Universal Blog

mardi 18 mars 2014

JAPAN

Japan

Japan is a country of Asia.

Japan is archipelago long a 2 approximately 500 km and consisted of 4 principal islands (of north in the south): Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku and Kyushu. The relief of Japan is marked by the permanent proximity of the sea (nearly 30 000 km of coasts) and of the mountain (which covers 75 % of the total surface). The climate is marked by strong contrasts: the cold winds of Siberia (in Russia) touch the north of the country, while the tropical cyclones come from the Asian continent reach the south.

The density of population is very high in Japan: it reaches more than 2 000 inhabitants to the km ^² in certain areas and nearly 13 000 inhabitants to the km ^² in the capital Tokyo (the largest city of the world)! The Japanese population is very urbanized (80 % of the population) and the agglomeration of Tokyo only concentrates with it more than 20 % of the total population of the country.

The economy of Japan is the 2 ^Emore powerful in the world (after that of the United States). It developed particularly quickly after the Second World war. Today, Japanese industry is placed at the first world ranks in many sectors like electronics and the car. The yen is one of the most significant currencies in the world trade (with the dollar and the euro), while Tokyo Stock Exchange is the 2 ^Emoney market of the world.

Japan

Name	Japan
Population	127 463 610 inhabitants in 2006
Capital	Tokyo (8 194 727 inhabitants) agglomeration (34 997 269 inhabitants)
Surface	377 837 km²
Administrative cutting	47 prefectures
Principal cities	Tokyo (8 194 727 inhabitants)
	Yokohama (3 518 095 inhabitants)
	Osaka (2 497 208 inhabitants)
	Nagoya (2 130 983 inhabitants)
	Sapporo (1 856 442 inhabitants)
	Kobe (1 493 841 inhabitants)
	Kyoto (1 392 072 inhabitants)
	Fukuoka (1 336 666 inhabitants)
Currency	yen
Official language	Japanese

TO GO FURTHER

? Asia
? the capital of Japan: Tokyo

mercredi 26 février 2014

JEAN MONNET

Jean Monnet

Jean Monnet (1888-1979) is a politician and a French economist of the xx ^Ecentury; he played a fundamental role in the European construction industry, so much so that it is called readily "the Father of Europe ".

As of the First World War (1914-1918), Jean Monnet estimates that the co-operation between the European nations is necessary so that Europe preserves its prestige. After the war, it is in charge of significant missions at the Company of the Nations, an international organization charged to take care of peace between the people (in fact, the ancestor of UNO). During the Second World war (1939-1945), Jean Monnet takes part in the organization of the efforts of war carried out jointly by England and the United States.

At the Release, Jean Monnet develops the foreground of rebuilding of France. He is one of the instigators of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), which is born in 1951 around France and of Germany. It defends the signature of the Treaty of Rome which marks the birth, in 1957, of the European Economic Community (the EEC).

TO GO FURTHER

? European construction

JEANNE D'ARC

Jeanne d' Arc

Jeanne d' Arc (1412-1431) is a heroin of the French history which lived with the Middle Ages, during the One hundred Year old war One calls it also Jeanne the Virgin or the Maid of Orleans.

Jeanne d' Arc is a country-woman of the village of Domrémy, in Lorraine. Child, it would have heard voices come from the sky asking him to go to the help of the king Charles VII. At that time indeed, in full One hundred Year old war, most of the kingdom is under English domination; the king of France, called "the king of Bourges", controls nothing any more but one reduced field.

In 1429, when it is 17 years old, Jeanne d' Arc goes to Chinon and persuades Charles VII to entrust an army to him. With a troop of royal soldiers, it releases Orleans, then brings Charles VII in Rheims where he is crowned. But the following year, it is captured by the Burgundian ones which deliver it to the English. Judged for sorcery, she dies burned sharp on the place from the market in Rouen, May 30, 1431.

Its lawsuit is revised in 1456 then, in 1920, Jeanne d' Arc is declared holy by the catholic Church.

TO GO FURTHER

? the One hundred Year old war
? Charles VII
? the Middle Ages
?interactivity: chronology of the Middle Ages
?play: characters of the Middle Ages

GREEK OLYMPIC GAMES

Greek Olympic Games

WHAT IS The OLYMPIC GAMES IN ANTIQUITY?

In Antiquity, the Greeks regularly devote to called sporting competitions Olympic Games. These plays proceed in the city of Olympie where is located the most significant furnace bridge dedicated to Zeus, god of the Sky and sovereign of the gods of Olympe. It is known that the first Olympic Games were held into 776 before J-C, but other competitions probably already took place in older times still. They disappear into 391 after J-C, when the Roman emperor Théodose I ^er prohibits them.

WHEN SE DO THEY UNROLL?

the stage of Olympie

Built to O C century before J-C, the stage of Olympie is the place of the first test of the ancient Olympic Games, the race with foot. The length of the stage (192,27 meters) corresponds, according to the legend, with 600 times the foot of the Héraclès hero.

The ancient stage of Olympie, located in the Peloponnese (in Greece), was cleared since 1958 by a team of German archaeologists.

The Olympic Games gather all the Greek cities and are the occasion of crowned trêve during which nobody has the right to make the war. They are held every four years, in summer, and last five days. The period between two plays is called a olympiade; it is used as system of dating (of calendar) to the Greeks.

WHO TAKES PART In It?

To take part in the Olympic Games, it is necessary to be a free man, citizen of the Greek world. The women for example do not take part in it. Before the plays, envoys traverse the Greek world to invite the quote-States to take part in it. To take part in the plays is a manner of paying its tribute with the Zeus god.

The athletes arrive one month before the opening of the plays and start to involve themselves in the gymnasium.

WHICH ARE THE VARIOUS TESTS?

After a first day devoted to the religious ceremonies in the honor of Zeus, the sporting competitions start. They are athletic, horse tests and of combat:

a race with foot

–the races with foot, which take place in the stage (it measures 600 times the foot of the Héraclès hero, i.e. 192,27 m). One of the races, very appreciated of the public, has the characteristic to be made vêtu of an armour;

–competitions of combat, in particular the fight, boxing and the pancrace (a combination of the two precedents);

a race of tanks

–races of tanks and horses, which take place in the hippodrome. These tests are reserved for richest because its horse should be had;

–the pentathlon finally, which is a series of five tests: race, long jump, throwing the javelin, throwing the discus and fight.

The winners of each test gain a crown of olive-tree. On their return in their city, they are accomodated triumphantly and again rewarded.

Do There EXIST OTHER PLAYS THAT With OLYMPIE?

The Olympic Games are most famous and most honorary of the ancient plays to which the Greeks deliver themselves. However, there is different, the also prestigious one: the Pythiques plays take place with Delphes in the honor of Apollo; the Isthmiques plays proceed in Corinthe in the honor of Poséidon; the Néméens plays are practised in Némée in the honor of Héraclès.

The Olympic Games of the Greeks of Antiquity are the ancestors of the Olympic Games of today.

TO GO FURTHER

? ancient Greece
? circus games in Rome
? the sport