title: Tom Thomson

text: Why Thomson did not serve in the war has been debated. Mark Robinson and Thomson's family said that he was turned down after multiple attempts to enlist, likely due to his poor health and age but also possibly because he had flat feet. Blodwen Davies wrote that Thomson's artist friends tried to convince him to not risk his life, but he decided to secretly volunteer anyway. Andrew Hunter has found this scenario to be improbable, especially given that other artist friends volunteer for the war, such as A. Y. Jackson. Thomson's sister suggested that he was a pacifist and that "he hated war and said simply in 1914 that he never would kill anyone but would like to help in a hospital, if accepted". William Colgate wrote that Thomson "brooded much upon" the war and that "he himself did not enlist. Rumour has it that he tried, and failed to pass the doctor. This is doubtful." Edward Godin, a companion, said "We had many discussions on the war. As I remember it he did not think that Canada should be involved. He was very outspoken in his opposition to Government patronage. Especially in the Militia. I do not think that he would offer himself for service. I know up until that time he had not tried to enlist." There is only one verifiable example of Thomson's opinion on the war, taken from a letter he wrote to J. E. H. MacDonald in 1915:


title: Tom Thomson

text: With MacCallum's year of financial support over, Thomson's financial future became uncertain. He briefly looked into applying for a position as a park ranger, but balked after seeing that it could take months for the application to go through. Instead, he considered working in an engraving shop over the winter. He made little effort to sell his paintings, preferring to give them away, though he brought in some money from the paintings he sold. In mid-November, he donated "In Algonquin Park" to an exhibition organized to raise money for the Canadian Patriotic Fund. It was sold to Marion Long for $50 ().


title: Tom Thomson

text: In the spring of 1915, Thomson returned to Algonquin Park earlier than he had in any previous year and had already painted twenty-eight sketches by April 22. From April through July, he spent much of his time fishing, assisting groups on several different lakes, and sketching when he had time. In July, he was invited to send paintings to the Nova Scotia Provincial Exhibition in September. Because he was in Algonquin Park, his friends selected three works to send—two unidentified works from 1914 and the sketch "Canadian Wildflowers". From the end of September to mid-October, he spent his time at Mowat, a village on the north end of Canoe Lake. By November, he was at Round Lake with Tom Wattie and Dr. Robert McComb. In late November, he returned to Toronto and moved into a shack behind the Studio Building that Harris and MacCallum fixed up for him, renting it for $1 a month.


title: Tom Thomson

text: In 1915, MacCallum commissioned MacDonald, Lismer and Thomson to paint decorative panels for his cottage on Go-Home Bay. In October of that year, MacDonald went up to take dimensions. Thomson produced four panels which were probably meant to go over the windows. In April 1916, when MacDonald and Lismer went to install them, they found that MacDonald's measurements were incorrect and the panels did not fit.


title: Tom Thomson

text: In March 1916, Thomson exhibited four canvases with the OSA: "In the Northland" (at that time titled "The Birches"), "Spring Ice", "Moonlight" and "October" (then titled "The Hardwoods"), all of which were painted over the winter of 1915–16. Sir Edmund Walker and Eric Brown of the National Gallery of Canada wanted to purchase "In the Northland", but Montreal trustee Dr. Francis Shepherd convinced them to purchase "Spring Ice" instead. The reception of Thomson's paintings at this time was mixed. Margaret Fairbairn of the "Toronto Daily Star" wrote, "Mr. Tom Thomson's 'The Birches' and 'The Hardwoods' show a fondness for intense yellows and orange and strong blue, altogether a fearless use of violent colour which can scarcely be called pleasing, and yet which seems an exaggeration of a truthful feeling that time will temper." A more favourable take came from artist Wyly Grier in "The Christian Science Monitor":


title: Tom Thomson

text: In 1916, Thomson left for Algonquin Park earlier than any previous year, evidenced by the many snow studies he produced at this time. In April or early May, MacCallum, Harris and his cousin Chester Harris joined Thomson at Cauchon Lake for a canoe trip. After MacCallum and Chester left, Harris and Thomson paddled together to Aura Lee Lake. Thomson produced many sketches which varied in composition, although they all had vivid colour and thickly-applied paint. MacCallum was present when he painted his "Sketch for "The Jack Pine"", writing that the tree fell over onto Thomson before the sketch was completed. He added that Harris thought the tree killed Thomson, "but he sprang up and continued painting".


title: Tom Thomson

text: At the end of May, Thomson took a job as a fire ranger stationed at Achray on Grand Lake with Ed Godin. He followed the Booth Lumber Company's log drive down the Petawawa River to the north end of the park. He found that fire ranging and painting did not mix well together, writing, "[I] have done very little sketching this summer as the two jobs don't fit in... When we are travelling two go together, one for canoe and the other the pack. And there's no place for a sketch outfit when your fire ranging. We are not fired yet but I am hoping to get put off right away." He likely returned to Toronto in late October or early November.


title: Tom Thomson

text: Over the following winter, encouragement from Harris, MacDonald and MacCallum saw Thomson move into the most productive portion of his career, with Thomson writing in a letter that he "got quite a lot done". Despite this, he did not submit any paintings to the OSA exhibition in the spring of 1917. It was during this time that he produced many of his most famous works, including "The Jack Pine" and "The West Wind". Dr. MacCallum suggested that several canvas works were unfinished, including "Woodland Waterfall", "The Pointers" and "The Drive". Barker Fairley similarly described "The West Wind" as unfinished. Charles Hill has written that there are no reasons to believe "Woodland Waterfall" was unfinished. Similarly, while it has sometimes been suggested that "The Drive" was modified after Thomson's death, a reproduction from 1918 displays no discernible differences.


title: Tom Thomson

text: Thomson returned to Canoe Lake at the beginning of April, arriving early enough to paint the remaining snow and the ice breaking up on the surrounding lakes. He had little money but wrote that he could manage for about a year. On April 28, 1917, he received a guide's licence. Unlike previous years, he remained at Mowat with Lieutenant Crombine and his wife, Daphne. Thomson invited Daphne Crombie to select something from his spring sketches as a gift, and she selected "".


title: Tom Thomson

text: Besides the deep love he had come to develop for Algonquin Park, Thomson was beginning to show an eagerness to depict areas beyond the park and explore other northern subjects. In an April 1917 letter to his brother-in-law, he wrote that he was considering taking the Canadian Northern Railway west so he could paint the Canadian Rockies in July and August. A. Y. Jackson suggested Thomson would have travelled even further north, just as the other members of the Group of Seven eventually did.


title: Tom Thomson

text: On July 8, 1917, Thomson disappeared during a canoeing trip on Canoe Lake. His upturned canoe was spotted later in the afternoon, and his body was discovered in the lake eight days later. It was noted that he had a four-inch cut on his right temple and had bled from his right ear. The cause of death was officially determined to be "accidental drowning". The day after the body was discovered, it was interred in Mowat Cemetery near Canoe Lake. Under the direction of Thomson's older brother George, the body was exhumed two days later, and re-interred on July 21 in the family plot beside the Leith Presbyterian Church in what is now the Municipality of Meaford, Ontario.


title: Tom Thomson

text: In September 1917, J. E. H. MacDonald and John William Beatty erected a memorial cairn at Hayhurst Point on Canoe Lake, to honour Thomson where he died.


title: Tom Thomson

text: There has been much speculation about the circumstances of Thomson's death, including that he was murdered or committed suicide. Though these ideas lack substance, they have continued to persist in the popular culture. Andrew Hunter has pointed to Park ranger Mark Robinson as being largely responsible for the suggestion that there was more to his death than accidental drowning. Hunter expands on this thought, writing, "I am convinced that people's desire to believe the Thomson murder mystery/soap opera is rooted in the firmly fixed idea that he was an expert woodsman, intimate with nature. Such figures aren't supposed to die by 'accident.' If they do, it is like Grey Owl's being exposed as an Englishman."


title: Tom Thomson

text: Thomson was largely self-taught. His experiences as a graphic designer with Toronto's Grip Ltd. honed his draughtsmanship. Although he began painting and drawing at an early age, it was only in 1912, when he was well into his thirties, that he began to paint seriously. His first trips to Algonquin Park inspired him to follow the lead of fellow artists in producing oil sketches of natural scenes on small, rectangular panels for easy portability while travelling. Between 1912 and his death in 1917, Thomson produced hundreds of these small sketches, many of which are now considered works in their own right, and are mostly found in the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto, the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa, the McMichael Canadian Art Collection in Kleinburg and the Tom Thomson Art Gallery in Owen Sound.


title: Tom Thomson

text: Thomson produced nearly all of his works between 1912 and 1917. Most of his large canvases were completed in his most productive period, from late 1916 to early 1917. The patronage of James MacCallum enabled Thomson's transition from graphic designer to professional painter. Although the Group of Seven was not founded until after his death, his work was sympathetic to that of group members A. Y. Jackson, Frederick Varley, and Arthur Lismer. These artists shared an appreciation for rugged, unkempt natural scenery, and all used broad brush strokes and a liberal application of paint to capture the beauty and colour of the Ontario landscape. Thomson's art also bears some stylistic resemblance to the work of European post-impressionists such as Vincent van Gogh. Other key influences were the Art Nouveau and Arts and Crafts movements of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, styles with which he became familiar while working in the graphic arts.


title: Tom Thomson

text: Thomson's artwork is typically divided into two bodies: the first are the small oil sketches on wood panels, of which there are around 400, and the second is of around 50 larger works on canvas. The smaller sketches were typically done "en plein air" in "the North", primarily Algonquin Park, in the spring, summer and fall. Mark Robinson later recounted that Thomson usually had a particular motif he wanted to depict before going into nature to find a comparison. The larger canvases were instead completed over the winter in Thomson's studio—an old utility shack with a wood-burning stove on the grounds of the Studio Building, an artist's enclave in Rosedale, Toronto. About a dozen of the major canvases were derived directly from smaller sketches. Paintings like "Northern River", "Spring Ice", "The Jack Pine" and "The West Wind" were only later expanded into larger oil paintings.


title: Tom Thomson

text: Sketches from 1913 and earlier use a variety of supports, including canvas laid down on paperboard, canvas laid down on wood and commercial canvas-board. In 1914, he began to favour the larger birch wood panels used by A. Y. Jackson, typically measuring around 21.6 × 26.7 cm (8½ × 10½ in.). From late 1914 on, Thomson alternated between painting on these inexpensive pieces of wood—some from crates, bookbinder's board, and other assorted sources—and composite wood-pulp boards.


title: Tom Thomson

text: Although the sketches were produced quickly, the canvases were developed over weeks or even months. Compared to the panels, they display an "inherent formality", and lack much of the "energy, spontaneity, and immediacy" of the original sketches. The transition from small to large required a reinvention or elaboration of the original details; by comparing sketches with their respective canvases, one can see the changes Thomson made in colour, detail and background textural patterns. Although few of the larger paintings were sold during his lifetime, they formed the basis of posthumous exhibitions, including one at Wembley in London in 1924, that eventually brought his work to international attention.


title: Tom Thomson

text: Described as having an "idiosyncratic palette", Thomson had exceptional control of colour. He often mixed available pigments to create new, unusual colours that, along with his brushwork, made his art instantly recognizable regardless of its subject. His painting style and the atmosphere, colours and forms of his work influenced the work of his colleagues and friends, especially Jackson, Lismer, MacDonald, Harris and Carmichael.


title: Tom Thomson

text: Thomson's most famous paintings are his depictions of pine trees, particularly "The Jack Pine" and "The West Wind". David Silcox has described these paintings as "the visual equivalent of a national anthem, for they have come to represent the spirit of the whole country, notwithstanding the fact that vast tracts of Canada have no pine trees", and as "so majestic and memorable that nearly everyone knows them". Arthur Lismer described them similarly, saying that the tree in "The West Wind" was a symbol of the Canadian character, unyielding to the wind and emblematic of steadfastness and resolution.


title: Tom Thomson

text: Thomson had a great enthusiasm for trees and worked to capture their forms, their surrounding locations, and the effect of the seasons on them. He normally depicted trees as amalgamated masses, giving "form structure and colour by dragging paint in bold strokes over an underlying tone". His favourite motif was of a slight hill next to a body of water. His enthusiasm is especially apparent in an anecdote from Ernest Freure, who invited Thomson to camp on an island on Georgian Bay:


title: Tom Thomson

text: The theme of the single tree is common in Art Nouveau, while the motif of the lone, heroic tree goes back even further to at least Caspar David Friedrich and early German Romanticism. Thomson may also have been influenced by the work of MacDonald while working at Grip Limited. MacDonald in turn was influenced by the landscape art of John Constable, whose work he likely saw while in England from 1903 to 1906. Constable's art influenced Thomson's as well, something apparent when Constable's "" () is compared with Thomson's "".


title: Tom Thomson

text: Thomson's earlier paintings were closer to literal renderings of the trees in front of him, and as he progressed the trees became more expressive as Thomson amplified their individual qualities. "Byng Inlet, Georgian Bay" shows the broken, high-keyed colour that Thomson and his colleagues experimented with later in his career, and is similar to Lismer's "Sunglow". While Lismer only applied the technique to the water, Thomson applied it throughout the composition. According to MacCallum, Thomson worked on "Pine Island, Georgian Bay" over an extended period. He wrote that this painting had "more emotion and feeling than any other of [Thomson's] canvases". In contrast, MacDonald found it "rather commonplace in color & composition & not representative of Thomson at his best".


title: Tom Thomson

text: Thomson was preoccupied with capturing the sky, especially near the end of his career from 1915 onward. Paintings like "Sunset"—which was painted at water level in a canoe—illustrate his excited brushstrokes in capturing the lake's reflection. The painting was done over a grey-green ground, adding depth to both the light of the sky and the reflecting water. Paintings from 1913 and on consistently utilize the perspective of the canoe, with a narrow foreground of water, a distant shoreline and a dominating sky.


title: Tom Thomson

text: The 1915 volcanic eruption of Lassen Peak in California provided dramatic sunrises and sunsets in the northern hemisphere for the year. These skies provided artistic inspiration for Thomson and other artists in the same way that the eruption of Krakatoa in the previous century had inspired Edvard Munch. Sky effects were one of Thomson's main interests for the entire year, indicated by his heightened use of colour.


title: Tom Thomson

text: Harold Town has compared "Sky (The Light That Never Was)" to the works of J. M. W. Turner. In particular, he notes the way that the sky "[creeps] into the landscape, big rhythms supplanting small movement". The horizon disappears and pure movement is left behind.


title: Tom Thomson

text: Thomson produced more nocturnes than the rest of the Group of Seven combined—roughly two dozen. MacCallum recalled that Thomson often spent his nights lying in his canoe in the middle of the lake, stargazing and avoiding mosquitoes. Besides capturing the nighttime sky, he also captured silhouettes of spruce and birch trees, lumber camps, two moose emerging from water and the northern lights, painting five different sketches of the aurora.


title: Tom Thomson

text: Mark Robinson recounted that Thomson stood and contemplated the aurora for an extended period of time before going back into his cabin to paint by lamplight. He sometimes completed nocturnes this way, going back and forth between painting indoors and looking at the subject outside until he completed the sketch. Other times, given the difficulty of painting by moonlight, many of the nocturnes were painted entirely from memory. MacCallum confirmed that the sketch "Moose at Night" was completed in this way, writing on the back "Winter 1916—at studio", implying it was probably painted in Toronto. His moonlight paintings use a "dreamy, pale-toned style", applying the techniques of Impressionism in his observations of light, reflection and atmosphere.


title: Tom Thomson

text: As was typical for painters of the early twentieth century, Thomson produced still lifes of flowers, all of which appear in the form of sketches. His love of flowers may have developed from his father who, as a neighbour noted, had "a permanent half acre of a really good garden which was always worth going to see". Thomson's time spent as a child collecting samples with his naturalist relative Dr. William Brodie may have similarly influenced him, though his interest in painting flowers seems to have been more focused on patterning and decoration than on the horticultural specifics of the subject.


title: Tom Thomson

text: These paintings, especially "Marguerites, Wood Lilies and Vetch" and "Wildflowers", are particularly powerful examples of the genre. J. E. H. MacDonald—himself deeply invested in floral imagery—was so captured by "Marguerites, Wood Lilies and Vetch" that he kept it for himself, writing "Not For Sale" on the back. Thomson's work is contrasted from MacDonald's by what Joan Murray calls, "its elegant, slightly funky form and throwaway spontaneity." Lawren Harris instead noted "Wildflowers" as a favourite, writing "1st class" on the verso. The colour of the sketch is less brilliant, but has superb brushwork and is well coordinated, setting blues against yellows and reds against whites.


title: Tom Thomson

text: Responding to his subject with improvization, every painting is different in its colour scheme and arrangement. In all the sketches, he redirected emphasis from the delicacy of the flowers towards simple broad strokes of colour, something Harold Town thought "[imparted] a toughness of design sometimes missing in his harder themes of rock and bracken". In "Water Flowers" particularly, the shapes are handled so summarily that the focus moves entirely to the colour of the flowers. This, combined with the black background, produces a more abstract effect. The black backdrop also causes the colours of the flowers to appear more vivid.


title: Tom Thomson

text: During Thomson's time in Algonquin Park, logging and the lumber industry were a constant presence. He often painted the machinery left behind by lumber companies; Lismer, MacDonald and he were especially drawn to the subject. A. Y. Jackson wrote,


title: Tom Thomson

text: Around 1916, Thomson followed the drive of logs down the Madawaska River, painting the subject in "The Drive". MacDonald similarly expressed the drive in his 1915 painting "". Besides the dams, pointer and alligator boats and log drives that appear in Thomson's work, other less obvious depictions of the lumber industry are evident. For example, areas cleared out due to logging appear in early sketches, such as "" (1913) and "". The painting "Drowned Land" similarly displays the damage caused by logging operations and flooding due to damming. As well, the white birches present in many paintings only thrive in "sunny, open areas whose previous tree cover had been removed", meaning that logging was in some way necessary for them to flourish.


title: Tom Thomson

text: Thomson's and the Group of Seven's work reflects the typical Canadian attitudes of the time, namely that the available natural resources were meant to be exploited. Harold Town has argued that, while Thomson was not directly critical of industry, mining and logging, he "did not glorify industry in the bush." Paul Walton of McMaster University noted that Thomson occasionally referenced both the lumbering and tourism practices of Algonquin Park and "did not entirely ignore the damaging effects of logging on the environment... but for the most part he concentrated on newly opened vista of sky and water or on finding decorative patterns of colour, form, and texture in the tangle of underbrush, smaller trees, and bared rock, the 'bush' that was often the remnant of the original forest." Jackson first noted these distinctions in Thomson's works, from those "showing a low shore line and a big sky" and those "finding happy color motives amid [the] tangle and confusion" of "his waste of rock and swamp."


title: Tom Thomson

text: Thomson, like most of the members of the Group of Seven, rarely painted people. When he did, the human subject was usually someone close to him personally, such as the depiction of Shannon Fraser "In the Sugar Bush". Harold Town observed that both Thomson and Canadian artist David Milne "shared in common a similar inability to draw the human figure", something professor John Wadland thought was "embarrassingly evident" in several of Thomson's portraits. Thomson's most successful attempts at capturing people typically feature figures far off in the distance, allowing them to blend in to the scene. This is apparent in paintings like "Little Cauchon Lake", "Bateaux", "The Drive", "The Pointers" and "".


title: Tom Thomson

text: Town described paintings like "Man with Axe (Lowery Dixon) Splitting Wood" as stiff, yet still held together in a cohesive crudity. He described "Figure of a Lady, Laura" differently, interpreting it as a tender work, "well-designed and plainly expressed, this loving picture is so secure in intention that it survives, indeed triumphs, over the severe cracking of the paint". The figure in "The Poacher" is recorded deliberately, including his hat, hunting vest and blue shirt. The hot coal grill in front of him is drying his poach—likely venison.


title: Tom Thomson

text: Since his death, Thomson's work has grown in value and popularity. Group of Seven member Arthur Lismer wrote that he "is the manifestation of the Canadian character". Another contemporaneous Canadian painter, David Milne, wrote to National Gallery of Canada Director H. O. McCurry in 1930, "Your Canadian art apparently, for now at least, went down in Canoe Lake. Tom Thomson still stands as Canadian painter, harsh, brilliant, brittle, uncouth, not only most Canadian but most creative. How the few things of his stick in one's mind." Murray notes that Thomson's influence can be seen in the work of later Canadian artists, including Rae Johnson, Joyce Wieland, Gordon Rayner and Michael Snow. Sherrill Grace wrote that for Roy Kiyooka and Dennis Lee, he "is a haunting presence" and "embodies the Canadian artistic identity".


title: Tom Thomson

text: As of 2015, the highest price achieved by a Thomson sketch was "", which sold in 2009 for CAD$2,749,500. Few major canvases remain in private collections, making the record unlikely to be broken. One example of the demand his work has achieved is the previously lost ""; discovered in an Edmonton basement in 2018, it sold for nearly half a million dollars at a Toronto auction. The increased value of his work has led to the discovery of numerous forgeries on the market, such as those produced by convicted forger William Firth MacGregor. Art historian Joan Murray assembled a catalogue raisonné of Thomson works until her retirement in 2016.


title: Tom Thomson

text: In 1967, the Tom Thomson Art Gallery opened in Owen Sound. In 1968, Thomson's shack from behind the Studio Building was moved to the McMichael Canadian Art Collection in Kleinburg. Many of his works are also on display at the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa, the Art Gallery of Ontario, and the McMichael Canadian Art Collection in Kleinburg, Ontario. In 2004, another historical marker honouring Thomson was moved from its previous location near the centre of Leith to the graveyard in which he is now buried. The gravesite has become a popular spot for visitors to the area with many fans of his work leaving pennies or art supplies behind as tribute.


title: Tom Thomson

text: Though best known for his painting, Thomson is often mythologized as a veritable outdoorsman. Dr. James MacCallum contributed stories to this image. He has often been remembered as an expert canoeist, though David Silcox has argued that this image is romanticized. In the case of fishing, he was no doubt proficient. He had a deep love of fishing for his entire life, so much so that his reputation through Algonquin Park was equally divided between art and angling. Most who visited the Park were led by hired guides, but he travelled through the park on his own. Many of his fishing locations appear in his work.


title: Tropico 6

text: Tropico 6 is a construction, management and political simulation game in the "Tropico" series, developed by Limbic Entertainment, published by Kalypso Media, and announced at E3 2017. Originally intended for a 2018 release, "Tropico 6" was released on Microsoft Windows, macOS and Linux in March 2019, and for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in September 2019. It was released for the Nintendo Switch in November 2020, and on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S in March 2022.


title: Tropico 6

text: As in the other games in the series, the player assumes the role of "El Presidente", the leader of the Caribbean island nation of Tropico. Similarly to "Tropico 5", there are four eras: The Colonial era, the World Wars era, the Cold War era, and the modern era. Unlike previous games in the series, where Tropico consisted of only one island, "Tropico 6" allows players to build on an archipelago of smaller islands, allowing players to build bridges (in the World Wars era and later) from their starting island to the other islands in the chain. According to senior content designer Johannes Pfeiffer, "Tropico 6" will have "fully simulated" citizens, where the actions of El Presidente's government towards the citizenry could have an effect on productivity, and possibly even result in a revolt. In addition to customizing their own El Presidente (as either male or female), players can also customize the presidential palace.


title: Tropico 6

text: "Tropico 6" received "generally positive views" for Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One, while the Switch port received "mixed or average" reviews, according to review aggregator Metacritic. It was the fastest-selling game in the franchise, with the revenue it generated being 50% higher than that of "Tropico 5"'s debut.


title: Tropico 6

text: "CGM" called "Tropico 6" the "strongest entry in the franchise", praising its music, graphics, and writing, while recognizing the presence of minor bugs and jank, ultimately deeming the title a full realization of the series' potential. "Shacknews" heavily lauded the "incredibly addictive" gameplay, crisp UI, sheer detail, variety of strategic options, and comedy, and expressed minor gripes with the repetitive music and sometimes convoluted main screen. "Push Square" called the console port "...one of PlayStation 4's best strategy games, and also one of its most unique...", praising its music, varied objectives, and fun gameplay, citing the lack of clarity in objective design as a "source of frustration". "PC Gamer" wrote, "If there's a downside to raids, it's that there's no major downside. Foreign powers have traditionally taken a dim view to piracy, but in this, a game that specifically pokes fun at international relations, it just doesn't come up...where the missions excel, however, it's in forcing you to take actions that can upset the delicate balance of economic growth". "GameRevolution" criticized the console port's controller support and said that the single-player mission modes "missed the point" and praised the sandbox mode and tone of the game. "IGN" stated, "The amount there is to do and the depth of its political mechanics make Tropico 6 stand out over its immediate predecessors...But drink too deeply of its perplexing economic systems and you may find yourself feeling a bit queasy." "PCGamesN" praised the game's tone for being able to politically commentate on the abuse of democracy through its gameplay mechanics while also calling the title "fun but forgettable".


title: Tropico 6

text: The Switch port of the game opened to marginally less positive reception, with the subpar graphics drawing criticism. "Nintendo Life", while reviewing this port, wrote, "Despite some irksome performance problems, occasionally inconsistent pacing and some rather rough visuals, the game is a lot of addictive fun to play and its cheerful ambience and compelling systems will keep you glued to your handheld".


title: Tropico 6

text: The Nintendo Switch version of "Tropico 6" was the twenty-seventh bestselling retail game during its first week of release in Japan, with 4,368 physical copies being sold.


title: Star Fox Adventures

text: Star Fox Adventures is a 2002 action-adventure game developed by Rare and published by Nintendo. The game had a long development cycle starting in 1997. Originally developed as "Dinosaur Planet" with Rare-created characters as the protagonists, Nintendo producer Shigeru Miyamoto convinced Rare to redesign the game as part of the "Star Fox" franchise. Its planned release on the Nintendo 64 was cancelled, with development ultimately shifting forward one hardware generation to the GameCube.


title: Star Fox Adventures

text: The game was released on 23 September 2002 as Rare's only GameCube game and as the final game that Rare developed for a home Nintendo console before being acquired by Microsoft the day after "Starfox Adventures" released in the US. The game's story takes place eight years after the events of "Star Fox 64". Players take control of Fox McCloud, who is sent on a mission to visit a planet in the Lylat System and prevent its destruction.


title: Star Fox Adventures

text: The game received mostly positive reviews, notably for its detailed graphics, new designs of characters including Fox, and its dynamic environments. However, the voice acting and the departure from the traditional "Star Fox"-style gameplay received criticism.


title: Star Fox Adventures

text: The game is played from a third-person perspective with full camera control in most areas and the ability to use a first-person perspective for looking around a location, with the players able to use a widescreen mode, provided that their console is hooked up to a television set that has widescreen capabilities. The game's story focuses on two different styles of gameplay which the player switches between at various points.


title: Star Fox Adventures

text: The first style of gameplay is Adventure Mode, which is the main mode, and operates in a similar manner to that of "The Legend of Zelda" series, especially "". In this mode, players control the game's protagonist as they explore thirteen different locations on foot, each of which unlocks when the player completes a specific task or acquires a new requisite skill, in order to progress the story. Some of the gameplay mechanics are similar in fashion to those in the "Zelda" games: "Adventures" has a form of currency called Scarabs, that can be used to purchase healing items, new equipment, and maps of the various locations; the main character's health is divided into hearts consisting of four segments and vaguely resembling fox heads, with the player beginning with three hearts and earning a new one after completing key stages of the story; the character can climb ladders and ledges, swim, and jump between platforms, but cannot freely jump themselves; some areas require the player to solve a puzzle to acquire something or move on; and the game features a day-and-night phase, though this is more gradual than in "Zelda" games.


title: Star Fox Adventures

text: The main character comes equipped with a staff after the initial stages of the game, which functions as both a weapon, and a tool for exploration and puzzle-solving. Combat is mainly melee-orientated, with players locking-on to an enemy upon moving in close. Once in combat, an enemy's health is displayed as a heart icon above them, with players able to strafe and roll around a target to dodge attacks, while using the staff to either block incoming strikes, or attack an enemy. As a tool, the staff can be used to open containers, operate mechanisms, or lift up stones to uncover hidden caves and boulders to find items. As the player progress in the story, the staff can be upgraded with powers that can help in combat or assist in solving puzzles and exploring locations, including the ability to fire projectiles at enemies or trigger switches, and a special jump ability to reach places that are inaccessible through normal methods. However, using such powers requires magical energy, which the player can recover by retrieving special crystals from the environment. Along with the staff, the player also has a sidekick that joins them after a certain stage of the story, who can help by finding them items and using certain abilities to open up new areas. Such abilities, referred to as tricks, require the player to feed them with special mushrooms, with each one constituting one trick that can be performed, with the sidekick able to perform a maximum of six tricks when fully fed before needing more mushrooms. The game's inventory system focuses on three areas - collectibles, staff powers, and Tricky abilities - with the player able to use three scanner systems in the game - a mini-map of a region (provided a map has been purchased first), a scanner to give information on objects in that are approached, and a fuel cell radar.


title: Star Fox Adventures

text: The second style of gameplay is Arwing Mode, and functions in a similar manner to other games in the "Star Fox" series. In this mode, the player decides where on Dinosaur Planet they wish to go; at the beginning of the game, the planet itself, the game's overworld, is only accessible, but upon unlocking a planet segment during the Adventure Mode, the player gains access to travelling there via Arwing. Upon choosing a destination, the player engages in an on-rail segment, in which players dodge obstacles while shooting down enemies, with the ability to fly through silver rings to recover some health, and being able to use super-bombs to eliminate groups of enemies. In order to visit a place, the player must fly through a set number of gold rings; each segment has around 10 gold rings, and the player will need to fly through more to reach later areas, or be forced to repeat the segment. In addition, the player must also acquire a certain amount of fuel cells during Adventure Mode, before they can use the Arwing to travel somewhere. Once they reached the area once, Fuel Cells are not consumed to travel to the place again.


title: Star Fox Adventures

text: "Star Fox Adventures" features both the established main characters of the "Star Fox" series—Fox, Falco Lombardi, Slippy Toad and Peppy Hare (though Falco is absent for the majority of the game), as well as a host of new characters, including a mysterious blue fox named Krystal and the small dinosaur Prince Tricky. The entire planet is populated with dinosaurs, like the tyrannical General Scales, and other prehistoric animals such as pterosaurs and mammoths.


title: Star Fox Adventures

text: The entire game takes place on the world of Dinosaur Planet (known as "Sauria" in subsequent games) and a number of detached pieces of the planet that are suspended in orbit around it. Dinosaur Planet is ruled by the EarthWalker tribe, resembling ceratopsians, and the rival CloudRunner tribe, similar to pterosaurs and birds. The SharpClaw tribe are villainous humanoid theropods. Andross also appears as the final boss.


title: Star Fox Adventures

text: Eight years after Andross' first defeat, Krystal investigates the destruction of her home planet, Cerinia, and the death of her parents. Receiving a distress call from Krazoa Palace, Krystal discovers that it was attacked by General Scales and the SharpClaw army. Krystal is persuaded by a wounded EarthWalker in the Palace to collect the Krazoa Spirits and return them to the palace, which would supposedly tilt the war in the dinosaurs' favour and stop Scales. After releasing the first one, however, a mysterious being sends Krystal into the spirit's path, trapping her in a floating crystal atop the palace until all the spirits can be returned.


title: Star Fox Adventures

text: Meanwhile, on the edge of the Lylat System, General Pepper contacts the Star Fox Team, asking them to investigate the invasion of the Dinosaur Planet. Since the team are desperate for money and maintenance, team leader Fox McCloud agrees to take a look, arriving unarmed at Pepper's request to avoid trouble with the locals. On the planet's surface, Fox obtains and wields the magic staff which Krystal lost earlier. Fox learns from the Queen of the EarthWalker Tribe that Scales stole four Spellstones from the planet's two Force Point Temples. Resolving to prevent the planet from breaking up further and restore it to its original unity, Fox traverses the planet and retrieves the stones to the temples, with the help of the Queen's son, Prince Tricky. As Fox retrieves the stones, he discovers that he must also retrieve the other five Krazoa Spirits to repair the planet and save Krystal. When Fox finds the last spirit, he discovers that it is guarded by Scales himself. However, just as Fox and Scales engage in combat, a mysterious voice orders Scales to surrender the spirit, to which he reluctantly agrees. Fox takes the spirit to the Krazoa Shrine and frees Krystal.


title: Star Fox Adventures

text: The spirits are forced into the head of a Krazoa statue, which reveals itself to be the revived Andross, the mastermind behind the spirit scheme, who flies off to resume his conquest of the Lylat System. When Falco Lombardi arrives in space, he helps Fox destroy Andross once again, restoring and repairing the Krazoa spirits to the planet. Afterwards, Falco rejoins the Star Fox team and Krystal is recruited into the team beginning a romance with her and Fox.


title: Star Fox Adventures

text: "Star Fox Adventures" began as "Dinosaur Planet", a Nintendo 64 game unrelated to the "Star Fox" series. According to lead engineer Phil Tossell, development of "Dinosaur Planet" began after the release of "Diddy Kong Racing" (1997), with two teams to work on "Dinosaur Planet" and "Jet Force Gemini" toward the end of the Nintendo 64's lifespan. The game was changed many times during early development before Rare settled on the eventual idea of an open world adventure-game based around two interwoven stories. According to Kevin Bayliss, a lead developer for the game for Rare, "Dinosaur Planet" was originally to feature Timber, the tiger character from "Diddy Kong Racing", as that game was originally planned to be "RC Pro-Am 64" and featuring Timber until Nintendo suggested them to work it into the "Donkey Kong" intellectual property. They set Timber as a time-traveler into a prehistoric world in gameplay similar to "". As they developed the game, they found it better to shift the main character to two separate ones, Sabre the wolf and Krystal the fox, forgoing Timber's appearance. Eventually, the plot for "Dinosaur Planet" concerned Sabre and Krystal, along with sidekicks Tricky and Kyte (who both appear in the finished game), and Randorn, a wizard who was Sabre's father and Krystal's adoptive father (who was dropped entirely). The game featured elements such as the 'SwapStone', which would let the player switch between Krystal and Sabre. "Dinosaur Planet" was intended to be Rare's last game for the Nintendo 64 and was adorned with gameplay and cinematics introduced by "Ocarina of Time". "Dinosaur Planet" initially utilised the Nintendo 64's Expansion Pak and was housed in a 512-megabit (64 megabyte) cartridge, which is the largest size the console would have.


title: Star Fox Adventures

text: Bayliss said that Rare developed "Dinosaur Planet" in earnest, including preparation of a large E3 2000 demonstration, without considering that Nintendo already had the "Star Fox" property. Nintendo producer Shigeru Miyamoto mentioned in a retrospective interview that, after reviewing content of "Dinosaur Planet", the similarities of Rare's anthropomorphic design of Sabre to Nintendo's Fox McCloud design were striking. Just prior to E3 2000, Nintendo asked Rare to keep discussion of "Dinosaur Planet" quiet and arranged a meeting with Rare to see about a "marriage" of "Dinosaur Planet" and "Star Fox" during the event. The two agreed to the idea of "Star Fox Adventures: Dinosaur Planet" as a Nintendo 64 game, maintaining as much of Rare's work. Bayliss, Tossel, and Lee Schuneman later met with Nintendo in Japan in the weeks that followed to further discuss how to merge the properties, such as bringing Fox McCloud and the other "Star Fox" characters into the game, adjusting the art style of the other characters of "Dinosaur Planet" to match, and developing a story to fit into the "Star Fox" canon.


title: Star Fox Adventures

text: The team later realised the potential of using the "Star Fox" licence in hopes of boosting awareness, and switch development from the Nintendo 64 to the then-upcoming GameCube console as a launch game. Sabre was dropped in favor of Fox McCloud as the lead, but the game retains "Star Fox" team members such as Krystal, Tricky, and Kyte. The "Dinosaur Planet" was dropped from the proposed name. Of all games converted away from Nintendo 64 in its late market span, IGN called this possibly the biggest departure, having expected it to be one of the platform's killer apps, and side-by-side comparing its "amazing graphical upgrades" on GameCube.


title: Star Fox Adventures

text: With the "Star Fox" theme established, Rare begun re-working the game for the then-upcoming GameCube and was subsequently met with little interference from Nintendo. During development, the team was invited to Nintendo's headquarters in Kyoto to discuss progress and certain changes; in return "Star Fox" creator Takaya Imamura came to stay at Rare's Twycross studio to oversee development. Tossell stated that "without a doubt", Nintendo strengthened their relationship through trust and respect, though Nintendo only had a 49% stake of the company at the time.


title: Star Fox Adventures

text: David Wise used Peter Siedleczek's Advanced Orchestra library in creating the music for "Star Fox Adventures". Wise said the tracks that reference the music for the previous "Star Fox" games came very late in development, after having converted it into "Star Fox Adventures".


title: Star Fox Adventures

text: In February 2021, a late development version of "Dinosaur Planet" for the Nintendo 64 dated December 2000 was leaked online, having been acquired from a collector in Sweden. The build features a unique model for Fox instead of Sabre, indicating that Miyamoto's intervention happened before the decision was made to transition the game to GameCube.


title: Star Fox Adventures

text: "Star Fox Adventures" is the final Rare game released by Nintendo. Shortly after its release, Microsoft purchased Rare for £375 million, ending most of Rare's association with Nintendo. Rare continued developing games for the Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS.


title: Star Fox Adventures

text: "Star Fox Adventures" received "generally favorable" reviews, according to video game review aggregator Metacritic. It sold over 200,000 copies in Japan following its release, and was the fastest-selling GameCube game at the time. By July 2006, it had sold 800,000 copies and earned $30 million in the United States. "Next Generation" ranked it as the 73rd highest-selling game launched for the PlayStation 2, Xbox or GameCube between January 2000 and July 2006 in that country. Combined sales of "Star Fox" games released during the 2000s reached 1.2 million units in the United States by July 2006. "Star Fox Adventures" was eventually designated a Player's Choice game by Nintendo, signifying over 250,000 copies sold, and was thus available at a reduced retail price.


title: Star Fox Adventures

text: The visuals were very well received, particularly for Fox's new design. "Edge" wrote that the "visual splendour is immense", whilst in a similar fashion Matt Casamassina of IGN noted that the game is a "perfect companion" to "The Legend of Zelda" series, to which "Adventures" is often compared. Casamassina noted that elements of its graphical rendering were sophisticated for its time, in particular the advanced real-time rendering of the movement of the characters' fur. "NGC Magazine" praised the game's vibrant atmosphere and detailed textures. The game's combat system garnered some accolades, with GameSpot adding that the combat is simplistic, though being "good looking" and not frustrating. Casamassina also praised the combat system. "NGC Magazine" similarly praised the use of the combat system, but they noted that the battles did not require any skill and eventually "felt like a dull chore". The voice acting was viewed negatively, with Casamassina remarking that it is "over the top" in some places. "NGC Magazine" said that the accents of most of the characters did not suit that of the "Star Fox" world, in particular they noted the use of a Scottish accent for the Warpstone Master was "awful".


title: Star Fox Adventures

text: Though mostly positively reviewed, "Star Fox Adventures" is often criticised for its gameplay and setting being too much of a departure from the other "Star Fox" games, in favor of the "Zelda" style gameplay. Casamassina said that "fans expecting a true "Star Fox" experience akin to the older games are in for a disappointment". He also added that the "Star Fox" license has been utilised sparingly to the point where the game felt "out of place within the confines of the "Star Fox" game universe". Casamassina asserted that Fox was "clearly only on 'Dinosaur Planet' at Nintendo's request, not because he belongs". "NGC Magazine" similarly expressed concern on why Fox was added to the game, adding that "Adventures" was "one game Fox himself would probably want to forget" and further speculating that Nintendo only added the "Star Fox" license to prevent "Dinosaur Planet" from appearing on the Xbox.


title: Star Fox Adventures

text: "GameSpot" named "Star Fox Adventures" the second-best GameCube game of September 2002. It was nominated for "GameSpot"s annual "Best Action Adventure Game", "Best Music", "Best Graphics (Technical)" and "Best Graphics (Artistic)" awards among GameCube games.


title: Blueshirts

text: The Army Comrades Association (ACA), later the National Guard, then Young Ireland and finally League of Youth, but best known by the nickname the Blueshirts (), was a paramilitary organisation in the Irish Free State, founded as the Army Comrades Association in Dublin on 11 August 1932. The group provided physical protection for political groups such as Cumann na nGaedheal from intimidation and attacks by the IRA. Some former members went on to fight for the Nationalists in the Spanish Civil War after the group had been dissolved.


title: Blueshirts

text: Most of the political parties whose meetings the Blueshirts protected would merge to become Fine Gael, and members of that party are still sometimes nicknamed "Blueshirts". There has been considerable debate in Irish society over whether or not it is accurate to describe the Blueshirts as fascists.


title: Blueshirts

text: In February 1932, the Fianna Fáil party was elected to lead the Irish Free State government. On 18 March 1932, the new government suspended the Public Safety Act, lifting the ban on a number of organisations including the Irish Republican Army. Some IRA political prisoners were also released around the same time. The IRA and many released prisoners began a "campaign of unrelenting hostility" against those associated with the former Cumann na nGaedheal government. Frank Ryan, one of the most prominent socialists in 1930s Ireland, active in both the Republican Congress and the IRA, declared "as long as we have fists and boots, there will be no free speech for traitors". There were many cases of intimidation, attacks on persons, and the breaking-up of Cumann na nGaedheal political meetings in the coming months. In view of the increased activities of the IRA, National Army Commandant Ned Cronin founded the Army Comrades Association in Dublin on August 11, 1932. As its name suggested, it was designed for Irish Army veterans, a society for former members of the Free State army. The ACA felt that freedom of speech was being repressed, and began to provide security at Cumann na nGaedheal events. This led to several serious clashes between the IRA and the ACA. In August 1932, Thomas F. O'Higgins became the leader of the ACA. O'Higgins was joined in the organisation by fellow Cumann na nGaedhael TDs Ernest Blythe, Patrick McGilligan and Desmond Fitzgerald. O'Higgins had been chosen as leader partially because his brother Kevin O'Higgins, who had been Cumann na nGaedheal Minister for Justice, had been assassinated by the IRA in 1927.


title: Blueshirts

text: By September 1932 the organisation claimed it had over 30,000 members. The historian Mike Cronin believes the Blueshirts regularly embellished their numbers and the actual amount was closer to 8,000 at that point.


title: Blueshirts

text: In January 1933, the Fianna Fáil government called a surprise election, which the government won comfortably. The election campaign saw a serious escalation of rioting between IRA and ACA supporters. In April 1933, the ACA began wearing the distinctive blueshirt uniform.


title: Blueshirts

text: Eoin O'Duffy was a guerrilla leader in the IRA in the Irish War of Independence, a National Army general in the Irish Civil War, and the Garda Síochána police commissioner in the Irish Free State from 1922 to 1933. After Fianna Fáil's re-election in February 1933, President of the Executive Council Éamon de Valera dismissed O'Duffy as commissioner; that July, O'Duffy was offered and accepted leadership of the ACA and renamed it the National Guard. He re-modelled the organisation, adopting elements of European fascism, such as the straight-arm Roman salute, the wearing of uniforms and huge rallies. Membership of the new organisation became limited to people who were Irish or whose parents "profess the Christian faith". O'Duffy was an admirer of Benito Mussolini, and the Blueshirts adopted corporatism as a chief political aim. According to the constitution he adopted, the organisation was to have the following objectives:


title: Blueshirts

text: The National Guard planned to hold a parade in Dublin in August 1933. It was to proceed to Glasnevin Cemetery, stopping briefly on Leinster lawn in front of the Irish parliament, where speeches were to be held. The goal of the parade was to commemorate Irish leaders Arthur Griffith, Michael Collins and Kevin O'Higgins. It is clear that the IRA and other fringe groups representing various socialists intended to confront the Blueshirts if they marched in Dublin.


title: Blueshirts

text: On 22 August 1933 the Fianna Fáil government, remembering Mussolini's March on Rome, and fearing a "coup d'état", invoked article 2A of the constitution and banned the parade Decades later, de Valera told Fianna Fáil politicians that in late summer 1933 he was unsure whether the Irish Army would obey his orders to suppress the perceived threat, or whether the soldiers would support the Blueshirts (who included many ex-soldiers). O'Duffy accepted the ban and insisted that he was committed to upholding the law. Instead, several provincial parades took place to commemorate the deaths of Griffith, O'Higgins and Collins. De Valera saw this move as defying his ban, and the Blueshirts were declared an illegal organisation.


title: Blueshirts

text: In response to the banning of the National Guard, Cumann na nGaedheal and the National Centre Party merged to form a new party, Fine Gael, on 3 September 1933. O'Duffy became its first president, with W. T. Cosgrave and James Dillon acting as vice-presidents. O'Duffy was chosen as leader instead of Cosgrave and MacDermot in order to avoid the idea that Fine Gael would simply be a continuation of Cumann na nGaedhael. The National Guard changed its name to the Young Ireland Association, and became part of a youth wing of the party. The new party's stated aim was to create a united Ireland within the British Commonwealth, although its programme made no mention of a corporatist state. In fact, the original name considered for the party was "The United Ireland Party" until Fine Gael was settled on. Labour Party leader William Norton was unimpressed; he surmised the new entity as "an attempt to put old wine in new bottles”. Seán Lemass dismissed this triple alliance as "the cripple alliance".


title: Blueshirts

text: In March 1934 the Minister for Justice PJ Ruttledge of Fianna Fáil brought forward a Wearing of Uniforms (Restriction) Bill which specifically sought to ban political uniforms in Irish public life. Badges, banners and military titles that were considered at odds with public peace were also to be prohibited. Ruttledge outright said as much that part of the aim was to end the Blueshirts, although said that in practice it would apply to every part of the political spectrum. However, following bitter debates in the Dáil, the bill was voted down in the Seanad 30 to 18.


title: Blueshirts

text: The 1934 local elections were a trial of strength for the new Fine Gael and the Fianna Fáil government. When Fine Gael won only six out of 23 local elections, O’Duffy lost much of his authority and prestige. The Blueshirts had peaked by mid-1934 and rapidly began to disintegrate. The Blueshirts began to flounder on the plight of farmers in the Economic War, as the Blueshirts failed to provide a solution. In response to this, O'Duffy began to ramp up his extremist rhetoric. However, this prompted elements of Fine Gael such as Ernest Blythe, Michael Tierney and Desmond FitzGerald to begin working to remove O'Duffy from power.


title: Blueshirts

text: Following disagreements with his Fine Gael colleagues, O'Duffy left the party in September 1934, although most of the Blueshirts stayed in Fine Gael. Following O'Duffy's ascent to leadership of Fine Gael, control of the Blueshirts had been left to original Blueshirt founder Ned Cronin. When O'Duffy left Fine Gael, he attempted to resume this position, however, Cronin resisted, resulting in the Blueshirts splitting into pro-O'Duffy and pro-Cronin factions. Cronin and his faction wished to remain within Fine Gael while O'Duffy's faction left entirely. Cronin's faction seemed to have been the majority of the membership.


title: Blueshirts

text: In December 1934, O'Duffy attended the Montreux Fascist conference in Switzerland. He then founded the National Corporate Party, and later raised an Irish Brigade that took General Francisco Franco's side in the Spanish Civil War, with disastrous results. Meanwhile, Fine Gael was brought back under the leadership of WT Cosgrove who had previously led Cumann na nGaedhael. Now acting as Deputy Leader was James Dillon, formerly of the National Centre Party, who helped reinforce pro-democratic views into the party. Dillon was a staunch defender of liberal democracy who in later years denounced Nazism as ""the devil himself with twentieth-century efficiency"". He resigned from Fine Gael in 1942 due to his belief that Ireland should break neutrality and join the Allies to fight against Hitler. He later rejoined the party and became its leader after Richard Mulcahy.


title: Blueshirts

text: As a rule, the modern Fine Gael party strenuously avoids referring to the Blueshirts as having been a part of the founding of the party, although it is happy to acknowledge the lineage of Cumann na nGaedhael and the National Centre Party, as well as to draw a lineage back to Michael Collins. Above all, Eoin O'Duffy is never acknowledged as its first leader, instead W. T. Cosgrave is given the mantle. Nonetheless, "Blueshirt" continues to be used as a pejorative for members of Fine Gael to this day.


title: Blueshirts

text: Considerable debate has been held in Irish society across many decades over whether or not it is accurate to describe the Blueshirts as fascists.


title: Blueshirts

text: Stanley G. Payne has argued that the Blueshirts "really was never a fascist organization at all". Maurice Manning also did not consider them fascists, with their mixture of patriotic conservatism, militia activities and corporatism amounting "to no more than a kind of Celtic Croix-de-Feu", and that ultimately the Blueshirts "had much of the appearance but little enough of the substance of Fascism". Historians are divided on the extent to which the Blueshirts took a lead from Mussolini and his many imitators at that time. Some of the Blueshirts later went to fight for Francisco Franco in the Spanish Civil War because of his anti-communism. They imitated some aspects of the Mussolini movement, such as the coloured-shirt uniform, Roman salute and the March on Rome; however, Historian R. M. Douglas has opined that it is incorrect to portray them as an "Irish manifestation of fascism".


title: Blueshirts

text: Mike Cronin, an academic specialising in Irish political and cultural history, also concludes that the Blueshirts "undoubtedly possessed certain fascist traits, but they were not fascists in the German or Italian sense". Instead, Cronin suggests the term "Para-fascists" is more appropriate, indicating that while they took on the outward trapping of fascism, they did not commit to the more radical elements. Cronin contends that while certain members of the Blueshirts did hold fascist views, they were effectively "drowned out" by the number of traditionally conservative members, particularly after the merger into Fine Gael. Nonetheless, Cronin also notes that the Blueshirts' potential for outright fascism should not be dismissed either.


title: Blueshirts

text: Fearghal McGarry of Queen’s University, Belfast, has suggested that while O'Duffy can be thought of as a genuine fascist, despite his role as the leader he was not representative of the bulk of the blueshirt membership, and that the degree to which the Blueshirts should be thought of as fascists has been overemphasised by Irish Republicans in order to reinforce their anti-fascist credentials during the interwar period. McGarry has said the danger from the Blueshirts was not that they would turn Ireland into Fascist Italy, but into the Portuguese dictatorship that existed under Salazar at the time.


title: Blueshirts

text: Paul Bew has also argued against the term "fascist" being applied to the Blueshirts, instead labelling them as "angry rural conservatives" engaged in populism, with the views of the average member being closer to that of the Irish Parliamentary Party or the Irish Land League than Italian Fascism. On the same line, Alvin Jackson has stated that while some of the Cumann na nGaedheal leadership "flirted with paramilitarism and the trappings of fascism", in his view "O’Duffy’s fondness for outrageous rhetoric and elaborate uniforms was more O'Connellite than Hitlerian". Historian John Joseph Lee has remarked that "Fascism was far too intellectually demanding for the bulk of the Blueshirts" Marxist historian John Newsinger disputes this line of thinking somewhat by agreeing that the rank and file of the Blueshirts were not ideologically fascists, but so long as the leadership was, the consequences of the Blueshirts coming to power would have been one-party state dictatorship.


title: Blueshirts

text: Michael O'Riordan, an Irish anti-fascist who fought in the Spanish Civil War and led the Communist Party of Ireland for many decades, said of the ex-Blueshirts who later volunteered to fight in Spain: "I never regarded them as fascists. They saw themselves as involved in a Christian crusade against 'godless communism' in Spain; at worst, then, they were dupes."


title: Blueshirts

text: In the aftermath of O'Duffy's departure from Fine Gael, most of the party settled back into "traditional" conservatism under the leadership of WT Cosgrove and James Dillon. However, this was not true of all of the membership. Ernest Blythe, the Cumann na nGaedhael minister who had been an enthusiastic member of the Blueshirts and heavily supported its gravitation towards corporatism, continued to support fascist causes in Ireland many years after the Blueshirts' demise. Blythe retired from public life in 1936 after the abolishment of the Senate but he continued to engage in politics. During the 1940s he supported and aided the openly fascist Ailtirí na hAiséirghe. Blythe advised Ailtirí na hAiséirghe's leader Gearóid Ó Cuinneagáin on the drafting of the party's constitution, gave it backing in its journal "The Leader", as well as making financial contributions towards the party. During the 1940s Blythe's activities alarmed Ireland's secret intelligence agency G2, whose intelligence files referred to him as a potential "Irish Quisling" and “100 per cent Nazi”.


title: Blueshirts

text: Some commentators have suggested that rather than view the conflict between the Blueshirts and the IRA through the prism of fascism vs anti-fascism, in reality, the conflict should be seen as more akin to a political rehashing of the Irish Civil War that began against the backdrop of Fianna Fáil entering into government for the first time.


title: BoJack Horseman (season 6)

text: The sixth and final season of Netflix's animated comedy-drama television series "BoJack Horseman" consists of sixteen episodes and is divided into two parts of eight episodes each. The first part was entirely released into Netflix's streaming service on October 25, 2019. The second part was released on January 31, 2020.


title: BoJack Horseman (season 6)

text: The final season received near universal acclaim with critics and viewers considering it a poignant end to the series. On the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the sixth season has an approval rating of 96%, based on 51 reviews. The website's critical consensus states, "Bittersweet and brilliant to the very end, "BoJack Horseman"s final season manages to keep surprising viewers with its empathy and depth, solidifying its place as one of TV's greatest offerings." On Metacritic, the first part of the sixth season received a score of 93 out of 100 based on 6 critics; the second part received a score of 91 out of 100, based on 8 critics, both indicating "universal acclaim".


title: Whiskey-class submarine

text: Whiskey-class submarines (known in the Soviet Union as Projects 613, 640, 644, and 665) are a class of diesel-electric attack submarines that the Soviet Union built in the early Cold War period.


title: Whiskey-class submarine

text: The initial design was developed in the early 1940s as a sea-going follow on to the S-class submarine. As a result of war experience and the capture of German technology at the end of the war, the Soviets issued a new design requirement in 1946. The revised design was developed by the Lazurit Design Bureau based in Gorkiy. Like most conventional submarines designed 1946–1960, the design was heavily influenced by the Type XXI U-boat.


title: Whiskey-class submarine

text: Between 1949 and 1958 a total of 236 of an envisaged 340 submarines of this type were commissioned into the Soviet Navy. The vessels were initially designed as coastal patrol submarines. These patrol variants are known in the west as Whiskey I, II, III, IV, and V and were called Project 613 in the Soviet Union.


title: Whiskey-class submarine

text: In the 1950s and 1960s some Whiskey submarines were converted to guided missile submarines, with the capability to fire one to four SS-N-3 Shaddock cruise missiles. In 1956, the first prototype was ready. It was a regular Whiskey class modified with a launch tube aft of the sail containing a single SS-N-3c. This vessel was known in the West as Whiskey Single Cylinder. Between 1958 and 1960, six additional Whiskey-class submarines were converted to carry guided missiles. These boats had two missile tubes behind the sail, and were known in the west as the Whiskey Twin Cylinder, and Project 644 boats by the Soviets.


title: Whiskey-class submarine

text: Between 1960 and 1963, six boats received an extended sail that could contain four Shaddock missiles. These were called Whiskey Long Bin in the West and Project 665 in the Soviet Union. All guided missile variants of the Whiskey class carried the P-5/ NATO SS-N-3c Shaddock land-attack missile, and had to surface in order to fire their missiles. The boats of the single and twin cylinder class also had to raise their missile tubes, which were normally positioned horizontally.


title: Whiskey-class submarine

text: The "Long Bin" boats did not handle well, with the launch tubes causing stability problems, and water flow around the missile fittings was very noisy. All were soon retired from service. Four were converted to Project 640 radar picket boats (called Whiskey Canvas Bag in the West). Two were converted for "fishery research" and "oceanographic research" purposes. In the Soviet Navy, the patrol variants of this class were replaced by the . The guided missile variants were replaced by the .


title: Whiskey-class submarine

text: The Soviet Union built a total of 236 or 215 Whiskeys (sources vary; it appears the initial 21 Chinese-built boats are often included with the Soviet boats). Vice Admiral Burov, head of the Soviet Defense Ministry's Shipbuilding Institute from 1969 to 1983, confirms 215 units built.


title: Whiskey-class submarine

text: Cuba and Syria ordered used Whiskey-class submarines for use as battery charging hulks. The Syrian Navy boats were ex-Soviet Navy S-167, S-171, and S-183. The Cuban navy acquired an ex Soviet boat for Foxtrot class submarine training. The guided missile and radar picket boats were never exported.


title: Whiskey-class submarine

text: By 1982, only 60 boats remained in the Soviet Navy (45 active, 15 in operational reserve); all were retired by the end of the Cold War.


title: Whiskey-class submarine

text: "S-189" is preserved as a museum in Saint Petersburg, Russia. (ex-"S-290") is preserved in Surabaya, Indonesia.


title: History of transport

text: The history of transport is largely one of technological innovation. Advances in technology have allowed people to travel farther, explore more territory, and expand their influence over larger and larger areas. Even in ancient times, new tools such as foot coverings, skis, and snowshoes lengthened the distances that could be traveled. As new inventions and discoveries were applied to transport problems, travel time decreased while the ability to move more and larger loads increased. Innovation continues as transport researchers are working to find new ways to reduce costs and increase transport efficiency.


title: History of transport

text: International trade was the driving motivator behind advancements in global transportation in the Pre Modern world. "...there was a single global world economy with a worldwide division of labor and multilateral trade from 1500 onward." The sale and transportation of textiles, silver and gold, spices, slaves, and luxury goods throughout Afro-Eurasia and later the New World would see an evolution in overland and sea trade routes and travel.


title: History of transport

text: The first earth tracks were created by humans carrying goods and often followed trails. Tracks would be naturally created at points of high traffic density. As animals were domesticated, horses, oxen and donkeys became an element in track-creation. With the growth of trade, tracks were often flattened or widened to accommodate animal traffic (hollow way or drover's road). Later, the travois, a frame used to drag loads, was developed. Animal-drawn wheeled vehicles were probably developed in the ancient Near East in the 4th or 5th millennium BC and spread to Europe and India in the 4th millennium BC and China in about 1200 BC. The Romans had a significant need for good roads to extend and maintain their empire and developed Roman roads.


title: History of transport

text: In the Industrial Revolution, John Loudon McAdam (1756–1836) designed the first modern highways, using inexpensive paving material of soil and stone aggregate (macadam), and the embanked roads a few feet higher than the surrounding terrain to cause water to drain away from the surface.


title: History of transport

text: With the development of motor transport, starting in 1886 in Germany and in the U.S. in 1908 with the production of Ford's first Model T, there was an increased need for hard-topped roads to reduce washaways, bogging and dust on both urban and rural roads, originally using cobblestones and wooden paving in major western cities and in the early 20th century tar-bound macadam (tarmac) and concrete paving. In 1902, Nottingham's Radcliffe Road became the first tarmac road in the world.


title: History of transport

text: The history of rail transportation dates back nearly 500 years and includes systems with man or horsepower and rails of wood (or occasionally stone). This was usually for moving coal from the mine down to a river, from where it could continue by boat, with a flanged wheel running on a rail. The use of cast iron plates as rails began in the 1760s, and was followed by systems (plateways) where the flange was part of the rail. However, with the introduction of rolled wrought iron rails, these became obsolete.


title: History of transport

text: The first passenger-carrying public railway was opened by the Swansea and Mumbles Railway at Oyster mouth in 1807, using horse-drawn carriages on existing tramlines. In 1802, Richard Trevithick designed and built the first (unnamed) steam locomotive to run on smooth rails. He was a Cornish engineer and showed off his railway invention in the Welsh mining town of Merthyr Tydfil.


title: History of transport

text: Before actual making the breakthrough for the first railway engine, Trevithick had been facing failures and successes along the route. One of his first successful demonstrations was the "Puffing Devil" steam powered locomotive in 1802 whereas a disaster in Greenwich in 1803 almost sealed the fate of locomotive travel, when four men were killed by an explosion of one of Trevithick's engines. This incident was used as a leverage by his rivals to stop the production of the high-pressure steam engines.


title: History of transport

text: However, Trevithick's "Penydarren locomotive", marked its place in history by becoming the first full scale working railway steam locomotive. A bet between Trevithick's benefactor Samuel Homfray and Richard Crawshay prompted the key demonstration of the locomotive. Homfray had placed a wager of 500 guineas that the locomotive will transport ten tonnes of iron from the Pendydarren Ironworks to the village of Abercynon which was nearly ten miles away.


title: History of transport

text: Trevithick's locomotive completed the journey in just over four hours, ultimately proving the locomotives sturdiness and reliability. However, Trevithick never got the credit he deserved and died a destitute in 1833.


title: History of transport

text: Matthew Murray proved the viability of the steam engine in 1812. Salamanca was the first locomotive to incorporate two cylinders.


title: History of transport

text: George Stephenson who went on to become known as the father of railways is said to have built 16 experimental locomotives for use from the year 1814–1826, the last train which he introduced known as the Killingworth Billy ran until 1881. The first intercity railway between Liverpool and Manchester was built by Stephenson in 1830. These systems, which made use of the steam locomotive, were the first practical form of mechanized land transport, and they remained the primary form of mechanized land transport for the next 100 years. The first railroad built in Great Britain was the Stockton and Darlington, which opened in 1825. It used a steam locomotive built by George Stephenson and was practical only for hauling minerals. The Liverpool and Manchester Railway, which opened in 1830, was the first modern railroad. It was a public carrier of both passengers and freight. By 1870, Britain had about 13,500 miles (21,700 km) of railroad.


title: History of transport

text: In 1879, electric locomotive development was booming in Germany. In the late 19th century, Werner von Siemens demonstrated the first experimental electric passenger train. The train transported around 90,000 people and worked on the concept of insulated third rail to supply electricity. In 1881, Siemens built the world's first electric tram line in the Berlin suburb of Lichterfelde. Following this trend, many such initiatives were set up in Brighton and Vienna in 1883.


title: History of transport

text: A new type of railway locomotives was developed by Dr. Rudolf Diesel, which involved a new internal combustion method to propel the railway. In 1892, he proposed this method and soon sparked speculation on whether this type of engine would actually work. From the late 19th century to the early 20th century, Rudolf Diesel worked on putting diesel on track and tried to improve the power-to-weight ratio. He worked at a Swiss engineering firm Sulzer. Eventually, by the end of the Second World War, steam engines became obsolete and were rarely used in developed countries.


title: History of transport

text: At the system's greatest extent, in 1914, there were about 20,000 miles (32,000  km) of the track, run by 120 competing companies. The British government combined all these companies into four main groups in 1923 as an economic measure.


title: History of transport

text: British Railways, by name British Rail, the former national railway system of Great Britain, was created by the Transport Act of 1947, which inaugurated public ownership of the railways.


title: History of transport

text: The history of rail transport also includes the history of rapid transit and arguably history of monorail.


title: History of transport

text: In the Stone Age, primitive boats developed to permit navigation of rivers and for fishing in rivers and off the coast. It has been argued that boats suitable for a significant sea crossing were necessary for people to reach Australia an estimated 40,000-45,000 years ago. With the development of civilization, vessels evolved for expansion and generally grew in size for trade and war. In the Mediterranean, galleys were developed about 3000 BC. Polynesian double-hulled sailing vessels with advanced rigging were used between 1,300 BC and 900 BC by the Polynesian progeny of the Lapita culture to expand 6,000 km across open ocean from the Bismarck Archipelago east to Micronesia and, eventually Hawaii. Galleys were eventually rendered obsolete by ocean-going sailing ships, such as the Arabic caravel in the 13th century, the Chinese treasure ship in the early 15th century, and the Mediterranean man-of-war in the late 15th century.


title: History of transport

text: In the Industrial Revolution, the first steamboats and later diesel-powered ships were developed. Eventually submarines were developed mainly for military purposes for people's general benefit.


title: History of transport

text: Meanwhile, specialized craft were developed for river and canal transport. Canals were developed in Mesopotamia BC. The Indus Valley civilization in Pakistan and North India (from c.2600BC) had the first canal irrigation system in the world. China's canal system, whose greatest accomplishment was the Sui Dynasty's 7th-century Grand Canal between Hangzhou and Beijing, was an essential aspect of its civilization, used for irrigation, flood control, taxation, commercial and military transport, and colonization of new lands from the Zhou Dynasty until the end of the imperial era. Canals were developed in the Middle Ages in Europe in Venice and the Netherlands. Ramps for water were made in 1459. Pierre-Paul Riquet began to organise the construction of the 240 km-long Canal du Midi in France in 1665 and it was opened in 1681. In the Industrial Revolution, inland canals were built in England and later the United States before the development of railways. Specialized craft were also developed for fishing and later whaling.


title: History of transport

text: Maritime history also deals with the development of navigation, oceanography, cartography, and hydrography.


title: History of transport

text: Often cities as well as their surrounding agricultural areas are typically are not self-sufficient for agriculture. Because of this, people living in these regions had forced to trade with either other cities, nomads, or other pastoralists. People would usually trade one another for things like raw materials, (such as metals like tin, bronze, copper, or iron ore) or animals. An "intercontinental model" of world trade, "between 1500 and 1800 on the basis of interregional competition in production and trade" was proposed by Frederic Mauro, but the early existence of it was already observed by Dudley North in the year 1691. This world market of trade, as well as the flow of finances throughout, spanned out an interconnected throughout the entire globe, permitted the intersectoral and intersectional regional divisions of both generated competition, and labor.


title: History of transport

text: Through the water frontier, many people throughout history have traveled by water as much as they have by land. Along with this, quite a large number of individuals relied on the sea and maritime trade, raiding, piracy, or smuggling for survival. Littoral peoples, reflecting symbiosis of both land and sea, would often have more in common with one another than they would with their neighboring islands. Throughout centuries in the past, water supplied the cheapest, and sometimes the only means of transporting bulk materials on a large scale, and it was also the most secure way to ensure transport over long distances. Because of this, the proximity of the sea drew Southeast Asians to participate in long-distance trade, but it was not only water that linked the shores to one another - seafaring people, along with traders contributed to these trade routes as well.


title: History of transport

text: Maritime traders most often congregated in ports, which were considered the point in which land and sea met that linked the hinterland to the wider world. There were some ports that were more favored than others, blessed with a good location, with sufficient warehouse facilities, accessible harbors, and adequate supplies of food and water became "entrepôts," which were essentially the super-centers for trade. It was rare that these ports were ever considered a final destination, though, but rather central meeting points in what was an ever-changing economic and political environment. Whether in Asia, Europe, or Africa, these port centers consisted of ethnically and culturally diverse communities. Many had officials that were of foreign birth or ancestry - they were skilled in being knowledgeable of the various cultures and languages of merchants that would work throughout the ports who were also foreign, this was done in order to be successful in supervising the trade that had occurred. Throughout many of the ports, merchants had become a more powerful group in local politics. Further, these ports promoted cultural exchange, along with economic exchange, due to the fact that it had been open to the world for races, cultures, and ideas to intermix with one another, along with the fact that this blend of both locals and outsiders from diverse backgrounds that were open to accepting cultural differences. Nation-building and modernity reduced the role of trade through the sea and increased the reliance on trade through the land and the air in economic and social exchange. Even though Singapore, Bangkok, and Hong Kong are still vibrant and available to the world, similar to their early modern counterparts serving functions such as tourism which is unrelated to foreign trade, only a few ports are as economically crucial today as they had been in the past.


title: History of transport

text: Inland trade moved both by water, and overland itself. For example, shipping in small boats went along the coasts of India, but inland waterways were readily available to use to transport goods throughout many parts of India, especially in the south. Caravans that contained numbers from ten, all the way to up forty thousand pack or draft animals moved overland at a time. Combinations of these forms of transportation carried throughout the subcontinent and were therefore transshipped to and from long-distance maritime trade. The majority of all of the port cities were in symbiosis with the caravan routes to and from their related hinterland interiors, and sometimes even with distant transcontinental regions. This is especially true in Central Asia - and it is suggested that the continental trade over both the land and the ocean maritime trade should be viewed not as separate or competitive, but rather as mirror images of one another.


title: History of transport

text: Humanity's desire to fly likely dates to the first time man observed birds, an observation illustrated in the legendary stories of Daedalus and Icarus in Greek mythology, and the Vimanas in Indian mythology. Much of the focus of early research was on imitating birds, but through trial and error, balloons, airships, gliders and eventually powered aircraft and other types of flying machines were invented.


title: History of transport

text: Kites were the first form of man-made flying objects, and early records suggest that kites were around before 200 BC in China. Leonardo da Vinci's dream of flight found expression in several designs, but he did not attempt to demonstrate flight by literally constructing them.


title: History of transport

text: During the 17th and 18th century, when scientists began analysing the Earth's atmosphere, gases such as hydrogen were discovered which in turn led to the invention of hydrogen balloons. Various theories in mechanics by physicists during the same period of time—notably fluid dynamics and Newton's laws of motion—led to the foundation of modern aerodynamics. Tethered balloons filled with hot air were used in the first half of the 19th century and saw considerable action in several mid-century wars, most notably the American Civil War, where balloons provided observation during the Siege of Petersburg.


title: History of transport

text: Apart from some scattered reference in ancient and medieval records, resting on slender evidence and in need of interpretation, the earliest clearly verifiable human flight took place in Paris in 1783, when Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier and François Laurent d'Arlandes went in a hot air balloon invented by the Montgolfier brothers. The Wright brothers made the first sustained, controlled and powered heavier-than-air flight on 17 December 1903, in their revolutionary aircraft, the Wright Flyer.


title: History of transport

text: World War II saw a drastic increase in the pace of aircraft development and production. All countries involved in the war stepped up development and production of aircraft and flight-based weapon delivery systems, such as the first long-range bomber.


title: History of transport

text: After the war ended, commercial aviation grew rapidly, using mostly ex-military aircraft to transport people and cargo. This growth was accelerated by the glut of heavy and super-heavy bomber airframes like the Lancaster that could be converted into commercial aircraft. The first commercial jet airliner to fly was the British De Havilland Comet. This marked the beginning of the Jet Age, a period of relatively cheap and fast international travel.


title: History of transport

text: In the beginning of the 21st century, subsonic military aviation focused on eliminating the pilot in favor of remotely operated or completely autonomous vehicles. Several unmanned aerial vehicles or UAVs have been developed. In April 2001, the unmanned aircraft Global Hawk flew from Edwards AFB in the US to Australia non-stop and unrefueled. This is the longest point-to-point flight ever undertaken by an unmanned aircraft, and took 23 hours and 23 minutes. In October 2003, the first totally autonomous flight across the Atlantic by a computer-controlled model aircraft occurred. Major disruptions to air travel in the 21st century included the closing of U.S. airspace following the September 11 attacks, the closing of northern European airspace after the 2010 eruptions of Eyjafjallajökull, and the COVID-19 pandemic.


title: History of transport

text: The realistic dream of spaceflight dated back to Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, however Tsiolkovsky wrote in Russian, and this was not widely influential outside Russia. Spaceflight became an engineering possibility with the work of Robert H. Goddard's publication in 1919 of his paper 'Robert H. Goddard#A Method of Reaching Extreme Altitudes ,A Method of Reaching Extreme Altitudes'; where his application of the de Laval nozzle to liquid-propellant rockets gave sufficient power that interplanetary travel became possible. This paper was highly influential on Hermann Oberth and Wernher von Braun, later key players in spaceflight.


title: History of transport

text: The first human spaceflight was achieved with the Soviet space program's Vostok 1 mission in 1961. The lead architects behind the mission were Sergei Korolev and Kerim Kerimov, with Yuri Gagarin being the first astronaut. On May 5, 1961, the US launched its first suborbital Mercury astronaut, Alan Shepard, in the "Freedom 7" capsule. Unlike Gagarin, Shepard manually controlled his spacecraft's attitude and landed inside it hence making his mission the first "completed" human spaceflight according to previous FAI definitions. Kerimov later went on to launch the first space docks (Kosmos 186 and Kosmos 188) in 1967 and the first space stations (Salyut and Mir series) from 1971 to 1991. The first spaceflight to the Moon was achieved with NASA's Apollo 11 mission in 1969, with Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin being the first astronauts on the Moon.


title: History of transport

text: The thirteenth century saw the rise of the magnetic compass for overseas travel. Prior to its creation, seamen would have to rely on landmarks and stars as guides for navigation. The compass allowed sailors to plot a course, and using magnetic north as a reference, could travel through fog and overcast. This also led to shorter voyages, as they could plot more linear approaches to destinations. Portolan charts rose up, plotting this linear excursion routes, making sea navigation more accurate and efficient. In 1761, marine chronometer was invented.


title: Friedrich Hölderlin

text: Johann Christian Friedrich Hölderlin (, ; ; 20 March 1770 – 7 June 1843) was a German poet and philosopher. Described by Norbert von Hellingrath as "the most German of Germans", Hölderlin was a key figure of German Romanticism. Particularly due to his early association with and philosophical influence on Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel and Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling, he was also an important thinker in the development of German Idealism.


title: Friedrich Hölderlin

text: Born in Lauffen am Neckar, Hölderlin had a childhood marked by bereavement. His mother intended for him to enter the Lutheran ministry, and he attended the Tübinger Stift, where he was friends with Hegel and Schelling. He graduated in 1793 but could not devote himself to the Christian faith, instead becoming a tutor. Two years later, he briefly attended the University of Jena, where he interacted with Johann Gottlieb Fichte and Novalis, before resuming his career as a tutor. He struggled to establish himself as a poet, and was plagued by mental illness. He was sent to a clinic in 1806 but deemed incurable and instead given lodging by a carpenter, Ernst Zimmer. He spent the final 36 years of his life in Zimmer's residence, and died in 1843 at the age of 73.


title: Friedrich Hölderlin

text: Hölderlin followed the tradition of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Friedrich Schiller as an admirer of Greek mythology and Ancient Greek poets such as Pindar and Sophocles, and melded Christian and Hellenic themes in his works. Martin Heidegger, upon whom Hölderlin had a great influence, said: "Hölderlin is one of our greatest, that is, most impending thinkers because he is our greatest poet."


title: Friedrich Hölderlin

text: Johann Christian Friedrich Hölderlin was born on 20 March 1770 in Lauffen am Neckar, then a part of the Duchy of Württemberg. He was the first child of Johanna Christiana Heyn and Heinrich Friedrich Hölderlin. His father, the manager of a church estate, died when he was two years old, and Friedrich and his sister, Heinrike, were brought up by their mother.


title: Friedrich Hölderlin

text: In 1774, his mother moved the family to Nürtingen when she married Johann Christoph Gok. Two years later, Johann Gok became the burgomaster of Nürtingen, and Hölderlin's half-brother, Karl Christoph Friedrich Gok, was born. In 1779, Johann Gok died at the age of 30. Hölderlin later expressed how his childhood was scarred by grief and sorrow, writing in a 1799 correspondence with his mother:


title: Friedrich Hölderlin

text: Hölderlin began his education in 1776, and his mother planned for him to join the Lutheran church. In preparation for entrance exams into a monastery, he received additional instruction in Greek, Hebrew, Latin and rhetoric, starting in 1782. During this time, he struck a friendship with Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling, who was five years Hölderlin's junior. On account of the age difference, Schelling was "subjected to universal teasing" and Hölderlin protected him from abuse by older students. Also during this time, Hölderlin began playing the piano and developed an interest in travel literature through exposure to Georg Forster's "A Voyage Round the World".


title: Friedrich Hölderlin

text: In 1784, Hölderlin entered the Lower Monastery in Denkendorf and started his formal training for entry into the Lutheran ministry. At Denkendorf, he discovered the poetry of Friedrich Schiller and Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock, and took tentative steps in composing his own verses. The earliest known letter of Hölderlin's is dated 1784 and addressed to his former tutor Nathanael Köstlin. In the letter, Hölderlin hinted at his wavering faith in Christianity and anxiety about his mental state.


title: Friedrich Hölderlin

text: Hölderlin progressed to the Higher Monastery at Maulbronn in 1786. There he fell in love with Luise Nast, the daughter of the monastery's administrator, and began to doubt his desire to join the ministry; he composed "Mein Vorsatz" in 1787, in which he states his intention to attain "Pindar's light" and reach "Klopstock-heights". In 1788, he read Schiller's "Don Carlos" on Luise Nast's recommendation. Hölderlin later wrote a letter to Schiller regarding "Don Carlos", stating: "It won't be easy to study "Carlos" in a rational way, since he was for so many years the magic cloud in which the good god of my youth enveloped me so that I would not see too soon the pettiness and barbarity of the world."


title: Friedrich Hölderlin

text: In October 1788, Hölderlin began his theological studies at the Tübinger Stift, where his fellow students included Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Isaac von Sinclair and Schelling. It has been speculated that it was Hölderlin who, during their time in Tübingen, brought to Hegel's attention the ideas of Heraclitus regarding the unity of opposites, which Hegel would later develop into his concept of dialectics. In 1789, Hölderlin broke off his engagement with Luise Nast, writing to her: "I wish you happiness if you choose one more worthy than me, and then surely you will understand that you could never have been happy with your morose, ill-humoured, and sickly friend," and expressed his desire to transfer out and study law but succumbed to pressure from his mother to remain in the Stift.


title: Friedrich Hölderlin

text: Along with Hegel and Schelling and his other peers during his time in the Stift, Hölderlin was an enthusiastic supporter of the French Revolution. Although he rejected the violence of the Reign of Terror, his commitment to the principles of 1789 remained intense. Hölderlin's republican sympathies influenced many of his most famous works such as "Hyperion" and "The Death of Empedocles".


title: Friedrich Hölderlin

text: After he obtained his magister degree in 1793, his mother expected him to enter the ministry. However, Hölderlin found no satisfaction in the prevailing Protestant theology, and worked instead as a private tutor. In 1794, he met Friedrich Schiller and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and began writing his epistolary novel "Hyperion". In 1795 he enrolled for a while at the University of Jena where he attended Johann Gottlieb Fichte's classes and met Novalis.


title: Friedrich Hölderlin

text: There is a seminal manuscript, dated 1797, now known as the "Das älteste Systemprogramm des deutschen Idealismus" ("The Oldest Systematic Program of German Idealism"). Although the document is in Hegel's handwriting, it is thought to have been written by Hegel, Schelling, Hölderlin, or an unknown fourth person.


title: Friedrich Hölderlin

text: As a tutor in Frankfurt am Main from 1796 to 1798, he fell in love with Susette Gontard, the wife of his employer, the banker Jakob Gontard. The feeling was mutual, and this relationship became the most important in Hölderlin's life. After a while, their affair was discovered, and Hölderlin was harshly dismissed. He then lived in Homburg from 1798 to 1800, meeting Susette in secret once a month and attempting to establish himself as a poet, but his life was plagued by financial worries and he had to accept a small allowance from his mother. His mandated separation from Susette Gontard also worsened Hölderlin's doubts about himself and his value as a poet; he wished to transform German culture but did not have the influence he needed. From 1797 to 1800, he produced three versions—all unfinished—of a tragedy in the Greek manner, "The Death of Empedocles", and composed odes in the vein of the Ancient Greeks Alcaeus and Asclepiades of Samos.


title: Friedrich Hölderlin

text: In the late 1790s, Hölderlin was diagnosed with schizophrenia, then referred to as "hypochondrias", a condition that would worsen after his last meeting with Susette Gontard in 1800. After a sojourn in Stuttgart at the end of 1800, likely to work on his translations of Pindar, he found further employment as a tutor in Hauptwyl, Switzerland and then at the household of the Hamburg consul in Bordeaux, in 1802. His stay in the French city is celebrated in "Andenken" ("Remembrance"), one of his greatest poems. In a few months, however, he returned home on foot via Paris (where he saw authentic Greek sculptures, as opposed to Roman or modern copies, for the only time in his life). He arrived at his home in Nürtingen both physically and mentally exhausted in late 1802, and learned that Susette Gontard had died from influenza in Frankfurt at around the same time.


title: Friedrich Hölderlin

text: At his home in Nürtingen with his mother, a devout Christian, Hölderlin melded his Hellenism with Christianity and sought to unite ancient values with modern life; in Hölderlin's elegy "Brod und Wein" ("Bread and Wine"), Christ is seen as sequential to the Greek gods, bringing bread from the earth and wine from Dionysus. After two years in Nürtingen, Hölderlin was taken to the court of Homburg by Isaac von Sinclair, who found a sinecure for him as court librarian, but in 1805 von Sinclair was denounced as a conspirator and tried for treason. Hölderlin was in danger of being tried too but was declared mentally unfit to stand trial. On 11 September 1806, Hölderlin was delivered into the clinic at Tübingen run by Dr. Johann Heinrich Ferdinand von Autenrieth, the inventor of a mask for the prevention of screaming in the mentally ill.


title: Friedrich Hölderlin

text: The clinic was attached to the University of Tübingen and the poet Justinus Kerner, then a student of medicine, was assigned to look after Hölderlin. The following year Hölderlin was discharged as incurable and given three years to live, but was taken in by the carpenter Ernst Zimmer (a cultured man, who had read "Hyperion") and given a room in his house in Tübingen, which had been a tower in the old city wall with a view across the Neckar river. The tower would later be named the Hölderlinturm, after the poet's 36-year-long stay in the room. His residence in the building made up the second half of his life and is also referred to as the "Turmzeit" (or "Tower period").