title: Dakota Territory

text: There had been previous attempts to open up the territory, but these had foundered because the Treaty of Fort Laramie (1868) required that 75 percent of Sioux adult males on the reservation had to agree to any treaty change. Most recently, a commission headed by Richard Henry Pratt in 1888 had completely failed to get the necessary signatures in the face of opposition from Sioux leaders and even government worker Elaine Goodale, later Superintendent of Indian Education for the Dakotas. The government believed that the Dawes Act (1887), which attempted to move the Indians from hunting to farming, in theory, meant that they needed less land (but in reality was an economic disaster for them) and that at least half was available for sale. Congress approved an offer of for reservation land (a figure they had previously rejected as outrageously high) and $25,000 to induce the Indians to sign.


title: Dakota Territory

text: A new commission was appointed in April 1889 that included veteran Indian fighter general George Crook. Crook pulled out all the stops to get the Indians to sign, using many underhand tactics. He threatened them that if they did not sign, the land would be taken anyway and they would get nothing. This would not have been seen as an idle threat; the treaty had been ignored in the past when the Black Hills were taken from the Sioux. Crook ignored leaders like Sitting Bull and Red Cloud who opposed the sale and kept them out of the negotiations, preferring instead to deal with moderate leaders like American Horse. American Horse, however, claimed immediately afterwards that he had been tricked into signing. Crook made many personal promises (such as on reservation rations) which he had no authority to make, or ability to keep. He claimed afterwards that he had only agreed to report the concerns back to Washington. Crook lied about how many signatures he already had, giving the impression that the signature he was currently asking for would make no difference. He said that those who did not sign would not get a share of the money for the land. Crook even allowed white men who had married Sioux to sign, a dubious action given that the blood quantum laws only counted full-blood Indians as members of the tribe. By August 6, 1889, Crook had the requisite number of signatures, half the reservation land was sold, and the remainder divided among six smaller reservations.


title: Dakota Territory

text: On February 22, 1889, outgoing President Cleveland signed an omnibus bill that divided the Territory of Dakota in half. North Dakota and South Dakota became states simultaneously on November 2, 1889. President Harrison had the papers shuffled to obscure which one was signed first and the order went unrecorded. The bill also enabled the people in the new Territories of North Dakota and South Dakota, as well as the older territories of Montana and Washington, to write state constitutions and elect state governments. The four new states would be admitted into the Union in nine months. This plan cut Democratic New Mexico out of statehood and split Republican Dakota Territory into two new Republican states. Rather than two new Republican states and two new Democratic states that Congress had considered the previous year, the omnibus bill created three new Republican states and one new Democratic state that Republicans thought they would capture. The Dakota Territory was divided into the states of North Dakota and South Dakota on November 2, 1889.


title: Trench

text: A trench is a type of excavation or in the ground that is generally deeper than it is wide (as opposed to a wider gully, or ditch), and narrow compared with its length (as opposed to a simple hole or pit).


title: Trench

text: In geology, trenches result from erosion by rivers or by geological movement of tectonic plates. In civil engineering, trenches are often created to install underground utilities such as gas, water, power and communication lines. In construction, trenches are dug for foundations of buildings, retaining walls and dams, and for cut-and-cover construction of tunnels. In archaeology, the "trench method" is used for searching and excavating ancient ruins or to dig into strata of sedimented material. In geotechnical engineering, trenches serve for locating faults and investigating deep soil properties. In trench warfare, soldiers occupy trenches to protect them against weapons fire.


title: Trench

text: Trenches are dug by use of manual tools such as shovels and pickaxes, or by heavy equipment such as backhoes, trenchers and excavators.


title: Trench

text: For deep trenches, the instability of steep earthen walls requires engineering and safety techniques such as shoring. Trenches are usually considered temporary structures to be backfilled with soil after construction, or abandoned after use. Some trenches are stabilized using durable materials such as concrete to create open passages such as canals and sunken roadways.


title: Trench

text: Some trenches are created as a result of erosion by running water or by glaciers (which may have long since disappeared). Others, such as rift valleys or oceanic trenches, are created by geological movement of tectonic plates. Some oceanic trenches include the Mariana Trench and the Aleutian Trench. The former geoform is relatively deep (approximately ), linear and narrow, and is formed by plate subduction when plates converge.


title: Trench

text: In the civil engineering fields of construction and maintenance of infrastructure, trenches play a major role. They are used for installation of underground infrastructure or utilities (such as gas mains, water mains, communication lines and pipelines) that would be obstructive or easily damaged if placed above ground. Trenches are needed later for access to these installations for service. They may be created to search for pipes and other infrastructure whose exact location is no longer known ("search trench" or "search slit"). Finally, trenches may be created as the first step of creating a foundation wall. Trench shoring is often used in trenchworks to protect workers and stabilise the steep walls.


title: Trench

text: An alternative to digging trenches is to create a utility tunnel. Such a tunnel may be dug by boring or by using a trench for cut-and-cover construction. The advantages of utility tunnels are the reduction of maintenance manholes, one-time relocation, and less excavation and repair, compared with separate cable ducts for each service. When they are well mapped, they also allow rapid access to all utilities without having to dig access trenches or resort to confused and often inaccurate utility maps.


title: Trench

text: An important advantage to placing utilities underground is public safety. Underground power lines, whether in common or separate channels, prevent downed utility cables from blocking roads, thus speeding emergency access after natural disasters such as earthquakes, hurricanes, and tsunamis.


title: Trench

text: In some cases, a large trench is dug and deliberately preserved (not filled in), often for transport purposes. This is typically done to install depressed motorways, open railway cuttings, or canals. However, these large, permanent trenches are significant barriers to other forms of travel, and often become de facto boundaries between neighborhoods or other spaces.


title: Trench

text: Trenches have often been dug for military purposes. In the pre-firearm era, they were mainly a type of hindrance to an attacker of a fortified location, such as the moat around a castle (this is technically called a ditch). An early example of this can be seen in the Battle of the Trench, a religious war, one of the early battles fought by Muhammad.


title: Trench

text: With the advent of accurate firearms, trenches were used to shelter troops. Trench warfare and tactics evolved further in the Crimean War, the American Civil War and World War I, until systems of extensive main trenches, backup trenches (in case the first lines were overrun) and communication trenches often stretched dozens of kilometres along a front without interruption, and some kilometres further back from the front line. After WW1 had concluded, the trench became a symbol of WW1 and its horrors.


title: Trench

text: Trenches are used for searching and excavating ancient ruins or to dig into strata of sedimented material to get a sideways (layered) view of the deposits – with a hope of being able to place found objects or materials in a chronological order. The advantage of this method is that it destroys only a small part of the site (those areas where the trenches, often arranged in a grid pattern, are located). However, this method also has the disadvantage of only revealing small slices of the whole volume, and modern archeological digs usually employ combination methods.


title: Trench

text: Trenches that are deeper than about 1.5 m present safety risks arising from their steep walls and confined space. These risks are similar those from pits or any steep-walled excavations. The risks include falling, injury from cave-in (wall collapse), inability to escape the trench, drowning and asphyxiation.


title: Anushilan Samiti

text: Anushilan Samiti () was an Indian fitness club, which was actually used as an underground society for anti-British revolutionaries. In the first quarter of the 20th century it supported revolutionary violence as the means for ending British rule in India. The organisation arose from a conglomeration of local youth groups and gyms (akhara) in Bengal in 1902. It had two prominent, somewhat independent, arms in East and West Bengal, Dhaka Anushilan Samiti (centred in Dhaka), and the Jugantar group (centred in Calcutta).


title: Anushilan Samiti

text: From its foundation to its dissolution during the 1930s, the Samiti challenged British rule in India by engaging in militant nationalism, including bombings, assassinations, and politically motivated violence. The Samiti collaborated with other revolutionary organisations in India and abroad. It was led by the nationalists Aurobindo Ghosh and his brother Barindra Ghosh, influenced by philosophies like Italian Nationalism, and the Pan-Asianism of Kakuzo Okakura. The Samiti was involved in a number of noted incidents of revolutionary attacks against British interests and administration in India, including early attempts to assassinate British Raj officials. These were followed by the 1912 attempt on the life of the Viceroy of India, and the Seditious conspiracy during World War I, led by Rash Behari Bose and Jatindranath Mukherjee respectively.


title: Anushilan Samiti

text: The organisation moved away from its philosophy of violence in the 1920s due to the influence of the Indian National Congress and the Gandhian non-violent movement. A section of the group, notably those associated with Sachindranath Sanyal, remained active in the revolutionary movement, founding the Hindustan Republican Association in north India. A number of Congress leaders from Bengal, especially Subhash Chandra Bose, were accused by the British Government of having links with the organisation during this time.


title: Anushilan Samiti

text: The Samiti's violent and radical philosophy revived in the 1930s, when it was involved in the Kakori conspiracy, the Chittagong armoury raid, and other actions against the administration in British-occupied India.


title: Anushilan Samiti

text: Shortly after its inception, the organisation became the focus of an extensive police and intelligence operation which led to the founding of the Special branch of the Calcutta Police. Notable officers who led the police and intelligence operations against the "Samiti" at various times included Sir Robert Nathan, Sir Harold Stuart, Sir Charles Stevenson-Moore and Sir Charles Tegart. The threat posed by the activities of the "Samiti" in Bengal during World War I, along with the threat of a Ghadarite uprising in Punjab, led to the passage of Defence of India Act 1915. These measures enabled the arrest, internment, transportation and execution of a number of revolutionaries linked to the organisation, which crushed the East Bengal Branch. In the aftermath of the war, the Rowlatt committee recommended extending the Defence of India Act (as the Rowlatt Act) to thwart any possible revival of the "Samiti" in Bengal and the Ghadarite movement in Punjab. After the war, the activities of the party led to the implementation of the Bengal Criminal Law Amendment in the early 1920s, which reinstated the powers of incarceration and detention from the Defence of India Act. However, the "Anushilan Samiti" gradually disseminated into the Gandhian movement. Some of its members left for the Indian National Congress then led by Subhas Chandra Bose, while others identified more closely with Communism. The "Jugantar" branch formally dissolved in 1938. In independent India, the party in West Bengal evolved into the Revolutionary Socialist Party, while the Eastern Branch later evolved into the "Shramik Krishak Samajbadi Dal" (Workers and Peasants Socialist Party) in present-day Bangladesh.


title: Anushilan Samiti

text: The growth of the Indian middle class during the 19th century led to a growing sense of Indian identity that fed a rising tide of nationalism in India in the last decades of the 1800s. The creation of the Indian National Congress in 1885 by A.O. Hume provided a major platform for the demands of political liberalisation, increased autonomy and social reform. The nationalist movement became particularly strong, radical and violent in Bengal and, later, in Punjab. Notable, if smaller, movements also appeared in Maharashtra, Madras and other areas in the South. The movement in Maharashtra, especially Mumbai (formerly Bombay) and Poona, preceded most revolutionary movements in the country. This movement was supported ideologically by Bal Gangadhar Tilak, who may also have offered covert active support. The Indian Association was founded in Kolkata (formerly Calcutta) in 1876 under the leadership of Surendranath Banerjee. The Association became the mouthpiece of an informal constituency of students and middle-class gentlemen. It sponsored the Indian National Conference in 1883 and 1885, which later merged with the Indian National Congress. Kolkata - formerly Calcutta was at the time the most prominent centre for organised politics, and some of the students who attended the political meetings began to organise "secret societies" that cultivated a culture of physical strength and nationalist feelings.


title: Anushilan Samiti

text: By 1902, Kolkata (formerly Calcutta) had three secret societies working toward the violent overthrow of British rule in India: one founded by Calcutta student Satish Chandra Basu with the patronage of Calcutta barrister Pramatha Mitra, another led by Sarala Devi, and the third founded by Aurobindo Ghose. Ghose and his brother Barin were among the strongest proponents of militant Indian nationalism at the time. Nationalist writings and publications by Aurobindo and Barin, including "Bande Mataram" and "Jugantar Patrika(Yugantar)", had a widespread influence on Bengal youth and helped Anushilan Samiti to gain popularity in Bengal. The 1905 partition of Bengal stimulated radical nationalist sentiments in Bengal's Bhadralok community, helping the Samiti to acquire the support of educated, politically conscious and disaffected members of local youth societies. The Samiti's program emphasized physical training, training its recruits with daggers and lathis (bamboo staffs used as weapons). The Dhaka branch was led by Pulin Behari Das, and branches spread throughout East Bengal and Assam. More than 500 branches were opened in eastern Bengal and Assam, linked by "close and detailed organization" to Pulin's headquarters at Dhaka. This branch soon overshadowed its parent organisation in Calcutta. Branches of Dhaka Anushilan Samiti emerged in Jessore, Khulna, Faridpur, Rajnagar, Rajendrapur, Mohanpur, Barvali and Bakarganj, with an estimated membership of 15,000 to 20,000. Within two years, Dhaka Anushilan changed its aims from those of the Swadeshi movement to that of political terrorism.


title: Anushilan Samiti

text: The organisation's political views were expressed in the journal "Jugantar", founded in March 1906 by Abhinash Bhattacharya, Barindra, Bhupendranath Dutt and Debabrata Basu. It soon became an organ for the radical views of Aurobindo and other Anushilan leaders, and led to the Calcutta Samiti group being dubbed the "Jugantar party". Early leaders were Rash Behari Bose, Bhavabhushan Mitra, Jatindranath Mukherjee and Jadugopal Mukherjee. Aurobindo published similar messages of violent nationalism in journals such as "Sandhya", "Navashakti" and "Bande Mataram".


title: Anushilan Samiti

text: The Dhaka Anushilan Samiti broke with the Jugantar group in West Bengal due to disagreements with Aurobindo's approach of slowly building a mass base for revolution. The Dhaka group instead sought immediate action and results through political terrorism. The two branches of the Samiti engaged in dacoity to raise money, and performed a number of political assassinations. In December 1907, the Bengal branch derailed a train carrying Bengal Lieutenant Governor Andrew Henderson Leith Fraser in a plot led by the Ghosh brothers. In the same month, the Dhaka Anushilan Samiti assassinated former Dhaka district magistrate D. C. Allen. The following year, the Samiti engineered eleven assassinations, seven attempted assassinations and explosions and eight dacoities in West Bengal. Their targets included British police officials and civil servants, Indian police officers, informants, public prosecutors of political crimes, and wealthy families. Under Barin Ghosh's direction, the Samiti's members also attempted to assassinate French colonial officials in Chandernagore who were seen as complicit with the Raj.


title: Anushilan Samiti

text: Anushilan Samiti established early links with foreign movements and Indian nationalists abroad. In 1907, Barin Ghosh sent Hem Chandra Kanungo (Hem Chandra Das) to Paris to learn bomb-making from Nicholas Safranski, a Russian revolutionary in exile. In 1908, young recruits Khudiram Bose and Prafulla Chaki were sent on a mission to Muzaffarpur to assassinate chief presidency magistrate D. H. Kingsford. They bombed a carriage they mistook for Kingsford's, killing two Englishwomen. Bose was arrested while attempting to flee and Chaki committed suicide. Police investigation of the killers connected them with Barin's country house in Manicktala (a suburb of Calcutta) and led to a number of arrests, including Aurobindo and Barin. The ensuing trial, held under tight security, led to a death sentence for Barin (later commuted to life imprisonment). The case against Aurobindo Ghosh collapsed after Naren Gosain, who had turned crown witness, was shot in Alipore jail by Satyendranath Basu and Kanailal Dutta, who were also being tried. Aurobindo retired from active politics after being acquitted. This was followed by a 1909 Dhaka conspiracy case, which brought 44 members of the Dhaka Anushilan Samiti to trial. Nandalal Bannerjee (the officer who arrested Khudiram) was shot and killed in 1908, followed by the assassinations of the prosecutor and informant for the Alipore case in 1909.


title: Anushilan Samiti

text: After Aurobindo's retirement, the western Anushilan Samiti found a more prominent leader in Bagha Jatin and emerged as the Jugantar. Jatin revitalised links between the central organisation in Calcutta and its branches in Bengal, Bihar, Orissa and Uttar Pradesh, establishing hideouts in the Sunderbans for members who had gone underground. The group slowly reorganised, aided by Amarendra Chatterjee, Naren Bhattacharya and other younger leaders. Some of its younger members, including Taraknath Das, left India. Over the next two years, the organisation operated under the cover of two apparently-separate groups: Sramajeebi Samabaya (the Labourer's Cooperative) and S.D. Harry and Sons. Around this time Jatin attempted to establish contacts with the 10th Jat Regiment, garrisoned at Fort William in Calcutta, and Narendra Nath committed a number of robberies to raise money. Shamsul Alam, a Bengal police officer preparing a conspiracy case against the group, was assassinated by Jatin associate Biren Dutta Gupta. His assassination led to the arrests which precipitated the Howrah-Sibpur Conspiracy case.


title: Anushilan Samiti

text: In 1911, Dhaka Anushilan members shot dead Sub-inspector Raj Kumar and Inspector Man Mohan Ghosh, two Bengali police officers investigating unrest linked to the group, in Mymensingh and Barisal. This was followed by the assassination of CID head constable Shrish Chandra Dey in Calcutta. In February 1911, Jugantar bombed a car in Calcutta, mistaking an Englishman for police officer Godfrey Denham. Rash Behari Bose (described as "the most dangerous revolutionary in India") extended the group's reach into north India, where he found work in the Indian Forest Institute in Dehra Dun. Bose forged links with radical nationalists in Punjab and the United Provinces, including those later connected to Har Dayal. During the 1912 transfer of the imperial capital to New Delhi, Viceroy Charles Hardinge's howdah was bombed; his mahout was killed, and Lady Hardinge was injured.


title: Anushilan Samiti

text: As war between Germany and Britain began to seem likely, Indian nationalists at home and abroad decided to use the war for the nationalist cause. Through Kishen Singh, the Bengal Samiti cell was introduced to Har Dayal when Dayal visited India in 1908. Dayal was associated with India House, then headed by V. D. Savarkar. By 1910, Dayal was working closely with Rash Behari Bose. After the decline of India House, Dayal moved to San Francisco after working briefly with the Paris Indian Society. Nationalism among Indian immigrants (particularly students and the working class) was gaining ground in the United States. Taraknath Das, who left Bengal for the United States in 1907, was among the Indian students who engaged in political work. In California, Dayal became a leading organiser of Indian nationalism amongst predominantly-Punjabi immigrant workers and was a key member of the Ghadar Party.


title: Anushilan Samiti

text: With Naren Bhattacharya, Jatin met the crown prince of Germany during the latter's 1912 visit to Calcutta and obtained an assurance that arms and ammunition would be supplied to them. Jatin learned about Bose's work from Niralamba Swami on a pilgrimage to Brindavan. Returning to Bengal, he began reorganising the group. Bose went into hiding in Benares after the 1912 attempt on Hardinge but he met Jatin towards the end of 1913, outlining prospects for a pan-Indian revolution. In 1914 Bose, the Maharashtrian Vishnu Ganesh Pingle and Sikh militants planned simultaneous troop uprisings for February 1915. In Bengal, Anushilan and Jugantar launched what has been described by historians as "a reign of terror in both the cities and the countryside ... [which] ... came close to achieving their key goal of paralysing the administration". An atmosphere of fear severely affected morale in both the police and courts. In August 1914, Jugantar seized a large amount of arms and ammunition from the Rodda company, a Calcutta arms dealer, and used them in robberies in Calcutta for the next two years. In 1915, only six revolutionaries were successfully tried.


title: Anushilan Samiti

text: Both the February 1915 plot and a December 1915 plot were thwarted by British intelligence. Jatin and a number of fellow revolutionaries were killed in a firefight with police at Balasore, in present-day Orissa, which brought Jugantar to a temporary end. The Defence of India Act 1915 led to widespread arrests, internments, deportations and executions of members of the revolutionary movement. By March 1916, widespread arrests helped Bengal police crush the Dacca Anushilan Samiti in Calcutta. Regulation III and the Defence of India Act were enforced throughout Bengal in August 1916. By June 1917, 705 people were under house arrest under the Act and 99 were imprisoned under Regulation III. In Bengal, revolutionary violence fell to 10 incidents in 1917. According to official lists, 186 revolutionaries were killed or convicted by 1918. After the war, the Defence of India Act was extended by the Rowlatt Act, the passage of which was a prime target of the protests of M. K. Gandhi's non-cooperation movement. Many revolutionaries released after the war escaped to Burma to avoid repeated incarceration.


title: Anushilan Samiti

text: The first non-cooperation movement, the Rowlatt Satyagrahas led by Gandhi, was active from 1919 to 1922. It received widespread support from prominent members of the Indian independence movement. In Bengal, Jugantar agreed to a request by Chittaranjan Das (a respected leader of the Indian National Congress) to refrain from violence. Although Anushilan Samiti did not adhere to the agreement, it sponsored no major actions between 1920 and 1922. During the next few years, Jugantar and the Samiti became active again. The resurgence of radical nationalism linked to the Samiti during the 1920s led to the passage of the Bengal Criminal Law Amendment Ordinance in 1924. The act restored extraordinary powers of detention to the police; by 1927 more than 200 suspects were imprisoned under the act, including Subhas Chandra Bose, curtailing the resurgence of nationalist violence in Bengal. Branches of Jugantar formed in Chittagong and Dhaka, in present-day Bangladesh. The Chittagong branch, led by Surya Sen, robbed the Chittagong office of the Assam-Bengal Railway in December 1923. In January 1924 a young Bengali, Gopi Mohan Saha, shot dead a European he mistook for Calcutta police commissioner Charles Tegart. The assassin was praised by the Bengali press and, to Gandhi's chagrin, proclaimed a martyr by the Bengal branch of the Congress. Around this time, Jugantar became closely associated with the Calcutta Corporation, headed by Das and Subhas Chandra Bose, and terrorists (and ex-terrorists) became significant factors in local Bengali government.


title: Anushilan Samiti

text: In 1923 another group linked to Anushilan Samiti, the Hindustan Republican Association, was founded in Benares by Sachindranath Sanyal and Jogesh Chandra Chatterjee, helping to radicalise north India. It soon had branches from Calcutta to Lahore. A series of successful dacoities in Uttar Pradesh were followed by a train robbery in Kakori, and subsequent investigations and two trials broke the organization. Several years later, it was reborn as the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association (HSRA).


title: Anushilan Samiti

text: In 1927, the Indian National Congress came out in favour of independence from Britain. Bengal had quietened over a four-year period, and the government released most of those interned under the Act of 1925 despite an unsuccessful attempt to forge an alliance between Jugantar and Anushilan Samiti. Some younger radicals struck out in new directions, and many (young and old) took part in Congress activities such as the 1928 anti-Simon Commission protests. Congress leader Lala Lajpat Rai died of injuries received when police broke up a Lahore protest march in October, and Bhagat Singh and other members of the HSRA avenged his death in December; Singh also later bombed the legislative assembly. He and other HSRA members were arrested, and three went on a hunger strike in jail; Bengali bomb-maker Jatindra Nath Das persisted in his strike until his death in September 1929. The Calcutta Corporation passed a condolence resolution after his death, as did Congress when Bhagat Singh was executed.


title: Anushilan Samiti

text: As the Congress-led movement picked up its pace during the early 1930s, some former revolutionaries identified with the Gandhian political movement and became influential Congressmen (notably Surendra Mohan Ghose). Many Bengali Congressmen also maintained links with the Samiti. Simultaneously with the nonviolent protests of the Gandhi-led Salt March, in April 1930, a group led by Surya Sen raided the Chittagong Armoury. In 1930 eleven British officials were killed, notably during the Writer's Building raid of December 1930 by Benoy Basu, Dinesh Gupta and Badal Gupta. Three successive district magistrates in Midnapore were assassinated, and dozens of other actions were carried out during the first half of the decade. By 1931 a record 92 violent incidents were recorded, including the murders of the British magistrates of Tippera and Midnapore. However, soon afterwards, in 1934, the revolutionary movement in Bengal ended.


title: Anushilan Samiti

text: A large portion of the Samiti movement was attracted to left-wing politics during the 1930s, and those who did not join left-wing parties identified with Congress and the Congress Socialist Party. During the mass detentions of the 1930s surrounding the civil-disobedience movement, many members joined Congress. Jugantar was formally dissolved in 1938; many former members continued to act together under Surendra Mohan Ghose, who was a liaison between other Congress politicians and Aurobindo Ghose in Pondicherry. During the late 1930s, Marxist-leaning members of the Samiti in the CSP announced the formation of the Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP).


title: Anushilan Samiti

text: Anushilan Samiti and Jugantar were organised on different lines, reflecting their divergence. The Samiti was centrally organised, with a rigid discipline and vertical hierarchy. Jugantar was more loosely organised as an alliance of groups under local leaders that occasionally coordinated their actions. The prototype of Jugantar's organisation was Barin Ghosh's organisation set up in 1907, in the run-up to the Manicktala conspiracy. It sought to emulate the model of Russian revolutionaries described by Frost. The regulations of the central Dhaka organization of the Samiti were written down, and reproduced and summarised in government reports.


title: Anushilan Samiti

text: According to one estimate, the Dacca Anushilan Samiti at one point had 500 branches, mostly in the eastern districts of Bengal, and 20,000 members. Branches were opened later in the western districts, Bihar, and the United Provinces. Shelters for absconders were established in Assam and in two farms in Tripura. Organisational documents show a primary division between the two active leaders, Barin Ghosh and Upendranath Bannerjee, and the rank-and-file. Higher leaders such as Aurobindo were supposed to be known only to the active leaders. Past members of the Samiti asserted that the groups were interconnected with a vast web of secret societies throughout British India. However, historian Peter Heehs concluded that the links between provinces were limited to contacts between a few individuals like Aurobindo who was familiar with leaders and movements in Western India, and that relationships among the different revolutionary groups were more often competitive than co-operative. An internal document of circa 1908 written by Pulin Behari Das describes the division of the organisation in Bengal, which largely followed British administrative divisions.


title: Anushilan Samiti

text: Samiti membership was predominantly made up of Hindus, at least initially, which was ascribed to the religious oath of initiation being unacceptable to Muslims. Each member was assigned to one or more of three roles: collection of funds, implementation of planned actions and propaganda. In practice, however, the fundamental division was between "military’’ work and ‘‘civil’’ work. Dals (teams) consisting of five or ten members led by a "dalpati" (team leader) were grouped together in local Samiti led by "adhyakshas" (executive officers) and other officers. These reported to district officers appointed by and responsible to the central Dhaka organization, commanded by Pulin Das and those who deputised for him during his periods of imprisonment. Samitis were divided into four functional groups: violence, organisation, keepers of arms, and householders. Communications were carried by special couriers and written in secret code. These practices and others were inspired by literary sources and were partly a concession to the desire of young men to act out romantic drama. Less is known about the Jugantar network, which took the place of the Manicktala society after the Alipore bomb case. It faced divisions similar to the Samiti. Historian Leonard Gordon notes that at least in the period between 1910 and 1915, the dals in the Jugantar network were separate units, led by a dada (lit: elder brother). The dada was also guru, teaching those under his command practical skills, revolutionary ideology, and strategy. Gordon suggests that the dada system developed out of pre-existing social structures in rural Bengal. Dadas both co-operated and competed with each other for men, money, and material.


title: Anushilan Samiti

text: Many members of the Samiti came from upper castes. By 1918, nearly 90% of the revolutionaries killed or convicted were Brahmins, Kayasthas or Vaishyas. As the Samiti spread its influence to other parts of the country, particularly north India, it began to draw in people of other religions and of varying religious commitments. For example, many who joined the Hindustan Republican Socialist Association were Marxists and many were militant atheists. By the late 1930s, members with a more secular outlook were beginning to participate. Some components of the Samiti also included prominent participation from women, including Pritilata Waddedar who led a Jugantar attack during the Chittagong Armoury raid, and Kalpana Dutta who manufactured bombs at Chittagong.


title: Anushilan Samiti

text: The Samiti was influenced by the writings of the Bengali nationalist author Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay. The name of the organisation, Anushilan, is derived from Bankim's works espousing hard work and spartan life. Bankim's cultural and martial nationalism, exemplified in Anandamath, along with his reinterpretation of the Bhagavat Gita, were strong influences on the strain of nationalism that inspired the early societies that later became Anushilan Samiti. A search of the Dacca Anushilan Samiti library in 1908 showed that Bankim's Bhagavat Gita was the most widely read book in the library.


title: Anushilan Samiti

text: The philosophies and teachings of Swami Vivekananda were later added to this philosophy. The "Rules of Membership" in the Dacca library strongly recommended reading his books. These books emphasised "Strong muscles and nerves of steel", which some historians consider to be strongly influenced by the Hindu Shakta Philosophy. This interest in physical improvement and proto-national spirit among young Bengalis was driven by an effort to break away from the stereotype of effeminacy that the British had imposed on the Bengalis. Physical fitness was symbolic of the recovery of masculinity, and part of a larger moral and spiritual training to cultivate control over the body, and develop national pride and a sense of social responsibility and service. Peter Heehs, writing in 2010, notes the Samiti had three pillars in their ideologies: "cultural independence", "political independence", and "economic independence". In terms of economic independence, the Samiti diverged from the Swadeshi movement, which they decried as a "trader's movement".


title: Anushilan Samiti

text: When the Samiti first came into prominence following the Muzaffarpur killings, its ideology was felt to be influenced by European anarchism. Lord Minto resisted the notion that its action might be the manifestation of political grievance by concluding that:


title: Anushilan Samiti

text: However others disagreed. John Morley was of the opinion that the political violence exemplified by the Samiti was a manifestation of Indian antagonism to the government, although there were also influences of European nationalism and philosophies of liberalism. In the 1860s and 1870s, large numbers of akhras (gymnasiums) arose in Bengal that were consciously designed along the lines of the Italian Carbonari. These were influenced by the works of Italian nationalist Giuseppe Mazzini and his Young Italy movement. Aurobindo himself studied the revolutionary nationalism of Ireland, France and America. Hem Chandra Das, during his stay in Paris, is also noted to have interacted with European radical nationalists in the city, returning to India an atheist with Marxist leanings.


title: Anushilan Samiti

text: Foreign influences on the Samiti included the Japanese artist Kakuzo Okakura and Margaret Noble, an Irish woman known as Sister Nivedita. Okakura was a proponent of Pan-Asianism. He visited Swami Vivekananda in Calcutta in 1902, and inspired Pramathanath Mitra in the early days of the Samiti. However the extent of his involvement or influence is debated. Nivedita was a disciple of Swami Vivekananda. She had contacts with Aurobindo, with Satish Bose and with Jugantar sub-editor Bhupendranath Bose. Nivedita is believed to have influenced members of the Samiti by talking about their duties to the motherland and providing literature on revolutionary nationalism. She was a correspondent of Peter Kropotkin, a noted anarchist.


title: Anushilan Samiti

text: A major section of the Anushilan movement had been attracted to Marxism during the 1920s and 1930s, many of them studying Marxist–Leninist literature whilst serving long jail sentences. A majority broke away from the Anushilan Samiti and joined the Communist Consolidation the Marxist group in Cellular Jail, and they later the Communist Party of India (CPI). Some of the Anushilan Marxists were hesitant to join the Communist Party, few joined the RSP however, since they distrusted the political lines formulated by the Communist International. They also did not embrace Trotskyism, although they shared some Trotskyite critiques of the leadership of Joseph Stalin.


title: Anushilan Samiti

text: Shortly after its inception, the Samiti became the focus of extensive police and intelligence operation. Notable officers who led the police and intelligence operations against them at various times included Sir Robert Nathan, Sir Harold Stuart, Sir Charles Stevenson-Moore and Sir Charles Tegart.


title: Anushilan Samiti

text: The CIDs of Bengal and the provinces of Eastern Bengal and Assam were founded in response to the revolutionary movement led by the Samiti. By 1908, political crime duties took the services of one deputy Superintendent of Police, 52 Inspectors and Sub-Inspectors, and nearly 720 constables. Foreseeing a rise in the strength of the revolutionary movement, Sir Harold Stuart (then Secretary of State for India) implemented plans for secret service to fight the menace posed by the Samiti. A Political Crime branch of the C.I.D. (known as the "Special Department") was developed in September 1909, staffed by 23 officers and 45 men. The government of India allocated Rs 2,227,000 for the Bengal Police alone in the reforms of 1909–1910.


title: Anushilan Samiti

text: By 1908 a Special Officer for Political Crime was appointed from the Bengal Police, with the Special Branch of Police working under him. This post was first occupied by C.W.C. Plowden and later by F.C. Daly. Godfrey Denham, then Assistant Superintendent of Police, served under the Special Officer. Denham was credited with uncovering the Manicktala safe house of the Samiti, raiding it in May 1908, which ultimately led to the Manicktala conspiracy case. This case led to further expansion of the Special Branch in Bengal. The CID in Eastern Bengal and Assam (EBA) were founded in 1906 and expanded from 1909 onwards. However, the EBA police's access to informers and secret agents remained difficult. In EBA, a civil servant, H.L. Salkeld, uncovered the eastern branch of Anushilan Samiti, producing a four-volume report and placing 68 suspects under surveillance. However the Samiti evaded detailed intrusion by adopting the model of Russian revolutionaries. Until 1909, the police were unclear whether they were dealing with a single organisation or with a conglomeration of independent groups.


title: Anushilan Samiti

text: The visit of King George V to India in 1911 catalyzed improvements in police equipment and staffing in Bengal and EBA. In 1912, the political branch of the Bengal CID was renamed the Intelligence Branch, staffed with 50 officers and 127 men. The branch had separate sections dealing with explosives, assassinations, and robberies. It was headed by Charles Tegart, who built up a network of agents and informers to infiltrate the Samiti. Tegart would meet his agents under cover of darkness, at times disguising himself as a pathan or kabuliwallah. Assisting Denham and Petrie, Tegart led the investigation in the aftermath of the Dalhi-Lahore Conspiracy and identified Chandernagore as the main hub for the Samiti. Tegart remained in the Bengal police until at least the 1930s, earning notoriety amongst the Samiti for his work, and was subjected to a number of assassination attempts. In 1924, Ernest Day, an Englishman, was shot dead by Gopinath Saha at Chowringhee Road in Calcutta, due to being mistaken for Tegart. In 1930, a bomb was thrown into Tegart's car at Dalhousie Square but Tegart managed to shoot the revolutionary and escaped unhurt. His efficient curbing of the revolutionary movement earned praise from Lord Lytton and he was awarded the King's medal. In 1937 Tegart was sent to the British Mandate of Palestine, then in the throes of the Arab Revolt, to advise the Inspector General on security.


title: Anushilan Samiti

text: In its fight against the Raj, the Samitis members who turned approvers (i.e. gave evidence against their colleagues) and the Bengal Police staff who were investigating the Samiti were consistently targeted. A number of assassinations were carried out of approvers who had agreed to act as crown witnesses. In 1909 Naren Gossain, crown witness for the prosecution in Alipore bomb case, was shot dead within Alipore Jail by Satyendranath Boseu and Kanai Lal Dutt. Ashutosh Biswas, an advocate of Calcutta High Court in charge of prosecution of Gossain murder case, was shot dead within Calcutta High Court in 1909. In 1910, Shamsul Alam, Deputy Superintendent of Bengal Police responsible for investigating the Alipore bomb case, was shot dead on the steps of Calcutta High Court. The failures of a number of prosecutions of violence linked to the Samiti under the Criminal Procedures Act of 1898 led to a special act that provided for crimes of nationalist violence to be tried by a special tribunal composed of three high-court judges. In December 1908 the Criminal Law amendments were passed under the terms of Regulation III of 1818, with the goal of suppressing associations formed for seditious conspiracies. The act was first applied to deport nine Bengali revolutionaries to Mandalay prison in 1908. Despite these measures however, the high standards of evidence demanded by the Calcutta High Court, insufficient investigations by police, and at times outright fabrication of evidence, led to persistent failures to tame nationalist violence. The police forces felt unable to deal with the operations of secretive nationalist organisations, leading to demands for special powers. The Indian press opposed these demands strenuously, arguing against any extension of the already wide powers enjoyed by the police forces in India, which they claimed were already being used to oppress the Indian people.


title: Anushilan Samiti

text: The threat posed by the activities of the Samiti in Bengal during World War I, along with the threat of a Ghadarite uprising in Punjab, led to the passage of Defence of India Act 1915. The act received universal support from Indian non-officiating members in the Governor General's council and from moderate leaders within the Indian political movement. The British war effort had received popular support within India and the act received support on the understanding that the measures enacted were necessary in the war situation. These measures enabled the arrest, internment, transportation, and execution of a number of revolutionaries linked to the organisation, which crushed the East Bengal branch of the Samiti. Its application led to 46 executions, as well as 64 life sentences given to revolutionaries in Bengal and Punjab in the Lahore Conspiracy Trial and Benares Conspiracy Trial, and in tribunals in Bengal, effectively crushing the revolutionary movement. By March 1916, widespread arrests had helped Bengal Police crush the Dhaka Anushilan Samiti in Calcutta. The power of preventive detention was used extensively in Bengal, and revolutionary violence in Bengal plummeted to 10 incidents in 1917. By the end of the war there were over 800 detainees under the act in Bengal under the act. However, indiscriminate application of the act made it increasingly unpopular with the Indian public.


title: Anushilan Samiti

text: The 1915 act was designed to expire in 1919, and the Rowlatt Committee was appointed to recommend measures to continue to suppress the revolutionary movement. The committee recommended an extension of the provisions of the Defence of India Act for a further three years with the removal of habeas corpus provisions. However this was met with universal opposition by the Indian members of the Viceroy's council, as well as the population in general, and Gandhi called the proposed act "The Black Bills". Mohammed Ali Jinnah left the Viceroy's council in protest, after having warned the council of the danger of enacting such an unpopular bill. Nevertheless, the recommendations were enacted in the Rowlatt Bills. Gandhi then led a protest, the Rowlatt Satyagraha, one of the first civil disobedience movements that would become the Indian independence movement. The protests included hartals in Delhi, public protests in Punjab, and other protest movements across India. In Punjab, the protests culminated in the Jallianwalla Bagh Massacre in April 1919. After nearly three years of agitation, the government finally repealed the Rowlatt act and its component sister acts.


title: Anushilan Samiti

text: A resurgence of radical nationalism linked to the Samiti after 1922 led to the implementation of the Bengal Criminal Law Amendment in 1924, which reinstated the powers of incarceration and detention from the Defence of India Act. The act re-introduced extraordinary powers of detention to the police, and by 1927 more than 200 suspects had been imprisoned, including Subhas Chandra Bose. The implementation of the act successfully curtailed a resurgence in nationalist violence in Bengal, at a time when the Hindustan Republican Association was rising in the United Provinces.


title: Anushilan Samiti

text: After the 1920s, the Anushilan Samiti gradually dissolved into the Gandhian movement. Some of its members left for the Indian National Congress, then led by Subhas Chandra Bose, while others identified more closely with Communism. The Jugantar branch formally dissolved in 1938. In independent India, the party in West Bengal evolved into the Revolutionary Socialist Party, while the Eastern Branch later evolved into the Sramik Krishak Samajbadi Dal (Workers and Peasants Socialist Party) in present-day Bangladesh.


title: Anushilan Samiti

text: The nationalist publication "Jugantar", which served as the organ of the Samiti, inspired fanatical loyalty among its readers. By 1907 it was selling 7,000 copies, which later rose to 20,000. Its message was aimed at elite politically conscious readers and was essentially a critique of British rule in India and justification of political violence. Several young men who joined the Samiti credited "Jugantar" with influencing their decisions. The editor of the paper, Bhupendranath Datta, was arrested and sentenced to one year's rigorous imprisonment in 1907. The Samiti responded by attempting to assassinate Douglas Kingsford, who presided over the trial, and "Jugantar" responded with defiant editorials. "Jugantar" was repeatedly prosecuted, leaving it in financial ruins by 1908. However, the prosecutions brought the paper more publicity and helped disseminate the Samiti""'s ideology of revolutionary nationalism. Historian Shukla Sanyal has commented that revolutionary terrorism as an ideology began to win at least tacit support amongst a significant populace at this time.


title: Anushilan Samiti

text: Keshav Baliram Hedgewar, the founder of the Hindu nationalist organisation Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), was an alumnus of the Anushilan Samiti. He was sent to Calcutta by B. S. Moonje in 1910 to study medicine, and to learn techniques of violent nationalism from secret revolutionary organizations in Bengal. There he lived with independence activist Shyam Sundar Chakravarty, and had contacts with revolutionaries like Ram Prasad Bismil.


title: Anushilan Samiti

text: James Popplewell, writing in 1995, noted that the Raj perceived the Samiti in its early days as a serious threat to its rule. However, historian Sumit Sarkar noted that the Samiti never mustered enough support to offer an urban rebellion or a guerrilla campaign. Both Peter Heehs and Sumit Sarkar have noted that the Samiti called for complete independence over 20 years before the Congress adopted this as its aim. A number of landmark events early in the Indian independence movement, including the revolutionary conspiracies of World War I, involved the Samiti, as noted in the Rowlatt report. Later the ascendant left-wing of the Congress, particularly Subhas Chandra Bose, was suspected of having links with the Samiti. Heehs argued that the actions of the revolutionary nationalists exemplified by the Samiti forced the government to parley more seriously with the leaders of the legitimate movement, and that Gandhi was always aware of this. "At the Round Table Conference of 1931, the apostle of non-violence declared that he held 'no brief for the terrorists', but added that if the government refused to work with him, it would have the terrorists to deal with. The only way to 'say good-bye to terrorism' was 'to work the Congress for all it is worth'".


title: Anushilan Samiti

text: The founders of the Samiti were among the leading luminaries of Bengal at the time, advocating for social change in ways far removed from the violent nationalist works that identified the Samiti in later years. The young men of Bengal were among the most active in the Swadeshi movement, prompting R.W. Carlyle to prohibit the participation of students in political meetings on the threat of withdrawal of funding and grants. Bengali intellectuals were already calling for indigenous schools and colleges to replace British institutions, and seeking to build indigenous institutions. Surendranath Tagore, of the Tagore family of Calcutta financed the establishment of Indian-owned banks and insurance companies. The 1906 Congress session in Calcutta established the National Council of Education as a nationalist agency to promote Indian institutions with their own independent curriculum designed to provide skills in technical and technological education that its founders felt would be necessary for building indigenous industries. With the financial backing of Subodh Chandra Mallik, the Bengal National College (which later grew to be Jadavpur University) was established with Aurobindo as Principal. Aurobindo participated in the Indian National Congress at the time. He used his platform in the Congress to present the Samiti as a conglomeration of youth clubs, even as the government raised fears that it was a revolutionary nationalist organisation. During his time as Principal, Aurobindo started the nationalist publications "Jugantar", "Karmayogin" and "Bande Mataram". The student's mess at the college was frequented by students of East Bengal who belonged to the Dhaka Anushilan Samiti, and was known to be a hotbed of revolutionary nationalism, which was uncontrolled or even encouraged by the college. Students of the college who later rose to prominence in the Indian revolutionary movement include M. N. Roy. The Samitis ideologies further influenced patriotic nationalism.


title: Anushilan Samiti

text: Through the 1920s and 1930s, many members of the Samiti began identifying with Communism and leftist ideologies. Many of them studied Marxist–Leninist literature while serving long jail sentences. A minority section broke away from the Anushilan movement and joined the Communist Consolidation, and later the Communist Party of India. Former Jugantar leader Narendranath Bhattacharya, now known as M. N. Roy, became an influential member of the Communist International, helping to found the Communist Party of India. The majority of the Anushilanite Marxists hesitated to join the Communist Party. Instead, they joined the Congress Socialist Party (CSP), but kept a separate identity within the party as the Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP). The RSP held a strong influence in parts of Bengal. The party sent two parliamentarians to the 1952 Lok Sabha elections, both previously Samiti members. In 1969, RSP sympathizers in East Pakistan formed the Shramik Krishak Samajbadi Dal (SKSD). RSP and SKSD have maintained close ties ever since. The RSP is currently a minor partner in the Left Front, which ruled the Indian state of West Bengal for 34 uninterrupted years. It also holds influence in South India, notably in parts of Kerala. The SUCI, another left-wing party with a presence in Bengal, was founded in 1948 by Anushilan members.


title: Anushilan Samiti

text: The revolutionaries of the Samiti became household names in Bengal. Many of these educated and youthful men were widely admired and romanticised throughout India. "Ekbar biday de Ma ghure ashi" (Bid me farewell, mother), a 1908 lament written by Bengali folk poet Pitambar Das that mourns the execution of Khudiram Bose, was popular in Bengal decades after Bose's death. The railway station where Bose was arrested is now named Khudiram Bose Pusa Railway Station in his honour.


title: Anushilan Samiti

text: The 1926 nationalist novel "Pather Dabi" (Right of the way) by Bengali author Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay tells the story of a secret revolutionary nationalist organisation fighting the Raj. The protagonist of the novel, Sabyasachi, is believed to have been modelled after Rash Behari Bose, while the revolutionary organisation is thought to have been influenced by the Bengali Samiti. The novel was banned by The Raj as "seditious", but acquired wild popularity. It formed the basis of a 1977 Bengali language film, "Sabyasachi", with Uttam Kumar playing the lead role of the protagonist.


title: Anushilan Samiti

text: "Do and Die" is a historical account of the Chittagong armoury raid published in 2000 by Indian author Manini Chatterjee. It was awarded the Rabindra Puraskar, the highest literary award in Bengal. The book formed the basis of "Khelein Hum Jee Jaan Sey" (We Play with Our Lives), a 2010 Bollywood film with Abhishek Bachchan playing the role of Surya Sen.


title: Anushilan Samiti

text: A marble plaque marks the building in Calcutta where the Samiti was founded. A plaque at the site of Barin Ghose's country house (in present-day Ultadanga) marks the site where Ghosh and his group was arrested in the Alipore bomb case. Many of the Samiti's members are known in India and abroad, and are commemorated in different forms. A number of Calcutta suburbs are today named after revolutionaries and nationalists of the Samiti. Grey Street, where Aurobindo Ghosh's press office stood, is today named Aurobido Sarani (Aurobindo Avenue). Dalhousie Square was renamed B.B.D Bag, named after Benoy, Badal, and Dinesh who raided the Writer's Building in 1926. Mononga lane, the site of Rodda & Co. heist, houses the busts of Anukul Mukherjee, Srish Chandra Mitra, Haridas Dutta, and Bipin Bihary Ganguly who participated in the heist. Chashakhand, a location 15 km east of Balasore where Bagha Jatin and his group made their last stand against Tegart's forces, commemorates the battlefield in Jatin's honour. The locality of Baghajatin in Kolkata is named after Jatin. In Bangladesh, the gallows where Surya Sen was executed are preserved as a historical monument.


title: Æsir–Vanir War

text: In Norse mythology, the Æsir–Vanir War was a conflict between two groups of deities that ultimately resulted in the unification of the Æsir and the Vanir into a single pantheon. The war is an important event in Norse mythology, and the implications for the potential historicity surrounding accounts of the war are a matter of scholarly debate and discourse.


title: Æsir–Vanir War

text: Fragmented information about the war appears in surviving sources, including "Völuspá", a poem collected in the "Poetic Edda" in the 13th century from earlier traditional sources; in the book "Skáldskaparmál" in the "Prose Edda", written or compiled in the 13th century by Snorri Sturluson; and in euhemerized form in the "Ynglinga saga" from "Heimskringla", also often considered to have been written by Snorri Sturluson in the 13th century.


title: Æsir–Vanir War

text: In two stanzas of "Völuspá", the war is recounted by a völva (who refers to herself here in the third person) while the god Óðinn questions her. The war is told rather vaguely, and the fact that it describes a war between the Æsir and the Vanir is not completely certain. In the first of the two stanzas, the völva says that she remembers the first war in the world, when Gullveig was stabbed with spears and then burnt three times in one of Óðinn's halls, yet that Gullveig was reborn three times:


title: Æsir–Vanir War

text: In the second stanza, the völva says that they called Gullveig Heiðr (meaning "Bright One" or potentially "Gleaming" or "Honor") whenever she came to houses, that she was a wise völva, and that she cast spells. Heiðr performed seiðr where she could, did so in a trance, and was always the favorite of wicked women:


title: Æsir–Vanir War

text: In two later stanzas, the völva tells Óðinn that all the powers went to the judgment seats and discussed whether the Æsir should pay a fine or if all of the gods should instead have equal tribute, then the völva provides the last of her account of the events surrounding the war. These stanzas are unclear, particularly the second half of the first stanza, but the battle appears to have been precipitated by the entry of Gullveig/Heiðr among the Æsir. The first stanza relates a difficulty in reaching a truce which led to the all-out war described in the second stanza. However, the reference to "all the gods" could, in Lindow's view, indicate a movement towards a community involving both the Æsir and the Vanir. In his translation of the poem, Bellows inverts the order of the two stanzas, stating that "This stanza and stanza 24 [the first and second stanzas] have been transposed from the order in the manuscripts, for the former describes the battle and the victory of the Wanes [Vanir], after which the gods took council, debating whether to pay tribute to the victors, or to admit them, as was finally done, to equal rights of worship." Ursula Dronke points to extensive wordplay on all the meanings of the and the adjective to signal the core issue of whether the Æsir will surrender their monopoly on human tribute and join with the "all-too-popular" Vanir; as their only alternative, they attack again.


title: Æsir–Vanir War

text: In the "Prose Edda" book "Skáldskaparmál", the god Bragi explains the origin of poetry. Bragi says that it originated in the Æsir–Vanir War, when during the peace conference the Æsir and the Vanir formed a truce by all spitting into a vat. When they left, the gods decided that it should not be poured out, but rather kept as a symbol of their peace, and so from the contents made a man, Kvasir. Kvasir is later murdered, and from his blood is made the Mead of Poetry.


title: Æsir–Vanir War

text: In "Heimskringla", the author presents a euhemerized account of the war. The account says that Óðinn led a great army from "Asgard" to attack the people of "Vanaheim." However, according to the author, the people of Vanaheim were well-prepared for the invasion; they defended their land so well that victory was up for grabs from both sides, and both sides produced immense damage and ravaged the lands of one another.


title: Æsir–Vanir War

text: The two sides eventually tired of the war and both agreed to meet to establish a truce. After doing so, they exchanged hostages. Vanaheim is described as having sent to Asgard its best men: Njörðr—described as wealthy—and his son Freyr in exchange for Asgard Hœnir—described here as large, handsome, and thought of by the people of Vanaheim well-suited to be a chieftain. Additionally, Asgard sends Mímir—a man of great understanding—in exchange for Kvasir, which the author describes as the wisest man of Vanaheim.


title: Æsir–Vanir War

text: Upon arrival in Vanaheim, Hœnir was immediately made chief, and Mímir often gave him good counsel. However, when Hœnir was at meetings and at the Thing without Mímir by his side, he would always answer the same way: "Let others decide." Subsequently, the Vanaheim folk suspected they had been cheated in the exchange by the Asgard folk, so they seized Mímir and beheaded him and sent the head to Asgard. Óðinn took the head of Mímir, embalmed it with herbs so that it would not rot, and spoke charms over it, which gave it the power to speak to him and reveal to him secrets.


title: Æsir–Vanir War

text: Óðinn then appointed Njörðr and Freyr to be priests of sacrificial customs and they became "Diar" ("Gods") of the people of Asgard. Freyja, described as daughter of Njörðr, was the priestess of these sacrifices, and here she is described as introducing seiðr to Asgard.


title: Æsir–Vanir War

text: As the Vanir are often considered fertility gods, the Æsir–Vanir War has been proposed as a reflection of the invasion of local fertility cults somewhere in regions inhabited by the Germanic peoples by a more aggressive, warlike cult. This has been proposed as an analogy of the invasion of the Indo-Europeans.


title: Æsir–Vanir War

text: Georges Dumézil stated that the war need not necessarily be understood in terms of historicity more than any other myth however. Scholars have cited parallels between the Æsir–Vanir War, The Rape of the Sabine Women from Roman mythology, and the battle between Devas and Asuras from Hindu mythology, providing support for a Proto-Indo-European "war of the functions." Explaining these parallels, J. P. Mallory states:


title: Æsir–Vanir War

text: Many scholars consider the figures of Gullveig/Heiðr and Freyja the same. This conclusion has been reached through comparisons between Gullveig/Heiðr's use of seiðr in "Völuspá" and the mention of Freyja introducing seiðr to the Æsir from the Vanir in "Heimskringla". This is at times taken further, to suggest that their "corruption" of the Æsir led to the Æsir–Vanir War.


title: Æsir–Vanir War

text: Lindow states that even if the two are not identical, the various accounts of the war seem to share the idea of a disruptive entry of persons into a people. Lindow compares the appearance of Gullveig/Heiðr into the Æsir to Hœnir and Mímir's disruption among the Vanir in "Heimskringla". Lindow further states that all three accounts share the notion of acquisition of tools for the conquest of wisdom; the practice of seiðr in two accounts and the head of Mímir in one.


title: Devshirme

text: Devshirme (, usually translated as "child levy" or "blood tax") was the Ottoman practice of forcibly recruiting soldiers and bureaucrats from among the children of their Balkan Christian subjects. Those coming from the Balkans came primarily from noble Balkan families and rayah classes. It is first mentioned in written records in 1438, but probably started earlier. It created a faction of soldiers and officials loyal to the Sultan. It counterbalanced the Turkish nobility, who sometimes opposed the Sultan. The system produced a considerable number of grand viziers from the 1400s to the 1600s. This was the second most powerful position in the Ottoman Empire, after the sultan. Initially, the grand viziers were exclusively of Turk origin, but after there were troubles between Sultan Mehmed II and the Turkish grand vizier Çandarlı Halil Pasha the Younger, who was the first grand vizier to be executed, there was a rise of slave administrators ("devshirme"). They were much easier for the sultans to control, compared to free administrators of Turkish aristocratic extraction. The devshirme also produced many Ottoman Empire's provincial governors, military commanders, and divans during the 1400s–1600s period. Sometimes, the devshirme recruits were castrated and became eunuchs. Although often destined to the harem, many eunuchs of devshirme origin went on to hold important positions in the military and the government, such as grand viziers Hadım Ali Pasha, Sinan Borovinić, and Hadım Hasan Pasha.


title: Devshirme

text: Ottoman soldiers would take European Christian males, aged 8 to 20, from Eastern, Southern and Southeastern Europe, and relocate them to Istanbul, where they would be trained. The fact that many were taken forcibly from their parents has been the subject of criticism. The devshirme was often resented by locals though some Christian families volunteered their sons, as service offered good career options, specifically Albanians and Bosnians according to William Gervase Clarence-Smith. Recruits sometimes used their positions to help their family. The boys were forced to convert to Islam. Muslims were not allowed into the system (with some exceptions), but some Muslim families smuggled their sons in anyway.


title: Devshirme

text: Many scholars consider the practice of devishirme as violating Islamic law. David Nicolle writes that enslavement of Christian boys violates the dhimmi protections guaranteed in Islam, but Halil İnalcık argues that the devshirme were not slaves once converted to Islam.


title: Devshirme

text: The boys were given a formal education, and trained in science, warfare and bureaucratic administration, and became advisers to the sultan, elite infantry, generals in the army, admirals in the navy, and bureaucrats working on finance in the Ottoman Empire. They were separated according to ability and could rise in rank based on merit. The most talented, the "ichoghlani" (Turkish "iç oğlanı") were trained for the highest positions in the empire. Others joined the military, including the famed janissaries.


title: Devshirme

text: The practice began to die out as Ottoman soldiers preferred recruiting their own sons into the army, rather than sons from Christian families. In 1594, Muslims were officially allowed to take the positions held by the "devishirme" and the system of recruiting Christians effectively stopped by 1648. An attempt to re-institute it in 1703 was resisted by its Ottoman members, who coveted the military and civilian posts. Finally, in the early days of Ahmet III's reign, the practice of devshirme was abolished.


title: Devshirme

text: The devshirme (from the Turkish word meaning to collect) came up out of the system of slavery that developed in the early centuries of the Ottoman Empire, and which reached this final development during the reign of Sultan Bayazit I. The were mostly prisoners from war, hostages, or slaves that were purchased by the state. The Ottoman Empire, beginning with Murad I, felt a need to "counteract the power of (Turkic) nobles by developing Christian vassal soldiers and converted as his personal troops, independent of the regular army." This elite force, which served the Ottoman Sultan directly, was called (The Hearth of the Porte Servants). They were divided into two main groups: cavalry and infantry. The cavalry was commonly known as the (The Cavalry of the Servants of the Porte) and the infantry as the (transliterated in English as janissary), meaning "the New Corps".


title: Devshirme

text: At first, the soldiers serving in these corps were selected from the slaves captured during war. However, a new system commonly known as devshirme was soon adopted. In this system, children of the rural Christian populations of the Balkans were conscripted before adolescence and were brought up as Muslims. Upon reaching adolescence, these children were enrolled in one of the four imperial institutions: the palace, the scribes, the Muslim clergy, and the military. Those enrolled in the military would become either part of the Janissary corps, or part of another corps. The most promising were sent to the palace school (), where they were destined for a career within the palace itself and could attain the highest office of state, Grand Vizier, the Sultan's powerful chief minister and military deputy. In the beginning of the Ottoman Empire, this office was held only by Turks. However, after there were problems between sultan Mehmed II and the Turkish Çandarlı Halil Pasha the Younger, who became the first grand vizier to be executed, there was a rise of slave administrators devshirme. They were much easier to control for the sultans, as compared to free administrators of Turkish noble origin. They were also less subject to influence from court factions. From the very beginning, the Turcoman were a danger that undermined the Sultan's creation of a strong state. Thus, the establishment of this class counterbalanced the Turkish nobility, who sometimes opposed the Sultan.


title: Devshirme

text: An early Greek source mentioning devshirme () is a speech by Archbishop Isidore of Thessalonica, made on 28 February 1395, titled: "On the abduction of children according to sultan's order and on the Future Judgment". The speech includes references to the violent Islamization of children and their hard training in the use of dogs and falcons.


title: Devshirme

text: A reference to devshirme is made in a poem composed in Greek by Ioannes Axayiolis, who appeals to Emperor Charles V of Germany to liberate the Christians from the Turks. The text is found in the of 1624. In another account, the Roman Catholic bishop of Chios in 1646 writes to the director of the Catholic Greek Gymnasion of Rome asking the latter to accept Paulos Omeros, a 12-year-old boy from Chios, to save him from the devshirme.


title: Devshirme

text: According to historian William Gervase Clarence-Smith, Christian children were taken by Ottoman officials, every four to seven years, their age ranging from 7 to 20. Those younger than 8 were called (nursling) and (child). One for every forty households was chosen, they had to be unmarried and once taken were ordered to cut all ties with their family.


title: Devshirme

text: Christian parents undeniably resented the forced recruitment of their children, as a result they would beg and often seek to buy their children out of the levy. The Balkan peasantry tried to evade the tribute collectors, with many attempting to substitute their children in Bosnia. Many sources (including Paolo Giovio) mention different ways to avoid the devshirme such as: marrying the boys at the age of 12, mutilating them or have both father and son convert to Islam. Conversion to Islam was used in Bosnia and Herzegovina to escape the system. In Albania and Epirus the practice lead to a Christian revolt where the inhabitants killed the recruiting officials in the year 1565. In Naousa, after killing the recruiting officials the parents fled to the mountains but were later caught and executed in 1705.


title: Devshirme

text: Sources show that it was not rare for youth to attempt to preserve their faith and some recollection of their homeland and their families. For instance, Stephan Gerlach writes:


title: Devshirme

text: in his memoir, Konstantin Mihailović (1430–1501), a Serbian who was abducted in his youth and marched away by the Turks, saw nothing “prestigious” or “lucrative” about becoming a janissary. “We always thought about killing the Turks and running away by ourselves among the mountains,” he writes, “but our youth did not permit us to do that.” Once when he and a group of other boys broke free and escaped, “the whole region pursued us, and having caught and bound us, they beat us and tortured us and dragged us behind horses.”


title: Devshirme

text: It is said that "Even those personally chosen by the sultan found nothing admirable about their lot". After Ottoman Sultan Murad II took eight Christian youths into his service, they made a pact to assassinate him by night, saying “If we kill this Turkish dog, then all of Christendom will be freed [from Ottoman tyranny]; but if we are caught, then we will become martyrs before God with the others.” When their plot was exposed, and Murad inquired what caused them to “dare attempt this,” they responded, “None other than our great sorrow for our fathers and dear friends.” He had the children slowly tortured over the course of a year before beheading them.


title: Devshirme

text: On the other hand, since the devshirme could reach powerful positions, Some Muslim families tried to have the recruiters take their sons so that they could achieve professional advancement. There were cases of Albanian families offering their children voluntarily, as it offered them prospects not available to them in any other manner. Sometimes people of both religion, or family in great needs, attempted to bribe scouts to take their children.


title: Devshirme

text: In Epirus, a traditional folk song expressed this resentment by cursing the Sultan and admonishing against the kidnapping of boys:


title: Devshirme

text: The children were taken from their families and transported to Istanbul. Upon their arrival, they were forcibly converted to Islam, examined and made to serve the empire. The system produced infantry corps soldiers as well as civilian administrators and high-ranked military officials." Their village, district and province, parentage, date of birth, and physical appearance was recorded. Albertus Bobovius wrote in 1686 that diseases were common among the devshirme and that strict discipline was enforced. Although the influence of Turkic nobility continued in the Ottoman court until Mehmet II (see Çandarlı Halil), the Ottoman ruling class slowly came to be ruled exclusively by the devshirme, creating a separate social class. This class of rulers was chosen from the brightest of devshirme and handpicked to serve in the palace institution, known as the Enderûn. They had to accompany the Sultan on campaigns, but exceptional service would be rewarded by assignments outside the palace. Those chosen for the scribe institution, known as , were also granted prestigious positions. At the religious institution, İlmiye, all orthodox Muslim clergy of the Ottoman Empire were educated and sent to provinces or served in the capital.


title: Devshirme

text: Tavernier noted in 1678 that the janissaries looked more like a religious order than a military corps. The members of the organization were not banned from marriage, as Tavernier further noted, but it was very uncommon for them. He went on to write that their numbers had increased to a hundred thousand but only due to a degeneration of regulations, with many of them in fact being "fake" janissaries, posing as such for tax exemptions and other social privileges. He noted that the actual number of janissaries was in fact much lower. Shaw writes that their number was 30,000 under Suleiman the Magnificent. By the 1650s, the number of janissaries had increased to 50,000, but by this time, the devshirme had largely been abandoned as a method of recruitment. Recruits were sometimes gained through voluntary accessions, as some parents were eager to have their children enroll in the janissary service that ensured them a successful career and comfort.


title: Devshirme

text: The BBC notes the following regarding the devshirme system: "Although members of the devshirme class were technically slaves, they were of great importance to the Sultan because they owed him their absolute loyalty and became vital to his power. This status enabled some of the 'slaves' to become both powerful and wealthy."


title: Devshirme

text: According to Cleveland, the devshirme system offered "limitless opportunities to the young men who became a part of it." Basilike Papoulia wrote that "the devishirme was the 'forcible removal', in the form of a tribute, of children of the Christian subjects from their ethnic, religious and cultural environment and their transportation into the Turkish-Islamic environment with the aim of employing them in the service of the Palace, the army, and the state, whereby they were on the one hand to serve the Sultan as slaves and freedmen and on the other to form the ruling class of the State." Accordingly, Papoulia agrees with Hamilton Alexander Rosskeen Gibb and Harold Bowen, authors of "Islamic Society and the West", that the devshirme was a penalization imposed on the Balkan peoples since their ancestors had resisted the Ottoman invasion. Vladimir Minorsky states, "The most striking manifestation of this fact is the unprecedented system of devshirme, i.e. the periodic conscription of 'tribute boys', by which the children of Christians were wrung from their families, churches, and communities to be molded into Ottoman praetorians owing their allegiance to the Sultan and the official faith of Islam." This system as explained by Çandarlı Kara Halil Hayreddin Pasha, founder of the Janissaries: "The conquered are slaves of the conquerors, to whom their goods, their women, and their children belong as lawful possession".


title: Devshirme

text: According to scholars, the practice of devishirme was a clear violation of sharia or Islamic law. David Nicolle writes that since the boys were "effectively enslaved" under the devshirme system, this was a violation of the protections guaranteed under Islamic law to People of the Book. The practice of devshirme also involved forced conversions to Islam. This is disputed by Turkish historian Halil İnalcık, who argues that the devshirme were not slaves once converted to Islam.


title: Devshirme

text: Some scholars point out that the early Ottoman Empire did not care about the details of sharia and thus did not see any problems with devshirme. During this time, the Ottomans believed that the Qanun, the law enacted by the Sultan, superseded sharia even though the latter was treated with respect. The devshirme was just one example in which the Sultan's wishes superseded the sharia (another example is that Ottoman sultans set maximum interest rates even though sharia totally prohibits interest). James L. Gelvin explains that Ottoman jurists were able to get around that injunction with an extraordinarily-creative legal manoeuvre by arguing that although Islamic tradition forbade the enslavement of Christians, Balkan Christians were different because they had converted to Christianity after the advent of Islam. William Gervase Clarence-Smith points out that the reasoning is not accepted in the Hanafi school of law, which the Ottoman Empire claimed to have practiced.


title: Devshirme

text: Contemporary Ottoman chroniclers had mixed opinions on the practice. An Ottoman historian of the 1500s, Mustafa Âlî, admitted that devshirme violated sharia but was allowed only out of necessity. Others argued the Muslim conqueror had the right to one fifth of war booty and could thus take the Christian boys; however, Islamic law allows no such booty from communities that had submitted peacefully to conquest and certainly not from their descendants.


title: Devshirme

text: The devshirme were collected once every four or five years from rural provinces in Eastern Europe, Southeastern Europe and Anatolia. They were mainly collected from Christian subjects, with a few exceptions. However, some Muslim families managed to smuggle their sons in anyway. The devshirme levy was not applied to the major cities of the empire, and children of local craftsmen in rural towns were also exempt, as it was considered that conscripting them would harm the economy.


title: Devshirme

text: According to Bernard Lewis, the janissaries were mainly recruited from the Slavic and Albanian populations of the Balkans. According to the Encyclopædia Britannica and the Encyclopaedia of Islam, in the early days of the empire, all Christians were enrolled indiscriminately. Later, those from Albania, Bosnia and Bulgaria were preferred. What is certain is that devshirme were primarily recruited from Christians living in the Balkans, particularly Serbs and Bosnians, as well as others from the Balkans region, such as Albanians and Greeks. Well-known examples of Ottomans who had been recruited as devshirme include Skanderbeg, Sinan Pasha and Sokollu Mehmed Pasha. The early Ottoman emphasis on recruiting Greeks, Albanians, Bulgarians and South Slavs was a direct consequence of being centred on territories, in northwestern Anatolia and the southern Balkans, where those ethnic groups were prevalent.


title: Devshirme

text: Jews were exempt from this service. Armenians are also believed to have been exempt from the levy by many scholars, although a 1997 publication that examined Armenian colophons from the 15th to the 17th centuries and foreign travelers of the time concluded that Armenians were not exempt. Boys who were orphans or were their family's only son were exempt.


title: Devshirme

text: The diversity of the devshirme also served as a unifying factor for the Ottoman Empire. Greeks, Armenians, Albanians, and other ethnicities would see that the Sultan was Turkish, but his viziers were Albanian, Bulgarian, Greek and other ethnicities. The ethnic diversity in high-level and powerful positions of the Ottoman Empire helped to unite the diverse groups under its jurisdiction. They also prevented a hereditary aristocracy from forming but held sway over the Sultan themselves and practically formed their own aristocracy.


title: Devshirme

text: The primary objective of the Palace School was to train the ablest children for leadership positions, either as military leaders or as high administrators to serve the Devlet. Although there are many resemblances between Enderûn and other palace schools of the previous civilizations, such as those of the Abbasids, the Seljuks or the contemporary European palace schools, Enderûn was unique with respect to the background of the student body and its meritocratic system. In the strict draft phase, students were taken forcefully from the Christian population of the Empire and were converted to Islam. Jews and Gypsies were exempted from devshirme and so were all Muslims.


title: Devshirme

text: Those entrusted to find those children were scouts, who were specially-trained agents, throughout the Balkans. Scouts were recruiting youngsters according to their talent and ability with school subjects, in addition to their personality, character and physical perfection. The Enderûn candidates were not supposed to be orphans or the only child in their family to ensure that the candidates had strong family values. They also had to not have already learned to speak Turkish or a craft or trade. The ideal age of a recruit was between 10 and 20 years of age. Mehmed Refik Beg mentioned that a youth with a bodily defect, no matter how slight, was never admitted into palace service, since Turks believed that a strong soul and a good mind could be found only in a perfect body.


title: Devshirme

text: The selected children were dressed in red so that they could not easily escape on their way to Constantinople. The cost of the devshirme service and their clothes were paid by their villages or communities. The boys were gathered into cohorts of a hundred or more to walk to Constantinople, where they were circumcised and divided between the palace schools and the military training. Anyone not chosen for the palace spent years being toughened by hard labor on farms in Anatolia until they were old enough for the military.


title: Devshirme

text: The brightest youths who fit into the general guidelines and had a strong primary education were then given to selected Muslim families across Anatolia to complete the enculturation process. They would later attend schools across Anatolia to complete their training for six to seven years to qualify as ordinary military officers. They would get the highest salaries amongst the administrators of the empire and very well respected in public. M. Armağan, defined the system as a pyramid which was designed to select the elite of the elite, the ablest and most physically perfect. Only a very few would reach the Palace School.


title: Devshirme

text: White eunuchs were sometimes recruited from among the devshirme. Unlike the black eunuchs, who were usually castrated in their place of origin, the devshirme were castrated at the palace. The palace eunuchs who supervised them often came from the same background as the devshirme (the Balkans). A considerable number of eunuchs of devshirme origin went on to hold important positions in the government and the military, and many of them became grand vizier, like Hadım Ali Pasha, Sinan Borovinić, Hadım Hasan Pasha, Hadim Mesih Pasha and Hadım Mehmed Pasha. Others, like Sofu Hadım Ali Pasha, Hadım Şehabeddin, Hadım Yakup Pasha of Bosnia, Hadım Ali Pasha of Buda, Hadım Suleiman Pasha and his namesake Hadım Suleiman Pasha, became prominent admirals and generals.


title: Devshirme

text: According to the historian Cemal Kafadar, one of the main reasons for the decline of the devshirme system was that the size of the janissary corps had to be expanded to compensate for the decline in the importance of the sipahi cavalry forces, which itself was a result of changes in early modern warfare such as the introduction of firearms and increased importance of infantry. Indeed, the janissary corps would soon become the empire's largest single military corps. As a result, by the late 16th century, the devshirme system had become increasingly abandoned for less rigid recruitment methods, which allowed Muslims to enter directly into the janissary corps.


title: Devshirme

text: In 1632, the janissaries attempted an unsuccessful coup against Murad IV, who then imposed a loyalty oath on them. In 1638 or 1648, the devshirme-based recruiting system of the janissary corps formally came to an end. In an order sent in multiple copies to authorities throughout the European provinces in 1666, a devshirme recruitment target of between 300 and 320 was set for an area covering the whole of the central and western Balkans. On the accession of sultan Suleiman II in 1687, only 130 janissary inductees were graduated to the janissary ranks. The system was finally abolished in the early part of Ahmet III's reign (1703–1730).


title: Devshirme

text: After Napoleon invaded Egypt in 1798, there was a reform movement in Sultan Selim III's regime to reduce the numbers of the askeri class, who were the first class citizens or military class (also called janissaries). Selim was taken prisoner and murdered by the janissaries. The successor to the sultan, Mahmud II, was patient but remembered the results of the uprising in 1807. In 1826, he created the basis of a new modern army, the Asakir-i Mansure-i Muhammediye, which caused a revolt among the janissaries. The authorities kept the janissaries in their barracks and slaughtered thousands of them. That development entered the Ottoman history annals as the Auspicious Incident.


title: Amer Sports

text: Amer Sports Oyj is a Finnish sporting goods subsidiary of China's Anta Sports with equipment brands including Salomon, Arc'teryx, Peak Performance, Atomic, Suunto, Wilson, Armada, ENVE Composites, Louisville Slugger, DeMarini, and Sports Tracker.


title: Amer Sports

text: Established in 1950 as an industrial conglomerate with interests as diverse as tobacco trading, ship owning and publishing, Amer has gradually evolved into a multinational firm devoted to the production and marketing of sporting goods. The company employs over 8,000 people.


title: Amer Sports

text: The company began life as a tobacco manufacturer and distributor, Amer-Tupakka, in 1950 (later to be renamed Amer-Yhtymä Oyj followed by its current designation) and acquired the right to produce and sell Philip Morris cigarettes in Finland in 1961. In the 1960s, the significant profits from the company's tobacco interests were invested in three commercial ships. A publishing and printing division was added in 1970 with the purchase of the Finnish company Weilin+Göös, and the company listed on the Helsinki Stock Exchange in 1977, four years after changing its name to Amer-Yhtymä (). In the 1980s, Amer moved into the vehicle import industry by acquiring the firm Korpivaara, and with it the exclusive rights to import and distribute such brands as Citroën and Toyota. The decade also saw the company expand into the textiles and plastics markets.


title: Amer Sports

text: In 1986, Amer established a sports division after acquiring a majority stake in the golf equipment maker MacGregor Golf from Jack Nicklaus. Despite this, the company was involved in the sports equipment market as early as 1974, when it bought the ice hockey gear maker then known as Koho-Tuote. These interests were sold in 1986. Three years later, Amer acquired the Chicago-based Wilson Sporting Goods Company, a leading producer of golf clubs, racquets and other sporting equipment, marking a major change in strategy for the company. Further acquisitions followed in the shape of the Austrian ski manufacturer Atomic in 1994 and the Finnish sports instrument maker Suunto in 1999. The American baseball and softball bat firm Demarini was purchased a year later, falling under the Wilson division. During this time, many of the business areas no longer deemed to be core were divested, although the company retained its tobacco business until 2004 when it was sold back to Philip Morris. In 2005, Amer acquired the outdoor sports company Salomon from Adidas for €485 million. In the same year, the company officially changed its name to Amer Sports Corporation. In 2019, Amer completed its divestment of Mavic.


title: Amer Sports

text: The company shares were listed on the Nasdaq Helsinki stock exchange. On December 7, 2018, Amer Sports announced buyout negotiations with a consortium led by Anta Sports. The buyout was completed in 2019.


title: Amer Sports

text: Amer divides its operations into four business units: winter , outdoor sports, ball sports (Wilson, Louisville Slugger, and DeMarini). The winter and outdoor sports business segment is the largest, contributing 60% of Amer Sports' net sales in 2013. The winter and outdoor sports group includes Salomon, Atomic, Suunto, Peak Performance, Arc'teryx, Armada, Enve, and Sports Tracker.


title: Amer Sports

text: The company's global headquarters are located in Helsinki, Finland, with manufacturing and sales locations worldwide. In 2007, Amer Sports' North American headquarters were moved from Portland, Oregon to the historic American Can Company of Utah Building Complex in Ogden, Utah.


title: Amer Sports

text: On December 7, 2018, Amer Sports announced a buyout offer by a consortium led by Anta Sports of China. Amer's shares were valued at €4.6 billion, 40% over their average market value. Under the terms of the offer, Amer Sports will remain a separate business entity with no immediate changes in management or workforce, while Anta Sports shall provide R&D and production resources required for expansion on the Chinese market.


title: Spike Video Game Awards

text: The Spike Video Game Awards (in short VGAs, known as the VGX for the final show) was an annual award show hosted by American television network Spike from 2003 to 2013 that recognized the best computer and video games of the year. Produced by "GameTrailers TV's" Geoff Keighley, the show featured preview trailers for upcoming games, live music performances and appearances by popular performers in music, movies, and television.


title: Spike Video Game Awards

text: The VGAs was held at various locations in Los Angeles and Santa Monica, California as well as Las Vegas, Nevada. Spike's only Video Game Hall of Fame award, given to "The Legend of Zelda", was awarded at the 2011 awards show.


title: Spike Video Game Awards

text: On November 15, 2013, Spike announced a new format under the name "VGX", calling it "The next generation of the VGAs". The last award show, carrying this name, aired on December 7. Changes from the previous format included "in-depth extended demos of the next generation of games and interactive one-on-one interviews and panels in an intimate studio setting."


title: Spike Video Game Awards

text: On November 10, 2014, it was announced that Spike would drop their award show, ending their decade-long run. Geoff Keighley went on to create his own video game award show in the form of The Game Awards starting in that year, dropping the support from Spike.


title: Spike Video Game Awards

text: The 2013 awards, the final awards show, was rebranded as "VGX" and held on December 7, 2013, and was hosted by Joel McHale. The show featured a different format from previous years. It featured extended demos of next-generation games, one-on-one interviews, and "a more intimate studio setting." Rather than airing live on Spike TV, the show was livestreamed online on Xbox One, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Twitch, Steam, iOS, and Android devices, as well as on GameTrailers.com and the websites of Spike, Comedy Central, MTV, MTV2, and BET. As with previous years, the show featured exclusive world premieres of game demos and trailers. The 2013 VGX premieres included Telltale Games' and Gearbox Software's collaboration "Tales from the Borderlands", "Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition" (an Xbox One and PlayStation 4 port with graphical updates and all DLC included), Remedy Entertainment's "Agents of Storm" for iOS, Telltale Games' "Game of Thrones", and independent developer Hello Games' "No Man's Sky". The 2013 show also featured reveals of "Titanfall", "Thief", "Quantum Break", "", "Broken Age", "Dying Light", "Tom Clancy's The Division", and "". Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime demoed an upcoming Wii U game, "", and Rockstar Games worked with the production team to produce a musical performance of the music of "Grand Theft Auto V".


title: Spike Video Game Awards

text: The 2012 VGAs (promoted as "VGA 10" for the tenth anniversary) was held on December 7, 2012, at Sony Pictures Studios in Culver City, California. Samuel L. Jackson returned to host for a fourth time. This was the last year under the name "Spike Video Game Awards". For the first time, the awards were broadcast on Xbox Live. Live users could "play" the show as it aired live. Responses to poll questions were tabulated in real time on screen for the Xbox Live audience and users with Xbox SmartGlass devices got a unique second-screen experience that updated in real time alongside the show content. Additionally, Spike TV and "Entertainment Weekly" partnered to create the first-ever "Entertainment Weekly and Spike VGA Best Game of the Decade" award. Exclusive world premieres that debuted at VGA 10 include Naughty Dog's "The Last of Us", Epic Games' "", Obsidian Entertainment's "", Konami's "", Irrational Games' "BioShock Infinite", Crystal Dynamics' "Tomb Raider", Ubisoft's "Assassin's Creed III: The Tyranny of King Washington", and 343 Industries' "". Two new games were announced, including "Dark Souls II" by FromSoftware, and a new game called "The Phantom Pain" (later revealed to be ""). The event also had appearances from all past hosts of the VGAs except David Spade. The event featured musical performances by Linkin Park, Tenacious D, Gustavo Santaolalla and Wolfgang Gartner.


title: Spike Video Game Awards

text: The 2011 VGAs was held Saturday, December 10, 2011, at the Sony Pictures Studios in Culver City, California, hosted by Zachary Levi. The awards previewed world premieres of "", "", "BioShock Infinite", "Alan Wake's American Nightmare", "", "Tony Hawk's Pro Skater HD", "The Amazing Spider-Man", the exclusive PlayStation 3 game "The Last of Us" developed by Naughty Dog, "" from BioWare Victory, and "Fortnite" from Epic Games. New trailers for both "" and "Mass Effect 3" were aired during the show, as well as a pre-show announcement for "Tekken Tag Tournament 2". Mark Burnett was the Executive Producer for the event, and for the first time, the VGAs aired live on MTV 2 (US), Spike.com (US) and Ginx TV (UK), in addition to Spike TV. The winners, as well as world premiere trailers, were announced during a pre-show red carpet live event hosted by GTTV's Amanda MacKay and Daniel Kayser. The 2011 VGAs also honored "The Legend of Zelda" franchise with its first ever "Video Game Hall of Fame Award". Another unique award at the 2011 VGAs was the "NFL Blitz" Cover Athlete award. This award, determined by live online voting during the event (just like Character of the Year), determined which NFL athlete would be on the cover of the EA Sports game, "NFL Blitz". Appearances were by Charlie Sheen, Brooklyn Decker, Seth Green, Felicia Day, LL Cool J, Jason Biggs, Seann William Scott, Tony Hawk, will.i.am, Hulk Hogan, Stacy Keibler, "Bellator MMA" stars Eddie Alvarez and Michael Chandler, Blake Anderson, Adam Devine, Anders Holm, and game designers Cliff Bleszinski of Epic Games and Hideo Kojima of Konami. Musical performances were by The Black Keys and Deadmau5.


title: Spike Video Game Awards

text: The 2010 VGAs was held Saturday, December 11, 2010, in Los Angeles, California at the L.A. Convention Center and returned to using a host which was Neil Patrick Harris. Unlike previous years, all the awards were not awarded during the show. Several new games were announced which include BioWare's announcement of "Mass Effect 3", "Prototype 2", "Insane" from acclaimed movie director Guillermo del Toro, "", "Mortal Kombat" featuring Kratos, "Resistance 3", "Portal 2", "", and "Forza Motorsport 4". "" had another CGI trailer debut and the first trailer of "" aired during the awards. Appearances included AnnaLynne McCord, "" video game star Chris Hemsworth, Dane Cook, Olivia Munn, Dominic Monaghan, Michael Chiklis, Academy Award nominated film director Guillermo del Toro, "" star and VGA nominee Nathan Fillion, Nick Swardson, Tony Hawk, and the cast from the hit series "It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia", Danny DeVito, Charlie Day, Glenn Howerton, Kaitlin Olson, and Rob McElhenney. Musical performances included award-winning violinist Diana Yukawa, My Chemical Romance, and José González. The show featured use of ground breaking augmented reality technology, conceived by Done and Dusted; with Lee Lodge, in partnership with Weider Design, Full Mental Jacket, and Orad.