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History of Montenegro

The early written records of the history of Montenegro begin with Illyria and its various kingdoms until the Roman Republic incorporated the region into the province of Illyricum (later Dalmatia and Praevalitana) after the Illyro-Roman Wars.

In the Early Middle Ages, Slavic migration led to several Slavic states. In the 9th century, there were three principalities on the territory of Montenegro: Duklja, roughly corresponding to the southern half, Travunia, the west, and Rascia, the north. In 1042, Stefan Vojislav led a revolt that resulted in the independence of Duklja and the establishment of the Vojislavljević dynasty. Duklja reached its zenith under Vojislav's son, Mihailo (1046–81), and his grandson Bodin (1081–1101). By the 13th century, Zeta had replaced Duklja when referring to the realm. In the late 14th century, southern Montenegro (Zeta) came under the rule of the Balšić noble family, then the Crnojević noble family, and by the 15th century, Zeta was more often referred to as Crna Gora (Venetian: monte negro).

Large portions fell under the control of the Ottoman Empire from 1496 to 1878. Parts were controlled by the Republic of Venice. From 1516 until 1852 the prince-bishops (vladikas) of Cetinje were the rulers. The House of Petrović-Njegoš ruled until 1918. From 1918, it was a part of Yugoslavia. On the basis of an independence referendum held on 21 May 2006, Montenegro declared independence on 3 June of that year.

Early history
Before the arrival of the Slavonic peoples in the Balkans during the 6th century AD, the area now known as Montenegro was inhabited principally by the Illyrians. During the Bronze Age, the Illirii, probably the southernmost Illyrian tribe of that time, that gave their name to the entire group were living near Skadar lake on the border of Albania and Montenegro and neighboring with the Greek tribes south. Along the seaboard of the Adriatic, the movement of peoples that was typical of the ancient Mediterranean world ensured the settlement of a mixture of colonists, traders, and those in search of territorial conquest. Substantial Greek colonies were established on the 6th and 7th centuries BC and Celts are known to have settled there in the 4th century BC. During the 3rd century BC, an indigenous Illyrian kingdom emerged with its capital at Scutari. The Romans mounted several punitive expeditions against local pirates and finally conquered the Illyrian kingdom in the 2nd century BC, annexing it to the province of Illyricum.

The division of the Roman Empire between Roman and Byzantine rule – and subsequently between the Latin and Greek churches – was marked by a line that ran northward from Shkodra through modern Montenegro, symbolizing the status of this region as a perpetual marginal zone between the economic, cultural, and political worlds of the Mediterranean. As Roman power declined, this part of the Dalmatian coast suffered from intermittent ravages by various semi-nomadic invaders, especially the Goths in the late 5th century and the Avars during the 6th century. These soon were supplanted by the Slavs, who became widely established in Dalmatia by the middle of the 7th century. Because the terrain was extremely rugged and lacked any major sources of wealth such as mineral riches, the area that is now Montenegro became a haven for residual groups of earlier settlers, including some tribes who had escaped Romanisation.

Middle Ages

In the second half of the 6th century, Slavs migrated from the Bay of Kotor to the River of Bojana and the hinterland of it as well as surround the Skadar lake. They formed the Principality of Doclea. Under the following missions of Cyril and Methodius, the population was Christianised. The Slavic tribes organised into a semi-independent dukedom of Duklja (Doclea) by the 9th century.

After facing subsequent Bulgarian domination, the people were split as the Doclean brother-archonts split the lands among each other after 900. Prince Časlav Klonimirović of the Serbian Vlastimirović dynasty extended his influence over Doclea in the 10th century. After the fall of the Serbian Realm in 960, the Docleans faced a renewed Byzantine occupation through to the 11th century. The local ruler, Jovan Vladimir Dukljanski, whose cult still remains in the Orthodox Christian tradition, was at the time struggling to ensure independence.

Stefan Vojislav started an uprising against the Byzantine domination and gained a huge victory against the army of several Byzantine strategoi in Tudjemili (Bar) in 1042, which put to an end the Byzantine influence over the Doclea. In the 1054 Great Schism, the Doclea fell on the side of the Catholic Church. Bar became a Bishopric in 1067. In 1077, Pope Gregory VII recognised Duklja as an independent state, acknowledging its King Mihailo (Michael, of the Vojislavljević dynasty founded by nobleman Stefan Vojislav) as Rex Doclea (King of Duklja). Later on Mihailo sent his troops, led by his son Bodin, in 1072 to assist the uprising of Slavs in Macedonia. In 1082, after numerous pleas the Bar Bishopric of Bar was upgraded to an Archbishopric.

The expansions of the Kings of the Vojislavljević dynasty led to the control over the other Slavic lands, including Zahumlje, Bosnia and Rascia. The might of the Doclea declined and they generally became subjected to the Grand Princes of Rascia in the 12th century. Stefan Nemanja was born in 1117 in Ribnica (today Podgorica). In 1168, as the Serbian Grand Zhupan, Stefan Nemanja took Doclea. In charters of Vranjina Monastery during the 14th century the ethnic groups which are mentioned were Albanians (Arbanas), Vlahs, Latins (Catholic citizen) and Serbs.

Duklja (Zeta) within the Nemanjić State (1186–1360)
The region of Duklja (Zeta) was ruled by the Nemanjić dynasty from c. 1186 until c. 1360. In this period Zeta was administered by members of the Serbian royalty as a crown land.

Zeta under the Balšići (1360–1421)

The Principality of Zeta was ruled by the house of Balšić from c. 1356 until 1421.

Zeta within the Serbian Despotate (1421–1451)
After the death of Balša III, last representative of House of Balšić, Zeta joined the Serbian Despotate in 1421.

Zeta under the Crnojevići (1451–1496)
The Principality of Zeta was ruled by the house of Crnojević Dynasty from c. 1451 until 1496. It is believed that the name Crna Gora (Montenegro) originated during their rule. The Crnojevići were driven out from Zeta by the Ottomans and forced to retreat above the Gulf of Kotor where they built a monastery and a royal court in Cetinje, the future royal capital of Montenegro, before eventually fleeing to Venice. In 1496, Ottomans conquered Zeta and consolidated it into the newly established Sanjak of Montenegro, thereby ending its principality.

The Venetian coastal Montenegro
After the dramatic fall of the Western Roman Empire (476), the romanised Illyrians of the coast of Dalmatia survived the barbarian invasions of the Avars in the 6th century and were only nominally under the influence of the Slavs in the 7th and 8th centuries. In the last centuries of the first millennium, these Romanised Illyrians started to develop their own neo-Latin language, called Dalmatian language, around their small coastal villages that were growing with maritime commerce.

Venice started to take control of the southern Dalmatia around the 10th century, quickly assimilating the Dalmatian language with Venetian. By the 14th century the Republic of Venice was able to create a territorial continuity around the Bay of Kotor (Cattaro).

Early modern period
The Republic of Venice dominated the coasts of today's Montenegro from 1420 to 1797. In those four centuries the area around the Cattaro (Kotor) became part of Venetian Albania.

Struggle for maintaining independence (1496–1878)
Part of today's Montenegro, called Sandžak (which was not historically part of Montenegro until 1912), was under direct Ottoman control from 1498 to 1912, while westernmost part of coastal Montenegro was under Venetian control and the rest of Montenegro was autonomous from 1516, when Vladika Vavila was elected as ruler of Montenegro by its clans, and licensed by the Ottoman Empire it became a theocratic state and not secular. Only small town centers like Cetinje and Njegusi were controlled by Ottomans, but mountains and rural area were autonomous and controlled by several Montenegrin clans, which were warrior societies, but paying a special tax to the Ottoman Empire.

In 1514, the Ottoman territory of Montenegro was proclaimed as a separate Sanjak of Montenegro, by the order of Sultan Beyazid II. The first Sanjak-beg (governor) who was chosen was Ivan Crnojević's son Staniša (Skenderbeg Crnojević), who converted to Islam, and governed until his death in 1528. Despite Skenderbeg's emphasized cruelty, the Ottomans did not have effective power in Montenegro. Vladika Vavil was elected in 1516 as Montenegrin prince-bishop by the Montenegrin people and the patriarch of Belgrade.

Elective Vladikas (1516–1696)
For 180 years after their first appointment, the Vladikas were elected by the Serbian Patriarchate of Peć and the clans — an arrangement which was ultimately abandoned in favour of the hereditary system in 1696. For most of this period the Montenegrin people were in constant struggle for its autonomy inside of the Ottoman Empire.

A pretender to Montenegrin throne, one of the Crnojević family who had converted to Islam, invaded Montenegro just as Staniša, thirty years before, and with the same result. Vukotić, the civil governor, repulsed the attack of Turks. Montenegrins, encouraged by the victory, besieged Jajce in modern-day Bosnia and Herzegovina, where the Hungarian garrison was closely hemmed in by the Ottoman army. The Turks were too much occupied with the Hungarian war to take revenge. The next Ottoman invasion of Montenegro took place in 1570. The national historians are silent upon the subject of the Haraç (tax in Ottoman Empire), which the invaders are said to have exacted from the inhabitants of the free mountains. The refusal of high-spirited Montenegrin clans to pay tax any longer was the cause of the Pasha's invasion during the reign of the Hadjuk Bishop Rufim, when the Turks were driven back with heavy loss in Battle of Lješkopolje in 1604. About 1500 Montenegrin warriors attacked the Turkish camp on Lješkopolje field during the night, which counted 10.000 Ottoman soldiers.

In 1613, Arslan Pasha gathered army of over 40,000 men to attack part of Old Montenegro. Ottoman soldiers were twice as numerous as whole population of Old Montenegro. On 10 September the Montenegrins met the Turkish army, on the same spot Skenderbeg Crnojević was defeated nearly a century ago. The Montenegrins, although assisted by some neighbouring tribes, counted 4000 and were completely outnumbered. However, the Montenegrins managed to defeat the Turks. Arslan Pasha was wounded, and the heads of his second-in-command and a hundred other Turkish officers were carried off and stuck on the ramparts of Cetinje. The Ottoman troops retreated in disorder; many were drowned in the waters of the Morača. Others were killed by Montenegrin pursuers.

Much light is thrown upon the condition of Montenegro at this period and the causes of its invariable success in war even against fearful odds are explained by the accounts of a contemporary writer, Mariano Bolizza. This author, a patrician of Venice, residing at Kotor in the early part of the seventeenth century, spent a considerable time in the Old Montenegro, and published in 1614 a description of Cetinje. At the time, the whole male population of Cetinje available for war consisted of 8,027 persons, distributed among ninety-three villages.

The condition of the country at this period was naturally unsettled. War was the chief occupation of its inhabitants from sheer necessity, and the arts of peace languished. The printing-press, so active a century earlier, had ceased to exist ; the control of the Prince-Bishop over the five nahije (, from the Turkish nahiyah, i.e. "district"), which then composed the principality, was weak; the capital itself consisted of only a few houses. Still, there was a system of local government. Each nahija was divided into tribes, each presided over by a chief , who acted as a judge in disputes between the tribesmen.

Modern history
Petar Petrović Njegoš, an influential vladika, reigned in the first half of the 19th century. In 1851 Danilo Petrović Njegoš became vladika, but in 1852 he married and renounced his ecclesiastical character, assuming the title of knjaz (Prince) Danilo I, and transformed his land into a secular principality.

Following the assassination of Danilo by Todor Kadić in Kotor, in 1860, the Montenegrins proclaimed Nicholas I as his successor on August 14 of that year. In 1861–1862, Nicholas engaged in an unsuccessful war against the Ottoman Empire.

Following the Herzegovinian Uprising, partly initiated by his clandestine activities, he yet again declared war on Turkey. The Serbia joined Montenegro, but it was defeated by Turkish forces that same year. Russia now joined in and decisively routed the Turks in 1877–78. The Treaty of San Stefano (March 1878) was highly advantageous to Montenegro, as well as Russia, Serbia, Romania and Bulgaria. However, the gains were somewhat trimmed by the Treaty of Berlin (1878). In the end Montenegro was internationally recognized as an independent state, its territory was effectively doubled by the addition of 1900 sqmi, the port of Bar and all the waters of Montenegro were closed to warships of all nations; and the administration of the maritime and sanitary police on the coast was placed in the hands of Austria.

Under Nicholas I the country was also granted its first constitution (1905) and was elevated to the rank of kingdom in 1910.

In the Balkan Wars (1912–1913), Montenegro did make further territorial gains by splitting Sanjak with Serbia. However, the captured city of Skadar had to be given up to the new state of Albania at the insistence of the Great Powers despite the Montenegrins having invested 10,000 lives for the conquest of the town from the Ottoman-Albanian forces of Essad Pasha Toptani.

World War I
Montenegro suffered severely in World War I. Shortly after Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia (28 July 1914), Montenegro lost little time in declaring war on the Central Powers – on Austria-Hungary in the first instance – on 6 August 1914, despite Austrian diplomacy promising to cede Shkoder to Montenegro if it remained neutral. For purposes of coordination in the fight against the enemy army, Serbian General Božidar Janković was named head of High Command of both Serbian and Montenegrin armies. Montenegro received 30 artillery pieces and financial help of 17 million dinars from Serbia. France contributed a colonial detachment of 200 men located in Cetinje at the beginning of war, as well as two radio-stations – located on top of Mount Lovćen and in Podgorica. Until 1915 France supplied Montenegro with necessary war material and food through the port of Bar, which was blockaded by Austrian battleships and submarines. In 1915 Italy took over this role, running supplies unsuccessfully and irregularly across the line Shengjin-Bojana-Lake Skadar, an unsecured route because of constant attacks by Albanian irregulars organised by Austrian agents. Lack of vital materials eventually led Montenegro to surrender.

Austria-Hungary dispatched a separate army to invade Montenegro and to prevent a junction of the Serbian and Montenegrin armies. This force, however, was repulsed, and from the top of the strongly fortified Lovćen, the Montenegrins carried on the bombardment of Kotor held by the enemy. The Austro-Hungarian army managed to capture the town of Pljevlja while on the other hand the Montenegrins took Budva, then under Austrian control. The Serbian victory at the Battle of Cer (15–24 August 1914) diverted enemy forces from Sandžak, and Pljevlja came into Montenegrin hands again. On August 10, 1914, the Montenegrin infantry delivered a strong attack against the Austrian garrisons, but they did not succeed in making good the advantage they first gained. They successfully resisted the Austrians in the second invasion of Serbia (September 1914) and almost succeeded in seizing Sarajevo. With the beginning of the third Austro-Hungarian invasion, however, the Montenegrin army had to retire before greatly superior numbers, and Austro-Hungarian, Bulgarian and German armies finally overran Serbia (December 1915). However, the Serbian army survived, and led by King Peter I of Serbia, started retreating across Albania. In order to support the Serbian retreat, the Montenegrin army, led by Janko Vukotić, engaged in the Battle of Mojkovac (6–7 January 1916). Montenegro also suffered a large scale invasion (January 1916) and for the remainder of the war remained in the possession of the Central Powers. See Serbian Campaign (World War I) for details. The Austrian officer Viktor Weber Edler von Webenau served as the military governor of Montenegro between 1916 and 1917. Afterwards Heinrich Clam-Martinic filled this position.

King Nicholas fled to Italy (January 1916) and then to Antibes, France; the government transferred its operations to Bordeaux. Eventually the Allies liberated Montenegro from the Austrians. A newly convened National Assembly of Podgorica (Podgorička skupština, Подгоричка скупштина), accused the King of seeking a separate peace with the enemy and consequently deposed him, banned his return and decided that Montenegro should join the Kingdom of Serbia on December 1, 1918. A part of the former Montenegrin military forces still loyal to the King started a rebellion against the amalgamation, the Christmas Uprising (7 January 1919).

Yugoslavia
In the period between the two World Wars, Nikola's grandson, King Alexander I dominated the Yugoslav government. In 1922 Montenegro became part of Zeta area and later Zeta Banate. The administrative seat of banate became former Montenegrin capital Cetinje. During this period, Montenegrin people were still divided between politics of Greens and Whites. The dominant political parties in Montenegro were Democratic Party, People's Radical Party, Communist Party of Yugoslavia, Alliance of Agrarians, Montenegrin Federalist Party, and the Yugoslav Republican Party. During this period, two main problems in Montenegro were lost sovereignty and bad economic situation. All of the parties except Federalists had the same attitude towards the first question, favoring centralism to federalism. The other question was more complex, but the fact on which all of the parties agreed is that the situation was far from good and that the government did nothing to improve the life in area. Devastated by war, Montenegro was never paid the reparations to which it had right as one of the Allies in the Great War. Most of the population lived in rural areas, but the smaller population of citizens had better standards of life. There was no infrastructure and industry was formed of few companies.

The puppet "Kingdom of Montenegro" and World War II
During World War II, Italy under Benito Mussolini occupied Montenegro in 1941 and annexed it to the Kingdom of Italy in the area of Kotor (Cattaro), where there was a small Venetian speaking population. (The Queen of Italy – Elena of Montenegro – was daughter of the former king of Montenegro and was born in Cetinje.)

The English historian Denis Mack Smith wrote that the Queen of Italy (considered the most influential Montenegrin woman in history) convinced her husband the King of Italy Victor Emmanuel III to impose on Mussolini the creation of an independent Montenegro, against the wishes of the fascist Croats and Albanians (who wanted to enlarge their countries with the Montenegrin territories). Her nephew Prince Michael of Montenegro never accepted the offered crown, pledging loyalty to his nephew King Peter II of Yugoslavia.

The puppet Kingdom of Montenegro was created under fascist control while Krsto Zrnov Popović returned from his exile in Rome in 1941 to attempt to lead the Zelenaši ("Green" party), who supported the reinstatement of the Montenegrin monarchy. This militia was called the Lovćen Brigade. Montenegro was ravaged by a terrible guerrilla war, mainly after Nazi Germany replaced the defeated Italians in September 1943.

During World War II, as was the case in many other parts of Yugoslavia, Montenegro was involved in some sort of civil war. Besides Montenegrin Greens, the two main factions were the Chetnik Yugoslav army, who swore allegiance to the government in exile and consisted mainly of Montenegrins who declared themselves as Serbs (many of its members were Montenegrin Whites) and Yugoslav Partisans, whose aim was the creation of a Socialist Yugoslavia after the war. Since both factions shared some similarities in their goals, particularly those relating to a unified Yugoslavia and anti-Axis resistance, the two sides joined hands and in 1941 started the 13th July uprising, the first organised uprising in occupied Europe. This occurred just two months after Yugoslavia capitulated, and liberated most of Montenegrin territory, but the rebels were unable to regain control of major towns and cities. After the failed attempts to liberate the towns of Pljevlja and Kolasin, the Italians, reinforced by Germans, recaptured all insurgent territory. At the leadership level, disagreements regarding state policy (Centralist monarchy vs. Federal Socialist republic) eventually led to a split between the two sides; they then became enemies from thereon. Constantly, both factions were trying to gain support among the population. The monarchist Chetniks had influential scholars and revolutionaries among their supporters, such as Blažo Đukanović, Zaharije Ostojić, Radojica Perišić, Petar Baćović, Mirko Lalatovic, and Bajo Stanišić, the hero of the anti-fascist uprising. However, eventually the Chetniks in Montenegro lost support among the population, as did other Chetnik factions within Yugoslavia. The de facto leader of the Chetniks in Montenegro, Pavle Djurisic, along with other prominent figures of the movement like Dusan Arsovic and Đorđe Lašić, were held responsible for massacres of Muslim population in eastern Bosnia and Sandzak during 1944. Their ideology of a homogeneous Serbia within Yugoslavia proved to be a major obstacle in recruiting liberals, minorities, and Montenegrins who regarded Montenegro as a nation with its own identity. These factors, in addition to the fact that some Chetniks were negotiating with the Axis, led to the Chetnik Yugoslav army losing support among the Allies in 1943. In the same year, Italy, who was until then in charge of the occupied zone, capitulated and was replaced by Germany, and the fighting continued.

Podgorica was liberated by the socialist Partisans on 19 December 1944, and the war of liberation had been won. Josip Broz Tito acknowledged Montenegro's massive contribution to the war against the Axis powers by establishing it as one of the six republics of Yugoslavia.

Montenegro within Socialist Yugoslavia
From 1945 to 1992, Montenegro became a constituent republic of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia; it was the smallest republic in the federation and had the lowest population. Montenegro became economically stronger than ever, since it gained help from federal funds as an under-developed Republic, and it became a tourist destination as well. After war years proved turbulent and were marked by political eliminations. Krsto Zrnov Popović, the leader of Greens was assassinated in 1947, and 10 years later, in 1957, the last Montenegrin Chetnik Vladimir Šipčić was also murdered. During this period Montenegrin Communists such as Veljko Vlahović, Svetozar Vukmanović-Tempo, Vladimir Popović and Jovo Kapicić held key positions in the federal government of Yugoslavia. In 1948 Yugoslavia faced the Tito–Stalin split, a period of high tensions between Yugoslavia and the USSR caused by disagreements about each country's influences on its neighbours, and the resolution of Informbiro. Political turmoil began within both the communist party and the nation. Pro-Soviet communists faced prosecution and imprisonment in various prisons across Yugoslavia, notably Goli Otok. Many Montenegrins, due to their traditional allegiance with Russia, declared themselves as Soviet-orientated. This political split in the communist party saw the downfall of many important communist leaders, including Montenegrins Arso Jovanović and Vlado Dapčević. Many of the people imprisoned during this period, regardless of nationality, were innocent – this was later recognised by the Yugoslav government. 1954 saw the expulsion of prominent Montenegrin politician Milovan Đilas from the communist party for criticising party leaders for forming a "new ruling class" within, Yugoslavia along with Peko Dapčević.

Through the second half of the 1940s and the whole of the 1950s, the country underwent infrastructural rejuvenation thanks to federal funding. Montenegro's historic capital Cetinje was replaced with Podgorica, which in the inter-war period became the biggest city in the Republic – although it was practically in ruins due to heavy bombing in the last stages of WW II. Podgorica had a more favorable geographical position within Montenegro, and in 1947 the seat of the Republic was moved to the city, now named Titograd in honor to Marshal Tito. Cetinje received the title of 'hero city' within Yugoslavia. Youth work actions built a railway between the two biggest cities of Titograd and Nikšić, as well as an embankment over Skadar lake linking the capital with the major port of Bar. The port of Bar was also rebuilt after being mined during the German retreat in 1944. Other ports that faced infrastructural improvement were Kotor, Risan and Tivat. In 1947 Jugopetrol Kotor was founded. Montenegro's industrialisation was demonstrated through the founding of the electronic company Obod in Cetinje, a steel mill and Trebjesa brewery in Nikšić, and the Podgorica Aluminium Plant in 1969.

Breakup of Yugoslavia and the Yugoslav Wars
The breakup of communist Yugoslavia (1991–1992) and the introduction of a multi-party political system found Montenegro with a young leadership that had risen to office only a few years earlier in the late 1980s.

In effect, three men ran the republic: Milo Đukanović, Momir Bulatović and Svetozar Marović; all swept into power during the anti-bureaucratic revolution — an administrative coup of sorts within the Yugoslav Communist party, orchestrated by younger party members close to Slobodan Milošević.

All three appeared devout communists on the surface, but they also had sufficient skills and adaptability to understand the dangers of clinging to traditional rigid old-guard tactics in changing times. So when the old Yugoslavia effectively ceased to exist and the multi-party political system replaced it, they quickly repackaged the Montenegrin branch of the old Communist party and renamed it the Democratic Party of Socialists of Montenegro (DPS).

The inheritance of the entire infrastructure, resources and membership of the old Communist party gave the DPS a sizable head start on their opponents in the newly formed parties. It allowed them to win the first multi-party parliamentary election held on 9 and 16 December 1990, and presidential elections held on 9 and 23 December 1990. The party has ruled Montenegro (either alone or as a leading member of different ruling coalitions).

During the early-to-mid-1990s Montenegro's leadership gave considerable support to Milošević's war-effort. Montenegrin reservists fought on the Dubrovnik front line, where Prime Minister Milo Đukanović visited them frequently.

In April 1992, following a referendum, Montenegro decided to join Serbia in forming the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY), which officially put the Second Yugoslavia to rest.

During the 1991–1995 Bosnian War and Croatian War, Montenegro participated with its police and military forces in the attacks on Dubrovnik, Croatia and Bosnian towns along with Serbian troops, aggressive acts aimed at acquiring more territories by force, characterized by a consistent pattern of gross and systematic violations of human rights. Montenegrin General Pavle Strugar has since been convicted for his part in the bombing of Dubrovnik. Bosnian refugees were arrested by Montenegrin police and transported to Serb camps in Foča, where they were subjected to systematic torture and executed.

In May 1992, the United Nations imposed an embargo on FRY: this affected many aspects of life in the country.

Due to its favourable geographical location (access to the Adriatic Sea and a water-link to Albania across Lake Skadar) Montenegro became a hub for smuggling activity. The entire Montenegrin industrial production had stopped, and the republic's main economic activity became the smuggling of user goods – especially those in short supply like petrol and cigarettes, both of which skyrocketed in price. It became a de facto legalized practice and it went on for years. At best, the Montenegrin government turned a blind eye to the illegal activity, but mostly it took an active part in it. Smuggling made millionaires out of all sorts of shady individuals, including senior government officials. Milo Đukanović continues to face actions in various Italian courts over his role in widespread smuggling during the 1990s and in providing safe haven in Montenegro for different Italian Mafia figures who also allegedly took part in the smuggling distribution chain.

Recent history (1996–present)
In 1997 a bitter dispute over presidential election results took place. It ended with Milo Đukanović winning over Momir Bulatović in a second-round run-off plagued with irregularities. Nonetheless, the authorities allowed the results to stand. Former close allies had by this time become bitter foes, which resulted in a near-warlike atmosphere in Montenegro for months during the autumn of 1997. It also split the Democratic Party of Socialists of Montenegro. Bulatović and his followers broke away to form the Socialist People's Party of Montenegro (SNP), staying loyal to Milošević, whereas Đukanović began to distance himself from Serbia. This distance from the policies of Milošević played a role in sparing Montenegro from the heavy bombing that Serbia endured in the spring of 1999 during the NATO air-campaign.

Đukanović came out a clear winner from this political fight, as he never lost power for even a day. Bulatović, on the other hand, never held office again in Montenegro after 1997 and eventually retired from politics in 2001.

During the Kosovo War, ethnic Albanians took refuge in Montenegro, but were still under threat by Serbian soldiers, who were able to take refugees back into Serbian controlled areas and imprison them.

In the spring of 1999, at the height of the NATO offensives, 21 Albanians died in several separate and unexplained incidents in Montenegro, according to the republic's prosecutor. Another group of around 60 Albanian refugees was fired upon in Kaludjerski Laz by Yugoslav Army members, leading to the death of six people, including a woman aged 80 and a child, killed in crossfire that allegedly came from three machine-gun posts of the then Yugoslav Army. In all, 23 Albanians were killed in Kaludjerski Laz, and Montenegrin prosecutors have charged 8 soldiers, among which is Predrag Strugar, son of convicted Montenegrin war criminal General Pavle Strugar, with "inhuman treatment against civilians". During the war Montenegro was bombed as part of NATO operations against Yugoslavia, though not as heavily as Serbia. The targets were mostly military ones such as Golubovci Airbase. In 2003, after years of wrangling and outside assistance, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia renamed itself as "Serbia and Montenegro" and officially reconstituted itself as a loose union. The State Union had a parliament and an army in common, and for three years (until 2006), neither Serbia nor Montenegro held a referendum on the break-up of the union. However, a referendum was announced in Montenegro to decide the future of the republic. The ballots cast in the controversial 2006 independence referendum resulted in a 55.5% victory for independence supporters, just above the 55% borderline mark set by the EU. Montenegro declared independence on 3 June 2006.

Independent Montenegro
On 28 June 2006, Montenegro joined the United Nations as its 192nd member state.

For 16 October 2016, the day of the parliamentary election, a coup d'état against the government of Milo Đukanović had been prepared, according to the Montenegrin Special Prosecutor. Fourteen people, including two Russian nationals and two Montenegrin opposition leaders, Andrija Mandić and Milan Knežević, were indicted for their alleged roles in the coup attempt on charges such as "preparing a conspiracy against the constitutional order and the security of Montenegro" and an "attempted terrorist act."

In June 2017, Montenegro formally became a member of NATO, an eventuality that had been rejected by about half of the country's population and had triggered a promise of retaliatory actions on the part of Russia's government.

In April 2018, Đukanović, the leader of the ruling Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS), won Montenegro’s presidential election. The veteran politician had served as Prime Minister six times and as President once before. He had dominated Montenegrin politics since 1991.

In September 2020, Đukanović's pro-Western Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) narrowly lost the parliamentary election after having led the country for 30 years. The opposition, For the Future of Montenegro (ZBCG) bloc, was composed mainly of Serb nationalist parties. The new pro-serbian government was formed by Prime Minister Zdravko Krivokapić. However, Prime Minister Zdravko Krivokapic's government was toppled in no-confidence vote after only 14 months in power. In April 2022, a new minority government, comprising moderate parties that are both pro-European and pro-Serb, was formed. The new government was led by Prime Minister Dritan Abazovic.

On 12 August 2022, a mass shooting occurred in Cetinje, which left ten people dead and six others injured. The gunman, identified as 34-year-old Vučko Borilović, was then shot and killed by an armed civilian after engaging in a gun battle with responding officers. It is the deadliest mass shooting in the history of Montenegro.

In March 2023, Jakov Milatović, a pro-western candidate of the Europe Now movement, won the presidential election run-off over incumbent Milo Đukanović to succeed him as the next President of Montenegro. On 20 May 2023, Milatović was sworn in as President of Montenegro. In June 2023, Europe Now movement won a snap parliamentary election. On 31 October 2023, Milojko Spajic of the Europe Now Movement became Montenegro's new prime minister, leading a coalition of  both pro-European and pro-Serb parties.

title: History of Montenegro


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List of cities in Montenegro

The following is a list of Montenegrin cities/towns. The table below contains the cities populations in 2023 census, and from the 2011 Montenegrin Census done my Montenegro Statistical Office.

List
This is a list of cities/towns in Montenegro:

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

title: List of cities in Montenegro


text:
Talk:Baton

Race
isn't a baton also the thingy you pass around in a relay race?

Police baton
"In recent years they have been all but replaced by more modern side-arm and telescopic batons." Most British Police carry a side-arm or telescopic baton? I don't think this is true.

Edward 01:32, 23 Mar 2004 (UTC)

The British police do indeed all carry modern batons now. Most forces have gone for extensible straight batons. A few forces use extensible side-handle batons and at least one (British Transport Police) use the rigid PR-24. Jonhallett 13:11, 6 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Dildo
Quote: A dildo is sometimes called a baton -- is this really relevant? Maikel (talk) 09:40, 16 January 2008 (UTC)

merge, or meta-article?
It seems like there are many baton articles for batons that are basically sticks (conductor, military, twirling). Why not have one article on the overall concept and then separate sections on each type? Or at least some summary article that links them all? TCO (talk) 18:40, 29 November 2010 (UTC)

title: Talk:Baton


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Men (disambiguation)

Men is the plural of man, an adult male human being.

Men or MEN may also refer to:

People

 * Men (name), list of people with either a given name or surname "Men"
 * Ordinary soldiers, as distinct from Officer (armed forces) grades

Films

 * Men (1924 film), a silent drama starring Pola Negri
 * Men (2022 film), a folk horror starring Jessie Buckley and Rory Kinnear
 * Men..., a 1985 West German comedy directed by Doris Dörrie

Music

 * MEN (band), a Brooklyn-based art-performance collective
 * "Men" (The Forester Sisters song), a 1991 single
 * Men (Charly McClain song), a 1980 song

Periodicals

 * Manchester Evening News, a regional daily newspaper in North West England
 * Men (magazine), a gay pornographic magazine

Other media

 * Man (Middle-earth), the fictional race of mortals in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth books
 * Men (kendo), one of the five strikes in kendo
 * Men (TV series), a 1989 American television series
 * Men.com, a gay pornographic website

Astronomy

 * Mensa (constellation), a constellation in the southern sky (by IAU abbreviation)
 * Chinese for the star Alpha Lupi

Religion

 * Men (deity), an ancient Phrygian god
 * Menachot, part of the Kodashim

Other uses

 * Menheniot railway station, Cornwall, England (GBR code: MEN)
 * Mentone railway station, Melbourne
 * Ministry of National Education (Madagascar), Le Ministre de l’Éducation Nationale
 * Ministry of National Education (Poland)
 * Multiple endocrine neoplasia, a medical condition with tumors of endocrine glands
 * Men (Armenian letter), part of the Armenian alphabet

title: Men (disambiguation)


text:
Talk:Primary sex characteristics

I think this is just wrong. AFAIK, Primary sexual characteristics == stuff directly involved in reproduction == sex organ. Whether it was present from birth is an irrelevance, which is why colour blindness is not a primary sexual characteristic... Martin

 * Why not redirect instead to primary sex characteristic. GilliamJF 14:45, 3 May 2006 (UTC)

title: Talk:Primary sex characteristics


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Menarche

Menarche is the first menstrual cycle, or first menstrual bleeding, in female humans. From both social and medical perspectives, it is often considered the central event of female puberty, as it signals the possibility of fertility.

Girls experience menarche at different ages. Having menarche occur between the ages of 9–14 in the West is considered normal. Canadian psychological researcher Niva Piran claims that menarche or the perceived average age of puberty is used in many cultures to separate girls from activity with boys, and to begin transition into womanhood.

The timing of menarche is influenced by female biology, as well as genetic and environmental factors, especially nutritional factors. The mean age of menarche has declined over the last century, but the magnitude of the decline and the factors responsible remain subjects of contention. The worldwide average age of menarche is very difficult to estimate accurately, and it varies significantly by geographical region, race, ethnicity and other characteristics, and occurs mostly during a span of ages from 8 to 16, with a small percentage of girls having menarche by age 10, and the vast majority having it by the time they were 14. There is a later age of onset in Asian populations compared to the West, but it too is changing with time. For example a Korean study in 2011 showed an overall average age of 12.7, with around 20% before age 12, and more than 90% by age 14. A Chinese study from 2014 published in Acta Paediatrica showed similar results (overall average of age 12.8 in 2005 down to age 12.3 in 2014) and a similar trend in time, but also similar findings about ethnic, cultural, and environmental effects.

The average age of menarche was about 12.7 years in Canada in 2001, and 12.9 in the United Kingdom. A study of girls in Istanbul, Turkey, in 2011 found the median age at menarche to be 12.7 years. In the United States, an analysis of 10,590 women aged 15–44 taken from the 2013–2017 round of the CDC's National Survey of Family Growth found a median age of 11.9 years (down from 12.1 in 1995), with a mean of 12.5 years (down from 12.6).

Puberty
Menarche is the culmination of a series of physiological and anatomic processes of puberty:
 * Attainment of a sufficient body mass (typically 17% body fat).
 * Disinhibition of the GnRH pulse generator in the arcuate nucleus of the hypothalamus.
 * Secretion of estrogen by the ovaries in response to pituitary hormones.
 * Over an interval of about 2 to 3 years, estrogen stimulates growth of the uterus (as well as height growth, breast growth, widening of the pelvis, and increased regional adipose tissue).
 * Estrogen stimulates growth and vascularity of the endometrium, the lining of the uterus.
 * Fluctuations of hormone levels can result in changes of adequacy of blood supply to parts of the endometrium.
 * Death of some of the endometrial tissue from these hormone or blood supply fluctuations leads to deciduation, a sloughing of part of the lining with some blood flow from the vagina.

No specific hormonal signal for menarche is known; menarche as a discrete event is thought to be the relatively chance result of the gradual thickening of the endometrium induced by rising but fluctuating pubertal estrogen.

The menstruum, or flow, consists of a combination of fresh and clotted blood with endometrial tissue. The initial flow of menarche is usually brighter than mature menstrual flow. It is often scanty in amount and may be very brief, even a single instance of "spotting". Like other menses, menarche may be accompanied by abdominal cramping.

Relation to fertility
In most girls, menarche does not mean that ovulation has occurred. In postmenarchal girls, about 80% of the cycles were anovulatory in the first year after menarche, 50% in the third and 10% in the sixth year. Regular ovulation is usually indicated by predictable and consistent intervals between menses, predictable and consistent durations of menses, and predictable and consistent patterns of flow (e.g., heaviness or cramping). Continuing ovulation typically requires a body fat content of at least 22%. An anthropological term for this state of potential fertility is nubility.

On the other hand, not every girl follows the typical pattern, and some girls ovulate before the first menstruation. Although unlikely, it is possible for a girl who has engaged in sexual intercourse shortly before her menarche to conceive and become pregnant, which would delay her menarche until after the end of the pregnancy. This goes against the widely held assumption that a woman cannot become pregnant until after menarche. A young age at menarche is not correlated with a young age at first sexual intercourse.

Onset
When menarche occurs, it confirms that the girl has had a gradual estrogen-induced growth of the uterus, especially the endometrium, and that the "outflow tract" from the uterus, through the cervix to the vagina, is open.

When a woman experiences menarche, the blood flow can vary from a slow and spotty discharge to a consistent blood flow for 3–7 days. While the color of the blood does range from a brown to bright red color, this is normal; some women have light periods while others have heavy ones; no two women will have an identical experience.

In very rare instances, menarche may occur at an unusually early age, preceding thelarche and other signs of puberty. This is termed isolated premature menarche, but other causes of vaginal bleeding must be investigated and excluded. Growth is usually normal. Isolated premature menarche is rarely the first manifestation of precocious puberty.

When menarche has failed to occur for more than three years after thelarche, or beyond 16 years of age, the delay is referred to as primary amenorrhea.

Chronic illness
Certain systemic or chronic illness can delay menarche, such as undiagnosed and untreated celiac disease (which often occurs without gastrointestinal symptoms), asthma, diabetes mellitus type 1, cystic fibrosis and inflammatory diseases, among others. In some cases, because biochemical tests are not always discriminatory, underlying pathologies are not identified and the girl is classified as constitutional growth delay. Short stature, delayed growth in height and weight, and/or delayed menarche may be the only clinical manifestations of celiac disease, in absence of any other symptoms. According to a review article, there may also be an association between early age at menarche and breast cancer risk.

Conditions and disease states
Studies have been conducted to observe the association of the timing of menarche with various conditions and diseases. Some studies have shown that there may be an association between early or late-age menarche and cardiovascular disease, although the mechanism of the association is not well understood. A systematic review has concluded that early age at menarche is also a risk factor for the insulin resistance condition. There is conflicting evidence regarding the association between obesity and timing of menarche; a meta-analysis and systematic review has determined that more studies must be conducted to make any definitive conclusions about this association.

Effects of stress and social environment
Some of the aspects of family structure and function reported to be independently associated with earlier menarche [antenatal and early childhood]
 * Being non-white (in the UK)
 * Having experienced pre-eclampsia in the womb
 * Being a singleton, i.e. not a twin, triplet, etc.
 * Low birthweight
 * Not having been breast-fed
 * Previous exposure to smoking
 * High-conflict family relationships
 * Increased incidence of childhood obesity.
 * Lack of exercise in childhood

Other research has focused on the effect of childhood stress on timing of puberty, especially female. Stress is a vague term and studies have examined conditions ranging from family tensions or conflict to wartime refugee status with threat to physical survival. The more dire social conditions have been found to be associated with delay of maturation, an effect that may be compounded by dietary inadequacy. There is more uncertainty and mixed evidence as to whether milder degrees of stress or early-life under-nutrition can accelerate puberty in girls as would be predicted by life history theory and demonstrated in many other mammals.

The understanding of these environmental effects is incomplete and the following observations and cautions are relevant:
 * Mechanisms of these social effects are unknown, though a variety of physiological processes, including pheromones, have been suggested based on animal research.
 * Most of these "effects" are statistical associations revealed by epidemiologic surveys. Statistical associations are not necessarily causal, and a variety of secondary variables and alternative explanations can be possibly intervening. Effects of such small size can never be confirmed or refuted for any individual child.
 * Despite the small magnitude of effect, interpretations of the data are politically controversial because of the ease with which this type of research can be used for political advocacy. Accusations of bias based on political agenda sometimes accompany scientific criticism.
 * Correlation does not imply causation. While correlation can be objectively measured, causation is statistically inferred. Some suggest that childhood stress is caused by precocious puberty recognized later, rather than being the cause of it.

Changes in time of average age
There were few systematic studies of timing of menarche before the later half of the 20th century. Most older estimates of average timing of menarche were based on observation of a small homogeneous population not necessarily representative of the larger population, or based on recall by adult women, which is also susceptible to various forms of error. Most sources agree that the average age of menarche in girls in modern societies has declined, though the reasons and the degree remain subjects of controversy. From the sixth to the fifteenth centuries in Europe, most women reached menarche on average at about 14, between the ages of 12 and 15. The average age of menarche dropped from 14-15 years in the nineteenth century to 12-13 years in the present, but it seems that girls in the nineteenth century had a later age at menarche compared to girls in earlier centuries. A large North American survey reported only a 2–3 month decline from the mid-1970s to the mid-1990s. A 2011 study found that each 1 kg/m2 increase in childhood body-mass index (BMI) can be expected to result in a 6.5% higher absolute risk of early menarche (before age 12 years).

This is called the secular trend.

Fewer than 10% of U.S. girls start to menstruate before 11 years of age, and 90% of all U.S. girls are menstruating by 13.8 years of age, with a median age of 12.4 years. This age at menarche is not much different (0.3 years earlier) than that reported for U.S. girls in 1973. Age at menarche for non-Hispanic black girls was significantly earlier than that of white girls at 10%, 25%, and 50% of those who had attained menarche, whereas non-white Mexican American girls were only slightly earlier than the white girls at 25%.

Culture
Menstruation is a cultural as well as scientific phenomenon as many societies have specific rituals and cultural norms associated with it. These rituals typically begin at menarche and some are enacted during each menstruation cycle. The rituals are important in determining a status change for girls. Upon menarche and completion of the ritual, they have become a woman as defined by their culture.

For young women in many cultures, the first menstruation is a marker that signifies a change in status. Post-menarche, the young woman enters a stage called maidenhood, the stage between menarche and marriage. There are cultures that have in past centuries, and in present, practiced rites of passage for a girl experiencing menarche.

Celebratory ceremonies
In some cultures, a party, or celebration is thrown to show the girl's transition to womanhood. This party is similar to the quinceañera in Latin America, except that a specific age marks the transition rather than menarche. In Morocco, the girl is thrown a celebration. All of her family members are invited and the girl is showered with money and gifts.

When a Japanese girl had her first period, the family sometimes celebrated by eating red-colored rice and beans (sekihan). The color of blood and the red of sekihan are not related. All the rice of ancient times of Japan was red. Since rice was precious in ancient Japan (usually, millet was eaten), it was eaten only during the celebration. Sekihan was the tradition of an ancient custom. The celebration was kept a secret from extended family until the rice was served.

In some Indian communities, young women are given a special menarche ceremony called Ruthu Sadangu.

The Mescalero Apaches place high importance on their menarche ceremony and it is regarded as the most important ritual in their tribe. Each year, there is an eight-day event celebrating all of the girls who have menstruated in the past year. The days are split between feasting and private ceremonies reflecting on their new womanly status.

Rituals of learning
In Australia, the Aboriginals treat a girl to "love magic". She is taught the ways of womanhood by the other women in her tribe. Her mother builds her a menstruation hut to which she confines herself for the remainder of her menses. The hut is burned and she is bathed in the river at the end of menstruation. When she returns to the village, she is paired with a man who will be her husband.

In the United States, some public schools have a sex education program that teaches girls about menstruation and what to expect at the onset of menarche (often this takes place during the fourth grade). Historically menstruation has been a social taboo and girls were taught about menarche and menstruation by their mothers or a female role model. Then, and to an extent now, menstruation was a private matter and a girl's menarche was not a community phenomenon.

Rituals of cleansing or purification
The Ulithi tribe of Micronesia call a girl's menarche kufar. She goes to a menstrual house, where the women bathe her and recite spells. She will have to return to the menstruation hut every time she menstruates. Her parents build her a private hut that she will live in until she is married.

In Sri Lanka, an astrologer is contacted to study the alignment of stars when the girl experiences menarche because it is believed that her future can be predicted. The women of the family then gather in her home and scrub her in a ritual bathing ceremony. Her family then throws a familial party at which the girl wears white and may receive gifts.

In Ethiopia, Beta Jewish women were separated from male society and sent to menstruation huts during menarche and every menstruation following as the blood associated with menstruation in the Beta Jewish culture was believed to be impure. The Beta Jews built their villages surrounding and near bodies of water specifically for their women to have a place to clean themselves. The menstruation huts were built close to these bodies of water.

Rituals of transformation and scarification
In Nigeria, the Tiv ethnic group cut four lines into the abdomen of their girls during menarche. The lines are supposed to represent fertility.

Rituals of strength
The Navajo have a celebration called kinaalda (kinn-all-duh). Girls are expected to demonstrate their strength through footraces. The girls make a cornmeal pudding for the tribe to taste. The girls who experience menarche wear special clothes and style their hair like the Navajo goddess "Changing Woman".

The Nuu-chah-nulth (also known as the Nootka) believe that physical endurance is the most important quality in young women. At menarche the girl is taken out to sea and left there to swim back.

Movies and TV
In the horror movie Carrie (1976), an adaptation of the Stephen King novel of the same name, protagonist Carrie White experiences her first period as she showers after the school gym class. Unaware of what is happening to her, she panics and pleads for help, but the other girls respond by bullying her. Carrie's first period unleashes her violent powers and is central to her dangerous and out of control transformation. This theme is common to horror movies, another notable example being the Canadian horror movie Ginger Snaps (2000), where the protagonist's first period is central to her gradual transformation into a werewolf. The theme of transformation around the menarche is similarly present in Turning Red (2022), although the film also explores other aspects of puberty as a whole and the protagonist does not actually start her first period. Girls experiencing their first period is part of many movies, particularly ones that include coming-of-age plot lines, such as The Blue Lagoon (1980), The Company of Wolves (1984), An Angel at My Table (1990), My Girl (1991), Return to the Blue Lagoon (1991), Eve’s Bayou (1997), and A Walk on the Moon (1999). Menarche is also discussed in an episode of the animated series Baymax! (2022) in which the eponymous healthcare robot helps a girl deal with her first period.

title: Menarche


text:
User:Caid Raspa

Fields of interest: Astronomy and Astrophysics, especially High-Energy astrophysics and X-ray astronomy. I'm doing my PhD on High-energy astrophysics, so some articles will be coming up. I have also a wide range of other interests, major ones being politics and history.

title: User:Caid Raspa


text:
M6 motorway

The M6 motorway is the longest motorway in the United Kingdom. It is located entirely within England, running for just over 230 mi from the Midlands to the border with Scotland. It begins at Junction 19 of the M1 and the western end of the A14 at the Catthorpe Interchange, near Rugby before heading north-west. It passes Coventry, Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Stoke-on-Trent, Preston, Lancaster and Carlisle before terminating at Junction 45 near Gretna. Here, just short of the Scottish border it becomes the A74(M) which continues to Glasgow as the M74. Its busiest sections are between junctions 4 and 10a in the West Midlands, and junctions 16 to 19 in Cheshire; these sections have now been converted to smart motorways.

It incorporated the Preston By-pass, the first length of motorway opened in the UK and forms part of a motorway "Backbone of Britain", running north–south between London and Glasgow via the industrial North of England. It is also part of the east–west route between the Midlands and the east-coast ports. The section from the M1 to the M6 Toll split near Birmingham forms part of the unsigned E-road E 24 and the section from the M6 Toll and the M42 forms part of E 05.

Route
The M6 motorway runs from junction 19 of the M1 and the A14 in Catthorpe near Rugby in central England. It passes Coventry, Birmingham, Stafford, Wolverhampton and Stoke-on-Trent. The motorway has major junctions with the M56 and M62 near Warrington, giving access to Chester, Manchester and Liverpool. It also meets the M65 at Junction 29, south of Preston, which connects Blackburn and Burnley, and the M55 at junction 32, north of Preston which links it to Blackpool. The M6 then heads north past Wigan, Preston and Lancaster. After the latter two cities it passes through Cumbria with some parts very close to the edge of the Lake District with a short stretch within the national park boundaries and then passes Carlisle on its way to Gretna, before the motorway becomes the A74(M) a few hundred metres short of the Scottish border.

Planning and construction
The first section of the motorway and the first motorway in the country was the Preston By-pass. It was built by Tarmac Construction and opened by the Prime Minister Harold Macmillan on 5 December 1958. In January 1959 the Preston by-pass was closed because of rapid surface deterioration over a stretch of 100 yd "due to water freezing and then thawing". Motorists were diverted to the old road while the UK road research laboratory at Harmondsworth pondered the importance of surface water drainage.

The second phase of construction was completed in 1960, forming the Lancaster by-pass. Some 100 mi south, the Stafford by-pass was completed in 1962. By 1965, the remaining sections of motorway Stafford–Preston and Preston–Lancaster had been completed. 1966 saw junction 11 to 13 completed. 1968 saw the completion of the Walsall to Stafford link as well as the Penrith by-pass some 150 mi north in Cumberland. In 1970, the Lancaster–Penrith link was completed, along with a short section of motorway by-passing the south of Walsall. The most northerly section of the motorway also opened in 1970, running to the designated terminus north of Carlisle. By 1971 the full route was completed between the junction with the M1 motorway at Rugby and the A38 road several miles north-east of Birmingham city centre, including Bromford Viaduct between Castle Bromwich (J5) and Gravelly Hill (J6), which at 3.5 mi is the longest viaduct in Great Britain.

Junction 6 in Birmingham, which opened in May 1972, is widely known as Spaghetti Junction because of its complexity and round and curvy-like design. On the elevated ground between Shap and Tebay, the north and south-bound carriages split apart. At this point a local road (to Scout Green) runs between the two carriageways without a link to the motorway.

The section of the M6 that runs over Shap Fell in Cumbria at Shap Summit is 1036 ft above sea level, one of the highest points on any motorway in the UK (Junction 22 of the M62 on Moss Moor is higher). The motorway engineers here chose to follow the route of the Lancaster and Carlisle Railway engineered by Joseph Locke (now part of the West Coast Main Line) where the motorway runs in a split-level cutting above the railway in the descent from Shap Fell through the Lune Gorge into southern Cumbria.

The northbound entry slip road at Lancaster (Junction 34) was unusually short, presenting problems for traffic joining the motorway. The M6 crosses the River Lune at this point and unless the bridge had been made wider, there was no space to build a longer slip road. This junction was upgraded from an earlier emergency-vehicles-only access point, which explains the substandard design. The construction of the Heysham to M6 Link Road (The Bay Gateway) has completely re-modelled this junction with a wide additional bridge over the River Lune and other works repositioning slip roads with new acceleration lanes to modern standards.

The route was originally intended to replace the old A6, which it does along the northern section starting with the Preston Bypass. However, a much closer approximation to the overall actual route of the M6 (heading north from its southern terminus) is provided by following the A45, A34, A50, A49, then the A6. South of Preston, the A6 route is instead supplemented by the M61 as far as Manchester, with the M60 acting as a bypass around the city. South of Manchester, there is no true motorway replacement for the old road. The M1 acts as a bypass for long-distance traffic in the south, from the Kegworth junction near Nottingham, to Luton and St. Albans near London; but, it is not an alternative for local traffic as the routes diverge by more than 15 mi while passing through Northamptonshire. Across the Pennines, the old road remains the main local through-route, and long-distance fast traffic between Derby and Manchester must instead take either the A50 and M6, or M1 and M62.

Once all sections of the motorway were constructed, and it was finally all linked together, the result was an uninterrupted motorway length of 230 mi.

Operational

In July 1972, the Minister for Transport Industries, John Peyton, announced that 86 mi of UK motorway particularly prone to fog would benefit from lighting in a project which "should be" completed by 1973. Sections to be illuminated included the M6 between junctions 10 and 11, and between junctions 20 and 27.

In March 2006, after 15 years of debate, the government authorised the construction of a 6 mi extension of the M6 from its then northern terminus near Carlisle to the Anglo-Scottish border at Gretna (the so-called "Cumberland Gap"), where it links into the existing A74(M). The road opened on 5 December 2008, the 50th anniversary of the M6 Preston By-pass. The project, which was a mixture of new road and upgrade of the existing A74, crosses the West Coast Main Line and had an estimated costs of £174 million. It completed an uninterrupted motorway from just south of Dunblane (via the M9, the recently opened M80 section near Cumbernauld and the M73) in the north to Exeter (via the M5) and to London (via both the M42/M40 and the M1) in the south.

The M6 Toll, Britain's first toll motorway, which bypasses the West Midlands conurbation to the east and north of Birmingham and Walsall and was built to alleviate traffic congestion through the West Midlands, opened in December 2003. Before the opening of the toll motorway, this section of the M6 carried 180,000 vehicles per day at its busiest point near Wolverhampton (between the junctions with the M54 and M5 motorways), compared with a design capacity of only 72,000 vehicles. Usage, at about 50,000 vehicles, was lower than expected and traffic levels on the M6 were only slightly reduced as a result. The high toll prices, which were set by the operating company and over which the UK Government has no influence until 2054, were blamed for the low usage. Much traffic continues to use the M6 or the continued on the M1 and took the A50 or A52. the road between Junctions 3A and 11A now carries 120,000 motor vehicles every day.

A proposed extension to the M6 Toll known as the 'M6 Expressway', which would have continued from the M6 Toll as far as Knutsford, at which point much of the existing M6 traffic leaves the M6 for Manchester, was abandoned in 2006 due to excessive costs, anticipated construction problems and disappointing levels of use of the M6 Toll.

In October 2007, following a successful trial on the M42 in the West Midlands, the government announced that two stretches of the M6 would be upgraded to allow the hard shoulder to be used as a normal running lane during busy conditions under a scheme called active traffic management. The two stretches, between junctions 4 and 5 and between junctions 10a and 8, are two of the busiest sections on the entire motorway. It was then proposed that the system could be extended onto other stretches of the M6 while the government undertook a feasibility study to determine other likely locations for this technology to be used. The stretch between junctions 4 and 5 was completed during December 2009 while the stretch between junctions 10a and 8 was completed during March 2011. This was then followed by a stretch between junctions 5 and 8 which started construction in April 2012 and was completed in October 2014.

After plans of the government to improve reliability and capacity between Junctions 11 by Cannock and Junction 19 near Knutsford it favoured a new motorway in 2004, 'The Expressway' following a roughly parallel course to the existing M6. In July 2006, the government announced its decision to abandon the Expressway proposal, and favoured widening accompanied by demand-management measures, and launched a study to consider options for providing additional capacity. After the stretch between junction 10a and 13 was upgraded to a managed motorway in February 2016, it was then proposed to introduce a managed motorway between junction 13 and 19, later divided into two separate stretches, between junctions 16 and 19 and junctions 13 and 15. The stretch between junctions 16 and 19 started construction in December 2015 and was completed in March 2019 while construction on the stretch between junctions 13 and 15 commenced in March 2018 and was completed in August 2022.

In April 2021, the M6 gained the first motorway service station to be built for thirteen years. Located off Junction 1 at Rugby and opened on 30 April 2021, the facility, run by Moto Hospitality, includes the largest electric vehicle charging facility in the UK, run by Ecotricity and Gridserve.

J10 improvements
Work started in 2020 to reconstruct the bridges above the motorway at junction 10, due to frequent congestion at peak times, due to be completed in 2024 at a cost of £78,000,000.

J4 to J10A Dynamic Hard Shoulder enhancements
Work started in March 2022 to upgrade the existing Dynamic Hard Shoulder smart motorway to add newer safety features to the motorway, such as a concrete central reservation, new emergency areas and drainage improvements. Currently, this work does not have an end date proposed.

J21A to J26 smart motorway
Work started in early 2021 to upgrade the M6 from junction J21A to J26 to the all lane running standard of smart motorway, with an estimated cost of between £100 million - £250 million. The smart motorway was originally due to be fully open in 2023, but is now delayed until 2025.

Junctions
Data from driver location signs are used to provide distance and carriageway identifier information. Where a junction spans several hundred metres (yards) and the start and end distances are known, both distances are shown.

 * Notes

Legislation
Each motorway in England requires that a statutory instrument be published, detailing the route of the road, before it can be built. The dates given on these statutory instruments relate to when the document was published, and not when the road was built. Provided below is an incomplete list of statutory instruments relating to the route of the M6.

 * Statutory Instrument 1987 No. 252: County Council of West Midlands (M6 Motorway Junction 10) (Connecting Road) Scheme 1985 Confirmation Instrument 1987
 * Statutory Instrument 1987 No. 2254: M6 Motorway (Catthorpe Interchange) Connecting Roads Scheme 1987
 * Statutory Instrument 1990 No. 2659: M6 Motorway: Widening between Junctions 20 and 21A (Thelwall Viaduct) and Connecting Roads Scheme 1990
 * Statutory Instrument 1991 No. 1873: M6 Motorway (Widening and Improvements Between Junctions 30 and 32) and Connecting Roads Scheme 1991
 * Statutory Instrument 1993 No. 1370: Lancashire County Council (Proposed Connecting Roads to M6 Motorway at Haighton) Special Roads Scheme 1992 Confirmation Instrument 1993
 * Statutory Instrument 1997 No. 1292: M6 Birmingham to Carlisle Motorway (At Haighton) Connecting Roads Scheme 1997
 * Statutory Instrument 1997 No. 1293: M6 Birmingham To Carlisle Motorway (at Haighton) Special Roads Scheme 1997 Transfer Order 1997
 * Statutory Instrument 1998 No. 125: The M6 Motorway (Saredon and Packington Diversions) Scheme 1998

title: M6 motorway


text:
Marc Garneau

Joseph Jean-Pierre Marc Garneau (born February 23, 1949) is a retired Canadian Member of Parliament, retired Royal Canadian Navy officer and former astronaut who served as a Cabinet minister from 2015 to 2021. A member of the Liberal Party, Garneau was the minister of foreign affairs from January to October 2021 and minister of transport from November 2015 to January 2021. He was an MP in Westmount, Montreal for 15 years.

Prior to entering politics, Garneau served as a naval officer and was selected as an astronaut, part of the 1983 NRC Group. On October 5, 1984, he became the first Canadian in outer space as part of STS-41-G and served on two subsequent Space Shuttle missions—STS-77 and STS-97.

Early life
Joseph Jean-Pierre Marc Garneau was born on February 23, 1949, in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. He attended primary and secondary schools in Quebec City and Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu. He also has a brother, Philippe Garneau.

Education and military career
Garneau graduated from the Royal Military College of Canada in 1970 with a bachelor of science in engineering physics and began his career in the Canadian Forces Maritime Command.

In 1973 he received a PhD in electrical engineering from the Imperial College of Science and Technology in London, England. His thesis was entitled "The Perception of Facial Images". The Photofit analogue computer was used by him to discriminate facial features.

In 1974, Garneau served as a naval combat systems engineer aboard HMCS Algonquin (DDG 283).

From 1982 to 1983, he attended the Canadian Forces Command and Staff College in Toronto. While there, he was promoted to the rank of commander and was transferred to Ottawa in 1983. In January 1986, he was promoted to captain(N). Garneau retired from the Canadian Forces in 1989.

Space career
Garneau was one of six first Canadian Astronauts and he became the first Canadian in outer space on October 5, 1984. In 1984, he was seconded to the new Canadian Astronaut Program (CAP), one of six chosen from over 4,000 applicants; of these six he was the only military officer.

Garneau flew on the Space Shuttle Challenger, STS-41-G from October 5 to 13, 1984, as payload specialist. He was promoted to captain(N) in 1986, and left the Canadian Forces in 1989, to become deputy director of the CAP. In 1992–93, he underwent further training to become a mission specialist. He worked as CAPCOM for a number of shuttle flights and was on two further flights himself: STS-77 (May 19 to 29, 1996) and STS-97 (to the ISS, November 30 to December 11, 2000). He has logged over 677 hours in space.

In February 2001, Garneau was appointed executive vice-president of the Canadian Space Agency, and became its president on November 22, 2001.

Political career
Garneau served as the member of Parliament (MP) for the Montreal riding of Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Westmount, and its predecessor Westmount—Ville-Marie since the 2008 federal election, winning by over 9,000 votes. He was re-elected to the House of Commons in the 2011 federal election by 642 votes, and in the 2015 federal election with a majority of over 18,000. Previously, he unsuccessfully stood in the riding of Vaudreuil-Soulanges at the 2006 federal election.

On November 28, 2012, Garneau announced his candidacy for the leadership of the Liberal Party to be decided in April 2013. On March 13, 2013, Garneau formally withdrew his bid for the party leadership. On November 4, 2015, Garneau was appointed as Minister of Transport in the 29th Canadian Ministry. He became Minister of Foreign Affairs on January 12, 2021 after a cabinet reshuffle.

Initial steps (2006–2008)
Garneau resigned as the president of the Canadian Space Agency to run for the Liberal Party of Canada in the 2006 federal election in the riding of Vaudreuil—Soulanges, which was then held by Meili Faille of the Bloc Québécois. The Liberal Party's support dropped off considerably in Quebec after the Sponsorship scandal and though considered a star candidate, Garneau lost to Faille by over nine thousand votes.

In the 2006 Liberal Party leadership election Garneau announced his support for perceived front-runner Michael Ignatieff, who lost to Stéphane Dion on the final ballot. With the resignation of Liberal MP Jean Lapierre in 2007, Garneau expressed interest in being the party's candidate in Lapierre's former riding of Outremont. Dion instead appointed Jocelyn Coulon as the party's candidate, who went on to be defeated by the New Democratic Party's Thomas Mulcair in the by-election.

In May 2007, Garneau filed nomination papers to be the party's candidate in Westmount—Ville-Marie, after former Liberal Party deputy leader Lucienne Robillard announced she would not be seeking re-election. However, a week after filing his nomination papers Dion announced that he had hand-picked a candidate for the riding. Garneau later withdrew his nomination papers and announced he no longer had an interest in politics. In October 2007, Garneau and Dion held a joint news conference where they announced that Garneau would be the Liberal Party candidate in Westmount—Ville-Marie. Robillard announced her resignation as Member of Parliament in January and a by-election was later scheduled for September 8, 2008. However, the by-election was cancelled during the campaign when Prime Minister Stephen Harper called a general election for October 14, 2008. Though some pundits predicted a close race between Garneau and NDP candidate Anne Lagacé-Dowson, Garneau went on to win the riding by over 9,000 votes.

Member of 40th Parliament
Garneau was a member of the Industry, Science and Technology committee of the 40th Parliament. He also served on the Canada-Japan interparliamentary group.

41st Parliament and leadership campaign
Garneau was narrowly re-elected in the 2011 election where he beat New Democratic Party candidate Joanne Corbeil. He was Liberal House leader and served from 2013 as Liberal foreign affairs critic. He was a candidate for interim leadership of the Liberal Party, but was ultimately defeated by Bob Rae. Garneau announced later that year that he was considering a bid for the permanent leadership of the party. In the summer of 2012, he announced that he was looking for a "dream team" to run his leadership bid and that he would only run if he could find the right people.

On November 21, 2012, Garneau was named his party's natural resources critic after David McGuinty resigned the post.

On November 28, 2012, Garneau announced his bid for the leadership of the Liberal Party, placing a heavy focus on the economy. While fellow leadership candidate Justin Trudeau was widely seen as the front-runner in the race, Garneau was thought to be his main challenger among the candidates. With his entrance into the leadership race he resigned his post as Liberal House leader, while remaining the party's critic for natural resources.

At the press conference announcing his candidacy Garneau ruled out any form of co-operation with the Green Party or New Democratic Party to help defeat the Conservative Party in the next election, which was proposed by leadership candidate Joyce Murray.

On January 30, 2013, Garneau was replaced as natural resources critic by Ted Hsu. Garneau had been serving in the position on an interim basis. On March 13, 2013 Garneau announced his withdrawal from the race, and threw his support to front-runner Justin Trudeau. On September 18, 2013, Garneau was named co-chair of the Liberal International Affairs Council of Advisors, providing advice on foreign and defence issues to Liberal Party of Canada leader Justin Trudeau.

Minister of Transport in the 42nd Parliament
In the 2015 elections held on October 19, 2015, Garneau was re-elected as MP in the newly created riding of Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Westmount. Two weeks later, on November 4, 2015, Garneau was appointed the minister of transport by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

In May 2017, Garneau introduced an airline passenger bill of rights to standardize how passengers can be treated by airlines which operate any flights in and out of Canada. The legislation would create minimum compensation rates for overbooking, lost or damaged luggage, and bumping passengers off flights. It would also prohibit airlines from removing people from the flight if they have purchased a ticket and set the standard for tarmac delays and airline treatment of passengers when flights are delayed or cancelled over events in the airline's control, or because of weather conditions.

In March 2019, after days of initial refusal to take actions following the crash of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302, Garneau who had even gone so far as to say on 11 March that he would board 737 MAX 8 "without hesitation" as an apparent show of support for the Boeing Company, finally agreed on 13 March to ground and prohibit all Boeing 737 Max aircraft from flying in Canadian airspace. The Trump administration followed suit later that day. This stood in contrast to the ministry's previous stance, where Garneau insisted the plane was safe to fly, thus making Canada one of the only two nations still flying a substantial number of Boeing 737 Max planes at the time.

Minister of Foreign Affairs in the 43rd Parliament
Garneau continued to serve as Minister of Transport after the elections to the 43rd Parliament held in October 2019. He was at Transport for the first two years of the Covid-19 pandemic, and thus he was responsible to enforce the Quarantine Act as lieutenant to the Minister of Health Patty Hajdu; during this time he made many decisions that would affect the lives of travellers in co-ordination with Hadju.

Garneau then served as Minister of Foreign Affairs from January 12, 2021 until October 26, 2021. On January 12, 2021, following the resignation of Navdeep Bains as minister of innovation, science and industry, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau shuffled the Cabinet, with Garneau becoming Minister of Foreign Affairs and Omar Alghabra taking his place at Transport. Garneau was described as one of the most qualified and capable members of Cabinet.

Member of 44th Parliament and retirement
Following the cabinet reshuffle stemming from the election in October 2021, Garneau was dropped from Cabinet on October 26, despite being re-elected to his seat in the House. Some have speculated that Garneau did not remain in cabinet due to his age, being sacrificed in the name of gender parity, and that he reportedly refused to be subservient to the Prime Minister’s Office.

On March 8, 2023, Garneau announced that he would resign his seat and retire from politics. He gave his farewell speech in the House of Commons the same day. The by-election to replace him in parliament occurred June 19, 2023. Liberal Anna Gainey succeeded him, with almost as big a majority of votes as Garneau had won previously.

Awards and honours
Garneau was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1984 in recognition of his role as the first Canadian astronaut. He was promoted the rank of Companion within the order in 2003 for his extensive work with Canada's space program.

He was awarded the Canadian Forces' Decoration for 12 years of honourable service with the Canadian Forces.

He is honoured with a high school named after him, Marc Garneau Collegiate Institute in Toronto and É.S.P. Marc-Garneau in Trenton, Ontario.

Garneau is the Honorary Captain of the Royal Canadian Sea Cadets. In addition, no 599 Royal Canadian Air Cadets squadron is named in his honour.

Garneau was awarded the Key to the City of Ottawa from Marion Dewar the Mayor of Ottawa on December 10, 1984.

He was inducted into the International Space Hall of Fame in 1992.

title: Marc Garneau


text:
Watling Street

Watling Street is a historic route in England that crosses the River Thames at London and which was used in Classical Antiquity, Late Antiquity, and throughout the Middle Ages. It was used by the ancient Britons and paved as one of the main Roman roads in Britannia (Roman-governed Great Britain during the Roman Empire). The route linked Dover and London in the southeast, and continued northwest via St Albans to Wroxeter. The line of the road was later the southwestern border of the Danelaw with Wessex and Mercia, and Watling Street was numbered as one of the major highways of medieval England.

First used by the ancient Britons, mainly between the areas of modern Canterbury and St Albans using a natural ford near Westminster, the road was later paved by the Romans. It connected the ports of Dubris (Dover), Rutupiae (Richborough Castle), Lemanis (Lympne), and Regulbium (Reculver) in Kent to the Roman bridge over the Thames at Londinium (London). The route continued northwest through Verulamium (St Albans) on its way to Viroconium Cornoviorum (Wroxeter). Watling Street is traditionally cited as having been the location of the Romans' defeat of Boudica, though precisely where on the route is disputed.

The Roman Antonine Itinerary lists sites along the route of Watling Street as part of a longer route of 500 Roman miles connecting Richborough with Hadrian's Wall via Wroxeter. The continuation on to Blatobulgium (Birrens, Dumfriesshire) beyond Hadrian's Wall in modern Scotland may have been part of the same route, leading some scholars to call this Watling Street as well, although others restrict it to the southern leg.

In the early 18th century, England's first turnpike trust was established to pave the route through Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire. In the early 19th century, the course between London and the Channel was paved and became known as the Great Dover Road.

The route from London to Wroxeter forms much of the A5 road. The route from Dover to London forms part of the A2 road. At various points along the historic route, the name Watling Street remains in modern use.

Name
The original Celtic and Roman name for the road is unknown, and the Romans may not have viewed it as a single path at all, since parts of it were assigned to two separate itineraries in one 2nd-century list. The modern name instead derives from the Old English Wæcelinga Stræt, from a time when "street" (via strata) referred to any paved road and had no particular association with urban thoroughfares. The Waeclingas ("people of Waecla") were a tribe in the St Albans area in the early medieval period with an early name of their city being "Waetlingacaester", which would translate into modern English as "Watlingchester".

The original Anglo-Saxon name for the section of the route between Canterbury and London was Casingc Stræt or Key Street, a name still borne by a hamlet on the road near Sittingbourne. This section only later became considered part of Watling Street.

Used as a boundary
Watling Street has been used as a boundary of many historic administrative units, and some of these are still in existence today, either through continuity or the adoption of these as by successor areas. Examples include:
 * Watling Street was used as a boundary in the Treaty of Alfred and Guthrum and it is often inferred that this made the road the SW boundary of the Danelaw.
 * It is the boundary of Leicestershire and Warwickshire, this may be a legacy of the treaty described above.
 * Watling Street forms part of the boundary of four London Boroughs (Harrow, Brent, Camden and Barnet) and is sometimes described as the boundary of West and North London.

British
The broad, grassy trackway found by the Romans had already been used by the Britons for centuries. The main path led from Richborough on the English Channel to a natural ford in the Thames at Thorney Island, Westminster, to a site near Wroxeter, where it split. The western continuation went on to Holyhead while the northern ran to Chester and on to the Picts in Scotland.

Westminster ford
There is a longstanding tradition that a natural ford once crossed the Thames between Thorney Island (present-day Westminster) and the Lambeth/Wandsworth boundary. Its location means that it is possible that Watling Street crossed it.

Several factors may have slowed the river here, leading to the depositing of enough sediments to create a usable ford:
 * The bend in the Thames near Vauxhall Bridge.
 * The two arms of the River Effra joining in that vicinity, depositing their own load, with the cross-flow causing the Thames to eddy and slow.
 * Similarly the southern arm of the Tyburn, once joined the Thames at this point, on the northern bank.
 * These factors mean the area is likely to have been the tidal head for some of the historic period.

Roman
The Romans began constructing paved roads shortly after their invasion in AD 43. The London portion of Watling Street was rediscovered during Christopher Wren's rebuilding of St Mary-le-Bow in 1671–73, following the Great Fire. Modern excavations date its construction to the winter from AD 47 to 48. Around London, it was 7.5 - 8.7 m wide and paved with gravel. It was repeatedly redone, including at least twice before the sack of London by Boudica's troops in 60 or 61. The road ran straight from the bridgehead on the Thames to what would become Newgate on the London Wall before passing over Ludgate Hill and the Fleet and dividing into Watling Street and the Devil's Highway west to Calleva (Silchester). Some of this route is preserved beneath Old Kent Road.

The 2nd-century Antonine Itinerary gives the course of Watling Street from "Urioconium" (Wroxeter) to "Portus Ritupis" (Richborough) as a part of its Second Route (Iter II), which runs for 501 MP from Hadrian's Wall to Richborough:

Battle of Watling Street
Some site in the middle section of this route is supposed by most historians to have been the location of G. Suetonius Paulinus's decisive victory over Boudica's Iceni in AD 61.

Subsidiary routes
The two routes of the Antonine Itinerary immediately following (Iter III & IV) list the stations from Londinium to "Portus Dubris" (Dover) and to "Portus Lemanis" (Lympne) at the north eastern edge of the Romney Marsh, suggesting that they may have been considered interchangeable terminuses. They only differ in the distance to Durovernum: 14 and 17 Roman miles, respectively. The route to Lemanis was sometimes distinguished by the name "Stone Street"; it now forms most of the B2068 road that runs from the M20 motorway to Canterbury. The route between Durovernum and the fortress and port at Regulbium (Reculver) on Kent's northern shore is not given in these itineraries but was also paved and is sometimes taken as a fourth terminus for Watling Street. The Sixth Route (Iter VI) also recorded an alternate path stopping at Tripontium (Newton and Biggin) between Venonis (High Cross) and Bannaventa (Norton); it is listed as taking 24 Roman miles rather than 17.

The more direct route north from Londinium (London) to Eboracum (York) was Ermine Street. The stations between Eboracum and Cataractonium (Catterick) were shared with Dere Street, which then branched off to the northeast. Durocobrivis (Dunstable) was the site of the path's intersection with the Icknield Way. The Maiden Way ran from Bravoniacum (Kirkby Thore) to the fort at Epiacum (Whitley Castle) with its remarkable ramparts, and on to the Hadrian's Wall fort of Magnis (Carvoran).

Saxon
By the time of the Saxon invasions, the Roman bridge across the Thames had presumably fallen into disrepair or been destroyed. The Saxons abandoned the walled Roman site in favour of Lundenwic to its west, presumably because of its more convenient access to the ford on the Thames. They did not return to Lundenburh (the City of London) until forced to do so by the Vikings in the late 9th century. Over time, the graveling and paving itself fell into disrepair, although the road's course continued to be used in many places as a public right of way. "Watlingestrate" was one of the four roads (chemini) protected by the king's peace in the Laws of Edward the Confessor.

A number of Old English names testify to route of Watling Street at this time: Boughton Street in Kent; Colney Street in Hertfordshire; Fenny Stratford and Stony Stratford in Buckinghamshire; Old Stratford in Northamptonshire; Stretton-under-Fosse and Stretton Baskerville in Warwickshire. (The three adjacent settlements of All Stretton, Church Stretton, and Little Stretton in Shropshire; and Stretton Sugwas in Herefordshire have a Watling Street but they are not on the route).

Viking
Following the Viking invasions, the 9th-century Treaty of Alfred and Guthrum mentions Watling Street as a boundary.

Norman
It is assumed that the pilgrims in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales used the southeastern stretch of Watling Street when journeying from Southwark to Canterbury.

Modernity
The first turnpike trust in England was established over Watling Street northwest of London by an Act of Parliament on 4 March 1707 in order to provide a return on the investment required to once more pave the road. The section from Fourne Hill north of Hockliffe to Stony Stratford was paved at a cost of £7000 over the next two years. Revenue was below expectations; in 1709, the trust succeeded in getting a new act extending the term of their monopoly but not permitting their tolls to be increased. In 1711, the trust's debts had not been discharged and the creditors took over receivership of the tolls. In 1716, a new act restored the authority of the trust under the supervision of another group appointed by the Buckinghamshire justices of the peace. The trust failed to receive a further extension of their rights in 1736 and their authority ended at the close of 1738. In 1740, a new act named new trustees to oversee the road, which the residents of Buckinghamshire described as being "ruined".

The road was again paved in the early 19th century at the expense of Thomas Telford. He operated it as a turnpike road for mail coaches from Ireland. To this purpose, he extended it to the port of Holyhead on Anglesey in Wales. During this time, the section southeast of London became known as the Great Dover Road. The tolls ended in 1875.

Much of the road is still in use today, apart from a few sections where it has been diverted. The A2 road between Dover and London runs over or parallel to the old path. A section of Watling Street still exists in the City of London close to Mansion House underground station on the route of the original Roman road which traversed the River Thames via the first London Bridge and ran through the City in a straight line from London Bridge to Newgate. The sections of the road in Central London possess a variety of names, including Edgware Road and Maida Vale. At Blackheath, the Roman road ran along Old Dover Road, turning and running through the area of present-day Greenwich Park to a location perhaps a little north of the current Deptford Bridge. North of London, the road is designated mainly as the A5 between London and Shrewsbury. At various points along the route, the A5 leaves the Roman road to bypass settlements, but its historic route invariably remains evident even where motor traffic is restricted or banned.

The name Watling Street is still used along the ancient road in many places, for instance in Bexleyheath in southeast London and in Canterbury, Gillingham, Strood, Gravesend, and Dartford in Kent. North of London, the name Watling Street still occurs in Hertfordshire (including St Albans), Bedfordshire (Dunstable), Buckinghamshire (Milton Keynes), Northamptonshire (Towcester), Leicestershire (Hinckley), Warwickshire (Nuneaton and Atherstone) and in Staffordshire (Cannock, Wall, Tamworth and Lichfield). (There are Watling Streets in Shropshire (Church Stretton) and in Gwynedd (Llanrwst), but neither is on the original route.)

Other Watling Streets
Dere Street, the Roman road from Cataractonium (Catterick in Yorkshire) to Corstopitum (now Corbridge, Northumberland) to the Antonine Wall, was also sometimes known as Watling Street. A third Watling Street was the Roman road from Mamucium (Manchester) to Bremetennacum (Ribchester) to Cumbria. Preston, Lancashire, preserved a Watling Street Road between Ribbleton and Fulwood, passing the Sharoe Green Hospital. Both of these may preserve a separate derivation from the Old English wealhas ("foreigner") or may have preserved the memory of the long Roman road while misattributing its upper stages to better-preserved roads. The Roman road between Deva Victrix (Chester) and Condate (Northwich) is also known locally as Watling Street.

title: Watling Street


text:
SB

SB or Sb may refer to:

Places

 * Saint Pierre and Miquelon (FIPS PUB 10-4 territory code SB)
 * San Bernardino, California, US
 * Santa Barbara, California, US
 * Solomon Islands (ISO 3166 country code SB)
 * South Burlington, Vermont
 * Sibiu County, Romania

Organisations

 * Special Branch, of UK and some Commonwealth police
 * Służba Bezpieczeństwa, secret police in communist Poland
 * Sluzhba Bezpeky, WWII Ukrainian partisan underground intelligence service
 * Shaw Brothers Studio, a Hong Kong movie company
 * Statistics Bureau (Japan)
 * Šiaulių bankas, a Lithuanian commercial bank

Science and technology

 * SB buffer, for electrophoresis
 * Antimony, symbol Sb, a chemical element
 * Barred spiral galaxy, in astronomy
 * Scientiæ Baccalaureus or Bachelor of Science, an academic degree
 * Spectroscopic binary stars, designated SB1 and SB2
 * Stilb (unit) (symbol sb), a unit of luminance
 * sideband
 * Spina bifida

Computing

 * .sb file, the file format for Scratch Projects
 * .sb2 file and .sb3, the file formats for Scratch 2 and 3
 * .sb, Internet country code top-level domain for Solomon Islands

Sport and games

 * Nike SB, skateboarding shoes
 * "Season's Best", an athletics abbreviation
 * Stolen base, in baseball
 * Sonneborn–Berger score, a scoring system often used to break ties in chess tournaments
 * Super Bowl, annual American football championship
 * Smash Bros., a platform fighting game franchise featuring characters from Nintendo and third-party franchises
 * Skyblock, a Minecraft minigame, and MMORPG game on Minecraft server, Hypixel
 * Sundby Boldklub, a football club in Denmark

Transportation

 * Aircalin (IATA airline code)
 * Sailing barge (ship prefix)
 * Skagensbanen (the Skagen Railway), a Danish railway line and company
 * South Buffalo Railway (reporting code)
 * Surabaya Kota railway station, Surabaya, East Java, Indonesia (station code: SB)
 * Suroboyo Bus in Surabaya, Indonesia
 * Tupolev SB, a Soviet bomber of World War II
 * Toyota SB, car
 * SB craft, an Imperial Japanese Army variant of the Imperial Japanese Navy's No. 101-class landing ship

Other uses

 * Special Warfare Boat Operator rating, US Navy
 * Senate Bill, typically coded like "SB 1234"
 * Sonderbehandlung, German Nazi era euphemism for mass murder
 * Soldier Boy, three fictional superheroes
 * Substantive, or noun, in some languages
 * Swagbucks, a rewards company by Prodege

Saint

 * St. Bonaventure

title: SB