Augustus II or Frederick-Augustus I was Elector of Saxony and King of Poland. He was born in 1670 at Dresden and died in 1733. He was the second son of John George III, elector of Saxony. He succeeded his brother in the electorate in 1694, and the Polish throne having become vacant, in 1696, by the death of John Sobieski, Augustus presented himself as a candidate for it and was successful. He joined with Peter the Great in the war against Charles XII of Sweden, invaded Livonia, but was defeated by Charles near Riga, and at Clissow, between Warsaw and Cracow. In 1704 he was deposed, and two years later formally resigned the crown to Stanislaus I, now devoting himself to his Saxon dominions. In 1709, after the defeat of Charles at Pultowa, the Poles recalled Augustus, who united himself anew with Peter. The two monarchs, in alliance with Denmark, sent troops into Pomerania, but the Swedish general Steinbock defeated the allies at Gadebusch, on December the 20th, 1712. The death of Charles XII put an end to the war, and Augustus concluded a peace with Sweden. A confederation was now formed in Poland against the Saxon troops, but through the mediation of Peter an arrangement was concluded by which the Saxon troops were removed from the kingdom. Augustus now gave himself wholly up to voluptuousness and a life of pleasure. His court was one of the most splendid and polished in Europe. The Poles yielded but too readily to the example of their king, and the last years of his reign were characterized by boundless luxury and corruption of manners. His wife left him one son. The Countess of Konigsmark bore him the celebrated commander Marshal Saxe (Maurice of Saxony). Research Augustus II
The Continental System was a plan devised by Napoleon to exclude Britain from all intercourse with the continent of Europe. It began with the decree of Berlin on November the 21st 1806, by which the British Islands were declared to be in a state of blockade; all commerce, intercourse and correspondence were prohibited; every Briton found in France, or a country occupied by French troops, was declared a prisoner of war; all property belonging to Britons, fair prize, and all trade in goods from Britain or British colonies entirely prohibited.
Britain replied by orders in council prohibiting trade with French ports, and declaring all harbours of France and allies subjected to the same restrictions as if they were closely blockaded. Further decrees on the part of France, of a still more stringent kind, declared all vessels of whatever flag, which had been searched by a British vessel or paid duty to Britain, denationalised, and directing the burning of all British goods. The decrees were annulled at the fall of Napoleon in 1814. Research Continental System
Historically the Democratic Party was the most important of the American political parties, having been in continuous existence since the end of the 18th century. The rise of such a party, as soon as national politics began under the new Constitution, was natural. The love of individual liberty rather than strong government, was native in the minds of most Americans. Those who felt this most strongly would be likely to look with apprehension upon the Federal Government, and the possibility of its encroaching upon the States under cover of the new Federal Constitution. They were therefore likely to be advocates of strict construction of the Constitution and of States' rights. To these elements of party feeling, which had drawn the Anti-Federalists together in 1788, was added a few years later the strong sympathy of many Americans with the French Revolution, and the desire that Government should aid France in her contest with England.
Thomas Jefferson put himself at the head of the party drawn together by agreement in these sentiments, and led them in opposition to the Federalists. The party took the name of Democratic-Republican. Before Monroe's administration its members were more commonly called Republicans, since then most commonly Democrats. From the first the party was strongest in the Southern States. From its origin in 1792 to 1801, it was in opposition. In 1798 and 1799, upon the passage of the Alien and Sedition laws, it took strong ground for States' rights in the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions. The election of Jefferson. in 1801 brought it into power. The chief tenets of the party were, belief in freedom of religion, of politics, of speech and of the press, in popular rule, in peace, in economical government, in the utmost possible restriction of the sphere of government, in hospitality to immigrants, and in the avoidance of foreign complications.
Placed in control of the government, the majority of the party drifted away from its strict constructionist ground, and supported measures of a nationalizing character. After the War of 1812, the Federalist party went out of existence, and the Democratic party had complete possession of the field. In 1820, Monroe was re-elected without opposition. But opposing tendencies in the nation and in the party were already showing themselves, and preparing the way for a new party division, between the Whigs, advocates of protection and other nationalizing measures, and those Democrats who held to the old programme of States' rights and free trade and restricted government. With the accession of Jackson in 1829, new social strata came into power in the Democratic party, the widening of the suffrage giving it a more popular character. Managed by skilful politicians, not without the aid of the spoils system, the party won every Presidential election but two (1840, 1848) from this time to 1860, destroyed the US bank, annexed Texas, and carried the country through the war with Mexico. But meanwhile the slavery question, coming into increasing prominence, was gradually forcing a division between the Democrats of the South and the great body of those in the North, who were unwilling to go so far in the protection of slavery by national authority as was desired by their Southern allies. The final split came in the nominating convention of 1860.
Two candidates were nominated, Abraham Lincoln and the Republicans won the election, and the American Civil War broke out. Though many War Democrats aided the administration in preserving the Union, the party was discredited in the eyes of many by its previous connection with the Southern leaders and the pro-slavery cause, and won no Presidential election until that of 1884, when in the minds of many the war issues were extinct and economic questions had taken their place. Defeated in 1888, it was again successful in 1892. By the end of the 19th century the party was hardly more strict-constructionist than the Republican, nor more marked by devotion to States' rights and the party was mostly noted as the opponent of a high tariff.
By the end of the 20th century the differences between the Democratic party and Republicans had become blurred, though the Democratic party was generally perceived - not always accurately - as more left-wing or liberal than the Republicans. Research Democratic Party
The Rambouillet Decree was a decree issued by Napoleon, on March the 23rd,1810, ordering the immediate seizure and sale of American vessels, whether in French ports or those of territories occupied by French armies. This decree was not known in the United States until July. The decree was issued in retaliation for the repeal of the American non-intercourse act, Napoleon avowing his determination to prohibit any commercial intercourse with the allies of France which was not enjoyed by that country also. Research Rambouillet Decree
Rolls-Royce is an international company best known for its luxurious cars, but also providing power systems, aero engines and marine propulsion equipment.
Rolls-Royce grew from the electrical and mechanical business established by Henry Royce in 1884. Royce built his first motor car in 1904 and in May of that year met Charles Rolls, whose company sold quality cars in London. Agreement was reached that Royce Limited would manufacture a range of cars to be exclusively sold by CS Rolls & Co they were to bear the name Rolls-Royce. In 1906 following success with the cars the Rolls-Royce company was formed to the launch of the six-cylinder SilverGhost car which, within a year, was hailed as 'the best car in the world'. At the start of the Great War, in response to the nation's needs, Royce designed his first aero engine the Eagle, which provided half of the total horsepower used in the air war by the allies. In 1953 Rolls-Royce entered the civil aviation market with the Dart in the Vickers Viscount which was to become the cornerstone of the universal acceptance of the gas turbine by the airline industry. Research Rolls-Royce More information about Rolls-Royce
The Treaty of Tilsit was a peace agreement signed between France and the allies of Russia and Prussia after the defeat of the Russians at Friedland. The treaty was signed upon a raft in the middle of the River Memel at Tilsit on June the 25th 1807. The treaty left Russia a free hand in Sweden and Turkey, provided Russia maintain the continental system. Prussia lost her possessions west of the Elbe and the part of Poland she had obtained in the partition of 1793 - 1795. Prussia also had a heavy indemnity imposed upon her and her standing army reduced to 42000 men. Research Treaty of Tilsit
Acamthocephala are a compact group of cylindrical, parasitic worms, with no near allies in the animal kingdom. Its members are quite devoid of any mouth or alimentarycanal, but have a well-developed body cavity into which the eggs are dehisced and which communicates with the exterior by means of an oviduct. The size of the animals varies greatly, from some forms a few millimetres in length to Gigantorhynchus gigas, which measures from ten to 65 centimetres. The adults live in great numbers in the alimentarycanal of some vertebrate, usually fish, the larvae are as a rule encysted in the body cavity of some invertebrate, most often an insect or crustacean, more rarely a small fish. The body is divisible into a proboscis and a trunk with sometimes an intervening neck region. Research Acamthocephala
Amorphozoa is a term applied to some of the lower groups of animals, as the sponges and their allies, which have no regular symmetrical structure. Research Amorphozoa
The Australian Stock Horse or Waler is an Australian breed of horse standing 14.2 to 16.2 hands high and first imported during the 18th century from the South African Cape. They were originally used as ranch horses and as cavalry mounts, many being used by the Allies during the Great War. The Australian Stock Horse is usually bay in colour, similar in appearance to the Thoroughbred but with more bone. Research Australian Stock Horse
The bowfin or mud-fish (Amia calva) is a ganoidfish found in still water in the USA. Like its allies it has a well-developed swim-bladder, which functions as a lung, the animal rising to the surface to gulp air. Research Bowfin
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