title: Northern Expedition

text: Alongside the Zhejiang rebellion, the NRA had continued their offensive in Jiangxi. Adding to the pressure on Sun, the Shantou-based NRA First Army, led by He Yingqin, marched across the Guangdong border, and began a new offensive into Fujian province. NRA troops were welcomed by many locals, including the Hakka, who resented foreign control, and gradually began to infiltrate the Fujian countryside. He's forces moved up the coast, pushing toward the provincial capital, Fuzhou. By the end of October, Sun's forces were again in retreat across Jiangxi and Fujian. In early November, KMT troops moved to capture the Yangtze ports of Jiujiang and Hukou, and by 9 November retook control of Nanchang. Sun's forces abandoned substantial materiel as they retreated, bolstering the poorly-armed NRA, which suffered 20,000 casualties in the final push on Nanchang alone. Concurrently, Sun himself had left for Tianjin with the aim of seeking aid from the powerful Fengtian clique. Shandong warlord Zhang Zongchang and Manchurian warlord Zhang Zuolin offered assistance, agreeing that it was necessary to contain the NRA, though they demanded payment in return for their help. As the NRA offensive carved its way through Fujian, 60,000 troops from Shandong arrived in Sun-controlled Anhui province on 24 November. These were organised into the "National Pacification Army" (NPA) on 1 December. Zhang Zuolin took the position of commander-in-chief, with Zhang Zongchang and Sun Chuanfang as deputy commanders.


title: Northern Expedition

text: This alliance was hugely unpopular with locals in the regions under Sun's control, with Zhang Zhongchang's northern troops viewed as invaders. The Zhejiang autonomy movement continued, and a meeting of influential provincial figures, nominally loyal to Sun, was held in Shanghai on 8 December. In Fujian, many of Sun's troops had already defected to the NRA, and on 9 December, He Yingqin's army entered Fuzhou unopposed. On 11 December, Zhejiang commander Zhou Fengqi announced his defection to the NRA. This started a cascade of defections, leading to Zhejiang's secession from Sun's "United Provinces", after which it was given autonomous status by the Guangzhou government. In response, Sun rallied his army on Zhejiang border, with the NPA protecting his rear, and charged into Zhejiang, retaking most of the province. By 10 January, the majority of the Zhejiang rebel forces had retreated to Quzhou. To relieve the besieged rebels, He Yingqin pushed his Fujian-based forces into Zhejiang, halting Sun's advance. The rebel and KMT forces merged under the command of Bai Chongxi, who launched a counteroffensive on 20 January. By 29 January, the offensive had reached Lanxi and Jinhua, where a fierce battle resulted in a catastrophic defeat for Sun's forces. Following this victory, the NRA launched a pincer attack on provincial capital Hangzhou. Many of Sun's northern troops, demoralised by defeat, broke ranks and streamed north, looting the towns and villages they passed along the way. With his forces in disarray, Sun's commander in the area, Meng Chao-yueh, decided on 17 February to abandon Hangzhou and flee with his 20,000 troops by train to Jiangsu province. By 23 February, Zhejiang was under complete KMT control. In six months, the nationalists had expanded their control to seven provinces, inhabited by a population of about 170 million people. Aided by the defection of numerous warlords and their armies, by this point, the NRA had bolstered its ranks to 700,000.


title: Northern Expedition

text: Sun Chuanfang retreated to Nanjing in the aftermath of these setbacks. The Fengtian clique responded to Sun's plea for help by reinforcing Jiangsu and Anhui provinces, while increasing the number of troops in Henan in support of Wu Peifu. Two major Fengtian formations, the Shandong Army of Zhang Zongchang and the Zhili Army of Chu Yupu, crossed the Yangtze River in February 1927 to help Sun defend Nanjing and Shanghai. Following their victory in Zhejiang, Chiang Kai-shek ordered the launch of an offensive on those two cities. The Hangzhou-based eastern NRA, led by Bai Chongxi and He Yingqin, launched a two-pronged attack in mid-March. Bai's forces advanced toward Shanghai, whilst He's forces moved toward Changzhou, with the goal of severing Sun's lifeline, the Shanghai–Nanjing railway. Meanwhile, Cheng Qian's central NRA advanced toward Nanjing through Anhui province, its path opened by the defection of Sun's forces there. The remnants of Sun's forces, supported by the Shandong Army, were forced to withdraw to Shanghai proper in the face of Bai's army. He's forces quickly severed the railway link with Shanghai, while Sun was confronted with the defection of his navy, and a communist general strike in Shanghai. Intense fighting took place at Songjiang, just outside the city, but on 22 March, Bai's forces marched into Shanghai victorious. The Fengtian support operation had proven to be a "costly operational disaster" for the northern warlords, whose armies had suffered heavy casualties, forcing them to retreat north across the Yangtze. Meanwhile, the strike continued until 24 March, when Bai ordered its end. The general disorder caused by the strike is said to have resulted in the deaths of 322 people, with 2,000 wounded, contributing to KMT feelings of unease with its wayward communist allies.


title: Northern Expedition

text: With Shanghai under their control, the NRA turned its attention to Nanjing. He Yingqin advanced from the south-east, whilst Cheng Qian came from the south-west. Zhang Zongchang ordered his Shandong Army to withdraw from Nanjing on 23 March, leaving the city undefended. Cheng arrived on the next day, entering the city with no resistance. Almost immediately after arrival of the NRA, mass anti-foreigner riots broke out in the city, in an event that came to be known as the Nanjing Incident. British and American naval forces were sent to evacuate their respective citizens, resulting in a naval bombardment that left the city burning and at least forty people dead. He's forces arrived on 25 March, and on the next day, Cheng and He were finally able to put an end to the violence.


title: Northern Expedition

text: Chiang Kai-shek's faction accused Lin Boqu of planning the unrest, viewing it as an attempt to turn international opinion against the KMT. Lin, a member of both the CCP and the KMT, had been serving as political commissar of the Sixth Army, part of Cheng Qian's forces. Whoever was responsible, the Nanjing Incident represented the culmination of tensions within the First United Front. The nationalist government had moved from Guangzhou to the new city of Wuhan, which was formed from a merger of Wuchang and two other nearby cities. The Wuhan administration gradually drifted away from Chiang, becoming a centre of leftist, Soviet-backed power within the KMT and constraining his authority. Communist-led trade unions staged near-constant demonstrations in Wuhan itself, and across the nominally KMT-controlled territories, establishing parallel structures of administration in areas liberated by the NRA.


title: Northern Expedition

text: In the final success of the first phase of the expedition, the NRA went on to capture Anhui provincial capital Hefei and the smaller city of Bengbu. NRA forces that had already been operating north of the Yangtze continued into northern Jiangsu province. Their advance, however, was hampered by the administrative chaos that followed the Nanjing Incident. Tensions between the leftists in Wuhan and rightists in Nanjing would come to a head, bringing the Northern Expedition to a halt. Meanwhile, in the aftermath of the Shanghai–Nanjing offensive, the aid of the Fengtian armies prevented Sun Chuanfang's army from collapsing completely, and they eventually managed to regroup and strengthen their forces for the next phase of the conflict. Launching a counteroffensive on 3 April, the NPA had been able to force the NRA back more than to the Yangtze by 11 April.


title: Northern Expedition

text: As part of the First United Front, many members of the Chinese Communist Party had joined the KMT, and they exerted significant influence over its left-wing faction. Mikhail Borodin, the official liaison between the KMT and the Soviet government in Moscow, had spent years cultivating this alliance, while covertly encouraging CCP expansion. This Soviet-backed leftist wing of the KMT came to dominate the nationalist government in Wuhan, which increasingly directed its ire at NRA commander-in-chief Chiang Kai-shek. On 1 April, the Wuhan government, advised by Borodin, issued edicts stripping Chiang of his authority in foreign affairs, financial matters, and communications, and ordered that he leave his command post in Shanghai and go to the front. These orders had no effect, as Wuhan had almost no military authority. The government intended to send a small force to Nanjing with the aim of "disarming" Chiang, but put that plan on hold following Wang Jingwei's return from exile in Europe. Wang, who had travelled back to China at the urging of members of the government, was greeted in Shanghai by Chiang, who offered a power-sharing deal. Wang said that he would consider the deal, and boarded a ship for Wuhan on 7 April. He arrived on the 10th, where he was eagerly greeted by the Wuhan leadership. Having heard from Wang about Chiang's offer, the government decided to turn its limited forces toward Beijing instead. Chiang, on the other hand, was already preparing for a purge of communists in Shanghai.


title: Northern Expedition

text: Between 12 and 14April, hundreds of communists in Shanghai were arrested and killed on the orders of Chiang in a disturbance that came to be called the "Shanghai massacre", effectively ending the alliance between the nationalists and the communists. The ensuing White Terror devastated the Communists, and only 10,000 out of 60,000 party members survived. The purge was condemned by the Wang Jingwei, now leader of the Wuhan government, formalising the split between the KMT leftists based in Wuhan and the KMT rightists, who subsequently established their own government in Nanjing. The precariousness of the NRA position in Nanjing was clear: at ceremonies held to commemorate the city's elevation to capital of China, warlord Zhang Zongchang's artillery bombarded the city's waterfront from across the Yangtze.


title: Northern Expedition

text: With the Nanjing–Shanghai area under constant threat of attack from the NPA, a series of independent offensives was launched by NRA and NRA-aligned forces in May 1927. Feng Yuxiang and his "Guominjun" moved first, leaving their base in Shaanxi to march on Luoyang, in Henan. On 10 May, the NRA First and Sixth armies crossed the Yangtze into Anhui, and on 16 May, Li Zongren, based in western Anhui, led the Seventh Army toward Hefei. Concurrently, the Wuhan government launched its own campaign in Henan province led by Tang Shengzhi, whom was appointed to serve as the Wuhan army's commander-in-chief. Aided by the defection of remnants of Wu Peifu's forces, Tang advanced to fight the forces of the "Young Marshal" Zhang Xueliang, Zhang Zuolin's son and political heir, pushing them back to a river at Yancheng.


title: Northern Expedition

text: By 20 May, Li had captured Bengbu, whilst Chiang unleashed a four-pronged attack through Jiangsu, toward the warlord power base in Shandong. He Yingqin led the NRA First Army across the Yangtze at Zhenjiang, and moved to capture Haizhou. On 28 May, Li took Suzhou, while the "Guominjun" took Luoyang, forcing Zhang Zongchang to withdraw his forces to Shandong, and Zhang Xueliang to fall back north of the Yellow River. Following Xueliang's retreat, Feng Yuxiang moved east from Luoyang to Zhengzhou. Finally, on 2 June, the NRA captured the vital railway junction of Xuzhou. With both the Longhai and Beijing–Hankou railways under NRA or "Guominjun" control, Feng came into direct contact with the Wuhan and Nanjing factional governments, who both sought his aid. He met with Wang Jingwei and Tang Shengzhi at Zhengzhou on 10–11 June, then travelled to Xuzhou to meet with Chiang Kai-shek on 19 June. On the next day, Feng announced that he would align with the Nanjing faction and purge communists from the areas under his control, crippling the Wuhan government's plan to push north, upon which Tang returned to Wuhan with his troops. Whilst Chiang intended to push into Shandong, he was thwarted by the arrival of the Japanese Kwantung Army during the course of June, who were ostensibly deployed to protect Japanese citizens in Qingdao. Around this time, Wu Peifu retreated with his remaining forces into Sichuan, where he announced his retirement. On 5 July, NPA general Chen Yi-yen defected to the NRA, but failed to convince his 10,000 soldiers at Qingdao to do likewise.


title: Northern Expedition

text: At Wuhan, Tang Shengzhi began to mobilise his troops for an attack on the Nanjing government. Aware of this threat, Chiang recalled troops from the Shandong border in an effort to block Tang. In turn, the NPA launched an attack on Chiang in early July, reclaiming much of the territory they had lost. By 24 July, the NPA had retaken Xuzhou. In the face of mounting losses inflicted by the warlords, the Wuhan and Nanjing factions began reconciliation talks. The Wuhan government purged communists from its ranks and expelled Soviet advisors, facilitating a rapprochement between the two factions, but also sparking the communist Nanchang uprising, which weakened its authority. In the meantime, however, the NPA counter-offensive continued, reaching Bengbu on 9 August, and forcing Chiang to withdraw his troops south of the Yangtze. In return for his co-operation, Wang Jingwei demanded that Chiang resign from his post of commander-in-chief, and relinquish all political titles. Accordingly, Chiang resigned from his post on 12 August, though this did not immediately reunify the Wuhan and Nanjing factions.


title: Northern Expedition

text: As the two sides attempted to reconcile their political differences, Sun Chuanfang's forces continued to bombard Nanjing from across the Yangtze. Sensing the NRA's continual disarray, Sun moved to try and recapture Shanghai, contrary to the wishes of NPA leader Zhang Zuolin. On 25 August, NPA landing parties were dispatched to cross the Yangtze at Longtan, near Nanjing. In the early morning of 26 August, thousands of Sun's troops crossed the river, rallying at the Longtan station of the Shanghai–Nanjing railway. Li Zongren's NRA Seventh Army managed to drive the NPA away from the railway briefly, but thousands more of Sun's troops, including White Russian mercenary units, crossed the river the next day and retook the station, cutting off contact between Nanjing and Shanghai. The reeling NRA sent missives to all factions within the revolutionary movement, calling for unity in the face of Sun's advancing troops. Accordingly, in an attempt to put pressure on Sun, Feng Yuxiang and his "Guominjun" launched an attack into Shandong on 28 August, while Wuhan sent its troops north, trying to flank Sun, and He Yingqin approached from Shanghai. With its forces encircled, and unable to continue to move troops across the river, the NPA was forced to abandon Longtan railway station on 30 August. In a desperate attempt at resistance, Sun rallied his 40,000 remaining troops and launched a counter-offensive on 31 August, only to be crushed in a hard-fought battle that left more than 10,000 of those troops dead. While Sun was able to escape to Shandong, his surviving troops were forced to surrender to NRA.


title: Northern Expedition

text: With victory in hand, reconciliation talks restarted on 7 September, and on 15 September, the Wuhan government was dissolved, with a new joint government established in Nanjing, under the leadership of Guangxi clique generals. Wang Jingwei refused to join the new government, as did Tang Shengzi, who became an independent warlord in his own right, controlling Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi, and parts of Anhui. On the other hand, Shanxi warlord Yan Xishan, theretofore independent, aligned his province with the Nanjing government, adding 100,000 troops to NRA ranks and increasing the pressure on Zhang Zuolin. In the subsequent fighting neither the Shanxi nor Fengtian forces managed to gain the upper hand. Yan's troops successfully withstood a massive siege at Zhuozhou, but went on to suffer a heavy defeat at Baoding on 15 October. The threat from Tang's forces, however, prejudiced any further northward advance by the NRA, and so in October it moved to quash his rebellion. Tang was defeated in early November, and left for exile in Japan shortly afterwards. With Tang dealt with, the push north resumed, reaching Bengbu by 9 November. Continuing their advance, the NRA and Feng Yuxiang's "Guominjun" moved toward Xuzhou. The NPA attempted a counter-offensive on 12 December, led by armoured trains, but was quickly forced back by the combined NRA and "Guominjun" forces, which took Xuzhou on 16 December. The NPA retreated once more to Shandong.


title: Northern Expedition

text: Meanwhile, in Guangzhou, a communist uprising broke out on 11 December. The violent rebellion was quickly put down, and on 13 December, Chiang Kai-shek called for the ending of all remaining relations with the Soviet Union. The Nanjing government agreed, and also aired its suspicions over the allegiances of Wang Jingwei, who had been based in Guangzhou after the end of the Wuhan government. Wang left for exile in France on 17 December, paving the way for Chiang's return as commander-in-chief. With the military success of Chiang's Whampoa troops, the various KMT factions agreed to recognise the legitimacy of Chiang's leadership. Consequently, Chiang was officially invited to resume command of the NRA on 1 January 1928.


title: Northern Expedition

text: With the frigid winter of northern China prohibiting any further advance, Chiang used the months following his reappointment to consolidate his control and restore the integrity of the Nanjing administration. On 18 February, Chiang was granted the title "Commander-in-Chief of the Northern Expeditionary Forces", whilst He Yingqin was made NRA chief-of-staff. The NRA was reorganised into four "collective armies". The First Collective Army was made up largely of the original NRA forces from Guangzhou, now based in the Nanjing–Shanghai area. The Second Collective Army consisted of Feng's "Guominjun", the Third of Yan's Shanxi forces, and the Fourth of Li Zongren's Guangxi clique army. By this point, the NRA was made up of one million soldiers, most of them part of ex-warlord armies. Preparing for a resumption of the expedition in March, Chiang ordered his foreign ministry to negotiate with the Japanese, in order to try to prevent their further intervention in Shandong.


title: Northern Expedition

text: By 1 April, Feng's NRA Second Collective Army ("Guominjun") and Yan's NRA Third Collective Army had started to fight the NPA on the Henan–Shandong border and along the Beijing–Suiyuan railway. The resumption of the Northern Expedition was officially launched by Chiang Kai-shek on 7 April. With the NPA line softened by Feng and Yan's attacks, the NRA First Collective Army rushed into Shandong along the Tianjin–Pukou railway, capturing Tengzhou by 16 April. Meanwhile, Feng's forces advanced into Shandong from the west, capturing Jiaxiang on the 15th. Sun Chuanfang decided to attempt a two-pronged counter-offensive against the NRA First and Second armies, managing to push the First back to the Longhai railway. His attack against the Second Army failed, and by the 21st, the combined NRA had forced him to withdraw from Jining to the provincial capital Jinan. According to an American account Sun's retreat, the "great majority of the troops in this retreat literally walked the soles off their shoes, and this, combined with the scarcity of food and total lack of shelter left the vast horde without any idea of further resistance". The Japanese, meanwhile, having heard of Sun's defeat, began to move Kwantung Army troops by train from Qingdao to Jinan.


title: Northern Expedition

text: While the NRA Second Collective Army advanced northeast to Jinan along the southern bank of the Yellow River, the First Collective Army diverged east from the Tianjin–Pukou railway at Tai'an, crossing the Taishan mountains to attack Jinan from the west via the Qingdao–Jinan railway. This strategy was successful, and by 29 April, the NRA had nearly encircled Jinan. The beleaguered NPA retreated to the north bank of the Yellow River, amidst looting and outbreaks of violence. At this point, there were already 3,000 Japanese troops in Jinan, guarding the 2,000 Japanese civilians in the city. On the next day, NRA troops entered Jinan. Chiang Kai-shek arrived on 2 May, and attempted to negotiate a Japanese withdrawal from Jinan, issuing safety guarantees for Japanese civilians to local Kwantung Army commander Hikosuke Fukuda. Fukuda agreed, and his troops prepared to leave that night. Early the next morning, conflict broke out between the Chinese and Japanese troops, starting what came to be called the "Jinan incident". What began as a minor armed altercation escalated on 8 May into a full-scale Japanese attack on the city. During the course of the incident, the Japanese killed KMT foreign affairs commissioner Cai Gongshi, several diplomats, and about five thousand Chinese civilians.


title: Northern Expedition

text: Deciding to avoid further confrontation with the Japanese, the NRA First Army continued its march north by going around Jinan to capture Dezhou on 13 May, while the NRA Second Army moved north along the Beijing–Hankou railway. Meanwhile, Yan Xishan's NRA Third Army proceeded toward Beijing from its base in Shanxi. The Second and Third armies met at Baoding on the North China Plain. While the Second Army besieged that city, the Third Army went north toward Zhangjiakou, gateway to Beijing. On 17 May, however, the forces of Zhang Zuolin launched a 200,000-man counter-offensive, forcing the First Army back and the Second Army south of Baoding. As fighting grew closer to Beijing, the Japanese sent a communique to both the NRA and Zhang, warning that any fighting in Manchuria would result in a Japanese intervention in that region. Zhang, weary of KMT propaganda that linked him with the Japanese massacre at Jinan, responded that he would "not recognize Japan's interest in Manchuria", compromising his position. With his troops demoralised, the momentum of the NPA counter-offensive fizzled out by 25 May, and the Third Army was able to capture Zhangjiakou on that day, and Nankou Pass on the next. With pressure growing on his vital railway links, Zhang gradually began to withdraw his troops from the North China Plain on 30 May. In the face of the NRA onslaught, and under pressure from the Japanese, Zhang decided to evacuate to Manchuria by train, leaving with his staff on 3 June. Early the next morning, a bomb planted by the Japanese Kwantung Army exploded under the train, killing Zhang in the so-called "Huanggutun incident". His remaining forces, even further demoralised, crumpled under the pressure of the NRA advance. Sun Chuanfang unleashed the final blow to the NPA when he withdrew his troops from the defensive line and fled to Japanese-controlled Dairen on 4 June. On 6 June, the NRA Third Collective Army marched into Beijing, ending the Beiyang government. The other NRA armies would arrive in the Beijing area over the next few days. Zhang Zongchang subordinate Xu Yuanquan subsequently surrendered Tianjin to the NRA First Collective Army on 11 June.


title: Northern Expedition

text: Zhang Xueliang succeeded Zhang Zuolin as leader of the Fengtian clique, and decided to end the war and to co-operate with the nationalists. The Shandong–Zhili Army led by Zhang Zongchang and Chu Yupu refused to surrender, and despite the defeats it had suffered still numbered about 60,000–70,000 soldiers, as well as at least three armoured trains manned by White Russian mercenaries under General Konstantin Nechaev. As Zhang Xueliang had sided with the nationalists, Zhang Zongchang declared war on the Fengtian clique. Supported by Japan, the Shandong–Zhili Army moved from its base at Tangshan on 2 August, crossed the Luan River, and invaded Manchuria. After six days of fighting, however, the defiant warlord army was trapped by KMT and Zhang Xueliang-aligned forces; many of Zhang Zongchang's troops (including the White Russian mercenaries) defected or deserted, and those who refused to surrender were killed. Zhang Xueliang officially declared his allegiance to the nationalist government in Nanjing on 29December 1928, marking the formal end of the Northern Expedition, and the reunification of China.


title: Northern Expedition

text: Following the capture of Beijing, Chiang and his administration moved quickly to reorganise the government for peacetime. In July, he and the leaders of the four collective armies met at Beijing to discuss the demobilisation and disarmament of the roughly 2.2 million troops that had come to be part of the NRA. Chiang desired to reduce the size of the army by half, so as to free up government monies for domestic development. The lack of unity in the new administration quickly became apparent, and on 14 July, Feng Yuxiang left Beijing. A general meeting of the KMT was held in Nanjing from 8–14 August. At this meeting, also attended by non-KMT members Feng and Yan Xishan, the primary topic discussion was that of centralisation. Chiang desired to take the power that had been executed through various provincial entities and concentrate it in the central government, in an effort to curtail the provincialist tendencies of the warlord era. Minister of Finance T. V. Soong called for all revenues to be centralised in the national treasury. In the end, though, it was recognised that real centralisation could only occur if the various commanders, the former warlords, relinquished their financial and military power to the national government. While these principles were nominally agreed to by the KMT membership, their exercise in practice was far from assured.


title: Northern Expedition

text: The new peacetime Nanjing government was launched on 10 October 1928, the seventeenth anniversary of the start of the Xinhai Revolution, with Chiang at its head. The country, however, remained "de facto" divided into five realms controlled by military leaders. The Nanjing faction controlled the area around Nanjing and Shanghai, while the Guangxi clique controlled Hubei, Hunan, and Guangxi. Feng Yuxiang's "Guominjun" continued to control Shaanxi, Henan, and parts of Shantung and Zhili, while Yan Xishan controlled Shanxi, Beijing, and the area around Tianjin. Zhang Xueliang continued to control Manchuria as a quasi-independent state, and local warlords in Sichuan, Yunnan, and Guizhou remained as they were before the Northern Expedition.


title: Northern Expedition

text: Defeated warlord Zhang Zongchang would return to his former territory of Shandong in 1929, where he launched a rebellion against his former subordinate Liu Zhennian, who had defected to the nationalists during the Northern Expedition. While the rebellion was put down swiftly, it demonstrated the Nanjing government's shaky hold on China's vast territory. As Chiang attempted to cut back the military and centralise the power of the nationalist government in Nanjing, the regional warlords, with their military forces largely intact, began to renounce their allegiance to Chiang and form an alliance against the KMT. This struggle for supremacy broke into armed conflict in the Central Plains War of 1929–30. Although Chiang was ultimately victorious in that war which ensured his status as the singular leader of all China, regionalism and warlordism would continue, weakening the country and laying the groundwork for the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Chinese Civil War.


title: Northern Expedition

text: The Northern Expedition became a point of contention between Joseph Stalin and Leon Trotsky in the Soviet Union. Stalin encouraged the CCP to co-operate with the KMT on multiple occasions, as he believed the KMT was more capable of completing the Chinese revolution. Trotsky was against collaboration with the KMT, as he believed that it was opposed to the concept of proletarian revolution. The Comintern backed Stalin's decision to financially support the KMT. Stalin, who in his China strategy prohibited the arming of workers and peasants, and encouraged co-operation with the bourgeoisie, was considered vulnerable in the aftermath of the failure of the first United Front. This failure crystallised his move away from international revolution and toward "Socialism in One Country". Stalin would never again trust the Chinese Communist Party, which he would later refer to as "margarine communists" who deviated from Marxist orthodoxy in their drive for peasant-based (land reform), rather than worker-based, revolution.


title: Siachen conflict

text: The Siachen conflict, sometimes referred to as the Siachen Glacier conflict or the Siachen War, was a military conflict between India and Pakistan over the disputed Siachen Glacier region in Kashmir. The conflict was started in 1984 by India's successful capture of the Siachen Glacier as part of Operation Meghdoot, and continued with Operation Rajiv in 1987. India took control of the Siachen Glacier and its tributary glaciers, as well as all the main passes and heights of the Saltoro Ridge immediately west of the glacier, including Sia La, Bilafond La, and Gyong La. Pakistan controls the glacial valleys immediately west of the Saltoro Ridge. A cease-fire went into effect in 2003, but both sides maintain a heavy military presence in the area. The conflict has resulted in thousands of deaths, mostly due to natural hazards. External commentators of have characterized it as pointless, given the perceived uselessness of the territory, and indicative of bitter stubbornness on both sides.


title: Siachen conflict

text: The Siachen Glacier is the highest battleground on earth, where India and Pakistan have fought intermittently since 13 April 1984. Both countries maintain a permanent military presence in the region at a height of over . More than 2000 people have died in this inhospitable terrain, mostly due to weather extremes and the natural hazards of mountain warfare.


title: Siachen conflict

text: The conflict in Siachen stems from the incompletely demarcated territory on the map beyond the map coordinate known as NJ9842 (). The 1949 Karachi Agreement and 1972 Simla Agreement did not clearly mention who controlled the glacier, merely stating that the Cease Fire Line (CFL) terminated at NJ9842. UN officials presumed there would be no dispute between India and Pakistan over such a cold and barren region.


title: Siachen conflict

text: Following the UN-mediated ceasefire in 1949, the line between India and Pakistan was demarcated up to point NJ9842 at the foot of the Siachen Glacier. The largely inaccessible terrain beyond this point was not demarcated, but delimited as thence north to the glaciers in paragraph B 2 (d) of the Karachi Agreement.


title: Siachen conflict

text: Later, following the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971, and the Simla Agreement in July 1972, the ceasefire line was converted into the "Line of Control" extending from the ""Chhamb sector on the international border [to] the Turtok-Partapur sector in the north."" The detailed description of its northern end stated that from Chimbatia in the Turtok sector ""the line of control runs north-eastwards to Thang (inclusive to India), thence eastwards joining the glaciers."" This vague formulation further sowed the seed for the bitter dispute to follow.


title: Siachen conflict

text: The U.N. document number S/1430/Add.2. is the second addendum to the 1949 Karachi Agreement, and shows the CFL marked on the Map of the State of Jammu and Kashmir as per the explanation of CFL in paragraph 'B' 2 (d) of the Karachi Agreement.


title: Siachen conflict

text: Title of U.N. document number S/1430/Add.2 which illustrates the CFL as per the Karachi Agreement reads:


title: Siachen conflict

text: Map of the State of Jammu and Kashmir showing the Cease Fire Line as Agreed Upon in the Karachi Agreement, Ratified by the Governments of India and Pakistan on 29 and 30 July Respectively. (See Annex 26 to the third Interim Report of the United Nation Commission for India and Pakistan)


title: Siachen conflict

text: A U.N. map showing CFL alignment superimposed on a satellite image depicts the CFL terminating at NJ9842. The extension of this line "thence north to the glaciers" never appeared on any authoritative map associated with either the 1948 or 1972 agreements, just in the text.


title: Siachen conflict

text: In 1949, a Cease-Fire Line Agreement (CFL) was signed and ratified by India, Pakistan and the UN Military Observer Group that delineated the entire CFL. In 1956–58, a scientific team led by the Geological Survey of India recorded its findings publicly including information about the Siachen and other glaciers.


title: Siachen conflict

text: After Pakistan ceded the Shaksgam Valley to China in a boundary agreement in 1963, Pakistan started giving approval to western expeditions to the east of mountain K2. In 1957 Pakistan permitted a British expedition under Eric Shipton to approach the Siachen glacier through the Bilafond La, and recce Saltoro Kangri. Five years later a Japanese-Pakistani expedition put two Japanese and a Pakistani Army climber on top of Saltoro Kangri. These were early moves in this particular game of oropolitics.


title: Siachen conflict

text: In the 1970s and early 1980s several mountaineering expeditions applied to Pakistan to climb high peaks in the Siachen area due in part to US Defense Mapping Agency and most other maps and atlases showing it on the Pakistani side of the line. Pakistan granted a number of permits. This, in turn, reinforced the Pakistani claim on the area, as these expeditions arrived on the glacier with a permit obtained from the Government of Pakistan. Teram Kangri I () and Teram Kangri II () were climbed in 1975 by a Japanese expedition led by H. Katayama, which approached through Pakistan via the Bilafond La.


title: Siachen conflict

text: In 1978 a German Siachen-Kondus Expedition under the leadership of Jaroslav Poncar (further members Volker Stallbohm and Wolfgang Kohl, liaison officer major Asad Raza) entered Siachen via Bilafond La and established the base camp on the confluence of Siachen and Teram Shehr. The documentary "Expedition to the longest glacier" was shown on the 3rd channel of WDR (German TV) in 1979.


title: Siachen conflict

text: Prior to 1984 neither India nor Pakistan had any permanent presence in the area. Having become aware of US military maps and the permit incidents, Colonel Narendra Kumar, then commanding officer of the Indian Army's High Altitude Warfare School, mounted an Army expedition to the Siachen area as a counter-exercise. In 1978 this expedition climbed Teram Kangri II, claiming it as a first ascent in a typical "oropolitical" riposte. Unusually for the normally secretive Indian Army, the news and photographs of this expedition were published in The Illustrated Weekly of India, a widely circulated popular magazine.


title: Siachen conflict

text: The first public acknowledgment of the maneuvers and the developing conflict situation in the Siachen was an abbreviated article titled "High Politics in the Karakoram" by Joydeep Sircar in "The Telegraph" newspaper of Calcutta in 1982. The full text was re-printed as "Oropolitics" in the Alpine Journal, London, in 1984.


title: Siachen conflict

text: Maps from Pakistan, the United Nations and various global atlases depicted the CFL ending at NJ9842 until the mid 1960s. United States Defense Mapping Agency (now National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency) began in about 1967 to show a boundary on their Tactical Pilotage Charts as proceeding from NJ9842 east-northeast to the Karakoram Pass at 5,534 m (18,136 ft) on the China border. This line was replicated on US, Pakistani and other maps in the 1970s and 1980s, which India believed to be a cartographic error.


title: Siachen conflict

text: In 1977, an Indian colonel named Narendra Kumar, offended by international expeditions venturing onto the glacier from the Pakistani side, persuaded his superiors to allow him to lead a 70-man team of climbers and porters to the glacier. They returned in or around 1981, climbed several peaks and walked the length of Siachen.


title: Siachen conflict

text: At army headquarters in Rawalpindi, the discovery of repeated Indian military expeditions to the glacier drove Pakistani generals to the idea of securing Siachen before India did. This operation was called Operation Ababeel. In the haste to pull together operational resources, Pakistan planners made a tactical error, according to a now-retired Pakistani army colonel. "They ordered Arctic-weather gear from a London outfitter who also supplied the Indians," says the colonel. "Once the Indians got wind of it, they ordered 300 outfits—twice as many as we had—and rushed their men up to Siachen". The acquisition of key supplies needed for operations in glaciated zones marked the start of major combat operations on the glacier.


title: Siachen conflict

text: April 1984 Operation Meghdoot: Indian Army under the leadership of Lt. Gen. Manohar Lal Chibber, Maj. Gen. Shiv Sharma, and Lt. Gen. P. N. Hoon learned of the plan by Pakistan Army to seize Sia La, and Bilafond La, on the glacier. Indian Army launched an operation to preempt the seizure of the passes by the Pakistan Army. Men of the Ladakh Scouts and Kumaon Regiment occupy Bilafond La on 13 April and Sia La on 17 April 1984 with the help of the Indian Air Force. Pakistan Army, in turn, learned of the presence of Ladakh Scouts on the passes during a helicopter recon mission. In response to these developments, Pakistan Army initiated an operation using troops from the Special Services Group and Northern Light Infantry to displace the three hundred or so Indian troops on the key passes. This operation led by the Pakistan Army led to the first armed clash on the glacier on 25 April 1984.


title: Siachen conflict

text: June – July 1987: Operation Rajiv: Over the next three years, with Indian troops positioned at the critical passes, Pakistan Army attempted to seize heights overlooking the passes. One of the biggest successes achieved by Pakistan in this period was the seizure of a feature overlooking Bilafond La. This feature was named "Qaid Post" and for three years it dominated Indian positions on the glacier. Pakistani Army held Qaid post overlooked Bilafond La area and offered an excellent vantage point to view Indian Army activities. On 25 June 1987 Indian Army under the leadership of Brig. Gen. Chandan Nugyal, Major Varinder Singh, Lt. Rajiv Pande and Naib Subedar Bana Singh launched a successful strike on Qaid Post and captured it from Pakistani forces. For his role in the assault, Subedar Bana Singh was awarded the Param Vir Chakra – India's highest gallantry award. The post was renamed Bana Post in his honour.


title: Siachen conflict

text: September 1987: Operation Vajrashakti/Op Qaidat: The Pakistan Army under Brig. Gen. Pervez Musharraf (later President of Pakistan) launched Operation Qaidat to retake Qaid peak. For this purpose units from Pakistan Army SSG (1st and 3rd battalions) assembled a major task force at the newly constructed Khaplu garrison. Having detected Pakistani movements ahead of Operation Qaidat, the Indian Army initiated Op Vajrashakti to secure the now renamed Bana Post from Pakistani attack.


title: Siachen conflict

text: March – May 1989: In March 1989 Operation Ibex by the Indian Army attempted to seize the Pakistani post overlooking the Chumik Glacier. The operation was unsuccessful at dislodging Pakistani troops from their positions. Indian Army under Brig. R. K. Nanavatty launched an artillery attack on Kauser Base, the Pakistani logistical node in Chumik and successfully destroyed it. The destruction of Kauser Base induced Pakistani troops to vacate Chumik posts concluding Operation Ibex.


title: Siachen conflict

text: 28 July – 3 August 1992: Indian Army launched Operation Trishul Shakti to protect the Bahadur post in Chulung when it was attacked by a large Pakistani assault team. On 1 August 1992, Pakistani helicopters were attacked by an Indian Igla missile and Brig. Masood Navid Anwari (PA 10117) then Force Commander Northern Areas and other accompanying troops were killed. This led to a loss of momentum on the Pakistani side and the assault stalled.


title: Siachen conflict

text: May 1995: Battle of Tyakshi Post: Pakistan Army NLI units attacked Tyakshi post at the very southern edge of the Saltoro defense line. The attack was repulsed by Indian troops.


title: Siachen conflict

text: June 1999: Indian Army under Brig. P. C. Katoch, Col. Konsam Himalaya Singh seized control of pt 5770 (Naveed Top/Cheema Top/Bilal Top) in the southern edge of the Saltoro defense line from Pakistan troops.


title: Siachen conflict

text: In , former Pakistani president General Pervez Musharraf states that Pakistan lost almost of territory that it claimed. "TIME" states that the Indian advance captured nearly of territory claimed by Pakistan.


title: Siachen conflict

text: Further attempts to reclaim positions were launched by Pakistan in 1990, 1995, 1996 and even in early 1999, just prior to the Lahore Summit.


title: Siachen conflict

text: The Indian army controls all of the and 2553sq km area long Siachen Glacier and all of its tributary glaciers, as well as all the main passes and heights of the Saltoro Ridge immediately west of the glacier, including Sia La, Bilafond La, and Gyong La—thus holding onto the tactical advantage of high ground. Indians have been able to hold on to the tactical advantage of the high ground... Most of India's many outposts are west of the Siachen Glacier along the Saltoro Range. In an academic study with detailed maps and satellite images, co-authored by brigadiers from both the Pakistani and Indian military, pages 16 and 27: "Since 1984, the Indian army has been in physical possession of most of the heights on the Saltoro Range west of the Siachen Glacier, while the Pakistan army has held posts at lower elevations of western slopes of the spurs emanating from the Saltoro ridgeline. The Indian army has secured its position on the ridgeline."


title: Siachen conflict

text: The line between where Indian and Pakistani troops are presently holding onto their respective posts is being increasingly referred to as the Actual Ground Position Line (AGPL).


title: Siachen conflict

text: Despite the high cost India maintains presence, as Pakistani control of Siachen would allow them to put radar and monitor all Indian airforce activity in Ladakh. It would also unite the Chinese and Pakistani front and allow them to launch a combined attack on India in case of a conflict. It saves Indian army from heavy cost of building defence infrastructure in the Nubra valley. While stakes are high for India, Pakistan cannot be threatened with Indian control of Siachen as the terrain does not allow India to launch an offensive on Pakistan but is a big question on Pakistan's ability to defend its territory claims. 1999 Kargil war was also an attempt to restrict supply route to Ladakh and Siachen.


title: Siachen conflict

text: Both sides have shown desire to vacate the glacier as there are environmental and cost concerns. There are numerous negotiations between both parties but have shown no significant progress, the process was further complicated when Pakistan violated ceasefire line in 1999 and built bunkers on Indian side and started artillery fire on Indian strategic highways resulting in 1999 Kargil War. Even if both sides agree to demilitarize a Pakistani occupation similar to 1999 will make it extremely difficult and expensive for India to reoccupy the glacier. The steady Chinese advancement in Himalayas is also a concern since 2020 Galwan Incident as the border understanding was violated and a similar incident, though unlikely is possible inflicting heavy cost on India.


title: Siachen conflict

text: Siachen is seen as a major military setback by the Pakistani Army. Pakistani generals view the Siachen glacier as their land, which has been stolen by India. When India occupied the Saltoro Ridge in April 1984, Benazir Bhutto publicly taunted the Pakistan Army as "fit only to fight its own citizens". When, in June 1987, the Indian Army captured the 21,153 foot high "Quaid Post" and renamed it to "Bana Top", in honour of Naib Subedar Bana Singh, Bhutto once again publicly taunted the Pakistani generals, telling them to wear bangles if they cannot fight on the Siachen.


title: Siachen conflict

text: American observers say that the military conflict between India and Pakistan over the Siachen Glacier "made no military or political sense".


title: Siachen conflict

text: An article in the Minneapolis Star Tribune stated: "Their combat over a barren, uninhabited world of questionable value is a forbidding symbol of their lingering, irreconcilability." Stephen P. Cohen compared the conflict to "a struggle between two bald men over a comb. Siachen is a symbol of the worst aspects of their relationship."


title: Siachen conflict

text: In the book "Asymmetric Warfare in South Asia: The Causes and Consequences of the Kargil Conflict", Khan, Lavoy and Clary wrote: The Pakistan army sees India's 1984 occupation of the Siachen Glacier as a major scar, outweighed only by Dhaka's fall in 1971. The event underscored the dilution of the Simla Agreement and became a domestic issue as political parties, led by Benazir Bhutto's Peoples Party, blamed an incompetent military government under Zia ul-Haq for failing to defend Pakistani-held territory — while Zia downplayed the significance of the loss.


title: Siachen conflict

text: General Ved Prakash Malik, in his book "Kargil from Surprise to Victory", wrote: Siachen is considered a military setback by the Pakistan Army. That the Indians dominate the area from the Saltoro Ridge and Pakistani troops are nowhere near the Siachen Glacier is a fact never mentioned in public. The perceived humiliation at Siachen manifests itself in many ways. It is synonymous with Indian perfidy and a violation of the Shimla Agreement... In Pakistan, Siachen is a subject that hurts, just like a thorn in its flesh; it is also a psychological drain on the Pakistani Army. Pervez Musharraf had himself once commanded the Special Services Group (SSG) troops in this area and made several futile attempts to capture Indian posts.


title: Siachen conflict

text: The cost of presence on glacier is heavy for both countries but it account for a larger portion of Pakistan's economy. India over the years has built permanent positions on ground.


title: Siachen conflict

text: A cease-fire went into effect in 2003. Even before then, more soldiers were killed every year due to severe weather conditions than enemy fire. The two sides by 2003 had lost an estimated 2,000 personnel primarily due to frostbite, avalanches and other complications. Together, the nations have about 150 manned outposts along the glacier, with some 3,000 troops each. Official figures for maintaining these outposts are put at ~$300 and ~$200 million for India and Pakistan respectively. India built the world's highest helipad on the glacier at Point Sonam, 21,000 feet (6,400 m) above the sea level, to supply its troops. The problems of reinforcing or evacuating the high-altitude ridgeline have led to India's development of the Dhruv Mk III helicopter, powered by the Shakti engine, which was flight-tested to lift and land personnel and stores from the Sonam post, the highest permanently manned post in the world. India also installed the world's highest telephone booth on the glacier.


title: Siachen conflict

text: According to some estimates, 97% of the casualties in Siachen have been due to weather and altitude, rather than actual fighting. In 2012, an avalanche hit Pakistan's Gayari military base, killing 129 soldiers and 11 civilians.


title: Siachen conflict

text: One of the factors behind the Kargil War in 1999 when Pakistan sent infiltrators to occupy vacated Indian posts across the Line of Control was their belief that India would be forced to withdraw from Siachen in exchange of a Pakistani withdrawal from Kargil. After the Kargil War, India decided to maintain its military outposts on the glacier, wary of further Pakistani incursions into Kashmir if they vacate from the Siachen Glacier posts.


title: Siachen conflict

text: On 12 June 2005, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh became the first Indian Prime Minister to visit the area, calling for a peaceful resolution of the problem. In 2007, the President of India, Abdul Kalam became the first head of state to visit the area. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Siachen on 23 October 2014 to celebrate Diwali with the troops and boost their morale.


title: Siachen conflict

text: The Chief of Staff of US Army, General George Casey on 17 October 2008 visited the Siachen Glacier along with Indian Army Chief, General Deepak Kapoor. US General visited for the purpose of "developing concepts and medical aspects of fighting in severe cold conditions and high altitude".


title: Siachen conflict

text: Since September 2007, India has welcomed mountaineering and trekking expeditions to the forbidding glacial heights. The expeditions have been meant to show the international audience that Indian troops hold "almost all dominating heights" on the important Saltoro Ridge west of Siachen Glacier, and to show that Pakistani troops are nowhere near the Siachen Glacier and from 2019 the Indian Army And The Indian Government has allowed the tourists to visit the Siachen Glacier's Indian Army Post.


title: Siachen conflict

text: The Siachen glacier and its conflict was depicted in a 48-page comic book, "Siachen: The Cold War", released in August 2012. Later its sequel, "Battlefield Siachen", was released in January 2013.


title: Siachen conflict

text: On 11 February 2010, an avalanche struck an Indian army post in the Southern Glacier, killing one soldier. A base camp was also struck, that killed two Ladakh scouts. The same day, a single avalanche hit a Pakistani military camp in Bevan sector, killing 8 soldiers.


title: Siachen conflict

text: In 2011, 24 Indian soldiers died on the Siachen glacier from the climate and accidents. On 22 July, two Indian officers burned to death when a fire caught on their shelter.


title: Siachen conflict

text: In the early morning of 7 April 2012, an avalanche hit a Pakistani military headquarters in the Gayari Sector, burying 129 soldiers of the 6th Northern Light Infantry battalion and 11 civilian contractors. In the aftermath of the disaster, Pakistan's army chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani suggested India and Pakistan should withdraw all troops from the contested glacier.


title: Siachen conflict

text: On 12 December, an avalanche killed 6 Indian soldiers in the Sub Sector Hanif in Turtuk area, when troops of the 1st Assam regiment were moving between posts. In 2012, a total of 12 Indian soldiers died of hostile weather conditions.


title: Siachen conflict

text: On 14 November 2015, an Indian captain from the Third Ladakh scouts died in an avalanche in the Southern Glacier while 15 others were rescued.


title: Siachen conflict

text: On 4 January 2016, four Indian soldiers of the Ladakh Scouts, were killed in an avalanche on the Southern Glacier while on patrol duty in Nobra Valley.


title: Siachen conflict

text: On the morning of 3 February 2016, ten Indian soldiers including one Junior commissioned officer of the 6th Madras battalion were buried under the snow when a massive avalanche struck their post in the Northern Glacier at a height of 19,600 feet, on the Actual Ground Position Line. Pakistani officials offered their help in search and rescue operations 30 hours after the incident, although it was declined by Indian military authorities. During the rescue operations, the Indian army found Lance Naik Hanumanthappa alive, though in a critical condition, after being buried under 25 feet snow for 6 days. He was taken to Army Research and Referral Hospital in Delhi. His condition became critical later on due to multiple organ failure and lack of oxygen to brain and he died 11 February 2016.


title: Siachen conflict

text: On 27 February, a civilian porter working with the Indian army in the Northern Glacier, fell to his death in a 130-foot crevasse.


title: Siachen conflict

text: On 17 March, two Indian soldiers from the Chennai-21 regiment were killed, and bodies recovered in 12-feet deep ice.


title: Siachen conflict

text: On 25 March, two Indian jawans died after they were buried in an avalanche in the Turtuk sector while on patrol.


title: Siachen conflict

text: On 1 April, Indian General Dalbir Singh and General D. S. Hooda of the Northern Command visited the Siachen glacier in order to boost morale after 17 of its soldiers died in 2016.


title: Siachen conflict

text: On 3 June 2019, Indian defense minister Rajnath Singh visited the Indian army's forward posts and base camp in Siachen. He interacted with the Indian soldiers deployed in Siachen and commended their courage. He claimed that more than 1,100 Indian soldiers have died defending the Siachen glacier.


title: Siachen conflict

text: From 18 to 30 November 2019, 6 Indian soldiers and 2 Indian civilians porters were killed as result of an avalanche in the northern and southern part of Siachen glacier.


title: Port St. Lucie, Florida

text: Port St. Lucie is a city in St. Lucie County, Florida, United States. It is the most populous municipality in the county with a population of 204,851 at the 2020 census. It is located southeast of Orlando and north of Miami. The Port St. Lucie Metropolitan Area includes the counties of St. Lucie and Martin and as of 2016 had an estimated population of 465,208. Port St. Lucie is also contained within the Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Port St. Lucie Combined Statistical Area with an estimated population of 6,832,588.


title: Port St. Lucie, Florida

text: The name "St. Lucie" is originally derived from the name of a settlement near Jupiter Inlet which was founded on St. Lucia's day in 1566. Due to numerous errors, the name later came to be associated with the present day town of St. Lucie Village, Florida, north of present-day Port St. Lucie. After "La Florida" and "St. Augustine," it is the oldest place name in the United States. In the early 1890s, an early pioneer settlement named Spruce Bluff was located along the St. Lucie River, which consisted of a community of several families with a school, post office, pineapple plantation, and sawmill. Currently, the land the settlement was located on is part of the Spruce Bluff Preserve. Along with an old cemetery near the old settlement, the preserve also contains a hiking area, canoe access, observation areas, and a prehistoric Ais Indian mound located on the southern end of the preserve.


title: Port St. Lucie, Florida

text: In the 1950s, the land that would eventually become Port St. Lucie was a largely uninhabited tract of land south of White City, composed of a fishing camp (Burt Pruitt's Fishin' Farm) along the St. Lucie River, a few farms and businesses near U.S. 1. In 1958, with a budget of $5, the General Development Corporation (GDC) purchased the River Park development and along the North Fork of the St. Lucie River. In 1959, the GDC opened its first bridge over the St. Lucie River, allowing for direct automobile access to Port St. Lucie.


title: Port St. Lucie, Florida

text: By February 25, 1961, there were 250 homes in the new city. GDC requested the state legislature to incorporate , along with the River Park settlement, into the City of Port St. Lucie. River Park did not incorporate into the city at the request of its residents. Port St. Lucie became a city on April 27, 1961, with the passage of House Bill No. 953, proposed by State Representative Rupert Smith and approved by Florida Governor C. Farris Bryant.


title: Port St. Lucie, Florida

text: In the early 1990s, Core Communities (CC), acquired and began planning what would become St. Lucie West. Originally, St. Lucie West was to have contained about 14,000 homes over a 20-year period on . But after realizing the community's strategic position, they began developing it into more than just a residential area. CC began building business sectors and places of entertainment and leisure. That resulted in 7,000 jobs being brought to the small town, helping it into its boom during most of the early 2000s.


title: Port St. Lucie, Florida

text: In 2006, CC started development of its newest community, Tradition. The community, which sits west of the Interstate 95 interchange with Gatlin Blvd., was a large cattle ranch before CC began to develop it. There they built around of commercial area, and room for over 18,000 residences. According to CC's website, Tradition is the largest fully entitled residential development area from the tip of Interstate 95 to the Canada–U.S. border. It is modeled after a 1950s-era town. According to its website, Tradition Square, the town center of the community, holds festivities year-round. It was also chosen as the site of HGTV's Green Home 2009.


title: Port St. Lucie, Florida

text: In 2007, the housing market began to collapse and unemployment started to rise. As of February 2009, unemployment was at 10½ percent and in 2008, nearly 11,000 homes went into foreclosure. This prompted the county government to consider declaring itself a disaster area. Doing so would have given county administrators access to $17 million in county emergency reserve funds. That money, combined with a transportation fund and other accounts, would give St. Lucie $20 – $30 million to spend on building projects: research parks, highways and other infrastructure improvements.


title: Port St. Lucie, Florida

text: In 2008, Tradition and Core Communities welcomed the Florida Center of Innovation (later renamed Tradition Center for Innovation), a 150-acre privately owned research park dedicated to drug discovery, immunology and medical devices, and healthcare. TCI initially composed of Torrey Pines Institute for Molecular Studies, Oregon Health and Science University's Vaccine and Gene Therapy Institute (VGTI), Martin Health System Hospital (Tradition Medical Center), and Mann Research Center. In 2015, VGTI shut down their TCI facility, and Mann Research Center soon followed. As of 2019, only Torrey Pines and Tradition Medical Center remain in TCI.


title: Port St. Lucie, Florida

text: In 2017, TAMCO, a subsidiary of City Electric Supply, a family-owned electrical wholesale business, created plans with the Port St. Lucie City Council to construct a $38 million, 400,000 square foot manufacturing and distribution center located in the Tradition Commerce Park. Construction of the TAMCO facility began in 2018 and was completed in late 2019.


title: Port St. Lucie, Florida

text: As of 2000, 31.6% of households had children under the age of 18 living with them, 61.8% were married couples living together, 10.0% had a female householder with no husband present, and 24.1% were non-families. Of all households 18.2% were made up of individuals, and 8.9% had someone living alone who was aged 65 or older. The average household size was 2.60 and the average family size was 2.94. As of the 2010 census the population was 61.6% non-Hispanic white, 15.6% non-Hispanic black, 0.8% Hispanic black, 0.4% Native American, 0.5% Asian Indian, 1.5% other Asian, 0.1% Pacific Island, 0.4% non-Hispanics reporting some other race alone, 3.0% from two or more races, and 17.6% non-black Hispanics.


title: Port St. Lucie, Florida

text: In 2000, the city's population was spread out, with 24.3% under the age of 18, 5.9% from 18 to 24, 28.1% from 25 to 44, 22.8% from 45 to 64, and 18.8% who were 65 or older. The median age was 40 years. For every 100 females, there were 94.5 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 91.4 males.


title: Port St. Lucie, Florida

text: In 2000, the median income for a household in the city was $40,509, and the median income for a family was $44,162. Males had a median income of $18,730 versus $16,702 for females. The per capita income for the city was $18,059. About 15.7% of families and 17.9% of the population were below the poverty line, including 11.1% of those under age 18 and 9.8% of those age 65 or over.


title: Port St. Lucie, Florida

text: As of 2000, 88.05% of residents spoke English as their first language, while 6.59% spoke Spanish, 1.34% spoke Italian, 1.00% spoke French, 0.60% spoke German, and 0.50% spoke Haitian Creole as their mother tongue. In total, 11.94% of the total population spoke languages other than English.


title: Port St. Lucie, Florida

text: According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which is land and (1.50%) is water.


title: Port St. Lucie, Florida

text: Beginning in late 2019, Port St. Lucie began naming different neighborhoods throughout the city. As of 2020, there are 32 neighborhoods in Port St. Lucie:


title: Port St. Lucie, Florida

text: Port St. Lucie is located in the broad transition zone between a humid subtropical climate (Cfa), which dominates Central Florida, and within the northern extent of the tropical climate typical of South Florida. Summers are usually hot, with high temperatures averaging in the low 90s. Winters are usually mild to warm, with average high temperatures in the 70s. The average yearly precipitation is around 53.5 in.


title: Port St. Lucie, Florida

text: Port St. Lucie was hit directly by Hurricane Frances (as a Category 2 hurricane) on September 4, 2004, and by Hurricane Jeanne (as a Category 3 hurricane) on September 26, 2004.


title: Port St. Lucie, Florida

text: Port St. Lucie is served by the St. Lucie Transportation Planning Organization (TPO). The TPO is a Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO), a federally mandated and federally funded transportation policy-making organization responsible for transportation planning, programming, and financing of State and Federal Transportation Funds for the City of Port St. Lucie. The TPO is governed by a TPO Board, which is composed of elected officials, representatives from the St. Lucie County School Board, and representatives from Community Transit, a division of The Council on Aging of St. Lucie, Inc.


title: Port St. Lucie, Florida

text: The original bus system started out as a demand response service bus in the 1990s, it only served St. Lucie County. Soon it expanded to a fixed route system, going to predetermined locations along a route. On June 3, 2002, the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) approved funding, expanding the bus service to Martin County, and became the Treasure Coast Connector.


title: Port St. Lucie, Florida

text: Florida's Turnpike (State Road 91) is the only toll road in St. Lucie County, which is the northernmost place where the Turnpike and Interstate 95 run close to each other. The Turnpike has 2 exits within Port St. Lucie's city limits: Exit 142 (Port St. Lucie Boulevard (SR 716)) and exit 138 (Becker Road). For all of its route through Port St. Lucie, the Turnpike is east of I-95. The Turnpike is 4 lanes wide (2 in each direction), and provides access to Orlando to the north, and Miami to the southeast. The Port St. Lucie/Ft. Pierce Service Plaza is also located in Port St. Lucie.


title: Port St. Lucie, Florida

text: Crosstown Parkway – Completed in October 2019, Crosstown Parkway is an east/west roadway connecting Interstate 95 (State Road 9) with U.S. 1 (State Road 5). Along with being a much-needed high-capacity third crossing of the North Fork of the St. Lucie River (Port St. Lucie Blvd. to the south, and Prima Vista Blvd. to the north being the other two), it is also the location of Florida's first superstreet intersection—also known as a "restricted-crossing U-turn intersection"—at Crosstown Parkway and Floresta Drive.


title: Port St. Lucie, Florida

text: FEC's K Branch passes through the northwestern part of the city. Both rail lines only pass through the city; no services are provided by the FEC inside Port St. Lucie's city limits.


title: Port St. Lucie, Florida

text: Port St. Lucie is the spring training home to the New York Mets, as well as two minor league teams: the St. Lucie Mets, a Low-A team affiliated with the Low-A Southeast league, and the Florida Complex League Mets, a Rookie-level team affiliated with the Florida Complex League. All three play at Clover Park.


title: Port St. Lucie, Florida

text: The PGA Village golf complex includes 54 holes of golf as well as a learning center and a historical center. The city also hosted the Ginn sur Mer Classic at Tesoro, the city's first ever PGA Tour event, in 2007.


title: Port St. Lucie, Florida

text: The city has two soccer clubs, Mako Soccer Club and Port St. Lucie Soccer Club, that field both competitive and recreational teams at several age levels. The Treasure Coast Tritons soccer team also play in the city at the South County Stadium, starting in the 2019 season.


title: Port St. Lucie, Florida

text: Port St. Lucie is the home of the 2009 & 2011 National Champions in Pop Warner football. In 2009, the Jr. Midget Pirates went 16–0 en route to winning the Pop Warner National Championship at Disney's Wide World of Sports Complex. In 2001, the Jr. Peewee Pirates went 17–0 in winning the National Championship.


title: Port St. Lucie, Florida

text: Port St. Lucie is served by St. Lucie County Public Schools, which is a school district which serves the rest of St. Lucie County.


title: Port St. Lucie, Florida

text: There are 6 regular branches in St. Lucie County and the Pruitt Campus Library. There are 4 branches in the city of Port St. Lucie.


title: Port St. Lucie, Florida

text: A fictional version of Port St. Lucie is the setting for the Japanese manga and anime "JoJo's Bizarre Adventure" Part 6: "Stone Ocean" in which the protagonist is imprisoned in the fictional Green Dolphin Street Prison located just outside of the city.


title: Take Shelter

text: Take Shelter is a 2011 American psychological thriller film, written and directed by Jeff Nichols and starring Michael Shannon and Jessica Chastain. The plot follows a young husband and father (Shannon) who is plagued by a series of apocalyptic visions, and questions whether to shelter his family from a coming storm, or from himself and his increasing worries over having paranoid schizophrenia.


title: Take Shelter

text: The film won two Saturn Awards, Best Writing for Nichols and Best Actor for Shannon, and was nominated for two more, Best Horror or Thriller Film and Best Actress for Chastain. It explores the themes of masculinity, mental illness, and the lengths people go to protect the ones they love.


title: Take Shelter

text: In LaGrange, Ohio, Curtis LaForche has apocalyptic dreams and visual and auditory hallucinations of rain "like fresh motor oil", swarms of menacing black birds, and being harmed by people close to him. He hides all of this from his wife, Samantha, and their deaf daughter, Hannah. He instead channels his anxieties into a compulsive obsession to improve and enlarge a storm shelter in his backyard; however, his increasingly strange behavior – including a tendency to cut ties with anyone in his life that has harmed him only in his dreams – strains his relationship with his family, friends, employer, and the close-knit town. He also puts his construction job in jeopardy as he borrows equipment from the company to build his shelter.


title: Take Shelter

text: To deal with his increased insomnia and apocalyptic visions, Curtis grudgingly sees a counselor at a free clinic, with whom he talks about his family's psychological history. His mother, Sarah, has paranoid schizophrenia that surfaced in her at about the same age that Curtis is now. He's worried that he may also have the disorder.


title: Take Shelter

text: In order to get the expanded storm shelter done, Curtis gets a home improvement loan he can't afford to start building the shelter – all without telling his wife. Samantha becomes angry when she discovers the project. After Curtis takes more than the prescribed dose of a sedative and has a seizure, Samantha calls an ambulance. He recovers, then finally explains the truth to her, including his dreams.


title: Take Shelter

text: Curtis begins to miss more work, causing tensions with his boss, as he and Samantha make preparations for the cochlear implant surgery Hannah is to undergo in six weeks' time. Having been informed of the borrowed work equipment, Curtis's boss fires him and gives him only two weeks' worth of medical insurance benefits, after placing Dewart, the close friend and co-worker whom Curtis asked to help him start construction of the shelter, on two weeks' unpaid administrative leave.


title: Take Shelter

text: Curtis buys gas masks for his family and extends his previous employer's health insurance policy for a few extra weeks. After he finds out that his counselor at the free clinic has suddenly transferred and been replaced with a new one, he walks out. Tensions linger between Curtis and Sam over his loss of a job/income at such a crucial time for their family. Samantha gets Curtis to see an actual psychiatrist and demands that they attend a social function so she can restore some sense of normalcy to their strained, increasingly isolated life. At a Lions Club community gathering, a bitter Dewart, who has been spreading gossip that Curtis is crazy, is angrily provoked and punches him. Enraged, Curtis knocks Dewart to the floor, overturns a table and unleashes a frightening verbal tirade upon everyone present. He prophetically shouts that a devastating storm is coming, insisting that none of them are prepared.


title: Take Shelter

text: Later, a tornado warning sends him and his family into the shelter. After they awaken, Curtis reluctantly removes his gas mask, prompted by Samantha. They go to open the shelter doors, but he still hears a storm outside. His wife implores him, insisting that there's no storm and that he needs to open the door. After a tense standoff, Curtis throws open the doors into the blinding sun; a strong-but-bearable storm has passed, and neighbors are cleaning up broken tree limbs and other yard debris as power company trucks restore electricity along the street.


title: Take Shelter

text: A psychiatrist advises the couple to go through with their planned, annual beach vacation, but that Curtis will need to get psychiatric care in a facility away from his family upon their return. At Myrtle Beach, while Curtis is building sand castles with Hannah, she signs the word "storm". As Samantha exits their beachhouse, the thick, oily rain that Curtis spoke of begins to fall, staining her outstretched hand. Samantha looks up to a bigger version of the ominous storm clouds Curtis had seen, massing over the ocean; tornado-like waterspouts reach down to the ocean's surface, and the tide pulls back as a tsunami looms in the distance. Samantha and Curtis exchange glances, as Samantha assuringly whispers "ok." The scene cuts to black, leaving the truth of the reality a mystery.


title: Take Shelter

text: "Take Shelter" premiered in January 2011 at the Sundance Film Festival, and Sony Pictures Classics acquired rights to distribute the film in North America, Latin America, Australia, and New Zealand. The film also screened in May 2011 at the Cannes Film Festival, where it won the 50th Critics' Week Grand Prix. It also received the Fipresci award from the International Federation of Film Critics, sharing it with "Le Havre" and "The Minister". In September 2011, "Take Shelter" was shown at the 37th Deauville American Film Festival, where it beat 13 other contenders to win the festival's grand prize. Later in September, "Take Shelter" was shown at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival and at the 7th Zurich Film Festival, where it was awarded as the best International Feature Film.


title: Take Shelter

text: "Take Shelter" received critical acclaim. It has a rating of 92% on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 168 reviews, with an average score of 8/10. The consensus states "Michael Shannon gives a powerhouse performance and the purposefully subtle filmmaking creates a perfect blend of drama, terror, and dread." The film also has a score of 85 out of 100 on Metacritic, based on 34 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".


title: Take Shelter

text: Roger Ebert of the "Chicago Sun-Times" gave the film four out of four stars and praised Shannon's performance, writing, "It is the gift of actor Michael Shannon as Curtis LaForche that while appearing to be a stable husband and father with a good job in construction, he also can evoke by his eyes and manner a deep unease." He also wrote, "Here is a frightening thriller based not on special effects gimmicks but on a dread that seems quietly spreading in the land: that the good days are ending, and climate changes or other sinister forces will sweep away our safety."


title: Take Shelter

text: Since the release of "Take Shelter", viewers have discussed the meaning of the film's ambiguous ending. In an interview with "Creative Screenwriting" five years after the release of the film, Nichols reflected, "I had a very strict idea of what the end of "Take Shelter" was. I know exactly what happens, and it’s fascinating to see people respond to it in their own ways. The beautiful part of storytelling is that you’re not just telling people a story, they’re also telling you something about themselves too through their reactions. In that situation you’re in a conversation with your audience. I really can’t think of a more rewarding or fulfilling result for something you’ve written. It’s active, kinetic, and really humbling."


title: Take Shelter

text: In a video interview with Chase Whale in September 2012, Nichols elaborated on the ending, saying "For me personally...the moment that matters, dream, not dream, real, not real, whatever it is...is these two characters looking at each other and connecting. The fact that they're both seeing it, that's what matters, because if this is a film that is a meditation on marriage and commitment and communication then what the ending has to be is that these people are on the same page again. They had this wedge put in between them from all of these various factors, and now at the end they're looking at each other, and they are seeing each other, and they're together, and the circumstances that surround that, please, open to interpretation."


title: Timeline (2003 film)

text: Timeline is a 2003 science fiction adventure film directed by Richard Donner and starring Paul Walker, Frances O'Connor, Gerard Butler, Billy Connolly, David Thewlis, and Anna Friel. Based on Michael Crichton's 1999 novel of the same name, the screenplay concerns a team of present-day archaeology and history students who are sent back in time to medieval France, to rescue their professor from the middle of a battle.


title: Timeline (2003 film)

text: Jerry Goldsmith composed the original score, which would have been his last before his death in 2004 (his actual last score was ""), but it was replaced with a new score by Brian Tyler, after the first cut was re-edited and Goldsmith's increasing health problems prevented him from continuing. The film was poorly received by critics and bombed at the box office, losing an estimated $49 million.


title: Timeline (2003 film)

text: Professor Edward Johnston leads an archaeological study of the village of Castlegard, near LaRoque Castle in Dordogne, France, the site of the 1357 hanging of Lady Claire, sister to Arnaut de Cervole. Her martyrdom led France to win the Hundred Years War against the English. Johnston's team includes Scottish archaeologist André Marek; Johnston's students Kate Erickson, Josh Stern, and François Dontelle; and his son Chris who is infatuated with Kate. While excavating a nearby monastery, they find a sarcophagus containing the remains of a French knight with a lopped ear, holding the hand of his lady, an unheard-of practice for the time.


title: Timeline (2003 film)

text: Johnston travels to the American headquarters of the ITC Corporation, his project's sponsor, to inquire whether or not they have tampered with the site. The students later discover a pair of Johnston's bifocals and a note begging for help, although both date over 600 years old. When the students contact ITC, the company invites them to its headquarters.


title: Timeline (2003 film)

text: There, the team is introduced to ITC president Robert Doniger and vice-president Steven Kramer. Doniger reveals that in the process of developing teleportation technology, they locked onto a stable wormhole to 1357 Castlegard. Johnston was invited to see the past for himself, but his group has not returned, and they want the students to go back in time to locate him. All but Josh volunteer to go.


title: Timeline (2003 film)

text: The volunteers are stripped of all modern technology save for pendant-shaped markers they can use to initiate their return. The students are joined by a security team including ITC's head of security, Frank Gordon, and two former military men.


title: Timeline (2003 film)

text: On arrival in 1357, the team finds itself in the path of a young woman chased by English knights; the security men are killed while protecting the group, although one activated his marker shortly after priming a grenade. When his body arrives in the present, the grenade detonates and shatters much of the teleportation device. Josh aids Kramer in making repairs.


title: Timeline (2003 film)

text: The team evades the knights, and the woman leads them to the English-controlled Castlegard. They are captured and brought before Lord Oliver de Vannes and his second in command, DeKere. The team members are stripped of their markers, and de Vannes kills François, believing he is a French spy. The others are imprisoned along with Johnston, who is revealed to have promised de Vannes that he can make Greek fire for the English in exchange for his life. They make their escape but are pursued by the English. Gordon and Johnston are recaptured, while the others make for the monastery, led by the woman.


title: Timeline (2003 film)

text: DeKere reveals himself to Gordon and Johnston as former ITC employee William Decker; he had frequently used the teleportation device but was not told by ITC that each use damaged his DNA until it was too late, at which point he would die on a return trip. He plans revenge on ITC and kills Gordon. De Vannes orders his knights to march on LaRoque castle, and DeKere brings Johnston along.


title: Timeline (2003 film)

text: At the monastery, Marek, Kate, and Chris meet de Cervole and realize the woman is Lady Claire; they have changed history by saving her. Marek, who has become infatuated with Lady Claire, is given a horse to rescue his friends. Kate and Chris help to swing the upcoming battle in the French's favor by leading de Cervole's men through the monastery tunnels they had previously mapped to the castle.


title: Timeline (2003 film)

text: As the battle starts, Marek is captured in his rescue attempt; Lady Claire is also kidnapped. Marek manages to free himself, Lady Claire, and Johnston, while Chris helps de Cervole defeat de Vannes. Enraged, DeKere slashes off Marek's earlobe, and Marek realizes he is destined to be the knight in the sarcophagus. Marek defeats DeKere, recovers the markers, gives them to the others, and says his goodbyes as he runs off to help the French assure victory and restore history.


title: Timeline (2003 film)

text: As the three returnees activate their markers, in the present Josh and Kramer have finished the repairs after coming to learn that Doniger has attempted to sabotage their attempts; Doniger fears that when the students' stories become public, ITC will suffer great financial losses. As the machine activates, Doniger races into it, attempting to block the teleportation, but instead he is sent back to 1357, where he arrives outside the castle and is presumably killed by a charging knight.


title: Timeline (2003 film)

text: Chris, Kate, and Johnston safely return. Later, the team returns to the Castlegard ruins, re-examine the sarcophagus, and find that Marek and Lady Claire led a prosperous life after the war and had three children: Christophe, Katherine, and François.


title: Timeline (2003 film)

text: The battle sequences used medieval reenactors. Richard Donner limited the use of CGI in the film as much as possible.


title: Timeline (2003 film)

text: Composer Jerry Goldsmith, who had previously collaborated with Donner on "The Omen", completed a score for the film - his final score before his death in 2004 - but it was replaced by a different score composed by Brian Tyler after Donner was forced to re-cut the film at the insistence of Sherry Lansing, the then-head of Paramount Pictures. However, both Goldsmith and Tyler's scores were released on CD.


title: Timeline (2003 film)

text: "Timeline" performed poorly at the box office, only recouping $43 million worldwide from a budget of $80 million.


title: Timeline (2003 film)

text: On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 13% based on reviews from 144 critics. The site's consensus states: "This incoherently plotted addition to the time-travel genre looks and sounds cheesy". On Metacritic the film has a score of 28% based on reviews from 32 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade C+ on scale of A to F.


title: Timeline (2003 film)

text: Roger Ebert gave it 2 out of 4, and wrote that it was "not so much about travel between the past and the present as about travel between two movie genres" namely "a corporate thriller crossed with a medieval swashbuckler". He was disappointed that the elaborate premise was not put to greater use, that it was essentially nothing more than a frame for action scenes.


title: Timeline (2003 film)

text: Robert Koehler of "Variety" wrote: "Lacks the consistent tone, pace and point of view for either a science fiction thriller or medieval war adventure."


title: Artemisia vulgaris

text: Artemisia vulgaris, the common mugwort, is a species of flowering plant in the daisy family Asteraceae. It is one of several species in the genus "Artemisia" commonly known as mugwort, although "Artemisia vulgaris" is the species most often called mugwort. It is also occasionally known as riverside wormwood, felon herb, chrysanthemum weed, wild wormwood, old Uncle Henry, sailor's tobacco, naughty man, old man, or St. John's plant (not to be confused with St John's wort). Mugworts have been used medicinally and as culinary herbs.


title: Artemisia vulgaris

text: "A. vulgaris" is native to temperate Europe, Asia, North Africa, and Alaska, and is naturalized in North America, where some consider it an invasive weed. It is a very common plant growing on nitrogenous soils, such as waste places, roadsides and other weedy and uncultivated areas.


title: Artemisia vulgaris

text: Traditionally, it has been used as one of the flavoring and bittering agents of gruit ales, a type of unhopped, fermented grain beverage. In Vietnam, mugwort is used in cooking as an aromatic herb.


title: Artemisia vulgaris

text: In China, the crunchy stalks of young shoots of "A. vulgaris", known as "luhao" (), are a seasonal vegetable often used in stir-fries.


title: Artemisia vulgaris

text: In Nepal, the plant is also called "titepati" ("tite" meaning bitter, "pati" meaning leaf) and is used as an offering to the gods, for cleansing the environment (by sweeping floors or hanging a bundle outside the home), as incense, and also as a medicinal plant.


title: Artemisia vulgaris

text: The dried leaves are often smoked or drunk as a tea to promote lucid dreaming. This supposed oneirogenic effect is believed to be due to the thujone contained in the plant.


title: Artemisia vulgaris

text: "A. vulgaris" is a tall, herbaceous, perennial plant growing (rarely ) tall, with an extensive rhizome system. Rather than depending on seed dispersal, it spreads through vegetative expansion and the anthropogenic dispersal of root rhizome fragments. The leaves are long, dark green, pinnate, and sessile, with dense, white, tomentose hairs on the underside. The erect stems are grooved and often have a red-purplish tinge. The Ukrainian name for Mugwort, чорнобиль (chernobyl) transliterates as "Black Stalk" , and it is from this plant that the Ukrainian city of Chernobyl gets its name. The rather small florets ( long) are radially symmetrical with many yellow or dark red petals. The narrow and numerous capitula (flower heads), all fertile, spread out in racemose panicles. It flowers from midsummer to early autumn.


title: Artemisia vulgaris

text: A number of species of Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths) such as "Ostrinia scapulalis" feed on the leaves and flowers of the plant.


title: Artemisia vulgaris

text: Historically, "A. vulgaris" was referred to as the "mother of herbs" and has been widely utilised in the traditonal Chinese, European, and Hindu medicine. It possesses a wide range of pharmacological properties including anticancer, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, hepatoprotective, antispasmolytic, antinociceptive, antibacterial, antihypertensive, antihyperlipidemic and antifungal properties.


title: Artemisia vulgaris

text: "A. vulgaris" houses a variety of phytochemicals which are responsible for its pharmacological properties. The phytochemicals belong to classes including flavonoid, essential oils, phenolic acids, coumarins, sterols, carotenoids, vitamins and sesquiterpene lactones among many others. Examples of the phytochemicals include vulgarin, artemisinin, scopoletin, camphene, camphor, sabinene, and some derivatives of quercetin and kaempferol.


title: Xscape (album)

text: Xscape is the second posthumous album by American singer-songwriter Michael Jackson. It was released on May 9, 2014, by Epic Records, MJJ Music and Sony Music Entertainment. "Xscape" is the tenth release by Sony and/or Motown since Jackson's death in 2009. L.A. Reid, chairman of Epic Records, curated and served as executive producer for the album enlisting Timbaland to lead a team of record producers, including StarGate, Jerome "J-Roc" Harmon, John McClain, and Rodney Jerkins, to remix and contemporize the eight selected tracks. The album was #1 in its first week in worldwide sales.


title: Xscape (album)

text: The standard version of "Xscape" features eight tracks, each reworked from 2013 to 2014, whilst the deluxe version also includes the original versions of the songs which were recorded from 1983 to 1999, a bonus track and two videos. "Xscape" was promoted across the Sony group of companies; Sony Mobile used a snippet of "Slave to the Rhythm" in their advertising campaign for the Xperia Z2 mobile phone. A Pepper's ghost illusion of Jackson performed "Slave to the Rhythm" at the 2014 "Billboard" Music Awards in May 2014.


title: Xscape (album)

text: "Xscape" debuted at number two on the "Billboard" 200 and number one on the "Billboard" Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart. The album was preceded by the release of its lead single, "Love Never Felt So Good", which includes a newly recorded version featuring Justin Timberlake. It reached number nine on the "Billboard" Hot 100. A second single, "A Place with No Name", was released later that year. "Xscape" received generally positive reviews and was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).


title: Xscape (album)

text: "Xscape" was the second album of all new music released by Epic Records after Jackson's death in 2009. It was announced on March 31, 2014. It features eight tracks originally recorded between 1983 and 2001.


title: Xscape (album)

text: The title track "Xscape" was recorded in 1999 for Jackson's tenth studio album, "Invincible". American producer Timbaland and Epic Records chairman and CEO L.A. Reid were executive producers, with additional production from Rodney Jerkins, StarGate and John McClain. Timbaland said that Reid had personally approached him at his home to discuss the new Jackson project. Jesse Johnson, former lead guitarist of the American band the Time worked on elements of a song that featured Mary J. Blige, Questlove, and D'Angelo. The track was not included in the album.


title: Xscape (album)

text: Reid said that they wanted to honor Jackson's legacy when naming the album: "The title of this album ("Xscape") honors Michael's album naming process. He always chose a song from the album to name his projects and, beginning with "Thriller", used only one word titles, each with an edgy quality to them ("Thriller", "Bad", "Dangerous", "" and "Invincible")."


title: Xscape (album)

text: "Love Never Felt So Good" was co-written by Canadian singer-songwriter Paul Anka and was originally recorded in 1983 as a demo with Anka on the piano. The song was also recorded by American entertainer Johnny Mathis. A duet version of the song with Justin Timberlake was recorded and released as a single – the duet version of the song features percussion and breaths from Jackson's 1979 song "Working Day and Night".


title: Xscape (album)

text: "Chicago" (originally called "She Was Lovin' Me") was recorded in 1999 but failed to make the "Invincible" album.


title: Xscape (album)

text: "A Place with No Name" was written and recorded in 1998. The track is based on "A Horse with No Name", the 1972 single American rock band America. A 24-second snippet was leaked online by TMZ in July 2009 and a full version was leaked in December 2013.


title: Xscape (album)

text: "Slave to the Rhythm" was recorded during the "Dangerous" sessions in 1990. A Tricky Stewart remix version leaked on the internet in 2010, which was intended for the first posthumous album, "Michael". Justin Bieber also recorded a "duet version" featured with Jackson's vocals, which was leaked in August 2013. The Michael Jackson Estate afterwards stated that they had not authorized the release of this recording.


title: Xscape (album)

text: "Do You Know Where Your Children Are" was written and recorded during the "Bad" sessions. However, the song was later picked up and reworked for the "Dangerous" album but did not make the cut. The version appearing on "Xscape" was recorded in 1986.


title: Xscape (album)

text: "Blue Gangsta" was written and recorded in 1998 but failed to make the "Invincible" album. Rapper Tempamental remixed the song without Jackson's permission and made it available on his MySpace web page in late 2006. The remix titled "Gangsta (No Friend of Mine)" featured Pras of the Fugees.


title: Xscape (album)

text: "Xscape" was written and recorded in 1999 during the "Invincible" recording sessions but failed to make the album. It was completed in 2001 and leaked on the internet the following year. The song was given a modern spin by its original producer, Rodney Jerkins, and features samples of "You Rock My World", a song recorded in the same era.


title: Xscape (album)

text: Two official singles, "Love Never Felt So Good" and "A Place with No Name", were released from "Xscape". "Slave to the Rhythm" was the first song announced for the album.


title: Xscape (album)

text: In February 2014, Sony and Jackson's estate announced a partnership with Sony Mobile that saw the release of an ad incorporating a new version of the track "Slave to the Rhythm", which was confirmed as one of the album tracks. The commercial advertisement was for Sony Mobile's Xperia Z2 mobile phone. The album had been aired to the UK media in the basement of a Knightsbridge hotel on March 31, 2014. The journalists were permitted to hear the album once without any electronic devices, and song titles were kept secret. The entertainment correspondents for some UK media, such as "Sky News", "London Evening Standard", "The Daily Telegraph", "Mixmag", "The Guardian" and Digital Spy were invited.


title: Xscape (album)

text: On April 30, it was revealed that "Love Never Felt So Good" would be unveiled at the iHeartRadio Music Awards on May 1 as the album's first single, contradicting statements by Timbaland that suggested that "Chicago" would be released first. It was co-written by Canadian singer-songwriter Paul Anka, and features Justin Timberlake. "Love Never Felt So Good" was previously recorded by American entertainer Johnny Mathis. The digital download for the single became available on iTunes at 0:01 EDT on May 2, 2014 for the album version and the duet version with Justin Timberlake. The release date of the single to urban radio stations confirmed as May 6, 2014. On May 4, the track "Chicago" became available to Music Unlimited subscribers, being followed by "Loving You", "A Place with No Name", "Slave to the Rhythm", and "Do You Know Where Your Children Are" in the succeeding days.


title: Xscape (album)

text: The "Xscape" standard and Deluxe Editions were available for pre-order beginning April 1 on iTunes.com/MichaelJackson and elsewhere, and available at all retailers worldwide on May 13.


title: Xscape (album)

text: A Pepper's ghost illusion of Michael Jackson performed "Slave to the Rhythm" at the 2014 "Billboard" Music Awards on May 18, 2014. The performance was choreographed by the Talauega brothers and was directed by Jamie King. A day after the coverage, the "live" performance of "Slave to the Rhythm" was uploaded to Michael Jackson's VEVO YouTube channel.


title: Xscape (album)

text: Following the success of "Love Never Felt So Good" on the "Billboard" Hot 100, the song rocketed into the iTunes Top 5 in the US, peaking at #1 in 17 countries and landing in the Top 5 in 67 countries around the world, within 24 hours of release. "Love Never Felt So Good" marks Jackson's 49th Hot 100 entry and it made multiple debuts on various radio formats charts. Jackson became the first solo artist to have a single reach the top 10 in six different decades, (1960's 70's 80's 90's 2000's & 10's). "Slave to the Rhythm", which debuted at number 45 on the "Billboard" charts, was Jackson's 50th Hot 100 hit.


title: Xscape (album)

text: "Xscape" has a score of 66 out of 100 on Metacritic, based on 22 critics, indicating generally favorable reviews. Prior to the album release, "Xscape" was played for critics at exclusive album listening parties in New York City. Bernadette McNulty from "The Daily Telegraph" praised the album as "pristine", noting the "front-and-center presence of Jackson's voice in the mix". Michael Cragg from "The Guardian" said "Xscape" feels "like an album created to showcase a handful of Jackson songs that on the whole deserve to be heard". Richard Suchet from "Sky News" thought the album "sound[ed] more like modern-day remixes". Nick Stevenson from "Mixmag" asserted that the album was "more like a collection of B-sides from "Off the Wall" than a follow-up to "Invincible"".


title: Xscape (album)

text: Michael Arceneaux from "Ebony" said "the upcoming project 'from' the late singer sounds like a recipe for legacy tarnishing". Elysa Gardner of "USA Today" said that the producers on the album "ensure that Jackson's enduring strengths as a singer are represented, layering in modern electronic textures without overwhelming the distinctly slinky, shivery vocals or overall structure of the tunes." Other critics suggested the product was just a way to promote Sony smartphones, and had questions about the songwriting and production, or with the singing. Jackson fan Nekesa Mumbi Moody, writing for Yahoo, said that much of the album had a dated feel, with "A Place with No Name" having poor lyrics and sound. She concluded that "putting out music that falls below Jackson's standards detracts from the carefully constructed catalog he spent decades creating and protecting."


title: Xscape (album)

text: "Xscape" became Jackson's tenth UK number-one album after it debuted atop the UK Albums Chart with 47,764 first-week sales. Currently, sales of the album in the United Kingdom stand at 135,500 copies and has been certified gold by the British Phonographic Industry. The album also debuted at number one in Belgium, Denmark, France, and Spain. It debuted at number two on the US "Billboard" charts with first-week sales of 157,000 copies in the United States. In its second week of sales, the album sold 67,000 more copies. In its third week it sold 35,000 copies bringing its total sales to 259,000 copies. In its fourth week, it sold a little more than 25,000 copies, and the fifth week it sold a little less than 25,000 copies. On September 18, 2014 the album was certified Gold in the US, selling 500 000 copies up to that date.


title: Armanen runes

text: Armanen runes (or "Armanen Futharkh") are 18 pseudo-runes, inspired by the historic Younger Futhark runes, invented by Austrian mysticist and Germanic revivalist Guido von List during a state of temporary blindness in 1902, and described in his Das Geheimnis der Runen ("The Secret of the Runes"), published as a periodical article in 1906, and as a standalone publication in 1908. The name seeks to associate the runes with the postulated Armanen, whom von List saw as ancient Aryan priest-kings. The Armanen runes continue in use today in esotericism and in Germanic neopaganism.


title: Armanen runes

text: Von List claimed the pseudo-runes were revealed to him while in an 11-month state of temporary blindness after a cataract operation on both eyes in 1902.


title: Armanen runes

text: This vision in 1902 allegedly opened what List referred to as his "inner eye", via which the "Secret of the Runes" was revealed to him. List stated that his Armanen Futharkh were encrypted in the "Rúnatal" of the Poetic Edda (stanzas 138 to 165 of the Hávamál), with stanzas 147 through 165, where Odin enumerates eighteen wisdoms (with 164 being an interpolation), interpreted as being the "song of the 18 runes". List and many of his followers believed his runes to represent the "primal runes" upon which all historical rune rows were based. The book was dedicated to his good friend Friedrich Wannieck and in the introduction, before his discussion of the runes, there is a copy of a correspondence between Wannieck and List.


title: Armanen runes

text: "Das Geheimnis der Runen" was published in Leipzig and Vienna in 1908 by the Guido-von-List-Gesellschaft (Gross-Lichterfelde).


title: Armanen runes

text: The book was also published as a periodical article as ""Das Geheimnis der Runen"", "Neue Metaphysische Rundschau" [9] 13 (1906), 23-4, 75-87, 104-26.