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Anti-Revolutionary Party

The Anti-Revolutionary Party (Anti-Revolutionaire Partij, ARP) was a Protestant conservative and Christian democratic political party in the Netherlands. The party was founded in 1879 by Abraham Kuyper, a neo-Calvinist theologian and minister. In 1980 the party merged with the Catholic People's Party (KVP) and the Christian Historical Union (CHU) to form the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA).

History before 1879
The anti-revolutionary parliamentary caucus had existed since the 1840s. It represented orthodox tendencies within the Dutch Reformed Church. Under the leadership of Guillaume Groen van Prinsterer the anti-revolutionaries became a real political force, which opposed the liberal tendencies within the Dutch Reformed Church and the liberal tendencies within Dutch politics. Their three values were "God, the Netherlands, and the House of Orange".

An important issue was public education, which in the view of the anti-revolutionaries should be Protestant-Christian in nature. The anti-revolutionaries had ties with the April movement, which opposed the official re-establishment of Roman Catholic bishoprics, and a mixed relationship with (liberal-) conservatives in the House of Representatives, who also opposed reforms to the social and political system but often on the basis of a mix of liberal Protestantism and secular humanism. During the 1860s Groen van Prinsterer became more isolated from his conservative allies. He also began to reformulate his Protestant-Christian ideals, and began to plead for souvereiniteit in eigen kring (sphere sovereignty) instead of theocracy. This meant that instead of one Protestant-Christian society, Groen van Prinsterer wanted a Protestant society within a pluralistic society. Orthodox Protestants would have their own churches, schools, papers, political parties and sports clubs. This laid the basis for pillarisation, which was to dominate Dutch society between 1880 and 1960.

In 1864 Groen van Prinsterer began to correspond with a young Dutch Reformed theologian named Abraham Kuyper. Kuyper was heavily influenced by Groen van Prinsterer's ideas and began to put the latter's ideal of an orthodox Protestant society within Dutch society into practice.

Foundation
On 3 April 1879, Abraham Kuyper founded the ARP as part of the larger separate orthodox Protestant society within society. It was the first nationally organised political party in the Netherlands. An 1878 petition for equal payment for religious schools became one of the catalysts for the foundation of the political movement. In 1877, Kuyper had already written "Our Program" in which the political ideals of the ARP were written down (see below). Around the ARP the separate Protestant society began to grow: many Protestant schools were founded, a Protestant university (the Free University was founded in 1880), and a paper (De Standaard). In 1886, Kuyper broke free from the liberal Dutch Reformed Church (in Dutch: Nederlands-Hervormde Kerk) to found the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands in 1892 (in Dutch: Gereformeerde Kerken Nederland).

The ARP had one practical political goal: equalisation of payment between public and religious schools. It had one political strategy: the Antithesis between religious and non-religious parties, which meant that he sought to break the cooperation between liberals and Catholics and to create an alliance between Catholics and Protestants.

1879–1917

In 1879, thirteen anti-revolutionaries were among the hundred members of the House of Representatives, although not all were members of the ARP. During the period between 1879 and 1883, their numbers grew slowly, peaking at 19. After the 1884 election they had 21 members of parliament. In 1886 they won their first seat in the Senate.

In the 1888 election, the ARP won 31.4% of the vote and 27 seats. A confessional cabinet was formed led by the anti-revolutionary Æneas Baron Mackay: it combined anti-revolutionary and Catholic ministers, joined by two conservative independents. Because the liberals still controlled the Senate, many of the cabinet's proposals met resistance there and the cabinet fell before the end of its four-year term.

In the 1891 election, the ARP lost 2% of its votes, but six of its seats. The confessional parties also lost their majority. A liberal cabinet, led by Van Tienhoven was formed. It proposed drastic changes to the census, which would result practically in universal male suffrage, proposed by minister Tak. The ARP was divided on the issue: Kuyper and a majority of the parliamentary party voted in favour of the law, while Alexander de Savornin Lohman vehemently opposed it. Kuyper had tactical reasons to support enlarged franchise – the 'kleine luyden' (middle class) who would be allowed to vote often supported the ARP. De Savorin-Lohman opposed the law because it would imply some form of popular sovereignty instead of divine sovereignty. In 1894, this resulted in a split between the ARP and the group around De Savorin-Lohman. Party discipline also played a role in the conflict between Kuyper and De Savorin-Lohman: Kuyper, the party leader, favoured strong party discipline, while De Savorin Lohman opposed strong parties. The split results in the foundation of the Free Anti Revolutionary Party in 1898, which would become the Christian Historical Union in 1904. With De Savorin-Lohman a group of prominent party politicians left the party, including many of its aristocratic members (who like De Savorin-Lohman have double names). The CHU continued its opposition against universal suffrage and was more anti-papist than the ARP.

In the 1894 election, the ARP lost almost half of its vote and six of its twenty-one seats. The Catholics broke their alliance with the ARP and supported a conservative cabinet. In the 1897 election, the ARP won back some ground: it was supported by 26% of the electorate and won seventeen seats. The group around De Savorin Lohman, won 11% of the vote and six seats. A liberal cabinet was formed and the ARP was confined to opposition.

In 1901, the ARP won a decisive victory. It won 27.4% of the vote and 23 seats. A cabinet was formed out of the ARP, the Catholics and the group around De Savorin-Lohman, now called the Christian Historical Party. The cabinet was led by Kuyper, being the first person to formally lead the cabinet for four years. It was characterised by Kuypers' authoritarian leadership. This can best be seen by the railway strike of 1903, in which Kuyper showed no mercy to the strikers and instead pushed several particularly harsh anti-strike laws through parliament. After the Senate, where there was a liberal majority, rejected Kuypers' law on higher education, which sought to bring equal titles for alumni of the Free University, which Kuyper himself founded, Kuyper called for new elections for the Senate. With a confessional majority in the Senate, the law was pushed through.

In the 1905 election, the ARP lost only 3% of the vote, but eight seats, although it was able to strengthen its position in the Senate. Kuyper, the party's leader, lost his own seat in Amsterdam to a progressive liberal. Theo Heemskerk led the anti-revolutionary parliamentary party. A minority liberal cabinet was formed. Former anti-revolutionary MP Staalman left ARP and founded the Christian Democratic Party, which later became the Christian Democratic Union, which would play a minor role in the interbellum political landscape.

In 1908, Kuyper returned to the House of Representatives. After a crisis in the liberal cabinet Theo Heemskerk was given the chance to form a new cabinet. A minority confessional cabinet was formed. In the 1909 election the ARP won 3% of vote and twenty-five seats. The Heemskerk cabinet continues.

In 1912, Kuyper left national politics because of health reasons, and in 1913, he was elected to the Senate. In the 1913 election, the ARP lost 6% of the votes. The party lost more than half of its seats, leaving them with 11 seats overall. Another minority liberal cabinet was formed. The leadership of the ARP lay in the hands of less prominent politicians. Although a relatively small opposition party, the ARP played an important role in Dutch politics. The liberal minority cabinet, led by Cort van der Linden sought to resolve two important issues in Dutch politics: the conflict over the equalisation of payment for religious schools and universal suffrage. In the constitution change of 1917 both items were resolved. The ARP was given equal payment for religious schools, but it had to accept women's suffrage and proportional representation.

1917–1945

After the Pacification of 1917, marked by the introduction of universal suffrage, the party never received more than twenty percent of the vote. The 1918 election provided a decisive test for the party, where the party won two additional seats. The three confessional parties won 50 seats. The confessional parties formed a new cabinet, led by the Catholic Charles Ruijs de Beerenbrouck. The ARP supplied three ministers and former prime minister Theo Heemskerk became Minister of Justice. A group of concerned anti-revolutionaries, led by Gerrit Kersten, founded the Reformed Political Party, which opposed universal suffrage and cooperation with the Catholics. The electorate of the ARP changed in the interbellum – the difference between lower class Protestants who voted ARP and middle class Protestants who voted CHU began to disappear, with religious differences between the Dutch Reformed Church (CHU) and the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands (ARP) becoming more important.

In the 1922 election, former minister of war Hendrikus Colijn became the leader of the ARP. He emphasised defence and fiscal conservatism as core issues of the party. With him the ARP got sixteen seats in the House of Representatives and fifteen in the Senate. He became Minister of Finance in the second cabinet of Charles Ruijs de Beerenbrouck. He led the party in the 1925 election; the party lost three seats in this election. The ARP continued in government with Jan Donner as minister of Justice. In the 1929 election, the ARP lost another seat. The confessional parties continued to govern.

In the 1930s, with the growing international political threats and economic crisis, the ARP began to regain its popularity, under the leadership of Colijn. In 1933, the ARP gained two seats and Colijn formed a broad cabinet comprising the Roman Catholic State Party (RKSP), CHU, ARP, Liberal State Party (LSP) and Free-thinking Democratic League (VDB). Jan Schouten led the party's parliamentary party. Between 1933 and 1939, Colijn led several parliamentary and extra-parliamentary cabinets with changing composition, although the CHU, ARP, and RKSP continued to form the core of the cabinet. Colijn refused to devalue the guilder but was unable to resolve the economic crisis. In 1937 the ARP gained three seats and reached a historic 17 seats. Colijn continued to govern. In 1939, his fifth cabinet fell and Colijn was succeeded by Dirk Jan de Geer. Pieter Gerbrandy joined the cabinet without support of his parliamentary party.

During World War II, members of the ARP played a role in both the governments-in-exile, of which many were led by Pieter Sjoerds Gerbrandy and the resistance movements. The resistance paper Trouw was founded by ARP members. Many future ARP MPs began their political career in the Dutch resistance.

1945–1980
After World War II, the ARP returned to Dutch politics. The anti-revolutionary Jo Meynen was minister of War, albeit without support of his parliamentary party.

In the 1946 election, Jan Schouten led the party. It lost four seats. During the formation, it became clear that the ARP could not govern: it strongly opposed the decolonisation of the Dutch Indies. It saw maintenance of the Dutch colonial empire as necessary for the continued wealth and power of the Netherlands. The Labour Party (PvdA) and the Catholics however favoured decolonisation, under heavy pressure from the United States. For six years the ARP was relatively isolated. In 1944, a theological conflict within the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands led to a break between the Reformed Church and the Reformed Churches (liberated). This also had political repercussions; in 1948, the Reformed Political League was set up by members of the liberated churches. They were unable to win seats until 1963. The party remained stable in the 1948 election and remained in opposition.

After the 1952 election, the ARP returned to the cabinet, which consisted of the confessional ARP, CHU, KVP and the social democratic PvdA, led by the social democrat Drees. Jelle Zijlstra became minister of economic affairs. In the 1956 election in which Jelle Zijlstra became political leader the ARP kept its 10% of the vote, but due to the enlargement of the House of Representatives it got 15 seats. A conflict between the PvdA and the KVP caused the early downfall of the cabinet. The ARP remained part of the care-taker cabinet led by Louis Beel. In the 1959 election the ARP lost another seat. It continued to be part of the cabinet, now led by Jan de Quay. The three confessional parties were joined by the conservative liberal People's Party for Freedom and Democracy.

After the 1963 election, the cabinet continued, now led by Victor Marijnen. The new anti-revolutionary leader Barend Biesheuvel became Minister of Agriculture. In 1965 this cabinet fell over a conflict between the liberals and the confessionals. The PvdA joins the ARP and the KVP in a new cabinet, led by Jo Cals. This cabinet fell after one year, over conflict between the KVP and PvdA over government spending. The ARP joins the PvdA in its plea for more government spending. A caretaker government is formed by the KVP and ARP, led by former ARP-leader Jelle Zijlstra. In the 1967 election campaign, the ARP, CHU and KVP declared that they would continue to govern together. This led to considerable conflict with the KVP, which also spilled over into the ARP, as the younger generation wanted to govern with the PvdA. The ARP gained two seats, but the KVP loses eight seats. A new liberal/confessional cabinet is formed. Biesheuvel does not enter government but instead chooses to remain in parliament.

In the 1971 election, the ARP lost two seats, and its confessional allies (KVP and CHU) lost seven and three seats respectively. They faced competition from the left-wing Christian Political Party of Radicals (PPR), which was formed by former KVP members and joined by some prominent anti-revolutionaries, including Bas de Gaay Fortman, son of Wilhelm de Gaay Fortman, one of the party's ministers. The liberal/confessional cabinet lost its majority. A new government was formed consisting of liberals and confessionals, now joined by Democratic Socialists '70, a group of moderate social democrats who left the "radicalising" PvdA. This cabinet was led by Barend Biesheuvel. Willem Aantjes became the chair of the party's parliamentary party. Under his leadership the ARP fashioned itself a new left-wing "radical evangelical" image, while the CHU retains its conservative image. The cabinet did not hold together for long: DS '70 were unable to agree with proposed budget cuts, and the cabinet fell. In the subsequent election the ARP gained one seat. After long coalition talks several prominent anti-revolutionaries, including Wilhelm de Gaay Fortman, joined the progressive cabinet led by Joop den Uyl. The cabinet was riddled with conflicts between confessional and progressive politicians.

Dissolution
Meanwhile, a process of merger had started between the KVP, ARP and CHU. In 1974 they founded a federation called the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA). In the formation of a common Christian democratic identity anti-revolutionary Aantjes played a decisive role: he orients the party towards the sermon on the Mount where Christ says that Christians should clothe the naked and feed the hungry. In the 1977 election, they campaigned together under as the CDA. Some prominent anti-revolutionaries, like Aantjes did not agree the CDA/VVD cabinet that was formed after the election and wanted to continue with the PvdA. However, they supported the cabinet politically. A group of these anti-revolutionaries left the CDA in 1981 to found the left-wing Christian Evangelical People's Party.

While the ARP was one of the dominant forces in the merged party, it was not until 2002 that a CDA member with anti-revolutionary roots became Prime Minister, Jan Peter Balkenende.

Name
The Anti-Revolutionary Party derived its name from its opposition to the ideals of the liberal French Revolution (and certainly against those of Marxists). The label conservative was already taken by a parliamentary group of monarchists and colonialists, who fell out of favour in the late 19th century. In its early years, the terms anti-revolutionary and Christian historical were used interchangeably. With the split between the ARP and the Christian Historical Union the terms began to gain their own separate meanings.

Ideology and issues
The ARP started out as an orthodox Protestant party, heavily opposed to the ideals of the French revolution. Against the revolution, they put the Bible: instead of liberty, it favoured divine providence, instead of equality it favoured hierarchy and instead of brotherhood it favoured sovereignty in its own circle. Its ideals could be summed up in the tripartite motto "God, the Netherlands and the House of Orange". For most of its history it maintained this conservative Protestant image. In the 1960s and 1970s the party began to adopt a more left-wing "radical evangelical" image.

God
The ARP was a confessional Protestant party which based its politics on the Bible and opposed the concept of popular sovereignty.

The concept of sphere sovereignty was very important for the party. It wanted to create an independent Protestant society within the Dutch society, with its own schools, papers, hospitals etc. It sought equal government finances for its own institutions. Societies should care for their own, therefore they opposed a large role for the state in social-economic policy.

The ARP saw an important role for the state in upholding the values of the Dutch people. It was socially conservative: it opposed mixed-sex education, mandatory vaccination, divorce, pornography, euthanasia, abortion etc. It also favoured capital punishment.

Netherlands
The party can be seen as rather nationalist. It favoured a strong defence to retain Dutch neutrality. It opposed decolonisation. It saw the colonies in Indonesia as vital for the continued wealth and influence of the Dutch people. It also wanted to enlighten the native population with Christian values.

Monarchy
The ARP favoured monarchy, and saw the House of Orange as historically and religiously linked to the Dutch people. It opposed changes to Dutch political system, it wanted to retain bicameralism, opposed popular referendums etc. Its commitment to universal suffrage was only tactical as the ARP expected that it would be able to gain more seats this way. Principally it wanted Householder Franchise where the head of the household would vote for his family.

The party was fiscally conservative: the Dutch government should be like a good father: it should not spend more than it got through taxes.

Christian radicalism
In the 1960s and 1970s, the party became more left-wing on many issues. Social justice became an important ideal of the party, both nationally, where it began to favour a stronger welfare state, and internationally, where development aid became an important issue.

Prime Ministers

 * Barend Biesheuvel (1971–1973)
 * Jelle Zijlstra (1966–1967)
 * Pieter Sjoerds Gerbrandy (1940–1945)
 * Hendrikus Colijn (1925–1926, 1933–1939)
 * Theo Heemskerk (1908–1913)
 * Abraham Kuyper (1901–1905)
 * Æneas Mackay (1888–1891)

Leadership

 * Party chair
 * 1975–1980 Hans de Boer
 * 1973–1975 Jan de Koning
 * 1968–1973 Antoon Veerman
 * 1968 Anton Roosjen
 * 1956–1968 Wiert Berghuis
 * 1955–1956 Anton Roosjen
 * 1941–1955 Jan Schouten
 * 1939–1941 Hendrikus Colijn
 * 1933–1939 Jan Schouten
 * 1920–1933 Hendrikus Colijn
 * 1907–1920 Abraham Kuyper
 * 1905–1907 Herman Bavinck
 * 1879–1905 Abraham Kuyper

 * Parliamentary leaders in the Senate
 * Alexander Idenburg (1922–1924)
 * Anne Anema (1925–1926)
 * Hendrikus Colijn (1926–1929)
 * Anne Anema (1929–1960)
 * Wiert Berghuis (1960–1971)
 * Gaius de Gaay Fortman (1971–1973)
 * Wil Albeda (1973–1977)

 * Parliamentary leaders in the House of Representatives
 * Abraham Kuyper (1894)
 * Jan van Alphen (1894–1896)
 * Abraham Kuyper (1896–1901)
 * Jan van Alphen (1901–1903)
 * Theo Heemskerk (1903–1908)
 * Jan Hendrik de Waal Malefijt (1908)
 * Abraham Kuyper (1908–1912)
 * Gerrit Middelberg (1912–1913)
 * Coenraad van der Voort van Zijp (1913–1919)
 * Victor Henri Rutgers (1919–1922)
 * Hendrikus Colijn (1922–1923)
 * Victor Henri Rutgers (1923–1925)
 * Theo Heemskerk (1925–1929)
 * Hendrikus Colijn (1929–1933)
 * Jan Schouten (1933–1956)
 * Jelle Zijlstra (1956)
 * Sieuwert Bruins Slot (1956–1963)
 * Henk van Eijsden (1963)
 * Barend Biesheuvel (1963)
 * Jan Smallenbroek (1963–1965)
 * Bauke Roolvink (1965–1967)
 * Barend Biesheuvel (1967–1971)
 * Willem Aantjes (1971–1972)
 * Barend Biesheuvel (1972–1973)
 * Willem Aantjes (1973–1977)

Municipal and provincial government
The party was particularly strong in rural municipal and provincial governments. Especially in Friesland, Overijssel, Zeeland and the Veluwe the party was particularly strong.

Electorate
The electorate of the ARP has seen three decisive shifts, especially in its relation with the CHU, the other Protestant party. Although dates are given here, the changes were gradual.

 * Between 1879 and 1917 the ARP appealed to "kleine luyden" (Dutch for the little people), the middle class, farmers, and workers, as a confessional party that favoured universal suffrage.
 * Between 1917 and 1967 the ARP appealed to members of the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands.
 * Between 1967 and 1977, in the time of secularisation and depillarisation the party was able to appeal to younger generations, as the more left-wing confessional party.

National organisation
The party's national secretariat was long housed in the Kuyper House in The Hague. It now houses the national secretariat of the Christian Democratic Appeal.

Linked organisations
The party published the magazine Nederlandse Gedachten ("Dutch Thoughts"). Its youth organisation was the Anti-Revolutionaire Jongeren Studieclubs ("Anti-Revolutionary Youth Studyclubs"). Its scientific institute was the Dr. A. Kuyper foundation.

International organisations
Internationally the ARP was a relatively isolated party. In the European Parliament its members sat in the Christian Democratic faction.

Pillarised organisations
The party had close ties to many Protestant organisations, such as the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands, the Protestant broadcaster NCRV, the employers' organisation NCW, the trade union CNV, and the paper De Standaard and after World War II, the Trouw. Together these organisations formed the Protestant pillar.

Relationships to other parties
Because of the philosophy of Antithesis, it has strong links with the Catholic parties (General League/Roman Catholic State Party/Catholic People's Party (KVP) and the Christian Historical Union (CHU). In the period 1879 to 1917 it saw the Liberal Union as its main opponent. After 1917 it saw the social democratic Social Democratic Workers' Party as its main opponent, and it formed several governments with liberals.

After World War II, the ARP became more isolated because of its position on the decolonisation of the Dutch East Indies. After Indonesia became independent, it joined the Labour Party (PvdA), KVP and the CHU in the cabinet. Links with the KVP were exceptionally good and it governed with the KVP and either the CHU and the PvdA. After the 1960s, calls to govern with the PvdA became stronger.

International comparison
Internationally, the ARP was very similar to the Scandinavian Christian Democratic parties (such as the Swedish, Norwegian, Danish and the Finnish Christian Democrats), that are all socially and fiscally conservative, with a social heart. All have their roots in orthodox tendencies within the national church. In its conservative policies the ARP also shared similarities with the UK Conservatives (the paternalistic or moderate conservative wing of that party). Comparing the ARP to an American party is more difficult, but is seemed somewhat close to the moderate wing of the US Republicans (although the ARP was more socially inclined) or the conservative wing of the US Democratic Party.

title: Anti-Revolutionary Party


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World government

World government is the concept of a single political authority with jurisdiction over all of Earth and humanity. It is conceived in a variety of forms, from tyrannical to democratic, which reflects its wide array of proponents and detractors.

A world government with executive, legislative, and judicial functions and an administrative apparatus has never existed. The inception of the United Nations (UN) in the mid-20th century remains the closest approximation to a world government, as it is by far the largest and most powerful international institution. The UN is mostly limited to an advisory role, with the stated purpose of fostering cooperation between existing national governments, rather than exerting authority over them. Nevertheless, the organization is commonly viewed as either a model for, or preliminary step towards, a global government.

The concept of universal governance has existed since antiquity and been the subject of discussion, debate, and even advocacy by some kings, philosophers, religious leaders, and secular humanists. Some of these have discussed it as a natural and inevitable outcome of human social evolution, and interest in it has coincided with the trends of globalization. Opponents of world government, who come from a broad political spectrum, view the concept as a tool for violent totalitarianism, unfeasible, or simply unnecessary, and in the case of some sectors of fundamentalist Christianity, as a vehicle for the Antichrist to bring about the end-times.

Definition
Alexander Wendt defines a state as an "organization possessing a monopoly on the legitimate use of organized violence within a society." According to Wendt, a world state would need to fulfill the following requirements:

 * 1) Monopoly on organized violence – states have exclusive use of legitimate force within their own territory.
 * 2) Legitimacy – perceived as right by their populations, and possibly the global community.
 * 3) Sovereignty – possessing common power and legitimacy.
 * 4) Corporate action –  a collection of individuals who act together in a systematic way.

Wendt argues that a world government would not require a centrally controlled army or a central decision-making body, as long as the four conditions are fulfilled. In order to develop a world state, three changes must occur in the world system:

 * 1) Universal security community – a peaceful system of binding dispute resolution without threat of interstate violence.
 * 2) Universal collective security – unified response to crimes and threats.
 * 3) Supranational authority – binding decisions are made that apply to each and every state.

The development of a world government is conceptualized by Wendt as a process through five stages:

 * 1) System of states;
 * 2) Society of states;
 * 3) World society;
 * 4) Collective security;
 * 5) World state.

Wendt argues that a struggle among sovereign individuals results in the formation of a collective identity and eventually a state. The same forces are present within the international system and could possibly, and potentially inevitably lead to the development of a world state through this five-stage process. When the world state would emerge, the traditional expression of states would become localized expressions of the world state. This process occurs within the default state of anarchy present in the world system.

Immanuel Kant conceptualized the state as sovereign individuals formed out of conflict. Part of the traditional philosophical objections to a world state (Kant, Hegel) are overcome by modern technological innovations. Wendt argues that new methods of communication and coordination can overcome these challenges.

A colleague of Wendt in the field of International Relations, Max Ostrovsky, conceptualized the development of a world government as a process in one stage: The world will be divided on two rival blocs, one based on North America and another on Eurasia, which clash in World War III and, "if civilization survives," the victorious power conquers the rest of the world, annexes and establishes world state. Remarkably, Wendt also supposes the alternative of universal conquest leading to world state, provided the conquering power recognizes "its victims as full subjects." In such case, the mission is accomplished "without intermediate stages of development."

Antiquity
World government was an aspiration of ancient rulers as early as the Bronze Age (3300 to 1200 BCE); ancient Egyptian kings aimed to rule "All That the Sun Encircles", Mesopotamian kings "All from the Sunrise to the Sunset", and ancient Chinese and Japanese emperors "All under Heaven".

The Chinese had a particularly well-developed notion of world government in the form of Great Unity, or Da Yitong (大同), a historical model for a united and just society bound by moral virtue and principles of good governance. The Han dynasty, which successfully united much of China for over four centuries, evidently aspired to this vision by erecting an Altar of the Great Unity in 113 BCE.

Contemporaneously, the ancient Greek historian Polybius described Roman rule over much of the known world at the time as a "marvelous" achievement worthy of consideration by future historians. The Pax Romana, a roughly two-century period of stable Roman hegemony across three continents, reflected the positive aspirations of a world government, as it was deemed to have brought prosperity and security to what was once a politically and culturally fractious region. The Adamites were a Christian sect who desired to organize an early form of world government.

Dante's Universal Monarchy
The idea of world government outlived the fall of Rome for centuries, particularly in its former heartland of Italy. Medieval peace movements such as the Waldensians gave impetus to utopian philosophers like Marsilius of Padua to envision a world without war. In his fourteenth-century work De Monarchia, Florentine poet and philosopher Dante Alighieri, considered by some English Protestants to be a proto-Protestant, appealed for a universal monarchy that would work separate from and uninfluenced by the Roman Catholic Church to establish peace in humanity's lifetime and the afterlife, respectively:

"But what has been the condition of the world since that day the seamless robe [of Pax Romana] first suffered mutilation by the claws of avarice, we can read—would that we could not also see! O human race! what tempests must need toss thee, what treasure be thrown into the sea, what shipwrecks must be endured, so long as thou, like a beast of many heads, strivest after diverse ends! Thou art sick in either intellect, or sick likewise in thy affection. Thou healest not thy high understanding by argument irrefutable, nor thy lower by the countenance of experience. Nor dost thou heal thy affection by the sweetness of divine persuasion, when the voice of the Holy Spirit breathes upon thee, 'Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!'"

Di Gattinara was an Italian diplomat who widely promoted Dante's De Monarchia and its call for a universal monarchy. An advisor of Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor, and the chancellor of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, he conceived global government as uniting all Christian nations under a Respublica Christiana, which was the only political entity able to establish world peace.

Francisco de Vitoria (1483–1546)
The Spanish philosopher Francisco de Vitoria is considered an author of "global political philosophy" and international law, along with Alberico Gentili and Hugo Grotius. This came at a time when the University of Salamanca was engaged in unprecedented thought concerning human rights, international law, and early economics based on the experiences of the Spanish Empire. De Vitoria conceived of the res publica totius orbis, or the "republic of the whole world".

Hugo Grotius (1583–1645)

The Dutch philosopher and jurist Hugo Grotius, widely regarded as a founder of international law, believed in the eventual formation of a world government to enforce it. His book, De jure belli ac pacis (On the Law of War and Peace), published in Paris in 1625, is still cited as a foundational work in the field. Though he does not advocate for world government per se, Grotius argues that a "common law among nations", consisting of a framework of principles of natural law, bind all people and societies regardless of local custom.

Immanuel Kant (1724–1804)
In his essay "Perpetual Peace: A Philosophical Sketch" (1795), Kant describes three basic requirements for organizing human affairs to permanently abolish the threat of present and future war, and, thereby, help establish a new era of lasting peace throughout the world. Kant described his proposed peace program as containing two steps.

The "Preliminary Articles" described the steps that should be taken immediately, or with all deliberate speed:

 * 1) "No Secret Treaty of Peace Shall Be Held Valid in Which There Is Tacitly Reserved Matter for a Future War"
 * 2) "No Independent States, Large or Small, Shall Come under the Dominion of Another State by Inheritance, Exchange, Purchase, or Donation"
 * 3) "Standing Armies Shall in Time Be Totally Abolished"
 * 4) "National Debts Shall Not Be Contracted with a View to the External Friction of States"
 * 5) "No State Shall by Force Interfere with the Constitution or Government of Another State,
 * 6) "No State Shall, during War, Permit Such Acts of Hostility Which Would Make Mutual Confidence in the Subsequent Peace Impossible: Such Are the Employment of Assassins (percussores), Poisoners (venefici), Breach of Capitulation, and Incitement to Treason (perduellio) in the Opposing State"

Three Definitive Articles would provide not merely a cessation of hostilities, but a foundation on which to build a peace.

Kant argued against a world government on the grounds that it would be prone to tyranny. He instead advocated for league of independent republican states akin to the intergovernmental organizations that would emerge over a century and a half later.
 * 1) "The Civil Constitution of Every State Should Be Republican"
 * 2) "The Law of Nations Shall be Founded on a Federation of Free States"
 * 3) "The Law of World Citizenship Shall Be Limited to Conditions of Universal Hospitality"

Johann Gottlieb Fichte (1762–1814)
The year of the battle at Jena (1806), when Napoleon overwhelmed Prussia, Johann Gottlieb Fichte in Characteristics of the Present Age described what he perceived to be a very deep and dominant historical trend:

"There is necessary tendency in every cultivated State to extend itself generally... Such is the case in Ancient History ... As the States become stronger in themselves and cast off that [Papal] foreign power, the tendency towards a Universal Monarchy over the whole Christian World necessarily comes to light... This tendency ... has shown itself successively in several States which could make pretensions to such a dominion, and since the fall of the Papacy, it has become the sole animating principle of our History... Whether clearly or not—it may be obscurely—yet has this tendency lain at the root of the undertakings of many States in Modern Times... Although no individual Epoch may have contemplated this purpose, yet is this the spirit which runs through all these individual Epochs, and invisibly urges them onward."

Supranational movements
International organizations started forming in the late 19th century, among the earliest being the International Committee of the Red Cross in 1863, the Telegraphic Union in 1865 and the Universal Postal Union in 1874. The increase in international trade at the turn of the 20th century accelerated the formation of international organizations, and, by the start of World War I in 1914, there were approximately 450 of them.

Some notable philosophers and political leaders were also promoting the value of world government during the post-industrial, pre-World War era. Ulysses S. Grant, US President, was convinced that rapid advances in technology and industry would result in greater unity and eventually "one nation, so that armies and navies are no longer necessary." In China, political reformer Kang Youwei viewed human political organization growing into fewer, larger units, eventually into "one world". Bahá'u'lláh founded the Baháʼí Faith teaching that the establishment of world unity and a global federation of nations was a key principle of the religion. Author H. G. Wells was a strong proponent of the creation of a world state, arguing that such a state would ensure world peace and justice. Karl Marx, the traditional founder of communism, predicted a socialist epoch in which the working class throughout the world will unite to render nationalism meaningless. Anti-Communists believed world government was a goal of World Communism.

Support for the idea of establishing international law grew during this period as well. The Institute of International Law was formed in 1873 by Belgian jurist Gustave Rolin-Jaequemyns, leading to the creation of concrete legal drafts, for example by the Swiss Johaan Bluntschli in 1866. In 1883, James Lorimer published "The Institutes of the Law of Nations" in which he explored the idea of a world government establishing the global rule of law. The first embryonic world parliament, called the Inter-Parliamentary Union, was organized in 1886 by Cremer and Passy, composed of legislators from many countries. In 1904 the Union formally proposed "an international congress which should meet periodically to discuss international questions".

Theodore Roosevelt
As early as his 1905 statement to Congress, U.S. president Theodore Roosevelt highlighted the need for "an organization of the civilized nations" and cited the international arbitration tribunal at The Hague as a role model to be advanced further. During his acceptance speech for the 1906 Nobel Peace Prize, Roosevelt described a world federation as a "master stroke" and advocated for some form of international police power to maintain peace. Historian William Roscoe Thayer observed that the speech "foreshadowed many of the terms which have since been preached by the advocates of a League of Nations", which would not be established for another 14 years. Hamilton Holt of The Independent lauded Roosevelt's plan for a "Federation of the World", writing that not since the "Great Design" of Henry IV has "so comprehensive a plan" for universal peace been proposed.

Although Roosevelt supported global government conceptually, he was critical of specific proposals and of leaders of organizations promoting the cause of international governance. According to historian John Milton Cooper, Roosevelt praised the plan of his presidential successor, William Howard Taft, for "a league under existing conditions and with such wisdom in refusing to let adherence to the principle be clouded by insistence upon improper or unimportant methods of enforcement that we can speak of the league as a practical matter."

In a 1907 letter to Andrew Carnegie, Roosevelt expressed his hope "to see The Hague Court greatly increased in power and permanency", and in one of his very last public speeches he said: "Let us support any reasonable plan whether in the form of a League of Nations or in any other shape, which bids fair to lessen the probable number of future wars and to limit their scope."

Founding of the League of Nations
The League of Nations (LoN) was an intergovernmental organization founded as a result of the Treaty of Versailles in 1919–1920. At its largest size from 28 September 1934 to 23 February 1935, it had 58 members. The League's goals included upholding the Rights of Man, such as the rights of non-whites, women, and soldiers; disarmament, preventing war through collective security, settling disputes between countries through negotiation, diplomacy, and improving global quality of life. The diplomatic philosophy behind the League represented a fundamental shift in thought from the preceding hundred years. The League lacked its own armed force and so depended on the Great Powers to enforce its resolutions and economic sanctions and provide an army, when needed. However, these powers proved reluctant to do so. Lacking many of the key elements necessary to maintain world peace, the League failed to prevent World War II. Adolf Hitler withdrew Germany from the League of Nations once he planned to take over Europe. The rest of the Axis Powers soon followed him. Having failed its primary goal, the League of Nations fell apart. The League of Nations consisted of the Assembly, the council, and the Permanent Secretariat. Below these were many agencies. The Assembly was where delegates from all member states conferred. Each country was allowed three representatives and one vote.

Competing visions during World War II
The Nazi Party of Germany envisaged the establishment of a world government under the complete hegemony of the Third Reich. In its move to overthrow the post-World War I Treaty of Versailles, Germany had already withdrawn itself from the League of Nations, and it did not intend to join a similar internationalist organization ever again. In his stated political aim of expanding the living space (Lebensraum) of the Germanic people by destroying or driving out "lesser-deserving races" in and from other territories, dictator Adolf Hitler devised an ideological system of self-perpetuating expansionism, in which the growth of a state's population would require the conquest of more territory which would, in turn, lead to a further growth in population which would then require even more conquests. In 1927, Rudolf Hess relayed to Walther Hewel Hitler's belief that world peace could only be acquired "when one power, the racially best one, has attained uncontested supremacy". When this control would be achieved, this power could then set up for itself a world police and assure itself "the necessary living space.... The lower races will have to restrict themselves accordingly".

During its imperial period (1868–1947), the Japanese Empire elaborated a worldview, Hakkō ichiu, translated as "eight corners of the world under one roof". This was the idea behind the attempt to establish a Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere and behind the struggle for world domination. The British Empire, the largest in history, was viewed by some historians as a form of world government.

The Atlantic Charter was a published statement agreed between the United Kingdom and the United States. It was intended as the blueprint for the postwar world after World War II, and turned out to be the foundation for many of the international agreements that currently shape the world. The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), the post-war independence of British and French possessions, and much more are derived from the Atlantic Charter. The Atlantic charter was made to show the goals of the allied powers during World War II. It first started with the United States and Great Britain, and later all the allies would follow the charter. Some goals include access to raw materials, reduction of trade restrictions, and freedom from fear and wants. The name, The Atlantic Charter, came from a newspaper that coined the title. However, Winston Churchill would use it, and from then on the Atlantic Charter was the official name. In retaliation, the Axis powers would raise their morale and try to work their way into Great Britain. The Atlantic Charter was a stepping stone into the creation of the United Nations.

On June 5, 1948, at the dedication of the War Memorial in Omaha, Nebraska, U.S. President Harry S. Truman remarked, "We must make the United Nations continue to work, and to be a going concern, to see that difficulties between nations may be settled just as we settle difficulties between States here in the United States. When Kansas and Colorado fall out over the waters in the Arkansas River, they don't go to war over it; they go to the Supreme Court of the United States, and the matter is settled in a just and honorable way. There is not a difficulty in the whole world that cannot be settled in exactly the same way in a world court". The cultural moment of the late 1940s was the peak of World Federalism among Americans.

Founding of the United Nations

World War II (1939–1945) resulted in an unprecedented scale of destruction of lives (over 60 million dead, most of them civilians), and the use of weapons of mass destruction. Some of the acts committed against civilians during the war were on such a massive scale of savagery, they came to be widely considered as crimes against humanity itself. As the war's conclusion drew near, many shocked voices called for the establishment of institutions able to permanently prevent deadly international conflicts. This led to the founding of the United Nations (UN) in 1945, which adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948.

Many, however, felt that the UN, essentially a forum for discussion and coordination between sovereign governments, was insufficiently empowered for the task. A number of prominent persons, such as Albert Einstein, Winston Churchill, Bertrand Russell, Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru, called on governments to proceed further by taking gradual steps towards forming an effectual federal world government.

The United Nations main goal is to work on international law, international security, economic development, human rights, social progress, and eventually world peace. The United Nations replaced the League of Nations in 1945, after World War II. Almost every internationally recognized country is in the U.N.; as it contains 193 member states out of the 196 total nations of the world. The United Nations gather regularly in order to solve big problems throughout the world. There are six official languages: Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish.

The United Nations is also financed by some of the wealthiest nations. The flag shows the Earth from a map that shows all of the populated continents.

United Nations Parliamentary Assembly (UNPA)
A United Nations Parliamentary Assembly (UNPA) is a proposed addition to the United Nations System that would allow for participation of member nations' legislators and, eventually, direct election of UN parliament members by citizens worldwide. The idea of a world parliament was raised at the founding of the League of Nations in the 1920s and again following the end of World War II in 1945, but remained dormant throughout the Cold War.

In the 1990s and 2000s, the rise of global trade and the power of world organizations that govern it led to calls for a parliamentary assembly to scrutinize their activity. The Campaign for a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly was formed in 2007 by Democracy Without Borders to coordinate pro-UNPA efforts, which as of January 2019 has received the support of over 1,500 Members of Parliament from over 100 countries worldwide, in addition to numerous non-governmental organizations, Nobel and Right Livelihood laureates and heads or former heads of state or government and foreign ministers.

Garry Davis
In France, 1948, Garry Davis began an unauthorized speech calling for a world government from the balcony of the UN General Assembly, until he was dragged away by the guards. Davis renounced his American citizenship and started a Registry of World Citizens. On September 4, 1953, Davis announced from the city hall of Ellsworth, Maine, the formation of the "World Government of World Citizens" based on three "World Laws": One God (or Absolute Value), One World, and One Humanity. Following this declaration, mandated, he claimed, by Article twenty one, Section three of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, he formed the United World Service Authority in New York City as the administrative agency of the new government. Its first task was to design and begin selling "World Passports", which the organisation argues is legitimatised by on Article 13, Section 2 of the UDHR.

World Federalist Movement
The years between the end of World War II and the start of the Korean War—which roughly marked the entrenchment of Cold War polarity—saw a flourishing of the nascent world federalist movement. Wendell Willkie's 1943 book One World sold over 2 million copies, laying out many of the argument and principles that would inspire global federalism. A contemporaneous work, Emery Reves' The Anatomy of Peace (1945), argued for replacing the UN with a federal world government. The world Federalist movement in the U.S., led by diverse figures such as Lola Maverick Lloyd, Grenville Clark, Norman Cousins, and Alan Cranston, grew larger and more prominent: in 1947, several grassroots organizations merged to form the United World Federalists—later renamed the World Federalist Association, then Citizens for Global Solutions— claiming 47,000 members by 1949.

Similar movements concurrently formed in many other countries, culminating in a 1947 meeting in Montreux, Switzerland that formed a global coalition called the World Federalist Movement (WFM). By 1950, the movement claimed 56 member groups in 22 countries, with some 156,000 members.

Convention to propose amendments to the United States Constitution
In 1949, six U.S. states—California, Connecticut, Florida, Maine, New Jersey, and North Carolina—applied for an Article V convention to propose an amendment “to enable the participation of the United States in a world federal government.” Multiple other state legislatures introduced or debated the same proposal. These resolutions were part of this effort.

During the 81st United States Congress (1949–1951), multiple resolutions were introduced favoring a world federation.

Chicago World Constitution draft
A committee of academics and intellectuals formed by Robert Maynard Hutchins of the University of Chicago published a Preliminary Draft of a World Constitution and from 1947 to 1951 published a magazine edited by the daughter of Thomas Mann, Elisabeth Mann Borgese, which was devoted to world government; its title was Common Cause.

Albert Einstein and World Constitution
Einstein grew increasingly convinced that the world was veering off course. He arrived at the conclusion that the gravity of the situation demanded more profound actions and the establishment of a "world government" was the only logical solution. In his "Open Letter to the General Assembly of the United Nations" of October 1947, Einstein emphasized the urgent need for international cooperation and the establishment of a world government. In the year 1948, Einstein invited United World Federalists, Inc. (UWF) president Cord Meyer to a meeting of the Emergency Committee of Atomic Scientists (ECAS) and joined UWF as a member of the Advisory Board. Einstein and ECAS assisted UEF in fundraising and provided supporting material. Einstein described United World Federalists as: "the group nearest to our aspirations". Einstein and other prominent figures sponsored the Peoples' World Convention (PWC), which took place in 1950–51  and later continued in the form of world constituent assemblies in 1968, 1977, 1978-79, and 1991. This effort was successful in creating a world constitution and a provisional world parliament.

Constitution for the Federation of Earth, also known as the "Earth Constitution", drafted by international legal experts during world constituent assemblies in 1968 and finalized in 1991, is a framework of a world federalist government. A Provisional World Parliament (PWP), a transitional international legislative body, operates under the framework of this world constitution and it convenes to work on global issues, gathering delegates from different countries.

Cold War
By 1950, the Cold War began to dominate international politics and the UN Security Council became effectively paralyzed by its permanent members' ability to exercise veto power. The United Nations Security Council Resolution 82 and 83 backed the defense of South Korea, although the Soviets were then boycotting meetings in protest.

While enthusiasm for multinational federalism in Europe incrementally led, over the following decades, to the formation of the European Union, the Cold War eliminated the prospects of any progress towards federation with a more global scope. Global integration became stagnant during the Cold War, and the conflict became the driver behind one-third of all wars during the period. The idea of world government all but disappeared from wide public discourse.

Post–Cold War
As the Cold War dwindled in 1991, interest in a federal world government was renewed. When the conflict ended by 1992, without the external assistance, many proxy wars petered out or ended by negotiated settlements. This kicked off a period in the 1990s of unprecedented international activism and an expansion of international institutions. According to the Human Security Report 2005, this was the first effective functioning of the United Nations as it was designed to operate.

The most visible achievement of the world federalism movement during the 1990s is the Rome Statute of 1998, which led to the establishment of the International Criminal Court in 2002. In Europe, progress towards forming a federal union of European states gained much momentum, starting in 1952 as a trade deal between the German and French people led, in 1992, to the Maastricht Treaty that established the name and enlarged the agreement that the European Union is based upon. The EU expanded (1995, 2004, 2007, 2013) to encompass, in 2013, over half a billion people in 28 member states (27 after Brexit). Following the EU's example, other supranational unions were established, including the African Union in 2002, the Union of South American Nations in 2008, and the Eurasian Economic Union in 2015.

Current system of global governance
, there is no functioning global international military, executive, legislature, judiciary, or constitution with jurisdiction over the entire planet.

No world government
The world is divided geographically and demographically into mutually exclusive territories and political structures called states which are independent and sovereign in most cases. There are numerous bodies, institutions, unions, coalitions, agreements and contracts between these units of authority, but, except in cases where one nation is under military occupation by another, all such arrangements depend on the continued consent of the participant nations. Countries that violate or do not enforce international laws may be subject to penalty or coercion, often in the form of economic limitations such as embargos by cooperating countries, even if the violating country is not part of the United Nations. In this way a country's cooperation in international affairs is voluntary, but non-cooperation still has diplomatic consequences.

International criminal courts
A functioning system of International law encompasses international treaties, customs and globally accepted legal principles. With the exceptions of cases brought before the ICC and ICJ, the laws are interpreted by national courts. Many violations of treaty or customary law obligations are overlooked. International Criminal Court (ICC) was a relatively recent development in international law, it is the first permanent international criminal court established to ensure that the gravest international crimes (war crimes, genocide, other crimes against humanity, etc.) do not go unpunished. The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court establishing the ICC and its jurisdiction was signed by 139 national governments, of which 100 ratified it by October 2005.

Inter-governmental organizations
The United Nations (UN) is the primary formal organization coordinating activities between states on a global scale and the only inter-governmental organization with near-universal membership (193 governments). In addition to the main organs and various humanitarian programs and commissions of the UN itself, there are about 20 functional organizations affiliated with the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), such as the World Health Organization, the International Labour Organization, and International Telecommunication Union. Of particular interest politically are the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the World Trade Organization.

International militaries
Militarily, the UN deploys peacekeeping forces, usually to build and maintain post-conflict peace and stability. When a more aggressive international military action is undertaken, either ad hoc coalitions (for example, the Multi-National Force – Iraq) or regional military alliances (for example, NATO) are used.

International monetary system
The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) formed together in July 1944 at the Mount Washington Hotel in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, United States, to foster global monetary cooperation and to fight poverty by financially assisting states in need. These institutions have been criticized as simply oligarchic hegemonies of the Great Powers, most notably the United States, which maintains the only veto, for instance, in the International Monetary Fund.

International trade
The World Trade Organization (WTO) sets the rules of international trade. It has a semi-legislative body (the General Council, reaching decisions by consensus) and a judicial body (the Dispute Settlement Body). Another influential economical international organization is the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), with membership of 30 democratic members.

Informal global influences
In addition to the formal, or semi-formal, international organizations and laws mentioned above, many other mechanisms act to regulate human activities across national borders. International trade has the effect of requiring cooperation and interdependency between nations without a political body. Trans-national (or multi-national) corporations, some with resources exceeding those available to most governments, govern activities of people on a global scale. The rapid increase in the volume of trans-border digital communications and mass-media distribution (e.g., Internet, satellite television) has allowed information, ideas, and opinions to rapidly spread across the world, creating a complex web of international coordination and influence, mostly outside the control of any formal organizations or laws.

Examples of regional integration of states
There are a number of regional organizations that, while not supranational unions, have adopted or intend to adopt policies that may lead to a similar sort of integration in some respects. The European Union is generally recognized as the most integrated among these. • African Union (AU)

• Arab League

• Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)

• Caribbean Community (CARICOM)

• Central American Integration System (SICA)

• Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS)

• Commonwealth of Nations

• Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf (CCASG)

• East African Community (EAC)

• Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU)

• European Union (EU)

• North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)

• Organization of American States (OAS)

• South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC)

• Turkic Council (TurkKon)

• Union of South American Nations (UNASUR)

• Union State Other organisations that have also discussed greater integration include:
 * Arab League into an "Arab Union"
 * Caribbean Community (CARICOM) into a "Caribbean Federation"
 * North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) into a "North American Union"
 * Pacific Islands Forum into a "Pacific Union"

In fiction
World government for Earth is frequently featured in fiction, particularly within the science fiction genre; well-known examples include the "World State" in Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, the "Dictatorship of the Air" in H. G. Wells' The Shape of Things to Come, the United Nations in James S. A Corey's The Expanse, and United Earth (amongst other planetary sovereignties and even larger polities) in the Star Trek franchise. This concept also applies to other genres, while not as commonly, including well-known examples such as One Piece.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: World government


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Fehmarn

Fehmarn (Femern; from Old Wagrian Slavic "Fe More", meaning "In the Sea") is an island in the Baltic Sea, off the eastern coast of Germany's northernmost state of Schleswig-Holstein. It is Germany's third-largest island, after Rügen and Usedom. Fehmarn is separated from the German peninsula of Wagria in Holstein by the Fehmarn Sound, and from the southern Danish island of Lolland by the Fehmarn Belt. It is connected to the Holsatian mainland by the Fehmarn Sound Bridge. The island belongs to the district of Ostholstein (East Holstein). The closest larger towns on the mainland are Heiligenhafen (Saints’ Harbor) and Oldenburg in Holstein (founded as Starigard). Right opposite Fehmarn, on the tip of the Wagrian Peninsula, is Großenbrode.

The Vogelfluglinie (Danish: Fugleflugtslinjen), an important transport corridor connecting the Danish capital of Copenhagen on the island of Zealand to the second-largest German city of Hamburg via Lübeck, runs across the island. There are currently two tunnels under construction in the region: the Fehmarn Belt Tunnel between Puttgarden on Fehmarn and Rødbyhavn on Lolland, and the Fehmarn Sound Tunnel between Strukkamp (Fehmarn) and Großenbrode (Wagria). The most notable settlements on Fehmarn are Burg auf Fehmarn (Low German: Borg op Fehmarn) and Puttgarden, with the island's ferry port.

Fehmarn is allegorically represented by the "Goldene Krone im blauen Meer" (Golden Crown in the blue Sea), which can be seen on many flags on the island, making reference to the House of Oldenburg, the Danish royal house.

History
Earlier names of the island are Femera, Fimbria, Cimbria parva, and Imbra. As a part of Wagria, it was settled by the Slavic Lechitic tribe of Wagri in the Early Middle Ages. Fehmarn is one of the westernmost places of the former contiguous settlement area of the Slavs, and the westernmost island with a former Slavic settlement. The name of the island itself derives from the Polabian fe more (in the sea), modern v more, and has the same etymological background as Pomerania, deriving from po more, at the sea. Puttgarden is also a Slavic name, deriving from pod gard, which means under the castle (on Rügen exists a village with the same etymological background, evolving into the modern form Putgarten).

Other Slavic-founded villages on Fehmarn are Bannesdorf, Dänschendorf, Gahlendorf, Gammendorf-Siedendorf, Gollendorf, Hinrichsdorf, Klausdorf, Kopendorf, Lemkendorf, Meeschendorf, Püttsee, Sahrensdorf, Schlagsdorf, Sulsdorf and Vitzdorf. The villages of Bisdorf, Presen and Staberdorf are either Slavic-founded or founded by Germanic colonists from Holstein, Dithmarschen, Frisia, Lower Saxony and Denmark, who settled the island from around 1200 onwards. The Slavs inhabiting the island were gradually Christianized and Germanized.

From the Middle Ages till 1864 Fehmarn formed part of the Danish Duchy of Schleswig. When the duchy was partitioned in 1544, it formed part of the duchy of John the Elder. Upon his death without heirs in 1580, Fehmarn became part of the Duchy of Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorp. After the Great Northern War, Fehmarn, along with the rest of Schleswig was united with the Danish crown. In 1864, Schleswig passed to Prussia as a result of the Second Schleswig War.

On 26 July 1932, the German Navy's training ship Niobe sank off the island during a sudden squall, with the loss of 69 lives. At Gammendorfer Strand on Fehmarn, within view of the site of the sinking, the Niobe-Denkmal monument was erected.

Since 1963, Fehmarn has been connected to the German mainland by a road and rail bridge crossing the Fehmarn Sound Bridge. It is 963.40 m (3160.76 ft.) long and 69 m high.

Geography
The area is 185 km2 and the coastline is 78 km. The highest hills are the "Hinrichsberg" (27.2 m) and the "Wulfener Berg" (26.5 m). The largest community on Fehmarn is Burg (lit. "the Town of Fehmarn"), with 6,000 inhabitants. In addition, there are many small villages, including Vadersdorf.

Transport
The Fehmarn Belt, a strait separating Fehmarn from Lolland, is located on the side opposite the German mainland. It can be crossed by ferries travelling between the seaports of Puttgarden, Germany, and Rødbyhavn, Denmark. The crossing takes about 45 minutes.

On 29 June 2007, the Danish and German authorities gave the go-ahead for the Fehmarn Belt Fixed Link tunnel project, planned for completion in 2028.

The aforementioned 963-metre (3,159 ft) long Fehmarn Sound Bridge connects the German island of Fehmarn with the German mainland near Großenbrode.

Nature
The coasts serve as resting places for migratory birds, and it is thus a popular location for ornithologists. The island's bird reserves are looked after by NABU's conservation centre at the Wallnau Waterbird Reserve. In Burg there is a large aquarium with 40 fish tanks.

Fehmarn is famous for its nature and recreation areas, especially during summertime (July–September) and is also well known for its windsurf and kitesurf spots. Currently there are more than ten surfspots known on the island.

Culture
Scharwenzel is a card game for two teams with two to four players on each team. The game is at least three centuries old and is played today only on Fehmarn.

Fehmarn was the location of Jimi Hendrix's final concert, at the Open Air Love & Peace Festival, on September 6, 1970. The concert was held at Flügge Beach in the southwest. There is a memorial stone there and from 1995 through 2010, the Jimi-Hendrix-Revival-Festival was celebrated annually in September.

The St. Nicholas Church has a baptismal font that dates from 1391.

Notable residents

 * Johann Horkel (1769 in Burg auf Fehmarn – 1846), a German physician and botanist.
 * Benedikt Niese (1849 in Burg auf Fehmarn – 1910), a German classical scholar.
 * Charlotte Niese (1854 in Burg auf Fehmarn – 1935), a German writer, poet and teacher.
 * Frederick W. Schumacher (1863–1957), an American philanthropist and businessman.
 * Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (1880–1938), a German expressionist painter and printmaker, lived on the island 1908 to 1912–1914.
 * Peter Wiepert (1890-1980), builder and writer; born in the village of Bisdorf. The museum on the island is named after him.
 * Lina Heydrich (1911–1985), born in the village of Avendorf. Her husband Reinhard Heydrich, (1904–1942) was a high-ranking German SS and police official and principal architect of the Holocaust. They had a summer home on the island which she ran as a restaurant after the war, until it burned down in February 1969.
 * Jürgen Blin (1943–2022), a boxer, born on the island.

title: Fehmarn


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Point Pelee National Park

Point Pelee National Park (Parc national de la Pointe-Pelée) is a national park in Essex County in southwestern Ontario, Canada where it extends into Lake Erie. The word pelée is French for 'bald'. Point Pelee consists of a peninsula of land, mainly of marsh and woodland habitats, that tapers to a sharp point as it extends into Lake Erie. Middle Island, also part of Point Pelee National Park, was acquired in 2000 and is just north of the Canada–United States border in Lake Erie. Point Pelee is the southernmost point of mainland Canada, and is located on a foundation of glacial sand, silt and gravel that bites into Lake Erie. This spit of land is slightly more than seven kilometres long by 4.5 km wide at its northern base. Established in 1918, Point Pelee was the first national park in Canada to be established for conservation. It was designated as a Ramsar site on 27 May 1987.

History
Aboriginal people lived on Point Pelee for many years before European colonization, dating back to at least 6,000 years. The largest archaeological site found at Point Pelee is thought to have been occupied between AD 700 and 900.

The name was given to the area by Fathers Dollier and Galinée when they passed through the area in 1670.

In the late 1700s, British naval reserves logged the area's white pine for shipbuilding. In 1790, Deputy Indian Agent Alexander McKee negotiated a treaty with Aboriginal communities that ceded a large tract of land, which included Point Pelee, to the Crown. The Caldwell First Nation Chippewa people, who inhabited Point Pelee, were not signatories of that treaty. However, the Crown did not realize this, and their land was ceded nonetheless. Subsequently, they were forced off their land, and Point Pelee remains unceded aboriginal land. This has been publicly acknowledged by the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs Canada.

Prior to the creation of the park, the Great Lakes Ornithological Club was established to study bird migration. One of the members, Percy A. Taverner, and Canada's first Dominion Ornithologist, recommended Point Pelee be made a national park in 1915. Jack Miner had also pushed for the creation of the park by that time. Point Pelee was made a national park in 1918 at the urging of birdwatchers and hunters. Commercial fishing continued in the park until 1969. Point Pelee was the only Canadian national park to allow hunting until duck hunting was ended in 1989. This site was named "Pointe-Pelée" (meaning "bald point") by French explorers because the eastern side was rocky and had no trees.

Point Pelee was designated a dark-sky preserve in 2006, the first Canadian national park to be designated as such. In March 2006, high winds caused waves that washed away the sand point and all that remained was a platform. In October 2007 the level of Lake Erie dropped enough to reveal the point again extending at least a kilometre out into the water and at least 7 m wide with a winding curve shape to it. Since that time the sandy tip continues to shift, grow longer or shorter, or even detach temporarily, from year to year.

Geography
Located in the western parts of the St. Lawrence Lowlands, the park is a sandspit formation that extends 15 km into Lake Erie and is up to 70 m thick. With an area of only 1564 ha, it is Canada's smallest national park. Most of the park (about 1113 ha or 70% of the park consists of marsh, dominated by cattails and ponds although forested areas make up a significant portion of the park, covering about 21% of the park. This sandspit is dominated by till plains which were formed during the last ice age during the advance and retreat of the Wisconsonian ice on a submerged limestone ridge. As the glacier melted and retreated northward, the Lake Erie basin began to fill with water. The movement of sediments altered the coastline, resulting in the present-day shape of Point Pelee. Subsequently, over the centuries, a thin but rich soil has formed. Mineral soils in the park were mapped as well to rapidly drained Eastport sand, which has insignificant profile development. The marshes began to form about 3,200 years ago, based on carbon dating. This was also the same time when the sands began to deposit, forming the present day barriers. The marsh has a closed drainage system owing to the separation of it by two barriers along the east and west side, which usually prevents the free exchange of water. However, when lake levels are higher, the marsh water levels fluctuate with the lake's water levels. The distinctive triangular shape at the southern tip of Point Pelee is caused by the convergence of these two barriers (this spit or tip is the southernmost point of the Canadian mainland). Middle Island, which is located south of the Point Pelee peninsula has an area of approximately 18.5 ha and is the southernmost point in Canada. Virtually all of Middle Island is forested.

Flora and fauna
Owing to its southernly location and the moderating effects of Lake Erie, the climate in the park is slightly warmer than the rest of Canada and many Carolinian faunal species, which are rare in Canada are located here. Examples include the fox snake and the five-lined skink. Because of its location at the crossroads of two major migration flyways, about 347–360 different species of migratory birds have been recorded in the park and more than 100 species stay there for breeding. This total includes 102 waterfowl and shorebird species. Dominic Couzen's Top 100 Birding Sites of the World lists Point Pelee as #66. Coyotes are also present within this park. Many Carolinian floral species that are rare in Canada occur within the park boundaries. Point Pelee has six different habitats: beach, cedar, savanna, dry forest, wet forest, and freshwater marsh. The park contains more than 750 native plant species, of these 8 species are considered to be rare, endangered or threatened in Canada. Nearby Point Pelee is Middle Island which is designated provincially as an Area of Natural and Scientific Interest (ANSI) due to its unique and rare assemblages of plants and animals. Middle Island is home to plants and animals that are characteristic of the Carolinian ecozone of which nine species are at risk. The diversity of vegetation in the marsh is the highest along the edge of the marsh ponds and in the transitional zones between the terrestrial environments and the marsh. Four different vegetation communities dominate in the marsh.

Climate
Point Pelee has a humid continental climate (Dfa under the Köppen climate classification) with warm, humid summers, and cold winters that is modified by the surrounding waters of Lake Erie. It lies in a zone that is characterized by variable weather due to conflict between polar and tropical air masses. Its position in Lake Erie modifies its climate, resulting in warmer winter and fall temperatures compared to inland regions, as the lake cools more slowly than the surrounding land though during the spring, temperatures remain cooler than inland areas due to the land warming faster than the lake.

Winters are cold with a January average temperature of -3.9 C. Owing to its position in Lake Erie, winter temperatures are warmer than inland locations at a similar latitude due to the release of the heat stored by the lake. As a result, temperatures below -20 C are rare, with only 1.9 days where the temperature reaches or falls below -20 C. The maximum temperature usually stays below freezing on most days although mild spells of weather can occur time to time. The park receives 98.9 cm of snowfall per year and there are 30.6 days with measurable snow. The park is not located in the snowbelt region, and snow cover is intermittent through the winter.

Summers are warm and humid with the warmest month, July, averaging 22.4 C, which is among the highest in Ontario. The surrounding lake moderates summertime temperatures, cooling the flow of warm air masses originating from the Gulf of Mexico and as a result, temperatures above 30 C are rare, with only 4–8 days per year in the park.

Development
From a regional perspective, the park is isolated from other natural areas because in Essex County, less than 6% of the native forest cover and 3% of the wetlands remain intact. Much of the area (97% of it) has been altered and mostly converted for agriculture, industry or urban development. It is also located relatively close to the major urban area of Windsor-Detroit.

Birdwatching
The park forms the southernmost point in mainland Canada (its latitude is the same as that of Rome, Italy and Barcelona, Spain) and is part of a bird and butterfly migration corridor over Lake Erie via Point Pelee and the Lake Erie islands. Over 360 bird species have been recorded in the park. The peak time for bird migration is spring, especially May, when tired migrants make first landfall after their journey north across the lake.

Many birdwatchers from North America and abroad visit the park in May, often staying in the nearby town of Leamington. One attraction, apart from the sheer numbers and variety of birds passing through on migration, is the opportunity to see more northerly breeding species before they move on. It is widely recognized as one of the most desirable destinations for avid birdwatchers, particularly for the migration of Passerines.

March 2017 marsh fire
On 29 March 2017, Point Pelee's marsh land was involved in a fire that burned over 125 hectare of marsh habitat. The fire lasted 15 hours and was naturally extinguished due to rainfall the following day.

Commemoration
Point Pelee National Park was featured on a high-value ($5) postage stamp, issued in 1983, as part of a series honouring national parks. The park appeared on a stamp that was issued on 15 January 2018, with a $1.20 face value. The issue coincides with the park's centennial year, and is part of a nine-stamp set featuring scenic views across the country.

title: Point Pelee National Park


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Iranian calendars

The Iranian calendars or Iranian chronology (, Gâh-Şomâriye Irâni) are a succession of calendars created and used for over two millennia in Iran, also known as Persia. One of the longest chronological records in human history, the Iranian calendar has been modified many times for administrative, climatic, and religious purposes. The most influential person in laying the frameworks for the calendar and its precision was the 11th century Persian polymath, Omar Khayyam. The modern Iranian calendar is currently the official civil calendar in Iran.

The Iranian New Year begins at the midnight nearest to the instant of the northern spring equinox, as determined by astronomic calculations for the meridian (52.5°E). It is, therefore, an observation-based calendar, unlike the Gregorian, which is rule-based. This equinox occurs on or about 20 March of the Gregorian calendar. The time zone of Iran is Iran Standard Time, UTC+03:30.

Ancient calendars
The earliest evidence of Iranian calendrical traditions is from the second millennium BC and possibly even predates the appearance of the Iranian prophet Zoroaster. The first fully preserved calendar is that of the Achaemenids, a royal dynasty of the 5th century BC who gave rise to Zoroastrianism. Throughout recorded history, Persians have been keen on the idea and importance of having a calendar. They were among the first cultures to use a solar calendar and have long favoured a solar over lunar and lunisolar approaches. The sun has always been a religious and divine symbol in Iranian culture and is the origin of the folklore regarding Cyrus the Great.

Old Persian calendar
Old Persian inscriptions and tablets indicate that early Iranians used a 360-day calendar based on the solar observation directly and modified for their beliefs. Days were not named. The months had two or three divisions depending on the phase of the moon. Twelve months of 30 days were named for festivals or activities of the pastoral year. An intercalation month was added periodically to keep the calendar synchronized with the seasons.

The following table lists the Old Persian months, alongside the approximate Gregorian months and approximate Babylonian lunar months.

There were four farming festivals, symmetric about maidyoshahem:

Two more festivals were later added, creating the six gahanbar:

Zoroastrian calendar
The first calendars based on Zoroastrian cosmology appeared in the later Achaemenid period (650 to 330 BC). They evolved over the centuries, but month names changed little until now.

The unified Achaemenid Empire required a distinctive Iranian calendar, and one was devised in Egyptian tradition, with 12 months of 30 days, each dedicated to a yazata (Eyzad), and four divisions resembling the Semitic week. Four days per month were dedicated to Ahura Mazda and seven were named after the six Amesha Spentas. Thirteen days were named after Fire, Water, Sun, Moon, Tiri and Geush Urvan (the soul of all animals), Mithra, Sraosha (Soroush, yazata of prayer), Rashnu (the Judge), Fravashi, Bahram (yazata of victory), Raman (Ramesh meaning peace), and Vata, the divinity of the wind. Three were dedicated to the female divinities, Daena (yazata of religion and personified conscious), Ashi (yazata of fortune) and Arshtat (justice). The remaining four were dedicated to Asman (lord of sky or Heaven), Zam (earth), Manthra Spenta (the Bounteous Sacred Word) and Anaghra Raocha (the 'Endless Light' of paradise).

The month names and their modern versions are given in the following table.

The calendar had a significant impact on religious observance. It fixed the pantheon of major divinities, and also ensured that their names were uttered often, since at every Zoroastrian act of worship the yazatas of both day and month were invoked. It also clarified the pattern of festivities; for example, Mitrakanna or Mehregan was celebrated on Mithra day of Mithra month, and the Tiri festival (Tiragan) was celebrated on Tiri day of the Tiri month.

In 538 BC Cyrus the Great (uncertain if he was a Zoroastrian) conquered Babylon and the Babylonian luni-solar calendar came into use for civil purposes. Cambyses conquered Egypt in 525 BC. He was accompanied by Darius, a Zoroastrian who became ruler of the Persian empire in 517 BC. The Zoroastrians adopted the wandering Egyptian solar calendar of twelve months of thirty days plus five epagomenal days. As their year began in the spring (with the festival of norouz) the epagomenai were placed just before norouz.

In Egypt the star Sirius had significance since every 1460 years (the Sothic cycle) its heliacal rising (just before sunrise) marked the Egyptian new year and the inundation of the Nile. In Persia also the star had significance, since its heliacal rising there also coincided with the coming of the rain. The fourth Persian month was Tishtrya (Sirius, rain star). The vernal equinox at Greenwich fell on the first day of the first month from 487 to 483 BC (inclusive). Adopting S H Taqizadeh's date of 28 March 487 BC for the reform the calendar for that year is as follows:

The fourth month includes 20 July, the date of the heliacal rising of Sirius. In the first year the people carried on using the old calendar, anticipating festival dates by five days. As each day is named after a god, it is important to observe the celebrations on the right day. Thus the fravasis festival, which in the old calendar was kept between sunset on 30 Spandarmad and sunrise on 1 Frawardin, was now observed throughout the epagomenai. In the second year of the reform, the old 30 Spandarmad was the new 25 Spandarmad, so from then on the festival covered eleven days, up to the new 1 Frawardin. Five days was considered enough for other festivals, however.

In all the lands where the Persian calendar was used the epagomenai were placed at the end of the year. To offset the difference between the agricultural year and the calendar year (the tax-gathering season began after the harvest) the start of the araji (land-tax) year was delayed by one month every 120 years. A Roman historian, Quintus Curtius Rufus, describing a ceremony in 333 BC, writes:

"The magi were followed by three hundred and sixty-five young men clad in purple robes, equal in number to the days of a whole year; for the Persians also divided the year into that number of days."

After the conquests by Alexander the Great and his death, the Persian territories fell to one of his generals, Seleucus (312 BC), starting the Seleucid dynasty of Iran. Based on the Greek tradition, Seleucids introduced the practice of dating by era rather than by the reign of individual kings. Their era became known as that of Alexander, or later the Seleucid era. Since the new rulers were not Zoroastrians, Zoroastrian priests lost their function at the royal courts, and so resented the Seleucids. Although they began dating by eras, they established their own era of Zoroaster.

That was the first serious attempt to determine the dates associated with the prophet Zoroaster's life. Priests had no Zoroastrian historical sources, and so turned to Babylonian archives famous in the ancient world. From these they learned that a great event in Persian history took place 228 years before the era of Alexander. In fact, this was the conquest of Babylon by Cyrus the Great in 539 BC. But the priests misinterpreted this date to be the time the "true faith" was revealed to their prophet, and since Avestan literature indicates that revelation happened when Zoroaster was 30 years old, 568 BC was taken as his year of birth. The date entered written records as the beginning of the era of Zoroaster, and indeed, the Persian Empire. This incorrect date is still mentioned in many current encyclopedias as Zoroaster's birth date.

Modifications by Parthians, Ardashir I, Hormizd I, Yazdgerd III
The Parthians (Arsacid dynasty) adopted the same calendar system with minor modifications, and dated their era from 248 BC, the date they succeeded the Seleucids. Their names for the months and days are Parthian equivalents of the Avestan ones used previously, differing slightly from the Middle Persian names used by the Sassanians. For example, in Achaemenid times the modern Persian month 'Day' was called Dadvah (Creator), in Parthian it was Datush and the Sassanians named it Dadv/Dai (Dadar in Pahlavi).

When in April of AD 224 the Parthian dynasty fell and was replaced by the Sasanid, the new king, Ardashir I, abolished the official Babylonian calendar and replaced it with the Zoroastrian. This involved a correction to the places of the gahanbar, which had slipped back in the seasons since they were fixed. These were placed eight months later, as were the epagomenai, the 'Gatha' or 'Gah' days after the ancient Zoroastrian hymns of the same name. Other countries, such as the Armenians and Choresmians, did not accept the change. The new dates were:

In AD 224 the vernal equinox at Greenwich fell at noon on 21 March, which was 22 Shahrewar. Immediately after the reform 21 March corresponded to 27 Shahrewar. Here is the calendar for AD 225–6:

The change caused confusion and was immensely unpopular. The new epagomenai were referred to as "robber days". The people now observed the "Great" nowruz on 6 Frawardin, which was Zoroaster's birthday and corresponded to 1 Frawardin in the old calendar. The new 1 Frawardin was observed as the "lesser" nowruz. Hormizd I (AD 272–273) made the intervening days into festivals as well. In AD 273, the vernal equinox at 0° fell at 05:00 UTC on 21 March.

Yazdegerd I reigned from AD 399–420. In AD 400 the equinox fell about 19 March, which was 9 Aban. According to al-Biruni, in that reign there was a double adjustment of the start of the araji year. The tenth-century astronomer Abu'l-asan Kusyar noted that during the reign of Osrow II (AD 589–628) the sun entered Aries in Adur. This happened throughout his reign. An araji era was introduced dating from AD 621, and the Yazdegerdi era dates from 16 June AD 632, so the Yazdegerdi era is eleven years behind the araji.

Muslim conquest
The Muslim rulers who took over from the middle of the seventh century used the Islamic calendar for administration, which caused hardship because the year was shorter – i.e. a tax which was formerly collected after the harvest would now have to be paid before the harvest. Traditionally it is said that the caliph Omar reintroduced the Persian calendar for tax collection purposes.

In AD 895 there was another double readjustment of the start of the araji year. It moved from 1 Frawardin (12 April) to 1 Khordad (11 June). By AD 1006 the vernal equinox, 15 March, was again coinciding with nowruz, 1 Frawardin. In that year, therefore, the epagomenai were delayed four months, moving from the end of Aban to their old position at the end of Spandarmad. This is the calendar for AD 1006/7:

The gahanbar did not move quite to their old places, because the fifth moved to 20 Day, which was the old 15 Day, thus increasing the interval between the fourth and fifth to eighty days and reducing the interval between the fifth and sixth to 75 days. The new dates were:

Medieval era: Jalali calendar
In AD 1079, by the order of the Jalal Al-Din Shah Seljuqi, the Islamic Calendar (which was and is based on the lunar system) was replaced in Persia by the calendar of Omar Khayyam and was called the Jalali Calendar. Khayyam and his team had worked 8 years in Isfahan, the capital of Iran during the Seljuq dynasty. The research and creation of the Khayyam calendar was financially supported by Jalal Al din Shah. Khayyam designed his calendar in which the beginning of the new year, season and month are aligned and he named the first day of the spring and the new year to be Norooz (also spelled Nowruz). Before Khayyam's calendar, Norooz was not a fixed day and each year could fall in late winter or early spring.

From 15 March 1079, when the calendar had slipped a further eighteen days, the araji calendar was reformed by repeating the first eighteen days of Frawardin. Thus 14 March was 18 Frawardin qadimi (old) or farsi (Persian) and 15 March was 1 Frawardin jalali or maleki (royal). This new calendar was astronomically calculated, so that it did not have epagemonai – the months began when the sun entered a new sign of the zodiac.

About 120 years after the reform of AD 1006, when the vernal equinox was starting to fall in Ardawahisht, Zoroastrians made it again coincide with nowruz by adding a second Spandarmad. This Shensai calendar was a month behind the qadimi still used in Persia, being used only by the Zoroastrians in India, the Parsees. On 6 June 1745 (Old Style) some Parsees re-adopted the qadimi calendar, and in 1906 some adopted the Fasli calendar in which 1 Frawardin was equated with 21 March, so that there was a sixth epagomenal day every four years. In 1911 the jalali calendar became the official national calendar of Persia. Some Zoroastrians in Persia now use the Fasli calendar, having begun changing to it in 1930.

Modern calendar: Solar Hijri (SH)
The present Iranian calendar was legally adopted on 31 March 1925, under the early Pahlavi dynasty. The law said that the first day of the year should be the first day of spring in "the true solar year", "as it has been" ever so. It also fixed the number of days in each month, which previously varied by year with the sidereal zodiac. It revived the ancient Persian names, which are still used. 1 Farvardin is the day whose midnight start is nearest to the instant of vernal equinox. The first six months have 31 days, the next five thirty, and the twelfth has 29 days and 30 in leap years.

It specified the origin of the calendar to be the Hijrah of Muhammad from Mecca to Medina in AD 622. It also deprecated the 12-year cycles of the Chinese-Uighur calendar which were not officially sanctioned but were commonly used.

In 1976, Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi changed the origin of the calendar to the beginning of Cyrus the Great's reign as its first year, rather than the Hijra of Muhammad. Overnight, the year changed from 1355 to 2535. This change only lasted until the Iranian revolution in 1979, at which time the calendar reverted to Solar Hijri.

Correspondence of Solar Hijri and Gregorian calendars (Solar Hijri leap years are marked *):

title: Iranian calendars