briefly engaged to her. It was a big hit on the international art circuit. A short time later Jade made her Hollywood debut in Hitchcock's Topaz.
Truffaut worked on projects with varied subjects. The Bride Wore Black (1968), a brutal tale of revenge, is a stylish homage to the films of Alfred Hitchcock (once again starring Moreau). Mississippi Mermaid (1969), with Catherine Deneuve and Jean-Paul Belmondo, is an identity-bending romantic thriller. Both films are based on novels by Cornell Woolrich.
The Wild Child (1970) included Truffaut's acting debut in the lead role of 18th-century physician Jean Marc Gaspard Itard.
Bed and Board (1970) was another Antoine Doinel film, also with Jade, now Léaud's on-screen-wife.
Two English Girls (1971) is the female reflection of the same love story as "Jules et Jim". It is based on a story by Henri-Pierre Roché, who wrote Jules and Jim, about a man who falls equally in love with two sisters, and their love affair over a period of years.
Such a Gorgeous Kid Like Me (1972) was a screwball comedy that was not well received.
Day for Night won Truffaut a Best Foreign Film Oscar. The film is probably his most reflective work. It is the story of a film crew trying to finish a film while dealing with the personal and professional problems that accompany making a movie. Truffaut plays the director of the fictional film being made. This film features scenes from his previous films. It is considered his best film since his earliest work. Time magazine placed it on its list of 100 Best Films of the Century (along with The 400 Blows).
In 1975, Truffaut gained more notoriety with The Story of Adèle H.; Isabelle Adjani in the title role earned a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Actress. His 1976 film Small Change was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film.
The Man Who Loved Women (1977), a romantic drama, was a minor hit.
Truffaut also appeared in Steven Spielberg's 1977 Close Encounters of the Third Kind as scientist Claude Lacombe.
The Green Room (1978) starred Truffaut in the lead. It was a box-office flop, so he made Love on the Run (1979) starring Léaud and Jade as the final movie of the Doinel Cycle.
One of Truffaut's final films gave him an international revival. The Last Metro (1980) garnered 12 César Award nominations and 10 wins, including Best Director.
Truffaut's last film was shot in black and white, giving his career a sense of having bookends. Confidentially Yours is Truffaut's tribute to his favourite director, Hitchcock. It deals with numerous Hitchcockian themes, such as private guilt versus public innocence, a woman investigating a murder, and anonymous locations.
A keen reader, Truffaut adapted many literary works, including two novels by Henri-Pierre Roché, Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, Henry James's "The Altar of the Dead", filmed as The Green Room, and several American detective novels.
Truffaut's other films were from original screenplays, often co-written by the screenwriters Suzanne Schiffman or Jean Gruault. They featured diverse subjects, the sombre The Story of Adèle H. inspired by the life of the daughter of Victor Hugo, with Isabelle Adjani; Day for Night, shot at the Victorine Studios, depicting the ups and downs of filmmaking; and The Last Metro, set during the German occupation of France during World War II, a film rewarded by ten César Awards.
Known as a lifelong cinephile, Truffaut once (according to the 1993 documentary film François Truffaut: Stolen Portraits) threw a hitchhiker out of his car after learning that he didn't like films.
Many filmmakers admire Truffaut, and tributes to his work have appeared in films such as Almost Famous, Face and The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, as well as novelist Haruki Murakami's Kafka on the Shore. In conversation with Michael Ondaatje, film editor Walter Murch mentions the influence Truffaut had on him as a young man, saying he was "electrified" by the freeze-frame at the end of The 400 Blows, and that Godard's Breathless and Truffaut's Shoot the Piano Player reinforced the idea that he could make films.
Roger Ebert included The 400 Blows in his canon of Great Movies, and concludes: "one of his most curious, haunting films is The Green Room (1978), based on the Henry James story 'The Altar of the Dead,' about a man and a woman who share a passion for remembering their dead loved ones. Jonathan Rosenbaum, who thinks The Green Room may be Truffaut's best film, told me he thinks of it as the director's homage to the auteur theory. That theory, created by Bazin and his disciples (Truffaut, Godard, Resnais, Chabrol, Rohmer, Malle), declared that the director was the true author of a film—not the studio, the screenwriter, the star, the genre. If the figures in the green room stand for the great directors of the past, perhaps there is a shrine there now to Truffaut. One likes to think of the ghost of Antoine Doinel lighting a candle before it."
Truffaut expressed his admiration for filmmakers such as Luis Buñuel, Ingmar Bergman, Robert Bresson, Roberto Rossellini, and Alfred Hitchcock. He wrote Hitchcock/Truffaut, a book about Hitchcock, based on a lengthy series of interviews.
Of Jean Renoir, he said: "I think Renoir is the only filmmaker who's practically infallible, who has never made a mistake on film. And I think if he never made mistakes, it's because he always found solutions based on simplicity—human solutions. He's one film director who never pretended. He never tried to have a style, and if you know his work—which is very comprehensive, since he dealt with all sorts of subjects—when you get stuck, especially as a young filmmaker, you can think of how Renoir would have handled the situation, and you generally find a solution".
Truffaut called German filmmaker Werner Herzog "the most important film director alive."
Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard, his colleague from Les Cahiers du Cinéma, worked together closely during their start as film directors although they had different working methods. Tensions came to the surface after May 68: Godard wanted a more political, specifically Marxist cinema, Truffaut was critical of creating films for primarily political purposes. In 1973, Godard wrote Truffaut a lengthy and raucous private letter peppered with accusations and insinuations, several times stating that as a filmmaker "you're a liar" and that his latest film (Day for Night) had been unsatisfying, lying and evasive: "You're a liar, because the scene between you and Jacqueline Bisset last week at Francis [a Paris restaurant] isn't included in your movie, and one also can't help wondering why the director is the only guy who isn't sleeping around in Day for Night" (Truffaut directed the film, wrote it and played the director on the film set in the film). Godard also implied that Truffaut had gone commercial and easy.
Truffaut replied with an angry 20-page letter in which he accused Godard of being a radical-chic hypocrite, a man who believed everyone to be "equal" in theory only. "The Ursula Andress of militancy—like Brando—a piece of shit on a pedestal." Godard later tried to reconcile with Truffaut, but they never spoke to or saw each other again. After Truffaut's death, Godard wrote the introduction to a generous selection of his correspondence, and included his own 1973 letter. He also offered a long tribute in his film Histoire(s) du cinéma.
Truffaut was married to Madeleine Morgenstern from 1957 to 1965, and they had two daughters, Laura (born 1959) and Eva (born 1961). Madeleine was the daughter of Ignace Morgenstern, managing director of one of France's largest film distribution companies, Cocinor, and was largely responsible for securing funding for Truffaut's first films.
In 1968 Truffaut was engaged to actress Claude Jade (Stolen Kisses, Bed and Board, Love on the Run); he and Fanny Ardant (The Woman Next Door, Confidentially Yours) lived together from 1981 to 1984 and had a daughter, Joséphine Truffaut (born 28 September 1983).
Truffaut was an atheist, but had great respect for the Catholic Church and requested a Requiem Mass for his funeral.
In July 1983, following his first stroke and being diagnosed with a brain tumour, Truffaut rented France Gall's and Michel Berger's house outside Honfleur, Normandy. He was expected to attend his friend Miloš Forman's Amadeus premiere when he died on 21 October 1984, aged 52, at the American Hospital of Paris in Neuilly-sur-Seine in France.
At the time of his death, he had numerous films in preparation. He had intended to make 30 films and then retire to write books for the remainder of his life. He was five films short of that aim. He is buried in Montmartre Cemetery.
TV writer (Posthumous releases)
Academy Awards
BAFTA Awards
Berlin International Film Festival
Cannes Film Festival
César Awards
Mar del Plata International Film Festival
Venice International Film Festival
|
[
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "François Roland Truffaut (UK: /ˈtruːfoʊ, ˈtrʊ-/ TROO-foh, TRUU-, US: /truːˈfoʊ/ troo-FOH; French: [fʁɑ̃swa ʁɔlɑ̃ tʁyfo]; 6 February 1932 – 21 October 1984) was a French filmmaker, actor, and critic. He is widely regarded as one of the founders of the French New Wave. With a career of more than 25 years, he is an icon of the French film industry.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "Truffaut's film The 400 Blows (1959) is a defining film of the French New Wave movement, and has four sequels: Antoine et Colette (1962), Stolen Kisses (1968), Bed and Board (1970), and Love on the Run (1979). Truffaut's 1973 film Day for Night earned him critical acclaim and several awards, including the BAFTA Award for Best Film and the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. His other notable films include Shoot the Piano Player (1960), Jules and Jim (1962), The Soft Skin (1964), The Wild Child (1970), Two English Girls (1971), The Last Metro (1980), and The Woman Next Door (1981). He played one of the main roles in Steven Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977),",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "Truffaut wrote the book Hitchcock/Truffaut (1966), based on his interviews with film director Alfred Hitchcock during the 1960s.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "Truffaut was born in Paris on 6 February 1932. His mother was Janine de Montferrand. His mother's future husband, Roland Truffaut, accepted him as an adopted son and gave him his surname. He was passed around to live with various nannies and his grandmother for a number of years. His grandmother instilled in him her love of books and music. He lived with her until her death, when Truffaut was eight years old. It was only after her death that he lived with his parents. Truffaut's biological father's identity is unknown, but a private detective agency in 1968 revealed that its inquiry into the matter led to a Roland Levy, a Jewish dentist from Bayonne. Truffaut's mother's family disputed the finding but Truffaut believed and embraced it.",
"title": "Early life"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "Truffaut often stayed with friends and tried to be out of the house as much as possible. He knew Robert Lachenay from childhood, and they were lifelong best friends. Lachenay was the inspiration for the character René Bigey in The 400 Blows and worked as an assistant on some of Truffaut's films. Cinema offered Truffaut the greatest escape from an unsatisfying home life. He was eight years old when he saw his first movie, Abel Gance's Paradis Perdu (Paradise Lost, 1939), beginning his obsession. He frequently skipped school and snuck into theaters because he lacked the money for admission. After being expelled from several schools, at age 14 he decided to become self-taught. Two of his academic goals were to watch three movies a day and read three books a week.",
"title": "Early life"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "Truffaut frequented Henri Langlois's Cinémathèque Française, where he was exposed to countless foreign films, becoming familiar with American cinema and directors such as John Ford, Howard Hawks and Nicholas Ray, as well as those of British director Alfred Hitchcock.",
"title": "Early life"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "After starting his own film club in 1948, Truffaut met André Bazin, who had a great effect on his professional and personal life. Bazin was a critic and the head of another film society at the time. He became a personal friend of Truffaut's and helped him out of various financial and criminal situations during his formative years.",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "Truffaut joined the French Army in 1950, aged 18, but spent the next two years trying to escape. He was arrested for attempting to desert the army and incarcerated in military prison. Bazin used his political contacts to get Truffaut released and set him up with a job at his new film magazine, Cahiers du cinéma.",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "Over the next few years, Truffaut became a critic (and later editor) at Cahiers, where he became notorious for his brutal, unforgiving reviews. He was called \"The Gravedigger of French Cinema\" and was the only French critic not invited to the 1958 Cannes Film Festival. He supported Bazin in developing one of the most influential theories of cinema, the auteur theory.",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "In 1954, Truffaut wrote an article in Cahiers du cinéma, \"Une Certaine Tendance du Cinéma Français\" (\"A Certain Trend of French Cinema\"), in which he attacked the state of French films, lambasting certain screenwriters and producers, and listing eight directors he considered incapable of devising the kinds of \"vile\" and \"grotesque\" characters and storylines he called characteristic of the mainstream French film industry: Jean Renoir, Robert Bresson, Jean Cocteau, Jacques Becker, Abel Gance, Max Ophuls, Jacques Tati and Roger Leenhardt. The article caused a storm of controversy, and landed Truffaut an offer to write for the nationally circulated, more widely read cultural weekly Arts-Lettres-Spectacles. Truffaut wrote more than 500 film articles for that publication over the next four years.",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "Truffaut later devised the auteur theory, according to which the director was the \"author\" of his work and great directors such as Renoir or Hitchcock have distinct styles and themes that permeate their films. Although his theory was not widely accepted then, it gained some support in the 1960s from American critic Andrew Sarris. In 1967, Truffaut published his book-length interview of Hitchcock, Hitchcock/Truffaut (New York: Simon and Schuster).",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "After having been a critic, Truffaut decided to make films. He began with the short film Une Visite (1955) and followed it with Les Mistons (1957).",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "After seeing Orson Welles's Touch of Evil at the Expo 58, Truffaut made his feature film directorial debut with The 400 Blows (1959), which received considerable critical and commercial acclaim. He won the Best Director award at the 1959 Cannes Film Festival. The film follows the character of Antoine Doinel through his perilous misadventures in school, an unhappy home life and later reform school. The film is highly autobiographical. Both Truffaut and Doinel were only children of loveless marriages; they both committed petty crimes of theft and truancy from the military. Truffaut cast Jean-Pierre Léaud as Doinel. Léaud was seen as an ordinary boy of 14 who auditioned for the role after seeing a flyer, but interviews after the film's release (one is included on the Criterion DVD of the film) reveal Léaud's natural sophistication and an instinctive understanding of acting for the camera. Léaud and Truffaut collaborated on several films over the years. Their most noteworthy collaboration was the continuation of Doinel's story in a series of films called \"The Antoine Doinel Cycle\".",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "The primary focus of The 400 Blows is Doinel's life. The film follows him through his troubled adolescence. He is caught in between an unstable parental relationship and an isolated youth. From birth Truffaut was thrown into a troublesome situation. As he was born out of wedlock, his birth had to remain a secret because of the stigma of illegitimacy. He was registered as \"a child born to an unknown father\" in hospital records and looked after by a nurse for an extended period of time. His mother eventually married and her husband gave François his surname, Truffaut.",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "Although he was legally accepted as a legitimate child, his parents did not accept him. The Truffauts had another child, who died shortly after birth. This experience saddened them greatly and as a result they despised François because of the regret he represented (Knopf 4). He was an outcast from his earliest years, dismissed as an unwanted child. François was sent to live with his grandparents. When his grandmother died, his parents took him in, much to his mother's dismay. His experiences with his mother were harsh. He recalled being treated badly by her but found comfort in his father's laughter and spirit. François had a very depressing childhood after moving in with his parents. They left him alone when they took vacations. He even recalled being alone during Christmas. Being left alone forced François into independence, often doing various tasks around the house to improve it, such as painting or changing the electric outlets. Sadly, these kind gestures often resulted in catastrophic events, causing him to get scolded by his mother. His father mostly laughed them off.",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 15,
"text": "The 400 Blows marked the beginning of the French New Wave movement, which gave directors such as Jean-Luc Godard, Claude Chabrol and Jacques Rivette a wider audience. The New Wave dealt with a self-conscious rejection of traditional cinema structure. This was a topic on which Truffaut had been writing for years.",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 16,
"text": "Following the success of The 400 Blows, Truffaut featured disjunctive editing and seemingly random voiceovers in his next film, Shoot the Piano Player (1960), starring Charles Aznavour. Truffaut has said that in the middle of filming, he realized that he hated gangsters. But since gangsters were a main part of the story, he toned up the comical aspect of the characters and made the movie more to his liking.",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 17,
"text": "Even though Shoot the Piano Player was much appreciated by critics, it performed poorly at the box office. While the film focused on two of the French New Wave's favourite elements, American film noir and themselves, Truffaut never again experimented as heavily.",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 18,
"text": "In 1962, Truffaut directed his third movie, Jules and Jim, a romantic drama starring Jeanne Moreau. The film was very popular and highly influential.",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 19,
"text": "In 1963, Truffaut was approached to direct the American film Bonnie and Clyde, with a treatment written by Esquire journalists David Newman and Robert Benton intended to introduce the French New Wave to Hollywood. Although he was interested enough to help in script development, Truffaut ultimately declined, but not before interesting Jean-Luc Godard and American actor and would-be producer Warren Beatty, who proceeded with the film with director Arthur Penn.",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 20,
"text": "The fourth movie Truffaut directed was The Soft Skin (1964). It was not acclaimed on its release.",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 21,
"text": "Truffaut's first non-French film was a 1966 adaptation of Ray Bradbury's classic science fiction novel Fahrenheit 451, showcasing Truffaut's love of books. His only English-speaking film, made on location in England, was a great challenge for Truffaut, because he barely spoke English himself. Shot by cinematographer Nicolas Roeg, this was Truffaut's first film in colour. The larger-scale production was difficult for Truffaut, who had worked only with small crews and budgets. The shoot was also strained by a conflict with lead actor Oscar Werner, who was unhappy with his character and stormed off set, leaving Truffaut to shoot scenes using a body double shot from behind. The film was a commercial failure, and Truffaut never worked outside France again. The film's cult standing has steadily grown, although some critics remain dubious of it as an adaptation. A 2014 consideration of the film by Charles Silver praises it.",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 22,
"text": "Stolen Kisses (1968) was a continuation of the Antoine Doinel Cycle starring Claude Jade as Antoine's fiancée and later wife Christine Darbon. During its filming Truffaut fell in love with Jade and was briefly engaged to her. It was a big hit on the international art circuit. A short time later Jade made her Hollywood debut in Hitchcock's Topaz.",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 23,
"text": "Truffaut worked on projects with varied subjects. The Bride Wore Black (1968), a brutal tale of revenge, is a stylish homage to the films of Alfred Hitchcock (once again starring Moreau). Mississippi Mermaid (1969), with Catherine Deneuve and Jean-Paul Belmondo, is an identity-bending romantic thriller. Both films are based on novels by Cornell Woolrich.",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 24,
"text": "The Wild Child (1970) included Truffaut's acting debut in the lead role of 18th-century physician Jean Marc Gaspard Itard.",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 25,
"text": "Bed and Board (1970) was another Antoine Doinel film, also with Jade, now Léaud's on-screen-wife.",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 26,
"text": "Two English Girls (1971) is the female reflection of the same love story as \"Jules et Jim\". It is based on a story by Henri-Pierre Roché, who wrote Jules and Jim, about a man who falls equally in love with two sisters, and their love affair over a period of years.",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 27,
"text": "Such a Gorgeous Kid Like Me (1972) was a screwball comedy that was not well received.",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 28,
"text": "Day for Night won Truffaut a Best Foreign Film Oscar. The film is probably his most reflective work. It is the story of a film crew trying to finish a film while dealing with the personal and professional problems that accompany making a movie. Truffaut plays the director of the fictional film being made. This film features scenes from his previous films. It is considered his best film since his earliest work. Time magazine placed it on its list of 100 Best Films of the Century (along with The 400 Blows).",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 29,
"text": "In 1975, Truffaut gained more notoriety with The Story of Adèle H.; Isabelle Adjani in the title role earned a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Actress. His 1976 film Small Change was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film.",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 30,
"text": "The Man Who Loved Women (1977), a romantic drama, was a minor hit.",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 31,
"text": "Truffaut also appeared in Steven Spielberg's 1977 Close Encounters of the Third Kind as scientist Claude Lacombe.",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 32,
"text": "The Green Room (1978) starred Truffaut in the lead. It was a box-office flop, so he made Love on the Run (1979) starring Léaud and Jade as the final movie of the Doinel Cycle.",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 33,
"text": "One of Truffaut's final films gave him an international revival. The Last Metro (1980) garnered 12 César Award nominations and 10 wins, including Best Director.",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 34,
"text": "Truffaut's last film was shot in black and white, giving his career a sense of having bookends. Confidentially Yours is Truffaut's tribute to his favourite director, Hitchcock. It deals with numerous Hitchcockian themes, such as private guilt versus public innocence, a woman investigating a murder, and anonymous locations.",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 35,
"text": "A keen reader, Truffaut adapted many literary works, including two novels by Henri-Pierre Roché, Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, Henry James's \"The Altar of the Dead\", filmed as The Green Room, and several American detective novels.",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 36,
"text": "Truffaut's other films were from original screenplays, often co-written by the screenwriters Suzanne Schiffman or Jean Gruault. They featured diverse subjects, the sombre The Story of Adèle H. inspired by the life of the daughter of Victor Hugo, with Isabelle Adjani; Day for Night, shot at the Victorine Studios, depicting the ups and downs of filmmaking; and The Last Metro, set during the German occupation of France during World War II, a film rewarded by ten César Awards.",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 37,
"text": "Known as a lifelong cinephile, Truffaut once (according to the 1993 documentary film François Truffaut: Stolen Portraits) threw a hitchhiker out of his car after learning that he didn't like films.",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 38,
"text": "Many filmmakers admire Truffaut, and tributes to his work have appeared in films such as Almost Famous, Face and The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, as well as novelist Haruki Murakami's Kafka on the Shore. In conversation with Michael Ondaatje, film editor Walter Murch mentions the influence Truffaut had on him as a young man, saying he was \"electrified\" by the freeze-frame at the end of The 400 Blows, and that Godard's Breathless and Truffaut's Shoot the Piano Player reinforced the idea that he could make films.",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 39,
"text": "Roger Ebert included The 400 Blows in his canon of Great Movies, and concludes: \"one of his most curious, haunting films is The Green Room (1978), based on the Henry James story 'The Altar of the Dead,' about a man and a woman who share a passion for remembering their dead loved ones. Jonathan Rosenbaum, who thinks The Green Room may be Truffaut's best film, told me he thinks of it as the director's homage to the auteur theory. That theory, created by Bazin and his disciples (Truffaut, Godard, Resnais, Chabrol, Rohmer, Malle), declared that the director was the true author of a film—not the studio, the screenwriter, the star, the genre. If the figures in the green room stand for the great directors of the past, perhaps there is a shrine there now to Truffaut. One likes to think of the ghost of Antoine Doinel lighting a candle before it.\"",
"title": "Career"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 40,
"text": "Truffaut expressed his admiration for filmmakers such as Luis Buñuel, Ingmar Bergman, Robert Bresson, Roberto Rossellini, and Alfred Hitchcock. He wrote Hitchcock/Truffaut, a book about Hitchcock, based on a lengthy series of interviews.",
"title": "Commentary of other filmmakers"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 41,
"text": "Of Jean Renoir, he said: \"I think Renoir is the only filmmaker who's practically infallible, who has never made a mistake on film. And I think if he never made mistakes, it's because he always found solutions based on simplicity—human solutions. He's one film director who never pretended. He never tried to have a style, and if you know his work—which is very comprehensive, since he dealt with all sorts of subjects—when you get stuck, especially as a young filmmaker, you can think of how Renoir would have handled the situation, and you generally find a solution\".",
"title": "Commentary of other filmmakers"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 42,
"text": "Truffaut called German filmmaker Werner Herzog \"the most important film director alive.\"",
"title": "Commentary of other filmmakers"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 43,
"text": "Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard, his colleague from Les Cahiers du Cinéma, worked together closely during their start as film directors although they had different working methods. Tensions came to the surface after May 68: Godard wanted a more political, specifically Marxist cinema, Truffaut was critical of creating films for primarily political purposes. In 1973, Godard wrote Truffaut a lengthy and raucous private letter peppered with accusations and insinuations, several times stating that as a filmmaker \"you're a liar\" and that his latest film (Day for Night) had been unsatisfying, lying and evasive: \"You're a liar, because the scene between you and Jacqueline Bisset last week at Francis [a Paris restaurant] isn't included in your movie, and one also can't help wondering why the director is the only guy who isn't sleeping around in Day for Night\" (Truffaut directed the film, wrote it and played the director on the film set in the film). Godard also implied that Truffaut had gone commercial and easy.",
"title": "Commentary of other filmmakers"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 44,
"text": "Truffaut replied with an angry 20-page letter in which he accused Godard of being a radical-chic hypocrite, a man who believed everyone to be \"equal\" in theory only. \"The Ursula Andress of militancy—like Brando—a piece of shit on a pedestal.\" Godard later tried to reconcile with Truffaut, but they never spoke to or saw each other again. After Truffaut's death, Godard wrote the introduction to a generous selection of his correspondence, and included his own 1973 letter. He also offered a long tribute in his film Histoire(s) du cinéma.",
"title": "Commentary of other filmmakers"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 45,
"text": "Truffaut was married to Madeleine Morgenstern from 1957 to 1965, and they had two daughters, Laura (born 1959) and Eva (born 1961). Madeleine was the daughter of Ignace Morgenstern, managing director of one of France's largest film distribution companies, Cocinor, and was largely responsible for securing funding for Truffaut's first films.",
"title": "Personal life"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 46,
"text": "In 1968 Truffaut was engaged to actress Claude Jade (Stolen Kisses, Bed and Board, Love on the Run); he and Fanny Ardant (The Woman Next Door, Confidentially Yours) lived together from 1981 to 1984 and had a daughter, Joséphine Truffaut (born 28 September 1983).",
"title": "Personal life"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 47,
"text": "Truffaut was an atheist, but had great respect for the Catholic Church and requested a Requiem Mass for his funeral.",
"title": "Personal life"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 48,
"text": "In July 1983, following his first stroke and being diagnosed with a brain tumour, Truffaut rented France Gall's and Michel Berger's house outside Honfleur, Normandy. He was expected to attend his friend Miloš Forman's Amadeus premiere when he died on 21 October 1984, aged 52, at the American Hospital of Paris in Neuilly-sur-Seine in France.",
"title": "Death"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 49,
"text": "At the time of his death, he had numerous films in preparation. He had intended to make 30 films and then retire to write books for the remainder of his life. He was five films short of that aim. He is buried in Montmartre Cemetery.",
"title": "Death"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 50,
"text": "TV writer (Posthumous releases)",
"title": "Filmography"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 51,
"text": "Academy Awards",
"title": "Awards and nominations"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 52,
"text": "BAFTA Awards",
"title": "Awards and nominations"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 53,
"text": "Berlin International Film Festival",
"title": "Awards and nominations"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 54,
"text": "Cannes Film Festival",
"title": "Awards and nominations"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 55,
"text": "César Awards",
"title": "Awards and nominations"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 56,
"text": "Mar del Plata International Film Festival",
"title": "Awards and nominations"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 57,
"text": "Venice International Film Festival",
"title": "Awards and nominations"
}
] |
François Roland Truffaut was a French filmmaker, actor, and critic. He is widely regarded as one of the founders of the French New Wave. With a career of more than 25 years, he is an icon of the French film industry. Truffaut's film The 400 Blows (1959) is a defining film of the French New Wave movement, and has four sequels: Antoine et Colette (1962), Stolen Kisses (1968), Bed and Board (1970), and Love on the Run (1979). Truffaut's 1973 film Day for Night earned him critical acclaim and several awards, including the BAFTA Award for Best Film and the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. His other notable films include Shoot the Piano Player (1960), Jules and Jim (1962), The Soft Skin (1964), The Wild Child (1970), Two English Girls (1971), The Last Metro (1980), and The Woman Next Door (1981). He played one of the main roles in Steven Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), Truffaut wrote the book Hitchcock/Truffaut (1966), based on his interviews with film director Alfred Hitchcock during the 1960s.
|
2001-05-04T19:35:51Z
|
2023-12-31T00:19:50Z
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fran%C3%A7ois_Truffaut
|
10,772 |
Fair use
|
Fair use is a doctrine in United States law that permits limited use of copyrighted material without having to first acquire permission from the copyright holder. Fair use is one of the limitations to copyright intended to balance the interests of copyright holders with the public interest in the wider distribution and use of creative works by allowing as a defense to copyright infringement claims certain limited uses that might otherwise be considered infringement. The US "fair use doctrine" is generally broader than the "fair dealing" rights known in most countries, that inherited English Common Law. The fair use right is a general exception, that applies to all different kinds of uses with all types of works. In the U.S., fair use right/exception is based on a flexible proportionality test, that examines the purpose of the use, the amount used, and the impact on the market of the original work.
The doctrine of "fair use" originated in common law during the 18th and 19th centuries as a way of preventing copyright law from being too rigidly applied and "stifling the very creativity which [copyright] law is designed to foster." Though originally a common law doctrine, it was enshrined in statutory law when the U.S. Congress passed the Copyright Act of 1976. The U.S. Supreme Court has issued several major decisions clarifying and reaffirming the fair use doctrine since the 1980s, the most recent being in the 2021 decision Google LLC v. Oracle America, Inc.
The 1710 Statute of Anne, an act of the Parliament of Great Britain, created copyright law to replace a system of private ordering enforced by the Stationers' Company. The Statute of Anne did not provide for legal unauthorized use of material protected by copyright. In Gyles v Wilcox, the Court of Chancery established the doctrine of "fair abridgement", which permitted unauthorized abridgement of copyrighted works under certain circumstances. Over time, this doctrine evolved into the modern concepts of fair use and fair dealing. Fair use was a common-law (i.e. created by judges as a legal precedent) doctrine in the U.S. until it was incorporated into the Copyright Act of 1976, 17 U.S.C. § 107.
The term "fair use" originated in the United States. Although related, the limitations and exceptions to copyright for teaching and library archiving in the U.S. are located in a different section of the statute. A similar-sounding principle, fair dealing, exists in some other common law jurisdictions but in fact it is more similar in principle to the enumerated exceptions found under civil law systems. Civil law jurisdictions have other limitations and exceptions to copyright.
In response to perceived over-expansion of copyrights, several electronic civil liberties and free expression organizations began in the 1990s to add fair use cases to their dockets and concerns. These include the Electronic Frontier Foundation ("EFF"), the American Civil Liberties Union, the National Coalition Against Censorship, the American Library Association, numerous clinical programs at law schools, and others. The "Chilling Effects" archive was established in 2002 as a coalition of several law school clinics and the EFF to document the use of cease and desist letters. In 2006 Stanford University began an initiative called "The Fair Use Project" (FUP) to help artists, particularly filmmakers, fight lawsuits brought against them by large corporations.
Examples of fair use in United States copyright law include commentary, search engines, criticism, parody, news reporting, research, and scholarship. Fair use provides for the legal, unlicensed citation or incorporation of copyrighted material in another author's work under a four-factor test.
The U.S. Supreme Court has traditionally characterized fair use as an affirmative defense, but in Lenz v. Universal Music Corp. (2015) (the "dancing baby" case), the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit concluded that fair use was not merely a defense to an infringement claim, but was an expressly authorized right, and an exception to the exclusive rights granted to the author of a creative work by copyright law: "Fair use is therefore distinct from affirmative defenses where a use infringes a copyright, but there is no liability due to a valid excuse, e.g., misuse of a copyright."
Notwithstanding the provisions of sections 17 U.S.C. § 106 and 17 U.S.C. § 106A, the fair use of a copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction in copies or phonorecords or by any other means specified by that section, for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright. In determining whether the use made of a work in any particular case is a fair use the factors to be considered shall include:
The fact that a work is unpublished shall not itself bar a finding of fair use if such finding is made upon consideration of all the above factors.
The four factors of analysis for fair use set forth above derive from the opinion of Joseph Story in Folsom v. Marsh, in which the defendant had copied 353 pages from the plaintiff's 12-volume biography of George Washington in order to produce a separate two-volume work of his own. The court rejected the defendant's fair use defense with the following explanation:
[A] reviewer may fairly cite largely from the original work, if his design be really and truly to use the passages for the purposes of fair and reasonable criticism. On the other hand, it is as clear, that if he thus cites the most important parts of the work, with a view, not to criticize, but to supersede the use of the original work, and substitute the review for it, such a use will be deemed in law a piracy ...
In short, we must often ... look to the nature and objects of the selections made, the quantity and value of the materials used, and the degree in which the use may prejudice the sale, or diminish the profits, or supersede the objects, of the original work.
The statutory fair use factors quoted above come from the Copyright Act of 1976, which is codified at 17 U.S.C. § 107. They were intended by Congress to restate, but not replace, the prior judge-made law. As Judge Pierre N. Leval has written, the statute does not "define or explain [fair use's] contours or objectives." While it "leav[es] open the possibility that other factors may bear on the question, the statute identifies none." That is, courts are entitled to consider other factors in addition to the four statutory factors.
The first factor is "the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes." To justify the use as fair, one must demonstrate how it either advances knowledge or the progress of the arts through the addition of something new.
In the 1841 copyright case Folsom v. Marsh, Justice Joseph Story wrote:
"[A] reviewer may fairly cite largely from the original work, if his design be really and truly to use the passages for the purposes of fair and reasonable criticism. On the other hand, it is as clear, that if he thus cites the most important parts of the work, with a view, not to criticise, but to supersede the use of the original work, and substitute the review for it, such a use will be deemed in law a piracy."
A key consideration in later fair use cases is the extent to which the use is transformative. In the 1994 decision Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music Inc, the U.S. Supreme Court held that when the purpose of the use is transformative, this makes the first factor more likely to favor fair use. Before the Campbell decision, federal Judge Pierre Leval argued that transformativeness is central to the fair use analysis in his 1990 article, Toward a Fair Use Standard. Blanch v. Koons is another example of a fair use case that focused on transformativeness. In 2006, Jeff Koons used a photograph taken by commercial photographer Andrea Blanch in a collage painting. Koons appropriated a central portion of an advertisement she had been commissioned to shoot for a magazine. Koons prevailed in part because his use was found transformative under the first fair use factor.
The Campbell case also addressed the subfactor mentioned in the quotation above, "whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes." In an earlier case, Sony Corp. of America v. Universal City Studios, Inc., the Supreme Court had stated that "every commercial use of copyrighted material is presumptively ... unfair." In Campbell, the court clarified that this is not a "hard evidentiary presumption" and that even the tendency that commercial purpose will "weigh against a finding of fair use ... will vary with the context." The Campbell court held that hip-hop group 2 Live Crew's parody of the song "Oh, Pretty Woman" was fair use, even though the parody was sold for profit. Thus, having a commercial purpose does not preclude a use from being found fair, even though it makes it less likely.
Likewise, the noncommercial purpose of a use makes it more likely to be found a fair use, but it does not make it a fair use automatically. For instance, in L.A. Times v. Free Republic, the court found that the noncommercial use of Los Angeles Times content by the Free Republic website was not fair use, since it allowed the public to obtain material at no cost that they would otherwise pay for. Richard Story similarly ruled in Code Revision Commission and State of Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org, Inc. that despite the fact that it is a non-profit and did not sell the work, the service profited from its unauthorized publication of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated because of "the attention, recognition, and contributions" it received in association with the work.
Another factor is whether the use fulfills any of the preamble purposes, also mentioned in the legislation above, as these have been interpreted as "illustrative" of transformative use.
In determining that Prince's appropriation art could constitute fair use and that many of his works were transformative fair uses of Cariou's photographs, the Second Circuit in Cariou v. Prince, 714 F.3d 694 (2d. Cir. 2013) shed light on the lens which transformative use is determined from. "What is critical is how the work in question appears to the reasonable observer, not simply what an artist might say about a particular piece or body of work." Yet, the district court based its conclusion that Prince's work was not transformative in large part on Prince's deposition testimony that he "do[es]n't really have a message," and that he was not "trying to create anything with a new meaning or a new message." However, the artist's subjective message "is not dispositive." Instead, how the artworks are "reasonably be perceived" is the focus of the transformative use inquiry.
The transformativeness inquiry is a deceptively simple test to determine whether a new work has a different purpose and character from an original work. However, courts have not been consistent in deciding whether something is transformative. For instance, in Seltzer v. Green Day, Inc., 725 F.3d 1170 (9th Cir. 2013), the court found that Green Day's use of Seltzer's copyrighted Scream Icon was transformative. The court held that Green Day's modifications to the original Scream Icon conveyed new information and aesthetics from the original piece.
Conversely, the Second Circuit came to the opposite conclusion in a similar situation in Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. v. Goldsmith, 11 F.4th 26 (2d. Cir. 2021). In that case, the Warhol Foundation sought a declaratory judgment that Warhol's use of one of Goldsmith's celebrity photographs was fair use. The court held that Warhol's use was not transformative because Warhol merely imposed his own style on Goldsmith's photograph and retained the photograph's essential elements.
Although the Supreme Court has ruled that the availability of copyright protection should not depend on the artistic quality or merit of a work, fair use analyses consider certain aspects of the work to be relevant, such as whether it is fictional or non-fictional.
To prevent the private ownership of work that rightfully belongs in the public domain, facts and ideas are not protected by copyright—only their particular expression or fixation merits such protection. On the other hand, the social usefulness of freely available information can weigh against the appropriateness of copyright for certain fixations. The Zapruder film of the assassination of President Kennedy, for example, was purchased and copyrighted by Time magazine. Yet its copyright was not upheld, in the name of the public interest, when Time tried to enjoin the reproduction of stills from the film in a history book on the subject in Time Inc v. Bernard Geis Associates.
In the decisions of the Second Circuit in Salinger v. Random House and in New Era Publications Int'l v. Henry Holt & Co, the aspect of whether the copied work has been previously published was considered crucial, assuming the right of the original author to control the circumstances of the publication of his work or preference not to publish at all. However, Judge Pierre N. Leval views this importation of certain aspects of France's droit moral d'artiste (moral rights of the artist) into American copyright law as "bizarre and contradictory" because it sometimes grants greater protection to works that were created for private purposes that have little to do with the public goals of copyright law, than to those works that copyright was initially conceived to protect. This is not to claim that unpublished works, or, more specifically, works not intended for publication, do not deserve legal protection, but that any such protection should come from laws about privacy, rather than laws about copyright. The statutory fair use provision was amended in response to these concerns by adding a final sentence: "The fact that a work is unpublished shall not itself bar a finding of fair use if such finding is made upon consideration of all the above factors."
The third factor assesses the amount and substantiality of the copyrighted work that has been used. In general, the less that is used in relation to the whole, the more likely the use will be considered fair.
Using most or all of a work does not bar a finding of fair use. It simply makes the third factor less favorable to the defendant. For instance, in Sony Corp. of America v. Universal City Studios, Inc. copying entire television programs for private viewing was upheld as fair use, at least when the copying is done for the purposes of time-shifting. In Kelly v. Arriba Soft Corporation, the Ninth Circuit held that copying an entire photo to use as a thumbnail in online search results did not even weigh against fair use, "if the secondary user only copies as much as is necessary for his or her intended use".
However, even the use of a small percentage of a work can make the third factor unfavorable to the defendant, because the "substantiality" of the portion used is considered in addition to the amount used. For instance, in Harper & Row v. Nation Enterprises, the U.S. Supreme Court held that a news article's quotation of fewer than 400 words from President Ford's 200,000-word memoir was sufficient to make the third fair use factor weigh against the defendants, because the portion taken was the "heart of the work". This use was ultimately found not to be fair.
The fourth factor measures the effect that the allegedly infringing use has had on the copyright owner's ability to exploit his original work. The court not only investigates whether the defendant's specific use of the work has significantly harmed the copyright owner's market, but also whether such uses in general, if widespread, would harm the potential market of the original. The burden of proof here rests on the copyright owner, who must demonstrate the impact of the infringement on commercial use of the work.
For example, in Sony Corp v. Universal City Studios, the copyright owner, Universal, failed to provide any empirical evidence that the use of Betamax had either reduced their viewership or negatively impacted their business. In Harper & Row, the case regarding President Ford's memoirs, the Supreme Court labeled the fourth factor "the single most important element of fair use" and it has enjoyed some level of primacy in fair use analyses ever since. Yet the Supreme Court's more recent announcement in Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music Inc that "all [four factors] are to be explored, and the results weighed together, in light of the purposes of copyright" has helped modulate this emphasis in interpretation.
In evaluating the fourth factor, courts often consider two kinds of harm to the potential market for the original work.
Courts recognize that certain kinds of market harm do not negate fair use, such as when a parody or negative review impairs the market of the original work. Copyright considerations may not shield a work against adverse criticism.
As explained by Judge Leval, courts are permitted to include additional factors in their analysis.
One such factor is acknowledgement of the copyrighted source. Giving the name of the photographer or author may help, but it does not automatically make a use fair. While plagiarism and copyright infringement are related matters, they are not identical. Plagiarism (using someone's words, ideas, images, etc. without acknowledgment) is a matter of professional ethics, while copyright is a matter of law, and protects exact expression, not ideas. One can plagiarize even a work that is not protected by copyright, for example by passing off a line from Shakespeare as one's own. Conversely, attribution prevents accusations of plagiarism, but it does not prevent infringement of copyright. For example, reprinting a copyrighted book without permission, while citing the original author, would be copyright infringement but not plagiarism.
The U.S. Supreme Court described fair use as an affirmative defense in Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music, Inc. This means that in litigation on copyright infringement, the defendant bears the burden of raising and proving that the use was fair and not an infringement. Thus, fair use need not even be raised as a defense unless the plaintiff first shows (or the defendant concedes) a prima facie case of copyright infringement. If the work was not copyrightable, the term had expired, or the defendant's work borrowed only a small amount, for instance, then the plaintiff cannot make out a prima facie case of infringement, and the defendant need not even raise the fair use defense. In addition, fair use is only one of many limitations, exceptions, and defenses to copyright infringement. Thus, a prima facie case can be defeated without relying on fair use. For instance, the Audio Home Recording Act establishes that it is legal, using certain technologies, to make copies of audio recordings for non-commercial personal use.
Some copyright owners claim infringement even in circumstances where the fair use defense would likely succeed, in hopes that the user will refrain from the use rather than spending resources in their defense. Strategic lawsuit against public participation (SLAPP) cases that allege copyright infringement, patent infringement, defamation, or libel may come into conflict with the defendant's right to freedom of speech, and that possibility has prompted some jurisdictions to pass anti-SLAPP legislation that raises the plaintiff's burdens and risk.
Although fair use ostensibly permits certain uses without liability, many content creators and publishers try to avoid a potential court battle by seeking a legally unnecessary license from copyright owners for any use of non-public domain material, even in situations where a fair use defense would likely succeed. The simple reason is that the license terms negotiated with the copyright owner may be much less expensive than defending against a copyright suit, or having the mere possibility of a lawsuit threaten the publication of a work in which a publisher has invested significant resources.
Fair use rights take precedence over the author's interest. Thus the copyright holder cannot use a non-binding disclaimer, or notification, to revoke the right of fair use on works. However, binding agreements such as contracts or licence agreements may take precedence over fair use rights.
The practical effect of the fair use doctrine is that a number of conventional uses of copyrighted works are not considered infringing. For instance, quoting from a copyrighted work in order to criticize or comment upon it or teach students about it, is considered a fair use. Certain well-established uses cause few problems. A teacher who prints a few copies of a poem to illustrate a technique will have no problem on all four of the above factors (except possibly on amount and substantiality), but some cases are not so clear. All the factors are considered and balanced in each case: a book reviewer who quotes a paragraph as an example of the author's style will probably fall under fair use even though they may sell their review commercially; but a non-profit educational website that reproduces whole articles from technical magazines will probably be found to infringe if the publisher can demonstrate that the website affects the market for the magazine, even though the website itself is non-commercial.
Fair use is decided on a case-by-case basis, on the entirety of circumstances. The same act done by different means or for a different purpose can gain or lose fair use status.
The Oracle America, Inc. v. Google, Inc. case revolves around the use of application programming interfaces (APIs) used to define functionality of the Java programming language, created by Sun Microsystems and now owned by Oracle Corporation. Google used the APIs' definition and their structure, sequence and organization (SSO) in creating the Android operating system to support the mobile device market. Oracle had sued Google in 2010 over both patent and copyright violations, but after two cycles, the case matter was narrowed down to whether Google's use of the definition and SSO of Oracle's Java APIs (determined to be copyrightable) was within fair use. The Federal Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled against Google, stating that while Google could defend its use in the nature of the copyrighted work, its use was not transformative, and more significantly, it commercially harmed Oracle as they were also seeking entry to the mobile market. However, the U.S. Supreme Court reversed this decision, deciding that Google's actions satisfy all four tests for fair use, and that granting Oracle exclusive rights to use Java APIs on mobile markets "would interfere with, not further, copyright's basic creativity objectives."
In April 2006, the filmmakers of the Loose Change series were served with a lawsuit by Jules and Gédéon Naudet over the film's use of their footage, specifically footage of the firefighters discussing the collapse of the World Trade Center. With the help of an intellectual property lawyer, the creators of Loose Change successfully argued that a majority of the footage used was for historical purposes and was significantly transformed in the context of the film. They agreed to remove a few shots that were used as B-roll and served no purpose to the greater discussion. The case was settled and a potential multimillion-dollar lawsuit was avoided.
This Film Is Not Yet Rated also relied on fair use to feature several clips from copyrighted Hollywood productions. The director had originally planned to license these clips from their studio owners but discovered that studio licensing agreements would have prohibited him from using this material to criticize the entertainment industry. This prompted him to invoke the fair use doctrine, which permits limited use of copyrighted material to provide analysis and criticism of published works.
In 2009, fair use appeared as a defense in lawsuits against filesharing. Charles Nesson argued that file-sharing qualifies as fair use in his defense of alleged filesharer Joel Tenenbaum. Kiwi Camara, defending alleged filesharer Jammie Thomas, announced a similar defense. However, the Court in the case at bar rejected the idea that file-sharing is fair use.
A U.S. court case from 2003, Kelly v. Arriba Soft Corp., provides and develops the relationship between thumbnails, inline linking, and fair use. In the lower District Court case on a motion for summary judgment, Arriba Soft's use of thumbnail pictures and inline linking from Kelly's website in Arriba Soft's image search engine was found not to be fair use. That decision was appealed and contested by Internet rights activists such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation, who argued that it was fair use.
On appeal, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals found in favor of the defendant, Arriba Soft. In reaching its decision, the court utilized the statutory four-factor analysis. First, it found the purpose of creating the thumbnail images as previews to be sufficiently transformative, noting that they were not meant to be viewed at high resolution as the original artwork was. Second, the photographs had already been published, diminishing the significance of their nature as creative works. Third, although normally making a "full" replication of a copyrighted work may appear to violate copyright, here it was found to be reasonable and necessary in light of the intended use. Lastly, the court found that the market for the original photographs would not be substantially diminished by the creation of the thumbnails. To the contrary, the thumbnail searches could increase the exposure of the originals. In looking at all these factors as a whole, the court found that the thumbnails were fair use and remanded the case to the lower court for trial after issuing a revised opinion on July 7, 2003. The remaining issues were resolved with a default judgment after Arriba Soft had experienced significant financial problems and failed to reach a negotiated settlement.
In August 2008, Judge Jeremy Fogel of the Northern District of California ruled in Lenz v. Universal Music Corp. that copyright holders cannot order a deletion of an online file without determining whether that posting reflected "fair use" of the copyrighted material. The case involved Stephanie Lenz, a writer and editor from Gallitzin, Pennsylvania, who made a home video of her thirteen-month-old son dancing to Prince's song "Let's Go Crazy" and posted the video on YouTube. Four months later, Universal Music, the owner of the copyright to the song, ordered YouTube to remove the video under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Lenz notified YouTube immediately that her video was within the scope of fair use, and she demanded that it be restored. YouTube complied after six weeks, rather than the two weeks required by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Lenz then sued Universal Music in California for her legal costs, claiming the music company had acted in bad faith by ordering removal of a video that represented fair use of the song. On appeal, the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that a copyright owner must affirmatively consider whether the complained of conduct constituted fair use before sending a takedown notice under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, rather than waiting for the alleged infringer to assert fair use. 801 F.3d 1126 (9th Cir. 2015). "Even if, as Universal urges, fair use is classified as an 'affirmative defense,' we hold—for the purposes of the DMCA—fair use is uniquely situated in copyright law so as to be treated differently than traditional affirmative defenses. We conclude that because 17 U.S.C. § 107 created a type of non-infringing use, fair use is "authorized by the law" and a copyright holder must consider the existence of fair use before sending a takedown notification under § 512(c)."
In June 2011, Judge Philip Pro of the District of Nevada ruled in Righthaven v. Hoehn that the posting of an entire editorial article from the Las Vegas Review-Journal in a comment as part of an online discussion was unarguably fair use. Judge Pro noted that "Noncommercial, nonprofit use is presumptively fair. ... Hoehn posted the Work as part of an online discussion. ... This purpose is consistent with comment, for which 17 U.S.C. § 107 provides fair use protection. ... It is undisputed that Hoehn posted the entire work in his comment on the Website. ... wholesale copying does not preclude a finding of fair use. ... there is no genuine issue of material fact that Hoehn's use of the Work was fair and summary judgment is appropriate." On appeal, the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that Righthaven did not even have the standing needed to sue Hoehn for copyright infringement in the first place.
In addition to considering the four fair use factors, courts deciding fair use cases also look to the standards and practices of the professional community where the case comes from. Among the communities are documentarians, librarians, makers of Open Courseware, visual art educators, and communications professors.
Such codes of best practices have permitted communities of practice to make more informed risk assessments in employing fair use in their daily practice. For instance, broadcasters, cablecasters, and distributors typically require filmmakers to obtain errors and omissions insurance before the distributor will take on the film. Such insurance protects against errors and omissions made during the copyright clearance of material in the film. Before the Documentary Filmmakers' Statement of Best Practices in Fair Use was created in 2005, it was nearly impossible to obtain errors and omissions insurance for copyright clearance work that relied in part on fair use. This meant documentarians had either to obtain a license for the material or to cut it from their films. In many cases, it was impossible to license the material because the filmmaker sought to use it in a critical way. Soon after the best practices statement was released, all errors and omissions insurers in the U.S. shifted to begin offering routine fair use coverage.
Before 1991, sampling in certain genres of music was accepted practice and the copyright considerations were viewed as largely irrelevant. The strict decision against rapper Biz Markie's appropriation of a Gilbert O'Sullivan song in the case Grand Upright Music, Ltd. v. Warner Bros. Records Inc. changed practices and opinions overnight. Samples now had to be licensed, as long as they rose "to a level of legally cognizable appropriation." This left the door open for the de minimis doctrine, for short or unrecognizable samples; such uses would not rise to the level of copyright infringement, because under the de minimis doctrine, "the law does not care about trifles." However, three years later, the Sixth Circuit effectively eliminated the de minimis doctrine in the Bridgeport Music, Inc. v. Dimension Films case, holding that artists must "get a license or do not sample". The Court later clarified that its opinion did not apply to fair use, but between Grand Upright and Bridgeport, practice had effectively shifted to eliminate unlicensed sampling.
Producers or creators of parodies of a copyrighted work have been sued for infringement by the targets of their ridicule, even though such use may be protected as fair use. These fair use cases distinguish between parodies, which use a work in order to poke fun at or comment on the work itself, and satire, which comments on something else. Courts have been more willing to grant fair use protections to parodies than to satires, but the ultimate outcome in either circumstance will turn on the application of the four fair use factors.
For example, when Tom Forsythe appropriated Barbie dolls for his photography project "Food Chain Barbie" (depicting several copies of the doll naked and disheveled and about to be baked in an oven, blended in a food mixer, and the like), Mattel lost its copyright infringement lawsuit against him because his work effectively parodies Barbie and the values she represents. In Rogers v. Koons, Jeff Koons tried to justify his appropriation of Art Rogers' photograph "Puppies" in his sculpture "String of Puppies" with the same parody defense. Koons lost because his work was not presented as a parody of Rogers' photograph in particular, but as a satire of society at large. This was insufficient to render the use fair.
In Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music Inc the U.S. Supreme Court recognized parody as a potential fair use, even when done for profit. Roy Orbison's, Acuff-Rose Music, had sued 2 Live Crew in 1989 for their use of Orbison's "Oh, Pretty Woman" in a mocking rap version with altered lyrics. The Supreme Court viewed 2 Live Crew's version as a ridiculing commentary on the earlier work, and ruled that when the parody was itself the product rather than mere advertising, commercial nature did not bar the defense. The Campbell court also distinguished parodies from satire, which they described as a broader social critique not intrinsically tied to ridicule of a specific work and so not deserving of the same use exceptions as parody because the satirist's ideas are capable of expression without the use of the other particular work.
A number of appellate decisions have recognized that a parody may be a protected fair use, including the Second (Leibovitz v. Paramount Pictures Corp.); the Ninth (Mattel v. Walking Mountain Productions); and the Eleventh Circuits (Suntrust Bank v. Houghton Mifflin Co.). In the 2001 Suntrust Bank case, Suntrust Bank and the Margaret Mitchell estate unsuccessfully brought suit to halt the publication of The Wind Done Gone, which reused many of the characters and situations from Gone with the Wind but told the events from the point of view of the enslaved people rather than the slaveholders. The Eleventh Circuit, applying Campbell, found that The Wind Done Gone was fair use and vacated the district court's injunction against its publication.
Cases in which a satirical use was found to be fair include Blanch v. Koons and Williams v. Columbia Broadcasting Systems.
The transformative nature of computer based analytical processes such as text mining, web mining and data mining has led many to form the view that such uses would be protected under fair use. This view was substantiated by the rulings of Judge Denny Chin in Authors Guild, Inc. v. Google, Inc., a case involving mass digitisation of millions of books from research library collections. As part of the ruling that found the book digitisation project was fair use, the judge stated "Google Books is also transformative in the sense that it has transformed book text into data for purposes of substantive research, including data mining and text mining in new areas".
Text and data mining was subject to further review in Authors Guild v. HathiTrust, a case derived from the same digitization project mentioned above. Judge Harold Baer, in finding that the defendant's uses were transformative, stated that 'the search capabilities of the [HathiTrust Digital Library] have already given rise to new methods of academic inquiry such as text mining."
There is a substantial body of fair use law regarding reverse engineering of computer software, hardware, network protocols, encryption and access control systems.
In May 2015, artist Richard Prince released an exhibit of photographs at the Gagosian Gallery in New York, entitled "New Portraits". His exhibit consisted of screenshots of Instagram users' pictures, which were largely unaltered, with Prince's commentary added beneath. Although no Instagram users authorized Prince to use their pictures, Prince argued that the addition of his own commentary the pictures constituted fair use, such that he did not need permission to use the pictures or to pay royalties for his use. One of the pieces sold for $90,000. With regard to the works presented by Painter, the gallery where the pictures were showcased posted notices that "All images are subject to copyright." Several lawsuits were filed against Painter over the New Portraits exhibit.
While U.S. fair use law has been influential in some countries, some countries have fair use criteria drastically different from those in the U.S., and some countries do not have a fair use framework at all. Some countries have the concept of fair dealing instead of fair use, while others use different systems of limitations and exceptions to copyright. Many countries have some reference to an exemption for educational use, though the extent of this exemption varies widely.
Sources differ on whether fair use is fully recognized by countries other than the United States. American University's infojustice.org published a compilation of portions of over 40 nations' laws that explicitly mention fair use or fair dealing, and asserts that some of the fair dealing laws, such as Canada's, have evolved (such as through judicial precedents) to be quite close to those of the United States. This compilation includes fair use provisions from Bangladesh, Israel, South Korea, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Uganda, and the United States. However, Paul Geller's 2009 International Copyright Law and Practice says that while some other countries recognize similar exceptions to copyright, only the United States and Israel fully recognize the concept of fair use.
The International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA), a lobby group of U.S. copyright industry bodies, has objected to international adoption of U.S.-style fair use exceptions, alleging that such laws have a dependency on common law and long-term legal precedent that may not exist outside the United States.
In November 2007, the Israeli Knesset passed a new copyright law that included a U.S.-style fair use exception. The law, which took effect in May 2008, permits the fair use of copyrighted works for purposes such as private study, research, criticism, review, news reporting, quotation, or instruction or testing by an educational institution. The law sets up four factors, similar to the U.S. fair use factors (see above), for determining whether a use is fair.
On September 2, 2009, the Tel Aviv District court ruled in The Football Association Premier League Ltd. v. Ploni that fair use is a user right. The court also ruled that streaming of live soccer games on the Internet is fair use. In doing so, the court analyzed the four fair use factors adopted in 2007 and cited U.S. case law, including Kelly v. Arriba Soft Corp. and Perfect 10, Inc. v. Amazon.com, Inc..
An amendment in 2012 to the section 13(2)(a) of the Copyright Act 1987 created an exception called 'fair dealing' which is not restricted in its purpose. The four factors for fair use as specified in US law are included.
Fair use exists in Polish law and is covered by the Polish copyright law articles 23 to 35.
Compared to the United States, Polish fair use distinguishes between private and public use. In Poland, when the use is public, its use risks fines. The defendant must also prove that his use was private when accused that it was not, or that other mitigating circumstances apply. Finally, Polish law treats all cases in which private material was made public as a potential copyright infringement, where fair use can apply, but has to be proven by reasonable circumstances.
Section 35 of the Singaporean Copyright Act 1987 has been amended in 2004 to allow a 'fair dealing' exception for any purpose. The four fair use factors similar to US law are included in the new section 35.
The Korean Copyright Act was amended to include a fair use provision, Article 35–3, in 2012. The law outlines a four-factor test similar to that used under U.S. law:
In determining whether art. 35-3(1) above applies to a use of copyrighted work, the following factors must be considered: the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is of a non profit nature; the type or purpose of the copyrighted work; the amount and importance of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; the effect of the use of the copyrighted work upon the current market or the current value of the copyrighted work or on the potential market or the potential value of the copyrighted work.
Fair dealing allows specific exceptions to copyright protections. The open-ended concept of fair use is generally not observed in jurisdictions where fair dealing is in place, although this does vary. Fair dealing is established in legislation in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Singapore, India, South Africa and the United Kingdom, among others.
While Australian copyright exceptions are based on the Fair Dealing system, since 1998 a series of Australian government inquiries have examined, and in most cases recommended, the introduction of a "flexible and open" Fair Use system into Australian copyright law. From 1998 to 2017 there have been eight Australian government inquiries which have considered the question of whether fair use should be adopted in Australia. Six reviews have recommended Australia adopt a "Fair Use" model of copyright exceptions: two enquiries specifically into the Copyright Act (1998, 2014); and four broader reviews (both 2004, 2013, 2016). One review (2000) recommended against the introduction of fair use and another (2005) issued no final report. Two of the recommendations were specifically in response to the stricter copyright rules introduced as part of the Australia–United States Free Trade Agreement (AUSFTA), while the most recent two, by the Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC) and the Productivity Commission (PC) were with reference to strengthening Australia's "digital economy".
The Copyright Act of Canada establishes fair dealing in Canada, which allows specific exceptions to copyright protection. In 1985, the Sub-Committee on the Revision of Copyright rejected replacing fair dealing with an open-ended system, and in 1986 the Canadian government agreed that "the present fair dealing provisions should not be replaced by the substantially wider 'fair use' concept". Since then, the Canadian fair dealing exception has broadened. It is now similar in effect to U.S. fair use, even though the frameworks are different.
CCH Canadian Ltd v. Law Society of Upper Canada [2004] 1 S.C.R. 339,2004 SCC 13 is a landmark Supreme Court of Canada case that establishes the bounds of fair dealing in Canadian copyright law. The Law Society of Upper Canada was sued for copyright infringement for providing photocopy services to researchers. The Court unanimously held that the Law Society's practice fell within the bounds of fair dealing.
Within the United Kingdom, fair dealing is a legal doctrine that provides an exception to the nation's copyright law in cases where the copyright infringement is for the purposes of non-commercial research or study, criticism or review, or for the reporting of current events.
A balanced copyright law provides an economic benefit to many high-tech businesses such as search engines and software developers. Fair use is also crucial to non-technology industries such as insurance, legal services, and newspaper publishers.
On September 12, 2007, the Computer and Communications Industry Association (CCIA), a group representing companies including Google Inc., Microsoft Inc., Oracle Corporation, Sun Microsystems, Yahoo! and other high-tech companies, released a study that found that fair use exceptions to US copyright laws were responsible for more than $4.5 trillion in annual revenue for the United States economy representing one-sixth of the total US GDP. The study was conducted using a methodology developed by the World Intellectual Property Organization.
The study found that fair use dependent industries are directly responsible for more than eighteen percent of US economic growth and nearly eleven million American jobs. "As the United States economy becomes increasingly knowledge-based, the concept of fair use can no longer be discussed and legislated in the abstract. It is the very foundation of the digital age and a cornerstone of our economy," said Ed Black, President and CEO of CCIA. "Much of the unprecedented economic growth of the past ten years can actually be credited to the doctrine of fair use, as the Internet itself depends on the ability to use content in a limited and unlicensed manner."
Fair Use Week is an international event that celebrates fair use and fair dealing. Fair Use Week was first proposed on a Fair Use Allies listserv, which was an outgrowth of the Library Code of Best Practices Capstone Event, celebrating the development and promulgation of ARL's Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Academic and Research Libraries. While the idea was not taken up nationally, Copyright Advisor at Harvard University, launched the first ever Fair Use Week at Harvard University in February 2014, with a full week of activities celebrating fair use. The first Fair Use Week included blog posts from national and international fair use experts, live fair use panels, fair use workshops, and a Fair Use Stories Tumblr blog, where people from the world of art, music, film, and academia shared stories about the importance of fair use to their community. The first Fair Use Week was so successful that in 2015 ARL teamed up with Courtney and helped organize the Second Annual Fair Use Week, with participation from many more institutions. ARL also launched an official Fair Use Week website, which was transferred from Pia Hunter, who attended the Library Code of Best Practices Capstone Event and had originally purchased the domain name fairuseweek.org.
|
[
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "Fair use is a doctrine in United States law that permits limited use of copyrighted material without having to first acquire permission from the copyright holder. Fair use is one of the limitations to copyright intended to balance the interests of copyright holders with the public interest in the wider distribution and use of creative works by allowing as a defense to copyright infringement claims certain limited uses that might otherwise be considered infringement. The US \"fair use doctrine\" is generally broader than the \"fair dealing\" rights known in most countries, that inherited English Common Law. The fair use right is a general exception, that applies to all different kinds of uses with all types of works. In the U.S., fair use right/exception is based on a flexible proportionality test, that examines the purpose of the use, the amount used, and the impact on the market of the original work.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "The doctrine of \"fair use\" originated in common law during the 18th and 19th centuries as a way of preventing copyright law from being too rigidly applied and \"stifling the very creativity which [copyright] law is designed to foster.\" Though originally a common law doctrine, it was enshrined in statutory law when the U.S. Congress passed the Copyright Act of 1976. The U.S. Supreme Court has issued several major decisions clarifying and reaffirming the fair use doctrine since the 1980s, the most recent being in the 2021 decision Google LLC v. Oracle America, Inc.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "The 1710 Statute of Anne, an act of the Parliament of Great Britain, created copyright law to replace a system of private ordering enforced by the Stationers' Company. The Statute of Anne did not provide for legal unauthorized use of material protected by copyright. In Gyles v Wilcox, the Court of Chancery established the doctrine of \"fair abridgement\", which permitted unauthorized abridgement of copyrighted works under certain circumstances. Over time, this doctrine evolved into the modern concepts of fair use and fair dealing. Fair use was a common-law (i.e. created by judges as a legal precedent) doctrine in the U.S. until it was incorporated into the Copyright Act of 1976, 17 U.S.C. § 107.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "The term \"fair use\" originated in the United States. Although related, the limitations and exceptions to copyright for teaching and library archiving in the U.S. are located in a different section of the statute. A similar-sounding principle, fair dealing, exists in some other common law jurisdictions but in fact it is more similar in principle to the enumerated exceptions found under civil law systems. Civil law jurisdictions have other limitations and exceptions to copyright.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "In response to perceived over-expansion of copyrights, several electronic civil liberties and free expression organizations began in the 1990s to add fair use cases to their dockets and concerns. These include the Electronic Frontier Foundation (\"EFF\"), the American Civil Liberties Union, the National Coalition Against Censorship, the American Library Association, numerous clinical programs at law schools, and others. The \"Chilling Effects\" archive was established in 2002 as a coalition of several law school clinics and the EFF to document the use of cease and desist letters. In 2006 Stanford University began an initiative called \"The Fair Use Project\" (FUP) to help artists, particularly filmmakers, fight lawsuits brought against them by large corporations.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "Examples of fair use in United States copyright law include commentary, search engines, criticism, parody, news reporting, research, and scholarship. Fair use provides for the legal, unlicensed citation or incorporation of copyrighted material in another author's work under a four-factor test.",
"title": "U.S. fair use factors"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "The U.S. Supreme Court has traditionally characterized fair use as an affirmative defense, but in Lenz v. Universal Music Corp. (2015) (the \"dancing baby\" case), the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit concluded that fair use was not merely a defense to an infringement claim, but was an expressly authorized right, and an exception to the exclusive rights granted to the author of a creative work by copyright law: \"Fair use is therefore distinct from affirmative defenses where a use infringes a copyright, but there is no liability due to a valid excuse, e.g., misuse of a copyright.\"",
"title": "U.S. fair use factors"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "Notwithstanding the provisions of sections 17 U.S.C. § 106 and 17 U.S.C. § 106A, the fair use of a copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction in copies or phonorecords or by any other means specified by that section, for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright. In determining whether the use made of a work in any particular case is a fair use the factors to be considered shall include:",
"title": "U.S. fair use factors"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "The fact that a work is unpublished shall not itself bar a finding of fair use if such finding is made upon consideration of all the above factors.",
"title": "U.S. fair use factors"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "The four factors of analysis for fair use set forth above derive from the opinion of Joseph Story in Folsom v. Marsh, in which the defendant had copied 353 pages from the plaintiff's 12-volume biography of George Washington in order to produce a separate two-volume work of his own. The court rejected the defendant's fair use defense with the following explanation:",
"title": "U.S. fair use factors"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "[A] reviewer may fairly cite largely from the original work, if his design be really and truly to use the passages for the purposes of fair and reasonable criticism. On the other hand, it is as clear, that if he thus cites the most important parts of the work, with a view, not to criticize, but to supersede the use of the original work, and substitute the review for it, such a use will be deemed in law a piracy ...",
"title": "U.S. fair use factors"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "In short, we must often ... look to the nature and objects of the selections made, the quantity and value of the materials used, and the degree in which the use may prejudice the sale, or diminish the profits, or supersede the objects, of the original work.",
"title": "U.S. fair use factors"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "The statutory fair use factors quoted above come from the Copyright Act of 1976, which is codified at 17 U.S.C. § 107. They were intended by Congress to restate, but not replace, the prior judge-made law. As Judge Pierre N. Leval has written, the statute does not \"define or explain [fair use's] contours or objectives.\" While it \"leav[es] open the possibility that other factors may bear on the question, the statute identifies none.\" That is, courts are entitled to consider other factors in addition to the four statutory factors.",
"title": "U.S. fair use factors"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "The first factor is \"the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes.\" To justify the use as fair, one must demonstrate how it either advances knowledge or the progress of the arts through the addition of something new.",
"title": "U.S. fair use factors"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "In the 1841 copyright case Folsom v. Marsh, Justice Joseph Story wrote:",
"title": "U.S. fair use factors"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 15,
"text": "\"[A] reviewer may fairly cite largely from the original work, if his design be really and truly to use the passages for the purposes of fair and reasonable criticism. On the other hand, it is as clear, that if he thus cites the most important parts of the work, with a view, not to criticise, but to supersede the use of the original work, and substitute the review for it, such a use will be deemed in law a piracy.\"",
"title": "U.S. fair use factors"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 16,
"text": "A key consideration in later fair use cases is the extent to which the use is transformative. In the 1994 decision Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music Inc, the U.S. Supreme Court held that when the purpose of the use is transformative, this makes the first factor more likely to favor fair use. Before the Campbell decision, federal Judge Pierre Leval argued that transformativeness is central to the fair use analysis in his 1990 article, Toward a Fair Use Standard. Blanch v. Koons is another example of a fair use case that focused on transformativeness. In 2006, Jeff Koons used a photograph taken by commercial photographer Andrea Blanch in a collage painting. Koons appropriated a central portion of an advertisement she had been commissioned to shoot for a magazine. Koons prevailed in part because his use was found transformative under the first fair use factor.",
"title": "U.S. fair use factors"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 17,
"text": "The Campbell case also addressed the subfactor mentioned in the quotation above, \"whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes.\" In an earlier case, Sony Corp. of America v. Universal City Studios, Inc., the Supreme Court had stated that \"every commercial use of copyrighted material is presumptively ... unfair.\" In Campbell, the court clarified that this is not a \"hard evidentiary presumption\" and that even the tendency that commercial purpose will \"weigh against a finding of fair use ... will vary with the context.\" The Campbell court held that hip-hop group 2 Live Crew's parody of the song \"Oh, Pretty Woman\" was fair use, even though the parody was sold for profit. Thus, having a commercial purpose does not preclude a use from being found fair, even though it makes it less likely.",
"title": "U.S. fair use factors"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 18,
"text": "Likewise, the noncommercial purpose of a use makes it more likely to be found a fair use, but it does not make it a fair use automatically. For instance, in L.A. Times v. Free Republic, the court found that the noncommercial use of Los Angeles Times content by the Free Republic website was not fair use, since it allowed the public to obtain material at no cost that they would otherwise pay for. Richard Story similarly ruled in Code Revision Commission and State of Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org, Inc. that despite the fact that it is a non-profit and did not sell the work, the service profited from its unauthorized publication of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated because of \"the attention, recognition, and contributions\" it received in association with the work.",
"title": "U.S. fair use factors"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 19,
"text": "Another factor is whether the use fulfills any of the preamble purposes, also mentioned in the legislation above, as these have been interpreted as \"illustrative\" of transformative use.",
"title": "U.S. fair use factors"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 20,
"text": "In determining that Prince's appropriation art could constitute fair use and that many of his works were transformative fair uses of Cariou's photographs, the Second Circuit in Cariou v. Prince, 714 F.3d 694 (2d. Cir. 2013) shed light on the lens which transformative use is determined from. \"What is critical is how the work in question appears to the reasonable observer, not simply what an artist might say about a particular piece or body of work.\" Yet, the district court based its conclusion that Prince's work was not transformative in large part on Prince's deposition testimony that he \"do[es]n't really have a message,\" and that he was not \"trying to create anything with a new meaning or a new message.\" However, the artist's subjective message \"is not dispositive.\" Instead, how the artworks are \"reasonably be perceived\" is the focus of the transformative use inquiry.",
"title": "U.S. fair use factors"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 21,
"text": "The transformativeness inquiry is a deceptively simple test to determine whether a new work has a different purpose and character from an original work. However, courts have not been consistent in deciding whether something is transformative. For instance, in Seltzer v. Green Day, Inc., 725 F.3d 1170 (9th Cir. 2013), the court found that Green Day's use of Seltzer's copyrighted Scream Icon was transformative. The court held that Green Day's modifications to the original Scream Icon conveyed new information and aesthetics from the original piece.",
"title": "U.S. fair use factors"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 22,
"text": "Conversely, the Second Circuit came to the opposite conclusion in a similar situation in Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. v. Goldsmith, 11 F.4th 26 (2d. Cir. 2021). In that case, the Warhol Foundation sought a declaratory judgment that Warhol's use of one of Goldsmith's celebrity photographs was fair use. The court held that Warhol's use was not transformative because Warhol merely imposed his own style on Goldsmith's photograph and retained the photograph's essential elements.",
"title": "U.S. fair use factors"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 23,
"text": "Although the Supreme Court has ruled that the availability of copyright protection should not depend on the artistic quality or merit of a work, fair use analyses consider certain aspects of the work to be relevant, such as whether it is fictional or non-fictional.",
"title": "U.S. fair use factors"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 24,
"text": "To prevent the private ownership of work that rightfully belongs in the public domain, facts and ideas are not protected by copyright—only their particular expression or fixation merits such protection. On the other hand, the social usefulness of freely available information can weigh against the appropriateness of copyright for certain fixations. The Zapruder film of the assassination of President Kennedy, for example, was purchased and copyrighted by Time magazine. Yet its copyright was not upheld, in the name of the public interest, when Time tried to enjoin the reproduction of stills from the film in a history book on the subject in Time Inc v. Bernard Geis Associates.",
"title": "U.S. fair use factors"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 25,
"text": "In the decisions of the Second Circuit in Salinger v. Random House and in New Era Publications Int'l v. Henry Holt & Co, the aspect of whether the copied work has been previously published was considered crucial, assuming the right of the original author to control the circumstances of the publication of his work or preference not to publish at all. However, Judge Pierre N. Leval views this importation of certain aspects of France's droit moral d'artiste (moral rights of the artist) into American copyright law as \"bizarre and contradictory\" because it sometimes grants greater protection to works that were created for private purposes that have little to do with the public goals of copyright law, than to those works that copyright was initially conceived to protect. This is not to claim that unpublished works, or, more specifically, works not intended for publication, do not deserve legal protection, but that any such protection should come from laws about privacy, rather than laws about copyright. The statutory fair use provision was amended in response to these concerns by adding a final sentence: \"The fact that a work is unpublished shall not itself bar a finding of fair use if such finding is made upon consideration of all the above factors.\"",
"title": "U.S. fair use factors"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 26,
"text": "The third factor assesses the amount and substantiality of the copyrighted work that has been used. In general, the less that is used in relation to the whole, the more likely the use will be considered fair.",
"title": "U.S. fair use factors"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 27,
"text": "Using most or all of a work does not bar a finding of fair use. It simply makes the third factor less favorable to the defendant. For instance, in Sony Corp. of America v. Universal City Studios, Inc. copying entire television programs for private viewing was upheld as fair use, at least when the copying is done for the purposes of time-shifting. In Kelly v. Arriba Soft Corporation, the Ninth Circuit held that copying an entire photo to use as a thumbnail in online search results did not even weigh against fair use, \"if the secondary user only copies as much as is necessary for his or her intended use\".",
"title": "U.S. fair use factors"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 28,
"text": "However, even the use of a small percentage of a work can make the third factor unfavorable to the defendant, because the \"substantiality\" of the portion used is considered in addition to the amount used. For instance, in Harper & Row v. Nation Enterprises, the U.S. Supreme Court held that a news article's quotation of fewer than 400 words from President Ford's 200,000-word memoir was sufficient to make the third fair use factor weigh against the defendants, because the portion taken was the \"heart of the work\". This use was ultimately found not to be fair.",
"title": "U.S. fair use factors"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 29,
"text": "The fourth factor measures the effect that the allegedly infringing use has had on the copyright owner's ability to exploit his original work. The court not only investigates whether the defendant's specific use of the work has significantly harmed the copyright owner's market, but also whether such uses in general, if widespread, would harm the potential market of the original. The burden of proof here rests on the copyright owner, who must demonstrate the impact of the infringement on commercial use of the work.",
"title": "U.S. fair use factors"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 30,
"text": "For example, in Sony Corp v. Universal City Studios, the copyright owner, Universal, failed to provide any empirical evidence that the use of Betamax had either reduced their viewership or negatively impacted their business. In Harper & Row, the case regarding President Ford's memoirs, the Supreme Court labeled the fourth factor \"the single most important element of fair use\" and it has enjoyed some level of primacy in fair use analyses ever since. Yet the Supreme Court's more recent announcement in Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music Inc that \"all [four factors] are to be explored, and the results weighed together, in light of the purposes of copyright\" has helped modulate this emphasis in interpretation.",
"title": "U.S. fair use factors"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 31,
"text": "In evaluating the fourth factor, courts often consider two kinds of harm to the potential market for the original work.",
"title": "U.S. fair use factors"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 32,
"text": "Courts recognize that certain kinds of market harm do not negate fair use, such as when a parody or negative review impairs the market of the original work. Copyright considerations may not shield a work against adverse criticism.",
"title": "U.S. fair use factors"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 33,
"text": "As explained by Judge Leval, courts are permitted to include additional factors in their analysis.",
"title": "U.S. fair use factors"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 34,
"text": "One such factor is acknowledgement of the copyrighted source. Giving the name of the photographer or author may help, but it does not automatically make a use fair. While plagiarism and copyright infringement are related matters, they are not identical. Plagiarism (using someone's words, ideas, images, etc. without acknowledgment) is a matter of professional ethics, while copyright is a matter of law, and protects exact expression, not ideas. One can plagiarize even a work that is not protected by copyright, for example by passing off a line from Shakespeare as one's own. Conversely, attribution prevents accusations of plagiarism, but it does not prevent infringement of copyright. For example, reprinting a copyrighted book without permission, while citing the original author, would be copyright infringement but not plagiarism.",
"title": "U.S. fair use factors"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 35,
"text": "The U.S. Supreme Court described fair use as an affirmative defense in Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music, Inc. This means that in litigation on copyright infringement, the defendant bears the burden of raising and proving that the use was fair and not an infringement. Thus, fair use need not even be raised as a defense unless the plaintiff first shows (or the defendant concedes) a prima facie case of copyright infringement. If the work was not copyrightable, the term had expired, or the defendant's work borrowed only a small amount, for instance, then the plaintiff cannot make out a prima facie case of infringement, and the defendant need not even raise the fair use defense. In addition, fair use is only one of many limitations, exceptions, and defenses to copyright infringement. Thus, a prima facie case can be defeated without relying on fair use. For instance, the Audio Home Recording Act establishes that it is legal, using certain technologies, to make copies of audio recordings for non-commercial personal use.",
"title": "U.S. fair use factors"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 36,
"text": "Some copyright owners claim infringement even in circumstances where the fair use defense would likely succeed, in hopes that the user will refrain from the use rather than spending resources in their defense. Strategic lawsuit against public participation (SLAPP) cases that allege copyright infringement, patent infringement, defamation, or libel may come into conflict with the defendant's right to freedom of speech, and that possibility has prompted some jurisdictions to pass anti-SLAPP legislation that raises the plaintiff's burdens and risk.",
"title": "U.S. fair use factors"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 37,
"text": "Although fair use ostensibly permits certain uses without liability, many content creators and publishers try to avoid a potential court battle by seeking a legally unnecessary license from copyright owners for any use of non-public domain material, even in situations where a fair use defense would likely succeed. The simple reason is that the license terms negotiated with the copyright owner may be much less expensive than defending against a copyright suit, or having the mere possibility of a lawsuit threaten the publication of a work in which a publisher has invested significant resources.",
"title": "U.S. fair use factors"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 38,
"text": "Fair use rights take precedence over the author's interest. Thus the copyright holder cannot use a non-binding disclaimer, or notification, to revoke the right of fair use on works. However, binding agreements such as contracts or licence agreements may take precedence over fair use rights.",
"title": "U.S. fair use factors"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 39,
"text": "The practical effect of the fair use doctrine is that a number of conventional uses of copyrighted works are not considered infringing. For instance, quoting from a copyrighted work in order to criticize or comment upon it or teach students about it, is considered a fair use. Certain well-established uses cause few problems. A teacher who prints a few copies of a poem to illustrate a technique will have no problem on all four of the above factors (except possibly on amount and substantiality), but some cases are not so clear. All the factors are considered and balanced in each case: a book reviewer who quotes a paragraph as an example of the author's style will probably fall under fair use even though they may sell their review commercially; but a non-profit educational website that reproduces whole articles from technical magazines will probably be found to infringe if the publisher can demonstrate that the website affects the market for the magazine, even though the website itself is non-commercial.",
"title": "U.S. fair use factors"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 40,
"text": "Fair use is decided on a case-by-case basis, on the entirety of circumstances. The same act done by different means or for a different purpose can gain or lose fair use status.",
"title": "U.S. fair use factors"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 41,
"text": "The Oracle America, Inc. v. Google, Inc. case revolves around the use of application programming interfaces (APIs) used to define functionality of the Java programming language, created by Sun Microsystems and now owned by Oracle Corporation. Google used the APIs' definition and their structure, sequence and organization (SSO) in creating the Android operating system to support the mobile device market. Oracle had sued Google in 2010 over both patent and copyright violations, but after two cycles, the case matter was narrowed down to whether Google's use of the definition and SSO of Oracle's Java APIs (determined to be copyrightable) was within fair use. The Federal Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled against Google, stating that while Google could defend its use in the nature of the copyrighted work, its use was not transformative, and more significantly, it commercially harmed Oracle as they were also seeking entry to the mobile market. However, the U.S. Supreme Court reversed this decision, deciding that Google's actions satisfy all four tests for fair use, and that granting Oracle exclusive rights to use Java APIs on mobile markets \"would interfere with, not further, copyright's basic creativity objectives.\"",
"title": "Fair use in particular areas"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 42,
"text": "In April 2006, the filmmakers of the Loose Change series were served with a lawsuit by Jules and Gédéon Naudet over the film's use of their footage, specifically footage of the firefighters discussing the collapse of the World Trade Center. With the help of an intellectual property lawyer, the creators of Loose Change successfully argued that a majority of the footage used was for historical purposes and was significantly transformed in the context of the film. They agreed to remove a few shots that were used as B-roll and served no purpose to the greater discussion. The case was settled and a potential multimillion-dollar lawsuit was avoided.",
"title": "Fair use in particular areas"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 43,
"text": "This Film Is Not Yet Rated also relied on fair use to feature several clips from copyrighted Hollywood productions. The director had originally planned to license these clips from their studio owners but discovered that studio licensing agreements would have prohibited him from using this material to criticize the entertainment industry. This prompted him to invoke the fair use doctrine, which permits limited use of copyrighted material to provide analysis and criticism of published works.",
"title": "Fair use in particular areas"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 44,
"text": "In 2009, fair use appeared as a defense in lawsuits against filesharing. Charles Nesson argued that file-sharing qualifies as fair use in his defense of alleged filesharer Joel Tenenbaum. Kiwi Camara, defending alleged filesharer Jammie Thomas, announced a similar defense. However, the Court in the case at bar rejected the idea that file-sharing is fair use.",
"title": "Fair use in particular areas"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 45,
"text": "A U.S. court case from 2003, Kelly v. Arriba Soft Corp., provides and develops the relationship between thumbnails, inline linking, and fair use. In the lower District Court case on a motion for summary judgment, Arriba Soft's use of thumbnail pictures and inline linking from Kelly's website in Arriba Soft's image search engine was found not to be fair use. That decision was appealed and contested by Internet rights activists such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation, who argued that it was fair use.",
"title": "Fair use in particular areas"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 46,
"text": "On appeal, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals found in favor of the defendant, Arriba Soft. In reaching its decision, the court utilized the statutory four-factor analysis. First, it found the purpose of creating the thumbnail images as previews to be sufficiently transformative, noting that they were not meant to be viewed at high resolution as the original artwork was. Second, the photographs had already been published, diminishing the significance of their nature as creative works. Third, although normally making a \"full\" replication of a copyrighted work may appear to violate copyright, here it was found to be reasonable and necessary in light of the intended use. Lastly, the court found that the market for the original photographs would not be substantially diminished by the creation of the thumbnails. To the contrary, the thumbnail searches could increase the exposure of the originals. In looking at all these factors as a whole, the court found that the thumbnails were fair use and remanded the case to the lower court for trial after issuing a revised opinion on July 7, 2003. The remaining issues were resolved with a default judgment after Arriba Soft had experienced significant financial problems and failed to reach a negotiated settlement.",
"title": "Fair use in particular areas"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 47,
"text": "In August 2008, Judge Jeremy Fogel of the Northern District of California ruled in Lenz v. Universal Music Corp. that copyright holders cannot order a deletion of an online file without determining whether that posting reflected \"fair use\" of the copyrighted material. The case involved Stephanie Lenz, a writer and editor from Gallitzin, Pennsylvania, who made a home video of her thirteen-month-old son dancing to Prince's song \"Let's Go Crazy\" and posted the video on YouTube. Four months later, Universal Music, the owner of the copyright to the song, ordered YouTube to remove the video under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Lenz notified YouTube immediately that her video was within the scope of fair use, and she demanded that it be restored. YouTube complied after six weeks, rather than the two weeks required by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Lenz then sued Universal Music in California for her legal costs, claiming the music company had acted in bad faith by ordering removal of a video that represented fair use of the song. On appeal, the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that a copyright owner must affirmatively consider whether the complained of conduct constituted fair use before sending a takedown notice under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, rather than waiting for the alleged infringer to assert fair use. 801 F.3d 1126 (9th Cir. 2015). \"Even if, as Universal urges, fair use is classified as an 'affirmative defense,' we hold—for the purposes of the DMCA—fair use is uniquely situated in copyright law so as to be treated differently than traditional affirmative defenses. We conclude that because 17 U.S.C. § 107 created a type of non-infringing use, fair use is \"authorized by the law\" and a copyright holder must consider the existence of fair use before sending a takedown notification under § 512(c).\"",
"title": "Fair use in particular areas"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 48,
"text": "In June 2011, Judge Philip Pro of the District of Nevada ruled in Righthaven v. Hoehn that the posting of an entire editorial article from the Las Vegas Review-Journal in a comment as part of an online discussion was unarguably fair use. Judge Pro noted that \"Noncommercial, nonprofit use is presumptively fair. ... Hoehn posted the Work as part of an online discussion. ... This purpose is consistent with comment, for which 17 U.S.C. § 107 provides fair use protection. ... It is undisputed that Hoehn posted the entire work in his comment on the Website. ... wholesale copying does not preclude a finding of fair use. ... there is no genuine issue of material fact that Hoehn's use of the Work was fair and summary judgment is appropriate.\" On appeal, the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that Righthaven did not even have the standing needed to sue Hoehn for copyright infringement in the first place.",
"title": "Fair use in particular areas"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 49,
"text": "In addition to considering the four fair use factors, courts deciding fair use cases also look to the standards and practices of the professional community where the case comes from. Among the communities are documentarians, librarians, makers of Open Courseware, visual art educators, and communications professors.",
"title": "Fair use in particular areas"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 50,
"text": "Such codes of best practices have permitted communities of practice to make more informed risk assessments in employing fair use in their daily practice. For instance, broadcasters, cablecasters, and distributors typically require filmmakers to obtain errors and omissions insurance before the distributor will take on the film. Such insurance protects against errors and omissions made during the copyright clearance of material in the film. Before the Documentary Filmmakers' Statement of Best Practices in Fair Use was created in 2005, it was nearly impossible to obtain errors and omissions insurance for copyright clearance work that relied in part on fair use. This meant documentarians had either to obtain a license for the material or to cut it from their films. In many cases, it was impossible to license the material because the filmmaker sought to use it in a critical way. Soon after the best practices statement was released, all errors and omissions insurers in the U.S. shifted to begin offering routine fair use coverage.",
"title": "Fair use in particular areas"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 51,
"text": "Before 1991, sampling in certain genres of music was accepted practice and the copyright considerations were viewed as largely irrelevant. The strict decision against rapper Biz Markie's appropriation of a Gilbert O'Sullivan song in the case Grand Upright Music, Ltd. v. Warner Bros. Records Inc. changed practices and opinions overnight. Samples now had to be licensed, as long as they rose \"to a level of legally cognizable appropriation.\" This left the door open for the de minimis doctrine, for short or unrecognizable samples; such uses would not rise to the level of copyright infringement, because under the de minimis doctrine, \"the law does not care about trifles.\" However, three years later, the Sixth Circuit effectively eliminated the de minimis doctrine in the Bridgeport Music, Inc. v. Dimension Films case, holding that artists must \"get a license or do not sample\". The Court later clarified that its opinion did not apply to fair use, but between Grand Upright and Bridgeport, practice had effectively shifted to eliminate unlicensed sampling.",
"title": "Fair use in particular areas"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 52,
"text": "Producers or creators of parodies of a copyrighted work have been sued for infringement by the targets of their ridicule, even though such use may be protected as fair use. These fair use cases distinguish between parodies, which use a work in order to poke fun at or comment on the work itself, and satire, which comments on something else. Courts have been more willing to grant fair use protections to parodies than to satires, but the ultimate outcome in either circumstance will turn on the application of the four fair use factors.",
"title": "Fair use in particular areas"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 53,
"text": "For example, when Tom Forsythe appropriated Barbie dolls for his photography project \"Food Chain Barbie\" (depicting several copies of the doll naked and disheveled and about to be baked in an oven, blended in a food mixer, and the like), Mattel lost its copyright infringement lawsuit against him because his work effectively parodies Barbie and the values she represents. In Rogers v. Koons, Jeff Koons tried to justify his appropriation of Art Rogers' photograph \"Puppies\" in his sculpture \"String of Puppies\" with the same parody defense. Koons lost because his work was not presented as a parody of Rogers' photograph in particular, but as a satire of society at large. This was insufficient to render the use fair.",
"title": "Fair use in particular areas"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 54,
"text": "In Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music Inc the U.S. Supreme Court recognized parody as a potential fair use, even when done for profit. Roy Orbison's, Acuff-Rose Music, had sued 2 Live Crew in 1989 for their use of Orbison's \"Oh, Pretty Woman\" in a mocking rap version with altered lyrics. The Supreme Court viewed 2 Live Crew's version as a ridiculing commentary on the earlier work, and ruled that when the parody was itself the product rather than mere advertising, commercial nature did not bar the defense. The Campbell court also distinguished parodies from satire, which they described as a broader social critique not intrinsically tied to ridicule of a specific work and so not deserving of the same use exceptions as parody because the satirist's ideas are capable of expression without the use of the other particular work.",
"title": "Fair use in particular areas"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 55,
"text": "A number of appellate decisions have recognized that a parody may be a protected fair use, including the Second (Leibovitz v. Paramount Pictures Corp.); the Ninth (Mattel v. Walking Mountain Productions); and the Eleventh Circuits (Suntrust Bank v. Houghton Mifflin Co.). In the 2001 Suntrust Bank case, Suntrust Bank and the Margaret Mitchell estate unsuccessfully brought suit to halt the publication of The Wind Done Gone, which reused many of the characters and situations from Gone with the Wind but told the events from the point of view of the enslaved people rather than the slaveholders. The Eleventh Circuit, applying Campbell, found that The Wind Done Gone was fair use and vacated the district court's injunction against its publication.",
"title": "Fair use in particular areas"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 56,
"text": "Cases in which a satirical use was found to be fair include Blanch v. Koons and Williams v. Columbia Broadcasting Systems.",
"title": "Fair use in particular areas"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 57,
"text": "The transformative nature of computer based analytical processes such as text mining, web mining and data mining has led many to form the view that such uses would be protected under fair use. This view was substantiated by the rulings of Judge Denny Chin in Authors Guild, Inc. v. Google, Inc., a case involving mass digitisation of millions of books from research library collections. As part of the ruling that found the book digitisation project was fair use, the judge stated \"Google Books is also transformative in the sense that it has transformed book text into data for purposes of substantive research, including data mining and text mining in new areas\".",
"title": "Fair use in particular areas"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 58,
"text": "Text and data mining was subject to further review in Authors Guild v. HathiTrust, a case derived from the same digitization project mentioned above. Judge Harold Baer, in finding that the defendant's uses were transformative, stated that 'the search capabilities of the [HathiTrust Digital Library] have already given rise to new methods of academic inquiry such as text mining.\"",
"title": "Fair use in particular areas"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 59,
"text": "There is a substantial body of fair use law regarding reverse engineering of computer software, hardware, network protocols, encryption and access control systems.",
"title": "Fair use in particular areas"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 60,
"text": "In May 2015, artist Richard Prince released an exhibit of photographs at the Gagosian Gallery in New York, entitled \"New Portraits\". His exhibit consisted of screenshots of Instagram users' pictures, which were largely unaltered, with Prince's commentary added beneath. Although no Instagram users authorized Prince to use their pictures, Prince argued that the addition of his own commentary the pictures constituted fair use, such that he did not need permission to use the pictures or to pay royalties for his use. One of the pieces sold for $90,000. With regard to the works presented by Painter, the gallery where the pictures were showcased posted notices that \"All images are subject to copyright.\" Several lawsuits were filed against Painter over the New Portraits exhibit.",
"title": "Fair use in particular areas"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 61,
"text": "While U.S. fair use law has been influential in some countries, some countries have fair use criteria drastically different from those in the U.S., and some countries do not have a fair use framework at all. Some countries have the concept of fair dealing instead of fair use, while others use different systems of limitations and exceptions to copyright. Many countries have some reference to an exemption for educational use, though the extent of this exemption varies widely.",
"title": "Influence internationally"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 62,
"text": "Sources differ on whether fair use is fully recognized by countries other than the United States. American University's infojustice.org published a compilation of portions of over 40 nations' laws that explicitly mention fair use or fair dealing, and asserts that some of the fair dealing laws, such as Canada's, have evolved (such as through judicial precedents) to be quite close to those of the United States. This compilation includes fair use provisions from Bangladesh, Israel, South Korea, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Uganda, and the United States. However, Paul Geller's 2009 International Copyright Law and Practice says that while some other countries recognize similar exceptions to copyright, only the United States and Israel fully recognize the concept of fair use.",
"title": "Influence internationally"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 63,
"text": "The International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA), a lobby group of U.S. copyright industry bodies, has objected to international adoption of U.S.-style fair use exceptions, alleging that such laws have a dependency on common law and long-term legal precedent that may not exist outside the United States.",
"title": "Influence internationally"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 64,
"text": "In November 2007, the Israeli Knesset passed a new copyright law that included a U.S.-style fair use exception. The law, which took effect in May 2008, permits the fair use of copyrighted works for purposes such as private study, research, criticism, review, news reporting, quotation, or instruction or testing by an educational institution. The law sets up four factors, similar to the U.S. fair use factors (see above), for determining whether a use is fair.",
"title": "Influence internationally"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 65,
"text": "On September 2, 2009, the Tel Aviv District court ruled in The Football Association Premier League Ltd. v. Ploni that fair use is a user right. The court also ruled that streaming of live soccer games on the Internet is fair use. In doing so, the court analyzed the four fair use factors adopted in 2007 and cited U.S. case law, including Kelly v. Arriba Soft Corp. and Perfect 10, Inc. v. Amazon.com, Inc..",
"title": "Influence internationally"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 66,
"text": "An amendment in 2012 to the section 13(2)(a) of the Copyright Act 1987 created an exception called 'fair dealing' which is not restricted in its purpose. The four factors for fair use as specified in US law are included.",
"title": "Influence internationally"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 67,
"text": "Fair use exists in Polish law and is covered by the Polish copyright law articles 23 to 35.",
"title": "Influence internationally"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 68,
"text": "Compared to the United States, Polish fair use distinguishes between private and public use. In Poland, when the use is public, its use risks fines. The defendant must also prove that his use was private when accused that it was not, or that other mitigating circumstances apply. Finally, Polish law treats all cases in which private material was made public as a potential copyright infringement, where fair use can apply, but has to be proven by reasonable circumstances.",
"title": "Influence internationally"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 69,
"text": "Section 35 of the Singaporean Copyright Act 1987 has been amended in 2004 to allow a 'fair dealing' exception for any purpose. The four fair use factors similar to US law are included in the new section 35.",
"title": "Influence internationally"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 70,
"text": "The Korean Copyright Act was amended to include a fair use provision, Article 35–3, in 2012. The law outlines a four-factor test similar to that used under U.S. law:",
"title": "Influence internationally"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 71,
"text": "In determining whether art. 35-3(1) above applies to a use of copyrighted work, the following factors must be considered: the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is of a non profit nature; the type or purpose of the copyrighted work; the amount and importance of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; the effect of the use of the copyrighted work upon the current market or the current value of the copyrighted work or on the potential market or the potential value of the copyrighted work.",
"title": "Influence internationally"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 72,
"text": "Fair dealing allows specific exceptions to copyright protections. The open-ended concept of fair use is generally not observed in jurisdictions where fair dealing is in place, although this does vary. Fair dealing is established in legislation in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Singapore, India, South Africa and the United Kingdom, among others.",
"title": "Fair dealing"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 73,
"text": "While Australian copyright exceptions are based on the Fair Dealing system, since 1998 a series of Australian government inquiries have examined, and in most cases recommended, the introduction of a \"flexible and open\" Fair Use system into Australian copyright law. From 1998 to 2017 there have been eight Australian government inquiries which have considered the question of whether fair use should be adopted in Australia. Six reviews have recommended Australia adopt a \"Fair Use\" model of copyright exceptions: two enquiries specifically into the Copyright Act (1998, 2014); and four broader reviews (both 2004, 2013, 2016). One review (2000) recommended against the introduction of fair use and another (2005) issued no final report. Two of the recommendations were specifically in response to the stricter copyright rules introduced as part of the Australia–United States Free Trade Agreement (AUSFTA), while the most recent two, by the Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC) and the Productivity Commission (PC) were with reference to strengthening Australia's \"digital economy\".",
"title": "Fair dealing"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 74,
"text": "The Copyright Act of Canada establishes fair dealing in Canada, which allows specific exceptions to copyright protection. In 1985, the Sub-Committee on the Revision of Copyright rejected replacing fair dealing with an open-ended system, and in 1986 the Canadian government agreed that \"the present fair dealing provisions should not be replaced by the substantially wider 'fair use' concept\". Since then, the Canadian fair dealing exception has broadened. It is now similar in effect to U.S. fair use, even though the frameworks are different.",
"title": "Fair dealing"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 75,
"text": "CCH Canadian Ltd v. Law Society of Upper Canada [2004] 1 S.C.R. 339,2004 SCC 13 is a landmark Supreme Court of Canada case that establishes the bounds of fair dealing in Canadian copyright law. The Law Society of Upper Canada was sued for copyright infringement for providing photocopy services to researchers. The Court unanimously held that the Law Society's practice fell within the bounds of fair dealing.",
"title": "Fair dealing"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 76,
"text": "Within the United Kingdom, fair dealing is a legal doctrine that provides an exception to the nation's copyright law in cases where the copyright infringement is for the purposes of non-commercial research or study, criticism or review, or for the reporting of current events.",
"title": "Fair dealing"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 77,
"text": "A balanced copyright law provides an economic benefit to many high-tech businesses such as search engines and software developers. Fair use is also crucial to non-technology industries such as insurance, legal services, and newspaper publishers.",
"title": "Policy arguments about fair use"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 78,
"text": "On September 12, 2007, the Computer and Communications Industry Association (CCIA), a group representing companies including Google Inc., Microsoft Inc., Oracle Corporation, Sun Microsystems, Yahoo! and other high-tech companies, released a study that found that fair use exceptions to US copyright laws were responsible for more than $4.5 trillion in annual revenue for the United States economy representing one-sixth of the total US GDP. The study was conducted using a methodology developed by the World Intellectual Property Organization.",
"title": "Policy arguments about fair use"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 79,
"text": "The study found that fair use dependent industries are directly responsible for more than eighteen percent of US economic growth and nearly eleven million American jobs. \"As the United States economy becomes increasingly knowledge-based, the concept of fair use can no longer be discussed and legislated in the abstract. It is the very foundation of the digital age and a cornerstone of our economy,\" said Ed Black, President and CEO of CCIA. \"Much of the unprecedented economic growth of the past ten years can actually be credited to the doctrine of fair use, as the Internet itself depends on the ability to use content in a limited and unlicensed manner.\"",
"title": "Policy arguments about fair use"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 80,
"text": "Fair Use Week is an international event that celebrates fair use and fair dealing. Fair Use Week was first proposed on a Fair Use Allies listserv, which was an outgrowth of the Library Code of Best Practices Capstone Event, celebrating the development and promulgation of ARL's Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Academic and Research Libraries. While the idea was not taken up nationally, Copyright Advisor at Harvard University, launched the first ever Fair Use Week at Harvard University in February 2014, with a full week of activities celebrating fair use. The first Fair Use Week included blog posts from national and international fair use experts, live fair use panels, fair use workshops, and a Fair Use Stories Tumblr blog, where people from the world of art, music, film, and academia shared stories about the importance of fair use to their community. The first Fair Use Week was so successful that in 2015 ARL teamed up with Courtney and helped organize the Second Annual Fair Use Week, with participation from many more institutions. ARL also launched an official Fair Use Week website, which was transferred from Pia Hunter, who attended the Library Code of Best Practices Capstone Event and had originally purchased the domain name fairuseweek.org.",
"title": "Fair Use Week"
}
] |
Fair use is a doctrine in United States law that permits limited use of copyrighted material without having to first acquire permission from the copyright holder. Fair use is one of the limitations to copyright intended to balance the interests of copyright holders with the public interest in the wider distribution and use of creative works by allowing as a defense to copyright infringement claims certain limited uses that might otherwise be considered infringement. The US "fair use doctrine" is generally broader than the "fair dealing" rights known in most countries, that inherited English Common Law. The fair use right is a general exception, that applies to all different kinds of uses with all types of works. In the U.S., fair use right/exception is based on a flexible proportionality test, that examines the purpose of the use, the amount used, and the impact on the market of the original work. The doctrine of "fair use" originated in common law during the 18th and 19th centuries as a way of preventing copyright law from being too rigidly applied and "stifling the very creativity which [copyright] law is designed to foster." Though originally a common law doctrine, it was enshrined in statutory law when the U.S. Congress passed the Copyright Act of 1976. The U.S. Supreme Court has issued several major decisions clarifying and reaffirming the fair use doctrine since the 1980s, the most recent being in the 2021 decision Google LLC v. Oracle America, Inc.
|
2001-11-14T15:35:10Z
|
2023-12-30T08:40:37Z
|
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_use
|
10,773 |
Flying car
|
A flying car or roadable aircraft is a type of vehicle which can function both as a road vehicle and as an aircraft. As used here, this includes vehicles which drive as motorcycles when on the road. The term "flying car" is also sometimes used to include hovercars and/or VTOL personal air vehicles. Many prototypes have been built since the early 20th century, using a variety of flight technologies. Most have been designed to take off and land conventionally using a runway. Although VTOL projects are increasing, none has yet been built in more than a handful of numbers.
Their appearance is often predicted by futurologists, and many concept designs have been promoted. Their failure to become a practical reality has led to the catchphrase "Where's my flying car?", as a paradigm for the failure of predicted technologies to appear. Flying cars are also a popular theme in fantasy and science fiction stories.
In the late 1800s, American immigrant Gustave Whitehead designed aircraft with wheels and a gasoline-powered engine, including his no.21 model built in 1901. Consensus among historians is that Whitehead's no. 21 did not achieve sustained self-powered flight. Some historians continue to assert Whitehead's craft flew at various dates prior to the Wright Brothers' craft, based on a series of unverifiable and contradictory eye-witness accounts.
Aircraft designer Glenn Curtiss built his Autoplane in 1917. It had a pusher propeller for flight, with removable flight surfaces including a triplane wing, canard foreplane and twin tails. It was able to hop, but not fly.
In 1935, Constantinos Vlachos built a prototype of a 'tri-phibian' vehicle with a circular wing, but it caught fire after the engine exploded while he was demonstrating it in Washington, D.C. Vlachos was badly injured and spent several months in hospital. The machine is most notable for a newsreel that captured the incident.
The Autogiro Company of America AC-35 was a prototype roadable autogyro, flown on 26 March 1936 by test pilot James G. Ray. Forward thrust was initially provided by twin counter-rotating propellers for thrust, later replaced with a single propeller. On 26 October 1936, the aircraft was converted to roadable configuration. Ray drove it to the main entrance of the Commerce Building, Washington, D.C., where it was accepted by John H. Geisse, chief of the Aeronautics Branch. Although it had been successfully tested, it did not enter production.
The first fixed wing roadable aircraft to fly was built by Waldo Waterman. Waterman was associated with Curtiss while Curtiss was pioneering amphibious aircraft at North Island on San Diego Bay in the 1910s. On 21 March 1937, Waterman's Arrowbile first took to the air. The Arrowbile was a development of Waterman's tailless aircraft, the Whatsit. It had a wingspan of 38 feet (12 m) and a length of 20 feet 6 inches (6.25 m). On the ground and in the air it was powered by a Studebaker engine. It could fly at 112 mph (180 km/h) and drive at 56 mph (90 km/h).
In 1942, the British army built the Hafner Rotabuggy, an experimental roadable autogyro that was developed with the intention of producing a way of air-dropping off-road vehicles. Although initial tests showed that the Rotabuggy was prone to severe vibration at speeds greater than 45 miles per hour (72 km/h), with improvements the Rotabuggy achieved a flight speed of 70 mph (113 km/h). However, the introduction of gliders that could carry vehicles (such as the Waco Hadrian and Airspeed Horsa) led to the project's cancellation.
Although several designs (such as the ConVairCar) have flown, none have enjoyed commercial success, and those that have flown are not widely known by the general public. The most successful example, in that several were made and one is still flying, is the 1949 Taylor Aerocar.
In 1946, the Fulton FA-2 Airphibian was an American made flying car designed by Robert Edison Fulton Jr., it was an aluminum-bodied car, built with independent suspension, aircraft-sized wheels, and a six-cylinder 165 hp engine. The fabric wings were easily attached to the fuselage, converting the car into a plane. Four prototypes were built. Charles Lindbergh flew it 1950 and, although it was not a commercial success (financial costs of airworthiness certification forced him to relinquish control of the company, which never developed it further), it is now in the Smithsonian.
The Aerocar, designed and built by Molt Taylor, made a successful flight in December 1949, and in following years versions underwent a series of road and flying tests. Chuck Berry featured the concept in his 1956 song "You Can't Catch Me", and in December 1956 the Civil Aviation Authority approved the design for mass production, but despite wide publicity and an improved version produced in 1989, Taylor did not succeed in getting the flying car into production. In total, six Aerocars were built. It is considered to be one of the first practical flying cars.
One notable design was Henry Smolinski's Mizar, made by mating the rear end of a Cessna Skymaster with a Ford Pinto, but it disintegrated during test flights killing Smolinski and the pilot.
Moller began developing VTOL craft in the late 1960s, but no Moller vehicle has ever achieved free flight out of ground effect. The Moller Skycar M400 was a project for a personal VTOL (vertical take-off and landing) aircraft which is powered by four pairs of in-tandem Wankel rotary engines. The proposed Autovolantor model had an all-electric version powered by Altairnano batteries. The company has been dormant since 2015.
In the mid-1980s, former Boeing engineer Fred Barker founded Flight Innovations Inc. and began the development of the Sky Commuter, a small duct fans-based VTOL aircraft. It was a compact, 14-foot-long (4.3 m) two-passenger and was made primarily of composite materials. In 2008, the remaining prototype was sold for £86k on eBay.
In 2009 the U.S., the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) initiated the $65 million Transformer program to develop a four-person roadable aircraft by 2015. The vehicle was to have had VTOL capability and a 280-mile (450 km) range. AAI Corporation and Lockheed Martin were awarded contracts. The program was cancelled in 2013.
The Parajet Skycar utilises a paramotor for propulsion and a parafoil for lift. The main body consists of a modified dune buggy. It has a top speed of 80 mph (130 km/h) and a maximum range of 180 miles (290 km) in flight. On the ground it has a top speed of 112 mph (180 km/h) and a maximum range of 249 miles (401 km). Parajet flew and drove its prototype from London to Timbuktu in January 2009.
The Maverick Flying Dune Buggy was designed by the Indigenous People's Technology and Education Center of Florida as an off-road vehicle that could unfurl an advanced parachute and then travel by air over impassable terrain when roadways were no longer usable. The 1,100-pound (500 kg) 'Maverick' vehicle is powered by a 128 hp (95 kW) engine that can also drive a five-bladed pusher propeller. It was initially conceived in order to help minister to remote Amazon rainforest communities, but will also be marketed for visual pipeline inspection and other similar activities in desolate areas or difficult terrain.
The Plane Driven PD-1 Roadable Glastar is a modification to the Glastar Sportsman GS-2 to make a practical roadable aircraft. The approach is novel in that it uses a mostly stock aircraft with a modified landing gear "pod" that carries the engine for road propulsion. The wings fold along the side, and the main landing gear and engine pod slide aft in driving configuration to compensate for the rearward center of gravity with the wings folded, and provide additional stability for road travel.
The Super Sky Cycle was an American homebuilt roadable gyroplane designed and manufactured by The Butterfly Aircraft LLC. It is a registered motorcycle. At the 2014 Pioneers Festival at Wien (Austria) AeroMobil presented their version 3.0 of their flying car. The prototype was conceived as a vehicle that can be converted from an automobile to an aircraft. The version 2.5 proof-of-concept took 20 years to develop and first flew in 2013. CEO Juraj Vaculik said that the company planned to move flying cars to market: "the plan is that in 2017 we'll be able to announce ... the first flying roadster." In 2016, AeroMobil was test-flying a prototype that obtained Slovak ultralight certification. When the final product will be available or how much it will cost is not yet specified. In 2018, it unveiled a concept that resembled a flying sportscar with VTOL capability. The Aeromobil 2.5 has folding wings and a Rotax 912 engine. It can travel at 200 kilometres per hour (124 mph) with a range of 690 kilometres (430 mi), and flew for the first time in 2013. On 29 October 2014, Slovak startup AeroMobil s.r.o. unveiled AeroMobil 3.0 at Vienna Pioneers Festival.
Klein Vision in Slovakia have developed a prototype AirCar, which drives like a sports car and for flight has a pusher propeller with twin tailbooms, and foldout wings. In June 2021, the prototype carried out a 35-minute flight between airports. It was type certified as an aircraft in January 2022.
The Terrafugia Transition is a roadable aircraft intended to be classed as a Personal Air Vehicle. It can fold its wings in 30 seconds and drive the front wheels, enabling it to operate both as a traditional road vehicle and as a general aviation aeroplane with a range of 500 mi (800 km). An operational prototype was displayed at Oshkosh in 2008 and its first flight took place on 2009-03-05. It will carry two people plus luggage and its Rotax 912S engine operates on premium unleaded gas. It was approved by the FAA in June 2010.
The production-ready single-engine, roadable PAL-V Liberty autogyro, or gyrocopter, debuted at the Geneva Motor Show in March 2018, then became the first flying car in production, and was set to launch in 2020, with full production scheduled for 2021 in Gujarat, India. The PAL-V ONE is a hybrid of a gyrocopter with a leaning 3-wheel motorcycle. It has two seats and a 160 kW flight certified gasoline engine. It has a top speed of 180 km/h (112 mph) on land and in air, and weighs 910 kg (2,010 lb) max.
On 15 April 2021, Los Altos, California, became home to the world's first consumer flying car showroom. However, as yet there are no certified flying cars in production.
In 2023 Doroni Aerospace earned an official FAA Airworthiness Certification. It is powered by ten independent propulsion systems. They company claimed a top speed of 140 mph and a 60-mile range. It includes two electric motors with patented ducted propellers. The machine is 23 ft long and 14 ft wide.
A flying car must be capable of safe and reliable operation both on public roads and in the air. For mass adoption, it will also need to be environmentally friendly, able to fly without a fully qualified pilot at the controls, and come at affordable purchase and running costs.
Design configurations vary widely, from modified road vehicles such as the AVE Mizar at one extreme to modified aircraft such as the Plane Driven PD-1 at the other. Most are dedicated flying car designs. While wheeled propulsion is necessary on the road, in the air lift may be generated by fixed wings, helicopter rotors or direct engine power. The Alef Model A project offers an unusual configuration in which the body of the car is hollow and the sides are slabs; in the air it rolls sideways so that the slabs become a biplane wing. The cabin remains upright.
Like other aircraft, lift in flight is provided by a fixed wing, spinning rotor or direct powered lift. The powered helicopter rotor and direct lift both offer VTOL capability, while the fixed wing and autogyro rotor take off conventionally from a runway.
The simplest and earliest approach was to take a driveable car and attach removable flying surfaces and propeller. However when on the road, such a design must either tow its removable parts on a separate trailer or leave them behind and drive back to them before taking off again.
Other conventional takeoff fixed-wing designs, such as the Terrafugia Transition, include folding wings that the car carries with it when driven on the road.
Vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) is attractive, as it avoids the need for a runway and greatly increases operational flexibility. Typical designs include rotorcraft and ducted fan powered lift configurations. Most design concepts have inherent problems.
Rotorcraft include helicopters with powered rotors and autogyros with free-spinning rotors. For road use, a rotor must, like many naval helicopters, be either two-bladed or foldable. The quadcopter requires only a simple control system with no tail. The autogyro relies on a separate thrust system to build up airspeed, spin the rotor and generate lift. However, some autogyros have rotors that can be spun up on the ground and then disengaged, allowing the aircraft to jump-start vertically. The PAL-V Liberty is an example of the autogyro type.
Ducted-fan aircraft such as the Moller Skycar tend to easily lose stability and have been unable to travel at greater than 30–40 knots.
The flying car places unique demands on the vehicle power train. For a given all-up weight, an aero engine must deliver higher power than its typical road equivalent. However on the road the vehicle must handle well and not be overpowered. Power must also be diverted between the airborne and road drive mechanisms. Some designs therefore have multiple engines, with the road engine being supplemented, or even replaced by, additional flight engines.
As with other vehicles, power has traditionally been supplied by internal combustion engines, but electric power is undergoing rapid development. It is coming into increasing use on road vehicles, but the weight of the batteries currently makes it unsuited to aircraft. However its low environmental signature makes it attractive for the short trips and dense urban environments envisaged for the flying car.
On the road, most flying cars drive the road wheels in the conventional way. A few use the aircraft propeller in similar manner to an airboat, but this is inefficient.
In the air, a flying car will typically obtain forward thrust from one or more propellers or ducted fans. A few have a powered helicopter rotor. Jet engines are not used due to the ground hazard posed by the hot, high-velocity exhaust stream.
In order to operate safely, a flying car must be certified independently as both a road vehicle and an aircraft, by the respective authorities. The person controlling the vehicle must also be licensed as both driver and pilot, and the vehicle maintained according to both regimes.
Mechanically, the requirements of powered flight are so challenging that every opportunity must be taken to keep weight to a minimum. A typical airframe is therefore lightweight and easily damaged. On the other hand, a road vehicle must be able to withstand significant impact loads from casual incidents while stationary, as well as low-speed and high-speed impacts, and the high strength this demands can add considerable weight. A practical flying car must be both strong enough to pass road safety standards and light enough to fly. Any propeller or rotor blade also creates a hazard to passers-by when on the ground, especially if it is spinning; they must be permanently shrouded, or folded away on landing.
For widespread adoption, as envisaged in the near future, it will not be practicable for every driver to qualify as a pilot and the rigorous maintenance currently demanded for aircraft will be uneconomic. Flying cars will have to become largely autonomous and highly reliable. The density of traffic will require automated routing and collision-avoidance systems. To manage the inevitable periodic failures and emergency landings, there will need to be sufficient designated landing sites across built-up areas. In addition, poor weather conditions could make the craft unsafe to fly.
Regulatory regimes are being developed in anticipation of a large increase in the numbers of autonomous flying cars and personal air vehicles in the near future, and compliance with these regimes will be necessary for safe flight.
A basic flying car requires the person at the controls to be both a qualified road driver and aircraft pilot. This is impractical for the majority of people and so wider adoption will require computer systems to de-skill piloting. These skills include aircraft manoeuvring, navigation and emergency procedures, all in potentially crowded airspace. The onboard control system will also need to interact with other systems such as air traffic control and collision-risk monitoring. A practical flying car may need to be capable of full autonomy, in which people are present only as passengers.
A flying car capable of widespread use must operate acceptably within a heavily populated urban environment. The lift and propulsion systems must be quiet enough not to cause a nuisance, and must not create excessive pollution. For example, pollution emissions standards for road vehicles must be met.
The clear environmental benefits of electric power are a strong incentive for its development.
The needs for the propulsion system to be both small and powerful, the vehicle structure both light and strong, and the control systems fully integrated and autonomous, can only be met at present, if at all, using advanced and expensive technologies. This may prove a significant barrier to widespread adoption.
Flying cars are used for relatively short distances at high frequency. They travel at lower speeds and altitudes than conventional passenger aircraft. However optimal fuel efficiency for aeroplanes is obtained at higher speeds and altitudes, so a flying car's energy efficiency will be lower than that of a conventional aircraft. Similarly, the flying car's road performance is compromised by the requirements of flight and the need to carry around the various extra parts, so it is also less economical than a conventional motor car.
In April 2012, the International Flying Car Association was established to be the "central resource center for information and communication between the flying car industry, news networks, governments, and those seeking further information worldwide". Because flying cars need practical regulations that are mostly dealt with on a regional level, several regional associations were established as well, with the European Flying Car Association (EFCA) representing these national member associations on a pan-European level (51 independent countries, including the European Union Member States, the Accession Candidates and Russia, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine). The associations are also organizing racing competitions for roadable aircraft in Europe, the European Roadable Aircraft Prix (ERAP), mainly to increase awareness about this type of aircraft among a broader audience.
The flying car was and remains a common feature of conceptions of the future, both predicted and imaginary.
Flying cars have been under development since the early days of motor transport and aviation, and many futurologists have predicted their imminent arrival. Aircraft manufacturer Glenn Curtiss unveiled his unflyable Autoplane in 1917. In 1940, vehicle manufacturer Henry Ford predicted that; "Mark my word: a combination airplane and motorcar is coming. You may smile, but it will come.”
From 1945, industrial designer Norman Bel Geddes promoted his concept for a streamlined flying car with folding wings. In the late 1950s, Ford's Advanced Design studio publicised a 3/8 scale concept car model, the Volante Tri-Athodyne. It featured three ducted fans, each with its own motor, that would lift it off the ground and move it through the air. Ford admitted that "the day where there will be an aero-car in every garage is still some time off", also suggesting that "the Volante indicates one direction that the styling of such a vehicle would take".
Despite a century of anticipation, no flying car has yet proved a practical proposition and they remain an experimental curiosity. This long-term failure to make any impact on society has led to the meme, "Where's my flying car?"
Here we are, less than a month until the turn of the millennium, and what I want to know is, what happened to the flying cars? We're about to become Americans of the 21st century. People have been predicting what we'd be like for more than 100 years, and our accoutrements don't entirely live up to expectations. ... Our failure to produce flying cars seems like a particular betrayal since it was so central to our image.
This new millennium sucks! It's exactly the same as the old millennium! You know why? No flying cars!
The question "Where's my flying car?" has become emblematic of the wider failure of many modern technologies to match futuristic visions that were promoted in earlier decades.
The flying car has been depicted in many works of fantasy and science fiction. Some notable examples include:
|
[
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "A flying car or roadable aircraft is a type of vehicle which can function both as a road vehicle and as an aircraft. As used here, this includes vehicles which drive as motorcycles when on the road. The term \"flying car\" is also sometimes used to include hovercars and/or VTOL personal air vehicles. Many prototypes have been built since the early 20th century, using a variety of flight technologies. Most have been designed to take off and land conventionally using a runway. Although VTOL projects are increasing, none has yet been built in more than a handful of numbers.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "Their appearance is often predicted by futurologists, and many concept designs have been promoted. Their failure to become a practical reality has led to the catchphrase \"Where's my flying car?\", as a paradigm for the failure of predicted technologies to appear. Flying cars are also a popular theme in fantasy and science fiction stories.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "In the late 1800s, American immigrant Gustave Whitehead designed aircraft with wheels and a gasoline-powered engine, including his no.21 model built in 1901. Consensus among historians is that Whitehead's no. 21 did not achieve sustained self-powered flight. Some historians continue to assert Whitehead's craft flew at various dates prior to the Wright Brothers' craft, based on a series of unverifiable and contradictory eye-witness accounts.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "Aircraft designer Glenn Curtiss built his Autoplane in 1917. It had a pusher propeller for flight, with removable flight surfaces including a triplane wing, canard foreplane and twin tails. It was able to hop, but not fly.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "In 1935, Constantinos Vlachos built a prototype of a 'tri-phibian' vehicle with a circular wing, but it caught fire after the engine exploded while he was demonstrating it in Washington, D.C. Vlachos was badly injured and spent several months in hospital. The machine is most notable for a newsreel that captured the incident.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "The Autogiro Company of America AC-35 was a prototype roadable autogyro, flown on 26 March 1936 by test pilot James G. Ray. Forward thrust was initially provided by twin counter-rotating propellers for thrust, later replaced with a single propeller. On 26 October 1936, the aircraft was converted to roadable configuration. Ray drove it to the main entrance of the Commerce Building, Washington, D.C., where it was accepted by John H. Geisse, chief of the Aeronautics Branch. Although it had been successfully tested, it did not enter production.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "The first fixed wing roadable aircraft to fly was built by Waldo Waterman. Waterman was associated with Curtiss while Curtiss was pioneering amphibious aircraft at North Island on San Diego Bay in the 1910s. On 21 March 1937, Waterman's Arrowbile first took to the air. The Arrowbile was a development of Waterman's tailless aircraft, the Whatsit. It had a wingspan of 38 feet (12 m) and a length of 20 feet 6 inches (6.25 m). On the ground and in the air it was powered by a Studebaker engine. It could fly at 112 mph (180 km/h) and drive at 56 mph (90 km/h).",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "In 1942, the British army built the Hafner Rotabuggy, an experimental roadable autogyro that was developed with the intention of producing a way of air-dropping off-road vehicles. Although initial tests showed that the Rotabuggy was prone to severe vibration at speeds greater than 45 miles per hour (72 km/h), with improvements the Rotabuggy achieved a flight speed of 70 mph (113 km/h). However, the introduction of gliders that could carry vehicles (such as the Waco Hadrian and Airspeed Horsa) led to the project's cancellation.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "Although several designs (such as the ConVairCar) have flown, none have enjoyed commercial success, and those that have flown are not widely known by the general public. The most successful example, in that several were made and one is still flying, is the 1949 Taylor Aerocar.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "In 1946, the Fulton FA-2 Airphibian was an American made flying car designed by Robert Edison Fulton Jr., it was an aluminum-bodied car, built with independent suspension, aircraft-sized wheels, and a six-cylinder 165 hp engine. The fabric wings were easily attached to the fuselage, converting the car into a plane. Four prototypes were built. Charles Lindbergh flew it 1950 and, although it was not a commercial success (financial costs of airworthiness certification forced him to relinquish control of the company, which never developed it further), it is now in the Smithsonian.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "The Aerocar, designed and built by Molt Taylor, made a successful flight in December 1949, and in following years versions underwent a series of road and flying tests. Chuck Berry featured the concept in his 1956 song \"You Can't Catch Me\", and in December 1956 the Civil Aviation Authority approved the design for mass production, but despite wide publicity and an improved version produced in 1989, Taylor did not succeed in getting the flying car into production. In total, six Aerocars were built. It is considered to be one of the first practical flying cars.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "One notable design was Henry Smolinski's Mizar, made by mating the rear end of a Cessna Skymaster with a Ford Pinto, but it disintegrated during test flights killing Smolinski and the pilot.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "Moller began developing VTOL craft in the late 1960s, but no Moller vehicle has ever achieved free flight out of ground effect. The Moller Skycar M400 was a project for a personal VTOL (vertical take-off and landing) aircraft which is powered by four pairs of in-tandem Wankel rotary engines. The proposed Autovolantor model had an all-electric version powered by Altairnano batteries. The company has been dormant since 2015.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "In the mid-1980s, former Boeing engineer Fred Barker founded Flight Innovations Inc. and began the development of the Sky Commuter, a small duct fans-based VTOL aircraft. It was a compact, 14-foot-long (4.3 m) two-passenger and was made primarily of composite materials. In 2008, the remaining prototype was sold for £86k on eBay.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "In 2009 the U.S., the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) initiated the $65 million Transformer program to develop a four-person roadable aircraft by 2015. The vehicle was to have had VTOL capability and a 280-mile (450 km) range. AAI Corporation and Lockheed Martin were awarded contracts. The program was cancelled in 2013.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 15,
"text": "The Parajet Skycar utilises a paramotor for propulsion and a parafoil for lift. The main body consists of a modified dune buggy. It has a top speed of 80 mph (130 km/h) and a maximum range of 180 miles (290 km) in flight. On the ground it has a top speed of 112 mph (180 km/h) and a maximum range of 249 miles (401 km). Parajet flew and drove its prototype from London to Timbuktu in January 2009.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 16,
"text": "The Maverick Flying Dune Buggy was designed by the Indigenous People's Technology and Education Center of Florida as an off-road vehicle that could unfurl an advanced parachute and then travel by air over impassable terrain when roadways were no longer usable. The 1,100-pound (500 kg) 'Maverick' vehicle is powered by a 128 hp (95 kW) engine that can also drive a five-bladed pusher propeller. It was initially conceived in order to help minister to remote Amazon rainforest communities, but will also be marketed for visual pipeline inspection and other similar activities in desolate areas or difficult terrain.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 17,
"text": "The Plane Driven PD-1 Roadable Glastar is a modification to the Glastar Sportsman GS-2 to make a practical roadable aircraft. The approach is novel in that it uses a mostly stock aircraft with a modified landing gear \"pod\" that carries the engine for road propulsion. The wings fold along the side, and the main landing gear and engine pod slide aft in driving configuration to compensate for the rearward center of gravity with the wings folded, and provide additional stability for road travel.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 18,
"text": "The Super Sky Cycle was an American homebuilt roadable gyroplane designed and manufactured by The Butterfly Aircraft LLC. It is a registered motorcycle. At the 2014 Pioneers Festival at Wien (Austria) AeroMobil presented their version 3.0 of their flying car. The prototype was conceived as a vehicle that can be converted from an automobile to an aircraft. The version 2.5 proof-of-concept took 20 years to develop and first flew in 2013. CEO Juraj Vaculik said that the company planned to move flying cars to market: \"the plan is that in 2017 we'll be able to announce ... the first flying roadster.\" In 2016, AeroMobil was test-flying a prototype that obtained Slovak ultralight certification. When the final product will be available or how much it will cost is not yet specified. In 2018, it unveiled a concept that resembled a flying sportscar with VTOL capability. The Aeromobil 2.5 has folding wings and a Rotax 912 engine. It can travel at 200 kilometres per hour (124 mph) with a range of 690 kilometres (430 mi), and flew for the first time in 2013. On 29 October 2014, Slovak startup AeroMobil s.r.o. unveiled AeroMobil 3.0 at Vienna Pioneers Festival.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 19,
"text": "Klein Vision in Slovakia have developed a prototype AirCar, which drives like a sports car and for flight has a pusher propeller with twin tailbooms, and foldout wings. In June 2021, the prototype carried out a 35-minute flight between airports. It was type certified as an aircraft in January 2022.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 20,
"text": "The Terrafugia Transition is a roadable aircraft intended to be classed as a Personal Air Vehicle. It can fold its wings in 30 seconds and drive the front wheels, enabling it to operate both as a traditional road vehicle and as a general aviation aeroplane with a range of 500 mi (800 km). An operational prototype was displayed at Oshkosh in 2008 and its first flight took place on 2009-03-05. It will carry two people plus luggage and its Rotax 912S engine operates on premium unleaded gas. It was approved by the FAA in June 2010.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 21,
"text": "The production-ready single-engine, roadable PAL-V Liberty autogyro, or gyrocopter, debuted at the Geneva Motor Show in March 2018, then became the first flying car in production, and was set to launch in 2020, with full production scheduled for 2021 in Gujarat, India. The PAL-V ONE is a hybrid of a gyrocopter with a leaning 3-wheel motorcycle. It has two seats and a 160 kW flight certified gasoline engine. It has a top speed of 180 km/h (112 mph) on land and in air, and weighs 910 kg (2,010 lb) max.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 22,
"text": "On 15 April 2021, Los Altos, California, became home to the world's first consumer flying car showroom. However, as yet there are no certified flying cars in production.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 23,
"text": "In 2023 Doroni Aerospace earned an official FAA Airworthiness Certification. It is powered by ten independent propulsion systems. They company claimed a top speed of 140 mph and a 60-mile range. It includes two electric motors with patented ducted propellers. The machine is 23 ft long and 14 ft wide.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 24,
"text": "A flying car must be capable of safe and reliable operation both on public roads and in the air. For mass adoption, it will also need to be environmentally friendly, able to fly without a fully qualified pilot at the controls, and come at affordable purchase and running costs.",
"title": "Design"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 25,
"text": "Design configurations vary widely, from modified road vehicles such as the AVE Mizar at one extreme to modified aircraft such as the Plane Driven PD-1 at the other. Most are dedicated flying car designs. While wheeled propulsion is necessary on the road, in the air lift may be generated by fixed wings, helicopter rotors or direct engine power. The Alef Model A project offers an unusual configuration in which the body of the car is hollow and the sides are slabs; in the air it rolls sideways so that the slabs become a biplane wing. The cabin remains upright.",
"title": "Design"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 26,
"text": "Like other aircraft, lift in flight is provided by a fixed wing, spinning rotor or direct powered lift. The powered helicopter rotor and direct lift both offer VTOL capability, while the fixed wing and autogyro rotor take off conventionally from a runway.",
"title": "Design"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 27,
"text": "The simplest and earliest approach was to take a driveable car and attach removable flying surfaces and propeller. However when on the road, such a design must either tow its removable parts on a separate trailer or leave them behind and drive back to them before taking off again.",
"title": "Design"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 28,
"text": "Other conventional takeoff fixed-wing designs, such as the Terrafugia Transition, include folding wings that the car carries with it when driven on the road.",
"title": "Design"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 29,
"text": "Vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) is attractive, as it avoids the need for a runway and greatly increases operational flexibility. Typical designs include rotorcraft and ducted fan powered lift configurations. Most design concepts have inherent problems.",
"title": "Design"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 30,
"text": "Rotorcraft include helicopters with powered rotors and autogyros with free-spinning rotors. For road use, a rotor must, like many naval helicopters, be either two-bladed or foldable. The quadcopter requires only a simple control system with no tail. The autogyro relies on a separate thrust system to build up airspeed, spin the rotor and generate lift. However, some autogyros have rotors that can be spun up on the ground and then disengaged, allowing the aircraft to jump-start vertically. The PAL-V Liberty is an example of the autogyro type.",
"title": "Design"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 31,
"text": "Ducted-fan aircraft such as the Moller Skycar tend to easily lose stability and have been unable to travel at greater than 30–40 knots.",
"title": "Design"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 32,
"text": "The flying car places unique demands on the vehicle power train. For a given all-up weight, an aero engine must deliver higher power than its typical road equivalent. However on the road the vehicle must handle well and not be overpowered. Power must also be diverted between the airborne and road drive mechanisms. Some designs therefore have multiple engines, with the road engine being supplemented, or even replaced by, additional flight engines.",
"title": "Design"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 33,
"text": "As with other vehicles, power has traditionally been supplied by internal combustion engines, but electric power is undergoing rapid development. It is coming into increasing use on road vehicles, but the weight of the batteries currently makes it unsuited to aircraft. However its low environmental signature makes it attractive for the short trips and dense urban environments envisaged for the flying car.",
"title": "Design"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 34,
"text": "On the road, most flying cars drive the road wheels in the conventional way. A few use the aircraft propeller in similar manner to an airboat, but this is inefficient.",
"title": "Design"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 35,
"text": "In the air, a flying car will typically obtain forward thrust from one or more propellers or ducted fans. A few have a powered helicopter rotor. Jet engines are not used due to the ground hazard posed by the hot, high-velocity exhaust stream.",
"title": "Design"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 36,
"text": "In order to operate safely, a flying car must be certified independently as both a road vehicle and an aircraft, by the respective authorities. The person controlling the vehicle must also be licensed as both driver and pilot, and the vehicle maintained according to both regimes.",
"title": "Design"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 37,
"text": "Mechanically, the requirements of powered flight are so challenging that every opportunity must be taken to keep weight to a minimum. A typical airframe is therefore lightweight and easily damaged. On the other hand, a road vehicle must be able to withstand significant impact loads from casual incidents while stationary, as well as low-speed and high-speed impacts, and the high strength this demands can add considerable weight. A practical flying car must be both strong enough to pass road safety standards and light enough to fly. Any propeller or rotor blade also creates a hazard to passers-by when on the ground, especially if it is spinning; they must be permanently shrouded, or folded away on landing.",
"title": "Design"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 38,
"text": "For widespread adoption, as envisaged in the near future, it will not be practicable for every driver to qualify as a pilot and the rigorous maintenance currently demanded for aircraft will be uneconomic. Flying cars will have to become largely autonomous and highly reliable. The density of traffic will require automated routing and collision-avoidance systems. To manage the inevitable periodic failures and emergency landings, there will need to be sufficient designated landing sites across built-up areas. In addition, poor weather conditions could make the craft unsafe to fly.",
"title": "Design"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 39,
"text": "Regulatory regimes are being developed in anticipation of a large increase in the numbers of autonomous flying cars and personal air vehicles in the near future, and compliance with these regimes will be necessary for safe flight.",
"title": "Design"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 40,
"text": "A basic flying car requires the person at the controls to be both a qualified road driver and aircraft pilot. This is impractical for the majority of people and so wider adoption will require computer systems to de-skill piloting. These skills include aircraft manoeuvring, navigation and emergency procedures, all in potentially crowded airspace. The onboard control system will also need to interact with other systems such as air traffic control and collision-risk monitoring. A practical flying car may need to be capable of full autonomy, in which people are present only as passengers.",
"title": "Design"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 41,
"text": "A flying car capable of widespread use must operate acceptably within a heavily populated urban environment. The lift and propulsion systems must be quiet enough not to cause a nuisance, and must not create excessive pollution. For example, pollution emissions standards for road vehicles must be met.",
"title": "Design"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 42,
"text": "The clear environmental benefits of electric power are a strong incentive for its development.",
"title": "Design"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 43,
"text": "The needs for the propulsion system to be both small and powerful, the vehicle structure both light and strong, and the control systems fully integrated and autonomous, can only be met at present, if at all, using advanced and expensive technologies. This may prove a significant barrier to widespread adoption.",
"title": "Design"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 44,
"text": "Flying cars are used for relatively short distances at high frequency. They travel at lower speeds and altitudes than conventional passenger aircraft. However optimal fuel efficiency for aeroplanes is obtained at higher speeds and altitudes, so a flying car's energy efficiency will be lower than that of a conventional aircraft. Similarly, the flying car's road performance is compromised by the requirements of flight and the need to carry around the various extra parts, so it is also less economical than a conventional motor car.",
"title": "Design"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 45,
"text": "In April 2012, the International Flying Car Association was established to be the \"central resource center for information and communication between the flying car industry, news networks, governments, and those seeking further information worldwide\". Because flying cars need practical regulations that are mostly dealt with on a regional level, several regional associations were established as well, with the European Flying Car Association (EFCA) representing these national member associations on a pan-European level (51 independent countries, including the European Union Member States, the Accession Candidates and Russia, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine). The associations are also organizing racing competitions for roadable aircraft in Europe, the European Roadable Aircraft Prix (ERAP), mainly to increase awareness about this type of aircraft among a broader audience.",
"title": "Industry groups"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 46,
"text": "The flying car was and remains a common feature of conceptions of the future, both predicted and imaginary.",
"title": "Popular culture"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 47,
"text": "Flying cars have been under development since the early days of motor transport and aviation, and many futurologists have predicted their imminent arrival. Aircraft manufacturer Glenn Curtiss unveiled his unflyable Autoplane in 1917. In 1940, vehicle manufacturer Henry Ford predicted that; \"Mark my word: a combination airplane and motorcar is coming. You may smile, but it will come.”",
"title": "Popular culture"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 48,
"text": "From 1945, industrial designer Norman Bel Geddes promoted his concept for a streamlined flying car with folding wings. In the late 1950s, Ford's Advanced Design studio publicised a 3/8 scale concept car model, the Volante Tri-Athodyne. It featured three ducted fans, each with its own motor, that would lift it off the ground and move it through the air. Ford admitted that \"the day where there will be an aero-car in every garage is still some time off\", also suggesting that \"the Volante indicates one direction that the styling of such a vehicle would take\".",
"title": "Popular culture"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 49,
"text": "Despite a century of anticipation, no flying car has yet proved a practical proposition and they remain an experimental curiosity. This long-term failure to make any impact on society has led to the meme, \"Where's my flying car?\"",
"title": "Popular culture"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 50,
"text": "Here we are, less than a month until the turn of the millennium, and what I want to know is, what happened to the flying cars? We're about to become Americans of the 21st century. People have been predicting what we'd be like for more than 100 years, and our accoutrements don't entirely live up to expectations. ... Our failure to produce flying cars seems like a particular betrayal since it was so central to our image.",
"title": "Popular culture"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 51,
"text": "This new millennium sucks! It's exactly the same as the old millennium! You know why? No flying cars!",
"title": "Popular culture"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 52,
"text": "The question \"Where's my flying car?\" has become emblematic of the wider failure of many modern technologies to match futuristic visions that were promoted in earlier decades.",
"title": "Popular culture"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 53,
"text": "The flying car has been depicted in many works of fantasy and science fiction. Some notable examples include:",
"title": "Popular culture"
}
] |
A flying car or roadable aircraft is a type of vehicle which can function both as a road vehicle and as an aircraft. As used here, this includes vehicles which drive as motorcycles when on the road. The term "flying car" is also sometimes used to include hovercars and/or VTOL personal air vehicles. Many prototypes have been built since the early 20th century, using a variety of flight technologies. Most have been designed to take off and land conventionally using a runway. Although VTOL projects are increasing, none has yet been built in more than a handful of numbers. Their appearance is often predicted by futurologists, and many concept designs have been promoted. Their failure to become a practical reality has led to the catchphrase "Where's my flying car?", as a paradigm for the failure of predicted technologies to appear. Flying cars are also a popular theme in fantasy and science fiction stories.
|
2001-05-09T16:05:20Z
|
2023-12-27T16:55:27Z
|
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_car
|
10,775 |
Film editing
|
Film editing is both a creative and a technical part of the post-production process of filmmaking. The term is derived from the traditional process of working with film which increasingly involves the use of digital technology. When putting together some sort of video composition, typically, you would need a collection of shots and footages that vary from one another. The act of adjusting the shots you have already taken, and turning them into something new is known as film editing.
The film editor works with raw footage, selecting shots and combining them into sequences which create a finished motion picture. Film editing is described as an art or skill, the only art that is unique to cinema, separating filmmaking from other art forms that preceded it, although there are close parallels to the editing process in other art forms such as poetry and novel writing. Film editing is an extremely important tool when attempting to intrigue a viewer. When done properly, a film's editing can captivate a viewer and fly completely under the radar. Because of this, film editing has been given the name “the invisible art.”
On its most fundamental level, film editing is the art, technique and practice of assembling shots into a coherent sequence. The job of an editor is not simply to mechanically put pieces of a film together, cut off film slates or edit dialogue scenes. A film editor must creatively work with the layers of images, story, dialogue, music, pacing, as well as the actors' performances to effectively "re-imagine" and even rewrite the film to craft a cohesive whole. Editors usually play a dynamic role in the making of a film. An editor must select only the most quality shots, removing all unnecessary frames to ensure the shot is clean. Sometimes, auteurist film directors edit their own films, for example, Akira Kurosawa, Bahram Beyzai, Steven Soderbergh, and the Coen brothers.
According to “Film Art, An Introduction”, by Bordwell and Thompson, there are four basic areas of film editing that the editor has full control over. The first dimension is the graphic relations between a shot A and shot B. The shots are analyzed in terms of their graphic configurations, including light and dark, lines and shapes, volumes and depths, movement and stasis. The director makes deliberate choices regarding the composition, lighting, color, and movement within each shot, as well as the transitions between them. There are several techniques used by editors to establish graphic relations between shots. These include maintaining overall brightness consistency, keeping important elements in the center of the frame, playing with color differences, and creating visual matches or continuities between shots.
The second dimension is the rhythmic relationship between shot A and shot B. The duration of each shot, determined by the number of frames or length of film, contributes to the overall rhythm of the film. The filmmaker has control over the editing rhythm by adjusting the length of shots in relation to each other. Shot duration can be used to create specific effects and emphasize moments in the film. For example, a brief flash of white frames can convey a sudden impact or a violent moment. On the other hand, lengthening or adding seconds to a shot can allow for audience reaction or to accentuate an action. The length of shots can also be used to establish a rhythmic pattern, such as creating a steady beat or gradually slowing down or accelerating the tempo.
The third dimension is the spatial relationship between shot A and shot B. Editing allows the filmmaker to construct film space and imply a relationship between different points in space. The filmmaker can juxtapose shots to establish spatial holes or construct a whole space out of component parts. For example, the filmmaker can start with a shot that establishes a spatial hole and then follow it with a shot of a part of that space, creating an analytical breakdown.
The final dimension that an editor has control over is the temporal relation between shot A and shot B. Editing plays a crucial role in manipulating the time of action in a film. It allows filmmakers to control the order, duration, and frequency of events, thus shaping the narrative and influencing the audience's perception of time. Through editing, shots can be rearranged, flashbacks and flash-forwards can be employed, and the duration of actions can be compressed or expanded. The main point is that editing gives filmmakers the power to control and manipulate the temporal aspects of storytelling in film.
Between graphic, rhythmic, spatial, and temporal relationships between two shots, an editor has various ways to add a creative element to the film, and enhance the overall viewing experience.
With the advent of digital editing in non-linear editing systems, film editors and their assistants have become responsible for many areas of filmmaking that used to be the responsibility of others. For instance, in past years, picture editors dealt only with just that—picture. Sound, music, and (more recently) visual effects editors dealt with the practicalities of other aspects of the editing process, usually under the direction of the picture editor and director. However, digital systems have increasingly put these responsibilities on the picture editor. It is common, especially on lower budget films, for the editor to sometimes cut in temporary music, mock up visual effects and add temporary sound effects or other sound replacements. These temporary elements are usually replaced with more refined final elements produced by the sound, music and visual effects teams hired to complete the picture. The importance of an editor has become increasingly pivotal to the quality and success of a film due to the multiple roles that have been added to their job.
Early films were short films that were one long, static, and locked-down shot. Motion in the shot was all that was necessary to amuse an audience, so the first films simply showed activity such as traffic moving along a city street. There was no story and no editing. Each film ran as long as there was film in the camera.
The first edited film was released in 1898. Robert W. Paul's Come Along, Do! was the first film that used a variety of shots, with one scene being put after another. Over time, directors and different producers began using stylistic approaches to their editing. For example, in his films, Wes Anderson likes leaving the shot relatively symmetrical. He also likes using different filters and unique lighting when shooting, all unique aspects of his film editing style.
The use of film editing to establish continuity, involving action moving from one sequence into another, is attributed to British film pioneer Robert W. Paul's Come Along, Do!, made in 1898 and one of the first films to feature more than one shot. In the first shot, an elderly couple is outside an art exhibition having lunch and then follow other people inside through the door. The second shot shows what they do inside. Paul's 'Cinematograph Camera No. 1' of 1896 was the first camera to feature reverse-cranking, which allowed the same film footage to be exposed several times and thereby to create super-positions and multiple exposures. One of the first films to use this technique, Georges Méliès's The Four Troublesome Heads from 1898, was produced with Paul's camera.
The further development of action continuity in multi-shot films continued in 1899–1900 at the Brighton School in England, where it was definitively established by George Albert Smith and James Williamson. In that year, Smith made As Seen Through a Telescope, in which the main shot shows street scene with a young man tying the shoelace and then caressing the foot of his girlfriend, while an old man observes this through a telescope. There is then a cut to close shot of the hands on the girl's foot shown inside a black circular mask, and then a cut back to the continuation of the original scene.
Even more remarkable was James Williamson's Attack on a China Mission Station, made around the same time in 1900. The first shot shows the gate to the mission station from the outside being attacked and broken open by Chinese Boxer rebels, then there is a cut to the garden of the mission station where a pitched battle ensues. An armed party of British sailors arrived to defeat the Boxers and rescue the missionary's family. The film used the first "reverse angle" cut in film history.
James Williamson concentrated on making films taking action from one place shown in one shot to the next shown in another shot in films like Stop Thief! and Fire!, made in 1901, and many others. He also experimented with the close-up, and made perhaps the most extreme one of all in The Big Swallow, when his character approaches the camera and appears to swallow it. These two filmmakers of the Brighton School also pioneered the editing of the film; they tinted their work with color and used trick photography to enhance the narrative. By 1900, their films were extended scenes of up to 5 minutes long.
Other filmmakers then took up all these ideas including the American Edwin S. Porter, who started making films for the Edison Company in 1901. Porter worked on a number of minor films before making Life of an American Fireman in 1903. The film was the first American film with a plot, featuring action, and even a closeup of a hand pulling a fire alarm. The film comprised a continuous narrative over seven scenes, rendered in a total of nine shots. He put a dissolve between every shot, just as Georges Méliès was already doing, and he frequently had the same action repeated across the dissolves. His film, The Great Train Robbery (1903), had a running time of twelve minutes, with twenty separate shots and ten different indoor and outdoor locations. He used cross-cutting editing method to show simultaneous action in different places.
These early film directors discovered important aspects of motion picture language: that the screen image does not need to show a complete person from head to toe and that splicing together two shots creates in the viewer's mind a contextual relationship. These were the key discoveries that made all non-live or non live-on-videotape narrative motion pictures and television possible—that shots (in this case, whole scenes since each shot is a complete scene) can be photographed at widely different locations over a period of time (hours, days or even months) and combined into a narrative whole. That is, The Great Train Robbery contains scenes shot on sets of a telegraph station, a railroad car interior, and a dance hall, with outdoor scenes at a railroad water tower, on the train itself, at a point along the track, and in the woods. But when the robbers leave the telegraph station interior (set) and emerge at the water tower, the audience believes they went immediately from one to the other. Or that when they climb on the train in one shot and enter the baggage car (a set) in the next, the audience believes they are on the same train.
Sometime around 1918, Russian director Lev Kuleshov did an experiment that proves this point. (See Kuleshov Experiment) He took an old film clip of a headshot of a noted Russian actor and intercut the shot with a shot of a bowl of soup, then with a child playing with a teddy bear, then with a shot an elderly woman in a casket. When he showed the film to people they praised the actor's acting—the hunger in his face when he saw the soup, the delight in the child, and the grief when looking at the dead woman. Of course, the shot of the actor was years before the other shots and he never "saw" any of the items. The simple act of juxtaposing the shots in a sequence made the relationship.
Before the widespread use of digital non-linear editing systems, the initial editing of all films was done with a positive copy of the film negative called a film workprint (cutting copy in UK) by physically cutting and splicing together pieces of film. Strips of footage would be hand cut and attached together with tape and then later in time, glue. Editors were very precise; if they made a wrong cut or needed a fresh positive print, it cost the production money and time for the lab to reprint the footage. Additionally, each reprint put the negative at risk of damage. With the invention of a splicer and threading the machine with a viewer such as a Moviola, or "flatbed" machine such as a K.-E.-M. or Steenbeck, the editing process sped up a little bit and cuts came out cleaner and more precise. The Moviola editing practice is non-linear, allowing the editor to make choices faster, a great advantage to editing episodic films for television which have very short timelines to complete the work. All film studios and production companies who produced films for television provided this tool for their editors. Flatbed editing machines were used for playback and refinement of cuts, particularly in feature films and films made for television because they were less noisy and cleaner to work with. They were used extensively for documentary and drama production within the BBC's Film Department. Operated by a team of two, an editor and assistant editor, this tactile process required significant skill but allowed for editors to work extremely efficiently.
Modern film editing has evolved significantly since it was first introduced to the film and entertainment industry. Some other new aspects of editing have been introduced such as color grading and digital workflows. As mentioned earlier, over the course of time, new technology has exponentially enhanced the quality of pictures in films. One of the most important steps in this process was transitioning from analog to digital filmmaking. By doing this, it gives the ability editors to immediately playback scenes, duplication and much more. Additionally digital has simplified and reduced the cost of filmmaking. Digital film is not only cheaper, but lasts longer, is safer, and is overall more efficient. Color grading is a post production process, where the editor manipulates or enhances the color of images, or environments in order to create a color tone. Doing this can alter the setting, tone, and mood of the entirety of scenes, and can enhance reactions that would otherwise have the possibility of being dull or out of place. Color grading is vital to the film editing process, and is technology that allows editors to enhance a story.
Today, most films are edited digitally (on systems such as Media Composer, Final Cut Pro X or Premiere Pro) and bypass the film positive workprint altogether. In the past, the use of a film positive (not the original negative) allowed the editor to do as much experimenting as he or she wished, without the risk of damaging the original. With digital editing, editors can experiment just as much as before except with the footage completely transferred to a computer hard drive.
When the film workprint had been cut to a satisfactory state, it was then used to make an edit decision list (EDL). The negative cutter referred to this list while processing the negative, splitting the shots into rolls, which were then contact printed to produce the final film print or answer print. Today, production companies have the option of bypassing negative cutting altogether. With the advent of digital intermediate ("DI"), the physical negative does not necessarily need to be physically cut and hot spliced together; rather the negative is optically scanned into the computer(s) and a cut list is confirmed by a DI editor.
In the early years of film, editing was considered a technical job; editors were expected to "cut out the bad bits" and string the film together. Indeed, when the Motion Picture Editors Guild was formed, they chose to be "below the line", that is, not a creative guild, but a technical one. Women were not usually able to break into the "creative" positions; directors, cinematographers, producers, and executives were almost always men. Editing afforded creative women a place to assert their mark on the filmmaking process. The history of film has included many women editors such as Dede Allen, Anne Bauchens, Margaret Booth, Barbara McLean, Anne V. Coates, Adrienne Fazan, Verna Fields, Blanche Sewell and Eda Warren.
Post-production editing may be summarized by three distinct phases commonly referred to as the editor's cut, the director's cut, and the final cut.
There are several editing stages and the editor's cut is the first. An editor's cut (sometimes referred to as the "Assembly edit" or "Rough cut") is normally the first pass of what the final film will be when it reaches picture lock. The film editor usually starts working while principal photography starts. Sometimes, prior to cutting, the editor and director will have seen and discussed "dailies" (raw footage shot each day) as shooting progresses. As production schedules have shortened over the years, this co-viewing happens less often. Screening dailies give the editor a general idea of the director's intentions. Because it is the first pass, the editor's cut might be longer than the final film. The editor continues to refine the cut while shooting continues, and often the entire editing process goes on for many months and sometimes more than a year, depending on the film. The editor's cut is an opportunity for the editor to shape the story and present their vision of how the film should unfold. It provides a solid foundation for further collaboration with the director, allowing them to assess the initial assembly and provide feedback or guidance on the creative direction.
When shooting is finished, the director can then turn his or her full attention to collaborating with the editor and further refining the cut of the film. This is the time that is set aside where the film editor's first cut is molded to fit the director's vision. In the United States, under the rules of the Directors Guild of America, directors receive a minimum of ten weeks after completion of principal photography to prepare their first cut. While collaborating on what is referred to as the "director's cut", the director and the editor go over the entire movie in great detail; scenes and shots are re-ordered, removed, shortened and otherwise tweaked. Often it is discovered that there are plot holes, missing shots or even missing segments which might require that new scenes be filmed. Because of this time working closely and collaborating – a period that is normally far longer and more intricately detailed than the entire preceding film production – many directors and editors form a unique artistic bond. The goal is to align the film with the director's artistic vision and narrative objectives. The director's cut typically involves multiple iterations and discussions until both the director and editor are satisfied with the overall direction of the film.
Often after the director has had their chance to oversee a cut, the subsequent cuts are supervised by one or more producers, who represent the production company or movie studio. There have been several conflicts in the past between the director and the studio, sometimes leading to the use of the "Alan Smithee" credit signifying when a director no longer wants to be associated with the final release. The final cut is the last stage of post-production editing and represents the definitive version of the film. It is the result of the collaborative efforts between the director, editor, and other key stakeholders. The final cut reflects the agreed-upon creative decisions and serves as the basis for distribution and exhibition.
Mise en scene is the term used to describe all of the lighting, music, placement, costume design, and other elements of a shot. Film editing and Mise en scene go hand in hand with one another. A major part of film editing is the use of filters and adjusting the lighting in a shot. Film editing contributes to the mise en scene of a given shot. When shooting a film, you typically get shots from multiple angles. The angles at which you shoot from are all part of the film's mise en scene.
In motion picture terminology, a montage (from the French for "putting together" or "assembly") is a film editing technique.
There are at least three senses of the term:
Although film director D. W. Griffith was not part of the montage school, he was one of the early proponents of the power of editing — mastering cross-cutting to show parallel action in different locations, and codifying film grammar in other ways as well. Griffith's work in the teens was highly regarded by Lev Kuleshov and other Soviet filmmakers and greatly influenced their understanding of editing.
Kuleshov was among the first to theorize about the relatively young medium of the cinema in the 1920s. For him, the unique essence of the cinema — that which could be duplicated in no other medium — is editing. He argues that editing a film is like constructing a building. Brick-by-brick (shot-by-shot) the building (film) is erected. His often-cited Kuleshov Experiment established that montage can lead the viewer to reach certain conclusions about the action in a film. Montage works because viewers infer meaning based on context. Sergei Eisenstein was briefly a student of Kuleshov's, but the two parted ways because they had different ideas of montage. Eisenstein regarded montage as a dialectical means of creating meaning. By contrasting unrelated shots he tried to provoke associations in the viewer, which were induced by shocks. But Eisenstein did not always do his own editing, and some of his most important films were edited by Esfir Tobak.
A montage sequence consists of a series of short shots that are edited into a sequence to condense narrative. It is usually used to advance the story as a whole (often to suggest the passage of time), rather than to create symbolic meaning. In many cases, a song plays in the background to enhance the mood or reinforce the message being conveyed. One famous example of montage was seen in the 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey, depicting the start of man's first development from apes to humans. Another example that is employed in many films is the sports montage. The sports montage shows the star athlete training over a period of time, each shot having more improvement than the last. Classic examples include Rocky and the Karate Kid.
The word's association with Sergei Eisenstein is often condensed—too simply—into the idea of "juxtaposition" or into two words: "collision montage," whereby two adjacent shots that oppose each other on formal parameters or on the content of their images are cut against each other to create a new meaning not contained in the respective shots: Shot a + Shot b = New Meaning c.
The association of collision montage with Eisenstein is not surprising. He consistently maintained that the mind functions dialectically, in the Hegelian sense, that the contradiction between opposing ideas (thesis versus antithesis) is resolved by a higher truth, synthesis. He argued that conflict was the basis of all art, and never failed to see montage in other cultures. For example, he saw montage as a guiding principle in the construction of "Japanese hieroglyphics in which two independent ideographic characters ('shots') are juxtaposed and explode into a concept. Thus:
He also found montage in Japanese haiku, where short sense perceptions are juxtaposed and synthesized into a new meaning, as in this example:
(枯朶に烏のとまりけり秋の暮)
— Matsuo Basho
As Dudley Andrew notes, "The collision of attractions from line to line produces the unified psychological effect which is the hallmark of haiku and montage."
Continuity editing, developed in the early 1900s, aimed to create a coherent and smooth storytelling experience in films. It relied on consistent graphic qualities, balanced composition, and controlled editing rhythms to ensure narrative continuity and engage the audience. For example, whether an actor's costume remains the same from one scene to the next, or whether a glass of milk held by a character is full or empty throughout the scene. Because films are typically shot out of sequence, the script supervisor will keep a record of continuity and provide that to the film editor for reference. The editor may try to maintain continuity of elements, or may intentionally create a discontinuous sequence for stylistic or narrative effect.
The technique of continuity editing, part of the classical Hollywood style, was developed by early European and American directors, in particular, D.W. Griffith in his films such as The Birth of a Nation and Intolerance. The classical style embraces temporal and spatial continuity as a way of advancing the narrative, using such techniques as the 180 degree rule, Establishing shot, and Shot reverse shot. The 180-degree system in film editing ensures consistency in shot composition by keeping relative positions of characters or objects in the frame consistent. It also maintains consistent eye-lines and screen direction to avoid disorientation and confusion for the audience, allowing for clear spatial delineation and a smooth narrative experience. Often, continuity editing means finding a balance between literal continuity and perceived continuity. For instance, editors may condense action across cuts in a non-distracting way. A character walking from one place to another may "skip" a section of floor from one side of a cut to the other, but the cut is constructed to appear continuous so as not to distract the viewer.
Early Russian filmmakers such as Lev Kuleshov (already mentioned) further explored and theorized about editing and its ideological nature. Sergei Eisenstein developed a system of editing that was unconcerned with the rules of the continuity system of classical Hollywood that he called Intellectual montage.
Alternatives to traditional editing were also explored by early surrealist and Dada filmmakers such as Luis Buñuel (director of the 1929 Un Chien Andalou) and René Clair (director of 1924's Entr'acte which starred famous Dada artists Marcel Duchamp and Man Ray).
Filmmakers have explored alternatives to continuity editing, focusing on graphic and rhythmic possibilities in their films. Experimental filmmakers like Stan Brakhage and Bruce Conner have used purely graphic elements to join shots, emphasizing light, texture, and shape rather than narrative coherence. Non-narrative films have prioritized rhythmic relations among shots, even employing single-frame shots for extreme rhythmic effects. Narrative filmmakers, such as Busby Berkeley and Yasujiro Ow, have occasionally subordinated narrative concerns to graphic or rhythmic patterns, while films influenced by music videos often feature pulsating rhythmic editing that de-emphasizes spatial and temporal dimensions.
The French New Wave filmmakers such as Jean-Luc Godard and François Truffaut and their American counterparts such as Andy Warhol and John Cassavetes also pushed the limits of editing technique during the late 1950s and throughout the 1960s. French New Wave films and the non-narrative films of the 1960s used a carefree editing style and did not conform to the traditional editing etiquette of Hollywood films. Like its Dada and surrealist predecessors, French New Wave editing often drew attention to itself by its lack of continuity, its demystifying self-reflexive nature (reminding the audience that they were watching a film), and by the overt use of jump cuts or the insertion of material not often related to any narrative. Three of the most influential editors of French New Wave films were the women who (in combination) edited 15 of Godard's films: Francoise Collin, Agnes Guillemot, and Cecile Decugis, and another notable editor is Marie-Josèphe Yoyotte, the first black woman editor in French cinema and editor of The 400 Blows.
Since the late 20th century Post-classical editing has seen faster editing styles with nonlinear, discontinuous action.
Vsevolod Pudovkin noted that the editing process is the one phase of production that is truly unique to motion pictures. Every other aspect of filmmaking originated in a different medium than film (photography, art direction, writing, sound recording), but editing is the one process that is unique to film. Filmmaker Stanley Kubrick was quoted as saying: "I love editing. I think I like it more than any other phase of filmmaking. If I wanted to be frivolous, I might say that everything that precedes editing is merely a way of producing a film to edit." Film editing is significant because it shapes the narrative structure, visual and aesthetic impact, rhythm and pacing, emotional resonance, and overall storytelling of a film. Editors possess a unique creative power to manipulate and arrange shots, allowing them to craft a cinematic experience that engages, entertains, and emotionally connects with the audience. Film editing is a distinct art form within the filmmaking process, enabling filmmakers to realize their vision and bring stories to life on the screen.
According to writer-director Preston Sturges:
[T]here is a law of natural cutting and that this replicates what an audience in a legitimate theater does for itself. The more nearly the film cutter approaches this law of natural interest, the more invisible will be his cutting. If the camera moves from one person to another at the exact moment that one in the legitimate theatre would have turned his head, one will not be conscious of a cut. If the camera misses by a quarter of a second, one will get a jolt. There is one other requirement: the two shots must be approximate of the same tone value. If one cuts from black to white, it is jarring. At any given moment, the camera must point at the exact spot the audience wishes to look at. To find that spot is absurdly easy: one has only to remember where one was looking at the time the scene was made.
Assistant editors aid the editor and director in collecting and organizing all the elements needed to edit the film. The Motion Picture Editors Guild defines an assistant editor as "a person who is assigned to assist an Editor. His or her duties shall be such as are assigned and performed under the immediate direction, supervision, and responsibility of the editor." When editing is finished, they oversee the various lists and instructions necessary to put the film into its final form. Editors of large budget features will usually have a team of assistants working for them. The first assistant editor is in charge of this team and may do a small bit of picture editing as well, if necessary. Assistant editors are responsible for collecting, organizing, and managing all the elements needed for the editing process. This includes footage, sound files, music tracks, visual effects assets, and other media assets. They ensure that everything is properly labeled, logged, and stored in an organized manner, making it easier for the editor to access and work with the materials efficiently. Assistant editors serve as a bridge between the editing team and other departments, facilitating communication and collaboration. They often work closely with the director, editor, visual effects artists, sound designers, and other post-production professionals, relaying information, managing deliverables, and coordinating schedules. Often assistant editors will perform temporary sound, music, and visual effects work. The other assistants will have set tasks, usually helping each other when necessary to complete the many time-sensitive tasks at hand. In addition, an apprentice editor may be on hand to help the assistants. An apprentice is usually someone who is learning the ropes of assisting.
Television shows typically have one assistant per editor. This assistant is responsible for every task required to bring the show to the final form. Lower budget features and documentaries will also commonly have only one assistant. Higher budget films and shows tend to have more than one assistant editor, and in some cases, there can be a full team of assistants.
The organizational aspects job could best be compared to database management. When a film is shot, every piece of picture or sound is coded with numbers and timecode. It is the assistant's job to keep track of these numbers in a database, which, in non-linear editing, is linked to the computer program. The editor and director cut the film using digital copies of the original film and sound, commonly referred to as an "offline" edit. When the cut is finished, it is the assistant's job to bring the film or television show "online". They create lists and instructions that tell the picture and sound finishers how to put the edit back together with the high-quality original elements. Assistant editing can be seen as a career path to eventually becoming an editor. Many assistants, however, do not choose to pursue advancement to the editor, and are very happy at the assistant level, working long and rewarding careers on many films and television shows.
Notes
Bibliography
Further reading
Wikibooks
Wikiversity
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[
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "Film editing is both a creative and a technical part of the post-production process of filmmaking. The term is derived from the traditional process of working with film which increasingly involves the use of digital technology. When putting together some sort of video composition, typically, you would need a collection of shots and footages that vary from one another. The act of adjusting the shots you have already taken, and turning them into something new is known as film editing.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "The film editor works with raw footage, selecting shots and combining them into sequences which create a finished motion picture. Film editing is described as an art or skill, the only art that is unique to cinema, separating filmmaking from other art forms that preceded it, although there are close parallels to the editing process in other art forms such as poetry and novel writing. Film editing is an extremely important tool when attempting to intrigue a viewer. When done properly, a film's editing can captivate a viewer and fly completely under the radar. Because of this, film editing has been given the name “the invisible art.”",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "On its most fundamental level, film editing is the art, technique and practice of assembling shots into a coherent sequence. The job of an editor is not simply to mechanically put pieces of a film together, cut off film slates or edit dialogue scenes. A film editor must creatively work with the layers of images, story, dialogue, music, pacing, as well as the actors' performances to effectively \"re-imagine\" and even rewrite the film to craft a cohesive whole. Editors usually play a dynamic role in the making of a film. An editor must select only the most quality shots, removing all unnecessary frames to ensure the shot is clean. Sometimes, auteurist film directors edit their own films, for example, Akira Kurosawa, Bahram Beyzai, Steven Soderbergh, and the Coen brothers.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "According to “Film Art, An Introduction”, by Bordwell and Thompson, there are four basic areas of film editing that the editor has full control over. The first dimension is the graphic relations between a shot A and shot B. The shots are analyzed in terms of their graphic configurations, including light and dark, lines and shapes, volumes and depths, movement and stasis. The director makes deliberate choices regarding the composition, lighting, color, and movement within each shot, as well as the transitions between them. There are several techniques used by editors to establish graphic relations between shots. These include maintaining overall brightness consistency, keeping important elements in the center of the frame, playing with color differences, and creating visual matches or continuities between shots.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "The second dimension is the rhythmic relationship between shot A and shot B. The duration of each shot, determined by the number of frames or length of film, contributes to the overall rhythm of the film. The filmmaker has control over the editing rhythm by adjusting the length of shots in relation to each other. Shot duration can be used to create specific effects and emphasize moments in the film. For example, a brief flash of white frames can convey a sudden impact or a violent moment. On the other hand, lengthening or adding seconds to a shot can allow for audience reaction or to accentuate an action. The length of shots can also be used to establish a rhythmic pattern, such as creating a steady beat or gradually slowing down or accelerating the tempo.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "The third dimension is the spatial relationship between shot A and shot B. Editing allows the filmmaker to construct film space and imply a relationship between different points in space. The filmmaker can juxtapose shots to establish spatial holes or construct a whole space out of component parts. For example, the filmmaker can start with a shot that establishes a spatial hole and then follow it with a shot of a part of that space, creating an analytical breakdown.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "The final dimension that an editor has control over is the temporal relation between shot A and shot B. Editing plays a crucial role in manipulating the time of action in a film. It allows filmmakers to control the order, duration, and frequency of events, thus shaping the narrative and influencing the audience's perception of time. Through editing, shots can be rearranged, flashbacks and flash-forwards can be employed, and the duration of actions can be compressed or expanded. The main point is that editing gives filmmakers the power to control and manipulate the temporal aspects of storytelling in film.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "Between graphic, rhythmic, spatial, and temporal relationships between two shots, an editor has various ways to add a creative element to the film, and enhance the overall viewing experience.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "With the advent of digital editing in non-linear editing systems, film editors and their assistants have become responsible for many areas of filmmaking that used to be the responsibility of others. For instance, in past years, picture editors dealt only with just that—picture. Sound, music, and (more recently) visual effects editors dealt with the practicalities of other aspects of the editing process, usually under the direction of the picture editor and director. However, digital systems have increasingly put these responsibilities on the picture editor. It is common, especially on lower budget films, for the editor to sometimes cut in temporary music, mock up visual effects and add temporary sound effects or other sound replacements. These temporary elements are usually replaced with more refined final elements produced by the sound, music and visual effects teams hired to complete the picture. The importance of an editor has become increasingly pivotal to the quality and success of a film due to the multiple roles that have been added to their job.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "Early films were short films that were one long, static, and locked-down shot. Motion in the shot was all that was necessary to amuse an audience, so the first films simply showed activity such as traffic moving along a city street. There was no story and no editing. Each film ran as long as there was film in the camera.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "The first edited film was released in 1898. Robert W. Paul's Come Along, Do! was the first film that used a variety of shots, with one scene being put after another. Over time, directors and different producers began using stylistic approaches to their editing. For example, in his films, Wes Anderson likes leaving the shot relatively symmetrical. He also likes using different filters and unique lighting when shooting, all unique aspects of his film editing style.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "The use of film editing to establish continuity, involving action moving from one sequence into another, is attributed to British film pioneer Robert W. Paul's Come Along, Do!, made in 1898 and one of the first films to feature more than one shot. In the first shot, an elderly couple is outside an art exhibition having lunch and then follow other people inside through the door. The second shot shows what they do inside. Paul's 'Cinematograph Camera No. 1' of 1896 was the first camera to feature reverse-cranking, which allowed the same film footage to be exposed several times and thereby to create super-positions and multiple exposures. One of the first films to use this technique, Georges Méliès's The Four Troublesome Heads from 1898, was produced with Paul's camera.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "The further development of action continuity in multi-shot films continued in 1899–1900 at the Brighton School in England, where it was definitively established by George Albert Smith and James Williamson. In that year, Smith made As Seen Through a Telescope, in which the main shot shows street scene with a young man tying the shoelace and then caressing the foot of his girlfriend, while an old man observes this through a telescope. There is then a cut to close shot of the hands on the girl's foot shown inside a black circular mask, and then a cut back to the continuation of the original scene.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "Even more remarkable was James Williamson's Attack on a China Mission Station, made around the same time in 1900. The first shot shows the gate to the mission station from the outside being attacked and broken open by Chinese Boxer rebels, then there is a cut to the garden of the mission station where a pitched battle ensues. An armed party of British sailors arrived to defeat the Boxers and rescue the missionary's family. The film used the first \"reverse angle\" cut in film history.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "James Williamson concentrated on making films taking action from one place shown in one shot to the next shown in another shot in films like Stop Thief! and Fire!, made in 1901, and many others. He also experimented with the close-up, and made perhaps the most extreme one of all in The Big Swallow, when his character approaches the camera and appears to swallow it. These two filmmakers of the Brighton School also pioneered the editing of the film; they tinted their work with color and used trick photography to enhance the narrative. By 1900, their films were extended scenes of up to 5 minutes long.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 15,
"text": "Other filmmakers then took up all these ideas including the American Edwin S. Porter, who started making films for the Edison Company in 1901. Porter worked on a number of minor films before making Life of an American Fireman in 1903. The film was the first American film with a plot, featuring action, and even a closeup of a hand pulling a fire alarm. The film comprised a continuous narrative over seven scenes, rendered in a total of nine shots. He put a dissolve between every shot, just as Georges Méliès was already doing, and he frequently had the same action repeated across the dissolves. His film, The Great Train Robbery (1903), had a running time of twelve minutes, with twenty separate shots and ten different indoor and outdoor locations. He used cross-cutting editing method to show simultaneous action in different places.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 16,
"text": "These early film directors discovered important aspects of motion picture language: that the screen image does not need to show a complete person from head to toe and that splicing together two shots creates in the viewer's mind a contextual relationship. These were the key discoveries that made all non-live or non live-on-videotape narrative motion pictures and television possible—that shots (in this case, whole scenes since each shot is a complete scene) can be photographed at widely different locations over a period of time (hours, days or even months) and combined into a narrative whole. That is, The Great Train Robbery contains scenes shot on sets of a telegraph station, a railroad car interior, and a dance hall, with outdoor scenes at a railroad water tower, on the train itself, at a point along the track, and in the woods. But when the robbers leave the telegraph station interior (set) and emerge at the water tower, the audience believes they went immediately from one to the other. Or that when they climb on the train in one shot and enter the baggage car (a set) in the next, the audience believes they are on the same train.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 17,
"text": "Sometime around 1918, Russian director Lev Kuleshov did an experiment that proves this point. (See Kuleshov Experiment) He took an old film clip of a headshot of a noted Russian actor and intercut the shot with a shot of a bowl of soup, then with a child playing with a teddy bear, then with a shot an elderly woman in a casket. When he showed the film to people they praised the actor's acting—the hunger in his face when he saw the soup, the delight in the child, and the grief when looking at the dead woman. Of course, the shot of the actor was years before the other shots and he never \"saw\" any of the items. The simple act of juxtaposing the shots in a sequence made the relationship.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 18,
"text": "Before the widespread use of digital non-linear editing systems, the initial editing of all films was done with a positive copy of the film negative called a film workprint (cutting copy in UK) by physically cutting and splicing together pieces of film. Strips of footage would be hand cut and attached together with tape and then later in time, glue. Editors were very precise; if they made a wrong cut or needed a fresh positive print, it cost the production money and time for the lab to reprint the footage. Additionally, each reprint put the negative at risk of damage. With the invention of a splicer and threading the machine with a viewer such as a Moviola, or \"flatbed\" machine such as a K.-E.-M. or Steenbeck, the editing process sped up a little bit and cuts came out cleaner and more precise. The Moviola editing practice is non-linear, allowing the editor to make choices faster, a great advantage to editing episodic films for television which have very short timelines to complete the work. All film studios and production companies who produced films for television provided this tool for their editors. Flatbed editing machines were used for playback and refinement of cuts, particularly in feature films and films made for television because they were less noisy and cleaner to work with. They were used extensively for documentary and drama production within the BBC's Film Department. Operated by a team of two, an editor and assistant editor, this tactile process required significant skill but allowed for editors to work extremely efficiently.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 19,
"text": "Modern film editing has evolved significantly since it was first introduced to the film and entertainment industry. Some other new aspects of editing have been introduced such as color grading and digital workflows. As mentioned earlier, over the course of time, new technology has exponentially enhanced the quality of pictures in films. One of the most important steps in this process was transitioning from analog to digital filmmaking. By doing this, it gives the ability editors to immediately playback scenes, duplication and much more. Additionally digital has simplified and reduced the cost of filmmaking. Digital film is not only cheaper, but lasts longer, is safer, and is overall more efficient. Color grading is a post production process, where the editor manipulates or enhances the color of images, or environments in order to create a color tone. Doing this can alter the setting, tone, and mood of the entirety of scenes, and can enhance reactions that would otherwise have the possibility of being dull or out of place. Color grading is vital to the film editing process, and is technology that allows editors to enhance a story.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 20,
"text": "Today, most films are edited digitally (on systems such as Media Composer, Final Cut Pro X or Premiere Pro) and bypass the film positive workprint altogether. In the past, the use of a film positive (not the original negative) allowed the editor to do as much experimenting as he or she wished, without the risk of damaging the original. With digital editing, editors can experiment just as much as before except with the footage completely transferred to a computer hard drive.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 21,
"text": "When the film workprint had been cut to a satisfactory state, it was then used to make an edit decision list (EDL). The negative cutter referred to this list while processing the negative, splitting the shots into rolls, which were then contact printed to produce the final film print or answer print. Today, production companies have the option of bypassing negative cutting altogether. With the advent of digital intermediate (\"DI\"), the physical negative does not necessarily need to be physically cut and hot spliced together; rather the negative is optically scanned into the computer(s) and a cut list is confirmed by a DI editor.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 22,
"text": "In the early years of film, editing was considered a technical job; editors were expected to \"cut out the bad bits\" and string the film together. Indeed, when the Motion Picture Editors Guild was formed, they chose to be \"below the line\", that is, not a creative guild, but a technical one. Women were not usually able to break into the \"creative\" positions; directors, cinematographers, producers, and executives were almost always men. Editing afforded creative women a place to assert their mark on the filmmaking process. The history of film has included many women editors such as Dede Allen, Anne Bauchens, Margaret Booth, Barbara McLean, Anne V. Coates, Adrienne Fazan, Verna Fields, Blanche Sewell and Eda Warren.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 23,
"text": "Post-production editing may be summarized by three distinct phases commonly referred to as the editor's cut, the director's cut, and the final cut.",
"title": "Post-production"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 24,
"text": "There are several editing stages and the editor's cut is the first. An editor's cut (sometimes referred to as the \"Assembly edit\" or \"Rough cut\") is normally the first pass of what the final film will be when it reaches picture lock. The film editor usually starts working while principal photography starts. Sometimes, prior to cutting, the editor and director will have seen and discussed \"dailies\" (raw footage shot each day) as shooting progresses. As production schedules have shortened over the years, this co-viewing happens less often. Screening dailies give the editor a general idea of the director's intentions. Because it is the first pass, the editor's cut might be longer than the final film. The editor continues to refine the cut while shooting continues, and often the entire editing process goes on for many months and sometimes more than a year, depending on the film. The editor's cut is an opportunity for the editor to shape the story and present their vision of how the film should unfold. It provides a solid foundation for further collaboration with the director, allowing them to assess the initial assembly and provide feedback or guidance on the creative direction.",
"title": "Post-production"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 25,
"text": "When shooting is finished, the director can then turn his or her full attention to collaborating with the editor and further refining the cut of the film. This is the time that is set aside where the film editor's first cut is molded to fit the director's vision. In the United States, under the rules of the Directors Guild of America, directors receive a minimum of ten weeks after completion of principal photography to prepare their first cut. While collaborating on what is referred to as the \"director's cut\", the director and the editor go over the entire movie in great detail; scenes and shots are re-ordered, removed, shortened and otherwise tweaked. Often it is discovered that there are plot holes, missing shots or even missing segments which might require that new scenes be filmed. Because of this time working closely and collaborating – a period that is normally far longer and more intricately detailed than the entire preceding film production – many directors and editors form a unique artistic bond. The goal is to align the film with the director's artistic vision and narrative objectives. The director's cut typically involves multiple iterations and discussions until both the director and editor are satisfied with the overall direction of the film.",
"title": "Post-production"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 26,
"text": "Often after the director has had their chance to oversee a cut, the subsequent cuts are supervised by one or more producers, who represent the production company or movie studio. There have been several conflicts in the past between the director and the studio, sometimes leading to the use of the \"Alan Smithee\" credit signifying when a director no longer wants to be associated with the final release. The final cut is the last stage of post-production editing and represents the definitive version of the film. It is the result of the collaborative efforts between the director, editor, and other key stakeholders. The final cut reflects the agreed-upon creative decisions and serves as the basis for distribution and exhibition.",
"title": "Post-production"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 27,
"text": "Mise en scene is the term used to describe all of the lighting, music, placement, costume design, and other elements of a shot. Film editing and Mise en scene go hand in hand with one another. A major part of film editing is the use of filters and adjusting the lighting in a shot. Film editing contributes to the mise en scene of a given shot. When shooting a film, you typically get shots from multiple angles. The angles at which you shoot from are all part of the film's mise en scene.",
"title": "Mise en Scene vs Editing"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 28,
"text": "In motion picture terminology, a montage (from the French for \"putting together\" or \"assembly\") is a film editing technique.",
"title": "Methods of montage"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 29,
"text": "There are at least three senses of the term:",
"title": "Methods of montage"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 30,
"text": "Although film director D. W. Griffith was not part of the montage school, he was one of the early proponents of the power of editing — mastering cross-cutting to show parallel action in different locations, and codifying film grammar in other ways as well. Griffith's work in the teens was highly regarded by Lev Kuleshov and other Soviet filmmakers and greatly influenced their understanding of editing.",
"title": "Methods of montage"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 31,
"text": "Kuleshov was among the first to theorize about the relatively young medium of the cinema in the 1920s. For him, the unique essence of the cinema — that which could be duplicated in no other medium — is editing. He argues that editing a film is like constructing a building. Brick-by-brick (shot-by-shot) the building (film) is erected. His often-cited Kuleshov Experiment established that montage can lead the viewer to reach certain conclusions about the action in a film. Montage works because viewers infer meaning based on context. Sergei Eisenstein was briefly a student of Kuleshov's, but the two parted ways because they had different ideas of montage. Eisenstein regarded montage as a dialectical means of creating meaning. By contrasting unrelated shots he tried to provoke associations in the viewer, which were induced by shocks. But Eisenstein did not always do his own editing, and some of his most important films were edited by Esfir Tobak.",
"title": "Methods of montage"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 32,
"text": "A montage sequence consists of a series of short shots that are edited into a sequence to condense narrative. It is usually used to advance the story as a whole (often to suggest the passage of time), rather than to create symbolic meaning. In many cases, a song plays in the background to enhance the mood or reinforce the message being conveyed. One famous example of montage was seen in the 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey, depicting the start of man's first development from apes to humans. Another example that is employed in many films is the sports montage. The sports montage shows the star athlete training over a period of time, each shot having more improvement than the last. Classic examples include Rocky and the Karate Kid.",
"title": "Methods of montage"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 33,
"text": "The word's association with Sergei Eisenstein is often condensed—too simply—into the idea of \"juxtaposition\" or into two words: \"collision montage,\" whereby two adjacent shots that oppose each other on formal parameters or on the content of their images are cut against each other to create a new meaning not contained in the respective shots: Shot a + Shot b = New Meaning c.",
"title": "Methods of montage"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 34,
"text": "The association of collision montage with Eisenstein is not surprising. He consistently maintained that the mind functions dialectically, in the Hegelian sense, that the contradiction between opposing ideas (thesis versus antithesis) is resolved by a higher truth, synthesis. He argued that conflict was the basis of all art, and never failed to see montage in other cultures. For example, he saw montage as a guiding principle in the construction of \"Japanese hieroglyphics in which two independent ideographic characters ('shots') are juxtaposed and explode into a concept. Thus:",
"title": "Methods of montage"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 35,
"text": "He also found montage in Japanese haiku, where short sense perceptions are juxtaposed and synthesized into a new meaning, as in this example:",
"title": "Methods of montage"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 36,
"text": "(枯朶に烏のとまりけり秋の暮)",
"title": "Methods of montage"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 37,
"text": "— Matsuo Basho",
"title": "Methods of montage"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 38,
"text": "As Dudley Andrew notes, \"The collision of attractions from line to line produces the unified psychological effect which is the hallmark of haiku and montage.\"",
"title": "Methods of montage"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 39,
"text": "Continuity editing, developed in the early 1900s, aimed to create a coherent and smooth storytelling experience in films. It relied on consistent graphic qualities, balanced composition, and controlled editing rhythms to ensure narrative continuity and engage the audience. For example, whether an actor's costume remains the same from one scene to the next, or whether a glass of milk held by a character is full or empty throughout the scene. Because films are typically shot out of sequence, the script supervisor will keep a record of continuity and provide that to the film editor for reference. The editor may try to maintain continuity of elements, or may intentionally create a discontinuous sequence for stylistic or narrative effect.",
"title": "Continuity editing and alternatives"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 40,
"text": "The technique of continuity editing, part of the classical Hollywood style, was developed by early European and American directors, in particular, D.W. Griffith in his films such as The Birth of a Nation and Intolerance. The classical style embraces temporal and spatial continuity as a way of advancing the narrative, using such techniques as the 180 degree rule, Establishing shot, and Shot reverse shot. The 180-degree system in film editing ensures consistency in shot composition by keeping relative positions of characters or objects in the frame consistent. It also maintains consistent eye-lines and screen direction to avoid disorientation and confusion for the audience, allowing for clear spatial delineation and a smooth narrative experience. Often, continuity editing means finding a balance between literal continuity and perceived continuity. For instance, editors may condense action across cuts in a non-distracting way. A character walking from one place to another may \"skip\" a section of floor from one side of a cut to the other, but the cut is constructed to appear continuous so as not to distract the viewer.",
"title": "Continuity editing and alternatives"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 41,
"text": "Early Russian filmmakers such as Lev Kuleshov (already mentioned) further explored and theorized about editing and its ideological nature. Sergei Eisenstein developed a system of editing that was unconcerned with the rules of the continuity system of classical Hollywood that he called Intellectual montage.",
"title": "Continuity editing and alternatives"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 42,
"text": "Alternatives to traditional editing were also explored by early surrealist and Dada filmmakers such as Luis Buñuel (director of the 1929 Un Chien Andalou) and René Clair (director of 1924's Entr'acte which starred famous Dada artists Marcel Duchamp and Man Ray).",
"title": "Continuity editing and alternatives"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 43,
"text": "Filmmakers have explored alternatives to continuity editing, focusing on graphic and rhythmic possibilities in their films. Experimental filmmakers like Stan Brakhage and Bruce Conner have used purely graphic elements to join shots, emphasizing light, texture, and shape rather than narrative coherence. Non-narrative films have prioritized rhythmic relations among shots, even employing single-frame shots for extreme rhythmic effects. Narrative filmmakers, such as Busby Berkeley and Yasujiro Ow, have occasionally subordinated narrative concerns to graphic or rhythmic patterns, while films influenced by music videos often feature pulsating rhythmic editing that de-emphasizes spatial and temporal dimensions.",
"title": "Continuity editing and alternatives"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 44,
"text": "The French New Wave filmmakers such as Jean-Luc Godard and François Truffaut and their American counterparts such as Andy Warhol and John Cassavetes also pushed the limits of editing technique during the late 1950s and throughout the 1960s. French New Wave films and the non-narrative films of the 1960s used a carefree editing style and did not conform to the traditional editing etiquette of Hollywood films. Like its Dada and surrealist predecessors, French New Wave editing often drew attention to itself by its lack of continuity, its demystifying self-reflexive nature (reminding the audience that they were watching a film), and by the overt use of jump cuts or the insertion of material not often related to any narrative. Three of the most influential editors of French New Wave films were the women who (in combination) edited 15 of Godard's films: Francoise Collin, Agnes Guillemot, and Cecile Decugis, and another notable editor is Marie-Josèphe Yoyotte, the first black woman editor in French cinema and editor of The 400 Blows.",
"title": "Continuity editing and alternatives"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 45,
"text": "Since the late 20th century Post-classical editing has seen faster editing styles with nonlinear, discontinuous action.",
"title": "Continuity editing and alternatives"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 46,
"text": "Vsevolod Pudovkin noted that the editing process is the one phase of production that is truly unique to motion pictures. Every other aspect of filmmaking originated in a different medium than film (photography, art direction, writing, sound recording), but editing is the one process that is unique to film. Filmmaker Stanley Kubrick was quoted as saying: \"I love editing. I think I like it more than any other phase of filmmaking. If I wanted to be frivolous, I might say that everything that precedes editing is merely a way of producing a film to edit.\" Film editing is significant because it shapes the narrative structure, visual and aesthetic impact, rhythm and pacing, emotional resonance, and overall storytelling of a film. Editors possess a unique creative power to manipulate and arrange shots, allowing them to craft a cinematic experience that engages, entertains, and emotionally connects with the audience. Film editing is a distinct art form within the filmmaking process, enabling filmmakers to realize their vision and bring stories to life on the screen.",
"title": "Significance"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 47,
"text": "According to writer-director Preston Sturges:",
"title": "Significance"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 48,
"text": "[T]here is a law of natural cutting and that this replicates what an audience in a legitimate theater does for itself. The more nearly the film cutter approaches this law of natural interest, the more invisible will be his cutting. If the camera moves from one person to another at the exact moment that one in the legitimate theatre would have turned his head, one will not be conscious of a cut. If the camera misses by a quarter of a second, one will get a jolt. There is one other requirement: the two shots must be approximate of the same tone value. If one cuts from black to white, it is jarring. At any given moment, the camera must point at the exact spot the audience wishes to look at. To find that spot is absurdly easy: one has only to remember where one was looking at the time the scene was made.",
"title": "Significance"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 49,
"text": "Assistant editors aid the editor and director in collecting and organizing all the elements needed to edit the film. The Motion Picture Editors Guild defines an assistant editor as \"a person who is assigned to assist an Editor. His or her duties shall be such as are assigned and performed under the immediate direction, supervision, and responsibility of the editor.\" When editing is finished, they oversee the various lists and instructions necessary to put the film into its final form. Editors of large budget features will usually have a team of assistants working for them. The first assistant editor is in charge of this team and may do a small bit of picture editing as well, if necessary. Assistant editors are responsible for collecting, organizing, and managing all the elements needed for the editing process. This includes footage, sound files, music tracks, visual effects assets, and other media assets. They ensure that everything is properly labeled, logged, and stored in an organized manner, making it easier for the editor to access and work with the materials efficiently. Assistant editors serve as a bridge between the editing team and other departments, facilitating communication and collaboration. They often work closely with the director, editor, visual effects artists, sound designers, and other post-production professionals, relaying information, managing deliverables, and coordinating schedules. Often assistant editors will perform temporary sound, music, and visual effects work. The other assistants will have set tasks, usually helping each other when necessary to complete the many time-sensitive tasks at hand. In addition, an apprentice editor may be on hand to help the assistants. An apprentice is usually someone who is learning the ropes of assisting.",
"title": "Assistant editors"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 50,
"text": "Television shows typically have one assistant per editor. This assistant is responsible for every task required to bring the show to the final form. Lower budget features and documentaries will also commonly have only one assistant. Higher budget films and shows tend to have more than one assistant editor, and in some cases, there can be a full team of assistants.",
"title": "Assistant editors"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 51,
"text": "The organizational aspects job could best be compared to database management. When a film is shot, every piece of picture or sound is coded with numbers and timecode. It is the assistant's job to keep track of these numbers in a database, which, in non-linear editing, is linked to the computer program. The editor and director cut the film using digital copies of the original film and sound, commonly referred to as an \"offline\" edit. When the cut is finished, it is the assistant's job to bring the film or television show \"online\". They create lists and instructions that tell the picture and sound finishers how to put the edit back together with the high-quality original elements. Assistant editing can be seen as a career path to eventually becoming an editor. Many assistants, however, do not choose to pursue advancement to the editor, and are very happy at the assistant level, working long and rewarding careers on many films and television shows.",
"title": "Assistant editors"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 52,
"text": "Notes",
"title": "References"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 53,
"text": "Bibliography",
"title": "References"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 54,
"text": "Further reading",
"title": "References"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 55,
"text": "Wikibooks",
"title": "External links"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 56,
"text": "Wikiversity",
"title": "External links"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 57,
"text": "",
"title": "External links"
}
] |
Film editing is both a creative and a technical part of the post-production process of filmmaking. The term is derived from the traditional process of working with film which increasingly involves the use of digital technology. When putting together some sort of video composition, typically, you would need a collection of shots and footages that vary from one another. The act of adjusting the shots you have already taken, and turning them into something new is known as film editing. The film editor works with raw footage, selecting shots and combining them into sequences which create a finished motion picture. Film editing is described as an art or skill, the only art that is unique to cinema, separating filmmaking from other art forms that preceded it, although there are close parallels to the editing process in other art forms such as poetry and novel writing. Film editing is an extremely important tool when attempting to intrigue a viewer. When done properly, a film's editing can captivate a viewer and fly completely under the radar. Because of this, film editing has been given the name “the invisible art.” On its most fundamental level, film editing is the art, technique and practice of assembling shots into a coherent sequence. The job of an editor is not simply to mechanically put pieces of a film together, cut off film slates or edit dialogue scenes. A film editor must creatively work with the layers of images, story, dialogue, music, pacing, as well as the actors' performances to effectively "re-imagine" and even rewrite the film to craft a cohesive whole. Editors usually play a dynamic role in the making of a film. An editor must select only the most quality shots, removing all unnecessary frames to ensure the shot is clean. Sometimes, auteurist film directors edit their own films, for example, Akira Kurosawa, Bahram Beyzai, Steven Soderbergh, and the Coen brothers. According to “Film Art, An Introduction”, by Bordwell and Thompson, there are four basic areas of film editing that the editor has full control over. The first dimension is the graphic relations between a shot A and shot B. The shots are analyzed in terms of their graphic configurations, including light and dark, lines and shapes, volumes and depths, movement and stasis. The director makes deliberate choices regarding the composition, lighting, color, and movement within each shot, as well as the transitions between them. There are several techniques used by editors to establish graphic relations between shots. These include maintaining overall brightness consistency, keeping important elements in the center of the frame, playing with color differences, and creating visual matches or continuities between shots. The second dimension is the rhythmic relationship between shot A and shot B. The duration of each shot, determined by the number of frames or length of film, contributes to the overall rhythm of the film. The filmmaker has control over the editing rhythm by adjusting the length of shots in relation to each other. Shot duration can be used to create specific effects and emphasize moments in the film. For example, a brief flash of white frames can convey a sudden impact or a violent moment. On the other hand, lengthening or adding seconds to a shot can allow for audience reaction or to accentuate an action. The length of shots can also be used to establish a rhythmic pattern, such as creating a steady beat or gradually slowing down or accelerating the tempo. The third dimension is the spatial relationship between shot A and shot B. Editing allows the filmmaker to construct film space and imply a relationship between different points in space. The filmmaker can juxtapose shots to establish spatial holes or construct a whole space out of component parts. For example, the filmmaker can start with a shot that establishes a spatial hole and then follow it with a shot of a part of that space, creating an analytical breakdown. The final dimension that an editor has control over is the temporal relation between shot A and shot B. Editing plays a crucial role in manipulating the time of action in a film. It allows filmmakers to control the order, duration, and frequency of events, thus shaping the narrative and influencing the audience's perception of time. Through editing, shots can be rearranged, flashbacks and flash-forwards can be employed, and the duration of actions can be compressed or expanded. The main point is that editing gives filmmakers the power to control and manipulate the temporal aspects of storytelling in film. Between graphic, rhythmic, spatial, and temporal relationships between two shots, an editor has various ways to add a creative element to the film, and enhance the overall viewing experience. With the advent of digital editing in non-linear editing systems, film editors and their assistants have become responsible for many areas of filmmaking that used to be the responsibility of others. For instance, in past years, picture editors dealt only with just that—picture. Sound, music, and visual effects editors dealt with the practicalities of other aspects of the editing process, usually under the direction of the picture editor and director. However, digital systems have increasingly put these responsibilities on the picture editor. It is common, especially on lower budget films, for the editor to sometimes cut in temporary music, mock up visual effects and add temporary sound effects or other sound replacements. These temporary elements are usually replaced with more refined final elements produced by the sound, music and visual effects teams hired to complete the picture. The importance of an editor has become increasingly pivotal to the quality and success of a film due to the multiple roles that have been added to their job.
|
2001-09-08T17:42:49Z
|
2023-09-07T07:36:15Z
|
[
"Template:Cite web",
"Template:Film editing",
"Template:Citation needed",
"Template:Main",
"Template:See also",
"Template:Unreferenced section",
"Template:Div col end",
"Template:Cinematic techniques",
"Template:Film crew",
"Template:Multiple issues",
"Template:Use dmy dates",
"Template:Reflist",
"Template:Cite book",
"Template:Cite sturges",
"Template:Filmmaking sidebar",
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"Template:Authority control",
"Template:Short description",
"Template:Multiple image",
"Template:Div col",
"Template:ISBN",
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film_editing
|
10,776 |
Freestyle
|
Freestyle may refer to:
|
[
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "Freestyle may refer to:",
"title": ""
}
] |
Freestyle may refer to:
|
2001-05-26T07:29:47Z
|
2023-09-13T23:30:15Z
|
[
"Template:Wiktionary",
"Template:TOC right",
"Template:Disambiguation"
] |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freestyle
|
10,777 |
Friedrich Wöhler
|
Friedrich Wöhler (German: [ˈvøːlɐ]) FRS(For) HonFRSE (31 July 1800 – 23 September 1882) was a German chemist known for his work in both organic and inorganic chemistry, being the first to isolate the chemical elements beryllium and yttrium in pure metallic form. He was the first to prepare several inorganic compounds, including silane and silicon nitride.
Wöhler is also known for seminal contributions in organic chemistry, in particular, the Wöhler synthesis of urea. His synthesis of the organic compound urea in the laboratory from inorganic substances contradicted the belief that organic compounds could only be produced by living organisms due to a "life force". However, the exact extent of Wöhler's role in diminishing the belief in vitalism is considered by some to be questionable.
Friedrich Wöhler was born in Eschersheim, Germany, and was the son of a veterinarian. As a boy, he showed interest in mineral collecting, drawing, and science. His secondary education was at the Frankfurt Gymnasium. During his time at the gymnasium, Wöhler began chemical experimentation in a home laboratory provided by his father. He began his higher education at Marburg University in 1820.
On 2 September 1823, Wöhler passed his examinations as a Doctor of Medicine, Surgery, and Obstetrics at Heidelberg University, having studied in the laboratory of chemist Leopold Gmelin. Gmelin encouraged him to focus on chemistry and arranged for Wöhler to conduct research under the direction of chemist Jacob Berzelius in Stockholm, Sweden. Wöhler's time in Stockholm with Berzelius marked the beginning of a long personal and professional relationship between the two scientists. Wöhler translated many of Berzelius's scientific writings into German for international publication. In his lifetime, Wöhler wrote about 275 books, editions, and papers.
From 1826 to 1831, Wöhler taught chemistry at the Polytechnic School in Berlin. From 1831 until 1836, he taught at the Polytechnic School at Kassel. In the spring of 1836, Wöhler became Friedrich Stromeyer's successor as an Ordinary Professor of Chemistry at the University of Göttingen, where he occupied the chair of chemistry for 46 years, until his death in 1882. During his time at Göttingen approximately 8000 research students were trained in his laboratory. In 1834, he was elected a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.
Wöhler investigated more than twenty‐five chemical elements during his career. Hans Christian Ørsted was the first to separate the element aluminium in 1825, using a reduction of aluminium chloride with a potassium amalgam. Although Ørsted published his findings on the isolation of aluminium in the form of small particles, no other investigators successfully replicated his findings until 1936. Ørsted is now credited with discovering aluminium. Ørsted's findings on aluminium preparation were developed further by Wöhler, with Ørsted's permission. Wöhler modified Ørsted's methods, substituting potassium metal for potassium amalgam for the reduction of aluminium chloride. Using this improved method, Wöhler isolated aluminium powder in pure form on 22 October 1827. He showed that the aluminium powder could convert to solid balls of pure metallic aluminium in 1845. For this work, Wöhler is credited with the first isolation of aluminium metal in pure form.
In 1828 Wöhler was the first to isolate the element beryllium in pure metallic form (also independently isolated by Antoine Bussy). In the same year, he became the first to isolate the element yttrium in pure metallic form. He achieved these preparations by heating the anhydrous chlorides of beryllium and yttrium with potassium metal.
In 1850, Wöhler determined that what was believed until then to be metallic titanium was a mixture of titanium, carbon, and nitrogen, from which he derived the purest form isolated to that time. (Elemental titanium was later isolated in completely pure form in 1910 by Matthew A. Hunter.) He also developed a chemical synthesis of calcium carbide and silicon nitride.
Wöhler, working with French chemist Sainte Claire Deville, isolated the element boron in a crystalline form. He also isolated the element silicon in a crystalline form. Crystalline forms of these two elements were previously unknown. In 1856, working with Heinrich Buff, Wöhler prepared the inorganic compound silane (SiH4). He prepared the first samples of boron nitride by melting together boric acid and potassium cyanide. He also developed a method for the preparation of calcium carbide.
Wöhler had an interest in the chemical composition of meteorites. He showed that some meteoric stones contain organic matter. He analyzed meteorites, and for many years wrote the digest on the literature of meteorites in the Jahresberichte über die Fortschritte der Chemie. Wöhler accumulated the best private collection of meteoric stones and irons that existed.
In 1832, lacking his own laboratory facilities at Kassel, Wöhler worked with Justus Liebig in his Giessen laboratory. In that year, Wöhler and Liebig published an investigation of the oil of bitter almonds. Through their detailed analysis of the chemical composition of this oil, they proved by their experiments that a group of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen atoms can behave chemically as if it were the equivalent of a single atom, take the place of an atom in a chemical compound, and be exchanged for other atoms in chemical compounds. Specifically, their research on the oil of bitter almonds showed that a group of elements with the chemical composition C7H5O can be thought of as a single functional group, which came to be known as a benzoyl radical. In this way, the investigations of Wöhler and Liebig established a new concept in organic chemistry referred to as compound radicals, which had a profound influence on the development of organic chemistry. Many more functional groups were later identified by subsequent investigators with wide utility in chemistry.
Liebig and Wöhler explored the concept of chemical isomerism, the idea that two chemical compounds with identical chemical compositions could be different substances because of different arrangements of the atoms in the chemical structure. Aspects of chemical isomerism originated in the research of Berzelius. Liebig and Wöhler investigated silver fulminate and silver cyanate. These two compounds have the same chemical composition yet are chemically different. Silver fulminate is explosive, while silver cyanate is a stable compound. Liebig and Wöhler recognized these as examples of structural isomerism, which was a significant advance in understanding chemical isomerism.
Wöhler has also been regarded as a pioneering researcher in organic chemistry as a result of his 1828 demonstration of the laboratory synthesis of urea from ammonium cyanate, in a chemical reaction that came to be known as the "Wöhler synthesis". Urea and ammonium cyanate are further examples of structural isomers of chemical compounds. Heating ammonium cyanate converts it into urea, which is its isomer. In a letter to Swedish chemist Jöns Jacob Berzelius the same year, he wrote, 'In a manner of speaking, I can no longer hold my chemical water. I must tell you that I can make urea without the use of kidneys of any animal, be it man or dog.'
Wöhler's demonstration of urea synthesis has become regarded as a refutation of vitalism, the hypothesis that living things are alive because of some special "vital force". It was the beginning of the end for one popular vitalist hypothesis, the idea that "organic" compounds could be made only by living things. In responding to Wöhler, Jöns Jakob Berzelius acknowledged that Wöhler's results were highly significant for the understanding of organic chemistry, calling the findings a "jewel" for Wöhler's "laurel wreath". Both scientists also recognized the work's importance to the study of isomerism, a new area of research.
Wöhler's role in overturning vitalism is said to have become exaggerated over time. This tendency can be traced back to Hermann Kopp's History of Chemistry (in four volumes, 1843–1847). He emphasized the importance of Wöhler's research as a refutation of vitalism but ignored its importance in understanding chemical isomerism, setting a tone for subsequent writers. The notion that Wöhler single-handedly overturned vitalism also gained popularity after it appeared in a popular history of chemistry published in 1931, which, "ignoring all pretense of historical accuracy, turned Wöhler into a crusader".
Contrary to what was thought in Wöhler's time, cyanate is not a purely inorganic anion, as it is formed in various metabolic pathways. Thus the conversion of ammonium cyanate into urea was not an example of production of an organic compound from an inorganic precursor.
Once Wöhler became a professor at the University of Göttingen, students traveled from around the world to be instructed by him. Wöhler saw particular success in his students after giving them hands-on experience in the lab. This practice was later adopted around the world, becoming the chemistry lab co-requisite that is required at most universities today.
Wöhler also allowed his students to participate and aid him in his research, which was not typical at the time. This practice became nearly universal, normalizing the undergraduate and graduate-level research that is a requirement for numerous degrees today.
Wöhler's discoveries had a significant influence on the theoretical basis of chemistry. The journals of every year from 1820 to 1881 contain his original scientific contributions. The Scientific American supplement for 1882 stated that "for two or three of his researches he deserves the highest honor a scientific man can obtain, but the sum of his work is overwhelming. Had he never lived, the aspect of chemistry would be very different from that it is now".
Wöhler's notable research students included chemists Georg Ludwig Carius, Heinrich Limpricht, Rudolph Fittig, Adolph Wilhelm Hermann Kolbe, Albert Niemann, Vojtěch Šafařík, Wilhelm Kühne, and Augustus Voelcker.
Wöhler was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of London in 1854. He was an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. In 1862, Wöhler was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society.
The Life and Work of Friedrich Wöhler (1800–1882) (2005) by Robin Keen is considered to be "the first detailed scientific biography" of Wöhler.
On the 100th anniversary of Wöhler's death, the West German government issued a stamp depicting the structure of urea with its synthesis formula listed directly below.
Wöhler's first marriage was in 1828, to his cousin Franziska Maria Wöhler (1811–1832). The couple had two children, a son (August) and a daughter (Sophie). After Franziska's death, he married Julie Pfeiffer (1813–1886) in 1834, with whom he had four daughters: Fanny, Helene, Emilie, and Pauline.
Further works from Wöhler:
|
[
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "Friedrich Wöhler (German: [ˈvøːlɐ]) FRS(For) HonFRSE (31 July 1800 – 23 September 1882) was a German chemist known for his work in both organic and inorganic chemistry, being the first to isolate the chemical elements beryllium and yttrium in pure metallic form. He was the first to prepare several inorganic compounds, including silane and silicon nitride.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "Wöhler is also known for seminal contributions in organic chemistry, in particular, the Wöhler synthesis of urea. His synthesis of the organic compound urea in the laboratory from inorganic substances contradicted the belief that organic compounds could only be produced by living organisms due to a \"life force\". However, the exact extent of Wöhler's role in diminishing the belief in vitalism is considered by some to be questionable.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "Friedrich Wöhler was born in Eschersheim, Germany, and was the son of a veterinarian. As a boy, he showed interest in mineral collecting, drawing, and science. His secondary education was at the Frankfurt Gymnasium. During his time at the gymnasium, Wöhler began chemical experimentation in a home laboratory provided by his father. He began his higher education at Marburg University in 1820.",
"title": "Biography"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "On 2 September 1823, Wöhler passed his examinations as a Doctor of Medicine, Surgery, and Obstetrics at Heidelberg University, having studied in the laboratory of chemist Leopold Gmelin. Gmelin encouraged him to focus on chemistry and arranged for Wöhler to conduct research under the direction of chemist Jacob Berzelius in Stockholm, Sweden. Wöhler's time in Stockholm with Berzelius marked the beginning of a long personal and professional relationship between the two scientists. Wöhler translated many of Berzelius's scientific writings into German for international publication. In his lifetime, Wöhler wrote about 275 books, editions, and papers.",
"title": "Biography"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "From 1826 to 1831, Wöhler taught chemistry at the Polytechnic School in Berlin. From 1831 until 1836, he taught at the Polytechnic School at Kassel. In the spring of 1836, Wöhler became Friedrich Stromeyer's successor as an Ordinary Professor of Chemistry at the University of Göttingen, where he occupied the chair of chemistry for 46 years, until his death in 1882. During his time at Göttingen approximately 8000 research students were trained in his laboratory. In 1834, he was elected a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.",
"title": "Biography"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "Wöhler investigated more than twenty‐five chemical elements during his career. Hans Christian Ørsted was the first to separate the element aluminium in 1825, using a reduction of aluminium chloride with a potassium amalgam. Although Ørsted published his findings on the isolation of aluminium in the form of small particles, no other investigators successfully replicated his findings until 1936. Ørsted is now credited with discovering aluminium. Ørsted's findings on aluminium preparation were developed further by Wöhler, with Ørsted's permission. Wöhler modified Ørsted's methods, substituting potassium metal for potassium amalgam for the reduction of aluminium chloride. Using this improved method, Wöhler isolated aluminium powder in pure form on 22 October 1827. He showed that the aluminium powder could convert to solid balls of pure metallic aluminium in 1845. For this work, Wöhler is credited with the first isolation of aluminium metal in pure form.",
"title": "Contributions to chemistry"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "In 1828 Wöhler was the first to isolate the element beryllium in pure metallic form (also independently isolated by Antoine Bussy). In the same year, he became the first to isolate the element yttrium in pure metallic form. He achieved these preparations by heating the anhydrous chlorides of beryllium and yttrium with potassium metal.",
"title": "Contributions to chemistry"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "In 1850, Wöhler determined that what was believed until then to be metallic titanium was a mixture of titanium, carbon, and nitrogen, from which he derived the purest form isolated to that time. (Elemental titanium was later isolated in completely pure form in 1910 by Matthew A. Hunter.) He also developed a chemical synthesis of calcium carbide and silicon nitride.",
"title": "Contributions to chemistry"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "Wöhler, working with French chemist Sainte Claire Deville, isolated the element boron in a crystalline form. He also isolated the element silicon in a crystalline form. Crystalline forms of these two elements were previously unknown. In 1856, working with Heinrich Buff, Wöhler prepared the inorganic compound silane (SiH4). He prepared the first samples of boron nitride by melting together boric acid and potassium cyanide. He also developed a method for the preparation of calcium carbide.",
"title": "Contributions to chemistry"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "Wöhler had an interest in the chemical composition of meteorites. He showed that some meteoric stones contain organic matter. He analyzed meteorites, and for many years wrote the digest on the literature of meteorites in the Jahresberichte über die Fortschritte der Chemie. Wöhler accumulated the best private collection of meteoric stones and irons that existed.",
"title": "Contributions to chemistry"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "In 1832, lacking his own laboratory facilities at Kassel, Wöhler worked with Justus Liebig in his Giessen laboratory. In that year, Wöhler and Liebig published an investigation of the oil of bitter almonds. Through their detailed analysis of the chemical composition of this oil, they proved by their experiments that a group of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen atoms can behave chemically as if it were the equivalent of a single atom, take the place of an atom in a chemical compound, and be exchanged for other atoms in chemical compounds. Specifically, their research on the oil of bitter almonds showed that a group of elements with the chemical composition C7H5O can be thought of as a single functional group, which came to be known as a benzoyl radical. In this way, the investigations of Wöhler and Liebig established a new concept in organic chemistry referred to as compound radicals, which had a profound influence on the development of organic chemistry. Many more functional groups were later identified by subsequent investigators with wide utility in chemistry.",
"title": "Contributions to chemistry"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "Liebig and Wöhler explored the concept of chemical isomerism, the idea that two chemical compounds with identical chemical compositions could be different substances because of different arrangements of the atoms in the chemical structure. Aspects of chemical isomerism originated in the research of Berzelius. Liebig and Wöhler investigated silver fulminate and silver cyanate. These two compounds have the same chemical composition yet are chemically different. Silver fulminate is explosive, while silver cyanate is a stable compound. Liebig and Wöhler recognized these as examples of structural isomerism, which was a significant advance in understanding chemical isomerism.",
"title": "Contributions to chemistry"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "Wöhler has also been regarded as a pioneering researcher in organic chemistry as a result of his 1828 demonstration of the laboratory synthesis of urea from ammonium cyanate, in a chemical reaction that came to be known as the \"Wöhler synthesis\". Urea and ammonium cyanate are further examples of structural isomers of chemical compounds. Heating ammonium cyanate converts it into urea, which is its isomer. In a letter to Swedish chemist Jöns Jacob Berzelius the same year, he wrote, 'In a manner of speaking, I can no longer hold my chemical water. I must tell you that I can make urea without the use of kidneys of any animal, be it man or dog.'",
"title": "Contributions to chemistry"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "Wöhler's demonstration of urea synthesis has become regarded as a refutation of vitalism, the hypothesis that living things are alive because of some special \"vital force\". It was the beginning of the end for one popular vitalist hypothesis, the idea that \"organic\" compounds could be made only by living things. In responding to Wöhler, Jöns Jakob Berzelius acknowledged that Wöhler's results were highly significant for the understanding of organic chemistry, calling the findings a \"jewel\" for Wöhler's \"laurel wreath\". Both scientists also recognized the work's importance to the study of isomerism, a new area of research.",
"title": "Contributions to chemistry"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "Wöhler's role in overturning vitalism is said to have become exaggerated over time. This tendency can be traced back to Hermann Kopp's History of Chemistry (in four volumes, 1843–1847). He emphasized the importance of Wöhler's research as a refutation of vitalism but ignored its importance in understanding chemical isomerism, setting a tone for subsequent writers. The notion that Wöhler single-handedly overturned vitalism also gained popularity after it appeared in a popular history of chemistry published in 1931, which, \"ignoring all pretense of historical accuracy, turned Wöhler into a crusader\".",
"title": "Contributions to chemistry"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 15,
"text": "Contrary to what was thought in Wöhler's time, cyanate is not a purely inorganic anion, as it is formed in various metabolic pathways. Thus the conversion of ammonium cyanate into urea was not an example of production of an organic compound from an inorganic precursor.",
"title": "Contributions to chemistry"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 16,
"text": "Once Wöhler became a professor at the University of Göttingen, students traveled from around the world to be instructed by him. Wöhler saw particular success in his students after giving them hands-on experience in the lab. This practice was later adopted around the world, becoming the chemistry lab co-requisite that is required at most universities today.",
"title": "Education Reform"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 17,
"text": "Wöhler also allowed his students to participate and aid him in his research, which was not typical at the time. This practice became nearly universal, normalizing the undergraduate and graduate-level research that is a requirement for numerous degrees today.",
"title": "Education Reform"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 18,
"text": "Wöhler's discoveries had a significant influence on the theoretical basis of chemistry. The journals of every year from 1820 to 1881 contain his original scientific contributions. The Scientific American supplement for 1882 stated that \"for two or three of his researches he deserves the highest honor a scientific man can obtain, but the sum of his work is overwhelming. Had he never lived, the aspect of chemistry would be very different from that it is now\".",
"title": "Final days and legacy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 19,
"text": "Wöhler's notable research students included chemists Georg Ludwig Carius, Heinrich Limpricht, Rudolph Fittig, Adolph Wilhelm Hermann Kolbe, Albert Niemann, Vojtěch Šafařík, Wilhelm Kühne, and Augustus Voelcker.",
"title": "Final days and legacy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 20,
"text": "Wöhler was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of London in 1854. He was an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. In 1862, Wöhler was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society.",
"title": "Final days and legacy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 21,
"text": "The Life and Work of Friedrich Wöhler (1800–1882) (2005) by Robin Keen is considered to be \"the first detailed scientific biography\" of Wöhler.",
"title": "Final days and legacy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 22,
"text": "On the 100th anniversary of Wöhler's death, the West German government issued a stamp depicting the structure of urea with its synthesis formula listed directly below.",
"title": "Final days and legacy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 23,
"text": "Wöhler's first marriage was in 1828, to his cousin Franziska Maria Wöhler (1811–1832). The couple had two children, a son (August) and a daughter (Sophie). After Franziska's death, he married Julie Pfeiffer (1813–1886) in 1834, with whom he had four daughters: Fanny, Helene, Emilie, and Pauline.",
"title": "Family"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 24,
"text": "Further works from Wöhler:",
"title": "Further works"
}
] |
Friedrich Wöhler FRS(For) HonFRSE was a German chemist known for his work in both organic and inorganic chemistry, being the first to isolate the chemical elements beryllium and yttrium in pure metallic form. He was the first to prepare several inorganic compounds, including silane and silicon nitride. Wöhler is also known for seminal contributions in organic chemistry, in particular, the Wöhler synthesis of urea. His synthesis of the organic compound urea in the laboratory from inorganic substances contradicted the belief that organic compounds could only be produced by living organisms due to a "life force". However, the exact extent of Wöhler's role in diminishing the belief in vitalism is considered by some to be questionable.
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2001-05-17T09:52:42Z
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2023-11-12T15:20:47Z
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedrich_W%C3%B6hler
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Funk
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Funk is a music genre that originated in African American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African-Americans in the mid-20th century. It deemphasizes melody and chord progressions and focuses on a strong rhythmic groove of a bassline played by an electric bassist and a drum part played by a percussionist, often at slower tempos than other popular music. Funk typically consists of a complex percussive groove with rhythm instruments playing interlocking grooves that create a "hypnotic" and "danceable" feel. It uses the same richly colored extended chords found in bebop jazz, such as minor chords with added sevenths and elevenths, and dominant seventh chords with altered ninths and thirteenths.
Funk originated in the mid-1960s, with James Brown's development of a signature groove that emphasized the downbeat—with a heavy emphasis on the first beat of every measure ("The One"), and the application of swung 16th notes and syncopation on all basslines, drum patterns, and guitar riffs. Rock- and psychedelia-influenced musicians Sly and the Family Stone and Parliament-Funkadelic fostered more eclectic examples of the genre beginning in the late 1960s. Other musical groups developed Brown's innovations during the 1970s and the 1980s, including Kool and the Gang, Ohio Players, Fatback Band, Jimmy Castor Bunch, Earth, Wind & Fire, B.T. Express, Shalamar, One Way, Lakeside, Dazz Band, The Gap Band, Slave, Aurra, Roger Troutman & Zapp, Con Funk Shun, Cameo, Bar-Kays and Chic.
Funk derivatives include avant-funk, an avant-garde strain of funk; boogie, a hybrid of electronic music and funk; funk metal; G-funk, a mix of gangsta rap and psychedelic funk; Timba, a form of funky Cuban dance music; and funk jam. It is also the main influence of Washington go-go, a funk subgenre. Funk samples and breakbeats have been used extensively in hip hop and electronic dance music.
The word funk initially referred (and still refers) to a strong odor. It is originally derived from Latin "fumigare" (which means "to smoke") via Old French "fungiere" and, in this sense, it was first documented in English in 1620. In 1784, "funky" meaning "musty" was first documented, which, in turn, led to a sense of "earthy" that was taken up around 1900 in early jazz slang for something "deeply or strongly felt". Even though in white culture, the term "funk" can have negative connotations of odor or being in a bad mood ("in a funk"), in African communities, the term "funk", while still linked to body odor, had the positive sense that a musician's hard-working, honest effort led to sweat, and from their "physical exertion" came an "exquisite" and "superlative" performance.
In early jam sessions, musicians would encourage one another to "get down" by telling one another, "Now, put some stank on it!" At least as early as 1907, jazz songs carried titles such as Funky. The first example is an unrecorded number by Buddy Bolden, remembered as either "Funky Butt" or "Buddy Bolden's Blues" with improvised lyrics that were, according to Donald M. Marquis, either "comical and light" or "crude and downright obscene" but, in one way or another, referring to the sweaty atmosphere at dances where Bolden's band played. As late as the 1950s and early 1960s, when "funk" and "funky" were used increasingly in the context of jazz music, the terms still were considered indelicate and inappropriate for use in polite company. According to one source, New Orleans-born drummer Earl Palmer "was the first to use the word 'funky' to explain to other musicians that their music should be made more syncopated and danceable." The style later evolved into a rather hard-driving, insistent rhythm, implying a more carnal quality. This early form of the music set the pattern for later musicians. The music was identified as slow, sexy, loose, riff-oriented and danceable.
The meaning of "funk" continues to captivate the genre of black music, feeling, and knowledge. Recent scholarship in black studies has taken the term "funk" in its many iterations to consider the range of black movement and culture. In particular, L.H. Stallings's Funk the Erotic: Transaesthetics and Black Sexual Cultures explores these multiple meanings of "funk" as a way to theorize sexuality, culture, and western hegemony within the many locations of "funk": "street parties, drama/theater, strippers and strip clubs, pornography, and self-published fiction."
Like soul, funk is based on dance music, so it has a strong "rhythmic role". The sound of funk is as much based on the "spaces between the notes" as the notes that are played; as such, rests between notes are important. While there are rhythmic similarities between funk and disco, funk has a "central dance beat that's slower, sexier and more syncopated than disco", and funk rhythm section musicians add more "subtextures", complexity and "personality" onto the main beat than a programmed synth-based disco ensemble.
Before funk, most pop music was based on sequences of eighth notes, because the fast tempos made further subdivisions of the beat infeasible. The innovation of funk was that by using slower tempos (surely influenced by the revival of blues at early 60s), funk "created space for further rhythmic subdivision, so a bar of 4/4 could now accommodate possible 16 note placements." Specifically, by having the guitar and drums play in "motoring" sixteenth-note rhythms, it created the opportunity for the other instruments to play "more syncopated, broken-up style", which facilitated a move to more "liberated" basslines. Together, these "interlocking parts" created a "hypnotic" and "danceable feel".
A great deal of funk is rhythmically based on a two-celled onbeat/offbeat structure, which originated in sub-Saharan African music traditions. New Orleans appropriated the bifurcated structure from the Afro-Cuban mambo and conga in the late 1940s, and made it its own. New Orleans funk, as it was called, gained international acclaim largely because James Brown's rhythm section used it to great effect.
Funk uses the same richly colored extended chords found in bebop jazz, such as minor chords with added sevenths and elevenths, or dominant seventh chords with altered ninths. Some examples of chords used in funk are minor eleventh chords (e.g., F minor 11th); dominant seventh with added sharp ninth and a suspended fourth (e.g., C7 (#9) sus 4); dominant ninth chords (e.g., F9); and minor sixth chords (e.g., C minor 6). The six-ninth chord is used in funk (e.g., F 6/9); it is a major chord with an added sixth and ninth. In funk, minor seventh chords are more common than minor triads because minor triads were found to be too thin-sounding. Some of the best known and most skillful soloists in funk have jazz backgrounds. Trombonist Fred Wesley and saxophonists Pee Wee Ellis and Maceo Parker are among the most notable musicians in the funk music genre, having worked with James Brown, George Clinton and Prince.
Unlike bebop jazz, with its complex, rapid-fire chord changes, funk virtually abandoned chord changes, creating static single chord vamps (often alternating a minor seventh chord and a related dominant seventh chord, such as A minor to D7) with melodo-harmonic movement and a complex, driving rhythmic feel. Even though some funk songs are mainly one-chord vamps, the rhythm section musicians may embellish this chord by moving it up or down a semitone or a tone to create chromatic passing chords. For example, "Play That Funky Music" (by Wild Cherry) mainly uses an E ninth chord, but it also uses F#9 and F9.
The chords used in funk songs typically imply a Dorian or Mixolydian mode, as opposed to the major or natural minor tonalities of most popular music. Melodic content was derived by mixing these modes with the blues scale. In the 1970s, jazz music drew upon funk to create a new subgenre of jazz-funk, which can be heard in recordings by Miles Davis (Live-Evil, On the Corner), and Herbie Hancock (Head Hunters).
Funk continues the African musical tradition of improvisation, in that in a funk band, the group would typically "feel" when to change, by "jamming" and "grooving", even in the studio recording stage, which might only be based on the skeleton framework for each song. Funk uses "collective improvisation", in which musicians at rehearsals would have what was metaphorically a musical "conversation", an approach which extended to the onstage performances.
Funk creates an intense groove by using strong guitar riffs and basslines played on electric bass. Like Motown recordings, funk songs use basslines as the centerpiece of songs. Indeed, funk has been called the style in which the bassline is most prominent in the songs, with the bass playing the "hook" of the song. Early funk basslines used syncopation (typically syncopated eighth notes), but with the addition of more of a "driving feel" than in New Orleans funk, and they used blues scale notes along with the major third above the root. Later funk basslines use sixteenth note syncopation, blues scales, and repetitive patterns, often with leaps of an octave or a larger interval.
Funk basslines emphasize repetitive patterns, locked-in grooves, continuous playing, and slap and popping bass. Slapping and popping uses a mixture of thumb-slapped low notes (also called "thumped") and finger "popped" (or plucked) high notes, allowing the bass to have a drum-like rhythmic role, which became a distinctive element of funk. Notable slap and funky players include Bernard Edwards (Chic), Robert "Kool" Bell, Mark Adams (Slave), Johnny Flippin (Fatback) and Bootsy Collins. While slap and funky is important, some influential bassists who play funk, such as Rocco Prestia (from Tower of Power), did not use the approach, and instead used a typical fingerstyle method based on James Jamerson's Motown playing style. Larry Graham from Sly and the Family Stone is an influential bassist.
Funk bass has an "earthy, percussive kind of feel", in part due to the use of muted, rhythmic ghost notes (also called "dead notes"). Some funk bass players use electronic effects units to alter the tone of their instrument, such as "envelope filters" (an auto-wah effect that creates a "gooey, slurpy, quacky, and syrupy" sound) and imitate keyboard synthesizer bass tones (e.g., the Mutron envelope filter) and overdriven fuzz bass effects, which are used to create the "classic fuzz tone that sounds like old school Funk records". Other effects that are used include the flanger and bass chorus. Collins also used a Mu-Tron Octave Divider, an octave pedal that, like the Octavia pedal popularized by Hendrix, can double a note an octave above and below to create a "futuristic and fat low-end sound".
Funk drumming creates a groove by emphasizing the drummer's "feel and emotion", which including "occasional tempo fluctuations", the use of swing feel in some songs (e.g., "Cissy Strut" by The Meters and "I'll Take You There" by The Staple Singers, which have a half-swung feel), and less use of fills (as they can lessen the groove). Drum fills are "few and economical", to ensure that the drumming stays "in the pocket", with a steady tempo and groove. These playing techniques are supplemented by a set-up for the drum kit that often includes muffled bass drums and toms and tightly tuned snare drums. Double bass drumming sounds are often done by funk drummers with a single pedal, an approach which "accents the second note... [and] deadens the drumhead's resonance", which gives a short, muffled bass drum sound.
James Brown used two drummers such as Clyde Stubblefield and John 'Jabo' Starks in recording and soul shows. By using two drummers, the JB band was able to maintain a "solid syncopated" rhythmic sound, which contributed to the band's distinctive "Funky Drummer" rhythm.
In Tower of Power drummer David Garibaldi's playing, there are many ghost notes and rim shots. A key part of the funk drumming style is using the hi-hat, with opening and closing the hi-hats during playing (to create "splash" accent effects) being an important approach. Two-handed sixteenth notes on the hi-hats, sometimes with a degree of swing feel, is used in funk.
Jim Payne states that funk drumming uses a "wide-open" approach to improvisation around rhythmic ideas from Latin music, ostinatos, that are repeated "with only slight variations", an approach which he says causes the "mesmerizing" nature of funk. Payne states that funk can be thought of as "rock played in a more syncopated manner", particularly with the bass drum, which plays syncopated eighth-note and sixteenth-note patterns that were innovated by drummer Clive Williams (with Joe Tex); George Brown (with Kool & the Gang) and James "Diamond" Williams (with The Ohio Players). As with rock, the snare provides backbeats in most funk (albeit with additional soft ghost notes).
In funk, guitarists often mix playing chords of a short duration (nicknamed "stabs") with faster rhythms and riffs. Guitarists playing rhythmic parts often play sixteenth notes, including with percussive ghost notes. Chord extensions are favored, such as ninth chords. Typically, funk uses "two interlocking [electric] guitar parts", with a rhythm guitarist and a "tenor guitarist" who plays single notes. The two guitarists trade off their lines to create a "call-and-response, intertwined pocket." If a band only has one guitarist, this effect may be recreated by overdubbing in the studio, or, in a live show, by having a single guitarist play both parts, to the degree that this is possible.
In funk bands, guitarists typically play in a percussive style, using a style of picking called the "chank" or "chicken scratch", in which the guitar strings are pressed lightly against the fingerboard and then quickly released just enough to get a muted "scratching" sound that is produced by rapid rhythmic strumming of the opposite hand near the bridge. Earliest examples of that technic used on rhythm and blues is listened on Johnny Otis song "Willie and the Hand Jive" in 1957, with the future James Brown band guitar player Jimmy Nolen. The technique can be broken down into three approaches: the "chika", the "chank" and the "choke". With the "chika" comes a muted sound of strings being hit against the fingerboard; "chank" is a staccato attack done by releasing the chord with the fretting hand after strumming it; and "choking" generally uses all the strings being strummed and heavily muted.
The result of these factors was a rhythm guitar sound that seemed to float somewhere between the low-end thump of the electric bass and the cutting tone of the snare and hi-hats, with a rhythmically melodic feel that fell deep in the pocket. Guitarist Jimmy Nolen, longtime guitarist for James Brown, developed this technique. On Brown's "Give It Up or Turnit a Loose" (1969), however, Jimmy Nolen's guitar part has a bare bones tonal structure. The pattern of attack-points is the emphasis, not the pattern of pitches. The guitar is used the way that an African drum, or idiophone would be used. Nolen created a "clean, trebly tone" by using "hollow-body jazz guitars with single-coil P-90 pickups" plugged into a Fender Twin Reverb amp with the mid turned down low and the treble turned up high.
Funk guitarists playing rhythm guitar generally avoid distortion effects and amp overdrive to get a clean sound, and given the importance of a crisp, high sound, Fender Stratocasters and Telecasters were widely used for their cutting treble tone. The mids are often cut by guitarists to help the guitar sound different from the horn section, keyboards and other instruments. Given the focus on providing a rhythmic groove, and the lack of emphasis on instrumental guitar melodies and guitar solos, sustain is not sought out by funk rhythm guitarists. Funk rhythm guitarists use compressor volume-control effects to enhance the sound of muted notes, which boosts the "clucking" sound and adds "percussive excitement to funk rhythms" (an approach used by Nile Rodgers).
Guitarist Eddie Hazel from Funkadelic is notable for his solo improvisation (particularly for the solo on "Maggot Brain") and guitar riffs, the tone of which was shaped by a Maestro FZ-1 Fuzz-Tone pedal. Hazel, along with guitarist Ernie Isley of the Isley Brothers, was influenced by Jimi Hendrix's improvised, wah-wah infused solos. Ernie Isley was tutored at an early age by Hendrix, when Hendrix was a part of the Isley Brothers backing band and temporarily lived in the Isleys' household. Funk guitarists use the wah-wah sound effect along with muting the notes to create a percussive sound for their guitar riffs. The phaser effect is often used in funk and R&B guitar playing for its filter sweeping sound effect, an example being the Isley Brothers' song "Who's That Lady". Michael Hampton, another P-Funk guitarist, was able to play Hazel's virtuosic solo on "Maggot Brain", using a solo approach that added in string bends and Hendrix-style feedback.
A range of keyboard instruments are used in funk. Acoustic piano is used in funk, including in "September" by Earth Wind & Fire and "Will It Go Round in Circles" by Billy Preston. The electric piano is used on songs such as Herbie Hancock's "Chameleon" (a Fender Rhodes) and "Mercy, Mercy, Mercy" by Joe Zawinul (a Wurlitzer). The clavinet is used for its percussive tone, and it can be heard in songs such as Stevie Wonder's "Superstition" and "Higher Ground" and Bill Withers' "Use Me". The Hammond B-3 organ is used in funk, in songs such as "Cissy Strut" by The Meters and "Love the One You're With" (with Aretha Franklin singing and Billy Preston on keyboards).
Bernie Worrell's range of keyboards from his recordings with Parliament Funkadelic demonstrate the wide range of keyboards used in funk, as they include the Hammond organ ("Funky Woman", "Hit It and Quit It", "Wars of Armageddon"); RMI electric piano ("I Wanna Know If It's Good to You?", "Free Your Mind", "Loose Booty"); acoustic piano ("Funky Dollar Bill", "Jimmy's Got a Little Bit of Bitch in Him"); clavinet ("Joyful Process", "Up for the Down Stroke", "Red Hot Mama"); Minimoog synthesizer ("Atmosphere", "Flash Light", "Aqua Boogie", "Knee Deep", "Let's Take It to the Stage"); and ARP string ensemble synth ("Chocolate City", "Give Up the Funk (Tear the Roof off the Sucker)", "Undisco Kidd").
Synthesizers were used in funk both to add to the deep sound of the electric bass, or even to replace the electric bass altogether in some songs. Funk synthesizer bass, most often a Minimoog, was used because it could create layered sounds and new electronic tones that were not feasible on electric bass.
In the 1970s, funk used many of the same vocal styles that were used in African-American music in the 1960s, including singing influences from blues, gospel, jazz and doo-wop. Like these other African-American styles, funk used "[y]ells, shouts, hollers, moans, humming, and melodic riffs", along with styles such as call and response and narration of stories (like the African oral tradition approach). The call and response in funk can be between the lead singer and the band members who act as backup vocalists.
As funk emerged from soul, the vocals in funk share soul's approach; however, funk vocals tend to be "more punctuated, energetic, rhythmically percussive[,] and less embellished" with ornaments, and the vocal lines tend to resemble horn parts and have "pushed" rhythms. Funk bands such as Earth, Wind & Fire have harmony vocal parts. Songs like "Super Bad" by James Brown included "double-voice" along with "yells, shouts and screams". Funk singers used a "black aesthetic" to perform that made use of "colorful and lively exchange of gestures, facial expressions, body posture, and vocal phrases" to create an engaging performance.
The lyrics in funk music addressed issues faced by the African American community in the United States during the 1970s, which arose due to the move away from an industrial, working-class economy to an information economy, which harmed the Black working class. Funk songs by The Ohio Players, Earth, Wind & Fire, and James Brown raised issues faced by lower-income Blacks in their song lyrics, such as poor "economic conditions and themes of poor inner-city life in the black communities".
The Funkadelic song "One Nation Under A Groove" (1978) is about the challenges that Blacks overcame during the 1960s civil rights movement, and it includes an exhortation for Blacks in the 1970s to capitalize on the new "social and political opportunities" that had become available in the 1970s. The Isley Brothers song "Fight the Power" (1975) has a political message. Parliament's song "Chocolate City" (1975) metaphorically refers to Washington, D.C., and other US cities that have a mainly Black population, and it draws attention to the potential power that Black voters wield and suggests that a Black President be considered in the future.
The political themes of funk songs and the aiming of the messages to a Black audience echoed the new image of Blacks that was created in Blaxploitation films, which depicted "African-American men and women standing their ground and fighting for what was right". Both funk and Blaxploitation films addressed issues faced by Blacks and told stories from a Black perspective. Another link between 1970s funk and Blaxploitation films is that many of these films used funk soundtracks (e.g., Curtis Mayfield for Superfly; James Brown and Fred Wesley for Black Caesar and War for Youngblood).
Funk songs included metaphorical language that was understood best by listeners who were "familiar with the black aesthetic and [black] vernacular". For example, funk songs included expressions such as "shake your money maker", "funk yourself right out" and "move your boogie body". Another example is the use of "bad" in the song "Super Bad" (1970), which black listeners knew meant "good" or "great".
In the 1970s, to get around radio obscenity restrictions, funk artists would use words that sounded like non-allowed words and double entendres to get around these restrictions. For example, The Ohio Players had a song entitled "Fopp" which referred to "Fopp me right, don't you fopp me wrong/We'll be foppin' all night long...". Some funk songs used made-up words which suggested that they were "writing lyrics in a constant haze of marijuana smoke", such as Parliament's "Aqua Boogie (A Psychoalphadiscobetabioaquadoloop)", which includes words such as "bioaquadooloop". The mainstream white listener base was often not able to understand funk's lyrical messages, which contributed to funk's lack of popular music chart success with white audiences during the 1970s.
Horn section arrangements with groups of brass instruments are often used in funk songs. Funk horn sections could include saxophone (often tenor sax), trumpet, trombone, and for larger horn sections, such as quintets and sextets, a baritone sax. Horn sections played "rhythmic and syncopated" parts, often with "offbeat phrases" that emphasize "rhythmic displacement". Funk song introductions are an important place for horn arrangements.
Funk horn sections performed in a "rhythmic percussive style" that mimicked the approach used by funk rhythm guitarists. Horn sections would "punctuate" the lyrics by playing in the spaces between vocals, using "short staccato rhythmic blast[s]". Notable funk horn players included Alfred "PeeWee" Ellis, trombonist Fred Wesley, and alto sax player Maceo Parker. Notable funk horn sections including the Phoenix Horns (with Earth, Wind & Fire), the Horny Horns (with Parliament), the Memphis Horns (with Isaac Hayes), and MFSB (with Curtis Mayfield).
The instruments in funk horn sections varied. If there were two horn players, it could be trumpet and sax, trumpet and trombone, or two saxes. A standard horn trio would consist of trumpet, sax, and trombone, but trios of one trumpet with two saxes, or two trumpets with one sax, were also fairly common. A quartet would be set up the same as a standard horn trio, but with an extra trumpet, sax, or (less frequently) trombone player. Quintets would either be a trio of saxes (typically alto/tenor/baritone, or tenor/tenor/baritone) with a trumpet and a trombone, or a pair each of trumpets and saxes with one trombone. With six instruments, the horn section would usually be two trumpets, three saxes, and a trombone.
Notable songs with funk horn sections include:
In bands or shows where hiring a horn section is not feasible, a keyboardist can play the horn parts on a synthesizer with brass patches; however, choosing an authentic-sounding synthesizer and brass patch is important. In the 2010s, with micro-MIDI synths, it may even have been possible to have another instrumentalist play the keyboard brass parts, thus enabling the keyboardist to continue to comp throughout the song.
Funk bands in the 1970s adopted Afro-American fashion and style, including "Bell-bottom pants, platform shoes, hoop earring[s], Afros [hairstyles], leather vests,... beaded necklaces", dashiki shirts, jumpsuits and boots. In contrast to earlier bands such as The Temptations, which wore "matching suits" and "neat haircuts" to appeal to white mainstream audiences, funk bands adopted an "African spirit" in their outfits and style. George Clinton and Parliament are known for their imaginative costumes and "freedom of dress", which included bedsheets acting as robes and capes.
Funk was formed through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African Americans in the mid-20th century. Musicologist Anne Danielsen wrote that funk might be placed in the lineage of rhythm and blues, jazz, and soul. Sociologist Darby E. Southgate wrote that funk is "an amalgam of gospel, soul, jazz fusion, rhythm and blues, and black rock."
The distinctive characteristics of African-American musical expression are rooted in sub-Saharan African music traditions, and find their earliest expression in spirituals, work chants/songs, praise shouts, gospel, blues, and "body rhythms" (hambone, patting juba, and ring shout clapping and stomping patterns).
Like other styles of African-American musical expression including jazz, soul music and R&B, funk music accompanied many protest movements during and after the Civil Rights Movement. Funk allowed everyday experiences to be expressed to challenge daily struggles and hardships fought by lower and working class communities.
Gerhard Kubik notes that with the exception of New Orleans, early blues lacked complex polyrhythms, and there was a "very specific absence of asymmetric time-line patterns (key patterns) in virtually all early twentieth century African-American music ... only in some New Orleans genres does a hint of simple time line patterns occasionally appear in the form of transient so-called 'stomp' patterns or stop-time chorus. These do not function in the same way as African time lines."
In the late 1940s this changed somewhat when the two-celled time line structure was brought into New Orleans blues. New Orleans musicians were especially receptive to Afro-Cuban influences precisely at the time when R&B was first forming. Dave Bartholomew and Professor Longhair (Henry Roeland Byrd) incorporated Afro-Cuban instruments, as well as the clave pattern and related two-celled figures in songs such as "Carnival Day" (Bartholomew 1949) and "Mardi Gras In New Orleans" (Longhair 1949). Robert Palmer reports that, in the 1940s, Professor Longhair listened to and played with musicians from the islands and "fell under the spell of Perez Prado's mambo records." Professor Longhair's particular style was known locally as rumba-boogie.
One of Longhair's great contributions was his particular approach of adopting two-celled, clave-based patterns into New Orleans rhythm and blues (R&B). Longhair's rhythmic approach became a basic template of funk. According to Dr. John (Malcolm John "Mac" Rebennack Jr.), the Professor "put funk into music ... Longhair's thing had a direct bearing I'd say on a large portion of the funk music that evolved in New Orleans." In his "Mardi Gras in New Orleans", the pianist employs the 2-3 clave onbeat/offbeat motif in a rumba-boogie "guajeo".
The syncopated, but straight subdivision feel of Cuban music (as opposed to swung subdivisions) took root in New Orleans R&B during this time. Alexander Stewart states: "Eventually, musicians from outside of New Orleans began to learn some of the rhythmic practices [of the Crescent City]. Most important of these were James Brown and the drummers and arrangers he employed. Brown's early repertoire had used mostly shuffle rhythms, and some of his most successful songs were 12/8 ballads (e.g. "Please, Please, Please" (1956), "Bewildered" (1961), "I Don't Mind" (1961)). Brown's change to a funkier brand of soul required 4/4 metre and a different style of drumming." Stewart makes the point: "The singular style of rhythm & blues that emerged from New Orleans in the years after World War II played an important role in the development of funk. In a related development, the underlying rhythms of American popular music underwent a basic, yet generally unacknowledged transition from triplet or shuffle feel to even or straight eighth notes."
James Brown credited Little Richard's 1950s R&B road band, The Upsetters from New Orleans, as "the first to put the funk into the rhythm" of rock and roll. Following his temporary exit from secular music to become an evangelist in 1957, some of Little Richard's band members joined Brown and the Famous Flames, beginning a long string of hits for them in 1958. By the mid-1960s, James Brown had developed his signature groove that emphasized the downbeat—with heavy emphasis on the first beat of every measure to etch his distinctive sound, rather than the backbeat that typified African-American music. Brown often cued his band with the command "On the one!," changing the percussion emphasis/accent from the one-two-three-four backbeat of traditional soul music to the one-two-three-four downbeat – but with an even-note syncopated guitar rhythm (on quarter notes two and four) featuring a hard-driving, repetitive brassy swing. This one-three beat launched the shift in Brown's signature music style, starting with his 1964 hit single, "Out of Sight" and his 1965 hits, "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag" and "I Got You (I Feel Good)".
Brown's style of funk was based on interlocking, contrapuntal parts: syncopated basslines, 16th beat drum patterns, and syncopated guitar riffs. The main guitar ostinatos for "Ain't it Funky" (c. late 1960s) are an example of Brown's refinement of New Orleans funk— an irresistibly danceable riff, stripped down to its rhythmic essence. On "Ain't it Funky" the tonal structure is barebones. Brown's innovations led to him and his band becoming the seminal funk act; they also pushed the funk music style further to the forefront with releases such as "Cold Sweat" (1967), "Mother Popcorn" (1969) and "Get Up (I Feel Like Being A) Sex Machine" (1970), discarding even the twelve-bar blues featured in his earlier music. Instead, Brown's music was overlaid with "catchy, anthemic vocals" based on "extensive vamps" in which he also used his voice as "a percussive instrument with frequent rhythmic grunts and with rhythm-section patterns ... [resembling] West African polyrhythms" – a tradition evident in African-American work songs and chants. Throughout his career, Brown's frenzied vocals, frequently punctuated with screams and grunts, channeled the "ecstatic ambiance of the black church" in a secular context.
After 1965, Brown's bandleader and arranger was Alfred "Pee Wee" Ellis. Ellis credits Clyde Stubblefield's adoption of New Orleans drumming techniques, as the basis of modern funk: "If, in a studio, you said 'play it funky' that could imply almost anything. But 'give me a New Orleans beat' – you got exactly what you wanted. And Clyde Stubblefield was just the epitome of this funky drumming." Stewart states that the popular feel was passed along from "New Orleans—through James Brown's music, to the popular music of the 1970s." Concerning the various funk motifs, Stewart states that this model "...is different from a time line (such as clave and tresillo) in that it is not an exact pattern, but more of a loose organizing principle."
In a 1990 interview, Brown offered his reason for switching the rhythm of his music: "I changed from the upbeat to the downbeat ... Simple as that, really." According to Maceo Parker, Brown's former saxophonist, playing on the downbeat was at first hard for him and took some getting used to. Reflecting back to his early days with Brown's band, Parker reported that he had difficulty playing "on the one" during solo performances, since he was used to hearing and playing with the accent on the second beat.
A new group of musicians began to further develop the "funk rock" approach. Innovations were prominently made by George Clinton, with his bands Parliament and Funkadelic. Together, they produced a new kind of funk sound heavily influenced by jazz and psychedelic rock. The two groups shared members and are often referred to collectively as "Parliament-Funkadelic". The breakout popularity of Parliament-Funkadelic gave rise to the term "P-Funk", which referred to the music by George Clinton's bands, and defined a new subgenre. Clinton played a principal role in several other bands, including Parlet, the Horny Horns, and the Brides of Funkenstein, all part of the P-Funk conglomerate. "P-funk" also came to mean something in its quintessence, of superior quality, or sui generis.
Following the work of Jimi Hendrix in the late 1960s, artists such as Sly and the Family Stone combined the psychedelic rock of Hendrix with funk, borrowing wah pedals, fuzz boxes, echo chambers, and vocal distorters from the former, as well as blues rock and jazz. In the following years, groups such as Clinton's Parliament-Funkadelic continued this sensibility, employing synthesizers and rock-oriented guitar work.
Other musical groups picked up on the rhythms and vocal style developed by James Brown and his band, and the funk style began to grow. Dyke and the Blazers, based in Phoenix, Arizona, released "Funky Broadway" in 1967, perhaps the first record of the soul music era to have the word "funky" in the title. In 1969 Jimmy McGriff released Electric Funk, featuring his distinctive organ over a blazing horn section. Meanwhile, on the West Coast, Charles Wright & the Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band was releasing funk tracks beginning with its first album in 1967, culminating in the classic single "Express Yourself" in 1971. Also from the West Coast area, more specifically Oakland, California, came the band Tower of Power (TOP), which formed in 1968. Their debut album, East Bay Grease, released 1970, is considered a milestone in funk. Throughout the 1970s, TOP had many hits, and the band helped to make funk music a successful genre, with a broader audience.
In 1970, Sly & the Family Stone's "Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)" reached #1 on the charts, as did "Family Affair" in 1971. Notably, these afforded the group and the genre crossover success and greater recognition, yet such success escaped comparatively talented and moderately popular funk band peers. The Meters defined funk in New Orleans, starting with their top ten R&B hits "Sophisticated Cissy" and "Cissy Strut" in 1969. Another group who defined funk around this time were the Isley Brothers, whose funky 1969 #1 R&B hit, "It's Your Thing", signaled a breakthrough in African-American music, bridging the gaps of the jazzy sounds of Brown, the psychedelic rock of Jimi Hendrix, and the upbeat soul of Sly & the Family Stone and Mother's Finest. The Temptations, who had previously helped to define the "Motown Sound" – a distinct blend of pop-soul – adopted this new psychedelic sound towards the end of the 1960s as well. Their producer, Norman Whitfield, became an innovator in the field of psychedelic soul, creating hits with a newer, funkier sound for many Motown acts, including "War" by Edwin Starr, "Smiling Faces Sometimes" by the Undisputed Truth and "Papa Was A Rollin' Stone" by the Temptations. Motown producers Frank Wilson ("Keep On Truckin'") and Hal Davis ("Dancing Machine") followed suit. Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye also adopted funk beats for some of their biggest hits in the 1970s, such as "Superstition" and "You Haven't Done Nothin'", and "I Want You" and "Got To Give It Up", respectively.
The 1970s were the era of highest mainstream visibility for funk music. In addition to Parliament Funkadelic, artists like Sly and the Family Stone, Rufus & Chaka Khan, Bootsy's Rubber Band, the Isley Brothers, Ohio Players, Con Funk Shun, Kool and the Gang, the Bar-Kays, Commodores, Roy Ayers, Curtis Mayfield, and Stevie Wonder, among others, got radio play. Disco music owed a great deal to funk. Many early disco songs and performers came directly from funk-oriented backgrounds. Some disco music hits, such as all of Barry White's hits, "Kung Fu Fighting" by Biddu and Carl Douglas, Donna Summer's "Love To Love You Baby", Diana Ross' "Love Hangover", KC and the Sunshine Band's "I'm Your Boogie Man", "I'm Every Woman" by Chaka Khan (also known as the Queen of Funk), and Chic's "Le Freak" conspicuously include riffs and rhythms derived from funk. In 1976, Rose Royce scored a number-one hit with a purely dance-funk record, "Car Wash". Even with the arrival of disco, funk became increasingly popular well into the early 1980s.
Funk music was also exported to Africa, and it melded with African singing and rhythms to form Afrobeat. Nigerian musician Fela Kuti, who was heavily influenced by James Brown's music, is credited with creating the style and terming it "Afrobeat".
Jazz-funk is a subgenre of jazz music characterized by a strong back beat (groove), electrified sounds and an early prevalence of analog synthesizers. The integration of funk, soul, and R&B music and styles into jazz resulted in the creation of a genre whose spectrum is quite wide and ranges from strong jazz improvisation to soul, funk or disco with jazz arrangements, jazz riffs, and jazz solos, and sometimes soul vocals. Jazz-funk is primarily an American genre, where it was popular throughout the 1970s and the early 1980s, but it also achieved noted appeal on the club circuit in England during the mid-1970s. Similar genres include soul jazz and jazz fusion, but neither entirely overlap with jazz-funk. Notably jazz-funk is less vocal, more arranged and featured more improvisation than soul jazz, and retains a strong feel of groove and R&B versus some of the jazz fusion production.
In the 1980s, largely as a reaction against what was seen as the over-indulgence of disco, many of the core elements that formed the foundation of the P-Funk formula began to be usurped by electronic instruments, drum machines and synthesizers. Horn sections of saxophones and trumpets were replaced by synth keyboards, and the horns that remained were given simplified lines, and few horn solos were given to soloists. The classic electric keyboards of funk, like the Hammond B3 organ, the Hohner Clavinet and/or the Fender Rhodes piano, began to be replaced by the new digital synthesizers such as the Prophet-5, Oberheim OB-X, and Yamaha DX7. Electronic drum machines such as the Roland TR-808, Linn LM-1, and Oberheim DMX began to replace the "funky drummers" of the past, and the slap and pop style of bass playing were often replaced by synth keyboard basslines. Lyrics of funk songs began to change from suggestive double entendres to more graphic and sexually explicit content.
Influenced by Kraftwerk, the Afroamerican rap DJ Afrika Bambaataa developed electro-funk, a minimalist machine-driven style of funk with his single "Planet Rock" in 1982. Also known simply as electro, this style of funk was driven by synthesizers and the electronic rhythm of the TR-808 drum machine. The single "Renegades of Funk" followed in 1983. Michael Jackson was also influenced by electro-funk. In 1980, techno-funk music used the TR-808 programmable drum machine, while Kraftwerk's sound influenced later electro-funk artists such as Mantronix.
Rick James was the first funk musician of the 1980s to assume the funk mantle dominated by P-Funk in the 1970s. His 1981 album Street Songs, with the singles "Give It to Me Baby" and "Super Freak", resulted in James becoming a star, and paved the way for the future direction of explicitness in funk.
Prince formed the Time, originally conceived as an opening act for him and based on his "Minneapolis sound", a hybrid mixture of funk, R&B, rock, pop and new wave. Eventually, the band went on to define their own style of stripped-down funk based on tight musicianship and sexual themes.
Similar to Prince, other bands emerged during the P-Funk era and began to incorporate uninhibited sexuality, dance-oriented themes, synthesizers and other electronic technologies to continue to craft funk hits. These included Cameo, Zapp, the Gap Band, the Bar-Kays, and the Dazz Band, who all found their biggest hits in the early 1980s. By the latter half of the 1980s, pure funk had lost its commercial impact; however, pop artists from Michael Jackson to Culture Club often used funk beats.
While funk was driven away from radio by slick commercial hip hop, contemporary R&B and new jack swing, its influence continued to spread. Artists like Steve Arrington and Cameo still received major airplay and had huge global followings. Rock bands began adopting elements of funk into their sound, creating new combinations of "funk rock" and "funk metal". Extreme, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Living Colour, Jane's Addiction, Prince, Primus, Urban Dance Squad, Fishbone, Faith No More, Rage Against the Machine, Infectious Grooves, and Incubus spread the approach and styles garnered from funk pioneers to new audiences in the mid-to-late 1980s and the 1990s. These bands later inspired the underground mid-1990s funkcore movement and current funk-inspired artists like Outkast, Malina Moye, Van Hunt, and Gnarls Barkley.
In the 1990s, artists like Me'shell Ndegeocello, Brooklyn Funk Essentials and the (predominantly UK-based) acid jazz movement—including artists and bands such as Jamiroquai, Incognito, Galliano, Omar, Los Tetas and the Brand New Heavies—carried on with strong elements of funk. However, they never came close to reaching the commercial success of funk in its heyday—with the exception of Jamiroquai, whose album Travelling Without Moving sold about 11.5 million units worldwide and remains the best-selling funk album in history. Meanwhile, in Australia and New Zealand, bands playing the pub circuit, such as Supergroove, Skunkhour and the Truth, preserved a more instrumental form of funk.
Since the late 1980s, hip hop artists have regularly sampled old funk tunes. James Brown is said to be the most sampled artist in the history of hip hop, while P-Funk is the second most sampled artist; samples of old Parliament and Funkadelic songs formed the basis of West Coast G-funk.
Original beats that feature funk-styled bass or rhythm guitar riffs are also not uncommon. Dr. Dre (considered the progenitor of the G-funk genre) has freely acknowledged to being heavily influenced by George Clinton's psychedelia: "Back in the 70s that's all people were doing: getting high, wearing Afros, bell-bottoms and listening to Parliament-Funkadelic. That's why I called my album The Chronic and based my music and the concepts like I did: because his shit was a big influence on my music. Very big". Digital Underground was a large contributor to the rebirth of funk in the 1990s by educating their listeners with knowledge about the history of funk and its artists. George Clinton branded Digital Underground as "Sons of the P", as their second full-length release is also titled. DU's first release, Sex Packets, was full of funk samples, with the most widely known, "The Humpty Dance", sampling Parliament's "Let's Play House". A very strong funk album of DU's was their 1996 release Future Rhythm. Much of contemporary club dance music, drum and bass in particular has heavily sampled funk drum breaks.
Funk is a major element of certain artists identified with the jam band scene of the late 1990s and 2000s. In the late 1990s, the band Phish developed a live sound called "cow funk" (a.k.a. "space funk"), which consisted of extended danceable deep bass grooves, and often emphasized heavy "wah" pedal and other psychedelic effects from the guitar player and layered Clavinet from the keyboard player. Phish began playing funkier jams in their sets around 1996, and 1998's The Story of the Ghost was heavily influenced by funk. While Phish's funk was traditional in the sense that it often accented beat 1 of the 4/4 time signature, it was also highly exploratory and involved building jams towards energetic peaks before transitioning into highly composed progressive rock and roll.
Medeski Martin & Wood, Robert Randolph & the Family Band, Galactic, Jam Underground, Soulive, and Karl Denson's Tiny Universe all drew heavily from the funk tradition. Dumpstaphunk builds upon the New Orleans tradition of funk, with their gritty, low-ended grooves and soulful four-part vocals.
Since the mid-1990s the nu-funk or funk revivalist scene, centered on the deep funk collectors scene, is producing new material influenced by the sounds of rare funk 45s. Labels include Desco, Soul Fire, Daptone, Timmion, Neapolitan, Bananarama, Kay-Dee, and Tramp. These labels often release on 45 rpm records. Although specializing in music for rare funk DJs, there has been some crossover into the mainstream music industry, such as Sharon Jones' 2005 appearance on Late Night with Conan O'Brien. Those who mix acid jazz, acid house, trip hop, and other genres with funk include Tom Tom Club, Brainticket, Groove Armada, et al.
During the 2000s and early 2010s, some punk funk bands such as Out Hud and Mongolian MonkFish performed in the indie rock scene. Indie band Rilo Kiley, in keeping with their tendency to explore a variety of rockish styles, incorporated funk into their song "The Moneymaker" on the album Under the Blacklight. Prince, with his later albums, gave a rebirth to the funk sound with songs like "The Everlasting Now", "Musicology", "Ol' Skool Company", and "Black Sweat". Particle, for instance, is part of a scene which combined the elements of digital music made with computers, synthesizers, and samples with analog instruments, sounds, and improvisational and compositional elements of funk.
From the early 1970s onwards, funk has developed various subgenres. While George Clinton and the Parliament were making a harder variation of funk, bands such as Kool and the Gang, Ohio Players and Earth, Wind and Fire were making disco-influenced funk music.
Funk rock (also written as funk-rock or funk/rock) fuses funk and rock elements. Its earliest incarnation was heard in the late '60s through the mid-'70s by musicians such as Jimi Hendrix, Frank Zappa, Gary Wright, David Bowie, Mother's Finest, and Funkadelic on their earlier albums.
Many instruments may be incorporated into funk rock, but the overall sound is defined by a definitive bass or drum beat and electric guitars. The bass and drum rhythms are influenced by funk music but with more intensity, while the guitar can be funk- or rock-influenced, usually with distortion. Prince, Jesse Johnson, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Fishbone are major artists in funk rock.
The term "avant-funk" has been used to describe acts who combined funk with art rock's concerns. Simon Frith described the style as an application of progressive rock mentality to rhythm rather than melody and harmony. Simon Reynolds characterized avant-funk as a kind of psychedelia in which "oblivion was to be attained not through rising above the body, rather through immersion in the physical, self loss through animalism."
Acts in the genre include German krautrock band Can, American funk artists Sly Stone and George Clinton, and a wave of early 1980s UK and US artists (including Public Image Ltd, Talking Heads, the Pop Group, Gang of Four, Bauhaus, Cabaret Voltaire, Defunkt, A Certain Ratio, and 23 Skidoo) who embraced black dance music styles such as disco and funk. The artists of the late 1970s New York no wave scene also explored avant-funk, influenced by figures such as Ornette Coleman. Reynolds noted these artists' preoccupations with issues such as alienation, repression and technocracy of Western modernity.
Go-go originated in the Washington, D.C., area with which it remains associated, along with other spots in the Mid-Atlantic. Inspired by singers such as Chuck Brown, the "Godfather of Go-go", it is a blend of funk, rhythm and blues, and early hip hop, with a focus on lo-fi percussion instruments and in-person jamming in place of dance tracks. As such, it is primarily a dance music with an emphasis on live audience call and response. Go-go rhythms are also incorporated into street percussion.
Boogie is an electronic music mainly influenced by funk and post-disco. The minimalist approach of boogie, consisting of synthesizers and keyboards, helped to establish electro and house music. Boogie, unlike electro, emphasizes the slapping techniques of bass guitar but also bass synthesizers. Artists include Vicky "D", Komiko, Peech Boys, Kashif, and later Evelyn King.
Electro funk is a hybrid of electronic music and funk. It essentially follows the same form as funk, and retains funk's characteristics, but is made entirely (or partially) with a use of electronic instruments such as the TR-808. Vocoders or talkboxes were commonly implemented to transform the vocals. The pioneering electro band Zapp commonly used such instruments in their music. Bootsy Collins also began to incorporate a more electronic sound on later solo albums. Other artists include Herbie Hancock, Afrika Bambaataa, Egyptian Lover, Vaughan Mason & Crew, Midnight Star and Cybotron.
Funk metal (sometimes typeset differently such as funk-metal) is a fusion genre of music which emerged in the 1980s, as part of the alternative metal movement. It typically incorporates elements of funk and heavy metal (often thrash metal), and in some cases other styles, such as punk and experimental music. It features hard-driving heavy metal guitar riffs, the pounding bass rhythms characteristic of funk, and sometimes hip hop-style rhymes into an alternative rock approach to songwriting. A primary example is the all-African-American rock band Living Colour, who have been said to be "funk-metal pioneers" by Rolling Stone. During the late 1980s and early 1990s, the style was most prevalent in California – particularly Los Angeles and San Francisco.
G-funk is a fusion genre of music which combines gangsta rap and funk. It is generally considered to have been invented by West Coast rappers and made famous by Dr. Dre. It incorporates multi-layered and melodic synthesizers, slow hypnotic grooves, a deep bass, background female vocals, the extensive sampling of P-Funk tunes, and a high-pitched portamento saw wave synthesizer lead. Unlike other earlier rap acts that also utilized funk samples (such as EPMD and the Bomb Squad), G-funk often used fewer, unaltered samples per song.
Timba is a form of funky Cuban popular dance music. By 1990, several Cuban bands had incorporated elements of funk and hip-hop into their arrangements, and expanded upon the instrumentation of the traditional conjunto with an American drum set, saxophones and a two-keyboard format. Timba bands like La Charanga Habanera or Bamboleo often have horns or other instruments playing short parts of tunes by Earth, Wind and Fire, Kool and the Gang or other U.S. funk bands. While many funk motifs exhibit a clave-based structure, they are created intuitively, without a conscious intent of aligning the various parts to a guide-pattern. Timba incorporates funk motifs into an overt and intentional clave structure.
Despite funk's popularity in modern music, few people have examined the work of funk women. Notable funk women include Chaka Khan, Labelle, Brides of Funkenstein, Klymaxx, Mother's Finest, Lyn Collins, Betty Davis and Teena Marie. As cultural critic Cheryl Keyes explains in her essay "She Was Too Black for Rock and Too Hard for Soul: (Re)discovering the Musical Career of Betty Mabry Davis", most of the scholarship around funk has focused on the cultural work of men. She states that "Betty Davis is an artist whose name has gone unheralded as a pioneer in the annals of funk and rock. Most writing on these musical genres has traditionally placed male artists like Jimi Hendrix, George Clinton (of Parliament-Funkadelic), and bassist Larry Graham as trendsetters in the shaping of a rock music sensibility."
In The Feminist Funk Power of Betty Davis and Renée Stout, Nikki A. Greene notes that Davis' provocative and controversial style helped her rise to popularity in the 1970s as she focused on sexually motivated, self-empowered subject matter. Furthermore, this affected the young artist's ability to draw large audiences and commercial success. Greene also notes that Davis was never made an official spokesperson or champion for the civil rights and feminist movements of the time, although more recently her work has become a symbol of sexual liberation for women of color. Davis' song "If I'm In Luck I Just Might Get Picked Up", on her self-titled debut album, sparked controversy, and was banned by the Detroit NAACP. Maureen Mahan, a musicologist and anthropologist, examines Davis' impact on the music industry and the American public in her article "They Say She's Different: Race, Gender, Genre, and the Liberated Black Femininity of Betty Davis".
Laina Dawes, the author of What Are You Doing Here: A Black Woman's Life and Liberation in Heavy Metal, believes respectability politics is the reason artists like Davis do not get the same recognition as their male counterparts: "I blame what I call respectability politics as part of the reason the funk-rock some of the women from the '70s aren't better known. Despite the importance of their music and presence, many of the funk-rock females represented the aggressive behavior and sexuality that many people were not comfortable with."
According to Francesca T. Royster, in Rickey Vincent's book Funk: The Music, The People, and The Rhythm of The One, he analyzes the impact of Labelle but only in limited sections. Royster criticizes Vincent's analysis of the group, stating: "It is a shame, then, that Vincent gives such minimal attention to Labelle's performances in his study. This reflects, unfortunately, a still consistent sexism that shapes the evaluation of funk music. In Funk, Vincent's analysis of Labelle is brief—sharing a single paragraph with the Pointer Sisters in his three-page sub chapter, 'Funky Women.' He writes that while 'Lady Marmalade' 'blew the lid off of the standards of sexual innuendo and skyrocketed the group's star status,' the band's 'glittery image slipped into the disco undertow and was ultimately wasted as the trio broke up in search of solo status" (Vincent, 1996, 192). Many female artists who are considered to be in the genre of funk, also share songs in the disco, soul, and R&B genres; Labelle falls into this category of women who are split among genres due to a critical view of music theory and the history of sexism in the United States.
In recent years, artists like Janelle Monáe have opened the doors for more scholarship and analysis on the female impact on the funk music genre. Monáe's style bends concepts of gender, sexuality, and self-expression in a manner similar to the way some male pioneers in funk broke boundaries. Her albums center on Afro-futuristic concepts, centering on elements of female and black empowerment and visions of a dystopian future. In his article "Janelle Monáe and Afro-sonic Feminist Funk", Matthew Valnes writes that Monae's involvement in the funk genre is juxtaposed with the traditional view of funk as a male-centered genre. Valnes acknowledges that funk is male-dominated, but provides insight to the societal circumstances that led to this situation.
Monáe's influences include her mentor Prince, Funkadelic, Lauryn Hill, and other funk and R&B artists, but according to Emily Lordi, "[Betty] Davis is seldom listed among Janelle Monáe's many influences, and certainly the younger singer's high-tech concepts, virtuosic performances, and meticulously produced songs are far removed from Davis's proto-punk aesthetic. But... like Davis, she also is closely linked with a visionary male mentor (Prince). The title of Monáe's 2013 album, The Electric Lady, alludes to Hendrix's Electric Ladyland, but it also implicitly cites the coterie of women that inspired Hendrix himself: that group, called the Cosmic Ladies or Electric Ladies, was together led by Hendrix's lover Devon Wilson and Betty Davis."
|
[
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "Funk is a music genre that originated in African American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African-Americans in the mid-20th century. It deemphasizes melody and chord progressions and focuses on a strong rhythmic groove of a bassline played by an electric bassist and a drum part played by a percussionist, often at slower tempos than other popular music. Funk typically consists of a complex percussive groove with rhythm instruments playing interlocking grooves that create a \"hypnotic\" and \"danceable\" feel. It uses the same richly colored extended chords found in bebop jazz, such as minor chords with added sevenths and elevenths, and dominant seventh chords with altered ninths and thirteenths.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "Funk originated in the mid-1960s, with James Brown's development of a signature groove that emphasized the downbeat—with a heavy emphasis on the first beat of every measure (\"The One\"), and the application of swung 16th notes and syncopation on all basslines, drum patterns, and guitar riffs. Rock- and psychedelia-influenced musicians Sly and the Family Stone and Parliament-Funkadelic fostered more eclectic examples of the genre beginning in the late 1960s. Other musical groups developed Brown's innovations during the 1970s and the 1980s, including Kool and the Gang, Ohio Players, Fatback Band, Jimmy Castor Bunch, Earth, Wind & Fire, B.T. Express, Shalamar, One Way, Lakeside, Dazz Band, The Gap Band, Slave, Aurra, Roger Troutman & Zapp, Con Funk Shun, Cameo, Bar-Kays and Chic.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "Funk derivatives include avant-funk, an avant-garde strain of funk; boogie, a hybrid of electronic music and funk; funk metal; G-funk, a mix of gangsta rap and psychedelic funk; Timba, a form of funky Cuban dance music; and funk jam. It is also the main influence of Washington go-go, a funk subgenre. Funk samples and breakbeats have been used extensively in hip hop and electronic dance music.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "The word funk initially referred (and still refers) to a strong odor. It is originally derived from Latin \"fumigare\" (which means \"to smoke\") via Old French \"fungiere\" and, in this sense, it was first documented in English in 1620. In 1784, \"funky\" meaning \"musty\" was first documented, which, in turn, led to a sense of \"earthy\" that was taken up around 1900 in early jazz slang for something \"deeply or strongly felt\". Even though in white culture, the term \"funk\" can have negative connotations of odor or being in a bad mood (\"in a funk\"), in African communities, the term \"funk\", while still linked to body odor, had the positive sense that a musician's hard-working, honest effort led to sweat, and from their \"physical exertion\" came an \"exquisite\" and \"superlative\" performance.",
"title": "Etymology"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "In early jam sessions, musicians would encourage one another to \"get down\" by telling one another, \"Now, put some stank on it!\" At least as early as 1907, jazz songs carried titles such as Funky. The first example is an unrecorded number by Buddy Bolden, remembered as either \"Funky Butt\" or \"Buddy Bolden's Blues\" with improvised lyrics that were, according to Donald M. Marquis, either \"comical and light\" or \"crude and downright obscene\" but, in one way or another, referring to the sweaty atmosphere at dances where Bolden's band played. As late as the 1950s and early 1960s, when \"funk\" and \"funky\" were used increasingly in the context of jazz music, the terms still were considered indelicate and inappropriate for use in polite company. According to one source, New Orleans-born drummer Earl Palmer \"was the first to use the word 'funky' to explain to other musicians that their music should be made more syncopated and danceable.\" The style later evolved into a rather hard-driving, insistent rhythm, implying a more carnal quality. This early form of the music set the pattern for later musicians. The music was identified as slow, sexy, loose, riff-oriented and danceable.",
"title": "Etymology"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "The meaning of \"funk\" continues to captivate the genre of black music, feeling, and knowledge. Recent scholarship in black studies has taken the term \"funk\" in its many iterations to consider the range of black movement and culture. In particular, L.H. Stallings's Funk the Erotic: Transaesthetics and Black Sexual Cultures explores these multiple meanings of \"funk\" as a way to theorize sexuality, culture, and western hegemony within the many locations of \"funk\": \"street parties, drama/theater, strippers and strip clubs, pornography, and self-published fiction.\"",
"title": "Etymology"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "Like soul, funk is based on dance music, so it has a strong \"rhythmic role\". The sound of funk is as much based on the \"spaces between the notes\" as the notes that are played; as such, rests between notes are important. While there are rhythmic similarities between funk and disco, funk has a \"central dance beat that's slower, sexier and more syncopated than disco\", and funk rhythm section musicians add more \"subtextures\", complexity and \"personality\" onto the main beat than a programmed synth-based disco ensemble.",
"title": "Characteristics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "Before funk, most pop music was based on sequences of eighth notes, because the fast tempos made further subdivisions of the beat infeasible. The innovation of funk was that by using slower tempos (surely influenced by the revival of blues at early 60s), funk \"created space for further rhythmic subdivision, so a bar of 4/4 could now accommodate possible 16 note placements.\" Specifically, by having the guitar and drums play in \"motoring\" sixteenth-note rhythms, it created the opportunity for the other instruments to play \"more syncopated, broken-up style\", which facilitated a move to more \"liberated\" basslines. Together, these \"interlocking parts\" created a \"hypnotic\" and \"danceable feel\".",
"title": "Characteristics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "A great deal of funk is rhythmically based on a two-celled onbeat/offbeat structure, which originated in sub-Saharan African music traditions. New Orleans appropriated the bifurcated structure from the Afro-Cuban mambo and conga in the late 1940s, and made it its own. New Orleans funk, as it was called, gained international acclaim largely because James Brown's rhythm section used it to great effect.",
"title": "Characteristics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "Funk uses the same richly colored extended chords found in bebop jazz, such as minor chords with added sevenths and elevenths, or dominant seventh chords with altered ninths. Some examples of chords used in funk are minor eleventh chords (e.g., F minor 11th); dominant seventh with added sharp ninth and a suspended fourth (e.g., C7 (#9) sus 4); dominant ninth chords (e.g., F9); and minor sixth chords (e.g., C minor 6). The six-ninth chord is used in funk (e.g., F 6/9); it is a major chord with an added sixth and ninth. In funk, minor seventh chords are more common than minor triads because minor triads were found to be too thin-sounding. Some of the best known and most skillful soloists in funk have jazz backgrounds. Trombonist Fred Wesley and saxophonists Pee Wee Ellis and Maceo Parker are among the most notable musicians in the funk music genre, having worked with James Brown, George Clinton and Prince.",
"title": "Characteristics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "Unlike bebop jazz, with its complex, rapid-fire chord changes, funk virtually abandoned chord changes, creating static single chord vamps (often alternating a minor seventh chord and a related dominant seventh chord, such as A minor to D7) with melodo-harmonic movement and a complex, driving rhythmic feel. Even though some funk songs are mainly one-chord vamps, the rhythm section musicians may embellish this chord by moving it up or down a semitone or a tone to create chromatic passing chords. For example, \"Play That Funky Music\" (by Wild Cherry) mainly uses an E ninth chord, but it also uses F#9 and F9.",
"title": "Characteristics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "The chords used in funk songs typically imply a Dorian or Mixolydian mode, as opposed to the major or natural minor tonalities of most popular music. Melodic content was derived by mixing these modes with the blues scale. In the 1970s, jazz music drew upon funk to create a new subgenre of jazz-funk, which can be heard in recordings by Miles Davis (Live-Evil, On the Corner), and Herbie Hancock (Head Hunters).",
"title": "Characteristics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "Funk continues the African musical tradition of improvisation, in that in a funk band, the group would typically \"feel\" when to change, by \"jamming\" and \"grooving\", even in the studio recording stage, which might only be based on the skeleton framework for each song. Funk uses \"collective improvisation\", in which musicians at rehearsals would have what was metaphorically a musical \"conversation\", an approach which extended to the onstage performances.",
"title": "Characteristics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "Funk creates an intense groove by using strong guitar riffs and basslines played on electric bass. Like Motown recordings, funk songs use basslines as the centerpiece of songs. Indeed, funk has been called the style in which the bassline is most prominent in the songs, with the bass playing the \"hook\" of the song. Early funk basslines used syncopation (typically syncopated eighth notes), but with the addition of more of a \"driving feel\" than in New Orleans funk, and they used blues scale notes along with the major third above the root. Later funk basslines use sixteenth note syncopation, blues scales, and repetitive patterns, often with leaps of an octave or a larger interval.",
"title": "Characteristics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "Funk basslines emphasize repetitive patterns, locked-in grooves, continuous playing, and slap and popping bass. Slapping and popping uses a mixture of thumb-slapped low notes (also called \"thumped\") and finger \"popped\" (or plucked) high notes, allowing the bass to have a drum-like rhythmic role, which became a distinctive element of funk. Notable slap and funky players include Bernard Edwards (Chic), Robert \"Kool\" Bell, Mark Adams (Slave), Johnny Flippin (Fatback) and Bootsy Collins. While slap and funky is important, some influential bassists who play funk, such as Rocco Prestia (from Tower of Power), did not use the approach, and instead used a typical fingerstyle method based on James Jamerson's Motown playing style. Larry Graham from Sly and the Family Stone is an influential bassist.",
"title": "Characteristics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 15,
"text": "Funk bass has an \"earthy, percussive kind of feel\", in part due to the use of muted, rhythmic ghost notes (also called \"dead notes\"). Some funk bass players use electronic effects units to alter the tone of their instrument, such as \"envelope filters\" (an auto-wah effect that creates a \"gooey, slurpy, quacky, and syrupy\" sound) and imitate keyboard synthesizer bass tones (e.g., the Mutron envelope filter) and overdriven fuzz bass effects, which are used to create the \"classic fuzz tone that sounds like old school Funk records\". Other effects that are used include the flanger and bass chorus. Collins also used a Mu-Tron Octave Divider, an octave pedal that, like the Octavia pedal popularized by Hendrix, can double a note an octave above and below to create a \"futuristic and fat low-end sound\".",
"title": "Characteristics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 16,
"text": "Funk drumming creates a groove by emphasizing the drummer's \"feel and emotion\", which including \"occasional tempo fluctuations\", the use of swing feel in some songs (e.g., \"Cissy Strut\" by The Meters and \"I'll Take You There\" by The Staple Singers, which have a half-swung feel), and less use of fills (as they can lessen the groove). Drum fills are \"few and economical\", to ensure that the drumming stays \"in the pocket\", with a steady tempo and groove. These playing techniques are supplemented by a set-up for the drum kit that often includes muffled bass drums and toms and tightly tuned snare drums. Double bass drumming sounds are often done by funk drummers with a single pedal, an approach which \"accents the second note... [and] deadens the drumhead's resonance\", which gives a short, muffled bass drum sound.",
"title": "Characteristics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 17,
"text": "James Brown used two drummers such as Clyde Stubblefield and John 'Jabo' Starks in recording and soul shows. By using two drummers, the JB band was able to maintain a \"solid syncopated\" rhythmic sound, which contributed to the band's distinctive \"Funky Drummer\" rhythm.",
"title": "Characteristics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 18,
"text": "In Tower of Power drummer David Garibaldi's playing, there are many ghost notes and rim shots. A key part of the funk drumming style is using the hi-hat, with opening and closing the hi-hats during playing (to create \"splash\" accent effects) being an important approach. Two-handed sixteenth notes on the hi-hats, sometimes with a degree of swing feel, is used in funk.",
"title": "Characteristics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 19,
"text": "Jim Payne states that funk drumming uses a \"wide-open\" approach to improvisation around rhythmic ideas from Latin music, ostinatos, that are repeated \"with only slight variations\", an approach which he says causes the \"mesmerizing\" nature of funk. Payne states that funk can be thought of as \"rock played in a more syncopated manner\", particularly with the bass drum, which plays syncopated eighth-note and sixteenth-note patterns that were innovated by drummer Clive Williams (with Joe Tex); George Brown (with Kool & the Gang) and James \"Diamond\" Williams (with The Ohio Players). As with rock, the snare provides backbeats in most funk (albeit with additional soft ghost notes).",
"title": "Characteristics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 20,
"text": "In funk, guitarists often mix playing chords of a short duration (nicknamed \"stabs\") with faster rhythms and riffs. Guitarists playing rhythmic parts often play sixteenth notes, including with percussive ghost notes. Chord extensions are favored, such as ninth chords. Typically, funk uses \"two interlocking [electric] guitar parts\", with a rhythm guitarist and a \"tenor guitarist\" who plays single notes. The two guitarists trade off their lines to create a \"call-and-response, intertwined pocket.\" If a band only has one guitarist, this effect may be recreated by overdubbing in the studio, or, in a live show, by having a single guitarist play both parts, to the degree that this is possible.",
"title": "Characteristics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 21,
"text": "In funk bands, guitarists typically play in a percussive style, using a style of picking called the \"chank\" or \"chicken scratch\", in which the guitar strings are pressed lightly against the fingerboard and then quickly released just enough to get a muted \"scratching\" sound that is produced by rapid rhythmic strumming of the opposite hand near the bridge. Earliest examples of that technic used on rhythm and blues is listened on Johnny Otis song \"Willie and the Hand Jive\" in 1957, with the future James Brown band guitar player Jimmy Nolen. The technique can be broken down into three approaches: the \"chika\", the \"chank\" and the \"choke\". With the \"chika\" comes a muted sound of strings being hit against the fingerboard; \"chank\" is a staccato attack done by releasing the chord with the fretting hand after strumming it; and \"choking\" generally uses all the strings being strummed and heavily muted.",
"title": "Characteristics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 22,
"text": "The result of these factors was a rhythm guitar sound that seemed to float somewhere between the low-end thump of the electric bass and the cutting tone of the snare and hi-hats, with a rhythmically melodic feel that fell deep in the pocket. Guitarist Jimmy Nolen, longtime guitarist for James Brown, developed this technique. On Brown's \"Give It Up or Turnit a Loose\" (1969), however, Jimmy Nolen's guitar part has a bare bones tonal structure. The pattern of attack-points is the emphasis, not the pattern of pitches. The guitar is used the way that an African drum, or idiophone would be used. Nolen created a \"clean, trebly tone\" by using \"hollow-body jazz guitars with single-coil P-90 pickups\" plugged into a Fender Twin Reverb amp with the mid turned down low and the treble turned up high.",
"title": "Characteristics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 23,
"text": "Funk guitarists playing rhythm guitar generally avoid distortion effects and amp overdrive to get a clean sound, and given the importance of a crisp, high sound, Fender Stratocasters and Telecasters were widely used for their cutting treble tone. The mids are often cut by guitarists to help the guitar sound different from the horn section, keyboards and other instruments. Given the focus on providing a rhythmic groove, and the lack of emphasis on instrumental guitar melodies and guitar solos, sustain is not sought out by funk rhythm guitarists. Funk rhythm guitarists use compressor volume-control effects to enhance the sound of muted notes, which boosts the \"clucking\" sound and adds \"percussive excitement to funk rhythms\" (an approach used by Nile Rodgers).",
"title": "Characteristics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 24,
"text": "Guitarist Eddie Hazel from Funkadelic is notable for his solo improvisation (particularly for the solo on \"Maggot Brain\") and guitar riffs, the tone of which was shaped by a Maestro FZ-1 Fuzz-Tone pedal. Hazel, along with guitarist Ernie Isley of the Isley Brothers, was influenced by Jimi Hendrix's improvised, wah-wah infused solos. Ernie Isley was tutored at an early age by Hendrix, when Hendrix was a part of the Isley Brothers backing band and temporarily lived in the Isleys' household. Funk guitarists use the wah-wah sound effect along with muting the notes to create a percussive sound for their guitar riffs. The phaser effect is often used in funk and R&B guitar playing for its filter sweeping sound effect, an example being the Isley Brothers' song \"Who's That Lady\". Michael Hampton, another P-Funk guitarist, was able to play Hazel's virtuosic solo on \"Maggot Brain\", using a solo approach that added in string bends and Hendrix-style feedback.",
"title": "Characteristics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 25,
"text": "A range of keyboard instruments are used in funk. Acoustic piano is used in funk, including in \"September\" by Earth Wind & Fire and \"Will It Go Round in Circles\" by Billy Preston. The electric piano is used on songs such as Herbie Hancock's \"Chameleon\" (a Fender Rhodes) and \"Mercy, Mercy, Mercy\" by Joe Zawinul (a Wurlitzer). The clavinet is used for its percussive tone, and it can be heard in songs such as Stevie Wonder's \"Superstition\" and \"Higher Ground\" and Bill Withers' \"Use Me\". The Hammond B-3 organ is used in funk, in songs such as \"Cissy Strut\" by The Meters and \"Love the One You're With\" (with Aretha Franklin singing and Billy Preston on keyboards).",
"title": "Characteristics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 26,
"text": "Bernie Worrell's range of keyboards from his recordings with Parliament Funkadelic demonstrate the wide range of keyboards used in funk, as they include the Hammond organ (\"Funky Woman\", \"Hit It and Quit It\", \"Wars of Armageddon\"); RMI electric piano (\"I Wanna Know If It's Good to You?\", \"Free Your Mind\", \"Loose Booty\"); acoustic piano (\"Funky Dollar Bill\", \"Jimmy's Got a Little Bit of Bitch in Him\"); clavinet (\"Joyful Process\", \"Up for the Down Stroke\", \"Red Hot Mama\"); Minimoog synthesizer (\"Atmosphere\", \"Flash Light\", \"Aqua Boogie\", \"Knee Deep\", \"Let's Take It to the Stage\"); and ARP string ensemble synth (\"Chocolate City\", \"Give Up the Funk (Tear the Roof off the Sucker)\", \"Undisco Kidd\").",
"title": "Characteristics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 27,
"text": "Synthesizers were used in funk both to add to the deep sound of the electric bass, or even to replace the electric bass altogether in some songs. Funk synthesizer bass, most often a Minimoog, was used because it could create layered sounds and new electronic tones that were not feasible on electric bass.",
"title": "Characteristics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 28,
"text": "In the 1970s, funk used many of the same vocal styles that were used in African-American music in the 1960s, including singing influences from blues, gospel, jazz and doo-wop. Like these other African-American styles, funk used \"[y]ells, shouts, hollers, moans, humming, and melodic riffs\", along with styles such as call and response and narration of stories (like the African oral tradition approach). The call and response in funk can be between the lead singer and the band members who act as backup vocalists.",
"title": "Characteristics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 29,
"text": "As funk emerged from soul, the vocals in funk share soul's approach; however, funk vocals tend to be \"more punctuated, energetic, rhythmically percussive[,] and less embellished\" with ornaments, and the vocal lines tend to resemble horn parts and have \"pushed\" rhythms. Funk bands such as Earth, Wind & Fire have harmony vocal parts. Songs like \"Super Bad\" by James Brown included \"double-voice\" along with \"yells, shouts and screams\". Funk singers used a \"black aesthetic\" to perform that made use of \"colorful and lively exchange of gestures, facial expressions, body posture, and vocal phrases\" to create an engaging performance.",
"title": "Characteristics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 30,
"text": "The lyrics in funk music addressed issues faced by the African American community in the United States during the 1970s, which arose due to the move away from an industrial, working-class economy to an information economy, which harmed the Black working class. Funk songs by The Ohio Players, Earth, Wind & Fire, and James Brown raised issues faced by lower-income Blacks in their song lyrics, such as poor \"economic conditions and themes of poor inner-city life in the black communities\".",
"title": "Characteristics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 31,
"text": "The Funkadelic song \"One Nation Under A Groove\" (1978) is about the challenges that Blacks overcame during the 1960s civil rights movement, and it includes an exhortation for Blacks in the 1970s to capitalize on the new \"social and political opportunities\" that had become available in the 1970s. The Isley Brothers song \"Fight the Power\" (1975) has a political message. Parliament's song \"Chocolate City\" (1975) metaphorically refers to Washington, D.C., and other US cities that have a mainly Black population, and it draws attention to the potential power that Black voters wield and suggests that a Black President be considered in the future.",
"title": "Characteristics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 32,
"text": "The political themes of funk songs and the aiming of the messages to a Black audience echoed the new image of Blacks that was created in Blaxploitation films, which depicted \"African-American men and women standing their ground and fighting for what was right\". Both funk and Blaxploitation films addressed issues faced by Blacks and told stories from a Black perspective. Another link between 1970s funk and Blaxploitation films is that many of these films used funk soundtracks (e.g., Curtis Mayfield for Superfly; James Brown and Fred Wesley for Black Caesar and War for Youngblood).",
"title": "Characteristics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 33,
"text": "Funk songs included metaphorical language that was understood best by listeners who were \"familiar with the black aesthetic and [black] vernacular\". For example, funk songs included expressions such as \"shake your money maker\", \"funk yourself right out\" and \"move your boogie body\". Another example is the use of \"bad\" in the song \"Super Bad\" (1970), which black listeners knew meant \"good\" or \"great\".",
"title": "Characteristics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 34,
"text": "In the 1970s, to get around radio obscenity restrictions, funk artists would use words that sounded like non-allowed words and double entendres to get around these restrictions. For example, The Ohio Players had a song entitled \"Fopp\" which referred to \"Fopp me right, don't you fopp me wrong/We'll be foppin' all night long...\". Some funk songs used made-up words which suggested that they were \"writing lyrics in a constant haze of marijuana smoke\", such as Parliament's \"Aqua Boogie (A Psychoalphadiscobetabioaquadoloop)\", which includes words such as \"bioaquadooloop\". The mainstream white listener base was often not able to understand funk's lyrical messages, which contributed to funk's lack of popular music chart success with white audiences during the 1970s.",
"title": "Characteristics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 35,
"text": "Horn section arrangements with groups of brass instruments are often used in funk songs. Funk horn sections could include saxophone (often tenor sax), trumpet, trombone, and for larger horn sections, such as quintets and sextets, a baritone sax. Horn sections played \"rhythmic and syncopated\" parts, often with \"offbeat phrases\" that emphasize \"rhythmic displacement\". Funk song introductions are an important place for horn arrangements.",
"title": "Characteristics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 36,
"text": "Funk horn sections performed in a \"rhythmic percussive style\" that mimicked the approach used by funk rhythm guitarists. Horn sections would \"punctuate\" the lyrics by playing in the spaces between vocals, using \"short staccato rhythmic blast[s]\". Notable funk horn players included Alfred \"PeeWee\" Ellis, trombonist Fred Wesley, and alto sax player Maceo Parker. Notable funk horn sections including the Phoenix Horns (with Earth, Wind & Fire), the Horny Horns (with Parliament), the Memphis Horns (with Isaac Hayes), and MFSB (with Curtis Mayfield).",
"title": "Characteristics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 37,
"text": "The instruments in funk horn sections varied. If there were two horn players, it could be trumpet and sax, trumpet and trombone, or two saxes. A standard horn trio would consist of trumpet, sax, and trombone, but trios of one trumpet with two saxes, or two trumpets with one sax, were also fairly common. A quartet would be set up the same as a standard horn trio, but with an extra trumpet, sax, or (less frequently) trombone player. Quintets would either be a trio of saxes (typically alto/tenor/baritone, or tenor/tenor/baritone) with a trumpet and a trombone, or a pair each of trumpets and saxes with one trombone. With six instruments, the horn section would usually be two trumpets, three saxes, and a trombone.",
"title": "Characteristics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 38,
"text": "Notable songs with funk horn sections include:",
"title": "Characteristics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 39,
"text": "In bands or shows where hiring a horn section is not feasible, a keyboardist can play the horn parts on a synthesizer with brass patches; however, choosing an authentic-sounding synthesizer and brass patch is important. In the 2010s, with micro-MIDI synths, it may even have been possible to have another instrumentalist play the keyboard brass parts, thus enabling the keyboardist to continue to comp throughout the song.",
"title": "Characteristics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 40,
"text": "Funk bands in the 1970s adopted Afro-American fashion and style, including \"Bell-bottom pants, platform shoes, hoop earring[s], Afros [hairstyles], leather vests,... beaded necklaces\", dashiki shirts, jumpsuits and boots. In contrast to earlier bands such as The Temptations, which wore \"matching suits\" and \"neat haircuts\" to appeal to white mainstream audiences, funk bands adopted an \"African spirit\" in their outfits and style. George Clinton and Parliament are known for their imaginative costumes and \"freedom of dress\", which included bedsheets acting as robes and capes.",
"title": "Characteristics"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 41,
"text": "Funk was formed through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African Americans in the mid-20th century. Musicologist Anne Danielsen wrote that funk might be placed in the lineage of rhythm and blues, jazz, and soul. Sociologist Darby E. Southgate wrote that funk is \"an amalgam of gospel, soul, jazz fusion, rhythm and blues, and black rock.\"",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 42,
"text": "The distinctive characteristics of African-American musical expression are rooted in sub-Saharan African music traditions, and find their earliest expression in spirituals, work chants/songs, praise shouts, gospel, blues, and \"body rhythms\" (hambone, patting juba, and ring shout clapping and stomping patterns).",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 43,
"text": "Like other styles of African-American musical expression including jazz, soul music and R&B, funk music accompanied many protest movements during and after the Civil Rights Movement. Funk allowed everyday experiences to be expressed to challenge daily struggles and hardships fought by lower and working class communities.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 44,
"text": "Gerhard Kubik notes that with the exception of New Orleans, early blues lacked complex polyrhythms, and there was a \"very specific absence of asymmetric time-line patterns (key patterns) in virtually all early twentieth century African-American music ... only in some New Orleans genres does a hint of simple time line patterns occasionally appear in the form of transient so-called 'stomp' patterns or stop-time chorus. These do not function in the same way as African time lines.\"",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 45,
"text": "In the late 1940s this changed somewhat when the two-celled time line structure was brought into New Orleans blues. New Orleans musicians were especially receptive to Afro-Cuban influences precisely at the time when R&B was first forming. Dave Bartholomew and Professor Longhair (Henry Roeland Byrd) incorporated Afro-Cuban instruments, as well as the clave pattern and related two-celled figures in songs such as \"Carnival Day\" (Bartholomew 1949) and \"Mardi Gras In New Orleans\" (Longhair 1949). Robert Palmer reports that, in the 1940s, Professor Longhair listened to and played with musicians from the islands and \"fell under the spell of Perez Prado's mambo records.\" Professor Longhair's particular style was known locally as rumba-boogie.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 46,
"text": "One of Longhair's great contributions was his particular approach of adopting two-celled, clave-based patterns into New Orleans rhythm and blues (R&B). Longhair's rhythmic approach became a basic template of funk. According to Dr. John (Malcolm John \"Mac\" Rebennack Jr.), the Professor \"put funk into music ... Longhair's thing had a direct bearing I'd say on a large portion of the funk music that evolved in New Orleans.\" In his \"Mardi Gras in New Orleans\", the pianist employs the 2-3 clave onbeat/offbeat motif in a rumba-boogie \"guajeo\".",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 47,
"text": "The syncopated, but straight subdivision feel of Cuban music (as opposed to swung subdivisions) took root in New Orleans R&B during this time. Alexander Stewart states: \"Eventually, musicians from outside of New Orleans began to learn some of the rhythmic practices [of the Crescent City]. Most important of these were James Brown and the drummers and arrangers he employed. Brown's early repertoire had used mostly shuffle rhythms, and some of his most successful songs were 12/8 ballads (e.g. \"Please, Please, Please\" (1956), \"Bewildered\" (1961), \"I Don't Mind\" (1961)). Brown's change to a funkier brand of soul required 4/4 metre and a different style of drumming.\" Stewart makes the point: \"The singular style of rhythm & blues that emerged from New Orleans in the years after World War II played an important role in the development of funk. In a related development, the underlying rhythms of American popular music underwent a basic, yet generally unacknowledged transition from triplet or shuffle feel to even or straight eighth notes.\"",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 48,
"text": "James Brown credited Little Richard's 1950s R&B road band, The Upsetters from New Orleans, as \"the first to put the funk into the rhythm\" of rock and roll. Following his temporary exit from secular music to become an evangelist in 1957, some of Little Richard's band members joined Brown and the Famous Flames, beginning a long string of hits for them in 1958. By the mid-1960s, James Brown had developed his signature groove that emphasized the downbeat—with heavy emphasis on the first beat of every measure to etch his distinctive sound, rather than the backbeat that typified African-American music. Brown often cued his band with the command \"On the one!,\" changing the percussion emphasis/accent from the one-two-three-four backbeat of traditional soul music to the one-two-three-four downbeat – but with an even-note syncopated guitar rhythm (on quarter notes two and four) featuring a hard-driving, repetitive brassy swing. This one-three beat launched the shift in Brown's signature music style, starting with his 1964 hit single, \"Out of Sight\" and his 1965 hits, \"Papa's Got a Brand New Bag\" and \"I Got You (I Feel Good)\".",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 49,
"text": "Brown's style of funk was based on interlocking, contrapuntal parts: syncopated basslines, 16th beat drum patterns, and syncopated guitar riffs. The main guitar ostinatos for \"Ain't it Funky\" (c. late 1960s) are an example of Brown's refinement of New Orleans funk— an irresistibly danceable riff, stripped down to its rhythmic essence. On \"Ain't it Funky\" the tonal structure is barebones. Brown's innovations led to him and his band becoming the seminal funk act; they also pushed the funk music style further to the forefront with releases such as \"Cold Sweat\" (1967), \"Mother Popcorn\" (1969) and \"Get Up (I Feel Like Being A) Sex Machine\" (1970), discarding even the twelve-bar blues featured in his earlier music. Instead, Brown's music was overlaid with \"catchy, anthemic vocals\" based on \"extensive vamps\" in which he also used his voice as \"a percussive instrument with frequent rhythmic grunts and with rhythm-section patterns ... [resembling] West African polyrhythms\" – a tradition evident in African-American work songs and chants. Throughout his career, Brown's frenzied vocals, frequently punctuated with screams and grunts, channeled the \"ecstatic ambiance of the black church\" in a secular context.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 50,
"text": "After 1965, Brown's bandleader and arranger was Alfred \"Pee Wee\" Ellis. Ellis credits Clyde Stubblefield's adoption of New Orleans drumming techniques, as the basis of modern funk: \"If, in a studio, you said 'play it funky' that could imply almost anything. But 'give me a New Orleans beat' – you got exactly what you wanted. And Clyde Stubblefield was just the epitome of this funky drumming.\" Stewart states that the popular feel was passed along from \"New Orleans—through James Brown's music, to the popular music of the 1970s.\" Concerning the various funk motifs, Stewart states that this model \"...is different from a time line (such as clave and tresillo) in that it is not an exact pattern, but more of a loose organizing principle.\"",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 51,
"text": "In a 1990 interview, Brown offered his reason for switching the rhythm of his music: \"I changed from the upbeat to the downbeat ... Simple as that, really.\" According to Maceo Parker, Brown's former saxophonist, playing on the downbeat was at first hard for him and took some getting used to. Reflecting back to his early days with Brown's band, Parker reported that he had difficulty playing \"on the one\" during solo performances, since he was used to hearing and playing with the accent on the second beat.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 52,
"text": "A new group of musicians began to further develop the \"funk rock\" approach. Innovations were prominently made by George Clinton, with his bands Parliament and Funkadelic. Together, they produced a new kind of funk sound heavily influenced by jazz and psychedelic rock. The two groups shared members and are often referred to collectively as \"Parliament-Funkadelic\". The breakout popularity of Parliament-Funkadelic gave rise to the term \"P-Funk\", which referred to the music by George Clinton's bands, and defined a new subgenre. Clinton played a principal role in several other bands, including Parlet, the Horny Horns, and the Brides of Funkenstein, all part of the P-Funk conglomerate. \"P-funk\" also came to mean something in its quintessence, of superior quality, or sui generis.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 53,
"text": "Following the work of Jimi Hendrix in the late 1960s, artists such as Sly and the Family Stone combined the psychedelic rock of Hendrix with funk, borrowing wah pedals, fuzz boxes, echo chambers, and vocal distorters from the former, as well as blues rock and jazz. In the following years, groups such as Clinton's Parliament-Funkadelic continued this sensibility, employing synthesizers and rock-oriented guitar work.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 54,
"text": "Other musical groups picked up on the rhythms and vocal style developed by James Brown and his band, and the funk style began to grow. Dyke and the Blazers, based in Phoenix, Arizona, released \"Funky Broadway\" in 1967, perhaps the first record of the soul music era to have the word \"funky\" in the title. In 1969 Jimmy McGriff released Electric Funk, featuring his distinctive organ over a blazing horn section. Meanwhile, on the West Coast, Charles Wright & the Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band was releasing funk tracks beginning with its first album in 1967, culminating in the classic single \"Express Yourself\" in 1971. Also from the West Coast area, more specifically Oakland, California, came the band Tower of Power (TOP), which formed in 1968. Their debut album, East Bay Grease, released 1970, is considered a milestone in funk. Throughout the 1970s, TOP had many hits, and the band helped to make funk music a successful genre, with a broader audience.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 55,
"text": "In 1970, Sly & the Family Stone's \"Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)\" reached #1 on the charts, as did \"Family Affair\" in 1971. Notably, these afforded the group and the genre crossover success and greater recognition, yet such success escaped comparatively talented and moderately popular funk band peers. The Meters defined funk in New Orleans, starting with their top ten R&B hits \"Sophisticated Cissy\" and \"Cissy Strut\" in 1969. Another group who defined funk around this time were the Isley Brothers, whose funky 1969 #1 R&B hit, \"It's Your Thing\", signaled a breakthrough in African-American music, bridging the gaps of the jazzy sounds of Brown, the psychedelic rock of Jimi Hendrix, and the upbeat soul of Sly & the Family Stone and Mother's Finest. The Temptations, who had previously helped to define the \"Motown Sound\" – a distinct blend of pop-soul – adopted this new psychedelic sound towards the end of the 1960s as well. Their producer, Norman Whitfield, became an innovator in the field of psychedelic soul, creating hits with a newer, funkier sound for many Motown acts, including \"War\" by Edwin Starr, \"Smiling Faces Sometimes\" by the Undisputed Truth and \"Papa Was A Rollin' Stone\" by the Temptations. Motown producers Frank Wilson (\"Keep On Truckin'\") and Hal Davis (\"Dancing Machine\") followed suit. Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye also adopted funk beats for some of their biggest hits in the 1970s, such as \"Superstition\" and \"You Haven't Done Nothin'\", and \"I Want You\" and \"Got To Give It Up\", respectively.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 56,
"text": "The 1970s were the era of highest mainstream visibility for funk music. In addition to Parliament Funkadelic, artists like Sly and the Family Stone, Rufus & Chaka Khan, Bootsy's Rubber Band, the Isley Brothers, Ohio Players, Con Funk Shun, Kool and the Gang, the Bar-Kays, Commodores, Roy Ayers, Curtis Mayfield, and Stevie Wonder, among others, got radio play. Disco music owed a great deal to funk. Many early disco songs and performers came directly from funk-oriented backgrounds. Some disco music hits, such as all of Barry White's hits, \"Kung Fu Fighting\" by Biddu and Carl Douglas, Donna Summer's \"Love To Love You Baby\", Diana Ross' \"Love Hangover\", KC and the Sunshine Band's \"I'm Your Boogie Man\", \"I'm Every Woman\" by Chaka Khan (also known as the Queen of Funk), and Chic's \"Le Freak\" conspicuously include riffs and rhythms derived from funk. In 1976, Rose Royce scored a number-one hit with a purely dance-funk record, \"Car Wash\". Even with the arrival of disco, funk became increasingly popular well into the early 1980s.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 57,
"text": "Funk music was also exported to Africa, and it melded with African singing and rhythms to form Afrobeat. Nigerian musician Fela Kuti, who was heavily influenced by James Brown's music, is credited with creating the style and terming it \"Afrobeat\".",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 58,
"text": "Jazz-funk is a subgenre of jazz music characterized by a strong back beat (groove), electrified sounds and an early prevalence of analog synthesizers. The integration of funk, soul, and R&B music and styles into jazz resulted in the creation of a genre whose spectrum is quite wide and ranges from strong jazz improvisation to soul, funk or disco with jazz arrangements, jazz riffs, and jazz solos, and sometimes soul vocals. Jazz-funk is primarily an American genre, where it was popular throughout the 1970s and the early 1980s, but it also achieved noted appeal on the club circuit in England during the mid-1970s. Similar genres include soul jazz and jazz fusion, but neither entirely overlap with jazz-funk. Notably jazz-funk is less vocal, more arranged and featured more improvisation than soul jazz, and retains a strong feel of groove and R&B versus some of the jazz fusion production.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 59,
"text": "In the 1980s, largely as a reaction against what was seen as the over-indulgence of disco, many of the core elements that formed the foundation of the P-Funk formula began to be usurped by electronic instruments, drum machines and synthesizers. Horn sections of saxophones and trumpets were replaced by synth keyboards, and the horns that remained were given simplified lines, and few horn solos were given to soloists. The classic electric keyboards of funk, like the Hammond B3 organ, the Hohner Clavinet and/or the Fender Rhodes piano, began to be replaced by the new digital synthesizers such as the Prophet-5, Oberheim OB-X, and Yamaha DX7. Electronic drum machines such as the Roland TR-808, Linn LM-1, and Oberheim DMX began to replace the \"funky drummers\" of the past, and the slap and pop style of bass playing were often replaced by synth keyboard basslines. Lyrics of funk songs began to change from suggestive double entendres to more graphic and sexually explicit content.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 60,
"text": "Influenced by Kraftwerk, the Afroamerican rap DJ Afrika Bambaataa developed electro-funk, a minimalist machine-driven style of funk with his single \"Planet Rock\" in 1982. Also known simply as electro, this style of funk was driven by synthesizers and the electronic rhythm of the TR-808 drum machine. The single \"Renegades of Funk\" followed in 1983. Michael Jackson was also influenced by electro-funk. In 1980, techno-funk music used the TR-808 programmable drum machine, while Kraftwerk's sound influenced later electro-funk artists such as Mantronix.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 61,
"text": "Rick James was the first funk musician of the 1980s to assume the funk mantle dominated by P-Funk in the 1970s. His 1981 album Street Songs, with the singles \"Give It to Me Baby\" and \"Super Freak\", resulted in James becoming a star, and paved the way for the future direction of explicitness in funk.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 62,
"text": "Prince formed the Time, originally conceived as an opening act for him and based on his \"Minneapolis sound\", a hybrid mixture of funk, R&B, rock, pop and new wave. Eventually, the band went on to define their own style of stripped-down funk based on tight musicianship and sexual themes.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 63,
"text": "Similar to Prince, other bands emerged during the P-Funk era and began to incorporate uninhibited sexuality, dance-oriented themes, synthesizers and other electronic technologies to continue to craft funk hits. These included Cameo, Zapp, the Gap Band, the Bar-Kays, and the Dazz Band, who all found their biggest hits in the early 1980s. By the latter half of the 1980s, pure funk had lost its commercial impact; however, pop artists from Michael Jackson to Culture Club often used funk beats.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 64,
"text": "While funk was driven away from radio by slick commercial hip hop, contemporary R&B and new jack swing, its influence continued to spread. Artists like Steve Arrington and Cameo still received major airplay and had huge global followings. Rock bands began adopting elements of funk into their sound, creating new combinations of \"funk rock\" and \"funk metal\". Extreme, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Living Colour, Jane's Addiction, Prince, Primus, Urban Dance Squad, Fishbone, Faith No More, Rage Against the Machine, Infectious Grooves, and Incubus spread the approach and styles garnered from funk pioneers to new audiences in the mid-to-late 1980s and the 1990s. These bands later inspired the underground mid-1990s funkcore movement and current funk-inspired artists like Outkast, Malina Moye, Van Hunt, and Gnarls Barkley.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 65,
"text": "In the 1990s, artists like Me'shell Ndegeocello, Brooklyn Funk Essentials and the (predominantly UK-based) acid jazz movement—including artists and bands such as Jamiroquai, Incognito, Galliano, Omar, Los Tetas and the Brand New Heavies—carried on with strong elements of funk. However, they never came close to reaching the commercial success of funk in its heyday—with the exception of Jamiroquai, whose album Travelling Without Moving sold about 11.5 million units worldwide and remains the best-selling funk album in history. Meanwhile, in Australia and New Zealand, bands playing the pub circuit, such as Supergroove, Skunkhour and the Truth, preserved a more instrumental form of funk.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 66,
"text": "Since the late 1980s, hip hop artists have regularly sampled old funk tunes. James Brown is said to be the most sampled artist in the history of hip hop, while P-Funk is the second most sampled artist; samples of old Parliament and Funkadelic songs formed the basis of West Coast G-funk.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 67,
"text": "Original beats that feature funk-styled bass or rhythm guitar riffs are also not uncommon. Dr. Dre (considered the progenitor of the G-funk genre) has freely acknowledged to being heavily influenced by George Clinton's psychedelia: \"Back in the 70s that's all people were doing: getting high, wearing Afros, bell-bottoms and listening to Parliament-Funkadelic. That's why I called my album The Chronic and based my music and the concepts like I did: because his shit was a big influence on my music. Very big\". Digital Underground was a large contributor to the rebirth of funk in the 1990s by educating their listeners with knowledge about the history of funk and its artists. George Clinton branded Digital Underground as \"Sons of the P\", as their second full-length release is also titled. DU's first release, Sex Packets, was full of funk samples, with the most widely known, \"The Humpty Dance\", sampling Parliament's \"Let's Play House\". A very strong funk album of DU's was their 1996 release Future Rhythm. Much of contemporary club dance music, drum and bass in particular has heavily sampled funk drum breaks.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 68,
"text": "Funk is a major element of certain artists identified with the jam band scene of the late 1990s and 2000s. In the late 1990s, the band Phish developed a live sound called \"cow funk\" (a.k.a. \"space funk\"), which consisted of extended danceable deep bass grooves, and often emphasized heavy \"wah\" pedal and other psychedelic effects from the guitar player and layered Clavinet from the keyboard player. Phish began playing funkier jams in their sets around 1996, and 1998's The Story of the Ghost was heavily influenced by funk. While Phish's funk was traditional in the sense that it often accented beat 1 of the 4/4 time signature, it was also highly exploratory and involved building jams towards energetic peaks before transitioning into highly composed progressive rock and roll.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 69,
"text": "Medeski Martin & Wood, Robert Randolph & the Family Band, Galactic, Jam Underground, Soulive, and Karl Denson's Tiny Universe all drew heavily from the funk tradition. Dumpstaphunk builds upon the New Orleans tradition of funk, with their gritty, low-ended grooves and soulful four-part vocals.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 70,
"text": "Since the mid-1990s the nu-funk or funk revivalist scene, centered on the deep funk collectors scene, is producing new material influenced by the sounds of rare funk 45s. Labels include Desco, Soul Fire, Daptone, Timmion, Neapolitan, Bananarama, Kay-Dee, and Tramp. These labels often release on 45 rpm records. Although specializing in music for rare funk DJs, there has been some crossover into the mainstream music industry, such as Sharon Jones' 2005 appearance on Late Night with Conan O'Brien. Those who mix acid jazz, acid house, trip hop, and other genres with funk include Tom Tom Club, Brainticket, Groove Armada, et al.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 71,
"text": "During the 2000s and early 2010s, some punk funk bands such as Out Hud and Mongolian MonkFish performed in the indie rock scene. Indie band Rilo Kiley, in keeping with their tendency to explore a variety of rockish styles, incorporated funk into their song \"The Moneymaker\" on the album Under the Blacklight. Prince, with his later albums, gave a rebirth to the funk sound with songs like \"The Everlasting Now\", \"Musicology\", \"Ol' Skool Company\", and \"Black Sweat\". Particle, for instance, is part of a scene which combined the elements of digital music made with computers, synthesizers, and samples with analog instruments, sounds, and improvisational and compositional elements of funk.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 72,
"text": "From the early 1970s onwards, funk has developed various subgenres. While George Clinton and the Parliament were making a harder variation of funk, bands such as Kool and the Gang, Ohio Players and Earth, Wind and Fire were making disco-influenced funk music.",
"title": "Derivatives"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 73,
"text": "Funk rock (also written as funk-rock or funk/rock) fuses funk and rock elements. Its earliest incarnation was heard in the late '60s through the mid-'70s by musicians such as Jimi Hendrix, Frank Zappa, Gary Wright, David Bowie, Mother's Finest, and Funkadelic on their earlier albums.",
"title": "Derivatives"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 74,
"text": "Many instruments may be incorporated into funk rock, but the overall sound is defined by a definitive bass or drum beat and electric guitars. The bass and drum rhythms are influenced by funk music but with more intensity, while the guitar can be funk- or rock-influenced, usually with distortion. Prince, Jesse Johnson, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Fishbone are major artists in funk rock.",
"title": "Derivatives"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 75,
"text": "The term \"avant-funk\" has been used to describe acts who combined funk with art rock's concerns. Simon Frith described the style as an application of progressive rock mentality to rhythm rather than melody and harmony. Simon Reynolds characterized avant-funk as a kind of psychedelia in which \"oblivion was to be attained not through rising above the body, rather through immersion in the physical, self loss through animalism.\"",
"title": "Derivatives"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 76,
"text": "Acts in the genre include German krautrock band Can, American funk artists Sly Stone and George Clinton, and a wave of early 1980s UK and US artists (including Public Image Ltd, Talking Heads, the Pop Group, Gang of Four, Bauhaus, Cabaret Voltaire, Defunkt, A Certain Ratio, and 23 Skidoo) who embraced black dance music styles such as disco and funk. The artists of the late 1970s New York no wave scene also explored avant-funk, influenced by figures such as Ornette Coleman. Reynolds noted these artists' preoccupations with issues such as alienation, repression and technocracy of Western modernity.",
"title": "Derivatives"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 77,
"text": "Go-go originated in the Washington, D.C., area with which it remains associated, along with other spots in the Mid-Atlantic. Inspired by singers such as Chuck Brown, the \"Godfather of Go-go\", it is a blend of funk, rhythm and blues, and early hip hop, with a focus on lo-fi percussion instruments and in-person jamming in place of dance tracks. As such, it is primarily a dance music with an emphasis on live audience call and response. Go-go rhythms are also incorporated into street percussion.",
"title": "Derivatives"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 78,
"text": "Boogie is an electronic music mainly influenced by funk and post-disco. The minimalist approach of boogie, consisting of synthesizers and keyboards, helped to establish electro and house music. Boogie, unlike electro, emphasizes the slapping techniques of bass guitar but also bass synthesizers. Artists include Vicky \"D\", Komiko, Peech Boys, Kashif, and later Evelyn King.",
"title": "Derivatives"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 79,
"text": "Electro funk is a hybrid of electronic music and funk. It essentially follows the same form as funk, and retains funk's characteristics, but is made entirely (or partially) with a use of electronic instruments such as the TR-808. Vocoders or talkboxes were commonly implemented to transform the vocals. The pioneering electro band Zapp commonly used such instruments in their music. Bootsy Collins also began to incorporate a more electronic sound on later solo albums. Other artists include Herbie Hancock, Afrika Bambaataa, Egyptian Lover, Vaughan Mason & Crew, Midnight Star and Cybotron.",
"title": "Derivatives"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 80,
"text": "Funk metal (sometimes typeset differently such as funk-metal) is a fusion genre of music which emerged in the 1980s, as part of the alternative metal movement. It typically incorporates elements of funk and heavy metal (often thrash metal), and in some cases other styles, such as punk and experimental music. It features hard-driving heavy metal guitar riffs, the pounding bass rhythms characteristic of funk, and sometimes hip hop-style rhymes into an alternative rock approach to songwriting. A primary example is the all-African-American rock band Living Colour, who have been said to be \"funk-metal pioneers\" by Rolling Stone. During the late 1980s and early 1990s, the style was most prevalent in California – particularly Los Angeles and San Francisco.",
"title": "Derivatives"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 81,
"text": "G-funk is a fusion genre of music which combines gangsta rap and funk. It is generally considered to have been invented by West Coast rappers and made famous by Dr. Dre. It incorporates multi-layered and melodic synthesizers, slow hypnotic grooves, a deep bass, background female vocals, the extensive sampling of P-Funk tunes, and a high-pitched portamento saw wave synthesizer lead. Unlike other earlier rap acts that also utilized funk samples (such as EPMD and the Bomb Squad), G-funk often used fewer, unaltered samples per song.",
"title": "Derivatives"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 82,
"text": "Timba is a form of funky Cuban popular dance music. By 1990, several Cuban bands had incorporated elements of funk and hip-hop into their arrangements, and expanded upon the instrumentation of the traditional conjunto with an American drum set, saxophones and a two-keyboard format. Timba bands like La Charanga Habanera or Bamboleo often have horns or other instruments playing short parts of tunes by Earth, Wind and Fire, Kool and the Gang or other U.S. funk bands. While many funk motifs exhibit a clave-based structure, they are created intuitively, without a conscious intent of aligning the various parts to a guide-pattern. Timba incorporates funk motifs into an overt and intentional clave structure.",
"title": "Derivatives"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 83,
"text": "Despite funk's popularity in modern music, few people have examined the work of funk women. Notable funk women include Chaka Khan, Labelle, Brides of Funkenstein, Klymaxx, Mother's Finest, Lyn Collins, Betty Davis and Teena Marie. As cultural critic Cheryl Keyes explains in her essay \"She Was Too Black for Rock and Too Hard for Soul: (Re)discovering the Musical Career of Betty Mabry Davis\", most of the scholarship around funk has focused on the cultural work of men. She states that \"Betty Davis is an artist whose name has gone unheralded as a pioneer in the annals of funk and rock. Most writing on these musical genres has traditionally placed male artists like Jimi Hendrix, George Clinton (of Parliament-Funkadelic), and bassist Larry Graham as trendsetters in the shaping of a rock music sensibility.\"",
"title": "Social impact"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 84,
"text": "In The Feminist Funk Power of Betty Davis and Renée Stout, Nikki A. Greene notes that Davis' provocative and controversial style helped her rise to popularity in the 1970s as she focused on sexually motivated, self-empowered subject matter. Furthermore, this affected the young artist's ability to draw large audiences and commercial success. Greene also notes that Davis was never made an official spokesperson or champion for the civil rights and feminist movements of the time, although more recently her work has become a symbol of sexual liberation for women of color. Davis' song \"If I'm In Luck I Just Might Get Picked Up\", on her self-titled debut album, sparked controversy, and was banned by the Detroit NAACP. Maureen Mahan, a musicologist and anthropologist, examines Davis' impact on the music industry and the American public in her article \"They Say She's Different: Race, Gender, Genre, and the Liberated Black Femininity of Betty Davis\".",
"title": "Social impact"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 85,
"text": "Laina Dawes, the author of What Are You Doing Here: A Black Woman's Life and Liberation in Heavy Metal, believes respectability politics is the reason artists like Davis do not get the same recognition as their male counterparts: \"I blame what I call respectability politics as part of the reason the funk-rock some of the women from the '70s aren't better known. Despite the importance of their music and presence, many of the funk-rock females represented the aggressive behavior and sexuality that many people were not comfortable with.\"",
"title": "Social impact"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 86,
"text": "According to Francesca T. Royster, in Rickey Vincent's book Funk: The Music, The People, and The Rhythm of The One, he analyzes the impact of Labelle but only in limited sections. Royster criticizes Vincent's analysis of the group, stating: \"It is a shame, then, that Vincent gives such minimal attention to Labelle's performances in his study. This reflects, unfortunately, a still consistent sexism that shapes the evaluation of funk music. In Funk, Vincent's analysis of Labelle is brief—sharing a single paragraph with the Pointer Sisters in his three-page sub chapter, 'Funky Women.' He writes that while 'Lady Marmalade' 'blew the lid off of the standards of sexual innuendo and skyrocketed the group's star status,' the band's 'glittery image slipped into the disco undertow and was ultimately wasted as the trio broke up in search of solo status\" (Vincent, 1996, 192). Many female artists who are considered to be in the genre of funk, also share songs in the disco, soul, and R&B genres; Labelle falls into this category of women who are split among genres due to a critical view of music theory and the history of sexism in the United States.",
"title": "Social impact"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 87,
"text": "In recent years, artists like Janelle Monáe have opened the doors for more scholarship and analysis on the female impact on the funk music genre. Monáe's style bends concepts of gender, sexuality, and self-expression in a manner similar to the way some male pioneers in funk broke boundaries. Her albums center on Afro-futuristic concepts, centering on elements of female and black empowerment and visions of a dystopian future. In his article \"Janelle Monáe and Afro-sonic Feminist Funk\", Matthew Valnes writes that Monae's involvement in the funk genre is juxtaposed with the traditional view of funk as a male-centered genre. Valnes acknowledges that funk is male-dominated, but provides insight to the societal circumstances that led to this situation.",
"title": "Social impact"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 88,
"text": "Monáe's influences include her mentor Prince, Funkadelic, Lauryn Hill, and other funk and R&B artists, but according to Emily Lordi, \"[Betty] Davis is seldom listed among Janelle Monáe's many influences, and certainly the younger singer's high-tech concepts, virtuosic performances, and meticulously produced songs are far removed from Davis's proto-punk aesthetic. But... like Davis, she also is closely linked with a visionary male mentor (Prince). The title of Monáe's 2013 album, The Electric Lady, alludes to Hendrix's Electric Ladyland, but it also implicitly cites the coterie of women that inspired Hendrix himself: that group, called the Cosmic Ladies or Electric Ladies, was together led by Hendrix's lover Devon Wilson and Betty Davis.\"",
"title": "Social impact"
}
] |
Funk is a music genre that originated in African American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African-Americans in the mid-20th century. It deemphasizes melody and chord progressions and focuses on a strong rhythmic groove of a bassline played by an electric bassist and a drum part played by a percussionist, often at slower tempos than other popular music. Funk typically consists of a complex percussive groove with rhythm instruments playing interlocking grooves that create a "hypnotic" and "danceable" feel. It uses the same richly colored extended chords found in bebop jazz, such as minor chords with added sevenths and elevenths, and dominant seventh chords with altered ninths and thirteenths. Funk originated in the mid-1960s, with James Brown's development of a signature groove that emphasized the downbeat—with a heavy emphasis on the first beat of every measure, and the application of swung 16th notes and syncopation on all basslines, drum patterns, and guitar riffs. Rock- and psychedelia-influenced musicians Sly and the Family Stone and Parliament-Funkadelic fostered more eclectic examples of the genre beginning in the late 1960s. Other musical groups developed Brown's innovations during the 1970s and the 1980s, including Kool and the Gang, Ohio Players, Fatback Band, Jimmy Castor Bunch, Earth, Wind & Fire, B.T. Express, Shalamar, One Way, Lakeside, Dazz Band, The Gap Band, Slave, Aurra, Roger Troutman & Zapp, Con Funk Shun, Cameo, Bar-Kays and Chic. Funk derivatives include avant-funk, an avant-garde strain of funk; boogie, a hybrid of electronic music and funk; funk metal; G-funk, a mix of gangsta rap and psychedelic funk; Timba, a form of funky Cuban dance music; and funk jam. It is also the main influence of Washington go-go, a funk subgenre. Funk samples and breakbeats have been used extensively in hip hop and electronic dance music.
|
2001-07-31T21:49:15Z
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2023-12-11T12:50:10Z
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Funk
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Frequency
|
Frequency (symbol f), measured in hertz (symbol: Hz), is the number of occurrences of a repeating event per unit of time. It is also occasionally referred to as temporal frequency for clarity and to distinguish it from spatial frequency. Ordinary frequency is related to angular frequency (symbol ω, with SI unit radian per second) by a factor of 2π. The period (symbol T) is the interval of time between events, so the period is the reciprocal of the frequency: f = 1/T.
Frequency is an important parameter used in science and engineering to specify the rate of oscillatory and vibratory phenomena, such as mechanical vibrations, audio signals (sound), radio waves, and light.
For example, if a heart beats at a frequency of 120 times per minute (2 hertz), the period—the interval between beats—is half a second (60 seconds divided by 120 beats).
For cyclical phenomena such as oscillations, waves, or for examples of simple harmonic motion, the term frequency is defined as the number of cycles or repetitions per unit of time. The conventional symbol for frequency is f or ν (the Greek letter nu) is also used. The period T is the time taken to complete one cycle of an oscillation or rotation. The frequency and the period are related by the equation
The term temporal frequency is used to emphasise that the frequency is characterised by the number of occurrences of a repeating event per unit time.
The SI unit of frequency is the hertz (Hz), named after the German physicist Heinrich Hertz by the International Electrotechnical Commission in 1930. It was adopted by the CGPM (Conférence générale des poids et mesures) in 1960, officially replacing the previous name, cycle per second (cps). The SI unit for the period, as for all measurements of time, is the second. A traditional unit of frequency used with rotating mechanical devices, where it is termed rotational frequency, is revolution per minute, abbreviated r/min or rpm. 60 rpm is equivalent to one hertz.
As a matter of convenience, longer and slower waves, such as ocean surface waves, are more typically described by wave period rather than frequency. Short and fast waves, like audio and radio, are usually described by their frequency. Some commonly used conversions are listed below:
For periodic waves in nondispersive media (that is, media in which the wave speed is independent of frequency), frequency has an inverse relationship to the wavelength, λ (lambda). Even in dispersive media, the frequency f of a sinusoidal wave is equal to the phase velocity v of the wave divided by the wavelength λ of the wave:
In the special case of electromagnetic waves in vacuum, then v = c, where c is the speed of light in vacuum, and this expression becomes
When monochromatic waves travel from one medium to another, their frequency remains the same—only their wavelength and speed change.
Measurement of frequency can be done in the following ways:
Calculating the frequency of a repeating event is accomplished by counting the number of times that event occurs within a specific time period, then dividing the count by the period. For example, if 71 events occur within 15 seconds the frequency is:
If the number of counts is not very large, it is more accurate to measure the time interval for a predetermined number of occurrences, rather than the number of occurrences within a specified time. The latter method introduces a random error into the count of between zero and one count, so on average half a count. This is called gating error and causes an average error in the calculated frequency of Δ f = 1 2 T m {\textstyle \Delta f={\frac {1}{2T_{\text{m}}}}} , or a fractional error of Δ f f = 1 2 f T m {\textstyle {\frac {\Delta f}{f}}={\frac {1}{2fT_{\text{m}}}}} where T m {\displaystyle T_{\text{m}}} is the timing interval and f {\displaystyle f} is the measured frequency. This error decreases with frequency, so it is generally a problem at low frequencies where the number of counts N is small.
An old method of measuring the frequency of rotating or vibrating objects is to use a stroboscope. This is an intense repetitively flashing light (strobe light) whose frequency can be adjusted with a calibrated timing circuit. The strobe light is pointed at the rotating object and the frequency adjusted up and down. When the frequency of the strobe equals the frequency of the rotating or vibrating object, the object completes one cycle of oscillation and returns to its original position between the flashes of light, so when illuminated by the strobe the object appears stationary. Then the frequency can be read from the calibrated readout on the stroboscope. A downside of this method is that an object rotating at an integer multiple of the strobing frequency will also appear stationary.
Higher frequencies are usually measured with a frequency counter. This is an electronic instrument which measures the frequency of an applied repetitive electronic signal and displays the result in hertz on a digital display. It uses digital logic to count the number of cycles during a time interval established by a precision quartz time base. Cyclic processes that are not electrical, such as the rotation rate of a shaft, mechanical vibrations, or sound waves, can be converted to a repetitive electronic signal by transducers and the signal applied to a frequency counter. As of 2018, frequency counters can cover the range up to about 100 GHz. This represents the limit of direct counting methods; frequencies above this must be measured by indirect methods.
Above the range of frequency counters, frequencies of electromagnetic signals are often measured indirectly utilizing heterodyning (frequency conversion). A reference signal of a known frequency near the unknown frequency is mixed with the unknown frequency in a nonlinear mixing device such as a diode. This creates a heterodyne or "beat" signal at the difference between the two frequencies. If the two signals are close together in frequency the heterodyne is low enough to be measured by a frequency counter. This process only measures the difference between the unknown frequency and the reference frequency. To reach higher frequencies, several stages of heterodyning can be used. Current research is extending this method to infrared and light frequencies (optical heterodyne detection).
Visible light is an electromagnetic wave, consisting of oscillating electric and magnetic fields traveling through space. The frequency of the wave determines its color: 400 THz (4×10 Hz) is red light, 800 THz (8×10 Hz) is violet light, and between these (in the range 400–800 THz) are all the other colors of the visible spectrum. An electromagnetic wave with a frequency less than 4×10 Hz will be invisible to the human eye; such waves are called infrared (IR) radiation. At even lower frequency, the wave is called a microwave, and at still lower frequencies it is called a radio wave. Likewise, an electromagnetic wave with a frequency higher than 8×10 Hz will also be invisible to the human eye; such waves are called ultraviolet (UV) radiation. Even higher-frequency waves are called X-rays, and higher still are gamma rays.
All of these waves, from the lowest-frequency radio waves to the highest-frequency gamma rays, are fundamentally the same, and they are all called electromagnetic radiation. They all travel through vacuum at the same speed (the speed of light), giving them wavelengths inversely proportional to their frequencies.
where c is the speed of light (c in vacuum or less in other media), f is the frequency and λ is the wavelength.
In dispersive media, such as glass, the speed depends somewhat on frequency, so the wavelength is not quite inversely proportional to frequency.
Sound propagates as mechanical vibration waves of pressure and displacement, in air or other substances. In general, frequency components of a sound determine its "color", its timbre. When speaking about the frequency (in singular) of a sound, it means the property that most determines its pitch.
The frequencies an ear can hear are limited to a specific range of frequencies. The audible frequency range for humans is typically given as being between about 20 Hz and 20,000 Hz (20 kHz), though the high frequency limit usually reduces with age. Other species have different hearing ranges. For example, some dog breeds can perceive vibrations up to 60,000 Hz.
In many media, such as air, the speed of sound is approximately independent of frequency, so the wavelength of the sound waves (distance between repetitions) is approximately inversely proportional to frequency.
In Europe, Africa, Australia, southern South America, most of Asia, and Russia, the frequency of the alternating current in household electrical outlets is 50 Hz (close to the tone G), whereas in North America and northern South America, the frequency of the alternating current in household electrical outlets is 60 Hz (between the tones B♭ and B; that is, a minor third above the European frequency). The frequency of the 'hum' in an audio recording can show in which of these general regions the recording was made.
Aperiodic frequency is the rate of incidence or occurrence of non-cyclic phenomena, including random processes such as radioactive decay. It is expressed with the unit of reciprocal second (s) or, in the case of radioactivity, becquerels.
It is defined as a rate, f = N/Δt, involving the number of entities counted or the number of events happened (N) during a given time duration (Δt); it is a physical quantity of type temporal rate.
|
[
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "Frequency (symbol f), measured in hertz (symbol: Hz), is the number of occurrences of a repeating event per unit of time. It is also occasionally referred to as temporal frequency for clarity and to distinguish it from spatial frequency. Ordinary frequency is related to angular frequency (symbol ω, with SI unit radian per second) by a factor of 2π. The period (symbol T) is the interval of time between events, so the period is the reciprocal of the frequency: f = 1/T.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "Frequency is an important parameter used in science and engineering to specify the rate of oscillatory and vibratory phenomena, such as mechanical vibrations, audio signals (sound), radio waves, and light.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "For example, if a heart beats at a frequency of 120 times per minute (2 hertz), the period—the interval between beats—is half a second (60 seconds divided by 120 beats).",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "For cyclical phenomena such as oscillations, waves, or for examples of simple harmonic motion, the term frequency is defined as the number of cycles or repetitions per unit of time. The conventional symbol for frequency is f or ν (the Greek letter nu) is also used. The period T is the time taken to complete one cycle of an oscillation or rotation. The frequency and the period are related by the equation",
"title": "Definitions and units "
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "The term temporal frequency is used to emphasise that the frequency is characterised by the number of occurrences of a repeating event per unit time.",
"title": "Definitions and units "
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "The SI unit of frequency is the hertz (Hz), named after the German physicist Heinrich Hertz by the International Electrotechnical Commission in 1930. It was adopted by the CGPM (Conférence générale des poids et mesures) in 1960, officially replacing the previous name, cycle per second (cps). The SI unit for the period, as for all measurements of time, is the second. A traditional unit of frequency used with rotating mechanical devices, where it is termed rotational frequency, is revolution per minute, abbreviated r/min or rpm. 60 rpm is equivalent to one hertz.",
"title": "Definitions and units "
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "As a matter of convenience, longer and slower waves, such as ocean surface waves, are more typically described by wave period rather than frequency. Short and fast waves, like audio and radio, are usually described by their frequency. Some commonly used conversions are listed below:",
"title": "Period versus frequency"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "For periodic waves in nondispersive media (that is, media in which the wave speed is independent of frequency), frequency has an inverse relationship to the wavelength, λ (lambda). Even in dispersive media, the frequency f of a sinusoidal wave is equal to the phase velocity v of the wave divided by the wavelength λ of the wave:",
"title": "In wave propagation "
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "In the special case of electromagnetic waves in vacuum, then v = c, where c is the speed of light in vacuum, and this expression becomes",
"title": "In wave propagation "
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "When monochromatic waves travel from one medium to another, their frequency remains the same—only their wavelength and speed change.",
"title": "In wave propagation "
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "Measurement of frequency can be done in the following ways:",
"title": "Measurement"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "Calculating the frequency of a repeating event is accomplished by counting the number of times that event occurs within a specific time period, then dividing the count by the period. For example, if 71 events occur within 15 seconds the frequency is:",
"title": "Measurement"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "If the number of counts is not very large, it is more accurate to measure the time interval for a predetermined number of occurrences, rather than the number of occurrences within a specified time. The latter method introduces a random error into the count of between zero and one count, so on average half a count. This is called gating error and causes an average error in the calculated frequency of Δ f = 1 2 T m {\\textstyle \\Delta f={\\frac {1}{2T_{\\text{m}}}}} , or a fractional error of Δ f f = 1 2 f T m {\\textstyle {\\frac {\\Delta f}{f}}={\\frac {1}{2fT_{\\text{m}}}}} where T m {\\displaystyle T_{\\text{m}}} is the timing interval and f {\\displaystyle f} is the measured frequency. This error decreases with frequency, so it is generally a problem at low frequencies where the number of counts N is small.",
"title": "Measurement"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "An old method of measuring the frequency of rotating or vibrating objects is to use a stroboscope. This is an intense repetitively flashing light (strobe light) whose frequency can be adjusted with a calibrated timing circuit. The strobe light is pointed at the rotating object and the frequency adjusted up and down. When the frequency of the strobe equals the frequency of the rotating or vibrating object, the object completes one cycle of oscillation and returns to its original position between the flashes of light, so when illuminated by the strobe the object appears stationary. Then the frequency can be read from the calibrated readout on the stroboscope. A downside of this method is that an object rotating at an integer multiple of the strobing frequency will also appear stationary.",
"title": "Measurement"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "Higher frequencies are usually measured with a frequency counter. This is an electronic instrument which measures the frequency of an applied repetitive electronic signal and displays the result in hertz on a digital display. It uses digital logic to count the number of cycles during a time interval established by a precision quartz time base. Cyclic processes that are not electrical, such as the rotation rate of a shaft, mechanical vibrations, or sound waves, can be converted to a repetitive electronic signal by transducers and the signal applied to a frequency counter. As of 2018, frequency counters can cover the range up to about 100 GHz. This represents the limit of direct counting methods; frequencies above this must be measured by indirect methods.",
"title": "Measurement"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 15,
"text": "Above the range of frequency counters, frequencies of electromagnetic signals are often measured indirectly utilizing heterodyning (frequency conversion). A reference signal of a known frequency near the unknown frequency is mixed with the unknown frequency in a nonlinear mixing device such as a diode. This creates a heterodyne or \"beat\" signal at the difference between the two frequencies. If the two signals are close together in frequency the heterodyne is low enough to be measured by a frequency counter. This process only measures the difference between the unknown frequency and the reference frequency. To reach higher frequencies, several stages of heterodyning can be used. Current research is extending this method to infrared and light frequencies (optical heterodyne detection).",
"title": "Measurement"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 16,
"text": "Visible light is an electromagnetic wave, consisting of oscillating electric and magnetic fields traveling through space. The frequency of the wave determines its color: 400 THz (4×10 Hz) is red light, 800 THz (8×10 Hz) is violet light, and between these (in the range 400–800 THz) are all the other colors of the visible spectrum. An electromagnetic wave with a frequency less than 4×10 Hz will be invisible to the human eye; such waves are called infrared (IR) radiation. At even lower frequency, the wave is called a microwave, and at still lower frequencies it is called a radio wave. Likewise, an electromagnetic wave with a frequency higher than 8×10 Hz will also be invisible to the human eye; such waves are called ultraviolet (UV) radiation. Even higher-frequency waves are called X-rays, and higher still are gamma rays.",
"title": "Examples"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 17,
"text": "All of these waves, from the lowest-frequency radio waves to the highest-frequency gamma rays, are fundamentally the same, and they are all called electromagnetic radiation. They all travel through vacuum at the same speed (the speed of light), giving them wavelengths inversely proportional to their frequencies.",
"title": "Examples"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 18,
"text": "where c is the speed of light (c in vacuum or less in other media), f is the frequency and λ is the wavelength.",
"title": "Examples"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 19,
"text": "In dispersive media, such as glass, the speed depends somewhat on frequency, so the wavelength is not quite inversely proportional to frequency.",
"title": "Examples"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 20,
"text": "Sound propagates as mechanical vibration waves of pressure and displacement, in air or other substances. In general, frequency components of a sound determine its \"color\", its timbre. When speaking about the frequency (in singular) of a sound, it means the property that most determines its pitch.",
"title": "Examples"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 21,
"text": "The frequencies an ear can hear are limited to a specific range of frequencies. The audible frequency range for humans is typically given as being between about 20 Hz and 20,000 Hz (20 kHz), though the high frequency limit usually reduces with age. Other species have different hearing ranges. For example, some dog breeds can perceive vibrations up to 60,000 Hz.",
"title": "Examples"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 22,
"text": "In many media, such as air, the speed of sound is approximately independent of frequency, so the wavelength of the sound waves (distance between repetitions) is approximately inversely proportional to frequency.",
"title": "Examples"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 23,
"text": "In Europe, Africa, Australia, southern South America, most of Asia, and Russia, the frequency of the alternating current in household electrical outlets is 50 Hz (close to the tone G), whereas in North America and northern South America, the frequency of the alternating current in household electrical outlets is 60 Hz (between the tones B♭ and B; that is, a minor third above the European frequency). The frequency of the 'hum' in an audio recording can show in which of these general regions the recording was made.",
"title": "Examples"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 24,
"text": "Aperiodic frequency is the rate of incidence or occurrence of non-cyclic phenomena, including random processes such as radioactive decay. It is expressed with the unit of reciprocal second (s) or, in the case of radioactivity, becquerels.",
"title": "Aperiodic frequency"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 25,
"text": "It is defined as a rate, f = N/Δt, involving the number of entities counted or the number of events happened (N) during a given time duration (Δt); it is a physical quantity of type temporal rate.",
"title": "Aperiodic frequency"
}
] |
Frequency, measured in hertz, is the number of occurrences of a repeating event per unit of time. It is also occasionally referred to as temporal frequency for clarity and to distinguish it from spatial frequency. Ordinary frequency is related to angular frequency by a factor of 2π. The period is the interval of time between events, so the period is the reciprocal of the frequency: f = 1/T. Frequency is an important parameter used in science and engineering to specify the rate of oscillatory and vibratory phenomena, such as mechanical vibrations, audio signals (sound), radio waves, and light. For example, if a heart beats at a frequency of 120 times per minute (2 hertz), the period—the interval between beats—is half a second.
|
2001-05-10T21:39:38Z
|
2023-12-05T13:23:59Z
|
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frequency
|
10,781 |
Film festival
|
A film festival is an organized, extended presentation of films in one or more cinemas or screening venues, usually in a single city or region. Increasingly, film festivals show some films outdoors. Films may be of recent date and, depending upon the festival's focus, can include international and domestic releases. Some film festivals focus on a specific filmmaker, genre of film (e.g. horror films), or subject matter. Several film festivals focus solely on presenting short films of a defined maximum length. Film festivals are typically annual events. Some film historians, including Jerry Beck, do not consider film festivals as official releases of the film.
The oldest film festival in the world is the Venice Film Festival. The most prestigious film festivals in the world, known as the "Big Five", are (listed chronologically according to the date of foundation): Venice, Cannes, Berlin (the original Big Three), Toronto, and Sundance.
The Venice Film Festival in Italy began in 1932 and is the oldest film festival still running.
Mainland Europe's biggest independent film festival is ÉCU The European Independent Film Festival, which started in 2006 and takes place every spring in Paris, France. Edinburgh International Film Festival is the longest-running festival in Great Britain as well as the longest continually running film festival in the world.
Australia's first and longest-running film festival is the Melbourne International Film Festival (1952), followed by the Sydney Film Festival (1954).
North America's first and longest-running short film festival is the Yorkton Film Festival, established in 1947. The first film festival in the United States was the Columbus International Film & Video Festival, also known as The Chris Awards, held in 1953. According to the Film Arts Foundation in San Francisco, "The Chris Awards (is) one of the most prestigious documentaries, educational, business and informational competitions in the U.S; (it is) the oldest of its kind in North America and celebrating its 54th year". It was followed four years later by the San Francisco International Film Festival, held in March 1957, which emphasized feature-length dramatic films. The festival played a major role in introducing foreign films to American audiences. Films in the first year included Akira Kurosawa's Throne of Blood and Satyajit Ray's Pather Panchali.
Today, thousands of film festivals take place around the world—from high-profile festivals such as Sundance Film Festival and Slamdance Film Festival (Park City, Utah), to horror festivals such as Terror Film Festival (Philadelphia), and the Park City Film Music Festival, the first U.S. film festival dedicated to honoring music in film.
Film Funding competitions such as Writers and Filmmakers were introduced when the cost of production could be lowered significantly and internet technology allowed for the collaboration of film production.
Film festivals have evolved significantly since the COVID-19 pandemic. Many festivals opted for virtual or hybrid festivals. The film industry, which was already in upheaval due to streaming options, has faced another major shift and movies that are showcased at festivals have an even shorter runway to online launches.
The "Big Five" film festivals are considered to be Venice, Cannes, Berlin, Toronto and Sundance.
In North America, the Toronto International Film Festival is the most popular festival. Time wrote it had "grown from its place as the most influential fall film festival to the most influential film festival, period".
The Seattle International Film Festival is credited as being the largest film festival in the United States, regularly showing over 400 films in a month across the city.
The festivals in Berlin, Cairo, Cannes, Goa, Karlovy Vary, Locarno, Mar del Plata, Moscow, San Sebastián, Shanghai, Tallinn, Tokyo, Venice, and Warsaw are accredited by the International Federation of Film Producers Associations (FIAPF) in the category of competitive feature films. As a rule, for films to compete, they must first be released during the festivals and not in any other previous venue beforehand.
Ann Arbor Film Festival started in 1963. It is the oldest continually operated experimental film festival in North America, and has become one of the premier film festivals for independent and, primarily, experimental filmmakers to showcase work.
In the U.S., Telluride Film Festival, Sundance Film Festival, Austin Film Festival, Austin's South by Southwest, NYC's Tribeca Festival, and Slamdance Film Festival are all considered significant festivals for independent film. The Zero Film Festival is significant as the first and only festival exclusive to self-financed filmmakers. The biggest independent film festival in the UK is Raindance Film Festival. The British Urban Film Festival (which specifically caters to Black and minority interests) was officially recognized in the 2020 New Year Honours list.
A few film festivals have focused on highlighting specific issue topics or subjects. These festivals have included both mainstream and independent films. Some examples include military films, health-related film festivals, and human rights film festivals.
There are festivals, especially in the US, that highlight and promote films that are made by or are about various ethnic groups and nationalities or feature the cinema from a specific foreign country. These include African-Americans, Asian-Americans, Mexican-Americans, Arabs, Italian, German, French, Palestinian, and Native American. The Deauville American Film Festival in France is devoted to the cinema of the United States.
LGBTQ+ and Women's film festivals are also popular.
The San Francisco International Film Festival, founded by Irving "Bud" Levin started in 1957, is the oldest continuously annual film festival in the United States. It highlights current trends in international filmmaking and video production with an emphasis on work that has not yet secured U.S. distribution.
The Vancouver International Film Festival, founded in 1958, is one of the largest film festivals in North America. It focuses on East Asian film, Canadian film, and nonfiction film. In 2016, there was an audience of 133,000 and 324 films.
The Toronto International Film Festival, founded by Bill Marshall, Henk Van der Kolk and Dusty Cohl, is regarded as North America's most important film festival, and is the most widely attended.
The Ottawa Canadian Film Festival, abbreviated OCanFilmFest, was co-founded by Ottawa-based filmmakers Jith Paul, Ed Kucerak and Blair Campbell in 2015, and features films of various durations and genres from filmmakers across Canada.
The Sundance Film Festival founded by Sterling Van Wagenen (then head of Wildwood, Robert Redford's company), John Earle, and Cirina Hampton Catania (both serving on the Utah Film Commission at the time) is a major festival for independent film.
The Woodstock Film Festival was launched in 2000 by filmmakers Meira Blaustein and Laurent Rejto to bring high-quality independent films to the Hudson Valley region of New York. In 2010, Indiewire named the Woodstock Film Festival among the top 50 independent film festivals worldwide.
The Regina International Film Festival and Awards (RIFFA) founded by John Thimothy, one of the top leading international film festivals in western Canada (Regina, Saskatchewan) represented 35 countries in 2018 festival. RIFFA annual Award show and red carpet arrival event is getting noticed in the contemporary film and fashion industries in Western Canada.
Toronto's Hot Docs founded by filmmaker Paul Jay, is a North American documentary film festival. Toronto has the largest number of film festivals in the world, ranging from cultural, independent, and historic films.
The Seattle International Film Festival, which screens 270 features and approximately 150 short films, is the largest American film festival in terms of the number of feature productions.
The Expresión en Corto International Film Festival is the largest competitive film festival in Mexico. It specializes in emerging talent, and is held in the last week of each July in the two colonial cities of San Miguel de Allende and Guanajuato.
Other Mexican festivals include the Guadalajara International Film Festival in Guadalajara, Oaxaca Film Fest, the Morelia International Film Festival in Morelia, Michoacan Mexico, and the Los Cabos International Film Festival founded by Scott Cross, Sean Cross, and Eduardo Sanchez Navarro, in Los Cabos, Baja Sur, Mexico are considered the most important film festivals in Latin America. In 2015, Variety called the Los Cabos International Film Festival the "Cannes of Latin America".
The Cartagena Film Festival, founded by Victor Nieto in 1960, is the oldest in Latin America. The Festival de Gramado (or Gramado Film Festival) Gramado, Brazil.
The Lima Film Festival is the main film festival of Peru and one of the most important in Latin America. It is focused in Latinamerican cinema and is organized each year by the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru.
The Valdivia International Film Festival is held annually in the city of Valdivia. It is arguable the most important film festival in Chile. There is also Filmambiente, held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, an international festival on environmental films and videos.
For Spanish-speaking countries, the Dominican International Film Festival takes place annually in Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic. As well as the Havana Film Festival was founded in 1979 and is the oldest continuous annual film festival in the Caribbean. Its focus is on Latin American cinema.
The Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival, founded in 2006, is dedicated to screening the newest films from the English-, Spanish, French- and Dutch-speaking Caribbean, as well as the region's diaspora. It also seeks to facilitate the growth of Caribbean cinema by offering a wide-ranging industry programme and networking opportunities.
The Lusca Fantastic Film Fest (formerly Puerto Rico Horror Film Fest) was also founded in 2006 and is the first and only international fantastic film festival in the Caribbean devoted to sci-fi, thriller, fantasy, dark humor, bizarre, horror, anime, adventure, virtual reality, and animation in short and feature films.
The most important European film festivals are the Venice Film Festival (late summer to early autumn), the Cannes Film Festival (late spring to early summer), and the Berlin International Film Festival (late winter to early spring), founded in 1932, 1946, and 1951 respectively. The Edinburgh International Film Festival, founded in 1946, is the world's oldest continually running film festival.
Many film festivals are dedicated exclusively to animation.
A variety of regional festivals happen in various countries. Austin Film Festival is accredited by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, which makes all their jury award-winning narrative short and animated short films eligible for an Academy Award.
There are several significant film festivals held regularly in Africa. The Cairo International Film Festival in Cairo was established in 1976, the biannual Panafrican Film and Television Festival of Ouagadougou (FESPACO) in Burkina Faso was established in 1969 and accepts competition-only films by African filmmakers and chiefly produced in Africa. The annual Durban International Film Festival in South Africa and Zanzibar International Film Festival in Tanzania has grown in importance for the film and entertainment industry, as they often screen the African premieres of many international films. The Nairobi Film Festival (NBO), which was established in 2016, with a special focus on screening exceptional films from around the world that are rarely presented in Nairobi's mainstream cinema and spotlighting the best Kenyan films, has also been growing in popularity over the years and has improved the cinema-going culture in Kenya.
The Sahara International Film Festival, held annually in the Sahrawi refugee camps in western Algeria near the border of Western Sahara, is notable as the only film festival in the world to take place in a refugee camp. The festival has the two-fold aim of providing cultural entertainment and educational opportunities to refugees, and of raising awareness of the plight of the Sahrawi people, who have been exiled from their native Western Sahara for more than three decades.
The International Film Festival of India, organized by the government of India, was founded in 1952. Chennai International Film Festival has been organized since 2002 by the Indo Cine Appreciation Foundation (ICAF), Government of Tamil Nadu, the South Indian Film Chamber of Commerce and the Film Federation of India.
The Jaipur International Film Festival, founded in 2009, is the big and bedt international film festival in India. The International Film Festival of Kerala organised by the Government of Kerala held annually at Thiruvananthapuram is acknowledged as one of the leading cultural events in Indian.
The International Documentary and Short Film Festival of Kerala (IDSFFK), hosted by the Kerala State Chalachitra Academy, is a major documentary and short film festival.
The Mumbai Women's International Film Festival (MWIFF) is an annual film festival in Mumbai featuring films made by women directors and women technicians.
The Calcutta International Cult Films Festival (CICFF), is a popular international film festival based in Kolkata which showcases international cult films.
YathaKatha International Film & Literature Festival (YKIFLF) is an annual film & literature festival in Mumbai showcasing the collaboration of literature in cinema via various constructive discussions and forums. 1st edition of festival is being held from 25–28 November in Mumbai, Maharashtra India.
Notable festivals include the Hong Kong International Film Festival (HKIFF), Busan International Film Festival (BIFF), Kathmandu International Mountain Film Festival, Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) and World Film Carnival Singapore.
There are several major film festivals in the Arab world, such as the Beirut International Film Festival, Cairo International Film Festival, the only international competitive feature film festival recognized by the FIAPF in the Arab world and Africa, as well as the oldest in this category, Carthage Film Festival, the oldest festival in Africa and the Arab world, Alexandria International Film Festival, and Marrakech International Film Festival.
Although there are notable for-profit festivals such as SXSW, most festivals operate on a nonprofit membership-based model, with a combination of ticket sales, membership fees, and corporate sponsorship constituting the majority of revenue. Unlike other arts nonprofits (performing arts, museums, etc.), film festivals typically receive few donations from the general public and are occasionally organized as nonprofit business associations instead of public charities. Film industry members often have significant curatorial input, and corporate sponsors are given opportunities to promote their brand to festival audiences in exchange for cash contributions. Private parties, often to raise investments for film projects, constitute significant "fringe" events. Larger festivals maintain year-round staffs often engaging in community and charitable projects outside the festival season.
While entries from established filmmakers are usually considered pluses by the organizers, most festivals require new or relatively unknown filmmakers to pay an entry fee to have their works considered for screening. This is especially so in larger film festivals, such as the Jaipur International Film Festival in Jaipur India, Toronto International Film Festival, Sundance Film Festival, South by Southwest, Montreal World Film Festival, and even smaller "boutique" festivals such as the Miami International Film Festival, British Urban Film Festival in London and Mumbai Women's International Film Festival in India.
On the other hand, some festivals—usually those accepting fewer films, and perhaps not attracting as many "big names" in their audiences as do Sundance and Telluride—require no entry fee. Many smaller film festivals in the United States (the Stony Brook Film Festival on Long Island, the Northwest Filmmakers' Festival, and the Sicilian Film Festival in Miami), are examples.
The Portland International Film Festival charges an entry fee but waives it for filmmakers from the Northwestern United States, and some others with regional focuses have similar approaches.
Several film festival submission portal websites exist to streamline filmmakers' entries into multiple festivals. They provide databases of festival calls for entry and offer filmmakers a convenient "describe once, submit many" service.
The core tradition of film festivals is competition, or judging which films are most deserving of various forms of recognition. Some festivals, such as the famous Cannes Film Festival, may screen films that are considered close to competition-quality without being included in the competition; the films are said to be screened "out of competition".
|
[
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "A film festival is an organized, extended presentation of films in one or more cinemas or screening venues, usually in a single city or region. Increasingly, film festivals show some films outdoors. Films may be of recent date and, depending upon the festival's focus, can include international and domestic releases. Some film festivals focus on a specific filmmaker, genre of film (e.g. horror films), or subject matter. Several film festivals focus solely on presenting short films of a defined maximum length. Film festivals are typically annual events. Some film historians, including Jerry Beck, do not consider film festivals as official releases of the film.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "The oldest film festival in the world is the Venice Film Festival. The most prestigious film festivals in the world, known as the \"Big Five\", are (listed chronologically according to the date of foundation): Venice, Cannes, Berlin (the original Big Three), Toronto, and Sundance.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "The Venice Film Festival in Italy began in 1932 and is the oldest film festival still running.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "Mainland Europe's biggest independent film festival is ÉCU The European Independent Film Festival, which started in 2006 and takes place every spring in Paris, France. Edinburgh International Film Festival is the longest-running festival in Great Britain as well as the longest continually running film festival in the world.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "Australia's first and longest-running film festival is the Melbourne International Film Festival (1952), followed by the Sydney Film Festival (1954).",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "North America's first and longest-running short film festival is the Yorkton Film Festival, established in 1947. The first film festival in the United States was the Columbus International Film & Video Festival, also known as The Chris Awards, held in 1953. According to the Film Arts Foundation in San Francisco, \"The Chris Awards (is) one of the most prestigious documentaries, educational, business and informational competitions in the U.S; (it is) the oldest of its kind in North America and celebrating its 54th year\". It was followed four years later by the San Francisco International Film Festival, held in March 1957, which emphasized feature-length dramatic films. The festival played a major role in introducing foreign films to American audiences. Films in the first year included Akira Kurosawa's Throne of Blood and Satyajit Ray's Pather Panchali.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "Today, thousands of film festivals take place around the world—from high-profile festivals such as Sundance Film Festival and Slamdance Film Festival (Park City, Utah), to horror festivals such as Terror Film Festival (Philadelphia), and the Park City Film Music Festival, the first U.S. film festival dedicated to honoring music in film.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "Film Funding competitions such as Writers and Filmmakers were introduced when the cost of production could be lowered significantly and internet technology allowed for the collaboration of film production.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "Film festivals have evolved significantly since the COVID-19 pandemic. Many festivals opted for virtual or hybrid festivals. The film industry, which was already in upheaval due to streaming options, has faced another major shift and movies that are showcased at festivals have an even shorter runway to online launches.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "The \"Big Five\" film festivals are considered to be Venice, Cannes, Berlin, Toronto and Sundance.",
"title": "Notable film festivals"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "In North America, the Toronto International Film Festival is the most popular festival. Time wrote it had \"grown from its place as the most influential fall film festival to the most influential film festival, period\".",
"title": "Notable film festivals"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "The Seattle International Film Festival is credited as being the largest film festival in the United States, regularly showing over 400 films in a month across the city.",
"title": "Notable film festivals"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "The festivals in Berlin, Cairo, Cannes, Goa, Karlovy Vary, Locarno, Mar del Plata, Moscow, San Sebastián, Shanghai, Tallinn, Tokyo, Venice, and Warsaw are accredited by the International Federation of Film Producers Associations (FIAPF) in the category of competitive feature films. As a rule, for films to compete, they must first be released during the festivals and not in any other previous venue beforehand.",
"title": "Notable film festivals"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "Ann Arbor Film Festival started in 1963. It is the oldest continually operated experimental film festival in North America, and has become one of the premier film festivals for independent and, primarily, experimental filmmakers to showcase work.",
"title": "Notable film festivals"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "In the U.S., Telluride Film Festival, Sundance Film Festival, Austin Film Festival, Austin's South by Southwest, NYC's Tribeca Festival, and Slamdance Film Festival are all considered significant festivals for independent film. The Zero Film Festival is significant as the first and only festival exclusive to self-financed filmmakers. The biggest independent film festival in the UK is Raindance Film Festival. The British Urban Film Festival (which specifically caters to Black and minority interests) was officially recognized in the 2020 New Year Honours list.",
"title": "Notable film festivals"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 15,
"text": "A few film festivals have focused on highlighting specific issue topics or subjects. These festivals have included both mainstream and independent films. Some examples include military films, health-related film festivals, and human rights film festivals.",
"title": "Notable film festivals"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 16,
"text": "There are festivals, especially in the US, that highlight and promote films that are made by or are about various ethnic groups and nationalities or feature the cinema from a specific foreign country. These include African-Americans, Asian-Americans, Mexican-Americans, Arabs, Italian, German, French, Palestinian, and Native American. The Deauville American Film Festival in France is devoted to the cinema of the United States.",
"title": "Notable film festivals"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 17,
"text": "LGBTQ+ and Women's film festivals are also popular.",
"title": "Notable film festivals"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 18,
"text": "The San Francisco International Film Festival, founded by Irving \"Bud\" Levin started in 1957, is the oldest continuously annual film festival in the United States. It highlights current trends in international filmmaking and video production with an emphasis on work that has not yet secured U.S. distribution.",
"title": "Notable film festivals"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 19,
"text": "The Vancouver International Film Festival, founded in 1958, is one of the largest film festivals in North America. It focuses on East Asian film, Canadian film, and nonfiction film. In 2016, there was an audience of 133,000 and 324 films.",
"title": "Notable film festivals"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 20,
"text": "The Toronto International Film Festival, founded by Bill Marshall, Henk Van der Kolk and Dusty Cohl, is regarded as North America's most important film festival, and is the most widely attended.",
"title": "Notable film festivals"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 21,
"text": "The Ottawa Canadian Film Festival, abbreviated OCanFilmFest, was co-founded by Ottawa-based filmmakers Jith Paul, Ed Kucerak and Blair Campbell in 2015, and features films of various durations and genres from filmmakers across Canada.",
"title": "Notable film festivals"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 22,
"text": "The Sundance Film Festival founded by Sterling Van Wagenen (then head of Wildwood, Robert Redford's company), John Earle, and Cirina Hampton Catania (both serving on the Utah Film Commission at the time) is a major festival for independent film.",
"title": "Notable film festivals"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 23,
"text": "The Woodstock Film Festival was launched in 2000 by filmmakers Meira Blaustein and Laurent Rejto to bring high-quality independent films to the Hudson Valley region of New York. In 2010, Indiewire named the Woodstock Film Festival among the top 50 independent film festivals worldwide.",
"title": "Notable film festivals"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 24,
"text": "The Regina International Film Festival and Awards (RIFFA) founded by John Thimothy, one of the top leading international film festivals in western Canada (Regina, Saskatchewan) represented 35 countries in 2018 festival. RIFFA annual Award show and red carpet arrival event is getting noticed in the contemporary film and fashion industries in Western Canada.",
"title": "Notable film festivals"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 25,
"text": "Toronto's Hot Docs founded by filmmaker Paul Jay, is a North American documentary film festival. Toronto has the largest number of film festivals in the world, ranging from cultural, independent, and historic films.",
"title": "Notable film festivals"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 26,
"text": "The Seattle International Film Festival, which screens 270 features and approximately 150 short films, is the largest American film festival in terms of the number of feature productions.",
"title": "Notable film festivals"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 27,
"text": "The Expresión en Corto International Film Festival is the largest competitive film festival in Mexico. It specializes in emerging talent, and is held in the last week of each July in the two colonial cities of San Miguel de Allende and Guanajuato.",
"title": "Notable film festivals"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 28,
"text": "Other Mexican festivals include the Guadalajara International Film Festival in Guadalajara, Oaxaca Film Fest, the Morelia International Film Festival in Morelia, Michoacan Mexico, and the Los Cabos International Film Festival founded by Scott Cross, Sean Cross, and Eduardo Sanchez Navarro, in Los Cabos, Baja Sur, Mexico are considered the most important film festivals in Latin America. In 2015, Variety called the Los Cabos International Film Festival the \"Cannes of Latin America\".",
"title": "Notable film festivals"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 29,
"text": "The Cartagena Film Festival, founded by Victor Nieto in 1960, is the oldest in Latin America. The Festival de Gramado (or Gramado Film Festival) Gramado, Brazil.",
"title": "Notable film festivals"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 30,
"text": "The Lima Film Festival is the main film festival of Peru and one of the most important in Latin America. It is focused in Latinamerican cinema and is organized each year by the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru.",
"title": "Notable film festivals"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 31,
"text": "The Valdivia International Film Festival is held annually in the city of Valdivia. It is arguable the most important film festival in Chile. There is also Filmambiente, held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, an international festival on environmental films and videos.",
"title": "Notable film festivals"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 32,
"text": "For Spanish-speaking countries, the Dominican International Film Festival takes place annually in Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic. As well as the Havana Film Festival was founded in 1979 and is the oldest continuous annual film festival in the Caribbean. Its focus is on Latin American cinema.",
"title": "Notable film festivals"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 33,
"text": "The Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival, founded in 2006, is dedicated to screening the newest films from the English-, Spanish, French- and Dutch-speaking Caribbean, as well as the region's diaspora. It also seeks to facilitate the growth of Caribbean cinema by offering a wide-ranging industry programme and networking opportunities.",
"title": "Notable film festivals"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 34,
"text": "The Lusca Fantastic Film Fest (formerly Puerto Rico Horror Film Fest) was also founded in 2006 and is the first and only international fantastic film festival in the Caribbean devoted to sci-fi, thriller, fantasy, dark humor, bizarre, horror, anime, adventure, virtual reality, and animation in short and feature films.",
"title": "Notable film festivals"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 35,
"text": "The most important European film festivals are the Venice Film Festival (late summer to early autumn), the Cannes Film Festival (late spring to early summer), and the Berlin International Film Festival (late winter to early spring), founded in 1932, 1946, and 1951 respectively. The Edinburgh International Film Festival, founded in 1946, is the world's oldest continually running film festival.",
"title": "Notable film festivals"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 36,
"text": "Many film festivals are dedicated exclusively to animation.",
"title": "Notable film festivals"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 37,
"text": "A variety of regional festivals happen in various countries. Austin Film Festival is accredited by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, which makes all their jury award-winning narrative short and animated short films eligible for an Academy Award.",
"title": "Notable film festivals"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 38,
"text": "There are several significant film festivals held regularly in Africa. The Cairo International Film Festival in Cairo was established in 1976, the biannual Panafrican Film and Television Festival of Ouagadougou (FESPACO) in Burkina Faso was established in 1969 and accepts competition-only films by African filmmakers and chiefly produced in Africa. The annual Durban International Film Festival in South Africa and Zanzibar International Film Festival in Tanzania has grown in importance for the film and entertainment industry, as they often screen the African premieres of many international films. The Nairobi Film Festival (NBO), which was established in 2016, with a special focus on screening exceptional films from around the world that are rarely presented in Nairobi's mainstream cinema and spotlighting the best Kenyan films, has also been growing in popularity over the years and has improved the cinema-going culture in Kenya.",
"title": "Notable film festivals"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 39,
"text": "The Sahara International Film Festival, held annually in the Sahrawi refugee camps in western Algeria near the border of Western Sahara, is notable as the only film festival in the world to take place in a refugee camp. The festival has the two-fold aim of providing cultural entertainment and educational opportunities to refugees, and of raising awareness of the plight of the Sahrawi people, who have been exiled from their native Western Sahara for more than three decades.",
"title": "Notable film festivals"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 40,
"text": "The International Film Festival of India, organized by the government of India, was founded in 1952. Chennai International Film Festival has been organized since 2002 by the Indo Cine Appreciation Foundation (ICAF), Government of Tamil Nadu, the South Indian Film Chamber of Commerce and the Film Federation of India.",
"title": "Notable film festivals"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 41,
"text": "The Jaipur International Film Festival, founded in 2009, is the big and bedt international film festival in India. The International Film Festival of Kerala organised by the Government of Kerala held annually at Thiruvananthapuram is acknowledged as one of the leading cultural events in Indian.",
"title": "Notable film festivals"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 42,
"text": "The International Documentary and Short Film Festival of Kerala (IDSFFK), hosted by the Kerala State Chalachitra Academy, is a major documentary and short film festival.",
"title": "Notable film festivals"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 43,
"text": "The Mumbai Women's International Film Festival (MWIFF) is an annual film festival in Mumbai featuring films made by women directors and women technicians.",
"title": "Notable film festivals"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 44,
"text": "The Calcutta International Cult Films Festival (CICFF), is a popular international film festival based in Kolkata which showcases international cult films.",
"title": "Notable film festivals"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 45,
"text": "YathaKatha International Film & Literature Festival (YKIFLF) is an annual film & literature festival in Mumbai showcasing the collaboration of literature in cinema via various constructive discussions and forums. 1st edition of festival is being held from 25–28 November in Mumbai, Maharashtra India.",
"title": "Notable film festivals"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 46,
"text": "Notable festivals include the Hong Kong International Film Festival (HKIFF), Busan International Film Festival (BIFF), Kathmandu International Mountain Film Festival, Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) and World Film Carnival Singapore.",
"title": "Notable film festivals"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 47,
"text": "There are several major film festivals in the Arab world, such as the Beirut International Film Festival, Cairo International Film Festival, the only international competitive feature film festival recognized by the FIAPF in the Arab world and Africa, as well as the oldest in this category, Carthage Film Festival, the oldest festival in Africa and the Arab world, Alexandria International Film Festival, and Marrakech International Film Festival.",
"title": "Notable film festivals"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 48,
"text": "Although there are notable for-profit festivals such as SXSW, most festivals operate on a nonprofit membership-based model, with a combination of ticket sales, membership fees, and corporate sponsorship constituting the majority of revenue. Unlike other arts nonprofits (performing arts, museums, etc.), film festivals typically receive few donations from the general public and are occasionally organized as nonprofit business associations instead of public charities. Film industry members often have significant curatorial input, and corporate sponsors are given opportunities to promote their brand to festival audiences in exchange for cash contributions. Private parties, often to raise investments for film projects, constitute significant \"fringe\" events. Larger festivals maintain year-round staffs often engaging in community and charitable projects outside the festival season.",
"title": "Festival administration"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 49,
"text": "While entries from established filmmakers are usually considered pluses by the organizers, most festivals require new or relatively unknown filmmakers to pay an entry fee to have their works considered for screening. This is especially so in larger film festivals, such as the Jaipur International Film Festival in Jaipur India, Toronto International Film Festival, Sundance Film Festival, South by Southwest, Montreal World Film Festival, and even smaller \"boutique\" festivals such as the Miami International Film Festival, British Urban Film Festival in London and Mumbai Women's International Film Festival in India.",
"title": "Festival administration"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 50,
"text": "On the other hand, some festivals—usually those accepting fewer films, and perhaps not attracting as many \"big names\" in their audiences as do Sundance and Telluride—require no entry fee. Many smaller film festivals in the United States (the Stony Brook Film Festival on Long Island, the Northwest Filmmakers' Festival, and the Sicilian Film Festival in Miami), are examples.",
"title": "Festival administration"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 51,
"text": "The Portland International Film Festival charges an entry fee but waives it for filmmakers from the Northwestern United States, and some others with regional focuses have similar approaches.",
"title": "Festival administration"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 52,
"text": "Several film festival submission portal websites exist to streamline filmmakers' entries into multiple festivals. They provide databases of festival calls for entry and offer filmmakers a convenient \"describe once, submit many\" service.",
"title": "Festival administration"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 53,
"text": "The core tradition of film festivals is competition, or judging which films are most deserving of various forms of recognition. Some festivals, such as the famous Cannes Film Festival, may screen films that are considered close to competition-quality without being included in the competition; the films are said to be screened \"out of competition\".",
"title": "Festival administration"
}
] |
A film festival is an organized, extended presentation of films in one or more cinemas or screening venues, usually in a single city or region. Increasingly, film festivals show some films outdoors. Films may be of recent date and, depending upon the festival's focus, can include international and domestic releases. Some film festivals focus on a specific filmmaker, genre of film, or subject matter. Several film festivals focus solely on presenting short films of a defined maximum length. Film festivals are typically annual events. Some film historians, including Jerry Beck, do not consider film festivals as official releases of the film. The oldest film festival in the world is the Venice Film Festival. The most prestigious film festivals in the world, known as the "Big Five", are: Venice, Cannes, Berlin, Toronto, and Sundance.
|
2001-07-26T15:47:39Z
|
2023-12-18T09:21:04Z
|
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"Template:Film festivals",
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film_festival
|
10,783 |
History of film
|
The history of film chronicles the development of a visual art form created using film technologies that began in the late 19th century.
The advent of film as an artistic medium is not clearly defined. There were earlier cinematographic screenings by others, however, the commercial, public screening of ten Lumière brothers' short films in Paris on 28 December 1895, can be regarded as the breakthrough of projected cinematographic motion pictures. The earliest films were in black and white, under a minute long, without recorded sound, and consisted of a single shot from a steady camera. The first decade saw film move from a novelty, to an established mass entertainment industry, with film production companies and studios established throughout the world. Conventions toward a general cinematic language developed, with film editing camera movements and other cinematic techniques contributing specific roles in the narrative of films.
Popular new media, including television (mainstream since the 1950s), home video (1980s), and the internet (1990s), influenced the distribution and consumption of films. Film production usually responded with content to fit the new media, and technical innovations (including widescreen (1950s), 3D, and 4D film) and more spectacular films to keep theatrical screenings attractive. Systems that were cheaper and more easily handled (including 8mm film, video, and smartphone cameras) allowed for an increasing number of people to create films of varying qualities, for any purpose including home movies and video art. The technical quality was usually lower than professional movies, but improved with digital video and affordable, high-quality digital cameras. Improving over time, digital production methods became more popular during the 1990s, resulting in increasingly realistic visual effects and popular feature-length computer animations.
Various film genres have emerged during the history of film, and enjoyed variable degrees of success.
The use of film as an art form traces its origins to several earlier traditions in the arts such as (oral) storytelling, literature, theatre and visual arts. Cantastoria and similar ancient traditions combined storytelling with series of images that were shown or indicated one after the other. Predecessors to film that had already used light and shadows to create art before the advent of modern film technology include shadowgraphy, shadow puppetry, camera obscura, and the magic lantern.
Shadowgraphy and shadow puppetry represent early examples of the intent to use moving imagery for entertainment and storytelling. Thought to have originated in the Far East, the art form used shadows cast by hands or objects to assist in the creation of narratives. Shadow puppetry enjoyed popularity for centuries around Asia, notably in Java, and eventually spread to Europe during the Age of Enlightenment.
By the 16th century, entertainers often conjured images of ghostly apparitions, using techniques such as camera obscura and other forms of projection to enhance their performances. Magic lantern shows developed in the latter half of the 17th century seem to have continued this tradition with images of death, monsters and other scary figures. Around 1790, this practice was developed into a type of multimedia ghost show known as phantasmagoria. These popular shows entertained audiences using mechanical slides, rear projection, mobile projectors, superimposition, dissolves, live actors, smoke (on which projections may have been cast), odors, sounds and even electric shocks. While many first magic lantern shows were intended to frighten viewers, advances by projectionists allowed for creative and even educational storytelling that could appeal to wider family audiences. Newly pioneered techniques such as the use of dissolving views and the chromatrope allowed for smoother transitions between two projected images and aided in providing stronger narratives.
In 1833, scientific study of a stroboscopic illusion in spoked wheels by Joseph Plateau, Michael Faraday and Simon Stampfer led to the invention of the Fantascope, also known as the stroboscopic disk or the phenakistiscope, which was popular in several European countries for a while. Plateau thought it could be further developed for use in phantasmagoria and Stampfer imagined a system for longer scenes with strips on rollers, as well as a transparent version (probably intended for projection). Plateau, Charles Wheatstone, Antoine Claudet and others tried to combine the technique with the stereoscope (introduced in 1838) and photography (introduced in 1839) for a more complete illusion of reality, but for decades such experiments were mostly hindered by the need for long exposure times, with motion blur around objects that moved while the reflected light fell on the photo-sensitive chemicals. A few people managed to get decent results from stop motion techniques, but these were only very rarely marketed and no form of animated photography had much cultural impact before the advent of chronophotography.
Most early photographic sequences, known as chronophotography, were not initially intended to be viewed in motion and were typically presented as a serious, even scientific, method of studying locomotion. The sequences almost exclusively involved humans or animals performing a simple movement in front of the camera. Starting in 1878 with the publication of The Horse in Motion cabinet cards, photographer Eadweard Muybridge began making hundreds of chronophotographic studies of the motion of animals and humans in real-time. He was soon followed by other chronophotographers like Étienne-Jules Marey, Georges Demenÿ, Albert Londe and Ottomar Anschütz. In 1879, Muybridge started lecturing on animal locomotion and used his Zoopraxiscope to project animations of the contours of his recordings, traced onto glass discs.
In 1887, the German inventor and photographer Ottomar Anschütz started presenting his chronophotographic recordings in motion, using a device he called the Elektrischen Schnellseher (also known as the Electrotachyscope), which displayed short loops on a small milk glass screen. By 1891, he had started mass production of a more economical, coin-operated peep-box viewing device of the same name that was exhibited at international exhibitions and fairs. Some machines were installed for longer periods, including some at The Crystal Palace in London, and in several U.S. stores. Shifting the focus of the medium from technical and scientific interest in motion to entertainment for the masses, he recorded wrestlers, dancers, acrobats, and scenes of everyday life. Nearly 34,000 people paid to see his shows at the Berlin Exhibition Park in summer 1892. Others saw it in London or at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair.Though little evidence remains for most of these recordings, some scenes probably depicted staged comical scenes. Extant records suggest some of his output directly influenced later works by the Edison Company, such as the 1894 film Fred Ott's Sneeze.
Advances towards motion picture projection technologies were based on the popularity of magic lanterns, chronophotographic demonstrations, and other closely related forms of projected entertainment such as illustrated songs. From October 1892 to March 1900, inventor Émile Reynaud exhibited his Théâtre Optique ("Optical Theatre") film system at the Musée Grévin in Paris. Reynaud's device, which projected a series of animated stories such as Pauvre Pierrot and Autour d'une cabine, was displayed to over 500,000 visitors over the course of 12,800 shows. On 25, 29 and 30 November 1894, Ottomar Anschütz projected moving images from Electrotachyscope discs on a large screen in the darkened Grand Auditorium of a Post Office Building in Berlin. From 22 February to 30 March 1895, a commercial 1.5-hour program of 40 different scenes was screened for audiences of 300 people at the old Reichstag and received circa 4,000 visitors.
In June 1889, American inventor Thomas Edison assigned a lab assistant, William Kennedy Dickson, to help develop a device that could produce visuals to accompany the sounds produced from the phonograph. Building upon previous machines by Muybridge, Marey, Anschütz and others, Dickson and his team created the Kinetoscope peep-box viewer, with celluloid loops containing about half a minute of motion picture entertainment. After an early preview on 20 May 1891, Edison introduced the machine in 1893. Many of the movies presented on the Kinetoscope showcased well-known vaudeville acts performing in Edison's Black Maria studio. The Kinetoscope quickly became a global sensation with multiple viewing parlors across major cities by 1895. As the initial novelty of the images wore off, the Edison Company was slow to diversify their repertoire of films and waning public interest caused business to slow by Spring 1895. To remedy declining profits, experiments, such as The Dickson Experimental Sound Film, were conducted in an attempt to achieve the device's original goal of providing visual accompaniment for sound recordings. Limitations in syncing the sound to the visuals, however, prevented widespread application. During that same period, inventors began advancing technologies towards film projection that would eventually overtake Edison's peep-box format.
Multiple inventors including Wordsworth Donisthorpe, Louis Le Prince, and William Friese-Greene experimented with prototype motion picture projection devices in the pursuit of creating and displaying films. The scenes in these experiments were usually filmed with family, friends or passing traffic as the moving subjects. The Skladanowsky brothers, used their self-made Bioscop to display the first moving picture show to a paying audience on 1 November 1895, in Berlin. But they did not have the quality or financial resources to acquire momentum. Most of these films never passed the experimental stage and their efforts garnered little public attention until after cinema had become successful.
In the latter half of 1895, brothers Auguste and Louis Lumière filmed a number of short scenes with their invention, the Cinématographe. On 28 December 1895, the brothers gave their first commercial screening in Paris (though evidence exists of demonstrations of the device to small audiences as early as October 1895). The screening consisted of ten films and lasted roughly 20 minutes. The program consisted mainly of actuality films such as Workers Leaving the Lumière Factory as truthful documents of the world, but the show also included the staged comedy L'Arroseur Arrosé. The most advanced demonstration of film projection thus far, the Cinématographe was an instant success, bringing in an average of 2,500 to 3,000 francs daily by the end of January 1896. Following the first screening, the order and selection of films were changed often.
The Lumière brothers' primary business interests were in selling cameras and film equipment to exhibitors, not the actual production of films. Despite this, filmmakers across the world were inspired by the potential of film as exhibitors brought their shows to new countries. This era of filmmaking, dubbed by film historian Tom Gunning as "the cinema of attractions", offered a relatively cheap and simple way of providing entertainment to the masses. Rather than focusing on stories, Gunning argues, filmmakers mainly relied on the ability to delight audiences through the "illusory power" of viewing sequences in motion, much as they did in the Kinetoscope era that preceded it. Despite this, early experimentation with fiction filmmaking (both in actuality film and other genres) did occur. Films were mostly screened inside temporary storefront spaces, in tents of traveling exhibitors at fairs, or as "dumb" acts in vaudeville programs. During this period, before the process of post-production was clearly defined, exhibitors were allowed to exercise their creative freedom in their presentations. To enhance the viewers' experience, some showings were accompanied by live musicians in an orchestra, a theatre organ, live sound effects and commentary spoken by the showman or projectionist.
Experiments in film editing, special effects, narrative construction, and camera movement during this period by filmmakers in France, England, and the United States became influential in establishing an identity for film going forward. At both the Edison and Lumière studios, loose narratives such as the 1895 Edison film, Washday Troubles, established short relationship dynamics and simple storylines. In 1896, La Fée aux Choux (The Fairy of the Cabbages) was first released. Directed and edited by Alice Guy, the story is arguably the earliest narrative film in history, as well as the first film to be directed by a woman. That same year, the Edison Manufacturing Company released The May Irwin Kiss in May to widespread financial success. The film, which featured the first kiss in cinematic history, led to the earliest known calls for film censorship.
Another early film producer was Australia's Limelight Department. Commencing in 1898, it was operated by The Salvation Army in Melbourne, Australia. The Limelight Department produced evangelistic material for use by the Salvation Army, including lantern slides as early as 1891, as well as private and government contracts. In its nineteen years of operation, the Limelight Department produced about 300 films of various lengths, making it one of largest film producers of its time. The Limelight Department made a 1904 film by Joseph Perry called Bushranging in North Queensland, which is believed to be the first ever film about bushrangers.
In its infancy, film was rarely recognized as an art form by presenters or audiences. Regarded by the upper class as a "vulgar" and "lowbrow" form of cheap entertainment, films largely appealed to the working class and were often too short to hold any strong narrative potential. Initial advertisements promoted the technologies used to screen films rather than the films themselves. As the devices became more familiar to audiences, their potential for capturing and recreating events was exploited primarily in the form of newsreels and actualities. During the creation of these films, cinematographers often drew upon aesthetic values established by past art forms such as framing and the intentional placement of the camera in the composition of their image. In a 1955 article for The Quarterly of Film Radio and television, film producer and historian Kenneth Macgowan asserted that the intentional staging and recreation of events for newsreels "brought storytelling to the screen".
With the advertisement of film technologies over content, actualities initially began as a "series of views" that often contained shots of beautiful and lively places or performance acts. Following the success of their 1895 screening, The Lumière brothers established a company and sent cameramen across the world to capture new subjects for presentation. After the cinematographer shot scenes, they often exhibited their recordings locally and then sent them back to the company factory in Lyon to make duplicate prints for sale to whoever wanted them. In the process of filming actualities, especially those of real events, filmmakers discovered and experimented with multiple camera techniques to accommodate for their unpredictable nature. Due to the short length (often only one shot) of many actualities, catalogue records indicate that production companies marketed to exhibitors by promoting multiple actualities with related subject matters that could be purchased to complement each other. Exhibitors who bought the films often presented them in a program and would provide spoken accompaniment to explain the action on screen to audiences.
The first paying audience for a motion picture gathered at Madison Square Garden to see a staged actuality that purported itself to be a boxing fight filmed by Woodville Latham using a device called the Eidoloscope on May 20, 1895. Commissioned by Latham, the French inventor Eugene Augustin Lauste created the device with additional expertise from William Kennedy Dickson and crafted a mechanism that came to be known as the Latham loop, which allowed for longer continuous runtimes and was less abrasive on the celluloid film.
In subsequent years, screenings of actualities and newsreels proved to be profitable. In 1897, The Corbett-Fitzsimmons Fight was released. The film was a complete recording of a heavyweight world championship boxing match at Carson City, Nevada. It generated more income in box office than in live gate receipts and was the longest film produced at the time. Audiences had probably been drawn to the Corbett-Fitzsimmons film en masse because James J. Corbett (a.k.a. Gentleman Jim) had become a matinee idol since he had played a fictionalized version of himself in a stage play.
From 1910 on, regular newsreels were exhibited and soon became a popular way of discovering the news before the advent of television – the British Antarctic Expedition to the South Pole was filmed for the newsreels as were the suffragette demonstrations that were happening at the same time. F. Percy Smith was an early nature documentary pioneer working for Charles Urban when he pioneered the use of time lapse and micro cinematography in his 1910 documentary on the growth of flowers.
Following the successful exhibition of the Cinématographe, development of a motion picture industry rapidly accelerated in France. Multiple filmmakers experimented with the technology as they worked to attain the same success that the Lumière brothers had with their screening. These filmmakers established new companies such as the Star Film Company, Pathé Frères, and the Gaumont Film Company.
The most widely cited progenitor of narrative filmmaking is the French filmmaker, Georges Méliès. Méliès was an illusionist who had previously used magic lantern projections to enhance his magic act. In 1895, Méliès attended the demonstration of the Cinematographe and recognized the potential of the device to aid his act. He attempted to buy a device from the Lumière brothers, but they refused. Months later, he bought a camera from Robert W. Paul and began experiments with the device by creating actualities. During this period of experimentation, Méliès discovered and implemented various special effects including the stop trick, the multiple exposure, and the use of dissolves in his films. At the end of 1896, Méliès established the Star Film Company and started producing, directing, and distributing a body of work that would eventually contain over 500 short films. Recognizing the narrative potential afforded by combining his theater background with the newly discovered effects for the camera, Méliès designed an elaborate stage that contained trapdoors and a fly system. The stage construction and editing techniques allowed for the development of more complex stories, such as the 1896 film, Le Manoir du Diable (The House of the Devil), regarded as a first in the horror film genre, and the 1899 film Cendrillon (Cinderella). In Méliès' films, he based the placement of the camera on the theatrical construct of proscenium framing, the metaphorical plane or fourth wall that divides the actors and the audience. Throughout his career, Méliès consistently placed the camera in a fixed position and eventually fell out of favor with audiences as other filmmakers experimented with more complex and creative techniques. Méliès is most widely known today for his 1902 film, Le Voyage Dans La Lune (A Trip to the Moon), where he used his expertise in effects and narrative construction to create the first science fiction film.
In 1900, Charles Pathé began film production under the Pathé-Frères brand, with Ferdinand Zecca hired to lead the creative process. Prior to this focus on production, Pathé had become involved with the industry by exhibiting and selling what were likely counterfeit versions of the Kinetoscope in his phonograph shop. With the creative leadership of Zecca and the capability to mass-produce copies of the films through a partnership with a French toolmaking company, Charles Pathé sought to make Pathé-Frères the leading film producer in the country. Within the next few years, Pathé-Frères became the largest film studio in the world, with satellite offices in major cities and an expanding selection of films available for presentation. The company's films were varied in content, with directors specializing in various genres for fairground presentations throughout the early 1900s.
The Gaumont Film Company was the main regional rival of Pathé-Frères. Founded in 1895 by Léon Gaumont, the firm initially sold photographic equipment and began film production in 1897, under the direction of Alice Guy, the industry's first female director. Her earlier films share many characteristics and themes with her contemporary competitors, such as the Lumières and Méliès. She explored dance and travel films, often combining the two, such as Le Boléro performed by Miss Saharet (1905) and Tango (1905). Many of Guy's early dance films were popular in music-hall attractions such as the serpentine dance films – also a staple of the Lumières and Thomas Edison film catalogs. In 1906, she made The Life of Christ, a big-budget production for the time, which included 300 extras.
Both Cecil Hepworth and Robert W. Paul experimented with the use of different camera techniques in their films. Paul's 'Cinematograph Camera No. 1' of 1895 was the first camera to feature reverse-cranking, which allowed the same film footage to be exposed several times, thereby creating multiple exposures. This technique was first used in his 1901 film Scrooge, or, Marley's Ghost. Both filmmakers experimented with the speeds of the camera to generate new effects. Paul shot scenes from On a Runaway Motor Car through Piccadilly Circus (1899) by cranking the camera apparatus very slowly. When the film was projected at the usual 16 frames per second, the scenery appeared to be passing at great speed. Hepworth used the opposite effect in The Indian Chief and the Seidlitz Powder (1901). The Chief's movements are sped up by cranking the camera much faster than 16 frames per second, producing what modern audiences would call a "slow motion" effect.
The first films to move from single shots to successive scenes began around the turn of the 20th century. Due to the loss of many early films, a conclusive shift from static singular shots to a series of scenes can be hard to determine. Despite these limitations, Michael Brooke of the British Film Institute attributes real film continuity, involving action moving from one sequence into another, to Robert W. Paul's 1898 film, Come Along, Do!. Only a still from the second shot remains extant today. Released in 1901, the British film Attack on a China Mission was one of the first films to show a continuity of action across multiple scenes. The use of the intertitle to explain actions and dialogue on screen began in the early 1900s. Filmed intertitles were first used in Robert W. Paul's film, Scrooge, or Marley's Ghost. In most countries, intertitles gradually came to be used to provide dialogue and narration for the film, thus dispensing the need for narration provided by exhibitors.
Development of continuous action across multiple shots was furthered in England by a loosely associated group of film pioneers collectively termed "the Brighton School". These filmmakers included George Albert Smith and James Williamson, among others. Smith and Williamson experimented with action continuity and were likely the first to incorporate the use of inserts and close-ups between shots. A basic technique for trick cinematography was the double exposure of the film in the camera. The effect was pioneered by Smith in the 1898 film, Photographing a Ghost. According to Smith's catalogue records, the (now lost) film chronicles a photographer's struggle to capture a ghost on camera. Using the double exposure of the film, Smith overlaid a transparent ghostly figure onto the background in a comical manner to taunt the photographer. Smith's The Corsican Brothers was described in the catalogue of the Warwick Trading Company in 1900: "By extremely careful photography the ghost appears *quite transparent*. After indicating that he has been killed by a sword-thrust, and appealing for vengeance, he disappears. A 'vision' then appears showing the fatal duel in the snow." Smith also initiated the special effects technique of reverse motion. He did this by repeating the action a second time, while filming it with an inverted camera, and then joining the tail of the second negative to that of the first. The first films made using this device were Tipsy, Topsy, Turvy and The Awkward Sign Painter. The earliest surviving example of this technique is Smith's The House That Jack Built, made before September 1900. Cecil Hepworth took this technique further by printing the negatives of the forward motion in reverse frame by frame, producing a print in which the original action was exactly reversed. To do this he built a special printer in which the negative running through a projector was projected into the gate of a camera through a special lens giving a same-size image. This arrangement came to be called a "projection printer", and eventually an "optical printer".
In 1898, George Albert Smith experimented with close-ups, filming shots of a man drinking beer and a woman using sniffing tobacco. The following year, Smith made The Kiss in the Tunnel, a sequence consisting of three shots: a train enters a tunnel; a man and a woman exchange a brief kiss in the darkness and then return to their seats; the train exits the tunnel. Smith created the scenario in response to the success of a genre known as a phantom ride. In a phantom ride film, cameras would capture the motion and surroundings from the front of a moving train. The separate shots, when edited together, formed a distinct sequence of events and established causality from one shot to the next. Following The Kiss in the Tunnel, Smith more definitively experimented with continuity of action across successive shots and began using inserts in his films, such as Grandma's Reading Glass and Mary Jane's Mishap. In 1900, Smith made As Seen Through a Telescope. The main shot shows a street scene with a young man tying the shoelace and then caressing the foot of his girlfriend, while an old man observes this through a telescope. There is then a cut to close shot of the hands on the girl's foot shown inside a black circular mask, and then a cut back to the continuation of the original scene.
James Williamson perfected narrative building techniques in his 1900 film, Attack on a China Mission. The film, which film historian John Barnes later described as having "the most fully developed narrative of any film made in England up to that time", opens as the first shot shows Chinese Boxer rebels at the gate; it then cuts to the missionary family in the garden, where a fight ensues. The wife signals to British sailors from the balcony, who come and rescue them. The film also used the first "reverse angle" cut in film history. The following year, Williamson created The Big Swallow. In the film. a man becomes irritated by the presence of the filmmaker and "swallows" the camera and its operator through the use of interpolated close-up shots. He combined these effects, along with superimpositions, use of wipe transitions to denote a scene change, and other techniques to create a film language, or "film grammar". James Williamson's use of continuous action in his 1901 film, Stop Thief! stimulated a film genre known as the "chase film." In the film, a tramp steals a leg of mutton from a butcher's boy in the first shot, is chased by the butcher's boy and assorted dogs in the following shot, and is finally caught by the dogs in the third shot.
The Execution of Mary Stuart, produced in 1895 by the Edison Company for viewing with the Kinetoscope, showed Mary Queen of Scots being executed in full view of the camera. The effect, known as the stop trick, was achieved by replacing the actor with a dummy for the final shot. The technique used in the film is seen as one of the earliest known uses of special effects in film.
The American filmmaker Edwin S. Porter started making films for the Edison Company in 1901. A former projectionist hired by Thomas Edison to develop his new projection model known as the Vitascope, Porter was inspired in part by the works of Méliès, Smith, and Williamson and drew upon their newly crafted techniques to further the development of continuous narrative through editing. When he began making longer films in 1902, he put a dissolve between every shot, just as Georges Méliès was already doing, and he frequently had the same action repeated across the dissolves.
In 1902, Porter shot Life of an American Fireman for the Edison Manufacturing Company and distributed the film the following year. In the film, Porter combined stock footage from previous Edison films with newly shot footage and spliced them together to convey a dramatic story of the rescue of a woman and her child by heroic firemen.
Porter's film, The Great Train Robbery (1903), had a running time of twelve minutes, with twenty separate shots and ten different indoor and outdoor locations. The film is seen as a first in the Western film genre and is significant for the use of shots suggesting simultaneous action occurring at different locations. Porter's use of both staged and real outdoor environments helped to create a sense of space while the placement of the camera in a wider shot established depth and allowed for an extended duration of motion on screen. The Great Train Robbery served as one of the vehicles that would launch the film medium into mass popularity. That same year, the Miles Brothers opened the first film exchange in the country, which allowed permanent exhibitors to rent films from the company at a lower cost than the producers that sold their films outright.
John P. Harris opened the first permanent theater devoted exclusively to the presentation of films, the nickelodeon, in 1905 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The idea rapidly took off and by 1908, there were around 8,000 nickelodeon theaters across the country. With the arrival of the nickelodeon, audience demand for a larger quantity of story films with a variety of subjects and locations led to a need to hire more creative talent and caused studios to invest in more elaborate stage designs.
In 1908, Thomas Edison spearheaded the creation of a corporate trust between the major film companies in America known as the Motion Picture Patents Company (MPPC) to limit infringement on his patents. Members of the trust controlled every aspect of the filmmaking process from the creation of film stock, the production of films, and the distribution to cinemas through licensing arrangements. The trust lead to increased quality filmmaking spurred by internal competition and placed limits on the amount of foreign films to encourage the growth of the American film industry, but it also discouraged the creation of feature films. By 1915, the MPPC had lost most of its hold on the film industry as the companies moved towards the wider production of feature films.
With the worldwide film boom, more countries now joined Britain, France, Germany and the United States in serious film production. In Italy, production was spread over several centers, Turin was the first major film production centre, and Milan and Naples gave birth to the first film magazines. In Turin, Ambrosio was the first company in the field in 1905, and remained the largest in the country through this period. Its most substantial rival was Cines in Rome, which started producing in 1906. The great strength of the Italian industry was historical epics, with large casts and massive scenery. As early as 1911, Giovanni Pastrone's two-reel La Caduta di Troia (The Fall of Troy) made a big impression worldwide, and it was followed by even bigger productions like Quo Vadis? (1912), which ran for 90 minutes, and Pastrone's Cabiria of 1914, which ran for two and a half hours.
Italian companies also had a strong line in slapstick comedy, with actors like André Deed, known locally as "Cretinetti", and elsewhere as "Foolshead" and "Gribouille", achieving worldwide fame with his almost surrealistic gags.
The most important film-producing country in Northern Europe up until the First World War was Denmark. The Nordisk company was set up there in 1906 by Ole Olsen, a fairground showman, and after a brief period imitating the successes of French and British filmmakers, in 1907 he produced 67 films, most directed by Viggo Larsen, with sensational subjects like Den hvide Slavinde (The White Slave), Isbjørnejagt (Polar Bear Hunt) and Løvejagten (The Lion Hunt). By 1910, new smaller Danish companies began joining the business, and besides making more films about the white slave trade, they contributed other new subjects. The most important of these finds was Asta Nielsen in Afgrunden (The Abyss), directed by Urban Gad for Kosmorama, This combined the circus, sex, jealousy and murder, all put over with great conviction, and pushed the other Danish filmmakers further in this direction. By 1912, the Danish film companies were multiplying rapidly.
The Swedish film industry was smaller and slower to get started than the Danish industry. Here, Charles Magnusson, a newsreel cameraman for the Svenskabiografteatern cinema chain, started fiction film production for them in 1909, directing a number of the films himself. Production increased in 1912, when the company engaged Victor Sjöström and Mauritz Stiller as directors. They started out by imitating the subjects favoured by the Danish film industry, but by 1913 they were producing their own strikingly original work, which sold very well.
Russia began its film industry in 1908 with Pathé shooting some fiction subjects there, and then the creation of real Russian film companies by Aleksandr Drankov and Aleksandr Khanzhonkov. The Khanzhonkov company quickly became much the largest Russian film company, and remained so until 1918.
In Germany, Oskar Messter had been involved in film-making from 1896, but did not make a significant number of films per year until 1910. When the worldwide film boom started, he, and the few other people in the German film business, continued to sell prints of their own films outright, which put them at a disadvantage. It was only when Paul Davidson, the owner of a chain of cinemas, brought Asta Nielsen and Urban Gad to Germany from Denmark in 1911, and set up a production company, Projektions-AG "Union" (PAGU), that a change-over to renting prints began. Messter replied with a series of longer films starring Henny Porten, but although these did well in the German-speaking world, they were not particularly successful internationally, unlike the Asta Nielsen films. Another of the growing German film producers just before World War I was the German branch of the French Éclair company, Deutsche Éclair. This was expropriated by the German government, and turned into DECLA when the war started. But altogether, German producers only had a minor part of the German market in 1914.
Overall, from about 1910, American films had the largest share of the market in all European countries except France, and even in France, the American films had just pushed the local production out of first place on the eve of World War I. Pathé Frères expanded and significantly shaped the American film business, creating many "firsts" in the film industry, such as adding titles and subtitles to films for the first time, releasing scrolls for the first time, introducing film posters for the first time, producing color pictures for the first time, taking out commercial bills for the first time, contacting exhibitors and studying their needs for the first time. The world's largest film supplier, Pathé, is limited to the U.S. market, which has reached a saturation level, so the U.S. seeks additional profits from foreign markets. Movies are defined as "pure" American phenomenon in the United States.
New film techniques that were introduced in this period include the use of artificial lighting, fire effects and low-key lighting (i.e. lighting in which most of the frame is dark) for enhanced atmosphere during sinister scenes.
Continuity of action from shot to shot was also refined, such as in Pathé's le Cheval emballé (The Runaway Horse) (1907) where cross-cutting between parallel actions is used. D. W. Griffith also began using cross-cutting in the film The Fatal Hour, made in July 1908. Another development was the use of the point of view shot, first used in 1910 in Vitagraph's Back to Nature. Insert shots were also used for artistic purposes; the Italian film La mala planta (The Evil Plant), directed by Mario Caserini had an insert shot of a snake slithering over the "Evil Plant". By 1914 it was widely held in the American film industry that cross-cutting was most generally useful because it made possible the elimination of uninteresting parts of the action that play no part in advancing the drama.
In 1909, 35mm became the internationally recognized theatrical film gauge.
As films grew longer, specialist writers were employed to simplify more complex stories derived from novels or plays into a form that could be contained on one reel. Genres began to be used as categories; the main division was into comedy and drama, but these categories were further subdivided.
Intertitles containing lines of dialogue began to be used consistently from 1908 onwards, such as in Vitagraph's An Auto Heroine; or, The Race for the Vitagraph Cup and How It Was Won. The dialogue was eventually inserted into the middle of the scene and became commonplace by 1912. The introduction of dialogue titles transformed the nature of film narrative. When dialogue titles came to be always cut into a scene just after a character starts speaking, and then left with a cut to the character just before they finish speaking, then one had something that was effectively the equivalent of a present-day sound film.
The years of the First World War were a complex transitional period for the film industry. The exhibition of films changed from short one-reel programmes to feature films. Exhibition venues became larger and began charging higher prices.
In the United States, these changes brought destruction to many film companies, the Vitagraph company being an exception. Film production began to shift to Los Angeles during World War I. The Universal Film Manufacturing Company was formed in 1912 as an umbrella company. New entrants included the Jesse Lasky Feature Play Company, and Famous Players, both formed in 1913, and later amalgamated into Famous Players–Lasky. The biggest success of these years was David Wark Griffith's The Birth of a Nation (1915). Griffith followed this up with the even bigger Intolerance (1916), but, due to the high quality of film produced in the US, the market for their films was high.
In France, film production shut down due to the general military mobilization of the country at the start of the war. Although film production began again in 1915, it was on a reduced scale, and the biggest companies gradually retired from production. Italian film production held up better, although so called "diva films", starring anguished female leads were a commercial failure. In Denmark, the Nordisk company increased its production so much in 1915 and 1916 that it could not sell all its films, which led to a very sharp decline in Danish production, and the end of Denmark's importance on the world film scene.
The German film industry was seriously weakened by the war. The most important of the new film producers at the time was Joe May, who made a series of thrillers and adventure films through the war years, but Ernst Lubitsch also came into prominence with a series of very successful comedies and dramas.
At this time, studios were blacked out to allow shooting to be unaffected by changing sunlight. This was replaced with floodlights and spotlights. The widespread adoption of irising-in and out to begin and end scenes caught on in this period. This is the revelation of a film shot in a circular mask, which gradually gets larger until it expands beyond the frame. Other shaped slits were used, including vertical and diagonal apertures.
A new idea taken over from still photography was "soft focus". This began in 1915, with some shots being intentionally thrown out of focus for expressive effect, as in Mary Pickford starrer Fanchon the Cricket.
It was during this period that camera effects intended to convey the subjective feelings of characters in a film really began to be established. These could now be done as Point of View (POV) shots, as in Sidney Drew's The Story of the Glove (1915), where a wobbly hand-held shot of a door and its keyhole represents the POV of a drunken man. The use of anamorphic (in the general sense of distorted shape) images first appears in these years when Abel Gance directed la Folie du Docteur Tube (The Madness of Dr. Tube). In this film the effect of a drug administered to a group of people was suggested by shooting the scenes reflected in a distorting mirror of the fair-ground type.
Symbolic effects taken over from conventional literary and artistic tradition continued to make some appearances in films during these years. In D. W. Griffith's The Avenging Conscience (1914), the title "The birth of the evil thought" precedes a series of three shots of the protagonist looking at a spider, and ants eating an insect. Symbolist art and literature from the turn of the century also had a more general effect on a small number of films made in Italy and Russia. The supine acceptance of death resulting from passion and forbidden longings was a major feature of this art, and states of delirium dwelt on at length were important as well.
The use of insert shots, i.e. close-ups of objects other than faces, had already been established by the Brighton school, but were infrequently used before 1914. It is really only with Griffith's The Avenging Conscience that a new phase in the use of the Insert Shot starts. As well as the symbolic inserts already mentioned, the film also made extensive use of large numbers of Big Close Up shots of clutching hands and tapping feet as a means of emphasizing those parts of the body as indicators of psychological tension.
Atmospheric inserts were developed in Europe in the late 1910s. This kind of shot is one in a scene which neither contains any of the characters in the story, nor is a Point of View shot seen by one of them. An early example is when Maurice Tourneur directed The Pride of the Clan (1917), in which there is a series of shots of waves beating on a rocky shore to demonstrate the harsh lives of the fishing folk. Maurice Elvey's Nelson; The Story of England's Immortal Naval Hero (1919) has a symbolic sequence dissolving from a picture of Kaiser Wilhelm II to a peacock, and then to a battleship.
By 1914, continuity cinema was the established mode of commercial cinema. One of the advanced continuity techniques involved an accurate and smooth transition from one shot to another. Cutting to different angles within a scene also became well-established as a technique for dissecting a scene into shots in American films. If the direction of the shot changes by more than ninety degrees, it is called a reverse-angle cutting. The leading figure in the full development of reverse-angle cutting was Ralph Ince in his films, such as The Right Girl and His Phantom Sweetheart.
The use of flash-back structures continued to develop in this period, with the usual way of entering and leaving a flash-back being through a dissolve. The Vitagraph Company's The Man That Might Have Been (William J. Humphrey, 1914), is even more complex, with a series of reveries and flash-backs that contrast the protagonist's real passage through life with what might have been, if his son had not died.
After 1914, cross cutting between parallel actions came to be used – more so in American films than in European ones. Cross-cutting was used to get new effects of contrast, such as the cross-cut sequence in Cecil B. DeMille's The Whispering Chorus (1918), in which a supposedly dead husband is having a liaison with a Chinese prostitute in an opium den, while simultaneously his unknowing wife is being remarried in church.
Silent film tinting, too, gained popularity during these periods. Amber tinting meant daytime, or vividly-lit nighttime, blue tints meant dawn or dimly-lit night, red tinting represented fire scenes, green tinting meant a mysterious atmosphere, and brown tints (aka sepia toning) were used usually for full-length films instead of individual scenes. D.W. Griffiths' ground-breaking epic, The Birth of a Nation, the famous 1920 film Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and the Robert Wiene epic from the same year, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, are some notable examples of tinted silent films.
The Photo-Drama of Creation, first shown to audiences in 1914, was the first major screenplay to incorporate synchronized sound, moving film, and color slides. Until 1927, most motion pictures were produced without sound. This period is commonly referred to as the silent era of film.
The general trend in the development of cinema, led from the United States, was towards using the newly developed specifically filmic devices for expression of the narrative content of film stories, and combining this with the standard dramatic structures already in use in commercial theatre. D. W. Griffith had the highest standing among American directors in the industry, because of the dramatic excitement he conveyed to the audience through his films. Cecil B. DeMille's The Cheat (1915), brought out the moral dilemmas facing their characters in a more subtle way than Griffith. DeMille was also in closer touch with the reality of contemporary American life. Maurice Tourneur was also highly ranked for the pictorial beauties of his films, together with the subtlety of his handling of fantasy, while at the same time he was capable of getting greater naturalism from his actors at appropriate moments, as in A Girl's Folly (1917).
Sidney Drew was the leader in developing "polite comedy", while slapstick was refined by Fatty Arbuckle and Charles Chaplin, who both started with Mack Sennett's Keystone company. They reduced the usual frenetic pace of Sennett's films to give the audience a chance to appreciate the subtlety and finesse of their movement, and the cleverness of their gags. By 1917 Chaplin was also introducing more dramatic plot into his films, and mixing the comedy with sentiment.
In Russia, Yevgeni Bauer put a slow intensity of acting combined with Symbolist overtones onto film in a unique way.
In Sweden, Victor Sjöström made a series of films that combined the realities of people's lives with their surroundings in a striking manner, while Mauritz Stiller developed sophisticated comedy to a new level.
In Germany, Ernst Lubitsch got his inspiration from the stage work of Max Reinhardt, both in bourgeois comedy and in spectacle, and applied this to his films, culminating in his die Puppe (The Doll), die Austernprinzessin (The Oyster Princess) and Madame DuBarry.
At the start of the First World War, French and Italian cinema had been the most globally popular. The war came as a devastating interruption to European film industries.
Throughout the early 20th century, screen artists continued to learn how to work with cameras and create illusions using space and time in their shots. This newly introduced form of creativity made way for a whole new group of people to be introduced to stardom, including David W. Griffith, who made a name for himself with his 1915 film, The Birth of a Nation. In 1920, there were two major changes to the film industry: the introduction of sound and the creation of studio systems. In the 1920s, talent who had been working independently began joining studios and working with other actors and directors. In 1927, The Jazz Singer was released, bringing sound to the motion picture industry.
The German cinema, marked by those times, saw the era of the German Expressionist film movement. Berlin was its center with the Filmstudio Babelsberg, which is the oldest large-scale film studio in the world. The first Expressionist films made up for a lack of lavish budgets by using set designs with wildly non-realistic, geometrically absurd angles, along with designs painted on walls and floors to represent lights, shadows, and objects. The plots and stories of the Expressionist films often dealt with madness, insanity, betrayal and other "intellectual" topics triggered by the experiences of World War I. Films like The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920), Nosferatu (1922) and M (1931), similar to the movement they were part of, had a historic impact on film itself.
Movies like Metropolis (1927) and Woman in the Moon (1929) partly created the genre of science fiction films and Lotte Reiniger became a pioneer in animation, producing animated feature films like The Adventures of Prince Achmed, the oldest surviving and oldest European made animated movie.
Many German and German-based directors, actors, writers and others emigrated to the US when the Nazis gained power, giving Hollywood and the American film industry the final edge in its competition with other movie producing countries.
The American industry, or "Hollywood", as it was becoming known after its new geographical center in California, gained the position it has held, more or less, ever since: film factory for the world and exporting its product to most countries on earth.
By the 1920s, the United States reached what is still its era of greatest-ever output, producing an average of 800 feature films annually, or 82% of the global total (Eyman, 1997). The comedies of Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton, the swashbuckling adventures of Douglas Fairbanks and the romances of Clara Bow, to cite just a few examples, made these performers' faces well known on every continent. The Western visual norm that would become classical continuity editing was developed and exported – although its adoption was slower in some non-Western countries without strong realist traditions in art and drama, such as Japan.
This development was contemporary with the growth of the studio system and its greatest publicity method, the star system, which characterized American film for decades to come and provided models for other film industries. The studios' efficient, top-down control over all stages of their product enabled a new and ever-growing level of lavish production and technical sophistication. At the same time, the system's commercial regimentation and focus on glamorous escapism discouraged daring and ambition beyond a certain degree, a prime example being the brief but still legendary directing career of the iconoclastic Erich von Stroheim in the late teens and the 1920s.
In 1924, Sam Goldwyn, Louis B. Mayer, and the Metro Pictures Corporation create MGM.
During late 1927, Warners released The Jazz Singer, which was mostly silent but contained what is generally regarded as the first synchronized dialogue (and singing) in a feature film; but this process was actually accomplished first by Charles Taze Russell in 1914 with the lengthy film The Photo-Drama of Creation. This drama consisted of picture slides and moving pictures synchronized with phonograph records of talks and music. The early sound-on-disc processes such as Vitaphone were soon superseded by sound-on-film methods like Fox Movietone, DeForest Phonofilm, and RCA Photophone. The trend convinced the largely reluctant industrialists that "talking pictures", or "talkies", were the future. A lot of attempts were made before the success of The Jazz Singer, that can be seen in the List of film sound systems. And in 1926, Warner Bros. Debuts the film Don Juan with synchronized sound effects and music.
The change was remarkably swift. By the end of 1929, Hollywood was almost all-talkie, with several competing sound systems (soon to be standardized). Total changeover was slightly slower in the rest of the world, principally for economic reasons. Cultural reasons were also a factor in countries like China and Japan, where silents co-existed successfully with sound well into the 1930s, indeed producing what would be some of the most revered classics in those countries, like Wu Yonggang's The Goddess (China, 1934) and Yasujirō Ozu's I Was Born, But... (Japan, 1932). But even in Japan, a figure such as the benshi, the live narrator who was a major part of Japanese silent cinema, found his acting career was ending.
Sound further tightened the grip of major studios in numerous countries: the vast expense of the transition overwhelmed smaller competitors, while the novelty of sound lured vastly larger audiences for those producers that remained. In the case of the U.S., some historians credit sound with saving the Hollywood studio system in the face of the Great Depression (Parkinson, 1995). Thus began what is now often called "The Golden Age of Hollywood", which refers roughly to the period beginning with the introduction of sound until the late 1940s. The American cinema reached its peak of efficiently manufactured glamour and global appeal during this period. The top actors of the era are now thought of as the classic film stars, such as Clark Gable, Katharine Hepburn, Humphrey Bogart, Greta Garbo, and the greatest box office draw of the 1930s, child performer Shirley Temple.
Creatively, however, the rapid transition was a difficult one, and in some ways, film briefly reverted to the conditions of its earliest days. The late '20s were full of static, stagey talkies as artists in front of and behind the camera struggled with the stringent limitations of the early sound equipment and their own uncertainty as to how to use the new medium. Many stage performers, directors and writers were introduced to cinema as producers sought personnel experienced in dialogue-based storytelling. Many major silent filmmakers and actors were unable to adjust and found their careers severely curtailed or even ended.
This awkward period was fairly short-lived. 1929 was a watershed year: William Wellman with Chinatown Nights and The Man I Love, Rouben Mamoulian with Applause, Alfred Hitchcock with Blackmail (Britain's first sound feature), were among the directors to bring greater fluidity to talkies and experiment with the expressive use of sound (Eyman, 1997). In this, they both benefited from, and pushed further, technical advances in microphones and cameras, and capabilities for editing and post-synchronizing sound (rather than recording all sound directly at the time of filming).
Sound films emphasized black history, and benefited different genres to a greater extent than silents did. Most obviously, the musical film was born; the first classic-style Hollywood musical was The Broadway Melody (1929), and the form would find its first major creator in choreographer/director Busby Berkeley (42nd Street, 1933, Dames, 1934). In France, avant-garde director René Clair made surreal use of song and dance in comedies like Under the Roofs of Paris (1930) and Le Million (1931). Universal Pictures began releasing gothic horror films like Dracula and Frankenstein (both 1931). In 1933, RKO Pictures released Merian C. Cooper's classic "giant monster" film King Kong. The trend thrived best in India, where the influence of the country's traditional song-and-dance drama made the musical the basic form of most sound films (Cook, 1990); virtually unnoticed by the Western world for decades, this Indian popular cinema would nevertheless become the world's most prolific. (See also Bollywood.)
At this time, American gangster films like Little Caesar and Wellman's The Public Enemy (both 1931) became popular. Dialogue now took precedence over slapstick in Hollywood comedies: the fast-paced, witty banter of The Front Page (1931) or It Happened One Night (1934), the sexual double entendres of Mae West (She Done Him Wrong, 1933), or the often subversively anarchic nonsense talk of the Marx Brothers (Duck Soup, 1933). Walt Disney, who had previously been in the short cartoon business, stepped into feature films with the first English-speaking animated feature Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, released by RKO Pictures in 1937. 1939, a major year for American cinema, brought such films as The Wizard of Oz and Gone with The Wind.
Circa 80 percent of the films of the 1890s to the 1920s had colours. Many made use of monochromatic film tinting dye baths, some had the frames painted in multiple transparent colours by hand, and since 1905 there was a mechanized stencil-process (Pathécolor).
Kinemacolor, the first commercially successful cinematographic colour process, produced films in two colours (red and cyan) from 1908 to 1914.
Technicolor's natural three-strip colour process was very successfully introduced in 1932 with Walt Disney's animated Academy Award-winning short "Flowers and Trees", directed by Burt Gillett. Technicolor was initially used mainly for musicals like "The Wizard of Oz" (1939), in costume films such as "The Adventures of Robin Hood", and in animation. Not long after television became prevalent in the early 1950s, colour became more or less standard for theatrical movies.
The desire for wartime propaganda against the opposition created a renaissance in the film industry in Britain, with realistic war dramas like 49th Parallel (1941), Went the Day Well? (1942), The Way Ahead (1944) and Noël Coward and David Lean's celebrated naval film In Which We Serve in 1942, which won a special Academy Award. These existed alongside more flamboyant films like Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943), A Canterbury Tale (1944) and A Matter of Life and Death (1946), as well as Laurence Olivier's 1944 film Henry V, based on the Shakespearean history Henry V. The success of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs allowed Disney to make more animated features like Pinocchio (1940), Fantasia (1940), Dumbo (1941) and Bambi (1942).
The onset of US involvement in World War II also brought a proliferation of films as both patriotism and propaganda. American propaganda films included Desperate Journey (1942), Mrs. Miniver (1942), Forever and a Day (1943) and Objective, Burma! (1945). Notable American films from the war years include the anti-Nazi Watch on the Rhine (1943), scripted by Dashiell Hammett; Shadow of a Doubt (1943), Hitchcock's direction of a script by Thornton Wilder; the George M. Cohan biographical film, Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942), starring James Cagney, and the immensely popular Casablanca, with Humphrey Bogart. Bogart would star in 36 films between 1934 and 1942 including John Huston's The Maltese Falcon (1941), one of the first films now considered a classic film noir. In 1941, RKO Pictures released Citizen Kane made by Orson Welles. It is often considered the greatest film of all time. It would set the stage for the modern motion picture, as it revolutionized film story telling.
The strictures of wartime also brought an interest in more fantastical subjects. These included Britain's Gainsborough melodramas (including The Man in Grey and The Wicked Lady), and films like Here Comes Mr. Jordan, Heaven Can Wait, I Married a Witch and Blithe Spirit. Val Lewton also produced a series of atmospheric and influential small-budget horror films, some of the more famous examples being Cat People, Isle of the Dead and The Body Snatcher. The decade probably also saw the so-called "women's pictures", such as Now, Voyager, Random Harvest and Mildred Pierce at the peak of their popularity.
1946 saw RKO Radio releasing It's a Wonderful Life directed by Italian-born filmmaker Frank Capra. Soldiers returning from the war would provide the inspiration for films like The Best Years of Our Lives, and many of those in the film industry had served in some capacity during the war. Samuel Fuller's experiences in World War II would influence his largely autobiographical films of later decades such as The Big Red One. The Actors Studio was founded in October 1947 by Elia Kazan, Robert Lewis, and Cheryl Crawford, and the same year Oskar Fischinger filmed Motion Painting No. 1.
In 1943, Ossessione was screened in Italy, marking the beginning of Italian neorealism. Major films of this type during the 1940s included Bicycle Thieves, Rome, Open City, and La Terra Trema. In 1952 Umberto D was released, usually considered the last film of this type.
In the late 1940s, in Britain, Ealing Studios embarked on their series of celebrated comedies, including Whisky Galore!, Passport to Pimlico, Kind Hearts and Coronets and The Man in the White Suit, and Carol Reed directed his influential thrillers Odd Man Out, The Fallen Idol and The Third Man. David Lean was also rapidly becoming a force in world cinema with Brief Encounter and his Dickens adaptations Great Expectations and Oliver Twist, and Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger would experience the best of their creative partnership with films like Black Narcissus and The Red Shoes.
The House Un-American Activities Committee investigated Hollywood in the early 1950s. Protested by the Hollywood Ten before the committee, the hearings resulted in the blacklisting of many actors, writers and directors, including Chayefsky, Charlie Chaplin, and Dalton Trumbo, and many of these fled to Europe, especially the United Kingdom.
The Cold War era zeitgeist translated into a type of near-paranoia manifested in themes such as invading armies of evil aliens (Invasion of the Body Snatchers, The War of the Worlds) and communist fifth columnists (The Manchurian Candidate).
During the immediate post-war years the cinematic industry was also threatened by television, and the increasing popularity of the medium meant that some film theatres would bankrupt and close. The demise of the "studio system" spurred the self-commentary of films like Sunset Boulevard (1950) and The Bad and the Beautiful (1952).
In 1950, the Lettrists avante-gardists caused riots at the Cannes Film Festival, when Isidore Isou's Treatise on Slime and Eternity was screened. After their criticism of Charlie Chaplin and split with the movement, the Ultra-Lettrists continued to cause disruptions when they showed their new hypergraphical techniques. The most notorious film is Guy Debord's Howls for Sade of 1952. Distressed by the increasing number of closed theatres, studios and companies would find new and innovative ways to bring audiences back. These included attempts to widen their appeal with new screen formats. Cinemascope, which would remain a 20th Century Fox distinction until 1967, was announced with 1953's The Robe. VistaVision, Cinerama, and Todd-AO boasted a "bigger is better" approach to marketing films to a dwindling US audience. This resulted in the revival of epic films to take advantage of the new big screen formats. Some of the most successful examples of these Biblical and historical spectaculars include The Ten Commandments (1956), The Vikings (1958), Ben-Hur (1959), Spartacus (1960) and El Cid (1961). Also during this period a number of other significant films were produced in Todd-AO, developed by Mike Todd shortly before his death, including Oklahoma! (1955), Around the World in 80 Days (1956), South Pacific (1958) and Cleopatra (1963) plus many more.
Gimmicks also proliferated to lure in audiences. The fad for 3-D film would last for only two years, 1952–1954, and helped sell House of Wax and Creature from the Black Lagoon. Producer William Castle would tout films featuring "Emergo" "Percepto", the first of a series of gimmicks that would remain popular marketing tools for Castle and others throughout the 1960s.
In 1954, Dorothy Dandridge was nominated as the best actress at the Oscar for her role in the film Carman Jones. She became the first black woman to be nominated for this award.
In the U.S., a post-WW2 tendency toward questioning the establishment and societal norms and the early activism of the civil rights movement was reflected in Hollywood films such as Blackboard Jungle (1955), On the Waterfront (1954), Paddy Chayefsky's Marty and Reginald Rose's 12 Angry Men (1957). Disney continued making animated films, notably; Cinderella (1950), Peter Pan (1953), Lady and the Tramp (1955), and Sleeping Beauty (1959). He began, however, getting more involved in live action films, producing classics like 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954), and Old Yeller (1957). Television began competing seriously with films projected in theatres, but surprisingly it promoted more filmgoing rather than curtailing it.
Limelight is probably a unique film in at least one interesting respect. Its two leads, Charlie Chaplin and Claire Bloom, were in the industry in no less than three different centuries. In the 19th century, Chaplin made his theatrical debut at the age of eight, in 1897, in a clog dancing troupe, The Eight Lancaster Lads. In the 21st century, Bloom is still enjoying a full and productive career, having appeared in dozens of films and television series produced up to and including 2022. She received particular acclaim for her role in The King's Speech (2010).
Following the end of World War II in the 1940s, the following decade, the 1950s, marked a 'golden age' for non-English world cinema, especially for Asian cinema. Many of the most critically acclaimed Asian films of all time were produced during this decade, including Yasujirō Ozu's Tokyo Story (1953), Satyajit Ray's The Apu Trilogy (1955–1959) and Jalsaghar (1958), Kenji Mizoguchi's Ugetsu (1954) and Sansho the Bailiff (1954), Raj Kapoor's Awaara (1951), Mikio Naruse's Floating Clouds (1955), Guru Dutt's Pyaasa (1957) and Kaagaz Ke Phool (1959), and the Akira Kurosawa films Rashomon (1950), Ikiru (1952), Seven Samurai (1954) and Throne of Blood (1957).
During Japanese cinema's 'Golden Age' of the 1950s, successful films included Rashomon (1950), Seven Samurai (1954) and The Hidden Fortress (1958) by Akira Kurosawa, as well as Yasujirō Ozu's Tokyo Story (1953) and Ishirō Honda's Godzilla (1954). These films have had a profound influence on world cinema. In particular, Kurosawa's Seven Samurai has been remade several times as Western films, such as The Magnificent Seven (1960) and Battle Beyond the Stars (1980), and has also inspired several Bollywood films, such as Sholay (1975) and China Gate (1998). Rashomon was also remade as The Outrage (1964), and inspired films with "Rashomon effect" storytelling methods, such as Andha Naal (1954), The Usual Suspects (1995) and Hero (2002). The Hidden Fortress was also an inspiration behind George Lucas' Star Wars (1977). Other famous Japanese filmmakers from this period include Kenji Mizoguchi, Mikio Naruse, Hiroshi Inagaki and Nagisa Oshima. Japanese cinema later became one of the main inspirations behind the New Hollywood movement of the 1960s to 1980s.
During Indian cinema's 'Golden Age' of the 1950s, it was producing 200 films annually, while Indian independent films gained greater recognition through international film festivals. One of the most famous was The Apu Trilogy (1955–1959) from critically acclaimed Bengali film director Satyajit Ray, whose films had a profound influence on world cinema, with directors such as Akira Kurosawa, Martin Scorsese, James Ivory, Abbas Kiarostami, Elia Kazan, François Truffaut, Steven Spielberg, Carlos Saura, Jean-Luc Godard, Isao Takahata, Gregory Nava, Ira Sachs, Wes Anderson and Danny Boyle being influenced by his cinematic style. According to Michael Sragow of The Atlantic Monthly, the "youthful coming-of-age dramas that have flooded art houses since the mid-fifties owe a tremendous debt to the Apu trilogy". Subrata Mitra's cinematographic technique of bounce lighting also originates from The Apu Trilogy. Other famous Indian filmmakers from this period include Guru Dutt, Ritwik Ghatak, Mrinal Sen, Raj Kapoor, Bimal Roy, K. Asif and Mehboob Khan.
The cinema of South Korea also experienced a 'Golden Age' in the 1950s, beginning with director Lee Kyu-hwan's tremendously successful remake of Chunhyang-jon (1955). That year also saw the release of Yangsan Province by the renowned director, Kim Ki-young, marking the beginning of his productive career. Both the quality and quantity of filmmaking had increased rapidly by the end of the 1950s. South Korean films, such as Lee Byeong-il's 1956 comedy Sijibganeun nal (The Wedding Day), had begun winning international awards. In contrast to the beginning of the 1950s, when only 5 films were made per year, 111 films were produced in South Korea in 1959.
The 1950s was also a 'Golden Age' for Philippine cinema, with the emergence of more artistic and mature films, and significant improvement in cinematic techniques among filmmakers. The studio system produced frenetic activity in the local film industry as many films were made annually and several local talents started to earn recognition abroad. The premiere Philippine directors of the era included Gerardo de Leon, Gregorio Fernández, Eddie Romero, Lamberto Avellana, and Cirio Santiago.
During the 1960s, the studio system in Hollywood declined, because many films were now being made on location in other countries, or using studio facilities abroad, such as Pinewood in the UK and Cinecittà in Rome. "Hollywood" films were still largely aimed at family audiences, and it was often the more old-fashioned films that produced the studios' biggest successes. Productions like Mary Poppins (1964), My Fair Lady (1964) and The Sound of Music (1965) were among the biggest money-makers of the decade. The growth in independent producers and production companies, and the increase in the power of individual actors also contributed to the decline of traditional Hollywood studio production.
There was also an increasing awareness of foreign language cinema in America during this period. During the late 1950s and 1960s, the French New Wave directors such as François Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard produced films such as Les quatre cents coups, Breathless and Jules et Jim which broke the rules of Hollywood cinema's narrative structure. As well, audiences were becoming aware of Italian films like Federico Fellini's La Dolce Vita (1960), 8½ (1963) and the stark dramas of Sweden's Ingmar Bergman.
In Britain, the "Free Cinema" of Lindsay Anderson, Tony Richardson and others lead to a group of realistic and innovative dramas including Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, A Kind of Loving and This Sporting Life. Other British films such as Repulsion, Darling, Alfie, Blowup and Georgy Girl (all in 1965–1966) helped to reduce prohibitions of sex and nudity on screen, while the casual sex and violence of the James Bond films, beginning with Dr. No in 1962 would render the series popular worldwide.
During the 1960s, Ousmane Sembène produced several French- and Wolof-language films and became the "father" of African Cinema. In Latin America, the dominance of the "Hollywood" model was challenged by many film makers. Fernando Solanas and Octavio Getino called for a politically engaged Third Cinema in contrast to Hollywood and the European auteur cinema.
In Egypt, the golden age of Egyptian cinema continued in the 1960s at the hands of many directors, and Egyptian cinema greatly appreciated women at that time, such as Soad Hosny. The Zulfikar brothers; Ezz El-Dine Zulfikar, Salah Zulfikar and Mahmoud Zulfikar were on a date with many productions, including Ezz El Dine Zulfikar's The River of Love (1960), Mahmoud Zulfikar's Soft Hands (1964), and Dearer Than My Life (1965) starring Salah Zulfikar and Salah Zulfikar Films production; My Wife, the Director General (1966) as well as Youssef Chahine's Saladin (1963).
Further, the nuclear paranoia of the age, and the threat of an apocalyptic nuclear exchange (like the 1962 close-call with the USSR during the Cuban Missile Crisis) prompted a reaction within the film community as well. Films like Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove and Fail Safe with Henry Fonda were produced in a Hollywood that was once known for its overt patriotism and wartime propaganda.
In documentary film the sixties saw the blossoming of Direct Cinema, an observational style of film making as well as the advent of more overtly partisan films like In the Year of the Pig about the Vietnam War by Emile de Antonio. By the late 1960s however, Hollywood filmmakers were beginning to create more innovative and ground-breaking films that reflected the social revolution taken over much of the western world such as Bonnie and Clyde (1967), The Graduate (1967), 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), Rosemary's Baby (1968), Midnight Cowboy (1969), Easy Rider (1969) and The Wild Bunch (1969). Bonnie and Clyde is often considered the beginning of the so-called New Hollywood.
In Japanese cinema, Academy Award-winning director Akira Kurosawa produced Yojimbo (1961), which like his previous films also had a profound influence around the world. The influence of this film is most apparent in Sergio Leone's A Fistful of Dollars (1964) and Walter Hill's Last Man Standing (1996). Yojimbo was also the origin of the "Man with No Name" trend.
The New Hollywood was the period following the decline of the studio system during the 1950s and 1960s and the end of the production code, (which was replaced in 1968 by the MPAA film rating system). During the 1970s, filmmakers increasingly depicted explicit sexual content and showed gunfight and battle scenes that included graphic images of bloody deaths – a notable example of this is Wes Craven's The Last House on the Left (1972).
Post-classical cinema is the changing methods of storytelling of the New Hollywood producers. The new methods of drama and characterization played upon audience expectations acquired during the classical/Golden Age period: story chronology may be scrambled, storylines may feature unsettling "twist endings", main characters may behave in a morally ambiguous fashion, and the lines between the antagonist and protagonist may be blurred. The beginnings of post-classical storytelling may be seen in 1940s and 1950s film noir films, in films such as Rebel Without a Cause (1955), and in Hitchcock's Psycho. 1971 marked the release of controversial films like Straw Dogs, A Clockwork Orange, The French Connection and Dirty Harry. This sparked heated controversy over the perceived escalation of violence in cinema.
During the 1970s, a new group of American filmmakers emerged, such as Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, George Lucas, Woody Allen, Terrence Malick, and Robert Altman. This coincided with the increasing popularity of the auteur theory in film literature and the media, which posited that a film director's films express their personal vision and creative insights. The development of the auteur style of filmmaking helped to give these directors far greater control over their projects than would have been possible in earlier eras. This led to some great critical and commercial successes, like Scorsese's Taxi Driver, Coppola's The Godfather films, William Friedkin's The Exorcist, Altman's Nashville, Allen's Annie Hall and Manhattan, Malick's Badlands and Days of Heaven, and Polish immigrant Roman Polanski's Chinatown. It also, however, resulted in some failures, including Peter Bogdanovich's At Long Last Love and Michael Cimino's hugely expensive Western epic Heaven's Gate, which helped to bring about the demise of its backer, United Artists.
The financial disaster of Heaven's Gate marked the end of the visionary "auteur" directors of the "New Hollywood", who had unrestrained creative and financial freedom to develop films. The phenomenal success in the 1970s of Spielberg's Jaws originated the concept of the modern "blockbuster". However, the enormous success of George Lucas' 1977 film Star Wars led to much more than just the popularization of blockbuster filmmaking. The film's revolutionary use of special effects, sound editing and music had led it to become widely regarded as one of the single most important films in the medium's history, as well as the most influential film of the 1970s. Hollywood studios increasingly focused on producing a smaller number of very large budget films with massive marketing and promotional campaigns. This trend had already been foreshadowed by the commercial success of disaster films such as The Poseidon Adventure and The Towering Inferno.
During the mid-1970s, more pornographic theatres, euphemistically called "adult cinemas", were established, and the legal production of hardcore pornographic films began. Porn films such as Deep Throat and its star Linda Lovelace became something of a popular culture phenomenon and resulted in a spate of similar sex films. The porn cinemas finally died out during the 1980s, when the popularization of the home VCR and pornography videotapes allowed audiences to watch sex films at home. In the early 1970s, English-language audiences became more aware of the new West German cinema, with Werner Herzog, Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Wim Wenders among its leading exponents.
In world cinema, the 1970s saw a dramatic increase in the popularity of martial arts films, largely due to its reinvention by Bruce Lee, who departed from the artistic style of traditional Chinese martial arts films and added a much greater sense of realism to them with his Jeet Kune Do style. This began with The Big Boss (1971), which was a major success across Asia. However, he did not gain fame in the Western world until shortly after his death in 1973, when Enter the Dragon was released. The film went on to become the most successful martial arts film in cinematic history, popularized the martial arts film genre across the world, and cemented Bruce Lee's status as a cultural icon. Hong Kong action cinema, however, was in decline due to a wave of "Bruceploitation" films. This trend eventually came to an end in 1978 with the martial arts comedy films, Snake in the Eagle's Shadow and Drunken Master, directed by Yuen Woo-ping and starring Jackie Chan, laying the foundations for the rise of Hong Kong action cinema in the 1980s.
While the musical film genre had declined in Hollywood by this time, musical films were quickly gaining popularity in the cinema of India, where the term "Bollywood" was coined for the growing Hindi film industry in Bombay (now Mumbai) that ended up dominating South Asian cinema, overtaking the more critically acclaimed Bengali film industry in popularity. Hindi filmmakers combined the Hollywood musical formula with the conventions of ancient Indian theatre to create a new film genre called "Masala", which dominated Indian cinema throughout the late 20th century. These "Masala" films portrayed action, comedy, drama, romance and melodrama all at once, with "filmi" song and dance routines thrown in. This trend began with films directed by Manmohan Desai and starring Amitabh Bachchan, who remains one of the most popular film stars in South Asia. The most popular Indian film of all time was Sholay (1975), a "Masala" film inspired by a real-life dacoit as well as Kurosawa's Seven Samurai and the Spaghetti Westerns.
The end of the decade saw the first major international marketing of Australian cinema, as Peter Weir's films Picnic at Hanging Rock and The Last Wave and Fred Schepisi's The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith gained critical acclaim. In 1979, Australian filmmaker George Miller also garnered international attention for his violent, low-budget action film Mad Max.
During the 1980s, audiences began increasingly watching films on their home VCRs. In the early part of that decade, the film studios tried legal action to ban home ownership of VCRs as a violation of copyright, which proved unsuccessful. Eventually, the sale and rental of films on home video became a significant "second venue" for exhibition of films, and an additional source of revenue for the film industries. Direct-to-video (niche) markets usually offered lower quality, cheap productions that were not deemed very suitable for the general audiences of television and theatrical releases.
The Lucas–Spielberg combine would dominate "Hollywood" cinema for much of the 1980s, and lead to much imitation. Two follow-ups to Star Wars, three to Jaws, and three Indiana Jones films helped to make sequels of successful films more of an expectation than ever before. Lucas also launched THX Ltd, a division of Lucasfilm in 1982, while Spielberg enjoyed one of the decade's greatest successes in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial the same year. 1982 also saw the release of Disney's Tron which was one of the first films from a major studio to use computer graphics extensively. American independent cinema struggled more during the decade, although Martin Scorsese's Raging Bull (1980), After Hours (1985), and The King of Comedy (1983) helped to establish him as one of the most critically acclaimed American film makers of the era. Also during 1983 Scarface was released, which was very profitable and resulted in even greater fame for its leading actor Al Pacino. Tim Burton's 1989 version of Bob Kane's creation, Batman, saw Jack Nicholson's portrayal of the demented Joker, which earned him $60-$90m after including his percentage of the gross.
British cinema was given a boost during the early 1980s by the arrival of David Puttnam's company Goldcrest Films. The films Chariots of Fire, Gandhi, The Killing Fields and A Room with a View appealed to a "middlebrow" audience which was increasingly being ignored by the major Hollywood studios. While the films of the 1970s had helped to define modern blockbuster motion pictures, the way "Hollywood" released its films would now change. Films, for the most part, would premiere in a wider number of theatres, although, to this day, some films still premiere using the route of the limited/roadshow release system. Against some expectations, the rise of the multiplex cinema did not allow less mainstream films to be shown, but simply allowed the major blockbusters to be given an even greater number of screenings. However, films that had been overlooked in cinemas were increasingly being given a second chance on home video.
During the 1980s, Japanese cinema experienced a revival, largely due to the success of anime films. At the beginning of the 1980s, Space Battleship Yamato (1973) and Mobile Suit Gundam (1979), both of which were unsuccessful as television series, were remade as films and became hugely successful in Japan. In particular, Mobile Suit Gundam sparked the Gundam franchise of Real Robot mecha anime. The success of Macross: Do You Remember Love? also sparked a Macross franchise of mecha anime. This was also the decade when Studio Ghibli was founded. The studio produced Hayao Miyazaki's first fantasy films, Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984) and Castle in the Sky (1986), as well as Isao Takahata's Grave of the Fireflies (1988), all of which were very successful in Japan and received worldwide critical acclaim. Original video animation (OVA) films also began during this decade; the most influential of these early OVA films was Noboru Ishiguro's cyberpunk film Megazone 23 (1985). The most famous anime film of this decade was Katsuhiro Otomo's cyberpunk film Akira (1988), which although initially unsuccessful at Japanese theaters, went on to become an international success.
Hong Kong action cinema, which was in a state of decline due to endless Bruceploitation films after the death of Bruce Lee, also experienced a revival in the 1980s, largely due to the reinvention of the action film genre by Jackie Chan. He had previously combined the comedy film and martial arts film genres successfully in the 1978 films Snake in the Eagle's Shadow and Drunken Master. The next step he took was in combining this comedy martial arts genre with a new emphasis on elaborate and highly dangerous stunts, reminiscent of the silent film era. The first film in this new style of action cinema was Project A (1983), which saw the formation of the Jackie Chan Stunt Team as well as the "Three Brothers" (Chan, Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao). The film added elaborate, dangerous stunts to the fights and slapstick humor, and became a huge success throughout the Far East. As a result, Chan continued this trend with martial arts action films containing even more elaborate and dangerous stunts, including Wheels on Meals (1984), Police Story (1985), Armour of God (1986), Project A Part II (1987), Police Story 2 (1988), and Dragons Forever (1988). Other new trends which began in the 1980s were the "girls with guns" subgenre, for which Michelle Yeoh gained fame; and especially the "heroic bloodshed" genre, revolving around Triads, largely pioneered by John Woo and for which Chow Yun-fat became famous. These Hong Kong action trends were later adopted by many Hollywood action films in the 1990s and 2000s.
The early 1990s saw the development of a commercially successful independent cinema in the United States. Although cinema was increasingly dominated by special-effects films such as Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), Jurassic Park (1993) and Titanic (1997), the latter of which became the highest-grossing film of all time at the time up until Avatar (2009), also directed by James Cameron, independent films like Steven Soderbergh's Sex, Lies, and Videotape (1989) and Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs (1992) had significant commercial success both at the cinema and on home video.
Filmmakers associated with the Danish film movement Dogme 95 introduced a manifesto aimed to purify filmmaking. Its first few films gained worldwide critical acclaim, after which the movement slowly faded out.
Scorsese's Goodfellas was released in 1990. It is considered by many as one of the greatest movies to be made, particularly in the gangster genre. It is said to be the highest point of Scorsese's career.
Major American studios began to create their own "independent" production companies to finance and produce non-mainstream fare. One of the most successful independents of the 1990s, Miramax Films, was bought by Disney the year before the release of Tarantino's runaway hit Pulp Fiction in 1994. The same year marked the beginning of film and video distribution online. Animated films aimed at family audiences also regained their popularity, with Disney's Beauty and the Beast (1991), Aladdin (1992), and The Lion King (1994). During 1995, the first feature-length computer-animated feature, Toy Story, was produced by Pixar Animation Studios and released by Disney. After the success of Toy Story, computer animation would grow to become the dominant technique for feature-length animation, which would allow competing film companies such as DreamWorks, 20th Century Fox and Warner Bros. to effectively compete with Disney with successful films of their own. During the late 1990s, another cinematic transition began, from physical film stock to digital cinema technology. Meanwhile, DVDs became the new standard for consumer video, replacing VHS tapes.
Since the late 2000s streaming media platforms like YouTube provided means for anyone with access to internet and cameras (a standard feature of smartphones) to publish videos to the world. Also competing with the increasing popularity of video games and other forms of home entertainment, the industry once again started to make theatrical releases more attractive, with new 3D technologies and epic (fantasy and superhero) films becoming a mainstay in cinemas.
The documentary film also rose as a commercial genre for perhaps the first time, with the success of films such as March of the Penguins and Michael Moore's Bowling for Columbine and Fahrenheit 9/11. A new genre was created with Martin Kunert and Eric Manes' Voices of Iraq, when 150 inexpensive DV cameras were distributed across Iraq, transforming ordinary people into collaborative filmmakers. The success of Gladiator led to a revival of interest in epic cinema, and Moulin Rouge! renewed interest in musical cinema. Home theatre systems became increasingly sophisticated, as did some of the special edition DVDs designed to be shown on them. The Lord of the Rings trilogy was released on DVD in both the theatrical version and in a special extended version intended only for home cinema audiences.
In 2001, the Harry Potter film series began, and by its end in 2011, it had become the highest-grossing film franchise of all time until the Marvel Cinematic Universe passed it in 2015.
More films were also being released simultaneously to IMAX cinema, the first was in 2002's Disney animation Treasure Planet; and the first live action was in 2003's The Matrix Revolutions and a re-release of The Matrix Reloaded. Later in the decade, The Dark Knight was the first major feature film to have been at least partially shot in IMAX technology.
There has been an increasing globalization of cinema during this decade, with foreign-language films gaining popularity in English-speaking markets. Examples of such films include Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (Mandarin), Amélie (French), Lagaan (Hindi), Spirited Away (Japanese), City of God (Brazilian Portuguese), The Passion of the Christ (Aramaic), Apocalypto (Mayan) and Inglourious Basterds (multiple European languages). Italy is the most awarded country at the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, with 14 awards won, 3 Special Awards and 31 nominations.
In 2003, there was a revival in 3D film popularity the first being James Cameron's Ghosts of the Abyss which was released as the first full-length 3-D IMAX feature filmed with the Reality Camera System. This camera system used the latest HD video cameras, not film, and was built for Cameron by Emmy nominated Director of Photography Vince Pace, to his specifications. The same camera system was used to film Spy Kids 3D: Game Over (2003), Aliens of the Deep IMAX (2005), and The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl in 3-D (2005).
After James Cameron's 3D film Avatar became the highest-grossing film of all time, 3D films gained brief popularity with many other films being released in 3D, with the best critical and financial successes being in the field of feature film animation such as Universal Pictures/Illumination Entertainment's Despicable Me and DreamWorks Animation's How To Train Your Dragon, Shrek Forever After and Megamind. Avatar is also note-worthy for pioneering highly sophisticated use of motion capture technology and influencing several other films such as Rise of the Planet of the Apes.
As of 2011, the largest film industries by number of feature films produced were those of India, the United States, China, Nigeria, and Japan.
In 2010, the first woman to win the Best Director Award in Oscar history appeared. Katherine Bigelow's The Hurt Locker won six awards.
In Hollywood, superhero films have greatly increased in popularity and financial success, with films based on Marvel and DC Comics regularly being released every year up to the present. As of 2019, the superhero genre has been the most dominant as far as American box office receipts are concerned. The 2019 superhero film Avengers: Endgame was the most successful movie of all-time at the box office.
In 2020, Parasite became the first international film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture.
The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in the closure of film theaters around the world in response to regional and national lockdowns. Many films slated to release in the early 2020s faced delays in development, production, and distribution, with others being released on streaming services with little or no theatrical window.
|
[
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "The history of film chronicles the development of a visual art form created using film technologies that began in the late 19th century.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "The advent of film as an artistic medium is not clearly defined. There were earlier cinematographic screenings by others, however, the commercial, public screening of ten Lumière brothers' short films in Paris on 28 December 1895, can be regarded as the breakthrough of projected cinematographic motion pictures. The earliest films were in black and white, under a minute long, without recorded sound, and consisted of a single shot from a steady camera. The first decade saw film move from a novelty, to an established mass entertainment industry, with film production companies and studios established throughout the world. Conventions toward a general cinematic language developed, with film editing camera movements and other cinematic techniques contributing specific roles in the narrative of films.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "Popular new media, including television (mainstream since the 1950s), home video (1980s), and the internet (1990s), influenced the distribution and consumption of films. Film production usually responded with content to fit the new media, and technical innovations (including widescreen (1950s), 3D, and 4D film) and more spectacular films to keep theatrical screenings attractive. Systems that were cheaper and more easily handled (including 8mm film, video, and smartphone cameras) allowed for an increasing number of people to create films of varying qualities, for any purpose including home movies and video art. The technical quality was usually lower than professional movies, but improved with digital video and affordable, high-quality digital cameras. Improving over time, digital production methods became more popular during the 1990s, resulting in increasingly realistic visual effects and popular feature-length computer animations.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "Various film genres have emerged during the history of film, and enjoyed variable degrees of success.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "The use of film as an art form traces its origins to several earlier traditions in the arts such as (oral) storytelling, literature, theatre and visual arts. Cantastoria and similar ancient traditions combined storytelling with series of images that were shown or indicated one after the other. Predecessors to film that had already used light and shadows to create art before the advent of modern film technology include shadowgraphy, shadow puppetry, camera obscura, and the magic lantern.",
"title": "Precursors"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "Shadowgraphy and shadow puppetry represent early examples of the intent to use moving imagery for entertainment and storytelling. Thought to have originated in the Far East, the art form used shadows cast by hands or objects to assist in the creation of narratives. Shadow puppetry enjoyed popularity for centuries around Asia, notably in Java, and eventually spread to Europe during the Age of Enlightenment.",
"title": "Precursors"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "By the 16th century, entertainers often conjured images of ghostly apparitions, using techniques such as camera obscura and other forms of projection to enhance their performances. Magic lantern shows developed in the latter half of the 17th century seem to have continued this tradition with images of death, monsters and other scary figures. Around 1790, this practice was developed into a type of multimedia ghost show known as phantasmagoria. These popular shows entertained audiences using mechanical slides, rear projection, mobile projectors, superimposition, dissolves, live actors, smoke (on which projections may have been cast), odors, sounds and even electric shocks. While many first magic lantern shows were intended to frighten viewers, advances by projectionists allowed for creative and even educational storytelling that could appeal to wider family audiences. Newly pioneered techniques such as the use of dissolving views and the chromatrope allowed for smoother transitions between two projected images and aided in providing stronger narratives.",
"title": "Precursors"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "In 1833, scientific study of a stroboscopic illusion in spoked wheels by Joseph Plateau, Michael Faraday and Simon Stampfer led to the invention of the Fantascope, also known as the stroboscopic disk or the phenakistiscope, which was popular in several European countries for a while. Plateau thought it could be further developed for use in phantasmagoria and Stampfer imagined a system for longer scenes with strips on rollers, as well as a transparent version (probably intended for projection). Plateau, Charles Wheatstone, Antoine Claudet and others tried to combine the technique with the stereoscope (introduced in 1838) and photography (introduced in 1839) for a more complete illusion of reality, but for decades such experiments were mostly hindered by the need for long exposure times, with motion blur around objects that moved while the reflected light fell on the photo-sensitive chemicals. A few people managed to get decent results from stop motion techniques, but these were only very rarely marketed and no form of animated photography had much cultural impact before the advent of chronophotography.",
"title": "Precursors"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "Most early photographic sequences, known as chronophotography, were not initially intended to be viewed in motion and were typically presented as a serious, even scientific, method of studying locomotion. The sequences almost exclusively involved humans or animals performing a simple movement in front of the camera. Starting in 1878 with the publication of The Horse in Motion cabinet cards, photographer Eadweard Muybridge began making hundreds of chronophotographic studies of the motion of animals and humans in real-time. He was soon followed by other chronophotographers like Étienne-Jules Marey, Georges Demenÿ, Albert Londe and Ottomar Anschütz. In 1879, Muybridge started lecturing on animal locomotion and used his Zoopraxiscope to project animations of the contours of his recordings, traced onto glass discs.",
"title": "Precursors"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "In 1887, the German inventor and photographer Ottomar Anschütz started presenting his chronophotographic recordings in motion, using a device he called the Elektrischen Schnellseher (also known as the Electrotachyscope), which displayed short loops on a small milk glass screen. By 1891, he had started mass production of a more economical, coin-operated peep-box viewing device of the same name that was exhibited at international exhibitions and fairs. Some machines were installed for longer periods, including some at The Crystal Palace in London, and in several U.S. stores. Shifting the focus of the medium from technical and scientific interest in motion to entertainment for the masses, he recorded wrestlers, dancers, acrobats, and scenes of everyday life. Nearly 34,000 people paid to see his shows at the Berlin Exhibition Park in summer 1892. Others saw it in London or at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair.Though little evidence remains for most of these recordings, some scenes probably depicted staged comical scenes. Extant records suggest some of his output directly influenced later works by the Edison Company, such as the 1894 film Fred Ott's Sneeze.",
"title": "Precursors"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "Advances towards motion picture projection technologies were based on the popularity of magic lanterns, chronophotographic demonstrations, and other closely related forms of projected entertainment such as illustrated songs. From October 1892 to March 1900, inventor Émile Reynaud exhibited his Théâtre Optique (\"Optical Theatre\") film system at the Musée Grévin in Paris. Reynaud's device, which projected a series of animated stories such as Pauvre Pierrot and Autour d'une cabine, was displayed to over 500,000 visitors over the course of 12,800 shows. On 25, 29 and 30 November 1894, Ottomar Anschütz projected moving images from Electrotachyscope discs on a large screen in the darkened Grand Auditorium of a Post Office Building in Berlin. From 22 February to 30 March 1895, a commercial 1.5-hour program of 40 different scenes was screened for audiences of 300 people at the old Reichstag and received circa 4,000 visitors.",
"title": "Precursors"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "In June 1889, American inventor Thomas Edison assigned a lab assistant, William Kennedy Dickson, to help develop a device that could produce visuals to accompany the sounds produced from the phonograph. Building upon previous machines by Muybridge, Marey, Anschütz and others, Dickson and his team created the Kinetoscope peep-box viewer, with celluloid loops containing about half a minute of motion picture entertainment. After an early preview on 20 May 1891, Edison introduced the machine in 1893. Many of the movies presented on the Kinetoscope showcased well-known vaudeville acts performing in Edison's Black Maria studio. The Kinetoscope quickly became a global sensation with multiple viewing parlors across major cities by 1895. As the initial novelty of the images wore off, the Edison Company was slow to diversify their repertoire of films and waning public interest caused business to slow by Spring 1895. To remedy declining profits, experiments, such as The Dickson Experimental Sound Film, were conducted in an attempt to achieve the device's original goal of providing visual accompaniment for sound recordings. Limitations in syncing the sound to the visuals, however, prevented widespread application. During that same period, inventors began advancing technologies towards film projection that would eventually overtake Edison's peep-box format.",
"title": "Novelty era (1890s – early 1900s)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "Multiple inventors including Wordsworth Donisthorpe, Louis Le Prince, and William Friese-Greene experimented with prototype motion picture projection devices in the pursuit of creating and displaying films. The scenes in these experiments were usually filmed with family, friends or passing traffic as the moving subjects. The Skladanowsky brothers, used their self-made Bioscop to display the first moving picture show to a paying audience on 1 November 1895, in Berlin. But they did not have the quality or financial resources to acquire momentum. Most of these films never passed the experimental stage and their efforts garnered little public attention until after cinema had become successful.",
"title": "Novelty era (1890s – early 1900s)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "In the latter half of 1895, brothers Auguste and Louis Lumière filmed a number of short scenes with their invention, the Cinématographe. On 28 December 1895, the brothers gave their first commercial screening in Paris (though evidence exists of demonstrations of the device to small audiences as early as October 1895). The screening consisted of ten films and lasted roughly 20 minutes. The program consisted mainly of actuality films such as Workers Leaving the Lumière Factory as truthful documents of the world, but the show also included the staged comedy L'Arroseur Arrosé. The most advanced demonstration of film projection thus far, the Cinématographe was an instant success, bringing in an average of 2,500 to 3,000 francs daily by the end of January 1896. Following the first screening, the order and selection of films were changed often.",
"title": "Novelty era (1890s – early 1900s)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "The Lumière brothers' primary business interests were in selling cameras and film equipment to exhibitors, not the actual production of films. Despite this, filmmakers across the world were inspired by the potential of film as exhibitors brought their shows to new countries. This era of filmmaking, dubbed by film historian Tom Gunning as \"the cinema of attractions\", offered a relatively cheap and simple way of providing entertainment to the masses. Rather than focusing on stories, Gunning argues, filmmakers mainly relied on the ability to delight audiences through the \"illusory power\" of viewing sequences in motion, much as they did in the Kinetoscope era that preceded it. Despite this, early experimentation with fiction filmmaking (both in actuality film and other genres) did occur. Films were mostly screened inside temporary storefront spaces, in tents of traveling exhibitors at fairs, or as \"dumb\" acts in vaudeville programs. During this period, before the process of post-production was clearly defined, exhibitors were allowed to exercise their creative freedom in their presentations. To enhance the viewers' experience, some showings were accompanied by live musicians in an orchestra, a theatre organ, live sound effects and commentary spoken by the showman or projectionist.",
"title": "Novelty era (1890s – early 1900s)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 15,
"text": "Experiments in film editing, special effects, narrative construction, and camera movement during this period by filmmakers in France, England, and the United States became influential in establishing an identity for film going forward. At both the Edison and Lumière studios, loose narratives such as the 1895 Edison film, Washday Troubles, established short relationship dynamics and simple storylines. In 1896, La Fée aux Choux (The Fairy of the Cabbages) was first released. Directed and edited by Alice Guy, the story is arguably the earliest narrative film in history, as well as the first film to be directed by a woman. That same year, the Edison Manufacturing Company released The May Irwin Kiss in May to widespread financial success. The film, which featured the first kiss in cinematic history, led to the earliest known calls for film censorship.",
"title": "Novelty era (1890s – early 1900s)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 16,
"text": "Another early film producer was Australia's Limelight Department. Commencing in 1898, it was operated by The Salvation Army in Melbourne, Australia. The Limelight Department produced evangelistic material for use by the Salvation Army, including lantern slides as early as 1891, as well as private and government contracts. In its nineteen years of operation, the Limelight Department produced about 300 films of various lengths, making it one of largest film producers of its time. The Limelight Department made a 1904 film by Joseph Perry called Bushranging in North Queensland, which is believed to be the first ever film about bushrangers.",
"title": "Novelty era (1890s – early 1900s)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 17,
"text": "In its infancy, film was rarely recognized as an art form by presenters or audiences. Regarded by the upper class as a \"vulgar\" and \"lowbrow\" form of cheap entertainment, films largely appealed to the working class and were often too short to hold any strong narrative potential. Initial advertisements promoted the technologies used to screen films rather than the films themselves. As the devices became more familiar to audiences, their potential for capturing and recreating events was exploited primarily in the form of newsreels and actualities. During the creation of these films, cinematographers often drew upon aesthetic values established by past art forms such as framing and the intentional placement of the camera in the composition of their image. In a 1955 article for The Quarterly of Film Radio and television, film producer and historian Kenneth Macgowan asserted that the intentional staging and recreation of events for newsreels \"brought storytelling to the screen\".",
"title": "Novelty era (1890s – early 1900s)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 18,
"text": "With the advertisement of film technologies over content, actualities initially began as a \"series of views\" that often contained shots of beautiful and lively places or performance acts. Following the success of their 1895 screening, The Lumière brothers established a company and sent cameramen across the world to capture new subjects for presentation. After the cinematographer shot scenes, they often exhibited their recordings locally and then sent them back to the company factory in Lyon to make duplicate prints for sale to whoever wanted them. In the process of filming actualities, especially those of real events, filmmakers discovered and experimented with multiple camera techniques to accommodate for their unpredictable nature. Due to the short length (often only one shot) of many actualities, catalogue records indicate that production companies marketed to exhibitors by promoting multiple actualities with related subject matters that could be purchased to complement each other. Exhibitors who bought the films often presented them in a program and would provide spoken accompaniment to explain the action on screen to audiences.",
"title": "Novelty era (1890s – early 1900s)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 19,
"text": "The first paying audience for a motion picture gathered at Madison Square Garden to see a staged actuality that purported itself to be a boxing fight filmed by Woodville Latham using a device called the Eidoloscope on May 20, 1895. Commissioned by Latham, the French inventor Eugene Augustin Lauste created the device with additional expertise from William Kennedy Dickson and crafted a mechanism that came to be known as the Latham loop, which allowed for longer continuous runtimes and was less abrasive on the celluloid film.",
"title": "Novelty era (1890s – early 1900s)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 20,
"text": "In subsequent years, screenings of actualities and newsreels proved to be profitable. In 1897, The Corbett-Fitzsimmons Fight was released. The film was a complete recording of a heavyweight world championship boxing match at Carson City, Nevada. It generated more income in box office than in live gate receipts and was the longest film produced at the time. Audiences had probably been drawn to the Corbett-Fitzsimmons film en masse because James J. Corbett (a.k.a. Gentleman Jim) had become a matinee idol since he had played a fictionalized version of himself in a stage play.",
"title": "Novelty era (1890s – early 1900s)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 21,
"text": "From 1910 on, regular newsreels were exhibited and soon became a popular way of discovering the news before the advent of television – the British Antarctic Expedition to the South Pole was filmed for the newsreels as were the suffragette demonstrations that were happening at the same time. F. Percy Smith was an early nature documentary pioneer working for Charles Urban when he pioneered the use of time lapse and micro cinematography in his 1910 documentary on the growth of flowers.",
"title": "Novelty era (1890s – early 1900s)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 22,
"text": "Following the successful exhibition of the Cinématographe, development of a motion picture industry rapidly accelerated in France. Multiple filmmakers experimented with the technology as they worked to attain the same success that the Lumière brothers had with their screening. These filmmakers established new companies such as the Star Film Company, Pathé Frères, and the Gaumont Film Company.",
"title": "Novelty era (1890s – early 1900s)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 23,
"text": "The most widely cited progenitor of narrative filmmaking is the French filmmaker, Georges Méliès. Méliès was an illusionist who had previously used magic lantern projections to enhance his magic act. In 1895, Méliès attended the demonstration of the Cinematographe and recognized the potential of the device to aid his act. He attempted to buy a device from the Lumière brothers, but they refused. Months later, he bought a camera from Robert W. Paul and began experiments with the device by creating actualities. During this period of experimentation, Méliès discovered and implemented various special effects including the stop trick, the multiple exposure, and the use of dissolves in his films. At the end of 1896, Méliès established the Star Film Company and started producing, directing, and distributing a body of work that would eventually contain over 500 short films. Recognizing the narrative potential afforded by combining his theater background with the newly discovered effects for the camera, Méliès designed an elaborate stage that contained trapdoors and a fly system. The stage construction and editing techniques allowed for the development of more complex stories, such as the 1896 film, Le Manoir du Diable (The House of the Devil), regarded as a first in the horror film genre, and the 1899 film Cendrillon (Cinderella). In Méliès' films, he based the placement of the camera on the theatrical construct of proscenium framing, the metaphorical plane or fourth wall that divides the actors and the audience. Throughout his career, Méliès consistently placed the camera in a fixed position and eventually fell out of favor with audiences as other filmmakers experimented with more complex and creative techniques. Méliès is most widely known today for his 1902 film, Le Voyage Dans La Lune (A Trip to the Moon), where he used his expertise in effects and narrative construction to create the first science fiction film.",
"title": "Novelty era (1890s – early 1900s)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 24,
"text": "In 1900, Charles Pathé began film production under the Pathé-Frères brand, with Ferdinand Zecca hired to lead the creative process. Prior to this focus on production, Pathé had become involved with the industry by exhibiting and selling what were likely counterfeit versions of the Kinetoscope in his phonograph shop. With the creative leadership of Zecca and the capability to mass-produce copies of the films through a partnership with a French toolmaking company, Charles Pathé sought to make Pathé-Frères the leading film producer in the country. Within the next few years, Pathé-Frères became the largest film studio in the world, with satellite offices in major cities and an expanding selection of films available for presentation. The company's films were varied in content, with directors specializing in various genres for fairground presentations throughout the early 1900s.",
"title": "Novelty era (1890s – early 1900s)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 25,
"text": "The Gaumont Film Company was the main regional rival of Pathé-Frères. Founded in 1895 by Léon Gaumont, the firm initially sold photographic equipment and began film production in 1897, under the direction of Alice Guy, the industry's first female director. Her earlier films share many characteristics and themes with her contemporary competitors, such as the Lumières and Méliès. She explored dance and travel films, often combining the two, such as Le Boléro performed by Miss Saharet (1905) and Tango (1905). Many of Guy's early dance films were popular in music-hall attractions such as the serpentine dance films – also a staple of the Lumières and Thomas Edison film catalogs. In 1906, she made The Life of Christ, a big-budget production for the time, which included 300 extras.",
"title": "Novelty era (1890s – early 1900s)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 26,
"text": "Both Cecil Hepworth and Robert W. Paul experimented with the use of different camera techniques in their films. Paul's 'Cinematograph Camera No. 1' of 1895 was the first camera to feature reverse-cranking, which allowed the same film footage to be exposed several times, thereby creating multiple exposures. This technique was first used in his 1901 film Scrooge, or, Marley's Ghost. Both filmmakers experimented with the speeds of the camera to generate new effects. Paul shot scenes from On a Runaway Motor Car through Piccadilly Circus (1899) by cranking the camera apparatus very slowly. When the film was projected at the usual 16 frames per second, the scenery appeared to be passing at great speed. Hepworth used the opposite effect in The Indian Chief and the Seidlitz Powder (1901). The Chief's movements are sped up by cranking the camera much faster than 16 frames per second, producing what modern audiences would call a \"slow motion\" effect.",
"title": "Novelty era (1890s – early 1900s)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 27,
"text": "The first films to move from single shots to successive scenes began around the turn of the 20th century. Due to the loss of many early films, a conclusive shift from static singular shots to a series of scenes can be hard to determine. Despite these limitations, Michael Brooke of the British Film Institute attributes real film continuity, involving action moving from one sequence into another, to Robert W. Paul's 1898 film, Come Along, Do!. Only a still from the second shot remains extant today. Released in 1901, the British film Attack on a China Mission was one of the first films to show a continuity of action across multiple scenes. The use of the intertitle to explain actions and dialogue on screen began in the early 1900s. Filmed intertitles were first used in Robert W. Paul's film, Scrooge, or Marley's Ghost. In most countries, intertitles gradually came to be used to provide dialogue and narration for the film, thus dispensing the need for narration provided by exhibitors.",
"title": "Novelty era (1890s – early 1900s)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 28,
"text": "Development of continuous action across multiple shots was furthered in England by a loosely associated group of film pioneers collectively termed \"the Brighton School\". These filmmakers included George Albert Smith and James Williamson, among others. Smith and Williamson experimented with action continuity and were likely the first to incorporate the use of inserts and close-ups between shots. A basic technique for trick cinematography was the double exposure of the film in the camera. The effect was pioneered by Smith in the 1898 film, Photographing a Ghost. According to Smith's catalogue records, the (now lost) film chronicles a photographer's struggle to capture a ghost on camera. Using the double exposure of the film, Smith overlaid a transparent ghostly figure onto the background in a comical manner to taunt the photographer. Smith's The Corsican Brothers was described in the catalogue of the Warwick Trading Company in 1900: \"By extremely careful photography the ghost appears *quite transparent*. After indicating that he has been killed by a sword-thrust, and appealing for vengeance, he disappears. A 'vision' then appears showing the fatal duel in the snow.\" Smith also initiated the special effects technique of reverse motion. He did this by repeating the action a second time, while filming it with an inverted camera, and then joining the tail of the second negative to that of the first. The first films made using this device were Tipsy, Topsy, Turvy and The Awkward Sign Painter. The earliest surviving example of this technique is Smith's The House That Jack Built, made before September 1900. Cecil Hepworth took this technique further by printing the negatives of the forward motion in reverse frame by frame, producing a print in which the original action was exactly reversed. To do this he built a special printer in which the negative running through a projector was projected into the gate of a camera through a special lens giving a same-size image. This arrangement came to be called a \"projection printer\", and eventually an \"optical printer\".",
"title": "Novelty era (1890s – early 1900s)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 29,
"text": "In 1898, George Albert Smith experimented with close-ups, filming shots of a man drinking beer and a woman using sniffing tobacco. The following year, Smith made The Kiss in the Tunnel, a sequence consisting of three shots: a train enters a tunnel; a man and a woman exchange a brief kiss in the darkness and then return to their seats; the train exits the tunnel. Smith created the scenario in response to the success of a genre known as a phantom ride. In a phantom ride film, cameras would capture the motion and surroundings from the front of a moving train. The separate shots, when edited together, formed a distinct sequence of events and established causality from one shot to the next. Following The Kiss in the Tunnel, Smith more definitively experimented with continuity of action across successive shots and began using inserts in his films, such as Grandma's Reading Glass and Mary Jane's Mishap. In 1900, Smith made As Seen Through a Telescope. The main shot shows a street scene with a young man tying the shoelace and then caressing the foot of his girlfriend, while an old man observes this through a telescope. There is then a cut to close shot of the hands on the girl's foot shown inside a black circular mask, and then a cut back to the continuation of the original scene.",
"title": "Novelty era (1890s – early 1900s)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 30,
"text": "James Williamson perfected narrative building techniques in his 1900 film, Attack on a China Mission. The film, which film historian John Barnes later described as having \"the most fully developed narrative of any film made in England up to that time\", opens as the first shot shows Chinese Boxer rebels at the gate; it then cuts to the missionary family in the garden, where a fight ensues. The wife signals to British sailors from the balcony, who come and rescue them. The film also used the first \"reverse angle\" cut in film history. The following year, Williamson created The Big Swallow. In the film. a man becomes irritated by the presence of the filmmaker and \"swallows\" the camera and its operator through the use of interpolated close-up shots. He combined these effects, along with superimpositions, use of wipe transitions to denote a scene change, and other techniques to create a film language, or \"film grammar\". James Williamson's use of continuous action in his 1901 film, Stop Thief! stimulated a film genre known as the \"chase film.\" In the film, a tramp steals a leg of mutton from a butcher's boy in the first shot, is chased by the butcher's boy and assorted dogs in the following shot, and is finally caught by the dogs in the third shot.",
"title": "Novelty era (1890s – early 1900s)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 31,
"text": "The Execution of Mary Stuart, produced in 1895 by the Edison Company for viewing with the Kinetoscope, showed Mary Queen of Scots being executed in full view of the camera. The effect, known as the stop trick, was achieved by replacing the actor with a dummy for the final shot. The technique used in the film is seen as one of the earliest known uses of special effects in film.",
"title": "Novelty era (1890s – early 1900s)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 32,
"text": "The American filmmaker Edwin S. Porter started making films for the Edison Company in 1901. A former projectionist hired by Thomas Edison to develop his new projection model known as the Vitascope, Porter was inspired in part by the works of Méliès, Smith, and Williamson and drew upon their newly crafted techniques to further the development of continuous narrative through editing. When he began making longer films in 1902, he put a dissolve between every shot, just as Georges Méliès was already doing, and he frequently had the same action repeated across the dissolves.",
"title": "Novelty era (1890s – early 1900s)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 33,
"text": "In 1902, Porter shot Life of an American Fireman for the Edison Manufacturing Company and distributed the film the following year. In the film, Porter combined stock footage from previous Edison films with newly shot footage and spliced them together to convey a dramatic story of the rescue of a woman and her child by heroic firemen.",
"title": "Novelty era (1890s – early 1900s)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 34,
"text": "Porter's film, The Great Train Robbery (1903), had a running time of twelve minutes, with twenty separate shots and ten different indoor and outdoor locations. The film is seen as a first in the Western film genre and is significant for the use of shots suggesting simultaneous action occurring at different locations. Porter's use of both staged and real outdoor environments helped to create a sense of space while the placement of the camera in a wider shot established depth and allowed for an extended duration of motion on screen. The Great Train Robbery served as one of the vehicles that would launch the film medium into mass popularity. That same year, the Miles Brothers opened the first film exchange in the country, which allowed permanent exhibitors to rent films from the company at a lower cost than the producers that sold their films outright.",
"title": "Novelty era (1890s – early 1900s)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 35,
"text": "John P. Harris opened the first permanent theater devoted exclusively to the presentation of films, the nickelodeon, in 1905 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The idea rapidly took off and by 1908, there were around 8,000 nickelodeon theaters across the country. With the arrival of the nickelodeon, audience demand for a larger quantity of story films with a variety of subjects and locations led to a need to hire more creative talent and caused studios to invest in more elaborate stage designs.",
"title": "Novelty era (1890s – early 1900s)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 36,
"text": "In 1908, Thomas Edison spearheaded the creation of a corporate trust between the major film companies in America known as the Motion Picture Patents Company (MPPC) to limit infringement on his patents. Members of the trust controlled every aspect of the filmmaking process from the creation of film stock, the production of films, and the distribution to cinemas through licensing arrangements. The trust lead to increased quality filmmaking spurred by internal competition and placed limits on the amount of foreign films to encourage the growth of the American film industry, but it also discouraged the creation of feature films. By 1915, the MPPC had lost most of its hold on the film industry as the companies moved towards the wider production of feature films.",
"title": "Novelty era (1890s – early 1900s)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 37,
"text": "With the worldwide film boom, more countries now joined Britain, France, Germany and the United States in serious film production. In Italy, production was spread over several centers, Turin was the first major film production centre, and Milan and Naples gave birth to the first film magazines. In Turin, Ambrosio was the first company in the field in 1905, and remained the largest in the country through this period. Its most substantial rival was Cines in Rome, which started producing in 1906. The great strength of the Italian industry was historical epics, with large casts and massive scenery. As early as 1911, Giovanni Pastrone's two-reel La Caduta di Troia (The Fall of Troy) made a big impression worldwide, and it was followed by even bigger productions like Quo Vadis? (1912), which ran for 90 minutes, and Pastrone's Cabiria of 1914, which ran for two and a half hours.",
"title": "Continued international growth (1900s–1910s)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 38,
"text": "Italian companies also had a strong line in slapstick comedy, with actors like André Deed, known locally as \"Cretinetti\", and elsewhere as \"Foolshead\" and \"Gribouille\", achieving worldwide fame with his almost surrealistic gags.",
"title": "Continued international growth (1900s–1910s)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 39,
"text": "The most important film-producing country in Northern Europe up until the First World War was Denmark. The Nordisk company was set up there in 1906 by Ole Olsen, a fairground showman, and after a brief period imitating the successes of French and British filmmakers, in 1907 he produced 67 films, most directed by Viggo Larsen, with sensational subjects like Den hvide Slavinde (The White Slave), Isbjørnejagt (Polar Bear Hunt) and Løvejagten (The Lion Hunt). By 1910, new smaller Danish companies began joining the business, and besides making more films about the white slave trade, they contributed other new subjects. The most important of these finds was Asta Nielsen in Afgrunden (The Abyss), directed by Urban Gad for Kosmorama, This combined the circus, sex, jealousy and murder, all put over with great conviction, and pushed the other Danish filmmakers further in this direction. By 1912, the Danish film companies were multiplying rapidly.",
"title": "Continued international growth (1900s–1910s)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 40,
"text": "The Swedish film industry was smaller and slower to get started than the Danish industry. Here, Charles Magnusson, a newsreel cameraman for the Svenskabiografteatern cinema chain, started fiction film production for them in 1909, directing a number of the films himself. Production increased in 1912, when the company engaged Victor Sjöström and Mauritz Stiller as directors. They started out by imitating the subjects favoured by the Danish film industry, but by 1913 they were producing their own strikingly original work, which sold very well.",
"title": "Continued international growth (1900s–1910s)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 41,
"text": "Russia began its film industry in 1908 with Pathé shooting some fiction subjects there, and then the creation of real Russian film companies by Aleksandr Drankov and Aleksandr Khanzhonkov. The Khanzhonkov company quickly became much the largest Russian film company, and remained so until 1918.",
"title": "Continued international growth (1900s–1910s)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 42,
"text": "In Germany, Oskar Messter had been involved in film-making from 1896, but did not make a significant number of films per year until 1910. When the worldwide film boom started, he, and the few other people in the German film business, continued to sell prints of their own films outright, which put them at a disadvantage. It was only when Paul Davidson, the owner of a chain of cinemas, brought Asta Nielsen and Urban Gad to Germany from Denmark in 1911, and set up a production company, Projektions-AG \"Union\" (PAGU), that a change-over to renting prints began. Messter replied with a series of longer films starring Henny Porten, but although these did well in the German-speaking world, they were not particularly successful internationally, unlike the Asta Nielsen films. Another of the growing German film producers just before World War I was the German branch of the French Éclair company, Deutsche Éclair. This was expropriated by the German government, and turned into DECLA when the war started. But altogether, German producers only had a minor part of the German market in 1914.",
"title": "Continued international growth (1900s–1910s)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 43,
"text": "Overall, from about 1910, American films had the largest share of the market in all European countries except France, and even in France, the American films had just pushed the local production out of first place on the eve of World War I. Pathé Frères expanded and significantly shaped the American film business, creating many \"firsts\" in the film industry, such as adding titles and subtitles to films for the first time, releasing scrolls for the first time, introducing film posters for the first time, producing color pictures for the first time, taking out commercial bills for the first time, contacting exhibitors and studying their needs for the first time. The world's largest film supplier, Pathé, is limited to the U.S. market, which has reached a saturation level, so the U.S. seeks additional profits from foreign markets. Movies are defined as \"pure\" American phenomenon in the United States.",
"title": "Continued international growth (1900s–1910s)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 44,
"text": "New film techniques that were introduced in this period include the use of artificial lighting, fire effects and low-key lighting (i.e. lighting in which most of the frame is dark) for enhanced atmosphere during sinister scenes.",
"title": "Continued international growth (1900s–1910s)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 45,
"text": "Continuity of action from shot to shot was also refined, such as in Pathé's le Cheval emballé (The Runaway Horse) (1907) where cross-cutting between parallel actions is used. D. W. Griffith also began using cross-cutting in the film The Fatal Hour, made in July 1908. Another development was the use of the point of view shot, first used in 1910 in Vitagraph's Back to Nature. Insert shots were also used for artistic purposes; the Italian film La mala planta (The Evil Plant), directed by Mario Caserini had an insert shot of a snake slithering over the \"Evil Plant\". By 1914 it was widely held in the American film industry that cross-cutting was most generally useful because it made possible the elimination of uninteresting parts of the action that play no part in advancing the drama.",
"title": "Continued international growth (1900s–1910s)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 46,
"text": "In 1909, 35mm became the internationally recognized theatrical film gauge.",
"title": "Continued international growth (1900s–1910s)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 47,
"text": "As films grew longer, specialist writers were employed to simplify more complex stories derived from novels or plays into a form that could be contained on one reel. Genres began to be used as categories; the main division was into comedy and drama, but these categories were further subdivided.",
"title": "Continued international growth (1900s–1910s)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 48,
"text": "Intertitles containing lines of dialogue began to be used consistently from 1908 onwards, such as in Vitagraph's An Auto Heroine; or, The Race for the Vitagraph Cup and How It Was Won. The dialogue was eventually inserted into the middle of the scene and became commonplace by 1912. The introduction of dialogue titles transformed the nature of film narrative. When dialogue titles came to be always cut into a scene just after a character starts speaking, and then left with a cut to the character just before they finish speaking, then one had something that was effectively the equivalent of a present-day sound film.",
"title": "Continued international growth (1900s–1910s)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 49,
"text": "The years of the First World War were a complex transitional period for the film industry. The exhibition of films changed from short one-reel programmes to feature films. Exhibition venues became larger and began charging higher prices.",
"title": "Continued international growth (1900s–1910s)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 50,
"text": "In the United States, these changes brought destruction to many film companies, the Vitagraph company being an exception. Film production began to shift to Los Angeles during World War I. The Universal Film Manufacturing Company was formed in 1912 as an umbrella company. New entrants included the Jesse Lasky Feature Play Company, and Famous Players, both formed in 1913, and later amalgamated into Famous Players–Lasky. The biggest success of these years was David Wark Griffith's The Birth of a Nation (1915). Griffith followed this up with the even bigger Intolerance (1916), but, due to the high quality of film produced in the US, the market for their films was high.",
"title": "Continued international growth (1900s–1910s)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 51,
"text": "In France, film production shut down due to the general military mobilization of the country at the start of the war. Although film production began again in 1915, it was on a reduced scale, and the biggest companies gradually retired from production. Italian film production held up better, although so called \"diva films\", starring anguished female leads were a commercial failure. In Denmark, the Nordisk company increased its production so much in 1915 and 1916 that it could not sell all its films, which led to a very sharp decline in Danish production, and the end of Denmark's importance on the world film scene.",
"title": "Continued international growth (1900s–1910s)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 52,
"text": "The German film industry was seriously weakened by the war. The most important of the new film producers at the time was Joe May, who made a series of thrillers and adventure films through the war years, but Ernst Lubitsch also came into prominence with a series of very successful comedies and dramas.",
"title": "Continued international growth (1900s–1910s)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 53,
"text": "At this time, studios were blacked out to allow shooting to be unaffected by changing sunlight. This was replaced with floodlights and spotlights. The widespread adoption of irising-in and out to begin and end scenes caught on in this period. This is the revelation of a film shot in a circular mask, which gradually gets larger until it expands beyond the frame. Other shaped slits were used, including vertical and diagonal apertures.",
"title": "Continued international growth (1900s–1910s)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 54,
"text": "A new idea taken over from still photography was \"soft focus\". This began in 1915, with some shots being intentionally thrown out of focus for expressive effect, as in Mary Pickford starrer Fanchon the Cricket.",
"title": "Continued international growth (1900s–1910s)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 55,
"text": "It was during this period that camera effects intended to convey the subjective feelings of characters in a film really began to be established. These could now be done as Point of View (POV) shots, as in Sidney Drew's The Story of the Glove (1915), where a wobbly hand-held shot of a door and its keyhole represents the POV of a drunken man. The use of anamorphic (in the general sense of distorted shape) images first appears in these years when Abel Gance directed la Folie du Docteur Tube (The Madness of Dr. Tube). In this film the effect of a drug administered to a group of people was suggested by shooting the scenes reflected in a distorting mirror of the fair-ground type.",
"title": "Continued international growth (1900s–1910s)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 56,
"text": "Symbolic effects taken over from conventional literary and artistic tradition continued to make some appearances in films during these years. In D. W. Griffith's The Avenging Conscience (1914), the title \"The birth of the evil thought\" precedes a series of three shots of the protagonist looking at a spider, and ants eating an insect. Symbolist art and literature from the turn of the century also had a more general effect on a small number of films made in Italy and Russia. The supine acceptance of death resulting from passion and forbidden longings was a major feature of this art, and states of delirium dwelt on at length were important as well.",
"title": "Continued international growth (1900s–1910s)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 57,
"text": "The use of insert shots, i.e. close-ups of objects other than faces, had already been established by the Brighton school, but were infrequently used before 1914. It is really only with Griffith's The Avenging Conscience that a new phase in the use of the Insert Shot starts. As well as the symbolic inserts already mentioned, the film also made extensive use of large numbers of Big Close Up shots of clutching hands and tapping feet as a means of emphasizing those parts of the body as indicators of psychological tension.",
"title": "Continued international growth (1900s–1910s)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 58,
"text": "Atmospheric inserts were developed in Europe in the late 1910s. This kind of shot is one in a scene which neither contains any of the characters in the story, nor is a Point of View shot seen by one of them. An early example is when Maurice Tourneur directed The Pride of the Clan (1917), in which there is a series of shots of waves beating on a rocky shore to demonstrate the harsh lives of the fishing folk. Maurice Elvey's Nelson; The Story of England's Immortal Naval Hero (1919) has a symbolic sequence dissolving from a picture of Kaiser Wilhelm II to a peacock, and then to a battleship.",
"title": "Continued international growth (1900s–1910s)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 59,
"text": "By 1914, continuity cinema was the established mode of commercial cinema. One of the advanced continuity techniques involved an accurate and smooth transition from one shot to another. Cutting to different angles within a scene also became well-established as a technique for dissecting a scene into shots in American films. If the direction of the shot changes by more than ninety degrees, it is called a reverse-angle cutting. The leading figure in the full development of reverse-angle cutting was Ralph Ince in his films, such as The Right Girl and His Phantom Sweetheart.",
"title": "Continued international growth (1900s–1910s)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 60,
"text": "The use of flash-back structures continued to develop in this period, with the usual way of entering and leaving a flash-back being through a dissolve. The Vitagraph Company's The Man That Might Have Been (William J. Humphrey, 1914), is even more complex, with a series of reveries and flash-backs that contrast the protagonist's real passage through life with what might have been, if his son had not died.",
"title": "Continued international growth (1900s–1910s)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 61,
"text": "After 1914, cross cutting between parallel actions came to be used – more so in American films than in European ones. Cross-cutting was used to get new effects of contrast, such as the cross-cut sequence in Cecil B. DeMille's The Whispering Chorus (1918), in which a supposedly dead husband is having a liaison with a Chinese prostitute in an opium den, while simultaneously his unknowing wife is being remarried in church.",
"title": "Continued international growth (1900s–1910s)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 62,
"text": "Silent film tinting, too, gained popularity during these periods. Amber tinting meant daytime, or vividly-lit nighttime, blue tints meant dawn or dimly-lit night, red tinting represented fire scenes, green tinting meant a mysterious atmosphere, and brown tints (aka sepia toning) were used usually for full-length films instead of individual scenes. D.W. Griffiths' ground-breaking epic, The Birth of a Nation, the famous 1920 film Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and the Robert Wiene epic from the same year, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, are some notable examples of tinted silent films.",
"title": "Continued international growth (1900s–1910s)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 63,
"text": "The Photo-Drama of Creation, first shown to audiences in 1914, was the first major screenplay to incorporate synchronized sound, moving film, and color slides. Until 1927, most motion pictures were produced without sound. This period is commonly referred to as the silent era of film.",
"title": "Continued international growth (1900s–1910s)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 64,
"text": "The general trend in the development of cinema, led from the United States, was towards using the newly developed specifically filmic devices for expression of the narrative content of film stories, and combining this with the standard dramatic structures already in use in commercial theatre. D. W. Griffith had the highest standing among American directors in the industry, because of the dramatic excitement he conveyed to the audience through his films. Cecil B. DeMille's The Cheat (1915), brought out the moral dilemmas facing their characters in a more subtle way than Griffith. DeMille was also in closer touch with the reality of contemporary American life. Maurice Tourneur was also highly ranked for the pictorial beauties of his films, together with the subtlety of his handling of fantasy, while at the same time he was capable of getting greater naturalism from his actors at appropriate moments, as in A Girl's Folly (1917).",
"title": "Continued international growth (1900s–1910s)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 65,
"text": "Sidney Drew was the leader in developing \"polite comedy\", while slapstick was refined by Fatty Arbuckle and Charles Chaplin, who both started with Mack Sennett's Keystone company. They reduced the usual frenetic pace of Sennett's films to give the audience a chance to appreciate the subtlety and finesse of their movement, and the cleverness of their gags. By 1917 Chaplin was also introducing more dramatic plot into his films, and mixing the comedy with sentiment.",
"title": "Continued international growth (1900s–1910s)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 66,
"text": "In Russia, Yevgeni Bauer put a slow intensity of acting combined with Symbolist overtones onto film in a unique way.",
"title": "Continued international growth (1900s–1910s)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 67,
"text": "In Sweden, Victor Sjöström made a series of films that combined the realities of people's lives with their surroundings in a striking manner, while Mauritz Stiller developed sophisticated comedy to a new level.",
"title": "Continued international growth (1900s–1910s)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 68,
"text": "In Germany, Ernst Lubitsch got his inspiration from the stage work of Max Reinhardt, both in bourgeois comedy and in spectacle, and applied this to his films, culminating in his die Puppe (The Doll), die Austernprinzessin (The Oyster Princess) and Madame DuBarry.",
"title": "Continued international growth (1900s–1910s)"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 69,
"text": "At the start of the First World War, French and Italian cinema had been the most globally popular. The war came as a devastating interruption to European film industries.",
"title": "1920s"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 70,
"text": "Throughout the early 20th century, screen artists continued to learn how to work with cameras and create illusions using space and time in their shots. This newly introduced form of creativity made way for a whole new group of people to be introduced to stardom, including David W. Griffith, who made a name for himself with his 1915 film, The Birth of a Nation. In 1920, there were two major changes to the film industry: the introduction of sound and the creation of studio systems. In the 1920s, talent who had been working independently began joining studios and working with other actors and directors. In 1927, The Jazz Singer was released, bringing sound to the motion picture industry.",
"title": "1920s"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 71,
"text": "The German cinema, marked by those times, saw the era of the German Expressionist film movement. Berlin was its center with the Filmstudio Babelsberg, which is the oldest large-scale film studio in the world. The first Expressionist films made up for a lack of lavish budgets by using set designs with wildly non-realistic, geometrically absurd angles, along with designs painted on walls and floors to represent lights, shadows, and objects. The plots and stories of the Expressionist films often dealt with madness, insanity, betrayal and other \"intellectual\" topics triggered by the experiences of World War I. Films like The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920), Nosferatu (1922) and M (1931), similar to the movement they were part of, had a historic impact on film itself.",
"title": "1920s"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 72,
"text": "Movies like Metropolis (1927) and Woman in the Moon (1929) partly created the genre of science fiction films and Lotte Reiniger became a pioneer in animation, producing animated feature films like The Adventures of Prince Achmed, the oldest surviving and oldest European made animated movie.",
"title": "1920s"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 73,
"text": "Many German and German-based directors, actors, writers and others emigrated to the US when the Nazis gained power, giving Hollywood and the American film industry the final edge in its competition with other movie producing countries.",
"title": "1920s"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 74,
"text": "The American industry, or \"Hollywood\", as it was becoming known after its new geographical center in California, gained the position it has held, more or less, ever since: film factory for the world and exporting its product to most countries on earth.",
"title": "1920s"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 75,
"text": "By the 1920s, the United States reached what is still its era of greatest-ever output, producing an average of 800 feature films annually, or 82% of the global total (Eyman, 1997). The comedies of Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton, the swashbuckling adventures of Douglas Fairbanks and the romances of Clara Bow, to cite just a few examples, made these performers' faces well known on every continent. The Western visual norm that would become classical continuity editing was developed and exported – although its adoption was slower in some non-Western countries without strong realist traditions in art and drama, such as Japan.",
"title": "1920s"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 76,
"text": "This development was contemporary with the growth of the studio system and its greatest publicity method, the star system, which characterized American film for decades to come and provided models for other film industries. The studios' efficient, top-down control over all stages of their product enabled a new and ever-growing level of lavish production and technical sophistication. At the same time, the system's commercial regimentation and focus on glamorous escapism discouraged daring and ambition beyond a certain degree, a prime example being the brief but still legendary directing career of the iconoclastic Erich von Stroheim in the late teens and the 1920s.",
"title": "1920s"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 77,
"text": "In 1924, Sam Goldwyn, Louis B. Mayer, and the Metro Pictures Corporation create MGM.",
"title": "1920s"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 78,
"text": "During late 1927, Warners released The Jazz Singer, which was mostly silent but contained what is generally regarded as the first synchronized dialogue (and singing) in a feature film; but this process was actually accomplished first by Charles Taze Russell in 1914 with the lengthy film The Photo-Drama of Creation. This drama consisted of picture slides and moving pictures synchronized with phonograph records of talks and music. The early sound-on-disc processes such as Vitaphone were soon superseded by sound-on-film methods like Fox Movietone, DeForest Phonofilm, and RCA Photophone. The trend convinced the largely reluctant industrialists that \"talking pictures\", or \"talkies\", were the future. A lot of attempts were made before the success of The Jazz Singer, that can be seen in the List of film sound systems. And in 1926, Warner Bros. Debuts the film Don Juan with synchronized sound effects and music.",
"title": "1930s"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 79,
"text": "The change was remarkably swift. By the end of 1929, Hollywood was almost all-talkie, with several competing sound systems (soon to be standardized). Total changeover was slightly slower in the rest of the world, principally for economic reasons. Cultural reasons were also a factor in countries like China and Japan, where silents co-existed successfully with sound well into the 1930s, indeed producing what would be some of the most revered classics in those countries, like Wu Yonggang's The Goddess (China, 1934) and Yasujirō Ozu's I Was Born, But... (Japan, 1932). But even in Japan, a figure such as the benshi, the live narrator who was a major part of Japanese silent cinema, found his acting career was ending.",
"title": "1930s"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 80,
"text": "Sound further tightened the grip of major studios in numerous countries: the vast expense of the transition overwhelmed smaller competitors, while the novelty of sound lured vastly larger audiences for those producers that remained. In the case of the U.S., some historians credit sound with saving the Hollywood studio system in the face of the Great Depression (Parkinson, 1995). Thus began what is now often called \"The Golden Age of Hollywood\", which refers roughly to the period beginning with the introduction of sound until the late 1940s. The American cinema reached its peak of efficiently manufactured glamour and global appeal during this period. The top actors of the era are now thought of as the classic film stars, such as Clark Gable, Katharine Hepburn, Humphrey Bogart, Greta Garbo, and the greatest box office draw of the 1930s, child performer Shirley Temple.",
"title": "1930s"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 81,
"text": "Creatively, however, the rapid transition was a difficult one, and in some ways, film briefly reverted to the conditions of its earliest days. The late '20s were full of static, stagey talkies as artists in front of and behind the camera struggled with the stringent limitations of the early sound equipment and their own uncertainty as to how to use the new medium. Many stage performers, directors and writers were introduced to cinema as producers sought personnel experienced in dialogue-based storytelling. Many major silent filmmakers and actors were unable to adjust and found their careers severely curtailed or even ended.",
"title": "1930s"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 82,
"text": "This awkward period was fairly short-lived. 1929 was a watershed year: William Wellman with Chinatown Nights and The Man I Love, Rouben Mamoulian with Applause, Alfred Hitchcock with Blackmail (Britain's first sound feature), were among the directors to bring greater fluidity to talkies and experiment with the expressive use of sound (Eyman, 1997). In this, they both benefited from, and pushed further, technical advances in microphones and cameras, and capabilities for editing and post-synchronizing sound (rather than recording all sound directly at the time of filming).",
"title": "1930s"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 83,
"text": "Sound films emphasized black history, and benefited different genres to a greater extent than silents did. Most obviously, the musical film was born; the first classic-style Hollywood musical was The Broadway Melody (1929), and the form would find its first major creator in choreographer/director Busby Berkeley (42nd Street, 1933, Dames, 1934). In France, avant-garde director René Clair made surreal use of song and dance in comedies like Under the Roofs of Paris (1930) and Le Million (1931). Universal Pictures began releasing gothic horror films like Dracula and Frankenstein (both 1931). In 1933, RKO Pictures released Merian C. Cooper's classic \"giant monster\" film King Kong. The trend thrived best in India, where the influence of the country's traditional song-and-dance drama made the musical the basic form of most sound films (Cook, 1990); virtually unnoticed by the Western world for decades, this Indian popular cinema would nevertheless become the world's most prolific. (See also Bollywood.)",
"title": "1930s"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 84,
"text": "At this time, American gangster films like Little Caesar and Wellman's The Public Enemy (both 1931) became popular. Dialogue now took precedence over slapstick in Hollywood comedies: the fast-paced, witty banter of The Front Page (1931) or It Happened One Night (1934), the sexual double entendres of Mae West (She Done Him Wrong, 1933), or the often subversively anarchic nonsense talk of the Marx Brothers (Duck Soup, 1933). Walt Disney, who had previously been in the short cartoon business, stepped into feature films with the first English-speaking animated feature Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, released by RKO Pictures in 1937. 1939, a major year for American cinema, brought such films as The Wizard of Oz and Gone with The Wind.",
"title": "1930s"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 85,
"text": "Circa 80 percent of the films of the 1890s to the 1920s had colours. Many made use of monochromatic film tinting dye baths, some had the frames painted in multiple transparent colours by hand, and since 1905 there was a mechanized stencil-process (Pathécolor).",
"title": "1930s"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 86,
"text": "Kinemacolor, the first commercially successful cinematographic colour process, produced films in two colours (red and cyan) from 1908 to 1914.",
"title": "1930s"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 87,
"text": "Technicolor's natural three-strip colour process was very successfully introduced in 1932 with Walt Disney's animated Academy Award-winning short \"Flowers and Trees\", directed by Burt Gillett. Technicolor was initially used mainly for musicals like \"The Wizard of Oz\" (1939), in costume films such as \"The Adventures of Robin Hood\", and in animation. Not long after television became prevalent in the early 1950s, colour became more or less standard for theatrical movies.",
"title": "1930s"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 88,
"text": "The desire for wartime propaganda against the opposition created a renaissance in the film industry in Britain, with realistic war dramas like 49th Parallel (1941), Went the Day Well? (1942), The Way Ahead (1944) and Noël Coward and David Lean's celebrated naval film In Which We Serve in 1942, which won a special Academy Award. These existed alongside more flamboyant films like Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943), A Canterbury Tale (1944) and A Matter of Life and Death (1946), as well as Laurence Olivier's 1944 film Henry V, based on the Shakespearean history Henry V. The success of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs allowed Disney to make more animated features like Pinocchio (1940), Fantasia (1940), Dumbo (1941) and Bambi (1942).",
"title": "1940s"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 89,
"text": "The onset of US involvement in World War II also brought a proliferation of films as both patriotism and propaganda. American propaganda films included Desperate Journey (1942), Mrs. Miniver (1942), Forever and a Day (1943) and Objective, Burma! (1945). Notable American films from the war years include the anti-Nazi Watch on the Rhine (1943), scripted by Dashiell Hammett; Shadow of a Doubt (1943), Hitchcock's direction of a script by Thornton Wilder; the George M. Cohan biographical film, Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942), starring James Cagney, and the immensely popular Casablanca, with Humphrey Bogart. Bogart would star in 36 films between 1934 and 1942 including John Huston's The Maltese Falcon (1941), one of the first films now considered a classic film noir. In 1941, RKO Pictures released Citizen Kane made by Orson Welles. It is often considered the greatest film of all time. It would set the stage for the modern motion picture, as it revolutionized film story telling.",
"title": "1940s"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 90,
"text": "The strictures of wartime also brought an interest in more fantastical subjects. These included Britain's Gainsborough melodramas (including The Man in Grey and The Wicked Lady), and films like Here Comes Mr. Jordan, Heaven Can Wait, I Married a Witch and Blithe Spirit. Val Lewton also produced a series of atmospheric and influential small-budget horror films, some of the more famous examples being Cat People, Isle of the Dead and The Body Snatcher. The decade probably also saw the so-called \"women's pictures\", such as Now, Voyager, Random Harvest and Mildred Pierce at the peak of their popularity.",
"title": "1940s"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 91,
"text": "1946 saw RKO Radio releasing It's a Wonderful Life directed by Italian-born filmmaker Frank Capra. Soldiers returning from the war would provide the inspiration for films like The Best Years of Our Lives, and many of those in the film industry had served in some capacity during the war. Samuel Fuller's experiences in World War II would influence his largely autobiographical films of later decades such as The Big Red One. The Actors Studio was founded in October 1947 by Elia Kazan, Robert Lewis, and Cheryl Crawford, and the same year Oskar Fischinger filmed Motion Painting No. 1.",
"title": "1940s"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 92,
"text": "In 1943, Ossessione was screened in Italy, marking the beginning of Italian neorealism. Major films of this type during the 1940s included Bicycle Thieves, Rome, Open City, and La Terra Trema. In 1952 Umberto D was released, usually considered the last film of this type.",
"title": "1940s"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 93,
"text": "In the late 1940s, in Britain, Ealing Studios embarked on their series of celebrated comedies, including Whisky Galore!, Passport to Pimlico, Kind Hearts and Coronets and The Man in the White Suit, and Carol Reed directed his influential thrillers Odd Man Out, The Fallen Idol and The Third Man. David Lean was also rapidly becoming a force in world cinema with Brief Encounter and his Dickens adaptations Great Expectations and Oliver Twist, and Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger would experience the best of their creative partnership with films like Black Narcissus and The Red Shoes.",
"title": "1940s"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 94,
"text": "The House Un-American Activities Committee investigated Hollywood in the early 1950s. Protested by the Hollywood Ten before the committee, the hearings resulted in the blacklisting of many actors, writers and directors, including Chayefsky, Charlie Chaplin, and Dalton Trumbo, and many of these fled to Europe, especially the United Kingdom.",
"title": "1950s"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 95,
"text": "The Cold War era zeitgeist translated into a type of near-paranoia manifested in themes such as invading armies of evil aliens (Invasion of the Body Snatchers, The War of the Worlds) and communist fifth columnists (The Manchurian Candidate).",
"title": "1950s"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 96,
"text": "During the immediate post-war years the cinematic industry was also threatened by television, and the increasing popularity of the medium meant that some film theatres would bankrupt and close. The demise of the \"studio system\" spurred the self-commentary of films like Sunset Boulevard (1950) and The Bad and the Beautiful (1952).",
"title": "1950s"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 97,
"text": "In 1950, the Lettrists avante-gardists caused riots at the Cannes Film Festival, when Isidore Isou's Treatise on Slime and Eternity was screened. After their criticism of Charlie Chaplin and split with the movement, the Ultra-Lettrists continued to cause disruptions when they showed their new hypergraphical techniques. The most notorious film is Guy Debord's Howls for Sade of 1952. Distressed by the increasing number of closed theatres, studios and companies would find new and innovative ways to bring audiences back. These included attempts to widen their appeal with new screen formats. Cinemascope, which would remain a 20th Century Fox distinction until 1967, was announced with 1953's The Robe. VistaVision, Cinerama, and Todd-AO boasted a \"bigger is better\" approach to marketing films to a dwindling US audience. This resulted in the revival of epic films to take advantage of the new big screen formats. Some of the most successful examples of these Biblical and historical spectaculars include The Ten Commandments (1956), The Vikings (1958), Ben-Hur (1959), Spartacus (1960) and El Cid (1961). Also during this period a number of other significant films were produced in Todd-AO, developed by Mike Todd shortly before his death, including Oklahoma! (1955), Around the World in 80 Days (1956), South Pacific (1958) and Cleopatra (1963) plus many more.",
"title": "1950s"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 98,
"text": "Gimmicks also proliferated to lure in audiences. The fad for 3-D film would last for only two years, 1952–1954, and helped sell House of Wax and Creature from the Black Lagoon. Producer William Castle would tout films featuring \"Emergo\" \"Percepto\", the first of a series of gimmicks that would remain popular marketing tools for Castle and others throughout the 1960s.",
"title": "1950s"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 99,
"text": "In 1954, Dorothy Dandridge was nominated as the best actress at the Oscar for her role in the film Carman Jones. She became the first black woman to be nominated for this award.",
"title": "1950s"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 100,
"text": "In the U.S., a post-WW2 tendency toward questioning the establishment and societal norms and the early activism of the civil rights movement was reflected in Hollywood films such as Blackboard Jungle (1955), On the Waterfront (1954), Paddy Chayefsky's Marty and Reginald Rose's 12 Angry Men (1957). Disney continued making animated films, notably; Cinderella (1950), Peter Pan (1953), Lady and the Tramp (1955), and Sleeping Beauty (1959). He began, however, getting more involved in live action films, producing classics like 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954), and Old Yeller (1957). Television began competing seriously with films projected in theatres, but surprisingly it promoted more filmgoing rather than curtailing it.",
"title": "1950s"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 101,
"text": "Limelight is probably a unique film in at least one interesting respect. Its two leads, Charlie Chaplin and Claire Bloom, were in the industry in no less than three different centuries. In the 19th century, Chaplin made his theatrical debut at the age of eight, in 1897, in a clog dancing troupe, The Eight Lancaster Lads. In the 21st century, Bloom is still enjoying a full and productive career, having appeared in dozens of films and television series produced up to and including 2022. She received particular acclaim for her role in The King's Speech (2010).",
"title": "1950s"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 102,
"text": "Following the end of World War II in the 1940s, the following decade, the 1950s, marked a 'golden age' for non-English world cinema, especially for Asian cinema. Many of the most critically acclaimed Asian films of all time were produced during this decade, including Yasujirō Ozu's Tokyo Story (1953), Satyajit Ray's The Apu Trilogy (1955–1959) and Jalsaghar (1958), Kenji Mizoguchi's Ugetsu (1954) and Sansho the Bailiff (1954), Raj Kapoor's Awaara (1951), Mikio Naruse's Floating Clouds (1955), Guru Dutt's Pyaasa (1957) and Kaagaz Ke Phool (1959), and the Akira Kurosawa films Rashomon (1950), Ikiru (1952), Seven Samurai (1954) and Throne of Blood (1957).",
"title": "1950s"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 103,
"text": "During Japanese cinema's 'Golden Age' of the 1950s, successful films included Rashomon (1950), Seven Samurai (1954) and The Hidden Fortress (1958) by Akira Kurosawa, as well as Yasujirō Ozu's Tokyo Story (1953) and Ishirō Honda's Godzilla (1954). These films have had a profound influence on world cinema. In particular, Kurosawa's Seven Samurai has been remade several times as Western films, such as The Magnificent Seven (1960) and Battle Beyond the Stars (1980), and has also inspired several Bollywood films, such as Sholay (1975) and China Gate (1998). Rashomon was also remade as The Outrage (1964), and inspired films with \"Rashomon effect\" storytelling methods, such as Andha Naal (1954), The Usual Suspects (1995) and Hero (2002). The Hidden Fortress was also an inspiration behind George Lucas' Star Wars (1977). Other famous Japanese filmmakers from this period include Kenji Mizoguchi, Mikio Naruse, Hiroshi Inagaki and Nagisa Oshima. Japanese cinema later became one of the main inspirations behind the New Hollywood movement of the 1960s to 1980s.",
"title": "1950s"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 104,
"text": "During Indian cinema's 'Golden Age' of the 1950s, it was producing 200 films annually, while Indian independent films gained greater recognition through international film festivals. One of the most famous was The Apu Trilogy (1955–1959) from critically acclaimed Bengali film director Satyajit Ray, whose films had a profound influence on world cinema, with directors such as Akira Kurosawa, Martin Scorsese, James Ivory, Abbas Kiarostami, Elia Kazan, François Truffaut, Steven Spielberg, Carlos Saura, Jean-Luc Godard, Isao Takahata, Gregory Nava, Ira Sachs, Wes Anderson and Danny Boyle being influenced by his cinematic style. According to Michael Sragow of The Atlantic Monthly, the \"youthful coming-of-age dramas that have flooded art houses since the mid-fifties owe a tremendous debt to the Apu trilogy\". Subrata Mitra's cinematographic technique of bounce lighting also originates from The Apu Trilogy. Other famous Indian filmmakers from this period include Guru Dutt, Ritwik Ghatak, Mrinal Sen, Raj Kapoor, Bimal Roy, K. Asif and Mehboob Khan.",
"title": "1950s"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 105,
"text": "The cinema of South Korea also experienced a 'Golden Age' in the 1950s, beginning with director Lee Kyu-hwan's tremendously successful remake of Chunhyang-jon (1955). That year also saw the release of Yangsan Province by the renowned director, Kim Ki-young, marking the beginning of his productive career. Both the quality and quantity of filmmaking had increased rapidly by the end of the 1950s. South Korean films, such as Lee Byeong-il's 1956 comedy Sijibganeun nal (The Wedding Day), had begun winning international awards. In contrast to the beginning of the 1950s, when only 5 films were made per year, 111 films were produced in South Korea in 1959.",
"title": "1950s"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 106,
"text": "The 1950s was also a 'Golden Age' for Philippine cinema, with the emergence of more artistic and mature films, and significant improvement in cinematic techniques among filmmakers. The studio system produced frenetic activity in the local film industry as many films were made annually and several local talents started to earn recognition abroad. The premiere Philippine directors of the era included Gerardo de Leon, Gregorio Fernández, Eddie Romero, Lamberto Avellana, and Cirio Santiago.",
"title": "1950s"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 107,
"text": "During the 1960s, the studio system in Hollywood declined, because many films were now being made on location in other countries, or using studio facilities abroad, such as Pinewood in the UK and Cinecittà in Rome. \"Hollywood\" films were still largely aimed at family audiences, and it was often the more old-fashioned films that produced the studios' biggest successes. Productions like Mary Poppins (1964), My Fair Lady (1964) and The Sound of Music (1965) were among the biggest money-makers of the decade. The growth in independent producers and production companies, and the increase in the power of individual actors also contributed to the decline of traditional Hollywood studio production.",
"title": "1960s"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 108,
"text": "There was also an increasing awareness of foreign language cinema in America during this period. During the late 1950s and 1960s, the French New Wave directors such as François Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard produced films such as Les quatre cents coups, Breathless and Jules et Jim which broke the rules of Hollywood cinema's narrative structure. As well, audiences were becoming aware of Italian films like Federico Fellini's La Dolce Vita (1960), 8½ (1963) and the stark dramas of Sweden's Ingmar Bergman.",
"title": "1960s"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 109,
"text": "In Britain, the \"Free Cinema\" of Lindsay Anderson, Tony Richardson and others lead to a group of realistic and innovative dramas including Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, A Kind of Loving and This Sporting Life. Other British films such as Repulsion, Darling, Alfie, Blowup and Georgy Girl (all in 1965–1966) helped to reduce prohibitions of sex and nudity on screen, while the casual sex and violence of the James Bond films, beginning with Dr. No in 1962 would render the series popular worldwide.",
"title": "1960s"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 110,
"text": "During the 1960s, Ousmane Sembène produced several French- and Wolof-language films and became the \"father\" of African Cinema. In Latin America, the dominance of the \"Hollywood\" model was challenged by many film makers. Fernando Solanas and Octavio Getino called for a politically engaged Third Cinema in contrast to Hollywood and the European auteur cinema.",
"title": "1960s"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 111,
"text": "In Egypt, the golden age of Egyptian cinema continued in the 1960s at the hands of many directors, and Egyptian cinema greatly appreciated women at that time, such as Soad Hosny. The Zulfikar brothers; Ezz El-Dine Zulfikar, Salah Zulfikar and Mahmoud Zulfikar were on a date with many productions, including Ezz El Dine Zulfikar's The River of Love (1960), Mahmoud Zulfikar's Soft Hands (1964), and Dearer Than My Life (1965) starring Salah Zulfikar and Salah Zulfikar Films production; My Wife, the Director General (1966) as well as Youssef Chahine's Saladin (1963).",
"title": "1960s"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 112,
"text": "Further, the nuclear paranoia of the age, and the threat of an apocalyptic nuclear exchange (like the 1962 close-call with the USSR during the Cuban Missile Crisis) prompted a reaction within the film community as well. Films like Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove and Fail Safe with Henry Fonda were produced in a Hollywood that was once known for its overt patriotism and wartime propaganda.",
"title": "1960s"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 113,
"text": "In documentary film the sixties saw the blossoming of Direct Cinema, an observational style of film making as well as the advent of more overtly partisan films like In the Year of the Pig about the Vietnam War by Emile de Antonio. By the late 1960s however, Hollywood filmmakers were beginning to create more innovative and ground-breaking films that reflected the social revolution taken over much of the western world such as Bonnie and Clyde (1967), The Graduate (1967), 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), Rosemary's Baby (1968), Midnight Cowboy (1969), Easy Rider (1969) and The Wild Bunch (1969). Bonnie and Clyde is often considered the beginning of the so-called New Hollywood.",
"title": "1960s"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 114,
"text": "In Japanese cinema, Academy Award-winning director Akira Kurosawa produced Yojimbo (1961), which like his previous films also had a profound influence around the world. The influence of this film is most apparent in Sergio Leone's A Fistful of Dollars (1964) and Walter Hill's Last Man Standing (1996). Yojimbo was also the origin of the \"Man with No Name\" trend.",
"title": "1960s"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 115,
"text": "The New Hollywood was the period following the decline of the studio system during the 1950s and 1960s and the end of the production code, (which was replaced in 1968 by the MPAA film rating system). During the 1970s, filmmakers increasingly depicted explicit sexual content and showed gunfight and battle scenes that included graphic images of bloody deaths – a notable example of this is Wes Craven's The Last House on the Left (1972).",
"title": "1970s"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 116,
"text": "Post-classical cinema is the changing methods of storytelling of the New Hollywood producers. The new methods of drama and characterization played upon audience expectations acquired during the classical/Golden Age period: story chronology may be scrambled, storylines may feature unsettling \"twist endings\", main characters may behave in a morally ambiguous fashion, and the lines between the antagonist and protagonist may be blurred. The beginnings of post-classical storytelling may be seen in 1940s and 1950s film noir films, in films such as Rebel Without a Cause (1955), and in Hitchcock's Psycho. 1971 marked the release of controversial films like Straw Dogs, A Clockwork Orange, The French Connection and Dirty Harry. This sparked heated controversy over the perceived escalation of violence in cinema.",
"title": "1970s"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 117,
"text": "During the 1970s, a new group of American filmmakers emerged, such as Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, George Lucas, Woody Allen, Terrence Malick, and Robert Altman. This coincided with the increasing popularity of the auteur theory in film literature and the media, which posited that a film director's films express their personal vision and creative insights. The development of the auteur style of filmmaking helped to give these directors far greater control over their projects than would have been possible in earlier eras. This led to some great critical and commercial successes, like Scorsese's Taxi Driver, Coppola's The Godfather films, William Friedkin's The Exorcist, Altman's Nashville, Allen's Annie Hall and Manhattan, Malick's Badlands and Days of Heaven, and Polish immigrant Roman Polanski's Chinatown. It also, however, resulted in some failures, including Peter Bogdanovich's At Long Last Love and Michael Cimino's hugely expensive Western epic Heaven's Gate, which helped to bring about the demise of its backer, United Artists.",
"title": "1970s"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 118,
"text": "The financial disaster of Heaven's Gate marked the end of the visionary \"auteur\" directors of the \"New Hollywood\", who had unrestrained creative and financial freedom to develop films. The phenomenal success in the 1970s of Spielberg's Jaws originated the concept of the modern \"blockbuster\". However, the enormous success of George Lucas' 1977 film Star Wars led to much more than just the popularization of blockbuster filmmaking. The film's revolutionary use of special effects, sound editing and music had led it to become widely regarded as one of the single most important films in the medium's history, as well as the most influential film of the 1970s. Hollywood studios increasingly focused on producing a smaller number of very large budget films with massive marketing and promotional campaigns. This trend had already been foreshadowed by the commercial success of disaster films such as The Poseidon Adventure and The Towering Inferno.",
"title": "1970s"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 119,
"text": "During the mid-1970s, more pornographic theatres, euphemistically called \"adult cinemas\", were established, and the legal production of hardcore pornographic films began. Porn films such as Deep Throat and its star Linda Lovelace became something of a popular culture phenomenon and resulted in a spate of similar sex films. The porn cinemas finally died out during the 1980s, when the popularization of the home VCR and pornography videotapes allowed audiences to watch sex films at home. In the early 1970s, English-language audiences became more aware of the new West German cinema, with Werner Herzog, Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Wim Wenders among its leading exponents.",
"title": "1970s"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 120,
"text": "In world cinema, the 1970s saw a dramatic increase in the popularity of martial arts films, largely due to its reinvention by Bruce Lee, who departed from the artistic style of traditional Chinese martial arts films and added a much greater sense of realism to them with his Jeet Kune Do style. This began with The Big Boss (1971), which was a major success across Asia. However, he did not gain fame in the Western world until shortly after his death in 1973, when Enter the Dragon was released. The film went on to become the most successful martial arts film in cinematic history, popularized the martial arts film genre across the world, and cemented Bruce Lee's status as a cultural icon. Hong Kong action cinema, however, was in decline due to a wave of \"Bruceploitation\" films. This trend eventually came to an end in 1978 with the martial arts comedy films, Snake in the Eagle's Shadow and Drunken Master, directed by Yuen Woo-ping and starring Jackie Chan, laying the foundations for the rise of Hong Kong action cinema in the 1980s.",
"title": "1970s"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 121,
"text": "While the musical film genre had declined in Hollywood by this time, musical films were quickly gaining popularity in the cinema of India, where the term \"Bollywood\" was coined for the growing Hindi film industry in Bombay (now Mumbai) that ended up dominating South Asian cinema, overtaking the more critically acclaimed Bengali film industry in popularity. Hindi filmmakers combined the Hollywood musical formula with the conventions of ancient Indian theatre to create a new film genre called \"Masala\", which dominated Indian cinema throughout the late 20th century. These \"Masala\" films portrayed action, comedy, drama, romance and melodrama all at once, with \"filmi\" song and dance routines thrown in. This trend began with films directed by Manmohan Desai and starring Amitabh Bachchan, who remains one of the most popular film stars in South Asia. The most popular Indian film of all time was Sholay (1975), a \"Masala\" film inspired by a real-life dacoit as well as Kurosawa's Seven Samurai and the Spaghetti Westerns.",
"title": "1970s"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 122,
"text": "The end of the decade saw the first major international marketing of Australian cinema, as Peter Weir's films Picnic at Hanging Rock and The Last Wave and Fred Schepisi's The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith gained critical acclaim. In 1979, Australian filmmaker George Miller also garnered international attention for his violent, low-budget action film Mad Max.",
"title": "1970s"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 123,
"text": "During the 1980s, audiences began increasingly watching films on their home VCRs. In the early part of that decade, the film studios tried legal action to ban home ownership of VCRs as a violation of copyright, which proved unsuccessful. Eventually, the sale and rental of films on home video became a significant \"second venue\" for exhibition of films, and an additional source of revenue for the film industries. Direct-to-video (niche) markets usually offered lower quality, cheap productions that were not deemed very suitable for the general audiences of television and theatrical releases.",
"title": "1980s"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 124,
"text": "The Lucas–Spielberg combine would dominate \"Hollywood\" cinema for much of the 1980s, and lead to much imitation. Two follow-ups to Star Wars, three to Jaws, and three Indiana Jones films helped to make sequels of successful films more of an expectation than ever before. Lucas also launched THX Ltd, a division of Lucasfilm in 1982, while Spielberg enjoyed one of the decade's greatest successes in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial the same year. 1982 also saw the release of Disney's Tron which was one of the first films from a major studio to use computer graphics extensively. American independent cinema struggled more during the decade, although Martin Scorsese's Raging Bull (1980), After Hours (1985), and The King of Comedy (1983) helped to establish him as one of the most critically acclaimed American film makers of the era. Also during 1983 Scarface was released, which was very profitable and resulted in even greater fame for its leading actor Al Pacino. Tim Burton's 1989 version of Bob Kane's creation, Batman, saw Jack Nicholson's portrayal of the demented Joker, which earned him $60-$90m after including his percentage of the gross.",
"title": "1980s"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 125,
"text": "British cinema was given a boost during the early 1980s by the arrival of David Puttnam's company Goldcrest Films. The films Chariots of Fire, Gandhi, The Killing Fields and A Room with a View appealed to a \"middlebrow\" audience which was increasingly being ignored by the major Hollywood studios. While the films of the 1970s had helped to define modern blockbuster motion pictures, the way \"Hollywood\" released its films would now change. Films, for the most part, would premiere in a wider number of theatres, although, to this day, some films still premiere using the route of the limited/roadshow release system. Against some expectations, the rise of the multiplex cinema did not allow less mainstream films to be shown, but simply allowed the major blockbusters to be given an even greater number of screenings. However, films that had been overlooked in cinemas were increasingly being given a second chance on home video.",
"title": "1980s"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 126,
"text": "During the 1980s, Japanese cinema experienced a revival, largely due to the success of anime films. At the beginning of the 1980s, Space Battleship Yamato (1973) and Mobile Suit Gundam (1979), both of which were unsuccessful as television series, were remade as films and became hugely successful in Japan. In particular, Mobile Suit Gundam sparked the Gundam franchise of Real Robot mecha anime. The success of Macross: Do You Remember Love? also sparked a Macross franchise of mecha anime. This was also the decade when Studio Ghibli was founded. The studio produced Hayao Miyazaki's first fantasy films, Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984) and Castle in the Sky (1986), as well as Isao Takahata's Grave of the Fireflies (1988), all of which were very successful in Japan and received worldwide critical acclaim. Original video animation (OVA) films also began during this decade; the most influential of these early OVA films was Noboru Ishiguro's cyberpunk film Megazone 23 (1985). The most famous anime film of this decade was Katsuhiro Otomo's cyberpunk film Akira (1988), which although initially unsuccessful at Japanese theaters, went on to become an international success.",
"title": "1980s"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 127,
"text": "Hong Kong action cinema, which was in a state of decline due to endless Bruceploitation films after the death of Bruce Lee, also experienced a revival in the 1980s, largely due to the reinvention of the action film genre by Jackie Chan. He had previously combined the comedy film and martial arts film genres successfully in the 1978 films Snake in the Eagle's Shadow and Drunken Master. The next step he took was in combining this comedy martial arts genre with a new emphasis on elaborate and highly dangerous stunts, reminiscent of the silent film era. The first film in this new style of action cinema was Project A (1983), which saw the formation of the Jackie Chan Stunt Team as well as the \"Three Brothers\" (Chan, Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao). The film added elaborate, dangerous stunts to the fights and slapstick humor, and became a huge success throughout the Far East. As a result, Chan continued this trend with martial arts action films containing even more elaborate and dangerous stunts, including Wheels on Meals (1984), Police Story (1985), Armour of God (1986), Project A Part II (1987), Police Story 2 (1988), and Dragons Forever (1988). Other new trends which began in the 1980s were the \"girls with guns\" subgenre, for which Michelle Yeoh gained fame; and especially the \"heroic bloodshed\" genre, revolving around Triads, largely pioneered by John Woo and for which Chow Yun-fat became famous. These Hong Kong action trends were later adopted by many Hollywood action films in the 1990s and 2000s.",
"title": "1980s"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 128,
"text": "The early 1990s saw the development of a commercially successful independent cinema in the United States. Although cinema was increasingly dominated by special-effects films such as Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), Jurassic Park (1993) and Titanic (1997), the latter of which became the highest-grossing film of all time at the time up until Avatar (2009), also directed by James Cameron, independent films like Steven Soderbergh's Sex, Lies, and Videotape (1989) and Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs (1992) had significant commercial success both at the cinema and on home video.",
"title": "1990s"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 129,
"text": "Filmmakers associated with the Danish film movement Dogme 95 introduced a manifesto aimed to purify filmmaking. Its first few films gained worldwide critical acclaim, after which the movement slowly faded out.",
"title": "1990s"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 130,
"text": "Scorsese's Goodfellas was released in 1990. It is considered by many as one of the greatest movies to be made, particularly in the gangster genre. It is said to be the highest point of Scorsese's career.",
"title": "1990s"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 131,
"text": "Major American studios began to create their own \"independent\" production companies to finance and produce non-mainstream fare. One of the most successful independents of the 1990s, Miramax Films, was bought by Disney the year before the release of Tarantino's runaway hit Pulp Fiction in 1994. The same year marked the beginning of film and video distribution online. Animated films aimed at family audiences also regained their popularity, with Disney's Beauty and the Beast (1991), Aladdin (1992), and The Lion King (1994). During 1995, the first feature-length computer-animated feature, Toy Story, was produced by Pixar Animation Studios and released by Disney. After the success of Toy Story, computer animation would grow to become the dominant technique for feature-length animation, which would allow competing film companies such as DreamWorks, 20th Century Fox and Warner Bros. to effectively compete with Disney with successful films of their own. During the late 1990s, another cinematic transition began, from physical film stock to digital cinema technology. Meanwhile, DVDs became the new standard for consumer video, replacing VHS tapes.",
"title": "1990s"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 132,
"text": "Since the late 2000s streaming media platforms like YouTube provided means for anyone with access to internet and cameras (a standard feature of smartphones) to publish videos to the world. Also competing with the increasing popularity of video games and other forms of home entertainment, the industry once again started to make theatrical releases more attractive, with new 3D technologies and epic (fantasy and superhero) films becoming a mainstay in cinemas.",
"title": "2000s"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 133,
"text": "The documentary film also rose as a commercial genre for perhaps the first time, with the success of films such as March of the Penguins and Michael Moore's Bowling for Columbine and Fahrenheit 9/11. A new genre was created with Martin Kunert and Eric Manes' Voices of Iraq, when 150 inexpensive DV cameras were distributed across Iraq, transforming ordinary people into collaborative filmmakers. The success of Gladiator led to a revival of interest in epic cinema, and Moulin Rouge! renewed interest in musical cinema. Home theatre systems became increasingly sophisticated, as did some of the special edition DVDs designed to be shown on them. The Lord of the Rings trilogy was released on DVD in both the theatrical version and in a special extended version intended only for home cinema audiences.",
"title": "2000s"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 134,
"text": "In 2001, the Harry Potter film series began, and by its end in 2011, it had become the highest-grossing film franchise of all time until the Marvel Cinematic Universe passed it in 2015.",
"title": "2000s"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 135,
"text": "More films were also being released simultaneously to IMAX cinema, the first was in 2002's Disney animation Treasure Planet; and the first live action was in 2003's The Matrix Revolutions and a re-release of The Matrix Reloaded. Later in the decade, The Dark Knight was the first major feature film to have been at least partially shot in IMAX technology.",
"title": "2000s"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 136,
"text": "There has been an increasing globalization of cinema during this decade, with foreign-language films gaining popularity in English-speaking markets. Examples of such films include Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (Mandarin), Amélie (French), Lagaan (Hindi), Spirited Away (Japanese), City of God (Brazilian Portuguese), The Passion of the Christ (Aramaic), Apocalypto (Mayan) and Inglourious Basterds (multiple European languages). Italy is the most awarded country at the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, with 14 awards won, 3 Special Awards and 31 nominations.",
"title": "2000s"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 137,
"text": "In 2003, there was a revival in 3D film popularity the first being James Cameron's Ghosts of the Abyss which was released as the first full-length 3-D IMAX feature filmed with the Reality Camera System. This camera system used the latest HD video cameras, not film, and was built for Cameron by Emmy nominated Director of Photography Vince Pace, to his specifications. The same camera system was used to film Spy Kids 3D: Game Over (2003), Aliens of the Deep IMAX (2005), and The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl in 3-D (2005).",
"title": "2000s"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 138,
"text": "After James Cameron's 3D film Avatar became the highest-grossing film of all time, 3D films gained brief popularity with many other films being released in 3D, with the best critical and financial successes being in the field of feature film animation such as Universal Pictures/Illumination Entertainment's Despicable Me and DreamWorks Animation's How To Train Your Dragon, Shrek Forever After and Megamind. Avatar is also note-worthy for pioneering highly sophisticated use of motion capture technology and influencing several other films such as Rise of the Planet of the Apes.",
"title": "2000s"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 139,
"text": "As of 2011, the largest film industries by number of feature films produced were those of India, the United States, China, Nigeria, and Japan.",
"title": "2010s"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 140,
"text": "In 2010, the first woman to win the Best Director Award in Oscar history appeared. Katherine Bigelow's The Hurt Locker won six awards.",
"title": "2010s"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 141,
"text": "In Hollywood, superhero films have greatly increased in popularity and financial success, with films based on Marvel and DC Comics regularly being released every year up to the present. As of 2019, the superhero genre has been the most dominant as far as American box office receipts are concerned. The 2019 superhero film Avengers: Endgame was the most successful movie of all-time at the box office.",
"title": "2010s"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 142,
"text": "In 2020, Parasite became the first international film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture.",
"title": "2010s"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 143,
"text": "The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in the closure of film theaters around the world in response to regional and national lockdowns. Many films slated to release in the early 2020s faced delays in development, production, and distribution, with others being released on streaming services with little or no theatrical window.",
"title": "2020s"
}
] |
The history of film chronicles the development of a visual art form created using film technologies that began in the late 19th century. The advent of film as an artistic medium is not clearly defined. There were earlier cinematographic screenings by others, however, the commercial, public screening of ten Lumière brothers' short films in Paris on 28 December 1895, can be regarded as the breakthrough of projected cinematographic motion pictures. The earliest films were in black and white, under a minute long, without recorded sound, and consisted of a single shot from a steady camera. The first decade saw film move from a novelty, to an established mass entertainment industry, with film production companies and studios established throughout the world. Conventions toward a general cinematic language developed, with film editing camera movements and other cinematic techniques contributing specific roles in the narrative of films. Popular new media, including television, home video (1980s), and the internet (1990s), influenced the distribution and consumption of films. Film production usually responded with content to fit the new media, and technical innovations and more spectacular films to keep theatrical screenings attractive. Systems that were cheaper and more easily handled allowed for an increasing number of people to create films of varying qualities, for any purpose including home movies and video art. The technical quality was usually lower than professional movies, but improved with digital video and affordable, high-quality digital cameras. Improving over time, digital production methods became more popular during the 1990s, resulting in increasingly realistic visual effects and popular feature-length computer animations. Various film genres have emerged during the history of film, and enjoyed variable degrees of success.
|
2001-10-26T20:20:37Z
|
2023-12-20T23:02:03Z
|
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_film
|
10,784 |
Cinema of France
|
French cinema consists of the film industry and its film productions, whether made within the nation of France or by French film production companies abroad. It is the oldest and largest precursor of national cinemas in Europe; with primary influence also on the creation of national cinemas in Asia.
France continues to have a particularly strong film industry, due in part to protections afforded by the French government. In 2013, France was the second largest exporter of films in the world after the United States. A study in April 2014 showed that French cinema maintains a positive influence around the world, being the most appreciated by global audiences after that of the United States.
France currently has the most successful film industry in Europe, in terms of number of films produced per annum, with a record-breaking 300 feature-length films produced in 2015. France is also one of the few countries where non-American productions have the biggest share: American films only represented 44.9% of total admissions in 2014. This is largely due to the commercial strength of domestic productions, which accounted for 44.5% of admissions in 2014 (35.5% in 2015; 35.3% in 2016). The French film industry is closer to being entirely self-sufficient than any other country in Europe, recovering around 80–90% of costs from revenues generated in the domestic market alone.
The most influential film directors in the history of French cinema are Jean Renoir, Marcel Carné, François Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard. Other important film directors are René Clair, Jean Cocteau, René Clément, Robert Bresson, Alain Resnais, Jacques Demy, Claude Chabrol, Louis Malle, Jean-Pierre Melville, Bertrand Tavernier, Claude Sautet, Eric Rohmer, Agnès Varda, Maurice Pialat, Bertrand Blier, André Téchiné, François Ozon and Christophe Honoré.
Apart from its strong and innovative film tradition, France has also been a leading destination for filmmakers and actors from around the world; consequently, French cinema is sometimes intertwined with the cinema of foreign nations. Directors from nations such as Poland (Roman Polanski, Krzysztof Kieślowski, and Andrzej Żuławski), Argentina (Gaspar Noé and Edgardo Cozarinsky), Russia (Alexandre Alexeieff, Anatole Litvak), Austria (Michael Haneke), and Georgia (Géla Babluani, Otar Iosseliani) are prominent in the ranks of French cinema. Conversely, French directors have had prolific and influential careers in other countries, such as Luc Besson, Jacques Tourneur, or Francis Veber in the United States.
Paris has the highest density of cinemas in the world, measured by the number of movie theaters per inhabitant, and that in most "downtown Paris" movie theaters, foreign movies which would be secluded to "art houses" cinemas in other places are shown alongside "mainstream" works. Philippe Binant realized, on 2 February 2000, the first digital cinema projection in Europe, with the DLP CINEMA technology developed by Texas Instruments, in Paris. Paris also boasts the Cité du cinéma, a major studio north of the city, and Disney Studio, a theme park devoted to the cinema and the third theme park near the city behind Disneyland and Parc Asterix.
A favorite theme has been the French Revolution, with hundreds of titles.
Les frères Lumière released the first projection with the Cinematograph, in Paris on 28 December 1895. The French film industry in the late 19th century and early 20th century was the world's most important. Auguste and Louis Lumière invented the cinématographe and their L'Arrivée d'un train en gare de La Ciotat in Paris in 1895 is considered by many historians as the official birth of cinematography. French films during this period catered to a growing middle class and were mostly shown in cafés and traveling fairs.
The early days of the industry, from 1896 to 1902, saw the dominance of four firms: Pathé Frères, the Gaumont Film Company, the Georges Méliès company, and the Lumières. Méliès invented many of the techniques of cinematic grammar, and among his fantastic, surreal short subjects is the first science fiction film A Trip to the Moon (Le Voyage dans la Lune) in 1902.
In 1902, the Lumières abandoned everything but the production of film stock, leaving Méliès as the weakest player of the remaining three. (He would retire in 1914.) From 1904 to 1911, the Pathé Frères company led the world in film production and distribution.
At Gaumont, pioneer Alice Guy-Blaché (M. Gaumont's former secretary) was made head of production and oversaw about 400 films, from her first, La Fée aux Choux, in 1896, through 1906. She then continued her career in the United States, as did Maurice Tourneur and Léonce Perret after World War I.
In 1907, Gaumont owned and operated the biggest movie studio in the world, and along with the boom in construction of "luxury cinemas" like the Gaumont-Palace and the Pathé-Palace (both 1911), cinema became an economic challenger to theater by 1914.
After World War I, the French film industry suffered because of a lack of capital, and film production decreased as it did in most other European countries. This allowed the United States film industry to enter the European cinema market, because American films could be sold more cheaply than European productions, since the studios already had recouped their costs in the home market. When film studios in Europe began to fail, many European countries began to set import barriers. France installed an import quota of 1:7, meaning for every seven foreign films imported to France, one French film was to be produced and shown in French cinemas.
During the period between World War I and World War II, Jacques Feyder and Jean Vigo became two of the founders of poetic realism in French cinema. They also dominated French impressionist cinema, along with Abel Gance, Germaine Dulac and Jean Epstein.
In 1931, Marcel Pagnol filmed the first of his great trilogy Marius, Fanny, and César. He followed this with other films including The Baker's Wife. Other notable films of the 1930s included René Clair's Under the Roofs of Paris (1930), Jean Vigo's L'Atalante (1934), Jacques Feyder's Carnival in Flanders (1935), and Julien Duvivier's La belle equipe (1936). In 1935, renowned playwright and actor Sacha Guitry directed his first film and went on to make more than 30 films that were precursors to the New Wave era. In 1937, Jean Renoir, the son of painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir, directed La Grande Illusion (The Grand Illusion). In 1939, Renoir directed La Règle du Jeu (The Rules of the Game). Several critics have cited this film as one of the greatest of all-time, particularly for its innovative camerawork, cinematography and sound editing.
Marcel Carné's Les Enfants du Paradis (Children of Paradise) was filmed during World War II and released in 1945. The three-hour film was extremely difficult to make due to the Nazi occupation. Set in Paris in 1828, it was voted Best French Film of the Century in a poll of 600 French critics and professionals in the late 1990s.
After World War II, the French actress Leslie Caron and the French actor Louis Jourdan enjoyed success in the United States with several musical romantic comedies, notably An American in Paris (1951) and Gigi (1958), based on the 1944 novella of the same name by Colette.
In the magazine Cahiers du cinéma, founded by André Bazin and two other writers in 1951, film critics raised the level of discussion of the cinema, providing a platform for the birth of modern film theory. Several of the Cahiers critics, including Jean-Luc Godard, François Truffaut, Claude Chabrol, Jacques Rivette and Éric Rohmer, went on to make films themselves, creating what was to become known as the French New Wave. Some of the first films of this new movement were Godard's Breathless (À bout de souffle, 1960), starring Jean-Paul Belmondo, Rivette's Paris Belongs to Us (Paris nous appartient, 1958 – distributed in 1961), starring Jean-Claude Brialy and Truffaut's The 400 Blows (Les Quatre Cent Coups, 1959) starring Jean-Pierre Léaud. Later works are Contempt (1963) by Godard starring Brigitte Bardot and Michel Piccoli and Stolen Kisses starring Léaud and Claude Jade. Because Truffaut followed the hero of his screen debut, Antoine Doinel, for twenty years, the last post-New-Wave-film is Love on the Run in which his heroes Antoine (Léaud) and Christine (Jade) get divorced.
Many contemporaries of Godard and Truffaut followed suit, or achieved international critical acclaim with styles of their own, such as the minimalist films of Robert Bresson and Jean-Pierre Melville, the Hitchcockian-like thrillers of Henri-Georges Clouzot, and other New Wave films by Agnès Varda and Alain Resnais. The movement, while an inspiration to other national cinemas and unmistakably a direct influence on the future New Hollywood directors, slowly faded by the end of the 1960s.
During this period, French commercial film also made a name for itself. Immensely popular French comedies with Louis de Funès topped the French box office. The war comedy La Grande Vadrouille (1966), from Gérard Oury with Bourvil, de Funès and Terry-Thomas, was the most successful film in French theaters for more than 30 years. Another example was La Folie des grandeurs with Yves Montand. French cinema also was the birthplace for many subgenres of the crime film, most notably the modern caper film, starting with 1955's Rififi by American-born director Jules Dassin and followed by a large number of serious, noirish heist dramas as well as playful caper comedies throughout the sixties, and the "polar," a typical French blend of film noir and detective fiction.
In addition, French movie stars began to claim fame abroad as well as at home. Popular actors of the period included Brigitte Bardot, Alain Delon, Romy Schneider, Catherine Deneuve, Jeanne Moreau, Simone Signoret, Yves Montand, Jean-Paul Belmondo and still Jean Gabin.
Since the Sixties and the early Seventies they are completed and followed by Michel Piccoli and Philippe Noiret as character actors, Annie Girardot, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Jean-Pierre Léaud, Claude Jade, Isabelle Huppert, Anny Duperey, Gérard Depardieu, Patrick Dewaere, Jean-Pierre Cassel, Miou-Miou, Brigitte Fossey, Stéphane Audran and Isabelle Adjani. During the Eightees they are added by a new generation including Sophie Marceau, Emmanuelle Béart, Jean-Hugues Anglade, Sabine Azema, Juliette Binoche and Daniel Auteuil.
In 1968, the May riots shook France. François Truffaut had already organised demonstrations in February against Henri Langlois's removal as head of the Cinémathèque française and dedicated his film Stolen Kisses, which was being made, to Langlois. The Cannes Film Festival is cancelled – on the initiative of Truffaut, Godard and Louis Malle. Jean-Luc Godard no longer works in the commercial film business for years. Political films such as Costa-Gavras' Z celebrate success. Chabrol continues his vivisection of the bourgeoisie (The Unfaithful Wife) and Truffaut explores the possibility of bourgeois marital happiness (Bed and Board). While Godard disappears from cinema after the Nouvelle Vague except for a few essays, Truffaut and Chabrol remain the leading directors whose artistic aspects remain commercially successful. Other directors of the 1970s in this effect are Bertrand Tavernier, Claude Sautet, Eric Rohmer, Claude Lelouch, Georges Lautner, Jean-Paul Rappeneau, Michel Deville Yves Boisset, Maurice Pialat, Bertrand Blier, Coline Serreau and André Téchiné in purely entertainment films, it is Gérard Oury and Édouard Molinaro.
The 1979 film La Cage aux Folles ran for well over a year at the Paris Theatre, an arthouse cinema in New York City, and was a commercial success at theaters throughout the country, in both urban and rural areas. It won the Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film, and for years it remained the most successful foreign film to be released in the United States.
Jean-Jacques Beineix's Diva (1981) sparked the beginning of the 1980s wave of French cinema. Movies which followed in its wake included Betty Blue (37°2 le matin, 1986) by Beineix, The Big Blue (Le Grand bleu, 1988) by Luc Besson, and The Lovers on the Bridge (Les Amants du Pont-Neuf, 1991) by Léos Carax. Made with a slick commercial style and emphasizing the alienation of their main characters, these films are representative of the style known as Cinema du look.
Camille Claudel, directed by newcomer Bruno Nuytten and starring Isabelle Adjani and Gérard Depardieu, was a major commercial success in 1988, earning Adjani, who was also the film's co-producer, a César Award for best actress. The historical drama film Jean de Florette (1986) and its sequel Manon des Sources (1986) were among the highest grossing French films in history and brought Daniel Auteuil international recognition.
According to Raphaël Bassan, in his article «The Angel: Un météore dans le ciel de l'animation,» La Revue du cinéma, n° 393, avril 1984. (in French), Patrick Bokanowski's The Angel, shown in 1982 at the Cannes Film Festival, can be considered the beginnings of contemporary animation. The masks erase all human personality in the characters. Patrick Bokanowski would thus have total control over the "matter" of the image and its optical composition. This is especially noticeable throughout the film, with images taken through distorted objectives or a plastic work on the sets and costumes, for example in the scene of the designer. Patrick Bokanowski creates his own universe and obeys his own aesthetic logic. It takes us through a series of distorted areas, obscure visions, metamorphoses and synthetic objects. Indeed, in the film, the human may be viewed as a fetish object (for example, the doll hanging by a thread), with reference to Kafkaesque and Freudian theories on automata and the fear of man faced with something as complex as him. The ascent of the stairs would be the liberation of the ideas of death, culture, and sex that makes us reach the emblematic figure of the angel.
Jean-Paul Rappeneau's Cyrano de Bergerac was a major box-office success in 1990, earning several César Awards, including best actor for Gérard Depardieu, as well as an Academy Award nomination for best foreign picture.
Luc Besson made La Femme Nikita in 1990, a movie that inspired remakes in both United States and in Hong Kong. In 1994, he also made Léon (starring Jean Reno and a young Natalie Portman), and in 1997 The Fifth Element, which became a cult favorite and launched the career of Milla Jovovich.
Jean-Pierre Jeunet made Delicatessen and The City of Lost Children (La Cité des enfants perdus), both of which featured a distinctly fantastical style.
In 1992, Claude Sautet co-wrote (with Jacques Fieschi) and directed Un Coeur en Hiver, considered by many to be a masterpiece. Mathieu Kassovitz's 1995 film Hate (La Haine) received critical praise and made Vincent Cassel a star, and in 1997, Juliette Binoche won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in The English Patient.
The success of Michel Ocelot's Kirikou and the Sorceress in 1998 rejuvenated the production of original feature-length animated films by such filmmakers as Jean-François Laguionie and Sylvain Chomet.
In 2000, Philippe Binant realized the first digital cinema projection in Europe, with the DLP CINEMA technology developed by Texas Instruments, in Paris.
In 2001, after a brief stint in Hollywood, Jean-Pierre Jeunet returned to France with Amélie (Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain) starring Audrey Tautou. It became the highest-grossing French-language film ever released in the United States. The following year, Brotherhood of the Wolf became the second-highest-grossing French-language film in the United States since 1980 and went on to gross more than $70 million worldwide.
In 2008, Marion Cotillard won the Academy Award for Best Actress and the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role for her portrayal of legendary French singer Édith Piaf in La Vie en Rose, the first French-language performance to be so honored. The film won two Oscars and four BAFTAs and became the third-highest-grossing French-language film in the United States since 1980. Cotillard was the first female and second person to win both an Academy Award and César Award for the same performance.
At the 2008 Cannes Film Festival, Entre les murs (The Class) won the Palme d'Or, the 6th French victory at the festival. The 2000s also saw an increase in the number of individual competitive awards won by French artists at the Cannes Festival, for direction (Tony Gatlif, Exils, 2004), screenplay (Agnès Jaoui and Jean-Pierre Bacri, Look at Me, 2004), female acting (Isabelle Huppert, The Piano Teacher, 2001; Charlotte Gainsbourg, Antichrist, 2009) and male acting (Jamel Debbouze, Samy Naceri, Roschdy Zem, Sami Bouajila and Bernard Blancan, Days of Glory, 2006).
The 2008 rural comedy Bienvenue chez les Ch'tis drew an audience of more than 20 million, the first French film to do so. Its $193 million gross in France puts it just behind Titanic as the most successful film of all time in French theaters.
In the 2000s, several French directors made international productions, often in the action genre. These include Gérard Pirès (Riders, 2002), Pitof (Catwoman, 2004), Jean-François Richet (Assault on Precinct 13, 2005), Florent Emilio Siri (Hostage, 2005), Christophe Gans (Silent Hill, 2006), Mathieu Kassovitz (Babylon A.D., 2008), Louis Leterrier (The Transporter, 2002; Transporter 2, 2005; Olivier Megaton directed Transporter 3, 2008), Alexandre Aja (Mirrors, 2008), and Pierre Morel (Taken, 2009).
Surveying the entire range of French filmmaking today, Tim Palmer calls contemporary cinema in France a kind of eco-system, in which commercial cinema co-exists with artistic radicalism, first-time directors (who make up about 40% of all France's directors each year) mingle with veterans, and there even occasionally emerges a fascinating pop-art hybridity, in which the features of intellectual and mass cinemas are interrelated (as in filmmakers like Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi, Olivier Assayas, Maïwenn, Sophie Fillières, Serge Bozon, and others).
One of the most noticed and best reviewed films of 2010 was the drama Of Gods and Men (Des hommes et des dieux), about the assassination of seven monks in Tibhirine, Algeria. 2011 saw the release of The Artist, a silent film shot in black and white by Michel Hazanavicius that reflected on the end of Hollywood's silent era.
French cinema continued its upward trend of earning awards at the Cannes Festival, including the prestigious Grand Prix for Of Gods and Men (2010) and the Jury Prize for Poliss (2011); the Best Director Award for Mathieu Amalric (On Tour, 2010); the Best Actress Award for Juliette Binoche (Certified Copy, 2010); and the Best Actor Award for Jean Dujardin (The Artist, 2011).
In 2011, the film Intouchables became the most watched film in France (including the foreign films). After ten weeks nearly 17.5 million people had seen the film in France, Intouchables was the second most-seen French movie of all time in France, and the third including foreign movies.
In 2012, with 226 million admissions (US$1,900 million) in the world for French films (582 films released in 84 countries), including 82 million admissions in France (US$700 million), 2012 was the fourth best year since 1985. With 144 million admissions outside France (US$1,200 million), 2012 was the best year since at least 1994 (since Unifrance collects data), and the French cinema reached a market share of 2.95% of worldwide admissions and of 4.86% of worldwide sales. Three films particularly contributed to this record year: Taken 2, The Intouchables and The Artist. In 2012, films shot in French ranked 4th in admissions (145 million) behind films shot in English (more than a billion admissions in the US alone), Hindi (?: no accurate data but estimated at 3 billion for the whole India/Indian languages) and Chinese (275 million in China plus a few million abroad), but above films shot in Korean (115 million admissions in South Korea plus a few millions abroad) and Japanese (102 million admissions in Japan plus a few million abroad, a record since 1973 et its 104 million admissions). French-language movies ranked 2nd in export (outside of French-speaking countries) after films in English. 2012 was also the year French animation studio Mac Guff was acquired by an American studio, Universal Pictures, through its Illumination Entertainment subsidiary. Illumination Mac Guff became the animation studio for some of the top English-language animated movies of the 2010s, including The Lorax and the Despicable Me franchise.
In 2015 French cinema sold 106 million tickets and grossed €600 million outside of the country. The highest-grossing film was Taken 3 (€261.7 million) and the largest territory in admissions was China (14.7 million).
As the advent of television threatened the success of cinema, countries were faced with the problem of reviving movie-going. The French cinema market, and more generally the French-speaking market, is smaller than the English-speaking market; one reason being that some major markets, including prominently the United States, are reluctant to generally accept foreign films, especially foreign-language and subtitled productions. As a consequence, French movies have to be amortized on a relatively small market and thus generally have budgets far lower than their American counterparts, ruling out expensive settings and special effects.
The French government has implemented various measures aimed at supporting local film production and movie theaters. The Canal+ TV channel has a broadcast license requiring it to support the production of movies. Some taxes are levied on movies and TV channels for use as subsidies for movie production. Some tax breaks are given for investment in movie productions, as is common elsewhere including in the United States. The sale of DVDs is prohibited for four months after the showing in theaters, so as to ensure some revenue for movie theaters.
The French national and regional governments involve themselves in film production. For example, the award-winning documentary In the Land of the Deaf (Le Pays des sourds) was created by Nicolas Philibert in 1992. The film was co-produced by multinational partners, which reduced the financial risks inherent in the project; and co-production also ensured enhanced distribution opportunities.
In Anglophone distribution, In the Land of the Deaf was presented in French Sign Language (FSL) and French, with English subtitles and closed captions.
Notable French film distribution and/or production companies include:
|
[
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "French cinema consists of the film industry and its film productions, whether made within the nation of France or by French film production companies abroad. It is the oldest and largest precursor of national cinemas in Europe; with primary influence also on the creation of national cinemas in Asia.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "France continues to have a particularly strong film industry, due in part to protections afforded by the French government. In 2013, France was the second largest exporter of films in the world after the United States. A study in April 2014 showed that French cinema maintains a positive influence around the world, being the most appreciated by global audiences after that of the United States.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "France currently has the most successful film industry in Europe, in terms of number of films produced per annum, with a record-breaking 300 feature-length films produced in 2015. France is also one of the few countries where non-American productions have the biggest share: American films only represented 44.9% of total admissions in 2014. This is largely due to the commercial strength of domestic productions, which accounted for 44.5% of admissions in 2014 (35.5% in 2015; 35.3% in 2016). The French film industry is closer to being entirely self-sufficient than any other country in Europe, recovering around 80–90% of costs from revenues generated in the domestic market alone.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "The most influential film directors in the history of French cinema are Jean Renoir, Marcel Carné, François Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard. Other important film directors are René Clair, Jean Cocteau, René Clément, Robert Bresson, Alain Resnais, Jacques Demy, Claude Chabrol, Louis Malle, Jean-Pierre Melville, Bertrand Tavernier, Claude Sautet, Eric Rohmer, Agnès Varda, Maurice Pialat, Bertrand Blier, André Téchiné, François Ozon and Christophe Honoré.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "Apart from its strong and innovative film tradition, France has also been a leading destination for filmmakers and actors from around the world; consequently, French cinema is sometimes intertwined with the cinema of foreign nations. Directors from nations such as Poland (Roman Polanski, Krzysztof Kieślowski, and Andrzej Żuławski), Argentina (Gaspar Noé and Edgardo Cozarinsky), Russia (Alexandre Alexeieff, Anatole Litvak), Austria (Michael Haneke), and Georgia (Géla Babluani, Otar Iosseliani) are prominent in the ranks of French cinema. Conversely, French directors have had prolific and influential careers in other countries, such as Luc Besson, Jacques Tourneur, or Francis Veber in the United States.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "Paris has the highest density of cinemas in the world, measured by the number of movie theaters per inhabitant, and that in most \"downtown Paris\" movie theaters, foreign movies which would be secluded to \"art houses\" cinemas in other places are shown alongside \"mainstream\" works. Philippe Binant realized, on 2 February 2000, the first digital cinema projection in Europe, with the DLP CINEMA technology developed by Texas Instruments, in Paris. Paris also boasts the Cité du cinéma, a major studio north of the city, and Disney Studio, a theme park devoted to the cinema and the third theme park near the city behind Disneyland and Parc Asterix.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "A favorite theme has been the French Revolution, with hundreds of titles.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "Les frères Lumière released the first projection with the Cinematograph, in Paris on 28 December 1895. The French film industry in the late 19th century and early 20th century was the world's most important. Auguste and Louis Lumière invented the cinématographe and their L'Arrivée d'un train en gare de La Ciotat in Paris in 1895 is considered by many historians as the official birth of cinematography. French films during this period catered to a growing middle class and were mostly shown in cafés and traveling fairs.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "The early days of the industry, from 1896 to 1902, saw the dominance of four firms: Pathé Frères, the Gaumont Film Company, the Georges Méliès company, and the Lumières. Méliès invented many of the techniques of cinematic grammar, and among his fantastic, surreal short subjects is the first science fiction film A Trip to the Moon (Le Voyage dans la Lune) in 1902.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "In 1902, the Lumières abandoned everything but the production of film stock, leaving Méliès as the weakest player of the remaining three. (He would retire in 1914.) From 1904 to 1911, the Pathé Frères company led the world in film production and distribution.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "At Gaumont, pioneer Alice Guy-Blaché (M. Gaumont's former secretary) was made head of production and oversaw about 400 films, from her first, La Fée aux Choux, in 1896, through 1906. She then continued her career in the United States, as did Maurice Tourneur and Léonce Perret after World War I.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "In 1907, Gaumont owned and operated the biggest movie studio in the world, and along with the boom in construction of \"luxury cinemas\" like the Gaumont-Palace and the Pathé-Palace (both 1911), cinema became an economic challenger to theater by 1914.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "After World War I, the French film industry suffered because of a lack of capital, and film production decreased as it did in most other European countries. This allowed the United States film industry to enter the European cinema market, because American films could be sold more cheaply than European productions, since the studios already had recouped their costs in the home market. When film studios in Europe began to fail, many European countries began to set import barriers. France installed an import quota of 1:7, meaning for every seven foreign films imported to France, one French film was to be produced and shown in French cinemas.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "During the period between World War I and World War II, Jacques Feyder and Jean Vigo became two of the founders of poetic realism in French cinema. They also dominated French impressionist cinema, along with Abel Gance, Germaine Dulac and Jean Epstein.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "In 1931, Marcel Pagnol filmed the first of his great trilogy Marius, Fanny, and César. He followed this with other films including The Baker's Wife. Other notable films of the 1930s included René Clair's Under the Roofs of Paris (1930), Jean Vigo's L'Atalante (1934), Jacques Feyder's Carnival in Flanders (1935), and Julien Duvivier's La belle equipe (1936). In 1935, renowned playwright and actor Sacha Guitry directed his first film and went on to make more than 30 films that were precursors to the New Wave era. In 1937, Jean Renoir, the son of painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir, directed La Grande Illusion (The Grand Illusion). In 1939, Renoir directed La Règle du Jeu (The Rules of the Game). Several critics have cited this film as one of the greatest of all-time, particularly for its innovative camerawork, cinematography and sound editing.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 15,
"text": "Marcel Carné's Les Enfants du Paradis (Children of Paradise) was filmed during World War II and released in 1945. The three-hour film was extremely difficult to make due to the Nazi occupation. Set in Paris in 1828, it was voted Best French Film of the Century in a poll of 600 French critics and professionals in the late 1990s.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 16,
"text": "After World War II, the French actress Leslie Caron and the French actor Louis Jourdan enjoyed success in the United States with several musical romantic comedies, notably An American in Paris (1951) and Gigi (1958), based on the 1944 novella of the same name by Colette.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 17,
"text": "In the magazine Cahiers du cinéma, founded by André Bazin and two other writers in 1951, film critics raised the level of discussion of the cinema, providing a platform for the birth of modern film theory. Several of the Cahiers critics, including Jean-Luc Godard, François Truffaut, Claude Chabrol, Jacques Rivette and Éric Rohmer, went on to make films themselves, creating what was to become known as the French New Wave. Some of the first films of this new movement were Godard's Breathless (À bout de souffle, 1960), starring Jean-Paul Belmondo, Rivette's Paris Belongs to Us (Paris nous appartient, 1958 – distributed in 1961), starring Jean-Claude Brialy and Truffaut's The 400 Blows (Les Quatre Cent Coups, 1959) starring Jean-Pierre Léaud. Later works are Contempt (1963) by Godard starring Brigitte Bardot and Michel Piccoli and Stolen Kisses starring Léaud and Claude Jade. Because Truffaut followed the hero of his screen debut, Antoine Doinel, for twenty years, the last post-New-Wave-film is Love on the Run in which his heroes Antoine (Léaud) and Christine (Jade) get divorced.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 18,
"text": "Many contemporaries of Godard and Truffaut followed suit, or achieved international critical acclaim with styles of their own, such as the minimalist films of Robert Bresson and Jean-Pierre Melville, the Hitchcockian-like thrillers of Henri-Georges Clouzot, and other New Wave films by Agnès Varda and Alain Resnais. The movement, while an inspiration to other national cinemas and unmistakably a direct influence on the future New Hollywood directors, slowly faded by the end of the 1960s.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 19,
"text": "During this period, French commercial film also made a name for itself. Immensely popular French comedies with Louis de Funès topped the French box office. The war comedy La Grande Vadrouille (1966), from Gérard Oury with Bourvil, de Funès and Terry-Thomas, was the most successful film in French theaters for more than 30 years. Another example was La Folie des grandeurs with Yves Montand. French cinema also was the birthplace for many subgenres of the crime film, most notably the modern caper film, starting with 1955's Rififi by American-born director Jules Dassin and followed by a large number of serious, noirish heist dramas as well as playful caper comedies throughout the sixties, and the \"polar,\" a typical French blend of film noir and detective fiction.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 20,
"text": "In addition, French movie stars began to claim fame abroad as well as at home. Popular actors of the period included Brigitte Bardot, Alain Delon, Romy Schneider, Catherine Deneuve, Jeanne Moreau, Simone Signoret, Yves Montand, Jean-Paul Belmondo and still Jean Gabin.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 21,
"text": "Since the Sixties and the early Seventies they are completed and followed by Michel Piccoli and Philippe Noiret as character actors, Annie Girardot, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Jean-Pierre Léaud, Claude Jade, Isabelle Huppert, Anny Duperey, Gérard Depardieu, Patrick Dewaere, Jean-Pierre Cassel, Miou-Miou, Brigitte Fossey, Stéphane Audran and Isabelle Adjani. During the Eightees they are added by a new generation including Sophie Marceau, Emmanuelle Béart, Jean-Hugues Anglade, Sabine Azema, Juliette Binoche and Daniel Auteuil.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 22,
"text": "In 1968, the May riots shook France. François Truffaut had already organised demonstrations in February against Henri Langlois's removal as head of the Cinémathèque française and dedicated his film Stolen Kisses, which was being made, to Langlois. The Cannes Film Festival is cancelled – on the initiative of Truffaut, Godard and Louis Malle. Jean-Luc Godard no longer works in the commercial film business for years. Political films such as Costa-Gavras' Z celebrate success. Chabrol continues his vivisection of the bourgeoisie (The Unfaithful Wife) and Truffaut explores the possibility of bourgeois marital happiness (Bed and Board). While Godard disappears from cinema after the Nouvelle Vague except for a few essays, Truffaut and Chabrol remain the leading directors whose artistic aspects remain commercially successful. Other directors of the 1970s in this effect are Bertrand Tavernier, Claude Sautet, Eric Rohmer, Claude Lelouch, Georges Lautner, Jean-Paul Rappeneau, Michel Deville Yves Boisset, Maurice Pialat, Bertrand Blier, Coline Serreau and André Téchiné in purely entertainment films, it is Gérard Oury and Édouard Molinaro.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 23,
"text": "The 1979 film La Cage aux Folles ran for well over a year at the Paris Theatre, an arthouse cinema in New York City, and was a commercial success at theaters throughout the country, in both urban and rural areas. It won the Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film, and for years it remained the most successful foreign film to be released in the United States.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 24,
"text": "Jean-Jacques Beineix's Diva (1981) sparked the beginning of the 1980s wave of French cinema. Movies which followed in its wake included Betty Blue (37°2 le matin, 1986) by Beineix, The Big Blue (Le Grand bleu, 1988) by Luc Besson, and The Lovers on the Bridge (Les Amants du Pont-Neuf, 1991) by Léos Carax. Made with a slick commercial style and emphasizing the alienation of their main characters, these films are representative of the style known as Cinema du look.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 25,
"text": "Camille Claudel, directed by newcomer Bruno Nuytten and starring Isabelle Adjani and Gérard Depardieu, was a major commercial success in 1988, earning Adjani, who was also the film's co-producer, a César Award for best actress. The historical drama film Jean de Florette (1986) and its sequel Manon des Sources (1986) were among the highest grossing French films in history and brought Daniel Auteuil international recognition.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 26,
"text": "According to Raphaël Bassan, in his article «The Angel: Un météore dans le ciel de l'animation,» La Revue du cinéma, n° 393, avril 1984. (in French), Patrick Bokanowski's The Angel, shown in 1982 at the Cannes Film Festival, can be considered the beginnings of contemporary animation. The masks erase all human personality in the characters. Patrick Bokanowski would thus have total control over the \"matter\" of the image and its optical composition. This is especially noticeable throughout the film, with images taken through distorted objectives or a plastic work on the sets and costumes, for example in the scene of the designer. Patrick Bokanowski creates his own universe and obeys his own aesthetic logic. It takes us through a series of distorted areas, obscure visions, metamorphoses and synthetic objects. Indeed, in the film, the human may be viewed as a fetish object (for example, the doll hanging by a thread), with reference to Kafkaesque and Freudian theories on automata and the fear of man faced with something as complex as him. The ascent of the stairs would be the liberation of the ideas of death, culture, and sex that makes us reach the emblematic figure of the angel.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 27,
"text": "Jean-Paul Rappeneau's Cyrano de Bergerac was a major box-office success in 1990, earning several César Awards, including best actor for Gérard Depardieu, as well as an Academy Award nomination for best foreign picture.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 28,
"text": "Luc Besson made La Femme Nikita in 1990, a movie that inspired remakes in both United States and in Hong Kong. In 1994, he also made Léon (starring Jean Reno and a young Natalie Portman), and in 1997 The Fifth Element, which became a cult favorite and launched the career of Milla Jovovich.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 29,
"text": "Jean-Pierre Jeunet made Delicatessen and The City of Lost Children (La Cité des enfants perdus), both of which featured a distinctly fantastical style.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 30,
"text": "In 1992, Claude Sautet co-wrote (with Jacques Fieschi) and directed Un Coeur en Hiver, considered by many to be a masterpiece. Mathieu Kassovitz's 1995 film Hate (La Haine) received critical praise and made Vincent Cassel a star, and in 1997, Juliette Binoche won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in The English Patient.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 31,
"text": "The success of Michel Ocelot's Kirikou and the Sorceress in 1998 rejuvenated the production of original feature-length animated films by such filmmakers as Jean-François Laguionie and Sylvain Chomet.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 32,
"text": "In 2000, Philippe Binant realized the first digital cinema projection in Europe, with the DLP CINEMA technology developed by Texas Instruments, in Paris.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 33,
"text": "In 2001, after a brief stint in Hollywood, Jean-Pierre Jeunet returned to France with Amélie (Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain) starring Audrey Tautou. It became the highest-grossing French-language film ever released in the United States. The following year, Brotherhood of the Wolf became the second-highest-grossing French-language film in the United States since 1980 and went on to gross more than $70 million worldwide.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 34,
"text": "In 2008, Marion Cotillard won the Academy Award for Best Actress and the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role for her portrayal of legendary French singer Édith Piaf in La Vie en Rose, the first French-language performance to be so honored. The film won two Oscars and four BAFTAs and became the third-highest-grossing French-language film in the United States since 1980. Cotillard was the first female and second person to win both an Academy Award and César Award for the same performance.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 35,
"text": "At the 2008 Cannes Film Festival, Entre les murs (The Class) won the Palme d'Or, the 6th French victory at the festival. The 2000s also saw an increase in the number of individual competitive awards won by French artists at the Cannes Festival, for direction (Tony Gatlif, Exils, 2004), screenplay (Agnès Jaoui and Jean-Pierre Bacri, Look at Me, 2004), female acting (Isabelle Huppert, The Piano Teacher, 2001; Charlotte Gainsbourg, Antichrist, 2009) and male acting (Jamel Debbouze, Samy Naceri, Roschdy Zem, Sami Bouajila and Bernard Blancan, Days of Glory, 2006).",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 36,
"text": "The 2008 rural comedy Bienvenue chez les Ch'tis drew an audience of more than 20 million, the first French film to do so. Its $193 million gross in France puts it just behind Titanic as the most successful film of all time in French theaters.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 37,
"text": "In the 2000s, several French directors made international productions, often in the action genre. These include Gérard Pirès (Riders, 2002), Pitof (Catwoman, 2004), Jean-François Richet (Assault on Precinct 13, 2005), Florent Emilio Siri (Hostage, 2005), Christophe Gans (Silent Hill, 2006), Mathieu Kassovitz (Babylon A.D., 2008), Louis Leterrier (The Transporter, 2002; Transporter 2, 2005; Olivier Megaton directed Transporter 3, 2008), Alexandre Aja (Mirrors, 2008), and Pierre Morel (Taken, 2009).",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 38,
"text": "Surveying the entire range of French filmmaking today, Tim Palmer calls contemporary cinema in France a kind of eco-system, in which commercial cinema co-exists with artistic radicalism, first-time directors (who make up about 40% of all France's directors each year) mingle with veterans, and there even occasionally emerges a fascinating pop-art hybridity, in which the features of intellectual and mass cinemas are interrelated (as in filmmakers like Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi, Olivier Assayas, Maïwenn, Sophie Fillières, Serge Bozon, and others).",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 39,
"text": "One of the most noticed and best reviewed films of 2010 was the drama Of Gods and Men (Des hommes et des dieux), about the assassination of seven monks in Tibhirine, Algeria. 2011 saw the release of The Artist, a silent film shot in black and white by Michel Hazanavicius that reflected on the end of Hollywood's silent era.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 40,
"text": "French cinema continued its upward trend of earning awards at the Cannes Festival, including the prestigious Grand Prix for Of Gods and Men (2010) and the Jury Prize for Poliss (2011); the Best Director Award for Mathieu Amalric (On Tour, 2010); the Best Actress Award for Juliette Binoche (Certified Copy, 2010); and the Best Actor Award for Jean Dujardin (The Artist, 2011).",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 41,
"text": "In 2011, the film Intouchables became the most watched film in France (including the foreign films). After ten weeks nearly 17.5 million people had seen the film in France, Intouchables was the second most-seen French movie of all time in France, and the third including foreign movies.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 42,
"text": "In 2012, with 226 million admissions (US$1,900 million) in the world for French films (582 films released in 84 countries), including 82 million admissions in France (US$700 million), 2012 was the fourth best year since 1985. With 144 million admissions outside France (US$1,200 million), 2012 was the best year since at least 1994 (since Unifrance collects data), and the French cinema reached a market share of 2.95% of worldwide admissions and of 4.86% of worldwide sales. Three films particularly contributed to this record year: Taken 2, The Intouchables and The Artist. In 2012, films shot in French ranked 4th in admissions (145 million) behind films shot in English (more than a billion admissions in the US alone), Hindi (?: no accurate data but estimated at 3 billion for the whole India/Indian languages) and Chinese (275 million in China plus a few million abroad), but above films shot in Korean (115 million admissions in South Korea plus a few millions abroad) and Japanese (102 million admissions in Japan plus a few million abroad, a record since 1973 et its 104 million admissions). French-language movies ranked 2nd in export (outside of French-speaking countries) after films in English. 2012 was also the year French animation studio Mac Guff was acquired by an American studio, Universal Pictures, through its Illumination Entertainment subsidiary. Illumination Mac Guff became the animation studio for some of the top English-language animated movies of the 2010s, including The Lorax and the Despicable Me franchise.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 43,
"text": "In 2015 French cinema sold 106 million tickets and grossed €600 million outside of the country. The highest-grossing film was Taken 3 (€261.7 million) and the largest territory in admissions was China (14.7 million).",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 44,
"text": "As the advent of television threatened the success of cinema, countries were faced with the problem of reviving movie-going. The French cinema market, and more generally the French-speaking market, is smaller than the English-speaking market; one reason being that some major markets, including prominently the United States, are reluctant to generally accept foreign films, especially foreign-language and subtitled productions. As a consequence, French movies have to be amortized on a relatively small market and thus generally have budgets far lower than their American counterparts, ruling out expensive settings and special effects.",
"title": "Government support"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 45,
"text": "The French government has implemented various measures aimed at supporting local film production and movie theaters. The Canal+ TV channel has a broadcast license requiring it to support the production of movies. Some taxes are levied on movies and TV channels for use as subsidies for movie production. Some tax breaks are given for investment in movie productions, as is common elsewhere including in the United States. The sale of DVDs is prohibited for four months after the showing in theaters, so as to ensure some revenue for movie theaters.",
"title": "Government support"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 46,
"text": "The French national and regional governments involve themselves in film production. For example, the award-winning documentary In the Land of the Deaf (Le Pays des sourds) was created by Nicolas Philibert in 1992. The film was co-produced by multinational partners, which reduced the financial risks inherent in the project; and co-production also ensured enhanced distribution opportunities.",
"title": "Government support"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 47,
"text": "In Anglophone distribution, In the Land of the Deaf was presented in French Sign Language (FSL) and French, with English subtitles and closed captions.",
"title": "Government support"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 48,
"text": "Notable French film distribution and/or production companies include:",
"title": "Film distribution and production companies"
}
] |
French cinema consists of the film industry and its film productions, whether made within the nation of France or by French film production companies abroad. It is the oldest and largest precursor of national cinemas in Europe; with primary influence also on the creation of national cinemas in Asia. France continues to have a particularly strong film industry, due in part to protections afforded by the French government. In 2013, France was the second largest exporter of films in the world after the United States. A study in April 2014 showed that French cinema maintains a positive influence around the world, being the most appreciated by global audiences after that of the United States. France currently has the most successful film industry in Europe, in terms of number of films produced per annum, with a record-breaking 300 feature-length films produced in 2015. France is also one of the few countries where non-American productions have the biggest share: American films only represented 44.9% of total admissions in 2014. This is largely due to the commercial strength of domestic productions, which accounted for 44.5% of admissions in 2014. The French film industry is closer to being entirely self-sufficient than any other country in Europe, recovering around 80–90% of costs from revenues generated in the domestic market alone. The most influential film directors in the history of French cinema are Jean Renoir, Marcel Carné, François Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard. Other important film directors are René Clair, Jean Cocteau, René Clément, Robert Bresson, Alain Resnais, Jacques Demy, Claude Chabrol, Louis Malle, Jean-Pierre Melville, Bertrand Tavernier, Claude Sautet, Eric Rohmer, Agnès Varda, Maurice Pialat, Bertrand Blier, André Téchiné, François Ozon and Christophe Honoré. Apart from its strong and innovative film tradition, France has also been a leading destination for filmmakers and actors from around the world; consequently, French cinema is sometimes intertwined with the cinema of foreign nations. Directors from nations such as Poland, Argentina, Russia, Austria, and Georgia are prominent in the ranks of French cinema. Conversely, French directors have had prolific and influential careers in other countries, such as Luc Besson, Jacques Tourneur, or Francis Veber in the United States. Paris has the highest density of cinemas in the world, measured by the number of movie theaters per inhabitant, and that in most "downtown Paris" movie theaters, foreign movies which would be secluded to "art houses" cinemas in other places are shown alongside "mainstream" works. Philippe Binant realized, on 2 February 2000, the first digital cinema projection in Europe, with the DLP CINEMA technology developed by Texas Instruments, in Paris. Paris also boasts the Cité du cinéma, a major studio north of the city, and Disney Studio, a theme park devoted to the cinema and the third theme park near the city behind Disneyland and Parc Asterix. A favorite theme has been the French Revolution, with hundreds of titles.
|
2001-08-18T18:47:19Z
|
2023-12-30T18:28:27Z
|
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinema_of_France
|
10,786 |
Cinema of the Soviet Union
|
The cinema of the Soviet Union includes films produced by the constituent republics of the Soviet Union reflecting elements of their pre-Soviet culture, language and history, albeit they were all regulated by the central government in Moscow. Most prolific in their republican films, after the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, were Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Ukraine, and, to a lesser degree, Lithuania, Belarus and Moldavia. At the same time, the nation's film industry, which was fully nationalized throughout most of the country's history, was guided by philosophies and laws propounded by the monopoly Soviet Communist Party which introduced a new view on the cinema, socialist realism, which was different from the one before or after the existence of the Soviet Union.
Upon the establishment of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR) on November 7, 1917 (although the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics did not officially come into existence until December 30, 1922), what had formerly been the Russian Empire began quickly to come under the domination of a Soviet reorganization of all its institutions. From the outset, the leaders of this new state held that film would be the most ideal propaganda tool for the Soviet Union because of its widespread popularity among the established citizenry of the new land. Vladimir Lenin viewed film as the most important medium for educating the masses in the ways, means and successes of communism. As a consequence Lenin issued the "Directives on the Film Business" on January 17, 1922, which instructed the People's Commissariat for Education to systemise the film business, registering and numbering all films shown in the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, extracting rent from all privately owned cinemas and subject them to censorship. Joseph Stalin later also regarded cinema as of the prime importance.
However, between World War I and the Russian Revolution, the Russian film industry and the infrastructure needed to support it (e.g., electrical power) had deteriorated to the point of unworkability. The majority of cinemas had been in the corridor between Moscow and Saint Petersburg, and most were out of commission. Additionally, many of the performers, producers, directors and other artists of pre-Soviet Russia had fled the country or were moving ahead of Red Army forces as they pushed further and further south into what remained of the Russian Empire. Furthermore, the new government did not have the funds to spare for an extensive reworking of the system of filmmaking. Thus, they initially opted for project approval and censorship guidelines while leaving what remained of the industry in private hands. As this amounted mostly to cinema houses, the first Soviet films consisted of recycled films of the Russian Empire and its imports, to the extent that these were not determined to be offensive to the new Soviet ideology. Ironically, the first new film released in Soviet Russia did not exactly fit this mold: this was Father Sergius, a religious film completed during the last weeks of the Russian Empire but not yet exhibited. It appeared on Soviet screens in 1918.
Beyond this, the government was principally able to fund only short, educational films, the most famous of which were the agitki – educational films intended to agitate, or energize and enthuse, the masses to participate fully in approved Soviet activities, and deal effectively with those who remained in opposition to the new order. These short (often one small reel) films were often simple visual aids and accompaniments to live lectures and speeches, and were carried from city to city, town to town, village to village (along with the lecturers) to educate the entire countryside, even reaching areas where film had not been previously seen.
Newsreels, as documentaries, were the other major form of earliest Soviet cinema. Dziga Vertov's newsreel series Kino-Pravda, the best known of these, lasted from 1922 to 1925 and had a propagandistic bent; Vertov used the series to promote socialist realism but also to experiment with cinema.
Still, in 1921, there was not one functioning cinema in Moscow until late in the year. Its rapid success, using old Russian and imported feature films, jumpstarted the industry significantly, especially insofar as the government did not heavily or directly regulate what was shown, and by 1923 an additional 89 cinemas had opened. Despite extremely high taxation of ticket sales and film rentals, there was an incentive for individuals to begin making feature film product again – there were places to show the films – albeit they now had to conform their subject matter to a Soviet world view. In this context, the directors and writers who were in support of the objectives of communism assumed quick dominance in the industry, as they were the ones who could most reliably and convincingly turn out films that would satisfy government censors.
New talent joined the experienced remainder, and an artistic community assembled with the goal of defining "Soviet film" as something distinct and better from the output of "decadent capitalism". The leaders of this community viewed it essential to this goal to be free to experiment with the entire nature of film, a position which would result in several well-known creative efforts but would also result in an unforeseen counter-reaction by the increasingly solidifying administrators of the government-controlled society.
In 1924 Nikolai Lebedev [ru] wrote a book on the history of film he says is "the first Soviet attempt at systematization of the meager available sources [on cinema] for the general reader". Along with other articles written by Lebedev and published by Pravda, Izvestia and Kino. In the book he draws attention to the funding challenges that follow nationalization of Soviet cinema. In 1925 all film organizations merged to form Sovkino. Under Sovkino the film industry was given a tax-free benefit and held a monopoly on all film-related exports and imports.
Sergei Eisenstein's Battleship Potemkin was released to wide acclaim in 1925; the film was heavily fictionalized and also propagandistic, giving the party line about the virtues of the proletariat. The kinokomitet or "Film Committee" established that same year published translations of important books about film theory by Béla Balázs, Rudolf Harms and Léon Moussinac.
One of the most popular films released in the 1930s was Circus. Immediately after the end of World War II, color movies such as The Stone Flower (1946), Ballad of Siberia (1947), and Cossacks of the Kuban (1949) were released. Other notable films from the 1940s include Alexander Nevsky and Ivan the Terrible.
In the late 1950s and early 1960s Soviet cinema produced Ballad of a Soldier, which won the 1961 BAFTA Award for Best Film, and The Cranes Are Flying.
The Height is considered to be one of the best films of the 1950s (it also became the foundation of the bard movement).
In the 1980s there was a diversification of subject matter. Touchy issues could now be discussed openly. The results were films like Repentance, which dealt with repression in Georgia, and the allegorical science fiction movie Kin-dza-dza!.
After the death of Stalin, Soviet filmmakers were given a freer hand to film what they believed audiences wanted to see in their film's characters and stories. The industry remained a part of the government and any material that was found politically offensive or undesirable, was either removed, edited, reshot, or shelved. The definition of "socialist realism" was liberalized to allow development of more human characters, but communism still had to remain uncriticized in its fundamentals. Additionally, the degree of relative artistic liberality was changed from administration to administration.
Examples created by censorship include:
On August 27, 1919, Vladimir Lenin nationalized the film industry and created post-imperial Soviet films "when all control over film production and exhibition was ceded to the People’s Commissariat of Education." The work of the nationalized motion-picture studios was administered by the All-Russian Photography and Motion Picture Department, which was reorganized in 1923 into Goskino, which in 1926 became Sovkino. The world's first state-filmmaking school, the First State School of Cinematography, was established in Moscow in 1919.
During the Russian Civil War, agitation trains and ships visited soldiers, workers, and peasants. Lectures, reports, and political meetings were accompanied by newsreels about events at the various fronts.
In the 1920s, the documentary film group headed by Dziga Vertov blazed the trail from the conventional newsreel to the "image centered publicistic film", which became the basis of the Soviet film documentary. Typical of the 1920s were the topical news serial Kino-Pravda and the film Forward, Soviet! by Vertov, whose experiments and achievements in documentary films influenced the development of Russian and world cinematography. Other important films of the 1920s were Esfir Shub's historical-revolutionary films such as The Fall of the Romanov Dynasty which used montage editing techniques to repurpose old Imperial documentaries into a revolutionary theme. In 1924, filmmakers Sergei Eisenstein and Lev Kuleshov created the first association of Soviet filmmakers, the Association of Revolutionary Cinematography (ARK), to "meet the ideological and artistic needs of the proletariat". Although state controlled, "the organization was characterized by a pluralism of political and artistic views until the late 1920s". One of the most iconic developments in film during this period that is still used in films today was editing and montage to create meaning. This style of film making came to be known as the Kuleshov effect and was employed to conserve film stock due to shortages during that period. The film Hydropeat by Yuri Zhelyabuzhsky marked the beginning of popular science films. Feature-length agitation films in 1918–21 were important in the development of the film industry. Innovation in Russian filmmaking was expressed particularly in the work of Eisenstein. Battleship Potemkin was noteworthy for its innovative montage and metaphorical quality of its film language. It won world acclaim. Eisenstein developed concepts of the revolutionary epic in the film October. Also noteworthy was Vsevolod Pudovkin's adaptation of Maxim Gorky's Mother to the screen in 1926. Pudovkin developed themes of revolutionary history in the film The End of St. Petersburg (1927). Other noteworthy silent films were films dealing with contemporary life such as Boris Barnet's The House on Trubnaya. The films of Yakov Protazanov were devoted to the revolutionary struggle and the shaping of a new way of life, such as Don Diego and Pelagia (1928). Ukrainian director Alexander Dovzhenko was noteworthy for the historical-revolutionary epic Zvenigora, Arsenal and the poetic film Earth.
In the early 1930s, Russian filmmakers applied socialist realism to their work. Among the most outstanding films was Chapaev, a film about Russian revolutionaries and society during the Revolution and Civil War. Revolutionary history was developed in films such as Golden Mountains by Sergei Yutkevich, Outskirts by Boris Barnet, and the Maxim trilogy by Grigori Kozintsev and Leonid Trauberg: The Youth of Maxim, The Return of Maxim, and The Vyborg Side. Also notable were biographical films about Vladimir Lenin such as Mikhail Romm's Lenin in October and Lenin in 1918. The life of Russian society and everyday people were depicted in films such as Seven Brave Men and Komsomolsk by Sergei Gerasimov. The comedies of Grigori Aleksandrov such as Circus, Volga-Volga, and Tanya as well as The Rich Bride by Ivan Pyryev and By the Bluest of Seas by Boris Barnet focus on the psychology of the common person, enthusiasm for work and intolerance for remnants of the past. Many films focused on national heroes, including Alexander Nevsky by Sergei Eisenstein, Minin and Pozharsky by Vsevolod Pudovkin, and Bogdan Khmelnitsky by Igor Savchenko. There were adaptations of literary classics, particularly Mark Donskoy's trilogy of films about Maxim Gorky: The Childhood of Maxim Gorky, My Apprenticeship, and My Universities.
During the late 1920s and early 1930s the Stalin wing of the Communist Party consolidated its authority and set about transforming the Soviet Union on both the economic and cultural fronts. The economy moved from the market-based New Economic Policy (NEP) to a system of central planning. The new leadership declared a "cultural revolution" in which the party would exercise control over cultural affairs, including artistic expression. Cinema existed at the intersection of art and economics; so it was destined to be thoroughly reorganized in this episode of economic and cultural transformation.
To implement central planning in cinema, the new entity Soyuzkino was created in 1930. All the hitherto autonomous studios and distribution networks that had grown up under NEP's market would now be coordinated in their activities by this planning agency. Soyuzkino's authority also extended to the studios of the national republics such as VUFKU, which had enjoyed more independence during the 1920s. Soyuzkino consisted of an extended bureaucracy of economic planners and policy specialists who were charged to formulate annual production plans for the studios and then to monitor the distribution and exhibition of finished films.
With central planning came more centralized authority over creative decision making. Script development became a long, torturous process under this bureaucratic system, with various committees reviewing drafts and calling for cuts or revisions. In the 1930s censorship became more exacting with each passing year. Feature film projects would drag out for months or years and might be terminated at any point.
Alexander Dovzhenko drew from Ukrainian folk culture in such films as Earth (1930) along the way because of the capricious decision of one or another censoring committee. This redundant oversight slowed down production and inhibited creativity. Although central planning was supposed to increase the film industry's productivity, production levels declined steadily through the 1930s. The industry was releasing over one-hundred features annually at the end of the NEP period, but that figure fell to seventy by 1932 and to forty-five by 1934. It never again reached triple digits during the remainder of the Stalin era. Veteran directors experienced precipitous career declines under this system of control; whereas Eisenstein was able to make four features between 1924 and 1929, he completed only one film, Alexander Nevsky (1938) during the entire decade of the 1930s. His planned adaptation of the Ivan Turgenev story Bezhin Meadow (1935–37) was halted during production in 1937 and officially banned, one of many promising film projects that fell victim to an exacting censorship system.
Meanwhile, the USSR cut off its film contacts with the West. It stopped importing films after 1931 out of concern that foreign films exposed audiences to capitalist ideology. The industry also freed itself from dependency on foreign technologies. During its industrialization effort of the early 1930s, the USSR finally built an array of factories to supply the film industry with the nation's own technical resources.
To secure independence from the West, industry leaders mandated that the USSR develop its own sound technologies, rather than taking licenses on Western sound systems. Two Soviet scientists, Alexander Shorin in Leningrad (present-day St. Petersburg) and Pavel Tager in Moscow, conducted research through the late 1920s on complementary sound systems, which were ready for use by 1930. The implementation process, including the cost of refitting movie theaters, proved daunting, and the USSR did not complete the transition to sound until 1935. Nevertheless, several directors made innovative use of sound once the technology became available. In Enthusiasm: The Symphony of Donbass (1930), his documentary on coal mining and heavy industry, Dziga Vertov based his soundtrack on an elegantly orchestrated array of industrial noises. In The Deserter (1933) Pudovkin experimented with a form of "sound counterpoint" by exploiting tensions and ironic dissonances between sound elements and the image track. And in Alexander Nevsky, Eisenstein collaborated with the composer Sergei Prokofiev on an "operatic" film style that elegantly coordinated the musical score and the image track.
As Soviet cinema made the transition to sound and central planning in the early 1930s, it was also put under a mandate to adopt a uniform film style, commonly identified as "socialist realism". In 1932 the party leadership ordered the literary community to abandon the avant-garde practices of the 1920s and to embrace socialist realism, a literary style that, in practice, was actually close to 19th-century realism. The other arts, including cinema, were subsequently instructed to develop the aesthetic equivalent. For cinema, this meant adopting a film style that would be legible to a broad audience, thus avoiding a possible split between the avant-garde and mainstream cinema that was evident in the late 1920s. The director of Soyuzkino and, later, GUKF, Boris Shumyatsky (1886–1938), served as chief executive of the Soviet film industry from 1931 to 1938, and was a harsh critic of the montage aesthetic. He championed a "cinema for the millions", which would use clear, linear narration. Although American movies were no longer being imported in the 1930s, the Hollywood model of continuity editing was readily available, and it had a successful track record with Soviet movie audiences. Soviet socialist realism was built on this style, which assured tidy storytelling. Various other strictures were then added to the doctrine: positive heroes to act as role models for viewers; lessons in good citizenship for spectators to embrace; and support for reigning policy decisions of the Communist Party.
Such aesthetic policies, enforced by the rigorous censorship apparatus of the USSR, resulted in a number of formulaic films. Apparently, they did succeed in sustaining a true "cinema of the masses". The 1930s witnessed some stellar examples of popular cinema. The single most successful film of the decade, in terms of both official praise and genuine affection from the mass audience, was Chapaev (1934), directed by the Vasilyev brothers. Based on the life of a martyred Red Army commander, the film was touted as a model of socialist realism, in that Chapayev and his followers battled heroically for the revolutionary cause. The film also humanized the title character, giving him personal foibles, an ironic sense of humour, and a rough peasant charm. These qualities endeared him to the viewing public: spectators reported seeing the film multiple times during its first run in 1934, and Chapaev was periodically re-released for subsequent generations of audiences.
A genre that emerged in the 1930s to consistent popular acclaim was the musical comedy, and a master of that form was Grigori Aleksandrov (1903–1984). He effected a creative partnership with his wife, the brilliant comic actress and chanteuse Lyubov Orlova (1902–1975), in a series of crowd-pleasing musicals. Their pastoral comedy Volga-Volga (1938) was surpassed only by Chapaev in terms of box-office success. The fantasy element of their films, with lively musical numbers reviving the montage aesthetic, sometimes stretched the boundaries of socialist realism, but the genre could also allude to contemporary affairs. In Aleksandrov's 1940 musical Tanya, Orlova plays a humble servant girl who rises through the ranks of the Soviet industrial leadership after developing clever labour-saving work methods. Audiences could enjoy the film's comic turn on the Cinderella story while also learning about the value of efficiency in the workplace.
Immediately after the end of the Second World War, color movies such as The Stone Flower (1946), Ballad of Siberia (1947), and Cossacks of the Kuban (1949) were released. Other notable films from the 1940s include the black and white films, Alexander Nevsky, Ivan the Terrible and Encounter at the Elbe.
The Soviet film industry suffered during the period after World War II. On top of dealing with the severe physical and monetary losses of the war, Stalin's regime tightened social control and censorship to manage the effects recent exposure to the West had on the people. The postwar period was marked by an end of almost all autonomy in the Soviet Union. The Catalogue of Soviet Films recorded remarkably low numbers of films being produced from 1945 to 1953, with as few as nine films produced in 1951 and a maximum of twenty-three produced in 1952. These numbers do not, however, include many of the works which are not generally considered to be "film" in an elitist sense, such as filmed versions of theatrical works and operas, feature-length event documentaries and travelogues, short films for children, and experimental stereoscopic films. But compared to the four hundred to five hundred films produced every year by Hollywood, the Soviet film industry was practically dead.
Even as the economy of the Soviet Union strengthened, film production continued to decrease. A resolution passed by the Council of Ministers in 1948 further crippled the film industry. The resolution criticized the work of the industry, saying that an emphasis placed on quantity over quality had ideologically weakened the films. Instead, the council insisted that every film produced must be a masterpiece for promoting communist ideas and the Soviet system. Often, Stalin had the ultimate decision on whether a newly produced film was appropriate for public viewing. In private screenings after meetings of the Politburo, the Minister of the Film Industry Ivan Bolshakov privately screened films for Stalin and top members of Soviet government. The strict limitations on content and complex, centralized process for approval drove many screenwriters away, and studios had much difficulty producing any of the quality films mandated by the 1948 resolution.
Movie theaters in the postwar period faced the problem of satisfying the growing appetites of Soviet audiences for films while dealing with the shortage of newly produced works from studios. In response, cinemas played the same films for months at a time, many of them the works of the late 1930s. Anything new drew millions of people to the box office, and many theaters screened foreign films to attract larger audiences. Most of these foreign films were "trophy films", two thousand films brought into the country by the Red Army after the occupation of Germany and Eastern Europe in World War II. In the top secret minutes for the CPSU Committee Meeting on August 31, 1948, the committee permitted the Minister of the Film Industry to release fifty of these films in the Soviet Union. Of these fifty, Bolshakov was only allowed to release twenty-four for screening to the general public, mainly films made in Germany, Austria, Italy, and France. The other twenty-six films, consisting almost entirely of American films, were only allowed to be shown in private screenings. The minutes also include a separate list of permitted German musical films, which were mainly German and Italian film adaptations of famous operas. Most of the trophy films were released in 1948–49, but somewhat strangely, compiled lists of the released films include ones not previously mentioned in the official minutes of the Central Committee.
The public release of these trophy films seems contradictory in the context of the 1940s Soviet Union. The Soviet government allowed the exhibition of foreign films which contained far more subversive ideas than any a Soviet director would have ever attempted putting in a film at a time when Soviet artists found themselves unemployed because of censorship laws. Historians hypothesize many possible reasons why the Soviet government showed such seemingly inexplicable leniency toward the foreign films. The government may have granted cinemas the right to show the films so they could stay in business after the domestic film industry had declined. A second hypothesis speculates that the government saw the films as an easy source of money to help rebuild the nation after the war. The minutes of the CPSU Central Committee meeting seem to support the latter idea with instructions that the films are to bring in a net income of at least 750 million roubles to the State coffers over the course of a year from public and private screenings, and 250 million roubles of this were supposed to come from rentals to the trade union camera network.
In addition to releasing the films, the committee also charged Bolshakov and the Agitation and Propaganda Department of the CPSU Central Committee "with making the necessary editorial corrections to the films and with providing an introductory text and carefully edited subtitles for each film." In general, the captured Nazi films were considered apolitical enough to be shown to the general populace. Still the Propaganda and Agitation Section of the Central Committee ran into trouble with the censoring of two films slated for release. The censors found it impossible to remove the "Zionist" ideas from Jud Suss, an anti-Semitic, Nazi propaganda film. The censors also had trouble with a film adaptation of Of Mice and Men because of the representation of the poor as a detriment to society.
There is very little direct evidence of how Soviet audiences received the trophy films. Soviet magazines or newspapers never reviewed the films, there were no audience surveys, and no records exist of how many people viewed the films. To judge the reception and popularity of these foreign films, historians have mainly relied on anecdotal evidence. The German musical comedy The Woman of My Dreams received mixed reviews according to this evidence. Kultura i zhizn published a supposed survey compiled of readers' letters to the editor in March 1947 which criticize the film for being idealess, low brow, and even harmful. Bulat Okudzhava wrote a contradicting viewpoint in Druzhba Narodov [ru] in 1986, saying that everyone in the city of Tbilisi was crazy about the film. According to him, everywhere he went people were talking about the film and whistling the songs. Of the two accounts, film historians generally consider Okudzhava's more reliable than the one presented by Kultura i zhizn. Films such as His Butler's Sister, The Thief of Bagdad, Waterloo Bridge and Sun Valley Serenade, although not technically trophies as they had been purchased legally during the wartime alliance with America, were highly popular with Soviet audiences. In Vechernyaya Moskva (October 4, 1946), M. Chistiakov reprimanded theaters and the Soviet film industry for the fact that over a six-month timespan, sixty of the films shown had been tasteless Western films rather than Soviet ones. Even in criticism of the films and the crusading efforts of the anti-cosmopolitan campaign against the trophy films, it is clear to see they had quite an impact on Soviet society.
With the start of the Cold War, writers, still considered the primary auteurs, were all the more reluctant to take up script writing, and the early 1950s saw only a handful of feature films completed during any year. The death of Stalin was a relief to some people, and all the more so was the official trashing of his public image as a benign and competent leader by Nikita Khrushchev two years later. This latter event gave filmmakers the margin of comfort they needed to move away from the narrow stories of socialist realism, expand its boundaries, and begin work on a wider range of entertaining and artistic Soviet films.
Notable films include:
The 1960s and 1970s saw the creation of many films, many of which molded Soviet and post-Soviet culture. They include:
Soviet films tend to be rather culture-specific and are difficult for many foreigners to understand without having been exposed to the culture first. Various Soviet directors were more concerned with artistic success than with financial success (they were paid by the academy, and so money was not a critical issue). This contributed to the creation of a large number of more philosophical and poetic films. Most well-known examples of such films are those by directors Andrei Tarkovsky, Sergei Parajanov and Nikita Mikhalkov. In keeping with Russian culture, tragi-comedies were very popular. These decades were also prominent in the production of the Eastern or Red Western.
Animation was a respected genre, with many directors experimenting with animation techniques. Tale of Tales (1979) by Yuri Norstein was twice given the title of "Best Animated Film of All Eras and Nations" by animation professionals from around the world, in 1984 and 2002.
In the year of the 60th anniversary of the Soviet cinema (1979), on April 25, a decision of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR established a commemorative "Soviet Cinema Day [ru]". It was then celebrated in the USSR each year on August 27, the day on which Vladimir Lenin signed a decree to nationalise the country's cinematic and photographic industries.
The policies of perestroika and glasnost saw a loosening of the censorship of earlier eras. A genre known as chernukha [ru] (from the Russian word for "noir"), including films such as Little Vera, portrayed the harsher side of Soviet life. Notable films of this period include:
|
[
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "The cinema of the Soviet Union includes films produced by the constituent republics of the Soviet Union reflecting elements of their pre-Soviet culture, language and history, albeit they were all regulated by the central government in Moscow. Most prolific in their republican films, after the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, were Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Ukraine, and, to a lesser degree, Lithuania, Belarus and Moldavia. At the same time, the nation's film industry, which was fully nationalized throughout most of the country's history, was guided by philosophies and laws propounded by the monopoly Soviet Communist Party which introduced a new view on the cinema, socialist realism, which was different from the one before or after the existence of the Soviet Union.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "Upon the establishment of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR) on November 7, 1917 (although the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics did not officially come into existence until December 30, 1922), what had formerly been the Russian Empire began quickly to come under the domination of a Soviet reorganization of all its institutions. From the outset, the leaders of this new state held that film would be the most ideal propaganda tool for the Soviet Union because of its widespread popularity among the established citizenry of the new land. Vladimir Lenin viewed film as the most important medium for educating the masses in the ways, means and successes of communism. As a consequence Lenin issued the \"Directives on the Film Business\" on January 17, 1922, which instructed the People's Commissariat for Education to systemise the film business, registering and numbering all films shown in the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, extracting rent from all privately owned cinemas and subject them to censorship. Joseph Stalin later also regarded cinema as of the prime importance.",
"title": "Historical outline"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "However, between World War I and the Russian Revolution, the Russian film industry and the infrastructure needed to support it (e.g., electrical power) had deteriorated to the point of unworkability. The majority of cinemas had been in the corridor between Moscow and Saint Petersburg, and most were out of commission. Additionally, many of the performers, producers, directors and other artists of pre-Soviet Russia had fled the country or were moving ahead of Red Army forces as they pushed further and further south into what remained of the Russian Empire. Furthermore, the new government did not have the funds to spare for an extensive reworking of the system of filmmaking. Thus, they initially opted for project approval and censorship guidelines while leaving what remained of the industry in private hands. As this amounted mostly to cinema houses, the first Soviet films consisted of recycled films of the Russian Empire and its imports, to the extent that these were not determined to be offensive to the new Soviet ideology. Ironically, the first new film released in Soviet Russia did not exactly fit this mold: this was Father Sergius, a religious film completed during the last weeks of the Russian Empire but not yet exhibited. It appeared on Soviet screens in 1918.",
"title": "Historical outline"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "Beyond this, the government was principally able to fund only short, educational films, the most famous of which were the agitki – educational films intended to agitate, or energize and enthuse, the masses to participate fully in approved Soviet activities, and deal effectively with those who remained in opposition to the new order. These short (often one small reel) films were often simple visual aids and accompaniments to live lectures and speeches, and were carried from city to city, town to town, village to village (along with the lecturers) to educate the entire countryside, even reaching areas where film had not been previously seen.",
"title": "Historical outline"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "Newsreels, as documentaries, were the other major form of earliest Soviet cinema. Dziga Vertov's newsreel series Kino-Pravda, the best known of these, lasted from 1922 to 1925 and had a propagandistic bent; Vertov used the series to promote socialist realism but also to experiment with cinema.",
"title": "Historical outline"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "Still, in 1921, there was not one functioning cinema in Moscow until late in the year. Its rapid success, using old Russian and imported feature films, jumpstarted the industry significantly, especially insofar as the government did not heavily or directly regulate what was shown, and by 1923 an additional 89 cinemas had opened. Despite extremely high taxation of ticket sales and film rentals, there was an incentive for individuals to begin making feature film product again – there were places to show the films – albeit they now had to conform their subject matter to a Soviet world view. In this context, the directors and writers who were in support of the objectives of communism assumed quick dominance in the industry, as they were the ones who could most reliably and convincingly turn out films that would satisfy government censors.",
"title": "Historical outline"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "New talent joined the experienced remainder, and an artistic community assembled with the goal of defining \"Soviet film\" as something distinct and better from the output of \"decadent capitalism\". The leaders of this community viewed it essential to this goal to be free to experiment with the entire nature of film, a position which would result in several well-known creative efforts but would also result in an unforeseen counter-reaction by the increasingly solidifying administrators of the government-controlled society.",
"title": "Historical outline"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "In 1924 Nikolai Lebedev [ru] wrote a book on the history of film he says is \"the first Soviet attempt at systematization of the meager available sources [on cinema] for the general reader\". Along with other articles written by Lebedev and published by Pravda, Izvestia and Kino. In the book he draws attention to the funding challenges that follow nationalization of Soviet cinema. In 1925 all film organizations merged to form Sovkino. Under Sovkino the film industry was given a tax-free benefit and held a monopoly on all film-related exports and imports.",
"title": "Historical outline"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "Sergei Eisenstein's Battleship Potemkin was released to wide acclaim in 1925; the film was heavily fictionalized and also propagandistic, giving the party line about the virtues of the proletariat. The kinokomitet or \"Film Committee\" established that same year published translations of important books about film theory by Béla Balázs, Rudolf Harms and Léon Moussinac.",
"title": "Historical outline"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "One of the most popular films released in the 1930s was Circus. Immediately after the end of World War II, color movies such as The Stone Flower (1946), Ballad of Siberia (1947), and Cossacks of the Kuban (1949) were released. Other notable films from the 1940s include Alexander Nevsky and Ivan the Terrible.",
"title": "Historical outline"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "In the late 1950s and early 1960s Soviet cinema produced Ballad of a Soldier, which won the 1961 BAFTA Award for Best Film, and The Cranes Are Flying.",
"title": "Historical outline"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "The Height is considered to be one of the best films of the 1950s (it also became the foundation of the bard movement).",
"title": "Historical outline"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "In the 1980s there was a diversification of subject matter. Touchy issues could now be discussed openly. The results were films like Repentance, which dealt with repression in Georgia, and the allegorical science fiction movie Kin-dza-dza!.",
"title": "Historical outline"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "After the death of Stalin, Soviet filmmakers were given a freer hand to film what they believed audiences wanted to see in their film's characters and stories. The industry remained a part of the government and any material that was found politically offensive or undesirable, was either removed, edited, reshot, or shelved. The definition of \"socialist realism\" was liberalized to allow development of more human characters, but communism still had to remain uncriticized in its fundamentals. Additionally, the degree of relative artistic liberality was changed from administration to administration.",
"title": "Censorship"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "Examples created by censorship include:",
"title": "Censorship"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 15,
"text": "On August 27, 1919, Vladimir Lenin nationalized the film industry and created post-imperial Soviet films \"when all control over film production and exhibition was ceded to the People’s Commissariat of Education.\" The work of the nationalized motion-picture studios was administered by the All-Russian Photography and Motion Picture Department, which was reorganized in 1923 into Goskino, which in 1926 became Sovkino. The world's first state-filmmaking school, the First State School of Cinematography, was established in Moscow in 1919.",
"title": "Revolution and Civil War"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 16,
"text": "During the Russian Civil War, agitation trains and ships visited soldiers, workers, and peasants. Lectures, reports, and political meetings were accompanied by newsreels about events at the various fronts.",
"title": "Revolution and Civil War"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 17,
"text": "In the 1920s, the documentary film group headed by Dziga Vertov blazed the trail from the conventional newsreel to the \"image centered publicistic film\", which became the basis of the Soviet film documentary. Typical of the 1920s were the topical news serial Kino-Pravda and the film Forward, Soviet! by Vertov, whose experiments and achievements in documentary films influenced the development of Russian and world cinematography. Other important films of the 1920s were Esfir Shub's historical-revolutionary films such as The Fall of the Romanov Dynasty which used montage editing techniques to repurpose old Imperial documentaries into a revolutionary theme. In 1924, filmmakers Sergei Eisenstein and Lev Kuleshov created the first association of Soviet filmmakers, the Association of Revolutionary Cinematography (ARK), to \"meet the ideological and artistic needs of the proletariat\". Although state controlled, \"the organization was characterized by a pluralism of political and artistic views until the late 1920s\". One of the most iconic developments in film during this period that is still used in films today was editing and montage to create meaning. This style of film making came to be known as the Kuleshov effect and was employed to conserve film stock due to shortages during that period. The film Hydropeat by Yuri Zhelyabuzhsky marked the beginning of popular science films. Feature-length agitation films in 1918–21 were important in the development of the film industry. Innovation in Russian filmmaking was expressed particularly in the work of Eisenstein. Battleship Potemkin was noteworthy for its innovative montage and metaphorical quality of its film language. It won world acclaim. Eisenstein developed concepts of the revolutionary epic in the film October. Also noteworthy was Vsevolod Pudovkin's adaptation of Maxim Gorky's Mother to the screen in 1926. Pudovkin developed themes of revolutionary history in the film The End of St. Petersburg (1927). Other noteworthy silent films were films dealing with contemporary life such as Boris Barnet's The House on Trubnaya. The films of Yakov Protazanov were devoted to the revolutionary struggle and the shaping of a new way of life, such as Don Diego and Pelagia (1928). Ukrainian director Alexander Dovzhenko was noteworthy for the historical-revolutionary epic Zvenigora, Arsenal and the poetic film Earth.",
"title": "1920s"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 18,
"text": "In the early 1930s, Russian filmmakers applied socialist realism to their work. Among the most outstanding films was Chapaev, a film about Russian revolutionaries and society during the Revolution and Civil War. Revolutionary history was developed in films such as Golden Mountains by Sergei Yutkevich, Outskirts by Boris Barnet, and the Maxim trilogy by Grigori Kozintsev and Leonid Trauberg: The Youth of Maxim, The Return of Maxim, and The Vyborg Side. Also notable were biographical films about Vladimir Lenin such as Mikhail Romm's Lenin in October and Lenin in 1918. The life of Russian society and everyday people were depicted in films such as Seven Brave Men and Komsomolsk by Sergei Gerasimov. The comedies of Grigori Aleksandrov such as Circus, Volga-Volga, and Tanya as well as The Rich Bride by Ivan Pyryev and By the Bluest of Seas by Boris Barnet focus on the psychology of the common person, enthusiasm for work and intolerance for remnants of the past. Many films focused on national heroes, including Alexander Nevsky by Sergei Eisenstein, Minin and Pozharsky by Vsevolod Pudovkin, and Bogdan Khmelnitsky by Igor Savchenko. There were adaptations of literary classics, particularly Mark Donskoy's trilogy of films about Maxim Gorky: The Childhood of Maxim Gorky, My Apprenticeship, and My Universities.",
"title": "1930s"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 19,
"text": "During the late 1920s and early 1930s the Stalin wing of the Communist Party consolidated its authority and set about transforming the Soviet Union on both the economic and cultural fronts. The economy moved from the market-based New Economic Policy (NEP) to a system of central planning. The new leadership declared a \"cultural revolution\" in which the party would exercise control over cultural affairs, including artistic expression. Cinema existed at the intersection of art and economics; so it was destined to be thoroughly reorganized in this episode of economic and cultural transformation.",
"title": "1930s"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 20,
"text": "To implement central planning in cinema, the new entity Soyuzkino was created in 1930. All the hitherto autonomous studios and distribution networks that had grown up under NEP's market would now be coordinated in their activities by this planning agency. Soyuzkino's authority also extended to the studios of the national republics such as VUFKU, which had enjoyed more independence during the 1920s. Soyuzkino consisted of an extended bureaucracy of economic planners and policy specialists who were charged to formulate annual production plans for the studios and then to monitor the distribution and exhibition of finished films.",
"title": "1930s"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 21,
"text": "With central planning came more centralized authority over creative decision making. Script development became a long, torturous process under this bureaucratic system, with various committees reviewing drafts and calling for cuts or revisions. In the 1930s censorship became more exacting with each passing year. Feature film projects would drag out for months or years and might be terminated at any point.",
"title": "1930s"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 22,
"text": "Alexander Dovzhenko drew from Ukrainian folk culture in such films as Earth (1930) along the way because of the capricious decision of one or another censoring committee. This redundant oversight slowed down production and inhibited creativity. Although central planning was supposed to increase the film industry's productivity, production levels declined steadily through the 1930s. The industry was releasing over one-hundred features annually at the end of the NEP period, but that figure fell to seventy by 1932 and to forty-five by 1934. It never again reached triple digits during the remainder of the Stalin era. Veteran directors experienced precipitous career declines under this system of control; whereas Eisenstein was able to make four features between 1924 and 1929, he completed only one film, Alexander Nevsky (1938) during the entire decade of the 1930s. His planned adaptation of the Ivan Turgenev story Bezhin Meadow (1935–37) was halted during production in 1937 and officially banned, one of many promising film projects that fell victim to an exacting censorship system.",
"title": "1930s"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 23,
"text": "Meanwhile, the USSR cut off its film contacts with the West. It stopped importing films after 1931 out of concern that foreign films exposed audiences to capitalist ideology. The industry also freed itself from dependency on foreign technologies. During its industrialization effort of the early 1930s, the USSR finally built an array of factories to supply the film industry with the nation's own technical resources.",
"title": "1930s"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 24,
"text": "To secure independence from the West, industry leaders mandated that the USSR develop its own sound technologies, rather than taking licenses on Western sound systems. Two Soviet scientists, Alexander Shorin in Leningrad (present-day St. Petersburg) and Pavel Tager in Moscow, conducted research through the late 1920s on complementary sound systems, which were ready for use by 1930. The implementation process, including the cost of refitting movie theaters, proved daunting, and the USSR did not complete the transition to sound until 1935. Nevertheless, several directors made innovative use of sound once the technology became available. In Enthusiasm: The Symphony of Donbass (1930), his documentary on coal mining and heavy industry, Dziga Vertov based his soundtrack on an elegantly orchestrated array of industrial noises. In The Deserter (1933) Pudovkin experimented with a form of \"sound counterpoint\" by exploiting tensions and ironic dissonances between sound elements and the image track. And in Alexander Nevsky, Eisenstein collaborated with the composer Sergei Prokofiev on an \"operatic\" film style that elegantly coordinated the musical score and the image track.",
"title": "1930s"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 25,
"text": "As Soviet cinema made the transition to sound and central planning in the early 1930s, it was also put under a mandate to adopt a uniform film style, commonly identified as \"socialist realism\". In 1932 the party leadership ordered the literary community to abandon the avant-garde practices of the 1920s and to embrace socialist realism, a literary style that, in practice, was actually close to 19th-century realism. The other arts, including cinema, were subsequently instructed to develop the aesthetic equivalent. For cinema, this meant adopting a film style that would be legible to a broad audience, thus avoiding a possible split between the avant-garde and mainstream cinema that was evident in the late 1920s. The director of Soyuzkino and, later, GUKF, Boris Shumyatsky (1886–1938), served as chief executive of the Soviet film industry from 1931 to 1938, and was a harsh critic of the montage aesthetic. He championed a \"cinema for the millions\", which would use clear, linear narration. Although American movies were no longer being imported in the 1930s, the Hollywood model of continuity editing was readily available, and it had a successful track record with Soviet movie audiences. Soviet socialist realism was built on this style, which assured tidy storytelling. Various other strictures were then added to the doctrine: positive heroes to act as role models for viewers; lessons in good citizenship for spectators to embrace; and support for reigning policy decisions of the Communist Party.",
"title": "1930s"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 26,
"text": "Such aesthetic policies, enforced by the rigorous censorship apparatus of the USSR, resulted in a number of formulaic films. Apparently, they did succeed in sustaining a true \"cinema of the masses\". The 1930s witnessed some stellar examples of popular cinema. The single most successful film of the decade, in terms of both official praise and genuine affection from the mass audience, was Chapaev (1934), directed by the Vasilyev brothers. Based on the life of a martyred Red Army commander, the film was touted as a model of socialist realism, in that Chapayev and his followers battled heroically for the revolutionary cause. The film also humanized the title character, giving him personal foibles, an ironic sense of humour, and a rough peasant charm. These qualities endeared him to the viewing public: spectators reported seeing the film multiple times during its first run in 1934, and Chapaev was periodically re-released for subsequent generations of audiences.",
"title": "1930s"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 27,
"text": "A genre that emerged in the 1930s to consistent popular acclaim was the musical comedy, and a master of that form was Grigori Aleksandrov (1903–1984). He effected a creative partnership with his wife, the brilliant comic actress and chanteuse Lyubov Orlova (1902–1975), in a series of crowd-pleasing musicals. Their pastoral comedy Volga-Volga (1938) was surpassed only by Chapaev in terms of box-office success. The fantasy element of their films, with lively musical numbers reviving the montage aesthetic, sometimes stretched the boundaries of socialist realism, but the genre could also allude to contemporary affairs. In Aleksandrov's 1940 musical Tanya, Orlova plays a humble servant girl who rises through the ranks of the Soviet industrial leadership after developing clever labour-saving work methods. Audiences could enjoy the film's comic turn on the Cinderella story while also learning about the value of efficiency in the workplace.",
"title": "1930s"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 28,
"text": "Immediately after the end of the Second World War, color movies such as The Stone Flower (1946), Ballad of Siberia (1947), and Cossacks of the Kuban (1949) were released. Other notable films from the 1940s include the black and white films, Alexander Nevsky, Ivan the Terrible and Encounter at the Elbe.",
"title": "1940s"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 29,
"text": "The Soviet film industry suffered during the period after World War II. On top of dealing with the severe physical and monetary losses of the war, Stalin's regime tightened social control and censorship to manage the effects recent exposure to the West had on the people. The postwar period was marked by an end of almost all autonomy in the Soviet Union. The Catalogue of Soviet Films recorded remarkably low numbers of films being produced from 1945 to 1953, with as few as nine films produced in 1951 and a maximum of twenty-three produced in 1952. These numbers do not, however, include many of the works which are not generally considered to be \"film\" in an elitist sense, such as filmed versions of theatrical works and operas, feature-length event documentaries and travelogues, short films for children, and experimental stereoscopic films. But compared to the four hundred to five hundred films produced every year by Hollywood, the Soviet film industry was practically dead.",
"title": "1940s"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 30,
"text": "Even as the economy of the Soviet Union strengthened, film production continued to decrease. A resolution passed by the Council of Ministers in 1948 further crippled the film industry. The resolution criticized the work of the industry, saying that an emphasis placed on quantity over quality had ideologically weakened the films. Instead, the council insisted that every film produced must be a masterpiece for promoting communist ideas and the Soviet system. Often, Stalin had the ultimate decision on whether a newly produced film was appropriate for public viewing. In private screenings after meetings of the Politburo, the Minister of the Film Industry Ivan Bolshakov privately screened films for Stalin and top members of Soviet government. The strict limitations on content and complex, centralized process for approval drove many screenwriters away, and studios had much difficulty producing any of the quality films mandated by the 1948 resolution.",
"title": "1940s"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 31,
"text": "Movie theaters in the postwar period faced the problem of satisfying the growing appetites of Soviet audiences for films while dealing with the shortage of newly produced works from studios. In response, cinemas played the same films for months at a time, many of them the works of the late 1930s. Anything new drew millions of people to the box office, and many theaters screened foreign films to attract larger audiences. Most of these foreign films were \"trophy films\", two thousand films brought into the country by the Red Army after the occupation of Germany and Eastern Europe in World War II. In the top secret minutes for the CPSU Committee Meeting on August 31, 1948, the committee permitted the Minister of the Film Industry to release fifty of these films in the Soviet Union. Of these fifty, Bolshakov was only allowed to release twenty-four for screening to the general public, mainly films made in Germany, Austria, Italy, and France. The other twenty-six films, consisting almost entirely of American films, were only allowed to be shown in private screenings. The minutes also include a separate list of permitted German musical films, which were mainly German and Italian film adaptations of famous operas. Most of the trophy films were released in 1948–49, but somewhat strangely, compiled lists of the released films include ones not previously mentioned in the official minutes of the Central Committee.",
"title": "1940s"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 32,
"text": "The public release of these trophy films seems contradictory in the context of the 1940s Soviet Union. The Soviet government allowed the exhibition of foreign films which contained far more subversive ideas than any a Soviet director would have ever attempted putting in a film at a time when Soviet artists found themselves unemployed because of censorship laws. Historians hypothesize many possible reasons why the Soviet government showed such seemingly inexplicable leniency toward the foreign films. The government may have granted cinemas the right to show the films so they could stay in business after the domestic film industry had declined. A second hypothesis speculates that the government saw the films as an easy source of money to help rebuild the nation after the war. The minutes of the CPSU Central Committee meeting seem to support the latter idea with instructions that the films are to bring in a net income of at least 750 million roubles to the State coffers over the course of a year from public and private screenings, and 250 million roubles of this were supposed to come from rentals to the trade union camera network.",
"title": "1940s"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 33,
"text": "In addition to releasing the films, the committee also charged Bolshakov and the Agitation and Propaganda Department of the CPSU Central Committee \"with making the necessary editorial corrections to the films and with providing an introductory text and carefully edited subtitles for each film.\" In general, the captured Nazi films were considered apolitical enough to be shown to the general populace. Still the Propaganda and Agitation Section of the Central Committee ran into trouble with the censoring of two films slated for release. The censors found it impossible to remove the \"Zionist\" ideas from Jud Suss, an anti-Semitic, Nazi propaganda film. The censors also had trouble with a film adaptation of Of Mice and Men because of the representation of the poor as a detriment to society.",
"title": "1940s"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 34,
"text": "There is very little direct evidence of how Soviet audiences received the trophy films. Soviet magazines or newspapers never reviewed the films, there were no audience surveys, and no records exist of how many people viewed the films. To judge the reception and popularity of these foreign films, historians have mainly relied on anecdotal evidence. The German musical comedy The Woman of My Dreams received mixed reviews according to this evidence. Kultura i zhizn published a supposed survey compiled of readers' letters to the editor in March 1947 which criticize the film for being idealess, low brow, and even harmful. Bulat Okudzhava wrote a contradicting viewpoint in Druzhba Narodov [ru] in 1986, saying that everyone in the city of Tbilisi was crazy about the film. According to him, everywhere he went people were talking about the film and whistling the songs. Of the two accounts, film historians generally consider Okudzhava's more reliable than the one presented by Kultura i zhizn. Films such as His Butler's Sister, The Thief of Bagdad, Waterloo Bridge and Sun Valley Serenade, although not technically trophies as they had been purchased legally during the wartime alliance with America, were highly popular with Soviet audiences. In Vechernyaya Moskva (October 4, 1946), M. Chistiakov reprimanded theaters and the Soviet film industry for the fact that over a six-month timespan, sixty of the films shown had been tasteless Western films rather than Soviet ones. Even in criticism of the films and the crusading efforts of the anti-cosmopolitan campaign against the trophy films, it is clear to see they had quite an impact on Soviet society.",
"title": "1940s"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 35,
"text": "With the start of the Cold War, writers, still considered the primary auteurs, were all the more reluctant to take up script writing, and the early 1950s saw only a handful of feature films completed during any year. The death of Stalin was a relief to some people, and all the more so was the official trashing of his public image as a benign and competent leader by Nikita Khrushchev two years later. This latter event gave filmmakers the margin of comfort they needed to move away from the narrow stories of socialist realism, expand its boundaries, and begin work on a wider range of entertaining and artistic Soviet films.",
"title": "1950s"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 36,
"text": "Notable films include:",
"title": "1950s"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 37,
"text": "The 1960s and 1970s saw the creation of many films, many of which molded Soviet and post-Soviet culture. They include:",
"title": "1960s–70s"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 38,
"text": "Soviet films tend to be rather culture-specific and are difficult for many foreigners to understand without having been exposed to the culture first. Various Soviet directors were more concerned with artistic success than with financial success (they were paid by the academy, and so money was not a critical issue). This contributed to the creation of a large number of more philosophical and poetic films. Most well-known examples of such films are those by directors Andrei Tarkovsky, Sergei Parajanov and Nikita Mikhalkov. In keeping with Russian culture, tragi-comedies were very popular. These decades were also prominent in the production of the Eastern or Red Western.",
"title": "1960s–70s"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 39,
"text": "Animation was a respected genre, with many directors experimenting with animation techniques. Tale of Tales (1979) by Yuri Norstein was twice given the title of \"Best Animated Film of All Eras and Nations\" by animation professionals from around the world, in 1984 and 2002.",
"title": "1960s–70s"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 40,
"text": "In the year of the 60th anniversary of the Soviet cinema (1979), on April 25, a decision of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR established a commemorative \"Soviet Cinema Day [ru]\". It was then celebrated in the USSR each year on August 27, the day on which Vladimir Lenin signed a decree to nationalise the country's cinematic and photographic industries.",
"title": "1960s–70s"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 41,
"text": "The policies of perestroika and glasnost saw a loosening of the censorship of earlier eras. A genre known as chernukha [ru] (from the Russian word for \"noir\"), including films such as Little Vera, portrayed the harsher side of Soviet life. Notable films of this period include:",
"title": "1980s"
}
] |
The cinema of the Soviet Union includes films produced by the constituent republics of the Soviet Union reflecting elements of their pre-Soviet culture, language and history, albeit they were all regulated by the central government in Moscow. Most prolific in their republican films, after the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, were Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Ukraine, and, to a lesser degree, Lithuania, Belarus and Moldavia. At the same time, the nation's film industry, which was fully nationalized throughout most of the country's history, was guided by philosophies and laws propounded by the monopoly Soviet Communist Party which introduced a new view on the cinema, socialist realism, which was different from the one before or after the existence of the Soviet Union.
|
2001-05-12T12:01:55Z
|
2023-12-14T17:51:41Z
|
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinema_of_the_Soviet_Union
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Cinema of Italy
|
The cinema of Italy (Italian: cinema italiano, pronounced [ˈtʃiːnema itaˈljaːno]) comprises the films made within Italy or by Italian directors. Italy is one of the birthplaces of art cinema and the stylistic aspect of film has been one of the most important factors in the history of Italian film. As of 2018, Italian films have won 14 Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film (the most of any country) as well as 12 Palmes d'Or, one Academy Award for Best Picture and many Golden Lions and Golden Bears.
The history of Italian cinema began a few months after the Lumière brothers began motion picture exhibitions. The first Italian director is considered to be Vittorio Calcina, a collaborator of the Lumière Brothers, who filmed Pope Leo XIII in 1896. The first films were made in the main cities of the Italian peninsula. These brief experiments immediately met the curiosity of the general public, encouraging operators to produce new films and laying the foundation for a true film industry. In the early 20th century, silent cinema developed, bringing numerous Italian stars to the forefront. In the early 1900s, epic films such as Otello (1906), The Last Days of Pompeii (1908), L'Inferno (1911), Quo Vadis (1913), and Cabiria (1914), were made as adaptations of books or stage plays. The oldest European avant-garde cinema movement, Italian futurism, emerged in the late 1910s. After a period of decline in the 1920s, the Italian film industry was revitalized in the 1930s with the arrival of sound film. A popular Italian genre during this period, the Telefoni Bianchi, consisted of comedies with glamorous backgrounds. Calligrafismo was in sharp contrast to Telefoni Bianchi-American style comedies and is rather artistic, highly formalistic, expressive in complexity and deals mainly with contemporary literary material. While Italy's Fascist government provided financial support for the nation's film industry, notably the construction of the Cinecittà studios (the largest film studio in Europe), it also engaged in censorship, and thus many Italian films produced in the late 1930s were propaganda films.
The end of World War II saw the birth of the influential Italian neorealist movement, which reached vast audiences throughout the post-war period, and which launched the directorial careers of Luchino Visconti, Roberto Rossellini, and Vittorio De Sica. Neorealism declined in the late 1950s in favour of lighter films, such as those of the Commedia all'italiana genre and directors like Federico Fellini and Michelangelo Antonioni. Actresses such as Sophia Loren, Giulietta Masina, Claudia Cardinale, Monica Vitti, Anna Magnani and Gina Lollobrigida achieved international stardom during this period. From the mid-1950s to the end of the 1970s, Commedia all'italiana and many other genres arose due to auteur cinema, and Italian cinema reached a position of great prestige both nationally and abroad. The Spaghetti Western achieved popularity in the mid-1960s, peaking with Sergio Leone's Dollars Trilogy, which featured enigmatic scores by composer Ennio Morricone, which have become icons of the Western genre. Erotic Italian thrillers, or giallo, produced by directors such as Mario Bava and Dario Argento in the 1970s, influenced the horror genre worldwide. During the 1980s and 1990s, directors such as Ermanno Olmi, Bernardo Bertolucci, Giuseppe Tornatore, Gabriele Salvatores and Roberto Benigni brought critical acclaim back to Italian cinema, while the most popular directors of the 2000s and 2010s were Matteo Garrone, Paolo Sorrentino, Marco Bellocchio, Nanni Moretti and Marco Tullio Giordana. The country is known for its Venice Film Festival, the oldest film festival in the world, held annually since 1932 and awarding the Golden Lion; and for the David di Donatello. In 2008 the Venice Days ("Giornate degli Autori"), a section held in parallel to the Venice Film Festival, has produced in collaboration with Cinecittà studios and the Ministry of Cultural Heritage a list of a 100 films that have changed the collective memory of the country between 1942 and 1978: the "100 Italian films to be saved".
The first Italian director is considered to be Vittorio Calcina, a collaborator of the Lumière Brothers, who filmed Pope Leo XIII on 26 February 1896 in the short film Sua Santità papa Leone XIII ("His Holiness Pope Leo XIII"). As the official photographer of the House of Savoy, he filmed the first Italian film, Sua Maestà il Re Umberto e Sua Maestà la Regina Margherita a passeggio per il parco a Monza ("His Majesty the King Umberto and Her Majesty the Queen Margherita strolling through the Monza Park"), believed to have been lost until it was rediscovered by the Cineteca Nazionale in 1979. In 1895, Filoteo Alberini patented his "kinetograph", a shooting and projecting device not unlike that of the Lumières brothers.
The Lumière brothers commenced public screenings in Italy in 1896. Italian Lumière trainees produced short films documenting everyday life and comic strips in the late 1890s and early 1900s. Italo Pacchioni, Arturo Ambrosio, Giovanni Vitrotti and Roberto Omegna were also active. The success of the short films was immediate. Titles of the time include, Arrivo del treno alla Stazione di Milano ("Arrival of the train at Milan station") (1896), La battaglia di neve ("The snow battle") (1896), La gabbia dei matti ("The madmen's cage") (1896), Ballo in famiglia ("Family dance") (1896), Il finto storpio al Castello Sforzesco ("The fake cripple at the Castello Sforzesco") (1896) and La Fiera di Porta Genova ("The fair of Porta Genova") (1898), all shot by Italo Pacchioni, who was also the inventor of a camera and projector, inspired by the cinematograph of Lumière brothers, kept at the Cineteca Italiana in Milan. Although the general public were enthusiastic, initially the technology was snubbed by intellectuals and the press. However, on 28 January 1897, prince Victor Emmanuel and princess Elena of Montenegro attended a screening organized by Vittorio Calcina, at the Pitti Palace in Florence. Interested in experimenting with the new medium, they were filmed in S.A.R. il Principe di Napoli e la Principessa Elena visitano il battistero di S. Giovanni a Firenze ("Their real heights the Prince of Naples and Princess Elena visit the baptistery of Saint John in Florence") and on the day of their wedding in Dimostrazione popolare alle LL. AA. i Principi sposi (al Pantheon – Roma) ("Popular demonstration at the their heights the princes spouses (at the Pantheon – Rome)").
In the early 20th century, the phenomenon of itinerant cinemas developed throughout Italy. The nascent Italian cinema, therefore, is still linked to the traditional shows of the commedia dell'arte or to those typical of circus folklore. Public screenings took place in the streets, in cafes or in variety theatres in the presence of a swindler who has the task of promoting and enriching the story.
Between 1903 and 1909 the itinerant Italian cinema began assuming the characteristics of an authentic industry, led by four major organizations: Titanus (originally Monopolio Lombardo), the first italian film production company; the largest and among the most famous film houses in Italy, founded by Gustavo Lombardo at Naples in 1904, Cines, based in Rome; and the Turin-based companies Ambrosio Film and Itala Film. Other companies soon followed in Milan, and these early companies quickly attained a respectable production quality and were able to market their products both within Italy and abroad. Early Italian films typically consisted of adaptations of books or stage plays, such as Mario Caserini's Otello (1906) and Arturo Ambrosio's 1908 The Last Days of Pompeii, an adaptation of the homonymous novel by Edward Bulwer-Lytton. Also popular during this period were films about historical figures, such as Caserini's Beatrice Cenci (1909) and Ugo Falena's Lucrezia Borgia (1910).
In 1905, Cines inaugurated the genre of the historical film. One of the first of these films was La presa di Roma (1905), lasting 10 minutes, and made by Filoteo Alberini. The operator employs for the first time actors of theatrical origin. The film, assimilating Manzoni's lesson of making historical fiction plausible, reconstructs the Capture of Rome on 20 September 1870. Dozens of characters from texts make their appearance on the big screen such as the Count of Monte Cristo, Giordano Bruno, Judith beheading Holofernes, Francesca da Rimini, Lorenzino de' Medici, Rigoletto, Count Ugolino and others. From an iconographic point of view, the main references are the great Renaissance and neoclassical artists, as well as symbolists and popular illustrations.
In the 1910s, the Italian film industry developed rapidly. In 1912, 569 films were produced in Turin, 420 in Rome and 120 in Milan. Popular early Italian actors included Emilio Ghione, Alberto Collo, Bartolomeo Pagano, Amleto Novelli, Lyda Borelli, Ida Carloni Talli, Lidia Quaranta and Maria Jacobini. Lost in the Dark (1914), a silent drama film directed by Nino Martoglio, documented life in the slums of Naples, and is considered a precursor to the Italian neorealism movement of the 1940s and 1950s. The only surviving copy of this film was destroyed by Nazi German forces during the World War II.
The archetypes of the historical blockbuster genre were The Last Days of Pompeii (1908), by Arturo Ambrosio and Luigi Maggi and Nero (1909), by Maggi and Arrigo Frusta. Followed by Marin Faliero, Doge of Venice (1909), by Giuseppe De Liguoro, Otello (1909) by Yambo and L'Odissea (1911), by Bertolini, Padovan and De Liguoro. L'Inferno, produced by Milano Films in 1911, was a cinematic translation of Gustave Doré's engravings that experiments with the integration of optical effects and stage action, and it was the first Italian feature film. The Last Days of Pompeii (1913), by Eleuterio Rodolfi, used innovative special effects. Enrico Guazzoni's 1913 film Quo Vadis was one of the first blockbusters, using thousands of extras and a lavish set design. The international success of the film marked the maturation of the genre and allowed Guazzoni to make increasingly spectacular films such as Antony and Cleopatra (1913) and Julius Caesar (1914). Giovanni Pastrone's 1914 film Cabiria was an even larger production, requiring two years and a record budget to produce; it was the first epic film ever made and it is considered the most famous Italian silent film. It was also the first film to be shown in the White House. After Guazzoni came Emilio Ghione, Febo Mari, Carmine Gallone, Giulio Antamoro and many others who contributed to the expansion of the genre. After the success of Cabiria, with the changing tastes of the public the genre began to show signs of crisis. Pastrone's plan to adapt the Bible with thousands of extras remained unfulfilled. Antamoro's Christus (1916) and Guazzoni's The Crusaders (1918) remained notable for their iconographic complexity but offered no substantial novelties. In the first and second decade of the 20th century came a prolific film production aimed at investigative and mystery content. The most prolific production houses in the 1910s were Cines, Ambrosio Film, Itala Film, Aquila Films, and Milano Films. Directors among the most prolific in this field such as Oreste Mentasti, Luigi Maggi, Arrigo Frusta and Ubaldo Maria Del Colle, direct several dozen films where classic narrative elements of the silent proto-giallo (mystery, crime, investigation investigative and final twist) constitute the structural aspects of cinematic representation. Elvira Notari, the first female director in Italy, directed Carmela, la sartina di Montesanto (1916). While in Palermo, Lucarelli Film produced La cassaforte n. 8 (1914) and Ipnotismo (1914), the Azzurri Film La regina della notte (1915), the Lumen Film Il romanzo fantastico del Dr. Mercanton o il giustiziere invisibile (1915) and Profumo mortale (1915).
Between 1913 and 1920 there was the rise, development and decline of the phenomenon of cinematographic stardom, born with the release of Ma l'amor mio non muore (1913), by Mario Caserini. The film had great success with the public and encoded the aesthetics of female stardom. Within just a few years, Eleonora Duse, Pina Menichelli, Rina De Liguoro, Leda Gys, Hesperia, Vittoria Lepanto, Mary Cleo Tarlarini and Italia Almirante Manzini established themselves. Films such as Fior di male (1914), by Carmine Gallone, Il fuoco (1915), by Giovanni Pastrone, Rapsodia satanica (1917), by Nino Oxilia and Cenere (1917), by Febo Mari, changed the model away from naturalism in favor of melodramatic acting, pictorial gesture and theatrical pose, all favored by the extensive use of close-up.
The most successful comedian in Italy was André Deed, better known in Italy as Cretinetti, star of comic short film for Itala Film. Its success paved the way for Marcel Fabre (Robinet), Ernesto Vaser (Fricot) and many others. Ferdinand Guillaume became famous with the stage name of Polidor. Protagonists of Italian comedians never place themselves in open contrast with society or embody the desire for social revenge (as happens for example with Charlie Chaplin), but rather tried to integrate into a strongly desired world.
Italian futurist cinema was the oldest movement of European avant-garde cinema. Italian futurism, an artistic and social movement, impacted the Italian film industry from 1916 to 1919. It influenced Russian Futurist and German Expressionist cinema. Its cultural importance was considerable and influenced all subsequent avant-gardes, as well as some authors of narrative cinema; its echo expands to the dreamlike visions of some films by Alfred Hitchcock. Futurism emphasized dynamism, speed, technology, youth, violence, and objects such as the car, the airplane, and the industrial city. Its key figures were the Italians Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, Umberto Boccioni, Carlo Carrà, Fortunato Depero, Gino Severini, Giacomo Balla, and Luigi Russolo. It glorified modernity and aimed to liberate Italy from the weight of its past.
The 1916 Manifesto of Futuristic Cinematography was signed by Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, Armando Ginna, Bruno Corra, Giacomo Balla and others. To the Futurists, cinema was an ideal art form, being a fresh medium, and able to be manipulated by speed, special effects and editing. Most of the futuristic-themed films of this period have been lost, but critics cite Thaïs (1917) by Anton Giulio Bragaglia as one of the most influential, serving as the main inspiration for German Expressionist cinema in the following decade. The Italian film industry struggled against rising foreign competition in the years following World War I. Several major studios, among them Cines and Ambrosio, formed the Unione Cinematografica Italiana to coordinate a national strategy for film production. This effort was largely unsuccessful, however, due to a wide disconnect between production and exhibition; some movies were not released until several years after they were produced.
With the end of World War I, Italian cinema went through a period of crisis due to many factors such as production disorganization, increased costs, technological backwardness, loss of foreign markets and inability to cope with international competition, in particular with that of Hollywood. The main causes included the lack of a generational change with a production still dominated by filmmakers and producers of literary training, unable to face the challenges of modernity. The first half of the 1920s marked a sharp decrease in production; from 350 films produced in 1921 to 60 in 1924.
Literature and theatre are still the preferred narrative sources. The feuilletons resist, mostly taken from classical or popular texts and directed by specialists such as Roberto Roberti and the religious blockbusters of Giulio Antamoro. On the basis of the latest generation of divas, a sentimental cinema for women spread, centred on figures on the margins of society who, instead of struggling to emancipate themselves (as happens in contemporary Hollywood cinema), go through an authentic ordeal in order to preserve their own virtue. Protest and rebellion by the female protagonists are out of the question. It is a strongly conservative cinema, tied to social rules upset by the war and in the process of dissolution throughout Europe. An exemplary case is that of A Woman's Story (1920) by Eugenio Perego, which uses an original narrative construction to propose a 19th-century morality with melodramatic tones.
A particular genre is that of a realist setting, due to the work of the first female director of Italian cinema, Elvira Notari, who directs numerous films influenced by popular theatre and taken from famous dramas, Neapolitan songs, appendix novels or inspired by facts of chronicle. Another film with a realist setting is Lost in the Dark (1914) by director Nino Martoglio, considered by critics as a prime example of neorealist cinema.
The revival of Italian cinema took place at the end of the decade with the production of larger-scale films. During this period, a group of intellectuals close to the fortnightly cinematografo led by Alessandro Blasetti launched a program that was as simple as it was ambitious. Aware of the Italian cultural backwardness, they decided to break all ties with the previous tradition through a rediscovery of the peasant world, hitherto practically absent in Italian cinema. Sun (1929) by Alessandro Blasetti shows the evident influence of the Soviet and German avant-gardes in an attempt to renew Italian cinema in accordance with the interests of the fascist regime. Rails (1929) by Mario Camerini blends the traditional genre of comedy with kammerspiel and realist film, revealing the director's ability to outline the characters of the middle class. While not comparable to the best results of international cinema of the period, the works of Camerini and Blasetti testify to a generational transition between Italian directors and intellectuals, and above all an emancipation from literary models and an approach to the tastes of the public.
The sound cinema arrived in Italy in 1930, three years after the release of The Jazz Singer (1927), and immediately led to a debate on the validity of spoken cinema and its relationship with the theatre. Some directors enthusiastically face the new challenge. The advent of talkies led to stricter censorship by the Fascist government.
The first Italian talking picture was The Song of Love (1930) by Gennaro Righelli, which was a great success with the public. Alessandro Blasetti also experimented with the use of an optical track for sound in the film Resurrection (1931), shot before The Song of Love but released a few months later. Similar to Righelli's film is What Scoundrels Men Are! (1932) by Mario Camerini, which has the merit of making Vittorio De Sica debut on the screens. Historical films such as Blasetti's 1860 (1934) and Carmine Gallone's Scipio Africanus: The Defeat of Hannibal (1937) were also popular during this period.
With the transition to sound cinema, most of the Italian silent film actors, still linked to theatrical stylization, find themselves disqualified. The era of divas, dandies and strongmen, who barely survived the 1920s, is definitely over. Even if some performers will move on to directing or producing, the arrival of sound favours the generational change and the consequent modernization of the structures.
Italian-born director Frank Capra received three Academy Awards for Best Director for the films It Happened One Night (1934, the first Big Five winner at the Academy Awards), Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936) and You Can't Take It with You (1938).
In 1932, the Venice Film Festival, the world's oldest film festival and one of the "Big Three" film festivals, alongside the Cannes Film Festival and the Berlin International Film Festival, was established.
In 1934, the Italian government created the General Directorate for Cinema (Direzione Generale per la Cinematografia), and appointed Luigi Freddi its director. With the approval of Benito Mussolini, this directorate called for the establishment of a town southeast of Rome devoted exclusively to cinema, dubbed the Cinecittà ("Cinema City"), under the slogan "Il cinema è l'arma più forte" ("Cinema is the most powerful weapon"). The studios were constructed during the Fascist era as part of a plan to revive the Italian film industry, which had reached its low point in 1931.
Mussolini himself inaugurated the studios on 28 April 1937. Post-production units and sets were constructed and heavily used initially. Early films such as Scipio Africanus (1937) and The Iron Crown (1941) showcased the technological advancement of the studios. Seven thousand people were involved in the filming of the battle scene from Scipio Africanus, and live elephants were brought in as a part of the re-enactment of the Battle of Zama.
The Cinecittà provided everything necessary for filmmaking: theatres, technical services, and even a cinematography school, the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia, for younger apprentices. The Cinecittà studios were Europe's most advanced production facilities and greatly boosted the technical quality of Italian films. Many films are still shot entirely in Cinecittà. Benito Mussolini founded Cinecittà studio also for the production of Fascist propaganda until World War II.
During this period, Mussolini's son, Vittorio, created a national production company and organized the work of noted authors, directors and actors (including even some political opponents), thereby creating an interesting communication network among them, which produced several noted friendships and stimulated cultural interaction.
With an area of 400,000 square metres (99 acres), it is still the largest film studio in Europe, and is considered the hub of Italian cinema. Filmmakers such as Federico Fellini, Roberto Rossellini, Luchino Visconti, Sergio Leone, Bernardo Bertolucci, Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese, and Mel Gibson have worked at Cinecittà. More than 3,000 movies have been filmed there, of which 90 received an Academy Award nomination and 47 of these won it.
During the 1930s, light comedies known as Telefoni Bianchi ("white telephones") were predominant in Italian cinema. These films, which featured lavish set designs, promoted conservative values and respect for authority, and thus typically avoided the scrutiny of government censors. Telefoni Bianchi proved to be the testing ground of numerous screenwriters destined to impose themselves in the following decades (including Cesare Zavattini and Sergio Amidei), and above all of numerous set designers such as Guido Fiorini, Gino Carlo Sensani and Antonio Valente, who, by virtue, successful graphic inventions led these productions to become a kind of "summa" of the petty-bourgeois aesthetics of the time.
The first film of the genre Telefoni Bianchi was The Private Secretary (1931), by Goffredo Alessandrini. Among the authors, Mario Camerini is the most representative director of the genre. After having practiced the most diverse trends in the 1930s, he happily moved into the territory of sentimental comedy with What Scoundrels Men Are! (1932), Il signor Max (1937) and Department Store (1939). In other films, he compares himself with the Hollywood-style comedy on the model of Frank Capra (Heartbeat, 1939) and the surreal one of René Clair (I'll Give a Million, 1936). Camerini is interested in the figure of the typical and popular Italian, so much so that he anticipates some elements of the future Italian comedy. His major interpreter, Vittorio De Sica, will continue his lesson in Maddalena, Zero for Conduct (1940) and Teresa Venerdì (1941), emphasizing above all the direction of the actors and the care for the settings.
Other directors include Mario Mattoli (Schoolgirl Diary, 1941), Jean de Limur (Apparition, 1944) and Max Neufeld (The House of Shame, 1938; A Thousand Lire a Month, 1939). The realist comedies of Mario Bonnard (Before the Postman, 1942; The Peddler and the Lady, 1943) are partially different in character, which partially deviate from the imprint of Telefoni Bianchi.
In the fascist propaganda cinema, at the beginning, the representations of the squads and the first fascist actions were rare. The Old Guard (1934), by Alessandro Blasetti evokes the supposed vitalistic spontaneity of squads with populist tones, but is not appreciated by official critics. Black Shirt (1933), by Giovacchino Forzano, made for the 10th anniversary of the March on Rome, celebrated the regime's policies (the reclamation of the Pontine marshes and the construction of Littoria) alternating narrative sequences with documentary passages.
With political consolidation, the government authority required the film industry to strengthen the regime's identification with the country's history and culture. Hence the intention to reread Italian history in an authoritarian perspective, teleologically reducing every past event to a harbinger of the "fascist revolution", in continuity with the historiographical work of Gioacchino Volpe. After the first attempts in this direction, aimed above all at underlining the alleged link between the Risorgimento and Fascism (Villafranca by Forzano, 1933; 1860 by Blasetti, 1933), the trend reached its peak just before the war. Cavalry (1936), by Goffredo Alessandrini, evokes the nobility of the Savoy fighters by presenting their deeds as anticipations of squads. Condottieri (1937) by Luis Trenker, tells the story of Giovanni delle Bande Nere, explicitly establishing a parallel with Benito Mussolini, while Scipio Africanus: The Defeat of Hannibal (1937) by Carmine Gallone (one of the greatest financial efforts of the time), it celebrates the Roman Empire and indirectly the Fascist Empire.
The invasion of Ethiopia gives Italian directors the opportunity to extend the horizons of the settings. The Great Appeal (1936) by Mario Camerini, exalts imperialism by describing the "new land" as an opportunity for work and redemption, contrasting the heroism of young soldiers with bourgeois fearlessness. The anti-pacifist controversy that accompanies colonial enterprises is also evident in Lo squadrone bianco (1936) by Augusto Genina, which combines propaganda rhetoric with notable battle sequences shot in the Italian Tripolitania desert. Most of the films celebrating the empire are predominantly documentaries, aimed at disguising the war as a struggle of civilization against barbarism. The Spanish Civil War is described in the documentaries Los novios de la muerte (1936) by Romolo Marcellini and Arriba España, España una, grande, libre! (1939) by Giorgio Ferroni, and is the backdrop for another dozen films, among which the most spectacular is The Siege of the Alcazar (1940) by Augusto Genina.
Films such as Pietro Micca (1938) by Aldo Vergano, Ettore Fieramosca (1938), made in the same year by Alessandro Blasetti, and Fanfulla da Lodi (1940) by Giulio Antamoro can also be counted as propaganda films (albeit indirect), in which, a pretext for the epic narration of historical events, a clear apology for dedication to the homeland (in some cases even to the point of personal sacrifice) is made in the same vein as colonial films with a contemporary setting.
With Italy's participation in World War II, the fascist regime further strengthens its control over production and requires a more decisive commitment to propaganda. In addition to the now canonical documentaries, short films and newsreels, there is also an increase in feature films in praise of Italian war efforts. Among the most representative are Bengasi (1942) by Genina, Gente dell'aria (1943) by Esodo Pratelli, The Three Pilots (1942) by Mario Mattoli (based on a screenplay by Vittorio Mussolini), Il treno crociato (1943) by Carlo Campogalliani, Harlem (1943) by Carmine Gallone and Men of the Mountain (1943) by Aldo Vergano under the supervision of Blasetti. Uomini sul fondo (1941) by Francesco De Robertis is also notable due to its almost documentary approach.
The most successful film of the period is We the Living (1942) by Goffredo Alessandrini, made as a single film, but then distributed in two parts due to its excessive length. Referable to the genre of anti-communist drama, this sombre melodrama (set in the Soviet Union) is inspired by the novel of the same name by the writer Ayn Rand which exalts philosophical individualism.
Among the directors who give their contribution to the war propaganda, there is also Roberto Rossellini, author of a trilogy composed of The White Ship (1941), A Pilot Returns (1942) and The Man with a Cross (1943). Anticipating in some ways his works of maturity, the director adopted a modest and immediate style, which does not contrast the effectiveness of the propaganda but neither does it exalt the dominant war rhetoric; it was the same anti-spectacular approach to which he remained faithful throughout his life.
By the end of World War II, the Italian "neorealist" movement had begun to take shape. Neorealist films typically dealt with the working class (in contrast to the Telefoni Bianchi), and were shot on location. Many neorealist films, but not all, used non-professional actors. Though the term "neorealism" was used for the first time to describe Luchino Visconti’s 1943 film, Ossessione, there were several important precursors to the movement, most notably Camerini's What Scoundrels Men Are! (1932), which was the first Italian film shot entirely on location, and Blasetti's 1942 film, Four Steps in the Clouds.
Ossessione angered Fascist officials. Upon viewing the film, Vittorio Mussolini is reported to have shouted, "This is not Italy!" before walking out of the theatre. The film was subsequently banned in the Fascist-controlled parts of Italy. While neorealism exploded after the war and was incredibly influential at the international level, neorealist films made up only a small percentage of Italian films produced during this period, as postwar Italian moviegoers preferred escapist comedies starring actors such as Totò and Alberto Sordi.
Neorealist works such as Roberto Rossellini's trilogy Rome, Open City (1945), Paisà (1946), and Germany, Year Zero (1948), with professional actors such as Anna Magnani and a number of non-professional actors, attempted to describe the difficult economic and moral conditions of postwar Italy and the changes in public mentality in everyday life. Visconti's The Earth Trembles (1948) was shot on location in a Sicilian fishing village and used local non-professional actors. Giuseppe De Santis, on other hand, used actors such as Silvana Mangano and Vittorio Gassman in his 1949 film, Bitter Rice, which is set in the Po Valley during rice-harvesting season.
Poetry and cruelty of life were harmonically combined in the works that Vittorio De Sica wrote and directed together with screenwriter Cesare Zavattini: among them, Shoeshine (1946), The Bicycle Thief (1948) and Miracle in Milan (1951). The 1952 film Umberto D. showed a poor old man with his little dog, who must beg for alms against his dignity in the loneliness of the new society. This work is perhaps De Sica's masterpiece and one of the most important works in Italian cinema. It was not a commercial success and since then it has been shown on Italian television only a few times. Yet it is perhaps the most violent attack, in the apparent quietness of the action, against the rules of the new economy, the new mentality, the new values, and it embodies both a conservative and a progressive view.
Although Umberto D. is considered the end of the neorealist period, later films such as Federico Fellini's La Strada (1954) and De Sica's 1960 film Two Women (for which Sophia Loren won the Oscar for Best Actress) are grouped with the genre. Director Pier Paolo Pasolini's first film, Accattone (1961), shows a strong neorealist influence. Italian neorealist cinema influenced filmmakers around the world, and helped inspire other film movements, such as the French New Wave and the Polish Film School. The Neorealist period is often simply referred to as "The Golden Age" of Italian cinema by critics, filmmakers, and scholars.
Calligrafismo is in sharp contrast to Telefoni Bianchi-American style comedies and is rather artistic, highly formalistic, expressive in complexity and deals mainly with contemporary literary material, above all the pieces of Italian realism from authors like Corrado Alvaro, Ennio Flaiano, Emilio Cecchi, Francesco Pasinetti, Vitaliano Brancati, Mario Bonfantini and Umberto Barbaro.
The best-known exponent of this genre is Mario Soldati, a long-time writer and director destined to establish himself with films of literary ancestry and solid formal structure. His films put at the centre of the story characters endowed with a dramatic and psychological strength foreign to both white-phone cinema and propaganda films, and found in works such as Dora Nelson (1939), Piccolo mondo antico (1941), Tragic Night (1942), Malombra (1942) and In High Places (1943). Luigi Chiarini, already active as a critic, deepens the trend in his Sleeping Beauty (1942), Street of the Five Moons (1942) and The Innkeeper (1944). The internal conflicts of the characters and the scenographic richness are also recurrent in the first films by Alberto Lattuada (Giacomo the Idealist, 1943) and Renato Castellani (A Pistol Shot, 1942), dominated by a sense of moral and cultural decay that seems to anticipate the end of the war.
Another important example of a calligraphic film is the film version of The Betrothed (1941), by Mario Camerini (very faithful in the staging of Manzoni's masterpiece), which due to the perceived income, became the most popular feature film between 1941 and 1942.
The pioneer of the Italian cartoon was Francesco Guido, better known as Gibba. Immediately after the end of World War II, he produced the first animated medium-length film of Italian cinema entitled L'ultimo sciuscià (1946), which took up themes typical of neorealism and in the following decade the feature films Rompicollo and I picchiatelli, in collaboration with Antonio Attanasi. In the 1970s, after many animated documentaries, Gibba himself will return to the feature film with the erotic Il nano e la strega (1973) and Il racconto della giungla (1974). Emanuele Luzzati contributed one of the masterpieces of Italian animation: Il flauto magico ("The Magic Flute", 1976), based on Mozart's opera.
In 1949, the designer Nino Pagot presented The Dynamite Brothers at the Venice Film Festival, one of the first animated feature films of the time, released in theatres in conjunction with La Rosa di Bagdad (1949), made by the animator Anton Gino Domeneghini. In the early 1950s, the cartoonist Romano Scarpa created the short film La piccola fiammiferaia (1953), which remains, like the two previous films, little more than an isolated case. Apart from these examples, Italian animation in the 1950s and 1960s failed to become a major reality and remains confined to the television sector, due to the various commissions provided by the Carosello container.
But it is with Bruno Bozzetto that the Italian cartoon reaches an international dimension: his debut feature film West and Soda (1965), an irresistible caricature of the Western genre, received acclaim from both audiences and critics. A few years later his second work entitled VIP my Brother Superman was released, distributed in 1968. After many satirical short films (centred on the popular figure of "Signor Rossi") he returned to the feature film with what is considered his most ambitious work, Allegro Non Troppo (1977). Inspired by the well-known Disney Fantasia, it is a mixed media film, in which animated episodes are molded to the notes of many classical music pieces. Another illustrator to underline is the artist Pino Zac who in 1971 shot (again with mixed technique) The Nonexistent Knight, based on the novel of the same name by Italo Calvino.
In the 1990s, Italian animation entered a new phase of production due to the Turin Lanterna Magica studio which in 1996, under the direction of Enzo D'Alò, created the intriguing Christmas fairy tale La freccia azzurra, based on a short story by Gianni Rodari. The film was a success and paved the way for other feature films. In fact, in 1998, Lucky and Zorba based on a novel by Luis Sepúlveda was distributed, which attracted the favour of the public, reaching a new apex in the Italian animated cinema.
The director Enzo d'Alò, who separated from the Lanterna Magica studio, produced other films in the following years such as Momo (2001) and Opopomoz (2003). The Turin studio distributed on its behalf the films Aida of the Trees (2001) and Totò Sapore e la magica storia della pizza (2003), accompanied by a good response at the box office. In 2003, the first entirely Italian animated film in computer graphics was released entitled L'apetta Giulia and Signora Vita, directed by Paolo Modugno. To underline the work La Storia di Leo (2007) by director Mario Cambi, winner, the following year, at the Giffoni Film Festival.
In 2010, the first Italian animated film in 3D technology was made, directed by Iginio Straffi, entitled Winx Club 3D: Magical Adventure, based on the homonymous series; in the meantime Enzo D'Alò returns to theatres, presenting his Pinocchio (2012). In 2012, the film Gladiators of Rome, also shot in 3D technology, received credit from the public, followed by the feature film Winx Club: The Mystery of the Abyss (2014), both again by Iginio Straffi. Finally, The Art of Happiness (2013) by Alessandro Rak, a film made in Naples by 40 authors, including only 10 designers and animators from the Mad Entertainment studio, a true absolute record for an animated film was made. Cinderella the Cat (2017), taken from the text Pentamerone by Giambattista Basile, came out of the same studio. The work won two David di Donatello's, one of which was for special effects, becoming the first animated film to be nominated, and win, in this category.
Starting from the mid-1950s, Italian cinema freed itself from neorealism by tackling purely existential topics, films with different styles and points of view, often more introspective than descriptive. Thus we are witnessing a new flowering of filmmakers who contribute in a fundamental way to the development of the art.
Michelangelo Antonioni is the first to establish himself, becoming a reference author for all contemporary cinema. This charge of novelty is recognizable from the beginning as the director's first work, Story of a Love Affair (1950), marks an indelible break with the world of neorealism and the consequent birth of a modern cinema. Antonioni investigated the world of the Italian bourgeoisie with a critical eye, left out of the post-war cinematic lens. In doing so, works of psychological research such as I Vinti (1952), The Lady Without Camelias (1953) and Le Amiche (1955), free adaptation of the short story Tra donne sole by Cesare Pavese, came to light. In 1957, he staged the unusual proletarian drama Il Grido, with which he obtained critical acclaim.
In 1955, the David di Donatello was established, with its Best Picture category being awarded for the first time only in 1970. Named after Donatello's David, a symbolic statue of the Italian Renaissance, are film awards given out each year by the Accademia del Cinema Italiano (The Academy of Italian Cinema).
Federico Fellini is recognized as one of the greatest and most influential filmmakers of all time. Fellini won the Palme d'Or for La Dolce Vita, was nominated for twelve Academy Awards, and won four in the category of Best Foreign Language Film, the most for any director in the history of the academy. He received an honorary award for Lifetime Achievement at the 65th Academy Awards in Los Angeles. His other well-known films include La Strada (1954), Nights of Cabiria (1957), Juliet of the Spirits (1967), Satyricon (1969), Roma (1972), Amarcord (1973), and Fellini's Casanova (1976).
Personal and highly idiosyncratic visions of society, Fellini's films are a unique combination of memory, dreams, fantasy and desire. The adjectives "Fellinian" and "Felliniesque" are "synonymous with any kind of extravagant, fanciful, even baroque image in the cinema and in art in general". La Dolce Vita contributed the term paparazzi to the English language, derived from Paparazzo, the photographer friend of journalist Marcello Rubini (Marcello Mastroianni).
Contemporary filmmakers such as Tim Burton, Terry Gilliam, Emir Kusturica, and David Lynch have cited Fellini's influence on their work.
Although Umberto D. is considered the end of the neorealist period, subsequent works turned toward lighter, sweetened and mildly optimistic atmospheres, more coherent with the improving conditions of Italy just before the economic boom; this genre became known as pink neorealism.
The precursor of pink neorealism was Renato Castellani, who helped bring realist comedy into vogue with Under the Sun of Rome (1948) and It's Forever Springtime (1949), both shot on location and with non-professional actors, and above all with public success and criticism of Two Cents Worth of Hope (1952), which laid the foundations for pink neorealism.
Notable films of pink neorealism, which combine popular comedy and realist motifs, are Pane, amore e fantasia (1953) by Luigi Comencini and Poveri ma belli (1957) by Dino Risi, both works are in perfect harmony with the evolution of the Italian costume. The large influx at the box office from the two films remained almost unchanged in the sequels Bread, Love and Jealousy (1954), Scandal in Sorrento (1955) and Pretty But Poor (1957), also directed by Luigi Comencini and Dino Risi.
Similarly, stories of daily life told with gentle irony (without losing sight of the social fabric) can be found in the work of the Milanese Luciano Emmer, whose films Sunday in August (1950), Three Girls from Rome (1952) and High School (1954), are the best-known examples. Another film of the pink neorealism genre was Susanna Whipped Cream (1957) by Steno.
This trend allowed some actresses to become real celebrities, such as Sophia Loren, Gina Lollobrigida, Silvana Pampanini, Lucia Bosé, Barbara Bouchet, Eleonora Rossi Drago, Silvana Mangano, Virna Lisi, Claudia Cardinale and Stefania Sandrelli. Soon pink neorealism was replaced by the Commedia all'italiana, a unique genre that, born on an ideally humouristic line, talked instead very seriously about important social themes.
Commedia all'italiana ("Comedy in the Italian way") is an Italian film genre born in Italy in the 1950s and developed in the following 1960s and 1970s. It is widely considered to have started with Mario Monicelli's Big Deal on Madonna Street in 1958 and derives its name from the title of Pietro Germi's Divorce Italian Style, 1961. According to most of the critics, La Terrazza by Ettore Scola (1980) is the last work considered part of the Commedia all'italiana.
Rather than a specific genre, the term indicates a period (approximately from the late 1950s to the early 1970s) in which the Italian film industry was producing many successful comedies, with some common traits like satire of manners, farcical and grotesque overtones, a strong focus on "spicy" social issues of the period (like sexual matters, divorce, contraception, marriage of the clergy, the economic rise of the country and its various consequences, the traditional religious influence of the Catholic Church) and a prevailing middle-class setting, often characterized by a substantial background of sadness and social criticism that diluted the comic contents.
The genre of Commedia all'italiana differs markedly from the light and disengaged comedy from the so-called "pink neorealism" trend, in vogue until all of the 1950s, since, starting from the lesson of neorealism, is based on a more frank adherence in writing to reality; therefore, alongside the comic situations and plots typical of traditional comedy, always combines, with irony, a biting and sometimes bitter satire of manners, which reflects the evolution of Italian society in those years.
The success of films belonging to the "Commedia all'italiana" genre is due both to the presence of an entire generation of great actors, who knew how to masterfully embody the vices and virtues, and the attempts at emancipation but also the vulgarities of the Italians of the time, both to the careful work of directors, storytellers and screenwriters, who invented a real genre, with essentially new connotations, managing to find precious material for their cinematographic creations in the folds of a rapid evolution with many contradictions.
Among the actors the main representatives are Alberto Sordi, Ugo Tognazzi, Vittorio Gassman, Marcello Mastroianni and Nino Manfredi, while among the actresses is Monica Vitti. Among directors and films, in 1961 Dino Risi directed Una vita difficile (A Difficult Life), then Il Sorpasso (The Easy Life), now a cult-movie, followed by: I Mostri (The Monsters, also known as 15 From Rome), In nome del popolo italiano (In the Name of the Italian People) and Profumo di donna (Scent of a Woman). Monicelli's works include La grande guerra (The Great War), I compagni (The Organizer), L'armata Brancaleone, Vogliamo i colonnelli (We Want the Colonels), Romanzo popolare (Come Home and Meet My Wife) and the Amici miei (My Friends) series.
For the majority of critics the true and proper "Commedia all'italiana" is to be considered definitively waned since the beginning of the 1980s, giving way, at most, to an "Commedia italiana" ("Italian comedy").
At this time, on the more commercial side of production, the phenomenon of Totò, a Neapolitan actor who is acclaimed as the major Italian comic, exploded. His films (often with Aldo Fabrizi, Peppino De Filippo and almost always with Mario Castellani) expressed a sort of neorealistic satire, in the means of a guitto (a "hammy" actor) as well as with the art of the great dramatic actor he also was. Totò is one of the symbols of the cinema of Naples.
A "film-machine" who produced dozens of titles per year, his repertoire was frequently repeated. His personal story (a prince born in the poorest rione (section of the city) of Naples), his unique twisted face, his special mimic expressions and his gestures created an inimitable personage and made him one of the most beloved Italians of the 1960s.
Some of his best-known films are Fear and Sand by Mario Mattoli, Toto Tours Italy by Mario Mattoli, Toto the Sheik by Mario Mattoli, Cops and Robbers by Mario Monicelli, Toto and the Women by Mario Monicelli, Totò Tarzan by Mario Mattoli, Toto the Third Man by Mario Mattoli, Toto and the King of Rome by Mario Monicelli and Steno, Toto in Color by Steno (one of the first Italian colour movies, 1952, in Ferrania colour), Big Deal on Madonna Street by Mario Monicelli, Toto, Peppino, and the Hussy by Camillo Mastrocinque and The Law Is the Law by Christian-Jaque. Pier Paolo Pasolini's The Hawks and the Sparrows and the episode "Che cosa sono le nuvole" from Caprice Italian Style (the latter released after his death), showed his dramatic skills.
A series of black-and-white films based on Don Camillo and Peppone characters created by the Italian writer and journalist Giovannino Guareschi were made between 1952 and 1965. These were French-Italian coproductions, and starred Fernandel as the Italian priest Don Camillo and Gino Cervi as Giuseppe 'Peppone' Bottazzi, the Communist Mayor of their rural town. The titles are: The Little World of Don Camillo (1952), The Return of Don Camillo (1953), Don Camillo's Last Round (1955), Don Camillo: Monsignor (1961), and Don Camillo in Moscow (1965).
The movies were a huge commercial success in their native countries. In 1952, Little World of Don Camillo became the highest-grossing film in both Italy and France, while The Return of Don Camillo was the second most popular film of 1953 at the Italian and French box office.
Mario Camerini began filming the film Don Camillo e i giovani d'oggi, but had to stop filming due to Fernandel's falling ill, which resulted in his untimely death. The film was then realized in 1972 with Gastone Moschin playing the role of Don Camillo and Lionel Stander as Peppone.
A new Don Camillo film, titled The World of Don Camillo, was also remade in 1983, an Italian production with Terence Hill directing and also starring as Don Camillo. Colin Blakely performed Peppone in one of his last film roles.
Hollywood on the Tiber is a phrase used to describe the period in the 1950s and 1960s when the Italian capital of Rome emerged as a major location for international filmmaking attracting many foreign productions to the Cinecittà studios, the largest film studio in Europe. By contrast to the native Italian film industry, these movies were made in English for global release. Although the primary markets for such films were American and British audiences, they enjoyed widespread popularity in other countries, including Italy.
In the late 1940s, Hollywood studios began to shift production abroad to Europe. Italy was, along with Britain, one of the major destinations for American film companies. Large-budget films shot at Cinecittà during the "Hollywood on the Tiber" era such as Quo Vadis (1951), Roman Holiday (1953), Ben-Hur (1959), and Cleopatra (1963) were made in English with international casts and sometimes, but not always, Italian settings or themes.
The heyday of what was dubbed '"Hollywood on the Tiber" was between 1950 and 1970, during which time many of the most famous names in world cinema made films in Italy. The phrase "Hollywood on Tiber", a reference to the river that runs through Rome, was coined in 1950 by Time magazine during the making of Quo Vadis.
Sword-and-sandal, also known as peplum (pepla plural), is a subgenre of largely Italian-made historical, mythological, or Biblical epics mostly set in the Greco-Roman antiquity or the Middle Ages. These films attempted to emulate the big-budget Hollywood historical epics of the time.
With the release of 1958's Hercules, starring American bodybuilder Steve Reeves, the Italian film industry gained entree to the American film market. These films were low-budget costume/adventure dramas, and had immediate appeal with both European and American audiences. Besides the many films starring a variety of muscle men as Hercules, heroes such as Samson and Italian fictional hero Maciste were common.
Sometimes dismissed as low-quality escapist fare, the sword-and-sandal allowed newer directors such as Sergio Leone and Mario Bava a means of breaking into the film industry. Some, such as Mario Bava's Hercules in the Haunted World (Italian: Ercole Al Centro Della Terra) are considered seminal works in their own right.
As the genre matured, budgets sometimes increased, as evidenced in 1962's I sette gladiatori (The Seven Gladiators in 1964 US release), a wide-screen epic with impressive sets and matte-painting work. Most sword-and-sandal films were in colour, whereas previous Italian efforts had often been black and white.
Musicarello (pl. musicarelli) is a film subgenre which emerged in Italy and which is characterised by the presence in main roles of young singers, already famous among their peers, and their new record album. The genre began in the late 1950s, and had its peak of production in the 1960s.
The film which started the genre is considered to be I ragazzi del Juke-Box by Lucio Fulci (1959). The musicarelli were inspired by two American musicals, in particular Jailhouse Rock by Richard Thorpe (1957) and earlier Love Me Tender by Robert D. Webb (1956), both starring Elvis Presley.
At the heart of the musicarello is a hit song, or a song that the producers hoped would become a hit, that usually shares its title with the film itself and sometimes has lyrics depicting a part of the plot. In the films there are almost always tender and chaste love stories accompanied by the desire to have fun and dance without thoughts. Musicarelli reflect the desire and need for emancipation of young Italians, highlighting some generational frictions.
With the arrival of the 1968 student protests the genre started to decline, because the generational revolt became explicitly political and at the same time there was no longer music equally directed to the whole youth audience. For some time the duo Al Bano and Romina Power continued to enjoy success in musicarello films, but their films (like their songs) were a return to the traditional melody and to the musical films of the previous decades.
On the heels of the sword-and-sandal craze, a related genre, the Spaghetti Western arose and was popular both in Italy and elsewhere. These films differed from traditional westerns by being filmed in Europe on limited budgets, but featured vivid cinematography. The term was used by foreign critics because most of these westerns were produced and directed by Italians.
The most popular Spaghetti Westerns were those of Sergio Leone, credited as the inventor of the genre, whose Dollars Trilogy (1964's A Fistful of Dollars, an unauthorized remake of the Japanese film Yojimbo by Akira Kurosawa; 1965's For a Few Dollars More, an original sequel; and 1966's The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, a World-famous prequel), featuring Clint Eastwood as a character marketed as "the Man with No Name" and notorious scores by Ennio Morricone, came to define the genre along with Once Upon a Time in the West (1968).
Another popular Spaghetti Western film is Sergio Corbucci Django (1966), starring Franco Nero as the titular character, another Yojimbo plagiarism, produced to capitalize on the success of A Fistful of Dollars. The original Django was followed by both an authorized sequel (1987's Django Strikes Again) and an overwhelming number of unauthorized uses of the same character in other films.
Also considered Spaghetti Westerns is a film genre which combined traditional western ambience with a Commedia all'italiana-type comedy; films including They Call Me Trinity (1970) and Trinity Is Still My Name (1971), both by Enzo Barboni, which featured Bud Spencer and Terence Hill, the stage names of Carlo Pedersoli and Mario Girotti.
Terence Hill and Bud Spencer made numerous films together. Most of their early films were Spaghetti Westerns, beginning with God Forgives... I Don't! (1967), the first part of a trilogy, followed by Ace High (1968) and Boot Hill (1969), but they also starred in comedies such as ... All the Way, Boys! (1972) and Watch Out, We're Mad! (1974).
The next films shot by the couple of actors, almost all comedies, were Two Missionaries (1974), Crime Busters (1977), Odds and Evens (1978), I'm for the Hippopotamus (1979), Who Finds a Friend Finds a Treasure (1981), Go for It (1983), Double Trouble (1984), Miami Supercops (1985) and Troublemakers (1994).
During the 1960s and 1970s, Italian filmmakers Mario Bava, Riccardo Freda, Antonio Margheriti and Dario Argento developed giallo (plural gialli, from giallo, Italian for "yellow") horror films that become classics and influenced the genre in other countries. Representative films include: The Girl Who Knew Too Much (1963), Castle of Blood (1964), The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (1970), Twitch of the Death Nerve (1971), Deep Red (1975) and Suspiria (1977).
Giallo is a genre of mystery fiction and thrillers and often contains slasher, crime fiction, psychological thriller, psychological horror, sexploitation, and, less frequently, supernatural horror elements. Giallo developed in the mid-to-late 1960s, peaked in popularity during the 1970s, and subsequently declined in commercial mainstream filmmaking over the next few decades, though examples continue to be produced. It was a predecessor to, and had significant influence on, the later American slasher film genre.
Giallo usually blends the atmosphere and suspense of thriller fiction with elements of horror fiction (such as slasher violence) and eroticism (similar to the French fantastique genre), and often involves a mysterious killer whose identity is not revealed until the final act of the film. Most critics agree that the giallo represents a distinct category with unique features, but there is some disagreement on what exactly defines a giallo film.
Giallo films are generally characterized as gruesome murder-mystery thrillers that combine the suspense elements of detective fiction with scenes of shocking horror, featuring excessive bloodletting, stylish camerawork and often jarring musical arrangements. The archetypal giallo plot involves a mysterious, black-gloved psychopathic killer who stalks and butchers a series of beautiful women. While most gialli involve a human killer, some also feature a supernatural element.
The typical giallo protagonist is an outsider of some type, often a traveller, tourist, outcast, or even an alienated or disgraced private investigator, and frequently a young woman, often a young woman who is lonely or alone in a strange or foreign situation or environment (gialli rarely or less frequently feature law enforcement officers as chief protagonists).
The protagonists are generally or often unconnected to the murders before they begin and are drawn to help find the killer through their role as witnesses to one of the murders. The mystery is the identity of the killer, who is often revealed in the climax to be another key character, who conceals his or her identity with a disguise (usually some combination of hat, mask, sunglasses, gloves, and trench coat). Thus, the literary whodunit element of the giallo novels is retained, while being filtered through horror genre elements and Italy's long-standing tradition of opera and staged grand guignol drama. The structure of giallo films is also sometimes reminiscent of the so-called "weird menace" pulp magazine horror mystery genre alongside Edgar Allan Poe and Agatha Christie.
Poliziotteschi (plural of poliziottesco) films constitute a subgenre of crime and action films that emerged in Italy in the late 1960s and reached the height of their popularity in the 1970s. They are also known as polizieschi all'italiana, Euro-crime, Italo-crime, spaghetti crime films', or simply Italian crime films.
Influenced by both 1970s French crime films and gritty 1960s and 1970s American cop films and vigilante films, poliziotteschi films were made amidst an atmosphere of socio-political turmoil in Italy and increasing Italian crime rates.
The films generally featured graphic and brutal violence, organized crime, car chases, vigilantism, heists, gunfights, and corruption up to the highest levels. The protagonists were generally tough working-class loners, willing to act outside a corrupt or overly bureaucratic system. Notable international actors who acted in this genre of films include Alain Delon, Henry Silva, Fred Williamson, Charles Bronson, Tomas Milian and others.
Franco and Ciccio were a comedy duo formed by Italian actors Franco Franchi (1928–1992) and Ciccio Ingrassia (1922–2003), particularly popular in the 1960s and 1970s. Together, they appeared in 116 films, usually as the main characters, and occasionally as supporting characters in films featuring well-known actors such as Totò, Domenico Modugno, Vittorio Gassman, Buster Keaton and Vincent Price.
Their collaboration began in 1954 in the theatre field, and ended with Franchi's death in 1992. The two made their cinema debut in 1960 with the film Appuntamento a Ischia. After, seeing them in this film Modugno, who wanted them with him in his film, and remained active until 1984 when they shot their last film together, Kaos, although there were some interruptions in 1973, and from 1975 to 1980.
They acted in films certainly made in a short time and with few means, such as those shot with director Marcello Ciorciolini, sometimes even making a dozen films in a year, often without a real script and where they often improvised on the set. Also are the 13 films directed by Lucio Fulci, who was the architect of the reversal of their typical roles by making Ciccio the serious one, the sidekick, and Franco the comic one.
They also worked with important directors such as Pier Paolo Pasolini and the Taviani brothers. At the time, they were considered protagonists of B movie, they were subsequently reevaluated by critics for their comedy and creative abilities, becoming the subject of study. The huge success with the public is evidenced by the box office earnings, which in the 1960s, represented 10% of the annual earnings in Italy.
The auteur cinema of the 1960s continues its path by analyzing distinct themes and problems. A new authorial vision is emancipated from the surreal and existential veins of Fellini and Antonioni which sees cinema as an ideal means of denouncing corruption and malfeasance, both in the political system and in the industrial world. Thus was born the structure of the investigative film which, starting from the neorealist analysis of the facts, added to them a concise critical judgment, with the manifest intent of shaking the consciences of public opinion. This typology deliberately touches upon burning issues, often targeting the established power, with the intent of reconstructing a historical truth that is often hidden or denied.
The precursor of this way of understanding the director's profession was Francesco Rosi. In 1962 he inaugurated the investigation film project retracing, through a series of long flashbacks, the life of the homonym Sicilian criminal in the film Salvatore Giuliano. The following year he directed Rod Steiger in Hands over the City (1963), in which he courageously denounced the collusion existing between the various organs of the State and the building exploitation in Naples. The film was awarded the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival.
One of Francesco Rosi's most famous films of denunciation is The Mattei Affair (1972), a rigorous documentary into the mysterious disappearance of Enrico Mattei, manager of Eni, a large Italian state group. The film won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. It became (together with the tight Illustrious Corpses (1976)) a true model for similar denunciation films produced both in Italy and abroad. Famous films of denunciation by Elio Petri are The Working Class Goes to Heaven (1971), a corrosive denunciation of life in the factory (winner of the Palme d'Or at Cannes) and Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion (1970). The latter (accompanied by the incisive soundtrack by Ennio Morricone) is a dry psychoanalytic thriller centred on the aberrations of power, analyzed in a pathological key. The film obtained a wide consensus, winning the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film the following year.
Arguments related to civilian cinema can be found in the work of Damiano Damiani, who with The Day of the Owl (1968) enjoyed considerable success. Other feature films include, Confessions of a Police Captain (1971), The Case Is Closed, Forget It (1971), How to Kill a Judge (1974) and I Am Afraid (1977). Also Pasquale Squitieri for the film Il prefetto di ferro (1977) and Giuliano Montaldo, who after some experiences as an actor, staged some historical and political films such as The Fifth Day of Peace (1970), Sacco & Vanzetti (1971) and Giordano Bruno (1973). Also Nanni Loy for the film In Prison Awaiting Trial (1971) starring Alberto Sordi.
In the 1970s the work done by the director Lina Wertmüller was influential, who together with the well-established actors Giancarlo Giannini and Mariangela Melato, gave life to successful films such as The Seduction of Mimi (1972), Love and Anarchy (1973) and Swept Away (1974). Two years later, with Seven Beauties (1976), she obtained four nominations for the Academy Awards, making her the first woman ever to receive a nomination for best director.
The last protagonist of the great season of the comedy is the director Ettore Scola. Throughout the 1950s, he played the role of screenwriter, and then makes his directorial debut in 1964 with the film Let's Talk About Women. In 1974, he directed his best-known film, We All Loved Each Other So Much, which traces 30 years of Italian history through the stories of three friends: the lawyer Gianni Perego (Vittorio Gassman), the porter Antonio (Nino Manfredi) and the intellectual Nicola (Stefano Satta Flores). Other films include, Down and Dirty (1976) starring Nino Manfredi, and A Special Day (1977) starring Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni.
Commedia sexy all'italiana is characterized typically by both abundant female nudity and comedy, and by the minimal weight given to social criticism that was the basic ingredient of the main commedia all'italiana genre. Stories are often set in affluent environments such as wealthy households. It is closely connected to the sexual revolution, which was extremely new and innovative for that period. For the first time, films with female nudity could be watched at the cinema. Pornography and scenes of explicit sex were still forbidden in Italian cinemas, but partial nudity was somewhat tolerated. The genre has been described as a cross between bawdy comedy and humorous erotic film with ample slapstick elements which follow more or less clichéd storylines.
During this time, commedia sexy all'italiana films, described by the film critics of the time as not artistic or "trash films", were very popular in Italy. Today they are widely re-evaluated and have become real cult movies. They also allowed the producers of Italian cinema to have enough revenue to produce successful artistic films. These comedy films were of little artistic value and reached their popularity by confronting Italian social taboos, most notably in the sexual sphere. Actors such as Lando Buzzanca, Lino Banfi, Renzo Montagnani, Alvaro Vitali, Gloria Guida, Barbara Bouchet and Edwige Fenech owe much of their popularity to these films.
The films starring Ugo Fantozzi, a character invented by Paolo Villaggio for his television sketches and newspaper short stories, also fell within the comic satirical comedy genre. Although Villaggio's movies tend to bridge comedy with a more elevated social satire, this character had a great impact on Italian society, to such a degree that the adjective fantozziano entered the lexicon. Ugo Fantozzi represents the archetype of the average Italian of the 1970s, middle-class with a simple lifestyle with the anxieties common to an entire class of workers, being re-evaluated by critics.
Of the many films telling of Fantozzi's misadventures, the most notable and famous were Fantozzi (1975) and Il secondo tragico Fantozzi (1976), both directed by Luciano Salce, but many others were produced. The other films were Fantozzi contro tutti (1980) directed by Neri Parenti, Fantozzi subisce ancora (1983) by Neri Parenti, Superfantozzi (1986) by Neri Parenti, Fantozzi va in pensione (1988) by Neri Parenti, Fantozzi alla riscossa (1990) by Neri Parenti, Fantozzi in paradiso (1993) by Neri Parenti, Fantozzi - Il ritorno (1996) by Neri Parenti and Fantozzi 2000 - La clonazione (1999) by Domenico Saverni.
The sceneggiata (pl. sceneggiate) or sceneggiata napoletana is a form of musical drama typical of Naples. Beginning as a form of musical theatre after World War I, it was also adapted for cinema; sceneggiata films became especially popular in the 1970s, and contributed to the genre becoming more widely known outside Naples. The most famous actors who played dramas were Mario Merola, Mario Trevi, and Nino D'Angelo.
The sceneggiata can be roughly described as a "musical soap opera", where action and dialogue are interspersed with Neapolitan songs. Plots revolve around melodramatic themes drawing from the Neapolitan culture and tradition, including passion, jealousy, betrayal, personal deceit and treachery, honour, vengeance, and life in the world of petty crime. Songs and dialogue were originally in Neapolitan dialect, although, especially in film production, Italian has sometimes been preferred, to reach a larger audience.
Sgarro alla camorra (i.e. "Offence to the Camorra", 1973), written and directed by Ettore Maria Fizzarotti and starring Mario Merola at his film debut, is regarded as the first sceneggiata film and as a prototype for the genre. It was shot in Cetara, Province of Salerno. Outside Italy, sceneggiata is mostly known in areas populated by Italian immigrants. Besides Naples, the second homeland of sceneggiata is probably Little Italy in New York City.
The 1980s was a period of decline for Italian filmmaking. In 1985, only 80 films were produced (the least since the postwar period) and the total number of audience decreased from 525 million in 1970 to 123 million. It is a physiological process that invests, in the same period as other countries, with a great cinematographic tradition such as Japan, United Kingdom and France. The era of producers ended; Carlo Ponti and Dino De Laurentiis work abroad, Goffredo Lombardo and Franco Cristaldi were no longer key figures. The crisis affects the Italian genre cinema above all, which, by virtue of the success of commercial television, is deprived of the vast majority of its audience. As a result, cinemas began showing mainly Hollywood films, which steadily took over, while many other cinemas closed.
Among the major artistic films of this era were La città delle donne, E la nave va, Ginger and Fred by Fellini, L'albero degli zoccoli by Ermanno Olmi (winner of the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival), La notte di San Lorenzo by Paolo and Vittorio Taviani, Antonioni's Identificazione di una donna, and Bianca and La messa è finita by Nanni Moretti. Although not entirely Italian, Bernardo Bertolucci's The Last Emperor, winner of 9 Oscars including Best Picture and Best Director, and Once Upon a Time in America of Sergio Leone came out of this period also.
Non ci resta che piangere, directed by and starring both Roberto Benigni and Massimo Troisi, is a cult movie in Italy.
Carlo Verdone, actor, screenwriter and film director, is best known for his comedic roles in Italian classics, which he also wrote and directed. His career was jumpstarted by his first three successes, Un sacco bello (1980), Bianco, rosso e Verdone (1981) and Borotalco (1982). Since the 1990s, he has been introducing more serious subjects in his work, linked to the excesses of society and the individual's hardships in confronting it; some examples are Maledetto il giorno che t'ho incontrata (1992), Il mio miglior nemico (2006) and Io, loro e Lara (2010).
Francesco Nuti began his professional career as an actor in the late 1970s, when he formed the cabaret group Giancattivi together with Alessandro Benvenuti and Athina Cenci. The group took part in the TV shows Black Out and Non Stop for RAI TV, and shot their first feature film, West of Paperino (1981), written and directed by Benvenuti. The following year Nuti abandoned the trio and began a solo career with three movies directed by Maurizio Ponzi: What a Ghostly Silence There Is Tonight (1982), The Pool Hustlers (1982) and Son contento (1983). Starting in 1985, he began to direct his movies, scoring an immediate success with the films Casablanca, Casablanca and All the Fault of Paradise (1985), Stregati (1987), Caruso Pascoski, Son of a Pole (1988), Willy Signori e vengo da lontano (1990) and Women in Skirts (1991). The 1990s were however a period of decline for the Tuscan director, with poorly successful movies such as OcchioPinocchio (1994), Mr. Fifteen Balls (1998), Io amo Andrea (2000) and Caruso, Zero for Conduct (2001).
The cinepanettoni (singular: cinepanettone) are a series of farcical comedy films, one or two of which are scheduled for release annually in Italy during the Christmas period. The films were originally produced by Aurelio De Laurentiis' Filmauro studio. These films are usually focused on the holidays of stereotypical Italians: bungling, wealthy and presumptuous members of the middle class who visit famous, glamorous or exotic places.
The economic crisis that emerged in the 1980s began to ease over the next decade. Nonetheless, the 1992–93 and 1993–94 seasons marked an all-time low in the number of films made, in the national market share (15 per cent), in the total number of viewers (under 90 million per year) and in the number of cinemas. The effect of this industrial contraction sanctions the total disappearance of Italian genre cinema in the middle of the decade, as it was no longer suitable to compete with the contemporary big Hollywood blockbusters (mainly due to the enormous budget differences available), with its directors and actors who therefore almost entirely switch to television film.
A new generation of directors has helped return Italian cinema to a healthy level since the end of the 1980s. Probably the most noted film of the period is Nuovo Cinema Paradiso, for which Giuseppe Tornatore won a 1989 Oscar (awarded in 1990) for Best Foreign Language Film. This award was followed when Gabriele Salvatores's Mediterraneo won the same prize in 1991.
Il Postino: The Postman (1994), directed by the British Michael Radford and starring Massimo Troisi, received five nominations at the Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Actor for Troisi, and won for Best Original Score. Another exploit was in 1998 when Roberto Benigni won three Oscars for his movie Life Is Beautiful (La vita è bella) (Best Actor for Benigni himself, Best Foreign Film, Best Music). The film was also nominated for Best Picture.
Leonardo Pieraccioni made his directorial debut with The Graduates (1995). In 1996 he directed his breakthrough film The Cyclone, which grossed Lire 75 billion at the box office.
With the new millennium, the Italian film industry regained stability and critical recognition. In 1995, 93 films were produced, while in 2005, 274 films were made. In 2006, the national market share reached 31 per cent. In 2001, Nanni Moretti's film The Son's Room (La stanza del figlio) received the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. Other noteworthy recent Italian films include: Jona che visse nella balena directed by Roberto Faenza, Il grande cocomero by Francesca Archibugi, The Profession of Arms (Il mestiere delle armi) by Olmi, L'ora di religione by Marco Bellocchio, Il ladro di bambini, Lamerica, The Keys to the House (Le chiavi di casa) by Gianni Amelio, I'm Not Scared (Io non-ho paura) by Gabriele Salvatores, Le Fate Ignoranti, Facing Windows (La finestra di fronte) by Ferzan Özpetek, Good Morning, Night (Buongiorno, notte) by Marco Bellocchio, The Best of Youth (La meglio gioventù) by Marco Tullio Giordana, The Beast in the Heart (La bestia nel cuore) by Cristina Comencini. In 2008 Paolo Sorrentino's Il Divo, a biographical film based on the life of Giulio Andreotti, won the Jury prize and Gomorra, a crime drama film, directed by Matteo Garrone won the Gran Prix at the Cannes Film Festival.
Paolo Sorrentino's The Great Beauty (La Grande Bellezza) won the 2014 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.
The two highest-grossing Italian films in Italy have both been directed by Gennaro Nunziante and starred Checco Zalone: Sole a catinelle (2013) with €51.8 million, and Quo Vado? (2016) with €65.3 million.
They Call Me Jeeg, a 2016 critically acclaimed superhero film directed by Gabriele Mainetti and starring Claudio Santamaria, won many awards, such as eight David di Donatello, two Nastro d'Argento, and a Globo d'oro.
Gianfranco Rosi's documentary film Fire at Sea (2016) won the Golden Bear at the 66th Berlin International Film Festival. They Call Me Jeeg and Fire at Sea were also selected as the Italian entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 89th Academy Awards, but they were not nominated.
Other successful 2010s Italian films include: Vincere and The Traitor by Marco Bellocchio, The First Beautiful Thing (La prima cosa bella), Human Capital (Il capitale umano) and Like Crazy (La pazza gioia) by Paolo Virzì, We Have a Pope (Habemus Papam) and Mia Madre by Nanni Moretti, Caesar Must Die (Cesare deve morire) by Paolo and Vittorio Taviani, Don't Be Bad (Non essere cattivo) by Claudio Caligari, Romanzo Criminale by Michele Placido (that spawned a TV series, Romanzo criminale - La serie), Youth (La giovinezza) by Paolo Sorrentino, Suburra by Stefano Sollima, Perfect Strangers (Perfetti sconosciuti) by Paolo Genovese, Mediterranea and A Ciambra by Jonas Carpignano, Italian Race (Veloce come il vento) and The First King: Birth of an Empire (Il primo re) by Matteo Rovere, and Tale of Tales (Il racconto dei racconti), Dogman and Pinocchio by Matteo Garrone.
Call Me by Your Name (2017), the final installment in Luca Guadagnino's thematic Desire trilogy, following I Am Love (2009) and A Bigger Splash (2015), received widespread acclaim and numerous accolades, including the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay and the nomination for Best Picture in 2018.
Perfect Strangers by Paolo Genovese was included in the Guinness World Records as it became the most remade film in cinema history, with a total of 18 versions of the film.
Successful 2020s Italian films include: The Life Ahead by Edoardo Ponti, Hidden Away by Giorgio Diritti, Bad Tales by Damiano and Fabio D'Innocenzo, The Predators by Pietro Castellitto, Padrenostro by Claudio Noce, Notturno by Gianfranco Rosi, The King of Laughter by Mario Martone, A Chiara by Jonas Carpignano, Freaks Out by Gabriele Mainetti, The Hand of God by Paolo Sorrentino, Nostalgia by Mario Martone, Dry by Paolo Giordano, The Hanging Sun by Francesco Carrozzini, Bones and All by Luca Guadagnino, L'immensità by Emanuele Crialese, Robbing Mussolini by Renato De Maria, Adagio by Stefano Sollima, There's Still Tomorrow by Paola Cortellesi, Last Night of Amore by Andrea Di Stefano, The First Day of My Life by Paolo Genovese, Thank You Guys by Riccardo Milani, Io capitano by Matteo Garrone, A Brighter Tomorrow by Nanni Moretti and Comandante by Edoardo De Angelis.
The list of the 100 Italian films to be saved (Italian: 100 film italiani da salvare) was created with the aim to report "100 films that have changed the collective memory of the country between 1942 and 1978". The project was established in 2008 by the Venice Days festival section of the 65th Venice International Film Festival, in collaboration with Cinecittà Holding and with the support of the Ministry of Cultural Heritage.
The list was edited by Fabio Ferzetti, film critic of the newspaper Il Messaggero, in collaboration with film director Gianni Amelio and the writers and film critics Gian Piero Brunetta, Giovanni De Luna, Gianluca Farinelli, Giovanna Grignaffini, Paolo Mereghetti, Morando Morandini, Domenico Starnone and Sergio Toffetti.
Cineteca Nazionale is a film archive located in Rome. Founded in 1949, it includes 80,000 films on file, 600,000 photographs, 50,000 posters and the collection of the Italian Association for the History of Cinema Research (AIRSC). It arose from the archival heritage of the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia, which in 1943, had been removed by the Nazi occupiers. Cineteca Italiana is a private film archive located in Milan. Established in 1947, and as a foundation in 1996, the Cineteca Italiana houses over 20,000 films and more than 100,000 photographs from the history of Italian and international cinema. Cineteca di Bologna is a film archive in Bologna. It was founded in 1962.
The National Museum of Cinema in Turin is a motion picture museum inside the Mole Antonelliana tower. It is operated by the Maria Adriana Prolo Foundation, and the core of its collection is the result of the work of the historian and collector Maria Adriana Prolo. It was housed in the Palazzo Chiablese. In 2008, with 532,196 visitors, it ranked 13th among the most visited Italian museums. The museum houses pre-cinematographic optical devices such as magic lanterns, earlier and current film technologies, stage items from early Italian movies and other memorabilia. Along the exhibition path of about 35,000 square feet (3,200 m) on five levels are areas devoted to the different kinds of film crew, and in the main hall, fitted in the temple hall of the Mole, a series of chapels representing several film genres.
The Museum of Precinema is a museum in the Palazzo Angeli, Prato della Valle, Padua, related to the history of precinema, or precursors of film. It was created in 1998 to display the Minici Zotti Collection, in collaboration with the Comune of Padova.
The Cinema Museum of Rome is located in Cinecittà. The collections consist of movie posters and playbills, cine cameras, projectors, magic lanterns, stage costumes and the patent of Filoteo Alberini's "kinetograph". The Milan Cinema Museum, managed by the Cineteca Italiana, is divided into three sections, the precinema, animation cinema and "Milan as a film set", as well as multimedia and interactive stations.
The Catania Cinema Museum exhibits documents concerning cinema, its techniques and its history, particularly the link between cinema and Sicily. The Cinema Museum of Syracuse collects more than 10,000 exhibits on display in 12 rooms.
After the United States and the United Kingdom, Italy has the most Academy Awards wins.
Italy is the most awarded country at the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, with 14 awards won, 3 Special Awards and 31 nominations. Winners with the year of the ceremony:
In 1961, Sophia Loren won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in Vittorio De Sica's Two Women. She was the first actress to win an Academy Award for a performance in any foreign language, and the second Italian leading lady Oscar-winner, after Anna Magnani for The Rose Tattoo. In 1998, Roberto Benigni was the first Italian actor to win the Best Actor for Life Is Beautiful.
Italian-born filmmaker Frank Capra won three times at the Academy Award for Best Director, for It Happened One Night, Mr. Deeds Goes to Town and You Can't Take It with You. Bernardo Bertolucci won the award for The Last Emperor, and also Best Adapted Screenplay for the same movie.
Ennio De Concini, Alfredo Giannetti and Pietro Germi won the award for Best Original Screenplay for Divorce Italian Style. The Academy Award for Best Film Editing was won by Gabriella Cristiani for The Last Emperor and by Pietro Scalia for JFK and Black Hawk Down.
The award for Best Original Score was won by Nino Rota for The Godfather Part II; Giorgio Moroder for Midnight Express; Nicola Piovani for Life is Beautiful; Dario Marianelli for Atonement; and Ennio Morricone for The Hateful Eight. Giorgio Moroder also won the award for Best Original Song for Flashdance and Top Gun.
The Italian winners at the Academy Award for Best Production Design are Dario Simoni for Lawrence of Arabia and Doctor Zhivago; Elio Altramura and Gianni Quaranta for A Room with a View; Bruno Cesari, Osvaldo Desideri and Ferdinando Scarfiotti for The Last Emperor; Luciana Arrighi for Howards End; and Dante Ferretti and Francesca Lo Schiavo for The Aviator, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street and Hugo.
The winners at the Academy Award for Best Cinematography are: Tony Gaudio for Anthony Adverse; Pasqualino De Santis for Romeo and Juliet; Vittorio Storaro for Apocalypse Now, Reds and The Last Emperor; and Mauro Fiore for Avatar.
The winners at the Academy Award for Best Costume Design are Piero Gherardi for La dolce vita and 8½; Vittorio Nino Novarese for Cleopatra and Cromwell; Danilo Donati for The Taming of the Shrew, Romeo and Juliet, and Fellini's Casanova; Franca Squarciapino for Cyrano de Bergerac; Gabriella Pescucci for The Age of Innocence; and Milena Canonero for Barry Lyndon, Chariots of Fire, Marie Antoinette and The Grand Budapest Hotel.
Special effects artist Carlo Rambaldi won three Oscars: one Special Achievement Academy Award for Best Visual Effects for King Kong and two Academy Awards for Best Visual Effects for Alien (1979) and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. The Academy Award for Best Makeup and Hairstyling was won by Manlio Rocchetti for Driving Miss Daisy, and Alessandro Bertolazzi and Giorgio Gregorini for Suicide Squad.
Sophia Loren, Federico Fellini, Michelangelo Antonioni, Dino De Laurentiis, Ennio Morricone, and Piero Tosi also received the Academy Honorary Award.
The Association of Italian Film Festivals (AFIC; Italian: Associazione Festival italiani di cinema) is the peak body for film festivals held in Italy.
|
[
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "The cinema of Italy (Italian: cinema italiano, pronounced [ˈtʃiːnema itaˈljaːno]) comprises the films made within Italy or by Italian directors. Italy is one of the birthplaces of art cinema and the stylistic aspect of film has been one of the most important factors in the history of Italian film. As of 2018, Italian films have won 14 Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film (the most of any country) as well as 12 Palmes d'Or, one Academy Award for Best Picture and many Golden Lions and Golden Bears.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "The history of Italian cinema began a few months after the Lumière brothers began motion picture exhibitions. The first Italian director is considered to be Vittorio Calcina, a collaborator of the Lumière Brothers, who filmed Pope Leo XIII in 1896. The first films were made in the main cities of the Italian peninsula. These brief experiments immediately met the curiosity of the general public, encouraging operators to produce new films and laying the foundation for a true film industry. In the early 20th century, silent cinema developed, bringing numerous Italian stars to the forefront. In the early 1900s, epic films such as Otello (1906), The Last Days of Pompeii (1908), L'Inferno (1911), Quo Vadis (1913), and Cabiria (1914), were made as adaptations of books or stage plays. The oldest European avant-garde cinema movement, Italian futurism, emerged in the late 1910s. After a period of decline in the 1920s, the Italian film industry was revitalized in the 1930s with the arrival of sound film. A popular Italian genre during this period, the Telefoni Bianchi, consisted of comedies with glamorous backgrounds. Calligrafismo was in sharp contrast to Telefoni Bianchi-American style comedies and is rather artistic, highly formalistic, expressive in complexity and deals mainly with contemporary literary material. While Italy's Fascist government provided financial support for the nation's film industry, notably the construction of the Cinecittà studios (the largest film studio in Europe), it also engaged in censorship, and thus many Italian films produced in the late 1930s were propaganda films.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "The end of World War II saw the birth of the influential Italian neorealist movement, which reached vast audiences throughout the post-war period, and which launched the directorial careers of Luchino Visconti, Roberto Rossellini, and Vittorio De Sica. Neorealism declined in the late 1950s in favour of lighter films, such as those of the Commedia all'italiana genre and directors like Federico Fellini and Michelangelo Antonioni. Actresses such as Sophia Loren, Giulietta Masina, Claudia Cardinale, Monica Vitti, Anna Magnani and Gina Lollobrigida achieved international stardom during this period. From the mid-1950s to the end of the 1970s, Commedia all'italiana and many other genres arose due to auteur cinema, and Italian cinema reached a position of great prestige both nationally and abroad. The Spaghetti Western achieved popularity in the mid-1960s, peaking with Sergio Leone's Dollars Trilogy, which featured enigmatic scores by composer Ennio Morricone, which have become icons of the Western genre. Erotic Italian thrillers, or giallo, produced by directors such as Mario Bava and Dario Argento in the 1970s, influenced the horror genre worldwide. During the 1980s and 1990s, directors such as Ermanno Olmi, Bernardo Bertolucci, Giuseppe Tornatore, Gabriele Salvatores and Roberto Benigni brought critical acclaim back to Italian cinema, while the most popular directors of the 2000s and 2010s were Matteo Garrone, Paolo Sorrentino, Marco Bellocchio, Nanni Moretti and Marco Tullio Giordana. The country is known for its Venice Film Festival, the oldest film festival in the world, held annually since 1932 and awarding the Golden Lion; and for the David di Donatello. In 2008 the Venice Days (\"Giornate degli Autori\"), a section held in parallel to the Venice Film Festival, has produced in collaboration with Cinecittà studios and the Ministry of Cultural Heritage a list of a 100 films that have changed the collective memory of the country between 1942 and 1978: the \"100 Italian films to be saved\".",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "The first Italian director is considered to be Vittorio Calcina, a collaborator of the Lumière Brothers, who filmed Pope Leo XIII on 26 February 1896 in the short film Sua Santità papa Leone XIII (\"His Holiness Pope Leo XIII\"). As the official photographer of the House of Savoy, he filmed the first Italian film, Sua Maestà il Re Umberto e Sua Maestà la Regina Margherita a passeggio per il parco a Monza (\"His Majesty the King Umberto and Her Majesty the Queen Margherita strolling through the Monza Park\"), believed to have been lost until it was rediscovered by the Cineteca Nazionale in 1979. In 1895, Filoteo Alberini patented his \"kinetograph\", a shooting and projecting device not unlike that of the Lumières brothers.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "The Lumière brothers commenced public screenings in Italy in 1896. Italian Lumière trainees produced short films documenting everyday life and comic strips in the late 1890s and early 1900s. Italo Pacchioni, Arturo Ambrosio, Giovanni Vitrotti and Roberto Omegna were also active. The success of the short films was immediate. Titles of the time include, Arrivo del treno alla Stazione di Milano (\"Arrival of the train at Milan station\") (1896), La battaglia di neve (\"The snow battle\") (1896), La gabbia dei matti (\"The madmen's cage\") (1896), Ballo in famiglia (\"Family dance\") (1896), Il finto storpio al Castello Sforzesco (\"The fake cripple at the Castello Sforzesco\") (1896) and La Fiera di Porta Genova (\"The fair of Porta Genova\") (1898), all shot by Italo Pacchioni, who was also the inventor of a camera and projector, inspired by the cinematograph of Lumière brothers, kept at the Cineteca Italiana in Milan. Although the general public were enthusiastic, initially the technology was snubbed by intellectuals and the press. However, on 28 January 1897, prince Victor Emmanuel and princess Elena of Montenegro attended a screening organized by Vittorio Calcina, at the Pitti Palace in Florence. Interested in experimenting with the new medium, they were filmed in S.A.R. il Principe di Napoli e la Principessa Elena visitano il battistero di S. Giovanni a Firenze (\"Their real heights the Prince of Naples and Princess Elena visit the baptistery of Saint John in Florence\") and on the day of their wedding in Dimostrazione popolare alle LL. AA. i Principi sposi (al Pantheon – Roma) (\"Popular demonstration at the their heights the princes spouses (at the Pantheon – Rome)\").",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "In the early 20th century, the phenomenon of itinerant cinemas developed throughout Italy. The nascent Italian cinema, therefore, is still linked to the traditional shows of the commedia dell'arte or to those typical of circus folklore. Public screenings took place in the streets, in cafes or in variety theatres in the presence of a swindler who has the task of promoting and enriching the story.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "Between 1903 and 1909 the itinerant Italian cinema began assuming the characteristics of an authentic industry, led by four major organizations: Titanus (originally Monopolio Lombardo), the first italian film production company; the largest and among the most famous film houses in Italy, founded by Gustavo Lombardo at Naples in 1904, Cines, based in Rome; and the Turin-based companies Ambrosio Film and Itala Film. Other companies soon followed in Milan, and these early companies quickly attained a respectable production quality and were able to market their products both within Italy and abroad. Early Italian films typically consisted of adaptations of books or stage plays, such as Mario Caserini's Otello (1906) and Arturo Ambrosio's 1908 The Last Days of Pompeii, an adaptation of the homonymous novel by Edward Bulwer-Lytton. Also popular during this period were films about historical figures, such as Caserini's Beatrice Cenci (1909) and Ugo Falena's Lucrezia Borgia (1910).",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "In 1905, Cines inaugurated the genre of the historical film. One of the first of these films was La presa di Roma (1905), lasting 10 minutes, and made by Filoteo Alberini. The operator employs for the first time actors of theatrical origin. The film, assimilating Manzoni's lesson of making historical fiction plausible, reconstructs the Capture of Rome on 20 September 1870. Dozens of characters from texts make their appearance on the big screen such as the Count of Monte Cristo, Giordano Bruno, Judith beheading Holofernes, Francesca da Rimini, Lorenzino de' Medici, Rigoletto, Count Ugolino and others. From an iconographic point of view, the main references are the great Renaissance and neoclassical artists, as well as symbolists and popular illustrations.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "In the 1910s, the Italian film industry developed rapidly. In 1912, 569 films were produced in Turin, 420 in Rome and 120 in Milan. Popular early Italian actors included Emilio Ghione, Alberto Collo, Bartolomeo Pagano, Amleto Novelli, Lyda Borelli, Ida Carloni Talli, Lidia Quaranta and Maria Jacobini. Lost in the Dark (1914), a silent drama film directed by Nino Martoglio, documented life in the slums of Naples, and is considered a precursor to the Italian neorealism movement of the 1940s and 1950s. The only surviving copy of this film was destroyed by Nazi German forces during the World War II.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "The archetypes of the historical blockbuster genre were The Last Days of Pompeii (1908), by Arturo Ambrosio and Luigi Maggi and Nero (1909), by Maggi and Arrigo Frusta. Followed by Marin Faliero, Doge of Venice (1909), by Giuseppe De Liguoro, Otello (1909) by Yambo and L'Odissea (1911), by Bertolini, Padovan and De Liguoro. L'Inferno, produced by Milano Films in 1911, was a cinematic translation of Gustave Doré's engravings that experiments with the integration of optical effects and stage action, and it was the first Italian feature film. The Last Days of Pompeii (1913), by Eleuterio Rodolfi, used innovative special effects. Enrico Guazzoni's 1913 film Quo Vadis was one of the first blockbusters, using thousands of extras and a lavish set design. The international success of the film marked the maturation of the genre and allowed Guazzoni to make increasingly spectacular films such as Antony and Cleopatra (1913) and Julius Caesar (1914). Giovanni Pastrone's 1914 film Cabiria was an even larger production, requiring two years and a record budget to produce; it was the first epic film ever made and it is considered the most famous Italian silent film. It was also the first film to be shown in the White House. After Guazzoni came Emilio Ghione, Febo Mari, Carmine Gallone, Giulio Antamoro and many others who contributed to the expansion of the genre. After the success of Cabiria, with the changing tastes of the public the genre began to show signs of crisis. Pastrone's plan to adapt the Bible with thousands of extras remained unfulfilled. Antamoro's Christus (1916) and Guazzoni's The Crusaders (1918) remained notable for their iconographic complexity but offered no substantial novelties. In the first and second decade of the 20th century came a prolific film production aimed at investigative and mystery content. The most prolific production houses in the 1910s were Cines, Ambrosio Film, Itala Film, Aquila Films, and Milano Films. Directors among the most prolific in this field such as Oreste Mentasti, Luigi Maggi, Arrigo Frusta and Ubaldo Maria Del Colle, direct several dozen films where classic narrative elements of the silent proto-giallo (mystery, crime, investigation investigative and final twist) constitute the structural aspects of cinematic representation. Elvira Notari, the first female director in Italy, directed Carmela, la sartina di Montesanto (1916). While in Palermo, Lucarelli Film produced La cassaforte n. 8 (1914) and Ipnotismo (1914), the Azzurri Film La regina della notte (1915), the Lumen Film Il romanzo fantastico del Dr. Mercanton o il giustiziere invisibile (1915) and Profumo mortale (1915).",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "Between 1913 and 1920 there was the rise, development and decline of the phenomenon of cinematographic stardom, born with the release of Ma l'amor mio non muore (1913), by Mario Caserini. The film had great success with the public and encoded the aesthetics of female stardom. Within just a few years, Eleonora Duse, Pina Menichelli, Rina De Liguoro, Leda Gys, Hesperia, Vittoria Lepanto, Mary Cleo Tarlarini and Italia Almirante Manzini established themselves. Films such as Fior di male (1914), by Carmine Gallone, Il fuoco (1915), by Giovanni Pastrone, Rapsodia satanica (1917), by Nino Oxilia and Cenere (1917), by Febo Mari, changed the model away from naturalism in favor of melodramatic acting, pictorial gesture and theatrical pose, all favored by the extensive use of close-up.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "The most successful comedian in Italy was André Deed, better known in Italy as Cretinetti, star of comic short film for Itala Film. Its success paved the way for Marcel Fabre (Robinet), Ernesto Vaser (Fricot) and many others. Ferdinand Guillaume became famous with the stage name of Polidor. Protagonists of Italian comedians never place themselves in open contrast with society or embody the desire for social revenge (as happens for example with Charlie Chaplin), but rather tried to integrate into a strongly desired world.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "Italian futurist cinema was the oldest movement of European avant-garde cinema. Italian futurism, an artistic and social movement, impacted the Italian film industry from 1916 to 1919. It influenced Russian Futurist and German Expressionist cinema. Its cultural importance was considerable and influenced all subsequent avant-gardes, as well as some authors of narrative cinema; its echo expands to the dreamlike visions of some films by Alfred Hitchcock. Futurism emphasized dynamism, speed, technology, youth, violence, and objects such as the car, the airplane, and the industrial city. Its key figures were the Italians Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, Umberto Boccioni, Carlo Carrà, Fortunato Depero, Gino Severini, Giacomo Balla, and Luigi Russolo. It glorified modernity and aimed to liberate Italy from the weight of its past.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "The 1916 Manifesto of Futuristic Cinematography was signed by Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, Armando Ginna, Bruno Corra, Giacomo Balla and others. To the Futurists, cinema was an ideal art form, being a fresh medium, and able to be manipulated by speed, special effects and editing. Most of the futuristic-themed films of this period have been lost, but critics cite Thaïs (1917) by Anton Giulio Bragaglia as one of the most influential, serving as the main inspiration for German Expressionist cinema in the following decade. The Italian film industry struggled against rising foreign competition in the years following World War I. Several major studios, among them Cines and Ambrosio, formed the Unione Cinematografica Italiana to coordinate a national strategy for film production. This effort was largely unsuccessful, however, due to a wide disconnect between production and exhibition; some movies were not released until several years after they were produced.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "With the end of World War I, Italian cinema went through a period of crisis due to many factors such as production disorganization, increased costs, technological backwardness, loss of foreign markets and inability to cope with international competition, in particular with that of Hollywood. The main causes included the lack of a generational change with a production still dominated by filmmakers and producers of literary training, unable to face the challenges of modernity. The first half of the 1920s marked a sharp decrease in production; from 350 films produced in 1921 to 60 in 1924.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 15,
"text": "Literature and theatre are still the preferred narrative sources. The feuilletons resist, mostly taken from classical or popular texts and directed by specialists such as Roberto Roberti and the religious blockbusters of Giulio Antamoro. On the basis of the latest generation of divas, a sentimental cinema for women spread, centred on figures on the margins of society who, instead of struggling to emancipate themselves (as happens in contemporary Hollywood cinema), go through an authentic ordeal in order to preserve their own virtue. Protest and rebellion by the female protagonists are out of the question. It is a strongly conservative cinema, tied to social rules upset by the war and in the process of dissolution throughout Europe. An exemplary case is that of A Woman's Story (1920) by Eugenio Perego, which uses an original narrative construction to propose a 19th-century morality with melodramatic tones.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 16,
"text": "A particular genre is that of a realist setting, due to the work of the first female director of Italian cinema, Elvira Notari, who directs numerous films influenced by popular theatre and taken from famous dramas, Neapolitan songs, appendix novels or inspired by facts of chronicle. Another film with a realist setting is Lost in the Dark (1914) by director Nino Martoglio, considered by critics as a prime example of neorealist cinema.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 17,
"text": "The revival of Italian cinema took place at the end of the decade with the production of larger-scale films. During this period, a group of intellectuals close to the fortnightly cinematografo led by Alessandro Blasetti launched a program that was as simple as it was ambitious. Aware of the Italian cultural backwardness, they decided to break all ties with the previous tradition through a rediscovery of the peasant world, hitherto practically absent in Italian cinema. Sun (1929) by Alessandro Blasetti shows the evident influence of the Soviet and German avant-gardes in an attempt to renew Italian cinema in accordance with the interests of the fascist regime. Rails (1929) by Mario Camerini blends the traditional genre of comedy with kammerspiel and realist film, revealing the director's ability to outline the characters of the middle class. While not comparable to the best results of international cinema of the period, the works of Camerini and Blasetti testify to a generational transition between Italian directors and intellectuals, and above all an emancipation from literary models and an approach to the tastes of the public.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 18,
"text": "The sound cinema arrived in Italy in 1930, three years after the release of The Jazz Singer (1927), and immediately led to a debate on the validity of spoken cinema and its relationship with the theatre. Some directors enthusiastically face the new challenge. The advent of talkies led to stricter censorship by the Fascist government.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 19,
"text": "The first Italian talking picture was The Song of Love (1930) by Gennaro Righelli, which was a great success with the public. Alessandro Blasetti also experimented with the use of an optical track for sound in the film Resurrection (1931), shot before The Song of Love but released a few months later. Similar to Righelli's film is What Scoundrels Men Are! (1932) by Mario Camerini, which has the merit of making Vittorio De Sica debut on the screens. Historical films such as Blasetti's 1860 (1934) and Carmine Gallone's Scipio Africanus: The Defeat of Hannibal (1937) were also popular during this period.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 20,
"text": "With the transition to sound cinema, most of the Italian silent film actors, still linked to theatrical stylization, find themselves disqualified. The era of divas, dandies and strongmen, who barely survived the 1920s, is definitely over. Even if some performers will move on to directing or producing, the arrival of sound favours the generational change and the consequent modernization of the structures.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 21,
"text": "Italian-born director Frank Capra received three Academy Awards for Best Director for the films It Happened One Night (1934, the first Big Five winner at the Academy Awards), Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936) and You Can't Take It with You (1938).",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 22,
"text": "In 1932, the Venice Film Festival, the world's oldest film festival and one of the \"Big Three\" film festivals, alongside the Cannes Film Festival and the Berlin International Film Festival, was established.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 23,
"text": "In 1934, the Italian government created the General Directorate for Cinema (Direzione Generale per la Cinematografia), and appointed Luigi Freddi its director. With the approval of Benito Mussolini, this directorate called for the establishment of a town southeast of Rome devoted exclusively to cinema, dubbed the Cinecittà (\"Cinema City\"), under the slogan \"Il cinema è l'arma più forte\" (\"Cinema is the most powerful weapon\"). The studios were constructed during the Fascist era as part of a plan to revive the Italian film industry, which had reached its low point in 1931.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 24,
"text": "Mussolini himself inaugurated the studios on 28 April 1937. Post-production units and sets were constructed and heavily used initially. Early films such as Scipio Africanus (1937) and The Iron Crown (1941) showcased the technological advancement of the studios. Seven thousand people were involved in the filming of the battle scene from Scipio Africanus, and live elephants were brought in as a part of the re-enactment of the Battle of Zama.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 25,
"text": "The Cinecittà provided everything necessary for filmmaking: theatres, technical services, and even a cinematography school, the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia, for younger apprentices. The Cinecittà studios were Europe's most advanced production facilities and greatly boosted the technical quality of Italian films. Many films are still shot entirely in Cinecittà. Benito Mussolini founded Cinecittà studio also for the production of Fascist propaganda until World War II.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 26,
"text": "During this period, Mussolini's son, Vittorio, created a national production company and organized the work of noted authors, directors and actors (including even some political opponents), thereby creating an interesting communication network among them, which produced several noted friendships and stimulated cultural interaction.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 27,
"text": "With an area of 400,000 square metres (99 acres), it is still the largest film studio in Europe, and is considered the hub of Italian cinema. Filmmakers such as Federico Fellini, Roberto Rossellini, Luchino Visconti, Sergio Leone, Bernardo Bertolucci, Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese, and Mel Gibson have worked at Cinecittà. More than 3,000 movies have been filmed there, of which 90 received an Academy Award nomination and 47 of these won it.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 28,
"text": "During the 1930s, light comedies known as Telefoni Bianchi (\"white telephones\") were predominant in Italian cinema. These films, which featured lavish set designs, promoted conservative values and respect for authority, and thus typically avoided the scrutiny of government censors. Telefoni Bianchi proved to be the testing ground of numerous screenwriters destined to impose themselves in the following decades (including Cesare Zavattini and Sergio Amidei), and above all of numerous set designers such as Guido Fiorini, Gino Carlo Sensani and Antonio Valente, who, by virtue, successful graphic inventions led these productions to become a kind of \"summa\" of the petty-bourgeois aesthetics of the time.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 29,
"text": "The first film of the genre Telefoni Bianchi was The Private Secretary (1931), by Goffredo Alessandrini. Among the authors, Mario Camerini is the most representative director of the genre. After having practiced the most diverse trends in the 1930s, he happily moved into the territory of sentimental comedy with What Scoundrels Men Are! (1932), Il signor Max (1937) and Department Store (1939). In other films, he compares himself with the Hollywood-style comedy on the model of Frank Capra (Heartbeat, 1939) and the surreal one of René Clair (I'll Give a Million, 1936). Camerini is interested in the figure of the typical and popular Italian, so much so that he anticipates some elements of the future Italian comedy. His major interpreter, Vittorio De Sica, will continue his lesson in Maddalena, Zero for Conduct (1940) and Teresa Venerdì (1941), emphasizing above all the direction of the actors and the care for the settings.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 30,
"text": "Other directors include Mario Mattoli (Schoolgirl Diary, 1941), Jean de Limur (Apparition, 1944) and Max Neufeld (The House of Shame, 1938; A Thousand Lire a Month, 1939). The realist comedies of Mario Bonnard (Before the Postman, 1942; The Peddler and the Lady, 1943) are partially different in character, which partially deviate from the imprint of Telefoni Bianchi.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 31,
"text": "In the fascist propaganda cinema, at the beginning, the representations of the squads and the first fascist actions were rare. The Old Guard (1934), by Alessandro Blasetti evokes the supposed vitalistic spontaneity of squads with populist tones, but is not appreciated by official critics. Black Shirt (1933), by Giovacchino Forzano, made for the 10th anniversary of the March on Rome, celebrated the regime's policies (the reclamation of the Pontine marshes and the construction of Littoria) alternating narrative sequences with documentary passages.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 32,
"text": "With political consolidation, the government authority required the film industry to strengthen the regime's identification with the country's history and culture. Hence the intention to reread Italian history in an authoritarian perspective, teleologically reducing every past event to a harbinger of the \"fascist revolution\", in continuity with the historiographical work of Gioacchino Volpe. After the first attempts in this direction, aimed above all at underlining the alleged link between the Risorgimento and Fascism (Villafranca by Forzano, 1933; 1860 by Blasetti, 1933), the trend reached its peak just before the war. Cavalry (1936), by Goffredo Alessandrini, evokes the nobility of the Savoy fighters by presenting their deeds as anticipations of squads. Condottieri (1937) by Luis Trenker, tells the story of Giovanni delle Bande Nere, explicitly establishing a parallel with Benito Mussolini, while Scipio Africanus: The Defeat of Hannibal (1937) by Carmine Gallone (one of the greatest financial efforts of the time), it celebrates the Roman Empire and indirectly the Fascist Empire.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 33,
"text": "The invasion of Ethiopia gives Italian directors the opportunity to extend the horizons of the settings. The Great Appeal (1936) by Mario Camerini, exalts imperialism by describing the \"new land\" as an opportunity for work and redemption, contrasting the heroism of young soldiers with bourgeois fearlessness. The anti-pacifist controversy that accompanies colonial enterprises is also evident in Lo squadrone bianco (1936) by Augusto Genina, which combines propaganda rhetoric with notable battle sequences shot in the Italian Tripolitania desert. Most of the films celebrating the empire are predominantly documentaries, aimed at disguising the war as a struggle of civilization against barbarism. The Spanish Civil War is described in the documentaries Los novios de la muerte (1936) by Romolo Marcellini and Arriba España, España una, grande, libre! (1939) by Giorgio Ferroni, and is the backdrop for another dozen films, among which the most spectacular is The Siege of the Alcazar (1940) by Augusto Genina.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 34,
"text": "Films such as Pietro Micca (1938) by Aldo Vergano, Ettore Fieramosca (1938), made in the same year by Alessandro Blasetti, and Fanfulla da Lodi (1940) by Giulio Antamoro can also be counted as propaganda films (albeit indirect), in which, a pretext for the epic narration of historical events, a clear apology for dedication to the homeland (in some cases even to the point of personal sacrifice) is made in the same vein as colonial films with a contemporary setting.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 35,
"text": "With Italy's participation in World War II, the fascist regime further strengthens its control over production and requires a more decisive commitment to propaganda. In addition to the now canonical documentaries, short films and newsreels, there is also an increase in feature films in praise of Italian war efforts. Among the most representative are Bengasi (1942) by Genina, Gente dell'aria (1943) by Esodo Pratelli, The Three Pilots (1942) by Mario Mattoli (based on a screenplay by Vittorio Mussolini), Il treno crociato (1943) by Carlo Campogalliani, Harlem (1943) by Carmine Gallone and Men of the Mountain (1943) by Aldo Vergano under the supervision of Blasetti. Uomini sul fondo (1941) by Francesco De Robertis is also notable due to its almost documentary approach.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 36,
"text": "The most successful film of the period is We the Living (1942) by Goffredo Alessandrini, made as a single film, but then distributed in two parts due to its excessive length. Referable to the genre of anti-communist drama, this sombre melodrama (set in the Soviet Union) is inspired by the novel of the same name by the writer Ayn Rand which exalts philosophical individualism.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 37,
"text": "Among the directors who give their contribution to the war propaganda, there is also Roberto Rossellini, author of a trilogy composed of The White Ship (1941), A Pilot Returns (1942) and The Man with a Cross (1943). Anticipating in some ways his works of maturity, the director adopted a modest and immediate style, which does not contrast the effectiveness of the propaganda but neither does it exalt the dominant war rhetoric; it was the same anti-spectacular approach to which he remained faithful throughout his life.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 38,
"text": "By the end of World War II, the Italian \"neorealist\" movement had begun to take shape. Neorealist films typically dealt with the working class (in contrast to the Telefoni Bianchi), and were shot on location. Many neorealist films, but not all, used non-professional actors. Though the term \"neorealism\" was used for the first time to describe Luchino Visconti’s 1943 film, Ossessione, there were several important precursors to the movement, most notably Camerini's What Scoundrels Men Are! (1932), which was the first Italian film shot entirely on location, and Blasetti's 1942 film, Four Steps in the Clouds.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 39,
"text": "Ossessione angered Fascist officials. Upon viewing the film, Vittorio Mussolini is reported to have shouted, \"This is not Italy!\" before walking out of the theatre. The film was subsequently banned in the Fascist-controlled parts of Italy. While neorealism exploded after the war and was incredibly influential at the international level, neorealist films made up only a small percentage of Italian films produced during this period, as postwar Italian moviegoers preferred escapist comedies starring actors such as Totò and Alberto Sordi.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 40,
"text": "Neorealist works such as Roberto Rossellini's trilogy Rome, Open City (1945), Paisà (1946), and Germany, Year Zero (1948), with professional actors such as Anna Magnani and a number of non-professional actors, attempted to describe the difficult economic and moral conditions of postwar Italy and the changes in public mentality in everyday life. Visconti's The Earth Trembles (1948) was shot on location in a Sicilian fishing village and used local non-professional actors. Giuseppe De Santis, on other hand, used actors such as Silvana Mangano and Vittorio Gassman in his 1949 film, Bitter Rice, which is set in the Po Valley during rice-harvesting season.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 41,
"text": "Poetry and cruelty of life were harmonically combined in the works that Vittorio De Sica wrote and directed together with screenwriter Cesare Zavattini: among them, Shoeshine (1946), The Bicycle Thief (1948) and Miracle in Milan (1951). The 1952 film Umberto D. showed a poor old man with his little dog, who must beg for alms against his dignity in the loneliness of the new society. This work is perhaps De Sica's masterpiece and one of the most important works in Italian cinema. It was not a commercial success and since then it has been shown on Italian television only a few times. Yet it is perhaps the most violent attack, in the apparent quietness of the action, against the rules of the new economy, the new mentality, the new values, and it embodies both a conservative and a progressive view.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 42,
"text": "Although Umberto D. is considered the end of the neorealist period, later films such as Federico Fellini's La Strada (1954) and De Sica's 1960 film Two Women (for which Sophia Loren won the Oscar for Best Actress) are grouped with the genre. Director Pier Paolo Pasolini's first film, Accattone (1961), shows a strong neorealist influence. Italian neorealist cinema influenced filmmakers around the world, and helped inspire other film movements, such as the French New Wave and the Polish Film School. The Neorealist period is often simply referred to as \"The Golden Age\" of Italian cinema by critics, filmmakers, and scholars.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 43,
"text": "Calligrafismo is in sharp contrast to Telefoni Bianchi-American style comedies and is rather artistic, highly formalistic, expressive in complexity and deals mainly with contemporary literary material, above all the pieces of Italian realism from authors like Corrado Alvaro, Ennio Flaiano, Emilio Cecchi, Francesco Pasinetti, Vitaliano Brancati, Mario Bonfantini and Umberto Barbaro.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 44,
"text": "The best-known exponent of this genre is Mario Soldati, a long-time writer and director destined to establish himself with films of literary ancestry and solid formal structure. His films put at the centre of the story characters endowed with a dramatic and psychological strength foreign to both white-phone cinema and propaganda films, and found in works such as Dora Nelson (1939), Piccolo mondo antico (1941), Tragic Night (1942), Malombra (1942) and In High Places (1943). Luigi Chiarini, already active as a critic, deepens the trend in his Sleeping Beauty (1942), Street of the Five Moons (1942) and The Innkeeper (1944). The internal conflicts of the characters and the scenographic richness are also recurrent in the first films by Alberto Lattuada (Giacomo the Idealist, 1943) and Renato Castellani (A Pistol Shot, 1942), dominated by a sense of moral and cultural decay that seems to anticipate the end of the war.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 45,
"text": "Another important example of a calligraphic film is the film version of The Betrothed (1941), by Mario Camerini (very faithful in the staging of Manzoni's masterpiece), which due to the perceived income, became the most popular feature film between 1941 and 1942.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 46,
"text": "The pioneer of the Italian cartoon was Francesco Guido, better known as Gibba. Immediately after the end of World War II, he produced the first animated medium-length film of Italian cinema entitled L'ultimo sciuscià (1946), which took up themes typical of neorealism and in the following decade the feature films Rompicollo and I picchiatelli, in collaboration with Antonio Attanasi. In the 1970s, after many animated documentaries, Gibba himself will return to the feature film with the erotic Il nano e la strega (1973) and Il racconto della giungla (1974). Emanuele Luzzati contributed one of the masterpieces of Italian animation: Il flauto magico (\"The Magic Flute\", 1976), based on Mozart's opera.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 47,
"text": "In 1949, the designer Nino Pagot presented The Dynamite Brothers at the Venice Film Festival, one of the first animated feature films of the time, released in theatres in conjunction with La Rosa di Bagdad (1949), made by the animator Anton Gino Domeneghini. In the early 1950s, the cartoonist Romano Scarpa created the short film La piccola fiammiferaia (1953), which remains, like the two previous films, little more than an isolated case. Apart from these examples, Italian animation in the 1950s and 1960s failed to become a major reality and remains confined to the television sector, due to the various commissions provided by the Carosello container.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 48,
"text": "But it is with Bruno Bozzetto that the Italian cartoon reaches an international dimension: his debut feature film West and Soda (1965), an irresistible caricature of the Western genre, received acclaim from both audiences and critics. A few years later his second work entitled VIP my Brother Superman was released, distributed in 1968. After many satirical short films (centred on the popular figure of \"Signor Rossi\") he returned to the feature film with what is considered his most ambitious work, Allegro Non Troppo (1977). Inspired by the well-known Disney Fantasia, it is a mixed media film, in which animated episodes are molded to the notes of many classical music pieces. Another illustrator to underline is the artist Pino Zac who in 1971 shot (again with mixed technique) The Nonexistent Knight, based on the novel of the same name by Italo Calvino.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 49,
"text": "In the 1990s, Italian animation entered a new phase of production due to the Turin Lanterna Magica studio which in 1996, under the direction of Enzo D'Alò, created the intriguing Christmas fairy tale La freccia azzurra, based on a short story by Gianni Rodari. The film was a success and paved the way for other feature films. In fact, in 1998, Lucky and Zorba based on a novel by Luis Sepúlveda was distributed, which attracted the favour of the public, reaching a new apex in the Italian animated cinema.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 50,
"text": "The director Enzo d'Alò, who separated from the Lanterna Magica studio, produced other films in the following years such as Momo (2001) and Opopomoz (2003). The Turin studio distributed on its behalf the films Aida of the Trees (2001) and Totò Sapore e la magica storia della pizza (2003), accompanied by a good response at the box office. In 2003, the first entirely Italian animated film in computer graphics was released entitled L'apetta Giulia and Signora Vita, directed by Paolo Modugno. To underline the work La Storia di Leo (2007) by director Mario Cambi, winner, the following year, at the Giffoni Film Festival.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 51,
"text": "In 2010, the first Italian animated film in 3D technology was made, directed by Iginio Straffi, entitled Winx Club 3D: Magical Adventure, based on the homonymous series; in the meantime Enzo D'Alò returns to theatres, presenting his Pinocchio (2012). In 2012, the film Gladiators of Rome, also shot in 3D technology, received credit from the public, followed by the feature film Winx Club: The Mystery of the Abyss (2014), both again by Iginio Straffi. Finally, The Art of Happiness (2013) by Alessandro Rak, a film made in Naples by 40 authors, including only 10 designers and animators from the Mad Entertainment studio, a true absolute record for an animated film was made. Cinderella the Cat (2017), taken from the text Pentamerone by Giambattista Basile, came out of the same studio. The work won two David di Donatello's, one of which was for special effects, becoming the first animated film to be nominated, and win, in this category.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 52,
"text": "Starting from the mid-1950s, Italian cinema freed itself from neorealism by tackling purely existential topics, films with different styles and points of view, often more introspective than descriptive. Thus we are witnessing a new flowering of filmmakers who contribute in a fundamental way to the development of the art.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 53,
"text": "Michelangelo Antonioni is the first to establish himself, becoming a reference author for all contemporary cinema. This charge of novelty is recognizable from the beginning as the director's first work, Story of a Love Affair (1950), marks an indelible break with the world of neorealism and the consequent birth of a modern cinema. Antonioni investigated the world of the Italian bourgeoisie with a critical eye, left out of the post-war cinematic lens. In doing so, works of psychological research such as I Vinti (1952), The Lady Without Camelias (1953) and Le Amiche (1955), free adaptation of the short story Tra donne sole by Cesare Pavese, came to light. In 1957, he staged the unusual proletarian drama Il Grido, with which he obtained critical acclaim.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 54,
"text": "In 1955, the David di Donatello was established, with its Best Picture category being awarded for the first time only in 1970. Named after Donatello's David, a symbolic statue of the Italian Renaissance, are film awards given out each year by the Accademia del Cinema Italiano (The Academy of Italian Cinema).",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 55,
"text": "Federico Fellini is recognized as one of the greatest and most influential filmmakers of all time. Fellini won the Palme d'Or for La Dolce Vita, was nominated for twelve Academy Awards, and won four in the category of Best Foreign Language Film, the most for any director in the history of the academy. He received an honorary award for Lifetime Achievement at the 65th Academy Awards in Los Angeles. His other well-known films include La Strada (1954), Nights of Cabiria (1957), Juliet of the Spirits (1967), Satyricon (1969), Roma (1972), Amarcord (1973), and Fellini's Casanova (1976).",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 56,
"text": "Personal and highly idiosyncratic visions of society, Fellini's films are a unique combination of memory, dreams, fantasy and desire. The adjectives \"Fellinian\" and \"Felliniesque\" are \"synonymous with any kind of extravagant, fanciful, even baroque image in the cinema and in art in general\". La Dolce Vita contributed the term paparazzi to the English language, derived from Paparazzo, the photographer friend of journalist Marcello Rubini (Marcello Mastroianni).",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 57,
"text": "Contemporary filmmakers such as Tim Burton, Terry Gilliam, Emir Kusturica, and David Lynch have cited Fellini's influence on their work.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 58,
"text": "Although Umberto D. is considered the end of the neorealist period, subsequent works turned toward lighter, sweetened and mildly optimistic atmospheres, more coherent with the improving conditions of Italy just before the economic boom; this genre became known as pink neorealism.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 59,
"text": "The precursor of pink neorealism was Renato Castellani, who helped bring realist comedy into vogue with Under the Sun of Rome (1948) and It's Forever Springtime (1949), both shot on location and with non-professional actors, and above all with public success and criticism of Two Cents Worth of Hope (1952), which laid the foundations for pink neorealism.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 60,
"text": "Notable films of pink neorealism, which combine popular comedy and realist motifs, are Pane, amore e fantasia (1953) by Luigi Comencini and Poveri ma belli (1957) by Dino Risi, both works are in perfect harmony with the evolution of the Italian costume. The large influx at the box office from the two films remained almost unchanged in the sequels Bread, Love and Jealousy (1954), Scandal in Sorrento (1955) and Pretty But Poor (1957), also directed by Luigi Comencini and Dino Risi.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 61,
"text": "Similarly, stories of daily life told with gentle irony (without losing sight of the social fabric) can be found in the work of the Milanese Luciano Emmer, whose films Sunday in August (1950), Three Girls from Rome (1952) and High School (1954), are the best-known examples. Another film of the pink neorealism genre was Susanna Whipped Cream (1957) by Steno.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 62,
"text": "This trend allowed some actresses to become real celebrities, such as Sophia Loren, Gina Lollobrigida, Silvana Pampanini, Lucia Bosé, Barbara Bouchet, Eleonora Rossi Drago, Silvana Mangano, Virna Lisi, Claudia Cardinale and Stefania Sandrelli. Soon pink neorealism was replaced by the Commedia all'italiana, a unique genre that, born on an ideally humouristic line, talked instead very seriously about important social themes.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 63,
"text": "Commedia all'italiana (\"Comedy in the Italian way\") is an Italian film genre born in Italy in the 1950s and developed in the following 1960s and 1970s. It is widely considered to have started with Mario Monicelli's Big Deal on Madonna Street in 1958 and derives its name from the title of Pietro Germi's Divorce Italian Style, 1961. According to most of the critics, La Terrazza by Ettore Scola (1980) is the last work considered part of the Commedia all'italiana.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 64,
"text": "Rather than a specific genre, the term indicates a period (approximately from the late 1950s to the early 1970s) in which the Italian film industry was producing many successful comedies, with some common traits like satire of manners, farcical and grotesque overtones, a strong focus on \"spicy\" social issues of the period (like sexual matters, divorce, contraception, marriage of the clergy, the economic rise of the country and its various consequences, the traditional religious influence of the Catholic Church) and a prevailing middle-class setting, often characterized by a substantial background of sadness and social criticism that diluted the comic contents.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 65,
"text": "The genre of Commedia all'italiana differs markedly from the light and disengaged comedy from the so-called \"pink neorealism\" trend, in vogue until all of the 1950s, since, starting from the lesson of neorealism, is based on a more frank adherence in writing to reality; therefore, alongside the comic situations and plots typical of traditional comedy, always combines, with irony, a biting and sometimes bitter satire of manners, which reflects the evolution of Italian society in those years.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 66,
"text": "The success of films belonging to the \"Commedia all'italiana\" genre is due both to the presence of an entire generation of great actors, who knew how to masterfully embody the vices and virtues, and the attempts at emancipation but also the vulgarities of the Italians of the time, both to the careful work of directors, storytellers and screenwriters, who invented a real genre, with essentially new connotations, managing to find precious material for their cinematographic creations in the folds of a rapid evolution with many contradictions.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 67,
"text": "Among the actors the main representatives are Alberto Sordi, Ugo Tognazzi, Vittorio Gassman, Marcello Mastroianni and Nino Manfredi, while among the actresses is Monica Vitti. Among directors and films, in 1961 Dino Risi directed Una vita difficile (A Difficult Life), then Il Sorpasso (The Easy Life), now a cult-movie, followed by: I Mostri (The Monsters, also known as 15 From Rome), In nome del popolo italiano (In the Name of the Italian People) and Profumo di donna (Scent of a Woman). Monicelli's works include La grande guerra (The Great War), I compagni (The Organizer), L'armata Brancaleone, Vogliamo i colonnelli (We Want the Colonels), Romanzo popolare (Come Home and Meet My Wife) and the Amici miei (My Friends) series.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 68,
"text": "For the majority of critics the true and proper \"Commedia all'italiana\" is to be considered definitively waned since the beginning of the 1980s, giving way, at most, to an \"Commedia italiana\" (\"Italian comedy\").",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 69,
"text": "At this time, on the more commercial side of production, the phenomenon of Totò, a Neapolitan actor who is acclaimed as the major Italian comic, exploded. His films (often with Aldo Fabrizi, Peppino De Filippo and almost always with Mario Castellani) expressed a sort of neorealistic satire, in the means of a guitto (a \"hammy\" actor) as well as with the art of the great dramatic actor he also was. Totò is one of the symbols of the cinema of Naples.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 70,
"text": "A \"film-machine\" who produced dozens of titles per year, his repertoire was frequently repeated. His personal story (a prince born in the poorest rione (section of the city) of Naples), his unique twisted face, his special mimic expressions and his gestures created an inimitable personage and made him one of the most beloved Italians of the 1960s.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 71,
"text": "Some of his best-known films are Fear and Sand by Mario Mattoli, Toto Tours Italy by Mario Mattoli, Toto the Sheik by Mario Mattoli, Cops and Robbers by Mario Monicelli, Toto and the Women by Mario Monicelli, Totò Tarzan by Mario Mattoli, Toto the Third Man by Mario Mattoli, Toto and the King of Rome by Mario Monicelli and Steno, Toto in Color by Steno (one of the first Italian colour movies, 1952, in Ferrania colour), Big Deal on Madonna Street by Mario Monicelli, Toto, Peppino, and the Hussy by Camillo Mastrocinque and The Law Is the Law by Christian-Jaque. Pier Paolo Pasolini's The Hawks and the Sparrows and the episode \"Che cosa sono le nuvole\" from Caprice Italian Style (the latter released after his death), showed his dramatic skills.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 72,
"text": "A series of black-and-white films based on Don Camillo and Peppone characters created by the Italian writer and journalist Giovannino Guareschi were made between 1952 and 1965. These were French-Italian coproductions, and starred Fernandel as the Italian priest Don Camillo and Gino Cervi as Giuseppe 'Peppone' Bottazzi, the Communist Mayor of their rural town. The titles are: The Little World of Don Camillo (1952), The Return of Don Camillo (1953), Don Camillo's Last Round (1955), Don Camillo: Monsignor (1961), and Don Camillo in Moscow (1965).",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 73,
"text": "The movies were a huge commercial success in their native countries. In 1952, Little World of Don Camillo became the highest-grossing film in both Italy and France, while The Return of Don Camillo was the second most popular film of 1953 at the Italian and French box office.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 74,
"text": "Mario Camerini began filming the film Don Camillo e i giovani d'oggi, but had to stop filming due to Fernandel's falling ill, which resulted in his untimely death. The film was then realized in 1972 with Gastone Moschin playing the role of Don Camillo and Lionel Stander as Peppone.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 75,
"text": "A new Don Camillo film, titled The World of Don Camillo, was also remade in 1983, an Italian production with Terence Hill directing and also starring as Don Camillo. Colin Blakely performed Peppone in one of his last film roles.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 76,
"text": "Hollywood on the Tiber is a phrase used to describe the period in the 1950s and 1960s when the Italian capital of Rome emerged as a major location for international filmmaking attracting many foreign productions to the Cinecittà studios, the largest film studio in Europe. By contrast to the native Italian film industry, these movies were made in English for global release. Although the primary markets for such films were American and British audiences, they enjoyed widespread popularity in other countries, including Italy.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 77,
"text": "In the late 1940s, Hollywood studios began to shift production abroad to Europe. Italy was, along with Britain, one of the major destinations for American film companies. Large-budget films shot at Cinecittà during the \"Hollywood on the Tiber\" era such as Quo Vadis (1951), Roman Holiday (1953), Ben-Hur (1959), and Cleopatra (1963) were made in English with international casts and sometimes, but not always, Italian settings or themes.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 78,
"text": "The heyday of what was dubbed '\"Hollywood on the Tiber\" was between 1950 and 1970, during which time many of the most famous names in world cinema made films in Italy. The phrase \"Hollywood on Tiber\", a reference to the river that runs through Rome, was coined in 1950 by Time magazine during the making of Quo Vadis.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 79,
"text": "Sword-and-sandal, also known as peplum (pepla plural), is a subgenre of largely Italian-made historical, mythological, or Biblical epics mostly set in the Greco-Roman antiquity or the Middle Ages. These films attempted to emulate the big-budget Hollywood historical epics of the time.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 80,
"text": "With the release of 1958's Hercules, starring American bodybuilder Steve Reeves, the Italian film industry gained entree to the American film market. These films were low-budget costume/adventure dramas, and had immediate appeal with both European and American audiences. Besides the many films starring a variety of muscle men as Hercules, heroes such as Samson and Italian fictional hero Maciste were common.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 81,
"text": "Sometimes dismissed as low-quality escapist fare, the sword-and-sandal allowed newer directors such as Sergio Leone and Mario Bava a means of breaking into the film industry. Some, such as Mario Bava's Hercules in the Haunted World (Italian: Ercole Al Centro Della Terra) are considered seminal works in their own right.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 82,
"text": "As the genre matured, budgets sometimes increased, as evidenced in 1962's I sette gladiatori (The Seven Gladiators in 1964 US release), a wide-screen epic with impressive sets and matte-painting work. Most sword-and-sandal films were in colour, whereas previous Italian efforts had often been black and white.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 83,
"text": "Musicarello (pl. musicarelli) is a film subgenre which emerged in Italy and which is characterised by the presence in main roles of young singers, already famous among their peers, and their new record album. The genre began in the late 1950s, and had its peak of production in the 1960s.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 84,
"text": "The film which started the genre is considered to be I ragazzi del Juke-Box by Lucio Fulci (1959). The musicarelli were inspired by two American musicals, in particular Jailhouse Rock by Richard Thorpe (1957) and earlier Love Me Tender by Robert D. Webb (1956), both starring Elvis Presley.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 85,
"text": "At the heart of the musicarello is a hit song, or a song that the producers hoped would become a hit, that usually shares its title with the film itself and sometimes has lyrics depicting a part of the plot. In the films there are almost always tender and chaste love stories accompanied by the desire to have fun and dance without thoughts. Musicarelli reflect the desire and need for emancipation of young Italians, highlighting some generational frictions.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 86,
"text": "With the arrival of the 1968 student protests the genre started to decline, because the generational revolt became explicitly political and at the same time there was no longer music equally directed to the whole youth audience. For some time the duo Al Bano and Romina Power continued to enjoy success in musicarello films, but their films (like their songs) were a return to the traditional melody and to the musical films of the previous decades.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 87,
"text": "On the heels of the sword-and-sandal craze, a related genre, the Spaghetti Western arose and was popular both in Italy and elsewhere. These films differed from traditional westerns by being filmed in Europe on limited budgets, but featured vivid cinematography. The term was used by foreign critics because most of these westerns were produced and directed by Italians.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 88,
"text": "The most popular Spaghetti Westerns were those of Sergio Leone, credited as the inventor of the genre, whose Dollars Trilogy (1964's A Fistful of Dollars, an unauthorized remake of the Japanese film Yojimbo by Akira Kurosawa; 1965's For a Few Dollars More, an original sequel; and 1966's The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, a World-famous prequel), featuring Clint Eastwood as a character marketed as \"the Man with No Name\" and notorious scores by Ennio Morricone, came to define the genre along with Once Upon a Time in the West (1968).",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 89,
"text": "Another popular Spaghetti Western film is Sergio Corbucci Django (1966), starring Franco Nero as the titular character, another Yojimbo plagiarism, produced to capitalize on the success of A Fistful of Dollars. The original Django was followed by both an authorized sequel (1987's Django Strikes Again) and an overwhelming number of unauthorized uses of the same character in other films.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 90,
"text": "Also considered Spaghetti Westerns is a film genre which combined traditional western ambience with a Commedia all'italiana-type comedy; films including They Call Me Trinity (1970) and Trinity Is Still My Name (1971), both by Enzo Barboni, which featured Bud Spencer and Terence Hill, the stage names of Carlo Pedersoli and Mario Girotti.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 91,
"text": "Terence Hill and Bud Spencer made numerous films together. Most of their early films were Spaghetti Westerns, beginning with God Forgives... I Don't! (1967), the first part of a trilogy, followed by Ace High (1968) and Boot Hill (1969), but they also starred in comedies such as ... All the Way, Boys! (1972) and Watch Out, We're Mad! (1974).",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 92,
"text": "The next films shot by the couple of actors, almost all comedies, were Two Missionaries (1974), Crime Busters (1977), Odds and Evens (1978), I'm for the Hippopotamus (1979), Who Finds a Friend Finds a Treasure (1981), Go for It (1983), Double Trouble (1984), Miami Supercops (1985) and Troublemakers (1994).",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 93,
"text": "During the 1960s and 1970s, Italian filmmakers Mario Bava, Riccardo Freda, Antonio Margheriti and Dario Argento developed giallo (plural gialli, from giallo, Italian for \"yellow\") horror films that become classics and influenced the genre in other countries. Representative films include: The Girl Who Knew Too Much (1963), Castle of Blood (1964), The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (1970), Twitch of the Death Nerve (1971), Deep Red (1975) and Suspiria (1977).",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 94,
"text": "Giallo is a genre of mystery fiction and thrillers and often contains slasher, crime fiction, psychological thriller, psychological horror, sexploitation, and, less frequently, supernatural horror elements. Giallo developed in the mid-to-late 1960s, peaked in popularity during the 1970s, and subsequently declined in commercial mainstream filmmaking over the next few decades, though examples continue to be produced. It was a predecessor to, and had significant influence on, the later American slasher film genre.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 95,
"text": "Giallo usually blends the atmosphere and suspense of thriller fiction with elements of horror fiction (such as slasher violence) and eroticism (similar to the French fantastique genre), and often involves a mysterious killer whose identity is not revealed until the final act of the film. Most critics agree that the giallo represents a distinct category with unique features, but there is some disagreement on what exactly defines a giallo film.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 96,
"text": "Giallo films are generally characterized as gruesome murder-mystery thrillers that combine the suspense elements of detective fiction with scenes of shocking horror, featuring excessive bloodletting, stylish camerawork and often jarring musical arrangements. The archetypal giallo plot involves a mysterious, black-gloved psychopathic killer who stalks and butchers a series of beautiful women. While most gialli involve a human killer, some also feature a supernatural element.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 97,
"text": "The typical giallo protagonist is an outsider of some type, often a traveller, tourist, outcast, or even an alienated or disgraced private investigator, and frequently a young woman, often a young woman who is lonely or alone in a strange or foreign situation or environment (gialli rarely or less frequently feature law enforcement officers as chief protagonists).",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 98,
"text": "The protagonists are generally or often unconnected to the murders before they begin and are drawn to help find the killer through their role as witnesses to one of the murders. The mystery is the identity of the killer, who is often revealed in the climax to be another key character, who conceals his or her identity with a disguise (usually some combination of hat, mask, sunglasses, gloves, and trench coat). Thus, the literary whodunit element of the giallo novels is retained, while being filtered through horror genre elements and Italy's long-standing tradition of opera and staged grand guignol drama. The structure of giallo films is also sometimes reminiscent of the so-called \"weird menace\" pulp magazine horror mystery genre alongside Edgar Allan Poe and Agatha Christie.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 99,
"text": "Poliziotteschi (plural of poliziottesco) films constitute a subgenre of crime and action films that emerged in Italy in the late 1960s and reached the height of their popularity in the 1970s. They are also known as polizieschi all'italiana, Euro-crime, Italo-crime, spaghetti crime films', or simply Italian crime films.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 100,
"text": "Influenced by both 1970s French crime films and gritty 1960s and 1970s American cop films and vigilante films, poliziotteschi films were made amidst an atmosphere of socio-political turmoil in Italy and increasing Italian crime rates.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 101,
"text": "The films generally featured graphic and brutal violence, organized crime, car chases, vigilantism, heists, gunfights, and corruption up to the highest levels. The protagonists were generally tough working-class loners, willing to act outside a corrupt or overly bureaucratic system. Notable international actors who acted in this genre of films include Alain Delon, Henry Silva, Fred Williamson, Charles Bronson, Tomas Milian and others.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 102,
"text": "Franco and Ciccio were a comedy duo formed by Italian actors Franco Franchi (1928–1992) and Ciccio Ingrassia (1922–2003), particularly popular in the 1960s and 1970s. Together, they appeared in 116 films, usually as the main characters, and occasionally as supporting characters in films featuring well-known actors such as Totò, Domenico Modugno, Vittorio Gassman, Buster Keaton and Vincent Price.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 103,
"text": "Their collaboration began in 1954 in the theatre field, and ended with Franchi's death in 1992. The two made their cinema debut in 1960 with the film Appuntamento a Ischia. After, seeing them in this film Modugno, who wanted them with him in his film, and remained active until 1984 when they shot their last film together, Kaos, although there were some interruptions in 1973, and from 1975 to 1980.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 104,
"text": "They acted in films certainly made in a short time and with few means, such as those shot with director Marcello Ciorciolini, sometimes even making a dozen films in a year, often without a real script and where they often improvised on the set. Also are the 13 films directed by Lucio Fulci, who was the architect of the reversal of their typical roles by making Ciccio the serious one, the sidekick, and Franco the comic one.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 105,
"text": "They also worked with important directors such as Pier Paolo Pasolini and the Taviani brothers. At the time, they were considered protagonists of B movie, they were subsequently reevaluated by critics for their comedy and creative abilities, becoming the subject of study. The huge success with the public is evidenced by the box office earnings, which in the 1960s, represented 10% of the annual earnings in Italy.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 106,
"text": "The auteur cinema of the 1960s continues its path by analyzing distinct themes and problems. A new authorial vision is emancipated from the surreal and existential veins of Fellini and Antonioni which sees cinema as an ideal means of denouncing corruption and malfeasance, both in the political system and in the industrial world. Thus was born the structure of the investigative film which, starting from the neorealist analysis of the facts, added to them a concise critical judgment, with the manifest intent of shaking the consciences of public opinion. This typology deliberately touches upon burning issues, often targeting the established power, with the intent of reconstructing a historical truth that is often hidden or denied.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 107,
"text": "The precursor of this way of understanding the director's profession was Francesco Rosi. In 1962 he inaugurated the investigation film project retracing, through a series of long flashbacks, the life of the homonym Sicilian criminal in the film Salvatore Giuliano. The following year he directed Rod Steiger in Hands over the City (1963), in which he courageously denounced the collusion existing between the various organs of the State and the building exploitation in Naples. The film was awarded the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 108,
"text": "One of Francesco Rosi's most famous films of denunciation is The Mattei Affair (1972), a rigorous documentary into the mysterious disappearance of Enrico Mattei, manager of Eni, a large Italian state group. The film won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. It became (together with the tight Illustrious Corpses (1976)) a true model for similar denunciation films produced both in Italy and abroad. Famous films of denunciation by Elio Petri are The Working Class Goes to Heaven (1971), a corrosive denunciation of life in the factory (winner of the Palme d'Or at Cannes) and Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion (1970). The latter (accompanied by the incisive soundtrack by Ennio Morricone) is a dry psychoanalytic thriller centred on the aberrations of power, analyzed in a pathological key. The film obtained a wide consensus, winning the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film the following year.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 109,
"text": "Arguments related to civilian cinema can be found in the work of Damiano Damiani, who with The Day of the Owl (1968) enjoyed considerable success. Other feature films include, Confessions of a Police Captain (1971), The Case Is Closed, Forget It (1971), How to Kill a Judge (1974) and I Am Afraid (1977). Also Pasquale Squitieri for the film Il prefetto di ferro (1977) and Giuliano Montaldo, who after some experiences as an actor, staged some historical and political films such as The Fifth Day of Peace (1970), Sacco & Vanzetti (1971) and Giordano Bruno (1973). Also Nanni Loy for the film In Prison Awaiting Trial (1971) starring Alberto Sordi.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 110,
"text": "In the 1970s the work done by the director Lina Wertmüller was influential, who together with the well-established actors Giancarlo Giannini and Mariangela Melato, gave life to successful films such as The Seduction of Mimi (1972), Love and Anarchy (1973) and Swept Away (1974). Two years later, with Seven Beauties (1976), she obtained four nominations for the Academy Awards, making her the first woman ever to receive a nomination for best director.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 111,
"text": "The last protagonist of the great season of the comedy is the director Ettore Scola. Throughout the 1950s, he played the role of screenwriter, and then makes his directorial debut in 1964 with the film Let's Talk About Women. In 1974, he directed his best-known film, We All Loved Each Other So Much, which traces 30 years of Italian history through the stories of three friends: the lawyer Gianni Perego (Vittorio Gassman), the porter Antonio (Nino Manfredi) and the intellectual Nicola (Stefano Satta Flores). Other films include, Down and Dirty (1976) starring Nino Manfredi, and A Special Day (1977) starring Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 112,
"text": "Commedia sexy all'italiana is characterized typically by both abundant female nudity and comedy, and by the minimal weight given to social criticism that was the basic ingredient of the main commedia all'italiana genre. Stories are often set in affluent environments such as wealthy households. It is closely connected to the sexual revolution, which was extremely new and innovative for that period. For the first time, films with female nudity could be watched at the cinema. Pornography and scenes of explicit sex were still forbidden in Italian cinemas, but partial nudity was somewhat tolerated. The genre has been described as a cross between bawdy comedy and humorous erotic film with ample slapstick elements which follow more or less clichéd storylines.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 113,
"text": "During this time, commedia sexy all'italiana films, described by the film critics of the time as not artistic or \"trash films\", were very popular in Italy. Today they are widely re-evaluated and have become real cult movies. They also allowed the producers of Italian cinema to have enough revenue to produce successful artistic films. These comedy films were of little artistic value and reached their popularity by confronting Italian social taboos, most notably in the sexual sphere. Actors such as Lando Buzzanca, Lino Banfi, Renzo Montagnani, Alvaro Vitali, Gloria Guida, Barbara Bouchet and Edwige Fenech owe much of their popularity to these films.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 114,
"text": "The films starring Ugo Fantozzi, a character invented by Paolo Villaggio for his television sketches and newspaper short stories, also fell within the comic satirical comedy genre. Although Villaggio's movies tend to bridge comedy with a more elevated social satire, this character had a great impact on Italian society, to such a degree that the adjective fantozziano entered the lexicon. Ugo Fantozzi represents the archetype of the average Italian of the 1970s, middle-class with a simple lifestyle with the anxieties common to an entire class of workers, being re-evaluated by critics.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 115,
"text": "Of the many films telling of Fantozzi's misadventures, the most notable and famous were Fantozzi (1975) and Il secondo tragico Fantozzi (1976), both directed by Luciano Salce, but many others were produced. The other films were Fantozzi contro tutti (1980) directed by Neri Parenti, Fantozzi subisce ancora (1983) by Neri Parenti, Superfantozzi (1986) by Neri Parenti, Fantozzi va in pensione (1988) by Neri Parenti, Fantozzi alla riscossa (1990) by Neri Parenti, Fantozzi in paradiso (1993) by Neri Parenti, Fantozzi - Il ritorno (1996) by Neri Parenti and Fantozzi 2000 - La clonazione (1999) by Domenico Saverni.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 116,
"text": "The sceneggiata (pl. sceneggiate) or sceneggiata napoletana is a form of musical drama typical of Naples. Beginning as a form of musical theatre after World War I, it was also adapted for cinema; sceneggiata films became especially popular in the 1970s, and contributed to the genre becoming more widely known outside Naples. The most famous actors who played dramas were Mario Merola, Mario Trevi, and Nino D'Angelo.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 117,
"text": "The sceneggiata can be roughly described as a \"musical soap opera\", where action and dialogue are interspersed with Neapolitan songs. Plots revolve around melodramatic themes drawing from the Neapolitan culture and tradition, including passion, jealousy, betrayal, personal deceit and treachery, honour, vengeance, and life in the world of petty crime. Songs and dialogue were originally in Neapolitan dialect, although, especially in film production, Italian has sometimes been preferred, to reach a larger audience.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 118,
"text": "Sgarro alla camorra (i.e. \"Offence to the Camorra\", 1973), written and directed by Ettore Maria Fizzarotti and starring Mario Merola at his film debut, is regarded as the first sceneggiata film and as a prototype for the genre. It was shot in Cetara, Province of Salerno. Outside Italy, sceneggiata is mostly known in areas populated by Italian immigrants. Besides Naples, the second homeland of sceneggiata is probably Little Italy in New York City.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 119,
"text": "The 1980s was a period of decline for Italian filmmaking. In 1985, only 80 films were produced (the least since the postwar period) and the total number of audience decreased from 525 million in 1970 to 123 million. It is a physiological process that invests, in the same period as other countries, with a great cinematographic tradition such as Japan, United Kingdom and France. The era of producers ended; Carlo Ponti and Dino De Laurentiis work abroad, Goffredo Lombardo and Franco Cristaldi were no longer key figures. The crisis affects the Italian genre cinema above all, which, by virtue of the success of commercial television, is deprived of the vast majority of its audience. As a result, cinemas began showing mainly Hollywood films, which steadily took over, while many other cinemas closed.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 120,
"text": "Among the major artistic films of this era were La città delle donne, E la nave va, Ginger and Fred by Fellini, L'albero degli zoccoli by Ermanno Olmi (winner of the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival), La notte di San Lorenzo by Paolo and Vittorio Taviani, Antonioni's Identificazione di una donna, and Bianca and La messa è finita by Nanni Moretti. Although not entirely Italian, Bernardo Bertolucci's The Last Emperor, winner of 9 Oscars including Best Picture and Best Director, and Once Upon a Time in America of Sergio Leone came out of this period also.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 121,
"text": "Non ci resta che piangere, directed by and starring both Roberto Benigni and Massimo Troisi, is a cult movie in Italy.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 122,
"text": "Carlo Verdone, actor, screenwriter and film director, is best known for his comedic roles in Italian classics, which he also wrote and directed. His career was jumpstarted by his first three successes, Un sacco bello (1980), Bianco, rosso e Verdone (1981) and Borotalco (1982). Since the 1990s, he has been introducing more serious subjects in his work, linked to the excesses of society and the individual's hardships in confronting it; some examples are Maledetto il giorno che t'ho incontrata (1992), Il mio miglior nemico (2006) and Io, loro e Lara (2010).",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 123,
"text": "Francesco Nuti began his professional career as an actor in the late 1970s, when he formed the cabaret group Giancattivi together with Alessandro Benvenuti and Athina Cenci. The group took part in the TV shows Black Out and Non Stop for RAI TV, and shot their first feature film, West of Paperino (1981), written and directed by Benvenuti. The following year Nuti abandoned the trio and began a solo career with three movies directed by Maurizio Ponzi: What a Ghostly Silence There Is Tonight (1982), The Pool Hustlers (1982) and Son contento (1983). Starting in 1985, he began to direct his movies, scoring an immediate success with the films Casablanca, Casablanca and All the Fault of Paradise (1985), Stregati (1987), Caruso Pascoski, Son of a Pole (1988), Willy Signori e vengo da lontano (1990) and Women in Skirts (1991). The 1990s were however a period of decline for the Tuscan director, with poorly successful movies such as OcchioPinocchio (1994), Mr. Fifteen Balls (1998), Io amo Andrea (2000) and Caruso, Zero for Conduct (2001).",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 124,
"text": "The cinepanettoni (singular: cinepanettone) are a series of farcical comedy films, one or two of which are scheduled for release annually in Italy during the Christmas period. The films were originally produced by Aurelio De Laurentiis' Filmauro studio. These films are usually focused on the holidays of stereotypical Italians: bungling, wealthy and presumptuous members of the middle class who visit famous, glamorous or exotic places.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 125,
"text": "The economic crisis that emerged in the 1980s began to ease over the next decade. Nonetheless, the 1992–93 and 1993–94 seasons marked an all-time low in the number of films made, in the national market share (15 per cent), in the total number of viewers (under 90 million per year) and in the number of cinemas. The effect of this industrial contraction sanctions the total disappearance of Italian genre cinema in the middle of the decade, as it was no longer suitable to compete with the contemporary big Hollywood blockbusters (mainly due to the enormous budget differences available), with its directors and actors who therefore almost entirely switch to television film.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 126,
"text": "A new generation of directors has helped return Italian cinema to a healthy level since the end of the 1980s. Probably the most noted film of the period is Nuovo Cinema Paradiso, for which Giuseppe Tornatore won a 1989 Oscar (awarded in 1990) for Best Foreign Language Film. This award was followed when Gabriele Salvatores's Mediterraneo won the same prize in 1991.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 127,
"text": "Il Postino: The Postman (1994), directed by the British Michael Radford and starring Massimo Troisi, received five nominations at the Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Actor for Troisi, and won for Best Original Score. Another exploit was in 1998 when Roberto Benigni won three Oscars for his movie Life Is Beautiful (La vita è bella) (Best Actor for Benigni himself, Best Foreign Film, Best Music). The film was also nominated for Best Picture.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 128,
"text": "Leonardo Pieraccioni made his directorial debut with The Graduates (1995). In 1996 he directed his breakthrough film The Cyclone, which grossed Lire 75 billion at the box office.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 129,
"text": "With the new millennium, the Italian film industry regained stability and critical recognition. In 1995, 93 films were produced, while in 2005, 274 films were made. In 2006, the national market share reached 31 per cent. In 2001, Nanni Moretti's film The Son's Room (La stanza del figlio) received the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. Other noteworthy recent Italian films include: Jona che visse nella balena directed by Roberto Faenza, Il grande cocomero by Francesca Archibugi, The Profession of Arms (Il mestiere delle armi) by Olmi, L'ora di religione by Marco Bellocchio, Il ladro di bambini, Lamerica, The Keys to the House (Le chiavi di casa) by Gianni Amelio, I'm Not Scared (Io non-ho paura) by Gabriele Salvatores, Le Fate Ignoranti, Facing Windows (La finestra di fronte) by Ferzan Özpetek, Good Morning, Night (Buongiorno, notte) by Marco Bellocchio, The Best of Youth (La meglio gioventù) by Marco Tullio Giordana, The Beast in the Heart (La bestia nel cuore) by Cristina Comencini. In 2008 Paolo Sorrentino's Il Divo, a biographical film based on the life of Giulio Andreotti, won the Jury prize and Gomorra, a crime drama film, directed by Matteo Garrone won the Gran Prix at the Cannes Film Festival.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 130,
"text": "Paolo Sorrentino's The Great Beauty (La Grande Bellezza) won the 2014 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 131,
"text": "The two highest-grossing Italian films in Italy have both been directed by Gennaro Nunziante and starred Checco Zalone: Sole a catinelle (2013) with €51.8 million, and Quo Vado? (2016) with €65.3 million.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 132,
"text": "They Call Me Jeeg, a 2016 critically acclaimed superhero film directed by Gabriele Mainetti and starring Claudio Santamaria, won many awards, such as eight David di Donatello, two Nastro d'Argento, and a Globo d'oro.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 133,
"text": "Gianfranco Rosi's documentary film Fire at Sea (2016) won the Golden Bear at the 66th Berlin International Film Festival. They Call Me Jeeg and Fire at Sea were also selected as the Italian entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 89th Academy Awards, but they were not nominated.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 134,
"text": "Other successful 2010s Italian films include: Vincere and The Traitor by Marco Bellocchio, The First Beautiful Thing (La prima cosa bella), Human Capital (Il capitale umano) and Like Crazy (La pazza gioia) by Paolo Virzì, We Have a Pope (Habemus Papam) and Mia Madre by Nanni Moretti, Caesar Must Die (Cesare deve morire) by Paolo and Vittorio Taviani, Don't Be Bad (Non essere cattivo) by Claudio Caligari, Romanzo Criminale by Michele Placido (that spawned a TV series, Romanzo criminale - La serie), Youth (La giovinezza) by Paolo Sorrentino, Suburra by Stefano Sollima, Perfect Strangers (Perfetti sconosciuti) by Paolo Genovese, Mediterranea and A Ciambra by Jonas Carpignano, Italian Race (Veloce come il vento) and The First King: Birth of an Empire (Il primo re) by Matteo Rovere, and Tale of Tales (Il racconto dei racconti), Dogman and Pinocchio by Matteo Garrone.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 135,
"text": "Call Me by Your Name (2017), the final installment in Luca Guadagnino's thematic Desire trilogy, following I Am Love (2009) and A Bigger Splash (2015), received widespread acclaim and numerous accolades, including the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay and the nomination for Best Picture in 2018.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 136,
"text": "Perfect Strangers by Paolo Genovese was included in the Guinness World Records as it became the most remade film in cinema history, with a total of 18 versions of the film.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 137,
"text": "Successful 2020s Italian films include: The Life Ahead by Edoardo Ponti, Hidden Away by Giorgio Diritti, Bad Tales by Damiano and Fabio D'Innocenzo, The Predators by Pietro Castellitto, Padrenostro by Claudio Noce, Notturno by Gianfranco Rosi, The King of Laughter by Mario Martone, A Chiara by Jonas Carpignano, Freaks Out by Gabriele Mainetti, The Hand of God by Paolo Sorrentino, Nostalgia by Mario Martone, Dry by Paolo Giordano, The Hanging Sun by Francesco Carrozzini, Bones and All by Luca Guadagnino, L'immensità by Emanuele Crialese, Robbing Mussolini by Renato De Maria, Adagio by Stefano Sollima, There's Still Tomorrow by Paola Cortellesi, Last Night of Amore by Andrea Di Stefano, The First Day of My Life by Paolo Genovese, Thank You Guys by Riccardo Milani, Io capitano by Matteo Garrone, A Brighter Tomorrow by Nanni Moretti and Comandante by Edoardo De Angelis.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 138,
"text": "The list of the 100 Italian films to be saved (Italian: 100 film italiani da salvare) was created with the aim to report \"100 films that have changed the collective memory of the country between 1942 and 1978\". The project was established in 2008 by the Venice Days festival section of the 65th Venice International Film Festival, in collaboration with Cinecittà Holding and with the support of the Ministry of Cultural Heritage.",
"title": "100 Italian films to be saved"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 139,
"text": "The list was edited by Fabio Ferzetti, film critic of the newspaper Il Messaggero, in collaboration with film director Gianni Amelio and the writers and film critics Gian Piero Brunetta, Giovanni De Luna, Gianluca Farinelli, Giovanna Grignaffini, Paolo Mereghetti, Morando Morandini, Domenico Starnone and Sergio Toffetti.",
"title": "100 Italian films to be saved"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 140,
"text": "Cineteca Nazionale is a film archive located in Rome. Founded in 1949, it includes 80,000 films on file, 600,000 photographs, 50,000 posters and the collection of the Italian Association for the History of Cinema Research (AIRSC). It arose from the archival heritage of the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia, which in 1943, had been removed by the Nazi occupiers. Cineteca Italiana is a private film archive located in Milan. Established in 1947, and as a foundation in 1996, the Cineteca Italiana houses over 20,000 films and more than 100,000 photographs from the history of Italian and international cinema. Cineteca di Bologna is a film archive in Bologna. It was founded in 1962.",
"title": "Cinematheques"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 141,
"text": "The National Museum of Cinema in Turin is a motion picture museum inside the Mole Antonelliana tower. It is operated by the Maria Adriana Prolo Foundation, and the core of its collection is the result of the work of the historian and collector Maria Adriana Prolo. It was housed in the Palazzo Chiablese. In 2008, with 532,196 visitors, it ranked 13th among the most visited Italian museums. The museum houses pre-cinematographic optical devices such as magic lanterns, earlier and current film technologies, stage items from early Italian movies and other memorabilia. Along the exhibition path of about 35,000 square feet (3,200 m) on five levels are areas devoted to the different kinds of film crew, and in the main hall, fitted in the temple hall of the Mole, a series of chapels representing several film genres.",
"title": "Museums"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 142,
"text": "The Museum of Precinema is a museum in the Palazzo Angeli, Prato della Valle, Padua, related to the history of precinema, or precursors of film. It was created in 1998 to display the Minici Zotti Collection, in collaboration with the Comune of Padova.",
"title": "Museums"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 143,
"text": "The Cinema Museum of Rome is located in Cinecittà. The collections consist of movie posters and playbills, cine cameras, projectors, magic lanterns, stage costumes and the patent of Filoteo Alberini's \"kinetograph\". The Milan Cinema Museum, managed by the Cineteca Italiana, is divided into three sections, the precinema, animation cinema and \"Milan as a film set\", as well as multimedia and interactive stations.",
"title": "Museums"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 144,
"text": "The Catania Cinema Museum exhibits documents concerning cinema, its techniques and its history, particularly the link between cinema and Sicily. The Cinema Museum of Syracuse collects more than 10,000 exhibits on display in 12 rooms.",
"title": "Museums"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 145,
"text": "After the United States and the United Kingdom, Italy has the most Academy Awards wins.",
"title": "Italian Academy Award winners"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 146,
"text": "Italy is the most awarded country at the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, with 14 awards won, 3 Special Awards and 31 nominations. Winners with the year of the ceremony:",
"title": "Italian Academy Award winners"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 147,
"text": "In 1961, Sophia Loren won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in Vittorio De Sica's Two Women. She was the first actress to win an Academy Award for a performance in any foreign language, and the second Italian leading lady Oscar-winner, after Anna Magnani for The Rose Tattoo. In 1998, Roberto Benigni was the first Italian actor to win the Best Actor for Life Is Beautiful.",
"title": "Italian Academy Award winners"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 148,
"text": "Italian-born filmmaker Frank Capra won three times at the Academy Award for Best Director, for It Happened One Night, Mr. Deeds Goes to Town and You Can't Take It with You. Bernardo Bertolucci won the award for The Last Emperor, and also Best Adapted Screenplay for the same movie.",
"title": "Italian Academy Award winners"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 149,
"text": "Ennio De Concini, Alfredo Giannetti and Pietro Germi won the award for Best Original Screenplay for Divorce Italian Style. The Academy Award for Best Film Editing was won by Gabriella Cristiani for The Last Emperor and by Pietro Scalia for JFK and Black Hawk Down.",
"title": "Italian Academy Award winners"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 150,
"text": "The award for Best Original Score was won by Nino Rota for The Godfather Part II; Giorgio Moroder for Midnight Express; Nicola Piovani for Life is Beautiful; Dario Marianelli for Atonement; and Ennio Morricone for The Hateful Eight. Giorgio Moroder also won the award for Best Original Song for Flashdance and Top Gun.",
"title": "Italian Academy Award winners"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 151,
"text": "The Italian winners at the Academy Award for Best Production Design are Dario Simoni for Lawrence of Arabia and Doctor Zhivago; Elio Altramura and Gianni Quaranta for A Room with a View; Bruno Cesari, Osvaldo Desideri and Ferdinando Scarfiotti for The Last Emperor; Luciana Arrighi for Howards End; and Dante Ferretti and Francesca Lo Schiavo for The Aviator, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street and Hugo.",
"title": "Italian Academy Award winners"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 152,
"text": "The winners at the Academy Award for Best Cinematography are: Tony Gaudio for Anthony Adverse; Pasqualino De Santis for Romeo and Juliet; Vittorio Storaro for Apocalypse Now, Reds and The Last Emperor; and Mauro Fiore for Avatar.",
"title": "Italian Academy Award winners"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 153,
"text": "The winners at the Academy Award for Best Costume Design are Piero Gherardi for La dolce vita and 8½; Vittorio Nino Novarese for Cleopatra and Cromwell; Danilo Donati for The Taming of the Shrew, Romeo and Juliet, and Fellini's Casanova; Franca Squarciapino for Cyrano de Bergerac; Gabriella Pescucci for The Age of Innocence; and Milena Canonero for Barry Lyndon, Chariots of Fire, Marie Antoinette and The Grand Budapest Hotel.",
"title": "Italian Academy Award winners"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 154,
"text": "Special effects artist Carlo Rambaldi won three Oscars: one Special Achievement Academy Award for Best Visual Effects for King Kong and two Academy Awards for Best Visual Effects for Alien (1979) and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. The Academy Award for Best Makeup and Hairstyling was won by Manlio Rocchetti for Driving Miss Daisy, and Alessandro Bertolazzi and Giorgio Gregorini for Suicide Squad.",
"title": "Italian Academy Award winners"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 155,
"text": "Sophia Loren, Federico Fellini, Michelangelo Antonioni, Dino De Laurentiis, Ennio Morricone, and Piero Tosi also received the Academy Honorary Award.",
"title": "Italian Academy Award winners"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 156,
"text": "The Association of Italian Film Festivals (AFIC; Italian: Associazione Festival italiani di cinema) is the peak body for film festivals held in Italy.",
"title": "Festivals and film awards"
}
] |
The cinema of Italy comprises the films made within Italy or by Italian directors. Italy is one of the birthplaces of art cinema and the stylistic aspect of film has been one of the most important factors in the history of Italian film. As of 2018, Italian films have won 14 Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film as well as 12 Palmes d'Or, one Academy Award for Best Picture and many Golden Lions and Golden Bears. The history of Italian cinema began a few months after the Lumière brothers began motion picture exhibitions. The first Italian director is considered to be Vittorio Calcina, a collaborator of the Lumière Brothers, who filmed Pope Leo XIII in 1896. The first films were made in the main cities of the Italian peninsula. These brief experiments immediately met the curiosity of the general public, encouraging operators to produce new films and laying the foundation for a true film industry. In the early 20th century, silent cinema developed, bringing numerous Italian stars to the forefront. In the early 1900s, epic films such as Otello (1906), The Last Days of Pompeii (1908), L'Inferno (1911), Quo Vadis (1913), and Cabiria (1914), were made as adaptations of books or stage plays. The oldest European avant-garde cinema movement, Italian futurism, emerged in the late 1910s. After a period of decline in the 1920s, the Italian film industry was revitalized in the 1930s with the arrival of sound film. A popular Italian genre during this period, the Telefoni Bianchi, consisted of comedies with glamorous backgrounds. Calligrafismo was in sharp contrast to Telefoni Bianchi-American style comedies and is rather artistic, highly formalistic, expressive in complexity and deals mainly with contemporary literary material. While Italy's Fascist government provided financial support for the nation's film industry, notably the construction of the Cinecittà studios, it also engaged in censorship, and thus many Italian films produced in the late 1930s were propaganda films. The end of World War II saw the birth of the influential Italian neorealist movement, which reached vast audiences throughout the post-war period, and which launched the directorial careers of Luchino Visconti, Roberto Rossellini, and Vittorio De Sica. Neorealism declined in the late 1950s in favour of lighter films, such as those of the Commedia all'italiana genre and directors like Federico Fellini and Michelangelo Antonioni. Actresses such as Sophia Loren, Giulietta Masina, Claudia Cardinale, Monica Vitti, Anna Magnani and Gina Lollobrigida achieved international stardom during this period. From the mid-1950s to the end of the 1970s, Commedia all'italiana and many other genres arose due to auteur cinema, and Italian cinema reached a position of great prestige both nationally and abroad. The Spaghetti Western achieved popularity in the mid-1960s, peaking with Sergio Leone's Dollars Trilogy, which featured enigmatic scores by composer Ennio Morricone, which have become icons of the Western genre. Erotic Italian thrillers, or giallo, produced by directors such as Mario Bava and Dario Argento in the 1970s, influenced the horror genre worldwide. During the 1980s and 1990s, directors such as Ermanno Olmi, Bernardo Bertolucci, Giuseppe Tornatore, Gabriele Salvatores and Roberto Benigni brought critical acclaim back to Italian cinema, while the most popular directors of the 2000s and 2010s were Matteo Garrone, Paolo Sorrentino, Marco Bellocchio, Nanni Moretti and Marco Tullio Giordana.
The country is known for its Venice Film Festival, the oldest film festival in the world, held annually since 1932 and awarding the Golden Lion; and for the David di Donatello. In 2008 the Venice Days, a section held in parallel to the Venice Film Festival, has produced in collaboration with Cinecittà studios and the Ministry of Cultural Heritage a list of a 100 films that have changed the collective memory of the country between 1942 and 1978: the "100 Italian films to be saved".
|
2001-03-18T08:16:12Z
|
2023-12-31T02:36:13Z
|
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinema_of_Italy
|
10,789 |
Cinema of Poland
|
The history of cinema in Poland is almost as long as the history of cinematography, and it has universally recognized achievements, even though Polish films tend to be less commercially available than films from several other European nations.
After World War II, the communist government built an auteur-based national cinema, trained hundreds of new directors and empowered them to make films. Filmmakers like Roman Polański, Krzysztof Kieślowski, Agnieszka Holland, Andrzej Wajda, Andrzej Żuławski, Andrzej Munk, and Jerzy Skolimowski impacted the development of Polish film-making. In more recent years, the industry has been producer-led with finance being the key to a film being made, and with many independent filmmakers of all genres, Polish productions tend to be more inspired by American film.
The first cinema was founded in Łódź in 1899, several years after the invention of the Cinematograph. Initially dubbed Living Pictures Theatre, it gained much popularity and by the end of the next decade there were cinemas in almost every major town in Poland. Arguably the first Polish filmmaker was Kazimierz Prószyński, who filmed various short documentaries in Warsaw. His pleograph film camera had been patented before the Lumière brothers' invention and he is credited as the author of the earliest surviving Polish documentary titled Ślizgawka w Łazienkach (Skating-rink in the Royal Baths), as well as the first short narrative films Powrót birbanta (Rake's return home) and Przygoda dorożkarza (Cabman's Adventure), both created in 1902. Another pioneer of cinema was Bolesław Matuszewski, who became one of the first filmmakers working for the Lumière company - and the official "cinematographer" of the Russian tsars in 1897.
The earliest surviving short film is Pruska kultura (Prussian Culture) and the earliest surviving feature film is Antoś pierwszy raz w Warszawie (Antoś for the First Time in Warsaw). Both of them were made in 1908, the first one by unkown director and the second one by Antoni Fertner. The date of Antoś' première, October 22, 1908, is considered the founding date of the Polish film industry. Soon Polish artists started experimenting with other genres of cinema: in 1910 Władysław Starewicz made one of the first animated cartoons in the world - and the first to use the stop motion technique, the Piękna Lukanida (Beautiful Lukanida). By the start of World War I the cinema in Poland was already in full swing, with numerous adaptations of major works of Polish literature screened (notably the Dzieje grzechu, Meir Ezofowicz and Nad Niemnem).
During World War I the Polish cinema crossed borders. Films made in Warsaw or Vilnius were often rebranded with German-language intertitles and shown in Berlin. That was how a young actress Pola Negri (born Barbara Apolonia Chałupiec) gained fame in Germany and eventually became one of the European super-stars of silent film.
The first woman to direct a film in Poland and the only female film director of the Polish silent film era was Nina Niovilla. She debuted in 1918 in Berlin, and then directed her first Polish film titled Tamara (also known under the title Obrońcy Lwowa) in 1919.
During World War II, Polish filmmakers in Great Britain created the anti-Nazi color film Calling Mr. Smith (1943) about Nazi crimes in occupied Europe and about Nazi propaganda. It was one of the first anti-Nazi films in history being both an avant-garde and a documentary film.
In November 1945, the communist government founded the film production and distribution organization Film Polski, and put the well-known Polish People's Army filmmaker Aleksander Ford in charge. Starting with a few railway carriages full of film equipment taken from the Germans they proceed to train and build a Polish film industry. The FP output was limited; only thirteen features were released between 1947 and its dissolution in 1952, concentrating on Polish suffering at the hands of the Nazis. In 1947, Ford moved to help establish the new National Film School in Łódź, where he taught for 20 years.
The industry used imported cameras and film stocks. At first ORWO black and white film stock from East Germany and then Eastman colour negative stock and ORWO print stocks for rushes and release prints. Poland made its own lighting equipment. Because of the high costs of film stock Polish films were shot with very low shooting ratios, the amount of film stock used in shooting the film to length of the finished film. The equipment and film stock were not the best and budgets were modest but the film makers received probably the best training in the world from the Polish Film School. Another advantage was Film Polski's status as a state organisation, so its film-makers had access to all Polish institutions and their cooperation in making their films. Film cameras were able to enter almost every aspect of Polish life.
The first film produced in Poland following the World War II was Zakazane piosenki (1946), directed by Leonard Buczkowski, which was seen by 10.8 million people (out of 23,8 total population) in its initial theatrical run. Buczkowski continued to make films regularly until his death in 1967. Other important films of the early post-World War II period were The Last Stage (1948), directed by Wanda Jakubowska, who continued to make films until the transition from communism to capitalism in 1989, and Border Street (1949), directed by Aleksander Ford.
By the mid 1950s, following the end of Stalinism in Poland, Film production was organised into film groups. A film group was a collection of film makers, led by an experienced film director and consisting of writers, film directors and production managers. They would write scripts, create budgets, apply for funding off the Ministry of Culture and produce the picture. They would hire actors and crew, and use studios and laboratories controlled by Film Polski.
The change in political climate gave rise to the Polish Film School movement, a training ground for some of the icons of the world cinematography, e.g., Roman Polanski (Knife in the Water, Rosemary's Baby, Frantic, The Pianist) and Krzysztof Zanussi (a leading director of the so-called cinema of moral anxiety of the 1970s). Andrzej Wajda's films offer insightful analyses of the universal element of the Polish experience - the struggle to maintain dignity under the most trying circumstances. His films defined several Polish generations. In 2000, Wajda was awarded an honorary Oscar for his overall contribution to cinema. Four of his films were nominated for Best Foreign Language Film award at Academy Awards with seven other Polish directors receiving one nomination each: Roman Polański, Jerzy Kawalerowicz, Jerzy Hoffman, Jerzy Antczak, Agnieszka Holland, Jan Komasa and Jerzy Skolimowski. In 2015, Polish filmmaker Paweł Pawlikowski received this award for his film Ida. In 2019, he was also nominated to the award for his next film Cold War in two categories - Best Foreign Language Film and Best Director.
It is also important to note that during the 1980s, the People's Republic of Poland instituted the martial law to vanquish and censor all forms of opposition against the communist rule of the nation, including outlets such as cinema and radio. A notable film to have emerged during this period was Ryszard Bugajski's 1982 film Interrogation (Przesluchanie), which depicts the story of an unfortunate woman (played by Krystyna Janda) who is arrested and tortured by the secret police into confessing a crime she knows nothing about. The anti-communist nature of the film brought about the film's over seven-year ban. In 1989, the ban was repealed after the overthrow of the Communist government in Poland, and the film was shown in theaters for the first time later that year. The film is still lauded today for its audacity in depicting the cruelty of the Stalinist regime, as many artists feared persecution during that time.
In the 1990s, Krzysztof Kieślowski won a universal acclaim with productions such as Dekalog (made for television), The Double Life of Véronique and the Three Colors trilogy. Another of the most famous movies in Poland is Krzysztof Krauze’s The Debt, which became a blockbuster. It showed the brutal reality of Polish capitalism and the growth of poverty. A considerable number of Polish film directors (e.g., Agnieszka Holland and Janusz Kamiński) have worked in American studios. Polish animated films - like those by Jan Lenica and Zbigniew Rybczyński (Oscar, 1983) - drew on a long tradition and continued to derive their inspiration from Poland's graphic arts. Other notable Polish film directors include: Tomasz Bagiński, Małgorzata Szumowska, Jan Jakub Kolski, Jerzy Kawalerowicz, Stanisław Bareja and Janusz Zaorski.
Among prominent annual film festivals taking place in Poland are: Warsaw International Film Festival, Camerimage, International Festival of Independent Cinema Off Camera, New Horizons Film Festival as well as Gdynia Film Festival and Polish Film Awards.
The Communist government invested resources into building a sophisticated cinema audience. All the cinema were state owned and consisted of first run premiere cinema, local cinema and art house cinemas. Tickets were cheap and students and old people received discounts. In the city of Lodz there were 36 cinemas in the 1970s showing films from all over the world. There were the Italian films of Fellini, French comedies, American crime movies such as Don Siegel's "Charley Varrick" . Films were shown in their original versions with Polish subtitles. Anti-Communist and Cold War films were not shown, but a bigger restriction was the cost of some films. There were popular film magazines like "Film" and "Screen", critical magazines such as "Kino". This all helped to build a well informed film audience.
The Polish Film Academy was founded in 2003 in Warsaw and aims to provide native filmmakers a forum for discussion and a way to promote the reputation of Polish cinema through publications, presentations, discussions and regular promotion of the subject in the schools.
Since 2003, the winners of the Polish Film Awards are elected by the members of the Academy.
Several institutions, both government run and private, provide formal education in various aspects of filmmaking.
Media related to Cinema of Poland at Wikimedia Commons
|
[
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "The history of cinema in Poland is almost as long as the history of cinematography, and it has universally recognized achievements, even though Polish films tend to be less commercially available than films from several other European nations.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "After World War II, the communist government built an auteur-based national cinema, trained hundreds of new directors and empowered them to make films. Filmmakers like Roman Polański, Krzysztof Kieślowski, Agnieszka Holland, Andrzej Wajda, Andrzej Żuławski, Andrzej Munk, and Jerzy Skolimowski impacted the development of Polish film-making. In more recent years, the industry has been producer-led with finance being the key to a film being made, and with many independent filmmakers of all genres, Polish productions tend to be more inspired by American film.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "The first cinema was founded in Łódź in 1899, several years after the invention of the Cinematograph. Initially dubbed Living Pictures Theatre, it gained much popularity and by the end of the next decade there were cinemas in almost every major town in Poland. Arguably the first Polish filmmaker was Kazimierz Prószyński, who filmed various short documentaries in Warsaw. His pleograph film camera had been patented before the Lumière brothers' invention and he is credited as the author of the earliest surviving Polish documentary titled Ślizgawka w Łazienkach (Skating-rink in the Royal Baths), as well as the first short narrative films Powrót birbanta (Rake's return home) and Przygoda dorożkarza (Cabman's Adventure), both created in 1902. Another pioneer of cinema was Bolesław Matuszewski, who became one of the first filmmakers working for the Lumière company - and the official \"cinematographer\" of the Russian tsars in 1897.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "The earliest surviving short film is Pruska kultura (Prussian Culture) and the earliest surviving feature film is Antoś pierwszy raz w Warszawie (Antoś for the First Time in Warsaw). Both of them were made in 1908, the first one by unkown director and the second one by Antoni Fertner. The date of Antoś' première, October 22, 1908, is considered the founding date of the Polish film industry. Soon Polish artists started experimenting with other genres of cinema: in 1910 Władysław Starewicz made one of the first animated cartoons in the world - and the first to use the stop motion technique, the Piękna Lukanida (Beautiful Lukanida). By the start of World War I the cinema in Poland was already in full swing, with numerous adaptations of major works of Polish literature screened (notably the Dzieje grzechu, Meir Ezofowicz and Nad Niemnem).",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "During World War I the Polish cinema crossed borders. Films made in Warsaw or Vilnius were often rebranded with German-language intertitles and shown in Berlin. That was how a young actress Pola Negri (born Barbara Apolonia Chałupiec) gained fame in Germany and eventually became one of the European super-stars of silent film.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "The first woman to direct a film in Poland and the only female film director of the Polish silent film era was Nina Niovilla. She debuted in 1918 in Berlin, and then directed her first Polish film titled Tamara (also known under the title Obrońcy Lwowa) in 1919.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "During World War II, Polish filmmakers in Great Britain created the anti-Nazi color film Calling Mr. Smith (1943) about Nazi crimes in occupied Europe and about Nazi propaganda. It was one of the first anti-Nazi films in history being both an avant-garde and a documentary film.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "In November 1945, the communist government founded the film production and distribution organization Film Polski, and put the well-known Polish People's Army filmmaker Aleksander Ford in charge. Starting with a few railway carriages full of film equipment taken from the Germans they proceed to train and build a Polish film industry. The FP output was limited; only thirteen features were released between 1947 and its dissolution in 1952, concentrating on Polish suffering at the hands of the Nazis. In 1947, Ford moved to help establish the new National Film School in Łódź, where he taught for 20 years.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "The industry used imported cameras and film stocks. At first ORWO black and white film stock from East Germany and then Eastman colour negative stock and ORWO print stocks for rushes and release prints. Poland made its own lighting equipment. Because of the high costs of film stock Polish films were shot with very low shooting ratios, the amount of film stock used in shooting the film to length of the finished film. The equipment and film stock were not the best and budgets were modest but the film makers received probably the best training in the world from the Polish Film School. Another advantage was Film Polski's status as a state organisation, so its film-makers had access to all Polish institutions and their cooperation in making their films. Film cameras were able to enter almost every aspect of Polish life.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "The first film produced in Poland following the World War II was Zakazane piosenki (1946), directed by Leonard Buczkowski, which was seen by 10.8 million people (out of 23,8 total population) in its initial theatrical run. Buczkowski continued to make films regularly until his death in 1967. Other important films of the early post-World War II period were The Last Stage (1948), directed by Wanda Jakubowska, who continued to make films until the transition from communism to capitalism in 1989, and Border Street (1949), directed by Aleksander Ford.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "By the mid 1950s, following the end of Stalinism in Poland, Film production was organised into film groups. A film group was a collection of film makers, led by an experienced film director and consisting of writers, film directors and production managers. They would write scripts, create budgets, apply for funding off the Ministry of Culture and produce the picture. They would hire actors and crew, and use studios and laboratories controlled by Film Polski.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "The change in political climate gave rise to the Polish Film School movement, a training ground for some of the icons of the world cinematography, e.g., Roman Polanski (Knife in the Water, Rosemary's Baby, Frantic, The Pianist) and Krzysztof Zanussi (a leading director of the so-called cinema of moral anxiety of the 1970s). Andrzej Wajda's films offer insightful analyses of the universal element of the Polish experience - the struggle to maintain dignity under the most trying circumstances. His films defined several Polish generations. In 2000, Wajda was awarded an honorary Oscar for his overall contribution to cinema. Four of his films were nominated for Best Foreign Language Film award at Academy Awards with seven other Polish directors receiving one nomination each: Roman Polański, Jerzy Kawalerowicz, Jerzy Hoffman, Jerzy Antczak, Agnieszka Holland, Jan Komasa and Jerzy Skolimowski. In 2015, Polish filmmaker Paweł Pawlikowski received this award for his film Ida. In 2019, he was also nominated to the award for his next film Cold War in two categories - Best Foreign Language Film and Best Director.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "It is also important to note that during the 1980s, the People's Republic of Poland instituted the martial law to vanquish and censor all forms of opposition against the communist rule of the nation, including outlets such as cinema and radio. A notable film to have emerged during this period was Ryszard Bugajski's 1982 film Interrogation (Przesluchanie), which depicts the story of an unfortunate woman (played by Krystyna Janda) who is arrested and tortured by the secret police into confessing a crime she knows nothing about. The anti-communist nature of the film brought about the film's over seven-year ban. In 1989, the ban was repealed after the overthrow of the Communist government in Poland, and the film was shown in theaters for the first time later that year. The film is still lauded today for its audacity in depicting the cruelty of the Stalinist regime, as many artists feared persecution during that time.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "In the 1990s, Krzysztof Kieślowski won a universal acclaim with productions such as Dekalog (made for television), The Double Life of Véronique and the Three Colors trilogy. Another of the most famous movies in Poland is Krzysztof Krauze’s The Debt, which became a blockbuster. It showed the brutal reality of Polish capitalism and the growth of poverty. A considerable number of Polish film directors (e.g., Agnieszka Holland and Janusz Kamiński) have worked in American studios. Polish animated films - like those by Jan Lenica and Zbigniew Rybczyński (Oscar, 1983) - drew on a long tradition and continued to derive their inspiration from Poland's graphic arts. Other notable Polish film directors include: Tomasz Bagiński, Małgorzata Szumowska, Jan Jakub Kolski, Jerzy Kawalerowicz, Stanisław Bareja and Janusz Zaorski.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "Among prominent annual film festivals taking place in Poland are: Warsaw International Film Festival, Camerimage, International Festival of Independent Cinema Off Camera, New Horizons Film Festival as well as Gdynia Film Festival and Polish Film Awards.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 15,
"text": "The Communist government invested resources into building a sophisticated cinema audience. All the cinema were state owned and consisted of first run premiere cinema, local cinema and art house cinemas. Tickets were cheap and students and old people received discounts. In the city of Lodz there were 36 cinemas in the 1970s showing films from all over the world. There were the Italian films of Fellini, French comedies, American crime movies such as Don Siegel's \"Charley Varrick\" . Films were shown in their original versions with Polish subtitles. Anti-Communist and Cold War films were not shown, but a bigger restriction was the cost of some films. There were popular film magazines like \"Film\" and \"Screen\", critical magazines such as \"Kino\". This all helped to build a well informed film audience.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 16,
"text": "The Polish Film Academy was founded in 2003 in Warsaw and aims to provide native filmmakers a forum for discussion and a way to promote the reputation of Polish cinema through publications, presentations, discussions and regular promotion of the subject in the schools.",
"title": "Polish Film Academy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 17,
"text": "Since 2003, the winners of the Polish Film Awards are elected by the members of the Academy.",
"title": "Polish Film Academy"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 18,
"text": "Several institutions, both government run and private, provide formal education in various aspects of filmmaking.",
"title": "Film schools"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 19,
"text": "Media related to Cinema of Poland at Wikimedia Commons",
"title": "Further reading"
}
] |
The history of cinema in Poland is almost as long as the history of cinematography, and it has universally recognized achievements, even though Polish films tend to be less commercially available than films from several other European nations. After World War II, the communist government built an auteur-based national cinema, trained hundreds of new directors and empowered them to make films. Filmmakers like Roman Polański, Krzysztof Kieślowski, Agnieszka Holland, Andrzej Wajda, Andrzej Żuławski, Andrzej Munk, and Jerzy Skolimowski impacted the development of Polish film-making. In more recent years, the industry has been producer-led with finance being the key to a film being made, and with many independent filmmakers of all genres, Polish productions tend to be more inspired by American film.
|
2001-05-12T02:55:11Z
|
2023-11-29T17:12:46Z
|
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinema_of_Poland
|
10,790 |
Cinema of Japan
|
The cinema of Japan (日本映画, Nihon eiga), also known domestically as hōga (邦画, "domestic cinema"), has a history that spans more than 100 years. Japan has one of the oldest and largest film industries in the world; as of 2021, it was the fourth largest by number of feature films produced. In 2011, Japan produced 411 feature films that earned 54.9% of a box office total of US$2.338 billion. Films have been produced in Japan since 1897, when the first foreign cameramen arrived.
During the 1950s, a period dubbed the "Golden Age of Japanese cinema", the jidaigeki films of Akira Kurosawa as well as the science fiction films of Ishirō Honda and Eiji Tsuburaya gained Japanese cinema international praise and made these directors universally renown and highly influential. Some of the Japanese films of this period are now rated some of the greatest of all time: Tokyo Story (1953) ranked number three in Sight & Sound critics' list of the 100 greatest films of all time and also topped the 2012 Sight & Sound directors' poll of The Top 50 Greatest Films of All Time, dethroning Citizen Kane, while Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai (1954) was voted the greatest foreign-language film of all time in BBC's 2018 poll of 209 critics in 43 countries. Japan has also won the Academy Award for the Best International Feature Film five times, more than any other Asian country.
Japan's Big Four film studios are Toho, Toei, Shochiku and Kadokawa, which are the only members of the Motion Picture Producers Association of Japan (MPPAJ). The annual Japan Academy Film Prize hosted by the Nippon Academy-shō Association is considered to be the Japanese equivalent of the Academy Awards.
The kinetoscope, first shown commercially by Thomas Edison in the United States in 1894, was first shown in Japan in November 1896. The Vitascope and the Lumière Brothers' Cinematograph were first presented in Japan in early 1897, by businessmen such as Inabata Katsutaro. Lumière cameramen were the first to shoot films in Japan. Moving pictures, however, were not an entirely new experience for the Japanese because of their rich tradition of pre-cinematic devices such as gentō (utsushi-e) or the magic lantern. The first successful Japanese film in late 1897 showed sights in Tokyo.
In 1898, some ghost films were made, such as the Shirō Asano shorts Bake Jizo (Jizo the Spook / 化け地蔵) and Shinin no sosei (Resurrection of a Corpse). The first documentary, the short Geisha no teodori (芸者の手踊り), was made in June 1899. Tsunekichi Shibata made a number of early films, including Momijigari, an 1899 record of two famous actors performing a scene from a well-known kabuki play. Early films were influenced by traditional theater – for example, kabuki and bunraku.
At the dawn of the 20th century, theaters in Japan hired benshi, storytellers who sat next to the screen and narrated silent movies. They were descendants of kabuki jōruri, kōdan storytellers, theater barkers and other forms of oral storytelling. Benshi could be accompanied by music like silent films from cinema of the West. With the advent of sound in the early 1930s, the benshi gradually declined.
In 1908, Shōzō Makino, considered the pioneering director of Japanese film, began his influential career with Honnōji gassen (本能寺合戦), produced for Yokota Shōkai. Shōzō recruited Matsunosuke Onoe, a former kabuki actor, to star in his productions. Onoe became Japan's first film star, appearing in over 1,000 films, mostly shorts, between 1909 and 1926. The pair pioneered the jidaigeki genre. Tokihiko Okada was a popular romantic lead of the same era.
The first Japanese film production studio was built in 1909 by the Yoshizawa Shōten company in Tokyo.
The first female Japanese performer to appear in a film professionally was the dancer/actress Tokuko Nagai Takagi, who appeared in four shorts for the American-based Thanhouser Company between 1911 and 1914.
Among intellectuals, critiques of Japanese cinema grew in the 1910s and eventually developed into a movement that transformed Japanese film. Film criticism began with early film magazines such as Katsudō shashinkai (begun in 1909) and a full-length book written by Yasunosuke Gonda in 1914, but many early film critics often focused on chastising the work of studios like Nikkatsu and Tenkatsu for being too theatrical (using, for instance, elements from kabuki and shinpa such as onnagata) and for not utilizing what were considered more cinematic techniques to tell stories, instead relying on benshi. In what was later named the Pure Film Movement, writers in magazines such as Kinema Record called for a broader use of such cinematic techniques. Some of these critics, such as Norimasa Kaeriyama, went on to put their ideas into practice by directing such films as The Glow of Life (1918), which was one of the first films to use actresses (in this case, Harumi Hanayagi). There were parallel efforts elsewhere in the film industry. In his 1917 film The Captain's Daughter (based on the play by Choji Nakauchi, based in turn on the German film, Gendarm Möbius), Masao Inoue started using techniques new to the silent film era, such as the close-up and cut back. The Pure Film Movement was central in the development of the gendaigeki and scriptwriting.
New studios established around 1920, such as Shochiku and Taikatsu, aided the cause for reform. At Taikatsu, Thomas Kurihara directed films scripted by the novelist Junichiro Tanizaki, who was a strong advocate of film reform. Even Nikkatsu produced reformist films under the direction of Eizō Tanaka. By the mid-1920s, actresses had replaced onnagata and films used more of the devices pioneered by Inoue. Some of the most discussed silent films from Japan are those of Kenji Mizoguchi, whose later works (including Ugetsu/Ugetsu Monogatari) retain a very high reputation.
Japanese films gained popularity in the mid-1920s against foreign films, in part fueled by the popularity of movie stars and a new style of jidaigeki. Directors such as Daisuke Itō and Masahiro Makino made samurai films like A Diary of Chuji's Travels and Roningai featuring rebellious antiheroes in fast-cut fight scenes that were both critically acclaimed and commercial successes. Some stars, such as Tsumasaburo Bando, Kanjūrō Arashi, Chiezō Kataoka, Takako Irie and Utaemon Ichikawa, were inspired by Makino Film Productions and formed their own independent production companies where directors such as Hiroshi Inagaki, Mansaku Itami and Sadao Yamanaka honed their skills. Director Teinosuke Kinugasa created a production company to produce the experimental masterpiece A Page of Madness, starring Masao Inoue, in 1926. Many of these companies, while surviving during the silent era against major studios like Nikkatsu, Shochiku, Teikine, and Toa Studios, could not survive the cost involved in converting to sound.
With the rise of left-wing political movements and labor unions at the end of the 1920s, there arose so-called tendency films with left-leaning tendencies. Directors Kenji Mizoguchi, Daisuke Itō, Shigeyoshi Suzuki, and Tomu Uchida were prominent examples. In contrast to these commercially produced 35 mm films, the Marxist Proletarian Film League of Japan (Prokino) made works independently in smaller gauges (such as 9.5mm and 16mm), with more radical intentions. Tendency films suffered from severe censorship heading into the 1930s, and Prokino members were arrested and the movement effectively crushed. Such moves by the government had profound effects on the expression of political dissent in 1930s cinema. Films from this period include: Sakanaya Honda, Jitsuroku Chushingura, Horaijima, Orochi, Maboroshi, Kurutta Ippeji, Jujiro, Kurama Tengu: Kyōfu Jidai, and Kurama Tengu.
A later version of The Captain's Daughter directed by Namio Ochiai and Kenji Mizoguchi's 藤原義江のふるさと (Fujiwara Yoshie no furusato, known internationally as Hometown) were the two earliest talkie films. They used the Mina Talkie System with dialogue written on chalkboards and were immediate flops because Nikkatsu raised the admission prices fifty percent, leading them to temporarily abandon sound film. The Japanese film industry later split into two groups; one retained the Mina Talkie System, while the other used the Eastphone Talkie System used to make Tojo Masaki's films.
The 1923 earthquake, the bombing of Tokyo during World War II, and the natural effects of time and Japan's humidity on flammable and unstable nitrate film have resulted in a great dearth of surviving films from this period.
Unlike in the West, silent films were still being produced in Japan well into the 1930s; as late as 1938, a third of Japanese films were silent. For instance, Yasujirō Ozu's An Inn in Tokyo (1935), considered a precursor to the neorealism genre, was a silent film. A few Japanese sound shorts were made in the 1920s and 1930s, but Japan's first feature-length talkie was Fujiwara Yoshie no furusato (1930), which used the Mina Talkie System. Notable talkies of this period include Mikio Naruse's Wife, Be Like A Rose! (Tsuma Yo Bara No Yoni, 1935), which was one of the first Japanese films to gain a theatrical release in the U.S.; Kenji Mizoguchi's Sisters of the Gion (Gion no shimai, 1936); Osaka Elegy (1936); The Story of the Last Chrysanthemums (1939); and Sadao Yamanaka's Humanity and Paper Balloons (1937).
Film criticism shared this vitality, with many film journals such as Kinema Junpo and newspapers printing detailed discussions of the cinema of the day, both at home and abroad. A cultured "impressionist" criticism pursued by critics such as Tadashi Iijima, Fuyuhiko Kitagawa, and Matsuo Kishi was dominant, but opposed by leftist critics such as Akira Iwasaki and Genjū Sasa who sought an ideological critique of films.
The 1930s also saw increased government involvement in cinema, which was symbolized by the passing of the Film Law, which gave the state more authority over the film industry, in 1939. The government encouraged some forms of cinema, producing propaganda films and promoting documentary films (also called bunka eiga or "culture films"), with important documentaries being made by directors such as Fumio Kamei. Realism was in favor; film theorists such as Taihei Imamura and Heiichi Sugiyama advocated for documentary or realist drama, while directors such as Hiroshi Shimizu and Tomotaka Tasaka produced fiction films that were strongly realistic in style. Films reinforced the importance of traditional Japanese values against the rise of the Westernised modern girl, a character epitomised by Shizue Tatsuta in Ozu's 1930 film Young Lady.
Because of World War II and the weak economy, unemployment became widespread in Japan, and the cinema industry suffered.
During this period, when Japan was expanding its Empire, the Japanese government saw cinema as a propaganda tool to show the glory and invincibility of the Empire of Japan. Thus, many films from this period depict patriotic and militaristic themes. However unlike most wartime films the Japanese tended to tell it like it is, showing the hardships soldiers face everyday in battle. Marching through mud and staying in small unknown towns. In 1942, Kajiro Yamamoto's film The War at Sea from Hawaii to Malaya portrayed the attack on Pearl Harbor; the film made use of special effects directed by Eiji Tsuburaya, including a miniature scale model of Pearl Harbor itself.
kamishibai (紙芝居) or paper theater was a popular form of street entertainment, especially for the children. Kamishibai was offten used to tell stories of Buddhist deities and the history of some Buddhist temples. In 1920 it started out as normal storytelling for the children. But in about 1932 it started to lean more to a militaristic viewpoint.
Yoshiko Yamaguchi was a very popular actress. She rose to international stardom with 22 wartime movies. The Manchukuo Film Association let her use the Chinese name Li Xianglan so she could represent Chinese roles in Japanese propaganda movies. After the war she used her official Japanese name and starred in an additional 29 movies. She was elected as a member of the Japanese parliament in the 1970s and served for 18 years.
Akira Kurosawa made his feature film debut with Sugata Sanshiro in 1943.
After the surrender of Japan in 1945, wartime controls and restrictions on the Japanese film industry were abolished, and the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers (SCAP) established the Civil Information and Education Section (CIE), which came to manage the industry. All film proposals and screenplays were to be processed and approved by CIE. The script would then be processed by the Civil Censorship Detachment (CCD), which was under the direct control of American military. Pre-war and wartime films were also subject to review, and over 500 were condemned, with half of them being burned. In addition, Toho and Daiei pre-emptively destroyed films they thought to be incriminating. In November 1945, CIE announced that it would forbid films deemed to be:
A major consequence of these restrictions was that the production of jidaigeki films, especially those involving samurai, became effectively impossible. A notable case of censorship was of the war film Escape at Dawn, written by Akira Kurosawa and Senkichi Taniguchi, which was re-written over a dozen times at the request of CIE, largely erasing the original content of the story. On the other hand, the CIE favored the production of films that reflected the policies of the Occupation, such as agricultural reform and the organization of labor unions, and promoted the peaceful redevelopment of Japan and the rights of individuals.
Significant movies among them are, Setsuko Hara appeared in Akira Kurosawa's No Regrets for Our Youth (1946), Kōzaburō Yoshimura's A Ball at the Anjo House (1947), Tadashi Imai's Aoi sanmyaku (1949), etc. It gained national popularity as a star symbolizing the beginning of a new era. In Yasushi Sasaki's Hatachi no Seishun (1946), the first kiss scene of a Japanese movie was filmed. The Mainichi Film Award was also created in 1946.
The first movie released after the war was Soyokaze, directed by Yasushi Sasaki, and the theme song Ringo no Uta was a big hit.
The first collaborations between Akira Kurosawa and actor Toshiro Mifune were Drunken Angel in 1948 and Stray Dog in 1949. Yasujirō Ozu directed the critically and commercially successful Late Spring in 1949.
In the later half of the Occupation, the Reverse Course came into effect. Left-wing filmmakers displaced from the major studios in the Red Purge joined those displaced after suppression of the Toho strikes, forming a new independent film movement. Directors such as Fumio Kamei, Tadashi Imai and Satsuo Yamamoto were members of the Japanese Communist Party. Independent social realist dramas saw a small and temporary boom amid the wave of sentimental war dramas produced after the end of Occupation.
The 1950s are widely considered the Golden Age of Japanese cinema. Three Japanese films from this decade (Rashomon, Seven Samurai and Tokyo Story) appeared in the top ten of Sight & Sound's critics' and directors' polls for the best films of all time in 2002. They also appeared in the 2012 polls, with Tokyo Story (1953) dethroning Citizen Kane at the top of the 2012 directors' poll.
War movies covering themes previously restricted by SCAP began to be produced, such as Hideo Sekigawa's "Listen to the Voices of the Sea" (1950), Tadashi Imai's "Himeyuri no Tô - Tower of the Lilies" (1953), Keisuke Kinoshita's "Twenty-Four Eyes" (1954) and "Kon Ichikawa's "The Burmese Harp" (1956). Works showcasing tragic and sentimental retrospectives of the war experience became a public phenomenon. Other nostalgic films produced includeBattleship Yamato (1953) and Eagle of the Pacific (1953). Under these circumstances, movies such as "Emperor Meiji and the Russo-Japanese War (明治天皇と日露大戦争)" (1957), where Kanjūrō Arashi played Emperor Meiji, also appeared. It was a situation that was unthinkable before the war, the commercialization of the Emperor who was supposed to be sacred and inviolable.
The period after the American Occupation led to a rise in diversity in movie distribution thanks to the increased output and popularity of the film studios of Toho, Daiei, Shochiku, Nikkatsu, and Toei. This period gave rise to the six great artists of Japanese cinema: Masaki Kobayashi, Akira Kurosawa, Ishirō Honda, Eiji Tsuburaya, Kenji Mizoguchi, and Yasujirō Ozu. Each director dealt with the effects the war and subsequent occupation by America in unique and innovative ways. During this decade, the works of Kurosawa, Honda, and Tsuburaya would become the first Japanese films to be widely distributed in foreign theaters.
The decade started with Akira Kurosawa's Rashomon (1950), which won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival in 1951 and the Academy Honorary Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1952, and marked the entrance of Japanese cinema onto the world stage. It was also the breakout role for legendary star Toshiro Mifune. In 1953, Entotsu no mieru basho by Heinosuke Gosho was in competition at the 3rd Berlin International Film Festival.
The first Japanese film in color was Carmen Comes Home directed by Keisuke Kinoshita and released in 1951. There was also a black-and-white version of this film available. Tokyo File 212 (1951) was the first American feature film to be shot entirely in Japan. The lead roles were played by Florence Marly and Robert Peyton. It featured the geisha Ichimaru in a short cameo. Suzuki Ikuzo's Tonichi Enterprises Company co-produced the film. Gate of Hell, a 1953 film by Teinosuke Kinugasa, was the first movie that filmed using Eastmancolor film, Gate of Hell was both Daiei's first color film and the first Japanese color movie to be released outside Japan, receiving an Academy Honorary Award in 1954 for Best Costume Design by Sanzo Wada and an Honorary Award for Best Foreign Language Film. It also won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, the first Japanese film to achieve that honour.
The year 1954 saw two of Japan's most influential films released. The first was the Kurosawa epic Seven Samurai, about a band of hired samurai who protect a helpless village from a rapacious gang of thieves. The same year, Kurosawa's friend and colleague Ishirō Honda directed the anti-nuclear monster-drama Godzilla, featuring award-winning effects by Eiji Tsuburaya. The latter film was first ever Japanese film to be given a wide release throughout the United States, where it was heavily re-edited, and featured new footage with actor Raymond Burr for its distribution in 1956 as Godzilla, King of the Monsters!. Although it was edited for its Western release, Godzilla became an international icon of Japan and spawned an entire subgenre of kaiju films, as well as the longest-running film franchise in history. Also in 1954, another Kurosawa film, Ikiru was in competition at the 4th Berlin International Film Festival.
In 1955, Hiroshi Inagaki won an Academy Honorary Award for Best Foreign Language Film for Part I of his Samurai trilogy and in 1958 won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival for Rickshaw Man. Kon Ichikawa directed two anti-war dramas: The Burmese Harp (1956), which was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards, and Fires On The Plain (1959), along with Enjo (1958), which was adapted from Yukio Mishima's novel Temple Of The Golden Pavilion. Masaki Kobayashi made three films which would collectively become known as The Human Condition Trilogy: No Greater Love (1959), and The Road To Eternity (1959). The trilogy was completed in 1961, with A Soldier's Prayer.
Kenji Mizoguchi, who died in 1956, ended his career with a series of masterpieces including The Life of Oharu (1952), Ugetsu (1953) and Sansho the Bailiff (1954). He won the Silver Bear at the Venice Film Festival for Ugetsu. Mizoguchi's films often deal with the tragedies inflicted on women by Japanese society. Mikio Naruse made Repast (1950), Late Chrysanthemums (1954), The Sound of the Mountain (1954) and Floating Clouds (1955). Yasujirō Ozu began directing color films beginning with Equinox Flower (1958), and later Good Morning (1959) and Floating Weeds (1958), which was adapted from his earlier silent A Story of Floating Weeds (1934), and was shot by Rashomon and Sansho the Bailiff cinematographer Kazuo Miyagawa.
The Blue Ribbon Awards were established in 1950. The first winner for Best Film was Until We Meet Again by Tadashi Imai.
The number of films produced, and the cinema audience reached a peak in the 1960s. Most films were shown in double bills, with one half of the bill being a "program picture" or B-movie. A typical program picture was shot in four weeks. The demand for these program pictures in quantity meant the growth of film series such as The Hoodlum Soldier or Akumyo.
The huge level of activity of 1960s Japanese cinema also resulted in many classics. Akira Kurosawa directed the 1961 classic Yojimbo. Yasujirō Ozu made his final film, An Autumn Afternoon, in 1962. Mikio Naruse directed the wide screen melodrama When a Woman Ascends the Stairs in 1960; his final film was 1967's Scattered Clouds.
Kon Ichikawa captured the watershed 1964 Olympics in his three-hour documentary Tokyo Olympiad (1965). Seijun Suzuki was fired by Nikkatsu for "making films that don't make any sense and don't make any money" after his surrealist yakuza flick Branded to Kill (1967).
The 1960s were the peak years of the Japanese New Wave movement, which began in the 1950s and continued through the early 1970s. Nagisa Oshima, Kaneto Shindo, Masahiro Shinoda, Susumu Hani and Shohei Imamura emerged as major filmmakers during the decade. Oshima's Cruel Story of Youth, Night and Fog in Japan and Death By Hanging, along with Shindo's Onibaba, Hani's Kanojo to kare and Imamura's The Insect Woman, became some of the better-known examples of Japanese New Wave filmmaking. Documentary played a crucial role in the New Wave, as directors such as Hani, Kazuo Kuroki, Toshio Matsumoto, and Hiroshi Teshigahara moved from documentary into fiction film, while feature filmmakers like Oshima and Imamura also made documentaries. Shinsuke Ogawa and Noriaki Tsuchimoto became the most important documentarists: "two figures [that] tower over the landscape of Japanese documentary."
Teshigahara's Woman in the Dunes (1964) won the Special Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival, and was nominated for Best Director and Best Foreign Language Film Oscars. Masaki Kobayashi's Kwaidan (1965) also picked up the Special Jury Prize at Cannes and received a nomination for Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards. Bushido, Samurai Saga by Tadashi Imai won the Golden Bear at the 13th Berlin International Film Festival. Immortal Love by Keisuke Kinoshita and Twin Sisters of Kyoto and Portrait of Chieko, both by Noboru Nakamura, also received nominations for Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards. Lost Spring, also by Nakamura, was in competition for the Golden Bear at the 17th Berlin International Film Festival.
The 1970s saw the cinema audience drop due to the spread of television. Total audience declined from 1.2 billion in 1960 to 0.2 billion in 1980. Film companies fought back in various ways, such as the bigger budget films of Kadokawa Pictures, or including increasingly sexual or violent content and language which could not be shown on television. The resulting pink film industry became the stepping stone for many young independent filmmakers. The seventies also saw the start of the "idol eiga", films starring young "idols", who would bring in audiences due to their fame and popularity.
Toshiya Fujita made the revenge film Lady Snowblood in 1973. In the same year, Yoshishige Yoshida made the film Coup d'État, a portrait of Ikki Kita, the leader of the Japanese coup of February 1936. Its experimental cinematography and mise-en-scène, as well as its avant-garde score by Toshi Ichiyanagi, garnered it wide critical acclaim within Japan.
In 1976, the Hochi Film Award was created. The first winner for Best Film was The Inugamis by Kon Ichikawa. Nagisa Oshima directed In the Realm of the Senses (1976), a film detailing a crime of passion involving Sada Abe set in the 1930s. Controversial for its explicit sexual content, it has never been seen uncensored in Japan.
Kinji Fukasaku completed the epic Battles Without Honor and Humanity series of yakuza films. Yoji Yamada introduced the commercially successful Tora-San series, while also directing other films, notably the popular The Yellow Handkerchief, which won the first Japan Academy Prize for Best Film in 1978. New wave filmmakers Susumu Hani and Shōhei Imamura retreated to documentary work, though Imamura made a dramatic return to feature filmmaking with Vengeance Is Mine (1979).
Dodes'ka-den by Akira Kurosawa and Sandakan No. 8 by Kei Kumai were nominated to the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.
The 1980s saw the decline of the major Japanese film studios and their associated chains of cinemas, with major studios Toho and Toei barely staying in business, Shochiku supported almost solely by the Otoko wa tsurai yo films, and Nikkatsu declining even further.
Of the older generation of directors, Akira Kurosawa directed Kagemusha (1980), which won the Palme d'Or at the 1980 Cannes Film Festival, and Ran (1985). Seijun Suzuki made a comeback beginning with Zigeunerweisen in 1980. Shohei Imamura won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival for The Ballad of Narayama (1983). Yoshishige Yoshida made A Promise (1986), his first film since 1973's Coup d'État.
New directors who appeared in the 1980s include actor Juzo Itami, who directed his first film, The Funeral, in 1984, and achieved critical and box office success with Tampopo in 1985. Shinji Sōmai, an artistically inclined populist director who made films like the youth-focused Typhoon Club, and the critically acclaimed Roman porno Love Hotel among others. Kiyoshi Kurosawa, who would generate international attention beginning in the mid-1990s, made his initial debut with pink films and genre horror.
During the 1980s, anime rose in popularity, with new animated movies released every summer and winter, often based upon popular anime television series. Mamoru Oshii released his landmark Angel's Egg in 1985. Hayao Miyazaki adapted his manga series Nausicaä of the Valley of Wind into a feature film of the same name in 1984. Katsuhiro Otomo followed suit by adapting his own manga Akira into a feature film of the same name in 1988.
Home video made possible the creation of a direct-to-video film industry.
Mini theaters, a type of independent movie theater characterized by a smaller size and seating capacity in comparison to larger movie theaters, gained popularity during the 1980s. Mini theaters helped bring independent and arthouse films from other countries, as well as films produced in Japan by unknown Japanese filmmakers, to Japanese audiences.
Because of economic recessions, the number of movie theaters in Japan had been steadily decreasing since the 1960s. The 1990s saw the reversal of this trend and the introduction of the multiplex in Japan. At the same time, the popularity of mini theaters continued.
Takeshi Kitano emerged as a significant filmmaker with works such as Sonatine (1993), Kids Return (1996) and Hana-bi (1997), which was given the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival. Shōhei Imamura again won the Palme d'Or (shared with Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami), this time for The Eel (1997). He became the fifth two-time recipient, joining Alf Sjöberg, Francis Ford Coppola, Emir Kusturica and Bille August.
Kiyoshi Kurosawa gained international recognition following the release of Cure (1997). Takashi Miike launched a prolific career with titles such as Audition (1999), Dead or Alive (1999) and The Bird People in China (1998). Former documentary filmmaker Hirokazu Koreeda launched an acclaimed feature career with Maborosi (1996) and After Life (1999).
Hayao Miyazaki directed two mammoth box office and critical successes, Porco Rosso (1992) – which beat E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) as the highest-grossing film in Japan – and Princess Mononoke (1997), which also claimed the top box office spot until Titanic (1997).
Several new anime directors rose to widespread recognition, bringing with them notions of anime as not only entertainment, but modern art. Mamoru Oshii released the internationally acclaimed philosophical science fiction action film Ghost in the Shell in 1996. Satoshi Kon directed the award-winning psychological thriller Perfect Blue. Hideaki Anno also gained considerable recognition with The End of Evangelion in 1997.
In the beginning of 21st century, Japan has been referenced numerous times in popular culture, which was a relatively successful one for Japanese film industry. The country has appeared as a setting and topic multiple times in film, poetry, television, and music. The number of films being shown in Japan steadily increased, with about 821 films released in 2006. Films based on Japanese television series were especially popular during this period. Anime films now accounted for 60 percent of Japanese film production. The 1990s and 2000s are considered to be "Japanese Cinema's Second Golden Age", due to the immense popularity of anime, both within Japan and overseas.
Although not a commercial success, All About Lily Chou-Chou directed by Shunji Iwai was honored at the Berlin, the Yokohama and the Shanghai Film Festivals in 2001. Takeshi Kitano appeared in Battle Royale and directed and starred in Dolls and Zatoichi. Several horror films, Kairo, Dark Water, Yogen, the Grudge series and One Missed Call met with commercial success. In 2004, Godzilla: Final Wars, directed by Ryuhei Kitamura, was released to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Godzilla. In 2005, director Seijun Suzuki made his 56th film, Princess Raccoon. Hirokazu Koreeda claimed film festival awards around the world with two of his films Distance and Nobody Knows. Female film director Naomi Kawase's film The Mourning Forest won the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival in 2007. Yoji Yamada, director of the Otoko wa Tsurai yo series, made a trilogy of acclaimed revisionist samurai films, 2002's Twilight Samurai, followed by The Hidden Blade in 2004 and Love and Honor in 2006. In 2008, Departures won the Academy Award for best foreign language film.
In anime, Hayao Miyazaki directed Spirited Away in 2001, breaking Japanese box office records and winning several awards—including the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature in 2003—followed by Howl's Moving Castle and Ponyo in 2004 and 2008 respectively. In 2004, Mamoru Oshii released the anime movie Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence which received critical praise around the world. His 2008 film The Sky Crawlers was met with similarly positive international reception. Satoshi Kon also released three quieter, but nonetheless highly successful films: Millennium Actress, Tokyo Godfathers, and Paprika. Katsuhiro Otomo released Steamboy, his first animated project since the 1995 short film compilation Memories, in 2004. In collaboration with Studio 4C, American director Michael Arias released Tekkon Kinkreet in 2008, to international acclaim. After several years of directing primarily lower-key live-action films, Hideaki Anno formed his own production studio and revisited his still-popular Evangelion franchise with the Rebuild of Evangelion tetralogy, a new series of films providing an alternate retelling of the original story.
Some Hollywood directors have turned to Tokyo as a backdrop for movies set in Japan. Post-war period examples include Tokyo Joe, My Geisha, Tokyo Story and the James Bond film You Only Live Twice; recent examples include Lost in Translation and The Last Samurai (both in 2003), Kill Bill: Volume 1 and 2 and The Day After Tomorrow (all in 2004), Memoirs of a Geisha (2005), The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift and Babel (both in 2006), The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008), 2012 (2009), Inception (2010), Emperor (2012), Pacific Rim and The Wolverine (both in 2013), Geostorm (2017), and Avengers: Endgame (2019).
Since February 2000, the Japan Film Commission Promotion Council was established. On November 16, 2001, the Japanese Foundation for the Promotion of the Arts laws were presented to the House of Representatives. These laws were intended to promote the production of media arts, including film scenery, and stipulate that the government – on both the national and local levels – must lend aid in order to preserve film media. The laws were passed on November 30 and came into effect on December 7. In 2003, at a gathering for the Agency of Cultural Affairs, twelve policies were proposed in a written report to allow public-made films to be promoted and shown at the Film Center of the National Museum of Modern Art.
Four films have so far received international recognition by being selected to compete in major film festivals: Caterpillar by Kōji Wakamatsu was in competition for the Golden Bear at the 60th Berlin International Film Festival and won the Silver Bear for Best Actress, Outrage by Takeshi Kitano was In Competition for the Palme d'Or at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival, Himizu by Sion Sono was in competition for the Golden Lion at the 68th Venice International Film Festival.
In March 2011, Japanese film and television industry was afflicted by the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami and the subsequent Fukushima nuclear disaster, which was greatly suffered due to ongoing triple disaster. However, many Japanese studios were officially closed or reorganized to prevent the triple disaster. As of result, many of Japanese studios began to reopen and production rates have increased.
In October 2011 (after fully reopening of Japanese film and television industry), Takashi Miike's Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai was In Competition for the Palme d'Or at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival, the first 3D film ever to screen In Competition at Cannes. The film was co-produced by British independent producer Jeremy Thomas, who had successfully broken Japanese titles such as Nagisa Oshima's Merry Christmas, Mr Lawrence and Taboo, Takeshi Kitano's Brother, and Miike's 13 Assassins onto the international stage as producer.
In 2018, Hirokazu Kore-eda won the Palme d'Or for his movie Shoplifters at the 71st Cannes Film Festival, a festival that also featured Ryūsuke Hamaguchi's Asako I & II in competition.
The 2020 Japanese epic disaster drama film Fukushima 50, released on 6 March 2020, directed by Setsurō Wakamatsu and written by Yōichi Maekawa. The film is based on the book by Ryusho Kadota, titled On the Brink: The Inside Story of Fukushima Daiichi, and it is the first Japanese film to depict the disaster.
In early 2020, the Japanese film and television industry was afflicted by the COVID-19 pandemic, which greatly suffered due to health requirements. This gave the nation its worst day of film and television industry impacted by health crises since the end of World War II. From the first (of many) 'health lockdowns' until the end of September 2021, many Japanese studios were closed or reorganized to suit the legal requirements for spread prevention. This resulted in the suspension of filming for many movies.
In October 2020 (after the reopening film industry), a Japanese anime film Demon Slayer: Mugen Train based on the Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba manga series broke all box-office records in the country, becoming the highest-grossing film of all time in Japan, the highest-grossing Japanese film of all time and the highest-grossing film of 2020.
In October 2021, a Japanese drama-road film Drive My Car won Best Foreign Language Film at the 79th Golden Globe Awards and received the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film at the 94th Academy Awards.
|
[
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "The cinema of Japan (日本映画, Nihon eiga), also known domestically as hōga (邦画, \"domestic cinema\"), has a history that spans more than 100 years. Japan has one of the oldest and largest film industries in the world; as of 2021, it was the fourth largest by number of feature films produced. In 2011, Japan produced 411 feature films that earned 54.9% of a box office total of US$2.338 billion. Films have been produced in Japan since 1897, when the first foreign cameramen arrived.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "During the 1950s, a period dubbed the \"Golden Age of Japanese cinema\", the jidaigeki films of Akira Kurosawa as well as the science fiction films of Ishirō Honda and Eiji Tsuburaya gained Japanese cinema international praise and made these directors universally renown and highly influential. Some of the Japanese films of this period are now rated some of the greatest of all time: Tokyo Story (1953) ranked number three in Sight & Sound critics' list of the 100 greatest films of all time and also topped the 2012 Sight & Sound directors' poll of The Top 50 Greatest Films of All Time, dethroning Citizen Kane, while Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai (1954) was voted the greatest foreign-language film of all time in BBC's 2018 poll of 209 critics in 43 countries. Japan has also won the Academy Award for the Best International Feature Film five times, more than any other Asian country.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "Japan's Big Four film studios are Toho, Toei, Shochiku and Kadokawa, which are the only members of the Motion Picture Producers Association of Japan (MPPAJ). The annual Japan Academy Film Prize hosted by the Nippon Academy-shō Association is considered to be the Japanese equivalent of the Academy Awards.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "The kinetoscope, first shown commercially by Thomas Edison in the United States in 1894, was first shown in Japan in November 1896. The Vitascope and the Lumière Brothers' Cinematograph were first presented in Japan in early 1897, by businessmen such as Inabata Katsutaro. Lumière cameramen were the first to shoot films in Japan. Moving pictures, however, were not an entirely new experience for the Japanese because of their rich tradition of pre-cinematic devices such as gentō (utsushi-e) or the magic lantern. The first successful Japanese film in late 1897 showed sights in Tokyo.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "In 1898, some ghost films were made, such as the Shirō Asano shorts Bake Jizo (Jizo the Spook / 化け地蔵) and Shinin no sosei (Resurrection of a Corpse). The first documentary, the short Geisha no teodori (芸者の手踊り), was made in June 1899. Tsunekichi Shibata made a number of early films, including Momijigari, an 1899 record of two famous actors performing a scene from a well-known kabuki play. Early films were influenced by traditional theater – for example, kabuki and bunraku.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "At the dawn of the 20th century, theaters in Japan hired benshi, storytellers who sat next to the screen and narrated silent movies. They were descendants of kabuki jōruri, kōdan storytellers, theater barkers and other forms of oral storytelling. Benshi could be accompanied by music like silent films from cinema of the West. With the advent of sound in the early 1930s, the benshi gradually declined.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "In 1908, Shōzō Makino, considered the pioneering director of Japanese film, began his influential career with Honnōji gassen (本能寺合戦), produced for Yokota Shōkai. Shōzō recruited Matsunosuke Onoe, a former kabuki actor, to star in his productions. Onoe became Japan's first film star, appearing in over 1,000 films, mostly shorts, between 1909 and 1926. The pair pioneered the jidaigeki genre. Tokihiko Okada was a popular romantic lead of the same era.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "The first Japanese film production studio was built in 1909 by the Yoshizawa Shōten company in Tokyo.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "The first female Japanese performer to appear in a film professionally was the dancer/actress Tokuko Nagai Takagi, who appeared in four shorts for the American-based Thanhouser Company between 1911 and 1914.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "Among intellectuals, critiques of Japanese cinema grew in the 1910s and eventually developed into a movement that transformed Japanese film. Film criticism began with early film magazines such as Katsudō shashinkai (begun in 1909) and a full-length book written by Yasunosuke Gonda in 1914, but many early film critics often focused on chastising the work of studios like Nikkatsu and Tenkatsu for being too theatrical (using, for instance, elements from kabuki and shinpa such as onnagata) and for not utilizing what were considered more cinematic techniques to tell stories, instead relying on benshi. In what was later named the Pure Film Movement, writers in magazines such as Kinema Record called for a broader use of such cinematic techniques. Some of these critics, such as Norimasa Kaeriyama, went on to put their ideas into practice by directing such films as The Glow of Life (1918), which was one of the first films to use actresses (in this case, Harumi Hanayagi). There were parallel efforts elsewhere in the film industry. In his 1917 film The Captain's Daughter (based on the play by Choji Nakauchi, based in turn on the German film, Gendarm Möbius), Masao Inoue started using techniques new to the silent film era, such as the close-up and cut back. The Pure Film Movement was central in the development of the gendaigeki and scriptwriting.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "New studios established around 1920, such as Shochiku and Taikatsu, aided the cause for reform. At Taikatsu, Thomas Kurihara directed films scripted by the novelist Junichiro Tanizaki, who was a strong advocate of film reform. Even Nikkatsu produced reformist films under the direction of Eizō Tanaka. By the mid-1920s, actresses had replaced onnagata and films used more of the devices pioneered by Inoue. Some of the most discussed silent films from Japan are those of Kenji Mizoguchi, whose later works (including Ugetsu/Ugetsu Monogatari) retain a very high reputation.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "Japanese films gained popularity in the mid-1920s against foreign films, in part fueled by the popularity of movie stars and a new style of jidaigeki. Directors such as Daisuke Itō and Masahiro Makino made samurai films like A Diary of Chuji's Travels and Roningai featuring rebellious antiheroes in fast-cut fight scenes that were both critically acclaimed and commercial successes. Some stars, such as Tsumasaburo Bando, Kanjūrō Arashi, Chiezō Kataoka, Takako Irie and Utaemon Ichikawa, were inspired by Makino Film Productions and formed their own independent production companies where directors such as Hiroshi Inagaki, Mansaku Itami and Sadao Yamanaka honed their skills. Director Teinosuke Kinugasa created a production company to produce the experimental masterpiece A Page of Madness, starring Masao Inoue, in 1926. Many of these companies, while surviving during the silent era against major studios like Nikkatsu, Shochiku, Teikine, and Toa Studios, could not survive the cost involved in converting to sound.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "With the rise of left-wing political movements and labor unions at the end of the 1920s, there arose so-called tendency films with left-leaning tendencies. Directors Kenji Mizoguchi, Daisuke Itō, Shigeyoshi Suzuki, and Tomu Uchida were prominent examples. In contrast to these commercially produced 35 mm films, the Marxist Proletarian Film League of Japan (Prokino) made works independently in smaller gauges (such as 9.5mm and 16mm), with more radical intentions. Tendency films suffered from severe censorship heading into the 1930s, and Prokino members were arrested and the movement effectively crushed. Such moves by the government had profound effects on the expression of political dissent in 1930s cinema. Films from this period include: Sakanaya Honda, Jitsuroku Chushingura, Horaijima, Orochi, Maboroshi, Kurutta Ippeji, Jujiro, Kurama Tengu: Kyōfu Jidai, and Kurama Tengu.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "A later version of The Captain's Daughter directed by Namio Ochiai and Kenji Mizoguchi's 藤原義江のふるさと (Fujiwara Yoshie no furusato, known internationally as Hometown) were the two earliest talkie films. They used the Mina Talkie System with dialogue written on chalkboards and were immediate flops because Nikkatsu raised the admission prices fifty percent, leading them to temporarily abandon sound film. The Japanese film industry later split into two groups; one retained the Mina Talkie System, while the other used the Eastphone Talkie System used to make Tojo Masaki's films.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "The 1923 earthquake, the bombing of Tokyo during World War II, and the natural effects of time and Japan's humidity on flammable and unstable nitrate film have resulted in a great dearth of surviving films from this period.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 15,
"text": "Unlike in the West, silent films were still being produced in Japan well into the 1930s; as late as 1938, a third of Japanese films were silent. For instance, Yasujirō Ozu's An Inn in Tokyo (1935), considered a precursor to the neorealism genre, was a silent film. A few Japanese sound shorts were made in the 1920s and 1930s, but Japan's first feature-length talkie was Fujiwara Yoshie no furusato (1930), which used the Mina Talkie System. Notable talkies of this period include Mikio Naruse's Wife, Be Like A Rose! (Tsuma Yo Bara No Yoni, 1935), which was one of the first Japanese films to gain a theatrical release in the U.S.; Kenji Mizoguchi's Sisters of the Gion (Gion no shimai, 1936); Osaka Elegy (1936); The Story of the Last Chrysanthemums (1939); and Sadao Yamanaka's Humanity and Paper Balloons (1937).",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 16,
"text": "Film criticism shared this vitality, with many film journals such as Kinema Junpo and newspapers printing detailed discussions of the cinema of the day, both at home and abroad. A cultured \"impressionist\" criticism pursued by critics such as Tadashi Iijima, Fuyuhiko Kitagawa, and Matsuo Kishi was dominant, but opposed by leftist critics such as Akira Iwasaki and Genjū Sasa who sought an ideological critique of films.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 17,
"text": "The 1930s also saw increased government involvement in cinema, which was symbolized by the passing of the Film Law, which gave the state more authority over the film industry, in 1939. The government encouraged some forms of cinema, producing propaganda films and promoting documentary films (also called bunka eiga or \"culture films\"), with important documentaries being made by directors such as Fumio Kamei. Realism was in favor; film theorists such as Taihei Imamura and Heiichi Sugiyama advocated for documentary or realist drama, while directors such as Hiroshi Shimizu and Tomotaka Tasaka produced fiction films that were strongly realistic in style. Films reinforced the importance of traditional Japanese values against the rise of the Westernised modern girl, a character epitomised by Shizue Tatsuta in Ozu's 1930 film Young Lady.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 18,
"text": "Because of World War II and the weak economy, unemployment became widespread in Japan, and the cinema industry suffered.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 19,
"text": "During this period, when Japan was expanding its Empire, the Japanese government saw cinema as a propaganda tool to show the glory and invincibility of the Empire of Japan. Thus, many films from this period depict patriotic and militaristic themes. However unlike most wartime films the Japanese tended to tell it like it is, showing the hardships soldiers face everyday in battle. Marching through mud and staying in small unknown towns. In 1942, Kajiro Yamamoto's film The War at Sea from Hawaii to Malaya portrayed the attack on Pearl Harbor; the film made use of special effects directed by Eiji Tsuburaya, including a miniature scale model of Pearl Harbor itself.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 20,
"text": "kamishibai (紙芝居) or paper theater was a popular form of street entertainment, especially for the children. Kamishibai was offten used to tell stories of Buddhist deities and the history of some Buddhist temples. In 1920 it started out as normal storytelling for the children. But in about 1932 it started to lean more to a militaristic viewpoint.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 21,
"text": "Yoshiko Yamaguchi was a very popular actress. She rose to international stardom with 22 wartime movies. The Manchukuo Film Association let her use the Chinese name Li Xianglan so she could represent Chinese roles in Japanese propaganda movies. After the war she used her official Japanese name and starred in an additional 29 movies. She was elected as a member of the Japanese parliament in the 1970s and served for 18 years.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 22,
"text": "Akira Kurosawa made his feature film debut with Sugata Sanshiro in 1943.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 23,
"text": "After the surrender of Japan in 1945, wartime controls and restrictions on the Japanese film industry were abolished, and the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers (SCAP) established the Civil Information and Education Section (CIE), which came to manage the industry. All film proposals and screenplays were to be processed and approved by CIE. The script would then be processed by the Civil Censorship Detachment (CCD), which was under the direct control of American military. Pre-war and wartime films were also subject to review, and over 500 were condemned, with half of them being burned. In addition, Toho and Daiei pre-emptively destroyed films they thought to be incriminating. In November 1945, CIE announced that it would forbid films deemed to be:",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 24,
"text": "A major consequence of these restrictions was that the production of jidaigeki films, especially those involving samurai, became effectively impossible. A notable case of censorship was of the war film Escape at Dawn, written by Akira Kurosawa and Senkichi Taniguchi, which was re-written over a dozen times at the request of CIE, largely erasing the original content of the story. On the other hand, the CIE favored the production of films that reflected the policies of the Occupation, such as agricultural reform and the organization of labor unions, and promoted the peaceful redevelopment of Japan and the rights of individuals.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 25,
"text": "Significant movies among them are, Setsuko Hara appeared in Akira Kurosawa's No Regrets for Our Youth (1946), Kōzaburō Yoshimura's A Ball at the Anjo House (1947), Tadashi Imai's Aoi sanmyaku (1949), etc. It gained national popularity as a star symbolizing the beginning of a new era. In Yasushi Sasaki's Hatachi no Seishun (1946), the first kiss scene of a Japanese movie was filmed. The Mainichi Film Award was also created in 1946.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 26,
"text": "The first movie released after the war was Soyokaze, directed by Yasushi Sasaki, and the theme song Ringo no Uta was a big hit.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 27,
"text": "The first collaborations between Akira Kurosawa and actor Toshiro Mifune were Drunken Angel in 1948 and Stray Dog in 1949. Yasujirō Ozu directed the critically and commercially successful Late Spring in 1949.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 28,
"text": "In the later half of the Occupation, the Reverse Course came into effect. Left-wing filmmakers displaced from the major studios in the Red Purge joined those displaced after suppression of the Toho strikes, forming a new independent film movement. Directors such as Fumio Kamei, Tadashi Imai and Satsuo Yamamoto were members of the Japanese Communist Party. Independent social realist dramas saw a small and temporary boom amid the wave of sentimental war dramas produced after the end of Occupation.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 29,
"text": "The 1950s are widely considered the Golden Age of Japanese cinema. Three Japanese films from this decade (Rashomon, Seven Samurai and Tokyo Story) appeared in the top ten of Sight & Sound's critics' and directors' polls for the best films of all time in 2002. They also appeared in the 2012 polls, with Tokyo Story (1953) dethroning Citizen Kane at the top of the 2012 directors' poll.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 30,
"text": "War movies covering themes previously restricted by SCAP began to be produced, such as Hideo Sekigawa's \"Listen to the Voices of the Sea\" (1950), Tadashi Imai's \"Himeyuri no Tô - Tower of the Lilies\" (1953), Keisuke Kinoshita's \"Twenty-Four Eyes\" (1954) and \"Kon Ichikawa's \"The Burmese Harp\" (1956). Works showcasing tragic and sentimental retrospectives of the war experience became a public phenomenon. Other nostalgic films produced includeBattleship Yamato (1953) and Eagle of the Pacific (1953). Under these circumstances, movies such as \"Emperor Meiji and the Russo-Japanese War (明治天皇と日露大戦争)\" (1957), where Kanjūrō Arashi played Emperor Meiji, also appeared. It was a situation that was unthinkable before the war, the commercialization of the Emperor who was supposed to be sacred and inviolable.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 31,
"text": "The period after the American Occupation led to a rise in diversity in movie distribution thanks to the increased output and popularity of the film studios of Toho, Daiei, Shochiku, Nikkatsu, and Toei. This period gave rise to the six great artists of Japanese cinema: Masaki Kobayashi, Akira Kurosawa, Ishirō Honda, Eiji Tsuburaya, Kenji Mizoguchi, and Yasujirō Ozu. Each director dealt with the effects the war and subsequent occupation by America in unique and innovative ways. During this decade, the works of Kurosawa, Honda, and Tsuburaya would become the first Japanese films to be widely distributed in foreign theaters.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 32,
"text": "The decade started with Akira Kurosawa's Rashomon (1950), which won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival in 1951 and the Academy Honorary Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1952, and marked the entrance of Japanese cinema onto the world stage. It was also the breakout role for legendary star Toshiro Mifune. In 1953, Entotsu no mieru basho by Heinosuke Gosho was in competition at the 3rd Berlin International Film Festival.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 33,
"text": "The first Japanese film in color was Carmen Comes Home directed by Keisuke Kinoshita and released in 1951. There was also a black-and-white version of this film available. Tokyo File 212 (1951) was the first American feature film to be shot entirely in Japan. The lead roles were played by Florence Marly and Robert Peyton. It featured the geisha Ichimaru in a short cameo. Suzuki Ikuzo's Tonichi Enterprises Company co-produced the film. Gate of Hell, a 1953 film by Teinosuke Kinugasa, was the first movie that filmed using Eastmancolor film, Gate of Hell was both Daiei's first color film and the first Japanese color movie to be released outside Japan, receiving an Academy Honorary Award in 1954 for Best Costume Design by Sanzo Wada and an Honorary Award for Best Foreign Language Film. It also won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, the first Japanese film to achieve that honour.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 34,
"text": "The year 1954 saw two of Japan's most influential films released. The first was the Kurosawa epic Seven Samurai, about a band of hired samurai who protect a helpless village from a rapacious gang of thieves. The same year, Kurosawa's friend and colleague Ishirō Honda directed the anti-nuclear monster-drama Godzilla, featuring award-winning effects by Eiji Tsuburaya. The latter film was first ever Japanese film to be given a wide release throughout the United States, where it was heavily re-edited, and featured new footage with actor Raymond Burr for its distribution in 1956 as Godzilla, King of the Monsters!. Although it was edited for its Western release, Godzilla became an international icon of Japan and spawned an entire subgenre of kaiju films, as well as the longest-running film franchise in history. Also in 1954, another Kurosawa film, Ikiru was in competition at the 4th Berlin International Film Festival.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 35,
"text": "In 1955, Hiroshi Inagaki won an Academy Honorary Award for Best Foreign Language Film for Part I of his Samurai trilogy and in 1958 won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival for Rickshaw Man. Kon Ichikawa directed two anti-war dramas: The Burmese Harp (1956), which was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards, and Fires On The Plain (1959), along with Enjo (1958), which was adapted from Yukio Mishima's novel Temple Of The Golden Pavilion. Masaki Kobayashi made three films which would collectively become known as The Human Condition Trilogy: No Greater Love (1959), and The Road To Eternity (1959). The trilogy was completed in 1961, with A Soldier's Prayer.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 36,
"text": "Kenji Mizoguchi, who died in 1956, ended his career with a series of masterpieces including The Life of Oharu (1952), Ugetsu (1953) and Sansho the Bailiff (1954). He won the Silver Bear at the Venice Film Festival for Ugetsu. Mizoguchi's films often deal with the tragedies inflicted on women by Japanese society. Mikio Naruse made Repast (1950), Late Chrysanthemums (1954), The Sound of the Mountain (1954) and Floating Clouds (1955). Yasujirō Ozu began directing color films beginning with Equinox Flower (1958), and later Good Morning (1959) and Floating Weeds (1958), which was adapted from his earlier silent A Story of Floating Weeds (1934), and was shot by Rashomon and Sansho the Bailiff cinematographer Kazuo Miyagawa.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 37,
"text": "The Blue Ribbon Awards were established in 1950. The first winner for Best Film was Until We Meet Again by Tadashi Imai.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 38,
"text": "The number of films produced, and the cinema audience reached a peak in the 1960s. Most films were shown in double bills, with one half of the bill being a \"program picture\" or B-movie. A typical program picture was shot in four weeks. The demand for these program pictures in quantity meant the growth of film series such as The Hoodlum Soldier or Akumyo.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 39,
"text": "The huge level of activity of 1960s Japanese cinema also resulted in many classics. Akira Kurosawa directed the 1961 classic Yojimbo. Yasujirō Ozu made his final film, An Autumn Afternoon, in 1962. Mikio Naruse directed the wide screen melodrama When a Woman Ascends the Stairs in 1960; his final film was 1967's Scattered Clouds.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 40,
"text": "Kon Ichikawa captured the watershed 1964 Olympics in his three-hour documentary Tokyo Olympiad (1965). Seijun Suzuki was fired by Nikkatsu for \"making films that don't make any sense and don't make any money\" after his surrealist yakuza flick Branded to Kill (1967).",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 41,
"text": "The 1960s were the peak years of the Japanese New Wave movement, which began in the 1950s and continued through the early 1970s. Nagisa Oshima, Kaneto Shindo, Masahiro Shinoda, Susumu Hani and Shohei Imamura emerged as major filmmakers during the decade. Oshima's Cruel Story of Youth, Night and Fog in Japan and Death By Hanging, along with Shindo's Onibaba, Hani's Kanojo to kare and Imamura's The Insect Woman, became some of the better-known examples of Japanese New Wave filmmaking. Documentary played a crucial role in the New Wave, as directors such as Hani, Kazuo Kuroki, Toshio Matsumoto, and Hiroshi Teshigahara moved from documentary into fiction film, while feature filmmakers like Oshima and Imamura also made documentaries. Shinsuke Ogawa and Noriaki Tsuchimoto became the most important documentarists: \"two figures [that] tower over the landscape of Japanese documentary.\"",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 42,
"text": "Teshigahara's Woman in the Dunes (1964) won the Special Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival, and was nominated for Best Director and Best Foreign Language Film Oscars. Masaki Kobayashi's Kwaidan (1965) also picked up the Special Jury Prize at Cannes and received a nomination for Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards. Bushido, Samurai Saga by Tadashi Imai won the Golden Bear at the 13th Berlin International Film Festival. Immortal Love by Keisuke Kinoshita and Twin Sisters of Kyoto and Portrait of Chieko, both by Noboru Nakamura, also received nominations for Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards. Lost Spring, also by Nakamura, was in competition for the Golden Bear at the 17th Berlin International Film Festival.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 43,
"text": "The 1970s saw the cinema audience drop due to the spread of television. Total audience declined from 1.2 billion in 1960 to 0.2 billion in 1980. Film companies fought back in various ways, such as the bigger budget films of Kadokawa Pictures, or including increasingly sexual or violent content and language which could not be shown on television. The resulting pink film industry became the stepping stone for many young independent filmmakers. The seventies also saw the start of the \"idol eiga\", films starring young \"idols\", who would bring in audiences due to their fame and popularity.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 44,
"text": "Toshiya Fujita made the revenge film Lady Snowblood in 1973. In the same year, Yoshishige Yoshida made the film Coup d'État, a portrait of Ikki Kita, the leader of the Japanese coup of February 1936. Its experimental cinematography and mise-en-scène, as well as its avant-garde score by Toshi Ichiyanagi, garnered it wide critical acclaim within Japan.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 45,
"text": "In 1976, the Hochi Film Award was created. The first winner for Best Film was The Inugamis by Kon Ichikawa. Nagisa Oshima directed In the Realm of the Senses (1976), a film detailing a crime of passion involving Sada Abe set in the 1930s. Controversial for its explicit sexual content, it has never been seen uncensored in Japan.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 46,
"text": "Kinji Fukasaku completed the epic Battles Without Honor and Humanity series of yakuza films. Yoji Yamada introduced the commercially successful Tora-San series, while also directing other films, notably the popular The Yellow Handkerchief, which won the first Japan Academy Prize for Best Film in 1978. New wave filmmakers Susumu Hani and Shōhei Imamura retreated to documentary work, though Imamura made a dramatic return to feature filmmaking with Vengeance Is Mine (1979).",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 47,
"text": "Dodes'ka-den by Akira Kurosawa and Sandakan No. 8 by Kei Kumai were nominated to the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 48,
"text": "The 1980s saw the decline of the major Japanese film studios and their associated chains of cinemas, with major studios Toho and Toei barely staying in business, Shochiku supported almost solely by the Otoko wa tsurai yo films, and Nikkatsu declining even further.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 49,
"text": "Of the older generation of directors, Akira Kurosawa directed Kagemusha (1980), which won the Palme d'Or at the 1980 Cannes Film Festival, and Ran (1985). Seijun Suzuki made a comeback beginning with Zigeunerweisen in 1980. Shohei Imamura won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival for The Ballad of Narayama (1983). Yoshishige Yoshida made A Promise (1986), his first film since 1973's Coup d'État.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 50,
"text": "New directors who appeared in the 1980s include actor Juzo Itami, who directed his first film, The Funeral, in 1984, and achieved critical and box office success with Tampopo in 1985. Shinji Sōmai, an artistically inclined populist director who made films like the youth-focused Typhoon Club, and the critically acclaimed Roman porno Love Hotel among others. Kiyoshi Kurosawa, who would generate international attention beginning in the mid-1990s, made his initial debut with pink films and genre horror.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 51,
"text": "During the 1980s, anime rose in popularity, with new animated movies released every summer and winter, often based upon popular anime television series. Mamoru Oshii released his landmark Angel's Egg in 1985. Hayao Miyazaki adapted his manga series Nausicaä of the Valley of Wind into a feature film of the same name in 1984. Katsuhiro Otomo followed suit by adapting his own manga Akira into a feature film of the same name in 1988.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 52,
"text": "Home video made possible the creation of a direct-to-video film industry.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 53,
"text": "Mini theaters, a type of independent movie theater characterized by a smaller size and seating capacity in comparison to larger movie theaters, gained popularity during the 1980s. Mini theaters helped bring independent and arthouse films from other countries, as well as films produced in Japan by unknown Japanese filmmakers, to Japanese audiences.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 54,
"text": "Because of economic recessions, the number of movie theaters in Japan had been steadily decreasing since the 1960s. The 1990s saw the reversal of this trend and the introduction of the multiplex in Japan. At the same time, the popularity of mini theaters continued.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 55,
"text": "Takeshi Kitano emerged as a significant filmmaker with works such as Sonatine (1993), Kids Return (1996) and Hana-bi (1997), which was given the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival. Shōhei Imamura again won the Palme d'Or (shared with Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami), this time for The Eel (1997). He became the fifth two-time recipient, joining Alf Sjöberg, Francis Ford Coppola, Emir Kusturica and Bille August.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 56,
"text": "Kiyoshi Kurosawa gained international recognition following the release of Cure (1997). Takashi Miike launched a prolific career with titles such as Audition (1999), Dead or Alive (1999) and The Bird People in China (1998). Former documentary filmmaker Hirokazu Koreeda launched an acclaimed feature career with Maborosi (1996) and After Life (1999).",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 57,
"text": "Hayao Miyazaki directed two mammoth box office and critical successes, Porco Rosso (1992) – which beat E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) as the highest-grossing film in Japan – and Princess Mononoke (1997), which also claimed the top box office spot until Titanic (1997).",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 58,
"text": "Several new anime directors rose to widespread recognition, bringing with them notions of anime as not only entertainment, but modern art. Mamoru Oshii released the internationally acclaimed philosophical science fiction action film Ghost in the Shell in 1996. Satoshi Kon directed the award-winning psychological thriller Perfect Blue. Hideaki Anno also gained considerable recognition with The End of Evangelion in 1997.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 59,
"text": "In the beginning of 21st century, Japan has been referenced numerous times in popular culture, which was a relatively successful one for Japanese film industry. The country has appeared as a setting and topic multiple times in film, poetry, television, and music. The number of films being shown in Japan steadily increased, with about 821 films released in 2006. Films based on Japanese television series were especially popular during this period. Anime films now accounted for 60 percent of Japanese film production. The 1990s and 2000s are considered to be \"Japanese Cinema's Second Golden Age\", due to the immense popularity of anime, both within Japan and overseas.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 60,
"text": "Although not a commercial success, All About Lily Chou-Chou directed by Shunji Iwai was honored at the Berlin, the Yokohama and the Shanghai Film Festivals in 2001. Takeshi Kitano appeared in Battle Royale and directed and starred in Dolls and Zatoichi. Several horror films, Kairo, Dark Water, Yogen, the Grudge series and One Missed Call met with commercial success. In 2004, Godzilla: Final Wars, directed by Ryuhei Kitamura, was released to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Godzilla. In 2005, director Seijun Suzuki made his 56th film, Princess Raccoon. Hirokazu Koreeda claimed film festival awards around the world with two of his films Distance and Nobody Knows. Female film director Naomi Kawase's film The Mourning Forest won the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival in 2007. Yoji Yamada, director of the Otoko wa Tsurai yo series, made a trilogy of acclaimed revisionist samurai films, 2002's Twilight Samurai, followed by The Hidden Blade in 2004 and Love and Honor in 2006. In 2008, Departures won the Academy Award for best foreign language film.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 61,
"text": "In anime, Hayao Miyazaki directed Spirited Away in 2001, breaking Japanese box office records and winning several awards—including the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature in 2003—followed by Howl's Moving Castle and Ponyo in 2004 and 2008 respectively. In 2004, Mamoru Oshii released the anime movie Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence which received critical praise around the world. His 2008 film The Sky Crawlers was met with similarly positive international reception. Satoshi Kon also released three quieter, but nonetheless highly successful films: Millennium Actress, Tokyo Godfathers, and Paprika. Katsuhiro Otomo released Steamboy, his first animated project since the 1995 short film compilation Memories, in 2004. In collaboration with Studio 4C, American director Michael Arias released Tekkon Kinkreet in 2008, to international acclaim. After several years of directing primarily lower-key live-action films, Hideaki Anno formed his own production studio and revisited his still-popular Evangelion franchise with the Rebuild of Evangelion tetralogy, a new series of films providing an alternate retelling of the original story.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 62,
"text": "Some Hollywood directors have turned to Tokyo as a backdrop for movies set in Japan. Post-war period examples include Tokyo Joe, My Geisha, Tokyo Story and the James Bond film You Only Live Twice; recent examples include Lost in Translation and The Last Samurai (both in 2003), Kill Bill: Volume 1 and 2 and The Day After Tomorrow (all in 2004), Memoirs of a Geisha (2005), The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift and Babel (both in 2006), The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008), 2012 (2009), Inception (2010), Emperor (2012), Pacific Rim and The Wolverine (both in 2013), Geostorm (2017), and Avengers: Endgame (2019).",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 63,
"text": "Since February 2000, the Japan Film Commission Promotion Council was established. On November 16, 2001, the Japanese Foundation for the Promotion of the Arts laws were presented to the House of Representatives. These laws were intended to promote the production of media arts, including film scenery, and stipulate that the government – on both the national and local levels – must lend aid in order to preserve film media. The laws were passed on November 30 and came into effect on December 7. In 2003, at a gathering for the Agency of Cultural Affairs, twelve policies were proposed in a written report to allow public-made films to be promoted and shown at the Film Center of the National Museum of Modern Art.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 64,
"text": "Four films have so far received international recognition by being selected to compete in major film festivals: Caterpillar by Kōji Wakamatsu was in competition for the Golden Bear at the 60th Berlin International Film Festival and won the Silver Bear for Best Actress, Outrage by Takeshi Kitano was In Competition for the Palme d'Or at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival, Himizu by Sion Sono was in competition for the Golden Lion at the 68th Venice International Film Festival.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 65,
"text": "In March 2011, Japanese film and television industry was afflicted by the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami and the subsequent Fukushima nuclear disaster, which was greatly suffered due to ongoing triple disaster. However, many Japanese studios were officially closed or reorganized to prevent the triple disaster. As of result, many of Japanese studios began to reopen and production rates have increased.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 66,
"text": "In October 2011 (after fully reopening of Japanese film and television industry), Takashi Miike's Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai was In Competition for the Palme d'Or at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival, the first 3D film ever to screen In Competition at Cannes. The film was co-produced by British independent producer Jeremy Thomas, who had successfully broken Japanese titles such as Nagisa Oshima's Merry Christmas, Mr Lawrence and Taboo, Takeshi Kitano's Brother, and Miike's 13 Assassins onto the international stage as producer.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 67,
"text": "In 2018, Hirokazu Kore-eda won the Palme d'Or for his movie Shoplifters at the 71st Cannes Film Festival, a festival that also featured Ryūsuke Hamaguchi's Asako I & II in competition.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 68,
"text": "The 2020 Japanese epic disaster drama film Fukushima 50, released on 6 March 2020, directed by Setsurō Wakamatsu and written by Yōichi Maekawa. The film is based on the book by Ryusho Kadota, titled On the Brink: The Inside Story of Fukushima Daiichi, and it is the first Japanese film to depict the disaster.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 69,
"text": "In early 2020, the Japanese film and television industry was afflicted by the COVID-19 pandemic, which greatly suffered due to health requirements. This gave the nation its worst day of film and television industry impacted by health crises since the end of World War II. From the first (of many) 'health lockdowns' until the end of September 2021, many Japanese studios were closed or reorganized to suit the legal requirements for spread prevention. This resulted in the suspension of filming for many movies.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 70,
"text": "In October 2020 (after the reopening film industry), a Japanese anime film Demon Slayer: Mugen Train based on the Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba manga series broke all box-office records in the country, becoming the highest-grossing film of all time in Japan, the highest-grossing Japanese film of all time and the highest-grossing film of 2020.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 71,
"text": "In October 2021, a Japanese drama-road film Drive My Car won Best Foreign Language Film at the 79th Golden Globe Awards and received the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film at the 94th Academy Awards.",
"title": "History"
}
] |
The cinema of Japan, also known domestically as hōga, has a history that spans more than 100 years. Japan has one of the oldest and largest film industries in the world; as of 2021, it was the fourth largest by number of feature films produced. In 2011, Japan produced 411 feature films that earned 54.9% of a box office total of US$2.338 billion. Films have been produced in Japan since 1897, when the first foreign cameramen arrived. During the 1950s, a period dubbed the "Golden Age of Japanese cinema", the jidaigeki films of Akira Kurosawa as well as the science fiction films of Ishirō Honda and Eiji Tsuburaya gained Japanese cinema international praise and made these directors universally renown and highly influential. Some of the Japanese films of this period are now rated some of the greatest of all time: Tokyo Story (1953) ranked number three in Sight & Sound critics' list of the 100 greatest films of all time and also topped the 2012 Sight & Sound directors' poll of The Top 50 Greatest Films of All Time, dethroning Citizen Kane, while Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai (1954) was voted the greatest foreign-language film of all time in BBC's 2018 poll of 209 critics in 43 countries. Japan has also won the Academy Award for the Best International Feature Film five times, more than any other Asian country. Japan's Big Four film studios are Toho, Toei, Shochiku and Kadokawa, which are the only members of the Motion Picture Producers Association of Japan (MPPAJ). The annual Japan Academy Film Prize hosted by the Nippon Academy-shō Association is considered to be the Japanese equivalent of the Academy Awards.
|
2001-10-19T15:36:54Z
|
2023-12-23T07:03:33Z
|
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinema_of_Japan
|
10,791 |
Cinema of China
|
The cinema of China is the filmmaking and film industry of the Chinese mainland under the People's Republic of China, one of three distinct historical threads of Chinese-language cinema together with the cinema of Hong Kong and the cinema of Taiwan.
Cinema was introduced in China in 1896 and the first Chinese film, Dingjun Mountain, was made in 1905. In the early decades the film industry was centered on Shanghai. The 1920s was dominated by small studios and commercial films, especially in the action wuxia genre. The first sound film, Sing-Song Girl Red Peony, using the sound-on-disc technology, was made in 1931. The 1930s, considered the first "Golden Period" of Chinese cinema, saw the advent of the leftist cinematic movement. The civil war between Nationalists and Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was reflected in the films produced. After the Japanese invasion of China and the occupation of Shanghai, the industry in the city was severely curtailed, with filmmakers moving to Hong Kong, Chongqing and other places. A "Solitary Island" period began in Shanghai, where the filmmakers who remained worked in the foreign concessions. Princess Iron Fan (1941), the first Chinese animated feature film, was released at the end of this period. It influenced wartime Japanese animation and later Osamu Tezuka. After being completely engulfed by the occupation in 1941, and until the end of the war in 1945, the film industry in the city was under Japanese control.
After the end of the war, a second golden age took place, with production in Shanghai resuming. Spring in a Small Town (1948) was named the best Chinese-language film at the 24th Hong Kong Film Awards. After the Chinese Communist Revolution, domestic films that were already released and a selection of foreign films were banned in 1951, marking a tirade of film censorship in China. Despite this, movie attendance increased sharply. During the Cultural Revolution, the film industry was severely restricted, coming almost to a standstill from 1967 to 1972. The industry flourished following the end of the Cultural Revolution, including the "scar dramas" of the 1980s, such as Evening Rain (1980), Legend of Tianyun Mountain (1980) and Hibiscus Town (1986), depicting the emotional traumas left by the period. Starting in the mid to late 1980s, with films such as One and Eight (1983) and Yellow Earth (1984), the rise of the Fifth Generation brought increased popularity to Chinese cinema abroad, especially among Western arthouse audiences. Films like Red Sorghum (1987), The Story of Qiu Ju (1992) and Farewell My Concubine (1993) won major international awards. The movement partially ended after the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre. The post-1990 period saw the rise of the Sixth Generation and post-Sixth Generation, both mostly making films outside the main Chinese film system which played mostly on the international film festival circuit.
Following the international commercial success of films such as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) and Hero (2002), the number of co-productions in Chinese-language cinema has increased and there has been a movement of Chinese-language cinema into a domain of large scale international influence. After The Dream Factory (1997) demonstrated the viability of the commercial model, and with the growth of the Chinese box office in the new millennium, Chinese films have broken box office records and, as of January 2017, 5 of the top 10 highest-grossing films in China are domestic productions. Lost in Thailand (2012) was the first Chinese film to reach CN¥1 billion at the Chinese box office. Monster Hunt (2015) was the first to reach CN¥2 billion. The Mermaid (2016) was the first to CN¥3 billion. Wolf Warrior 2 (2017) beat them out to become the highest-grossing film in China.
China is the home of the largest movie and drama production complex and film studios in the world, the Oriental Movie Metropolis and Hengdian World Studios, and in 2010 it had the third largest film industry by number of feature films produced annually. In 2012 the country became the second-largest market in the world by box office receipts. In 2016, the gross box office in China was CN¥45.71 billion (US$6.58 billion). The country has the largest number of screens in the world since 2016, and is expected to become the largest theatrical market by 2019. China has also become a major hub of business for Hollywood studios.
In November 2016, China passed a film law banning content deemed harmful to the "dignity, honor and interests" of the People's Republic and encouraging the promotion of "socialist core values", approved by the National People's Congress Standing Committee. Due to industry regulations, films are typically allowed to stay in theaters for one month. However, studios may apply to regulators to have the limit extended.
As Chinese audiences have become increasingly interested in Chinese-language films produced domestically, production values in domestic films have been rising. According to the research firm Ampere Analysis, domestic films accounted for 85% of China's box office in 2020. Aynne Kokas, a media studies professor at the University of Virginia and author of the book "Hollywood Made in China" stated that, "There are Chinese blockbusters that Chinese filmmakers are making that people want to watch, and they feel less derivative than those made in Hollywood." The high box office earnings of 2021 Chinese films like Hi, Mom and The Battle at Lake Changjin has indicated that the Chinese domestic film industry has reached self-reliance and does not need international audience appeal to produce commercially successful films.
Recent patriotic films have been labelled as propaganda films by western mainstream media. However Richard Peña, a lecturer at Columbia University's School of the Arts in New York told VOA in regards to the claim of "propaganda" label that it was more a matter of perspective of "the beholder". Ian Huffer, Senior Lecturer in Media Studies at Massey University, added that "Most recent Chinese blockbusters that have been characterized as propaganda by Western journalism are really more like those Hollywood films over the years that have used military conflicts to evoke jingoist feeling or that show the US saving the world from global catastrophe".
Motion pictures were introduced to China in 1896. They were introduced through foreign film exhibitors in treaty ports like Shanghai and Hong Kong.
China was one of the earliest countries to be exposed to the medium of film, due to Louis Lumière sending his cameraman to Shanghai a year after inventing cinematography. The first recorded screening of a motion picture in China took place in Shanghai on 11 August 1896, as an "act" on a variety bill. The first Chinese film, a recording of the Peking opera, Dingjun Mountain, was made in November 1905 in Beijing. For the next decade the production companies were mainly foreign-owned, and the domestic film industry was centered on Shanghai, a thriving entrepot and the largest city in the Far East. In 1913, the first independent Chinese screenplay, The Difficult Couple, was filmed in Shanghai by Zheng Zhengqiu and Zhang Shichuan. Zhang Shichuan then set up the first Chinese-owned film production company in 1916. The first full-length feature film was Yan Ruisheng (閻瑞生) released in 1921. which was a docudrama about the killing of a Shanghai courtesan, although it was too crude a film to ever be considered commercially successful. During the 1920s film technicians from the United States trained Chinese technicians in Shanghai, and American influence continued to be felt there for the next two decades. Since film was still in its earliest stages of development, most Chinese silent films at this time were only comic skits or operatic shorts, and training was minimal at a technical aspect due to this being a period of experimental film.
Later, after trial and error, China was able to draw inspiration from its own traditional values and began producing martial arts films, with the first being Burning of Red Lotus Temple (1928). Burning of Red Lotus Temple was so successful at the box office, the Star Motion Pictures (Mingxing) production later filmed 18 sequels, marking the beginning of China's esteemed martial arts films. Many imitators followed, including U. Lien (Youlian) Studio's Red Heroine (1929), which is still extant. It was during this period that some of the more important production companies first came into being, notably Mingxing and the Shaw brothers' Tianyi ("Unique"). Mingxing, founded by Zheng Zhengqiu and Zhang Shichuan in 1922, initially focused on comic shorts, including the oldest surviving complete Chinese film, Laborer's Love (1922). This soon shifted, however, to feature-length films and family dramas including Orphan Rescues Grandfather (1923). Meanwhile, Tianyi shifted their model towards folklore dramas, and also pushed into foreign markets; their film White Snake (1926) proved a typical example of their success in the Chinese communities of Southeast Asia. In 1931, the first Chinese sound film Sing-Song Girl Red Peony was made, the product of a cooperation between the Mingxing Film Company's image production and Pathé Frères's sound technology. However, the sound was disc-recorded, which was then played in the theatre in-sync with the action on the screen. The first sound-on-film talkie made in China was either Spring on Stage (歌場春色) by Tianyi, or Clear Sky After Storm by Great China Studio and Jinan Studio. Musical films, such as Song at Midnight (1937) and Street Angels (1937), starring Zhou Xuan, became one of the most popular film genres in China.
However, the first truly important Chinese films were produced beginning in the 1930s, with the advent of the "progressive" or "left-wing" movement, like Cheng Bugao's Spring Silkworms (1933), Wu Yonggang's The Goddess (1934), and Sun Yu's The Great Road, also known as The Big Road (1934). These films were noted for their emphasis on class struggle and external threats (i.e. Japanese aggression), as well as on their focus on common people, such as a family of silk farmers in Spring Silkworms and a prostitute in The Goddess. In part due to the success of these kinds of films, this post-1930 era is now often referred to as the first "golden period" of Chinese cinema. The Leftist cinematic movement often revolved around the Western-influenced Shanghai, where filmmakers portrayed the struggling lower class of an overpopulated city.
Three production companies dominated the market in the early to mid- 1930s: the newly formed Lianhua ("United China"), the older and larger Mingxing and Tianyi. Both Mingxing and Lianhua leaned left (Lianhua's management perhaps more so), while Tianyi continued to make less socially conscious fare.
The period also produced the first big Chinese movie stars, such as Hu Die, Ruan Lingyu, Li Lili, Chen Yanyan, Zhou Xuan, Zhao Dan and Jin Yan. Other major films of the period include Love and Duty (1931), Little Toys (1933), New Women (1934), Song of the Fishermen (1934), Plunder of Peach and Plum (1934), Crossroads (1937), and Street Angel (1937). Throughout the 1930s, the Nationalists and the Communists struggled for power and control over the major studios; their influence can be seen in the films the studios produced during this period.
The Japanese invasion of China in 1937, in particular the Battle of Shanghai, ended this golden run in Chinese cinema. All production companies except Xinhua Film Company ("New China") closed shop, and many of the filmmakers fled Shanghai, relocating to Hong Kong, the wartime Nationalist capital Chongqing, and elsewhere. The Shanghai film industry, though severely curtailed, did not stop however, thus leading to the "Solitary Island" period (also known as the "Sole Island" or "Orphan Island"), with Shanghai's foreign concessions serving as an "island" of production in the "sea" of Japanese-occupied territory. It was during this period that artists and directors who remained in the city had to walk a fine line between staying true to their leftist and nationalist beliefs and Japanese pressures. Director Bu Wancang's Hua Mu Lan, also known as Mulan Joins the Army (1939), with its story of a young Chinese peasant fighting against a foreign invasion, was a particularly good example of Shanghai's continued film-production in the midst of war. This period ended when Japan declared war on the Western allies on 7 December 1941; the solitary island was finally engulfed by the sea of the Japanese occupation. With the Shanghai industry firmly in Japanese control, films like the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere-promoting Eternity (1943) were produced.
During the 1930 and 1940s, both the China's Nationalist government and Japanese occupation authorities sent mobile projectionist units into areas under their control to show propaganda films.
In the Yan'an Soviet during September 1938, the Eighth Route Army established its first film group.
At the end of World War II, one of the most controversial Japanese-authorized companies, Manchukuo Film Association, would be separated and integrated into Chinese cinema.
The film industry continued to develop after 1945. Production in Shanghai once again resumed as a new crop of studios took the place that Lianhua and Mingxing studios had occupied in the previous decade. In 1945, Cai Chusheng returned to Shanghai to revive the Lianhua name as the "Lianhua Film Society with Shi Dongshan, Meng Junmou and Zheng Junli." This in turn became Kunlun Studios which would go on to become one of the most important studios of the era, (Kunlun Studios merged with seven other studios to form Shanghai film studio in 1949) putting out the classics The Spring River Flows East (1947), Myriad of Lights (1948), Crows and Sparrows (1949) and Wanderings of Three-Hairs the Orphan, also known as San Mao, The Little Vagabond (1949). Many of these films showed the disillusionment with the oppressive rule of Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalist Party and the struggling oppression of nation by war. The Spring River Flows East, a three-hour-long two-parter directed by Cai Chusheng and Zheng Junli, was a particularly strong success. Its depiction of the struggles of ordinary Chinese during the Second Sino-Japanese war, replete with biting social and political commentary, struck a chord with audiences of the time.
Meanwhile, companies like the Wenhua Film Company ("Culture Films"), moved away from the leftist tradition and explored the evolution and development of other dramatic genres. Wenhua treated postwar problems in universalistic and humanistic ways, avoiding the family narrative and melodramatic formulae. Excellent examples of Wenhua's fare are its first two postwar features, Love Everlasting (Bu liaoqing, 1947) and Fake Bride, Phony Bridegroom (1947). Another memorable Wenhua film is Long Live the Missus (1947), like Love Everlasting with an original screenplay by writer Eileen Chang. Wenhua's romantic drama Spring in a Small Town (1948), a film by director Fei Mu shortly prior to the revolution, is often regarded by Chinese film critics as one of the most important films in the history of Chinese cinema, in 2005, Hong Kong film awards it as the best 100 years of film. Ironically, it was precisely its artistic quality and apparent lack of "political grounding" that led to its labeling by the Communists as rightist or reactionary, and the film was quickly forgotten by those on the mainland following the Communist victory in China in 1949. However, with the China Film Archive's re-opening after the Cultural Revolution, a new print was struck from the original negative, allowing Spring of the Small Town to find a new and admiring audience and to influence an entire new generation of filmmakers. Indeed, an acclaimed remake was made in 2002 by Tian Zhuangzhuang. A Chinese Peking opera film, A Wedding in the Dream (1948), by the same director (Fei Mu), was the first Chinese color film.
At the founding of the PRC in 1949, there were less than 600 movie theatres in the country. The government saw motion pictures as an important production art form and tool for mass propaganda. The private studios in Shanghai, including Kunming, Wenhua, Guotai and Datong, were at first encouraged to make new films.
They made approximately 47 films during the next two years, but soon ran into trouble, owing to the furor over the Kunlun-produced drama The Life of Wu Xun (1950), directed by Sun Yu and starring veteran Zhao Dan. The feature was accused in an anonymous article in People's Daily in May 1951 of spreading feudal ideas. After the article was revealed to be penned by Mao Zedong, the film was banned and a Film Steering Committee was formed to "re-educate" the film industry, and the private studios were all incorporated into the state-run Shanghai Film Studio.
Also in 1951, pre-revolution Chinese films, Hollywood and Hong Kong productions were banned. The Chinese Communist Party sought to tighten control over mass media, producing instead movies centering on peasants, soldiers and workers, such as Bridge (1949) and The White Haired Girl (1950). One of the production bases in the middle of all the transition was the Changchun Film Studio.
The Communist government solved the problem of a lack of film theaters by building mobile projection units which could tour the remote regions of China, ensuring that even the poorest could have access to films. Mobile projection teams during the Mao-era typically included three to four workers who physically transported film infrastructure through a large geographic area mostly not covered by any electrical grid. Yuan Muzhi was important in developing the Communist government's theories and practices of rural film exhibition. Yuan and Chen Bo'er transformed the post-Second Sino-Japanese War remnants of the Manchurian Motion Picture Association into the Northeast Film Studio and when Yuan became Film Bureau chief in 1949, he applied its model to help institute a film exhibition network around the country.
In 1950, 1,800 projectionists from around the country traveled to Nanjing for a training program. These projectionists replicated the training program in their own home provinces to develop more projectionists. Nanjing was later termed a "Cradle of People's Cinema." The PRC sought to recruit women and ethnic minority projectionists in an effort to more effectively reach marginalized communities.
Until the profusion of mobile projectionist teams in the 1950s, most rural people had not seen a film. The number of movie-viewers hence increased sharply, partly bolstered by the fact that film tickets were given out to work units and attendance was compulsory, with admissions rising from 47 million in 1949 to 4.15 billion in 1959. By 1965 there were around 20,393 mobile film units. During the course of the Mao era, the majority of films were shown by such units, and only a minority of films were watched in theatres.
Work as a mobile projectionist was physically and technically demanding. As a result, women projectionists and all-women mobile projection teams were promoted in Chinese media as examples of advancing gender equality under socialism.
Rural mobile projectionist teams and urban movie theaters were generally managed through the PRC's cultural bureaucracy. Trade Unions and PLA propaganda departments also operated film exhibition networks.
In 1950s China, a common view of film was that it served as "socialist distance horizon education". For example, films promoted rural collectivization. Cinema also sought to develop the proletarian class consciousness of rural workers, encouraging the industrialization and militarization of their labor. Film projection teams operating in rural China were asked to incorporated lantern slides into their work to introduce national policies and political campaigns.
In the 17 years between the founding of the People's Republic of China and the Cultural Revolution, 603 feature films and 8,342 reels of documentaries and newsreels were produced, sponsored mostly as Communist propaganda by the government. For example, in Guerrilla on the Railroad (铁道游击队), dated 1956, the Chinese Communist Party was depicted as the primary resistance force against the Second Sino-Japanese War. Chinese filmmakers were sent to Moscow to study the Soviet socialist realism style of filmmaking. The Beijing Film Academy established in 1950 and in 1956, the Beijing Film Academy was officially opened. One important film of this era is This Life of Mine (1950), directed by Shi Hu, which follows an old beggar reflecting on his past life as a policeman working for the various regimes since 1911. The first widescreen Chinese film was produced in 1960. Animated films using a variety of folk arts, such as papercuts, shadow plays, puppetry, and traditional paintings, also were very popular for entertaining and educating children. The most famous of these, the classic Havoc in Heaven (two parts, 1961, 4), was made by Wan Laiming of the Wan Brothers and won Outstanding Film award at the London International Film Festival.
The thawing of censorship in 1956–57 (known as the Hundred Flowers Campaign) and the early 1960s led to more indigenous Chinese films being made which were less reliant on their Soviet counterparts. During this campaign the sharpest criticisms came from the satirical comedies of Lü Ban. Before the New Director Arrives exposes the hierarchical relationships occurring between the cadres, while his next film, The Unfinished Comedy (1957), was labelled as a "poisonous weed" during the Anti-Rightist Movement and Lü was banned from directing for life.The Unfinished Comedy was only screened after Mao's death. Other noteworthy films produced during this period were adaptations of literary classics, such as Sang Hu's The New Year's Sacrifice (1956; adapted from a Lu Xun story) and Shui Hua's The Lin Family Shop (1959; adapted from a Mao Dun story). The most prominent filmmaker of this era was Xie Jin, whose three films in particular, Woman Basketball Player No. 5 (1957), The Red Detachment of Women (1961) and Two Stage Sisters (1964), exemplify China's increased expertise at filmmaking during this time. Films made during this period are polished and exhibit high production value and elaborate sets. While Beijing and Shanghai remained the main centers of production, between 1957 and 1960 the government built regional studios in Guangzhou, Xi'an and Chengdu to encourage representations of ethnic minorities in films. Chinese cinema began to directly address the issue of such ethnic minorities during the late 1950s and early 1960s, in films like Five Golden Flowers (1959), Third Sister Liu (1960), Serfs (1963), Ashima (1964).
As part of the Socialist Education Movement, mobile film projectionist units showed films and slideshows that emphasized class struggle and encouraged audience members to discuss bitter experiences onstage.
During the Cultural Revolution, the film industry was severely restricted. Almost all previous films were banned, and only a few new ones were produced, the revolutionary model operas. The most notable of these was a ballet version of the revolutionary opera The Red Detachment of Women, directed by Pan Wenzhan and Fu Jie in 1970. The release of filmed versions of the revolutionary model operas resulted in a re-organization and expansion of China's film exhibition network. Sent-down youth were a major subset of China's rural projectionists during this period.
Feature film production came almost to a standstill in the early years from 1967 to 1972. Movie production revived after 1972 under the strict jurisdiction of the Gang of Four until 1976, when they were overthrown. The few films that were produced during this period, such as 1975's Breaking with Old Ideas, were highly regulated in terms of plot and characterization.
In the years immediately following the Cultural Revolution, the film industry again flourished as a medium of popular entertainment. Production rose steadily, from 19 features in 1977 to 125 in 1986. Domestically produced films played to large audiences, and tickets for foreign film festivals sold quickly. The industry tried to revive crowds by making more innovative and "exploratory" films like their counterparts in the West.
Chinese cinema grew significantly in the late 1970s. In 1979, annual box office admissions reached a peak of 29.3 billion tickets sold, equivalent to an average of 30 films per person. Chinese cinema continued to prosper into the early 1980s. In 1980, annual box office admissions stood at 23.4 billion tickets sold, equivalent to an average of 29 films per person. In terms of box office admissions, this period represented the peak ticket sales in the history of the Chinese box office. High ticket sales were driven by low ticket prices, with a cinema ticket typically costing between ¥0.1 ($0.06) and ¥0.3 ($0.19) at the time.
By the early 1980s, there were 162,000 projection units in China, primarily composed of mobile movie teams which showed films outdoors in both rural and urban areas.
A number of films during this period drew box office admissions in the hundreds of millions. China's highest-grossing film in box office admissions was Legend of the White Snake (1980) with an estimated 700 million admissions, followed by In-Laws (Full House of Joy) [zh] (1981) and The Undaunted Wudang (1983) with more than 600 million ticket sales each. The highest-grossing foreign film was the Japanese film Kimi yo Fundo no Kawa o Watare (1976), which released in 1978 and sold more than 330 million tickets, followed by the Indian film Caravan (1971) which released in 1979 and sold about 300 million tickets.
In the late 1980s the film industry fell on hard times, faced with the dual problems of competition from other forms of entertainment and concern on the part of the authorities that many of the popular thriller and martial arts films were socially unacceptable. In January 1986 the film industry was transferred from the Ministry of Culture to the newly formed Ministry of Radio, Cinema, and Television to bring it under "stricter control and management" and to "strengthen supervision over production."
The end of the Cultural Revolution brought the release of "scar dramas" (傷痕剧 shānghén jù), which depicted the emotional traumas left by this period. The best-known of these is probably Xie Jin's Hibiscus Town (1986), although they could be seen as late as the 1990s with Tian Zhuangzhuang's The Blue Kite (1993). In the 1980s, open criticism of certain past Communist Party policies was encouraged by Deng Xiaoping as a way to reveal the excesses of the Cultural Revolution and the earlier Anti-Rightist Campaign, also helping to legitimize Deng's new policies of "reform and opening up." For instance, the Best Picture prize in the inaugural 1981 Golden Rooster Awards was given to two "scar dramas", Evening Rain (Wu Yonggang, Wu Yigong, 1980) and Legend of Tianyun Mountain (Xie Jin, 1980).
Many scar dramas were made by members of the Fourth Generation whose own careers or lives had suffered during the events in question, while younger, Fifth Generation directors such as Tian tended to focus on less controversial subjects of the immediate present or the distant past. Official enthusiasm for scar dramas waned by the 1990s when younger filmmakers began to confront negative aspects of the Mao era. The Blue Kite, though sharing a similar subject as the earlier scar dramas, was more realistic in style, and was made only through obfuscating its real script. Shown abroad, it was banned from release in mainland China, while Tian himself was banned from making any films for nearly a decade afterward. After the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre, few if any scar dramas were released domestically in mainland China.
Beginning in the mid-late 1980s, the rise of the so-called fifth generation of Chinese filmmakers brought increased popularity of Chinese cinema abroad. Most of the filmmakers who made up the Fifth Generation had graduated from the Beijing Film Academy in 1982 and included Zhang Yimou, Tian Zhuangzhuang, Chen Kaige, Zhang Junzhao, Li Shaohong, Wu Ziniu and others. These graduates constituted the first group of filmmakers to graduate since the Cultural Revolution and they soon jettisoned traditional methods of storytelling and opted for a more free and unorthodox symbolic approach. After the so-called scar literature in fiction had paved the way for frank discussion, Zhang Junzhao's One and Eight (1983) and Chen Kaige's Yellow Earth (1984) in particular were taken to mark the beginnings of the Fifth Generation. The most famous of the Fifth Generation directors, Chen Kaige and Zhang Yimou, went on to produce celebrated works such as King of the Children (1987), Ju Dou (1989), Raise the Red Lantern (1991) and Farewell My Concubine (1993), which were not only acclaimed by Chinese cinema-goers but by the Western arthouse audience. Tian Zhuangzhuang's films, though less well known by Western viewers, were well noted by directors such as Martin Scorsese. It was during this period that Chinese cinema began reaping the rewards of international attention, including the 1988 Golden Bear for Red Sorghum, the 1992 Golden Lion for The Story of Qiu Ju, the 1993 Palme d'Or for Farewell My Concubine, and three Best Foreign Language Film nominations from the Academy Awards. All these award-winning films starred actress Gong Li, who became the Fifth Generation's most recognizable star, especially to international audiences.
Diverse in style and subject, the Fifth Generation directors' films ranged from black comedy (Huang Jianxin's The Black Cannon Incident, 1985) to the esoteric (Chen Kaige's Life on a String, 1991), but they share a common rejection of the socialist-realist tradition worked by earlier Chinese filmmakers in the Communist era. Other notable Fifth Generation directors include Wu Ziniu, Hu Mei, Li Shaohong and Zhou Xiaowen. Fifth Generation filmmakers reacted against the ideological purity of Cultural Revolution cinema. By relocating to regional studios, they began to explore the actuality of local culture in a somewhat documentarian fashion. Instead of stories depicting heroic military struggles, the films were built out of the drama of ordinary people's daily lives. They also retained political edge, but aimed at exploring issues rather than recycling approved policy. While Cultural Revolution films used character, the younger directors favored psychological depth along the lines of European cinema. They adopted complex plots, ambiguous symbolism, and evocative imagery. Some of their bolder works with political overtones were banned by Chinese authorities.
These films came with a creative genres of stories, new style of shooting as well, directors utilized extensive color and long shots to present and explore history and structure of national culture. As a result of the new films being so intricate, the films were for more educated audiences than anything. The new style was profitable for some and helped filmmakers to make strides in the business. It allowed directors to get away from reality and show their artistic sense.
The Fourth Generation also returned to prominence. Given their label after the rise of the Fifth Generation, these were directors whose careers were stalled by the Cultural Revolution and who were professionally trained prior to 1966. Wu Tianming, in particular, made outstanding contributions by helping to finance major Fifth Generation directors under the auspices of the Xi'an Film Studio (which he took over in 1983), while continuing to make films like Old Well (1986) and The King of Masks (1996).
The Fifth Generation movement ended in part after the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre, although its major directors continued to produce notable works. Several of its filmmakers went into self-imposed exile: Wu Tianming moved to the United States (but later returned), Huang Jianxin left for Australia, while many others went into television-related works.
During a period when socialist dramas were beginning to lose viewership, the Chinese government began to involve itself deeper into the world of popular culture and cinema by creating the official genre of the "main melody" (主旋律 zhǔxuánlǜ), inspired by Hollywood's strides in musical dramas. In 1987, the Ministry of Radio, Film and Television issued a statement encouraging the making of movies which emphasizes the main melody to "invigorate national spirit and national pride". The expression main melody refers to the musical term leitmotif, which translates to the 'theme of our times', which scholars suggest is representative of China's socio-political climate and cultural context of popular cinema. These main melody films, still produced regularly in modern times, try to emulate the commercial mainstream by the use of Hollywood-style music and special effects. A significant feature of these films is the incorporation of a "red song", which is a song written as propaganda to support the People's Republic of China. By revolving the film around the motif of a red song, the film is able to gain traction at the box office as songs are generally thought to be more accessible than a film. Theoretically, once the red song dominates the charts, it will stir interest in the film that which it accompanies.
Main melody dramas are often subsidized by the state and have free access to government and military personnel. The Chinese government spends between "one and two million RMBs" annually to support the production of films in the main melody genre. August 1st Film Studio, the film and TV production arm of the People's Liberation Army, is a studio that produces main melody cinema. Main melody films, which often depict past military engagements or are biopics of first-generation CCP leaders, have won several Best Picture prizes at the Golden Rooster Awards. Some of the more famous main melody dramas include the ten-hour epic Decisive Engagement (大决战, 1991), directed by Cai Jiawei, Yang Guangyuan and Wei Lian; The Opium War (1997), directed by Xie Jin; and The Founding of a Republic (2009), directed by Han Sanping and Fifth Generation director Huang Jianxin. The Founding of an Army (2017) was commissioned by the government to celebrate the 90th anniversary of the People's Liberation Army, and is the third instalment in The Founding of a Republic series. The film featured many young Chinese pop singers that are already well-established in the industry, including Li Yifeng, Liu Haoran, and Lay Zhang, so as to further the film's reputation as a main melody drama.
The post-1990 era has been labelled the "return of the amateur filmmaker" as state censorship policies after the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre produced an edgy underground film movement loosely referred to as the Sixth Generation. Owing to the lack of state funding and backing, these films were shot quickly and cheaply, using materials like 16 mm film and digital video and mostly non-professional actors and actresses, producing a documentary feel, often with long takes, hand-held cameras, and ambient sound; more akin to Italian neorealism and cinéma vérité than the often lush, far more considered productions of the Fifth Generation. Unlike the Fifth Generation, the Sixth Generation brings a more individualistic, anti-romantic life-view and pays far closer attention to contemporary urban life, especially as affected by disorientation, rebellion and dissatisfaction with China's contemporary social marketing economic tensions and comprehensive cultural background. Many were made with an extremely low budget (an example is Jia Zhangke, who shoots on digital video, and formerly on 16 mm; Wang Xiaoshuai's The Days (1993) was made for US$10,000). The title and subjects of many of these films reflect the Sixth Generation's concerns. The Sixth Generation takes an interest in marginalized individuals and the less represented fringes of society. For example, Zhang Yuan's hand-held Beijing Bastards (1993) focuses on youth punk subculture, featuring artists like Cui Jian, Dou Wei and He Yong frowned upon by many state authorities, while Jia Zhangke's debut film Xiao Wu (1997) concerns a provincial pickpocket.
As the Sixth Generation gained international exposure, many subsequent movies were joint ventures and projects with international backers, but remained quite resolutely low-key and low budget. Jia's Platform (2000) was funded in part by Takeshi Kitano's production house, while his Still Life was shot on HD video. Still Life was a surprise addition and Golden Lion winner of the 2006 Venice International Film Festival. Still Life, which concerns provincial workers around the Three Gorges region, sharply contrasts with the works of Fifth Generation Chinese directors like Zhang Yimou and Chen Kaige who were at the time producing House of Flying Daggers (2004) and The Promise (2005). It featured no star of international renown and was acted mostly by non-professionals.
Many Sixth Generation films have highlighted the negative attributes of China's entry into the modern capitalist market. Li Yang's Blind Shaft (2003) for example, is an account of two murderous con-men in the unregulated and notoriously dangerous mining industry of northern China. (Li refused the tag of Sixth Generation, although admitted he was not Fifth Generation). While Jia Zhangke's The World (2004) emphasizes the emptiness of globalization in the backdrop of an internationally themed amusement park.
Some of the more prolific Sixth Generation directors to have emerged are Wang Xiaoshuai (The Days, Beijing Bicycle, So Long, My Son), Zhang Yuan (Beijing Bastards, East Palace West Palace), Jia Zhangke (Xiao Wu, Unknown Pleasures, Platform, The World, A Touch of Sin, Mountains May Depart, Ash Is Purest White), He Jianjun (Postman) and Lou Ye (Suzhou River, Summer Palace). One director of their generation who does not share most of the concerns of the Sixth Generation is Lu Chuan (Kekexili: Mountain Patrol, 2004; City of Life and Death, 2010).
In the 2018 Cannes Film Festival, two of China's Sixth generation filmmakers, Jia Zhangke and Zhang Meng – whose grim works transformed Chinese cinema in the 1990s – showed on the French Riviera. While both directors represent Chinese cinema, their profiles are quite different. The 49-year-old Jia set up the Pingyao International Film Festival in 2017 and on the other hand is Zhang, a 56-year-old film school professor who spent years working on government commissions and domestic TV shows after struggling with his own projects. Despite their different profiles, they mark an important cornerstone in Chinese cinema and are both credited with bringing Chinese movies to the international big screen. Chinese director Jia Zhangke's latest film Ash Is Purest White has been selected to compete in the official competition for the Palme d'Or of the 71st Cannes Film Festival, the highest prize awarded at the film festival. It is Jia's fifth movie, a gangster revenge drama that is his most expensive and mainstream film to date. Back in 2013, Jia won Best Screenplay Award for A Touch of Sin, following nominations for Unknown Pleasures in 2002 and 24 City in 2008. In 2014, he was a member of the official jury and the following year his film Mountains May Depart was nominated. According to entertainment website Variety, a record number of Chinese films were submitted this year but only Jia's romantic drama was selected to compete for the Palme d'Or. Meanwhile, Zhang will make his debut at Cannes with The Pluto Moment, a slow-moving relationship drama about a team of filmmakers scouting for locations and musical talent in China's rural hinterland. The film is Zhang's highest profile production so far, as it stars actor Wang Xuebing in the leading role. The film was partly financed by iQiyi, the company behind one of China's most popular online video browsing sharing sites. Diao Yinan is also a notable member of the sixth generation whose works include Black Coal Thin Ice, Wild Goose Lake, Night Train and Uniform which have premiered at festivals such as Cannes and received acclaim abroad.
He Ping is a director of mostly Western-like films set in Chinese locale. His Swordsmen in Double Flag Town (1991) and Sun Valley (1995) explore narratives set in the sparse terrain of West China near the Gobi Desert. His historical drama Red Firecracker, Green Firecracker (1994) won a myriad of prizes home and abroad.
Recent cinema has seen Chinese cinematographers direct some acclaimed films. Other than Zhang Yimou, Lü Yue made Mr. Zhao (1998), a black comedy film well received abroad. Gu Changwei's minimalist epic Peacock (2005), about a quiet, ordinary Chinese family with three very different siblings in the post-Cultural Revolution era, took home the Silver Bear prize for 2005 Berlin International Film Festival. Hou Yong is another cinematographer who made films (Jasmine Women, 2004) and TV series. There are actors who straddle the dual roles of acting and directing. Xu Jinglei, a popular Chinese actress, has made six movies to date. Her second film Letter from an Unknown Woman (2004) landed her the San Sebastián International Film Festival Best Director award. Another popular actress and director is Zhao Wei, whose directorial debut So Young (2013) was a huge box office and critical success.
The most highly regarded Chinese actor-director is undoubtedly Jiang Wen, who has directed several critically acclaimed movies while following on his acting career. His directorial debut, In the Heat of the Sun (1994) was the first PRC film to win Best Picture at the Golden Horse Film Awards held in Taiwan. His other films, like Devils on the Doorstep (2000, Cannes Grand Prix) and Let the Bullets Fly (2010), were similarly well received. By the early 2011, Let the Bullets Fly had become the highest grossing domestic film in China's history.
There is a growing number of independent seventh or post-Sixth Generation filmmakers making films with extremely low budgets and using digital equipment. They are the so-called dGeneration (for digital). These films, like those from Sixth Generation filmmakers, are mostly made outside the Chinese film system and are shown mostly on the international film festival circuit. Ying Liang and Jian Yi are two of these generation filmmakers. Ying's Taking Father Home (2005) and The Other Half (2006) are both representative of the generation trends of the feature film. Liu Jiayin made two dGeneration feature films, Oxhide (2004) and Oxhide II (2010), blurring the line between documentary and narrative film. Oxhide, made by Liu when she was a film student, frames herself and her parents in their claustrophobic Beijing apartment in a narrative praised by critics. An Elephant Sitting Still, considered one of the greatest film debuts in Chinese cinema, is also the only film by the late Hu Bo.
Two decades of reform and commercialization have brought dramatic social changes in mainland China, reflected not only in fiction film but in a growing documentary movement. Wu Wenguang's 70-minute Bumming in Beijing: The Last Dreamers (1990) is now seen as one of the first works of this "New Documentary Movement" (NDM) in China. Bumming, made between 1988 and 1990, contains interviews with five young artists eking out a living in Beijing, subject to state authorized tasks. Shot using a camcorder, the documentary ends with four of the artists moving abroad after the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre. Dance with the Farm Workers (2001) is another documentary by Wu.
Another internationally acclaimed documentary is Wang Bing's nine-hour tale of deindustrialization Tie Xi Qu: West of the Tracks (2003). Wang's subsequent documentaries, He Fengming (2007), Crude Oil (2008), Man with no name (2009), Three Sisters (2012) and Feng ai (2013), cemented his reputation as a leading documentarist of the movement.
Li Hong, the first woman in the NDM, in Out of Phoenix Bridge (1997) relates the story of four young women, who moving from rural areas to the big cities like millions of other men and women, have come to Beijing to make a living.
The New Documentary Movement in recent times has overlapped with the dGeneration filmmaking, with most documentaries being shot cheaply and independently in the digital format. Xu Xin's Karamay (2010), Zhao Liang's Behemoth, Huang Weikai's Disorder (2009), Zhao Dayong's Ghost Town (2009), Du Haibing's 1428 (2009), Xu Tong's Fortune Teller (2009) and Li Ning's Tape (2010) were all shot in digital format. All had made their impact in the international documentary scene and the use of digital format allows for works of vaster lengths.
Inspired by the success of Disney animation, the self-taught pioneers Wan brothers, Wan Laiming and Wan Guchan, made the first Chinese animated short in the 1920s, thus inaugurating the history of Chinese animation. (Chen Yuanyuan 175) Many live-action films of the Republican era also included animated sequences.
In 1937, the Wan brothers decided to produce 《铁扇公主》 Princess Iron Fan, which was the first Chinese animated feature film and the fourth, after the American feature films Snow White, Gulliver's Travels, and The Adventures of Pinocchio. It was at this time that Chinese animation as an art form had risen to prominence on the world stage. Completed in 1941, the film was released under China United Pictures and aroused a great response in Asia. Japanese animator Shigeru Tezuka once said that he gave up medicine after watching the cartoon and decided to pursue animation.
During this golden era, Chinese animation had developed a variety of styles, including ink animation, shadow play animation, puppet animation, and so on. Some of the most representative works are 《大闹天宫》 Uproar in Heaven, 《哪吒闹海》 Nezha's Rebellion in the Sea and《天书奇谈》 Heavenly Book, which have also won lofty praise and numerous awards in the world.
After Deng Xiaoping's Reform Period and the "opening up" of China, the movies《葫芦兄弟》 Calabash Brothers, 《黑猫警长》Black Cat Sheriff, 《阿凡提》Avanti Story and other impressive animated movies were released. However, at this time, China still favored the Japanese's more unique, American and European-influenced animated works over the less-advanced domestic ones.
In the 1990s, digital production methods replaced manual hand-drawing methods; however, even with the use of advanced technology, none of the animated works were considered to be a breakthrough film. Animated films that tried to cater to all age groups, such as Lotus Lantern and Storm Resolution, did not attract much attention. The only animated works that seemed to achieve popularity were the ones for catered for children, such as Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf《喜羊羊与灰太狼》.
During this period, the technical level of Chinese domestic animation production has been established comprehensively, and 3D animation films have become the mainstream. However, as more and more foreign films (such as ones from Japan, Europe, and the United States) are being imported into China, Chinese animated works is left in the shadows of these animated foreign films.
It was only with the release of 《西游记之大圣归来》Monkey King: Hero is Back in 2015, a computer-animated film, that Chinese animated works took back the rein. The film was a huge hit and broke the record for Chinese domestic animated movies with CN¥956 million at China's box office. After the success of Journey to the West, several other high-quality animated films were released, such as《大鱼海棠》 Big Fish and Begonia and 《白蛇缘起》 White Snake. Though none of these movies made headway in regards to the box office, they did make filmmakers more and more interested in animated works.
This all changed with the breakthrough animated film, 《哪吒之魔童降世》Ne Zha. Released in 2019, it became the second highest-grossing film of all time in China, the highest-grossing animated non-English film, and the highest-grossing animated film in a single territory. It was with this film that Chinese animated films, as a medium, finally broke the notion in China that domestic animated films are only for children. With Nezha, and a spinoff, Jiang Ziya, Chinese animation has now come to be known as a veritable source of entertainment for all ages.
With China's liberalization in the late 1970s and its opening up to foreign markets, commercial considerations have made its impact in post-1980s filmmaking. Traditionally arthouse movies screened seldom make enough to break even. An example is Fifth Generation director Tian Zhuangzhuang's The Horse Thief (1986), a narrative film with minimal dialog on a Tibetan horse thief. The film, showcasing exotic landscapes, was well received by Chinese and some Western arthouse audiences, but did poorly at the box office. Tian's later The Warrior and the Wolf (2010) was a similar commercial failure. Prior to these, there were examples of successful commercial films in the post-liberalization period. One was the romance film Romance on the Lu Mountain (1980), which was a success with older Chinese. The film broke the Guinness Book of Records as the longest-running film on a first run. Jet Li's cinematic debut Shaolin Temple (1982) was an instant hit at home and abroad (in Japan and the Southeast Asia, for example). Another successful commercial film was Murder in 405 (405谋杀案, 1980), a murder thriller.
Feng Xiaogang's The Dream Factory (1997) was heralded as a turning point in Chinese movie industry, a hesui pian (Chinese New Year-screened film) which demonstrated the viability of the commercial model in China's socialist market economy. Feng has become one of the most successful commercial director in the post-1997 era. Almost all his films made high returns domestically while he used ethnic Chinese co-stars like Rosamund Kwan, Jacqueline Wu, Rene Liu and Shu Qi to boost his films' appeal.
In the decade following 2010, owing to the influx of Hollywood films (though the number screened each year is curtailed), Chinese domestic cinema faces mounting challenges. The industry is growing and domestic films are starting to achieve the box office impact of major Hollywood blockbusters. However, not all domestic films are successful financially. In January 2010 James Cameron's Avatar was pulled out from non-3D theaters for Hu Mei's biopic Confucius, but this move led to a backlash on Hu's film. Zhang Yang's 2005 Sunflower also made little money, but his earlier, low-budget Spicy Love Soup (1997) grossed ten times its budget of ¥3 million. Likewise, the 2006 Crazy Stone, a sleeper hit, was made for just 3 million HKD/US$400,000. In 2009–11, Feng's Aftershock (2009) and Jiang Wen's Let the Bullets Fly (2010) became China's highest grossing domestic films, with Aftershock earning ¥670 million (US$105 million) and Let the Bullets Fly ¥674 million (US$110 million). Lost in Thailand (2012) became the first Chinese film to reach ¥1 billion at the Chinese box office and Monster Hunt (2015) became the first to reach CN¥2 billion. As of 2021, 9 of the top 10 highest-grossing films in China are domestic productions. On 8 February 2016, the Chinese box office set a new single-day gross record, with CN¥660 million, beating the previous record of CN¥425 million on 18 July 2015. Also in February 2016, The Mermaid, directed by Stephen Chow, became the highest-grossing film in China, overtaking Monster Hunt. It is also the first film to reach CN¥3 billion.
Under the influence of Hollywood science fiction movies like Prometheus, published on 8 June 2012, such genres especially the space science films have risen rapidly in the Chinese film market in recent years. On 5 February 2019, the film The Wandering Earth directed by Frant Kwo reached $699.8 million worldwide, which became the third highest-grossing film in the history of Chinese cinema.
Since the late 1980s and progressively in the 2000s, Chinese films have enjoyed considerable box office success abroad. Formerly viewed only by cineastes, its global appeal mounted after the international box office and critical success of Ang Lee's period wuxia film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon which won Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 2000. This multi-national production increased its appeal by featuring stars from all parts of the Chinese-speaking world. It provided an introduction to Chinese cinema (and especially the wuxia genre) for many and increased the popularity of many earlier Chinese films. To date Crouching Tiger remains the most commercially successful foreign-language film in U.S. history.
Similarly, in 2002, Zhang Yimou's Hero was another international box office success. Its cast featured famous actors from mainland China and Hong Kong who were also known to some extent in the West, including Jet Li, Zhang Ziyi, Maggie Cheung and Tony Leung Chiu-Wai. Despite criticisms by some that these two films pander somewhat to Western tastes, Hero was a phenomenal success in most of Asia and topped the U.S. box office for two weeks, making enough in the U.S. alone to cover the production costs.
Other films such as Farewell My Concubine, 2046, Suzhou River, The Road Home and House of Flying Daggers were critically acclaimed around the world. The Hengdian World Studios can be seen as the "Chinese Hollywood", with a total area of up to 330 ha. and 13 shooting bases, including a 1:1 copy of the Forbidden City.
The successes of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Hero make it difficult to demarcate the boundary between "Mainland Chinese" cinema and a more international-based "Chinese-language cinema". Crouching Tiger, for example, was directed by a Taiwan-born American director (Ang Lee) who works often in Hollywood. Its pan-Chinese leads include mainland Chinese (Zhang Ziyi), Hong Kong (Chow Yun-Fat), Taiwan (Chang Chen) and Malaysian (Michelle Yeoh) actors and actresses; the film was co-produced by an array of Chinese, American, Hong Kong, and Taiwan film companies. Likewise, Lee's Chinese-language Lust, Caution (2007) drew a crew and cast from mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, and includes an orchestral score by French composer Alexandre Desplat. This merging of people, resources and expertise from the three regions and the broader East Asia and the world, marks the movement of Chinese-language cinema into a domain of large scale international influence. Other examples of films in this mold include The Promise (2005), The Banquet (2006), Fearless (2006), The Warlords (2007), Bodyguards and Assassins (2009) and Red Cliff (2008-09). The ease with which ethnic Chinese actresses and actors straddle the mainland and Hong Kong has significantly increased the number of co-productions in Chinese-language cinema. Many of these films also feature South Korean or Japanese actors to appeal to their East Asian neighbours. Some artistes originating from the mainland, like Hu Jun, Zhang Ziyi, Tang Wei and Zhou Xun, obtained Hong Kong residency under the Quality Migrant Admission Scheme and have acted in many Hong Kong productions.
In 1983, there were 162,000 projection units in China, up from less than 600 at the 1949 founding of the PRC.
In 2010, Chinese cinema was the third largest film industry by number of feature films produced annually. In 2013, China's gross box office was ¥21.8 billion (US$3.6 billion), the second-largest film market in the world by box office receipts. In January 2013, Lost in Thailand (2012) became the first Chinese film to reach ¥1 billion at the box office. As of May 2013, 7 of the top 10 highest-grossing films in China were domestic productions. As of 2014, around half of all tickets are sold online, with the largest ticket selling sites being Maoyan.com (82 million), Gewara.com (45 million) and Wepiao.com (28 million). In 2014, Chinese films earned ¥1.87 billion outside China. By December 2013 there were 17,000 screens in the country. By 6 January 2014, there were 18,195 screens in the country. Greater China has around 251 IMAX theaters. There were 299 cinema chains (252 rural, 47 urban), 5,813 movie theaters and 24,317 screens in the country in 2014.
The country added about 8,035 screens in 2015 (at an average of 22 new screens per day, increasing its total by about 40% to around 31,627 screens, which is about 7,373 shy of the number of screens in the United States. Chinese films accounted for 61.48% of ticket sales in 2015 (up from 54% last year) with more than 60% of ticket sales being made online. Average ticket price was down about 2.5% to $5.36 in 2015. It also witnessed 51.08% increase in admissions, with 1.26 billion people buying tickets to the cinema in 2015. Chinese films grossed US$427 million overseas in 2015. During the week of the 2016 Chinese New Year, the country set a new record for the highest box office gross during one week in one territory with US$548 million, overtaking the previous record of US$529.6 million of 26 December 2015 to 1 January 2016 in the United States and Canada. Chinese films grossed CN¥3.83 billion (US$550 million) in foreign markets in 2016.
As of April 2015, the largest Chinese film company by worth was Alibaba Pictures (US$8.77 billion). Other large companies include Huayi Brothers Media (US$7.9 billion), Enlight Media (US$5.98 billion) and Bona Film Group (US$542 million). The biggest distributors by market share in 2014 were: China Film Group (32.8%), Huaxia Film (22.89%), Enlight Pictures (7.75%), Bona Film Group (5.99%), Wanda Media (5.2%), Le Vision Pictures (4.1%), Huayi Brothers (2.26%), United Exhibitor Partners (2%), Heng Ye Film Distribution (1.77%) and Beijing Anshi Yingna Entertainment (1.52%). The biggest cinema chains in 2014 by box office gross were: Wanda Cinema Line (US$676.96 million), China Film Stellar (393.35 million), Dadi Theater Circuit (378.17 million), Shanghai United Circuit (355.07 million), Guangzhou Jinyi Zhujiang (335.39 million), China Film South Cinema Circuit (318.71 million), Zhejiang Time Cinema (190.53 million), China Film Group Digital Cinema Line (177.42 million), Hengdian Cinema Line (170.15 million) and Beijing New Film Association (163.09 million).
Huayi Brothers is China's most powerful independent (i.e., non state-owned) entertainment company, Beijing-based Huayi Brothers is a diversified company engaged in film and TV production, distribution, theatrical exhibition, as well as talent management. Notable films include 2004's Kung Fu Hustle; and 2010's Aftershock, which had a 91% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Beijing Enlight Media focuses on the action and romance genres. Enlight usually places several films in China's top 20 grossers. Enlight is also a major player in China's TV series production and distribution businesses. Under the leadership of its CEO Wang Changtian, the publicly traded, Beijing-based company has achieved a market capitalization of nearly US$1 billion.
|
[
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "The cinema of China is the filmmaking and film industry of the Chinese mainland under the People's Republic of China, one of three distinct historical threads of Chinese-language cinema together with the cinema of Hong Kong and the cinema of Taiwan.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "Cinema was introduced in China in 1896 and the first Chinese film, Dingjun Mountain, was made in 1905. In the early decades the film industry was centered on Shanghai. The 1920s was dominated by small studios and commercial films, especially in the action wuxia genre. The first sound film, Sing-Song Girl Red Peony, using the sound-on-disc technology, was made in 1931. The 1930s, considered the first \"Golden Period\" of Chinese cinema, saw the advent of the leftist cinematic movement. The civil war between Nationalists and Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was reflected in the films produced. After the Japanese invasion of China and the occupation of Shanghai, the industry in the city was severely curtailed, with filmmakers moving to Hong Kong, Chongqing and other places. A \"Solitary Island\" period began in Shanghai, where the filmmakers who remained worked in the foreign concessions. Princess Iron Fan (1941), the first Chinese animated feature film, was released at the end of this period. It influenced wartime Japanese animation and later Osamu Tezuka. After being completely engulfed by the occupation in 1941, and until the end of the war in 1945, the film industry in the city was under Japanese control.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "After the end of the war, a second golden age took place, with production in Shanghai resuming. Spring in a Small Town (1948) was named the best Chinese-language film at the 24th Hong Kong Film Awards. After the Chinese Communist Revolution, domestic films that were already released and a selection of foreign films were banned in 1951, marking a tirade of film censorship in China. Despite this, movie attendance increased sharply. During the Cultural Revolution, the film industry was severely restricted, coming almost to a standstill from 1967 to 1972. The industry flourished following the end of the Cultural Revolution, including the \"scar dramas\" of the 1980s, such as Evening Rain (1980), Legend of Tianyun Mountain (1980) and Hibiscus Town (1986), depicting the emotional traumas left by the period. Starting in the mid to late 1980s, with films such as One and Eight (1983) and Yellow Earth (1984), the rise of the Fifth Generation brought increased popularity to Chinese cinema abroad, especially among Western arthouse audiences. Films like Red Sorghum (1987), The Story of Qiu Ju (1992) and Farewell My Concubine (1993) won major international awards. The movement partially ended after the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre. The post-1990 period saw the rise of the Sixth Generation and post-Sixth Generation, both mostly making films outside the main Chinese film system which played mostly on the international film festival circuit.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "Following the international commercial success of films such as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) and Hero (2002), the number of co-productions in Chinese-language cinema has increased and there has been a movement of Chinese-language cinema into a domain of large scale international influence. After The Dream Factory (1997) demonstrated the viability of the commercial model, and with the growth of the Chinese box office in the new millennium, Chinese films have broken box office records and, as of January 2017, 5 of the top 10 highest-grossing films in China are domestic productions. Lost in Thailand (2012) was the first Chinese film to reach CN¥1 billion at the Chinese box office. Monster Hunt (2015) was the first to reach CN¥2 billion. The Mermaid (2016) was the first to CN¥3 billion. Wolf Warrior 2 (2017) beat them out to become the highest-grossing film in China.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "China is the home of the largest movie and drama production complex and film studios in the world, the Oriental Movie Metropolis and Hengdian World Studios, and in 2010 it had the third largest film industry by number of feature films produced annually. In 2012 the country became the second-largest market in the world by box office receipts. In 2016, the gross box office in China was CN¥45.71 billion (US$6.58 billion). The country has the largest number of screens in the world since 2016, and is expected to become the largest theatrical market by 2019. China has also become a major hub of business for Hollywood studios.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "In November 2016, China passed a film law banning content deemed harmful to the \"dignity, honor and interests\" of the People's Republic and encouraging the promotion of \"socialist core values\", approved by the National People's Congress Standing Committee. Due to industry regulations, films are typically allowed to stay in theaters for one month. However, studios may apply to regulators to have the limit extended.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "As Chinese audiences have become increasingly interested in Chinese-language films produced domestically, production values in domestic films have been rising. According to the research firm Ampere Analysis, domestic films accounted for 85% of China's box office in 2020. Aynne Kokas, a media studies professor at the University of Virginia and author of the book \"Hollywood Made in China\" stated that, \"There are Chinese blockbusters that Chinese filmmakers are making that people want to watch, and they feel less derivative than those made in Hollywood.\" The high box office earnings of 2021 Chinese films like Hi, Mom and The Battle at Lake Changjin has indicated that the Chinese domestic film industry has reached self-reliance and does not need international audience appeal to produce commercially successful films.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "Recent patriotic films have been labelled as propaganda films by western mainstream media. However Richard Peña, a lecturer at Columbia University's School of the Arts in New York told VOA in regards to the claim of \"propaganda\" label that it was more a matter of perspective of \"the beholder\". Ian Huffer, Senior Lecturer in Media Studies at Massey University, added that \"Most recent Chinese blockbusters that have been characterized as propaganda by Western journalism are really more like those Hollywood films over the years that have used military conflicts to evoke jingoist feeling or that show the US saving the world from global catastrophe\".",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "Motion pictures were introduced to China in 1896. They were introduced through foreign film exhibitors in treaty ports like Shanghai and Hong Kong.",
"title": "Beginnings"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "China was one of the earliest countries to be exposed to the medium of film, due to Louis Lumière sending his cameraman to Shanghai a year after inventing cinematography. The first recorded screening of a motion picture in China took place in Shanghai on 11 August 1896, as an \"act\" on a variety bill. The first Chinese film, a recording of the Peking opera, Dingjun Mountain, was made in November 1905 in Beijing. For the next decade the production companies were mainly foreign-owned, and the domestic film industry was centered on Shanghai, a thriving entrepot and the largest city in the Far East. In 1913, the first independent Chinese screenplay, The Difficult Couple, was filmed in Shanghai by Zheng Zhengqiu and Zhang Shichuan. Zhang Shichuan then set up the first Chinese-owned film production company in 1916. The first full-length feature film was Yan Ruisheng (閻瑞生) released in 1921. which was a docudrama about the killing of a Shanghai courtesan, although it was too crude a film to ever be considered commercially successful. During the 1920s film technicians from the United States trained Chinese technicians in Shanghai, and American influence continued to be felt there for the next two decades. Since film was still in its earliest stages of development, most Chinese silent films at this time were only comic skits or operatic shorts, and training was minimal at a technical aspect due to this being a period of experimental film.",
"title": "Beginnings"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "Later, after trial and error, China was able to draw inspiration from its own traditional values and began producing martial arts films, with the first being Burning of Red Lotus Temple (1928). Burning of Red Lotus Temple was so successful at the box office, the Star Motion Pictures (Mingxing) production later filmed 18 sequels, marking the beginning of China's esteemed martial arts films. Many imitators followed, including U. Lien (Youlian) Studio's Red Heroine (1929), which is still extant. It was during this period that some of the more important production companies first came into being, notably Mingxing and the Shaw brothers' Tianyi (\"Unique\"). Mingxing, founded by Zheng Zhengqiu and Zhang Shichuan in 1922, initially focused on comic shorts, including the oldest surviving complete Chinese film, Laborer's Love (1922). This soon shifted, however, to feature-length films and family dramas including Orphan Rescues Grandfather (1923). Meanwhile, Tianyi shifted their model towards folklore dramas, and also pushed into foreign markets; their film White Snake (1926) proved a typical example of their success in the Chinese communities of Southeast Asia. In 1931, the first Chinese sound film Sing-Song Girl Red Peony was made, the product of a cooperation between the Mingxing Film Company's image production and Pathé Frères's sound technology. However, the sound was disc-recorded, which was then played in the theatre in-sync with the action on the screen. The first sound-on-film talkie made in China was either Spring on Stage (歌場春色) by Tianyi, or Clear Sky After Storm by Great China Studio and Jinan Studio. Musical films, such as Song at Midnight (1937) and Street Angels (1937), starring Zhou Xuan, became one of the most popular film genres in China.",
"title": "Beginnings"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "",
"title": "Beginnings"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "However, the first truly important Chinese films were produced beginning in the 1930s, with the advent of the \"progressive\" or \"left-wing\" movement, like Cheng Bugao's Spring Silkworms (1933), Wu Yonggang's The Goddess (1934), and Sun Yu's The Great Road, also known as The Big Road (1934). These films were noted for their emphasis on class struggle and external threats (i.e. Japanese aggression), as well as on their focus on common people, such as a family of silk farmers in Spring Silkworms and a prostitute in The Goddess. In part due to the success of these kinds of films, this post-1930 era is now often referred to as the first \"golden period\" of Chinese cinema. The Leftist cinematic movement often revolved around the Western-influenced Shanghai, where filmmakers portrayed the struggling lower class of an overpopulated city.",
"title": "Beginnings"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "Three production companies dominated the market in the early to mid- 1930s: the newly formed Lianhua (\"United China\"), the older and larger Mingxing and Tianyi. Both Mingxing and Lianhua leaned left (Lianhua's management perhaps more so), while Tianyi continued to make less socially conscious fare.",
"title": "Beginnings"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "The period also produced the first big Chinese movie stars, such as Hu Die, Ruan Lingyu, Li Lili, Chen Yanyan, Zhou Xuan, Zhao Dan and Jin Yan. Other major films of the period include Love and Duty (1931), Little Toys (1933), New Women (1934), Song of the Fishermen (1934), Plunder of Peach and Plum (1934), Crossroads (1937), and Street Angel (1937). Throughout the 1930s, the Nationalists and the Communists struggled for power and control over the major studios; their influence can be seen in the films the studios produced during this period.",
"title": "Beginnings"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 15,
"text": "The Japanese invasion of China in 1937, in particular the Battle of Shanghai, ended this golden run in Chinese cinema. All production companies except Xinhua Film Company (\"New China\") closed shop, and many of the filmmakers fled Shanghai, relocating to Hong Kong, the wartime Nationalist capital Chongqing, and elsewhere. The Shanghai film industry, though severely curtailed, did not stop however, thus leading to the \"Solitary Island\" period (also known as the \"Sole Island\" or \"Orphan Island\"), with Shanghai's foreign concessions serving as an \"island\" of production in the \"sea\" of Japanese-occupied territory. It was during this period that artists and directors who remained in the city had to walk a fine line between staying true to their leftist and nationalist beliefs and Japanese pressures. Director Bu Wancang's Hua Mu Lan, also known as Mulan Joins the Army (1939), with its story of a young Chinese peasant fighting against a foreign invasion, was a particularly good example of Shanghai's continued film-production in the midst of war. This period ended when Japan declared war on the Western allies on 7 December 1941; the solitary island was finally engulfed by the sea of the Japanese occupation. With the Shanghai industry firmly in Japanese control, films like the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere-promoting Eternity (1943) were produced.",
"title": "Beginnings"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 16,
"text": "During the 1930 and 1940s, both the China's Nationalist government and Japanese occupation authorities sent mobile projectionist units into areas under their control to show propaganda films.",
"title": "Beginnings"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 17,
"text": "In the Yan'an Soviet during September 1938, the Eighth Route Army established its first film group.",
"title": "Beginnings"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 18,
"text": "At the end of World War II, one of the most controversial Japanese-authorized companies, Manchukuo Film Association, would be separated and integrated into Chinese cinema.",
"title": "Beginnings"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 19,
"text": "The film industry continued to develop after 1945. Production in Shanghai once again resumed as a new crop of studios took the place that Lianhua and Mingxing studios had occupied in the previous decade. In 1945, Cai Chusheng returned to Shanghai to revive the Lianhua name as the \"Lianhua Film Society with Shi Dongshan, Meng Junmou and Zheng Junli.\" This in turn became Kunlun Studios which would go on to become one of the most important studios of the era, (Kunlun Studios merged with seven other studios to form Shanghai film studio in 1949) putting out the classics The Spring River Flows East (1947), Myriad of Lights (1948), Crows and Sparrows (1949) and Wanderings of Three-Hairs the Orphan, also known as San Mao, The Little Vagabond (1949). Many of these films showed the disillusionment with the oppressive rule of Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalist Party and the struggling oppression of nation by war. The Spring River Flows East, a three-hour-long two-parter directed by Cai Chusheng and Zheng Junli, was a particularly strong success. Its depiction of the struggles of ordinary Chinese during the Second Sino-Japanese war, replete with biting social and political commentary, struck a chord with audiences of the time.",
"title": "Second golden age"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 20,
"text": "Meanwhile, companies like the Wenhua Film Company (\"Culture Films\"), moved away from the leftist tradition and explored the evolution and development of other dramatic genres. Wenhua treated postwar problems in universalistic and humanistic ways, avoiding the family narrative and melodramatic formulae. Excellent examples of Wenhua's fare are its first two postwar features, Love Everlasting (Bu liaoqing, 1947) and Fake Bride, Phony Bridegroom (1947). Another memorable Wenhua film is Long Live the Missus (1947), like Love Everlasting with an original screenplay by writer Eileen Chang. Wenhua's romantic drama Spring in a Small Town (1948), a film by director Fei Mu shortly prior to the revolution, is often regarded by Chinese film critics as one of the most important films in the history of Chinese cinema, in 2005, Hong Kong film awards it as the best 100 years of film. Ironically, it was precisely its artistic quality and apparent lack of \"political grounding\" that led to its labeling by the Communists as rightist or reactionary, and the film was quickly forgotten by those on the mainland following the Communist victory in China in 1949. However, with the China Film Archive's re-opening after the Cultural Revolution, a new print was struck from the original negative, allowing Spring of the Small Town to find a new and admiring audience and to influence an entire new generation of filmmakers. Indeed, an acclaimed remake was made in 2002 by Tian Zhuangzhuang. A Chinese Peking opera film, A Wedding in the Dream (1948), by the same director (Fei Mu), was the first Chinese color film.",
"title": "Second golden age"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 21,
"text": "At the founding of the PRC in 1949, there were less than 600 movie theatres in the country. The government saw motion pictures as an important production art form and tool for mass propaganda. The private studios in Shanghai, including Kunming, Wenhua, Guotai and Datong, were at first encouraged to make new films.",
"title": "Early Communist era"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 22,
"text": "They made approximately 47 films during the next two years, but soon ran into trouble, owing to the furor over the Kunlun-produced drama The Life of Wu Xun (1950), directed by Sun Yu and starring veteran Zhao Dan. The feature was accused in an anonymous article in People's Daily in May 1951 of spreading feudal ideas. After the article was revealed to be penned by Mao Zedong, the film was banned and a Film Steering Committee was formed to \"re-educate\" the film industry, and the private studios were all incorporated into the state-run Shanghai Film Studio.",
"title": "Early Communist era"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 23,
"text": "Also in 1951, pre-revolution Chinese films, Hollywood and Hong Kong productions were banned. The Chinese Communist Party sought to tighten control over mass media, producing instead movies centering on peasants, soldiers and workers, such as Bridge (1949) and The White Haired Girl (1950). One of the production bases in the middle of all the transition was the Changchun Film Studio.",
"title": "Early Communist era"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 24,
"text": "The Communist government solved the problem of a lack of film theaters by building mobile projection units which could tour the remote regions of China, ensuring that even the poorest could have access to films. Mobile projection teams during the Mao-era typically included three to four workers who physically transported film infrastructure through a large geographic area mostly not covered by any electrical grid. Yuan Muzhi was important in developing the Communist government's theories and practices of rural film exhibition. Yuan and Chen Bo'er transformed the post-Second Sino-Japanese War remnants of the Manchurian Motion Picture Association into the Northeast Film Studio and when Yuan became Film Bureau chief in 1949, he applied its model to help institute a film exhibition network around the country.",
"title": "Early Communist era"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 25,
"text": "In 1950, 1,800 projectionists from around the country traveled to Nanjing for a training program. These projectionists replicated the training program in their own home provinces to develop more projectionists. Nanjing was later termed a \"Cradle of People's Cinema.\" The PRC sought to recruit women and ethnic minority projectionists in an effort to more effectively reach marginalized communities.",
"title": "Early Communist era"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 26,
"text": "Until the profusion of mobile projectionist teams in the 1950s, most rural people had not seen a film. The number of movie-viewers hence increased sharply, partly bolstered by the fact that film tickets were given out to work units and attendance was compulsory, with admissions rising from 47 million in 1949 to 4.15 billion in 1959. By 1965 there were around 20,393 mobile film units. During the course of the Mao era, the majority of films were shown by such units, and only a minority of films were watched in theatres.",
"title": "Early Communist era"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 27,
"text": "Work as a mobile projectionist was physically and technically demanding. As a result, women projectionists and all-women mobile projection teams were promoted in Chinese media as examples of advancing gender equality under socialism.",
"title": "Early Communist era"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 28,
"text": "Rural mobile projectionist teams and urban movie theaters were generally managed through the PRC's cultural bureaucracy. Trade Unions and PLA propaganda departments also operated film exhibition networks.",
"title": "Early Communist era"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 29,
"text": "In 1950s China, a common view of film was that it served as \"socialist distance horizon education\". For example, films promoted rural collectivization. Cinema also sought to develop the proletarian class consciousness of rural workers, encouraging the industrialization and militarization of their labor. Film projection teams operating in rural China were asked to incorporated lantern slides into their work to introduce national policies and political campaigns.",
"title": "Early Communist era"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 30,
"text": "In the 17 years between the founding of the People's Republic of China and the Cultural Revolution, 603 feature films and 8,342 reels of documentaries and newsreels were produced, sponsored mostly as Communist propaganda by the government. For example, in Guerrilla on the Railroad (铁道游击队), dated 1956, the Chinese Communist Party was depicted as the primary resistance force against the Second Sino-Japanese War. Chinese filmmakers were sent to Moscow to study the Soviet socialist realism style of filmmaking. The Beijing Film Academy established in 1950 and in 1956, the Beijing Film Academy was officially opened. One important film of this era is This Life of Mine (1950), directed by Shi Hu, which follows an old beggar reflecting on his past life as a policeman working for the various regimes since 1911. The first widescreen Chinese film was produced in 1960. Animated films using a variety of folk arts, such as papercuts, shadow plays, puppetry, and traditional paintings, also were very popular for entertaining and educating children. The most famous of these, the classic Havoc in Heaven (two parts, 1961, 4), was made by Wan Laiming of the Wan Brothers and won Outstanding Film award at the London International Film Festival.",
"title": "Early Communist era"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 31,
"text": "The thawing of censorship in 1956–57 (known as the Hundred Flowers Campaign) and the early 1960s led to more indigenous Chinese films being made which were less reliant on their Soviet counterparts. During this campaign the sharpest criticisms came from the satirical comedies of Lü Ban. Before the New Director Arrives exposes the hierarchical relationships occurring between the cadres, while his next film, The Unfinished Comedy (1957), was labelled as a \"poisonous weed\" during the Anti-Rightist Movement and Lü was banned from directing for life.The Unfinished Comedy was only screened after Mao's death. Other noteworthy films produced during this period were adaptations of literary classics, such as Sang Hu's The New Year's Sacrifice (1956; adapted from a Lu Xun story) and Shui Hua's The Lin Family Shop (1959; adapted from a Mao Dun story). The most prominent filmmaker of this era was Xie Jin, whose three films in particular, Woman Basketball Player No. 5 (1957), The Red Detachment of Women (1961) and Two Stage Sisters (1964), exemplify China's increased expertise at filmmaking during this time. Films made during this period are polished and exhibit high production value and elaborate sets. While Beijing and Shanghai remained the main centers of production, between 1957 and 1960 the government built regional studios in Guangzhou, Xi'an and Chengdu to encourage representations of ethnic minorities in films. Chinese cinema began to directly address the issue of such ethnic minorities during the late 1950s and early 1960s, in films like Five Golden Flowers (1959), Third Sister Liu (1960), Serfs (1963), Ashima (1964).",
"title": "Early Communist era"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 32,
"text": "As part of the Socialist Education Movement, mobile film projectionist units showed films and slideshows that emphasized class struggle and encouraged audience members to discuss bitter experiences onstage.",
"title": "Early Communist era"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 33,
"text": "During the Cultural Revolution, the film industry was severely restricted. Almost all previous films were banned, and only a few new ones were produced, the revolutionary model operas. The most notable of these was a ballet version of the revolutionary opera The Red Detachment of Women, directed by Pan Wenzhan and Fu Jie in 1970. The release of filmed versions of the revolutionary model operas resulted in a re-organization and expansion of China's film exhibition network. Sent-down youth were a major subset of China's rural projectionists during this period.",
"title": "Films of the Cultural Revolution"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 34,
"text": "Feature film production came almost to a standstill in the early years from 1967 to 1972. Movie production revived after 1972 under the strict jurisdiction of the Gang of Four until 1976, when they were overthrown. The few films that were produced during this period, such as 1975's Breaking with Old Ideas, were highly regulated in terms of plot and characterization.",
"title": "Films of the Cultural Revolution"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 35,
"text": "In the years immediately following the Cultural Revolution, the film industry again flourished as a medium of popular entertainment. Production rose steadily, from 19 features in 1977 to 125 in 1986. Domestically produced films played to large audiences, and tickets for foreign film festivals sold quickly. The industry tried to revive crowds by making more innovative and \"exploratory\" films like their counterparts in the West.",
"title": "Post-Cultural Revolution"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 36,
"text": "Chinese cinema grew significantly in the late 1970s. In 1979, annual box office admissions reached a peak of 29.3 billion tickets sold, equivalent to an average of 30 films per person. Chinese cinema continued to prosper into the early 1980s. In 1980, annual box office admissions stood at 23.4 billion tickets sold, equivalent to an average of 29 films per person. In terms of box office admissions, this period represented the peak ticket sales in the history of the Chinese box office. High ticket sales were driven by low ticket prices, with a cinema ticket typically costing between ¥0.1 ($0.06) and ¥0.3 ($0.19) at the time.",
"title": "Post-Cultural Revolution"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 37,
"text": "By the early 1980s, there were 162,000 projection units in China, primarily composed of mobile movie teams which showed films outdoors in both rural and urban areas.",
"title": "Post-Cultural Revolution"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 38,
"text": "A number of films during this period drew box office admissions in the hundreds of millions. China's highest-grossing film in box office admissions was Legend of the White Snake (1980) with an estimated 700 million admissions, followed by In-Laws (Full House of Joy) [zh] (1981) and The Undaunted Wudang (1983) with more than 600 million ticket sales each. The highest-grossing foreign film was the Japanese film Kimi yo Fundo no Kawa o Watare (1976), which released in 1978 and sold more than 330 million tickets, followed by the Indian film Caravan (1971) which released in 1979 and sold about 300 million tickets.",
"title": "Post-Cultural Revolution"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 39,
"text": "In the late 1980s the film industry fell on hard times, faced with the dual problems of competition from other forms of entertainment and concern on the part of the authorities that many of the popular thriller and martial arts films were socially unacceptable. In January 1986 the film industry was transferred from the Ministry of Culture to the newly formed Ministry of Radio, Cinema, and Television to bring it under \"stricter control and management\" and to \"strengthen supervision over production.\"",
"title": "Post-Cultural Revolution"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 40,
"text": "The end of the Cultural Revolution brought the release of \"scar dramas\" (傷痕剧 shānghén jù), which depicted the emotional traumas left by this period. The best-known of these is probably Xie Jin's Hibiscus Town (1986), although they could be seen as late as the 1990s with Tian Zhuangzhuang's The Blue Kite (1993). In the 1980s, open criticism of certain past Communist Party policies was encouraged by Deng Xiaoping as a way to reveal the excesses of the Cultural Revolution and the earlier Anti-Rightist Campaign, also helping to legitimize Deng's new policies of \"reform and opening up.\" For instance, the Best Picture prize in the inaugural 1981 Golden Rooster Awards was given to two \"scar dramas\", Evening Rain (Wu Yonggang, Wu Yigong, 1980) and Legend of Tianyun Mountain (Xie Jin, 1980).",
"title": "Post-Cultural Revolution"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 41,
"text": "Many scar dramas were made by members of the Fourth Generation whose own careers or lives had suffered during the events in question, while younger, Fifth Generation directors such as Tian tended to focus on less controversial subjects of the immediate present or the distant past. Official enthusiasm for scar dramas waned by the 1990s when younger filmmakers began to confront negative aspects of the Mao era. The Blue Kite, though sharing a similar subject as the earlier scar dramas, was more realistic in style, and was made only through obfuscating its real script. Shown abroad, it was banned from release in mainland China, while Tian himself was banned from making any films for nearly a decade afterward. After the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre, few if any scar dramas were released domestically in mainland China.",
"title": "Post-Cultural Revolution"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 42,
"text": "Beginning in the mid-late 1980s, the rise of the so-called fifth generation of Chinese filmmakers brought increased popularity of Chinese cinema abroad. Most of the filmmakers who made up the Fifth Generation had graduated from the Beijing Film Academy in 1982 and included Zhang Yimou, Tian Zhuangzhuang, Chen Kaige, Zhang Junzhao, Li Shaohong, Wu Ziniu and others. These graduates constituted the first group of filmmakers to graduate since the Cultural Revolution and they soon jettisoned traditional methods of storytelling and opted for a more free and unorthodox symbolic approach. After the so-called scar literature in fiction had paved the way for frank discussion, Zhang Junzhao's One and Eight (1983) and Chen Kaige's Yellow Earth (1984) in particular were taken to mark the beginnings of the Fifth Generation. The most famous of the Fifth Generation directors, Chen Kaige and Zhang Yimou, went on to produce celebrated works such as King of the Children (1987), Ju Dou (1989), Raise the Red Lantern (1991) and Farewell My Concubine (1993), which were not only acclaimed by Chinese cinema-goers but by the Western arthouse audience. Tian Zhuangzhuang's films, though less well known by Western viewers, were well noted by directors such as Martin Scorsese. It was during this period that Chinese cinema began reaping the rewards of international attention, including the 1988 Golden Bear for Red Sorghum, the 1992 Golden Lion for The Story of Qiu Ju, the 1993 Palme d'Or for Farewell My Concubine, and three Best Foreign Language Film nominations from the Academy Awards. All these award-winning films starred actress Gong Li, who became the Fifth Generation's most recognizable star, especially to international audiences.",
"title": "Rise of the fifth generation"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 43,
"text": "Diverse in style and subject, the Fifth Generation directors' films ranged from black comedy (Huang Jianxin's The Black Cannon Incident, 1985) to the esoteric (Chen Kaige's Life on a String, 1991), but they share a common rejection of the socialist-realist tradition worked by earlier Chinese filmmakers in the Communist era. Other notable Fifth Generation directors include Wu Ziniu, Hu Mei, Li Shaohong and Zhou Xiaowen. Fifth Generation filmmakers reacted against the ideological purity of Cultural Revolution cinema. By relocating to regional studios, they began to explore the actuality of local culture in a somewhat documentarian fashion. Instead of stories depicting heroic military struggles, the films were built out of the drama of ordinary people's daily lives. They also retained political edge, but aimed at exploring issues rather than recycling approved policy. While Cultural Revolution films used character, the younger directors favored psychological depth along the lines of European cinema. They adopted complex plots, ambiguous symbolism, and evocative imagery. Some of their bolder works with political overtones were banned by Chinese authorities.",
"title": "Rise of the fifth generation"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 44,
"text": "These films came with a creative genres of stories, new style of shooting as well, directors utilized extensive color and long shots to present and explore history and structure of national culture. As a result of the new films being so intricate, the films were for more educated audiences than anything. The new style was profitable for some and helped filmmakers to make strides in the business. It allowed directors to get away from reality and show their artistic sense.",
"title": "Rise of the fifth generation"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 45,
"text": "The Fourth Generation also returned to prominence. Given their label after the rise of the Fifth Generation, these were directors whose careers were stalled by the Cultural Revolution and who were professionally trained prior to 1966. Wu Tianming, in particular, made outstanding contributions by helping to finance major Fifth Generation directors under the auspices of the Xi'an Film Studio (which he took over in 1983), while continuing to make films like Old Well (1986) and The King of Masks (1996).",
"title": "Rise of the fifth generation"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 46,
"text": "The Fifth Generation movement ended in part after the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre, although its major directors continued to produce notable works. Several of its filmmakers went into self-imposed exile: Wu Tianming moved to the United States (but later returned), Huang Jianxin left for Australia, while many others went into television-related works.",
"title": "Rise of the fifth generation"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 47,
"text": "During a period when socialist dramas were beginning to lose viewership, the Chinese government began to involve itself deeper into the world of popular culture and cinema by creating the official genre of the \"main melody\" (主旋律 zhǔxuánlǜ), inspired by Hollywood's strides in musical dramas. In 1987, the Ministry of Radio, Film and Television issued a statement encouraging the making of movies which emphasizes the main melody to \"invigorate national spirit and national pride\". The expression main melody refers to the musical term leitmotif, which translates to the 'theme of our times', which scholars suggest is representative of China's socio-political climate and cultural context of popular cinema. These main melody films, still produced regularly in modern times, try to emulate the commercial mainstream by the use of Hollywood-style music and special effects. A significant feature of these films is the incorporation of a \"red song\", which is a song written as propaganda to support the People's Republic of China. By revolving the film around the motif of a red song, the film is able to gain traction at the box office as songs are generally thought to be more accessible than a film. Theoretically, once the red song dominates the charts, it will stir interest in the film that which it accompanies.",
"title": "Main melody dramas"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 48,
"text": "Main melody dramas are often subsidized by the state and have free access to government and military personnel. The Chinese government spends between \"one and two million RMBs\" annually to support the production of films in the main melody genre. August 1st Film Studio, the film and TV production arm of the People's Liberation Army, is a studio that produces main melody cinema. Main melody films, which often depict past military engagements or are biopics of first-generation CCP leaders, have won several Best Picture prizes at the Golden Rooster Awards. Some of the more famous main melody dramas include the ten-hour epic Decisive Engagement (大决战, 1991), directed by Cai Jiawei, Yang Guangyuan and Wei Lian; The Opium War (1997), directed by Xie Jin; and The Founding of a Republic (2009), directed by Han Sanping and Fifth Generation director Huang Jianxin. The Founding of an Army (2017) was commissioned by the government to celebrate the 90th anniversary of the People's Liberation Army, and is the third instalment in The Founding of a Republic series. The film featured many young Chinese pop singers that are already well-established in the industry, including Li Yifeng, Liu Haoran, and Lay Zhang, so as to further the film's reputation as a main melody drama.",
"title": "Main melody dramas"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 49,
"text": "The post-1990 era has been labelled the \"return of the amateur filmmaker\" as state censorship policies after the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre produced an edgy underground film movement loosely referred to as the Sixth Generation. Owing to the lack of state funding and backing, these films were shot quickly and cheaply, using materials like 16 mm film and digital video and mostly non-professional actors and actresses, producing a documentary feel, often with long takes, hand-held cameras, and ambient sound; more akin to Italian neorealism and cinéma vérité than the often lush, far more considered productions of the Fifth Generation. Unlike the Fifth Generation, the Sixth Generation brings a more individualistic, anti-romantic life-view and pays far closer attention to contemporary urban life, especially as affected by disorientation, rebellion and dissatisfaction with China's contemporary social marketing economic tensions and comprehensive cultural background. Many were made with an extremely low budget (an example is Jia Zhangke, who shoots on digital video, and formerly on 16 mm; Wang Xiaoshuai's The Days (1993) was made for US$10,000). The title and subjects of many of these films reflect the Sixth Generation's concerns. The Sixth Generation takes an interest in marginalized individuals and the less represented fringes of society. For example, Zhang Yuan's hand-held Beijing Bastards (1993) focuses on youth punk subculture, featuring artists like Cui Jian, Dou Wei and He Yong frowned upon by many state authorities, while Jia Zhangke's debut film Xiao Wu (1997) concerns a provincial pickpocket.",
"title": "The sixth generation"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 50,
"text": "As the Sixth Generation gained international exposure, many subsequent movies were joint ventures and projects with international backers, but remained quite resolutely low-key and low budget. Jia's Platform (2000) was funded in part by Takeshi Kitano's production house, while his Still Life was shot on HD video. Still Life was a surprise addition and Golden Lion winner of the 2006 Venice International Film Festival. Still Life, which concerns provincial workers around the Three Gorges region, sharply contrasts with the works of Fifth Generation Chinese directors like Zhang Yimou and Chen Kaige who were at the time producing House of Flying Daggers (2004) and The Promise (2005). It featured no star of international renown and was acted mostly by non-professionals.",
"title": "The sixth generation"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 51,
"text": "Many Sixth Generation films have highlighted the negative attributes of China's entry into the modern capitalist market. Li Yang's Blind Shaft (2003) for example, is an account of two murderous con-men in the unregulated and notoriously dangerous mining industry of northern China. (Li refused the tag of Sixth Generation, although admitted he was not Fifth Generation). While Jia Zhangke's The World (2004) emphasizes the emptiness of globalization in the backdrop of an internationally themed amusement park.",
"title": "The sixth generation"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 52,
"text": "Some of the more prolific Sixth Generation directors to have emerged are Wang Xiaoshuai (The Days, Beijing Bicycle, So Long, My Son), Zhang Yuan (Beijing Bastards, East Palace West Palace), Jia Zhangke (Xiao Wu, Unknown Pleasures, Platform, The World, A Touch of Sin, Mountains May Depart, Ash Is Purest White), He Jianjun (Postman) and Lou Ye (Suzhou River, Summer Palace). One director of their generation who does not share most of the concerns of the Sixth Generation is Lu Chuan (Kekexili: Mountain Patrol, 2004; City of Life and Death, 2010).",
"title": "The sixth generation"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 53,
"text": "In the 2018 Cannes Film Festival, two of China's Sixth generation filmmakers, Jia Zhangke and Zhang Meng – whose grim works transformed Chinese cinema in the 1990s – showed on the French Riviera. While both directors represent Chinese cinema, their profiles are quite different. The 49-year-old Jia set up the Pingyao International Film Festival in 2017 and on the other hand is Zhang, a 56-year-old film school professor who spent years working on government commissions and domestic TV shows after struggling with his own projects. Despite their different profiles, they mark an important cornerstone in Chinese cinema and are both credited with bringing Chinese movies to the international big screen. Chinese director Jia Zhangke's latest film Ash Is Purest White has been selected to compete in the official competition for the Palme d'Or of the 71st Cannes Film Festival, the highest prize awarded at the film festival. It is Jia's fifth movie, a gangster revenge drama that is his most expensive and mainstream film to date. Back in 2013, Jia won Best Screenplay Award for A Touch of Sin, following nominations for Unknown Pleasures in 2002 and 24 City in 2008. In 2014, he was a member of the official jury and the following year his film Mountains May Depart was nominated. According to entertainment website Variety, a record number of Chinese films were submitted this year but only Jia's romantic drama was selected to compete for the Palme d'Or. Meanwhile, Zhang will make his debut at Cannes with The Pluto Moment, a slow-moving relationship drama about a team of filmmakers scouting for locations and musical talent in China's rural hinterland. The film is Zhang's highest profile production so far, as it stars actor Wang Xuebing in the leading role. The film was partly financed by iQiyi, the company behind one of China's most popular online video browsing sharing sites. Diao Yinan is also a notable member of the sixth generation whose works include Black Coal Thin Ice, Wild Goose Lake, Night Train and Uniform which have premiered at festivals such as Cannes and received acclaim abroad.",
"title": "The sixth generation"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 54,
"text": "He Ping is a director of mostly Western-like films set in Chinese locale. His Swordsmen in Double Flag Town (1991) and Sun Valley (1995) explore narratives set in the sparse terrain of West China near the Gobi Desert. His historical drama Red Firecracker, Green Firecracker (1994) won a myriad of prizes home and abroad.",
"title": "Other directors"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 55,
"text": "Recent cinema has seen Chinese cinematographers direct some acclaimed films. Other than Zhang Yimou, Lü Yue made Mr. Zhao (1998), a black comedy film well received abroad. Gu Changwei's minimalist epic Peacock (2005), about a quiet, ordinary Chinese family with three very different siblings in the post-Cultural Revolution era, took home the Silver Bear prize for 2005 Berlin International Film Festival. Hou Yong is another cinematographer who made films (Jasmine Women, 2004) and TV series. There are actors who straddle the dual roles of acting and directing. Xu Jinglei, a popular Chinese actress, has made six movies to date. Her second film Letter from an Unknown Woman (2004) landed her the San Sebastián International Film Festival Best Director award. Another popular actress and director is Zhao Wei, whose directorial debut So Young (2013) was a huge box office and critical success.",
"title": "Other directors"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 56,
"text": "The most highly regarded Chinese actor-director is undoubtedly Jiang Wen, who has directed several critically acclaimed movies while following on his acting career. His directorial debut, In the Heat of the Sun (1994) was the first PRC film to win Best Picture at the Golden Horse Film Awards held in Taiwan. His other films, like Devils on the Doorstep (2000, Cannes Grand Prix) and Let the Bullets Fly (2010), were similarly well received. By the early 2011, Let the Bullets Fly had become the highest grossing domestic film in China's history.",
"title": "Other directors"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 57,
"text": "There is a growing number of independent seventh or post-Sixth Generation filmmakers making films with extremely low budgets and using digital equipment. They are the so-called dGeneration (for digital). These films, like those from Sixth Generation filmmakers, are mostly made outside the Chinese film system and are shown mostly on the international film festival circuit. Ying Liang and Jian Yi are two of these generation filmmakers. Ying's Taking Father Home (2005) and The Other Half (2006) are both representative of the generation trends of the feature film. Liu Jiayin made two dGeneration feature films, Oxhide (2004) and Oxhide II (2010), blurring the line between documentary and narrative film. Oxhide, made by Liu when she was a film student, frames herself and her parents in their claustrophobic Beijing apartment in a narrative praised by critics. An Elephant Sitting Still, considered one of the greatest film debuts in Chinese cinema, is also the only film by the late Hu Bo.",
"title": "dGeneration-independent movement"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 58,
"text": "Two decades of reform and commercialization have brought dramatic social changes in mainland China, reflected not only in fiction film but in a growing documentary movement. Wu Wenguang's 70-minute Bumming in Beijing: The Last Dreamers (1990) is now seen as one of the first works of this \"New Documentary Movement\" (NDM) in China. Bumming, made between 1988 and 1990, contains interviews with five young artists eking out a living in Beijing, subject to state authorized tasks. Shot using a camcorder, the documentary ends with four of the artists moving abroad after the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre. Dance with the Farm Workers (2001) is another documentary by Wu.",
"title": "New documentary movement"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 59,
"text": "Another internationally acclaimed documentary is Wang Bing's nine-hour tale of deindustrialization Tie Xi Qu: West of the Tracks (2003). Wang's subsequent documentaries, He Fengming (2007), Crude Oil (2008), Man with no name (2009), Three Sisters (2012) and Feng ai (2013), cemented his reputation as a leading documentarist of the movement.",
"title": "New documentary movement"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 60,
"text": "Li Hong, the first woman in the NDM, in Out of Phoenix Bridge (1997) relates the story of four young women, who moving from rural areas to the big cities like millions of other men and women, have come to Beijing to make a living.",
"title": "New documentary movement"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 61,
"text": "The New Documentary Movement in recent times has overlapped with the dGeneration filmmaking, with most documentaries being shot cheaply and independently in the digital format. Xu Xin's Karamay (2010), Zhao Liang's Behemoth, Huang Weikai's Disorder (2009), Zhao Dayong's Ghost Town (2009), Du Haibing's 1428 (2009), Xu Tong's Fortune Teller (2009) and Li Ning's Tape (2010) were all shot in digital format. All had made their impact in the international documentary scene and the use of digital format allows for works of vaster lengths.",
"title": "New documentary movement"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 62,
"text": "Inspired by the success of Disney animation, the self-taught pioneers Wan brothers, Wan Laiming and Wan Guchan, made the first Chinese animated short in the 1920s, thus inaugurating the history of Chinese animation. (Chen Yuanyuan 175) Many live-action films of the Republican era also included animated sequences.",
"title": "Animation"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 63,
"text": "In 1937, the Wan brothers decided to produce 《铁扇公主》 Princess Iron Fan, which was the first Chinese animated feature film and the fourth, after the American feature films Snow White, Gulliver's Travels, and The Adventures of Pinocchio. It was at this time that Chinese animation as an art form had risen to prominence on the world stage. Completed in 1941, the film was released under China United Pictures and aroused a great response in Asia. Japanese animator Shigeru Tezuka once said that he gave up medicine after watching the cartoon and decided to pursue animation.",
"title": "Animation"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 64,
"text": "During this golden era, Chinese animation had developed a variety of styles, including ink animation, shadow play animation, puppet animation, and so on. Some of the most representative works are 《大闹天宫》 Uproar in Heaven, 《哪吒闹海》 Nezha's Rebellion in the Sea and《天书奇谈》 Heavenly Book, which have also won lofty praise and numerous awards in the world.",
"title": "Animation"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 65,
"text": "After Deng Xiaoping's Reform Period and the \"opening up\" of China, the movies《葫芦兄弟》 Calabash Brothers, 《黑猫警长》Black Cat Sheriff, 《阿凡提》Avanti Story and other impressive animated movies were released. However, at this time, China still favored the Japanese's more unique, American and European-influenced animated works over the less-advanced domestic ones.",
"title": "Animation"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 66,
"text": "In the 1990s, digital production methods replaced manual hand-drawing methods; however, even with the use of advanced technology, none of the animated works were considered to be a breakthrough film. Animated films that tried to cater to all age groups, such as Lotus Lantern and Storm Resolution, did not attract much attention. The only animated works that seemed to achieve popularity were the ones for catered for children, such as Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf《喜羊羊与灰太狼》.",
"title": "Animation"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 67,
"text": "During this period, the technical level of Chinese domestic animation production has been established comprehensively, and 3D animation films have become the mainstream. However, as more and more foreign films (such as ones from Japan, Europe, and the United States) are being imported into China, Chinese animated works is left in the shadows of these animated foreign films.",
"title": "Animation"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 68,
"text": "It was only with the release of 《西游记之大圣归来》Monkey King: Hero is Back in 2015, a computer-animated film, that Chinese animated works took back the rein. The film was a huge hit and broke the record for Chinese domestic animated movies with CN¥956 million at China's box office. After the success of Journey to the West, several other high-quality animated films were released, such as《大鱼海棠》 Big Fish and Begonia and 《白蛇缘起》 White Snake. Though none of these movies made headway in regards to the box office, they did make filmmakers more and more interested in animated works.",
"title": "Animation"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 69,
"text": "This all changed with the breakthrough animated film, 《哪吒之魔童降世》Ne Zha. Released in 2019, it became the second highest-grossing film of all time in China, the highest-grossing animated non-English film, and the highest-grossing animated film in a single territory. It was with this film that Chinese animated films, as a medium, finally broke the notion in China that domestic animated films are only for children. With Nezha, and a spinoff, Jiang Ziya, Chinese animation has now come to be known as a veritable source of entertainment for all ages.",
"title": "Animation"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 70,
"text": "With China's liberalization in the late 1970s and its opening up to foreign markets, commercial considerations have made its impact in post-1980s filmmaking. Traditionally arthouse movies screened seldom make enough to break even. An example is Fifth Generation director Tian Zhuangzhuang's The Horse Thief (1986), a narrative film with minimal dialog on a Tibetan horse thief. The film, showcasing exotic landscapes, was well received by Chinese and some Western arthouse audiences, but did poorly at the box office. Tian's later The Warrior and the Wolf (2010) was a similar commercial failure. Prior to these, there were examples of successful commercial films in the post-liberalization period. One was the romance film Romance on the Lu Mountain (1980), which was a success with older Chinese. The film broke the Guinness Book of Records as the longest-running film on a first run. Jet Li's cinematic debut Shaolin Temple (1982) was an instant hit at home and abroad (in Japan and the Southeast Asia, for example). Another successful commercial film was Murder in 405 (405谋杀案, 1980), a murder thriller.",
"title": "New models and the new Chinese cinema"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 71,
"text": "Feng Xiaogang's The Dream Factory (1997) was heralded as a turning point in Chinese movie industry, a hesui pian (Chinese New Year-screened film) which demonstrated the viability of the commercial model in China's socialist market economy. Feng has become one of the most successful commercial director in the post-1997 era. Almost all his films made high returns domestically while he used ethnic Chinese co-stars like Rosamund Kwan, Jacqueline Wu, Rene Liu and Shu Qi to boost his films' appeal.",
"title": "New models and the new Chinese cinema"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 72,
"text": "In the decade following 2010, owing to the influx of Hollywood films (though the number screened each year is curtailed), Chinese domestic cinema faces mounting challenges. The industry is growing and domestic films are starting to achieve the box office impact of major Hollywood blockbusters. However, not all domestic films are successful financially. In January 2010 James Cameron's Avatar was pulled out from non-3D theaters for Hu Mei's biopic Confucius, but this move led to a backlash on Hu's film. Zhang Yang's 2005 Sunflower also made little money, but his earlier, low-budget Spicy Love Soup (1997) grossed ten times its budget of ¥3 million. Likewise, the 2006 Crazy Stone, a sleeper hit, was made for just 3 million HKD/US$400,000. In 2009–11, Feng's Aftershock (2009) and Jiang Wen's Let the Bullets Fly (2010) became China's highest grossing domestic films, with Aftershock earning ¥670 million (US$105 million) and Let the Bullets Fly ¥674 million (US$110 million). Lost in Thailand (2012) became the first Chinese film to reach ¥1 billion at the Chinese box office and Monster Hunt (2015) became the first to reach CN¥2 billion. As of 2021, 9 of the top 10 highest-grossing films in China are domestic productions. On 8 February 2016, the Chinese box office set a new single-day gross record, with CN¥660 million, beating the previous record of CN¥425 million on 18 July 2015. Also in February 2016, The Mermaid, directed by Stephen Chow, became the highest-grossing film in China, overtaking Monster Hunt. It is also the first film to reach CN¥3 billion.",
"title": "New models and the new Chinese cinema"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 73,
"text": "Under the influence of Hollywood science fiction movies like Prometheus, published on 8 June 2012, such genres especially the space science films have risen rapidly in the Chinese film market in recent years. On 5 February 2019, the film The Wandering Earth directed by Frant Kwo reached $699.8 million worldwide, which became the third highest-grossing film in the history of Chinese cinema.",
"title": "New models and the new Chinese cinema"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 74,
"text": "Since the late 1980s and progressively in the 2000s, Chinese films have enjoyed considerable box office success abroad. Formerly viewed only by cineastes, its global appeal mounted after the international box office and critical success of Ang Lee's period wuxia film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon which won Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 2000. This multi-national production increased its appeal by featuring stars from all parts of the Chinese-speaking world. It provided an introduction to Chinese cinema (and especially the wuxia genre) for many and increased the popularity of many earlier Chinese films. To date Crouching Tiger remains the most commercially successful foreign-language film in U.S. history.",
"title": "New models and the new Chinese cinema"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 75,
"text": "Similarly, in 2002, Zhang Yimou's Hero was another international box office success. Its cast featured famous actors from mainland China and Hong Kong who were also known to some extent in the West, including Jet Li, Zhang Ziyi, Maggie Cheung and Tony Leung Chiu-Wai. Despite criticisms by some that these two films pander somewhat to Western tastes, Hero was a phenomenal success in most of Asia and topped the U.S. box office for two weeks, making enough in the U.S. alone to cover the production costs.",
"title": "New models and the new Chinese cinema"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 76,
"text": "Other films such as Farewell My Concubine, 2046, Suzhou River, The Road Home and House of Flying Daggers were critically acclaimed around the world. The Hengdian World Studios can be seen as the \"Chinese Hollywood\", with a total area of up to 330 ha. and 13 shooting bases, including a 1:1 copy of the Forbidden City.",
"title": "New models and the new Chinese cinema"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 77,
"text": "The successes of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Hero make it difficult to demarcate the boundary between \"Mainland Chinese\" cinema and a more international-based \"Chinese-language cinema\". Crouching Tiger, for example, was directed by a Taiwan-born American director (Ang Lee) who works often in Hollywood. Its pan-Chinese leads include mainland Chinese (Zhang Ziyi), Hong Kong (Chow Yun-Fat), Taiwan (Chang Chen) and Malaysian (Michelle Yeoh) actors and actresses; the film was co-produced by an array of Chinese, American, Hong Kong, and Taiwan film companies. Likewise, Lee's Chinese-language Lust, Caution (2007) drew a crew and cast from mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, and includes an orchestral score by French composer Alexandre Desplat. This merging of people, resources and expertise from the three regions and the broader East Asia and the world, marks the movement of Chinese-language cinema into a domain of large scale international influence. Other examples of films in this mold include The Promise (2005), The Banquet (2006), Fearless (2006), The Warlords (2007), Bodyguards and Assassins (2009) and Red Cliff (2008-09). The ease with which ethnic Chinese actresses and actors straddle the mainland and Hong Kong has significantly increased the number of co-productions in Chinese-language cinema. Many of these films also feature South Korean or Japanese actors to appeal to their East Asian neighbours. Some artistes originating from the mainland, like Hu Jun, Zhang Ziyi, Tang Wei and Zhou Xun, obtained Hong Kong residency under the Quality Migrant Admission Scheme and have acted in many Hong Kong productions.",
"title": "New models and the new Chinese cinema"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 78,
"text": "In 1983, there were 162,000 projection units in China, up from less than 600 at the 1949 founding of the PRC.",
"title": "Industry"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 79,
"text": "In 2010, Chinese cinema was the third largest film industry by number of feature films produced annually. In 2013, China's gross box office was ¥21.8 billion (US$3.6 billion), the second-largest film market in the world by box office receipts. In January 2013, Lost in Thailand (2012) became the first Chinese film to reach ¥1 billion at the box office. As of May 2013, 7 of the top 10 highest-grossing films in China were domestic productions. As of 2014, around half of all tickets are sold online, with the largest ticket selling sites being Maoyan.com (82 million), Gewara.com (45 million) and Wepiao.com (28 million). In 2014, Chinese films earned ¥1.87 billion outside China. By December 2013 there were 17,000 screens in the country. By 6 January 2014, there were 18,195 screens in the country. Greater China has around 251 IMAX theaters. There were 299 cinema chains (252 rural, 47 urban), 5,813 movie theaters and 24,317 screens in the country in 2014.",
"title": "Industry"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 80,
"text": "The country added about 8,035 screens in 2015 (at an average of 22 new screens per day, increasing its total by about 40% to around 31,627 screens, which is about 7,373 shy of the number of screens in the United States. Chinese films accounted for 61.48% of ticket sales in 2015 (up from 54% last year) with more than 60% of ticket sales being made online. Average ticket price was down about 2.5% to $5.36 in 2015. It also witnessed 51.08% increase in admissions, with 1.26 billion people buying tickets to the cinema in 2015. Chinese films grossed US$427 million overseas in 2015. During the week of the 2016 Chinese New Year, the country set a new record for the highest box office gross during one week in one territory with US$548 million, overtaking the previous record of US$529.6 million of 26 December 2015 to 1 January 2016 in the United States and Canada. Chinese films grossed CN¥3.83 billion (US$550 million) in foreign markets in 2016.",
"title": "Industry"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 81,
"text": "As of April 2015, the largest Chinese film company by worth was Alibaba Pictures (US$8.77 billion). Other large companies include Huayi Brothers Media (US$7.9 billion), Enlight Media (US$5.98 billion) and Bona Film Group (US$542 million). The biggest distributors by market share in 2014 were: China Film Group (32.8%), Huaxia Film (22.89%), Enlight Pictures (7.75%), Bona Film Group (5.99%), Wanda Media (5.2%), Le Vision Pictures (4.1%), Huayi Brothers (2.26%), United Exhibitor Partners (2%), Heng Ye Film Distribution (1.77%) and Beijing Anshi Yingna Entertainment (1.52%). The biggest cinema chains in 2014 by box office gross were: Wanda Cinema Line (US$676.96 million), China Film Stellar (393.35 million), Dadi Theater Circuit (378.17 million), Shanghai United Circuit (355.07 million), Guangzhou Jinyi Zhujiang (335.39 million), China Film South Cinema Circuit (318.71 million), Zhejiang Time Cinema (190.53 million), China Film Group Digital Cinema Line (177.42 million), Hengdian Cinema Line (170.15 million) and Beijing New Film Association (163.09 million).",
"title": "Industry"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 82,
"text": "Huayi Brothers is China's most powerful independent (i.e., non state-owned) entertainment company, Beijing-based Huayi Brothers is a diversified company engaged in film and TV production, distribution, theatrical exhibition, as well as talent management. Notable films include 2004's Kung Fu Hustle; and 2010's Aftershock, which had a 91% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.",
"title": "Industry"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 83,
"text": "Beijing Enlight Media focuses on the action and romance genres. Enlight usually places several films in China's top 20 grossers. Enlight is also a major player in China's TV series production and distribution businesses. Under the leadership of its CEO Wang Changtian, the publicly traded, Beijing-based company has achieved a market capitalization of nearly US$1 billion.",
"title": "Industry"
}
] |
The cinema of China is the filmmaking and film industry of the Chinese mainland under the People's Republic of China, one of three distinct historical threads of Chinese-language cinema together with the cinema of Hong Kong and the cinema of Taiwan. Cinema was introduced in China in 1896 and the first Chinese film, Dingjun Mountain, was made in 1905. In the early decades the film industry was centered on Shanghai. The 1920s was dominated by small studios and commercial films, especially in the action wuxia genre. The first sound film, Sing-Song Girl Red Peony, using the sound-on-disc technology, was made in 1931. The 1930s, considered the first "Golden Period" of Chinese cinema, saw the advent of the leftist cinematic movement. The civil war between Nationalists and Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was reflected in the films produced. After the Japanese invasion of China and the occupation of Shanghai, the industry in the city was severely curtailed, with filmmakers moving to Hong Kong, Chongqing and other places. A "Solitary Island" period began in Shanghai, where the filmmakers who remained worked in the foreign concessions. Princess Iron Fan (1941), the first Chinese animated feature film, was released at the end of this period. It influenced wartime Japanese animation and later Osamu Tezuka. After being completely engulfed by the occupation in 1941, and until the end of the war in 1945, the film industry in the city was under Japanese control. After the end of the war, a second golden age took place, with production in Shanghai resuming. Spring in a Small Town (1948) was named the best Chinese-language film at the 24th Hong Kong Film Awards. After the Chinese Communist Revolution, domestic films that were already released and a selection of foreign films were banned in 1951, marking a tirade of film censorship in China. Despite this, movie attendance increased sharply. During the Cultural Revolution, the film industry was severely restricted, coming almost to a standstill from 1967 to 1972. The industry flourished following the end of the Cultural Revolution, including the "scar dramas" of the 1980s, such as Evening Rain (1980), Legend of Tianyun Mountain (1980) and Hibiscus Town (1986), depicting the emotional traumas left by the period. Starting in the mid to late 1980s, with films such as One and Eight (1983) and Yellow Earth (1984), the rise of the Fifth Generation brought increased popularity to Chinese cinema abroad, especially among Western arthouse audiences. Films like Red Sorghum (1987), The Story of Qiu Ju (1992) and Farewell My Concubine (1993) won major international awards. The movement partially ended after the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre. The post-1990 period saw the rise of the Sixth Generation and post-Sixth Generation, both mostly making films outside the main Chinese film system which played mostly on the international film festival circuit. Following the international commercial success of films such as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) and Hero (2002), the number of co-productions in Chinese-language cinema has increased and there has been a movement of Chinese-language cinema into a domain of large scale international influence. After The Dream Factory (1997) demonstrated the viability of the commercial model, and with the growth of the Chinese box office in the new millennium, Chinese films have broken box office records and, as of January 2017, 5 of the top 10 highest-grossing films in China are domestic productions. Lost in Thailand (2012) was the first Chinese film to reach CN¥1 billion at the Chinese box office. Monster Hunt (2015) was the first to reach CN¥2 billion. The Mermaid (2016) was the first to CN¥3 billion. Wolf Warrior 2 (2017) beat them out to become the highest-grossing film in China. China is the home of the largest movie and drama production complex and film studios in the world, the Oriental Movie Metropolis and Hengdian World Studios, and in 2010 it had the third largest film industry by number of feature films produced annually. In 2012 the country became the second-largest market in the world by box office receipts. In 2016, the gross box office in China was CN¥45.71 billion. The country has the largest number of screens in the world since 2016, and is expected to become the largest theatrical market by 2019. China has also become a major hub of business for Hollywood studios. In November 2016, China passed a film law banning content deemed harmful to the "dignity, honor and interests" of the People's Republic and encouraging the promotion of "socialist core values", approved by the National People's Congress Standing Committee. Due to industry regulations, films are typically allowed to stay in theaters for one month. However, studios may apply to regulators to have the limit extended. As Chinese audiences have become increasingly interested in Chinese-language films produced domestically, production values in domestic films have been rising. According to the research firm Ampere Analysis, domestic films accounted for 85% of China's box office in 2020. Aynne Kokas, a media studies professor at the University of Virginia and author of the book "Hollywood Made in China" stated that, "There are Chinese blockbusters that Chinese filmmakers are making that people want to watch, and they feel less derivative than those made in Hollywood." The high box office earnings of 2021 Chinese films like Hi, Mom and The Battle at Lake Changjin has indicated that the Chinese domestic film industry has reached self-reliance and does not need international audience appeal to produce commercially successful films. Recent patriotic films have been labelled as propaganda films by western mainstream media. However Richard Peña, a lecturer at Columbia University's School of the Arts in New York told VOA in regards to the claim of "propaganda" label that it was more a matter of perspective of "the beholder". Ian Huffer, Senior Lecturer in Media Studies at Massey University, added that "Most recent Chinese blockbusters that have been characterized as propaganda by Western journalism are really more like those Hollywood films over the years that have used military conflicts to evoke jingoist feeling or that show the US saving the world from global catastrophe".
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2001-10-26T22:22:36Z
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2023-12-31T21:21:16Z
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinema_of_China
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Cinema of the United Kingdom
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The United Kingdom has had a significant film industry for over a century. While film production reached an all-time high in 1936, the "golden age" of British cinema is usually thought to have occurred in the 1940s, during which the directors David Lean, Michael Powell, and Carol Reed produced their most critically acclaimed works. Many British actors have accrued critical success and worldwide recognition, such as Audrey Hepburn, Olivia de Havilland, Vivien Leigh, Glynis Johns, Maggie Smith, Laurence Olivier, Michael Caine, Sean Connery, Ian Mckellen, Joan Collins, Judi Dench, Julie Andrews, Daniel Day-Lewis, Gary Oldman, Emma Thompson, Anthony Hopkins and Kate Winslet. Some of the films with the largest ever box office returns have been made in the United Kingdom, including the fourth and fifth highest-grossing film franchises (Harry Potter and James Bond).
The identity of the British film industry, particularly as it relates to Hollywood, has often been the subject of debate. Its history has often been affected by attempts to compete with the American industry. The career of the producer Alexander Korda was marked by this objective, the Rank Organisation attempted to do so in the 1940s, and Goldcrest in the 1980s. Numerous British-born directors, including Alfred Hitchcock, Christopher Nolan and Ridley Scott, and performers, such as Charlie Chaplin and Cary Grant, have achieved success primarily through their work in the United States.
In 2009, British films grossed around $2 billion worldwide and achieved a market share of around 7% globally and 17% in the United Kingdom. UK box-office takings totalled £1.1 billion in 2012, with 172.5 million admissions.
The British Film Institute has produced a poll ranking what they consider to be the 100 greatest British films of all time, the BFI Top 100 British films. The annual BAFTA Awards hosted by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts are considered to be the British equivalent of the Academy Awards.
The world's first moving picture was shot in Leeds by Louis Le Prince in 1888 and the first moving pictures developed on celluloid film were made in Hyde Park, London in 1889 by British inventor William Friese Greene, who patented the process in 1890.
The first people to build and run a working 35 mm camera in Britain were Robert W. Paul and Birt Acres. They made the first British film Incident at Clovelly Cottage in February 1895, shortly before falling out over the camera's patent. Soon several British film companies had opened to meet the demand for new films, such as Mitchell and Kenyon in Blackburn.
Although the earliest British films were of everyday events, the early 20th century saw the appearance of narrative shorts, mainly comedies and melodramas. The early films were often melodramatic in tone, and there was a distinct preference for story lines already known to the audience, in particular, adaptations of Shakespeare plays and Dickens novels.
The Lumière brothers first brought their show to London in 1896. In 1898 American producer Charles Urban expanded the London-based Warwick Trading Company to produce British films, mostly documentary and news.
In 1898 Gaumont-British Picture Corp. was founded as a subsidiary of the French Gaumont Film Company, constructing Lime Grove Studios in West London in 1915 in the first building built in Britain solely for film production. Also in 1898 Hepworth Studios was founded in Lambeth, South London by Cecil Hepworth, the Bamforths began producing films in Yorkshire, and William Haggar began producing films in Wales.
Directed by Walter R. Booth in 1901, Scrooge, or, Marley's Ghost is the earliest film adaptation of Charles Dickens's festive novella A Christmas Carol. Booth's The Hand of the Artist (1906) has been described as the first British animated film.
In 1902 Ealing Studios was founded by Will Barker, becoming the oldest continuously-operating film studio in the world.
In 1902 the earliest colour film in the world was made; like other films made at the time, it is of everyday events. In 2012 it was found by the National Science and Media Museum in Bradford after lying forgotten in an old tin for 110 years. The previous title for earliest colour film, using Urban's inferior Kinemacolor process, was thought to date from 1909. The re-discovered films were made by pioneer Edward Raymond Turner from London who patented his process on 22 March 1899.
In 1909 Urban formed the Natural Color Kinematograph Company, which produced early colour films using his patented Kinemacolor process. This was later challenged in court by Greene, causing the company to go out of business in 1914.
In 1903, Cecil Hepworth and Percy Stow directed Alice in Wonderland, the first film adaptation of Lewis Carroll's children's book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
In 1903 Frank Mottershaw of Sheffield produced the film A Daring Daylight Robbery, which launched the chase genre.
In 1911 the Ideal Film Company was founded in Soho, London, distributing almost 400 films by 1934, and producing 80.
In 1913 stage director Maurice Elvey began directing British films, becoming Britain's most prolific film director, with almost 200 by 1957.
In 1914 Elstree Studios was founded, and acquired in 1928 by German-born Ludwig Blattner, who invented a magnetic steel tape recording system that was adopted by the BBC in 1930.
In 1915, the Kinematograph Renters’ Society of Great Britain and Ireland was formed to represent the film distribution companies. It is the oldest film trade body in the world. It was known as the Society of Film Distributors until it changed its name again to the Film Distributors’ Association (FDA).
In 1920 Gaumont opened Islington Studios, where Alfred Hitchcock got his start, selling out to Gainsborough Pictures in 1927. Also in 1920 Cricklewood Studios was founded by Sir Oswald Stoll, becoming Britain's largest film studio, known for Fu Manchu and Sherlock Holmes film series.
In 1920 the short-lived company Minerva Films was founded in London by the actor Leslie Howard (also producer and director) and his friend and story editor Adrian Brunel. Some of their early films include four written by A. A. Milne including The Bump, starring C. Aubrey Smith; Twice Two; Five Pound Reward; and Bookworms.
By the mid-1920s the British film industry was losing out to heavy competition from the United States, which was helped by its much larger home market – in 1914 25% of films shown in the UK were British, but by 1926 this had fallen to 5%. The Slump of 1924 caused many British film studios to close, resulting in the passage of the Cinematograph Films Act 1927 to boost local production, requiring that cinemas show a certain percentage of British films. The act was technically a success, with audiences for British films becoming larger than the quota required, but it had the effect of creating a market for poor quality, low cost films, made to satisfy the quota. The "quota quickies", as they became known, are often blamed by historians for holding back the development of the industry. However, some British film makers, such as Michael Powell, learnt their craft making such films. The act was modified with the Cinematograph Films Act 1938 assisted the British film industry by specifying only films made by and shot in Great Britain would be included in the quota, an act that severely reduced Canadian and Australian film production.
Ironically, the biggest star of the silent era, English comedian Charlie Chaplin, was Hollywood-based.
Scottish solicitor John Maxwell founded British International Pictures (BIP) in 1927. Based at the former British National Pictures Studios in Elstree, the facilities original owners, including producer-director Herbert Wilcox, had run into financial difficulties. One of the company's early films, Alfred Hitchcock's Blackmail (1929), is often regarded as the first British sound feature. It was a part-talkie with a synchronised score and sound effects. Earlier in 1929, the first all-talking British feature, The Clue of the New Pin was released. It was based on a novel by Edgar Wallace, starring Donald Calthrop, Benita Home and Fred Raines, which was made by British Lion at their Beaconsfield Studios. John Maxwell's BIP became the Associated British Picture Corporation (ABPC) in 1933. ABPC's studios in Elstree came to be known as the "porridge factory", according to Lou Alexander, "for reasons more likely to do with the quantity of films that the company turned out, than their quality". Elstree (strictly speaking almost all the studios were in neighbouring Borehamwood) became the centre of the British film industry, with six film complexes over the years all in close proximity to each other.
By 1927, the largest cinema chains in the United Kingdom consisted of around 20 cinemas but the following year Gaumont-British expanded significantly to become the largest, controlling 180 cinemas by 1928 and up to 300 by 1929. Maxwell formed ABC Cinemas in 1927 which became a subsidiary of BIP and went on to become one of the largest in the country, together with Odeon Cinemas, founded by Oscar Deutsch, who opened his first cinema in 1928. By 1937, these three chains controlled almost a quarter of all cinemas in the country. A booking by one of these chains was indispensable for the success of any British film.
With the advent of sound films, many foreign actors were in less demand, with English received pronunciation commonly used; for example, the voice of Czech actress Anny Ondra in Blackmail was substituted by an off-camera Joan Barry during Ondra's scenes.
Starting with John Grierson's Drifters (also 1929), the period saw the emergence of the school of realist Documentary Film Movement, from 1933 associated with the GPO Film Unit. It was Grierson who coined the term "documentary" to describe a non-fiction film, and he produced the movement's most celebrated early films, Night Mail (1936), written and directed by Basil Wright and Harry Watt, and incorporating the poem by W. H. Auden towards the end of the short.
Music halls also proved influential in comedy films of this period, and a number of popular personalities emerged, including George Formby, Gracie Fields, Jessie Matthews and Will Hay. These stars often made several films a year, and their productions remained important for morale purposes during World War II.
Many of the British films with larger budgets during the 1930s were produced by London Films, founded by Hungarian emigre Alexander Korda. The success of The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933), made at British and Dominions Elstree Studios, persuaded United Artists and The Prudential to invest in Korda's Denham Film Studios, which opened in May 1936, but both investors suffered losses as a result. Korda's films before the war included Things to Come, Rembrandt (both 1936) and Knight Without Armour (1937), as well as the early Technicolour films The Drum (1938) and The Four Feathers (1939). These had followed closely on from Wings of the Morning (1937), the UK's first three-strip Technicolour feature film, made by the local offshoot of 20th Century Fox. Although some of Korda's films indulged in "unrelenting pro-Empire flag waving", those featuring Sabu turned him into "a huge international star"; "for many years" he had the highest profile of any actor of Indian origin. Paul Robeson was also cast in leading roles when "there were hardly any opportunities" for African Americans "to play challenging roles" in their own country's productions.
In 1933, the British Film Institute was established as the lead organisation for film in the UK. They set up the National Film Library in 1935 (now known as the BFI National Archive), with Ernest Lindgren as its curator.
In 1934, J. Arthur Rank became a co-founder of British National Films Company and they helped create Pinewood Studios, which opened in 1936. Also in 1936, Rank took over General Film Distributors and in 1937, Rank founded The Rank Organisation. In 1938, General Film Distributors became affiliated with Odeon Cinemas.
Rising expenditure and over-optimistic expectations of expansion into the American market caused a financial crisis in 1937, after an all-time high of 192 films were released in 1936. Of the 640 British production companies registered between 1925 and 1936, only 20 were still active in 1937. Moreover, the 1927 Films Act was up for renewal. The replacement Cinematograph Films Act 1938 provided incentives, via a "quality test", for UK companies to make fewer films, but of higher quality, and to eliminate the "quota quickies". Influenced by world politics, it encouraged American investment and imports. One result was the creation of MGM-British, an English subsidiary of the largest American studio, which produced four films before the war, including Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939).
The new venture was initially based at Denham Studios. Korda himself lost control of the facility in 1939 to the Rank Organisation. Circumstances forced Korda's The Thief of Bagdad (1940), a spectacular fantasy film, to be completed in California, where Korda continued his film career during the war.
By now contracted to Gaumont British, Alfred Hitchcock had settled on the thriller genre by the mid-1930s with The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934), The 39 Steps (1935) and The Lady Vanishes (1938). Lauded in Britain where he was dubbed "Alfred the Great" by Picturegoer magazine, Hitchcock's reputation was beginning to develop overseas, with a New York Times feature writer asserting; "Three unique and valuable institutions the British have that we in America have not. Magna Carta, the Tower Bridge and Alfred Hitchcock, the greatest director of screen melodramas in the world." Hitchcock was then signed up to a seven-year contract by Selznick and moved to Hollywood.
"The idea of a nation of devoted cinema-goers is inextricably linked with the number of classic films released during the war years. This was British cinema’s ‘golden age’, a period in which filmmakers such as Humphrey Jennings, David Lean, Powell and Pressburger, and Carol Reed came to the fore."
Published in The Times on 5 September 1939, two days after Britain declared war on Germany, George Bernard Shaw’s letter protested against a government order to close all places of entertainment, including cinemas. ‘What agent of Chancellor Hitler is it who has suggested that we should all cower in darkness and terror “for the duration”?’. Within two weeks of the order cinemas in the provinces were reopened, followed by central London within a month. In 1940, cinema admissions figures rose, to just over 1 billion for the year, and they continued rising to over 1.5 billion in 1943, 1944 and 1945.
Humphrey Jennings began his career as a documentary film maker just before the war, in some cases working in collaboration with co-directors. London Can Take It (with Harry Wat, 1940) detailed the Blitz while Listen to Britain (with Stewart McAllister, 1942) looked at the home front. The Crown Film Unit, part of the Ministry of Information took over the responsibilities of the GPO Film Unit in 1940. Paul Rotha and Alberto Cavalcanti were colleagues of Jennings. British films began to make use of documentary techniques; Cavalcanti joined Ealing for Went the Day Well? (1942),
Many other films helped to shape the popular image of the nation at war. Among the best known of these films are In Which We Serve (1942), We Dive at Dawn (1943), Millions Like Us (1943) and The Way Ahead (1944). The war years also saw the emergence of The Archers partnership between director Michael Powell and the Hungarian-born writer-producer Emeric Pressburger with films such as The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943) and A Canterbury Tale (1944).
Two Cities Films, an independent production company releasing their films through a Rank subsidiary, also made some important films, including the Noël Coward and David Lean collaborations This Happy Breed (1944) and Blithe Spirit (1945) as well as Laurence Olivier's Henry V (1944). By this time, Gainsborough Studios were releasing their series of critically derided but immensely popular period melodramas, including The Man in Grey (1943) and The Wicked Lady (1945). New stars, such as Margaret Lockwood and James Mason, emerged in the Gainsborough films.
Towards the end of the 1940s, the Rank Organisation became the dominant force behind British film-making, having acquired a number of British studios and the Gaumont chain (in 1941) to add to its Odeon Cinemas. Rank's serious financial crisis in 1949, a substantial loss and debt, resulted in the contraction of its film production. In practice, Rank maintained an industry duopoly with ABPC (later absorbed by EMI) for many years.
For the moment, the industry hit new heights of creativity in the immediate post-war years. Among the most significant films produced during this period were David Lean's Brief Encounter (1945) and his Dickens adaptations Great Expectations (1946) and Oliver Twist (1948), Ken Annakin's comedy Miranda (1948) starring Glynis Johns, Carol Reed's thrillers Odd Man Out (1947) and The Third Man (1949), and Powell and Pressburger's A Matter of Life and Death (1946), Black Narcissus (1947) and The Red Shoes (1948), the most commercially successful film of its year in the United States. Laurence Olivier's Hamlet (also 1948), was the first non-American film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. Ealing Studios (financially backed by Rank) began to produce their most celebrated comedies, with three of the best remembered films, Whisky Galore (1948), Kind Hearts and Coronets and Passport to Pimlico (both 1949), being on release almost simultaneously. Their portmanteau horror film Dead of Night (1945) is also particularly highly regarded.
Under the Import Duties Act 1932, HM Treasury levied a 75% tariff on all film imports on 6 August 1947 which became known as Dalton Duty (after Hugh Dalton then the Chancellor of the Exchequer). The tax came into effect on 8 August, applying to all imported films, of which the overwhelming majority came from the United States; American film studio revenues from the UK had been in excess of US$68 million in 1946. The following day, 9 August, the Motion Picture Association of America announced that no further films would be supplied to British cinemas until further notice. The Dalton Duty was ended on 3 May 1948 with the American studios again exported films to the UK though the Marshall Plan prohibited US film companies from taking foreign exchange out of the nations their films played in.
Following the Cinematograph Film Production (Special Loans) Act 1949, the National Film Finance Corporation (NFFC) was established as a British film funding agency.
The Eady Levy, named after Sir Wilfred Eady was a tax on box office receipts in the United Kingdom in order to support the British Film industry. It was established in 1950 coming into effect in 1957. A direct governmental payment to British-based producers would have qualified as a subsidy under the terms of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, and would have led to objections from American film producers. An indirect levy did not qualify as a subsidy, and so was a suitable way of providing additional funding for the UK film industry whilst avoiding criticism from abroad.
In 1951, the National Film Theatre was initially opened in a temporary building at the Festival of Britain. It moved to its present location on the South Bank in London for the first London Film Festival on 16 October 1957 run by the BFI.
During the 1950s, the British industry began to concentrate on popular comedies and World War II dramas aimed more squarely at the domestic audience. The war films were often based on true stories and made in a similar low-key style to their wartime predecessors. They helped to make stars of actors like John Mills, Jack Hawkins and Kenneth More. Some of the most successful included The Cruel Sea (1953), The Dam Busters (1954), The Colditz Story (1955) and Reach for the Sky (1956).
The Rank Organisation produced some comedy successes, such as Genevieve (1953). The writer/director/producer team of twin brothers John and Roy Boulting also produced a series of successful satires on British life and institutions, beginning with Private's Progress (1956), and continuing with (among others) Brothers in Law (1957), Carlton-Browne of the F.O. (1958), and I'm All Right Jack (1959). Starring in School for Scoundrels (1960), the British Film Institute thought Terry-Thomas was "outstanding as a classic British bounder".
Popular comedy series included the "Doctor" series, beginning with Doctor in the House (1954). The series originally starred Dirk Bogarde, probably the British industry's most popular star of the 1950s, though later films had Michael Craig and Leslie Phillips in leading roles. The Carry On series began in 1958 with regular instalments appearing for the next twenty years. The Italian director-producer Mario Zampi also made a number of successful black comedies, including Laughter in Paradise (1951), The Naked Truth (1957) and Too Many Crooks (1958). Ealing Studios had continued its run of successful comedies, including The Lavender Hill Mob (1951) and The Ladykillers (1955), but the company ceased production in 1958, after the studios had already been bought by the BBC.
Less restrictive censorship towards the end of the 1950s encouraged film producer Hammer Films to embark on their series of commercially successful horror films. Beginning with adaptations of Nigel Kneale's BBC science fiction serials The Quatermass Experiment (1955) and Quatermass II (1957), Hammer quickly graduated to The Curse of Frankenstein (1957) and Dracula (1958), both deceptively lavish and the first gothic horror films in colour. The studio turned out numerous sequels and variants, with English actors Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee being the most regular leads. Peeping Tom (1960), a now highly regarded thriller, with horror elements, set in the contemporary period, was badly received by the critics at the time, and effectively finished the career of Michael Powell, its director.
The British New Wave film makers attempted to produce social realist films (see also 'kitchen sink realism') attempted in commercial feature films released between around 1959 and 1963 to convey narratives about a wider spectrum of people in Britain than the country's earlier films had done. These individuals, principally Karel Reisz, Lindsay Anderson and Tony Richardson, were also involved in the short lived Oxford film journal Sequence and the "Free Cinema" documentary film movement. The 1956 statement of Free Cinema, the name was coined by Anderson, asserted: "No film can be too personal. The image speaks. Sounds amplifies and comments. Size is irrelevant. Perfection is not an aim. An attitude means a style. A style means an attitude." Anderson, in particular, was dismissive of the commercial film industry. Their documentary films included Anderson's Every Day Except Christmas, among several sponsored by Ford of Britain, and Richardson's Momma Don't Allow. Another member of this group, John Schlesinger, made documentaries for the BBC's Monitor arts series.
Together with future James Bond co-producer Harry Saltzman, dramatist John Osborne and Tony Richardson established the company Woodfall Films to produce their early feature films. These included adaptations of Richardson's stage productions of Osborne's Look Back in Anger (1959), with Richard Burton, and The Entertainer (1960) with Laurence Olivier, both from Osborne's own screenplays. Such films as Reisz's Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (also 1960), Richardson's A Taste of Honey (1961), Schlesinger's A Kind of Loving (1962) and Billy Liar (1963), and Anderson's This Sporting Life (1963) are often associated with a new openness about working-class life or previously taboo issues.
The team of Basil Dearden and Michael Relph, from an earlier generation, "probe[d] into the social issues that now confronted social stability and the establishment of the promised peacetime consensus". Pool of London (1950). and Sapphire (1959) were early attempts to create narratives about racial tensions and an emerging multi-cultural Britain. Dearden and Relph's Victim (1961), was about the blackmail of homosexuals. Influenced by the Wolfenden report of four years earlier, which advocated the decriminalising of homosexual sexual activity, this was "the first British film to deal explicitly with homosexuality". Unlike the New Wave film makers though, critical responses to Dearden's and Relph's work have not generally been positive.
As the 1960s progressed, American studios returned to financially supporting British films, especially those that capitalised on the "swinging London" image propagated by Time magazine in 1966. Films like Darling, The Knack ...and How to Get It (both 1965), Alfie and Georgy Girl (both 1966), all explored this phenomenon. Blowup (also 1966), and later Women in Love (1969), showed female and then male full-frontal nudity on screen in mainstream British films for the first time.
At the same time, film producers Harry Saltzman and Albert R. Broccoli combined sex with exotic locations, casual violence and self-referential humour in the phenomenally successful James Bond series with Sean Connery in the leading role. The first film Dr. No (1962) was a sleeper hit in the UK and the second, From Russia with Love (1963), a hit worldwide. By the time of the third film, Goldfinger (1964), the series had become a global phenomenon, reaching its commercial peak with Thunderball the following year. The series' success led to a spy film boom with many Bond imitations. Bond co-producer Saltzman also instigated a rival series of more realistic spy films based on the novels of Len Deighton. Michael Caine starred as bespectacled spy Harry Palmer in The Ipcress File (1965), and two sequels in the next few years. Other more downbeat espionage films were adapted from John le Carré novels, such as The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1965) and The Deadly Affair (1966).
American directors were regularly working in London throughout the decade, but several became permanent residents in the UK. Blacklisted in America, Joseph Losey had a significant influence on British cinema in the 1960s, particularly with his collaborations with playwright Harold Pinter and leading man Dirk Bogarde, including The Servant (1963) and Accident (1967). Voluntary exiles Richard Lester and Stanley Kubrick were also active in the UK. Lester had major hits with The Beatles film A Hard Day's Night (1964) and The Knack ...and How to Get It (1965) and Kubrick with Dr. Strangelove (1963) and 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). While Kubrick settled in Hertfordshire in the early 1960s and would remain in England for the rest of his career, these two films retained a strong American influence. Other films of this era involved prominent filmmakers from elsewhere in Europe, Repulsion (1965) and Blowup (1966) were the first English language films of the Polish director Roman Polanski and the Italian Michelangelo Antonioni respectively.
Historical films as diverse as Lawrence of Arabia (1962), Tom Jones (1963), and A Man for All Seasons (1966) benefited from the investment of American studios. Major films like Becket (1964), Khartoum (1966) and The Charge of the Light Brigade (1968) were regularly mounted, while smaller-scale films, including Accident (1967), were big critical successes. Four of the decade's Academy Award winners for best picture were British productions, including six Oscars for the film musical Oliver! (1968), based on the Charles Dickens novel Oliver Twist.
After directing several contributions to the BBC's Wednesday Play anthology series, Ken Loach began his feature film career with the social realist Poor Cow (1967) and Kes (1969). Meanwhile, the controversy around Peter Watkins The War Game (1965), which won the Best Documentary Film Oscar in 1967, but had been suppressed by the BBC who had commissioned it, would ultimately lead Watkins to work exclusively outside Britain.
American studios cut back on British productions, and in many cases withdrew from financing them altogether. Films financed by American interests were still being made, including Billy Wilder's The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970), but for a time funds became hard to come by.
More relaxed censorship also brought several controversial films, including Nicolas Roeg and Donald Cammell's Performance, Ken Russell's The Devils (1971), Sam Peckinpah's Straw Dogs (1971), and Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange (1971) starring Malcolm McDowell as the leader of a gang of thugs in a dystopian future Britain.
Other films during the early 1970s included the Edwardian drama The Go-Between (1971), which won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, Nicolas Roeg's Venice-set supernatural thriller Don't Look Now (1973) and Mike Hodges' gangster drama Get Carter (1971) starring Michael Caine. Alfred Hitchcock returned to Britain to shoot Frenzy (1972), Other productions such as Richard Attenborough's Young Winston (1972) and A Bridge Too Far (1977) met with mixed commercial success. The British horror film cycle associated with Hammer Film Productions, Amicus and Tigon drew to a close, despite attempts by Hammer to spice up the formula with added nudity and gore. Although some attempts were made to broaden the range of British horror films, such as with The Wicker Man (1973), these films made little impact at the box office, In 1976, British Lion, who produced The Wicker Man, were finally absorbed into the film division of EMI, who had taken over ABPC in 1969. The duopoly in British cinema exhibition, via Rank and now EMI, continued.
In the early 1970s, the government reduced its funding of the National Film Finance Corporation so the NFFC started to operate as a consortium, including with banks, which led to them using more commercial criteria for funding British films rather than focusing on quality or new talent, moving to fund films based on TV shows such as Up Pompeii (1971).
Some other British producers, including Hammer, turned to television for inspiration, and big screen versions of popular sitcoms like On the Buses (1971) and Steptoe and Son (1972) proved successful with domestic audiences, the former had greater domestic box office returns in its year than the Bond film, Diamonds Are Forever and in 1973, an established British actor Roger Moore was cast as Bond in, Live and Let Die, it was a commercial success and Moore would continue the role for the next 12 years. Low-budget British sex comedies included the Confessions of ... series starring Robin Askwith, beginning with Confessions of a Window Cleaner (1974). More elevated comedy films came from the Monty Python team, also from television. Their two most successful films were Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975) and Monty Python's Life of Brian (1979), the latter a major commercial success, probably at least in part due to the controversy at the time surrounding its subject.
Some American productions did return to the major British studios in 1977–79, including the original Star Wars (1977) at Elstree Studios, Superman (1978) at Pinewood, and Alien (1979) at Shepperton. Successful adaptations were made in the decade of the Agatha Christie novels Murder on the Orient Express (1974) and Death on the Nile (1978). The entry of Lew Grade's company ITC into film production in the latter half of the decade brought only a few box office successes and an unsustainable number of failures
In 1980, only 31 British films were made, a 50% decline from the previous year and the lowest number since 1914, and production fell again in 1981 to 24 films. The industry suffered further blows from falling cinema attendances, which reached a record low of 54 million in 1984, and the elimination of the 1957 Eady Levy, a tax concession, in the same year. The concession had made it possible for an overseas based film company to write off a large amount of its production costs by filming in the UK – this was what attracted a succession of big-budget American productions to British studios in the 1970s. These factors led to significant changes in the industry, with the profitability of British films now "increasingly reliant on secondary markets such as video and television, and Channel 4 ... [became] a crucial part of the funding equation."
With the removal of the levy, multiplex cinemas were introduced to the United Kingdom with the opening of a ten-screen cinema by AMC Cinemas at The Point in Milton Keynes in 1985 and the number of screens in the UK increased by around 500 over the decade leading to increased attendances of almost 100 million by the end of the decade.
The 1980s soon saw a renewed optimism, led by smaller independent production companies such as Goldcrest, HandMade Films and Merchant Ivory Productions.
Handmade Films, which was partly owned by George Harrison, was originally formed to take over the production of Monty Python's Life of Brian, after EMI's Bernard Delfont (Lew Grade's brother) had pulled out. Handmade also bought and released the gangster drama The Long Good Friday (1980), produced by a Lew Grade subsidiary, after its original backers became cautious. Members of the Python team were involved in other comedies during the decade, including Terry Gilliam's fantasy films Time Bandits (1981) and Brazil (1985), the black comedy Withnail & I (1987), and John Cleese's hit A Fish Called Wanda (1988), while Michael Palin starred in A Private Function (1984), from Alan Bennett's first screenplay for the cinema screen.
Goldcrest producer David Puttnam has been described as "the nearest thing to a mogul that British cinema has had in the last quarter of the 20th century." Under Puttnam, a generation of British directors emerged making popular films with international distribution. Some of the talent backed by Puttnam — Hugh Hudson, Ridley Scott, Alan Parker, and Adrian Lyne — had shot commercials; Puttnam himself had begun his career in the advertising industry. When Hudson's Chariots of Fire (1981) won 4 Academy Awards in 1982, including Best Picture, its writer Colin Welland declared "the British are coming!". When Gandhi (1982), another Goldcrest film, picked up a Best Picture Oscar, it looked as if he was right.
It prompted a cycle of period films – some with a large budget for a British film, such as David Lean's final film A Passage to India (1984), alongside the lower-budget Merchant Ivory adaptations of the works of E. M. Forster, such as A Room with a View (1986). But further attempts to make 'big' productions for the US market ended in failure, with Goldcrest losing its independence after Revolution (1985) and Absolute Beginners (1986) were commercial and critical flops. Another Goldcrest film, Roland Joffé's The Mission (also 1986), won the 1986 Palme d'Or, but did not go into profit either. Joffé's earlier The Killing Fields (1984) had been both a critical and financial success. These were Joffé's first two feature films and were amongst those produced by Puttnam.
Mainly outside the commercial sector, film makers from the new commonwealth countries had begun to emerge during the 1970s. Horace Ové's Pressure (1975) had been funded by the British Film Institute as was A Private Enterprise (1974), these being the first Black British and Asian British films, respectively. The 1980s however saw a wave of new talent, with films such as Franco Rosso's Babylon (1980), Menelik Shabazz's Burning an Illusion (1981) and Po-Chih Leong's Ping Pong (1986; one of the first films about Britain's Chinese community). Many of these films were assisted by the newly formed Channel 4, which had an official remit to provide for "minority audiences." Commercial success was first achieved with My Beautiful Laundrette (1985). Dealing with racial and gay issues, it was developed from Hanif Kureishi's first film script. My Beautiful Laundrette features Daniel Day-Lewis in a leading role. Day-Lewis and other young British actors who were becoming stars, such as Gary Oldman, Colin Firth, Tim Roth and Rupert Everett, were dubbed the Brit Pack.
With the involvement of Channel 4 in film production, talents from television moved into feature films with Stephen Frears (My Beautiful Laundrette) and Mike Newell with Dance with a Stranger (1985). John Boorman, who had been working in the US, was encouraged back to the UK to make Hope and Glory (1987). Channel Four also became a major sponsor of the British Film Institute's Production Board, which backed three of Britain's most critically acclaimed filmmakers: Derek Jarman (The Last of England, 1987), Terence Davies (Distant Voices, Still Lives, 1988), and Peter Greenaway; the latter of whom gained surprising commercial success with The Draughtsman's Contract (1982) and The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover (1989). Stephen Woolley's company Palace Pictures also produced some successful films, including Neil Jordan's The Company of Wolves (1984) and Mona Lisa (1986), before collapsing amid a series of unsuccessful films. Amongst the other British films of the decade were Bill Forsyth's Gregory's Girl (1981) and Local Hero (1983), Lewis Gilbert's Educating Rita (1983), Peter Yates' The Dresser (1983) and Kenneth Branagh's directorial debut, Henry V (1989).
Compared to the 1980s, investment in film production rose dramatically. In 1989, annual investment was a meagre £104 million. By 1996, this figure had soared to £741 million. Nevertheless, the dependence on finance from television broadcasters such as the BBC and Channel 4 meant that budgets were often low and indigenous production was very fragmented: the film industry mostly relied on Hollywood inward investment. According to critic Neil Watson, it was hoped that the £90 million apportioned by the new National Lottery into three franchises (The Film Consortium, Pathé Pictures, and DNA) would fill the gap, but "corporate and equity finance for the UK film production industry continues to be thin on the ground and most production companies operating in the sector remain hopelessly under-capitalised."
These problems were mostly compensated by PolyGram Filmed Entertainment, a film studio whose British subsidiary Working Title Films released a Richard Curtis-scripted comedy Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994). It grossed $244 million worldwide and introduced Hugh Grant to global fame, led to renewed interest and investment in British films, and set a pattern for British-set romantic comedies, including Sliding Doors (1998) and Notting Hill (1999). Other Working Titles films included Bean (1997), Elizabeth (1998) and Captain Corelli's Mandolin (2001). PFE was eventually sold and merged with Universal Pictures in 1999, the hopes and expectations of "building a British-based company which could compete with Hollywood in its home market [had] eventually collapsed."
Tax incentives allowed American producers to increasingly invest in UK-based film production throughout the 1990s, including films such as Interview with the Vampire (1994), Mission: Impossible (1996), Saving Private Ryan (1998), Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace (1999) and The Mummy (1999). Miramax also distributed Neil Jordan's acclaimed thriller The Crying Game (1992), which was generally ignored on its initial release in the UK, but was a considerable success in the United States. The same company also enjoyed some success releasing the BBC period drama Enchanted April (1992) and The Wings of the Dove (1997).
Among the more successful British films were the Merchant Ivory productions Howards End (1992) and The Remains of the Day (1993), Richard Attenborough's Shadowlands (1993), and Kenneth Branagh's Shakespeare adaptations. The Madness of King George (1994) proved there was still a market for British costume dramas, and other period films followed, including Sense and Sensibility (1995), Restoration (1995), Emma (1996), Mrs. Brown (1997), Basil (1998), Shakespeare in Love (1998) and Topsy-Turvy (1999).
After a six-year hiatus for legal reasons the James Bond films returned to production with the 17th Bond film, GoldenEye. With their traditional home Pinewood Studios fully booked, a new studio was created for the film in a former Rolls-Royce aero-engine factory at Leavesden in Hertfordshire.
Mike Leigh emerged as a significant figure in British cinema in the 1990s, with a series of films financed by Channel 4 about working and middle class life in modern England, including Life Is Sweet (1991), Naked (1993) and his biggest hit Secrets & Lies (1996), which won the Palme d'Or at Cannes.
Other new talents to emerge during the decade included the writer-director-producer team of John Hodge, Danny Boyle and Andrew Macdonald responsible for Shallow Grave (1994) and Trainspotting (1996). The latter film generated interested in other "regional" productions, including the Scottish films Small Faces (1996), Ratcatcher (1999) and My Name Is Joe (1998).
The first decade of the 21st century was a relatively successful one for the British film industry. Many British films found a wide international audience due to funding from BBC Films, Film 4 and the UK Film Council, and some independent production companies, such as Working Title, secured financing and distribution deals with major American studios. Working Title scored three major international successes, all starring Hugh Grant and Colin Firth, with the romantic comedies Bridget Jones's Diary (2001), which grossed $254 million worldwide; the sequel Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, which earned $228 million; and Richard Curtis's directorial debut Love Actually (2003), which grossed $239 million. The most successful of all, Phyllida Lloyd's Mamma Mia! (2008), grossed $601 million.
The new decade saw a major new film series in the Harry Potter films, beginning with Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone in 2001. David Heyman's company Heyday Films has produced seven sequels, with the final title released in two parts – Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1 in 2010 and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 in 2011. All were filmed at Leavesden Studios in England.
Aardman Animations' Nick Park, the creator of Wallace and Gromit and the Creature Comforts series, produced his first feature-length film, Chicken Run in 2000. Co-directed with Peter Lord, the film was a major success worldwide and one of the most successful British films of its year. Park's follow up, Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit was another worldwide hit: it grossed $56 million at the US box office and £32 million in the UK. It also won the 2005 Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.
However it was usually through domestically funded features throughout the decade that British directors and films won awards at the top international film festivals. In 2003, Michael Winterbottom won the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival for In This World. In 2004, Mike Leigh directed Vera Drake, an account of a housewife who leads a double life as an abortion provider in 1950s London. The film won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival. In 2006 Stephen Frears directed The Queen based on the events surrounding the death of Princess Diana, which won the Best Actress prize at the Venice Film Festival and Academy Awards and the BAFTA for Best Film. In 2006, Ken Loach won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival with his account of the struggle for Irish Independence in The Wind That Shakes the Barley. Joe Wright's adaptation of the Ian McEwan novel Atonement was nominated for 7 Academy Awards, including Best Film and won the Golden Globe and BAFTA for Best Film. Slumdog Millionaire was filmed entirely in Mumbai with a mostly Indian cast, though with a British director (Danny Boyle), producer (Christian Colson), screenwriter (Simon Beaufoy) and star (Dev Patel)—the film was all-British financed via Film4 and Celador. It has received worldwide critical acclaim. It has won four Golden Globes, seven BAFTA Awards and eight Academy Awards, including Best Director and Best Film. The King's Speech, which tells the story of King George VI's attempts to overcome his speech impediment, was directed by Tom Hooper and filmed almost entirely in London. It received four Academy Awards (including Best Film, Best Director, Best Actor and Best Screenplay) in 2011.
The start of the 21st century saw Asian British cinema assert itself at the box office, starting with East Is East (1999) and continuing with Bend It Like Beckham (2002). Other notable British Asian films from this period include My Son the Fanatic (1997), Ae Fond Kiss... (2004), Mischief Night (2006), Yasmin (2004) and Four Lions (2010). Some argue it has brought more flexible attitudes towards casting Black and Asian British actors, with Robbie Gee and Naomie Harris take leading roles in Underworld and 28 Days Later respectively.
2005 saw the emergence of The British Urban Film Festival, a timely addition to the film festival calendar, which recognised the influence of urban and black films on UK audiences and consequently began to showcase a growing profile of films in a genre previously not otherwise regularly seen in the capital's cinemas. Then, in 2006, Kidulthood, a film depicting a group of teenagers growing up on the streets of West London, had a limited release. This was successfully followed up with a sequel Adulthood (2008) that was written and directed by actor Noel Clarke. The success of Kidulthood and Adulthood led to the release of several other films in the 2000s and 2010s such as Bullet Boy (2004), Life and Lyrics (2006), The Intent (2016), its sequel The Intent 2: The Come Up (2018), Blue Story and Rocks (both 2019), all of starred Black-British actors.
Like the 1960s, this decade saw plenty of British films directed by imported talent. The American Woody Allen shot Match Point (2005) and three later films in London. The Mexican director Alfonso Cuarón helmed Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004) and Children of Men (2006); New Zealand filmmaker Jane Campion made Bright Star (2009), a film set in 19th century London; Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn made Bronson (2008), a biopic about the English criminal Michael Gordon Peterson; the Spanish filmmaker Juan Carlos Fresnadillo directed 28 Weeks Later (2007), a sequel to a British horror film; and two John le Carré adaptations were also directed by foreigners—The Constant Gardener by the Brazilian Fernando Meirelles and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy by the Swedish Tomas Alfredson. The decade also saw English actor Daniel Craig became the new James Bond with Casino Royale, the 21st entry in the official Eon Productions series.
Despite increasing competition from film studios in Australia and Eastern Europe, British studios such as Pinewood, Shepperton and Leavesden remained successful in hosting major productions, including Finding Neverland, Closer, Batman Begins, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, United 93, The Phantom of the Opera, Sweeney Todd, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Robin Hood, X-Men: First Class, Hugo and War Horse.
In February 2007, the UK became home to Europe's first DCI-compliant fully digital multiplex cinemas with the launch of Odeon Hatfield and Odeon Surrey Quays (in London), with a total of 18 digital screens.
In November 2010, Warner Bros. completed the acquisition of Leavesden Film Studios, becoming the first Hollywood studio since the 1940s to have a permanent base in the UK, and announced plans to invest £100 million in the site.
A study by the British Film Institute published in December 2013 found that of the 613 tracked British films released between 2003 and 2010 only 7% made a profit. Films with low budgets, those that cost below £500,000 to produce, were even less likely to gain a return on outlay. Of these films, only 3.1% went into the black. At the top end of budgets for the British industry, under a fifth of films that cost £10million went into profit.
On 26 July 2010 it was announced that the UK Film Council, which was the main body responsible for the development of promotion of British cinema during the 2000s, would be abolished, with many of the abolished body's functions being taken over by the British Film Institute. Actors and professionals, including James McAvoy, Emily Blunt, Pete Postlethwaite, Damian Lewis, Timothy Spall, Daniel Barber and Ian Holm, campaigned against the Council's abolition. The move also led American actor and director Clint Eastwood (who had filmed Hereafter in London) to write to the British Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne in August 2010 to protest the decision to close the Council. Eastwood warned Osborne that the closure could result in fewer foreign production companies choosing to work in the UK. A grass-roots online campaign was launched and a petition established by supporters of the Council.
Countering this, a few professionals, including Michael Winner and Julian Fellowes, supported the Government's decision. A number of other organisations responded positively.
At the closure of the UK Film Council on 31 March 2011, The Guardian reported that "The UKFC's entire annual budget was a reported £3m, while the cost of closing it down and restructuring is estimated to have been almost four times that amount." One of the UKFC's last films, The King's Speech, is estimated to have cost $15m to make and grossed $235m, besides winning several Academy Awards. UKFC invested $1.6m for a 34% share of net profits, a valuable stake that will pass to the British Film Institute.
In June 2012, Warner opened the re-developed Leavesden studio for business. The most commercially successful British directors in recent years are Paul Greengrass, Mike Newell, Christopher Nolan, Ridley Scott and David Yates.
In January 2012, at Pinewood Studios to visit film-related businesses, UK Prime Minister David Cameron said that his government had bold ambitions for the film industry: "Our role, and that of the BFI, should be to support the sector in becoming even more dynamic and entrepreneurial, helping UK producers to make commercially successful pictures that rival the quality and impact of the best international productions. Just as the British Film Commission has played a crucial role in attracting the biggest and best international studios to produce their films here, so we must incentivise UK producers to chase new markets both here and overseas."
The film industry remains an important earner for the British economy. According to a UK Film Council press release of 20 January 2011, £1.115 billion was spent on UK film production during 2010. A 2014 survey suggested that British-made films were generally more highly rated than Hollywood productions, especially when considering low-budget UK productions.
In November 2022, director Danny Boyle expressed a negative sentiment of the British film industry in recent years, stating that "I am not sure we are great filmmakers, to be absolutely honest. As a nation, our two artforms are theatre, in a middle-class sense, and pop music, because we are extraordinary at it."
Although it had been funding British experimental films as early as 1952, the British Film Institute's foundation of a production board in 1964—and a substantial increase in public funding from 1971 onwards—enabled it to become a dominant force in developing British art cinema in the 1970s and 80s: from the first of Bill Douglas's Trilogy My Childhood (1972), and of Terence Davies' Trilogy Childhood (1978), via Peter Greenaway's earliest films (including the surprising commercial success of The Draughtsman's Contract (1982)) and Derek Jarman's championing of the New Queer Cinema. The first full-length feature produced under the BFI's new scheme was Kevin Brownlow and Andrew Mollo's Winstanley (1975), while others included Moon Over the Alley (1975), Requiem for a Village (1975), the openly avant-garde Central Bazaar (1973), Pressure (1975) and A Private Enterprise (1974) – the last two being, respectively, the first British Black and Asian features.
The release of Derek Jarman's Jubilee (1978) marked the beginning of a successful period of UK art cinema, continuing into the 1980s with filmmakers like Sally Potter. Unlike the previous generation of British film makers who had broken into directing and production after careers in the theatre or on television, the Art Cinema Directors were mostly the products of Art Schools. Many of these filmmakers were championed in their early career by the London Film Makers Cooperative and their work was the subject of detailed theoretical analysis in the journal Screen Education. Peter Greenaway was an early pioneer of the use of computer generated imagery blended with filmed footage and was also one of the first directors to film entirely on high definition video for a cinema release.
With the launch of Channel 4 and its Film on Four commissioning strand, Art Cinema was promoted to a wider audience. However, the Channel had a sharp change in its commissioning policy in the early 1990s and Greenaway and others were forced to seek European co-production financing.
In the 1970s and 1980s, British studios established a reputation for great special effects in films such as Superman (1978), Alien (1979), and Batman (1989). Some of this reputation was founded on the core of talent brought together for the filming of 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) who subsequently worked together on series and feature films for Gerry Anderson. Thanks to the Bristol-based Aardman Animations, the UK is still recognised as a world leader in the use of stop-motion animation.
British special effects technicians and production designers are known for creating visual effects at a far lower cost than their counterparts in the US, as seen in Time Bandits (1981) and Brazil (1985). This reputation has continued through the 1990s and into the 21st century with films such as the James Bond series, Gladiator (2000) and the Harry Potter franchise.
From the 1990s to the present day, there has been a progressive movement from traditional film opticals to an integrated digital film environment, with special effects, cutting, colour grading, and other post-production tasks all sharing the same all-digital infrastructure. The London-based visual effects company Framestore, with Tim Webber the visual effects supervisor, have worked on some of the most technically and artistically challenging projects, including, The Dark Knight (2008) and Gravity (2013), with new techniques involved in Gravity realized by Webber and the Framestore team taking three years to complete.
The availability of high-speed internet has made the British film industry capable of working closely with U.S. studios as part of globally distributed productions. As of 2005, this trend is expected to continue with moves towards (currently experimental) digital distribution and projection as mainstream technologies. The British film This Is Not a Love Song (2003) was the first to be streamed live on the Internet at the same time as its cinema premiere.
|
[
{
"paragraph_id": 0,
"text": "The United Kingdom has had a significant film industry for over a century. While film production reached an all-time high in 1936, the \"golden age\" of British cinema is usually thought to have occurred in the 1940s, during which the directors David Lean, Michael Powell, and Carol Reed produced their most critically acclaimed works. Many British actors have accrued critical success and worldwide recognition, such as Audrey Hepburn, Olivia de Havilland, Vivien Leigh, Glynis Johns, Maggie Smith, Laurence Olivier, Michael Caine, Sean Connery, Ian Mckellen, Joan Collins, Judi Dench, Julie Andrews, Daniel Day-Lewis, Gary Oldman, Emma Thompson, Anthony Hopkins and Kate Winslet. Some of the films with the largest ever box office returns have been made in the United Kingdom, including the fourth and fifth highest-grossing film franchises (Harry Potter and James Bond).",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 1,
"text": "The identity of the British film industry, particularly as it relates to Hollywood, has often been the subject of debate. Its history has often been affected by attempts to compete with the American industry. The career of the producer Alexander Korda was marked by this objective, the Rank Organisation attempted to do so in the 1940s, and Goldcrest in the 1980s. Numerous British-born directors, including Alfred Hitchcock, Christopher Nolan and Ridley Scott, and performers, such as Charlie Chaplin and Cary Grant, have achieved success primarily through their work in the United States.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 2,
"text": "In 2009, British films grossed around $2 billion worldwide and achieved a market share of around 7% globally and 17% in the United Kingdom. UK box-office takings totalled £1.1 billion in 2012, with 172.5 million admissions.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 3,
"text": "The British Film Institute has produced a poll ranking what they consider to be the 100 greatest British films of all time, the BFI Top 100 British films. The annual BAFTA Awards hosted by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts are considered to be the British equivalent of the Academy Awards.",
"title": ""
},
{
"paragraph_id": 4,
"text": "The world's first moving picture was shot in Leeds by Louis Le Prince in 1888 and the first moving pictures developed on celluloid film were made in Hyde Park, London in 1889 by British inventor William Friese Greene, who patented the process in 1890.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 5,
"text": "The first people to build and run a working 35 mm camera in Britain were Robert W. Paul and Birt Acres. They made the first British film Incident at Clovelly Cottage in February 1895, shortly before falling out over the camera's patent. Soon several British film companies had opened to meet the demand for new films, such as Mitchell and Kenyon in Blackburn.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 6,
"text": "Although the earliest British films were of everyday events, the early 20th century saw the appearance of narrative shorts, mainly comedies and melodramas. The early films were often melodramatic in tone, and there was a distinct preference for story lines already known to the audience, in particular, adaptations of Shakespeare plays and Dickens novels.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 7,
"text": "The Lumière brothers first brought their show to London in 1896. In 1898 American producer Charles Urban expanded the London-based Warwick Trading Company to produce British films, mostly documentary and news.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 8,
"text": "In 1898 Gaumont-British Picture Corp. was founded as a subsidiary of the French Gaumont Film Company, constructing Lime Grove Studios in West London in 1915 in the first building built in Britain solely for film production. Also in 1898 Hepworth Studios was founded in Lambeth, South London by Cecil Hepworth, the Bamforths began producing films in Yorkshire, and William Haggar began producing films in Wales.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 9,
"text": "Directed by Walter R. Booth in 1901, Scrooge, or, Marley's Ghost is the earliest film adaptation of Charles Dickens's festive novella A Christmas Carol. Booth's The Hand of the Artist (1906) has been described as the first British animated film.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 10,
"text": "In 1902 Ealing Studios was founded by Will Barker, becoming the oldest continuously-operating film studio in the world.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 11,
"text": "In 1902 the earliest colour film in the world was made; like other films made at the time, it is of everyday events. In 2012 it was found by the National Science and Media Museum in Bradford after lying forgotten in an old tin for 110 years. The previous title for earliest colour film, using Urban's inferior Kinemacolor process, was thought to date from 1909. The re-discovered films were made by pioneer Edward Raymond Turner from London who patented his process on 22 March 1899.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 12,
"text": "In 1909 Urban formed the Natural Color Kinematograph Company, which produced early colour films using his patented Kinemacolor process. This was later challenged in court by Greene, causing the company to go out of business in 1914.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 13,
"text": "In 1903, Cecil Hepworth and Percy Stow directed Alice in Wonderland, the first film adaptation of Lewis Carroll's children's book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 14,
"text": "In 1903 Frank Mottershaw of Sheffield produced the film A Daring Daylight Robbery, which launched the chase genre.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 15,
"text": "In 1911 the Ideal Film Company was founded in Soho, London, distributing almost 400 films by 1934, and producing 80.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 16,
"text": "In 1913 stage director Maurice Elvey began directing British films, becoming Britain's most prolific film director, with almost 200 by 1957.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 17,
"text": "In 1914 Elstree Studios was founded, and acquired in 1928 by German-born Ludwig Blattner, who invented a magnetic steel tape recording system that was adopted by the BBC in 1930.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 18,
"text": "In 1915, the Kinematograph Renters’ Society of Great Britain and Ireland was formed to represent the film distribution companies. It is the oldest film trade body in the world. It was known as the Society of Film Distributors until it changed its name again to the Film Distributors’ Association (FDA).",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 19,
"text": "In 1920 Gaumont opened Islington Studios, where Alfred Hitchcock got his start, selling out to Gainsborough Pictures in 1927. Also in 1920 Cricklewood Studios was founded by Sir Oswald Stoll, becoming Britain's largest film studio, known for Fu Manchu and Sherlock Holmes film series.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 20,
"text": "In 1920 the short-lived company Minerva Films was founded in London by the actor Leslie Howard (also producer and director) and his friend and story editor Adrian Brunel. Some of their early films include four written by A. A. Milne including The Bump, starring C. Aubrey Smith; Twice Two; Five Pound Reward; and Bookworms.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 21,
"text": "By the mid-1920s the British film industry was losing out to heavy competition from the United States, which was helped by its much larger home market – in 1914 25% of films shown in the UK were British, but by 1926 this had fallen to 5%. The Slump of 1924 caused many British film studios to close, resulting in the passage of the Cinematograph Films Act 1927 to boost local production, requiring that cinemas show a certain percentage of British films. The act was technically a success, with audiences for British films becoming larger than the quota required, but it had the effect of creating a market for poor quality, low cost films, made to satisfy the quota. The \"quota quickies\", as they became known, are often blamed by historians for holding back the development of the industry. However, some British film makers, such as Michael Powell, learnt their craft making such films. The act was modified with the Cinematograph Films Act 1938 assisted the British film industry by specifying only films made by and shot in Great Britain would be included in the quota, an act that severely reduced Canadian and Australian film production.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 22,
"text": "Ironically, the biggest star of the silent era, English comedian Charlie Chaplin, was Hollywood-based.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 23,
"text": "Scottish solicitor John Maxwell founded British International Pictures (BIP) in 1927. Based at the former British National Pictures Studios in Elstree, the facilities original owners, including producer-director Herbert Wilcox, had run into financial difficulties. One of the company's early films, Alfred Hitchcock's Blackmail (1929), is often regarded as the first British sound feature. It was a part-talkie with a synchronised score and sound effects. Earlier in 1929, the first all-talking British feature, The Clue of the New Pin was released. It was based on a novel by Edgar Wallace, starring Donald Calthrop, Benita Home and Fred Raines, which was made by British Lion at their Beaconsfield Studios. John Maxwell's BIP became the Associated British Picture Corporation (ABPC) in 1933. ABPC's studios in Elstree came to be known as the \"porridge factory\", according to Lou Alexander, \"for reasons more likely to do with the quantity of films that the company turned out, than their quality\". Elstree (strictly speaking almost all the studios were in neighbouring Borehamwood) became the centre of the British film industry, with six film complexes over the years all in close proximity to each other.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 24,
"text": "By 1927, the largest cinema chains in the United Kingdom consisted of around 20 cinemas but the following year Gaumont-British expanded significantly to become the largest, controlling 180 cinemas by 1928 and up to 300 by 1929. Maxwell formed ABC Cinemas in 1927 which became a subsidiary of BIP and went on to become one of the largest in the country, together with Odeon Cinemas, founded by Oscar Deutsch, who opened his first cinema in 1928. By 1937, these three chains controlled almost a quarter of all cinemas in the country. A booking by one of these chains was indispensable for the success of any British film.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 25,
"text": "With the advent of sound films, many foreign actors were in less demand, with English received pronunciation commonly used; for example, the voice of Czech actress Anny Ondra in Blackmail was substituted by an off-camera Joan Barry during Ondra's scenes.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 26,
"text": "Starting with John Grierson's Drifters (also 1929), the period saw the emergence of the school of realist Documentary Film Movement, from 1933 associated with the GPO Film Unit. It was Grierson who coined the term \"documentary\" to describe a non-fiction film, and he produced the movement's most celebrated early films, Night Mail (1936), written and directed by Basil Wright and Harry Watt, and incorporating the poem by W. H. Auden towards the end of the short.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 27,
"text": "Music halls also proved influential in comedy films of this period, and a number of popular personalities emerged, including George Formby, Gracie Fields, Jessie Matthews and Will Hay. These stars often made several films a year, and their productions remained important for morale purposes during World War II.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 28,
"text": "Many of the British films with larger budgets during the 1930s were produced by London Films, founded by Hungarian emigre Alexander Korda. The success of The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933), made at British and Dominions Elstree Studios, persuaded United Artists and The Prudential to invest in Korda's Denham Film Studios, which opened in May 1936, but both investors suffered losses as a result. Korda's films before the war included Things to Come, Rembrandt (both 1936) and Knight Without Armour (1937), as well as the early Technicolour films The Drum (1938) and The Four Feathers (1939). These had followed closely on from Wings of the Morning (1937), the UK's first three-strip Technicolour feature film, made by the local offshoot of 20th Century Fox. Although some of Korda's films indulged in \"unrelenting pro-Empire flag waving\", those featuring Sabu turned him into \"a huge international star\"; \"for many years\" he had the highest profile of any actor of Indian origin. Paul Robeson was also cast in leading roles when \"there were hardly any opportunities\" for African Americans \"to play challenging roles\" in their own country's productions.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 29,
"text": "In 1933, the British Film Institute was established as the lead organisation for film in the UK. They set up the National Film Library in 1935 (now known as the BFI National Archive), with Ernest Lindgren as its curator.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 30,
"text": "In 1934, J. Arthur Rank became a co-founder of British National Films Company and they helped create Pinewood Studios, which opened in 1936. Also in 1936, Rank took over General Film Distributors and in 1937, Rank founded The Rank Organisation. In 1938, General Film Distributors became affiliated with Odeon Cinemas.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 31,
"text": "Rising expenditure and over-optimistic expectations of expansion into the American market caused a financial crisis in 1937, after an all-time high of 192 films were released in 1936. Of the 640 British production companies registered between 1925 and 1936, only 20 were still active in 1937. Moreover, the 1927 Films Act was up for renewal. The replacement Cinematograph Films Act 1938 provided incentives, via a \"quality test\", for UK companies to make fewer films, but of higher quality, and to eliminate the \"quota quickies\". Influenced by world politics, it encouraged American investment and imports. One result was the creation of MGM-British, an English subsidiary of the largest American studio, which produced four films before the war, including Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939).",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 32,
"text": "The new venture was initially based at Denham Studios. Korda himself lost control of the facility in 1939 to the Rank Organisation. Circumstances forced Korda's The Thief of Bagdad (1940), a spectacular fantasy film, to be completed in California, where Korda continued his film career during the war.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 33,
"text": "By now contracted to Gaumont British, Alfred Hitchcock had settled on the thriller genre by the mid-1930s with The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934), The 39 Steps (1935) and The Lady Vanishes (1938). Lauded in Britain where he was dubbed \"Alfred the Great\" by Picturegoer magazine, Hitchcock's reputation was beginning to develop overseas, with a New York Times feature writer asserting; \"Three unique and valuable institutions the British have that we in America have not. Magna Carta, the Tower Bridge and Alfred Hitchcock, the greatest director of screen melodramas in the world.\" Hitchcock was then signed up to a seven-year contract by Selznick and moved to Hollywood.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 34,
"text": "\"The idea of a nation of devoted cinema-goers is inextricably linked with the number of classic films released during the war years. This was British cinema’s ‘golden age’, a period in which filmmakers such as Humphrey Jennings, David Lean, Powell and Pressburger, and Carol Reed came to the fore.\"",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 35,
"text": "Published in The Times on 5 September 1939, two days after Britain declared war on Germany, George Bernard Shaw’s letter protested against a government order to close all places of entertainment, including cinemas. ‘What agent of Chancellor Hitler is it who has suggested that we should all cower in darkness and terror “for the duration”?’. Within two weeks of the order cinemas in the provinces were reopened, followed by central London within a month. In 1940, cinema admissions figures rose, to just over 1 billion for the year, and they continued rising to over 1.5 billion in 1943, 1944 and 1945.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 36,
"text": "Humphrey Jennings began his career as a documentary film maker just before the war, in some cases working in collaboration with co-directors. London Can Take It (with Harry Wat, 1940) detailed the Blitz while Listen to Britain (with Stewart McAllister, 1942) looked at the home front. The Crown Film Unit, part of the Ministry of Information took over the responsibilities of the GPO Film Unit in 1940. Paul Rotha and Alberto Cavalcanti were colleagues of Jennings. British films began to make use of documentary techniques; Cavalcanti joined Ealing for Went the Day Well? (1942),",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 37,
"text": "Many other films helped to shape the popular image of the nation at war. Among the best known of these films are In Which We Serve (1942), We Dive at Dawn (1943), Millions Like Us (1943) and The Way Ahead (1944). The war years also saw the emergence of The Archers partnership between director Michael Powell and the Hungarian-born writer-producer Emeric Pressburger with films such as The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943) and A Canterbury Tale (1944).",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 38,
"text": "Two Cities Films, an independent production company releasing their films through a Rank subsidiary, also made some important films, including the Noël Coward and David Lean collaborations This Happy Breed (1944) and Blithe Spirit (1945) as well as Laurence Olivier's Henry V (1944). By this time, Gainsborough Studios were releasing their series of critically derided but immensely popular period melodramas, including The Man in Grey (1943) and The Wicked Lady (1945). New stars, such as Margaret Lockwood and James Mason, emerged in the Gainsborough films.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 39,
"text": "Towards the end of the 1940s, the Rank Organisation became the dominant force behind British film-making, having acquired a number of British studios and the Gaumont chain (in 1941) to add to its Odeon Cinemas. Rank's serious financial crisis in 1949, a substantial loss and debt, resulted in the contraction of its film production. In practice, Rank maintained an industry duopoly with ABPC (later absorbed by EMI) for many years.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 40,
"text": "For the moment, the industry hit new heights of creativity in the immediate post-war years. Among the most significant films produced during this period were David Lean's Brief Encounter (1945) and his Dickens adaptations Great Expectations (1946) and Oliver Twist (1948), Ken Annakin's comedy Miranda (1948) starring Glynis Johns, Carol Reed's thrillers Odd Man Out (1947) and The Third Man (1949), and Powell and Pressburger's A Matter of Life and Death (1946), Black Narcissus (1947) and The Red Shoes (1948), the most commercially successful film of its year in the United States. Laurence Olivier's Hamlet (also 1948), was the first non-American film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. Ealing Studios (financially backed by Rank) began to produce their most celebrated comedies, with three of the best remembered films, Whisky Galore (1948), Kind Hearts and Coronets and Passport to Pimlico (both 1949), being on release almost simultaneously. Their portmanteau horror film Dead of Night (1945) is also particularly highly regarded.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 41,
"text": "Under the Import Duties Act 1932, HM Treasury levied a 75% tariff on all film imports on 6 August 1947 which became known as Dalton Duty (after Hugh Dalton then the Chancellor of the Exchequer). The tax came into effect on 8 August, applying to all imported films, of which the overwhelming majority came from the United States; American film studio revenues from the UK had been in excess of US$68 million in 1946. The following day, 9 August, the Motion Picture Association of America announced that no further films would be supplied to British cinemas until further notice. The Dalton Duty was ended on 3 May 1948 with the American studios again exported films to the UK though the Marshall Plan prohibited US film companies from taking foreign exchange out of the nations their films played in.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 42,
"text": "Following the Cinematograph Film Production (Special Loans) Act 1949, the National Film Finance Corporation (NFFC) was established as a British film funding agency.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 43,
"text": "The Eady Levy, named after Sir Wilfred Eady was a tax on box office receipts in the United Kingdom in order to support the British Film industry. It was established in 1950 coming into effect in 1957. A direct governmental payment to British-based producers would have qualified as a subsidy under the terms of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, and would have led to objections from American film producers. An indirect levy did not qualify as a subsidy, and so was a suitable way of providing additional funding for the UK film industry whilst avoiding criticism from abroad.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 44,
"text": "In 1951, the National Film Theatre was initially opened in a temporary building at the Festival of Britain. It moved to its present location on the South Bank in London for the first London Film Festival on 16 October 1957 run by the BFI.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 45,
"text": "During the 1950s, the British industry began to concentrate on popular comedies and World War II dramas aimed more squarely at the domestic audience. The war films were often based on true stories and made in a similar low-key style to their wartime predecessors. They helped to make stars of actors like John Mills, Jack Hawkins and Kenneth More. Some of the most successful included The Cruel Sea (1953), The Dam Busters (1954), The Colditz Story (1955) and Reach for the Sky (1956).",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 46,
"text": "The Rank Organisation produced some comedy successes, such as Genevieve (1953). The writer/director/producer team of twin brothers John and Roy Boulting also produced a series of successful satires on British life and institutions, beginning with Private's Progress (1956), and continuing with (among others) Brothers in Law (1957), Carlton-Browne of the F.O. (1958), and I'm All Right Jack (1959). Starring in School for Scoundrels (1960), the British Film Institute thought Terry-Thomas was \"outstanding as a classic British bounder\".",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 47,
"text": "Popular comedy series included the \"Doctor\" series, beginning with Doctor in the House (1954). The series originally starred Dirk Bogarde, probably the British industry's most popular star of the 1950s, though later films had Michael Craig and Leslie Phillips in leading roles. The Carry On series began in 1958 with regular instalments appearing for the next twenty years. The Italian director-producer Mario Zampi also made a number of successful black comedies, including Laughter in Paradise (1951), The Naked Truth (1957) and Too Many Crooks (1958). Ealing Studios had continued its run of successful comedies, including The Lavender Hill Mob (1951) and The Ladykillers (1955), but the company ceased production in 1958, after the studios had already been bought by the BBC.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 48,
"text": "Less restrictive censorship towards the end of the 1950s encouraged film producer Hammer Films to embark on their series of commercially successful horror films. Beginning with adaptations of Nigel Kneale's BBC science fiction serials The Quatermass Experiment (1955) and Quatermass II (1957), Hammer quickly graduated to The Curse of Frankenstein (1957) and Dracula (1958), both deceptively lavish and the first gothic horror films in colour. The studio turned out numerous sequels and variants, with English actors Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee being the most regular leads. Peeping Tom (1960), a now highly regarded thriller, with horror elements, set in the contemporary period, was badly received by the critics at the time, and effectively finished the career of Michael Powell, its director.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 49,
"text": "The British New Wave film makers attempted to produce social realist films (see also 'kitchen sink realism') attempted in commercial feature films released between around 1959 and 1963 to convey narratives about a wider spectrum of people in Britain than the country's earlier films had done. These individuals, principally Karel Reisz, Lindsay Anderson and Tony Richardson, were also involved in the short lived Oxford film journal Sequence and the \"Free Cinema\" documentary film movement. The 1956 statement of Free Cinema, the name was coined by Anderson, asserted: \"No film can be too personal. The image speaks. Sounds amplifies and comments. Size is irrelevant. Perfection is not an aim. An attitude means a style. A style means an attitude.\" Anderson, in particular, was dismissive of the commercial film industry. Their documentary films included Anderson's Every Day Except Christmas, among several sponsored by Ford of Britain, and Richardson's Momma Don't Allow. Another member of this group, John Schlesinger, made documentaries for the BBC's Monitor arts series.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 50,
"text": "Together with future James Bond co-producer Harry Saltzman, dramatist John Osborne and Tony Richardson established the company Woodfall Films to produce their early feature films. These included adaptations of Richardson's stage productions of Osborne's Look Back in Anger (1959), with Richard Burton, and The Entertainer (1960) with Laurence Olivier, both from Osborne's own screenplays. Such films as Reisz's Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (also 1960), Richardson's A Taste of Honey (1961), Schlesinger's A Kind of Loving (1962) and Billy Liar (1963), and Anderson's This Sporting Life (1963) are often associated with a new openness about working-class life or previously taboo issues.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 51,
"text": "The team of Basil Dearden and Michael Relph, from an earlier generation, \"probe[d] into the social issues that now confronted social stability and the establishment of the promised peacetime consensus\". Pool of London (1950). and Sapphire (1959) were early attempts to create narratives about racial tensions and an emerging multi-cultural Britain. Dearden and Relph's Victim (1961), was about the blackmail of homosexuals. Influenced by the Wolfenden report of four years earlier, which advocated the decriminalising of homosexual sexual activity, this was \"the first British film to deal explicitly with homosexuality\". Unlike the New Wave film makers though, critical responses to Dearden's and Relph's work have not generally been positive.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 52,
"text": "As the 1960s progressed, American studios returned to financially supporting British films, especially those that capitalised on the \"swinging London\" image propagated by Time magazine in 1966. Films like Darling, The Knack ...and How to Get It (both 1965), Alfie and Georgy Girl (both 1966), all explored this phenomenon. Blowup (also 1966), and later Women in Love (1969), showed female and then male full-frontal nudity on screen in mainstream British films for the first time.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 53,
"text": "At the same time, film producers Harry Saltzman and Albert R. Broccoli combined sex with exotic locations, casual violence and self-referential humour in the phenomenally successful James Bond series with Sean Connery in the leading role. The first film Dr. No (1962) was a sleeper hit in the UK and the second, From Russia with Love (1963), a hit worldwide. By the time of the third film, Goldfinger (1964), the series had become a global phenomenon, reaching its commercial peak with Thunderball the following year. The series' success led to a spy film boom with many Bond imitations. Bond co-producer Saltzman also instigated a rival series of more realistic spy films based on the novels of Len Deighton. Michael Caine starred as bespectacled spy Harry Palmer in The Ipcress File (1965), and two sequels in the next few years. Other more downbeat espionage films were adapted from John le Carré novels, such as The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1965) and The Deadly Affair (1966).",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 54,
"text": "American directors were regularly working in London throughout the decade, but several became permanent residents in the UK. Blacklisted in America, Joseph Losey had a significant influence on British cinema in the 1960s, particularly with his collaborations with playwright Harold Pinter and leading man Dirk Bogarde, including The Servant (1963) and Accident (1967). Voluntary exiles Richard Lester and Stanley Kubrick were also active in the UK. Lester had major hits with The Beatles film A Hard Day's Night (1964) and The Knack ...and How to Get It (1965) and Kubrick with Dr. Strangelove (1963) and 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). While Kubrick settled in Hertfordshire in the early 1960s and would remain in England for the rest of his career, these two films retained a strong American influence. Other films of this era involved prominent filmmakers from elsewhere in Europe, Repulsion (1965) and Blowup (1966) were the first English language films of the Polish director Roman Polanski and the Italian Michelangelo Antonioni respectively.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 55,
"text": "Historical films as diverse as Lawrence of Arabia (1962), Tom Jones (1963), and A Man for All Seasons (1966) benefited from the investment of American studios. Major films like Becket (1964), Khartoum (1966) and The Charge of the Light Brigade (1968) were regularly mounted, while smaller-scale films, including Accident (1967), were big critical successes. Four of the decade's Academy Award winners for best picture were British productions, including six Oscars for the film musical Oliver! (1968), based on the Charles Dickens novel Oliver Twist.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 56,
"text": "After directing several contributions to the BBC's Wednesday Play anthology series, Ken Loach began his feature film career with the social realist Poor Cow (1967) and Kes (1969). Meanwhile, the controversy around Peter Watkins The War Game (1965), which won the Best Documentary Film Oscar in 1967, but had been suppressed by the BBC who had commissioned it, would ultimately lead Watkins to work exclusively outside Britain.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 57,
"text": "American studios cut back on British productions, and in many cases withdrew from financing them altogether. Films financed by American interests were still being made, including Billy Wilder's The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970), but for a time funds became hard to come by.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 58,
"text": "More relaxed censorship also brought several controversial films, including Nicolas Roeg and Donald Cammell's Performance, Ken Russell's The Devils (1971), Sam Peckinpah's Straw Dogs (1971), and Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange (1971) starring Malcolm McDowell as the leader of a gang of thugs in a dystopian future Britain.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 59,
"text": "Other films during the early 1970s included the Edwardian drama The Go-Between (1971), which won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, Nicolas Roeg's Venice-set supernatural thriller Don't Look Now (1973) and Mike Hodges' gangster drama Get Carter (1971) starring Michael Caine. Alfred Hitchcock returned to Britain to shoot Frenzy (1972), Other productions such as Richard Attenborough's Young Winston (1972) and A Bridge Too Far (1977) met with mixed commercial success. The British horror film cycle associated with Hammer Film Productions, Amicus and Tigon drew to a close, despite attempts by Hammer to spice up the formula with added nudity and gore. Although some attempts were made to broaden the range of British horror films, such as with The Wicker Man (1973), these films made little impact at the box office, In 1976, British Lion, who produced The Wicker Man, were finally absorbed into the film division of EMI, who had taken over ABPC in 1969. The duopoly in British cinema exhibition, via Rank and now EMI, continued.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 60,
"text": "In the early 1970s, the government reduced its funding of the National Film Finance Corporation so the NFFC started to operate as a consortium, including with banks, which led to them using more commercial criteria for funding British films rather than focusing on quality or new talent, moving to fund films based on TV shows such as Up Pompeii (1971).",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 61,
"text": "Some other British producers, including Hammer, turned to television for inspiration, and big screen versions of popular sitcoms like On the Buses (1971) and Steptoe and Son (1972) proved successful with domestic audiences, the former had greater domestic box office returns in its year than the Bond film, Diamonds Are Forever and in 1973, an established British actor Roger Moore was cast as Bond in, Live and Let Die, it was a commercial success and Moore would continue the role for the next 12 years. Low-budget British sex comedies included the Confessions of ... series starring Robin Askwith, beginning with Confessions of a Window Cleaner (1974). More elevated comedy films came from the Monty Python team, also from television. Their two most successful films were Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975) and Monty Python's Life of Brian (1979), the latter a major commercial success, probably at least in part due to the controversy at the time surrounding its subject.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 62,
"text": "Some American productions did return to the major British studios in 1977–79, including the original Star Wars (1977) at Elstree Studios, Superman (1978) at Pinewood, and Alien (1979) at Shepperton. Successful adaptations were made in the decade of the Agatha Christie novels Murder on the Orient Express (1974) and Death on the Nile (1978). The entry of Lew Grade's company ITC into film production in the latter half of the decade brought only a few box office successes and an unsustainable number of failures",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 63,
"text": "In 1980, only 31 British films were made, a 50% decline from the previous year and the lowest number since 1914, and production fell again in 1981 to 24 films. The industry suffered further blows from falling cinema attendances, which reached a record low of 54 million in 1984, and the elimination of the 1957 Eady Levy, a tax concession, in the same year. The concession had made it possible for an overseas based film company to write off a large amount of its production costs by filming in the UK – this was what attracted a succession of big-budget American productions to British studios in the 1970s. These factors led to significant changes in the industry, with the profitability of British films now \"increasingly reliant on secondary markets such as video and television, and Channel 4 ... [became] a crucial part of the funding equation.\"",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 64,
"text": "With the removal of the levy, multiplex cinemas were introduced to the United Kingdom with the opening of a ten-screen cinema by AMC Cinemas at The Point in Milton Keynes in 1985 and the number of screens in the UK increased by around 500 over the decade leading to increased attendances of almost 100 million by the end of the decade.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 65,
"text": "The 1980s soon saw a renewed optimism, led by smaller independent production companies such as Goldcrest, HandMade Films and Merchant Ivory Productions.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 66,
"text": "Handmade Films, which was partly owned by George Harrison, was originally formed to take over the production of Monty Python's Life of Brian, after EMI's Bernard Delfont (Lew Grade's brother) had pulled out. Handmade also bought and released the gangster drama The Long Good Friday (1980), produced by a Lew Grade subsidiary, after its original backers became cautious. Members of the Python team were involved in other comedies during the decade, including Terry Gilliam's fantasy films Time Bandits (1981) and Brazil (1985), the black comedy Withnail & I (1987), and John Cleese's hit A Fish Called Wanda (1988), while Michael Palin starred in A Private Function (1984), from Alan Bennett's first screenplay for the cinema screen.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 67,
"text": "Goldcrest producer David Puttnam has been described as \"the nearest thing to a mogul that British cinema has had in the last quarter of the 20th century.\" Under Puttnam, a generation of British directors emerged making popular films with international distribution. Some of the talent backed by Puttnam — Hugh Hudson, Ridley Scott, Alan Parker, and Adrian Lyne — had shot commercials; Puttnam himself had begun his career in the advertising industry. When Hudson's Chariots of Fire (1981) won 4 Academy Awards in 1982, including Best Picture, its writer Colin Welland declared \"the British are coming!\". When Gandhi (1982), another Goldcrest film, picked up a Best Picture Oscar, it looked as if he was right.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 68,
"text": "It prompted a cycle of period films – some with a large budget for a British film, such as David Lean's final film A Passage to India (1984), alongside the lower-budget Merchant Ivory adaptations of the works of E. M. Forster, such as A Room with a View (1986). But further attempts to make 'big' productions for the US market ended in failure, with Goldcrest losing its independence after Revolution (1985) and Absolute Beginners (1986) were commercial and critical flops. Another Goldcrest film, Roland Joffé's The Mission (also 1986), won the 1986 Palme d'Or, but did not go into profit either. Joffé's earlier The Killing Fields (1984) had been both a critical and financial success. These were Joffé's first two feature films and were amongst those produced by Puttnam.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 69,
"text": "Mainly outside the commercial sector, film makers from the new commonwealth countries had begun to emerge during the 1970s. Horace Ové's Pressure (1975) had been funded by the British Film Institute as was A Private Enterprise (1974), these being the first Black British and Asian British films, respectively. The 1980s however saw a wave of new talent, with films such as Franco Rosso's Babylon (1980), Menelik Shabazz's Burning an Illusion (1981) and Po-Chih Leong's Ping Pong (1986; one of the first films about Britain's Chinese community). Many of these films were assisted by the newly formed Channel 4, which had an official remit to provide for \"minority audiences.\" Commercial success was first achieved with My Beautiful Laundrette (1985). Dealing with racial and gay issues, it was developed from Hanif Kureishi's first film script. My Beautiful Laundrette features Daniel Day-Lewis in a leading role. Day-Lewis and other young British actors who were becoming stars, such as Gary Oldman, Colin Firth, Tim Roth and Rupert Everett, were dubbed the Brit Pack.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 70,
"text": "With the involvement of Channel 4 in film production, talents from television moved into feature films with Stephen Frears (My Beautiful Laundrette) and Mike Newell with Dance with a Stranger (1985). John Boorman, who had been working in the US, was encouraged back to the UK to make Hope and Glory (1987). Channel Four also became a major sponsor of the British Film Institute's Production Board, which backed three of Britain's most critically acclaimed filmmakers: Derek Jarman (The Last of England, 1987), Terence Davies (Distant Voices, Still Lives, 1988), and Peter Greenaway; the latter of whom gained surprising commercial success with The Draughtsman's Contract (1982) and The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover (1989). Stephen Woolley's company Palace Pictures also produced some successful films, including Neil Jordan's The Company of Wolves (1984) and Mona Lisa (1986), before collapsing amid a series of unsuccessful films. Amongst the other British films of the decade were Bill Forsyth's Gregory's Girl (1981) and Local Hero (1983), Lewis Gilbert's Educating Rita (1983), Peter Yates' The Dresser (1983) and Kenneth Branagh's directorial debut, Henry V (1989).",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 71,
"text": "Compared to the 1980s, investment in film production rose dramatically. In 1989, annual investment was a meagre £104 million. By 1996, this figure had soared to £741 million. Nevertheless, the dependence on finance from television broadcasters such as the BBC and Channel 4 meant that budgets were often low and indigenous production was very fragmented: the film industry mostly relied on Hollywood inward investment. According to critic Neil Watson, it was hoped that the £90 million apportioned by the new National Lottery into three franchises (The Film Consortium, Pathé Pictures, and DNA) would fill the gap, but \"corporate and equity finance for the UK film production industry continues to be thin on the ground and most production companies operating in the sector remain hopelessly under-capitalised.\"",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 72,
"text": "These problems were mostly compensated by PolyGram Filmed Entertainment, a film studio whose British subsidiary Working Title Films released a Richard Curtis-scripted comedy Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994). It grossed $244 million worldwide and introduced Hugh Grant to global fame, led to renewed interest and investment in British films, and set a pattern for British-set romantic comedies, including Sliding Doors (1998) and Notting Hill (1999). Other Working Titles films included Bean (1997), Elizabeth (1998) and Captain Corelli's Mandolin (2001). PFE was eventually sold and merged with Universal Pictures in 1999, the hopes and expectations of \"building a British-based company which could compete with Hollywood in its home market [had] eventually collapsed.\"",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 73,
"text": "Tax incentives allowed American producers to increasingly invest in UK-based film production throughout the 1990s, including films such as Interview with the Vampire (1994), Mission: Impossible (1996), Saving Private Ryan (1998), Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace (1999) and The Mummy (1999). Miramax also distributed Neil Jordan's acclaimed thriller The Crying Game (1992), which was generally ignored on its initial release in the UK, but was a considerable success in the United States. The same company also enjoyed some success releasing the BBC period drama Enchanted April (1992) and The Wings of the Dove (1997).",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 74,
"text": "Among the more successful British films were the Merchant Ivory productions Howards End (1992) and The Remains of the Day (1993), Richard Attenborough's Shadowlands (1993), and Kenneth Branagh's Shakespeare adaptations. The Madness of King George (1994) proved there was still a market for British costume dramas, and other period films followed, including Sense and Sensibility (1995), Restoration (1995), Emma (1996), Mrs. Brown (1997), Basil (1998), Shakespeare in Love (1998) and Topsy-Turvy (1999).",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 75,
"text": "After a six-year hiatus for legal reasons the James Bond films returned to production with the 17th Bond film, GoldenEye. With their traditional home Pinewood Studios fully booked, a new studio was created for the film in a former Rolls-Royce aero-engine factory at Leavesden in Hertfordshire.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 76,
"text": "Mike Leigh emerged as a significant figure in British cinema in the 1990s, with a series of films financed by Channel 4 about working and middle class life in modern England, including Life Is Sweet (1991), Naked (1993) and his biggest hit Secrets & Lies (1996), which won the Palme d'Or at Cannes.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 77,
"text": "Other new talents to emerge during the decade included the writer-director-producer team of John Hodge, Danny Boyle and Andrew Macdonald responsible for Shallow Grave (1994) and Trainspotting (1996). The latter film generated interested in other \"regional\" productions, including the Scottish films Small Faces (1996), Ratcatcher (1999) and My Name Is Joe (1998).",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 78,
"text": "The first decade of the 21st century was a relatively successful one for the British film industry. Many British films found a wide international audience due to funding from BBC Films, Film 4 and the UK Film Council, and some independent production companies, such as Working Title, secured financing and distribution deals with major American studios. Working Title scored three major international successes, all starring Hugh Grant and Colin Firth, with the romantic comedies Bridget Jones's Diary (2001), which grossed $254 million worldwide; the sequel Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, which earned $228 million; and Richard Curtis's directorial debut Love Actually (2003), which grossed $239 million. The most successful of all, Phyllida Lloyd's Mamma Mia! (2008), grossed $601 million.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 79,
"text": "The new decade saw a major new film series in the Harry Potter films, beginning with Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone in 2001. David Heyman's company Heyday Films has produced seven sequels, with the final title released in two parts – Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1 in 2010 and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 in 2011. All were filmed at Leavesden Studios in England.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 80,
"text": "Aardman Animations' Nick Park, the creator of Wallace and Gromit and the Creature Comforts series, produced his first feature-length film, Chicken Run in 2000. Co-directed with Peter Lord, the film was a major success worldwide and one of the most successful British films of its year. Park's follow up, Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit was another worldwide hit: it grossed $56 million at the US box office and £32 million in the UK. It also won the 2005 Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 81,
"text": "However it was usually through domestically funded features throughout the decade that British directors and films won awards at the top international film festivals. In 2003, Michael Winterbottom won the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival for In This World. In 2004, Mike Leigh directed Vera Drake, an account of a housewife who leads a double life as an abortion provider in 1950s London. The film won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival. In 2006 Stephen Frears directed The Queen based on the events surrounding the death of Princess Diana, which won the Best Actress prize at the Venice Film Festival and Academy Awards and the BAFTA for Best Film. In 2006, Ken Loach won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival with his account of the struggle for Irish Independence in The Wind That Shakes the Barley. Joe Wright's adaptation of the Ian McEwan novel Atonement was nominated for 7 Academy Awards, including Best Film and won the Golden Globe and BAFTA for Best Film. Slumdog Millionaire was filmed entirely in Mumbai with a mostly Indian cast, though with a British director (Danny Boyle), producer (Christian Colson), screenwriter (Simon Beaufoy) and star (Dev Patel)—the film was all-British financed via Film4 and Celador. It has received worldwide critical acclaim. It has won four Golden Globes, seven BAFTA Awards and eight Academy Awards, including Best Director and Best Film. The King's Speech, which tells the story of King George VI's attempts to overcome his speech impediment, was directed by Tom Hooper and filmed almost entirely in London. It received four Academy Awards (including Best Film, Best Director, Best Actor and Best Screenplay) in 2011.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 82,
"text": "The start of the 21st century saw Asian British cinema assert itself at the box office, starting with East Is East (1999) and continuing with Bend It Like Beckham (2002). Other notable British Asian films from this period include My Son the Fanatic (1997), Ae Fond Kiss... (2004), Mischief Night (2006), Yasmin (2004) and Four Lions (2010). Some argue it has brought more flexible attitudes towards casting Black and Asian British actors, with Robbie Gee and Naomie Harris take leading roles in Underworld and 28 Days Later respectively.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 83,
"text": "2005 saw the emergence of The British Urban Film Festival, a timely addition to the film festival calendar, which recognised the influence of urban and black films on UK audiences and consequently began to showcase a growing profile of films in a genre previously not otherwise regularly seen in the capital's cinemas. Then, in 2006, Kidulthood, a film depicting a group of teenagers growing up on the streets of West London, had a limited release. This was successfully followed up with a sequel Adulthood (2008) that was written and directed by actor Noel Clarke. The success of Kidulthood and Adulthood led to the release of several other films in the 2000s and 2010s such as Bullet Boy (2004), Life and Lyrics (2006), The Intent (2016), its sequel The Intent 2: The Come Up (2018), Blue Story and Rocks (both 2019), all of starred Black-British actors.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 84,
"text": "Like the 1960s, this decade saw plenty of British films directed by imported talent. The American Woody Allen shot Match Point (2005) and three later films in London. The Mexican director Alfonso Cuarón helmed Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004) and Children of Men (2006); New Zealand filmmaker Jane Campion made Bright Star (2009), a film set in 19th century London; Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn made Bronson (2008), a biopic about the English criminal Michael Gordon Peterson; the Spanish filmmaker Juan Carlos Fresnadillo directed 28 Weeks Later (2007), a sequel to a British horror film; and two John le Carré adaptations were also directed by foreigners—The Constant Gardener by the Brazilian Fernando Meirelles and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy by the Swedish Tomas Alfredson. The decade also saw English actor Daniel Craig became the new James Bond with Casino Royale, the 21st entry in the official Eon Productions series.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 85,
"text": "Despite increasing competition from film studios in Australia and Eastern Europe, British studios such as Pinewood, Shepperton and Leavesden remained successful in hosting major productions, including Finding Neverland, Closer, Batman Begins, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, United 93, The Phantom of the Opera, Sweeney Todd, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Robin Hood, X-Men: First Class, Hugo and War Horse.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 86,
"text": "In February 2007, the UK became home to Europe's first DCI-compliant fully digital multiplex cinemas with the launch of Odeon Hatfield and Odeon Surrey Quays (in London), with a total of 18 digital screens.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 87,
"text": "In November 2010, Warner Bros. completed the acquisition of Leavesden Film Studios, becoming the first Hollywood studio since the 1940s to have a permanent base in the UK, and announced plans to invest £100 million in the site.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 88,
"text": "A study by the British Film Institute published in December 2013 found that of the 613 tracked British films released between 2003 and 2010 only 7% made a profit. Films with low budgets, those that cost below £500,000 to produce, were even less likely to gain a return on outlay. Of these films, only 3.1% went into the black. At the top end of budgets for the British industry, under a fifth of films that cost £10million went into profit.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 89,
"text": "On 26 July 2010 it was announced that the UK Film Council, which was the main body responsible for the development of promotion of British cinema during the 2000s, would be abolished, with many of the abolished body's functions being taken over by the British Film Institute. Actors and professionals, including James McAvoy, Emily Blunt, Pete Postlethwaite, Damian Lewis, Timothy Spall, Daniel Barber and Ian Holm, campaigned against the Council's abolition. The move also led American actor and director Clint Eastwood (who had filmed Hereafter in London) to write to the British Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne in August 2010 to protest the decision to close the Council. Eastwood warned Osborne that the closure could result in fewer foreign production companies choosing to work in the UK. A grass-roots online campaign was launched and a petition established by supporters of the Council.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 90,
"text": "Countering this, a few professionals, including Michael Winner and Julian Fellowes, supported the Government's decision. A number of other organisations responded positively.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 91,
"text": "At the closure of the UK Film Council on 31 March 2011, The Guardian reported that \"The UKFC's entire annual budget was a reported £3m, while the cost of closing it down and restructuring is estimated to have been almost four times that amount.\" One of the UKFC's last films, The King's Speech, is estimated to have cost $15m to make and grossed $235m, besides winning several Academy Awards. UKFC invested $1.6m for a 34% share of net profits, a valuable stake that will pass to the British Film Institute.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 92,
"text": "In June 2012, Warner opened the re-developed Leavesden studio for business. The most commercially successful British directors in recent years are Paul Greengrass, Mike Newell, Christopher Nolan, Ridley Scott and David Yates.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 93,
"text": "In January 2012, at Pinewood Studios to visit film-related businesses, UK Prime Minister David Cameron said that his government had bold ambitions for the film industry: \"Our role, and that of the BFI, should be to support the sector in becoming even more dynamic and entrepreneurial, helping UK producers to make commercially successful pictures that rival the quality and impact of the best international productions. Just as the British Film Commission has played a crucial role in attracting the biggest and best international studios to produce their films here, so we must incentivise UK producers to chase new markets both here and overseas.\"",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 94,
"text": "The film industry remains an important earner for the British economy. According to a UK Film Council press release of 20 January 2011, £1.115 billion was spent on UK film production during 2010. A 2014 survey suggested that British-made films were generally more highly rated than Hollywood productions, especially when considering low-budget UK productions.",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 95,
"text": "In November 2022, director Danny Boyle expressed a negative sentiment of the British film industry in recent years, stating that \"I am not sure we are great filmmakers, to be absolutely honest. As a nation, our two artforms are theatre, in a middle-class sense, and pop music, because we are extraordinary at it.\"",
"title": "History"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 96,
"text": "Although it had been funding British experimental films as early as 1952, the British Film Institute's foundation of a production board in 1964—and a substantial increase in public funding from 1971 onwards—enabled it to become a dominant force in developing British art cinema in the 1970s and 80s: from the first of Bill Douglas's Trilogy My Childhood (1972), and of Terence Davies' Trilogy Childhood (1978), via Peter Greenaway's earliest films (including the surprising commercial success of The Draughtsman's Contract (1982)) and Derek Jarman's championing of the New Queer Cinema. The first full-length feature produced under the BFI's new scheme was Kevin Brownlow and Andrew Mollo's Winstanley (1975), while others included Moon Over the Alley (1975), Requiem for a Village (1975), the openly avant-garde Central Bazaar (1973), Pressure (1975) and A Private Enterprise (1974) – the last two being, respectively, the first British Black and Asian features.",
"title": "Art cinema"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 97,
"text": "The release of Derek Jarman's Jubilee (1978) marked the beginning of a successful period of UK art cinema, continuing into the 1980s with filmmakers like Sally Potter. Unlike the previous generation of British film makers who had broken into directing and production after careers in the theatre or on television, the Art Cinema Directors were mostly the products of Art Schools. Many of these filmmakers were championed in their early career by the London Film Makers Cooperative and their work was the subject of detailed theoretical analysis in the journal Screen Education. Peter Greenaway was an early pioneer of the use of computer generated imagery blended with filmed footage and was also one of the first directors to film entirely on high definition video for a cinema release.",
"title": "Art cinema"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 98,
"text": "With the launch of Channel 4 and its Film on Four commissioning strand, Art Cinema was promoted to a wider audience. However, the Channel had a sharp change in its commissioning policy in the early 1990s and Greenaway and others were forced to seek European co-production financing.",
"title": "Art cinema"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 99,
"text": "In the 1970s and 1980s, British studios established a reputation for great special effects in films such as Superman (1978), Alien (1979), and Batman (1989). Some of this reputation was founded on the core of talent brought together for the filming of 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) who subsequently worked together on series and feature films for Gerry Anderson. Thanks to the Bristol-based Aardman Animations, the UK is still recognised as a world leader in the use of stop-motion animation.",
"title": "Film technology"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 100,
"text": "British special effects technicians and production designers are known for creating visual effects at a far lower cost than their counterparts in the US, as seen in Time Bandits (1981) and Brazil (1985). This reputation has continued through the 1990s and into the 21st century with films such as the James Bond series, Gladiator (2000) and the Harry Potter franchise.",
"title": "Film technology"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 101,
"text": "From the 1990s to the present day, there has been a progressive movement from traditional film opticals to an integrated digital film environment, with special effects, cutting, colour grading, and other post-production tasks all sharing the same all-digital infrastructure. The London-based visual effects company Framestore, with Tim Webber the visual effects supervisor, have worked on some of the most technically and artistically challenging projects, including, The Dark Knight (2008) and Gravity (2013), with new techniques involved in Gravity realized by Webber and the Framestore team taking three years to complete.",
"title": "Film technology"
},
{
"paragraph_id": 102,
"text": "The availability of high-speed internet has made the British film industry capable of working closely with U.S. studios as part of globally distributed productions. As of 2005, this trend is expected to continue with moves towards (currently experimental) digital distribution and projection as mainstream technologies. The British film This Is Not a Love Song (2003) was the first to be streamed live on the Internet at the same time as its cinema premiere.",
"title": "Film technology"
}
] |
The United Kingdom has had a significant film industry for over a century. While film production reached an all-time high in 1936, the "golden age" of British cinema is usually thought to have occurred in the 1940s, during which the directors David Lean, Michael Powell, and Carol Reed produced their most critically acclaimed works. Many British actors have accrued critical success and worldwide recognition, such as Audrey Hepburn, Olivia de Havilland, Vivien Leigh, Glynis Johns, Maggie Smith, Laurence Olivier, Michael Caine, Sean Connery, Ian Mckellen, Joan Collins, Judi Dench, Julie Andrews, Daniel Day-Lewis, Gary Oldman, Emma Thompson, Anthony Hopkins and Kate Winslet. Some of the films with the largest ever box office returns have been made in the United Kingdom, including the fourth and fifth highest-grossing film franchises. The identity of the British film industry, particularly as it relates to Hollywood, has often been the subject of debate. Its history has often been affected by attempts to compete with the American industry. The career of the producer Alexander Korda was marked by this objective, the Rank Organisation attempted to do so in the 1940s, and Goldcrest in the 1980s. Numerous British-born directors, including Alfred Hitchcock, Christopher Nolan and Ridley Scott, and performers, such as Charlie Chaplin and Cary Grant, have achieved success primarily through their work in the United States. In 2009, British films grossed around $2 billion worldwide and achieved a market share of around 7% globally and 17% in the United Kingdom. UK box-office takings totalled £1.1 billion in 2012, with 172.5 million admissions. The British Film Institute has produced a poll ranking what they consider to be the 100 greatest British films of all time, the BFI Top 100 British films. The annual BAFTA Awards hosted by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts are considered to be the British equivalent of the Academy Awards.
|
2001-06-19T23:04:49Z
|
2023-12-25T17:58:53Z
|
[
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"Template:Dead link",
"Template:British film list",
"Template:Quote box",
"Template:Citation needed",
"Template:Cite journal",
"Template:Cite magazine",
"Template:Cbignore",
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"Template:Infobox cinema market",
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"Template:Cinema of the United Kingdom",
"Template:Navboxes",
"Template:Short description",
"Template:Portal",
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] |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinema_of_the_United_Kingdom
|
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