title: Magellan expedition

text: The mutiny at St. Julian was more calculated than the "fracas" that had followed the sodomy trial during the Atlantic crossing. Around midnight of Easter Sunday, 1 April, Cartagena and Quesada covertly led thirty armed men, their faces covered with charcoal, aboard the "San Antonio", where they ambushed Álvaro de Mezquita, the recently named captain of the ship. Mezquita was Magellan's cousin, and sympathetic to the captain general. Juan de Elorriaga, the ship's boatswain, resisted the mutineers and attempted to alert the other ships. For this reason, Quesada stabbed him repeatedly (he would die from his wounds months later).


title: Magellan expedition

text: With the "San Antonio" subdued, the mutineers controlled three of the fleet's five ships. Only the "Santiago" (commanded by Juan Serrano) remained loyal to Magellan, along with the flag ship, the "Trinidad", which Magellan commanded. The mutineers aimed the "San Antonio"'s cannon at the "Trinidad", but made no further overtures during the night.


title: Magellan expedition

text: The following morning (2 April), while the mutineers attempted to consolidate their forces aboard the "San Antonio" and the "Victoria", a longboat of sailors drifted off course into the vicinity of the "Trinidad". The men were brought aboard and persuaded to divulge the details of the mutineers' plans to Magellan.


title: Magellan expedition

text: Magellan subsequently launched a counteroffensive against the mutineers aboard the "Victoria". He had some marines from the "Trinidad" switch clothing with the stray sailors, and approach the "Victoria" in their longboat. His "alguacil", Gonzalo de Espinosa, also approached the "Victoria" in a skiff, and announced that he had a message for the captain, Luis Mendoza. Espinosa was allowed aboard, and into the captain's chambers, based on his claim that he had a confidential letter. There, Espinosa stabbed Mendoza in the throat with his poignard, killing him instantly. At the same time, the disguised marines came aboard the "Victoria" to support the "alguacil".


title: Magellan expedition

text: With the "Victoria" lost and Mendoza dead, the remaining mutineers realised they were outmanoeuvred. Cartagena conceded and begged Magellan for mercy. Quesada attempted to flee, but was prevented from doing so – sailors loyal to Magellan had cut the "San Antonio"'s cables, causing it to drift toward the "Trinidad", and Cartagena was captured.


title: Magellan expedition

text: The trial of the mutineers was headed by Magellan's cousin Álvaro de Mezquita and lasted five days. On 7 April, Quesada was beheaded by his foster-brother and secretary, Luis Molina, who acted as executioner in exchange for clemency. The bodies of Quesada and Mendoza were drawn and quartered and displayed on gibbets for the following three months. San Martín, suspected of involvement in the conspiracy, was tortured by "strappado," but afterwards was allowed to continue his service as cosmographer. Cartagena, along with a priest, Pedro Sanchez de Reina, were sentenced to be marooned. On 11 August, two weeks before the fleet left St. Julian, the two were taken to a small nearby island and left to die. More than forty other conspirators, including Juan Sebastián Elcano, were put in chains for much of the winter and made to perform the hard work of careening the ships, repairing their structure and scrubbing the bilge.


title: Magellan expedition

text: In late April, Magellan dispatched the "Santiago", captained by Juan Serrano, from St. Julian to scout to the south for a strait. On 3 May, they reached the estuary of a river which Serrano named Santa Cruz River. The estuary provided shelter and was well situated with natural resources including fish, penguins, and wood.


title: Magellan expedition

text: After more than a week exploring Santa Cruz, Serrano set out to return to St. Julian on 22 May, but was caught in a sudden storm while leaving the harbour. The "Santiago" was tossed about by strong winds and currents before running aground on a sandbar. All (or nearly all) of the crew were able to clamber ashore before the ship capsized. Two men volunteered to set off on foot for St. Julian to get help. After 11 days of hard trekking, the men arrived at St. Julian, exhausted and emaciated. Magellan sent a rescue party of 24 men over land to Santa Cruz.


title: Magellan expedition

text: The other 35 survivors from the "Santiago" remained at Santa Cruz for two weeks. They were unable to retrieve any supplies from the wreck of the "Santiago", but managed to build huts and fire, and subsist on a diet of shellfish and local vegetation. The rescue party found them all alive but exhausted, and they returned to St. Julian safely.


title: Magellan expedition

text: After learning of the favourable conditions that Serrano found at Santa Cruz, Magellan decided to move the fleet there for the rest of the austral winter. After almost four months at St. Julian, the fleet left for Santa Cruz around 24 August. They spent six weeks at Santa Cruz before resuming their search for the strait.


title: Magellan expedition

text: On 18 October, the fleet left Santa Cruz heading south, resuming their search for a passage. Soon after, on 21 October 1520, they spotted a headland at 52°S latitude which they named Cape Virgenes. Past the cape, they found a large bay. While they were exploring the bay, a storm erupted. The "Trinidad" and "Victoria" made it out to open seas, but the "Concepción" and "San Antonio" were driven deeper into the bay, toward a promontory. Three days later, the fleet was reunited, and the "Concepción" and "San Antonio" reported that the storm drew them through a narrow passage, not visible from sea, which continued for some distance. Hoping they had finally found their sought-after strait, the fleet retraced the path taken by the "Concepción" and "San Antonio". Unlike at Río de la Plata earlier, the water did not lose its salinity as they progressed, and soundings indicated that the waters were consistently deep. This was the passage they sought, which would come to be known as the Strait of Magellan. At the time, Magellan referred to it as the ("All Saints' Channel"), because the fleet travelled through it on 1 November or All Saints' Day.


title: Magellan expedition

text: On 28 October, the fleet reached an island in the strait (likely Isabel Island or Dawson Island), which could be passed in one of two directions. Magellan directed the fleet to split up to explore the respective paths. They were meant to regroup within a few days, but the "San Antonio" would never rejoin the fleet. While the rest of the fleet waited for the return of the "San Antonio", Gonzalo de Espinosa led a small ship to explore the further reaches of the strait. After three days of sailing, they reached the end of the strait and the mouth of the Pacific Ocean. After another three days, Espinosa returned. Pigafetta writes that, on hearing the news of Espinosa's discovery, Magellan wept tears of joy. The fleet's remaining three ships completed the journey to the Pacific by 28 November, after weeks of fruitlessly searching for the "San Antonio". Magellan named the waters the "Mar Pacifico" (Pacific Ocean) because of its apparent stillness.


title: Magellan expedition

text: The "San Antonio" failed to rejoin the rest of Magellan's fleet in the strait. At some point, they reversed course and sailed back to Spain. The ship's officers later testified that they had arrived early at the appointed rendezvous location, but it's not clear whether this is true. The pilot of the "San Antonio" at the time, Álvaro de Mezquita, was Magellan's cousin and loyal to the captain-general. He directed attempts to rejoin the fleet, firing cannons and setting off smoke signals. At some point he was overpowered in yet another mutiny attempt, this one successful. He was stabbed by the pilot of the "San Antonio", Estêvão Gomes, and put in chains for the remainder of the journey. Gomes was known to have feelings of animosity towards Magellan (as documented by Pigafetta, who wrote that "Gomes... hated the Captain General exceedingly", because he had hoped to have his own expedition to the Moluccas funded instead of Magellan's), and shortly before the fleet was separated, had argued with him about their next course of action. While Magellan and the other officers agreed to continue west to the Moluccas, thinking that their 2–3 months of rations would be sufficient for the journey, Gomes argued that they should return to Spain the way they had come, to muster more supplies for another journey through the strait.


title: Magellan expedition

text: The "San Antonio" reached Seville approximately six months later, on 8 May 1521, with 55 survivors. There ensued a trial of the ship's men which lasted six months. With Mezquita being the only one loyal to Magellan, the majority of testimony produced a villainous and distorted picture of Magellan's actions. In particular, in justifying the mutiny at St. Julian, the men claimed that Magellan had tortured Spanish seamen (during the return journey across the Atlantic, Mezquita was tortured into signing a statement to this effect) and claimed that they were merely trying to make Magellan follow the king's orders. Ultimately, none of the mutineers faced charges in Spain. Magellan's reputation suffered as a result, as did his friends and family. Mezquita was kept in jail for a year following the trial, and Magellan's wife, Beatriz, had her financial resources cut off, and was placed under house arrest, along with their son.


title: Magellan expedition

text: Magellan (along with contemporary geographers) had no conception of the vastness of the Pacific Ocean. He imagined that South America was separated from the Spice Islands by a small sea, which he expected to cross in as little as three or four days. In fact, they spent three months and twenty days at sea, before reaching Guam and then the Philippines.


title: Magellan expedition

text: The fleet entered the Pacific from the Strait of Magellan on 28 November 1520, and initially sailed north, following the coast of Chile. By mid-December, they altered their course to west-north-west. They were unfortunate in that, had their course differed slightly, they might have encountered a number of Pacific islands which would have offered fresh food and water, such as the Marshall Islands, the Society Islands, the Solomon Islands or the Marquesas Islands. As it was, they encountered only two small uninhabited islands during the crossing, at which they were unable to land, the reason why they named them "islas Infortunadas". The first, sighted 24 January, they named San Pablo (likely Puka-Puka). The second, which they sighted 21 February, was likely Caroline Island. They crossed the equator on 13 February.


title: Magellan expedition

text: Not expecting such a long journey, the ships were not stocked with adequate food and water, and much of the seal meat they had stocked putrefied in the equatorial heat. Pigafetta described the desperate conditions in his journal:


title: Magellan expedition

text: we only ate old biscuit reduced to powder, and full of grubs, and stinking from the dirt which the rats had made on it when eating the good biscuit, and we drank water that was yellow and stinking. We also ate the ox hides which were under the main-yard, so that the yard should not break the rigging: they were very hard on account of the sun, rain, and wind, and we left them for four or five days in the sea, and then we put them a little on the embers, and so ate them; also the sawdust of wood, and rats which cost half-a-crown each, moreover enough of them were not to be got.


title: Magellan expedition

text: Moreover, most of the men suffered from symptoms of scurvy, whose cause was not understood at the time. Pigafetta reported that, of the 166 men who embarked on the Pacific crossing, 19 died and "twenty-five or thirty fell ill of diverse sicknesses". Magellan, Pigafetta, and other officers were not afflicted with scorbutic symptoms, which may have been because they ate preserved quince which (unbeknownst to them) contained the vitamin C necessary to protect against scurvy.


title: Magellan expedition

text: On 6 March 1521, the fleet reached the Mariana Islands. The first land they spotted was likely the island of Rota, but the ships were unable to land there, and instead dropped anchor thirty hours later on Guam. They were met by native Chamorro people in proas, a type of outrigger canoe then unknown to Europeans. Dozens of Chamorros came aboard and began taking items from the ship, including rigging, knives, and any items made of iron. At some point, there was a physical confrontation between the crew and the natives, and at least one Chamorro was killed. The remaining natives fled with the goods they had obtained, also taking Magellan's bergantina (the ship's boat kept on the "Trinidad") as they retreated. For this act, Magellan called the island "Isla de los Ladrones" (Island of Thieves).


title: Magellan expedition

text: The next day, Magellan retaliated, sending a raiding party ashore which looted and burned forty or fifty Chammoro houses and killed seven men. They recovered the bergantina and left Guam the next day, 9 March, continuing westward.


title: Magellan expedition

text: The fleet reached the Philippines on 16 March, and remained there until 1 May. The expedition represented the first documented European contact with the Philippines. Though the stated goal of Magellan's expedition was to find a passage through South America to the Moluccas, and return to Spain laden with spices, at this point in the journey, Magellan seemed to acquire a zeal for converting the local tribes to Christianity. In doing so, Magellan eventually became embroiled in a local political dispute, and died in the Philippines, along with dozens of other officers and crew.


title: Magellan expedition

text: On 16 March, a week after leaving Guam, the fleet first sighted the island of Samar, then landed on the island of Homonhon, which was then uninhabited. They encountered friendly locals from the nearby island of Suluan and traded supplies with them. They spent nearly two weeks on Homonhon, resting and gathering fresh food and water, before leaving on 27 March. On the morning of 28 March, they neared the island of Limasawa, and encountered some natives in canoes who then alerted balangay warships of two local rulers from Mindanao who were on a hunting expedition in Limasawa. For the first time on the journey, Magellan's slave Enrique of Malacca found that he was able to communicate with the natives in Malay (an indication that they had indeed completed a circumnavigation, and were approaching familiar lands). They exchanged gifts with the natives (receiving porcelain jars painted with Chinese designs), and later that day were introduced to their leaders, Rajah Kolambu and Rajah Siawi. Magellan would become a "blood brother" to Kolambu, undergoing the local blood compact ritual with him.


title: Magellan expedition

text: Magellan and his men noted that the Rajahs had golden body ornaments and served food on golden plates. They were told by the Rajahs that gold was plentiful in their homelands in Butuan and Calagan (Surigao), and found that the locals were eager to trade it for iron at par. While at Limasawa, Magellan gave some of the natives a demonstration of Spanish armour, weapons, and artillery, by which they were apparently impressed.


title: Magellan expedition

text: On Sunday 31 March, Easter Day, Magellan and fifty of his men came ashore to Limasawa to participate in the first Catholic Mass in the Philippines, given by the armada's chaplain. Kolambu, his brother (who was also a local leader), and other islanders joined in the ceremony, and expressed an interest in their religion. Following Mass, Magellan's men raised a cross on the highest hill on the island, and formally declared the island, and the entire archipelago of the Philippines (which he called the Islands of St Lazarus) as a possession of Spain.


title: Magellan expedition

text: On 2 April, Magellan held a conference to decide the fleet's next course of action. His officers urged him to head south-west for the Mollucas, but instead he decided to press further into the Philippines. On 3 April, the fleet sailed north-west from Limasawa towards the island of Cebu, which Magellan learned of from Kolambu. The fleet was guided to Cebu by some of Kolambu's men. They sighted Cebu 6 April, and made landfall the next day. Cebu had regular contact with Chinese and Arab traders and normally required that visitors pay tribute in order to trade. Magellan convinced the island's leader, Rajah Humabon, to waive this requirement.


title: Magellan expedition

text: As he had in Limasawa, Magellan gave a demonstration of the fleet's arms in order to impress the locals. Again, he also preached Christianity to the natives, and on 14 April, Humabon and his family were baptised and given an image of the Holy Child (later known as Santo Niño de Cebu). In the coming days, other local chieftains were baptised, and in total, 2,200 locals from Cebu and other nearby islands were converted.


title: Magellan expedition

text: When Magellan learned that a group on the island of Mactan, led by Lapu-Lapu, resisted Christian conversion, he ordered his men to burn their homes. When they continued to resist, Magellan informed his council on 26 April that he would bring an armed contingent to Mactan and make them submit under threat of force.


title: Magellan expedition

text: Magellan mustered a force of 60 armed men from his crew to oppose Lapu-Lapu's forces. Some Cebuano men followed Magellan to Mactan, but were instructed by Magellan not to join the fight, but merely to watch. He first sent an envoy to Lapu-Lapu, offering him a last chance to accept the king of Spain as their ruler, and avoid bloodshed. Lapu-Lapu refused. Magellan took 49 men to the shore while 11 remained to guard the boats. Though they had the benefit of relatively advanced armour and weaponry, Magellan's forces were greatly outnumbered. Pigafetta (who was present on the battlefield) estimated the enemy's number at 1,500. Magellan's forces were driven back and decisively defeated. Magellan died in battle, along with several comrades, including Cristóvão Rebelo, Magellan's illegitimate son.


title: Magellan expedition

text: Following Magellan's death, the remaining men held an election to select a new leader for the expedition. They selected two co-commanders: Duarte Barbosa, Magellan's brother-in-law, and Juan Serrano. Magellan's will called for the liberation of his slave, Enrique, but Barbosa and Serrano demanded that he continue his duties as an interpreter for them, and follow their orders. Enrique had some secret communication with Humabon which caused him to betray the Spaniards.


title: Magellan expedition

text: On 1 May, Humabon invited the men ashore for a great feast. It was attended by around thirty men, mostly officers, including Serrano and Barbosa. Towards the end of the meal, armed Cebuanos entered the hall and murdered the Europeans. Twenty-seven men were killed. Juan Serrano, one of the newly elected co-commanders, was left alive and brought to the shore facing the Spanish ships. Serrano begged the men on board to pay a ransom to the Cebuanos. The Spanish ships left port, and Serrano was (presumably) killed. In his account, Pigafetta speculates that João Carvalho, who became first in command in the absence of Barbosa and Serrano, abandoned Serrano (his one-time friend) so that he could remain in command of the fleet.


title: Magellan expedition

text: With just 115 surviving men, out of the 277 who had sailed from Seville, it was decided the fleet did not have enough men to continue operating three ships. On 2 May, the "Concepción" was emptied and set on fire. With Carvalho as the new captain-general, the remaining two ships, the "Trinidad" and "Victoria", spent the next six months meandering through Southeast Asia in search of the Moluccas. On the way, they stopped at several islands including Mindanao and Brunei. During this time, they engaged in acts of piracy, including robbing a junk bound for China from the Moluccas.


title: Magellan expedition

text: On 21 September, Carvalho was made to step down as captain-general. He was replaced by Martin Mendez, with Gonzalo de Espinosa and Juan Sebastián Elcano as captains of the "Trinidad" and "Victoria", respectively.


title: Magellan expedition

text: Aganduru Moriz' account of the expedition describes how Elcano's crew was attacked somewhere off the southeastern tip of Borneo by a Bruneian fleet commanded by one of the Luzones. Historians such as William Henry Scott and Luis Camara Dery assert that this commander of the Bruneian Fleet was actually the young prince Ache of Maynila (Manila) a grandson of the Bruneian sultan who would later become Maynila's Rajah Matanda.


title: Magellan expedition

text: Elcano, however, was able to defeat and capture Ache. According to Scott, Ache was eventually released after a ransom was paid. Nevertheless, Ache left a Spanish speaking Moor in Elcano's crew to assist the ship on the way back to Spain, "a Moor who understood something of our Castilian language,


title: Magellan expedition

text: who was called Pazeculan." This knowledge of the Spanish language was scattered across the Indian Ocean and even into Southeast Asia after the Castilian conquest of the Emirate of Granada forced the Spanish speaking Granadan Muslims to migrate across the Muslim world even as far as Islamic Manila.


title: Magellan expedition

text: The ships finally reached the Moluccas on 8 November, when they reached the island of Tidore. They were greeted by the island's leader, al-Mansur (known to the officers by the Spanish name "Almanzor"). Almanzor was a friendly host to the men, and readily claimed loyalty to the king of Spain. A trading post was established in Tidore and the men set about purchasing massive quantities of cloves in exchange for goods such as cloth, knives, and glassware.


title: Magellan expedition

text: Around 15 December, the ships attempted to set sail from Tidore, laden with cloves. But the "Trinidad", which had fallen into disrepair, was found to be taking on water. The departure was postponed while the men, aided by the locals, attempted to find and repair the leak. When these attempts were unsuccessful, it was decided that the "Victoria" would leave for Spain via a western route, and that the "Trinidad" would remain behind for some time to be refitted, before heading back to Spain by an eastern route, involving an overland passage across the American continent. Several weeks later, "Trinidad" departed and attempted to return to Spain via the Pacific route. This attempt failed. "Trinidad" was captured by the Portuguese, and was eventually wrecked in a storm while at anchor under Portuguese control.


title: Magellan expedition

text: The "Victoria" set sail via the Indian Ocean route home on 21 December 1521, commanded by Juan Sebastián Elcano. By 6 May 1522 the "Victoria" rounded the Cape of Good Hope, with only rice for rations. Twenty crewmen died of starvation by 9 July 1522, when Elcano put into Portuguese Cape Verde for provisions. The crew was surprised to learn that the date was actually 10 July 1522, a day after their own meticulous records indicated. They had no trouble making purchases at first, using the cover story that they were returning to Spain from the Americas. However, the Portuguese detained 13 crew members after discovering that "Victoria" was carrying spices from the East Indies. The "Victoria" managed to escape with its cargo of 26 tons of spices (cloves and cinnamon).


title: Magellan expedition

text: On 6 September 1522, Elcano and the remaining crew of Magellan's voyage arrived in Sanlúcar de Barrameda in Spain aboard "Victoria", almost exactly three years after they departed. They then sailed upriver to Seville, and from there overland to Valladolid, where they appeared before the Emperor.


title: Magellan expedition

text: When "Victoria", the one surviving ship and the smallest carrack in the fleet, returned to the harbour of departure after completing the first circumnavigation of the Earth, only 18 men out of the original 270 men were on board. In addition to the returning Europeans, the "Victoria" had aboard three Moluccans who came aboard at Tidore.


title: Magellan expedition

text: King Charles pressed for the release of the 12 men held captive by the Portuguese in Cape Verde, and they were eventually returned to Spain in small groups over the course of the following year. They were:


title: Magellan expedition

text: Between 1525 and 1526, the survivors of the "Trinidad", who had been captured by the Portuguese in the Moluccas, were transported to a prison in Portugal and eventually released after a seven-month negotiation. Only five survived:


title: Magellan expedition

text: The following five nonsurvivors are considered to have successfully circumnavigated, since they died after the Victoria and Trinidad had crossed the tracks of the outbound fleet.


title: Magellan expedition

text: Antonio Pigafetta's journal, later published as "Relazione del primo viaggio intorno al mondo", is the main primary source for much of what is known about Magellan's expedition. The first published report of the circumnavigation was written by Maximilianus Transylvanus, a relative of sponsor Cristóbal de Haro, who interviewed survivors in 1522 and published his account in 1523 under the title "De Moluccis Insulis...". Initially published in Latin, other editions later appeared in Italian, Spanish, and English.


title: Magellan expedition

text: In addition, there is an extant chronicle from Peter Martyr d'Anghiera, which was written in Spanish in 1522 or 1523, misplaced, then published again in 1530.


title: Magellan expedition

text: Another reliable secondary source is the 1601 chronicle and the longer 1615 version, both by Spanish historian Antonio de Herrera y Tordesillas. Herrera's account is all the more accurate as he had access to Spanish and Portuguese sources that are nowhere to be found today, not least Andrés de San Martín's navigational notes and papers. San Martin, the chief pilot-cosmographer (astrologer) of the Armada, disappeared in the Cebu massacre on 1 May 1521.


title: Magellan expedition

text: In addition to Pigafetta's surviving journal, 11 other crew members kept written accounts of the voyage:


title: Magellan expedition

text: Since there was not a set limit to the east, in 1524 both kingdoms had tried to find the exact location of the antimeridian of Tordesillas, which would divide the world into two equal hemispheres and to resolve the "Moluccas issue". A board met several times without reaching an agreement: the knowledge at that time was insufficient for an accurate calculation of longitude, and each gave the islands to their sovereign.


title: Magellan expedition

text: In 1525, soon after the return of Magellan's expedition, Charles V sent an expedition led by García Jofre de Loaísa to occupy the Moluccas, claiming that they were in his zone of the Treaty of Tordesillas. This expedition included the most notable Spanish navigators, including Juan Sebastián Elcano, who, along with many other sailors, died during the voyage, and the young Andrés de Urdaneta. They had difficulty reaching the Moluccas, docking at Tidore. The Portuguese were already established in nearby Ternate and the two nations had nearly a decade of skirmishing over the possession, which was still occupied by indigenous people. An agreement was reached only with the Treaty of Zaragoza, signed on 1529 between Spain and Portugal. It assigned the Moluccas to Portugal and the Philippines to Spain.


title: Magellan expedition

text: The course that Magellan charted was later followed by other navigators, such as Sir Francis Drake during his circumnavigation in 1578. In 1960, the route was retraced completely submerged (with minor variations in course) by USS "Triton".


title: Magellan expedition

text: Magellan's expedition was the first to circumnavigate the globe and the first to navigate the strait in South America connecting the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans. Magellan's name for the Pacific was adopted by other Europeans.


title: Magellan expedition

text: Magellan's crew observed several animals that were entirely new to European science, including a "camel without humps", which was probably a guanaco, whose range extends to Tierra del Fuego. The llama, vicuña and alpaca natural ranges were in the Andes mountains. A black "goose" that had to be skinned instead of plucked was a penguin.


title: Magellan expedition

text: The full extent of the globe was realised, since their voyage was 14,460 Spanish leagues (60,440 km or 37,560 mi). The global expedition showed the need for an International Date Line to be established. Upon arrival at Cape Verde, the crew was surprised to learn that the ship's date of 9 July 1522 was one day behind the local date of 10 July 1522, even though they had recorded every day of the three-year journey without omission. They lost one day because they travelled west during their circumnavigation of the globe, in the same direction as the apparent motion of the sun across the sky. Although the Kurdish geographer Abu'l-Fida (1273–1331) had predicted that circumnavigators would accumulate a one-day offset, Cardinal Gasparo Contarini was the first European to give a correct explanation of the discrepancy.


title: Magellan expedition

text: In 2017, Portugal submitted an application to UNESCO to honour the circumnavigation route; the proposal was for a World Heritage Site called "Route of Magellan".


title: Magellan expedition

text: In 2019, there have been a number of events to mark the 500th anniversary of the voyage including exhibitions in various Spanish cities.


title: Magellan expedition

text: In line with the 500th celebration of Magellan's arrival in the Philippines on 2021, the National Quincentennial Committee will put up shrine markers to the points where the fleet anchored.


title: Hearts of Iron IV

text: Hearts of Iron IV, also known as HOI4, is a grand strategy computer wargame developed by Paradox Development Studio and published by Paradox Interactive. It was released worldwide on 6 June 2016. It is the sequel to 2009's "Hearts of Iron III" and the fourth main installment in the "Hearts of Iron" series. Like previous games in the series, "Hearts of Iron IV" is a grand strategy wargame that focuses on World War II. The player may take control of any nation in the world in either 1936 or 1939 and lead them to victory or defeat against other countries.


title: Hearts of Iron IV

text: "Hearts of Iron IV" is a grand strategy wargame that primarily revolves around World War II. The player may play as any nation in the world in the 1936 or 1939 start dates in singleplayer or multiplayer, although the game is not designed to go beyond 1950. A nation's military is divided between naval forces, aerial forces, and ground forces. For the ground forces, the player may train, customize, and command divisions consisting of various types of infantry, tanks, and other units. These divisions require equipment and manpower to fight properly. The navy and air force also require men and equipment, including the actual warships and warplanes that are used in combat. Equipment is produced by military factories, while ships are built by dockyards. These military factories and dockyards are, in turn, constructed by civilian factories, which also construct a variety of other buildings, produce consumer goods for the civilian population, and oversee commerce with other nations. Most nations are initially forced to devote a significant number of their civilian factories to producing consumer goods, but as the nation becomes increasingly mobilized, more factories will be freed up for other purposes. Mobilization is represented as a "policy" that the player may adjust with the proper amount of political power, an abstract "resource" that is also used to appoint new ministers and change other facets of the nation's government. In addition to mobilization, there are other policies, including the nation's stance on conscription and commerce.


title: Hearts of Iron IV

text: Land in "Hearts of Iron IV" is divided into tiny regions known as provinces (also called tiles), which are grouped to form states. Each state has a certain amount of building slots, factory slots, and 5 infrastructure slots. The major seas and oceans (for warships) and the sky (for warplanes) are similarly divided into different regions. These provinces each have a type of terrain assigned to them that determines how well different types of units will perform in combat there. Divisions are placed in provinces and can attack enemy units in adjacent provinces. How well divisions perform in combat depends on various factors, such as the quality of their equipment, the weather, the type of terrain, the skill and traits of the general commanding the divisions, aerial combat in the region and the morale of both sides. Technologies can be researched to improve equipment. Military doctrines can be upgraded by using army XP, among other things, which often means that a more technologically advanced nation will have an edge in combat. If a division (or a group of divisions) successfully overwhelms an enemy province, they may occupy it. Some provinces may have victory points, which can push a nation closer towards capitulation if occupied. Occupying key provinces within a state allows the occupying power to access the enemy's factories and natural resources in that state. Resistance to occupation within a state can hamper the occupying power's control over it. Late in the game, nations may develop nuclear bombs if they have the proper technology, which can be used to devastate enemy provinces and states.


title: Hearts of Iron IV

text: "Hearts of Iron IV" also attempts to recreate the complex diplomatic relationships of the day. Nations may undertake a variety of diplomatic actions; they may sign non-aggression pacts, guarantee the independence of other nations, and offer or request military access, amongst other things. Another key feature of diplomacy is the ability to create a faction or invite other nations to an existing one. Factions represent the main alliances of the era, like the Axis and Allies (for gameplay purposes, real-world factions like the Axis and Allies are split into numerous smaller factions, like the Comintern, the Chinese United Front, and the Co-Prosperity Sphere). Faction members may assist each other in wars, making faction members precious assets. Some more clandestine diplomatic actions are also available. For example, the player may justify war against other nations, spread their ideology abroad, or stage a coup. Countries in the game may be democratic, fascist, communist, or non-aligned. Each of the four ideologies has advantages and disadvantages; for example, fascist nations can go to war with other countries easily, but other nations are not as willing to trade with them as they are with democratic countries. If a different ideology becomes too popular in a country, a referendum may be held that will peacefully convert the nation to the most popular ideology. Otherwise, ideologies may come to power violently through coups, civil wars, or forced subjugation by a foreign power.


title: Hearts of Iron IV

text: This diplomacy is further expanded through the addition of espionage in the expansion "La Résistance", which extends gameplay in the management of occupied territories which is done differently according to player choices and ideology. Furthermore, the operation of spy networks allows nations to steal technology, gather information on an opponents's military, and engage in other espionage efforts.


title: Hearts of Iron IV

text: While "Hearts of Iron IV" does feature some scripted events, the game features a "national focus" system that makes fixed events less necessary than in previous installments in the series. Each country in the game has a "focus tree" with various "national focuses" that grant certain effects or trigger events. For example, for the "Anschluss" to occur, Germany must first complete the focus that is related to it. Other focuses can grant special bonuses, like faster research times for certain technologies or extra factories. While some bonuses (like extra factories) are very tangible, others (like improvements to morale) are more abstract. These abstract bonuses are represented by "national spirits" that can be temporary or permanent. Not all national spirits are granted by focuses, and not all spirits are entirely beneficial. Focuses are completed over time; only one focus may be worked on at once, and working on one consumes some political power. Initially, only a handful of key nations, like Nazi Germany, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, and the United States, had unique focus trees; all other nations shared a generic one. Subsequent updates and DLCs have added focus trees to other nations as well.


title: Hearts of Iron IV

text: "Hearts of Iron IV" also introduces the concept of "world tension," an abstract representation of how close the world is to global war, on a scale from 0 to 100. Aggressive actions by any nation can increase world tension, while peaceful actions can decrease it. Depending on the circumstances of a nation, like their ideology, a certain level of world tension may be necessary to perform certain actions, like justifying war against another country.


title: Hearts of Iron IV

text: "Hearts of Iron IV" was developed to be more open-ended than previous games in the series. Partially as a result of this, the game can be more readily modded than its predecessors. According to game director Dan Lind, 64% of "Hearts of Iron IV" players use mods. Many mods do not change the gameplay experience drastically, and as such have become mainstays of the community, for example, 'Player-Led Peace Conferences', which gives the player more control over the outcome of the game. Also, several total conversion mods that dramatically change the game have been developed and released in many places, like the Steam Workshop. Some mods have been successful enough to attract attention from the media, including the following:


title: Hearts of Iron IV

text: Some other mods have also attracted controversy for racist and fascist overtones, such as "Deus Vult", a mod that adds the Knights Templar to the game and allows the player to commit various atrocities.


title: Hearts of Iron IV

text: "Hearts of Iron IV" was announced in 2014 and was originally slated for a late 2015 release. At E3 2015, creative director Johan Andersson confirmed that the game would be pushed back from its original release window, with the new release date being scheduled for the first quarter of 2016. This was an attempt to resolve several issues encountered with the game. In March 2016, it was announced that the game, built with the Clausewitz Engine, would be released on 6 June 2016, which was the 72nd anniversary of the Normandy landings.


title: Hearts of Iron IV

text: "Hearts of Iron IV" was a commercial success. It sold more than 200,000 units within two weeks of its launch, which made it the fastest-selling historically-themed Paradox title by that time, ahead of "Crusader Kings II" and "Europa Universalis IV". The game's sales surpassed 500,000 units in February 2017, and 1 million units in May 2018. It was the first "Hearts of Iron" game to reach the million mark, and the third Paradox title after, Crusader Kings II and Europa Universalis IV to do so. The game received "generally favorable reviews" from critics, according to the review aggregator Metacritic.


title: Hearts of Iron IV

text: "GameSpot" gave the game a positive review, writing that ""Hearts of Iron IV" embodies the hard truths about all-consuming war and the international politics that guide it." It argued that the tutorial was the only weak point, and that "for the dedicated, "Hearts of Iron IV" could end up being the best grand strategy game in some time."


title: Hearts of Iron IV

text: It was also reviewed in "Kotaku", with the reviewer writing it was "overwhelming in both its depth and, more importantly, its complexity" and arguing that some players unfamiliar with the franchise might find the game interface too complex to navigate easily.


title: Hearts of Iron IV

text: "IGN" wrote a positive review, describing it as "an incredibly complex "World War II" simulation that will require potentially hundreds of hours to master, both in-game and poring over wiki articles that read like an economics textbook", but adding that "the payoff is brilliant for those willing to put in the time to learn". The review praised the layout, writing "thanks to an unusually striking look and clean, easily navigable interface, the biggest challenges "Hearts of Iron 4" presents us with are the good kind: strategic planning, division composition, and fine-tuning economic and political policies". "IGN" went on to conclude that "Hearts of Iron IV" "is a strong contender for the title of the ultimate armchair-general game. The biggest problems I can point to are almost all performance-related, putting a slow, frustrating finale on what is otherwise an ingeniously detailed strategic stimulation of just about every aspect of 20th-century global warfare".


title: Hearts of Iron IV

text: A review in "PC Gamer" described it as a "unique, beautiful, thrilling wargame", specifically praising its frontline system and production mechanics, but also criticising the ideology system for being too bland, and finding that combat was somewhat unintuitive, writing "while I found several flaws when I stood close to the tapestry, it's important to remember that "Hearts of Iron 4" exists to encompass the whole sweep of the war".


title: Hearts of Iron IV

text: Polygon praised the openness of the game, writing that ""Hearts of Iron 4" goes a step further, allowing players to take control of nearly every single nation-state in the world during the same period. If you want to play as Eleazar López Contreras, a Venezuelan fascist with two army divisions and 12 fighter planes to his name, you can give it a go".


title: Hearts of Iron IV

text: In 2022, six years after the game's release and shortly after the "By Blood Alone" expansion, "Hearts of Iron IV" hit a concurrent player record of about 70,000, owing to a week-long deal that temporarily made the game free-to-play. The year prior, the game had reached a record of 68,000.


title: Moldavia

text: Moldavia (, or , literally "The Country of Moldavia"; in Romanian Cyrillic: or ; ; ) is a historical region and former principality in Central and Eastern Europe, corresponding to the territory between the Eastern Carpathians and the Dniester River. An initially independent and later autonomous state, it existed from the 14th century to 1859, when it united with Wallachia () as the basis of the modern Romanian state; at various times, Moldavia included the regions of Bessarabia (with the Budjak), all of Bukovina and Hertsa. The region of Pokuttya was also part of it for a period of time.


title: Moldavia

text: The western half of Moldavia is now part of Romania, the eastern side belongs to the Republic of Moldova, and the northern and southeastern parts are territories of Ukraine.


title: Moldavia

text: The original and short-lived reference to the region was "Bogdania", after Bogdan I, the founding figure of the principality. The names "Moldavia" and "Moldova" are derived from the name of the Moldova River; however, the etymology is not known and there are several variants:


title: Moldavia

text: On a series of coins of Peter I and Stephen I minted by Saxon masters and with German legends, the reverses feature the name of Moldavia in the form / (recte: ).


title: Moldavia

text: In several early references, "Moldavia" is rendered under the composite form "Moldo-Wallachia" (in the same way Wallachia may appear as "Hungro-Wallachia"). Ottoman Turkish references to Moldavia included (, meaning 'Bogdan's Wallachia') and (and occasionally , , 'Black Bogdania'). See also names in other languages.


title: Moldavia

text: The inhabitants of Moldavia were Christians. Archaeological works revealed the remains of a Christian necropolis at Mihălășeni, Botoșani county, from the 5th century. The place of worship, and the tombs had Christian characteristics. The place of worship had a rectangular form with sides of eight and seven meters. Similar necropolises and places of worship were found at Nicolina, in Iași


title: Moldavia

text: The Bolohoveni are mentioned by the "Hypatian Chronicle" in the 13th century. The chronicle shows that this land is bordered on the principalities of Halych, Volhynia and Kiev. Archaeological research also identified the location of 13th-century fortified settlements in this region. Alexandru V. Boldur identified Voscodavie, Voscodavti, Voloscovti, Volcovti, Volosovca and their other towns and villages between the middle course of the rivers Nistru/Dniester and Nipru/Dnieper. The Bolohoveni disappeared from chronicles after their defeat in 1257 by Daniel of Galicia's troops. Their ethnic identity is uncertain; although Romanian scholars, basing on their ethnonym identify them as Romanians (who were called Vlachs in the Middle Ages), archeological evidence and the "Hypatian Chronicle" (which is the only primary source that documents their history) suggest that they were a Slavic people.


title: Moldavia

text: In the early 13th century, the "Brodniks", a possible Slavic–Vlach vassal state of Halych, were present, alongside the Vlachs, in much of the region's territory (towards 1216, the Brodniks are mentioned as in service of Suzdal).


title: Moldavia

text: Somewhere in the 11th century, a Viking named Rodfos was killed by Vlachs presumably in the area of what would become Moldavia. In 1164, the future Byzantine emperor Andronikos I Komnenos, was taken prisoner by Vlach shepherds in the same region.


title: Moldavia

text: Friar William of Rubruck, who visited the court of the Great Khan in the 1250s, listed "the Blac", or Vlachs, among the peoples who paid tribute to the Mongols, but the Vlachs' territory is uncertain. Rubruck described "Blakia" as "Assan's territory" south of the Lower Danube, showing that he identified it with the northern regions of the Second Bulgarian Empire.


title: Moldavia

text: Later in the 14th century, King Charles I of Hungary attempted to expand his realm and the influence of the Catholic Church eastwards after the fall of Cuman rule, and ordered a campaign under the command of Phynta de Mende (1324). In 1342 and 1345, the Hungarians were victorious in a battle against Tatar-Mongols; the conflict was resolved by the death of Jani Beg, in 1357. The Polish chronicler Jan Długosz mentioned Moldavians (under the name "Wallachians") as having joined a military expedition in 1342, under King Władysław I, against the Margraviate of Brandenburg.


title: Moldavia

text: In 1353, Dragoș, mentioned as a Vlach "Knyaz" in Maramureș, was sent by Louis I to establish a line of defense against the Golden Horde forces of Mongols on the Siret River. This expedition resulted in a polity vassal to Hungary, in the Baia ("Târgul Moldovei" or "Moldvabánya") region.


title: Moldavia

text: Bogdan of Cuhea, another Vlach voivode from Maramureș who had fallen out with the Hungarian king, crossed the Carpathians in 1359, took control of Moldavia, and succeeded in removing Moldavia from Hungarian control. His realm extended north to the Cheremosh River, while the southern part of Moldavia was still occupied by the Tatar Mongols.


title: Moldavia

text: After first residing in Baia, Bogdan moved Moldavia's seat to Siret (it was to remain there until Petru II Mușat moved it to Suceava; it was finally moved to Iași under Alexandru Lăpușneanu - in 1565). The area around Suceava, roughly correspondent to future Bukovina, would later constitute one of the two administrative divisions of the new realm, under the name "Țara de Sus" (the "Upper Land"), whereas the rest, on both sides of the Prut river, formed "Țara de Jos" (the "Lower Land").


title: Moldavia

text: Disfavored by the brief union of Angevin Poland and Hungary (the latter was still the country's overlord), Bogdan's successor Lațcu accepted conversion to Roman Catholicism around 1370. Despite the founding of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Siret, this move did not have any lasting consequences. Despite remaining officially Eastern Orthodox and culturally connected with the Byzantine Empire after 1382, princes of the House of Bogdan-Mușat entered a conflict with the Constantinople Patriarchy over control of appointments to the newly founded Moldavian Metropolitan seat; Patriarch Antony IV even cast an anathema over Moldavia after Roman I expelled his appointee back to Byzantium. The crisis was finally settled in favor of the Moldavian princes under Alexander I. Nevertheless, religious policy remained complex: while conversions to faiths other than Orthodox were discouraged (and forbidden for princes), Moldavia included sizable Roman Catholic communities (Germans and Magyars), as well as non-Chalcedonic Armenians; after 1460, the country welcomed Hussite refugees (founders of Ciuburciu and, probably, Huși).


title: Moldavia

text: The principality of Moldavia covered the entire geographic region of Moldavia. In various periods, various other territories were politically connected with the Moldavian principality. This is the case of the province of Pokuttya, the fiefdoms of Cetatea de Baltă and Ciceu (both in Transylvania) or, at a later date, the territories between the Dniester and the Bug rivers.


title: Moldavia

text: Petru II profited from the end of the Hungarian-Polish union and moved the country closer to the Jagiellon realm, becoming a vassal of Władysław II on September 26, 1387. This gesture was to have unexpected consequences: Petru supplied the Polish ruler with funds needed in the war against the Teutonic Knights, and was granted control over Pokuttya until the debt was to be repaid; as this is not recorded to have been carried out, the region became disputed by the two states, until it was lost by Moldavia in the Battle of Obertyn (1531). Prince Petru also expanded his rule southwards to the Danube Delta. His brother Roman I conquered the Hungarian-ruled Cetatea Albă in 1392, giving Moldavia an outlet to the Black Sea, before being toppled from the throne for supporting Fyodor Koriatovych in his conflict with Vytautas the Great of Lithuania. Under Stephen I, growing Polish influence was challenged by Sigismund of Hungary, whose expedition was defeated at Ghindăoani in 1385; however, Stephen disappeared in mysterious circumstances.


title: Moldavia

text: Although Alexander I was brought to the throne in 1400 by the Hungarians (with assistance from Mircea I of Wallachia), he shifted his allegiances towards Poland (notably engaging Moldavian forces on the Polish side in the Battle of Grunwald and the Siege of Marienburg), and placed his own choice of rulers in Wallachia. His reign was one of the most successful in Moldavia's history, but also saw the very first confrontation with the Ottoman Turks at Cetatea Albă in 1420, and later even a conflict with the Poles. A deep crisis was to follow Alexandru's long reign, with his successors battling each other in a succession of wars that divided the country until the murder of Bogdan II and the ascension of Petru III Aron in 1451. Nevertheless, Moldavia was subject to further Hungarian interventions after that moment, as Matthias Corvinus deposed Aron and backed Alexăndrel to the throne in Suceava. Petru Aron's rule also signified the beginning of Moldavia's Ottoman Empire allegiance, as the ruler agreed to pay tribute to Sultan Mehmed II.


title: Moldavia

text: Under Stephen the Great, who took the throne and subsequently came to an agreement with Casimir IV of Poland in 1457, the state reached its most glorious period. Stephen blocked Hungarian interventions in the Battle of Baia, invaded Wallachia in 1471, and dealt with Ottoman reprisals in a major victory (the 1475 Battle of Vaslui); after feeling threatened by Polish ambitions, he also attacked Galicia and resisted a Polish invasion in the Battle of the Cosmin Forest (1497). However, he had to surrender Chilia (now Kiliia) and Cetatea Albă (now Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi), the two main fortresses in the Budjak, to the Ottomans in 1484, and in 1498 he had to accept Ottoman suzerainty, when he was forced to agree to continue paying tribute to Sultan Bayezid II. Following the taking of Hotin (Khotyn) and Pokuttya, Stephen's rule also brought a brief extension of Moldavian rule into Transylvania: Cetatea de Baltă and Ciceu became his fiefs in 1489.


title: Moldavia

text: Under Bogdan III the One-Eyed, Ottoman overlordship was confirmed in the shape that would rapidly evolve into control over Moldavia's affairs. Peter IV Rareș, who reigned in the 1530s and 1540s, clashed with the Habsburg monarchy over his ambitions in Transylvania (losing possessions in the region to George Martinuzzi), was defeated in Pokuttya by Poland, and failed in his attempt to extricate Moldavia from Ottoman rule – the country lost Bender to the Ottomans, who included it in their Silistra Eyalet.


title: Moldavia

text: A period of profound crisis followed. Moldavia stopped issuing its own coinage circa 1520, under Prince Ștefăniță, when it was confronted with rapid depletion of funds and rising demands from the Porte. Such problems became endemic when the country, brought into the Great Turkish War, suffered the impact of the stagnation of the Ottoman Empire; at one point, during the 1650s and 1660s, princes began relying on counterfeit coinage (usually copies of Swedish riksdalers, as was that issued by Eustratie Dabija). The economic decline was accompanied by a failure to maintain state structures: the feudal-based Moldavian military forces were no longer convoked, and the few troops maintained by the rulers remained professional mercenaries such as the "seimeni".


title: Moldavia

text: However, Moldavia and the similarly affected Wallachia remained both important sources of income for the Ottoman Empire and relatively prosperous agricultural economies (especially as suppliers of grain and cattle – the latter was especially relevant in Moldavia, which remained an under-populated country of pastures). In time, much of the resources were tied to the Ottoman economy, either through monopolies on trade that were only lifted in 1829, after the Treaty of Adrianople (which did not affect all domains directly), or through the raise in direct taxes - the one demanded by the Ottomans from the princes, as well as the ones demanded by the princes from the country's population. Taxes were directly proportional with Ottoman requests, but also with the growing importance of Ottoman appointment and sanctioning of princes in front of election by the boyars and the boyar Council – "" (drawing in a competition among pretenders, which also implied the intervention of creditors as suppliers of bribes). The fiscal system soon included taxes such as the "văcărit" (a tax on head of cattle), first introduced by Iancu Sasul in the 1580s.


title: Moldavia

text: The economic opportunities offered brought about a significant influx of Greek and Levantine financiers and officials, who entered a stiff competition with the high boyars over appointments to the Court. As the manor system suffered the blows of economic crises, and in the absence of salarisation (which implied that persons in office could decide their own income), obtaining princely appointment became the major focus of a boyar's career. Such changes also implied the decline of free peasantry and the rise of serfdom, as well as the rapid fall in the importance of low boyars (a traditional institution, the latter soon became marginal, and, in more successful instances, added to the population of towns); however, they also implied a rapid transition towards a monetary economy, based on exchanges in foreign currency. Serfdom was doubled by the much less numerous slave population ("robi"), composed of migrant Roma and captured Nogais.


title: Moldavia

text: The conflict between princes and boyars was to become exceptionally violent – the latter group, who frequently appealed to the Ottoman court in order to have princes comply with its demands, was persecuted by rulers such as Alexandru Lăpușneanu and John III. Ioan Vodă's revolt against the Ottomans ended in his execution (1574). The country descended into political chaos, with frequent Ottoman and Tatar incursions and pillages. The claims of Mușatins to the crown and the traditional system of succession were ended by scores of illegitimate reigns; one of the usurpers, Ioan Iacob Heraclid, was a Protestant Greek who encouraged the Renaissance and attempted to introduce Lutheranism to Moldavia.


title: Moldavia

text: In 1595, the rise of the Movilești boyars to the throne with Ieremia Movilă coincided with the start of frequent anti-Ottoman and anti-Habsburg military expeditions of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth into Moldavian territory (see "Moldavian Magnate Wars"), and rivalries between pretenders to the Moldavian throne encouraged by the three competing powers.


title: Moldavia

text: The Wallachian prince Michael the Brave, after previously taking over Transylvania, also deposed Prince Ieremia Movilă, in 1600, and managed to become the first Prince to rule over Moldavia, Wallachia, and Transylvania; the episode ended in Polish conquests of lands down to Bucharest, soon ended by the outbreak of the Polish–Swedish War and the reestablishment of Ottoman rule. Polish incursions were dealt a blow by the Ottomans during the 1620 Battle of Cecora, which also saw an end to the reign of Gaspar Graziani.


title: Moldavia

text: A period of relative peace followed during the more prosperous and prestigious rule of Vasile Lupu. He took the throne as a boyar appointee in 1637 and began battling his rival Gheorghe Ștefan, as well as the Wallachian prince Matei Basarab. However, his invasion of Wallachia, with the backing of Cossack Hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky, ended in disaster at the Battle of Finta in 1653. A few years later, Moldavia was occupied for two short intervals by the anti-Ottoman Wallachian prince Constantin Șerban, who clashed with the first ruler of the Ghica family, George Ghica. In the early 1680s, Moldavian troops under George Ducas intervened in right-bank Ukraine and assisted Mehmed IV in the Battle of Vienna, only to suffer the effects of the Great Turkish War.


title: Moldavia

text: During the late 17th century, Moldavia became the target of the Russian Empire's southwards expansion, inaugurated by Peter the Great with the Russo-Turkish War of 1710-1711. Prince Dimitrie Cantemir sided with Peter in open rebellion against the Ottomans, but he was defeated at Stănilești. Sultan Ahmed III officially discarded recognition of local choices for princes, imposing instead a system relying solely on Ottoman approval: the Phanariote epoch, inaugurated by the reign of Nicholas Mavrocordatos.


title: Moldavia

text: Phanariote rule was marked by political corruption, intrigue, and high taxation, as well as by sporadic incursions of Habsburg and Russian armies deep into Moldavian territory. Nonetheless, they also attempted legislative and administrative modernization inspired by The Enlightenment (such as the decision by Constantine Mavrocordatos to salarize public offices, to the outrage of boyars, and the abolition of serfdom in 1749, as well as Scarlat Callimachi's "Code"), and signified a decrease in Ottoman demands after the threat of Russian annexation became real and the prospects of a better life led to waves of peasant emigration to neighboring lands. The effects of Ottoman control were also made less notable after the 1774 Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca allowed Russia to intervene in favour of Ottoman subjects of the Eastern Orthodox faith - leading to campaigns of petitioning by the Moldavian boyars against princely policies.


title: Moldavia

text: In 1712, Hotin was taken over by the Ottomans and became part of a defensive system that Moldavian princes were required to maintain, as well as an area for Islamic colonization (the Laz community).


title: Moldavia

text: In 1775 Moldavia lost to the Habsburg Empire its northwestern part, which became known as Bukovina. For Moldavia, it meant both an important territorial loss and a major blow to the cattle trade, as the region stood on the trade route to Central Europe.


title: Moldavia

text: The Treaty of Jassy in 1792 forced the Ottoman Empire to cede Yedisan to the Russian Empire, which made Russian presence much more notable, given that the Empire acquired a common border with Moldavia. The first effect of this was the cession of the eastern half of Moldavia (renamed as Bessarabia) to the Russian Empire in 1812.


title: Moldavia

text: Phanariote rule was officially ended after the 1821 occupation of the country by Alexander Ypsilantis's Filiki Eteria during the Greek War of Independence; the subsequent Ottoman retaliation led to the rule of Ioan Sturdza. He was considered the first of a new system, since the Ottomans and Russia had agreed in 1826 to allow for the election by locals of rulers over the two Danubian Principalities, and convened on their mandating for seven-year terms. In practice, a new foundation to reigns in Moldavia was created by the Russo-Turkish War (1828–1829), beginning a period of Russian domination over the two countries which ended only in 1856. Begun as a military occupation under the command of Pavel Kiselyov, Russian domination gave Wallachia and Moldavia, which were not removed from nominal Ottoman control, the modernizing "Organic Statute" (the first document resembling a constitution, as well as the first to regard both principalities). After 1829, the country also became an important destination for immigration of Ashkenazi Jews from the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria and areas of Russia ("see History of the Jews in Romania and Sudiți").


title: Moldavia

text: The first Moldavian rule established under the Statute, that of Mihail Sturdza, was nonetheless ambivalent: eager to reduce abuse of office, Sturdza introduced reforms (the abolition of slavery, secularization, economic rebuilding), but he was widely seen as enforcing his own power over that of the newly instituted consultative Assembly. A supporter of the union of his country with Wallachia and of Romanian Romantic nationalism, he obtained the establishment of a customs union between the two countries (1847) and showed support for radical projects favored by low boyars; nevertheless, he clamped down with noted violence the Moldavian revolutionary attempt in the last days of March 1848. Grigore Alexandru Ghica allowed the exiled revolutionaries to return to Moldavia c. 1853, which led to the creation of the National Party (), a trans-boundary group of radical union supporters which campaigned for a single state under a foreign dynasty.


title: Moldavia

text: In 1856, under the terms of the Treaty of Paris, the Russian Empire returned to Moldavia a significant territory in southern Bessarabia (including a part of Budjak), organised later as the Bolgrad, Cahul, and Ismail counties.


title: Moldavia

text: Russian domination ended abruptly after the Crimean War, when the Treaty of Paris also passed the two Romanian principalities under the tutelage of Great European Powers (together with Russia and the Ottoman overlord, power-sharing included the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Austrian Empire, the French Empire, the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia, and Prussia). Due to Austrian and Ottoman opposition and British reserves, the union program as demanded by radical campaigners was debated intensely.


title: Moldavia

text: In September 1857, given that "Caimacam" Nicolae Vogoride had perpetrated fraud in elections in Moldavia, the Powers allowed the two states to convene ad hoc divans, which were to decide a new constitutional framework; the result showed overwhelming support for the union, as the creation of a liberal and neutral state. After further meetings among leaders of tutor states, an agreement was reached (the "Paris Convention"), whereby a limited union was to be enforced – separate governments and thrones, with only two bodies in common (a Court of Cassation and a Central Commission residing in Focșani); it also stipulated that an end to all privilege was to be passed into law, and awarded back to Moldavia the areas around Bolhrad, Cahul, and Izmail.


title: Moldavia

text: However, the Convention failed to note whether the two thrones could not be occupied by the same person, allowing "Partida Națională" to introduce the candidacy of Alexandru Ioan Cuza in both countries. On January 17 (January 5, 1859, Old Style), in Iași, he was elected prince of Moldavia by the respective electoral body. After street pressure over the much more conservative body in Bucharest, Cuza was elected in Wallachia as well (February 5/January 24), this being considered as the day of the unification of Moldavia and Wallachia by means of a personal union.


title: Moldavia

text: In 1862, after diplomatic missions that helped remove opposition to the action, the United Principalities (the basis of modern Romania) was formally created, and instituted Cuza as "Domnitor" – thus officially ending the existence of the Principality of Moldavia. All other pending legal matters were clarified after the replacement of Cuza with Carol of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen in April 1866, and the creation of an independent Kingdom of Romania in 1881.


title: Moldavia

text: Slavery () was part of the social order from before the founding of the Principality of Moldavia, until it was abolished in stages during the 1840s and 1850s. Most of the slaves were of Roma (Gypsy) ethnicity. There were also slaves of Tatar ethnicity, probably prisoners captured from the wars with the Nogai and Crimean Tatars. The institution of slavery was first attested in a 1470 Moldavian document, through which Prince Stephen the Great frees Oană, a Tatar slave who had fled to Jagiellon Poland.


title: Moldavia

text: The exact origins of slavery are not known, as it was a common practice in medieval Europe. As in the Byzantine Empire, the Roma were held as slaves of the state, of the boyars or of the monasteries. Historian Nicolae Iorga associated the Roma people's arrival with the 1241 Mongol invasion of Europe and considered their slavery as a vestige of that era; he believed that the Romanians took the Roma as slaves from the Mongols and preserved their status to control their labor. Other historians consider that the Roma were enslaved while captured during the battles with the Tatars. The practice of enslaving prisoners may also have been taken from the Mongols. The ethnic identity of the "Tatar slaves" is unknown, they could have been captured Tatars of the Golden Horde, Cumans, or the slaves of Tatars and Cumans. While it is possible that some Romani people were slaves or auxiliary troops of the Mongols or Tatars, most of them came from south of the Danube, demonstrating that slavery was a widespread practice. The Tatar slaves, smaller in numbers, were eventually merged into the Roma population.


title: Moldavia

text: Traditionally, Roma slaves were divided into three categories. The smallest was owned by the "hospodars", and went by the Romanian-language name of "țigani domnești" ("Gypsies belonging to the lord"). The two other categories comprised "țigani mănăstirești" ("Gypsies belonging to the monasteries"), who were the property of Romanian Orthodox and Greek Orthodox monasteries, and "țigani boierești" ("Gypsies belonging to the boyars"), who were enslaved by the category of landowners.


title: Moldavia

text: The abolition of slavery was carried out following a campaign by young revolutionaries who embraced the liberal ideas of the Enlightenment. In 1844, Moldavian Prince Mihail Sturdza proposed a law on the freeing of slaves owned by the church and state. By the 1850s, the movement gained support from almost the whole of Romanian society. In December 1855, following a proposal by Prince Grigore Alexandru Ghica, a bill drafted by Mihail Kogălniceanu and Petre Mavrogheni was adopted by the Divan; the law emancipated all slaves to the status of taxpayers (citizens).


title: Moldavia

text: Support for the abolitionists was reflected in Romanian literature of the mid-19th century. The issue of the Roma slavery became a theme in the literary works of various liberal and Romantic intellectuals, many of whom were active in the abolitionist camp. The Romanian abolitionist movement was also influenced by the much larger movement against Black slavery in the United States through press reports and through a translation of Harriet Beecher Stowe's "Uncle Tom's Cabin". Translated by Theodor Codrescu and first published in Iași in 1853, under the name "Coliba lui Moșu Toma sau Viața negrilor în sudul Statelor Unite din America" (which translates back as "Uncle Toma's Cabin or the Life of Blacks in the Southern United States of America"), it was the first American novel to be published in Romanian. The foreword included a study on slavery by Mihail Kogălniceanu.


title: Moldavia

text: Under the reign of Stephen the Great, all farmers and villagers had to bear arms. Stephen justified this by saying that "every man has a duty to defend his fatherland"; according to Polish chronicler Jan Długosz, if someone was found without carrying a weapon, he was sentenced to death. Stephen reformed the army by promoting men from the landed free peasantry "răzeși" (i.e. something akin to freeholding yeomen) to infantry ("voinici") and light cavalry ("hânsari"), reducing his dependence on the boyars, and introduced guns. The Small Host ("Oastea Mică") consisted of around 10,000 to 12,000 men. The Large Host ("Oastea Mare"), which could reach up to 40,000, was recruited from all the free peasantry older than 14 and strong enough to carry a sword or use a bow. This seldom happened, for such a levée en masse was devastating for both economy and population growth. In the Battle of Vaslui, Stephen had to summon the Large Host and also recruited mercenary troops.


title: Moldavia

text: In the Middle Ages and early Renaissance, the Moldavians relied on light cavalry ("călărași") which used hit-and-run tactics similar to those of the Tatars; this gave them great mobility and also flexibility, in case they found it more suitable to dismount their horses and fight in hand-to-hand combat, as it happened in 1422, when 400 horse archers were sent to aid Jagiellon Poland, Moldavia's overlord against the Teutonic Knights. When making eye-contact with the enemy, the horse archers would withdraw to a nearby forest and camouflage themselves with leaves and branches; according to Jan Długosz, when the enemy entered the wood, they were "showered with arrows" and defeated. The heavy cavalry consisted of the nobility, namely, the boyars, and their guards, the "viteji" (lit. "brave ones", small nobility) and the "curteni" (court cavalry). These were all nominally part of the Small Host. In times of war, boyars were compelled by the feudal system of allegiance to supply the prince with troops in accordance with the extent of their manorial domain.


title: Moldavia

text: Other troops consisted of professional foot soldiers ("lefegii") which fulfilled the heavy infantry role, and the "plăieși", free peasants whose role was that of border guards: they guarded the mountain passes and were prepared to ambush the enemy and to fight delaying actions.


title: Moldavia

text: In the absence of the prince, command was assigned to the "Mare Spătar" (Grand Sword-Bearer, a military office) or to the "Mare Vornic" (approx. Governor of the Country; a civilian office second only to the "Voievod", which was filled by the prince himself). Supplying the troops was by tradition-later-made-into-law the duty of the inhabitants of those lands on which the soldiers were present at a given time.


title: Moldavia

text: The Moldavians' (as well as Wallachians') favourite military doctrine in (defensive) wars was a scorched earth policy combined with harassment of the advancing enemy using hit-and-run tactics and disruption of communication and supply lines, followed by a large scale ambush: a weakened enemy would be lured in a place where it would find itself in a position hard or impossible to defend. A general attack would follow, often with devastating results. The shattered remains of what was once the enemy army would be pursued closely and harassed all the way to the border and sometimes beyond. A typical example of successful employments of this scenario is the Battle of Vaslui.


title: Moldavia

text: Towards the end of the 15th century, especially after the success of guns and cannons, mercenaries became a dominant force in the country's military. With the economic demands created by the stagnation of the Ottoman Empire, the force diminished and included only mercenaries such as the "seimeni".


title: Moldavia

text: The 1829 Treaty of Adrianople allowed Moldavia to again maintain its own troops, no longer acting as an auxiliary under strict Ottoman supervision, and assigned red over blue pennants ("see Flag and coat of arms of Moldavia"). Their renewed existence under Mihail Sturdza was a major symbol and rally point for the nationalist cause, aiding in bringing about the 1848 Moldavian revolution.


title: Moldavia

text: An early mention of a Moldavian naval fleet is found in connection with the rule of Aron Tiranul, who used it to help Wallachian ruler Michael the Brave establish his control over the Chilia branch of the Danube and Dobruja.


title: Moldavia

text: The Treaty of Adrianople provided for a Moldavian self-defense naval force, to be composed of caicque vessels. Schooners armed with cannons were first built in the 1840s. Along with patrolling the Danube, these made their way on its tributaries, the Siret and the Prut River.


title: Moldavia

text: Geographically, Moldavia is limited by the Carpathian Mountains to the West, the Cheremosh River to the North, the Dniester River to the East and the Danube and Black Sea to the South. The Prut River flows approximately through its middle from north to south.


title: Moldavia

text: Of late 15th century Moldavia, with an area of , the biggest part and the core of the former principality is located in Romania (45.6%), followed by the Republic of Moldova (31.7%), and Ukraine (22.7%). This represents 88.2% of the Republic of Moldova's surface, 18% of Romania's surface, and 3.5% of Ukraine's surface.


title: Moldavia

text: The region is mostly hilly, with a range of mountains in the west, and plain areas in the southeast. Moldavia's highest altitude is Ineu peak (2,279 m), which is also the westernmost point of the region.


title: Moldavia

text: Contemporary historians estimate the population (historically referred to as Moldavians) of the Moldavian Principality in the 15th century, at between 250,000 and 600,000 people, but an extensive census was first conducted in 1769–1774.


title: Moldavia

text: In 1848, the northwestern part, annexed in 1775 by the Habsburg Empire, Bukovina, had a population of 377,571; in 1856, the eastern half of Moldavia, Bessarabia, annexed in 1812 by the Russian Empire, had a population of 990,274, while the population of Moldavia proper (the western half), in 1859, was 1,463,927.


title: Moldavia

text: The contemporary population peaked in 1992, at 10.07 million inhabitants in all three historical divisions (Western Moldavia, Bessarabia and Bukovina). As of 2011, the population was 8.63 million people, of which 3.67 million were in Western Moldavia, 3.86 million in Bessarabia and 1.08 million in Bukovina.


title: Moldavia

text: In 1562, the so-called Schola Latina (a Latin Academic College) was founded in Cotnari, near Iași, a school which marked the beginnings of the organized humanistic education institutions in Moldavia.


title: Moldavia

text: The first institute of higher learning that functioned on the territory of Romania was Academia Vasiliană (1640), founded by Prince Vasile Lupu as a "Higher School for Latin and Slavonic Languages", followed by the Princely Academy, in 1707. The first high education structure in Romanian language was established in the autumn of 1813, when Gheorghe Asachi laid the foundations of a class of engineers, its activities taking place within the Greek Princely Academy.


title: Moldavia

text: After 1813, other moments marked the development of higher education in Romanian language, regarding both humanities and the technical science. Academia Mihăileană, founded in 1835 by Prince Mihail Sturdza, is considered the first Romanian superior institute. In 1860, three faculties part of the Academia Mihăileană formed the nucleus for the newly established University of Iași, the first Romanian modern university.


title: Chernobyl Exclusion Zone

text: The Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Zone of Alienation is an officially designated exclusion zone around the site of the Chernobyl nuclear reactor disaster. It is also commonly known as the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, the 30-Kilometre Zone, or The Zone.


title: Chernobyl Exclusion Zone

text: Established by the Soviet Armed Forces soon after the 1986 disaster, it initially existed as an area of radius from the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant designated for evacuation and placed under military control. Its borders have since been altered to cover a larger area of Ukraine. The Chernobyl Exclusion Zone borders a separately administered area, the Polesie State Radioecological Reserve, to the north in Belarus. The Chernobyl Exclusion Zone is managed by an agency of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine, while the power plant and its sarcophagus (and replacement) are administered separately.


title: Chernobyl Exclusion Zone

text: The Exclusion Zone covers an area of approximately in Ukraine immediately surrounding the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant where radioactive contamination is highest and public access and habitation are restricted. Other areas of compulsory resettlement and voluntary relocation not part of the restricted Exclusion Zone exist in the surrounding areas and throughout Ukraine. In February 2019 it was revealed that talks were underway to redraw the boundaries of the Exclusion Zone to reflect the declining radioactivity of the Zone's outer areas.


title: Chernobyl Exclusion Zone

text: The Exclusion Zone's purpose is to restrict access to hazardous areas, reduce the spread of radiological contamination, and conduct radiological and ecological monitoring activities. Today, the Exclusion Zone is one of the most radioactively contaminated areas in the world and draws significant scientific interest for the high levels of radiation exposure in the environment, as well as increasing interest from tourists. The zone has become a thriving sanctuary with natural flora and fauna with some of the highest biodiversity and thickest forests in all of Ukraine. This is due to the lack of human activity in the Exclusion Zone and is despite the radiation.


title: Chernobyl Exclusion Zone

text: The Chernobyl Exclusion Zone was the site of fighting between Russian and Ukrainian forces during the Battle of Chernobyl on 24 February 2022, as part of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.


title: Chernobyl Exclusion Zone

text: Geographically, it includes the northernmost "raions" (districts) of the Kyiv and Zhytomyr oblasts (regions) of Ukraine.


title: Chernobyl Exclusion Zone

text: Historically and geographically, the zone is the heartland of the Polesia region. This predominantly rural woodland and marshland area was once home to 120,000 people living in the cities of Chernobyl and Pripyat as well as 187 smaller communities, but is now mostly uninhabited. All settlements remain designated on geographic maps but marked as () – "uninhabited". The woodland in the area around Pripyat was a focal point of partisan resistance during the Second World War, which allowed evacuated residents to evade guards and return into the woods. In the woodland near the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant stood the 'Partisan's Tree' or 'Cross Tree', which was used to hang captured partisans. The tree fell down due to age in 1996 and a memorial now stands at its location.


title: Chernobyl Exclusion Zone

text: The Exclusion Zone was established on soon after the Chernobyl disaster, when a Soviet government commission headed by Nikolai Ryzhkov decided on a "rather arbitrary" area of a radius from Reactor 4 as the designated evacuation area. The 30 km Zone was initially divided into three subzones: the area immediately adjacent to Reactor 4, an area of approximately radius from the reactor, and the remaining 30 km zone. Protective clothing and available facilities varied between these subzones.


title: Chernobyl Exclusion Zone

text: Later in 1986, after updated maps of the contaminated areas were produced, the zone was split into three areas to designate further evacuation areas based on the revised dose limit of 100 mSv.


title: Chernobyl Exclusion Zone

text: Special permission for access and full military control was put in place in later 1986. Although evacuations were not immediate, 91,200 people were eventually evacuated from these zones.


title: Chernobyl Exclusion Zone

text: In November 1986, control over activities in the zone was given to the new production association "Kombinat". Based in the evacuated city of Chernobyl, the association's responsibility was to operate the power plant, decontaminate the 30 km zone, supply materials and goods to the zone, and construct housing outside the new town of Slavutych for the power plant personnel and their families.


title: Chernobyl Exclusion Zone

text: In March 1989, a "Safe Living Concept" was created for people living in contaminated zones beyond the Exclusion Zone in Belarus, Ukraine, and Russia. In October 1989, the Soviet government requested assistance from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to assess the "Soviet Safe Living Concept" for inhabitants of contaminated areas. "Throughout the Soviet period, an image of containment was partially achieved through selective resettlements and territorial delineations of contaminated zones."


title: Chernobyl Exclusion Zone

text: In February 1991, the law "On The Legal Status of the Territory Exposed to the Radioactive Contamination resulting from the ChNPP Accident" was passed, updating the borders of the Exclusion Zone and defining obligatory and voluntary resettlement areas, and areas for enhanced monitoring. The borders were based on soil deposits of strontium-90, caesium-137, and plutonium as well as the calculated dose rate (sieverts/h) as identified by the National Commission for Radiation Protection of Ukraine. Responsibility for monitoring and coordination of activities in the Exclusion Zone was given to the Ministry of Chernobyl Affairs.


title: Chernobyl Exclusion Zone

text: In-depth studies were conducted from 1992–93, culminating the updating of the 1991 law followed by further evacuations from the Polesia area. A number of evacuation zones were determined: the "Exclusion Zone", the "Zone of Absolute (Mandatory) Resettlement", and the "Zone of Guaranteed Voluntary Resettlement", as well as many areas throughout Ukraine designated as areas for radiation monitoring. The evacuation of contaminated areas outside of the Exclusion Zone continued in both the compulsory and voluntary resettlement areas, with 53,000 people evacuated from areas in Ukraine from 1990 to 1995.


title: Chernobyl Exclusion Zone

text: After Ukrainian Independence, funding for the policing and protection of the zone was initially limited, resulting in even further settling by "samosely" (returnees) and other illegal intrusion.


title: Chernobyl Exclusion Zone

text: In 1997, the areas of Poliske and Narodychi, which had been evacuated, were added to the existing area of the Exclusion Zone, and the zone now encompasses the exclusion zone and parts of the zone of Absolute (Mandatory) Resettlement of an area of approximately . This Zone was placed under management of the 'Administration of the exclusion zone and the zone of absolute (mandatory) resettlement' within the Ministry of Emergencies.


title: Chernobyl Exclusion Zone

text: On 15 December 2000, all nuclear power production at the power plant ceased after an official ceremony with then-President Leonid Kuchma when the last remaining operational reactor, number 3, was shut down.


title: Chernobyl Exclusion Zone

text: The Chernobyl Exclusion Zone was the site of fighting between Russian and Ukrainian forces during the Battle of Chernobyl on 24 February 2022, as part of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Russian forces reportedly captured the plant the same day.


title: Chernobyl Exclusion Zone

text: Facilities at Chernobyl still require ongoing management, in part to ensure the continued cooling of spent nuclear fuel. An estimated 100 plant workers and 200 Ukrainian guards who were at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant when the Russians arrived had been unable to leave. Normally they would change shifts daily and would not live at the site. They had limited supplies of medication, food, and electricity.


title: Chernobyl Exclusion Zone

text: According to Ukrainian reports, the radiation levels in the exclusion zone increased after the invasion. The higher levels are believed to be a result of disturbance of radioactive dust by the military activity or possibly incorrect readings caused by cyberattacks.


title: Chernobyl Exclusion Zone

text: On 10 March, the International Atomic Energy Agency stated that it had lost all contact with Chernobyl.


title: Chernobyl Exclusion Zone

text: On 22 March, the Ukrainian state agency responsible for the Chernobyl exclusion zone reported that Russian forces had destroyed a new laboratory at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. The laboratory, which opened in 2015, worked to improve the management of radioactive waste, among other things. "The laboratory contained highly active samples and samples of radionuclides that are now in the hands of the enemy, which we hope will harm itself and not the civilized world", the agency said in its statement.


title: Chernobyl Exclusion Zone

text: On 27 March, Lyudmila Denisova, the Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights, said that 31 known individual fires covering 10,000 hectares were burning in the zone. These fires caused "...an increased level of radioactive air pollution", according to Denisova. Firefighters were unable to reach the fires due to the Russian forces in the area. These wildfires are seasonal; one fire that was 11,500 hectares in size took place in 2020, and a series of several smaller fires occurred throughout the 2010s.


title: Chernobyl Exclusion Zone

text: On 31 March, it was reported that most of the Russian troops occupying Chernobyl withdrew. An Exclusion Zone employee made a post on Facebook suggesting that Russian troops were suffering from acute radiation sickness, based on a photo of military buses unloading near a radiation hospital in Belarus. Chernobyl operator Enerhoatom claimed that Russian troops had dug trenches in the most contaminated part of the Chernobyl exclusion zone, receiving "significant doses" of radiation. "BBC News" reported unconfirmed reports that some were being treated in Belarus.


title: Chernobyl Exclusion Zone

text: The 30-kilometre zone is estimated to be home to 197 "samosely" living in 11 villages as well as in the town of Chernobyl. This number is in decline, down from previous estimates of 314 in 2007 and 1,200 in 1986. These residents are senior citizens, with an average age of 63. After repeated attempts at expulsion, the authorities have accepted their presence and allowed them to stay with limited supporting services. Residence is now informally permitted by the Ukrainian government.


title: Chernobyl Exclusion Zone

text: Approximately 3,000 people work in the Zone of Alienation on various tasks, such as the construction of the New Safe Confinement, the ongoing decommissioning of the reactors, and assessment and monitoring of the conditions in the zone. Employees do not live inside the zone, but work shifts there. Some of the workers work "4-3" shifts (four days on, three days off), while others work 15 days on and 15 days off. Other workers commute into the zone daily from Slavutych. The duration of shifts is counted strictly for reasons involving pension and healthcare. Everyone employed in the Zone is monitored for internal bioaccumulation of radioactive elements.


title: Chernobyl Exclusion Zone

text: Chernobyl town, located outside of the 10 kilometre Exclusion Zone, was evacuated following the accident, but now serves as a base to support the workers within the Exclusion Zone. Its amenities include administrative buildings, general stores, a canteen, a hotel, and a bus station. Unlike other areas within the Exclusion Zone, Chernobyl town is actively maintained by workers, such as lawn areas being mowed and autumn leaves being collected.


title: Chernobyl Exclusion Zone

text: There have been growing numbers of visitors to the Exclusion Zone each year, and there are now daily trips from Kyiv offered by multiple companies. In addition, multiple-day excursions can be easily arranged with Ukrainian tour operators. Most overnight tourists stay in a hotel within the town of Chernobyl, which is located within the Exclusion Zone. According to an exclusion area tour guide, as of 2017, there are approximately 50 licensed exclusion area tour guides in total, working for approximately nine companies. Visitors must present their passports when entering the Exclusion Zone and are screened for radiation when exiting, both at the 10 km checkpoint and at the 30 km checkpoint.


title: Chernobyl Exclusion Zone

text: The Exclusion Zone can also be entered if an application is made directly to the zone administration department.


title: Chernobyl Exclusion Zone

text: Some evacuated residents of Pripyat have established a remembrance tradition, which includes annual visits to former homes and schools. In the Chernobyl zone, there is one operating Eastern Orthodox Christian church, St. Elijah Church. According to Chernobyl disaster liquidators, the radiation levels there are "well below the level across the zone", a fact that president of the Ukrainian Chernobyl Union Yury Andreyev considers miraculous.


title: Chernobyl Exclusion Zone

text: The Chernobyl Exclusion Zone has been accessible to interested parties such as scientists and journalists since the zone was created. An early example was Elena Filatova's online account of her alleged solo bike ride through the zone. This gained her Internet fame, but was later alleged to be fictional, as a guide claimed Filatova was part of an official tour group. Regardless, her story drew the attention of millions to the nuclear catastrophe. After Filatova's visit in 2004, a number of papers such as "The Guardian" and "The New York Times" began to produce reports on tours to the zone.


title: Chernobyl Exclusion Zone

text: Tourism to the area became more common after Pripyat was featured in popular video games "" and "". Fans of the "S.T.A.L.K.E.R." franchise, who refer to themselves as "stalkers", often gain access to the Zone. ("The Zone" and "stalker" derive from Arkady and Boris Strugatsky's science fiction novel "Roadside Picnic", which preceded the accident but which described the evacuation of part of Russia after the appearance of dangerous alien artifacts. It served as the basis for the classic film "Stalker".) Prosecution of trespassers became more severe after a significant increase in trespassing in the Exclusion Zone. An article in the penal code of Ukraine was specially introduced, and horse patrols were added to protect the zone's perimeter.


title: Chernobyl Exclusion Zone

text: In 2012, journalist Andrew Blackwell published "Visit Sunny Chernobyl: And Other Adventures in the World's Most Polluted Places". Blackwell recounts his visit to the Exclusion Zone, when a guide and driver took him through the zone and to the reactor site.


title: Chernobyl Exclusion Zone

text: On 14 April 2013, the 32nd episode of the wildlife documentary TV program "River Monsters" ("Atomic Assassin", Season 5, Episode 1) was broadcast, featuring the host Jeremy Wade catching a wels catfish in the cooling pools of the Chernobyl power plant at the heart of the Exclusion Zone.


title: Chernobyl Exclusion Zone

text: On 16 February 2014, an episode of the British motoring TV programme "Top Gear" was broadcast, featuring two of the presenters, Jeremy Clarkson and James May, driving into the Exclusion Zone.


title: Chernobyl Exclusion Zone

text: A portion of the finale of the Netflix documentary "Our Planet", released in 2019, was filmed in the Exclusion Zone. The area was used as the primary example of how quickly an ecosystem can recover and thrive in the absence of human interference.


title: Chernobyl Exclusion Zone

text: In 2019, Chernobyl Spirit Company released Atomik Vodka, the first consumer product made from materials grown and cultivated in the exclusion zone.


title: Chernobyl Exclusion Zone

text: The poaching of game, illegal logging, and metal salvage have been problems within the zone. Despite police control, intruders started infiltrating the perimeter to remove potentially contaminated materials, from televisions to toilet seats, especially in Pripyat, where the residents of about 30 high-rise apartment buildings had to leave all of their belongings behind. In 2007, the Ukrainian government adopted more severe criminal and administrative penalties for illegal activities in the alienation zone, as well as reinforced units assigned to these tasks. The population of Przewalski's horse, introduced to the Exclusion Zone in 1998, has reportedly fallen since 2005 due to poaching.


title: Chernobyl Exclusion Zone

text: In April 2011, the State Agency of Ukraine on the Exclusion Zone Management (SAUEZM) became the successor to the State Department – Administration of the exclusion zone and the zone of absolute (mandatory) resettlement according to presidential decree. The SAUEZM is, as its predecessor, an agency within the State Emergency Service of Ukraine.


title: Chernobyl Exclusion Zone

text: Policing of the Zone is conducted by special units of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine and, along the border with Belarus, by the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine.


title: Chernobyl Exclusion Zone

text: The Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant is located inside the zone, but is administered separately. Plant personnel, 3,800 workers , reside primarily in Slavutych, a specially-built remote city in Kyiv Oblast outside of the Exclusion Zone, east of the accident site.


title: Chernobyl Exclusion Zone

text: The Chernobyl Exclusion Zone is an environmental recovery area, with efforts devoted to remediation and safeguarding of the reactor site. At the same time, projects for wider economic and social revival of the territories around the disaster zone have been envisioned or implemented.


title: Chernobyl Exclusion Zone

text: In November 2007, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution calling for "recovery and sustainable development" of the areas affected by the Chernobyl accident. Commenting on the issue, UN Development Programme officials mentioned the plans to achieve "self-reliance" of the local population, "agriculture revival" and development of ecotourism.


title: Chernobyl Exclusion Zone

text: However, it is not clear whether such plans, made by the UN and Yushchenko, deal with the "zone of alienation" proper, or only with the other three zones around the disaster site where contamination is less intense and restrictions on the population are looser (such as the district of Narodychi in Zhytomyrska Oblast).


title: Chernobyl Exclusion Zone

text: Since 2011, tour operators have been bringing tourists inside the Exclusion Zone (illegal tours may have started even before). Tourists are accompanied by tour guides at all times and are not able to wander too far on their own due to the presence of several radioactive "hot spots". Pripyat was deemed safe for tourists to visit for a short period of time in the late 2010s, although certain precautions must be taken.


title: Chernobyl Exclusion Zone

text: In 2016, the Ukrainian government declared the part of the exclusion zone on its territory the Chernobyl Radiation and Environmental Biosphere Reserve.


title: Chernobyl Exclusion Zone

text: It was reported in 2016 that "A heavily contaminated area within a 10-kilometer radius" of the plant would be used for the storage of nuclear waste. The IAEA carried out a feasibility study in 2018 to assess the prospect of expanding the local waste management infrastructure.


title: Chernobyl Exclusion Zone

text: In 2017, three companies were reported developing plans for solar farms within the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. The high feed-in tariffs offered, the availability of land, and easy access to transmission lines (which formerly ran to the nuclear power station) have all been noted as beneficial to siting a solar farming. The solar plant began operations in October 2018.


title: Chernobyl Exclusion Zone

text: In 2019, following a three-year research project into the transfer of radioactivity to crops grown in the exclusion zone conducted by scientists from UK and Ukrainian universities, one bottle of vodka using grain from the zone was produced. The vodka did not contain abnormal levels of radiation because of the distillation process. The researchers consider the production of vodka, and its sales profits, a means to aid economic recovery of the communities most adversely affected by the disaster.


title: Chernobyl Exclusion Zone

text: The territory of the zone is polluted unevenly. Spots of hyperintensive pollution were created first by wind and rain spreading radioactive dust at the time of the accident, and subsequently by numerous burial sites for various material and equipment used in decontamination. Zone authorities pay attention to protecting such spots from tourists, scrap hunters, and wildfires, but admit that some dangerous burial sites remain unmapped, and only recorded in the memories of the (aging) Chernobyl liquidators.