title: Grand Duchy of Finland

text: The Finns complied, bitter over Sweden abandoning the country for their war against Denmark and France, and begrudgingly embraced Russian conquest. The Diet of Finland was now to only meet whenever requested, and was never mentioned in the manifesto published by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Further on, Alexander I requested a deputation of the four Finnish estates, as he expressed concern over continued Finnish resistance. The deputation refused to act without the Diet, to which Alexander agreed with, and promised the Diet would shortly be summoned. By 1809, all of Finland had been conquered and The Diet was summoned in March. Finland was then united through Russia via crown, and Finland was able to keep the majority of its own laws, giving it autonomy.


title: Grand Duchy of Finland

text: Instead of the newly acquired territory being subjected to direct rule by an Imperial Governor-General, a novel administrative system was established in Finland, drafted in part by the liberal Mikhail Speransky. The new Grand Duchy would be governed by a Government Council, later the Senate of Finland, a body made up of Finnish citizens. The Governor-General would accordingly have a relatively diminished role. Further, the Emperor would deal with matters relating to Finland directly through a dedicated Secretary of State, without the involvement of his Russian cabinet or administration. This laid the foundation for the considerable autonomy enjoyed by Finland for most of the period of Russian rule.


title: Grand Duchy of Finland

text: The earlier years of the Grand Duchy can be seen as uneventful. In 1812, the area of Old Finland (known as Viipuri Province from 1812 to 1945) was gifted to Finland. Russia had annexed this territory from Sweden in the Great Northern War and the Russo-Swedish War (1741–1743). This surprising action by the Tsar was met with anger from certain parts of the Russian government and aristocracy, who wished to either return to the previous border or annex the communities west of St. Petersburg. Despite the outcry, the borders remained set until 1940. The gesture can be seen as Alexander's concern for Finland and his attempts of appeasement of the Finns, in attempts to gain their loyalty which would come from passive appeasement, compared to the vigorous Russification later in the nineteenth-century. Moreover, Alexander moved the capital from Turku to Helsinki, a small fortified town protected by Suomenlinna. Finland's main university also transferred to Helsinki after a fire broke out in Turku, destroying most of the building.


title: Grand Duchy of Finland

text: Despite promises of a Finnish Diet, the Diet was not called to meet until 1863 and many new laws going through the legislature were laws that would have required the approval of the Diet while under Swedish rule. Alexander went a step further to demand a Finnish House of Nobles, which organised in 1818. The house was designed to register all noble families in Finland so that the highest Finnish estate would be representative of the next Finnish Diet. As for Sweden, the majority did not think too much about Finland's conquest, as Sweden itself annexed Norway from Denmark in 1814 and entered a personal union with the nation. Whether or not Alexander purposely ignored the existence of the Diet is debatable, with notable factors such as the fall of Napoléon and the creation of the Holy Alliance, newfound religious mysticism of the Russian crown, and the negative experience with the Polish "Sejm". Despite this, Alexander I ceased to give in to Finnish affairs and returned to governing Russia.


title: Grand Duchy of Finland

text: In 1823, Count Arseny Zakrevsky was made Governor-General of Finland and quickly became unpopular among both Finns and Swedes alike. Zakrevsky abolished the Committee for Finnish Affairs and managed to obtain the right to submit Finnish affairs to the Russian Emperor, bypassing the Finnish Secretary of State. Two years later, Alexander I died (). Zakrevsky seized the opportunity to require Finland to swear an oath of fealty which would refer to the Emperor as the absolute ruler of Finland – expecting that Emperor would be Constantine, Alexander's next-eldest brother. However, Nicholas, younger brother of Constantine and Alexander, became Emperor despite the Decembrist revolt against him in December 1825. Nicholas assured Finland's secretary of state, Robert Henrik Rehbinder, that he (Nicholas) would continue to uphold Alexander's liberal policies regarding Finland.


title: Grand Duchy of Finland

text: In 1830 Europe became a hotbed of revolution and reform as a result of the July Revolution in France. Poland, another Russian client state, saw a massive uprising against Saint Petersburg during the November Uprising of 1830–1831. Finland made no such move, as Russia had already won over Finnish loyalty. Thus, Russia continued its policies respecting Finnish autonomy and the quiet assimilation of the Finns into the empire. Zakrevsky died in 1831; "Knyaz" Alexander Sergeyevich Menshikov succeeded him as Governor-General of Finland and continued Finnish appeasement. The appeasement of the Finns could be seen as a prototype of the later Russification, as educated Finns moved to Russia in mass, seeking jobs within the Imperial Court to rise within Russian imperial society. The Russian language was studied excitedly as well, with more Finns seeking to learn Russian language, politics, culture, and to assimilate into Russian society. Even though Nicholas had no intentions on doing this, his inner office, specifically Nicholas's Interior Minister, Lev Perovski (in office: 1841–1852), advocated for Count Zakrevsky's ideas and further pushed the ideas of subtle Russification during the 1840s.


title: Grand Duchy of Finland

text: However, Finland did experience a nationalistic revolution in the 1830s - one based around literature. This marked the beginning of the Fennoman movement, a nationalistic movement that would operate in Finland until its independence. In 1831, the Finnish Literary Society was founded, which formed on the basis of appreciation of the Finnish language. Finnish was not represented as language of the scholarly elite, as most printed academic works, novels, and poetry was written in either Swedish or Russian. Copying the German reading rage, Lesewut, and subsequent Swedish mania, Finland entered the reading craze by the 1830s. This fad peaked in 1835 with the publication of "The Kalevala", the Finnish epic. "The Kalevala"'s influence on Finland was massive, and strengthened Finnish nationalism and unity, despite the epic being poetry or stories about Finnish folklore. The quest for literature expanded into the 1840s and 1850s and caught the eye of the Finnish church and the Russian crown. Finnish newspapers, such as "Maamiehen Ystävä" (The Farmer's Friend), began publication in both urban and rural areas of Finland. However, the Swedish academic elite, the church, and the Russian government opposed Finland's literature movement. Edvard Bergenheim, Archbishop of Turku from 1850 to 1884, called for double censorship on works opposing the church and works appearing socialist or communist. The reactionary policies of the Lutheran Church convinced the also reactionary Nicholas I () to prohibit (1850) the publishing of all Finnish works that were not religious or economic in nature, as such works would have been considered revolutionary and might encourage the Finnish majority to revolt against the church and crown. However, the censorship only fueled Finland's language strife and the Fennomanian movement.


title: Grand Duchy of Finland

text: The works of Johan Snellman and other Fennoman authors combined literature and nationalism and increased the calls for language recognition and education reforms in Finland. This heightened during the Crimean War in which Finnish ports and fortresses on the Baltic Sea became subject for Allied attacks, specifically Suomenlinna and Bomarsund in Åland during the Åland War. As newspapers were printed in Swedish and Russian due to the censorship, many Finns could not read about the events of the Battle of Bomarsund and the Battle of Suomenlinna. Moreover, Nicholas I died in 1855, and the new emperor, Alexander II, had already planned educational reforms in outlying territories in Russia, including Finland. Alexander II also planned to call on the Diet of the Estates once more. Under Alexander's rule, Finland experiences a period of liberalization in education, the arts, and economic desires. In 1858, Finnish was made the official language of local self-government, such as provinces, where Finnish was the majority of the language spoken. However, the Finns feared that St. Petersburg would prevent the Diet from meeting on the basis that Polish and Russian citizens did not receive the same liberties and that the Diet would be eradicated. It was misinterpreted, as it only added a few extra steps to how the lawmaking process worked; the Diet was allowed to stay.


title: Grand Duchy of Finland

text: In 1863, Alexander called the Diet and issued that the Finnish language was to be on par with Swedish and Russian in the Grand Duchy, while also passing laws regarding infrastructure and currency. Alexander came to favor the Finnish working class over the Swedish elite, due to Swedish propaganda during the Crimean War urging revolt against the Russians. Alexander also passed a law regarding language ordinance in August 1863, requiring that the Finnish language must be introduced to all public businesses within twenty years. The law was expanded in 1865 to require that state offices must serve the public in Finnish if requested. Despite this, the language laws took time to be fully implemented due to the interference of the Swedish elite, who owned most of these offices and businesses. Despite this, the education laws pushed through and the first secondary schools instructed in Finnish began in the 1870s. The power of the Diet was also expanded in 1869, as it allowed the Diet more power and the ability to initiate various legislation; the act also called the Tsar to call upon the Diet every five years. An act passed regarding religion was also passed in 1869 which prevented the power of the State over the church. Moreover, Finland also received its own monetary system, the Finnish markka, and its own army. Finland's first railway line was opened between Helsinki and Hämeenlinna on March 17, 1862.


title: Grand Duchy of Finland

text: The policies of Russification under Alexander III and Nicholas II easily sum up the time period from 1881 to 1917. In 1881, Alexander III took the throne after the death of his father and began a rule of staunch conservative, yet peaceful, rule of Russia. Finland, as well as many other outlying Russian territories, faced the burden of Russification, the cultural, social, economical, and political absorption into Russia. Compared to the early Russification of the 1830s and 1840s, the Russification of the late 19th-early 20th century was much more vigorous in its policies. Moreover, Finland faced political turmoil within its nation between various factions such as liberals, Social Democrats, Young Finns, and communists. Finland became a target for the Pan-Slavist movement, which called for Slavic unity in eastern Europe. Finland was viewed as conquered territory, and that as subjects, Finland was to respect the Tsar. Finland was also viewed as a land of settlement and that the "alien race" of the Finns were to be assimilated and protected from Western interference, thereby "blessing" the Finns with their presence. Moreover, Finnish representatives to the Tsar were replaced with Pan-Slavist advocates.


title: Grand Duchy of Finland

text: Russification only increased from there, but from the 1880s on, the conflict between the Swedish minority halted. Compared to the Baltic States, the Finnish majority was far better educated and more keen in Russian politics. The reactionary policies of Russification, which aimed to combine secular nationalism and a divine right monarchy, infiltrated the Finnish economy in 1885. Finland had managed to create a thriving modern industry based around textiles and timber that managed to rival the Russian economy at the time. Russian bureaucrats, out of both shock and jealousy, called for the revision of the Russo-Finnish Tariff. Russification had taken an economic turn as well, as the basis of the reformed tariff was economic uniformity, which only furthered economic difficulties of Finland. The tariff's revision in 1885, and subsequently 1897, was formed out of spite of Finland's commercial success and working-class unity. Russification policies continued into 1890, with the addition of the Imperial Post System in Finland, replacing the Finnish post. It was not until the mid-1890s, that the Finnish people realized the true intentions of the Russian crown.


title: Grand Duchy of Finland

text: Nicholas II ascended to the throne in 1894 after Alexander's death, and with him came General Nikolay Bobrikov, who was appointed governor-general. Under Bobrikov, the Finns had a near collective hatred of him, whose reactionary policies gave rise to socialism and communism among the Finnish working class. The Party of Active Resistance and Kagal, in particular, became very popular in Finland for the former's tactics of violence and the latter's tactic of propaganda and persuasion. At the beginning of this reign, Bobrikov almost immediately introduced a mandatory five-year military service, in which Finns had the possibility of being drafted into Russian units. Furthermore, he instituted that Russians be given the opportunity to serve in public office and that Russian be made the administrative language of Finland. In 1899, the February Manifesto under Nicholas II declared that Russian law was the law of the land, and Finland was to pledge allegiance to Russian law. The Diet was essentially downgraded to a state assembly and that Finland was a province of Russia, ignoring its autonomy. The Finnish Army as a whole was dissolved in 1901.


title: Grand Duchy of Finland

text: Bobrikov unintentionally united both Finns and Swedes against Russia, which only angered him more. With churches refusing to proclaim the law, judges refusing to carry it out, and conscripts refusing service, Bobrikov went on a frenzy with the current state of Finland. Bobrikov found little support in Finland, mainly from the Russian minority and members of the Old Finnish Party, an extreme right-wing party that found little success. Bobrikov brought in Russian officials to take government and state spots and, in an extreme act of anger, suspended the Finnish Constitution in 1903. His actions were met with extreme anger from Finns and Swedes, in which the moderate parties, the Young Finns and the Swedish Party combined to collectively fight Bobrikov. The Social Democratic Party of Finland, a Marxist party popular among peasants was also extremely hostile and advocated class warfare and took arms, in contrast to the Social Democrats elsewhere in Europe. Finally, the Party of Active Resistance, a nationalist party that advocated an armed struggle and guerilla tactics, received fame when member Eugen Schauman assassinated Bobrikov in Helsinki on June 16, 1904.


title: Grand Duchy of Finland

text: In 1905, Russia faced a humiliating defeat in the Russo-Japanese War and amidst the turmoil in St. Petersburg, Finns remade their constitution and formed a new Diet whose representation was based on universal suffrage, giving women full suffrage before any other European nation after the short-lived Republic of Corsica. However, the Diet was quickly destroyed by Pyotr Stolypin, Nicholas II's prime minister. Stolypin proved to be even more vigorous than Bobrikov, as he believed every subject should be a stoic patriot to the crown and uphold undying loyalty to Russia. Stolypin wished to destroy Finland's autonomy and disregarded native tongues and cultures of non-Russian subjects, believing them to be traditional and ritualistic at best. The Finnish Diet once again formed to combat Stolypin, but Stolypin was bent on quashing Finnish insurrection and permanently disbanded the Diet in 1909. As with Bobrikov before him, Stolypin was unaware that such actions only fanned the flames and was subsequently assassinated by Dmitry Bogrov, a Jewish member of the far-left. From Stolypin's death henceforward, the Russian crown ruled Finland as a monarchist dictatorship until Russia's collapse during the Russian Revolution, from which Finland declared independence, a war of independence that soon transformed into a civil war.


title: Grand Duchy of Finland

text: The Russian emperor ruled as the Grand Duke of Finland and was represented in Finland by the Governor-General. The Senate of Finland was the highest governing body of the Grand Duchy and was composed of native Finns. In St. Petersburg Finnish matters were represented by the Minister–Secretary of State for Finland. The Senate had a primarily advisory role until it got the right to representation in 1886. On top of having its own central, regional and local administration, Finland had its own stamps, currency and army.


title: Grand Duchy of Finland

text: Alexander I did not want the Grand Duchy to be a constitutional monarchy but the governmental institutions born during the Swedish rule offered him a more efficient form of government than the absolute monarchy in Russia. This evolved into a high level of autonomy by the end of the 19th century.


title: Grand Duchy of Finland

text: The administrative division of the Grand Duchy followed the Russian imperial model with provinces ( "governorate", , ) headed by governors. Few changes were made however, and as the language of the administrators was still Swedish the old terminology from the Swedish time continued in local use. The Viipuri Province was not initially part of the Grand Duchy, but in 1812 it was transferred by Tsar Alexander I from Russia proper to Finland. After 1831 there were eight provinces in the Grand Duchy until the end and that continued in the independent Finland:


title: Grand Duchy of Finland

text: The Grand Duchy of Finland had no official flag, but different types of flags were used in different occasions. An official flag was debated even in the Diet of Finland in the 1860s, but one was never officially chosen.


title: Grand Duchy of Finland

text: An official maritime flag was chosen in 1812 for governmental use. It was a white flag, with the Russian flag in the upper corner and a compass rose in the middle. In 1883 it was replaced with a blue cross flag with the compass rose in the upper corner. A post flag (a white flag with the Russian flag in the upper corner and a post horn in the middle) was also used in the Grand Duchy, along with a customs flag (a blue flag, with the Russian flag on the upper corner and the logo of the customs agency in the middle).


title: Grand Duchy of Finland

text: Originally, there were no regulations regarding merchant flags until 3 October 1821, when Finnish ships were given the right to fly the Russian flag without permission. White, blue and red flags with the Russian flag in the corner were also used. Later on six and nine-striped flags with the colors of the Russian flag twice or thrice saw some use.


title: Grand Duchy of Finland

text: A blue cross flag similar to that of the modern flag of Finland was first used by the yacht club Nyländska Jaktklubben in 1861, equipped with the coat of arms of Uusimaa in the upper corner. It was inspired by the similar flag used by the Neva Yacht Club. The flag of the yacht club was made official by the Senate in 1890 when the Swedish-speaking Östra Nylands Segelförening adopted the Flag of Sweden.


title: Grand Duchy of Finland

text: At the end of the 19th century, flags with the coat of arms were used in unofficial contexts such as private estates and protests. In official contexts, the Russian white-blue-red tricolour was primarily used.


title: Grand Duchy of Finland

text: The Grand Duchy of Finland participated in the 1912 Summer Olympics with their own team. In the opening ceremony, the Finnish team marched behind the Russian team with a Finland-sign. In the medal ceremonies, the Russian flag above a white-blue pennant reading "Finland" was raised for the Finnish athletes.


title: Priyanka Gandhi

text: Priyanka Gandhi Vadra ("née" Gandhi; born 12 January 1972) is an Indian politician and the general secretary of the All India Congress Committee in charge of Uttar Pradesh. She is the daughter of former Prime minister of India Rajiv Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi, sister of Rahul Gandhi, and granddaughter of Feroze and Indira Gandhi, making her a member of the politically prominent Nehru-Gandhi family. She is also a trustee of the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation.


title: Priyanka Gandhi

text: Priyanka Gandhi Vadra was born at the Holy Family Hospital in Delhi on 12 January1972 to Former Prime minister of India Rajiv Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi - who later became the president of the Indian National Congress as the younger of their two children. Her older brother Rahul Gandhi is a member of Parliament from the Wayanad constituency in Kerala. She is the granddaughter of Indira Gandhi - former and first woman Prime Minister of India and Feroze Gandhi - a freedom fighter and politician, and the great-granddaughter of India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and Kamala Nehru.


title: Priyanka Gandhi

text: Priyanka Gandhi did her schooling at Welham Girls' School in Dehradun till 1984. After this, both Rahul and Priyanka were moved to day schools in Delhi due to security reasons. After the assassination of Indira Gandhi, because of constant terror threats, she and her brother Rahul both were home-schooled. Later she joined the Convent of Jesus and Mary, Delhi. obtaining a bachelor's degree in Psychology from Jesus and Mary College, University of Delhi, and later a master's degree in Buddhist studies in 2010.


title: Priyanka Gandhi

text: Gandhi had regularly visited her mother's and brother's constituencies of Rae Bareilly and Amethi where she dealt with the people directly. In the 2004 Indian general election, she was her mother's campaign manager and helped supervise her brother Rahul Gandhi's campaign. In the 2007 Uttar Pradesh assembly elections, while Rahul Gandhi managed the statewide campaign, she focused on the ten seats in the Amethi Rae Bareilly region, spending two weeks there trying to quell considerable infighting within the party workers over seat allocations.


title: Priyanka Gandhi

text: On January 23, 2019, Priyanka Gandhi officially entered politics, being appointed the Congress' General Secretary in charge of the eastern part of Uttar Pradesh. She was appointed General Secretary in charge of the entire Uttar Pradesh on 11 September 2020. In October 2021, Gandhi was detained by police, who cited a ban on gatherings, while on her way to Agra to meet the family members of a man who allegedly died in police custody.


title: Priyanka Gandhi

text: Priyanka Gandhi launched Congress party's Uttar Pradesh poll campaign from Barabanki on 23 October 2021. Congress party fought the 2022 Uttar Pradesh assembly election under the leadership of Gandhi, losing comprehensively.


title: Priyanka Gandhi

text: Even though Gandhi Vadra resisted her direct involvement in politics in the years prior to her official entry in to politics in 2019, she played active roles in election campaign for her mother and brother in general and assembly election. She visited her mother's and brother's constituencies of Rae Bareilly and Amethi regularly where she dealt with the people directly, a role that made her a popular figure in the constituency with mass support, also given rise to the popular election slogan in Amethi “Amethi ka Danka, Bitiya Priyanka” (the clarion call from Amethi is for Priyanka [to stand elections]. following these roles of her, she successfully established her reputation as a good organizer, and level-headed.


title: Priyanka Gandhi

text: Priyanka Gandhi is believed to be her mother's "chief advisor on political matters" where she has also admitted to writing speeches for her first campaign. in the Indian general election, in 2004, she was her mother's campaign manager and helped supervise her brother Rahul Gandhi's campaign.


title: Priyanka Gandhi

text: In the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections, 2007, while Rahul Gandhi managed the statewide campaign, she focused on the ten seats in the Amethi Rae Bareilly region, spending two weeks there trying to quell considerable infighting within the party workers over seat allocations.


title: Priyanka Gandhi

text: On January 23, 2019, Priyank Gandhi formally entered politics after being appointed as the AICC General Secretary in charge of the eastern part of Uttar Pradesh and then as the General Secretary in charge of the entire Uttar Pradesh on 11 September 2020 preceding 2022 Uttar Pradesh assembly elections. During the period, she dived into several issues as an opposition leader and led many protests again the BJP which rules the state as well as the union government, walking shoulder to shoulder with those protesting against the contentious Citizenship Amendment Act, farmers protesting against three farms law on the borders of Delhi, the family of Hathras rape victim and the families of farmers killed by a speeding SUV allegedly driven by a Union minister’s son in UP.


title: Priyanka Gandhi

text: In October 2021, Gandhi was detained twice by the UP police. The first detention followed her visit to Lakhimpur Kheri in western UP where eight people were killed following clashes between protesting farmers and the convey of Union Minister Ajay Misra's son She and several other party leaders were detained at a PAC guest house in Sitapur, which was being used as a “temporary jail” to keep them for over 50 hrs. The second detention tool place in the district of Agra where the UP Police detained her citing a ban on gatherings, while on her way to Agra to meet the family members of a man who allegedly died in police custody


title: Priyanka Gandhi

text: In January 2022, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra launched the Congress's manifesto for the 2022 UP assembly elections along with her brother and MP Rahul Gandhi. The manifesto that was majorly focused on youth and women empowerment along with development for the state also promised 40% of tickets to women in upcoming Uttar Pradesh assembly polls.


title: Priyanka Gandhi

text: Pivoting majority on women empowerment and participation in politics, she kickstarted the "Ladki hoon, Lad Sakti hoon campaign in the state. On the day of international women's day, she launched a rally in the state’s capital Lucknow which laced with several promises and hopes, saw a massive turnout and participation of women from all over the state.


title: Priyanka Gandhi

text: Despite all her attempts to revamp the party in UP and bring reforms to the polity of the state, the Congress Party faced a defeat in the assembly elections; winning 2 out of the 403 assembly seats.


title: Priyanka Gandhi

text: The joint defeat in four other states along with UP led the Congress party to brainstorm and bring in organisational and functional changes that reflected in her political journey.


title: Priyanka Gandhi

text: Accepting the defeat in UP, during her first visit to the state after the elections, she talked of revamping the party and urged the party workers not to give up; signalling her determination to continue with her plans for the state.


title: Priyanka Gandhi

text: On 5 August 2022, she took part in Congress’s ‘Mehangai Par Halla Bol’ protest against price-rise and inflation and was detained by the Delhi police. Gandhi was well-appreciated and was compared with her grandmother and former PO of India Indira Gandhi for her strong will and perseverance to fight for the people and their issues.


title: Priyanka Gandhi

text: She is also said to have played an active role in the internal polls of the Congress Presidential elections of 2022.


title: Priyanka Gandhi

text: In December 2022, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra led the Congress Party to win over the rival Bhartiya Janta Party in assembly election; winning 40 out of 68 assembly seats. She spearheaded the campaign with Chhattisgarh's Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel. Congress leader Sachin Pilot and leaders and workers from Himachal Pradesh Congress Committee.


title: Priyanka Gandhi

text: On 14th October 2022, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra held the first of five rallies in Solan towards a better tomorrow for the state of Himachal Pradesh - “Parivartan Pratigya Rally” that ensured Congress Party’s victory in the state.


title: Priyanka Gandhi

text: Priyanka Gandhi Vadra began her journey with divine blessings from Maa Shoolini Temple in Solan district where she paid her obeisance.


title: Priyanka Gandhi

text: Starting 31st of October with a visit to the infamous Bhootnath temple of Mandi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra promised to curb unemployment and inflation as part of 10 pre-poll promises free electricity (up to 300 units), restoration of the old pension system, and ₹680 crores as a start-up fund as part of its promises.


title: Priyanka Gandhi

text: Her third rally took place in the Kangra district, where Priyanka Gandhi along with Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel, on the 4th November, paid obeisance at the Jwala Devi Temple before addressing a rally at Gandhi Ground of Nagrota Bagwan.


title: Priyanka Gandhi

text: Priyanka Gandhi's public address in Kangra was much based on the issue faced by the youth, farmers, and women, inflation, unemployment, and OPS.


title: Priyanka Gandhi

text: On the 7th of November in Una district, addressing a political rally at Kangar in Haroli today, she urged people to continue the tradition of changing governments after every five years and attack BJP's "double-engine government" questioning what they had done for the State in the last five years.


title: Priyanka Gandhi

text: In her fifth and last rally in Sirmaur on the 10th November, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra concluded her campaign by promising 10 guarantees that built the backbone of the whole campaign. A month following the campaigning and polls in the state, the congress party finally made government with Sukhvinder Singh Sikhu pledging as the CM of the state on 11th of December 2022.


title: Priyanka Gandhi

text: In 1997, Gandhi married Robert Vadra - a Delhi-based businessman and the couple has two children- one son and one daughter together. The wedding took place at the Gandhi home, 10 Janpath, on 18 February 1997 in a traditional Hindu ceremony. She is a follower of Buddhist philosophy and practices Vipassana. A Vipassana practitioner for many years, she has done many courses, including the advanced, very rigorous, and intensive ‘Sattipatahana’ courses, as taught by S.N. Goenka and his Vipassana Sadhna Sansthan. She also participated in a retreat to learn about Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh's meditation techniques.


title: Epsilon

text: Epsilon (, ; uppercase ', lowercase ' or lunate ; ) is the fifth letter of the Greek alphabet, corresponding phonetically to a or . In the system of Greek numerals it also has the value five. It was derived from the Phoenician letter He . Letters that arose from epsilon include the Roman E, Ë and Ɛ, and Cyrillic Е, È, Ё, Є and Э.


title: Epsilon

text: The name of the letter was originally (), but it was later changed to ( 'simple e') in the Middle Ages to distinguish the letter from the digraph , a former diphthong that had come to be pronounced the same as epsilon.


title: Epsilon

text: The uppercase form of epsilon is identical to Latin E but has its own code point in Unicode: . The lowercase version has two typographical variants, both inherited from medieval Greek handwriting. One, the most common in modern typography and inherited from medieval minuscule, looks like a reversed number "3" and is encoded . The other, also known as lunate or uncial epsilon and inherited from earlier uncial writing, looks like a semicircle crossed by a horizontal bar: it is encoded . While in normal typography these are just alternative font variants, they may have different meanings as mathematical symbols: computer systems therefore offer distinct encodings for them. In TeX, codice_1 ( formula_1 ) denotes the lunate form, while codice_2 ( formula_2 ) denotes the reversed-3 form.


title: Epsilon

text: There is also a 'Latin epsilon', or "open e", which looks similar to the Greek lowercase epsilon. It is encoded in Unicode as and and is used as an IPA phonetic symbol. The lunate or uncial epsilon provided inspiration for the euro sign, .


title: Epsilon

text: The lunate epsilon, , is not to be confused with the set membership symbol ; nor should the Latin uppercase epsilon, , be confused with the Greek uppercase (sigma). The symbol formula_3, first used in set theory and logic by Giuseppe Peano and now used in mathematics in general for set membership ("belongs to") evolved from the letter epsilon, since the symbol was originally used as an abbreviation for the Latin word . In addition, mathematicians often read the symbol as "element of", as in "1 is an element of the natural numbers" for formula_4, for example. As late as 1960, ε itself was used for set membership, while its negation "does not belong to" (now ) was denoted by (epsilon prime). Only gradually did a fully separate, stylized symbol take the place of epsilon in this role. In a related context, Peano also introduced the use of a backwards epsilon, , for the phrase "such that", although the abbreviation "s.t." is occasionally used in place of ϶ in informal cardinals.


title: Epsilon

text: The letter Ε was adopted from the Phoenician letter He () when Greeks first adopted alphabetic writing. In archaic Greek writing, its shape is often still identical to that of the Phoenician letter. Like other Greek letters, it could face either leftward or rightward (), depending on the current writing direction, but, just as in Phoenician, the horizontal bars always faced in the direction of writing. Archaic writing often preserves the Phoenician form with a vertical stem extending slightly below the lowest horizontal bar. In the classical era, through the influence of more cursive writing styles, the shape was simplified to the current E glyph.


title: Epsilon

text: While the original pronunciation of the Phoenician letter "He" was , the earliest Greek sound value of Ε was determined by the vowel occurring in the Phoenician letter name, which made it a natural choice for being reinterpreted from a consonant symbol to a vowel symbol denoting an sound. Besides its classical Greek sound value, the short phoneme, it could initially also be used for other -like sounds. For instance, in early Attic before c. 500 BC, it was used also both for the long, open , and for the long close . In the former role, it was later replaced in the classic Greek alphabet by Eta (Η), which was taken over from eastern Ionic alphabets, while in the latter role it was replaced by the digraph spelling ΕΙ.


title: Epsilon

text: In Corinth, the normal function of Ε to denote and was taken by a glyph resembling a pointed B (), while Ε was used only for long close . The letter Beta, in turn, took the deviant shape .


title: Epsilon

text: In Thespiai (Boeotia), a special letter form consisting of a vertical stem with a single rightward-pointing horizontal bar () was used for what was probably a raised variant of in pre-vocalic environments. This tack glyph was used elsewhere also as a form of "Heta", i.e. for the sound .


title: Epsilon

text: After the establishment of the canonical classical Ionian (Euclidean) Greek alphabet, new glyph variants for Ε were introduced through handwriting. In the uncial script (used for literary papyrus manuscripts in late antiquity and then in early medieval vellum codices), the "lunate" shape () became predominant. In cursive handwriting, a large number of shorthand glyphs came to be used, where the cross-bar and the curved stroke were linked in various ways. Some of them resembled a modern lowercase Latin "e", some a "6" with a connecting stroke to the next letter starting from the middle, and some a combination of two small "c"-like curves. Several of these shapes were later taken over into minuscule book hand. Of the various minuscule letter shapes, the inverted-3 form became the basis for lower-case Epsilon in Greek typography during the modern era.


title: Epsilon

text: Despite its pronunciation as , in the International Phonetic Alphabet, the Latin epsilon represents open-mid front unrounded vowel, as in the English word "pet" .


title: Epsilon

text: The uppercase Epsilon is not commonly used outside of the Greek language because of its similarity to the Latin letter E. However, it is commonly used in structural mechanics with Young's Modulus equations for calculating tensile, compressive and areal strain.


title: Epsilon

text: The Greek lowercase epsilon , the lunate epsilon symbol , and the Latin lowercase epsilon (see above) are used in a variety of places:


title: Epsilon

text: These characters are used only as mathematical symbols. Stylized Greek text should be encoded using the normal Greek letters, with markup and formatting to indicate text style.


title: Zadar

text: Zadar ( , ; historically known as Zara (from Venetian and Italian: ); see also other names), is the oldest continuously inhabited Croatian city. It is situated on the Adriatic Sea, at the northwestern part of Ravni Kotari region. Zadar serves as the seat of Zadar County and of the wider northern Dalmatian region. The city proper covers with a population of 75,082 , making it the second-largest city of the region of Dalmatia and the fifth-largest city in the country.


title: Zadar

text: The area of present-day Zadar traces its earliest evidence of human life from the late Stone Age, while numerous settlements date as early as the Neolithic. Before the Illyrians, an ancient Mediterranean people of an Indo-European culture inhabited the area. Zadar traces its origin to its 9th-century BC founding as a settlement of the Illyrian tribe of Liburnians known as "Iader".


title: Zadar

text: In 59 BC, it was renamed "Iadera" when it became a Roman municipium. In 48 BC it became a Roman "colonia". During Roman rule Zadar acquired the characteristics of a traditional Ancient Roman city with a regular road network, a public square ("forum"), and an elevated "capitolium" with a temple.


title: Zadar

text: After the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and the destruction of Salona by the Avars and Croats in 614, Zadar became the capital of the Byzantine theme of Dalmatia. In the beginning of the 9th century, Zadar came briefly under Frankish rule, but the Pax Nicephori returned it to the Byzantines in 812. The first Croatian rulers gained brief control over the city in 10th century. In 998, Zadar swore allegiance to Doge Pietro Orseolo II and became a vassal of the Republic of Venice. In 1186, it placed itself under the protection of Béla III, King of Hungary and Croatia.


title: Zadar

text: In 1202, the Venetians, with the help of Crusaders, reconquered and sacked Zadar. Hungary regained control over the city in 1358, when it was given to king Louis I of Hungary. In 1409, king Ladislaus I sold Zadar to the Venetians. When the Ottoman Empire conquered the Zadar hinterland at the beginning of the 16th century, the town became an important stronghold, ensuring Venetian trade in the Adriatic, the administrative center of the Venetian territories in Dalmatia and a cultural center. This fostered an environment in which arts and literature could flourish, and between the 15th and 17th centuries Zadar came under the influence of the Renaissance, giving rise to many important Italian Renaissance figures like Giorgio Ventura and Giovanni Francesco Fortunio, who wrote the first Italian grammar book, and many Croatian writers, such as Petar Zoranić, Brne Krnarutić, Juraj Baraković and Šime Budinić, who wrote in Croatian.


title: Zadar

text: After the fall of Venice in 1797, Zadar came under Austrian rule until 1918, except for a period of short-term French rule (1805–1813), still remaining the capital of Dalmatia. During French rule the first newspaper in Croatian, "Il Regio Dalmata – Kraglski Dalmatin", was published in Zadar (1806–1810). During the 19th century Zadar functioned as a center of the Croatian movement for cultural and national revival in a context of increasing polarization and politicization of ethnic identities between Croats and Dalmatian Italians.


title: Zadar

text: With the 1920 Treaty of Rapallo Zadar was given to the Kingdom of Italy. During World War II, it was bombed by the Allies and witnessed the evacuation of ethnic Italians. Partisans captured the city on 1 November 1944; in 1947 it officially became part of SR Croatia, a federal constituent of the SFR Yugoslavia, whose armed forces defended it in October 1991 from the Serb forces who aimed to capture it.


title: Zadar

text: Today, Zadar is a historical center of Dalmatia, Zadar County's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, educational, and transportation centre. Zadar is also the episcopal see of the Archdiocese of Zadar. Because of its rich heritage, Zadar is today one of the most popular Croatian tourist destinations, named "entertainment center of the Adriatic" by "The Times" and "Croatia's new capital of cool" by "The Guardian".


title: Zadar

text: The name of the city of Zadar emerged as "Iadera" and "Iader" in ancient times, possibly ‘’’Iavdera/ Ia·vídera’’’ (or a slightly corrupted version as Iaudera), most likely drawing from the ancient school of thought dealing with angles and levels of SIGHT, but the origin of the name is older. It was most probably related to a hydrographical term, coined by an ancient Mediterranean people and their Pre-Indo-European language. They transmitted it to later settlers, the Liburnians. The name of the Liburnian settlement was first mentioned by a Greek inscription from Pharos (Stari grad) on the island of Hvar in 384 BC, where the citizens of Zadar were noted as ("Iadasinoi"). According to the Greek source Periplus of Pseudo-Scylax the city was ("Idassa"), probably a Greek transcription of the original Liburnian expression.


title: Zadar

text: During Antiquity the name was often recorded in sources in Latin in two forms: "Iader" in the inscriptions and in the writings of classic writers, "Iadera" predominantly among the late Antiquity writers, while usual ethnonyms were "Iadestines" and "Iadertines". The accent was on the first syllable in both Iader and Iadera forms, which influenced the early-Medieval Dalmatian forms "Jadra", "Jadera" and "Jadertina", where the accent kept its original place.


title: Zadar

text: In Dalmatian, "Jadra" ("Jadera") was pronounced "Zadra" ("Zadera"), due to the phonetic transformation of "Ja"- to "Za"-. That change was also reflected in the Croatian name "Zadar" (recorded as "Zader" in the 12th century), developed from masculine "Zadъrъ". An ethnonym graphic "Jaderani" from the legend of Saint Chrysogonus in the 9th century, was identical to the initial old-Slavic form "Zadъrane", or Renaissance Croatian "Zadrani".


title: Zadar

text: The Dalmatian names "Jadra", "Jadera" were transferred to other languages; in Venetian (hyper-urbanism in the 9th century) and , Hungarian , Tuscan "Giara", Latin "Iadora" and "Diadora" (Constantine VII in "De Administrando Imperio", 10th century, probably an error in the transcription of ), Old French "Jadres" (Geoffroy de Villehardouin in the chronicles of the Fourth Crusade in 1202), Arabic "Jādhara" () and "Jādara" () (Al-Idrisi, 12th century), "Iadora" (Guido, 12th century), Catalan "Jazara", "Jara", "Sarra" (14th century) and the others.


title: Zadar

text: Jadera became Zara when it fell under the authority of the Republic of Venice in the 15th century. Zara was later used by the Austrian Empire in the 19th century, but it was provisionally changed to Zadar/Zara from 1910 to 1920; from 1920 to 1947 the city became part of Italy as Zara, and finally was named "Zadar" in 1947.


title: Zadar

text: Zadar faces the islands of Ugljan and Pašman (part of the Zadar Archipelago), from which it is separated by the narrow Zadar Strait. The promontory on which the old city stands used to be separated from the mainland by a deep moat which has since been filled. The harbour, to the north-east of the town, is safe and spacious.


title: Zadar

text: Zadar has a borderline humid subtropical ("Cfa") and Mediterranean climate ("Csa"). Zadar has mild, wet winters and very warm, humid summers. July and August are the hottest months, with an average high temperature around . The highest temperature ever was on 5 August 2017 at the Zadar Zemunik station (records since 1981) and at the old Zadar climate station on 6 August 2022 (records since 1961). Temperatures can consistently reach over during the summer months, but during spring and autumn may also reach almost every year. Temperatures below are rare, and are not maintained for more than a few days. January is the coldest month, with an average temperature around . The recorded the lowest temperature ever in Zadar was on 28 February 2018 at the Zadar Zemunik weather station and on 23 January 1963 at the old Zadar climate station. Through July and August temperature has never dropped below . October and November are the wettest months, with a total precipitation of about , respectively. July is the driest month, with a total precipitation of around . Winter is the wettest season, however it can rain in Zadar at any time of the year. Snow is exceedingly rare, but it may fall in December, January, February and much more rarely in March. On average Zadar has 1.4 days of snow a year, but it is more likely that the snow does not fall. Also the sea temperature is from in February to in July and August, but is possible to swim from May until October, sometimes even by November. Sometimes in February the sea temperature can drop to only and in July exceed .


title: Zadar

text: The district of present-day Zadar has been populated since prehistoric times. The earliest evidence of human life comes from the Late Stone Age, while numerous settlements have been dated as early as the Neolithic. Before the Illyrians, the area was inhabited by an ancient Mediterranean people of a pre-Indo-European culture. They assimilated with the Indo-Europeans who settled between the 4th and 2nd millennium BC into a new ethnical unity, that of the Liburnians. Zadar was a Liburnian settlement, laid out in the 9th century BC, built on a small stone islet and embankments where the old city stands and tied to the mainland by the overflown narrow isthmus, which created a natural port in its northern strait.


title: Zadar

text: The Liburnians, an Illyrian tribe, were known as great sailors and merchants, but also had a reputation for piracy in the later years. By the 7th century BC, Zadar had become an important centre for their trading activities with the Phoenicians, Etruscans, Ancient Greeks and other Mediterranean peoples. Its population at that time is estimated at 2,000. From the 9th to the 6th century there was certain cultural unity in the Adriatic Sea, with the general Liburninan seal, whose naval supremacy meant both political and economical authority through several centuries. Due to its geographical position, Zadar developed into a main seat of the Liburnian thalassocracy and took a leading role in the Liburnian "tetradekapolis", an organization of 14 communes.


title: Zadar

text: The people of Zadar, "Iadasinoi", were first mentioned in 384 BC as the allies of the natives of Hvar and the leaders of an eastern Adriatic coast coalition in the fight against the Greek colonizers. An expedition of 10,000 men in 300 ships sailed out from Zadar and laid siege to the Greek colony Pharos in the island of Hvar, but the Syracusan fleet of "Dionysus" was alerted and attacked the siege fleet. The naval victory went to the Greeks which allowed them relatively safer further colonization in the southern Adriatic.


title: Zadar

text: The archaeological remains have shown that the main centres of Liburnian territorial units or municipalities were already urbanized in the last centuries BC; before the Roman conquest, Zadar held a territory of more than in the 2nd century BC.


title: Zadar

text: In the middle of the 2nd century BC, the Romans began to gradually invade the region. Although being first Roman enemies in the Adriatic Sea, the Liburnians, mostly stood aside in more than 230 years of Roman wars with the Illyrians, to protect their naval and trade connections in the sea. In 59 BC, Illyricum was assigned as a "provincia" (zone of responsibility) to Julius Caesar and Liburnian Iadera became a Roman municipium.


title: Zadar

text: The Liburnian naval force was dragged into the Roman civil war between Julius Caesar and Pompey in 49 BC, partially by force, partially because of the local interests of the participants, the Liburnian cities. Caesar was supported by the urban Liburnian centres, like "Iader" (Zadar), "Aenona" (Nin) and "Curicum" (Krk), while the city of "Issa" (Vis) and the rest of the Liburnians gave their support to Pompey. In 49 BC near the island of Krk, the "Navy of Zadar", equipped by the fleets of a few Liburnian cities and supported by some Roman ships, lost an important naval battle against Pompey supporting the "Liburnian navy". The civil war was prolonged until the end of 48 BC, when Caesar rewarded his supporters in Liburnian "Iader" and Dalmatian "Salona", by giving the status of the Roman colonies to their communities. Thus the city was granted the title "colonia Iulia Iader", after its founder, and in the next period some of the Roman colonists (mostly legionary veterans) settled there.


title: Zadar

text: The real establishment of the Roman province of Illyricum occurred not earlier than 33 BC and Octavian's military campaign in Illyria and Liburnia, when the Liburnians finally lost their naval independence and their galleys and sailors were incorporated into the Roman naval fleets.


title: Zadar

text: From the early days of Roman rule, Zadar gained its Roman urban character and developed into one of the most flourishing centres on the eastern Adriatic coast, a state of affairs which lasted for several hundred years. The town was organised according to the typical Roman street system with a rectangular street plan, a forum, thermae, a sewage and water supply system that came from lake Vrana, by way of a long aqueduct. It did not play a significant role in the Roman administration of Dalmatia, although the archaeological finds tell us about a significant growth of economy and culture.


title: Zadar

text: Christianity did not bypass the Roman province of Dalmatia. Already by the end of the 3rd century Zadar had its own bishop and founding of its Christian community took place; a new religious centre was built north of the forum together with a basilica and a baptistery, as well as other ecclesiastical buildings. According to some estimates, in the 4th century it had probably around ten thousand citizens, including the population from its "ager", the nearby islands and hinterland, an admixture of the indigenous Liburnians and Roman colonists.


title: Zadar

text: During the Migration Period and the Barbarian invasions, Zadar was one of the remaining Dalmatian city-states, but it stagnated. In 441 and 447 Dalmatia was ravaged by the Huns, after the fall of the Western Roman Empire, in 481 Dalmatia became part of the Ostrogothic kingdom, which, besides Italy, already included the more northerly parts of Illyricum, i.e. Pannonia and Noricum.


title: Zadar

text: In the 5th century, under the rule of the Ostrogothic Kingdom, Zadar became poor with many civic buildings ruined due to its advanced age. About the same time (6th century) it was hit by an earthquake, which destroyed entire complexes of monumental Roman architecture, whose parts would later serve as material for building houses. This caused a loss of population and created demographic changes in the city, then gradually repopulated by the inhabitants from its hinterland. However, during six decades of Gothic rule, the Goths saved those old Roman Municipal institutions that were still in function, while religious life in Dalmatia even intensified in the last years, so that there was a need for the foundation of additional bishoprics.


title: Zadar

text: In 536, the Byzantine emperor Justinian the Great started a military campaign to reconquer the territories of the former Western Empire (see Gothic War); and in 553 Zadar passed to the Byzantine Empire. In 568, Dalmatia was devastated by an Avar invasion; although further waves of attacks by Avar and Slav tribes kept up the pressure, it was the only city which survived due to its protective belt of inland plains. The Dalmatian capital Salona was captured and destroyed in the 640s, so Zadar became the new seat of the Byzantine archonty of Dalmatia, territorially reduced to a few coastal cities with their agers and municipal lands at the coast and the islands nearby. The prior of Zadar had jurisdiction over all Byzantine Dalmatia, so Zadar enjoyed metropolitan status at the eastern Adriatic coast. At this time rebuilding began to take place in the city.


title: Zadar

text: At the beginning of the 9th century the Zadar bishop Donatus and the city duke Paul mediated in the dispute between the Holy Roman empire under Pepin and the Byzantine Empire. The Franks held Zadar for a short time, but the city was returned to Byzantium by a decision of the 812 Treaty of Aachen.


title: Zadar

text: Zadar's economy revolved around the sea, fishing and sea trade in the first centuries of the Middle Ages. Thanks to saved Antique ager, adjusted municipal structure and a new strategic position, it became the most important city between the Kvarner islands and Kaštela Bay. Byzantine Dalmatia was not territorially unified, but an alliance of city municipalities headed by Zadar, and the large degree of city autonomy allowed the development of Dalmatian cities as free communes. Forced to turn their attention seawards, the inhabitants of Zadar focused on shipping, and the city became a naval power to rival Venice. The citizens were Dalmatian speakers, but from the 7th century Croatian started to spread in the region, becoming predominant in the inland and the islands to the end of the 9th century.


title: Zadar

text: The Mediterranean and Adriatic cities developed significantly during a period of peace from the last decades of the 9th to the middle of the 10th century. Especially favourable conditions for navigation in the Adriatic Sea occurred since the Saracen raids had finished. Also the adjustment of relations with the Croats enabled Zadar merchants to trade with its rich agriculture hinterland where the Kingdom of Croatia had formed, and trade and political links with Zadar began to develop. Croatian settlers began to arrive, becoming commonplace by the 10th century, occupying all city classes, as well as important posts, like those of prior, judge, priest and others. In 925, Tomislav, the Duke of Croatian Dalmatia, united Croatian Dalmatia and Pannonia establishing the Croatian Kingdom.


title: Zadar

text: Following the dynastic struggle between the descendants of king Stjepan Držislav after his death in 997, the city was besieged in 998 by the army of the Bulgarian emperor Samuel but managed to defend itself.


title: Zadar

text: At the time of Zadar's medieval development, the city became a threat to Venice's ambitions, because of its strategic position at the centre of the eastern Adriatic coast.


title: Zadar

text: In 998, Zadar sought Venetian protection against the Neretvian pirates. The Venetians were quick to fully exploit this opportunity: in 998 a fleet commanded by Doge Pietro Orseolo II, after having defeated pirates, landed in Korčula and Lastovo. Dalmatia was taken by surprise and offered little serious resistance. Trogir was the exception and was subjected to Venetian rule only after a bloody struggle, whereas Dubrovnik was forced to pay tribute. Tribute previously paid by Zadar to Croatian kings, was redirected to Venice, a state of affairs which lasted for several years.


title: Zadar

text: Zadar citizens started to work for the full independence of Zadar and from the 1030s the city was formally a vassal of the Byzantine Empire. The head of this movement was the mightiest Zadar patrician family – the Madi. After negotiations with Byzantium, Zadar was attached to the Croatian state led by king Petar Krešimir IV in 1069. Later, after the death of king Dmitar Zvonimir in 1089 and ensuing dynastic run-ins, in 1105 Zadar accepted the rule of the first Croato-Hungarian king, Coloman, King of Hungary.


title: Zadar

text: In the meantime Venice developed into a true trading force in the Adriatic and started attacks on Zadar. The city was repeatedly invaded by Venice between 1111 and 1154 and then once more between 1160 and 1183, when it finally rebelled, appealing to the Pope and to the Croato-Hungarian throne for protection.


title: Zadar

text: Zadar was especially devastated in 1202 after the Venetian Doge Enrico Dandolo used the crusaders, on their Fourth Crusade to Palestine, to lay siege to the city. The crusaders were obliged to pay Venice for sea transport to Egypt. As they were not able to produce enough money, the Venetians used them to initiate the Siege of Zadar, when the city was ransacked, demolished and robbed. Emeric, king of Croatia and Hungary, condemned the crusade, because of an argument about the possible heresy committed by God's army in attacking a Christian city. Nonetheless, Zadar was devastated and captured, with the population escaping into the surrounding countryside. Pope Innocent III excommunicated the Venetians and crusaders involved in the siege.


title: Zadar

text: Two years later (1204), under the leadership of the Croatian nobleman Domald from Šibenik, most of the refugees returned and liberated the city from what remained of the crusader force. In 1204 Domald was "comes" (duke) of Zadar, but the following year (1205) Venetian authority was re-established and a peace agreement signed with hard conditions for the citizens. The only profit which the Communal Council of Zadar derived from this was one third of the city's harbour taxes, probably insufficient even for the most indispensable communal needs.


title: Zadar

text: This did not break the spirit of the city, however. Its commerce was suffering due to a lack of autonomy under Venice, while it enjoyed considerable autonomy under the much more feudal Kingdom of Croatia-Hungary. A number of insurrections followed (1242–1243, 1320s, 1345–1346 – the latter resulted in a sixteen-month-long Venetian siege) which finally resulted in Zadar coming back under the crown of King Louis I of Croatia-Hungary under the Treaty of Zadar, in 1358. After the War of Chioggia between Genoa and Venice, Chioggia concluded on 14 March 1381 an alliance with Zadar and Trogir against Venice, and finally Chioggia became better protected by Venice in 1412, because Šibenik became in 1412 the seat of the main customs office and the seat of the salt consumers office with a monopoly on the salt trade in Chioggia and on the whole Adriatic Sea. After the death of Louis, Zadar recognized the rule of king Sigismund, and after him, that of Ladislaus of Naples. During his reign Croatia-Hungary was enveloped in a bloody civil war. In 1409, Venice, seeing that Ladislaus was about to be defeated, and eager to exploit the situation despite its relative military weakness, offered to buy his "rights" on Dalmatia for a mere 100,000 ducats. Knowing he had lost the region in any case, Ladislaus accepted. Zadar was, thus sold back to the Venetians for a paltry sum.


title: Zadar

text: The population of Zadar during the Medieval period was predominantly Croatian, according to numerous archival documents, and Croatian was used in liturgy, as shown by the writings of cardinal Boson, who followed Pope Alexander III en route to Venice in 1177. When the papal ships took shelter in the harbour of Zadar, the inhabitants greeted the Pope by singing lauds and canticles in Croatian.


title: Zadar

text: Even though interspersed by sieges and destruction, the time between the 11th and 14th centuries was the golden age of Zadar. Thanks to its political and trading achievements, and also to its skilled seamen, Zadar played an important role among the cities on the east coast of the Adriatic. This affected its appearance and culture: many churches, rich monasteries and palaces for powerful families were built, together with the Chest of Saint Simeon. One of the best examples of the culture and prosperity of Zadar at that time was the founding of the University of Zadar, built in 1396 by the Dominican Order (the oldest university in present-day Croatia).


title: Zadar

text: After the death of Louis I, Zadar came under the rule of Sigmund of Luxembourg and later Ladislaus of Naples, who, witnessing his loss of influence in Dalmatia, sold Zadar and his dynasty's rights to Dalmatia to Venice for 100,000 ducats on 31 July 1409. Venice therefore obtained control over Zadar without a fight, but was confronted by the resistance and tensions of important Zadar families. These attempts were met with persecution and confiscation. Zadar remained the administrative seat of Dalmatia, but this time under the rule of Venice, which expanded over the whole Dalmatia, except the Republic of Ragusa/Dubrovnik. During that time Giorgio da Sebenico, a renaissance sculptor and architect, famous for his work on the Cathedral of Šibenik, was born in Zadar. Other important people followed, such as Luciano and Francesco Laurana, known worldwide for their sculptures and buildings.


title: Zadar

text: The 16th and 17th centuries were noted in Zadar for Ottoman attacks. Ottomans captured the continental part of Zadar at the beginning of the 16th century and the city itself was all the time in the range of Turkish artillery. Due to that threat, the construction of a new system of castles and walls began. These defense systems changed the way the city looked. To make place for the pentagon castles many houses and churches were taken down, along with an entire suburb: Varoš of St. Martin. After the 40-year-long construction Zadar became the biggest fortified city in Dalmatia, empowered by a system of castles, bastions and canals filled with seawater. The city was supplied by the water from public city cisterns. During the complete makeover of Zadar, many new civic buildings were built, such as the City Lodge and City Guard on the Gospodski Square, several army barracks, but also some large new palaces.


title: Zadar

text: In contrast to the insecurity and Ottoman sieges and destruction, an important culture evolved midst the city walls. During the 16th and the 17th centuries Zadar was still under the influence of the Renaissance, which had created an environment in which arts and literature could flourish, despite the ongoing conflicts outside the city walls. This period saw the rise of many important Italian Renaissance figures, such as the painters Giorgio Ventura and Andrea Meldolla, and the humanist scholar Giovanni Francesco Fortunio, who wrote the first Italian grammar book. Meanwhile, the activity of the Croatian writers and poets became prolific (Jerolim Vidolić, Petar Zoranić, Brne Karnarutić, Juraj Baraković, Šime Budinić).


title: Zadar

text: During the continuous Ottoman danger the population stagnated by a significant degree along with the economy. During the 16th and 17th centuries several large-scale epidemics of bubonic plague erupted in the city. After more than 150 years of Turkish threat Zadar was not only scarce in population, but also in material wealth. Venice sent new colonists and, under the firm hand of archbishop Vicko Zmajević, the Arbanasi (Catholic Albanian refugees) settled in the city, forming a new suburb. Despite the shortage of money, the Teatro Nobile (Theater for Nobility) was built in 1783. It functioned for over 100 years.


title: Zadar

text: In 1797 with the Treaty of Campo Formio, the Republic of Venice, including Zadar, came under the Austrian crown. In 1806 it was briefly given to the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy, until in 1809 it was added to the French Illyrian Provinces. In November 1813 an Austrian force blockaded the town with the assistance of two British Royal Navy frigates HMS "Havannah" and "Weazle" under the 3rd Earl of Cadogan. On 9 December the French garrison of Zadar capitulated, and by the end of the year all of Dalmatia was brought back under the control of the Austrian Empire. After the Congress of Vienna (1815) until 1918, the town (bilingual name "Zara – Zadar" ) remained part of the Austrian monarchy (Austria side after the compromise of 1867), head of the district of the same name, one of the 13 "Bezirkshauptmannschaften" in Dalmatia. The Italian name was officially used before 1867. It remained also the capital of Dalmatia province ("Kronland").


title: Zadar

text: Although during the first half of the 19th century the city population stagnated due to low natural increase, the city started to spread from the old center; citizens from the old city created the new suburb of Stanovi in the north.


title: Zadar

text: During the second half of the 19th century, there was constant increase of population due to economic growth and immigration. Under the pressure of the population increase, the city continued to spread to Voštarnica and Arbanasi quarters, and the bridge in the city port was built. Except being the administrative center of the province, agriculture, industry of liqueurs and trade were developed, many brotherhoods were established, similar to the Central European trade guilds. The southern city walls were torn down, new coastal facilities were built and Zadar became an "open port". As the city developed economically, it developed culturally. A large number of printshops, new libraries, archives, and theatres sprung up. At the end of the 19th century there was also stronger industrial development, with 27 small or big factories before the World War I.


title: Zadar

text: After 1848, Italian and Croatian nationalistic ideas arrived in the city, which became divided between the Croats and the Italians, both of whom founded their respective political parties.


title: Zadar

text: There are conflicting sources for both sides claiming to have formed the majority in Zadar in this period. The archives of the official Austro-Hungarian censuses conducted around the end of 19th century show that Italian was the primary language spoken by the majority of the people in the city (9,018 Italians and 2,551 Croatians in 1900), but only by a third of the population in the entire county (9,234 vs. 21,753 the same year).


title: Zadar

text: During the 19th century, the conflict between Zadar's Italian and Croatian communities grew in intensity and changed its nature. Until the beginning of the century it had been of moderate intensity and mainly of a class nature (under Venetian rule the Italians were employed in the most profitable activities, such as trade and administration). With the development of the modern concept of national identity across Europe, national conflicts started to mark the political life of Zadar.


title: Zadar

text: During the second part of the 19th century, Zadar was subject to the same policy enacted by the Austrian Empire in South-Tyrol, the Austrian Littoral and Dalmatia and consisting in fostering the local German or Croatian culture at the expense of the Italian. In Zadar and generally throughout Dalmatia, the Austrian policy had the objective to reduce the possibility of any future territorial claim by the Kingdom of Italy.


title: Zadar

text: In 1915, Italy entered World War I under the provisions set in the Treaty of London. In exchange for its participation with the Triple Entente and in the event of victory, Italy was to obtain the following territory in northern Dalmatia, including Zadar, Šibenik and most of the Dalmatian islands, except Krk and Rab. At the end of the war, Italian military forces invaded Dalmatia and seized control of Zara, with Admiral Enrico Millo being proclaimed the governor of Dalmatia. Famous Italian nationalist Gabriele d'Annunzio supported the seizure of Dalmatia, and proceeded to Zadar in an Italian warship in December 1918.


title: Zadar

text: During 1918, political life in Zadar intensified. The collapse of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy led to the renewal of national conflicts in the city. With the arrival of an Italian army of occupation in the city on 4 November 1918, the Italian faction gradually assumed control, a process which was completed on 5 December when it took over the governorship. With the Treaty of Versailles (10 January 1920) Italian claims on Dalmatia contained in the Treaty of London were nullified, but later on the agreements between the Kingdom of Italy and the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes set in the Treaty of Rapallo (12 November 1920) gave Zadar with other small local territories to Italy.


title: Zadar

text: The Zadar enclave, a total of , included the city of Zadar, the municipalities of Bokanjac, Arbanasi, Crno, part of Diklo (a total of 51 km of territory and 17,065 inhabitants) and the islands of Lastovo and Palagruža (, 1,710 inhabitants). The territory was organized into a small Italian province, the province of Zara. According to the 1921 census, in the "comune" of Zara there were 12,075 Dalmatian Italians and 1,255 Croatians.


title: Zadar

text: Germany, Italy, and other Axis Powers, invaded the Kingdom of Yugoslavia on 6 April 1941. Zadar held a force of 9,000 and was one of the starting points of the invasion. The force reached Šibenik and Split on 15 April (2 days before surrender). Civilians were previously evacuated to Ancona . Occupying Mostar and Dubrovnik, on 17 April they met invading troops that had started out from Italian-occupied Albania. On 17 April the Yugoslav government surrendered, faced with the Wehrmacht's overwhelming superiority.


title: Zadar

text: Mussolini required the newly formed Nazi puppet-state, the so-called Independent State of Croatia (NDH) to hand over almost all of Dalmatia (including Split) to Italy under the Rome Treaties.


title: Zadar

text: The city became the center of a new Italian territorial entity, the Governorate of Dalmatia, including the enlarged province of Zara (now Zadar), the province of Cattaro (now Kotor), and the province of Spalato (Split).


title: Zadar

text: Under Italian rule, the Croats were subjected to a policy of forced assimilation. This created immense resentment among the Yugoslav people. The Yugoslav Partisan movement took root in Zadar, even though more than 70% of population of Zadar was Italian.


title: Zadar

text: After Mussolini was removed from power on 25 July 1943, Italy signed an armistice with the Allies, which was announced on 8 September 1943, and the Italian army collapsed. Then on 12 September 1943, Mussolini was rescued by the Germans, and formed the Nazi-puppet Italian Social Republic. German troops (114th Jäger Division) entered Zadar on 10 September and took over. This avoided a temporary liberation by Partisans, as was the case in Split and Šibenik. Zadar was placed under the control of the Italian Social Republic.


title: Zadar

text: The NDH proclaimed the Treaty of Rome to be void and occupied Dalmatia with German support. But the NDH was prevented from taking over Zadar on the grounds that Zadar itself was not subject to the conditions of the 1941 Treaty of Rome. Despite this, NDH leader Ante Pavelić designated Zadar as the capital of the Sidraga-Ravni Kotari County, although the county administrator could not enter the city.


title: Zadar

text: During World War II, Zadar was bombed by the Allies, from November 1943 to October 1944. Estimated fatalities range from under 1,000, up to as many as 4,000 of the city's 20,000 inhabitants. Over the course of the bombing, 80% of the city's buildings were destroyed. Zadar has been called the "Dresden of the Adriatic" because of perceived similarities to the Allied bombing of Dresden.


title: Zadar

text: In late October 1944 the German army and most of the Italian civilian administration abandoned the city, except the Vice Prefect Giacomo Vuxani. On 31 October 1944, the Partisans seized the city, until then a part of Mussolini's Italian Social Republic. At the start of World War II, Zadar had a population of 24,000; by the end of 1944, this had decreased to 6,000. Though controlled by the Partisans, Zadar remained under nominal Italian sovereignty until the Paris Peace Treaties that took effect on 15 September 1947. After the war Dalmatian Italians of Zadar left Yugoslavia towards Italy (Istrian-Dalmatian exodus).


title: Zadar

text: In 1947, Zadar became part of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and the Socialist Republic of Croatia. In the first decade after the war, the city's population increase was slow and still did not reach its pre-war numbers. The Italian exodus from the city continued and in a few years was almost total. It is estimated that around 10,000 Italians emigrated from Zadar. In October 1953, the last Italian schools in the area were closed. Today the Italian community counts only a few hundred people, gathered into a local community ("Comunità degli Italiani di Zara").


title: Zadar

text: The city recorded a large population increase in the late 1950s and the 1960s, mainly due to immigration as the government encouraged migration from rural areas to urban centers and their industrial development. Construction of the Adriatic Highway, railway and civil airport contributed to the development of tourism and the accessibility of Zadar. Population growth slowed down in the following decades. In the late 1980s, due to the economic crisis in Yugoslavia, Zadar's economy began stagnating.


title: Zadar

text: In 1990, Serb separatists from Dalmatian Hinterland sealed roads and effectively blocked Dalmatia from the rest of Croatia during the Log Revolution. In March 1991, the Croatian War of Independence broke out that affected Zadar and its surroundings. A number of non-Serbs were expelled from the area and several Croatian policemen were killed resulting in the 1991 anti-Serb riot in Zadar. Serbs at that time accounted for about 14% of the population.


title: Zadar

text: The Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) and forces of the SAO Krajina occupied parts of Zadar's hinterland, converged on the city and subjected it to artillery bombardment during the Battle of Zadar. Along with other Croatian towns in the area, Serb forces shelled Zadar sporadically, damaging buildings and homes as well as UNESCO protected sites. Serb forces also attacked a number of nearby towns and villages, the most brutal attack being the Škabrnja massacre in which Krajina Territorial Defense troops killed 62 Croatian civilians and five prisoners of war.


title: Zadar

text: Land connections with Zagreb were severed for over a year. The only link between the north and south of the country was via the island of Pag. The siege of the city lasted from 1991 until January 1993 when Zadar and the surrounding area came under the control of Croatian forces and the bridge link with the rest of Croatia was reestablished in Operation Maslenica. Attacks on the city continued until the end of the war in 1995.


title: Zadar

text: Some of the countryside along the No. 8 highway running north east is still sectioned off due to land mines.


title: Zadar

text: Zadar gained its urban structure in Roman times; during the time of Julius Caesar and Emperor Augustus, the town was fortified and the city walls with towers and gates were built. On the western side of the town were the forum, the basilica and the temple, while outside the town were the amphitheatre and cemeteries. The aqueduct which supplied the town with water is partially preserved. Inside the ancient town, a medieval town had developed with a series of churches and monasteries being built.


title: Zadar

text: During the Middle Ages, Zadar fully gained its urban aspect, which has been maintained until today. In the first half of the 16th century, Venice fortified the town with a new system of defensive walls on the side facing land. In the course of the century architectural building in the Renaissance style was continued and defensive trenches (Foša) were also built. They were completely buried during the Italian occupation until that in 1873, under Austrian rule, the ramparts of Zadar were converted from fortifications into elevated promenades commanding extensive seaward and landward views, thus being the wall lines preserved; of its four old gates one, the Porta Marina, incorporates the relics of a Roman arch, and another, the Porta di Terraferma, was designed in the 16th century by the Veronese artist Michele Sanmicheli. In the bombardments during the Second World War entire blocks were destroyed, but some structures survived.


title: Zadar

text: The first university of Zadar was mentioned in writing as early as in 1396 and it was a part of a Dominican monastery. It closed in 1807.


title: Zadar

text: Between the 15th and 17th centuries Zadar was an important Renaissance center, producing an array of Italian Dalmatia architects, sculptors, painters and scholars such as Giorgio da Sebenico, Laurana and Francesco Laurana, Giorgio Ventura, Andrea Meldolla and Giovanni Francesco Fortunio (who wrote the first Italian grammar book).


title: Zadar

text: Zadar was, along with Split and Dubrovnik, also one of the centres of the development of Croatian literature. The 15th and 16th centuries were marked by important activities of Croatians writing in the national language: Jerolim Vidolić, Petar Zoranić (who wrote the first Croatian novel, Planine), Brne Karnarutić, Juraj Baraković, Šime Budinić.


title: Zadar

text: Under French rule (1806–1810), the first Dalmatian newspaper "Il Regio Dalmata – Kraglski Dalmatin" was published in Zadar. It was printed in Italian and Croatian; this last used for the first time in a newspaper.


title: Zadar

text: In the second half of the 19th century, Zadar was a centre of the movement for the cultural and national revivals in Dalmatia (Italian and Croatian).


title: Zadar

text: The administrative area of the City of Zadar includes the nearby villages of Babindub, Crno, Kožino and Petrčane, as well as the islands of Ist, Iž, Molat, Olib, Premuda, Rava and Silba. The total city area, including the islands, covers 194 km2.


title: Zadar

text: Zadar is divided into 21 local districts: Arbanasi, Bili Brig, Bokanjac, Brodarica, Crvene Kuće, Diklo, Dračevac, Jazine I, Jazine II, Maslina, Novi Bokanjac, Poluotok, Ploča, Puntamika, Ričina, Sinjoretovo, Smiljevac, Stanovi, Vidikovac, Višnjik, Voštarnica.


title: Zadar

text: The current mayor of Zadar is Branko Dukić (HDZ). He was elected for a second term on local elections held on 21 May 2021. The City Council is composed of 27 representatives.


title: Zadar

text: Zadar is the fifth largest city in Croatia and the second largest in Dalmatia, with a population of 75,082 according to the 2011 census. The 2001 census showed Zadar with a population of 72,718, with 93% of its citizens being ethnic Croats.


title: Zadar

text: Major industries include tourism, traffic, seaborne trade, agriculture, fishing and fish farming activities; metal manufacturing and mechanical engineering industries; chemicals and non-metal industry; and banking. Some of the largest companies with headquarters in Zadar are:


title: Zadar

text: The farmland just northeast of Zadar, "Ravni Kotari", is a well known source of marasca cherries. Distilleries in Zadar have produced Maraschino since the 16th century.


title: Zadar

text: University of Zadar was founded by the Dominicans in 1396 as "Universitas Iadertina", a theological seminary. It was the first institute of higher learning in the country. In 1807 it ceased to become an independent institution and its functions were taken over by other local universities. In 1956 the University of Zagreb, the country's second oldest university, re-established it as its satellite Faculty of Arts campus. The Faculty later became a part of the University of Split, and in 2003, a full-fledged independent university. University comprises 25 departments with more than 6.000 students.


title: Zadar

text: In the 20th century, roads became more important than sea routes, but Zadar remained an important traffic point. The main road along the Adriatic passes through the city. In the immediate vicinity, there is the Zagreb-Dubrovnik highway, finished up to Split in 2005. Zadrans can access to the highway by two interchanges: Zadar 1 exit in the north and Zadar 2 highway hub near Zemunik in the south. The southern interchange is connected to Zadar port of Gaženica by the D424 expressway.


title: Zadar

text: Today, buses are the only kind of ground public transportation with which one can reach Zadar. Zadar's bus station is used by both inter-city buses (which provide Zadar's connection with the rest of the country) and buses operated by the company "Liburnija" which provide public transit to the city of Zadar and its suburbs.


title: Zadar

text: Since 1966, during the time of Yugoslavia, railway has linked Zadar with Knin, where it joins the mainline from Zagreb to Split.  However, all passenger trains between Knin and Zadar are since 2013 replaced with the buses that run in organisation of the national railway company Croatian Railways.


title: Zadar

text: Zadar also has an international ferry line to Ancona in Italy. Ships also connect Zadar with islands of its archipelago from two ferry ports: one located in the town center serving catamaran services and the other one located in the south suburb of Gaženica serving ferry and distant services.


title: Zadar

text: Zadar International Airport is located in Zemunik, around to the east of Zadar and accessible via the expressway. The airport is experiencing year on year an average of 30% increase in passenger traffic mainly due to arrivals of lowcost carriers (Ryanair, InterSky, JobAir, etc.) connecting Zadar from the end of March through October with over 20 cities throughout Europe.


title: Zadar

text: The basketball club is KK Zadar, the football club NK Zadar, and the local handball club RK Zadar. The bowling club Kuglački klub Zadar is also very successful. Zadar is also the hometown of Croatian handball player Ivan Ninčević and football players Luka Modrić, Dado Pršo, Šime Vrsaljko and Danijel Subašić.


title: Steve McManaman

text: Steven McManaman (born 11 February 1972) is an English former footballer who played as a winger for Liverpool, Real Madrid and Manchester City. McManaman is one of the most decorated English footballers to have played for a club abroad and is regarded as one of the best players of his generation, with the UEFA website stating in 2012 that "of all England's footballing exports in the modern era, none was as successful as McManaman". He is currently a co-commentator on ESPN and BT Sport's football coverage and a La Liga ambassador.


title: Steve McManaman

text: After nine years at Liverpool, during which time he won the FA Cup and League Cup, McManaman moved to Real Madrid in 1999. The transfer became one of the most high-profile Bosman rulings of all time. He became the first English player to win the UEFA Champions League with a non-English club in 2000, and two years later became the first English player to win the Champions League twice. He also won La Liga twice before moving to Manchester City in 2003. He retired from playing in 2005. Since his retirement, he has worked as a football pundit for Setanta Sports, ESPN and BT Sport.


title: Steve McManaman

text: McManaman was born in Bootle, Liverpool. He grew up as an Everton supporter, with his boyhood heroes in football being the Everton players Bob Latchford and Duncan McKenzie. But when Everton offered the player a one-year contract (after McManaman had made a name for himself at tournaments for school and around Merseyside), McManaman's father rejected it in favour of a schoolboy contract and two-year apprenticeship offer from Liverpool (through scout Jim Aspinall and then manager Kenny Dalglish). McManaman signed as a 16-year-old apprentice upon leaving school in 1988. As an apprentice, McManaman was under the mentoring of John Barnes—one of the players McManaman was groomed to potentially replace in the long run. A natural athlete and cross country champion at school level, McManaman developed through the youth scheme at Liverpool and signed as a full professional on 19 February 1990 in what was to be Kenny Dalglish's final full season as manager. He made his Liverpool debut under Dalglish as a substitute for Peter Beardsley in the Football League First Division on 15 December 1990, in a 2–0 league win over Sheffield United at Anfield, and made his full debut the following season (by which time Graeme Souness had become the new manager) in a 2–1 win over Oldham Athletic; a game in which "The Guardian" newspaper reported that he "ran his legs into the ground" all day and assisted his mentor Barnes in scoring the late winner by flicking on Mark Walters' cross. He scored his first ever professional goal with a diving header four days later on 21 August 1991 in the 2–1 defeat to Manchester City at Maine Road.


title: Steve McManaman

text: The 19-year-old McManaman quickly became a regular first team player in the 1991–92 season, making 51 appearances in total in only his first full season—opportunities in the first team coming as a result of then manager Souness' decision to sell several ageing players; as well as when John Barnes suffered a career threatening achilles tendon injury. McManaman was deployed as a left- or right-sided forward, backing the club's new signing Dean Saunders—a move Saunders reluctantly accepted at first, having realised that Souness "had [no choice but] to bring kids like McManaman into the team before they were properly ready." Saunders began to change his mind as the season progressed—following McManaman's ability to form an attacking partnership with him—with McManaman managing to create and score several goals across the league and in the side's run to the Quarter-Finals of the UEFA Cup, as well as in the FA Cup, eventually collecting a FA Cup winner's medal. In that 1992 FA Cup Final where Liverpool triumphed 2–0 against Sunderland, McManaman was also named the man of the match having set up the winner for Michael Thomas despite being the youngest player on the pitch. McManaman's performances saw him described by Ian Rush as the most promising young player at Liverpool at the time.


title: Steve McManaman

text: Although McManaman had a couple of quieter seasons with the advent of the Premier League, in which Liverpool initially struggled, he continued to develop a reputation as one of English football's two best emerging young wingers alongside Ryan Giggs of Manchester United. A BBC article described the pair as able to "embarrass defences with their mazy runs, which too often lack the finishing touch they deserve".


title: Steve McManaman

text: In the 1993–94 season, McManaman showed fine form with two goals against Swindon Town and some assists including a spectacular run and assist against Tottenham Hotspur. However, this form faltered following a drop in confidence after an incident with Bruce Grobbelaar towards the end of a Merseyside derby, when the players exchanged blows after Grobelaar lambasted McManaman for a poor clearance which led to a goal being conceded (an incident later named as one of the top five bust-ups between team-mates in Premier League history).


title: Steve McManaman

text: In 1994–95, McManaman signed a new million-pound contract, and was given a central, freer role by new manager Roy Evans, who wanted to utilise McManaman's natural running and dribbling ability to drift all over the park. It proved a successful decision as McManaman began mesmerising defences with runs that were later to become hallmarks of the Liverpool side of the 1990s. The 1994–95 season also proved to be a turning point for Liverpool after the lack of success during the previous two seasons. That season, he collected a League Cup winner's medal after scoring twice in his side's 2–1 win over Bolton Wanderers; such was his performance that fans named it "The McManaman Final". For his second Wembley final appearance in succession he was awarded man of the match, earning the Alan Hardaker Trophy and a tribute from guest of honour, celebrated veteran winger Sir Stanley Matthews, who had a personal word with McManaman before the final, saying: "I like the way you dribble," adding [to the press] after the final, "He reminds me of me when I was playing ... I wish there are more dribblers like him."


title: Steve McManaman

text: By the end of 1995–96, McManaman was top of the Premier League goal assists chart with 25 assists over the season (15 in the Premier League), including assists and top ratings in a match against Newcastle voted the best of the decade in the Premier League 10 Seasons Awards. By now, McManaman was ranked as one of the finest midfielders in England and had developed a strong reputation on the European stage following UEFA Euro 1996, earning praise from many at the time including Kevin Keegan, who said "there are few finer sights in world football than the sight of Steve McManaman running down the length of the pitch".


title: Steve McManaman

text: McManaman had also been noted for his versatility in his free role, switching from right to left wings, and his ability to play in central midfield, behind the front pair, or as a forward. McManaman was credited for making the free role that manager Evans gave him work, with the result being that Liverpool were playing some of the most aesthetically pleasing attacking football at the time in England. McManaman was also said to have been one of only a handful of so-called "talismanic" players along with Eric Cantona and Gianfranco Zola in the league at the time believed to have the charisma to lift supporters from their seats each time they got the ball.


title: Steve McManaman

text: From 1996 through 1998, McManaman consistently won several 'Man of the Match' awards, and Premier League managers were forced to deploy a man-marker specifically to follow him for an entire game. The then Middlesbrough manager, Bryan Robson, was quoted as saying that "everyone in the Premiership knows that if you stop McManaman, you stop Liverpool". According to interviews on an ITV documentary titled "The Alex Ferguson Story" (1998), Peter Schmeichel stated that Sir Alex Ferguson was also tactically fixated on stopping McManaman each time Manchester United played Liverpool, with Schmeichel adding Ferguson was so concerned about stopping McManaman dictating the play; it became "Groundhog Team Talk": "We've heard it every time we're playing Liverpool—McManaman's doing this ... We know that," said Schmeichel, while Ferguson himself told his players: "We lost the league (title in 1994–95) at Anfield by not listening to instructions about McManaman..." Schmeichel would later detail in his autobiography that: "McManaman was the only opposing player he (Ferguson) ever paid attention to in the Premier League. I mean, he would mention Alan Shearer and other major opposing players in team talks but never with any fear. However, McManaman always had him in a sweat."


title: Steve McManaman

text: Nonetheless, things started to turn sour for McManaman and some of his team-mates. As their fame increased, tabloid newspaper stories of lad culture excesses emerged and this, fused with underachievement on the pitch, brought criticism in the media. Defeat to Sir Alex Ferguson's Manchester United in three title races (from 1995-96 through 1996-97) including the 1996 FA Cup final- a game where the Liverpool team arrived to inspect the pitch wearing cream coloured Armani suits- intensified the criticism. McManaman and other team-mates were reported to have cashed in on their newfound fame as stars of the nascent Premier League, to live a high life involving groupies, clubbing and other "high jinks". Modelling contracts and deals with fashion labels like Top Man, Hugo Boss and Armani culminated in their collective nickname, the "Spice Boys".


title: Steve McManaman

text: The situation was further aggravated by stories of McManaman and best friend Robbie Fowler's lifestyles off the pitch following an interview with the magazine "Loaded", which depicted the duo as hedonists and 'scally' characters, as well as stories about McManaman and Fowler's lack of decorum and disruptive influence in the dressing room. McManaman responded by joining "The Times" to write a weekly column, becoming the first footballer of his generation to do so. McManaman's columns were known for articulating opinions on matters from a player's perspective, and in one particular column, discussed the issue of how the Bosman ruling impacted the future of the English game with "cut-price imports" that threatened local development, while also proposing the increasing of odds for smaller teams to beat big clubs by having the League Cup reduced to a single leg affair, thus enabling players to be better rested as well. By 1998, following the success of his well-regarded columns, he also began writing monthly pieces for "Esquire" magazine.


title: Steve McManaman

text: Notwithstanding, McManaman was mainly criticised for scoring too few goals, although he did make up for this with a formidable rate of assists for the likes of Fowler (with whom he was described as having an almost 'telepathic' understanding with) and, later, Michael Owen, with Owen saying that "Liverpool at the time was built around McManaman" and was an average team whenever McManaman was not on form. Additionally, McManaman's role as the playmaking lynchpin in the side meant that scoring statistics alone would not measure his contributions, because even in games where he would not get a goal or an assist, he would often have started the move or delivered the key pass or two in the lead up. The few goals that McManaman did score also tended to be spectacular or memorable—most notably an injury-time solo goal against Celtic in the UEFA Cup, when McManaman scored after a 75-yard dribble. Other outstanding goals during his Liverpool career included goals against Aston Villa, Newcastle United and scoring the winner in a match against (that season's eventual champions) Arsenal with a stunning volley, after which he won a PFA Player of the Month award in December 1997.


title: Steve McManaman

text: In August 1997, Liverpool, having been unable to agree a new contract with McManaman and fearing that the player might leave on a Bosman free transfer, finally accepted a £12 million bid for the player from Barcelona; Barcelona had previously tried (and failed) to sign McManaman twice before (after the 1996 FA Cup Final and after Euro 96). The deal subsequently fell apart amidst recriminations about the player's remuneration demands and Barcelona's motives for the bid, being in negotiation with Brazilian superstar Rivaldo at the same time and snubbing McManaman when he travelled to Spain to meet them. At its height, the transfer saga was dubbed by the International Herald Tribune (later acquired by the New York Times) as one that ushered in a "new low in transfer trading tactics"; adding that McManaman was a pawn being "used" as the big clubs battled. By the end of the saga, Barcelona had signed Rivaldo after Sir Bobby Robson changed his mind (he had earlier told LFC vice-chairman Peter Robinson that he wanted the player) and intervened and told Louis van Gaal that he decided McManaman was "a cosmetic player who would not score 18 goals a season for Barcelona", while McManaman himself, albeit expressing that he was surprised Liverpool were willing to sell him in the first place, stated that he had no desire to leave Liverpool and with two years left on his contract was simply not in any rush to sign a new one. A subsequent bid of £11 million from Juventus in November of the same year was rejected by both club and player.


title: Steve McManaman

text: In early 1998, Barcelona returned with yet another bid for McManaman, and former Deportivo La Coruna president Augusto César Lendoiro later added that Barcelona did not want to sign his former player Rivaldo and that they had (initially) wanted McManaman, and put it down to a "coincidence" that they pulled out and opted for Rivaldo instead, with it being notable that the fact Barcelona came back again in 1998 (after having already signed Rivaldo five months earlier) had stood as evidence of that point. Nonetheless, McManaman and Liverpool turned them down once and for all for the last time.


title: Steve McManaman

text: McManaman had been named Liverpool stand-in captain at the start of the 1997-98 season, but contract negotiations continued to flounder as the club could not match the sums available to McManaman if he left as a free agent at the end of the following campaign. Having been overlooked by Glenn Hoddle for the 1998 FIFA World Cup starting lineup, denounced in the English media as being greedy and bolstered by advice from the likes of fellow professionals Paul Ince, Paul Gascoigne, David Platt and Chris Waddle, McManaman publicly announced his desire to play abroad, explaining: "I have always said I would love the chance to play abroad and now that chance has come along. When you have a chance to join clubs who are involved in the Champions' League every season, you have to consider it...I'm sure everyone must see the logic in that."


title: Steve McManaman

text: Numerous European clubs circled the soon-to-be free agent, with Juventus again back in the fray amid huge media speculation, but Real Madrid soon emerged in November through December 1998 as his most likely destination. In January 1999, it was reported that McManaman was talking to Real with the player reportedly offered £60,000 a week and nearly £2 million as a signing-on fee. On 30 January, McManaman passed a medical and signed an official pre-contract with the club which would make him the best-paid British footballer to date. He declined to pose in a Real Madrid shirt at the contract signing event, out of respect for Liverpool's fans.