title: Northern Virginia

text: With his guidance, a new federal city (now known as the District of Columbia) was laid out straddling the Potomac River upon a square of territory which was ceded to the federal government by the new states of Maryland and Virginia. Alexandria was located at the eastern edge south of the river. On the outskirts on the northern side of the river, another port city, Georgetown, was located.


title: Northern Virginia

text: However, as the federal city grew, land in the portion contributed by Maryland proved best suited and adequate for early development, and the impracticality of being on both sides of the Potomac River became clearer. Not really part of the functioning federal city, many citizens of Alexandria were frustrated by the laws of the District government and lack of voting input. Slavery also arose as an issue. To mitigate these issues, and as part of a "deal" regarding abolishment of slave trading in the District, in 1846, the U.S. Congress passed a bill retroceding to Virginia the area south of the Potomac River, which was known as Alexandria County. That area now forms all of Arlington County (which was renamed from Alexandria County in 1922) and a portion of the independent city of Alexandria.


title: Northern Virginia

text: Slavery, states' rights, and economic issues increasingly divided the northern and southern states during the first half of the 19th century, eventually leading to the American Civil War from 1861 to 1865. Although Maryland was a slave state, it remained with the Union, while Virginia seceded and joined the newly formed Confederate States of America, with its new capital established at Richmond.


title: Northern Virginia

text: The Supreme Court of the United States has never issued a firm opinion on whether the retrocession of the Virginia portion of the District of Columbia was constitutional. In the 1875 case of "Phillips v. Payne", the Supreme Court held that Virginia had "de facto" jurisdiction over the area returned by Congress in 1847, and dismissed the tax case brought by the plaintiff. The court, however, did not rule on the core constitutional matter of the retrocession. Writing the majority opinion, Justice Noah Swayne stated only that:


title: Northern Virginia

text: The plaintiff in error is estopped from raising the point which he seeks to have decided. He cannot, under the circumstances, vicariously raise a question, nor force upon the parties to the compact an issue which neither of them desires to make.


title: Northern Virginia

text: With barely separating the two capital cities, Northern Virginia found itself in the center of much of the conflict. The area was the site of many battles and saw great destruction and bloodshed. The Army of Northern Virginia was the primary army for the Confederate States of America in the east. Owing to the region's proximity to Washington, D.C., and the Potomac River, the armies of both sides frequently occupied and traversed Northern Virginia. As a result, several battles were fought in the area.


title: Northern Virginia

text: In addition, Northern Virginia was the operating area of the famed Confederate partisan, John Singleton Mosby, and several small skirmishes were fought throughout the region between his Rangers and Federal forces occupying Northern Virginia.


title: Northern Virginia

text: Well after the war, the conflict remained popular among the region's residents, and many area schools, roads, and parks were named for Confederate generals and statesmen, for example Jefferson Davis Highway and Washington-Lee High School.


title: Northern Virginia

text: Virginia split during the American Civil War, as was foreshadowed by the April 17, 1861, Virginia Secession Convention. Fifty counties in the western, mountainous, portion of the state, who were, for the most part, against secession in 1861, would break away from the Confederacy in 1863 and enter the Union as a new state, West Virginia. Unlike the eastern part of the state, West Virginia did not have fertile lands tilled by slaves and was geographically separated from the state government in Richmond by the Appalachian Mountains. During this process, a provisional government of Virginia was headquartered in Alexandria, which was under Union control during the war. Notably, Arlington, Clarke, Fairfax, Frederick, Loudoun, Shenandoah, and Warren Counties voted in favor of Virginia remaining in the Union in 1861 but did not eventually break away from the state.


title: Northern Virginia

text: As a result of the formation of West Virginia, part of Lord Fairfax's colonial land grant which defined Northern Virginia was ceded in the establishment of that state in 1863. Now known as the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia, the area includes Berkeley County and Jefferson County, West Virginia.


title: Northern Virginia

text: The Department of Defense's increasing reliance on information technology companies during the Cold War started the modern Northern Virginia economy and spurred urban development throughout the region. After the Cold War, prosperity continued to come as the region positioned itself as the "Silicon Valley" of the Eastern United States. The Internet was first commercialized in Northern Virginia, having been home to the first Internet service providers.


title: Northern Virginia

text: The first major interconnection point of the Internet, MAE-East, was established in the 1990s at Ashburn after Virginia-area network provider operators thought to connect their networks together while drinking beer. This infrastructure legacy is ongoing, as data center operators continue to expand near these facilities.


title: Northern Virginia

text: History was made in early 2001 when local Internet company America Online bought Time Warner, the world's largest traditional media company, near the end of the dot-com bubble days. After the bubble burst, Northern Virginia office vacancy rates went from 2 percent in 2000 to 20 percent in 2002. After 2002, vacancy rates fell below 10 percent due to increased defense spending after the September 11 attacks, and the Afghanistan and Iraq wars causing the government's continued and increasing reliance on private defense contractors.


title: Northern Virginia

text: Northern Virginia is an area within the Commonwealth of Virginia and is part of the Washington DC metropolitan area. The Northern Virginia Regional Commission(NVRC) is a regional government that represents a regional council of thirteen member Northern Virginia local governments. These local governments include the counties of Arlington, Fairfax, Loudoun, and Prince William. The local governments include the incorporated cities of Alexandria, Fairfax, Falls Church, Manassas, and Manassas Park. The local governments also include the incorporated towns of Dumfries, Herndon, Leesburg, and Vienna. NVRC's chief roles and functions have focused on providing information, performing professional and technical services for its members, and serving as a mechanism for regional coordination regarding the environment, transportation, affordable housing, community planning, military, and human services. Programs and projects address a wide array of local government interests.


title: Northern Virginia

text: According to Virginia's Regional Cooperation Act, NVRC is a political subdivision (a government agency) within the Commonwealth. The region is technically referred to as Virginia's planning district #8. The commission was established pursuant to Articles 1 and 2, Chapter 34, of the Acts of the Virginia General Assembly of 1968, subsequently revised and re-enacted as the Regional Cooperation Act under Title 15.2, Chapter 42 of the Code of Virginia, hereinafter called the "Act", and by resolutions of the governing bodies of its constituent member governmental subdivision. Any incorporated county, city or town in Northern Virginia may become a member of NVRC, provided the jurisdiction has a population of more than 3,500 and adopts and executes NVRC's Charter Agreement.


title: Northern Virginia

text: Northern Virginia constitutes a considerable portion of the population and number of jurisdictions that comprise the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments (MWCOG). Founded in 1957, MWCOG is a regional organization of 22 Washington-area local governments, as well as area members of the Maryland and Virginia state legislatures, the U.S. Senate, and the U.S. House of Representatives. MWCOG provides a forum for discussion and the development of regional responses to issues regarding the environment, transportation, public safety, homeland security, affordable housing, community planning, and economic development.


title: Northern Virginia

text: The National Capital Region Transportation Planning Board, a component of MWCOG, is the federally designated metropolitan planning organization for the metropolitan Washington area, including Northern Virginia.


title: Northern Virginia

text: there were 3,197,076 people in Northern Virginia; approximately 37 percent of the state's population.


title: Northern Virginia

text: These population counts include all counties within Virginia that are part of the Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV Metropolitan Statistical Area or the Washington-Baltimore-Arlington, DC-MD-VA-WV-PA Combined Statistical Area as defined by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget within the Executive Office of the President of the United States.


title: Northern Virginia

text: Of the 3,159,639 people in Northern Virginia in the 2019 estimates, 2,776,960 lived in "central" counties, or those counties and equivalent entities as delineated by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget as forming part of the urban core of the Washington Metropolitan Statistical Area. These counties include Arlington, Fairfax, Fauquier, Loudoun, Prince William, Stafford and the independent cities of Alexandria, Fairfax, Falls Church, Manassas, Manassas Park and Fredericksburg


title: Northern Virginia

text: An additional 390,679 people lived in counties of the Washington Metropolitan Statistical Area or the Baltimore-Washington Combined Statistical Area not considered "central." These counties, largely considered exurban or undergoing suburban change, include Clarke, Culpeper, Frederick, Madison, Rappahannock, Spotsylvania, Warren, and the independent city of Winchester.


title: Northern Virginia

text: In addition, there are counties outside of the Washington Metropolitan Area that under more broad definitions are referred to as being part of Northern Virginia. The University of Virginia Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service categorizes King George County as part of Northern Virginia, though the county was removed from the Washington Metropolitan Area in 2003. King George County and Orange County also include areas, such as Lake of the Woods, where the cross-commuting interchange with the Washington Metropolitan Area is high enough to merit inclusion in the Metropolitan Area, although more far-flung parts of these counties still cause the county-wide commuter interchange to fall below the threshold for inclusion in the Washington Metropolitan Area or Washington-Baltimore Combined Statistical Area. The demographic figures above do not include population counts for these two counties.


title: Northern Virginia

text: Northern Virginia as a whole is 51.2% White, 17.4% Hispanic, 16.3% Asian, 14.1% Black, and 2.4% Other.


title: Northern Virginia

text: Northern Virginia is home to people from diverse backgrounds, with significant numbers of Korean Americans, Vietnamese Americans, Bangladeshi Americans, Chinese Americans, Filipino Americans, Russian Americans, Arab Americans, Palestinian Americans, Uzbek Americans, Afghan Americans, Ethiopian Americans, Indian Americans, Iranian Americans, Thai Americans, and Pakistani Americans. Annandale, Chantilly, and Fairfax City have very large Korean American communities. Falls Church has a large Vietnamese American community. Northern Virginia is also home to a small Tibetan American community as well.


title: Northern Virginia

text: There is a sizable Hispanic population, primarily consisting of Salvadorans, Peruvians, Puerto Ricans, Cubans, Bolivians, Mexicans, and Colombians. Arlington is the center of the largest Bolivian community in North America (mostly immigrants from Cochabamba). Many of these immigrants work in transportation-related fields, small businesses, hospitality/restaurants, vending, gardening, construction, and cleaning.


title: Northern Virginia

text: Of those born in the U.S. and living in Northern Virginia's four largest counties, their place of birth by census region is 60.5 percent from the South, 21.0 percent from the Northeast, 11.5 percent from the Midwest, and 7.0 percent from the West. 33.7 percent were born in Virginia, which is categorized as part of the Southern United States along with neighboring Maryland and Washington, D.C., by the Census Bureau.


title: Northern Virginia

text: The core Northern Virginia jurisdictions of Alexandria, Arlington, Fairfax, Loudoun, and Prince William comprising a total population of 1,973,513 is highly educated, with 55.5 percent of its population 25 years or older holding a bachelor's degree or higher. This is comparable to Seattle, the most educated large city in the U.S., with 53.4 percent of residents having at least a bachelor's degree. The number of graduate/professional degree holders in Arlington is relatively high at 34.3 percent, nearly quadruple the rate of the U.S. population as a whole.


title: Northern Virginia

text: The region is known in Virginia and the Washington, D.C., area for its relative affluence. Stafford, one of the core counties in Northern Virginia, is one of the seven counties in America where black households make more than white households. Stafford County actually topped the list with African-Americans in Stafford County making the highest amount on the list. Of the large cities or counties in the nation that have a median household income in excess of $100,000, the top two are in Northern Virginia, and these counties have over half of the region's population. However, considering that Northern Virginia has one of the highest costs of living in the nation, the actual purchasing power of these households is considerably less than in other less "affluent" areas. According to Nielsen Claritas, Loudoun County and Arlington County have the highest concentration of 25- to 34-year-olds with incomes of $100,000+ in the nation.In 1988, the Tysons Galleria mall opened across Virginia Route 123 from Tysons Corner Center with high-end department stores Neiman Marcus and Saks 5th Avenue, hoping to become the Washington area's upscale shopping destination. The mall had trouble with sales and attracting high-end boutiques well into the 1990s and faced competition from Fairfax Square, which opened nearby in 1990 with the largest Tiffany & Co. boutique outside of New York City. The Galleria was able to attract high-end stores after a 1997 renovation, and in 2002 "National Geographic" described it as "the Rodeo Drive of the East Coast." In 2008 luxury home service Sotheby's International Realty – which had three offices in Virginia serving the rest of the state, and two in the District of Columbia serving the Washington metropolitan area – opened a new office in McLean to sell more high-end real estate in Northern Virginia.


title: Northern Virginia

text: According to the Crime in Virginia 2021 Report published by the Department of State Police, Northern Virginia had homicide rates below the State average:


title: Northern Virginia

text: A 2009 report by the Northern Virginia Regional Gang Task Force suggests that anti-gang measures and crackdowns on illegal immigrants by local jurisdictions are driving gang members out of Northern Virginia and into more immigrant-friendly locales in Maryland, Washington, D.C., and the rest of Virginia. The violent crime rate in Northern Virginia fell 17 percent from 2003 to 2008. Fairfax County has the lowest crime rate in the Washington metropolitan area, and the lowest crime rate amongst the 50 largest jurisdictions of the United States.


title: Northern Virginia

text: While the region has extremely low violent crime rates, it is an emerging hub for teen sex trafficking, with regional gangs finding it more profitable than selling drugs or weapons.


title: Northern Virginia

text: Former Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell described Northern Virginia as "the economic engine of the state" during a January 2010 Northern Virginia Technology Council address.


title: Northern Virginia

text: In September 2008 the unemployment rate in Northern Virginia was 3.2 percent, about half the national average, and the lowest of any metropolitan area if ranked. While the U.S. as a whole had negative job growth from September 2007 to September 2008, Northern Virginia gained 12,800 jobs, representing half of Virginia's new jobs. As of July 2010 the unemployment rate of the region 5.2 percent, down from 5.3 percent in the previous month. In the mid-2000s Fairfax County was one of few places in the nation that attracted more creative-class workers than it created.


title: Northern Virginia

text: Northern Virginia is the busiest Internet intersection in the nation, with up to 70 percent of all Internet traffic flowing through Loudoun County data centers every day. It is the largest data center market in the world by capacity, with nearly double that of London, as well as the world's fastest growing market in 2018. Loudoun County expects to have of data center space by 2021. By 2012 Dominion Energy expects that 10 percent of all electricity it sends to Northern Virginia will be used by the region's data centers alone. Accenture estimates that 70 percent of Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud servers are located in their Northern Virginia zone. A 2015–16 estimate by Greenpeace puts Amazon's current and upcoming power capacity in Northern Virginia at over 1 gigawatt.


title: Northern Virginia

text: The federal government is a major employer in Northern Virginia, which is home to numerous government agencies; these include the Central Intelligence Agency headquarters and the Pentagon (headquarters of the Department of Defense), as well as Fort Myer, Fort Belvoir, Marine Corps Base Quantico, FBI Academy, DEA Academy, Naval Criminal Investigative Service, the United States Patent and Trademark Office, and the United States Geological Survey.


title: Northern Virginia

text: Government contracting is an important part of the region's economy. Arlington alone is home to over 600 federal contractors, and has the highest weekly wages of any major jurisdiction in the Washington metropolitan area.


title: Northern Virginia

text: Major companies formerly headquartered in the region include AOL, Mobil, Nextel/Sprint, PSINet, Sallie Mae, MCI Communications, Transurban, and UUNET.


title: Northern Virginia

text: The region's large shopping malls, such as Potomac Mills and Tysons Corner Center, attract many visitors, as do the region's Civil War battlefields, which include the sites of both the First and Second Battle of Bull Run in Manassas and the Battle of Fredericksburg in Fredericksburg. Old Town Alexandria is known for its historic churches, townhouses, restaurants, gift shops, artist studios, and cruise boats. The waterfront and outdoor recreational amenities such as biking and running trails (the Washington and Old Dominion Rail Trail leads all the way from Alexandria to the foothills of the Blue Ridge; the Mount Vernon Trail and trails along various stream beds are also popular), whitewater and sea kayaking, and rock climbing areas are focused along the Potomac River, but are also found at other locations in the Baltimore–Washington metropolitan area. Scenic Great Falls Park and historic Mount Vernon (which opened a new visitor center in 2006) are especially noteworthy. The Government Island park and quarry in Stafford County has views of the Potomac River, and Aquia Creek and also is where the building materials for the White House, and United States Capitol are from. Also in Stafford County are historic places such as George Washington's boyhood home Ferry Farm, Civil War headquarters and plantation Chatham Manor, and artist Gari Melchers Home & Studio.


title: Northern Virginia

text: Arlington National Cemetery is located in the area, as is the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, an annex of the National Air and Space Museum that contains exhibits that cannot be housed at the main museum in Washington due to space constraints. Many concerts and other live shows are held at the Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts, a setting which has attracted many famous productions over the years.


title: Northern Virginia

text: From the mid-1880s until the mid-1960s Virginia politics were dominated by Conservative Democrats. After World War I, under the leadership of Harry Flood Byrd, who became Governor of Virginia and later a U.S. senator, this group became known as the Byrd Organization. With a power base in a network of the constitutional officers of most of Virginia's counties, they controlled Virginia's state government. The Byrd Organization largely followed conservative and anti-debt principles espoused by Byrd, who had grown up in a rural setting during the fiscally stressed era following Reconstruction. Although a member of the Democratic Party and an initial supporter of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Senator Byrd became a bitter opponent of the New Deal and related national policies, particularly those involving fiscal and social issues. He became Virginia's senior senator after the death of Senator Carter Glass of Lynchburg in 1946.


title: Northern Virginia

text: The period following World War II saw substantial growth of Virginia's suburban areas, notably in the regions of Northern Virginia, Richmond, and Hampton Roads. The population became more diverse. People of the emerging middle class were increasingly less willing to accept the rural focus of the General Assembly, nor Byrd's extreme positions on public debt and social issues. The latter was nowhere more graphically illustrated than with Byrd's violent opposition to racial integration of the state's public schools. His leadership in the failed policy of Massive Resistance to racial desegregation of the public schools and efforts to circumvent related rulings of the United States Supreme Court ultimately caused closure of some public schools in the state and alienated many middle class voters. The Byrd Organization had never been strong in Virginia's independent cities, and beginning in the 1960s, city and suburban factions increasingly supported efforts to make broad changes in Virginia. In this climate, the Republican Party of Virginia began making inroads.


title: Northern Virginia

text: Rulings by both state and federal courts that "Massive Resistance" was unconstitutional and a move to compliance with the court orders in early 1959 by Governor J. Lindsay Almond, and the General Assembly could be described as marking the Byrd Organization's "last stand", although the remnants of the Organization continued to wield power for a few years longer.


title: Northern Virginia

text: When Senator Byrd resigned in 1965 he was replaced by his son Harry F. Byrd Jr. in the U.S. Senate. However, the heyday of the Byrd Organization was clearly in the past, ending 80 years of domination of Virginia politics by the Conservative Democrats with the election of a Republican governor, Linwood Holton, in 1969 for the first time in the 20th century, succeeding a longtime member of the Byrd Organization, Democrat Mills E. Godwin. To the amazement of many observers, Godwin changed parties and was elected again as governor in 1973, but as a Republican.


title: Northern Virginia

text: During the last quarter of the 20th century, Virginia's Republicans gained ground against the Democrats. Republican John Warner from Northern Virginia gained one of the seats in the U.S. Senate in 1978. After longtime state senator L. Douglas Wilder became governor in 1989, the first African American to become a governor in the United States, Republicans subsequently gained control of the Governor's mansion after the 1993 election. Republicans finally gained control of the General Assembly in the 1999 elections.


title: Northern Virginia

text: For a number of years, the recurring Republican theme was to reduce waste in state government and taxes. However, this seemed to reach a peak during the administration of Jim Gilmore, with a move to repeal an unpopular car tax accompanied by a failure to provide promised replacement funds to the counties, cities and towns. Subsequently, two Democrats were elected consecutively as governor, and control in the General Assembly shifted back to a more bipartisan balance of power. As governor, both Mark Warner and Tim Kaine were confronted with stabilizing state economics and dealing with a deteriorating transportation funding situation partially caused by the state's failure to index state fuel taxes to inflation, with a "cents per gallon" tax rate unchanged since the administration of Democratic Governor Gerald Baliles in 1986.


title: Northern Virginia

text: In the 21st century, Northern Virginia is becoming increasingly known for favoring candidates of the Democratic Party at both the state and national level. Fairfax County supported John Kerry in the 2004 presidential election, and also voted heavily for Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential election, the first time a Democratic candidate for president carried the Commonwealth of Virginia since Lyndon Johnson in 1964. The area also voted for Democrats Jim Webb in 2006 for U.S. Senate, Tim Kaine in 2005 for governor, and Mark Warner in 2001 for governor. In these three races for statewide office, the margins tallied in Northern Virginia provided the Democratic candidate with a winning margin of victory.


title: Northern Virginia

text: Democrat Jim Webb defeated incumbent Senator George Allen by the slim margin of 49.6 to 49.2 percent in 2006. However, that margin increased to 58.1 to 40.7 percent in favor of the Democratic challenger in the counties and cities of Northern Virginia, whereas Webb ran behind Allen somewhat, 46.1 to 52.7 percent, in the remainder of the commonwealth. Webb carried Fairfax County, Prince William County, and Loudoun County, as well as the more urban areas of Arlington, Alexandria, and Falls Church. Allen's sole wins in Northern Virginia were the cities of Manassas and Manassas Park, winning the latter two only by the narrow margins of 3.54 and 2.38 percent, respectively.


title: Northern Virginia

text: In the 2004 presidential election, 53 percent of Northern Virginia voters voted for John Kerry, the Democratic candidate and 46 percent voted for George W. Bush, the Republican candidate. This contrasted with the rest of Virginia, which gave 43 percent to Kerry and 56 percent to Bush. Kerry also carried Fairfax County, the most populous county in Virginia, and Fairfax City, the first time those jurisdictions had voted Democratic since Johnson's national landslide in 1964. The strongest support in the area for the Democrats lies inside the Beltway, in Arlington, Alexandria, and parts of Fairfax County. The more distant areas (i.e., Loudoun County, Stafford County and Prince William County) historically have been more conservative; however, as they have increased in population, they have become more liberal. Both Mark Warner in 2001 and John Kerry in 2004 lost Loudoun and Prince William counties. Tim Kaine won Prince William County, and Loudoun counties in 2005. Tim Kaine won Stafford County in 2018. In 2006 despite not polling as strongly as Mark Warner statewide, Democratic senate candidate Jim Webb won both Loudoun and Prince William counties. In 2005, 65 percent of the voters of Northern Virginia voted for Democrat Tim Kaine for governor over Jerry Kilgore, who received only 32 percent of the vote, easily 14 points lower than George W. Bush's showing only a year earlier.


title: Northern Virginia

text: The Democrats in Virginia also have made considerable gains in the Virginia House of Delegates which helped turn both chambers of the state legislature to the Democrats. Since 2015 Democrats have flipped districts in the suburbs of Washington D.C in counties such as Stafford County, Prince William County, and Loudoun County. These flips have shown the changing demographics, and voting bloc in these counties and the expansion of suburbanization and Northern Virginia. For example, the 28th district a seat held by Republicans since 1984 in Stafford County and parts of Fredericksburg and seat of former Republican Virginia Speaker of the House William J. Howell. 10 years ago Republicans won the Virginia House of Delegates election with 74% of the vote in the district. In the 2019 election Joshua G. Cole, a fierce Democrat and supporter of the Green New Deal, flipped the district by 4 points. Another district the 2nd district that encompasses Prince William County and Stafford County was once a swing district held by both Republicans and Democrats. In 2017, Democrats flipped the district with 64% of the vote and was re-elected with 60% of the vote with Jennifer Caroll Foy a supporter of the Equal Rights Amendment which she passed this year with the new Democratic trifecta in the state.


title: Northern Virginia

text: The 1st, 7th, 8th, the 10th, and the 11th congressional districts lie within Northern Virginia.(As of 8/27/2022) The current congressman from the 1st district is Rob Wittman (R), from the 8th district is Don Beyer (D), the current congresswoman from the 7th district is Abigail Spanberger (D), from the 10th district is Jennifer Wexton (D), and the current congressman from the 11th district is Gerry Connolly (D). Three of four districts voted for Jim Webb in the 2006 Senate election.


title: Northern Virginia

text: In the 2005 gubernatorial election, the entire region continued to move away from the Republicans. Fairfax County, Arlington County, the cities of Alexandria, Fairfax City, and Falls Church, and for the first time, Loudoun County and Prince William County, went to Tim Kaine, the Democratic candidate. The area continued to be more Democratic the closer it was to Washington, D.C., but Richmond resident Kaine was able to accomplish what Northern Virginian Mark Warner had been unable to do just four years earlier in 2001: carry Loudoun County and Prince William County (as well as win over 60 percent of the vote in Fairfax County).


title: Northern Virginia

text: In 2006 Democrat Mark Herring swept every precinct in the 33rd state Senate District on January 31, en route to beating Republican Loudoun County Supervisor Mick Staton by a margin of 62 to 38 percent, providing evidence for the claim that Loudoun is transforming into a liberal county. The district sits primarily in Loudoun County but also includes nine precincts in western Fairfax County: Floris, Fox Mill, Frying Pan, McNair, Franklin, Kinross, Navy, Lees Corner East, and Lees Corner West.


title: Northern Virginia

text: In 2008 economist Nancy Pfotenhauer, a spokesperson and adviser for the John McCain presidential campaign, created controversy by referring to the areas of Virginia not included in Northern Virginia as "real Virginia", picking up on a Republican talking point that Sarah Palin promoted; namely that red states are the "real America" and more "pro-America".


title: Northern Virginia

text: Joe McCain, brother of John McCain, also called Arlington and Alexandria in Northern Virginia "communist country".


title: Northern Virginia

text: In the 2008 presidential election, the majority of Northern Virginia voters voted for Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama. Over 70 percent of registered voters in Arlington, Alexandria and Falls Church voted for Obama. Fairfax County, Loudoun County, Manassas and Prince William County also went to Obama, with Obama receiving 60 percent of the vote in Fairfax County compared to Republican candidate John McCain's 39 percent. Obama's win in Fairfax County, the most populous county in the state, marks the second time a Democrat has carried that county since the 1964 breakdown of Democratic predominance in the South (the other being the 2004 presidential elections when the county went to John Kerry). Obama's victory in Northern Virginia continues the trend of Northern Virginia favoring Democrats over Republicans.


title: Northern Virginia

text: In the 2009 gubernatorial election, though Arlington, Alexandria, and Falls Church would back Democratic state Senator Creigh Deeds in his unsuccessful run for governor, Republican former state Attorney General, and future Governor, Bob McDonnell, who overwhelmingly defeated Deeds 59 to 41 percent across the state as a whole, won Fairfax County, Loudoun County, Stafford County, Manassas, and Prince William County. However, a January 2010 special state senate election in the Fairfax county-based 37th State Senatorial district, which was held following Ken Cuccinelli's (R) resignation from the Senate of Virginia upon his election as state attorney general two months earlier, was won by then-Delegate David W. Marsden (D). Marsden's victory would suggest that despite McDonnell's performance in northern Virginia during the 2009 gubernatorial election, the Democratic trend in the region has not been reversed.


title: Northern Virginia

text: A 2011 "Washington Post" poll found that 47 percent of Virginians favored the legalization of same-sex marriage, while 43 percent opposed it and 10 percent had no opinion. It found 55 percent favored allowing same-sex couples to adopt children, while 35 percent opposed that and 10 percent had no opinion. The same poll found that 64 percent of residents Arlington, Alexandria, Fairfax, Fairfax County support same-sex marriage, 63 percent of residents of Loudoun, Prince William, Manassas, Manassas Park, Stafford, Fauquier, Culpeper, Madison, Rappamannock, Warrenton, Clarke County, Frederick, and Winchester support same-sex marriage, while only 42 percent of the rest of Virginia supports same-sex marriage.


title: Northern Virginia

text: Arlington, Clarke, Culpeper, Fairfax, Fauquier, Frederick, Loudoun, Prince William, Rappahannock, Spotsylvania, Stafford, and Warren counties, as well as Alexandria, Falls Church, Fairfax, Fredericksburg, Manassas, Manassas Park, and Winchester cities, form Northern Virginia's contribution to the Washington metropolitan area; Hillary Clinton received 849,758 votes compared to Donald Trump's 503,120 votes in the twelve-county and seven-city region, a 63–37 percent split in the 2016 presidential election. Despite the 26 percent margin of victory for Clinton, seven counties voted for Trump. This compares to Clinton's 825,974 votes to Trump's 236,827 votes (78 to 22 percent) in Calvert, Charles, Frederick, Montgomery, and Prince George's counties in Maryland as well as her 282,830 votes to his 12,723 votes (96 to 4 percent) in Washington, D.C. Among the aforementioned counties in Maryland, Trump carried two of them. The entire Washington metropolitan area – all seventeen counties and seven cities in Maryland and Virginia, plus the District of Columbia – voted 1,958,562 ballots to 752,670 ballots (72 to 28 percent) for Clinton and Trump, respectively. Compared to the entire state, Northern Virginia's twelve counties and seven cities represent 36 percent of the total electorate.


title: Northern Virginia

text: Due to the proximity to the capital, many Northern Virginians go to Washington, D.C., for cultural outings and nightlife. The Kennedy Center in Washington is a popular place for performances, as is Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts near Vienna. Jiffy Lube Live (near Manassas), EagleBank Arena at George Mason University in Fairfax, and Capital One Arena in Washington serve as popular concert venues, and Capital One Arena also serves as the home of sporting events. Smithsonian museums also serve as local cultural institutions with easy proximity to Northern Virginia, and the Udvar-Hazy Center of the National Air and Space Museum in Chantilly is popular as well.


title: Northern Virginia

text: Tysons Corner Center ("Tysons I") is one of the largest malls in the country and is a hub for shopping in the area. Tysons Galleria ("Tysons II"), its counterpart across Route 123, carries more high-end stores. Tysons itself is the 12th largest business district in the United States. Other malls include Springfield Mall, Fair Oaks Mall, Manassas Mall, Spotsylvania Towne Centre which has a mall and a mixed-use retail and commercial area, and The Fashion Centre at Pentagon City. Dulles Town Center is the region's newest mall, serving the eastern Loudoun County area. Reston Town Center is a high-density mixed-use retail, commercial, and residential development located just off the 267 Toll Road in Reston. Potomac Mills, located in Prince William County, is the largest outlet mall in the region. The town of Leesburg in Loudoun County contains the Leesburg Corner Premium Outlets outlet mall.


title: Northern Virginia

text: Since the mid-1990s, Loudoun County has been known as America's fastest-growing county, having grown by almost 50 percent from 2000 though 2005. Stafford County is also one of the fastest-growing counties in the country. Stafford County according to a Census Bureau report was the sixth highest-income county. Since the 2000 census, both Loudoun and Fairfax counties are the top large U.S. counties by median household income. Loudoun County has branches of at least five higher education institutions.


title: Northern Virginia

text: Northern Virginia is home to many activities for families and individuals, including biking/walking trails, sports leagues, recreation facilities, museums, historic homes, and parks.


title: Northern Virginia

text: It is home to the Northern Virginia Swim League, which comprises 102 community pools, and NVSL-Dive, which is composed of 47 teams in Fairfax and Arlington counties. The swim and dive teams compete over the course of 5–6 weeks from the end of June through the first weekend in August.


title: Northern Virginia

text: The National Capital Area Council operates in the D.C Area. It serves localities in the Washington D.C Metropolitan Area. In Northern Virginia, it has chapters and divisions that serve, Fairfax County, Loudoun County, Prince William County, Stafford County, Arlington County, the City of Alexandria, and the City of Fairfax. It also serves Caroline County, the City of Fredericksburg, and Spotsylvania County.


title: Northern Virginia

text: The National Capital Soccer League serves soccer leagues and associations in the Washington D.C Metropolitan Area. It includes Northern Virginia soccer associations in Fairfax County, Loudoun County, Prince William County, Stafford County, Arlington County, the City of Fredericksburg, the City of Alexandria, the City of Fairfax, and one soccer association in Culpeper County, Winchester, and Warrenton.


title: Northern Virginia

text: Former Republican delegate Jeannemarie Devolites Davis expressed a common sentiment when she said "The formula for funding school construction in Northern Virginia requires that we pay 500 percent more than the actual cost of a project. We have to pay 500 percent because we give 400 percent away to the rest of the state." The state government's funding level for transportation projects in Northern Virginia is a perennial issue that often causes consternation from the region's politicians and citizens.


title: Northern Virginia

text: Many people consider the idea of secession a rhetorical one used to express frustration with the treatment of Northern Virginia by the state government as well as the opposing political sentiments between it and the rest of Virginia. Critics often point out that all states include regions of varying income and political discrepancies within their borders. Nevertheless, the Northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C., are often seen as an extension of the more urbanized Mid-Atlantic, north-east, and the Boston-Washington corridor, even though Virginia as a whole is considered a Southern state. This perception is especially fueled by the region's closeness to Washington, D.C., large numbers of Northern transplants, and the prevalence of both new immigrant communities and growing ethnic diversity. Nevertheless, there is no serious secessionist movement.


title: Northern Virginia

text: The area has two major airports, Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport and Washington Dulles International Airport. While flights from the older National Airport (a hub for American Airlines) are restricted for distance, frequency, and flight paths due to the proximity to federal facilities, Dulles is the region's second busiest airport in both passenger loadings and aircraft movements, and the sixteenth-busiest airport in the United States by takeoffs and landings in 2007. Dulles is the region's primary international gateway, serves as a hub for United Airlines, and has recently improved its low-cost carrier offerings with the addition of multiple flights by Southwest and JetBlue.


title: Northern Virginia

text: Commuters are served by the Washington Metro subway and the Virginia Railway Express, a commuter railroad. Metro is the second-busiest subway system in the nation; only New York City's subway system carries more passengers. A planned expansion project will extend the system past Dulles Airport into Loudoun County. The VRE has two lines adjacent to I-66 and I-95 starting in Union Station and extending to Manassas and Spotsylvania respectively. VRE service is significantly more limited, but nevertheless saw over a year of continuous ridership increase from 2007 into 2008. Bus service is provided by WMATA's Metrobus and several local jurisdictions.


title: Northern Virginia

text: The Washington metropolitan area has the worst traffic in the nation, and Northern Virginia is home to six of the ten worst bottlenecks in the area. To alleviate gridlock, local governments encourage using Metrorail, HOV, carpooling, slugging, and other forms of mass transportation. Major limited- or partially limited-access highways include Interstates 495 (the Capital Beltway), 95, 395, and 66, the Fairfax County Parkway and adjoining Franconia–Springfield Parkway, the George Washington Memorial Parkway, and the Dulles Toll Road. High-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes are used for commuters and buses on I-66, I-95/395, and the Dulles Toll Road. A study done by INRIX Roadway Analytics ranked Southbond I-95 from Washington D.C to the southern tip of Stafford County the worst single traffic hotspot in the nation. It also ranked Northbond I-95 from Spotsylvania County to the northern tip of Stafford County the seventh worst traffic hotspot in the nation. Northern Virginia is also home to the Express Lanes. These express lanes are where a car has an E-ZPass transponder and is charged for riding a distance on the express lanes. They are currently being built on I-66, and are currently available on I-395, I-495 from the Springfield Interchange to Tysons Corner but are being extended to the Maryland-Virginia border, and I-95 from the end of I-395(Springfield Interchange) to central Stafford County and are being extended to Fredericksburg.


title: Northern Virginia

text: Two major regional bottlenecks, the Springfield Interchange and Woodrow Wilson Bridge, were massively reconstructed with completion in 2007 and 2008. Generally, Potomac River crossings remain major choke points; proposals to add crossings (such as near Leesburg or Quantico as part of a long-proposed Outer Beltway) are opposed by Virginia communities near the suggested bridge sites, and by Marylanders who fear that new bridges would bring new housing development to green space in that state such as Poolesville. Because of Northern Virginia's high housing costs, tens of thousands of employees there choose more affordable housing far away in outer Virginia exurban counties, or in Prince George's County and Southern Maryland, thus creating tremendous traffic congestion on the Potomac bridges. This situation is much like metropolitan areas of California. Furthermore, Fairfax County localities such as Great Falls, Dranesville, and Clifton impose low-density, large-acreage residential zoning, which forces developers to leapfrog into Loudoun and Prince William counties to build housing, thus increasing commuters' driving distances. In recent years, developers have continued to develop in Loudoun County but have filled Prince William County. Therefore, many developers have been moving south to Stafford County where local government has been more receptive to developments.


title: Northern Virginia

text: Fairfax County's public school system includes the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, an award-winning magnet school. Nineteen of the region's schools appear in the top 200 of "Newsweek"s 'America's Top Public High Schools', and Thomas Jefferson is ranked number one. In comparison, Washington, D.C., Maryland, and the rest of Virginia have 10 schools between them in the top 200.


title: Northern Virginia

text: Although Northern Virginia contains a large portion of the commonwealth's population, there are only a handful of colleges and universities in the region. The largest and most well-known is George Mason University in Fairfax, the largest public university in Virginia.


title: Northern Virginia

text: Other higher education institutions include Northern Virginia Community College (colloquially known as NOVA) in Annandale (with several branch campuses throughout Northern Virginia), the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Patrick Henry College in western Loudoun County, and Marymount University in north Arlington. In addition, the University of Virginia and Virginia Tech maintain a Center in Falls Church, and George Washington University has a campus in Loudoun County. Virginia Commonwealth University Health Systems has a satellite campus in Fairfax at the INOVA healthcare system.


title: Christianity in Africa

text: Christianity in Africa first arrived in Egypt in approximately 50 AD, reached the region around Carthage by the end of the second century. In the 4th century, the Aksumite empire in modern-day Ethiopia and Eritrea became one of the first regions in the world to adopt Christianity as their official religion. The Nubian kingdoms of Nobatia, Makuria and Alodia followed two centuries later. Important Africans who influenced the early development of Christianity include Tertullian, Perpetua, Felicity, Clement of Alexandria, Origen of Alexandria, Cyprian, Athanasius and Augustine of Hippo.


title: Christianity in Africa

text: The Islamic conquests into North Africa brought pressure on Christians to convert to Islam due to special taxation imposed on non-Muslims and other socio-economic pressures under Muslim rule. The Eastern Orthodox Church of Alexandria and Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria (which separated from each other during the ) in Egypt and the Orthodox Tewahedo Church (that split into Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church and Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church) in the Horn of Africa survived Muslim invasion. Islamization of Muslim-ruled territory occurred progressively over the next few centuries, though this process is not fully understood by historians. Restrictions on church building and demolition of churches in Egypt, along with occasional persecutions such as during the reign of al-Hakim (996–1021), put additional pressure on Copts in Egypt. The Ethiopian Empire was the only region of Africa to survive as a Christian state after the expansion of Islam. The Ethiopian church held its own distinct religious customs and a unique canon of the Bible. Therefore, the Ethiopian church community is globally unique in that it wasn't Christianised through European missionaries, but was highly independent and itself spread missionaries throughout the rest of Africa prior to European Christians contact with the continent. The P'ent'ay churches are however works of a Protestant reformation within Ethiopian Christianity. The position of the head of the Catholic Church of Africa (Archdiocese of Carthage), the only one permitted to preach in the continent, belonged to the bishop of Morocco in 1246. The bishopric of Marrakesh continued to exist until the late 16th century.


title: Christianity in Africa

text: Today, Christianity is embraced by the majority of the population in most Southern African, Southeast African, and Central African states and others in large parts of Horn of Africa and West Africa. The Coptic Christians make up a significant minority in Egypt. As of 2020, Christians formed 49% of the continent's population, with Muslims forming 42%. In a relatively short time, Africa has risen from having a majority of followers of indigenous, traditional religions, to being predominantly a continent of Christians and Muslims. Since 2013, traditional African religions are declared as the majority religion only in Togo. Importantly, today within most self-declared Christian communities in Africa, there is a significant and sustained syncretism with African Traditional Religious beliefs and practices and African Christianity.


title: Christianity in Africa

text: A 2018 study by the Gordon–Conwell Theological Seminary discovered that more Christians live in Africa than any other continent, with 631 million Christians throughout the landmass. The study also states that Latin America has the second-highest number of Christians at 601 million Christians, while Europe has the third-highest with 571 million Christians.


title: Christianity in Africa

text: According to updated data for 2021, there are now nearly 685 million Christians in Africa, with 760 million expected by 2025. This surpasses earlier estimates of 630 million to 700 million for 2025: "By 2025, that number is expected to nearly double, to somewhere between 630 and 700 million believers."


title: Christianity in Africa

text: Mark the Evangelist became the first bishop of the Alexandrian Patriarchate in about the year 43. At first the church in Alexandria was mainly Greek-speaking. By the end of the 2nd century the scriptures and liturgy had been translated into three local languages. Christianity in Sudan also spread in the early 1st century, and the Nubian churches, which were established in the sixth century within the kingdoms of Nobatia, Makuria and Alodia were linked to those of Egypt.


title: Christianity in Africa

text: Christianity also grew in northwestern Africa (today known as the Maghreb). The churches there were linked to the Church of Rome and provided Pope Gelasius I, Pope Miltiades and Pope Victor I, all of them Christian Berbers like Saint Augustine and his mother Saint Monica.


title: Christianity in Africa

text: At the beginning of the 3rd century the church in Alexandria expanded rapidly, with five new suffragan bishoprics. At this time, the Bishop of Alexandria began to be called Pope, as the senior bishop in Egypt. In the middle of the 3rd century the church in Egypt suffered severely in the persecution under the Emperor Decius. Many Christians fled from the towns into the desert. When the persecution died down, however, some remained in the desert as hermits to pray. This was the beginning of Christian monasticism, which over the following years spread from Africa to other parts of the Gohar, and Europe through France and Ireland.


title: Christianity in Africa

text: The early 4th century in Egypt began with renewed persecution under the Emperor Diocletian. In the Ethiopian/Eritrean Kingdom of Aksum, King Ezana declared Christianity the official religion after having been converted by Frumentius, resulting in the promotion of Christianity in Ethiopia (eventually leading to the foundation of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church).


title: Christianity in Africa

text: In these first few centuries, African Christian leaders such as Origen, Lactantius, Augustine, Tertullian, Marius Victorinus, Pachomius, Didymus the Blind, Ticonius, Cyprian, Athanasius and Cyril (along with rivals Valentinus, Plotinus, Arius and Donatus Magnus) influenced the Christian world outside Africa with responses to Gnosticism, Arianism, Montanism, Marcionism, Pelagianism and Manichaeism, and the idea of the university (after the Library of Alexandria), understanding of the Trinity, Vetus Latina translations, methods of exegesis and biblical interpretation, ecumenical councils, monasticism, Neoplatonism and African literary, dialectical and rhetorical traditions.


title: Christianity in Africa

text: After the Muslim conquests, most of the early Muslim caliphs showed little interest in converting the local people to Islam. Christianity continued to exist after the Muslim conquests. Initially, Muslims remained a ruling minority within the conquered territories in the Middle East and North Africa. Overall, the non-Muslim population became a minority in these regions by the 12th century. The factors and processes that led to the Islamization of these regions, as well as the speed at which conversions happened, is a complex subject. Among other rules, the Muslim rulers imposed a special poll tax, the "jizya", on non-Muslims, which acted as an economic pressure to convert alongside other social advantages converts could gain in Muslim society. The Catholic church gradually declined along with local Latin dialect.


title: Christianity in Africa

text: Historians have considered many theories to explain the decline of Christianity in North Africa, proposing diverse factors such as the recurring internal wars and external invasions in the region during late antiquity, Christian fears of persecution by the invaders, schisms and a lack of leadership within the Christian church in Africa, political pragmatism among the inhabitants under the new regime, and a possible lack of differentiation between early Islamic and local Christian theologies that may have made it easier for laymen to accept the new religion. Some Christians, especially those with financial means, also left for Europe. In the lands west of Egypt, the Church at that time lacked the backbone of a monastic tradition and was still suffering from the aftermath of heresies including the so-called Donatist heresy, and one theory proposes this as a factor that contributed to the early obliteration of the Church in the present day Maghreb. Proponents of this theory compare this situation with the strong monastic tradition in Egypt and Syria, where Christianity remained more vigorous. In addition, the Romans and the Byzantines were unable to completely assimilate the indigenous people like the Berbers.


title: Christianity in Africa

text: From the Muslim conquest of Egypt onwards, the Coptic Christians were persecuted by different Muslim regimes. Islamization was likely slower in Egypt than in other Muslim-controlled regions. Up until the Fatimid period (10th to 12th centuries), Christians likely still constituted a majority of the population, although scholarly estimates on this issue are tentative and vary between authors. Under the reign of the Fatimid Caliph al-Hakim (r. 96–1021), an exceptional persecution of Christians occurred, This included closing and demolishing churches and forced conversion to Islam, which brought about a wave of conversions.


title: Christianity in Africa

text: There are reports that the Roman Catholic faith persisted in the region from Tripolitania (present-day western Libya) to present-day Morocco for several centuries after the completion of the Arab conquest by 700. A Christian community is recorded in 1114 in Qal'a in central Algeria. There is also evidence of religious pilgrimages after 850 to tombs of Catholic saints outside the city of Carthage, and evidence of religious contacts with Christians of Muslim Spain. In addition, calendar reforms adopted in Europe at this time were disseminated amongst the indigenous Christians of Tunis, which would have not been possible had there been an absence of contact with Rome.


title: Christianity in Africa

text: Local Christians came under pressure when the Muslim regimes of the Almohads and Almoravids came into power, and the record shows demands made that the local Christians of Tunis convert to Islam. There are reports of Christian inhabitants and a bishop in the city of Kairouan around 1150 AD - a significant event, since this city was founded by Arab Muslims around 680 AD as their administrative center after their conquest. A letter in Catholic Church archives from the 14th century shows that there were still four bishoprics left in North Africa, admittedly a sharp decline from the over four hundred bishoprics in existence at the time of the Arab conquest. The Almohad Abd al-Mu'min forced the Christians and Jews of Tunis to convert in 1159. Ibn Khaldun hinted at a native Christian community in 14th century in the villages of Nefzaoua, south-west of Tozeur. These paid the jizyah and had some people of Frankish descent among them. Berber Christians continued to live in Tunis and Nefzaoua in the south of Tunisia up until the early 15th century, and in the first quarter of the 15th century we even read that the native Christians of Tunis, though much assimilated, extended their church, perhaps because the last Christians from all over the Maghreb had gathered there. However, they were not in communion with the Catholic church. The community of Tunisian Christians existed in the town of Tozeur up to the 18th century.


title: Christianity in Africa

text: Another group of Christians who came to North Africa after being deported from Islamic Spain were called the Mozarabic. They were recognised as forming the Moroccan Church by Pope Innocent IV.


title: Christianity in Africa

text: In June 1225, Honorius III issued the bull "Vineae Domini custodes" that permitted two friars of the Dominican Order named Dominic and Martin to establish a mission in Morocco and look after the affairs of Christians there. The bishop of Morocco Lope Fernandez de Ain was made the head of the Church of Africa, the only church officially allowed to preach in the continent, on 19 December 1246 by Innocent IV.


title: Christianity in Africa

text: The medieval Moroccan historian Ibn Abi Zar stated that the Almohad caliph Abu al-Ala Idris al-Ma'mun had built a church in Marrakech for the Christians to freely practice their faith at Fernando III's insistence. IV asked emirs of Tunis, Ceuta and Bugia to permit Lope and Franciscian friars to look after the Christians in those regions. He thanked the Caliph al-Sa'id for granting protection to the Christians and requested to allow them to create fortresses along the shores, but the Caliph rejected this request.


title: Christianity in Africa

text: Another phase of Christianity in Africa began with the arrival of Portuguese in the 15th century. After the end of Reconquista, the Christian Portuguese and Spanish captured many ports in North Africa.


title: Christianity in Africa

text: Missionary expeditions undertaken by the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) began as early as 1548 in various regions of Africa. In 1561, Gonçalo da Silveira, a Portuguese missionary, managed to baptize Monomotapa, king of the Shona people in the territory of Zimbabwe. A modest sized group of Jesuits began to establish their presence in the area of Abyssinia, or Ethiopia Superior, around the same time of Silveira's presence in Southern Africa. Although Jesuits regularly confronted persecution and harassment, their mission withstood the test of time for nearly a century. Despite this confrontation, they found success in instituting Catholic doctrine in a region that, prior to the existence of their vocation, maintained strictly established orthodoxies. During the sixteenth century, Jesuits extended their mission into the old Kongo Kingdom, developing upon a preexisting Catholic mission which had culminated in the construction of a local church. Jesuit missions functioned similarly in Mozambique and Angola until in 1759 the Society was overcome by Portuguese authority.


title: Christianity in Africa

text: The Jesuits went largely unchallenged by rival denominational missions in Africa. Other religious congregations did exist who sought to evangelize regions of the continent under Portuguese dominion, however, their influence was far less significant than that of the Christians. The Jesuit's ascendency to prominence began with the padroado in the fifteenth century and continued until other European countries initiated missions of their own, threatening Portugal's status as sole patron of the continent. The favor of the Jesuits took a negative turn in the mid eighteenth century when Portugal no longer held the same dominion in Africa as it had in the fifteenth century. The Jesuits found themselves expelled from Mozambique and Angola, as a result, the existence of Catholic missions diminished significantly in these regions.


title: Christianity in Africa

text: The bishopric of Marrakesh continued to exist until the late 16th century and was borne by the suffragans of Seville. Juan de Prado who had attempted to re-establish the mission was killed in 1631. A Franciscan monastery built in 1637 was destroyed in 1659 after the downfall of the Saadi dynasty. A small Franciscan chapel and monastery in the mellah of the city existed until the 18th century.


title: Christianity in Africa

text: The growth of Catholicism in the region after the French conquest was built on European colonizers and settlers, and these immigrants and their descendants mostly left when the countries of the region became independent. As of the last census in Algeria, taken on 1 June 1960, there were 1,050,000 non-Muslim civilians (mostly Catholic) in Algeria (10 percent of the total population including 140,000 Algerian Jews). Under French rule, the Catholic population of Algeria peaked at over one million. Due to the exodus of the "pieds-noirs" in the 1960s, more North African Christians of Berber or Arab descent now live in France than in Greater Maghreb.


title: Christianity in Africa

text: In 2009, the UNO counted 45,000 Roman Catholics and 50,000 to 100,000 Protestants in Algeria. Conversions to Christianity have been most common in Kabylie, especially in the wilaya of Tizi Ouzou. In that wilaya, the proportion of Christians has been estimated to be between 1% and 5%. A 2015 study estimates 380,000 Muslims converted to Christianity in Algeria.


title: Christianity in Africa

text: Before the independence in 1956; Morocco was home to half a million Europeans, mostly Christians. The numbers of the Catholics in French Morocco reached about 360,000 or about 4.1% of the population. In 1950, Catholics in Spanish protectorate in Morocco and Tangier constitute 14.5% of the population, and the Spanish Morocco was home to 113,000 Catholic settlers. Catholics in Spanish protectorate in Morocco and Tangier were mostly of Spanish descent, and to a lesser extent of Portuguese, French and Italian ancestry. The U.S. State Department estimates the number of Moroccan Christians as more than 40,000. Pew-Templeton estimates the number of Moroccan Christians at 20,000. Most Christians reside in the Casablanca, Tangier and Rabat urban areas. The majority of Christians in Morocco are foreigners, although some reports states that there is a growing number of native Moroccans (45,000) converting to Christianity, especially in the rural areas. Many of the converts are baptized secretly in Morocco's churches. Since 1960 a growing number of Moroccan Muslims are converting to Christianity.


title: Christianity in Africa

text: Before the independence in 1956; Tunisia was home to 255,000 Europeans, mostly Christians. The Christian community in Tunisia, composed of indigenous residents, Tunisians of Italian and French descent, and a large group of native-born citizens of Berber and Arab descent, numbers 50,000 and is dispersed throughout the country. The Office for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor in the United States also noted the presence of thousands of Tunisians who converted to Christianity.


title: Christianity in Africa

text: Some scholars and media reports indicate that there been increasing numbers of conversions to Christianity among the Berbers.


title: Christianity in Africa

text: Within different geographical areas, Africans searched for aspects of Christianity that could more closely resemble their religious and personal practices. Adaptations of Protestantism, such as the Kimbanguist church emerged. Within the Kimbanguist church, Simon Kimbangu questioned the order of religious deliverance- would God send a white man to preach? The Kimbanguist church believed Jesus was black and regarded symbols with different weight than the Catholic and Protestant Europeans. The common practice of placing crosses and crucifixes in churches was viewed as a graven image in their eyes or a form of idolatry. Also, according to Mazrui, Kimbanguists respected the roles of women in church more than orthodox churches; they gave women the roles of priests and preachers. Members within these churches looked for practices in the Bible that were not overtly condemned, such as polygamy. They also incorporated in their own practices relationships with objects and actions like dancing and chanting. When Africans were able to read in the vernacular, they were able to interpret the Bible in their own light. Polygamy was a topic of debate- many literate Africans interpreted it as acceptable because of information contained in the Old Testament- while it was condemned by European Christianity. Dona Beatriz was a woman from Central Africa known for her controversial views on the acceptance of polygamy – she argued that Jesus never condemned it – and she was burnt at the stake. European missionaries were faced with what they considered an issue in maintaining Victorian values, while still promoting the vernacular and literacy. Missionaries largely condemned the controversial African views and worked against leaders branching out. Simon Kimbangu became a martyr, put in a cage because of Western missionaries concern, and died there.


title: Christianity in Africa

text: Within African communities, there were clashes brought on by Christianization. As a religion meant to "colonize the conscience and consciousness of the colonized" Christianity caused disputes even amongst hereditary leaders, such as between Khama III and his father Sekgoma in nineteenth-century Botswana. Young leaders formed ideas based on Christianity and challenged elders. Dona Beatriz, an African prophet, made Christianity political and eventually went on to become an African Nationalist, planning to overthrow the Ugandan state with the help of other prophets. According to Paul Kollman, teaching from missionaries was up to the interpretation of each person and took different forms when acted upon.


title: Christianity in Africa

text: David Adamo, a Nigerian within the Aladura church chose portions of the Bible that closely resembled what his church found important. They read portions of Psalms because of the idea that missionaries were not sharing the power of their faith. They found power in reading these verses and put them into the context of their lives.


title: Christianity in Africa

text: In addition to Africanizing Christianity, there were movements to Africanize Islam. In Nigeria, movements were created to arouse Muslims to de-Arabize Islam. There were clashes between people who accepted the de-Arabization and those who did not. These movements took place around 1980, resulting in violent behavior and clashes with police. Mirza Ghulam Ahmed, the founder of the Ahmadiyya sect, believed that Muhammed was the most important prophet, but not the last- departing from typical Muslim views. Sunni Africans were largely against the Ahmadiyyas; the Ahmadiyyas were the first to translate the Quran into Swahili, and the Sunnis opposed that as well. There was a militarism developed in different groups and movements like the Ahmadiyyas and the Mahdist movement and clashes between groups with opposing views.


title: Christianity in Africa

text: The influenza pandemic of 1918 accelerated the Africanization of Christianity and hence its growth in twentieth century Africa. As many as five million Africans are estimated to have died. European governments, churches and medicine were powerless against the plague, boosting anti-imperial sentiment. This contributed to growth of independent and prophetic Christian mass movements with prophecy, healings, and nationalist church restructuring. For example, the inception of the Aladura movement in Nigeria coincided with the pandemic. Evolving into the Christ Apostolic Church, it gave rise to many offshoots, which continued to emerge into the 1950s spreading with migrants around the world. For example, the Redeemed Christian Church of God, founded in 1952, has congregations in a dozen African states, Western Europe and North America.


title: Christianity in Africa

text: Christians and Muslims built schools throughout the continent of Africa, teaching missionary beliefs and philosophies. Since the Quran must only be recited in Arabic, It is necessary that a practitioner of the Muslim faith reads and understands the meaning of Arabic words in order to recite and/or memorize the Quran. As a result of the nature of Islam in Africa, Muslim missionaries were not prompted to translate their sacred text into the native language. Unlike that of Islam, Christian missionaries were compelled to spread an understanding of their gospel in the native language of the indigenous people they sought to convert. The bible was then translated and communicated in these native languages. Christian schools did teach English, as well as mathematics, philosophy, and values inherent to Western culture and civilization. The conflicting branches of secularism and religiosity within the Christian schools represents a divergence between the various goals of educational institutions within Africa.


title: Christianity in Africa

text: Christianity is now one of the two most widely practiced religions in Africa. There has been tremendous growth in the number of Christians in Africa - coupled by a relative decline in adherence to traditional African religions. Only nine million Christians were in Africa in 1900, but by the year 2000, there were an estimated 380 million Christians. According to a 2006 Pew Forum on Religion and Public life study, 147 million African Christians were "renewalists" (Pentecostals and Charismatics). According to David Barrett, most of the 552,000 congregations in 11,500 denominations throughout Africa in 1995 are completely unknown in the West. Much of the recent Christian growth in Africa is now due to indigenous African missionary work and evangelism and high birth rates, rather than European missionaries. Christianity in Africa shows tremendous variety, from the ancient forms of Oriental Orthodox Christianity in Egypt, Ethiopia, and Eritrea to the newest African-Christian denominations of Nigeria, a country that has experienced large conversion to Christianity in recent times. Several syncretistic and messianic sections have formed throughout much of the continent, including the Nazareth Baptist Church in South Africa and the Aladura churches in Nigeria. Some evangelical missions founded in Africa such as the UD-OLGC, founded by Evangelist Dag Heward-Mills, are also quickly spreading in influence all around the world. There are also fairly widespread populations of Seventh-day Adventists and Jehovah's Witnesses.


title: Christianity in Africa

text: Some experts predict the shift of Christianity's center from the European industrialized nations to Africa and Asia in modern times. Yale University historian Lamin Sanneh stated that "African Christianity was not just an exotic, curious phenomenon in an obscure part of the world, but that African Christianity might be the shape of things to come." The statistics from the "World Christian Encyclopedia" (David Barrett) illustrate the emerging trend of dramatic Christian growth on the continent and supposes, that in 2025 there will be 633 million Christians in Africa.


title: Christianity in Africa

text: A 2015 study estimates 2,161,000 Christian believers are from a formerly Muslim background in Africa, most of them belonging to some form of Protestantism.


title: Christianity in Africa

text: Megachurches (defined as churches with weekend attendances of at least 2,000) are found in many countries of Sub-Saharan Africa, including Tanzania, Nigeria, South Africa, Ghana, Kenya, and Uganda. They are mostly of Pentecostal denominations. The largest church auditorium, Glory Dome, was inaugurated in 2018 with 100,000 seats, in Abuja, Nigeria.


title: Christianity in Africa

text: Catholic Church membership rose from 2 million in 1900 to 140 million in 2000. In 2005, the Catholic Church in Africa, including Eastern Catholic Churches, was followed by approximately 135 million of the 809 million people in Africa. In 2009, when Pope Benedict XVI visited Africa, it was estimated at 158 million. Most belong to the Latin Church, but there are also millions of members of the Eastern Catholic Churches.


title: Christianity in Africa

text: Protestantism is the largest Christian group in Africa, with 35.9% (more than a half) in sub-Saharan Africa. Protestant have grown to 35.9% of the whole population of the continent. The three countries with more Protestant population are: Nigeria with 60 million (37.7% of the population), Kenya with 48 million (84% of the population), and South Africa with 24 million (47.7% of the population), these three countries add up to around 121 million Protestants.


title: Christianity in Africa

text: With over 20 denominations in the continent, World Methodist Council has 17.08 members in the whole continent.


title: Christianity in Africa

text: The population of Pentecostal Christians is around 20.292 million in 2015, being 35.32 percent of the continent's Christian population.


title: À

text: À, à (a-grave) is a letter of the Catalan, Emilian-Romagnol, French, Galician, Italian, Maltese, Occitan, Portuguese, Sardinian, Scottish Gaelic, Vietnamese, and Welsh languages consisting of the letter A of the ISO basic Latin alphabet and a grave accent. À is also used in Pinyin transliteration. In most languages, it represents the vowel "a". This letter is also a letter in Taos to indicate a mid tone.


title: À

text: In accounting or invoices, à abbreviates "at a rate of": "5 apples à $1" (one dollar each). That usage is based upon the French preposition à and has evolved into the at sign (@). Sometimes, it is part of a surname: Thomas à Kempis, Mary Anne à Beckett.


title: À

text: À is used in Emilian to represent short stressed [a], e.g. Bolognese dialect "sacàtt" [saˈkatː] "sack".


title: À

text: À is used in the French language to differentiate homophones, e.g. the third person conjugation of "a" "[he/she/it] has" and "à" "at, in, and to".


title: À

text: À is used in Portuguese to represent a contraction of the feminine singular definite article A with the preposition A:


title: À

text: Microsoft Windows users can type an "à" by pressing or on the numeric pad of the keyboard. "À" can be typed by pressing . On a Mac, you hold , and then let go and type .


title: Bruce Wayne (Dark Knight trilogy)

text: Bruce Wayne, also known by his vigilante persona Batman, is a fictional character who is the main protagonist in Christopher Nolan's trilogy of superhero films, based on the DC Comics character of the same name, created by Bill Finger and Bob Kane. Portrayed by Christian Bale, this version of Batman is arguably explored more in-depth compared to that of the previous film series by Tim Burton and Joel Schumacher, as the "Dark Knight" film series provides a full arc for the character and was intended by Nolan to be more realistic than previous portrayals.


title: Bruce Wayne (Dark Knight trilogy)

text: In the films, Bruce is the billionaire owner of the technology firm Wayne Enterprises. After witnessing the murder of his parents at age eight, Bruce travels the world to train to fight crime, returning to claim inheritance of his father's company. Subsequently, he begins fighting crime in Gotham City as Batman, using advanced military-predicated technology in doing so and basing his persona on conquering his fear of bats.


title: Bruce Wayne (Dark Knight trilogy)

text: Bale's portrayal of Batman has often been considered one of the greatest of the character in film, and has also been credited with the success of the "Dark Knight" film series, with the latter two films both grossing over $1 billion each, and thus, the restoration of public interest in Batman in the 21st century.


title: Bruce Wayne (Dark Knight trilogy)

text: Batman first appeared in DC Comics stories in 1939 as the writers were adding more costumed superhero characters for the company's lineup. He was first portrayed in film in the 1940s with two film serials from Columbia Pictures: "Batman" in 1943, and "Batman and Robin" in 1949, with Lewis Wilson and Robert Lowery portraying the caped crusader in each respective series. In 1966, following the success of the television series on ABC, 20th Century Fox released a film for the series, with Adam West reprising his role from the show as Batman.


title: Bruce Wayne (Dark Knight trilogy)

text: After years of waning popularity and development hell for the character, Warner Bros. decided to develop a new Batman film in the mid 1980s, having recently adopted fellow DC Comics character Superman for film with a successful movie in 1978 and subsequent series. Tim Burton was hired as director of the film, which was released in 1989 with Michael Keaton taking on the role of Batman. Following the film's success, Burton made a sequel to the film, "Batman Returns", with Keaton reprising his role, but both Burton and Keaton left the franchise after the film's release in 1992, being replaced by Joel Schumacher and Val Kilmer, respectively. Schumacher's additions to Burton's film series, "Batman Forever" in 1995 and "Batman & Robin" in 1997 (which saw George Clooney replace Kilmer as Batman), saw mixed-to-negative critical reviews. Following the latter's critical and box office failure, the Batman film series was put in jeopardy.


title: Bruce Wayne (Dark Knight trilogy)

text: In January 2003, Warner Bros. hired "Memento" director Christopher Nolan to direct an untitled "Batman" film, and David S. Goyer signed on to write the script two months later. Nolan stated his intention to reinvent the film franchise of "Batman" by "doing the origins story of the character, which is a story that's never been told before". Nolan said that humanity and realism would be the basis of the origin film, and that "the world of Batman is that of grounded reality. [It] will be a recognizable, contemporary reality against which an extraordinary heroic figure arises." Goyer said that the goal of the film was to get the audience to care for both Batman and Bruce Wayne. Nolan felt the previous films were exercises in style rather than drama, and described his inspiration as being Richard Donner's 1978 film "Superman", in its focus on depicting the character's growth. Also similar to "Superman", Nolan wanted an all-star supporting cast for "Batman Begins" to lend a more epic feel and credibility to the story.


title: Bruce Wayne (Dark Knight trilogy)

text: Goyer wanted to reboot the franchise; he and Nolan saw Batman as a romantic character, and Nolan envisioned a large, sweeping film like "Lawrence of Arabia". Nolan did not have a problem with the studio's requirement that the film not be R-rated because he wanted to make the film that he wanted to see when 11 years old. His personal "jumping off point" of inspiration was "The Man Who Falls", a short story by Denny O'Neil and Dick Giordano about Bruce's travels throughout the world. The early scene in "Batman Begins" of young Bruce Wayne falling into a well was adapted from "The Man Who Falls". "", written by Jeph Loeb and drawn by Tim Sale, influenced Goyer in writing the screenplay, with the villain Carmine Falcone as one of many elements which were drawn from "Halloween"s "sober, serious approach". The sequel to "Halloween", "", also served as a minor influence. Goyer used the vacancy of Bruce Wayne's multi-year absence presented in "" to help set up some of the film's events in the transpiring years.


title: Bruce Wayne (Dark Knight trilogy)

text: A common idea in the comics is that Bruce saw a Zorro film with his parents before they were murdered. Nolan explained that by ignoring that idea – which he stated is not found in Batman's first appearances – it emphasized the importance of bats to Bruce and that becoming a superhero is a wholly original idea on his part. It is for this reason Nolan believes other DC characters do not exist in the universe of his film; otherwise, Wayne's reasons for taking up costumed vigilantism would have been very different.


title: Bruce Wayne (Dark Knight trilogy)

text: Christian Bale was already an established actor when cast as Bruce Wayne/Batman, but had not yet attained movie star status. Before he was confirmed on September 11, 2003, having expressed interest in the role since Darren Aronofsky was planning his own film adaptation, Eion Bailey, Henry Cavill, Billy Crudup, Hugh Dancy, Jake Gyllenhaal, Joshua Jackson, Heath Ledger, David Boreanaz and Cillian Murphy took interest in it as well. Amy Adams served as the casting reader for the casting of Bruce Wayne / Batman in a favor to the casting director. Bale felt the previous Batman films underused Batman's character, emphasizing the villains instead. To inform his characterization, Bale studied graphic novels and illustrations of the superhero. Director Nolan said of Bale, "He has exactly the balance of darkness and light that we were looking for." Goyer stated that while some actors could play a great Bruce Wayne or a great Batman, Bale could portray both radically different personalities.


title: Bruce Wayne (Dark Knight trilogy)

text: Bale described the part as playing four characters: the raging Batman persona; the shallow playboy façade Bruce uses to ward off suspicion; the vengeful young man; and the older, angrier Bruce who is discovering his purpose in life. He later reflected on Batman as a "very, very dark, messed-up character." At his audition, Bale wore the Batsuit (minus the cape, which has been missing for some time) Val Kilmer donned for 1995's "Batman Forever". Bale's dislike of his costume, which heated up regularly, helped him get into a necessarily foul mood. He said, "Batman's meant to be fierce, and you become a beast in that suit, as Batman should be – not a man in a suit, but a different creature." Since he had lost a great deal of weight in preparation for his role in "The Machinist", Bale hired a personal trainer to help him gain of muscle in the span of only a couple of months to help him physically prepare for the role. He first went well over the weight required and created concern over whether he would look right for the part. Bale recognized that his large physique was not appropriate for Batman, who relies on speed and strategy. He lost the excess weight by the time filming began. Bale trained in Wing Chun Kung Fu under Eric Oram in preparation for the movie. Child actor Gus Lewis portrays an 8-year-old Bruce at the beginning of the film.


title: Bruce Wayne (Dark Knight trilogy)

text: Bale reprised the role of Batman in the sequel "The Dark Knight", released on July 18, 2008. He trained in the Keysi Fighting Method, and performed many of his own stunts. He reprised the role again for the sequel "The Dark Knight Rises", released on July 20, 2012. Of all the actors who have portrayed Batman on film, Bale did so for the longest time period. Following a shooting at a midnight showing of "The Dark Knight Rises", he visited survivors in an Aurora, Colorado hospital. Despite the success of the Dark Knight trilogy, Bale decided not to return for a potential fourth film appearance as Batman out of respect for Christopher Nolan's creative direction and the fact that the trilogy provided a full arc for the character. However, Bale states that he is open to reprise his role as Batman, if Christopher Nolan agreed to return as director.


title: Bruce Wayne (Dark Knight trilogy)

text: Though previous Batman actors Michael Keaton and Kevin Conroy created separate voices for Batman and the unmasked Bruce Wayne, Christian Bale's "Batman voice" is often considered the most memorable live-action rendition and was made famous by the films. Director Christopher Nolan states that "Christian, somehow, figured this out before the screen test, that you could not give a normal performance, that you could not give an ordinary performance. You had to project massive energy through this costume in order to not question the costume. So it's about feeling and a voice, and I think Christian's voice was a big part of the impression he made in the test. He decided that Batman needed to have a different voice than Bruce Wayne; he needed to put on a voice that supported the visual appearance of the character."


title: Bruce Wayne (Dark Knight trilogy)

text: The vocalization of Bale's Batman (which was partly altered during post-production) was the subject of particular criticism by some commentators, with David Edelstein of NPR describing Bale delivering his performance with "a voice that's deeper and hammier than ever." Alonso Duralde at MSNBC, however, referred to Bale's voice in "The Dark Knight" as an "eerie rasp," as opposed to the voice used in the "Batman Begins", which according to Duralde "sounded absurdly deep, like a 10-year-old putting on an 'adult' voice to make prank phone calls."


title: Bruce Wayne (Dark Knight trilogy)

text: Batman has several bodysuits in the trilogy, with a detailed description given to the one used in "Batman Begins". Variations of military-grade body armor are used, with Christian Bale requesting changes made due to a lack of mobility with the first suit used.


title: Bruce Wayne (Dark Knight trilogy)

text: Bruce Wayne is very dedicated to his work of crime-fighting. He sometimes employs illegal and morally dubious tactics, gaining the moniker "The Dark Knight", as opposed to Harvey Dent, who fights crime through legal methods as Gotham's "White Knight" before his transformation into Two-Face.


title: Bruce Wayne (Dark Knight trilogy)

text: Bruce's strongest characteristic is his strong moral code: while he often severely injures the criminals he fights, he refuses to kill them, as he believes that doing so would make him no better than them.


title: Bruce Wayne (Dark Knight trilogy)

text: To the public, Bruce Wayne puts on the façade of a shallow, dim-witted playboy so that no one will take a serious look into his life and discover his secret. As Batman, he employs the image of a monstrous, shadowy, bat-like creature that is not intimidated by criminals and can disappear at will, in order to strike fear into the hearts of criminals and provide the people of Gotham a symbol of hope and justice.


title: Bruce Wayne (Dark Knight trilogy)

text: Batman is a highly skilled martial artist, having been trained by Ra's al Ghul in ninjutsu. Batman has achieved such feats as single-handedly subduing a team of trained S.W.A.T. officers and taking out a group of the League of Shadows with minimal injury. Even prior to his training under Ra's, Bruce Wayne is already a skilled street fighter, having learned animal-styled Chinese martial arts and Jujutsu, able to fight six convicts (and was subtly implied that five were Ra's men) in a prison brawl, with the guards locking him in solitary for the other inmates' "protection."


title: Bruce Wayne (Dark Knight trilogy)

text: During his worldwide travels, Batman has learned to speak other languages including Mandarin Chinese.


title: Bruce Wayne (Dark Knight trilogy)

text: Batman is also highly intelligent, being a brilliant detective, expert tactician, and skilled engineer. He has proven himself exceptionally good at stealth, being able to disappear at will and sneak up on others unexpectedly. With his vast wealth, Batman has access to cutting-edge technology to help in his war on crime.


title: Bruce Wayne (Dark Knight trilogy)

text: Bruce Wayne first appears in the film "Batman Begins". As a child, he falls into a well on his parents' estate and is rescued by his father Thomas (Linus Roache), but develops a fear of bats after a flock of them attack him. Bruce tours a new monorail funded by his father, who explains that he nearly bankrupted his company Wayne Enterprises to build it to help Gotham City, which is experiencing an economic depression. Bruce then accompanies his parents to see the opera "Mefistofele", but is frightened by a bat-like character in the production. As his parents take him home, they are confronted by a mugger named Joe Chill (Richard Brake), who shoots them both dead right in front of Bruce, leaving him deeply traumatized. Bruce is comforted by police officer James Gordon (Gary Oldman) as Chill is arrested, then raised by his parents' butler Alfred Pennyworth (Michael Caine).


title: Bruce Wayne (Dark Knight trilogy)

text: Fifteen years later, Bruce is still mourning his parents, and plans to kill the recently paroled Chill. Before Bruce can take his revenge, however, Chill is murdered by an assassin working for mobster Carmine Falcone (Tom Wilkinson), whom Chill was going to testify against. When Bruce tells his childhood sweetheart Rachel Dawes (Katie Holmes) what he had planned to do, she is disgusted and lectures him about the difference between justice and revenge, which motivates him to confront Falcone himself. Falcone dismisses Bruce’s concerns, stating that he does not understand the criminal world, so Bruce leaves Gotham, exploring the world and working for criminal organizations to try and understand them. After being arrested in Bhutan for robbery and engaging in a prison fight, Bruce is approached by Henri Ducard (Liam Neeson), who invites Bruce to join the League of Shadows, an elite vigilante group. Bruce trains with Ducard and the League and conquers his fears, but refuses their final test, the execution of a thief. When Bruce learns that the League intends to destroy Gotham, believing it to be beyond saving, he burns down the League's temple, killing their leader Ra's al Ghul (Ken Watanabe) but saving an unconscious Ducard.


title: Bruce Wayne (Dark Knight trilogy)

text: Bruce returns to Gotham, intending to use the martial skills he learned from the League to fight crime as a symbol of fear. Bruce takes an interest in Wayne Enterprises, which is being taken public by the unscrupulous William Earle (Rutger Hauer). Company archivist Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman), a friend of Bruce's father, allows Bruce access to prototype defense technologies, including a protective bodysuit and a heavily armored vehicle, the Tumbler. Bruce poses publicly as a shallow playboy, while setting up a base in the caves beneath Wayne Manor and taking up the vigilante identity of "Batman", inspired by his childhood fear. He reaches out to Rachel, now the city's assistant district attorney, and Gordon, now a sergeant, to aid him in his fight against crime.


title: Bruce Wayne (Dark Knight trilogy)

text: While patrolling as Batman one night, Bruce intercepts a drug shipment by Falcone, tying him up and providing incriminating evidence for Rachel and Gordon to arrest him. Dr. Jonathan Crane (Cillian Murphy), Arkham Asylum's corrupt chief psychiatrist, doses Falcone with a fear-inducing hallucinogen, driving him insane. Batman confronts Crane, who doses him with the hallucinogen as well, incapacitating him with visions of his parents' murder. Alfred rescues him, however, and Fox administers an antidote.


title: Bruce Wayne (Dark Knight trilogy)

text: When Rachel accuses Crane of corruption, he reveals he has introduced his drug into Gotham's water supply. He drugs Rachel, but Batman subdues and interrogates Crane, who claims to work for Ra's al Ghul. Batman evades the police to get Rachel to safety, administering her the antidote and giving her a vial of it for Gordon and another for mass production.


title: Bruce Wayne (Dark Knight trilogy)

text: At Bruce's birthday party, Ducard reappears and reveals himself to be the real Ra's al Ghul, the other one having been a decoy. Having stolen a microwave emitter from Wayne Enterprises, he plans to vaporize Gotham's water supply, rendering Crane's drug airborne and causing mass hysteria that will destroy the city. Ra's reveals that the League was responsible for the city's economic depression, making him indirectly responsible for Bruce's parents' murders due to Chill turned to crime out of desperation caused by him, renewing Bruce's need for revenge. He sets Wayne Manor aflame and leaves Bruce to die, but Alfred rescues him. Ra's loads the microwave emitter onto Gotham's monorail system to release the drug at the city's central water source. Batman rescues Rachel from a drugged mob and indirectly reveals his identity to her. As Gordon uses the Tumbler's cannons to destroy a section of the track, Batman defeats Ra's and escapes the train, leaving him to die as the train crashes.


title: Bruce Wayne (Dark Knight trilogy)

text: Bruce wins Rachel's respect and love, but she decides she cannot be with him as long as Gotham needs Batman. Batman becomes a public hero and Bruce reveals he has purchased a controlling stake in Wayne Enterprises, firing Earle and replacing him with Fox. Gordon is promoted to Lieutenant and shows Batman the Bat-Signal, and tells him of a criminal who leaves behind Joker playing cards.


title: Bruce Wayne (Dark Knight trilogy)

text: Some years later, Batman has become a thorn in the side of Gotham's organized crime families, and inspired the public – to the point that several gun-toting vigilantes have begun dressing as him and attacking criminals in a misguided attempt to help his crusade. Batman stops a group of these vigilantes when they attack Crane and a group of mobsters and apprehends the entire group, but injuries suffered during the confrontation lead him to design a new, more versatile suit of armor. In addition to the Bat-Signal, Gordon communicates with Batman via an encrypted mobile phone signal. They contemplate bringing Gotham's new district attorney – and Rachel's boyfriend – Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart) in on their plan to eradicate the mob. While Bruce is Dent's rival for Rachel's affection, he is impressed by the D.A.'s dedication to fighting crime, and hopes that Dent will become the city's protector so that he can give up being Batman and live a normal life with Rachel. Bruce travels to Hong Kong under the guise of a weekend fling with the Russian Ballet to apprehend the mob's accountant Lau (Chin Han) as Batman so Gordon and Dent can use him to confiscate the mob's money. Meanwhile, Batman and Gordon become aware of a murderous bank robber calling himself "the Joker" (Heath Ledger).


title: Bruce Wayne (Dark Knight trilogy)

text: In retaliation for briefly being arrested, mob bosses Sal Maroni (Eric Roberts) and the Chechen (Ritchie Coster) pay the Joker half of their money to kill Batman. The Joker publicly threatens to kill people every day until Batman reveals his true identity, and makes good on his threat by killing Commissioner Gillian B. Loeb (Colin MacFarlane) and, apparently, Gordon. Bruce decides to turn himself in to the police, and shares another kiss with Rachel, who says that they cannot be together if he goes to prison. Before Bruce can give himself up, however, Dent publicly admits to being Batman to draw the Joker out of hiding. The Joker attempts to kill Dent during transport, but Gordon (who faked his death) and Batman intervene in time to apprehend him.


title: Bruce Wayne (Dark Knight trilogy)

text: With the Joker in custody, Batman and Gordon, now promoted to GCPD Commissioner, believe that the crisis is over, but become alarmed when Dent goes missing. Desperate to find Dent, Batman interrogates the Joker, who reveals that Rachel and Dent have been taken to opposite sides of the city, far enough apart that Batman would not have time to save both of them. Batman speeds off to save Rachel, while Gordon and the police head after Dent. Unbeknownst to them, however, the Joker had switched the locations, sending Batman after Dent and Gordon after Rachel. Batman rescues Dent just as both buildings explode, but Dent's face is disfigured and Rachel is killed. Bruce is devastated by her death, taking solace only in the belief that she would have chosen him; to spare him pain, Alfred decides to burn a letter Rachel had given him in which she wrote that she had decided to marry Dent. Meanwhile, the Joker convinces Dent to take revenge against the people he blames for Rachel's death: Gordon and Batman.


title: Bruce Wayne (Dark Knight trilogy)

text: When the Joker threatens to blow up a hospital unless someone kills Coleman Reese (Joshua Harto), a Wayne Enterprises accountant who has deduced Batman's secret identity, Bruce risks his life to save him, persuading Reese to keep his secret. The Joker then kidnaps a busload of people and puts them on a ferry rigged to explode, threatening to kill them unless they remotely detonate another similarly rigged ferry full of prisoners, while his men hold another group of hostages at gunpoint. Batman persuades a reluctant Fox to use a sonar device to monitor all of Gotham so he can find the Joker. Batman frees the hostages and subdues the Joker, while neither group on the ferries destroy each other. The Joker nevertheless gloats that the citizens of Gotham will lose faith in humanity once they learn of Dent's murderous rampage as the vigilante "Two-Face". Horrified, Batman goes to find Dent as the Joker is taken into custody.


title: Bruce Wayne (Dark Knight trilogy)

text: Batman finds Dent holding Gordon and his family hostage at the site of Rachel's death. Dent threatens to kill Gordon's son to inflict upon him the pain of losing a loved one, but Batman persuades him to pass judgement on the people he holds responsible for Rachel's death: Batman, himself, and Gordon. Dent flips his lucky coin to decide their fates, shooting Batman and sparing himself. As Dent is about to kill Gordon's son, Batman, who is wearing body armor, tackles him off a ledge to his death, saving the boy before falling and injuring his leg. Determined to preserve Dent's heroic image, Batman convinces Gordon to let him take the blame for Dent's crimes, and disappears into the night, now branded a murderer.