title: Jerome Powell

text: Powell defended his actions saying: "I don't know that the connection between asset purchases and financial stability is a particularly tight one", and that he wasn't worried that the Fed's actions were creating asset bubbles.


title: Jerome Powell

text: In July 2020, CNBC host Jim Cramer said, "I'm sick and tired of hearing that we're in a bubble, that Powell's overinflating the price of stocks by printing money to keep the economy moving". The "Washington Post" called the Fed "addicted to propping up markets, even when there is no need". In August 2020, investors Leon Cooperman and Seth Klarman warned of a dangerous "speculative bubble", with market psychology "unhinged from market fundamentals".


title: Jerome Powell

text: In August 2020, "Bloomberg News" called Powell's policy "exuberantly asymmetric" (echoing Alan Greenspan's "irrational exuberance" quote from 1996), and that the "Powell Put" had become more extreme than the "Greenspan Put". Steven Pearlstein in "The Washington Post" said that Powell had "adopted a strategy that works like a one-way ratchet, providing a floor for stock and bond prices but never a ceiling", and that any attempt by Powell to abandon this strategy "will trigger a sharp sell-off by investors who have become addicted to monetary stimulus".


title: Jerome Powell

text: By December 2020, Powell's monetary policy, measured by the Goldman Sachs US Financial Conditions Index (GSFCI), was the loosest in the history of the GSFCI (goes back to 1987), and had created simultaneous asset bubbles across most of the major asset classes in the United States: For example, in equities, in housing, and in bonds. Cryptocurrencies also saw dramatic increases in price during 2020, leading Powell to win the 2020 "Forbes Person Of The Year In Crypto".


title: Jerome Powell

text: The asset price boom during the pandemic attracted a generation of young investors who explicitly credited Powell for promoting froth in financial markets. Gathering in online communities like Reddit's r/wallstreetbets board, they discussed high-risk trades and shared memes that depicted "J-Pow" using the Fed's money printer to flood the economy.


title: Jerome Powell

text: In December 2020, Powell defended high asset prices by invoking the controversial Fed model, saying: "Admittedly P/Es are high but that's maybe not as relevant in a world where we think the 10-year Treasury is going to be lower than it's been historically from a return perspective". The author of the Fed model, Edward Yardeni, said Powell's actions could form the greatest financial bubble in history, while the "Wall Street Journal" described Powell's comparison as an attempt to "rewrite the laws of investing".


title: Jerome Powell

text: In April 2021, Powell reassured concerns over a potential housing bubble, similar to the one that preceded the Great Recession. He stated, "we don't see bad loans and unsustainable prices and that kind of thing."


title: Jerome Powell

text: In August 2021, Powell expected the Fed to reduce economic support later in the year. In the past Powell has considered inflation transitory, a term Powell states should now be "retired". In response to widespread high inflation readings Jerome Powell has indicated an increase in the speed of tapering asset purchases, namely up to $30 billion per month. In Jerome Powell's confirmation hearing in 2022 he described inflation as being a "severe threat" to the US economic recovery due to "higher costs of essentials like food, housing and transportation". Prices for American consumers are rising at their fastest annual rate since June 1982. In response, the central bank aims to raise rates as soon as March 2022. The most recent December 2021 CPI reading hit 7%.


title: Jerome Powell

text: In light of his term as chair expiring in February 2022, many Democrats began to express opposition to Powell's reappointment. In August 2021, progressive Democrats, including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, called on President Joe Biden to replace Powell, criticizing him for failing to "mitigate the risk climate change poses to our financial system". In September 2021, Senator Elizabeth Warren, Democrat of Massachusetts, criticized Powell for his financial regulation track record and called him as a "dangerous man to head up the Fed." Powell was renominated for a second term by President Joe Biden on November 22, 2021. His initial nomination expired at the end of the year and was returned to President Biden on January 3, 2022.


title: Jerome Powell

text: President Biden presented his nomination to the Senate the following day. Hearings were held on Powell's nomination before the Senate Banking Committee on January 11, 2022. The committee favorably reported Powell's nomination to the Senate floor on March 16, 2022, in a 22-1 vote; Senator Elizabeth Warren was the lone member to vote against his nomination. His nomination for another term as chair was confirmed by the full U.S. Senate on May 12, 2022 in an 80-19 vote. He was sworn in for his second term as chair on May 23, 2022.


title: Jerome Powell

text: Powell married Elissa Leonard in 1985 at the Episcopal Washington National Cathedral. They have three children and live in Chevy Chase Village, Maryland, where Elissa is chair of the board of managers of the village. In 2010, Powell was on the board of governors of Chevy Chase Club, a country club.


title: Jerome Powell

text: Based on public filings, as of 2019 Powell's net worth was estimated to be in a range between $20 million and $55 million. Powell has served on the boards of charitable and educational institutions including DC Prep, a public charter school, the Bendheim Center for Finance at Princeton University, and The Nature Conservancy. He was also a founder of the Center City Consortium, a group of 16 parochial schools in the poorest areas of Washington, D.C.


title: Multi-level marketing

text: Multi-level marketing (MLM), also called network marketing or pyramid selling, is a controversial marketing strategy for the sale of products or services in which the revenue of the MLM company is derived from a non-salaried workforce selling the company's products or services, while the earnings of the participants are derived from a pyramid-shaped or binary compensation commission system.


title: Multi-level marketing

text: In multi-level marketing, the compensation plan usually pays out to participants from two potential revenue streams. The first is based on a sales commission from directly selling the product or service; the second is paid out from commissions based upon the wholesale purchases made by other sellers whom the participant has recruited to also sell product. In the organizational hierarchy of MLM companies, recruited participants (as well as those whom the recruit recruits) are referred to as one's "downline" distributors.


title: Multi-level marketing

text: MLM salespeople are, therefore, expected to sell products directly to end-user retail consumers by means of relationship referrals and word of mouth marketing, but more importantly they are incentivized to recruit others to join the company's distribution chain as fellow salespeople so that these can become downline distributors. According to a report that studied the business models of 350 MLM companies in the United States, published on the Federal Trade Commission's website, at least 99% of people who join MLM companies lose money. Nonetheless, MLM companies function because downline participants are encouraged to hold onto the belief that they can achieve large returns, while the statistical improbability of this is de-emphasized. MLM companies have been made illegal or otherwise strictly regulated in some jurisdictions as merely variations of the traditional pyramid scheme.


title: Multi-level marketing

text: Independent non-salaried participants, referred to as distributors (variously called "associates", "independent business owners", "independent agents", etc.), are authorized to distribute the company's products or services. They are awarded their own immediate retail profit from customers plus commission from the company, not downlines, through a multi-level marketing compensation plan, which is based upon the volume of products sold through their own sales efforts as well as that of their downline organization.


title: Multi-level marketing

text: Independent distributors develop their organizations by either building an active consumer network, who buy direct from the company, or by recruiting a "downline" of independent distributors who also build a consumer network base, thereby expanding the overall organization.


title: Multi-level marketing

text: The combined number of recruits from these cycles are the sales force which is referred to as the salesperson's "downline". This "downline" is the pyramid in MLM's multiple level structure of compensation.


title: Multi-level marketing

text: The overwhelming majority of MLM participants participate at either an insignificant or nil net profit. A study of 27 MLM schemes found that on average, 99.6% of participants lost money. Indeed, the largest proportion of participants must operate at a net loss (after expenses are deducted) so that the few individuals in the uppermost level of the MLM pyramid can derive their significant earnings. Said earnings are then emphasized by the MLM company to all other participants to encourage their continued participation at a continuing financial loss.


title: Multi-level marketing

text: Many MLM companies generate billions of dollars in annual revenue and hundreds of millions of dollars in annual profit. However, profits accrue to the detriment of the majority of the company's constituent workforce (the MLM participants). Only some of the profits are then shared with individual participants at the top of the MLM distributorship pyramid. The earnings of those top few participants are emphasized and championed at company seminars and conferences, thus creating the illusion that participants in the MLM can become financially successful. This is then advertised by the MLM company to recruit more distributors in the MLM with an unrealistic anticipation of earning margins which are in reality merely theoretical and statistically improbable.


title: Multi-level marketing

text: Although an MLM company holds out those few top individual participants as evidence of how participation in the MLM could lead to success, the MLM business model depends on the failure of the overwhelming majority of all other participants, through the injecting of money from their own pockets, so that it can become the revenue and profit of the MLM company, of which the MLM company shares only a small proportion with a few individuals at the top of the MLM participant pyramid. Other than the few at the top, participants provide nothing more than their own financial loss for the company's own profit and the profit of the top few individual participants.


title: Multi-level marketing

text: The main sales pitch of MLM companies to their participants and prospective participants is not the MLM company's products or services. The products or services are largely peripheral to the MLM model. Rather, the true sales pitch and emphasis is on a confidence given to participants of potential financial independence through participation in the MLM, luring with phrases like "the lifestyle you deserve" or "independent distributor." Erik German's memoir "My Father's Dream" documents the author's father's failures through "get-rich-quick schemes" such as Amway. The memoir illustrates the multi-level marketing sales principle known as "selling the dream".


title: Multi-level marketing

text: Although the emphasis is always made on the potential of success and the positive life change that "might" or "could" (not "will" or "can") result, disclosure statements include disclaimers that they, as participants, should not rely on the earning results of other participants in the highest levels of the MLM participant pyramid as an indication of what they should expect to earn. MLM companies rarely emphasize the extreme likelihood of failure, or the extreme likelihood of financial loss, from participation in MLM.


title: Multi-level marketing

text: MLM companies have been made illegal in some jurisdictions as a mere variation of the traditional pyramid scheme, including in China. In jurisdictions where MLM companies have not been made illegal, many illegal pyramid schemes attempt to present themselves as MLM businesses. Given that the overwhelming majority of MLM participants cannot realistically make a net profit, let alone a significant net profit, but instead overwhelmingly operate at net losses, some sources have defined all MLM companies as a type of pyramid scheme, even if they have not been made illegal like traditional pyramid schemes through legislative statutes.


title: Multi-level marketing

text: MLM companies are designed to make profit for the owners/shareholders of the company and a few individual participants at the top levels of the MLM pyramid of participants. According to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC), some MLM companies already constitute illegal pyramid schemes even by the narrower existing legislation, exploiting members of the organization.


title: Multi-level marketing

text: Companies that use the MLM business model have been a frequent subject of criticism and lawsuits. Legal claims against MLM companies have included, among other things:


title: Multi-level marketing

text: "Network marketing" and "multi-level marketing" (MLM) have been described by author Dominique Xardel as being synonymous, with it being a type of direct selling. Some sources emphasize that multi-level marketing is merely one form of direct selling, rather than "being" direct selling. Other terms that are sometimes used to describe multi-level marketing include "word-of-mouth marketing", "interactive distribution", and "relationship marketing". Critics have argued that the use of these and other different terms and "buzzwords" is an effort to draw distinctions between multi-level marketing and illegal Ponzi schemes, chain letters, and consumer fraud scams—where none meaningfully exist.


title: Multi-level marketing

text: The Direct Selling Association (DSA), a lobbying group for the MLM industry, reported that in 1990 only 25% of DSA members used the MLM business model. By 1999, this had grown to 77.3%. By 2009, 94.2% of DSA members were using MLM, accounting for 99.6% of sellers, and 97.1% of sales. Companies such as Avon, Electrolux, Tupperware, and Kirby were all originally single-level marketing companies, using that traditional and uncontroversial direct selling business model (distinct from MLM) to sell their goods. However, they later introduced multi-level compensation plans, becoming MLM companies. The DSA has approximately 200 members while it is estimated there are over 1,000 firms using multi-level marketing in the United States alone.


title: Multi-level marketing

text: The origin of multi-level marketing is often disputed, but multi-level marketing style businesses existed in the 1920s and the 1930s, such as the California Vitamin Company (later named Nutrilite) and the California Perfume Company (renamed "Avon Products").


title: Multi-level marketing

text: Several sources have commented on the income level of specific MLM companies or MLM companies in general:


title: Multi-level marketing

text: In 2015, the Government of Bangladesh banned all types of domestic and foreign MLM trade in Bangladesh.


title: Multi-level marketing

text: Multi-level marketing () was first introduced to mainland China by American, Taiwanese, and Japanese companies following the Chinese economic reform of 1978. This rise in multi-level marketing's popularity coincided with economic uncertainty and a new shift towards individual consumerism. Multi-level marketing was banned on the mainland by the government in 1998, citing social, economic, and taxation issues. Further regulation "Prohibition of "Chuanxiao"" (where MLM is a type of Chuanxiao was enacted in 2005, clause 3 of Chapter 2 of the regulation states having downlines is illegal). O'Regan wrote 'With this regulation China makes clear that while Direct Sales is permitted in the mainland, Multi-Level Marketing is not'.


title: Multi-level marketing

text: MLM companies have been made illegal in China as a mere variation of the traditional pyramid scheme. MLM companies have been trying to find ways around China's prohibitions, or have been developing other methods, such as direct sales, to take their products to China through retail operations. The Direct Sales Regulations limit direct selling to cosmetics, health food, sanitary products, bodybuilding equipment and kitchen utensils, and they require Chinese or foreign companies ("FIEs") who intend to engage into direct sale business in mainland China to apply for and obtain direct selling license from the Ministry of Commerce ("MOFCOM"). In 2016, there are 73 companies, including domestic and foreign companies, that have obtained the direct selling license.


title: Multi-level marketing

text: Some multi-level marketing sellers have circumvented this ban by establishing addresses and bank accounts in Hong Kong, where the practice is legal, while selling and recruiting on the mainland.


title: Multi-level marketing

text: It was not until August 23, 2005, that the State Council promulgated rules that dealt specifically with direct sale operation- Administration of Direct Sales (entered into effect on December 1, 2005) and the Regulations for the Prohibition of "Chuanxiao" (entered into effect on November 1, 2005). When direct selling is allowed, it will only be permitted under the most stringent requirements, in order to ensure the operations are not pyramid schemes, MLM, or fly-by-night operations.


title: Multi-level marketing

text: MLM marketing is banned in Saudi Arabia by imposing religious fatwa nationally, for this reason MLM companies like Amway, Mary Kay, Oriflame and Herbalife sell their products by online selling method instead of MLM.


title: Multi-level marketing

text: MLM businesses operate in all 50 U.S. states. Businesses may use terms such as "affiliate marketing" or "home-based business franchising". Some sources say that all MLM companies are essentially pyramid schemes, even if they are legal.


title: Multi-level marketing

text: The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) states: "Steer clear of multilevel marketing plans that pay commissions for recruiting new distributors. They're actually illegal pyramid schemes. Why is "pyramiding" dangerous? Because plans that pay commissions for recruiting new distributors inevitably collapse when no new distributors can be recruited. And when a plan collapses, most people—except perhaps those at the very top of the pyramid—end up empty-handed."


title: Multi-level marketing

text: In a 2004 Staff Advisory letter to the Direct Selling Association, the FTC states:Much has been made of the personal, or internal, consumption issue in recent years. In fact, the amount of internal consumption in any multi-level compensation business does not determine whether or not the FTC will consider the plan a pyramid scheme. The critical question for the FTC is whether the revenues that primarily support the commissions paid to all participants are generated from purchases of goods and services that are not simply incidental to the purchase of the right to participate in a money-making venture.


title: Multi-level marketing

text: The Federal Trade Commission warns "Not all multilevel marketing plans are legitimate. Some are pyramid schemes. It's best not to get involved in plans where the money you make is based primarily on the number of distributors you recruit and your sales to them, rather than on your sales to people outside the plan who intend to use the products."


title: Multi-level marketing

text: "In re Amway Corp." (1979), the Federal Trade Commission indicated that multi-level marketing was not illegal "per se" in the United States. However, Amway was found guilty of price fixing (by effectively requiring "independent" distributors to sell at the same fixed price) and making exaggerated income claims. The FTC advises that multi-level marketing organizations with greater incentives for recruitment than product sales are to be viewed skeptically. The FTC also warns that the practice of getting commissions from recruiting new members is outlawed in most states as "pyramiding".


title: Multi-level marketing

text: Walter J. Carl stated in a 2004 "Western Journal of Communication" article that "MLM organizations have been described by some as cults (Butterfield, 1985), pyramid schemes (Fitzpatrick & Reynolds, 1997), or organizations rife with misleading, deceptive, and unethical behavior (Carter, 1999), such as the questionable use of evangelical discourse to promote the business (Höpfl & Maddrell, 1996), and the exploitation of personal relationships for financial gain (Fitzpatrick & Reynolds, 1997)". In China, volunteers working to rescue people from the schemes have been physically attacked.


title: Multi-level marketing

text: MLM companies are also criticized for being unable to fulfill their promises for the majority of participants due to basic conflicts with Western cultural norms. There are even claims that the success rate for breaking even or even making money are far worse than other types of businesses: "The vast majority of MLM companies are recruiting MLM companies, in which participants must recruit aggressively to profit. Based on available data from the companies themselves, the loss rate for recruiting MLM companies is approximately 99.9%; i.e., 99.9% of participants lose money after subtracting all expenses, including purchases from the company." (By comparison, skeptic Brian Dunning points out that "only 97.14% of Las Vegas gamblers lose money ... .") In part, this is because encouraging recruits to further "recruit people to compete with [them]" leads to "market saturation." It has also been claimed "(b)y its very nature, MLM is completely devoid of any scientific foundations."


title: Multi-level marketing

text: Because of the encouraging of recruits to further recruit their competitors, some people have even gone so far as to say at best modern MLM companies are nothing more than legalized pyramid schemes with one stating "Multi-level marketing companies have become an accepted and legally sanctioned form of pyramid scheme in the United States" while another states "Multi-Level Marketing, a form of Pyramid Scheme, is not necessarily fraudulent." In October 2010 it was reported that multi-level marketing companies were being investigated by a number of state attorneys general amid allegations that salespeople were primarily paid for recruiting and that more recent recruits cannot earn anything near what early entrants do. Industry critic Robert L. FitzPatrick has called multi-level marketing "the Main Street bubble" that will eventually burst.


title: Multi-level marketing

text: Many Islamic jurists and religious bodies, including Permanent Committee for Scholarly Research and Ifta of Saudi Arabia, have considered MLM trade to be prohibited ("haram"). They argue that MLM trade involves deceiving others into participating, and the transaction bears resemblance to both "riba" and "gharar".


title: Anthropomorphism

text: Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human traits, emotions, or intentions to non-human entities. It is considered to be an innate tendency of human psychology.


title: Anthropomorphism

text: Personification is the related attribution of human form and characteristics to abstract concepts such as nations, emotions, and natural forces, such as seasons and weather.


title: Anthropomorphism

text: Both have ancient roots as storytelling and artistic devices, and most cultures have traditional fables with anthropomorphized animals as characters. People have also routinely attributed human emotions and behavioral traits to wild as well as domesticated animals.


title: Anthropomorphism

text: Anthropomorphism and anthropomorphization derive from the verb form "anthropomorphize", itself derived from the Greek "ánthrōpos" (, "human") and "morphē" (, "form"). It is first attested in 1753, originally in reference to the heresy of applying a human form to the Christian God.


title: Anthropomorphism

text: From the beginnings of human behavioral modernity in the Upper Paleolithic, about 40,000 years ago, examples of zoomorphic (animal-shaped) works of art occur that may represent the earliest known evidence of anthropomorphism. One of the oldest known is an ivory sculpture, the Löwenmensch figurine, Germany, a human-shaped figurine with the head of a lioness or lion, determined to be about 32,000 years old.


title: Anthropomorphism

text: It is not possible to say what these prehistoric artworks represent. A more recent example is The Sorcerer, an enigmatic cave painting from the Trois-Frères Cave, Ariège, France: the figure's significance is unknown, but it is usually interpreted as some kind of great spirit or master of the animals. In either case there is an element of anthropomorphism.


title: Anthropomorphism

text: This anthropomorphic art has been linked by archaeologist Steven Mithen with the emergence of more systematic hunting practices in the Upper Palaeolithic. He proposes that these are the product of a change in the architecture of the human mind, , where anthropomorphism allowed hunters to identify empathetically with hunted animals and better predict their movements.


title: Anthropomorphism

text: In religion and mythology, anthropomorphism is the perception of a divine being or beings in human form, or the recognition of human qualities in these beings.


title: Anthropomorphism

text: Ancient mythologies frequently represented the divine as deities with human forms and qualities. They resemble human beings not only in appearance and personality; they exhibited many human behaviors that were used to explain natural phenomena, creation, and historical events. The deities fell in love, married, had children, fought battles, wielded weapons, and rode horses and chariots. They feasted on special foods, and sometimes required sacrifices of food, beverage, and sacred objects to be made by human beings. Some anthropomorphic deities represented specific human concepts, such as love, war, fertility, beauty, or the seasons. Anthropomorphic deities exhibited human qualities such as beauty, wisdom, and power, and sometimes human weaknesses such as greed, hatred, jealousy, and uncontrollable anger. Greek deities such as Zeus and Apollo often were depicted in human form exhibiting both commendable and despicable human traits. Anthropomorphism in this case is, more specifically, anthropotheism.


title: Anthropomorphism

text: From the perspective of adherents to religions in which humans were created in the form of the divine, the phenomenon may be considered theomorphism, or the giving of divine qualities to humans.


title: Anthropomorphism

text: Anthropomorphism has cropped up as a Christian heresy, particularly prominently with the Audians in third century Syria, but also in fourth century Egypt and tenth century Italy. This often was based on a literal interpretation of Genesis 1:27: "So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them".


title: Anthropomorphism

text: Some religions, scholars, and philosophers objected to anthropomorphic deities. The earliest known criticism was that of the Greek philosopher Xenophanes (570–480 BCE) who observed that people model their gods after themselves. He argued against the conception of deities as fundamentally anthropomorphic:


title: Anthropomorphism

text: Both Judaism and Islam reject an anthropomorphic deity, believing that God is beyond human comprehension. Judaism's rejection of an anthropomorphic deity began with the prophets, who explicitly rejected any likeness of God to humans. Judaism's rejection grew further after the Islamic Golden Age in the tenth century, which Maimonides codified in the twelfth century, in his thirteen principles of Jewish faith.


title: Anthropomorphism

text: In the Ismaili interpretation of Islam, assigning attributes to God as well as negating any attributes from God ("via negativa") both qualify as anthropomorphism and are rejected, as God cannot be understood by either assigning attributes to Him or taking attributes away from Him. The 10th-century Ismaili philosopher Abu Yaqub al-Sijistani suggested the method of double negation; for example: "God is not existent" followed by "God is not non-existent". This glorifies God from any understanding or human comprehension.


title: Anthropomorphism

text: Hindus do not reject the concept of a deity in the abstract unmanifested, but note practical problems. Lord Krishna said in the Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 12, Verse 5, that it is much more difficult for people to focus on a deity as the unmanifested than one with form, using anthropomorphic icons (murtis), because people need to perceive with their senses.


title: Anthropomorphism

text: In secular thought, one of the most notable criticisms began in 1600 with Francis Bacon, who argued against Aristotle's teleology, which declared that everything behaves as it does in order to achieve some end, in order to fulfill itself. Bacon pointed out that achieving ends is a human activity and to attribute it to nature misconstrues it as humanlike. Modern criticisms followed Bacon's ideas such as critiques of Baruch Spinoza and David Hume. The latter, for instance, embedded his arguments in his wider criticism of human religions and specifically demonstrated in what he cited as their "inconsistence" where, on one hand, the Deity is painted in the most sublime colors but, on the other, is degraded to nearly human levels by giving him human infirmities, passions, and prejudices. In "Faces in the Clouds", anthropologist Stewart Guthrie proposes that all religions are anthropomorphisms that originate in the brain's tendency to detect the presence or vestiges of other humans in natural phenomena.


title: Anthropomorphism

text: Some scholars argue that anthropomorphism overestimates the similarity of humans and nonhumans and therefore could not yield accurate accounts.


title: Anthropomorphism

text: There are various examples of personification in both the Hebrew Bible and Christian New Testaments, as well as in the texts of some other religions.


title: Anthropomorphism

text: Anthropomorphism, also referred to as personification, is a well established literary device from ancient times. The story of "The Hawk and the Nightingale" in Hesiod's "Works and Days" preceded Aesop's fables by centuries. Collections of linked fables from India, the "Jataka Tales" and "Panchatantra", also employ anthropomorphized animals to illustrate principles of life. Many of the stereotypes of animals that are recognized today, such as the wily fox and the proud lion, can be found in these collections. Aesop's anthropomorphisms were so familiar by the first century CE that they colored the thinking of at least one philosopher:


title: Anthropomorphism

text: Apollonius noted that the fable was created to teach wisdom through fictions that are meant to be taken as fictions, contrasting them favorably with the poets' stories of the deities that are sometimes taken literally. Aesop, "by announcing a story which everyone knows not to be true, told the truth by the very fact that he did not claim to be relating real events". The same consciousness of the fable as fiction is to be found in other examples across the world, one example being a traditional Ashanti way of beginning tales of the anthropomorphic trickster-spider Anansi: "We do not really mean, we do not really mean that what we are about to say is true. A story, a story; let it come, let it go."


title: Anthropomorphism

text: Anthropomorphic motifs have been common in fairy tales from the earliest ancient examples set in a mythological context to the great collections of the Brothers Grimm and Perrault. The "Tale of Two Brothers" (Egypt, 13th century BCE) features several talking cows and in "Cupid and Psyche" (Rome, 2nd century CE) Zephyrus, the west wind, carries Psyche away. Later an ant feels sorry for her and helps her in her quest.


title: Anthropomorphism

text: Building on the popularity of fables and fairy tales, "children's" literature began to emerge in the nineteenth century with works such as "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" (1865) by Lewis Carroll, "The Adventures of Pinocchio" (1883) by Carlo Collodi and "The Jungle Book" (1894) by Rudyard Kipling, all employing anthropomorphic elements. This continued in the twentieth century with many of the most popular titles having anthropomorphic characters, examples being "The Tale of Peter Rabbit" (1901) and later books by Beatrix Potter; "The Wind in the Willows" by Kenneth Grahame (1908); "Winnie-the-Pooh" (1926) and "The House at Pooh Corner" (1928) by A. A. Milne; and "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" (1950) and the subsequent books in "The Chronicles of Narnia" series by C. S. Lewis.


title: Anthropomorphism

text: In many of these stories the animals can be seen as representing facets of human personality and character. As John Rowe Townsend remarks, discussing "The Jungle Book" in which the boy Mowgli must rely on his new friends the bear Baloo and the black panther Bagheera, "The world of the jungle is in fact both itself and our world as well". A notable work aimed at an adult audience is George Orwell's "Animal Farm", in which all the main characters are anthropomorphic animals. Non-animal examples include Rev.W Awdry's children's stories of "Thomas the Tank Engine" and other anthropomorphic locomotives.


title: Anthropomorphism

text: The fantasy genre developed from mythological, fairy tale, and Romance motifs sometimes have anthropomorphic animals as characters. The best-selling examples of the genre are "The Hobbit" (1937) and "The Lord of the Rings" (1954–1955), both by J. R. R. Tolkien, books peopled with talking creatures such as ravens, spiders, and the dragon Smaug and a multitude of anthropomorphic goblins and elves. John D. Rateliff calls this the "Doctor Dolittle Theme" in his book "The History of the Hobbit" and Tolkien saw this anthropomorphism as closely linked to the emergence of human language and myth: "...The first men to talk of 'trees and stars' saw things very differently. To them, the world was alive with mythological beings... To them the whole of creation was 'myth-woven and elf-patterned'."


title: Anthropomorphism

text: Richard Adams developed a distinctive take on anthropomorphic writing in the 1970s: his debut novel, "Watership Down" (1972), featured rabbits that could talkwith their own distinctive language (Lapine) and mythologyand included a police-state warren, Efrafa. Despite this, Adams attempted to ensure his characters' behavior mirrored that of wild rabbits, engaging in fighting, copulating and defecating, drawing on Ronald Lockley's study "The Private Life of the Rabbit" as research. Adams returned to anthropomorphic storytelling in his later novels "The Plague Dogs" (1977) and "Traveller" (1988).


title: Anthropomorphism

text: By the 21st century, the children's picture book market had expanded massively. Perhaps a majority of picture books have some kind of anthropomorphism, with popular examples being "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" (1969) by Eric Carle and "The Gruffalo" (1999) by Julia Donaldson.


title: Anthropomorphism

text: Anthropomorphism in literature and other media led to a sub-culture known as furry fandom, which promotes and creates stories and artwork involving anthropomorphic animals, and the examination and interpretation of humanity through anthropomorphism. This can often be shortened in searches as "anthro", used by some as an alternative term to "furry".


title: Anthropomorphism

text: Anthropomorphic characters have also been a staple of the comic book genre. The most prominent one was Neil Gaiman's the "Sandman" which had a huge impact on how characters that are physical embodiments are written in the fantasy genre. Other examples also include the mature "Hellblazer" (personified political and moral ideas), "Fables" and its spin-off series "Jack of Fables", which was unique for having anthropomorphic representation of literary techniques and genres. Various Japanese manga and anime have used anthropomorphism as the basis of their story. Examples include "Squid Girl" (anthropomorphized squid), "" (personified countries), "Upotte!!" (personified guns), "Arpeggio of Blue Steel" and "Kancolle" (personified ships).


title: Anthropomorphism

text: Some of the most notable examples are the Walt Disney characters the Magic Carpet from Disney's Aladdin franchise, Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Goofy, and Oswald the Lucky Rabbit; the Looney Tunes characters Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, and Porky Pig; and an array of others from the 1920s to present day.


title: Anthropomorphism

text: In the Disney/Pixar franchises "Cars" and "Planes", all the characters are anthropomorphic vehicles, while in "Toy Story", they are anthropomorphic toys. Other Pixar franchises like "Monsters, Inc." features anthropomorphic monsters, and "Finding Nemo" features anthropomorphic marine life creatures (like fish, sharks, and whales). Discussing anthropomorphic animals from DreamWorks franchise "Madagascar", suggests that "". Other DreamWorks franchises like "Shrek" features fairy tale characters, and Blue Sky Studios of 20th Century Fox franchises like "Ice Age" features anthropomorphic extinct animals.


title: Anthropomorphism

text: All of the characters in Walt Disney Animation Studios' "Zootopia" (2016) are anthropomorphic animals, that is an entirely nonhuman civilization.


title: Anthropomorphism

text: The live-action/computer-animated franchise "Alvin and the Chipmunks" by 20th Century Fox centers around anthropomorphic talkative and singing chipmunks. The female singing chipmunks called The Chipettes are also centered in some of the franchise's films.


title: Anthropomorphism

text: Since the 1960s, anthropomorphism has also been represented in various animated television shows such as "Biker Mice From Mars" (1993–1996) and "" (1993–1995). "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles", first aired in 1987, features four pizza-loving anthropomorphic turtles with a great knowledge of ninjutsu, led by their anthropomorphic rat sensei, Master Splinter. Nickelodeon's longest running animated TV series "SpongeBob SquarePants" (1999–present), revolves around SpongeBob, a yellow sea sponge, living in the underwater town of Bikini Bottom with his anthropomorphic marine life friends. Cartoon Network's animated series "The Amazing World of Gumball" (2011–2019) are about anthropomorphic animals and inanimate objects. All of the characters in Hasbro Studios' TV series "" (2010–2019) are anthropomorphic fantasy creatures, with most of them being ponies living in the pony-inhabited land of Equestria. The Netflix original series Centaurworld focuses on a warhorse who gets transported to a Dr. Seuss-like world full of centaurs who possess the bottom half of any animal, as opposed to the traditional horse.


title: Anthropomorphism

text: In the American animated TV series "Family Guy", one of the show's main characters, Brian, is a dog. Brian shows many human characteristics – he walks upright, talks, smokes, and drinks Martinis – but also acts like a normal dog in other ways; for example he cannot resist chasing a ball and barks at the mailman, believing him to be a threat. In a similar case, "BoJack Horseman", an American Netflix adult animated black comedy series, takes place in an alternate world where humans and anthropomorphic animals live side by side, and centers around the life of BoJack Horseman; a humanoid horse who was a one hit wonder on a popular 1990s sitcom "Horsin' Around", living off the show's residuals in present time. Multiple main characters of the series are other animals who possess human body form and other human-like traits and identity as well; Mr. Peanutbutter, a humanoid dog lives a mostly human lifehe speaks American English, walks upright, owns a house, drives a car, is in a romantic relationship with a human woman (in this series, as animals and humans are seen as equal, relationships like this are not seen as bestiality but seen as regular human sexuality), Diane, and has a successful career in televisionhowever also exhibits dog traitshe sleeps in a human-size dog bed, gets arrested for having a drag race with the mailman and is once forced to wear a dog cone after he gets stitches in his arm.


title: Anthropomorphism

text: The PBS Kids animated series "Let's Go Luna!" centers on an anthropomorphic female Moon who speaks, sings, and dances. She comes down out of the sky to serve as a tutor of international culture to the three main characters: a boy frog and wombat and a girl butterfly, who are supposed to be preschool children traveling a world populated by anthropomorphic animals with a circus run by their parents.


title: Anthropomorphism

text: The French-Belgian animated series "Mush-Mush & the Mushables" takes place in a world inhabited by Mushables, which are anthropomrphic fungi, along with other critters such as beetles, snails, and frogs.


title: Anthropomorphism

text: "Sonic the Hedgehog", a video game franchise debuting in 1991, features a speedy blue hedgehog as the main protagonist. This series' characters are almost all anthropomorphic animals such as foxes, cats, and other hedgehogs who are able to speak and walk on their hind legs like normal humans. As with most anthropomorphisms of animals, clothing is of little or no importance, where some characters may be fully clothed while some wear only shoes and gloves.


title: Anthropomorphism

text: Another popular example in video games is the "Super Mario" series, debuting in 1985 with "Super Mario Bros.", of which main antagonist includes a fictional species of anthropomorphic turtle-like creatures known as Koopas. Other games in the series, as well as of other of its greater "Mario" franchise, spawned similar characters such as Yoshi, Donkey Kong and many others.


title: Anthropomorphism

text: Claes Oldenburg's soft sculptures are commonly described as anthropomorphic. Depicting common household objects, Oldenburg's sculptures were considered Pop Art. Reproducing these objects, often at a greater size than the original, Oldenburg created his sculptures out of soft materials. The anthropomorphic qualities of the sculptures were mainly in their sagging and malleable exterior which mirrored the not-so-idealistic forms of the human body. In "Soft Light Switches" Oldenburg creates a household light switch out of vinyl. The two identical switches, in a dulled orange, insinuate nipples. The soft vinyl references the aging process as the sculpture wrinkles and sinks with time.


title: Anthropomorphism

text: In the essay "Art and Objecthood", Michael Fried makes the case that "literalist art" (minimalism) becomes theatrical by means of anthropomorphism. The viewer engages the minimalist work, not as an autonomous art object, but as a theatrical interaction. Fried references a conversation in which Tony Smith answers questions about his six-foot cube, "Die".


title: Anthropomorphism

text: Fried implies an anthropomorphic connection by means of "a surrogate personthat is, a kind of statue."


title: Anthropomorphism

text: The minimalist decision of "hollowness" in much of their work was also considered by Fried to be "blatantly anthropomorphic". This "hollowness" contributes to the idea of a separate inside; an idea mirrored in the human form. Fried considers the Literalist art's "hollowness" to be "biomorphic" as it references a living organism.


title: Anthropomorphism

text: Curator Lucy Lippard's Eccentric Abstraction show, in 1966, sets up Briony Fer's writing of a post-minimalist anthropomorphism. Reacting to Fried's interpretation of minimalist art's "looming presence of objects which appear as actors might on a stage", Fer interprets the artists in Eccentric Abstraction to a new form of anthropomorphism. She puts forth the thoughts of Surrealist writer Roger Caillois, who speaks of the "spacial lure of the subject, the way in which the subject could inhabit their surroundings." Caillous uses the example of an insect who "through camouflage does so in order to become invisible... and loses its distinctness." For Fer, the anthropomorphic qualities of imitation found in the erotic, organic sculptures of artists Eva Hesse and Louise Bourgeois, are not necessarily for strictly "mimetic" purposes. Instead, like the insect, the work must come into being in the "scopic field... which we cannot view from outside."


title: Anthropomorphism

text: For branding, merchandising, and representation, figures known as mascots are now often employed to personify sports teams, corporations, and major events such as the World's Fair and the Olympics. These personifications may be simple human or animal figures, such as Ronald McDonald or the donkey that represents the United States's Democratic Party. Other times, they are anthropomorphic items, such as "Clippy" or the "Michelin Man". Most often, they are anthropomorphic animals such as the Energizer Bunny or the San Diego Chicken.


title: Anthropomorphism

text: The practice is particularly widespread in Japan, where cities, regions, and companies all have mascots, collectively known as "yuru-chara". Two of the most popular are Kumamon (a bear who represents Kumamoto Prefecture) and Funassyi (a pear who represents Funabashi, a suburb of Tokyo).


title: Anthropomorphism

text: Other examples of anthropomorphism include the attribution of human traits to animals, especially domesticated pets such as dogs and cats. Examples of this include thinking a dog is smiling simply because it is showing his teeth, or a cat mourns for a dead owner.


title: Anthropomorphism

text: Anthropomorphism may be beneficial to the welfare of animals. A 2012 study by Butterfield et al. found that utilizing anthropomorphic language when describing dogs created a greater willingness to help them in situations of distress. Previous studies have shown that individuals who attribute human characteristics to animals are less willing to eat them, and that the degree to which individuals perceive minds in other animals predicts the moral concern afforded to them. It is possible that anthropomorphism leads humans to like non-humans more when they have apparent human qualities, since perceived similarity has been shown to increase prosocial behavior toward other humans. A study of how animal behaviors were discussed on the television series "Life" found that the script very often used anthropomorphisms.


title: Anthropomorphism

text: In science, the use of anthropomorphic language that suggests animals have intentions and emotions has traditionally been deprecated as indicating a lack of objectivity. Biologists have been warned to avoid assumptions that animals share any of the same mental, social, and emotional capacities of humans, and to rely instead on strictly observable evidence. In 1927 Ivan Pavlov wrote that animals should be considered "without any need to resort to fantastic speculations as to the existence of any possible subjective states". More recently, "The Oxford companion to animal behaviour" (1987) advised that "one is well advised to study the behaviour rather than attempting to get at any underlying emotion". Some scientists, like William M Wheeler (writing apologetically of his use of anthropomorphism in 1911), have used anthropomorphic language in metaphor to make subjects more humanly comprehensible or memorable.


title: Anthropomorphism

text: Despite the impact of Charles Darwin's ideas in "The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals" (Konrad Lorenz in 1965 called him a "patron saint" of ethology) ethology has generally focused on behavior, not on emotion in animals.


title: Anthropomorphism

text: The study of great apes in their own environment and in captivity has changed attitudes to anthropomorphism. In the 1960s the three so-called "Leakey's Angels", Jane Goodall studying chimpanzees, Dian Fossey studying gorillas and Biruté Galdikas studying orangutans, were all accused of "that worst of ethological sins – anthropomorphism". The charge was brought about by their descriptions of the great apes in the field; it is now more widely accepted that empathy has an important part to play in research.


title: Anthropomorphism

text: De Waal has written: "To endow animals with human emotions has long been a scientific taboo. But if we do not, we risk missing something fundamental, about both animals and us." Alongside this has come increasing awareness of the linguistic abilities of the great apes and the recognition that they are tool-makers and have individuality and culture.


title: Anthropomorphism

text: Writing of cats in 1992, veterinarian Bruce Fogle points to the fact that "both humans and cats have identical neurochemicals and regions in the brain responsible for emotion" as evidence that "it is not anthropomorphic to credit cats with emotions such as jealousy".


title: Anthropomorphism

text: In science fiction, an artificially-intelligent computer or robot, even though it has not been programmed with human emotions, often spontaneously experiences those emotions anyway: for example, Agent Smith in The Matrix was influenced by a "disgust" toward humanity. This is an example of anthropomorphism: in reality, while an artificial intelligence could perhaps be deliberately programmed with human emotions, or could develop something similar to an emotion as a means to an ultimate goal "if" it is useful to do so, it would not spontaneously develop human emotions for no purpose whatsoever, as portrayed in fiction.


title: Anthropomorphism

text: One example of anthropomorphism would be to believe that one's computer is angry at them because they insulted it; another would be to believe that an intelligent robot would naturally find a woman attractive and be driven to mate with her. Scholars sometimes disagree with each other about whether a particular prediction about an artificial intelligence's behavior is logical, or whether the prediction constitutes illogical anthropomorphism. An example that might initially be considered anthropomorphism, but is in fact a logical statement about an artificial intelligence's behavior, would be the Dario Floreano experiments where certain robots spontaneously evolved a crude capacity for "deception", and tricked other robots into eating "poison" and dying: here, a trait, "deception", ordinarily associated with people rather than with machines, spontaneously evolves in a type of convergent evolution.


title: Anthropomorphism

text: The conscious use of anthropomorphic metaphor is not intrinsically unwise; ascribing mental processes to the computer, under the proper circumstances, may serve the same purpose as it does when humans do it to other people: it may help persons to understand what the computer will do, how their actions will affect the computer, how to compare computers with humans, and conceivably how to design computer programs. However, inappropriate use of anthropomorphic metaphors can result in false beliefs about the behavior of computers, for example by causing people to overestimate how "flexible" computers are. According to Paul R. Cohen and Edward Feigenbaum, in order to differentiate between anthropomorphization and logical prediction of AI behavior, "the trick is to know enough about how humans and computers think to say "exactly" what they have in common, and, when we lack this knowledge, to use the comparison to "suggest" theories of human thinking or computer thinking."


title: Anthropomorphism

text: Computers overturn the childhood hierarchical taxonomy of "stones (non-living) → plants (living) → animals (conscious) → humans (rational)", by introducing a non-human "actor" that appears to regularly behave rationally. Much of computing terminology derives from anthropomorphic metaphors: computers can "read", "write", or "catch a virus". Information technology presents no clear correspondence with any other entities in the world besides humans; the options are either to leverage an emotional, imprecise human metaphor, or to reject imprecise metaphor and make use of more precise, domain-specific technical terms.


title: Anthropomorphism

text: People often grant an unnecessary social role to computers during interactions. The underlying causes are debated; Youngme Moon and Clifford Nass propose that humans are emotionally, intellectually and physiologically biased toward social activity, and so when presented with even tiny social cues, deeply-infused social responses are triggered automatically. This may allow incorporation of anthropomorphic features into computers/robots to enable more familiar "social" interactions, making them easier to use.


title: Anthropomorphism

text: In psychology, the first empirical study of anthropomorphism was conducted in 1944 by Fritz Heider and Marianne Simmel. In the first part of this experiment, the researchers showed a 2-and-a-half minute long animation of several shapes moving around on the screen in varying directions at various speeds. When subjects were asked to describe what they saw, they gave detailed accounts of the intentions and personalities of the shapes. For instance, the large triangle was characterized as a bully, chasing the other two shapes until they could trick the large triangle and escape. The researchers concluded that when people see objects making motions for which there is no obvious cause, they view these objects as intentional agents (individuals that deliberately make choices to achieve goals).


title: Anthropomorphism

text: Modern psychologists generally characterize anthropomorphism as a cognitive bias. That is, anthropomorphism is a cognitive process by which people use their schemas about other humans as a basis for inferring the properties of non-human entities in order to make efficient judgements about the environment, even if those inferences are not always accurate. Schemas about humans are used as the basis because this knowledge is acquired early in life, is more detailed than knowledge about non-human entities, and is more readily accessible in memory. Anthropomorphism can also function as a strategy to cope with loneliness when other human connections are not available.


title: Anthropomorphism

text: Since making inferences requires cognitive effort, anthropomorphism is likely to be triggered only when certain aspects about a person and their environment are true. Psychologist Adam Waytz and his colleagues created a three-factor theory of anthropomorphism to describe these aspects and predict when people are most likely to anthropomorphize. The three factors are:


title: Anthropomorphism

text: When elicited agent knowledge is low and effectance and sociality are high, people are more likely to anthropomorphize. Various dispositional, situational, developmental, and cultural variables can affect these three factors, such as need for cognition, social disconnection, cultural ideologies, uncertainty avoidance, etc.


title: Anthropomorphism

text: Children appear to anthropomorphize and use egocentric reasoning from an early age and use it more frequently than adults. Examples of this are describing a storm cloud as "angry" or drawing flowers with faces. This penchant for anthropomorphism is likely because children have acquired vast amounts of socialization, but not as much experience with specific non-human entities, so thus they have less developed alternative schemas for their environment. In contrast, autistic children tend to describe anthropomorphized objects in purely mechanical terms (that is, in terms of what they do) because they have difficulties with theory of mind.


title: Anthropomorphism

text: Anthropomorphism can be used to assist learning. Specifically, anthropomorphized words and describing scientific concepts with intentionality can improve later recall of these concepts.


title: Anthropomorphism

text: In people with depression, social anxiety, or other mental illnesses, emotional support animals are a useful component of treatment partially because anthropomorphism of these animals can satisfy the patients' need for social connection.


title: Anthropomorphism

text: Anthropomorphism of inanimate objects can affect product buying behavior. When products seem to resemble a human schema, such as the front of a car resembling a face, potential buyers evaluate that product more positively than if they do not anthropomorphize the object.


title: Anthropomorphism

text: People also tend to trust robots to do more complex tasks such as driving a car or childcare if the robot resembles humans in ways such as having a face, voice, and name; mimicking human motions; expressing emotion; and displaying some variability in behavior.


The 1992 United States men's Olympic basketball team, nicknamed the "Dream Team", was the first American Olympic team to feature active professional players from the National Basketball Association (NBA). The team has been described by some journalists as the greatest sports team ever assembled.


title: 1992 United States men's Olympic basketball team

text: At the 1992 Summer Olympics held in Barcelona, the team defeated its opponents by an average of 44 points en route to the gold medal against Croatia.


text: The team was collectively inducted into the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame in 2009, the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2010, and the FIBA Hall of Fame in 2017. The Naismith Hall calls the team "the greatest collection of basketball talent on the planet". In addition to the team induction, 11 players and three coaches have also been inducted individually into the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame.


text: Prior to the 1992 Olympics, FIBA rules specifically prevented NBA players from participating in Olympic tournaments, and only amateurs were eligible for the U.S. Olympic teams, which were composed of collegiate and, at times (especially in the 1950s), AAU players. Other countries used their best players from their domestic professional leagues. In the 1988 Summer Olympics, the Americans lost to the USSR and settled for bronze, their worst finish in the history of the tournament.


text: In 1989, FIBA voted to change the rule and allow NBA players to participate. The vote was 56–13 in favor of the change; the Amateur Basketball Association of the United States of America (ABAUSA, renamed USA Basketball after the vote) voted against it due to "colleges and high schools that make up most of [ABAUSA's] constituency [opposing] it." The Soviet proposal to limit the national teams to only two NBA players for the first few years was then unanimously rejected.


text: USA Basketball asked the NBA to supply players for its 1992 roster; the league was initially unenthusiastic about this idea. In early 1991, "Sports Illustrated" labeled the forthcoming American roster as the "Dream Team" on the cover of its February 18 issue.


text: The first ten players for the team were selected on September 21, 1991: Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen of the Chicago Bulls, John Stockton and Karl Malone of the Utah Jazz, Magic Johnson of the Los Angeles Lakers, Larry Bird of the Boston Celtics, Patrick Ewing of the New York Knicks, Chris Mullin of the Golden State Warriors, David Robinson of the San Antonio Spurs, and Charles Barkley of the Philadelphia 76ers. On May 12, 1992, Clyde Drexler of the Portland Trail Blazers was chosen over Isiah Thomas of the Detroit Pistons for the final professional roster spot. As an acknowledgment to the previous amateur system, the U.S. basketball committee decided to include one collegiate player on the team: Christian Laettner of Duke University was added on May 12, 1992, chosen over Louisiana State University's Shaquille O'Neal.


text: Most of the players on the team were at or near the peaks of their NBA careers. Bird had back trouble but was selected due to the team's historic nature. Robinson had played with the 1988 Olympic team and was eager to earn a gold medal at Barcelona.


text: Johnson had retired from the Lakers in November 1991 after testing positive for HIV. His teammates expected Johnson to die from the disease, and he later described his selection for the Olympics as "almost like a life saver", evidence that he could still overcome the illness and live a productive life. The Australian Olympic delegation prominently threatened to boycott the games in protest of Johnson's presence, fearing that he might infect other athletes. Their threats backfired, however, as Johnson received even more public support. Ewing, Jordan, and Mullin had won gold at the 1984 games; Malone had not made the team and saw his non-selection in 1984 as a challenge.


text: Jordan declined head coach Chuck Daly's suggestion that Jordan serve as the public face of the team, and Bird and Johnson were selected as co-captains. Over the previous 13 NBA seasons leading up to the 1992 Olympics, these three superstars combined had won 10 NBA championships and received seven NBA Finals MVP awards and nine regular-season MVP awards.


text: There was speculation that Isiah Thomas was not part of the team because Jordan would participate only if Thomas was not on the roster. At the time, it was widely believed that Jordan did not like Thomas because he was seen as the "ring leader" of the Detroit Pistons of the late 1980s and early 1990s; nicknamed the "", the team employed overtly physical tactics against Jordan in the NBA Playoffs. In his 2012 book "Dream Team", author Jack McCallum quotes Jordan as saying to Team USA selection committee member Rod Thorn, "Rod, I don’t want to play if Isiah Thomas is on the team". In 2020, Thorn and Jordan denied directly mentioning Thomas's name in discussions. According to Jordan in the documentary series "The Last Dance", he asked Thorn, "Who’s all playing?" to which Thorn responded, "The guy you’re thinking about is not going to be playing."


text: After the selection of the first ten members of the team, Johnson released an official statement in support of Thomas, but years later it was discovered that his support was less than enthusiastic. In the book "When the Game Was Ours", Johnson said, "Isiah killed his own chances when it came to the Olympics. Nobody on that team wanted to play with him."


text: The selection committee considered several college players including Harold Miner, Jimmy Jackson, and Alonzo Mourning in addition to Shaquille O'Neal and Christian Laettner. O'Neal was the number-one pick in the 1992 NBA draft, but Laettner's Duke Blue Devils teams won consecutive National Championships in 1991 and 1992. Laettner was the Naismith College Player of the Year and scored the game-winning basket as time expired in the 1992 NCAA Eastern Regional final. Although O'Neal was a two-time Consensus NCAA First Team All-American in 1991 and 1992, his team lost in the second round of the 1992 NCAA men's tournament. Laettner's college success ultimately secured his position on the team.


text: To help the team prepare for the Olympics, a squad of the best NCAA college players was formed to scrimmage them. USA Basketball selected players whose style of play, it hoped, would resemble that of the Europeans the Dream Team would face. Members included the penetrating guard Bobby Hurley, all-around players Grant Hill and Penny Hardaway, outside shooter Allan Houston, and the tough Chris Webber and Eric Montross. Hill and Hardaway would play for the 1996 national team, and Houston on the 2000 team.


text: In late June, the Dream Team first met together in La Jolla, California, astounding and intimidating the collegians who watched them practice. However, on June 24, the Dream Team lost to the NCAA team, 62–54, after underestimating the opposition. Daly intentionally limited Jordan's playing time and made non-optimal substitutions; assistant coach Mike Krzyzewski later said that the head coach "threw the game" to teach the NBA players that they could be beaten. The teams played again the following day, with the Olympians winning decisively in the rematch. Some of the college players visited Jordan's hotel room afterward and asked their hero for his personal items as souvenirs.


text: The Dream Team made its international debut on June 28 at the Tournament of the Americas, an Olympic qualifying event in Portland, Oregon. The team defeated Cuba 136–57, prompting Cuban coach Miguel Calderón Gómez to say, "You can't cover the sun with your finger." Marv Albert, who announced the game, recalled that "it was as if [the Americans] were playing a high school team, or grade school team. They were so overwhelming ... a blowout after blowout." The Cubans were the first of many opponents who were more interested in taking photos with the Americans than playing them. The next five games were also easy victories for Team USA, which ended the tournament on July 5 with a 127–80 victory over Venezuela in the championship game to win the tournament and be one of four Americas squads to qualify for the Olympics.


text: The team trained for the Olympics in Monaco for six days, practicing two hours a day and playing exhibition games against other national teams. During their time away from the court, the squad spent time enjoying the nude beaches, Monte Carlo's casinos, and dining with royalty. There was no curfew; as Daly stated, "I'm not putting in a curfew because I'd have to adhere to it, and Jimmy'z [a noted Monte Carlo nightclub] doesn't open until midnight."


text: For one scrimmage, the group divided into two teams: Blue (led by Johnson, with Barkley, Robinson, Mullin, and Laettner) and White (led by Jordan, with Malone, Ewing, Pippen, and Bird). Drexler and Stockton did not play because of injuries. Daly told the teams to play "All you got now. All you got." White won, 40 to 36, in what Jordan recalled as "the best game I was ever in" and "Sports Illustrated" later called "the Greatest Game Nobody Ever Saw".


text: Because of the team's unique celebrity, the Dream Team did not stay in the Olympic Village due to security concerns. The Olympic Village had only four guards at the gate when the team arrived to pick up their credentials; one of the guards, upon seeing the Dream Team, grabbed his camera and his child while the team members were mobbed by other Olympic athletes. Daly also stated that the beds in the Village were a problem, as two of his athletes were over seven feet tall and he considered comfort a priority to keep the team rested.


text: As a result, the team stayed at Barcelona's Hotel Ambassador, where USA Basketball occupied 80 of the hotel's 98 rooms. Fans were not allowed to enter the lobby, but did gather outside the hotel, hoping to see their favorite players. "It was like Elvis and the Beatles put together," Daly said. Opposing basketball players and athletes from other sports often asked to have photographs taken with the players.


text: In an interview years later, Charles Barkley recounted that "we got death threats". Despite that assertion, Barkley walked around the city alone. When asked where his bodyguards were, he held up his fists and answered, "This is my security."


text: Jordan was the only player who studied the opposition, carefully watching game tapes. He and the other Americans enjoyed the opportunity to get to know each other in a casual setting, often playing cards all night and, for Jordan, playing several rounds of golf daily with little rest.


text: Opposing teams were nonetheless overwhelmed by the talent of the American roster, losing by an average of 43.8 points per game. This was the second largest Olympic Games point differential, surpassed only by the 53.5 point per game margin achieved by the 1956 US Men's Basketball Team. The Dream Team was the first to score more than 100 points in every game. Its 117.3 average was more than 15 points more than the 1960 US team. Johnson later recalled, "I look to my right, there's Michael Jordan ... I look to my left, there's Charles Barkley or Larry Bird ... I didn't know who to throw the ball to!"


text: In a press conference before the team's first Olympic game against Angola, Barkley famously quipped "I don't know anything about Angola. But Angola's in trouble." Herlander Coimbra of Angola recalled that "those guys were on another level—a galaxy far, far away". During the game, Barkley elbowed Coimbra in the chest and was unapologetic after the game, claiming he was hit first. Barkley was called for an intentional foul on the play. Coimbra's resulting free throw was the only point scored by Angola during a 46–1 run by the US.


text: Although this incident had no bearing on the final result (a 116–48 USA win), at the time there was a concern about the image of America to the rest of the world. After the game, Jordan said, "There just wasn't any place for it. We were dominating the game. It created mixed feelings, it caused a mixed reaction about the U.S. There's already some negative feelings about us." Even though this was the only incident of the game, it changed the narrative; instead of the Americans being viewed as a highly skilled team beating an underdog, some viewed them as bullies.


text: Daly started Jordan in every game, and Johnson started in five of the six games he played, missing two games because of knee problems. Pippen, Bird, Mullin, Robinson, Ewing, Malone, and Barkley rotated in the other starting spots. Barkley was the Dream Team's leading scorer during the Olympics, averaging 18.0 points per game, although the player selection committee had been unsure of his inclusion, worried that he would not represent the United States well.


text: The closest of the eight matches was Team USA's 117–85 victory over Croatia in the gold medal game. Croatia, participating as an independent nation in the Olympics for the first time since its separation from the former Yugoslavia, briefly led the Dream Team by a score of 25–23 in the first half. By the end of the game, Team USA had pulled away and Stockton agreed to a Croatian player's plea not to shoot. Pippen and Jordan aggressively sought the opportunity to guard Toni Kukoč of Croatia. He had just signed a contract with the Bulls for more money than Pippen, who believed that the team's negotiation with the Croatian had delayed his own contract. Tired of hearing about Kukoč's talent, Pippen and Jordan agreed to, as Jordan later said, "not ... let this guy do "anything" against us." McCallum described the two Bulls as "rabid dogs" against Kukoč. Croatia had lost to the Dream Team 103–70 in their first game. The only team besides Croatia to hold the margin under 40 points was Puerto Rico, which lost 115–77 in the quarterfinals.


text: "Sports Illustrated" later stated that the Dream Team was "arguably the most dominant squad ever assembled in any sport" and compared it to "Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison, the Allman Brothers at the Fillmore East, Santana at Woodstock." In 2009, the team was elected to the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Hall of Fame. The following year, the team was elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.


text: Barkley later said, "I don't think there's anything better to representing your country. I don't think anything in my life can come close to that." Bird called the medal ceremony and the playing of "The Star-Spangled Banner" "the ultimate experience." Johnson said, "The 92 Dream Team was the greatest moment of my life in terms of basketball, bar none." Jordan said that the biggest benefit for him from the Olympics was that he learned more about his teammates' weaknesses. He later defeated Barkley, Malone, and Stockton in three NBA finals. As of 2014, 11 of the 12 players on the roster (all except Laettner) and three of the four coaches (all except Carlesimo) have been elected to the Hall of Fame as individuals.


text: Global interest in basketball soared due to the Dream Team. In one game, an opposing player guarding Magic Johnson was seen frantically waving to a camera-wielding teammate on the bench, signaling to make sure he got a picture of them together. Daly said of the opposing teams "They'll go home and for the rest of their lives be able to tell their kids, 'I played against Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson and Larry Bird.' And the more they play against our best players, the more confident they're going to get".


text: International Olympic Committee head Juan Antonio Samaranch stated that "the most important aspect of the [Barcelona] Games has been the resounding success of the basketball tournament, as we've witnessed the best basketball in the world." Subsequently, the number of international players in the NBA rose. On opening day of the 1991–92 season, NBA rosters included 23 international players from 18 countries. At the start of the 2011–12 season, there were 74 players from 35 countries. Many international players credited the Dream Team as their inspiration to take up basketball.


text: Kobe Bryant and LeBron James said they believed their 2012 Olympic team would win against the Dream Team. Bryant said, "[T]hey were a lot older, at kind of the end of their careers. We have just a bunch of young racehorses, guys that are eager to compete." Barkley said that he "just started laughing" upon hearing Bryant's comment and that the Dream Team would win by double digits. Jordan added, "For [Bryant] to compare those two teams is not one of the smarter things he ever could have done... Remember now, they learned from us. We didn't learn from them." Bird joked, "They probably could. I haven't played in 20 years and we're all old now."


text: The team was again undefeated, with their closest outing being the 32-point victory over Croatia for the gold medal.


title: Korea under Japanese rule

text: Between 1910 and 1945, Korea was ruled as a part of the Empire of Japan. Joseon Korea had come into the Japanese sphere of influence with the Japan–Korea Treaty of 1876; a complex coalition of the Meiji government, military, and business officials


title: Korea under Japanese rule

text: began a process of integrating Korea's politics and economy with Japan. The Korean Empire, proclaimed in 1897, became a protectorate of Japan with the Japan–Korea Treaty of 1905; thereafter Japan ruled the country indirectly through the Japanese Resident-General of Korea. Japan formally annexed the Korean Empire with the Japan–Korea Treaty of 1910,


title: Korea under Japanese rule

text: without the consent of the former Korean Emperor Gojong, the regent of the Emperor Sunjong. Upon its annexation, Japan declared that Korea would henceforth be officially named Chōsen. This name was recognized internationally until the end of Japanese colonial rule. The territory was administered by the Governor-General of Chōsen based in Keijō (Seoul).


title: Korea under Japanese rule

text: Japanese rule prioritized Korea's Japanization, accelerated the industrialization started during the Gwangmu Reform era of 1897 to 1907, built public works, and suppressed the Korean independence movement. The public works included developing railroads (Gyeongbu Line, Gyeongui Line, Gyeongwon Line, etc.) and improving major roads and ports that supported economic development. Averages for the annual GNP growth-rate of Chōsen were comparable to those in the Japanese "naichi", ranging from 2.3% to 4.2% during the 25 years preceding the Second Sino-Japanese War. By the time of the Pacific War, industrial growth and output in Chōsen approached that of the "naichi".


title: Korea under Japanese rule

text: Japanese rule over Korea ended on 15 August 1945 with the surrender of Japan in World War II. The armed forces of the United States and the Soviet Union subsequently occupied this region. Their division of Korea separated the Korean Peninsula into two different governments and economic systems: the northern Soviet Civil Administration and the southern United States Army Military Government in Korea. These post-war administrative areas were succeeded respectively by the modern independent states of North Korea and South Korea. Japan officially relinquished the claims of Korea in the signing of Treaty of San Francisco on 28 April 1952.


title: Korea under Japanese rule

text: In 1965 the Treaty on Basic Relations between Japan and South Korea declared that previous unequal treaties between both countries, especially those of 1905 and 1910, were "already null and void"


title: Korea under Japanese rule

text: Interpretations of Japanese rule over Korea remain controversial in Japan and both North and South Korea.


title: Korea under Japanese rule

text: During the period of Japanese colonial rule, Korea was officially known as , although the former name continued to be used internationally.


title: Korea under Japanese rule

text: In South Korea, the period is usually described as the "Imperial Japanese occupation" (). According to the "Chosun Ilbo", the term was derived from a North Korean one referring to South Korea as under "American imperial occupation" (). Other terms, although often considered obsolete, include "Japanese Imperial Period" (), "The dark Japanese Imperial Period" (), "period of the Japanese imperial colonial administration" (), and "Wae (Japanese) administration" ().


title: Korea under Japanese rule

text: On 27 February 1876, the Japan–Korea Treaty of 1876, also known in Japan as the Japanese–Korea Treaty of Amity (Japanese: , meaning "Japan-Chosun friendly relations treaty", meaning "Treaty of Ganghwa island") was signed. It was designed to open up Korea to Japanese trade, and the rights granted to Japan under the treaty were similar to those granted Western powers in Japan following the visit of Commodore Perry in 1854. The treaty ended Korea's status as a protectorate of China, forced open three Korean ports to Japanese trade, granted extraterritorial rights to Japanese citizens, and was an unequal treaty signed under duress (gunboat diplomacy) of the Ganghwa Island incident of 1875.


title: Korea under Japanese rule

text: As a result of the treaty, Japanese merchants came to Busan, which became the center for foreign trade and commerce. Japanese officials then published Korea's first newspaper, , in 1881. Chinese language articles were aimed at Korea's educated elite, which advocated for constitutional government, freedom of speech, strong rule of law and legal rights, and Korean-led industrialization. Few of these goals came to pass. Japanese language articles focused on news regarding business, specifically "the stagnant Pusan trade" in rice and other farmed goods, which fluctuated wildly due to weather conditions and the whims of the tax-levying elite class. It ceased publication sometime after May 1882.


title: Korea under Japanese rule

text: The regent Daewongun, who remained opposed to any concessions to Japan or the West, helped organize the Mutiny of 1882, an anti-Japanese outbreak against Queen Min and her allies. Motivated by resentment of the preferential treatment given to newly trained troops, the Daewongun's forces, or "old military", killed a Japanese training cadre, and attacked the Japanese legation. Japanese diplomats, policemen, students and some Min clan members were also killed during the incident. The Daewongun was briefly restored to power, only to be forcibly taken to China by Chinese troops dispatched to Seoul to prevent further disorder.


title: Korea under Japanese rule

text: In August 1882, the Treaty of Jemulpo (Japan–Korea Treaty of 1882) indemnified the families of the Japanese victims, paid reparations to the Japanese government in the amount of 500,000 yen, and allowed a company of Japanese guards to be stationed at the Japanese legation in Seoul.


title: Korea under Japanese rule

text: The struggle between the Heungseon Daewongun's followers and those of Queen Min was further complicated by competition from a Korean independence faction known as the Progressive Party ("Gaehwa-dang"), as well as the Conservative faction. While the former sought Japan's support, the latter sought China's support. On 4 December 1884, the Progressive Party, assisted by the Japanese, attempted a coup (Gapsin coup) and established a pro-Japanese government under the reigning king, dedicated to the independence of Korea from Chinese suzerainty. However, this proved short-lived, as conservative Korean officials requested the help of Chinese forces stationed in Korea. The coup was put down by Chinese troops, and a Korean mob killed both Japanese officers and Japanese residents in retaliation. Some leaders of the Progressive Party, including Kim Ok-gyun, fled to Japan, while others were executed. For the next 10 years, Japanese expansion into the Korean economy was approximated only by the efforts of czarist Russia.


title: Korea under Japanese rule

text: The outbreak of the Donghak peasant revolution in 1894 provided a seminal pretext for direct military intervention by Japan in the affairs of Korea. In April 1894, the Korean government asked for Chinese assistance in ending the Donghak peasant revolt. In response, Japanese leaders, citing a violation of the Convention of Tientsin as a pretext, decided upon military intervention to challenge China. On 3 May 1894, 1,500 Qing forces appeared in Incheon. Japan won the First Sino-Japanese War, and China signed the Treaty of Shimonoseki in 1895. Among its many stipulations, the treaty recognized "the full and complete independence and autonomy of Korea", thus ending Korea's tributary relationship with the Chinese Qing dynasty, leading to the proclamation of full independence of Joseon Korea in 1895. At the same time, Japan suppressed the Donghak revolution with Korean government forces. With the exception of czarist Russia, Japan now held military predominance in Korea.


title: Korea under Japanese rule

text: The Japanese minister to Korea, Miura Gorō, orchestrated a plot against 43-year-old Queen Min (later given the title of "Empress Myeongseong"), and on 8 October 1895, she was assassinated by Japanese agents. In 2001, Russian reports on the assassination were found in the archives of the Foreign Ministry of the Russian Federation. The documents included the testimony of King Gojong, several witnesses of the assassination, and Karl Ivanovich Weber's report to Aleksey Lobanov-Rostovsky, the Foreign Minister of Russia, by Park Jonghyo. Weber was the "chargé d'affaires" at the Russian legation in Seoul at that time. According to a Russian eyewitness, Seredin-Sabatin, an employee of the king, a group of Japanese agents entered Gyeongbokgung, killed Queen Min, and desecrated her body in the north wing of the palace.


title: Korea under Japanese rule

text: When he heard the news, Heungseon Daewongun returned to the royal palace the same day. On 11 February 1896, King Gojong and the crown prince moved from Gyeongbokgung to the Russian legation in Jeong-dong, Seoul, from where they governed for about one year, an event known as the Korea royal refuge at the Russian legation.


title: Korea under Japanese rule

text: After the Royal Refuge, some Korean activists established the Independence Club () in 1896. They claimed that Korea should negotiate with Western powers, particularly Russia, to counterbalance the growing influence of Japan. In 1897, this club had destroyed the Yeongeunmun, a special gate, built in 1537, where Chinese envoys had been escorted and received, and contributed to the construction of Independence Gate and they held regular meetings in the Jongno streets, demanding democratic reforms as Korea became a constitutional monarchy, and an end to Japanese and Russian influence in Korean affairs.


title: Korea under Japanese rule

text: In October 1897, Gojong decided to return to his other palace, Deoksugung, and proclaimed the founding of the Korean Empire. During this period, the Korean government conducted a westernization policy. It was not an enduring reform, however, and the Independence Club was dissolved on 25 December 1898 as the new Emperor Gojong officially announced a prohibition on unofficial congresses.


title: Korea under Japanese rule

text: Having established economic and military dominance in Korea in October 1904, Japan reported that it had developed 25 reforms which it intended to introduce into Korea by gradual degrees. Among these was the intended acceptance by the Korean Financial Department of a Japanese Superintendent, the replacement of Korean Foreign Ministers and consuls by Japanese and the "union of military arms" in which the military of Korea would be modeled after the Japanese military. These reforms were forestalled by the prosecution of the Russo-Japanese War from 8 February 1904, to 5 September 1905, which Japan won, thus eliminating Japan's last rival to influence in Korea. Under the Treaty of Portsmouth, signed in September 1905, Russia acknowledged Japan's "paramount political, military, and economic interest" in Korea.


title: Korea under Japanese rule

text: Two months later, Korea was obliged to become a Japanese protectorate by the Japan–Korea Treaty of 1905 and the "reforms" were enacted, including the reduction of the Korean Army from 20,000 to 1,000 men by disbanding all garrisons in the provinces, retaining only a single garrison in the precincts of Seoul. On 6 January 1905, Horace Allen, head of the American Legation in Seoul reported to his Secretary of State, John Hay, that the Korean government had been advised by the Japanese government "that hereafter the police matters of Seoul will be controlled by the Japanese gendarmerie" and "that a Japanese police inspector will be placed in each prefecture". A large number of Koreans organized themselves in education and reform movements, but Japanese dominance in Korea had become a reality.


title: Korea under Japanese rule

text: In June 1907, the Second Peace Conference was held in The Hague. Emperor Gojong secretly sent three representatives to bring the problems of Korea to the world's attention. The three envoys were refused access to the public debates by the international delegates who questioned the legality of the protectorate convention. Out of despair, one of the Korean representatives, Yi Tjoune, committed suicide at The Hague. In response, the Japanese government took stronger measures. On 19 July 1907, Emperor Gojong was forced to relinquish his imperial authority and appoint the Crown Prince as regent. Japanese officials used this concession to force the accession of the new Emperor Sunjong following abdication, which was never agreed to by Gojong. Neither Gojong nor Sunjong was present at the 'accession' ceremony. Sunjong was to be the last ruler of the Joseon dynasty, founded in 1392.


title: Korea under Japanese rule

text: In May 1910, the Minister of War of Japan, Terauchi Masatake, was given a mission to finalize Japanese control over Korea after the previous treaties (the Japan–Korea Treaty of 1904 and the Japan–Korea Treaty of 1907) had made Korea a protectorate of Japan and had established Japanese hegemony over Korean domestic politics. On 22 August 1910, Japan effectively annexed Korea with the Japan–Korea Treaty of 1910 signed by Ye Wanyong, Prime Minister of Korea, and Terauchi Masatake, who became the first Japanese Governor-General of Korea.


title: Korea under Japanese rule

text: Both the protectorate and the annexation treaties were declared already void in the 1965 Treaty on Basic Relations between Japan and the Republic of Korea .


title: Korea under Japanese rule

text: This period is also known as Military Police Reign Era (1910–19) in which Police had the authority to rule the entire country. Japan was in control of the media, law as well as government by physical power and regulations.


title: Korea under Japanese rule

text: In March 2010, 109 Korean intellectuals and 105 Japanese intellectuals met in the 100th anniversary of Japan–Korea Treaty of 1910 and they declared this annexation treaty null and void. They declared these statements in each of their capital cities (Seoul and Tōkyō) with a simultaneous press conference. They announced the "Japanese empire pressured the outcry of the Korean Empire and people and forced by Japan–Korea Treaty of 1910 and full text of a treaty was false and text of the agreement was also false". They also declared the "Process and formality of "Japan–Korea Treaty of 1910" had huge deficiencies and therefore the treaty was null and void. This meant the March 1st Movement was not an illegal movement.


title: Korea under Japanese rule

text: One of the Korean righteous armies of rebels was formed in the earlier 1900s after the Japanese occupation. The Righteous Army was formed by Yu In-seok and other Confucian scholars during the Peasant Wars. Its ranks swelled after the Queen's murder by the Japanese troops and Koreans. Under the leadership of Min Jeong-sik, Choe Ik-hyeon and Shin Dol-seok, the Righteous Army attacked the Japanese army, Japanese merchants and pro-Japanese bureaucrats in the provinces of Gangwon, Chungcheong, Jeolla and Gyeongsang.


title: Korea under Japanese rule

text: Shin Dol-seok, an uneducated peasant commanded over 3,000 troops. Among the troops were former government soldiers, poor peasants, fishermen, tiger hunters, miners, merchants, and laborers. During the Japan-Korea Treaty of 1907, the Korean army was disbanded on August 1, 1907. The Army was led by 1st Battalion Commander Major Park Seung-hwan, who later committed suicide, occurred after the disbandment, former soldiers of Korea start a revolt against the Japanese army at the Namdaemun Gate. The disbanded army joined the Righteous Armies and together they solidified a foundation for the Righteous Armies battle.


title: Korea under Japanese rule

text: In 1907, the Righteous Army under the command of Yi In-yeong massed 10,000 troops to liberate Seoul and defeat the Japanese. The Army came within 12 km of Seoul but could not withstand the Japanese counter-offensive. The Righteous Army was no match for two infantry divisions of 20,000 Japanese soldiers backed by warships moored near Incheon.


title: Korea under Japanese rule

text: The Righteous Army retreated from Seoul and the war went on for two more years. Over 17,000 Righteous Army soldiers were killed and more than 37,000 were wounded in combat. Most of the resistance armies were hunted down and unable to defeat the Japanese army head-on, the Righteous Army split into small bands of partisans to carry on the War of Liberation in China, Siberia and the Baekdu Mountains in Korea. The Japanese troops first quashed the Peasant Army and then disbanded the remainder of the government army. Many of the surviving Korean guerrilla and anti-Japanese government troops fled to Manchuria and Primorsky Krai to carry on their fight.


title: Korea under Japanese rule

text: From around the time of the First Sino-Japanese War of 1894–1895, Japanese merchants started settling in towns and cities in Korea seeking economic opportunity. By 1910 the number of Japanese settlers in Korea had reached over 170,000, comprising the largest single "nikkei" community in the world at the time.


title: Korea under Japanese rule

text: Many Japanese settlers showed interest in acquiring agricultural land in Korea even before Japanese land-ownership was officially legalized in 1906. Governor-General Terauchi Masatake facilitated settlement through land reform, which initially proved popular with most of the Korean population . The Korean land-ownership system featured absentee landlords, only partial owner-tenants and cultivators with traditional (but no legal proof of) ownership. Terauchi's new Land Survey Bureau conducted cadastral surveys that established ownership on the basis of written proof (deeds, titles, and similar documents). The system denied ownership to those who could not provide such written documentation; these turned out to be mostly high-class and impartial owners who had only traditional verbal cultivator-rights . Japanese landlords included both individuals and corporations (such as the Oriental Development Company). Because of these developments, Japanese landownership soared, as did the amount of land taken over by private Japanese companies. Many former Korean landowners, as well as agricultural workers, became tenant farmers, having lost their entitlements almost overnight because they could not pay for the land reclamation and irrigation improvements forced on them. Compounding the economic stresses imposed on the Korean peasantry, the authorities forced Korean peasants to do long days of compulsory labor to build irrigation works; Japanese imperial officials made peasants pay for these projects in the form of heavy taxes, impoverishing many of them and causing even more of them lose their land. Although many other subsequent developments placed ever greater strain on Korea's peasants, Japan's rice shortage in 1918 was the greatest catalyst for hardship. During that shortage, Japan looked to Korea for increased rice cultivation; as Korean peasants started producing more for Japan, however, the amount they took to eat dropped precipitously, causing much resentment among them.


title: Korea under Japanese rule

text: By 1910 an estimated 7 to 8% of all arable land in Korea had come under Japanese control. This ratio increased steadily; as of the years 1916, 1920, and 1932, the ratio of Japanese land ownership increased from 36.8 to 39.8 to 52.7%. The level of tenancy was similar to that of farmers in Japan itself; however, in Korea, the landowners were mostly Japanese, while the tenants were all Koreans. As often occurred in Japan itself, tenants had to pay over half their crop as rent, forcing many to send wives and daughters into factories or prostitution so they could pay taxes.


title: Korea under Japanese rule

text: By the 1930s the growth of the urban economy and the exodus of farmers to the cities had gradually weakened the hold of the landlords. With the growth of the wartime economy throughout the Second World War, the government recognized landlordism as an impediment to increased agricultural productivity, and took steps to increase control over the rural sector through the formation in Japan in 1943 of the , a compulsory organization under the wartime command economy.


title: Korea under Japanese rule

text: The Japanese government had hoped emigration to its colonies would mitigate the population boom in the "naichi", but had largely failed to accomplish this by 1936. According to figures from 1934, Japanese in Chōsen numbered approximately 561,000 out of a total population of over 21 million, less than 3%. By 1939 the Japanese population increased to 651,000, mostly from Japan's western prefectures. During the same period, the population in Chōsen grew faster than that in the "naichi". Koreans also migrated to the "naichi" in large numbers, especially after 1930; by 1939 there were over 981,000 Koreans living in Japan. Challenges which deterred Japanese from migrating into Chōsen included lack of arable land and population density comparable to that of Japan.


title: Korea under Japanese rule

text: In 1925, the Japanese government established the Korean History Compilation Committee, and it was administered by the Governor-General of Korea and engaged in collecting Korean historical materials and compiling Korean history. According to the "Doosan Encyclopedia", some mythology was incorporated. The committee supported the theory of a Japanese colony on the Korean Peninsula called Mimana, which, according to E. Taylor Atkins, is "among the most disputed issues in East Asian historiography."


title: Korea under Japanese rule

text: Japan executed the first modern archaeological excavations in Korea. The Japanese administration also relocated some artifacts; for instance, a stone monument (), which was originally located in the Liaodong Peninsula, then under Japanese control, was taken out of its context and moved to Pyongyang. As of April 2020, 81,889 Korean cultural artifacts are in Japan. According to the Overseas Korean Cultural Heritage Foundation, not all the artifacts were moved illegally. Adding to the challenge of repatriating illegally exported Korean cultural properties is the lack of experts in Korean art at overseas museums and institutions, alterations made to artifacts that obscure their origin, and that moving Korean artifacts within what was previously internationally recognized Japanese territory was lawful at the time. The South Korean government has been continuing its efforts to repatriate Korean artifacts from museums and private collections overseas.


title: Korea under Japanese rule

text: The National Palace Museum of Korea, originally built as the Korean Imperial Museum in 1908 to preserve the treasures in the Gyeongbokgung, was retained under the Japanese administration but renamed Museum of the Yi Dynasty in 1938.


title: Korea under Japanese rule

text: The Governor-General of Korea instituted a law in 1933 in order to preserve Korea's most important historical artifacts. The system established by this law, retained as the present-day National Treasures of South Korea and National Treasures of North Korea, was intended to preserve Korean historical artifacts, including those not yet unearthed. Japan's 1871 Edict for the Preservation of Antiquities and Old Items could not be automatically applied to Korea due to Japanese law, which required an imperial ordinance to apply the edict in Korea. The 1933 law to protect Korean cultural heritages was based on the Japanese 1871 edict.


title: Korea under Japanese rule

text: Gyeongbokgung, the Korean royal palace, was demolished during the Japanese colonial period. In 1911, after the annexation of Korea by Japan, ownership of the property was transferred to the Japanese Governor-General of Korea. In 1915, more than 90% of the buildings were torn down to make room for an exhibition.


title: Korea under Japanese rule

text: Restoration of Gyeongbokgung has been undertaken since 1990. The Government-General Building was demolished in 1996 and the Heungnyemun (2001) and Gwanghwamun (2006–10) were restored according to their original placements and designs.