New Zealand

· The Māori are the indigenous Polynesian people of New Zealand. Over several centuries in isolation, the Polynesian settlers developed a unique culture that became known as the "Māori", with their own language, a rich mythology, distinctive crafts and performing arts. Early Māori formed tribal groups, based on eastern Polynesian social customs and organisation.

· Moriori are the indigenous people of the Chatham Islands. These people lived by a code of non-violence and passive resistance, which led to their near-extinction at the hands of Taranaki Māori invaders in the 1830s.

· Wellington – capital, Auckland [was the capital in 1865], Canterbury, Blenheim, Christchurch, Queenstown

· The kiwi is a national symbol of New Zealand, and the association is so strong that the term Kiwi is used all over the world as the colloquial demonym for New Zealanders. Aggressive [at night], can’t fly, feathers smell mushrooms, strong legs help to go through swamps, has the big nostrils, lives for 50-60 years, eats insects, worms, hen-sized

· [!] New Zealanders love their cars! 2.5 million cars for 4 million people (including the kids) makes New Zealand’s car ownership rate one of the highest in the world.

19. South Africa – History

· Boers – descendants of the Dutch people who went to live in South Africa in the 17^th century à Afrikaners

· Cape Colony came under British rule in 1806

· 1830s – ‘Great Trek’ - an eastward and north-eastward migration away from British control in the Cape Colony during the 1830s and 1840s by Boers

· Discovery of gold and diamonds near Kimberly and the Vaal River

· 1880-1881 – The First Anglo-Boer War, the ‘Transvaal Wan’

· 1899-1902 – The Second Anglo-Boer War

· 1902 – the Treaty of Vereeniging - the peace treaty, signed on 31 May 1902, that ended the Second Boer War between the South African Republic and the Republic of the Orange Free State, on the one side, and the British Empire on the other.

· Robert Baden-Powell: in 1899, during the Second Boer War in South Africa, Baden-Powell successfully defended the town in the Siege of Mafeking.

· Mahatma Gandhi - During Gandhi's stay in South Africa his concept of non-violence did not include passivity or cowardice in the face of violence or the abdication of one's duty. Gandhi offered his services freely during the Anglo-Boer War of 1899. He formed an Indian Volunteer Ambulance Corps of 1400 men, many of whom were traders and professionals. They saw to the needs of the sick and wounded and often worked in the thick of battle in areas such as Spion Kop, Colenso and Ladysmith. For their efforts, members of the Corps were decorated with medals.

· Winston Churchill – working as a journalist during the Boer War; he was captured and made a prisoner-of-war before escaping

· Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - dedicated his medical skills to the army during the South African (Boer) War. He wrote the first edition of "The Great Boer War" in 1900, later updating it to cover the war to its end in 1902

· Apartheid – separateness, was a system of legal racial segregation enforced by the Rational Party government in South Africa between 1948 and early 1994

· The population was classified into 4 groups: Black, White, Indian and Coloured; strict racial segregation in the urban areas; restricted African urbanization; a tightly-controlled and more restricted system of migrant labour, prohibiting marriage between white people and people of other races

· Nelson Mandela is a national hero; fight against racial oppression in South Africa; the Nobel Prize; born in 1918; the presidency of his country; 27 years – imprisoned for his opposition to apartheid

· 1990 – came out of prison

· 1993 – the Nobel Peace Prize, shared with former South African President F.W. de Klerk

· 1994 – South Africa’s first democratically elected President

· 2004 – officially retired from public life

· November 2009 – UNO – Mandela’s birthday, 18 July – ‘Mandela Bay’ – marking his contribution to world freedom

· [!] South Africa has the cheapest electricity in the world.

20. South Africa – Culture and geography

· Capitals: executive – Pretoria, Judicial – Bloemfontein, Legislative – Cape Town

· 11 official languages: English, Afrikaans and 9 Bantu languages

· South Africa is a nation of diversity, with nearly 52-million people and a wide variety of cultures, languages and religious beliefs.

· Famous South Africans: J.R.R. TOLKIEN, CHARLIZE THERON, ARNOLD VOSLOO [The Mummy]

· Cecil Rhodes - was the founder of the southern African territory of Rhodesia, which was named after him in 1895.

· De Beers – dimond mining, diamond trading

· On 13 March 1888, Rhodes and Rudd launched De Beers Consolidated Mines after the amalgamation of a number of individual claims.

· David Livingstone – explored the African interior; wanted to end the slave trade; Victoria Falls, Zambezi River [malaria, dysentery and sleeping sickness]; the source of the Rile

· [!] South Africa is the world's largest producer of macadamia nuts.

21. Northern Ireland – Early History

· St.Patrick was a Romano-British Christian missionary and bishop in Ireland. Known as the "Apostle of Ireland", he is the primary patron saint of the island along with Saints Brigid and Columba.

· Vikings:

o 795 – Vikings looted the island

o Established settlements along the coast

o Fortress – Dublun

o Battle of Clontarf 1014

o Decline of Viking power

o Important economic centres

· Normans:

o 1167 – the 1^st Norman knight landed in Ireland

o 1171 – Henry II – the 1^st English king in Ireland

o King John – Lordship of Ireland

· Tudor times:

o 1494 – all new lands must be approved by the English Parliament

o 1534 – revolt by Thomas Kildare

o [offered lordship to the Pope]

o Rejected Reformation

o 1541 – Henry VIII accepted as a king

o Elizabeth I – attempts to ‘plant’ English settlers

o Crops to feed garrisons

· Rebels:

o 1566-67 – Shane O’Neil in Ulster

o 1571 – ban on traditional clothes in Munster

o 1579-80 – James Fitzgerald in Munster

o 1584 – English settlers in Ulster

o 1594 – Hugh O’Neil – rebel in Ulster

o 1584-1603 Nine Years’ War

o Kern

· Cromwell:

o 1641 – Irish Catholics rebelled against the domination of English and Protestant settlers

o 1649 – lands with the New Model Army

o Drogheda garrison killed, Wexford – the same

o Third of Ireland’s pre-war population was dead or in exile

22. Northern Ireland in XIX – XX century

· Act of Union:

o 1800 – Act of Union – United Kingdom and Ireland

o 100 MPs at Westminster in London

o 90% Catholics – cannot vote on become MPs

o 1828 – Daniel O’Connell – Catholic Emancipation – Act 1829

o But he wanted independence for Ireland and parliament

· Great famines:

o 1845-1849

o Immigration to the USA

o Potato blight

o The population dropped from over 8 million before the famine to 4,4 million in 1911

o Decline of the Irish language

· Corn Laws:

o 1815-1846 Trade laws to protect cereal produces in the UK [landowners]

o Made it too expensive to import grain from their countries

o 1845 – Peal ordered corn from US to feed people

o 1846 – Repeal of the Corn Laws. Peel resigns

· Young Ireland:

o political, cultural and social movement

o government inaction\French Revolution

o 1848 – unsuccessful uprising

o sentenced to death, but public support

o penal transportation to Van Diemen’s Land

· Sinn Fein [Irish republican political party]:

o failure of Home Rule movement

o 1905 – ‘Ourselves Alone’ – policy of non-cooperating with Britain

o 1913 – Home Rule bill rejected by the House of Lords. Irish nationalist form Irish Nationalist Volunteers [later IRA]

· 1916 Easter Rising:

o Irish Nationalists

o about 1600 involved

o 400 died

o seized buildings in Dublin and proclaimed the republic

o 6 days of fighting

o 15 leaders executed

o 1918 – 73 Sinn Fein Members of Parliament elected, refused to go to Westminster

o 1919 – Sinn Fein MPs set up a parliament ‘Dall Eirann’ in Dublin

· The Irish Republican Army:

o revolutionary military organization

o 1920 – Bloody Sunday

o 14 civilians were killed during a football match, 14 British agents were killed, 3 IRA prisoners were killed

o 1921 – The Custom House burned down in Dublin by IRA

· Ireland Act 1949:

· to sum up: Independence

o declared – 1916

o ratified – 1919

o recognized – 1922

o constitution – 1937

o left the Commonwealth – 1949

23. Northern Ireland – Culture

· part of their symbols and emblems of Ireland are: shamrock, harp, leprechaun, Saint Patrick

· capital and the largest city – Belfast, Londonderry, Lisburn, Newtownabbey, Bangor, Craigavon, Castlereagh

· languages: English, Irish, Ulster Scots

· religion: Non-Roman Catholic Christian 45.57%, Roman Catholic 40.26%, other 14.18%

· famous people: Liam Neeson, Kenneth Branagh, Oscar Wilde, Dakota Fanning, Saorise Ronan, Megan Fox, Mischa Barton, Maccaulay Culkin, Chris Evans, Olivia Wilde

· Irish whiskey, Irish coffee, Irish dance

· [!] Titanic was built and launched from Belfast Harbor.

Wales

· their national emblems and symbols are Red Dragon, St. Davids Flag, their national flag, leeks, daffodils, Celtic knots, cawl and lots of other things.

· capital: Cardiff

· languages: Welsh, English

· religion: Christianity

· famous people: Timothy Dalton, Anthony Hopkins, George Everest, Bullet for my Valentine, Skindred, Ryan Giggs, Aaron Ramsey

· national parks: Lake District, Snowdonia, Dartmoor, Pembrokeshire Coast, North York Moors, Yorkshire Dales

· Eisteddfod is a Welsh festival of literature, music and performance. The tradition of such a meeting of Welsh artists dates back to at least the 12th century, when a festival of poetry and music was held by Rhys ap Gruffydd of Deheubarth at his court in Cardigan in 1176 but, with the decline of the bardic tradition, it fell into abeyance. The present-day format owes much to an eighteenth-century revival arising out of a number of informal eisteddfodau. The closest English equivalent to eisteddfod is "session"; the word is formed from two Welsh morphemes: eistedd, meaning "sit", and bod, meaning "be"

· Owain Glyndŵr was a Welsh ruler and the last native Welshman to hold the title Prince of Wales (Tywysog Cymru). He instigated a fierce and long-running but ultimately unsuccessful revolt against the English rule of Wales

· Llywelyn ap Gruffydd or Llywelyn Ein Llyw Olaf was the last prince of an independent Wales before its conquest by Edward I of England.

· Prince of Wales (Welsh: Tywysog Cymru) is a title traditionally granted to the heir apparent to the reigning monarch of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the 15 other independent Commonwealth realms (and formerly of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, before that the Kingdom of Great Britain and before that the Kingdom of England). The current Prince of Wales is Prince Charles, the eldest son of Queen Elizabeth II.

· [!] All the statues surrounding Cardiff Castle are of animals.

· [!] Wales is the land of mythical Kind Arthur.

25. Scotland – Geography

· capital: Edinburgh

· cities: Glasgow, Dundee, Perth, Aberdeen, Inverness

· lakes: Loch Ness, Loch Lomond, Loch Morar, Loch Awe, Lake Louise [Skibo Castle], Lake of Menteith [monastery; laich – low place], Lake of the Hirsel [Home family, British PM], Smeaton Lake [curling competitions]

· mountains: Ben Nevis, Ben Macdui, Braeriach, Cairn Toul, Sgor an Lochain Uaine

· [!] Scotland has some 790 islands, 130 of which are inhabited.

26. Scotland – Culture

· national symbols: The Scottish Thistle, national flag - The Saltire (diagonal white cross on blue background), Unofficial Scottish Flag - The Lion Rampant (red 'rampant lion' on gold background), bagpipes, St. Andrew, Robert ('Rabbie') Burns, official animal - The Unicorn of Scotland, Traditional Scottish Kilts, tartan

· The kilt is a knee-length garment with pleats at the rear, originating in the traditional dress of men and boys in the Scottish Highlands of the 16th century

· languages: Scottish English, Scottish Gaelic, Scots

· religion: Christianity; The Church of Scotland, often known as The Kirk, is recognised in law as the national church of Scotland.

· famous people: Alexander Fleming [Discovered Penicillin], Robert Burns, Alexander Graham Bell, James Watt [Invented Steam Engine], Tony Blair, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Sean Conners, David Tennant, Owen Wilson, Ewan McGregor, James McAvoy

· Highland games are events held throughout the year in Scotland and other countries as a way of celebrating Scottish and Celtic culture and heritage, especially that of the Scottish Highlands. Certain aspects of the games are so well known as to have become emblematic of Scotland, such as the bagpipes, the kilt, and the heavy events, especially the caber toss. [caber toss, sheaf toss]

· food: Smoked Salmon, Shortbread is a type of biscuit ("cookie" in American English) which is traditionally made from one part white sugar, two parts butter, and three parts flour, haggis

· [!] In 2004, Edinburgh became the UNESCO's first City of Literature

Date: 2015-01-29; view: 787