title: Addiction

text: The arts can be used in a variety of ways to address issues related to addiction. Art can be used as a form of therapy in the treatment of substance use disorders. Creative activities like painting, sculpting, music, and writing can help people express their feelings and experiences in safe and healthy ways. The arts can also be used as an assessment tool to identify underlying issues that may be contributing to a person's substance use disorder. Through art, individuals can gain insights into their own motivations and behaviors that can be helpful in determining a course of treatment. Finally, the arts can be used to advocate for those suffering from a substance use disorder by raising awareness of the issue and promoting understanding and compassion. Through art, individuals can share their stories, increase awareness, and offer support and hope to those struggling with substance use disorders.


title: Addiction

text: Addiction treatment is complex and not always effective due to engagement and service availability concerns, so researchers prioritize efforts to improve treatment retention and decrease relapse rates. Characteristics of substance abuse may include feelings of isolation, a lack of confidence, communication difficulties, and a perceived lack of control. In a similar vein, people suffering from substance use disorders tend to be highly sensitive, creative, and as such, are likely able to express themselves meaningfully in creative arts such as dancing, painting, writing, music, and acting. Further evidenced by Waller and Mahony (2002) and Kaufman (1981), the creative arts therapies can be a suitable treatment option for this population especially when verbal communication is ineffective.


title: Addiction

text: Art therapy is an effective method of dealing with substance abuse in comprehensive treatment models. When included in psychoeducational programs, art therapy in a group setting can help clients internalize taught concepts in a more personalized manner. During the course of treatment, by examining and comparing artwork created at different times, art therapists can be helpful in identifying and diagnosing issues, as well as charting the extent or direction of improvement as a person detoxifies. Moreover, where increasing adherence to treatment regimes and maintaining abstinence is the target; art therapists can aid by customizing treatment directives (encourage the client to create collages that compare pros and cons, pictures that compare past and present and future, and drawings that depict what happened when a client went off medication).


title: Addiction

text: Art therapy can also function as a complementary therapy used in conjunction with more conventional therapies. An evaluation of art therapy incorporation within a pre-existing Addiction Treatment Programme based on the 12 step Minnesota Model endorsed by the Alcoholics Anonymous found that 66% of participants expressed the usefulness of art therapy as a part of treatment. Within the weekly art therapy session, clients were able to reflect and process the intense emotions and cognitions evoked by the programme. In turn, the art therapy component of the programme fostered stronger self-awareness, exploration, and externalization of repressed and unconscious emotions of clients, promoting the development of a more integrated ‘authentic self’. Furthermore, art therapy can integrate with harm reduction protocols to minimize the negative effects of drug use,


title: Addiction

text: Despite the large number of randomized control trials, clinical control trials, and anecdotal evidence supporting the effectiveness of art therapies for use in addiction treatment, a systematic review conducted in 2018 could not find enough evidence on visual art, drama, dance and movement therapy, or 'arts in health' methodologies to confirm their effectiveness as interventions for reducing substance misuse. However, music therapy was identified to have potentially strong beneficial effects in aiding contemplation and preparing those diagnosed with substance use for treatment.


title: Addiction

text: The Formal Elements Art Therapy Scale (FEATS) is an assessment tool used to evaluate drawings created by people suffering from substance use disorders by comparing them to drawings of a control group (consisting of individuals without SUDs). FEATS consists of twelve elements, three of which were found to be particularly effective at distinguishing the drawings of those with SUDs from those without: Person, Realism, and Developmental. The Person element assesses the degree to which a human features are depicted realistically, the Realism element assesses the overall complexity of the artwork, and the Developmental element assesses “developmental age” of the artwork in relation to standardized drawings from children and adolescents. By using the FEATS assessment tool, clinicians can gain valuable insight into the drawings of individuals with SUDs, and can compare them to those of the control group. Formal assessments such as FEATS provide healthcare providers with a means to quantify, standardize, and communicate abstract and visceral characteristics of SUDs in order to provide more accurate diagnoses and informed treatment decisions.


title: Addiction

text: Other artistic assessment methods include the Bird’s Nest Drawing: a useful tool for visualizing a client's attachment security. This assessment method looks at the amount of color used in the drawing, with a lack of color indicating an 'insecure attachment', a factor that the client’s therapist or recovery framework must take into account.


title: Addiction

text: Art therapists working with children of parents suffering from alcoholism can use the Kinetic Family Drawings assessment tool to shed light on family dynamics and help children express and understand their family experiences. The KFD can also be used in family sessions to allow children to share their experiences and needs with parents who may be in recovery from alcohol use disorder. Often, the depiction of isolation of self and isolation of other family members may be an indicator of parental alcoholism.


title: Addiction

text: Stigma can lead to feelings of shame that can prevent people with substance use disorders from seeking help and interfere with provision of harm reduction services. It can also influence healthcare policy, making it difficult for these individuals to access treatment.


title: Addiction

text: Artists attempt to change the societal perception of addiction from a punishable moral offense to instead a chronic illness necessitating treatment. This form of advocacy can help to relocate the fight of addiction from a judicial perspective to the public health system.


title: Addiction

text: Artists who have personally lived with addiction and/or undergone recovery may use art to depict their experiences in a manner that uncovers the “human face of addiction”. By bringing experiences of addiction and recovery to a personal level and breaking down the “us and them”, the viewer may be more inclined to show compassion, forego stereotypes and stigma of addiction, and label addiction as a social rather than individual problem.


title: Addiction

text: According to Santora the main purposes in using art as a form of advocacy in the education and prevention of substance use disorders include:


title: Addiction

text: The Temple University College of Public Health department conducted a project to promote awareness around opioid use and reduce associated stigma by asking students to create art pieces that were displayed on a website they created and promoted via social media. Quantitative and qualitative data was recorded to measure engagement, and the student artists were interviewed, which revealed a change in perspective and understanding, as well as greater appreciation of diverse experiences. Ultimately, the project found that art was an effective medium for empowering both the artist creating the work and the person interacting with it.


title: Addiction

text: Another author critically examined works by contemporary Canadian artists that deal with addiction via the metaphor of a cultural landscape to “unmap” and “remap” ideologies related to Indigenous communities and addiction to demonstrate how colonial violence in Canada has drastically impacted the relationship between Indigenous peoples, their land, and substance abuse.


title: Addiction

text: A project known as “Voice” was a collection of art, poetry and narratives created by women living with a history of addiction to explore women’s understanding of harm reduction, challenge the effects of stigma and give voice to those who have historically been silenced or devalued. Within the project, nurses with knowledge of mainstream systems, aesthetic knowing, feminism and substance use organized weekly gatherings, wherein women with histories of substance use and addiction worked alongside a nurse to create artistic expressions. Creations were presented at several venues, including an International Conference on Drug Related Harm, a Nursing Conference and a local gallery to positive community response.


title: Addiction

text: The narrative medicine to addiction focuses on recognizing, absorbing, and interpreting the stories of those suffering from addiction, allowing for better understanding of their experiences with narrative analysis being used to study the discourse of those with addiction. This knowledge can be used to develop better care plans with the potential to increase patient compliance and make treatment more effective.


title: Addiction

text: A narrative study demonstrated and studied cognitive and emotional tendencies among substance abusers during treatment periods to learn more about motivation and ambivalence inherent in recovery over the course of a residential treatment program. Seven narrative types emerged from the overall analysis: optimistic, overly optimistic, pessimistic, overly pessimistic, “tough life,” troubled/confused, and balanced. Narratives tended to express a basic level of emotionality in early stages of treatment (“optimistic”, “pessimistic” narrative). Over time, as clients progressed through the program, their stories became more complex and detailed, including their drug abuse and recovery efforts, more skeptical positions towards treatment began to emerge. However, clients also began to distinguish between the positive and negative aspects of treatment, creating more “balanced” narratives in the process.


title: Addiction

text: Due to higher medication consumption, social isolation, financial worries, and other factors, older adults are particularly vulnerable to substance use problems. Incidence of addiction among this population often goes unreported. Narrative therapy can provide an avenue to unearth stories of addiction in an empowering manner, and thus serves as a viable therapeutic tool in applied gerontology. When treating substance abuse in older adults, it is essential to ensure that the client is respected and comfortable disclosing information. This should be done at the outset of treatment when the therapist and older adult are developing the therapeutic relationship. The social breakdown model is an important tool that can consider the compounded effects of ageism, physical changes, social changes, and substance abuse. The narrative approach integrates the social breakdown model with substance abuse challenges and can be an effective way to address addiction in this population.


title: Addiction

text: A study conducted in 2009 in the Republic of Moldova looked into the social dynamics of initiating injection drug usage by examining 42 audio-recorded, semi-structured interviews with present and former injectors. A thematic analysis suggested that self-injection was viewed as a symbolic transition of identity, enabled by interpersonal interactions and collective influences. Personal narratives of self-transition were also connected to larger narratives of social transitions. The personal narratives of self-initiation and transition are contextualized and understood in terms of political (social) narratives within the core concept of the ‘transitional society’. Another study examined the narratives of 'initiators': people who help people who inject drugs (PWID) with their first injection. Through their accounts, respondents described initiation events as meaningful transitions to a life characterized by predictable downfalls of homelessness, infections, and social stigma. Initiators used examples from their own personal experience to explain the process of initiation and assistance, attributing personal agency and predicting specific injection-related harms for initiates. They also distinguished between two forms of harm: potentially avoidable proximal harm caused by risky injection practices (e.g. overdose, HIV) and perceived inevitable distal harm caused by long-term injection (e.g. socioeconomic decline). In this way, these narratives reflect a balance of individual agency, harm reduction intentions, and accepted notions of ‘life after initiation’ interact with the narrative experiences and intentions of PWIDs.


title: Addiction

text: While regarded biomedically as a neuropsychological disorder, addiction is multi-layered, with biological, psychological, social, cultural and spiritual (biopsychosocial–spiritual) elements. A biopsychosocial–spiritual approach fosters the crossing of disciplinary boundaries, and promotes holistic considerations of addiction. A biopsychosocial–spiritual approach considers, for example, how physical environments influence experiences, habits, and patterns of addiction.


title: Addiction

text: Ethnographic engagements and developments in fields of knowledge have contributed to biopsychosocial–spiritual understandings of addiction, including the work of Philippe Bourgois, whose fieldwork with street-level drug dealers in East Harlem highlights correlations between drug use and structural oppression in the United States. Prior models that have informed the prevailing biopsychosocial–spiritual consideration of addiction include:


title: Addiction

text: The cultural model, an anthropological understanding of the emergence of drug use and abuse, was developed by Dwight Heath. Heath undertook ethnographic research and fieldwork with the Camba people of Bolivia from June 1956 to August 1957. Heath observed that adult members of society drank 'large quantities of rum and became intoxicated for several contiguous days at least twice a month'. This frequent, heavy drinking from which intoxication followed was typically undertaken socially, during festivals. Having returned in 1989, Heath observed that whilst much had changed, 'drinking parties' remained, as per his initial observations, and 'there appear to be no harmful consequences to anyone'. Heath's observations and interactions reflected that this form of social behaviour, the habitual heavy consumption of alcohol, was encouraged and valued, enforcing social bonds in the Camba community. Despite frequent intoxication, "even to the point of unconsciousness", the Camba held no concept of alcoholism (a form of addiction), and no visible social problems associated with drunkenness, or addiction, were apparent.


title: Addiction

text: As noted by Merrill Singer, Heath's findings, when considered alongside subsequent cross-cultural experiences, challenged the perception that intoxication is socially 'inherently disruptive'. Following this fieldwork, Heath proposed the 'cultural model', suggesting that 'problems' associated with heavy drinking, such as alcoholism – a recognised form addiction – were cultural: that is, that alcoholism is determined by cultural beliefs, and therefore varies among cultures. Heath's findings challenged the notion that 'continued use [of alcohol] is inexorably addictive and damaging to the consumer's health'.


title: Addiction

text: The cultural model did face criticism by Sociologist Robin Room and others, who felt anthropologists could "downgrade the severity of the problem". Merrill Singer found it notable that the ethnographers working within the prominence of the cultural model were part of the 'wet generation': while not blind to the 'disruptive, dysfunctional and debilitating effects of alcohol consumption', they were products 'socialized to view alcohol consumption as normal'.


title: Addiction

text: Historically, addiction has been viewed from the etic perspective, defining users through the pathology of their condition. As reports of drug use rapidly increased, the cultural model found application in anthropological research exploring western drug subculture practices.


title: Addiction

text: The approach evolved from the ethnographic exploration into the lived experiences and subjectivities of 1960s and 1970s drug subcultures. The seminal publication "Taking care of business", by Edward Preble and John J. Casey, documented the daily lives of New York street-based intravenous heroin users in rich detail, providing unique insight into the dynamic social worlds and activities that surrounded their drug use.


title: Addiction

text: These findings challenge popular narratives of immorality and deviance, conceptualising substance abuse as a social phenomenon. Furthermore, it suggests that the prevailing culture can have a greater influence on drug taking behaviours than the physical and psychological effects of the drug itself. To marginalised individuals, drug subcultures can provide social connection, symbolic meaning, and socially constructed purpose that they may feel is unattainable through conventional means. The subcultural model demonstrates the complexities of addiction, highlighting the need for an integrated approach. It contends that a biosocial approach is required to achieve a holistic understanding of addiction.


title: Addiction

text: Emerging in the early 1980s, the critical medical anthropology model was introduced, and as Merrill Singer offers 'was applied quickly to the analysis of drug use'. Where the cultural model of the 1950s looked at the social body, the critical medical anthropology model revealed the body politic, considering drug use and addiction within the context of macro level structures including larger political systems, economic inequalities, and the institutional power held over social processes.


title: Addiction

text: These three key points highlight how drugs may come to be used to self-medicate the psychological trauma of socio-political disparity and injustice, intertwining with licit and illicit drug market politics. Social suffering, "the misery among those on the weaker end of power relations in terms of physical health, mental health and lived experience", is used by anthropologists to analyse how individuals may have personal problems caused by political and economic power. From the perspective of critical medical anthropology heavy drug use and addiction is a consequence of such larger scale unequal distributions of power.


title: Addiction

text: The three models developed here – the cultural model, the subcultural model, and the Critical Medical Anthropology Model – display how addiction is not an experience to be considered only biomedically. Through consideration of addiction alongside the biological, psychological, social, cultural and spiritual (biopsychosocial–spiritual) elements which influence its experience, a holistic and comprehensive understanding can be built.


title: Addiction

text: Addiction causes an "astoundingly high financial and human toll" on individuals and society as a whole. In the United States, the total economic cost to society is greater than that of all types of diabetes and all cancers combined. These costs arise from the direct adverse effects of drugs and associated healthcare costs (e.g., emergency medical services and outpatient and inpatient care), long-term complications (e.g., lung cancer from smoking tobacco products, liver cirrhosis and dementia from chronic alcohol consumption, and meth mouth from methamphetamine use), the loss of productivity and associated welfare costs, fatal and non-fatal accidents (e.g., traffic collisions), suicides, homicides, and incarceration, among others. In the United States, a study conducted by the National Institute on Drug Abuse has found that overdose deaths in the United States have almost tripled amongst male and females from 2002 to 2017, with 72,306 overdose deaths reported in 2017 in the U.S. 2020 marked the year with highest number of overdose deaths over a 12-month period, with 81,000 overdose deaths, exceeding the records set in 2017.


title: Plague (disease)

text: Plague is an infectious disease caused by the bacterium "Yersinia pestis". Symptoms include fever, weakness and headache. Usually this begins one to seven days after exposure. There are three forms of plague, each affecting a different part of the body and causing associated symptoms. Pneumonic plague infects the lungs, causing shortness of breath, coughing and chest pain; bubonic plague affects the lymph nodes, making them swell; and septicemic plague infects the blood and can cause tissues to turn black and die.


title: Plague (disease)

text: The bubonic and septicemic forms are generally spread by flea bites or handling an infected animal, whereas pneumonic plague is generally spread between people through the air via infectious droplets. Diagnosis is typically by finding the bacterium in fluid from a lymph node, blood or sputum.


title: Plague (disease)

text: Those at high risk may be vaccinated. Those exposed to a case of pneumonic plague may be treated with preventive medication. If infected, treatment is with antibiotics and supportive care. Typically antibiotics include a combination of gentamicin and a fluoroquinolone. The risk of death with treatment is about 10% while without it is about 70%.


title: Plague (disease)

text: Globally, about 600 cases are reported a year. In 2017, the countries with the most cases include the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Madagascar and Peru. In the United States, infections occasionally occur in rural areas, where the bacteria are believed to circulate among rodents. It has historically occurred in large outbreaks, with the best known being the Black Death in the 14th century, which resulted in more than 50 million deaths in Europe.


title: Plague (disease)

text: There are several different clinical manifestations of plague. The most common form is bubonic plague, followed by septicemic and pneumonic plague. Other clinical manifestations include plague meningitis, plague pharyngitis, and ocular plague General symptoms of plague include fever, chills, headaches, and nausea. Many people experience swelling in their lymph nodes if they have bubonic plague. For those with pneumonic plague, symptoms may (or may not) include a cough, pain in the chest, and haemoptysis.


title: Plague (disease)

text: When a flea bites a human and contaminates the wound with regurgitated blood, the plague-causing bacteria are passed into the tissue. "Y. pestis" can reproduce inside cells, so even if phagocytosed, they can still survive. Once in the body, the bacteria can enter the lymphatic system, which drains interstitial fluid. Plague bacteria secrete several toxins, one of which is known to cause beta-adrenergic blockade.


title: Plague (disease)

text: "Y. pestis" spreads through the lymphatic vessels of the infected human until it reaches a lymph node, where it causes acute lymphadenitis. The swollen lymph nodes form the characteristic buboes associated with the disease, and autopsies of these buboes have revealed them to be mostly hemorrhagic or necrotic.


title: Plague (disease)

text: If the lymph node is overwhelmed, the infection can pass into the bloodstream, causing "secondary septicemic plague" and if the lungs are seeded, it can cause "secondary pneumonic plague".


title: Plague (disease)

text: Lymphatics ultimately drain into the bloodstream, so the plague bacteria may enter the blood and travel to almost any part of the body. In septicemic plague, bacterial endotoxins cause disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC), causing tiny clots throughout the body and possibly ischemic necrosis (tissue death due to lack of circulation/perfusion to that tissue) from the clots. DIC results in depletion of the body's clotting resources so that it can no longer control bleeding. Consequently, there is bleeding into the skin and other organs, which can cause red and/or black patchy rash and hemoptysis/hematemesis (coughing up/ vomiting of blood). There are bumps on the skin that look somewhat like insect bites; these are usually red, and sometimes white in the center. Untreated, the septicemic plague is usually fatal. Early treatment with antibiotics reduces the mortality rate to between 4 and 15 percent.


title: Plague (disease)

text: The pneumonic form of plague arises from infection of the lungs. It causes coughing and thereby produces airborne droplets that contain bacterial cells and are likely to infect anyone inhaling them. The incubation period for pneumonic plague is short, usually two to four days, but sometimes just a few hours. The initial signs are indistinguishable from several other respiratory illnesses; they include headache, weakness, and spitting or vomiting of blood. The course of the disease is rapid; unless diagnosed and treated soon enough, typically within a few hours, death may follow in one to six days; in untreated cases, mortality is nearly 100%.


title: Plague (disease)

text: "Yersinia pestis" circulates in animal reservoirs, particularly in rodents, in the natural foci of infection found on all continents except Australia. The natural foci of plague are situated in a broad belt in the tropical and sub-tropical latitudes and the warmer parts of the temperate latitudes around the globe, between the parallels 55° N and 40° S.


title: Plague (disease)

text: Contrary to popular belief, rats did not directly start the spread of the bubonic plague. It is mainly a disease in the fleas ("Xenopsylla cheopis") that infested the rats, making the rats themselves the first victims of the plague. Rodent-borne infection in a human occurs when a person is bitten by a flea that has been infected by biting a rodent that itself has been infected by the bite of a flea carrying the disease. The bacteria multiply inside the flea, sticking together to form a plug that blocks its stomach and causes it to starve. The flea then bites a host and continues to feed, even though it cannot quell its hunger, and consequently, the flea vomits blood tainted with the bacteria back into the bite wound. The bubonic plague bacterium then infects a new person and the flea eventually dies from starvation. Serious outbreaks of plague are usually started by other disease outbreaks in rodents or a rise in the rodent population.


title: Plague (disease)

text: A 21st century study of a 1665 outbreak of plague in the village of Eyam in England's Derbyshire Dales – which isolated itself during the outbreak, facilitating modern study – found that three-quarters of cases are likely to have been due to human-to-human transmission, especially within families, a much bigger proportion than previously thought.


title: Plague (disease)

text: Symptoms of plague are usually non-specific and in order to definitively diagnose plague, laboratory testing is required. "Y pestis" can be identified through both a microscope and by culturing a sample and this is used as a reference standard to confirm that a person has a case of plague. The sample can be obtained from the blood, mucus (sputum), or aspirate extracted from inflamed lymph nodes (buboes). If a person is administered antibiotics before a sample is taken or if there is a delay in transporting the person's sample to a laboratory and/or a poorly stored sample, there is a possibility for false negative results.


title: Plague (disease)

text: Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) may also be used to diagnose plague, by detecting the presence of bacterial genes such as the "pla" gene (plasmogen activator) and "caf1" gene, (F1 capsule antigen). PCR testing requires a very small sample and is effective for both alive and dead bacteria. For this reason, if a person receives antibiotics before a sample is collected for laboratory testing, they may have a false negative culture and a positive PCR result.


title: Plague (disease)

text: Blood tests to detect antibodies against "Y. pestis" can also be used to diagnose plague, however this requires taking blood samples at different periods of time in order to detect differences between the acute and convalescent phases of F1 antibody titres.


title: Plague (disease)

text: In 2020, a study about rapid diagnostic tests that detect the F1 capsule antigen (F1RDT) by sampling sputum or bubo aspirate was released. Results show rapid diagnostic F1RDT test can be used for people who have suspected pneumonic and bubonic plague but cannot be used in people who are asymptomatic. F1RDT may be useful in providing a fast result for prompt treatment and fast public health response as studies suggest that F1RDT is highly sensitive for both pneumonic and bubonic plague. However, when using the rapid test, both positive and negative results need to be confirmed to establish or reject the diagnosis of confirmed case of plague and the test result needs to be interpreted within the epidemiological context as study findings indicate that although 40 out of 40 people who had the plague in a population of 1000 was correctly diagnosed, 317 people were diagnosed falsely as positive.


title: Plague (disease)

text: Bacteriologist Waldemar Haffkine developed the first plague vaccine in 1897. He conducted a massive inoculation program in British India, and it is estimated that 26 million doses of Haffkine's anti-plague vaccine were sent out from Bombay between 1897 and 1925, reducing the plague mortality by 50%-85%.


title: Plague (disease)

text: Since human plague is rare in most parts of the world as of 2021, routine vaccination is not needed other than for those at particularly high risk of exposure, nor for people living in areas with enzootic plague, meaning it occurs at regular, predictable rates in populations and specific areas, such as the western United States. It is not even indicated for most travelers to countries with known recent reported cases, particularly if their travel is limited to urban areas with modern hotels. The United States CDC thus only recommends vaccination for: (1) all laboratory and field personnel who are working with "Y. pestis" organisms resistant to antimicrobials: (2) people engaged in aerosol experiments with "Y. pestis"; and (3) people engaged in field operations in areas with enzootic plague where preventing exposure is not possible (such as some disaster areas). A systematic review by the Cochrane Collaboration found no studies of sufficient quality to make any statement on the efficacy of the vaccine.


title: Plague (disease)

text: Pre-exposure prophylaxis for first responders and health care providers who will care for patients with pneumonic plague is not considered necessary as long as standard and droplet precautions can be maintained. In cases of surgical mask shortages, patient overcrowding, poor ventilation in hospital wards, or other crisis situations, pre-exposure prophylaxis might be warranted if sufficient supplies of antimicrobials are available.


title: Plague (disease)

text: Postexposure prophylaxis should be considered for people who had close (<6 feet), sustained contact with a patient with pneumonic plague and were not wearing adequate personal protective equipment. Antimicrobial postexposure prophylaxis also can be considered for laboratory workers accidentally exposed to infectious materials and people who had close (<6 feet) or direct contact with infected animals, such as veterinary staff, pet owners, and hunters.


title: Plague (disease)

text: Specific recommendations on pre- and post-exposure prophylaxis are available in the clinical guidelines on treatment and prophylaxis of plague published in 2021.


title: Plague (disease)

text: If diagnosed in time, the various forms of plague are usually highly responsive to antibiotic therapy. The antibiotics often used are streptomycin, chloramphenicol and tetracycline. Amongst the newer generation of antibiotics, gentamicin and doxycycline have proven effective in monotherapeutic treatment of plague. Guidelines on treatment and prophylaxis of plague were published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2021.


title: Plague (disease)

text: The plague bacterium could develop drug resistance and again become a major health threat. One case of a drug-resistant form of the bacterium was found in Madagascar in 1995. Further outbreaks in Madagascar were reported in November 2014 and October 2017.


title: Plague (disease)

text: Globally about 600 cases are reported a year. In 2017, the countries with the most cases include the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Madagascar and Peru. It has historically occurred in large outbreaks, with the best known being the Black Death in the 14th century which resulted in more than 50 million dead. In recent years, cases are distributed between small seasonal outbreaks which occur primarily in Madagascar, and sporadic outbreaks or isolated cases in endemic areas.


title: Plague (disease)

text: In 2022 the possible origin of all modern strands of "Yersinia pestis" DNA was found in human remains in three graves located in Kyrgyzstan, dated to 1338 and 1339. The siege of the city Caffa in Crimea in 1346, is known to have been the first plague outbreak with following strands, later to spread over Europe. Sequencing DNA compared to other ancient and modern strands paints a family tree of the bacteria. Bacteria today affecting marmots in Kyrgyzstan, are closest to the strand found in the graves, suggesting this is also the location where plague transferred from animals to humans.


title: Plague (disease)

text: The plague has a long history as a biological weapon. Historical accounts from ancient China and medieval Europe detail the use of infected animal carcasses, such as cows or horses, and human carcasses, by the Xiongnu/Huns, Mongols, Turks and other groups, to contaminate enemy water supplies. Han Dynasty General Huo Qubing is recorded to have died of such contamination while engaging in warfare against the Xiongnu. Plague victims were also reported to have been tossed by catapult into cities under siege.


title: Plague (disease)

text: In 1347, the Genoese possession of Caffa, a great trade emporium on the Crimean peninsula, came under siege by an army of Mongol warriors of the Golden Horde under the command of Jani Beg. After a protracted siege during which the Mongol army was reportedly withering from the disease, they decided to use the infected corpses as a biological weapon. The corpses were catapulted over the city walls, infecting the inhabitants. This event might have led to the transfer of the Black Death via their ships into the south of Europe, possibly explaining its rapid spread.


title: Plague (disease)

text: During World War II, the Japanese Army developed weaponized plague, based on the breeding and release of large numbers of fleas. During the Japanese occupation of Manchuria, Unit 731 deliberately infected Chinese, Korean and Manchurian civilians and prisoners of war with the plague bacterium. These subjects, termed "maruta" or "logs", were then studied by dissection, others by vivisection while still conscious. Members of the unit such as Shiro Ishii were exonerated from the Tokyo tribunal by Douglas MacArthur but 12 of them were prosecuted in the Khabarovsk War Crime Trials in 1949 during which some admitted having spread bubonic plague within a radius around the city of Changde.


title: Plague (disease)

text: Ishii innovated bombs containing live mice and fleas, with very small explosive loads, to deliver the weaponized microbes, overcoming the problem of the explosive killing the infected animal and insect by the use of a ceramic, rather than metal, casing for the warhead. While no records survive of the actual usage of the ceramic shells, prototypes exist and are believed to have been used in experiments during WWII.


title: Plague (disease)

text: After World War II, both the United States and the Soviet Union developed means of weaponising pneumonic plague. Experiments included various delivery methods, vacuum drying, sizing the bacterium, developing strains resistant to antibiotics, combining the bacterium with other diseases (such as diphtheria), and genetic engineering. Scientists who worked in USSR bio-weapons programs have stated that the Soviet effort was formidable and that large stocks of weaponised plague bacteria were produced. Information on many of the Soviet and US projects are largely unavailable. Aerosolized pneumonic plague remains the most significant threat.


title: Plague (disease)

text: The plague can be easily treated with antibiotics. Some countries, such as the United States, have large supplies on hand if such an attack should occur, making the threat less severe.


title: Population growth

text: Population growth is the increase in the number of people in a population or dispersed group. Actual global human population growth amounts to around 83 million annually, or 1.1% per year. The global population has grown from 1 billion in 1800 to 7.9 billion in 2020. The UN projected population to keep growing, and estimates have put the total population at 8.6 billion by mid-2030, 9.8 billion by mid-2050 and 11.2 billion by 2100. However, some academics outside the UN have increasingly developed human population models that account for additional downward pressures on population growth; in such a scenario population would peak before 2100.


title: Population growth

text: World human population has been growing since the end of the Black Death, around the year 1350. A mix of technological advancement that improved agricultural productivity and sanitation and medical advancement that reduced mortality increased population growth. In some geographies, this has slowed through the process called the demographic transition, where many nations with high standards of living have seen a significant slowing of population growth. This is in direct contrast with less developed contexts, where population growth is still happening. Globally, the rate of population growth has declined from a peak of 2.2% per year in 1963. The global human population is projected to peak during the mid-21st century and decline by 2100.


title: Population growth

text: Population growth alongside increased consumption is a driver of environmental concerns, such as biodiversity loss and climate change, due to resources utilised in human development. International policy focused on mitigating the impact of human population growth is concentrated in the Sustainable Development Goals which seek to improve the standard of living globally while reducing the impact of society on the environment.


title: Population growth

text: World population has been rising continuously since the end of the Black Death, around the year 1350. Population began growing rapidly in the Western world during the industrial revolution. The most significant increase in the world's population has been since the 1950s, mainly due to medical advancements and increases in agricultural productivity.


title: Population growth

text: Due to its dramatic impact on the human ability to grow food, the Haber process, named after one of its inventors, the German chemist Fritz Haber, served as the "detonator of the population explosion", enabling the global population to increase from 1.6 billion in 1900 to 7.7 billion by November 2019.


title: Population growth

text: Some of the reasons for the "Modern Rise of Population" were particularly investigated by the British health scientist Thomas McKeown (1912-1988). In his publications, McKeown challenged four theories about the population growth:


title: Population growth

text: Although the McKeown thesis has been heavily disputed, recent studies have confirmed the value of his ideas. His work is pivotal for present day thinking about population growth, birth control, public health and medical care. McKeown had a major influence on many population researchers, such as health economists and Nobel prize winners Robert W. Fogel (1993) and Angus Deaton (2015). The latter considered McKeown as "the founder of social medicine".


title: Population growth

text: The "population growth rate" is the rate at which the number of individuals in a population increases in a given time period, expressed as a fraction of the initial population. Specifically, population growth rate refers to the change in population over a unit time period, often expressed as a percentage of the number of individuals in the population at the beginning of that period. This can be written as the formula, valid for a sufficiently small time interval:


title: Population growth

text: A positive growth rate indicates that the population is increasing, while a negative growth rate indicates that the population is decreasing. A growth ratio of zero indicates that there were the same number of individuals at the beginning and end of the period—a growth rate may be zero even when there are significant changes in the birth rates, death rates, immigration rates, and age distribution between the two times.


title: Population growth

text: A related measure is the net reproduction rate. In the absence of migration, a net reproduction rate of more than 1 indicates that the population of females is increasing, while a net reproduction rate less than one (sub-replacement fertility) indicates that the population of females is decreasing.


title: Population growth

text: Most populations do not grow exponentially, rather they follow a logistic model. Once the population has reached its carrying capacity, it will stabilize and the exponential curve will level off towards the carrying capacity, which is usually when a population has depleted most its natural resources. In the world human population, growth has been following a linear trend throughout the last few decades.


title: Population growth

text: As it is a separable differential equation, the population may be solved explicitly, producing a logistic function:


title: Population growth

text: The world population growth rate peaked in 1963 at 2.2% per year and subsequently declined. In 2017, the estimated annual growth rate was 1.1%. The CIA World Factbook gives the world annual birthrate, mortality rate, and growth rate as 1.86%, 0.78%, and 1.08% respectively. The last 100 years have seen a massive fourfold increase in the population, due to medical advances, lower mortality rates, and an increase in agricultural productivity made possible by the Green Revolution.


title: Population growth

text: The annual increase in the number of living humans peaked at 88.0 million in 1989, then slowly declined to 73.9 million in 2003, after which it rose again to 75.2 million in 2006. In 2017, the human population increased by 83 million. Generally, developed nations have seen a decline in their growth rates in recent decades, though annual growth rates remain above 2% in some countries of the Middle East and Sub-Saharan Africa, and also in South Asia, Southeast Asia, and Latin America.


title: Population growth

text: In some countries the population is declining, especially in Eastern Europe, mainly due to low fertility rates, high death rates and emigration. In Southern Africa, growth is slowing due to the high number of AIDS-related deaths. Some Western Europe countries might also experience population decline. Japan's population began decreasing in 2005.


title: Population growth

text: The United Nations Population Division projects world population to reach 11.2 billion by the end of the 21st century.


title: Population growth

text: The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation projects that the global population will peak in 2064 at 9.73 billion and decline to 8.89 billion in 2100.


title: Population growth

text: According to United Nations population statistics, the world population grew by 30%, or 1.6 billion humans, between 1990 and 2010. In number of people the increase was highest in India (350 million) and China (196 million). Population growth rate was among highest in the United Arab Emirates (315%) and Qatar (271%).


title: Population growth

text: Many of the world's countries, including many in Sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East, South Asia and South East Asia, have seen a sharp rise in population since the end of the Cold War. The fear is that high population numbers are putting further strain on natural resources, food supplies, fuel supplies, employment, housing, etc. in some of the less fortunate countries. For example, the population of Chad has ultimately grown from 6,279,921 in 1993 to 10,329,208 in 2009, further straining its resources. Vietnam, Mexico, Nigeria, Egypt, Ethiopia, and the DRC are witnessing a similar growth in population.


title: Tim Pool

text: Timothy Daniel Pool (born March 9, 1986) is an American YouTuber, political commentator and podcast host who first became known for live streaming the 2011 Occupy Wall Street protests. He joined Vice Media and Fusion TV in 2014, later working alone on YouTube and other platforms.


title: Tim Pool

text: Pool was born in Chicago, Illinois, and grew up in a middle-class family. His father was a firefighter and his mother sold cars. Pool attended a Catholic school until completing the fifth grade and left school at the age of 14.


title: Tim Pool

text: After watching a viral video from Occupy Wall Street, Pool purchased a one-way bus ticket to New York. Pool joined the Occupy Wall Street protestors on September 20, 2011, and met Henry Ferry, a former realtor and sales manager, shortly afterwards, and they formed a media company called The Other 99. Pool also began livestreaming the protests with his cell phone and quickly assumed an on-camera role. Pool used a live-chat stream to respond to questions from viewers while reporting on Occupy Wall Street. Pool also let his viewers direct him on where to shoot footage. He modified a toy remote-controlled Parrot AR.Drone for aerial surveillance and modified software for live streaming into a system called DroneStream. In mid-November 2011, Pool provided non-stop 21 hour coverage of Occupy Wall Street's eviction from Zuccotti Park. Pool's use of live streaming video and aerial drones during Occupy Wall Street protests in 2011 led to an article in "The Guardian" querying whether such activities could take the form of counterproductive surveillance. In January 2012, he was physically accosted by a masked assailant. Also in January 2012, The Other 99 was disbanded following a feud between Pool and Ferry. Pool had also planned on livestreaming occupy protests across the United States for a documentary called Occumentary, but it was never filmed.


title: Tim Pool

text: Pool's video taken during the protests was instrumental evidence in the acquittal of photographer Alexander Arbuckle, who had been arrested by the NYPD. The video showed that the arresting officer lied under oath, though no charges were filed. While covering the NoNATO protests at the 2012 Chicago summit, Pool and four others were pulled over by a dozen Chicago police officers in unmarked vehicles. The group was removed from the vehicle at gunpoint, questioned, and detained for ten minutes. The reason given by police was that the team's vehicle matched a description.


title: Tim Pool

text: In the context of the Occupy movement, Pool's footage was aired on NBC and other mainstream networks. According to "The Washington Post", Pool "helped demonstrate to activists that livestreaming had potential as an alternative to depending on cable news coverage". He was nominated as a "Time" 100 personality in March 2012 for his importance to the Occupy movement, alongside David Graeber, as "Time" dubbed Pool "the eyes of the movement".


title: Tim Pool

text: In November 2011, Pool told "On the Media", "I don't consider myself a journalist." "I consider myself an activist 100%." there "to support the movement." In October 2012, he told "El País" that "I'm not an activist" and described himself as a journalist. In 2018, Pool said that "I don't align with Occupy Wall Street and never did". In 2021, he denounced the Occupy movement as "crooked".


title: Tim Pool

text: After joining Vice Media, Pool began producing and hosting content and developed new methods of reporting. In 2013, he reported on the Gezi Park protests in Istanbul with Google Glass. In April 2013, Pool received a Shorty Award in the "Best Journalist in Social Media" category. From 2013 to 2014, while working for "Vice", Pool covered and live streamed the mass protests in Ukraine that led to the collapse of the Yanukovych government. He also covered the Ferguson unrest and covered protests in Thailand, Turkey, and Egypt.


title: Tim Pool

text: As of 2021, Pool operates six YouTube channels, two of which, "Timcast" and "Tim Pool", feature daily political commentary, while a third serves as a clip channel for Pool's podcast, "Timcast IRL."


title: Tim Pool

text: In May 2022, it was estimated that Timcast IRL generated $65,824.86 in non-advertising revenue for YouTube across 100 videos on the Timcast IRL channel from October 2020 to November 2021.


title: Tim Pool

text: Pool covered the 2016 Milwaukee riots. Pool said he would leave the area and stop reporting on these events, saying he thought it was dangerous due to perceived escalating "racial tensions".


title: Tim Pool

text: In February 2017, Pool traveled to Sweden to investigate claims of "no-go zones" and problems with refugees in the country. He launched a crowdfunding effort to do so after U.S. President Donald Trump alluded to crimes related to immigration in Sweden. "InfoWars" writer Paul Joseph Watson offered to pay for travel costs and accommodation for any reporter "to stay in crime-ridden migrant suburbs of Malmö." Watson donated $2,000 to Pool's crowdfund to travel to Sweden. While in Sweden, Pool largely disputed that migrant suburbs of Malmö and Stockholm were crime ridden, saying that Chicago is vastly more violent. While filming in Rinkeby, a Stockholm suburb, Pool alleged that he had to be escorted by police, due to purported threats to his safety. Swedish police have disputed Pool's claims, stating, "Our understanding is that he didn't receive an escort. However, he followed the police who left the place." The police stated that, "When Tim Pool took out a camera and started filming, a group of young people pulled their hoods up and covered their faces and shouted at him to stop filming. The officers then told Tim Pool that it was not wise to stay there in the middle of the square and keep filming."


title: Tim Pool

text: In 2019, Podcaster Joe Rogan invited Pool onto his podcast, "The Joe Rogan Experience", following an interview with Twitter founder Jack Dorsey. The two criticized the banning of Milo Yiannopoulos from Twitter, arguing that the provocateur had not truly encouraged his fans to harass "Ghostbusters" actress Leslie Jones. "The Atlantic" contributor Devin Gordon criticized Rogan and Pool, stating that both men demonstrated a limited understanding of Twitter, censorship, and abuse during the discussion. Rogan invited Pool and Dorsey, as well as Twitter chief legal officer Vijaya Gadde, back on his podcast. Pool described cases where he asserted conservatives were unfairly suspended on Twitter. In particular, Pool brought up the banning of Alex Jones and argued that Twitter rules against misgendering transgender users is ideological. Gadde said that Twitter is a free speech platform on which punishments are based on evaluation of consistently-applied harassment guidelines.


title: Tim Pool

text: In July 2019, Pool participated in a White House event hosting internet personalities who President Trump characterized as unfairly targeted for their conservative views.


title: Tim Pool

text: In August 2020, Trump liked a tweet published by Pool expressing sympathy and support for Kyle Rittenhouse, a 17-year-old boy from Antioch, Illinois then facing trial on charges of killing two people during the riots in Kenosha, Wisconsin for which he was ultimately acquitted. Trump's son, Donald Trump Jr., retweeted a statement by Pool describing how the case of Rittenhouse had convinced Pool to vote for Trump.


title: Tim Pool

text: A report from the Election Integrity Partnership (EIP) said that Pool was a "superspreader" of claims surrounding voter fraud before and after the 2020 United States presidential election.


title: Tim Pool

text: In August 2021, Pool criticized New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio's COVID-19 vaccine passport mandate, as it did not have any exemptions for immunocompromised people or people with other disabilities.


title: Tim Pool

text: In April 2022, Pool and "The Daily Wire" CEO Jeremy Boreing purchased a billboard in Times Square to accuse Taylor Lorenz of doxxing the Twitter account Libs of TikTok. In response, Lorenz called the billboard "so idiotic it's hilarious".


title: Tim Pool

text: In July 2022, Pool had an op-ed published in "Newsweek" magazine in response to video footage of him being included in the United States House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack public hearings. Pool claimed the committee misrepresented him with an out of context clip of him reading a Fox News news article alongside people calling for a "red wedding".


title: Tim Pool

text: In November 2022, Pool interviewed rapper and presidential candidate Kanye West. West's political advisors, alt-right commentator Milo Yiannopoulos and white supremacist Nick Fuentes also participated in the interview. The interview came days after West and Fuentes met with former President Trump. During the interview, West made a series of antisemitic statements, including claims about a Jewish conspiracy controlling the American government and media. Pool criticized West's comments on Jews, saying "I'm gonna disagree with you." After Pool refused to explicitly criticize Jews, West and his advisors walked out of the interview.


title: Tim Pool

text: In 2014, Pool helped launch Tagg.ly, a mobile app that watermarks photos. Pool said he was interested in this kind of application due to experiences where others used his photographs without attribution.


title: Tim Pool

text: In 2019, he co-founded the news company Subverse, which raised $1 million in 22 hours via regulation crowdfunding in 2019, surpassing the previous record on Wefunder. The service was later renamed SCNR. Pool partnered with Emily Molli and former Vice editor-in-chief Rocco Castoro, although Pool later fired both of them in January 2021.


title: Tim Pool

text: In 2022, he collaborated with drummer Pete Parada to release a single called "Only Ever Wanted", which reached the #2 spot on the global Apple Music chart. The single was most downloaded on Billboard Charts for in September 2022 in Alternative Digital Song Sales.


title: Tim Pool

text: Genocide, Losing My Mind, reached #2 spot on Billboard Rock Digital Song #1 song in “All Genres” on iTunes in November 2022. The song competed with Taylor Swift’s Anti-Hero for the #1 spot on iTunes. By December 2022, the single sold 13,000 singles and streamed over 1 million times.


title: Tim Pool

text: In 2019, "Vice", Pool's former employer, described him in separate articles as "lefty" and "progressive" for his anti-corporate politics, as well as "right-wing". In 2019, Pool described himself as a social liberal who supports Bernie Sanders. According to "Politico", Pool's "views on issues including social media bias and immigration often align with conservatives". According to Al Jazeera, "Pool has amplified claims that conservative media endure persecution and bias at the hands of tech companies." Prior to Occupy Wall Street, Pool sometimes described himself as being anti-authoritarian or "pro-transparency", but did not think of himself as being very political.


title: Tim Pool

text: On August 24, 2020, Pool announced his support for Donald Trump in the 2020 U.S. presidential election, writing that he felt alienated by changes he perceived in the modern left. In 2021, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) described Pool as a "reactionary". On July 12, 2022, the United States House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack included clips of a 2020 video from Pool as part of a montage of videos showing support for Trump's announced rally on January 6.


title: Tim Pool

text: Pool tends to reject a left/right political framework for both self-description and in other contexts, instead preferring to divide the public into those who are "discerning" and "skeptical regarding legacy media" and those who are "undiscerning" and "uninitiated". He often discusses his impression that "the news is dying" and that it tends to skew towards liberal and left-leaning audiences as a result.


title: Tim Pool

text: Prior to the Occupy movement, Pool lived with his brother in Newport News, Virginia, where he played guitar and made skateboarding videos.


title: Zheng He

text: Zheng He (; 1371–1433 or 1435) was a Chinese mariner, explorer, diplomat, fleet admiral, and court eunuch during China's early Ming dynasty. He was originally born as Ma He in a Muslim family and later adopted the surname Zheng conferred by the Yongle Emperor. Commissioned by the Yongle Emperor and later the Xuande Emperor, Zheng commanded seven expeditionary treasure voyages to Southeast Asia, South Asia, West Asia, and East Africa from 1405 to 1433. According to legend, his larger ships carried hundreds of sailors on four decks and were almost twice as long as any wooden ship ever recorded.


title: Zheng He

text: As a favorite of the Yongle Emperor, whom Zheng assisted in the overthrow of the Jianwen Emperor, he rose to the top of the imperial hierarchy and served as commander of the southern capital Nanjing.


title: Zheng He

text: Zheng He was born Ma He () to a Muslim family of Kunyang, Kunming, Yunnan, during the Ming dynasty of China. He had an older brother and four sisters.


title: Zheng He

text: Zheng He's religious beliefs were eclectic in his adulthood. The Liujiagang and Changle inscriptions suggest that devotion to Tianfei, the patron goddess of sailors and seafarers, was the dominant faith to which he adhered, reflecting the goddess's central role to the treasure fleet. John Guy mentions, "When Zheng He, the Muslim eunuch leader of the great expeditions to the 'Western Ocean' (Indian Ocean) in the early fifteenth century, embarked on his voyages, it was from the Divine Woman that he sought protection, as well as at the tombs of the Muslim saints on Lingshan Hill, above the city of Quanzhou."


title: Zheng He

text: Zheng He was a great-great-great-grandson of Sayyid Ajjal Shams al-Din Omar, who served in the administration of the Mongol Empire and was the governor of Yunnan during the early Yuan dynasty. His great-grandfather Bayan may have been stationed at a Mongol garrison in Yunnan. Zheng He's grandfather carried the title "hajji", and his father had the sinicized surname Ma and the title "hajji", which suggests that they had made the pilgrimage to Mecca.


title: Zheng He

text: In the autumn of 1381, a Ming army invaded and conquered Yunnan, which was then ruled by the Mongol prince Basalawarmi, Prince of Liang. In 1381, Ma Hajji, Zheng He's father, died in the fighting between the Ming armies and Mongol forces. Dreyer states that Zheng He's father died at 39 while he resisted the Ming conquest, while Levathes states that Zheng He's father died at 37, but it is unclear if he was helping the Mongol Army or was just caught in the onslaught of battle. Wenming, the oldest son, buried their father outside Kunming. In his capacity as Admiral, Zheng He had an epitaph engraved in honour of his father, composed by the Minister of Rites Li Zhigang on the Duanwu Festival of the third year in the Yongle era (1 June 1405).


title: Zheng He

text: Zheng He was captured by the Ming armies at Yunnan in 1381. General Fu Youde saw Ma He on a road and approached him to inquire about the location of the Mongol pretender. Ma He responded defiantly by saying that the Mongol pretender had jumped into a lake. Afterwards, the general took him prisoner. He was castrated at some point between the age of 10 and 14, and was placed in the service of the Prince of Yan.


title: Zheng He

text: Ma He was sent to serve in the household of Zhu Di, the Prince of Yan, who later became the Yongle Emperor. Zhu Di was eleven years older than Ma. Enslaved as a eunuch servant, Ma He eventually gained the confidence of Zhu Di, who, as his benefactor, would gain the allegiance and loyalty of the young eunuch. Since 1380, the prince had been governing Beiping (later Beijing), which was near the northern frontier, with hostile Mongol tribes. Ma would spend his early life as a soldier on the northern frontier. He often participated in Zhu Di's military campaigns against the Mongols. On 2 March 1390, Ma accompanied the Prince when he commanded his first expedition, which was a great victory, as the Mongol commander Naghachu surrendered as soon as he realized he had fallen for a deception.


title: Zheng He

text: Eventually, he gained the confidence and trust of the prince. Ma was also known as "Sanbao" during his service in the household of the Prince of Yan. This name was a reference to the Buddhist Three Jewels (, also known as triratna). This name could also be written , literally "Three Protections." Ma received a proper education at Beiping, which he would not have had if he had been placed in the imperial capital, Nanjing, as the Hongwu Emperor did not trust eunuchs and believed that it was better to keep them illiterate. The Hongwu Emperor purged and exterminated many of the original Ming leadership and gave his enfeoffed sons more military authority, especially those in the north, like the Prince of Yan.


title: Zheng He

text: Zheng He's appearance as an adult was recorded: he was seven "chi" tall, had a waist that was five "chi" in circumference, cheeks and a forehead that was high, a small nose, glaring eyes, teeth that were white and well-shaped as shells, and a voice that was as loud as a bell. It is also recorded that he had great knowledge about warfare and was well-accustomed to battle.


title: Zheng He

text: The young eunuch eventually became a trusted adviser to the prince and assisted him when the Jianwen Emperor's hostility to his uncle's feudal bases prompted the 13991402 Jingnan Campaign, which ended with the emperor's apparent death and the ascension of Zhu Di, Prince of Yan, as the Yongle Emperor. In 1393, the Crown Prince had died, thus the deceased prince's son became the new heir apparent. By the time the emperor died (24 June 1398), the Prince of Qin and the Prince of Jin had perished, which left Zhu Di, the Prince of Yan, as the eldest surviving son of the emperor. However, Zhu Di's nephew succeeded the imperial throne as the Jianwen Emperor. In 1398, he issued a policy known as "xuēfān" (), or "reducing the feudatories", which entails eliminating all princes by stripping their power and military forces. In August 1399, Zhu Di openly rebelled against his nephew. In 1399, Ma He successfully defended Beiping's city reservoir Zhenglunba against the imperial armies. In January 1402, Zhu Di began with his military campaign to capture the imperial capital Nanjing. Zheng He would be one of his commanders during that campaign.


title: Zheng He

text: In 1402, Zhu Di's armies defeated the imperial forces and marched into Nanjing on 13 July 1402. Zhu Di accepted the elevation to emperor four days later. After ascending the throne as the Yongle Emperor, Zhu Di promoted Ma He as the Grand Director (, "tàijiān") of the Directorate of Palace Servants (). During the Chinese New Year on 11 February 1404, the Yongle Emperor conferred the surname "Zheng" to Ma He, because he had distinguished himself defending the city reservoir Zhenglunba against imperial forces in the Siege of Beiping of 1399. Another reason was that the eunuch commander also distinguished himself during the 1402 campaign to capture the capital, Nanjing.


title: Zheng He

text: In the new administration, Zheng He served in the highest posts as Grand Director and later as Chief Envoy () during his sea voyages. Over the next three decades he conducted seven of the voyages on behalf of the emperor of trading and collecting tribute in the eastern Pacific and Indian Oceans.


title: Zheng He

text: In 1424, Zheng He traveled to Palembang in Sumatra to confer an official seal and letter of appointment upon Shi Jisun, who was placed in the office of Pacification Commissioner. The "Taizong Shilu" 27 February 1424 entry reports that Shi Jisun had sent Qiu Yancheng as envoy to petition the approval of the succession from his father Shi Jinqing, who was the Pacification Commissioner of Palembang, and was given permission from the Yongle Emperor. On 7 September 1424, Zhu Gaozhi had inherited the throne as the Hongxi Emperor after the death of the Yongle Emperor on 12 August 1424. When Zheng He returned from Palembang, he found that the Yongle Emperor had died during his absence.


title: Zheng He

text: On 7 September 1424, the Hongxi Emperor terminated the undertaking of further treasure voyages. On 24 February 1425, he appointed Zheng He as the defender of Nanjing and ordered him to continue his command over the treasure fleet for the city's defense. On 25 March 1428, the Xuande Emperor ordered Zheng He and others to take over the supervision for the rebuilding and repair of the Great Bao'en Temple at Nanjing. He completed the construction of the temple in 1431.


title: Zheng He

text: On 15 May 1426, the Xuande Emperor ordered the Directorate of Ceremonial to send a letter to Zheng He to reprimand him for a transgression. Earlier, an official petitioned the emperor to reward workmen who had built temples in Nanjing. The Xuande Emperor responded negatively to the official for placing the costs to the court instead of the monks themselves, but he realized that Zheng He and his associates had instigated the official. According to , the nature of the emperor's words indicated that Zheng He's behaviour in the situation was the last straw, but there is too little information about what had happened earlier. Nevertheless, the Xuande Emperor would eventually come to trust Zheng He.


title: Zheng He

text: In 1430, the new Xuande Emperor appointed Zheng He to command over a seventh and final expedition into the "Western Ocean" (Indian Ocean). In 1431, Zheng He was bestowed with the title "Sanbao Taijian" (), using his informal name Sanbao and the title of Grand Director.


title: Zheng He

text: The Yuan dynasty and the expanding Sino-Arab trade during the 14th century had gradually expanded Chinese knowledge of the world since "universal" maps previously displaying only China and its surrounding seas began to expand farther and farther southwest, with much more accurate depictions of the extent of Arabia and Africa. Between 1405 and 1433, the Ming government sponsored seven naval expeditions. The Yongle Emperor, disregarding the Hongwu Emperor's expressed wishes, designed them to establish a Chinese presence and impose imperial control over the Indian Ocean trade, impress foreign peoples in the Indian Ocean basin, and extend the empire's tributary system. It has also been inferred from passages in the "History of Ming" that the initial voyages were launched as part of the emperor's attempt to capture his escaped predecessor, which would have made the first voyage the "largest-scale manhunt on water in the history of China."


title: Zheng He

text: Zheng He was placed as the admiral in control of the huge fleet and armed forces that undertook the expeditions. Wang Jinghong was appointed as second in command. Preparations were thorough and wide-ranging, including the use of so many linguists that a foreign language institute was established at Nanjing. Zheng He's first voyage departed 11 July 1405, from Suzhou and consisted of a fleet of 317 ships holding almost 28,000 crewmen.


title: Zheng He

text: Zheng He's fleets visited Brunei, Java, Siam (Thailand), Southeast Asia, India, the Horn of Africa, and Arabia, dispensing and receiving goods along the way. Zheng He presented gifts of gold, silver, porcelain, and silk, and in return, China received such novelties as ostriches, zebras, camels, and ivory from the Swahili Coast. The giraffe that he brought back from Malindi was considered to be a "qilin" and taken as proof of the Mandate of Heaven upon the administration. The Daxuexi Alley Mosque in Xi'an has a stele dating to January 1523, inscribed with Zheng He's the fourth maritime voyage to Tianfang, Arabian Peninsula.


title: Zheng He

text: While Zheng He's fleet was unprecedented, the routes were not. His fleet followed long-established, well-mapped routes of trade between China and the Arabian Peninsula that had been used since at least the Han dynasty. That fact, along with the use of a more-than-abundant number of crew members who were regular military personnel, leads some to speculate that the expeditions may have been geared at least partially at spreading China's power through expansion. During the Three Kingdoms Period, the king of Wu sent a 20-year diplomatic mission led by Zhu Ying and Kang Tai along the coast of Asia, which reached as far as the Eastern Roman Empire. After centuries of disruption, the Song dynasty restored large-scale maritime trade from China in the South Pacific and Indian Oceans and reached as far as the Arabian Peninsula and East Africa. When his fleet first arrived at Malacca, there was already a sizable Chinese community. The "General Survey of the Ocean Shores" (, "Yíngyá Shènglǎn"), composed by the translator Ma Huan in 1416, gives very detailed accounts of his observations of people's customs and lives in the ports that they visited. He referred to the expatriate Chinese as "Tang" people ().


title: Zheng He

text: Zheng He generally sought to attain his goals through diplomacy, and his large army awed most would-be enemies into submission. However, a contemporary reported that Zheng He "walked like a tiger" and did not shrink from violence when he considered it necessary to impress foreign peoples with China's military might. He ruthlessly suppressed pirates, who had long plagued Chinese and Southeast Asian waters. For example, he defeated Chen Zuyi, one of the most feared and respected pirate captains, and returned him to China for execution. He also waged a land war against the Kingdom of Kotte on Ceylon, and he made displays of military force when local officials threatened his fleet in Arabia and East Africa. From his fourth voyage, he brought envoys from 30 states, who traveled to China and paid their respects at the Ming court.


title: Zheng He

text: In 1424, the Yongle Emperor died. His successor, the Hongxi Emperor (r. 14241425), stopped the voyages during his short reign. Zheng He made one more voyage during the reign of Hongxi's son, the Xuande Emperor (r. 1426–1435) but, the voyages of the Chinese treasure ship fleets then ended. Xuande believed his father's decision to halt the voyages had been meritorious and thus "there would be no need to make a detailed description of his grandfather's sending Zheng He to the Western Ocean." The voyages "were contrary to the rules stipulated in the Huang Ming Zuxun" (), the dynastic foundation documents laid down by the Hongwu Emperor:


title: Zheng He

text: Some far-off countries pay their tribute to me at much expense and through great difficulties, all of which are by no means my own wish. Messages should be forwarded to them to reduce their tribute so as to avoid high and unnecessary expenses on both sides.


title: Zheng He

text: They further violated longstanding Confucian principles. They were only made possible by (and therefore continued to represent) a triumph of the Ming's eunuch faction over the administration's scholar-bureaucrats. Upon Zheng He's death and his faction's fall from power, his successors sought to minimize him in official accounts, along with continuing attempts to destroy all records related to the Jianwen Emperor or the manhunt to find him.


title: Zheng He

text: Although unmentioned in the official dynastic histories, Zheng He probably died during the treasure fleet's last voyage. Although he has a tomb in China, it is empty since he was buried at sea.


title: Zheng He

text: Zheng He led seven expeditions to the "Western" or Indian Ocean. Zheng He brought back to China many trophies and envoys from more than thirty kingdoms, including King Vira Alakeshwara of Ceylon, who came to China as a captive to apologize to the Emperor for offenses against his mission.


title: Zheng He

text: We have traversed more than 100,000 "li" of immense water spaces and have beheld in the ocean huge waves like mountains rising in the sky, and we have set eyes on barbarian regions far away hidden in a blue transparency of light vapors, while our sails, loftily unfurled like clouds day and night, continued their course [as rapidly] as a star, traversing those savage waves as if we were treading a public thoroughfare...


title: Zheng He

text: Zheng He's sailing charts, the Mao Kun map, were published in a book entitled the "Wubei Zhi" ("A Treatise on Armament Technology") written in 1621 and published in 1628 but traced back to Zheng He's and earlier voyages. It was originally a strip map 20.5 cm by 560 cm that could be rolled up, but was divided into 40 pages which vary in scale from 7 miles/inch in the Nanjing area to 215 miles/inch in parts of the African coast.


title: Zheng He

text: Investigation into folios 19V to 20R of the Mao Kun Map which covers the Indian Ocean including South India, Sri Lanka, the Maldives, and East Africa suggests that it is a composite of four maps, one for Sri Lanka, one for South India one for the Maldives and one for around 400 km of the East African coast, no further south than 6 degrees south of the Equator. Each of these maps is positioned at a different orientation to fit with the ocean currents and winds required of a sailing chart, rather than a formal map. The analysis also suggests that Arabic-speaking pilots with a detailed knowledge of the African coast were involved in the cartography.


title: Zheng He

text: There is little attempt to provide an accurate 2-D representation; instead, the sailing instructions are given using a 24-point compass system with a Chinese symbol for each point, together with a sailing time or distance, which takes account of the local currents and winds. Sometimes depth soundings are also provided. It also shows bays, estuaries, capes and islands, ports and mountains along the coast, important landmarks such as pagodas and temples, and shoal rocks. Of 300 named places outside China, more than 80% can be confidently located. There are also fifty observations of stellar altitude.


title: Zheng He

text: On the ships were navigators, explorers, sailors, doctors, workers, and soldiers, along with the translator and diarist Gong Zhen. Six more expeditions took place from 1407 to 1433, with fleets thought to be of comparable size.


title: Zheng He

text: Marco Polo and Ibn Battuta both described multi-masted ships carrying 500 to 1,000 passengers in their translated accounts. Niccolò de' Conti, a contemporary of Zheng He, was also an eyewitness of ships in Southeast Asia, claiming to have seen five-masted junks weighing about 2,000 "vegetes", that is Venetian butt. Christopher Wake estimated a burthen of 1300 tons. The ship of Conti may have been a Burmese or Indonesian jong.


title: Zheng He

text: The largest ships in the fleet, the Chinese treasure ships described in Chinese chronicles, would have been nearly twice as long as any other wooden ship recorded thereafter until the 20th century, surpassing Admiral Nelson's HMS "Victory", long, which was launched in 1765, and the "Vasa" of 1627. The first ships to attain long were 19th century steamers with iron hulls. Many scholars consider it unlikely that any of Zheng He's ships were in length and have proposed much shorter lengths, as low as . Zhao Zhigang claimed that he has solved the debate of the size difference, and stated that Zheng He's largest ship was about in length.


title: Zheng He

text: Edward L. Dreyer claims that Luo Maodeng's novel is unsuitable as historical evidence. The novel contains a number of fantasy element; for example the ships were "constructed with divine help by the immortal Lu Ban".


title: Zheng He

text: One explanation for the seemingly-inefficient size of the colossal ships was that the 44 "zhang" treasure ships were used only by the Emperor and imperial bureaucrats to travel along the Yangtze for court business, including reviewing Zheng He's expedition fleet. The Yangtze river, with its calmer waters, may have been navigable by these treasure ships. Zheng He, a court eunuch, would not have had the privilege in rank to command the largest of the ships, seaworthy or not. The main ships of Zheng He's fleet were instead six-masted 2000-liao ships. That would give burthen of 500 tons and a displacement tonnage of about 800 tons.


title: Zheng He

text: Traditional and popular accounts of Zheng He's voyages have described a great fleet of gigantic ships far larger than any other wooden ships in history. The most grandiose claims for Zheng He's 1405 fleet are entirely based on a calculation derived from an account that was written three centuries later and was accepted as fact by one modern writer; rejected by numerous naval experts. There are even some sources that claim some of the treasure ships might have been as long as . The claims that the Chinese treasure ships reached such size is disputed because other 17th century Ming records stated that European East Indiamen and galleons were 30, 40, 50, and 60 "zhang" (90, 120, 150, and 180 m) in length.


title: Zheng He

text: It is also possible that the measure of "zhang" (丈) used in the conversions was mistaken. The length of a Dutch ship recorded in the "History of Ming" was 30 "zhang". If the "zhang" is taken to be 3.2 m, the Dutch ship would be 96 m long. Also the Dutch "Hongyi" cannon is recorded to be more than 2 "zhang" (6.4 m) long. Comparative study by Hu Xiaowei (2018) concluded that 1 "zhang" would be equal to 1.5–1.6 m, this means the Dutch ship would be 45–48 m long and the cannon would be 3–3.2 m long. Taking 1.6 m for 1 "zhang", Zheng He's 44 "zhang" treasure ship would be long and wide, or 22 "zhang" long and 9 "zhang" wide if the "zhang" is taken to be 3.2 m. It is known that the measure unit during the Ming era was not unified: A measurement of East and West Pagoda in Quanzhou resulted in a "zhang" unit of 2.5–2.56 m. According to Chen Cunren, one "zhang" in the Ming Dynasty is only half a "zhang" in modern times.


title: Zheng He

text: From 2003 to 2004, the Treasure Shipyard was excavated in northwestern Nanjing (the former capital of the Ming Dynasty), near the Yangtze River. Despite the site being referred to as the "Longjiang Treasure Shipyard" (龍江寶船廠) in the official names, the site is distinct from the actual Longjiang Shipyard, which was located on a different site and produced different types of ships. The Treasure Shipyard, where Zheng He's fleet were believed to have been built in the Ming Dynasty, once consisted of thirteen basins (based on a 1944 map), most of which have now been covered by the construction of buildings in the 20th century. The basins are believed to have been connected to the Yangtze via a series of gates. Three long basins survive, each with wooden structures inside them that were interpreted to be frames for the ships to be built on. The largest basin extends for a length of . While they were long enough to accommodate the largest claimed Zheng He treasure ship, they were not wide enough to fit even a ship half the claimed size. The basin was only wide at most, with only a width area of it showing evidence of structures. They were also not deep enough, being only deep. Other remains of ships in the site indicate that the ships were only slightly larger than the frames that supported them. Moreover, the basin structures were grouped into clusters with large gaps between them, if each cluster was interpreted as a ship framework, then the largest ship would not exceed at most, probably less.


title: Zheng He

text: The 2003–2004 excavation also recovered two complete wooden rudderposts from the Treasure Shipyard, in addition to another recovered in 1957. They are made of teak and measured around in length. Zhou Shide (1962) claimed that the first rudderpost recovered was proof of the enormous dimensions of the ships based on his calculations on how big the rudderblade would be. However Church (2010) points out that Zhou was using calculations based on modern steel propeller-driven ships, not wooden ships; as well as the fact that Zhou's hypothetical rudder shape was based on the flat-bottomed "shachuan" (沙船) ship type, not the sea-going "fuchuan" (福船). The rudderposts can not be used to infer the actual size of the rudder blades. Church notes that in traditional wooden Chinese ships, rudderposts were necessarily long in order for them to extend from the water level up unto the ship deck, where it was controlled by the tiller. Church compares it with modern wooden junks built in the traditional "Lümeimao" ("green eyebrow", 綠眉毛) style, which also have rudderposts that are long, but are only in overall length.


title: Zheng He

text: One theory is that Admiral Zheng He died in 1433, during or shortly after the seventh voyage. Another is that Zheng He continued to serve as the defender of Nanjing, dying in 1435.


title: Zheng He

text: A tomb was built for Zheng He at the southern slope of Cattle Head Hill, Nanjing. The original tomb was a horseshoe-shaped grave. It is a cenotaph believed to contain his clothes and headgear. In 1985, the tomb was rebuilt following a Muslim style.


title: Zheng He

text: Zheng's voyages were long neglected in official Chinese histories but have become well known in China and abroad since the publication of Liang Qichao's "Biography of Our Homeland's Great Navigator, Zheng He" in 1904.


title: Zheng He

text: In the decades after the last voyage, Imperial officials minimized the importance of Zheng He and his expeditions throughout the many regnal and dynastic histories they compiled. The information in the Yongle and Xuande Emperors' official annals was incomplete and even erroneous, and other official publications omitted them completely. Although some have seen that as a conspiracy seeking to eliminate memories of the voyages, it is likely that the records were dispersed throughout several departments and the expeditions, unauthorized by and in fact counter to the injunctions of the dynastic founder, presented a kind of embarrassment to the dynasty.


title: Zheng He

text: State-sponsored Ming naval efforts declined dramatically after Zheng's voyages. Starting in the early 15th century, China experienced increasing pressure from the surviving Yuan Mongols from the north. The relocation of the capital to Beijing in the north exacerbated this threat dramatically. At considerable expense, China launched annual military expeditions from Beijing to weaken the Mongolians. The expenditures necessary for the land campaigns directly competed with the funds necessary to continue naval expeditions. Further, in 1449, Mongolian cavalry ambushed a land expedition personally led by the Zhengtong Emperor at Tumu Fortress, less than a day's march from the walls of the capital. The Mongolians wiped out the Chinese army and captured the emperor. The battle had two salient effects. Firstly, it demonstrated the clear threat posed by the northern nomads. Secondly, the Mongols caused a political crisis in China when they released the emperor after his half-brother had already ascended and declared the new Jingtai era. Not until 1457 and the restoration of the former emperor would political stability return. Upon his return to power, China abandoned the strategy of annual land expeditions and instead embarked upon a massive and expensive expansion of the Great Wall of China. In that environment, funding for naval expeditions was simply absent.


title: Zheng He

text: However, missions from Southeastern Asia continued to arrive for decades. Depending on local conditions, they could reach such frequency that the court found it necessary to restrict them. The "History of Ming" records imperial edicts forbade Java, Champa, and Siam from sending their envoys more often than once every three years.


title: Zheng He

text: Among the Chinese diaspora in Southeast Asia, Zheng He became a figure of folk veneration. Even some of his crew members who happened to stay in some port sometimes did so as well, such as "Poontaokong" on Sulu. The temples of the cult, called after either of his names, Cheng Hoon or Sam Po, are peculiar to overseas Chinese except for a single temple in Hongjian originally constructed by a returned Filipino Chinese in the Ming dynasty and rebuilt by another Filipino Chinese after the original was destroyed during the Cultural Revolution.


title: Zheng He

text: The oldest and most important Chinese temple in Malacca is the 17th-century Cheng Hoon Teng, dedicated to Guanyin. During Dutch colonial rule, the head of the Cheng Hoon Temple was appointed as chief over the community's Chinese inhabitants.


title: Zheng He

text: Following Zheng He's arrival, the sultan and the sultana of Malacca visited China at the head of over 540 of their subjects, bearing ample tribute. Sultan Mansur Shah (r. 1459–1477) later dispatched Tun Perpatih Putih as his envoy to China, carrying a letter from the sultan to the Ming emperor. The letter requested the hand of an imperial daughter in marriage. Malay (but not Chinese) annals record that in 1459, a princess named Hang Li Po or Hang Liu was sent from China to marry the sultan. She came with 500 high-ranking young men and a few hundred handmaidens as her entourage. They eventually settled in Bukit Cina. It is believed that a significant number of them married into the local populace, creating the descendants now known as the Peranakan. Owing to this supposed lineage, the Peranakan still use special honorifics: "Baba" for the men and "Nyonya" for the women.


title: Zheng He

text: The Chinese Indonesian community have established temples dedicated to Zheng He in Jakarta, Cirebon, Surabaya, and Semarang.


title: Zheng He

text: In 1961, the Indonesian Islamic leader and scholar Hamka credited Zheng He for playing an important role in the development of Islam in Indonesia. The "Brunei Times" credits Zheng He with building Chinese Muslim communities in Palembang and along the shores of Java, the Malay Peninsula, and the Philippines. These Muslims allegedly followed the Hanafi school in the Chinese language. The "Malay Annals" also record a number of Hanafi mosques in Semarang and Ancol, for instance were converted directly into temples of the Zheng He cult during the 1460s and the 1470s. The Sam Poo Kong temple in Semarang was built to commemorate Zheng He's voyage to Java.


title: Zheng He

text: In the 1950s, historians such as John Fairbank and Joseph Needham popularized the idea that after Zheng He's voyages China turned away from the seas due to the "Haijin" edict and was isolated from European technological advancements. Modern historians point out that Chinese maritime commerce did not totally stop after Zheng He, that Chinese ships continued to participate in Southeast Asian commerce until the 19th century, and that active Chinese trading with India and East Africa continued long after the time of Zheng. Moreover, revisionist historians such as Jack Goldstone argue that the Zheng He voyages ended for practical reasons that did not reflect the technological level of China. Although the Ming dynasty prohibited shipping with the "Haijin" edict, it was a policy of the Hongwu Emperor that long preceded Zheng He and the ban, so obviously disregarded by the Yongle Emperor, was eventually lifted entirely. However, the ban on maritime shipping forced countless numbers of people into smuggling and piracy. Neglect of the imperial navy and Nanjing dockyards after Zheng He's voyages left the coast highly vulnerable to Japanese wokou during the 16th century.


title: Zheng He

text: Richard von Glahn, a UCLA professor of Chinese history, commented that most treatments of Zheng He present him wrongly, "offer counterfactual arguments," and "emphasize China's missed opportunity" by focusing on failures, instead of accomplishments. In contrast, Glahn asserts that "Zheng He reshaped Asia" because maritime history in the 15th century was essentially the Zheng He story and the effects of his voyages.


title: Zheng He

text: Despite the official neglect, the adventures of the fleet captured the imagination of some Chinese with some writing novelizations of the voyages, such as the "Romance of the Three-Jeweled Eunuch" in 1597.


title: Zheng He

text: On his travels, Zheng He built mosques and also spread the worship of Mazu. He apparently never found time for a pilgrimage to Mecca but sent sailors there on his last voyage. He played an important part in developing relations between China and Islamic countries. Zheng He also visited Muslim shrines of Islamic holy men in the Fujian.


title: Zheng He

text: In modern times, interest in Zheng He has revived substantially. In Vernor Vinge's 1999 science fiction novel "A Deepness in the Sky", an interstellar society of commercial traders in human space are named the Qeng Ho, after the admiral. The expeditions featured prominently in Heather Terrell's 2005 novel "The Map Thief". For the 600th anniversary of Zheng He's voyages in 2005, China Central Television produced a special television series, "Zheng He Xia Xiyang", starring Gallen Lo as Zheng He. He is also mentioned in part of the main storyline of the first-person shooter game Far Cry 3. The Star Trek series "" further featured an advanced starship named USS "Zheng He". There was even a US Navy boat that was acquired for picket duty during World War II that was named "Cheng Ho" by its previous owner. In Civilization VI, Zheng He is a 'great admiral' unit that grants bonuses to trade and naval combat.


title: Zheng He

text: In the People's Republic of China, 11 July is Maritime Day (, "Zhōngguó Hánghǎi Rì") and is devoted to the memory of Zheng He's first voyage. Initially Kunming Changshui International Airport was to be named Zheng He International Airport.


title: Zheng He

text: In 2015, Emotion Media Factory dedicated a special multimedia show "Zheng He is coming" for amusement park Romon U-Park (Ningbo, China). The show became a finalist of the amusement industry prestigious Brass Rings Awards by IAAPA.


title: Zheng He

text: The People's Liberation Army Navy ship "Zheng He (AX-81)" is a Chinese training ship named for him. Like her namesake, she serves as a goodwill ambassador for China, becoming the first Chinese Navy ship to visit the United States in 1989 and completing a circumnavigation of the globe in 2012.


title: Tamerlan Tsarnaev

text: Tamerlan Anzorovich Tsarnaev (; October 21, 1986 – April 19, 2013) was an American-based Russian terrorist and former boxer of Chechen and Avar descent who, with his brother Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, planted pressure cooker bombs at the Boston Marathon on April 15, 2013. The bombings killed three people and reportedly injured as many as 264 others. He emigrated to the United States in 2004 at the age of 18. At the time of the bombings, Tsarnaev was an aspiring boxer.


title: Tamerlan Tsarnaev

text: Shortly after the Federal Bureau of Investigation declared them suspects in the bombings and released images of them, the Tsarnaev brothers killed an MIT policeman, carjacked an SUV, and engaged in a shootout with the police in the Boston suburb of Watertown. According to the federal indictment, during the shootout, Tamerlan was captured but died, partly as a result of his brother driving over him, and an MBTA police officer was critically injured in the course of Dzhokhar's escape in the SUV, the latter by what may have been friendly fire. An injured Dzhokhar escaped, but was found, arrested, and hospitalized on the evening of April 19 after an unprecedented manhunt in which thousands of police officials searched a 20-block area of Watertown.


title: Tamerlan Tsarnaev

text: During his incarceration, Tsarnaev's brother allegedly said during questioning that the pair next intended to detonate explosives in Times Square in New York City. Dzhokhar reportedly told authorities that he and his brother were radicalized, at least in part, by watching lectures by Anwar al-Awlaki.


title: Tamerlan Tsarnaev

text: The Tsarnaev family was forcibly moved from Chechnya to the Soviet republic of Kyrgyzstan in the years following World War II. Anzor Tsarnaev is a Chechen, and Zubeidat Tsarnaeva is an Avar. The couple had two sons, with Tamerlan Tsarnaev born in the Kalmyk Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic on October 21, 1986, and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev born in Kyrgyzstan on July 22, 1993. The parents also have two daughters. According to some, other Chechen Americans in the area apparently did not consider the American branch of the family to be fully Chechen because they had not ever lived in Chechnya.


title: Tamerlan Tsarnaev

text: As children, Tsarnaev and his brother lived in Tokmok, Kyrgyzstan. In 2001, the family moved to Makhachkala, Dagestan, in the Russian Federation. In April 2002, the Tsarnaev parents and Dzhokhar went to the United States on a 90-day tourist visa. Anzor Tsarnaev applied for asylum, citing fears of deadly persecution due to his ties to Chechnya.


title: Tamerlan Tsarnaev

text: Tsarnaev was left in the care of his uncle Ruslan in Kyrgyzstan, and arrived in the U.S. around two years later. In the U.S. the parents received asylum and then filed for their four children, who received "derivative asylum status". They settled on Norfolk Street in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Tsarnaev lived in Cambridge on 410 Norfolk Street until his death.


title: Tamerlan Tsarnaev

text: The family "was in constant transition" for the next decade. Anzor and Zubeidat Tsarnaev both received welfare benefits. The father worked as a backyard mechanic and the mother worked as a cosmetologist until she lost her job for refusing to work in a business that served men. In March 2007, the family was granted legal permanent residence.


title: Tamerlan Tsarnaev

text: Tamerlan Tsarnaev was born in the Kalmyk Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (now Kalmykia), a North Caucasus unit of the Soviet Union, the RSFSR. He was a permanent resident of the U.S., a Russian citizen, and a Kyrgyzstani citizen.


title: Tamerlan Tsarnaev

text: According to his immigration file, Tsarnaev was admitted to the U.S. in 2003, receiving his visa at the U.S. consulate in Ankara, Turkey. After arriving in the U.S., he attended Cambridge Rindge and Latin School, a public high school. He applied for admission at the University of Massachusetts Boston for the fall of 2006, but was rejected. He attended Bunker Hill Community College part-time for three terms between 2006 and 2008, studying accounting with hopes of becoming an engineer. He dropped out of school to concentrate on boxing.


title: Tamerlan Tsarnaev

text: In 2007, Tsarnaev confronted a Brazilian youth who had dated his younger sister, Bella, for about two years, and punched him in the face. A high school friend of Bella said Tsarnaev did not approve because the boy was not a Muslim.


title: Tamerlan Tsarnaev

text: During 2008, Tsarnaev became a devout Muslim and stopped drinking and smoking (eventually becoming an extremist a year later). He began to regularly attend the Islamic Society of Boston mosque near his home in Cambridge. Although the Americans for Peace and Tolerance, a longtime critic of the mosque, alleges to support "a brand of Islamic thought that encourages grievances against the West, distrust of law enforcement and opposition to Western forms of government, dress and social values," the mosque has condemned terrorism and would even later ask Tsarnaev to stop attending due to him interrupting the Friday sermon.


title: Tamerlan Tsarnaev

text: In May 2008, his sister said her husband was cheating on her and beating her up. Tsarnaev flew across the country to Bellingham, Washington, to "straighten up the brains" of his brother-in-law, Khozhugov.


title: Tamerlan Tsarnaev

text: An aspiring heavyweight boxer, Tsarnaev trained at the Wai Kru Mixed Martial Arts Center, a Boston club. In 2009–10, he was the New England Golden Gloves heavyweight champion, winning the Rocky Marciano Trophy. In May 2009, he fought in the nationals in the 201-pound weight class, but lost a first-round decision.


title: Tamerlan Tsarnaev

text: Tsarnaev first dated Nadine Ascencao who became his live-in girlfriend. After an incident between Ascencao and Tsarnaev, she called 911 crying hysterically and asking for help. Tsarnaev was arrested at his home at 410 Norfolk Street in Cambridge, on July 28, 2009, for aggravated domestic assault and battery. The case was dismissed for lack of prosecution, but Tsarnaev's father attributed to it the delay in his eldest son gaining U.S. citizenship.


title: Tamerlan Tsarnaev

text: Tsarnaev then began dating an American, Katherine Russell, from North Kingstown, Rhode Island, on and off while she attended Suffolk University from 2007 to 2010. She converted to Islam and started wearing a hijab in 2008. Friends said he would shout at her that she was a "slut". They described fights in which he would "fly into rages and sometimes throw furniture or throw things".


title: Tamerlan Tsarnaev

text: The Tsarnaev brothers' uncle, Ruslan Tsarni, said he "had been concerned about his nephew being an extremist since 2009". Tsarni said that Tsarnaev's radicalization started not during his visit to Russia in January 2012, but much earlier in Boston after he was influenced by a Muslim convert known as "Misha". "Misha" was later identified as Mikhail Allakhverdov, a 39-year-old from Rhode Island (of Armenian-Ukrainian origin, born in Azerbaijan). Allakhverdov told "The New York Review of Books" that he rejected violence, was not Tsarnaev's teacher, had not spoken to Tamerlan in three years and had never met his family members. Furthermore, he said that he had cooperated with a brief FBI investigation that the "NYRB" reported had found no ties between Allakhverdov and the attacks.