RIVERS AND RIVERS

rivers and rivers

The rivers and the rivers are  rivers. The rivers are thrown in the sea, while the rivers are thrown in other rivers.

RIVERS

From which do the rivers come?

The rivers have different origins: it is what is called  the modes.

–the glacial mode: in high mountain,  the cast iron of the glaciers  gives birth to from the brooks and the torrents which form the rivers (like the Rhone or the Rhine in Europe);

–the nival mode: when there are no mountains, but much of snow, as in certain areas of Canada, in Siberia or in the countries of Northern Europe, in fact  the snow melt  forms the rivers;

–the rain mode: the rivers also come from rainwater, the streaming or the underground water tables (of the water reserves), which take the shape of  sources  emerging from the ground: it is the case of the Seine and the Loire in France.

The mode of the rivers

The rivers receive  affluents  or tributaries which come to reinforce them, then they are thrown in the sea by the intermediary of  an estuary  (like the Gironde or the Loire in France) or of  a delta  (like the Nile in Africa or the Amazon in South America). A river and its affluents form  a catchment area. Certain rivers (like the Nile, the Amazon or Yang-tseu-kiang in China) occupy of the surfaces of several million km².

The rivers of the world offer a large variety of  hydrological modes, because of the various types of climates, rocks and vegetation. In general, the large rivers have  a regular  flow.  The modes  are  simple  when only one period ago of low waters and high waters (as for the Seine); they are  complex  when several periods follow one another in the year (like Congo in Africa or the Danube in Europe). In the equatorial and tropical areas, the hydrological mode follows  the pluviometric mode.

With 6 400 km length and an average annual flow of 180 000 m ³  a second, the Amazon  (in South America) is the most powerful river of the world. It also has  a watershed, i.e. a place where the fresh waters are based in salted water; for the Amazon, this line is located at almost 40 km of the coasts, on the open sea.

RIVERS

One distinguishes various types of rivers,  according to the climate and the nature of the grounds and the rocks which they cross:

–temporary rivers: in areas like the Maghreb (in North Africa), when the climate is desert or semi-desert, the permanent rivers are rare; on the other hand, of the rivers to the temporary flow ( wadis) can appear at the time of the rain season and disappear after a few months from dryness;

–the torrential rivers  run out along a strong slope. These  rivers of mountains  are "capricious" and their periods of risings are violent: a river like Gardon (an affluent of the Rhone, in the south of France) can in a few hours see its flow passing from some m³ a second to more than 3 000 m³ a second;

–underground rivers: in fact  seepage waters  penetrate several tens of meters in the basement and create rivers.

THE WORK OF THE RIVERS AND THE RIVERS

Water models the landscapes. The surface rain and waters degrade and erode the rocks by removing layers of sediments. The rivers and the rivers thus dig their  bed  along the way which they traverse (it is their  course): it is for example the valley of the Rhone in France.

A river or a river can have a particularly low flow (the low water level) or particularly high ( the rising): in both cases, it results from them an action and effects favorable and/or harmful on surrounding nature. In the case of the Nile (in Egypt), the annual risings can cause significant damage, but also deposit on the banks a fertile silt which allows the land utilization by agriculture.

TO GO FURTHER

? water on the Earth

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COUNTRIES

countries

A country is a territory  characterized by  a unit, which can be political, social, historical, cultural or economic. It is delimited by  borders  and is equipped with a Sovereign state; its inhabitants have  a nationality.

HOW MUCH Y Does It Have COUNTRY IN The WORLD?

The number of the countries in the world  varies according to the selected definition. United Nations (UNO) regularly publishes the "list of the territories": it includes/understands the list of  the 192 countries  of the world members of UNO, and those of "Non-Self-Governing territories" (the Sahara-Westerner for example) and of "not car-controlled territories" (France of overseas for example). 

THE COUNTRIES ARE LIMITED BETWEEN THEM BY BORDERS

The borders are  artificial limits  decided by the men. For example, France divides borders with Belgium and Luxembourg in North, Germany, Switzerland and Italy in the East, Spain in the South: they are  the frontier countries  of France.

To draw the borders

On the charts, the borders are materialized by  continuous features  which draw the shape of the countries. On  the ground, they are generally marked by the presence of  terminals  and  customs houses, sometimes by a fence.

The idea that a border must obligatorily trace a continuous line on a chart is a relatively recent idea. Formerly, only the geographical obstacles constituted real borders. Then, as governments were constituted and started to worry about the integrity of their territory, they undertook to build fortified towns and border posts with the "borders" of the country. The border was gradually drawn on the charts like  an imaginary line  connecting the border posts the ones to the others.

? Sometimes two countries decided that the border which separates them follows  a natural geographical element: it is the case of the Rhine, which forms part of the border between France and Germany, while the peak of the tops of the Pyrenees draws that which separates France from Spain.

? Sometimes the border is traced in  straight line, in a completely artificial way: it is the case between certain countries of Africa.

? The borders  are sometimes disputed, each of the two countries asserting the same territory. On the charts, the disputed borders and territories are generally represented by the features in dotted lines and/or of the hatchings of particular color.

Conflicts around the river and maritime borders

If it is relatively easy to materialize a border on the ground, the river and maritime borders pose problems and are often sources of conflicts:

? when two countries share the same  river, the border is located theoretically at the medium, and  the resources  must be shared. But in the areas where water represents  a vital  stake (as in the Middle East), the conflicts concerning the exploitation of these resources are extremely frequent;

? the difficulties are even more significant with regard to  the maritime borders. Each country asserts a certain  sovereignty  on water which surrounds its grounds directly (i.e. he wants to have a certain part of the sea or ocean, as well as he has his terrestrial territory); in the same way, each country asserts to be able to exploit the maritime resources (fishing, resources of the basement like oil) of the water located near its territory. In practice, to trace clear limits is difficult and this question is a constant source of conflicts in the world.

The borders have a history

The current layout of the borders such as one can see them on a chart results from a history. Besides it is enough to look at charts of the world going back to various periods to realize it.

? For certain countries, the constitution of the own territory (and thus delimitation of the borders) were done according to  a natural process: it is in particular the case of the islands.

? In other areas of the world on the other hand, the relatively complex layout of the borders is the result of  a historical construction: it is the case in Europe in particular, where each country fought to establish its own territory. The drawing of France, for example, varied much during its history.

? For other countries, the layout of the border does not result from a historical construction, but from  an external decision. It is the case of many countries of Africa, which kept the borders traced "with the rule" by the European colonial powers to  the xix ^E century; it is also the case of the old Soviet republics (Latvia, Lithuania, Bielorussia, etc), which preserved the borders decided by the old USSR (today Russia). This situation, which does not respect the will of self-determination of the people, is also a source of conflicts.

? Lastly, of alliances  as the European Union allow to soften the concept of border: the European citizens have the right to move and remain freely on the territory of the Member States.

TO GO FURTHER

? the State-nation
? continents
? Europe of the nations to  the xix ^E century
? European construction

©  2013 " www.amanitheophile.blogspot.com ".  All rights reserved.

VIKINGS

Vikings

The Vikings are men from  Scandinavia  (Denmark, Sweden, Norway).

TRADESMEN, FISHERMEN, CARPENTERS

The Vikings appear to  the VI ^E century after J-C, and are initially known to be  tradesmen,  fishermen  and especially of  remarkable carpenters.

One found many poems and chansons de geste, written in  runes  (the writing of the Vikings) which describes their civilization marked by an original religion, dominated by the gods  Odin, god of the War, and  Thor, god of the Thunder.

WHY THE VIKINGS LEAVE DO TO THEM COUNTRY?

The destruction of the large commercial axes as well as the decline of the Empire carolingien encourage the Vikings to come  to plunder  the countries close as of the end to  the viii ^E century.

They move on  drakkars, long fast and light boats out of wooden which as well make it possible to sail on the open sea as to go up the rivers using oars.

WHICH ARE GREAT FORWARDINGS VIKINGS?

The Vikings make many incursions in  Ireland  (where they melt Dublin), in  England  (they settle in the north of the country) and in  France. They also venture in  Spain  and cross the Straits of Gibraltar, in the Mediterranean, to join Italy in particular. Little by little, they enhardissent and assemble very great forwardings.

To the east, the Vikings lead many  raids  and seize Aachen, the capital of Carolingiens (today in  Germany). They move then towards  Russia  and the Ukraine, where they are known under the name of Varègues, and melt the first principalities of Novgorod and Kiev (at the origin of the Russian State).

IN DISCOVERED AMERICAN CONTINENT

Sailing towards the west, the Vikings settle in  Iceland  but, in 981, one as of their,  Erik the Red, is driven out country for murder. It takes the sea and discovers an island which it baptizes  Greenland  ("green ground").

His/her son, Leif Eriksson, venture even more in the west, meet  Labrador and Newfoundland  and reached the gulf of the St. Lawrence which it baptizes Vinland ("country of the vine").

The Vikings are thus the first Europeans to press  the American continent, five centuries before Christophe Colomb!

Do the VIKINGS SETTLE IN The KINGDOM OF FRANCE?

In France, the Vikings go up the Seine to Paris, which must pay a heavy tribute to make them leave.They left the memory of cruel plunderers.

It is true that the Vikings attack the churches and with the supposed convents to contain treasures and that testimonys which one has are precisely those of monks and priests, the only ones who can write among the population.

In 911, the Norwegian head  Rollon, installed in the valley of the low Seine for several years, has threatened all north of France. Incompetent to join together an army sufficient and preferring to buy peace, the king Charles III the Simple one yields a territory to him:  Normandy  ("ground of the men of North"). In exchange, Rollon is made baptize and become its vassal.

Starting from X ^E century, the raids rarefy because the majority of the Vikings converted with Christianity; it is to them thus interdict to take slaves in the Christian countries.

The role of the Vikings in the history proves very significant since they integrated into Europe the countries of north, jeté the bases of future Russia and left significant traces in Ireland, like in England and France.

TO GO FURTHER

?  Scandinavian mythology
?  Great Invasions
?  the Empire carolingien
?  the Middle Ages

? interactivity:  chronology of the Middle Ages

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