Research Results For 'Unbroken'

SEA ROCKET

Sea Rocket (Cakile maritima) is an ascending, hairless annual of the family Cruciferae, found on European coasts. It has often branching stems, and shiny, fleshy leaves, which vary from pinnately cut to unbroken at the margins. The flowers, which vary in colour from violet through pink to white, are carried towards the stem-tips.
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BRUISE

A bruise is the result of lacerations of subcutaneous tissues, the skin itself being unbroken. They commonly result from direct violence, such as a blow with a blunt weapon, a crush or a pinch but are also produced by sudden violent muscular efforts. The softer the flesh the more easily it is bruised and fatty tissues bruise easily.
Research Bruise

BATTLE OF BOYACA

The Battle of Boyaca was one of the decisive battles in the wars of independence waged against Spain by its South American colonies. It was fought on August the 7th, 1819, near Boyaca in New Granada (now Colombia), between a Spanish army and a colonial army from Venezuela and New Granada led by Simon Bolivar. The victory of the South Americans laid the basis for the independence of New Granada and Venezuela. It was the first in a nearly unbroken string of victories that culminated at the Battle of Ayacucho.
Research Battle of Boyaca

SEVEN DAYS

The Seven Days were an unbroken series of battles, between the Federal and Confederate troops, lasting from June the 26th to July the 2nd, 1862 during the American Civil War around Richmond. McClellan's army was 92,500 strong, on June the 26th; Lee's forces numbered 80,762. On June the 26th, A P Hill, with 30,000 Confederates, defeated and drove the Nationals from Mechanicsville. On June the 27th, Longstreet, Jackson and Hill, with 55,000 Confederates, attacked and routed 25,000 Federals under Porter at Games' Mills on the Chickahominy. Porter crossed the river to Savage's Station, where he defeated Magruder on June the 28th. On June the 29 and 30th, the Federals were again defeated at Frayser's Farm and White Oak Swamp. McClellan retreated to Malvern Hill, where a furious but indecisive battle occurred. After this McClellan retreated to the James. During the Seven Days' fight the Federals lost 15,249 men; the Confederates 19,000.
Research Seven Days

TESTUDO

The testudo was a Roman military formation employed especially in siege operations. The formation consisted of the soldiers holding their shields above their heads in an overlapping arrangement thereby forming a firm and unbroken covering. Thus protected the attacking party could approach the defenders until close enough to engage.
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UNBROKEN

HMS Unbroken was a British Ursula Class submarine of 540 tons displacement launched in the early 1940s. She was armed with one small gun and six 21-inch torpedo tubes in the bow. She had a top speed of 11.25 knots surfaced and 10 knots submerged and carried a complement of 27.
Research Unbroken

AFRICA

Africa is one of the three great divisions of the Old World, and the second in extent of the five principal continents of the globe, forming a vast peninsula joined to Asia by the Isthmus of Suez. It is of a compact form, with few important projections or indentations, and having therefore a very small extent of coast-line (about 16,000 miles, or much less than that of Europe) in proportion to its area. This continent extends from 37 degrees 20 minutes North latitude to 34 degrees 50 minutes South latitude, and the extreme points, Cape Blanco and Cape Agulhas, are nearly 5000 miles apart. Erom west to east, between Cape Verde, longitude 17 degrees 34 minutes West, and Cape Guardafui, longitude 51 degrees 16 minutes East, the distance is about 4600 miles. The area is more than three times that of Europe. The islands belonging to Africa are not numerous, and, except Madagascar, none of them are large. They include Madeira, the Canaries, Cape Verde Islands, Fernando Po, Prince's Island, St Thomas, Ascension Island, St Helena, Mauritius, Bourbon, the Comoros, Socotra, etc.

Almost all round the interior of Africa, at no great distance from the sea, and, roughly speaking, parallel with the coast-line, we find ranges of mountains or elevated lands forming the outer edges of interior plateaux. The most striking feature of Northern Africa is the immense tract known as the Sahara or Great Desert, which is inclosed on the north by the Atlas Mountains, the plateau of Barbary and that of Barca, on the east by the mountains along the west coast of the Red Sea, on the west by the Atlantic Ocean, and on the south by the Sudan. The Sahara is by no means the sea of sand it has sometimes been represented: it contains elevated plateaux and even mountains radiating in all directions, with habitable valleys between. A considerable nomadic population is scattered over the habitable parts, and in the more favoured regions there are settled communities.

The Sudan, which lies to the south of the Sahara, and separates it from the more elevated plateau of Southern Africa, forms a belt of pastoral country across Africa, and includes the countries on the Niger, around Lake Tchad (or Chad), and eastwards to the elevated region of Ethiopia.

Southern Africa as a whole is much more fertile and well watered than Northern Africa, though it also has a desert tract of considerable extent - the Kalahari Desert. This division of the continent consists of a table-land, or series of table-lands, of considerable elevation and great diversity of surface, exhibiting hollows filled with great lakes, and terraces over which the rivers break in falls and rapids, as they find their way to the low-lying coast tracts. The mountains which inclose Southern Africa are mostly much higher on the east than on the west, the most northerly of the former being those of Ethiopia, with heights of 10,000 to 14,000 or 16,000 feet, while the eastern edge of the Abyssinian plateau presents a steep unbroken line of 7000 feet in height for many hundred miles.

The Nile is the only great river of Africa which flows to the Mediterranean, It receives its waters primarily from the great lake Victoria Nyanza, which lies under the equator, and in its upper course is fed by tributary streams of great size, but for the last 1200 miles of its course it has not a single affluent. It drains an area of more than 1,000,000 square miles. The Indian Ocean receives numerous rivers; but the only great river of South Africa which enters that ocean is the Zambesi, the fourth in size of the continent, and having in its course the Victoria Falls, one of the greatest waterfalls in the world. In Southern Africa also, but flowing westward and entering the Atlantic, is the Congo, which takes origin from a series of lakes and marshes in the interior, is fed by great tributaries, and is the first in volume of all the African rivers, carrying to the ocean more water than the Mississippi. Unlike most of the African rivers, the mouth of the Congo forms an estuary. Of the other Atlantic rivers, the Senegal, the Gambia, and the Niger are the largest, the last being third among African streams.

With the exception of Lake Tchad there are no great lakes in the northern division of Africa, whereas in the number and magnificence of its lakes the southern division almost rivals North America. Here are the Victoria and Albert Nyanza, Lakes Tanganyika, Nyassa, Shirwa, Bangweolo, Moero, and other lakes. Of these the Victoria and Albert belong to the basin of the Nile;
Tanganyika, Bangweolo, and Moero to that of the Congo; Nyassa, by its affluent the Shire,to the Zambesi. Lake Tchad on the borders of the northern desert region, and Lake Ngami on the borders of the southern, have a remarkable resemblance in position, and in the fact that both are drained by streams that lose themselves in the sand.

The climate of Africa is mainly influenced by the fact that it lies almost entirely within the tropics. In the equatorial belt, both north and south, rain is abundant and vegetation very luxuriant, dense tropical forests prevailing for about 10 degrees on either side of the line. To the north and south of the equatorial belt the rainfall diminishes, and the forest region is succeeded by an open pastoral and agricultural country. This is followed by the rainless regions of the Sahara on the north and the Kalahari Desert on the south, extending beyond the tropics, and bordering on the agricultural and pastoral countries of the north and south coasts, which lie entirely in the temperate zone. The low coast regions of Africa are almost everywhere unhealthy, the Atlantic coast within the tropics being the most harsh region to Europeans.

Among mineral productions may be mentioned gold, which is found in the rivers of West Africa (hence the name Gold Coast), and in Southern Africa, most abundantly in the Transvaal; diamonds were found in large numbers at the end of the 19th century in the south; iron, copper, lead, tin, and coal are also found.

As regards both plants and animals, northern Africa, adjoining the Mediterranean, is distinguished from the rest of Africa in its great agreement with southern Europe. Among the most characteristic African animals are the lion, hyena, jackal, gorilla, chimpanzee, baboon, African elephant (never domesticated, and formerly yielding much ivory to trade), hippopotamus, rhinoceros, giraffe, zebra, quagga, antelopes in great variety and immense numbers. Among birds are the ostrich, the secretary-bird or snake-eater, the honey-guide cuckoo, sacred ibis, guinea-fowl. The reptiles include the crocodile, chameleon, and snakes of various kinds, some of them very venomous. Among insects are locusts, scorpions, the tsetse-fly whose bite is so fatal to cattle, and white-ants.

During the 19th century great areas in Africa were apportioned among European powers as protectorates or spheres of influence. During the 20th century these artificially created countries became independent and terrible civil wars ensued between rival tribes who had been articially forced together by European boundaries.

The name Africa was given by the Romans at first only to a small district in the immediate neighbourhood of Carthage. The Greeks called Africa Libya, and the Romans often used the same name. The first African exploring expedition on record was sent by Pharaoh Necho about the end of the seventh century B.C. to circumnavigate the continent. The navigators, who were Phoenicians, were absent three years, and according to report they accomplished their object. Fifty or a hundred years later, Hanno, a Carthaginian, made a voyage down the west coast and seems to have got as far as the Bight of Benin. The east coast was probably known to the ancients as far as Mozambique and the island of Madagascar. Of modern nations the Portuguese were the first to take in hand the exploration of Africa. In 1433 they doubled Cape Bojador, in 1441 reached Cape Blanco, in 1442 Cape Verde, in 1462 they discovered Sierra Leone. In 1484 the Portuguese Diego Cam discovered the mouth of the Congo. In 1486 Bartholomew Diaz rounded the Cape of Good Hope and reached Algoa Bay. A few years later a Portuguese traveller visited Abyssinia - now Ethipioa. In 1497 Vasco da Gama, who was commissioned to find a route by sea to India, sailed round the southern extremity as far as Zanzibar, discovering Natal on his way. The first European settlements were those of the Portuguese in Angola and Mozambique, soon after 1500. In 1650 the Dutch made a settlement at the Cape. In 1770 James Bruce reached the source of the Blue Nile in Abyssinia. For the exploration of the interior of Africa, however, little was done before the close of the 18th century.

Modern African exploration maybe said to begin with Mungo Park, who reached the upper course of the Niger between 1795 and 1805. Dr. Lacerda, a Portuguese, about the same time reached the capital of the Cazembe, in the centre of South Africa, where he died. In 1802 - 1806 two Portuguese traders crossed the continent from Angola, through the Cazembe's dominions, to the Portuguese possessions on the Zambesi. In 1822 - 1824 extensive explorations were made in Northern and Western Africa by Denham, Clapperton, and Oudney, who proceeded from Tripoli by Murzuk to Lake Tchad, and explored the adjacent regions; Laing, in 1826, crossed the desert from Tripoli to Timbuctoo; Caillie, leaving Senegal, made in 1827 - 1828 a journey to Timbuctoo, and thence through the desert to Morocco. In 1830 Lander traced a large part of the course of the Niger downward to its mouth, discovering its tributary the Benue. In the south David Livingstone, who was stationed as a missionary at Kolobeng, setting out from that place in 1849 discovered Lake Ngami. In 1851 he went north again, and came upon numerous rivers flowing north, affluents of the Zmbesi.

In 1848 and 1849 Krapf and Rebmann, missionaries in East Africa, discovered the mountains Kilimanjaro and Kenya. An expedition sent out by the British government started from Tripoli in 1850 to visit the Sahara and the regions around Lake Tchad, the chiefs being Richardson, Overweg, and Barth. The last alone returned in 1855, having carried his explorations over 2,000,000 sq. miles of this part of Africa, hitherto almost unknown. In 1853 - 1856 David Livingstone made an important series of explorations. He first went north-westwards, tracing part of the Upper Zambesi, and reached St Paul de Loanda on the west coast in 1854. On his return journey he followed pretty nearly the same route until he reached the Zambesi, and proceeding down the river, and visiting its falls, called by him the Victoria Falls, he arrived at Quilimane at its mouth on the 20th of May, 1856, thus crossing the continent from sea to sea. In 1858 he resumed his exploration of the Zambesi regions, and in various journeys visited Lakes Shirwa and Nyassa, sailed up the Shire to the latter lake, and established the general features of the geography of this part of Africa, returning to England in 1864.

By this time the great lakes of equatorial Africa were becoming known, Tanganyika and Victoria having been discovered by Burton and Speke in 1858, and the latter having been visited by Speke and Grant in 1862 and found to give rise to the Nile, while the Albert Nyanza was discovered by Baker in 1864. In 1866 David Livingstone entered on his last great series of explorations, the main object of which was to settle the position of the water-sheds in the interior of the continent, and which he carried on until his death in 1873. His most important explorations on this occasion were west and south-west of Tanganyika, including the discovery of Lakes Bangweolo and Moero, and part of the upper course of the river Congo (here called Lualaba). For over two years he was lost to the knowledge of Europe until met with by Henry Stanley at Tanganyika in 1871.

Gerhard Rohlfs, in a succession of journeys from 1861 to 1874 traversed the Sahara in various directions, and crossed the continent entirely from Tripoli to Lagos by way of Murzuk, Bornu, etc. In 1873 - 1875 Lieutenant Cameron, who had been sent in search of David Livingstone, surveyed Lake Tanganyika, explored the country to the west of it, and then travelling to the south-west, finally reached Benguela on the Atlantic coast. In 1874 - 1777 Henry Stanley surveyed Lakes Victoria Nyanza and Tanganyika and explored the intervening country, then going westward to where David Livingstone had struck the Congo he followed the river down to its mouth, thus finally settling its course and completing a remarkable and valuable series of explorations. In 1879 Serpa Pinto completed a journey across the continent from Benguela to Natal, and in 1881 - 1882 Wissman and Pogge crossed it again from St Paul de Loanda to Zanzibar. Around 1900 European knowledge of this part of Africa was rapidly increased through the efforts of travellers, missionaries, and commercial agents, and many European settlements made. By 1906 on the Upper Congo, and on Lakes Tanganyika and Nyaasa there were a number of steamers, and railways extended far into the continent.
Research Africa

AUSTRIA

Austria (in German Oesterreich that is, Eastern Empire) is a republic (formed in 1918 following the overthrow of the last Hapsburg emperor) in central Europe - prior to 1918 Austria or Austria-Hungary as it was also known, was an extensive duplex monarchy covering most of central Europe, inhabited by several distinct nationalities, and consisting of two semi-independent countries, each with its own parliament and government, but with one common sovereign, army, and system of diplomacy, and also with a common parliament.

Austria has a total area of 83,850 km2. The climate is temperate; continental, cloudy with cold winters with frequent rain in the lowlands and snow in the mountains; cool summers with occasional showers. The terrain is mostly mountains with the Alps in the west and south; mostly flat, with gentle slopes along the eastern and northern margins. Natural resources are iron ore, crude oil, timber, magnesite, aluminium, lead, coal, lignite, copper and hydropower. The religion is 85% Roman Catholic, 6% Protestant and 9% other. The language - historically a cause of great controversy - is, since the break-up of the Austria-Hungarian empire German.

In 791 Charlemagne drove the Avars from the territory between the Ens and the Raab, and united it to his empire under the name of the Eastern Mark (that is March or boundary land); and from the establishment by him of a margraviate in this new province the present empire took its rise. On the invasion of Germany by the Hungarians it became subject to them from 900 until 955, when Otho I, by the victory of Augsburg, reunited a great part of this province to the German Empire, which by 1043 had extended its limits to the Leitha. The margraviate of Austria was hereditary in the family of the counts of Babenberg (Bamberg) from 982 until 1156, in which year the boundaries of Austria were extended so as to include the territory above the Ens, and the whole was created a duchy.

The territory was still further increased in 1192 by the gift of the duchy of Styria as a fief from the Emperor Henry VI, Vienna being by this time the capital. The male line of the house of Bamberg became extinct in 1246, and the Emperor Frederick II declared Austria and Styria a vacant fief, the hereditary property of the German emperors. In 1282 the Emperor Rudolph granted Austria, Styria, and Garinthia, to his two sons, Albert and Rudolph. The former became sole ruler (duke), and from then until the end of the Great War Austria was under the reigning house of Hapsburg. Albert, who was an energetic ruler, was elected emperor in 1298, but was assassinated in 1308. The first of his successors worthy of mention was Albert V, son-in-law of the Emperor Sigismund. He assisted Sigismund in the Hussite wars, and was elected after his death King of Hungary and of Bohemia, and German emperor in 1438. Ladislaus, his posthumous son, was the last of the Austrian line proper, and its possessions devolved upon the collateral Styrian line in 1457; since which time the house of Austria furnished an unbroken succession of German emperors.

In 1458 the Emperor Frederick III, a member of this house, had conferred upon the country the rank of an archduchy before he himself became ruler of all Austria. His son Maximilian I, by his marriage with Mary, the surviving daughter of Charles the Bold, united the Netherlands to the Austrian dominions. After the death of his father in 1493 Maximilian was made Emperor of Germany, and transferred to his son Philip the government of the Netherlands. He also added to his paternal inheritance Tyrol, with several other territories, particularly some belonging to Bavaria, and acquired for his family new claims to Hungary and Bohemia. The marriage of his son Philip to Joanna of Spain raised the house of Hapsburg to the throne of Spain. Philip, however, died in 1506, and the death of Maximilian in 1519 was followed by the union of Spain and Austria; his grandson (the eldest son of Philip), Charles I, king of Spain, being elected Emperor of Germany as Charles V. Charles thus became the greatest monarch in Europe, but in 1521 he ceded to his brother Ferdinand all his dominions in Germany.

Ferdinand I, by his marriage with Anna, the sister of Louis II, king of Hungary, acquired the kingdoms of Hungary and Bohemia, with Moravia, Silesia, and Lusatia, the appendages of Bohemia. To oppose him the way-wode of Transylvania, John Zapolya, sought the help of the sultan, Soliman II, who appeared in 1529 at the gates of Vienna, but was compelled to retreat. In 1535 a treaty was made by which John von Zapolya was allowed to retain the royal title and half of Hungary, but after his death new disputes arose, and Ferdinand maintained the possession of Lower Hungary only by paying Soliman the sum of 30,000 ducats annually from 1562. In 1556 Ferdinand obtained the imperial crown, when his brother Charles laid by the sceptre for a cowl. He died in 1564, leaving his territories to be divided amongst his three sons.

Maximilian II, the eldest, succeeded his father as emperor, obtaining Austria, Hungary, and Bohemia; Ferdinand, the second son, received Tyrol and Hither Austria; and Charles, the youngest, obtained Styria, Carinthia, Carniola, and Gorz. Maximilian died in 1576, and was succeeded in the imperial throne by his eldest son Rudolph II, who had already been crowned King of Hungary in 1572, and King of Bohemia, in 1575. Rudolph's reign was distinguished by the war against Turkey and Transylvania; the persecutions of the Protestants, who were driven from his dominions; the cession of Hungary in 1608; and in 1611 of Bohemia and his hereditary estates in Austria to his brother Matthias. Matthias, who succeeded Maximilian on the imperial throne, concluded a peace with the Turks, but was disturbed by the Protestant Bohemians, who took up arms in defence of their religious rights, thus commencing the Thirty Years' War. After his death in 1619 the Bohemians refused to acknowledge his successor, Ferdinand II, until after the battle of Prague in 1620, when Bohemia had to submit, and was deprived of the right of choosing her king. Lutheranism was strictly forbidden in all the Austrian dominions.

Hungary, which revolted under Bethlem Gabor, prince of Transylvania, was, after a long struggle, subdued. During the reign of Ferdinand III (1637-1657), successor of Ferdinand IL Austria was continually the theatre of war;
Lusatia was ceded to Saxony in 1635; and Alsace to France in 1648, when peace was restored in Germany by the Treaty of Westphalia.

The Emperor Leopold I, son and successor of Ferdinand III, was victorious through the talents of Eugene in two wars with Turkey; and Vienna was delivered by Sobieski and the Germans from the attacks of Kara Mustapha in 1683. In 1687 he united Hungary to Transylvania, and in 1699 restored to Hungary the country lying between the Danube and the Theiss. It was the chief aim of Leopold to secure to Charles, his second son, the inheritance of the Spanish monarchy, and in 1701, upon the victory of French diplomacy in the appointment of the grandson of Louis XIV, the war of the Spanish succession commenced. Leopold died in 1705, but Joseph I, his eldest son, continued the war. As he died without children in 1711, his brother Charles was elected emperor, but was obliged to accede in 1714 to the Peace of Utrecht, by which Austria received the Netherlands, Milan, Mantua, Naples, and Sardinia. In 1720 Sicily was given to Austria in exchange for Sardinia. This monarchy now embraced over 190,000 square miles; but its power was weakened by new wars with Spain and France. In the peace concluded at Vienna (1735 and 1738) Charles VI was forced to cede Naples and Sicily to Spain and part of Milan to the King of Sardinia; and in 1739, by the Peace of Belgrade, he was obliged to transfer to the Porte Belgrade, Serbia, etc, partly in order to secure the succession to his daughter Maria Theresa by the Pragmatic Sanction. He died in 1740.

On the marriage of Maria Theresa with Stephen, duke of Lorraine (the dynasty henceforth being that of Hapsburg-Lorraine), and her accession to the Austrian throne, the empire was threatened with dismemberment. Frederick II of Prussia subdued Silesia; the Elector of Bavaria was crowned in Lintz and Prague, and in 1742 chosen emperor under the name of Charles VII; Hungary alone supported the heroic and beautiful queen. Charles, however, died in 1745, and the husband of Theresa was crowned Emperor of Germany as Francis I; but a treaty concluded in 1745 confirmed to Frederick the possession of Silesia, and by the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, 1748, Austria was obliged to cede the duchies of Parma, Piacenza, and Guastalla to Philip, Infant of Spain, and several districts of Milan to Sardinia. To recover Silesia Maria Theresa formed an alliance with France, Russia, Saxony, and Sweden, and entered upon the Seven Years' War; but by the Peace of Hubertsberg, 1763, Silesia was recognized as Prussian territory.

On the death of Francis I in 1765 Joseph II, his eldest son, was appointed to assist his mother in the government and elected Emperor of Germany. The partition of Poland in 1772 gave Galicia and Lodomeria to Austria, which also obtained Bukowina from the Porte in 1777. At the death of the empress in 1780 Austria contained 235,000 square miles, with a pop. estimated at 24,000,000.

The liberal home administration of the empress was continued and extended by her successor, Joseph II, who did much to further the spread of religious tolerance, education, and the industrial arts. The Low Countries, however, revolted, and he was unsuccessful in the war of 1788 against the Porte. His death took place in 1790. He was succeeded by his eldest brother, Leopold II, under whom peace was restored in the Netherlands, and in Hungary, and also with the Porte. On the death of his sister and her husband Louis XVI of France he formed an alliance with Prussia, but died in 1792, before the French revolutionary war broke out.

His son, Francis II, succeeded, and was elected German emperor, by which time France had declared war against him as King of Hungary and Bohemia. In 1795, in the third division of Poland, West Galicia fell to Austria, and by the Peace of Campo-Formio in 1797 she received the largest part of the Venetian territory as compensation for her loss of Lombardy and the Netherlands. In 1799 Francis, in alliance with Russia, renewed the war with France until 1801, when the Peace of Luneville was concluded. In 1804 Francis declared himself hereditary Emperor of Austria as Francis I, and united all his states under the name of the Empire of Austria, immediately taking up arms once more with his allies Russia and Great Britain against France. The war of 1805 was terminated by the Peace of Pressburg on December the 26th, by which Francis had to cede to France the remaining provinces of Italy, as well as to give up portions of territory to Bavaria, Wtirtemberg, and Baden, receiving in return Salzburg and Berchtesgaden. After the formation of the Confederation of the Rhine on July the 12th 1806 Francis was forced to resign his dignity as Emperor of Germany, which had been in his family more than 500 years. A new war with France in 1809 cost the monarchy 42,380 square miles of territory and 3,500,000 subjects. Napoleon married Maria Louisa, daughter of the emperor, and in 1812 concluded an alliance with him against Russia. But in 1813 Francis again declared war against France, and formed an alliance with Britain, Russia, Prussia, and Sweden against his son-in-law. By the Congress of Vienna (1815) Austria gained Lombardy and Venetia, and recovered, together with Dalmatia, the hereditary territories which it had been obliged to cede.

In the troubled period following the French revolution of 1830 insurrections took place in Modena, Parma, and the Papal States (1831-1832), but were suppressed without much difficulty; and though professedly neutral during the Polish insurrections Austria clearly showed herself on the side of Russia, with whom her relations became more intimate as those between Great Britain and France grew more cordial. The death of Francis I in 1835 and accession of his son Ferdinand I made little change in the Austrian system of government, and much discontent was the consequence. In 1846 the failure of the Polish insurrection led to the incorporation of Cracow with Austria. In Italy the declarations of Pio Nono in favour of reform increased the difficulties of Austria, and in Hungary the opposition under Kossuth and others assumed the form of a great constitutional movement. In 1848, when the expulsion of Louis Philippe shook all Europe, Metternich found it impossible any longer to guide the helm of the state, and the government was compelled to admit a free press and the right of citizens to arms. Apart from the popular attitude in Italy and in Hungary, where the diet declared itself permanent under the presidency of Kossufch, the insurrection made equal progress in Vienna itself, and the royal family, no longer in safety, removed to Innsbruck. After various ministerial changes the emperor abdicated in favour of his nephew, Francis Joseph; more vigorous measures were adopted; and Austria, aided by Russia, reduced Hungary to submission.

The year 1855 is memorable for the Concordat with the pope, which put the educational and ecclesiastical affairs of the empire entirely into the hands of the Papal see. In 1859 the hostile intentions of France and Sardinia against the possessions of Austria in Italy became so evident that she declared war by sending an army across the Ticino; but after disastrous defeats at Magenta and Solferino she was compelled to cede Milan and the north-west portion of Lombardy to Sardinia. In 1864 she joined with the German states in the war against Denmark, but a dispute about Schleswig-Holstein involved her in a war with her allies (1866), while at the same time Italy renewed her attempts for the recovery of Venice. The Italians were defeated at Custozza and driven back across the Mincio; but the Prussians, victorious at Koniggratz (or Sadowa), threatened Vienna. Peace was concluded with Prussia on August the 23rd and with Italy on October the 8th, the result of the war being the cession of Venetia through France to Italy and the withdrawal of Austria from all interference in the affairs of Germany.

After 1866 Austria was occupied chiefly with the internal affairs of the empire. Hungarian demands for self-government were finally agreed to, and the Empire of Austria divided into the two parts: the Cisleithan and the Transleithan. This settlement was consummated by the coronation of the Emperor Francis Joseph I, at Budapest, as King of Hungary, on the 8th of June, 1867. In the same year the Concordat of 1855 came up for discussion, and measures were passed for the re-establishment of civil marriage, the emancipation of schools from the domination of the church, and the placing of different creeds on a footing of equality. The fact of the Austro-Hungarian dominions comprising so many different nationalities had always given the central government much trouble, both in regard to internal and to external affairs. In regard to the ' Eastern Question,' for instance, the action of Austria had been hampered by the sympathies shown by the Magyars for their blood relations, the Turks, while the Slavs naturally were more favourable to Russia. During the war between Russia and Turkey in 1877-78 Austria remained neutral; but at its close, in the middle of 1878, it was decided, at the Congress of Berlin, that the provinces of Bosnia and Herzegovina should in future be administered by Austria-Hungary instead of Turkey.

Conflicts within the empire over the Balkan states led to the Great War, at the end of which many of the states declared their independence, and Austria became a smaller, independent republic itself. However, internal political divisions led to a civil war in 1934 in which the right-wing parties were victorious. Nazi supporters of the German leader, Adolf Hitler, made uprisings which were unsuccessful, and Hitler annexed Austria as part of the German Reich - though not without resistance from armed groups within Austria opposed to the Nazis. In 1945 with the end of the Second World War Austria became once more independent state.
Research Austria

ICELAND

The Republic of Iceland is a republic island in the north Atlantic situated between the North Atlantic and the Arctic Oceans, 250 miles from Greenland and about 600 miles west of Norway. It has a total area of 103,000 km2. The climate is temperate; moderated by the North Atlantic Current with mild, windy winters and damp, cool summers. The climate is mild for the latitude, but the summer is too cool and damp for agriculture to be carried on with much success. In the southern parts the longest day is twenty hours, and the shortest four, but in the most northern extremity the sun at midsummer continues above the horizon a whole week, and of course during a corresponding period in winter never rises. Vegetation is confined within narrow limits. Almost the only tree is the birch, which has a very stunted growth, the loftiest of them hardly exceeding three meters. There are various flowering plants, among which saxifrages, sedums, thrift or sea-pink, etc, are common. Heath and bilberry cover large stretches. Among mosses or lichens are the edible Iceland-moss, cole, potatoes, turnips, radishes, and similar roots thrive tolerably well. But by far the most valuable crop is grass, on which considerable numbers of live stock (sheep, cattle, ponies) are fed.

The reindeer, though not introduced beforel 770, has multiplied greatly and forms large herds in the interior; but they are of little importance economically. Wild-fowl, including the eider-duck whose down forms an important article of commerce, are abundant; the streams are well supplied with salmon, and on the coasts valuable fisheries of cod and herrings are carried on.

In shape Iceland somewhat resembles a heart with its narrowest point turned south. The coast-line for a considerable extent on the south-east is almost unbroken, but in all other directions presents a continued succession of deep bays or fiords and jutting promontories, thus affording a number of natural harbours. The interior has generally a very wild and desolate appearance, being covered by lofty mountain masses of volcanic origin, many of them crowned with perpetual snow and ice, which, stretching down their sides into the intervening valleys, form immense glaciers. These icy mountains, which take the common name of Jokul, have their culminating point in Orafajokul, which is situated near the south-east coast, and has a height of 6409 feet. Among the volcanoes the most celebrated is Mount Hecia, in the south, about 5000 feet high. Numerous hot springs or geysers are scattered throughout the island, but are found more especially in the south-west, to the north-east of Reikjavik. There are numerous lakes and rivers.

Natural resources are fish, hydroelectric and geothermal power, and diatomite, but the most valuable mineral product is sulphur. The religion is 95% Evangelical Lutheran, 3% other Protestant and Roman Catholic with 2% no affiliation. The language is Icelandic.

The inhabitants of Iceland are of Scandinavian origin, and speak a Scandinavian dialect, which still represents the old Norse or Norwegian in great purity. Some settlements of Irish monks had been made in Iceland about the end of the 8th century, but the island received the greatest proportion of its population from Norway. In 870 Harald Haarfager had made himself supreme in Norway, and as he treated the landed proprietors oppressively, numbers left the country and went to Iceland. In the course of sixty years all the habitable parts of the coast were settled. A settled government was established, a sort of aristocratic republic, which lasted for several centuries. In 1918 Iceland achieved independence, while sharing a monachy with Denmark until 1944 when the people voted for complete independence.

Christianity was introduced in 981, and adopted by law in 1000; and schools and two bishoprics, those of Holar and Skalholt, were established. The Latin language and the literature and learning of the West, introduced by Christianity, were all the more warmly received, because poetry and history had already been cultivated-.here more than elsewhere in the Germanic north.

Previously to this time the Icelanders had discovered Greenland in 983 and part of America about 1000, and they were now led to make voyages and travels to Europe and the East. Politically and ecclesiastically the most flourishing period of Iceland - the period too when its intercourse with the world abroad was most active - was from the middle of the 12th to the beginning of the 13th century. In 1264 Magnus VI of Norway united Iceland with his own kingdom, with which it passed to Denmark in 1380, remaining with the latter in 1814, when Norway was joined to Sweden,

The Icelandic language is the oldest of the Scandinavian group of tongues, and as it is believed to exhibit the Norse language nearly as it was spoken at the date of the colonization of Iceland, it is sometimes called Old Norse. It is rich in roots and grammatical forms, and soft and sonorous to the ear. Icelandic literature may be divided into an ancient period, extending to the fall of the republic, and a modern, extending from that date to the present time, the former being far the richest and most original. Poetry was early cultivated, and among the most important works in Icelandic literature is the collection of ancient heathen songs called the elder or poetic Edda. Histories and romantic works, known by the name of Sagas, are numerous.
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BACKSTEIN GOTHIC

Backstein Gothic describes a distinctive style of Gothic architecture that developed in northern Germany during the 14th century. The Backstein Gothic is a simplified form of Gothic architecture employing brick due to an absence of natural building stone. Because of the nature of the building materials available, the Backstein Gothic lacks decoration and instead uses large expanses of simple unbroken surfaces and enormous vertical windows.
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