NWE

E

A book is a set of written, printed, illustrated, or blank sheets, made of ink, paper, parchment, or other materials, fastened together to hinge at one side. A single sheet within a book is a leaf, and each side of a leaf is a page. A set of text-filled or illustrated pages produced in electronic format is known as an electronic book, or e-book. Books may also refer to works of literature, or a main division of such a work. In library and information science, a book is called a monograph, to distinguish it from serial periodicals such as magazines, journals, or newspapers. The body of all written works including books is literature. In novels and sometimes other types of books (for example, biographies), a book may be divided into several large sections, also called books (Book 1, Book 2, Book 3, and so on). An avid reader of books is a bibliophile or colloquially, bookworm. A shop where books are bought and sold is a bookshop or bookstore. Books can also be borrowed from libraries. Google has estimated that as of 2010, approximately 130,000,000 distinct titles had been published.[1] In some wealthier nations, printed books are giving way to the usage of electronic or e-books,[2] though sales of e-books declined in the first half of 2015.[3] Contents [hide] 1 Etymology 2 History of books 2.1 Antiquity 2.1.1 Tablet 2.1.2 Scroll 2.1.3 Codex 2.1.4 Manuscripts 2.1.5 Middle East 2.1.6 Wood block printing 2.1.7 Movable type and incunabula 2.2 Modern world 3 Book manufacture in modern times 3.1 Current processes 3.2 Finishing 4 Digital printing 4.1 E-book 5 Information explosion 6 Book design 7 Sizes 8 Types 8.1 By content 8.1.1 Fiction 8.1.2 Non-fiction 8.1.3 Other types 8.2 By physical format 9 Libraries 10 Identification and classification 10.1 Classification systems 11 Uses 12 Paper and conservation 13 See also 14 References 15 External links Etymology The word book comes from Old English "bōc", which in turn comes from the Germanic root "*bōk-", cognate to "beech".[4] Similarly, in Slavic languages (for example, Russian, Bulgarian, Macedonian) "буква" (bukva—"letter") is cognate with "beech". In Russian and in Serbian and Macedonian, the word "букварь" (bukvar') or "буквар" (bukvar) refers specifically to a primary school textbook that helps young children master the techniques of reading and writing. It is thus conjectured that the earliest Indo-European writings may have been carved on beech wood.[5] Similarly, the Latin word codex, meaning a book in the modern sense (bound and with separate leaves), originally meant "block of wood". History of books Main article: History of books Antiquity Sumerian language cuneiform script clay tablet, 2400-2200 BC When writing systems were created in ancient civilizations, a variety of objects, such as stone, clay, tree bark, metal sheets, might be used for writing. The study of such inscriptions forms a major part of history. The study of inscriptions is known as epigraphy. Alphabetic writing emerged in Egypt. The Ancient Egyptians would often write on papyrus, a plant grown along the Nile River. At first the words were not separated from each other (scriptura continua) and there was no punctuation. Texts were written from right to left, left to right, or even so that alternate lines read in opposite directions. The technical term for that last type of writing is 'boustrophedon', which means literally 'ox-turning' for the way a farmer drives an ox to plough his fields. Tablet A tablet might be defined as a physically robust writing medium, suitable for casual transport and writing. See also stylus. Clay tablets were flattened and mostly dry pieces of clay that could be easily carried, and impressed with a (possibly dampened) stylus. They were used as a writing medium, especially for writing in cuneiform, throughout the Bronze Age and well into the Iron Age. Wax tablets were pieces of wood covered in a thick enough coating of wax to record the impressions of a stylus. They were the normal writing material in schools, in accounting, and for taking notes. They had the advantage of being reusable: the wax could be melted, and reformed into a blank. The custom of binding several wax tablets together (Roman pugillares) is a possible precursor for modern books (i.e. codex).[6] The etymology of the word codex (block of wood) also suggests that it may have developed from wooden wax tablets.[7] Scroll Main article: Scroll Egyptian papyrus showing the god Osiris and the weighing of the heart. Papyrus, a thick paper-like material made by weaving the stems of the papyrus plant, then pounding the woven sheet with a hammer-like tool, was used for writing in Ancient Egypt, perhaps as early as the First Dynasty, although the first evidence is from the account books of King Nefertiti Kakai of the Fifth Dynasty (about 2400 BC).[8] Papyrus sheets were glued together to form a scroll. Tree bark such as lime and other materials were also used.[9] According to Herodotus (History 5:58), the Phoenicians brought writing and papyrus to Greece around the 10th or 9th century BC. The Greek word for papyrus as writing material (biblion) and book (biblos) come from the Phoenician port town Byblos, through which papyrus was exported to Greece.[10] From Greek we also derive the word tome (Greek: τόμος), which originally meant a slice or piece and from there began to denote "a roll of papyrus". Tomus was used by the Latins with exactly the same meaning as volumen (see also below the explanation by Isidore of Seville). Whether made from papyrus, parchment, or paper, scrolls were the dominant form of book in the Hellenistic, Roman, Chinese, Hebrew, and Macedonian cultures. The more modern codex book format form took over the Roman world by late antiquity, but the scroll format persisted much longer in Asia. Codex A Chinese bamboo book meets the modern definition of Codex Main article: Codex Isidore of Seville (died 636) explained the then-current relation between codex, book and scroll in his Etymologiae (VI.13): "A codex is composed of many books; a book is of one scroll. It is called codex by way of metaphor from the trunks (codex) of trees or vines, as if it were a wooden stock, because it contains in itself a multitude of books, as it were of branches." Modern usage differs. A codex (in modern usage) is the first information repository that modern people would recognize as a "book": leaves of uniform size bound in some manner along one edge, and typically held between two covers made of some more robust material. The first written mention of the codex as a form of book is from Martial, in his Apophoreta CLXXXIV at the end of the first century, where he praises its compactness. However, the codex never gained much popularity in the pagan Hellenistic world, and only within the Christian community did it gain widespread use.[11] This change happened gradually during the 3rd and 4th centuries, and the reasons for adopting the codex form of the book are several: the format is more economical, as both sides of the writing material can be used; and it is portable, searchable, and easy to conceal. A book is much easier to read, to find a page that you want, and to flip through. A scroll is more awkward to use. The Christian authors may also have wanted to distinguish their writings from the pagan and Judaic texts written on scrolls. In addition, some metal books were made, that required smaller pages of metal, instead of an impossibly long, unbending scroll of metal. A book can also be easily stored in more compact places, or side by side in a tight library or shelf space. Manuscripts Main article: Manuscript Folio 14 recto of the 5th century Vergilius Romanus contains an author portrait of Virgil. Note the bookcase (capsa), reading stand and the text written without word spacing in rustic capitals. The fall of the Roman Empire in the 5th century A.D. saw the decline of the culture of ancient Rome. Papyrus became difficult to obtain due to lack of contact with Egypt, and parchment, which had been used for centuries, became the main writing material. Monasteries carried on the Latin writing tradition in the Western Roman Empire. Cassiodorus, in the monastery of Vivarium (established around 540), stressed the importance of copying texts.[12] St. Benedict of Nursia, in his Rule of Saint Benedict (completed around the middle of the 6th century) later also promoted reading.[13] The Rule of Saint Benedict (Ch. XLVIII), which set aside certain times for reading, greatly influenced the monastic culture of the Middle Ages and is one of the reasons why the clergy were the predominant readers of books. The tradition and style of the Roman Empire still dominated, but slowly the peculiar medieval book culture emerged. Before the invention and adoption of the printing press, almost all books were copied by hand, which made books expensive and comparatively rare. Smaller monasteries usually had only a few dozen books, medium-sized perhaps a few hundred. By the 9th century, larger collections held around 500 volumes and even at the end of the Middle Ages, the papal library in Avignon and Paris library of the Sorbonne held only around 2,000 volumes.[14] Burgundian author and scribe Jean Miélot, from his Miracles de Notre Dame, 15th century. The scriptorium of the monastery was usually located over the chapter house. Artificial light was forbidden for fear it may damage the manuscripts. There were five types of scribes: Calligraphers, who dealt in fine book production Copyists, who dealt with basic production and correspondence Correctors, who collated and compared a finished book with the manuscript from which it had been produced Illuminators, who painted illustrations Rubricators, who painted in the red letters The bookmaking process was long and laborious. The parchment had to be prepared, then the unbound pages were planned and ruled with a blunt tool or lead, after which the text was written by the scribe, who usually left blank areas for illustration and rubrication. Finally, the book was bound by the bookbinder.[15] Desk with chained books in the Malatestiana Library of Cesena, Italy. Different types of ink were known in antiquity, usually prepared from soot and gum, and later also from gall nuts and iron vitriol. This gave writing a brownish black color, but black or brown were not the only colors used. There are texts written in red or even gold, and different colors were used for illumination. For very luxurious manuscripts the whole parchment was colored purple, and the text was written on it with gold or silver (for example, Codex Argenteus).[16] Irish monks introduced spacing between words in the 7th century. This facilitated reading, as these monks tended to be less familiar with Latin. However, the use of spaces between words did not become commonplace before the 12th century. It has been argued that the use of spacing between words shows the transition from semi-vocalized reading into silent reading.[17] The first books used parchment or vellum (calfskin) for the pages. The book covers were made of wood and covered with leather. Because dried parchment tends to assume the form it had before processing, the books were fitted with clasps or straps. During the later Middle Ages, when public libraries appeared, up to the 18th century, books were often chained to a bookshelf or a desk to prevent theft. These chained books are called libri catenati. At first, books were copied mostly in monasteries, one at a time. With the rise of universities in the 13th century, the Manuscript culture of the time led to an increase in the demand for books, and a new system for copying books appeared. The books were divided into unbound leaves (pecia), which were lent out to different copyists, so the speed of book production was considerably increased. The system was maintained by secular stationers guilds, which produced both religious and non-religious material.[18] Judaism has kept the art of the scribe alive up to the present. According to Jewish tradition, the Torah scroll placed in a synagogue must be written by hand on parchment and a printed book would not do, though the congregation may use printed prayer books and printed copies of the Scriptures are used for study outside the synagogue. A sofer "scribe" is a highly respected member of any observant Jewish community. Middle East Text document with red question mark.svg This section possibly contains inappropriate or misinterpreted citations that do not verify the text. Please help improve this article by checking for citation inaccuracies. (September 2010) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) People of various religious (Jews, Christians, Zoroastrians, Muslims) and ethnic backgrounds (Syriac, Coptic, Persian, Arab etc.) in the Middle East also produced and bound books in the Islamic Golden Age (mid 8th century to 1258), developing advanced techniques in Islamic calligraphy, miniatures and bookbinding. A number of cities in the medieval Islamic world had book production centers and book markets. Yaqubi (d. 897) says that in his time Baghdad had over a hundred booksellers.[19] Book shops were often situated around the town's principal mosque [20] as in Marrakesh, Morocco, that has a street named Kutubiyyin or book sellers in English and the famous Koutoubia Mosque is named so because of its location in this street. The medieval Muslim world also used a method of reproducing reliable copies of a book in large quantities known as check reading, in contrast to the traditional method of a single scribe producing only a single copy of a single manuscript. In the check reading method, only "authors could authorize copies, and this was done in public sessions in which the copyist read the copy aloud in the presence of the author, who then certified it as accurate."[21] With this check-reading system, "an author might produce a dozen or more copies from a single reading," and with two or more readings, "more than one hundred copies of a single book could easily be produced."[22] By using as writing material the relatively cheap paper instead of parchment or papyrus the Muslims, in the words of Pedersen "accomplished a feat of crucial significance not only to the history of the Islamic book, but also to the whole world of books"[23] Wood block printing In woodblock printing, a relief image of an entire page was carved into blocks of wood, inked, and used to print copies of that page. This method originated in China, in the Han dynasty (before 220 AD), as a method of printing on textiles and later paper, and was widely used throughout East Asia. The oldest dated book printed by this method is The Diamond Sutra (868 AD). The method (called Woodcut when used in art) arrived in Europe in the early 14th century. Books (known as block-books), as well as playing-cards and religious pictures, began to be produced by this method. Creating an entire book was a painstaking process, requiring a hand-carved block for each page; and the wood blocks tended to crack, if stored for long. The monks or people who wrote them were paid highly. Movable type and incunabula A 15th-century Incunable. Notice the blind-tooled cover, corner bosses and clasps. Main articles: Movable type and Incunable "Selected Teachings of Buddhist Sages and Son Masters", the earliest known book printed with movable metal type, 1377. Bibliothèque nationale de France. The Chinese inventor Bi Sheng made movable type of earthenware circa 1045, but there are no known surviving examples of his printing. Around 1450, in what is commonly regarded as an independent invention, Johannes Gutenberg invented movable type in Europe, along with innovations in casting the type based on a matrix and hand mould. This invention gradually made books less expensive to produce, and more widely available. Early printed books, single sheets and images which were created before 1501 in Europe are known as incunables or incunabula. "A man born in 1453, the year of the fall of Constantinople, could look back from his fiftieth year on a lifetime in which about eight million books had been printed, more perhaps than all the scribes of Europe had produced since Constantine founded his city in A.D. 330."[24] Modern world Steam-powered printing presses became popular in the early 19th century. These machines could print 1,100 sheets per hour, but workers could only set 2,000 letters per hour.[citation needed] Monotype and linotype typesetting machines were introduced in the late 19th century. They could set more than 6,000 letters per hour and an entire line of type at once. The centuries after the 15th century were thus spent on improving both the printing press and the conditions for freedom of the press through the gradual relaxation of restrictive censorship laws. See also intellectual property, public domain, copyright. In mid-20th century, European book production had risen to over 200,000 titles per year. Book manufacture in modern times Main article: Bookbinding See also: Publishing The spine of the book is an important aspect in book design, especially in the cover design. When the books are stacked up or stored in a shelf, the details on the spine is the only visible surface that contains the information about the book. In stores, it is the details on the spine that attract buyers' attention first. The methods used for the printing and binding of books continued fundamentally unchanged from the 15th century into the early 20th century. While there was more mechanization, a book printer in 1900 had much in common with Gutenberg. Gutenberg's invention was the use of movable metal types, assembled into words, lines, and pages and then printed by letterpress to create multiple copies. Modern paper books are printed on papers designed specifically for printed books. Traditionally, book papers are off-white or low-white papers (easier to read), are opaque to minimise the show-through of text from one side of the page to the other and are (usually) made to tighter caliper or thickness specifications, particularly for case-bound books. Different paper qualities are used depending on the type of book: Machine finished coated papers, woodfree uncoated papers, coated fine papers and special fine papers are common paper grades. Today, the majority of books are printed by offset lithography.[citation needed] When a book is printed the pages are laid out on the plate so that after the printed sheet is folded the pages will be in the correct sequence. Books tend to be manufactured nowadays in a few standard sizes. The sizes of books are usually specified as "trim size": the size of the page after the sheet has been folded and trimmed. The standard sizes result from sheet sizes (therefore machine sizes) which became popular 200 or 300 years ago, and have come to dominate the industry. British conventions in this regard prevail throughout the English-speaking world, except for the USA. The European book manufacturing industry works to a completely different set of standards. Current processes Book covers Some books, particularly those with shorter runs (i.e. fewer copies) will be printed on sheet-fed offset presses, but most books are now printed on web presses, which are fed by a continuous roll of paper, and can consequently print more copies in a shorter time. As the production line circulates, a complete "book" is collected together in one stack, next to another, and another. A web press carries out the folding itself, delivering bundles of signatures (sections) ready to go into the gathering line. Notice that when the book is being printed it is being printed one (or two) signatures at a time, not one complete book at a time. Excess numbers are printed to make up for any spoilage due to "make-readies" or test pages to assure final print quality. A make-ready is the preparatory work carried out by the pressmen to get the printing press up to the required quality of impression. Included in make-ready is the time taken to mount the plate onto the machine, clean up any mess from the previous job, and get the press up to speed. As soon as the pressman decides that the printing is correct, all the make-ready sheets will be discarded, and the press will start making books. Similar make readies take place in the folding and binding areas, each involving spoilage of paper. After the signatures are folded and gathered, they move into the bindery. In the middle of last century there were still many trade binders - stand-alone binding companies which did no printing, specializing in binding alone. At that time, because of the dominance of letterpress printing, typesetting and printing took place in one location, and binding in a different factory. When type was all metal, a typical book's worth of type would be bulky, fragile and heavy. The less it was moved in this condition the better: so printing would be carried out in the same location as the typesetting. Printed sheets on the other hand could easily be moved. Now, because of increasing computerization of preparing a book for the printer, the typesetting part of the job has flowed upstream, where it is done either by separately contracting companies working for the publisher, by the publishers themselves, or even by the authors. Mergers in the book manufacturing industry mean that it is now unusual to find a bindery which is not also involved in book printing (and vice versa). If the book is a hardback its path through the bindery will involve more points of activity than if it is a paperback. Unsewn binding, is now increasingly common. The signatures of a book can also be held together by "Smyth sewing" using needles, "McCain sewing", using drilled holes often used in schoolbook binding, or "notch binding", where gashes about an inch long are made at intervals through the fold in the spine of each signature. The rest of the binding process is similar in all instances. Sewn and notch bound books can be bound as either hardbacks or paperbacks. Finishing Book pages "Making cases" happens off-line and prior to the book's arrival at the binding line. In the most basic case-making, two pieces of cardboard are placed onto a glued piece of cloth with a space between them into which is glued a thinner board cut to the width of the spine of the book. The overlapping edges of the cloth (about 5/8" all round) are folded over the boards, and pressed down to adhere. After case-making the stack of cases will go to the foil stamping area for adding decorations and type. Digital printing Recent developments in book manufacturing include the development of digital printing. Book pages are printed, in much the same way as an office copier works, using toner rather than ink. Each book is printed in one pass, not as separate signatures. Digital printing has permitted the manufacture of much smaller quantities than offset, in part because of the absence of make readies and of spoilage. One might think of a web press as printing quantities over 2000, quantities from 250 to 2000 being printed on sheet-fed presses, and digital presses doing quantities below 250. These numbers are of course only approximate and will vary from supplier to supplier, and from book to book depending on its characteristics. Digital printing has opened up the possibility of print-on-demand, where no books are printed until after an order is received from a customer. E-book Main article: e-book The term e-book is a contraction of "electronic book"; it refers to a book-length publication in digital form.[25] An e-book is usually made available through the internet, but also on CD-ROM and other forms. E-Books may be read either via a computer or by means of a portable book display device known as an e-book reader, such as the Sony Reader, Barnes & Noble Nook, Kobo eReader, or the Amazon Kindle. These devices attempt to mimic the experience of reading a print book. Information explosion Throughout the 20th century, libraries have faced an ever-increasing rate of publishing, sometimes called an information explosion. The advent of electronic publishing and the internet means that much new information is not printed in paper books, but is made available online through a digital library, on CD-ROM, or in the form of e-books. An on-line book is an e-book that is available online through the internet. Though many books are produced digitally, most digital versions are not available to the public, and there is no decline in the rate of paper publishing.[26] There is an effort, however, to convert books that are in the public domain into a digital medium for unlimited redistribution and infinite availability. This effort is spearheaded by Project Gutenberg combined with Distributed Proofreaders. There have also been new developments in the process of publishing books. Technologies such as POD or "print on demand", which make it possible to print as few as one book at a time, have made self-publishing much easier and more affordable. On-demand publishing has allowed publishers, by avoiding the high costs of warehousing, to keep low-selling books in print rather than declaring them out of print. Book design Main article: Book design Book design is the art of incorporating the content, style, format, design, and sequence of the various components of a book into a coherent whole. In the words of Jan Tschichold, book design "though largely forgotten today, methods and rules upon which it is impossible to improve have been developed over centuries. To produce perfect books these rules have to be brought back to life and applied." Richard Hendel describes book design as "an arcane subject" and refers to the need for a context to understand what that means. Sizes Main article: Book size Real-size facsimile of Codex Gigas The world's largest book The size of a modern book is based on the printing area of a common flatbed press. The pages of type were arranged and clamped in a frame, so that when printed on a sheet of paper the full size of the press, the pages would be right side up and in order when the sheet was folded, and the folded edges trimmed. The most common book sizes are: Quarto (4to): the sheet of paper is folded twice, forming four leaves (eight pages) approximately 11-13 inches (ca 30 cm) tall Octavo (8vo): the most common size for current hardcover books. The sheet is folded three times into eight leaves (16 pages) up to 9 ¾" (ca 23 cm) tall. DuoDecimo (12mo): a size between 8vo and 16mo, up to 7 ¾" (ca 18 cm) tall Sextodecimo (16mo): the sheet is folded four times, forming 16 leaves (32 pages) up to 6 ¾" (ca 15 cm) tall Sizes smaller than 16mo are: 24mo: up to 5 ¾" (ca 13 cm) tall. 32mo: up to 5" (ca 12 cm) tall. 48mo: up to 4" (ca 10 cm) tall. 64mo: up to 3" (ca 8 cm) tall. Small books can be called booklets. Sizes larger than quarto are: Folio: up to 15" (ca 38 cm) tall. Elephant Folio: up to 23" (ca 58 cm) tall. Atlas Folio: up to 25" (ca 63 cm) tall. Double Elephant Folio: up to 50" (ca 127 cm) tall. The largest extant medieval manuscript in the world is Codex Gigas 92 × 50 × 22 cm. The world's largest book is made of stone and is in Kuthodaw Pagoda (Burma). The longest book title in the world is 670 words long[citation needed]. Types By content Novels in a bookstore A common separation by content are fiction and non-fiction books. This simple separation can be found in most collections, libraries, and bookstores. Fiction Many of the books published today are fiction, meaning that they are in-part or completely untrue. Historically, paper production was considered too expensive to be used for entertainment. An increase in global literacy and print technology led to the increased publication of books for the purpose of entertainment, and allegorical social commentary. Most fiction is additionally categorized by genre. The novel is the most common form of fiction book. Novels are stories that typically feature a plot, setting, themes and characters. Stories and narrative are not restricted to any topic; a novel can be whimsical, serious or controversial. The novel has had a tremendous impact on entertainment and publishing markets.[27] A novella is a term sometimes used for fiction prose typically between 17,500 and 40,000 words, and a novelette between 7,500 and 17,500. A Short story may be any length up to 10,000 words, but these word lengths vary. Comic books or graphic novels are books in which the story is illustrated. The characters and narrators use speech or thought bubbles to express verbal language. Non-fiction A page from a dictionary In a library, a reference book is a general type of non-fiction book which provides information as opposed to telling a story, essay, commentary, or otherwise supporting a point of view. An almanac is a very general reference book, usually one-volume, with lists of data and information on many topics. An encyclopedia is a book or set of books designed to have more in-depth articles on many topics. A book listing words, their etymology, meanings, and other information is called a dictionary. A book which is a collection of maps is an atlas. A more specific reference book with tables or lists of data and information about a certain topic, often intended for professional use, is often called a handbook. Books which try to list references and abstracts in a certain broad area may be called an index, such as Engineering Index, or abstracts such as chemical abstracts and biological abstracts. An atlas Books with technical information on how to do something or how to use some equipment are called instruction manuals. Other popular how-to books include cookbooks and home improvement books. Students typically store and carry textbooks and schoolbooks for study purposes. Elementary school pupils often use workbooks, which are published with spaces or blanks to be filled by them for study or homework. In US higher education, it is common for a student to take an exam using a blue book. A page from a notebook used as hand written diary There is a large set of books that are made only to write private ideas, notes, and accounts. These books are rarely published and are typically destroyed or remain private. Notebooks are blank papers to be written in by the user. Students and writers commonly use them for taking notes. Scientists and other researchers use lab notebooks to record their notes. They often feature spiral coil bindings at the edge so that pages may easily be torn out. A Telephone Directory, with business and residence listings. Address books, phone books, and calendar/appointment books are commonly used on a daily basis for recording appointments, meetings and personal contact information. Books for recording periodic entries by the user, such as daily information about a journey, are called logbooks or simply logs. A similar book for writing the owner's daily private personal events, information, and ideas is called a diary or personal journal. Businesses use accounting books such as journals and ledgers to record financial data in a practice called bookkeeping. Other types There are several other types of books which are not commonly found under this system. Albums are books for holding a group of items belonging to a particular theme, such as a set of photographs, card collections, and memorabilia. One common example is stamp albums, which are used by many hobbyists to protect and organize their collections of postage stamps. Such albums are often made using removable plastic pages held inside in a ringed binder or other similar smolder. Picture books are books for children with little text and pictures on every page. Hymnals are books with collections of musical hymns that can typically be found in churches. Prayerbooks or missals are books that contain written prayers and are commonly carried by monks, nuns, and other devoted followers or clergy. By physical format Hardcover books Paperback books Hardcover books have a stiff binding. Paperback books have cheaper, flexible covers which tend to be less durable. An alternative to paperback is the glossy cover, otherwise known as a dust cover, found on magazines, and comic books. Spiral-bound books are bound by spirals made of metal or plastic. Examples of spiral-bound books include teachers' manuals and puzzle books (crosswords, sudoku). Publishing is a process for producing pre-printed books, magazines, and newspapers for the reader/user to buy. Publishers may produce low-cost, pre-publication copies known as galleys or 'bound proofs' for promotional purposes, such as generating reviews in advance of publication. Galleys are usually made as cheaply as possible, since they are not intended for sale. Libraries Main article: Library Celsus Library was built in 135 AD and could house around 12,000 scrolls. Private or personal libraries made up of non-fiction and fiction books, (as opposed to the state or institutional records kept in archives) first appeared in classical Greece. In ancient world the maintaining of a library was usually (but not exclusively) the privilege of a wealthy individual. These libraries could have been either private or public, i.e. for people who were interested in using them. The difference from a modern public library lies in the fact that they were usually not funded from public sources. It is estimated that in the city of Rome at the end of the 3rd century there were around 30 public libraries. Public libraries also existed in other cities of the ancient Mediterranean region (for example, Library of Alexandria).[28] Later, in the Middle Ages, monasteries and universities had also libraries that could be accessible to general public. Typically not the whole collection was available to public, the books could not be borrowed and often were chained to reading stands to prevent theft. The beginning of modern public library begins around 15th century when individuals started to donate books to towns.[29] The growth of a public library system in the United States started in the late 19th century and was much helped by donations from Andrew Carnegie. This reflected classes in a society: The poor or the middle class had to access most books through a public library or by other means while the rich could afford to have a private library built in their homes. In the United States the Boston Public Library 1852 Report of the Trustees established the justification for the public library as a tax-supported institution intended to extend educational opportunity and provide for general culture.[30] The advent of paperback books in the 20th century led to an explosion of popular publishing. Paperback books made owning books affordable for many people. Paperback books often included works from genres that had previously been published mostly in pulp magazines. As a result of the low cost of such books and the spread of bookstores filled with them (in addition to the creation of a smaller market of extremely cheap used paperbacks) owning a private library ceased to be a status symbol for the rich. In library and booksellers' catalogues, it is common to include an abbreviation such as "Crown 8vo" to indicate the paper size from which the book is made. When rows of books are lined on a book holder, bookends are sometimes needed to keep them from slanting. Identification and classification During the 20th century, librarians were concerned about keeping track of the many books being added yearly to the Gutenberg Galaxy. Through a global society called the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA), they devised a series of tools including the International Standard Bibliographic Description (ISBD). ISBN with barcode Each book is specified by an International Standard Book Number, or ISBN, which is unique to every edition of every book produced by participating publishers, worldwide. It is managed by the ISBN Society. An ISBN has four parts: the first part is the country code, the second the publisher code, and the third the title code. The last part is a check digit, and can take values from 0-9 and X (10). The EAN Barcodes numbers for books are derived from the ISBN by prefixing 978, for Bookland, and calculating a new check digit. Commercial publishers in industrialized countries generally assign ISBNs to their books, so buyers may presume that the ISBN is part of a total international system, with no exceptions. However, many government publishers, in industrial as well as developing countries, do not participate fully in the ISBN system, and publish books which do not have ISBNs. A large or public collection requires a catalogue. Codes called "call numbers" relate the books to the catalogue, and determine their locations on the shelves. Call numbers are based on a Library classification system. The call number is placed on the spine of the book, normally a short distance before the bottom, and inside. Institutional or national standards, such as ANSI/NISO Z39.41 - 1997, establish the correct way to place information (such as the title, or the name of the author) on book spines, and on "shelvable" book-like objects, such as containers for DVDs, video tapes and software. Books on library shelves with bookends, and call numbers visible on the spines One of the earliest and most widely known systems of cataloguing books is the Dewey Decimal System. Another widely known system is the Library of Congress Classification system. Both systems are biased towards subjects which were well represented in US libraries when they were developed, and hence have problems handling new subjects, such as computing, or subjects relating to other cultures.[citation needed] Information about books and authors can be stored in databases like online general-interest book databases. Metadata about a book may include its ISBN or other classification number (see above), the names of contributors (author, editor, illustrator) and publisher, its date and size, and the language of the text. Classification systems Bliss bibliographic classification (BC) Chinese Library Classification (CLC) Colon Classification Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) Harvard-Yenching Classification Library of Congress Classification (LCC) New Classification Scheme for Chinese Libraries Universal Decimal Classification (UDC) Uses Aside from the primary purpose of reading them, books are also used for other ends: A book can be an artistic artifact, a piece of art; this is sometimes known as an artists' book. A book may be evaluated by a reader or professional writer to create a book review. A book may be read by a group of people to use as a spark for social or academic discussion, as in a book club. A book may be studied by students as the subject of a writing and analysis exercise in the form of a book report. Books are sometimes used for their exterior appearance to decorate a room, such as a study. Paper and conservation Main article: Conservation and restoration of books, manuscripts, documents and ephemera Halfbound book with leather and marbled paper. Paper was first made in China as early as 200 BC, and reached Europe through Muslim territories. At first made of rags, the industrial revolution changed paper-making practices, allowing for paper to be made out of wood pulp. Papermaking in Europe began in the 11th century, although vellum was also common there as page material up until the beginning of 16th century, vellum being the more expensive and durable option. Printers or publishers would often issue the same publication on both materials, to cater to more than one market. Paper made from wood pulp became popular in the early 20th century, because it was cheaper than linen or abaca cloth-based papers. Pulp-based paper made books less expensive to the general public. This paved the way for huge leaps in the rate of literacy in industrialised nations, and enabled the spread of information during the Second Industrial Revolution. Pulp paper, however, contains acid which eventually destroys the paper from within. Earlier techniques for making paper used limestone rollers, which neutralized the acid in the pulp. Books printed between 1850 and 1950 are primarily at risk; more recent books are often printed on acid-free or alkaline paper. Libraries today have to consider mass deacidification of their older collections in order to prevent decay. Stability of the climate is critical to the long-term preservation of paper and book material.[31] Good air circulation is important to keep fluctuation in climate stable. The HVAC system should be up to date and functioning efficiently. Light is detrimental to collections. Therefore, care should be given to the collections by implementing light control. General housekeeping issues can be addressed, including pest control. In addition to these helpful solutions, a library must also make an effort to be prepared if a disaster occurs, one that they cannot control. Time and effort should be given to create a concise and effective disaster plan to counteract any damage incurred through "acts of God" therefore an emergency management plan should be in place. See also Main article: Outline of books Artist's book Audiobook Book burning Booksellers Lists of books Open access book Bibliodiversity References Jump up ^ "Books of the world, stand up and be counted! All 129,864,880 of you.". Inside Google Books. August 5, 2010. Retrieved August 15, 2010. After we exclude serials, we can finally count all the books in the world. There are 129,864,880 of them. At least until Sunday. Jump up ^ Curtis, George (2011). The Law of Cybercrimes and Their Investigations. p. 161. Jump up ^ "The Plot Twist: E-Book Sales Slip, and Print Is Far From Dead". The New York Times. September 22, 2015. Retrieved October 8, 2015. Jump up ^ "Book". Dictionary.com. Retrieved November 6, 2010. Jump up ^ Northvegr - Holy Language Lexicon: B archived November 3, 2008 from the original Jump up ^ Leila Avrin. Scribes, Script and Books, p. 173. Jump up ^ Bischoff, Bernhard (1990). Latin palaeography antiquity and the Middle Ages. Dáibhí ó Cróinin. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 11. ISBN 0-521-36473-6. Jump up ^ Avrin, Leila (1991). Scribes, script, and books: the book arts from antiquity to the Renaissance. New York, New York: American Library Association; The British Library. p. 83. ISBN 978-0-8389-0522-7. Jump up ^ Dard Hunter. Papermaking: History and Technique of an Ancient Craft New ed. Dover Publications 1978, p. 12. Jump up ^ Leila Avrin. Scribes, Script and Books, pp. 144-145. Jump up ^ The Cambridge History of Early Christian Literature. Edd. Frances Young, Lewis Ayres, Andrew Louth, Ron White. Cambridge University Press 2004, pp. 8-9. Jump up ^ Leila Avrin. Scribes, Script and Books, pp. 207-208. Jump up ^ Theodore Maynard. Saint Benedict and His Monks. Staples Press Ltd 1956, pp. 70-71. Jump up ^ Martin D. Joachim. Historical Aspects of Cataloguing and Classification. Haworth Press 2003, p. 452. Jump up ^ Edith Diehl. Bookbinding: Its Background and Technique. Dover Publications 1980, pp. 14-16. Jump up ^ Bernhard Bischoff. Latin Palaeography, pp. 16-17. Jump up ^ Paul Saenger. Space Between Words: The Origins of Silent Reading. Stanford University Press 1997. Jump up ^ Bernhard Bischoff. Latin Palaeography, pp. 42-43. Jump up ^ W. Durant, "The Age of Faith", New York 1950, p. 236 Jump up ^ S.E. Al-Djazairi "The Golden Age of Islamic Civilization", Manchester 2996, p. 200 Jump up ^ Edmund Burke (June 2009). "Islam at the Center: Technological Complexes and the Roots of Modernity". Journal of World History. University of Hawaii Press. 20 (2): 165-186 [43]. doi:10.1353/jwh.0.0045. Jump up ^ Edmund Burke (June 2009). "Islam at the Center: Technological Complexes and the Roots of Modernity". Journal of World History. University of Hawaii Press. 20 (2): 165-186 [44]. doi:10.1353/jwh.0.0045. Jump up ^ Johs. Pedersen, "The Arabic Book", Princeton University Press, 1984, p. 59 Jump up ^ Clapham, Michael, "Printing" in A History of Technology, Vol 2. From the Renaissance to the Industrial Revolution, edd. Charles Singer et al. (Oxford 1957), p. 377. Cited from Elizabeth L. Eisenstein, The Printing Press as an Agent of Change (Cambridge University, 1980). Jump up ^ "An E-Book is an electronic book" Author= Bill Bradley Jump up ^ Bowker Reports Traditional U.S. Book Production Flat in 2009 Archived January 28, 2012, at the Wayback Machine. Jump up ^ Edwin Mcdowell (October 30, 1989). "The Media Business; Publishers Worry After Fiction Sales Weaken". New York Times. Retrieved January 25, 2008. Jump up ^ Miriam A. Drake, Encyclopedia of Library and Information Science (Marcel Dekker, 2003), "Public Libraries, History". Jump up ^ Miriam A. Drake, Encyclopedia of Library, "Public Libraries, History". Jump up ^ McCook, Kathleen de la Peña (2011), Introduction to Public Librarianship, 2nd ed., p. 23 New York, Neal-Schuman. Jump up ^ Patkus, Beth (2003). "Assessing Preservation Needs, A Self-Survey Guide". Andover: Northeast Document Conservation Center. External links Find more about Book at Wikipedia's sister projects Search Wiktionary Definitions from Wiktionary Search Commons Media from Commons Search Wikinews News from Wikinews Search Wikiquote Quotations from Wikiquote Search Wikisource Texts from Wikisource Search Wikibooks Textbooks from Wikibooks Search Wikiversity Learning resources from Wikiversity Society for the History of Authorship, Reading and Publishing (SHARP) Information on Old Books, Smithsonian Libraries "Manuscripts, Books, and Maps: The Printing Press and a Changing World" Authority control GND: 4008570-3 NDL: 00573378 [show] v t e Paper products [hide] v t e Conservation-restoration of cultural heritage General care and management of collections Collecting Collection (artwork) Collections care Collection catalog Collections maintenance Collections management (museum) Collection Management Policy Collections Management System Cultural heritage management Cultural resources management Deaccessioning (museum) Digital repository audit method based on risk assessment Display case Documentation of cultural property Emergency response (museum) Exhibition of cultural heritage objects Found in collection Inherent vice Inventory (museum) Museum integrated pest management Preservation metadata Preservation Metadata: Implementation Strategies Preservation of meaning Preservation survey Provenance Repatriation Restoration (cultural heritage) Storage of cultural heritage objects Collections care and management roles Art handler Collection manager Conservator-restorer Conservation scientist Conservation technician Curator Exhibition designer Mount maker Objects conservator Paintings conservator Photograph conservator Preservationist Registrar (museum) Textile conservator Conservation and restoration area specialities Antiques restoration Archaeology Bioarchaeology Building restoration Conservation science Digital photograph restoration Digital preservation Database preservation Film preservation Frame conservation Heritage science Historic preservation Media preservation Object conservation Optical media preservation Painting conservation Preservation (library and archival science) Restoration Sustainable preservation Web archiving Conservation and restoration techniques Aging (artwork) Anastylosis Arrested decay Archaeological sites Architecture Automobiles Bone, horn, and antler objects Books, manuscripts, documents and ephemera Ceramic objects Clocks Copper-based objects Feathers Flags and banners Frescos Fur objects Glass objects Historic gardens Human remains Illuminated manuscripts Iron and steel objects Ivory objects Lacquerware Leather objects Lighthouses Metals Musical instruments Neon objects New media art Outdoor artworks Outdoor bronze objects Outdoor murals Paintings Painting frames Parchment Photographs Plastic objects Shipwreck artifacts Silver objects Stained glass Textiles Tibetan thangkas Time-based media art Totem poles Vehicles Vinyl discs Woodblock prints Wooden furniture Cradling (paintings) Detachment of wall paintings Desmet method Fabric restoration Historic paint analysis Inpainting Kintsugi Leafcasting Lining of paintings Mass deacidification Mold control and prevention in libraries Mold prevention Overpainting Paper splitting Radiography of cultural objects Reconstruction (architecture) Textile stabilization Transfer of panel paintings UVC-based preservation Notable conservation-restoration projects Conservation issues of Pompeii and Herculaneum Conservation-restoration of Ecce Homo by Elías García Martínez Conservation-restoration of Leonardo da Vinci's The Last Supper Conservation-restoration of the Shroud of Turin Conservation-restoration of the Sistine Chapel frescoes Conservation-restoration of the Statue of Liberty Categories: Paper productsBooksDocumentsMedia formats Navigation menu Not logged inTalkContributionsCreate accountLog inArticleTalkReadView sourceView historySearch Search Wikipedia Go Main page Contents Featured content Current events Random article Donate to Wikipedia Wikipedia store Interaction Help About Wikipedia Community portal Recent changes Contact page Tools What links here Related changes Upload file Special pages Permanent link Page information Wikidata item Cite this page Print/export Create a book Download as PDF Printable version In other projects Wikimedia Commons Wikiquote Languages Afrikaans Alemannisch العربية Aragonés ܐܪܡܝܐ Armãneashti Asturianu Avañe'ẽ Aymar aru Azərbaycanca تۆرکجه Bamanankan বাংলা Bân-lâm-gú Башҡортса Беларуская Беларуская (тарашкевіца)‎ भोजपुरी Български Boarisch Bosanski Brezhoneg Буряад Català Чӑвашла Čeština ChiShona Cymraeg Dansk Deitsch Deutsch Eesti Ελληνικά Español Esperanto Euskara فارسی Français Gaeilge Gaelg Gàidhlig Galego 贛語 客家語/Hak-kâ-ngî 한국어 Հայերեն हिन्दी Hrvatski Ido Ilokano Bahasa Indonesia Interlingua Interlingue ᐃᓄᒃᑎᑐᑦ/inuktitut Ирон IsiXhosa Íslenska Italiano עברית Basa Jawa ქართული Қазақша Kinyarwanda Kiswahili Коми Kreyòl ayisyen Kurdî Кыргызча Ladino Лезги ລາວ Latina Latviešu Lëtzebuergesch Lietuvių Limburgs Lingála Lumbaart Magyar Македонски Malagasy മലയാളം मराठी مصرى Bahasa Melayu Mìng-dĕ̤ng-ngṳ̄ Mirandés Монгол မြန်မာဘာသာ Nāhuatl Nederlands Nedersaksies नेपाली नेपाल भाषा 日本語 Napulitano Нохчийн Norsk bokmål Norsk nynorsk Occitan Олык марий Oʻzbekcha/ўзбекча ਪੰਜਾਬੀ पालि پنجابی Patois Tok Pisin Plattdüütsch Polski Português Ripoarisch Română Runa Simi Русиньскый Русский Саха тыла Scots Setswana Shqip Sicilianu සිංහල Simple English سنڌي SiSwati Slovenčina Slovenščina Soomaaliga کوردیی ناوەندی Српски / srpski Srpskohrvatski / српскохрватски Basa Sunda Suomi Svenska Tagalog தமிழ் Taqbaylit Татарча/tatarça తెలుగు ไทย Тоҷикӣ ᏣᎳᎩ Türkçe Тыва дыл Українська اردو Vepsän kel' Tiếng Việt Walon Winaray ייִדיש Yorùbá 粵語 Zazaki Žemaitėška 中文 Livvinkarjala Edit links This page was last modified on 5 November 2016, at 22:45. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.

A

An ex post facto law (corrupted from Latin: ex postfacto, lit. 'out of the aftermath') is a law that retroactively changes the legal consequences (or status) of actions that were committed, or relationships that existed, before the enactment of the law. In criminal law, it may criminalize actions that were legal when committed; it may aggravate a crime by bringing it into a more severe category than it was in when it was committed; it may change the punishment prescribed for a crime, as by adding new penalties or extending sentences; or it may alter the rules of evidence in order to make conviction for a crime likelier than it would have been when the deed was committed. Conversely, a form of ex post facto law commonly called an amnesty law may decriminalize certain acts. A pardon has a similar effect, in a specific case instead of a class of cases. Other legal changes may alleviate possible punishments (for example by replacing the death sentence with lifelong imprisonment) retroactively. Such legal changes are also known by the Latin term in mitius. A law may have an ex post facto effect without being technically ex post facto. For example, when a previous law is repealed or otherwise nullified, it is no longer applicable to situations to which it had been, even if such situations arose before the law was voided. The principle of prohibiting the continued application of such laws is called nullum crimen, nulla poena sine praevia lege poenali, especially in European Continental systems. This is related to the principle of legality. Some common-law jurisdictions do not permit retroactive criminal legislation, though new precedent generally applies to events that occurred before the judicial decision. Ex post facto laws are expressly forbidden by the United States Constitution in Article 1, Section 9, Clause 3 (with respect to federal laws) and Article 1, Section 10 (with respect to state laws). In some nations that follow the Westminster system of government, such as the United Kingdom, ex post facto laws are technically possible, because the doctrine of parliamentary supremacy allows Parliament to pass any law it wishes. In a nation with an entrenched bill of rights or a written constitution, ex post facto legislation may be prohibited. Contents [hide] 1 Ex post facto laws by country 1.1 Australia 1.2 Brazil 1.3 Canada 1.4 Finland 1.5 France 1.6 Germany 1.7 Hungary 1.8 India 1.9 Indonesia 1.10 Iran 1.11 Ireland 1.12 Israel 1.13 Italy 1.14 Japan 1.15 Lithuania 1.16 Netherlands 1.17 New Zealand 1.18 Norway 1.19 Pakistan 1.20 Philippines 1.21 Poland 1.22 Portugal 1.23 Romania 1.24 Russia 1.25 Spain 1.26 South Africa 1.27 Sweden 1.28 Turkey 1.29 United Kingdom 1.30 United States 2 Treatment by international organizations and treaties 2.1 International criminal law 2.2 Universal Declaration of Human Rights and related treaties 2.3 African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights 2.4 American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man 2.5 Arab Charter on Human Rights 2.6 European Convention on Human Rights 3 Quotations 4 Grammatical form and usage 5 See also 6 References Ex post facto laws by country[edit] Australia[edit] Australia has no strong constitutional prohibition on ex post facto laws, although narrowly retroactive laws might violate the constitutional separation of powers principle. Australian courts normally interpret statutes with a strong presumption that they do not apply retroactively. Retroactive laws designed to prosecute what was perceived to have been a blatantly unethical means of tax avoidance were passed in the early 1980s by the Fraser government (see Bottom of the harbour tax avoidance). Similarly, the retroactive effect of legislation criminalizing certain war crimes retroactively have been held to be constitutional (see Polyukhovich v Commonwealth). The government will sometimes make a press release that it intends to change the tax law with effect from the date and time of the press release, before legislation is introduced into parliament. Brazil[edit] According to the 5th Article, section XXXVI of the Brazilian Constitution, laws cannot have "ex post facto" effects that affect acquired rights, accomplished juridical acts and res judicata. The same article in section XL prohibits ex post facto criminal laws. Like France, there is an exception when retroactive criminal laws benefit the accused person. Canada[edit] In Canada, ex post facto criminal laws are constitutionally prohibited by paragraph 11(g) of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Also, under paragraph 11(i) of the Charter, if the punishment for a crime has varied between the time the crime was committed and the time of sentencing following a conviction, the convicted person is entitled to the lesser punishment. Because section 11 of the Charter is among the sections that can be overridden under section 33 (the notwithstanding clause), Parliament could in theory enact ex post facto laws by invoking section 33. However, the federal Parliament (which has the sole power to enact laws punishable for violation by two years or more in penitentiary) has never attempted to enact an ex post facto law (or any other law) using section 33. It should be emphasized that the Charter prohibition applies only to criminal law. Changes to civil law in Canada can be, and occasionally are, enacted ex post facto. In one example, convicted murderer Colin Thatcher was ordered to forfeit proceeds from a book he had published (after being paroled from prison) under a Saskatchewan law. Although the law was passed long after Thatcher's murder conviction, the courts have ruled that such laws prescribe only civil penalties (as opposed to additional criminal penalties) and are thus not subject to Charter restrictions. Finland[edit] Generally, the Finnish legal system does not permit ex post facto laws, especially those that would expand criminal responsibility. They are not expressly forbidden but instead the ban is derived from more general legal principles and basic rights. In civil matters, such as taxation, ex post facto laws may be made in some circumstances. However, there have been three exceptional instances when ex post facto criminal laws have been used in Finland. Following the Finnish Civil War of 1918, the Parliament of Finland passed a law setting up tribunals to try suspected rebels. These tribunals issued death sentences in many cases, although very few of those accused could have committed a crime that carried the death penalty under Finnish law in force during the war. Several hundred people were executed under what was arguably an ex post facto legal arrangement. During the war, and before the tribunals were set up, thousands of people had been executed without trial by both sides. After World War II, Finland was under pressure to convict political leaders whom the Allied powers considered responsible for Finnish involvement in the war. An ex post facto law was passed in the autumn of 1945 to permit prosecution for war responsibility, and eventually eight politicians were convicted. In another post-war case, the weapons cache case, an ex post facto law was passed in 1947 so that military personnel could be prosecuted for unofficially preparing for guerrilla resistance in case of Soviet occupation. France[edit] In France, so-called "lois rétroactives" (retroactive laws) are technically prohibited by Article 2 of the Code Civil, which states that: "Legislation provides only for the future; it has no retrospective operation".[1] In practice however, since the Code Civil does not have the status of constitutional legislation and can therefore be overruled by subsequent laws, the Conseil Constitutionnel has determined that retroactive laws can be passed within certain limits - such as in the case of financial or tax legislation -, particularly where it is considered to be in the "general interest"; this has been demonstrated by a series of decisions handed down by the Conseil Constitutionnel concerning retroactive tax laws.[2] However, in criminal law, ex post facto sanctions are effectively forbidden as per Article 112-1 of the French Penal Code, except in cases wherein the retroactive application benefits the accused person (called retroactivity "in mitius").[3] They are also considered unconstitutional, since the principle of non-retroactivity is laid down in Article 8 of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, which has constitutional status under French law.[4] The épuration légale trials held after the 1944 liberation of France introduced the status of indignité nationale for Nazi collaborators as a way to avoid ex port facto law. Germany[edit] Article 103 of the German basic law requires that an act may be punished only if it has already been punishable by law at the time it was committed (specifically: by written law, Germany following civil law). Some scholars[who?] and politicians like Robert A. Taft, at the time U.S. Senator from Ohio, asserted that the Nuremberg Trials following World War II were based on ex post facto law, because the Allies did not negotiate the London Charter, defining crimes against humanity and creating the International Military Tribunal, until well after the acts charged. Others, including the International Military Tribunal, argued that the London Charter merely restated and provided jurisdiction to prosecute offenses that were already made unlawful by the Kellogg-Briand Pact, the Covenant of the League of Nations, and the various Hague Conventions.[citation needed] The problem of ex post facto law was also relevant in the 1990s as there was a discussion about the trials against East German soldiers who killed fugitives on the Inner-German border (Mauerschützen-Prozesse - Wall-shooters'/ -guards' trials). German courts in these cases recurred to the Radbruch formula.[5] Hungary[edit] In 2010, the parliament established a 98% punitive tax on any income over two million forints received either as a retirement package or as severance pay in the last five years in the government sector.[6] India[edit] In India, without using the expression "ex post facto law", the underlying principle has been adopted in the article 20(1) of the Indian Constitution in the following words: No person shall be convicted of any offence except for violation of a law in force at the time of the commission of the act charged as an offence, nor be subjected to a penalty greater than that which have been inflicted under the law in force at the time of commission of the offence. Further, what article 20(1) prohibits is conviction and sentence under an ex post facto law for acts done prior thereto, but not the enactment or validity of such a law. There is, thus, a difference between the Indian and the American positions on this point; whereas in the United States, an ex post facto law is in itself invalid, it is not so in India. The courts may also interpret a law in such a manner that any objection against it of retrospective operation may be removed.[7] An example for retrospective law in India is the Karnataka Schedule Caste and Scheduled Tribes (Prohibition of Transfer of Certain Lands) Act, 1978[8] in the state of Karnataka. Indonesia[edit] The Indonesian constitution prohibits trying citizens under retroactive laws in any circumstance. This was tested in 2004 when the conviction of one of the Bali bombers under retroactive anti-terrorist legislation was quashed.[9] Iran[edit] Ex post facto laws, in all contexts, are prohibited by Article 169 (Chapter 11) of Iran's constitution. Ireland[edit] The imposition of retroactive criminal sanctions is prohibited by Article 15.5.1° of the constitution of Ireland. Retroactive changes of the civil law have also been found to violate the constitution when they would have resulted in the loss in a right to damages before the courts, the Irish Supreme Court having found that such a right is a constitutionally protected property right. Israel[edit] Israel enacted the 1950 "Nazi and Nazi Collaborators (Punishment) Law" for the purpose of punishing acts that occurred during the Second World War, when Israel did not exist as a state. The law was used to punish Adolf Eichmann and others. Italy[edit] Article 25, paragraph 2, of the Italian Constitution, establishing that "nobody can be punished but according to a law come into force before the deed was committed", prohibits indictment pursuant a retroactive law. Article 11 of preliminary provisions to the Italian Civil Code and Article 3, paragraph 1, of the Statute of taxpayer's rights, prohibit retroactive laws on principle: such provisions can be derogated, however, by acts having force of the ordinary law; on the contrary, non-retroactivity in criminal law is thought absolute.[10] Japan[edit] Article 39 of the constitution of Japan prohibits the retroactive application of laws. Article 6 of Criminal Code of Japan further states that if a new law comes into force after the deed was committed, the lighter punishment must be given. Lithuania[edit] Lithuania has no constitutional prohibition on ex post facto laws. Retroactive criminal sanctions are prohibited by Article 2, Part 1 (Chapter 1) of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Lithuania. Retroactive administrative sanctions are prohibited by Article 8 of the Administrative Code of the Republic of Lithuania. Lithuanian lawyer Dainius Žalimas contends that there has been retroactive application of the law on Genocide (and subsequently adopted articles of the Criminal Code) against participants in Soviet repressions against Lithuanian guerilla fighters and their supporters, and gives examples of such decisions. The Article 99 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Lithuania was introduced only in September 26, 2000 and therefore can't be used in events of 1944-1953. Netherlands[edit] Article 4 of the Law on General Provisions (in effect since 1838) states that "The law has no retroactive effect".[11] Article 1 of Criminal Law states that no act is punishable without a pre-existing law, and that in the case an act was punishable but the law was changed after the criminal act the "most favorable" (to the suspect) of the two laws will apply.[12] In Civil Law there is no such provision. New Zealand[edit] Section 7 of the Interpretation Act 1999 stipulates that enactments do not have retrospective effect. The New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990 also affirms New Zealand's commitment to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and Universal Declaration of Human Rights, with section 26 preventing the application of retroactive penalties. This is further reinforced under section 6(1) of the current Sentencing Act 2002 which provides, "[p]enal enactments not to have retrospective effect to disadvantage of offender" irrespective of any provision to the contrary. Section 26 of the Bill of Rights and the previous sentencing legislation, the Criminal Justice Act 1985, caused significant digression among judges when the New Zealand Parliament introduced legislation that had the effect of enacting a retrospective penalty for crimes involving an element of home invasion. Ultimately, the discrepancy was restricted with what some labelled artificial logic in the cases of R v Pora and R v Poumako. Norway[edit] Article 97 of the Norwegian constitution prohibits any law to be given retroactive effect. The prohibition applies to both criminal and civil laws, but in some civil cases, only particularly unreasonable effects of retroactivity will be found unconstitutional.[13] Pakistan[edit] Article 12 of the constitution of Pakistan prohibits any law to be given retroactive effect by stating:[14] 12.1 - No law shall authorize the punishment of a person:- 12.1.a - for an act or omission that was not punishable by law at the time of the act or omission; or 12.1.b - for an offence by a penalty greater than, or of a kind different from, the penalty prescribed by law for that offence at the time the offence was committed. Philippines[edit] The 1987 Constitution of the Philippines categorically prohibits the passing of any ex post facto law. Article III (Bill of Rights), Section 22 specifically states: "No ex post facto law or bill of attainder shall be enacted." However, the Cybercrime Prevention Act, which went into effect on October 3, 2012, is criticized for being ex post facto.[15] Poland[edit] Retroactive application of law is prohibited by the Article 3 of the Polish civil code, and the legal rule prohibiting such retroactive application is commonly memorised as a Latin sentence Lex retro non agit ("A law does not apply retroactively"). The said article, however, allows retroactive application of an Act of Parliament if it is expressly understood from its text or purpose. Portugal[edit] Article 18 of the Portuguese constitution forbids the retroactive application of any law the restricts right; article 29 of the Portuguese Constitution forbids retroactive application of criminal law; article 103 forbids the application of retroactive taxes. Romania[edit] Article 15 (2) of the Romanian constitution provides that the law shall only act for the future, except for the more favourable criminal or administrative law. Russia[edit] Ex post facto punishment in criminal and administrative law is prohibited by article 54 of the constitution; ex post facto tax laws by article 57 of the constitution. Spain[edit] Article 9.3 of the Spanish Constitution guarantees the principle of non-retroactivity of punitive provisions that are not favorable to or restrictive of individual rights. Therefore, "ex post facto" criminal laws or any other retroactive punitive provisions are constitutionally prohibited. As well as Statute law mentioned above, this now also includes 'court-made law'. The Parot doctrine, in which terrorists were denied the right (enshrined in a 1973 Statute) to earn a reduction in the length of their sentences by a Spanish court ruling in 2006 was judged by the European Court of Human Rights to be contrary to relevant articles on retroactivity & liberty and security in 2013. South Africa[edit] Section 35(3) of the South African Bill of Rights prohibits ex post facto criminal laws, except that acts which violated international law at the time they were committed may be prosecuted even if they were not illegal under national law at the time. It also prohibits retroactive increases of criminal punishments. Sweden[edit] In Sweden, retroactive penal sanctions and other retroactive legal effects of criminal acts due the State are prohibited by chapter 2, section 10 of the Instrument of Government (Regeringsformen). Retroactive taxes or charges are not prohibited, but they can have retroactive effect reaching back only to the time when a new tax bill was proposed by the government. The retroactive effect of a tax or charge thus reaches from that time until the bill is passed by the parliament. As the Swedish Act of Succession was changed in 1979, and the throne was inherited regardless of sex, the inheritance right was withdrawn from all the descendants of Charles XIV John (king 1818-44) except the current king Carl XVI Gustaf. Thereby, the heir-apparent title was transferred from the new-born Prince Carl Philip to his older sister Crown Princess Victoria. The Swedish Parliament voted in 2004 to abolish inheritance tax by January 1, 2005. However, in 2005 they retro-actively decided to move the date to December 17, 2004. The main reason was abolishing inheritance tax for the many Swedish victims of the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake, which took place on December 26. Turkey[edit] Ex post facto punishment is prohibited by Article 38 of the Constitution of Turkey. It states: c1. No one shall be punished for any act which does not constitute a criminal offence under the law in force at the time committed; no one shall be given a heavier penalty for an offence other than the penalty applicable at the time when the offence was committed. c2. The provisions of the above paragraph shall also apply to the statute of limitations on offences and penalties and on the results of conviction. Thus, the article does not prohibit in mitius laws, i.e. cases wherein the retroactive application benefits the accused person. United Kingdom[edit] In the United Kingdom, ex post facto laws are frowned upon, but are permitted by virtue of the doctrine of parliamentary sovereignty. Historically, all acts of Parliament before 1793 were ex post facto legislation, inasmuch as their date of effect was the first day of the session in which they were passed. This situation was rectified by the Acts of Parliament (Commencement) Act 1793.[citation needed] Some laws are still passed retrospectively: e.g., the Pakistan Act 1990 (by which the United Kingdom amended its legislation consequent to the Commonwealth of Nations having re-admitted Pakistan as a member) was one such law; despite being passed on 29 June 1990, section 2 subsection 3 states that "This Act shall be deemed to have come into force on 1st October 1989", nine months before it was enacted.[16] Retrospective criminal laws are prohibited by Article 7 of the European Convention on Human Rights, to which the United Kingdom is a signatory, but several noted legal authorities have stated their opinion that parliamentary sovereignty takes priority even over this.[17][18] For example, the War Crimes Act 1991 created an ex post facto jurisdiction of British courts over war crimes committed during the Second World War. Another important example of a case which shows the doctrine of parliamentary supremacy in action is Burmah Oil Co Ltd v Lord Advocate, which retrospectively changed the law on compensation resulting from scorched earth actions in Burma during the war. More recently, the Police (Detention and Bail) Act 2011 retroactively overrode a controversial court judgment resulting from an error in the drafting of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 that would potentially have invalidated thousands of criminal convictions. Taxation law has on multiple occasions been changed to retrospectively disallow tax avoidance schemes.[19] The most significant example known concerns Double-taxation Treaty Arrangements where the Finance Act 2008 with BN66 retrospectively amended 1987 legislation creating large tax liabilities for 3,000 people where no liability existed before. United States[edit] In the United States, the Congress is prohibited from passing ex post facto laws by clause 3 of Article I, Section 9 of the United States Constitution. The states are prohibited from passing ex post facto laws by clause 1 of Article I, Section 10. This is one of the relatively few restrictions that the United States Constitution made to both the power of the federal and state governments before the Fourteenth Amendment. Over the years, when deciding ex post facto cases, the United States Supreme Court has referred repeatedly to its ruling in Calder v. Bull, in which Justice Samuel Chase held that the prohibition applied only to criminal matters, not civil matters, and established four categories of unconstitutional ex post facto laws.[20] The case dealt with the Article I, Section 10, prohibition on ex post facto laws, because it concerned a Connecticut state law. Not all laws with retroactive effects have been held to be unconstitutional. One current U.S. law that has a retroactive effect is the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006. This law imposes new registration requirements on convicted sex offenders and also applies to offenders whose crimes were committed before the law was enacted.[21] The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Smith v. Doe (2003) that forcing sex offenders to register their whereabouts at regular intervals, and the posting of personal information about them on the Internet, do not violate the constitutional prohibition against ex post facto laws, because these laws do not impose any kind of punishment.[22][23] In Starkey v. Oklahoma Department Of Corrections, the Supreme Court of the State of Oklahoma found the Oklahoma Sex Offender Registration Act, or SORA, to be punitive in nature, if not in intent. While the law in question has been ruled as not being retroactive in nature, the Oklahoma Department of Corrections had been applying the new legislation retroactively, and "also find the Department's retroactive application of the level assignment provisions of 57 O.S. Supp. 2007, 582.1 - 582.5, as amended, violates the ex post facto clause."[24] Controversy has also arisen with regard to sexually violent predator (SVP) laws, which allow the indefinite commitment of a person with a mental abnormality which predisposes them to molest children. This issue arose in the case Kansas v. Hendricks.[25] In Hendricks, a man with a long history of sexually molesting children was scheduled to be released from prison shortly after the enactment of Kansas's SVP act. Rather than being released, he was committed on the grounds that he had a mental abnormality. Hendricks contested the law on ex post facto and double jeopardy grounds. The Supreme Court of Kansas invalidated the Act, but the Supreme Court of the United States reversed the decision and ruled that the law was constitutional on the basis that the law did not impose a criminal punishment.[25] Another example is the Domestic Violence Offender Gun Ban, where firearms prohibitions were imposed on those convicted of misdemeanor domestic-violence offenses and on subjects of restraining orders (which do not require criminal conviction). These individuals can now be sentenced to up to ten years in a federal prison for possession of a firearm, regardless of whether the weapon was legally possessed when the law was passed.[26] The law has been legally upheld because it is considered regulatory, not punitive; it is a status offense.[27] Finally, in Calder v. Bull, the court expressly stated that a law that "mollifies" a criminal act was merely retrospective, and was not an ex post facto law.[28] Scholars have argued that, as a historical matter, the phrase ex post facto referred to civil as well as criminal laws.[29] In administrative law, federal agencies may apply their rules retroactively if Congress has authorized them to; otherwise, retroactive application is generally prohibited. Retroactive application of regulations is disfavored by the courts for several reasons. The courts uphold retroactive regulation where Congress has expressly granted such retroactive power to the agency, as they did in Bowen v. Georgetown University Hospital.[30] The rules as they relate to the effects of ex post facto upon the U.S. Federal Sentencing Guidelines can be found in U.S.S.G. § 1B1.11 (2012). See also Bouie v. City of Columbia, Rogers v. Tennessee, Stogner v. California, Republic of Austria v. Altmann, James Bamford and Samuels v. McCurdy. Treatment by international organizations and treaties[edit] International criminal law[edit] In international criminal law, the Nuremberg trials prosecuted war crimes and crimes against humanity perpetrated in World War II. Although the Nuremberg Charter, the procedural law under which the trials were held, postdated V-E Day, the tribunal rejected the defence that the criminal law was ex post facto, arguing it derived from earlier treaties like the Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907. The International Criminal Court established in 2002 cannot prosecute crimes committed before 2002. Universal Declaration of Human Rights and related treaties[edit] Article 11, paragraph 2 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights provides that no person be held guilty of any criminal law that did not exist at the time of offence nor suffer any penalty heavier than what existed at the time of offence. It does however permit application of either domestic or international law. Very similar provisions are found in Article 15, paragraph 1 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, replacing the term "penal offence" with "criminal offence". It also adds that if a lighter penalty is provided for after the offence occurs, that lighter penalty shall apply retroactively. Paragraph 2 adds a provision that paragraph 1 does not prevent trying and punishing for an act that was criminal according to the general principles of law recognized by the community of nations. Specifically addressing the use of the death penalty, article 6, paragraph 2 provides in relevant part that a death sentence may only be imposed "for the most serious crimes in accordance with the law in force at the time of the commission of the crime". African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights[edit] Article 2, paragraph 7 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights provides in part that "[n]o one may be condemned for an act or omission which did not constitute a legally punishable offense at the time it was committed. No penalty may be inflicted for an offense for which no provision was made at the time it was committed." American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man[edit] Article 25 of the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man provides in part that "[n]o person may be deprived of his liberty except in the cases and according to the procedures established by pre-existing law." The right to be tried in accordance to "pre-existing law" is reiterated in article 26. Arab Charter on Human Rights[edit] Article 15 of the Arab Charter on Human Rights provides that "[n]o crime and no penalty can be established without a prior provision of the law. In all circumstances, the law most favorable to the defendant shall be applied." European Convention on Human Rights[edit] Effectively all European states (except Belarus), including all European Union and European Economic Area states, are bound by the European Convention on Human Rights. Article 7 of the convention mirrors the language of both paragraphs of Article 15 of the International Covenant on Political and Civil Rights, with the exception that it does not include that a subsequent lighter penalty must apply. Quotations[edit] Edit-copy purple-wikiq.svg This section is a candidate to be copied to Wikiquote using the Transwiki process. The sentiment the ex post facto laws are against natural right is so strong in the United States, that few, if any, of the State constitutions have failed to proscribe them. The federal constitution indeed interdicts them in criminal cases only; but they are equally unjust in civil as in criminal cases, and the omission of a caution which would have been right, does not justify the doing what is wrong. Nor ought it to be presumed that the legislature meant to use a phrase in an unjustifiable sense, if by rules of construction it can be ever strained to what is just. — Thomas Jefferson, Letter to Isaac McPherson, August 13, 1813 Grammatical form and usage[edit] The phrase may not appear to be grammatically correct in Latin if it is interpreted to comprise the preposition ex, the preposition post, and a noun with the wrong grammatical case to agree with post. Indeed, the Digesta Iustiniani (15.3.10.8.3, 20.1.22.pr2, etc.) shows a two-word phrase, ex postfacto: out of a postfactum (an after-deed), or more naturally, from a law passed afterward. This same work, however, also makes use of the three-word phrase ex post facto, (2.14.17.4.2, 4.6.17.1.1, passim), suggesting that post might best be understood as an adverb. This adverbial usage of post is not at all unusual. For example, the Classical author/advocate/politician Marcus Tullius Cicero employs phrases such as multis post annis (De Re Publica 2.5.8 and elsewhere). Therefore, ex post facto or ex postfacto is natively an adverbial phrase, a usage demonstrated by the sentence "He was convicted ex post facto (from a law passed after his crime)." The law itself would rightfully be a postfactum law (lex postfacta); nevertheless, despite its redundant or circular nature, the phrase an ex post facto law is used.[citation needed] In Poland the phrase lex retro non agit ("the law does not operate retroactively") is often used.[31] See also[edit] Law portal A priori and a posteriori Ex ante Nulla poena sine lege - the principle that no one may be punished for an act which is not against the law Richard Roose Rokotov-Faibishenko case References[edit] Jump up ^ Link to Civil Code Jump up ^ "Janvier 2013 : La rétroactivité fiscale dans la jurisprudence du Conseil constitutionnel" (in French). January 2013. Jump up ^ Soyer, Jean-Claude (2012). Droit pénal et procédure pénale. Lextenso Editions (in French) (21 ed.). Paris: L.G.D.G. pp. 75-78. Jump up ^ Terré, François (2001). Introduction générale au droit. Précis (in French) (8 ed.). Paris: Dalloz. pp. 204-5. Jump up ^ Benjamin Lahusen "Aus Juristen Demokraten machen" Jump up ^ Controversial 98% tax on gov't severance pay made retroactive to 2005 Archived November 11, 2010, at the Wayback Machine. Jump up ^ legalserviceindia.com Jump up ^ Department of Stamps and Registration, Government of Karnataka Jump up ^ Indonesian Constitutional Court Decision No 013/PUU-I/2003 (Masykur Abdul Kadir Case) Jump up ^ (Italian) Giampiero Buonomo, Dura lex sed negligens, in Mondoperaio, 9/2014, p. 61. Jump up ^ Article 4 Wet algemene bepalingen Jump up ^ Article 1 Wetboek van Strafrecht (Criminal Law) Jump up ^ "Norwegian Supreme Court case 2009/1575" (PDF). domstol.no. Jump up ^ The Constitution of Pakistan Jump up ^ "By the time you read this, I will be a criminal.". Retrieved 3 October 2012. Jump up ^ "Pakistan Act 1990". Government of the United Kingdom. Retrieved 17 September 2010. Jump up ^ Lord Denning in Macarthys Ltd v Smith [1979] ICR 785 at p. 789, quoted in Steiner, Josephine; Woods, Lorna; Twigg-Flesner, Christian (2006). "Section 4.4.2: Effect of the European Communities Act 1972, s.2(1) and (4)". EU Law (9th ed.). Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press. p. 79. ISBN 978-0-19-927959-3. If the time should come when our Parliament deliberately passes an Act with the intention of repudiating the Treaty or any provision in it or intentionally of acting inconsistently with it — and says so in express terms — then ... it would be the duty of our courts to follow the statute of our Parliament. Jump up ^ Straw, Jack (2005-02-08). "Select Committee on European Scrutiny Minutes of Evidence: Examination of Witnesses (Questions 229-239): Rt hon Jack Straw MP and Mr David Frost". House of Commons Publications. Retrieved 2008-01-09. I think your Committee will be familiar with what Lord Denning, then Master of the Rolls, said in McCarthy v Smith: "If the time should come when our Parliament deliberately passes an Act with the intention of repudiating the Treaty or any provision of it or with the intention of acting inconsistently with it—it says so in express terms—I should have thought it would be the duty of our courts to follow the statute in our Parliament." That much is clear. Other consequences would follow in those circumstances, which arise from our signature on the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaty, Article 27, which says that you have to respect the international obligations into which you have entered. Jump up ^ "Will retrospective taxes affect us all?". BBC News. 5 February 2010. Retrieved 2 May 2010. Jump up ^ Calder v. Bull, 3 U.S. 386 (1798). Jump up ^ "Library of Congress text of H.R.4472". Jump up ^ Smith v. Doe, 538 U.S. 84 (2003). Jump up ^ "Ex Post Facto Laws". Jump up ^ Starkey v. Oklahoma Department Of Corrections, 2013 OK 43 (2013), at [1]; OSCN Documents http://www.oscn.net/applications/oscn/DeliverDocument.asp?CiteID=470336 ^ Jump up to: a b Kansas v. Hendricks, 521 U.S. 346 (1997). Jump up ^ 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(8), 922(g)(9), and 924. Jump up ^ United States v. Emerson, 270 F.3d 203 (5th Cir. 2001). Jump up ^ Calder, 3 U.S. Jump up ^ Zoldan, Evan. "The Civil Ex Post Facto Clause". Jump up ^ Bowen v. Georgetown University Hospital, 488 U.S. 204 (1988). Jump up ^ Mattila, Heikki E. S.; Christopher Goddard (2006). Comparative Legal Linguistics. Ashgate Publishing. p. 154. ISBN 978-0-7546-4874-1. [show] v t e Articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights [show] v t e Criminal procedure (investigation) Categories: Ex post facto lawConstitutional lawCriminal procedureEthically disputed judicial practicesLatin legal terminology Navigation menu Not logged inTalkContributionsCreate accountLog inArticleTalkReadEditView historySearch Search Wikipedia Go Main page Contents Featured content Current events Random article Donate to Wikipedia Wikipedia store Interaction Help About Wikipedia Community portal Recent changes Contact page Tools What links here Related changes Upload file Special pages Permanent link Page information Wikidata item Cite this page Print/export Create a book Download as PDF Printable version Languages Afrikaans Български Català Čeština Deutsch Español فارسی Français 한국어 Bahasa Indonesia Italiano עברית ქართული Қазақша Polski Русский Simple English Slovenčina Српски / srpski Suomi Svenska Українська 中文 Edit links This page was last modified on 9 November 2016, at 09:25. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.

D

China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a unitary sovereign state in Asia. With a population of over 1.381 billion, it is the world's most populous state.[16] The state is governed by its vanguard Communist Party based in the capital of Beijing.[17] It exercises jurisdiction over 22 provinces, five autonomous regions, four direct-controlled municipalities (Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, and Chongqing), two mostly self-governing special administrative regions (Hong Kong and Macau), and claims sovereignty over Taiwan. The country's major urban areas include Shanghai, Guangzhou, Beijing, Chongqing, Shenzhen, Tianjin and Hong Kong. China is a great power and a major regional power within Asia, and has been characterized as a potential superpower.[18][19] Covering approximately 9.6 million square kilometers, China is the world's second largest state by land area,[20] and either the third or fourth-largest by total area, depending on the method of measurement.[i] China's landscape is vast and diverse, ranging from forest steppes and the Gobi and Taklamakan Deserts in the arid north to subtropical forests in the wetter south. The Himalaya, Karakoram, Pamir and Tian Shan mountain ranges separate China from much of South and Central Asia. The Yangtze and Yellow Rivers, the third and sixth longest in the world, respectively, run from the Tibetan Plateau to the densely populated eastern seaboard. China's coastline along the Pacific Ocean is 14,500 kilometers (9,000 mi) long, and is bounded by the Bohai, Yellow, East China, and South China seas. China is one of the cradles of civilization, with its known history beginning with an ancient civilization - one of the world's earliest - that flourished in the fertile basin of the Yellow River in the North China Plain. For millennia, China's political system was based on hereditary monarchies known as dynasties. Since 221 bc, when the Qin Dynasty first conquered several states to form a Chinese empire, the state has expanded, fractured and reformed numerous times. The Republic of China (ROC) replaced the last dynasty in 1912, and ruled the Chinese mainland until 1949, when it was defeated by the Communist Party of China in the Chinese Civil War. The Communist Party established the People's Republic of China in Beijing on 1 October 1949, while the ROC government relocated to Taiwan with its present de facto temporary capital in Taipei. Both the ROC and PRC continue to claim to be the legitimate government of all China, though the latter has more recognition in the world and controls more territory. Since the introduction of economic reforms in 1978, China has become one of the world's fastest-growing major economies. As of 2014, it is the world's second-largest economy by nominal GDP and largest by purchasing power parity (PPP). China is also the world's largest exporter and second-largest importer of goods.[21] China is a recognized nuclear weapons state and has the world's largest standing army and second-largest defense budget.[22][23] The PRC is a member of the United Nations, as it replaced the ROC as a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council in 1971. China is also a member of numerous formal and informal multilateral organizations, including the WTO, APEC, BRICS, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), the BCIM and the G-20. Contents [hide] 1 Names 2 History 2.1 Prehistory 2.2 Early dynastic rule 2.3 Imperial China 2.4 End of dynastic rule 2.5 Republic of China (1912-49) 2.6 People's Republic of China (1949-present) 3 Geography 3.1 Political geography 3.2 Landscape and climate 3.3 Biodiversity 3.4 Environmental issues 4 Politics 4.1 Communist Party 4.2 Government 4.3 Administrative divisions 4.4 Foreign relations 4.5 Sociopolitical issues, human rights, and reform 5 Military 6 Economy 6.1 Economic history and growth 6.2 China in the global economy 6.3 Class and income equality 6.4 Internationalization of the renminbi 7 Science and technology 7.1 Historical 7.2 Modern era 8 Infrastructure 8.1 Telecommunications 8.2 Transport 8.3 Water supply and sanitation 9 Demographics 9.1 Ethnic groups 9.2 Languages 9.3 Urbanization 9.4 Education 9.5 Health 9.6 Religion 10 Culture 10.1 Literature 10.2 Cuisine 10.3 Sports 11 See also 12 Footnotes 13 References 14 Further reading 15 External links Names Main article: Names of China China China (Chinese characters).svg "China" in Simplified (top) and Traditional (bottom) Chinese characters Chinese name Simplified Chinese 中国 Traditional Chinese 中國 Literal meaning Middle or Central State[24] [show]Transcriptions People's Republic of China Simplified Chinese 中华人民共和国 Traditional Chinese 中華人民共和國 [show]Transcriptions Tibetan name Tibetan ཀྲུང་ཧྭ་མི་དམངས་སྤྱི མཐུན་རྒྱལ་ཁབ [show]Transcriptions Zhuang name Zhuang Cunghvaz Yinzminz Gunghozgoz Mongolian name Mongolian Bügüde nayiramdaqu dumdadu arad ulus, ᠪᠦᠭᠦᠳᠡ ᠨᠠᠶᠢᠷᠠᠮᠳᠠᠬᠤ ᠳᠤᠮᠳᠠᠳᠤ ᠠᠷᠠᠳ ᠤᠯᠤᠰ [show]Transcriptions Uyghur name Uyghur جۇڭخۇا خەلق جۇمھۇرىيىت [show]Transcriptions You may need rendering support to display the Chinese text in this article correctly. The English name "China" is first attested in Richard Eden's 1555 translation[j] of the 1516 journal of the Portuguese explorer Duarte Barbosa.[k][29] The demonym, that is, the name for the people, and adjectival form "Chinese" developed later on the model of Portuguese chinês and French chinois.[30][l] Portuguese China is thought to derive from Persian Chīn (چین), and perhaps ultimately from Sanskrit Cīna (चीन).[32] Cīna was first used in early Hindu scripture, including the Mahābhārata (5th century bc) and the Laws of Manu (2nd century bc).[33] The traditional theory, proposed in the 17th century by Martino Martini[34] and supported by many later scholars, is that the word "China" and its earlier related forms are ultimately derived from the state of Qin (秦, Old Chinese: *Dzin),[35] the westernmost of the Chinese states during the Zhou dynasty which unified China to form the Qin dynasty.[36] There are, however, other suggestions for the derivation of "China".[33] The official name of the modern state is the "People's Republic of China" (Chinese: 中华人民共和国; pinyin: Zhōnghuá Rénmín Gònghéguó). The shorter form is "China" Zhōngguó (中国), from zhōng ("central" or "middle") and guó ("state, nation-state"),[24][m] a term which developed under the Zhou Dynasty in reference to its royal demesne.[n] It was then applied to the area around Luoyi (present-day Luoyang) during the Eastern Zhou and then to China's Central Plain before being used as an occasional synonym for the state under the Qing.[37] It was often used as a cultural concept to distinguish the Huaxia tribes from perceived "barbarians"[37] and was the source of the English name "Middle Kingdom".[39][40] A more literary or inclusive name, alluding to the "land of Chinese civilization", is Zhōnghuá (中华).[41] It developed during the Wei and Jin dynasties as a contraction of "the central state of the Huaxia".[37] During the 1950s and 1960s, after the defeat of the Kuomingtang in the Chinese Civil War, it was also referred to as "Communist China" or "Red China".[42] History Main articles: History of China and Timeline of Chinese history History of China History of China ANCIENT Neolithic c. 8500 - c. 2070 BC Xia dynasty c. 2070 - c. 1600 BC Shang dynasty c. 1600 - c. 1046 BC Zhou dynasty c. 1046 - 256 BC Western Zhou Eastern Zhou Spring and Autumn Warring States IMPERIAL Qin dynasty 221-206 BC Han dynasty 206 BC - 220 AD Western Han Xin dynasty Eastern Han Three Kingdoms 220-280 Wei, Shu and Wu Jin dynasty 265-420 Western Jin Eastern Jin Sixteen Kingdoms Northern and Southern dynasties 420-589 Sui dynasty 581-618 Tang dynasty 618-907 (Second Zhou dynasty 690-705) Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms 907-960 Liao dynasty 907-1125 Song dynasty 960-1279 Northern Song Western Xia Southern Song Jin Yuan dynasty 1271-1368 Ming dynasty 1368-1644 Qing dynasty 1644-1911 MODERN Republic of China 1912-1949 People's Republic of China 1949-present Republic of China (Taiwan) 1949-present Related articles [show] This box: view talk edit Prehistory Main article: Chinese prehistory Archaeological evidence suggests that early hominids inhabited China between 2.24 million and 250,000 years ago.[43] The hominid fossils of Peking Man, a Homo erectus who used fire,[44] were discovered in a cave at Zhoukoudian near Beijing; they have been dated to between 680,000 and 780,000 years ago.[45] The fossilized teeth of Homo sapiens (dated to 125,000-80,000 years ago) have been discovered in Fuyan Cave in Dao County, Hunan.[46] Chinese proto-writing existed in Jiahu around 7000 bc,[47] Damaidi around 6000 bc,[48] Dadiwan from 5800-5400 bc, and Banpo dating from the 5th millennium bc. Some scholars have suggested that the Jiahu symbols (7th millennium bc) constituted the earliest Chinese writing system.[47] Early dynastic rule Further information: Dynasties in Chinese history Yinxu, the ruins of an palace ascribed to the Shang Dynasty (14th century bc) According to Chinese tradition, the first dynasty was the Xia, which emerged around 2100 bc.[49] The dynasty was considered mythical by historians until scientific excavations found early Bronze Age sites at Erlitou, Henan in 1959.[50] It remains unclear whether these sites are the remains of the Xia dynasty or of another culture from the same period.[51] The succeeding Shang dynasty is the earliest to be confirmed by contemporary records.[52] The Shang ruled the plain of the Yellow River in eastern China from the 17th to the 11th century bc.[53] Their oracle bone script (from c. 1500 bc)[54][55] represents the oldest form of Chinese writing yet found,[56] and is a direct ancestor of modern Chinese characters.[57] The Shang were conquered by the Zhou, who ruled between the 11th and 5th centuries bc, though centralized authority was slowly eroded by feudal warlords. Many independent states eventually emerged from the weakened Zhou state and continually waged war with each other in the 300-year Spring and Autumn Period, only occasionally deferring to the Zhou king. By the time of the Warring States period of the 5th-3rd centuries bc, there were seven powerful sovereign states in what is now China, each with its own king, ministry and army. Imperial China China's First Emperor is famed for having united the Warring States' barriers to form the first Great Wall of China. Most of the present structure, however, dates to the Ming Dynasty. The Terracotta Army (c. 210 bc) discovered outside the tomb of the First Emperor in modern Xi'an. The Warring States period ended in 221 bc after the state of Qin conquered the other six kingdoms and established the first unified Chinese state. Its King Zheng proclaimed himself the First Emperor of the Qin Dynasty (Qín Shǐhuáng or Shǐ Huángdì). He enacted Qin's legalist reforms throughout China, notably the forced standardization of Chinese characters, measurements, road widths (i.e., cart axles' length), and currency. His dynasty also conquered the Yue tribes in Guangxi, Guangdong, and northern Vietnam.[58] The Qin dynasty lasted only fifteen years, falling soon after the First Emperor's death, as his harsh authoritarian policies led to widespread rebellion.[59][60] Following a widespread civil war during which the imperial library at Xianyang was burned,[o] the Han dynasty emerged to rule China between 206 bc and ad 220, creating a cultural identity among its populace still remembered in the ethnonym of the Han Chinese.[59][60] The Han expanded the empire's territory considerably, with military campaigns reaching Central Asia, Mongolia, Korea, and Yunnan, and the recovery of Guangdong and northern Vietnam from Nanyue. Han involvement in Central Asia and Sogdia helped establish the land route of the Silk Road, replacing the earlier path over the Himalayas to India. Han China gradually became the largest economy of the ancient world.[62] Despite the Han's initial decentralization and the official abandonment of the Qin philosophy of Legalism in favor of Confucianism, Qin's legalist institutions and policies continued to be employed by the Han government and its successors.[63] After the collapse of Han, a period of strife known as Three Kingdoms followed,[64] whose central figures were later immortalized in one of the Four Classics of Chinese literature. At its end, Wei was swiftly overthrown by the Jin dynasty. The Jin fell to civil war upon the ascension of a developmentally-disabled emperor; the Five Barbarians then invaded and ruled northern China as the Sixteen Kingdoms. The Xianbei unified them as the Northern Wei, whose Emperor Xiaowen reversed his predecessors' apartheid policies and enforced a drastic sinification on his subjects, largely integrating them into Chinese culture. In the south, the general Liu Yu secured the abdication of the Jin in favor of the Liu Song. The various successors of these states became known as the Northern and Southern dynasties, with the two areas finally reunited by the Sui in 581. The Sui restored the Han to power through China, reformed its agriculture and economy, constructed the Grand Canal, and patronized Buddhism. However, they fell quickly when their conscription for public works and a failed war with Korea provoked widespread unrest.[65][66] A detail from Along the River During the Qingming Festival, a 12th-century painting showing everyday life in the Song dynasty's capital, Bianjing (present-day Kaifeng) Under the succeeding Tang and Song dynasties, Chinese economy, technology, and culture entered a golden age.[67] The Tang Empire returned control of the Western Regions and the Silk Road,[68] and made the capital Chang'an a cosmopolitan urban center. However, it was devastated and weakened by the An Shi Rebellion in the 8th century.[69] In 907, the Tang disintegrated completely with the local military governors being ungovernable. The Song Dynasty ended the separatist situation in 960, as a result the balance of power appeared between Song and Khitan Liao. The Song was the first government in world history to issue paper money and the first Chinese polity to establish a permanent standing navy which was supported by the developed shipbuilding industry along with the sea trade.[70] Between the 10th and 11th centuries, the population of China doubled in size to around 100 million people, mostly because of the expansion of rice cultivation in central and southern China, and the production of abundant food surpluses. The Song dynasty also saw a revival of Confucianism, in response to the growth of Buddhism during the Tang,[71] and a flourishing of philosophy and the arts, as landscape art and porcelain were brought to new levels of maturity and complexity.[72][73] However, the military weakness of the Song army was observed by the Jurchen Jin dynasty. In 1127, Emperor Huizong of Song and the capital Bianjing were captured during the Jin-Song Wars, remnants of the Song retreated to southern China.[74] In the 13th century, China was gradually conquered by the Mongol Empire. In 1271, the Mongol leader Kublai Khan established the Yuan dynasty; the Yuan conquered the last remnant of the Song dynasty in 1279. Before the Mongol invasion, the population of Song China was 120 million citizens; this was reduced to 60 million by the time of the census in 1300.[75] A peasant named Zhu Yuanzhang overthrew the Yuan Dynasty in 1368 and founded the Ming dynasty. Under the Ming Dynasty, China enjoyed another golden age, developing one of the strongest navies in the world and a rich and prosperous economy amid a flourishing of art and culture. It was during this period that Zheng He led voyages throughout the world, reaching as far as Africa.[76] In the early years of the Ming Dynasty, China's capital was moved from Nanjing to Beijing. With the budding of capitalism, philosophers such as Wang Yangming further critiqued and expanded Neo-Confucianism with concepts of individualism and equality of four occupations.[77] The scholar-official stratum became a supporting force of industry and commerce in the tax boycott movements, which, together with the famines and the wars against Japanese invasions of Korea and Manchu invasions led to an exhausted treasury.[78] In 1644, Beijing was captured by a coalition of peasant rebel forces led by Li Zicheng. The last Ming Chongzhen Emperor committed suicide when the city fell. The Manchu Qing dynasty then allied with Ming dynasty general Wu Sangui and overthrew Li's short-lived Shun dynasty, and subsequently seized control of Beijing, which became the new capital of the Qing Dynasty. End of dynastic rule A 19th-century depiction of the Taiping Rebellion (1850-1864). The Qing dynasty, which lasted from 1644 until 1912, was the last imperial dynasty of China. Its conquest of the Ming (1618-1683) costed 25 million lives and the economic scale of China shrank drastically.[79] After the Southern Ming ended, the further conquest of the Dzungar Khanate adds Mongolia, Tibet and Xinjiang into the empire.[80] The centralized autocracy were strengthened to crackdown on anti-Qing sentiment with the practicing of the policy of valuing agriculture and restraining commerce, the Haijin ("sea ban") and the ideological control as represented by the literary inquisition, causing social and technological stagnation.[81][82] In the 19th century, the dynasty experienced Western imperialism following the First Opium War (1839-42) and the Second Opium War (1856-60) with Britain and France. China was forced to sign unequal treaties, pay compensation, open treaty ports, allow extraterritoriality for foreign nationals, and cede Hong Kong to the British[83] under the 1842 Treaty of Nanking. The First Sino-Japanese War (1894-95) resulted in Qing China's loss of influence in the Korean Peninsula, as well as the cession of Taiwan to Japan.[84] The Eight-Nation Alliance invaded China to defeat the anti-foreign Boxers and their Qing backers. The Qing dynasty also began experiencing internal unrest in which tens of millions of people died, especially for the failed Taiping Rebellion that ravaged southern China in the 1850s and 1860s and the Dungan Revolt (1862-77) in the northwest. The initial success of the Self-Strengthening Movement of the 1860s was frustrated by the series of military defeats in the 1880s and 1890s. In the 19th century, the great Chinese Diaspora began. Losses due to emigration were added to by conflicts and catastrophes such as the Northern Chinese Famine of 1876-79, in which between 9 and 13 million people died.[85] In 1898, the Guangxu Emperor drafted a reform plan to establish a modern constitutional monarchy, but these plans were thwarted by the Empress Dowager Cixi. The ill-fated anti-Western Boxer Rebellion of 1899-1901 further weakened the dynasty. Although Cixi sponsored a program of reforms, the Xinhai Revolution of 1911-12 brought an end to the Qing dynasty and established the Republic of China. Republic of China (1912-49) Main articles: Republic of China (1912-49) and History of the Republic of China See also: Taiwan and Taiwan after World War II Sun Yat-sen, the father of modern China (seated on right), and Chiang Kai-shek, later President of the Republic of China Chiang Kai-shek and Mao Zedong toasting together in 1946 following the end of World War II On 1 January 1912, the Republic of China was established, and Sun Yat-sen of the Kuomintang (the KMT or Nationalist Party) was proclaimed provisional president.[86] However, the presidency was later given to Yuan Shikai, a former Qing general who in 1915 proclaimed himself Emperor of China. In the face of popular condemnation and opposition from his own Beiyang Army, he was forced to abdicate and reestablish the republic.[87] After Yuan Shikai's death in 1916, China was politically fragmented. Its Beijing-based government was internationally recognized but virtually powerless; regional warlords controlled most of its territory.[88][89] In the late 1920s, the Kuomintang, under Chiang Kai-shek, the then Principal of the Republic of China Military Academy, was able to reunify the country under its own control with a series of deft military and political manoeuvrings, known collectively as the Northern Expedition.[90][91] The Kuomintang moved the nation's capital to Nanjing and implemented "political tutelage", an intermediate stage of political development outlined in Sun Yat-sen's San-min program for transforming China into a modern democratic state.[92][93] The political division in China made it difficult for Chiang to battle the Communists, against whom the Kuomintang had been warring since 1927 in the Chinese Civil War. This war continued successfully for the Kuomintang, especially after the Communists retreated in the Long March, until Japanese aggression and the 1936 Xi'an Incident forced Chiang to confront Imperial Japan.[94] The Second Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945), a theater of World War II, forced an uneasy alliance between the Kuomintang and the Communists. Japanese forces committed numerous war atrocities against the civilian population; in all, as many as 20 million Chinese civilians died.[95] An estimated 200,000 Chinese were massacred in the city of Nanjing alone during the Japanese occupation.[96] During the war, China, along with the UK, the US and the Soviet Union, were referred to as "trusteeship of the powerful"[97] and were recognized as the Allied "Big Four" in the Declaration by United Nations.[98][99] Along with the other three great powers, China was one of the four major Allies of World War II, and was later considered one of the primary victors in the war.[100][101] After the surrender of Japan in 1945, Taiwan, including the Pescadores, was returned to Chinese control. China emerged victorious but war-ravaged and financially drained. The continued distrust between the Kuomintang and the Communists led to the resumption of civil war. In 1947, constitutional rule was established, but because of the ongoing unrest, many provisions of the ROC constitution were never implemented in mainland China.[102] People's Republic of China (1949-present) Main article: History of the People's Republic of China Mao Zedong proclaiming the establishment of the PRC in 1949 Major combat in the Chinese Civil War ended in 1949 with the Communist Party in control of most of mainland China, and the Kuomintang retreating offshore, reducing the ROC's territory to only Taiwan, Hainan, and their surrounding islands. On 1 October 1949, Communist Party Chairman Mao Zedong proclaimed the establishment of the People's Republic of China.[103] In 1950, the People's Liberation Army succeeded in capturing Hainan from the ROC[104] and incorporating Tibet.[105] However, remaining Nationalist forces continued to wage an insurgency in western China throughout the 1950s.[106] Mao's regime consolidated its popularity among the peasants through the land reform with between 1 and 2 million landlords executed.[107] Under its leadership, China developed an independent industrial system and its own nuclear weapons.[108] The Chinese population almost doubled from around 550 million to over 900 million.[109] However, Mao's Great Leap Forward, a large-scale economic and social reform project, resulted in an estimated 45 million deaths between 1958 and 1961, mostly from starvation.[110] In 1966, Mao and his allies launched the Cultural Revolution, sparking a decade of political recrimination and social upheaval which lasted until Mao's death in 1976. In October 1971, the PRC replaced the Republic of China in the United Nations, and took its seat as a permanent member of the Security Council.[111] In 1976, Mao died. The Gang of Four was quickly arrested and held responsible for the excesses of the Cultural Revolution. In 1978 Deng Xiaoping took power and instituted significant economic reforms. The Communist Party loosened governmental control over citizens' personal lives, and the communes were gradually disbanded in favor of private land leases. This marked China's transition from a planned economy to a mixed economy with an increasingly open market environment.[112] China adopted its current constitution on 4 December 1982. In 1989, the violent suppression of student protests in Tiananmen Square brought condemnation and sanctions against the Chinese government from various countries.[113] Jiang Zemin, Li Peng and Zhu Rongji led the nation in the 1990s. Under their administration, China's economic performance pulled an estimated 150 million peasants out of poverty and sustained an average annual gross domestic product growth rate of 11.2%.[114][115] The country formally joined the World Trade Organization in 2001, and maintained its high rate of economic growth under Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao's leadership in the 2000s. However, rapid growth also severely impacted the country's resources and environment,[116][117] and caused major social displacement.[118][119] Living standards continued to improve rapidly despite the late-2000s recession, but centralized political control remained tight.[120] Preparations for a decadal Communist Party leadership change in 2012 were marked by factional disputes and political scandals.[121] During China's 18th National Communist Party Congress in November 2012, Hu Jintao was replaced as General Secretary of the Communist Party by Xi Jinping.[122][123] Under Xi, the Chinese government began large-scale efforts to reform its economy,[124][125] which has suffered from structural instabilities and slowing growth.[126][127][128][129] The Xi-Li Administration also announced major reforms to the one-child policy and prison system.[130] Geography Main article: Geography of China A composite satellite image showing the topography of China Longsheng Rice Terrace in Guangxi The Li River in Guangxi Köppen climate types of China Political geography Main articles: Borders of China and Territorial changes of the People's Republic of China The People's Republic of China is the second-largest country in the world by land area[131] after Russia, and is either the third- or fourth-largest by total area, after Russia, Canada and, depending on the definition of total area, the United States.[p] China's total area is generally stated as being approximately 9,600,000 km2 (3,700,000 sq mi).[132] Specific area figures range from 9,572,900 km2 (3,696,100 sq mi) according to the Encyclopædia Britannica,[133] 9,596,961 km2 (3,705,407 sq mi) according to the UN Demographic Yearbook,[7] to 9,596,961 km2 (3,705,407 sq mi) according to the CIA World Factbook.[9] China has the longest combined land border in the world, measuring 22,117 km (13,743 mi) from the mouth of the Yalu River to the Gulf of Tonkin.[9] China borders 14 nations, more than any other country except Russia, which also borders 14.[134] China extends across much of East Asia, bordering Vietnam, Laos, and Myanmar (Burma) in Southeast Asia; India, Bhutan, Nepal, Afghanistan, and Pakistan[q] in South Asia; Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan in Central Asia; and Russia, Mongolia, and North Korea in Inner Asia and Northeast Asia. Additionally, China shares maritime boundaries with South Korea, Japan, Vietnam, and the Philippines. Landscape and climate The South China Sea coast at Hainan Jiuzhaigou Valley in Sichuan The territory of China lies between latitudes 18° and 54° N, and longitudes 73° and 135° E. China's landscapes vary significantly across its vast width. In the east, along the shores of the Yellow Sea and the East China Sea, there are extensive and densely populated alluvial plains, while on the edges of the Inner Mongolian plateau in the north, broad grasslands predominate. Southern China is dominated by hills and low mountain ranges, while the central-east hosts the deltas of China's two major rivers, the Yellow River and the Yangtze River. Other major rivers include the Xi, Mekong, Brahmaputra and Amur. To the west sit major mountain ranges, most notably the Himalayas. High plateaus feature among the more arid landscapes of the north, such as the Taklamakan and the Gobi Desert. The world's highest point, Mount Everest (8,848m), lies on the Sino-Nepalese border.[135] The country's lowest point, and the world's third-lowest, is the dried lake bed of Ayding Lake (−154m) in the Turpan Depression.[136] China's climate is mainly dominated by dry seasons and wet monsoons, which lead to pronounced temperature differences between winter and summer. In the winter, northern winds coming from high-latitude areas are cold and dry; in summer, southern winds from coastal areas at lower latitudes are warm and moist.[137] The climate in China differs from region to region because of the country's highly complex topography. A major environmental issue in China is the continued expansion of its deserts, particularly the Gobi Desert.[138][139] Although barrier tree lines planted since the 1970s have reduced the frequency of sandstorms, prolonged drought and poor agricultural practices have resulted in dust storms plaguing northern China each spring, which then spread to other parts of east Asia, including Korea and Japan. China's environmental watchdog, SEPA, stated in 2007 that China is losing a million acres (4,000 km²) per year to desertification.[140] Water quality, erosion, and pollution control have become important issues in China's relations with other countries. Melting glaciers in the Himalayas could potentially lead to water shortages for hundreds of millions of people.[141] Biodiversity Main article: Wildlife of China A giant panda, China's most famous endangered and endemic species, at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding in Sichuan China is one of 17 megadiverse countries,[142] lying in two of the world's major ecozones: the Palearctic and the Indomalaya. By one measure, China has over 34,687 species of animals and vascular plants, making it the third-most biodiverse country in the world, after Brazil and Colombia.[143] The country signed the Rio de Janeiro Convention on Biological Diversity on 11 June 1992, and became a party to the convention on 5 January 1993.[144] It later produced a National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan, with one revision that was received by the convention on 21 September 2010.[145] China is home to at least 551 species of mammals (the third-highest such number in the world),[146] 1,221 species of birds (eighth),[147] 424 species of reptiles (seventh)[148] and 333 species of amphibians (seventh).[149] China is the most biodiverse country in each category outside the tropics. Wildlife in China share habitat with and bear acute pressure from the world's largest population of homo sapiens. At least 840 animal species are threatened, vulnerable or in danger of local extinction in China, due mainly to human activity such as habitat destruction, pollution and poaching for food, fur and ingredients for traditional Chinese medicine.[150] Endangered wildlife is protected by law, and as of 2005, the country has over 2,349 nature reserves, covering a total area of 149.95 million hectares, 15 percent of China's total land area.[151] China has over 32,000 species of vascular plants,[152] and is home to a variety of forest types. Cold coniferous forests predominate in the north of the country, supporting animal species such as moose and Asian black bear, along with over 120 bird species.[153] The understorey of moist conifer forests may contain thickets of bamboo. In higher montane stands of juniper and yew, the bamboo is replaced by rhododendrons. Subtropical forests, which are predominate in central and southern China, support as many as 146,000 species of flora.[153] Tropical and seasonal rainforests, though confined to Yunnan and Hainan Island, contain a quarter of all the animal and plant species found in China.[153] China has over 10,000 recorded species of fungi,[154] and of them, nearly 6,000 are higher fungi.[155] Environmental issues Main article: Environmental issues in China See also: Water resources of China Wind turbines in Xinjiang. The Dabancheng project is one of Asia's largest wind farms In recent decades, China has suffered from severe environmental deterioration and pollution.[156][157] While regulations such as the 1979 Environmental Protection Law are fairly stringent, they are poorly enforced, as they are frequently disregarded by local communities and government officials in favor of rapid economic development.[158] Urban air pollution is a severe health issue in the country; the World Bank estimated in 2013 that 16 of the world's 20 most-polluted cities are located in China.[159] China is the world's largest carbon dioxide emitter.[160] The country also has significant water pollution problems: 40% of China's rivers had been polluted by industrial and agricultural waste by late 2011.[161] In 2014, the internal freshwater resources per capita of China reduced to 2,062m3, and it was below 500m3 in the North China Plain, while 5,920m3 in the world.[162][163][164] However, China is the world's leading investor in renewable energy commercialization, with $52 billion invested in 2011 alone;[165][166][167] it is a major manufacturer of renewable energy technologies and invests heavily in local-scale renewable energy projects.[168][169] By 2009, over 17% of China's energy was derived from renewable sources - most notably hydroelectric power plants, of which China has a total installed capacity of 197 GW.[170] In 2011, the Chinese government announced plans to invest four trillion yuan (US$619 billion) in water infrastructure and desalination projects over a ten-year period, and to complete construction of a flood prevention and anti-drought system by 2020.[163][171] In 2013, China began a five-year, US$277 billion effort to reduce air pollution, particularly in the north of the country.[172] Politics Main article: Politics of the People's Republic of China Tiananmen with a portrait of Mao Zedong China's constitution states that The People's Republic of China "is a socialist state under the people's democratic dictatorship led by the working class and based on the alliance of workers and peasants," and that the state organs "apply the principle of democratic centralism."[173] The PRC is one of the world's few remaining socialist states openly endorsing communism (see Ideology of the Communist Party of China). The Chinese government has been variously described as communist and socialist, but also as authoritarian and corporatist,[174] with heavy restrictions in many areas, most notably against free access to the Internet, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, the right to have children, free formation of social organizations and freedom of religion.[175] Its current political, ideological and economic system has been termed by its leaders as the "people's democratic dictatorship", "socialism with Chinese characteristics" (which is Marxism adapted to Chinese circumstances) and the "socialist market economy" respectively.[176] Communist Party China's constitution declares that the country is ruled "under the leadership" of the Communist Party of China (CPC).[177] The electoral system is pyramidal. Local People's Congresses are directly elected, and higher levels of People's Congresses up to the National People's Congress (NPC) are indirectly elected by the People's Congress of the level immediately below.[178] The political system is decentralized, and provincial and sub-provincial leaders have a significant amount of autonomy.[179] Other political parties, referred to as democratic parties, have representatives in the National People's Congress and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC).[180] Compared to its closed-door policies until the mid-1970s, the administrative climate is less restrictive than before. China supports the Leninist principle of "democratic centralism",[181] but critics describe the elected National People's Congress as a "rubber stamp" body.[182] Government Main article: Government of China The Great Hall of the People in Beijing, where the National People's Congress convenes Monument in Tiananmen Square marking the 90th anniversary of the CPC The President of China is the titular head of state, serving as the ceremonial figurehead under National People's Congress. The Premier of China is the head of government, presiding over the State Council composed of four vice premiers and the heads of ministries and commissions. The incumbent president is Xi Jinping, who is also the General Secretary of the Communist Party of China and the Chairman of the Central Military Commission, making him China's paramount leader.[122] The incumbent premier is Li Keqiang, who is also a senior member of the CPC Politburo Standing Committee, China's de facto top decision-making body.[183] There have been some moves toward political liberalization, in that open contested elections are now held at the village and town levels.[184][185] However, the Party retains effective control over government appointments: in the absence of meaningful opposition, the CPC wins by default most of the time. Political concerns in China include the growing gap between rich and poor and government corruption.[186][187] Nonetheless, the level of public support for the government and its management of the nation is high, with 80-95% of Chinese citizens expressing satisfaction with the central government, according to a 2011 survey.[188] Administrative divisions Main articles: Administrative divisions of China, Districts of Hong Kong, and Municipalities of Macau The People's Republic of China has administrative control over 22 provinces and considers Taiwan to be its 23rd province, although Taiwan is currently and independently governed by the Republic of China, which disputes the PRC's claim.[189] China also has five subdivisions officially termed autonomous regions, each with a designated minority group; four municipalities; and two Special Administrative Regions (SARs), which enjoy a degree of political autonomy. These 22 provinces, five autonomous regions, and four municipalities can be collectively referred to as "mainland China", a term which usually excludes the SARs of Hong Kong and Macau. None of these divisions are recognized by the ROC government, which claims the entirety of the PRC's territory. Provinces (省) Claimed Province Anhui (安徽省) Fujian (福建省) Gansu (甘肃省) Guangdong (广东省) Guizhou (贵州省) Hainan (海南省) Hebei (河北省) Heilongjiang (黑龙江省) Henan (河南省) Hubei (湖北省) Hunan (湖南省) Jiangsu (江苏省) Jiangxi (江西省) Jilin (吉林省) Liaoning (辽宁省) Qinghai (青海省) Shaanxi (陕西省) Shandong (山东省) Shanxi (山西省) Sichuan (四川省) Yunnan (云南省) Zhejiang (浙江省) Taiwan (台湾省) governed by ROC Autonomous regions (自治区) Municipalities (直辖市) Special administrative regions (特别行政区) Guangxi (广西壮族自治区) Inner Mongolia / Nei Mongol (内蒙古自治区) Ningxia (宁夏回族自治区) Xinjiang (新疆维吾尔自治区) Tibet / Xizang (西藏自治区) Beijing (北京市) Chongqing (重庆市) Shanghai (上海市) Tianjin (天津市) Hong Kong / Xianggang (香港特别行政区) Macau / Aomen (澳门特别行政区) China administrative claimed included.svg About this image Foreign relations Main article: Foreign relations of China Chinese President Xi Jinping holds hands with fellow BRICS leaders at the 2014 G20 Brisbane summit in Australia The PRC has diplomatic relations with 173 countries and maintains embassies in 162.[190] Its legitimacy is disputed by the Republic of China and a few other countries; it is thus the largest and most populous state with limited recognition. In 1971, the PRC replaced the Republic of China as the sole representative of China in the United Nations and as one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council.[191] China was also a former member and leader of the Non-Aligned Movement, and still considers itself an advocate for developing countries.[192] Along with Brazil, Russia, India and South Africa, China is a member of the BRICS group of emerging major economies and hosted the group's third official summit at Sanya, Hainan in April 2011.[193] Under its interpretation of the One-China policy, Beijing has made it a precondition to establishing diplomatic relations that the other country acknowledges its claim to Taiwan and severs official ties with the government of the Republic of China. Chinese officials have protested on numerous occasions when foreign countries have made diplomatic overtures to Taiwan,[194] especially in the matter of armament sales.[195] Much of current Chinese foreign policy is reportedly based on Premier Zhou Enlai's Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, and is also driven by the concept of "harmony without uniformity", which encourages diplomatic relations between states despite ideological differences.[196] This policy may have led China to support states that are regarded as dangerous or repressive by Western nations, such as Zimbabwe, North Korea and Iran.[197] China has a close economic and military relationship with Russia,[198] and the two states often vote in unison in the UN Security Council.[199][200][201] Chinese President Xi Jinping with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Vice President Joe Biden, 14 May 2013 Trade relations In recent decades, China has played an increasing role in calling for free trade areas and security pacts amongst its Asia-Pacific neighbours. In 2004, it proposed an entirely new East Asia Summit (EAS) framework as a forum for regional security issues.[202] The EAS, which includes ASEAN Plus Three, India, Australia and New Zealand, held its inaugural summit in 2005. China is also a founding member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), along with Russia and the Central Asian republics. China became a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO) on 11 December 2001. In 2000, the United States Congress approved "permanent normal trade relations" (PNTR) with China, allowing Chinese exports in at the same low tariffs as goods from most other countries.[203] China has a significant trade surplus with the United States, its most important export market.[204] In the early 2010s, US politicians argued that the Chinese yuan was significantly undervalued, giving China an unfair trade advantage.[205][206][207] In recent decades, China has followed a policy of engaging with African nations for trade and bilateral co-operation;[208][209][210] in 2012, Sino-African trade totalled over US$160 billion.[211] China has furthermore strengthened its ties with major South American economies, becoming the largest trading partner of Brazil and building strategic links with Argentina.[212][213] Territorial disputes Map depicting territorial disputes between the PRC and neighbouring states. For a larger map, see here Main article: Foreign relations of China § International territorial disputes See also: List of wars involving the People's Republic of China and One-China policy Ever since its establishment after the second Chinese Civil War, the PRC has been claiming the territories governed by the Republic of China (ROC), a separate political entity today commonly known as Taiwan, as a part of its territory, which includes the island of Taiwan as Taiwan Province, Kinmen and Matsu as a part of Fujian Province and islands the ROC controls in the South China Sea as a part of Hainan Province and Guangdong Province. These claims are controversial because of the complicated Cross-Strait relations, and has been one of the most important principles in Chinese diplomacy.[214] In addition to Taiwan, China is also involved in other international territorial disputes. Since the 1990s, China has been involved in negotiations to resolve its disputed land borders, including a disputed border with India and an undefined border with Bhutan. China is additionally involved in multilateral disputes over the ownership of several small islands in the East and South China Seas, such as the Senkaku Islands and the Scarborough Shoal.[215][216] On 21 May 2014 President Xi, speaking at a conference in Shanghai, pledged to settle China's territorial disputes peacefully. "China stays committed to seeking peaceful settlement of disputes with other countries over territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests", he said.[217] Emerging superpower status China is regularly hailed as a potential new superpower, with certain commentators citing its rapid economic progress, growing military might, very large population, and increasing international influence as signs that it will play a prominent global role in the 21st century.[19][218] Others, however, warn that economic bubbles and demographic imbalances could slow or even halt China's growth as the century progresses.[219][220] Some authors also question the definition of "superpower", arguing that China's large economy alone would not qualify it as a superpower, and noting that it lacks the military and cultural influence of the United States.[221] Sociopolitical issues, human rights, and reform See also: Human rights in China, Hukou system, Social welfare in China, Elections in the People's Republic of China, Censorship in China, and Feminism in China Protests in support of Cantonese media localization in Guangzhou, 2010 The Chinese democracy movement, social activists, and some members of the Communist Party of China have all identified the need for social and political reform. While economic and social controls have been significantly relaxed in China since the 1970s, political freedom is still tightly restricted. The Constitution of the People's Republic of China states that the "fundamental rights" of citizens include freedom of speech, freedom of the press, the right to a fair trial, freedom of religion, universal suffrage, and property rights. However, in practice, these provisions do not afford significant protection against criminal prosecution by the state.[222][223] Although some criticisms of government policies and the ruling Communist Party are tolerated, censorship of political speech and information, most notably on the Internet,[224][225] are routinely used to prevent collective action.[226] In 2005, Reporters Without Borders ranked China 159th out of 167 states in its Annual World Press Freedom Index, indicating a very low level of press freedom.[227] In 2014, China ranked 175th out of 180 countries.[228] Rural migrants to China's cities often find themselves treated as second-class citizens by the hukou household registration system, which controls access to state benefits.[229][230] Property rights are often poorly protected,[229] and taxation disproportionately affects poorer citizens.[230] However, a number of rural taxes have been reduced or abolished since the early 2000s, and additional social services provided to rural dwellers.[231][232] A number of foreign governments, foreign press agencies and NGOs also routinely criticize China's human rights record, alleging widespread civil rights violations such as detention without trial, forced abortions,[233] forced confessions, torture, restrictions of fundamental rights,[175][234] and excessive use of the death penalty.[235][236] The government has suppressed popular protests and demonstrations that it considers a potential threat to "social stability", as was the case with the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. Falun Gong was first taught publicly in 1992. In 1999, when there were 70 million practitioners,[237] the persecution of Falun Gong began, resulting in mass arrests, extralegal detention, and reports of torture and deaths in custody.[238][239] The Chinese state is regularly accused of large-scale repression and human rights abuses in Tibet and Xinjiang, including violent police crackdowns and religious suppression.[240][241] The Chinese government has responded to foreign criticism by arguing that the right to subsistence and economic development is a prerequisite to other types of human rights, and that the notion of human rights should take into account a country's present level of economic development.[242] It emphasizes the rise in the Chinese standard of living, literacy rate and average life expectancy since the 1970s, as well as improvements in workplace safety and efforts to combat natural disasters such as the perennial Yangtze River floods.[242][243][244] Furthermore, some Chinese politicians have spoken out in support of democratization, although others remain more conservative.[245] Some major reform efforts have been conducted; for an instance in November 2013, the government announced plans to relax the one-child policy and abolish the much-criticized re-education through labour program,[130] though human rights groups note that reforms to the latter have been largely cosmetic.[238] During the 2000s and early 2010s, the Chinese government was increasingly tolerant of NGOs that offer practical, efficient solutions to social problems, but such "third sector" activity remained heavily regulated.[246][247] Military Main articles: Military history of China before 1911 and People's Liberation Army A PLAAF Chengdu J-10 fighter aircraft The Lanzhou (DDG170), a Type 052C destroyer of the PLAN With 2.3 million active troops, the People's Liberation Army (PLA) is the largest standing military force in the world, commanded by the Central Military Commission (CMC).[248] The PLA consists of the Ground Force (PLAGF), the Navy (PLAN), the Air Force (PLAAF), and the People's Liberation Army Rocket Force (PLARF). According to the Chinese government, China's military budget for 2014 totalled US$132 billion, constituting the world's second-largest military budget.[23] However, many authorities - including SIPRI and the U.S. Office of the Secretary of Defense - argue that China does not report its real level of military spending, which is allegedly much higher than the official budget.[23][249] As a recognized nuclear weapons state, China is considered both a major regional military power and a potential military superpower.[250] According to a 2013 report by the US Department of Defense, China fields between 50 and 75 nuclear ICBMs, along with a number of SRBMs.[22] However, compared with the other four UN Security Council Permanent Members, China has relatively limited power projection capabilities.[251] To offset this, it has developed numerous power projection assets since the early 2000s - its first aircraft carrier entered service in 2012,[252][253][254] and it maintains a substantial fleet of submarines, including several nuclear-powered attack and ballistic missile submarines.[255] China has furthermore established a network of foreign military relationships along critical sea lanes.[256] China has made significant progress in modernising its air force in recent decades, purchasing Russian fighter jets such as the Sukhoi Su-30, and also manufacturing its own modern fighters, most notably the Chengdu J-10, J-20 and the Shenyang J-11, J-15, J-16, and J-31.[252][257] China is furthermore engaged in developing an indigenous stealth aircraft and numerous combat drones.[258][259][260] Air and Sea denial weaponry advances have increased the regional threat from the perspective of Japan as well as Washington.[261][262] China has also updated its ground forces, replacing its ageing Soviet-derived tank inventory with numerous variants of the modern Type 99 tank, and upgrading its battlefield C3I and C4I systems to enhance its network-centric warfare capabilities.[263] In addition, China has developed or acquired numerous advanced missile systems,[264][265] including anti-satellite missiles,[266] cruise missiles[267] and submarine-launched nuclear ICBMs.[268] According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute's data, China became the world's third largest exporter of major arms in 2010-14, an increase of 143 per cent from the period 2005-09.[269] Economy Main articles: Economy of China, Agriculture in China, and List of Chinese administrative divisions by GDP China and other major developing economies by GDP per capita at purchasing-power parity, 1990-2013. The rapid economic growth of China (red) is readily apparent.[270] The Shanghai Stock Exchange building in Shanghai's Lujiazui financial district. Shanghai has the 25th-largest city GDP in the world, totalling US$304 billion in 2011[271] As of 2014, China has the world's second-largest economy in terms of nominal GDP, totalling approximately US$10.380 trillion according to the International Monetary Fund.[13] If purchasing power parity (PPP) is taken into account, China's economy is the largest in the world, with a 2014 PPP GDP of US$17.617 trillion.[13] In 2013, its PPP GDP per capita was US$12,880, while its nominal GDP per capita was US$7,589. Both cases put China behind around eighty countries (out of 183 countries on the IMF list) in global GDP per capita rankings.[272] Economic history and growth Main article: Economic history of China (1949-present) From its founding in 1949 until late 1978, the People's Republic of China was a Soviet-style centrally planned economy. Following Mao's death in 1976 and the consequent end of the Cultural Revolution, Deng Xiaoping and the new Chinese leadership began to reform the economy and move towards a more market-oriented mixed economy under one-party rule. Agricultural collectivization was dismantled and farmlands privatized, while foreign trade became a major new focus, leading to the creation of Special Economic Zones (SEZs). Inefficient state-owned enterprises (SOEs) were restructured and unprofitable ones were closed outright, resulting in massive job losses. Modern-day China is mainly characterized as having a market economy based on private property ownership,[273] and is one of the leading examples of state capitalism.[274][275] The state still dominates in strategic "pillar" sectors such as energy production and heavy industries, but private enterprise has expanded enormously, with around 30 million private businesses recorded in 2008.[276][277][278][279] Nanjing Road, a major shopping street in Shanghai Since economic liberalization began in 1978, China has been among the world's fastest-growing economies,[280] relying largely on investment- and export-led growth.[281] According to the IMF, China's annual average GDP growth between 2001 and 2010 was 10.5%. Between 2007 and 2011, China's economic growth rate was equivalent to all of the G7 countries' growth combined.[282] According to the Global Growth Generators index announced by Citigroup in February 2011, China has a very high 3G growth rating.[283] Its high productivity, low labor costs and relatively good infrastructure have made it a global leader in manufacturing. However, the Chinese economy is highly energy-intensive and inefficient;[284] China became the world's largest energy consumer in 2010,[285] relies on coal to supply over 70% of its energy needs, and surpassed the US to become the world's largest oil importer in September 2013.[286][287] In the early 2010s, China's economic growth rate began to slow amid domestic credit troubles, weakening international demand for Chinese exports and fragility in the global economy.[288][289][290] In the online realm, China's e-commerce industry has grown more slowly than the EU and the US, with a significant period of development occurring from around 2009 onwards. According to Credit Suisse, the total value of online transactions in China grew from an insignificant size in 2008 to around RMB 4 trillion (US$660 billion) in 2012. The Chinese online payment market is dominated by major firms such as Alipay, Tenpay and China UnionPay.[291] China in the global economy China is a member of the WTO and is the world's largest trading power, with a total international trade value of US$3.87 trillion in 2012.[21] Its foreign exchange reserves reached US$2.85 trillion by the end of 2010, an increase of 18.7% over the previous year, making its reserves by far the world's largest.[292][293] In 2012, China was the world's largest recipient of inward foreign direct investment (FDI), attracting $253 billion.[294] In 2014, China's foreign exchange remittances were $US64 billion making it the second largest recipient of remittances in the world.[295] China also invests abroad, with a total outward FDI of $62.4 billion in 2012,[294] and a number of major takeovers of foreign firms by Chinese companies.[296] In 2009, China owned an estimated $1.6 trillion of US securities,[297] and was also the largest foreign holder of US public debt, owning over $1.16 trillion in US Treasury bonds.[298][299] China's undervalued exchange rate has caused friction with other major economies,[206][300][301] and it has also been widely criticized for manufacturing large quantities of counterfeit goods.[302][303] According to consulting firm McKinsey, total outstanding debt in China increased from $7.4 trillion in 2007 to $28.2 trillion in 2014, which reflects 228% of China's GDP, a percentage higher than that of some G20 nations.[304] Graph comparing the 2014 nominal GDPs of major economies in US$ billions (IMF)[305] China ranked 29th in the Global Competitiveness Index in 2009,[306] although it is only ranked 136th among the 179 countries measured in the 2011 Index of Economic Freedom.[307] In 2014, Fortune's Global 500 list of the world's largest corporations included 95 Chinese companies, with combined revenues of US$5.8 trillion.[308] The same year, Forbes reported that five of the world's ten largest public companies were Chinese, including the world's largest bank by total assets, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China.[309] Class and income equality See also: Income inequality in China China's middle-class population (if defined as those with annual income of between US$10,000 and US$60,000) had reached more than 300 million by 2012.[310] According to the Hurun Report, the number of US dollar billionaires in China increased from 130 in 2009 to 251 in 2012, giving China the world's second-highest number of billionaires.[311][312] China's domestic retail market was worth over 20 trillion yuan (US$3.2 trillion) in 2012[313] and is growing at over 12% annually as of 2013,[314] while the country's luxury goods market has expanded immensely, with 27.5% of the global share.[315] However, in recent years, China's rapid economic growth has contributed to severe consumer inflation,[316][317] leading to increased government regulation.[318] China has a high level of economic inequality,[319] which has increased in the past few decades.[320] In 2012, China's Gini coefficient was 0.474.[321] Internationalization of the renminbi Main article: Internationalization of the renminbi Since 2008 global financial crisis, China realized the dependency of US Dollar and the weakness of the international monetary system.[322] The RMB Internationalization accelerated in 2009 when China established dim sum bond market and expanded the Cross-Border Trade RMB Settlement Pilot Project, which helps establish pools of offshore RMB liquidity.[323][324] In November 2010, Russia began using the Chinese renminbi in its bilateral trade with China.[325] This was soon followed by Japan,[326] Australia,[327] Singapore,[328] the United Kingdom,[329] and Canada.[330] As a result of the rapid internationalization of the renminbi, it became the eighth-most-traded currency in the world in 2013.[331] Science and technology Main articles: Science and technology in China and Chinese space program A man in black armor standing in front of a rocket, attached to a stick, with the stick being held up by two X-shaped wooden brackets. History of science and technology in China Inventions Four Great Inventions Discoveries By subject Mathematics Astronomy Calendar Units of measurement Cartography Printing Ceramics Metallurgy Coinage Chinese Alchemy Traditional medicine herbology Agriculture Sericulture Silk industry Architecture Classic gardens Bridges Transport Navigation Military Navy By era Han Tang Song People's Republic Agriculture v t e Historical China was a world leader in science and technology until the Ming Dynasty. Ancient Chinese discoveries and inventions, such as papermaking, printing, the compass, and gunpowder (the Four Great Inventions), later became widespread in Asia and Europe. Chinese mathematicians were the first to use negative numbers.[332][333] However, by the 17th century, the Western world had surpassed China in scientific and technological development.[334] The causes of this Great Divergence continue to be debated.[335] After repeated military defeats by Western nations in the 19th century, Chinese reformers began promoting modern science and technology as part of the Self-Strengthening Movement. After the Communists came to power in 1949, efforts were made to organize science and technology based on the model of the Soviet Union, in which scientific research was part of central planning.[336] After Mao's death in 1976, science and technology was established as one of the Four Modernizations,[337] and the Soviet-inspired academic system was gradually reformed.[338] Modern era Since the end of the Cultural Revolution, China has made significant investments in scientific research,[339] with $163 billion spent on scientific research and development in 2012.[340] Science and technology are seen as vital for achieving China's economic and political goals, and are held as a source of national pride to a degree sometimes described as "techno-nationalism".[341] Nonetheless, China's investment in basic and applied scientific research remains behind that of leading technological powers such as the United States and Japan.[339][342] Chinese-born scientists have won the Nobel Prize in Physics four times, the Nobel Prize in Chemistry and Physiology or Medicine once respectively, though most of these scientists conducted their Nobel-winning research in western nations.[r] The launch of a Chinese Long March 3B rocket China is rapidly developing its education system with an emphasis on science, mathematics and engineering; in 2009, it produced over 10,000 Ph.D. engineering graduates, and as many as 500,000 BSc graduates, more than any other country.[348] China is also the world's second-largest publisher of scientific papers, producing 121,500 in 2010 alone, including 5,200 in leading international scientific journals.[349] Chinese technology companies such as Huawei and Lenovo have become world leaders in telecommunications and personal computing,[350][351][352] and Chinese supercomputers are consistently ranked among the world's most powerful.[353][354] China is furthermore experiencing a significant growth in the use of industrial robots; from 2008 to 2011, the installation of multi-role robots in Chinese factories rose by 136 percent.[355] The Chinese space program is one of the world's most active, and is a major source of national pride.[356][357] In 1970, China launched its first satellite, Dong Fang Hong I, becoming the fifth country to do so independently.[358] In 2003, China became the third country to independently send humans into space, with Yang Liwei's spaceflight aboard Shenzhou 5; as of 2015, ten Chinese nationals have journeyed into space, including two women. In 2011, China's first space station module, Tiangong-1, was launched, marking the first step in a project to assemble a large manned station by the early 2020s.[359] In 2013, China successfully landed the Chang'e 3 probe and Yutu rover onto the Moon; China plans to collect lunar soil samples by 2017.[360] Infrastructure Telecommunications Main article: Telecommunications in China China currently has the largest number of active cellphones of any country in the world, with over 1 billion users by February 2012.[361] It also has the world's largest number of internet and broadband users,[362] with over 688 million internet users as of 2016, equivalent to around half of its population.[363] The national average broadband connection speed is 9.46 MB/s, ranking China 91st in the world in terms of internet speed.[363] As of July 2013, China accounts for 24% of the world's internet-connected devices.[364] Since 2011 China is the nation with the most installed telecommunication bandwidth in the world. By 2014, China hosts more than twice as much national bandwidth potential than the U.S., the historical leader in terms of installed telecommunication bandwidth (China: 29% versus US:13% of the global total).[365] China Telecom and China Unicom, the world's two largest broadband providers, accounted for 20% of global broadband subscribers. China Telecom alone serves more than 50 million broadband subscribers, while China Unicom serves more than 40 million.[366] Several Chinese telecommunications companies, most notably Huawei and ZTE, have been accused

B

A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same state or country,[1] or, less commonly, between two countries created from a formerly united state.[2] The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region or to change government policies.[1] The term is a calque of the Latin bellum civile which was used to refer to the various civil wars of the Roman Republic in the 1st century BC. A civil war is a high-intensity conflict, often involving regular armed forces, that is sustained, organized and large-scale. Civil wars may result in large numbers of casualties and the consumption of significant resources.[3] Most modern civil wars involve intervention by outside powers. According to Patrick M. Regan in his book Civil Wars and Foreign Powers (2000) about two thirds of the 138 intrastate conflicts between the end of World War II and 2000 saw international intervention, with the United States intervening in 35 of these conflicts.[4] Civil wars since the end of World War II have lasted on average just over four years, a dramatic rise from the one-and-a-half-year average of the 1900-1944 period. While the rate of emergence of new civil wars has been relatively steady since the mid-19th century, the increasing length of those wars has resulted in increasing numbers of wars ongoing at any one time. For example, there were no more than five civil wars underway simultaneously in the first half of the 20th century while there were over 20 concurrent civil wars close to the end of the Cold War. Since 1945, civil wars have resulted in the deaths of over 25 million people, as well as the forced displacement of millions more. Civil wars have further resulted in economic collapse; Somalia, Burma (Myanmar), Uganda and Angola are examples of nations that were considered to have promising futures before being engulfed in civil wars.[5] Contents [hide] 1 Formal classification 2 Causes of civil war in the Collier-Hoeffler Model 3 Other causes 4 Duration of civil wars 4.1 Civil wars in the 19th and early 20th centuries 4.2 Civil wars since 1945 4.2.1 Interventions by outside powers 4.3 Effect of the Cold War 5 See also 6 References 7 Bibliography 8 External links Formal classification Aftermath of the Battle of Gettysburg, American Civil War, 1863 James Fearon, a scholar of civil wars at Stanford University, defines a civil war as "a violent conflict within a country fought by organized groups that aim to take power at the center or in a region, or to change government policies".[1] Ann Hironaka further specifies that one side of a civil war is the state.[3] The intensity at which a civil disturbance becomes a civil war is contested by academics. Some political scientists define a civil war as having more than 1000 casualties,[1] while others further specify that at least 100 must come from each side.[6] The Correlates of War, a dataset widely used by scholars of conflict, classifies civil wars as having over 1000 war-related casualties per year of conflict. This rate is a small fraction of the millions killed in the Second Sudanese Civil War and Cambodian Civil War, for example, but excludes several highly publicized conflicts, such as The Troubles of Northern Ireland and the struggle of the African National Congress in Apartheid-era South Africa.[3] Based on the 1000 casualties per year criterion, there were 213 civil wars from 1816 to 1997, 104 of which occurred from 1944 to 1997.[3] If one uses the less-stringent 1000 casualties total criterion, there were over 90 civil wars between 1945 and 2007, with 20 ongoing civil wars as of 2007.[1] The Geneva Conventions do not specifically define the term "civil war", nevertheless they do outline the responsibilities of parties in "armed conflict not of an international character". This includes civil wars, however no specific definition of civil war is provided in the text of the Conventions. Tanks in the streets of Addis Ababa after rebels seized the capital during the Ethiopian Civil War (1991) Nevertheless, the International Committee of the Red Cross has sought to provide some clarification through its commentaries on the Geneva Conventions, noting that the Conventions are "so general, so vague, that many of the delegations feared that it might be taken to cover any act committed by force of arms". Accordingly, the commentaries provide for different 'conditions' on which the application of the Geneva Convention would depend, the commentary however points out that these should not be interpreted as rigid conditions. The conditions listed by the ICRC in its commentary are as follows:[7][8] (1) That the Party in revolt against the de jure Government possesses an organized military force, an authority responsible for its acts, acting within a determinate territory and having the means of respecting and ensuring respect for the Convention. (2) That the legal Government is obliged to have recourse to the regular military forces against insurgents organized as military and in possession of a part of the national territory. (3) (a) That the de jure Government has recognized the insurgents as belligerents; or (b) That it has claimed for itself the rights of a belligerent; or (c) That it has accorded the insurgents recognition as belligerents for the purposes only of the present Convention; or (d) That the dispute has been admitted to the agenda of the Security Council or the General Assembly of the United Nations as being a threat to international peace, a breach of the peace, or an act of aggression. (4) (a) That the insurgents have an organization purporting to have the characteristics of a State. (b) That the insurgent civil authority exercises de facto authority over the population within a determinate portion of the national territory. (c) That the armed forces act under the direction of an organized authority and are prepared to observe the ordinary laws of war. (d) That the insurgent civil authority agrees to be bound by the provisions of the Convention. Causes of civil war in the Collier-Hoeffler Model Scholars investigating the cause of civil war are attracted by two opposing theories, greed versus grievance. Roughly stated: are conflicts caused by who people are, whether that be defined in terms of ethnicity, religion or other social affiliation, or do conflicts begin because it is in the economic best interests of individuals and groups to start them? Scholarly analysis supports the conclusion that economic and structural factors are more important than those of identity in predicting occurrences of civil war.[9] A comprehensive study of civil war was carried out by a team from the World Bank in the early 21st century. The study framework, which came to be called the Collier-Hoeffler Model, examined 78 five-year increments when civil war occurred from 1960 to 1999, as well as 1,167 five-year increments of "no civil war" for comparison, and subjected the data set to regression analysis to see the effect of various factors. The factors that were shown to have a statistically significant effect on the chance that a civil war would occur in any given five-year period were:[10] Availability of finance An economic dependence on commodities, such as diamonds being mined by these children in Sierra Leone, is correlated with an increased risk of civil war. (See also blood diamond and resource curse.) A high proportion of primary commodities in national exports significantly increases the risk of a conflict. A country at "peak danger", with commodities comprising 32% of gross domestic product, has a 22% risk of falling into civil war in a given five-year period, while a country with no primary commodity exports has a 1% risk. When disaggregated, only petroleum and non-petroleum groupings showed different results: a country with relatively low levels of dependence on petroleum exports is at slightly less risk, while a high level of dependence on oil as an export results in slightly more risk of a civil war than national dependence on another primary commodity. The authors of the study interpreted this as being the result of the ease by which primary commodities may be extorted or captured compared to other forms of wealth; for example, it is easy to capture and control the output of a gold mine or oil field compared to a sector of garment manufacturing or hospitality services.[11] A second source of finance is national diasporas, which can fund rebellions and insurgencies from abroad. The study found that statistically switching the size of a country's diaspora from the smallest found in the study to the largest resulted in a sixfold increase in the chance of a civil war.[11] Opportunity cost of rebellion Armed Jihad al-Muqadas volunteer fighters during the 1947-1948 civil war in the British Mandate of Palestine Higher male secondary school enrollment, per capita income and economic growth rate all had significant effects on reducing the chance of civil war. Specifically, a male secondary school enrollment 10% above the average reduced the chance of a conflict by about 3%, while a growth rate 1% higher than the study average resulted in a decline in the chance of a civil war of about 1%. The study interpreted these three factors as proxies for earnings forgone by rebellion, and therefore that lower forgone earnings encourage rebellion.[11] Phrased another way: young males (who make up the vast majority of combatants in civil wars) are less likely to join a rebellion if they are getting an education or have a comfortable salary, and can reasonably assume that they will prosper in the future.[12] Low per capita income has been proposed as a cause for grievance, prompting armed rebellion. However, for this to be true, one would expect economic inequality to also be a significant factor in rebellions, which it is not. The study therefore concluded that the economic model of opportunity cost better explained the findings.[10] Military advantage Communist soldiers during the Battle of Siping, Chinese Civil War, 1946 High levels of population dispersion and, to a lesser extent, the presence of mountainous terrain, increased the chance of conflict. Both of these factors favor rebels, as a population dispersed outward toward the borders is harder to control than one concentrated in a central region, while mountains offer terrain where rebels can seek sanctuary.[11] Grievance Most proxies for "grievance" - the theory that civil wars begin because of issues of identity, rather than economics - were statistically insignificant, including economic equality, political rights, ethnic polarization and religious fractionalization. Only ethnic dominance, the case where the largest ethnic group comprises a majority of the population, increased the risk of civil war. A country characterized by ethnic dominance has nearly twice the chance of a civil war. However, the combined effects of ethnic and religious fractionalization, i.e. the greater chance that any two randomly chosen people will be from separate ethnic or religious groups, the less chance of a civil war, were also significant and positive, as long as the country avoided ethnic dominance. The study interpreted this as stating that minority groups are more likely to rebel if they feel that they are being dominated, but that rebellions are more likely to occur the more homogeneous the population and thus more cohesive the rebels. These two factors may thus be seen as mitigating each other in many cases.[13] Population size The various factors contributing to the risk of civil war rise increase with population size. The risk of a civil war rises approximately proportionately with the size of a country's population.[10] Time The more time that has elapsed since the last civil war, the less likely it is that a conflict will recur. The study had two possible explanations for this: one opportunity-based and the other grievance-based. The elapsed time may represent the depreciation of whatever capital the rebellion was fought over and thus increase the opportunity cost of restarting the conflict. Alternatively, elapsed time may represent the gradual process of healing of old hatreds. The study found that the presence of a diaspora substantially reduced the positive effect of time, as the funding from diasporas offsets the depreciation of rebellion-specific capital.[13] Other causes Evolutionary psychologist Satoshi Kanazawa has argued that an important cause of intergroup conflict may be the relative availability of women of reproductive age. He found that polygyny greatly increased the frequency of civil wars but not interstate wars.[14] Gleditsch et al. did not find a relationship between ethnic groups with polygyny and increased frequency of civil wars but nations having legal polygamy may have more civil wars. They argued that misogyny is a better explanation than polygyny. They found that increased women's rights were associated with less civil wars and that legal polygamy had no effect after women's rights were controlled for.[15] Duration of civil wars Ann Hironaka, author of Neverending Wars, divides the modern history of civil wars into the pre-19th century, 19th century to early 20th century, and late 20th century. In 19th-century Europe, the length of civil wars fell significantly, largely due to the nature of the conflicts as battles for the power center of the state, the strength of centralized governments, and the normally quick and decisive intervention by other states to support the government. Following World War II the duration of civil wars grew past the norm of the pre-19th century, largely due to weakness of the many postcolonial states and the intervention by major powers on both sides of conflict. The most obvious commonality to civil wars are that they occur in fragile states.[16] Civil wars in the 19th and early 20th centuries An artillery school set up by the anti-socialist "Whites" during the Finnish Civil War, 1918 Civil wars in the 19th century and in the early 20th century tended to be short; civil wars between 1900 and 1944 lasted on average one and half years.[17] The state itself formed the obvious center of authority in the majority of cases, and the civil wars were thus fought for control of the state. This meant that whoever had control of the capital and the military could normally crush resistance. A rebellion which failed to quickly seize the capital and control of the military for itself normally found itself doomed to rapid destruction. For example, the fighting associated with the 1871 Paris Commune occurred almost entirely in Paris, and ended quickly once the military sided with the government[18] at Versailles and conquered Paris. The power of non-state actors resulted in a lower value placed on sovereignty in the 18th and 19th centuries, which further reduced the number of civil wars. For example, the pirates of the Barbary Coast were recognized as de facto states because of their military power. The Barbary pirates thus had no need to rebel against the Ottoman Empire - their nominal state government - to gain recognition for their sovereignty. Conversely, states such as Virginia and Massachusetts in the United States of America did not have sovereign status, but had significant political and economic independence coupled with weak federal control, reducing the incentive to secede.[19] A plane, supported by smaller fighter planes, of Francisco Franco's Nationalists bombs Madrid during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) The two major global ideologies, monarchism and democracy, led to several civil wars. However, a bi-polar world, divided between the two ideologies, did not develop, largely due to the dominance of monarchists through most of the period. The monarchists would thus normally intervene in other countries to stop democratic movements taking control and forming democratic governments, which were seen by monarchists as being both dangerous and unpredictable. The Great Powers (defined in the 1815 Congress of Vienna as the United Kingdom, Habsburg Austria, Prussia, France, and Russia) would frequently coordinate interventions in other nations' civil wars, nearly always on the side of the incumbent government. Given the military strength of the Great Powers, these interventions nearly always proved decisive and quickly ended the civil wars.[20] There were several exceptions from the general rule of quick civil wars during this period. The American Civil War (1861-1865) was unusual for at least two reasons: it was fought around regional identities as well as political ideologies, and it ended through a war of attrition, rather than with a decisive battle over control of the capital, as was the norm. The Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) proved exceptional because both sides in the struggle received support from intervening great powers: Germany, Italy, and Portugal supported opposition leader Francisco Franco, while France and the Soviet Union supported the government[21] (see proxy war). Civil wars since 1945 Members of ARDE Frente Sur at rest after routing a Sandinista National Liberation Front garrison at El Serrano during the Nicaraguan Revolution (1987) In the 1990s, about twenty civil wars were occurring concurrently during an average year, a rate about ten times the historical average since the 19th century. However, the rate of new civil wars had not increased appreciably; the drastic rise in the number of ongoing wars after World War II was a result of the tripling of the average duration of civil wars to over four years.[22] This increase was a result of the increased number of states, the fragility of states formed after 1945, the decline in interstate war, and the Cold War rivalry.[23] Following World War II, the major European powers divested themselves of their colonies at an increasing rate: the number of ex-colonial states jumped from about 30 to almost 120 after the war. The rate of state formation leveled off in the 1980s, at which point few colonies remained.[24] More states also meant more states in which to have long civil wars. Hironaka statistically measures the impact of the increased number of ex-colonial states as increasing the post-WWII incidence of civil wars by +165% over the pre-1945 number.[25] While the new ex-colonial states appeared to follow the blueprint of the idealized state - centralized government, territory enclosed by defined borders, and citizenry with defined rights -, as well as accessories such as a national flag, an anthem, a seat at the United Nations and an official economic policy, they were in actuality far weaker than the Western states they were modeled after.[26] In Western states, the structure of governments closely matched states' actual capabilities, which had been arduously developed over centuries. The development of strong administrative structures, in particular those related to extraction of taxes, is closely associated with the intense warfare between predatory European states in the 17th and 18th centuries, or in Charles Tilly's famous formulation: "War made the state and the state made war".[27] For example, the formation of the modern states of Germany and Italy in the 19th century is closely associated with the wars of expansion and consolidation led by Prussia and Sardinia-Piedmont, respectively.[27] The Western process of forming effective and impersonal bureaucracies, developing efficient tax systems, and integrating national territory continued into the 20th century. Nevertheless, Western states that survived into the latter half of the 20th century were considered "strong" by simple reason that they had managed to develop the institutional structures and military capability required to survive predation by their fellow states. An American Cadillac Gage Light Armored Reconnaissance Vehicle and Italian Fiat-OTO Melara Type 6614 Armored Personnel Carrier guard an intersection during the Somali Civil War (1993) In sharp contrast, decolonization was an entirely different process of state formation. Most imperial powers had not foreseen a need to prepare their colonies for independence; for example, Britain had given limited self-rule to India and Sri Lanka, while treating British Somaliland as little more than a trading post, while all major decisions for French colonies were made in Paris and Belgium prohibited any self-government up until it suddenly granted independence to its colonies in 1960. Like Western states of previous centuries, the new ex-colonies lacked autonomous bureaucracies, which would make decisions based on the benefit to society as a whole, rather than respond to corruption and nepotism to favor a particular interest group. In such a situation, factions manipulate the state to benefit themselves or, alternatively, state leaders use the bureaucracy to further their own self-interest. The lack of credible governance was compounded by the fact that most colonies were economic loss-makers at independence, lacking both a productive economic base and a taxation system to effectively extract resources from economic activity. Among the rare states profitable at decolonization was India, to which scholars credibly argue that Uganda, Malaysia and Angola may be included. Neither did imperial powers make territorial integration a priority, and may have discouraged nascent nationalism as a danger to their rule. Many newly independent states thus found themselves impoverished, with minimal administrative capacity in a fragmented society, while faced with the expectation of immediately meeting the demands of a modern state.[28] Such states are considered "weak" or "fragile". The "strong"-"weak" categorization is not the same as "Western"-"non-Western", as some Latin American states like Argentina and Brazil and Middle Eastern states like Egypt and Israel are considered to have "strong" administrative structures and economic infrastructure.[29] A checkpoint manned by the Lebanese army and US Marines, 1982. The Lebanese Civil War (1975-1990) was characterized by multiple foreign interventions. Historically, the international community would have targeted weak states for territorial absorption or colonial domination or, alternatively, such states would fragment into pieces small enough to be effectively administered and secured by a local power. However, international norms towards sovereignty changed in the wake of WWII in ways that support and maintain the existence of weak states. Weak states are given de jure sovereignty equal to that of other states, even when they do not have de facto sovereignty or control of their own territory, including the privileges of international diplomatic recognition and an equal vote in the United Nations. Further, the international community offers development aid to weak states, which helps maintain the facade of a functioning modern state by giving the appearance that the state is capable of fulfilling its implied responsibilities of control and order.[30] The formation of a strong international law regime and norms against territorial aggression is strongly associated with the dramatic drop in the number of interstate wars, though it has also been attributed to the effect of the Cold War or to the changing nature of economic development. Consequently, military aggression that results in territorial annexation became increasingly likely to prompt international condemnation, diplomatic censure, a reduction in international aid or the introduction of economic sanction, or, as in the case of 1990 invasion of Kuwait by Iraq, international military intervention to reverse the territorial aggression.[31] Similarly, the international community has largely refused to recognize secessionist regions, while keeping some secessionist self-declared states such as Somaliland in diplomatic recognition limbo. While there is not a large body of academic work examining the relationship, Hironaka's statistical study found a correlation that suggests that every major international anti-secessionist declaration increased the number of ongoing civil wars by +10%, or a total +114% from 1945 to 1997.[32] The diplomatic and legal protection given by the international community, as well as economic support to weak governments and discouragement of secession, thus had the unintended effect of encouraging civil wars. A fast attack boat of the rebel LTTE in Sri Lanka in 2003 passes the hulk of an LTTE supply ship that had been sunk by government aircraft, Sri Lankan Civil War (1983-2009) Interventions by outside powers There has been an enormous amount of international intervention in civil wars since 1945 that some have argued served to extend wars. According to Patrick M. Regan in his book Civil Wars and Foreign Powers (2000) about 2/3rds of the 138 intrastate conflicts between the end of WWII and 2000 saw international intervention, with the United States intervening in 35 of these conflicts.[4] While intervention has been practiced since the international system has existed, its nature changed substantially. It became common for both the state and opposition group to receive foreign support, allowing wars to continue well past the point when domestic resources had been exhausted. Superpowers, such as the European great powers, had always felt no compunction in intervening in civil wars that affected their interests, while distant regional powers such as the United States could declare the interventionist Monroe Doctrine of 1821 for events in its Central American "backyard". However, the large population of weak states after 1945 allowed intervention by former colonial powers, regional powers and neighboring states who themselves often had scarce resources. On average, a civil war with interstate intervention was 300% longer than those without. When disaggregated, a civil war with intervention on only one side is 156% longer, while when intervention occurs on both sides the average civil war is longer by an additional 92%. If one of the intervening states was a superpower, a civil war is a further 72% longer; a conflict such as the Angolan Civil War, in which there is two-sided foreign intervention, including by a superpower (actually, two superpowers in the case of Angola), would be 538% longer on average than a civil war without any international intervention.[33] Effect of the Cold War Fall and demolition of the Berlin Wall at Checkpoint Charlie (1990) The Cold War (1945-1989) provided a global network of material and ideological support that often helped perpetuate civil wars, which were mainly fought in weak ex-colonial states rather than the relatively strong states that were aligned with the Warsaw Pact and North Atlantic Treaty Organization. In some cases, superpowers would superimpose Cold War ideology onto local conflicts, while in others local actors using Cold War ideology would attract the attention of a superpower to obtain support. Using a separate statistical evaluation than used above for interventions, civil wars that included pro- or anti-communist forces lasted 141% longer than the average non-Cold War conflict, while a Cold War civil war that attracted superpower intervention resulted in wars typically lasting over three times as long as other civil wars. Conversely, the end of the Cold War marked by the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 resulted in a reduction in the duration of Cold War civil wars of 92% or, phrased another way, a roughly ten-fold increase in the rate of resolution of Cold War civil wars. Lengthy Cold War-associated civil conflicts that ground to a halt include the wars of Guatemala (1960-1996), El Salvador (1979-1991) and Nicaragua (1970-1990).[34] See also The Logic of Violence in Civil War War of Independence (disambiguation) Wars of national liberation List of civil wars References ^ Jump up to: a b c d e James Fearon, "Iraq's Civil War" in Foreign Affairs, March/April 2007. For further discussion on civil war classification, see the section "Formal classification". Jump up ^ Nations, Markets, and War: Modern History and the American Civil War | Book Reviews, EH.net. "Two nations [within the U.S.] developed because of slavery." October 2006. Retrieved July 2009. ^ Jump up to: a b c d Ann Hironaka, Neverending Wars: The International Community, Weak States, and the Perpetuation of Civil War, Harvard University Press: Cambridge, Mass., 2005, p. 3, ISBN 0-674-01532-0 ^ Jump up to: a b "Civil Wars and Foreign Powers: Outside Intervention in Intrastate Conflict". Foreign Affairs. Jump up ^ Hironaka (2005), pp. 1-2, 4-5 Jump up ^ Edward Wong, "A Matter of Definition: What Makes a Civil War, and Who Declares It So?" New York Times November 26, 2006 Jump up ^ Final Record of the Diplomatic Conference of Geneva of 1949, (Volume II-B, p. 121) Jump up ^ See also the International Committee of the Red Cross commentary on Third 1949 Geneva Convention, Article III, Section "A. Cases of armed conflict" for the ICRC's reading of the definition and a listing of proposed alternate wording Jump up ^ See, for example, Hironaka (2005), pp. 9-10, and Collier, Paul, Anke Hoeffler and Nicholas Sambanis, "The Collier-Hoeffler Model of Civil War Onset and the Case Study Project Research Design," in Collier & Sambanis, Vol 1, p. 13 ^ Jump up to: a b c Collier & Sambanis, Vol 1, p. 17 ^ Jump up to: a b c d Collier & Sambanis, Vol 1, p. 16 Jump up ^ Henrik Urdal - A CLASH OF GENERATIONS? YOUTH BULGES AND POLITICAL VIOLENCE - un.org. Retrieved 28 December 2012. ^ Jump up to: a b Collier & Sambanis, Vol 1, p. 18 Jump up ^ Satoshi Kanazawa (2009). "Evolutionary Psychological Foundations of Civil Wars". The University of Chicago Press: 25-34. doi:10.1017/S0022381608090026. Jump up ^ Gleditsch, K. S.; Wucherpfennig, J.; Hug, S.; Reigstad, K. G. (2011). "Polygyny or Misogyny? Reexamining the "First Law of Intergroup Conflict"". The Journal of Politics. 73: 265. doi:10.1017/S0022381610001003. Jump up ^ Hironaka, 2005, p. 28 Jump up ^ Hironaka, 2005, p. 1 Jump up ^ Hironaka, 2005, pp. 28-29 Jump up ^ Hironaka, 2005, p. 29 Jump up ^ Hironaka, 2005, p. 30 Jump up ^ Hironaka, 2005, p. 31 Jump up ^ Hironaka, 2005, p. 1, 4-5 Jump up ^ Hironaka, 2005, pp. 7 & 23 Jump up ^ Hironaka, 2005, pp. 36 Jump up ^ Hironaka, 2005, p. 40 Jump up ^ Hironaka, 2005, p. 54 ^ Jump up to: a b Hironaka, 2005, p. 6 Jump up ^ Hironaka, 2005, pp. 59-61 Jump up ^ Hironaka, 2005, p. 56 Jump up ^ Hironaka, 2005, pp. 6 Jump up ^ Hironaka, 2005, p. 16 Jump up ^ Hironaka, 2005, pp. 37-40 Jump up ^ Hironaka, 2005, pp. 50-51 Jump up ^ Hironaka, 2005, pp. 48-50 Bibliography Ali, Taisier Mohamed Ahmed and Robert O. Matthews, eds. Civil Wars in Africa: roots and resolution (1999), 322 pages Mats Berdal and David M. Malone, Greed and Grievance: Economic Agendas in Civil Wars (Lynne Rienner, 2000). Paul Collier, Breaking the Conflict Trap: civil war and development policy World Bank (2003) - 320 pages Collier, Paul; Sambanis, Nicholas, eds. (2005). Understanding Civil War:Evidence and Analysis. 1: Africa. Washington, DC: The World Bank. ISBN 978-0-8213-6047-7. Collier, Paul; Sambanis, Nicholas, eds. (2005). Understanding Civil War:Evidence and Analysis. 2: Europe, Central Asia, and Other Regions. Washington, DC: The World Bank. ISBN 978-0-8213-6049-1. Stathis Kalyvas, "'New' and 'Old' Civil Wars: A Valid Distinction?" World Politics 54, no. 1 (2001): 99-118. David Lake and Donald Rothchild, eds. The International Spread of Ethnic Conflict: Fear, Diffusion, and Escalation (Princeton University Press, 1996). Roy Licklider, "The Consequences of Negotiated Settlements in Civil Wars, 1945-1993," American Political Science Review 89, no. 3 (summer 1995): pp 681-690. Andrew Mack, "Civil War: Academic Research and the Policy Community," Journal of Peace Research 39, no. 5 (2002): pp. 515-525. David T. Mason and Patrick 3. Fett, "How Civil Wars End: A Rational Choice Approach," Journal of Conflict Resolution 40, no. 4 (fall 1996): 546-568. Patrick M. Regan. Civil Wars and Foreign Powers: Outside Intervention in Intrastate Conflict (2000) 172 pages Stephen John and others., eds. Ending Civil Wars: The Implementation of Peace Agreements (2002), 729 pages Monica Duffy Toft, The Geography of Ethnic Violence: Identity, Interests, and the Indivisibility of Territory (Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press, 2003). ISBN 0-691-12383-7. Barbara F. Walter, Committing to Peace: The Successful Settlement of Civil Wars (Princeton University Press, 2002), Elisabeth Jean Wood; "Civil Wars: What We Don't Know," Global Governance, Vol. 9, 2003 pp 247+ online version External links Look up civil, civilian, or civil war in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. Wikimedia Commons has media related to Civil wars. Royal Air Force Doctrine - The Nature of War and Armed Conflict "What makes a civil war?", BBC News, 20 April 2006 Authority control LCCN: sh85026421 GND: 4008784-0 NDL: 00567990 Categories: Civil warsWars by type Navigation menu Not logged inTalkContributionsCreate accountLog inArticleTalkReadView sourceView historySearch Search Wikipedia Go Main page Contents Featured content Current events Random article Donate to Wikipedia Wikipedia store Interaction Help About Wikipedia Community portal Recent changes Contact page Tools What links here Related changes Upload file Special pages Permanent link Page information Wikidata item Cite this page Print/export Create a book Download as PDF Printable version In other projects Wikimedia Commons Languages Afrikaans Alemannisch العربية Aragonés ܐܪܡܝܐ Asturianu Azərbaycanca বাংলা Bân-lâm-gú Башҡортса Беларуская Беларуская (тарашкевіца)‎ Български Bosanski Brezhoneg Буряад Català Чӑвашла Čeština Cymraeg Dansk Deutsch Eesti Ελληνικά Эрзянь Español Esperanto Euskara فارسی Fiji Hindi Føroyskt Français Gàidhlig Galego 한국어 Հայերեն हिन्दी Hrvatski Ilokano Bahasa Indonesia Interlingua Ирон Íslenska Italiano עברית ಕನ್ನಡ Къарачай-малкъар ქართული Қазақша Kiswahili Кыргызча Latina Latviešu Lëtzebuergesch Lietuvių Limburgs Magyar Македонски Malagasy മലയാളം مصرى Bahasa Melayu Монгол မြန်မာဘာသာ Nederlands 日本語 Norsk bokmål Norsk nynorsk Occitan Oʻzbekcha/ўзбекча ਪੰਜਾਬੀ پنجابی ភាសាខ្មែរ Piemontèis Plattdüütsch Polski Português Română Runa Simi Русиньскый Русский Саха тыла Scots Sicilianu Simple English Slovenčina Slovenščina Soomaaliga کوردیی ناوەندی Српски / srpski Srpskohrvatski / српскохрватски Suomi Svenska Tagalog தமிழ் Татарча/tatarça ไทย Тоҷикӣ Türkçe Українська اردو Vèneto Tiếng Việt Võro Walon Winaray ייִדיש 粵語 Žemaitėška 中文 Edit links This page was last modified on 3 October 2016, at 20:36. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.

C

A car (or automobile) is a wheeled, self-powered motor vehicle used for transportation and a product of the automotive industry. Most definitions of the term specify that cars are designed to run primarily on roads, to have seating for one to eight people, to typically have four wheels with tyres, and to be constructed principally for the transport of people rather than goods.[2][3] The year 1886 is regarded as the birth year of the modern car. In that year, German inventor Karl Benz built the Benz Patent-Motorwagen. Cars did not become widely available until the early 20th century. One of the first cars that was accessible to the masses was the 1908 Model T, an American car manufactured by the Ford Motor Company. Cars were rapidly adopted in the United States of America, where they replaced animal-drawn carriages and carts, but took much longer to be accepted in Western Europe and other parts of the world. Cars are equipped with controls used for driving, parking, passenger comfort and safety, and controlling a variety of lights. Over the decades, additional features and controls have been added to vehicles, making them progressively more complex. Examples include rear reversing cameras, air conditioning, navigation systems, and in car entertainment. Most cars in use in the 2010s are propelled by an internal combustion engine, fueled by deflagration of gasoline (also known as petrol) or diesel. Both fuels cause air pollution and are also blamed for contributing to climate change and global warming.[4] Vehicles using alternative fuels such as ethanol flexible-fuel vehicles and natural gas vehicles are also gaining popularity in some countries. Electric cars, which were invented early in the history of the car, began to become commercially available in 2008. There are costs and benefits to car use. The costs of car usage include the cost of: acquiring the vehicle, interest payments (if the car is financed), repairs and auto maintenance, fuel, depreciation, driving time, parking fees, taxes, and insurance.[5] The costs to society of car use include: maintaining roads, land use, road congestion, air pollution, public health, health care, and disposing of the vehicle at the end of its life. Road traffic accidents are the largest cause of injury-related deaths worldwide.[6] The benefits may include on-demand transportation, mobility, independence, and convenience.[7] The societal benefits may include: economic benefits, such as job and wealth creation from car production, sales and maintenance, transportation provision, society well-being derived from leisure and travel opportunities, and revenue generation from the tax opportunities. The ability for humans to move flexibly from place to place has far-reaching implications for the nature of societies.[8] It was estimated in 2010 that the number of cars had risen to over 1 billion vehicles, up from the 500 million of 1986.[9] The numbers are increasing rapidly, especially in China, India and other newly industrialized countries.[10] Contents [hide] 1 Etymology 2 History 3 Mass production 4 Fuel and propulsion technologies 5 User interface 6 Lighting 7 Weight 8 Seating and body style 9 Safety 10 Costs and benefits 11 Environmental impact 12 Emerging car technologies 12.1 Autonomous car 12.2 Open source development 13 Industry 14 Alternatives 15 Other meanings 16 See also 17 References 18 Further reading 19 External links Etymology The word "car" is believed to originate from the Latin word carrus or carrum ("wheeled vehicle"), or the Middle English word carre (meaning cart, from Old North French). In turn, these originated from the Gaulish word karros (a Gallic chariot). The Gaulish language was a branch of the Brythoic language which also used the word Karr; the Brythonig language evolved into Welsh (and Gaelic) where 'Car llusg' (a drag cart or sledge) and 'car rhyfel' (war chariot) still survive.[11][12] It originally referred to any wheeled horse-drawn vehicle, such as a cart, carriage, or wagon.[13][14] "Motor car" is attested from 1895, and is the usual formal name for cars in British English.[3] "Autocar" is a variant that is also attested from 1895, but that is now considered archaic. It literally means "self-propelled car".[15] The term "horseless carriage" was used by some to refer to the first cars at the time that they were being built, and is attested from 1895.[16] The word "automobile" is a classical compound derived from the Ancient Greek word autós (αὐτός), meaning "self", and the Latin word mobilis, meaning "movable". It entered the English language from French, and was first adopted by the Automobile Club of Great Britain in 1897.[17] Over time, the word "automobile" fell out of favour in Britain, and was replaced by "motor car". It remains a chiefly North American usage.[18] An abbreviated form, "auto", was formerly a common way to refer to cars in English, but is now considered old-fashioned. The word is still used in some compound formations in American English, like "auto industry" and "auto mechanic".[19][20] History Main article: History of the automobile The first working steam-powered vehicle was designed—and most likely built—by Ferdinand Verbiest, a Flemish member of a Jesuit mission in China around 1672. It was a 65-cm-long scale-model toy for the Chinese Emperor that was unable to carry a driver or a passenger.[7][21][22] It is not known if Verbiest's model was ever built.[22] Cugnot's 1771 fardier à vapeur, as preserved at the Musée des Arts et Métiers, Paris Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot is widely credited with building the first full-scale, self-propelled mechanical vehicle or car in about 1769; he created a steam-powered tricycle.[23] He also constructed two steam tractors for the French Army, one of which is preserved in the French National Conservatory of Arts and Crafts.[24] His inventions were, however, handicapped by problems with water supply and maintaining steam pressure.[24] In 1801, Richard Trevithick built and demonstrated his Puffing Devil road locomotive, believed by many to be the first demonstration of a steam-powered road vehicle. It was unable to maintain sufficient steam pressure for long periods, and was of little practical use. The development of external combustion engines is detailed as part of the history of the car, but often treated separately from the development of true cars. A variety of steam-powered road vehicles were used during the first part of the 19th century, including steam cars, steam buses, phaetons, and steam rollers. Sentiment against them led to the Locomotive Acts of 1865. In 1807, Nicéphore Niépce and his brother Claude created what was probably the world's first internal combustion engine (which they called a Pyréolophore), but they chose to install it in a boat on the river Saone in France.[25] Coincidentally, in 1807 the Swiss inventor François Isaac de Rivaz designed his own 'de Rivaz internal combustion engine' and used it to develop the world's first vehicle to be powered by such an engine. The Niépces' Pyréolophore was fuelled by a mixture of Lycopodium powder (dried spores of the Lycopodium plant), finely crushed coal dust and resin that were mixed with oil, whereas de Rivaz used a mixture of hydrogen and oxygen.[25] Neither design was very successful, as was the case with others, such as Samuel Brown, Samuel Morey, and Etienne Lenoir with his hippomobile, who each produced vehicles (usually adapted carriages or carts) powered by internal combustion engines.[1] Gustave Trouvé's tricycle, the first ever electric automobile to be shown in public In November 1881, French inventor Gustave Trouvé demonstrated the first working (three-wheeled) car powered by electricity at the International Exposition of Electricity, Paris.[26] Karl Benz, the inventor of the modern car Although several other German engineers (including Gottlieb Daimler, Wilhelm Maybach, and Siegfried Marcus) were working on the problem at about the same time, Karl Benz generally is acknowledged as the inventor of the modern car.[1] A photograph of the original Benz Patent-Motorwagen, first built in 1885 and awarded the patent for the concept In 1879, Benz was granted a patent for his first engine, which had been designed in 1878. Many of his other inventions made the use of the internal combustion engine feasible for powering a vehicle. His first Motorwagen was built in 1885 in Mannheim, Germany. He was awarded the patent for its invention as of his application on 29 January 1886 (under the auspices of his major company, Benz & Cie., which was founded in 1883). Benz began promotion of the vehicle on 3 July 1886, and about 25 Benz vehicles were sold between 1888 and 1893, when his first four-wheeler was introduced along with a model intended for affordability. They also were powered with four-stroke engines of his own design. Emile Roger of France, already producing Benz engines under license, now added the Benz car to his line of products. Because France was more open to the early cars, initially more were built and sold in France through Roger than Benz sold in Germany. In August 1888 Bertha Benz, the wife of Karl Benz, undertook the first road trip by car, to prove the road-worthiness of her husband's invention. Bertha Benz, the first long distance car driver in the world In 1896, Benz designed and patented the first internal-combustion flat engine, called boxermotor. During the last years of the nineteenth century, Benz was the largest car company in the world with 572 units produced in 1899 and, because of its size, Benz & Cie., became a joint-stock company. The first motor car in central Europe and one of the first factory-made cars in the world, was produced by Czech company Nesselsdorfer Wagenbau (later renamed to Tatra) in 1897, the Präsident automobil. Daimler and Maybach founded Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft (DMG) in Cannstatt in 1890, and sold their first car in 1892 under the brand name Daimler. It was a horse-drawn stagecoach built by another manufacturer, which they retrofitted with an engine of their design. By 1895 about 30 vehicles had been built by Daimler and Maybach, either at the Daimler works or in the Hotel Hermann, where they set up shop after disputes with their backers. Benz, Maybach and the Daimler team seem to have been unaware of each other's early work. They never worked together; by the time of the merger of the two companies, Daimler and Maybach were no longer part of DMG. Daimler died in 1900 and later that year, Maybach designed an engine named Daimler-Mercedes that was placed in a specially ordered model built to specifications set by Emil Jellinek. This was a production of a small number of vehicles for Jellinek to race and market in his country. Two years later, in 1902, a new model DMG car was produced and the model was named Mercedes after the Maybach engine, which generated 35 hp. Maybach quit DMG shortly thereafter and opened a business of his own. Rights to the Daimler brand name were sold to other manufacturers. Karl Benz proposed co-operation between DMG and Benz & Cie. when economic conditions began to deteriorate in Germany following the First World War, but the directors of DMG refused to consider it initially. Negotiations between the two companies resumed several years later when these conditions worsened and, in 1924 they signed an Agreement of Mutual Interest, valid until the year 2000. Both enterprises standardized design, production, purchasing, and sales and they advertised or marketed their car models jointly, although keeping their respective brands. On 28 June 1926, Benz & Cie. and DMG finally merged as the Daimler-Benz company, baptizing all of its cars Mercedes Benz, as a brand honoring the most important model of the DMG cars, the Maybach design later referred to as the 1902 Mercedes-35 hp, along with the Benz name. Karl Benz remained a member of the board of directors of Daimler-Benz until his death in 1929, and at times his two sons also participated in the management of the company. Émile Levassor Armand Peugeot In 1890, Émile Levassor and Armand Peugeot of France began producing vehicles with Daimler engines, and so laid the foundation of the automotive industry in France. In 1891, Auguste Doriot and his Peugeot colleague Louis Rigoulot completed the longest trip by a gasoline-powered vehicle when their self-designed and built Daimler powered Peugeot Type 3 completed 2,100 km (1,300 miles) from Valentigney to Paris and Brest and back again. They were attached to the first Paris-Brest-Paris bicycle race, but finished 6 days after the winning cyclist, Charles Terront. The first design for an American car with a gasoline internal combustion engine was made in 1877 by George Selden of Rochester, New York. Selden applied for a patent for a car in 1879, but the patent application expired because the vehicle was never built. After a delay of sixteen years and a series of attachments to his application, on 5 November 1895, Selden was granted a United States patent (U.S. Patent 549,160) for a two-stroke car engine, which hindered, more than encouraged, development of cars in the United States. His patent was challenged by Henry Ford and others, and overturned in 1911. In 1893, the first running, gasoline-powered American car was built and road-tested by the Duryea brothers of Springfield, Massachusetts. The first public run of the Duryea Motor Wagon took place on 21 September 1893, on Taylor Street in Metro Center Springfield.[27][28] The Studebaker Automobile Company, subsidiary of a long-established wagon and coach manufacturer, started to build cars in 1897[29]:p.66 and commenced sales of electric vehicles in 1902 and gasoline vehicles in 1904.[30] In Britain, there had been several attempts to build steam cars with varying degrees of success, with Thomas Rickett even attempting a production run in 1860.[31] Santler from Malvern is recognized by the Veteran Car Club of Great Britain as having made the first gasoline-powered car in the country in 1894[32] followed by Frederick William Lanchester in 1895, but these were both one-offs.[32] The first production vehicles in Great Britain came from the Daimler Company, a company founded by Harry J. Lawson in 1896, after purchasing the right to use the name of the engines. Lawson's company made its first car in 1897, and they bore the name Daimler.[32] In 1892, German engineer Rudolf Diesel was granted a patent for a "New Rational Combustion Engine". In 1897, he built the first diesel engine.[1] Steam-, electric-, and gasoline-powered vehicles competed for decades, with gasoline internal combustion engines achieving dominance in the 1910s. Although various pistonless rotary engine designs have attempted to compete with the conventional piston and crankshaft design, only Mazda's version of the Wankel engine has had more than very limited success. Mass production See also: Automotive industry Ransom E. Olds, founder of the Olds Motor Vehicle Company in 1897 (later known as Oldsmobile). Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company in 1903. 1927 Ford Model T Kiichiro Toyoda, president of the Toyota Motor Corporation between 1941 and 1950. Mass production at a Toyota plant in the 1950s. The large-scale, production-line manufacturing of affordable cars was debuted by Ransom Olds in 1901 at his Oldsmobile factory located in Lansing, Michigan and based upon stationary assembly line techniques pioneered by Marc Isambard Brunel at the Portsmouth Block Mills, England, in 1802. The assembly line style of mass production and interchangeable parts had been pioneered in the U.S. by Thomas Blanchard in 1821, at the Springfield Armory in Springfield, Massachusetts.[33] This concept was greatly expanded by Henry Ford, beginning in 1913 with the world's first moving assembly line for cars at the Highland Park Ford Plant. As a result, Ford's cars came off the line in fifteen-minute intervals, much faster than previous methods, increasing productivity eightfold, while using less manpower (from 12.5-man-hours to 1 hour 33 minutes).[34] It was so successful, paint became a bottleneck. Only Japan Black would dry fast enough, forcing the company to drop the variety of colors available before 1913, until fast-drying Duco lacquer was developed in 1926. This is the source of Ford's apocryphal remark, "any color as long as it's black".[34] In 1914, an assembly line worker could buy a Model T with four months' pay.[34] Ford's complex safety procedures—especially assigning each worker to a specific location instead of allowing them to roam about—dramatically reduced the rate of injury. The combination of high wages and high efficiency is called "Fordism," and was copied by most major industries. The efficiency gains from the assembly line also coincided with the economic rise of the United States. The assembly line forced workers to work at a certain pace with very repetitive motions which led to more output per worker while other countries were using less productive methods. In the automotive industry, its success was dominating, and quickly spread worldwide seeing the founding of Ford France and Ford Britain in 1911, Ford Denmark 1923, Ford Germany 1925; in 1921, Citroen was the first native European manufacturer to adopt the production method. Soon, companies had to have assembly lines, or risk going broke; by 1930, 250 companies which did not, had disappeared.[34] Development of automotive technology was rapid, due in part to the hundreds of small manufacturers competing to gain the world's attention. Key developments included electric ignition and the electric self-starter (both by Charles Kettering, for the Cadillac Motor Company in 1910-1911), independent suspension, and four-wheel brakes. Since the 1920s, nearly all cars have been mass-produced to meet market needs, so marketing plans often have heavily influenced car design. It was Alfred P. Sloan who established the idea of different makes of cars produced by one company, called the General Motors Companion Make Program, so that buyers could "move up" as their fortunes improved. Reflecting the rapid pace of change, makes shared parts with one another so larger production volume resulted in lower costs for each price range. For example, in the 1930s, LaSalles, sold by Cadillac, used cheaper mechanical parts made by Oldsmobile; in the 1950s, Chevrolet shared hood, doors, roof, and windows with Pontiac; by the 1990s, corporate powertrains and shared platforms (with interchangeable brakes, suspension, and other parts) were common. Even so, only major makers could afford high costs, and even companies with decades of production, such as Apperson, Cole, Dorris, Haynes, or Premier, could not manage: of some two hundred American car makers in existence in 1920, only 43 survived in 1930, and with the Great Depression, by 1940, only 17 of those were left.[34] In Europe much the same would happen. Morris set up its production line at Cowley in 1924, and soon outsold Ford, while beginning in 1923 to follow Ford's practice of vertical integration, buying Hotchkiss (engines), Wrigley (gearboxes), and Osberton (radiators), for instance, as well as competitors, such as Wolseley: in 1925, Morris had 41% of total British car production. Most British small-car assemblers, from Abbey to Xtra, had gone under. Citroen did the same in France, coming to cars in 1919; between them and other cheap cars in reply such as Renault's 10CV and Peugeot's 5CV, they produced 550,000 cars in 1925, and Mors, Hurtu, and others could not compete.[34] Germany's first mass-manufactured car, the Opel 4PS Laubfrosch (Tree Frog), came off the line at Russelsheim in 1924, soon making Opel the top car builder in Germany, with 37.5% of the market.[34] In Japan, car production was very limited before World War II. Only a handful of companines were producing vehicles in limited numbers, and the vehicles were small, and three-wheeled for commercial uses, like Daihatsu, or were the result of partnering with European companies, like Isuzu building the Wolseley A-9 in 1922. Mitsubishi was also partnered with Fiat and built the Mitsubishi Model A based on a Fiat vehicle. Toyota, Nissan, Suzuki, Mazda, and Honda began as companies producing non-automotive products before the war, switching to car production during the 1950s. Kiichiro Toyoda's decision to take Toyoda Loom Works into automobile manufacturing would create what would eventually become Toyota Motor Corporation, the largest automobile manufacturer in the world. Subaru, meanwhile, was formed from a conglomerate of six companies who banded together as Fuji Heavy Industries, as a result of having been broken up under keiretsu legislation. Fuel and propulsion technologies The Nissan Leaf is an all-electric car launched in December 2010 See also: Alternative fuel vehicle Most cars in use today are propelled by an internal combustion engine, fueled by deflagration of gasoline or diesel. Both fuels are known to cause air pollution and are also blamed for contributing to climate change and global warming.[4] Rapidly increasing oil prices, concerns about oil dependence, tightening environmental laws and restrictions on greenhouse gas emissions are propelling work on alternative power systems for cars. Efforts to improve or replace existing technologies include the development of hybrid vehicles, plug-in electric vehicles and hydrogen vehicles. Vehicles using alternative fuels such as ethanol flexible-fuel vehicles and natural gas vehicles are also gaining popularity in some countries. Cars for racing or speed records have sometimes employed jet or rocket engines, but these are impractical for common use. Oil consumption in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries has been abundantly pushed by car growth; the 1985-2003 oil glut even fuelled the sales of low-economy vehicles in OECD countries. The BRIC countries are adding to this consumption; in December 2009 China was briefly the largest car market.[35] User interface See also: Car controls In the Ford Model T the left-side hand lever sets the rear wheel parking brakes and puts the transmission in neutral. The lever to the right controls the throttle. The lever on the left of the steering column is for ignition timing. The left foot pedal changes the two forward gears while the centre pedal controls reverse. The right pedal is the brake. Cars are equipped with controls used for driving, passenger comfort and safety, normally operated by a combination of the use of feet and hands, and occasionally by voice on 2000s-era cars. These controls include a steering wheel, pedals for operating the brakes and controlling the car's speed (and, in a manual transmission car, a clutch pedal), a shift lever or stick for changing gears, and a number of buttons and dials for turning on lights, ventilation and other functions. Modern cars' controls are now standardised, such as the location for the accelerator and brake, but this was not always the case. Controls are evolving in response to new technologies, for example the electric car and the integration of mobile communications. Since the car was first invented, its controls have become fewer and simpler through automation. For example, all cars once had a manual controls for the choke valve, clutch, ignition timing, and a crank instead of an electric starter. However new controls have also been added to vehicles, making them more complex. Examples include air conditioning, navigation systems, and in car entertainment. Another trend is the replacement of physical knob and switches for secondary controls with touchscreen controls such as BMW's iDrive and Ford's MyFord Touch. Another change is that while early cars' pedals were physically linked to the brake mechanism and throttle, in the 2010s, cars have increasingly replaced these physical linkages with electronic controls. Lighting Main article: Automotive lighting LED daytime running lights on an Audi A4 Cars are typically fitted with multiple types of lights. These include headlights, which are used to illuminate the way ahead and make the car visible to other users, so that the vehicle can be used at night; in some jurisdictions, daytime running lights; red brake lights to indicate when the brakes are applied; amber turn signal lights to indicate the turn intentions of the driver; white-coloured reverse lights to illuminate the area behind the car (and indicate that the driver will be or is reversing); and on some vehicles, additional lights (e.g., side marker lights) to increase the visibility of the car. Interior lights on the ceiling of the car are usually fitted for the driver and passengers. Some vehicles also have a trunk light and, more rarely, an engine compartment light. Weight A Chevrolet Suburban extended-length SUV weighs 3,300 kg (7,200 lb) (gross weight)[36] In the United States, "from 1975 to 1980, average [car] weight dropped from 1,842 to 1,464 kg (4,060 to 3,228 lb), likely in response to rising gasoline prices" and new fuel efficiency standards.[37] The average new car weighed 1,461 kg (3,221 lb) in 1987 but 1,818 kg (4,009 lb) in 2010, due to modern steel safety cages, anti-lock brakes, airbags, and "more-powerful—if more-efficient—engines."[38] Heavier cars are safer for the driver, from an accident perspective, but more dangerous for other vehicles and road users.[38] The weight of a car influences fuel consumption and performance, with more weight resulting in increased fuel consumption and decreased performance. The SmartFortwo, a small city car, weighs 750-795 kg (1,655-1,755 lb). Heavier cars include full-size cars, SUVs and extended-length SUVs like the Suburban. According to research conducted by Julian Allwood of the University of Cambridge, global energy use could be heavily reduced by using lighter cars, and an average weight of 500 kg (1,100 lb) has been said to be well achievable.[39] In some competitions such as the Shell Eco Marathon, average car weights of 45 kg (99 lb) have also been achieved.[40][41] These cars are only single-seaters (still falling within the definition of a car, although 4-seater cars are more common), but they nevertheless demonstrate the amount by which car weights could still be reduced, and the subsequent lower fuel use (i.e. up to a fuel use of 2560 km/l).[42] Seating and body style See also: Car body style Most cars are designed to carry multiple occupants, often with four or five seats. Cars with five seats typically seat two passengers in the front and three in the rear. Full-size cars and large sport utility vehicles can often carry six, seven, or more occupants depending on the arrangement of the seats. In the other hand, sports cars are most often designed with only two seats. The differing needs for passenger capacity and their luggage or cargo space has resulted in the availability of a large variety of body styles to meet individual consumer requirements that include, among others, the sedan/saloon, hatchback, station wagon/estate, and minivan. Safety Main articles: Car safety, Traffic accident, Low speed vehicle, and Epidemiology of motor vehicle collisions Result of a serious car accident Road traffic accidents are the largest cause of injury-related deaths worldwide.[6] Mary Ward became one of the first documented car fatalities in 1869 in Parsonstown, Ireland,[43] and Henry Bliss one of the United States' first pedestrian car casualties in 1899 in New York City.[44] There are now standard tests for safety in new cars, such as the EuroNCAP and the US NCAP tests,[45] and insurance-industry-backed tests by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS).[46] Worldwide, road traffic is becoming ever safer, in part due to efforts by the government to implement safety features in cars (e.g., seat belts, air bags, etc.), reduce unsafe driving practices (e.g., speeding, drinking and driving and texting and driving) and make road design more safe by adding features such as speed bumps, which reduce vehicle speed, and roundabouts, which reduce the likelihood of a head-on-collision (as compared with an intersection). Costs and benefits Main articles: Economics of car usage, Car costs, and Effects of the car on societies Road congestion is an issue in many major cities. (pictured is Chang'an Avenue in Beijing)[47] The costs of car usage, which may include the cost of: acquiring the vehicle, repairs and auto maintenance, fuel, depreciation, driving time, parking fees, taxes, and insurance,[5] are weighed against the cost of the alternatives, and the value of the benefits - perceived and real - of vehicle usage. The benefits may include on-demand transportation, mobility, independence and convenience.[7] During the 1920s, cars had another benefit: "[c]ouples finally had a way to head off on unchaperoned dates, plus they had a private space to snuggle up close at the end of the night."[48] Similarly the costs to society of encompassing car use, which may include those of: maintaining roads, land use, air pollution, road congestion, public health, health care, and of disposing of the vehicle at the end of its life, can be balanced against the value of the benefits to society that car use generates. The societal benefits may include: economy benefits, such as job and wealth creation, of car production and maintenance, transportation provision, society wellbeing derived from leisure and travel opportunities, and revenue generation from the tax opportunities. The ability for humans to move flexibly from place to place has far-reaching implications for the nature of societies.[8] Environmental impact See also: Exhaust gas Vehicles in use per country from 2001 to 2007. It shows the significant growth in BRIC. World map of passenger cars per 1000 people While there are different types of fuel that may power cars, most rely on gasoline or diesel. The United States Environmental Protection Agency states that the average vehicle emits 8,887 grams of carbon dioxide per gallon of gasoline. The average vehicle running on diesel fuel will emit 10,180 grams of carbon dioxide.[49] Many governments are using fiscal policies (such as road tax or the US gas guzzler tax) to influence vehicle purchase decisions, with a low CO2 figure often resulting in reduced taxation.[50] Fuel taxes may act as an incentive for the production of more efficient, hence less polluting, car designs (e.g. hybrid vehicles) and the development of alternative fuels. High fuel taxes may provide a strong incentive for consumers to purchase lighter, smaller, more fuel-efficient cars, or to not drive. On average, today's cars are about 75 percent recyclable, and using recycled steel helps reduce energy use and pollution.[51] In the United States Congress, federally mandated fuel efficiency standards have been debated regularly, passenger car standards have not risen above the 27.5 miles per US gallon (8.6 L/100 km; 33.0 mpg-imp) standard set in 1985. Light truck standards have changed more frequently, and were set at 22.2 miles per US gallon (10.6 L/100 km; 26.7 mpg-imp) in 2007.[52] The manufacture of vehicles is resource intensive, and many manufacturers now report on the environmental performance of their factories, including energy usage, waste and water consumption.[53] The growth in popularity of the car allowed cities to sprawl, therefore encouraging more travel by car resulting in inactivity and obesity, which in turn can lead to increased risk of a variety of diseases.[54] Transportation (of all types including trucks, buses and cars) is a major contributor to air pollution in most industrialised nations. According to the American Surface Transportation Policy Project nearly half of all Americans are breathing unhealthy air. Their study showed air quality in dozens of metropolitan areas has worsened over the last decade.[55] Animals and plants are often negatively impacted by cars via habitat destruction and pollution. Over the lifetime of the average car the "loss of habitat potential" may be over 50,000 m2 (540,000 sq ft) based on primary production correlations.[56] Animals are also killed every year on roads by cars, referred to as roadkill. More recent road developments are including significant environmental mitigations in their designs such as green bridges to allow wildlife crossings, and creating wildlife corridors. Growth in the popularity of vehicles and commuting has led to traffic congestion. Brussels was considered Europe's most congested city in 2011 according to TomTom.[57] Emerging car technologies This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (June 2010) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) Car propulsion technologies that are under development include gasoline/electric and plug-in hybrids, battery electric vehicles, hydrogen cars, biofuels, and various alternative fuels. Research into future alternative forms of power include the development of fuel cells, Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignition (HCCI), Stirling engines,[58] and even using the stored energy of compressed air or liquid nitrogen. New materials which may replace steel car bodies include duralumin, fiberglass, carbon fiber, and carbon nanotubes. Telematics technology is allowing more and more people to share cars, on a pay-as-you-go basis, through car share and carpool schemes. Communication is also evolving due to connected car systems. Autonomous car Main article: Autonomous car A robotic Volkswagen Passat shown at Stanford University is a driverless car Fully autonomous vehicles, also known as driverless cars, already exist in prototype (such as the Google driverless car), and are expected to be commercially available around 2020. According to urban designer and futurist Michael E. Arth, driverless electric vehicles—in conjunction with the increased use of virtual reality for work, travel, and pleasure—could reduce the world's 800 million vehicles to a fraction of that number within a few decades.[59] This would be possible if almost all private cars requiring drivers, which are not in use and parked 90% of the time, would be traded for public self-driving taxis that would be in near constant use. This would also allow for getting the appropriate vehicle for the particular need—a bus could come for a group of people, a limousine could come for a special night out, and a Segway could come for a short trip down the street for one person. Children could be chauffeured in supervised safety, DUIs would no longer exist, and 41,000 lives could be saved each year in the US alone.[60][61] Open source development Main article: Open source car There have been several projects aiming to develop a car on the principles of open design. The projects include OScar, Riversimple (through 40fires.org)[62] and c,mm,n.[63] None of the projects have reached significant success in terms of developing a car as a whole both from hardware and software perspective and no mass production ready open-source based design have been introduced as of late 2009. Some car hacking through on-board diagnostics (OBD) has been done so far.[64] Industry Main article: Automotive industry A car being assembled in a factory The automotive industry designs, develops, manufactures, markets, and sells the world's motor vehicles. In 2008, more than 70 million motor vehicles, including cars and commercial vehicles were produced worldwide.[65] In 2007, a total of 71.9 million new cars were sold worldwide: 22.9 million in Europe, 21.4 million in the Asia-Pacific Region, 19.4 million in the USA and Canada, 4.4 million in Latin America, 2.4 million in the Middle East and 1.4 million in Africa.[66] The markets in North America and Japan were stagnant, while those in South America and other parts of Asia grew strongly. Of the major markets, China, Russia, Brazil and India saw the most rapid growth. About 250 million vehicles are in use in the United States. Around the world, there were about 806 million cars and light trucks on the road in 2007; they burn over 260 billion US gallons (980,000,000 m3) of gasoline and diesel fuel yearly. The numbers are increasing rapidly, especially in China and India.[10] In the opinion of some, urban transport systems based around the car have proved unsustainable, consuming excessive energy, affecting the health of populations, and delivering a declining level of service despite increasing investments. Many of these negative impacts fall disproportionately on those social groups who are also least likely to own and drive cars.[67][68][69] The sustainable transport movement focuses on solutions to these problems. In 2008, with rapidly rising oil prices, industries such as the automotive industry, are experiencing a combination of pricing pressures from raw material costs and changes in consumer buying habits. The industry is also facing increasing external competition from the public transport sector, as consumers re-evaluate their private vehicle usage.[70] Roughly half of the US's fifty-one light vehicle plants are projected to permanently close in the coming years, with the loss of another 200,000 jobs in the sector, on top of the 560,000 jobs lost this decade.[71] Combined with robust growth in China, in 2009, this resulted in China becoming the largest car producer and market in the world. China 2009 sales had increased to 13.6 million, a significant increase from one million of domestic car sales in 2000.[72] Since then however, even in China and other BRIC countries, the automotive production is again falling.[73] Alternatives Main article: Alternatives to car use The Vélib' in Paris is the largest bikesharing system outside of China[74] Established alternatives for some aspects of car use include public transit such as buses, trolleybuses, trains, subways, tramways light rail, cycling, and walking. Car-share arrangements and carpooling are also increasingly popular, in the US and Europe.[75] For example, in the US, some car-sharing services have experienced double-digit growth in revenue and membership growth between 2006 and 2007. Services like car sharing offering a residents to "share" a vehicle rather than own a car in already congested neighborhoods.[76] Bike-share systems have been tried in some European cities, including Copenhagen and Amsterdam. Similar programs have been experimented with in a number of US Cities.[77] Additional individual modes of transport, such as personal rapid transit could serve as an alternative to cars if they prove to be socially accepted.[78] Other meanings The term motorcar has formerly also been used in the context of electrified rail systems to denote a car which functions as a small locomotive but also provides space for passengers and baggage. These locomotive cars were often used on suburban routes by both interurban and intercity railroad systems.[79] See also Cars portal Main article: Outline of automobiles Car costs Car classification Carfree city List of countries by automobile production List of countries by vehicles per capita Lists of automobiles Motor vehicle theft Noise pollution Peak car Steering Traffic collision Traffic congestion References ^ Jump up to: a b c d Stein, Ralph (1967). The Automobile Book. Paul Hamlyn. Jump up ^ Fowler, H.W.; Fowler, F.G., eds. (1976). Pocket Oxford Dictionary. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0198611134. ^ Jump up to: a b "motor car, n.". OED Online. Oxford University Press. September 2014. Retrieved 2014-09-29. ^ Jump up to: a b "Global Climate Change". U.S. Department of Energy. Archived from the original on 2007-02-25. Retrieved 2015-11-23. ^ Jump up to: a b "Car Operating Costs". my car. RACV. Archived from the original on 2009-10-07. Retrieved 2009-12-22. ^ Jump up to: a b Peden M; Scurfield R; Sleet D (eds.) (2004). World report on road traffic injury prevention. World Health Organization. ISBN 92-4-156260-9. Retrieved 2008-06-24. ^ Jump up to: a b c Setright, L. J. K. (2004). Drive On!: A Social History of the Motor Car. Granta Books. ISBN 1-86207-698-7. ^ Jump up to: a b Jakle, John A.; Sculle, Keith A. (2004). Lots of Parking: Land Use in a Car Culture. Univiversity of Virginia Press. ISBN 0-8139-2266-6. Jump up ^ Sousanis, John (2011-08-15). "World Vehicle Population Tops 1 Billion Units". Wards Auto. Retrieved 2012-07-17. ^ Jump up to: a b "Automobile Industry Introduction". Plunkett Research. Archived from the original on 2011-07-22. Jump up ^ "Car". (etymology). Online Etymology Dictionary. Archived from the original on 2008-03-06. Retrieved 2008-06-02. Jump up ^ 'Car' derived from 'carrus'[dead link] Jump up ^ "car, n.1". OED Online. Oxford University Press. September 2014. Retrieved 2014-09-29. Jump up ^ "A dictionary of the Welsh language" (PDF). University of Wales. Retrieved 2016-06-15. Jump up ^ "auto-, comb. form2". OED Online. Oxford University Press. September 2014. Retrieved 2014-09-29. Jump up ^ "Definition of horseless carriage". Merriam-webster.com. Retrieved 2015-11-23. Jump up ^ "Prospective Arrangements", The Times, p. 13, 4 December 1897 Jump up ^ "automobile, adj. and n.". OED Online. Oxford University Press. September 2014. Retrieved 2014-09-29. Jump up ^ "Definition of "auto"". Cambridge Dictionary. Retrieved 2015-08-19. Jump up ^ "Definition of auto". Merriam-webster.com. Retrieved 2015-11-23. Jump up ^ "1679-1681-R P Verbiest's Steam Chariot". History of the Automobile: origin to 1900. Hergé. Retrieved 2009-05-08. ^ Jump up to: a b "A brief note on Ferdinand Verbiest". Curious Expeditions. 2007-07-02. Archived from the original on 2008-04-03. Retrieved 2008-04-18. - Note that the vehicle pictured is the 20th century diecast model made by Brumm, of a later vehicle, not a model based on Verbiest's plans. Jump up ^ Encyclopædia Britannica "Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot". ^ Jump up to: a b Encyclopædia Britannica ^ Jump up to: a b speos.fr. "Niepce Museum, Other Inventions". Niepce.house.museum. Retrieved 2010-08-26. Jump up ^ Wakefield, Ernest H. (1994). History of the Electric Automobile. Society of Automotive Engineers. pp. 2-3. ISBN 1-56091-299-5. Jump up ^ "The First Car - A History of the Automobile". Ausbcomp.com. Archived from the original on 2011-07-16. Retrieved 2011-07-17. Jump up ^ "The Duryea Brothers - Automobile History". Inventors.about.com. 16 September 2010. Retrieved 2011-07-17. Jump up ^ Longstreet, Stephen. A Century on Wheels: The Story of Studebaker. New York: Henry Holt. p. 121. 1st edn., 1952. Jump up ^ Clymer, Floyd. Treasury of Early American Automobiles, 1877-1925 (New York: Bonanza Books, 1950), p.178. Jump up ^ Burgess Wise, D. (1970). Veteran and Vintage Cars. London: Hamlyn. ISBN 0-600-00283-7. ^ Jump up to: a b c Georgano, N. (2000). Beaulieu Encyclopedia of the Automobile. London: HMSO. ISBN 1-57958-293-1. Jump up ^ "Industrialization of American Society". Engr.sjsu.edu. Archived from the original on 2010-09-19. Retrieved 2011-07-17. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g Georgano, G. N. (2000). Vintage Cars 1886 to 1930. Sweden: AB Nordbok. ISBN 1-85501-926-4. Jump up ^ Chris Hogg (2009-02-10). "China's car industry overtakes US". BBC News. Jump up ^ "Used 2008 Chevrolet Suburban Features & Specs". Edmunds. Retrieved 2015-11-25. Jump up ^ "Vehicle Weight and Automotive Fatalities". The National Bureau of Economic Research. US. Retrieved 2015-11-25. ^ Jump up to: a b Lowrey, Annie (2011-06-27). "Your Big Car Is Killing Me". Slate. Retrieved 2015-11-25. Jump up ^ "Possible global energy reducstion". New Scientist. Retrieved 2011-07-17. Jump up ^ "45 kg as average car weight in Shell Eco-Marathon". Wn.com. Retrieved 2011-07-17. Jump up ^ "Shell Eco-Marathon car weight". National Geographic.[dead link] Jump up ^ "Andy Green's 8000-mile/gallon car". Mindfully.org. Retrieved 2011-07-17. Jump up ^ "Mary Ward 1827-1869". Universityscience.ie. Archived from the original on 2008-03-11. Retrieved 2008-10-27. Jump up ^ "CityStreets - Bliss plaque". Archived from the original on 2006-08-26. Jump up ^ "SaferCar.gov - NHTSA". Jump up ^ "Insurance Institute for Highway Safety". Jump up ^ Fran Tonkiss. Space, the city and social theory: social relations and urban forms. Polity, 2005 Jump up ^ Anthony, Ariana (2013-05-09). "Dating in the 1920s: Lipstick, Booze and the Origins of Slut-Shaming | HowAboutWe". Huffingtonpost.com. Retrieved 2015-11-23. Jump up ^ US EPA. "Greenhouse Gas Emissions from a Typical Passenger Vehicle (" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-02-02. Retrieved 2013-04-25. Jump up ^ "A Review and Comparative Analysis of Fiscal Policies Associated with New Passenger Vehicle CO2 Emissions" (PDF). International Council on Clean Transportation. February 2011. Retrieved 2013-10-15. Jump up ^ "Automobiles and the Environment". Greenercars.com. Archived from the original on 2007-07-26. Jump up ^ "CAFE Overview - Frequently Asked Questions". National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Archived from the original on 2006-12-05. Jump up ^ "Volvo's carbon-free car factory". Ends Report. October 2005. Retrieved 2013-10-15. Jump up ^ "Our Ailing Communities". Metropolis Magazine. Archived from the original on 2007-02-08. Jump up ^ "Clearing the Air". The Surface Transportation Policy Project. 2003-08-19. Archived from the original on 2007-02-08. Retrieved 2007-04-26. Jump up ^ Ball, Jeffrey (2009-03-09). "Six Products, Six Carbon Footprints". Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on 2010-12-06. Retrieved 2011-01-10. Jump up ^ "Which is Europe's most congested city?". What Car?. Retrieved 2011-12-18. Jump up ^ Paul Werbos. "Who Killed the Electric car? My review". Retrieved 2007-04-10. Jump up ^ Oliver, Rachel (2007-09-16). "Rachel Oliver "All About: hydrid transportation"". CNN. Retrieved 2009-03-05. Jump up ^ Arth, Michael (Spring 2008). "New Pedestrianism: A Bridge to the Future". Carbusters Magazine. Archived from the original on 2009-10-26. Retrieved 2009-03-06. Jump up ^ Birch, Alex (2008-05-23). "Most Cars Can be Eliminated in 20 Years says Urban Designer Michael E. Arth". Corrupt.org. Archived from the original on 2009-06-14. Retrieved 2009-03-06. Jump up ^ "FortyFires: Main". 40fires.org. Archived from the original on 2010-07-01. Retrieved 2010-07-11. Jump up ^ "open source mobility: home". c,mm,n. Retrieved 2010-07-11. Jump up ^ "Geek My Ride presentation at linux.conf.au 2009". Google. Archived from the original on 2011-04-11. Retrieved 2010-07-11. Jump up ^ "World Motor Vehicle Production by Country: 2007-2008". Organisation Internationale des Constructers d'Automobiles (OICA). Jump up ^ "2008 Global Market Data Book", Automotive News, p.5 Jump up ^ Kenworthy, J R (2004). "Transport Energy Use and Greenhouse Emissions in Urban Passenger Transport Systems" (PDF). Institute for Sustainability and Technology Policy. Retrieved 2008-07-22. Jump up ^ World Health Organisation, Europe. "Health effects of transport". Retrieved 2008-08-29. Jump up ^ Social Exclusion Unit, Office of the Prime Minister (UK). "The Connections - final report on transport and social exclusion" (PDF). Retrieved 2003-02-01.[dead link] Jump up ^ IBISWorld Newsletter, June 2008, GLOBAL TRENDS Oil - The Crude Reality of Current trends, IBISWorld Jump up ^ Jeff Rubin (2009-03-02). "Wrong Turn" (PDF). CIBC World Markets. Jump up ^ "Indonesia: Towards a one trillion dollar economy". The Jakarta Post. Retrieved 2011-07-17. Jump up ^ Khor, Martin (2012-07-23). "Trends in the automotive industry". Third World Network. Archived from the original on 2014-10-29. Jump up ^ Larsen, Janet (2013-04-25). "Bike-Sharing Programs Hit the Streets in Over 500 Cities Worldwide". Earth Policy Institute. Retrieved 2013-04-29. Jump up ^ "Global Automotive Consumer Study - exploring consumer preferences and mobility choices in Europe" (PDF). Deloitte. 2014. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2015-07-04. Retrieved 2015-11-23. Jump up ^ "Flexcar Expands to Philadelphia". Green Car Congress. 2007-04-02. Jump up ^ "About Bike Share Programs". Tech Bikes MIT. Archived from the original on 2007-12-20. Jump up ^ Kay, Jane Holtz (1998). Asphalt Nation: how the automobile took over America, and how we can take it back. University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-21620-2. Jump up ^ "atchison_177". Laparks.org. Archived from the original on 15 May 2011. Retrieved 2011-02-13. Further reading Halberstam, David, The Reckoning, New York, Morrow, 1986. ISBN 0-688-04838-2 Kay, Jane Holtz, Asphalt nation : how the automobile took over America, and how we can take it back, New York, Crown, 1997. ISBN 0-517-58702-5 Heathcote Williams, Autogeddon, New York, Arcade, 1991. ISBN 1-55970-176-5 Wolfgang Sachs: For love of the automobile: looking back into the history of our desires, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992, ISBN 0-520-06878-5 External links Wikimedia Commons has media related to Automobile. Wikisource has original text related to this article: California AB 1493 Look up car in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile Forum for the Automobile and Society [show] v t e Car design [show] v t e Automotive design [show] v t e Automotive engine [show] v t e Powertrain [show] v t e Chassis control system [show] v t e Automotive industry Authority control GND: 4129315-0 NDL: 00574667 Categories: AutomobilesWheeled vehicles Navigation menu Not logged inTalkContributionsCreate accountLog inArticleTalkReadView sourceView historySearch Search Wikipedia Go Main page Contents Featured content Current events Random article Donate to Wikipedia Wikipedia store Interaction Help About Wikipedia Community portal Recent changes Contact page Tools What links here Related changes Upload file Special pages Permanent link Page information Wikidata item Cite this page Print/export Create a book Download as PDF Printable version In other projects Wikimedia Commons Wikiquote Languages Afrikaans Alemannisch አማርኛ Ænglisc العربية Aragonés ܐܪܡܝܐ Armãneashti Arpetan Asturianu Avañe'ẽ Azərbaycanca تۆرکجه বাংলা Bân-lâm-gú Башҡортса Беларуская Беларуская (тарашкевіца)‎ Български Boarisch Bosanski Brezhoneg Буряад Català Čeština Corsu Cymraeg Dansk Deitsch Deutsch Diné bizaad Eesti Ελληνικά Español Esperanto Euskara فارسی Fiji Hindi Føroyskt Français Frysk Gaeilge Gaelg Galego 贛語 گیلکی ગુજરાતી 한국어 Hausa Հայերեն हिन्दी Hrvatski Ido Bahasa Indonesia Interlingua Interlingue Ирон Íslenska Italiano עברית Basa Jawa ಕನ್ನಡ ქართული Kaszëbsczi Қазақша Kiswahili Kongo Kreyòl ayisyen Кыргызча Ladino Лезги ລາວ Latina Latviešu Lietuvių Lingála Lumbaart Magyar Македонски Malagasy മലയാളം Malti Māori मराठी مصرى Bahasa Melayu Mìng-dĕ̤ng-ngṳ̄ Монгол မြန်မာဘာသာ Nāhuatl Dorerin Naoero Nederlands Nedersaksies Nēhiyawēwin / ᓀᐦᐃᔭᐍᐏᐣ नेपाल भाषा 日本語 Нохчийн Norsk bokmål Norsk nynorsk Nouormand Occitan Oʻzbekcha/ўзбекча ਪੰਜਾਬੀ پنجابی Piemontèis Polski Ποντιακά Português Qaraqalpaqsha Română Runa Simi Русиньскый Русский Саха тыла Scots Seeltersk Shqip සිංහල Simple English Slovenčina Slovenščina Словѣньскъ / ⰔⰎⰑⰂⰡⰐⰠⰔⰍⰟ Ślůnski Soomaaliga کوردیی ناوەندی Српски / srpski Srpskohrvatski / српскохрватски Basa Sunda Suomi Svenska Tagalog தமிழ் తెలుగు ไทย Тоҷикӣ Tsetsêhestâhese Türkçe Тыва дыл ᨅᨔ ᨕᨘᨁᨗ Українська اردو ئۇيغۇرچە / Uyghurche Vahcuengh Vèneto Vepsän kel' Tiếng Việt Võro Walon Winaray ייִדיש 粵語 Zazaki Žemaitėška 中文 Livvinkarjala Edit links This page was last modified on 14 November 2016, at 22:14. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.