title: Prue Halliwell

text: In spite of the reunion, Prue's presence causes the sisters' powers to go haywire. Because the Charmed prophecy never spoke of a "Power of Four", the reunion of the four sisters causes their individual and collective powers to go out of control. To diffuse the chaos brought upon by the presence of the four sisters, Paige volunteers to relinquish her powers so that Prue can rejoin her sisters in the "Power of Three". Cole, however, steps in and informs Prue that the real reason she remained tied to the "Power of Three" and unable to move on in the afterlife was because she refused to truly let go of her destiny with her sisters. Realizing that her time as a Charmed One has passed, as she no longer inhabits the body of a true Warren witch, Prue instead surrenders her Warren powers so that Paige will be the only sister with the power to move things with her mind. Despite losing her active powers, Prue retains her status as witch and keeps the basic witch powers that allow her to cast spells and brew potions. Prue later returns to Salem, Massachusetts with Cole, who will help her train new witches to atone for his evil past.


title: Prue Halliwell

text: In "Charmed" it is revealed that magical witches can develop and master a variety of magical skills and powers which include scrying, spell casting, and brewing potent potions. As a magical witch, Prue can utilize scrying, a divination art form that allows one to locate a missing object or person. Prue can also cast spells, often written in iambic pentameter or as a rhyming couplet, to influence others or the world around her. She can also brew potions, most often used to vanquish foes or to achieve other magical feats similar to the effects of a spell. Prue also possesses the powers of telekinesis and astral projection; however, in the comic book continuation, she chooses to lose these abilities because her and Paige's co-existence is unbalancing the Power of Three. Prue was also often described as the most powerful of the Charmed Ones.


title: Prue Halliwell

text: At the start of the series, it is revealed that Prue has the power to move objects and people with her mind using telekinesis. While Prue's telekinetic powers work best with a direct line of sight, she appears to simply need only an intimate knowledge of the object's location in order to manipulate its movement. For instance, in the pilot episode, "Something Wicca This Way Comes", Prue is able to move the ink from her ex-fiancée Roger's pen, although it is mostly concealed in his shirt pocket. Later, while outside Roger's office, she curls her fingers in anger, which causes Roger's tie to tighten its hold around his neck. In the same episode, Prue also displays telematerialization as a second method for which she can move objects with her mind. After Prue telekinetically slides a creamer container towards her from across the bar in frustration, she proceeds to transfer a portion of the cream from its container by telematerializing the cream directly into her coffee without it going through the air or space between. The series premiere is the only instance in which Prue displays teleportation powers on-screen; however, she later uses this power again in the comics.


title: Prue Halliwell

text: In the "Charmed" series, certain magical powers are attached to emotional triggers, regardless, all powers can be affected by the user's emotions. For Prue, the emotional trigger for her telekinesis is anger and frustration. This emotion is channeled to initially unlock and control her powers, which can only be focused by squinting her eyes for the majority of the first season. In episode nineteen of season one, "Out of Sight", Prue learns how to channel her telekinesis through her hands as well. Later in the series, she obtains enough control over her powers in order to move objects with a mere crook or twitch of a single finger. The limits of Prue's telekinetic powers are unclear, but she appears to be able to move up to 400 pounds (181.4 kg) with her mind, sufficient to lift and throw two normal-sized adults with her powers.


title: Prue Halliwell

text: In the season two episode "Morality Bites", Prue travels ten years into the future from the year 1999 and inhabits her future self's body. In the episode, Prue discovers that in ten years time from 1999, her telekinesis becomes several times stronger when she telekinetically blasts out an entire wall of the attic with one swift hand gesture. After returning to the present, Prue never realizes the growth of this level of power before her death at the end of the third season. However, in the comics, after possessing the body of Patience, Prue's telekinetic powers did evolve to an advanced level — she was able to lift a car with her mind, levitate a chalk drawing off its surface, and even manipulate the chalk drawing to the extent where it exploded. She was even able to telekinetically hold her half-sister Paige in place and the latter admitted that she couldn't orb out of this.


title: Prue Halliwell

text: In the season two episode "Ms. Hellfire", Prue's powers expand allowing her to move her body to another location in the form of astral projection. This power developed from an intense desire to be in two places at once. While astrally projecting, Prue's physical body falls unconscious while her astral body appears in a new location in corporeal form. Unlike traditional astral projection, 'Astral Prue' is able to interact with the physical world. Prue displays the ability to astrally project across vast distances, regardless of her lack of familiarity with the location she is projecting to. However, she never displays the ability to astrally project across worlds. It is also revealed that Prue is unable to access her power of telekinesis while she is astrally projecting. In season three of the series, it is revealed that injuries sustained by Prue will not appear on her astral body. In the season three episode "Primrose Empath", after Prue is temporarily cursed with the power of empathy, she channels the emotions she feels to enhance her own magical powers, which enable her to astrally project emotions into other people as well as briefly utilize her astral and physical bodies at the same time.


title: Prue Halliwell

text: During her time on the series, Prue displays an efficiency in the Latin language and displays an expertise on various artifacts from a number of art forms and cultures throughout history. In season two, Prue begins taking classes in self-defense with her sister Phoebe. She gradually becomes an effective hand-to-hand fighter with her skills on par with Phoebe's. Her skills in hand-to-hand combat advanced to the point where Prue is capable of besting multiple adversaries in season three, most notably demonic wrestlers, the demon Vinceres, vampire-like demons known as Seekers, and two S.W.A.T. team members. Prue is also skilled in the art of photography, which she later turns into her full-time profession.


title: Prue Halliwell

text: In 1999, Doherty was nominated for a Saturn Award for Best Actress on Television for her portrayal of Prue. She received the same nomination the following year. Doherty and Milano's rumored off-screen feud earned them a nomination for Best Fight at the 2001 Wand Awards.


title: Prue Halliwell

text: Terry Kelleher of "People" magazine labeled Prue "the serious one" out of the three Halliwell sisters. Michael Abernethy of "PopMatters" described Prue as "pragmatic" and noted that Doherty's performance in "Charmed" had "the hard edge" that was seen in her previous roles, further adding that she had "matured from a bitchy teenager into an assertive confident woman." Ken Tucker of "Entertainment Weekly" commented that Doherty's presence on the show was one of the main things that made it interesting, writing "Perennially crabby, delivering her lines as if she has contempt for them...curt, cranky Doherty gives "Charmed" its kick." "Newsday"s Steve Parks wrote that Doherty being cast as a witch was a "perfect" idea, due to her rumored poor off-screen behaviour. Kristin Sample of AOL TV felt that Prue had the "best powers" and was "the bitchiest" witch out of the three sisters, further adding that Doherty "quite possibly could be a real life witch." In his review of the pilot episode, Rob Owen of the "Pittsburgh Post-Gazette" commented that ""Charmed" is Doherty's show plain and simple. Her behaviour on and off screen may not always be charming, but she excels at this sort of formidable, prickly character." CNN's Joshua Levs named Prue the "uber-responsible older sister" and felt that Doherty made her "somewhat plausible."


title: Prue Halliwell

text: "Entertainment Weekly"s Kate Ward added that she "gained an appreciation" for Doherty after seeing her on "Charmed", writing "Despite omnipresent rumors of her poor off-screen behavior, it's been difficult for me to think of Doherty as anything but charming." In her review of the first season, Karyn L. Barr of the same publication wrote that Prue was one of the reasons it was "spellbinding". Rachel Day of "Geek Speak" praised Doherty's acting on "Charmed" and wrote that she deserved her two Saturn Award nominations. Day noted that Doherty's "particularly outstanding" performances were in the season two episodes "Witch Trial" and "Murphy's Luck". SpoilerTV's Gavin Hetherington named Prue "one of television's most influential witches" and wrote that her death in the season three finale was "one of the best in television history" that "forever changed the course of the show." Angelica Bastien of "Bustle" called Prue "the superior sister" and added that she preferred the show's first three seasons as she felt ""Charmed" got pretty bad" in the seasons after Prue died. Brett Cullum of DVD Verdict wrote that Prue was "the pragmatic no-nonsense leader of the group" during the first three seasons and she was "never afraid to lay down the law." He further added, "Not only was Shannen a pretty good witch, but nobody gives good bitch quite like her. She's infamous for being hard to work with, but she's got a charisma the show needed. She knew how to make Prudence strong and vulnerable all at once, and they relied on her to be the wise leader who put her fist down when necessary." Hugh Armitage of Digital Spy felt that "Prue's death was handled badly", further adding that "it never made sense that she would vanish" from the show completely, as "Prue never showed up in spirit form" and was not featured in any photographs displayed in the sisters' home.


title: Prue Halliwell

text: In 2007, AOL TV ranked Prue at number 9 on their list of Top TV Witches. The following year, she was ranked at number 10 on the same list. Prue was included in TVLine's list of "Shocking TV Deaths", while "Glamour" magazine included her in their list of favourite witches from TV. Prue's death was included on io9's list of the "Top 10 Most Shocking TV Deaths", with Meredith Woerner stating that her permanent death was shocking considering the show's light-hearted tone and forever changed the family dynamic.


title: Prue Halliwell

text: Doherty and her character have been referenced in television shows and films due to her portrayal as a witch in "Charmed". In the 2000 parody film, "Shriek If You Know What I Did Last Friday the Thirteenth", Barbara Primesuspect (Julie Benz) is said to be yelling ""Charmed" my ass!" at Doherty, who does not appear on-screen. In an episode of the teen comedy-drama series "Popular", entitled "The Shocking Possession of Harrison John", Josh Ford (Bryce Johnson) asks George Austin (Anthony Montgomery) who is Michael Bernardino's (Ron Lester) "favorite hottie witch" on "Charmed" and George says it is Prue. In the episode "Cursed" of sitcom "So Notorious", Tori Spelling and Sasan (Zachary Quinto) discuss who has put a curse on her and Sasan says, "It's Shannen! She knows all that witchcraft from "Charmed"." The reference in "So Notorious" was meant as a joke to Doherty's rumored poor off-screen behavior when she and Spelling both starred together in "Beverly Hills, 90210". In his review of the television series "Witches of East End" being too similar to "Charmed", Christian Cintron of Hollywood.com noted that Julia Ormond's character Joanna Beauchamp seemed "a lot like...Doherty's type-A character, Prue."


title: Daawat-e-Ishq

text: Daawat-e-Ishq () is a 2014 Indian Hindi-language romantic comedy film directed by Habib Faisal, and produced by Aditya Chopra under the banner of Yash Raj Films. It stars Parineeti Chopra and Aditya Roy Kapur. The soundtrack was composed by Sajid–Wajid.


title: Daawat-e-Ishq

text: The film was released on 19 September 2014, to mostly positive reviews. "The Hindu" said "Daawat-e-Ishq" was a "potent recipe", and "Times of India" gave it four stars out of five. The film collected at the box office in its first week run.


title: Daawat-e-Ishq

text: Gulrez "Gullu" Qadir (Parineeti Chopra) lives in a lower-middle-class Hyderabadi mohalla and works at a mall as a shoe-sales girl with dreams of going to America. She lives along with her father Abdul Qadir (Anupam Kher) who is looking for a suitable match for her but can't afford to pay big dowry, which will only get her some uncouth crude fellow. This doesn't make Gullu lose her optimism and humour. In her quest to find her Mr. Universe, she falls in love with Amjad (Karan Wahi) and they decide to get married. Things do not work out as Amjad's parents ask for Rs. 80 lakhs in dowry. Enraged, Gullu plans to trap a dowry-hungry groom under IPC 498A (dowry act) and to recover lacs of money from him to fulfill her dream of going to America.


title: Daawat-e-Ishq

text: She and her father go to Lucknow with fake identities and intercept the manager of a renowned restaurant "Big Boss Haidari Kebab," known as Tariq "Taru" Haider (Aditya Roy Kapur). They choose Tariq as their target and when Tariq's parents ask for dowry from Abdul, she secretly records the entire conversation. During the three days before the wedding, Taru and Gullu get to know each other and Gullu starts falling for Taru. To her surprise, Taru gives her Rs. 40 lakhs in cash from his own savings, which his father asked for dowry. This way, Taru's father can maintain his conventions. And when Gullu's father gives Taru's father the 40 lakhs, it will not have been a real dowry.


title: Daawat-e-Ishq

text: Gullu still sticks with her plan of drugging Taru on their wedding night and runs away with all the cash — also recovering 40 lakhs more from Taru's family via a police officer, blackmailing him to file charges under section 498A. Taru decides to take revenge as he finds out her real identity. Meanwhile, Gullu and Abdul start preparing to leave for America. Gullu feels remorseful and guilty about scamming an honest person and decides to return all the money. When they reach the railway station to board a train to Lucknow, Gullu is confronted by Taru. Gullu returns all the money and confesses her love for him. They reunite and plan a real wedding without any dowry. Meanwhile, Amjad realises his mistake after seeing their wedding video and confronts his parents for demanding a dowry. Gullu opens a shoe shop in a mall named "GULLU".


title: Daawat-e-Ishq

text: "Daawat-e-Ishq" is the second collaboration between Habib Faisal and Parineeti Chopra after "Ishaqzaade". Television actor Karan Wahi made his silver-screen debut with this film. Anupam Kher was to star. The film was extensively shot in Hyderabad and Lucknow.


title: Daawat-e-Ishq

text: The movie was supposed to release on 5 September but was postponed to 19 September due to avoid competition with "Mary Kom". The movie collected on its opening day and collected approximately on its opening weekend. "Daawat-e-Ishq" ended its theatrical run with worldwide collections of .


title: Indy Neidell

text: Indiana "Indy" Neidell (born 28 September 1967) is an American-Swedish documentarian, actor, voice actor, musician and YouTube personality, best known for presenting the video series, "The Great War" on "The Great War Channel" which documented World War I in real time using modern research, various secondary sources and archival footage. A similar project, "World War Two" (about World War II) began in September 2018. Neidell is also a writer and actor with credits that include "Metropia" and numerous commercials in Europe, as well as video game voice-acting.


title: Indy Neidell

text: Neidell was born in Pennsylvania and moved to Houston, Texas when he was nine months old. Neidell attended St. John's School, graduating in 1985. He studied history at Wesleyan University.As a teenager, he worked at a grocery store.


title: Indy Neidell

text: During an episode of "World War Two," Neidell stated that his mother, Joy, was born in Egypt in 1940 to his grandfather Basil. Basil was originally from the United Kingdom and eventually moved to Egypt working for the Egyptian Ministry of Education. During World War II he joined the Royal Air Force. At some point after the war, he became the Secretary of the International Lawn Tennis Federation.


title: Indy Neidell

text: During 2021, the TimeGhost History YouTube channel revealed information about Neidell's career prior to hosting "Watch Sunday Baseball" through posts in the Community section. He met Spartacus Olsson around the year 2000 at a bar on the island of Mallorca and they worked together on several media projects. In addition, Neidell played with Swedish musician Moneybrother for several years.


title: Indy Neidell

text: Neidell was approached by Mediakraft, the producers of "The Great War", to host the series after they saw a series of videos he had produced between May and September 2013 about the history of baseball, entitled "Watch Sunday Baseball". "The Great War" spin-off YouTube channel "It's History" also featured Neidell as a guest host for episodes on famous military campaigns.


title: Indy Neidell

text: The Great War project officially ended on November 11, 2018, exactly 100 years after the signing of the Armistice at Compiègne which formally ended all hostilities in the First World War. Neidell stated in his finale video that the channel will continue to release some episodes about events following the First World War. As for himself, Neidell has moved on to focus on other projects, such as the aforementioned World War II series.


title: Indy Neidell

text: Neidell would launch the "TimeGhost History" YouTube channel in June 2017 with Spartacus Olsson, the creator of "The Great War" and the producer of it for its first two years. The first feature was day-by-day coverage of the Cuban Missile Crisis, 55 years to the day after the event. In April 2018, they launched the "Between 2 Wars" series to recap the Interwar period. During September 2020, TimeGhost announced in a YouTube video on their channel that a second season of Between 2 Wars would be launched; named "Zeitgeist" with the first episode being released in October 2020.


title: Indy Neidell

text: With "The Great War" project coming to a close in November 2018, Indy Neidell and Spartacus Olsson prepared for an equivalent YouTube project focusing on World War II, which they would produce themselves through their own TimeGhost channel (unlike The Great War) with a projected start date for September 1, 2018. Accounting for the war's longer duration and larger scope for this independent project without the participation of Mediakraft Networks, it is a collaboration of various channels: TimeGhost will focus on a weekly series on the general historical events of the war in the European and Pacific Theatres of the war. To raise the seed money for this project, there has been a successful Kickstarter campaign which raised €54,380 ($63,816). With those funds available, a new studio was built from the ground up in its own building and arrangements were made with media providers such as Reuters News Service for archival footage.


title: Indy Neidell

text: The series also has an Instagram account which runs parallel to it and follows the events of World War II on a day-by-day basis. As of October 8, 2022, the YouTube channel had received 66,500,000+ views and has over 767,000 subscribers.


title: Indy Neidell

text: In February 2019, Neidell teamed up with Swedish heavy metal band Sabaton for a project called "Sabaton History", for which he is the host and writer. The series documents the historical events surrounding the band's songs. He also portrayed T. E. Lawrence in the music video for Sabaton's song "Seven Pillars of Wisdom" and Adrian Carton de Wiart in the music video for Sabaton's song "The Unkillable Soldier".


title: Indy Neidell

text: Neidell left the United States in January 1993, living in New York City prior to moving to Europe. He lived in Prague for several years before leaving the city. After leaving Prague, Indy spent time living in Budapest, Istanbul, London and Edinburgh before eventually moving to Stockholm in 1996 where he has lived since. He has dual citizenship of the United States and Sweden. Neidell is a member of the European chapter of the Society for American Baseball Research and a supporter of the Houston Astros.


title: Kobo Inc.

text: Rakuten Kobo Inc., or simply Kobo, is a Canadian company that sells ebooks, audiobooks, ereaders and tablet computers. It is headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, and is a subsidiary of the Japanese ecommerce conglomerate Rakuten. The name" Kobo" is an anagram of "book".


title: Kobo Inc.

text: Kobo originated as Shortcovers, a cloud eReading service launched by the Canadian bookstore chain Indigo Books and Music in February 2009. In December 2009, Indigo renamed the service Kobo and spun it off into an independent company. Indigo remained the majority owner, with investors including Borders Group, Cheung Kong Holdings, and REDgroup Retail taking minority stakes. , Indigo Books & Music owned 58% of Kobo Inc. Rakuten acquired the company from these owners in January 2012. On 23 May 2016, Waterstones announced it had sold its eBook business to Rakuten Kobo Inc., and as of 14 June 2016, users were required to access their eBooks via Kobo's eBook site.


title: Kobo Inc.

text: During the COVID pandemic, Kobo worked with governments, publishers, and retail partners to provide more than 20 million free books through the “Stay Home and Read” program. The company reported that romance and mystery novels continued to be bestsellers during the pandemic, and that there was a rise in books for kids and young adults.


title: Kobo Inc.

text: Kobo produces several eReaders with ePaper screens. The first Kobo eReader was introduced in 2010. The product lineup went on to consist of the base model Kobo Touch, the smaller Kobo Mini, and the Kobo Glo, which has an illuminated screen. On the higher end, the Kobo Aura; the Kobo Aura HD, which added a higher-resolution screen, the waterproof Kobo Aura HO; and the waterproof Kobo Forma which added physical buttons and a choice of orientation. In 2018, the company released the Kobo Clara HD as another 6-inch option (the Aura Edition 2 being the first).


title: Kobo Inc.

text: In 2019, the Kobo Libra H2O was released. Kobo partnered with Hotel Viu Milan to create a Reader in Residence program and for a month, the Kobo Libra H2O was placed in hotel rooms for guests to use. In 2020, Kobo introduced the Kobo Nia, an entry level eReader to replace the discontinued Kobo Aura. In 2021, Kobo introduced the Kobo Elipsa, an eReader and smart notebook that allows users to write on the screen.


title: Kobo Inc.

text: Kobo's eReaders use Wi-Fi to sync a user's book collection and bookmarks with Kobo's cloud service, which can also be accessed from Kobo eReading apps for Windows and macOS computers, Android and iOS smartphones.


title: Kobo Inc.

text: Kobo produced the Kobo Arc family of Android tablets, which it introduced in 2012 and refreshed in 2013. It previously sold the Kobo Vox, a 7-inch Android tablet released in 2011. In 2014, Kobo discontinued the Arc tablets and did not develop another one.


title: Kobo Inc.

text: Kobo offers free reading applications for Windows and MacOS computers, Android and iOS smartphones. In June 2015, Kobo received a Top Developer badge in the Google Play store. In 2017, Kobo acquired Shelfie, an app that organizes personal libraries.


title: Kobo Inc.

text: Kobo Plus is the company’s unlimited audiobook and eBook subscription service. It was first released in the Netherlands and Belgium in 2017, and then expanded to Canada in 2020. In 2021, Kobo signed an agreement with LeYa, a Portuguese publishing group, and launched Kobo Plus e_LeYa, which made exclusive content available in Portugal.


title: Kobo Inc.

text: As of May 2021, Kobo Plus offered 599,000 eBooks and 94,000 audiobooks. Books are available in a number of languages. Readers can choose to subscribe to only eBooks, or to expand the service with Kobo Plus Listening, which includes audiobooks.


title: Kobo Inc.

text: Kobo's bookstore was opened in 2009. Content sold on the Kobo Bookstore include eBooks, Audiobooks, newspapers, and magazines. The majority of titles are sold in the open ePub format, albeit with DRM.


title: Kobo Inc.

text: Several digital book stores have closed down and transferred their users to Kobo's bookstore. They include the defunct Borders eBook Store, as well as the Sony Reader Store. Both have provided tools for users to migrate purchases and information to Kobo's offering.


title: Kobo Inc.

text: On 17 July 2012, Kobo launched a self-publishing platform called Kobo Writing Life (KWL). Key features of Kobo Writing Life include "deep analytics", allowing authors to track sales in real time; a "learning center" to guide newcomers in digital publishing; and allowing an author to sell books globally.


title: Kobo Inc.

text: The Kobo Emerging Writer Prize awards three first-time Canadian authors with CAD $10,000 each. The awards are given in three categories, Literary Fiction, Nonfiction, and Genre Fiction, with the genre selection changing each year. Traditionally published, and self-published books are eligible, and authors receive marketing and communications support during their winning year.


title: Kobo Inc.

text: In 2021, the award’s seventh year, the winning authors were: Michelle Good, author of Five Little Indians (Fiction); Eternity Martis, author of They Said This Would Be Fun (Nonfiction); and Emily Hepditch, author of The Woman in the Attic (Mystery).


title: Kobo Inc.

text: At the same time as the Libra 2, the Kobo Sage was also introduced as a new top model. It has an 8" E-Ink Carta 1200 display with a resolution of 1440 × 1920 pixels and 32 GB internal memory. A Bluetooth module and a USB-C port have also been installed. In addition, as with the Elipsa, it is possible to capture notes on the device with a stylus.


title: Kobo Inc.

text: Kobo sells its devices online and through physical retail channels. The company's strategic partnerships have included Cheung Kong Holdings, W H Smith, Whitcoulls, FNAC, Livraria Cultura, and Eslite Bookstore. Kobo partnered with Australian online bookseller Booktopia and also has a program partnering with independent bookstores to sell their devices.


title: Kobo Inc.

text: In 2012, "Wired" named Kobo as the "only global competitor to Amazon [in the eBook market]" with over 20% of the worldwide market.


title: Kobo Inc.

text: Kobo Inc. released eBook reading data collected from over 21 million readers worldwide in 2014. Some of the data said that only 45% of UK readers finished the bestselling eBook "The Goldfinch".


title: Kobo Inc.

text: As of August 2018, Amazon's Kindle eReader had an 83.6% share of the U.S. eReader market while Kobo had a 13.4% share.


title: Kobo Inc.

text: In 2018, the company and Walmart contracted to allow the latter to sell Kobo audiobooks, eBooks and eReaders in the U.S. This was the first venture into eBooks for the retailer which also began selling the Kobo eReaders. Walmart installed eReader stations in over 1,000 stores. Their eBook Web site was listing over 6 million titles. The retailer also began to offer subscriptions for audiobooks at a monthly fee.


title: Wes Brisco

text: Wesley Brisco (born February 21, 1983) is an American professional wrestler known for his time in impact Wrestling (TNA), where he is a former member of Aces & Eights. He is a member of the Brisco wrestling family; the son of former Championship Wrestling from Florida mainstay Gerald Brisco and the nephew of former NWA World Heavyweight Champion Jack Brisco. He currently performs for Atomic Revolutionary Wrestling (ARW), where he is the current ARW Heavyweight Champion in his second reign and a former Atomic Next Level Champion.


title: Wes Brisco

text: Brisco signed a developmental contract with World Wrestling Entertainment in 2009 and was sent to Florida Championship Wrestling for further training. He debuted on March 3, 2009, winning a Battle Royal. The next year, he formed a tag team with Xavier Woods, winning the Florida Tag Team Championship on November 4, 2010 when they defeated the previous champions, Johnny Curtis and Derrick Bateman. On December 1 Woods and Brisco vacated the Tag Team Championship, after Brisco was sidelined with an injury. After this, Brisco was released from his contract.


title: Wes Brisco

text: After being released from WWE, Brisco started wrestling in the independent circuit, primarily in Florida. Brisco debuted on independent circuit at Florida Underground Wrestling, on October 14, 2011, when he teamed up with Dakota Darsow and defeated JD Maverick and Kennedy Kendrick. The two teams began feuding and took each other on in one on one and tag team competition with both sides achieving wins and losses. On March 6, 2012, the feud culminated in a no holds barred street fight to become the number one contenders for the FUW Tag Team Championship which Maverick and Kendrick won. Brisco and Darsow split up looking for greener pastures in singles competitions. Brisco defeated Bruce Santee only days after the team's loss and went on to lose to Santee for the FUW Heavyweight Championship. Their feud ended in a dark match at Ring of Honor with Santee once again coming out on top. on April 24, Brisco defeated Fidel Sierra for the FUW Cuban Heavyweight Championship. He would hold the title for several months, fending off opponents such as Sam Shaw, Nick Fame and Darsow. On July 7, Brisco lost the Cuban Heavyweight Championship to JD Maverick and that also turned out to be his farewell match.


title: Wes Brisco

text: Brisco went on a month long tour of Puerto Rican promoting World Wrestling Council which started on July 14 when he defeated Mr. X. He also defeated Donny Fuggedaboudit and Johnny Fuggedaboudit with JD Maverick to crown them as the first CWF Tag Team Champions at CWF SuperClash on August 4, 2012 in Orlando, Florida. He also won another tournament with Cassidy Riley, defeating The Headbangers, to be the first NWA Ring Warriors Global Tag Team Champions. On October 26, 2012, at a World Wrestling Council he competed against the WWC Universal Heavyweight Champion Rey Fénix and Andy Leavine in a losing effort in a non-title match. He wrestled a Loser Leaves WWC Match vs Andy Leavine in a no-contest after Rey Fenix interfered, and attacked both of them at the same time with 2 steel bars. The following week, he competed with the same stipulation, except this time it was anything goes, and he defeated Andy Leavine, to (kayfabe) fire him. On February 23, 2013, Brisco & Riley lost the Ring Warriors Global Tag Team Championships.


title: Wes Brisco

text: On March 7, 2014, at NWA FUW Idus of March, Brisco defeated Michael Tarver to win the NWA FUW Heavyweight Championship. He lost the title on November 28, 2014 against JD Maverick.


title: Wes Brisco

text: Brisco made his Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) debut on the October 11, 2012, episode "Impact Wrestling", in a backstage segment with Kurt Angle. Three days later at the Bound for Glory pay-per-view, Brisco appeared during Angle's entrance. Brisco would then begin to feud with the villainous Aces & Eights stable, alongside Kurt Angle, after fending off the stable with a metal pipe, during a tag team match between Aces & Eights and Angle and Garett Bischoff on the November 15 episode of "Impact Wrestling". Angle then recommended Brisco to for TNA's Gut Check program. The following week, Brisco defeated Garett Bischoff in his Gut Check match, becoming the first contestant to win their tryout match. On the next episode of "Impact Wrestling", the storyline Gut Check judges agreed to give Brisco a TNA contract. Brisco wrestled his first match on a TNA pay-per-view on December 9 at Final Resolution, teaming with Garett Bischoff, Kurt Angle, and Samoa Joe to defeat Aces & Eights (Devon, D.O.C., and two masked members) in an eight-man tag team match. On the following episode of "Impact Wrestling", Brisco and Bischoff teamed up to defeat Robbie E and Robbie T in a tag team match.


title: Wes Brisco

text: On the January 31 episode of "Impact Wrestling", Brisco and Bischoff revealed themselves as members of Aces & Eights and attacked Kurt Angle, turning heel in the process. Brisco explained his turn the following week, claiming he should not have had to start at the bottom due to his Brisco family status. On March 10 at Lockdown, Brisco defeated Kurt Angle in a steel cage match, following interference from Aces & Eights Vice President D'Lo Brown. On the September 5 episode of "Impact Wrestling", Brisco and Garett Bischoff defeated the TNA World Tag Team Champions James Storm and Gunner in a non-title match. On the September 26th episode Magnus, Samoa Joe and Sting defeated Garrett Bischoff, Knux and Brisco in a six-man tag team match after Joe made Brisco tap out to the Coquina Clutch. After the match, Bully Ray came to the ring and told Brisco that he was out of Aces and Eights, but Brisco refused to hand his kutte over to Ray. Ray then hit Brisco with a Clothesline and a Piledriver, after which Knux and Bischoff eventually took the kutte off Brisco and gave it to Ray officially removing him from the group. After a four-month hiatus, TNA announced that Brisco was released from his TNA contract on January 13, 2014.


title: Wes Brisco

text: On April 14, 2014, New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) announced that Brisco would be making his debut for the promotion representing the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) on May 3 at Wrestling Dontaku 2014. At the event, Brisco unsuccessfully challenged Satoshi Kojima for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship. Brisco returned to the promotion on May 25 at Back to the Yokohama Arena, where he and Rob Conway unsuccessfully challenged Tencozy (Hiroyoshi Tenzan and Satoshi Kojima) for the NWA World Tag Team Championship in a three-way match, which also included K.E.S. (Davey Boy Smith Jr. and Lance Archer).


title: Wes Brisco

text: Brisco was born in Tampa, Florida and has a brother named Joseph who is a grad student at the University of South Florida. He is the son of Gerald Brisco and nephew of Jack Brisco. On December 18, 2020, it was announced the Brisco was engaged to AEW star Red Velvet.


title: Ten Years' War

text: The Ten Years' War (; 1868–1878), also known as the Great War () and the War of '68, was part of Cuba's fight for independence from Spain. The uprising was led by Cuban-born planters and other wealthy natives. On 10 October 1868, sugar mill owner Carlos Manuel de Céspedes and his followers proclaimed independence, beginning the conflict. This was the first of three liberation wars that Cuba fought against Spain, the other two being the Little War (1879–1880) and the Cuban War of Independence (1895–1898). The final three months of the last conflict escalated with United States involvement, leading to the Spanish–American War.


title: Ten Years' War

text: Cuban business owners demanded fundamental social and economic reforms from Spain, which ruled the colony. Lax enforcement of the slave trade ban had resulted in a dramatic increase in imports of Africans, estimated at 90,000 slaves from 1856 to 1860. This occurred despite a strong abolitionist movement on the island, and rising costs among the slave-holding planters in the east. New technologies and farming techniques made large numbers of slaves unnecessary and prohibitively expensive. In the economic crisis of 1857 many businesses failed, including many sugar plantations and sugar refineries. The abolitionist cause gained strength, favoring a gradual emancipation of slaves with financial compensation from Spain for slaveholders. Additionally, some planters preferred hiring Chinese immigrants as indentured workers and in anticipation of ending slavery. Before the 1870s, more than 125,000 were recruited to Cuba. In May 1865, Cuban creole elites placed four demands upon the Spanish Parliament: tariff reform, Cuban representation in Parliament, judicial equality with Spaniards, and full enforcement of the slave trade ban.


title: Ten Years' War

text: The Spanish Parliament at the time was changing; gaining much influence were reactionary, traditionalist politicians who intended to eliminate all liberal reforms. The power of military tribunals was increased; the colonial government imposed a six percent tax increase on the Cuban planters and businesses. Additionally, all political opposition and the press were silenced. Dissatisfaction in Cuba spread on a massive scale as the mechanisms to express it were restricted. This discontent was particularly felt by the powerful planters and hacienda owners in Eastern Cuba.


title: Ten Years' War

text: The failure of the latest efforts by the reformist movements, the demise of the ""Information Board,"" and another economic crisis in 1866/67 heightened social tensions on the island. The colonial administration continued to make huge profits which were not re-invested in the island for the benefit of its residents. It funded military expenditures (44% of the revenue), colonial government's expenses (41%), and sent some money to the Spanish colony of Fernando Po (12%). The Spaniards, representing 8% of the island's population, were appropriating over 90% of the island's wealth. In addition, the Cuban-born population still had no political rights and no representation in Parliament. Objections to these conditions sparked the first serious independence movement, especially in the eastern part of the island.


title: Ten Years' War

text: In July 1867, the ""Revolutionary Committee of Bayamo"" was founded under the leadership of Cuba's wealthiest plantation owner, Francisco Vicente Aguilera. The conspiracy rapidly spread to Oriente's larger towns, most of all Manzanillo, where Carlos Manuel de Céspedes became the main protagonist of the uprising in 1868. Originally from Bayamo, Céspedes owned an estate and sugar mill known as "La Demajagua". The Spanish, aware of Céspedes’ anti-colonial intransigence, tried to force him into submission by imprisoning his son Oscar. Céspedes refused to negotiate and Oscar was executed.


title: Ten Years' War

text: Céspedes and his followers had planned the uprising to begin 14 October, but it had to be moved up four days earlier, because the Spaniards had discovered their plan of revolt. In the early morning of 10 October, Céspedes issued the cry of independence, the "10th of October Manifesto" at La Demajagua, which signaled the start of an all-out military uprising against Spanish rule in Cuba. Céspedes freed his slaves and asked them to join the struggle. 10 October is now commemorated in Cuba as a national holiday under the name "Grito de Yara" ("Cry of Yara").


title: Ten Years' War

text: During the first few days, the uprising almost failed: Céspedes intended to occupy the nearby town of Yara on 11 October. In spite of this initial setback, the uprising of Yara was supported in various regions of the Oriente province, and the independence movement continued to spread throughout the eastern region of Cuba. On 13 October, the rebels took eight towns in the province that favoured the insurgency and acquisition of arms. By October's end, the insurrection had enlisted some 12,000 volunteers.


title: Ten Years' War

text: That same month, Máximo Gómez taught the Cuban forces what would be their most lethal tactic: the "machete charge". He was a former cavalry officer for the Spanish Army in the Dominican Republic. Forces were taught to combine use of firearms with machetes, for a double attack against the Spanish. When the Spaniards (following then-standard tactics) formed a square, they were vulnerable to rifle fire from infantry under cover, and pistol and carbine fire from charging cavalry. In the event, as with the Haitian Revolution, the European forces suffered the most fatalities due to yellow fever because the Spanish-born troops had no acquired immunity to this endemic tropical disease of the island.


title: Ten Years' War

text: Carlos Manuel de Céspedes called on men of all races to join the fight for freedom. He raised the new flag of an independent Cuba, and rang the bell of the mill to celebrate his proclamation from the steps of the sugar mill of the manifesto signed by him and 15 others. It cataloged Spain's mistreatment of Cuba and then expressed the movement's aims:


title: Ten Years' War

text: After three days of combat, the rebels seized the important city of Bayamo. In the enthusiasm of this victory, poet and musician Perucho Figueredo composed Cuba's national anthem, "La Bayamesa”. The first government of the Republic in Arms, headed by Céspedes, was established in Bayamo. The city was retaken by the Spanish after 3 months on 12 January, but the fighting had burned it to the ground.


title: Ten Years' War

text: The war spread in Oriente: on 4 November 1868, Camagüey rose up in arms and, in early February 1869, Las Villas followed. The uprising was not supported in the westernmost provinces of Pinar del Río, Havana and Matanzas. With few exceptions (Vuelta Abajo), resistance was clandestine. A staunch supporter of the rebellion was José Martí who, at the age of 16, was detained and condemned to 16 years of hard labour. He was later deported to Spain. Eventually he developed as a leading Latin American intellectual and Cuba's foremost national hero, its primary architect of the 1895–98 Cuban War of Independence.


title: Ten Years' War

text: After some initial victories and defeats, in 1868 Céspedes replaced Gomez as head of the Cuban Army with United States General Thomas Jordan, a veteran of Confederate States Army in the American Civil War. He brought a well-equipped force, but General Jordan's reliance on regular tactics, although initially effective, left the families of Cuban rebels far too vulnerable to the "ethnic cleansing" tactics of the ruthless Blas Villate, Count of Valmaceda (also spelled Balmaceda). Valeriano Weyler, known as the "Butcher Weyler" in the 1895–1898 War, fought along the Count of Balmaceda.


title: Ten Years' War

text: After General Jordan resigned and returned to the US, Cespedes returned Máximo Gómez to his command. Gradually a new generation of skilled battle-tested Cuban commanders rose from the ranks, including Antonio Maceo Grajales, José Maceo, Calixto García, Vicente Garcia González and Federico Fernández Cavada. Raised in the United States and with an American mother, Fernández Cavada had served as a colonel in the Union Army during the American Civil War. His brother Adolfo Fernández Cavada also joined the Cuban fighting for independence. On 4 April 1870, the senior Federico Fernández Cavada was named Commander-in-Chief of all the Cuban forces. Other war leaders of note fighting on the Cuban Mambí side included Donato Mármol, Luis Marcano-Alvarez, Carlos Roloff, Enrique Loret de Mola, Julio Sanguily, Domingo Goicuría, Guillermo Moncada, Quentin Bandera, Benjamín Ramirez, and Julio Grave de Peralta.


title: Ten Years' War

text: Because of the escalating violence, after the first year of the war, around 100,000 Cubans fled the country. Generally speaking, those rich enough settled in Europe or else in northern cities in America like New York, Philadelphia, or Boston. Meanwhile, the poorer workers moved to south Florida, first settling in Key West, and then in Tampa.


title: Ten Years' War

text: On 10 April 1869, a constitutional assembly took place in the town of Guáimaro (Camagüey). It was intended to provide the revolution with greater organizational and juridical unity, with representatives from the areas that had joined the uprising. The assembly discussed whether a centralized leadership should be in charge of both military and civilian affairs, or if there should be a separation between civilian government and military leadership, the latter being subordinate to the first. The overwhelming majority voted for the separation option. Céspedes was elected president of this assembly; and General Ignacio Agramonte y Loynáz and Antonio Zambrana, principal authors of the proposed Constitution, were elected secretaries. After completing its work, the Assembly reconstituted itself as the House of Representatives and the state's supreme power. They elected Salvador Cisneros Betancourt as president, Miguel Gerónimo Gutiérrez as vice-president, and Agramonte and Zambrana as secretaries. Céspedes was elected on 12 April 1869, as the first president of the Republic in Arms and General Manuel de Quesada (who had fought in Mexico under Benito Juárez during the French invasion of that country), as Chief of the Armed Forces.


title: Ten Years' War

text: By early 1869, the Spanish colonial government had failed to reach an agreement with the insurrection forces; they opened a war of extermination. The colonial government passed several laws: arrested leaders and collaborators of the insurgency were to be executed on the spot, ships carrying weapons would be seized and all persons on board immediately executed, males 15 and older caught outside of their plantations or places of residence without justification would be summarily executed, all towns were ordered to raise the white flag or otherwise be burnt to the ground, and any woman caught away from her farm or place of residence would be taken to camps in cities.


title: Ten Years' War

text: Apart from its own army, the government relied on the Voluntary Corps, a militia recruited a few years earlier to face the announced invasion by Narcisco López. The corps became notorious for its harsh and bloody acts. Its forces executed eight students from the University of Havana on 27 November 1871. The corps seized the steamship "Virginius" in international waters on 31 October 1873. Starting on 4 November, its forces executed 53 persons, including the captain, most of the crew, and a number of Cuban insurgents on board. The serial executions were stopped only by the intervention of a British man-of-war under the command of Sir Lambton Lorraine.


title: Ten Years' War

text: In the so-called "Creciente de Valmaseda" incident, the corps captured farmers (Guajiros) and the families of Mambises, killing them immediately or sending them "en masse" to concentration camps on the island. The Mambises fought using guerrilla tactics and were more effective on the eastern side of the island than in the west, where they lacked supplies.


title: Ten Years' War

text: Another Voluntary Corps was formed by Germans, the so-called "Club des Alemanes". Presided by Fernando Heydrich, a committee of German merchants and landowners created a troop to defend their possessions in 1870. A neutral force initially, as ordered by Otto von Bismarck in a telegram to consul Luis Will, they were considered to favor the government.


title: Ten Years' War

text: Ignacio Agramonte was killed by a stray bullet on 11 May 1873, and was replaced in the command of the central troops by Máximo Gómez. Because of political and personal disagreements and Agramonte's death, the Assembly deposed Céspedes as president, replacing him with Cisneros. Agramonte had realized that his dream Constitution and government were ill-suited to the Cuban Republic in Arms, which was the reason he quit as secretary and assumed command of the Camaguey region. He became a supporter of Cespedes. Céspedes was later surprised and killed on 27 February 1874, by a swift-moving patrol of Spanish troops. The new Cuban government had left him with only one escort and denied permission to leave Cuba for the US, from where he intended to help prepare and send armed expeditions.


title: Ten Years' War

text: Activities in the Ten Years' War peaked in the years 1872 and 1873, but after the deaths of Agramonte and Céspedes, Cuban operations were limited to the regions of Camagüey and Oriente. Gómez began an invasion of Western Cuba in 1875, but the vast majority of slaves and wealthy sugar producers in the region did not join the revolt. After his most trusted general, the American Henry Reeve, was killed in 1876, Gómez ended his campaign.


title: Ten Years' War

text: Spain's efforts to fight were hindered by the civil war (Third Carlist War) that broke out in Spain in 1872. When the civil war ended in 1876, the government sent more Spanish troops to Cuba, until they numbered more than 250,000. The severe Spanish measures weakened the liberation forces ruled by Cisneros. Neither side in the war was able to win a single concrete victory, let alone crush the opposing side to win the war, but in the long run Spain gained the upper hand.


title: Ten Years' War

text: The deep divisions among insurgents regarding their organisation of government and the military became more pronounced after the Assembly of Guáimaro, as resulting in the dismissal of Céspedes and Quesada in 1873. The Spanish exploited regional divisions, as well as fears that the slaves of Matanzas would break the weak existing balance between whites and blacks. The Spanish changed their policy towards the Mambises, offering amnesties and reforms.


title: Ten Years' War

text: The Mambises did not prevail for a variety of reasons: lack of organization and resources; lower participation by whites; internal racist sabotage (against Maceo and the goals of the Liberating Army); the inability to bring the war to the western provinces (Havana in particular); and opposition by the US government to Cuban independence. The US sold the latest weapons to Spain, but not to the Cuban rebels.


title: Ten Years' War

text: Tomás Estrada Palma succeeded Juan Bautista Spotorno as president of the Republic in Arms. Estrada Palma was captured by Spanish troops on 19 October 1877. As a result of successive misfortunes, on 8 February 1878, the constitutional organs of the Cuban government were dissolved; the remaining leaders among the insurgents started negotiating for peace in Zanjón, Puerto Príncipe.


title: Ten Years' War

text: General Arsenio Martínez Campos, in charge of applying the new policy, arrived in Cuba. It took him nearly two years to convince most of the rebels to accept the Pact of Zanjón; it was signed on 10 February 1878, by a negotiating committee. The document contained most of the promises made by Spain.


title: Ten Years' War

text: The Ten Years' War came to an end, except for the resistance of a small group in Oriente led by General Garcia and Antonio Maceo Grajales, who protested in Los Mangos de Baraguá on 15 March.


title: Ten Years' War

text: Under the terms of the pact, a constitution and a provisional government was set up, but the revolutionary élan was gone. The provisional government convinced Maceo to give up, and with his surrender, the war ended on 28 May 1878. Many of the graduates of the Ten Years' War became central players in Cuba's War of Independence that started in 1895. These include the Maceo brothers, Maximo Gómez, Calixto Garcia and others.


title: Ten Years' War

text: The Pact of Zanjón promised various reforms to improve the financial situation for residents of Cuba. The most significant reform was the manumission of all slaves who had fought for Spain. Abolition of slavery had been proposed by the rebels, and many persons loyal to Spain also wanted to abolish it. Finally in 1880, the Spanish legislature abolished slavery in Cuba and other colonies in a form of gradual abolition. The law required slaves to continue to work for their masters for a number of years, in a kind of indentured servitude, but masters had to pay the slaves for their work. The wages were so low, however, that the freedmen could barely support themselves.


title: Ten Years' War

text: After the war ended, tensions between Cuban residents and the Spanish government continued for 17 years. This period, called "The Rewarding Truce", included the outbreak of the Little War ("La Guerra Chiquita") between 1879 and 1880. Separatists in that conflict became supporters of José Martí, the most passionate of the rebels who chose exile over Spanish rule. Overall, about 200,000 people died in the conflict. Together with a severe economic depression throughout the island, the war devastated the coffee industry, and American tariffs badly damaged Cuban exports.


title: Christopher Gadsden

text: Christopher Gadsden (February 16, 1724 – August 28, 1805) was an American politician who was the principal leader of the South Carolina Patriot movement during the American Revolution. He was a delegate to the Continental Congress, a brigadier general in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War, Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina, a merchant, and the designer of the Gadsden flag. He is a signatory to the Continental Association.


title: Christopher Gadsden

text: Gadsden was born in 1724 in Charleston, South Carolina. He was the son of Thomas Gadsden, who had been in the Royal Navy before becoming customs collector for the Port of Charleston. He was sent to school near Bristol, England. He returned to America in 1740 and served as an apprentice at a counting house in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He inherited a large fortune from his parents who died in 1741. From 1745 to 1746 he was a purser on a British warship during King George's War. He entered into mercantile ventures and by 1747 had earned enough to return to South Carolina and buy back the land his father had sold because he needed the money to pay off debts. He built Beneventum Plantation House in about 1750.


title: Christopher Gadsden

text: The National Parks Service writes that "by 1774, he owned four stores, several merchant vessels, two rice plantations, a residential district in Charleston called Gadsdenboro, and a large wharf on the Cooper River". Christopher Gadsden was an enslaver, as were many rice plantation owners in South Carolina who used the labor of enslaved Africans to grow and sell agricultural products. In "A Forgotten Founder: The Life and Legacy of Christopher Gadsden" it states that, "at the time of his death, he owned enough slaves to 'divide my Estate real and personal as well as my negroes as otherwise into nineteen equal parts or shares, but it is unknown how many enslaved people he purchased, owned or used. Commentators have pointed out that because Gadsden was a trader and enslaved humans, a previous narrative of Gadsden's life as being ambivalent towards slavery is complicated at best, but most likely false. As was common for many men involved in the fight for independence from England, the concepts of freedom and liberty did not include enslaved Africans.


title: Christopher Gadsden

text: Gadsden began his rise to prominence as a merchant and patriot in Charleston. He prospered as a merchant and built the wharf in Charleston that bears his name. Between its completion in 1767 until 1787 and 1803 to 1808, it is estimated that 40% of all African slaves (about 100,000 enslaved people) were brought to America through his wharf. He was captain of a militia company during a 1759 expedition against the Cherokee. He was first elected to the Commons House of Assembly in 1757 and began a long friction with autocratic royal governors. His re-election to the Commons in 1762 was beset with minor voting irregularities, which resulted in Governor Boone refusing to administer the oath of office for Gadsden and dissolving the entire Commons. This perceived excess of gubernatorial power led to a political culture in South Carolina of legislative dominance over the executive branch.


title: Christopher Gadsden

text: In 1766, the assembly made him one of their delegates to the Stamp Act Congress in New York City, which was called to protest the Stamp Act. While his fellow delegates Thomas Lynch and John Rutledge served on committees to draft appeals to the House of Lords and Commons respectively, Gadsden refused any such assignment, since in his view the British parliament had no rights in the matter. He was outspoken in his support of the Declaration of Rights and Grievances produced by the Congress. His addresses brought him to the attention of Samuel Adams of Massachusetts, and the two began a long correspondence and friendship. Gadsden was eventually known as "the Sam Adams of the South".


title: Christopher Gadsden

text: On his return from New York, Gadsden became one of the founders and leaders of the Charleston Sons of Liberty. He had risen to the rank of lieutenant colonel in the militia. He was elected as a delegate to the First Continental Congress in 1774 and the Second Continental Congress the following year. He left Congress early in 1776 to assume command of the 1st South Carolina Regiment of the Continental Army and to serve in the Provincial Congress of South Carolina.In February 1776, South Carolina President John Rutledge named him a brigadier general in charge of the state's military forces. As the British prepared to attack Charleston, Major General Charles Lee ordered outlying positions abandoned. Rutledge and the local officers disagreed. A compromise was reached and as William Moultrie prepared the defenses on Sullivan's Island, Gadsden paid for, and his regiment built, a bridge that would allow their escape if the position were threatened. The British attack was repulsed.


title: Christopher Gadsden

text: In 1778, Gadsden was a member of the South Carolina convention that drafted a new state constitution. That same year he was named the lieutenant governor, to replace Henry Laurens who was away at the Continental Congress. He served in that office until 1780. Actually, for the first year and a half his office was called "Vice President of South Carolina," but when the new constitution was adopted, the title was changed to the modern usage.When the British laid siege to Charleston in 1780, John Rutledge, as president of the council, fled to North Carolina to ensure a "government in exile" should the city fall. Gadsden remained, along with Governor Rawlins Lowndes. General Benjamin Lincoln surrendered the Continental Army garrison on May 12 to General Henry Clinton. At the same time, Gadsden represented the civil government and surrendered the city. He was sent on parole to his Charleston house.


title: Christopher Gadsden

text: After Clinton returned to New York, the new British commander in the South, General Charles Cornwallis, changed the rules. On August 27, 1780, he arrested about 20 of the civil officers then on parole. They were marched as prisoners to a ship and taken to St. Augustine, Florida. When they arrived, Governor Patrick Tonyn offered the freedom of the town if they would give their parole. Most accepted, but Gadsden refused claiming that the British had already violated one parole, and he could not give his word to a false system. As a result, he spent the next 42 weeks in solitary confinement in a prison room at the old Spanish fortress of Castillo de San Marcos. When they were released in 1781, they were sent by merchant ship to Philadelphia. Once there, Gadsden learned of the defeat of Cornwallis' subordinate Banastre Tarleton at Cowpens and Cornwallis' subsequent movement to Yorktown. Gadsden hurried home to help the restoration of South Carolina's civil government.


title: Christopher Gadsden

text: Gadsden was returned to South Carolina's House of Representatives, then meeting at Jacksonboro. At this session, Governor Randolph and de facto President Rutledge both surrendered their offices. Gadsden was elected as the governor but felt he had to decline. His health was still impaired from his imprisonment, and an active governor was needed since the British had not yet given up Charleston. So in 1782, John Mathews became the new governor. Gadsden was also a member of the state convention in 1788 and voted for ratification of the United States Constitution.


title: Christopher Gadsden

text: In 1798, he built the imposing house at 329 East Bay Street in the Ansonborough area of Charleston that remained in the family for more than a century; famous ironworker Philip Simmons built the gates that incorporate a snake motif, drawn from the "Don't Tread on Me" flag that Gadsden designed.


title: Christopher Gadsden

text: Gadsden was married three times and had four children with his second wife. The Gadsden Purchase of Arizona was named for his grandson James Gadsden. Another grandson, Christopher E. Gadsden, was the fourth Episcopal Bishop of South Carolina.


title: Christopher Gadsden

text: Gadsden died from an accidental fall on August 28, 1805, in Charleston, and is buried there in St. Philip's Churchyard.


title: Soninke people

text: The Soninke people are a West African Mande-speaking ethnic group found in Mali, Fouta Djallon, southern Mauritania, eastern Senegal, Guinea and The Gambia. They speak the Soninke language, also called the Serakhulle or Azer language, which is one of the Mande languages.


title: Soninke people

text: Soninke people were the founders of the ancient empire of Ghana or Wagadou c. 300–1240 CE, Subgroups of Soninke include the Maraka and Wangara. When the Ghana empire was destroyed, the resulting diaspora brought Soninkes to Mali, Mauritania, Senegal, Gambia, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Guinée-Conakry, modern-day Republic of Ghana, and Guinea-Bissau where some of this trading diaspora was called Wangara.


title: Soninke people

text: Predominantly Muslims, the Soninke were one of the early ethnic groups from West Africa to convert to Islam in about the 10th century. The contemporary population of Soninke people is estimated to be over 2 million. The cultural practices of Soninke people are similar to the Mandé peoples, and those of the Imraguen of Mauritania. They include traditional Islamic rites of marriage, circumcision, and have social stratification.


title: Soninke people

text: The Soninke people are also referred to as Aswanik, Dafing, Dafi, Dyakanke, Gadyaga, Maraka, Maraxa, Marka, Marka Soninké, Saracole, Sarakolé, Sarakollé, Sarakule, Sarawule, Saraxole, Seraculeh, Serahuli, Serakhulle, Silabe, Soniake, Soninkés, Sonninké, Toubakai, Wakore.


title: Soninke people

text: They refer to themselves by the word "Soninké", which is actually the singular of the word "Soninko", but are also called "Sarakholés" by the Wolofs, "Marakas" by the Bambaras, "Wangara" by the Mandinka, "Wakoré" by the Songhais, or even "Toubakai". “Marka” is the name by which they are known in Mali in the region of Kayes, Koulikoro, Sikasso, Ségou, Mopti and in Burkina Faso in that of Dafina.


title: Soninke people

text: The term "Serakhulle," although often claimed to be a Wolof word, was used for the Soninke at least as far back as the 16th century and is used by peoples as far apart as The Gambia and Hausaland. The Jahankas, a subgroup, refer to themselves as of Serakhulle extraction. Historically, the term "Soninke" carries negative connotations in the Futa Djallon and Senegambia, hence the more common use of the term "Serakhulle."


title: Soninke people

text: Archaeological evidence suggests that the regions where Soninke people are found were inhabited in ancient times. These stone settlements were built on the rocky promontories of Tichit-Walata and the Tagant cliffs of Southern Mauritania. Though there are no surviving records to suggest which ethnic group these people were, the settlers of this region by between 2500 BCE and 600 BCE were likely related to the Soninke and greater Mande people. A significant agro-pastoral society had developed in this prehistoric era.


title: Soninke people

text: According to Soninke oral tradition, the ancestor of the Soninke was Dinga, sometimes said to have come from the Middle East (though such a story is unlikely, as the "Middle Eastern" tag came about subsequent to the Mande converting to Islam), His sons included Dyabe Sisse, the founder of the Wagadu kingdom with its capital at Kumbi. Another Soninke tradition indicates that they migrated from Aswan, Egypt. However theories of foreign origin are almost entirely doubted/disregarded by scholars and are believed to result from later Eurasiatic cultural influences (Namely Arab and French). Archaeological evidence supports an evolution of the Ghana Empire and other Mande states from roots in preceding local ancestral Soninke cultures such as that of Dhar Tichitt, rather than from North Africa or the Middle East.


title: Soninke people

text: The early written records about Soninke come from early Islamic historians. The Soninke, according to these records, were the founders of the ancient Ghana Empire (not to be confused with modern Ghana), also called the Wagadu Empire. This empire has roots in the 5th century CE and was destroyed by about the 12th century, after the Muslim invasions of this region started in the 10th century.


title: Soninke people

text: In contemporary time, the total population of Soninke people is above 2 million. Soninke people are found throughout West Africa and in France, given their migration when Senegal and Mali were a part of the French colonial empire.


title: Soninke people

text: Most of the Soninke people are found in the valley of the upper Senegal river and along the Mali–Senegal–Mauritania border between Nara and Nioro du Sahel. Migrations under French colonial rule led many Soninke to build communities in Dakar, other cities in Africa and in France. Soninke community were the early settlers in France, their community is found in Paris and in southern French cities, and their language is the primary dialect spoken among many Muslim communities of France. There are also many Soninke living in cities throughout Central Africa, a population that includes new migrants as well as descendants of migration dating back to the 1800s, such as the laptots who represented French mercantile and colonial interests in the region.


title: Soninke people

text: Trade networks led by the "Wangara" mercantile confederations, spread Soninke people and culture throughout most of Mali and Senegal, southern Mauritania, northern Burkina Faso, as well as parts of the Gambia, and Guinea-Bissau. The Maraka-Soninke merchant communities and plantations (centered just north of the city of Segou, Mali) were an economic mainspring under the Bambara Empire, and built trade routes in the West Africa region.


title: Soninke people

text: The Soninke people were a coastal trade link between the Berber people of the Maghreb region and the other Empires in West Africa. In their early history, they helped exchange salt from the north and western coast for gold found inland. This trade brought Muslim traders to them, particularly Arab traders interested in gold, after Islam arrived in North Africa. The earliest passing mention of Soninke people's Ghana Empire is found in the works of the 8th century Arab geographer Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm al-Fazārī and a more complete record is found in works of another 11th century Arab geographer Al-Bakri.


title: Soninke people

text: The rulers and Soninke people of the Ghana Empire converted to Islam in the 11th century, and they have been Muslim ever since. Some Islamic sources suggest that the conversion was triggered after the 1076 Almoravid conquest of the Ghana Empire. The Soninke people, like other Mande peoples, typically adhere to the Maliki school of Sunni Islam.


title: Soninke people

text: The Soninke society and its culture has historically many cultural practices with its neighboring ethnic groups, particularly the Mande peoples. This includes the religion of Islam, occupations, foods, the rites of passage, family structure, weddings and social stratification.


title: Soninke people

text: The Soninke strata have included a free category called "Horro" or "Horon", a caste system category called "Namaxala" or "Nyaxamalo", and slaves called "Komo". In the Jaara subgroup of the Soninke people, the nobility called "Tunkanlenmu" was another strata. Soninke society became highly stratified after the 13th century.


title: Soninke people

text: The slaves were the largest stratum, one at the bottom among the Soninke like other West African ethnic groups, and constituted up to half of the population. The slaves among the Soninke people were hierarchically arranged into three strata. The village slaves were a privileged servile group who lived apart from the village and took orders from the village chief. The domestic slaves lived with a family and could not be sold. The lowest level among slaves were the trade slaves who could be bought and sold. With time, each of these strata became endogamous, states Daniel Littlefield, a professor of history.


title: Soninke people

text: Above the slaves were the castes of Soninke, which too were hereditary, endogamous, and had an embedded hierarchical status. They included, for example, the (leather workers) below the (bard), the below the or (griots, singers), and the below the or (smiths, pottery workers).


title: Soninke people

text: The castes and serf system can be linked to the Mandé 'Nyamakalaw' (literally 'caste'). archaeological evidence shows that Arabs and Berbers would later participate in an already established and integrated trade and transport network with West Africa (trading in gold, salt, and some slaves to a lesser extent), building upon the pre-existing trade routes trading had extended into Ghana and the western Atlantic coast by the 11th century trading systems became increasingly sophisticated in 13th and 14th century Mali Empire and 16th century Songhai Empire.


title: Soninke people

text: As the practice of slavery grew, so did the caste system. Tamari suggests that a corollary of the rising slavery system was the development and growth of the caste system among numerous ethnic groups of Africa by about the 13th century. McIntosh concurs with Tamari, but states that the emergence of caste systems likely occurred much earlier in West African societies such as Soninke, Mande, Malinke, Wolof, Serer, and others. She places the development and spread of castes in these societies to about the 10th century, because the slave capture, slave trade and slave holding by elite families was an established institution in West Africa by then, and slavery created a template for servile relationships and social stratification of human beings.


title: Soninke people

text: The linguistic evidence suggests that stratification structure relating to caste system and slavery likely were shared between the Manding and Soninke people, and possibly some others such as the Dogon people of West Africa. However, the linguistic differences between the caste and slave systems of the Soninke and Manding on one hand and northern ethnic groups of Africa such as the Tuareg people and Moors on the other, suggests that these evolved separately.


title: Soninke people

text: Marriage in Soninke society follows Islamic practices. Cousin marriages are common and preferred in Soninke culture, just as with the Fula people. Parents consent to marriage. A traditional proverb states, "Cousins are made for each other." The practice among Soninke merchants, states Saskia Brand, a professor of psychology and educational sciences, may be related to the cultural belief that cousin marriages "helps to keep the money in the family".


title: Soninke people

text: If both families agree, the couple is engaged () in a mosque. Each month after the engagement, the man pays the woman's family a bridewealth dower () for their food and other spending. The marriage, called , is complete with a marriage contract that mentions the dower, and is accompanied with a wedding event called .


title: Soninke people

text: The newly married couple has advisors. The man's advisor is called the and the woman's is called . After one week of celebration, the women meet to show the gifts that the couple received from their parents mostly from the woman's mother.


title: Soninke people

text: Marriage across social strata and caste lines has been taboo, states Saskia Brand. But, in polygynous noble families, a noble could take a wife from the slave strata.


title: Soninke people

text: The Soninke practise circumcision and call it "birou". Every afternoon, the boys who were circumcised the previous year organize "tam-tams" for the new boys in order to prepare them psychologically. Throughout the circumcision ceremony, the boys to be circumcised sit around the “tambour” called “daïné”. The other teenagers of the village, young girls, women, men, and slaves form a circle around the boys. During this time the boys are surrounded with beautiful scarves called "disa" sing. The author Mamadou Soumare wrote “Above its traditional surgery, the ritual of circumcision makes in evidence, the physical endurance, the pain, the courage, in one word the personality of the child.”


title: Soninke people

text: The Soninke people have long carried out female genital mutilation (FGM), also called female circumcision. The prevalence rate of FGM is higher among the Soninke than among neighbouring ethnic groups such as Wolof people and others. The practice is culturally done as a ritual of social acceptance, and sometimes assumed to be required for religious reasons. In Mauritania and Senegal, FGM of a child is illegal in contemporary law but continues because it is culturally sanctioned for young girls as young as one year old. According to the 2009 Report on Human Rights Practices by the US State Department, FGM practice among Soninke has included the most dangerous Type III mutilations.


title: Soninke people

text: Breakfast foods include , porridge made of millet, sugar, milk, and salt, and , porridge made of rice, millet or corn. For lunch and are very common, both containing rice and peanuts, frequent Soninke ingredients. "Dere", a stew, is a mixture of millet and beans.


title: Soninke people

text: The Soninke traditionally engage in both trade and agriculture. During the rainy season, men and women both cultivate. However, women usually stay at home to cook and take care of their children. They also do other work, such as dyeing cotton material.


title: Soninke people

text: Many early West African immigrants in France came from this ethnic group. The Soninke are an influential ethnic group in the Gambia, Senegal and Mali.


title: Red Rider

text: Red Rider, later known as Tom Cochrane & Red Rider, is a Canadian rock band popular in the 1980s. While they achieved significant success in Canada, the band never had a song in the top 40 in the United States, although "Lunatic Fringe" from their second album, 1981's "As Far as Siam", became popular on US album-oriented rock radio. They also charted on the "Billboard" Hot 100 with "White Hot" from their debut album "Don't Fight It" (1979) and "Young Thing, Wild Dreams (Rock Me)" from "Breaking Curfew" (1984), and charted comparably to "Lunatic Fringe" on Mainstream Rock (AOR) with "Big League", "Human Race", and "Power", the latter two tracks off 1983's "Neruda".


title: Red Rider

text: Red Rider was formed in Toronto in 1975 when Peter Boynton (keyboards, synthesizers, vocals), Ken Greer (guitars, keyboards, backing vocals) and Rob Baker (drums) joined up with Arvo Lepp (guitar) and Jon Checkowski (bass) and began playing around Toronto, performing both original and cover music.


title: Red Rider

text: In 1978, their manager at that time was contacted by Capitol Records about adding singer/guitarist/composer Tom Cochrane to the group. Cochrane was invited to one of the band's gigs in London, Ontario to rehearse with them. Boynton, Greer and Baker were impressed with his playing and songwriting but Lepp and Checkowski were not as enthused and decided to leave the band. Jeff Jones (formerly with Ocean and who briefly played for Rush) was then brought in on bass, and it was the lineup of Cochrane, Boynton, Greer, Baker and Jones that were signed to Capitol and released their first album "Don't Fight It" in October 1979. With the singles "White Hot" and "Don't Fight It", the album quickly reached gold status.


title: Red Rider

text: Their second album, "As Far as Siam", was released in June 1981 and featured the hit "Lunatic Fringe", which featured steel guitarist Greer. The song was used in the 1985 movie "Vision Quest", appeared in the "Miami Vice" episode "Smuggler's Blues" and saw high rotation on the United States cable network MTV. It is now a mainstay on American classic rock radio.


title: Red Rider

text: Peter Boynton was replaced by keyboardist Steve Sexton on Red Rider's third album "Neruda", released in March 1983, and the track "Napoleon Sheds His Skin" would become one of the more popular songs from the album, while "Human Race" picked up considerable FM radio airplay in the US, becoming their second best known song there after "Lunatic Fringe". Moreover, the song "Can't Turn Back" was used in the "Miami Vice" episode "Tale of the Goat".


title: Red Rider

text: For their next release, "Breaking Curfew" (September 1984), John Webster (formerly with Canadian soft rockers Stonebolt) replaced Sexton on keyboards. The album did not sell as well as "Neruda" and a dispute with Bruce Allen, the band's manager, over the future direction of the band resulted in Red Rider's departure from the Bruce Allen camp and a change in band members, as Jeff Jones and Rob Baker left. The album did contain the band's top-charting single in the US, "Young Thing, Wild Dreams (Rock Me)", which reached number 71 on the "Billboard" Hot 100.


title: Red Rider

text: In what became a strong signal regarding the future of the band, they officially became known as Tom Cochrane & Red Rider. The line-up consisted of Cochrane, Greer and Webster with new member Ken "Spider" Sinnaeve on bass. For the first album under this revised name (their fifth overall), the group issued the self-titled "Tom Cochrane and Red Rider" LP in May 1986. Sessioneer Graham Broad (Go West and Roger Waters' band) played drums on the album, recorded in Wales at Rockfield Studios and Metalworks Studios in Mississauga, Ontario over the early months of 1985, produced by Patrick Moran. After the release of the album, Randall Coryell was added to the official lineup for live dates, as was guitarist Peter Mueller; this six-piece version of the band would last through early 1990.


title: Red Rider

text: In 1987 Capitol released a compilation CD titled "Over 60 Minutes with Red Rider", covering the band's first four albums. Also in 1987, the band, who had been nominated 11 times for Juno Awards, finally was awarded one for Group of the Year.


title: Red Rider

text: In the fall of 1988, the band (now a sextet) released their sixth album, "Victory Day", which contained the track "Big League", about the death of a young hockey player. The young man's father approached Cochrane on the day of a concert, mentioning that his son was a big fan of Red Rider's song "Boy Inside The Man". Cochrane asked the man if his son was going to be attending the concert and the man responded that his son had recently died in a car accident. Cochrane wrote the song as a memorial, and it became a big hit in Canada (reaching #4), as well as a top 10 hit on US rock radio.


title: Red Rider

text: Red Rider's final album, "The Symphony Sessions", which was recorded on March 17 and 18, 1989, and released in December 1989, saw the band performing with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, as Procol Harum had done seventeen years before. The band broke up in early 1990, shortly after the album was released. Cochrane embarked on a successful solo career, employing Webster and Sinnaeve as part of his backing band.


title: Red Rider

text: The three-CD box set "Ashes to Diamonds", which includes material by both Red Rider and Cochrane as a solo artist, was released in 1993.


title: Red Rider

text: Cochrane, Greer, and Jones reunited as Red Rider in 2002 to play a benefit show after their 1980s guitar tech, John Garrish, was mugged and stabbed to death in the Yorkville section of Toronto. Since that time, Tom Cochrane and Red Rider have continued to tour annually, with Cochrane, Greer, and Jones being the mainstays of this revived version of the group. Keyboardist Webster was involved for a time between 2003 and 2006; current members Davide Direnzo (drums) and Bill Bell (guitar) both joined in 2006, though Bell dropped out for several years (2012-2016) before rejoining.


title: Red Rider

text: Professional wrestler Kurt Angle used an instrumental version of "Lunatic Fringe" as his entrance music in TNA. UFC fighter and former Pride Champion Dan "Hendo" Henderson also uses "Lunatic Fringe" as his intro song.


title: Second Hellenic Republic

text: The Second Hellenic Republic is a modern historiographical term used to refer to the Greek state during a period of republican governance between 1924 and 1935. To its contemporaries it was known officially as the Hellenic Republic ( ) or more commonly as Greece ( , "Hellas"). It occupied virtually the coterminous territory of modern Greece (with the exception of the Dodecanese) and bordered Albania, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Turkey and the Italian Aegean Islands. The term "Second Republic" is used to differentiate it from the First and Third republics.


title: Second Hellenic Republic

text: The fall of the monarchy was proclaimed by the country's parliament on 25 March 1924. A relatively small country with a population of 6.2 million in 1928, it covered a total area of . Over its eleven-year history, the Second Republic saw some of the most important historical events in modern Greek history emerge; from Greece's first military dictatorship, to the short-lived democratic form of governance that followed, the normalisation of Greco-Turkish relations which lasted until the 1950s, and to the first successful efforts to significantly industrialise the nation.


title: Second Hellenic Republic

text: The Second Hellenic Republic was abolished on 10 October 1935, and its abolition was confirmed by referendum on 3 November of the same year which is widely accepted as having been mired with electoral fraud. The fall of the Republic eventually paved the way for Greece to become a totalitarian single-party state, when Ioannis Metaxas established the 4th of August Regime in 1936, lasting until the Axis occupation of Greece in 1941.


title: Second Hellenic Republic

text: When the Republic was proclaimed on 25 March 1924, the official name adopted for the country was "Hellenic State" (). However, the name was changed to "Hellenic Republic" () on 24 May 1924 by vote of the Parliament. Accordingly, the title of the country's head of state was changed from "Governor" () to "President of the Republic" (). This was done to avoid any confusion as to the meaning of the terms. The word Δημοκρατία (dimokratía), used in the official name to mean Republic, translates as "democracy" as well.


title: Second Hellenic Republic

text: In everyday speech the country was simply known as Greece. In the official variant of Greek that was the language of state, known as Katharevousa, this was Ἑλλάς (). In Demotic, or 'popular Greek', it was Ἑλλάδα (). Sometimes, the name Hellas was used in English as well.


title: Second Hellenic Republic

text: The collapse of the Hellenic Army in Asia Minor was quickly followed by the collapse of the government. Public outrage at the Asia Minor disaster, as Greece's defeat in the war became known, was partially reflected in the military coup which followed it. The coup, orchestrated by army officers, took the name "The Revolution". Although The Revolution itself did not abolish the monarchy, one of its first acts was to shut down all the royalist newspapers as well as use the Armed Forces to prosecute known royalists (including Ioannis Metaxas, who was forced to flee abroad). The decision whether or not to abolish the monarchy is one which divided Greek society, as even some Liberal Party supporters, including the Party's founder, Eleftherios Venizelos, spoke out in favour of retaining the monarchy as a safety net against instability.


title: Second Hellenic Republic

text: After the defeat of Greece by the Turkish National Movement (the "Asia Minor Catastrophe") of 1922, the defeated army revolted against the royal government. Under Venizelist officers like Nikolaos Plastiras and Stylianos Gonatas, King Constantine I was again forced to abdicate, and died in exile in 1923. His eldest son and successor, King George II, was soon after asked by the parliament to leave Greece so the nation could decide what form of government it should adopt. In a 1924 plebiscite, Greeks voted to create a republic. These events marked the culmination of a process that had begun in 1915 between King Constantine and his political nemesis, Eleftherios Venizelos.


title: Second Hellenic Republic

text: However, and despite the plebiscite, in the closing chapter of his "History of the Greek Nation from Antiquity until 1930", Pavlos Karolidis notes that although the question of the form of government had been settled formally, it remained unresolved in the national consciousness. He goes on to add that "the regime change was carried out by men who imposed their preferred form of government posthaste as representatives of the sovereign people so as to educate them, but this is considered by many not to be a true expression of the national conscience and will".


title: Second Hellenic Republic

text: The Republic was proclaimed on 25 March 1924 by the Parliament; the chosen date was very significant as the Greek War of Independence is traditionally celebrated on 25 March. Following the proclamation of the change in form of government from constitutional monarchy (βασιλευομένη δημοκρατία, literally "crowned republic") to republic (αβασίλευτη δημοκρατία, literally "uncrowned republic"), a referendum was held proclaimed for 13 April 1924. Voters were asked whether they "approve of the decision of the National Assembly that Greece be reorganised into a Republic on the parliamentary model". Voting was to be secret, although the requirement that "yes" votes be cast with white ballots and "no" votes with yellow ones defeated the purpose of secrecy.


title: Second Hellenic Republic

text: The results of the referendum were a clear victory for the Republican campaign: 69.9% in favour of a republic and 30.1% in favour of the monarchy; these results were almost identical to the results of the 1974 referendum (69.2% in favour, 30.8% against) which finally abolished the monarchy. Newspapers from a wide range of the political spectrum noted a lack of violence, implying a lack of electoral intimidation in favour of one side or another. The newspaper "Forward" wrote that the vote was "historic for the order which prevailed during the voting time", "Skrip" commented that people refrained from "any action which could be seen as a provocation" and that "the military measures [taken] made this easier", while the Communist Party's "Rizospastis" commented on the "relative calm" that prevailed in the electoral district of Athens. "Makedonia" added that so many people disregarded the yellow "no" ballots, that the floors inside the electoral centers and the streets around were littered with them. Meanwhile, the decree of 1924 "on the safeguard of the republican regime" introduced the jail sentence for a minimum of six months for advocating in public the return of the monarchy, disputing the results of the referendum or publishing slander against the founders of the republic. In an interview following the referendum, then-Prime Minister Alexandros Papanastasiou defended government plans to pass such a decree, saying that the government must be allowed to move forward with its reforms without any sort of hindrance for a limited amount of time.


title: Second Hellenic Republic

text: The fragile nature of the young Greek republic became evident from the first year of its existence. While the Parliament was still debating the new constitution (see below), General Theodoros Pangalos organised a coup. When asked by the Minister of the Military whether he was planning to overthrow the government, Pangalos replied "of course I will carry out a coup". His plot was set to motion on 24 June 1925, and soon prevailed throughout the country with little or no resistance from government forces.


title: Second Hellenic Republic

text: Following his coup, Pangalos was sworn in as Prime Minister by the acting Governor of Greece (Pavlos Kountouriotis) and demanded that the Parliament give him a vote of confidence. Surprisingly, he received the vote of confidence with 185 of the 208 Members of Parliament present voting in favour, including Alexandros Papanastasiou (the Prime Minister before Pangalos' coup) and Georgios Kondylis.


title: Second Hellenic Republic

text: Meanwhile, relations between Bulgaria and Greece were cold, and this escalated into a full-blown conflict by October 1925. A clash along the Greco-Bulgarian border on 18 October led to the Pangalos dictatorship ordering the III Army Corps to invade Bulgaria. Bulgaria, being unable to defend itself sufficiently, and with the Greek army on the outskirts of Petrich, turned to the League of Nations. Eventually, the League of Nations condemned the Greek invasion and ordered Greece to pay £47,000 (£2.7 million in 2017) to Bulgaria as compensation. Greece complied with the ruling and withdraw from Bulgaria, but not before 50 people had lost their lives in the short conflict. Further, Greece protested at the double standards that existed for dealing with such incidents, ones for small countries and ones for Great Powers like Italy, which occupied Corfu in the Corfu Incident just two years prior. Moreover, there was a growing democratic deficit in Greece between liberal democracy as enshrined in the Constitution, and as implemented in practice; over 1,000 political activists, mostly communists were exiled to remote Aegean islands under the Pangalos dictatorship, and the situation did not improve after his fall. A new law targeting trade union activism was passed in 1929, commonly known as the "Idionymon", and some 16,000 activists were brought before criminal procedures in the period 19291936, with 3,000 exiled to remote islands.


title: Second Hellenic Republic

text: Kountouriotis was reinstated and reelected to the office in 1929, but was forced to resign for health reasons later that year. He was succeeded by Alexandros Zaimis, who served until the restoration of the monarchy in 1935.


title: Second Hellenic Republic

text: Despite a period of stability and sense of well-being under the government of Eleftherios Venizelos on 4 July 1928 – 6 March 1933, the effects of the Great Depression were severely felt, and political instability returned. As the prospect of the return of the monarchy became more likely, Venizelist officers launched a coup in March 1935, which was suppressed by General Georgios Kondylis. On 10 October 1935, the chiefs of the Armed Forces overthrew the government of Panagis Tsaldaris and forced President Zaimis to appoint Kondylis prime minister in his place. Later that day, Kondylis forced Zaimis himself to resign, declared himself regent and abolished the republic. A heavily rigged plebiscite occurred on 3 November which resulted in an implausible 98% supporting the return of the monarchy. King George II returned to Athens on 23 November, with Kondylis as prime minister.


title: Second Hellenic Republic

text: The Constitution of 1927 is considered a progressive one for its time. Written to replace the Constitution of 1926, which was never implemented, it was passed in the parliament on 3 June 1927. The most profound change brought upon the country by the passing of the new constitution was the overthrow of the monarchy on a "de jure" level (the monarchy had been "de facto" abolished in the referendum of 1924). Article 2 established a republic (the word used in the constitution is "Δημοκρατία", which can mean both democracy and republic).


title: Second Hellenic Republic

text: The constitution of 1927 established a bicameral legislature. The two houses were the Chamber of Deputies (, ) and the Senate (, ). Further, the constitution outlines the duties of the two houses and the number of parliamentarians. The lower house was to be made up of between 200 and 250 members elected in their constituency for four-year terms. The Senate had a more complex composition; Article 58 states that it is made up of 120 senators of which 92 were directly or indirectly elected by the people, 10 were elected by a joint session of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate and 18 were elected by 8 unions representing various vocations including merchants (1), industrialists (3), workers (5) and academics (1). Of the 92 senators directly or indirectly elected by the people, 90 were allocated to parliamentary constituencies of varying size for direct election and two were given to ethnic minorities for election through an electoral college: 1 for the Turks of Western Thrace and 1 for the Jews of Thessaloniki. Each senator served a nine-year term, while the composition of the Senate was renewed by 1/3 every three years. The salaries of members of parliament in both houses were the same.


title: Second Hellenic Republic

text: Between 1924 and 1935, a total of six elections took place. The politics of the Second Republic were dominated by the republican Liberal Party, under the leadership of Eleftherios Venizelos, and the moderately conservative-monarchist People's Party under Panagis Tsaldaris. These parties were the primary means by which Greeks participated in the political life and they were not parties built on principles or class consciousness, but rather "parties of personalities" relying on charismatic leaders around which the base coalesced. The traditional Greek café was the battleground for everyday political discussions, and the high degree of personal involvement in political discussions set Greece apart from other constitutional countries. This created both positive and negative side effects; on the one hand the population was politically involved on a personal level, and therefore incentivised, but on the other this political involvement made the country highly critical.


title: Second Hellenic Republic

text: In 1930, after five years of deliberation, suffrage was partially extended to women, who were now allowed the right to vote, but not stand for election, in local elections. The first opportunity to do so was given to them in the same year in Thessaloniki, where 240 women exercised their right. Nationwide the turnout of women remained low, with only approximately 15,000 participating in the local elections of 1934. The inclusion of women as candidates for election in numerous electoral lists was struck down by the courts with the argument that the law had only given women "a limited franchise". The table below illustrates the performance of the two major political parties in the parliamentary and senate elections that took place under the Second Republic.


title: Second Hellenic Republic

text: The Republic's foreign policy was largely shaped by the Premiership of Eleftherios Venizelos. Before his re-ascention to power in the 1928 legislative elections, Greece was faced with significant obstacles in its foreign policy: growing claims by Yugoslavia on Thessaloniki, bad relations with Bulgaria and Turkey, while relations with the Great Powers were at their lowest point since Greece was established in 1832. In co-operation with Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, as well as İsmet İnönü's government, a series of treaties were signed between Greece and Turkey in 1930 which, in effect, restored Greek-Turkish relations and established a de facto alliance between the two countries. As part of these treaties, Greece and Turkey agreed that the Treaty of Lausanne would be the final settlement of their respective borders, while they also pledged that they would not join opposing military or economic alliances and to stop immediately their naval arms race. The good relations established by the Republic would last until the 1950s.


title: Second Hellenic Republic

text: In 1934, the government of Panagis Tsaldaris signed, in Athens, the Balkan Pact (or "Balkan Entente"), a military alliance between Greece, Romania, Turkey and Yugoslavia, which further improved the Republic's relations with its Balkan neighbours, although the exclusion of Bulgaria and Albania left some matters unsettled. Eventually, however, Great Power politics derailed the Pact, which never brought the desired results.


title: Second Hellenic Republic

text: Apart from an interest in regional stability and friendship, the Second Republic, through Venizelos, supported early initiatives for the creation of a European Union. In October 1929, as Prime Minister, Venizelos gave a speech outlining his government's support for Aristide Briand's efforts on the matter, saying that "the United States of Europe will represent, even without Russia, a power strong enough to advance, up to a satisfactory point, the prosperity of the other continents as well".


title: Second Hellenic Republic

text: Throughout the Second Republic, Greece was a committed member of the League of Nations, Eleftherios Venizelos having played an important role in its creation in 1919. The country contributed over 1.5 million gold francs to the League's budget between 1927 and 1934, an average of 0.6% of each year's budget, and a number of Greeks were employed in various positions within the League through its history.


title: Second Hellenic Republic

text: The Second Hellenic Republic was subdivided into 10 regions, which we would today call the traditional geographic regions of Greece. These varied widely in size and population. The most populous was Central Greece and Euboea, with 1.6 million people, followed closely by Macedonia (1.4 million), while the smallest were the Cyclades with 129,702 people. The largest in total area was Macedonia at , while the smallest were the Ionian Islands, at . The Ionian Islands were also Greece's most densely populated region, with a population density of .