title: Pride (2014 film)

text: In the US, "Pride" grossed £84,800 from six theatres in its opening weekend. The film expanded slowly, adding cinemas in existing markets for its second weekend followed by release in additional cities from 10 October.


title: Pride (2014 film)

text: "Pride" was met with critical acclaim. The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that 92% of critics surveyed gave the film a positive review, based on a sample of 127 reviews, with an average score of 7.6 out of 10; the consensus on the film reads: "Earnest without being didactic and uplifting without stooping to sentimentality, "Pride" is a joyous crowd-pleaser that genuinely works." Metacritic gave the film an aggregate score of 79/100 based on 36 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews."


title: Pride (2014 film)

text: Geoffrey Macnab, of "The Independent", noted how "Pride" followed on from other British films such as "The Full Monty", "Brassed Off" and "Billy Elliot" as "a story set in a Britain whose industrial base is being shattered". Macnab, who gave the film a five-star review, praised the screenplay for combining "broad comedy with subtle observation", and noted that director Matthew Warchus "relishes visual contrasts and jarring juxtapositions" throughout the film. Macnab's review stated that "Pride" retained its humour and accessibility without trivialising the issues addressed in the film.


title: Pride (2014 film)

text: Peter Bradshaw, reviewing for "The Guardian", described the film as "impassioned and lovable". Bradshaw praised performances of the cast, including Bill Nighy's "taciturn shyness" in his portrayal as Cliff and the "dignified and intelligent performance" from Paddy Considine as Dai. Imelda Staunton's performance as Hefina Headon, who died in October 2013, was met with positive reviews by critics. Geoffrey Macnab said Staunton's performance as the matriarchal Hefina was "part Mother Courage and part Hilda Ogden". Ben Schnetzer's performance as Mark Ashton drew positive reviews. Charlotte O'Sullivan, writing for the "London Evening Standard", said: "Schnetzer is a New Yorker with an unpromising CV (he was one of the few good things about "The Book Thief") and he's fantastic here".


title: Pride (2014 film)

text: Paul Byrnes in "The Sydney Morning Herald" described the film as "dry, surprising, compassionate, politically savvy, emotionally rewarding and stacked to the gills with great actors doing solid work".


title: Pride (2014 film)

text: Nigel Andrews, writing for the "Financial Times", gave the film one star out of five, describing it as "a parade of tricks, tropes and tritenesses, designed to keep its balance for two hours atop a political correctness unicycle". Andrews' review read, "Nothing in modern history is more amazing than the cultural rebranding of the UK miners’ strike as a heroic crusade, rather than a Luddite last stand for (inter alia) union demagoguery, greenhouse gas and emphysema."


title: In the Tall Grass (film)

text: In the Tall Grass is a 2019 Canadian supernatural horror drama film written and directed by Vincenzo Natali. It is based on Stephen King and Joe Hill's 2012 novella of the same name. It stars Harrison Gilbertson, Laysla De Oliveira, Avery Whitted, Will Buie Jr., Rachel Wilson, and Patrick Wilson.


title: In the Tall Grass (film)

text: The project was in initial development in early 2015, and went forward in May 2018, when streaming service Netflix announced that it had purchased the film rights, setting Natali to direct and adapt the screenplay. Principal photography took place in summer 2018 in Toronto, Ontario.


title: In the Tall Grass (film)

text: The film had its world premiere at Fantastic Fest on September 20, 2019, and was released on Netflix on October 4, 2019. It received mixed reviews from critics, with many praising the performances, atmosphere and faithfulness to the novella, but criticizing its inconsistent tone and dialogue.


title: In the Tall Grass (film)

text: Siblings Becky, who is 6 months pregnant, and Cal DeMuth travel to San Diego. They hear a young boy, Tobin, calling for help from a field of tall grass. His mother, Natalie, shuts him up. Concerned, they enter but quickly get separated and find that their distance changes unnaturally. Panicked, they decide to leave but can't find the road. Becky encounters Tobin's father Ross, who tells her to stay with him and not to lose sight of him but she unfortunately ends up losing him. Cal stumbles across a bruised, dirty Tobin holding a dead crow. Tobin claims the grass won't move dead things and buries the bird in the path and then he tells Cal that Becky will die soon and that the rock told him that. When Tobin leads Cal to a rock in the field and tells him to touch it, interrupted by Becky's scream, he is attacked by a ghost.


title: In the Tall Grass (film)

text: The father of Becky's child, Travis, arrives looking for her and Cal. He investigates the field, stumbling across Tobin, implying that they are acquaintances, leading him to Becky's corpse. Tobin arrives at a nearby church with his parents. Hearing Travis, who is now calling out to Tobin, their dog Freddy runs into the grass, and the family runs in after him, where Travis hears Tobin and looks for him. The family panics, with Ross stumbling across the rock and touching it. Becky and Cal re-enter the grass as Tobin states that Freddy died. Knowing the grass's trait, Travis, Becky and Cal move towards Tobin, and all four find each other. Travis tells Becky and Cal that they had been missing for two months. It is also revealed that Travis originally was not interested in being a father and asked Becky to abort their baby, which she refused. As a result, Becky and Cal were traveling to San Diego to meet a family interested in adopting her baby when it was born as she did not feel ready to be a single parent. Travis expresses regret at his actions and now wants to be part of his child and Becky's lives.


title: In the Tall Grass (film)

text: The group spots a building in the distance. Becky receives a phone call from someone warning them not to keep making the same "mistake". The grass seemingly enters Becky's uterus, and she passes out, only to be revived by Ross, who then reunites with Tobin and says he'll show them out. Ross leads them to the rock where they are confronted by Natalie, she warns them not to touch the rock. Then, she claims she saw Becky's corpse earlier. Natalie warns that Ross is dangerous, and the others decide to leave. Travis attacks Ross who then breaks his arm and crushes Natalie's head. Ross claims the rock showed him the truth and the way out, but he doesn't want to leave.


title: In the Tall Grass (film)

text: Becky, Cal, Travis, and Tobin reach the building, and while scouting, Travis and Cal discover that Freddy has managed to escape the field via a "hole" that leads to the road. Jealous Cal, implied to have incestuous feelings for Becky, lets go of Travis as he slips, causing him to fall off the roof. Tobin flees into the field when Ross follows them to the roof. The two follow Tobin, but Becky refuses to leave Travis and goes back as Cal flees, Cal is strangled to death by Ross. It is revealed they are in a time loop, with Cal permanently being hunted by an insane, possessed Ross in the grass. Travis survives and searches for Becky. Becky says the baby will be fostered.


title: In the Tall Grass (film)

text: Becky is attacked by Ross but escapes by stabbing him in the eye, and a thunderstorm begins. Becky is confronted by Grass Creatures, who carry her to the rock, which has prophetic marks relating to her pregnancy. Becky makes a phone call, pleading for her past self to prevent Cal from hurting Travis. As she screams in pain from contractions, the ground underneath the rock opens, revealing multiple roots that turn into humanoid figures reaching towards her. She passes out and wakes up to Cal who squeezes water into her mouth. He is holding her baby. She goes back to sleep and wakes up to Cal feeding her baby to her and telling her it is just grass and seeds. Becky realizes that "Cal" is Ross. Tobin finds Travis and tells him that Ross killed both the baby and Cal, and is going to keep killing them over and over. They are confronted by Ross, who mortally wounds Travis. As Ross attempts to force Tobin to touch the rock, Becky attacks him and scratches out his other eye, before dying from her wounds. Travis kills Ross. To understand, Travis touches the rock and sees strange visuals. He grabs Tobin's hand and guides him to an exit, instructing him to stop Becky and Cal from entering.


title: In the Tall Grass (film)

text: Tobin emerges across the road as Becky and Cal are about to enter the grass, convincing them to stay out by showing them Becky's necklace that Travis gave him, hence closing the loop. Becky decides to keep her baby as they drive back home. Travis listens to them leaving and dies.


title: In the Tall Grass (film)

text: Director Vincenzo Natali had wanted to make a film adaptation of Stephen King and Joe Hill's short story "In the Tall Grass" as early as 2015, when he stated:


title: In the Tall Grass (film)

text: On May 7, 2018, it was announced that Netflix would adopt the short story, with Natali hired to write and direct, and Steve Hoban, Jimmy Miller, and M. Riley producing.


title: In the Tall Grass (film)

text: On May 28, 2018, Natali announced that manga artist Shintaro Kago would design the concept art for the film adaptation.


title: In the Tall Grass (film)

text: Alongside the initial production announcement, it was reported that James Marsden was in negotiations for a lead role. On August 7, 2018, it was announced that Marsden had bowed out of the film due to scheduling conflicts and been replaced with Patrick Wilson. Additionally, it was reported that Laysla De Oliveira, Harrison Gilbertson, Avery Whitted, Rachel Wilson, and Will Buie Jr. had also joined the cast.


title: In the Tall Grass (film)

text: Principal photography was expected to begin on July 30, 2018, and last until September 14, 2018, in Toronto, Ontario. On July 24, 2018, it was reported that a dilapidated church set had been constructed for the film on a rural road in Perth South, Ontario. On September 20, 2018, filming took place outside of a bowling alley in Elmira, Ontario.


title: In the Tall Grass (film)

text: The film had its world premiere at Fantastic Fest on September 20, 2019. On October 4, 2019, the film began streaming on Netflix.


title: In the Tall Grass (film)

text: On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of , based on reviews, with an average rating of . The site's critics' consensus reads, "A potentially intriguing premise is rapidly lost in the weeds during "In the Tall Grass" which struggles to stretch its slim source material to feature length." On Metacritic, the film has an aggregated score of 46 out of 100, based on 13 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".


title: Vacuum cleaner

text: A vacuum cleaner, also known simply as a vacuum or a hoover, is a device that causes suction in order to remove dirt from floors, upholstery, draperies, and other surfaces. It is generally electrically driven.


title: Vacuum cleaner

text: The dirt is collected by either a dustbag or a cyclone for later disposal. Vacuum cleaners, which are used in homes as well as in industry, exist in a variety of sizes and models—small battery-powered hand-held devices, wheeled canister models for home use, domestic central vacuum cleaners, huge stationary industrial appliances that can handle several hundred litres of dirt before being emptied, and self-propelled vacuum trucks for recovery of large spills or removal of contaminated soil. Specialized shop vacuums can be used to suck up both solid matter and liquids.


title: Vacuum cleaner

text: Although "vacuum cleaner" and the short form "vacuum" are neutral names, in some countries (UK, Ireland) "hoover" is used instead as a genericized trademark, and as a verb. The name comes from the Hoover Company, one of the first and more influential companies in the development of the device. In New Zealand, particularly the Southland region, it is sometimes called a "lux", likewise a genericized trademark and used as a verb. The device is also sometimes called a "sweeper" although the same term also refers to a carpet sweeper, a similar invention.


title: Vacuum cleaner

text: The vacuum cleaner evolved from the carpet sweeper via manual vacuum cleaners. The first manual models, using bellows, were developed in the 1860s, and the first motorized designs appeared at the turn of the 20th century, with the first decade being the boom decade.


title: Vacuum cleaner

text: In 1860 a manual vacuum cleaner was invented by Daniel Hess of West Union, Iowa. Called a 'carpet sweeper', It gathered dust with a rotating brush and had a bellows for generating suction.


title: Vacuum cleaner

text: Another early model (1869) was the "Whirlwind", invented in Chicago in 1868 by Ives W. McGaffey. The bulky device worked with a belt driven fan cranked by hand that made it awkward to operate, although it was commercially marketed with mixed success.


title: Vacuum cleaner

text: A similar model was constructed by Melville R. Bissell of Grand Rapids, Michigan in 1876, who also manufactured carpet sweepers. The company later added portable vacuum cleaners to its line of cleaning tools.


title: Vacuum cleaner

text: The end of the 19th century saw the introduction of powered cleaners, although early types used some variation of blowing air to clean instead of suction. One appeared in 1898 when John S. Thurman of St. Louis, Missouri submitted a patent (U.S. No. 634,042) for a "pneumatic carpet renovator" which blew dust into a receptacle. Thurman's system, powered by an internal combustion engine, traveled to the customers residence on a horse-drawn wagon as part of a door to door cleaning service. Corrine Dufour of Savannah, Georgia received two patents in 1899 and 1900 for another blown-air system that seems to have featured the first use of an electric motor.


title: Vacuum cleaner

text: In 1901 powered vacuum cleaners using suction were invented independently by British engineer Hubert Cecil Booth and American inventor David T. Kenney. Booth also may have coined the word "vacuum cleaner". Booth's horse drawn combustion engine powered "Puffing Billy", maybe derived from Thurman's blown-air design," relied upon just suction with air pumped through a cloth filter and was offered as part of his cleaning services. Kenney's was a stationary 4,000 lb. steam engine powered system with pipes and hoses reaching into all parts of the building.


title: Vacuum cleaner

text: The first vacuum-cleaning device to be portable and marketed at the domestic market was built in 1905 by Walter Griffiths, a manufacturer in Birmingham, England. His "Griffith's Improved Vacuum Apparatus for Removing Dust from Carpets" resembled modern-day cleaners; – it was portable, easy to store, and powered by "any one person (such as the ordinary domestic servant)", who would have the task of compressing a bellows-like contraption to suck up dust through a removable, flexible pipe, to which a variety of shaped nozzles could be attached.


title: Vacuum cleaner

text: In 1906 James B. Kirby developed his first of many vacuums called the "Domestic Cyclone". It used water for dirt separation. Later revisions came to be known as the Kirby Vacuum Cleaner. In 1907 department store janitor James Murray Spangler (1848–1915) of Canton, Ohio invented the first portable electric vacuum cleaner, obtaining a patent for the Electric Suction Sweeper on 2 June 1908. Crucially, in addition to suction from an electric fan that blew the dirt and dust into a soap box and one of his wife's pillow cases, Spangler's design utilized a rotating brush to loosen debris. Unable to produce the design himself due to lack of funding, he sold the patent in 1908 to local leather goods manufacturer William Henry Hoover (1849–1932), who had Spangler's machine redesigned with a steel casing, casters, and attachments, founding the company that in 1922 was renamed the Hoover Company. Their first vacuum was the 1908 Model O, which sold for $60. Subsequent innovations included the beater bar in 1919 ("It beats as it sweeps as it cleans"), disposal filter bags in the 1920s, and an upright vacuum cleaner in 1926.


title: Vacuum cleaner

text: In Continental Europe, the Fisker and Nielsen company in Denmark was the first to sell vacuum cleaners in 1910. The design weighed just and could be operated by a single person. The Swedish company Electrolux launched their Model V in 1921 with the innovation of being able to lie on the floor on two thin metal runners. In the 1930s the German company Vorwerk started marketing vacuum cleaners of their own design which they sold through direct sales.


title: Vacuum cleaner

text: For many years after their introduction, vacuum cleaners remained a luxury item, but after the Second World War, they became common among the middle classes. Vacuums tend to be more common in Western countries, because in most other parts of the world, wall-to-wall carpeting is uncommon and homes have tile or hardwood floors, which are easily swept, wiped or mopped manually without power assist.


title: Vacuum cleaner

text: The last decades of the 20th century saw the more widespread use of technologies developed earlier, including filterless cyclonic dirt separation, central vacuum systems and rechargeable hand-held vacuums. In addition, miniaturized computer technology and improved batteries allowed the development of a new type of machine – the autonomous robotic vacuum cleaner. In 1997 Electrolux of Sweden demonstrated the Electrolux Trilobite, the first autonomous cordless robotic vacuum cleaner on the BBC-TV program "Tomorrow's World", introducing it to the consumer market in 2001.


title: Vacuum cleaner

text: In 2004 a British company released AiRider, a hovering vacuum cleaner that floats on a cushion of air, similar to a hovercraft, to make it light-weight and easier to maneuver (compared to using wheels).


title: Vacuum cleaner

text: A British inventor has developed a new cleaning technology known as Air Recycling Technology, which, instead of using a vacuum, uses an air stream to collect dust from the carpet. This technology was tested by the Market Transformation Programme (MTP) and shown to be more energy-efficient than the vacuum method. Although working prototypes exist, Air Recycling Technology is not currently used in any production cleaner.


title: Vacuum cleaner

text: A wide variety of technologies, designs, and configurations are available for both domestic and commercial cleaning jobs.


title: Vacuum cleaner

text: Upright vacuum cleaners are popular in the United States, Britain and numerous Commonwealth countries, but unusual in some Continental European countries. They take the form of a cleaning head, onto which a handle and bag are attached. Upright designs generally employ a rotating brushroll or beater bar, which removes dirt through a combination of sweeping and vibration. There are two types of upright vacuums; dirty-air/direct fan (found mostly on commercial vacuums), or clean-air/fan-bypass (found on most of today's domestic vacuums).


title: Vacuum cleaner

text: The older of the two designs, direct-fan cleaners have a large impeller (fan) mounted close to the suction opening, through which the dirt passes directly, before being blown into a bag. The motor is often cooled by a separate cooling fan. Because of their large-bladed fans, and comparatively short airpaths, direct-fan cleaners create a very efficient airflow from a low amount of power, and make effective carpet cleaners. Their "above-floor" cleaning power is less efficient, since the airflow is lost when it passes through a long hose, and the fan has been optimized for airflow volume and not suction.


title: Vacuum cleaner

text: Fan-bypass uprights have their motor mounted after the filter bag. Dust is removed from the airstream by the bag, and usually a filter, before it passes through the fan. The fans are smaller, and are usually a combination of several moving and stationary turbines working in sequence to boost power. The motor is cooled by the airstream passing through it. Fan-bypass vacuums are good for both carpet and above-floor cleaning, since their suction does not significantly diminish over the distance of a hose, as it does in direct-fan cleaners. However, their air-paths are much less efficient, and can require more than twice as much power as direct-fan cleaners to achieve the same results.


title: Vacuum cleaner

text: The most common upright vacuum cleaners use a drive-belt powered by the suction motor to rotate the brush-roll. However, a more common design of dual motor upright is available. In these cleaners, the suction is provided via a large motor, while the brushroll is powered by a separate, smaller motor, which does not create any suction. The brush-roll motor can sometimes be switched off, so hard floors can be cleaned without the brush-roll scattering the dirt. It may also have an automatic cut-off feature which shuts the motor off if the brush-roll becomes jammed, protecting it from damage.


title: Vacuum cleaner

text: Canister models (in the UK also often called cylinder models) dominate the European market. They have the motor and dust collector (using a bag or bagless) in a separate unit, usually mounted on wheels, which is connected to the vacuum head by a flexible hose. Their main advantage is flexibility, as the user can attach different heads for different tasks, and maneuverability (the head can reach under furniture and makes it very easy to vacuum stairs and vertical surfaces). Many cylinder models have power heads as standard or add-on equipment containing the same sort of mechanical beaters as in upright units, making them as efficient on carpets as upright models. Such beaters are driven by a separate electric motor or a turbine which uses the suction power to spin the brushroll via a drive belt.


title: Vacuum cleaner

text: Drum or shop vac models are essentially heavy-duty industrial versions of cylinder vacuum cleaners, where the canister consists of a large vertically positioned drum which can be stationary or on wheels. Smaller versions, for use in garages or small workshops, are usually electrically powered. Larger models, which can store over , are often hooked up to compressed air, utilizing the Venturi effect to produce a partial vacuum. Built-in dust collection systems are also used in many workshops.


title: Vacuum cleaner

text: Wet or wet/dry vacuum cleaners are a specialized form of the cylinder/drum models that can be used to clean up wet or liquid spills. They are generally designed to be used both indoors and outdoors and to accommodate both wet and dry debris; some are also equipped with an exhaust port or detachable blower for reversing the airflow, a useful function for everything from clearing a clogged hose to blowing dust into a corner for easy collection.


title: Vacuum cleaner

text: Related to the wet vacuum is the extraction vacuum cleaner used mainly in hot water extraction, a method of cleaning hard-to-move pieces of fabric like carpets. These machines are able to spray hot soapy water and then suck it back out of the fabric, removing dirt in the process.


title: Vacuum cleaner

text: Pneumatic or pneumatic wet/dry vacuum cleaners are a specialized form of wet/dry models that hook up to compressed air. They commonly can accommodate both wet and dry soilage, a useful feature in industrial plants and manufacturing facilities.


title: Vacuum cleaner

text: Backpack vacuum cleaners are commonly used for commercial cleaning: they allow the user to move rapidly about a large area. They are essentially small canister vacuums strapped onto the user's back.


title: Vacuum cleaner

text: Lightweight hand-held vacuum cleaners, either powered from rechargeable batteries or mains power, are also popular for cleaning up smaller spills. Frequently seen examples include the Black & Decker DustBuster, which was introduced in 1979, and numerous handheld models by Dirt Devil, which were first introduced in 1984. Some battery-powered handheld vacuums are wet/dry rated; the appliance must be partially disassembled and cleaned after picking up wet materials to avoid developing unpleasant odors.


title: Vacuum cleaner

text: In the late 1990s and early 2000s, several companies developed robotic vacuum cleaners, a form of carpet sweeper usually equipped with limited suction power. Some prominent brands are Roomba, Neato, and bObsweep. These machines move autonomously while collecting surface dust and debris into a dustbin. They can usually navigate around furniture and come back to a docking station to charge their batteries, and a few are able to empty their dust containers into the dock as well. Most models are equipped with motorized brushes and a vacuum motor to collect dust and debris. While most robotic vacuum cleaners are designed for home use, some models are appropriate for operation in offices, hotels, hospitals, etc.


title: Vacuum cleaner

text: In December 2009, Neato Robotics launched the world's first robotic vacuum cleaner which uses a rotating laser-based range-finder (a form of lidar) to scan and map its surrounding. It uses this map to clean the floor methodically, even if it requires the robot to return to its base multiple times to recharge itself. In many cases it will notice when an area of the floor that was previously inaccessible becomes reachable, such as when a dog wakes up from a nap, and return to vacuum that area. It also has the strongest impeller among robotic vacuum cleaners, pulling in 35 CFM (1 m/min) of air.


title: Vacuum cleaner

text: Portable vacuum cleaners working on the cyclonic separation principle became popular in the 1990s. This dirt separation principle was well known and often used in central vacuum systems. Cleveland's P.A. Geier Company had obtained a patent on a cyclonic vacuum cleaner as early as 1928, which was later sold to Health-Mor in 1939, introducing the Filter Queen cyclonic canister vacuum cleaner.


title: Vacuum cleaner

text: In 1979, James Dyson introduced a portable unit with cyclonic separation, adapting this design from industrial saw mills. He launched his cyclone cleaner first in Japan in the 1980s at a cost of about US$1800 and in 1993 released the Dyson DC01 upright in the UK for £200. Critics expected that people would not buy a vacuum cleaner at twice the price of a conventional unit, but the Dyson design later became the most popular cleaner in the UK.


title: Vacuum cleaner

text: Cyclonic cleaners do not use filtration bags. Instead, the dust is separated in a detachable cylindrical collection vessel or bin. Air and dust are sucked at high speed into the collection vessel at a direction tangential to the vessel wall, creating a fast-spinning vortex. The dust particles and other debris move to the outside of the vessel by centrifugal force, where they fall due to gravity.


title: Vacuum cleaner

text: In fixed-installation central vacuum cleaners, the cleaned air may be exhausted directly outside without need for further filtration. A well-designed cyclonic filtration system loses suction power due to airflow restriction only when the collection vessel is almost full. This is in marked contrast to filter bag systems, which lose suction when pores in the filter become clogged as dirt and dust are collected.


title: Vacuum cleaner

text: In portable cyclonic models, the cleaned air from the center of the vortex is expelled from the machine after passing through a number of successively finer filters at the top of the container. The first filter is intended to trap particles which could damage the subsequent filters that remove fine dust particles. The filters must regularly be cleaned or replaced to ensure that the machine continues to perform efficiently.


title: Vacuum cleaner

text: Since Dyson's success in raising public awareness of cyclonic separation, several other companies have introduced cyclone models. Competing manufacturers include Hoover, Bissell, Shark, Eureka, Electrolux, Filter Queen, etc., and the cheapest models are no more expensive than a conventional cleaner.


title: Vacuum cleaner

text: Central vacuum cleaners, also known as built-in or ducted, are a type of canister/cylinder model which has the motor and dirt filtration unit located in a central location in a building, and connected by pipes to fixed vacuum inlets installed throughout the building. Only the hose and cleaning head need be carried from room to room, and the hose is commonly 8 m (25 ft) long, allowing a large range of movement without changing vacuum inlets. Plastic or metal piping connects the inlets to the central unit. The vacuum head may be unpowered, or have beaters operated by an electric motor or by an air-driven turbine.


title: Vacuum cleaner

text: The dirt bag or collection bin in a central vacuum system is usually so large that emptying or changing needs to be done less often, perhaps a few times per year for an ordinary household. The central unit usually stays in stand-by, and is turned on by a switch on the handle of the hose. Alternately, the unit powers up when the hose is plugged into the wall inlet, when the metal hose connector makes contact with two prongs in the wall inlet and control current is transmitted through low voltage wires to the main unit.


title: Vacuum cleaner

text: A central vacuum typically produces greater suction than common portable vacuum cleaners because a larger fan and more powerful motor can be used when they are not required to be portable. A cyclonic separation system, if used, does not lose suction as the collection container fills up, until the container is nearly full. This is in marked contrast to filter-bag designs, which start losing suction immediately as pores in the filter become clogged by accumulated dirt and dust.


title: Vacuum cleaner

text: A benefit to allergy sufferers is that unlike a standard vacuum cleaner, which must blow some of the dirt collected back into the room being cleaned (no matter how efficient its filtration), a central vacuum removes all the dirt collected to the central unit. Since this central unit is usually located outside the living area, no dust is recirculated back into the room being cleaned. Also it is possible on most newer models to vent the exhaust entirely outside, even with the unit inside the living quarters.


title: Vacuum cleaner

text: Another benefit of the central vacuum is, because of the remote location of the motor unit, there is much less noise in the room being cleaned than with a standard vacuum cleaner.


title: Vacuum cleaner

text: The Hoover Company marketed an unusual vacuum cleaner, called the "Constellation", in the 1960s. The cylinder type lacked wheels, and instead the vacuum cleaner floated on its exhaust, operating as a hovercraft, although this is not true of the earliest models. They had a rotating hose with the intention being that the user would place the unit in the center of the room, and work around the cleaner. Introduced in 1954, they are collectible, and are easily identified by their spherical shape. But they remain an interesting machine; restored, they work well in homes with many hardwood floors.


title: Vacuum cleaner

text: The Constellations were changed and updated over the years until discontinued in 1975. These Constellations route all of the exhaust under the vacuum using a different airfoil. The updated design is quiet even by modern standards, particularly on carpet as it muffles the sound. These models float on carpet or bare floor—although on hard flooring, the exhaust air tends to scatter any fluff or debris around.


title: Vacuum cleaner

text: Hoover re-released an updated version of this later model Constellation in the US (model # S3341 in Pearl White and # S3345 in stainless steel). Changes include a HEPA filtration bag, a 12-amp motor, a turbine-powered brush roll, and a redesigned version of the handle. This same model was marketed in the UK under the Maytag brand as the "Satellite" because of licensing restrictions. It was sold from 2006 to 2009.


title: Vacuum cleaner

text: Some other vacuum cleaners include an electric mop in the same machine: for a dry and a later wet clean.


title: Vacuum cleaner

text: The iRobot company developed the Scooba, a robotic wet vacuum cleaner that carries its own cleaning solution, applies it and scrubs the floor, and vacuums the dirty water into a collection tank.


title: Vacuum cleaner

text: A vacuum's suction is caused by a difference in air pressure. A fan driven by an electric motor (often a universal motor) reduces the pressure inside the machine. Atmospheric pressure then pushes the air through the carpet and into the nozzle, and so the dust is literally pushed into the bag.


title: Vacuum cleaner

text: Vacuums by their nature cause dust to become airborne, by exhausting air that is not completely filtered. This can cause health problems since the operator ends up inhaling respirable dust, which is also redeposited into the area being cleaned. There are several methods manufacturers use to control this problem, some of which may be combined in a single appliance. Typically a filter is positioned so that the incoming air passes through it before it reaches the fan, and then the filtered air passes through the motor for cooling purposes. Some other designs use a completely separate air intake for cooling.


title: Vacuum cleaner

text: It is nearly impossible for a practical air filter to completely remove all ultrafine particles from a dirt-laden airstream. An ultra-efficient air filter will immediately clog up and become ineffective during everyday use, and practical filters are a compromise between filtering effectiveness and restriction of airflow. One way to sidestep this problem is to exhaust partially filtered air to the outdoors, which is a design feature of some central vacuum systems. Specially engineered portable vacuums may also utilize this design, but are more awkward to set up and use, requiring temporary installation of a separate exhaust hose to an exterior window.


title: Vacuum cleaner

text: Ordinary vacuum cleaners should never be used to clean up asbestos fibers, even if fitted with a HEPA filter. Specially-designed machines are required to safely clean up asbestos.


title: Vacuum cleaner

text: Most vacuum cleaners are supplied with numerous specialized attachments, such as tools, brushes and extension wands, which allow them to reach otherwise inaccessible places or to be used for cleaning a variety of surfaces. The most common of these tools are:


title: Vacuum cleaner

text: The suction is the maximum pressure difference that the pump can create. For example, a typical domestic model has a suction of about negative 20 kPa. This means that it can lower the pressure inside the hose from normal atmospheric pressure (about 100 kPa) by 20 kPa. The higher the suction rating, the more powerful the cleaner. One inch of water is equivalent to about 249 Pa; hence, the typical suction is of water.


title: Vacuum cleaner

text: The power consumption of a vacuum cleaner, in watts, is often the only figure stated. Many North American vacuum manufacturers give the current only in amperes (e.g. "6 amps"), and the consumer is left to multiply that by the line voltage of 120 volts to get the approximate power ratings in watts. The rated input power does not indicate the effectiveness of the cleaner, only how much electricity it consumes.


title: Vacuum cleaner

text: After August 2014, due to EU rules, manufacture of vacuum cleaners with a power consumption greater than 1600 watts were banned within the EU, and from 2017 no vacuum cleaner with a wattage greater than 900 watts was permitted.


title: Vacuum cleaner

text: The amount of input power that is converted into airflow at the end of the cleaning hose is sometimes stated, and is measured in "airwatts": the measurement units are simply watts. The word "air" is used to clarify that this is output power, not input electrical power.


title: Vacuum cleaner

text: The airwatt is derived from English units. ASTM International defines the airwatt as 0.117354 × F × S, where F is the rate of air flow in ft/min and S is the pressure in inches of water. This makes one airwatt equal to 0.9983 watts.


title: Vacuum cleaner

text: The peak horsepower of a vacuum cleaner is often measured by removal of any cooling fans and calculating power based on the motor's power plus the rotational inertial energy stored the motor armature and centrifugal blower. A peak horsepower rating is often an impractical figure and is only valid for a very short period. Continuous power is typically far lower.


title: Frostbite (game engine)

text: Frostbite is a game engine developed by DICE, designed for cross-platform use on Microsoft Windows, seventh generation game consoles PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, eighth generation game consoles PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch and ninth generation game consoles PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S, in addition to usage in the cloud streaming service Google Stadia.


title: Frostbite (game engine)

text: The game engine was originally employed in the "Battlefield" video game series, but would later be expanded to other first-person shooter video games and a variety of other genres. To date, Frostbite has been exclusive to video games published by Electronic Arts.


title: Frostbite (game engine)

text: The first iteration of the Frostbite game engine made its debut in the 2008 video game, "". The engine was developed with an HDR Audio and Destruction 1.0. HDR Audio allowed differing sound levels to be perceived by the player whilst Destruction 1.0 allowed players to destroy the environment. A newer version of Frostbite would later be employed in "Battlefield 1943" (2009) and "" (2010), which would come to be known as Frostbite 1.5. In the upgraded game engine, it was now possible for players to cause enough destruction to entirely demolish structures. This version was also employed in the multiplayer aspect of "Medal of Honor" (2010), becoming the first video game outside of the "Battlefield" series to run on Frostbite.


title: Frostbite (game engine)

text: On 25 October 2011, Frostbite 2 made its debut in "Battlefield 3". Frostbite 2 features powerful upgrades such as deferred rendering and real-time radiosity. Also making its debut was Destruction 3.0, which made falling debris potentially lethal to the player. Further changes to the engine included the addition of suppressive fire and disabling vehicles before destroying them. For the first time in a game that was not a shooter nor developed by DICE, Frostbite was brought to the "Need for Speed" series with 2011's "", which was released on 15 November. It took a year for EA Black Box, the developer of "Need for Speed: The Run", to re-purpose the game engine for driving instead of shooting. On 21 May 2012, DICE rendering architect Johan Andersson said that future personal computer video games running on Frostbite would have to be played on 64-bit operating systems. On 23 October, "" became the first game of its series to feature Frostbite in both single and multiplayer. On 26 March 2013, "" became the first third-person shooter and last video game to employ Frostbite 2.


title: Frostbite (game engine)

text: In March 2013, "Battlefield" executive producer Patrick Bach announced that Frostbite 3 would not support the Wii U, saying that "the Wii U is not a part of our focus right now." The third generation of Frostbite made its debut in "Battlefield 4" on 29 October. In the updated engine, the environments became much more dynamic upon the actions of the players and Destruction 4.0, which was known as "Levolution" in "Battlefield 4". On one map of "Battlefield 4", it was possible for players to destroy a dam, causing the entire map to be flooded by water. On 13 November in San Jose, DICE's Frostbite engine technical director Johan Andersson announced that future Frostbite games and an updated version of "Battlefield 4" would be powered by Mantle, a low-overhead rendering API co-developed by AMD and DICE. However, due to lack of interest and support, Mantle was phased out, with 2015's "Battlefield Hardline" being the last game to implement it. On 15 November, "Need for Speed Rivals" became the second game of its series to use the game engine and the first since the upgrade to Frostbite 3.


title: Frostbite (game engine)

text: First released on 25 February 2014, "" became the first game of its series to run on Frostbite. On 18 November, the game engine made its debut in the action role-playing genre of video games with "". On 17 March 2015, "Battlefield Hardline" became the second game of its series to run on Frostbite 3. In November, "Need for Speed" and "Star Wars Battlefront" were both released under Frostbite, the 2016 "Rogue One X-Wing VR Mission" expansion for the latter game exclusive to the PlayStation VR and being the first VR title to use the engine. On 23 February 2016, "" was released on the game engine. On 7 June, "Mirror's Edge Catalyst" became the first action-adventure game to run on Frostbite. On 21 October, "Battlefield 1" became the third title of its series to be released under the third generation of the game engine.


title: Frostbite (game engine)

text: On 21 March 2017, "" was released on Frostbite. On 10 November, "Need for Speed Payback" was released, running on the game engine; a week later on November 17, "Star Wars Battlefront II" was the last game of 2017 to be released on Frostbite. 2018's "Battlefield V" runs on the Frostbite 3 engine. In 2019, "Anthem", "", and "Need for Speed Heat" were all released running Frostbite.


title: Frostbite (game engine)

text: In 2020, "" is the second VR-compatible game to run on Frostbite, the PC version of the game bringing VR support on PC to the engine (following usage on the abovementioned "Rogue One X-Wing VR Mission" expansion); on Xbox Series X and S, the game received support for high frame rates and 4K, alongside visual improvements. In February 2021, following the announcement of a Nintendo Switch version of "", Frostbite will run on a Nintendo console for the first time. Prior to the game's production, Switch support was added into the Frostbite engine.


title: Frostbite (game engine)

text: On 14 July 2015, the game engine was introduced to the sports genre of video games, being put to use on "Rory McIlroy PGA Tour". On 27 September 2016, the game engine debuted on the "FIFA" video game series, being employed on "FIFA 17". Only the PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC versions of the game and future installments will run on Frostbite; the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions, in addition to the Nintendo Switch version, do not use the engine in favor of Ignite, the engine used by the current-generation games until "FIFA 17", which also meant the exclusion of "The Journey" campaign and new features like the UEFA Champions League mode (introduced in "FIFA 19") from those editions. These titles are referred to as "Legacy Editions".


title: Frostbite (game engine)

text: "Madden NFL 18", the first of its series to be released on Frostbite, was released on 25 August 2017.


title: Frostbite (game engine)

text: The PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S versions of "FIFA 21", released in December 2020, feature graphical enhancements to take advantage of the newer hardware. In 2020, "FIFA 21" is one of two Frostbite games (the other being "Star Wars: Squadrons") to receive major enhancements for the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and S.


title: Frostbite (game engine)

text: The 2021 installment of the "NHL" series, "NHL 22", and future installments afterward, runs on Frostbite (compared to the Ignite engine used in previous installments), bringing it to that series for the first time.


title: Frostbite (game engine)

text: In 2022, "Madden NFL 23" was released utilizing Frostbite 3, and introduced a new physics-based interaction system called FieldSense.


title: Frostbite (game engine)

text: "Battlefield 2042" was released in November 2021 using a new version of the Frostbite engine. As "Battlefield 2042" was initially developed on an older version of Frostbite, the developers had to update the engine in order to run the game. This new version of Frostbite took 18 months of development time. In October 2022, "Need for Speed Unbound" was announced to be using the Frostbite engine; this marks developer Criterion Games' first game using the engine. The game would be released utilizing the "Battlefield 2042" iteration of Frostbite.


title: Frostbite (game engine)

text: In the same month, studio head of Ridgeline Games, Marcus Lehto, confirmed that the next installment of the "Battlefield" franchise will be developed on an upgraded version of Frostbite. The 2023 remake of "Dead Space" will also utilize Frostbite.


title: Frostbite (game engine)

text: Following "FIFA 21"s successor, "FIFA 22", not receiving the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series-exclusive enhancements on PC versions, 2022's "FIFA 23" brings the features to that platform for the first time and upgrades the engine version to the one used in "Battlefield 2042".


title: Frostbite (game engine)

text: In May 2016, EA announced it had formed Frostbite Labs, a dedicated research division focusing on the development of the Frostbite engine as well as its use in future technological innovations such as VR experiences, neural networks and machine learning. Frostbite Labs is composed of a team of 30–40 developers operating in two offices, one in Stockholm, Sweden and the other in Vancouver, Canada.


title: Frostbite (game engine)

text: Frostbite is notorious for having well-publicized difficulties, including its complexity. This led to numerous reports of development issues surrounding Frostbite titles; a majority of these issues came with the engine's usage at BioWare, which has criticized the engine for its aforemenioned complexity, which made adapting common elements found in role-playing games to the engine rather difficult.


title: Frostbite (game engine)

text: With EA pushing for the usage of Frostbite 3 in many of their developers' titles, refacilitating the engine for BioWare's 2014 title, "", proved difficult for the developer; the title's executive producer, Mark Darrah, said about the engine that "...at launch we still didn’t actually have all our tools working. We had our tools working enough." Prior to moving to Frostbite, the "Dragon Age" series utilized the Eclipse Engine. The move to Frostbite 3 resulted in BioWare cancelling a piece of downloadable content for "Dragon Age II"; that game received a divided audience reception, with BioWare aiming to improve on the next "Dragon Age" game. Adding new features to the engine for use in "Inquisition" proved difficult, as the engine was primarily used in first-person video games. However, issues initially faced by the development team were solved as BioWare and DICE started to cooperate better, and the engine allowed the "Inquisition" art team to develop extensive worlds in a short time. However, with the release scheduled for late 2014, the team resorted to extensive crunching.


title: Frostbite (game engine)

text: With Visceral Games being tapped to publish the "Star Wars" title "Project Ragtag", the company was occupied with the development of "Battlefield Hardline"; after the latter game was released, "Ragtag"s development suffered from many setbacks, one of them being the usage of Frostbite and their difficulties adapting it to third-person shooters. By 2017, "Ragtag" was ultimately cancelled and Visceral shuttered, with resources being shifted over to the then-impending development of DICE's "Star Wars Battlefront II".


title: Frostbite (game engine)

text: In 2017, "" suffered from multiple issues at launch due in part to the complexities of Frostbite and a troubled development. BioWare had previously faced these issues before during the aforementioned development of "Dragon Age: Inquisition" and would continue to do so during development of "Andromeda". In 2019, sources within BioWare claimed that Frostbite's complexity had also contributed to difficulties surrounding "Anthem"s development. Former BioWare general manager Aaryn Flynn acknowledged these issues in an interview in November 2019.


title: Frostbite (game engine)

text: Due to being developed in 15–18 months, developers of "Battlefield 2042" from DICE had issues with Frostbite.


title: Frostbite (game engine)

text: In June 2021, tools used in the development of Frostbite, a majority of them regarding development of "FIFA 21" including its source code, were leaked; the contents were released on August 2, 2021.


title: Self-determination

text: The right of a people to self-determination is a cardinal principle in modern international law (commonly regarded as a "jus cogens" rule), binding, as such, on the United Nations as authoritative interpretation of the Charter's norms. It states that peoples, based on respect for the principle of equal rights and fair equality of opportunity, have the right to freely choose their sovereignty and international political status with no interference.


title: Self-determination

text: The concept was first expressed in the 1860s, and spread rapidly thereafter. During and after World War I, the principle was encouraged by both Soviet Premier Vladimir Lenin and United States President Woodrow Wilson. Having announced his Fourteen Points on 8 January 1918, on 11 February 1918 Wilson stated: "National aspirations must be respected; people may now be dominated and governed only by their own consent. 'Self determination' is not a mere phrase; it is an imperative principle of action."


title: Self-determination

text: During World War II, the principle was included in the Atlantic Charter, declared on 14 August 1941, by Franklin D. Roosevelt, President of the United States, and Winston Churchill, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, who pledged The Eight Principal points of the Charter. It was recognized as an international legal right after it was explicitly listed as a right in the UN Charter.


title: Self-determination

text: The principle does not state how the decision is to be made, nor what the outcome should be, whether it be independence, federation, protection, some form of autonomy or full assimilation. Neither does it state what the delimitation between peoples should be—nor what constitutes a people. There are conflicting definitions and legal criteria for determining which groups may legitimately claim the right to self-determination.


title: Self-determination

text: Broadly speaking, the term self-determination also refers to the free choice of one's own acts without external compulsion.


title: Self-determination

text: The norm of self-determination can be originally traced to the American and French revolutions. The European revolutions of 1848, the post-World War I settlement at Versailles, and the decolonization movement after World War II shaped and established the norm.


title: Self-determination

text: The world possessed several traditional, continental empires such as the Ottoman, Russian, Austrian/Habsburg, and the Qing Empire. Political scientists often define competition in Europe during the Modern Era as a balance of power struggle, which also induced various European states to pursue colonial empires, beginning with the Spanish and Portuguese, and later including the British, French, Dutch, and German.


title: Self-determination

text: During the early 19th century, competition in Europe produced multiple wars, most notably the Napoleonic Wars. After this conflict, the British Empire became dominant and entered its "imperial century", while nationalism became a powerful political ideology in Europe.


title: Self-determination

text: Later, after the Franco-Prussian War in 1870, "New Imperialism" was unleashed with France and later Germany establishing colonies in Middle East, Southeast Asia, the South Pacific, and Africa. Japan also emerged as a new power. Multiple theaters of competition developed across the world:


title: Self-determination

text: The Ottoman Empire, Austrian Empire, Russian Empire, Qing Empire and the new Empire of Japan maintained themselves, often expanding or contracting at the expense of another empire. All ignored notions of self-determination for those governed.


title: Self-determination

text: In the 16th century the Spanish professor of law at the University of Salamanca wrote: "Toda nación tiene derecho a gobernarse a sí misma y puede aceptar el régimen político que quiera, aún cuando no sea el mejor. All nations have the right to govern themselves and can accept the political regime it wants, even if it is not the best."


title: Self-determination

text: The American Revolution of the 1770s has been seen as the first assertion of the right of national and democratic self-determination, because of the explicit invocation of natural law, the natural rights of man, as well as the consent of, and sovereignty by, the people governed; these ideas were inspired particularly by John Locke's enlightened writings of the previous century. Thomas Jefferson further promoted the notion that the will of the people was supreme, especially through authorship of the United States Declaration of Independence which inspired Europeans throughout the 19th century. The French Revolution was motivated similarly and legitimatized the ideas of self-determination on that Old World continent.


title: Self-determination

text: Within the New World during the early 19th century, most of the nations of Spanish America achieved independence from Spain. The United States supported that status, as policy in the hemisphere relative to European colonialism, with the Monroe Doctrine. The American public, organized associated groups, and Congressional resolutions, often supported such movements, particularly the Greek War of Independence (1821–29) and the demands of Hungarian revolutionaries in 1848. Such support, however, never became official government policy, due to balancing of other national interests. After the American Civil War and with increasing capability, the United States government did not accept self-determination as a basis during its Purchase of Alaska and attempted purchase of the West Indian islands of Saint Thomas and Saint John in the 1860s, or its growing influence in the Kingdom of Hawaii, that led to annexation in 1898. With its victory in the Spanish–American War in 1899 and its growing stature in the world, the United States supported annexation of the former Spanish colonies of Guam, Puerto Rico and the Philippines, without the consent of their peoples, and it retained "quasi-suzerainty" over Cuba, as well.


title: Self-determination

text: Nationalist sentiments emerged inside the traditional empires including: Pan-Slavism in Russia; Ottomanism, Kemalist ideology and Arab nationalism in the Ottoman Empire; State Shintoism and Japanese identity in Japan; and Han identity in juxtaposition to the Manchurian ruling class in China. Meanwhile, in Europe itself there was a rise of nationalism, with nations such as Greece, Hungary, Poland and Bulgaria seeking or winning their independence.


title: Self-determination

text: Karl Marx supported such nationalism, believing it might be a "prior condition" to social reform and international alliances. In 1914 Vladimir Lenin wrote: "[It] would be wrong to interpret the right to self-determination as meaning anything but the right to existence as a separate state."


title: Self-determination

text: Woodrow Wilson revived America's commitment to self-determination, at least for European states, during World War I. When the Bolsheviks came to power in Russia in the October Revolution, they called for Russia's immediate withdrawal as a member of the Allies of World War I. They also supported the right of all nations, including colonies, to self-determination." The 1918 Constitution of the Soviet Union acknowledged the right of secession for its constituent republics.


title: Self-determination

text: This presented a challenge to Wilson's more limited demands. In January 1918 Wilson issued his Fourteen Points of January 1918 which, among other things, called for adjustment of colonial claims, insofar as the interests of colonial powers had equal weight with the claims of subject peoples. The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk in March 1918 led to Soviet Russia's exit from the war and the nominal independence of Armenia, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Ukraine, Lithuania, Georgia and Poland, though in fact those territories were under German control. The end of the war led to the dissolution of the defeated Austro-Hungarian Empire and Czechoslovakia and the union of the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs and the Kingdom of Serbia as new states out of the wreckage of the Habsburg empire. However, this imposition of states where some nationalities (especially Poles, Czechs, and Serbs and Romanians) were given power over nationalities who disliked and distrusted them was eventually used as a pretext for German aggression in World War II.


title: Self-determination

text: Wilson publicly argued that the agreements made in the aftermath of the war would be a "readjustment of those great injustices which underlie the whole structure of European and Asiatic society", which he attributed to the absence of democratic rule. The new order emerging in the postwar period would, according to Wilson, place governments "in the hands of the people and taken out of the hands of coteries and of sovereigns, who had no right to rule over the people." The League of Nations was established as the symbol of the emerging postwar order; one of its earliest tasks was to legitimize the territorial boundaries of the new nations-states created in the territories of the former Ottoman Empire, Asia, and Africa. The principle of self-determination did not extend so far as to end colonialism; under the reasoning that the local populations were not civilized enough the League of Nations was to assign each of the post-Ottoman, Asian and African states and colonies to a European power by the grant of a League of Nations mandate.


title: Self-determination

text: One of the German objections to the Treaty of Versailles was a somewhat selective application of the principle of self-determination as the Republic of German-Austria, which included the Sudetenland, was seen as representing the will to join Germany in those regions, while the majority of people in Danzig wanted to remain within the "Reich". However, the Allies ignored the German objections; Wilson's 14 Points had called for Polish independence to be restored and Poland to have "secure access to the sea", which would imply that the German city of Danzig (modern Gdańsk, Poland), which occupied a strategic location where the Vistula River flowed into the Baltic Sea, be ceded to Poland. At the Paris Peace Conference in 1919, the Polish delegation led by Roman Dmowski asked for Wilson to honor point 14 of the 14 points by transferring Danzig to Poland, arguing that the city was rightfully part of Poland because it was Polish until 1793, and that Poland would not be economically viable without it. During the First Partition of Poland in 1772, the inhabitants of Danzig fought fiercely for it to remain a part of Poland, but as a result of the Germanisation process in the 19th century, 90% of the people in Danzig were German by 1919, which made the Allied leaders at the Paris peace conference compromise by creating the Free City of Danzig, a city-state in which Poland had certain special rights. Through the city of Danzig was 90% German and 10% Polish, the surrounding countryside around Danzig was overwhelmingly Polish, and the ethnically Polish rural areas included in the Free City of Danzig objected, arguing that they wanted to be part of Poland. Neither the Poles nor the Germans were happy with this compromise and the Danzig issue became a flash-point of German-Polish tension throughout the interwar period.


title: Self-determination

text: During the 1920s and 1930s there were some successful movements for self-determination in the beginnings of the process of decolonization. In the Statute of Westminster the United Kingdom granted independence to Canada, New Zealand, Newfoundland, the Irish Free State, the Commonwealth of Australia, and the Union of South Africa after the British parliament declared itself as incapable of passing laws over them without their consent. Egypt, Afghanistan, and Iraq also achieved independence from Britain and Lebanon from France. Other efforts were unsuccessful, like the Indian independence movement. And Italy, Japan and Germany all initiated new efforts to bring certain territories under their control, leading to World War II. In particular, the National Socialist Program invoked this right of nations in its first point (out of 25), as it was publicly proclaimed on 24 February 1920 by Adolf Hitler.


title: Self-determination

text: In Asia, Japan became a rising power and gained more respect from Western powers after its victory in the Russo-Japanese War. Japan joined the Allied Powers in World War I and attacked German colonial possessions in the Far East, adding former German possessions to its own empire. In the 1930s, Japan gained significant influence in Inner Mongolia and Manchuria after it invaded Manchuria. It established Manchukuo, a puppet state in Manchuria and eastern Inner Mongolia. This was essentially the model Japan followed as it invaded other areas in Asia and established the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere. Japan went to considerable trouble to argue that Manchukuo was justified by the principle of self-determination, claiming that people of Manchuria wanted to break away from China and asked the Kwantung Army to intervene on their behalf. However, the Lytton commission which had been appointed by the League of Nations to decide if Japan had committed aggression or not, stated the majority of people in Manchuria who were Han Chinese who did not wish to leave China.


title: Self-determination

text: In 1912, the Republic of China officially succeeded the Qing Dynasty, while Outer Mongolia, Tibet and Tuva proclaimed their independence. Independence was not accepted by the government of China. By the Treaty of Kyakhta (1915) Outer Mongolia recognized China's sovereignty. However, the Soviet threat of seizing parts of Inner Mongolia induced China to recognize Outer Mongolia's independence, provided that a referendum was held. The referendum took place on October 20, 1945, with (according to official numbers) 100% of the electorate voting for independence.


title: Self-determination

text: Many of Eastern Asia's current disputes to sovereignty and self-determination stem from unresolved disputes from World War II. After its fall, the Empire of Japan renounced control over many of its former possessions including Korea, Sakhalin Island, and Taiwan. In none of these areas were the opinions of affected people consulted, or given significant priority. Korea was specifically granted independence but the receiver of various other areas was not stated in the Treaty of San Francisco, giving Taiwan "de facto" independence although its political status continues to be ambiguous.


title: Self-determination

text: In 1941 Allies of World War II declared the Atlantic Charter and accepted the principle of self-determination. In January 1942 twenty-six states signed the Declaration by United Nations, which accepted those principles. The ratification of the United Nations Charter in 1945 at the end of World War II placed the right of self-determination into the framework of international law and diplomacy.


title: Self-determination

text: On 14 December 1960, the United Nations General Assembly adopted United Nations General Assembly Resolution 1514 (XV) subtitled "Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples", which supported the granting of independence to colonial countries and people by providing an inevitable legal linkage between self-determination and its goal of decolonisation. It postulated a new international law-based right of freedom to exercise economic self-determination. Article 5 states: Immediate steps shall be taken in Trust and Non-Self-Governing Territories, or all other territories which have not yet attained independence, to transfer all powers to the people of those territories, without any conditions or reservations, in accordance with their freely expressed will and desire, without any distinction as to race, creed or colour, in order to enable them to enjoy complete independence and freedom.


title: Self-determination

text: On 15 December 1960 the United Nations General Assembly adopted United Nations General Assembly Resolution 1541 (XV), subtitled "Principles which should guide members in determining whether or nor an obligation exists to transmit the information called for under Article 73e of the United Nations Charter in Article 3", which provided that "[t]he inadequacy of political, economic, social and educational preparedness should never serve as a pretext for delaying the right to self-determination and independence." To monitor the implementation of Resolution 1514, in 1961 the General Assembly created the Special Committee referred to popularly as the Special Committee on Decolonization to ensure decolonization complete compliance with the principles of self-determination in General Assembly Resolution 1541 (XV).


title: Self-determination

text: However, the charter and other resolutions did not insist on full independence as the best way of obtaining self-government, nor did they include an enforcement mechanism. Moreover, new states were recognized by the legal doctrine of uti possidetis juris, meaning that old administrative boundaries would become international boundaries upon independence if they had little relevance to linguistic, ethnic, and cultural boundaries. Nevertheless, justified by the language of self-determination, between 1946 and 1960, thirty-seven new nations in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East gained independence from colonial powers. The territoriality issue inevitably would lead to more conflicts and independence movements within many states and challenges to the assumption that territorial integrity is as important as self-determination.


title: Self-determination

text: Decolonization in the world was contrasted by the Soviet Union's successful post-war expansionism. Tuva and several regional states in Eastern Europe, the Baltic, and Central Asia had been fully annexed by the Soviet Union during World War II. Now, it extended its influence by establishing the satellite states of Eastern Germany and the countries of Eastern Europe, along with support for revolutionary movements in China and North Korea. Although satellite states were independent and possessed sovereignty, the Soviet Union violated principles of self-determination by suppressing the Hungarian revolution of 1956 and the Prague Spring Czechoslovak reforms of 1968. It invaded Afghanistan to support a communist government assailed by local tribal groups. However, Marxism–Leninism and its theory of imperialism were also strong influences in the national emancipation movements of Third World nations rebelling against colonial or puppet regimes. In many Third World countries, communism became an ideology that united groups to oppose imperialism or colonization.


title: Self-determination

text: Soviet actions were contained by the United States which saw communism as a menace to its interests. Throughout the cold war, the United States created, supported, and sponsored regimes with various success that served their economic and political interests, among them anti-communist regimes such as that of Augusto Pinochet in Chile and Suharto in Indonesia. To achieve this, a variety of means was implemented, including the orchestration of coups, sponsoring of anti-communist countries and military interventions. Consequently, many self-determination movements, which spurned some type of anti-communist government, were accused of being Soviet-inspired or controlled.


title: Self-determination

text: In Asia, the Soviet Union had already converted Mongolia into a satellite state but abandoned propping up the Second East Turkestan Republic and gave up its Manchurian claims to China. The new People's Republic of China had gained control of mainland China in the Chinese Civil War. The Korean War shifted the focus of the Cold War from Europe to Asia, where competing superpowers took advantage of decolonization to spread their influence.


title: Self-determination

text: In 1947, India gained independence from the British Empire. The empire was in decline but adapted to these circumstances by creating the British Commonwealth—since 1949 the Commonwealth of Nations—which is a free association of equal states. As India obtained its independence, multiple ethnic conflicts emerged in relation to the formation of a statehood during the Partition of India which resulted in Islamic Pakistan and Secular India. Before the advent of the British, no empire based in mainland India had controlled any part of what now makes up the country's Northeast, part of the reason for the ongoing insurgency in Northeast India. In 1971 Bangladesh obtained independence from Pakistan.


title: Self-determination

text: Indonesia gained independence from the Dutch Empire in 1949 after the latter failed to restore colonial control. As mentioned above, Indonesia also wanted a powerful position in the region that could be lessened by the creation of united Malaysia. The Netherlands retained its New Guinea part from the previous Dutch East Indies, but Indonesia threatened to invade and annex it. A vote was supposedly taken under the UN sponsored Act of Free Choice to allow West New Guineans to decide their fate, although many dispute its veracity. Later, Portugal relinquished control over East Timor in 1975, at which time Indonesia promptly invaded and annexed it.


title: Self-determination

text: The Cold War began to wind down after Mikhail Gorbachev assumed power as Soviet General Secretary in March 1985. With the cooperation of the U.S. President Ronald Reagan, Gorbachev wound down the size of the Soviet Armed Forces and reduced nuclear arms in Europe, while liberalizing the Soviet economy.


title: Self-determination

text: In the revolutions of 1989 – 90, the communist regimes of Soviet satellite states collapsed in rapid succession in Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Bulgaria, Romania, and Mongolia. East and West Germany united, Czechoslovakia peacefully split into Czech Republic and Slovakia, while in the 1990s Yugoslavia began a violent break up into 6 states. Macedonia became an independent nation and broke off from Yugoslavia peacefully. Kosovo, which was previously an autonomous unit of Serbia declared independence in 2008, but has received less international recognition.


title: Self-determination

text: In December 1991, Gorbachev resigned as president and the Soviet Union dissolved relatively peacefully into fifteen sovereign republics, all of which rejected Communism and most of which adopted democratic reforms and free-market economies. Inside those new republics, four major areas have claimed their own independence, but not received widespread international recognition.


title: Self-determination

text: In 1949, the Communist Party won the Chinese Civil War and established the People's Republic of China in Mainland China. The Kuomintang-led Republic of China government retreated to Taipei, its jurisdiction now limited to Taiwan and several outlying islands. Since then, the People's Republic of China has been involved in disputes with the ROC over issues of sovereignty and the political status of Taiwan.


title: Self-determination

text: As noted, self-determination movements remain strong in some areas of the world. Some areas possess "de facto" independence, such as Taiwan, North Cyprus, Kosovo, and South Ossetia, but their independence is disputed by one or more major states. Significant movements for self-determination also persist for locations that lack "de facto" independence, such as Kurdistan, Balochistan, Chechnya, and the State of Palestine


title: Self-determination

text: Since the early 1990s, the legitimatization of the principle of national self-determination has led to an increase in the number of conflicts within states, as sub-groups seek greater self-determination and full secession, and as their conflicts for leadership within groups and with other groups and with the dominant state become violent. The international reaction to these new movements has been uneven and often dictated more by politics than principle. The 2000 United Nations Millennium Declaration failed to deal with these new demands, mentioning only "the right to self-determination of peoples which remain under colonial domination and foreign occupation."


title: Self-determination

text: In an issue of "Macquarie University Law Journal" Associate Professor Aleksandar Pavkovic and Senior Lecturer Peter Radan outlined current legal and political issues in self-determination. These include:


title: Self-determination

text: There is not yet a recognized legal definition of "peoples" in international law. Vita Gudeleviciute of Vytautas Magnus University Law School, reviewing international law and UN resolutions, finds in cases of non-self-governing peoples (colonized and/or indigenous) and foreign military occupation "a people" is the entire population of the occupied territorial unit, no matter their other differences. In cases where people lack representation by a state's government, the unrepresented become a separate people. Present international law does not recognize ethnic and other minorities as separate peoples, with the notable exception of cases in which such groups are systematically disenfranchised by the government of the state they live in. Other definitions offered are "peoples" being self-evident (from ethnicity, language, history, etc.), or defined by "ties of mutual affection or sentiment", i.e. "loyalty", or by mutual obligations among peoples. Or the definition may be simply that a people is a group of individuals who unanimously choose a separate state. If the "people" are unanimous in their desire for self-determination, it strengthens their claim. For example, the populations of federal units of the Yugoslav federation were considered a people in the breakup of Yugoslavia, although some of those units had very diverse populations. Another example are the Macedonians in Macedonia. Bulgaria and Greece are now arguing against the Macedonians’ right to self determination under international law. Many of the Macedonians who live in the region have ancestors that date thousands of years and they have the right to identify as Macedonians. Although there is no fully accepted definition of peoples, references are often made to a definition proposed by UN Special Rapporteur Martínez Cobo in his study on discrimination against indigenous populations. UN Independent Expert on the Promotion of a democratic and equitable International Order, Alfred de Zayas, relied on the "Kirby definition" in his 2014 Report to the General Assembly A/69/272 as "a group of persons with a common historical tradition, racial or ethnic identity, cultural homogeneity, linguistic unity, religious or ideological affinity, territorial connection, or common economic life. To this should be added a subjective element: the will to be identified as a people and the consciousness of being a people."


title: Self-determination

text: Abulof suggests that self-determination entails the "moral double helix" of duality (personal right to align with a people, and the people's right to determine their politics) and mutuality (the right is as much the other's as the self's). Thus, self-determination grants individuals the right to form "a people," which then has the right to establish an independent state, as long as they grant the same to all other individuals and peoples.


title: Self-determination

text: Criteria for the definition of "people having the right of self-determination" was proposed during 2010 Kosovo case decision of the International Court of Justice: 1. traditions and culture 2. ethnicity 3. historical ties and heritage 4. language 5. religion 6. sense of identity or kinship 7. the will to constitute a people 8. common suffering.


title: Self-determination

text: National self-determination appears to challenge the principle of territorial integrity (or sovereignty) of states as it is the will of the people that makes a state legitimate. This implies a people should be free to choose their own state and its territorial boundaries. However, there are far more self-identified nations than there are existing states and there is no legal process to redraw state boundaries according to the will of these peoples. According to the Helsinki Final Act of 1975, the UN, ICJ and international law experts, there is no contradiction between the principles of self-determination and territorial integrity, with the latter taking precedence.


title: Self-determination

text: Allen Buchanan, author of seven books on self-determination and secession, supports territorial integrity as a moral and legal aspect of constitutional democracy. However, he also advances a "Remedial Rights Only Theory" where a group has "a general right to secede if and only if it has suffered certain injustices, for which secession is the appropriate remedy of last resort." He also would recognize secession if the state grants, or the constitution includes, a right to secede.


title: Self-determination

text: Vita Gudeleviciute holds that in cases of non-self-governing peoples and foreign military occupation the principle of self-determination trumps that of territorial integrity. In cases where people lack representation by a state's government, they also may be considered a separate people, but under current law cannot claim the right to self-determination. On the other hand, she finds that secession within a single state is a domestic matter not covered by international law. Thus there are no on what groups may constitute a seceding people.


title: Self-determination

text: A number of states have laid claim to territories, which they allege were removed from them as a result of colonialism. This is justified by reference to Paragraph 6 of UN Resolution 1514(XV), which states that any attempt "aimed at partial or total disruption of the national unity and the territorial integrity of a country is incompatible with the purposes and principles of the Charter". This, it is claimed, applies to situations where the territorial integrity of a state had been disrupted by colonisation, so that the people of a territory subject to a historic territorial claim are prevented from exercising a right to self-determination. This interpretation is rejected by many states, who argue that Paragraph 2 of UN Resolution 1514(XV) states that "all peoples have the right to self-determination" and Paragraph 6 cannot be used to justify territorial claims. The original purpose of Paragraph 6 was "to ensure that acts of self-determination occur within the established boundaries of colonies, rather than within sub-regions". Further, the use of the word "attempt" in Paragraph 6 denotes future action and cannot be construed to justify territorial redress for past action. An attempt sponsored by Spain and Argentina to qualify the right to self-determination in cases where there was a territorial dispute was rejected by the UN General Assembly, which re-iterated the right to self-determination was a universal right.


title: Self-determination

text: In order to accommodate demands for minority rights and avoid secession and the creation of a separate new state, many states decentralize or devolve greater decision-making power to new or existing subunits or autonomous areas.


title: Self-determination

text: Self-determination can be at odds with the principle of majority rule and equal rights, especially when there is a sizable minority group. In democratic societies, majority rule is often used to determine the outcome in electoral and voting processes. However, a major critique of majority rule is that it may result in the tyranny of the majority, especially in cases in which a simple majority is used in order to determine outcome. This flaw is particularly poignant when there is a large minority group whose interests are not being represented, and who may then seek to secede.


title: Self-determination

text: The right to self-determination by a minority has long been contested in democracies with majority rule. For instance, in his first inaugural speech Abraham Lincoln argued that:""Plainly the central idea of secession is the essence of anarchy. A majority held in restraint by constitutional checks and limitations, and always changing easily with deliberate changes of popular opinions and sentiments, is the only true sovereign of a free people. Whoever rejects it does of necessity fly to anarchy or to despotism. Unanimity is impossible. The rule of a minority, as a permanent arrangement, is wholly inadmissible; so that, rejecting the majority principle, anarchy or despotism in some form is all that is left.""However, liberal proponents for the right to self-determination by minority groups contradict this notion by arguing that, in cases where the minority is not able to become the majority, and that minority is territorially concentrated and does not want to be governed by the majority, it may serve the best interest of the state to allow the secession of this group.


title: Self-determination

text: Most sovereign states do not recognize the right to self-determination through secession in their constitutions. Many expressly forbid it. However, there are several existing models of self-determination through greater autonomy and through secession.


title: Self-determination

text: In liberal constitutional democracies the principle of majority rule has dictated whether a minority can secede. In the United States Abraham Lincoln acknowledged that secession might be possible through amending the United States Constitution. The Supreme Court in "Texas v. White" held secession could occur "through revolution, or through consent of the States." The British Parliament in 1933 held that Western Australia only could secede from Australia upon vote of a majority of the country as a whole; the previous two-thirds majority vote for secession via referendum in Western Australia was insufficient.


title: Self-determination

text: The Chinese Communist Party followed the Soviet Union in including the right of secession in its 1931 constitution in order to entice ethnic nationalities and Tibet into joining. However, the Party eliminated the right to secession in later years, and had anti-secession clause written into the Constitution before and after the founding the People's Republic of China. The 1947 Constitution of the Union of Burma contained an express state right to secede from the union under a number of procedural conditions. It was eliminated in the 1974 constitution of the Socialist Republic of the Union of Burma (officially the "Union of Myanmar"). Burma still allows "local autonomy under central leadership".


title: Self-determination

text: As of 1996 the constitutions of Austria, Ethiopia, France, and Saint Kitts and Nevis have express or implied rights to secession. Switzerland allows for the secession from current and the creation of new cantons. In the case of proposed Quebec separation from Canada the Supreme Court of Canada in 1998 ruled that only both a clear majority of the province and a constitutional amendment confirmed by all participants in the Canadian federation could allow secession.


title: Self-determination

text: The 2003 draft of the European Union Constitution allowed for the voluntary withdrawal of member states from the union, although the State which wanted to leave could not be involved in the vote deciding whether or not they can leave the Union. There was much discussion about such self-determination by minorities before the final document underwent the unsuccessful ratification process in 2005.


title: Self-determination

text: As a result of the successful constitutional referendum held in 2003, every municipality in the Principality of Liechtenstein has the right to secede from the Principality by a vote of a majority of the citizens residing in this municipality.


title: Self-determination

text: In determining international borders between sovereign states, self-determination has yielded to a number of other principles. Once groups exercise self-determination through secession, the issue of the proposed borders may prove more controversial than the fact of secession. The bloody Yugoslav Wars in the 1990s were related mostly to border issues because the international community applied a version of uti possidetis juris in transforming the existing internal borders of the various Yugoslav republics into international borders, despite the conflicts of ethnic groups within those boundaries. In the 1990s indigenous populations of the northern two-thirds of Quebec province opposed being incorporated into a Quebec nation and stated a determination to resist it by force.


title: Self-determination

text: The border between Northern Ireland and the Irish Free State was based on the borders of existing counties and did not include all of historic Ulster. A Boundary Commission was established to consider re-drawing it. Its proposals, which amounted to a small net transfer to the Free State, were leaked to the press and then not acted upon. In December 1925, the governments of the Irish Free State, Northern Ireland, and the United Kingdom agreed to accept the existing border.


title: Self-determination

text: There have been a number of notable cases of self-determination. For more information on past movements see list of historical separatist movements and lists of decolonized nations. Also see list of autonomous areas by country and lists of active separatist movements.


title: Self-determination

text: The Republic of Artsakh (also known as the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic), in the Caucasus region, declared its independence basing on self-determination rights on 2 September 1991, but remains unrecognized by UN states today. It is a member of the Community for Democracy and Rights of Nations along with three other Post-Soviet disputed republics.


title: Self-determination

text: The Assyrian independence movement is a political movement and nationalist desire of the Assyrian people to live in their traditional Assyrian homeland under the self-governance of an Assyrian State. The Assyrian territory is currently in parts of Syria, Iraq, Iran, and Turkey.


title: Self-determination

text: Self-determination has become the topic of some debate in Australia in relation to Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islanders. In the 1970s, Aboriginal requested the right to administer their own remote communities as part of the homelands movement, also known as the outstation movement. These grew in number through the 1980s, but funding dried up in the 2000s.


title: Self-determination

text: The traditional homeland of the Tuareg peoples was divided up by the modern borders of Mali, Algeria and Niger. Numerous rebellions occurred over the decades, but in 2012 the Tuaregs succeeded in occupying their land and declaring the independence of Azawad. However, their movement was hijacked by the Islamist terrorist group Ansar Dine.


title: Self-determination

text: The Basque Country (, , ) as a cultural region (not to be confused with the homonym Autonomous Community of the Basque country) is a European region in the western Pyrenees that spans the border between France and Spain, on the Atlantic coast. It comprises the autonomous communities of the Basque Country and Navarre in Spain and the Northern Basque Country in France.


title: Self-determination

text: Since the 19th century, Basque nationalism has demanded the right of some kind of self-determination. This desire for independence is particularly stressed among leftist Basque nationalists. The right of self-determination was asserted by the Basque Parliament in 1990, 2002 and 2006.


title: Self-determination

text: Since self-determination is not recognized in the Spanish Constitution of 1978, some Basques abstained and some voted against it in the referendum of December 6 of that year. It was approved by a clear majority at the Spanish level, and with 74.6% of the votes in the Basque Country. However, the overall turnout in the Basque Country was 45% when the Spanish overall turnover was 67.9%. The derived autonomous regime for the BAC was approved by Spanish Parliament and also by the Basque citizens in referendum. The autonomous statute of Navarre ("Amejoramiento del Fuero": "improvement of the charter") was approved by the Spanish Parliament and, like the statutes of 13 out of 17 Spanish autonomous communities, it did not need a referendum to enter into force.


title: Self-determination

text: "Euskadi Ta Askatasuna" or ETA (; pronounced ), was an armed Basque nationalist, separatist and terrorist organization that killed more than 800 people. Founded in 1959, it evolved from a group advocating traditional cultural ways to a paramilitary group with the goal of Basque independence. Its ideology was Marxist–Leninist.


title: Self-determination

text: The Nigerian Civil War was fought between Biafran secessionists of the Republic of Biafra and the Nigerian central government. From 1999 to the present day, the indigenous people of Biafra have been agitating for independence to revive their country. They have registered a human rights organization known as Bilie Human Rights Initiative both in Nigeria and in the United Nations to advocate for their right to self-determination and achieve independence by the rule of law.


title: Self-determination

text: After the 2012 Catalan march for independence, in which between 600,000 and 1.5 million citizens marched, the President of Catalonia, Artur Mas, called for new parliamentary elections on 25 November 2012 to elect a new parliament that would exercise the right of self-determination for Catalonia, a right not recognised under the Spanish Cortes Generales. The Parliament of Catalonia voted to hold a vote in the next four-year legislature on the question of self-determination. The parliamentary decision was approved by a large majority of MPs: 84 voted for, 21 voted against, and 25 abstained. The Catalan Parliament applied to the Spanish Parliament for the power to call a referendum to be devolved, but this was turned down. In December 2013 the President of the Generalitat Artur Mas and the governing coalition agreed to set the referendum for self-determination on 9 November 2014, and legislation specifically saying that the consultation would not be a "referendum" was enacted, only to be blocked by the Spanish Constitutional Court, at the request of the Spanish government. Given the block, the Government turned it into a simple "consultation to the people" instead.


title: Self-determination

text: The question in the consultation was "Do you want Catalonia to be a State?" and, if the answer to this question was yes, "Do you want this State to be an independent State?". However, as the consultation was not a formal referendum, these (printed) answers were just suggestions and other answers were also accepted and catalogued as "other answers" instead as null votes. The turnout in this consultation was about 2·3m people out of 6·2m people that were called to vote (this figure does not coincide with the census figure of 5·3m for two main reasons: first, because organisers had no access to an official census due to the non-binding character of the consultation, and second, because the legal voting age was set to 16 rather than 18). Due to the lack of an official census, potential voters were assigned to electoral tables according to home address and first family name. Participants had to sign up first with their full name and national ID in a voter registry before casting their ballot, which prevented participants from potentially casting multiple ballots. The overall result was 80·76% in favor of both questions, 11% in favor of the first question but not of the second questions, 4·54% against both; the rest were classified as "other answers". The voter turnout was around 37% (most people against the consultation did not go to vote). Four top members of Catalonia's political leadership were barred from public office for having defied the Constitutional court's last-minute ban.


title: Self-determination

text: Almost three years later (1 October 2017), the Catalan government called a referendum for independence under legislation adopted in September 2017, despite this legislation had been suspended by the Constitutional Court for "violating fundamental rights of citizens", with the question "Do you want Catalonia to become an independent state in the form of a Republic?". On polling day, the Catalan regional police, which had been accused in the past of police brutality and impunity during the 15-M protests, prevented voting in over 500 polling stations without incidents. In some voting stations, the Catalan regional police did not intervene, while in other stations they directly confronted the Spanish CNP (National Police Corps) to allow voters to participate. The CNP confiscated ballot boxes and closed down 92, voting centres with violent truncheon charges. The opposition parties had called for non-participation. The turnout (according to the votes that were counted) was 2.3m out of 5.3m (43.03% of the census), and 90.18% of the ballots were in favour of independence. The turnout, ballot count and results were similar to those of the 2014 "consultation".


title: Self-determination

text: Under Dzhokhar Dudayev, Chechnya declared independence as the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, using self-determination, Russia's history of bad treatment of Chechens, and a history of independence before invasion by Russia as main motives. Russia has restored control over Chechnya, but the separatist government functions still in exile, though it has been split into two entities: the Akhmed Zakayev-run secular Chechen Republic (based in Poland, the United Kingdom, and the United States), and the Islamic Caucasus Emirate.


title: Self-determination

text: There is an active secessionist movement based on the self-determination of the residents of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions of eastern Ukraine. However, many in the international community assert that referendums held there in 2014 regarding independence from Ukraine were illegitimate and undemocratic. Similarly, there are reports that presidential elections in May 2014 were prevented from taking place in the two regions after armed gunmen took control of polling stations, kidnapped election officials, and stole lists of electors, thus denying the population the chance to express their will in a free, fair, and internationally recognised election. There are also arguments that the de facto separation of Eastern Ukraine from the rest of the country is not an expression of self-determination, but rather a manipulation through pro-Soviet sentiment revival and an invasion by neighbouring Russia, with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko claiming in 2015 that up to 9,000 Russian soldiers were deployed in Ukraine.


title: Self-determination

text: The Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia is run as a federation of semi-self-governing nation states. The Constitution of Ethiopia firmly mentions the self-determining nature of it's states. The actual implementation of it's states self-governance is debate-able.


title: Self-determination

text: Self-determination is referred to in the Falkland Islands Constitution and is a factor in the Falkland Islands sovereignty dispute. The population has existed for over nine generations, continuously for over 185 years. In the 2013 referendum organised by the Falkland Islands Government, 99.8% voted to remain British. As administering power, the British Government considers since the majority of inhabitants wish to remain British, transfer of sovereignty to Argentina would be counter to their right to self-determination.


title: Self-determination

text: Argentina states the principle of self-determination is not applicable since the current inhabitants are not aboriginal and were brought to replace the Argentine population, which was expelled by an 'act of force', forcing the Argentinian inhabitants to directly leave the islands. This refers to the re-establishment of British rule in the year 1833 during which Argentina claims the existing population living in the islands was expelled. Argentina thus argues that, in the case of the Falkland Islands, the principle of territorial integrity should have precedence over self-determination. Historical records dispute Argentina's claims and whilst acknowledging the garrison was expelled note the existing civilian population remained at Port Louis and there was no attempt to settle the islands until 1841.


title: Self-determination

text: The right to self-determination is referred to in the pre-amble of Chapter 1 of the Gibraltar constitution, and, since the United Kingdom also gave assurances that the right to self-determination of Gibraltarians would be respected in any transfer of sovereignty over the territory, is a factor in the dispute with Spain over the territory. The impact of the right to self-determination of Gibraltarians was seen in the 2002 Gibraltar sovereignty referendum, where Gibraltarian voters overwhelmingly rejected a plan to share sovereignty over Gibraltar between the UK and Spain. However, the UK government differs with the Gibraltarian government in that it considers Gibraltarian self-determination to be limited by the Treaty of Utrecht, which prevents Gibraltar achieving independence without the agreement of Spain, a position that the Gibraltarian government does not accept.


title: Self-determination

text: The Spanish government denies that Gibraltarians have the right to self-determination, considering them to be "an artificial population without any genuine autonomy" and not "indigenous". However, the Partido Andalucista has agreed to recognise the right to self-determination of Gibraltarians.


title: Self-determination

text: Before the United Nations's adoption of resolution 2908 (XXVII) on 2 November 1972, The People's Republic of China vetoed the former British colony of Hong Kong's right to self-determination on 8 March 1972. This sparked several nations' protest along with Great Britain's declaration on 14 December that the decision is invalid.