title: Cousin marriage in the Middle East

text: Cousin marriage, or consanguinity (marriages among couples who are related as second cousins or closer), is allowed and often encouraged throughout the Middle East, and in other Muslim countries worldwide such as Pakistan. As of 2003, an average of 45% of married couples were related in the Arab world.


title: Cousin marriage in the Middle East

text: While consanguinity is not unique to the Arab or Islamic world, Arab countries have had "some of the highest rates of consanguineous marriages in the world".


title: Cousin marriage in the Middle East

text: The bint 'amm marriage, or marriage with one's father's brother's daughter ("bint al-'amm") is especially common, especially in tribal and traditional Muslim communities, where men and women seldom meet potential spouses outside the extended family. Anthropologists have debated the significance of the practice; some view it as the defining feature of the Middle Eastern kinship system while others note that overall rates of cousin marriage have varied sharply between different Middle Eastern communities. In pre-modern times rates of cousin marriage were seldom recorded. In recent times, geneticists have warned that the tradition of cousin marriage over centuries has led to recessive genetic disorders.


title: Cousin marriage in the Middle East

text: Prior to the origins of Islam cousin marriage was an acceptable practice in the Middle East according to writings in the Christian Bible. Abraham sent his servant back to his brother to get a wife for his son Isaac. Isaac eventually married his second cousin Rebekah (daughter of Bethuel the son of Nahor, Abraham's brother.)


title: Cousin marriage in the Middle East

text: The Persian king Ardashir I of the Sasanian Empire advised his lawyers, secretaries, officers, and husbandmen to "marry near relatives for the sympathy of kinship is kept alive thereby." The same motivation is given in ancient Arabic sources referring to the practice of marriage between paternal cousins prevalent in pre-Islamic Arabia. The "Kitab al-Aghani" similarly features the story of Qays ibn Dharih, who was not allowed by his father to marry a beautiful maiden from another tribe because, in the words of the father felt that as a rich and wealthy man he did not want his son to take the side of a stranger. There is the related consideration that a man who grows up with a cousin in the intimate setting of one extended family knows her and so may develop his own liking or love for her. There is also the benefit of knowing the qualities of the spouse: a Syrian proverb reads, "Ill luck which you know is better than good luck with which you get acquainted." Keeping property in the family is a final reason for cousin marriage. One of the earliest examples of this is the five daughters of Zelophehad from ancient Israel () who upon inheriting from their father all married their father's brother's sons.


title: Cousin marriage in the Middle East

text: A 2000 study (by Andrey Korotayev) found that parallel-cousin (Father's Brother's Daughter – FBD) marriage is likely to be common in areas that were part of the eighth-century Umayyad Caliphate and remained in the Islamic world, i.e. North Africa and Middle East. Korotayev argues that while there is some functional connection between Islam and FBD marriage, the permission to marry a FBD does not appear to be sufficient to persuade people to actually marry FBD, even if the marriage brings with it economic advantages. According to Korotayev, a systematic acceptance and practice of parallel-cousin marriage took place when Islamized non-Arab groups adopted Arab norms and practices even if they had no direct connection with Islam to raise their social standing.


title: Cousin marriage in the Middle East

text: In the holy book of Islam, the Quran, Sura An-Nisa (Q.4:22-5) gives a fairly detailed list of what sort of marriages are prohibited in Islam, (including "... your fathers' sisters, and your mothers' sisters, and brother's daughters, and sister's daughters, and your foster-mothers ...") but does not include first cousins, and ends by saying: "Lawful to you are all beyond these".


title: Cousin marriage in the Middle East

text: Pious Muslims look to the life of the Islamic Prophet Muhammad and early Muslims as examples to be followed, and "several ... members of the Prophet's family and inner circle were married to their cousins." One of Muhammad's wives – Zaynab bint Jahsh was the daughter of Muhammad's aunt. However, Muhammad didn't have children with Zaynab, his children being all children of him and Khadija bint Khuwaylid, except one with Maria al-Qibtiyya. Ali, cousin of Prophet Muhammad and the fourth Rashidun caliph, was married to the Prophet's daughter Fatimah.


title: Cousin marriage in the Middle East

text: The Quranic law dictating that daughters receive a portion of the inheritance appears to have provided a financial incentive to cousin marriage, as the inheritance would remain in the extended family. Answering a 2012 audience question, the popular Islamic preacher Zakir Naik noted that the Quran does not forbid cousin marriage but quotes Dr. Ahmed Sakr as saying that there is a hadith of Muhammad that says: "Do not marry generation after generation among first cousins". However, the fatwa center at IslamWeb.net was unable to find "any scholar who mentioned" this hadith, and lists several scholars (Al-Qaadhi Al-Husayn, Imaam al-Haramayn (Al-Juwayni), Ibn al-Salah) who have stated the hadith is inauthentic.


title: Cousin marriage in the Middle East

text: Prevalence of marriages up to and including distance of second-degree cousin in the world according to The National Center for Biotechnology Information in 2012.


title: Cousin marriage in the Middle East

text: Besides Muslims, some Jewish and Arab Christians in the Middle East have a history of cousin marriage. In addition, some Muslim groups living outside the Middle East, such as Bangladeshi Muslims or expatriate Pakistanis living in England, also practice consanguinity.


title: Cousin marriage in the Middle East

text: 22-34% of all marriages in Algeria are consanguine (blood related), according to a 2009 study in Reproductive Health.


title: Cousin marriage in the Middle East

text: In the oasis-village of Sidi Khaled, some 170 miles south of Algiers, among the Mzabites further south, among the Chaamba, and among the Moors of the extreme western Sahara, cousin marriage is preferred.


title: Cousin marriage in the Middle East

text: Raphael Patai reports that in central Arabia no relaxation of a man's right to the father's brother's daughter (FBD, or paternal female cousin) seems to have taken place in the past hundred years before his 1962 work. Here the girl is not forced to marry her paternal male cousin but she cannot marry another unless he gives consent. Among the Jews of Yemen this rule is also followed albeit not as rigidly. In northern Arabia the custom is very strong and any outsider wishing to marry a woman must first come to the paternal male cousin, ask his permission, and pay him what he wants, and a man who marries off his daughter without the consent of the paternal male cousin may be killed by family members. The right of the paternal male cousin is such that a shaykh may not be able to prevail against it. Among the Bedouin it can happen that a paternal male cousin can lodge a complaint after the marriage has taken place, compelling the father to reimburse the bride price or have the marriage annulled. If the paternal male cousin cannot marry his paternal female cousin immediately due to financial or other considerations, the paternal male cousin can also "reserve" her by making a public and formal statement of his intentions to marry her at a future date. A more distant relative acquires priority to marry a girl over her paternal male cousin by reserving her soon after her birth...


title: Cousin marriage in the Middle East

text: 39-45% of marriages in Bahrain are consanguine (blood related), according to a 2009 study in the journal "Reproductive Health".


title: Cousin marriage in the Middle East

text: As of 2016, about 40% of marriages in Egypt were between cousins. Another source ("Reproductive Health") puts the figure at 20.9-32.8% for marriages between blood related partners as of 2009, but much higher—60.5-80.4% -- in the region of Nubia.


title: Cousin marriage in the Middle East

text: In Egypt cousin marriage may have been even more prevalent than in Arabia in past periods, with one source from the 1830s observing that it was common among Egyptian Arabs and native Egyptian Muslims, but less so in Cairo, where first cousin marriage accounts for 35 percent of marriages. Reportedly the husband and wife would continue to call each other "cousin" because the tie of blood was seen as indissoluble while the marriage was not. In the upper and middle classes, the young man was seldom allowed to see the face of his female cousin after she reached puberty. Cousin marriage is not only practiced by Muslims, but also by Egyptian Copts in the past century, although at a lesser rate (approximately 7-12% of all Coptic marriages). This rate has decreased to a very small percentage where Copts choose to marry cousins. Estimates from the late 19th and early 20th century state variously that either 80 percent of the Egyptian fellahin marry first cousins or two-thirds marry them if they exist. Cousin marriage was also practiced in the Sinai Peninsula, where a girl is sometimes reserved by her cousin with money long before puberty, and among Bedouins in the desert between the Nile and the Red Sea. Cousin marriage was practiced in Medina during Muhammad's time, but out of 113 recorded marriages in one sample only 15 were between "abnaa 'amm" or paternal cousins of any degree.


title: Cousin marriage in the Middle East

text: Cousin marriages are decreasing among Iranians. Since the Pahlavi era fewer Iranians have practised cousin marriages. There is a strong preference for marrying a first cousin, but no specific preference for the father's brother's daughter. For the quarter of women married after age 21 it was found that the incidence of consanguinity declined to 28%. Additionally, the proportion of cousin marriage among urban families stayed constant: it was only rural families that drove the increase. For all periods the proportion of cousin marriage among highly educated women was somewhat lower than among uneducated women. It is hypothesized that decreases in infant mortality during the period may have created a larger pool of eligible cousins to marry.


title: Cousin marriage in the Middle East

text: 47-60% of marriages in Iraq are consanguine (blood related), according to a 2009 study in the journal "Reproductive Health".


title: Cousin marriage in the Middle East

text: In Iraq the right of the cousin has also traditionally been followed as cousin marriage accounts 50%. The uncle of the girl – or father of the boy – assigns or reserves his niece to his son at an early age, the parents from both families arrange for the marriage usually early. This is usually done to preserve wealth in the family and is more common in rural areas. Among the Jews of Iraq, if the cousin cannot be persuaded to forgo his rights, then he is paid a sum of money by the girl's father. Among the Kurdish Hamawand tribe the paternal male cousin must give his consent for the marriage to take place, though in the southern Kurdish regions the cousin right is not as strongly emphasized. Among Arabs and Berbers in Morocco the cousin right has also traditionally prevailed.


title: Cousin marriage in the Middle East

text: Barth finds in his study of southern Kurdistan that in tribal villages 57% of all marriages were cousin marriages (48% "bint 'amm" marriages) while in a nontribal village made up of recent immigrant families only 17% were cousin marriages (13% "bint 'amm").


title: Cousin marriage in the Middle East

text: Patai states in his other book "The Myth of the Jewish Race" that the percentage of cousin marriage among Jews varies extensively with geographic location. Among Israeli Ashkenazi Jews, the first-cousin marriage rate was measured in a 1955–7 study at 1.4% and other cousin marriages at 1.06% of all marriages. But among non-Ashkenazim the first-cousin marriage rate was 8.8% and an additional 6.0% of marriages were between more distant cousins. Thus a total 14.6% of marriages between non-Ashkenazim were consanguineous compared with only 2.5% for Ashkenazim. The highest frequencies of cousin marriages were found among Jews from Iraq (28.7%) and Iran (26.3%). High rates were also found among couples from Yemen (18.3%), Aden (17.8%), Tunisia (13.4%), and among Oriental Jews from the USSR (6.9%). Jews from Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, and Turkey saw rates of 7–10.7%. A later 1969–70 study rated the first-cousin marriage rate among Ashkenazim at 0.3% and other cousin marriages at 1.0%, while for non-Askhenazim the respective figures were 6.2% and 8.1%. Among the Habbani Jews in Israel, 56% of marriages are between first cousins. The Samaritans also had very high rates of inbreeding, with 43% of marriages between first cousins and 33.3% between other cousins.


title: Cousin marriage in the Middle East

text: A 1984 study of consanguineous (primarily first cousin) marriages among the Arab population in rural Western Galilee found it occurred among 49% of Druze, 40% Muslims, and 29% of Christians. A 1990–92 study of all of Israel found similar results – 47% among Druze, 42% among Muslim Arabs, and 22% among Christian Arabs.


title: Cousin marriage in the Middle East

text: In the South Palestinian village of Artas in the 1920s, of 264 marriages 35, or 13.3%, were paternal male cousin marriages; 69, or 26.1%, were cousin marriages.


title: Cousin marriage in the Middle East

text: 28.5-63.7% of marriages in Jordan are consanguine (blood related), according to a 2009 study in the journal "Reproductive Health".


title: Cousin marriage in the Middle East

text: 22.5-64.3% of marriages in Kuwait are consanguine (blood related), according to a 2009 study in the journal "Reproductive Health".


title: Cousin marriage in the Middle East

text: 12.8-42% of marriages in Lebanon are consanguine (blood related), according to a 2009 study in the journal "Reproductive Health".


title: Cousin marriage in the Middle East

text: A 1983-84 study of cousin marriage among 2,752 households in the capital, Beirut, found a 7.9% rate of marriage between first cousins among Christians, and a 17.3% rate among Muslims.


title: Cousin marriage in the Middle East

text: In Lebanon first-cousin marriage rates differ among religious affiliation as it is found to be 17% for Christians and 30% for Muslims throughout the past century, however first-cousin marriage is declining among all marriages in Lebanon.


title: Cousin marriage in the Middle East

text: According to a 2009 study, the percentage of consanguine (blood related) marriages in Sudan is between 44.2-63.3%.


title: Cousin marriage in the Middle East

text: In Syria the right belongs to the paternal male cousin alone and the maternal male cousin has no special rights. The custom is however less frequent in big cities such as Damascus and Aleppo. Patai reports that in the decades preceding 1962 the right was often ignored among the Syrian urban middle class. Among the upper classes it appeared to be again more common, as certain leading families protected their wealth and status by reserving daughters for their cousins, though sons had more freedom of choice. This situation was also loosening at the time of Patai's work. This holds also among the Syrian Turks and Kurds. But the Syrian Circassians hold cousin marriage absolutely forbidden, similar to the Circassians of the Caucasus.


title: Cousin marriage in the Middle East

text: In her discussion of the city of Aleppo during the Ottoman Empire, Meriwether finds a rate of cousin marriage among the elite of 24%. Father's brother's daughter was most common but still only represented 38% of all cousin marriages, while 62% were with first or second cousins. But most families had either no cousin marriages or only one, while for a few the rate was as high as 70%. Cousin marriage rates were higher among women, merchant families, and older well-established families. Meriwether cites one case of cousin marriage increasing in a prominent family as it consolidated its position and forging new alliances became less critical. Marriage patterns among the elite were, however, always diverse and cousin marriage was only one option of many. Rates were probably lower among the general population.


title: Cousin marriage in the Middle East

text: In Turkey the rate of consanguineous marriage is 8.5%, the most cases of consanguineous marriage are found in South Eastern and Eastern Anatolia regions of Turkey due to a significant Kurdish population.


title: Cousin marriage in the Middle East

text: The 2009 study in the journal "Reproductive Health" cited above, puts the percentage of consanguine marriage in Mauritania at 47.2; Morocco at 20-28; Oman at 56.3; Qatar at 54.


title: Cousin marriage in the Middle East

text: In the town of Timbuctoo, a field investigator found that among the Arabs one third of marriages are with first cousins. Half of these are with the father's brother's daughter and slightly fewer with the mother's brother's daughter. It is possible that the high MBD marriage rate is the result of Songhoi influence, one group of which prefers the MBD type and shuns the FBD type, and another group of which have a preference for both. The third ethnic group of Timbuctoo are the Bela, who are Tuareg slaves, and among whom marriage between cross cousins is preferred in principle, though in practice FBD marriage also occurs.


title: Cousin marriage in the Middle East

text: In Pakistan, cousin marriage is legal and common for economic, religious and cultural reasons. Consanguineous marriage in Pakistan was reported to be higher than 60% of the population in 2014. In some areas, higher proportion of first-cousin marriages in Pakistan has been noted to be the cause of an increased rate of blood disorders in the population.


title: Cousin marriage in the Middle East

text: According to a 2005 BBC report on Pakistani marriage in the United Kingdom, 55% of Pakistanis marry a first cousin.


title: Cousin marriage in the Middle East

text: The prevalence of cousin marriages is estimated to be 46.2% in Afghanistan. Regional differences exist in the rate, the Kabul province has a rate of 38.2% while Bamayan is higher at 51.2%. First cousin marriages (27.8%) were the most common type of consanguineous marriages, followed by double first cousin (6.9%), second cousin (5.8%), beyond second cousin (3.9%) and first cousin once removed (1.8%).


title: Cousin marriage in the Middle East

text: Of particular significance in the Middle East is marriage to a father's brother's daughter. Many Middle Eastern peoples express a preference for this form of marriage. Ladislav Holý explains that it is not an independent phenomenon but merely one expression of a wider preference for agnatic solidarity, or solidarity with one's father's lineage. Due to placing emphasis on the male line, the daughter of the father's brother is seen as the closest marriageable relation. According to Holý the oft-quoted reason for cousin marriage of keeping property in the family is, in the Middle Eastern case, just one specific manifestation of keeping intact a family's whole "symbolic capital". Along with an aversion to hypogamy that prevents the loss of a man's loyalties to the higher ranking relatives of his wife, FBD marriage more closely binds the agnatic group by ensuring that wives are agnatic as well as affinal relatives. In fact cousin marriage in general can be seen as trading off one socially valuable outcome, namely marital alliances with outsiders and the resulting integration of society, with the alternative outcome of greater group solidarity. But for demographic reasons the ideal of in-marriage can never be fully realized and hence societies allowing it can always draw on the advantageous aspects of both in- and out-marriage.


title: Cousin marriage in the Middle East

text: The notion of honor is another social characteristic Holý identifies as being related to Middle Eastern cousin marriage. The honor of the males surrounding a woman is sullied in many societies when she misbehaves or when she is attacked. In societies like Europe that place greater value on affinal relations, responsibility for a married woman rests with both her husband's family and her own. In the Middle East the situation is different in that primary responsibility continues to rest with the woman's own family even after she is married. Her agnates therefore cannot release her from control upon marriage due to the risk to their honor. They and not the husband may be responsible for killing her, or sometimes her lover, if she commits adultery. Similar rules may apply in case of the payment if she is killed and for the inheritance of her property if she has no male heirs. Her natal family may continue supporting her even against her husband. This is an idealized system: some Middle Eastern societies do mix it with other systems that assign more responsibility to the husband's family.


title: Cousin marriage in the Middle East

text: Holý's field experience among the Berti people of Pakistan allowed him to undertake an extensive study of cousin marriage in their culture. Holý believed that many of his findings from field experience among the Berti people of Pakistan could generalize to other Middle Eastern groups. He noted that stated reasons for cousin marriage could be both "pragmatic" and "symbolic". Stated pragmatic reasons for cousin marriage might be stated in terms of advantages for the husband such as warmer relations with his father-in-law, quicker entertainment of the husband's family by the wife in the case of a visit due to them being her relations, greater loyalty and devotion of the wife, and the ease of regaining a wife after a serious quarrel where she has withdrawn to the house of her own family. Stated pragmatic reasons for the parents included gaining access to the labor of a daughter's children by marrying her to a kinsman and thereby keeping her family close by, increased attentiveness on the part of a wife to her aging in-laws if she is related to them, and the ease of marital negotiations if the parents are brothers, or in the next best case, if the mother of one child is the sister of the father of the other child.


title: Cousin marriage in the Middle East

text: Holý states that despite all this, creating a general theory of the existence of a preference for FBD marriage in terms of pragmatic reasons is not possible. Instead any realistic theory must take into account the symbolic reasons that both are created by and help to create Berti culture. Frequently such reasons protected the symbolic but vitally important honor of the stakeholders involved. One reason was that in Berti (and Middle Eastern) culture one's honor is affected if a cousin becomes pregnant out of wedlock. The responsibility to see her married is directly proportional to the responsibility for her chastity and one's genealogical distance from her. One can eliminate this directly by becoming her husband. Another reason is the relationship between cousin marriage and agnatic solidarity. Holý argues from the case of the Palestinians that FBD marriage should not be viewed as simply "adding" affinal ties to previous agnatic ones. Instead they "recognize" the strength of the existing ties. Distant agnates can increase their bond and become close agnates via intermarriage.


title: Cousin marriage in the Middle East

text: Advice on cousin marriage in the Middle East has not always been positive, however. Al-Maydani makes the following exhortation: "Marry the distant, but not the near." The reason given for the inadvisability of cousin marriages is most frequently the belief that the offspring of such marriages will be feeble. An early Arab author, Ibn 'Abd Rabbihi, states in his work "Kitab al-'iqd al-farid" of a hero that "He is a hero not borne by the cousin (of his father), he is not weakly; for the seed of relations brings forth feeble fruit." Abu Hamid al-Ghazali (1059–1111) in his principal ethical work, the "Ihya 'ulum al-din", gives the different reason that "the woman should not be a near relative of the husband, because near relationship diminishes the sensuous desire." Finally the ancient Arabic poet 'Amr b. Kulthum states, "Do not marry in your own family, for domestic enmity arises therefrom." Similar sentiments are expressed by certain Moroccan and Syrian proverbs.


title: Cousin marriage in the Middle East

text: Patai summarizes the Middle Eastern situation by saying that a preference for paternal male cousin marriage exists in many Middle Eastern ethnic groups but that "right" to the "bint 'amm" exists in only some of these. The cousin right is the "complete" form of the institution of the cousin marriage and preference without right the "incomplete" form. Patai explains the differences between cultures exhibiting these two forms in terms of the geographic centrality to Middle Eastern culture, with groups on the outskirts of the Middle East likely to fall into the "incomplete" category, in terms of the cultural marginality of the group, with groups adhering tightly to older traditions better able to resist the "complete" form, in terms of modernization and Westernization, with this tending to discourage cousin marriage. The Copts of Egypt who chose to marry a cousin is considered not ideal among Copts due to cultural traditions although not common among Copts in comparison to other ethnic groups and those of different beliefs.


title: Cousin marriage in the Middle East

text: Cousin marriage normally results in a reduced mahr in Islam. Patai states that bride price to a cousin is usually about half as high as to a nonrelative. Due to the poverty of many families this outlay often requires exceptional effort, and especially because the decision traditionally is in the hands of the groom's father, these considerations may weigh heavily on the outcome. The bride's family moreover is expected to spend much of the bride price on the bride herself, so there is a reduced incentive to gain a higher price by avoiding cousin marriage.


title: Cousin marriage in the Middle East

text: Marrying a close relative significantly increases the chance that both parents carry recessive genes, which can carry defects and diseases. While babies of Pakistani heritage accounted for roughly 3.4% of all births in the UK (2005), "they had 30% of all British children with recessive disorders and a higher rate of infant mortality," according to research done by the BBC.


title: Road surface

text: A road surface (British English), or pavement (American English), is the durable surface material laid down on an area intended to sustain vehicular or foot traffic, such as a road or walkway. In the past, gravel road surfaces, hoggin, cobblestone and granite setts were extensively used, but these have mostly been replaced by asphalt or concrete laid on a compacted base course. Asphalt mixtures have been used in pavement construction since the beginning of the 20th century and are of two types: metalled (hard-surfaced) and unmetalled roads. Metalled roadways are made to sustain vehicular load and so are usually made on frequently used roads. Unmetalled roads, also known as gravel roads, are rough and can sustain less weight. Road surfaces are frequently marked to guide traffic.


title: Road surface

text: Today, permeable paving methods are beginning to be used for low-impact roadways and walkways. Pavements are crucial to countries such as United States and Canada, which heavily depend on road transportation. Therefore, research projects such as Long-Term Pavement Performance have been launched to optimize the life cycle of different road surfaces.


title: Road surface

text: Wheeled-transport created the need for better roads. Generally, natural materials cannot be both soft enough to form well-graded surfaces and strong enough to bear wheeled vehicles, especially when wet, and stay intact. In urban areas it began to be worthwhile to build stone-paved streets and, in fact, the first paved streets appear to have been built in Ur in 4000 BC. Corduroy roads were built in Glastonbury, England in 3300 BC and brick-paved roads were built in the Indus Valley civilization on the Indian subcontinent from around the same time. Improvements in metallurgy meant that by 2000 BC stone-cutting tools were generally available in the Middle East and Greece allowing local streets to be paved. Notably, in about 2000 BC, the Minoans built a 50 km paved road from Knossos in North Crete through the mountains to Gortyn and Lebena, a port on the south coast of the island, which had side drains, a 200 mm thick pavement of sandstone blocks bound with clay-gypsum mortar, covered by a layer of basaltic flagstones and had separate shoulders. This road could be considered superior to any Roman road. Roman roads varied from simple corduroy roads to paved roads using deep roadbeds of tamped rubble as an underlying layer to ensure that they kept dry, as the water would flow out from between the stones and fragments of rubble, instead of becoming mud in clay soils.


title: Road surface

text: Although there were attempts to rediscover Roman methods, there was little useful innovation in road building before the 18th century. The first professional road builder to emerge during the Industrial Revolution was John Metcalf, who constructed about of turnpike road, mainly in the north of England, from 1765, when Parliament passed an act authorising the creation of turnpike trusts to build new toll funded roads in the Knaresborough area.


title: Road surface

text: Pierre-Marie-Jérôme Trésaguet is widely credited with establishing the first scientific approach to road building in France at the same time as Metcalf. He wrote a memorandum on his method in 1775, which became general practice in France. It involved a layer of large rocks, covered by a layer of smaller gravel.


title: Road surface

text: By the late 18th and early 19th centuries, new methods of highway construction had been pioneered by the work of two British engineers: Thomas Telford and John Loudon McAdam. Telford's method of road building involved the digging of a large trench in which a foundation of heavy rock was set. He also designed his roads so that they sloped downwards from the centre, allowing drainage to take place, a major improvement on the work of Trésaguet. The surface of his roads consisted of broken stone. McAdam developed an inexpensive paving material of soil and stone aggregate (known as macadam). His road building method was simpler than Telford's, yet more effective at protecting roadways: he discovered that massive foundations of rock upon rock were unnecessary, and asserted that native soil alone would support the road and traffic upon it, as long as it was covered by a road crust that would protect the soil underneath from water and wear. Size of stones was central to McAdam's road building theory. The lower road thickness was restricted to stones no larger than .


title: Road surface

text: Modern tarmac was patented by British civil engineer Edgar Purnell Hooley, who noticed that spilled tar on the roadway kept the dust down and created a smooth surface. He took out a patent in 1901 for tarmac.


title: Road surface

text: Hooley's 1901 patent for Tarmac involved mechanically mixing tar and aggregate prior to lay-down, and then compacting the mixture with a steamroller. The tar was modified by adding small amounts of Portland cement, resin, and pitch.


title: Road surface

text: Asphalt (specifically, asphalt concrete), sometimes called flexible pavement due to the nature in which it distributes loads, has been widely used since the 1920s. The viscous nature of the bitumen binder allows asphalt concrete to sustain significant plastic deformation, although fatigue from repeated loading over time is the most common failure mechanism. Most asphalt surfaces are laid on a gravel base, which is generally at least as thick as the asphalt layer, although some 'full depth' asphalt surfaces are laid directly on the native subgrade. In areas with very soft or expansive subgrades such as clay or peat, thick gravel bases or stabilization of the subgrade with Portland cement or lime may be required. Polypropylene and polyester geosynthetics have also been used for this purpose and in some northern countries, a layer of polystyrene boards have been used to delay and minimize frost penetration into the subgrade.


title: Road surface

text: Depending on the temperature at which it is applied, asphalt is categorized as hot mix, warm mix, half warm mix, or cold mix. Hot mix asphalt is applied at temperatures over with a free floating screed. Warm mix asphalt is applied at temperatures of , resulting in reduced energy usage and emissions of volatile organic compounds. Cold mix asphalt is often used on lower-volume rural roads, where hot mix asphalt would cool too much on the long trip from the asphalt plant to the construction site.


title: Road surface

text: An asphalt concrete surface will generally be constructed for high-volume primary highways having an average annual daily traffic load greater than 1200 vehicles per day. Advantages of asphalt roadways include relatively low noise, relatively low cost compared with other paving methods, and perceived ease of repair. Disadvantages include less durability than other paving methods, less tensile strength than concrete, the tendency to become slick and soft in hot weather and a certain amount of hydrocarbon pollution to soil and groundwater or waterways.


title: Road surface

text: In the mid-1960s, rubberized asphalt was used for the first time, mixing crumb rubber from used tires with asphalt. While a potential use for tires that would otherwise fill landfills and present a fire hazard, rubberized asphalt has shown greater incidence of wear in freeze-thaw cycles in temperate zones due to non-homogeneous expansion and contraction with non-rubber components. The application of rubberized asphalt is more temperature-sensitive, and in many locations can only be applied at certain times of the year.


title: Road surface

text: Study results of the long-term acoustic benefits of rubberized asphalt are inconclusive. Initial application of rubberized asphalt may provide a reduction of 3–5 decibels (dB) in tire-pavement-source noise emissions; however, this translates to only 1–3 decibels (dB) in total traffic-noise reduction (due to the other components of traffic noise). Compared to traditional passive attenuating measures (e.g., noise walls and earth berms), rubberized asphalt provides shorter-lasting and lesser acoustic benefits at typically much greater expense.


title: Road surface

text: Concrete surfaces (specifically, Portland cement concrete) are created using a concrete mix of Portland cement, coarse aggregate, sand, and water. In virtually all modern mixes there will also be various admixtures added to increase workability, reduce the required amount of water, mitigate harmful chemical reactions and for other beneficial purposes. In many cases there will also be Portland cement substitutes added, such as fly ash. This can reduce the cost of the concrete and improve its physical properties. The material is applied in a freshly mixed slurry, and worked mechanically to compact the interior and force some of the cement slurry to the surface to produce a smoother, denser surface free from honeycombing. The water allows the mix to combine molecularly in a chemical reaction called hydration.


title: Road surface

text: Concrete surfaces have been classified into three common types: jointed plain (JPCP), jointed reinforced (JRCP) and continuously reinforced (CRCP). The one item that distinguishes each type is the jointing system used to control crack development.


title: Road surface

text: One of the major advantages of concrete pavements is they are typically stronger and more durable than asphalt roadways. They also can be grooved to provide a durable skid-resistant surface. Also concrete roads are more economical to drive in terms of fuel consumption, they reflect light better and last significantly longer than other paving surfaces, but have a much smaller market share than other paving solutions. Modern paving methods and design methods have changed the economics of concrete paving so that a well-designed and placed concrete pavement will be cheaper in initial cost and significantly cheaper over the life cycle. Another important advantage is that waterproof concrete can be used, which eliminates the need to place storm drains next to the road and reduce the need for a slightly sloped driveway to drain rainwater. Avoiding rainwater discharge by using runoff also means less electricity is needed (otherwise more pumps would be needed in the water distribution system) and rainwater is not polluted because it no longer mixes with polluted water. Rather, it is immediately absorbed by the earth. A previous disadvantage was that they had a higher initial cost, and could be more time-consuming to construct. This cost can typically be offset through the long life cycle of the pavement and the higher cost of bitumen. Concrete pavement can be maintained over time utilizing a series of methods known as concrete pavement restoration which include diamond grinding, dowel bar retrofits, joint and crack sealing, cross-stitching, etc. Diamond grinding is also useful in reducing noise and restoring skid resistance in older concrete pavement.


title: Road surface

text: The first street in the United States to be paved with concrete was Court Avenue in Bellefontaine, Ohio in 1893. The first mile of concrete pavement in the United States was on Woodward Avenue in Detroit, Michigan in 1909. Following these pioneering uses, the Lincoln Highway Association, established in October 1913 to oversee the creation of one of the United States' earliest east-west transcontinental highways for the then-new automobile, began to establish "seedling miles" of specifically concrete-paved roadbed in various places in the American Midwest, starting in 1914 west of Malta, Illinois, while using concrete with the specified concrete "ideal section" for the Lincoln Highway in Lake County, Indiana during 1922 and 1923.


title: Road surface

text: Concrete roadways may produce more noise than asphalt, due to tire noise on cracks and expansion joints. A concrete pavement composed of multiple slabs of uniform size will produce a periodic sound and vibration in each vehicle as its tires pass over each expansion joint. These monotonous repeated sounds and vibrations can cause a fatiguing or hypnotic effect upon the driver over the course of a long journey.


title: Road surface

text: Composite pavements combine a Portland cement concrete sublayer with an asphalt overlay. They are usually used to rehabilitate existing roadways rather than in new construction.


title: Road surface

text: Asphalt overlays are sometimes laid over distressed concrete to restore a smooth wearing surface. A disadvantage of this method is that movement in the joints between the underlying concrete slabs, whether from thermal expansion and contraction, or from deflection of the concrete slabs from truck axle loads, usually causes "reflective cracks" in the asphalt. To decrease reflective cracking, concrete pavement is broken apart through a "break and seat," "crack and seat", or "rubblization" process. Geosynthetics can be used for reflective crack control. With break and seat and crack and seat processes, a heavy weight is dropped on the concrete to induce cracking, then a heavy roller is used to seat the resultant pieces into the subbase.


title: Road surface

text: The main difference between the two processes is the equipment used to break the concrete pavement and the size of the resulting pieces. The theory is that frequent small cracks will spread thermal stress over a wider area than infrequent large joints, reducing the stress on the overlying asphalt pavement. "Rubblization" is a more complete fracturing of the old, worn-out concrete, effectively converting the old pavement into an aggregate base for a new asphalt road.


title: Road surface

text: Distressed pavement can be reused when rehabilitating a roadway. The existing pavement is broken up, and may be ground on-site through a process called milling. This pavement is commonly referred to as reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP). RAP can be transported to an asphalt plant, where it will be stockpiled for use in new pavement mixes, or it may be recycled in-place using the techniques described below. For further information on asphalt mixes containing RAP and other recycled materials, see Asphalt Concrete.


title: Road surface

text: Bituminous surface treatment (BST) or chipseal is used mainly on low-traffic roads, but also as a sealing coat to rejuvenate an asphalt concrete pavement. It generally consists of aggregate spread over a sprayed-on asphalt emulsion or cut-back asphalt cement. The aggregate is then embedded into the asphalt by rolling it, typically with a rubber-tired roller. This type of surface is described by a wide variety of regional terms including "chip seal", "tar and chip", "oil and stone", "seal coat", "sprayed seal", "surface dressing", "microsurfacing" or as simply "bitumen."


title: Road surface

text: BST is used on hundreds of miles of the Alaska Highway and other similar roadways in Alaska, the Yukon Territory, and northern British Columbia. The ease of application of BST is one reason for its popularity, but another is its flexibility, which is important when roadways are laid down over unstable terrain that thaws and softens in the spring.


title: Road surface

text: Other types of BSTs include micropaving, slurry seals and Novachip. These are laid down using specialized and proprietary equipment. They are most often used in urban areas where the roughness and loose stone associated with chip seals is considered undesirable.


title: Road surface

text: A thin membrane surface (TMS) is an oil-treated aggregate which is laid down upon a gravel road bed, producing a dust-free road. A TMS road reduces mud problems and provides stone-free roads for local residents where loaded truck traffic is negligible. The TMS layer adds no significant structural strength, and so is used on secondary highways with low traffic volume and minimal weight loading. Construction involves minimal subgrade preparation, following by covering with a cold mix asphalt aggregate. The Operation Division of the Ministry of Highways and Infrastructure in Saskatchewan has the responsibility of maintaining of thin membrane surface (TMS) highways.


title: Road surface

text: Gravel is known to have been used extensively in the construction of roads by soldiers of the Roman Empire (see Roman road) but in 1998 a limestone-surfaced road, thought to date back to the Bronze Age, was found at Yarnton in Oxfordshire, Britain. Applying gravel, or "metalling", has had two distinct usages in road surfacing. The term road metal refers to the broken stone or cinders used in the construction or repair of roads or railways, and is derived from the Latin "metallum", which means both "mine" and "quarry". The term originally referred to the process of creating a gravel roadway. The route of the roadway would first be dug down several feet and, depending on local conditions, French drains may or may not have been added. Next, large stones were placed and compacted, followed by successive layers of smaller stones, until the road surface was composed of small stones compacted into a hard, durable surface. "Road metal" later became the name of stone chippings mixed with tar to form the road-surfacing material tarmac. A road of such material is called a "metalled road" in Britain, a "paved road" in Canada and the US, or a "sealed road" in parts of Canada, Australia and New Zealand.


title: Road surface

text: A granular surface can be used with a traffic volume where the annual average daily traffic is 1,200 vehicles per day or less. There is some structural strength if the road surface combines a sub base and base and is topped with a double-graded seal aggregate with emulsion. Besides the of granular pavements maintained in Saskatchewan, around 40% of New Zealand roads are unbound granular pavement structures.


title: Road surface

text: The decision whether to pave a gravel road or not often hinges on traffic volume. It has been found that maintenance costs for gravel roads often exceed the maintenance costs for paved or surface-treated roads when traffic volumes exceed 200 vehicles per day.


title: Road surface

text: Some communities are finding it makes sense to convert their low-volume paved roads to aggregate surfaces.


title: Road surface

text: Pavers (or paviours), generally in the form of pre-cast concrete blocks, are often used for aesthetic purposes, or sometimes at port facilities that see long-duration pavement loading. Pavers are rarely used in areas that see high-speed vehicle traffic.


title: Road surface

text: Brick, cobblestone, sett, wood plank, and wood block pavements such as Nicolson pavement, were once common in urban areas throughout the world, but fell out of fashion in most countries, due to the high cost of labor required to lay and maintain them, and are typically only kept for historical or aesthetic reasons. In some countries, however, they are still common in local streets. In the Netherlands, brick paving has made something of a comeback since the adoption of a major nationwide traffic safety program in 1997. From 1998 through 2007, more than 41,000 km of city streets were converted to local access roads with a speed limit of 30 km/h, for the purpose of traffic calming. One popular measure is to use brick paving - the noise and vibration slows motorists down. At the same time, it is not uncommon for cycle paths alongside a road to have a smoother surface than the road itself.


title: Road surface

text: Likewise, macadam and tarmac pavements can still sometimes be found buried underneath asphalt concrete or Portland cement concrete pavements, but are rarely constructed today.


title: Road surface

text: There are also other methods and materials to create pavements that have appearance of brick pavements. The first method to create brick texture is to heat an asphalt pavement and use metal wires to imprint a brick pattern using a compactor to create stamped asphalt. A similar method is to use rubber imprinting tools to press over a thin layer of cement to create decorative concrete. Another method is to use a brick pattern stencil and apply a surfacing material over the stencil. Materials that can be applied to give the color of the brick and skid resistance can be in many forms. An example is to use colored polymer-modified concrete slurry which can be applied by screeding or spraying. Another material is aggregate-reinforced thermoplastic which can be heat applied to the top layer of the brick-pattern surface. Other coating materials over stamped asphalt are paints and two-part epoxy coating.


title: Road surface

text: Roadway surfacing choices are known to affect the intensity and spectrum of sound emanating from the tire/surface interaction. Initial applications of noise studies occurred in the early 1970s. Noise phenomena are highly influenced by vehicle speed.


title: Road surface

text: Roadway surface types contribute differential noise effects of up to 4 dB, with chip seal type and grooved roads being the loudest, and concrete surfaces without spacers being the quietest. Asphaltic surfaces perform intermediately relative to concrete and chip seal. Rubberized asphalt has been shown to give a 3–5 dB reduction in tire-pavement noise emissions, and a marginally discernible 1–3 dB reduction in total road noise emissions when compared to conventional asphalt applications.


title: Road surface

text: As pavement systems primarily fail due to fatigue (in a manner similar to metals), the damage done to pavement increases with the fourth power of the axle load of the vehicles traveling on it. According to the AASHO Road Test, heavily loaded trucks can do more than 10,000 times the damage done by a normal passenger car. Tax rates for trucks are higher than those for cars in most countries for this reason, though they are not levied in proportion to the damage done. Passenger cars are considered to have little practical effect on a pavement's service life, from a materials fatigue perspective.


title: Road surface

text: Other failure modes include aging and surface abrasion. As years go by, the binder in a bituminous wearing course gets stiffer and less flexible. When it gets "old" enough, the surface will start losing aggregates, and macrotexture depth increases dramatically. If no maintenance action is done quickly on the wearing course, potholes will form. The freeze-thaw cycle in cold climates will dramatically accelerate pavement deterioration, once water can penetrate the surface. Clay and fumed silica nanoparticles may potentially be used as efficient UV-anti aging coatings in asphalt pavements.


title: Road surface

text: If the road is still structurally sound, a bituminous surface treatment, such as a chipseal or surface dressing can prolong the life of the road at low cost. In areas with cold climate, studded tires may be allowed on passenger cars. In Sweden and Finland, studded passenger car tires account for a very large share of pavement rutting.


title: Road surface

text: Several design methods have been developed to determine the thickness and composition of road surfaces required to carry predicted traffic loads for a given period of time. Pavement design methods are continuously evolving. Among these are the Shell Pavement design method, and the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) 1993/98 "Guide for Design of Pavement Structures". A mechanistic-empirical design guide was developed through the NCHRP process, resulting in the Mechanistic Empirical Pavement Design Guide (MEPDG), which was adopted by AASHTO in 2008, although MEPDG implementation by state departments of transportation has been slow.


title: Road surface

text: Further research by University College London into pavements has led to the development of an indoor, 80-sq-metre artificial pavement at a research centre called Pedestrian Accessibility and Movement Environment Laboratory (PAMELA). It is used to simulate everyday scenarios, from different pavement users to varying pavement conditions. There also exists a research facility near Auburn University, the NCAT Pavement Test Track, that is used to test experimental asphalt pavements for durability.


title: Road surface

text: In addition to repair costs, the condition of a road surface has economic effects for road users. Rolling resistance increases on rough pavement, as does wear and tear of vehicle components. It has been estimated that poor road surfaces cost the average US driver $324 per year in vehicle repairs, or a total of $67 billion. Also, it has been estimated that small improvements in road surface conditions can decrease fuel consumption between 1.8 and 4.7%.


title: Road surface

text: Road surface markings are used on paved roadways to provide guidance and information to drivers and pedestrians. It can be in the form of mechanical markers such as cat's eyes, botts' dots and rumble strips, or non-mechanical markers such as paints, thermoplastic, plastic and epoxy.


title: Sharon Maughan

text: Sharon Mughan grew up in Kirkby, Lancashire, with her four siblings. She later changed her surname to "Maughan".


title: Sharon Maughan

text: Upon graduating from RADA, Maughan gained her Equity Card while playing Ophelia in an Open University tour of "Hamlet". She then did rep at the Liverpool Playhouse and Chester, and won her first television opportunity in Philip Mackie's "The Organisation", starring Peter Egan. This led to episodes of "The Last of the Baskets" with Patricia Hayes, then Justice with Margaret Lockwood. In 1973, Maughan was chosen for the role of Rachel Rosing in a Granada Television serialisation of Howard Spring's novel, "Shabby Tiger".


title: Sharon Maughan

text: Maughan immediately went on to work with Elaine Stritch, playing the title role in "If You Knew Susie", which was part of the TV series "Dial M For Murder". This led to Alan Bennett asking her to appear alongside him at the Lyric Theatre in his original production of "Habeas Corpus", playing "Felicity Rumpers". She next worked with John Stride in the final series of Yorkshire Television's "The Main Chance", playing the Nordic "Inge Lindstrom". David Mercer's controversial Huggy Bear with the infamous 'chocasms' scene was her next television venture.


title: Sharon Maughan

text: In 1977, Maughan joined the cast of Franco Zeffirelli's "Filumena", starring Joan Plowright and Colin Blakely in London's West End, where she met her future husband, actor Trevor Eve. Maughan then went on to star in such series as "The Enigma Files", "The Flame Trees of Thika", "Dombey and Son", and "By the Sword Divided". As a result of the success of "The Flame Trees of Thika" in America, Maughan was invited to do an episode of "MacGyver". From 1987 to 1998, while running the internationally successful "Gold Blend couple" television advertisements for Nescafé (Taster's Choice in the United States) alongside actor Anthony Head, she starred in episodes of "Inspector Morse", "Hannay", and "Murder, She Wrote". Onstage, she played Billie Dawn in "Born Yesterday", Anne Daviot in "Adam Was a Gardener", Nora in "A Doll's House" at Chichester Festival Theatre, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Anna Howard Shaw in Paula Wagner's production of "Out of Our Father's House" at Hollywood's Fountainhead Theatre.


title: Sharon Maughan

text: In 1993, she received excellent reviews for her debut directorial production of "Widowers' Houses" in London. In 1997, she and her husband, Trevor Eve, founded Projector Productions with Charles Haswell. With Trevor as producer, she went on to executive produce and star in "Cinderella" alongside Kathleen Turner, and executive produce "Twelfth Night", starring Chiwetel Ejiofor. That same year, Maughan co-starred in "Another Stakeout" with Richard Dreyfuss.


title: Sharon Maughan

text: Upon finishing the "Gold Blend couple" television campaign in 1998, she went back to the theatre to do "And All the Children Cried", playing Myra Hindley, which was immediately followed by Maughan joining the cast of the BBC One medical drama television series "Holby City", which she left in late 2006 to appear in Roger Donaldson's "The Bank Job". This was quickly followed by guest leads in the BBC's "Waking the Dead", starring Eve as Superintendent Peter Boyd, and "Kidnap and Ransom", also starring Eve.


title: Sharon Maughan

text: After premiering the new play Cradle Me, co-starring Luke Treadaway, Maughan went on to appear in the 2010 US film "She's Out of My League", in the role of Molly's mother – the lead female character played by her real life daughter Alice. Nathan's husband, Trevor Eve, played Molly's father. With Lysette Anthony, Maughan was also part of the cast for the 15-minute short film, "A Study After Cruel Intentions".


title: Sharon Maughan

text: In the 2011 series of Celebrity MasterChef, an ill-prepared Maughan was shocked and delighted to make it to the semi-final. This was followed by a film made each year from 2012 to 2014: "The Babymakers", directed by Jay Chandrasekhar; "Flying Home" directed by Dominique Derudiere, and "Time Lapse", directed by Bradley King; and finally "The Atticus Institute", directed by Chris Sparling – all shot in the USA.


title: Sharon Maughan

text: On 19 February 2014, she was part of the invited audience at Buckingham Palace to celebrate the centenary of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. She and Trevor were then asked to perform in front of the Queen in the Investiture Room, along with Hugh Laurie, Sir Tom Courtenay and Dame Helen Mirren.


title: Sharon Maughan

text: Maughan appeared in her son Jack Eve's debut feature film as writer/director, "Death of a Farmer", which having had a screening at the Dinard Film Festival, had its UK Premiere at the Borderlines Film Festival on 5 March 2014.


title: Sharon Maughan

text: In September 2014, Maughan starred in the British premiere of Neil LaBute's well received play "Autobahn" at the King's Head Theatre in Islington. She finished the play with a 30-minute monologue. She later appeared in the film "Untitled" playing the drug dealing mastermind controller of a struggling filmmaker.


title: Sharon Maughan

text: In 1977, she met actor Trevor Eve, and they were married in 1980. In 1982, Maughan gave birth to their first child, Alice, now an actress. They have two other children.


title: Republic of Serbia (1992–2006)

text: The Republic of Serbia () was a constituent state of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia between 1992 and 2003 and the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro from 2003 to 2006. With Montenegro's secession from the union with Serbia in June 2006, both became sovereign states in their own right for the first time in nearly 88 years.


title: Republic of Serbia (1992–2006)

text: After the League of Communists of Yugoslavia collapsed in 1990, the Socialist Republic of Serbia led by Slobodan Milošević's Socialist Party (formerly the Communists) adopted a new constitution, declaring itself a constituent republic with democratic institutions within Yugoslavia, and the "Socialist" adjective was dropped from the official title. As Yugoslavia broke up, in 1992 Serbia and Montenegro formed a new federative state called the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, known after 2003 as simply Serbia and Montenegro.


title: Republic of Serbia (1992–2006)

text: Serbia claimed that it was not involved in the Bosnian or Croatian wars. However, the Serb rebel entities both sought direct unification with Serbia. SAO Krajina and later the Republic of Serbian Krajina sought to become "a constitutive part of the unified state territory of the Republic of Serbia". The Republika Srpska's political leader Radovan Karadžić declared that he did not want it to be in a federation alongside Serbia in Yugoslavia, but that Srpska should be directly incorporated into Serbia. While Serbia acknowledged both entities' desire to be in a common state with Serbia, both entities chose the path of individual independence and so the Serbian government did not recognize them as part of Serbia, or within the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.


title: Republic of Serbia (1992–2006)

text: Although Serbia managed—at least nominally—to stay out of the Yugoslav wars until 1998 when the Kosovo War broke out, the 1990s were marked by an economic crisis and hyperinflation, the Yugolav wars, a refugee crisis, and the authoritarian rule of Slobodan Milošević. After the opposition came to power in 2000, Serbia (viewed in the international community differently from Montenegro whose leadership had become a western outpost since 1998) began its transition in reconciliation with western nations, a decade later than most other east European countries. As a result of this change, Yugoslavia began to slowly re-integrate itself internationally following a period of isolation caused by sanctions that were now gently easing.


title: Republic of Serbia (1992–2006)

text: With the collapse of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY) in 1992, the two remaining constituent republics of Serbia and Montenegro agreed to form a new Yugoslav state which officially abandoned communism in favor of forming a new Yugoslavia based upon democratic institutions (although the republic retained its communist coat of arms). This new rump Yugoslavia was known as the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY). The Socialist Republic of Serbia became known as the Republic of Serbia in 1990 after the League of Communists of Yugoslavia collapsed, though former Communist politicians would exercise influence for the first ten years, as the ruling Socialist Party of Serbia was directly descended from the League of Communists of Serbia. Serbia appeared to be the dominant republic in the FRY given the vast size and population differences between the republics; internally, however, the two entities functioned independently while with regard to foreign affairs, the federal government had comprised Montenegrins as well as Serbians.


title: Republic of Serbia (1992–2006)

text: The politics of Serbia in the FRY continued to support Serbian interests in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia whose Serb populations wanted to remain in Yugoslavia. Since 1989, Serbia had been led by Slobodan Milošević, a former Communist who promised to defend and promote Serb interests in Yugoslavia. In 1992, he and Montenegrin President Momir Bulatović formed the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Many critics on the international stage saw Serbia as the dominant internal unit of the FRY, in which Serbian President Milošević seemed to have more influence on federal politics than the Yugoslav President (the first federal president, Dobrica Ćosić was forced to resign for opposing Milošević). The Milosevic government did not have official territorial claims on the Republic of Macedonia. Others have claimed that Milosevic only advocated self-determination of self-proclaimed Serbs who wished to remain in Yugoslavia.


title: Republic of Serbia (1992–2006)

text: During the Yugoslav Wars in Croatia and Bosnia & Herzegovina, Milošević supported Serb separatists who wished to secede from these newly created states. This support extended to controversial figures such as Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadžić, and accusations by some international figures claimed that Milošević was in charge of the Serb factions during the war and had authorized war atrocities to occur.


title: Republic of Serbia (1992–2006)

text: In 1995, Milošević represented the Bosnian Serbs during the signing of the Dayton Peace Agreement. Milošević continued to be President of Serbia until 1997 when he retired as Serbian President and became Yugoslav President. Milan Milutinović took over as Serbian President from Milošević that year.


title: Republic of Serbia (1992–2006)

text: From 1996 to 1999, severe political instability erupted in the Albanian-populated province of Kosovo in Serbia. This caused the Kosovo War from 1998 until 1999. During the Kosovo War, Serbia and Montenegro were bombed by NATO aircraft which included the Serbian and federal capital of Belgrade. Afterward, Belgrade agreed to relinquish control of the province of Kosovo to a United Nations autonomous mandate.


title: Republic of Serbia (1992–2006)

text: The Yugoslav Wars resulted in a failing economy in Serbia due to sanctions, hyperinflaton, and anger at the federal presidency of Milošević. The wars and their aftermath saw the rise of Serbian ultranationalist parties, such as the Serbian Radical Party led by Vojislav Šešelj, who in his rhetoric, promoted the idea of Serbs continuing to live in a single state. Šešelj participated in the ethnic Serbian campaign against Croats and Bosniaks during the Yugoslav Wars. Šešelj was twice arrested in 1994 and 1995 by the Yugoslav government, but eventually became Vice-President of Serbia from 1998 to 2000. In 2000, Serbian citizens protested against elections when Milošević refused to stand down from the Yugoslav Presidency following elections as allegations of voter fraud existed. Milošević was ousted on October 5, 2000, and officially resigned the following day. He was later arrested in 2001 by federal authorities for alleged corruption whilst in power but was soon transferred to The Hague to face war crimes charges.


title: Republic of Serbia (1992–2006)

text: After the overthrow of Milošević, Vojislav Koštunica became the President of Yugoslavia. In 2002, Milošević's ally, Serbian President Milutinović resigned, thus ending twelve years of some form of the political leadership of the Socialist Party of Serbia over the republic. Boris Tadić of the Democratic Party replaced Milutinović.


title: Republic of Serbia (1992–2006)

text: In 2003, following the new confederation, Serbia became one of the constituent states within it along with Montenegro. The confederacy arose as Montenegrin nationalism was growing. Montenegro had for some years used external currency as legal tender, this began with the German Mark, and since 2002, became the Euro. Serbia, however continued to use the Yugoslav Dinar, and the national bank of Yugoslavia. Serbia's attachment to the confederation would be its final subordination until its independence was declared in 2006 following Montenegro's declaration of independence from the confederation following a referendum on independence shortly prior.


title: Republic of Serbia (1992–2006)

text: Between 2003 and 2006, Serbia was faced with internal political strife over the direction of the republic, Serbian politicians were divided over the decision to create the loose state union in the first place. Zoran Đinđić who was seen as a major proponent of the state union was criticized by the former Yugoslav President Vojislav Koštunica. The anger of nationalists over Đinđić's positions resulted in a sudden assassination in March 2003 which caused a state of emergency to be declared. In 2004, pro-European Union political forces united against nationalist forces who opposed Serbia's entry into the EU until the EU recognized Serbia's sovereignty in Kosovo.


title: Republic of Serbia (1992–2006)

text: On 21 May 2006, Serbia faced the implications of a referendum on independence from the state union by Montenegro. Most Serbians wished to keep Montenegro in a state union due to the previous close ties which the two nations had and that Montenegrins were considered in Serbia to be the same as Serbs culturally and ethnically. Despite a hard-fought campaign by pro-unionists, pro-independence forces narrowly won the referendum with just over 55% threshold demanded by the European Union. The Assembly of the Republic of Montenegro made a formal Declaration of Independence on Saturday 3 June.


title: Republic of Serbia (1992–2006)

text: With Montenegro's independence granted, Serbia declared itself the legal and political successor of Serbia and Montenegro, the first time it had been so since 1918 and that the government and parliament of Serbia itself would soon adopt a new constitution. This also ended an almost 88-year union between Montenegro and Serbia.


title: Republic of Serbia (1992–2006)

text: Throughout most of the 1990s and early-2000s, sanctions were held against Serbia. the sanctions against Yugoslavia started to be withdrawn after the overthrow of Milošević and most were lifted by 19 January 2001.


title: SimCity (1989 video game)

text: SimCity, also known as Micropolis or SimCity Classic, is a city-building simulation video game developed by Will Wright and released for a number of platforms from 1989 to 1991. "SimCity" features two-dimensional graphics and an overhead perspective. The objective of the game is to create a city, develop residential and industrial areas, build infrastructure, and collect taxes for further development of the city. Importance is placed on increasing the standard of living of the population, maintaining a balance between the different sectors, and monitoring the region's environmental situation to prevent the settlement from declining and going bankrupt.


title: SimCity (1989 video game)

text: "SimCity" was independently developed by Will Wright, beginning in 1985; the game would not see its first release until 1989. Because the game lacked any of the arcade or action elements that dominated the video game market in the 1980s, video game publishers declined to release the title in fear of its commercial failure, until Broderbund eventually agreed to distribute it. Although the game initially sold poorly, positive feedback from the gaming press boosted its sales. After becoming a best-seller, "SimCity" was released on several other platforms, most notably on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) in 1991, in which its gameplay was significantly revised with Nintendo's involvement.


title: SimCity (1989 video game)

text: "SimCity" sold 300,000 units for personal computers and nearly 2 million units for the SNES. "SimCity" was met with critical acclaim for its innovative and addictive gameplay despite the absence of action elements. Reviewers considered the game to be instructive and helpful toward the player's understanding of the basics of urban planning, politics, and economics. "SimCity" received numerous awards from news publishers and associations. The success of "SimCity" marked the beginning of the urban simulation genre of video games, as well as publisher Maxis' tradition of producing non-linear simulation games, one of which – "The Sims" – would surpass all its predecessors in popularity and become one of the best-selling franchises in the video game industry.


title: SimCity (1989 video game)

text: The objective of "SimCity" is to build and design a city without specific goals to achieve. The player can mark land as being zoned as commercial, industrial, or residential, add buildings, change the tax rate, build a power grid, build transportation systems and take any other actions to enhance the city. Once able to construct buildings in a particular area, the too-small-to-see residents, known as "Sims", may choose to construct and upgrade houses, apartment blocks, light, heavy industrial buildings, commercial buildings, hospitals, churches, and other structures. The Sims make these choices based on such factors as traffic levels, availability of electrical power, crime levels, and proximity to other types of buildings—for example, residential areas next to a power plant will seldom appreciate the highest grade of housing. In the Super NES version and later, the player can also build rewards when they are given, such as the mayor's mansion or a casino.


title: SimCity (1989 video game)

text: The player may face disasters including flooding, tornadoes, fires (often from air disasters or shipwrecks), earthquakes and attacks by monsters. In addition, monsters and tornadoes can trigger train crashes by running into passing trains.


title: SimCity (1989 video game)

text: "SimCity" includes goal-centered, timed scenarios that could be won or lost depending on the performance of the player. The scenarios were an addition suggested by Broderbund to make "SimCity" more like a game. The original cities were based on real-world cities and attempted to re-create their general layout. While most scenarios either take place in a fictional timeline or have a city under siege by a fictional disaster, a handful of available scenarios are based on actual historical events.


title: SimCity (1989 video game)

text: "SimCity" was developed by game designer Will Wright. While working on the game "Raid on Bungeling Bay", in which the player flies a helicopter dropping bombs on islands, Wright found he enjoyed designing the islands in the level editor more than playing the actual game. This led him to develop increasingly sophisticated level editors. At the same time, Wright was cultivating a love of the intricacies and theories of urban planning and acknowledges the influence of System Dynamics which was developed by Jay Wright Forrester and whose book on the subject laid the foundations for what would become "SimCity". In addition, Wright also was inspired by reading "The Seventh Sally", a short story from "The Cyberiad" by Stanisław Lem, in which an engineer encounters a deposed tyrant, and creates a miniature city with artificial citizens for the tyrant to oppress. The game reflected Wright's approval of mass transit and disapproval of nuclear power; Maxis president Jeff Braun stated "We're pushing political agendas".


title: SimCity (1989 video game)

text: The first version of the game was developed for the Commodore 64 in 1985; it was not published for another four years. The original working title of "SimCity" was "Micropolis". The game was unusual in that it could neither be won or lost; as a result, game publishers did not believe it was possible to market and sell such a game successfully. Broderbund declined to publish the title when Wright proposed it, and he pitched it to a range of major game publishers without success. Finally, Braun, founder of the tiny software company Maxis, agreed to publish "SimCity" as one of two initial games for the company.


title: SimCity (1989 video game)

text: Wright and Braun returned to Broderbund to formally clear the rights to the game in 1988, when "SimCity" was near completion. After Broderbund executives Gary Carlston and Don Daglow saw "SimCity", they signed Maxis to a distribution deal for both of its initial games. With that, four years after initial development, "SimCity" was released for the Amiga and Macintosh platforms, followed by the IBM PC and Commodore 64 later in 1989.


title: SimCity (1989 video game)

text: After the original release on the Amiga and Macintosh, the game was released on the Commodore 64 and IBM PC MS-DOS, and afterwards saw more releases on various computer platforms and video game consoles, specifically the Atari ST, Acorn Archimedes, Amstrad CPC, Sinclair ZX Spectrum, BBC Micro, Acorn Electron, Super Nintendo Entertainment System (which was later released on Virtual Console), EPOC32, mobile phone, Internet, Windows, FM-Towns, OLPC XO-1 and NeWS HyperLook on Sun Unix. The game is available as a multiplayer version for X11 Tcl/Tk on various Unix, Linux, DESQview and OS/2 operating systems.


title: SimCity (1989 video game)

text: Shortly after the game's initial release, Maxis released the SimCity Terrain Editor for the original versions of the game, which was sold as a mail-order add-on in North America but gained a standalone retail release in Europe. The Terrain Editor is a simple tool that allows the user to create maps with forest, land, and water portions. In 1990, Maxis developed two 'Graphics Sets' packs for the MS-DOS and Amiga versions: "Ancient Cities" and "Future Cities". Each pack contained 3 sets which changed the graphics and messages in the game to fit certain themes.


title: SimCity (1989 video game)

text: In 1991, an enhanced version of the game was released for Windows 3.0/3.1. It runs in the Windows GDI with new sounds and music, either PC-Speaker type or digital/MIDI type. In 1992, to coincide with other re-releases of their games, Maxis re-released the Windows version of SimCity as "SimCity Classic", which bundled the game with the MS-DOS version of the Terrain Editor. The Graphics Sets were also reissued to run on Windows 3.1 as well. "SimCity Classic" was re-released in 1993 as part of the "SimClassics Volume 1" compilation alongside "SimAnt" and "SimLife" for PC, Mac and Amiga. In 1995, a Windows 95 compatible version of the game titled "SimCity Deluxe CD-ROM" was released, which included new 256-color graphics and sound, and bundled the Graphics Sets and an updated Terrain Editor together with the base game.


title: SimCity (1989 video game)

text: In 1994, Interplay Productions developed and published under license from Maxis a version of the game titled "SimCity Enhanced CD-ROM" for DOS, which included 256 color graphics and FMV movies that would trigger events.


title: SimCity (1989 video game)

text: The original DOS version of "SimCity" supports a variety of graphics modes. "SimCity" v1.00 runs in CGA monochrome 640x200, EGA color 320x200, Tandy 640x200 mode, Hercules 720x348 mono, and EGA 640x350 in color or mono. v1.07 added MCGA 640x480 mono. A later v2.00 DOS release ("SimCity 'Classic"') dropped all of the old 200-line modes, added VGA 640x480 color, and a special VGA/MCGA 320x200 256-color mode.


title: SimCity (1989 video game)

text: "SimCity" for the SNES features the same gameplay and scenario features; however, since it was developed and published by Nintendo, the company incorporated their own ideas. Instead of the Godzilla monster disaster, Bowser of the "Super Mario" series becomes the attacking monster, and once the city reaches a landmark 500,000 populace, the player receives a Mario statue that is placeable in the city. The SNES port also features special buildings the player may receive as rewards, such as casinos, large parks, amusement parks, and expo centers; some of which would be incorporated into "SimCity 2000". A bank can be built which will allow a loan of $10,000 to be taken, but it must be paid back before another loan can be taken out. The game includes schools and hospitals, though they cannot be placed by the player; instead, the game will sometimes turn an empty residential lot into one. There are city classifications, such as becoming a metropolis of 100,000 people. It has some of the same pre-set scenarios in the PC and Mac versions and two new ones. One is in Las Vegas under attack by aliens and another is called Freeland. Freeland has no water, and no rewards buildings are given. Also unique to the Super NES version is a character named "Dr. Wright" (whose physical appearance is based on Will Wright) who acts as an adviser to the player. The soundtrack was composed by Soyo Oka. The edition is featured as Nintendo's Player's Choice as a million-seller.


title: SimCity (1989 video game)

text: In August 1996, a version of the game entitled "BS SimCity Machizukuri Taikai" was broadcast to Japanese players via the Super Famicom's Satellaview subsystem. Later, a sequel titled "SimCity 64" was released for Nintendo 64DD, the Japan-only Nintendo 64 add-on.


title: SimCity (1989 video game)

text: A version for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) was announced alongside the SNES version and had been showcased at the 1991 Consumer Electronics Show, but the NES version was never properly released. However, prototype cartridges for the NES version were discovered in 2017, and one copy was obtained by video game preservationist Frank Cifaldi, who extensively documented its features compared to the original personal computer game and the SNES version. It featured a completely different soundtrack (also composed by Oka) from that of the SNES version; besides "Metropolis Theme", a composition that Oka herself considers one of her best works.


title: SimCity (1989 video game)

text: In January 2008, the "SimCity" source code was released as free software under the GPL-3.0-or-later license, renamed to "Micropolis" (the original working title) for trademark reasons, and developed by Don Hopkins. The release of the source code was motivated by the One Laptop Per Child program. The "Micropolis" source code has been translated to C++, integrated with Python and interfaced with both GTK+ and OpenLaszlo.


title: SimCity (1989 video game)

text: In 2008, Maxis established an online browser-based version of "SimCity". A second browser-based version was later released under the name "Micropolis". In 2013, a browser-based version was released, ported using JavaScript and HTML5, as "micropolisJS".


title: SimCity (1989 video game)

text: Since "Micropolis" is licensed under the GPL-3.0-or-later, users can do anything they want with it that conforms with the GPL-3.0-or-laterthe only restriction is that they cannot call it "SimCity" (along with a few other limitations to protect EA's trademarks). This allows other, differently named projects to be forked from the Micropolis source code. Improvements to the open-source code base that merit EA's approval may be incorporated into the official "OLPC SimCity" source code, to be distributed with the OLPC under the trademarked name "OLPC SimCity", but only after it has been reviewed and approved by EA.


title: SimCity (1989 video game)

text: "SimCity" was a financial success, selling one million copies by late 1992. In the United States, it was the ninth best-selling computer game from 1993 to 1999, with another 830,000 units sold. It was critically acclaimed and received significant recognition within a year after its initial release. As of December 1990, the game was reported to have won the following awards:


title: SimCity (1989 video game)

text: In addition, "SimCity" won the Origins Award for "Best Military or Strategy Computer Game" of 1989 in 1990, was named to "Computer Gaming World"s Hall of Fame for games readers highly rated over time, and the multiplayer X11 version of the game was also nominated in 1992 as the Best Product of the Year in "Unix World". "Macworld" named the Macintosh version of "SimCity" the Best Simulation Game of 1989, putting it into the Macintosh Game Hall of Fame. "Macworld", in their review, praised its graphics as well as its strategic gameplay, calling it "A challenging, dynamic game, realistic and unpredictable", and notes how "as the population grows the city's needs change." "SimCity" was named No. 4 "Ten Greatest PC Game Ever" by PC World in 2009. It was named one of the sixteen most influential games in history at Telespiel, a German technology and games trade show, in 2007. Sid Meier in 2008 named "SimCity" as one of the three most important innovations in videogame history, as it led to other games that encouraged players to create, not destroy. It was named No. 11 on IGN's 2009 "Top 25 PC Games of All Time" list. In 1996, "Computer Gaming World" declared "SimCity" the 6th-best computer game ever released. In 2018, Complex rated SimCity 50th on its "The Best Super Nintendo Games of All Time." In 1995, Total! listed SimCity 89th on their "Top 100 SNES Games." IGN ranked the game 35th in its "Top 100 SNES Games of All Time."


title: SimCity (1989 video game)

text: Mike Siggins reviewed "SimCity" for "Games International" magazine, and gave it 5 stars out of 5, and stated that "Overall, "SimCity" must be ranked right up there in the all-time Amiga classics. It is the first title that I have come across to turn a 'serious' theme into a passable simulation while also making for an excellent game."


title: SimCity (1989 video game)

text: Johnny L. Wilson reviewed the game for "Computer Gaming World", and stated that "Dynamic is exactly the right word for this product. There is constant strategy involved in the placement of zones, road building, political decision-making, and damage control."


title: SimCity (1989 video game)

text: In 1991, "PC Format" named "SimCity" one of the 50 best computer games ever. The editors called it "a town planner's dream".


title: SimCity (1989 video game)

text: The University of Southern California and University of Arizona used "SimCity" in urban planning and political science classes. Chuck Moss of "The Detroit News" found that Godzilla attacking the city in the 1972 Detroit scenario caused less destruction than the mayoralty of Coleman Young. In 1990 "The Providence Journal" invited five candidates for Mayor of Providence, Rhode Island to manage a "SimCity" town resembling the city. Victoria Lederberg blamed her close loss in the Democratic primary on the newspaper's description of her poor performance in the game; former mayor Buddy Cianci, the most successful player, won the election that year.


title: SimCity (1989 video game)

text: The "SimCity Terrain Editor" was reviewed in 1989 in "Dragon" No. 147 by Hartley, Patricia, and Kirk Lesser in "The Role of Computers" column. The reviewers gave the expansion 4 out of 5 stars.


title: SimCity (1989 video game)

text: The ZX Spectrum version was voted number 4 in the "Your Sinclair Readers' Top 100 Games of All Time".


title: SimCity (1989 video game)

text: On March 12, 2007, "The New York Times" reported that "SimCity" was named to a list of the ten most important video games of all time, the so-called game canon. The Library of Congress took up a video game preservation proposal and began with the games from this list, including "SimCity".


title: SimCity (1989 video game)

text: "SimCity" yielded several sequels. "Sim" games of many types were developedwith Will Wright and Maxis developing myriad titles including "SimEarth", "SimFarm", "SimTown", "Streets of SimCity", "SimCopter", "SimAnt", "SimLife", "", "SimTower", "SimPark", "SimSafari", and "The Sims", which spawned its own series, as well as the unreleased "SimsVille" and "SimMars." They also obtained licenses for some titles developed in Japan, such as "SimTower" and "Let's Take The A-Train" (released as "A-Train" outside Japan). "Spore", released in 2008, was originally going to be titled ""SimEverything""a name that Will Wright thought might accurately describe what he was trying to achieve.


title: SimCity (1989 video game)

text: "SimCity" inspired a new genre of video games. "Software toys" that were open-ended with no set objective were developed trying to duplicate "SimCity"<nowiki>'</nowiki>s success. The most successful was most definitely Wright's own "The Sims", which went on to be the best selling computer game of all time. The ideas pioneered in "SimCity" have been incorporated into real-world applications as well, as urban developers have recognized that the game's design was "gamification" of city planning by integrating numerous real-world systems for a city or region interacted to project growth or change. For example, VisitorVille simulates a city based on website statistics. Several real-world city improvement projects started with models inspired by "SimCity" prior to implementation, particularly with the onset of more connected smart cities.


title: SimCity (1989 video game)

text: The series also spawned a "" collectible card game, produced by Mayfair Games. Rick Swan reviewed "SimCity: The Card Game" for "Dragon" magazine No. 221 (September 1995). Swan says that "While the card game doesn't scale the heights of the computer game, it comes close."


title: SimCity (1989 video game)

text: Dr. Wright from the Super NES version has made appearances in several video games. He is a non-player character in "", and an assist trophy in the "Super Smash Bros." series.


title: Carmen Sandiego (character)

text: Carmen Isabella Sandiego is a fictional character featured in a long-running edutainment series of the same name created by the American software company Broderbund. As an international lady thief, a criminal mastermind, and the elusive nemesis of the ACME Detective Agency, Carmen Sandiego is the principal character of the video game series and the head of ACME's rival organization, V.I.L.E. She is depicted as an extremely intelligent, stylish, fashionable woman whose signature look features a red, matching fedora and trenchcoat. Most of her crimes depicted in the games involve spectacular and often impossible cases of monument theft, which are used as a pretext to teach children geography via the simulated process of tracking down the character, the stolen monuments, and her accomplices all over the world.


title: Carmen Sandiego (character)

text: "Carmen Sandiego"s authors were Gene Portwood, Lauren Elliott, and Dane Bingham. Writer David Siefkin, who wrote the first script of the project and invented the character's name, left before the first game was released in 1985. The character's identity as a Hispanic woman has remained a consistent and integral part of her character, and visually, she was in part influenced by the Brazilian singer and actress Carmen Miranda. Her last name alludes to the city of San Diego, California. Carmen Sandiego is also referred to by such epithets as The Miss of Misdemeanor, Vicious & Cruel, The Queen of Crime, and The World's Greatest Thief.


title: Carmen Sandiego (character)

text: There are numerous discrepancies in the various media depicting Carmen Sandiego, and no official or correct canon has been designated or established. However, the following seems to have remained consistent throughout all "Carmen Sandiego" media created since around the mid-1980s:


title: Carmen Sandiego (character)

text: In the games, ACME Headquarters is primarily located in San Francisco and the leader of ACME is called "The Chief". Carmen Sandiego was a brilliant agent for the ACME Detective Agency until she left and formed the Villains' International League of Evil (V.I.L.E.). V.I.L.E. seeks to commit incredible thefts and/or cause chaos in other ways, while ACME tries to thwart them and capture their agents. In the computer games, the thefts of the minor henchmen are almost always meant to keep ACME occupied before Carmen herself pulls off the real crime, usually something monumental and significant to the theme of the game. Carmen is incredibly, at times almost supernaturally, elusive and her permanent capture would be ACME's holy grail.


title: Carmen Sandiego (character)

text: Carmen Sandiego was voiced by Rita Moreno in the "Earth" animated series. This animated television series reveals a unique backstory about Carmen Sandiego. According to the show, Carmen Sandiego was an orphan raised at the Golden Gate Girls' School in San Francisco. The Chief gave her a home at the ACME Detective Agency and, by age seventeen, she solved more cases than any other ACME agent. However, she then disappeared and turned to a life of crime. Her partner when she was at ACME was a Japanese man named Suhara, who left ACME after she did and appears to now be retired. Unlike in most of the rest of the series, the reason for Carmen leaving ACME is not specifically stated, although it is speculated by Suhara ("Déjà Vu"). In the latter seasons of the show, Carmen began to be portrayed as more of an antivillain than a proper villainess, even teaming up with the show's protagonists to defeat criminals more unscrupulous than herself on several occasions. Additionally, it was made clear that she makes a point of refusing to steal something if the theft will cause anybody harm—a vow she frequently breaks outside this canon.


title: Carmen Sandiego (character)

text: The "Earth" series gave the franchise a timeline, with the mid-1990s (the time the show was produced) being the present. According to this timeline, Carmen joined ACME in 1985, placing her birth in approximately 1968. Her birthday is on March 1 ("The Scavenger Hunt"). In the two-part finale, Carmen Sandiego attempts to rob millionaire Malcolm Avalon of a statue but finds a portrait of someone who she believes is her mother based on a locket she owns and sparks the possibility that Avalon might be her father. Avalon refuses to believe that she is his daughter due to her propensity of being a thief and that he believes his daughter died in a hotel fire along with her mother in San Francisco. However, later on in the episodes he accepts the possibility that she might be his daughter. Before finding out the ultimate truth, Avalon falls from a roof during a battle with former ACME agent Lee Jordan and has selective amnesia of the events that have transpired. At the end of the final episode, Carmen hires a hypnotist in order to remember what happened the day of the fire. It is discovered she picked the locket off the ground, but cannot recall if it was because she dropped it, or if she found it while the hotel was burning. The finale ends with her saying, "But maybe there are just some things we aren't meant to know for sure."


title: Carmen Sandiego (character)

text: According to the episode "Hot Ice", Carmen has been gone from ACME for 10 years, 3 months and 7 days.


title: Carmen Sandiego (character)

text: Unlike in most of the rest of the franchise, the reason for Carmen leaving ACME is not specifically stated in the "Earth" series, although it was speculated by Suhara ("Déjà Vu"). In the episode "Hot Ice", Carmen points out she didn't have all the high-tech hardware Zack and Ivy have back when she was an ACME detective. In the episode "Retribution, Part 1" a scene shown in flashback shows how justified she was. This is further enforced in another episode, where Carmen is dared to try something without any of her high-tech equipment. She agrees to this, and actually pulls it off, hijacking the Orient Express with only conventional tools. Carmen is sometimes depicted as genuinely liking Zack and Ivy, and enjoying the ongoing battle of wits she has with them to the point where she will often congratulate the two for their successes regarding them as worthy opponents. Carmen thievery skills are highly complex as she has managed to steal the Mona Lisa's smile, technology to steal musical talent and even the entire beach of Kaimu Beach in Hawaii. Despite her nature as a thief, Carmen does have her nice moments. In one episode, Carmen eludes every ACME Detective at once, the detectives find that she has left them all a doll of herself that teases that it is the only Carmen that they'll catch, and wishes a Merry Christmas as a Christmas gift. In the episode "Trick or Treat" Zack and Ivy find Carmen's Halloween party. They see Sara Bellum handing out candy to trick-or-treaters, on Carmen's orders so her theft wasn't going to wreck the holiday for children. Although a villainess Carmen operates on her own brand of morals, such as being a thief in the strictest sense of the word and not killing Zack and Ivy despite gaining many opportunities to do so. She has even saved the Chief's life when he was suffering a viral malfunction and did not want to lose him and only had Manny "kidnap" him so she could get to play chess with him like they did every Christmas when she was an ACME agent.


title: Carmen Sandiego (character)

text: The six "Carmen Sandiego" games produced from 1996 through 1999 ("Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?", "Where in the U.S.A. is Carmen Sandiego?", "Where in Time is Carmen Sandiego?" ("Carmen Sandiego's Great Chase Through Time"), "Carmen Sandiego Word Detective", "Carmen Sandiego Math Detective" and "Carmen Sandiego's ThinkQuick Challenge") seem to form a loose canon as they feature some of the same characters. However, characters as well as some other elements often appear differently between the games due to the use of different animation styles. It is only in "Word Detective" and "Math Detective" that substantial information about Carmen is given. In this universe, Carmen's partner when she was at ACME was Chase Devineaux and one of the last cases they worked on together involved the mythical "Prometheus Rock." Although Chase and Carmen apprehended the thieves responsible for stealing it, the rock itself was not found. When Carmen left ACME, Chase was forced to leave ACME as well since he had worked so closely with her. However, Chase began working with ACME again to stop Carmen's plan to steal language with the Babbel-On Machine, as depicted in "Carmen Sandiego Word Detective". In "Carmen Sandiego Math Detective", the whereabouts of the Prometheus Rock became all too clear when Carmen tried to use it to make herself all-powerful, although her plans were thwarted by Agent 9 (the player) and Chase. As of "Carmen Sandiego's ThinkQuick Challenge", Chase is again working for ACME.


title: Carmen Sandiego (character)

text: In the "Carmen Sandiego Treasures of Knowledge" canon, Carmen was a child prodigy, who won a substantial amount of money on a game show called "It's a Wise Child" (a reference to J. D. Salinger's Glass family in "Franny and Zooey" and many of his short stories) when she was ten years old. She used the money to travel extensively around the world until she was twelve. Her partner when she was at ACME was Jules Argent, who still works for ACME and appears to be in her early twenties. Jules specifically notes that Carmen never talked about her childhood, and aside from the mention of her winning the aforementioned game show, no details of it are given. ("Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? Treasures of Knowledge") The game show Carmen wins may be a reference to the game shows the character herself starred in.


title: Carmen Sandiego (character)

text: According to "Where in Space is Carmen Sandiego?", her favorite writer is Ursula K. Le Guin and her favorite astronomer is Nicolaus Copernicus.


title: Carmen Sandiego (character)

text: In "Carmen Sandiego: Junior Detective Edition", the third version of "Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?" and "Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? Treasures of Knowledge", Carmen owns a red helicopter. In "Junior Detective" and in the 1996 versions of "World" and "U.S.A.", she owns a pet cat named Carmine.


title: Carmen Sandiego (character)

text: In the 2019 Netflix animated series, which portrays Carmen as the hero instead of a villain, she is an orphan Argentine girl code-named "Black Sheep" who is rescued by V.I.L.E. 20 years earlier, and trained as an agent. But when she learns the organization's true goal, she turns against them and seeks to dissolve it by stealing back from them. In this series, Carmen has no personal connection to The ACME Detective Agency, but they have parallel goals in opposing V.I.L.E. and the agency pursues Carmen to investigate the agenda of her crimes which appears to have some connection to their primary enemy.


title: Carmen Sandiego (character)

text: Carmen Sandiego has often been created through animation techniques in many games, either with various forms of computer graphics or traditional animation. The "Time" game show is the only time the character has officially been portrayed in live action, aside from photographs in early game manuals.


title: Carmen Sandiego (character)

text: Carmen Sandiego's voice was heard for the first time on "Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego? Deluxe Edition" during her trial after she is captured by the player. Her voice was featured regularly in the "World" game show, though only during the phone tap skit. She had minor personality on the "World" show, aside being constantly exasperated by her crooks' incompetence and showing sarcasm. No voice artist was credited; however, later performers maintained the distinctive, slightly dusky voice she was given on "World".