Egyptian Architecture

Pyramids

Probably the most famous structure in all of Egypt, the Pyramids are still on of the worlds best architectural achievement, even though they were built many centuries ago. These structures can be as tall as 482 feet (147 m) high. The Pyramid towers over many other famous landmarks, including the Statue of Liberty.

The first true pyramid was build at saqqara for the king Zoser. It was called a step pyramid because of its step shape. The later pyramids were smooth sided, like the Great Pyramid at Giza, built for the king Khufu about 4,500 years ago.

The smooth sided pyramid was built from the Dynasty IV and on. They were built by first having men chisel the block of granite the way that they wanted it. The stonemasons used special rods to check that a stone block was cut accurately. Next, the blocks stayed in the quarry until the flood season. They did this so they could use barges to haul over the heavy granite blocks. Once the boast had arrived near the pyramid and unloaded the blocks, they were hauled up a ramp. Then, ropes and levers were used to maneuver the huge blocks into position. The overseer checked that every block was laid correctly. Once all of the granite blocks were placed in place, laborers rubbed the casing blocks with polishing stones until they would shine in the sun. The overseers used plump lines to check that the angle of the slope was correct.

As for the finishing touches, workers placed hieroglyphics around the pyramid as well as many statues. There were also a lot of bright and vibrant colored columns. There were also one or two large boats buried near the tomb so the king to have a peaceful sail over to the Next World.

As for the path that leads up to the pyramid, there was first the Valley Temple. When the king died, his body was first rowed across the Nile to the Valley Temple to be mummified. Next, there was the causeway. This was a covered processional way which came from the Valley Temple. The walls on the inside were decorated many times, and there were holes in the roof to provide light. At the end of the Causeway, there was the Mortuary Temple. This was built against the side of the pyramid. The Mortuary Temple was the place where priests made offerings to the king's spirit every day for eternity. To the left of the Mortuary Temple, can be found the queen's pyramid. Much smaller than the kings pyramid, this was where the king would bury his wife.

The number of granite blocks were enormous. There had to be a huge quarry to supply the huge demand. And of course, there were many accidents at the construction site. There were doctors on the site, but little helped for sprained or broken body parts. Eventually, the whole pyramid was built, and all of the sweat and toil payed off. To learn more about the Ancient Egyptian pyramids, seeThe Evolution of the Pyramid

Tombs

Before the pyramid, the kings used to be buried inside of tombs. The tomb itself was usually composed of two distinct parts: the chapel and crypt. The highly decorated walls of the funerary chapel accommodated a false door. This was the symbol linking the living with the dead, and there was a carved image of the tomb owner. The halls were flanked by several smaller rooms housing the deceased's provisions such as furniture, offerings, sacred text, victuals, etc.

In the rear , there was a burial shaft below ground which led to the actual crypt. Although it was walled in or dissimulated by all sorts of subterfuges-fits, snares, booby traps, and false galleries- the storerooms and chapel were devoted to the cult which remained accessible to the deceased's family and friends and to the priests who continued rituals. The crypt was highly decorated with carved reliefs and wall paintings which described the truths expected to exist for eternity and depicting the figures of priests and servants. They would accompany the deceased and his retinue to his afterlife.

     Temples

Scattered throughout Egypt, you may see some large brown columns. These structures are made of granite and they all have some hieroglyphics on it. You may see some sort of design on the top of the columns. Well, these designs are all based on things that are in Egypt. You may see the lotus flower, papyrus, palm, eight-sided column, and a proto-Dorix or sixteen-sided column. Each of these are all very interesting and fun to look at.

These columns were built to support buildings, obviously. However, many times, you see only the column standing. The reason being, is that the building which it was supporting was either torn down, fell down, or was destroyed because of vandalism. Lets hope that the columns that are left today will still be here tomorrow.

Statues and Monuments

Also scattered throughout Egypt are stone figures. These figures could look like a tiger, a king, and eagle, or maybe even a mixture of both. Perhaps the best know stone figure of them all is the Sphinx. It is a figure of a kings head who is wearing the striped headcloth (nemes). His body is that of a lion.

Like many of the old figures found throughout the world, many of theserelics have either been destroyed, vandalized, or stolen. This is especially true about the Egyptian sculptures. You could see a lion figure with no nose, an eagle with no head, or, an empty stand where a figure once stood. You may even see a granite obelisk with 1/4 of their hieroglyphic rubbed out beyond recognition.

However, not all destruction is because of vandalism and such. Pollution is also a big factor. The pollution may stain or break down the structure of the figure. However, the pollution levels should be getting lower, thus helping to preserve these priceless figures.

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Afghanistan Economic Update, June 2011

    RECENT ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

Preliminary estimates suggest that Afghanistan’s GDP growth rate has dropped from 20.4% in FY2009/10 (SY1388) to 8.2 percent in FY2010/11 (SY1389). While last year’s GDP growth was exceptionally high due to a record harvest and large increase in donor grants, preliminary data suggest that this year’s return to a lower, but still strong figure was the results of an expansion of the services sector and a solid harvest.

Afghanistan’s fiscal position is strengthening. In the last three years, fiscal revenues have grown by an average of 20% per annum, due to improvements in customs and tax collection. Higher revenue collection is expected once mining operations begin and with the introduction of value-added tax in FY2014/15. However, Government operating expenditures will grow even faster in the coming years due to higher security spending, pay and grading reforms for the civil service, rising recurrent obligations from donor-supported projects, and the fiscal costs of the Kabul Bank bail-out.

OUTLOOK

In the medium term, the outlook is good, with real GDP growth rate of 7.9-8.2% and moderate inflation. However, the prospects will depend on the government’s ability to successfully manage the transfer of security control from international to national forces, and ensure political stability and fiscal sustainability. Longer-term growth prospects will depend on the extent to which mining can be used to foster development in agriculture and services, which are crucial to food security, employment and poverty-reduction, and export revenue.

Food Security

Despite the rising global prices of food and oil, Afghanistan is reasonably well-placed to meet its cereal needs in the event of another food crisis. The Afghan government has available 70,000Mt of strategic grain reserves. Moreover, the private sector and government are increasingly sourcing oil from Russia, which should help to bring down costs of transportation and irrigation and could relieve the pressure on prices. However, if the increased food prices of August 2010 are sustained, many Afghan households would be at risk of falling into poverty.

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The Great Pyramid of Giza or Pyramid of Khufu

The Great Pyramid of Giza (also called the Pyramid of Khufu and thePyramid of Cheops) is the oldest and largest of the three pyramids in theGiza Necropolis bordering what is now El Giza, Egypt. It is the oldest of theSeven Wonders of the Ancient World, and the only one to remain largely intact. Egyptologists believe that the pyramid was built as a tomb for fourth dynasty Egyptian Pharaoh Khufu (Cheops in Greek) over an approximately 20 year period concluding around 2560 BC. Initially at 146.5 metres (480.6 ft), the Great Pyramid was the tallest man-made structure in the world for over 3,800 years, the longest period of time ever held for such a record. Originally, the Great Pyramid was covered by casing stones that formed a smooth outer surface; what is seen today is the underlying core structure. Some of the casing stones that once covered the structure can still be seen around the base. There have been varying scientific and alternative theories about the Great Pyramid's construction techniques. Most accepted construction hypotheses are based on the idea that it was built by moving huge stones from a quarry and dragging and lifting them into place.

There are three known chambers inside the Great Pyramid. The lowest chamber is cut into the bedrock upon which the pyramid was built and was unfinished. The so-called Queen's Chamber and King's Chamber are higher up within the pyramid structure. The Great Pyramid of Giza is the only pyramid in Egypt known to contain both ascending and descending passages. The main part of the Giza complex is a setting of buildings that included two mortuary temples in honor of Khufu (one close to the pyramid and one near the Nile), three smaller pyramids for Khufu's wives, an even smaller "satellite" pyramid, a raised causeway connecting the two temples, and small mastaba tombs surrounding the pyramid for nobles.

History and description

It is believed the pyramid was built as a tomb for fourth dynasty Egyptian pharaoh Khufu and was constructed over a 20 year period. Khufu's vizier, Hemon, or Hemiunu, is believed by some to be the architect of the Great Pyramid. It is thought that, at construction, the Great Pyramid was originally 280 Egyptian cubits tall, 146.5 metres (480.6 ft) but with erosion and absence of its pyramidion, its present height is 138.8 metres (455.4 ft). Each base side was 440 royal cubits, 230.4 metres (755.9 ft) long. A royal cubit measures 0.524 metres. The mass of the pyramid is estimated at 5.9 million tonnes. The volume, including an internal hillock, is roughly 2,500,000 cubic metres. Based on these estimates, building this in 20 years would involve installing approximately 800 tonnes of stone every day. Similarly, since it consists of an estimated 2.3 million blocks, completing the building in 20 years would involve moving an average of more than 12 of the blocks into place each hour, day and night. The first precision measurements of the pyramid were done by Egyptologist Sir Flinders Petrie in 1880–82 and published as The Pyramids and Temples of Gizeh. Almost all reports are based on his measurements. Many of the casing stones and inner chamber blocks of the Great Pyramid were fit together with extremely high precision. Based on measurements taken on the north eastern casing stones, the mean opening of the joints is only 0.5 millimetres wide (1/50th of an inch).

Great Pyramid of Giza from a 19th century stereopticon card photo

The pyramid remained the tallest man-made structure in the world for over 3,800 years,unsurpassed until the 160-metre-tall spire of Lincoln Cathedral was completed c. 1300. The accuracy of the pyramid's workmanship is such that the four sides of the base have an average error of only 58 millimetres in length.The base is horizontal and flat to within 21 mm.The sides of the square base are closely aligned to the four cardinal compass points (within 4 minutes of arc) based on true north, not magnetic north, and the finished base was squared to a mean corner error of only 12 seconds of arc. The completed design dimensions, as suggested by Petrie's survey and subsequent studies, are estimated to have originally been 280 cubits high by 440 cubits long at each of the four sides of its base. The ratio of the perimeter to height of 1760/280 cubits equates to 2π to an accuracy of better than 0.05% (corresponding to the well-known approximation of π as 22/7). Some Egyptologists consider this to have been the result of deliberate design proportion. Verner wrote, "We can conclude that although the ancient Egyptians could not precisely define the value of π, in practice they used it".Petrie, author of Pyramids and Temples of Gizeh concluded: "but these relations of areas and of circular ratio are so systematic that we should grant that they were in the builder's design". Others have argued that the Ancient Egyptians had no concept of pi and would not have thought to encode it in their monuments. The creation of the pyramid may instead be based on simple ratios of the sides of right angled triangles (the seked).

Materials

The Great Pyramid consists of an estimated 2.3 million limestone blocks with most believed to have been transported from nearby quarries. The Tura limestone used for the casing was quarried across the river. The largest granite stones in the pyramid, found in the "King's" chamber, weigh 25 to 80 tonnes and were transported from Aswan, more than 500 miles away. Traditionally, ancient Egyptians cut stone blocks by hammering wooden wedges into the stone which were then soaked with water. As the water was absorbed, the wedges expanded, causing the rock to crack. Once they were cut, they were carried by boat either up or down the Nile River to the pyramid.It is estimated that 5.5 million tons of limestone, 8,000 tons of granite (imported from Aswan), and 500,000 tons of mortar were used in the construction of the Great Pyramid

Casing Stone

casing stone

At completion, the Great Pyramid was surfaced by white "casing stones" – slant-faced, but flat-topped, blocks of highly polished white limestone. These were carefully cut to what is approximately a face slope with a seked of 5½ palms to give the required dimensions. Visibly, all that remains is the underlying stepped core structure seen today. In AD 1300, a massive earthquake loosened many of the outer casing stones, which were then carted away by Bahri Sultan An-Nasir Nasir-ad-Din al-Hasan in 1356 to build mosques and fortresses in nearby Cairo. The stones can still be seen as parts of these structures. Later explorers reported massive piles of rubble at the base of the pyramids left over from the continuing collapse of the casing stones, which were subsequently cleared away during continuing excavations of the site. Nevertheless, a few of the casing stones from the lowest course can be seen to this day in situ around the base of the Great Pyramid, and display the same workmanship and precision as has been reported for centuries. Petrie also found a different orientation in the core and in the casing measuring 193 centimetres ± 25 centimetres. He suggested a redetermination of north was made after the construction of the core, but a mistake was made, and the casing was built with a different orientation. Petrie related the precision of the casing stones as to being "equal to opticians' work of the present day, but on a scale of acres" and "to place such stones in exact contact would be careful work; but to do so with cement in the joints seems almost impossible".^[19] It has been suggested it was the mortar (Petrie's "cement") that made this seemingly impossible task possible, providing a level bed which enabled the masons to set the stones exactly.

Construction theories

Main article: Egyptian pyramid construction techniques

Many alternative, often contradictory, theories have been proposed regarding the pyramid's construction techniques. Many disagree on whether the blocks were dragged, lifted, or even rolled into place. The Greeks believed that slave labour was used, but modern discoveries made at nearby worker's camps associated with construction at Giza suggest it was built instead by tens of thousands of skilled workers. Verner posited that the labor was organized into a hierarchy, consisting of two gangs of 100,000 men, divided into five zaa or phyle of 20,000 men each, which may have been further divided according to the skills of the workers.

One mystery of the pyramid's construction is its planning. John Romer suggests that they used the same method that had been used for earlier and later constructions, laying out parts of the plan on the ground at a 1 to 1 scale. He writes that "such a working diagram would also serve to generate the architecture of the pyramid with precision unmatched by any other means.^] He also argues for a 14 year time span for its construction.

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The History of Persia or Iran

Persia

The first mention we have of the Persians is on a tablet recording the expedition of Shalmanesser III into a country called Parsua, in the mountains of Kurdistan around 837 BC. There, it seems that twenty-seven chieftain-kings ruled over twenty-seven states thinly populated by a people called Amadai, Madai, or Medes. They were Indo-European and had probably come from around the Caspian Sea into Western Asia about 1000 BC. The Zend-Avesta, the sacred scriptures of the Persains, idealized the racial memory of their ancient homeland and described it as a paradise. Not likely, since if it was so nice, why would they have ever left? In any case, scenes of our youth and the past are often wonderful and pleasant -- if we don't have to live in them again.

The Persians seem to have wandered south until they reached Persia. At Ecbatana "a meeting place of many ways", which is located in a picturesque valley made fertile by the melting snows of the highlands, Deioces (also their first recorded king) founded their first capital. It was dominated by his royal palace which covered an area of nearly a square mile. Royalty has always gone in for the grandiose and resplendant.

According to a passage in Herodotus, Deioces achieved power by acquiring a reputation for justice. Unfortunately, once he got the position, he turned into a despot. But, that's the way of politics: promise the moon, and then when you get what you want, do whatever you darn well please.

Deioces issued a decree, that "no man should be admitted to the King's presence, but everyone should consult him by means of messengers; moreover, that it should be accounted indecency for any one to laugh or spit before him. He established such ceremony about his person for this reason,...that he might appear to be a different nature to them who did not see him." So wrote Herodotus.

Under the leadership of Deioces, the Medes became a threat to the power of Assyria, so the Assyrians repeatedly invaded him. Each time, they imagined the Medes subdued, only to be surprised by their persistance in rebelling and fighting.

The greatest of the Median kings was one Cyaxares, and he finally demonstrated to the Assyrians their mistake in imagining the Medes were subdued: he invaded Assyria and destroyed its capital Ninevah. Thus, the Assyrian empire was ended.

Inspired by his victory, Cyaxares swept though western Asia to the very gates of Sardis, only to be turned back by an eclipse of the sun. Cyaxares was on the superstitious side. However, Cyaxares' enemies were equally superstious, and taking the eclipse as a warning from the sky, they quickly signed a peace treaty and sealed it by drinking one another's blood.

Cyaxares died the next year, having, during the course of his reign, expanded his kingdom from a subject province into an empire embracing Assyria, Media, and Persia. As is the nature of empires, his creation was unstable, and within a generation of his death, it had fallen apart. Thus, the tenure of this Median Empire was too brief to lead to much in the way of contribution to the civilization of the world, except in that it prepared or laid the ground work for the culture of Persia.

To Persia, the Medes did give something: their Aryan language, their alphabet of thirty-six characters, their replacement of clay with parchment and the use of a pen as a writing tool; the Medes also gave the Persians the use of the column in architecture, their Zoroastrian religion of Ahura-Mazda (which had nothing at all to do with later Japanese auto manufacturers), and Ahriman. They also gave them their patriarchal family structure and polygamous marriages.

In any case, the degeneration of the Medes proceded much more quickly than their rise. Astyages, the successor of Cyaxares, proved once again that monarchy is a crapshoot (cf. Ecclesiastes 2:18-19: "I hated all the things I had toiled for under the sun, because I must leave them to the one who comes after me, and who knows whether he will be a wise man or a fool?"). Astyages inherited the kingdom cheerfully, and settled down to enjoy it. His behavior, and that of his countrymen, was not unlike so often happens to those who gain riches to quickly and too easily. The stern and stoic philosophy of their forebears was forgotten; the upper classes became slaves of fashion and luxury; the men wore embroidered pants, the women covered themselves with cosmetics and jewlry, and even the horses were decked with gold. A formerly pastoral people, who had been glad to be borne by crude wagons, now rode in expensive chariots from party to party.

While the early kings of the Medes had prided themselves on justice, Astyages was of another mind. Being displeased with an individual by the name of Harpagus (so the story goes), Astyages served up the dismemebered and headless body of his own son and forced him to eat it. Harpagus ate, commenting that whatever the king did was agreeable to him.

Unsurprisingly, Harpagus harbored a bit of a grudge and was instrumental in helping Cyrus later depose Astyages. In fact, when Cyrus, who had come from the Median dependancy of Ansham, in Persia, rebelled against Astyages (c. 549 BC), the Medes welcomed Cyrus' victory and accepted him, almost without protest, as their new king.

Thus, in a single engagement, Media ceased to be the master of Persia, and Persia became the master of Media; soon, it would become the master of the entire Near Eastern world, as well.

An alliance was formed against Cyrus by Croesus, the king of Lydia (which is in Asia minor. Croesus is significant, if for no other reason than the fact that he is credited with the invention of coinage), Nabonidus of Babylon, and Amasis, the Pharoah of Egypt (569-525 BC). So, in 546 Cyrus attacked the forces of Croesus and defeated him, thus gaining control of the whole of Asia Minor (modern day Turkey). His next thrust was at Babylon itself, and the Cyrus Cylinder records the way he believed (or at least this is what he told the Babylonians) that Marduk, the patron deity of Babylon, assisted his subsequent victory:

Marduk...to his city Babylon he caused [Cyrus] to go, he made him take the road to Babylon, going as a friend and companion at his side...without battle and conflict he permitted him to enter Babylon. He spared his city Babylon a calamity....

Cyrus is said to have diverted the course of the Euphrates River during his assault of Babylon. Since the river passed under the city walls and through the city, when the water was diverted, his army was able to enter the city easily by simply walking along the now dry riverbed. Thus, Babylon fell to Cyrus about 538 BC.

With the conquest of Babylon, Cyrus became the ruler of the largest empire the world had known till that time. During the reign of his jerk of a son, the influence of Persia would extend all the way to Egypt as well.

Under Cyrus, the fall of Babylon was an answer to prayer and prophecy. It would signal the beginning of their restoration to the promissed land.

The first principle of Cyrus' policy was that the various people of his empire should be left free in their religious worshi and beliefs. Cyrus was one of the first rulers to recognize a basic principle of statesmanship: religion is stronger than the state.

Instead of sacking cities and wrecking temples, he showed a courteous respect for the deities of the conquered and contributed to the maintance of their shrines. This is seen in the wording of his decree to the Jewish people in permitting them to return to their land. His positive statements about Yahweh and the Jews, should thus be taken in the context of his attitude toward other deities, rather than being taken as proof that he had become a convert to Judaism.

Cyrus died of ambition. He was killed in a battle with Massagetae, an obscure tribe that peopled the southern shores of the Caspian Sea. His son, the jerk, was called Cambyses. He was half crazy. He took the throne upon his father's untimely demise, and immediately put to death his own brother and potential rival, Smerdis. Attracted to the wealth of Egypt like a moth to a flame, he captured Memphis easily enough, but an army of fifty thousand Persians sent to anex the Oasis of Amon was lost in the desert without a trace. An expedition to Carthage failed because the Phoenician crews that manned the Persian fleet refused to attack a Phoenician city. Duh!

Next, Cambyses publically scoffed at the Egyptian religion, plunged a dagger into the bull revered by the Egyptians as the god Apis, exhumed mummies, and pried into royal tombs, heedless of ancient curses. He profaned temples and ordered idols burned. He thought that by doing these things he would succeed in freeing the Egyptians of their superstitions. Unfortunately, he was stricken ill -- apparently epileptic seizures -- and the Egyptians became convinced that it was the gods themselves punishing him.

To demonstrate beyond question his questionable grip on reality, Cambyses killed his wife (and sister) Roxana with a kick in the stomach. He dispatched his son Prexaspes with an arrow. Twelve Persians of noble birth he burried alive. And then he condemned Croesus, king of Lydia, to death. A little while later, he changed his mind, and rejoiced at the news that the execution had not yet been carried out. To celebrate, he punished the officers who had delayed in executing the Lydian king.

On his way back to Persia from Egypt, he learned that an usurper had taken the throne, supported by a massive revolution. Nothing more is heard of Cambyses, though the rumor is, he committed suicide. In any case, everyone was just glad he was gone.

The usurper had pretended to be Cambyses, though in reality he was a religious fanatic bent on destroying Zoroastrianism, the official religion of Persia. This idea did not go over well, and so another revolution soon got rid of him. The seven aristocrats who had organized this rebellion raised one of their own to the throne. His name was Darius, he was the son of Hystaspes. It should be noted that this is not the Darius mentioned in the book of Daniel.

Darius' succession to the throne was marked by uprisings in the various subject regions, as is always the case when an empire shifts hands. Thus, the governors of Egypt and Lydia refused submission, and the provinces of Susiana, Babylonia, Media, Assyria, Armenia, Sacia, and others rose in simultaneous revolt.

Darius, needless to say, suddenly had his hands full. Amazingly, he managed to prevail.

Taking Babylon after a long seize he crucified three thousand of its leading citizens as an inducement to the rest that obedience was a wise choice. In a series of swift campaigns, he pacified one rebellious region after another.

With the empire whole again, and this lesson firmly in mind, that vast empires in crisis could quickly fall to pieces, he put asside the battle gear and became one of the wisest administrators in history, seeking a way to bind the empire together so that it would not so easily fall apart in the future. What he did became a model of imperial organization. The result was a generation of peace, order and prosperity that western asia had never known before.

Still, all was not conflict free. The Scythians kept invading distant regions of his empire from the north, necessitating action on his part. So he marched his army into southern Russia, across the Bosphorus and the Danube, all the way to the Volga. He marched across Afganistan and into Indus Valley. Thus, he added millions of people and vast wealth to his empire.

Greece. Herodotus, the Greek historian, would have us believe that Darius entered upon his war with Greece -- what ended up being his greatest mistake -- because one of his wives, Atossa, teased him into it while they were in bed. It seemse more likely that he simply saw the Greek city states and their colonies as a potential danger to him, should they ever manage to unite. Thus, when Ionia revoltd and received aid from Sparta and Athens, Darius went to war.

Darius was defeated at the battle of Marathon and returned gloomily to Persia. There, amidst preparations for a second war against Greece, he suddenly weakened and died.

Languages of Persia. Many languages have been used in the long history of Persia. The speech of the court and nobility in the days of Darius I was Old Persian, a tongue so closely related to Sanskrit that evidently they are both dialects of some language older still.

Old Persian developed on the one hand into Zend, the language of the Zend-Avesta and on the other hand into Pahlavi -- a Hindu language from which has come the Persian language of today, Farsi (spoken in modern Iran).

When the Persians took to writing, they adopted the Babylonian cuneiform for their monumental inscriptions and the Aramaic alphabet for their other documents.

They proceeded to symplify the unwieldy syllabary of the Babylonians from six hundred plus characters down to thirty-six signs which gradually became letters instead of syllables, thus becoming a cuneiform alphabet.

We are able to read Babylonian and the earlier Sumerian today because of the Persians. Had they not used Babylonian cuneiform to write their inscriptions, together with the same inscription in Aramaic script, we would never have been able to decipher the older writings.

English is related to the Persian and Sanskrit languages, as the following chart can illustrate:

Old Persian	Sanskrit	German	English
pitar	pitar	Vater	father
nama	nama	Nahme	name
bar	bhri	Fuhren	bear
matar	matar	Mutter	mother
bratar	bhratar	Bruder	brother

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History of China - The Great Scholars

CONFUCIUS

  Confucius (５５1B.C.—４７９B.C.), was a great thinker and great educator in China’s history. His thoughts and ideas have influenced the whole history of China and Chinese people. Until today, his thoughts and ideas were well known in China and abroad.

It has been said that Confucius had more than 3,000 students, of them 72 were excellent students who famous at that time. He traveled to 14 countries with his students and wrote Shi, Shu, Li, Yue, Zhou Yi and Chun Qiu. His works are read and studied by millions of students and professors to day. His works were also translated to many languages and learned in different countries.

Confucius was eager to learn when he just was a young boy. Because his family was very poor, he had done many jobs to support himself. For example he was once to be a foodstuff staff and a cowboy. 

When he was only 15 years old, he was eager to learn and always to learn from others. He said there will be my teacher when I walked with others.

It is his eagerness for knowledge and new things that lead to his great thoughts of his works.His thoughts were valuable in conducting education and government building and the social life. Confucius was a great thinker and philosopher and educator who earned the expectation of most Chinese people

SUN - TSU

     An interesting document which has survived from the close of the Han period is the short preface written by the Great Ts`ao Ts`ao, or Wei Wu Ti, for his edition of Sun Tzu. I shall give it in full:– I have heard that the ancients used bows and arrows to their advantage. The Shu Chu mentions "the army" among the "eight objects of government." The I Ching says: "'army' indicates firmness and justice; the experienced leader will have good fortune." The Shih Ching says: "The King rose majestic in his wrath, and he marshaled his troops." The Yellow Emperor, T`ang the Completer and Wu Wang all used spears and battle-axes in order to succor their generation. The Ssu-ma Fa says: "If one man slay another of set purpose, he himself may rightfully be slain." He who relies solely on warlike measures shall be exterminated; he who relies solely on peaceful measures shall perish. [...] In military matters, the Sage's rule is normally to keep the peace, and to move his forces only when occasion requires. He will not use armed force unless driven to it by necessity.

Many books have I read on the subject of war and fighting; but the work composed by Sun Wu is the profoundest of them all. [Sun Tzu was a native of the Ch`i state, his personal name was Wu. He wrote the Art of War in 13 chapters for Ho Lu, King of Wu. Its principles were tested on women, and he was subsequently made a general. He led an army westwards, crushed the Ch`u state and entered Ying the capital. In the north, he kept Ch`i and Chin in awe. A hundred years and more after his time, Sun Pin lived. He was a descendant of Wu.] In his treatment of deliberation and planning, the importance of rapidity in taking the field, clearness of conception, and depth of design, Sun Tzu stands beyond the reach of carping criticism. My contemporaries, however, have failed to grasp the full meaning of his instructions, and while putting into practice the smaller details in which his work abounds, they have overlooked its essential purport. That is the motive which has led me to outline a rough explanation of the whole.

Sun Tzu Wu was a native of the Ch`i State. His ART OF WAR brought him to the notice of Ho Lu, [2] King of Wu. Ho Lu said to him: "I have carefully perused your 13 chapters. May I submit your theory of managing soldiers to a slight test?" Sun Tzu replied: "You may." Ho Lu asked: "May the test be applied to women?" The answer was again in the affirmative, so arrangements were made to bring 180 ladies out of the Palace. Sun Tzu divided them into two companies, and placed one of the King's favorite concubines at the head of each. He then bade them all take spears in their hands, and addressed them thus: "I presume you know the difference between front and back, right hand and left hand?" The girls replied: Yes. Sun Tzu went on: "When I say "Eyes front," you must look straight ahead. When I say "Left turn," you must face towards your left hand.

When I say "Right turn," you must face towards your right hand. When I say "About turn," you must face right round towards your back." Again the girls assented. The words of command having been thus explained, he set up the halberds and battle-axes in order to begin the drill. Then, to the sound of drums, he gave the order "Right turn." But the girls only burst out laughing. Sun Tzu said: "If words of command are not clear and distinct, if orders are not thoroughly understood, then the general is to blame." So he started drilling them again, and this time gave the order "Left turn," whereupon the girls once more burst into fits of laughter. Sun Tzu: "If words of command are not clear and distinct, if orders are not thoroughly understood, the general is to blame. But if his orders ARE clear, and the soldiers nevertheless disobey, then it is the fault of their officers." So saying, he ordered the leaders of the two companies to be beheaded.

Now the king of Wu was watching the scene from the top of a raised pavilion; and when he saw that his favorite concubines were about to be executed, he was greatly alarmed and hurriedly sent down the following message: "We are now quite satisfied as to our general's ability to handle troops. If We are bereft of these two concubines, our meat and drink will lose their savor. It is our wish that they shall not be beheaded." Sun Tzu replied: "Having once received His Majesty's commission to be the general of his forces, there are certain commands of His Majesty which, acting in that capacity, I am unable to accept."

Accordingly, he had the two leaders beheaded, and straightway installed the pair next in order as leaders in their place. When this had been done, the drum was sounded for the drill once more; and the girls went through all the evolutions, turning to the right or to the left, marching ahead or wheeling back, kneeling or standing, with perfect accuracy and precision, not venturing to utter a sound. Then Sun Tzu sent a messenger to the King saying: "Your soldiers, Sire, are now properly drilled and disciplined, and ready for your majesty's inspection. They can be put to any use that their sovereign may desire; bid them go through fire and water, and they will not disobey."

But the King replied: "Let our general cease drilling and return to camp. As for us, We have no wish to come down and inspect the troops." Thereupon Sun Tzu said: "The King is only fond of words, and cannot translate them into deeds." After that, Ho Lu saw that Sun Tzu was one who knew how to handle an army, and finally appointed him general.

In the west, he defeated the Ch`u State and forced his way into Ying, the capital; to the north he put fear into the States of Ch`i and Chin, and spread his fame abroad amongst the feudal princes. And Sun Tzu shared in the might of the King.

Source:Sun Zi and Art of War

ZHUGE  LIANG

Zhuge Liang (traditional Chinese: 諸葛亮; simplified Chinese: 诸葛亮; pinyin: Zhūgě Liàng, 181–234) was Chancellor of Shu Han during the Three Kingdoms period of China. He is often recognised as the greatest and most accomplished strategist of his era.

Often depicted wearing a robe and holding a fan made of crane feathers,[2] Zhuge was not only an important military strategist and statesman; he was also an accomplished scholar and inventor. His reputation as an intelligent and learned scholar grew even while he was living in relative seclusion, earning him the nickname "Wòlóng" (臥龍, or "Sleeping Dragon"). Zhuge is an uncommon two-character compound family name. His name – even his surname alone – has become synonymous with intelligence and tactics in Chinese culture.

Source: Wiki

THE GREAT POET - TAO YUANMING

Tao Qian (simplified Chinese: 陶潜; traditional Chinese: 陶潛; pinyin: Táo Qián; Wade-Giles: T'ao Ch'ien, 365–427), better known as Tao Yuanming (陶淵明), was a Chinese poet. Born in modern Jiujiang, Jiangxi, he was one of the most influential pre-Tang Dynasty (618-907) Chinese poets. He came from a notable family which had descended into poverty; when young, he was torn between ambition and a desire to retreat into solitude. His great-grandfather was the famous Eastern Jin general and governor, Tao Kan. He served in a series of minor posts, but his sister's death, as well as disgust at the corruption and infighting of the Jin Court prompted his resignation, convincing him that life was too short to compromise on his principles; as he put it himself, he would not "bow like a servant in return for five bushels of grain" ("為五斗米折腰" has entered common usage to mean "swallowing one's pride in exchange for a meager existence". 'Five bushels of grain' refers to the salary of a low-ranking official). He lived in retirement for his last 22 years. Approximately 130 of his works survive. Most of them were poems or essays, which depict an idyllic pastoral life of farming and drinking; because of this he would later be termed the "Poet of the Fields". While his poems were not influential in his time, they would later be a major influence on the poetry of the Tang and Song Dynasties. Du Fu, his great admirer, wrote in his poem Oh, Such a Shame which describes his own life in the countryside: Only by wine one's heart is lit, / only a poem calms a soul that's torn. / You'd understand me, Tao Qian. / I wish a little sooner I was born! Apart from his poems, Tao is perhaps best known today for his short but intriguing depiction (in prose) of a land hidden from the outside world called "Peach Blossom Spring" (桃花源記). The name Peach Blossom Spring (桃花源 Tao Hua Yuan) has since become the standard Chinese term for 'utopia'.

ZHU CHONGZI

Zhu Chongzi(429-500) was a famous mathematician, astronomer and a mechanism maker.

Zhu Chongzi was born in Herbei. In order to avoid the war, Zhu Chongzi’s grandfather moved the family from Hebei to Southern China. His grand father was once the civil engineer. His father was government officials in the royal palace, who was very knowledgeable and respected by most of the people.

Zhu Chongzi was born in Nanking in 429 A.D. Zhu’s family had good knowledge in astronomy and calendar study. He was posed to math and astronomy knowledge when he was very young.

Zhu Chongzi enjoyed good reputation and glory around his hometown when he became adult. He was appointed to do the research job by Xiao Wu Di (Song’s emperor).

From 494 to 498, he has been government chief official in Changshui and enjoyed the forth level of bonus in government. In the situation of wars and rebellions, he wrote a article called An Bian Lun , which in English means about controlling and stabling of Frontier of the country. He advised the government to assart the field and develops the agriculture and stables the people and strengthens country safety. Zhu Chongzi died in 500 A.D. in his 72.

 Zhu Chongzi’s son was also a great mathematician in ancient China.

LI BAI

The Tang Dynasty was the golden age of Chinese poetry. In the number of poems and variety of poetic forms, the beauty of imagery and broadness of themes, Tang poetry surpassed all that had preceded it. The Complete Anthology of Tang Poetry, edited during the Qing Dynasty (1644 - 1911), contains over 50,000 poems written by some two thousand poets. The collection provides a magnificent insight into all aspects of the social life of the period.

Tang poets are held in high regard and among the most notable are Li Bai, Du Fu and Bai Juyi.

Li Bai(712-770)

the Immortal Poet, living during the peak of the Tang period, wrote as many as nine hundred poems. He was probably the greatest of the ancient Chinese poets. It is generally agreed that between them, Li Bai and Du Fu elevated the poetic form to a level of power and expression that remains unsurpassed by poets of subsequent generations.

His work is characterized by its imaginative and unrestrained expression of feeling. Rated as a romantic poet, his writings are endowed with a deep appreciation of people and their lives. The magnificent scenery he saw and enjoyed as well as the profound expression of his own desires and sorrows are subjects of his work.

Du Fu(712-770)

The Sage of Poets, lived in a period of change when the prosperity of the Tang began to decline. Having suffered obstacles in his official career, he began to travel around the country and to write poetry.

Living as a refugee during the Rebellion of An and Shi gave him a personal empathy with the sufferings of the poor. His work shows a great depth of feeling for the plight of the common people. In 759, Du Fu went to live in Chengdu and it is here that his former residence the Thatched Cottage is open for viewing by visitors.

Recording as they do both the military and political situations pertaining at this time, Du Fu's poems are referred to as "the mirror of his time". He is regarded as providing a typical representation of realism in poetry. The most popular of his poems are the Three Officials and Three Leaves.

Wang Wei(772-846)

A government system supported by a large class of Confucian literati selected through civil service examinations was perfected under Tang rule. This competitive procedure was designed to draw the best talents into government.

 But perhaps an even greater consideration for the Tang rulers, aware that imperial dependence on powerful aristocratic families and warlords would have destabilizing consequences, was to create a body of career officials having no autonomous territorial or functional power base.

As it turned out, these scholar-officials acquired status in their local communities, family ties, and shared values that connected them to the imperial court. From Tang times until the closing days of the Qing empire in 1911, scholar-officials functioned often as intermediaries between the grass-roots level and the government.

Bai Juyi(772-846)

 Bai Juyi was the son of an official. As a young man, he wandered about to escape from the wars and hence suffered from poverty and hunger. Later, after having succeeded in the civil service examinations, he served for fifteen years as an official.

He was disliked and ostracized by his noble colleagues and was sent away from the capital to work in remote cities.Bai Juyi wrote almost three thousand poems, his output exceeding that of the other Tang poets.

With their themes centring on the important social and political problems, Bai Juyi used plain and simple language that proved enlightening even for those who had not received even the poorest education. He also wrote many lyrics expressing his personal feelings.

His long narrative poem The Song of the Pipa Player is among the best known. (A pipa is a musical instrument).

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The Philippine History - When the pilipino start new life

Early History -The Negritos are believed to have migrated to the Philippines some 30,000 years ago from Borneo, Sumatra, and Malaya. The Malayans followed in successive waves. These people belonged to a primitive epoch of Malayan culture, which has apparently survived to this day among certain groups such as the Igorots. The Malayan tribes that came later had more highly developed material cultures.

In the 14th cent. Arab traders from Malay and Borneo introduced Islam into the southern islands and extended their influence as far north as Luzon. The first Europeans to visit (1521) the Philippines were those in the Spanish expedition around the world led by the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan. Other Spanish expeditions followed, including one from New Spain (Mexico) under López de Villalobos, who in 1542 named the islands for the infante Philip, later Philip II.

Spanish Control - The conquest of the Filipinos by Spain did not begin in earnest until 1564, when another expedition from New Spain, commanded by Miguel López de Legaspi, arrived. Spanish leadership was soon established over many small independent communities that previously had known no central rule. By 1571, when López de Legaspi established the Spanish city of Manila on the site of a Moro town he had conquered the year before, the Spanish foothold in the Philippines was secure, despite the opposition of the Portuguese, who were eager to maintain their monopoly on the trade of East Asia.

Manila repulsed the attack of the Chinese pirate Limahong in 1574. For centuries before the Spanish arrived the Chinese had traded with the Filipinos, but evidently none had settled permanently in the islands until after the conquest. Chinese trade and labor were of great importance in the early development of the Spanish colony, but the Chinese came to be feared and hated because of their increasing numbers, and in 1603 the Spanish murdered thousands of them (later, there were lesser massacres of the Chinese).

The Spanish governor, made a viceroy in 1589, ruled with the advice of the powerful royal audiencia. There were frequent uprisings by the Filipinos, who resented the encomienda system. By the end of the 16th cent. Manila had become a leading commercial center of East Asia, carrying on a flourishing trade with China, India, and the East Indies. The Philippines supplied some wealth (including gold) to Spain, and the richly laden galleons plying between the islands and New Spain were often attacked by English freebooters. There was also trouble from other quarters, and the period from 1600 to 1663 was marked by continual wars with the Dutch, who were laying the foundations of their rich empire in the East Indies, and with Moro pirates. One of the most difficult problems the Spanish faced was the subjugation of the Moros. Intermittent campaigns were conducted against them but without conclusive results until the middle of the 19th cent. As the power of the Spanish Empire waned, the Jesuit orders became more influential in the Philippines and acquired great amounts of property.

Revolution, War, and U.S. Control - It was the opposition to the power of the clergy that in large measure brought about the rising sentiment for independence. Spanish injustices, bigotry, and economic oppressions fed the movement, which was greatly inspired by the brilliant writings of José Rizal. In 1896 revolution began in the province of Cavite, and after the execution of Rizal that December, it spread throughout the major islands. The Filipino leader, Emilio Aguinaldo, achieved considerable success before a peace was patched up with Spain. The peace was short-lived, however, for neither side honored its agreements, and a new revolution was brewing when the Spanish-American War broke out in 1898.

After the U.S. naval victory in Manila Bay on May 1, 1898, Commodore George Dewey supplied Aguinaldo with arms and urged him to rally the Filipinos against the Spanish. By the time U.S. land forces had arrived, the Filipinos had taken the entire island of Luzon, except for the old walled city of Manila, which they were besieging. The Filipinos had also declared their independence and established a republic under the first democratic constitution ever known in Asia. Their dreams of independence were crushed when the Philippines were transferred from Spain to the United States in the Treaty of Paris (1898), which closed the Spanish-American War.

In Feb., 1899, Aguinaldo led a new revolt, this time against U.S. rule. Defeated on the battlefield, the Filipinos turned to guerrilla warfare, and their subjugation became a mammoth project for the United States—one that cost far more money and took far more lives than the Spanish-American War. The insurrection was effectively ended with the capture (1901) of Aguinaldo by Gen. Frederick Funston, but the question of Philippine independence remained a burning issue in the politics of both the United States and the islands. The matter was complicated by the growing economic ties between the two countries. Although comparatively little American capital was invested in island industries, U.S. trade bulked larger and larger until the Philippines became almost entirely dependent upon the American market. Free trade, established by an act of 1909, was expanded in 1913.

When the Democrats came into power in 1913, measures were taken to effect a smooth transition to self-rule. The Philippine assembly already had a popularly elected lower house, and the Jones Act, passed by the U.S. Congress in 1916, provided for a popularly elected upper house as well, with power to approve all appointments made by the governor-general. It also gave the islands their first definite pledge of independence, although no specific date was set.

When the Republicans regained power in 1921, the trend toward bringing Filipinos into the government was reversed. Gen. Leonard Wood, who was appointed governor-general, largely supplanted Filipino activities with a semimilitary rule. However, the advent of the Great Depression in the United States in the 1930s and the first aggressive moves by Japan in Asia (1931) shifted U.S. sentiment sharply toward the granting of immediate independence to the Philippines.

The Commonwealth - The Hare-Hawes Cutting Act, passed by Congress in 1932, provided for complete independence of the islands in 1945 after 10 years of self-government under U.S. supervision. The bill had been drawn up with the aid of a commission from the Philippines, but Manuel L. Quezon, the leader of the dominant Nationalist party, opposed it, partially because of its threat of American tariffs against Philippine products but principally because of the provisions leaving naval bases in U.S. hands. Under his influence, the Philippine legislature rejected the bill. The Tydings-McDuffie Independence Act (1934) closely resembled the Hare-Hawes Cutting Act, but struck the provisions for American bases and carried a promise of further study to correct “imperfections or inequalities.”

The Philippine legislature ratified the bill; a constitution, approved by President Roosevelt (Mar., 1935) was accepted by the Philippine people in a plebiscite (May); and Quezon was elected the first president (Sept.). When Quezon was inaugurated on Nov. 15, 1935, the Commonwealth of the Philippines was formally established. Quezon was reelected in Nov., 1941. To develop defensive forces against possible aggression, Gen. Douglas MacArthur was brought to the islands as military adviser in 1935, and the following year he became field marshal of the Commonwealth army.

World War II - War came suddenly to the Philippines on Dec. 8 (Dec. 7, U.S. time), 1941, when Japan attacked without warning. Japanese troops invaded the islands in many places and launched a pincer drive on Manila. MacArthur’s scattered defending forces (about 80,000 troops, four fifths of them Filipinos) were forced to withdraw to Bataan Peninsula and Corregidor Island, where they entrenched and tried to hold until the arrival of reinforcements, meanwhile guarding the entrance to Manila Bay and denying that important harbor to the Japanese. But no reinforcements were forthcoming. The Japanese occupied Manila on Jan. 2, 1942. MacArthur was ordered out by President Roosevelt and left for Australia on Mar. 11; Lt. Gen. Jonathan Wainwright assumed command.

The besieged U.S.-Filipino army on Bataan finally crumbled on Apr. 9, 1942. Wainwright fought on from Corregidor with a garrison of about 11,000 men; he was overwhelmed on May 6, 1942. After his capitulation, the Japanese forced the surrender of all remaining defending units in the islands by threatening to use the captured Bataan and Corregidor troops as hostages. Many individual soldiers refused to surrender, however, and guerrilla resistance, organized and coordinated by U.S. and Philippine army officers, continued throughout the Japanese occupation.

Japan’s efforts to win Filipino loyalty found expression in the establishment (Oct. 14, 1943) of a “Philippine Republic,” with José P. Laurel, former supreme court justice, as president. But the people suffered greatly from Japanese brutality, and the puppet government gained little support. Meanwhile, President Quezon, who had escaped with other high officials before the country fell, set up a government-in-exile in Washington. When he died (Aug., 1944), Vice President Sergio Osmeña became president. Osmeña returned to the Philippines with the first liberation forces, which surprised the Japanese by landing (Oct. 20, 1944) at Leyte, in the heart of the islands, after months of U.S. air strikes against Mindanao. The Philippine government was established at Tacloban, Leyte, on Oct. 23.

The landing was followed (Oct. 23–26) by the greatest naval engagement in history, called variously the battle of Leyte Gulf and the second battle of the Philippine Sea. A great U.S. victory, it effectively destroyed the Japanese fleet and opened the way for the recovery of all the islands. Luzon was invaded (Jan., 1945), and Manila was taken in February. On July 5, 1945, MacArthur announced “All the Philippines are now liberated.” The Japanese had suffered over 425,000 dead in the Philippines.

The Philippine congress met on June 9, 1945, for the first time since its election in 1941. It faced enormous problems. The land was devastated by war, the economy destroyed, the country torn by political warfare and guerrilla violence. Osmeña’s leadership was challenged (Jan., 1946) when one wing (now the Liberal party) of the Nationalist party nominated for president Manuel Roxas, who defeated Osmeña in April.

The Republic of the Philippines - Manuel Roxas became the first president of the Republic of the Philippines when independence was granted, as scheduled, on July 4, 1946. In Mar., 1947, the Philippines and the United States signed a military assistance pact (since renewed) and the Philippines gave the United States a 99-year lease on designated military, naval, and air bases (a later agreement reduced the period to 25 years beginning 1967). The sudden death of President Roxas in Apr., 1948, elevated the vice president, Elpidio Quirino, to the presidency, and in a bitterly contested election in Nov., 1949, Quirino defeated José Laurel to win a four-year term of his own.

The enormous task of reconstructing the war-torn country was complicated by the activities in central Luzon of the Communist-dominated Hukbalahap guerrillas (Huks), who resorted to terror and violence in their efforts to achieve land reform and gain political power. They were finally brought under control (1954) after a vigorous attack launched by the minister of national defense, Ramón Magsaysay. By that time Magsaysay was president of the country, having defeated Quirino in Nov., 1953. He had promised sweeping economic changes, and he did make progress in land reform, opening new settlements outside crowded Luzon island. His death in an airplane crash in Mar., 1957, was a serious blow to national morale. Vice President Carlos P. García succeeded him and won a full term as president in the elections of Nov., 1957.

In foreign affairs, the Philippines maintained a firm anti-Communist policy and joined the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization in 1954. There were difficulties with the United States over American military installations in the islands, and, despite formal recognition (1956) of full Philippine sovereignty over these bases, tensions increased until some of the bases were dismantled (1959) and the 99-year lease period was reduced. The United States rejected Philippine financial claims and proposed trade revisions.

Philippine opposition to García on issues of government corruption and anti-Americanism led, in June, 1959, to the union of the Liberal and Progressive parties, led by Vice President Diosdado Macapagal, the Liberal party leader, who succeeded García as president in the 1961 elections. Macapagal’s administration was marked by efforts to combat the mounting inflation that had plagued the republic since its birth; by attempted alliances with neighboring countries; and by a territorial dispute with Britain over North Borneo (later Sabah), which Macapagal claimed had been leased and not sold to the British North Borneo Company in 1878.

Marcos and After - Ferdinand E. Marcos, who succeeded to the presidency after defeating Macapagal in the 1965 elections, inherited the territorial dispute over Sabah; in 1968 he approved a congressional bill annexing Sabah to the Philippines. Malaysia suspended diplomatic relations (Sabah had joined the Federation of Malaysia in 1963), and the matter was referred to the United Nations. (The Philippines dropped its claim to Sabah in 1978.) The Philippines became one of the founding countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in 1967. The continuing need for land reform fostered a new Huk uprising in central Luzon, accompanied by mounting assassinations and acts of terror, and in 1969, Marcos began a major military campaign to subdue them. Civil war also threatened on Mindanao, where groups of Moros opposed Christian settlement. In Nov., 1969, Marcos won an unprecedented reelection, easily defeating Sergio Osmeña, Jr., but the election was accompanied by violence and charges of fraud, and Marcos’s second term began with increasing civil disorder.

In Jan., 1970, some 2,000 demonstrators tried to storm Malacañang Palace, the presidential residence; riots erupted against the U.S. embassy. When Pope Paul VI visited Manila in Nov., 1970, an attempt was made on his life. In 1971, at a Liberal party rally, hand grenades were thrown at the speakers’ platform, and several people were killed. President Marcos declared martial law in Sept., 1972,charging that a Communist rebellion threatened. The 1935 constitution was replaced (1973) by a new one that provided the president with direct powers. A plebiscite (July, 1973) gave Marcos the right to remain in office beyond the expiration (Dec., 1973) of his term. Meanwhile the fighting on Mindanao had spread to the Sulu Archipelago. By 1973 some 3,000 people had been killed and hundreds of villages burned. Throughout the 1970s poverty and governmental corruption increased, and Imelda Marcos, Ferdinand’s wife, became more influential.

Martial law remained in force until 1981, when Marcos was reelected, amid accusations of electoral fraud. On Aug. 21, 1983, opposition leader Benigno Aquino was assassinated at Manila airport, which incited a new, more powerful wave of anti-Marcos dissent. After the Feb., 1986, presidential election, both Marcos and his opponent, Corazon Aquino (the widow of Benigno), declared themselves the winner, and charges of massive fraud and violence were leveled against the Marcos faction. Marcos’s domestic and international support eroded, and he fled the country on Feb. 25, 1986, eventually obtaining asylum in the United States.

Aquino’s government faced mounting problems, including coup attempts, significant economic difficulties, and pressure to rid the Philippines of the U.S. military presence (the last U.S. bases were evacuated in 1992). In 1990, in response to the demands of the Moros, a partially autonomous Muslim region was created in the far south. In 1992, Aquino declined to run for reelection and was succeeded by her former army chief of staff Fidel Ramos. He immediately launched an economic revitalization plan premised on three policies: government deregulation, increased private investment, and political solutions to the continuing insurgencies within the country. His political program was somewhat successful, opening dialogues with the Marxist and Muslim guerillas. However, Muslim discontent with partial rule persisted, and unrest and violence continued throughout the 1990s. In 1999, Marxist rebels and Muslim separatists formed an alliance to fight the government.

Several natural disasters, including the 1991 eruption of Mt. Pinatubo on Luzon and a succession of severe typhoons, slowed the country’s economic progress. However, the Philippines escaped much of the economic turmoil seen in other East Asian nations in 1997 and 1998, in part by following a slower pace of development imposed by the International Monetary Fund. Joseph Marcelo Estrada, a former movie actor, was elected president in 1998, pledging to help the poor and develop the country’s agricultural sector. In 1999 he announced plans to amend the constitution in order to remove protectionist provisions and attract more foreign investment.

Late in 2000, Estrada’s presidency was buffeted by charges that he accepted millions of dollars in payoffs from illegal gambling operations. Although his support among the poor Filipino majority remained strong, many political, business, and church leaders called for him to resign. In Nov., 2000, Estrada was impeached by the house of representatives on charges of graft, but the senate, controlled by Estrada’s allies, provoked a crisis (Jan., 2001) when it rejected examining the president’s bank records. As demonstrations against Estrada mounted and members of his cabinet resigned, the supreme court stripped him of the presidency, and Vice President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo was sworn in as Estrada’s successor.

Macapagal-Arroyo was elected president in her own right in May, 2004, but the balloting was marred by violence and irregularities as well as a tedious vote-counting process that was completed six weeks after the election.

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