COUNTRIES HISTORY

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ZIMBABWE

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Zimbabwe
I INTRODUCTION

Zimbabwe, country in southern Africa, named after the famous 14th-century stone-built city of Great Zimbabwe, located in the southeast. The country is renowned for the Victoria Falls on the Zambezi River and for its bountiful wildlife. Zimbabwe’s population is divided into two main ethnic and linguistic groups, the Ndebele and the Shona, the former mostly inhabiting the southwest. The capital is Harare, which is the center of a commercial farming district.

Inhabited for at least 2,000 years, the region of present-day Zimbabwe was the site of several large African states, notably Great Zimbabwe, Mutapa, and the Rozwi Empire. Zimbabwe was the British colony of Southern Rhodesia from the late 1800s until 1965, when its white settlers proclaimed it the state of Rhodesia, which Britain refused to recognize. In 1980 the majority black population won independence for the country as Zimbabwe.

II LAND AND RESOURCES OF ZIMBABWE

Zimbabwe has a land area of 390,759 sq km (150,873 sq mi). From north to south its greatest distance is 760 km (470 mi), and from east to west it is 820 km (510 mi). The country borders Mozambique to the east and Botswana to the west. South Africa is located to the south, and the Limpopo River forms the boundary between the two countries. In the north the border is formed by the Zambezi River, beyond which is Zambia.

A Natural Regions

The dominant topographical feature of Zimbabwe is its central granite plateau, which runs diagonally from the southwest to the northeast and is covered with rich farmland. The plateau is marked by granite outcrops and hills known as kopjes and is cut by a narrow outcropping of volcanic rock that runs roughly north to south for about 520 km (about 320 mi). This feature is known as the Great Dyke and is rich in gems and minerals. South of the plateau, the land slopes gently down to the valley of the Limpopo River. North of the central plateau, the land drops to the valley of the Zambezi River through the Zambezi Escarpment, an 80-km (50-mi) wide belt of hilly country that runs from east to west. In the northwest the land slopes more gently towards the Zambezi. Along the country’s eastern border are the Inyanga, Vumba, and Chimanimani mountain ranges. The highest point in Zimbabwe is Mount Inyangani at 2,592 m (8,504 ft), in the Inyanga Mountains. The lowest point is 150 m (480 ft) at the junction of the Lundi and the Sabi (Save) rivers in the southeast. The hot and humid valleys of the Zambezi and the Limpopo are infested with tsetse flies, which inhibit livestock raising, although the far southwest is dry grassland suitable for ranching and cattle breeding.

B Rivers and Lakes

The Zambezi River, along the northern border, is Zimbabwe’s most important river. On the river, in the country’s far west, is Victoria Falls, a spectacular waterfall where the Zambezi flows over a cliff into a narrow gorge. The Zambezi is navigable between Victoria Falls and the Cabora Bassa Dam in Mozambique. A number of smaller rivers, chief among them the Mazoe and the Sanyati (known in its upper course as the Munyati), join the Zambezi in the north. The Sabi River rises in the center of the country and flows into Mozambique (where it is known as the Save River). The Limpopo River forms the country’s southern boundary with South Africa.

Kariba Dam is located on the Zambezi and houses a hydroelectric power station that serves both Zimbabwe and neighboring Zambia. The dam has formed Lake Kariba, a reservoir that is 282 km (175 mi) long and is a major source of fish and wildlife. A large number of smaller dams have been built throughout the country to provide water for cities or to support irrigated agriculture. There is extensive irrigation in the valley of the Sabi, and water from the upper Zambezi is used to irrigate the dry southwestern parts of the country.

C Plant and Animal Life

Most of Zimbabwe is covered with savanna grassland and dotted with low masasa trees. Aloe plants are common in the drier areas, and the low-lying river valleys have baobab, acacia, and teak trees. The higher elevations have grassland and shrubs, interspersed with dense forests and patches of rain forest. Wildlife includes elephants, hippopotamuses, lions, hyenas, crocodiles, giraffes, baboons, and many types of antelope. For the most part, wildlife is confined in Zimbabwe’s game parks, the largest of which is Hwange National Park in the west. All the major mammal species are protected, with rhinoceros, cheetah, and hartebeest being among the endangered species.

D Natural Resources

Zimbabwe possesses rich agricultural resources. In 2003 an estimated 8 percent of the country was cultivated. Forests cover 45 percent of the country, although the logging industry is small and wood cut in Zimbabwe is used mostly for fuel. Zimbabwe is also rich in minerals. Gold has been mined since ancient times, and the Great Dyke contains deposits of dozens of different lucrative minerals.

E Climate

Zimbabwe’s climate is dependent on the rains brought by the Indian Ocean monsoons (seasonal winds). Up to 1,000 mm (40 in) of rain falls each year in the eastern part of the country between the months of October and March; rain levels reduce to about half that amount in the dry southwest. Little if any rain falls from March to October, when the weather gets cold with frosts common in the mountains and central plateau areas. Since the late 1970s rainfall has been very irregular and there have been serious droughts, which have led to soil erosion in some areas and decreased agricultural production. On the central plateau, average daily temperatures range from 7º to 21ºC (44º to 70ºF) in July and 16º to 26ºC (61º to 79ºF) in January. In the Zambezi valley they range from 13º to 28ºC (55º to 83ºF) in July and 22º to 32ºC (71º to 90ºF) in January.

F Environmental Issues

Zimbabwe was among the first African nations to formulate a coherent conservation strategy, introduced in 1987. About 14.7 percent (2007) of the country’s land is protected in a system that includes national parks, wildlife reserves, safari parks, and other areas. The government officially views the promotion of wildlife management as an economic form of sustainable resource use, and the country has a strong record of involving local people in the management of national parks, wildlife reserves, and other protected areas. Poaching is a serious threat, especially to valuable endangered species such as the black rhinoceros and African elephant. The government protects some animal reserves with armed wardens. Zimbabwe shares several transborder protected areas with its neighbors Botswana and Zambia.

Zimbabwe’s growing population puts significant pressure on Zimbabwe’s land. Overfarming and overgrazing have led to soil erosion. Widespread pesticide contamination—especially from the dieldrin and DDT used in tsetse fly control—has significantly affected wildlife and human health.

III PEOPLE AND SOCIETY OF ZIMBABWE

In 2008 Zimbabwe’s population was estimated to be 12,382,920, giving the country a population density of 32 persons per sq km (83 per sq mi). With a birth rate of 27 per 1,000 and a death rate of 22 per 1,000, Zimbabwe’s population growth rate is 0.6 percent. Life expectancy at birth was estimated at 40 years in 2008, down from 59 years in 1985. This drastic decline is largely attributable to the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) epidemic in Zimbabwe that began in the late 1980s. Zimbabwe’s people have steadily drifted away from rural areas to the towns and cities since the 1980s. Still, by 2005 just 36 percent of the populated lived in urban areas.

Harare, the capital, is the center of government and a manufacturing and distribution hub for the surrounding agricultural area. Harare is located in north central Zimbabwe. The second most important city is Bulawayo, which was the capital of the Ndebele kingdom in the 19th century and is now the principal city of the southwest. Other towns of significant size include Chitungwiza, Gweru, and Mutare.

A Ethnic Groups and Languages

Zimbabwe’s population is divided into two major linguistic and ethnic groups: the Shona and the Ndebele. Numerous Shona subgroups, such as the Tavara, Korekore, and Manyika, are traditionally distinguished by region and dialect of Shona. Altogether, the Shona constitute 71 percent of the population. The Ndebele minority, representing 16 percent of the population, speak a language related to Zulu and are concentrated in the southwest. There are small but politically and economically significant minorities of people of Asian and European descent, as well as immigrants from nearby African countries, principally Mozambique. English is the official language of Zimbabwe and is used in government and education. Some of the white population are of Afrikaner origin and speak Afrikaans.

B Religion

Protestant and Catholic missionaries attempted to spread Christianity into what is now Zimbabwe starting in the early 17th century. However, they made few converts until the establishment of British colonial control in the late 19th century. An estimated 62 percent of the population adhere to Christianity or to syncretic religions (merging Christian and indigenous beliefs). Most of the rest adhere to traditional indigenous religions. The largest Christian churches are Anglican, Roman Catholic, and Methodist. Each church draws its following from black and white segments of the population and from across social ranks. There are also a large number of African independent churches. The country also has small groups of Greek Orthodox Christians, Jews, and Muslims.

C Education

Christian missionaries conducted the first formal education in Zimbabwe, and many schools still retain a strong religious affiliation. With the growth of white settlement in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, schools for the white population were established in all the major towns. Public day schools were initially single sex and were complemented by private boarding schools modeled on those in Britain. As late as 1965 there were only two government-run secondary schools for blacks.

Primary education in Zimbabwe has been universal and compulsory since 1987. With nearly half the population of school age, there has been massive growth since the country’s independence in the provision of education. Education accounts for about 24 percent (1997) of government expenditure. About 94 percent (2002–2003) of primary school-aged children are enrolled in school, but only 40 percent of appropriate-aged children attend secondary schools and just 4 percent attend colleges or universities. Zimbabwe has a number of colleges and universities, including the University of Zimbabwe (founded as the University College of Rhodesia in 1955) and Zimbabwe Open University (1999) in Harare, and the National University of Science and Technology (1990) in Bulawayo. Literacy has increased dramatically since independence. Adult literacy was estimated at 92 percent (95 percent for males and 89 percent for females) in 2005, up from only 39 percent in 1962.

D Way of Life

Zimbabwe has inherited many traits from its colonial past. The white population reproduced the sport-based culture of colonial Britain and has produced world-class sports figures, competing at the highest level in rugby, cricket, and golf. Africans tend to be more interested in football (soccer). The African middle and upper classes tend to imitate the lifestyle of the old colonial ruling class, while younger Africans are drawn to the popular urban styles of South Africa. European-style clothing and housing are fashionable, although traditional rondavels (round thatched huts made of wood) are preferred in rural areas.

E Social Issues and Social Services

Zimbabwe’s white population still lives very much aloof from the African majority, and there is relatively little social mixing. Whites enjoy a high standard of living and control most of the country’s private businesses. The government promised since independence to redistribute white farmland to landless African peasants and began seizing white farms in 2000. The seizure and subsequent distribution of the land are sources of tension in the country.

Zimbabwe’s biggest social problem is the spread of AIDS, which became an epidemic in the 1990s. In 2003 it was estimated that 1.5 million people in Zimbabwe were infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) that causes AIDS. The growing number of people who contract AIDS increases costs of medical and social services, as well as of education and training programs. In response to the epidemic, the government launched a campaign to educate people about the causes of AIDS and to encourage them to take steps to prevent its spread.

IV ARTS OF ZIMBABWE

Zimbabwe has important cultural traditions that distinguish it from other African states, notably its history of architecture. The central granite plateau was traditionally home to various Shona peoples who built elaborate and precisely constructed stone structures. There are hundreds of stone ruins throughout the country ranging from large town sites like Great Zimbabwe (after which the country is named), Dhlodhlo, and Khami, to small isolated villages; some of the ruins date as far back as the 11th century ad. The stone building tradition was unique to this area and reached high levels of skill and sophistication. The Shona also have a tradition of carving the green and brown soapstone found in the region, and the carved soapstone birds of Great Zimbabwe have inspired a thriving modern industry of stone carving. Shona sculptors have achieved international fame.

Traditional dance and music, which makes use of the mbira (a hand-held board with mounted metal strips that are plucked with the thumbs) and the marimba (a type of xylophone), were neglected during the colonial period. Since independence, however, there has been a revival of traditional styles, with performers finding new audiences among tourists. Important also in the traditional culture were the stories of the Shona spirit mediums, who provided contact with the ancestors and became guardians of the oral histories of both the Shona and the Ndebele. Illiteracy and censorship by the white-controlled government limited the development of a written literature by black Zimbabweans until the 1980s. Noted postindependence authors include Charles Mungoshi and Tsitsi Dangarembga.

Harare developed originally as a European-style city with European theater and music, museums, an art gallery, and archives. The Queen Victoria Museum played a significant role in developing archaeology in Zimbabwe and a knowledge of the past, while the National Gallery pioneered the appreciation of Shona sculpture. The National Archives remain a major source for the history not only of the colonial period but of the Shona and Ndebele peoples. Bulawayo is home to the Natural History Museum of Zimbabwe, as well as a number of theaters, libraries, and art galleries.

V ECONOMY OF ZIMBABWE

Before the arrival of European settlers in the late 19th century, the peoples of what is now Zimbabwe practiced mixed farming (raising both crops and livestock), with cattle ranching predominating in the drier south and west. Gold mining and trade supplemented agriculture. The arrival of Europeans led to the growth of the commercial farming sector. Much of the best land was taken over by white settlers, who grew maize (corn) or fruit or practiced mixed farming. By the 1930s, however, the mainstay of settler agriculture was tobacco. Large numbers of low-paid Africans worked settler farms, many recruited from Mozambique. Gold mining continued, but the development of a large mining and industrial sector only took off after World War II (1939-1945), when Southern Rhodesia (as Zimbabwe was then called) benefited from large-scale investment that flowed into the colony. A wide range of mining enterprises were begun, exploiting the colony’s chrome, asbestos, and copper deposits, and an industrial sector developed producing consumer goods and even heavy steel manufactures such as railway locomotives.

The international community imposed economic sanctions on Rhodesia when its white government declared independence in 1965. This resulted in further diversification of industrial production, particularly in the sector of consumer goods, as local producers sought to beat the sanctions by servicing the demands of domestic and regional markets. After independence in 1980, Zimbabwe joined the Southern African Development Coordination Conference (now the Southern African Development Community), a regional economic bloc. However, the country faced strong competition from South African industries, and agriculture suffered from severe drought for much of the 1980s.

In the early 21st century the Zimbabwean government deepened the country’s economic crisis. Starting in 2000 the government began seizing white-owned farms, ostensibly to redistribute the farmland to landless black Zimbabweans. Many of Zimbabwe’s skilled professionals, as well as most of its white farmers, left the country in the first years of the century. Agricultural production plummeted, depriving the country of its traditional source of export revenue, and debt and inflation skyrocketed. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) suspended aid due to the government’s poor fiscal management, and Zimbabwe plunged into an economic meltdown. Inflation reached a stage that economists refer to as hyperinflation (see Inflation and Deflation). As prices soared out of control, a thriving black market emerged. In January 2008 Zimbabwe reported an annual inflation rate of 100,000 percent. Zimbabwe’s economy ranked as the most bankrupt and fiscally untenable in the world.

A Labor

In 2006 Zimbabwe’s labor force was 6 million people. Trade unions represent Zimbabwe’s major industries and service sectors. All are affiliated with the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions, which was founded in 1981. Employers’ associations are strong in the agricultural sector, particularly the Commercial Farmers’ Union, founded in 1942.

B Services

The service sector accounts for 59 percent of Zimbabwe’s gross domestic product (GDP). Tourism, education, and public services are the most important sectors. Zimbabwe has some of the most important tourist attractions in southern Africa and is now a major destination for tourists from all over the world. The biggest attraction is Victoria Falls, followed by Hwange National Park, Lake Kariba, and the ruins of Great Zimbabwe. The mountains of eastern Zimbabwe also receive many visitors. In 2006, 2.3 million tourists visited the country.

C Industry

The industrial sector diversified during the years that sanctions were imposed on Rhodesia (1965 to 1980), and today Zimbabwe produces a wide range of consumer goods. The most important products are iron and steel, textiles, processed food, and chemicals. Industry, primarily manufacturing and mining, accounted for 23 percent of GDP in 2005.

D Agriculture

Despite the government’s dismantling of the country’s well-developed commercial sector starting in 2000, agriculture remains one of the keys to Zimbabwe’s economic prosperity. In 2005 agriculture (including forestry and fishing) accounted for 18 percent of GDP. The country’s main commercial products are tobacco, sugar, and various grains. Citrus fruit, cut flowers, cotton, and coffee are smaller but still important products. Cattle ranching is important in the southwest. Subsistence farmers grow corn, cassava, and beans, and raise goats, sheep, and cattle.

E Mining

Zimbabwe has a long tradition of mining, going back before European colonization. The country contains a wide range of minerals, especially in and around the Great Dyke. Zimbabwe’s chief mineral exports include gold, nickel, and chromite. Coal is an important power source.

F Energy

Zimbabwe is rich in coal and hydroelectric resources. Coal-burning thermal power stations produced 51 percent of the country’s electricity in 2003, while the remaining 49 percent came from hydroelectric facilities at the Kariba Dam.

G Transportation

Zimbabwe’s major rail line runs along the country’s central plateau between the cities of Harare and Bulawayo. Bulawayo is linked by rail to the major cities of South Africa by way of Botswana, and to the copper-mining towns of Zambia via Victoria Falls. Spurs lead to the Mozambican ports of Beira and Maputo. The country has an extensive network of roads, of which 19 percent (2002) are paved. Harare has an international airport, and smaller airfields serve other cities and the main tourist areas, including Victoria Falls. Air Zimbabwe is the national airline.

H Communications

The state-owned Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation operates a national television station and numerous national radio stations broadcasting in English, Shona, Ndebele, and other African languages. The Chronicle, published in Bulawayo, and The Herald, published in Harare, are Zimbabwe’s largest English-language daily newspapers. Both are government-owned and -monitored. Dozens of nondaily registered periodicals and newspapers, most in English, are published, as well.

I Foreign Trade

Zimbabwe’s foreign trade position is structurally unhealthy, in that it typically imports more than it exports. The country’s main customers for exports are the United Kingdom, Germany, South Africa, Japan, and China. South Africa is by far the primary source for imports; other large suppliers are Mozambique, the United Kingdom, and Germany. Zimbabwe’s most important imports include petroleum products, machinery, motor vehicles, and foodstuffs. Chief exports include tobacco and other agricultural products as well as gold and other minerals.

J Currency and Banking

Zimbabwe’s basic unit of currency is the Zimbabwe dollar. Officially, 30,669 Zimbabwe dollars equal U.S.$1 (2008). The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, founded in 1964, is the bank of issue, and several commercial banks operate throughout the country. The Zimbabwe Stock Exchange is located in Harare.

VI GOVERNMENT OF ZIMBABWE

Until independence in 1980, Zimbabwe was effectively ruled by the white population, through a parliament elected by a voting population limited to whites and only a small number of blacks. After independence a new constitution was drawn up that declared Zimbabwe a majority-rule republic. The 1980 constitution guarantees the fundamental rights and freedoms of the individual, regardless of race, ethnic group, place of origin, creed, or gender. Constitutional amendments approved in 1987 and 1990 provide for direct election of the president, abolish reserved seats in the legislature for whites, and establish a unicameral legislature. There is universal suffrage, and the voting age is 18.

A Executive

The head of state and government is an executive president, who is elected by direct popular vote. The president appoints the Cabinet, and two of the Cabinet members are vice presidents. Cabinet members must answer to the parliament for their actions.

B Legislature

Zimbabwe’s unicameral (single chamber) parliament is called the House of Assembly, made up of 150 members. Of these, 120 are directly elected to represent local constituencies, 10 are elected by traditional chiefs (5 from among the Shona and 5 from the Ndebele), 12 are appointed by the president, and 8 are provincial governors. All representatives serve five-year terms, and there is no limit to the number of terms they may serve. The House of Assembly is independent of the president and has the power to enact and modify laws and to levy taxes.

C Judiciary

Zimbabwe’s legal system is based on English common law (the body of law that developed in England beginning in the 12th century) and traditional Zimbabwean law. There is a Supreme Court, consisting of a chief justice and four judges of appeal. Below the Supreme Court is the High Court, consisting of 13 judges, which has original jurisdiction in major civil and criminal cases. Below the High Court are regional courts, magistrates courts, customary law courts, and local courts. These last two tiers are traditional Zimbabwean courts presided over by chiefs and headmen, which hear small claims cases and cases concerned with marriage and children. The executive branch appoints all judges.

D Local Government

Zimbabwe is divided into eight provinces and the cities of Harare and Bulawayo, which have provincial status. Each of these units is governed by a provincial council and a provincial governor. The powers of the provincial administrations are closely circumscribed by the central government. Beneath the provincial councils are dozens of district councils, rural councils, town councils, and municipal councils. At the lowest level of administration are village development councils and ward development councils.

E Political Parties

Zimbabwe’s dominant political party is the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF). ZANU-PF began as the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU), which was founded in 1963 as a Marxist party seeking majority rule in Zimbabwe. The military wings of both ZANU and the rival nationalist party Zimbabwe African People’s Union (ZAPU) merged after 1976 as the Popular Front (PF), and after independence in 1980, ZANU was known as ZANU-PF. ZANU-PF and ZAPU merged in 1988. In the 1990s ZANU-PF moved away from Marxism. The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) is the main opposition party. Smaller parties include the conservative Zimbabwe African National Union-Ndonga (ZANU-Ndonga), founded by ZANU cofounder Ndabaningi Sithole; and the Zimbabwe Unity Movement (ZUM), a breakaway party from ZANU-PF.

F Defense

Zimbabwe’s armed forces, consisting of an army and an air force, had 29,000 personnel in 2004. Military service is not compulsory.

G International Organizations

Zimbabwe is a member of the United Nations (UN) and the African Union (AU). The country also helped found the Southern African Development Coordination Conference (now the Southern African Development Community), an organization for economic cooperation between southern African countries.

VII HISTORY OF ZIMBABWE

Zimbabwe’s central plateau historically has formed a distinct cultural area. Bounded on the north and south by the Zambezi and Limpopo river valleys, on the east by mountains, and on the west by the Kalahari Desert, the area was well watered, fertile, and rich in minerals, and therefore was favorable for human habitation. San (Bushmen) hunters lived on the plateau for many hundreds, perhaps thousands, of years during prehistoric times and created remarkable rock paintings that are found throughout Zimbabwe in high-elevation granite shelters.

A Early Civilizations

About 2,000 years ago Iron Age peoples established themselves on the plateau, developing a series of distinctive pottery styles, herding cattle, and mining gold and copper that they traded with peoples of the coast. These people were the ancestors of the modern Shona population. About the 11th century ad the first stone building began, and this rapidly developed into a distinctive and impressive architectural style. Stone building reached its first peak in the city of Great Zimbabwe, which was built between the 11th and 15th centuries.

By the 11th century the population was grouped in small village communities that were ruled over by dynasties of chiefs, called Karanga. The major Karanga chiefs built their capitals in stone and by the 15th century they controlled the trade in gold to the coast of present-day Mozambique. The most important of the chieftaincies were Mutapa in the Mazoe River valley, Chicanga in the Inyanga highlands, and Quiteve in the Mozambique lowlands. These states established gold-trading fairs in their territory, which attracted traders from the coast.

B Portuguese Influence

In 1498, in the same period that the Karanga chiefs were extending their power over the lowland areas of Mozambique, the Portuguese arrived on the Indian Ocean coast. The Portuguese traded gold at the fairs and in 1569 sent a large military expedition led by Francisco Barreto to establish Portuguese control over the chieftaincy of Mutapa. This attempt failed, but Portuguese traders became influential in all the main fairs. Early in the 17th century locally recruited armies under Portuguese control conquered the Karanga chieftaincies of the north, including Mutapa, and invaded the central and southern areas. Small Portuguese trading towns were established, the most important being at Dambarare on the upper Mazoe.

C The Rozwi Empire and the Ndebele

In 1693 the Portuguese were defeated by the Rozwi chieftaincy of Changamire, whose power was based in Torwa (also called Butua) in the southwest. The Portuguese were driven off the central plateau and only retained a nominal presence at one of the fairs in the eastern highlands. The whole of present-day Zimbabwe was brought under the control of Changamire and became known as the Rozwi Empire. The Rozwi chiefs revived the tradition of building in stone and constructed impressive cities throughout the southwest. The economic power of the Rozwi Empire was based on cattle wealth, but gold mining continued, and gold was traded for luxury imports.

In the 1790s the whole southern African region began to experience a prolonged series of droughts. They weakened the Rozwi Empire, which allowed local chiefs and spirit mediums to begin seizing power. The gold fairs functioned only intermittently. Then in the early 19th century, the period of regional warfare and forced migrations known as the mfecane began. Following victories by the Zulu king Shaka in what is now eastern South Africa, the Ndwandwe, a Nguni-speaking people, were forcibly dispersed, and armed bands led by Ndwandwe chiefs migrated northward, invading the Rozwi Empire. The empire was devastated by the Ndwandwe armies of Nxaba and Zwangendaba. In the early 1830s the last Rozwi ruler was killed in his capital of Khami.

A decade later, another Nguni people, the Ndebele, entered what is now Zimbabwe from the southwest under their king, Mzilikazi. Mzilikazi had fled the Transvaal (present-day northern South Africa) after his armies were defeated by Afrikaners (South African descendents of Dutch and French Huguenot settlers). The king built a new Ndebele capital, called Bulawayo, in the southwest. The Ndebele kingdom replicated the military and economic organization of the Zulu and introduced the Ndebele dialect (a Nguni language similar to Zulu). In addition to his powerful military force, the Ndebele monarch derived his wealth and power from large herds of cattle. During the mid-19th century most of the Karanga chieftaincies (whose people were now known as Shona) of central and northern Zimbabwe retained their independence, though from time to time they were forced to pay tribute to the Ndebele.

D Cecil Rhodes

Beginning in the 1860s increasing numbers of European ivory hunters entered the area from the south and from the coast. These hunters returned to Europe with reports of vast gold deposits, spurring European interest in Matabeleland (as Europeans called the territory of the Ndebele, in the south) and Mashonaland (as they called the land of the Shona, in the north). During the 1880s the coastline of Africa was partitioned between Germany, Portugal, and Britain, and competition between European and African powers for land in the interior became intense. The Portuguese sent missions to secure the submission of the northern Shona chiefs, the Gaza Empire of southern Mozambique brought the eastern borderlands under its rule, and Afrikaner settlers began to spread north from the Transvaal. However, it was the British rulers of Cape Colony (in what is now western South Africa) who in the end successfully won concessions of land from the Ndebele king. In 1888 Lobengula, king of the Ndebele, granted a mineral concession encompassing Mashonaland (which he nominally controlled) to Cape Colony politician and financier Cecil John Rhodes. The following year the British government granted Rhodes a charter to establish the British South Africa Company. The company was given sweeping powers, including the power not only to mine but also to settle and administer a huge, vaguely defined area north of the Transvaal, including both Mashonaland and Matabeleland.

Although Rhodes held nominal authority over this ill-defined region, in 1890 very little of it was actually under British control, so Rhodes organized expeditions to secure the region and as far north as possible. In 1890 Rhodes’s “pioneer column” crossed Matabeleland and established the city of Salisbury (present-day Harare) in northern Mashonaland. The white settlers proceeded to conquer and settle a vast territory, while Rhodes built railroads and telegraphs to link the region to the outside world. Faced with severe economic problems, as workable gold had not been discovered, Rhodes and Leander Starr Jameson, the administrator of the territory, organized an attack on the Ndebele king. In 1893 the British defeated the Ndebele and distributed vast herds of captured cattle and land to white settlers, temporarily rescuing Rhodes’s company from financial disaster. The chartered territory was officially named Rhodesia, after Rhodes, in 1895.

In late 1895 Jameson led a British military force from Rhodesia in a raid on the Transvaal, hoping to incite British settlers there to overthrow the Afrikaner government. Jameson and his party were quickly arrested, however, and the raid was unsuccessful. Meanwhile, in Rhodesia the Shona and Ndebele took the opportunity to unite under the leadership of influential spirit mediums to overthrow the settlers’ rule. It was not until British troops had been sent in 1897 that the rebellion was finally put down. The same year, colonial administrators divided Rhodesia into two separate colonies: Northern Rhodesia (present-day Zambia) and Southern Rhodesia (present-day Zimbabwe). Rhodes worked to encourage British settlement in Northern and Southern Rhodesia until his death in 1902.

E Settler Colony

As Rhodes hoped, Southern Rhodesia grew as a settler-dominated colony under the rule of the British South Africa Company. Whites laid out farms along the railroad, which ran along the plateau between Salisbury and Bulawayo. In order to provide cheap labor for the colony’s farms and mines, colonial administrators imposed heavy monetary taxes on black inhabitants (who had no money, and therefore were forced to seek jobs) and encouraged immigration from Mozambique.

The settlers established a legislative council, and when the British South Africa Company charter expired in 1923, a referendum was held on whether to join South Africa. The vote went against union, and Southern Rhodesia became a self-governing British colony. This marked the beginning of decades of prosperity for white settlers in Southern Rhodesia. In 1930 the colonial government passed the Land Apportionment Act, which divided the colony into separate areas for whites and blacks. The act allocated white settlers, who numbered only about 50,000 (less than 5 percent of the colony’s population), approximately 50 percent of the land.

The Great Depression of the 1930s held back economic prosperity and white immigration. Tobacco farming developed, however, and after World War II (1939-1945) the colony witnessed considerable immigration and investment. By 1950 the white population had risen to about 125,000.

In 1953 white settlers in Northern and Southern Rhodesia pressured the British government to unite Southern Rhodesia, Northern Rhodesia, and Nyasaland (present-day Malawi) to form the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland (also known as the Central African Federation). The federation, which allowed white settlers in the colonies to consolidate their economic power, had its capital in Salisbury and was dominated by Southern Rhodesia. The federation lasted until 1963 and saw rapid economic expansion, as Southern Rhodesia industrialized and became the second-most powerful economy in southern Africa, after South Africa. The regions of the colony allocated to blacks grew overcrowded in the 1950s, prompting large numbers of blacks to move to the colony’s urban areas. By 1960 the white population had grown to 220,000.

During this period, black opposition to white settler rule grew more active and vocal. The first African labor unions began to appear in the 1920s, and in the 1950s African nationalist parties formed. As support for the parties grew, the colonial government became increasingly repressive and resisted the idea of majority rule.

F White-Ruled Rhodesia

In 1962 Nyasaland broke away from the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, which was formally dissolved in 1963. Southern Rhodesia’s white settlers, now led by Ian Douglas Smith and his Rhodesian Front party, sought independence from Britain. However, Britain’s newly elected Labour government refused to agree to independence without significant constitutional reform that would provide for eventual black African rule. In November 1965 Smith announced the Unilateral Declaration of Independence for Rhodesia, severing ties to Britain. The United Nations (UN) quickly levied sanctions against the illegal nation. In 1969 Rhodesia formally declared itself a republic.

Britain failed to take any decisive action against Rhodesia’s white government and in 1970 and 1971 tried to negotiate a settlement with Smith. Smith refused to make significant concessions and defied the weak international sanctions that had been imposed. Covertly supported by South Africa, another white-ruled state, the white Rhodesians held power without much difficulty until the mid-1970s.

The first Zimbabwean nationalist parties had emerged in the 1950s, and the early political leader of stature was Joshua Nkomo. Nkomo led a number of political movements, most notably the Zimbabwe African People’s Union (ZAPU), which was formed in 1962 and supported largely by the Ndebele of the southwest. In 1963 the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) was established by dissident Marxists who sought a more radical political stance. ZANU was led by Ndabaningi Sithole until he was replaced in 1976 by Robert Gabriel Mugabe. The colonial government banned both ZAPU and ZANU shortly after their creation, and the movements consequently developed as clandestine guerrilla groups seeking the overthrow of the white government.

In the mid-1970s guerrilla attacks became more formidable, with ZANU proving the more effective of the guerrilla movements. After 1976 the military wings of ZANU and ZAPU joined forces to create a more powerful liberation army, called the Patriotic Front (PF). Peace negotiations, at first brokered by South Africa, began in 1976, but no agreement was reached. In 1979 Rhodesia’s white regime attempted to compromise by introducing a new constitution that allowed limited black majority rule with political safeguards for whites. After elections the same year, a moderate black leader, Bishop Abel Muzorewa, formed a coalition government with the Rhodesian Front and took office as prime minister. However, ZANU and ZAPU did not accept this arrangement, viewing Muzorewa as a puppet of the white government. In 1980 the Rhodesian government accepted British and American mediation and signed the Lancaster House agreement for majority rule. In elections held that year, the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF), as ZANU became known, decisively defeated ZAPU. Mugabe was installed as prime minister, and the nation was renamed Zimbabwe.

G Independent Zimbabwe

The Lancaster House agreement had protected the position of Zimbabwe’s white inhabitants, who were allocated 20 seats in parliament. Land reform, specifically the redistribution of white-owned land to landless black peasants, was promised but was delayed in order to smooth the transition to majority rule. During the 1980s the new government increasingly moved away from its Marxist rhetoric and toward supporting a capitalistic economy. The civil war in Mozambique and unresolved political conflict in South Africa threatened the stability of the new state. Zimbabwe incurred the wrath of South Africa by supporting both the African National Congress (ANC), which opposed South Africa’s minority-rule government, and Mozambique’s government, which South Africa was attempting to overthrow by supporting a rebel group. South Africa threatened to attack ANC bases in Zimbabwe and blocked Zimbabwean exports through South African ports. Zimbabwe consequently suffered economic dislocation as it was forced to export its products through Mozambique. This required the Zimbabwean armed forces to protect the railroad corridor to the Mozambican port of Beira from South African-sponsored rebel attacks. Mugabe was one of the founders of the Southern African Development Cooperation Committee (SADCC), an organization formed to reduce regional economic dependence on South Africa, and he played a prominent role in trying to counter the influence of South Africa.

The 1980s also saw unrest within Zimbabwe. Insurrection threatened in Matabeleland in the southwest, as Ndebele dissidents who questioned the validity of the 1980 elections began to stockpile arms. The government severely repressed the Ndebele opposition, and Nkomo and other members of the Ndebele-supported ZAPU were expelled from the government. In 1985 legislative elections, ZANU won again by a landslide everywhere but in Matabeleland. However, corruption scandals rocked Mugabe’s government, and several splinter parties broke away from ZANU-PF. In an effort to consolidate his power, in 1987 Mugabe had the constitution revised, replacing the office of prime minister with that of president, which combines the posts of head of state and head of government. In 1988 Mugabe’s ZANU-PF and Nkomo’s ZAPU agreed to merge under the name of ZANU-PF, and Zimbabwe’s ethnic and political tension eased greatly. Mugabe appointed Nkomo one of two joint vice presidents in 1990.

H Recent Developments

In the early 1990s the transition to majority rule in South Africa coincided with peace negotiations in Mozambique, and Zimbabwe seemed poised to turn its lackluster economy around. In exchange for economic aid and assistance from the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Zimbabwe agreed to a structural adjustment package designed to move the country from a state-controlled economy to a free-market economy. These measures led to further economic struggles for many Zimbabweans, and popular discontent for Mugabe grew. Mugabe was reelected as president in 1996, running unopposed after the withdrawal of two opposition candidates who protested against allegedly unfair electoral regulations.

In 1997 Mugabe announced a controversial program of land redistribution. Hundreds of white-owned commercial farms, making up nearly half of Zimbabwe’s total commercial farmland, were designated to be seized without compensation and divided among landless blacks and blacks with only small landholdings. Faced with strong protests by white farmers and the international economic community, the Zimbabwean government retreated from this position. In what was widely seen as a significant challenge to Mugabe’s authority, Zimbabwean voters in February 2000 rejected a constitutional referendum that would have expanded Mugabe’s powers and allowed the government to seize white-owned farms without compensation. Soon after the referendum, however, government-backed militias began violently occupying white-owned farms. Most of Zimbabwe’s white farmers fled the country, and soon few white-owned farms remained. Opposition groups accused the government of distributing seized farmland only to supporters of the ruling party. The seizures and resulting chaos destroyed the country’s commercial agricultural sector, forcing many Zimbabweans to survive on food donated from other countries.

Mugabe was reelected president in March 2002. Allegations of voter intimidation and other irregularities led some international observers to declare the presidential election flawed. ZANU-PF similarly dominated 2005 legislative elections. In May 2005 Zimbabwean police forces abruptly began demolishing what the government termed “illegal structures” in urban areas around the country. The bulldozing of shantytowns left hundreds of thousands of Zimbabweans without homes.

In the aftermath of the farmland seizures, the economy of Zimbabwe suffered a complete meltdown. The collapse of the agricultural sector deprived the country of its main source of revenue, and the country became mired in massive deficits. The rate of inflation soared beyond control several years in succession, and in January 2008 officially reached 100,000 percent annually. About 80 percent of the people lived in poverty, and shortages of food and fuel were widespread. The economic collapse led to growing discontent with Mugabe and his ZANU-PF. Also, divisions within the ruling party became evident when a former finance minister, Simba Makoni, presented himself as a candidate in the 2008 presidential election. He ran against Mugabe and the main opposition candidate, Morgan Tsvangirai, of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).

Presidential and parliamentary elections were held concurrently in March 2008. ZANU-PF lost its majority for the first time since independence in 1980, winning 97 seats in the 210-seat House of Assembly. The MDC won 99 seats, and a breakaway MDC faction won 10 seats; the remainder went to independents. The results for the Senate were evenly divided, with ZANU-PF and the combined opposition each taking 30 seats. Meanwhile, the election commission delayed announcing the results of the presidential election. The MDC claimed that Tsvangirai won just over 50 percent of the vote, making a runoff unnecessary, but the Mugabe camp disputed those claims and called for a recount.

ZAMBIA

2010-08-08T09:00:00.003-07:00

Zambia
I INTRODUCTION

Zambia, republic in south central Africa, bounded on the north by the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC, formerly Zaire) and Tanzania; on the east by Malawi; on the southeast by Mozambique; on the south by Zimbabwe, Botswana, and the Caprivi Strip of Namibia; and on the west by Angola. The area is 752,614 sq km (290,586 sq mi). Zambia’s capital and largest city is Lusaka.

II LAND AND RESOURCES

Most of Zambia is high plateau with a flat or gently undulating terrain. Elevations average between about 1,100 and 1,400 m (about 3,500 and 4,500 ft). Mountains in the northeast exceed 2,000 m (6,600 ft). Major rivers are the Zambezi in the west and south and its tributaries, the Kafue in the west and the Luangwa in the east; and the Luapula and Chambeshi, in the north. Lake Bangweulu, in the north, is surrounded by a vast swampy region. Lake Kariba is a large reservoir formed by Kariba Dam on the Zambezi River.

A Climate

Although lying within the Tropic Zone, much of Zambia enjoys a pleasant subtropical climate because of the high altitude. The average temperature in Lusaka during July, the coldest month of the year, is 16°C (61°F); the hottest month, January, has an average temperature of 21°C (70°F). Annual rainfall ranges from 750 mm (30 in) in the south to 1,300 mm (51 in) in the north. Nearly all of the rain falls between November and April.

B Natural Resources

Most of the country has savanna-type vegetation—grasslands interspersed with trees. Teak forests are in the southwest. Animals include elephants, lions, rhinoceroses, and several varieties of antelope. Of overwhelming importance are the rich mineral veins of the country’s copper belt. The belt extends down into Zambia from southern DRC and contains major deposits of copper, cobalt, and other minerals. Zambia also has substantial hydroelectric potential. The Kariba Dam on the Zambezi River is the country’s main power source. Zambia shares the Kariba system with Zimbabwe. Other stations on the Lunsemfwa and Mulungushi rivers serve Kabwe. Installations have also been built on the Kafue River. In 2003 the total output of electricity was 8.3 billion kilowatt-hours, nearly all of which was produced by hydroelectric plants.

C Environmental Issues

Zambia is one of the most industrialized countries in Africa, and air pollution and the resulting acid rain are growing problems. The lack of adequate water-treatment facilities presents substantial health risks to the population.

Wetlands, including floodplains, swamps, and mudflats, make up about 6 percent of Zambia’s area, although none are adequately protected from degradation. Only about 42.2 percent (1995) of the land is forested, mostly with open woodland. Deforestation takes place at a rate of about 1 percent per year. Some important habitats are endangered, such as mountain areas in the northeast.

National forest makes up about 9 percent of the land. In addition, there are 19 national parks that protect about 8 percent of the country’s land, although game management areas and protected forests cover more than 20 percent of the land. Threats to protected land include brushfires, agricultural encroachment, prospecting and mining activities, hydroelectric development, habitat destruction due to local overpopulation of some game species, and poaching, especially of elephant and rhinoceros.

Zambia has ratified international environmental agreements concerning biodiversity, climate change, endangered species, hazardous wastes, the ozone layer, and wetlands. Regionally, the country participates in the African Convention on the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources.

III POPULATION

Zambia’s population, predominantly rural, is made up of more than 70 ethnic groups, many of them Bantu-speaking. Most groups are small; the largest are the Bemba, Nyanja, and Tonga peoples.

A Population Characteristics

The population of Zambia at the time of the 1990 census was 7,818,447. A 2008 estimate was 11,669,534, giving the country an overall population density of 16 persons per sq km (41 per sq mi); much of the northeast and west is sparsely inhabited.

B Political Divisions and Principal Cities

Zambia is divided into nine provinces, each governed by a minister appointed by the president. Lusaka, the capital, had a population (2003 estimate) of 1,394,000. Other major centers are Ndola (374,757), Kitwe (376,124), Mufulira (204,104), and Luanshya (186,372), all in the copper belt.

C Religion and Language

About 80 percent of the people of Zambia are Christian; many of them adhere to independent churches which combine elements of Christianity and African religions. Most of the remainder follow traditional religions. More than 70 African languages are spoken, including Bemba, Lozi, Luvale, Tonga, and Nyanja. The official language is English.

D Education

School attendance has increased substantially since Zambia’s independence in 1964. In 2000 some 1.6 million pupils were enrolled in primary schools, representing 82 percent of school-aged children. Only 28 percent of secondary school-aged children were enrolled. The University of Zambia (founded in 1965), at Lusaka, had about 10,500 students in the mid-1990s.

The Livingstone Museum, at Livingstone, has a collection relating to the archaeology and natural history of southern Africa. The Institute for African Studies of the University of Zambia publishes studies relating to central Africa.

IV ECONOMY

The wealth of Zambia is based largely on mining in the rich copper belt, and downturns in copper prices have severely damaging economic consequences. Some processing and manufacturing has been started since independence, and during the 1970s attempts were made to diversify agriculture and to make the country self-sufficient in food. In 2006 the national budget showed $1,898 million in revenue and $2,143 million in expenditure.

A Labor

In 2006 some 5 million Zambians participated in the labor force. The principal labor organization is the Zambia Congress of Trade Unions, which has about 400,000 members. Civil servants and miners also have unions.

B Agriculture

Some 70 percent of Zambia’s working population is engaged in agriculture, largely subsistence farming. Principal crops and the amount produced in metric tons in 2006 were corn, the staple grain (865,000); sugarcane (2.7 million); and cassava (1 million). Sunflower seeds, peanuts, sweet potatoes, and tobacco are also grown. Beef and dairy cattle are raised for domestic use. The agricultural sector remains underdeveloped and vulnerable to weather fluctuations, and food shortages have occurred.

C Mining

The copper mines of Zambia are among the richest in the world. Although world copper prices collapsed in 1975, damaging the Zambian economy, in the early 1990s the country still received about half of its export earnings from copper. Output in 2004 was 426,900 metric tons. Zambia is also among the world’s largest producers of cobalt. Other minerals extracted were gold (150 kg/331 lb), silver (7 metric tons), and gem-quality emeralds. A diamond field was discovered in 1992.

D Manufacturing

Manufacturing, mining, and construction employ only 7 percent of the labor force but account for 33 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP). Principal activities were the smelting and refining of copper and other metals, vehicle assembly, petroleum refining, food processing, and the production of fertilizers, explosives, and textiles.

E Currency and Banking

The decimal system of currency, issued in 1968, is based on the kwacha, consisting of 100 ngwee (3,603 kwachas equal U.S.$1; 2006 average). The country’s central bank is the Bank of Zambia (1964); commercial, development, and foreign banks are widely represented.

F Foreign Trade

Imports—such as machinery and transport equipment, mineral fuels and lubricants, chemicals, food, and basic manufactured goods—totaled $1,253 million in 2002. Exports—chiefly copper and cobalt—totaled $930 million. Principal partners for exports are Japan, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, Taiwan, India, Belgium and Luxembourg (which constitute a single trading entity), France, and Malaysia; principal partners for imports are South Africa, the United Kingdom, Zimbabwe, Japan, Saudi Arabia, and the United States.

G Transportation and Communications

Zambia has 1,273 km (791 mi) of railroads. A railroad from Zimbabwe runs to Livingstone, Lusaka, and Ndola, connecting with the DRC system, and then to Benguela on the Atlantic coast of Angola. The Tanzania-Zambia Railroad (Tazara) connects Lusaka with the port of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania. Some 91,440 km (56,818 mi) of roads connect the towns of Zambia. Lusaka is served by an international airport. The government operates radio and television stations at Lusaka and Kitwe. In 1999 there were 149 radio receivers and 142 television sets in use for every 1,000 inhabitants.

V GOVERNMENT

Zambia is a republic with a president elected to a maximum of two five-year terms by direct universal suffrage. The president appoints a cabinet, which is headed by a prime minister. Zambia’s legislative body, the National Assembly, has 159 members: 150 popularly elected members, 8 members appointed by the president, and the speaker of the house. The 27-member House of Chiefs is an advisory body.

The United National Independence Party (UNIP) was Zambia’s sole legal political organization until 1990. In 1991 the legislature enacted a new constitution providing for a multiparty system and limiting presidential powers. An opposition group, the Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD), won the 1991 general elections. The constitution was amended in 1996. In 2001 the MMD emerged from general elections with less than half of the seats in the National Assembly, but remained the largest single party.

A Judiciary

The judicial system includes a supreme court, a high court, and lower courts on the British model. African customary law is applied in special courts.

B Defense

In 2004 the armed forces of Zambia consisted of an army of 13,500 and an air force of 1,600. Military service is voluntary.

VI HISTORY

Southward-migrating Bantu farmers and herders settled in the area that is now Zambia over a period of several centuries beginning around the 4th century ad. These forerunners of the Sotho and Nguni groups developed mining and metalworking techniques. A new group, the Shona Bantu, arrived in the 12th century. Later, the Karanga clan of the Shona established the great empire of Mutapa, which included southern Zambia. In the 17th and 18th centuries, the Lunda and Lozi from the Congo (now the DRC) populated the northern plains and upper Zambezi River area. In the 19th century, the Kololo, fleeing the wars in South Africa, moved northward and established brief control over much of central and northern Zambia before the Lozi once again asserted their dominance. Eastern Zambia was settled by Bantu peoples related to those in Malawi. Despite their differences, these various Bantu groups shared certain common characteristics. They were primarily agriculturists, but most of them also kept cattle. They were tribally oriented, and their states usually were small, except when a dominant king, such as the ruler of the Karanga, Kololo, or Lozi, imposed his will on neighboring tribes. Consequently, when the British moved into Zambia—or Barotseland, as they called it—in the latter part of the 19th century, no powerful kingdoms were there to resist them.

A British Rule

At the time of British penetration in the area, the strongest state in Zambia was that of the Lozi under Chief Lewanika, who openly solicited British protection. A treaty establishing British protection was signed between the Lozi overlord and a representative of the British South Africa Company in 1889. Eastern Zambia was added to Britain’s empire by Sir Harry Johnston during his conquest of Nyasaland (now Malawi). A regular British resident, titled “agent in charge,” was sent to Lewanika in 1897. Three years later the British government directly assumed jurisdiction over the entire area.

British government in Zambia (then called Northern Rhodesia) was the same as in its other African territories, consisting of a small central executive authority made up of appointed Europeans headed by a governor; the system of indirect rule allowed great freedom to local rulers. In the late 1920s a major development occurred: the discovery of copper in the north. This led to the extension of the railway and the building of the first smelting plants in the so-called copper belt. By the beginning of World War II in 1939, Zambia had become a major producer of copper, and the extreme urbanization of the northwest was under way. The copper industry brought an influx of European technicians and administrators to Zambia, and although they never gained the political power of European settlers in Southern Rhodesia (present-day Zimbabwe), they became a dominant force in Zambian life.

In 1953, under pressure from the white minority in Southern Rhodesia, the British government forced the creation of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, comprising the territories of Northern Rhodesia, Southern Rhodesia, and Nyasaland (now Malawi). It was dominated by the white population of the territories, and the central government headed by Lord Malvern and Sir Roy Welensky was a reflection of Southern Rhodesian politics. The federation was condemned from its inception by every African politician in the state. The path toward independence was more difficult for Zambia than for most other British African territories because the federation had to be broken first. This was accomplished by Malawi in conjunction with pressure applied by Zambian nationalists, led by Kenneth Kaunda.

B Independence

The federation was dissolved at the end of 1963. Nyasaland became independent as Malawi in July 1964, and Northern Rhodesia as Zambia in October 1964. Southern Rhodesia changed its name to Rhodesia. Kaunda’s party, the United National Independence Party (UNIP), won the first and all subsequent elections until the early 1990s. In 1972 Zambia became a one-party state, but its leadership remained moderate and pro-Western. Private land was nationalized in 1975 as part of an unsuccessful agricultural improvement program. The completion of the rail link to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, in 1976, freed Zambia from its dependence on the Rhodesian- and South African-controlled railway for the transport of its copper.

President Kaunda opposed the white-dominated regime in Rhodesia, and his assistance to guerrilla insurgents proved crucial to the establishment of a black majority government there in 1980. Although Kaunda was reelected to a sixth presidential term in 1988, popular discontent with Zambia’s stagnant economy and his autocratic rule continued to grow. In 1990 food riots and an abortive coup shook the government, and the aging leader agreed to allow multiparty voting. The opposition Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD) won the 1991 general election, and its presidential candidate, Frederick Chiluba, defeated Kaunda by a wide margin.

In May 1996 Chiluba’s government amended the Zambian constitution, introducing a controversial provision that required presidential candidates to be from families established in Zambia for at least two generations. The amended constitution also prevented presidents from serving more than two terms. Kaunda, whose parents were immigrants from Malawi, was therefore disqualified on both accounts. In response, the UNIP, under Kaunda’s leadership, boycotted the November 1996 elections. Chiluba was elected to a second term.

In December 2001 elections, MMD presidential candidate Levy Mwanawasa received more votes than any of the 11 opposition candidates. He therefore succeeded Chiluba as president in January 2002, despite having received only 29 percent of the popular vote. Mwanawasa was reelected to a second term in 2006.

YEMEN

2010-08-08T09:00:00.001-07:00

Yemen
I INTRODUCTION

Yemen, country in the Middle East, occupying the southwestern corner of the Arabian Peninsula (Arabia). Tall mountains divide Yemen’s coastal stretches from a desolate desert interior. Yemen is sparsely populated—half of the country is uninhabitable—and its Arab people are largely rural. The site of several prosperous civilizations in ancient times, Yemen declined in importance and was a poor and forgotten land for more than a thousand years. The discovery of oil in the area in the late 20th century held out the prospect of economic development and an easier life for the people of Yemen.

The Republic of Yemen was created in 1990 out of the unification of the Yemen Arab Republic (YAR) and the People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen (PDRY). The YAR was commonly called North Yemen, and the PDRY was generally referred to as South Yemen, although South Yemen was actually less to the south than to the east and southeast of North Yemen. Sana‘a (Sanaa) is the Republic of Yemen’s capital and largest city.

Yemen is bounded on the west by the Red Sea and on the south by the Gulf of Aden (an arm of the Arabian Sea, which is part of the Indian Ocean), and is separated from Africa by the narrow strait of Bab el Mandeb. To the north and northeast lies Saudi Arabia and to the east is Oman; these two countries are Yemen’s only contiguous neighbors. Yemen covers about 527,970 sq km (about 203,850 sq mi).

II LAND AND RESOURCES

Yemen is a largely desert land. There are no permanent rivers in the country, and little natural vegetation besides scrub brush. Yemen possesses several sizable islands, most notably Socotra in the Indian Ocean, Perim in the Bab el Mandeb, and Kamaran and the Ḩānīsh Islands in the Red Sea.

The rectangular Arabian plate, which defines the Arabian Peninsula, is tilted and Yemen constitutes its uppermost corner. The edge of this corner takes the form of a steep, jagged mountain range that separates a low coastal plain (west and south of the mountains) from a high interior plateau (east and north of the mountains).

A Natural Regions

The Yemeni highlands average about 1,830 m (about 6,000 ft) above sea level and rise at Jabal an Nabī Shu‘ayb to 3,760 m (12,336 ft), the highest peak on the Arabian Peninsula. The highlands in the north are loftier and more extensive than in the south. Since the northern highlands have a generally less forbidding climate and greater rainfall, they support more intensive and extensive agriculture and a larger population.

To the west and south, the highlands drop abruptly to a low, flat coastal desert plain called the Tihāmah. Averaging about 50 km (about 30 mi) in width, this plain parallels the Red Sea the length of northern Yemen, turns abruptly east at the corner of the peninsula, and then runs parallel to the Gulf of Aden for part of the length of southern Yemen. The Tihāmah is hot, humid, and arid, and has little vegetation.

To the east and north, the highlands descend gradually to the interior plateau that holds the vast Arabian desert known as the Rub‘ al Khali (Empty Quarter). The eastern half of Yemen is basically uninhabitable. The exception is the region of Hadhramaut, a large valley running parallel to the Gulf of Aden coast then turning southward to the sea. Here, some fertile valleys allow agriculture and larger settlements.

B Climate

The Yemeni highlands have a generally semiarid but otherwise temperate climate. By contrast, the coastal plain is hot and humid much of the year, and at times extremely so; summer and winter winds often bring severe sandstorms. Average temperatures for Yemen as a whole vary from about 27°C (80°F) in June to about 14°C (57°F) in January.

Every year during the summer months, monsoon winds blow inland over the water, picking up moisture, and the mountains force the warm air to rise, cool, and condense. The considerable, although erratic, seasonal rainfall allows for intensive cultivation, much of it on stonewalled terraces and in wadis—streambeds that flow with water only during and after the rains. The average rainfall in the highlands varies from 303 to 762 mm (8 to 30 in), whereas on the coast it varies from 76 to 229 mm (3 to 9 in).

III PEOPLE AND SOCIETY

Most inhabitants of Yemen are ethnic Arabs, although there exist relatively small communities of Africans, South Asians, and Europeans. People of different regions of Yemen are culturally distinct. Many of the inhabitants of Hadhramaut reflect the cultural and genetic influence of Southeast Asia with which the district has historic commercial ties. Those Yemenis living in the coastal lowlands reflect the racial and cultural influences of nearby Africa. Cosmopolitan Aden, which Britain ruled as part of India from the mid-1800s through the early 1900s, still bears traces of the culture of the Indian subcontinent.

A significant minority of the population is organized into tribes, and for many Yemenis tribal identity is of primary importance. This is particularly true in the northern highlands, where the sheikhs of several individual tribes and two large tribal confederations, the Hashid and Bakil, can still mobilize large numbers in defense of tribal interests. Virtually all of the inhabitants of northern Yemen are sedentary, meaning they have fixed homes and do not move from place to place like nomads. A slightly smaller percentage is sedentary in the south. A small number of nomadic pastoralists can be found on the edge of the desert far to the east. Although Yemen has traditionally been characterized by a stratified social system marked by castelike groups at the top and bottom, this structure is breaking down as economic opportunities become available and new social ideas come to prevail.

A Population Characteristics

The total population of Yemen is 23,013,376 (2008 estimate). The average population density is 44 persons per sq km (113 per sq mi). Although more than one and a half times its size in land area, the former South Yemen had less than one-third the population of the former North Yemen when they merged in 1990. The population of southern Yemen is concentrated in and around its urban areas and the Hadhramaut region. By contrast, the far larger population of northern Yemen is scattered over a great many towns, villages, and hamlets; the combined populations of its principal urban centers comprise just a fraction of the north’s total population.

B Principal Cities and Towns

Yemen has four major cities. Sana‘a, located in the northern highlands, is Yemen’s political capital and largest city (population, 2003 estimate, 1,469,000). Aden (634,710), on the Gulf of Aden coast 180 km (110 mi) east of the Bab el Mandeb, was the capital of South Yemen and is the unified country’s economic hub and largest port. Al Ḩudaydah (155,110), in the Tihāmah, is the second largest port. Ta‘izz, (178,043), in the highlands above Aden, is an important commercial and light industrial center. Among Yemen’s larger towns are Şa‘dah, far to the north; Dhamār, Yarim, and Ibb, in the middle region; Al Mukallā, on the southern coast; and in Hadhramaut, the towns of Shibām, Say‘ūn, and Tarīm.

C Language

Nearly all Yemenis speak Arabic. However, the country’s extremely rugged terrain, widely separated population centers, and less-developed means of transportation and communications have produced several different dialects. The most notable difference exists between the dialect of the northern Yemeni highlands and that of Aden and the southern part of the former North Yemen.

D Religion

The indigenous people of Yemen are almost all Muslims, with small resident communities of Christians, Jews, and Hindus. The Christian population that existed in Yemen in pre-Islamic times virtually disappeared during the Islamic era, which began in the 7th century ad. All but a few thousand members of the formerly significant Jewish community, which may have resided continuously in Yemen since pre-Islamic times, emigrated to Israel shortly after its creation in 1948. Yemen’s Muslim population has suffered from divisiveness. Through centuries of persecution, the once large and powerful Ismaili Shia community (see Ismailis) was reduced to an insignificant minority residing in the mountains, although this number has increased somewhat in recent years.

A long-standing division remains between Yemen’s two principal religious groups, the Zaydi Shia Muslims and the Shafi’i Sunni Muslims (see Shia Islam; Sunni Islam). The Zaydis of the northern highlands dominated politics and cultural life in northern Yemen for centuries. With the unification of Yemen and the addition of the south’s almost totally Shafi’i population, the numerical balance shifted dramatically away from the Zaydis.

E Education

Yemen’s constitution grants all citizens the right to an education. Nevertheless, the country’s educational system, probably better in the south than in the north, still fails to reach a large part of the population, especially girls. In 2002–2003 only 68 percent of Yemen’s primary school-age girls attended school, compared to 98 percent of primary school-age boys. Just 33 percent of Yemen’s adult female population is literate, while 73 percent of adult men are literate.

Public schools exist in larger towns and cities, and children in most rural areas attend Islamic religious schools. Secondary schools in Yemen funnel many students into Sana‘a University (1970) and the University of Aden (1975).

F Way of Life

Yemeni tribesmen are known by the jambiyya, or curved dagger, carried in a scabbard on a wide belt at the front of the body. Men often wear one of several types of skirts rather than pants, and a straw hat or headcloth. They also may wear Western styles of clothing. The clothing of Yemeni women, which includes robes, shawls, and veils, varies greatly from region to region; much of it is colorful, striking, and imaginative.

Women in Yemen tend to live secluded from unrelated men, although this is less true under the more relaxed conditions in the countryside and former South Yemen generally. The most distinctive and important Yemeni social institution is the “khat session,” a relaxed but ritualized afternoon gathering at which men and women socialize separately and chew the mildly narcotic leaves of the khat (qat) plant. Most men and many women chew khat at least twice a week.

The Yemeni diet includes rice, bread, vegetables, fish, and lamb. A spicy green stew called salta is one of Yemen’s most popular dishes. Housing in Yemen varies from region to region. In the Tihāmah, near the Red Sea, people live in African-style circular reed huts. Residents of the highlands, many of whom are farmers, sometimes live in stone or mud-brick houses of multiple stories, often intricately decorated with alabaster or stained glass. City dwellers also reside in houses of this type, or else in modern-style houses or flats.

Yemen’s relative isolation and traditionally weak economy have produced a number of long-standing social problems. Because education was until recently unavailable to the majority of Yemenis, the country has traditionally had one of the lowest literacy rates in Asia. This is particularly true for women in Yemen, who have not generally been encouraged to seek schooling. In addition, health care in Yemen is notoriously underdeveloped. Polluted drinking water, inadequate vaccination, and a shortage of medical personnel and facilities have contributed to the quick spread of numerous diseases among Yemenis. These conditions have also given Yemen a high infant mortality rate and a much lower rate of life expectancy than in other countries of the Arabian Peninsula. Since the late 20th century, Yemeni leaders have made greater efforts to provide social welfare for the nation’s inhabitants; with the help of foreign aid, new training and treatment facilities have opened, and new health-care programs are in operation in some rural areas.

G Art and Architecture

Yemen has a rich and varied tradition of arts and handicrafts. In addition to painting, sculpture, and metalwork, the making of stained glass is a popular art form in Yemen, and the brightly colored glass is often used to decorate public buildings and private homes. Yemenis also have a tradition of oral literature; poetry is often delivered during celebrations and is sometimes broadcast via radio or television.

Although Yemen’s public architecture is undistinguished, the country is graced with spectacular works of domestic architecture, from the stone fortress villages on mountain slopes to the often fancifully decorated, multistoried stone and mud-brick skyscrapers of Sana‘a and Shibām. Other examples of striking architecture include the serpentine mud construction of Şa‘dah in the north and the geometrically decorated mud-brick buildings of Zabīd on the Tihāmah.

Cultural sites in Yemen include the Republican Palace in Sana‘a, where the imam, or Zaydi political ruler, lived. There are important mosques in most of Yemen’s major cities, and dozens in Sana‘a alone; especially notable is the Great Mosque in Sana‘a, an important Zaydi house of worship.

IV ECONOMY

For centuries, Yemen’s economy was based on subsistence agriculture and was largely self-sufficient. However, with the import of cheap goods from abroad, North Yemen moved quickly from self-sufficiency to dependence after 1960, as the south had done decades earlier. During the 1970s and 1980s North Yemen came to rely heavily on Saudi Arabia, the Arab Gulf states, and to a lesser extent, the western industrial countries for financial and other assistance, while South Yemen became equally dependent on the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) and other communist countries.

The unification of Yemen in 1990 and the negative effects of the Persian Gulf War the following year caused economic hardship but also spurred a new commitment to economic planning and development in Yemen. Efforts to improve the economy focused on Yemen’s petroleum industry, its considerable agricultural and fishing potential, job training, and infrastructure. By the late 1990s Yemen’s efforts, particularly in developing its petroleum industry, had resulted in a stable, growing economy.

A Mining

Oil was discovered in Yemen relatively recently, in the 1980s and 1990s. Yemen’s oil production grew from 70 million barrels per year in 1990 to 164 million barrels per year in 2004. Oil consequently came to dominate Yemen’s economy—more than half of government revenue now comes from oil. Yemen also has natural gas fields that remain largely unexploited. Other mines and quarries in Yemen produce rock salt, limestone, marble, and alabaster.

B Agriculture and Fishing

Yemen’s economy was primarily agricultural until the rise of the petroleum industry. Agriculture remains an important sector, and farming and livestock raising remain the chief livelihood for most of the country’s population. The extremes of topography and climate, especially in the north, permit a wide variety of crops, including grain (particularly sorghum, but also wheat, millet, and barley), fruits and vegetables (most notably tomatoes, potatoes, grapes, watermelons, papayas, and bananas), coffee, and the domestically valuable khat. In most areas of the highlands, crops are grown in terraced fields cut into the hills. Since the 1980s Yemeni farmers have developed various irrigation projects in an effort to turn some of the country’s plentiful desert into workable farmland and to further increase the variety of crops that can be planted. Sheep and goats are widely raised in Yemen, as are some cattle.

Fishing is also important to Yemen’s economy. Tuna, mackerel, cod, and lobster are caught by commercial as well as independent boats; the catch is sold fresh and dried, and canning factories are in operation in some of the country’s coastal areas.

C Manufacturing

Yemen’s petroleum refineries account for a large share of the country’s industrial output. Other manufactured products include foodstuffs, textiles, farming equipment, cement, and cigarettes. Oil-fueled electrical power plants produce all of Yemen’s electricity. Many products in Yemen continue to be made by hand and sold locally. Woven fabrics, glass and leatherwork, pottery, and jewelry are made by craftspeople who sell their work in the suqs (bazaars) held in many of Yemen’s cities, towns, and villages.

D Currency

Yemen’s unit of currency is the riyal (197 riyals equal U.S.$1, 2006). The riyal consists of 100 fils.

E Foreign Trade

Oil dominates Yemen’s export trade, and the rise of the petroleum industry has allowed the country to turn from large trade deficits in the mid-1990s to large trade surpluses in the early 21st century. In 2004 Yemen’s exports totaled $4.05 billion, and its imports $3.73billion. Petroleum products account for more than 95 percent of export earnings. Other exports include textiles, hides and skins, and coffee. Yemen’s chief imported products are food, manufactured consumer goods, machinery, transportation equipment, and chemicals. Leading purchasers of Yemen’s exports are India, Thailand, South Korea, China, and Singapore; chief sources of imports are the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, India, Kuwait, and the United States.

F Transportation and Communications

Yemen has international airports in Sana‘a, Aden, Ta‘izz, and Al Ḩudaydah, and a good domestic air system. The ports at Aden and Al Ḩudaydah provide access to major sea routes. A network of paved roads is replacing old dirt tracks, a process that began in the 1960s. Trucks and cars are widely used for land transportation, although some Yemenis still use donkeys and camels. Since unification in 1990 the government has worked to extend utilities such as electricity, water, and sewage disposal to all Yemenis, and to make telephone service, radio, and television more widely available. A state-run broadcasting corporation operates several radio and television stations. Several daily newspapers are published in Yemen.

V GOVERNMENT

Yemen is governed under a constitution adopted in 1991, and subsequently amended. The amended constitution states that Yemen is a democratic, Islamic republic, and that Sharia (Islamic law) is the basis of all Yemeni legislation.

Before unification, North Yemen was governed by a benign authoritarian regime dominated by the military, and South Yemen functioned as a centralized socialist party-state. Politics opened up with the creation of the Republic of Yemen in 1990, and the number of freely functioning parties, lobbying groups, and communications outlets multiplied. The 1993 election was the first multiparty election on the Arabian Peninsula, and the first in which women could vote. The vast majority of Yemenis participated.

A Executive

Yemen’s head of state is a president, who is popularly elected to a seven-year term. The president appoints a vice president, prime minister, and cabinet of ministers.

B Legislative

Yemen has a bicameral (two-chambered) legislature. The 111 members of the upper house, called the Shura Council, are appointed by the president. The 301 members of the lower house, called the House of Representatives, are popularly elected to six-year terms.

C Political Parties

The General People’s Congress (GPC), the former ruling party of North Yemen, has held a dominant position in the government since the first elections in unified Yemen, in 1993. The main opposition parties are the conservative Islamic Reform Grouping (al-Islah) and the Yemeni Socialist Party (YSP), the former ruling party of South Yemen.

VI HISTORY

With the rise of the great ancient civilizations in Egypt, Mesopotamia, and along the Mediterranean Sea, historic Yemen became an important overland trade link between these civilizations and the highly prized luxury goods of South Arabia and points east and south. As a result, several pre-Islamic trading kingdoms grew up astride an incense trading route that ran northwest between the foothills and the edge of the desert. First, there was the Minaean kingdom, which lasted from about 1200 to 650 bc, and whose prosperity was due mainly to the trade of frankincense and spices. The large and prosperous kingdom of Saba’ (Sheba), founded in the 10th century bc and ruled by Bilqis, the queen of Sheba, among others, was known for its efficient farming and extensive irrigation system built around a large dam constructed at Ma‘rib. Farther south and east, in the region that would later become South Yemen, were the Qataban and Hadhramaut kingdoms, which also participated in the incense trade. The last of the great pre-Islamic kingdoms was that of Himyar, which lasted from about the 1st century bc until the ad 500s (see Himyarites). At their heights, the Sabaean and Himyarite kingdoms encompassed most of historic Yemen.

Because of their prominence and prosperity, the states and societies of ancient Yemen were collectively called Arabia Felix in Latin, meaning “Happy Arabia.” However, when the Romans occupied Egypt in the 1st century bc they made the Red Sea their primary avenue of commerce. With the decline of the caravan routes, the kingdoms of southern Arabia lost much of their wealth and fell into obscurity. Red Sea traffic sailed past Yemen, and what seaborne commerce Yemen engaged in had little impact on the country’s interior. The Tihāmah region, which was hot, humid, swept by sandstorms, and clouded in haze, isolated the comparatively well-watered and populous highlands. The weakened Yemeni regimes that followed the trading kingdoms were unable to prevent the occupation of Yemen by the Christian Abyssinian kingdom (modern Ethiopia) in the 4th and early 6th centuries ad and by the Sassanids of Persia in the later 6th century, just before the rise of Islam.

A Rise of Islam

The Islamic era, which began in the 7th century, contains many events critical to the formation of Yemen and the Yemeni people. The force with which Islam spread from its origins in Mecca and Medina in the nearby region of Al Ḩijāz (the Hejaz) led to Yemen’s rapid and thorough conversion to Islam. Yemenis were well-represented among the first soldiers of Islam who marched north, west, and east of Arabia to expand Muslim territory.

Yemen was ruled by a series of Muslim caliphs, beginning with the Umayyad dynasty, which ruled from Damascus in the latter part of the 7th century; Umayyad rule was followed by the Abbasid caliphs in the early 8th century (see Caliphate). The founding of a local Yemeni dynasty in the 9th century effectively ended both Abbasid rule from Baghdād and the authority of the Arab caliphate. This allowed Yemen to develop its own variant of Arab-Islamic culture and society in relative isolation. In the 10th century, the establishment of the Zaydi imamate, essentially a theocracy, in the far north of Yemen forged a deep, lasting link between the towns and tribes of the northern highlands and the Zaydi Shia sect of Islam. By contrast, the two-century-long rule of the Rasulids, beginning in the 1200s and initially based in Aden, identified the coastal regions and the southern uplands with Shafi’i Islam. The Rasulids, one of the major dynasties in the history of Yemen, broke from the Egyptian Ayyubid dynasty to rule independently. Their capital, later located at Ta‘izz, was famous for its diverse artistic and intellectual achievements.

B Ottoman Rule

In the early 16th century Portuguese merchants came to Arabia and took over the Red Sea trade routes between Egypt and India. The Portuguese annexed the island of Socotra in the Indian Ocean, and from that vantage point tried unsuccessfully to take control of Aden. Following the Portuguese, the Egyptian Mamluks attempted to take power in Yemen, successfully capturing Sana‘a but failing to take Aden. Armies of the Ottoman Empire conquered Egypt in 1517, and in 1538 brought most of Yemen under their control. The Ottomans were expelled nearly a century later, after a long struggle led by the Zaydi imamate that united and strengthened Yemeni identity and ushered in a long period of Zaydi rule.

Yemen developed an extensive coffee trade under Ottoman rule, with the coastal town of Mocha (Al Mukhā) becoming a coffee port of international importance. Despite this, the highlands of Yemen remained economically and culturally isolated from the outside world from the mid-17th century to nearly the mid-19th century, a period during which Western Europe was greatly influenced by modern thought and technology.

C Divided Yemen

The process by which Yemen and the Yemeni people were divided into two countries began with the British seizure of Aden in 1839 and the reoccupation of North Yemen by the Ottomans in 1849. Throughout the second half of the 19th century, both the Ottomans and the British expanded their control of Yemeni lands. In the early 20th century, the two powers drew a border between their territories, which came to be called North and South Yemen, respectively. This boundary remained intact for most of the 20th century.

C1 North Yemen in the 20th Century

In North Yemen, Ottoman rule met with significant opposition during the early 1900s. Under the leadership of the Zaydi imam, Yemenis staged many uprisings. After years of rebellion, in 1911 the Ottomans finally granted the imam autonomy over much of North Yemen. Defeat in World War I (1914-1918) forced the Ottomans to evacuate Yemen in 1918.

For the next 44 years North Yemen was ruled by two powerful imams. Imam Yahya ibn Muhammad and his son Ahmad created a king-state there much as the kings of England and France had done centuries earlier. The two imams strengthened the state and secured its borders. They used the imamate to insulate Yemen and revitalize its Islamic culture and society at a time when traditional societies around the world were declining under imperial rule. While Yemen under the two imams seemed almost frozen in time, a small but increasing number of Yemenis became aware of the contrast between an autocratic society they saw as stagnant and the political and economic modernization occurring in other parts of the world. This produced an important chain of events: the birth of the nationalist Free Yemeni Movement in the mid-1940s, an aborted 1948 revolution in which Imam Yahya was killed, a failed 1955 coup against Imam Ahmad, and finally, the 1962 revolution in which the imam was deposed by a group of nationalist officers and the Yemen Arab Republic (YAR) was proclaimed under the leadership of Abdullah al-Sallal.

The first five years of President al-Sallal’s rule, from 1962 to 1967, comprised the first chapter in the history of North Yemen. Marked by the revolution that began it, this period witnessed a lengthy civil war between Yemeni republican forces, based in the cities and supported by Egypt, and the royalist supporters of the deposed imam, backed by Saudi Arabia and Jordan. In 1965 Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser met with King Faisal of Saudi Arabia to consider a possible settlement to the civil war. The meeting resulted in an agreement whereby both countries pledged to end their involvement and allow the people of North Yemen to choose their own government. Subsequent peace conferences were ineffectual, however, and fighting flared up again in 1966.

By 1967 the war had reached a stalemate, and the republicans had split into opposing factions concerning relations with Egypt and Saudi Arabia. In late 1967 al-Sallal’s government was overthrown and he was replaced as president by Abdul Rahman al-Iryani. Fighting continued until 1970, when Saudi Arabia halted its aid to royalists and established diplomatic ties with North Yemen. Al-Iryani effected the long-sought truce between republican and royalist forces, and presided over the adoption of a democratic constitution in 1970.

In June 1974 military officers led by Colonel Ibrahim al-Hamdi staged a bloodless coup, claiming that the government of al-Iryani had become ineffective. The constitution was suspended, and executive power was vested in a command council, dominated by the military. Al-Hamdi chaired the council and attempted to strengthen and restructure politics in North Yemen. Al-Hamdi was assassinated in 1977, and his successor, former Chief of Staff Ahmed Hussein al-Ghashmi, was killed in June 1978. The lengthy tenure of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who ruled North Yemen from 1978 until it merged with South Yemen in 1990, proved more stable. Saleh strengthened the political system, while an influx of foreign aid and the discovery of oil in North Yemen held out the prospect of economic expansion and development.

C2 South Yemen in the 20th Century

The history of South Yemen after the British occupation of Aden in 1839 was quite different. After the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869, Aden became a vitally important port along the sea lanes to India. In order to protect Aden from Ottoman takeover, the British signed treaties with tribal leaders in the interior, promising military protection and subsidies in exchange for loyalty; gradually British authority was extended to other mainland areas to the east of Aden. In 1937 the area was designated the Aden Protectorate. In 1958 six small states within the protectorate formed a British-sponsored federation. This federation was later expanded to include Aden and the remaining states of the region, and was renamed the Federation of South Arabia in 1965.

During the 1960s British colonial policy as a whole came under increasing challenge from a nationalist movement centered primarily in Aden. Britain finally withdrew from the area in 1967, when the dominant opposition group, the National Liberation Front (NLF), forced the collapse of the federation and assumed political control. South Yemen became independent as the People’s Republic of South Yemen in November of that year. The NLF became the only recognized political party and its leader, Qahtan Muhammad al-Shaabi, was installed as president. In 1969 al-Shaabi was ousted and replaced by Salem Ali Rubayi; until 1978, South Yemen was governed under the co-leadership of Rubayi and his rival, Abdel Fattah Ismail, both of whom made efforts to organize the country according to their versions of Marxism. In 1970 the country was renamed the People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen (PDRY). Foreign-owned properties were nationalized, and close ties were established with the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). Rubayi was deposed and executed in 1978; under the prevailing authority of Ismail, Soviet influence intensified in South Yemen. Ismail was replaced by Ali Nasser Muhammad al-Hasani in 1980. In 1986 a civil war erupted within the government of South Yemen; the war ended after 12 days, and al-Hasani fled into exile. Former premier Haydar Bakr al-Attas was elected president in October.

D Unified Republic

Relations between North Yemen and South Yemen grew increasingly conciliatory after 1980. Border wars between the two countries in 1972 and 1979 both had ended surprisingly with agreements for Yemeni unification, although in each case the agreement was quickly shelved. During the 1980s the two countries cooperated increasingly in economic and administrative matters. In December 1989 their respective leaders met and prepared a final unification agreement. On May 22, 1990, North and South Yemen officially merged to become the Republic of Yemen. Ali Abdullah Saleh, then leader of North Yemen, became president of unified Yemen, while Ali Salem al-Beidh and Haydar Bakr al-Attas of South Yemen became vice president and prime minister, respectively. Sana‘a was declared the political capital of the Republic of Yemen, and Aden the economic capital. By the summer of 1990 more than 30 new political parties had formed in Yemen. Rising oil revenues and financial assistance from many foreign countries, including Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and the United States, brought hope that Yemen could begin to strengthen and expand its economy.

Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait in 1990 and the subsequent Persian Gulf War took a serious toll on Yemen’s economy and newfound political stability. Yemen’s critical response to the presence of foreign military forces massed in Saudi Arabia led the Saudi government to expel 850,000 Yemeni workers. The return of the workers and the loss of remittance payments produced widespread unemployment and economic upheaval, which led in turn to domestic political unrest. Bomb attacks, political killings, and violent demonstrations occurred throughout 1991 and 1992, and in December 1992 a rise in consumer prices precipitated riots in several of Yemen’s major cities. Concern arose that declining economic and social conditions would give rise to Islamic fundamentalist activities in Yemen. Political turmoil forced the government to postpone general elections, which were finally held on April 27, 1993, completing the Yemeni unification process begun three years earlier. The General People’s Congress (GPC), the former ruling party in North Yemen, won 121 seats in parliament; the Yemen Socialist Party (YSP), the former ruling party of South Yemen, won 56 seats; a new Islamic coalition party, al-Islah, won 62 seats; and the remaining 62 seats were won by minor parties and independents. The president and prime minister remained in office after the election, and the three major parties formed a legislative coalition.

D1 Civil War

The successful elections quickly gave way to political turmoil. In August 1993 Vice President al-Beidh withdrew from Sana‘a to Aden and ceased to participate in the political process. This followed his visit to the United States, where he had held talks with Vice President Al Gore, apparently without the consent of President Saleh. From his base at Aden, al-Beidh issued a list of conditions for his return to Sana‘a; the conditions centered on the security of the YSP, which, according to the vice president, had been subject to northern-instigated political violence since unification. Al-Beidh also protested what he considered the increasing economic marginalization of the south.

Clashes between northern and southern forces broke out in early 1994 and Yemen exploded into full-scale civil war in early May. Both sides carried out missile attacks in and around Sana‘a and Aden. On May 21 al-Beidh announced the secession of the South from the Republic of Yemen and the formation of a new southern state, the Democratic Republic of Yemen (DRY). The DRY assembled a political structure similar to that of unified Yemen, and al-Beidh was elected president by a five-member Presidential Council. Meanwhile, Saleh dismissed a number of YSP party members from Yemen’s government in an attempt to remove the influence of al-Beidh.

Fighting continued throughout June 1994, much of it centered around the port cities of Aden and Al Mukallā. Both sides launched attacks on oil installations, and a great deal of infrastructure—particularly in and around Aden—was damaged or destroyed. Following the failure of a Russian cease-fire agreement, Saleh’s northern forces launched a final drive on Aden and Al Mukallā in early July, ultimately defeating the DRY army. By mid-July all of the former South Yemen was under Saleh’s control.

After the collapse of the DRY, Saleh’s government was faced with the task of rebuilding Yemen’s economy and government. In September 1994 the Yemeni legislature approved a number of major reforms to the country’s 1991 unification constitution. Saleh was formally reelected president by the legislature in October, and he appointed Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi as his new vice president. In an attempt to revive the country’s economy, Yemeni leaders made efforts to devise and implement an economic austerity program called for by several international economic agencies; this was achieved with a great deal of difficulty in the spring of 1995.

D2 Territorial Disputes

In February 1995 the governments of Yemen and Saudi Arabia agreed to negotiate a settlement to their long-standing dispute over their shared border. The agreement to negotiate defused a potentially explosive situation, as Yemen and Saudi Arabia had skirmished in the region only a few months before. Five years later, in June 2000, the two countries announced an agreement settling the disputed boundary.

In December 1995 Eritrea, which lies across the Red Sea from Yemen, seized Ḩānīsh al Kabīr (Greater Ḩānīsh Island), strategically located at the mouth of the Red Sea, from Yemeni troops stationed there. At least 12 people were killed in the fighting. Both Yemen and Eritrea claimed the Ḩānīsh Islands; Yemeni plans for a resort on Ḩānīsh al Kabīr reportedly sparked the attack. By May 1996 the two countries had reached a truce and agreed to submit the question of sovereignty over the islands to arbitration. In October 1998 the arbitration tribunal ruled that the Ḩānīsh Islands belonged to Yemen, and Eritrea withdrew its forces. Both countries accepted the ruling and moved to normalize relations.

D3 Recent Developments

In April 1997 President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s General People’s Congress (GPC) was returned to power in the first parliamentary elections since the 1994 civil war. Many members of the opposition boycotted the elections, alleging unfair tactics by the GPC. International election monitors, however, reported that the elections were mostly fair. In September 1999 Saleh was elected president in the country’s first direct presidential elections. Opposition parties took part in 2003 parliamentary elections but the GPC retained its dominant majority.

VIETNAM

2010-08-08T08:59:00.000-07:00

Vietnam
I INTRODUCTION

Vietnam, officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, country located on the eastern coast of the Indochinese Peninsula. Vietnam is bordered on the north by China, on the west by Laos and Cambodia, and on the south and east by the South China Sea. Hanoi is the capital, and Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon) is the largest city.

Vietnam is relatively long and narrow, with a varied terrain. The far north and much of central Vietnam are hilly to mountainous. In the north, the highlands slope gradually toward the eastern coast, forming broad plains intersected by numerous streams. The plains are intensely cultivated, and over centuries the Vietnamese have built many dikes and canals to irrigate crops and control flooding. In central Vietnam, the narrowest part of the country, the mountains and highlands extend nearer to the coast, in a few places jutting into the sea and elsewhere dropping sharply to a narrow coastal plain. Southern Vietnam is very low lying, containing the broad, fertile delta of the Mekong River. Like the northern plains, much of the Mekong Delta is cultivated, and there are vast tracts of rice paddies.

Vietnam developed as an agricultural society, and the population is still predominantly rural. In 2005, 27 percent of the population lived in urban areas. People are increasingly migrating to cities, however, swelling the populations of Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, and other places.

Vietnam has about 50 ethnic and language groups, but ethnic Vietnamese, or Viets, constitute the vast majority of the population. The original homeland of the Vietnamese people was in the valley of the Red River, a river that originates in southern China and flows through northern Vietnam before entering the Gulf of Tonkin. China conquered the region in the 2nd century bc, but the Vietnamese successfully restored their independence in ad 939. During the next 1,000 years, Vietnam became one of the most dynamic civilizations in Southeast Asia and expanded southward along the coast.

France invaded Vietnam in the late 19th century. The French divided the country into three separate regions; joined the regions with Cambodia and Laos into the Indochinese Union, known as French Indochina; and exploited Vietnamese resources to benefit France. After World War II (1939-1945), anticolonial groups led by the Indochinese Communist Party revolted against French rule. In 1954, after Vietnamese forces defeated the French at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu, Vietnam was temporarily divided into two zones: North Vietnam, led by a Communist government, and South Vietnam, headed by anti-Communists. For the next 20 years the government in the South, supported by the United States, sought to defeat a growing insurgent movement led by the North to unify the country (see Vietnam War). The United States withdrew its combat troops in 1973, and South Vietnam fell to a Communist offensive two years later. In 1976 a unified Communist state was established with its capital at Hanoi. Although Vietnam remains under Communist rule, its leadership has begun implementing aspects of a market economy in order to promote economic development.

II LAND AND RESOURCES

Shaped like an enormous letter S, Vietnam extends more than 1,500 km (1,000 mi) from China in the north to the Gulf of Thailand in the south. At its narrowest, just north of the port city of Da Nang, the distance between the sea and the country’s western border is less than 50 km (30 mi). Vietnam’s total area is 331,690 sq km (128,066 sq mi).

A Natural Regions

Vietnam has four major geographic regions. The country’s northernmost section consists of a tangled mass of rugged and heavily forested mountains that extend into Vietnam from China’s Yunnan Plateau. In Vietnam, these mountains attain a maximum elevation of 3,143 m (10,312 ft) at Fan Si Pan, the country’s highest point. To the east and southeast of these mountainous highlands is the Red River Delta, a triangular-shaped alluvial plain that stretches along the Gulf of Tonkin, an arm of the South China Sea. The Truong Son (Annam Highlands) lies to the south of the delta and forms the backbone of Vietnam. Also in this region are the Central Highlands, a vast upland plateau situated between the Cambodian border and the South China Sea. Vietnam’s fourth and southernmost region is the Mekong Delta. This region is a fertile area of marshy flatland that stretches from the southern edge of the Central Highlands in the north to the mangrove swamps of the Ca Mau peninsula in the south.

B Rivers

Vietnam’s two major rivers are the Red River in the north and the Mekong River in the south, both of which are navigable for their entire lengths within Vietnam. The Red River flows almost directly southeast from southern China into Vietnam’s northwestern highlands. The Mekong follows an irregular path across Southeast Asia to its mouth at the South China Sea. Farming in much of the Mekong Delta was once impossible because salt water from the South China Sea would periodically cover the low-lying land. To combat this problem, the French installed dikes during the 20th century. Today, an intricate system of dikes and canals helps prevent flooding of the Mekong and Red River deltas. Among Vietnam’s noteworthy smaller rivers are the Huong River (Perfume River) at Hue and the Ka Long O River near Vinh.

C Coastline

Vietnam’s coastline extends 3,444 km (2,140 mi) from the Chinese border in the north to the frontier with Cambodia in the Gulf of Thailand. In some areas, such as east of the Central Highlands and north of the Red River Delta, the mountains extend directly into the sea. This creates a number of protected harbors suitable for shipping, including those of the port cities of Da Nang, Qui Nhon, and Nha Trang. The mountains also form a picturesque backdrop, and beaches at Da Nang and Nha Trang are among the most popular resort areas in the country. The remaining coastal areas are flatlands, created by the deposits of alluvial soils by rivers. Over time, this deposition process creates triangular, flat deltas, notably the Red and Mekong deltas.

D Plant and Animal Life

Many plant and animal species thrive in Vietnam’s warm, rainy climate. Mountain forests are typically dense, consisting of a wide variety of evergreens and rain forest vegetation. Upland farmers periodically clear lands for cultivation, which causes some deforestation, although this is not nearly as serious a problem as in other areas of Southeast Asia. During the Vietnam War (1959-1975) heavy bombing cleared some areas of foliage, but plant life in these areas has gradually begun to recover. In the country’s warmest zones, farmers have widely planted the hillsides and plateau regions with cash crops such as coffee, tea, and rubber. Most lowland areas and some upland valleys are planted with wet rice, although other useful crops include bananas, coconuts, papaya, and bamboo. Dense mangrove swamps cover the lowland areas along the southern coast of the Mekong Delta and on the Ca Mau peninsula.

Vietnam’s forests are inhabited by many large mammals, including elephants, deer, bears, tigers, and leopards. Smaller animals, such as monkeys, hares, squirrels, and otters, are also found in considerable numbers throughout the country. In recent years, scientists have identified several previously unknown species of animal life in the Truong Son, including the endangered sao la, a cattlelike animal. Many species of birds and reptiles, including crocodiles, snakes, and lizards, also thrive in Vietnam.

E Natural Resources

Vietnam’s most valuable natural resource is its land, particularly the fertile, alluvial soils in the Red and Mekong deltas. Some 29 percent of the land is currently being cultivated.

Vietnam has some valuable mineral resources, including gold, iron, tin, zinc, phosphate, chromite, apatite, and anthracite coal. Most deposits are located in the northern part of the country. Few attempts were made to extract these minerals until the French takeover of Vietnam at the end of the 19th century. The French opened coal mines, principally along the coast directly east of Haiphong. They also established a phosphate factory on the Paracel Islands, located in the South China Sea.

Since reunification, the Communist government has sought to increase exploitation of Vietnam’s natural mineral resources but has had only modest success so far. Extraction of oil deposits in the South China Sea began in the mid-1980s. In the mid-1990s oil production was sufficient to meet domestic needs, while also providing an important source of export earnings.

F Climate

Vietnam’s climate is generally hot and humid. In central and southern Vietnam, seasonal variations are slight and marked only by a dry and a wet period. The average daily temperatures in the Mekong Delta range from 17° to 34°C (63° to 93°F) in January and from 22° to 33°C (72° to 91°F) in July. Along the central coast, temperatures range from 18° to 28°C (64° to 83°F) in January and from 24° to 37°C (76° to 99°F) in July. The northern plains experience greater seasonal variations and generally have cooler nighttime temperatures. The average daily temperatures at Hanoi, for example, range from 13° to 20°C (56° to 68°F) in January and from 25° to 33°C (78° to 91°F) in July.

In general, rainfall is plentiful throughout the country, although most precipitation in southern and central Vietnam occurs during the summer months when monsoon winds sweep in from the sea. The Mekong Delta has the longest rainy season, typically lasting from May to October. Central Vietnam receives heavy precipitation from September to December. The average annual rainfall is about 1,680 mm (66 in) in the Red River Delta, 1,650 mm (65 in) along the central coast, and 1,980 mm (78 in) in the Mekong Delta. Typhoons periodically strike the central coast, and in recent years some have caused considerable loss of life and destruction of cropland.

G Environmental Issues

Groundwater contamination has led to inadequate supplies of drinking water in many areas of Vietnam. Only 99 percent (2004) of the urban population has access to safe drinking water. Chemicals sprayed during the Vietnam War caused widespread defoliation in the country’s forests, contributing to soil degradation and water pollution. Coastal water pollution, along with severe overfishing, has greatly endangered the country’s marine life.

Deforestation rates in Vietnam were high in the late 20th century as a result of logging, agriculture, and heavy bombing during times of war. Forests cover 39 percent (2005) of Vietnam, and only 3.9 percent (2007) of the land is protected in parks and other reserves. Vietnam is party to international treaties concerning climate change, endangered species, hazardous wastes, ship pollution, and wetlands.

III PEOPLE AND SOCIETY

Vietnam’s 2008 population was 86,116,559, yielding a population density of 265 persons per sq km (686 per sq mi). However, most people live in or near the densely populated Red or Mekong deltas.

A Principal Cities

Four of the five largest cities in Vietnam are located on or very near the coast. Vietnam’s largest metropolis is the southern port of Ho Chi Minh City. The administrative capital of Hanoi, Vietnam’s next largest city, lies in the Red River Delta about 140 km (about 85 mi) upriver from the Gulf of Tonkin. Haiphong is the major northern seaport; Da Nang is an important port in central Vietnam; and Hue, located near Da Nang, is the former imperial capital and an important trade center.

B Ethnic Groups

Vietnam’s population is relatively homogeneous. As much as 90 percent of the people are ethnic Vietnamese, descendants of the people who settled in the Red River Delta thousands of years ago. Ethnic Chinese constitute the largest minority group. Other important minorities are the Khmer and the Cham. In addition, there are also numerous tribal groups. While the ethnic Vietnamese live in lowland areas scattered throughout the country, most minorities are concentrated in specific regional areas. The ethnic Chinese, also known as overseas Chinese, are immigrants or descendants of immigrants who settled in Vietnam during the last 300 years. They live primarily in the cities and provincial towns and number about 2 million. The Khmer (about 500,000) and the Cham (about 50,000) are descendants of peoples who lived in central and southern Vietnam prior to the Vietnamese conquest of those areas. The tribal peoples are descendants of communities who migrated into Vietnam from other parts of Asia over a period of several thousand years. They are divided into about 50 different language and ethnic groups (including the Tho, the Tay, the Nung, the Muong, the Rhadé, and the Jarai) and live almost exclusively in the mountains surrounding the Red River Delta and in the Central Highlands. Taken collectively, the tribal peoples represent 7 percent of the country’s total population.

For the most part, the various ethnic groups in Vietnam coexist with few mutual tensions. Relations between the ethnic groups are not always amiable, however. Ethnic Chinese play a dominant role in the national economy, which angers some Vietnamese who resent the economic power of the much smaller Chinese population. Furthermore, some Vietnamese are suspicious of China, which subjugated parts of Vietnam for centuries, and this suspicion is occasionally directed at the ethnic Chinese citizens of Vietnam. Some tribal minority communities have resisted recent Vietnamese penetration into mountain areas.

C Language

The official language of Vietnam is Vietnamese, a member of the Austro-Asiatic language family. Linguists usually consider Vietnamese to be a distinct language group, although it has some similarities to Chinese and other languages spoken in Southeast Asia. Like Chinese, Vietnamese is a tonal language, but its syntax is closer to Khmer, the official language of Cambodia. Other languages spoken in Vietnam are Chinese, Khmer, Cham, and various tribal languages spoken by peoples living in the mountains.

When China conquered the Red River Delta in the 2nd century bc, Chinese was adopted as the official language. Eventually a separate script based on Chinese characters and known as chu nôm (southern characters) came to be used unofficially for the written form of Vietnamese. In order to translate works of scripture, Catholic missionaries devised a form of written Vietnamese using the Latin (Roman) alphabet in the 17th century. This system, known today as quoc ngu (national language), was the first to indicate tones through the use of accent marks. In 1910 quoc ngu officially replaced Chinese characters as a means of writing Vietnamese, and in 1954 the governments of both North and South Vietnam adopted it as their national script.

D Religion

Vietnam contains a rich mixture of religions, reflecting the influence of many cultures. Early Vietnamese culture included three major belief systems: Mahayana Buddhism, Confucianism, and Daoism (Taoism). Indian and Chinese monks brought Buddhism to Vietnam early in the 1st millennium ad, and Confucianism and Daoism (Taoism) were both introduced after the Chinese conquest. After the restoration of Vietnamese independence in the 10th century, the royal court initially gave official support to all three belief systems. Eventually, however, the court recognized only Confucianism, which is more a set of social ethics than a religious faith. Buddhism and Daoism continued to be popular among the mass of the population.

Today, the majority of Vietnamese are at least nominally Mahayana Buddhists. Of this number, only a minority are serious adherents. Roman Catholicism, which French missionaries introduced in the 17th century, is a major religion, claiming almost as many followers as Daoism. Other religions include such recently established sects as Hoa Hao (a variant of Buddhism practiced in the Mekong Delta) and Cao Dai, which blends various Asian and Western religious beliefs. Theravada Buddhism is practiced by the Khmer minority. Some tribal peoples practice spirit worship. Freedom of worship is guaranteed by the constitution, but the Communist government suppresses religious organizations and activities that it considers threatening to national security.

E Education

For centuries, education in Vietnam was based on the Confucian system practiced in China. Young males studied classical Confucian texts in preparation for taking civil service examinations. Those who passed the exams were eligible for positions in the bureaucracy. The French introduced Western schooling, although few students received training beyond the elementary level, and literacy rates were low.

Major advances in education occurred after the division of Vietnam in 1954. The South adopted an education system based on the United States model, which emphasizes the development of an individual’s talents and skills. The North introduced mass education and trained people for participation in a Communist society based on the political theories of Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin. After reunification in 1975 the Communist system used in the North was extended throughout the country, although technology training is now as important as teaching Communist ideology.

About 94 percent of the population aged 15 and over is literate. Education is compulsory for children ages 6 to 14. Nearly all children receive primary schooling. Fewer young Vietnamese receive a secondary education, however, partly because there is a shortage of adequate facilities, particularly in the mountainous areas. In addition, some families cannot afford to send their children to school, as even public schools impose student fees to help meet operating costs.

In 1993 the government reorganized higher education to improve the system’s overall ability to educate students in the principles of a market economy and train them to meet the changing needs of the labor market. In 2002–2003 just 10 percent of the people of relevant age were expected to attend schools of higher education. Major universities are located in Hanoi, Hue, Thai Nguyen, Da Nang, and Ho Chi Minh City, and the provincial capitals have smaller institutes.

F Social Structure

During the period of Chinese rule and for centuries after, Vietnamese social structure was patterned after the system prevalent in China. The vast majority of people were farmers. The governing class comprised about 5 percent of the population and was selected from candidates who had passed the Confucian civil service examinations or from influential landholding families. There were also a small number of artisans and merchants.

After the partition of Vietnam in 1954, the Communist government of North Vietnam completely changed the social structure. Private property was eliminated, and peasants and workers were given a new, if nominal, dominance in the social order. At the top of the order, functioning as the new ruling class, were officials of the Communist Party. In the South, on the other hand, the social structure remained virtually unchanged after the partition. After the Communists won the civil war in 1975, however, they imposed the same social structure on the South as they had on the North in 1954. Since the mid-1980s a more complicated social system has developed as a result of market economic reforms. Although most Vietnamese remain farmers, the number of industrial workers is increasing. Furthermore, an urban middle class is emerging, which includes many private entrepreneurs.

G Way of Life

Before the late 1800s, nearly all the people of Vietnam lived in villages, and the cultivation of wet rice was the principal economic activity. The basic component of rural society was the nuclear family, composed of parents and unwed children. As in China, however, extended family relationships were also important. In many cases, extended families lived together. Parents arranged the marriages of their children, and filial piety (obedience to one’s parents) was expected. Wives, too, were expected to obey their husbands. Families venerated their ancestors with special religious rituals. The houses of the wealthy were constructed of brick, with tile roofs. Those of the poor were of bamboo and thatch. Rice was the staple food for the vast majority, garnished with vegetables and, for those who could afford it, meat and fish.

The French introduced Western values of individual freedom and sexual equality, which undermined the traditional Vietnamese social system. In urban areas, Western patterns of social behavior became increasingly common, especially among educated and wealthy Vietnamese. Elite Vietnamese attended French schools, read French books, replaced traditional attire with Western-style clothing, and drank French wines instead of the traditional wine distilled from rice. Adolescents began to resist the tradition of arranged marriages, and women chafed under social mores that demanded obedience to their fathers and husbands. In the countryside, however, traditional Vietnamese family values remained strong.

The trend toward adopting Western values continued in South Vietnam after the division of the country in 1954. Many young people embraced sexual freedom and the movies, clothing styles, and rock music from Western cultures became popular. But in the North, social ethics were defined by Communist principles adapted from China and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). The Communist government officially recognized equality of the sexes, and women began to obtain employment in professions previously dominated by men. At the same time, the government began enforcing a more puritanical lifestyle as a means to counter the so-called decadent practices of Western society. Traditional values continued to hold sway in rural areas, where the concept of male superiority remained common.

In 1986 the Vietnamese government adopted an economic reform program that borrowed freely from free-market principles and encouraged foreign investment and tourism. As a result, the Vietnamese people have become increasingly acquainted with and influenced by the lifestyles in developed countries of East Asia and the West. The Communist regime finds this trend worrisome, believing it could lead to an increase in individualism, materialism, drug use, and pornography. While the administration stresses the importance of economic development, it remains committed to wiping out what it considers the “poisonous weeds” of capitalism in Vietnamese society.

H Social Issues

During the Vietnam War, the Communist government of North Vietnam was successful in limiting the country’s social problems to those directly connected with the war effort. Although malnutrition and poverty were common, corruption was rare and the incidence of drugs, prostitution, and crime was limited.

Following the war, Vietnam developed high rates of birth defects, probably due to the aerial spraying of Agent Orange and other chemical herbicides during the war. The U.S. military sprayed these defoliants on forests and crops to help expose the hiding places of Communist forces. As a consequence, innumerable Vietnamese were exposed to extremely toxic byproducts known as dioxins, which have been associated with severe birth defects and certain rare cancers in humans. Toxins that leaked into croplands and rivers around the sprayed areas also had long-term effects on the food supply of the country as a whole. Tests conducted after the war showed that considerable levels of dioxins were present in fish, a staple of the Vietnamese diet, and in milk from nursing mothers.

Land mines from the war also posed a significant problem. Concealed by both U.S. and Communist forces, land mines continued to kill and cripple people after the war. From the end of the war in 1975 to 2005, more than 58,000 Vietnamese were killed by land mines—more than all the U.S. servicemen who died during the war. See also Mine (Warfare).

Social problems have increased since the economic reforms of 1986. Corruption has escalated as increasing amounts of money circulate through society. Unemployment is also on the rise, especially among young people. Drug addiction and alcoholism are becoming serious problems; prostitution is rampant, especially in urban areas; and incidents of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) have increased in Vietnam. Many of these social ills may be inevitable consequences of the modernization process. However, they represent a serious challenge to a government determined to bring about economic development without the accompanying problems of social and political instability.

I Social Services

Before the Communist era, the government relied on the family network to care for the sick and elderly and to provide other social benefits to family members. Under Communism, the state assumed responsibility for some of these benefits through collective farms and state-run industries that provided for the care and welfare of their employees. After the economic reforms of 1986, which essentially dismantled collective farms, farmers were expected to provide their own savings to cover the expenses of illness or retirement. People in the emerging private sector had to do the same.

Although the government has reduced benefits in certain areas, it still lacks the resources to deal with many of the other social needs of the population. As much as one-third of the workforce in rural areas is underemployed, and an estimated one-half of the rural population lives in poverty. At the same time, the availability of health care is declining.

IV THE ARTS

Traditional Vietnamese culture reflected the influence of neighboring China. Vietnamese art, architecture, music, and literature all followed Chinese forms. With the advent of French colonialism in the late 19th century, however, the influence of Western culture replaced that of China. Modern Vietnamese cultural expression combines the socialist realism of Communist systems with current trends in the capitalist world.

A Literature

Before French colonial rule, literature in Vietnam was divided into two styles: a classical style based on the Chinese model and a vernacular one based on local themes and genres. Classical literature was written in literary Chinese and took the form of poetry, history, and essays. Vernacular literature was written in chu nôm and took the form of poetry or verse novels. French colonial rule significantly influenced Vietnamese literature. Drama, poetry, and novels began to be written in quoc ngu and imitated Western models. This trend continued in the South after the country was divided in 1954. In the North, a new form of literature, called socialist realism, developed. In this literature, actual people and events are depicted in an idealized, optimistic way to provide a glimpse of the “glorious” future in a socialist, or Communist, society. In modern Vietnam, however, the influence of socialist realism is in decline, as writers increasingly seek a more realistic approach to describing the problems of society and the bitter legacy of the Vietnam War.

B Art and Architecture

In the precolonial era, art and architectural styles were patterned after those in China. Traditional Vietnamese religious temples and official buildings were usually constructed of wood with tile roofs and typically included intricate carvings. Painting, usually on silk, followed classical modes current in China with an emphasis on landscapes, birds and plant life, and calligraphy. Sculpture, in wood or in stone, was usually Buddhist in inspiration. The ceramics industry was relatively well developed, and artisans produced wares both for household use, such as bowls and plates, and for religious purposes, such as statues.

After the French conquest, Western styles predominated. Official buildings were often built in French colonial style, and schools of Western painting became popular. These trends have continued to the present. Architecture now tends to follow international styles, although there is some effort to preserve the distinctive character of major cities such as Hanoi, Hue, and Ho Chi Minh City. Abstract painting has become popular, although traditional modes and folk art continue to attract interest. Lacquerware and woodwork are produced primarily for the tourist trade.

C Music and Drama

Traditional music in Vietnam reflected a variety of influences from China and neighboring societies in the region. The use of the five-tone scale reflects Chinese influence, while Indian-style dancing and percussion instruments, such as the Cham rice drum, were borrowed from neighboring Champa. Similar to the Chinese style, music and verse were often closely tied together, as in various types of theater and the uniquely Vietnamese ca dao (a form of lyrical folk song performed without instrumental accompaniment).

Since the colonial era, Western music and theater have begun to dominate over the traditional forms. After 1954, Western-style rock music attained considerable popularity in South Vietnam. As in the West, the lyrics often contained a political message, conveying the malaise of a generation raised in a society ripped asunder by war. The popularity of Western-style music continued after reunification in 1976. Despite government efforts to promote music that contains messages of patriotism and self-sacrifice and that is based on traditional forms like the ca dao, Western music has tended to predominate through imported records and tapes. On the surface, popular music in Vietnam lacks the underlying message of rebellion that it sometimes projects in the West. However, the government is still concerned that Western popular music encourages attitudes of individualism and self-gratification—values not welcomed in official circles. Contemporary drama, often based on Western styles, is often laced with satire, as authors use irony and innuendo to criticize the shortcomings of the government and the ruling party.

D Film

A local film industry first developed in North Vietnam after the division of the country in 1954. The Communist government created the state-run Vietnamese Feature Film Studio to produce newsreels and documentaries that promoted the cause of reunification and revolution. The quantity and quality of such films were limited, although among the most interesting were films produced by artists operating with guerrilla units in South Vietnam during the war.

Film production increased after reunification. With the assistance of a newly founded College of Stage Arts and Cinematography, about ten feature films were produced each year. Thematic content, however, was tightly controlled by the state and focused on the struggle for national unification or the challenges of constructing a Communist society. In recent years, film producers have begun to assert their independence in the selection of subject matter. A number of recent films have criticized postwar social and economic conditions, and some have even questioned the official line on the heroic character of soldiers fighting against the regime in the South during the Vietnam War. However, film producers risk censorship or persecution when they transcend the limits of official approval.

E Libraries and Museums

The National Library, founded in Hanoi in 1919, includes more than a million volumes. A number of specialized science and social science libraries are located in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.

Most major museums in northern Vietnam are in Hanoi, including the Vietnam Museum of Fine Arts and the Army Museum, which includes weaponry and aircraft from the Vietnam War. The Cham Museum, located in Da Nang, houses a collection of cultural artifacts from the ancient kingdom of Champa, including many sandstone sculptures of Hindu images. Most of the major museums in southern Vietnam are located in Ho Chi Minh City. Two of them, the Vietnam Revolutionary Museum and the War Crimes Museum, focus on the Communist struggle for power in Vietnam and the Vietnam War.

V ECONOMY

During the centuries of Chinese and Vietnamese imperial rule, Vietnam’s society was predominantly agrarian. Its major source of wealth was rice. Although some manufacturing and trade existed, they received little official encouragement and occupied minor segments of the gross domestic product (GDP). Under French colonial rule, agriculture continued to occupy the primary place in the national economy, although emphasis shifted to the cultivation of export crops. In addition to rice, these crops included coffee, tea, rubber, and other tropical products. Small industrial and commercial sectors developed, notably in the major cities, but their growth was limited because colonial officials were determined to avoid competition with goods produced in France.

After partition in 1954 the governments of North and South Vietnam sought to develop their national economies, although they established different economic systems with different resources and trading partners. The North operated under a highly centralized, planned economy, whereas the South mostly maintained a free-market system that had some government involvement. After reunification in 1976 the North gradually extended its centrally planned economy throughout the country. In 1986, however, the government launched a reform program to move toward a mixed economy that operates under private as well as collective or state control. As a result, Vietnam entered a period of rapid development. By 2006 GDP had risen to $61 billion, increasing at an annual rate of 8.2 percent in the 1990s. However, per capita incomes remained low, averaging about $725.30 a year. The services sector contributed 38 percent of GDP; industry, 42 percent; and agriculture, forestry, and fishing, 20 percent.

A Government Role in the Economy

In Vietnam, as in other states ruled by Communist parties, the government is expected to play a guiding role in all matters, including the national economy. Classical Marxist economic theory calls for all major industries and utilities to be nationalized and for farmland to be placed under state or collective ownership.

Such was the situation in North Vietnam during the Vietnam War and initially in the reunified country established in 1976. However, Vietnam’s economy performed disastrously in the first decade after the war. Excessive government controls, lack of managerial experience, limited capital resources, and the absence of a profit incentive all contributed to the weak economy. In 1986 the government launched a reform program called doi moi (economic renovation) to reduce government interference in the economy and develop a market-based approach to increase national productivity.

The need for economic reform gained urgency in 1990, when poor harvests and economic mismanagement left millions of Vietnamese facing malnutrition. However, Vietnamese leaders initially encountered many difficulties in their effort to renovate the system. Among those obstacles was the reluctance of party leaders to further privatize the economy as well as a high level of bureaucratic interference in economic affairs.

The pace of economic reforms accelerated following the Communist party’s approval in 2001 of a ten-year development strategy enhancing the role of the private sector. The strategy simultaneously affirmed the primacy of the state in driving economic development, and Vietnam’s economy came to be characterized as “a market economy with socialist orientation.”

In the second decade of the doi moi reforms, Vietnam achieved one of the fastest-growing economies in the world. Annual growth rates exceeding 7 percent ranked Vietnam second only to China. The country’s economic vitality attracted surging levels of foreign investment and significantly decreased the number of Vietnamese living in poverty. However, Vietnam lagged behind in modernizing its infrastructure, a crucial step in making Vietnamese businesses competitive against foreign competition.

Vietnam sought to increase foreign trade and investment through membership in the World Trade Organization (WTO). Following more than a decade of negotiations, Vietnam’s entry was formally approved in November 2006, paving the way for the country to become the organization’s 150th member in December.

B Labor

The official labor organization in North Vietnam is the Vietnam General Confederation of Trade Unions, founded in Hanoi in 1946. After the country was reunified, the organization absorbed the South Vietnam Trade Union Federation. The confederation is an umbrella organization overseeing the activity of specialized labor unions in Vietnam, such as the National Union of Building Workers. By the mid-1990s the confederation contained more than 50 labor unions with a total membership of more than 4 million. As in all Communist systems, the labor movement in Vietnam is under strict party supervision. Labor unrest, including unsanctioned strikes, has increased since the doi moi reforms were launched in 1986. Much of the hostility fueling this unrest results from poor working conditions and low salaries in foreign-owned enterprises.

Vietnam’s labor force numbered 45 million in 1996. Agriculture, forestry, and fishing employed 58 percent of the workforce in 2004; the services sector employed 25 percent; and industry employed 17 percent.

C Agriculture, Forestry, and Fishing

Vietnam has traditionally derived the bulk of its wealth from agriculture, especially from the cultivation of wet rice. During the traditional and colonial eras most farmland was privately owned and cultivated either by owners or tenants. Under Communist rule, however, the government placed farmland in the North under collective ownership. After reunification, the government attempted to collectivize all privately held farmland in the South, but local resistance and declining grain production eventually persuaded party leaders to dismantle the collective system. Instead, they granted long-term leases to farmers in return for an annual quota of grain paid to the state. Surplus production could be privately consumed or sold on the free market.

Agricultural production increased dramatically, rising 62 percent between 1985 and 1997. By far the most important crop is rice, which is farmed under wet conditions in the Red and Mekong deltas as well as in parts of central Vietnam. Most rice-growing areas can support two crops per year, and three crops per year are possible in parts of central Vietnam. Total rice production rose from about 16 million metric tons in 1985 to 36 million metric tons in 1997, while tea production rose from 28,200 to 142,300 metric tons. Other important crops are coconuts, coffee, cotton, fruits and vegetables, rubber, and sugarcane. The annual fish catch increased from 808,000 metric tons in 1985 to 3.4 million metric tons in 2005.

The growth of commercial forestry has been hindered by a lack of transportation facilities as well as by the mixture of different species of trees, which makes it uneconomical to harvest a single species. Furthermore, population pressures have increased the rate of deforestation. Since 1992 the government has banned the export of logs and some timber products in an attempt to preserve remaining forests. Most harvested roundwood is used for household fuel. Timber production, primarily teak and bamboo, has remained stagnant.

D Manufacturing

At the time of the French conquest in the late 19th century, Vietnam’s industry was at a relatively primitive stage. The French introduced some modern technology and production methods. After the division of Vietnam in 1954, both the North and South governments attempted to promote industrialization. However, efforts were stymied by the Vietnam War, and little was accomplished before 1975.

After reunification, the Communist government promoted the creation of an advanced industrial society characterized by state ownership, but the results were meager. The plans adopted as a part of the doi moi reforms call for a balanced approach to developing both industry and agriculture, with a mix of state, collective, and private ownership.

Most large firms remain under state ownership, but the role and number of private enterprises has steadily increased. Most enterprises produce consumer goods for the domestic market, although a growing number manufacture goods for export, notably textiles and processed foods. Steel production has increased dramatically since the end of the war, and the manufacture of cement, chemical fertilizer, and textile and paper goods is on the upswing. Foreign firms play a growing but still limited role in the industrial sector.

E Mining

Most mining activities take place in the northern provinces of the country, where anthracite coal, phosphate rock, gypsum, tin, zinc, iron, antimony, and chromite are extracted. Coal and apatite are mined extensively. The total coal production in 2003 was 16 million metric tons.

In recent years, large petroleum and natural gas deposits have been discovered along the continental shelf in the South China Sea. With assistance from the Soviet Union, Vietnam began extracting oil from its first oil field in the mid-1980s. Additional oil fields have since become productive. In the late 1990s petroleum accounted for nearly one-third of Vietnam’s export revenues. Further development may be hindered, however, by disputes with China and other neighboring nations over the ownership of offshore deposits in the area.

F Energy

Per-capita consumption of electricity is relatively low in Vietnam because many people, especially in rural areas, burn wood to meet their household energy needs. Such traditional fuels accounted for nearly half the country’s total energy use in the mid-1990s, but commercial and urban growth is increasing the demand for electricity. In the mid-1990s electricity was supplied mainly by hydroelectric stations, although thermal installations burning petroleum and coal were also important.

G Transportation and Communications

A primitive transportation system has long been one of the main obstacles to economic development in Vietnam. While the system of roads is one of the best in Southeast Asia, until recently the motor fleet was outmoded, consisting primarily of Soviet trucks built during the 1950s. Furthermore, rail facilities suffered damage during the war, and a lack of funds prevented adequate repair or expansion of the system. In the late 1990s, the government began an attempt to modernize the truck fleet and the rail system and to improve the major roadways. Most goods in the country, however, are still transported by barge along the numerous rivers and canals.

Major ports used for international shipping are Haiphong, Da Nang, and Ho Chi Minh City. All, however, lack modern facilities. The state-run Vietnam Airlines operates both internationally and domestically but has been seriously hindered by an aging fleet consisting of Soviet-built planes that have been in operation since the Vietnam War. To modernize the airline, the government is using scarce foreign exchange reserves to purchase new aircraft from Europe and the United States.

Poor communications facilities represent an additional obstacle to economic development. The nation’s telephone system is grossly inadequate, and Vietnam is just beginning to enter the computer age. Private ownership of telephones and computers is still severely limited. Access to information is somewhat better, as most Vietnamese own a radio or a television set, and there are a number of major national newspapers, including the official daily Nhân Dân (The People) and the military newspaper Quan Doi Nhân Dân (People’s Army). Many independent newspapers and periodicals are now being published, although those that transcend the official line run the risk of censorship or losing their licenses.

H Foreign Trade

During the French colonial period, Vietnamese foreign trade was characterized almost exclusively by the export of primary raw materials—such as rice, rubber, and other tropical products—and the import of manufactured goods from abroad, mainly from France. During the Vietnam War, both the North and South had a chronic imbalance in their balance of payments, as their sponsors pumped in military and economic assistance with little regard to their client’s ability to pay.

After reunification, these adverse conditions continued. Vietnam consistently ran a significant deficit in its trade relations with foreign countries. At first, the bulk of Vietnamese trade was with the Soviet Union and other Communist countries, which exported manufactured goods, food, and oil to Vietnam in return for cheap textile goods, cash crops, and maritime products. Trade was tightly controlled under the management of several state-owned trading corporations, each specializing in a particular commodity line. The United States imposed a trade embargo on North Vietnam in 1964 and all of Vietnam in 1976; this embargo was lifted in 1994.

Foreign trade has developed rapidly since the implementation of the doi moi reforms and the end of the U.S. embargo. Most foreign trade now takes place with other countries of Asia or with developed countries in the West. Exports have increased significantly, notably in the area of cash crops, oil, and rice. But imports of foreign technology and consumer goods have increased as well, and the trade deficit continues to be one of the country’s most serious problems. In 2002 the value of imports was estimated at $19.7 billion, while exports were estimated at $16.7 billion.

I Currency and Banking

Vietnam’s national monetary unit is the new dông, which is divided into 100 xu (15,994 new dông equal U.S.$1; 2006 average). Until 1990 the only banking system within the country was The State Bank of Vietnam, with its headquarters in Hanoi. In 1990 the government established four independent commercial banks (for foreign trade, investment and construction, agricultural development, and industry and commerce) and allowed foreign banks to operate. The State Bank continues to perform general supervisory functions; it also controls the money supply and credit policies. The Bank of Foreign Trade is authorized to handle foreign currencies.

J Tourism

Modern tourism began in Vietnam during the colonial era, but it declined drastically during the long years of conflict after World War II. With the launching of economic reforms in 1986, the government opened the country to foreign travelers and has made a concerted effort to improve its tourist facilities as a means of earning hard currency. Old hotels like the Metropole in Hanoi and the Continental in Ho Chi Minh City have been renovated, and a number of new ones have been built in both cities. In addition, a number of foreign cruise lines stop at ports along the coast en route to Hong Kong and Singapore. In 2006, 3.6 million tourists from all parts of the world visited Vietnam. Most visitors make short trips to the major cities and the former imperial capital of Hue.

VI GOVERNMENT

Prior to the French conquest, the political institutions of Vietnam were patterned after the Chinese model. Confucianism was the state ideology, and the emperor ruled with the assistance of mandarins—scholars trained in Confucian principles. That system was essentially discarded during the period of French colonial rule, although the Vietnamese emperor was still permitted a figurehead authority from his imperial palace in Hue. After the division of the country in 1954, the North established a Soviet-style Communist regime, while the government in the South created a parliamentary system patterned after those in the West. Neither became a practicing democracy. The Communist system of the North was extended to the entire country after reunification in 1976. Modern Vietnam has a unitary system of government with a strong central government, and exclusive power resides with the Vietnamese Communist Party, the sole legal party in the state.

A Constitution

After the end of French colonial rule in 1954, two independent governments emerged in Vietnam: the Republic of Vietnam (RVN) in the South, and the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV) in the North. After the North won the Vietnam War and took control of all of Vietnam, the DRV became the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV). The current constitution was promulgated in 1980 and was patterned after the Soviet model, which combined nominal democratic ideas, such as the concept of elections by secret ballot, with the Leninist concept of a dominant Communist party ruling by dictatorial means in the overall interests of the people. In 1992 the constitution was amended to reflect economic reforms undertaken in 1986 as well as a decision to reduce the role of the party in the governing process.

B Executive

Under the constitution as amended in 1992, the head of state is a president, elected to a five-year term by the National Assembly from among its members. The president is advised by a National Defense and Security Council and is assisted by a cabinet composed of a prime minister, a deputy prime minister, and other senior ministers. All ministers are appointed by and accountable to the National Assembly.

C Legislature

According to the constitution, Vietnam’s legislature, the unicameral (single-house) National Assembly is the “highest organ of State power” in Vietnam. It possesses sole power to pass legislation and to amend the constitution. It is composed of 498 deputies, elected for five years by all citizens over 18 years of age. The National Assembly holds two sessions each year to pass legislation proposed by the executive branch of the government. In the past, it served as a rubber stamp for decisions already reached by the Communist Party. Recently it has begun to adopt a more independent position on issues of direct concern to the Vietnamese populace.

D Judiciary

The judicial system in Vietnam was patterned after the Soviet model. At the lowest level are district courts, whose decisions may be appealed to provincial and city courts. The highest court of appeal is the Supreme People’s Court, which also functions as a court of first instance for certain serious crimes. Members of the Supreme People’s Court are elected by the National Assembly for five-year terms. Each of the lower courts is assigned a judge and several people’s assessors, who play a role similar to that of a jury in the Anglo-American system. All are elected by and held accountable to the local government.

The Supreme People’s Office of Supervision and Control is responsible for the uniform implementation of the law. The office is headed by a procurator-general who is appointed to a five-year term by the National Assembly. Below the central office are local offices of supervision and control, which ensure observance of the law by local government bodies and by all citizens.

E Local Government

For administrative purposes, Vietnam is divided into 57 provinces and four cities directly under the central government. The provinces are further divided into districts and then villages or communes. At each level, voters elect people’s councils with legislative powers. These councils in turn elect a people’s committee from among their members to serve as an executive body. In some respects, people’s councils and people’s committees resemble local governments in Western democracies. They have the right to question decisions taken by other governmental organs at their level, but their decisions and actions are subject to review by higher organs of government power. Moreover, decisions by local government organs are normally undertaken in accordance with the instructions of Communist Party committees at that level, although party influence has declined somewhat since the inception of the doi moi (economic renovation) program in the mid-1980s. Party directives are circulated at the local level through the Fatherland Front, a mass association with branch offices at all administrative levels and among various interest groups in the country.

F Political Parties

Vietnam is in practice a one-party state. According to the amended 1992 constitution, the Communist Party is “the force leading the State and society.”

The supreme body of the Vietnamese Communist Party is the National Congress, which meets approximately every five years. Delegates are elected to the Congress by party branches at lower levels. The delegates approve major policy decisions and elect a Central Committee, which functions in the intervals between the National Congresses. The Central Committee holds sessions twice a year to approve decisions by party leaders. The Central Committee also elects a Politburo that serves as the ruling body of the party. The Politburo is currently composed of 19 members and meets several times a month. A Politburo Standing Committee of four members operates as a standing executive body. Membership in the Vietnamese Communist Party is estimated at about 2.2 million.

G Defense

The Vietnamese armed forces are firmly subordinated to the authority of the government. They are represented at senior levels by a minister of defense in the cabinet, and senior military officials frequently serve in the party Central Committee and Politburo. In addition to local militia units, the military has three branches of service: the army, the navy, and the air force. In 2004 the military contained 484,000 troops. Vietnamese men age 18 to 35 must fulfill a 24-month term of military service; specialists must serve an additional 12 months.

H International Organizations

Vietnam has been a member of the United Nations since 1977. The country is also a member of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (World Bank), and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). In 1998 Vietnam joined the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum.

VII HISTORY

Archaeological findings indicate that settlers in the Red River Delta may have been among the first peoples in East and Southeast Asia to practice agriculture. By the end of the 2nd millennium bc, Vietnamese civilization had begun to enter the Bronze Age. The ancestors of the modern Vietnamese were one of many scattered communities that lived in what are now South China and northern Vietnam during the 1st millennium BC. According to local tradition, a line of hereditary kings ruled over the ancient kingdom of Van Lang in the Red River Delta for thousands of years. Van Lang was conquered by Thuc Phan, who founded a small Vietnamese kingdom called Au Lac.

A Chinese Rule

In 221 bc the state of Qin completed its conquest of neighboring states and became the first dynasty to rule over a united China. However, the dynasty collapsed soon after the death of its dynamic founder Qin Shihuangdi in 210 bc. In the wreckage of the empire, the Qin’s Chinese commander in the south, General Zhao Tuo (Chao T’o), created his own kingdom out of the Qin’s former southern provinces. Zhao, known in Vietnam as Trieu Da, named the kingdom Nam Viet (Nan Ywe in Chinese, meaning “southern Viet”). He soon conquered the Vietnamese kingdom of Au Lac and added it to his kingdom.

In 111 bc, however, Chinese armies conquered Nam Viet and absorbed Zhao’s kingdom, including the old state of Au Lac, into the growing empire of the Han Dynasty. At first, the Han tried to rule through local chieftains, who periodically attempted to expel the Chinese invaders and restore an independent state. The Han imperial court then integrated the Red River Delta politically and culturally into the Chinese Empire. They imposed Chinese-style political institutions and made Confucianism the official ideology. They also made Chinese the official spoken and written language. Eventually, Chinese characters were adapted as the written form for the Vietnamese spoken language. Chinese art, architecture, and music all became models for their counterparts in Vietnam.

Vietnamese resistance to Chinese rule was fierce but sporadic. The first major revolt occurred in ad 39 when two widows of local chieftains, known as the Trung Sisters, led an uprising against foreign rule. The revolt was briefly successful and the eldest sister established herself as ruler of an independent state. However, Chinese armies led by General Ma Yuan invaded the Red River Delta and again conquered the Vietnamese four years later.

B Independence Restored

In the succeeding centuries a series of unsuccessful uprisings against Chinese rule followed. Finally in ad 939 Ngo Quyen took advantage of chaotic conditions in China and led a successful Vietnamese rebellion against the local occupation forces. He established the Ngo dynasty, but after his death in 944 the dynasty disintegrated and a long period of civil strife followed. In the early 11th century Ly Thai To founded the first of the great Vietnamese dynasties. Under the astute leadership of several dynamic rulers, the Ly dynasty ruled Vietnam from 1010 to 1225. The rise of the new state, known as Dai Viet (Great Viet), reflected the emergence of a strong sense of Vietnamese national identity. The Ly rulers, however, found Chinese techniques useful in controlling and mobilizing their subjects; therefore they retained many of the political and social institutions that had been introduced during the long centuries of Chinese rule. For example, they adopted the Confucian civil service examination system, formalized in China during the 8th and 9th centuries, as a means of selecting government officials. This method of selection allowed talented individuals to rise to positions of power based on their abilities, not their political connections. At first, only members of the ruling aristocracy were authorized to compete in the examinations, but eventually the right was extended to most males. The Ly used the educational system to spread moral principles valued in China. Young Vietnamese who prepared for the examinations learned the Confucian classics and grew up conversant with the great figures and ideas that had shaped Chinese history.

But Vietnamese society was more than just a pale reflection of China. Beneath the veneer of Chinese thought and fashion popular among the upper classes, native forms of expression continued to thrive. Young Vietnamese learned to appreciate the great heroes of the Vietnamese past, many of whom—like the Trung Sisters—had built their reputation on resistance to Chinese occupation. At the village level, social mores reflected native traditions more than patterns imported from China. In Vietnam, for example, the legal rights of women were more extensive than in neighboring China. Although to the superficial eye Vietnam may have looked like a “smaller dragon” under the watchful eye of the powerful empire to the north, it continued to develop a separate culture with vibrant traditions of its own.

B1 An Agrarian Society

Nevertheless, China and Vietnam shared a number of important similarities. In both states, the primary source of wealth was agriculture. Because of its subtropical climate and plentiful rainfall, Vietnamese food production was based almost exclusively on the cultivation of wet rice. As in China and medieval Europe, much of the land was owned by powerful noble families, who often owned thousands of serfs (indentured farm laborers) or domestic slaves. A class of peasant landholders also existed, however, and the imperial court frequently attempted to limit the power of the noble families by dividing their large manorial estates and distributing the land to the peasants.

The Vietnamese economy was not based solely on agriculture, however. Commerce and manufacturing thrived, and local craft goods appeared in regional markets throughout the area. Especially prized were Vietnamese ceramics, cheaper than those produced in China and only slightly lower in quality. But Vietnam never developed into a predominantly trading nation, nor did it become a major participant in regional commerce. Like China, Vietnam looked inward, and the imperial court viewed the merchant class with suspicion.

B2 March to the South

Under the Ly dynasty Vietnam gradually became a dynamic force in Southeast Asia, and this power increased under the succeeding Tran dynasty. The Tran took power from the Ly in 1225, when the eight-year-old Ly empress transferred power to her new Tran husband. During the remainder of the 13th century, the Tran were preoccupied with the growing power of the Mongols, pastoral warriors from northern Asia. The Mongols completed their conquest of China in 1279 and established a new empire there known as the Yuan dynasty. A few years later, Mongol armies invaded Vietnam in an effort to reincorporate the Red River Valley into China. Under the leadership of General Tran Hung Dao, the Vietnamese vigorously resisted; after several bitter battles they defeated the invading forces and drove them back across the border.

While the Vietnamese maintained their guard to the north, an area of equal and growing interest lay to the south. For centuries, the Vietnamese state had been restricted to its heartland in the Red River Valley and the mountainous perimeter. Determined to obtain an outlet for their growing population, in the 10th century Vietnamese rulers began turning their attention south to the kingdom of Champa, a seafaring state inhabited by Malay-speaking peoples. The two states competed bitterly for advantage. On several occasions, Cham armies broke through Vietnamese defenses and occupied the Vietnamese capital. More frequently, Vietnamese troops were victorious, and they gradually drove the kingdom of Champa to the south. In the 15th century Vietnamese forces captured the Cham capital, south of present-day Da Nang, and virtually destroyed the kingdom. For the next several generations, Vietnam continued its historic “march to the south,” wiping up the remnants of the Cham kingdom and gradually penetrating the marshy flatlands of the Mekong Delta. There it confronted a new foe, the Khmer kingdom of Angkor, which had once been the most powerful state in mainland Southeast Asia. By the late 16th century, however, it was in a state of decline and unable to offer sustained resistance to Vietnamese encroachment. A hundred years later, Vietnam occupied the lower Mekong Delta and began advancing westward, threatening to transform the disintegrating Khmer state into a mere protectorate.

B3 Civil War

The Vietnamese advance to the south coincided with new challenges to the north. In 1407 the Chinese Ming dynasty, which had overthrown Mongol rule in 1368, occupied Vietnam. By 1428, however, resistance forces under rebel leader Le Loi had restored Vietnamese independence. Le Loi mounted the throne as the first emperor of the Le dynasty, which was to last for more than 300 years.

The new ruling house retained its vigor for more than 100 years, but internal rivalries weakened the dynasty in the 16th century. In 1527 General Mac Dang Dung deposed the Le monarch and made himself ruler. The Nguyen and Trinh families, Le nobles who supported reinstatement of the Le ruler, regained control of the country by 1592. By that time an ambitious Trinh noble, Trinh Kiem, had become dominant in the Le court and had granted a member of the Nguyen family a fiefdom in the south. This effectively divided the state into two separate administrative regions, and a rivalry developed between the Trinh and Nguyen lords. The split of Vietnam into two squabbling regimes coincided with European interest in the region. In the 16th and 17th centuries European fleets visited Vietnam carrying traders who sought wealth and missionaries who were intent on converting Vietnamese and others in the region to Christianity. To seek advantage over their rivals, the European traders and missionaries sided with one or another of the Vietnamese states, further dividing the country.

By the late 18th century, the Le dynasty was near collapse. With no powerful central government, feudal lords increasingly gained control of vast rice lands. In 1773 three brothers from the village of Tay Son in central Vietnam launched a peasant rebellion against the corruption and misrule of the Nguyen court. In each village they captured, the Tay Son confiscated land from the wealthy and redistributed it to the poor. By 1783 the Tay Son rebellion succeeded in overthrowing the Nguyen family in the south. The Tay Son brothers, as they were popularly called, then turned their forces against the Trinh government in the north. By 1789 the ablest of the brothers, Nguyen Hue (no relation to the Nguyen family that had controlled the south), gained control of the north and declared himself founder of a new dynasty. His death in 1792, however, left a power vacuum.

Meanwhile, Nguyen Anh, the sole surviving heir of the Nguyen house in the south, had assembled a force to retake Vietnam. By 1789 his forces had recaptured most of the former Nguyen territory. They then moved north and in 1802 defeated the Tay Son armies. Nguyen Anh established a new Nguyen dynasty, with its capital at Hue in central Vietnam to symbolize the newly restored unity of the country.

C French Conquest

A French Catholic missionary, Bishop Pigneau de Behaine, had raised a mercenary force to help Nguyen Anh seize the Vietnamese throne. The bishop hoped the new emperor would provide France with trading and missionary privileges, but Nguyen Anh was suspicious of French influence. Under his rule and that of his successors, any resistance to the absolute power of the government was dealt with harshly. The Nguyen regime persecuted religious followers, including Christians, Buddhists, Daoists (Taoists), and followers of traditional beliefs. The persecution of French Christian missionaries and their Vietnamese converts, in particular, received the attention of French Catholics. Religious groups in France demanded retaliatory action from the government in Paris. When commercial and military interests also urged a decisive move to protect French interests in Southeast Asia, the French emperor Napoleon III approved the launching of a naval expedition to punish the Vietnamese and force the court to accept a French presence in the country. The first attack at Da Nang in 1858 failed to achieve its objectives. A second attack farther south the following year was more successful, however, and in 1862 Emperor Tu Duc agreed to cede several provinces in the Mekong Delta to France as the colony of Cochin China. In the 1880s the French resumed their advance, launching an attack on the Red River Delta on the pretext of protecting French citizens there. After severe defeats, the Vietnamese court accepted French rule over the remaining territory of Vietnam, which was divided into two protectorates—Tonkin in the Red River Delta and Annam along the central coast. In 1887, after France had established a third protectorate over Cambodia, it consolidated the administration of its Southeast Asian territories, creating the Indochinese Union, or French Indochina. Laos was incorporated into the union in 1893.

C1 Colonial Rule and Resistance

The imposition of French colonial rule met with little organized resistance. Emperor Tu Duc himself hoped that by adopting a conciliatory attitude toward French demands in the southern provinces, the invaders might eventually be brought to reason and persuaded to give up their new conquests. He therefore prohibited his subjects from openly resisting French actions. But the sense of national identity was not extinguished, and anticolonial sentiment soon began to emerge. Poor living conditions, worsened by French economic exploitation, contributed to growing Vietnamese hostility to foreign rule. French occupation did bring some improvements in the area of transport and communications and also contributed modestly to the growth of a commercial and manufacturing sector. However, as a whole, colonialism brought little improvement in the lives of the Vietnamese. In the countryside, peasants struggled under heavy taxes and high rents. Workers in factories, in coal mines, and on rubber plantations labored in abysmal working conditions for paltry wages. By the early 1920s nationalist parties began to demand reform or independence. In 1930 the Moscow-trained revolutionary Ho Chi Minh (real name Nguyen Tat Thanh) established the Indochinese Communist Party (ICP).

Until the outbreak of World War II (1939-1945), the ICP and other revolutionary groups labored with little success. In 1940, however, Japan demanded the right to place northern Vietnam under military occupation. Japan planned to use the area as a base from which to launch a future invasion of the rest of Southeast Asia. The French viceroy, the senior government official in French Indochina, lacked sufficient armed forces to resist. He agreed to Japanese demands and was reduced to a figurehead authority. Seizing the opportunity, Ho Chi Minh organized a broad national front group called the League for the Independence of Vietnam (Viet Nam Doc Lap Dong Minh, or Viet Minh for short) and built up guerrilla forces in preparation for an uprising at war’s end. To win wide popular support, the Viet Minh program emphasized national independence and moderate reform rather than openly Communist aims. When Japan surrendered to the Allies in August 1945, Viet Minh forces rose throughout the country and, in what is known as the August Revolution, declared the establishment of an independent republic with its capital at Hanoi.

The French, however, were unwilling to concede independence, and in late 1945 they seized control over the southern provinces from retreating Viet Minh and other nationalist forces. Negotiations to seek a compromise solution were held in France in the summer of 1946, but they failed to resolve differences. War broke out in December when Viet Minh military units attacked French positions in Hanoi and then retreated to the mountains north of the Red River Delta.

C2 The Expulsion of the French

The Franco-Viet Minh conflict (now often called the First Indochina War) lasted nearly eight years. The Viet Minh set up their headquarters in the mountainous area between the Red River valley and the Chinese border and built up their forces for a major counter-offensive. After failing to capture Ho Chi Minh and destroy the guerrilla movement, the French formed a rival Vietnamese government under Bao Dai, the last emperor of the Nguyen dynasty. In August 1945 Bao Dai had abdicated the throne in favor of Ho Chi Minh’s republic, which was formally declared in September. Viet Minh forces lacked the strength to defeat the French, but the movement had earned sufficient popularity among the Vietnamese people to prevent French victory. In 1950 the United States—increasingly concerned about Communist advances in Asia—recognized Bao Dai’s government and began to provide military and economic aid to the French. In turn, the Viet Minh (still dominated by Ho Chi Minh’s ICP) sought assistance from the new Communist government in China.

The war was a virtual stalemate for three years. In France, however, the public grew weary of the war in Indochina. In March 1954 Viet Minh forces attacked Dien Bien Phu, the French military outpost in the isolated town of Dien Bien. The dispirited government in France agreed to hold negotiations on a peace agreement at Geneva, Switzerland. The French outpost fell to a Viet Minh assault on May 7, the night before negotiations began at Geneva (Dien Bien Phu, Battle of).

D Vietnam Divided

Representatives from all the major world powers, the two rival Vietnamese governments, and the new royal governments in Laos and Cambodia attended the peace talks, which lasted for several weeks. In mid-July, despite U.S. urging to continue the struggle, the French agreed to a compromise agreement (known as the Geneva Accords). This agreement called for the withdrawal of French troops and a temporary division of the country into two separate zones. The Communists would withdraw to North Vietnam, while the non-Communists would move into South Vietnam. To avoid a permanent division, a solution unacceptable to the supporters of both Ho Chi Minh and Bao Dai, national elections were to be held in 1956 to bring about a reunified Vietnam.

D1 The Uneasy Peace

For the next five years Indochina experienced a brief interlude of peace. In Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh’s government (known as the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, or DRV) focused attention on laying the foundations of a Communist society while hoping for national reunification by means of elections, which were widely expected to favor Ho. But in the South, Bao Dai was soon replaced by Ngo Dinh Diem, a staunchly anti-Communist Catholic who refused to hold national elections as called for by the Geneva Accords. Sympathetic to his anti-Communist beliefs, the United States supported Diem, who claimed that Vietnam’s colonial oppressors had negotiated the agreements. A constitution was written, and after elections staged only in the South, Diem became president of a new Republic of Vietnam (RVN).

During the next several years the Diem regime vigorously sought to crush lingering support for the Viet Minh in the South, as well as all other forms of domestic opposition. His harsh actions resulted in growing hostility from many South Vietnamese. Meanwhile Diem’s social and economic programs failed to reduce the severe inequality of landholdings in the countryside. In 1959, fearing that the Communist base in the South could be entirely eliminated, the North adopted a policy of revolutionary war intent on toppling Diem’s government and bringing about national reunification. In 1960 the North Vietnamese government ordered the creation of the National Liberation Front (NLF), based on the model of the Viet Minh created two decades earlier. Most members of the NLF were native southerners. Relatively few were members of the Communist Party, but the Communists ruled from behind the scenes. In 1961 the armed wing of the NLF, the People’s Liberation Armed Forces (PLAF, popularly known as the Viet Cong, or “Viet Communists”), was formed.

The United States provided increasing amounts of military assistance to Diem’s government, and U.S. advisers instructed South Vietnamese troops on how to fight a guerrilla war. Diem became increasingly unpopular, however, and conditions throughout the country steadily worsened, allowing the PLAF to gain control of much of the countryside. The South alienated many Vietnamese Buddhists by the government’s alleged favoritism to Catholics. With tacit U.S. approval, dissident elements in the army launched a coup in November 1963 to overthrow Diem, and he was killed in the attack. In the political confusion that followed, the security situation in South Vietnam continued to deteriorate, putting the Communists within reach of total victory. In early 1965, faced with the South’s imminent collapse, U.S. president Lyndon Johnson ordered the intensive bombing of North Vietnam and the dispatch of U.S. combat troops into the South.

E The Vietnam War

The U.S. intervention caused severe problems for the Communists on the battlefield, but it did not persuade them to abandon their struggle. The North Vietnamese leaders were convinced that they could outwait the Americans as they previously had the French. The North Vietnamese government sent regular units of the North Vietnamese army into the South to bolster the efforts of the local PLAF forces. But the sheer weight of U.S. firepower was difficult to overcome. As casualties mounted, insurgent units were being driven out of the villages into the mountains or along the borders of the country.

In early 1968, hoping to bring about a collapse of the RVN or at least undermine public support for the war effort in the United States, Hanoi launched the Tet Offensive, a simultaneous attack on almost every major South Vietnamese city. Similar attacks took place on towns and villages in the countryside. The Tet Offensive resulted in enormous casualties for the attacking forces, but it also weakened the regime of the new South Vietnamese president Nguyen Van Thieu. The Tet Offensive was also successful in severely shaking the American people’s confidence in the effectiveness of U.S. strategy. In March President Johnson decided to seek a negotiated settlement and announced he would not run for reelection. Peace talks opened in Paris in May but quickly collapsed and stalled for months. In November Richard Nixon was elected as the new U.S. president.

During his presidential campaign, Nixon announced that he had a secret plan to end the war. When implemented, the plan consisted of a gradual withdrawal of U.S. troops while simultaneously strengthening the South Vietnamese army to defend its own territory. At the same time, Nixon opened contacts with China, hoping China would agree to limit its support for North Vietnam in return for better relations with the United States. In 1972, when a second Communist offensive failed to achieve a victory, North Vietnam agreed to a compromise settlement. Under the arrangement, the South’s president, Nguyen Van Thieu, was allowed to remain in office in Saigon, but the NLF was permitted to play a legal political role in the South. All U.S. combat troops were to be withdrawn from Vietnam, but the United States could continue to provide military assistance to the South. The agreement did not address the presence of North Vietnamese units inside the South’s territory. Despite President Thieu’s anger at these conditions, the Paris Agreement was signed in January 1973. According to the terms of the agreement, consultations were to be held on future elections to form a new government in South Vietnam.

The agreement soon unraveled. In early 1975 the Communists launched a military offensive in the Central Highlands, intensifying the attack when the United States failed to respond. At the end of April the Thieu regime collapsed, and the Communists seized power in Saigon.

F The Socialist Republic of Vietnam

In 1976 the South was officially reunited with the North in a new Socialist Republic of Vietnam. Under the leadership of Le Duan, party chief since the death of Ho Chi Minh in 1969, Communist leaders in Hanoi adopted an ambitious plan to bring about the creation of an advanced Communist society. However, extensive war damage, lack of foreign investment, managerial inexperience, and the passive resistance of millions of people in the southern provinces all combined to defeat the program. By the end of the decade, the economy was in shambles, and popular hostility to the leadership had reached alarming heights. Thousands of people, many of them ethnic Chinese merchants and their families, fled the country in flimsy boats or across the border into China.

A foreign policy crisis worsened the domestic problems. For decades, Communist Party leaders had planned to unite Vietnam with revolutionary governments in neighboring Laos and Cambodia to form a militant alliance against the threat of imperialism. By the end of 1975, Communists had come to power in both countries, but the new government in Cambodia, under the leadership of militant revolutionary Pol Pot, was suspicious of Vietnamese intentions. Pol Pot refused to join with Hanoi, and Cambodian troops attacked Vietnamese villages near the Cambodian border. Pol Pot also demanded the return of territories in the Mekong Delta that the Vietnamese had seized from Cambodia’s predecessor, the Angkor Empire, during their “march to the south” centuries before.

In December 1978, after abortive efforts to bring about a compromise, Vietnam launched an offensive to overthrow the Pol Pot regime and install a new pro-Vietnamese government in Cambodia. They accomplished this in early 1979; however, the Vietnamese government had underestimated China’s interest in the area. Long suspicious of Vietnamese plans to dominate all of Indochina, Chinese leaders warned Vietnam that any attack on Cambodia would be viewed as a grave threat to the peace. Adding to China’s suspicions was the fact that Vietnam had recently signed a military security pact with China’s bitter rival, the Soviet Union. Furthermore, Chinese and Vietnamese troops had recently clashed on their mutual frontier, and the Chinese government bitterly criticized Vietnamese mistreatment of its ethnic Chinese population.

Less than two months after the Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia, China launched a brief but bitter assault into northern Vietnam. Although Chinese troops withdrew a few weeks later, they remained along the common frontier, forcing Vietnam to maintain a high defense posture in the area. In the meantime, Vietnam was forced to station nearly 200,000 occupation troops in Cambodia to protect the pro-Vietnamese government it had installed there.

G The Doi Moi Reforms

By 1986, the year of Le Duan’s death, Vietnamese leaders had begun to recognize that major changes were needed. At a national congress held in December, new party leaders launched the doi moi (economic renovation) program to reform Vietnamese society and stimulate economic growth. They abandoned efforts to build a fully Communist society by the end of the decade and dismantled collective farms. Party leaders declared their intention to bring about a mixed economy, involving a combination of state, collective, and private ownership. Foreign investment was encouraged, and a more tolerant attitude was adopted toward the free expression of opinion in the country.

Vietnam also sought to improve its position in foreign affairs. All Vietnamese occupation troops were withdrawn from Cambodia by the end of the 1980s. In 1991 Vietnam signed a peace agreement in Paris that created a coalition government of Communist and non-Communist elements in Cambodia. Vietnam made serious attempts to improve relations with China and with the United States, which ended its economic embargo in 1994. Full diplomatic relations were established the following year. In 1995 Vietnam joined with non-Communist governments in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), a regional organization dedicated to promoting the economic growth of its member states. Also in 1995, Vietnam applied for membership in the World Trade Organization (WTO) with the aim of opening the country to greater foreign trade and investment.

Vietnamese leaders, however, have not yet entirely abandoned their dream of creating a Communist society. While stating their intention to create a modified market economy, they insist that state-run industries will hold the “commanding heights” in the system. Party leaders will not tolerate the creation of rival political organizations and rigorously suppress dissent from opposition forces. Conservative party leaders express open concern at the corrosive influence of decadent ideas from the West, which they view as a plot by “dark forces” in the United States to destroy the Vietnamese revolution. Like the leadership in neighboring China, Vietnamese leaders have declared their support for a policy of “economic reform, political stability.”

In 2001 Vietnam’s Politburo elected Nong Duc Manh as the Communist Party’s general secretary, making him the country’s top leader. Manh pursued a program of economic liberalization, and Vietnam’s economy came to be characterized as “a market economy with socialist orientation.” Manh was reelected to a second five-year term in 2006 and indicated that economic reforms would accelerate. The doi moi reforms had brought tangible success, making Vietnam one of the fastest-growing economies in the world. From 1996 to 2006 Vietnam maintained an annual growth rate of more than 7 percent. In 2006 it ranked second only to China in economic growth.

Vietnam’s economic prospects received a further boost in November 2006, when the WTO approved the country’s bid for membership. The acceptance capped more than a decade of negotiations. The Politburo of Vietnam ratified the deal in late November, paving the way for Vietnam to become the 150th member of the WTO the following month. To gain membership, Vietnam committed to further opening its economy to foreign trade and investment. Among other provisions, Vietnam agreed to lower many import tariffs, abolish trade quotas and restrictions, and open previously protected economic sectors to foreign investors. Membership was expected to give Vietnam more access to overseas markets but also increase the pressures of foreign competition on Vietnamese businesses.

VENEZUELA

2010-08-08T08:57:00.001-07:00

Venezuela
I INTRODUCTION

Venezuela, country on the northern coast of South America, bordering the Caribbean Sea. Venezuela’s landscapes range from the towering peaks of the Andes Mountains in the north to tropical jungles in the south. In the middle of the country are grassy plains and rugged highlands. Beautiful beaches fringe the coast, and islands belonging to Venezuela lie offshore. The country’s capital and largest city is Caracas.

A Spanish colony for more than 300 years, Venezuela became one of the first of Spain’s South American colonies to declare its independence in the early 19th century. Formerly known as the Republic of Venezuela, the country changed its official name to the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela in 1999. The name is in reference to Símon Bólivar, the military leader who helped win independence for Venezuela and other South American countries. Since becoming a sovereign nation, Venezuela has undergone periodic episodes of civil conflict and dictatorship, with the military exerting a strong influence over politics. Since the late 1950s, democratically elected governments have ruled the nation.

The majority of Venezuelans are mestizos, people of mixed European and Native American ancestry. The country’s economy was dominated by agriculture until the discovery of vast quantities of petroleum in the early 1900s. Government-run agencies have coordinated oil production since the 1970s. Although the oil industry has generated great wealth, Venezuelan society remains sharply divided between rich and poor. An elite class of businessmen, oil-company technicians, and large landowners controls most of the country’s resources, while a large number of unskilled urban laborers and rural farmworkers live in relative poverty.

II LAND AND RESOURCES

Venezuela has a total area of 916,445 sq km (353,841 sq mi), which makes it just over twice the size of the state of California. Along the north the country’s coastline extends for about 2,800 km (about 1,700 mi). The numerous recesses along the coast include the gulfs of Venezuela and Paria. The coast is generally narrow and steep except in the west, which has expanses of low and occasionally marshy land. Of the 72 coastal islands that belong to Venezuela, Margarita is the largest and most important.

Venezuela is bounded by Colombia to the west, Brazil to the south, and Guyana to the east. The country has four distinct geographic regions: the northern mountains, the Maracaibo lowlands, the Llanos (plains) of the north central region, and the Guiana Highlands to the south.

A Northern Mountains

The northernmost ranges of the Andes extend into western Venezuela. The largely uninhabited Sierra de Perijá range forms the Colombia-Venezuela border. Peaks in these mountains reach elevations above 3,400 m (11,000 ft), with average crest heights about 2,400 m (8,000 ft). Heavily forested slopes descend from the highest peaks in a series of lesser ridges to the humid lowlands of Lake Maracaibo.

The highest Andean range in Venezuela is the Cordillera de Mérida, which extends northeastward from the border with Colombia. Many of the peaks in this range have snow year round. The Cordillera de Mérida contain the country’s highest point, Pico Bolívar (5,007 m/16,427 ft). A series of lower mountains runs parallel to Venezuela’s Caribbean coast for about two-thirds of its east-west length. Most of Venezuela’s people live along the coast or in the coastal mountains.

B Maracaibo Lowlands

The Maracaibo lowlands are situated in the northwest corner of Venezuela and nearly enclosed by the mountains and highlands. Although they make up the smallest natural region of the country, they contain Venezuela’s second largest city, Maracaibo and the rich petroleum fields nearby.

Lake Maracaibo, an inland extension of the Gulf of Venezuela, dominates the Maracaibo lowlands. Lake Maracaibo is one of the largest lakes in South America, extending about 195 km (120 mi) in length. A narrow channel connects the northern end of the lake to the Gulf of Venezuela and the Caribbean Sea. In 1956 this channel was dredged so that oil tankers could pass through it.

Oil fields are located along the shores of Lake Maracaibo. The southern lakeshore has a luxuriant tropical forest rising above swampy, insect-infested lagoons. Widely scattered sugarcane and cacao plantations occupy the better-drained soils in this area.

C The Llanos

The Llanos, a region of vast tropical grassland, lie south of the coastal mountains and occupy the north central region of Venezuela. These plains cover about one-third of the country and extend to the Orinoco River delta on the northeastern coast. Elevations rarely exceed 215 m (700 ft). Savanna grasses, widely scattered clumps of brush, and palm groves cover the land. Ranchers raise cattle on these hot plains.

The climate of the Llanos is tropical. During the wet season from May to November, heavy tropical rains fall, rivers overflow their banks, and vast areas of the Llanos are flooded. During the dry season that follows, grasses become parched, trees drop their leaves, and ranchers drive their cattle to water in wet lowland pastures near the Orinoco.

D Guiana Highlands

More than half of Venezuela lies south of the Orinoco River in a remote region known as the Guiana Highlands. This rugged region takes its name from the ancient Guiana bedrock that underlies it. The highlands consist of rolling hills, low mountains, and plateau. Tropical forests cover much of the land, interspersed with open grasslands. The chief mountain ranges are the Sierra Parima, from which the Orinoco headwaters flow, and the Sierra Paracaima, along the borders with Brazil and Guyana. The Guiana Highlands are sparsely settled but have attracted attention owing to discoveries of valuable ores such as iron, manganese, and bauxite.

Huge flat-topped mountains called tepuys rise in a part of the highlands near the Brazilian border known as the Gran Sabana. Waterfalls tumble over the edges of many tepuys. The highest waterfall in the world, Angel Falls, is located in the Gran Sabana. This impressive waterfall plunges a distance of 979 m (3,212 ft).

The Orinoco Delta is situated at the northern end of the Guiana Highlands, where the Orinoco River empties into the Atlantic Ocean. The delta consists of numerous islands and mangrove swamps.

E Rivers

Venezuela has six navigable rivers. Of the thousand or more streams in the country, the majority flow into the Orinoco. The Orinoco flows east across central Venezuela and drains approximately four-fifths of the total area of the country. With the tributaries—the Apure, Meta, and Negro rivers—it forms the outlet into the Atlantic Ocean for the waters of much of the interior of Colombia, as well as of inland Venezuela.

F Climate

The climate of Venezuela is tropical on the Llanos and along the coast and temperate in the mountainous regions. The coastal areas are extremely hot and humid. More comfortable conditions occur in highland regions, and nearly all the principal cities in Venezuela are between 600 and 1,800 m (about 2,000 to 6,000 ft) above sea level. The average daily temperature range in January is 15° to 26°C (59° to 78°F) in Caracas and 23° to 32°C (73° to 90°F) in Maracaibo; in July the range is 17° to 26°C (63° to 80°F) in Caracas and 24° to 34°C (76° to 94°F) in Maracaibo. Most precipitation falls from May through November, with the northern mountain slopes receiving less rain than those on the south. The dry season is from December to April.

G Natural Resources

Venezuela is rich in mineral resources. The country’s most important resource is petroleum. Other resources include natural gas, bauxite, gold, iron ore, copper, zinc, lead, and diamonds. Forests, too, are an important resource.

H Plants and Animals

Forests of varied species including palms, coral trees, mangoes, and brazilwoods cover 52.3 percent of Venezuela. Plant life common to the Temperate Zone (the region north of the tropic of Cancer) thrives above about 900 m (about 3,000 ft). Long grass grows on the Llanos, and mangrove swamps cover much of the Orinoco River delta.

Among the animals of Venezuela are jaguars, monkeys, sloths, anteaters, ocelots, bears, deer, and armadillos. Birdlife is abundant and includes flamingos, herons, ibis, guacharos (also called oilbirds), and numerous other species. Reptiles, including crocodiles and large snakes, such as anacondas and boa constrictors, are also found in Venezuela.

I Environmental Concerns

Venezuela protects more than a third of its land area—the highest percentage of any country in North and South America. Yet despite these protective measures, Venezuela continues to lose some of its valuable tropical forests each year. In addition, soil degradation in the grasslands of the Llanos, resulting from years of overgrazing, has become a major problem.

Occasional oil spills have killed fish and shut down shoreline resorts on Lake Maracaibo. Industrial pollution also plagues the Caribbean Sea coast where most of the country’s population lives. Insufficient sewage treatment facilities contribute to the pollution of the Caribbean Sea coast as well. In rural areas many people lack access to proper sanitation. Air pollution is an additional concern in urban centers such as Caracas, Maracaibo, and Valencia. Venezuela is party to international treaties concerning biodiversity, climate change, endangered species, marine life conservation, ship pollution, tropical timber, and wetlands.

III PEOPLE

About 67 percent of the population of Venezuela is made up of mestizos (people of mixed European and Native American ancestry), and 21 percent is of European descent. The remainder is predominantly black, and about 2 percent of the total population is unmixed Native American. The society is 88 percent urban. Spanish is the official language of the country. The principal religion is Roman Catholicism.

Venezuelan society is marked by a striking contrast between rich and poor. In Caracas government-distributed oil wealth has created impressive buildings and a class of millionaires and highly paid technicians whose standard of living is on a par with that of the wealthy in any Western country. But in the hills surrounding Caracas, unskilled laborers live in squalor in shantytowns. Similarly, in the countryside a small number of landowners live in mansions, while undernourished farmworkers live in rudimentary dwellings.

The Venezuelan population is 26,414,815 (2008 estimate), giving the country an overall population density of 30 persons per sq km (77 per sq mi). The overwhelming majority of the population lives in the northern highlands or coastal regions. Only a small percentage inhabits the huge area (nearly 50 percent of the total land area) south of the Orinoco River.

A Principal Cities

Venezuela is highly urbanized. Caracas (population, 2007, 2,085,488) is the capital as well as the financial, cultural, and commercial center of Venezuela. Located in a beautiful valley in the coastal highlands, Caracas is a city in which modern skyscrapers and apartment houses contrast sharply with elegant old colonial buildings and with the slum dwellings of recent migrants from the countryside who have come to the city seeking employment. The nearby town of La Guaira serves as the seaport for Caracas.

Maracaibo (population, 2008 estimate, 1,450,665), the country’s second largest city, is located on the shores of Lake Maracaibo. Once a collection of crude huts built on stilts over water, Maracaibo developed into a modern city during the 20th century, largely because of its role as a major center of the petroleum industry. Valencia (population, 2008, 839,926), in the coastal highlands, is one of the country’s main manufacturing centers. Barquisimeto (1,085,483), in the Andes, is the hub of several important highways as well as a major railroad terminal.

B Education

Education in Venezuela is free and compulsory for children between the ages of 6 and 15. The adult literacy rate in 2005 was 94 percent. The country’s 15,984 primary and preprimary schools had a total enrollment of 3.3 million pupils and were staffed by 185,748 teachers; secondary schools had an enrollment of 1,543,600 students.

In 2002–2003 about 983,000 students were enrolled in institutions of higher education, which included the Central University of Venezuela (1721) and Andrés Bello Catholic University (1953), in Caracas; Carabobo University (1852), in Valencia; the University of the Andes (1785), in Mérida; the University of Zulia (1891), in Maracaibo; and the Polytechnical Institute (1962), in Barquisimeto.

C Culture

The dominant influence on the culture of Venezuela was that of the Spanish conquerors. The Native Americans of the country, lacking any political or cultural unity of their own, were assimilated into the immigrant groups and had only a slight influence on the national culture.

The distinct Venezuelan contribution to folk legend is the llanero, or South American cowboy. The national dance, the joropo, and popular instruments such as the maraca, a type of rattle, and the cuatro, an instrument with four strings that resembles a small guitar, are all associated with the llanero.

Venezuelan literature gained momentum in the early 19th century with the appearance of writers such as Simón Rodríguez, Andrés Bello, and Simón Bolívar. Outstanding among later writers of the 19th century was Juan Antonio Pérez Bonalde, known principally for his translations of German poet Heinrich Heine and American writer Edgar Allan Poe. Pérez Bonalde is considered a precursor of romanticism in Latin American literature. In the early 20th century, novelist Teresa de la Parra became one of the most popular women novelists of Latin America, and Rufino Blanco Fombana produced works about life in Venezuela in the late 19th century.

Two of the best-known Venezuelan novelists of the 20th century were former president Rómulo Gallegos and Arturo Uslar Pietri, who ran for president in 1968. Gallegos’s works reflect the interaction of humankind and nature. Uslar Pietri’s novel Un Retrato en la geografia (1962, Portrayal in Geography) is an original look at Venezuelan society in which a recently released political prisoner describes the new social landscape that he encounters.

Venezuelan artists of the 20th century who developed international reputations include sculptor Marisol (Escobar) and painter and sculptor Jesús Rafael Soto. Both artists moved between Venezuela, New York, and Paris. A museum dedicated to Soto’s work is in Ciudad Bolívar.

Venezuela, which was regarded as one of the less profitable colonies of Spain, lacks the splendors of Spanish architecture that are found in other South American countries. Nevertheless, in the second half of the 20th century, the combination of the wealth produced from oil discoveries and strong ties with the United States helped foster the development of modern architecture. Carlos Raúl Villanueva, who explored the structural and expressive possibilities of reinforced concrete, is the best-known Venezuelan architect of the 20th century. He designed the campus of the Central University in Caracas.

See also Latin American Architecture; Latin American Literature; Latin American Music; Latin American Painting; Latin American Sculpture.

D Museums

Some of Venezuela’s leading museums are located in Caracas. These include the Museum of Fine Arts, the Museum of Colonial Art, the Natural Sciences Museum, and the Bolívar Museum, with displays on the life and times of Simón Bolívar. Also of interest are the Talavera Museum, in Ciudad Bolívar, and history museums in Maracaibo and Trujillo.

IV ECONOMY

The economy of Venezuela is built upon the nation’s rich petroleum and mineral resources. However, its reliance on petroleum leaves the nation vulnerable to fluctuations in world markets. The government has made numerous efforts to diversify the economy but without success. At the beginning of the 21st century, the economy suffered from inflation and high unemployment and underemployment. In addition political instability had a negative effect on the economy. Opposition to President Hugo Chávez led to a general strike in late 2002 and early 2003 that worsened the country’s already weak economy.

Despite the strike that slowed oil production in the early 2000s, oil revenues rose as a result of an increase in oil prices. Chávez pledged to spend the money on social welfare, including health and education. With the increase in oil revenues beginning in 2004, Venezuela’s economy improved. However, critics said government spending was out of control.

The national budget in 2005 included revenues of $36.5 billion and expenditures of $41.1 billion. The gross domestic product (GDP), the total of all goods and services produced within a country, in 2006 was $181.9 billion.

A Agriculture

Agriculture plays a much smaller role in Venezuela’s economy than in the economies of other South American countries. Before the discovery of oil, agriculture provided the country’s major exports, including coffee, cacao, cattle, and hides. Oil production, however, led to years of neglect of the agricultural sector, and by the 1950s the country was importing more than one-third of its food. In 1960 the government passed the Agrarian Reform Law, which was aimed at expanding and diversifying agricultural production. For a time food production grew rapidly, but by the mid-1970s rapid population growth outpaced the growth in agricultural production. In addition, much of the best farmland remained in the hands of large landowners and often lay idle, while those who need to earn a living from the land worked the poorer farmland. Today, Venezuela still must import much of its food. The United States is a major supplier.

Much of the best farmland in Venezuela is concentrated in the hands of a few large landowners, while those who need to earn a living from the land are left with poorer land. The lack of arable land for the poor has led to heavy migration from rural areas to the cities. In 2005 Venezuela’s president initiated plans to increase food production by breaking up the large estates. The first step was to review land use. Ranchers objected to inspections of their estates and declared the measures unconstitutional.

Agriculture, including forestry and fishing, employed 11 percent of the workforce; in 2003 it contributed 5 percent of the GDP. The principal crops include sugarcane; fruits such as bananas, plantains, and oranges; maize; rice; and cassava. Livestock raising is carried on chiefly on the Llanos and east of Lake Maracaibo.

B Forestry and Fishing

In 2005, 52 percent of Venezuela was forested. However, the country’s timber industry is underdeveloped largely because of the inaccessibility of the forest areas. Timber is used mainly as fuel and by the building, furniture manufacturing, and paper industries.

The rich fishery resources of Venezuela include a wide variety of marine life. The fish catch in 2005 was 492,210 metric tons. The country’s fish catch includes tuna, sardines, herrings, shrimp, and shellfish. Important pearl fisheries are located off Margarita Island.

C Mining

Petroleum, located in the Maracaibo Basin and in the eastern part of the country, dominates the Venezuelan economy. Crude and refined oil are the main source of government revenue and account for about one-third of the GDP. In 2004 Venezuela produced almost 1 billion barrels. Much of its oil is exported to the Netherlands Antilles for refining. Venezuela is a founding member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).

The Venezuelan government nationalized the petroleum industry in 1976, although private investment and foreign participation has been permitted since 1992. In 2007 the country had petroleum reserves estimated at 80 billion barrels.

Venezuela also is a major producer of natural gas; output in 2003 was 29.7 billion cubic meters (1.05 trillion cubic feet). Venezuela has tapped its vast reserves of bitumen to produce liquid coal, an emulsion of bitumen and water principally for use in power plants.

Other minerals commercially exploited in Venezuela include iron ore, bauxite, diamonds, gold, silver, platinum, coal, salt, copper, tin, asbestos, phosphates, titanium, and mica. In 2000 the country adopted new mining regulations intended to encourage greater private-sector and foreign investment in the mining sector. But growth failed to follow, largely because of labor unrest.

D Manufacturing

The government of Venezuela has given high priority to the development of heavy industry since the 1960s. It established a significant steel industry and began the production of aluminum and petrochemicals, especially nitrogen-based fertilizers. In the late 1970s, a significant portion of the country’s oil revenue was invested in these state-owned industries. Ciudad Guayana, a city founded in an area rich in natural resources, became a major industrial center. But petroleum revenues dropped in the 1980s, as did investment in industry. By the late 1990s, the manufacturing sector was contracting, smaller firms shut down, and jobs were lost. Political instability in the early 2000s added to the problems of the manufacturing sector.

The leading manufactured goods of Venezuela include refined petroleum and petroleum products, steel, aluminum, fertilizer, cement, tires, motor vehicles, processed food, beverages, clothing, and wood items.

E Tourism

Venezuela has a number of tourist attractions, including its long Caribbean coastline, the Andes Mountains, and the world’s highest waterfall (Angel Falls). However, its tourism industry remains largely undeveloped. Most of the country’s tourists visit the beaches on Margarita Island. More adventurous visitors seek out the wildlife and natural beauty of the Orinoco Delta and the interior highlands and tropical rainforests.

F Energy

In 2003, 68 percent of Venezuela’s electricity was produced in hydroelectric facilities, particularly at the Guri Dam, a major installation on the Caroní River. Venezuela generated 87 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity in 2003.

G Currency and Banking

The basic unit of currency is the bolivar, consisting of 100 centimos (2,147 bolivars equal U.S.$1; 2006 average). The Banco Central de Venezuela, founded in 1940, is the government banking agent, the sole bank of issue, and the clearinghouse for commercial banks. The country’s principal stock exchange is in Caracas.

H Foreign Trade

The principal exports of Venezuela are petroleum and petroleum products, which together account for 82 percent of foreign sales. Other exports include bauxite and aluminum, steel, chemicals, agricultural products, and basic manufactures. Total exports were estimated at $25 billion in 2003.

Main imports include raw materials, machinery, transportation equipment, chemicals, foodstuffs, and basic manufactures. Imports were estimated at $8.4 billion in 2003.

Principal trading partners for exports are the United States, The Netherlands (primarily petroleum to the Netherlands Antilles for refining), Brazil, and Colombia. Chief sources of imports are the United States, Colombia, Brazil, Japan, and Mexico.

Venezuela is a member of five international trade organizations, the Andean Community, Latin American Integration Association (LAIA), Mercosur, Group of Three, and the Association of Caribbean States (ACS). These organizations work toward improving conditions within member countries by increasing economic integration and international trade.

I Transportation

Roads are the principal means of transport for goods and people in Venezuela, and the country has an extensive road network. In 1999 Venezuela had 96,155 km (59,748 mi) of roads, of which 34 percent were paved. Highway density is greatest in the north central area.

The railway network, by contrast, is poorly developed. In 2005 the country had only 682 km (424 mi) of operated railroad track, principally a line from Puerto Cabello to Barquisimeto. The leading seaports of Venezuela include La Guaira, Puerto Cabello, and Maracaibo. Transport on interior waterways, particularly the Orinoco River, also is important.

The main international airport is located in Caracas with others located in major cities such as Maracaibo and Barcelona. Venezuela has a number of passenger airlines based in the country.

J Communications

In 2005 Venezuela had some 136 telephone lines for every 1,000 people. The number of mobile cellular phones in use increased substantially during the 1990s because of dissatisfaction with the country’s phone system. An estimated 189 television sets and 301 radios were in use for every 1,000 residents. Influential daily newspapers included Últimas Noticias, El Mundo, El Universal, and El Nacional, all published in Caracas.

K Labor

In 2006 the employed labor force of Venezuela was 13.3 million people. Some 11 percent of the workforce was employed in agriculture, 69 percent in services, and 20 percent in industry, including manufacturing, mining, and construction. However, Venezuela suffers from high unemployment and underemployment; in 2003, 17 percent of the labor force was unemployed. Organized labor in Venezuela consists of trade unions and peasant leagues. The largest and most powerful organization is the Confederation of Venezuelan Workers, with a membership of about 2.5 million.

V GOVERNMENT

Venezuela is a federal republic. It is governed under a constitution adopted in 1999. All citizens may vote beginning at age 18.

A Executive

The chief executive of Venezuela is a president, who is popularly elected to a six-year term. A council of ministers assists the president. The president has the authority to dissolve the legislature under certain conditions.

B Legislature

As a result of the 1999 constitution, Venezuela’s bicameral National Congress, which consisted of a Senate and Chamber of Deputies, was replaced by a unicameral National Assembly in 2000. Legislators are popularly elected to a five-year term.

C Political Parties

The leading political parties in Venezuela are the Fifth Republic Movement Party (Movimiento V República, MVR), led by President Hugo Chávez; the Democratic Action Party (Accíon Democrática, AD); Movement Toward Socialism (Movimiento al Socialismo, MAS); Project Venezuela (Proyecto Venezuela); and Social Christian Party of Venezuela (Partido Social Cristiano de Venezuela, COPEI).

D Local Government

Venezuela is divided into 23 states; federal dependencies, made up of 72 islands in the Caribbean; and the Federal District, site of Caracas, the national capital. Each of Venezuela’s 23 states and its federal district has a popularly elected governor and legislature.

E Judiciary

The highest court in Venezuela is the Supreme Tribunal of Justice, made up of 32 judges appointed to 12-year terms by the National Assembly. Each of the states has a superior court as well as several lesser tribunals.

F Defense

All Venezuelan males between the ages of 18 and 45 are liable for 30 months of military service. In 2004 Venezuela maintained combined armed forces, made up of the army, navy, air force, and national guard, of 82,300 people.

G Health and Welfare

The Venezuelan government sponsors a limited program of health, accident, and retirement insurance. The average life expectancy at birth in 2008 was 77 years for women and 70 for men.+

VI HISTORY

Christopher Columbus first sighted the coast of Venezuela in 1498. In 1499 Spanish explorer Alonso de Ojeda followed the coast to Lake Maracaibo. He named the region Venezuela, or Little Venice, because the Native American buildings constructed on stilts along the lake’s edge reminded him of the Italian city of Venice, which was built on a series of islands in a lagoon.

A Spanish Colony

The Spanish began settling Venezuela in 1520. In 1528 Charles V of Spain granted to the Welsers, Bavarian bankers to whom he was in debt, the part of Venezuela lying between Cape Vela and Maracapana. As part of the arrangement, the Welsers were to develop the region and establish settlements. Instead, their representatives enslaved the Native Americans and so demoralized the European settlers that in 1546 the Spanish government revoked the grant and reassumed control.The city of Caracas was founded in 1567.

Economic activities in the colonial period centered on agriculture, particularly cacao and tobacco farming and some livestock raising. Venezuela became a center of piracy and smuggling, activities in which the English and the Dutch were the most notorious participants.

During the colonial period, Venezuela operated under a number of administrative jurisdictions. Originally, the Spanish authorities divided what is now Venezuelan territory between the Viceroyalty of Peru and the Audiencia of Santo Domingo (located in what is now the Dominican Republic). The Superintendency of Venezuela, more or less the present territory, was created in 1783.

In 1728 the Spanish government chartered the Guipuzcoana Company and gave it a monopoly of trade in Venezuela, with the additional duties of patrolling the coast to prevent smuggling. The company was very unpopular and did much to stir up political discontent in the colony. In addition, the Spanish policy of appointing peninsulares (individuals born in Spain) to the major administrative positions in their American colonies caused much resentment among Creoles (Spaniards born in the colonies), who were excluded from positions of power.

B Independence

The first decisive attempt by a Spanish American colony to gain independence from Spain was made by Venezuela. In 1808 the armies of French emperor Napoleon I overran Spain and Portugal. They deposed Ferdinand VII of Spain. In 1810 the Creoles in the cabildo, or town council, of Caracas overthrew the Spanish authorities and formed a junta, or governing body, to rule in the name of the king. However, the junta soon threw aside all pretense of loyalty to the Spanish crown and issued a formal declaration of independence on July 5, 1811.

This first attempt to gain independence faltered after 1812, when Spanish troops began reconquering the colony. Francisco de Miranda, the commander in chief of the revolutionary forces, tried to negotiate peace with the Spanish commander but was taken to Spain, where he died in prison. Leadership in the movement for independence passed to one of his lieutenants, Simón Bolívar, who recovered control of Caracas briefly in 1813, only to be driven out by the Spanish a year later.

Spanish rule was solidified in Venezuela after the arrival of a large force of Spanish troops in 1815. Bolívar, whose forces were too weak to oppose the Spanish army, withdrew to Haiti. In 1816, however, he returned to the mainland with a reinforced army and seized control of the lower Orinoco Valley. Over the next few years Bolívar gathered his forces. In 1819 Bolívar’s position was further strengthened when a congress, convened by him at Angostura (now Ciudad Bolívar), proclaimed a union of New Granada (now Colombia and Panama), Venezuela, and Ecuador under the name of the Republic of Colombia (also known as Gran Colombia), with Bolívar as president. On June 24, 1821, the Spanish army was decisively beaten in Venezuela at the Battle of Carabobo, assuring the independence of the new nation.

Venezuela seceded from the union in 1829 and formed an independent republic with its capital at Caracas. José Antonio Páez, a hero of the revolution, served as president and remained the dominant political figure until 1846. He was tolerant toward the Roman Catholic Church and fostered a few measures for the stimulation of trade, agriculture, and education.

C Series of Dictatorships

The political history of Venezuela was comparatively uneventful until the year 1846 ushered in an era of civil wars between supporters of the Conservative Party and the Liberal Party. Conflict between these two groups characterized the early history of many Latin American countries. Liberals generally supported voting rights for all adult males, the separation of church and state, and a weak central government that gave greater power to the states and provinces within a nation. Conservatives advocated the preservation of class and church privileges, close government cooperation with the church, and a powerful central government.

In 1870 Antonio Guzmán Blanco gained control of the country. Under his despotic rule the public debt was stabilized, the building of railroads begun, and efforts were made to improve communications facilities. His administration also introduced reforms at the University of Caracas, emphasizing technological education, and rebuilt parts of the capital. Guzmán Blanco stripped the Roman Catholic Church of much of its wealth and authority. He retired in 1888 as a result of popular demonstrations against him. Rival aspirants contended for the presidency until General Joaquín Crespo brought another interval of peace and order between 1892 and 1899.

On two separate occasions during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Venezuela became embroiled in conflicts with European powers. The first incident took place in 1886 over a dispute with Britain concerning the border of British Guiana (now Guyana). The United States persuaded Britain to submit the case to an arbitration tribunal that subsequently awarded the larger share of the territory to Britain.

The second incident occurred during the rule of Cipriano Castro, from 1899 to 1908, when the government failed to pay its foreign debts. In 1902 Britain, France, Germany, and several other powers blockaded Venezuelan ports, demanding payment. On two occasions, European warships bombarded the ports. In 1904 an international tribunal asked to rule on the dispute decided in favor of the allies.

In 1908 General Juan Vicente Gómez deposed Castro. Gómez established a stable government and began to pay off the country’s vast debts. In 1917, when Gómez learned that Venezuela had large quantities of petroleum, he called foreign oil companies together and asked them to submit their suggestions for a partnership with the nation for the production of petroleum. With the aid of experts, he made an agreement with the petroleum companies that made Venezuela prosperous enough to pay off all of its public obligations; it was the only nation in the world at that time free from debt.

Internally, Gómez ruled tyrannically from 1908 until his death in 1935, with two interruptions, from 1915 to 1922 and from 1929 to 1931. On both of these occasions, handpicked candidates under the control of Gómez served as president. Gómez had many of his political opponents imprisoned, tortured, or assassinated, and he treated the national treasury as his own personal account. Gómez did little to improve education, housing, or health care, but he oversaw the modernization of Venezuela. The stable, oil-based economy supported major public works projects in the cities and ports, as well as construction of highways.

Minister of War Eleazar López Contreras succeeded Gómez as president. Contrary to precedent, López Contreras refused reelection, turning over his administration in 1941 to his duly elected successor, General Isaías Medina Angarita. However, Medina Angarita made no effort to train the people to govern themselves, and his limited program of land reform did not satisfy the liberal Democratic Action Party (AD), a political party founded in 1941 by young reformers.

D World War II and Postwar Politics

Venezuela broke off diplomatic relations with the Axis powers at the end of 1941 and ultimately declared war on them in 1945 in order to qualify as a charter member of the United Nations.

In October 1945 a revolution broke out, and violent fighting took place in Caracas. A new government was set up under the presidency of a young AD leader, Rómulo Betancourt. Although foreign powers suspected he might be sympathetic toward communism, Betancourt allayed their fears by his declarations concerning the prompt holding of elections and a program of acceptable reform. He also promised the foreign oil interests that no radical action would be taken against them.

The Betancourt government brought a new approach to government. Seven of the 11 members of the cabinet had been educated in the United States, and all were young men. For the first time an agriculture expert occupied that ministry and directed his efforts toward proper and efficient use of the land. Many difficulties confronted the new government in this field. The high wages paid by the oil companies had drawn workers from farms. Importation of food had increased the cost of living to one of the highest in the world. Small farms had been taken by Gómez to create a few immense cattle ranches. The new administration announced that these ranches would be converted into small holdings whose owners would be trained to raise a balanced crop for the benefit of the nation as a whole.

A new constitution, adopted in 1947, provided for popular vote by means of a secret ballot. Later in the same year, after the first democratic election in Venezuela, Rómulo Gallegos Freire, novelist and founder of the AD, was elected president. He took office in February 1948. However, the AD’s extreme popularity among voters and its proposed reform program alienated important groups, including conservative elements in the church and the military.

In November 1948 the government was overthrown by an army revolt, the leaders of which immediately formed a provisional government headed by Lieutenant Colonel Carlos Delgado Chalbaud. The junta suppressed the opposition and employed other dictatorial methods, including censorship of news. In 1950 Delgado Chalbaud was assassinated. The junta appointed the diplomat Germán Suárez Flámerich as provisional president, but the main power behind the government was a military officer, Colonel Marcos Pérez Jiménez.

The junta made elaborate plans for an election to choose a constituent assembly that would in turn choose a president. Electoral boards were appointed to register and poll the voters. The public was, however, indifferent. Finally, after government threats of punishment for anyone who did not register and vote, an election was scheduled for 1952. When early returns showed that the opponents of the junta were clearly in the lead, the military government suspended the election and the junta-backed government party, the Independent Electoral Front (FEI), installed Pérez Jiménez as president. In 1953 the constituent assembly confirmed him for a five-year term. Leaders of the opposition left the country. Later that year the constituent assembly approved a new constitution. The country, known officially since 1864 as the United States of Venezuela, was proclaimed the Republic of Venezuela.

E The Pérez Jiménez Regime

Venezuela’s enormous oil revenues allowed the Pérez Jiménez government to undertake construction of roads, bridges, railroads, and public buildings. One of the larger projects undertaken was the rebuilding of the center of Caracas. However, the government spent a great deal of money on military installations that became obsolete upon completion, and it made no efforts to improve agriculture, education, or standards of public health. Members of the administration embezzled vast sums of money, with Pérez Jiménez himself accumulating an enormous fortune.

The government maintained generally good contacts with other American countries, and the Tenth International Conference of American States was held in Caracas in 1954. Venezuela, however, broke off diplomatic relations with Argentina in 1957, after having rejected numerous Argentine complaints concerning the activities in Caracas of former Argentine dictator Juan Perón.

Jiménez ruthlessly suppressed all criticism of his regime. The government drove opponents into hiding or exile, and the secret police carried out mass jailings and tortured political prisoners. Until late 1957, however, the administration appeared stable. As the time for the 1957 national election approached, Pérez Jiménez jailed all known opposition leaders, including Rafael Caldera Rodríguez, leader of the Social Christian Party (COPEI). In December the government held a plebiscite, the results of which showed that 2,353,935 of a total of 2,900,543 voters approved of Pérez Jiménez and his regime.

The people, already resentful of the dictatorship, reacted violently to the official announcement of the referendum. On January 21, 1958, a general strike in Caracas signaled the start of a popular uprising. Rioting broke out in the streets of Caracas. The situation culminated in two days and nights of terror, during which police killed about 300 citizens. Pérez Jiménez fled the country and a group of military officers and civilians, known as the Patriotic Junta and led by Rear Admiral Wolfgang Larrazábal, seized control of the government.

F Democratic Governments

In 1957 the Larrazábal government released leading political prisoners. Other opposition leaders returned from exile. In elections held in 1958, former president Betancourt of the AD was reelected.

The new administration restored the country’s credit, which was severely weakened by the Pérez Jiménez regime, expanded social welfare projects, provided increased educational opportunities, and encouraged foreign investment. The government also raised income taxes, primarily in the higher income brackets, to secure funds for development projects. A land reform bill aimed at giving 700,000 farmers land of their own was passed in 1960, and the government promoted diversification of the economy.

The five years of the Betancourt administration were marked by almost continuous efforts by extremists of both the right and the left to unseat the government. Both groups of extremists received support from outside Venezuela. In 1960 the Organization of American States (OAS) voted sanctions against the Dominican Republic, then under the control of the dictator Rafael Trujillo, for supporting right-wing efforts to assassinate Betancourt. Diplomatic relations with Cuba were severed in November, following charges by the Venezuelan government that the disorders had been orchestrated in large part on orders of Cuba’s Communist leader, Fidel Castro. During 1962 and 1963 leftist groups attempted unsuccessfully to overthrow the government.

President Betancourt promulgated a new constitution in January 1961. Despite constitutional provisions guaranteeing various rights to labor and expressing opposition to large landed estates, social unrest and rioting continued throughout 1961.

Elections in 1963 brought Raúl Leoni of the ruling AD to the presidency. For the first time in Venezuela’s history, there was a peaceful transfer of power from one constitutionally elected regime to another. Lacking a congressional majority, Leoni formed a coalition government. The Leoni government also tried to increase agricultural productivity and to expand industries, and it moved ahead with the agrarian reform program. For the next few years Venezuela enjoyed a large measure of political stability. In October 1966, however, a military uprising broke out, led by the national guard garrison near Caracas. It was crushed by the government, which had also been combating guerrilla activity (see Guerrilla Warfare) in the countryside and in the capital throughout the year.

G Nationalization Measures

Toward the end of the decade, the political life of the nation gained some tranquility. In 1968 Rafael Caldera Rodríguez, leader of COPEI, won a narrow election victory, largely because of a split in the AD. Despite his narrow support, Caldera governed effectively and virtually eliminated the guerrilla and terrorist activities of the late 1960s. Economically, he pursued a policy of nationalizing foreign enterprises. In 1973 Venezuela joined the increasingly effective Andean Community, an organization of South American countries located along the Andes Mountains, whose aim is to facilitate development of member nations through economic and social cooperation.

Political activity was brisk in 1973 as the presidential elections neared. In May the congress ratified a constitutional amendment barring the candidacy of former president Pérez Jiménez. In the December elections, the winner was Carlos Andrés Pérez, the leader of the AD. He attempted to improve relations with Venezuela’s neighbors but took an increasingly independent line from the United States. He expressed open hostility to the military dictatorship that had gained control of Chile in 1973 and resumed diplomatic relations with the Communist government of Cuba. Pérez nationalized the iron and steel industry in 1975 and the oil industry in 1976.

The 1978 elections were won by COPEI and its presidential candidate, Luís Herrera Campíns. Under the Herrera government the economy entered a long recession, despite a near doubling of the country’s income from oil exports. Venezuela’s foreign indebtedness tripled, to more than $34 billion, and the cost of living nearly doubled. The 1983 elections resulted in a sweeping victory for the AD, and its candidate, Jaime Lusinchi, took office as president. Confronted by falling world oil prices and heavy obligations to pay interest and principal on the foreign debt, Lusinchi initially followed austerity policies that prolonged the recession. However, these policies enabled Venezuela, alone among Latin American countries, to pay its foreign creditors in full and on time. Nevertheless, the country was unable to get new loans from foreign bankers. When economic growth resumed in 1986, it was accompanied by domestic inflation, which doubled the cost of living within two years.

The AD also won the 1988 elections, resulting in a second presidency for Carlos Andrés Pérez, who faced a serious economic crisis. Venezuela’s national income per person was less than 75 percent of its 1977 level, and the international value of its currency had fallen by almost 90 percent in five years. In 1989 consumer price increases imposed as part of an austerity program triggered violent protests in Caracas that were suppressed by the authorities, causing at least several hundred deaths. Emergency loans from the United States and other countries helped ease the crisis, as did increased revenue from oil exports. However, continued popular discontent with government policies, including attempts at selling government-owned industries to private companies, led to defeats of the AD in local elections. In 1991 Venezuela and the other members of the Andean Community signed a treaty that would establish the Andean Common Market.

In 1992 two military coup attempts were crushed, one in February and another in November. Pérez was suspended from office in May 1993, after the Senate voted unanimously to have him stand trial on charges of embezzlement and misuse of public funds. Senator Ramón José Velásquez was elected interim president, pending elections in 1993. In December 1993 Rafael Caldera was again elected president.

In January 1994 the nation’s second largest bank, Banco Latino, collapsed, precipitating an economic crisis. The crisis affected several other banks, prompting a strong response from the central government. By August, 13 banks had been nationalized, including several of the largest in Venezuela. Citing immediate necessity and coup rumors, President Caldera announced the suspension of some civil and economic rights in order to help the government arrest those responsible for the banking collapse and to prevent speculation and inflation.

H Privatization Measures

In September 1994 Caldera announced a new economic plan, designed to pull the country out of its economic slump. The standard of living of the country’s middle class had fallen. The percentage of the average household’s income spent on food had increased from 28 percent to nearly 70 percent in 25 years. Caldera’s new plan called for reducing inflation and the deficit, an increase in foreign investment and foreign currency holdings, a reduction in the dependence on oil tax revenues, improvements in tax collection, and a rise in the domestic price of oil. Public unrest over the government’s handling of the crisis continued periodically throughout 1994 as demonstrators protested price increases.

In 1995 the National Congress approved a bill that allowed foreign oil companies to carry out joint exploration and production ventures with Venezuela’s state-owned oil company. Although the government decided to allow private investment in the oil industry, agreements with investors stipulated that the state would take close to 90 percent of the industry’s profits.

Foreign investment was also encouraged to exploit the gold deposits discovered near the country’s western border. Taxes on mining companies were cut, and the central bank’s monopoly on purchasing gold was ended.

Also in 1995 the government restored the civil liberties suspended the previous year and drastically reduced government subsidies for automobile fuel. In 1996 the sales tax was also raised from 12.5 percent to 16.5 percent. These measures were meant to slow inflation and foster balance and growth of the economy. However, Venezuelans saw the cost of living double in 1996, while wages remained steady. In 1997 the government gave in to public pressure and granted a 77 percent raise to government workers.

I Chávez’s Rule

A crisis in Asian financial markets in 1997 and a slump in world oil prices in 1998 caused a downturn in the Venezuelan economy. In the 1998 presidential election, Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías, a former military officer who had participated in two failed coup attempts in 1992, won the presidency. Chávez ran without support from Venezuela’s two major political parties. During the campaign he promised to end government corruption and to provide better economic conditions for the large number of Venezuelans living in poverty.

In April 1999 voters approved a referendum calling for the election of a constituent assembly to write a new constitution. The constituent assembly was elected in July, with candidates from Chávez’s Patriotic Pole coalition winning most of the 131 seats. When the constituent assembly convened in August, it assumed most of the National Congress’s duties, in addition to drafting a constitution.

In a referendum in December 1999 more than 70 percent of those casting ballots voted in favor of the new constitution, which renamed the country the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and gave the president more power. The presidential term was increased from five to six years, and presidents were no longer barred from serving consecutive terms in office. A unicameral National Assembly replaced the bicameral National Congress. The constitution gave the executive branch of the federal government many powers previously held by state and local governments and reduced civilian control of the military. Provisions promoted as anticorruption measures allowed voters to revoke legislation or recall elected officials, including the president, through referenda.

Also in December 1999, torrential rains caused devastating floods in the northern coastal states. Mudslides destroyed whole villages. It was estimated that more than 400,000 Venezuelans lost their homes and as many as 30,000 died.

While the nation dug out from the disastrous mudslides, the new constitution took effect. The constituent assembly resigned in January 2000, its work completed. Presidential and congressional elections were held in July 2000. Chávez easily won reelection, and his coalition won a simple majority in the new unicameral assembly.

In a development that further enhanced Chávez’s power, the National Assembly voted in November 2000 to grant the president authority for one year to rule by decree on topics ranging from public finance to land reform. The law passed despite complaints from opposition parties that the measure granted too much authority to Chávez.

I1 Opposition to Chávez

As his presidency progressed, Chávez became increasingly unpopular among the upper and middle classes due to his economic reforms and disputes with business leaders. In April 2002 at least 17 people were killed in a march in Caracas to protest Chávez’s policies, and some people claimed that his supporters had killed the protestors. Military leaders then forced Chávez from power in a coup d'état. The next day tens of thousands of people, mainly the urban and rural poor, marched throughout the country to protest Chávez’s ouster. In response to the protests, the military returned Chávez to power less than three days after it had removed him.

Although Chávez regained the presidency, many people continued to oppose his policies. In December 2002 a loose coalition that included labor unions, business leaders, and the Democratic Action Party organized a general strike to protest Chávez’s leadership. During the nearly three-month strike, many businesses, banks, and schools closed, and employees of the state-owned oil company slowed oil production. The strike devastated Venezuela’s already weak economy, and the country faced severe economic problems including high unemployment and inflation.

I2 Recall Vote and After

High oil prices in 2004, however, helped the economy recover, and Chávez funneled millions in government revenues to aid literacy and health programs for Venezuela’s slum dwellers. That aid helped Chávez solidify his base among the poor while his opposition mounted a petition drive to recall him from office. The Democratic Coordinator, an umbrella group of organizations opposing the president, succeeded in gathering enough signatures for a referendum in August 2004 to recall Chávez two years before his term was to expire.

Chávez easily defeated the recall attempt, however, winning 59 percent of the vote. The opposition charged the voting was fraudulent, but international monitors from the Organization of American States (OAS) and the Carter Center of Atlanta, Georgia, led by former U.S. president Jimmy Carter, said the election was free and fair. Carter said the charges of fraud were “completely unwarranted.”

In legislative elections held in December 2005, politicians allied with Chávez captured all 167 seats in Venezuela’s National Assembly. A number of the major opposition parties boycotted the election, claiming the electoral system was biased, and only about 25 percent of eligible voters cast ballots.

Opposition parties returned to the electoral process in the 2006 presidential elections, but they made little headway among voters. Chávez was reelected by a wide margin as most Venezuelans appeared to support his policies of redistributing the country’s oil revenues, especially to benefit the poor and working class. Chávez won 63 percent of the vote in an election that saw a relatively high turnout.

Following the presidential election, Chávez asked the National Assembly for the power to rule by decree for a period of 18 months. Critics charged that Chávez was trying to create an authoritarian regime with all powers concentrated in his hands. They said the move was unnecessary in view of the fact that Chávez’s supporters control the legislature, the Supreme Court, and all but two states. Supporters of the president said the ability to rule by decree would give Chávez the power to implement his program to move Venezuela toward socialism without delay. They noted that the National Assembly had passed a similar Enabling Law in 2000, under which Chávez issued more than 40 decrees. In late January 2007 the National Assembly unanimously approved four measures that gave Chávez the power to rule by decree in 11 broadly defined areas, such as the economy, energy, and defense, for a period of 18 months.

Following passage of the legislation, Chávez nationalized the telecommunications, electrical power, and oil industries. By July 2007 he had successfully negotiated agreements with most of the foreign oil companies operating in Venezuela to take control of at least 60 percent of their oil drilling and refining operations in the Orinoco region. Only ConocoPhillips and Exxon Mobil Corporation refused the terms of the takeover, though they continued to negotiate. More controversially, however, Chávez also moved to close down or take control of media outlets. His refusal in May to renew the broadcast license of Radio Caracas Televisión (RCTV) met with mass protests and denunciations by human rights groups. Chávez’s defenders pointed out that RCTV played a prominent role in supporting the 2002 coup attempt against Chávez. They said a number of influential media outlets, including two leading newspapers in Caracas, remained privately owned and were allowed to publish while being openly critical of Chávez. However, Chávez’s critics countered that the government was opening new state-run television and radio stations and that government advertising in pro-Chávez newspapers had increased 12 times.

I3 Referendum on Term Limits

Chávez suffered the first major electoral defeat of his political career in December 2007 when voters narrowly rejected, by 51 to 49 percent, a referendum on 69 proposed amendments to the Venezuelan constitution. The amendment that drew the most attention and opposition was one that would have removed term limits on the president, allowing Chávez to seek another term in 2012 and beyond. Chávez argued that the measures were necessary to speed Venezuela’s transformation to a socialist society.

However, the term limit amendment, along with one that would have given Chávez the power to declare a state of emergency for an unlimited period, alienated some of his more moderate supporters, including the leader of a leftist political party and a prominent retired general who had supported Chávez against the 2002 coup attempt. The proposed amendments also cost him some support in poor neighborhoods, where voter turnout was not as high as during the 2006 presidential election. Chávez indicated that he would respect the will of the voters.

VATICAN CITY

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Vatican City
I INTRODUCTION

Vatican City, independent state within Rome, Italy, that is ruled by the pope and serves as the world headquarters of the Roman Catholic Church. Entirely surrounded by Rome, Vatican City is the smallest country in the world, with an area of 44 hectares (110 acres).

Vatican City occupies a triangular area on Vatican Hill in northwestern Rome, just west of the Tiber River. Except at Saint Peter’s Square (Piazza San Pietro) on its southwest flank, Vatican City is surrounded by medieval and Renaissance walls that separate it from the city beyond. Within its walls is a vast complex of courtyards, gardens, and magnificent buildings, the largest and most imposing of which is the great domed Saint Peter’s Basilica—the principal church of Roman Catholicism.

Vatican City has its own constitution, postal system, seal, flag, and other symbols of statehood. The Vatican also has its own army, the Swiss Guard, numbering about 100 soldiers. Vatican Radio is the official radio station, and powerful transmitters beam “the pope’s voice” to a global audience. In 2001 Vatican City had an estimated population of 1,000. Citizenship is gained by permanent residence in the Vatican together with the performance of special duties in the service of the Holy See (the jurisdiction of the pope).

Vatican City is the last remnant of the Papal States, a swath of territories in central Italy acquired over the centuries by the Catholic Church and governed by the pope. Vatican City was established in 1929 under terms of the Lateran Treaty, concluded by the Italian government and the papacy after many years of controversy. Under the treaty, the Catholic Church ceded all claims to the Papal States in return for financial compensation and sovereignty over the Holy See within the state of Vatican City.

II LANDMARKS AND ATTRACTIONS

Many of the most famous artists and architects of the Italian Renaissance were commissioned by popes to work on the Vatican’s buildings. The most important edifice is Saint Peter’s Basilica, a cavernous structure topped by a large ribbed dome. Built largely between the 15th and 17th centuries, and designed by artists such as Bramante, Michelangelo and Gianlorenzo Bernini, it is the world center of Roman Catholic worship. The basilica can hold up to 60,000 worshippers. In front of the basilica is Saint Peter’s Square. Considered a masterpiece of design, the immense keyhole shaped plaza is rimmed by two massive semicircular colonnades. At the center of the plaza is an obelisk from ancient Egypt brought to Rome in the 1st century ad by Roman emperor Caligula.

Adjacent to the basilica and square is the Palace of the Vatican, also known as the Papal Palace. It is a complex of buildings that contains more than 1,000 rooms and houses the papal apartments, the government offices of the Roman Catholic Church, several chapels and museums, and the Vatican Library. The most famous portion of the palace is the Sistine Chapel, best known for the awe-inspiring frescoes painted by Michelangelo on its barrel-vaulted ceiling (restored 1980-1990). The chapel’s walls were painted by famous Renaissance artists such as Sandro Botticelli, Pinturicchio, Luca Signorelli, and Domenico Ghirlandaio. Raphael’s Rooms, a part of the palace that holds papal apartments, are adorned with frescoes painted by the great Raphael.

The Vatican’s outstanding museums include the Gregorian Museum of Egyptian Art; the Gregorian Museum of Etruscan Art; the Pio Clementino Museum, with a superlative collection of antiquities; the Chiaramonti Museum; and the Vatican Pinacoteca, an art gallery with representative works by Italian masters. The Vatican Library has a priceless collection of ancient manuscripts and more than 1 million bound volumes. Also within the Vatican’s walls are the Government Palace and the Vatican Gardens.

III GOVERNMENT

Vatican City is governed by the pope, who holds absolute executive, legislative, and judicial powers. In practice, the executive powers are delegated to a governor, who is responsible to the pope. In the exercise of his legislative powers, the pope is advised and assisted by the Sacred College of Cardinals and by the various Sacred Congregations. The judicial powers are exercised by tribunals; appeals from their decisions are heard by the sacred Roman Rota and by the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signature. The Secretariat of State represents the Holy See in international relations, and it sends diplomatic representatives to countries around the world.

Swiss Guards maintain internal security and protect the pope. Saint Peter’s Square, which opens to the city of Rome, is subject to the authority of the Italian police. Castel Gandolfo, the papal summer palace outside Rome, as well as other buildings located in Rome but outside of Vatican City, are accorded the privileges of extraterritoriality.

IV ECONOMY

Revenues from a variety of sources support Vatican City. They include contributions from Roman Catholics around the world (known as Peter’s Pence), interest on investments, and profits from its merchant bank, L’Istituto per le Opere di Religione. In addition, the Vatican sells stamps, tourist mementos, and collects fees for admission to its museums. The Vatican’s publishing operations are extensive. Books and pamphlets, published in multiple languages, are sold all over the world.

Vatican City uses the euro, the currency of the European Union (EU), although it is not an EU member. It maintains its own postal system, has a railroad station, and manages its own telephone and telegraph services. The Vatican’s daily newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, is influential far beyond the walls of the city.

V HISTORY

In Ancient Rome times, Vatican Hill and the valley below were used partly as a burial ground and partly as a circus for chariot races and other competitions. In the 4th century ad Roman Emperor Constantine the Great built a basilica over what is believed to be the tomb of Saint Peter, the first pope. After the 5th century, popes stayed in buildings near the basilica for special functions but lived mostly in the Lateran Palace outside Rome.

The area gained new importance in the 15th century, when the popes returned from Avignon, France, and took up official residence in the Vatican Palace. From there they ruled the surrounding Papal States, or territory in Italy owned by the Church. They decided to rebuild and enlarge Saint Peter’s Basilica and the Vatican Palace and to add the gardens and other buildings. This work continued, although in the late 16th century the popes and the government moved to the Quirinal Palace, outside the Vatican area.

The unification of Italy in 1870 resulted in the new government’s confiscation of the Papal States. For the next 50 years the popes, refusing to accept financial compensation or to recognize the Italian government, stayed inside the Vatican, imposing on themselves the status of prisoners. This situation, the so-called Roman Question, was resolved by the Lateran Treaty of 1929, negotiated by the Italian prime minister Benito Mussolini and representatives of Pope Pius XI. The treaty called for the Italian government to recognize Vatican City as an independent state under papal rule and to provide the Vatican with compensation for its earlier losses. In return, the Roman Catholic Church recognized Italy’s government with Rome as its capital. Since that time, all popes have continued to live in Vatican City.

VANUATU

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Vanuatu
I INTRODUCTION

Vanuatu, independent republic consisting of more than 80 islands in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, located about 5,600 km (about 3,500 mi) southwest of Hawaii and about 2,400 km (about 1,500 mi) northeast of Australia. From the late 19th century until independence in 1980, Vanuatu (then called the New Hebrides) was governed jointly by France and Britain. The capital and largest city is Port-Vila, located on the island of Éfaté.

II LAND AND RESOURCES

The islands of Vanuatu extend about 800 km (about 500 mi) from north to south and about one-quarter of that distance from east to west. They lie in a Y-shaped configuration that tilts in a northwest to southeast direction. Total land area is 12,190 sq km (4,707 sq mi). About 70 of the islands are inhabited. The largest island, Espiritu Santo, has a land area of 4,856 sq km (1,875 sq mi); other principal islands include Malakula, Éfaté, Erromango, and Ambrym. Vanuatu's exclusive economic zone—that is, the area of the ocean in which it controls fishing and other rights—covers about 1.8 million sq km (about 700,000 sq mi).

Most of Vanuatu’s islands are peaks of volcanic mountain ranges that rise from the ocean floor; several of the volcanoes are active, including Mount Yasur on the island of Tanna. The highest peak, Mount Tabwemasana on Espiritu Santo, rises to an elevation of 1,879 m (6,165 ft). Many of the islands have narrow coastal plain regions with relatively rich soils that support a variety of agricultural crops. Forests cover a large portion of the land. Two small rivers drain Espiritu Santo and smaller streams flow on some other islands.

Vanuatu has a tropical, humid climate. Trade winds moderate the climate between May and October, producing a slightly drier, cooler season than during the rest of the year. Winds vary considerably during the warmer season, causing occasional cyclones between December and April. A major cyclone ravaged Vanuatu in February 1987, destroying numerous buildings and ships. Average daily temperatures range from 22° to 27°C (72° to 81°F). Rainfall averages about 2,300 mm (about 90 in) in the southern islands and about 3,900 mm (about 154 in) in the northern islands.

Vanuatu supports more than 1,000 species of vegetation, including coconut palms, banyan trees, orchids, and ferns. Small reptiles, bats, and rats inhabit the islands, along with numerous varieties of birds, such as pigeons, parrots, and thrushes. Varied sea animals thrive in the surrounding waters, including bonito, tuna, swordfish, dolphins, sharks, crabs, and corals. Éfaté contains manganese deposits, which were mined in the 1960s and 1970s. In 1994 a geophysical survey identified possible gold and copper deposits on Malakula and Espiritu Santo.

III THE PEOPLE OF VANUATU

The population of Vanuatu was estimated at 215,053 in 2008, yielding a population density of 18 persons per sq km (46 per sq mi). Ethnic Melanesians known as ni-Vanuatu are 94 percent of the people; the remainder are of French, Vietnamese, Chinese, Polynesian, or Micronesian descent. Rural areas are almost entirely ni-Vanuatu and contain 77 percent of Vanuatu’s people. About 70 percent of the republic’s population live on the islands of Anatom, Éfaté, Espiritu Santo, Futana, Malakula, and Tanna. Besides the capital of Port-Vila, the only other urban area in Vanuatu is Luganville on Espiritu Santo.

English, French, and Bislama, a form of pidgin English, are Vanuatu’s official languages. Government documents are sometimes published in all three. There are also more than 100 Melanesian languages spoken in the republic (see Austronesian languages). Given this linguistic variety, Bislama tends to serve as the nation’s lingua franca, or common language of communication. Literacy rates in Vanuatu rank among the lowest of Pacific nations. Although nearly all of Vanuatu’s children attend primary schools, only about one in five students continues beyond the primary level. The joint British and French colonial administration established a dual education system in Vanuatu, whereby some primary schools teach in English and others teach in French; this system continues today. A teacher training college and an extension of the University of the South Pacific (founded in 1989) are located in Port-Vila.

A majority of the people of Vanuatu practice Christianity. About 35 percent of the population are Presbyterians, while Anglicans (members of the Church of England) and Roman Catholics each comprise about 15 percent. Much of the rural population, regardless of church membership, continues to adhere to traditional animist rituals and beliefs (Animism).

The way of life in Port-Vila reflects its French and English colonial heritage. With fine restaurants, shops, and hotels, it is a cosmopolitan city that caters to Western tourists. Vanuatu’s other urban area, Luganville, is a simpler community with far fewer Western characteristics. In rural areas, the traditional lifestyle centered around subsistence agriculture remains largely intact. Houses made from local wood and palm leaves predominate, and much of the clothing is of traditional design. Both urban and rural residents consume kava, a mildly narcotic drink made from a plant in the pepper family, in ceremonial and recreational settings. Organized sports such as soccer and cricket are popular in Vanuatu’s urban areas.

IV ECONOMY

In 2006 Vanuatu had an estimated gross domestic product (GDP) of $387.5 million. Agriculture dominates the country’s economy at both the subsistence and commercial levels. About 80 percent of the people engage primarily in subsistence agriculture. Food crops include yams, taro, cassava, and bananas. Livestock raising and small-scale fishing provide nearly all of the beef, pork, poultry, and fish consumed in Vanuatu. Agricultural activities also generate most of the country’s major exports, including copra (dried meat of the coconut), beef, cocoa, and coffee. The forestry industry, which is controlled to prevent overlogging, provides timber, the other important export. Agriculture and forestry also supply Vanuatu’s manufacturing industries, which include food processing and canning and wood processing.

Although agriculture employs the majority of Vanuatu’s workforce, the services sector—especially tourism and offshore banking—provides the majority of GDP. Although Vanuatu’s government originally discouraged tourism beyond Éfaté in an effort to preserve isolated island cultures, the desire to spread the tourism industry’s economic benefits more widely has led in recent years to an increase in rural and village-based tourism. Other sources of revenue in Vanuatu include a shipping registry, which allows foreign merchant ships to operate under the Vanuatu flag to profit from the country’s less restrictive regulations, and the licensing of foreign vessels to fish in surrounding waters. The possibility of reopening manganese-mining operations on Éfaté holds further economic potential.

The value of Vanuatu’s imports typically outweighs the value of its exports by several times. Principal imports include machinery and vehicles, manufactured goods, and mineral fuels. Sources for Vanuatu’s imports include Japan, Australia, Singapore, New Zealand, France, and the Fiji Islands, while the principal purchasers of its exports are Japan, Spain, Germany, and the United Kingdom. The national unit of currency in Vanuatu is the vatu (110.6 vatu equal U.S.$1; 2006 average).

Air Vanuatu and several other airlines provide international service from Vanuatu’s main airport, located near Port-Vila. Several shipping lines provide frequent service to Port-Vila and Luganville, and small vessels shuttle among the islands. There are some paved roads on Éfaté, but mostly unimproved roads elsewhere. Vanuatu has two weekly newspapers, one published by the government and one privately owned. The government operates the only radio and television stations. Radio Vanuatu broadcasts in the three official languages. Many television programs are imported from New Zealand and France. International telephone service is available in Port-Vila and Luganville.

V GOVERNMENT

Vanuatu is governed under a constitution that came into effect with the republic’s independence in 1980. The president of Vanuatu serves as head of state, a largely ceremonial office. The president is elected by Vanuatu’s parliament and the heads of regional government councils. The parliament, or legislature, is a single-chamber body whose membership has increased several times since independence; in 1998 the parliament had 52 members. Members of parliament are chosen by popular election and serve four-year terms. The parliament chooses from among its members a prime minister, who serves a four-year term as the head of government and may be reelected indefinitely. The prime minister and a council of ministers that he or she appoints hold executive power. Vanuatu’s National Council of Chiefs, a body of traditional chiefs elected by their peers, plays an advisory role in matters concerning land and cultural traditions. All adults in Vanuatu age 18 and older are eligible to vote.

The Supreme Court of Vanuatu holds the highest level of judicial power. The president appoints the chief justice of the court upon the advice of the prime minister and the leader of the opposition. The country also has a court of appeal and magistrate courts that handle local matters. Legislation passed in 1994 replaced Vanuatu’s 11 local government councils with 6 provincial bodies that hold greater executive authority than the former councils.

Vanuatu is active in regional affairs. The country is a member of the South Pacific Commission, a body promoting social stability, and the South Pacific Forum, a regional organization concerned with foreign affairs and international trade. Vanuatu also belongs to the Commonwealth of Nations, a voluntary association of countries and territories that give symbolic or actual allegiance to the United Kingdom.

VI HISTORY
A Human Settlement

Human settlement in present-day Vanuatu dates back at least 4,000 years. Archaeological findings suggest that the first settlers were related to the Melanesian people of the islands to the west of Vanuatu. Polynesians from the central Pacific islands arrived between the 11th and 15th centuries, establishing settlements on the southern islands of Vanuatu. Spanish explorer Pedro de Queirós sighted the islands of Vanuatu in 1606 while searching for a purported southern continent. In 1768 French explorer Louis Antoine de Bougainville sailed through the islands and landed on several of them. British explorer Captain James Cook arrived in 1774 and began mapping the islands. He named them the New Hebrides after a similarly rugged group of islands off the west coast of Scotland.

More substantial European contact began in 1825, after an Irish seaman discovered sandalwood, valuable in trade with China, on the islands. Despite several violent incidents between Europeans and local residents, the sandalwood trade flourished until the late 1860s, by which time most of the supply had been depleted. In 1839 the first British missionaries arrived in the New Hebrides, and during the 1840s and 1850s missionaries used new Christian converts from the Samoa Islands to establish Christianity, especially Presbyterianism, among the ni-Vanuatu. European settlement on the New Hebrides began in the late 1850s. About this time, European and Australian labor recruiters known as blackbirders began to persuade—and in many cases kidnap—islanders to work on plantations in Australia and on other Pacific islands. The practice of blackbirding continued throughout the 19th century.

B Colonial Rule

By the late 1800s British and French planters had acquired vast tracts of land in the New Hebrides. In order to protect their respective interests and maintain order, Britain and France created a joint naval commission in 1887 composed of naval officers from both countries. However, the commission had no authority to intervene in matters such as land disputes between settlers and native islanders, and thus failed to achieve its purpose. In 1906 the two countries established a unique political body, the British and French Condominium. Each country had authority over its own nationals, and a joint administration was established to govern non-European islanders. Although the arrangement proved to be cumbersome and largely ineffective, it remained in place until 1980.

Shortly after the United States entered World War II in 1941, American military forces established bases at Port-Vila and Luganville. The visible wealth and power of the Americans, along with the apparent equality among soldiers of different races, undermined the islanders’ willingness to obey colonial rule. Many ni-Vanuatu began to feel that the colonial rulers were intentionally denying them the wealth that seemed to exist in the outside world. Several anti-European social and religious movements emerged on the islands after the war ended in 1945.

C Independence

In the 1960s and 1970s political parties formed in opposition to colonial rule and began working with activists to prevent further sales of land to foreigners. In 1975 the colonial government agreed to the formation of a local legislative body, the Representative Assembly. However, while Britain was eager to rid itself of colonies and thus willing to grant the New Hebrides full independence, France was reluctant to leave. English-speaking and French-speaking islanders became increasingly divided along political lines, and secessionist movements emerged on Espiritu Santo and Tanna. Nevertheless, with military assistance from Papua New Guinea, the New Hebrides’ assembly managed to restore order. French, British, and local government officials reached a final independence agreement in mid-July 1980. On July 30 the islands became the sovereign and independent nation of Vanuatu, under a constitution that had been drafted the previous year.

Relations with France improved in the mid-1990s, and Vanuatu was one of the few countries that did not condemn France's resumption of nuclear testing in the Pacific. In October 1996 a paramilitary unit, the Vanuatu Mobile Force (VMF), briefly kidnapped President Jean-Marie Leyé to highlight its two-month strike over unpaid back pay and allowances. All 138 VMF officers were arrested and not released until they had sworn an oath of allegiance.

In November 1997 President Leyé dissolved parliament and announced new elections in early 1998. The government, which had been elected in 1995, had changed four times. Its leaders were continuously involved in cases of corruption and maladministration. A rivalry between two politicians vying to be prime minister added to the political crisis.

In March 1998 Donald Kalpokas was chosen as the new prime minister of a coalition government. His party, Vanua’aku Pati (VP), emerged with the largest vote in the election, but failed to secure an overall majority. John Bernard Bani became the new president in March 1999. In November 1999 the national assembly of Vanuatu elected Barak Sope of the Melanesian Progressive Party (MPP) as prime minister, replacing Kalpokas. In the same month an earthquake and tidal wave hit the country, killing ten and rendering thousands of people homeless. Sope was forced from office in a vote of no-confidence in April 2001; Edward Natapei of the Vanua’aku Pati was voted in as the new prime minister and began a second term in May 2002. In March 2004 Roger Abiut became acting president.

UZBEKISTAN

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Uzbekistan
I INTRODUCTION

Uzbekistan, republic in Central Asia, bordered on the west and north by Kazakhstan, on the east by Kyrgyzstan, on the southeast by Tajikistan, and on the south by Afghanistan and Turkmenistan. The Qoraqalpogh Autonomous Republic (also known as Qoraqalpoghiston, or Karakalpakstan) occupies 37 percent of Uzbekistan’s territory in the western portion of the country. Toshkent (Tashkent), located in the northeast, is the capital city and chief industrial and cultural center. Uzbeks make up the majority of the republic’s population. In the official state language of Uzbek, the republic is called Uzbekiston Respublikasy (Republic of Uzbekistan).

Uzbekistan was the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic (SSR) of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) from 1924 until 1991, when it gained its independence. In 1992 Uzbekistan was officially designated a secular and democratic republic with the ratification of its first post-Soviet constitution. However, many of the centralized controls that were characteristic of the Soviet period remain entrenched in the economic and political structures of Uzbekistan. Although the constitution guarantees a multiparty system, the republic’s president, Islam Karimov, has established an authoritarian-style regime that has been intolerant of opposition groups. Karimov has also proceeded cautiously with market-oriented economic reforms, and the government retains control over most sectors of the economy.

II LAND AND RESOURCES

Uzbekistan is a landlocked country that covers an area of about 447,400 sq km (about 172,700 sq mi). Mountains dominate the landscape in the east and northeast. Several branches of the western Tien Shan and Pamirs-Alai mountain systems cross into Uzbekistan from neighboring Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, with some peaks reaching above 4,000 m (13,000 ft). Areas of eastern Uzbekistan are especially prone to seismic disturbances; in 1966 a strong earthquake destroyed large portions of Toshkent.

To the west of the mountains, Uzbekistan is generally low in elevation. More than two-thirds of Uzbekistan’s territory is covered by desert and steppe (semiarid grassy plains). One of the largest deserts in the world, the Qyzylqum, lies in north central Uzbekistan, and extends into Kazakhstan. In northeastern Uzbekistan, southwest of Toshkent, lies the Mirzachol desert. Across west central Uzbekistan is a vast area of flat plains called the Turan Plain, while additional plains lie south and east of the Qyzylqum. The extreme western portion of the country is occupied by the Ustyurt plateau, an elevated plain with some small mountain ridges and abrupt edges.

A Rivers and Lakes

Uzbekistan generally lies between the two largest rivers of Central Asia, the Amu Darya and Syr Darya. These two roughly parallel rivers both have their headwaters in the mountains east of Uzbekistan and follow northwesterly courses toward the Aral Sea, a saltwater lake straddling the border between Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. Since the early 1960s the Aral Sea has shrunk to less than half its former size, and dry land has separated the remaining water into two main lakes. Uzbekistan’s largest river is the Amu Darya. This river is formed by the confluence of the Panj and Vakhsh rivers on the extreme southwestern border of Tajikistan, near the southeastern tip of Uzbekistan. The Amu Darya traverses a course generally parallel to, and at times part of, Uzbekistan’s southern borders with Afghanistan and Turkmenistan, then turns due north through Uzbekistan’s Qoraqalpogh Autonomous Republic toward the southern section of the Aral Sea. The Syr Darya is formed in the fertile Fergana (Farghona) Valley by the convergence of two rivers flowing from the east, the Naryn and Qoradaryo. The Syr Darya then flows westward through this valley and northern Tajikistan, turns north to cut through Uzbekistan, and enters Kazakhstan, eventually reaching the northern section of the Aral Sea.

Another important river is the Zeravshan, which flows westward from the mountains of Tajikistan through east central Uzbekistan. Before it began to be tapped for irrigation, the Zeravshan was the Amu Darya’s largest tributary; now it dissipates in the Qyzylqum desert near the city of Bukhara (Bukhoro). Uzbekistan has thousands of small streams that expire in the desert, many having been emptied by irrigation.

Extensive canal systems, such as the Amu-Bukhara canal and many others built during the Soviet period, have greatly altered water-flow patterns. Artificial lakes and reservoirs have been created, many of which are fed by irrigation runoff. The largest freshwater lake is Lake Aydarkul, in northeastern Uzbekistan.

B Plant and Animal Life

Uzbekistan’s mixed topography provides divergent wildlife habitats. In the steppes the endangered saiga antelope can be found, as well as roe deer, wolves, foxes, and badgers. The desert monitor, a large lizard that can reach lengths of 1.6 m (5 ft), thrives in the Qyzylqum desert, along with a type of gazelle and a number of rodent species. The river deltas are home to wild boars, jackals, and deer, with a variety of pink deer living in the Amu Darya delta. The Turan (or Caspian) tiger is now extinct: The last one was killed in the Amu Darya delta in 1972. The endangered snow leopard, which has long been hunted illegally for its prized fur, lives in the eastern mountains. The mountains also are home to several types of mountain goat, including the Alpine ibex (characterized by enormous, back-curving horns), as well as lynx, wild boars, wolves, and brown bears.

A number of bird species are native to the steppes, including ring-necked pheasants, black grouse, partridges, falcons, and hawks. Eagles and lammergeyers (a type of vulture) nest in the mountainous regions, preying on marmots and mouse hares. Ducks, geese, and other birds migrate through the marshes of the Ustyurt plateau.

Plant life is equally diverse. Drought-resistant grasses and low shrubs cover the steppes, except in areas that have been cleared for crop cultivation. Ancient walnut-tree forests are located in the lower mountains, whereas spruce, larch, and juniper thrive in the higher elevations. Elm and poplar trees grow along riverbanks, along with dense stands of brush called tugai.

C Natural Resources

Only 11 percent of the land in Uzbekistan is arable. The richest farmland is found in the river valleys and the alluvial plains at mountain bases. Uzbekistan contains significant mineral wealth. Deposits of gold, uranium, silver, copper, zinc, coal, lead, tungsten, and molybdenum are mined. Uzbekistan also harbors large reserves of oil and natural gas.

D Climate

Uzbekistan has a harsh continental climate. Four distinct seasons create great fluctuations in temperature over the course of a year. Average daily temperatures in January range from -6° to 2°C (21° to 36°F) and in July from 26° to 32°C (79° to 90°F), although temperatures can be much more extreme. There are also wide ranges of temperature between day and night. Precipitation is scant, and the long, hot summers are marked by drought, although the only truly arid region in Uzbekistan is the Qyzylqum desert. The wettest months are March and April. Snow is common from December through February, although snow cover often melts within a couple of days.

E Environmental Issues

The evaporation of the Aral Sea is one of the worst ecological disasters in the world. The Aral has shrunk so much that it now holds only about one-fifth the volume of water it held in 1960. The shrinkage is due to irrigation withdrawals from the Amu Darya and Syr Darya, a practice that began on a massive scale in the early 1960s as part of the Soviet Union’s ill-conceived drive to increase cotton yields in Central Asia. Growing cotton in the naturally arid and saline soil in Central Asia requires excessive irrigation—cotton is a highly water-dependent crop. More than half of the Aral Sea basin is now a dry, salt-encrusted wasteland. The region’s ecosystem was severely degraded as the lake rapidly evaporated and the water flow became scant and intermittent in the two river deltas. Wildlife habitat has been destroyed on a catastrophic scale, and many animal and plant species have become extinct in the area. Windstorms pick up massive amounts of salt and sand from the exposed lake bed and deposit them elsewhere in the vicinity, mainly along the Aral shores, but sometimes as far as 400 km (250 mi) away. This has contributed to desertification, a process that transforms previously arable or habitable land into desert. The salt-laden dust storms, which also contain chemicals such as pesticides, have adversely affected human health: The toxic dust has been linked to respiratory illnesses and certain types of cancer.

Industrial wastes and the heavy use of fertilizers and pesticides in agriculture have contributed to the severe pollution of Uzbekistan’s rivers and lakes. Contaminated drinking water is considered responsible for many human health disorders. Agricultural chemicals, including DDT, also have contaminated the soil in crop-growing areas. In 1992 the government established the State Committee for Environmental Protection. However, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) have taken the lead in spearheading environmental initiatives, particularly in regard to conserving and protecting regional water resources.

III THE PEOPLE OF UZBEKISTAN

With an estimated 28,268,440 inhabitants in 2008, Uzbekistan has the largest population of the former Soviet republics in Central Asia and the third largest population of all the former Soviet republics (after Russia and Ukraine). The country’s population growth rate is 1.8 percent per year due to relatively high birth rates. The average population density is 67 persons per sq km (172 per sq mi), although population density is far higher in the Fergana Valley, the most densely settled area in Central Asia.

Some 36 percent of the total population lives in urban areas. Toshkent, the capital, is the largest city in Central Asia and the fourth largest in the former Soviet Union (after Moscow, Saint Petersburg, and Kyiv). Other major cities, which are concentrated in the more habitable oases in the eastern half of the country, include Samarqand, Namangan, Andijon, and Bukhara. Nukus is the capital of the Qoraqalpogh Autonomous Republic.

A Ethnic Groups and Languages

Although many different ethnic groups live in Uzbekistan, the population is highly homogeneous. Uzbeks constituted 80 percent of the population by 1996 after their share of the population increased quickly in the 1990s. The group known as Uzbeks includes descendents of Turkic-speaking nomads who settled in the region beginning in the 15th century as well as Persian-speaking inhabitants of the region’s towns and villages. Russians are a large minority group, accounting for 6 percent of the population. This is less than in the 1980s; many Russians emigrated to Russia after the collapse of the Soviet Union. One reason for this emigration is that the government of Uzbekistan has rejected requests to grant Russians dual citizenship. Moreover, many Russians claim that they are subject to discrimination in Uzbekistan. The Russian share has also dropped because of a relatively low Russian birth rate. Other minorities include Tajiks, Kazakhs, and Tatars, followed by Qoraqalpoghs, Kyrgyz, Koreans, Ukrainians, and Turkmens (or Turkomans).

A significant part of Uzbekistan’s non-Russian minority population has also emigrated since the late 1980s. Some of these emigrants are members of ethnic groups that were forcibly exiled en masse to Uzbekistan under the directive of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin during World War II (1939-1945). Thus, the Meskhetian Turks, who had been deported from Georgia, have almost all left Uzbekistan. Other deported peoples who have left in large numbers include Germans and Crimean Tatars. On the other hand, the majority of the deported Koreans have remained in Uzbekistan. Although not members of a deported people, most of Uzbekistan’s Jews have also left, mainly for Israel and the United States. Most Jews arrived on the territory of today’s Uzbekistan only under Soviet rule in the 20th century; however, a small community of Bukhara Jews has lived there for many centuries.

Most ethnic minorities are concentrated in particular areas. For example, the overwhelming share of Russians and Ukrainians live in Toshkent and other industrial centers. Tajiks are concentrated in Samarqand and Bukhara. Qoraqalpoghs reside principally in their home region, the Qoraqalpogh Autonomous Republic, in western Uzbekistan. Kazakhs are concentrated in areas near Toshkent and Bukhara.

Tensions among Uzbekistan’s ethnic groups have the potential to create regional conflict, but ethnic-based antagonisms have not escalated into violence since independence. Clashes did occur between Meskhetian Turks and Uzbeks in 1989; the conflict was attributed to the high levels of unemployment and the shortage of housing in the Fergana Valley.

The official state language is Uzbek. It belongs to the Eastern Turkic, or Karluk, language group of the Altaic language family. There are several Uzbek dialects. The written language that preceded modern Uzbek was written in an Arabic script, and Arabic letters continued to be used for about a decade after the creation of a modern Uzbek language under the Soviets. In the late 1920s, however, the Soviet government decreed that a Latin-based alphabet be used instead. Then in 1940 the government imposed a modified Cyrillic script (the script of the Russian language). In 1993 the government of independent Uzbekistan resolved to gradually revert to the Latin alphabet. Since then there have been significant efforts to increase literacy in the Latin script, especially among grade-school students. Most ethnic minorities in Uzbekistan tend to speak their own native languages. Russian was the preferred language during the Soviet period and is still widely used in the cities.

B Religion

As in the other Central Asian states, the predominant religion in Uzbekistan is Islam. Uzbeks and other Muslim peoples of Uzbekistan are primarily Sunni Muslims of the Hanafi school. There are small, yet growing, communities of Muslims whom government authorities allege are fundamentalist Wahhabis. The Russian and Ukrainian minorities are traditionally Orthodox Christians.

Islam first appeared in the area of present-day Uzbekistan with Arab invaders in the 8th century. Sufism, a mystical form of Islam, became a strong influence in the political and economic life of the region between the 11th and 13th centuries. Sufi travelers brought Islam to non-Muslim conquerors of the region, who used the faith to increase their legitimacy among the local population. During the 14th and 15th centuries, the Naqshabandiya became the dominant Sufi order. Naqshabandiya Sufis such as Khoja Ahrar (1404-1490) became wealthy landholders and powerful political brokers, maintaining this position until the Russian conquest of Central Asia in the 19th century. Sufis participated in and occasionally led revolts against Russian and Soviet rule, such as the revolt led by Dukchi Ishan in Andijon in 1898.

During the Soviet period, the officially atheistic Communist regime sought to restrict Islam, and most of Uzbekistan’s mosques were forcibly closed in the 1920s. Since 1989, when Islam Karimov rose to the leadership of Uzbekistan, restrictions on Islam have been relaxed. Since then many mosques have been restored or built in Uzbekistan, and religious literature has become much more accessible. Nevertheless, Uzbekistan's leaders have made it clear that the government will not tolerate the mixing of religion and politics by independent groups.

C Education

Education is compulsory in Uzbekistan from age 6 until age 15. Nearly the entire adult population can read and write. Illiteracy was high before the Soviet period but was virtually eliminated by 1970 as a result of the Soviet Union’s emphasis on free and universal education. Since gaining independence, Uzbekistan has embarked on a gradual and costly reform of its education system, which was based on the Soviet model, to bring it up to modern and internationally recognized standards. Among other changes, the government has introduced new curricula and textbooks, new teacher-training programs, and a multitiered degree system for higher education. The government has also opened new primary and secondary schools to serve the growing population of the country, as well as science and technology institutes to meet the needs of a developing nation. Schools play an integral role in the process of nation building. For example, textbooks now place a greater emphasis on Uzbek history and literature, and both the Arabic and Latin scripts are taught in schools.

Institutes of higher education include Toshkent State University (founded in 1920), Toshkent Islamic University (1999), Samarqand State University (1933), and Nukus State University (1979), all named after the cities of their location.

D Way of Life

Uzbeks are among the most traditional of the Central Asian peoples. Traditional clothing is often worn on a daily basis, although Western-style clothing is also worn in the cities. Traditional men’s wear includes brightly colored striped robes, black boots, and embroidered skullcaps or turbans. Women wear colorful silk, cotton, or velvet dresses and headscarves. The Uzbek cuisine is distinctive, yet some Uzbek dishes, such as palov, are eaten throughout Central Asia. (Palov is a pilaf of rice, meat, vegetables, and sometimes dried fruit.) Other staples of the Uzbek diet include kabob (barbecued meat, especially mutton), laghmon (long, thick noodles often used in soups), and many varieties of bread, called non. Green tea is a common beverage. Common recreational activities include soccer and wrestling, and traditional horseback games are played on special occasions. One such game, known by various names throughout Central Asia (including ulaq, baiga, and buzkashi), is said to date from the days of Genghis Khan in the 13th century.

Uzbeks take great pride in providing hospitality for guests. By custom guests are accorded the best of everything, even during times of economic hardship. Uzbeks maintain close family ties, and in rural areas many members of an extended family may live in one household. Many of the rural poor live below the poverty line. Former Communist officials tend to be the wealthiest and most privileged group in Uzbekistan. Although they have broken their ties with the Communist Party, they have retained control over the economy since independence.

IV CULTURE

With the ancient cities of Bukhara, Samarqand, and Khiva within its borders, Uzbekistan contains Central Asia’s oldest and most important cultural centers. Islam has been the dominant cultural tradition since the 8th century. During the Soviet period cultural development was restricted under the dogma of socialist realism, which forbade topics that were deemed nationalist—in many cases actually religious—and mandated that literature and art extol Communist themes. However, folk art continued to be produced during certain periods of Soviet history and has enjoyed a great renaissance since the late 1980s.

A Art and Architecture

For more than a millennium, Islamic traditions have had a major impact on the function, layout, and design of buildings in Central Asia’s cultural centers. Uzbekistan’s ancient cities are endowed with some of the world’s most striking examples of Islamic architecture. This is especially true of Samarqand, which became the capital of the Turkic conqueror Tamerlane (Timur Lang) in 1369. Most of what stands today dates from the period of the Timurid dynasty (founded by Tamerlane), from the 14th to the early 16th century, or from the Shaybanid era of the 16th century. Turquoise-colored domes, such as the dome of the Gur-e Amir (Tamerlane’s mausoleum in Samarqand), are the outstanding feature of Timurid-period architecture. Gracefully arched portals and towering minarets are other trademarks of Islamic architecture.

Islamic tradition prohibits the realistic representation of living things in art. This artistic heritage is evident in the splendid, colorful mosaics that ornament many of Uzbekistan’s architectural monuments. The glazed tilework found on many religious buildings, for example, usually forms abstract geometrical patterns. Some of Uzbekistan’s famous monuments, however, display highly stylized images of animals and other living things. Designs such as the tiled lion figures above the portal at Samarqand’s Shir Dar religious school are considered permissible because they are more symbolic than lifelike.

The folk arts, passed down for many generations, thrive today in Uzbekistan. Uzbeks practice ancient skills such as ornamental wall painting, wood carving, and embroidery. In the Fergana Valley, Uzbek craftworkers use traditional, centuries-old methods to weave silk in the vibrantly multicolored, geometric khon atlas (“king of satins”) pattern and to craft bright blue and green ceramics using local red clay and natural pigments.

B Music

The music of Uzbekistan is similar to that of the Middle East. It is characterized by complicated rhythms and meters that evoke a richly melodic sound. The music allows for individual nuance and creative variation, although the rhythms generally follow verse structures. Many of the most popular Uzbek instruments have strings, such as the rubob, the dutor, and the ghizhzhak. Instruments similar to these are also popular in certain other parts of Central Asia, the South Caucasus, and the Middle East. The age-old tradition of singing minstrels, or bards, was an important part of the early musical (and literary) development in what is now Uzbekistan.

C Literature

Before the 20th century, much of what is today claimed as the Uzbek literary tradition was shared with other Central Asian peoples. Many writers who were born or created literary works in the territory of present-day Uzbekistan wrote in Persian or in both Persian and Turkic. Tenth-century poet Abu Abdullah Rudaki lived and worked much of his life in Bukhara, which is now located in Uzbekistan. Considered the father of Persian poetry, he is revered not only in Uzbekistan but also in Tajikistan, Afghanistan, and Iran.

The early literature of Central Asia that was popular among the general population was in the form of song. Traveling bards, called sha’ir in Uzbek, composed and performed verse tales and epic poems to a melody, making their stories accessible to a mostly illiterate populace. This tradition, which continues to this day, has preserved an ancient oral literature. Farhad and Shirin is one of the most renowned of the Uzbek oral epics.

The best-known Uzbek writer of the 20th century is Abdullah Qadiri. He became famous for his two historical novels, Days Gone By and Scorpion in the Pulpit, both published in the 1920s. Tragically, Qadiri was executed during the Soviet purges of the 1930s, when anyone accused of opposing the regime of Joseph Stalin, including many members of the intelligentsia, were summarily executed or imprisoned.

D Libraries and Museums

Uzbekistan’s most prestigious libraries are affiliated with learning institutions. The largest library collection in Uzbekistan is located at Toshkent State University. Another large library in the capital is the Central Library of the Uzbek Academy of Sciences. Museums in the republic include the Uzbek State Museum of Art and the Toshkent Historical Museum of the Peoples of Uzbekistan, both located in Toshkent; the Museum of Uzbek History, Culture, and Arts, located in Samarqand; and the Karakalpak Art Museum, located in Nukus.

V ECONOMY

The economic policies and structures of the Soviet period left Uzbekistan poorly prepared for independence. In the 1960s Soviet planners implemented the Virgin Lands campaign, which initiated farming of export crops on vast tracts of uncultivated land in Central Asia. As a result, cotton became the chief crop of Uzbekistan, making the republic highly dependent on imports of food from elsewhere in the Soviet Union. Uzbekistan’s natural resources, including gold and natural gas, were extracted without regard for the republic’s economic development. Instead, raw materials were transported to other Soviet republics for processing, leaving Uzbekistan with an undeveloped industrial sector.

Today, the legacy of the Soviet period is felt in many ways. Uzbekistan’s economy remains dependent on cotton exports and therefore rises and falls as world prices fluctuate. A poor cotton harvest due to drought is devastating to the economy. Industries such as textile mills that could process the country’s raw materials are still underdeveloped. The government has sought foreign investment to help develop and diversify the industrial sector. As a result, the country became a regional center for the automotive industry, and mining operations increased to make exports of gold and other metals second only to cotton in value.

Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Uzbekistan’s government began to implement a shift to a market-style economy, but progress was sporadic and slow. Initially the government maintained the Soviet practice of subsidizing prices for industrial and consumer goods; this practice drained the government’s funds as inflation soared. In 1994 the government introduced a comprehensive program to accelerate the reform process. Most of the subsidies for food, housing, utilities, energy, and transportation were removed, and some enterprises were transferred to private ownership. However, the government retained firm control over most sectors of the economy. In 1996, faced with a crisis in state finances, the government effectively suspended all market reforms. The economic situation steadily deteriorated through the remainder of the 1990s. Nevertheless, the government continued to resist any substantial reform of the economy.

In 2006 Uzbekistan’s total gross domestic product (GDP), which measures the value of goods and services produced in the country, was $17.2 billion. Agriculture accounted for 26 percent of the GDP; industry (including mining, manufacturing, and construction) accounted for 27 percent; and services (including social services and the financial sector) contributed 46.5 percent.

A Agriculture

Agriculture remains the mainstay of the economy. The sector employs 34 percent of the workforce. Cotton is the primary crop; Uzbekistan is among the world’s largest producers and exporters of seed (unginned) cotton. Such production has come at a high price. Although only 10.8 percent of the country’s land area is arable, crop yields are kept high through intensive use of chemical fertilizers and extensive irrigation. Growing cotton requires large amounts of water, but Uzbekistan has very limited water resources. The country continues to use an inefficient irrigation scheme that was developed during the Soviet period. Intensive irrigation has depleted regional water resources, caused the Aral Sea ecological disaster, and reduced the fertility of the soil through salinization (a process whereby underground salts rise to the surface).

While a focus on growing cotton remains, the government has encouraged a shift to grain production. As a result, wheat, rice, and barley harvests have risen. The country also produces fruits and vegetables, as well as jute and tobacco. Still, much of the food consumed in Uzbekistan must be imported. Uzbekistan is the largest producer of silk and Karakul pelts in the former USSR.

B Mining

Uzbekistan has abundant mineral wealth, and developing the country’s mining industry is an economic priority. The export of metals is now second only to cotton. Uzbekistan is among the world’s leaders in gold production, extracting 93 metric tons in 2004. Almost all of the gold is exported. Uzbekistan’s Muruntau gold mine, located in the Qyzylqum desert, is one of the world’s largest open-pit gold mines. The country also produces quantities of copper, silver, tungsten, molybdenum, and uranium.

Uzbekistan has major reserves of fossil fuels. The country produces large quantities of natural gas, some of which it exports. The country’s petroleum reserves produce enough for domestic consumption. Unlike some other countries in Central Asia, Uzbekistan has not sought to become an exporter of oil. Government subsidies keep domestic prices for oil and gas low. Uzbekistan also has significant reserves of coal, about one-third of which is highly valued anthracite.

C Manufacturing

Little industrial development occurred in Uzbekistan under Soviet rule besides that related to the cotton industry, such as fertilizer production and ginning. Since independence, however, Uzbekistan has begun to develop its industrial base. Textile manufacturing, which was limited in the Soviet era, is expanding. Automobiles and trucks are assembled through agreements formed in the mid-1990s with German and South Korean manufacturers. Transport and passenger aircraft are produced near Toshkent. Industry, including mining, manufacturing, and construction, employs 20 percent of the workforce.

D Energy

Some 84 percent of Uzbekistan’s electricity is generated in thermal plants burning natural gas or, to a lesser extent, coal. Hydroelectric facilities produce the remaining 16 percent. The country is an important component of the electrical supply system in Central Asia, both importing and exporting large quantities of electricity.

E Currency and Trade

The currency of Uzbekistan is the som, which was first issued in 1994. The government has maintained a fixed exchange rate on the som, rather than allowing its value to be determined by market forces.

Uzbekistan maintains strong economic ties with many former Soviet republics, including its Central Asian neighbors. Russia is by far its largest trading partner, as during the Soviet period. However, an increasing share of Uzbekistan’s trade is with nations beyond former Soviet borders, including European countries, Turkey, Japan, and China. Chief exports are cotton, light industrial goods, natural gas, and electricity. In 1994 Uzbekistan formed a trilateral economic and defense union with Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan; with the addition of Tajikistan in 1998, the four nations formed the Central Asian Economic Union (renamed the Central Asian Economic Forum in 2001).

VI GOVERNMENT

Uzbekistan promulgated its first constitution as an independent republic in 1992, replacing the constitution of the Soviet period. The constitution declares Uzbekistan to be a secular and democratic republic and guarantees basic human rights. All citizens aged 18 and older may vote.

A Executive

The head of state is the president, who is elected by popular vote. In a national referendum held in 2002, voters approved a constitutional amendment to lengthen the president’s term of office from five years to seven. The constitution states that the president may serve no more than two consecutive terms. The president exercises broad executive authority. Among other duties, the president appoints the prime minister and a cabinet of ministers; these appointments must be approved by the legislature.

B Legislature

Uzbekistan has a unicameral (single-chamber) legislature called the Oliy Majlis (Supreme Assembly). The Oliy Majlis comprises 250 members, who are elected to five-year terms. The president is empowered to dissolve the Oliy Majlis and call for new elections. In 2002 voters approved a constitutional amendment to create a bicameral (two-chamber) legislature. The change was to go into effect with the 2004 legislative elections, upon the term expiration of the current Oliy Majlis.

C Judiciary

The constitution provides for an independent judicial system with a Supreme Court at its apex. Supreme Court judges are nominated by the president and confirmed by the Oliy Majlis. The Qoraqalpogh Autonomous Republic has its own Supreme Court. Other high courts are the Constitutional Court, which is charged with protecting the constitution, and the High Economic Court. Lower courts are based in the regions, districts, and cities. Their judges are appointed by the president, without the requirement of legislative approval.

D Local Government

For purposes of local government, Uzbekistan is divided into 12 wiloyatlar (regions) and the Qoraqalpogh Autonomous Republic (Qoraqalpoghiston). Toshkent has special status, as its local government operates independently of regional authority. The president appoints khokims (governors) of the regions, a system designed to centralize political power in the republic. According to Uzbekistan’s constitution, Qoraqalpoghiston is self-governing and has its own legislature and other local government bodies. However, the central government exercises a large degree of control over the republic.

E Political Parties

The People’s Democratic Party of Uzbekistan (PDPU) has remained the ruling party since it was founded in 1991 as the successor to the Communist Party. All religious political parties were banned in 1991. The two leading opposition groups, Birlik (Unity) and Erk (Freedom), also were banned, and their leaders went into exile abroad. Under international pressure to demonstrate that Uzbekistan was allowing a democratic system to develop, President Karimov sanctioned the creation of several new parties. However, they strongly support Karimov and are not true opposition parties. Officially sanctioned parties are allowed to participate in legislative elections, but they do not represent a threat to the continued dominance of the PDPU.

F Social Services

A comprehensive social welfare system was in place in Uzbekistan during the Soviet period. After independence, the government of Uzbekistan created a social insurance fund, a pension fund, and an employment fund. These funds are intended to provide a safety net for underprivileged social groups, especially during the economic upheaval caused by the transition from a planned economy to a market-based economy. The government-funded health-service sector is generally underdeveloped and has been in decline since independence. Some rural areas are not served by even the most rudimentary of health services.

G Communications

The media are state-controlled and heavily censored in Uzbekistan. Most newspapers are published by the government, registered political parties, and state-sanctioned organizations. One of the major government publications is Khalq Sozi (Word of the People), a daily newspaper published in both Uzbek and Russian. Television and radio broadcasts are regulated by the state-operated broadcasting company.

H Defense

During the Soviet period, Uzbekistan had no armed forces separate from the centrally controlled Soviet security system. Today, Uzbekistan has Central Asia’s strongest armed forces. In 2004 the republic had an army of 40,000 personnel and an air force of 15,000. Paramilitary forces include a National Guard that acts as the personal army of the president. Beginning at the age of 18, all male citizens must perform 18 months of military service.

Together with Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan contributes military personnel to a Central Asian peacekeeping force that is reserved solely for international peacekeeping missions of the United Nations (UN). Uzbekistan works with other countries of Central Asia to address regional security issues, such as cross-border crime, drug trafficking, religious extremism, and terrorism.

I International Organizations

Uzbekistan joined the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), a loose alliance of 12 former Soviet republics, in December 1991. Uzbekistan has maintained strong ties with other CIS members, especially Russia and the other nations in Central Asia. However, in 1999 Uzbekistan withdrew from the CIS Collective Security Treaty, citing concerns over Russia’s military dominance in the CIS. In 2001 Uzbekistan joined with Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan in forming the Central Asian Cooperation Organization (CACO), which provides a framework for addressing regional and cross-border issues, such as the sharing of water and energy resources. Uzbekistan was admitted as a member of the United Nations in 1992. It subsequently joined the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and the Partnership for Peace (PFP) program of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), which was established in 1994 to strengthen relations between NATO and non-NATO states.

VII HISTORY

The area of what is now Uzbekistan was incorporated into the eastern satrapies (Persian provinces ruled by a satrap) of Cyrus the Great’s Persian Empire in the 500s bc. These satrapies were known as Sogdiana, Bactria, and Khorezm. Macedonian leader Alexander the Great conquered the region in the early 300s bc, but Macedonian control lasted only until Alexander’s death in 323. In the 100s bc, part of present-day Uzbekistan was included in the vast empire of the Kushānas, descendants of a tribe from western China. At this time the region became an important part of the overland trade routes, known collectively as the Silk Road, that linked China with the Middle East and imperial Rome.

In the 3rd century ad the Sassanid dynasty of Persia gained control over the region of Central Asia. Nomadic tribes from the north invaded between the 4th and 6th centuries, and the Western Turks gained the most extensive control over the region. In the 7th and 8th centuries Arab invaders conquered present-day Uzbekistan and introduced Islam. Then in the 9th century a Persian dynasty, the Samanids, emerged as local rulers and developed Bukhara as an important center of Muslim culture. The Samanid dynasty declined in the 10th century, however, and a number of Turkic hordes vied for control until the great conquest of Mongol emperor Genghis Khan in the 13th century. In the 14th century the area was incorporated into the empire of the Turkic conqueror Tamerlane (Timur Lang), who established the Timurid dynasty. Tamerlane made Samarqand the capital of his vast empire in 1369, fashioning it into a magnificent imperial capital. Tamerlane’s grandson Ulug Beg emerged as the ruler of Samarqand in the early 1400s.

During the 14th century, the nomadic Turkic-speaking tribal groups of Orda, Shiban, and Manghit, who inhabited the steppes of what is now Kazakhstan, formed what is often referred to as the “Uzbek” (also “Uzbeg” or “Ozbek”) confederation. From 1465 to 1466 a group under the Uzbek chieftains Janibek and Keray launched a rebellion against the khan of the confederation, Abul Khayr (1428-1468). The rebellion lasted until 1468, when the khan was killed. This group began to call themselves Qazaqs (or Kazakhs). In part because of the defeat of Abul Khayr, nomadic clans from the Uzbek confederation began to move south into what is now Uzbekistan (known then as Mawarannahr) in the late 15th century. These groups not only engaged in raids on sedentary areas but also conducted a substantial amount of trade and furnished military forces that local rulers could draw upon. The Kazakhs remained in the north.

In the first decade of the 16th century, Timurid authority collapsed when Mohammed Shaybani, grandson of Abul Khayr, seized Khorezm, Samarqand, Bukhara, and Toshkent. The conquered lands became two separate khanates, one centered in Bukhara, seat of the Shaybanid dynasty, and one in Khorezm, seat of the rival Yadigarid dynasty. The Shaybanid dynasty reached its zenith of power in the late 16th century under Abdullah Khan. After Abdullah Khan’s death, power in Bukhara passed to the Janid dynasty.

During the 17th century Uzbeks continued to settle in present-day Uzbekistan, primarily in the oasis areas of the east that were already inhabited by Turkic and Persian-speaking people. In the west, a Turkic-speaking people called Qoraqalpoghs inhabited the Amu Darya delta by the 18th century; a new dynasty in Khiva (as Khorezm had come to be known) forcefully incorporated the Qoraqalpoghs’ homeland into its khanate in 1811.

Meanwhile, the Qŭqon (Kokand) khanate was formed in the Fergana Valley in the early 1700s. In 1740 Persian forces under Nadir Shah invaded Bukhara and then Khiva, conquering both territories. Persian control was short-lived, effectively ending with Nadir Shah’s death in 1747, and the Janid dynasty never recovered. Uzbek clans succeeded in ousting the Janids by the late 18th century, creating three states ruled by rival Uzbek dynasties. The Kungrats were enthroned at Khiva, the Manghits at Bukhara, and the Mins at Qŭqon. The Manghits ruled as emirs, making Bukhara an emirate, while the other two dynasties established khanates. Although distinct borders were never drawn, these three states dominated the area roughly corresponding to present-day Uzbekistan, or the area between the Amu Darya and Syr Darya rivers. Bukhara was centrally located, and included the cities of Bukhara and Samarqand; Khiva was farther to the west in the area of the Amu Darya delta; and Qŭqon was centered in the Fergana Valley in the east. In the early and mid-19th century, the khanate of Qŭqon expanded into the Tien Shan mountains in the east and the Syr Darya basin in the north.

A Russian Conquest

During Qŭqon’s expansion northward, imperial Russian forces were conquering Kazakh territory north of the Syr Darya and pushing farther south. Although the Uzbek khanates waged an armed resistance against the Russian incursion, Russian control was extended over present-day Uzbekistan in the latter half of the 19th century. Russian forces began advancing on Qŭqon’s frontier fortresses in the north in the 1850s, capturing Ak-Mechet (present-day Qyzylorda, Kazakhstan) in 1853. After the conquest of Toshkent in 1865, the khanate’s influence was limited to the Fergana Valley. Bukhara was conquered in 1866 and forced to become a vassal state in 1868, and then Khiva fell in 1873. The Russian conquest was complete in 1876, when Qŭqon was formally annexed. Under Russian rule, Khiva and Bukhara maintained some measure of autonomy as semi-independent states, although they were ultimately subordinate to the Russian Empire.

Russian rule introduced new tensions into Central Asian society. The development of a commodity economy brought profits to some farmers, while it deprived others of their land. Many Central Asians resented the new, corrupt local administration as well as the increasing incursion of Russian colonists into areas such as the Golodnaya Steppe. Moreover, they perceived the new rulers as non-Muslim infidels. In 1916, already overburdened with requisitions of livestock and produce to support Russia’s involvement in World War I (1914-1918), the local populace revolted against a decree making them subject to a draft for construction battalions behind the front lines. The imperial government brutally suppressed the revolt.

B Soviet Period

The Russian Empire collapsed in the Russian Revolution of 1917, and the Bolsheviks (militant socialists) seized power in Russia. During the Russian Civil War (1918-1921), the Bolsheviks sought to reclaim the territories of the former Russian Empire. They established, by force, a new set of political entities in Central Asia that were ruled by local Bolshevik soviets, or councils. In 1918 the Bolsheviks made much of the southern part of Central Asia, including part of present-day Uzbekistan, into the Turkistan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (ASSR) within the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic (RSFSR). Other areas of present-day Uzbekistan were still under the administration of Khiva and Bukhara, whose traditional leaders were overthrown in 1920. These latter territories became the Khorezmian People’s Soviet Republic and the Bukharan People’s Soviet Republic, which still maintained nominal independence. In 1924 the borders of political units in Central Asia were changed, and the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic (SSR) was formed from territories of the Turkistan ASSR, the Bukharan People’s Soviet Republic, and the Khorezmian People’s Soviet Republic. The same year the Uzbek SSR became one of the republics of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), which had been created in 1922. Bolshevik rule was opposed by a Central Asian guerrilla movement known as the basmachi starting in 1918. Although the basmachi were largely put down by 1923, they reappeared in some areas of Uzbekistan during the collectivization of agriculture at the end of the 1920s.

The Uzbek SSR included the Tajik ASSR until 1929, when the Tajik ASSR was upgraded to the status of an SSR. At this point, the Tajik SSR received some additional territory that had belonged to the Uzbek SSR since 1924. In 1930 the Uzbek capital was changed from Samarqand to Toshkent. In 1936 the Uzbek SSR was enlarged with the addition of the Karakalpak ASSR (present-day Qoraqalpogh Autonomous Republic), taken from the Kazakh SSR. Territory was transferred several times between the Kazakh SSR and the Uzbek SSR after World War II (1939-1945). The present-day borders of the Central Asian states are a result of the territorial units that the Soviets circumscribed during this period.

The Soviets imposed many changes in the Uzbek SSR. In 1928 land was forcibly collectivized into state farms. Another land-related development, one with a catastrophic impact, was the drive initiated in the early 1960s to substantially increase cotton yields in the republic. The drive led to overzealous irrigation withdrawals from the Amu Darya and the subsequent ecological disaster in the Aral Sea basin.

During World War II many industries were relocated to the Uzbek SSR from more vulnerable locations in western regions of the USSR. They were accompanied by large numbers of Russians and members of other nationalities who were evacuated from areas near the front. Because so many Uzbek men were fighting in World War II, women and even children began to take a more prominent role in the economy. Some local women even began to work in urban industries, although the Uzbek population remained overwhelmingly rural. Also during the war the Soviet authorities relocated entire ethnic groups from other parts of the USSR to the Uzbek SSR and elsewhere in Central Asia. Stalin suspected these groups of being in collaboration with the Axis powers against the USSR.

Uzbek society was altered in major ways during the Soviet period. Islam, the traditional religion of the region, became a focal point in the 1920s for the antireligious drives of Communist zealots. Most mosques were closed, and religious schools became antireligious museums. Uzbeks who were deemed nationalist, often practicing Muslims, were targeted for imprisonment and in many cases execution during Soviet leader Joseph Stalin’s Great Purge of the 1930s, which extended throughout all levels of Soviet society. Another development was the virtual elimination of illiteracy, even in rural areas. Only a small percentage of the population was literate before 1917; this percentage increased to nearly 100 percent under the Soviets.

The Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) was the only legal party in Uzbekistan until 1990. The first secretary, or head, of the Communist Party of Uzbekistan (the republic’s branch of the CPSU) was consistently an Uzbek. However, over much of Soviet history, Uzbeks were underrepresented in the higher levels of the republic Communist Party organs. Uzbeks were even more underrepresented in the central organs of the levels of the party in Moscow.

Political corruption was rampant in the USSR, including in the Uzbek SSR. This was especially true during the time when Sharaf Rashidov was head of the Communist Party of Uzbekistan, from 1959 to 1983. Following Rashidov’s death in 1983, the CPSU’s national campaign to clean up corruption widely publicized the misdeeds of the Uzbek SSR’s political officials in the preceding period. These officials were accused of a scam that involved inflating cotton production figures for the republic and diverting payments from the Soviet Union’s central government for recorded, but nonexistent, cotton. Islam Karimov, the former leader of the Communist Party of Uzbekistan and head of that party’s reincarnation, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), became president of the Uzbek SSR in 1990.

C Independent Republic

The disintegration of the Soviet Union became inevitable in August 1991, after a failed coup attempt by Communist hardliners in Moscow. That month Uzbekistan declared its independence. After the official collapse of the USSR in December, Uzbekistan joined the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), an alliance of most of the former Soviet republics. It became a member of the United Nations in March 1992.

Uzbekistan held presidential elections in December 1991, at the time of the breakup of the Soviet Union. Karimov, the incumbent president, was reelected by an overwhelming majority of the vote. Most political groups in opposition to the PDP were not allowed to field candidates. The sole exception was Erk (Freedom), which nominated Muhammad Salih. Karimov, however, controlled the press and other vital organs during the campaign. According to official election results, Salih received only 12 percent of the vote. After the election, Karimov proceeded to establish an authoritarian-style regime. His government sought to crush political opposition, for example, by banning all genuine opposition parties in the early 1990s.

In early 1995 Karimov announced that the government would not object to the formation of blocs within the Oliy Majlis (Supreme Assembly). Subsequently, the government sanctioned the creation of two new political parties: the Adolat (Justice) Social Democratic Party and the National Revival Democratic Party. However, these parties were not true opposition parties, as they fully supported the policies of the president. In a referendum called by the assembly in March 1995, voters approved putting off presidential elections until the year 2000, extending Karimov’s term until then. In April a group of activists affiliated with the banned opposition party Erk (Freedom) were given lengthy prison sentences for allegedly conspiring to overthrow the government by force.

Uzbekistan cautiously approached reforms to transform its Soviet-developed, centrally planned economy to one based on the principles of a free market. Karimov was an outspoken critic of more radical reforms implemented in some other former Soviet republics. Consequently, the government of Uzbekistan resisted any substantive reforms and retained control over most sectors of the economy. Relatively little was accomplished before Karimov effectively suspended reforms in 1996. However, in the early 2000s Karimov held out the promise of further economic reforms as a way to secure renewed aid from Western financial institutions, such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Meanwhile, Karimov continued to rule in an authoritarian manner. No opposition party was allowed to present candidates in the legislative elections that were held in December 1999. In January 2000 Karimov was reelected president in an election that Western observers criticized as neither free nor fair. In a referendum held in January 2002, voters approved a constitutional amendment to extend the presidential term of office from five years to seven; however, it was not specified when the change would go into effect.

Karimov justified his clampdown on political opposition by claiming that allowing it more freedom would leave Uzbekistan vulnerable to the spread of Islamic fundamentalism. Karimov pointed to the situation in neighboring Tajikistan, where a brutal civil war from 1992 to 1997 pitted extremist Islamic forces against the government. Karimov claimed that violence could also break out in Uzbekistan without strict controls on political activity. Despite his heavy-handed approach, which drew international criticism for violations of human rights, extremist Islamic groups continued to gain supporters, especially among the poor in the Fergana Valley. The Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) was founded in the 1990s with the purported aim of overthrowing the government and establishing an Islamic regime in Uzbekistan. The IMU reportedly had links to the fundamentalist Taliban regime in Afghanistan and used bases in Afghanistan and Tajikistan to launch a series of incursions and attacks in Uzbekistan in 1999 and 2000. Uzbekistan responded by bombing and mining border areas.

The government’s campaign against the IMU took on international significance in 2001 following the September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States. The attacks were linked to al-Qaeda, an international terrorist network that seeks to rid Muslim countries of Western influence and establish fundamentalist Islamic rule. Uzbekistan allowed U.S.-led forces to use its southern Khanabad air base for staging operations in Afghanistan, where al-Qaeda was based. By publicly supporting the United States in its war on terrorism, Uzbekistan established itself as a strategic U.S. ally.

URUGUAY

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Uruguay (country)
I INTRODUCTION

Uruguay (country) country on the southeastern coast of South America between Brazil and Argentina. It is the second smallest country in South America, after Suriname. The capital and chief economic center of Uruguay is the coastal city of Montevideo (pronounced mahn teh vih DAY oh).

Uruguay was a part of the colonial empire of Spain in the Americas until the early 1800s. After a brief period of Portuguese rule, Uruguay became an independent nation in 1828. Its Spanish past influences many aspects of Uruguayan culture. Spanish is the official language of Uruguay. The country’s formal name in Spanish is República Oriental del Uruguay.

A small country about the size of the state of Oklahoma, Uruguay is heavily urbanized. More than 90 percent of all Uruguayans live in urban areas, and more than 40 percent live in the capital city. Most of Uruguay’s people are of European descent.

Tourism plays a major role in Uruguay’s economy. The country’s picturesque beaches attract visitors from all over the world. Agriculture also is an important economic activity, especially the raising of livestock.

II LAND AND RESOURCES

Uruguay’s land is a transition zone between the Pampas plains of Argentina and the hilly uplands of Brazil. The terrain varies from grassy, rolling plains in the south to low plateaus and hills to the north and east. The Cuchilla Grande region in the east is the most rugged part of Uruguay, containing the country’s highest point, Cerro Catedral. Wide sandy beaches, sand dunes, and shallow lagoons fringe the Atlantic coastline.

The Uruguay River, which forms the country’s western border, joins the Paraná River at the Atlantic Ocean, forming an estuary between Uruguay and its neighbor to the south, Argentina. This giant estuary, called the Río de la Plata (Spanish for “Silver River”), is 200 km (120 mi) wide at its mouth. The Paraná-Uruguay drainage system is the largest in South America after that of the Amazon River. The Río Negro is the principal river of the country’s interior, although only its lower portion is deep enough for access by ship.

A Climate

Uruguay has a warm, temperate climate. Located south of the equator, Uruguay experiences its warmest months in January and February, when the average temperature is about 22°C (72°F). The coldest month is June, when the temperature averages 10°C (50°F). The country gets about 890 mm (35 in) of rainfall annually. During the winter months, cold storms known as pamperos blow from the southwest, but frost and snow are virtually unknown in most parts of Uruguay.

B Natural Resources

Uruguay’s principal resources are agricultural; minerals are scarce, and there are no known petroleum reserves. Except for the sandy, marshy areas along the eastern coast, the country’s soil is generally very fertile and good for farming.

Hydroelectricity from the nation’s rivers is responsible for about 75 percent of Uruguay’s energy production. The principal hydroelectric power plant is Salto Grande on the Uruguay River. Two other plants are in operation on the Río Negro, and another, on the Brazilian border, was constructed during the 1980s. The electric power industry is under the control of the government. The country also imports natural gas from neighboring Argentina via a pipeline completed in the late 1990s.

C Plants and Animals

The predominant vegetation in Uruguay is tall prairie grass. The bluish-tinted prairies provide an extremely rich natural pasture. The nation has a smaller forest area than any other South American country.

Flowering plants in Uruguay include myrtle, mimosa, rosemary, and scarlet-flowered ceiba. Indigenous hardwood trees include urunday, lapacho, carob, quebracho, jacaranda, willow, and acacia. Palms flourish in the southeast and in the valleys. In the coastal area, pine and eucalyptus trees have been planted to prevent erosion. Poplar, cypress, oak, cedar, mulberry, and magnolia trees are also found around the country.

Common mammals found in Uruguay include otter, wild hog, fox, wildcat, armadillo, anteater, and various rodents. Such mammals as the puma, rhea (American ostrich), tapir, and seal were relatively abundant when the Spanish first visited Uruguay in the 16th century. Today they are scarce.

Waterfowl include the swan, stork, crane, white heron, and duck. Other birds are the vulture, burrowing owl, partridge, quail, wild turkey, parakeet, lapwing, cardinal, and hummingbird. The principal reptiles are lizards, tortoises, rattlesnakes, and a viper called the víbora de la cruz. Caimans thrive in the upper waters of the Uruguay River. There are many species of large spiders.

III PEOPLE

The people of Uruguay are almost entirely of European descent, mostly Spanish and Italian. Few indigenous people still live in Uruguay—most native tribes died out by the 19th century. Only about 5 to 10 percent of the population is mestizo (mixed native and white), black, or mulatto (mixed black and white).

Uruguay’s population is 3,477,778 (2008 estimate). The average population density is 20 persons per sq km (52 per sq mi). The population is concentrated near the Atlantic coast, and only 7 percent of the population is rural. Migration from farms to cities and the resulting crowded urban conditions have been serious social and economic problems.

A Principal Cities

The principal cities of Uruguay are Montevideo (population, 2005 estimate, 1,347,888), the country’s capital, chief port, and economic center; Salto (99,072), a center of commerce, shipping, and the meat-salting and meat-packing industries; and Paysandú (115,222), a port and center of the meat-packing and frozen-meat industries.

B Religion and Language

Freedom of religion is guaranteed by the constitution of Uruguay. Three-quarters of the people belong to the Roman Catholic Church. There are also sizable Protestant and Jewish congregations. The official language is Spanish, which in Uruguay has been influenced by Italian vocabulary and pronunciation.

C Education

Uruguay has one of the highest rates of literacy in Latin America, at 98.2 percent of the adult population. Six years of primary education is compulsory, and Uruguay is one of the few nations in the Western Hemisphere in which all education, including college and postgraduate work, is free. However, many students from poor families must leave school to go to work. The largest college in Uruguay is the University of the Republic, founded in Montevideo in 1849.

D Culture and Art

Western European tradition is widespread in Uruguay. Since the 19th century the country has adopted the cultural institutions of the European immigrants who settled there. As in Argentina, which has folk music and dances similar to those of Uruguay, the gaucho (South American cowboy) has been a common subject of folklore and music.

D1 Literature

Uruguay’s first noteworthy writer was 18th-century poet Bartolomé Hidalgo. Although not a gaucho himself, he used gaucho themes. He was one of the first poets to introduce the colorful language of rural folk into poetry. Juan Zorrilla de San Martín wrote Tabaré (1886; translated 1956), considered one of the genuine epic poems of America. Tabaré describes the clash between Spanish settlers and indigenous people in Uruguay that ended in the destruction of the indigenous culture.

Important writers of the 20th century were essayist José Enrique Rodó; novelists and short-story writers Juan Carlos Onetti, Carlos Martínez Moreno, and Mario Benedetti; and poet Julio Herrera y Reissig. Other significant Uruguayan authors of the century include Carlos Reyles, a writer of realistic psychological novels; Horacio Quiroga, one of Latin America’s finest short-story writers; Julio Herrera y Reissig, a complex symbolist poet; and Alberto Zum Felde, a historian and literary critic. Uruguay has also produced many talented women writers, including Delmira Agustini, Juana de Ibarbourou, Sara Bollo, Éster de Cáceres, Sara de Ibáñez, and Orfila Bardesio. Florencio Sánchez, Latin America's best-known dramatist, wrote realistic plays of national problems at the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th century. See Latin American Literature.

D2 Painting

Juan Manuel Blanes was Uruguay's foremost painter of the 19th century. The Municipal Museum of Fine Arts in Montevideo now bears his name. Three important artists of the 20th century were Rafael Barradas, an abstract painter; Pedro Figari, a painter of colorful 19th-century scenes in the postimpressionist style; and Joaquín Torres-García, who founded the Torres-García workshop, which influenced a generation of Uruguayan painters.

D3 Music

Uruguayan folk and popular music reflect the mood of the people and of the land. Songs include the melancholy “Vidala” and “Triste,” and the dreamy and plaintive “Estilo,” a song of the plains. One of the foremost musicologists of Latin America is Francisco Curt Lange, who has collected and published hundreds of the region's folk songs. Among important Uruguayan composers of the 20th century were Eduardo Fabini, whose works are based mainly on native themes; Cluzeau Mortet; Vincente Ascone; and Héctor Tosar.

E Cultural Institutions

All the major libraries in Uruguay are in Montevideo. They include the National Library; the Library of the National Historical Museum, known for its collection of engravings, maps, coins, and native Uruguayan material; the National Congress Library; and the library of the National Archives.

The principal museums include the National Historical Museum, the National Museum of Fine Arts, and the Museum of Natural History, all in Montevideo. The Museo del Indo y del Gaucho, in Tacuarembó, has collections of Native American and gaucho art, weapons, and implements.

F Sports and Holidays

The national game of Uruguay is soccer (known as fútbol in Spanish). The country's national teams have won many international competitions, including two titles in the prestigious World Cup: the first World Cup, which Uruguay hosted in 1930, and another in 1950. Important soccer games are played in the large Centenary Stadium in Montevideo.

Other popular sports in Uruguay are polo—introduced by the British—tennis, boxing, golf, water sports of all kinds, and automobile and boat racing. Because of the mild climate, outdoor sports are popular year-round.

An annual festival known as Carnival Week, typically held in February, draws huge crowds to Montevideo for parades, masquerades, music, and dancing. This festival's biggest celebrations take place on the Monday and Tuesday before Ash Wednesday. Another important holiday, La Semana Criolla, is observed during the week before Easter and features rodeos and other traditional activities. Uruguay's Independence Day is celebrated on August 25.

IV ECONOMY

Although Uruguay is not highly industrialized, it is not considered underdeveloped. Population growth in Uruguay is much slower than in most underdeveloped countries and the population exerts only minor pressure on the natural resources that drive the nation’s economy. Income per person is low compared with the United States or Western European countries, but it is one of the highest in Latin America.

Uruguay has a large middle class that developed during the 20th century. A primary factor in this transformation was the large number of white-collar jobs generated by the government. These jobs afforded many people slow but steady upward social mobility, but they also created a considerable income gap between the urban and rural populations.

Agriculture, specifically raising animals such as sheep and cattle, is still of primary importance to the economy, although manufacturing is growing in significance. Most businesses are privately owned, but the government operates the state railways, electrical power and telephones, and the official broadcasting service. In 2006 budget figures showed $5.4 billion in revenue and $5.3 billion in expenditures.

A Agriculture

Livestock raising is the principal agricultural activity of Uruguay and a mainstay of the economy. Meat, wool, and hides make up more than one-third of the country’s annual exports. The moderate climate and even seasonal distribution of rainfall allow animals to graze throughout the year.

Only 8 percent of the land is devoted to crops, although the area under cultivation is increasing. The most important crops are cereal grains, including wheat, corn, rice, oats, barley, and rye. Crops used to produce oils, such as sunflower seeds, linseed (flaxseed), and peanuts, make up the second most important group of crops. Other profitable products are sugarcane, sugar beets, and citrus fruits.

B Forestry and Fishing

Uruguay is not densely forested; most of the wood harvested is used for fuel. The government has developed the fishing industry and the annual catch has grown dramatically since the 1970s. Hake, croaker, weakfish, and squid are among the most important species caught.

C Manufacturing and Mining

Industrial production grew rapidly in Uruguay in the late 1970s as the government encouraged the development of export-oriented manufacturing industries, but this activity has declined since the 1980s. The leading industries are textile manufacturing and the processing of food, primarily meat. Oil refining, cement manufacturing, and the production of clothing, steel, aluminum, electrical equipment, and chemicals are also important industries in the country.

Mineral production in Uruguay is comparatively unimportant to the economy. The principal mining activity is the quarrying of sand and clay. There is also some gold mining.

D Currency, Banking, and Trade

The legal currency of Uruguay is the peso uruguayo, consisting of 100 centésimos (24.10 pesos uruguayos equal U.S.$1; 2006 average). In 1993 the peso uruguayo replaced Uruguay’s former currency, the nuevo peso, at the rate of 1 peso uruguayo per 1,000 nuevo pesos. Uruguay has a well-developed banking system, with many private banks. The Bank of the Republic, founded in 1896, is a state bank and the financial agent of the government. The Central Bank of Uruguay controls private banking.

Foreign trade plays an important role in the economy of Uruguay. In 2004 exports were valued at $2.9 billion and imports at $3.1 billion. The country’s main trading partners are Argentina, Brazil, and the United States. Textiles, meats, fish, rice, and hides are the most important exports. Imports include raw materials for manufacturing, fuel and lubricants, food products, plastics, chemicals, prescription medicines, construction materials, machinery, and cars and trucks.

Uruguay is a founding member of several trade groups, including the Latin American Integration Association (LAIA) and the Southern Cone Common Market (known by its Spanish acronym, Mercosur). The LAIA, which encompasses all of the countries in South America except Suriname, Guyana, and French Guiana, works toward increasing regional integration and trade. Mercosur, which also includes Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay and is headquartered in Montevideo, focuses on establishing duty-free trade between members.

E Tourism

Tourism is an increasingly important part of the economy of Uruguay. Visitors come from all over the world, but especially from neighboring Argentina. Uruguay features many luxurious beach resorts, such as the famous Punta del Este.

V GOVERNMENT

Uruguay had several constitutions during the course of the 20th century. The country alternated between a presidential form of government and a system under which executive power was held by a nine-member national council. Uruguay's most recent constitution, adopted by popular referendum in 1966, provides for a republican form of government with a popularly elected president and legislature (Congreso, or National Congress). All citizens at least 18 years old are required by law to vote.

In 1973 the National Congress was dissolved after a military takeover. The government was ruled by a national security council composed primarily of high-ranking military officers. All local governments were dissolved and replaced with officials appointed by the central government. This system lasted until general elections were held in 1984, paving the way for a return to civilian rule the following year.

A Executive

The electoral system restored in 1984 provides for a president and vice president chosen by universal suffrage for a five-year term. The president appoints a Council of Ministers to head the various government departments.

B Legislature

The National Congress, Uruguay’s legislature, consists of a Chamber of Deputies, which has 99 members, and a Senate, with 30 members. Elected by popular vote, members of the legislature serve a five-year term. The country's vice president serves as president of the Senate.

C Political Parties

For much of its history, Uruguay essentially had a two-party system, dominated by the National (Blanco) Party and the Colorado Party. Both of these parties were formed in the 1830s by military leaders, the Blanco Party by General Manuel Oribe and the Colorado Party by General José Fructuoso Rivera. Blanco is Spanish for 'white'; colorado for 'colored red”—names that originated from the traditional colors of the hatbands worn by supporters.

During most of the 19th century the two parties were little more than the personal followings of their founders and of their successors. As European immigrants brought more radical ideas to Uruguay, the Colorado Party became associated with the more liberal urban population while the Blanco Party typified the conservative and traditionalist elements of the rural population.

By the 1930s there were few significant differences between the two parties, however. Both Colorados and Blancos had divided into several factions, and the political divisions among these factions were far more important than any division between the parties themselves. By the 1990s both the Colorados and the Blancos were considered politically conservative.

The Communist Party became legal in Uruguay in 1985. A leftist coalition, known as the Broad Front (or Progressive Encounter), grew in popularity in the 1990s. The Broad Front included the Communist and Socialist parties and replaced the Colorados as the party of the left. In 1999 the Broad Front won the most seats of any party in the National Congress. In 2004 the party captured the presidency, signaling the end of the 180-year dominance of the two original parties.

D Local Government

Uruguay is divided into 19 administrative departments. Each department has an administrator appointed by the central government.

E Judiciary

In 1977 the judiciary was placed under the direct control of the central government. The highest court, the Court of Justice, has five members, appointed by the executive to serve ten-year terms. The administrative courts hear cases involving the functioning of state administration. Lower courts handle legal matters in the departmental capitals and other large towns.

F Health and Welfare

Uruguay is noted for its advanced social-welfare programs; coverage includes accidents, occupational illnesses, sickness, old age, maternity, and child welfare. A special fund issues grants to families; and laws have been passed to protect women and minors in employment. The ministry of public health has established numerous health centers and clinics, lowered the incidence of tuberculosis, and lowered the infant mortality rate.

G Defense

In 2004 Uruguay had an active volunteer army of 15,200 soldiers. The navy and air force were small, having forces of 5,700 and 3,100, respectively. Military service is not compulsory.

VI HISTORY

The Charrúa, a warlike and seminomadic indigenous people, originally occupied the land on the eastern side of the Uruguay and La Plata rivers. Spanish explorer Juan Díaz de Solís was the first European to arrive in the territory now included in Uruguay. In 1516 his landing party sailed into Río de la Plata. That same year, the Charrúa killed Solis’s party on the riverbanks. Subsequent attempts to colonize the territory during the 16th century were also discouraged by the Charrúa. The first permanent settlement was made in 1624 by the Spanish on the Río Negro at Soriano.

A International Rivalry During the Colonial Period

Between 1680 and 1683, contesting Spanish ownership of the region, Portuguese colonists in Brazil established several settlements, such as the Novo Colonia del Sacramento, along the Río de la Plata opposite Buenos Aires. However, the Spanish made no attempt to dislodge the Portuguese until 1723, when the latter began fortifying the heights around the Bay of Montevideo. A Spanish expedition from Buenos Aires forced the Portuguese to abandon the site, and there the Spanish founded the city of Montevideo in 1726. Spanish-Portuguese rivalry continued in the 18th century, ending in 1777 with the establishment of Spanish rule in the territory under the jurisdiction of the viceroyalty of La Plata.

A crisis occurred in the colony after French emperor Napoleon imprisoned Spanish king Ferdinand VII and invaded Spain in 1808. After French troops captured the last royalist stronghold in Spain in 1810, a group of leading citizens in Buenos Aires rejected the authority of the viceroy and established a caretaker government to rule over the colony in the name of King Ferdinand. In reality, many of the leaders of the new government were determined to make the colony independent of Spanish rule. Buenos Aires was unable to establish its influence over several outlying areas, including Uruguay, where the Spanish viceroy had moved his court. In 1810 and 1811, Uruguayan revolutionaries, led by General José Gervasio Artigas, joined in the revolt against Spain. The Spanish governor was driven from Montevideo in 1814.

In 1816 the Portuguese in Brazil—perceiving that the newly emancipated territory, known as the Banda Oriental del Uruguay (Eastern Shore of Uruguay), was weak after its struggle with Spain—invaded the territory, ostensibly to restore order. The Portuguese conquest was completed in 1821, when the Banda Oriental was annexed to Brazil. However, the so-called Immortal 33, a group of revolutionaries led by Juan Antonio Lavalleja, began fighting the Brazilians and driving them from the countryside. In 1825 representatives from the Banda Oriental’s provincial legislature declared the territory’s independence. Argentina intervened on Uruguay's behalf, and war broke out between Brazil and Argentina. British mediation brought about a peace treaty, by which both Brazil and Argentina guaranteed Uruguay's independence. As a result, the República Oriental del Uruguay was established in 1828; its first constitution was adopted in 1830.

However, Uruguay has never been entirely free of the influence of its neighbors. During much of the 19th century, the warring factional leaders (caudillos) appealed to either Argentina or Brazil for help against each other, and civil war was frequent until 1872. The followers of José Fructuoso Rivera, the country's first president (1830-1835 and 1839-1845), appealed to Brazil for support. The followers of Manuel Oribe, the country's second president (1835-1838), turned to Argentina. Uruguay's traditional political parties, the Blancos and the Colorados, emerged from these two factions.

B Independence and Civil War

The República Oriental del Uruguay was organized in 1830, but it was soon divided into hostile factions as a result of rivalry between the Blancos and the Colorados. Civil war broke out in 1836. During the conflict, the Blancos, aided by Argentine forces, besieged Montevideo, which was held by the Colorados from 1843 until 1852. The Colorados, aided by Brazil and anti-Argentine forces, defeated Oribe and the Blancos in 1852. Rivera and the Colorados thereupon took power. The two factions renewed conflict in 1855 and continued it intermittently, with the Colorados retaining control almost continuously after 1865.

Between 1865 and 1870 Uruguay was allied with Brazil and Argentina in a war against Paraguay. In the War of the Triple Alliance (1865-1870), Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay fought Paraguay's attempts to establish its influence in Uruguay. Although the allies won the war, both sides suffered heavy losses. Bitter fighting continued between the Blancos and the Colorados until 1872, when they agreed to divide the country into spheres of influence as a first step toward peaceful coexistence. Foreign interventions tapered off after the War of the Triple Alliance, and the improved political conditions, which developed as the result of the agreement between the parties, led to social and economic progress. The last decades of the 19th century were years of relative peace.

The era of peace was interrupted by the murder of President Juan Idiarte Borda of the Colorado Party in 1897. After Idiarte's assassination, the Blancos and the Colorados concluded another territorial agreement. This agreement preserved Blanco strength within only a limited area. European immigration increased after 1880 as settlers were attracted by the prospects of peace and fertile soil. Most of these immigrants adopted Colorado ideas. The election of José Batlle y Ordóñez to the presidency in 1903 caused the Blancos to fear the agreement would be discarded because the Colorado Party now held a large majority of votes. Another civil war broke out, and it ended with the defeat of the Blancos. The interparty agreement was ended by the new government. The Blancos were granted amnesty, however.

C Early-20th-Century Domestic and Foreign Issues

In the early 20th century, membership in the two rival political groups ceased to be merely a matter of traditional loyalties. The Blancos became the conservative party, attracting chiefly the rural population and the clergy, and the Colorados became known as progressive and proponents of advanced social legislation. During the second presidential term of José Batlle y Ordóñez, between 1911 and 1915, social legislation was enacted, and Uruguay soon became known as the most progressive nation in South America.

Batlle's moderately socialist program included the establishment of many government-owned businesses, some of which were monopolies. His program also promoted retirement and medical-aid programs; free education; extensive labor legislation; and public health measures. Much of this program was put into effect by Batlle's successors. Batlle never succeeded in establishing a policy of agrarian reform because rural landowners had sufficient power in the legislature to block such reforms.

In 1917, during World War I, Uruguay broke off relations with Germany and leased German ships, seized in the harbor of Montevideo, to the United States. In that year a new constitution, dividing the executive authority between the president and the national administrative council and providing for the separation of church and state, was promulgated. Uruguay joined the League of Nations in 1920.

In 1933 President Gabriel Terra, who had taken office in 1931, demanded that the Uruguayan constitution be amended to allow the president wider powers. His demands brought threats of revolution, and he thereupon established a dictatorship with the cooperation of Luis Alberto de Herrera, the Blanco Party leader. The two men ruled together in a mild dictatorship in which all government positions and spoils were divided among their followers. A new constitution adopted in 1934 made this agreement law and curtailed individual liberties.

General Alfredo Baldomir, the leading Colorado, began the restoration of democratic government. He was elected president in 1938. A new constitution adopted in 1942 provided for a single president, no special status for either party, and the full restoration of liberties. During World War II (1939-1945), Uruguay severed diplomatic, financial, and economic relations with the Axis powers. In 1945 the country joined the United Nations (UN).

D Postwar Decade

Tomás Berreta, candidate of the Colorado Party and former public works minister, was elected president in 1946, but he died a few months after taking office. Vice President Luis Batlle Berres completed the remainder of Berreta’s term. During this time, government policy became more conservative and government efforts centered on consolidation of the social changes introduced originally by Batlle and his successors. The presidential and general assembly elections of 1950 brought Andrés Martínez Trueba of the Colorado Party to power. In 1952 a Trueba-sponsored constitutional amendment, approved the year before, abolished the presidency and transferred executive power to a nine-member national council of government.

In retaliation against the Uruguayan policy of granting asylum to Argentine political refugees, Argentine dictator Juan Perón imposed travel and trade restrictions on Uruguay. The government, in protest, severed diplomatic relations with Argentina in 1953.

Meanwhile, declining wool prices and curtailed meat exports had led to increasing unemployment and inflation. To ease the economic situation, Uruguay entered into trade agreements during 1956 with the People’s Republic of China and other Communist countries. The economy continued to deteriorate, however.

In 1958, after 93 years of Colorado government, an overwhelming majority elected the Blancos to power, partly as a reaction to the prolonged economic recession. The new government initiated economic reforms; it was faced, however, with leftist agitation and consequent labor unrest, and it charged that Uruguay was being made a base of international communism.

E Political Deterioration

The Blancos continued in power until 1966. In that year they and the Colorados supported a measure for a return to the presidential system, and the measure was approved by referendum in November. In general elections held at the same time, the Colorados won, and Oscar Daniel Gestido, a retired air force general, was elected president. After Gestido died, Vice President Jorge Pacheco Areco succeeded to the presidency.

Trying to halt Uruguay's rampant inflation, Pacheco immediately instituted wage and price controls. Labor disputes erupted, and Pacheco declared a state of emergency in June 1968 and again in June 1969. During these states of emergency, constitutional guarantees were suspended, student demonstrators were shot, hundreds of suspected dissidents were imprisoned, and the police began to use torture during interrogations.

A group of student revolutionaries, the Tupamaros (a name taken from Tupac Amarú, the last emperor of the Inca people), responded with an urban guerrilla campaign. They kidnapped and later released a number of foreign diplomats and businessmen, robbed several banks, freed political prisoners from the jails, and assassinated a number of police officials. From June 1968 until March 1969, Uruguay remained under modified martial law. In June 1969 a fact-finding visit by Nelson Rockefeller, who was then governor of New York State, was met by violent demonstrations. Pacheco imposed a modified state of siege.

In the 1971 elections the Colorado candidate, Juan María Bordaberry, and the Blanco candidate were virtually tied. In 1972 the Electoral Court proclaimed Bordaberry president and he began a five-year term. Meanwhile, violence by the Tupamaros had escalated, and kidnappings and killings became common. In April 1972 Congress declared a state of internal war and suspended constitutional guarantees; some 35,000 police and military searched for guerrilla hideouts. The state of war was lifted in July, but constitutional guarantees were further suspended until 1973. Bordaberry soon came under pressure both from the Blancos and from dissident factions of his own party. Labor groups reacted to the government’s stringent economic and social policies with strikes throughout 1972. Inflation soared, and the currency was devalued ten times in that year.

F Military Takeover

Following the largely successful suppression of the guerrillas, military leaders became convinced that they should play a central role in the country’s political affairs. In February 1973 they demanded the creation of a military 'national security council' to control the administration.

This arrangement led to a conflict with Congress. Bordaberry dissolved the legislature, replacing it with a 25-member appointed Council of State dominated by the military. The Communist-led National Labor Confederation (CNT) responded with a general strike, which was broken by the government after violent confrontations. The unions lost their independence and the CNT was banned.

In the following years the military extended its control to most of the country’s institutions. In 1976 Bordaberry canceled elections scheduled for that year, but the military deposed him and named a new national council. Aparicio Méndez, a former minister of public health, was selected president for a five-year term.

The military regime maintained intense political repression during its period of control. More than 1 in 1,000 Uruguayans were held as political prisoners and there was widespread torture. In 1980 the regime attempted to legitimize itself by obtaining approval for a new constitution that would give the armed forces a permanent supervisory role over the government. That constitution was overwhelmingly rejected in a popular referendum. In 1981 General Gregorio Alvarez was installed as president for a term expiring in 1985.

Alvarez restored political rights to some politicians. However, all the left-wing parties and the most popular leaders of the traditional parties remained banned. During the next three years popular opposition to the regime, intensified by an economic downturn, became increasingly open. This opposition culminated in a demonstration by 400,000 Uruguayans in Montevideo in late 1983 and a general strike in early 1984.

G Civilian Government

The armed forces, isolated by the collapse of military rule in Argentina, finally agreed to hold elections and restore civilian government. The military stipulated that the opposition parties had to agree to exclude banned politicians from the elections, and they also had to promise that the military would be immune from prosecution for abuses against political dissidents. These crimes included the execution of about 150 Uruguayans by the government between 1973 and 1985, the “disappearance” of least 200 people, and the imprisonment and torture of thousands of others.

Presidential elections were held in late 1984, with the armed forces exercising veto power over the choice of nominees. The winner was a moderate, Julio María Sanguinetti of the Colorado Party. An amnesty covering all members of the military accused of human rights violations from 1973 to 1985 was granted in 1986 and upheld by referendum in 1989. Controversy over these crimes and the subsequent amnesty continues to influence the country’s politics.

In 1989 Luis Alberto Lacalle of the Blancos was elected president. Economic stagnation and rising inflation soon prompted him to implement an austerity program and to announce plans to privatize state-run companies. In protest, labor leaders called a series of general strikes. Former president Julio María Sanguinetti, a candidate for the Colorado Party, won the 1994 presidential election. In legislative elections the Broad Front, a leftist coalition that included Communists, Socialists, and former Tupamaro guerrillas, for the first time able to campaign legally and openly, made significant inroads against the more traditional Blanco and Colorado parties.

H Recent Events

In November 1999 the Colorado Party’s Jorge Batlle—whose great-uncle had served as Uruguay's president nearly 100 years earlier—defeated the Broad Front’s Tabaré Vázquez, a Socialist, in the presidential election. Vázquez, a physician and the popular mayor of Montevideo, had forced a runoff by winning the first round in October. Batlle was only able to win after gaining the Blancos’ support. The Broad Front won pluralities in both houses of the legislature in the October legislative elections.

Batlle’s presidency oversaw one of the worst economic crises in Uruguay’s history. During his tenure nearly a third of Uruguayans were at the poverty level and unemployment ranged from 13 to 20 percent. Tens of thousands of young people were forced to emigrate to seek work.

In the presidential elections of October 2004, the coalition led by candidate Tabaré Vázquez captured about 51 percent of the vote, avoiding a runoff. The election brought the left to power for the first time in Uruguay’s history. The Blanco Party candidate won more than 30 percent of the vote but the candidate of the Colorado Party won only 10 percent. The Popular Participation Movement, founded by former Tupamaros, many of whom had been jailed and tortured or forced into exile during the military dictatorship, won more votes than any other party in the Broad Front coalition. The Broad Front coalition also captured both houses of the Congress.

The victory of the left in Uruguay appeared to confirm a growing trend in Latin America in which voters have chosen leftists or populists over moderates and conservatives. Since 1998, the left has won presidential elections in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Nicaragua, and Venezuela. Like the coalition in Uruguay, all have campaigned on platforms that rejected the free-market policies of the International Monetary Fund, which have been supported by various United States administrations. See also Globalization.

Several of the new leftist governments, such as Argentina and Chile, have also initiated investigations of past human rights violations carried out under Operation Condor in the 1970s and 1980s. Operation Condor was a joint effort of several right-wing regimes in the hemisphere that resulted in the disappearance and torture of tens of thousands of left-wing activists. With the election of Vázquez, Uruguay also made prosecution of human rights violations a top priority. In November 2006 a Uruguayan judge issued arrest warrants for former president Bordaberry and a top aide in the murders of two legislators and two suspected Tupamaros guerrillas.

UNITED STATES

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United States (Overview)
I INTRODUCTION

United States (Overview), United States of America, popularly referred to as the United States or as America, a federal republic on the continent of North America, consisting of 48 contiguous states and the noncontiguous states of Alaska and Hawaii. The United States is discussed in seven articles: this overview, as well as separate articles on United States (Geography), United States (People), United States (Culture), United States (Economy), United States (Government), and United States (History).

These six topics—geography, people, culture, economy, government, and history—comprise the interrelated elements of the nation’s experience. Geography is the first element because landforms, resources, and climate affected how people who came to the United States formed new societies. People, in all their variety, are the second element because they formed communities and built a society. The next three elements are major parts of that society—its culture, economy, and government. History tells the story of how people created a society. It details how people adapted to geographical settings, how they constructed and changed their economy and government, and how their culture changed along the way. Thus all of the six topics—geography, people, culture, economy, government, and history—form a progression of interconnected topics.

II E PLURIBUS UNUM: THE AMERICAN EXPERIENCE

E Pluribus Unum is the United States motto, appearing on the nation’s coins and paper money, and on many of its public monuments. It means “From many, one.” First used to unify the 13 British colonies in North America during the American Revolution (1775-1783), this phrase acquired new meaning when the United States received wave after wave of immigrants from many lands. These immigrants had to find ways to reconcile their varied backgrounds and fit together under a constitution and a set of laws. That process of creating one society out of many different backgrounds is one of the biggest stories of the American experience.

“What then is the American, this new man?” asked one of thousands of immigrants who came to North America in the 18th century. “He is an American, who leaving behind him all his ancient prejudices and manners, receives new ones from the new mode of life he has embraced, the new government he obeys, and the new rank he holds. The American is a new man, who acts upon new principles…Here individuals of all nations are melted into a new race of men.”

Michel Guillaume Jean de Crèvecoeur, who wrote under the pseudonym J. Hector St. John, wrote these words more than 200 years ago. In 1759, at the age of 24, Crèvecoeur emigrated from France to the American colonies. Learning English quickly and making a success of himself as a farmer in upstate New York, he married an English woman and became a celebrated observer of the American scene. Amazed at the mingling of people from many parts of the world, Crèvecoeur pointed to a family headed by an Englishman who had married a Dutch woman, whose son married a French woman, and whose four sons had each married a woman of a different nationality. “From this promiscuous breed that race now called Americans have arisen,” he proclaimed.

A hundred years later, on the other side of the continent, Harriette Lane Levy wrote of growing up as a Jew. In her San Francisco neighborhood, she remembered, “The baker was German; the fish man, Italian; the grocer, a Jew; the butcher, Irish; the steam laundryman, a New Englander. The vegetable vendor and the regular laundryman who came to the house were Chinese.”

The United States began as an immigrant society, and it has continued to be a mingling of immigrants ever since. Even Native Americans, the first people to live in North America, descended from people who arrived from Asia many thousands of years ago. Since 1820, 63 million immigrants have arrived in the United States. Never in the history of the world has a country been braided together from so many strands of people arriving with different languages, histories, and cultures.

How could a nation of such diversity meld together so many different humans? Alexis de Tocqueville, another Frenchman who traveled to the United States, was fascinated with this question. He knew that the nation had to find some kind of glue to bind together so many different peoples. He found that glue in the American political system that had developed by the 1830s—a politics of participation based on the notion that to be legitimate and lasting, a government had to derive its power from the people. These principles were part of the political system created by the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States. This system aimed to create “one federated whole,” but this was an ideal yet to be accomplished. Today, the American people are still reaching for that ideal.

The goal of E pluribus unum has been closely connected with an ongoing debate: What is the meaning of the three resounding words that open the Constitution of the United States—“We, the people.” Every generation has faced the question, How wide is the circle of “we”? The various answers to that question have defined the degree of democracy in the United States. Creating one from the many, then, has been inseparable from deciding how democratic the nation will be.

Accordingly, a second theme of this set of articles on the United States is the growth of democracy in the nation and in its institutions and culture. This process has sometimes been tumultuous and often dramatic. The idealistic agenda set forth by the Founding Fathers—that all men are created equal and are endowed with certain inalienable rights, including life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness—remains the standard by which we judge ourselves.

These two themes help connect the various parts of the American experience, each of which is described in one of the six articles on the United States. Each of the articles is one part of the jigsaw puzzle that is the American experience. The puzzle forms a picture, which can only be fully understood when all the pieces are in place.

III UNITED STATES GEOGRAPHY

Early school geography lessons begin with names and locations of the 50 U.S. states and their capitals. But geography is much more than places on a map. Geography more broadly involves peoples, places, and environments—and how these three are connected. The United States (Geography) article describes the physical features of the United States—such as its landforms, lakes, rivers, and climate. It also examines the distinctive regions of the United States. Finally, the article traces how people transformed the landscape and how they grappled with environmental issues connected to population growth, urbanization, and industrialization.

In the article on geography, the interactions of people, places, and environments are related to one of the themes—the search for unity, for oneness, among what one early observer of the American scene called the nation’s “mixed multitude.” Every immigrant to this country comes with a geographical, historical, and cultural background, and all three become part of the American mosaic. Some, because of geographical closeness to their home country, especially those from Mexico, retain more of their home culture (and maintain it longer) than those whose place of origin lies an ocean away. Similarly, the place where an immigrant takes up a new life—in a city filled with people from the same country or in a small community with few friends from the home country friends—can affect how they absorb American ways and how they meld into the larger society.

Geography affects every human, every community, every region, and every nation. Hence, a geographical dimension will be found in the other five major articles on the United States. Geography is one reason why so many people immigrated to the United States or migrated from one region to another. The U.S. economy depends heavily on geographic factors such as natural resources, climate, and the transportation provided by its waterways. Some local governments are organized around geography. For example, rivers may mark the boundaries of counties. History, in integrating all parts of the American experience, always has geography as one of its parts.

IV UNITED STATES PEOPLE

When Europeans first reached North America in the 1520s, they encountered other people—Native Americans—and they also encountered a new geography. Some imagined they were entering “a howling wilderness”—an environment filled with exotic flora and fauna but sparsely populated. In reality, they found their way to a landmass that was widely settled. But soon after the Europeans’ arrival, the population of the Americas plummeted, largely because Native Americans lacked immunity to smallpox, influenza, and other infectious diseases that the Europeans brought with them. Europeans mostly by choice and Africans almost entirely by coercion came to the western hemisphere. However, the number of people living in what is today the continental United States did not regain the population level before European contact (estimated to be 8 million to 10 million indigenous people) until the 1840s.

How did the population of the United States grow to today’s 300 million, the third largest in the world? The article United States (People) traces this growth. It is closely connected with the first theme of E pluribus unum and the second theme of striving for greater democracy.

The article details the diversity of the U.S. population as it grew from natural increase and from immigration. More than that of any other country in the world, the population of the United States has increased through repeated waves of immigration. Immigration gives the United States its distinctive character, and each wave of immigration changed the ethnic, racial, and religious composition of U.S. society. This diversity provided a rich mingling of cultures, but it has also been a source of tension and conflict, clouding the American promise of equality, freedom, and justice, and impeding the pursuit of E pluribus unum.

The article also shows how the population of the United States has changed. The fertility rate, for example, has fallen steadily over the past two centuries. In the colonial era, the average American woman gave birth to eight children; in the 1990s, she had two children. This profound revolution in the biological history of the nation connects with another major change in U.S. society—women working outside the home. The connection between changing birthrates and the shifting composition of the labor force is very powerful. Or consider life expectancy. People live much longer than they did in the early years of the United States, raising questions about how to maintain the social security system and provide care for the elderly. This is just one example of how the people, the economy, and the government are bound together.

V UNITED STATES CULTURE

The American people, like all peoples, create a culture—a word that used most broadly includes everything related to a people organized in a society. The United States (Culture) article discusses how Americans live—the communities they build, the buildings they construct, the food they eat, the clothes they wear, their sports and recreation, celebrations, and holidays. The article then turns to the life of the mind and the spirit—education in the United States and American arts and letters.

American culture has been influenced by the goal of E pluribus unum and by the democratization of American society. The people who came to the United States brought their culture with them and once here, they borrowed from each other. As the United States became the favored destination of people leaving their homelands in search of a new country, American culture became a rich and complex blending of cultures from around the world. Generation by generation, decade by decade, American culture has received infusions of new elements from Europe, Africa, Asia, and Latin America. African Americans, for instance, brought forth the improvisational music and rhythms of blues and jazz that became the nation’s most globally popular cultural form. An American can savor the flavors and foods of many parts of the world and can hardly read a novel that does not partake of regional culture or immigrant backgrounds.

Democracy has also influenced American culture, as indicated by the gradual merging of elite and popular cultures. Nowhere has this merging had greater importance than in education. Before World War II (1939-1945), only a minority of Americans completed high school, and very few graduated from college. Today, graduation from high school is nearly universal, and a majority of young Americans intend to go to college. With the dramatic increase in the amount of education they receive, Americans have become enormous consumers of books, museums, and concerts. Never have so many people known so much about literature and the arts.

An elite no longer controls cultural expression in the United States. Artists of various kinds argue that formal boundaries between fine art and popular art have always been artificial, and they have dismantled older, European-based traditions in painting, sculpture, music, dance, and literature. Many people now contribute to a myriad of cultural forms from cartoons to public-access television programs. With creativity arising from unexpected places, American culture now reaches out to all the nation’s diverse peoples. This change has paralleled the extension of political rights to more people, including women and African Americans.

Just as the American economy and American political institutions have assumed an unprecedented position on the world scene, American cultural forms—from music and movies to football and fast food to blue jeans and blues—have become international in reach. No longer bound by geography, American culture has become an ambassador of goodwill, enabling people of different nations, different religions, and different forms of government to find something in common.

VI UNITED STATES ECONOMY

The American economy produces and Americans consume more than any other economy in the world. It also plays a pivotal role in a global economy, where the economies of all nations have to various degrees become interdependent. The article United States (Economy) first describes the workings of this economy. For example, it explains the four main factors governing production: natural resources, labor, capital, and entrepreneurship. The article also discusses the goods and services produced in the United States, the role of capital, and saving and investment in the American economy. It details how money and financial markets work, the makeup of the labor force, how the world economy affects the American economy and vice versa, and how different types of businesses—from megacorporations to mom-and-pop grocery stores—function in the American economy.

The Economy article also describes the economy at the beginning of the 21st century. It is closely aligned with several other articles on the United States. The History article shows how human choices and governmental actions have resulted in the American economy of the early 21st century. By reading the Economy and History articles together, we can see how striving for a democratic society affects many economic decisions, from raising the minimum wage to adjusting tax schedules. The Geography article discusses the tension between robust economic development and concerns about the environment. The Government article helps explain the role the political system plays in regulating the economy and shaping economic priorities. Many economic decisions, such as deregulating the airlines or imposing a hefty tax on cigarettes, must be decided at the polling place or in the legislative halls.

VII UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT

Much admired in most parts of the world, the system of government devised by Americans over nearly four centuries is integral to the American experience. Like all societies, Americans have wrestled with timeless questions: What is the proper source of political authority? Who has the power to make and enforce rules by which all must live? Over the course of human history, people around the globe have invented many forms of government to answer these questions: monarchy, aristocracy, fascism, communism, democracy, and even anarchism. The American government is based on democracy—a word that is easier to use than to implement effectively.

Democracy begins with the idea that government exists to serve the people and that as the source of governmental authority, the people have the right to change the government if it does not serve them justly. The people are sovereign. From that pivotal idea flow a number of complementary principles: commitment to majority rule, protection of the rights of the minority, acceptance of a rule of law, and equality of all citizens before the law. Also, democracy requires safeguarding liberties such as the free exchange of ideas and opinions, freedom of religion, freedom to assemble, and the right to be tried by a jury of one’s peers.

The article United States (Government) describes how a nation of immigrants, of many nationalities, religions, and creeds, has attempted to form one nation through the political system, emphasizing civil liberties, equality of opportunity, and equal justice before the law. Americans have disagreed sharply, and even violently, on how to interpret or achieve liberty, equality, and justice. But their political system, under the Constitution, provides mechanisms for reconciling differences and for achieving goals derived from the nation’s civil creed.

Sections of the Government article give overviews of the Constitution of the United States and provide basic information on how the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of government operate. Other sections discuss the election process, political parties, state and local government, the law and courts, and crime and safety.

The United States government cannot be fully understood without knowledge of the nation’s history. Both the Government and History articles show how democracy has been an evolving concept based on political institutions that have been refurbished and modified generation by generation. At first the “we” in “We, the people” did not generally include women, Native Americans, black Americans, immigrants from Asia, 18- to 21-year-olds, or even white males who owned no land. Nearly a century and a half would pass before all of these groups gained basic civil rights through amendments to the Constitution and laws passed by Congress.

VIII UNITED STATES HISTORY

An inscription on the wall of the Chinatown History Project in New York City says: “It is true that history cannot satisfy our appetite when we are hungry, nor keep us warm when the cold wind blows. But it is also true that if younger generations do not understand the hardships and triumphs of their elders, then we will be a people without a past. As such, we will be like water without a source, a tree without roots.”

For people to understand the American experience, they must look to the past. History encompasses every aspect of society—its geography, people, culture, economy, and government. Thus, the United States (History) article makes connections with, and gives greater depth to, the other articles. It also pays considerable attention to the two themes that thread their way through the other articles—the process of making one nation out of its many people and the arduous work of implementing the country’s democratic principles.

The History article provides much insight into the work of making one people out of many constituent parts. It would take the work of generations of Americans to fulfill this dream—and the work is not yet complete. Until slavery was abolished and former slaves were incorporated into free society, the oneness of the American people could never be accomplished. Successive waves of immigration intensified and complicated the quest for a unified people. A nearly catastrophic Civil War in the 1860s interrupted the process and perpetuated regional tensions that blocked it. Finding ways of reaching accommodation with Native Americans has remained a thorny issue to the present day. Nor could American women be fully incorporated into the society at large until they gained political rights, including the right to vote and hold office, which took until 1920.

The History article also provides a wealth of material on efforts to bring all the various people who compose American society under the canopy of democracy. It describes the successive movements for reform that have taken up the uncompleted agenda first set forth by the Revolutionary generation. These movements began with the American Revolution and included social and political reform before the Civil War, populism and progressivism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the New Deal, and the civil rights movements of the 1960s and 1970s. Beyond this, readers will find fascinating material that helps answer the question asked at the beginning of this introduction by French immigrant Crèvecoeur: “What then is the American, this new man?”