title: Nikolai Lukashenko

text: Lukashenko appeared in public for the first time in 2008. He has attracted significant media attention as his father, President Alexander Lukashenko, has frequently taken him to official ceremonies and state visits, including meetings with Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez, Russia's president Dmitry Medvedev, Pope Benedict XVI, and US president Barack Obama. According to his father, Nikolai was so close to Alexander that he insisted he follow Alexander to these meetings, but it has been speculated that Nikolai was being groomed to be president after Alexander. He attracted further media attention in 2013, when Alexander stated that his son would become a President of Belarus, causing numerous speculations in the press. In 2015, Lukashenko, at the age of 10, took part in a session of the United Nations General Assembly. In June 2020, he and his father attended the Moscow Victory Day Parade on Red Square.


title: Nikolai Lukashenko

text: Lukashenko speaks Russian and English, and is also learning Chinese and Spanish. He has been taking piano lessons since he was 9.


title: Environmental movement

text: The environmental movement (sometimes referred to as the ecology movement), also including conservation and green politics, is a diverse philosophical, social, and political movement for addressing environmental issues. Environmentalists advocate the just and sustainable management of resources and stewardship of the environment through changes in public policy and individual behaviour. In its recognition of humanity as a participant in (not enemy of) ecosystems, the movement is centered on ecology, health, and human rights.


title: Environmental movement

text: The environmental movement is an international movement, represented by a range of organizations, from enterprises to grassroots and varies from country to country. Due to its large membership, varying and strong beliefs, and occasionally speculative nature, the environmental movement is not always united in its goals. The movement also encompasses some other movements with a more specific focus, such as the climate movement. At its broadest, the movement includes private citizens, professionals, religious devotees, politicians, scientists, nonprofit organizations, and individual advocates.


title: Environmental movement

text: Early interest in the environment was a feature of the Romantic movement in the early 19th century. The poet William Wordsworth had travelled extensively in England's Lake District and wrote that it is a "sort of national property in which every man has a right and interest who has an eye to perceive and a heart to enjoy".


title: Environmental movement

text: The origins of the environmental movement lay in response to increasing levels of smoke pollution in the atmosphere during the Industrial Revolution. The emergence of great factories and the concomitant immense growth in coal consumption gave rise to an unprecedented level of air pollution in industrial centers; after 1900 the large volume of industrial chemical discharges added to the growing load of untreated human waste. Under increasing political pressure from the urban middle-class, the first large-scale, modern environmental laws came in the form of Britain's Alkali Acts, passed in 1863, to regulate the deleterious air pollution (gaseous hydrochloric acid) given off by the Leblanc process, used to produce soda ash.


title: Environmental movement

text: The modern conservation movement was first manifested in the forests of India, with the practical application of scientific conservation principles. The conservation ethic that began to evolve included three core principles: that the human activity damaged the environment, that there was a civic duty to maintain the environment for future generations, and that scientific, empirically based methods should be applied to ensure this duty was carried out. James Ranald Martin was prominent in promoting this ideology, publishing many medico-topographical reports that demonstrated the scale of damage wrought through large-scale deforestation and desiccation, and lobbying extensively for the institutionalization of forest conservation activities in British India through the establishment of Forest Departments.


title: Environmental movement

text: The Madras Board of Revenue started local conservation efforts in 1842, headed by Alexander Gibson, a professional botanist who systematically adopted a forest conservation programme based on scientific principles. This was the first case of state management of forests in the world. Eventually, the government under Governor-General Lord Dalhousie introduced the first permanent and large-scale forest conservation programme in the world in 1855, a model that soon spread to other colonies, as well as the United States. In 1860, the Department banned the use of shifting cultivation. Hugh Cleghorn's 1861 manual, "The forests and gardens of South India", became the definitive work on the subject and was widely used by forest assistants in the subcontinent.


title: Environmental movement

text: Dietrich Brandis joined the British service in 1856 as superintendent of the teak forests of Pegu division in eastern Burma. During that time Burma's teak forests were controlled by militant Karen tribals. He introduced the "taungya" system, in which Karen villagers provided labour for clearing, planting, and weeding teak plantations. He formulated new forest legislation and helped establish research and training institutions. The Imperial Forestry School at Dehradun was founded by him.


title: Environmental movement

text: The zoologist Alfred Newton published a series of investigations into the "Desirability of establishing a 'Close-time' for the preservation of indigenous animals" between 1872 and 1903. His advocacy for legislation to protect animals from hunting during the mating season led to the formation of the Plumage League (later the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds) in 1889. The society acted as a protest group campaigning against the use of great crested grebe and kittiwake skins and feathers in fur clothing. The Society attracted growing support from the suburban middle-classes, and influenced the passage of the Sea Birds Preservation Act in 1869 as the first nature protection law in the world.


title: Environmental movement

text: For most of the century from 1850 to 1950, however, the primary environmental cause was the mitigation of air pollution. The Coal Smoke Abatement Society was formed in 1898 making it one of the oldest environmental NGOs. It was founded by artist Sir William Blake Richmond, frustrated with the pall cast by coal smoke. Although there were earlier pieces of legislation, the Public Health Act 1875 required all furnaces and fireplaces to consume their own smoke.


title: Environmental movement

text: Systematic and general efforts on behalf of the environment only began in the late 19th century; it grew out of the amenity movement in Britain in the 1870s, which was a reaction to industrialization, the growth of cities, and worsening air and water pollution. Starting with the formation of the Commons Preservation Society in 1865, the movement championed rural preservation against the encroachments of industrialisation. Robert Hunter, solicitor for the society, worked with Hardwicke Rawnsley, Octavia Hill, and John Ruskin to lead a successful campaign to prevent the construction of railways to carry slate from the quarries, which would have ruined the unspoilt valleys of Newlands and Ennerdale. This success led to the formation of the Lake District Defence Society (later to become The Friends of the Lake District).


title: Environmental movement

text: In 1893 Hill, Hunter and Rawnsley agreed to set up a national body to coordinate environmental conservation efforts across the country; the "National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty" was formally inaugurated in 1894. The organisation obtained secure footing through the 1907 National Trust Bill, which gave the trust the status of a statutory corporation. and the bill was passed in August 1907.


title: Environmental movement

text: An early "Back-to-Nature" movement, which anticipated the romantic ideal of modern environmentalism, was advocated by intellectuals such as John Ruskin, William Morris, and Edward Carpenter, who were all against consumerism, pollution and other activities that were harmful to the natural world. The movement was a reaction to the urban conditions of the industrial towns, where sanitation was awful, pollution levels intolerable and housing terribly cramped. Idealists championed the rural life as a mythical Utopia and advocated a return to it. John Ruskin argued that people should return to a "small piece of English ground, beautiful, peaceful, and fruitful. We will have no steam engines upon it . . . we will have plenty of flowers and vegetables . . . we will have some music and poetry; the children will learn to dance to it and sing it."


title: Environmental movement

text: Practical ventures in the establishment of small cooperative farms were even attempted and old rural traditions, without the "taint of manufacture or the canker of artificiality", were enthusiastically revived, including the Morris dance and the maypole.


title: Environmental movement

text: The movement in the United States began in the late 19th century, out of concerns for protecting the natural resources of the West, with individuals such as John Muir and Henry David Thoreau making key philosophical contributions. Thoreau was interested in peoples' relationship with nature and studied this by living close to nature in a simple life. He published his experiences in the book "Walden", which argues that people should become intimately close with nature. Muir came to believe in nature's inherent right, especially after spending time hiking in Yosemite Valley and studying both the ecology and geology. He successfully lobbied congress to form Yosemite National Park and went on to set up the Sierra Club in 1892. The conservationist principles as well as the belief in an inherent right of nature were to become the bedrock of modern environmentalism. However, the early movement in the U.S. developed with a contradiction; preservationists like John Muir wanted land and nature set aside for its own sake, and conservationists, such as Gifford Pinchot (appointed as the first Chief of the US Forest Service from 1905 to 1910), wanted to manage natural resources for human use.


title: Environmental movement

text: In the 20th century, environmental ideas continued to grow in popularity and recognition. Efforts were beginning to be made to save the wildlife, particularly the American bison. The death of the last passenger pigeon as well as the endangerment of the American bison helped to focus the minds of conservationists and popularize their concerns. In 1916, the National Park Service was founded by U.S. President Woodrow Wilson. Pioneers of the movement called for more efficient and professional management of natural resources. They fought for reform because they believed the destruction of forests, fertile soil, minerals, wildlife, and water resources would lead to the downfall of society. The group that has been the most active in recent years is the climate movement.


title: Environmental movement

text: The U.S movement began to take off after World War II, as people began to recognize the costs of environmental negligence, disease, and the expansion of air and water pollution through the occurrence of several environmental disasters that occurred post-World War II. Aldo Leopold published "A Sand County Almanac" in 1949. He believed in a land ethic that recognized that maintaining the "beauty, integrity, and health of natural systems" as a moral and ethical imperative.


title: Environmental movement

text: Another major literary force in the promotion of the environmental movement was Rachel Carson's 1962 book "Silent Spring" about declining bird populations due to DDT, an insecticide, pollutant, and man's attempts to control nature through the use of synthetic substances. Her core message for her readers was to identify the complex and fragile ecosystem and the threats facing the population. In 1958, Carson started to work on her last book, with an idea that nature needs human protection. Her influence was radioactive fallout, smog, food additives, and pesticide use. Carson's main focus was on pesticides, which led her to identify nature as fragile and the use of technology dangerous to humans and other species.


title: Environmental movement

text: Both of these books helped bring the issues into the public eye Rachel Carson's "Silent Spring" sold over two million copies and is linked to a nationwide ban on DDT and the creation of the EPA.


title: Environmental movement

text: Beginning in 1969 and continuing into the 1970s, Illinois-based environmental activist James F. Phillips engaged in numerous covert anti-pollution campaigns using the pseudonym "the Fox." His activities included plugging illegal sewage outfall pipes and dumping toxic wastewater produced by a US Steel factory inside the company's Chicago corporate office. Phillips' "ecotage" campaigns attracted considerable media attention and subsequently inspired other direct action protests against environmental destruction.


title: Environmental movement

text: The first Earth Day was celebrated on 22 April 1970. Its founder, former Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson, was inspired to create this day of environmental education and awareness after seeing the oil spill off the coast of Santa Barbara in 1969. Greenpeace was created in 1971 as an organization that believed that political advocacy and legislation were ineffective or inefficient solutions and supported non-violent action. 1980 saw the creation of Earth First!, a group with an ecocentric view of the world – believing in equality between the rights of humans to flourish, the rights of all other species to flourish and the rights of life-sustaining systems to flourish.


title: Environmental movement

text: In the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, several events illustrated the magnitude of environmental damage caused by humans. In 1954, a hydrogen bomb test at Bikini Atoll exposed the 23-man crew of the Japanese fishing vessel "Lucky Dragon 5" to radioactive fallout. The incident is known as Castle Bravo, the largest thermonuclear device ever detonated by the United States and the first in a series of high-yield thermonuclear weapon design tests. In 1967 the oil tanker ran aground off the coast of Cornwall, and in 1969 oil spilled from an offshore well in California's Santa Barbara Channel. In 1971, the conclusion of a lawsuit in Japan drew international attention to the effects of decades of mercury poisoning on the people of Minamata.


title: Environmental movement

text: At the same time, emerging scientific research drew new attention to existing and hypothetical threats to the environment and humanity. Among them were Paul R. Ehrlich, whose book "The Population Bomb" (1968) revived Malthusian concerns about the impact of exponential population growth. Biologist Barry Commoner generated a debate about growth, affluence and "flawed technology." Additionally, an association of scientists and political leaders known as the Club of Rome published their report "The Limits to Growth" in 1972, and drew attention to the growing pressure on natural resources from human activities.


title: Environmental movement

text: Meanwhile, technological accomplishments such as nuclear proliferation and photos of the Earth from outer space provided both new insights and new reasons for concern over Earth's seemingly small and unique place in the universe.


title: Environmental movement

text: In 1972, the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment was held in Stockholm, and for the first time united the representatives of multiple governments in discussion relating to the state of the global environment. This conference led directly to the creation of government environmental agencies and the UN Environment Program.


title: Environmental movement

text: By the mid-1970s anti-nuclear activism had moved beyond local protests and politics to gain a wider appeal and influence. Although it lacked a single co-ordinating organization the anti-nuclear movement's efforts gained a great deal of attention, especially in the United Kingdom and United States. In the aftermath of the Three Mile Island accident in 1979, many mass demonstrations took place. The largest one was held in New York City in September 1979 and involved 200,000 people.


title: Environmental movement

text: Since the 1970s, public awareness, environmental sciences, ecology, and technology have advanced to include modern focus points like ozone depletion, global climate change, acid rain, mutation breeding, genetically modified crops and genetically modified livestock. With mutation breeding, crop cultivars were created by exposing seeds to chemicals or radiation. Many of these cultivars are still being used today. Genetically modified plants and animals are said by some environmentalists to be inherently bad because they are unnatural. Others point out the possible benefits of GM crops such as water conservation through corn modified to be less "thirsty" and decreased pesticide use through insect – resistant crops. They also point out that some genetically modified livestock have accelerated growth which means there are shorter production cycles which again results in a more efficient use of feed.


title: Environmental movement

text: Besides genetically modified crops and livestock, synthetic biology is also on the rise and environmentalists argue that these also contain risks, if these organisms were ever to end up in nature. This, as unlike with genetically modified organisms, synthetic biology even uses base pairs that do not exist in nature.


title: Environmental movement

text: In 2022, Global Witness reported that, in the preceding decade, more than 1,700 land and environmental defenders were killed, about one every two days. Brazil, Colombia, Philippines, and Mexico were the deadliest countries.


title: Environmental movement

text: Beginning in the conservation movement at the beginning of the 20th century, the contemporary environmental movement's roots can be traced back to Rachel Carson's 1962 book "Silent Spring", Murray Bookchin's 1962 book "Our Synthetic Environment", and Paul R. Ehrlich's 1968 "The Population Bomb". American environmentalists have campaigned against nuclear weapons and nuclear power in the 1960s and 1970s, acid rain in the 1980s, ozone depletion and deforestation in the 1990s, and most recently climate change and global warming.


title: Environmental movement

text: The United States passed many pieces of environmental legislation in the 1970s, such as the Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act, the Endangered Species Act, and the National Environmental Policy Act. These remain as the foundations for current environmental standards.


title: Environmental movement

text: After the International Environmental Conference in Stockholm in 1972 Latin American officials returned with a high hope of growth and protection of the fairly untouched natural resources. Governments spent millions of dollars, and created departments and pollution standards. However, the outcomes have not always been what officials had initially hoped. Activists blame this on growing urban populations and industrial growth. Many Latin American countries have had a large inflow of immigrants that are living in substandard housing. Enforcement of the pollution standards is lax and penalties are minimal; in Venezuela, the largest penalty for violating an environmental law is 50,000 bolivar fine ($3,400) and 3 days in jail. In the 1970s or 1980s, many Latin American countries were transitioning from military dictatorships to democratic governments.


title: Environmental movement

text: In 1992, Brazil came under scrutiny with the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro. Brazil has a history of little environmental awareness. It has the highest biodiversity in the world and also the highest amount of habitat destruction. One-third of the world's forests lie in Brazil. It is home to the largest river, The Amazon, and the largest rainforest, the Amazon Rainforest. People have raised funds to create state parks and increase the consciousness of people who have destroyed forests and polluted waterways. It is home to several organizations that have fronted the environmental movement. The Blue Wave Foundation was created in 1989 and has partnered with advertising companies to promote national education campaigns to keep Brazil's beaches clean. Funatura was created in 1986 and is a wildlife sanctuary program. Pro-Natura International is a private environmental organization created in 1986.


title: Environmental movement

text: In 1952 the Great London Smog episode killed thousands of people and led the UK to create the first Clean Air Act in 1956. In 1957 the first major nuclear accident occurred in Windscale in northern England. The supertanker "Torrey Canyon" ran aground off the coast of Cornwall in 1967, causing the first major oil leak that killed marine life along the coast. In 1972, in Stockholm, the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment created the UN Environment Programme. The EU's environmental policy was formally founded by a European Council declaration and the first five-year environment programme was adopted. The main idea of the declaration was that prevention is better than the cure and the polluter should pay.


title: Environmental movement

text: In the 1980s the green parties that were created a decade before began to have some political success. In 1986, there was a nuclear accident in Chernobyl, Ukraine. A large-scale environmental campaign was staged in Ukraine in 1986. The end of the 1980s and start of the 1990s saw the fall of communism across central and Eastern Europe, the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the Union of East and West Germany. In 1992 there was a UN summit held in Rio de Janeiro where Agenda 21 was adopted. The Kyoto Protocol was created in 1997, setting specific targets and deadlines to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions. The Kyoto Protocol has 192 signatories, including the European Union, Cook Islands, Niue, and all UN member states except Andorra, Canada, South Sudan, and the United States. In the early 2000s, activists believed that environmental policy concerns were overshadowed by energy security, globalism, and terrorism.


title: Environmental movement

text: The environmental movement is reaching the less developed world with different degrees of success. The Arab world, including the Middle East and North Africa, has different adaptations of the environmental movement. Countries on the Persian Gulf have high incomes and rely heavily on the large amount of energy resources in the area. Each country in the Arab world has varying combinations of low or high amounts of natural resources and low or high amounts of labor.


title: Environmental movement

text: The League of Arab States has one specialized sub-committee, of 12 standing specialized subcommittees in the Foreign Affairs Ministerial Committees, which deals with Environmental Issues. Countries in the League of Arab States have demonstrated an interest in environmental issues, on paper some environmental activists have doubts about the level of commitment to environmental issues; being a part of the world community may have obliged these countries to portray concern for the environment. The initial level of environmental awareness may be the creation of a ministry of the environment. The year of establishment of a ministry is also indicative of the level of engagement. Saudi Arabia was the first to establish environmental law in 1992 followed by Egypt in 1994. Somalia is the only country without environmental law. In 2010 the Environmental Performance Index listed Algeria as the top Arab country at 42 of 163; Morocco was at 52 and Syria at 56. The Environmental Performance Index measures the ability of a country to actively manage and protect its environment and the health of its citizens. A weighted index is created by giving 50% weight for environmental health objective (health) and 50% for ecosystem vitality (ecosystem); values range from 0–100. No Arab countries were in the top quartile, and 7 countries were in the lowest quartile.


title: Environmental movement

text: South Korea and Taiwan experienced similar growth in industrialization from 1965 to 1990 with few environmental controls. South Korea's Han River and Nakdong River were so polluted by unchecked dumping of industrial waste that they were close to being classified as biologically dead. Taiwan's formula for balanced growth was to prevent industrial concentration and encourage manufacturers to set up in the countryside. This led to 20% of the farmland being polluted by industrial waste and 30% of the rice grown on the island was contaminated with heavy metals. Both countries had spontaneous environmental movements drawing participants from different classes. Their demands were linked with issues of employment, occupational health, and agricultural crisis. They were also quite militant; the people learned that protesting can bring results. The polluting factories were forced to make immediate improvements to the conditions or pay compensation to victims. Some were even forced to shut down or move locations. The people were able to force the government to come out with new restrictive rules on toxins, industrial waste, and air pollution. All of these new regulations caused the migration of those polluting industries from Taiwan and South Korea to China and other countries in Southeast Asia with more relaxed environmental laws.


title: Environmental movement

text: China's environmental movement is characterized by the rise of environmental NGOs, policy advocacy, spontaneous alliances, and protests that often only occur at the local level. Environmental protests in China are increasingly expanding their scope of concerns, calling for broader participation "in the name of the public."


title: Environmental movement

text: The Chinese have realized the ability of riots and protests to have success and had led to an increase in disputes in China by 30% since 2005 to more than 50,000 events. Protests cover topics such as environmental issues, land loss, income, and political issues. They have also grown in size from about 10 people or fewer in the mid-1990s to 52 people per incident in 2004. China has more relaxed environmental laws than other countries in Asia, so many polluting factories have relocated to China, causing pollution in China.


title: Environmental movement

text: Water pollution, water scarcity, soil pollution, soil degradation, and desertification are issues currently in discussion in China. The groundwater table of the North China Plain is dropping by 1.5 m (5 ft) per year. This groundwater table occurs in the region of China that produces 40% of the country's grain. The Center for Legal Assistance to Pollution Victims works to confront legal issues associated with environmental justice by hearing court cases that expose the narratives of victims of environmental pollution. As China continues domestic economic reforms and integration into global markets, there emerge new linkages between China's domestic environmental degradation and global ecological crisis.


title: Environmental movement

text: Comparing the experience of China, South Korea, Japan and Taiwan reveals that the impact of environmental activism is heavily modified by domestic political context, particularly the level of integration of mass-based protests and policy advocacy NGOs. Hinted by the history of neighboring Japan and South Korea, the possible convergence of NGOs and anti-pollution protests will have significant implications for Chinese environmental politics in the coming years.


title: Environmental movement

text: Environmental and public health is an ongoing struggle within India. The first seed of an environmental movement in India was the foundation in 1964 of "Dasholi Gram Swarajya Sangh", a labour cooperative started by Chandi Prasad Bhatt. It was inaugurated by Sucheta Kriplani and founded on land donated by Shyma Devi. This initiative was eventually followed up with the Chipko movement starting in 1974.


title: Environmental movement

text: The most severe single event underpinning the movement was the Bhopal gas leakage on 3 December 1984. 40 tons of methyl isocyanate was released, immediately killing 2,259 people and ultimately affecting 700,000 citizens.


title: Environmental movement

text: India has a national campaign against Coca-Cola and Pepsi Cola plants due to their practices of drawing groundwater and contaminating fields with sludge. The movement is characterized by local struggles against intensive aquaculture farms. The most influential part of the environmental movement in India is the anti-dam movement. Dam creation has been thought of as a way for India to catch up with the West by connecting to the power grid with giant dams, coal or oil-powered plants, or nuclear plants. Jhola Aandolan a mass movement is conducting as fighting against polyethylene carry bags uses and promoting cloth/jute/paper carry bags to protect the environment and nature. Activists in the Indian environmental movement consider global warming, sea levels rising, and glaciers retreating decreasing the amount of water flowing into streams to be the biggest challenges for them to face in the early twenty-first century.


title: Environmental movement

text: Eco Revolution movement has been started by Eco Needs Foundation in 2008 from Aurangabad Maharashtra that seeks the participation of children, youth, researchers, spiritual and political leaders to organise awareness programmes and conferences. Child activists against air pollution in India and greenhouse gas emissions by India include Licypriya Kangujam.


title: Environmental movement

text: Mithun Roy Chowdhury, President, Save Nature & Wildlife (SNW), Bangladesh, insisted that the people of Bangladesh raise their voice against Tipaimukh Dam, being constructed by the Government of India. He said the Tipaimukh Dam project will be another "death trap for Bangladesh like the Farakka Barrage," which would lead to an environmental disaster for 50 million people in the Meghna River basin. He said that this project will start desertification in Bangladesh.


title: Environmental movement

text: Environmental science is the study of the interactions among the physical, chemical, and biological components of the environment.


title: Environmental movement

text: The environmental movement is broad in scope and can include any topic related to the environment, conservation, and biology, as well as the preservation of landscapes, flora, and fauna for a variety of purposes and uses. See List of environmental issues. When an act of violence is committed against someone or some institution in the name of environmental defense it is referred to as eco-terrorism.


title: Environmental movement

text: Many environmental lawsuits question the legal rights of property owners, and whether the general public has a right to intervene with detrimental practices occurring on someone else's land. Environmental law organizations exist all across the world, such as the Environmental Law and Policy Center in the midwestern United States.


title: Environmental movement

text: One of the earliest lawsuits to establish that citizens may sue for environmental and aesthetic harms was "Scenic Hudson Preservation Conference v. Federal Power Commission", decided in 1965 by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. The case helped halt the construction of a power plant on Storm King Mountain in New York State. See also United States environmental law and David Sive, an attorney who was involved in the case.


title: Environmental movement

text: Christopher D. Stone's 1972 essay, "Should trees have standing?" addressed the question of whether natural objects themselves should have legal rights. In the essay, Stone suggests that his argument is valid because many current rightsholders (women, children) were once seen as objects.


title: Environmental movement

text: Numerous criticisms and ethical ambiguities have led to growing concerns about technology, including the use of potentially harmful pesticides, water additives like fluoride, and the extremely dangerous ethanol-processing plants.


title: Environmental movement

text: When residents living near proposed developments organize opposition they are sometimes called "NIMBYS", short for "not in my back yard".


title: Environmental movement

text: Today, the sciences of ecology and environmental science, in addition to any aesthetic goals, provide the basis of unity to some of the serious environmentalists. As more information is gathered in scientific fields, more scientific issues like biodiversity, as opposed to mere aesthetics, are a concern to environmentalists. Conservation biology is a rapidly developing field.


title: Environmental movement

text: In recent years, the environmental movement has increasingly focused on global warming as one of the top issues. As concerns about climate change moved more into the mainstream, from the connections drawn between global warming and Hurricane Katrina to Al Gore's 2006 documentary film "An Inconvenient Truth", more and more environmental groups refocused their efforts. In the United States, 2007 witnessed the largest grassroots environmental demonstration in years, Step It Up 2007, with rallies in over 1,400 communities and all 50 states for real global warming solutions.


title: Environmental movement

text: Publicity and widespread organising of school strike for the climate began after Swedish schoolgirl Greta Thunberg staged a protest in August 2018 outside the Swedish Riksdag (parliament). The September 2019 climate strikes were likely the largest climate strikes in world history.


title: Environmental movement

text: In 2019, a survey found that climate breakdown is viewed as the most important issue facing the world in seven out of the eight countries surveyed.


title: Environmental movement

text: Many religious organizations and individual churches now have programs and activities dedicated to environmental issues. The religious movement is often supported by interpretation of scriptures. Most major religious groups are represented including Jewish, Islamic, Anglican, Orthodox, Evangelical, Zoroastrian, Christian and Catholic.


title: Environmental movement

text: Radical environmentalism emerged from an ecocentrism-based frustration with the co-option of mainstream environmentalism. The radical environmental movement aspires to what scholar Christopher Manes calls "a new kind of environmental activism: iconoclastic, uncompromising, discontented with traditional conservation policy, at times illegal ..." Radical environmentalism presupposes a need to reconsider Western ideas of religion and philosophy (including capitalism, patriarchy and globalization) sometimes through "resacralising" and reconnecting with nature.


title: Environmental movement

text: Greenpeace represents an organization with a radical approach, but has contributed in serious ways towards understanding of critical issues, and has a science-oriented core with radicalism as a means to media exposure. Groups like Earth First! take a much more radical posture. Some radical environmentalist groups, like Earth First! and the Earth Liberation Front, illegally sabotage or destroy infrastructural capital.


title: Environmental movement

text: Conservative critics of the movement characterize it as radical and misguided. Especially critics of the United States Endangered Species Act, which has come under scrutiny lately, and the Clean Air Act, which they said conflict with private property rights, corporate profits and the nation's overall economic growth. Critics also challenge the scientific evidence for global warming. They argue that the environmental movement has diverted attention from more pressing issues. Western environmental activists have also been criticized for performative activism, eco-colonialism, and enacting white savior tropes, especially celebrities who promote conservation in developing countries.


title: Rednex

text: Rednex is a Swedish musical group whose style is a mix of American country music and modern Eurodance, with their appearance and stage names taking inspiration from the American redneck stereotypes. The band originally consisted of the lead singer Mary Joe (Annika Ljungberg), alongside Bobby Sue (Kent Olander), Ken Tacky (Arne Arstrand), Billy Ray (Jonas Nilsson) and Mup (Patrick Edenberg). Pat Reiniz (Patrick Edenberg) also served as the band's producer. The band has gone through multiple lineup changes throughout its existence, with none of the members having an uninterrupted tenure.


title: Rednex

text: The group enjoyed success throughout the 1990s with novelty hits such as "Cotton Eye Joe", "Old Pop in an Oak", "The Spirit of the Hawk" and "Wish You Were Here", which often topped the charts in several European countries.


title: Rednex

text: Rednex was initially the brainchild of Swedish producers Janne Ericsson, Örjan "Öban" Öberg, and Patrick Edenberg, who decided to try mixing American country and folk with modern dance and pop music. The name "Rednex" was chosen as a deliberate misspelling of the word "rednecks". The band originally consisted of the lead singer Mary Joe (Annika Ljungberg), alongside Bobby Sue (Kent Olander), Ken Tacky (Arne Arstrand), Billy Ray (Jonas Nilsson) and Mup (Patrick Edenberg).


title: Rednex

text: In 1994, Rednex reworked the traditional folk song "Cotton-Eyed Joe", retitled "Cotton Eye Joe", as a eurodance track, which became an international hit single. Edenberg was soon replaced by BB Stiff (Urban Landgren) after the "Cotton Eye Joe" release. The group's debut studio album titled "Sex & Violins" followed, spawning several more hit singles including "Old Pop in an Oak" and the ballad "Wish You Were Here". However, "Cotton Eye Joe" remains the group's only U.S. hit as of 2022 (#25 on the Billboard charts in March 1995). Two more tracks of the album, "Wild 'N Free" and "Rolling Home", have been released and became moderate hits. A promotional one-off single, the Nicole cover version "Ein Bisschen Frieden", has been released and labeled as "Collo Rossi" for the release.


title: Rednex

text: In 1996 Rednex were featured on the charity single "Children", as part of the supergroup "Hand in Hand for Children". Later female lead singer Ljungberg was fired, partly due to disagreements with the other band members and went on to pursue a solo career. The rest of the band took a break from live performance and started working on new material. In 1997, the remaining four men released one more single, "Riding Alone", out of "Sex & Violins", two years after the previous release "Rolling Home". Arstrand started a side project that same year called Explode, a progressive power metal band, and released the debut studio album "Live Forever" in Sweden.


title: Rednex

text: In autumn 1998, Whippy (Mia Löfgren) became the new female vocalist. They released their first single "The Way I Mate" in 1999. Soon after that release, Arstrand left the band, reducing the quintet to a quartet. The second studio album entitled "Farm Out" followed in 2000 and found some success in Europe, with the most successful single from the album, the second release "The Spirit of the Hawk", peaking #1 in the German Singles Chart. The album spawned a third and final single, the ballad "Hold Me for a While", which became a moderate success. In 2000, in the wake of Napster's rising presence in the music industry, co-founder Edenberg outlined a new strategy for Rednex. The group would become an entertainment group rather than just a band, so not to be solely dependent on record sales. As he presented this idea to the performers during the video shoot for "Hold Me For A While" in Kenya, he was met by great scepticism. Nilsson replied: "We will not become a goddamn circus act!". The aftermath of this conflict resulted in the whole band, all four members, Löfgren, Olander, Nilsson and Landgren, being replaced for the first time.


title: Rednex

text: As of January 2001, the group now consisted of the female lead singer Scarlet (Julie-Anne Tulley, formerly known as Jules Tulley from Dreamhouse) from England, alongside the three male members Dagger (Anders Sandberg) from Sweden, Joe Cagg (Roy van der Haagen) and Jay Lee (Jean-Paul Engeln) from the Netherlands. It was the first time the band were not all Swedish. In 2001, the single "The Chase", the first single out of their 2002 first compilation album "The Best of the West", has been released and charted in Germany and Switzerland. In 2002, the second and final single out of the album, a reworked 2002 remix of "Cotton Eye Joe", was released and made the Top 30 in Austria. In 2003, the two Dutchmen van der Haagen and Engeln were replaced by Ace Ratclaw (Tor Penten) from Sweden and Boneduster Crock (Björn Scheffler) from Germany. In October 2004, Tulley resigned from the group due to exhaustion.


title: Rednex

text: In 2006, original female vocalist Ljungberg returned as Tulley's replacement in the group, she was assigned exclusive rights to license the Rednex trademark until January 1, 2009. During this period the group's focus shifted towards Scandinavia. In January 2005, Ljungberg fired Scheffler, replacing him with her husband Snake (Jens Sylsjö). In 2006, Sandberg was also fired and replaced by Maverick (Anders Lundström). Four former members, Scheffler and Sandberg, alongside Tulley and van der Haagen, and later in April 2007 joined by Penten, also a former Rednex member, began to tour under the name "Rednex Tribute".


title: Rednex

text: Focusing on live performance in Scandinavia, Rednex appeared at the 2005 IAAF World Championships in Athletics, in Helsinki. On March 11, 2006 Rednex entered the song "Mama, Take Me Home" in Semifinal 4 of the Swedish Melodifestivalen in Gothenburg. They qualified for the final via the Second Chance Round, finishing an overall sixth in the final. "Mama, Take Me Home" was subsequently released as the first single in a few European countries. The band's Scandinavian comeback continued as they released the second single "Fe Fi (The Old Man Died)" in November 2006, after having performed it at the Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards. The single was surprisingly successful, peaking #4 in the Swedish Single chart.


title: Rednex

text: On January 1, 2009, after the end of Ljungberg's management licence, control of the Rednex brand returned to the band's founders. The remaining Rednex personnel Ljungberg, Lundström and Sylsjö were fired by the returning management following a dispute, and were replaced by members of the "Rednex Tribute" (Tulley, Sandberg, Penten and van der Haagen), all themselves former official Rednex. It was the second time the whole lineup had been replaced simultaneously. In January 2010, Rednex released a new single, "Devil's On The Loose", in a partnership with The Pirate Bay for free and legal download worldwide. A video for the track was recorded in August 2009 in Norrbyggeby, Sweden. The song was released as the first single from the planned album "Saturday Night Beaver", which to date remains shelved due low single sales. Tulley soon also left Rednex for a second time, and was replaced by Dakotah (Nadja Flood), former singer in the Swedish dansband Nova, making her the fourth official female lead singer of Rednex.


title: Rednex

text: In January 2012, Rednex announced that they had dissolved the concept of a permanent band, intending instead to use a larger pool of characters from which one female and three male performers would be chosen for each performance. Rednex claimed that this idea was "totally unproven and unheard of in the music industry". The pool of performers in 2012 included permanent members Flood, Sandberg, van der Haagen and Penten alongside possible replacements Scheffler, new male member Rufus Jones and new female vocalists Abby Hick and Misty Mae. At the time of the dissolution of the permanent Rednex lineup Tulley again left the band.


title: Rednex

text: The second single "Racing" was released in May 2012. This was followed in November 2012 by "The End". The video for "The End" was recorded on September 2, 2012 at Garay Utca, the "ghetto of Budapest", and is a "flowumentary". Rednex refuted the notion that "The End" is related to 2012 doomsday theories. The band in these two videos now consisted of Flood, van der Haagen, Sandberg and Penten with Rufus Jones making a cameo appearance in "The End" video.


title: Rednex

text: In 2015, it was announced that second female singer Löfgren would replace Flood and rejoin the band. Also, Scheffler returned to the group. On New Year's Day, Rednex recorded a music video for "Innit for the Money". The single for "Innit for the Money" followed in 2016.


title: Rednex

text: In February performers Cassidy, Rattler, and Pervis the Palergator joined the band. Cassidy left Rednex 3 months later.


title: Rednex

text: Rednex made their debut on a North American stage in Carson City, Nevada, to honor fallen Deputy Carl Howell.


title: Rednex

text: On New Year's Eve 2017, Rednex played for the fourth time at the Brandenburger Tor in Berlin, in front of an audience of more than one million.


title: Rednex

text: In early 2018 the Rednex performer pool grew to include 17 people, the highest number so far. Added to the pool were Zoe, Moe Lester the Limp and Jiggie McClagganahan.


title: Rednex

text: The single and video Manly Man was released in July 2018. The video was recorded in Jelcz-Laskowice, Poland. The main characters are Dagger and Misty Mae, though all 25 Rednex performers through history are featured at some point through video flashbacks.


title: Rednex

text: During 2018, Rednex started a live streaming channel on Twitch. After a series of tests, the premiere happened on August 10 in connection to a show in Berlin. In the press release they claimed to be the first pop band, with a worldwide hit to their name, to live stream themselves 24/7 in connection to all their shows. During the same weekend, August 10-12th, Rednex performed with three different line-ups in three different territories, totaling 13 performers, which was a new record. Zoe, Moe Lester the Limp, Spades and Pervis the Palergator did shows in Romania and Hungary, while Billy Ray, Ace Ratclaw, Boneduster Crock, Misty Mae and Jiggie McClagganahan did shows in East Germany (Berlin & Schwerin), and Abby Hick, Rattler, Cash and Joe Cagg did shows in West Germany (Bonn & Frankfurt).


title: Rednex

text: In September Abby Hick, Rattler, Boneduster Crock and Joe Cagg left Rednex. Whippy, Billy Ray and BB Stiff became reserves, reducing the pool to 10 performers. The band was still for sale for €2,000,000.


title: Rednex

text: In November 2021, Jason Holler, former front man in the American rock band Kentucky Knife Fight, was revealed as the Original Boneduster Crock.


title: Rednex

text: Rednex is a mix of modern dance, pop, eurodance sounds with classical country, folk and bluegrass elements. Their dance tracks also features eurodance sounds, which were very famous and popular in Europe, Oceania and South America at that time. Rednex are best known for their dance country songs "Cotton Eye Joe", "Old Pop in an Oak", "Way I Mate" or "Racing". The style of eurodance was dance music with a female singer for the refrain and a male rapper for the verses to follow a traditional verse-chorus structure. However Rednex reversed it, with the female singer singing the verses and the male vocalist singing the bridge and the refrain. Although there are also tracks from other genres featured, such as pop ballads like "Wish You Were Here", "Hold Me for a While", "Rolling Home" or "Anyway You Want Me" or classical country driven songs such as "Riding Alone", "Ranger Jack" or "Nowhere In Idaho" with less dance sounds. These tracks are not considered to be europop.


title: Rednex

text: While their debut studio album "Sex & Violins" has the same amount on dance/country, classic country songs and ballads, their second album "Farm Out" is full of their dance/country style songs, except one ballad "Hold Me for a While" and one country song "Ranger Jack". Since 2006, Rednex returned with a more mature country pop sound such in "Mama, Take Me Home", "Fe Fi (The Old Man Died)" or "Football Is Our Religion". The lyrics are of tongue-in-cheek, innuendo and sexual topics.


title: Rednex

text: Rednex usually perform as personas that parody the "redneck" stereotype. For events and promotions, but also for music videos and cover arts, the group is styled in the American redneck stereotypes. In live performances and interviews, the members usually appear in a rough, unrefined character. Each member has an individual redneck nickname (see "Members" area to see the nicknames). Since 2000, Rednex have functioned much like an entertainment troupe as like a band, with an ever-shifting lineup of performers representing the band. As of 2015, there have been 16 performers in the permanent band.


title: Rednex

text: In January 2012, Rednex announced that they had dissolved the concept of a permanent band, intending instead to use a larger pool of characters from which one female and three male performers would be chosen for each performance. Rednex claimed that this idea was "totally unproven and unheard of in the music industry". In November 2012, Rednex began a franchise operation in Australia & New Zealand. Four new performers from Auckland and Wellington were recruited to form a second Rednex with a non exclusive license to perform in Australasia. Performers in the NZ/Australian lineup include: Rayanna Randy Payne (Theresa Murphy), Rawtooth Rick (Anthony Sibbald) and Slimboy (Pascal Roggen). A press release accompanying the franchise launch stated: "it's the first time an internationally known pop band has cloned itself".


title: Rednex

text: "Cotton Eye Joe" is featured in the films "The Negotiator", "Space Truckers", "Hood of Horror", Studentfesten, Les 11 Commandements, "C'est la vie! (2017 film)" and Milk Punch, in the TV series Malcolm in the Middle, My Name Is Earl, Peep Show, "New Girl (s02e25)", "The Morgana Show", Lukas, "Beavis and Butt-head", "The Ranch (TV series)" and a Season 13 episode of Family Guy, and in TV commercials by Telia and Telefonica. "Hittin' The Hay" and "Wild 'N Free" are featured in the film Barnyard. "Ride The Hurricane's Eye" was title track for German TV-series WinneToons. "Spirit of the Hawk" was title track for the German version of Fort Boyard in 2000.


title: Rednex

text: The "Inbred With Rednex" extended play features the interactive multimedia part "Inbred With Rednex" as the first track of the disc, which is a point 'n' click adventure game starring Rednex, playable only for Windows & Mac. The whole release is housed in an 18x23cm game box. "Cotton Eye Joe" has been featured in the video games Dancing Stage EuroMIX 2, Just Dance 3 by Nintendo Wii and Carnival Games. PlayStation's SingStar features the songs "Cotton Eye Joe" and "Old Pop in an Oak".


title: Ishqiya (TV series)

text: Ishqiya (; ) is a 2020 Pakistani television series premiered on ARY Digital. It is produced by Fahad Mustafa and Dr. Ali Kazmi under Big Bang Entertainment. It is a story of love, trust and betrayal which revolves around main characters, Hamza, Rumaisa and Hamna, played by Feroze Khan, Hania Aamir and Ramsha Khan respectively. The series was aired on 3 February to 10 August 2020.


title: Ishqiya (TV series)

text: It will also air in Arab World on MBC Bollywood in Ramadan 2021. Serial won 8 awards out of 17 nominations at ARY People Choice Awards 2020.


title: Ishqiya (TV series)

text: Hamna(Ramsha Khan) and Rumaisa(Hania Amir) are sisters raised by protective parents. Hamna is quiet, calm and reserved while Rumi is carefree, outgoing and talkative, but both love their father dearly. Hamna and her college classmate, Hamza have been dating for four years and are madly in love with each other. Hamza is rather possessive about her as well, violently so. Hamna is hesitant to tell her father about him as he doesn't believe in love marriages. Due to her father's sickness and fear of him losing his respect, Hamna gets married to her father's friend's son Azeem on his insistence. She hides this from Hamza and avoids him for a while. When Hamza finally finds out, he screams at Hamna in front of everyone in their university. Heartbroken and betrayed, Hamza meets with a car accident and is severely injured. Hamna prays for his recovery and he survives.


title: Ishqiya (TV series)

text: After regaining consciousness, Hamza vows to take revenge. He soon reaches Hamna's house with his parents to ask for Rumi's hand in marriage. Hamna is shocked by this and is strictly against this marriage. She tries to stop everyone but fails as Hamza blackmails using all her messages and videos in which she is expressing her love for him. Hamza manages to get married to Rumi, and the couples have a common reception. On the side, Alishba, Hamza's mother's partner's daughter who was in love with him, is extremely heartbroken and jealous. Rumi finds Hamza cute and is happy with the marriage.


title: Ishqiya (TV series)

text: After the marriages, Hamza begins calling Hamna often, sometimes to make her feel guilty for what she did, and sometimes to scare her by saying that he will mistreat Rumi. Due to continuous hushed calls and Hamna's distant and distracted behaviour, Azeem gets suspicious but does not question Hamna. Due to Rumi's carefree and lively nature, Hamza starts falling for her but does not realize it. He starts to enjoy spending time with her and she brings him joy like he has never known. Also, with Rumi being possessive of him, he begins to realize that him and Rumi has much more similarities than him and Hamna.


title: Ishqiya (TV series)

text: On Rumi's insistence, Hamza joins his father's business. As a part of revenge, Hamza gifts Azeem and Hamna honeymoon tickets and both the couples go on their honeymoon together. There Hamza continues to blackmail Hamna and beats a man up for staring at her. This makes Azeem more suspicious. Siddique Sahab (Hamna and Rumi's father) falls severely ill and is admitted to hospital but no one is aware of it except their mother. Alishba, who still has feelings for Hamza, begins to notice Hamza staring at Hamna and digs up their past and reaches their university to collect proof. As Rumi is more attached to her father, she immediately realises that something is wrong and asks Hamza to return. Once home, she becomes furious at her mother for not informing her about her father's illness.


title: Ishqiya (TV series)

text: Hamna confesses to Azeem about Hamza and her past, and while he feels betrayed , he vows to protect her.


title: Ishqiya (TV series)

text: Siddiqui Sahab passes away and Rumi is shattered and feels betrayed for not being able to help him. Azeem continues to behave coldly with Hamna but does not reveal to anyone about her past and the truth. When Hamza comforts Rumi after her father's death, she asks him whether he loves her to which he nods. Rumi asks him not to give her any false hopes and always remember that she too loves him. Rumi being unaware of his motive behind marrying her, advises Hamza not to become selfish in love and value others love as well, Hamza hugs her and his senses become overshadowed by her. He confesses same to his confidant, Shariq, that Rumi's tears make him uneasy and her happiness and well-being matters to him the most. Shariq says he has fallen in love with her which Hamza denies saying he has no place for love in his heart. Shariq tells him that Allah is much greater than his power of revenge and Allah has supported his love for Rumi. He advises him to give up on his revenge and accept his defeat (as he is in love with Rumaisa).


title: Ishqiya (TV series)

text: Azeem warns Hamza of coming near Hamna and consequences of his doings. Hamza, having accepted his love for Rumi, asks Hamna to end this game and that he has deleted all her messages. When Hamna thinks it is his fear speaking, Hamza reveals that he is in love with Rumi. Hamna does not believe him and asks him to tell her the truth, if he really loves her, to which he agrees.


title: Ishqiya (TV series)

text: When Hamza goes home to tell Rumi the truth, she tells Hamza that she is pregnant. Hamza requests Azeem not to reveal the truth to Rumi because of her pregnancy. Azeem and Hamna agree to do the same.


title: Ishqiya (TV series)

text: Next day, she goes to Hamna's house and on being asked, Hamna tells her the truth. Rumi goes back to her in-laws house and starts packing. When Hamza asks her where she is going, Rumi confronts him. She says that she realises that she was only his revenge and that their love was a lie. Hamza tries to explain but Rumi slaps him and tells him not to touch her. She goes back to her mother's house and is devastated. Hamna comes and tells her that Hamza was blackmailing her not to tell Rumi anything. Rumi tells the truth to her in-laws and her mother also hears about it. Hamza's family is ashamed and angry at his actions. Hamza tries to tell Rumi that he loves her but she tells him that he only loves himself. Rumi asks him to blackmail her and show her love messages to everyone not caring that she is his wife. Because he didn't care that Hamna is someone's sister, daughter and a wife. Due to weakness she has a miscarriage, this breaks Rumi a lot. However, she pulls herself together and forgives her mother. Azeem and Rumi forgive Hamna and Rumi files for divorce. In the end Hamna gets pregnant and Rumi is shown living a happy independent life with her mother.


title: Ishqiya (TV series)

text: Hamza is shown to be sitting alone with toys he bought for his unborn child all around him, seemingly broken and depressed.


title: Ishqiya (TV series)

text: The original soundtrack is sung and composed by Asim Azhar. Lyrics were written by Azhar himself along with Hassan Ali and Raamis. It received more than 17 million views on YouTube. The female version which is played within episodes and sometimes at the end is sung by Kaiynat John.


title: Japanese battleship Nagato

text: , named for Nagato Province, was a super-dreadnought battleship built for the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN). Completed in 1920 as the lead ship of her class, she carried supplies for the survivors of the Great Kantō earthquake in 1923. The ship was modernized in 1934–1936 with improvements to her armor and machinery and a rebuilt superstructure in the pagoda mast style. "Nagato" briefly participated in the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937 and was the flagship of Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto during the attack on Pearl Harbor. She covered the withdrawal of the attacking ships and did not participate in the attack itself.


title: Japanese battleship Nagato

text: Other than participating in the Battle of Midway in June 1942, where she did not see combat, the ship spent most of the first two years of the Pacific War training in home waters. She was transferred to Truk in mid-1943, but did not see any combat until the Battle of the Philippine Sea in mid-1944 when she was attacked by American aircraft. "Nagato" did not fire her main armament against enemy vessels until the Battle of Leyte Gulf in October. She was lightly damaged during the battle and returned to Japan the following month. The IJN was running out of fuel by this time and decided not to fully repair her. "Nagato" was converted into a floating anti-aircraft platform and assigned to coastal defense duties. She was attacked in July 1945 as part of the American campaign to destroy the IJN's last remaining capital ships, but was only slightly damaged and went on to be the only Japanese battleship to have survived World War II. In mid-1946, the ship was a target for nuclear weapon tests during Operation Crossroads. She survived the first test with little damage, but was sunk by the second.


title: Japanese battleship Nagato

text: "Nagato" had a length of between perpendiculars and overall. She had a beam of and a draft of . The ship displaced at standard load and at full load. Her crew consisted of 1,333 officers and enlisted men as built and 1,368 in 1935. The crew totaled around 1,734 men in 1944.


title: Japanese battleship Nagato

text: In 1930, "Nagato"s bow was remodeled to reduce the amount of spray produced when steaming into a head sea. This increased her overall length by to . During her 1934–1936 reconstruction, the ship's stern was lengthened by to improve her speed and her forward superstructure was rebuilt into a pagoda mast. She was given torpedo bulges to improve her underwater protection and to compensate for the weight of the additional armor and equipment. These changes increased her overall length to , her beam to and her draft to . Her displacement increased over to at deep load. The ship's metacentric height at deep load was . In November 1944, the tops of "Nagato"s mainmast and funnel were removed to improve the effective arcs of fire for her anti-aircraft guns.


title: Japanese battleship Nagato

text: "Nagato" was equipped with four Gihon geared steam turbines, each of which drove one propeller shaft. The turbines were designed to produce a total of , using steam provided by 21 Kampon water-tube boilers; 15 of these were oil-fired while the remaining half-dozen consumed a mixture of coal and oil. The ship could carry of coal and of fuel oil, giving her a range of at a speed of . The ship exceeded her designed speed of during her sea trials, reaching at .


title: Japanese battleship Nagato

text: Funnel smoke would often choke and blind crewmen on the bridge and in the fire-control systems so a "fingernail"-shaped deflector was installed on the fore funnel in 1922 to direct the exhaust away from them. It was less than effective and the fore funnel was rebuilt in a serpentine shape in an unsuccessful effort during a refit in 1924. That funnel was eliminated during the ship's 1930s reconstruction when all of her boilers were replaced by ten oil-fired Kampon boilers, which had a working pressure of and temperature of . In addition her turbines were replaced by lighter, more modern, units. When "Nagato" conducted her post-reconstruction trials, she reached a speed of with . Additional fuel oil was stored in the bottoms of the newly added torpedo bulges, which increased her capacity to and thus her range to at 16 knots.


title: Japanese battleship Nagato

text: "Nagato"s eight 45-caliber 41-centimeter (16 inch) guns were mounted in two pairs of twin-gun, superfiring turrets fore and aft. Numbered one through four from front to rear, the hydraulically powered turrets gave the guns an elevation range of −2 to +35 degrees. The rate of fire for the guns was around two rounds per minute. The turrets aboard the "Nagato"-class ships were replaced in the mid-1930s with the turrets stored from the unfinished s. While in storage the turrets had been modified to increase their range of elevation to –3 to +43 degrees, which increased the gun's maximum range from .


title: Japanese battleship Nagato

text: The ship's secondary armament of twenty 50-caliber 14-centimeter guns was mounted in casemates on the upper sides of the hull and in the superstructure. The manually operated guns had a maximum range of and fired at a rate of six to 10 rounds per minute. Anti-aircraft defense was provided by four 40-caliber 3rd Year Type three-inch AA guns in single mounts. The high-angle guns had a maximum elevation of +75 degrees, and had a rate of fire of 13 to 20 rounds per minute. The ship was also fitted with eight torpedo tubes, four on each broadside, two above water and two submerged.


title: Japanese battleship Nagato

text: Around 1926, the four above-water torpedo tubes were removed and the ship received three additional 76 mm AA guns that were situated around the base of the foremast. They were replaced by eight 40-caliber 12.7-centimeter Type 89 dual-purpose (DP) guns in 1932, fitted on both sides of the fore and aft superstructures in four twin-gun mounts. When firing at surface targets, the guns had a range of ; they had a maximum ceiling of at their maximum elevation of +90 degrees. Their maximum rate of fire was 14 rounds a minute, but their sustained rate of fire was around eight rounds per minute. Two twin-gun mounts for license-built Vickers two-pounder light AA guns were also added to the ship that same year. These guns had a maximum elevation of +80 degrees which gave them a ceiling of . They had a maximum rate of fire of 200 rounds per minute.


title: Japanese battleship Nagato

text: When the ship was reconstructed in 1934–1936, the remaining torpedo tubes and the two forward 14 cm (5-1/2 inch) guns were removed from the hull. The remaining 14 cm guns had their elevation increased to +35 degrees which increased their range to . An unknown number of license-built Hotchkiss M1929 machine gun in twin mounts were added. The maximum range of these guns was , but the effective range against aircraft was . The cyclic rate was adjustable between 425 and 475 rounds per minute, but the need to change 30-round magazines reduced the effective rate to 250 rounds per minute.


title: Japanese battleship Nagato

text: The unsatisfactory two-pounders were replaced in 1939 by twenty license-built Type 96 Hotchkiss Type 96 light AA guns in a mixture of twin-gun and single mounts. This was the standard Japanese light AA gun during World War II, but it suffered from severe design shortcomings that rendered it a largely ineffective weapon. According to historian Mark Stille, the twin and triple mounts "lacked sufficient speed in train or elevation; the gun sights were unable to handle fast targets; the gun exhibited excessive vibration; the magazine was too small, and, finally, the gun produced excessive muzzle blast". These 25 mm guns had an effective range of , and an effective ceiling of at an elevation of 85 degrees. The maximum effective rate of fire was only between 110 and 120 rounds per minute because of the frequent need to change the fifteen-round magazines. Additional Type 96 guns were installed during the war; on 10 July 1944, the ship was reported to have 98 guns on board. An additional 30 guns were added during a refit in Yokosuka in November. Two more twin 12.7 cm (5 inch) gun mounts were added at the same time abreast the funnel and her 14 cm guns were removed as she was by then a floating anti-aircraft battery.


title: Japanese battleship Nagato

text: The ship's waterline armor belt was thick and tapered to a thickness of at its bottom edge; above it was a strake of armor. The main deck armor was while the lower deck was thick. The turrets were protected with an armor thickness of 305 mm on the face, on the sides, and on the roof. The barbettes of the turrets were protected by armor 305 mm thick, while the casemates of the 1 guns were protected by armor plates. The sides of the conning tower were thick.


title: Japanese battleship Nagato

text: The new 41 cm turrets installed during "Nagato"s reconstruction were more heavily armored than the original ones. Face armor was increased to , the sides to , and the roof to . The armor over the machinery and magazines was increased by 38 mm on the upper deck and on the upper armored deck. These additions increased the weight of the ship's armor to , 32.6 percent of her displacement. In early 1941, as a preparation for war, "Nagato"s barbette armor was reinforced with armor plates above the main deck and plates below it.


title: Japanese battleship Nagato

text: When completed in 1920, the ship was fitted with a rangefinder in the forward superstructure; and anti-aircraft rangefinders were added in May 1921 and 1923, respectively. The rangefinders in the second and third turrets were replaced by 10-meter units in 1932–1933.


title: Japanese battleship Nagato

text: "Nagato" was initially fitted with a Type 13 fire-control system derived from Vickers equipment received during World War I, but this was replaced by an improved Type 14 system around 1925. It controlled the main and secondary guns; no provision was made for anti-aircraft fire until the Type 31 fire-control director was introduced in 1932. A modified Type 14 fire-control system was tested aboard the ship in 1935 and later approved for service as the Type 34. A new anti-aircraft director called the Type 94 that was used to control the 127 mm AA guns was introduced in 1937, although when "Nagato" received hers is unknown. The Type 96 AA guns were controlled by a Type 95 director that was also introduced in 1937.


title: Japanese battleship Nagato

text: While in drydock in May 1943, a Type 21 air search radar was installed on the roof of the 10-meter rangefinder at the top of the pagoda mast. On 27 June 1944, two Type 22 surface search radars were installed on the pagoda mast and two Type 13 early warning radars were fitted on her mainmast.


title: Japanese battleship Nagato

text: "Nagato" was fitted with an aircraft flying-off platform on Turret No. 2 in August 1925. Yokosuka Ro-go Ko-gata and Heinkel HD 25 floatplanes were tested from it before it was removed early the following year. An additional boom was added to the mainmast in 1926 to handle the Yokosuka E1Y now assigned to the ship. A Hansa-Brandenburg W.33 floatplane was tested aboard "Nagato" that same year. A catapult was fitted between the mainmast and Turret No. 3 in mid-1933, a collapsible crane was installed in a portside sponson, and the ship was equipped to operate two or three floatplanes, although no hangar was provided. The ship now operated Nakajima E4N2 biplanes until they were replaced by Nakajima E8N2 biplanes in 1938. A more powerful catapult was installed in November 1938 to handle heavier aircraft, such as the one Kawanishi E7K that was added in 1939–1940. Mitsubishi F1M biplanes replaced the E8Ns on 11 February 1943.


title: Japanese battleship Nagato

text: "Nagato", named for Nagato Province, was ordered on 12 May 1916 and laid down at the Kure Naval Arsenal on 28 August 1917 as the lead ship of her class. She was launched on 9 November 1919 by Admiral Katō Tomosaburō, completed on 15 November 1920 and commissioned 10 days later with Captain Nobutaro Iida in command. "Nagato" was assigned to the 1st Battleship Division and became the flagship of Rear Admiral Sōjirō Tochinai. On 13 February 1921, the ship was inspected by the Crown Prince, Hirohito. Captain Kanari Kabayama relieved Iida on 1 December 1921. The ship hosted Marshal Joseph Joffre on 18 February 1922 and Edward, Prince of Wales, and his aide-de-camp Lieutenant Louis Mountbatten on 12 April during the prince's visit to Japan.


title: Japanese battleship Nagato

text: After the 1923 Great Kantō earthquake, "Nagato" loaded supplies from Kyushu for the victims on 4 September. Together with her sister ship , she sank the hulk of the obsolete battleship on 7 September 1924 during gunnery practice in Tokyo Bay in accordance with the Washington Naval Treaty. The ship was transferred to the reserve of the 1st Division on 1 December and became a gunnery training ship. In August 1925, aircraft handling and take-off tests were conducted aboard "Nagato". She was reassigned as the flagship of the Combined Fleet on 1 December, flying the flag of Admiral Keisuke Okada. Captain Kiyoshi Hasegawa assumed command of the ship on 1 December 1926.


title: Japanese battleship Nagato

text: "Nagato" was again placed in reserve on 1 December 1931 and her anti-aircraft armament was upgraded the following year. In August 1933 the ship participated in fleet maneuvers north of the Marshall Islands and she began her first modernization on 1 April 1934. This was completed on 31 January 1936 and "Nagato" was assigned to the 1st Battleship Division of the 1st Fleet. During the attempted coup d'état on 26 February by disgruntled Army officers, the ship was deployed in Tokyo Bay and some of her sailors were landed in support of the government. In August, she transported 1,749 men of the 43rd Infantry Regiment of the 11th Infantry Division from Shikoku to Shanghai during the Second Sino-Japanese War. Her floatplanes bombed targets in Shanghai on 24 August before she returned to Sasebo the following day. "Nagato" became a training ship on 1 December until she again became the flagship of the Combined Fleet on 15 December 1938. The ship participated in an Imperial Fleet Review on 11 October 1940. She was refitted in early 1941 in preparation for war.


title: Japanese battleship Nagato

text: Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto issued the code phrase ""Niitaka yama nobore"" (Climb Mount Niitaka) on 2 December 1941 from "Nagato" at anchor at Hashirajima to signal the 1st Air Fleet ("Kido Butai") in the North Pacific to proceed with its attack on Pearl Harbor. When the war started for Japan on 8 December, she sortied for the Bonin Islands, along with "Mutsu", the battleships , , , of Battleship Division 2, and the light carrier as distant cover for the withdrawal of the fleet attacking Pearl Harbor, and returned six days later. Yamamoto transferred his flag to the new battleship on 12 February 1942. "Nagato" was briefly refitted 15 March – 9 April at Kure Naval Arsenal.


title: Japanese battleship Nagato

text: In June 1942 "Nagato", commanded by Captain Hideo Yano, was assigned to the Main Body of the 1st Fleet during the Battle of Midway, together with "Yamato", "Mutsu", "Hosho", the light cruiser , nine destroyers and four auxiliary ships. Following the loss of all four carriers of the 1st Air Fleet on 4 June, Yamamoto attempted to lure the American forces west to within range of the Japanese air groups at Wake Island, and into a night engagement with his surface forces, but the American forces withdrew and "Nagato" saw no action. After rendezvousing with the remnants of the 1st Air Fleet on 6 June, survivors from the aircraft carrier were transferred to "Nagato". On 14 July, the ship was transferred to Battleship Division 2 and she became the flagship of the 1st Fleet. Yano was promoted to rear admiral on 1 November and he was replaced by Captain Yonejiro Hisamune nine days later. "Nagato" remained in Japanese waters training until August 1943. On 2 August Captain Mikio Hayakawa assumed command of the ship.


title: Japanese battleship Nagato

text: That month, "Nagato", "Yamato", "Fusō" and the escort carrier , escorted by two heavy cruisers and five destroyers transferred to Truk in the Caroline Islands. In response to the carrier raid on Tarawa on 18 September, "Nagato" and much of the fleet sortied for Eniwetok to search for the American forces before they returned to Truk on 23 September, having failed to locate them. The Japanese had intercepted some American radio traffic that suggested an attack on Wake Island, and on 17 October, "Nagato" and the bulk of the 1st Fleet sailed for Eniwetok to be in a position to intercept any such attack. The fleet arrived on 19 October, departed four days later, and arrived back at Truk on 26 October. Hayakawa was promoted to rear admiral on 1 November and he was relieved on 25 December by Captain Yuji Kobe.


title: Japanese battleship Nagato

text: On 1 February 1944, "Nagato" departed Truk with "Fusō" to avoid an American air raid, and arrived at Palau on 4 February. They departed on 16 February to escape another air raid. The ships arrived on 21 February at Lingga Island, near Singapore, and the ship became the flagship of Vice Admiral Matome Ugaki, commander of Battleship Division 1, on 25 February, until he transferred his flag to "Yamato" on 5 May. Aside from a brief refit at Singapore, the ship remained at Lingga training until 11 May when she was transferred to Tawi-Tawi on 12 May. The division was now assigned to the 1st Mobile Fleet, under the command of Vice Admiral Jisaburō Ozawa.


title: Japanese battleship Nagato

text: On 10 June, Battleship Division 1 departed Tawi-Tawi for Batjan in preparation for Operation Kon, a planned counterattack against the American invasion of Biak. Three days later, when Admiral Soemu Toyoda, commander-in-chief of the Combined Fleet, was notified of American attacks on Saipan, Operation Kon was canceled and Ugaki's force was diverted to the Mariana Islands. The battleships rendezvoused with Ozawa's main force on 16 June. During the Battle of the Philippine Sea, "Nagato" escorted the aircraft carriers , and the light carrier . She fired 41 cm Type 3 "Sankaidan" incendiary anti-aircraft shrapnel shells at aircraft from the light carrier that were attacking "Jun'yō" and claimed to have shot down two Grumman TBF Avenger torpedo bombers. The ship was strafed by American aircraft during the battle, but was not damaged and suffered no casualties. During the battle "Nagato" rescued survivors from "Hiyō" that were transferred to the carrier once the ship reached Okinawa on 22 June. She continued on to Kure where she was refitted with additional radars and light AA guns. Undocked on 8 July, "Nagato" loaded a regiment of the 28th Infantry Division the following day and delivered them to Okinawa on 11 July. She arrived at Lingga via Manila on 20 July.


title: Japanese battleship Nagato

text: Kobe was promoted to rear admiral on 15 October. Three days later, "Nagato" sailed for Brunei Bay, Borneo, to join the main Japanese fleet in preparation for "Operation "Sho"-1", the counterattack planned against the American landings at Leyte. The Japanese plan called for Ozawa's carrier forces to lure the American carrier fleets north of Leyte so that Vice Admiral Takeo Kurita's 1st Diversion Force (also known as the Center Force) could enter Leyte Gulf and destroy American forces landing on the island. "Nagato", together with the rest of Kurita's force, departed Brunei for the Philippines on 22 October.


title: Japanese battleship Nagato

text: In the Battle of the Sibuyan Sea on 24 October, "Nagato" was attacked by multiple waves of American dive bombers and fighters. At 14:16 she was hit by two bombs dropped by planes from the fleet carrier and the light carrier . The first bomb disabled five of her casemate guns, jammed one of her Type 89 gun mounts, and damaged the air intake to No. 1 boiler room, immobilizing one propeller shaft for 24 minutes until the boiler was put back on line. Damage from the second bomb is unknown. The two bombs killed 52 men between them; the number of wounded is not known.


title: Japanese battleship Nagato

text: On the morning of 25 October, the 1st Diversion Force passed through the San Bernardino Strait and headed for Leyte Gulf to attack the American forces supporting the invasion. In the Battle off Samar, "Nagato" engaged the escort carriers and destroyers of Task Group 77.4.3, codenamed "Taffy 3". At 06:01 she opened fire on three escort carriers, the first time she had ever fired her guns at an enemy ship, but missed. At 06:54 the destroyer fired a spread of torpedoes at the fast battleship ; the torpedoes missed "Haruna" and headed for "Yamato" and "Nagato" which were on a parallel course. The two battleships were forced 10 miles (16 km) away from the engagement before the torpedoes ran out of fuel. Turning back, "Nagato" engaged the American escort carriers and their screening ships, claiming to have damaged one cruiser with forty-five 410 mm and ninety-two 14 cm shells. The ineffectiveness of her shooting was the result of the poor visibility caused by numerous rain squalls and by smoke screens laid by the defending escorts. At 09:10 Kurita ordered his ships to break off the engagement and head north. At 10:20 he ordered the fleet south once more, but as they came under increasingly severe air attack he ordered a retreat again at 12:36. At 12:43 "Nagato" was hit in the bow by two bombs, but the damage was not severe. Four gunners were washed overboard at 16:56 as the ship made a sharp turn to avoid dive-bomber attacks; a destroyer was detached to rescue them, but they could not be found. As it retreated back to Brunei on 26 October, the Japanese fleet came under repeated air attacks. "Nagato" and "Yamato" used "Sankaidan" shells against them and claimed to have shot down several bombers. Over the course of the last two days she fired ninety-nine 410 mm and six hundred fifty-three 14 cm shells, suffering 38 crewmen killed and 105 wounded during the same time.


title: Japanese battleship Nagato

text: On 15 November the ship was assigned to Battleship Division 3 of the 2nd Fleet. After an aerial attack at Brunei on 16 November, "Nagato", "Yamato", and the fast battleship left the following day, bound for Kure. En route, "Kongō" and one of the escorting destroyers were sunk by on 21 November. On 25 November, she arrived at Yokosuka, Japan, for repairs. Lack of fuel and materials meant that she could not be brought back into service and she was turned into a floating anti-aircraft battery. Her funnel and mainmast were removed to improve the arcs of fire of her AA guns, which were increased by two Type 89 mounts and nine triple Type 96 gun mounts. Her forward secondary guns were removed in compensation. Captain Kiyomi Shibuya relieved Kobe in command of "Nagato" on 25 November. Battleship Division 3 was disbanded on 1 January 1945 and the ship was reassigned to Battleship Division 1. That formation was disbanded on 10 February and she was assigned to the Yokosuka Naval District as a coastal defense ship. Moored alongside a pier, a coal-burning donkey boiler was installed on the pier for heating and cooking purposes and a converted submarine chaser was positioned alongside to provide steam and electricity; her anti-aircraft guns lacked full power and were only partially operational. On 20 April, "Nagato" was reduced to reserve and retired Rear Admiral Miki Otsuka assumed command a week later.


title: Japanese battleship Nagato

text: In June 1945, all of her secondary guns and about half of her anti-aircraft armament was moved ashore, together with her rangefinders and searchlights. Her crew was accordingly reduced to less than 1,000 officers and enlisted men. On 18 July 1945, the heavily camouflaged ship was attacked by fighter bombers and torpedo bombers from five American carriers as part of Admiral William Halsey Jr.'s campaign to destroy the IJN's last surviving capital ships. "Nagato" was hit by two bombs, the first bomb struck the bridge and killed Otsuka, the executive officer, and twelve sailors when it detonated upon hitting the roof of the conning tower. The second 500-pound bomb struck the deck aft of the mainmast and detonated when it hit No. 3 barbette. It failed to damage the barbette or the turret above it, but blew a hole nearly in diameter in the deck above the officer's lounge, killing 21 men and damaging four Type 96 guns on the deck above. A dud rocket of uncertain size hit the ship's fantail, but failed to do any significant damage. To convince the Americans that "Nagato" had been badly damaged by the attack, her damage was left unrepaired and some of her ballast tanks were pumped full of seawater to make her sit deeper in the water as if she had sunk to the harbor bottom.


title: Japanese battleship Nagato

text: Captain Shuichi Sugino was appointed as "Nagato"s new captain on 24 July, but he was unable to take up his appointment until 20 August. Retired Rear Admiral Masamichi Ikeguchi was assigned as the ship's interim captain until Sugino arrived. The Yokosuka Naval District received an alarm on the night of 1/2 August that a large convoy was approaching Sagami Bay and "Nagato" was ordered to attack immediately. The ship was totally unprepared for any attack, but Ikeguchi began the necessary preparations. The water in the ballast compartments was pumped out and her crew began reloading the propellant charges for her 16-inch guns. The ship received more fuel from a barge later that morning, but no order to attack ever came as it had been a false alarm. Sailors from the battleship , Underwater Demolition Team 18, and the high-speed transport secured the battleship on 30 August after the occupation began and Captain Thomas J Flynn, executive officer of the "Iowa", assumed command. By the time the war ended, "Nagato" was the only Japanese battleship still afloat. She was stricken from the Navy List on 15 September.


title: Japanese battleship Nagato

text: The ship was selected to participate as a target ship in Operation Crossroads, a series of nuclear weapon tests held at Bikini Atoll in mid-1946. In mid-March, "Nagato" departed Yokosuka for Eniwetok under the command of Captain W. J. Whipple with an American crew of about 180 men supplementing her Japanese crew. The ship was only capable of a speed of from her two operating propeller shafts. Her hull had not been repaired from the underwater damage sustained during the attack on 18 July 1945 and she leaked enough that her pumps could not keep up. Her consort, the light cruiser , broke down on 28 March and "Nagato" attempted to take her in tow, but one of her boilers malfunctioned and the ship ran out of fuel in bad weather. The ship had a list of seven degrees to port by the time tugboats from Eniwetok arrived on 30 March. Towed at a speed of , the ship reached Eniwetok on 4 April where she received temporary repairs. On her trip to Bikini in May, "Nagato" reached .


title: Japanese battleship Nagato

text: Operation Crossroads began with the first blast (Test Able), an air burst on 1 July; she was from ground zero and was only lightly damaged. A skeleton crew boarded "Nagato" to assess the damage and prepare her for the next test on 25 July. As a test, they operated one of her boilers for 36 hours without any problems. For Test Baker, an underwater explosion, the ship was positioned from ground zero. "Nagato" rode out the tsunami from the explosion with little apparent damage; she had a slight starboard list of two degrees after the tsunami dissipated. A more thorough assessment could not be made because she was dangerously radioactive. Her list gradually increased over the next five days and she capsized and sank during the night of 29/30 July.


title: Japanese battleship Nagato

text: The wreck is upside down and her most prominent features are her four propellers, at a depth of below the surface. She has become a scuba diving destination in recent years and "The Times" named "Nagato" as one of the top ten wreck diving sites in the world in 2007.


title: Northern Expedition

text: The Northern Expedition was a military campaign launched by the National Revolutionary Army (NRA) of the Kuomintang (KMT), also known as the "Chinese Nationalist Party", against the Beiyang government and other regional warlords in 1926. The purpose of the campaign was to reunify China, which had become fragmented in the aftermath of the Revolution of 1911. The expedition was led by Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, and was divided into two phases. The first phase ended in a 1927 political split between two factions of the KMT: the right-leaning Nanjing faction, led by Chiang, and the left-leaning faction in Wuhan, led by Wang Jingwei. The split was partially motivated by Chiang's Shanghai Massacre of Communists within the KMT, which marked the end of the First United Front. In an effort to mend this schism, Chiang Kai-shek stepped down as the commander of the NRA in August 1927, and went into exile in Japan.


title: Northern Expedition

text: The second phase of the Expedition began in January 1928, when Chiang resumed command. By April 1928, the nationalist forces had advanced to the Yellow River. With the assistance of allied warlords including Yan Xishan and Feng Yuxiang, nationalist forces secured a series of decisive victories against the Beiyang Army. As they approached Beijing, Zhang Zuolin, leader of the Manchuria-based Fengtian clique, was forced to flee, and was assassinated shortly thereafter by the Japanese. His son, Zhang Xueliang, took over as the leader of the Fengtian clique, and in December 1928, announced that Manchuria would accept the authority of the nationalist government in Nanjing. With the final piece of China under KMT control, the Northern Expedition concluded successfully and China was reunified, heralding the start of the Nanjing decade.


title: Northern Expedition

text: In the 1920s, the Beiyang government based in Beijing was internationally recognised as the legitimate Chinese government. Much of the country, however, was not under its control, being ruled by a patchwork of warlords. The Kuomintang (KMT), based in Guangzhou (Canton), aspired to be the party of national liberation. Since the conclusion of the Constitutional Protection Movement in 1922, the KMT had been bolstering its ranks to prepare for an expedition against the northern warlords in Beijing, with the goal of reunifying China. This preparation involved improving both the political and military strength of the KMT. Before his death in March 1925, Sun Yat-sen, the founder of the Republic of China and co-founder of the KMT, was supportive of Sino-Soviet co-operation, which had involved forming the First United Front with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The military arm of the KMT was the National Revolutionary Army (NRA). Chiang Kai-shek, who had emerged as Sun's protégé as early as 1922, was appointed commandant of the Whampoa Military Academy in 1924, and quickly emerged as a contender for the position of Sun's successor in the aftermath of his death.


title: Northern Expedition

text: On 30 May 1925, Chinese students in Shanghai gathered at the International Settlement, and held demonstrations in opposition to foreign interference in China. Specifically, with the support of the KMT, they called for the boycott of foreign goods and an end to the Settlement, which was governed by the British and Americans. The Shanghai Municipal Police, largely operated by the British, opened fire on the crowd of demonstrators. This incident sparked outrage throughout China, culminating in the Canton–Hong Kong strike, which began on 18 June, and proved a fertile recruiting ground for the CCP. Concerns about the rising power of the leftist faction, and the effect of the strike on the Guangzhou government's ability to raise funds, which was largely dependent on foreign trade, led to increasing tensions within the United Front. Amidst this backdrop, Chiang, who had been vying for the position of KMT leader, began to consolidate power in preparation for an expedition against the northern warlords. On 20 March 1926, he launched a bloodless purge of hardline communists who were opposed to the proposed expedition from the Guangzhou administration and its military, known as the Canton Coup. At the same time, Chiang made conciliatory moves toward the Soviet Union, and attempted to balance the need for Soviet and CCP assistance in the fight against the warlords with his concerns about growing communist influence within the KMT. In the aftermath of the coup, Chiang negotiated a compromise whereby hardline members of the rightist faction, such as Wu Tieh-cheng, were removed from their posts in compensation for the purged leftists. By doing so, Chiang was able to prove his usefulness to the CCP and their Soviet sponsor, Joseph Stalin. Soviet aid to the KMT government would continue, as would co-operation with the CCP. A fragile coalition between KMT rightists, centrists led by Chiang, KMT leftists, and the CCP managed to hold together, laying the groundwork for the Northern Expedition.


title: Northern Expedition

text: In 1926, there were three major coalition of warlords across China that were hostile to the KMT government in Guangzhou. The forces of Wu Peifu occupied northern Hunan, Hubei, and Henan provinces. The coalition of Sun Chuanfang was in control of Fujian, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Anhui and Jiangxi provinces. The most powerful coalition, led by Zhang Zuolin, then head of the Beiyang government and the Fengtian clique, was in control of Manchuria, Shandong and Zhili. To face the Northern Expedition, Zhang Zuolin eventually assembled the "National Pacification Army" (; NPA), an alliance of the warlords of northern China.


title: Northern Expedition

text: Amidst heavy fighting along the border between KMT-held territory and that of the recently allied forces of the Fengtian and Zhili cliques, the nationalist government appointed Chiang Kai-shek commander-in-chief of the NRA on 5 June 1926. Chiang would accept this post in a ceremony on 9 July, which marked the formal start of the Northern Expedition, although military clashes had already been ongoing. The initial strategy for the KMT's northern advance against the Zhili warlords, which was largely devised by Soviet advisors Mikhail Borodin and Vasily Blyukher, was to focus on defeating Wu Peifu and appeasing Sun Chuanfang, while ignoring Zhang Zuolin of the Fengtian clique. Having switched from a defensive to offensive posture, KMT forces quickly advanced from their base in Guangdong into Wu-controlled Hunan province, capturing Changsha on 11 July. At the time, most of Wu Peifu's forces were preoccupied with fighting at Nankou Pass, near Beijing, against the "Guominjun", a breakaway Zhili faction sympathetic to the KMT. Sun Chuanfang, who the KMT had avoided antagonising, did not intervene as KMT troops advanced further into Wu's territory. Whilst the Fengtian clique had offered its support to Wu, he refused their aid, fearing that the northern warlords would undermine his position if he allowed their troops into his territory. At a military conference held in Changsha on 11–12 August, the KMT decided launch a direct assault on Wu's stronghold of Wuchang, bypassing Sun's Nanchang. In this manner, they would follow the route taken by the Taiping Rebellion in the 19th century. In an address to his generals at the same conference, Chiang proclaimed:


title: Northern Expedition

text: With the capture of the Yangtze port of Yuezhou on 22 August, Hunan came under complete KMT control, paving the way for an advance to Wuchang along the route of the Beijing–Guangzhou railway. As Wu Peifu's forces retreated northward, they breached several Yangtze dikes, slowing the KMT push. By 28 August, the KMT, led by Li Zongren and his Guangxi NRA Seventh Army, had taken Xianning, about south of Wuchang. Wu Peifu, who had returned south to mount a defence of Wuchang, gathered his forces at Heshengqiao Bridge. On 29 August, he launched a counterattack against KMT forces to the south, compromising his defensive line, and by noon the next day, his forces were in general retreat toward Wuchang. In this short period of time, Wu lost 8,000 troops. At least 5,000 of these were taken prisoner, along with their rifles, providing a boost to KMT forces. By 2 September, the NRA had nearly surrounded Wuchang. Whilst Wu and most of his army fled north to Henan province, his remaining troops in the walled city held out for over a month. His failure in the face of the NRA, however, left his hold on power and reputation broken. What remained of his army would disintegrate in the following months.


title: Northern Expedition

text: With Wu Peifu's forces in retreat, the NRA directed itself toward Sun Chuanfang-controlled Jiangxi province, namely the city of Jiujiang and the provincial capital, Nanchang. Whilst Sun had been offered a non-aggression pact by the Guangzhou government, he was not willing to subordinate his administration to KMT rule. Consequently, whilst the siege in Wuchang was still ongoing, Chiang Kai-shek launched an attack across the Jiangxi border on 4 September. By 19 September, both Jiujiang and Nanchang had come under KMT control, hastened by the defection of Lai Shih-huang, one of Sun's generals. Despite these successes, the NRA offensive was forced into retreat as Sun arrived from Nanjing with reinforcements on 21 September. Sun retook most of the territory he had lost, brutally reasserting his authority by killing hundreds of students, teachers, and suspected members of the KMT, whose severed heads he displayed on spikes in public places.


title: Northern Expedition

text: With the Northern Expedition's advance halted, Chiang wired the government in Guangzhou, demanding an end to the still ongoing Canton–Hong Kong strike, which continued to hamper his supply chain. Negotiations with the British began on 23 September, with the strike finally called off on 10 October. This eased access to supplies for the NRA, and freed up manpower, in the form of the strikers, for the continued push north. On the same day, Wu Peifu's remaining forces at Wuchang surrendered, completing the NRA's conquest of Hubei province. As bloody fighting continued in Jiangxi, the civil governor of Zhejiang province, Xia Chao, one of Sun's subordinates, defected to the KMT government in Guangzhou. Zhejiang inhabitants had become increasingly dissatisfied with the rule of Sun, who was foreign to the province, and on 16 October, Xia declared its independence. Chiang Kai-shek, a native of Zhejiang, was able to convince Xia to side with the KMT. Following his defection, Xia launched an attack on Sun-controlled Shanghai, but was almost immediately forced to withdraw back to Zhejiang; Sun had detected Xia's plans days earlier. Sun's forces subsequently marched on Zhejiang, crushing the rebellion by 23 October. Xia was executed, along with hundreds of his troops, while thousands of civilians were massacred at Xia's former headquarters.