title: Westphalia

text: These different regional identities are often being emphasized by different majorities of denomination between Roman Catholics and Lutheran Protestants. The different majorities date back to the days of the territorial fragmentation of the Holy Roman Empire (of the German Nation) which existed until 1806. The Münsterland and the region around Paderborn for instance are still mainly Catholic regions because of the former existence of the prince-bishoprics of Münster and Paderborn. The mainly Reformed Lippe was even able to retain its independence as a small state within Germany in the form of a principality until 1918 and as a free state until 1946. This continues to influence the identity of its people who often distinguish themselves from neighbouring regions such as East Westphalia.


title: Westphalia

text: In addition to these historic, lingual and religious aspects, there are some regional differences in culture and mentality. That is why many of the citizens of North Rhine-Westphalia rather see themselves either as "Rhinelanders", "Westphalians" or "Lippers" rather than as "North Rhine-Westphalians".


title: Westphalia

text: Westphalia is known for the 1648 Peace of Westphalia which ended the Thirty Years' War, as the two treaties were signed in Münster and Osnabrück.


title: Westphalia

text: It is one of the regions that were part of all incarnations of the German state since the Early Middle Ages: the Holy Roman Empire, the Confederation of the Rhine, the German Confederation, the North German Confederation, the German Empire, the Weimar Republic and National Socialist Germany. After World War II it was a part of the British occupation zone which merged with the American zone to become the Bizone in 1947 and again merged with the French zone to become the Trizone in 1948. The current Federal Republic of Germany was founded on these territories making Westphalia a part of West Germany. It is a part of united Germany since 1990.


title: Westphalia

text: Around AD 1 there were numerous incursions through Westphalia and perhaps even some permanent Roman or Romanized settlements. The Battle of the Teutoburg Forest took place near Osnabrück, which at this time was a place of settlement of the Westphalians, who were a part of the Germanic tribe of the Saxons. Some of the tribes who fought at this battle came from the area of Westphalia.


title: Westphalia

text: Charlemagne is thought to have spent considerable time in Paderborn and nearby parts. His Saxon Wars also partly took place in what is thought of as Westphalia today. Popular legends link his adversary Widukind to places near Detmold, Bielefeld, Lemgo, Osnabrück and other places in Westphalia. Widukind was buried in Enger, which is also a subject of a legend.


title: Westphalia

text: Along with Eastphalia, Angria and Nordalbingia, Westphalia "(Westfalahi)" was originally a district of the Duchy of Saxony. At the time, large portions of its territory in the north lay in what today is Lower Saxony. Following the deposition of the Saxon duke Henry the Lion in 1180 and the subsequent belittlement of the duchy, Westphalia was elevated to a duchy in its own right by Emperor Barbarossa. The Duchy of Westphalia comprised only a small area south of the Lippe River.


title: Westphalia

text: Modern Westphalia was a part of the Lower Rhenish–Westphalian Circle of the Holy Roman Empire, which comprised territories of Lower Lorraine, Frisia and parts of the former Duchy of Saxony.


title: Westphalia

text: As a result of the Protestant Reformation, there was no dominant religion in Westphalia. Roman Catholicism and Lutheranism were on a relatively equal footing. Lutheranism was strong in the eastern and northern parts with numerous free churches. Münster and especially Paderborn were considered to be Catholic. Osnabrück was divided almost equally between Catholicism and Protestantism.


title: Westphalia

text: Parts of Westphalia came under Brandenburg-Prussian control during the 17th and 18th centuries, but most of it remained divided by duchies and other areas of feudal power. The Peace of Westphalia of 1648, signed in Münster and Osnabrück, ended the Thirty Years' War. The concept of nation-state sovereignty resulting from the treaty became known as "Westphalian sovereignty".


title: Westphalia

text: After the defeat of the Prussian Army by the French at the Battle of Jena–Auerstedt, the Treaty of Tilsit in 1807 made the easternmost portion of today's Westphalia part of the French client Kingdom of Westphalia until 1813, when the kingdom was dissolved by the Russians. While this state shared its name with the historical region, it only contained a relatively small part of Westphalia, rather consisting of mostly Hessian and Eastphalian regions.


title: Westphalia

text: Following to the Congress of Vienna, Prussia received a large amount of territories in the Westphalian region and created the Province of Westphalia in 1815. After in 1816, the former Duchy of Westphalia and the counties of Wittgenstein and in 1851 the condominium of Lippstadt had joined the province, Westphalia had received its modern territorial shape.


title: Westphalia

text: After World War II in 1946, the present state of North Rhine-Westphalia was created by the British military government from the former Prussian Province of Westphalia and the northern half of the former Prussian Rhine Province. The old governmental districts of 1816 stayed in place. When in 1947 the former Free State of Lippe with its capital Detmold joined North Rhine-Westphalia, the "Governmental District of Minden" was enlarged by this territory and renamed "Governmental District of Detmold". In total, North Rhine-Westphalia is subdivided into five governmental districts "(Regierungsbezirke)". Westphalia today consists of the old governmental districts of Arnsberg and Münster and of Detmold except of the District of Lippe which is a separate historical region and state part of North Rhine-Westphalia. Inhabitants of the region call themselves Westphalians and their home region Westphalia even though there is no administrative division by that name.


title: Westphalia

text: Westphalia is home to the headquarters of Westfalia-Werke, the contractor that built the Volkswagen Westfalia Campers.


title: Westphalia

text: "Candide:" The protagonist of Voltaire's novella of the same name, resides in Westphalia in the beginning of the story.


title: Mikveh

text: Mikveh or mikvah (,  "mikva'ot", "mikvoth", "mikvot", or (Yiddish) "mikves", lit., "a collection") is a bath used for the purpose of ritual immersion in Judaism to achieve ritual purity.


title: Mikveh

text: Most forms of ritual impurity can be purified through immersion in any natural collection of water. However, some impurities, such as a zav, require "living water", such as springs or groundwater wells. Living water has the further advantage of being able to purify even while flowing, as opposed to rainwater which must be stationary to purify. The "mikveh" is designed to simplify this requirement, by providing a bathing facility that remains in contact with a natural source of water.


title: Mikveh

text: In Orthodox Judaism, these regulations are steadfastly adhered to; consequently, the mikveh is central to an Orthodox Jewish community. Conservative Judaism also formally holds to the regulations. The existence of a mikveh is considered so important that a Jewish community is required to construct a mikveh even before building a synagogue, and must go to the extreme of selling Torah scrolls, or even a synagogue if necessary, to provide funding for its construction.


title: Mikveh

text: Formed from the Semitic root ק-ו-ה ("q-w-h", "collect"). In the Hebrew Bible, the word is employed in the sense of "collection", including in the phrase מקוה המים ("miqwêh hammayim", "collection of water") in Gen. 1:10, Ex. 7:19, and Lev. 11:36. Ben Sira is the earliest author to use מקוה as a word for "pool" (Ecclus 43:20, 48:17) and the Mishnah is the earliest text to use it in the sense of "ritual bath".


title: Mikveh

text: Before the beginning of the first century BC, neither written sources nor archaeology gives any indication about the existence of specific installations used for ritual cleansing. Mikvoth appear at the beginning of the first century BC, and from then on, ancient mikvoth can be found throughout the land of Israel, as well as in historic communities of the Jewish diaspora.


title: Mikveh

text: The traditional rules regarding the construction of a mikveh are based on those specified in classical rabbinical literature. According to these rules, a mikveh must be connected to a natural spring or well of naturally occurring water, and thus can be supplied by rivers and lakes which have natural springs as their source. A cistern filled by the rainwater is also permitted to act as a mikveh's water supply so long as the water is never collected in a vessel. Similarly snow, ice and hail are allowed to act as the supply of water to a mikveh no matter how they were transferred to the mikveh. A river that dries up upon occasion cannot be used because it is presumed to be rainwater and not spring water, which cannot purify while in a flowing state. Oceans and seas for the most part have the status of natural springs.


title: Mikveh

text: A mikveh must, according to the classical regulations, contain enough water to cover the entire body of an average-sized person; based on a mikveh with the dimensions of 3 cubits deep, 1 cubit wide, and 1 cubit long, the necessary volume of water was "estimated" as being 40 "seah" of water. The exact volume referred to by a "seah" is debated, and classical rabbinical literature specifies only that it is enough to fit 144 eggs; most Orthodox Jews use the stringent ruling of the Avrohom Yeshaya Karelitz, according to which one "seah" is 14.3 litres, and therefore a mikveh must contain approximately 575 litres. This volume of water can later be topped up with water from any source, but if there were less than 40 seahs of water in the mikveh, then the addition of 3 or more pints of water that was at any time intentionally collected in any vessel or transferred by a human, would render the mikveh unfit for use, regardless of whether water from a natural source was then added to make up 40 seahs from a natural source; a mikveh rendered unfit for use in this way would need to be completely drained away and refilled from scratch in the prescribed way.


title: Mikveh

text: Although not commonly accepted, at least one American Orthodox rabbi advocated a home mikvah using tap water. As water flows through only pipes that open at both ends, the municipal and in-home plumbing would be construed as a non-vessel. So long as the pipes, hoses, and fittings are all freestanding and not held in the hand, they could be used to fill a mikvah receptacle that met all other requirements.


title: Mikveh

text: There are also classical requirements for the manner in which the water can be stored and transported to the pool; the water must flow naturally to the mikveh from the source, which essentially means that it must be supplied by gravity or a natural pressure gradient, and the water cannot be pumped there by hand or carried. It was also forbidden for the water to pass through any vessel which could hold water within it or is capable of becoming impure (anything made of metal); however, pipes open to the air at both ends are fine so long as there is no significant curvature). As a result, tap water could not be used as the primary water source for a mikveh, although it can be used to top the water up to a suitable level. To avoid issues with these rules in large cities, various methods are employed to establish a valid mikveh. One is that tap water is made to flow into a kosher mikveh, and through a conduit into a larger pool. A second method is to create a mikveh in a deep pool, place a floor with holes over that and then fill the upper pool with tap water. In this way, it is considered as if the person dipping is actually "in" the pool of rain water.


title: Mikveh

text: Most contemporary mikvoth are indoor constructions involving rainwater collected from a cistern and passed through a duct by gravity into an ordinary bathing pool; the mikveh can be heated, taking into account certain rules, often resulting in an environment not unlike a spa.


title: Mikveh

text: A mikveh must be built into the ground or built as an essential part of a building. Portable receptacles, such as bathtubs, whirlpools or Jacuzzis, can therefore never function as mikvehs.


title: Mikveh

text: Traditionally, the mikveh was used by both men and women to regain ritual purity after various events, according to regulations laid down in the Torah and in classical rabbinical literature.


title: Mikveh

text: It also became customary for Kohanim to fully immerse themselves before Jewish holidays, and the laity of many communities subsequently adopted this practice.


title: Mikveh

text: Immersion for men is more common in Hasidic communities, and done rarely in others, like German Jewish communities, where it is generally done only before the High Holidays.


title: Mikveh

text: Some Jewish funeral homes have a mikveh for immersing a body during the purification procedure ("taharah") before burial.


title: Mikveh

text: Orthodox Judaism generally adheres to the classical regulations and traditions, and consequently Orthodox Jewish women are obligated to immerse in a mikveh between niddah and sexual relations with their husbands. This includes brides before their marriage, and married women after their menstruation period or childbirth. In accordance with Orthodox rules concerning modesty, men and women are required to immerse in separate mikveh facilities in separate locations, or to use the mikveh at different designated times.


title: Mikveh

text: Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan connects the laws of impurity to the narrative in the beginning of Genesis. According to Genesis, by eating of the fruit, Adam and Eve had brought death into the world. Kaplan points out that most of the laws of impurity relate to some form of death (or in the case of Niddah the loss of a potential life). One who comes into contact with one of the forms of death must then immerse in water which is described in Genesis as flowing out of the Garden of Eden (the source of life) in order to cleanse oneself of this contact with death (and by extension of sin).


title: Mikveh

text: Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook offered an additional message for mikveh: By immersing ourselves in water, "we are forced to recognize our existential estrangement from the physical universe. How long can we survive under water? The experience of submerging drives home the realization that our existence in this world is transient, and we should strive towards more lasting goals."


title: Mikveh

text: In a series of responsa on the subject of Niddah in December 2006, the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards of Conservative Judaism reaffirmed a requirement that Conservative women use a mikveh monthly following the end of the niddah period following menstruation, while adopting certain leniencies including reducing the length of the nidda period. The three responsa adopted permit a range of approaches from an opinion reaffirming the traditional ritual to an opinion declaring the concept of ritual purity does not apply outside the Temple in Jerusalem, proposing a new theological basis for the ritual, adapting new terminology including renaming the observances related to menstruation from "taharat hamishpacha" family purity to "kedushat hamishpaha" [family holiness] to reflect the view that the concept of ritual purity is no longer considered applicable, and adopting certain leniencies including reducing the length of the niddah period.


title: Mikveh

text: Isaac Klein's "A Guide to Jewish Religious Practice", a comprehensive guide frequently used within Conservative Judaism, also addresses Conservative views on other uses of a mikveh, but because it predates the 2006 opinions, it describes an approach more closely resembling the Orthodox one, and does not address the leniencies and views those opinions reflected. Rabbi Miriam Berkowitz's recent book "Taking the Plunge: A Practical and Spiritual Guide to the Mikveh" (Jerusalem: Schechter Institute, 2007) offers a comprehensive discussion of contemporary issues and new mikveh uses along with traditional reasons for observance, details of how to prepare and what to expect, and how the laws developed. Conservative Judaism encourages, but does not require, immersion before Jewish Holidays (including Yom Kippur), nor the immersion of utensils purchased from non-Jews. New uses are being developed throughout the liberal world for healing (after rape, incest, divorce, etc.) or celebration (milestone birthdays, anniversaries, ordination, or reading Torah for the first time).


title: Mikveh

text: As in Orthodox Judaism, converts to Judaism through the Conservative movement are required to immerse themselves in a mikveh. Two Jews must witness the event, at least one of which must actually see the immersion. Immersion into a mikveh has been described as a very emotional, life-changing experience similar to a graduation.


title: Mikveh

text: Reform and Reconstructionist Judaism do not hold the halachic requirements of mikveh the way Orthodox Judaism does. However, there are growing trends toward using mikveh for conversions, wedding preparation, and even before holidays. In the 21st century the mikveh is experiencing a revival among progressive Jews who view immersion as a way to mark transitions in their lives. "Open" mikvoth welcome Jews to consider immersion for reasons not necessarily required by Jewish law; they might immerse following a divorce or medical treatment, to find closure after an abortion, or to celebrate a life transition, among other reasons. Progressive Jews may also use the mikveh for conversion.


title: Mikveh

text: In some Jewish communities it is customary that at some point during the ninth month of pregnancy one should dip in a mikveh.


title: Mikveh

text: There is supposed to be no barrier between the person immersing and the water. The person should be wearing no clothes, jewelry, makeup, nail polish, fake nails, or grooming products on the hair or skin. For more observant Jewish women, an attendant will ensure these requirements are met. Showering or bathing and carefully checking the whole body is, therefore, part of the religious requirements before entering the water of a Mikveh for a woman.


title: Mikveh

text: According to rabbinical tradition, the hair counts as part of the body, and therefore water is required to touch all parts of it, meaning that braids cannot be worn during immersion. This has resulted in debate between the various ethnic groups within Judaism, about whether hair combing is necessary before immersion. The Ashkenazi community generally supports the view that hair must be combed straight so that there are no knots, but some take issue with this stance, particularly when it comes to dreadlocks. A number of rabbinical rulings argue in support of dreadlocks, on the basis that


title: Mikveh

text: The word "mikveh" makes use of the same root letters in Hebrew as the word for "hope" and this has served as the basis for homiletical comparison of the two concepts in both biblical and rabbinic literature. For instance, in the Book of Jeremiah, the word "mikveh" is used in the sense of "hope", but at the same time also associated with "living water":


title: Mikveh

text: In the Mishnah, following on from a discussion about Yom Kippur, immersion in a Mikveh is compared by Rabbi Akiva with the relationship between God and Israel. Akiva refers to the description of God in the Book of Jeremiah as the "Mikveh of Israel", and suggests that "just as a mikveh purifies the contaminated, so does the Holy One, blessed is he, purify Israel".


title: Mikveh

text: A different allegory is used by many Jews adhering to a belief in resurrection as one of the Thirteen Principles of Faith. Since "living water" in a lifeless frozen state (as ice) is still likely to again become living water (after melting), it became customary in traditional Jewish bereavement rituals to read the seventh chapter of the Mikvaot tractate in the Mishnah, following a funeral; the Mikvaot tractate covers the laws of the mikveh, and the seventh chapter starts with a discussion of substances which can be used as valid water sources for a mikveh – snow, hail, frost, ice, salt, and pourable mud.


title: Mikveh

text: The Reform Movement’s Israel Religious Action Center sued the state on behalf of the Reform and Conservative/Masorti movements to allow members to use publicly funded mikvoth. The case, which took ten years to resolve, resulted in the Israeli Supreme Court ruling that public ritual baths must accept all prospective converts to Judaism, including converts to Reform and Conservative Judaism. In his 2016 ruling, Supreme Court Justice Elyakim Rubinstein said barring certain converts amounts to discrimination. Until this ruling, Orthodox officials barred non-Orthodox converts from using any mikveh, claiming their traditions do not conform to Jewish law, and the people they convert are therefore not Jews. Rubinstein noted: "Once it established public mikvahs, and put them at the service of the public — including for the process of conversion — the State cannot but be even-handed in allowing their use." He also said. "The State of Israel is free to supervise the use of its mikvahs, so long as it does so in an egalitarian manner."


title: Mikveh

text: In 2013, the Israeli Center for Women's Justice and Kolech, an organization committed to Orthodox Jewish feminism, petitioned the Supreme Court to forbid attendants from asking intrusive questions of women at state-funded and -operated mikvot. In response, the Chief Rabbinate said it would forbid questioning of women about their marital status before immersion. The complaint had charged that the practice represented unacceptable discrimination.


title: Mikveh

text: In 2015, however, the ITIM Advocacy Center filed a complaint with the Israeli Supreme Court on behalf of 13 Orthodox women against the Chief Rabbinate and the Jerusalem Religious Council, insisting that women be allowed to use the mikvah "according to their personal customs and without supervision, or with their own attendant if they wish". The complaint charged that the Chief Rabbinate is ignoring directives passed in 2013 that allow women to use the mikvah facilities without being asked intrusive questions by attendants. In June 2016, the Chief Rabbinate agreed to allow women to use a mikveh without an attendant.


title: Mikveh

text: Some transgender people have adopted the practice of mikveh immersion to mark a gender transition. However, many Orthodox authorities who control mikvaot only permit immersions that adhere with Jewish law. Therefore, other Jewish organizations strive to create mikvaot that allow for different uses, such as marking any important life transitions. Mayyim Hayyim, an organization in Newton, Massachusetts, collaborated with Keshet, one of Boston's LGBT Jewish organizations, to actively create a mikveh space that felt accessible to transgender people, including training mikveh guides on gender issues.


title: Mikveh

text: There is some controversy within the Jewish transgender community about the use of mikvah to mark gender transitions. Some feel uncomfortable in a space that is traditionally so highly gendered and that requires complete nudity. Others still see mikveh as a place for married women to go after their periods, and therefore a transgender female would be exempt from these requirements as she does not menstruate.


title: Nicholas Ralph

text: Nicholas Ralph is a Scottish actor. He plays James Herriot in the Channel 5 and PBS "Masterpiece" television series "All Creatures Great and Small", a remake of the long-running BBC series.


title: Nicholas Ralph

text: Ralph was born in Cape Town and grew up in the Scottish Highlands. He had family in Georgia and Texas, and traveled to the U.S. a couple of times in childhood. As a young man, Ralph played association football, for Ross County from primary school until age 15, then for Nairn County under-19s.


title: Nicholas Ralph

text: The actor studied drama at Inverness College and then, at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. The audition for "All Creatures Great and Small" came two years after graduation. He had previous roles on stage which included plays with the Royal Conservatoire, the Citizens Theatre and National Theatre of Scotland. He also appeared on the BBC Radio Scotland production "Kidnapped".


title: Nicholas Ralph

text: After graduating in 2017, he initially worked in live theatre with the Citizens Theatre for just under a year. His first lead role was with National Theatre of Scotland in a play called "Interference." Before starting to film "All Creatures Great and Small", Ralph did a tour with a Citizens Theatre/Wonder Fools production: "549: Scots of the Spanish Civil War".


title: Nicholas Ralph

text: For his role as veterinary surgeon James Herriot in "All Creatures Great and Small", the actor required training in vet procedures for accuracy in the show. "Straight off the bat with our on-set vet adviser Andy Barrett, we were up close and personal with horses, sheep, kind of going through the procedures and things that we would be doing. Learning how to approach the animal and everything like that. Using the stethoscope on the cow's heart, then lungs, then stomach..." the actor later recalled.


title: Nicholas Ralph

text: Previously, Ralph had limited exposure to livestock: "I grew up in a small town in the Highlands of Scotland, and where we lived, there was our back garden, a fence, and then a field that was always full of cows and sheep... "


title: Nicholas Ralph

text: Much of the programme was filmed on location in all kinds of weather. The actor recalled, that "we were in Yorkshire during winter and autumn, and it was freezing, with long, cold, dark days and rainy days, sometimes, so if you had people that were downers, it could really bring everyone down. But we were very fortunate—we had a great group that really pushed each other on and kept each other's spirits high."


title: Nicholas Ralph

text: Although the author of the Herriot books, Alf Wight, had a "soft, lilting Scottish accent," according to Christopher Timothy who played Herriot in "All Creatures Great and Small" (1978), the actor was instructed to keep his speech "neutral" for universality when the BBC series was being filmed. That did not apply to Nicholas Ralph when filming the 2020 series for Channel 5; the actor used his genuine Scottish accent.


title: Taejo of Joseon

text: Taejo of Joseon (4 November 1335 – 27 June 1408), born Yi Seong-gye (), was the founder and first ruler of the Joseon dynasty of Korea. After ascending to the throne, he changed his name to Yi Dan (), and reigned from 1392 to 1398. He was the main figure in the overthrowing of the Goryeo dynasty. Taejo abdicated in 1398 during a strife between his sons and died in 1408.


title: Taejo of Joseon

text: When Taejo became king, he emphasized continuity over change. No new institutions and no massive purges occurred during his reign. The dynasty that he established was mostly dominated by the same ruling families and officials that had served the previous regime. He re-established amicable relations with Japan and improved relations with Ming China.


title: Taejo of Joseon

text: Taejo's father was Yi Ja-chun, an official of Korean ethnicity serving the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. Taejo's mother, Lady Choe, was of Chinese origin from a prominent family originally from Deungju (Anbyeon County) in present-day North Korea. Her father was a Korean chiliarch under the Yuan dynasty who commanded a "mingghan". She later moved to Hamgyeong, in Goryeo.


title: Taejo of Joseon

text: By the late 14th century, the 400-year-old Goryeo dynasty established by Wang Geon in 918 was tottering, its foundations collapsing from years of war and "de facto" occupation by the disintegrating Mongol Empire. The legitimacy of Korea itself was also becoming an increasingly disputed issue within the court, as the ruling house failed not only to govern the kingdom effectively, but was also affected by generations of forced intermarriage with members of the Yuan imperial family and by rivalry amongst various branches of the royal family, with King U's mother being a known commoner, thus leading to rumors disputing his descent from King Gongmin.


title: Taejo of Joseon

text: Within the kingdom, influential aristocrats, generals, and ministers struggled for royal favor and vied for domination of the court, resulting in deep divisions among various factions. With the ever-increasing number of raids against Goryeo conducted by Japanese pirates ("waegu") and the Red Turbans, those who came to dominate the royal court were the reformed-minded Sinjin aristocracy and the opposing Gweonmun aristocracy, as well as generals who could actually fight off the foreign threats—namely a talented general named Yi Seong-gye and his rival Choe Yeong. With the rise of the Ming dynasty under a former monk, Zhu Yuanzhang (the Hongwu Emperor), Yuan forces became more vulnerable. By the 1350s, Goryeo regained its full independence from the Yuan dynasty, although Yuan remnants effectively occupied northeastern territories with large garrisons of troops.


title: Taejo of Joseon

text: Yi Seong-gye started his career as a warrior in 1360 and would eventually rise up the ranks of the Goryeo army. In October 1361, he killed Park Ui, who rebelled against the government. In the same year, when the Red Turbans had invaded and captured Gaegyeong, he helped the recapture of the capital with 3,000 men. In 1362, when General Naghachu invaded Goryeo, Yi Seong-gye was appointed as a commander and defeated him.


title: Taejo of Joseon

text: General Yi had gained power and respect during the late 1370s and early 1380s by pushing Mongol remnants off the peninsula and also by repelling well-organized Japanese pirates in a series of successful engagements. He was also credited with routing the Red Turbans when they made their move into the Korean Peninsula as part of their rebellion against the Yuan dynasty. Following in the wake of the rise of the Ming dynasty under Zhu Yuanzhang, the royal court in Goryeo split into two competing factions: the group led by General Yi (supporting the Ming dynasty) and the camp led by his rival General Choe (supporting the Yuan dynasty).


title: Taejo of Joseon

text: When a Ming messenger came to Goryeo in 1388 (the 14th year of King U) to demand the return of a significant portion of Goryeo's northern territory, General Choe seized the opportunity and played upon the prevailing anti-Ming atmosphere to argue for the invasion of the Liaodong Peninsula (Goryeo claimed to be the successor of the ancient kingdom of Goguryeo; as such, restoring Manchuria as part of Korean territory was a tenet of its foreign policy throughout its history).


title: Taejo of Joseon

text: A staunchly opposed Yi Seong-gye was chosen to lead the invasion; however, at Wihwa Island on the Amrok River, he made a momentous decision, commonly called "Turning back the army from Wihwa Island", that would alter the course of Korean history. Knowing of the support he enjoyed both from high-ranking government officials, the general populace, and the great deterrent of Ming Empire under the Hongwu Emperor, he decided to revolt and swept back to the capital, Gaegyeong, to secure control of the government.


title: Taejo of Joseon

text: General Yi swept his army from the Amrok River straight into the capital, defeated forces loyal to the king (led by General Choe, whom he proceeded to eliminate), and forcibly dethroned King U in a "de facto" coup d'état, but did not ascend to the throne right away. Instead, he placed on the throne King U's eight-years-old son, King Chang, and following a failed restoration of the former monarch, had both of them put to death. Yi Seong-gye, now the undisputed power behind the throne, soon forcibly had a royal named Wang Yo crowned as the new ruler (King Gongyang; 공양왕, 恭讓王). After indirectly enforcing his grasp on the royal court through the puppet king, he then proceeded to ally himself with Sinjin aristocrats, such as Jeong Do-jeon and Jo Jun.


title: Taejo of Joseon

text: One of the most widely repeated episodes that occurred during this period was in 1392, when Taejo's fifth son, Yi Bang-won (later King Taejong), threw a party for the renowned scholar, poet and statesman Jeong Mong-ju, who refused to be won over by Yi Seong-gye despite their numerous correspondences in the form of archaic poems, and continued to be a faithful supporter of the old dynasty, and a leading figure in the opposition to General Yi's claim to the throne. Jeong Mong-ju was revered throughout Goryeo, even by Yi Bang-won himself, but he was seen to be an obstacle and as such, in the eyes of supporters of the new dynasty, had to be removed. After the party, on his way home, he was murdered by five men on the Seonjuk Bridge (선죽교, 善竹橋) in Gaegyeong. This bridge has now become a national monument of North Korea, and a brown spot on one of the stones is said to be a bloodstain of his which turns red when it rains.


title: Taejo of Joseon

text: In 1392 (the 4th year of King Gongyang's reign), Yi Seong-gye forced Gongyang to abdicate, exiled him to Wonju (where he and his family were secretly executed), and crowned himself as king, thus ending Goryeo's 475 years of rule. In 1393, he changed his dynasty's name to Joseon.


title: Taejo of Joseon

text: An early achievement of the new monarch was improved relations with Ming China; this had its origin in General Yi's refusal to attack their neighbour in response to raids from Chinese bandits. Shortly after his accession, the king sent envoys to inform the Ming court at Nanjing that a dynastic change had taken place. Korean envoys were dispatched to Japan, seeking the re-establishment of amicable relations. The mission was successful, and "Shōgun" Ashikaga Yoshimitsu was reported to have been favorably impressed by this initial embassy. Envoys from the Ryūkyū Kingdom were received in 1392, 1394 and 1397. Siam sent an envoy in 1393.


title: Taejo of Joseon

text: When the new dynasty was promulgated and officially brought into existence, Taejo brought up the issue of which son would be his successor. Although his fifth son by Queen Sinui, Yi Bang-won, had contributed most to assisting his father's rise to power, he harbored a profound hatred against two of his father's key allies in the court, the Chief State Councillor Jeong Do-jeon and Nam Eun.


title: Taejo of Joseon

text: Both sides were fully aware of the mutual animosity and constantly felt threatened. When it became clear that Yi Bang-won was the most worthy successor to the throne, Jeong Do-jeon used his influence on the king to convince him that the wisest choice would be in the son that Taejo loved most, not the son that Taejo felt was best for the kingdom.


title: Taejo of Joseon

text: In 1392, the eighth son of King Taejo (the second son of Queen Sindeok), Yi Bang-seok was appointed as Crown Prince. After the sudden death of the queen, and while King Taejo was still in mourning for his second wife, Jeong Do-jeon conspired to pre-emptively kill Yi Bang-won and his brothers to secure his position in court.


title: Taejo of Joseon

text: In 1398, upon hearing of this plan, Yi Bang-won immediately revolted and raided the palace, killing Jeong Do-jeon, his followers, and the two sons of the late Queen Sindeok. This incident became known as the "First Strife of Princes". Aghast at the fact that his sons were willing to kill each other for the crown, and psychologically exhausted from the death of his second wife, King Taejo immediately crowned his second son Yi Bang-gwa (posthumously called King Jeongjong), as the new ruler. Thereafter, Taejo retired to the Hamhung Royal Villa and maintained distance with his fifth son for the rest of his life. Allegedly, Yi Bang-won sent emissaries numerous times, and each time Taejo killed them to express his firm decision not to meet his son again. This historical anecdote gave birth to the term "Hamhung Chasa", which means a person who never comes back despite several nudges. But recent studies have found that Taejo in fact did not kill any of those Hamhung emissaries. Those subjects were killed during revolts, which coincidentally occurred in the Hamhung region.


title: Taejo of Joseon

text: In 1400, King Jeongjong pronounced his brother Yi Bang-won as heir presumptive and voluntarily abdicated. That same year, Yi Bang-won assumed the throne of Joseon at long last as King Taejong.


title: Taejo of Joseon

text: Ten years after his abdication, King Taejo died on June 27, 1408, in Changdeok Palace. He was buried at "Geonwonneung" (건원릉), Dongguneung Cluster, in the city of Guri, Gyeonggi Province, South Korea.


title: Taejo of Joseon

text: The tomb of his umbilical cord is in Geumsan County, South Chungcheong Province, also in South Korea.


title: Taejo of Joseon

text: One of the many issues demonstrating the early strained relationship between Joseon and Ming was the debate of Taejo's genealogy, which began as early as 1394 and became a sort of diplomatic friction that lasted over 200 years. The Collected Regulations of the Great Ming () erroneously recorded "Yi Dan" (이단; Taejo's personal name) as the son of Yi In-im (이인임), and that "Yi Dan" killed the last four kings of Goryeo, thereby establishing Ming's opinion of Taejo as an usurper first and foremost, from the time of the Hongwu Emperor when he repeatedly refused to acknowledge him as the new sovereign of the Korean Peninsula. The first mention of this error was in 1518 (about 9 years after the publication), and those who saw the publication made petitions towards Ming demanding for redress, among others Left "Chanseong" Yi Gye-maeng (좌찬성 이계맹) and then-Minister of Rites Nam Gon (예조판서 남곤), who wrote "Jonggye Byeonmu" (종계변무, 宗系辨誣). It took until 1584 (after many Ming envoys had seen the petitions), through Chief Scholar Hwang Jeong-uk (대제학 황정욱), that the issue was finally addressed. The Wanli Emperor commissioned a second edition in 1576 (covering the years between 1479 and 1584). About a year after its completion, Yu Hong (유홍) saw the revision, and returned to Joseon with the good news.


title: Taejo of Joseon

text: Despite the fact that he overthrew the Goryeo dynasty, and purged officials who remained loyal to the old regime, many regard him as a revolutionary and a decisive ruler who deposed the inept, obsolete and crippled governing system to save the nation from many foreign forces and conflicts.


title: Taejo of Joseon

text: Safeguarding domestic security led the Koreans to rebuild and further discover their culture. In the midst of the rival Yuan and Ming dynasties, Joseon encouraged the development of national identity which was once threatened by the Mongols. However, some scholars, particularly in North Korea, view Taejo as a mere traitor to the old regime and bourgeois apostate, while paralleling him to General Choe Yeong, a military elite who conservatively served the old regime of Goryeo to death.


title: BuzzFeed Unsolved

text: BuzzFeed Unsolved (also known as simply Unsolved) was a documentary entertainment web series created by Ryan Bergara for BuzzFeed that ran from February 4, 2016, to November 19, 2021. It first appeared on the YouTube channel "BuzzFeed Blue" and was later given its own flagship channel "BuzzFeed Unsolved Network".


title: BuzzFeed Unsolved

text: The show was split into two alternating themes, with each season seeing Bergara and co-host Shane Madej discussing either unsolved crimes in "BuzzFeed Unsolved True Crime" or investigating alleged haunted locations and demonic possessions in "BuzzFeed Unsolved Supernatural". While the topics of discussion were often morbid, most episodes were presented in a comedic manner, cutting between Bergara's voiceover of the episode's topic and comedic discussion with Madej. The show was filmed primarily in the United States, with some episodes filmed in separate locations in the UK and Mexico. Most episodes were followed by a question and answer episode, entitled "BuzzFeed Unsolved Postmortem", where Bergara and Madej answered questions sent in by viewers about the week's episode.


title: BuzzFeed Unsolved

text: The show became one of BuzzFeed's most watched shows, which led the series to start streaming on Hulu and Amazon Prime in 2018. Prior to the premiere of season 8, BuzzFeed renewed the show for a 9th season, which appeared in late 2018. In 2019, the 10th season premiered in March and the 11th season premiered in September. In late 2019, Bergara and Madej started their own digital production company, Watcher Entertainment, with "Worth It's" Steven Lim; however, the two continued "BuzzFeed Unsolved" with a 12th season in March 2020.


title: BuzzFeed Unsolved

text: "BuzzFeed Unsolved True Crime" concluded with its 8th and final season in July 2021, and the 7th and final season of "BuzzFeed Unsolved Supernatural" started in October 2021 and wrapped in November. There are a total of fifteen seasons. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, "Supernatural" skipped 2020 and has one less season than "True Crime" because production was unable to secure haunted locations to visit under quarantine. The final episode was followed up by a behind-the-scenes documentary "BuzzFeed Unsolved: The Making of the Final Investigation" on 24 November 2021.


title: BuzzFeed Unsolved

text: The spiritual successor to "BuzzFeed Unsolved" is "Ghost Files", a documentary entertainment web series by Watcher Entertainment that was first released on September 23, 2022.


title: BuzzFeed Unsolved

text: "BuzzFeed Unsolved True Crime" and "Supernatural" were originally co-hosted by Bergara and Brent Bennett until Madej took over from Bennett in late 2016 due to Bennett no longer having enough time to devote to the show's production.


title: BuzzFeed Unsolved

text: The show has a dynamic between its co-hosts, with Madej acting as a skeptic against Bergara's theories and belief in ghosts. The contrast between Bergara's belief in conspiracies and the paranormal versus Madej's skepticism provides the majority of the comedic dialogue; however, despite Bergara's strong belief in otherworldly spirits, he shows reluctance towards belief in cryptids such as Bigfoot and aliens, in contrast to Madej, who conversely believes such creatures to be somewhat more realistic or grounded in reality.


title: BuzzFeed Unsolved

text: "Nightshade" by David O'Brien, which typically plays during the theories section, is considered the series' unofficial theme song.


title: BuzzFeed Unsolved

text: The episodes were normally filmed with the two hosts at a desk, with Bergara presenting Madej and the audience with either a "True Crime" or "Supernatural" case depending on the season, aided with the use of stock photos, live action recreations with guest actors, and other visuals. In some episodes, the hosts and other crew members traveled around to investigate a location(s), although this method was primarily used for the "Supernatural" episodes; the show's "True Crime" seasons were typically filmed all within the "Unsolved" set. Due to the show's growth in popularity, Bergara would work with a number of individuals to propose cases if the show was capable of covering them, while Madej would be kept out of the process to give a more fresh perspective.


title: BuzzFeed Unsolved

text: In the show's "True Crime" seasons, Bergara focuses on unsolved crimes, particularly well-known cold cases from many years ago. In most episodes, Bergara reads out the story of the case, including evidence the police working on the case used, before presenting a handful of possible suspects and theories, from both the official police reports and the ideas of others, coupled with evidence that can both prove and disprove their involvement. During these cases, Madej will cut in to provide his input, comedic observations, responses, and theories to Bergara, ending the episode with both hosts discussing which theory appears most likely based on the suspects involved.


title: BuzzFeed Unsolved

text: In the show's "Supernatural" seasons, Madej and Bergara discuss alleged paranormal entities, hauntings and demons, often seeking evidence of their existence. Most "Supernatural" seasons include one alien and one demon-themed episode per season. Some episodes, such as the Roanoke colony and Anneliese Michel episodes, are presented at a desk in a format similar to that of "True Crime". However, most involve some sort of in-person investigation.


title: BuzzFeed Unsolved

text: Throughout their investigations of hauntings, both Madej and Bergara use a variety of instruments and equipment to attempt to collect evidence, including video and audio devices. Other "BuzzFeed Unsolved: Supernatural" episodes investigate supernatural entities and phenomena such as Mothman, Bigfoot and the existence of aliens. The two aim to create an "everyman approach" in discussing the topics, with the use of humor in an effort to balance the tone between dark and goofy.


title: BuzzFeed Unsolved

text: In "BuzzFeed Unsolved: Supernatural" Season 4, "Ancient Aliens" contributor Giorgio Tsoukalos was featured in the discussion about a potential UFO sighting. A recurring guest on the show in early seasons was the "Vatican approved exorcist" Father Gary Thomas, who discusses his belief in demons and the supernatural. During Postmortem episodes, guest co-hosts would occasionally brought in. In "BuzzFeed Unsolved: Supernatural" Season 6, YouTuber Loey Lane was featured in the discussion of the strange incidences that had led her to believe her house was being haunted by ghosts.


title: BuzzFeed Unsolved

text: The "Hot Daga" – a portmanteau of "hot dog" and "saga" – is a recurring absurdist animated segment at the end of some Postmortem episodes that is created, written, and narrated by Madej, and focuses on a cast of anthropomorphized food. The series originated when Madej asked Bergara to animate a skateboarding hot dog graphic at the end of the Postmortem episode "The Boy in the Box - Q+A" in August 2017.


title: BuzzFeed Unsolved

text: Since Season 5 of True Crime, the end of some Postmortem episodes have included a "Roast Mortem" section where Bergara and Madej review social media posts roasting the content of the corresponding main series episode, or themselves. The segment later changed to "Toast Mortem" to spread positivity during the COVID-19 pandemic. This segment has replaced the Hot Daga, with the last installment of the Hot Daga having appeared in September 2018.


title: Steve Forrest (actor)

text: Steve Forrest (born William Forrest Andrews; September 29, 1925 – May 18, 2013) was an American actor who was well known for his role as Lt. Hondo Harrelson in the hit television series "S.W.A.T." which was broadcast on ABC from 1975 to 1976. He was also known for his performance in "Mommie Dearest" (1981).


title: Steve Forrest (actor)

text: Forrest was born William Forrest Andrews in Huntsville, Texas, the 12th of 13 children of Annis (née Speed) and Charles Forrest Andrews, a Baptist minister. One of his older brothers was film star Dana Andrews.


title: Steve Forrest (actor)

text: Forrest enlisted in the United States Army at the age of 18 and fought in the Battle of the Bulge during World War II. In 1950, he earned a bachelor's degree with honors from UCLA, majoring in theater with a minor in psychology.


title: Steve Forrest (actor)

text: Forrest worked as a stagehand at the La Jolla Playhouse outside San Diego. There Gregory Peck discovered him, cast him in La Jolla's production of "Goodbye Again", and then arranged for Forrest's first screen test with MGM, where he was signed to a contract.


title: Steve Forrest (actor)

text: Among Forrest's notable films were "So Big", for which he won the Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year – Actor, "The Longest Day", "North Dallas Forty", and "Mommie Dearest". He had cameo roles in the comedies "Spies Like Us" and "Amazon Women on the Moon", and the 2003 film version of "S.W.A.T."


title: Steve Forrest (actor)

text: Forrest was also a trained vocalist, and he made his debut on Broadway as boxer Bob Stanton in the 1958 production of the Harnick and Bock musical "The Body Beautiful" opposite Mindy Carson, Jack Warden and Brock Peters.


title: Steve Forrest (actor)

text: Forrest played later U.S. Senator William Borah in the 1963 episode "The Lion of Idaho" of the syndicated television anthology series "Death Valley Days". In the storyline, Borah as a young attorney defends a woman in Nampa, Idaho, on a murder charge.


title: Steve Forrest (actor)

text: In 1965, Forrest and his family moved to London, where he starred as John Mannering in the title role of the British crime drama "The Baron". His other television credits included "The DuPont Show with June Allyson", "Storefront Lawyers", "S.W.A.T.", "Hollywood Wives", and Rod Serling's hour-long "Twilight Zone" episode "The Parallel", as well as Serling's "Night Gallery" segment "The Waiting Room".


title: Steve Forrest (actor)

text: On a 1969 episode of "Gunsmoke" titled "Mannon", he portrayed Will Mannon (one of the very few men ever to outdraw Matt Dillon), then reprised the character 18 years later for the 1987 television film "" with James Arness.


title: Steve Forrest (actor)

text: Jock Ewing, the character played by Jim Davis in the television series "Dallas" from 1978 to 1981, was presumed to have been killed in a helicopter crash during the 1981–82 season, although Jock's body was never found. This storyline was written into the series script on account of Davis' real-life death. In 1986 Lorimar Television, now renamed Lorimar Tele-Pictures, extended Forrest's contract from the 1985–1986 season of "Dallas" (the "Dream Season"), during which he had played the character Ben Stivers. They brought him back as a similar character renamed Wes Parmalee, who would be revealed to actually be Jock Ewing, in the 1986-87 season. While the season was still in production, the news leaked that Forrest would be playing the new Jock Ewing. Fans of the show believed the new storyline was disrespectful to the memory of Davis. Lorimar was forced to drop the Wes Parmalee character and change the story outcome.


title: Steve Forrest (actor)

text: In 1953, he earned the Most Promising Newcomer award from the Golden Globes for his performance in the Warner Bros. film 'So Big'. In a career that spanned six decades, among films he appeared in were 'Prisoner of War' (1954), 'The Living Idol' (1957), 'Flaming Star' (1960), 'The Longest Day' (1962), 'Rascal' (1969), 'The Wild Country' (1970), 'North Dallas Forty' (1979), 'Mommie Dearest' (1981), 'Sahara' (1983), 'Amazon Women on the Moon' (1987) and 'S.W.A.T.' (2003). Among television series he was featured in were 'Playhouse 90', 'Outlaws', 'Death Valley Days', 'The Virginian', 'Rawhide', 'Bonanza', 'Insight', 'Alias Smith and Jones', 'Ironside', 'Night Gallery', 'Medical Center', 'The Rookies', 'Dallas', and 'Murder, She Wrote', however his most memorable TV role was that of Lt. Dan 'Hondo' Harrelson on 'S.W.A.T.' from 1975 through '76.


title: Steve Forrest (actor)

text: Forrest married Christine Carilas on December 23, 1948. They had three sons: Michael, Forrest, and Stephen.


title: Steve Forrest (actor)

text: Forrest was also an avid and accomplished golfer, Forrest often played in charity tournaments. He competed in 1976, for example, on the U.S. team at the Bing Crosby Great Britain vs. U.S.A. Tournament, which was held that year in Scotland at Gleneagles.


title: Alva Belmont

text: Alva Erskine Belmont (née Smith; January 17, 1853 – January 26, 1933), known as Alva Vanderbilt from 1875 to 1896, was an American multi-millionaire socialite and women's suffrage activist. She was noted for her energy, intelligence, strong opinions, and willingness to challenge convention.


title: Alva Belmont

text: In 1909, she founded the Political Equality League to get votes for suffrage-supporting New York State politicians, wrote articles for newspapers, and joined the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA). She later formed her own Political Equality League to seek broad support for suffrage in neighborhoods throughout New York City, and, as its president, led its division of New York City's 1912 Women's Votes Parade. In 1916, she was one of the founders of the National Woman's Party and organized the first picketing ever to take place before the White House, in January 1917. She was elected president of the National Woman's Party, an office she held until her death.


title: Alva Belmont

text: She was married twice, to socially prominent New York City millionaires William Kissam Vanderbilt, with whom she had three children, and Oliver Hazard Perry Belmont. Alva was known for her many building projects, including: the Petit Chateau in New York; the Marble House in Newport, Rhode Island; the Belmont House in New York; Brookholt in Long Island; and Beacon Towers in Sands Point, New York.


title: Alva Belmont

text: On "Equal Pay Day," April 12, 2016, Belmont was honored when President Barack Obama established the Belmont-Paul Women's Equality National Monument in Washington, D.C.


title: Alva Belmont

text: Alva Erskine Smith was born on January 17, 1853, at 201 Government Street in Mobile, Alabama, to Murray Forbes Smith, a and Phoebe Ann Desha. Smith was the son of George Smith and Delia Forbes of Dumfries, Virginia. Phoebe Desha was the daughter of US Representative Robert Desha and Eleanor Shelby, both originally from Sumner County, Tennessee.


title: Alva Belmont

text: Alva was one of six children. Two of her sisters, Alice and Eleanor, both died as children before she was born. Her brother, Murray Forbes Smith, Jr. died in 1857 and was buried in Magnolia Cemetery in Mobile. Two other sisters, Armide Vogel Smith and Mary Virginia "Jennie" Smith, were her only siblings to survive into adulthood. Jennie first married Fernando Yznaga, the brother of Alva's childhood best friend, Consuelo Yznaga, Duchess of Manchester. Following a divorce from Fernando in 1886, Jennie remarried, to William George Tiffany.


title: Alva Belmont

text: As a child, Alva summered with her parents in Newport, Rhode Island, and accompanied them on European vacations. In 1859, the Smiths left Mobile and relocated to New York City, where they briefly settled in Madison Square. When Murray went to Liverpool, England, to conduct his business, her mother, Phoebe Smith, moved to Paris where Alva attended a private boarding school in Neuilly-sur-Seine. After the Civil War, the Smith family returned to New York, where Phoebe died in 1871.


title: Alva Belmont

text: At a party for one of William Henry Vanderbilt's daughters, Smith's best friend, Consuelo Yznaga introduced her to William Kissam Vanderbilt, grandson of Cornelius Vanderbilt. On April 20, 1875, William and Alva were married at Calvary Church in New York City.


title: Alva Belmont

text: Alva maneuvered Consuelo into marrying Charles Spencer-Churchill, 9th Duke of Marlborough, on November 6, 1895. The marriage was annulled much later, at the Duke's request and Consuelo's assent, in May 1921. The annulment was fully supported by Alva, who testified that she had forced Consuelo into the marriage. By this time Consuelo and her mother enjoyed a closer, easier relationship. Consuelo married Jacques Balsan, a French aeronautics pioneer. William Kissam II became president of the New York Central Railroad Company on his father's death in 1920. Harold Stirling graduated from Harvard Law School in 1910, then joined his father at the New York Central Railroad Company. He remained the only active representative of the Vanderbilt family in the New York Central Railroad after his brother's death, serving as a director and member of the executive committee until 1954.


title: Alva Belmont

text: Determined to bring the Vanderbilt family the social status that she felt it deserved, Vanderbilt christened the Fifth Avenue chateau—placed between 5th avenue and 52nd Street, occupying a city block—in March 1883 with a masquerade ball for 1000 guests. "The New York World speculated that Alva’s party cost [at least] more than a quarter of a million dollars, more than $5 million in today’s dollars" wrote Roark et al in 2020.


title: Alva Belmont

text: An oft-repeated story tells that Vanderbilt felt she had been snubbed by Caroline Astor, queen of "The 400" elite of New York society, so she purposely neglected to send an invitation to her housewarming ball, a dress ball of about 750 guests, to Astor's popular daughter, Carrie. Supposedly, this forced Astor to come calling, in order to secure an invitation to the ball for her daughter.


title: Alva Belmont

text: Astor did in fact pay a social call on Vanderbilt and she and her daughter were guests at the ball, effectively giving the Vanderbilt family society's official acceptance (Vanderbilt and Astor were observed at the ball in animated conversation). "We have no right to exclude those whom this great country has brought forward," Astor conceded, "The time has come for the Vanderbilts."


title: Alva Belmont

text: Triumphant, Alva dressed as a venetian noble to the ball, but her sister-in-law Alice outdid her, in a costume highlighting a then brand-new invention: the electric light. Her white satin evening dress, since named the Electric Light dress, was studded with glass beads in a lightning bolt pattern and caused a stir in the press.


title: Alva Belmont

text: The chief effect of the ball was to raise the bar on society entertainments in New York to heights of extravagance and expense that had not been previously seen.


title: Alva Belmont

text: Unable to get an opera box at the Academy of Music, whose directors were loath to admit members of newly wealthy families into their circle, she was among those people instrumental in 1883 in founding the Metropolitan Opera, then based at the Metropolitan Opera House. The Metropolitan Opera long outlasted the Academy and continues to the present day.


title: Alva Belmont

text: In 1886, after her husband inherited $65 million from his father's estate, Alva set her sights on owning a yacht. William had the "Alva" commission by Harlan and Hollingsworth of Wilmington, Delaware, at a cost of $500,000. While J.P. Morgan's yacht "Corsair" was 165 feet long, Mrs. Astor's "Nourmahal" was 233 feet, and Alva's departed father-in-law's "North Star" measured 270 feet, Alva and William's 285-foot yacht was the largest private yacht in the world. The Vanderbilts then toured the Caribbean and Europe in the highest fashion.


title: Alva Belmont

text: This being done, Alva then wanted a "summer cottage" in fashionable Newport, Rhode Island. William commissioned Richard Morris Hunt again, and the elaborate Marble House was built next door to Mrs. Astor's Beechwood.


title: Alva Belmont

text: Alva's ostentatious displays of wealth helped to fuel American public interest in the lives of the rich and powerful, and, coupled with the opulent and decadent lifestyles by America's rich and their apparent disregard for the wellbeing of the working class, helped to also fuel fears that America had become a plutocracy.


title: Alva Belmont

text: Alva Vanderbilt shocked society in March 1895 when she divorced her husband who had long been unfaithful, at a time when divorce was rare among the elite, and received a large financial settlement said to be in excess of $10 million, in addition to several estates. She already owned Marble House outright. The grounds for divorce were allegations of William's adultery, although there were some who believed that William had hired a woman to pretend to be his seen mistress so that Alva would divorce him.


title: Alva Belmont

text: Alva remarried on January 11, 1896, to Oliver Hazard Perry Belmont, one of her ex-husband's old friends. Oliver had been a friend of the Vanderbilts since the late 1880s and like William was a great fan of yachting and horseraces. He had accompanied them on at least two long voyages aboard their yacht the "Alva". Scholars have written that it seems to have been obvious to many that he and Alva were attracted to one another upon their return from one such voyage in 1889. He was the son of August Belmont, a successful Jewish investment banker for the Rothschild family, and Caroline Perry, the daughter of Commodore Matthew Calbraith Perry. Upon Oliver's sudden death in 1908, Alva took on the new cause of the women's suffrage movement after hearing a lecture by Ida Husted Harper.


title: Alva Belmont

text: Drawn further into the suffrage movement by Anna Shaw, Belmont donated large sums to the movement, both in the United Kingdom and United States. In 1909, she founded the Political Equality League to get votes for suffrage-supporting New York State politicians, and wrote articles for newspapers. She gave strong support to labor in the 1909-1910 New York shirtwaist makers strike. She paid the bail of picketers who had been arrested and funded a large rally in the city's Hippodrome, which she addressed along with Shaw, president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA). In 1909 she joined this organization and was named an alternate delegate from New York to the International Women's Suffrage Association meeting in London. There Belmont observed the commitment of Emmeline Pankhurst and her followers, who would influence the depth and the form of her own personal commitment to the cause. On her return to the United States, she paid for office space on Fifth Avenue that allowed the relocation of NAWSA offices to New York, and she funded its National Press Bureau. At the same time, she formed her own Political Equality League to seek broad support for suffrage in neighborhoods throughout the city, and, as its president, led its division of New York City's 1912 Women's Votes Parade.


title: Alva Belmont

text: By this time, organized suffrage activity was centered on educated, middle-class white women, who were often reluctant to accept immigrants, African Americans, and the working class into their ranks. Belmont's efforts only partially broke with this tradition. In 1910, Belmont initiated the first attempt to integrate the enfranchisement movement in New York. Working with leading clubwomen in the African American community, like S. J. S. Garnet, F. R. Keyser, Marie C. Lawton and Irene Moorman, she encouraged them to form a Black branch of her Political Equality League. She established its first "suffrage settlement house" in Harlem, and she included African American women and immigrants in weekend retreats at Beacon Towers, her Gothic style castle in Sands Point. However, she also contributed to the Southern Woman Suffrage Conference, which refused to admit African Americans.


title: Alva Belmont

text: The Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage (CU), originally led by Alice Paul and Lucy Burns, separated from the NAWSA in 1913. At the same time, Belmont was funding Laura Clay's Southern States Woman's Suffrage Conference in Kentucky, because of her Alabama roots. Belmont then merged the Political Equality League into the CU. Now committed to securing the passage of the 19th Amendment, she convened a "Conference of Great Women" at Marble House in the summer of 1914. Belmont's daughter Consuelo, who promoted suffrage and prison reform in England, addressed the gathering, which was followed by the CU's first national meeting. Belmont served on the executive committee of the CU from 1914 to 1916.


title: Alva Belmont

text: In 1915, Belmont chaired the women voters' convention at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition. The following year, she and Paul established the National Woman's Party from the membership of the CU and organized the first picketing ever to take place before the White House, in January 1917. She was elected president of the National Woman's Party, an office she held until her death. The National Woman's Party continued to lobby for new initiatives from the Washington, D.C., headquarters that Belmont had purchased in 1929 for the group, which became the Sewall–Belmont House and Museum. On April 12, 2016, President Barack Obama designated Sewall–Belmont House as the Belmont–Paul Women's Equality National Monument, named for Belmont and Alice Paul.


title: Alva Belmont

text: From the early 1920s onward, she lived in France most of the time to be near her daughter Consuelo. She restored the 16th century Château d'Augerville and used it as a residence. With Paul, she formed the International Advisory Council of the National Woman's Party and the Auxiliary of American Women abroad. She suffered a stroke in the spring of 1932 that left her partially paralyzed, and she died in Paris of bronchial and heart ailments on January 26, 1933. Her funeral at Saint Thomas Episcopal Church in New York City featured all female pallbearers and a large contingent of suffragists. She is interred with Oliver Belmont in the Belmont Mausoleum at Woodlawn Cemetery in The Bronx, New York, for which artist Helen Maitland Armstrong designed a set of Renaissance-inspired painted glass windows.


title: Alva Belmont

text: During Alva Belmont's lifetime she built, helped design, and owned many mansions. At one point she owned nine. She was a friend and frequent patron of Richard Morris Hunt and was one of the first female members of the American Institute of Architects. Following the death of Hunt, she frequently utilized the services of the architectural firm of Hunt & Hunt, formed by the partnership of Richard Morris Hunt's sons, Richard and Joseph.


title: Alva Belmont

text: As a young newlywed, Alva Vanderbilt worked from 1878 to 1882 with Richard Morris Hunt to design a French Renaissance style chateau, known as the Petit Chateau, for her family at 660 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. A contemporary of Vanderbilt's was quoted as saying that "she loved nothing better than to be knee deep in mortar." She held a costume ball that cost $3 million to open the Fifth Avenue château. It was demolished in 1929.


title: Alva Belmont

text: In 1878, Hunt began work on their Queen Anne style retreat on Long Island, Idle Hour. It would be added to almost continuously until 1889 and burned in 1899. William K. Vanderbilt had a new fireproof mansion rebuilt on the estate and it later became the home of now closed Dowling College.


title: Alva Belmont

text: Hunt was again hired to design the neoclassical style Marble House in Newport, Rhode Island, as William K. Vanderbilt's 39th birthday present and summer "cottage" retreat for Alva. Built from 1888 to 1892, the house was a social landmark that helped spark the transformation of Newport from a relatively relaxed summer colony of wooden houses to the now legendary resort of opulent stone palaces. It was reported to cost $11 million. Marble House was staffed with 36 servants, including butlers, maids, coachmen, and footmen. It was built next door to Caroline Astor's much simpler Beechwood estate.


title: Alva Belmont

text: After her divorce from Vanderbilt and subsequent remarriage to Oliver Belmont, she began extensive renovations to Belmont's sixty-room Newport mansion, Belcourt. The entire first floor was composed of carriage space and a multitude of stables for Belmont's prized horses. Eager to reshape and redesign Belcourt, Alva made changes that transformed the interiors of the mansion into a blend of French and English Gothic and Renaissance styles.


title: Alva Belmont

text: In 1899 she and Oliver bought the corner of 477 Madison Avenue and 51st Street in Manhattan. The mansion became known as the Mrs. O. H. P. Belmont House. The neoclassical three-story townhouse, designed by Hunt & Hunt, had a limestone facade and interior rooms in an eclectic mix of styles. Construction was still underway when Oliver Belmont died, when Alva announced that she would build an addition that was an exact reproduction of the Gothic Room in Belcourt, to house her late husband's collection of medieval and early Renaissance armor. The room, dubbed The Armory, measured and was the largest room in the house. She and her youngest son, Harold, moved into the house in 1909. The Armory would later be used as a lecture hall for women suffragists. She sold the townhouse in 1923.


title: Alva Belmont

text: Prior to the construction of their new Manhattan mansion, the Belmonts had another neoclassical mansion, Brookholt, built in 1897 in East Meadow on Long Island. It was designed by Hunt & Hunt. Oliver Belmont died there in 1908. For a short period, she operated the estate as Brookholt School of Agriculture for Women, a training school for female farmers. She sold Brookholt in 1915. The house was later destroyed by fire in 1934.


title: Alva Belmont

text: Following Oliver Belmont's death, Belmont commissioned a family mausoleum to be built in Woodlawn Cemetery. Again designed by Hunt & Hunt, it was an exacting replica of the original Chapel of Saint Hubert on the grounds of the Château d'Amboise. It took several years, but construction was completed in 1913.


title: Alva Belmont

text: Belmont's last new mansion in the United States was built on Long Island's North Shore. This one, Beacon Towers, has been described by scholars as a pure Gothic fantasy. It was also designed by Hunt & Hunt and was built from 1917 to 1918 in Sands Point. In 1925 Belmont closed the castle permanently; it was sold to William Randolph Hearst in 1927. He partially remodeled it and then sold it in 1942. It was demolished in 1945. It is thought by some literary scholars to have been part of the inspiration for the home of Jay Gatsby in F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby".


title: Alva Belmont

text: Belmont retired to France in 1923. She had a townhouse in Paris and a villa on the Riviera. She also purchased the 15th-century Château d'Augerville in Augerville-la-Rivière, Loiret, in the summer of 1926 and restored it as her primary residence. It had been one of the inspirations for her châteauesque-style 660 Fifth Avenue house and legend had it that the chateau had once belonged to Jacques Cœur, who had left it to his daughter. Her daughter, Consuelo, wrote that she thought these two things had inspired her mother to buy the estate.


title: Alva Belmont

text: Belmont did a great deal of restoration and renovation during her ownership. She had the river flowing through the estate widened because she said, as Consuelo later wrote, "This river is not wide enough." She brought in paving stones from Versailles to cover the previously sand-paved great forecourt between the house and the village. She also built a massive neo-Gothic portal gate on the northern entrance road, separating the château and village from the surrounding farmland. Other changes included replacement of the wrought iron staircases and moving the kitchens to the basement. She also added a bowling alley in one of the houses on the estate. After her death in 1933, the chateau was left to Consuelo, who sold it to a Swiss company in the winter of 1937.


title: Beiyang government

text: The Beiyang government (), officially the Republic of China (), sometimes spelled Peiyang Government, refers to the government of the Republic of China which sat in its capital Peking (Beijing) between 1912 and 1928. It was internationally recognized as the legitimate Chinese government during that time.


title: Beiyang government

text: The name derives from the Beiyang Army, which dominated its politics with the rise of Yuan Shikai, who was a general of the Qing dynasty. After his death, the army split into various warlord factions competing for power, in a period called the Warlord Era. Although the government and the state were nominally under civilian control under a constitution, the Beiyang generals were effectively in charge of it. Nevertheless, the government enjoyed legitimacy abroad along with diplomatic recognition, had access to tax and customs revenue, and could apply for foreign financial loans.


title: Beiyang government

text: Its legitimacy was seriously challenged in 1917, by Sun Yat-sen's Canton-based Kuomintang (KMT) government movement. His successor Chiang Kai-shek defeated the Beiyang warlords during the Northern Expedition between 1926 and 1928, and overthrew the factions and the government, effectively unifying the country in 1928. The Kuomintang proceeded to install its nationalist government in Nanking; China's political order became a one-party state, and the Kuomintang government subsequently received international recognition as the legitimate government of China.


title: Beiyang government

text: Under the Provisional Constitution of the Republic of China, as drawn up by the provisional senate in February 1912, the National Assembly (parliament) elected the president and vice president for five-year terms, and appointed a premier to choose and lead the cabinet. The relevant ministers had to countersign executive decrees for them to be binding. The most important ministries were army, finance, communications, and interior. The navy ministry's importance declined significantly after most of its ships defected to the South's Constitutional Protection Movement in 1917. The communications ministry was also responsible for transportation, mail, and the Bank of Communications and was the base of the influential Communications Clique. The interior ministry was responsible for policing and security while the weaker ministry of justice handled judicial affairs and prisons. The ministry of foreign affairs had a renowned diplomatic corps with figures such as Wellington Koo. Because the generals required their skills, the foreign affairs ministry was given substantial independence. The ministry's greatest accomplishment was the 1922 return of German concessions in Shandong that were seized by Japan during World War I, which greatly boosted the government's reputation. The foreign affairs ministry successfully denied the South's government of any international recognition all the way until the Beiyang government collapsed. China was a founding member of the League of Nations.


title: Beiyang government

text: The assembly was bicameral with a senate that had six-year terms divided into two classes and a house of representatives with three-year terms. The senators were chosen by the provincial assemblies and the representatives were chosen by an electoral college picked by a limited public franchise. The task of the assembly was to write a permanent constitution, draft legislation, approve the budget and treaties, ratify the cabinet, and impeach corrupt officials. An independent judiciary with a supreme court was also provided. Early law codes were based on reforming the Great Qing Legal Code into something akin to German civil law.


title: Beiyang government

text: In reality, these institutions were undermined by strong personal and factional ties. Overall, the government was extremely corrupt, incompetent, and tyrannical. Most of the revenue was spent on the military forces of whichever faction was currently in power. The short-lived legislatures did have civilian cliques and debates, but were subject to bribery, forced resignations, or dissolution altogether.


title: Beiyang government

text: During the Warlord Era, the government remained very unstable, with seven heads of state, five caretaker administrations, 34 heads of government, 25 cabinets, five parliaments, and four charters within the span of twelve years. It was near bankruptcy several times where a mere million dollars could decide the fate of the bureaucracy. Its income came primarily from the customs revenue, foreign loans, and government bonds, as it had difficulty collecting taxes outside the capital even if the surrounding regions were controlled by allied warlords. After the 1920 Zhili–Anhui War, no taxes were remitted to Peking outside of Chihli (Zhili) province.


title: Beiyang government

text: After the Xinhai Revolution of 1911–1912, the rebels established a republican Provisional Government in Nanjing under President Sun Yat-sen and Vice President Li Yuanhong. Since they only controlled southern China, they had to negotiate with the commander of the Beiyang Army, Yuan Shikai, to put an end to the Qing dynasty. On 10 March 1912, Yuan became provisional president while located in Peking, his power base. He refused to move to Nanjing, fearing further assassination attempts. It was also more economical to keep the existing Qing bureaucracy in Peking, so the provisional senate moved north as well; the government thereby began its administration from Peking on 10 October 1912.


title: Beiyang government

text: The 1912–1913 National Assembly elections gave over half the seats and control of both houses to Sun's Nationalist Party (KMT). The second-largest party, the Progressives led by Liang Qichao, generally favored Yuan. Song Jiaoren was expected to become the next premier, but he riled Yuan by promising to pick a cabinet with only KMT ministers. He was assassinated less than two weeks before the assembly convened. An investigation pinned the blame on Premier Zhao Bingjun, which suggested Yuan had played a part. Yuan denied that either he or Zhao killed Song, but the Nationalists remained unconvinced. Yuan then took out a huge foreign loan without parliament's consent. Sun led a faction of Nationalists against Yuan in a Second Revolution during the summer of 1913 but suffered complete defeat within two months.


title: Beiyang government

text: In response to threats and bribes, parliament elected Yuan for a five-year term beginning on 10 October 1913. He then expelled the Nationalist legislators causing the assembly to lose quorum which forced it to adjourn. In 1914, a Constitutional Conference rigged in his favor produced the Constitutional Compact, which gave the presidency sweeping powers. The new legislature, the National Council, had the power to impeach him but Yuan also had the power to dismiss it at whim before any proceedings could take place. Still not satisfied, he reasoned that the Chinese people were used to autocratic rule and that he should seek to install himself as a new emperor. Yuan furthermore began participating in old Confucian rites connected to the monarchy.


title: Beiyang government

text: In 1915 Yuan crafted a monarchist movement which symbolically begged him to take to the throne. He would politely and humbly refuse each time until a special national convention of nearly two thousand delegates unanimously endorsed him. Yuan Shikai "reluctantly" accepted and was crowned Emperor of China.


title: Beiyang government

text: Former Justice Minister Liang Qichao saw through the ruse and encouraged the Yunnan clique to rebel against Yuan, sparking the National Protection War. The war went badly for Yuan, as he faced almost universal opposition. Most of his lieutenants deserted him. In order to win them back he announced the end of the Empire of China on 22 March 1916. However, his enemies called for his resignation as president. In June, Yuan died of uremia, leaving a fractured republic in his wake.


title: Beiyang government

text: Li Yuanhong succeeded Yuan as president on June 7. Due to his anti-monarchist stance in Nanjing, Feng Guozhang became vice president. Duan Qirui retained his position as premier. The original parliament elected in 1913 reconvened on August 1 and restored the provisional constitution. There were three factions in parliament now: Sun Yat-sen's Chinese Revolutionary Party, Liang Qichao's Constitution Research Clique, and Tang Hualong's Constitution Discussions Clique.


title: Beiyang government

text: The first order of business was the creation of a national army. This was problematic as the southerners reacted suspiciously in fear that they may be deprived of their commands to untrustworthy Beiyang generals. No progress was made on this issue.


title: Beiyang government

text: The second issue was World War I. Premier Duan and Liang Qichao was in favor of entering the war on the Allied side. President Li and Sun Yat-sen were opposed. Duan managed to strongarm parliament into breaking ties with the German Empire. Li fired Duan when his secret loans from Japan were revealed. Duan denounced his removal as illegal and set up base in Tianjin. Most of the Beiyang generals sided with Duan and demanded the dissolution of parliament. In June 1917, General Zhang Xun offered to mediate and went to Peking with his soldiers. Backed with German funds and arms, he occupied the capital and forced Li to dissolve parliament. On July 1, he shocked the country by restoring Puyi as emperor.


title: Beiyang government

text: After escaping to the Japanese legation, Li reappointed Duan Qirui as premier and charged him with protecting the republic. Duan led an army that quickly defeated the Manchu Restoration. Li resigned as president and was succeeded by Feng Guozhang. Duan refused to restore parliament due to his unpleasant experiences with it in the past. He argued that his victory over the Manchu Restoration counted as a second Xinhai Revolution and set out to craft a new provisional senate which will draft the election rules for a new parliament. This senate cut the number of seats in the future parliament by nearly half.


title: Beiyang government

text: His opponents disagreed claiming that under Duan's argument, he should resign as the premier's position cannot exist independently from parliament. Sun Yat-sen and his followers moved to Guangzhou to set up a rival government under the Constitutional Protection Movement with the backing of the Yunnan clique and the Old Guangxi clique. A rump of the old parliament held an extraordinary session.


title: Beiyang government

text: The Beiyang government declared war on the Central Powers in August 1917 and began sending labor battalions to France and a token force to Siberia. Duan took out large loans from Japan, claiming that he planned to build an army of a million men to send to Europe but his rivals knew this army would never leave the country, its true purpose was to crush internal dissent since it existed outside the jurisdiction of the army ministry. Meanwhile, the war between the northern and southern governments led to a stalemate as neither side could defeat the other. Duan's favoritism in promoting relatives, friends, Anhuites, and proteges to high positions in the military and government caused strong divisions within the Beiyang army. His followers became known as the Anhui clique. His detractors rallied around President Feng and formed the Zhili clique. The Zhili clique favored peaceful negotiations with the south while Duan wanted to conquer it. Duan resigned as premier due to the president's interference but his underlings pressured Feng to restore him.


title: Beiyang government

text: The 1918 elections for the new parliament were rigged to favor Duan's Anfu Club which took three-fourths of the seats. The rest went to Liang Shiyi's Communications Clique, Liang Qichao's Research Clique, or to independents. Because President Feng was simply finishing the five-year term Yuan began in 1913, he was obliged to resign in October. Duan replaced his archrival with Xu Shichang as president, the closest to a normal transfer of power in this government's history. Duan promised Feng's ally, Cao Kun, the vice presidency but the Communications Clique and the Research Clique opposed it after newspapers reported that Cao lavished enormous amounts of money on a prostitute. They also preferred to give it to a figure in the renegade South as a token of reconciliation. However, no southerner took up the offer and this left the vice presidency vacant. This set up an enmity between Cao Kun and Duan. When Feng relinquished the presidency, Duan resigned his premiership. Duan, however, remained the country's most powerful man through his network in the government and military. Convening on 12 August, the new parliament spent much of its time trying to draft a new constitution to replace the 1912 provisional one and engaged in polemics against the rump old parliament in the south.


title: Beiyang government

text: In the 1919 Paris Peace Conference, Duan's ally, Cao Rulin, promised Japan all of Germany's concessions in Shandong. This sparked the May Fourth Movement which seriously weakened the Anhui clique's hold in government. Though the First World War had ended, the army Duan had created to send to the trenches was not disbanded. Instead, it was given to his deputy Xu Shuzheng to invade Outer Mongolia. This soured relations with Zhang Zuolin of Manchuria's Fengtian clique who considered such a large army bordering his territory as a threat. The Zhili clique demanded more influence in the government but in December Feng Guozhang died leaving the group momentarily leaderless. Cao Kun and Wu Peifu emerged as the leaders of the Zhili clique and they issued circular telegrams denouncing the Anhui clique. Cao and Zhang pressured the president to dismiss Xu Shuzheng. The president was already leaning against Duan for sabotaging his Shanghai peace talks with the South in 1919. Both Xu and Duan denounced the dismissal and promptly declare war on 6 July 1920. On July 14, the two sides clashed in the Zhili–Anhui War. Within a few days, the Anhui clique was defeated and Duan retired from the military. The new parliament was dissolved on August 30.


title: Beiyang government

text: Although Zhang Zuolin's Fengtian clique played a minor role assisting the Zhili clique in the war, they were allowed to share power in Peking. Jin Yunpeng, who had ties to both sides, was chosen as premier. President Xu called for parliamentary elections in the summer of 1921 but because only 11 provinces took part the elections became invalid and no assembly was convened.


title: Beiyang government

text: Zhang became worried over Wu Peifu's growing military strength and anti-Japanese stance which threatened his backers in Japan. Using a financial crisis as a pretext, he removed Jin and replaced him with Liang Shiyi in December 1921. Wu forced Liang to resign after a month accusing him of being pro-Japanese. He exposed Liang's telegram ordering diplomats to back Japan on the Shandong Problem during the Washington Naval Conference. Zhang then formed an alliance with the Duan Qirui and Sun Yatsen. Both sides sent circular telegrams to rally their officers and denounce their enemies. On April 28, the First Zhili–Fengtian War began with Wu clashed with Zhang's army in Shanhaiguan and won a major victory forcing Zhang to retreat to Manchuria.


title: Beiyang government

text: Next, the Zhili clique started a national campaign to restore Li Yuanhong as president. Despite having co-existed with Xu Shichang for two years after the fall of Duan, they declared his presidency illegal as he was elected by an illegal parliament. They demanded Xu and Sun Yatsen resign their rival presidencies in favor of a unified government. Wu convinced Chen Jiongming to oust Sun from Guangzhou in return for recognition of his control over Guangdong. Enough members of the old parliament moved to Peking to constitute a quorum which superficially gave the government an appearance that it operated as it did before the Manchu Restoration in 1917.


title: Beiyang government

text: Li's new administration was more powerless than his first. His cabinet appointments had to be approved by Wu Peifu. Wu's growing power and prestige outshone his mentor and superior officer, Cao Kun, which strained relations between the two. Cao wanted to become president himself but Wu tried to restrain his ambitions. President Li tried to create an "Able Men Cabinet" consisting of experts but he ruined it by arresting Finance Minister Luo Wengan on spurious rumours supplied by the speakers of parliament. The cabinet resigned en-masse and Wu was no longer able to shield Li. Cao Kun's followers controlled the new cabinet and bribed parliament to impeach Li. Next, Cao orchestrated strikes by unpaid police and had the utilities for the presidential manor cut. Li tried to take the presidential seal with him but was intercepted.


title: Beiyang government

text: Cao Kun spent the next few months promoting his presidency by openly offering five thousand dollars to any member of parliament willing to elect him. This created universal condemnation but he was nevertheless elected and was inaugurated on Double Ten Day, 1923 with a new constitution, the only formal constitution promulgated until 1947. He neglected his presidential duties and would rather meet with his officers than the cabinet. The vice presidency was again left vacant to entice Zhang Zuolin, Duan Qirui, or Lu Yongxiang but none wanted to associate with Cao's infamy.


title: Beiyang government

text: In September 1924, the Zhili clique general and Jiangsu governor Qi Xieyuan demanded control of Shanghai, which belongs in his province, from Lu Yongxiang's Zhejiang the last province controlled by the Anhui clique. Fighting broke out between the two provinces with Qi quickly gaining ground. Sun Yatsen and Zhang Zuolin pledged to protect Zhejiang, sparking the Second Zhili–Fengtian War. Zhejiang fell and for the next two months Wu was gradually winning against Zhang.


title: Beiyang government

text: In the early morning hours of October 23, General Feng Yuxiang betrayed the Zhili clique by pulling off the Beijing Coup. He put President Cao under house arrest. Wu reacted furiously at this betrayal by pulling his army from the front to rescue Cao. Zhang pursued and attacked Wu's rear, defeating him at Tianjin. Wu escaped to the Central Plains where Sun Chuanfang held the line against Zhang.


title: Beiyang government

text: On 2 November 1924, Huang Fu was made acting president after Feng Yuxiang's request. He declared Cao Kun's presidency illegal as it was obtained by bribery. Any member of parliament who voted for him was subject to arrest. The 1923 constitution was invalidated and replaced with "Regulations for the Provisional Government". Puyi was expelled from the Forbidden City and several other reforms were made. Zhang, a monarchist, objected to the expulsion and Huang's government. Feng and Zhang agreed to make Duan Qirui the head of the provisional government and permanently dissolve the old parliament. The Provisional Chief Executive had the combined powers of the president and premier, the ability to pick his cabinet freely, and could rule without a legislature. While theoretically very powerful, in reality, Duan was at the mercy of Feng and Zhang.


title: Beiyang government

text: Feng, Zhang, and Duan invited Sun Yat-sen north to discuss national reunification. Sun travelled to Peking but his liver cancer progressed. Duan created a 160-member Reconstruction Conference on 1 February. Sun was skeptical of Duan and Zhang who toyed with the idea of restoring Puyi. Sun died in March, leaving his southern followers divided.


title: Beiyang government

text: Duan created a provisional legislature on July 30, the Beiyang government's last assembly. A constitutional drafting commission was also held from August to December but its draft was never accepted as warfare broke out after Fengtian clique general Guo Songling defected to Feng Yuxiang's Guominjun in November, sparking the Anti-Fengtian War. Wu Peifu made an alliance with Zhang against Feng in revenge for the coup. Guo was killed on December 24 and fighting went so badly against the Guominjun, Feng resigned and moved to the Soviet Union but was recalled by his officers in a few months. When the tide turned against the Guominjun, Duan restored the office of premier to shift responsibilities away from himself. The March 18 Massacre of protesters in Beijing led to Duan's downfall. Under heavy pressure, Duan held a special session of the provisional legislature that passed a resolution condemning the massacre. It did not stop Guominjun soldiers from disarming Duan's guards and forcing the Chief Executive to flee to a diplomatic legation the next month. When Zhang's troops retook the capital weeks later, he refused to restore Duan whom he saw as a treacherous double-dealing opportunist. The capital suffered heavily during the initial occupation as Zhang and Wu's troops raped and pillaged the city's inhabitants.


title: Beiyang government

text: Zhang and Wu disagreed on who should succeed Duan. Wu wanted to restore Cao Kun as president but Zhang was vehemently opposed. What followed was a series of weak interim governments. The civil service collapsed due to the pillaging and lack of pay and the ministries existed in name only. There were mass resignations with remaining cabinet ministers pressured by the military to stay on. The only functioning parts of the bureaucracy were the postal service, customs revenue service, and the salt administration which was staffed by foreign employees. No legislature was created as it would have been too expensive and difficult to assemble.


title: Beiyang government

text: In July 1926, the Kuomintang launched their Northern Expedition to reunify China and defeat the warlords. They rapidly defeated the armies of Beiyang-affiliated warlords Wu Peifu and Sun Chuanfang, sparking Zhang Zuolin to establish the National Pacification Army (NPA; also known as the "Anguojun"/"Ankuochun") anti-Kuomintang warlord coalition in November 1926. Following a series of internal struggles within the KMT, Chiang Kai-shek purged the Communists from his National Revolutionary Army in April 1927, and the expedition was halted. During this period, a conference of the warlord leaders of the NPA was held in June 1927. They resolved that all civil and military power would be concentrated in the person of Zhang Zuolin. Zhang was declared "Generalissimo", and consequently formed a new military government. This was the only time in the history of the Beiyang regime that it was explicitly a military government. Pan Fu was made Prime Minister and Minister of Communications, Liu Changqing was made Minister of Agriculture and Labor, Yan Zebo was made Minister of Finance, Wang Yingtai was made Minister of Foreign Affairs, Liu Zhe was made Minister of Education, He Fenglin was made Minister of Military Affairs (including the navy), Shen Ruilin was made Minister of the Interior, Zhang Jinghui was made Minister of Industry, Yao Zhen was made Minister of Justice, and Xia Renhu was made Chief Cabinet Secretary. Zhang published a manifesto for the new government, declaring that he would free China from Bolshevism (the "Reds") and chaos, and that he would reverse the unequal treaties through negotiation. Soon after, Zhang's Foreign Office sent a request to the Japanese Legation in China to request the withdrawal of Japanese troops from Shandong. The civil service began to improve and start functioning again. The navy and army ministries were merged to create the Ministry of Military Affairs.


title: Beiyang government

text: In early 1927, the NPA Political Commission, in an effort to make Zhang Zuolin seem more legitimate and popular, declared that a new policy would be taken by Zhang: "Development of the democratic spirit and opposition to oppression by force. Restoration of the national sovereignty and abolition of the "unequal treaties." Improvement of economic conditions and co-operation between capital and labor. Encouragement of popular education. Enforcement of a system of local self government. Reclamation of the frontiers and colonization of undeveloped areas. Preservation of the national sovereignty and characteristics. Readjustment of official morality and development of the morality of the people."


title: Beiyang government

text: Immediately following the defeat of Wu Peifu, the Fengtian clique and the KMT had to decide what to do with the political situation in Manchuria. In August 1926, Jiang Zuobin, a KMT general in Hubei, was sent from Guangzhou to Mukden to discuss a possible alliance. Towards Winter 1926-1927, foreign observers were predicting the possibility of a Fengtian–KMT settlement. On 14 January, Reuters reported that Yang Yuting was working with Liang Shiyi to draw up a compromise between the two governments. During the early 1927 Fengtian–KMT negotiations, the KMT promised to "end the Northern Expedition (at Hubei, where they had already reached)", and allow the Fengtian clique to expand towards the south. According to the KMT, Zhang Zuolin would be made the Chair of the Central Executive Committee of the government according to the KMT, while Zhang himself wanted either himself or another Fengtian representative to be made President, with KMT representatives in the positions of Vice President and Premier. Zhang asked the KMT to stay to the provinces of Hunan, Hubei, Zhejiang, Sichuan, Yunnan, Guizhou, Guangdong and Guangxi, as well as ridding themselves of any foreign influence.


title: Beiyang government

text: The military government was seen as something that could be redeemed from warlordism. There was a push for reform and reconstruction, as well as adopting a new modernity in politics. Below is an extract from "Dagongbao" in August 1927, after the NPA defeated the Kuomintang in Xuzhou:


title: Beiyang government

text: However, the military government was never really able to establish its legitimacy well, as Zhang Zuolin lacked the political power to make reforms. Additionally, NPA military failures were detrimental to the public view of the NPA.


title: Beiyang government

text: The National Pacification Army attempted to make other warlords, and, to some extent, ordinary people, perceive it as a peaceful unifying force, in contrast to the violent, revolutionary unification offered by the Kuomintang. The militarists in the NPA tried to reach a compromise with moderates in the KMT, believing that they could unify the country without bloodshed. From March to August 1927, the Fengtian clique and the KMT entered into negotiations. However, the leaders of the KMT were determined to pursue the destruction of the Beijing Government, and in mid-1927, Feng Yuxiang's Guominjun and Yan Xishan's Shanxi army swore allegiance to Chiang's KMT government in Nanjing, dealing a substantial blow to the Beiyang government.