Anti-Semitism, hostility to the Jews (Semites), has long been actively exhibited in severities and attacks of various kinds. A movement of the late 19th century manifested in various countries, especially Russia, Austria-Hungary, Germany, Romania, and France. It may have been attributed to different motives in different countries, but on the whole owed its origin less to the fact of the Jews being a 'peculiar people' by race and religion, than to the comparatively high position won by them in the financial and political worlds.
In Western Russia there was a great outburst against the Jews in 1881, in which men, women, and children were slaughtered. The Russian government, by its anti-Jewish policy, may be said to have sanctioned this murderous outbreak, which was followed by harsh laws and actual persecutions, though afterwards there was a mitigation of the severity shown towards the Jews. Yet in 1903 the world was startled by a terrible massacre of Jews at Kishinef, in Bessarabia, connived at by the authorities on the spot; and towards the end of 1905, in connection with the Russian revolutionary movement, there were dreadful massacres of Jews in Odessa, Kishinef, and other towns, the authorities being similarly involved. In Russia, hatred of the Jews was party due to the position they occupied throughout the country as money-lenders.
In Rumania their position resembled what it was elsewhere in mediaeval times, and was less favourable than it was even under the Turks. In Germany, even before Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party the movement was worked chiefly by politicians for their own ends, though the racial and religious question also had some influence; and among the ignorant the .belief that the Jews murder Christian children for ritual purposes was revived, as also in Austria-Hungary. In Austria-Hungary the movement was partly political, partly social and economic, partly religious.
In France anti-Semitism was employed chiefly as a weapon by monarchists and clericals as against republicanism, and by the socialists as against capitalism, racial antipathy having also its influence in the movements. In Britain, anti-Semitism was much less severe, owing to there having been a very large influx of Jews from the Continent, forming part of Britian's immigration policy.
Anti-Semitism hit a climax in the 1930's with Adolf Hitler and the German Nazi Party with the wholesale slaughter of Jews throughout Europe, which provided an excuse for other world powers to oppose Germany's expansion through war - though economic reasons seem much more likely - and culminated in the creation of a Jewish homeland in Palestine, subsequently named Israel, following the end of the Second World War. Research Anti-Semitism
Capital punishment is punishment by death. Capital punishment is retained in 92 countries and territories, including the 37 states of the USA, China, and Islamic countries. It was abolished in the UK in 1965 for all crimes except treason - in 1998 the death penalty for treason was finally abolished in the United Kingdom. Methods of execution include electrocution, lethal gas, hanging, shooting, lethal injection, garrotting, and decapitation. In Britain, the number of capital offences was reduced from over 200 at the end of the 18th century, until capital punishment was abolished in 1866 for all crimes except murder, treason, piracy, and certain arson attacks. Its use was subject to the royal prerogative of mercy. The punishment was carried out by hanging (in public until 1866).
The improvement in the penal laws of Europe in respect to the reduction of capital punishment may be traced in large part to the publication of Beccaria's treatise on Crimes and Punishments (Dei Delitti e delle Pene) in 1764. At that time in England, as Blackstone a year later pointed out with some amount of feeling, there were 160 capital offences in the statute book. The work of practical reform was initiated in 1770 by Sir William Meredith, who moved for a committee of inquiry into the state of the criminal laws; but the modifications secured by it were few, owing to the opposition of the House of Lords, which continued down to 1832 to oppose systematically all attempts at criminal law reform.
The publication of Madan's Thoughts on Executive Justice, in 1784, urging the stricter administration of the law as it then stood, brought out the opposition of Sir Samuel Romilly, who replied to it in 1785, and introduced at short intervals a series of bills for the abolition of the extreme sentence for minor offences. The influence of Paley and LordEllenborough, and the reaction from the revolutionary principles, which prior to the French Revolution had inaugurated great penal changes in France, told strongly against his efforts; and even his Shoplifting Act, to abolish the sentence of death in cases of theft to the value of five shillings, was resolutely rejected, though passed by the Commons in 1810, 1811, 1813, and 1816. Romilly's work was taken up by Sir James Mackintosh in 1820, and under Peel's ministry with greater success. At his death, however, in the year of the passage of the Reform Bill (1832) forty kinds of forgery with many less serious offences were still capital, though from that time the amelioration was rapid. In the five years following the Reform Act, the capital offences were reduced to 37, and subsequent changes left in 1861 only four capital charges - setting fire to H.M. dockyards or arsenals, piracy with violence, treason, and murder. By 1906 only treason and murder were capital offences in England, andScotland also, though robbery, rape, incest, and wilful fire-raising were still capital crimes in Scottish common law.
Prior to 1868 executions were conducted in public in England, but then in 1868 the law changed that all executions were to be conducted in private within the prison walls. Capital punishment for murder was abolished in the United Kingdom in 1965 but still exists for treason, and during the 1980's it was revealed that the police had a shoot-to-kill and summary execution policy for those suspected of being terrorists. In 2005 a 27 year old Brazilian man was executed by being shot seven times in the head and once in the shoulder after being tackled to the ground by plain clothed police officers who mistakenly believed him to be a suicide bomber.
In 1990, Ireland abolished the death penalty for all offences. In Saudi Arabia execution is by beheading in public. Countries that have abolished the death penalty fall into three categories: those that have abolished it for all crimes (44 countries); those that retain it only for exceptional crimes such as war crimes (17 countries); and those that retain the death penalty for ordinary crimes but have not executed anyone since 1980 (25 countries and territories).
The first country in Europe to abolish the death penalty was Romania in 1864, followed by Portugal in 1867, Holland in 1870, and by Switzerland in 1874. In the USA, the Supreme Court declared capital punishment unconstitutional in 1972, as a cruel and unusual punishment, but decided in 1976 that this was not so in all circumstances. It was therefore reintroduced in some states. Many countries use capital punishment for crimes other than murder, such as drug offences (in Malaysia and elsewhere). In 1977 the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights ruled out imposition of the death penalty on those under the age of 18. The covenant was signed by President Carter on behalf of the USA, but in 1989 the US Supreme Court decided that it could be imposed from the age of 16 for murder, and that the mentally retarded could also face the death penalty. Research Capital Punishment
The ISO (International Standards Organisation) assigns a two character code to each country name. These codes are used by Internet 'whois' databases (these two character abbreviations are the whois country codes) and also other applications.
The Carpathian (Karpacka or Carpatina) is a European breed of long-haired goat. Often white in colour, they also occur in other colours and have twisted horns. They are kept for meat and milk production in Poland and Romania. Research Carpathian
Struthiosaurus was a dinosaur of the Cretaceous period. It was a small, armoured dinosaur about 180 centimetres long, that walked on all fours. Struthiosaurus had a small head and five different kinds of bony armour including plates with a big spine and a pair of long spines on the shoulders. Remains of Struthiosaurus have been found in Europe, particularly in the Transylvania region of Romania. Research Struthiosaurus
Carol I was a king of Romania. He was born in 1839 and died in 1914. A prince of the house of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, he was invited to become Prince of Romania, then under Turkish suzerainty in 1866. In 1877, in alliance with Russia, he declared war on Turkey and the treaty of Berlin recognized Rumanian independence. In 1881 he was crowned king. Research Carol I
Carol II was a King of Romania. He was born in 1893 and died in 1952. A son of King Ferdinand, he married PrincessHelen of Greece, who bore him a son, Michael. In 1925 he renounced the succession, and settled in Paris with his mistress, Lupescu. Michael succeeded to the throne in 1927 but in 1930 Carol returned to Romania and was proclaimed king. In 1938 he introduced a new constitution under which he became practically absolute. He was forced to abdicate by the pro-German Iron Guard in September 1940, and withdrew to Mexico with Lupescu, whom he married in 194. Research Carol II
Chasidim or Pietists was the name of a Jewish sect which appeared in the middle of the 18th century. Its adherents were strongly inclined to mysticism, depreciated the Old Testament and its ordinances, believed in extraordinary cures, etc. They were most numerous in Russian Poland, Romania, and some parts of Galicia and Hungary, and were regarded with great antipathy by the orthodox Jews. Chasidim is also the name given to a sect which sprang up about the 2nd century BC. This party is credited with the origin of the revolt of the Maccabees, with combating the erroneous notions bred among the Jews by the study of Grecian philosophy, and with being the parent stock of the Pharisees. Research Chasidim
Ferdinand I was emperor of Germany. He was born in 1503 at Alcala, in Spain and died in 1564. The brother of Charles V, in 1522 he received the Austrian lands of the house of Hapsburg from the emperor, to which were afterwards added the kingdoms of Hungary and Bohemia in right of his wife Anna of Hungary. On the abdication of Charles he succeeded to the imperial title.
Ferdinand I (previously Ferdinand IV of Naples) of Bourbon was King of the Two Sicilies. He was born in 1751 and died in 1825. He was the third son of Charles III, King of Spain, whom he succeeded in 1759, on the throne of Naples, on the accession of the latter to that of Spain. In 1768 he married MariaCarolineLouisa, daughter of the EmpressMaria Theresa, who soon acquired a decided influence over him.
After the death of Louis XVIFerdinand joined the coalition against France, and took part in the general war from 1793 to 1796; but in 1799, after the defeat of the Neapolitans under General Mack, the French took possession of the whole kingdom, and proclaimed the Parthenopean Republic. The new republic did not last long. Ferdinand returned to Naples in 1800. Six years later he was again driven from Naples by the French, and compelled to take refuge in Sicily, where he maintained himself by the aid of the British.
The Congress of Vienna finally re-established Ferdinand IV in all his rights as King of the Two Sicilies in 1814, while Naples was still occupied by Murat. But after the flight of the latter in March, 1815, Ferdinand once more entered Naples, on June the 17th, 1815. In 1816 he assumed the title of Ferdinand I, King of the Two Sicilies. In 1820, in consequence of a revolution, Ferdinand was obliged to swear to support a new and more liberal constitution. The Austrians, however, came to his help, and re-established him in possession of absolute power.
Ferdinand I was Emperor of Austria. He was born in 1793 and died in 1875.
Ferdinand I was King of Romania. He was born in 1865 and died in 1927.
Ferdinand I was a Holy Roman Emperor. He was born in 1503 and died in 1564. Research Ferdinand I
The Probert Encyclopaedia was designed, edited and programed by
Matt and Leela Probert
Abbreviations
Research Anti-Semitism
