title: Yellow Emperor

text: Starting in 1903, radical publications started using the projected date of birth of the Yellow Emperor as the first year of the Chinese calendar. Different newspapers and magazines proposed different dates. "Jiangsu", for example counted 1905 as year 4396 (making 2491 BC the first year of the Chinese calendar), whereas the "Minbao" (the organ of the Tongmenghui) reckoned 1905 as 4603 (first year: 2698 BC). Liu Shipei (1884–1919) created the Yellow Emperor Calendar to show the unbroken continuity of the Han race and Han culture from earliest times. There is no evidence that this calendar was used before the 20th century. Liu's calendar started with the birth of the Yellow Emperor, which was reckoned to be 2711 BC. When Sun Yat-sen declared the foundation of the Republic of China on January 2, 1912, he decreed that this was the 12th day of the 11th month of year 4609 (epoch: 2698 BCE), but that the state would now be using the solar calendar and count 1912 as the first year of the Republic. Chronological tables published in the 1938 edition of the "Cihai" () dictionary followed Sun Yat-sen in using 2698 as the year of Huangdi's accession; this chronology is now "widely reproduced, with little variation."


title: Johan de Witt

text: Johan de Witt (; 24 September 1625 – 20 August 1672), "lord of , , en IJsselvere", was a Dutch statesman and a major political figure in the Dutch Republic in the mid-17th century, the First Stadtholderless Period, when its flourishing sea trade in a period of globalization made the republic a leading European trading and seafaring power – now commonly referred to as the Dutch Golden Age. De Witt controlled the Dutch political system from around 1650 until shortly before his murder and cannibalisation by a pro-Orangist mob in 1672.


title: Johan de Witt

text: As a leading republican of the Dutch States Party, de Witt opposed the House of Orange-Nassau and the Orangists and preferred a shift of power from the central government to the regenten. However, his neglect of the Dutch army (as the regents focused only on merchant vessels, thinking they could avoid war) proved disastrous when the Dutch Republic suffered numerous early defeats in the "Rampjaar" (1672). In the hysteria that followed the effortless invasion by an alliance of England, France and some German states he and his brother Cornelis de Witt were blamed and lynched in The Hague, with their corpses at least partially eaten by the rioters. These cannibals were never prosecuted, and some historians claim William of Orange may have incited them.


title: Johan de Witt

text: Johan de Witt was a member of the old Dutch patrician family De Witt. His father was Jacob de Witt, an influential regent and burgher from the patrician class in the city of Dordrecht, which in the seventeenth century was one of the most important cities of the dominating province of Holland. De Witt's mother was Anna van den Corput (1599–1645), niece of Johannes Corputius, an influential Dutch military leader and cartographer. He had an older brother, Cornelis de Witt, who had a steep career in the shadow of Johan de Witt. His uncle Andries de Witt held the position of Grand Pensionary of Holland between 1619 and 1621. Through the marriage of one of his other uncles to Margaretha of Nassau, daughter of Anna Johanna of Nassau-Siegen, De Witt was a distant relative of the later Dutch governor and English King William III of Orange-Nassau. Another relationship connected him to the Tromps, Maarten and his son Cornelis Tromp, both admirals of the Netherlands.


title: Johan de Witt

text: Johan and his older brother Cornelis grew up in a privileged environment in terms of education, his father having as good acquaintances important scholars and scientists, such as Isaac Beeckman, Jacob Cats, Gerardus Vossius, and Andreas Colvius. Johan and Cornelis both attended the Latin school in Dordrecht, which imbued them with the values of the Roman Republic. After attending the Latin school in Dordrecht, Johan de Witt studied at the Leiden University, where he excelled at mathematics and law. He received his doctorate from the University of Angers in 1645. He practiced law in The Hague as an associate with the firm of Frans van Schooten. In 1650 (the year that stadtholder William II, Prince of Orange died) he was appointed leader of the deputation of Dordrecht to the States of Holland and West Friesland. In December 1650, De Witt became the pensionary of Dordrecht. In 1652, at the age of 27, De Witt was faced with a mob of angry demonstrators of sailors and fishermen in the city of Vlissingen.


title: Johan de Witt

text: In 1655 Johan de Witt married Wendela Bicker, daughter of Johan Bicker and Agneta de Graeff van Polsbroek, who belonged to the inner circle of the powerful Amsterdam oligarchy. Through his marriage De Witt became a relative of the ruling patrician families Bicker, De Graeff, Hooft, Witsen, Boelens Loen, and Reynst among others. The famous Frans Banning Cocq became his uncle-in-law and Joachim Irgens von Westervick his cousin-in-law as well. Johan and Wendela had four children, three daughters and one son:


title: Johan de Witt

text: In 1653, the States of Holland elected De Witt councilor pensionary. In making the appointment, De Witt relied on the express consent of Amsterdam, headed by his later uncle Cornelis de Graeff. Since Holland was the Republic's most powerful province, he was effectively the political leader of the United Provinces as a whole—especially during periods when no stadholder had been elected by the States of most Provinces. The "raadpensionaris" of Holland was often referred to as the Grand Pensionary by foreigners as he represented the preponderant province in the Union of the Dutch Republic. He was a servant who led the States of province by his experience, tenure, familiarity with the issues, and use of the staff at his disposal. He was in no manner equivalent to a modern Prime Minister.


title: Johan de Witt

text: Representing the province of Holland, De Witt tended to identify with the economic interests of the shipping and trading interests in the United Provinces. These interests were largely concentrated in the province of Holland, and to a lesser degree in the province of Zeeland.


title: Johan de Witt

text: De Witt's power base was the wealthy merchant and patrician class into which he was born. This class broadly coincided politically with the "States faction", stressing Protestant religious moderation and pragmatic foreign policy defending commercial interests. The "Orange faction", consisting of the middle class, preferred a strong leader from the Dutch House of Orange as a counterweight against the rich upper-classes in economic and religious matters. Although leaders that did emerge from the House of Orange rarely were strict Calvinists themselves, they tended to identify with Calvinism, which was popular among the middle classes in the United Provinces during this time. William II of Orange was a prime example of this tendency among the leaders of the House of Orange to support Calvinism. William II was elected Stadholder in 1647, and continued to serve until his death in November 1650. Eight days after his death, William II's wife delivered a male heir—William III of Orange. Many citizens of the United Provinces urged the election of the infant William III as stadholder under a regency until he came of age. However, the Provinces, under the dominance of the province of Holland Together with his uncle Cornelis de Graeff De Witt brought about peace with England after the First Anglo-Dutch War with the Treaty of Westminster in May 1654.


title: Johan de Witt

text: In 1657, De Witt and De Graeff mediated the "Treaty of Raalte", in which William III passed the stadholdership of Overijssel.


title: Johan de Witt

text: On 25 September 1660, the States of Holland under the prime movers of De Witt, De Graeff, his younger brother Andries de Graeff, along with Gillis Valckenier, resolved to take charge of William's education to ensure he would acquire the skills to serve in a future — although undetermined — state function. Influenced by the values of the Roman republic, de Witt did his utmost anyway to prevent any member of the House of Orange from gaining power, convincing many provinces to abolish the stadtholderate entirely. He bolstered his policy by publicly endorsing the theory of republicanism. He allegedly contributed personally to the "Interest of Holland", a radical republican textbook published in 1662, by his supporter Pieter de la Court.


title: Johan de Witt

text: In the period following the Treaty of Westminster, the Republic grew in wealth and influence under De Witt's leadership. He created a strong navy, appointing one of his political allies, Lieutenant Admiral Jacob van Wassenaer Obdam, as supreme commander of the confederate fleet.


title: Johan de Witt

text: During 1672, which the Dutch refer to as the disaster year, France and England attacked the Republic in the Franco-Dutch War. De Witt was severely wounded by a knife-wielding assassin on 21 June. He resigned as Grand Pensionary on 4 August, but this was not enough for his enemies. His brother Cornelis (who was deputy-in-the-field for de Ruyter at the Raid on the Medway), particularly hated by the Orangists, was arrested on trumped-up charges of treason. He was tortured (as was usual under Roman-Dutch law, which required a confession before a conviction was possible) but refused to confess. Nevertheless, he was sentenced to exile. When his brother went over to the jail (which was only a few steps from his house) to help him get started on his journey, both were attacked by members of The Hague's civic militia. The brothers were shot and then left to the mob. Their naked, mutilated bodies were strung up on the nearby public gibbet, while the Orangist mob ate their roasted livers in a cannibalistic frenzy. Throughout it all, a remarkable discipline was maintained by the mob, according to contemporary observers, lending doubt as to the spontaneity of the event.


title: Johan de Witt

text: De Witt had in effect ruled the Republic for almost 20 years. His regime outlasted him only a few more days. Though no more people were killed, the lynching of the De Witts lent renewed impetus to the mob attacks, and to help restore public order the States of Holland empowered William on 27 August to purge the city councils in any way he would see fit to restore public order. The following purges in the early days of September were accompanied by large, but peaceful, Orangist demonstrations, that had a remarkable political character. The demonstrations delivered petitions that demanded certain additional reforms with a, in a sense, "reactionary" flavour: the "ancient" privileges of the guilds and civic militias—who were traditionally seen as mouthpieces of the citizenry as a whole—to curb the regent's powers were to be recognised again (as in pre-Burgundian times). The demonstrators also demanded more influence of the Calvinist preachers on the content of government policies and a roll-back of the toleration of Catholics and other dissenting denominations. The purges of the city governments were not everywhere equally thoroughgoing (and, of course, there was little mention of popular influence later on, as the new regents shared the abhorrence of the old ones of real democratic reforms). But as a whole, the new Orangist regime of the Stadtholder was well-entrenched during his following reign.


title: Johan de Witt

text: Whether William had a hand in the murder of the de Witt brothers remains unanswered, like his exact role in the later Massacre of Glencoe. That he ordered the withdrawal of a federal cavalry detachment that otherwise might have prevented the lynching has always raised eyebrows. He did not prosecute the well-known ringleaders like Johan van Banchem, Cornelis Tromp, and Johan Kievit, even advancing their careers. In any case, the political turmoil did not enable the allies an opportunity to finish the Republic off. The French were effectively stymied by the water defenses. Only when the inundations froze over in the following winter was there, briefly, a chance for Marshal Luxembourg, who had taken over command of the invading army from Louis, to make an incursion with 10,000 troops on skates. This almost ended in disaster, when they were ambushed. Meanwhile, the States General managed to conclude alliances with the German emperor and Brandenburg, which helped relieve the French pressure in the East.


title: Johan de Witt

text: The kinematic description of ellipses dates from Archimedes and Proclus, as well as the contemporary Claude Mydorge. Johan de Witt describes the hyperbola with a rotating line and a sliding angle, and a parabola by means of a rotating angle and sliding line. In 1661, de Witt's work appeared in the second volume of von Schooten's Latin translation of "La Géométrie". "Elementa Curvarum Linearum" has been described as the first textbook in analytic geometry.


title: Johan de Witt

text: De Witt contributed to financial mathematics: "The Worth of Life Annuities Compared to Redemption Bonds". This work combined his roles as statesman and as mathematician, and was discussed in the correspondence between Leibniz and Bernoulli concerning the use of probabilities. Ever since the Middle Ages, a life annuity was a way to obtain a regular income from a reliable source. The state, for instance, could provide a widow with a regular income until her death, in exchange for a 'lump sum' up front. There were also redemption bonds that were more like a regular state loan. De Witt showed that for the same principal a bond paying 4% interest would result in the same profit as a life annuity of 6% (1 in 17). But the 'Staten' at the time were paying over 7% (1 in 14). The publication about life annuities is "one of the first applications of probability in economics."


title: History of paper

text: Paper is a thin nonwoven material traditionally made from a combination of milled plant and textile fibres. The first paper-like plant-based writing sheet was papyrus in Egypt (4th Century BC), but the first true paper, the first true papermaking process was documented in China during the Eastern Han period (25–220 AD), traditionally attributed to the court official Cai Lun. This plant-puree conglomerate produced by pulp mills and paper mills was used for writing, drawing, and money. During the 8th century, Chinese paper making spread to the Islamic world, replacing papyrus. By the 11th century, papermaking was brought to Europe, where it replaced animal-skin-based parchment and wood panels. By the 13th century, papermaking was refined with paper mills using waterwheels in Spain. Later improvements to the papermaking process came in 19th century Europe with the invention of wood-based papers.


title: History of paper

text: Although there were precursors such as papyrus in the Mediterranean world and amate in the pre-Columbian Americas, these are not considered true paper. Nor is true parchment considered paper: used principally for writing, parchment is heavily prepared animal skin that predates paper and possibly papyrus. In the 20th century with the advent of plastic manufacture, some plastic "paper" was introduced, as well as paper-plastic laminates, paper-metal laminates, and papers infused or coated with different substances to produce special properties.


title: History of paper

text: The word "paper" is etymologically derived from "papyrus", Ancient Greek for the "Cyperus papyrus" plant. Papyrus is a thick, paper-like material produced from the pith of the "Cyperus papyrus" plant which was used in ancient Egypt and other Mediterranean societies for writing long before paper was used in China.


title: History of paper

text: Papyrus is prepared by cutting off thin ribbon-like strips of the interior of the "Cyperus papyrus", and then laying out the strips side-by-side to make a sheet. A second layer is then placed on top, with the strips running perpendicular to the first. The two layers are then pounded together into a sheet. The result is very strong, but has an uneven surface, especially at the edges of the strips. When used in scrolls, repeated rolling and unrolling causes the strips to come apart again, typically along vertical lines. This effect can be seen in many ancient papyrus documents.


title: History of paper

text: Paper contrasts with papyrus in that the plant material is broken down through maceration or disintegration before the paper is pressed. This produces a much more even surface, and no natural weak direction in the material which falls apart over time.


title: History of paper

text: Archaeological evidence of papermaking predates the traditional attribution given to Cai Lun, an imperial eunuch official of the Han dynasty (202 BCE – 220 CE), thus the exact date or inventor of paper cannot be deduced. The earliest extant paper fragment was unearthed at Fangmatan in Gansu province, and was likely part of a map, dated to 179–141 BCE. Fragments of paper have also been found at Dunhuang dated to 65 BCE and at Yumen pass, dated to 8 BCE.


title: History of paper

text: The invention traditionally attributed to Cai Lun, recorded hundreds of years after it took place, is dated to 105 CE. The innovation is a type of paper made of mulberry and other bast fibres along with fishing nets, old rags, and hemp waste which reduced the cost of paper production, which prior to this, and later, in the West, depended solely on rags.


title: History of paper

text: During the Shang (1600–1050 BCE) and Zhou (1050–256 BCE) dynasties of ancient China, documents were ordinarily written on bone or bamboo (on tablets or on bamboo strips sewn and rolled together into scrolls), making them very heavy, awkward to use, and hard to transport. The light material of silk was sometimes used as a recording medium, but was normally too expensive to consider. The Han dynasty Chinese court official Cai Lun (c. 50–121 CE) is credited as the inventor of a method of papermaking (inspired by wasps and bees) using rags and other plant fibers in 105 CE. However, the discovery of specimens bearing written Chinese characters in 2006 at Fangmatan in north-east China's Gansu Province suggests that paper was in use by the ancient Chinese military more than 100 years before Cai, in 8 BCE, and possibly much earlier as the map fragment found at the Fangmatan tomb site dates from the early 2nd century BCE. It therefore would appear that "Cai Lun's contribution was to improve this skill systematically and scientifically, fix a recipe for papermaking".


title: History of paper

text: The production process may have originated from the practice of pounding and stirring rags in water, after which the matted fibres were collected on a mat. The bark of paper mulberry was particularly valued and high quality paper was developed in the late Han period using the bark of "tán" (檀; sandalwood). Although bark paper emerged during the Han dynasty, the predominant material used for paper was hemp until the Tang dynasty when rattan and mulberry bark paper gradually prevailed. After the Tang dynasty, rattan paper declined because it required specific growing areas, was slow in growth, and had a long regeneration cycle. The most prestigious kind of bark paper was known as Chengxintang Paper, which emerged during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, and was only used for imperial purposes. Ouyang Xiu described it as shiny, elaborate, smooth, and elastic. In the Eastern Jin period a fine bamboo screen-mould treated with insecticidal dye for permanence was used in papermaking. After printing was popularized during the Song dynasty the demand for paper grew substantially. The supply of bark could not keep up with the demand for paper, resulting in the invention of new kinds of paper using bamboo during the Song dynasty. In the year 1101, 1.5 million sheets of paper were sent to the capital.


title: History of paper

text: Among the earliest known uses of paper was padding and wrapping delicate bronze mirrors according to archaeological evidence dating to the reign of Emperor Wu of Han from the 2nd century BCE. Padding doubled as both protection for the object as well as the user in cases where poisonous "medicine" were involved, as mentioned in the official history of the period. Although paper was used for writing by the 3rd century CE, paper continued to be used for wrapping (and other) purposes. Toilet paper was used in China from around the late 6th century. In 589, the Chinese scholar-official Yan Zhitui (531–591) wrote: "Paper on which there are quotations or commentaries from Five Classics or the names of sages, I dare not use for toilet purposes". An Arab traveler who visited China wrote of the curious Chinese tradition of toilet paper in 851, writing: "... [the Chinese] do not wash themselves with water when they have done their necessities; but they only wipe themselves with paper".


title: History of paper

text: During the Tang dynasty (618–907) paper was folded and sewn into square bags to preserve the flavor of tea. In the same period, it was written that tea was served from baskets with multi-colored paper cups and paper napkins of different size and shape. During the Song dynasty (960–1279) the government produced the world's first known paper-printed money, or banknote ("see Jiaozi and Huizi"). Paper money was bestowed as gifts to government officials in special paper envelopes. During the Yuan dynasty (1271–1368), the first well-documented European in Medieval China, the Venetian merchant Marco Polo remarked how the Chinese burned paper effigies shaped as male and female servants, camels, horses, suits of clothing and armor while cremating the dead during funerary rites.


title: History of paper

text: According to Timothy Hugh Barrett, paper played a pivotal role in early Chinese written culture, and a "strong reading culture seems to have developed quickly after its introduction, despite political fragmentation." Indeed, the introduction of paper had immense consequences for the book world. It meant books would no longer have to be circulated in small sections or bundles, but in their entirety. Books could now be carried by hand rather than transported by cart. As a result, individual collections of literary works increased in the following centuries.


title: History of paper

text: Textual culture seems to have been more developed in the south by the early 5th century, with individuals owning collections of several thousand scrolls. In the north an entire palace collection might have been only a few thousand scrolls in total. By the early 6th century, scholars in both the north and south were capable of citing upwards of 400 sources in commentaries on older works. A small compilation text from the 7th century included citations to over 1,400 works.


title: History of paper

text: The personal nature of texts was remarked upon by a late 6th century imperial librarian. According to him, the possession of and familiarity with a few hundred scrolls was what it took to be socially accepted as an educated man.


title: History of paper

text: According to Endymion Wilkinson, one consequence of the rise of paper in China was that "it rapidly began to surpass the Mediterranean empires in book production." During the Tang dynasty, China became the world leader in book production. In addition the gradual spread of woodblock printing from the late Tang and Song further boosted their lead ahead of the rest of the world.


title: History of paper

text: However, despite the initial advantage afforded to China by the paper medium, by the 9th century its spread and development in the Middle East had closed the gap between the two regions. Between the 9th to early 12th centuries, libraries in Cairo, Baghdad, and Cordoba held collections larger than even the ones in China, and dwarfed those in Europe. From about 1500 the maturation of paper making and printing in Southern Europe also had an effect in closing the gap with the Chinese. The Venetian Domenico Grimani's collection numbered 15,000 volumes by the time of his death in 1523. After 1600, European collections completely overtook those in China. The Bibliotheca Augusta numbered 60,000 volumes in 1649 and surged to 120,000 in 1666. In the 1720s the Bibliothèque du Roi numbered 80,000 books and the Cambridge University 40,000 in 1715. After 1700, libraries in North America also began to overtake those of China, and toward the end of the century, Thomas Jefferson's private collection numbered 4,889 titles in 6,487 volumes. The European advantage only increased further into the 19th century as national collections in Europe and America exceeded a million volumes while a few private collections, such as that of Lord Acton, reached 70,000.


title: History of paper

text: Paper became central to the three arts of China – poetry, painting, and calligraphy. In later times paper constituted one of the 'Four Treasures of the Scholar's Studio,' alongside the brush, the ink, and the inkstone.


title: History of paper

text: After its origin in central China, the production and use of paper spread steadily. It is clear that paper was used at Dunhuang by 150 CE, in Loulan in the modern-day province of Xinjiang by 200, and in Turpan by 399. Paper was concurrently introduced in Japan sometime between the years 280 and 610.


title: History of paper

text: Paper spread to Vietnam in the 3rd century, to Korea in the 4th century, and to Japan in the 5th century. The paper of Korea was famed for being glossy white and was especially prized for painting and calligraphy. It was among the items commonly sent to China as tribute. The Koreans spread paper to Japan possibly as early as the 5th century but the Buddhist monk Damjing's trip to Japan in 610 is often cited as the official beginning of papermaking there.


title: History of paper

text: Paper was used in Central Asia by the 8th century but its origin is not clear. According to the 11th century Persian historian, Al-Thaʽālibī, Chinese prisoners captured at the Battle of Talas in 751 introduced paper manufacturing to Samarkand. However there are no contemporary Arab sources for this battle. A Chinese prisoner, Du Huan, who later returned to China reported weavers, painters, goldsmiths, and silversmiths among the prisoners taken, but no papermakers. According to Al-Nadim, a writer in Baghdad during the 10th century, Chinese craftsmen made paper in Khorasan:


title: History of paper

text: According to Jonathan Bloom – a scholar of Islamic and Asian Art with a focus on paper and printing, the connection between Chinese prisoners and the introduction of paper in Central Asia is "unlikely to be factual". Archaeological evidence shows that paper was already known and used in Samarkand decades before 751 CE. Seventy-six texts in Sogdian, Arabic, and Chinese have also been found near Panjakent, likely predating the Muslim conquest of Transoxiana. Bloom argues that based on differences in Chinese and Central Asian papermaking techniques and materials, the story of Chinese papermakers directly introducing paper to Central Asia is probably metaphorical. Chinese paper was mostly made of bast fibers while Islamic paper was primarily made of waste material like rags. The paper-making innovations in Central Asia may be pre-Islamic, probably aided by the Buddhist merchants and monks of China and Central Asia. The Islamic civilization helped spread paper and paper-making into the Middle East after the 8th-century, from where it arrived into Europe centuries later, and then to many other parts of the world. A historical remnant of this legacy is the continued use of the word "ream" to count bundles of paper, a word derived from Arabic "rizma" (bundle, bale).


title: History of paper

text: During the 8th century, paper started to replace parchment as the primary writing material for administrative uses in Baghdad, the capital of Abbasids. According to Ibn Khaldun, a renowned Muslim historiographer, parchment was rare, and a great increase in the number of correspondents throughout Islamic territories, resulted in an order issued by Al-Fadl ibn Yahya, the Abbasid’s Grand Vizier, for the manufacture of paper to replace parchment.


title: History of paper

text: There are records of paper being made at Gilgit in Pakistan by the sixth century, in Samarkand by 751, in Baghdad by 793, in Egypt by 900, and in Fes, Morocco around 1100, in Syria e.g. Damascus, and Aleppo, in Andalusia around 12th century, in Persia e.g. Maragheh by 13th century, Isfahan by 14th century, Ghazvin and Kerman, in India e.g. Dowlat Abad by the 16th century. A Persian geography book written by an unknown author in the 10th century, Hodud al-Alam, is the oldest known manuscripts mentioning papermaking industry in Samarkand. The writer stated that the city was famous for paper manufacturing and the product was exported to many other cities as a high-quality item. Samarkand kept its reputation for papermaking over few centuries even once the industry spread across other Islamic areas. For instance, it is said that some Ministers in Egypt preferred ordering their required paper to Samarkand from which the paper was transported all the way to Egypt.


title: History of paper

text: In Baghdad, particular neighborhoods were allocated to paper manufacturing and in Bazaar paper merchants and sellers owned distinct sectors being called Paper Market or "Suq al-Warraqin", a street which was lined with more than 100 paper and booksellers' shops. In 1035 a Persian traveler, Nasir Khusraw, visiting markets in Cairo noted that vegetables, spices and hardware were wrapped in paper for the customers. In the 12th century one street named "Kutubiyyin" or book sellers Morocco as it contained more than 100 bookshops.


title: History of paper

text: The expansion of public and private libraries and illustrated books within Islamic lands was one of the notable outcomes of the drastic increase in the availability of paper. However, paper was still an upmarket good given the remarkable required inputs e.g. primary materials and labours to produce the item in the absence of advanced mechanical machinery. In one accountIbn al-Bawwab, a Persian calligrapher and illuminator, had been promised by the Sultan to be given precious garments in response to his services. When the Sultan deferred delivering the promised clothes, he instead proposed taking the papers stored in the Sultan’s library as his present.


title: History of paper

text: In another account, the hospitality of a Minister in Baghdad, Ibn Al-Forat, had been described by his generosity in freely giving away papers to his guests or visitors.


title: History of paper

text: A wide range of papers with distinctive properties and varying places of origin were manufactured and utilised across Islamic domains. Papers were typically named based on several criteria:


title: History of paper

text: Bast (hemp and flax), cotton, and old rags and ropes were the major input materials for producing the pulp. Sometimes a mixture of materials was also used for pulp making, such as cotton and hemp, or flax and hemp. Other uncommon primary materials such as fig tree bark are also reported in some manuscripts.


title: History of paper

text: Very few sources have mentioned the methods, phases and applied tools in the papermaking process though. A painting from an illustrated book in Persian has depicted different stages and required tools of the traditional workflow. The painting has distinguished two major phases of the papermaking process:


title: History of paper

text: A manuscript from the 13th century has also elaborated the process of papermaking. This text shows how papermakers were undertaking multiple steps to produce high-quality paper. This papermaking instruction or recipe is a chapter under the title of "al-kâghad al-baladî" (local paper) from the manuscript of "al-Mukhtara'fî funûn min al-ṣunan" attributed to "al-Malik al-Muẓaffar", a Yemeni ruler of Rasulids. The bark of fig trees, as the main source of papermaking in this recipe, went through frequent cycles of soaking, beating and drying. The process was taking 12 days to produced 100 sheets of high-quality paper. During the pulping stage, the beaten fibres were transformed into different sizes of "Kubba" (cubes) which they were used as standard scales to manufacture a certain number of sheets. The dimensions were determined based on three citrus fruit: limun (lemon), utrunja (orange) and narenja (Tangerine). A summarized version of this detailed process is as below. Each individual phase was repeated several times.


title: History of paper

text: Near Eastern paper is mainly characterized by sizing with a variety of starches such as rice, katira, wheat and white sorghum. Rice and white sorghum were more widely used. Paper usually was placed on a hard surface and a smooth device called "mohreh" was used to rub the starch against the paper until it became perfectly shiny.


title: History of paper

text: The laborious process of papermaking was refined and machinery was designed for bulk manufacturing of paper. Production began in Baghdad, where a method was invented to make a thicker sheet of paper, which helped transform papermaking from an art into a major industry. The use of water-powered pulp mills for preparing the pulp material used in papermaking dates back to Samarkand in the 8th century. The use of human/animal-powered paper mills has also been identified in Abbasid-era Baghdad during 794–795, though this should not be confused with later water-powered paper mills (see "Paper mills" section below). The Muslims also introduced the use of trip hammers (human- or animal-powered) in the production of paper, replacing the traditional Chinese mortar and pestle method. In turn, the trip hammer method was later employed by the Chinese. Historically, trip hammers were often powered by a water wheel, and are known to have been used in China as long ago as 40 BCE or maybe even as far back as the Zhou Dynasty (1050 BCE–221 BCE), though the trip hammer is not known to have been used in Chinese papermaking until after its use in Muslim papermaking.


title: History of paper

text: By the 9th century, Muslims were using paper regularly, although for important works like copies of the revered Qur'an, vellum was still preferred. Advances in book production and bookbinding were introduced.


title: History of paper

text: In Muslim countries they made books lighter—sewn with silk and bound with leather-covered paste boards; they had a flap that wrapped the book up when not in use. As paper was less reactive to humidity, the heavy boards were not needed.


title: History of paper

text: Since the First Crusade in 1096, paper manufacturing in Damascus had been interrupted by wars, but its production continued in two other centres. Egypt continued with the thicker paper, while Iran became the center of the thinner papers. Papermaking was diffused across the Islamic world, from where it travelled further toward west into Europe. Paper manufacture was introduced to India in the 13th century by Arab merchants, where it almost wholly replaced traditional writing materials.


title: History of paper

text: The evidence of paper use on the Indian subcontinent appears first in the second half of the 7th century. Its use is mentioned by 7th– and 8th-century Chinese Buddhist pilgrim memoirs as well as some Indian Buddhists, as "Kakali" and "Śaya" – likely Indian transliteration of Chinese "Zhǐ" (tsie). Yijing wrote about the practice of priests and laypeople in India printing Buddha image on silk or paper, and worshipping these images. Elsewhere in his memoir, I-Ching wrote that Indians use paper to make hats, to reinforce their umbrellas and for sanitation. Xuangzang mentions carrying 520 manuscripts from India back to China in 644 CE, but it is unclear if any of these were on paper.


title: History of paper

text: Thin sheets of birch bark and specially treated palm-leaves remained the preferred writing surface for literary works through late medieval period in most of India. The earliest Sanskrit paper manuscript found is a paper copy of the "Shatapatha Brahmana" in Kashmir, dated to 1089, while the earliest Sanskrit paper manuscripts in Gujarat are dated between 1180 and 1224. Some of oldest surviving paper manuscripts have been found in Jain temples of Gujarat and Rajasthan, and paper use by Jain scribes is traceable to around 12th-century. According to the historical trade-related archives such as Cairo Geniza found in the synagogues of the Middle East, Jewish merchants – such as Ben Yiju originally from Tunisia who moved to India – imported large quantities of paper into ports of Gujarat, Malabar coast and other parts of India by the 11th-century to partly offset the goods they exported from India.


title: History of paper

text: According to Irfan Habib, it is reasonable to presume that paper manufacturing reached Sindh (now part of south Pakistan) before 11th-century with the start of Arab rule in Sindh. Fragments of Arabic manuscripts found in the Sindhi city ruins of Mansura, which was destroyed "circa" 1030, confirm the use of paper in Sindh. Amir Khusrau of Delhi Sultanate mentions paper-making operations in 1289.


title: History of paper

text: In the 15th century, Chinese traveler Ma Huan praised the quality of paper in Bengal, describing it as white paper that is made from "bark of a tree" and is as "glossy and smooth as deer's skin". The use of tree bark as a raw material for paper suggests that the paper manufacturing in the eastern states of India may have come directly from China, rather than Sultanates formed by West Asian or Central Asian conquests. Paper technology likely arrived in India from China through Tibet and Nepal around mid-7th century, when Buddhist monks freely traveled, exchanged ideas and goods between Tibet and Buddhist centers in India. This exchange is evidenced by the Indian talapatra binding methods that were adopted by Chinese monasteries such as at Tunhuang for preparing sutra books from paper. Most of the earliest surviving sutra books in Tibetan monasteries are on Chinese paper strips held together with Indian manuscript binding methods. Further, the analysis of the woodblock book covers of these historic manuscripts has confirmed that it was made of tropical wood indigenous to India, not Tibet.


title: History of paper

text: The oldest known paper document in Europe is the Mozarab Missal of Silos from the 11th century, probably using paper made in the Islamic part of the Iberian Peninsula. They used hemp and linen rags as a source of fiber. The first recorded paper mill in the Iberian Peninsula was in Xàtiva in 1056.


title: History of paper

text: Papermaking reached Europe as early as 1085 in Toledo and was firmly established in Xàtiva, Spain by 1150. During the 13th century mills were established in Amalfi, Fabriano, and Treviso, Italy, and other Italian towns by 1340. Papermaking then spread further northwards, with evidence of paper being made in Troyes, France by 1348, in Holland sometime around 1340–1350, and in Nuremberg, Germany by 1390 in a mill set up by Ulman Stromer. This was just about the time when the woodcut printmaking technique was transferred from fabric to paper in the old master print and popular prints. There was a paper mill in Switzerland by 1432 and the first mill in England was set up by John Tate around 1490 near Hertford, but the first commercially successful paper mill in Britain did not occur before 1588 when John Spilman set up a mill near Dartford in Kent. During this time, paper making spread to Austria by 1469, to Poland by 1491, to Russia by 1576, to the Netherlands by 1586, to Denmark by 1596, and to Sweden by 1612.


title: History of paper

text: Arab prisoners who settled in a town called Borgo Saraceno in the Italian Province of Ferrara introduced Fabriano artisans in the Province of Ancona the technique of making paper by hand. At the time they were renowned for their wool-weaving and manufacture of cloth. Fabriano papermakers considered the process of making paper by hand an art form and were able to refine the process to successfully compete with parchment which was the primary medium for writing at the time. They developed the application of stamping hammers to reduce rags to pulp for making paper, sizing paper by means of animal glue, and creating watermarks in the paper during its forming process. The Fabriano used glue obtained by boiling scrolls or scraps of animal skin to size the paper; it is suggested that this technique was recommended by the local tanneries. The introduction of the first European watermarks in Fabriano was linked to applying metal wires on a cover laid against the mould which was used for forming the paper.


title: History of paper

text: They adapted the waterwheels from the fuller's mills to drive a series of three wooden hammers per trough. The hammers were raised by their heads by cams fixed to a waterwheel's axle made from a large tree trunk.


title: History of paper

text: In the Americas, archaeological evidence indicates that a similar bark-paper writing material was used by the Maya no later than the 5th century CE. Called "amatl" or "amate", it was in widespread use among Mesoamerican cultures until the Spanish conquest. The earliest sample of amate was found at Huitzilapa near the Magdalena Municipality, Jalisco, Mexico, belonging to the shaft tomb culture. It is dated to 75 BCE.


title: History of paper

text: The production of amate is much more similar to paper than papyrus. The bark material is soaked in water, or in modern methods boiled, so that it breaks down into a mass of fibres. They are then laid out in a frame and pressed into sheets. It is a true paper product in that the material is not in its original form, but the base material has much larger fibres than those used in modern papers. As a result, amate has a rougher surface than modern paper, and may dry into a sheet with hills and valleys as the different length fibres shrink.


title: History of paper

text: European papermaking spread to the Americas first in Mexico by 1575 and then in Philadelphia by 1690.


title: History of paper

text: The American paper industry began with the establishment of the first paper mill in British America in 1690 by William Rittenhouse of Philadelphia with the help of Pennsylvania's first printer, William Bradford. For two decades it would remain the only mill in the colonies, and for the next two centuries the city would remain the preeminent center of paper manufacturing and publishing. The first paper mills relied solely on rag paper production, with cotton rags generally imported from Europe. However by the mid-19th century the sulfite process had begun to proliferate in other regions with better access to wood pulp, and by 1880, America had become the largest producer of paper goods in the world. While the Delaware Valley remained an important region in paper production and publishing through the late nineteenth century, Philadelphia was overtaken by regions using these new processes which had greater access to water power and wood pulp.


title: History of paper

text: The earliest of these mills were centered in New England and Upstate New York, the latter of which became home to International Paper, the largest pulp and paper company in the world, which held a 20% market share in 2017, and at its peak produced more than 60% of the continent's newsprint in 1898, before an industry shift to Canada. Chief among papermaking cities in New England and the world was Holyoke, Massachusetts, at one time making 80% of the writing paper of the United States and home to the ill-fated American Writing Paper Company, the world's largest producer of fine papers by 1920. By 1885 the Paper City, as it is still called, produced 190 tons per day, more than twice Philadelphia's capacity. Quickly it became a hub of paper machinery and turbine technology, host to the largest paper mills in the world in the 1890s, and D. H. & A. B. Tower, the largest paper mill engineering firm in the United States in the 19th century. The Tower Brothers and their associates would be responsible for designing mills on five continents. In the United States the firm supported the Berkshires' paper industry, building the first mills used to make U.S. currency by the Crane Company, as well as the first sulfite process mills of Kimberly Clark in Wisconsin, allowing the company to be the first west of the Appalachians to adopt the process, with access to vast forest resources.


title: History of paper

text: The pulp and paper industry continued to develop in other regions, including California, Ohio's Miami Valley, with centers in Dayton, Hamilton, and Cincinnati, as well as regions of the South, like Texas and Georgia, the latter being home to Georgia Pacific and WestRock, the 2nd and 3rd respective largest paper producers in the United States today. Wisconsin's industry nevertheless endured and as of 2019 it had far and away the most paper manufacturers in the country, with 34 such enterprises. While only smaller specialty manufacturers remained in Pennsylvania and New England, New York retained 28 mills, followed by Georgia with 20, Michigan with 17, and Alabama with 16 respectively.


title: History of paper

text: The use of human and animal powered mills was known to Chinese and Muslim papermakers. However, the evidence for water-powered paper mills is elusive among both prior to the 11th century. Scholars have identified paper mills, likely human or animal powered, in Abbasid-era Baghdad during 794–795.


title: History of paper

text: It is evident that throughout the Islamic lands e.g. Iran, Syria (Hama and Damascus), and North Africa (Egypt and Tripoli) water power mills were extensively used to beat the flax and rag wastes to prepare the paper pulp


title: History of paper

text: Donald Hill has identified a possible reference to a water-powered paper mill in Samarkand, in the 11th-century work of the Persian scholar Abu Rayhan Biruni, but concludes that the passage is "too brief to enable us to say with certainty" that it refers to a water-powered paper mill. This is seen by Halevi as evidence of Samarkand first harnessing waterpower in the production of paper, but notes that it is not known if waterpower was applied to papermaking elsewhere across the Islamic world at the time. Burns remains sceptical, given the isolated occurrence of the reference and the prevalence of manual labour in Islamic papermaking elsewhere prior to the 13th century.


title: History of paper

text: Clear evidence of a water-powered paper mill dates to 1282 in the Spanish Kingdom of Aragon. A decree by the Christian king Peter III addresses the establishment of a royal "molendinum", a proper hydraulic mill, in the paper manufacturing centre of Xàtiva. The crown innovation was operated by the Muslim Mudéjar community in the Moorish quarter of Xàtiva, though it appears to have been resented by sections of the local Muslim papermakering community; the document guarantees them the right to continue the way of traditional papermaking by beating the pulp manually and grants them the right to be exempted from work in the new mill. Paper making centers began to multiply in the late 13th century in Italy, reducing the price of paper to one sixth of parchment and then falling further; paper making centers reached Germany a century later.


title: History of paper

text: The first paper mill north of the Alps was established in Nuremberg by Ulman Stromer in 1390; it is later depicted in the lavishly illustrated "Nuremberg Chronicle". From the mid-14th century onwards, European paper milling underwent a rapid improvement of many work processes.


title: History of paper

text: Before the industrialisation of the paper production the most common fibre source was recycled fibres from used textiles, called rags. The rags were from hemp, linen and cotton. It was not until the introduction of wood pulp in 1843 that paper production was not dependent on recycled materials from ragpickers. It was not realized at the time how unstable wood pulp paper is.


title: History of paper

text: A means of removing printing inks from paper, allowing it to be re-used, was invented by German jurist Justus Claproth in 1774. Today this process is called deinking.


title: History of paper

text: Although cheaper than vellum, paper remained expensive, at least in book-sized quantities, through the centuries, until the advent of steam-driven paper making machines in the 19th century, which could make paper with fibres from wood pulp. Although older machines pre-dated it, the Fourdrinier papermaking machine became the basis for most modern papermaking. Nicholas Louis Robert of Essonnes, France, was granted a patent for a continuous paper making machine in 1799. At the time he was working for Leger Didot with whom he quarrelled over the ownership of the invention. Didot sent his brother-in-law, John Gamble, to meet Sealy and Henry Fourdrinier, stationers of London, who agreed to finance the project. Gamble was granted British patent 2487 on 20 October 1801. With the help particularly of Bryan Donkin, a skilled and ingenious mechanic, an improved version of the Robert original was installed at Frogmore Paper Mill, Hertfordshire, in 1803, followed by another in 1804. A third machine was installed at the Fourdriniers' own mill at Two Waters. The Fourdriniers also bought a mill at St Neots intending to install two machines there and the process and machines continued to develop.


title: History of paper

text: However, experiments with wood showed no real results in the late 18th century and at the start of the 19th century. By 1800, Matthias Koops (in London, England) further investigated the idea of using wood to make paper, and in 1801 he wrote and published a book titled "Historical account of the substances which have been used to describe events, and to convey ideas, from the earliest date, to the invention of paper." His book was printed on paper made from wood shavings (and adhered together). No pages were fabricated using the pulping method (from either rags or wood). He received financial support from the royal family to make his printing machines and acquire the materials and infrastructure needed to start his printing business. But his enterprise was short lived. Only a few years following his first and only printed book (the one he wrote and printed), he went bankrupt. The book was very well done (strong and had a fine appearance), but it was very costly.


title: History of paper

text: Then in the 1830s and 1840s, two men on two different continents took up the challenge, but from a totally new perspective. Both Friedrich Gottlob Keller and Charles Fenerty began experiments with wood but using the same technique used in paper making; instead of pulping rags, they thought about pulping wood. And at about the same time, by mid-1844, they announced their findings. They invented a machine which extracted the fibres from wood (exactly as with rags) and made paper from it. Charles Fenerty also bleached the pulp so that the paper was white. This started a new era for paper making. By the end of the 19th-century almost all printers in the western world were using wood instead of rags to make paper.


title: History of paper

text: Together with the invention of the practical fountain pen and the mass-produced pencil of the same period, and in conjunction with the advent of the steam driven rotary printing press, wood based paper caused a major transformation of the 19th-century economy and society in industrialized countries. With the introduction of cheaper paper, schoolbooks, fiction, non-fiction, and newspapers became gradually available by 1900. Cheap wood based paper also meant that keeping personal diaries or writing letters became possible and so, by 1850, the clerk, or writer, ceased to be a high-status job.


title: History of paper

text: Unfortunately, early wood-based paper deteriorated as time passed, meaning that much of the output of newspapers and books from this period either has disintegrated or is in poor condition; some has been photographed or digitized (scanned). The acid nature of the paper, caused by the use of alum, produced what has been called a slow fire, slowly converting the paper to ash. Documents needed to be written on more expensive rag paper. In the 2nd half of the 20th century cheaper acid-free paper based on wood was developed, and it was used for hardback and trade paperback books. However, paper that has not been de-acidified was still cheaper, and remains in use (2020) for mass-market paperback books, newspapers, and in underdeveloped countries.


title: History of paper

text: Determining the provenance of paper is a complex process that can be done in a variety of ways. The easiest way is using a known sheet of paper as an exemplar. Using known sheets can produce an exact identification. Next, comparing watermarks with those contained in catalogs or trade listings can yield useful results. Inspecting the surface can also determine age and location by looking for distinct marks from the production process. Chemical and fiber analysis can be used to establish date of creation and perhaps location.


title: Truth or Consequences, New Mexico

text: Truth or Consequences (often abbreviated as T or C) is a city in New Mexico, and the county seat of Sierra County. In 2020, the population was 6,052. It has frequently been noted on lists of unusual place names for having chosen to rename itself in March 1950 after the "Truth or Consequences" radio show. The name is often hyphenated (Truth-or-Consequences, T-or-C) for clarity, though the formal name contains no punctuation. The town was formerly called Hot Springs, New Mexico.


title: Truth or Consequences, New Mexico

text: The area is noted for its hot springs, and the first public bath in the area was built at John Cross Ranch over Geronimo Springs in the late 19th century. The hot springs are part of the Hot Springs Artesian Basin. However, major settlement did not begin until the construction of Elephant Butte Dam and its reservoir in 1912; the dam was completed in 1916. It was a part of the Rio Grande Project, an early large-scale irrigation effort authorized under the Newlands Reclamation Act of 1902. In 1916, the town was incorporated as Hot Springs. It became the Sierra County seat in 1937. By the late 1930s, Hot Springs was filled with 40 different natural-hot-spring spas — one per every 75 residents at the time — though primarily catering to visitors.


title: Truth or Consequences, New Mexico

text: The city changed its name from Hot Springs to Truth or Consequences as the result of a radio show contest. In March 1950, Ralph Edwards, the host of the popular NBC Radio quiz show "Truth or Consequences", announced that he would air the program on its 10th anniversary from the first town that renamed itself after the show; Hot Springs officially changed its name on March 31, 1950, and the program was broadcast from there the following evening. Edwards visited the town during the first weekend of May for the next 50 years. This event became known as Fiesta and eventually included a beauty contest, a parade, and a stage show. The city still celebrates Fiesta each year during the first weekend of May. The parade generally features local dignitaries, last year's Miss Fiesta pageant queen, and the winner of Hatch Chile Queen pageant. Fiesta also features a dance in Ralph Edwards Park.


title: Truth or Consequences, New Mexico

text: Several hot springs are located in Truth or Consequences. The combined flow of the hot springs complex in Truth or Consequences is estimated at per second.


title: Truth or Consequences, New Mexico

text: Before World War II, there were about 40 hot springs spas in Truth or Consequences. By 2008, the Hot Springs Association in Truth or Consequences had 10 spa facilities as members. Five of those obtained their water from wells, and La Paloma Hot Springs & Spa (formerly Marshall Hot Springs), Riverbend Hot Springs, Indian Springs Bath House, Artesian Bath house and Hay-Yo-Kay Hot Springs are from free-flowing hot springs.


title: Truth or Consequences, New Mexico

text: The New Mexico Department of Energy, Minerals, and Natural Resources created two demonstration projects using geothermal energy in Truth or Consequences in the 1980s. The Carrie Tingley Hospital, for children with physical disabilities, used state funding to create a physical-therapy program in Truth or Consequences, but has since moved to Albuquerque. The local Senior Citizen's Center benefits from a geothermal space heating system.


title: Truth or Consequences, New Mexico

text: According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which is land and (0.86%) is water.


title: Truth or Consequences, New Mexico

text: The city is located on the Rio Grande, near Elephant Butte Reservoir. The city is served by the Truth or Consequences Municipal Airport, Interstate 25, I-25 Business, New Mexico State Road 51 (NM 51), NM 181 and NM 187.


title: Truth or Consequences, New Mexico

text: Truth or Consequences has a cool desert climate (Köppen "BWk") with three main seasons. The summer season from April to June is very dry and generally hot with large diurnal temperature variation, giving way in July to the monsoon season which remains very hot – and is more uncomfortable due to the hotter nights – but is much more humid as rainfall from thunderstorms is frequent. The winter season from October to March has pleasantly mild and sunny days and cold to very cold nights, with very occasional rainfall from extratropical cyclones.


title: Truth or Consequences, New Mexico

text: On average over the year, 88.6 days top , 12.9 days top , and 91.1 nights fall below . Temperatures have fallen below only twice since 1951, during 1987 and 2011, with the record low being on February 3, 2011. The lowest maximum temperature on record has been on December 25, 1987, but during most years every single day will top freezing and on average only 19.5 days fail to top . The hottest temperature on record is on June 27, 1994, though minimums virtually never stay above due to the low humidity and hot sun, and only eighteen nights remain above during an average year.


title: Truth or Consequences, New Mexico

text: Precipitation is generally scarce apart from monsoonal storms. The wettest month on record has been July 2010 with , but totals above are confined to the monsoon season apart from an anomaly in December 1991 when three major subtropical cyclones brought . 1991 was also the wettest full calendar year with . Snowfall is rare, with a median of zero and mean of ; the heaviest snow recorded in Truth or Consequences is the that fell during the record cold spell of Christmas 1987.


title: Truth or Consequences, New Mexico

text: As of the census of 2000, there were 7,289 people, 3,450 households, and 1,859 families residing in the city. The population density was 576.0 people per square mile (222.5/km). There were 4,445 housing units at an average density of 351.3 per square mile (135.7/km). The racial makeup of the city was 85.35% White, 0.63% African American, 1.77% Native American, 0.16% Asian, 0.05% Pacific Islander, 9.36% from other races, and 2.68% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 27.4% of the population.


title: Truth or Consequences, New Mexico

text: There were 3,450 households, out of which 20.2% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 40.5% were married couples living together, 10.3% had a female householder with no husband present, and 46.1% were non-families. 41.2% of all households were made up of individuals, and 22.1% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.04 and the average family size was 2.75.


title: Truth or Consequences, New Mexico

text: In the city, the population was spread out, with 20.2% under the age of 18, 5.7% from 18 to 24, 20.1% from 25 to 44, 24.6% from 45 to 64, and 29.3% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 48 years. For every 100 females, there were 96.8 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 92.4 males.


title: Truth or Consequences, New Mexico

text: The median income for a household in the city was $20,986, and the median income for a family was $28,750. Males had a median income of $23,214 versus $18,207 for females. The per capita income for the city was $14,415. About 15.6% of families and 23.2% of the population were below the poverty line, including 33.3% of those under age 18 and 18.1% of those age 65 or over.


title: Truth or Consequences, New Mexico

text: Sierra Elementary Complex and Truth or Consequences Elementary School are elementary schools in the community. Truth or Consequences Middle School and Hot Springs High School, both in Truth or Consequences, are the district's secondary schools.


title: Truth or Consequences, New Mexico

text: The city serves as the main setting of the Outbreak event in the "Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege" video game. It returns again as a region in the spinoff game "Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Extraction".


title: Power metal

text: Power metal is a subgenre of heavy metal combining characteristics of traditional heavy metal with speed metal, often within symphonic context. Generally, power metal is characterized by a faster, lighter, and more uplifting sound, in contrast with the heaviness and dissonance prevalent, for example, in extreme metal. Power metal bands usually have anthem-like songs with fantasy-based subject matter and strong choruses, thus creating a theatrical, dramatic and emotionally "powerful" sound.


title: Power metal

text: Anthropologist Sam Dunn traced the origins of power metal back to the late 1970s, when the groundwork for power metal lyrical style was laid down by Ronnie James Dio. The fantasy-oriented lyrics he wrote for Rainbow, concentrated around medieval, renaissance, folk, and science fiction themes, directly influenced modern power metal bands. According to Dunn, the songs "Stargazer" and "A Light in the Black" from the 1976 album "Rising", as well as "Kill the King" and "Lady of the Lake" from the 1978 album "Long Live Rock 'n' Roll", might be among the earliest examples of power metal. In his 2011 documentary series "Metal Evolution", Dunn further explained how Rob Halford of Judas Priest created a blueprint for power metal vocal delivery. His almost constant high-pitched singing became one of the main characteristics of power metal. The twin-guitar sound promoted by Judas Priest's duo of K. K. Downing and Glenn Tipton also highly influenced this subgenre. Another pioneer in the power metal genre is Jon Mikl Thor, who was a strong inspiration to the American band Manowar.


title: Power metal

text: Another British band, Iron Maiden, brought epic and melodic sensibility to metal, creating anthemic, singalong music, an approach widely embraced by modern power metal musicians. The emergence of the early German power-metal scene in particular was made possible by Scorpions and Accept. Swedish guitarist Yngwie Malmsteen made a significant impact on many future power metal guitarists, with his accurate and fast neo-classical style. His bandmate Jens Johansson modernized the keyboard sound of Deep Purple's Jon Lord, which was further incorporated into the genre. Manowar's mythological sword and sorcery lyrics influenced a number of power metal bands.


title: Power metal

text: Throughout the early 1980s especially in the years 1982 and 1983, a US power metal style first emerged from traditional heavy metal, the new wave of British heavy metal (NWOBHM), and thrash/speed metal influences. The exact first origin is often contested, but bands such as Cirith Ungol, Jag Panzer, Manilla Road, Omen, Riot, Savatage, and Warlord are thought to have influenced the earliest development of the style.


title: Power metal

text: More concretely, in 1987 German band Helloween released their second album, "", cited by AllMusic as "a landmark recording that remains arguably the single most influential power metal album to date. Its volatile combination of power and melody would inspire an entire generation of metal bands". This release influenced a European power metal style to evolve, which proliferated throughout the globe and since the start of the 1990s is still the most commonly heard style of power metal.


title: Power metal

text: Power metal is today associated with fast tempo and melodic harmonies, the sound tempered by characteristics of speed metal, power metal's musical forerunner.


title: Power metal

text: Power metal is highly focused on the vocalist, with "clean" vocals being much more prevalent than the growling vocals often associated with extreme metal. Inspired by Ronnie James Dio, Bruce Dickinson, Rob Halford, Geoff Tate, and other rock and heavy metal vocalists, power metal vocals are often in a high register, and the singer's vocal range is usually wide. The majority of the genre's vocalists sing in the tenor range and are capable of hitting very high notes, for example Timo Kotipelto of Stratovarius, Tony Kakko of Sonata Arctica, Michael Kiske (Helloween) and Andre Matos (ex-Angra). There are many exceptions who sing in either baritone or bass range. Some vocalists sing in a harsh, thrash metal style, including Chris Boltendahl of Grave Digger, Kai Hansen of Gamma Ray, Peavy Wagner of Rage, and Wintersun's Jari Mäenpää. Many power metal vocalists, most notably Hansi Kürsch of Blind Guardian, record multi-layered vocals reminiscent of Queen, creating a choral effect.


title: Power metal

text: Themes that frequently feature throughout other metal subgenres, such as religion and politics, are comparatively rare in power metal - albeit not unheard of. Power metal's lyrical themes often focus on fantasy and mythology, camaraderie and hope, personal struggles and emotions, war and death, or combinations of the aforementioned. For example, Finnish band Sonata Arctica have been known for focusing their lyrics of their songs on fantasy but also have many songs based on reality, love and relationships.


title: Power metal

text: Many power metal bands based their concept albums on fantasy books and national epics; Blind Guardian based "Nightfall in Middle-Earth" on Tolkien's "The Silmarillion", while Kamelot based "Epica" and "The Black Halo" on Goethe's Faust. Some bands have even written their own imaginary stories, like Rhapsody of Fire's "Emerald Sword Saga" and "The Dark Secret Saga", Iced Earth's "Something Wicked Saga", or "Avantasia" by Edguy's Tobias Sammet.


title: Power metal

text: Historical themes have also seen usage in the works of bands, most famously Sabaton, whose lyrics extensively focus on historical wars, battles, and individuals that received notable recognition for their wartime accomplishments. Examples include World War I, World War II, Vikings, Samurai, and much more from around the world including the American, Swedish and German militaries. Serenity, an Austrian (symphonic) power metal band, focuses mainly on historical figures and events, including Sir Francis Drake, Marco Polo, Galileo, Beethoven, and Napoleon.


title: Power metal

text: Contrary to traditional power metal music, Powerwolf focuses on Transylvanian werewolf and vampire legends and dark myths. The lyrics of the band are characterized by the treatment of Christianity and ancient Romanian legends. Powerwolf, however, do not consider themselves a religious band, but rather call themselves spiritual.


title: Power metal

text: Power metal guitarists and bassists generally play rapid streams of notes, but change chords comparatively slowly, with a harmonic tempo of once per measure or slower. Fast and technically demanding guitar solos, however, are almost guaranteed. The slow changing of chords is significant in defining power metal just as the fast rapid chord changes often define traditional thrash metal. Power metal often makes use of Major chord progressions as well as circle progressions. Some of the most influential and acclaimed power metal guitarists are Kai Hansen of Gamma Ray, Michael Weikath of Helloween, and Timo Tolkki formerly of Stratovarius. It is a common trait in power metal for the bass guitar to take a back seat, so to speak; often simply providing the chord root notes and being drowned out by the more prevalent rhythm guitars. However, some power metal bands incorporate bass that is more audible with colorful patterns distinct from the rhythm guitars, such as Helloween, Hibria, and Symphony X.


title: Power metal

text: Many power metal drummers play double bass patterns with either two bass drums, or utilize a double bass pedal; using them to play a constant stream of sixteenth notes (semiquavers) with snare drum accents on the beat, a style not restricted to, but most often associated with, power metal. The style was used by drummer Ingo Schwichtenberg of Helloween, setting a blueprint for many other drummers to follow. Others, such as the drummers of Blind Guardian and Iced Earth, use a more thrash metal style of drumming with rapid bursts of double bass that involve three to six beats with the double kick.


title: Power metal

text: Power metal bands often incorporate keyboards into their musical arrangements, something popularized by Jens Johansson of Stratovarius, though their usage varies from subtle accents to a full-blown melody line. Some power metal bands also record with symphonic elements, and as such, they utilize a full orchestra to fill the role usually played by the keyboardist.


title: Power metal

text: The American branch of power metal emerged in early 1980s in the United States, drawing influence primarily from traditional metal and the NWOBHM. Though very close to its roots, US power metal (often abbreviated USPM) is often faster and more energetic than traditional heavy metal, with a more riff-driven approach and a relative lack of keyboard usage compared to its later European counterpart. However, it is often more melodic than thrash metal, with a greater emphasis on guitar leads. USPM is also notable for its widespread (but not universal) use of high-register operatic vocals, a trend which would continue with the rise of European power metal in the late 1980s and early 1990s. This style is not exclusive to North America, as European bands such as Sacred Steel, Majesty, and Australian band Pegazus later adopted a style inspired by USPM bands in the 1990s.


title: Power metal

text: The early releases of progressive metal bands Queensrÿche and Fates Warning, such as "The Warning" (1984) and "The Spectre Within" (1985), heavily influenced a number of bands that were to develop a common sound towards the late 1980s. Among the better known representatives of the style, such as Manowar, Vicious Rumors, Virgin Steele, Riot, or Jag Panzer, a small number of bands enriched their sound with progressive and epic elements (the most obvious examples being Crimson Glory, Savatage, Sanctuary and the epic doom metal band Cirith Ungol); or even with thrash metal elements, e.g., Iced Earth. US power metal saw a sharp decline in popularity at the beginning of the 1990s, though the style has rebounded somewhat in the past decade, with bands such as Liege Lord or Heir Apparent reforming for live performances and many, such as Helstar and Omen, still releasing new material.


title: Power metal

text: European power metal originated from speed metal and the NWOBHM, emerging in late 1980s, particularly in Germany, with Helloween, Running Wild, Rage, Grave Digger, and Blind Guardian. The second and third Helloween albums; "" (1987) and "" (1988) are usually considered the first proper European power metal albums. Alongside the early German bands came Finland's Stratovarius in late 1980s. These bands pioneered the genre, but took it in somewhat different directions. Helloween, followed by early Gamma Ray, mixed fast palm muted speed metal riffs with high-pitched clean vocals, and with a strong focus on melody and uplifting, positive themes. Stratovarius further developed this melodic direction by making heavy use of keyboards, with lyrics dealing with emotions and personal issues. Blind Guardian utilized the technique of vocal and guitar overdubbing to create an epic atmosphere, with lyrical content strongly based on fantasy novels, myths and legends. The symphonic and neo-classical elements also found their way through power metal with bands like Rhapsody of Fire (Italy), Serenity (Austria) and Nightwish (Finland). At the same time, bands such as HammerFall simplified their power metal to bring it closer to traditional heavy metal.


title: Power metal

text: Over the late 90s and early 00s, power metal spread over Europe especially as well as the rest of the world, often incorporating new influences. Italy's Elvenking, Sweden's Falconer, Spain's Mägo de Oz, and Denmark's Wuthering Heights integrated elements of folk music with power metal. Angra, Kamelot, and especially Symphony X are known for combining progressive and power metal. Some bands are known for combining power metal with more aggressive musical forms; Children of Bodom were one of the earliest who combined elements of power metal and an early form of melodic death metal.


title: Power metal

text: European-style power metal became widespread in comparison with US style as of the mid 1990s, with numerous North American bands such as Theocracy, Borealis, Forgotten Tales, Avian, Pharaoh, Circle II Circle, and Kamelot demonstrating the style. This European style of power metal is sometimes considered the "second wave" of power metal since its spread was in the late 1980s and especially the mid-late 1990s rather than proliferating throughout the 1980s, and the widespread influence and development of the genre that came in its tow while US "first wave" style markedly declined.


title: Jessica McNamee

text: Jessica McNamee (born 16 June 1986) is an Australian actress. She rose to fame in Australia playing roles in the Seven Network television programs "Home and Away" and "Packed to the Rafters". From 2014 to 2015, she starred as patrol officer Theresa Kelly in the USA Network series "Sirens". Her film roles include "The Vow" (2012), "Chips" (2017), "Battle of the Sexes" (2017), "The Meg" (2018) and "Mortal Kombat" (2021).


title: Jessica McNamee

text: McNamee secured a role in the Seven Network soap opera "Home and Away" playing the role of Lisa Duffy. She went on to play Sammy Rafter in the television series "Packed to the Rafters". In 2009, McNamee was a contestant on the ninth series of "Dancing with the Stars". She was partnered with dancer Stefano Olivieri and they were eliminated before the final.


title: Jessica McNamee

text: The role of Sammy in "Packed to the Rafters" left McNamee keen to lose the "good girl" image the role created. In the series production breaks, she decided to take on different roles. She starred in the horror film "The Loved Ones"; which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2009. In mid-2010, she made the short film "50-50".


title: Jessica McNamee

text: McNamee went on to secure a role in the 2012 film "The Vow". She filmed the project in Toronto alongside Rachel McAdams and Channing Tatum. She described working on the film as a "surreal experience". In 2013, she returned to "Packed to the Rafters" for the final season as a special guest star. From 2014 to 2015, McNamee starred in the USA Network TV series "Sirens". She played the role of Theresa Kelly, a Chicago police officer, and was a main character in the show. In 2017, she portrayed tennis player Margaret Court in "Battle of the Sexes".


title: Jessica McNamee

text: In 2018, McNamee played the lead role of Jenna alongside William Fichtner in the drama film "The Neighbor". She played Lori, the ex-wife of megalodon hunter Jonas Taylor (Jason Statham), in the blockbuster "The Meg". In 2019, McNamee appeared in the crime-thriller film "Locusts", playing the role of Izzy. In August 2019, McNamee was cast in "Mortal Kombat" as Sonya Blade and it was released in April 2021.


title: Jessica McNamee

text: In 2020, McNamee appeared in the horror film "". She also provided voice work in Rhys Wakefield's drama podcasrt series titled "From Now". In 2021, McNamee was cast in the horror-thriller film "The Visitor".


title: Jessica McNamee

text: McNamee was born in Sydney. She is the sister of actress Penny McNamee and they have two more sisters and a brother. Her niece is the actress Teagan Croft. Her cousin Daniel McNamee is in the band Art Vs Science. In April 2019, she married Patrick Caruso, a property developer.


title: Jessica McNamee

text: In February 2010, McNamee became an ambassador for The Fred Hollows Foundation; the foundation focuses on treating and preventing blindness and other vision problems. McNamee represents The Foundation's 'Miracle Club', encouraging supporters to make monthly contributions that will restore sight to people in countries where The Foundation works.


title: Swingers (1996 film)

text: Swingers is a 1996 American comedy-drama film about the lives of single, unemployed actors living on the 'eastside' of Hollywood, California, during the 1990s swing revival. Written by Jon Favreau and directed by Doug Liman, the film starred Favreau alongside Vince Vaughn, featuring performances by Ron Livingston and Heather Graham.


title: Swingers (1996 film)

text: A critical and commercial hit, the film helped propel Favreau, Vaughn, Graham, and Livingston to stardom, while also launching Liman's directing career as he won the award for Best New Filmmaker at the 1997 MTV Movie Awards.


title: Swingers (1996 film)

text: This film was rated #58 on Bravo's "100 Funniest Movies". The film was honored on the 2007 Spike TV Guys' Choice Awards. In 2011, "Empire" magazine listed the film as #49 on its "50 Greatest American Independent Films" list.


title: Swingers (1996 film)

text: Mike Peters is a struggling comedian who left New York to find success in Los Angeles, and is still upset over his girlfriend of six years, Michelle, breaking up with him six months prior. To help Mike with his depression, his womanizing friend Trent and some other aspiring actor friends try and get him back into the social scene.


title: Swingers (1996 film)

text: The movie opens with Mike telling his friend Rob about how desperately he misses Michelle and that she has not called him. Rob explains that "somehow" women "know" not to call their ex-boyfriends until they have completely moved on from them.


title: Swingers (1996 film)

text: To help Mike recover, Trent coaxes him into an impromptu trip to Las Vegas. Trent succeeds in picking up two waitresses, but his obsession with Michelle ruins Trent's plans. The women seem interested, but Mike spoils the mood, telling his date about her.


title: Swingers (1996 film)

text: Back in Los Angeles, Mike, Rob and other friends golf, play video games, and go out. All of them trying to make it in the entertainment industry. Then they go bar hopping, stopping at a party, and later an after-hours spot, where Trent demonstrates his prowess in handling the opposite sex. Inspired by this, Mike meets a woman named Nikki and gets her phone number. His friends insist he wait two days minimum before calling.


title: Swingers (1996 film)

text: Back at his apartment, however, he leaves a series of increasingly anxious and desperate messages on Nikki's answering machine in the middle of the night, until she picks up the phone and disgustedly orders him not to call her again. Missing Michelle more than ever, he contemplates moving back to New York until Rob comes over and consoles him.


title: Swingers (1996 film)

text: Out again for swing night at The Derby, Mike spots a woman named Lorraine. He summons all his courage to approach and connect with her. They both recently broke off relationships and moved to LA, and dance well together.


title: Swingers (1996 film)

text: The following morning, Mike receives a call from Michelle, and finds that he no longer misses her. When Lorraine calls him, Mike cuts off his call with Michelle mid sentence saying she loves him, to further things with Lorraine. Like him, she disregarded friends' advice to wait days before calling.


title: Swingers (1996 film)

text: Favreau wrote the screenplay for "Swingers" in about two weeks. His father had given him a screenwriting program on a computer and he wanted to see if he could make a screenplay "just as an exercise". He had moved from Chicago and had also broken up with his girlfriend there, but the stories and events he wrote in were fictional. He had characters that he loosely based on friends, and used fellow actors for the key parts. He had become friends with Vaughn from the 1993 film "Rudy", a movie they had acted in together. He had known Livingston from Chicago and their work at ImprovOlympic, and that they moved to Los Angeles around the same time.


title: Swingers (1996 film)

text: During the time Favreau was trying to raise production money, some of the producers wanted to change the character of Trent to a woman, to not go to Vegas, and to make it darker and more violent. Others wanted to cast more notable actors like Johnny Depp or Chris O'Donnell, but Favreau declined those ideas despite trying hard to embrace them. Favreau and his friends gave reader's theater performances of the script to drum up interest in and capital for the movie. Nicole LaLoggia, who knew of Favreau when the latter read for the film "Getting In", agreed to work on the film. Her roommate, Doug Liman, secured production money from his father's business associate on the condition that Liman direct the film.


title: Swingers (1996 film)

text: The title of the film was partly inspired by the Swingers Diner on Beverly Boulevard, a coffee shop that Liman and Favreau frequented. The "you're so money" catchphrase that the film popularized originated from a television commercial with Spike Lee and Michael Jordan in which Lee called Jordan "money". The phone call answering machine scene originated from a comedy bit by Jeff Garlin.


title: Swingers (1996 film)

text: With the small budget, Favreau agreed to cast himself in the movie. Liman planned to shoot about 18 days with about 12 pages per day. They auditioned and cast Vaughn after considering some other bigger names. Many of the supporting and minor roles were filled from casual auditions and from cast and crew acquaintances. More money was spent on music licensing than for the film itself. Much of the film was shot using short ends, which meant many of the scenes could be filmed for about 60 seconds.


title: Swingers (1996 film)

text: Mikey's apartment is located in the Franklin Village area of Los Angeles, a few miles from the Dresden Room. It was Favreau's real-life apartment at the time. Favreau also used his 1964 Mercury Comet Caliente convertible, which he had bought after his previous car had been stolen and stripped.


title: Swingers (1996 film)

text: "Swingers" was filmed on location at several Los Angeles nightclubs, particularly in the hip Los Feliz neighborhood, including the Dresden Lounge and the Derby. Some of the shots were filmed documentary style with actual bar patrons as the crew could not afford to rent the places outright or hire a number of extras. The additional lighting was kept to a minimum as whenever the lights were brightened, the guests would scatter. The house party scene was filmed at the producers' friends' residences under the guise of a real house party.


title: Swingers (1996 film)

text: The Las Vegas scenes were filmed primarily in two locations, with the exterior casino shots taking place at the Stardust Resort & Casino and all the subsequent interior shots being filmed at the Fremont Hotel and Casino, farther north in downtown Las Vegas.


title: Swingers (1996 film)

text: The Dresden Room is a popular classic bar and club in the Los Feliz neighborhood, located at 1760 N. Vermont Ave. The music duo Marty and Elayne have been performing at the Dresden in real life several nights a week for over 35 years. Vaughn was a frequent visitor.


title: Swingers (1996 film)

text: The cafe where various factions of the crew meet and eat was the Hollywood Hills Coffee Shop (now the 101 Coffee Shop) a few blocks from the Franklin Village apartments. According to Liman, the shop let the cast and crew film for only night while under renovation. The scene involving peekaboo with the baby originated from Vaughn's experience with a similar person at an airport. It was added as an epilogue scene for the film, which would have ended with Favreau's character finishing the phone calls with the two women. The 101 Coffee Shop ultimately closed its doors for good in January 2021 because of the pandemic.


title: Swingers (1996 film)

text: The bar where the characters dance is The Derby in Los Feliz, on the corner of Hillhurst and Los Feliz Boulevard, a club inspired by the original 1920s' Brown Derby Club on the same spot. Favreau had frequented there while he was raising money for the film, and even took swing dancing lessons. Big Bad Voodoo Daddy was a regular act there, so Favreau became friends with the band. The filming took place during one of their regular performances along with the swing dancers. In January 2009, the nightclub closed permanently. The property was bought and occupied by a bank.


title: Swingers (1996 film)

text: In addition to casting their friends in key roles, Favreau and Vaughn gave cameo roles to their family members. Vaughn's father, Vernon Vaughn, plays the lucky gambler at the $100-minimum blackjack table, while Favreau's grandmother, Joan Favreau, is the lucky gambler at the $5-minimum blackjack table. Actor Adam Scott, who had lived in the downstairs apartment from Favreau, appeared in the house party scene. Nicole LaLoggia, who was the line producer for the film, cameoed as the voice of Michelle towards the end of the film.


title: Swingers (1996 film)

text: Originally, the producers thought about entering "Swingers" into the film festival circuit, but it was not thought serious enough to be considered for Sundance. They then opted to release it commercially, with a preliminary screening at a Fairfax Cinema filled with the cast and crew's friends and some prospective buyers. After some negotiations, they sold the film to Miramax for $5 million (Liman recalls it was $5.5 million). It premiered at the Vista Theatre. "Swingers" had a domestic theatrical gross of $4,555,020.


title: Swingers (1996 film)

text: On review website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 88% based on 56 reviews, with an average rating of 7.7/10. The site's critical consensus reads: "Funny, heartfelt, and effortlessly cool, "Swingers" made stars out of Vince Vaughn and Jon Favreau, and established Doug Liman as a director to watch." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 71 out of 100, based on 25 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".


title: Swingers (1996 film)

text: Roger Ebert of the "Chicago Sun-Times" gave "Swingers" three out of a possible four stars, writing: "It's not a terribly original idea, [yet] the movie is sweet, funny [and] observant." Owen Gleiberman of "Entertainment Weekly" gave the film an “A”, especially praising Favreau for his “exuberantly witty script”. Kenneth Turan of "Los Angeles Times" wrote that the film “knows how to breathe life into its people, and hooking audiences is its reward.” Todd McCarthy of "Variety" praised the film’s engaging tone, writing that it’s “refreshingly human in its humor.”


title: Swingers (1996 film)

text: It served as a breakthrough for Vaughn, who gained public exposure and critical acclaim for his performance. In particular, he caught the eye of Steven Spielberg when a copy of the film was sent to the director so they could clear the rights for the "Jaws" music. Spielberg then cast Vaughn in "". Director Liman also used the film to help launch a successful career in Hollywood (he would later be known for "The Bourne Identity"), and it was the first major film for Livingston.


title: Swingers (1996 film)

text: The release of the film coincided with the swing revival of the 1990s. It increased interest in 1940s culture, Hollywood nightlife, and swing music. Some of the slang used in the film became popular in the years following its release, especially the use of the word "money" as a catch-all term of approval or quality. The exclamation "Vegas, baby!" also became a common quote when referencing the city. Big Bad Voodoo Daddy credits much of their later music success to their appearance in the film.


title: Swingers (1996 film)

text: In 2008 the film was voted as the fourteenth best film set in Los Angeles in the previous 25 years by a group of "Los Angeles Times" writers and editors with two criteria: "The movie had to communicate some inherent truth about the L.A. experience, and only one film per director was allowed on the list".


title: Swingers (1996 film)

text: There are two collections from the film; the first soundtrack, "Swingers: Music From The Miramax Motion Picture", was released in 1996 and contained original music by composer Justin Reinhardt under the name "The Jazz Jury" as well as music by various artists included in the film. The soundtrack was certified gold by the RIAA on September 10, 2019. The second, "Swingers Too!: More Music From... "Swingers"", was released in 1999.


title: Galactic Empire (Star Wars)

text: The Galactic Empire is a fictional autocracy featured in the "Star Wars" franchise. It was first introduced in the 1977 film "Star Wars" and appears in its two sequels: "The Empire Strikes Back" (1980) and "Return of the Jedi" (1983). It is the main antagonistic faction of the original trilogy. An oppressive, autocratic regime with a complicated bureaucracy, the Galactic Empire seeks to ensure singular rule and social control over every planet and civilization within the galaxy.


title: Galactic Empire (Star Wars)

text: At its peak, the Galactic Empire sprawls over much of the known "Star Wars" galaxy, which consists of millions of star systems and billions more fringe colonies, shipyards, fortress worlds, and outer territories. The Empire's origins are depicted in the prequel film "" (2005), where it replaces the Galactic Republic at the end of the Clone Wars orchestrated by the Republic's Supreme Chancellor, Palpatine. Palpatine is also secretly the Sith lord Darth Sidious, who masterminded the war in order to destroy the Jedi and restore the Sith to power.


title: Galactic Empire (Star Wars)

text: Palpatine falsely accuses the Jedi of causing the Clone Wars, a secessionist war, to weaken the Republic and gain power. Palpatine manipulates the Galactic Senate into using clone troopers created during the conflict to purge the Jedi. After engineering these threats himself, Palpatine reorganizes the Republic into a state that could "ensure the security and continuing stability, and [provide] a safe and secure society" – a galactic empire with himself as its Emperor. The Senate overwhelmingly supports this decision and lauds Palpatine's apparent resolve, bravery, and selflessness.


title: Galactic Empire (Star Wars)

text: Though Palpatine's Sith identity remains a secret to all but a handful of individuals, his apprentice, the Sith Lord Darth Vader maintains a more public presence, acting as a personification of the Empire's power. By the time of "Episode IV – A New Hope", the Empire has transformed into a fully autocratic regime, opposed by the Alliance to Restore the Republic. The completion of the Death Star, a doomsday weapon, allows Palpatine to instigate a self-coup and dissolve the powerless Imperial Senate. The Galactic Empire is described and portrayed in various "Star Wars" media as a brutal dictatorship, one based on "anthropocentrism, nationalization, state terrorism, xenophobia, power projection, threat of lethal force, and, above all else, constant fear".


title: Galactic Empire (Star Wars)

text: The Empire is defeated in "Return of the Jedi", but the First Order is formed by Imperial remnants in the sequel trilogy, set 30 years later.


title: Galactic Empire (Star Wars)

text: "Star Wars" creator George Lucas sought to make the First Galactic Empire aesthetically and thematically similar to Nazi Germany and to appear to be fascist. Similar to Nazi Germany, the Galactic Empire is a dictatorship based on rigid control of society that dissolved a previous democracy and is led by an all-powerful supreme ruler. The Empire, like the Nazis, desires the creation of totalitarian order and utilizes excessive force and violence to achieve their ends. The title of the Empire's main soldiers, the stormtroopers, is somewhat similar to the name given to Adolf Hitler's (SA, "storm department") paramilitary bodyguards.


title: Galactic Empire (Star Wars)

text: The visual appearance of Darth Vader in his all-black uniform combined with his devout obedience to the Emperor has allusion to the black-uniformed Nazi (SS). According to a Lucasfilm-authorized source, Darth Vader's relationship with Palpatine is akin to SS leader Heinrich Himmler's relationship with Hitler. The uniforms of Imperial military officers also bear resemblance to uniforms used in Nazi Germany as well as 19th century Polish "ulans" (mounted lancers)—who wore a tunic, riding breeches, and boots like the Empire's officers wear—as well as the Imperial officers' cap resembling the field caps historically worn by German and Austrian troops.


title: Galactic Empire (Star Wars)

text: In addition to Nazi Germany, there was also at least one portion of the Galactic Empire that was based on the Soviet Union, which is the various military personnel and TIE Fighters that are flying in formation as Palpatine arrives on the Death Star in "Return of the Jedi". According to Lucas, the ceremony for the Emperor's arrival was inspired by May Day military parades in the Soviet Union.


title: Galactic Empire (Star Wars)

text: Lucas has also indicated that the Galactic Empire's struggle against a smaller guerilla force was inspired by America's involvement in the Vietnam War and his surprise at how few people spoke up against the war.


title: Galactic Empire (Star Wars)

text: Palpatine's rise to power has been related to those of Julius Caesar, Augustus, Napoleon Bonaparte, and Adolf Hitler. Palpatine's consolidation of power and declaring himself emperor is like the Roman political figure Octavian (later renamed Augustus), in that Octavian manipulated the Roman Senate as Palpatine did with the Galactic Senate; he legitimized authoritarian rule by saying that corruption in the Senate was hampering the powers of the head of state; he pressured the Roman Senate to give him extraordinary powers as Consul of the Republic to deal with a crisis and he falsely claimed that he would rescind those powers once the crisis was over; and, as with the transition of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire, Octavian, like Palpatine, relied on his strong control over military force.


title: Galactic Empire (Star Wars)

text: The Galactic Empire is born out of the collapsing Galactic Republic. However, its seeds are planted during the Clone Wars, the epic war between the Republic and the separatist Confederacy of Independent Systems (CIS) depicted in "" and "". Because of a corrupt senate, and a civil war, Palpatine is easily able to take control over the Republic.


title: Galactic Empire (Star Wars)

text: In "", amid a trade dispute and invasion of his home world of Naboo, Senator Palpatine convinces Queen Padmé Amidala to call for a vote of no confidence in Supreme Chancellor of the Republic Finis Valorum. Palpatine is elected Supreme Chancellor in Valorum's place.


title: Galactic Empire (Star Wars)

text: As fighting intensifies in "Episode II", the Galactic Senate, the legislature of the Republic, grants Palpatine emergency powers to deal with the crisis. Palpatine promises to return his powers once peace and order is restored. His first order is to create a massive army of clone troopers. He exploits the Clone Wars to amass political power, and, by the time of "Episode III", he is effectively a dictator.


title: Galactic Empire (Star Wars)

text: The Jedi distrust Palpatine's motives, fearing he has come under the influence of a Dark Lord of the Sith named Darth Sidious. Their concerns are shared by several senators, who suspect Palpatine may not return his emergency powers once the war ends. The film eventually reveals that Palpatine and Sidious are one and the same, and Palpatine engineered the conflicts as a false flag.


title: Galactic Empire (Star Wars)

text: Palpatine reveals himself as a Sith Lord to Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker, promising to save Padmé, Skywalker's secret wife, from dying while giving birth to their child. Skywalker reports Palpatine's true identity to the Jedi. However, when Jedi Master Mace Windu confronts Palpatine, Skywalker comes to Palpatine's aid and helps him kill Windu. Desperate to save Padmé, Skywalker pledges himself to the dark side of the Force and becomes Palpatine's third apprentice, Darth Vader. Palpatine declares the Jedi to be traitors and all but exterminates the Jedi Order in a galaxy-wide slaughter, while sending Vader to kill everyone in the Jedi Temple and assassinate the Separatist leaders.


title: Galactic Empire (Star Wars)

text: Secure in his power and position, Palpatine reorganizes the Republic into the Galactic Empire, with himself as Emperor for life. Two remaining Jedi, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Yoda, mount a counterattack. Obi-Wan defeats Vader and leaves him for dead, but Yoda's duel with Palpatine ends in a stalemate; both Jedi are forced to go into exile. Grievously wounded, Vader is rescued by Palpatine and fitted with cybernetics and a black suit of armor with a life support system. After Padmé dies giving birth to twins, Yoda and Obi-Wan decide to separate the children – Luke and Leia – in order to hide them from the Sith. Luke goes to Vader's stepfamily on Tatooine, while Leia is adopted by Senator Bail Organa of Alderaan.


title: Galactic Empire (Star Wars)

text: With the end of the Clone Wars, the purge of the Jedi Order and the formation of the First Galactic Empire, Palpatine rules with absolute power as Emperor. Between the events of "Revenge of the Sith" and "A New Hope", Palpatine rules the galaxy from the confines of his heavily guarded Imperial Palace on Coruscant. Coruscant was introduced in Timothy Zahn's then-canon novel "Heir to the Empire". It made its film debut in the special edition of "Return of the Jedi". Inspiration for the world-spanning city came from 1940s science fiction works, especially Isaac Asimov's Trantor. Visually, it resembles the Art Deco skyscrapers of Manhattan.