title: Carom billiards

text: A new game appeared in 1879, called the champion's game or limited-rail. The champion's game is considered an in-between game—between straight rail and balkline—and was designed to stop the rail nurse. The game uses diagonal lines—balklines—drawn at the table's corners to indicate that if balls were inside those lines, points could not be scored, thus "cutting off four triangular spaces in the four corners, [taking] away 28 inches [711 mm] of the 'nursing' surface of the end rails and 56 inches [1422 mm] on the long rails." Despite its differences from straight rail, the champion's game only expanded the areas of the table where many points in a row could be scored before the balls had to be moved to a new position. This was not sufficient to stop nursing.


title: Carom billiards

text: Balkline came after the champion's game. It added more rules to stop nursing techniques. There are many varieties of balkline, but all divide the table into marked regions called "balk spaces". The balk spaces define areas of the surface of the table where a player may only score up to a certain number of points while the object balls are within that region.


title: Carom billiards

text: In the balkline games, rather than drawing balklines a few inches from the corners as was done in the champion's games, the entire table is divided into rectangular spaces. This is done by drawing balklines a certain distance across the length and the width of the table. The lines are drawn a number of inches parallel from each rail. This divides the table into eight rectangular areas called "balk spaces". Additionally, rectangles are drawn where each balkline meets a rail, called "anchor spaces". The anchor spaces were added to the game to stop nursing techniques that developed especially for the challenges of balkline without them.


title: Carom billiards

text: Generally, the differences between one balkline game and another are defined by two different things: 1) where the balkines are drawn on the table, and 2) the number of points that are allowed in each balk space before at least one ball must leave that region of the table. Balkline games are named by giving two numbers that tell us about the spacing used and how many points can be scored in the balk spaces. The first number tells us how many inches from the rail the balkine will be drawn. The second number after a "dot", indicates the number of points that can be scored in the balk spaces before the balls must leave it (that number is always either one or two). So, for example, the name "18.2 balkline", tells us that balklines are drawn distant from each rail, and only two points are allowed in a balk space before a ball must leave that area.


title: Carom billiards

text: Over its history balkline has had many variations including 8.2, 10.2, 12.2, 13.2, 12½.2, 14.1, 14.2, 18.1, 18.2, 28.2, 38.2, 39.2, 42.2, 45.1, 45.2, 47.1, 47.2, 57.2 and 71.2 balkline. In its different forms, balkline was the main carom game played from 1883 to the 1930s. After that, other carom games became more popular. This is especially true of three-cushion billiards. Balkline is not very common in the U.S., but remains popular in Europe and the Far East.


title: Carom billiards

text: Cushion caroms, sometimes called by its original name, the indirect game, is thought to have developed in the 1820s in Britain, it developed out of an older game called the "doublet game", that dates to at least 1807. The game is sometimes incorrectly called "one-cushion" or "one-cushion billiards", which is the direct translation of its name into English from various other languages such as Spanish (""una banda"") and German (""einband"").


title: Carom billiards

text: The object of cushion caroms is to score "cushion caroms", meaning a bounce off of both of the other balls on the table, with at least one rail of the table being struck by the cue ball before the contact with second object ball. Cushion caroms was not played for a number of years, but came back in the late 1860s. Its return was for similar reasons as to why balkline developed. It was frustration of many people with straight rail. The techniques such as nursing that were invented to make scoring much easier, also made the game very boring to watch. Thus, as straight rail lost popularity, cushion caroms was revived for a time. Cushion caroms is rarely played in the U.S., but it still has some popularity in Europe.


title: Carom billiards

text: In three-cushion billiards, sometimes called three-cushion carom, three-cushion, three-cushions, three-rail, rails and the angle game, the object is to carom off both object balls with at least three rails being contacted before the contact of the cue ball with the second object ball. Arising sometime in the 1870s, the origin of three-cushion billiards is not entirely known. It is undisputed that the Internal Revenue Collector of the Port of St. Louis, Wayman C. McCreery, made the game popular. At least one publication states he invented the game as well.


title: Carom billiards

text: The first three-cushion billiards tournament took place January 14–31, 1878 in C. E. Mussey's Room in St. Louis, with McCreery taking part. The tournament was won by New Yorker Leon Magnus. The high run for the tournament was just 6 points, and the high average a .75. The game was infrequently played prior to 1907, with many top carom players of the era saying they did not enjoy it. However, in 1907 after the introduction of the Lambert Trophy, the game became more popular in the U.S. and internationally.


title: Carom billiards

text: By 1924 three-cushion had become so popular that two very well know players in other billiard areas agreed to play each other in it at a challenge match. On September 22, 1924 Willie Hoppe (last name rhymes with "poppy"), the world balkline champion and Ralph Greenleaf, the world pocket billiards (pool) title holder, played a well-advertised, multiple-day, 600-point match. Hoppe was the eventual winner with a final score of 600–527. The game's decline in the U.S. came about in 1952 when Hoppe, then 51-time billiards champion, announced his retirement.


title: Carom billiards

text: Three-cushion billiards is a very difficult game. Averaging one point per turn at the table is professional-level play, and averaging 1.5 to 2 is world-class play. An average of one means that for every turn at the table, a player makes one point and misses once. This means that the player makes a point on only 50% of his or her shots. The highest run at three-cushion billiards for many years was 25, set by the American Willie Hoppe in 1918 during an exhibition. As of 2007, the high run record is 31 points, shared between Semih Saygıner of Turkey and Hugo Patiño who is originally from Colombia but resides in the U.S. The best game at the standard 50 points in a tournament is 9 innings by the Swedish player, Torbjörn Blomdahl in 2000, and 4 innings (count: 19-11-9-11) by Korean and U.S. national champion, Sang Lee in September 1992 in a game at SL Billiards in Queens, New York. The highest tournament average is 2.536 by Dick Jaspers from the Netherlands in 2002 at a tournament in Monaco. Raymond Ceulemans from Belgium has won an unmatchable 21 three-cushion billiards world-championships.


title: Carom billiards

text: Three-cushion billiards is the most popular carom billiards game played in the U.S. today, where pocket billiards (pool) is far more widespread. Three-cushion retains great popularity in parts of Europe, Asia, and Latin America.


title: Carom billiards

text: The principal governing body of the sport is the Union Mondiale de Billiard (UMB). That organization has been holding world three-cushion championships since the late 1920s. Decades later, the Billiards World Cup Association (BWA) competed with UMB, but faded in the late 1990s due to financial problems. The International Olympic Committee-recognized World Pool-Billiard Association (WPA) cooperates with the UMB to keep their rulesets consistent.


title: Carom billiards

text: In Artistic billiards, sometimes called fantasy billiards or fantaisie classique, players compete at performing 76 planned shots, each assigned a degree of difficulty. Each set shot has a maximum point value assigned for perfect execution, ranging from a 4-point maximum for lowest level difficulty shots, and climbing to an 11-point maximum for shots deemed highest in difficulty level. There is a total of 500 points available to a player. The governing body of the sport is the Confédération Internationale de Billiard Artistique (CIBA).


title: Carom billiards

text: Each shot in an artistic billiards match is played from a well-defined starting position. In fact, in some tournaments the balls must be placed within two millimeters of a diagrammed position. Each shot must also be done in an established manner in order for points to be awarded. Players are allowed three attempts at each shot. In general, the 76 shots in the game—even the lowest difficulty 4-point shots—require a high degree of skill, much practice and specialized knowledge to perform.


title: Carom billiards

text: World title competition first started in 1986 and required the use of ivory balls. However, this requirement was dropped in 1990. The highest score ever achieved in world competition was 374, by the Frenchman Jean Reverchon in 1992. The highest score in competition overall is 427 set by Belgian Walter Bax on March 12, 2006 at a competition held in Deurne, Belgium, beating his own previous record of 425. The game is played mostly in western Europe, especially in France, Belgium and the Netherlands.


title: Drum

text: A drum is a musical instrument. It is played with the hands, sometimes using a drum stick (a stick for hitting a drum). A collection of drums and cymbals is called a drum kit, or drum set.


title: Drum

text: Drums are used to keep a steady beat in a song. They give music of many kinds a sense of feeling. For example, to make a song to be slow or fast, the drums play slower or faster.


title: Drum

text: A drum is a percussion instrument, which means it makes a noise by being hit. There are many types such as cymbals and bells; even a simple piece of wood can be used as a percussion instrument.


title: Drum

text: The drum kit is a group of drums & cymbals to make beats for music. Drum kits are used in most types of popular music, including rock, jazz, country, blues, and many others.


title: Drum

text: Acoustic drum kit is a set of drums and cymbals designed to be played as one instrument. A standard drum kit is made from a bass drum, snare drum, set of tom toms, hi hat cymbals, a ride cymbal and a crash cymbal. The sound is produced by striking the drums or cymbals with a drum stick or mallet.


title: Drum

text: An electric drum kit is essentially a collection of sample pads set up in the same way as an acoustic drum kit. The pads themselves are designed to produce little acoustic sound, other than the dead sound of the wooden drum sticks hitting rubber. The drum kit sends electrical signals to an amplifier, speaker, or pair of headphones to be heard. This makes them ideal for practicing quietly. Recording electronic drums is very easy. They may be connected using a USB cable or an audio interface.


title: Christian denomination

text: The word denomination is used for a large group of Christian people right across the world who use the same name, the same sort of organisation and have the same (or very similar) beliefs. Christianity is divided into ten main groups. These groups all branched out at different dates from the early Christianity founded by the followers of Jesus. The splits generally happened because they could not agree on certain beliefs or practices. The groups then divided into smaller groups. Each group that has its own separate name is a "denomination". The word "denomination" means "Being given a name”


title: Christian denomination

text: Each of these ten has important subdivisions. There are also other (smaller) groups that are not mentioned here.


title: Christian denomination

text: The Evangelical and Nontrinitarian branches of Christianity are much more divided up than any of the others. Each separate Evangelical church is often called a "denomination". While the Roman Catholic Church looks to a single earthly leader, the Pope, and has similar beliefs right across the world, the several Protestant denominations do not look to a single leader and sometimes have beliefs that are very different from each other.


title: Christian denomination

text: Many Christian denomination see themselves as part of the worldwide Church which includes other denominations as well. Some denominations, such as the Roman Catholic and Orthodox Churches and some Protestant Churches, believe that they are the "only" true Christian church.


title: Christian denomination

text: Some denominations have beliefs which almost all the other denominations would disagree with, very strongly. These beliefs are called "heresy" by the other churches.


title: Christian denomination

text: There were some movements considered heresies by the early church which do not exist today and are not generally referred to as denominations. Examples include the Gnostics (who had believed in an esoteric dualism), the Ebionites (who venerated Christ's blood relatives), and the Arians. The greatest divisions in Christianity today, however, are between Eastern Orthodoxy, Roman Catholicism, and various denominations formed during and after the Protestant Reformation. There also exists in Protestantism and Orthodoxy various degrees of unity and division.


title: Christian denomination

text: Comparisons between denominations must be approached with caution. For example, some churches are part of a larger church organization or diocese, while in other groups, each congregation is an independent organization. This issue is further complicated by the existence of groups of congregations with a common heritage that are officially nondenominational and have no centralized authority or records, but which are identified as denominations by non-adherents. Study of such churches in denominational terms is therefore a more complex proposition.


title: Christian denomination

text: Numerical comparisons are also problematic. Some groups count membership based on adult believers and baptized children of believers, while others only count adult baptized believers. Others may count membership based on those adult believers who have formally affiliated themselves with the congregation. In addition, there may be political motives of advocates or opponents of a particular group to inflate or deflate membership numbers through propaganda or outright deception.


title: Languages of Canada

text: Lots of languages are used in Canada. English and French are used by most Canadians. Only New Brunswick uses both English and French as its official languages. Quebec's official language is French. English and French are recognized by the Constitution of Canada as "official languages." This means that all laws of the federal government are in both English and French and that federal government services can be available in both languages.


title: Languages of Canada

text: To know how many people speak them, Canada's census collects a lot of kinds of information not collected in most other countries, including home language, mother tongue, first official language and language of work.


title: Languages of Canada

text: People speak other languages. About 18% of Canadians (about 6.1 million people, most are immigrants) have a language other than English or French as their first language or mother tongue. Nearly 3.5 million Canadians continue to use their other language most often, like when at home or in social settings. The biggest ones are Italian, German, Chinese, Punjabi, Arabic and Dutch.


title: Languages of Canada

text: Canada also has many native languages. But they are not spoken by many people (less than one percent of Canada), and fewer people speak them every year.


title: Japanese language

text: The Japanese language () is the official language of Japan, in East Asia. Japanese belongs to the Japonic language family, which also includes the endangered Ryukyuan languages. One theory says Japanese and Korean are related, but most linguists no longer think so. Other theories about the origin of Japanese are that it is related to the Austronesian languages, the Dravidian languages, or the controversial Altaic language family. The term used for Japanese as a course of study by citizens is "kokugo" (国語), which means national language. Nonetheless, Japanese is still referred to as Nihon-go by the Japanese.


title: Japanese language

text: Japanese uses three separate writing systems: hiragana, katakana, and kanji. Hiragana and katakana are phonetic systems and show the pronunciation of Japanese words. Kanji is the Japanese variation of Chinese characters and shows the meaning of Japanese words. The three systems are used interchangeably, and all three systems can often be found in the same sentence. The three systems are each reserved for different purposes.


title: Japanese language

text: In English, the order of the words is very important. For example, the sentences "Is it?" and "It is." mean different things. In Japanese, differences are often made by adding or changing the ending of words (using the previous example, one would say them as そうですか "sou desu ka" and そうです "sou desu", respectively). A Japanese word has a stem called a "body", and additional parts (called suffixes). Changing the suffix can change the meaning or the grammar of the word.


title: Japanese language

text: After World War II, many English words entered the Japanese language. An example of one would be “アイスクリーム, aisukurīmu”, meaning “ice cream”.


title: Japanese language

text: Japanese has five vowel sounds that can have two different lengths. They are "a, i, u, e, o". In IPA they are transliterated as /a/, /i/, /ɯ/, /e/, /o/; and they are pronounced in English as "ah, ee, oo, eh, oh". Lengthening a vowel can change the meaning of the word: "ojisan" (おじさん, uncle) and "ojiisan" (おじいさん, grandfather). Japanese has a sound that is like the English "l", but it is also like the English "r". (That is why it can be difficult for many Japanese when to learn to make both sounds when they speak English.) Japanese has a sound that is uncommon in English and is usually written "Tsu" (つ). This sound appears in "tsunami" (つなみ), the Japanese word for large ocean waves caused by earthquakes or extreme weather.


title: Japanese language

text: When foreigners speak Japanese, it is important they know how formal they must be when they speak to people you may or may not know. In Japan, it could be considered quite impolite (rude) if you are not formal enough.


title: Japanese language

text: In Japanese, sentences use subject-object-verb (SOV) word order, so the verb is at the end of the sentence and the subject is at the beginning. Many sentences have no subject, and the listener can infer the subject based context and the form of a verb.


title: Japanese language

text: In Japanese, Japan is called "Nihon" (日本), and the language is called "Nihongo" (日本語) (-go means "language"). Sometimes, the words "Nippon" and "Nippongo" are also used, but both words are now thought of as more nationalist, and "Nihon" is a more neutral word. The kanji of the word mean "sun-origin." Since Japan is at the eastern edge of Asia, to observers in China, the sun rose from the direction of Japan. That is why Japan is called "The Land of Rising Sun."


title: Japanese language

text: Japanese is also agglutinative language, especially in its verbs. Its words has a short "body," and prefixes or suffixes are easily added to change or to redefine the meaning.


title: Japanese language

text: Japanese words come from three main sources. The first is "wago" (和語), which are native Japanese words and can also be called "yamato kotoba" (大和言葉). The second is "kango" (漢語), which are Chinese loanwords. The third is "gairaigo" (外来語), which are loanwords borrowed from languages other than Chinese (usually English since the Second World War).


title: Japanese language

text: Hiragana is a Syllabary, meaning each character represents a syllable or vowel. Each character is a comprised of either a vowel, a consonant-vowel blend, or the syllabic consonant, n (ん). Hiragana is the standard, phonetic writing system in Japanese and is used for grammatical words or particles e.g. は、を (wa - Subject particle, o - Object Particle); words that don't have Kanji characters e.g. こんにちは (kon'nichiwa - hello); or for beginners to write Kanji. The symbols were originally adopted from Kanji characters and have changed overtime into their distinct, rounded shapes (e.g. 以 →い).


title: Japanese language

text: Katakana is also a Syllabary, with each Hiragana character having a character in Katakana (e.g. あ = ア こ = コ). Katakana is used for impact (similar to italics in English) as well as gairaigo words and direct transliterations from English e.g. メニュー (Menyuu - Menu). Katakana was originally made by Buddhist Monks to teach Japanese people how to read Chinese.


title: Japanese language

text: Kanji is an adaptation of the Chinese logographic writing system, meaning each symbol was originally meant to look like the word it was describing. Each symbol can represent a word e.g. 音 (oto - sound) or a syllable in a larger word. There are multiple pronunciations for each Kanji character, categorised into On'yomi (音読み) or Kun'yomi (訓読み), depending on the word's origin.


title: Bible

text: The Bible, also known as the Holy Bible, is a group of religious texts of Judaism and Christianity, it contains both The Old Testament and The New Testament. The word Bible comes from the Greek word τὰ ("biblía") which means "books" in English, because it is many books in one book. It includes laws, stories, prayers, songs, and wise words. A number of texts are both in the Hebrew Bible, used by Jews, and this Christian one.


title: Bible

text: In considering the source and inspiration for the Bible one must see what the Bible says of itself. Several verses of scripture define the source, intent, and Author. 2 Peter 1:21 says this - "No prophecy was ever made by the act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God." Isaiah 55:11 tells us that His is a word of power - "So shall My sword be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, But it shall accomplish what I please, And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it." Hebrews 4:12 says this - "For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart."


title: Bible

text: When talking about the Bible, a "book" is used to speak about a number of texts. All the texts that make a "book" are believed to belong together. Most of the time, people believe they were written or collected by the same person. The Bible contains different kinds of such books. Some are history, telling the stories of the Jews, Jesus, or Jesus' followers. Some are collections of wise sayings. Some are God's commands to his people, which he expects them to obey. Some are songs of praise to God. Some are books of "prophecy", messages from God that he gave through chosen people called prophets.


title: Bible

text: Different groups of Christians do not agree which texts should be included in the Bible. Christian Bibles range from the 66 books of the Protestant canon to 81 books in the Ethiopian Orthodox Bible. The oldest surviving Christian Bible is the Codex Sinaiticus, a Greek manuscript from the fourth century AD. The oldest complete Hebrew manuscripts date from the Middle Ages.


title: Bible

text: For a long time the texts were passed on by word of mouth from generation to generation. The Bible was written long ago in Aramaic, Hebrew, and Greek. Translations were made later into Latin and some other languages. Now there are translations in English and many other languages. The books of the Hebrew Bible—what Christians call the Old Testament—were not all written at the same time. It took hundreds of years (about 1200 years). The process of putting it all together began around 400 B.C. The books of the New Testament, which was originally written in Greek, began to be collected together in about 100 A.D. It tells about events that happened between 4 B.C. and 70 A.D. These events included the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus. It also tells how his followers went around spreading his message. It ends with a description of how the world will end when Jesus returns to earth. Most of the writers of the New Testament were apostles of Jesus. These were people who said they had seen Jesus alive after his crucifixion.


title: Bible

text: A translation is when a scribe takes the source in one language and writes it in another language. Most texts of the Bible were written in Ancient Greek or in Aramaic or Hebrew.


title: Bible

text: The first to provide a translation into Latin was Jerome, in the 5th century. He started what is known as the Vulgate today. Wufila translated the Bible into the Gothic language. In the early Middle Ages, people such as Petrus Valdes, and Jan Hus provided translations.


title: Bible

text: The New Testament was first translated into English in 1382 by John Wycliffe, and his associates translated the Old Testament. The translation was made from the Vulgate Latin bible. Wycliffe did this so that people could see for themselves what the Bible said. The translation was completed in 1382. There were some later editions by other people to the Wycliffe bible, as it is called. It was translated into Middle English, the language of his day. Wycliffe did not have Church permission to do this, but he was protected by John of Gaunt, one of the most powerful men in the kingdom. After both Wycliffe and his protector were dead, the Church declared Wycliffe a heretic in 1415, and banned his writings. The Council of Constance decreed Wycliffe's works should be burned and his remains exhumed (dug up). Why was the Church so opposed? The translations challenged the Church's authority over the people. In church, explaining the Bible was the priest's work. Whatever he said could not be challenged. Once the ordinary people could read the Bible, they might have other opinions.


title: Bible

text: The next step in translation was done in 1525 by William Tyndale. His translation was into Early Modern English, which we can just about understand today. Tyndale also did it without Church permission. His was the first translation to be printed, and several thousand copies were made. He had no protector, and his fate was terrible. He fled to Europe, but the agents of Thomas More (Chancellor of England at the time) eventually found him. Both Tyndale and his printer were executed by burning at the stake.


title: Bible

text: Another well known translation is the 1611 King James translation (commonly known as the Authorized King James Version of the Bible).


title: Bible

text: Some texts were written by historians who tried to show what Ancient Israel was like. Other texts are poems about God and his work. And others were used to make laws. Followers of Judaism and Christianity consider the Bible sacred but they do not all agree about what belongs in the Bible. What is considered part of the Bible changed with history. Different denominations include certain parts or leave out other parts. There is not one single version of the Bible; both the content of the books and their order may change.


title: Bible

text: Languages do not match. When a translation is done, the translator has to decide between translation word for word, or capturing the sense of the text. When he decides to capture the sense, he will choose other words in the target language. This is called paraphrasing.


title: Bible

text: Today there are dozens of versions of the Bible. Some are translations and some are paraphrases. A paraphrased version is where people take a translation and put it in their own words. As the Bible has been translated into modern languages, it is also possible that there are different translations of the same texts. The Bible is the best selling book of all time. 2.5 billion to more than 6 billion copies of the Bible have been sold to date. A complete version of the Bible exists in 471 languages. Parts have been translated in 2225 languages. Most Bibles can be found in the British Museum in London.


title: Bible

text: The Christian Bible is a collection of 66 books. The first 39 books are the Old Testament. It is the first part of the God's story of salvation. "Salvation" is God's long work of saving us from our sins. "Sin" is what happened when people decided to live their own way instead of God's way in the world that God created. That was when God began His great work of saving us from our sins.


title: Bible

text: To prepare the way, God had to destroy the whole world by a great flood, except for the family of Noah. Then God raised up a new people for Himself. They were the ancient Hebrews. God promised the Hebrews they would bring His salvation to the whole world.


title: Bible

text: The first five books of the Old Testament are mostly the story of how God chose the ancient Hebrews and taught them his laws. Following these are the twelve books that tell the history of the Hebrews. The next five are books of poetry and wisdom. One of these five books, the "Psalms", is a book of songs showing mainly how God wants to be worshiped.


title: Bible

text: The last seventeen books of the Old Testament were written by Hebrew prophets. These books tell about God's disappointment with the ancient Hebrews and His promise to bring them back to friendship with Him. The prophets also foretell a great surprise God was planning for the world-He was going to send His very own Son, the Messiah (the "Anointed One"), the Saviour, to save us from our sins.


title: Bible

text: In the Old Testament, Tanakh was mostly written in Hebrew; a few parts were written in Aramaic. This part of the Bible is considered to be holy by Jews as well as Christians.


title: Bible

text: There are also a few books of the Old Testament's time called Deuterocanonical by those Churches that accept them as part of the Bible, and Apocrypha by those that do not.


title: Bible

text: The second part is called the New Testament. The main part of this book is the story of the life of Jesus Christ. The four different versions of this story in the New Testament are called the Gospels. After the Gospels, there is also the story of what happened to the Church after Jesus's death and resurrection. Part of this is told through letters by early Christian leaders, especially Saint Paul. The final book of the Bible tells about a vision that St. John, one of the disciples of Jesus, had. In the vision John saw what would happen at the end of the world. This included judgement for evil and happiness for the people who had followed Jesus. One of the most quoted verses in the Bible is : "For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish <nowiki>[die]</nowiki> but have eternal life."


title: Bible

text: People have different ideas about the Bible. Christians believe it is God's Word to people. The Jews believe that only the Old Testament is from God. Protestants and Catholics believe that the Old and New Testaments are God's Word. Catholics also believe that the books called Apocrypha or Deuterocanonical are part of the Bible. Sometimes different denominations disagree over exactly what the Bible means.


title: Bible

text: According to Islam, the Injil itself is to be followed but it is believed to have been corrupted with time. The Qur'an is believed to be the successor.


title: Bible

text: Deists believe in God, but they believe that the Bible was written by people, so they don't see it as important.


title: Tiger

text: The tiger ("Panthera tigris") is the largest living member of the cat family, the Felidae. It feeds by hunting. It lives in Asia, mainly India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, China, Korea and Siberian Russia. Tigers are solitary animals.


title: Tiger

text: There are tigers with different colors. Most tigers have orange fur with black stripes, and a white belly. The black stripes usually extend to the white underside. The stripes are used to keep them camouflaged while hunting. No two tigers have the same pattern of stripes. Most Bengal tigers have orange fur, but some Bengal tigers have white fur with black stripes, or that even have pure white fur. These white tigers are not albinos with red eyes. The white coat only appears once in every 100


title: Tiger

text: Tigers vary in size depending on their subspecies. Siberian tigers are the largest. Males can grow to at least long (body length) and weigh about . Females are a bit smaller. Record weight for males is claimed as 890 lbs (318 kg), but this cannot be confirmed.


title: Tiger

text: Tigers can live in a variety of habitats. Mostly they need to hide, to be near a water source, and have enough prey to eat. Tigers are solitary and they all control large amounts of territory, the size of which depends on the availability of various food for tigers and prey. According to Tigers-World, a male tiger may live and hunt in an area of 60 to 100 square kilometers (23 to 39 square miles). A female tiger may have 20 square kilometers (8 square miles). According to the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, a single tiger can live in a territory as small as 21 square kilometers (8 square miles) to as large as 995 square kilometers (385 square miles). Bengal tigers in particular live in many types of forests. These include the wet, evergreen of Assam and eastern Bengal; the swampy mangrove forest of the Ganges Delta; the deciduous forest of Nepal, and the thorn forests of the Western Ghats.


title: Tiger

text: As previously thought, the tiger had five living subspecies. In this context, 'recently' means in the last two centuries. Three tiger subspecies are extinct (†).


title: Tiger

text: However, in 2017, the Cat Classification Task Force of the IUCN Cat Specialist Group revised felid taxonomy and recognized the tiger populations in continental Asia as "P. t. tigris", and those in the Sunda Islands as "P. t. sondaica".


title: Tiger

text: Chinese Tigers are becoming rare, because people hunt them for their silk coat skin and destroy the habitats they live in. The Bengal tiger has the largest population with 3,500 left in the wild. To help keep the tiger population, tigers are often placed in zoos. In order for tigers to survive into the next century, governments throughout the tigers’ range must show greater determination and commitment to conserve tigers and their habitats.


title: Tiger

text: Chinese tigers have been used for centuries in traditional Chinese medicine. Body parts such as their whiskers and bones are used to treat things such as toothaches, malaria, and burns.


title: Tiger

text: Tigers eat many types of prey, mostly other large mammals. Some examples are deer, monkeys, wild rabbits, wild pigs, tapirs, buffalo and other animals found in Asia. All are meat eaters. Some tigers may eat up to of meat a day. Tigers kill their prey by clamping down on the prey's throat and suffocating it.


title: Laurel wreath

text: A laurel wreath is a circular wreath made of interlocking branches and leaves of the bay laurel ("Laurus nobilis"). This is an evergreen whose leaves give off a pleasant scent.


title: Laurel wreath

text: The wreath is traditionally worn on the head. In Greek mythology, the god Apollo is shown wearing a laurel wreath because of the story of Apollo and Daphne. In Ancient Greece, it was given to special people, such as winners in competitions in poetry or sports, such as the Ancient Olympic Games.


title: Laurel wreath

text: It was also used in Ancient Rome, and Roman Emperors are often shown wearing laurel wreaths. In the Summer Olympics 2004 in Athens, Greece gave laurel wreaths to the winners. The saying "resting on one's laurels" comes from this and means that someone relaxes now because he or she did something good in the past.


title: Laurel wreath

text: In some countries, the laurel wreath is used as a symbol of the master's degree. The wreath is given to young masters in the graduation ceremony of the university. The word "Laureate" in 'poet laureate' refers to the laurel wreath.


title: Laurel wreath

text: In modern times, wreaths are used for their decorative quality rather than ceremonial use. Wreaths may be made with flowers such as roses to make them more appealing.


title: David Beckham

text: David Beckham (born 2 May 1975) is a retired English association football player. He is currently the owner of MLS team Inter Miami CF and EFL League Two club Salford City.


title: David Beckham

text: In June 2003, Queen Elizabeth II gave Beckham an OBE. In January 2005, Beckham became a UNICEF ambassador. Since his move from Manchester United F.C. to Real Madrid in 2003, he has been the highest paid footballer in the world.


title: David Beckham

text: Beckham was born at Whipps Cross University Hospital in London, England. He was the son of Ted and Sandra Georgina West. He grew up in the Manchester football youth system along with Ryan Giggs, Nicky Butt, Phil Neville, Gary Neville and Paul Scholes who all turned out to be famous footballers.


title: David Beckham

text: After leaving Manchester United, he signed a four-year contract with Real Madrid which ended in June 2007.


title: David Beckham

text: From 2007 to 2012, he played for LA Galaxy in the United States. He was loaned out to AC Milan of Italy for the 2008-09 and the 2009-10 seasons before joining the Galaxy again.


title: David Beckham

text: He played for Paris Saint-Germain in Ligue 1 until the end of the 2012/13 season. After the season ended, he retired.


title: David Beckham

text: He played for England for 13 years, from 1996 until 2009. He was dropped from the England team after giving up his England captaincy, but regained his place in the England squad when Fabio Capello became the England manager in 2008.


title: David Beckham

text: Beckham's wife is singer Victoria Beckham. Some people call her Posh Spice because she was a member of the Spice Girls. The couple have three sons: Brooklyn Joseph Beckham (born 4 March 1999 in London), Romeo James Beckham (born 1 September 2002 in London), and Cruz David Beckham (born 20 February 2005 in Madrid, Spain), and a daughter Harper Beckham (born 2 July 2011). She is also the youngest member of the Beckham family.


title: Rambutan

text: A rambutan ("Nephelium lappaceum") is a tree from southeast Asia. The fruit that grows on the tree is also called rambutan. It is in the same family as Lychee.


title: Rambutan

text: The name rambutan is a word that means "hairy". The fruit does look hairy. The fruit is green in color when not yet ripe. Once ripe the outside of the fruit turns red. The flesh on the inside of the rambutan is white in color.


title: Rambutan

text: Rambutan is native to Indonesia. Rambutan trees grow naturally in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines and elsewhere in Southeast Asia .


title: Python (programming language)

text: Python is an open source programming language. It was made to be easy-to-read-and-understand and powerful. A Dutch programmer named Guido van Rossum made Python in 1991. He named it after the television program Monty Python's Flying Circus. Many Python examples and tutorials include jokes from the show.


title: Python (programming language)

text: Python is an interpreted language. Interpreted languages do not need to be compiled to run. A program called an interpreter runs Python code on almost any kind of computer. This means that a programmer can change the code and quickly see the results. This also means Python is slower than a compiled language like C, because it is not machine code directly.


title: Python (programming language)

text: Python has become one of the most famous programming languages on the world as of late. It's utilized in all that from AI to building sites and programming testing. It tends to be utilized by engineers and non-designers the same.


title: Python (programming language)

text: Python's developers try to avoid changing the language to make it better until they have a lot of things to change. Also, they try not to make small repairs, called patches, to unimportant parts of the CPython reference implementation that would make it faster. When speed is important, a Python programmer can move some of the work of the program to other parts written in programming languages like C or PyPy, a just-in-time compiler. It translates a Python script into C and makes direct C-level API calls into the Python interpreter.


title: Python (programming language)

text: Keeping Python fun to use is an important goal of Python’s developers. It reflects in the language's name, a tribute to the British comedy group Monty Python. On occasions, there are playful approaches to tutorials and reference materials, such as referring to spam and eggs instead of the standard foo and bar.


title: Python (programming language)

text: Python is usually utilized for creating sites and programming, task robotization, information investigation, and information representation. Since it's moderately simple to learn, Python has been taken on by numerous non-software engineers like bookkeepers and researchers, for different regular undertakings, such as coordinating funds.


title: Python (programming language)

text: Its standard library is made up of many functions that come with Python when it is installed. On the Internet there are many other libraries available that make it possible for the Python language to do more things. These libraries make it a powerful language; it can do many different things.


title: Python (programming language)

text: Python language is unimaginably simple to utilize and learn for new amateurs and rookies. The python language is one of the most open programming languages accessible in light of the fact that it has worked on linguistic structure and not muddled, which gives more accentuation on normal language. Because of its simplicity of learning and utilization, python codes can be effectively composed and executed a lot quicker than other programming languages.


title: Python (programming language)

text: Python was made over quite a while back, which is a ton of time for any local area of programming language to develop and develop enough to help engineers going from novice to master levels. There are a lot of documentation, guides and Video Tutorials for Python language that are accessible that student and engineer of any expertise level or ages can utilize and get the help expected to improve their insight in the python programming language.


title: Python (programming language)

text: Programming languages develops quicker when a corporate support backs it. For instance, PHP is supported by Facebook, Java by Oracle and Sun, Visual Basic and C# by Microsoft. Python Programming language is intensely upheld by Facebook, Amazon Web Services, and particularly Google.


title: Python (programming language)

text: Because of its corporate sponsorship and huge steady local area of python, python has amazing libraries that you can use to choose and save your time and exertion on the underlying pattern of improvement. There are additionally heaps of cloud media benefits that get stage support through library-like apparatuses, which can be very gainful.


title: Python (programming language)

text: Ask any python engineer, and they will earnestly concur that the python language is proficient, solid, and a lot quicker than most current languages. Python can be utilized in almost any sort of climate, and one won't confront any sort of presentation misfortune regardless of the stage one is working


title: Python (programming language)

text: Some of Python's syntax comes from C, because that is the language that Python was written in. But Python uses whitespace to delimit code: spaces or tabs are used to organize code into groups. This is different from C. In C, there is a semicolon at the end of each line and curly braces ({}) are used to group code. Using whitespace to delimit code makes Python a very easy-to-read language.


title: Python (programming language)

text: Python's expressions include some that are similar to other programming languages and others that are not.


title: Python (programming language)

text: Python also does something called "dynamic variable assignment". This means that when a number or word is made in a program, the user does not have to say what type it is. This makes it easier to reuse variable names, making fast changes simpler. An example of this is shown below. This code will make both a number and a word, and show them both, using only one variable.


title: Python (programming language)

text: In a "statically typed" language like C, a programmer would have to say whether codice_3 was a number or a word before C would let the programmer set up codice_3, and after that, C would not allow its type to change from a number to a word.


title: Morse code

text: Morse code is an old system of encoding messages that is used to send telegraphic information using signals and rhythm. In written communication, Morse code uses "dots" and "dashes" to represent a limited number of alphabet letters, numbers, punctuation and special characters of a given message. When messages are sent by sound, radio signals or light flashes, dots are short beeps or clicks or flashes, and dashes are longer ones.


title: Morse code

text: Morse code is named after Samuel Morse, who helped invent it. It is not used as much today as it was in the 19th and 20th centuries. Teletypewriters were invented in the early 20th century with their own codes and gradually replaced Morse code. Other types of technology that are easier to use for communication became even more common.


title: Morse code

text: Some amateur radio operators still use Morse code to communicate and were previously required to learn and pass telegraphy exams to qualify their licenses. The requirements were lifted after 2003.


title: Morse code

text: There are three different symbols in Morse code; there's a short one, usually called 'dit', a long one, called 'dah', and the pause. A dah is three times as long as a dit, and the pause has the same length as the dit.


title: Morse code

text: Today, Morse codes can be easily generated through smartphone applications or through a web application, which take text as input and outputs the Morse code in copyable text or downloadable audio form. Its usage as a method of sending secret messages has become obsolete in favor of more powerful encryption techniques provided by advanced modern computer machines.


title: Morse code

text: Morse code can be sent in different ways. On ships, flickering lights were often used instead of radio communication.


title: Morse code

text: The S.O.S as it is used today, was introduced by the Imperial German Marine in 1904. It was mandatory for all German ships starting in 1905. It was meant as a distress signal, and should be repeated until all other stations stopped sending. Afterwards the real message would be sent. Also, there is no pause between the characters.


title: Morse code

text: At the time, the market was controlled by two companies; one was Telefunken, and the other was Marconi. Marconi was under British control, Telefunken was German. Marconi used CQD as a distress signal.


title: Morse code

text: The people doing the communication were employees of either Marconi or Telefunken; they were not employed by the ships' owners. These operators were not allowed to answer calls sent by the competing company, which also included distress signals. As this was against the laws of the sea, a conference in Berlin decided to use the German distress signal internationally. This started in 1908. When the ship Republic sent a distress signal in 1909, it was still CQD, and the Titanic also sent CQD at first, in 1912.


title: Morse code

text: The Global Maritime Distress and Safety System (GMDSS) is a satellite-based system that was introduced in 1999 to handle distress situations. It defines four different regions, three of which are covered by satellite. The fourth, which covers the polar regions, is covered by shortwave radio. With the introduction of GMDSS, the S.O.S signal is no longer used.


title: Association football

text: Association football is a sport played between two teams. In the United States, Canada and Australia, it is called soccer. In most other English-speaking countries it is called football. Association football is the most popular sport in the world.


title: Association football

text: Games like football have been played around the world since ancient times. The modern game came from England, where the Football Association wrote a standard set of rules for the game in 1863.


title: Association football

text: Each team has 11 players on the field. One of these players is the goalkeeper, the only player who is allowed to touch the ball with their hands. The other ten are known as "outfield players". The players try to kick the ball into their opponents' goal. The team that scores the most goals wins. A match has 90 minutes of play, with a break of 15 minutes during the match. The break in the middle is called "half-time". Added time may be added after half time or after 90 minutes to make up for time lost during the game because of fouls, free kicks, corner kicks, injuries, bookings, substitutions or any other time the game is stopped. A match can end in a tie, except in some competition games where one team must win. In that case, extra-time with two halves of 15 minutes each may be played, and if there is still a tie, a penalty shootout decides the winner. Sometimes extra-time is skipped and the game goes right into the penalty shootout.


title: Association football

text: There are many competitions for football, for both football clubs and countries. Football clubs usually play other teams in their own country, with a few exceptions. Here are a list of some of those exceptions:


title: Association football

text: Football clubs also play other teams in their continent in competitions such as the CAF Champions League and the UEFA Champions League.


title: Association football

text: There are 6 associations (CONCACAF, CONMEBOL, CAF, UEFA, AFC, and OFC). Each association has their own continental competition between clubs and national teams. Some examples are the Copa América for CONMEBOL national teams and the Copa Libertadores for CONMEBOL clubs. FIFA organises international competitions between worldwide clubs and countries. Clubs play in the Club World Cup, and countries play for the FIFA World Cup.


title: Association football

text: The FIFA World Cup takes place every four years between national teams, and is the world's most popular sporting event, even more popular than the Olympic Games. In football, there are two main competition types. In a "league", all of the teams play the same number of games, but in a "cup", teams leave the competition when they lose, until the last two teams play each other to decide the winner.


title: Association football

text: Football is the world's most popular sport. It is played in more countries than any other game. In fact, FIFA (the Federation Internationale de Football Association) has more members than the United Nations. It was originally an all-male sport, but today it is played by both males and females (separately, except sometimes at primary school level).


title: Association football

text: In Europe, the main competitions to compete are the Champions League for the top teams from the top leagues in each country in Europe. Then there is the UEFA Europa League which is for the next best teams from each member country of the UEFA.


title: Association football

text: Most successful clubs are FC Barcelona and Real Madrid from Spain; Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund from Germany; Galatasaray S.K. from Turkey; Juventus, AC Milan and Inter Milan from Italy; Liverpool, Manchester United and Manchester City from England; Paris Saint-Germain from France and Al Ahly from Egypt.


title: Association football

text: The most successful club in the world, in terms of domestic league results, is Rangers F.C. from Scotland, who have won more domestic league titles than any other team in the world. They have won the country's league 54 times which is a world record. In May 2000, Rangers became the first team to win 100 trophies.


title: Odisha

text: Odisha, formerly Orissa, is a state in Eastern India, with an area of , and population of almost 42 million. Oriya or Odia is the most widely spoken language in the state and is used on an official basis alongside English. Chilika lake which is located in Odisha is the largest migratory birds on the Indian subcontinent. Odisha is the 8th largest Indian State and the 11th most populous. The capital city is Bhubaneswar, and other major cities in the state are Cuttack, Sambalpur, and Rourkela. Odisha is bordered by the states of West Bengal to the north east, Jharkhand to the north west, Chhattisgarh to the west, Andhra Pradesh to the south, and has a 482km coastline along the Bay of Bengal.


title: Odisha

text: Modern-day Odisha falls under the boundaries of the ancient kingdom of Kalinga in the 3rd Century BCE, and the state is still sometimes referred to as Kalinga. Odisha is also known as Utkal, and is mentioned in the Indian National Anthem, Jana Gana Mana, under this name. The Orissa province was founded on the 1st April 1936, and the anniversary of this is celebrated as "Utkal Dibas" throughout the state. The state was created on the basis of the Odia language, encompassing the native speakers of the language.


title: Odisha

text: Popular tourist destinations in Odisha include the Konark Sun Temple, the Udayagiri and Khandagiri caves, the Puri Jagannath Temple, and Chilika Lake. Odisha has a rich culture, the Odissi classical dance form originates from the state and Odia cuisine is well-renowned for its seafood dishes and desserts. Odisha has successfully hosted several sports events as Asian Junior Women's Rugby Tournament, the 22nd Asian Athletics Championship, and the Men's Hockey World Cup in 2018.


title: Odisha

text: Odisha is mostly inhabited by the Odia people, with Hinduism being the major religion in the state and Christian and Muslim minorities. There is a large tribal population in Odisha, referred to as the "adivasi" people, they are the indigenous people and speak various tribal languages and follow traditional religions, although many have converted to Christianity. Jainism and Buddhism also have important histories in the state.


title: Odisha

text: Biju Patnaik International Airport (BBI) is Odisha's only airport, and the state is well-connected by railways, and national highways. The current Chief Minister of the state is Naveen Patnaik.


title: Smartphone

text: A smartphone is a mobile phone that can also be used as a computer. They work as a computer but are mobile devices small enough to fit in a user's hand.


title: Smartphone

text: Another way to think of them is that they are PDAs that can make voice calls like any other mobile phone. Older phones also used computer technology, but lacked many of the parts of a computer that were too big to fit into a phone. Modern phone makers have been able to use smaller parts. Most smartphones are also GPS receivers and digital cameras.


title: Smartphone

text: Because smartphones are small computers, they run an operating system that is often common between devices to ensure compatibility. The majority of smartphones run on Apple iOS or Google Android but others use Windows Phone or BlackBerry OS. Most can do multitasking, running more than one program which helps the user do things quicker and easier. Users can get more programs, called mobile apps, from the manufacturer's app store, such as the Apple App Store and Google Play which can help them complete special tasks.


title: Smartphone

text: Data communication has become faster. Smart phones can send and receive data much faster than older phones. The industry uses different standards to label the data transmission rates. 2G was introduced in 1991. 2G means "2nd Generation". 2G phones transmit data at about the same speed as a 56kbit/s (kilobits per second) dial-up modem would get.


title: Smartphone

text: 3G was introduced in the early 2000s. Depending on where they are, 3G phones vary in speed between about 200kbit/s to 14Mbit/s (megabits per second). This is comparable to a DSL or low end cable modem speed. Most smart phones use 3G technology to make them fast enough to practically use internet and other data features. Faster 4G networks operate in many places, with speeds estimated as fast as 100Mbit/s to 1Gbit/s (gigabit per second). This is as fast as some computer networks that use ethernet. Many smart phones introduced after 2010 use 4G technology including LTE, as later, even faster version. 5G was introduced in a few places in 2019.


title: Smartphone

text: Smartphones are powered by batteries. The amount of energy they can store is reduced over time, and they become weaker. This causes the phone to become slower and later to turn itself off without the user asking for it. Some smartphones are designed so the user is able to take off the rear cover and replace the weakened battery. Most newer smartphones are not made like this.


title: Smartphone

text: Smartphones are also camera phones. They are usually not as capable as dedicated cameras. Some phones have sophisticated camera software allowing such features as independent setting of bitrate, framerate and resolution. Such controls have only been adapted starting in the mid-2010s. As of early 2021, mobile phone chipsets may be capable of 2160p 4K video capture at 120 frames per second.


title: Finland

text: Finland (Finnish: "Suomi") is a country in Northern Europe and is a member state of the European Union. Finland is one of the Nordic countries and is also part of Fennoscandia. Finland is located between the 60th and 70th latitudes North. Its neighbours are Sweden to the west, Norway to the north, Russia to the east and Estonia to the south, beyond the sea called Gulf of Finland. Most of western and southern coast is on the shore of the Baltic Sea.


title: Finland

text: The capital of Finland is Helsinki; the second largest city is Tampere. The official currency of the country is the euro (EUR); before 2002 it was the markka, the Finnish mark (FIM). The president of Finland is Sauli Niinistö. 5.5 million people live in Finland. Finnish and Swedish both are the official languages of Finland; the most spoken languages is Finnish, mother tongue of about 90% of the population. Swedish is spoken by the Swedish speaking minority of Finland, called the Finnish Swedes, who make up 5% of the total population. Finland became independent of Russia on 6 December 1917.


title: Finland

text: The most important cities and towns in Finland are Helsinki, Espoo, Tampere, Vantaa, Turku, Oulu, Lahti, Kuopio, Jyväskylä and Pori.


title: Finland

text: Finland is a highly industrialised First World country. The most important Finnish industrial products are paper, and steel products such as machines and electronics. Nokia (the mobile company) is originally a company of Finland, named after a small town called Nokia.


title: Finland

text: Finland has been top of the list of least corrupt countries on the Corruption Perceptions Index more times than any other country.


title: Finland

text: The people of Finland are called Finns. Most Finns speak Finnish as their mother tongue. About six percent of Finns have the Swedish language as their mother tongue. They live mostly in the western part of Finland and on Åland (Finnish Ahvenanmaa)


title: Finland

text: Finns also study mandatory English and Swedish in school. Most Finns work either in services (that is: shops, banks, offices or businesses) or in factories. Finns often like saunas and nature. Many Finnish families have summer cottages, small houses where they go to relax on their summer holidays. The most important festivals that Finnish people celebrate are Midsummer and Christmas.


title: Finland

text: The most popular sports in Finland are ice hockey, skiing, track and field and association football (soccer). Finns have also won events in swimming, motor sports and gymnastics.


title: Finland

text: There is a group of a few thousand Samis (also called Lapps) in the most northern part of Finland, called Lapland. Most of the Samis live in Norway and Sweden. Many Sami people farm reindeers. Originally, Samis were hunter-gatherers. In the past the Sami were nomads, but nowadays they live in regular houses.


title: Finland

text: Very few people in Finland are from other countries. In 2016 about 4% of residents were born in another country.


title: Finland

text: Most of Finland is covered by pine forest. The swan, which was considered holy long ago, is the national bird of Finland. Wood is the most important natural resource of Finland. It is estimated that up to one-third of all wood resources of the European Union are in Finland.


title: Finland

text: The national animal of Finland is the brown bear. The largest animal is the elk, a type of moose, which is a member of the deer family.


title: Finland

text: There are hundreds of rivers and thousands of fresh water lakes. Fishing is a popular sport. It is estimated there are almost 180,000 lakes in Finland.


title: Finland

text: Many islands in the Baltic Sea belong to Finland, too. Thousands of islands are part of the Åland archipelago. Tourists from all over the world come to see the fells and the northern lights in Lapland.


title: Finland

text: The highest mountain of Finland is Halti, which is 1328 meters high. The largest lake is Saimaa, 4,400 square kilometres. The longest river of Finland is Tornionjoki. The largest river (by watershed) is Kemijoki, 552 kilometres long.


title: Finland

text: The weather in Finland varies widely by season. Summer usually lasts from May to early September, and temperatures can reach up to +30 °C. Autumns are dark and rainy. Winter snow usually begins to fall in Helsinki in early December (in Lapland it can fall as early as October) and in the winter the temperature can drop to -40 °C. Highest temperature recorded in Finland is +37,2 °C and lowest temperature is -51,5 °C. Winter usually lasts to mid-March, when the snow melts in Helsinki (in Lapland the snow usually doesn't melt until early May), and Spring lasts till late May. Spring can be erratic, and the weather can change from frost to sunshine within a matter of days. The famed Northern Lights are common in Lapland.


title: Finland

text: People first came to Finland 10,000 years ago. That was just after an ice age, after a glacier that covered the ground had receded.


title: Finland

text: Some think the first people in Finland already spoke a language similar to the Finnish language that is spoken today. It is known that an early form of the Finnish language was spoken in Finland in the Iron Age. (The Iron Age in Finland was 2,500–800 years ago).


title: Finland

text: The first residents in Finland hunted animals, as "hunter-gatherers". Some people started to farm crops about 5,200 years ago. Farming slowly became more and more popular and became the major way of life until the modern age.


title: Finland

text: The ancient Finns were pagans. The most important god of the Finnish pantheon was Ukko. He was a god of sky and thunder, much like Odin, another Scandinavian god-king. These powers were common among the pagan god kings in pantheons ranging from the Finnish Ukko, to the Scandinavian/Germanic/Saxon Odin, all the way east to Zeus of the Greeks and Jupiter of the Romans.


title: Finland

text: Around a thousand years ago, when most of Europe was adopting Christianity, Finland also began following Christianity. During the Reformation of Christianity in the 16th century, most Finns became Protestants. Some pagan practices still remain amongst the now Christian Finns, such as bear worship.


title: Finland

text: From the Middle Ages Finland was a part of Sweden. Then, in the year 1809, Russia took Finland from Sweden. Finland was a part of Russia, but after a short period of time it became autonomous. The Finns essentially controlled Finland, though the Tsar was in control officially. Finns could create their own laws and had their own currency, (called the "markka"), their own stamps and own customs. However, Finland did not have its own army.


title: Finland

text: the Social Democrats organised the general strike of 1905 (). The Red Guards were formed. On , Russian artillerymen and military engineers rose to rebellion in the fortress of Sveaborg (later called Suomenlinna), Helsinki. The Finnish Red Guards supported the Sveaborg Rebellion with a general strike, but the mutiny was quelled by loyal troops and ships of the Baltic Fleet within 60 hours.


title: Finland

text: On 6 December 1917, Finland became independent, which meant that it no longer was a part of Russia. There was a communist revolution in Russia and after 1922 Russia was a part of the Soviet Union. There were communists in Finland too, who tried to create a revolution in Finland


title: Finland

text: This attempt at revolution caused the Finnish civil war. The communists lost the civil war, and Finland did not change its old capitalist system


title: Finland

text: Stalin, who was the leader of the Soviet Union, did not like having a capitalist country as its neighbour. Stalin wanted Finland to become a communist state and be a part of the Soviet Union. The leaders of Finland refused: they wanted to stay independent. The Soviet Union sent many troops across the eastern border of Finland to try to make Finland join them, which resulted in the Winter War. The Soviet Union eventually won, and took most of Karelia and other parts of Finland.


title: Finland

text: Adolf Hitler was the dictator of Germany, and he wanted to invade the Soviet Union. Finland wanted to retrieve the areas that it had lost, so they joined the German invasion, which started with Operation Barbarossa in 1941. The Finnish part of the Second World War is called the Continuation War in Finland. However, Finland was not a fascist or an antisemitic country. Finns were interested in freedom rather than dictatorship.


title: Finland

text: While Germany was losing the war, Finland had already progressed into the Soviet Union in order to regain the areas lost in the previous peace. Finland wanted to end the war with the Soviet Union, which resulted in peace. Once again Finland had to give up the areas they had conquered. This time, the peace with the Soviet Union made Finland and Germany enemies. Finns fought the Germans, and Germans retreated to Norway, burning down all of Lapland behind them. This is called the Lapland War. Finland remained independent.


title: Finland

text: After the war, many factories were built in Finland. Many people moved from farms to cities. At that time, big factories manufactured products like paper and steel. More and more people worked in more advanced jobs, like high technology. Also, many people went to universities to get a good education. Finland was one of the first countries where most people had Internet connections and mobile phones. A well-known company that makes mobile phones, Nokia, is from Finland.


title: Finland

text: Finland has a mixed economy. Free market controls most of production and sales of goods, but public sector is involved in services. In 2013, taxes were 44% of gross national product. This is 4th largest in Europe, after Denmark, France and Belgium.


title: Finland

text: The largest company in 2014 was oil refinery Neste Oil. The second largest was Nokia. Two forest industries Stora Enso and UPM-Kymmene, were numbers three and four. Number five was Kesko which sells everyday goods in K-supermarkets.


title: Finland

text: Elections are organized to select 200 members to the Parliament of Finland. Also selected are the president of Finland, members of town and city councils and Finnish members to the European Parliament. The elections are secret and direct. People vote directly for the person they want to be elected. In presidential elections votes are only cast for a person, not for a political party. All the other elections are proportional. The system is a combination of voting for individuals and parties. The right to vote is universal and equal. In general elections everybody has one vote.


title: Scotland

text: Scotland (, ) is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Scotland is the northern third of Great Britain (an island in the North Atlantic Ocean). Many other islands in the British Isles are also part of Scotland. To the south of Scotland is England, the North Sea is to the east, the Atlantic Ocean is to the west and the Irish Sea is to the south-west.


title: Scotland

text: The capital city of Scotland is Edinburgh on the east coast, but the biggest city is Glasgow on the west coast. Other cities in Scotland are Aberdeen, Dundee, Inverness, Perth and Stirling. About five million people live in Scotland. Most of the population lives in the Central Belt, an area between the Scottish Highlands and the Scottish Lowlands.


title: Scotland

text: Unlike most of Great Britain, most of Scotland was not part of the Roman Empire (only the southern half of Scotland -then named Caledonia- was under roman control for a century) and did not become part of Anglo-Saxon England. In the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Period, Scotland was an independent kingdom. The Kingdom of Scotland started in the 9th century AD. The kingdom started to share a king with the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Ireland in 1603. In that year, the king of Scotland inherited the two kingdoms of Elizabeth I, and James VI of Scotland became the first king of the whole British Isles. In 1707, the parliament of Scotland joined with the parliament of England to become the Parliament of Great Britain. This formed the United Kingdom of Great Britain. This kingdom joined with the Kingdom of Ireland in 1801 to make the modern United Kingdom.


title: Scotland

text: Throughout its history Scotland has had its own legal system (Scots law), church (the Church of Scotland), schools, and culture. Since 1999, Scotland has had its own parliament, the Scottish Parliament. It was devolved from the British parliament. The Scottish people have representation in both parliaments. The Scottish Government and the British Government both govern Scotland. On 18 September 2014, a referendum on independence from the United Kingdom took place. A majority (55%) voted to stay in the United Kingdom.


title: Scotland

text: The Flag of Scotland is blue with a white diagonal cross (a saltire). This is the cross of Saint Andrew, who is the patron saint of Scotland. Other symbols used for Scotland are the thistle and the unicorn. An image of a red lion "rampant" (standing on its back legs) on a gold background with a red border is the traditional coat of arms of the Scots monarchy.


title: Scotland

text: The mainland of Scotland makes up of the size of the Great Britain, and is to the northwest of mainland Europe.


title: Scotland

text: The size of the land of Scotland is 78,772km² (30,414 sq mi). Scotland's only land border is with England, and runs for 96 kilometres (60 mi) across. The Atlantic Ocean borders the west coast and the North Sea is to the east. The island of Ireland is only 30 kilometres (20 mi) from the southern part of Kintyre, Norway is 305 kilometres (190 mi) to the east and the Faroe Islands are 270 kilometres (168 mi) to the north. Scotland's land also includes several islands, including the Inner and Outer Hebrides off the west coast and the archipelagoes of Orkney and Shetland to the north of the mainland.


title: Scotland

text: Compared to the other areas of the islands of Great Britain and Ireland, Scotland is sparsely populated, most especially the north-western half of it. The main geographical feature that dictates this is the Highland Boundary Fault which roughly splits the country in half from the southwest to the northeast.


title: Scotland

text: To the north and west of the Highland Boundary Fault are the more mountainous Scottish Highlands and islands, and this half of the country contains less than 5% of the total population. To the south and east of the Highland Boundary Fault is the Scottish Lowlands, which contain the vast majority (about 75%) of the Scottish population, and 3 of the 4 biggest cities (Glasgow which is 1st, Edinburgh which is 2nd, and Dundee which is 4th). Below the lowlands are the Southern Uplands which are hilly, but not as hilly at the Highlands. They are less densely populated than the lowlands, but still a lot more dense than the highlands and islands.


title: Scotland

text: Located within the central part of the lowlands is the "Central Belt", a rectangle of land roughly 88 kilometres (55 miles) from West to East and 48 kilometres (30 miles) North to South. About half of the population of Scotland lives within these roughly 4,530 square kilometres (or 1,750 square miles), which is a little more than 2% of the total land area of Scotland. This is the area between Scotland’s two largest cities - Glasgow, at the Central Belt’s Western end, and Edinburgh, at the Central Belt’s Eastern end. This area is geographically bound by two bays of water – the Firth of Clyde to the West and the Firth of Forth to the East. It is the most fertile Earth in Scotland, which is why it is so population-dense, compared to the rest of the country.


title: Scotland

text: The tallest mountain in Scotland is Ben Nevis, which is also the tallest mountain in the British Isles.


title: Scotland

text: The history of Scotland begins when humans first began to live in Scotland after the end of the last ice age. Of the Stone Age, Bronze Age, and Iron Age civilization that existed in the country, many fossils remain, but no written records were left behind. These people did not have writing.


title: Scotland

text: St Kilda, Heart of Neolithic Orkney and Skara Brae are all World Heritage Sites, as are the Antonine Wall and New Lanark on the mainland.


title: Scotland

text: Because of where Scotland is in the world and its strong reliance on trade routes by sea, the nation held close links in the south and east with the Baltic countries, and through Ireland with France and Europe. The sea was very important for trade reasons. Following the Acts of Union and Industrial Revolution, Scotland grew to be one of the largest commercial, intellectual and industrial states in Europe.


title: Scotland

text: The written history of Scotland begins when the Roman Empire came to the British Isles. The Romans gave Great Britain its name in or . The Romans overcame and controlled what is now England, Wales, and southern Scotland. To the north of the River Forth was "Caledonia", land not fully owned by the Romans).


title: Scotland

text: The Romans had military camps and forts in much of Scotland. In Classical Antiquity, the Romans named the people in Caledonia in . During Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages, the people of Caledonia were the Picts. The Roman army left Great Britain in the 5th century, and by the time Roman military had fought many battles with the Picts.


title: Scotland

text: In the Early Middle Ages, the Picts lived in a part of the land with the name Pictland. The Scoti came from Ireland and started the kingdom of Dál Riata. Parts of south-western Scotland and northern Ireland were part of Dál Riata. People there spoke old Goidelic languages. The Saxons came from Continental Europe. In the British Isles they have the name Anglo-Saxons. South-eastern Scotland became part of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Northumbria. Their language was Old English.


title: Scotland

text: In Pictland, the Picts started the Kingdom of Alba in the 9th-century. The kingdom began in the land between the River Spey and the River Forth. The Pictish language went extinct, and people in the 10th-century kingdom of Alba spoke the Goidelic language, Scots Gaelic. In time, the kingdom grew. The lands of Moray and Angus became part of the kingdom. The northern parts of Northumbria, south of the River Forth, became part of the kingdom.


title: Scotland

text: Most of the Scottish islands were ruled by the Norse (and then by Norwegians and Danes) for over four hundred years. The Kingdom of the Isles was a Norse kingdom in the western, coastal parts of Scotland. They spoke the Old Norse language.


title: Scotland

text: The Norse lands include the Hebrides to the west and Orkney and Shetland to the north. The Isle of Man was also a part of the Kingdom of the Isles. The islands still have a culture of their own.


title: Scotland

text: The Wars of Scottish Independence were many military campaigns fought between Scotland and England in the late 13th and early 14th centuries.


title: Scotland

text: The First War (1296–1328) began with the Edward I of England's invasion of Scotland in 1296, and ended with the signing of the Treaty of Edinburgh-Northampton in 1328. The Second War (1332–1357) began with the English-supported invasion of Scotland by Edward Balliol and the 'Disinherited' in 1332, and ended around 1357 with the signing of the Treaty of Berwick.


title: Scotland

text: The wars were part of a great national crisis for Scotland and the period became one of the most important moments in the nation's history. At the end of both wars, Scotland was an independent kingdom. The wars were also important for other reasons, such as the invention of the longbow as an important weapon in medieval warfare.


title: Scotland

text: A series of deaths in the line of succession in the 1280s, followed by King Alexander III's death in 1286 left the Scottish crown in crisis. His granddaughter, Margaret, the "Maid of Norway", a four-year-old girl, was the heir.


title: Scotland

text: Edward I of England, as Margaret's great-uncle, suggested that his son (also a child) and Margaret should marry, stabilising the Scottish line of succession. In 1290 Margaret's guardians agreed to this, but Margaret herself died in Orkney on her voyage from Norway to Scotland before she was made Queen, or her wedding could take place.


title: Scotland

text: Because there was no clear heir to the throne anymore, the Scottish people decided to ask Edward I of England to choose their king. The strongest candidate was called Robert Bruce. Robert Bruce had castles all around the country, and had a private army. But Edward wanted to invade Scotland, so he chose the weaker candidate, who was John Balliol. He had the strongest claim to the throne, and became king on 30 November 1292. Robert Bruce decided to accept this decision (his grandson and namesake later took the throne as Robert I).


title: Scotland

text: Over the next few years, Edward I kept trying to undermine both the authority of King John and the independence of Scotland. In 1295, John, on the recommendation of his chief councillors, entered into an alliance with France. This was the beginning of the Auld Alliance.


title: Scotland

text: In 1296, Edward invaded Scotland. He removed King John from power, and put him in jail. The following year William Wallace and Andrew de Moray raised an army from the southern and northern parts of the country to fight the English. Under their joint leadership, an English army was defeated at the Battle of Stirling Bridge. For a short time Wallace ruled Scotland in the name of John Balliol as Guardian of the realm.


title: Scotland

text: Edward came north in person and defeated Wallace at the Battle of Falkirk in 1298. Wallace escaped but resigned as Guardian of Scotland. John Comyn and Robert the Bruce were put in his place. In 1305 Wallace was captured by the English, who executed him for treason. Wallace claimed he did not commit treason as he was not loyal to England.


title: Scotland

text: In February 1306 Robert Bruce murdered John Comyn, a leading rival, in a church. Bruce went on to take the crown, but Edward's army overran the country yet again after defeating Bruce's small army at the Battle of Methven. Despite the excommunication of Bruce and his followers by Pope Clement V, his support slowly strengthened; and by 1314, with the help of leading nobles such as Sir James Douglas and the Earl of Moray, only the castles at Bothwell and Stirling were still under English control.


title: Scotland

text: Edward I died in Carlisle in 1307. His heir, Edward II, moved an army north to break the siege of Stirling Castle and again take control. Robert defeated that army at the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314, securing temporary independence. In 1320, a letter to the Pope from the nobles of Scotland (the Declaration of Arbroath) went part of the way towards convincing Pope John XXII to overturn the earlier excommunication and cancel the various acts of submission by Scottish kings to English ones so that Scotland's independence could be recognised by other European countries.


title: Scotland

text: In 1326, the first full Parliament of Scotland met. The parliament was made from an earlier council of nobility and clergy around 1235, but in 1326 representatives of the burghs—the burgh commissioners—joined them to form the Three Estates.


title: Scotland

text: In 1328, Edward III signed the Treaty of Northampton which declared Scottish independence under the rule of Robert the Bruce. Four years after Robert's death in 1329, England invaded Scotland yet again, looking to put the "Rightful King"—Edward Balliol, son of John Balliol—to the Scottish throne, starting the Second War of Independence. In the face of tough Scottish resistance, led by Sir Andrew Murray, attempts to secure Balliol on the throne failed. Edward III lost interest in Balliol after the outbreak of the Hundred Years' War with France. In 1341 David II, King Robert's son and heir, was able to return from temporary exile in France. Balliol finally resigned his empty claim to the throne to Edward in 1356, before retiring to Yorkshire, where he died in 1364.


title: Scotland

text: In 1603, Elizabeth I, queen of England and of Ireland, died. The king of Scotland was the queen's heir apparent, and James VI of Scotland (son of Mary, Queen of Scots) became king of England and king of Ireland. James VI and I (from Scotland's House of Stuart) went to England to control the government, and none of Scotland's kings came to Scotland for more than one hundred years.


title: Scotland

text: In 1707, Scotland and England were joined in the Act of Union to make one big Kingdom, the Kingdom of Great Britain. When Ireland joined in 1801, the United Kingdom was created. Scotland was an important part of the colonialism and imperialism of the British Empire. Scots colonists emigrated throughout the empire, and a large diaspora of Scots lives throughout the world as a result. The Scottish Enlightenment was an important part of the Age of Enlightenment. Philosophers like David Hume and Adam Smith led the Scottish Enlightenment.


title: Scotland

text: Soldiers fought some of the wars caused by Jacobitism in Scotland. The Jacobites wanted the Roman Catholic House of Stuart, and not the Protestant House of Hanover to be kings of Britain and of Ireland. The last land battle in Great Britain was the Battle of Culloden in 1745. At that time the government's British Army stopped the Catholic rebellion led by Charles Edward Stuart. Scots-speakers and English-speakers moved many Gaelic speakers off lands in the Scottish Highlands, and many emigrated to the British Empire and the United States. In the 19th century, George IV visited Scotland. After that, Scotland and Scottish culture became more popular. Tourism to Scotland started in the 19th century.


title: Scotland

text: In a referendum in 1997, a majority of voters in Scotland chose to have political devolution. The Scottish Parliament, Scottish Government, and the office of first minister of Scotland was set up in 1999.


title: Scotland

text: One first minister of Scotland, Alex Salmond, led the Scottish National Party's Scottish Government from 2007. in 2014, the Scottish independence referendum ended in a majority (55%) voting against independence from the United Kingdom. Nicola Sturgeon became first minister on 20 November 2014.


title: Scotland

text: The official languages of Scotland are English, Scots and Scottish Gaelic. English is spoken by most people in Scotland, while only a small number, mostly in the Western Isles, speaks Scottish Gaelic. Scottish Gaelic began declining in the late Middle Ages when Scottish kings and nobles preferred English.


title: Scotland

text: Football is the most popular sport in Scotland. Three of the big cities, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Dundee, have two or three big football teams, and most cities have at least one team. The two most famous teams in Scotland are known as the "Old Firm". These are Celtic and Rangers. These two Glasgow clubs have a lot of history, and are fierce rivals, often causing fights, riots and even murders between the fans. Rangers are world record holders, having won the most amount of league titles of any football team, currently 55.


title: Scotland

text: Scotland were the winners of the Homeless World Cup in 2007 and are the current champions after they won in August 2011. They defeated Mexico 4–3 in Paris, France.


title: Scotland

text: The other main clubs in Scotland are Aberdeen, Hearts, Hibs and Dundee United. These teams are in the Premier League right now, and usually take the most places in the top six of the league.


title: Scotland

text: Some other Scottish clubs include Gretna, who won three titles in a row, moving from the Third Division, to the SPL in only three seasons. Gretna ran out of money, and they were shut down. Also, Raith Rovers, who famously played UEFA Cup Winners, Bayern München. Raith Rovers were knocked out by Bayern München, but managed to lead 1-0 at half time. Queen of the south also reached the Europa league, after reaching the 2008 Scottish cup final. they lost 3 -2 to Rangers.


title: Scotland

text: The top division of Scottish Football is called the "Scottish Premier League" (or SPL), and is currently sponsored by the Clydesdale Bank, a large Scottish Bank. In 2013, its name was changed to "Scottish Premiership".


title: Scotland

text: In 1925, 1984 and 1990, Scotland were winners of the Five Nations' Gran Slam, having beaten all four other teams - England, Wales, Ireland and France.


title: Scotland

text: Golf is a popular sport in Scotland. It is unique, as Scotland is the birthplace of golf. That is certain, but the details are not known for sure. There are many public golf courses where people can play for small fees. Elsewhere in the world, golf is a game for the wealthy.


title: Scotland

text: Sandy Lyle was the first Scottish golfer to win a major title in modern times. Colin Montgomery is one of the best players never to have won a major championship: He finished second in major events five times.


title: Scotland

text: Scotland is also involved with motorsports. Former F1 driver David Coulthard is a thirteen time Grand Prix winner. Jackie Stewart is a 3-time F1 World Champion and regarded as one of the best drivers ever. Jim Clark was a 2-time F1 World Champion and regarded as one of the best ever with Fangio, Schumacher and Senna. Colin McRae was also the 1995 World Rally Champion.


title: Scotland

text: Andy Murray, originally from Scotland, is currently the United Kingdom's best tennis player, having won singles titles at the US Open, and Wimbledon, where his 2013 win ended a 77-year wait for a British man to win the competition. He also won Olympic Gold in the men's singles at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. His brother, Jamie Murray, is a successful doubles player.


title: Scotland

text: Scotland were the world champions of the unusual sport of Elephant Polo in 2004. Elephant Polo, registered as an Olympic sport with the Nepal Olympic Committee, was invented by Scotsman Nathan Mochan in 1983.


title: Scotland

text: Traditional Scottish musical instruments include: the bagpipe, accordion, the fiddle, the harp and tin whistle.


title: Army

text: The army is the part of a country's military that fights on the ground. People in the army are called soldiers. Many modern armies have vehicles such as tanks, airplanes, and helicopters to help soldiers fight on the ground.


title: Army

text: A soldier may be a volunteer (someone who joins something because they want to), or he may be forced by the government to join the army. Forcing men to join the army is called conscription or "draft". Voluntary armies tend to be small by numbers, but high in confidence and quality. Drafted armies are large, but often lacking in confidence and in quality: it may be very difficult to force someone to risk his life against his will. Sometimes an army is made up from mercenaries, who fight just for pay and have little loyalty to the country which they serve.


title: Army

text: Soldiers do many things, from shooting enemies, to digging defensive trenches. They are used to defend their country, or attack another country's army. It is difficult, and soldiers must be in good shape, both physically and mentally. They almost always move together, and that way the team can do more things, in a safer way. They may be assigned to certain places to guard, or they may be told to search a place, or even attack it. That is up to their commander. Every soldier answers to someone else, so that way, everything is organized.


title: Army

text: Sometimes, when a country's army is busy in different places, and there are not enough soldiers to do more, a country can hire civilians to do some of the army's jobs, like protecting buildings and important people and convoys of trucks traveling from one place to another. Usually, they hire veterans who were members of the military before leaving and working elsewhere.


title: Army

text: Working in the army and wearing the uniform is called "service". A soldier will never say "I work as a Sergeant in the signal corps" but always "I "serve" as a Sergeant in the signal corps", or other rank, specialty and unit. Only civilian workers who do not wear uniform speak about "working" in the army.


title: Army

text: Despite the growing importance of military technology, military activity depends above all on people. For example, in 2000 the British Army declared: "Man is still the first weapon of war."


title: Army

text: The function of the army is based on discipline. That means that every soldier will unquestionably carry out the orders which he or she has received and will obey his or her superior officer or non-commissioned officer. There is only one exception: orders which violate the human rights or international law must not be obeyed as it is considered a war crime. The chain of command is expressed by the military rank system and hierarchy.


title: Army

text: A soldier is supplied with weapons, such as guns, knives, and other simple gear for surviving in the battlefield, such as food, water, clothes, and tents. They must keep good care of the items. Some soldiers train to be a doctor for the army, or other civilian duties.


title: Army

text: Before a soldier joins the army, he must qualify to be in it first. The person is put through tests, so that the army will know if the recruit can do it or not. This is sometimes called 'boot camp'. He must complete mental tests, and physical tests. It depends on where he is testing that will tell him how hard it will be. He will also take tests to determine what job he will do in the military. For instance, he may work with computers and be a member of the signal corps or be a cook for the soldiers, he may have been a construction worker in civilian life and be a military engineer, he may become a truck driver and serve in logistics, or he may be very good with a rifle and be a sniper in the infantry. There are a lot of jobs that a person can choose to do in the army.


title: Mexico

text: Mexico (; official name: United Mexican States , ) is a country in North America. Mexico is south of Texas, California and other American states. Guatemala and Belize are south of Mexico. Mexico is between the Pacific Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico.


title: Mexico

text: People living in Mexico or who are from there are called Mexicans. Most Mexican people speak Spanish. There are also Mexicans who speak Native American languages, like Nahuatl, Mayan, and Zapotec. Most modern Mexicans are descended from Native Americans such as Aztecs and Mayans and mostly have native blood. They are Catholic. The capital of Mexico is Mexico City.


title: Mexico

text: Before the Europeans came, many Native American cultures existed in Mexico. The earliest was the Olmec culture in the south. The Olmecs are famous for the large stone heads they made. On the Yucatán peninsula lived the Mayans. The Mayans lived in city states ruled by kings. The Mayans were most powerful between 200 and 900 A.D. Another powerful empire belonged to Teotihuacan. Teotihuacan was a very large city, one of the largest at that time. After Teotihuacan declined the Toltecs became powerful. Things made by the Toltecs have been found from the southern parts of the U.S. all the way to Costa Rica. A famous Toltec god is Quetzalcoatl. The Toltec culture declined too, and it was succeeded by the Aztecs. The Aztecs called their own empire Mexico. A famous Aztec king was Moctezuma II.


title: Mexico

text: In 1519 the Spanish explorer Hernán Cortés came to Mexico. The Aztecs thought he was the returned Quetzalcoatl, so they did not want to fight against him. Cortes allied himself with the enemies of the Aztecs. In 1521 they conquered the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan. The Aztec Empire became part of Spain. It was called New Spain.


title: Mexico

text: In 1810 the Mexican priest Miguel Hidalgo started the Mexican war of independence. In 1821 the Spanish finally retreated and Mexico became independent. The first leader of independent Mexico was Agustin de Iturbide. He set up the First Mexican Empire and became emperor. But the Mexicans were not happy with him, and in 1823 the country became a republic.


title: Mexico

text: A man who was very important in Mexico in the early 19th century was Antonio López de Santa Anna. He was the president of Mexico 11 times. When he became a dictator, Texas declared independence (1836). The Battle of the Alamo was part of this Texas Revolution. Between 1846 and 1848 there was war between Mexico and the United States. In this war Mexico lost its large northern areas, which became the southwestern United States. After this war Santa Anna was sent away to Venezuela.


title: Mexico

text: Between 1858 and 1861 there was war again, between liberals and conservatives. The liberal Benito Juárez won the war and became president afterwards. Juarez stayed president until France invaded Mexico and made Maximilian of Habsburg emperor of the Second Mexican Empire. But Maximilian was very unpopular. After more war he was executed in 1867, and Juarez became president again.


title: Mexico

text: Conservatives thought Juarez had too much power. In 1876 they ousted him, and made Porfirio Díaz, a general who had won a battle against the French, president. Porfirio Díaz made the country wealthier, but the poor people became poorer. Franciso I. Madero started the Mexican Revolution in 1910.


title: Mexico

text: The next 10 years the country was in chaos. There were many presidents who ruled for a short time and all kinds of people fought against each other. Famous people from this period are Emiliano Zapata, Pancho Villa and Francisco I. Madero. When Álvaro Obregón became president in 1920 the fighting calmed down.


title: Mexico

text: In 1929 President Plutarco Elías Calles founded the National Mexican Party, PNM. The party was later renamed Institutional Revolutionary Party, PRI. The party would rule for a very long time. Most PRI presidents were not popular, it was said that they were only president to become richer themselves. An exception was president Lázaro Cárdenas. He was president between 1934 and 1940.


title: Mexico

text: After several decades more and more people became unhappy with the PRI. In 1968 security forces shot at protesters, this caused several hundred deaths and became known as the Tlatelolco massacre. Another uprising was in 1994 when Zapatistas rebelled in the province Chiapas.


title: Mexico

text: Mainly through ballot box fraud the PRI managed to stay into power until 2000, when Vicente Fox of the National Action Party, PAN, was elected president. In total the PRI had governed Mexico for 71 years.


title: Mexico

text: Mexico is a constitutional federal democracy ruled by a president. The president is elected every 6 years. The current president is Andrés Manuel López Obrador. Parliament has a Senate and House of Deputies.


title: Mexico

text: Mexico is in the southern part of North America. It is roughly shaped like a triangle. Mexico is more than 3000 km (1,850 miles) long from northwest to southeast. Mexico is between two large seas: the Pacific Ocean in the West and the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea in the East. Mexico has two large peninsulas. Baja California in the northwest, and Yucatán in the southeast. In central and western Mexico are the Sierra Madre mountains. In the Sierra Madre is the Pico de Orizaba, the highest mountain of Mexico. In central Mexico there are also a few volcanoes like the Popocatépetl and the Iztaccíhuatl. The Pico de Orizaba is also a volcano. In the north of Mexico are deserts. In the south are tropical rainforests. Some rivers in Mexico are the Río Bravo (known in the US as the Rio Grande), the Río Balsas, the Río Pánuco, and the Río Yaqui.


title: Mexico

text: Mexico is the most populous Spanish-speaking country in the world. It is also the second most populous country in Latin America (after Brazil). 60% of Mexicans have Native American and European forefathers (mostly Native American); these are called mestizos. Almost 30% of Mexicans are pure Native American and 10% are European. Most Mexicans (90%) speak Spanish. 10% of the Mexicans speak a Native American language, like Nahuatl, the language of the Aztecs, Maya or Zapotec. Non-indigenous ethnic groups in Mexico speak another foreign language such as Arabic or Japanese. Most people in Mexico are Catholic (89%) Christians.