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Fenn's, Whixall and Bettisfield Mosses National Nature Reserve

Fenn's, Whixall and Bettisfield Mosses National Nature Reserve is a national nature reserve (NNR) which straddles the border between England and Wales, near Whixall and Ellesmere in Shropshire, England and Bettisfield in Wrexham County Borough, Wales. It comprises three peat bogs, Bettisfield Moss, Fenn's Moss and Whixall Moss. With Wem Moss (also an NNR) and Cadney Moss, they are collectively a Site of Special Scientific Interest called The Fenn's, Whixall, Bettisfield, Wem & Cadney Moss Complex and form Britain's third-largest lowland raised bog, covering 2388 acre. The reserve is part of the Midland Meres and Mosses, an Important Plant Area which was declared a Wetland of International Importance under the Ramsar Convention in 1997. It is also a European Special Area of Conservation.

The mosses form an ombrotrophic raised bog, since the only source of water is from rainfall. Peat is formed when the remains of living plants, particularly Sphagnum, decompose in conditions where there is little oxygen, resulting in layers of peat up to 26 ft thick in places, although this has been greatly reduced by commercial harvesting of the peat in many areas. In their natural state, such mosses form a dome of peat which can be up to 33 ft higher than the surrounding surface, but the domes collapsed as a result of the drainage ditches created to allow harvesting to take place. Three major enclosures of the mosses have taken place, the first as a result of a voluntary agreement signed in 1704, and ratified by the High Court of Chancery in 1710 when opposition prevented the original plans from being carried out. Two Parliamentary enclosures, each authorised by an Act of Parliament were implemented in 1775 on Fenn's Moss and in 1823 on Whixall Moss. Both resulted in common rights being removed and gave the landlords powers which paved the way for the subsequent commercial exploitation of the mosses.

In the early 1800s, the Ellesmere Canal Company built a canal across the southern edge of Whixall Moss. The engineers realised that maintenance would be required, to prevent the formation from sinking into the bog, and a gang of navvies, known as the Whixall Moss Gang, were employed continuously from 1804 to the early 1960s, to keep building up the banks of the canal, now renamed the Llangollen Canal. In the 1960s, the engineering issues were solved, when steel piling was used to underpin this section. The Oswestry, Ellesmere and Whitchurch Railway also planned to cross the mosses, despite being ridiculed by the Great Western Railway for believing that such a thing was possible. They built their line across the north-western edge of Fenn's Moss in 1862, having cut drains in late 1861, and then put layers of heather, wooden faggots and sand on the formation, to allow it to float on the peat. Trains ran from 1862 until the 1960s, without sinking into the mire.

Commercial cutting of peat began in 1851, and a series of six peat works were built over the years, as companies came and went. In order to extract the peat, a network of gauge tramways were used, with wagons pulled by horses. The first internal combustion locomotive was bought in 1919, to replace the horses, and three more locomotives were purchased in 1967 and 1968 but did not last long, as the tramway ceased to be used in 1970, to be replaced by Dexta tractors pulling trailers. Mechanised peat cutters were also introduced in 1968. By this time, all of the harvested peat was sold through the retail chain Woolworths, for use in horticulture. The Hanmer Estate, owners of Fenn's Moss, quadrupled the rents in 1989, and the existing operation was bought out by Croxden Horticultural Products. They geared up to extract much larger volumes of peat, to meet the increased rents, but opposition to using peat was increasing, and in late December 1990, the leases were bought by the Nature Conservancy Council, bringing an end to commercial peat cutting. Since then, the mosses have been managed by Natural England and Natural Resources Wales, who have blocked up drainage ditches and removed scrub, allowing water levels to rise, and the ombrotrophic bog to re-establish itself. Circular waymarked trails have been created through some areas of Fenn's and Whixall Mosses, and on Bettisfield Moss, to allow the nature reserve to be appreciated by visitors.

Geography
Fenn's, Whixall and Bettisfield Mosses straddle the border between England and Wales. Fenn's Moss is on the Welsh side of the border and is in Wrexham County Borough, while Whixall Moss is in north Shropshire, on the English side of the border, and is only separated from Fenn's Moss by the Border Drain, a ditch similar to many others on the mosses, which was dug in 1826. The former, now dismantled, Oswestry, Ellesmere and Whitchurch Railway line crosses the north-western edge of Fenn's Moss. At the southern edge of Fenn's and Whixall Mosses, the former Ellesmere Canal, now rebranded as the Llangollen Canal, crosses the peat, and Bettisfield Moss lies to the south of the canal, partly in England and partly in Wales. A narrow band of peat connects it to Wem and Cadney Mosses, which again are divided by the Border Drain. Fenn's, Whixall and Bettisfield Mosses were declared a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in 1953, with Wem Moss being similarly notified ten years later. The sites were combined and extended in 1994, to become a single SSSI covering 2388 acre, of which 1708 acre are in Wrexham and 680 acre in Shropshire. Together they form the third-largest lowland raised bog in Britain, with only Thorne Moors and Hatfield Moors in South Yorkshire exceeding them in size. Bettisfield Moss covers 149 acre, and includes the largest areas of uncut peat in the whole of the nature reserve, having been little affected by commercial peat cutting.

Two other mosses are part of the same geological Moss complex, though separated from Bettisfield Moss by a strip of agricultural land. Wem Moss in England is a National Nature Reserve which is owned and managed by the Shropshire Wildlife Trust, and is a good example of an uncut lowland raised bog. It covers an area of 70.3 acre. Cadney Moss is in Wales, and has been largely reclaimed for agriculture and forestry.

Whixall Moss and part of Bettisfield Moss sits above bedrock composed of fine red silt and sand, forming an impermeable layer once known as Upper Keuper Marls. To the north-west of these, the bedrock is composed of Upper Keuper Saliferous Beds, which contain rock salt. Both rock types were re-classified in 2008, and are now part of the Mercia Mudstone Group. As the last ice age receded, the area was covered with glacial moraine, consisting of sands, gravels and clays, in places up to 165 ft thick, and this gives the area its characteristic undulating terrain. The shallower depressions filled with peat, and gave rise to the mosses, whereas some of the deeper depressions have remained as open lakes or meres. The depth of peat varies widely over the mosses, from over 26 ft in parts of Bettisfield Moss and Fenn's Moss, to around 10 ft on parts of Whixall and Fenn's Mosses where commercial peat digging was carried out, and there are some areas where such activity has exposed the underlying rocks.

The mosses are ombrotrophic raised bogs, meaning that they only receive water from rainfall. Such bogs form in areas with an annual rainfall of between 800 and 1200 mm which are relatively flat, or which sit over a basin in the underlying rocks, which helps to prevent water run-off. In their natural state, they form domes of peat, which can be up to 33 ft higher than the surrounding surface. On the surface are living plants, particularly Sphagnum, which form a crust through which water can permeate relatively easily. Below that, the compacted plant remains are deprived of oxygen, which prevents the usual decay processes, causing them to become peat. Commercial exploitation of the mosses, and their consequent drainage, have resulted in water table levels dropping, and consequently less peat formation.

Fenn's Moss is the source of the Wych Brook, a tributary of the River Dee, which flows northwards from the Moss. The River Roden, a tributary of the River Tern, also rises in the vicinity of Bettisfield and flows southwards to form part of the border between England and Wales near Wem Moss. Near the south-eastern corner of Whixall Moss the never-completed Prees Branch of the Llangollen Canal branches off, to terminate after nearly 1 mile at a marina, beyond which a little more of the route has become the Prees Branch Canal Nature Reserve Site of Special Scientific Interest.

Occupation

There has been human activity on the mosses for millennia, as evidenced by archaeological finds. These include three bog bodies, the first of which was found by peat cutters in c.1867. The body, which was accompanied by a three-legged stool, was that of a young man wearing a leather apron, and was dated to the Iron Age or Romano-British period. The body of a woman from the same period was found in c.1877, and that of a much older Early Bronze Age man was uncovered in 1889. The acidic water and the lack of oxygen resulted in their hair and skin being preserved, while their bones had dissolved. All three were re-buried in local churchyards, the first two at Whitchurch and the third at Whixall, where the remains would have quickly decomposed. In 1927, a Middle Bronze-Age looped palstave, a type of bronze axe, was discovered among remains of a band of pine trees which had crossed the Moss during that period, and can now be seen at the Shrewsbury Museum and Art Gallery.

There is no documentary evidence for the cutting of peat on the mosses prior to 1572, but it is unclear whether this indicates that it was not general practice, or if there was just no need to burn peat when there was plenty of wood available. Subsequently, a right of turbary, to cut peat for burning was granted to individuals by the Lord of the Manor, and those who were found to be cutting peat but were unlicensed were fined, but the fines were quite modest, suggesting that it was a way of generating income for the Lord of the Manor rather than an attempt to stop the activity. From 1630 it is clear that higher fines were levied on those who sold the peat to people living outside of the manor, while by 1702, peat cutting was more closely regulated, and the levels of fine for unlicensed cutting, or for cutting turves in a neighbour's turf pit, were punitive.

Enclosure
The early 18th century saw attempts by the Lord of the Manor to ensure that he had better control of the area and gained some income from the land. In Whixall, Thomas Sandford was the Lord of the Manor, but John, Lord Gower also claimed similar rights for land he held in copyhold. The two men obtained the Statute of Merton and the Statute of Westminster, to allow them to enclose common land in Whixall, including parts of the mosses. The move was supported by around 50 people who held land either as freehold or copyhold, and an agreement was signed on 14 August 1704. The idea was to enclose 600 acre of common land which were sufficiently dry to be usable for agriculture, while the rest of the common land was boggy, and was to be used as a common turbary. The freeholders and copyholders would be granted rights to around two-thirds of the land, with Thomas Sandford and Lord Gower receiving most of the rest, and 20 acre being granted to the parson in recognition of his conducting services in Whixall Chapel. In order to lay out the enclosures, six surveyors and mathematicians were employed, but the enterprise was opposed by 23 commoners, who proceeded to destroy existing fencing and prevented new fencing from being erected. The powers contained in the Statute of Merton were totally inadequate for such a situation, and a decree from the High Court of Chancery was obtained on 30 January 1710, to enable further progress to be made. Only 410 acre were actually enclosed, but this included parts of Whixall Moss.

While the enclosure of Whixall Moss was an enclosure by agreement, Fenn's and Bettisfield Mosses were subject to a Parliamentary enclosure, as a result of an Act of Parliament obtained in 1775. Such an act only needed the owners of two-thirds of the land to agree to it and was used by landowners with large holdings to remove the rights of commoners. The major landowner, in this case, was the lawyer and politician Sir Walden Hanmer, and the act added the mosses to the parish of Hanmer. At the time, acts of enclosure were very common in England, but this was only the fourth to be enacted in Wales. Walden Hanmer appears to have been more interested in cultivating the wastes of the parish than in exploiting the peat on the mosses, but the act created 111 strips of land to be used as turbaries, of which Hanmer himself was awarded 56, two were given to the poor in Bronington, one to the school and almshouses in Whitchurch, and the rest shared out between 31 individuals. A similar act was obtained in 1823, which extinguished common rights on Whixall Moss and the English part of Bettisfield Moss. The act defined a number of public drains, which would carry water away from the moss, and as each was named, the act was probably recognising what was already there, rather than creating a new system.

The effects of the enclosures can still be seen, in the pattern of the fields that surround the northern and southern edges of the mosses, in the network of drains that carry water away from the mosses, and in the alignment of roads, tracks and footpaths that still provide access to them. The enclosures resulted in most of Fenn's Moss being under the control of the Hanmer Estate and paved the way for the later commercial exploitation of the peat. On Whixall Moss, the result was that much of the southern part of the Moss was organised into a patchwork of small enclosures, and a much smaller proportion was under the direct control of the Lord of the Manor. Many of these small enclosures have since become pasture or woodland, although some remain as a source of peat turves for their owners.

Transport links
A decision that would affect the mosses was made in 1797, when the Ellesmere Canal company abandoned plans for a heavily engineered route to join the two halves of their system, which would have linked Trevor Basin to Chester, via Ruabon and Brymbo, and decided instead to build a canal from Frankton Junction to Hurleston Junction, which was completed in 1805. The engineers William Jessop and Thomas Telford decided against building a bypass around the mosses and instead elected to cut straight across the peat, despite the technical difficulties that this posed. They lowered the water table in the moss by building drainage ditches and then constructed a raft, on which the canal floated. They understood that regular maintenance of this section would be a requirement for many years, and a team of navvies, later named the Whixall Moss Gang, were employed to extract clay from a pit on the Prees Branch. The clay was used to build up the banks, and the gang were employed continuously from 1804 until the 1960s on this task. Finally the engineering issues that created the work were solved, and the canal was underpinned with steel piling in the 1960s, to isolate it from the peat. The idea that the drains defined in the 1823 Enclosure Act already existed is confirmed by the fact that they were carried under the canal in culverts when the canal was built across the edge of Whixall Moss in c.1801.

When railways arrived in the area, they also faced the decision of whether to cross the moss or bypass it. The main proposal was for the Oswestry, Ellesmere and Whitchurch Railway, the plans for which were opposed by some local landowners, and also by the Great Western Railway, who were keen to stifle any competition. The opposition resulted in a Parliamentary enquiry into the proposals, which generated a disproportionate volume of documentation for such a small scheme. Although Sir John Hanmer had given permission for the railway to pass around the edge of the moss, their consulting engineer, Benjamin Piercy, thought it was a waste of property not to cross the moss. The railway employed Messrs Brun Lees, engineers, to argue their case, who had previously worked on railways in Brazil. The Great Western Railway argued that the moss consisted of 3 ft of relatively solid crust, under which there were up to 36 ft of liquid peat, and that the cost of crossing the moss had been underestimated by some £23,000. In reply, the consulting engineer G. W. Hemans stated that the cost of the whole moss section would be under £3,000, as he had built railways across bogs in Ireland at a cost of less than £800 per mile. He also produced a solid block of peat, to show that it was not a liquid. The Parliamentary committee narrowly found in favour of the Oswestry, Ellesmere and Whitchurch scheme, although the House of Lords only sanctioned construction of the section from Ellesmere to Whitchurch, including the crossing of Fenn's Moss, and the Oswestry to Ellesmere section was postponed.

Work started on 29 August 1861, with a "programme of rejoicings" to celebrate the event. Even the inmates of the Ellesmere workhouse were included, when they were treated to roast beef and plum pudding the following day. The task of crossing Fenn's Moss started in mid-September, and the progress was recorded by the Oswestry Advertiser and Montgomeryshire Mercury in graphic terms. They reported: "...our ears are assailed with tidings of the maddest of all mad acts on the part of the maddest of madmen! Messrs Savin and Ward, the contractors, who won't believe they are going to ruin although the Great Western Railway Times has over and over again proved the fact to the satisfaction of all reasonable men, have actually commenced crossing Whixall Moss." The contractors cut a series of drains, which allowed the peat to dry and become firmer. After leaving the formation over the winter to settle, heather was spread on the top, followed by a layer of wooden faggots, cut from local woods, and then a thick layer of sand, obtained from banks within the moss. By 27 February 1862, the railway was able to run a locomotive and carriages across the Moss, to help in consolidating the formation, and goods services started on 20 April 1863, with passenger trains following shortly afterward, on 4 May. In 1864, the company merged with others to form the Cambrian Railways Company, and in 1922, the Cambrian merged with the Great Western Railway, giving them control of the line they had tried so hard to scupper.

Peat extraction
The various enclosures acts, with the consequent removal of common rights and the vesting of control in the landowners, paved the way for subsequent commercial extraction of the peat on the mosses. This began in 1851, when a "company of gentlemen", named Vardy & Co., leased 308 acre from the Hanmer Estate. They intended to erect a works, where useful products would be manufactured from the peat. On 5 May 1856, Joseph Bebb took over the lease, to which was added another 300 acre, for a period of 21 years. From his Old Moss Works, Bebb built a tramway eastwards to the canal, where there is a raised area of towpath and a simple wharf. No records of levels of production have survived, but on 12 September 1859, the lease was taken over by Richard Henry Holland, and on 3 August 1860 passed to The Moulded Peat Charcoal Company Limited, a company of which Holland was a director. They bought the patent for a machine to turn peat into moulded briquettes, which could be burnt or converted into charcoal or coke. The process was not new to the moss, as records show that moulded peat blocks were being produced as early as 1810. The new company did not last and ceased trading on 12 December 1864.

By 1884, George Wardle occupied Fenn's Hall, and started a moss litter business, producing peat for animal bedding. Two years later he was joined in the venture by William Henry Smith, an ironfounder from Whitchurch, and they set up The English Peat Moss Litter Company, which they formally registered on 12 May 1888. They leased land on the north-eastern part of Fenn's Moss from the Hanmer Estate, and in 1889, they obtained rights to the centre of Whixall Moss, by buying the Lordship of the Manor from William Orme Foster. This came with the obligation to maintain the drains, under the terms of the 1823 Enclosure Act, an issue that caused numerous disputes over the years. The company extracted peat from Fenn's Moss, and Wardle and Smith rented out parts of Whixall Moss to local turf cutters. They built the Old Shed Yard Works, a little to the north of the Old Moss Works, and used horse-drawn tramways to transport the finished product away from the works. On the moss, tracks went to the north-west, turned to the south-west and then to the south-east, to reach Oaf's Orchard, on the border between England and Wales. From the works, another tramway headed northwards to Fenn's Bank Brick and Tile Works, where there was an interchange siding with the Cambrian Railway.

From 1889, the English Peat Moss Litter Company started to build houses for its workers, using materials obtained from the Fenn's Bank Brick and Tile Company and had completed 17 dwellings by 1898. At some point, probably before 1914, William Smith sold his share of the company to George Wardle. Wardle employed around 50 people, but in 1914 there was industrial unrest, including threats to those who chose to keep working, and the works closed intermittently until the dispute was resolved. During World War I, the War Department commandeered much of Fenn's and Whixall Mosses, for use as rifle ranges, but continued to cut peat, which was used for bedding at a cavalry remount station located at Bettisfield Park. It appears that Wardle surrendered his lease to the authorities at this time and that Tom Allmark, the works foreman, worked for the military, producing peat. They established a peat works, known locally at the Old Graveyard, near to Bettisfield Moss and the railway line. They clearly used tramways, since an auction sale of the works after the war ended included 2874 yd of Decauville railway track and 103 assorted wagons.

It appears that the Old Graveyard Works was bought by a speculative company called The Bettisfield Trust Company. They obtained a lease from the Hanmer Estate in 1923, allowing them to work 948 acre for black peat, which was peat at the lower levels of the bog. The Midland Moss Litter Company also obtained a lease for the same area, but they wanted to harvest the upper layers for packing material, cattle feed, and animal bedding. The two companies were required to cooperate under the terms of the lease. William Henry Smith, the former partner of Wardle, was a director of the Bettisfield Trust, but details of exactly what they did are unclear, and they may have established a processing works for making briquettes and distillation of the peat in the Fenn's Bank Brick and Tile Works, rather than at the Old Graveyard site. The enterprise was fairly short-lived, as they ceased trading in late 1925.

The Midland Moss Litter Company established a new works a little further along the railway line, although for a while both works were in operation. They introduced new working practices to the Moss, based on Dutch methods, and rebuilt the Fenn's Old Works in 1938 when the previous one was destroyed by fire. They introduced locomotives to the tramways in 1919, although the peat turves were always cut by hand, and of all the companies operating on the mosses, survived the longest. They continued working on the Moss until August 1962, but almost no documentary evidence for them is known to exist. The company was liquidated during a period when the demand for peat generally was in decline, and the site was bought by L S Beckett. Len Beckett had operated a small peat-cutting business, using Manor House, which his father had bought in 1933, as a base. He died young, and the business was bought by his brother-in-law, Tom Allmark, who could see the potential for peat in horticulture. In 1956 he bought 205 acre of Whixall Moss from Wardle, bought Manor House in 1957, and soon afterward, obtained a contract to sell peat to Cuthberts of Llangollen, which was sold as bulb fibre through the retail chain Woolworths. Tom's son Herb Allmark took over running the company in May 1960, and the business expanded when he obtained the Fenn's Old Works and the lease on Fenn's Moss from the Midland Moss Litter Company in 1962.

Beckett's bought the western half of the English part of Bettisfield Moss in 1956 and the Welsh part of it in 1960. The English part was overgrown, but the Welsh part was free of trees, as it had been regularly cleared by burning, and by some domestic peat cutting. They experimented with harvesting the western part of the Welsh Moss commercially in the 1960s, but difficulties with transporting the cut peat to their processing works at Whixall meant that the project was short-lived. Subsequently, pine seedlings colonised the Moss, which Beckett's sold as Christmas trees during the 1960s, but when they stopped doing so, the Moss was rapidly overgrown. The eastern half of the English Moss had been bought by the Darlington family in the late 1800s and was for a time rented out to Humus Products Ltd, who cut peat.

By the mid-1960s, all of the peat produced was sold to Woolworths, but the costs of transport from Fenn's Old Works to Manor House rose, so Allmark extended the tramways on the Moss, and purchased three more secondhand locomotives to supplement the one bought in 1919. He introduced mechanised peat cutters to the Moss in 1968, and in the early 1970s, some of the machinery was moved from Fenn's Old Works to Manor House. When the Hanmer Estate quadrupled the rents in May 1989, L S Beckett sold its operation to Croxden Horticultural Products. L S Beckett had extracted some 26000 cuyd of peat in the final year of operation, but to make a profit, Croxden's would need to extract much bigger volumes. They rebuilt Manor House Works, and by December 1990 were ready to extract more than double that amount per year. However, the lobby against using peat was growing rapidly, and the Nature Conservancy Council bought the leases, bringing commercial extraction of peat on the Mosses to an end. For many of the men for whom working on the mosses was a way of life, the demise of their industry was greeted with great sadness.

Locomotives
The tramways on the Mosses were all gauge. The wagons were manufactured locally, and could be used as flat-bed trucks, when transporting peat bales, or could be fitted with slatted wooden sides, when carrying cut peat blocks. The main tracks were fixed to wooden sleepers with flanged iron nails. When dried peat was ready for removal from the Mosses, temporary lines were laid by inserting a point into the main line, and building a siding using rails permanently fixed to metal sleepers. The railway ceased to be used in 1970, after which peat was removed from the moss in trailers towed by Dexta tractors.

Regeneration
Fenn's and Whixall Mosses have been recognised as a Site of Special Scientific Interest since 1953, and attempts were made to buy the land worked by L S Beckett for nature conservation, but no agreement was reached. When Croxden Horticultural Products took over, there were discussions between them and the Nature Conservancy Council, to see whether some areas of the mosses could be restored. In December 1990, all of their leases and land were bought by the Nature Conservancy Council, and large-scale commercial peat-cutting ended immediately. Local opposition to commercial extraction of peat had been spearheaded by the Fenn's and Whixall Mosses Campaign Group, a grouping of around 20 local organisations, with the Shropshire and North Wales Wildlife Trusts taking the major role. The Nature Conservancy Council obtained the lease for 640 acre of Fenn's Moss, and bought 170 acre on Whixall Moss and a further 112 acre on Bettisfield Moss. Subsequently, the Countryside Council for Wales have obtained leases to another 363 acre of Fenn's Moss, and English Nature have bought 55 acre of Whixall Moss.

English Nature was able to employ some of the peat workers, to assist in the regeneration of the mosses, and their specialist knowledge of the network of drains and how to operate machinery on the fragile landscape has proved invaluable. They were also able to buy vehicles from Croxden Horticultural Products, including a 12-tonne Bigtrack bogmaster dumper, a 4 tonne tracked Smalley excavator, a Backer screw-leveller, and two old Dexta tractors with Moss trailers. The mosses contain areas which have never been cut, areas which have been cut by hand, and areas where commercial cutting has taken place. Each presents its own problems, but as a result of the drainage, all are affected by invasive trees and scrub which is normally associated with heath lands, particularly pine trees on Bettisfield Moss and birch scrub elsewhere.

English Nature worked on a management plan for the mosses, which was published in 1993 as the Synopsis Management Plan. It contained eleven objectives, designed to protect the area and ultimately to re-establish it as a raised bog. There has been an extensive programme to clear the birch scrub, which has often been dumped into the drains, to raise water levels, and by mid-1995, dams had been constructed across all of the drains, to retain water on the mosses. Pine trees can be chipped, but birch is more problematic, and where it is extensive, it has been burnt on large metal plates, and the ash removed to prevent enrichment of the peat. Where leakage of water containing high levels of nutrients has occurred, giving rise to alder and willow carr populations, such sources have been traced. The Llangollen Canal was isolated from the mosses by deep piling, carried out by British Waterways in the early 1990s, to prevent leakage from the canal, and a spring on Fenn's Moss, which carried high concentrations of nutrients, has been dammed. The retention of rain water on the mosses has been very successful, and mire vegetation is gradually re-establishing itself.

The Welsh part and the western half of the English part of Bettisfield Moss was sold to Natural England and Natural Resources Wales in 1990. The eastern part of the English Moss had been bought by a Mr Wilcox in 1978, and was sold to Natural England in 1998. Most of the Moss was a dense pine forest, but Natural England bought the car park at World's End, and this hard area allowed the pine forest to be cleared in 2001, as the wood could be stacked on it until it was transported away. Some oak and birch woodland around the edge of the Moss was kept at the request of local people, for cosmetic reasons. Ditches around the edge of the Moss have been dammed, to encourage the growth of marginal plants, such as purple marsh thistle, yellow great bird's-foot trefoil, meadowsweet and soft rush.

The importance of the mosses as a scarce habitat has been recognised, and as well as being a Site of Special Scientific Interest and a National Nature Reserve, it is now part of the Midland Meres and Mosses Ramsar site, a designation that recognises internationally important wetlands. Some of the restoration of the mosses has been funded by grants from the Heritage Lottery Fund. Together with Wem and Cadney Mosses, it is also a European Special Area of Conservation. Among the primary reasons for the designation of the site are the presence of three types of sphagnum, all three British types of sundew, cranberry, bog asphodel, royal fern, white beak-sedge and bog-rosemary. It is one of the few places where the moss Dicranum affine can be found, and provides habitat for over 1,700 species of invertebrates, including 29 which are rare in Britain. Following restoration, the mosses have become wetter, and this has allowed populations of curlews and mallards to expand, while in winter, there are breeding populations of teal and shoveler. The increased numbers of small birds have also resulted in the numbers of predatory peregrine falcons increasing. Raft spiders abound near the peaty pools, and 28 species of dragonfly have been recorded on the mosses.

In October 2016 Natural England obtained £5 million to allow further regeneration work to be undertaken. The grant will be spread over five years and will enable Natural England, working with Natural Resources Wales and the Shropshire Wildlife Trust, to buy another 156 acre of peatland and to raise the water levels over some 1480 acre of the mosses, using new techniques, such as contour bunding, to achieve this. There are also plans to restore other types of habitat around the edges of the mosses, including swamp, fen, and willow and alder carr wet woodland. This will assist populations of willow tit and marsh tit, and encourage the growth of rare bog species such as elongated sedge and several varieties of micro-moths. The money will also fund the diversion of 2.8 mi of ditches containing mineral-rich water, and assist in the clean-up of Whixall Moss scrapyard, which was bought by the Shropshire Wildlife Trust as the site for a new visitor centre but was contaminated with engine oil and 100,000 used vehicle tyres.

In 2001 a partnership between English Nature, the Countryside Council for Wales and British Waterways (since succeeded by Natural England, Natural Resources Wales and the Canal and River Trust respectively), developed circular waymarked trails through some areas of Fenn's and Whixall Mosses. Wildlife in the nature reserve includes kingfisher, mute swans, watervoles, damselfly and dragonfly species such as the white-faced darter, various species of duck, and even the rare bird of prey the hobby. Plants include cotton sedge, bog moss (Sphagnum), great hairy willowherb, bog myrtle, water figwort, flag iris, cross-leaved heath, bog rosemary, cranberry and sundew; common alder trees, alder buckthorn, grey sallow and crack willow predominate in wooded fringes, along with some introduced scotch pine.


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Walking on Thin Ice

"Walking on Thin Ice" is a song by Yoko Ono, released in 1981. She and John Lennon concluded the recording of the song on December 8, 1980. It was upon their return from the recording studio to The Dakota (their home in New York City) that Lennon was murdered by Mark David Chapman. Lennon was clutching a tape of a final mix of the song before it was mastered when he was shot. The song was both a critical and commercial success for Ono.

Background
Lennon's lead guitar work on the track, which he recorded on December 4, 1980, was his final creative act. According to producer Jack Douglas, Lennon used his famous Beatles-era 1958 Rickenbacker 325 Capri to record all the guitar parts. Douglas worked the Bigsley Tremolo bar for Lennon during the solo. It was rumored he used his new red Fender Stratocaster.

The lyrics talk of the unpredictability of life and death—of "throwing the dice in the air"—and reach the conclusion, "when our hearts return to ashes, it will be just a story....". On the version included on 1992's Onobox, a new intro was added, where John Lennon can be heard remarking "I think you just cut your first number one, Yoko."

The B-side, "It Happened", was a slower, mellow track about acceptance from Ono's vaults that was originally recorded for A Story and had already seen limited release in Japan as the B-side to "Yume O Moto", but was remixed for inclusion on the single. Much like the A-side, the lyrics have a retrospectively haunting quality given Lennon's murder: "It happened at a time of my life/When I least expected... And I know there's no return, no way". In the essay on the back of the single, Ono talks about how Lennon picked out this track from her old tapes and marked it as a hit. She said "No way!" to which he responded "I'll make it a hit". He was murdered hours later.

Release and reception
At the end of January 1981, "Walking on Thin Ice" was released as a single and became Ono's first chart success, peaking at number 58 in the US and gaining major club/underground airplay. The single was released in February 1981 in the UK and reached number 35 on the chart. The critical reception was favorable: NME rated it in the best tracks of year 1981 at number 10.

Ultimate Classic Rock critic Michael Gallucci rated it as Ono's best song, saying "it's a great New Wave song from the era and a testament to Ono's growing influence on other outre artists who followed." Record World said that "Yoko's existential lyrics are delivered over a driving rhythm – led by Tony Levin's spunky bass – that spews Lennon's molten guitar leads."

The song is on the experimental compilation album called Disco Not Disco (2000). In 2003, riding on the success of several Ono club remixes including "Open Your Box" and "Kiss Kiss Kiss", "Walking on Thin Ice" was released as a maxi-single with remixes by dance artists including the Pet Shop Boys, Danny Tenaglia and Felix Da Housecat. It spent many weeks on the US dance chart before reaching number one, beating out Madonna and Justin Timberlake. In the UK, it reached number 35 on the chart, exactly the same position as the original reached in 1981.

Music videos
Yoko Ono herself directed a music video for "Walking on Thin Ice", released in February 1981, featuring footage of her in New York City's Times Square and Central Park, interspersed with archival video of her and John Lennon. In 2003, Mike Mills and Arya Senboutaraj (one half of the directing duo Rainbows & Vampires) directed an animated video featuring the "Pet Shop Boys Electro Mix Edit" of the song.

1981
Promo 7" single
 * A. "Walking on Thin Ice" (edit) – 3:23
 * B. "Walking on Thin Ice" (long version) – 5:58

7" / 12" single
 * A. "Walking on Thin Ice" – 5:59
 * B. "It Happened" (Remix) – 5:08

Promo 12" / Cassingle
 * A. "Walking on Thin Ice" – 5:59
 * B1. "It Happened" (Remix) – 5:08
 * B2. "Hard Times Are Over" – 3:26

2003
CD Maxi
 * 1) Pet Shop Boys Radio Mix – 4:09
 * 2) Danny Tenaglia Walked Across the Lake Mix – 12:40
 * 3) Pet Shop Boys Electro Mix – 6:37
 * 4) Felix da Housecat's Tribute Mix – 5:29
 * 5) Pet Shop Boys Extended Dance Mix – 7:58
 * 6) Rui da Silva's Kismet Mix – 10:42
 * 7) Peter Rauhofer Electro Mix – 6:08
 * 8) Orange Factory Radio Mix – 3:54
 * 9) FKEK Vocal Mix – 9:55
 * 10) Peter Rauhofer Chill Mix – 4:58

2×12" single
 * 1) Danny Tenaglia Walked Across the Lake Mix – 12:40
 * 2) Peter Rauhofer Future Mix – 10:07
 * 3) Pet Shop Boys Electro Mix – 6:37
 * 4) Pet Shop Boys Extended Dance Mix – 7:58
 * 5) Rui da Silva's Kismet Mix – 10:42
 * 6) FKEK Hard As Ice Dub – 8:35
 * 7) Orange Factory "Larry" Dub – 6:20
 * 8) Orange Factory Yoko-pella – 0:34

UK 12" single
 * 1) Danny Tenaglia Walked Across the Lake Mix – 12:40
 * 2) Pet Shop Boys Electro Mix – 6:37

US 12" single
 * 1) Danny Tenaglia Dub – 9:07
 * 2) Felix da Housecat's Tribute Mix – 5:29
 * 3) FKEK Vocal Mix – 9:55

UK CD1
 * 1) Pet Shop Boys Electro Mix Edit – 3:35
 * 2) Pet Shop Boys 7" Mix – 4:06
 * 3) Pet Shop Boys 12" Mix – 7:56

UK CD2
 * 1) Danny Tenaglia Walked Across the Lake Mix
 * 2) Felix Da Housecat's Tribute Mix Edit
 * 3) FKEK Vocal Mix Edit

UK CD promo
 * 1) Pet Shop Boys Electro Mix Edit
 * 2) Felix Da Housecat Tribute Mix Edit

iTunes single
 * 1) Pet Shop Boys Radio Mix – 4:09
 * 2) Danny Tenaglia Walked Across the Lake Mix – 12:40
 * 3) Pet Shop Boys Electro Mix – 6:37
 * 4) Felix da Housecat's Tribute Mix – 5:29
 * 5) Pet Shop Boys Extended Dance Mix – 7:58
 * 6) Rui da Silva's Kismet Mix – 10:42
 * 7) Peter Rauhofer Electro Mix – 6:08
 * 8) Orange Factory Radio Mix – 3:54
 * 9) FKEK Vocal Mix – 9:55
 * 10) Peter Rauhofer Chill Mix – 4:58
 * 11) Peter Rauhofer Future Mix – 10:07
 * 12) FKEK Hard as Ice Dub – 8:35
 * 13) Orange Factory "Larry" Dub – 6:20
 * 14) Orange Factory Yoko-pella – 0:34
 * 15) Danny Tenaglia Dub – 9:07

2007

 * 1) "Walking on Thin Ice" (with Jason Pierce of Spiritualized) – 5:07
 * 2) "Toyboat" (with Antony of Antony and the Johnsons and Hahn Rowe) – 4:24

2013
Pt. 1
 * 1) Emjae Vocal Mix – 5:04
 * 2) Emjae Dub – 5:31
 * 3) Dave Aude Radio Mix – 3:48
 * 4) Dave Aude House Mix – 6:35
 * 5) Dave Aude House Dub – 6:12
 * 6) Dave Aude House Instrumental – 6:35
 * 7) Ralphi Rosario Radio Edit – 3:50
 * 8) Ralphi Rosario Club Mix – 7:52
 * 9) Ralphi Rosario Dub – 7:23

Pt. 2
 * 1) Danny Tenaglia's Grand Ballroom Mix – 12:34
 * 2) Danny Tenaglia's Maestro Version – 2:47
 * 3) Danny Tenaglia's Give Ice a Chance Mix – 9:50
 * 4) R3hab Mix – 4:06
 * 5) R3hab Dub – 4:06
 * 6) R3hab Instrumental – 4:06

Pt. 3
 * 1) Superchumbo Mix – 8:13
 * 2) Superchumbo Dub – 8:11
 * 3) Tedd Patterson Club Mix – 6:58
 * 4) Tedd Patterson Dub Mix – 6:58
 * 5) Tedd Patterson Instrumental – 6:58
 * 6) Morel Hot Sauce Mix – 5:35
 * 7) Morel Hot Sauce Dub – 5:38
 * 8) Danny Tenaglia & Sebastian Dub – 7:45

Pt. 4
 * 1) Dave Aude Electro Disco Club Mix – 6:32
 * 2) Dave Aude Electro Disco Instrumental – 6:32
 * 3) Dave Aude Electro Disco Dub – 5:47
 * 4) Dave Aude Electro Disco Radio Edit – 4:16
 * 5) Peter Rauhofer Future Mix Twisted Edit – 5:41
 * 6) 'Walking For Me' Sizequeen Mashup [feat. Sizequeen] – 5:51

Soundcloud exclusive
 * Dave Aude House Mixshow – 5:23

Awards and nominations
{| class=wikitable ! Year !! Awards !! Work !! Category !! Result !! Ref.
 * 1982
 * Grammy Awards
 * "Walking on Thin Ice"
 * Best Rock Vocal Performance, Female
 * Nominated
 * Nominated

Covers

 * Elvis Costello and The Attractions (ft. the TKO Horns) recorded a version on the album Every Man Has a Woman (1984).
 * We've Got a Fuzzbox and We're Gonna Use It (aka Fuzzbox) released it as a single in 1989, peaking at #76 on the UK charts.
 * The Picketts also recorded a version, (1985) as did Tila Tequila on her EP Welcome to the Dark Side (2010).
 * Siouxsie Sioux performed it live with original guitarist Earl Slick and tabla player Talvin Singh, at Ono's Meltdown Festival in London in 2013.

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

title: Walking on Thin Ice


text:
Talk:Old Labour

This definition of Old Labour is at least questionable - most of the Party would see OL more in terms of the values of the George Brown/Jim Callaghan wing of the party in the 70s, strongly TU-based (good!) but not instinctively 'liberal'. For this reason many of the Party have sought for an alternative description of the Party's mainstream - 'Classic Labour' from the Nottingham City Leader, seems to me a good one.Linuxlad 10:55, 1 Jun 2005 (UTC)
 * I think the definition is questionable but I couldn't think of a better one - it is a term which should have an entry here IMO, but perhaps someone can suggest a better, perhaps more flexible definition. User:DavidFarmbrough 1 Jun 2005 13:55 (BST)
 * Callaghan was most definitely not on the left of the party (though he would be by today's standards, Labour's leadership being, on some issues [by no means all], not merely Tory but radically so).

Yeh, it's a commonly used phrase in UK politics that should have it's own entry.

title: Talk:Old Labour


text:
Chronicon Pictum

The Chronicon Pictum or Illuminated Chronicle (Latin for "Illustrated Chronicle", Képes Krónika, Obrázková kronika, Ungarische Bilderchronik, also referred to as Chronica Hungarorum, Chronicon Hungarie Pictum, Chronica Picta or Chronica de Gestis Hungarorum) is a medieval illustrated chronicle from the Kingdom of Hungary from the 14th century. It represents the artistic style of the royal court of King Louis I of Hungary. The codex is a unique source of art, medieval and cultural history.

The chronicle's full name is: Chronicon Pictum – Marci de Kalt Chronica de Gestis Hungarorum (Illustrated Chronicle – Mark of Kalt's Chronicle About the Deeds of the Hungarians).

History of the chronicle
The chronicle was written by Mark of Kalt (Marci de Kalt, Kálti Márk) in 1358 in Latin, with the last of the illuminations being finished between 1370 and 1373.

According to historian Bálint Hóman, the original source of all extant Hungarian chronicles was the lost Gesta Ungarorum, which was written in the time of Saint Ladislaus. The basic premise of the Hungarian medieval chronicle tradition states that the Huns, i.e. the Hungarians, came out twice from the regions of Scythia, the guiding principle being the Hun-Hungarian continuity.

The chronicle was given by the Hungarian king Louis I to the French king Charles V, when the daughter of Louis, Catherine, was engaged to Charles's son Louis I, Duke of Orléans in 1374. The chronicle was later given to Serbian despot Đurađ Branković as a gift from the French king Charles VII. The chronicle was then copied in 1462. Between 1458 and 1490, it was kept in Hungary, in the court of King Matthias Corvinus. It was later lost, possibly spending some time in the possession of the Ottomans. There is evidence to suggest that in the second half of the 15th century the chronicle was again in Hungary, as it contains several handwritten Hungarian and Latin entries from the period. In three places researchers also found Turkish writing which make various comments regarding Hungary. Because of this, the researchers concluded that sometime between the 15th and 17th century the manuscript was owned by a Hungarian who knew Turkish very well. The chronicle may have been present in Vienna during the infamous Ottoman siege of the 16th century as from at least the 17th century, it belonged to the royal archives in Vienna. Sebastian Tengnagel mentions it in the manuscript catalog of the court library from 1608 to 1636, which is why it is sometimes referred to as the Vienna Illuminated Chronicle. As a result of the Venice Cultural Convention, the chronicle was returned to Hungary in 1934. The manuscript is now kept in the National Széchényi Library in Budapest, Hungary.

Illuminations
The 147 pictures of the chronicle represent a large source of information on medieval Hungarian cultural history, costume and court life, they're also the most important records extent of Hungarian painting practices in the 14th century. The artistic value is quite high, and the characters are drawn with detail and by artists with a knowledge of anatomy. The chronicle contains 147 miniatures: 10 larger images, 29 images in columns, smaller images painted in medallion shapes at the bottom of 4 pages, 99 images enclosed in initials, and 5 initials without images. In addition, there are 82 pieces of ornamental art painted in the margins.

The images are listed in the same order as their appearance in the chronicle.

title: Chronicon Pictum


text:
Naval Military Academy

The Naval Military Academy (Escuela Naval Militar, ENM), at Marín, Pontevedra, in north-western Spain, is a coeducational naval academy that educates officers for commissioning primarily into the Spanish Navy and Spanish Navy Marines.

History
It was established in 1717 as Real Compañía de Guardias Marinas (Royal Company of Maritime Guards) in Cádiz by José Patiño. In 1769 the institution moved to San Fernando, and in 1943 to its present location.

title: Naval Military Academy


text:
STS Mir

STS Mir (Мир) is a three-masted, full-rigged training ship, based in St. Petersburg, Russia. It was built in 1987 at the Lenin Shipyard in Gdańsk, Poland.

Mir is the second largest of six sister ships designed by Polish naval architect Zygmunt Choreń and weighs 2,385 tonnes. It is 109.2 m long, with a beam of 13.9 m and a draught of 6.3 m. The main mast is 52 m high and along with the other masts supports a total sail area of 2,771 m2.

Its sister ships are Dar Młodzieży, Druzhba, Pallada, Khersones, and Nadezhda. Mir is 8 m shorter than the second longest current sailing ship, the STS Sedov (117.5 m). Its shipowner is the Admiral Makarov State Maritime Academy (AMSMA) in Saint Petersburg.

Background
This ship was originally constructed as a cadet training ship, designed for carrying between 70 and 144 cadets. The total transport capacity is 199 people.

Achievements
Mir has taken part in races, including the annual The Tall Ships' Races organised by Sail Training International. In the Grand Regatta Columbus 1992, celebrating the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus in 1492, Mir came out as the winner.

STS Mir at Trafalgar 2005
During the afternoon of the 28 June 2005 Elizabeth II, as Lord High Admiral of the United Kingdom, embarked on board HMS Endurance and, escorted by THV Patricia, set sail to review a fleet of over 167 ships from over 30 nations.

title: STS Mir


text:
ENM

ENM may refer to:

 * École nationale de la météorologie, a renowned French graduate engineering school specializing in meteorology
 * Emmonak Airport (FAA LID: ENM), a state-owned public-use airport located in Emmonak, Alaska
 * Escuela Naval Militar, a coeducational Naval Academy that educates officers for commissioning
 * French National School for the Judiciary (École nationale de la magistrature), a French post-graduate school
 * Middle English (ISO 639-2 & -3: enm), a form of the English language spoken after the Norman conquest until the late 15th century
 * Species distribution modelling (also environmental niche modelling), the use of computer algorithms to predict the distribution of a species across geographic space and time
 * United National Movement (Georgia) (Ertiani Natsionaluri Modzraoba), a political party in Georgia
 * Ethical non-monogamy, also known as consensual non-monogamy, a style of intimate or sexual relationship

title: ENM


text: Category:Direct Connect network

title: Category:Direct Connect network


text: User talk:83.237.7.36

title: User talk:83.237.7.36


text:
Sudeten Germans

German Bohemians (Deutschböhmen und Deutschmährer ;, i.e. German Bohemians and German Moravians), later known as Sudeten Germans (Sudetendeutsche ; ), were ethnic Germans living in the Czech lands of the Bohemian Crown, which later became an integral part of Czechoslovakia. Before 1945, over three million German Bohemians constituted about 23% of the population of the whole country and about 29.5% of the population of Bohemia and Moravia. Ethnic Germans migrated into the Kingdom of Bohemia, an electoral territory of the Holy Roman Empire, from the 11th century, mostly in the border regions of what was later called the "Sudetenland", which was named after the Sudeten Mountains.

The process of German expansion was known as Ostsiedlung ("Settling of the East"). The name "Sudeten Germans" was adopted during rising nationalism after the fall of Austria-Hungary after the First World War. After the Munich Agreement, the so-called Sudetenland became part of Germany.

After the Second World War, most of the German-speaking population (mostly Roman Catholic with relatively few Protestants) was expelled from Czechoslovakia to Germany and Austria.

The area that became known as the Sudetenland possessed chemical works and lignite mines as well as textile, china, and glass factories. The Bohemian border with Bavaria was inhabited primarily by Germans. The Upper Palatine Forest, which extends along the Bavarian frontier and into the agricultural areas of southern Bohemia, was an area of German settlement. Moravia contained patches of "locked" German territory to the north and south. More characteristic were the German language islands, which were towns inhabited by German minorities and surrounded by Czechs. Sudeten Germans were mostly Roman Catholics, a legacy of centuries of Austrian Habsburg rule.

Not all ethnic Germans lived in isolated and well-defined areas; for historical reasons, Czechs and Germans mixed in many places, and Czech-German bilingualism and code-switching was quite common. Nevertheless, during the second half of the 19th century, Czechs and Germans began to create separate cultural, educational, political and economic institutions, which kept both groups semi-isolated from each other, which continued until the end of the Second World War, when almost all the ethnic Germans were expelled.

Names
In the English language, ethnic Germans who originated in the Kingdom of Bohemia were traditionally referred to as "German Bohemians". This appellation utilizes the broad definition of Bohemia, which includes all of the three Bohemian crown lands: Bohemia, Moravia and (Austrian) Silesia. In the German language, it is more common to distinguish among the three lands, hence the prominent terms Deutschböhmen (German Bohemians), Deutschmährer (German Moravians) and Deutschschlesier (German Silesians). Even in German the broader use of "Bohemian" is also found.

The term "Sudeten Germans" (Sudetendeutsche) came about during rising ethnic nationalism in the early 20th century, after the fall of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in the First World War. It coincided with the rise of another new term, "the Sudetenland", which referred only to the parts of the former Kingdom of Bohemia that were inhabited predominantly by ethnic Germans. These names were derived from the Sudeten Mountains, which form the northern border of the Bohemian lands. As these terms were heavily used by the Nazi German regime to push forward the creation of a Greater Germanic Reich, many contemporary Germans avoid them in favour of the traditional names.

Middle Ages and early modern period
There have been ethnic Germans living in the Bohemian crown lands since the Middle Ages. In the late 12th and in the 13th century the Přemyslid rulers promoted the colonisation of certain areas of their lands by German settlers from the adjacent lands of Bavaria, Franconia, Upper Saxony and Austria during the Ostsiedlung migration.

In 1348, the Luxembourg king Charles I, also King of the Romans and Holy Roman Emperor (as Charles IV) from 1355, founded the Charles University in Prague (Alma Mater Carolina), the first in Central Europe, attended by large German student nations, and its language of education was Latin. Czechs made up about 20 percent of the students at the time of its founding, and the rest was primarily German. A culturally-significant example of German Bohemian prose from the Middle Ages is the story Der Ackermann aus Böhmen ("The Ploughman from Bohemia"), written in Early New High German by Johannes von Tepl (c. 1350 – 1414) in Žatec (Saaz), who probably had studied liberal arts in Prague.

For centuries, German Bohemians played important roles in the economy and politics of the Bohemian lands. For example, forest glass production was a common industry for German Bohemians. Though they were living beyond the medieval Kingdom of Germany, an independent German Bohemian awareness, however, was not widespread, and for a long time, it played no decisive role in everyday life. Individuals were usually seen as Bohemians, Moravians or Silesians. Defining events later in German Bohemian history were the Hussite Wars, the occupation of Bohemia by the Czech Brethren, the Thirty Years' War, when the Lands of the Bohemian Crown were severely affected, which caused the immigration of further German settlers.

After the death of King Louis II of Hungary and Bohemia in the 1526 Battle of Mohács, the Habsburg Archduke Ferdinand of Austria became King of Bohemia, which became a constituent state of the Habsburg monarchy. With the rise of the Habsburgs in Bohemia after the 1620 Battle of White Mountain, the old Bohemian nobility became virtually meaningless. Increasingly, the Bohemian crown lands were ruled from the Austrian capital, Vienna, which favoured the dominance of the German language and German culture. On the other hand, the 18th-century Silesian Wars started by Prussian King Frederick II of Prussia against Austria resulted in the loss of the traditionally-Bohemian crown land and weakened Germans in the remaining parts of Bohemia. As the 19th century arrived, resistance to the German domination began to develop among the Czechs.

Austria-Hungary
After the revolutions of 1848 and the rise of ethnic nationalism, nervousness about ethnic tensions in Austria-Hungary resulted in a prevailing equality between Czechs and German Bohemians. Each ethnicity tried to retain, in regions in which it was the majority, sovereignty over its own affairs. Czechs and Germans generally maintained separate schools, churches and public institutions. Nevertheless, despite the separation, Germans often understood some Czech, and Czechs often spoke some German. Cities like Prague, however, saw more mixing between the ethnicities and also had large populations of Jews; Germans living with Czechs fluently spoke Czech and code-switched between German and Czech when talking to Czechs and other Germans. Jews in Bohemia often spoke German and sometimes Yiddish. The famed writer Franz Kafka exemplifies the diversity of Bohemia since he was a Prague-based German-speaking Jew, but his surname was of Czech origin.

In 1867, the equality of Austrian citizens of all ethnicities was guaranteed by the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867, which enshrined the principles of constitutional monarchy. The agreement established the Dual Monarchy and gave the Hungarians sovereignty over their own affairs. The preservation of German cultural dominance throughout Cisleithania had proved to be difficult and now seemed to be was utterly impossible.

With the agreement, the desire for an autonomous Czech subdivision was mounting. Both German Bohemians and Czechs were hoping for a constitutional solution to the demands, but Czech nationalist views remained a constant part of the Bohemian political sphere. The Czechs had feared Germanization, but the Germans now worried about Czechization.

A symbol of the rising tensions was the fate of Charles University, then called Charles-Ferdinand University. Its Czech students had become increasingly perturbed by the sole use of German for instruction. During the 1848 revolution, both Germans and Czechs fought to make Czech one of the university's official languages. They achieved that right, and the university became bilingual. By 1863, out of 187 lecture courses, 22 were held in Czech, the remainder being in German. In 1864, some Germans suggested the creation of a separate Czech university. Czech professors rejected that because they did not wish to lose the continuity of university traditions.

The Czechs, however, were still not satisfied with bilingual status and proposed creating two separate constituent colleges, one for the Germans and one for the Czechs. The Germans vetoed the proposal and called for a full division of the university. After long negotiations, it was divided into the German Charles-Ferdinand University and the Czech Charles-Ferdinand University. The Cisleithanian Imperial Council prepared an act of parliament, and the emperor granted royal assent on 28 February 1882.

In 1907, the Cisleithanian Imperial Council was for the first time elected by universal male suffrage. As part of the process, new constituency boundaries had to be drawn throughout the empire. Electoral officials were very careful to demarcate areas as clearly either German or Czech and to assure that there would be no conflict as to which ethnicity had a majority in any constituency. Nevertheless, that did not settle tensions among Czechs, who wanted to govern themselves from Prague.

Archduke Franz Ferdinand came up with a plan, known as the United States of Greater Austria, in 1909. German Bohemia, as it was to be called, was going to be separated from the Czech areas around it in the plan. That would create ethnically homogenous self-governing provinces that would hopefully end the ethnic conflict. However, Franz Ferdinand was assassinated, and the First World War destroyed all hopes for a redrawn Cisleithania.

Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye
The end of the war in 1918 brought about the partition of the multiethnic Austria-Hungary into its historical components, one of them, the Bohemian Kingdom, forming the west of the newly created Czechoslovakia. Czech politicians insisted on the traditional boundaries of the Bohemian Crown according to the principle of uti possidetis juris. The new Czech state would thus have defensible mountain boundaries with Germany, but the highly industrialised settlement areas of three million Germans would now be separated from Austria and come under Czech control.

The Austrian head of government, Ernst Seidler von Feuchtenegg, wanted to divide Bohemia by setting up administrative counties (Verwaltungskreise), which would be based on the nationalities of the population. On 26 September 1918, his successor, Max Hussarek von Heinlein, offered the Czechs wide-ranging autonomy within Imperial and Royal Austria. Also, Austria was no longer considered to be a major power by the victors of the war.

Province of German Bohemia
On 14 October, Raphael Pacher succeeded, together with the social democrat, Josef Seliger, in uniting all German parties and members of parliament in Bohemia and Moravia into a coalition. In preparation for the foundation of the Republic of German Bohemia, the coalition, chaired by Pacher, appointed a committee of twelve members. One day after the proclamation of the Republic of Czechoslovakia, on 29 October 1918, the Province of German Bohemia was formed with its capital in Reichenberg. Its first governor was Raphael Pacher, who transferred his office on 5 November to Rudolf Lodgman von Auen.

The Province of German Bohemia comprised a contiguous region in North and West Bohemia stretching from the Egerland to the Braunau region along the border with the German Empire. In South Bohemia the administrative unit of Böhmerwaldgau emerged, which was to be part of Upper Austria. German Bohemia in the Eagle Mountains and in the area of Landskron merged with the so-called "Province of the Sudetenland", which had radically different borders than the later understanding of the term. The Bohemian district of Neubistritz was incorporated into Znaim and was supposed to be administered by Lower Austria. The judiciary for German Bohemia was based in Reichenberg, and Vienna was responsible for the other German regions. On 22 November 1918, the Province of German Bohemia proclaimed itself part of the state of German Austria. On the same day, the territory of German Austria was defined by the Act of the "Provisional National Assembly" (Provisorische Nationalversammlung), which included German Bohemian and German Moravian members of the former Cisleithanian Imperial Council.

In addition to the establishment of the state's governmental organisation, higher authorities were also created, such as the Finance Ministry, the Department of Agriculture and the Higher Regional Court of Reichenberg as well as a general post office and railway administration.

For geographical reasons, however, a territorial solution would have been impossible unless those regions, together with Austria, had been incorporated into Germany.

After the Czechoslovak Republic was proclaimed on 28 October 1918, the German Bohemians, claiming the right to self-determination according to the tenth of US President Woodrow Wilson’s Fourteen Points, demanded that their homeland areas remain with Austria, which by then had been reduced to the Republic of German Austria. The German Bohemians relied mostly on peaceful opposition to the occupation of their homeland by the Czech military, which started on 31 October 1918 and was completed on 28 January 1919. Fighting took place sporadically, resulting in the deaths of a few dozen Germans and Czechs.

On 4 March 1919, almost the entire ethnic German population peacefully demonstrated for its right to self-determination. The demonstrations were accompanied by a one-day general strike. The German Social Democratic Workers Party in the Czechoslovak Republic, then the largest party, was responsible for the demonstration initiative, but it was also supported by other bourgeois German parties. The mass demonstrations were put down by the Czech military, involving 54 deaths and 84 wounded.

American diplomat Archibald Coolidge insisted on respecting the Germans' right to self-determination and uniting all German-speaking areas with either Germany or Austria, with the exception of northern Bohemia. However, the Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, on 10 September 1919, made it clear that German Bohemia would not become part of the new Austrian Republic. Instead, it would become part of Czechoslovakia. The new state regarded ethnic Germans as an ethnic minority. Nevertheless, some 90 percent lived in territories in which they represented 90 percent or more of the population.

Demography
In 1921, the population of multi-ethnic Czechoslovakia comprised 6.6 million Czechs, 3.2 million Germans, two million Slovaks, 0.7 million Hungarians, half a million Ruthenians (Rusyns), 300,000 Jews, and 100,000 Poles, as well as Gypsies, Croats and other ethnic groups. German-speakers represented a third of the population of the Bohemian lands and about 23.4 percent of the population of the whole republic (13.6 million). The Sudetenland possessed huge chemical works and lignite mines as well as textile, china, and glass factories. To the west, a triangle of historic ethnic German settlement surrounding Eger was the most active area for pan-German nationalism. The Upper Palatinate Forest, an area that was primarily populated by Germans, extended along the Bavarian frontier to the poor agricultural areas of southern Bohemia.

Moravia contained many patches of ethnic German settlement in the north and the south. Most typical in those areas were German "language islands", towns inhabited by ethnic Germans but surrounded by rural Czechs. Extreme German nationalism was never prevalent in those areas. German nationalism in the coal-mining region of southern Silesia, which was 40.5% German, was restrained by fear of competition from industry in the Weimar Republic.

Gradual general acceptance of Czechoslovak citizenship
Many Germans felt that the new constitution failed to fulfil what the Czechs had promised in the Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye (1919) because there were too few minority rights. However, they gradually accepted remaining in Czechoslovakia and took part in the first elections in 1920. In 1926, the first Germans became minister (Robert Mayr-Harting and Franz Spina), and the first German political party became part of the government (German Christian Social People's Party and Farmers' League).

Politics
German nationalist sentiment ran high during the early years of the republic. Sudeten representatives tried to join Austria or Germany or at least to obtain as much autonomy. The constitution of 1920 was drafted without Sudeten German representation, and Sudetens declined to participate in the election of the president. Sudeten political parties pursued an "obstructionist" (or negativist) policy in the Czechoslovak parliament. In 1926, however, German Chancellor Gustav Stresemann, adopting a policy of rapprochement with the West, advised the Sudeten Germans to co-operate actively with the Czechoslovak government. In consequence, most Sudeten German parties (including the German Agrarian Party, the German Social Democratic Party and the German Christian Socialist People's Party) changed their policy from negativism to activism, and several Sudeten politicians even accepted cabinet posts.

At a party conference in Teplitz in 1919, the provincial Social Democratic Parties of Bohemia, Moravia and Sudeten-Silesia united to form the Deutsche Sozialdemokratische Arbeiterpartei (DSAP) and elected Josef Seliger as chairman. After Seliger's untimely death in 1920, Ludwig Czech became party chairman, who was succeeded in 1938 by Wenzel Jaksch.

Already in 1936, Jaksch, together with Hans Schütz of the German Christian Social People's Party (Deutsche Christlich-Soziale Volkspartei) and Gustav Hacker of the Farmers' Association (Bund der Landwirte, formed the Jungaktivisten (Young Activists). They sought agreement with the Czechoslovak government on a policy that could withstand the Nazi onslaught from within and from outside Czechoslovakia. At simultaneous mass rallies in Tetschen-Bodenbach/Děčín, Saaz/Žatec and Olešnice v Orlických horách/Gießhübl im Adlergebirge on April 26, 1936, they demanded equal opportunities in civil service for Germans, financial assistance for German businesses, official acceptance of the German language for public servants in the Sudetenland and measures to reduce unemployment in the Sudetenland. (At the time, one in three was unemployed in the Sudetenland, compared to one in five in the rest of the country.) Improving the quality of life of the Sudeten Germans was not the only motivation of the Jungaktivists. For Jaksch and his social democratic compatriots, it was a question of survival after a possible Nazi takeover. Of some 80,000 social democrats in Czechoslovakia, only about 5,000 would manage to flee the Nazis. The rest were incarcerated, and many of them were executed. Many of those who survived the Nazi persecution were later expelled, together with other Sudeten Germans, on the basis of Beneš decrees.

By 1929, only a small number of Sudeten German deputies, most of them members of the German National Party, supported by the propertied classes, and the German National Socialist Workers' Party, remained opposed to the Czechoslovak government. Nationalist sentiment flourished, however, among Sudeten German youths, who had a variety of organizations, such as the older Deutsche Turnverband and Schutzvereine, the Kameradschaftsbund, the Nazi Volkssport (1929) and the Bereitschaft.

Rise of Nazis
The Sudeten German nationalists, particularly the Nazis, expanded their activities after the Depression started. On 30 January 1933, Adolf Hitler was appointed chancellor of Germany. The Czechoslovak government prepared to suppress the Sudeten Nazi Party. In the autumn of 1933, the Sudeten Nazis dissolved their organization, and the German Nationals were pressured to do likewise. The government expelled German Nationals and Sudeten Nazis from local government positions. The Sudeten German population was indignant, especially in nationalist strongholds like Egerland.

On 1 October 1933, Konrad Henlein with his deputy, Karl Hermann Frank, aided by other members of the Kameradschaftsbund, a youth organization of mystical orientation, created a new political organisation. The Sudeten German Home Front (Sudetendeutsche Heimatfront) professed loyalty to Czechoslovakia but championed decentralization. It absorbed most former German Nationals and Sudeten Nazis. The Kameradschaftsbund under Henlein did not promote joining Germany, but campaigned for decentralised Czechoslovakia based on the model of Switzerland; Henlein promoted a separate Sudeten German identity, using the term sudetendeutscher Stamm (Sudeten German tribe). Before 1937, Henlein was critical of Adolf Hitler and advocated for the ideas of liberalism and individualism. However, Henlein's movement was growing increasingly divided and his own position soon became precarious. Henlein suffered a severe blow to his reputation as well as political influence when his mentor, Heinz Rutha, was accused of homosexuality and committed suicide in prison. The radical wing of the party pressured Henlein to resign, and the Czechoslovak security forces increased their efforts to frustrate the movement's activities. Ronald Smelser noted that "backed to the wall, Henlein took what he thought to be the only step left to rescue his own position and the unity of his movement: he wrote a letter to Adolf Hitler." Henlein started secretly cooperating with the German government and the underground Nazi movement.

In 1935, the Sudeten German Home Front became the Sudeten German Party (Sudetendeutsche Partei) (SdP) and embarked on an active propaganda campaign. In the May election, the SdP won more than 60% of the Sudeten German vote. The German Agrarians, Christian Socialists and Social Democrats each lost approximately half of their followers. The SdP became the centre of German nationalist forces. The party represented itself as striving for a just settlement of Sudeten German claims within the framework of Czechoslovak democracy. Henlein, however, maintained secret contact with Nazi Germany and received material aid from Berlin, which told him to refuse every concession offered by Czechoslovakia. The SdP endorsed the idea of a Führer and mimicked Nazi methods with banners, slogans and uniformed troops. Concessions offered by the Czechoslovak government, including the installation of exclusively Sudeten German officials in Sudeten German areas and the possible participation of the SdP in the cabinet, were rejected. Nevertheless, the party campaigned on autonomy for the Sudetenland and pledged allegiance to the Czechoslovak stance; a majority of SdP voters supported regional autonomy and did not desire to join the German state. Elizabeth Wiskemann remarked that "when Henlein repeated to his English friends in London as late as May 1938 that he still wished for autonomy within the Czechoslovak State, whether he was speaking sincerely or not, he was expressing the wishes of a very considerable proportion of his followers". According to Ralf Gebel, "the majority had voted for a party that united the Sudeten Germans and aimed to improve their position within the Czechoslovak Republic — no more and no less". Johann Wolfgang Brügel also highlights that although Henlein became "Hitler's paladin", the SdP of 1935 represented a "conglomerate of practically all [political] colourings", and the opinion of the general Sudeten German population only supported autonomy within Czechoslovakia.

On 13 March 1938, the Third Reich annexed Austria during the Anschluss. Sudeten Germans reacted with fear to the news of Austrian annexation, and the moderate wing of SdP grew in strength. Hitherto pro-Henlein German newspaper Bohemia (newspaper) denounced the SdP leader, arguing that his call for Sudeten Anschluss goes against the wish of his voters and supporters: "His present call to irredentism saddles the Sudeten Germans with all the consequences of treason to the State; for such a challenge the electors gave him neither their votes nor their mandate". On 22 March, the German Agrarian Party, led by Gustav Hacker, merged with the SdP. German Christian Socialists in Czechoslovakia suspended their activities on 24 March; their deputies and senators entered the SdP parliamentary club. However, the majority of Sudeten Germans did not support annexation into Germany. Contemporary reports of The Times found that there was a "large number of Sudetenlanders who actively opposed annexation", and that the pro-German policy was challenged by the moderates within the SdP as well; according to Wickham Steed, over 50 % of Henleinists favoured greater autonomy within Czechoslovakia over joining Germany. P. E. Caquet argues that in case of a fair plebiscite, a majority of the Sudetenland population would have voted to remain in Czechoslovakia. The municipal elections of May 1938 were marred with voter intimidation and street fighting - officially the SdP won about 90 percent of the Sudeten vote, but about a third of Sudeten Germans were prevented from casting a free vote.

Czechoslovak Chamber of Deputies (1920–1935)
The table below shows the number of seats German parties and German–Hungarian lists gained in the Czechoslovak Chamber of Deputies between 1920 and 1935.

 * Hungarian Parties and Sudeten German Electoral Bloc (1935): German Democratic Liberal Party, German Industrialist Party, Party of German Nation, Sudeten German Land Union, German Workers Party, Zips German Party, Provincial Christian Social Party, Hungarian National Party

Munich Agreements
Konrad Henlein met with Hitler in Berlin on 28 March 1938 and was told to raise demands that would be unacceptable to the Czechoslovak government. In the Carlsbad Decrees, issued on 24 April at the Carlsbad convention, the SdP demanded complete autonomy for the Sudetenland and freedom to profess Nazi ideology. If Henlein's demands had been granted, the Sudetenland would have been in a position to align itself with Nazi Germany.

As the political situation worsened, the security in Sudetenland deteriorated. The region became the site of small-scale clashes between young SdP followers, equipped with arms smuggled from Germany, and police and border forces. In some places, the regular army was called in to pacify the situation. Nazi propaganda accused the Czech government and Czechs of atrocities on innocent Germans. The Czechoslovak public started to prepare for an inevitable war, such as by training with gas masks.

On 20 May, Czechoslovakia initiated a so-called "partial mobilization" (literally "special military precaution") in response to rumours of German troop movements. The army moved into position on the border. Western powers tried to calm down the situation and forced Czechoslovakia to comply with most of the Carlsbad Decrees. However the SdP, instructed to continue to push towards war, escalated the situation with more protests and violence.

With the help of special Nazi forces, the Sudetendeutsche Freikorps (paramilitary groups trained in Germany by SS-instructors) took over some border areas and committed many crimes: they killed more than 110 Czechoslovaks (mostly soldiers and policemen) and kidnapped over 2,020 Czechoslovak citizens (including German antifascists), taking them to Nazi Germany.

In August, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain sent Lord Runciman, a faithful appeaser, to Czechoslovakia to see if he could obtain a settlement between the Czechoslovak government and the Sudeten Germans. His mission failed because Henlein refused all conciliating proposals under secret orders by Hitler.

The Runciman Report to the British government stated this on Czechoslovakia's policy towards the German minority during the preceding decades:

"Czech officials and Czech police, speaking little or no German, were appointed in large numbers to purely German districts; Czech agricultural colonists were encouraged to settle on land confiscated under the Land Reform in the middle of German populations; for the children of these Czech invaders Czech schools were built on a large scale; there is a very general belief that Czech firms were favoured as against German firms in the allocation of State contracts and that the State provided work and relief for Czechs more readily than for Germans. I believe these complaints to be in the main justified. Even as late as the time of my Mission, I could find no readiness on the part of the Czechoslovak Government to remedy them on anything like an adequate scale... the feeling among the Sudeten Germans until about three or four years ago was one of hopelessness. But the rise of Nazi Germany gave them new hope. I regard their turning for help towards their kinsmen and their eventual desire to join the Reich as a natural development in the circumstances."

Britain and France then pressured the Czechoslovak government into ceding the Sudetenland to Germany on 21 September. The Munich Agreement, signed September 29 by Britain, France, Germany and Italy and negotiated without Czechoslovak participation, only confirmed that decision and the negotiated details. Czechoslovakia ceded a German-defined maximalist extension of Sudetenland to Germany, including the Škoda Works; near Pilsen, they had been Czechoslovakia's primary armaments factory.

As a result, Bohemia and Moravia lost about 38 percent of their combined area, and 3.65 million inhabitants (2.82 million Germans and approximately 513,000 – 750,000 Czechs to Germany).

Under Nazi rule

Some 250,000 Germans remained on the Czech side of the border, which later became part of the Reich by the establishment of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia under German governors and the German Army. Almost all the Germans in these Czech territories were subsequently granted German citizenship, while most of the Germans in Slovakia obtained citizenship of the Slovak state.

With the establishment of German rule, hundreds of thousands of Czechs who (under the policy of Czechification) had moved into the Sudetenland after 1919 left the area, some willingly. They were, however, permitted to take away their possessions and to legally sell their houses and land. A few, however, remained.

In elections held on 4 December 1938, 97.32% of the adult population in Sudetenland voted for the NSDAP (most of the rest were Czechs who were allowed to vote as well). About half a million Sudeten Germans joined the Nazi Party, which amounted to 17.34% of the German population in the Sudetenland (the average in Nazi Germany was 7.85%). Because of their knowledge of the Czech language, many Sudeten Germans were employed in the administration of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia as well as in the Nazi oppressive machinery such as the Gestapo. The most notable was Karl Hermann Frank, the SS and Police general and Secretary of State in the Protectorate.

After the establishment of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, almost all Bohemian and Moravian Jews, many of whom were primarily German-speaking, were deported and murdered by the authorities. The Nazis evacuated about 120,000 Germans (mostly women and children) to the Sudetenland and the Protectorate.

Expulsion and transfer
In the aftermath of World War II, when the Czechoslovak state was restored, the government expelled the majority of ethnic Germans (about 3 million altogether), in the belief that their behaviour had been a major cause of the war and subsequent destruction. In the months directly following the end of the war, "wild" expulsions happened from May until August 1945. Several Czechoslovak statesmen encouraged such expulsions with polemical speeches. Generally local authorities ordered the expulsions, which armed volunteers carried out. In some cases the regular army initiated or assisted such expulsions. Several thousand Germans were murdered during the expulsion, and many more died from hunger and illness as a consequence of becoming refugees.

The regular transfer of ethnic nationals among nations, authorized according to the Potsdam Conference, proceeded from 25 January 1946 until October 1946. An estimated 1.6 million "ethnic Germans" (most of them also had Czech ancestors; and even Czechs, who spoke mainly German over the last years), were deported from Czechoslovakia to the American zone of what would become West Germany. An estimated 800,000 were deported to the Soviet zone (in what would become East Germany). Estimates of casualties related to this expulsion range between 20,000 and 200,000 people, depending on source. Casualties included primarily violent deaths and suicides, rapes, deaths in internment camps and natural causes.

Even the German-speaking Charles-Ferdinand University in Prague could not escape expulsion. The remaining faculty, students, and administrators fled to Munich in Bavaria, where they established the Collegium Carolinum, a research institute for the study of the Bohemian lands.

The Sudetendeutsche Landsmannschaft claims to represent the German refugees from the former Czechoslovak Republic, but its conservative positions were and are discussed very controversially among the refugees themselves, with many choosing not to associate with the organization. In the 2001 census, 39,106 people in the Czech Republic claimed German ethnicity. In theory, with the accession of the Czech Republic into the European Union, refugee Sudeten Germans and their descendants (or for that matter, also Germans with no previous link to the Bohemian lands) could have moved back there without needing the Czech government's permission – but in practice such a move did not materialize in any significant numbers, as they could not reclaim property and many were well established in Germany.

Argentina
Although to a lesser extent than the Volga Germans, Sudeten Germans also immigrated to Argentina. Some groups settled in different German colonies in the Misiones Province.

Particularly notable is the case of the German businessman Oskar Schindler and his wife Emilie Schindler, who lived in Argentina for a few years.

Likewise, Argentina-based Princess Mercedes von Dietrichstein, daughter of Alexander von Dietrichstein, has spent long years legally battling to recover her family's assets (for example, Mikulov Castle) that were confiscated from them in the Sudetenland area by order of the President of Czechoslovakia Edvard Beneš, through the so-called Beneš Decrees, which dispossessed all ethnic Germans of their property and expelled them from their land.

Chile
In 1877, a group of Sudeten Germans from the city of Braunau (historical region of Bohemia, then located in the Austro-Hungarian Empire; current city of Broumov, Czech Republic) founded the town of Nueva Braunau in Chile, in Los Lagos Region. Likewise, in the town of Colonia Humán (currently integrated as a neighborhood into the city of Los Ángeles), in the Biobío Region, some Germans from the Sudetenland joined other groups of established Germans.

In the 1930s, the Chilean businesswoman Antonia Inalaf decided to finance a project to emigrate Sudeten Germans to Chile. This group of Germans came from the city of Rossbach (currently Hranice, in the historical region of Moravia, Czech Republic), and in 1935 she founded the town of Puyuhuapi, in the Aysén Region. Although her project was to settle many more families, the Second World War frustrated her plans. Therefore, some relatives of those who had already settled were only able to arrive in 1947. First, the settler settled with their families, which gave rise to a new population.

Following the expulsion of Germans from Czechoslovakia at the end of World War II, a new group of Sudeten Germans immigrated to Chile, either to settle in Puyuhuapi or in other German colonies in the south of the country.

Spain
Before World War II broke out, Prince Maximilian Eugene of Hohenlohe-Langenburg decided to take refuge in Spain. Similarly, after the war, all of his assets were confiscated through the Beneš Decrees. However, the fortune of his wife's family prevented him from falling out of favor. In Spain, one of his sons, Prince Alfonso, founded the Marbella Club Hotel, thus beginning the Marbella Golden Mile, which he catapulted as a destination for international luxury tourism, which since then has generated great wealth for Spain.

Paraguay
On October 1, 1933, some families of Sudeten Germans founded the "Colonia Sudetia" in the Paso Yobai district, Guairá Department. In the beginning the colony was difficult for them, since most of them were not farmers but had other professions, but they soon knew how to adapt and today the community is the seat of large yerba mate factories.

Languages
Various Sudeten German dialects are currently practically extinct as most Germans were expelled from Czechoslovakia: present Sudeten Germans speak mainly Czech and/or Standard German.

title: Sudeten Germans


text:
Ride Report

The Ride Report is the informal name of the report titled NASA Leadership and America's Future in Space: A Report to the Administrator. In 1986, a task force under the leadership of Sally Ride was asked to formulate a new strategy for NASA. The report was issued in 1987.

The Ride Report proposed four main initiatives for study and evaluation. These were:
 * 1) Mission to Planet Earth
 * 2) Exploration of the Solar System
 * 3) Outpost on the Moon
 * 4) Humans to Mars

"Mission to Planet Earth" would be centred on the observation of our home planet. New technologies for observation would be needed, and launch capabilities for geostationary and polar orbits. The space station that was under planning at the time this report was issued, is called simply "the Space Station" and is more ambitious than the current ISS, in that it would be well-developed enough to have ability for assembly of satellites and platforms in orbit. A transfer vehicle to launch these into geostationary orbit is proposed as well.

In the section "Exploration of the Solar System", the report points out that there are too few planetary exploration missions planned. It proposes some new missions, such as a cometary mission, an extended Cassini mission (including three probes; one for the study of the atmosphere of Saturn, one atmospheric Titan probe and one to land on Titan) and a Mars sample return mission.

A permanent lunar outpost is discussed in "Outpost on the Moon". This goal would be reached through three phases, where the first would deal with robotic exploration during the 1990s to find a suitable site. In the second phase, astronauts would be launched to the Moon on a Lunar transfer vehicle from the Space Station. They would bring scientific instruments and equipment and modules for the outpost. In the third phase, the outpost would be a permanent installation, with closed-loop life-support systems, and great abilities for exploration of the Moon. According to the plan, there would be a crew of 30 living and working on the Moon by 2010.

In "Humans to Mars" the ambitious goal of crewed Mars landings is proposed to happen as soon as 2010. Preparations for these missions include robotic exploration of Mars, with orbiters, rovers and sample return missions. The Space Station was to be used for study of the human body during long space flights. The construction of an outpost on Mars could begin during the 2020s.

The Ride Report also recognizes the risks of making the Space Station dependent on one single launch vehicle - the Space Shuttle. It proposes the development of a shuttle-derived cargo launcher, as a way of diversifying the launch fleet.

title: Ride Report


text:
Timeline of the Polish Army

1569–1699

 * Silver Age of The Republic
 * September 8, 1581 - Siege of Psków - Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth - Russia
 * October 19, 1595 - Battle of Cecora - Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth - Turkey
 * September 27, 1605 - Battle of Kircholm - Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth - Sweden
 * July 4, 1610 - Battle of Kłuszyn - Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth - Russia & Sweden - after this battle Poland conquered Moscow.
 * September 1, 1612 - Battle of Moscow - Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth - Russia
 * September 20, 1620 - Battle of Cecora - Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth - Turkey
 * September 2, 1621 - Battle of Chocim - Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth - Turkey
 * November 28, 1627 - Battle of Oliwa - Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth - Sweden
 * July 10 - August 22, 1649 - Defense of Zbaraż - Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth - Cossacks & Crimea
 * June 28, 1651 - Battle of Beresteczko - Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth - Cossacks
 * January 29, 1655 - Battle of Ochamatów - Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth - Russia
 * November 18, 1655 - Defense of Jasna Góra - Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth - Sweden
 * July 20, 1657 - Battle of Czarny Ostrów - Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth - Sweden
 * November 11, 1673 - Battle of Chocim - Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth - Turkey
 * September 12, 1683 - Battle of Vienna - Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth - Turkey - One of the most important battles in Europe

1700–1795

 * Fall of the Republic
 * February 29, 1768 - Confederation of Bar is formed.
 * July 27, 1768 - The Siege of Kraków begins.
 * 1770 - The Battle of Dobra takes place.
 * May 21, 1771 - The Battle of Lanckorona takes place.
 * September 6 - The Battle of Antopol takes place.
 * 1792 - The War in Defense of the Constitution begins.
 * The Battle of Mir takes place.
 * The Battle of Zelwa takes place.
 * June 18 - The Battle of Zielenice takes place.
 * July 18 - The Battle of Dubienka takes place.
 * April 2 - The Battle of Racławice takes place.
 * The Warsaw Uprising takes place.
 * The Wilno Uprising takes place.
 * June 6 - The Battle of Szczekociny takes place.
 * June 8 - The Battle of Chelmno takes place.
 * October 10 - The Battle of Maciejowice takes place.
 * November 4 - Massacre of Praga takes place.

1795–1914
1807–1815 - Duchy of Warsaw: puppet state in ally with the First French Empire: various Polish formations fighting within the French army, the Duchy's forces took part in the invasion on the Russian state: Battle of Borodino, Battle of Berezina; 1815–1830 - the puppet Polish Kingdom, ruled by tsars (kings of Poland), with some autonomy, especially separate armed forces, which fought in the Polish-Russian War 1830–1831, largely known as the November Uprising; after the war the Kingdom became officially part of the Russian Empire, hence all Polish forces were disbanded. The Polish under the rule of Berlin and Vienna had no military formations of their own until World War I.
 * Age of Partition

1914–1922

 * Age of regaining independence
 * 1914–1918 - First World War
 * 1918 - Greater Poland Uprising
 * 1919 - First Silesian Uprising
 * 1919 - Sejny Uprising - should have been a part of secret services staged coup against Lithuanian government
 * 1919–1920 - Polish-Soviet War
 * 1920 - Second Silesian Uprising
 * 1921 - Third Silesian Uprising

1923–1948

 * Age of the Second Republic
 * World War II

1948–present

 * Present age
 * 2003–present Iraq War
 * Afghanistan War

title: Timeline of the Polish Army


text:
User:CalPaterson

Cal Paterson.

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title: User:CalPaterson