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second-born son

  • 1 ♦ second

    ♦ second /ˈsɛkənd/
    A a.
    1 secondo; altro; nuovo; novello; aggiuntivo; supplementare: the second house in the row, la seconda casa della fila; the second day of the week, il secondo giorno della settimana; This is the second longest river in the world, questo è il secondo fiume più lungo al mondo; I took a second helping, presi un'altra porzione; There has been no second Shakespeare, il mondo non ha avuto un altro Shakespeare; He thinks he is a second Solomon, crede d'essere un novello Salomone
    2 secondo; secondario; inferiore; di seconda qualità; subordinato: second cause, causa secondaria; He was second to none as a novelist, non fu secondo (o inferiore) a nessuno come romanziere
    B n.
    1 secondo ( in un elenco, classifica ecc.): You're the second to apply for the job, sei il secondo che ha chiesto il posto; My horse came in second, il mio cavallo arrivò secondo; She is ranked second in the world, è seconda nella classifica mondiale
    2 secondo (un 60В° di minuto): (fig.) Wait a second, aspetta un secondo!; aspetta un momento!
    3 ( nelle date): March 2nd, il 2 marzo
    4 (in GB) votazione buona, di secondo livello ( di una tesi di laurea)
    5 (mus.) seconda; intervallo di seconda
    6 [u] (autom., mecc.) seconda: He changed into second on the bend, ha messo la seconda in curva
    7 ( nelle corse) secondo posto: to take second, piazzarsi al secondo posto
    8 ( boxe) secondo: Seconds out!, fuori i secondi!
    9 (pl.) (fam., = factory seconds) merci di seconda scelta; articoli con piccoli difetti, venduti sottoprezzo
    10 (pl.) (fam.) un'altra porzione ( di cibo): to have seconds, fare il bis
    C avv.
    2 (seguito da un superl.) secondo; di riserva: the second-largest city in the world, la seconda città del mondo ( per grandezza); my second best pair of shoes, il mio paio di scarpe di riserva
    ● (polit.) second ballot, ballottaggio □ ( slang USA) second banana, spalla ( di un comico); (fig.) tirapiedi □ ( baseball) second base, seconda base ( la posizione) □ ( baseball) second baseman, seconda base ( il giocatore) □ second best, (sost.) seconda cosa ( in una scala di valori); soluzione (o sistemazione) di ripiego; (agg.) di seconda qualità (o categoria); ( d'indumento) di riserva: second best goods, merce di seconda qualità; to come off second-best, doversi accontentare del secondo posto □ (fin.) second bill of exchange, seconda di cambio □ (leg.) second-born child, secondo nato □ second-born daughter, secondogenita □ second-born son, secondogenito □ (leg., fin.) second call, seconda convocazione ( di un'assemblea, ecc.) □ (polit.) second chamber, Camera alta □ second childhood, la seconda infanzia; infantilismo senile; la senilità □ second class, (sost.) seconda classe ( di treno, ecc.); (in GB) servizio postale ordinario; (in USA) posta per le stampe; (avv.) in seconda classe, (in GB, rif. a posta) come plico ordinario; (in USA) come stampe: We travelled second class, abbiamo viaggiato in seconda (classe) □ second-class, (agg.) di seconda classe; di seconda categoria; inferiore; scadente; (in GB, rif. a posta) di posta ordinaria, ordinario: a second-class ticket, un biglietto di seconda classe; a second-class citizen, un cittadino di seconda classe; a second-class stamp, un francobollo di posta ordinaria □ (relig.) Second Coming, secondo avvento (di Cristo) □ second cousin, secondo cugino; cugino di secondo grado □ second cover, seconda di copertina ( di un libro, ecc.) □ second city, seconda città (per importanza, in uno stato o in una regione) □ (naut.) second deck, ponte di coperta □ second-degree, di secondo grado: (med.) second-degree burns, ustioni di secondo grado □ ( in un paesaggio, un quadro) second distance, secondo piano □ ( calcio, in GB) second division, seconda divisione; ( pressappoco) serie C □ (edil.) second floor, (in GB) secondo piano; (in USA) primo piano ( sopra il piano terreno) □ (autom.) second gear, seconda (marcia) □ ( calcio, ecc.) second goal, gol del raddoppio; raddoppio □ second-guesser, chi giudica col senno di poi □ ( calcio, ecc.) second half, secondo tempo, ripresa ( di una partita) □ the second hand, la lancetta dei secondi ( di un orologio) □ second-hand, di seconda mano, usato; che tratta articoli di seconda mano; di seconda mano, non originale: a second-hand car, un'auto di seconda mano; the market of second-hand goods, il mercato dell'usato; second-hand books, libri usati; second-hand opinions, opinioni non originali; I bought it second-hand, l'ho comprato di seconda mano; a second-hand shop, un negozio dell'usato; I got this information second-hand, ho avuto questa informazione di seconda mano □ (med.) second-hand smoke, fumo passivo □ second-in command, (mil.) comandante in seconda, vicecomandante; (naut.) secondo □ second-leg tie, partita eliminatoria di ritorno □ second lieutenant, (mil., in GB e in USA) sottotenente; (aeron. mil., in USA) sottotenente (cfr. ingl. Pilot Officer, sotto pilot) □ ( su un orologio) the second mark, il segno dei secondi □ (leg.) second mortgage, ipoteca di secondo grado □ second name, cognome; secondo nome □ second nature, seconda natura; abitudine inveterata (o radicata) □ (fin.) second of exchange, seconda di cambio □ (fam. USA) second off, in secondo luogo; inoltre □ (ind. tess.) second pieces, pezze di seconda scelta □ second-rate, di seconda qualità; mediocre, scadente: a second-rate novel, un romanzo scadente □ (fam.) second-rater, individuo mediocre; schiappa, mezza cartuccia (fam.) □ ( pallavolo) second referee, secondo arbitro □ ( rugby) second row, seconda linea □ ( rugby) second row forward, seconda linea ( il giocatore) □ ( basket) seconds rule infraction, infrazione della regola dei secondi □ ( tennis) second service (o serve), secondo servizio; seconda di servizio □ second shift, turno pomeridiano ( del personale) □ second sight, seconda vista; preveggenza □ ( USA) second-story man, ladro acrobata; gatto (fig. fam.) □ ( sport) second-string player, (giocatore di) riserva, seconda linea □ ( calcio) second-string striker, seconda punta □ second teeth, denti permanenti □ (fig.) second wind, forza ritrovata, nuova energia, novello vigore: He's got his second wind, ha ritrovato le forze □ to come in (o to finish) second, arrivare secondo ( in una gara) □ to come in a good second, arrivare buon secondo; arrivare a spalla (o a ruota) □ every second day [year], ogni due giorni [ogni due anni] □ in the second place, in secondo luogo □ to learn st. second-hand, venire a sapere in modo indiretto □ my second self, un altro me stesso; il mio alter ego □ on second thoughts ( USA on second thought), ripensandoci; dopo matura riflessione □ to play second fiddle, (mus.) fare da secondo violino; (fig.) avere una parte di secondaria importanza, essere in secondo piano □ ( sport e fig.) to run sb. a close second, seguire a ruota q.; essere di poco inferiore a q.
    (to) second (/ˈsɛkənd/, def. 4 /sɪˈkɒnd/)
    v. t.
    1 far da secondo (o da padrino) a (q., in un duello, ecc.); assistere
    2 assecondare; secondare; aiutare; appoggiare; sostenere: to second a motion [a resolution], appoggiare una mozione [una risoluzione]; Will you second me if I ask him?, mi sosterrai se glielo chiedo?
    3 essere secondo a; seguire ( nell'ordine)
    4 ( anche mil.) comandare; distaccare: He was seconded to headquarters, è stato distaccato presso il quartier generale

    English-Italian dictionary > ♦ second

  • 2 Simeon (The second son born to Jacob and his first wife, Leah)

    Религия: Симеон

    Универсальный англо-русский словарь > Simeon (The second son born to Jacob and his first wife, Leah)

  • 3 Historical Portugal

       Before Romans described western Iberia or Hispania as "Lusitania," ancient Iberians inhabited the land. Phoenician and Greek trading settlements grew up in the Tagus estuary area and nearby coasts. Beginning around 202 BCE, Romans invaded what is today southern Portugal. With Rome's defeat of Carthage, Romans proceeded to conquer and rule the western region north of the Tagus, which they named Roman "Lusitania." In the fourth century CE, as Rome's rule weakened, the area experienced yet another invasion—Germanic tribes, principally the Suevi, who eventually were Christianized. During the sixth century CE, the Suevi kingdom was superseded by yet another Germanic tribe—the Christian Visigoths.
       A major turning point in Portugal's history came in 711, as Muslim armies from North Africa, consisting of both Arab and Berber elements, invaded the Iberian Peninsula from across the Straits of Gibraltar. They entered what is now Portugal in 714, and proceeded to conquer most of the country except for the far north. For the next half a millennium, Islam and Muslim presence in Portugal left a significant mark upon the politics, government, language, and culture of the country.
       Islam, Reconquest, and Portugal Created, 714-1140
       The long frontier struggle between Muslim invaders and Christian communities in the north of the Iberian peninsula was called the Reconquista (Reconquest). It was during this struggle that the first dynasty of Portuguese kings (Burgundian) emerged and the independent monarchy of Portugal was established. Christian forces moved south from what is now the extreme north of Portugal and gradually defeated Muslim forces, besieging and capturing towns under Muslim sway. In the ninth century, as Christian forces slowly made their way southward, Christian elements were dominant only in the area between Minho province and the Douro River; this region became known as "territorium Portu-calense."
       In the 11th century, the advance of the Reconquest quickened as local Christian armies were reinforced by crusading knights from what is now France and England. Christian forces took Montemor (1034), at the Mondego River; Lamego (1058); Viseu (1058); and Coimbra (1064). In 1095, the king of Castile and Léon granted the country of "Portu-cale," what became northern Portugal, to a Burgundian count who had emigrated from France. This was the foundation of Portugal. In 1139, a descendant of this count, Afonso Henriques, proclaimed himself "King of Portugal." He was Portugal's first monarch, the "Founder," and the first of the Burgundian dynasty, which ruled until 1385.
       The emergence of Portugal in the 12th century as a separate monarchy in Iberia occurred before the Christian Reconquest of the peninsula. In the 1140s, the pope in Rome recognized Afonso Henriques as king of Portugal. In 1147, after a long, bloody siege, Muslim-occupied Lisbon fell to Afonso Henriques's army. Lisbon was the greatest prize of the 500-year war. Assisting this effort were English crusaders on their way to the Holy Land; the first bishop of Lisbon was an Englishman. When the Portuguese captured Faro and Silves in the Algarve province in 1248-50, the Reconquest of the extreme western portion of the Iberian peninsula was complete—significantly, more than two centuries before the Spanish crown completed the Reconquest of the eastern portion by capturing Granada in 1492.
       Consolidation and Independence of Burgundian Portugal, 1140-1385
       Two main themes of Portugal's early existence as a monarchy are the consolidation of control over the realm and the defeat of a Castil-ian threat from the east to its independence. At the end of this period came the birth of a new royal dynasty (Aviz), which prepared to carry the Christian Reconquest beyond continental Portugal across the straits of Gibraltar to North Africa. There was a variety of motives behind these developments. Portugal's independent existence was imperiled by threats from neighboring Iberian kingdoms to the north and east. Politics were dominated not only by efforts against the Muslims in
       Portugal (until 1250) and in nearby southern Spain (until 1492), but also by internecine warfare among the kingdoms of Castile, Léon, Aragon, and Portugal. A final comeback of Muslim forces was defeated at the battle of Salado (1340) by allied Castilian and Portuguese forces. In the emerging Kingdom of Portugal, the monarch gradually gained power over and neutralized the nobility and the Church.
       The historic and commonplace Portuguese saying "From Spain, neither a good wind nor a good marriage" was literally played out in diplomacy and war in the late 14th-century struggles for mastery in the peninsula. Larger, more populous Castile was pitted against smaller Portugal. Castile's Juan I intended to force a union between Castile and Portugal during this era of confusion and conflict. In late 1383, Portugal's King Fernando, the last king of the Burgundian dynasty, suddenly died prematurely at age 38, and the Master of Aviz, Portugal's most powerful nobleman, took up the cause of independence and resistance against Castile's invasion. The Master of Aviz, who became King João I of Portugal, was able to obtain foreign assistance. With the aid of English archers, Joao's armies defeated the Castilians in the crucial battle of Aljubarrota, on 14 August 1385, a victory that assured the independence of the Portuguese monarchy from its Castilian nemesis for several centuries.
       Aviz Dynasty and Portugal's First Overseas Empire, 1385-1580
       The results of the victory at Aljubarrota, much celebrated in Portugal's art and monuments, and the rise of the Aviz dynasty also helped to establish a new merchant class in Lisbon and Oporto, Portugal's second city. This group supported King João I's program of carrying the Reconquest to North Africa, since it was interested in expanding Portugal's foreign commerce and tapping into Muslim trade routes and resources in Africa. With the Reconquest against the Muslims completed in Portugal and the threat from Castile thwarted for the moment, the Aviz dynasty launched an era of overseas conquest, exploration, and trade. These efforts dominated Portugal's 15th and 16th centuries.
       The overseas empire and age of Discoveries began with Portugal's bold conquest in 1415 of the Moroccan city of Ceuta. One royal member of the 1415 expedition was young, 21-year-old Prince Henry, later known in history as "Prince Henry the Navigator." His part in the capture of Ceuta won Henry his knighthood and began Portugal's "Marvelous Century," during which the small kingdom was counted as a European and world power of consequence. Henry was the son of King João I and his English queen, Philippa of Lancaster, but he did not inherit the throne. Instead, he spent most of his life and his fortune, and that of the wealthy military Order of Christ, on various imperial ventures and on voyages of exploration down the African coast and into the Atlantic. While mythology has surrounded Henry's controversial role in the Discoveries, and this role has been exaggerated, there is no doubt that he played a vital part in the initiation of Portugal's first overseas empire and in encouraging exploration. He was naturally curious, had a sense of mission for Portugal, and was a strong leader. He also had wealth to expend; at least a third of the African voyages of the time were under his sponsorship. If Prince Henry himself knew little science, significant scientific advances in navigation were made in his day.
       What were Portugal's motives for this new imperial effort? The well-worn historical cliche of "God, Glory, and Gold" can only partly explain the motivation of a small kingdom with few natural resources and barely 1 million people, which was greatly outnumbered by the other powers it confronted. Among Portuguese objectives were the desire to exploit known North African trade routes and resources (gold, wheat, leather, weaponry, and other goods that were scarce in Iberia); the need to outflank the Muslim world in the Mediterranean by sailing around Africa, attacking Muslims en route; and the wish to ally with Christian kingdoms beyond Africa. This enterprise also involved a strategy of breaking the Venetian spice monopoly by trading directly with the East by means of discovering and exploiting a sea route around Africa to Asia. Besides the commercial motives, Portugal nurtured a strong crusading sense of Christian mission, and various classes in the kingdom saw an opportunity for fame and gain.
       By the time of Prince Henry's death in 1460, Portugal had gained control of the Atlantic archipelagos of the Azores and Madeiras, begun to colonize the Cape Verde Islands, failed to conquer the Canary Islands from Castile, captured various cities on Morocco's coast, and explored as far as Senegal, West Africa, down the African coast. By 1488, Bar-tolomeu Dias had rounded the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa and thereby discovered the way to the Indian Ocean.
       Portugal's largely coastal African empire and later its fragile Asian empire brought unexpected wealth but were purchased at a high price. Costs included wars of conquest and defense against rival powers, manning the far-flung navel and trade fleets and scattered castle-fortresses, and staffing its small but fierce armies, all of which entailed a loss of skills and population to maintain a scattered empire. Always short of capital, the monarchy became indebted to bankers. There were many defeats beginning in the 16th century at the hands of the larger imperial European monarchies (Spain, France, England, and Holland) and many attacks on Portugal and its strung-out empire. Typically, there was also the conflict that arose when a tenuously held world empire that rarely if ever paid its way demanded finance and manpower Portugal itself lacked.
       The first 80 years of the glorious imperial era, the golden age of Portugal's imperial power and world influence, was an African phase. During 1415-88, Portuguese navigators and explorers in small ships, some of them caravelas (caravels), explored the treacherous, disease-ridden coasts of Africa from Morocco to South Africa beyond the Cape of Good Hope. By the 1470s, the Portuguese had reached the Gulf of Guinea and, in the early 1480s, what is now Angola. Bartolomeu Dias's extraordinary voyage of 1487-88 to South Africa's coast and the edge of the Indian Ocean convinced Portugal that the best route to Asia's spices and Christians lay south, around the tip of southern Africa. Between 1488 and 1495, there was a hiatus caused in part by domestic conflict in Portugal, discussion of resources available for further conquests beyond Africa in Asia, and serious questions as to Portugal's capacity to reach beyond Africa. In 1495, King Manuel and his council decided to strike for Asia, whatever the consequences. In 1497-99, Vasco da Gama, under royal orders, made the epic two-year voyage that discovered the sea route to western India (Asia), outflanked Islam and Venice, and began Portugal's Asian empire. Within 50 years, Portugal had discovered and begun the exploitation of its largest colony, Brazil, and set up forts and trading posts from the Middle East (Aden and Ormuz), India (Calicut, Goa, etc.), Malacca, and Indonesia to Macau in China.
       By the 1550s, parts of its largely coastal, maritime trading post empire from Morocco to the Moluccas were under siege from various hostile forces, including Muslims, Christians, and Hindi. Although Moroccan forces expelled the Portuguese from the major coastal cities by 1550, the rival European monarchies of Castile (Spain), England, France, and later Holland began to seize portions of her undermanned, outgunned maritime empire.
       In 1580, Phillip II of Spain, whose mother was a Portuguese princess and who had a strong claim to the Portuguese throne, invaded Portugal, claimed the throne, and assumed control over the realm and, by extension, its African, Asian, and American empires. Phillip II filled the power vacuum that appeared in Portugal following the loss of most of Portugal's army and its young, headstrong King Sebastião in a disastrous war in Morocco. Sebastiao's death in battle (1578) and the lack of a natural heir to succeed him, as well as the weak leadership of the cardinal who briefly assumed control in Lisbon, led to a crisis that Spain's strong monarch exploited. As a result, Portugal lost its independence to Spain for a period of 60 years.
       Portugal under Spanish Rule, 1580-1640
       Despite the disastrous nature of Portugal's experience under Spanish rule, "The Babylonian Captivity" gave birth to modern Portuguese nationalism, its second overseas empire, and its modern alliance system with England. Although Spain allowed Portugal's weakened empire some autonomy, Spanish rule in Portugal became increasingly burdensome and unacceptable. Spain's ambitious imperial efforts in Europe and overseas had an impact on the Portuguese as Spain made greater and greater demands on its smaller neighbor for manpower and money. Portugal's culture underwent a controversial Castilianization, while its empire became hostage to Spain's fortunes. New rival powers England, France, and Holland attacked and took parts of Spain's empire and at the same time attacked Portugal's empire, as well as the mother country.
       Portugal's empire bore the consequences of being attacked by Spain's bitter enemies in what was a form of world war. Portuguese losses were heavy. By 1640, Portugal had lost most of its Moroccan cities as well as Ceylon, the Moluccas, and sections of India. With this, Portugal's Asian empire was gravely weakened. Only Goa, Damão, Diu, Bombay, Timor, and Macau remained and, in Brazil, Dutch forces occupied the northeast.
       On 1 December 1640, long commemorated as a national holiday, Portuguese rebels led by the duke of Braganza overthrew Spanish domination and took advantage of Spanish weakness following a more serious rebellion in Catalonia. Portugal regained independence from Spain, but at a price: dependence on foreign assistance to maintain its independence in the form of the renewal of the alliance with England.
       Restoration and Second Empire, 1640-1822
       Foreign affairs and empire dominated the restoration era and aftermath, and Portugal again briefly enjoyed greater European power and prestige. The Anglo-Portuguese Alliance was renewed and strengthened in treaties of 1642, 1654, and 1661, and Portugal's independence from Spain was underwritten by English pledges and armed assistance. In a Luso-Spanish treaty of 1668, Spain recognized Portugal's independence. Portugal's alliance with England was a marriage of convenience and necessity between two monarchies with important religious, cultural, and social differences. In return for legal, diplomatic, and trade privileges, as well as the use during war and peace of Portugal's great Lisbon harbor and colonial ports for England's navy, England pledged to protect Portugal and its scattered empire from any attack. The previously cited 17th-century alliance treaties were renewed later in the Treaty of Windsor, signed in London in 1899. On at least 10 different occasions after 1640, and during the next two centuries, England was central in helping prevent or repel foreign invasions of its ally, Portugal.
       Portugal's second empire (1640-1822) was largely Brazil-oriented. Portuguese colonization, exploitation of wealth, and emigration focused on Portuguese America, and imperial revenues came chiefly from Brazil. Between 1670 and 1740, Portugal's royalty and nobility grew wealthier on funds derived from Brazilian gold, diamonds, sugar, tobacco, and other crops, an enterprise supported by the Atlantic slave trade and the supply of African slave labor from West Africa and Angola. Visitors today can see where much of that wealth was invested: Portugal's rich legacy of monumental architecture. Meanwhile, the African slave trade took a toll in Angola and West Africa.
       In continental Portugal, absolutist monarchy dominated politics and government, and there was a struggle for position and power between the monarchy and other institutions, such as the Church and nobility. King José I's chief minister, usually known in history as the marquis of Pombal (ruled 1750-77), sharply suppressed the nobility and the
       Church (including the Inquisition, now a weak institution) and expelled the Jesuits. Pombal also made an effort to reduce economic dependence on England, Portugal's oldest ally. But his successes did not last much beyond his disputed time in office.
       Beginning in the late 18th century, the European-wide impact of the French Revolution and the rise of Napoleon placed Portugal in a vulnerable position. With the monarchy ineffectively led by an insane queen (Maria I) and her indecisive regent son (João VI), Portugal again became the focus of foreign ambition and aggression. With England unable to provide decisive assistance in time, France—with Spain's consent—invaded Portugal in 1807. As Napoleon's army under General Junot entered Lisbon meeting no resistance, Portugal's royal family fled on a British fleet to Brazil, where it remained in exile until 1821. In the meantime, Portugal's overseas empire was again under threat. There was a power vacuum as the monarch was absent, foreign armies were present, and new political notions of liberalism and constitutional monarchy were exciting various groups of citizens.
       Again England came to the rescue, this time in the form of the armies of the duke of Wellington. Three successive French invasions of Portugal were defeated and expelled, and Wellington succeeded in carrying the war against Napoleon across the Portuguese frontier into Spain. The presence of the English army, the new French-born liberal ideas, and the political vacuum combined to create revolutionary conditions. The French invasions and the peninsular wars, where Portuguese armed forces played a key role, marked the beginning of a new era in politics.
       Liberalism and Constitutional Monarchy, 1822-1910
       During 1807-22, foreign invasions, war, and civil strife over conflicting political ideas gravely damaged Portugal's commerce, economy, and novice industry. The next terrible blow was the loss of Brazil in 1822, the jewel in the imperial crown. Portugal's very independence seemed to be at risk. In vain, Portugal sought to resist Brazilian independence by force, but in 1825 it formally acknowledged Brazilian independence by treaty.
       Portugal's slow recovery from the destructive French invasions and the "war of independence" was complicated by civil strife over the form of constitutional monarchy that best suited Portugal. After struggles over these issues between 1820 and 1834, Portugal settled somewhat uncertainly into a moderate constitutional monarchy whose constitution (Charter of 1826) lent it strong political powers to exert a moderating influence between the executive and legislative branches of the government. It also featured a new upper middle class based on land ownership and commerce; a Catholic Church that, although still important, lived with reduced privileges and property; a largely African (third) empire to which Lisbon and Oporto devoted increasing spiritual and material resources, starting with the liberal imperial plans of 1836 and 1851, and continuing with the work of institutions like the Lisbon Society of Geography (established 1875); and a mass of rural peasants whose bonds to the land weakened after 1850 and who began to immigrate in increasing numbers to Brazil and North America.
       Chronic military intervention in national politics began in 19th-century Portugal. Such intervention, usually commencing with coups or pronunciamentos (military revolts), was a shortcut to the spoils of political office and could reflect popular discontent as well as the power of personalities. An early example of this was the 1817 golpe (coup) attempt of General Gomes Freire against British military rule in Portugal before the return of King João VI from Brazil. Except for a more stable period from 1851 to 1880, military intervention in politics, or the threat thereof, became a feature of the constitutional monarchy's political life, and it continued into the First Republic and the subsequent Estado Novo.
       Beginning with the Regeneration period (1851-80), Portugal experienced greater political stability and economic progress. Military intervention in politics virtually ceased; industrialization and construction of railroads, roads, and bridges proceeded; two political parties (Regenerators and Historicals) worked out a system of rotation in power; and leading intellectuals sparked a cultural revival in several fields. In 19th-century literature, there was a new golden age led by such figures as Alexandre Herculano (historian), Eça de Queirós (novelist), Almeida Garrett (playwright and essayist), Antero de Quental (poet), and Joaquim Oliveira Martins (historian and social scientist). In its third overseas empire, Portugal attempted to replace the slave trade and slavery with legitimate economic activities; to reform the administration; and to expand Portuguese holdings beyond coastal footholds deep into the African hinterlands in West, West Central, and East Africa. After 1841, to some extent, and especially after 1870, colonial affairs, combined with intense nationalism, pressures for economic profit in Africa, sentiment for national revival, and the drift of European affairs would make or break Lisbon governments.
       Beginning with the political crisis that arose out of the "English Ultimatum" affair of January 1890, the monarchy became discredtted and identified with the poorly functioning government, political parties splintered, and republicanism found more supporters. Portugal participated in the "Scramble for Africa," expanding its African holdings, but failed to annex territory connecting Angola and Mozambique. A growing foreign debt and state bankruptcy as of the early 1890s damaged the constitutional monarchy's reputation, despite the efforts of King Carlos in diplomacy, the renewal of the alliance in the Windsor Treaty of 1899, and the successful if bloody colonial wars in the empire (1880-97). Republicanism proclaimed that Portugal's weak economy and poor society were due to two historic institutions: the monarchy and the Catholic Church. A republic, its stalwarts claimed, would bring greater individual liberty; efficient, if more decentralized government; and a stronger colonial program while stripping the Church of its role in both society and education.
       As the monarchy lost support and republicans became more aggressive, violence increased in politics. King Carlos I and his heir Luís were murdered in Lisbon by anarchist-republicans on 1 February 1908. Following a military and civil insurrection and fighting between monarchist and republican forces, on 5 October 1910, King Manuel II fled Portugal and a republic was proclaimed.
       First Parliamentary Republic, 1910-26
       Portugal's first attempt at republican government was the most unstable, turbulent parliamentary republic in the history of 20th-century Western Europe. During a little under 16 years of the republic, there were 45 governments, a number of legislatures that did not complete normal terms, military coups, and only one president who completed his four-year term in office. Portuguese society was poorly prepared for this political experiment. Among the deadly legacies of the monarchy were a huge public debt; a largely rural, apolitical, and illiterate peasant population; conflict over the causes of the country's misfortunes; and lack of experience with a pluralist, democratic system.
       The republic had some talented leadership but lacked popular, institutional, and economic support. The 1911 republican constitution established only a limited democracy, as only a small portion of the adult male citizenry was eligible to vote. In a country where the majority was Catholic, the republic passed harshly anticlerical laws, and its institutions and supporters persecuted both the Church and its adherents. During its brief disjointed life, the First Republic drafted important reform plans in economic, social, and educational affairs; actively promoted development in the empire; and pursued a liberal, generous foreign policy. Following British requests for Portugal's assistance in World War I, Portugal entered the war on the Allied side in March 1916 and sent armies to Flanders and Portuguese Africa. Portugal's intervention in that conflict, however, was too costly in many respects, and the ultimate failure of the republic in part may be ascribed to Portugal's World War I activities.
       Unfortunately for the republic, its time coincided with new threats to Portugal's African possessions: World War I, social and political demands from various classes that could not be reconciled, excessive military intervention in politics, and, in particular, the worst economic and financial crisis Portugal had experienced since the 16th and 17th centuries. After the original Portuguese Republican Party (PRP, also known as the "Democrats") splintered into three warring groups in 1912, no true multiparty system emerged. The Democrats, except for only one or two elections, held an iron monopoly of electoral power, and political corruption became a major issue. As extreme right-wing dictatorships elsewhere in Europe began to take power in Italy (1922), neighboring Spain (1923), and Greece (1925), what scant popular support remained for the republic collapsed. Backed by a right-wing coalition of landowners from Alentejo, clergy, Coimbra University faculty and students, Catholic organizations, and big business, career military officers led by General Gomes da Costa executed a coup on 28 May 1926, turned out the last republican government, and established a military government.
       The Estado Novo (New State), 1926-74
       During the military phase (1926-32) of the Estado Novo, professional military officers, largely from the army, governed and administered Portugal and held key cabinet posts, but soon discovered that the military possessed no magic formula that could readily solve the problems inherited from the First Republic. Especially during the years 1926-31, the military dictatorship, even with its political repression of republican activities and institutions (military censorship of the press, political police action, and closure of the republic's rowdy parliament), was characterized by similar weaknesses: personalism and factionalism; military coups and political instability, including civil strife and loss of life; state debt and bankruptcy; and a weak economy. "Barracks parliamentarism" was not an acceptable alternative even to the "Nightmare Republic."
       Led by General Óscar Carmona, who had replaced and sent into exile General Gomes da Costa, the military dictatorship turned to a civilian expert in finance and economics to break the budget impasse and bring coherence to the disorganized system. Appointed minister of finance on 27 April 1928, the Coimbra University Law School professor of economics Antônio de Oliveira Salazar (1889-1970) first reformed finance, helped balance the budget, and then turned to other concerns as he garnered extraordinary governing powers. In 1930, he was appointed interim head of another key ministry (Colonies) and within a few years had become, in effect, a civilian dictator who, with the military hierarchy's support, provided the government with coherence, a program, and a set of policies.
       For nearly 40 years after he was appointed the first civilian prime minister in 1932, Salazar's personality dominated the government. Unlike extreme right-wing dictators elsewhere in Europe, Salazar was directly appointed by the army but was never endorsed by a popular political party, street militia, or voter base. The scholarly, reclusive former Coimbra University professor built up what became known after 1932 as the Estado Novo ("New State"), which at the time of its overthrow by another military coup in 1974, was the longest surviving authoritarian regime in Western Europe. The system of Salazar and the largely academic and technocratic ruling group he gathered in his cabinets was based on the central bureaucracy of the state, which was supported by the president of the republic—always a senior career military officer, General Óscar Carmona (1928-51), General Craveiro Lopes (1951-58), and Admiral Américo Tómaz (1958-74)—and the complicity of various institutions. These included a rubber-stamp legislature called the National Assembly (1935-74) and a political police known under various names: PVDE (1932-45), PIDE (1945-69),
       and DGS (1969-74). Other defenders of the Estado Novo security were paramilitary organizations such as the National Republican Guard (GNR); the Portuguese Legion (PL); and the Portuguese Youth [Movement]. In addition to censorship of the media, theater, and books, there was political repression and a deliberate policy of depoliticization. All political parties except for the approved movement of regime loyalists, the União Nacional or (National Union), were banned.
       The most vigorous and more popular period of the New State was 1932-44, when the basic structures were established. Never monolithic or entirely the work of one person (Salazar), the New State was constructed with the assistance of several dozen top associates who were mainly academics from law schools, some technocrats with specialized skills, and a handful of trusted career military officers. The 1933 Constitution declared Portugal to be a "unitary, corporative Republic," and pressures to restore the monarchy were resisted. Although some of the regime's followers were fascists and pseudofascists, many more were conservative Catholics, integralists, nationalists, and monarchists of different varieties, and even some reactionary republicans. If the New State was authoritarian, it was not totalitarian and, unlike fascism in Benito Mussolini's Italy or Adolf Hitler's Germany, it usually employed the minimum of violence necessary to defeat what remained a largely fractious, incoherent opposition.
       With the tumultuous Second Republic and the subsequent civil war in nearby Spain, the regime felt threatened and reinforced its defenses. During what Salazar rightly perceived as a time of foreign policy crisis for Portugal (1936-45), he assumed control of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. From there, he pursued four basic foreign policy objectives: supporting the Nationalist rebels of General Francisco Franco in the Spanish Civil War (1936-39) and concluding defense treaties with a triumphant Franco; ensuring that General Franco in an exhausted Spain did not enter World War II on the Axis side; maintaining Portuguese neutrality in World War II with a post-1942 tilt toward the Allies, including granting Britain and the United States use of bases in the Azores Islands; and preserving and protecting Portugal's Atlantic Islands and its extensive, if poor, overseas empire in Africa and Asia.
       During the middle years of the New State (1944-58), many key Salazar associates in government either died or resigned, and there was greater social unrest in the form of unprecedented strikes and clandestine Communist activities, intensified opposition, and new threatening international pressures on Portugal's overseas empire. During the earlier phase of the Cold War (1947-60), Portugal became a steadfast, if weak, member of the US-dominated North Atlantic Treaty Organization alliance and, in 1955, with American support, Portugal joined the United Nations (UN). Colonial affairs remained a central concern of the regime. As of 1939, Portugal was the third largest colonial power in the world and possessed territories in tropical Africa (Angola, Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau, and São Tomé and Príncipe Islands) and the remnants of its 16th-century empire in Asia (Goa, Damão, Diu, East Timor, and Macau). Beginning in the early 1950s, following the independence of India in 1947, Portugal resisted Indian pressures to decolonize Portuguese India and used police forces to discourage internal opposition in its Asian and African colonies.
       The later years of the New State (1958-68) witnessed the aging of the increasingly isolated but feared Salazar and new threats both at home and overseas. Although the regime easily overcame the brief oppositionist threat from rival presidential candidate General Humberto Delgado in the spring of 1958, new developments in the African and Asian empires imperiled the authoritarian system. In February 1961, oppositionists hijacked the Portuguese ocean liner Santa Maria and, in following weeks, African insurgents in northern Angola, although they failed to expel the Portuguese, gained worldwide media attention, discredited the New State, and began the 13-year colonial war. After thwarting a dissident military coup against his continued leadership, Salazar and his ruling group mobilized military repression in Angola and attempted to develop the African colonies at a faster pace in order to ensure Portuguese control. Meanwhile, the other European colonial powers (Britain, France, Belgium, and Spain) rapidly granted political independence to their African territories.
       At the time of Salazar's removal from power in September 1968, following a stroke, Portugal's efforts to maintain control over its colonies appeared to be successful. President Americo Tomás appointed Dr. Marcello Caetano as Salazar's successor as prime minister. While maintaining the New State's basic structures, and continuing the regime's essential colonial policy, Caetano attempted wider reforms in colonial administration and some devolution of power from Lisbon, as well as more freedom of expression in Lisbon. Still, a great deal of the budget was devoted to supporting the wars against the insurgencies in Africa. Meanwhile in Asia, Portuguese India had fallen when the Indian army invaded in December 1961. The loss of Goa was a psychological blow to the leadership of the New State, and of the Asian empire only East Timor and Macau remained.
       The Caetano years (1968-74) were but a hiatus between the waning Salazar era and a new regime. There was greater political freedom and rapid economic growth (5-6 percent annually to late 1973), but Caetano's government was unable to reform the old system thoroughly and refused to consider new methods either at home or in the empire. In the end, regime change came from junior officers of the professional military who organized the Armed Forces Movement (MFA) against the Caetano government. It was this group of several hundred officers, mainly in the army and navy, which engineered a largely bloodless coup in Lisbon on 25 April 1974. Their unexpected action brought down the 48-year-old New State and made possible the eventual establishment and consolidation of democratic governance in Portugal, as well as a reorientation of the country away from the Atlantic toward Europe.
       Revolution of Carnations, 1974-76
       Following successful military operations of the Armed Forces Movement against the Caetano government, Portugal experienced what became known as the "Revolution of Carnations." It so happened that during the rainy week of the military golpe, Lisbon flower shops were featuring carnations, and the revolutionaries and their supporters adopted the red carnation as the common symbol of the event, as well as of the new freedom from dictatorship. The MFA, whose leaders at first were mostly little-known majors and captains, proclaimed a three-fold program of change for the new Portugal: democracy; decolonization of the overseas empire, after ending the colonial wars; and developing a backward economy in the spirit of opportunity and equality. During the first 24 months after the coup, there was civil strife, some anarchy, and a power struggle. With the passing of the Estado Novo, public euphoria burst forth as the new provisional military government proclaimed the freedoms of speech, press, and assembly, and abolished censorship, the political police, the Portuguese Legion, Portuguese Youth, and other New State organizations, including the National Union. Scores of political parties were born and joined the senior political party, the Portuguese Community Party (PCP), and the Socialist Party (PS), founded shortly before the coup.
       Portugal's Revolution of Carnations went through several phases. There was an attempt to take control by radical leftists, including the PCP and its allies. This was thwarted by moderate officers in the army, as well as by the efforts of two political parties: the PS and the Social Democrats (PPD, later PSD). The first phase was from April to September 1974. Provisional president General Antonio Spínola, whose 1974 book Portugal and the Future had helped prepare public opinion for the coup, met irresistible leftist pressures. After Spinola's efforts to avoid rapid decolonization of the African empire failed, he resigned in September 1974. During the second phase, from September 1974 to March 1975, radical military officers gained control, but a coup attempt by General Spínola and his supporters in Lisbon in March 1975 failed and Spínola fled to Spain.
       In the third phase of the Revolution, March-November 1975, a strong leftist reaction followed. Farm workers occupied and "nationalized" 1.1 million hectares of farmland in the Alentejo province, and radical military officers in the provisional government ordered the nationalization of Portuguese banks (foreign banks were exempted), utilities, and major industries, or about 60 percent of the economic system. There were power struggles among various political parties — a total of 50 emerged—and in the streets there was civil strife among labor, military, and law enforcement groups. A constituent assembly, elected on 25 April 1975, in Portugal's first free elections since 1926, drafted a democratic constitution. The Council of the Revolution (CR), briefly a revolutionary military watchdog committee, was entrenched as part of the government under the constitution, until a later revision. During the chaotic year of 1975, about 30 persons were killed in political frays while unstable provisional governments came and went. On 25 November 1975, moderate military forces led by Colonel Ramalho Eanes, who later was twice elected president of the republic (1976 and 1981), defeated radical, leftist military groups' revolutionary conspiracies.
       In the meantime, Portugal's scattered overseas empire experienced a precipitous and unprepared decolonization. One by one, the former colonies were granted and accepted independence—Guinea-Bissau (September 1974), Cape Verde Islands (July 1975), and Mozambique (July 1975). Portugal offered to turn over Macau to the People's Republic of China, but the offer was refused then and later negotiations led to the establishment of a formal decolonization or hand-over date of 1999. But in two former colonies, the process of decolonization had tragic results.
       In Angola, decolonization negotiations were greatly complicated by the fact that there were three rival nationalist movements in a struggle for power. The January 1975 Alvor Agreement signed by Portugal and these three parties was not effectively implemented. A bloody civil war broke out in Angola in the spring of 1975 and, when Portuguese armed forces withdrew and declared that Angola was independent on 11 November 1975, the bloodshed only increased. Meanwhile, most of the white Portuguese settlers from Angola and Mozambique fled during the course of 1975. Together with African refugees, more than 600,000 of these retornados ("returned ones") went by ship and air to Portugal and thousands more to Namibia, South Africa, Brazil, Canada, and the United States.
       The second major decolonization disaster was in Portugal's colony of East Timor in the Indonesian archipelago. Portugal's capacity to supervise and control a peaceful transition to independence in this isolated, neglected colony was limited by the strength of giant Indonesia, distance from Lisbon, and Portugal's revolutionary disorder and inability to defend Timor. In early December 1975, before Portugal granted formal independence and as one party, FRETILIN, unilaterally declared East Timor's independence, Indonesia's armed forces invaded, conquered, and annexed East Timor. Indonesian occupation encountered East Timorese resistance, and a heavy loss of life followed. The East Timor question remained a contentious international issue in the UN, as well as in Lisbon and Jakarta, for more than 20 years following Indonesia's invasion and annexation of the former colony of Portugal. Major changes occurred, beginning in 1998, after Indonesia underwent a political revolution and allowed a referendum in East Timor to decide that territory's political future in August 1999. Most East Timorese chose independence, but Indonesian forces resisted that verdict until
       UN intervention in September 1999. Following UN rule for several years, East Timor attained full independence on 20 May 2002.
       Consolidation of Democracy, 1976-2000
       After several free elections and record voter turnouts between 25 April 1975 and June 1976, civil war was averted and Portugal's second democratic republic began to stabilize. The MFA was dissolved, the military were returned to the barracks, and increasingly elected civilians took over the government of the country. The 1976 Constitution was revised several times beginning in 1982 and 1989, in order to reempha-size the principle of free enterprise in the economy while much of the large, nationalized sector was privatized. In June 1976, General Ram-alho Eanes was elected the first constitutional president of the republic (five-year term), and he appointed socialist leader Dr. Mário Soares as prime minister of the first constitutional government.
       From 1976 to 1985, Portugal's new system featured a weak economy and finances, labor unrest, and administrative and political instability. The difficult consolidation of democratic governance was eased in part by the strong currency and gold reserves inherited from the Estado Novo, but Lisbon seemed unable to cope with high unemployment, new debt, the complex impact of the refugees from Africa, world recession, and the agitation of political parties. Four major parties emerged from the maelstrom of 1974-75, except for the Communist Party, all newly founded. They were, from left to right, the Communists (PCP); the Socialists (PS), who managed to dominate governments and the legislature but not win a majority in the Assembly of the Republic; the Social Democrats (PSD); and the Christian Democrats (CDS). During this period, the annual growth rate was low (l-2 percent), and the nationalized sector of the economy stagnated.
       Enhanced economic growth, greater political stability, and more effective central government as of 1985, and especially 1987, were due to several developments. In 1977, Portugal applied for membership in the European Economic Community (EEC), now the European Union (EU) since 1993. In January 1986, with Spain, Portugal was granted membership, and economic and financial progress in the intervening years has been significantly influenced by the comparatively large investment, loans, technology, advice, and other assistance from the EEC. Low unemployment, high annual growth rates (5 percent), and moderate inflation have also been induced by the new political and administrative stability in Lisbon. Led by Prime Minister Cavaco Silva, an economist who was trained abroad, the PSD's strong organization, management, and electoral support since 1985 have assisted in encouraging economic recovery and development. In 1985, the PSD turned the PS out of office and won the general election, although they did not have an absolute majority of assembly seats. In 1986, Mário Soares was elected president of the republic, the first civilian to hold that office since the First Republic. In the elections of 1987 and 1991, however, the PSD was returned to power with clear majorities of over 50 percent of the vote.
       Although the PSD received 50.4 percent of the vote in the 1991 parliamentary elections and held a 42-seat majority in the Assembly of the Republic, the party began to lose public support following media revelations regarding corruption and complaints about Prime Minister Cavaco Silva's perceived arrogant leadership style. President Mário Soares voiced criticism of the PSD's seemingly untouchable majority and described a "tyranny of the majority." Economic growth slowed down. In the parliamentary elections of 1995 and the presidential election of 1996, the PSD's dominance ended for the time being. Prime Minister Antônio Guterres came to office when the PS won the October 1995 elections, and in the subsequent presidential contest, in January 1996, socialist Jorge Sampaio, the former mayor of Lisbon, was elected president of the republic, thus defeating Cavaco Silva's bid. Young and popular, Guterres moved the PS toward the center of the political spectrum. Under Guterres, the PS won the October 1999 parliamentary elections. The PS defeated the PSD but did not manage to win a clear, working majority of seats, and this made the PS dependent upon alliances with smaller parties, including the PCP.
       In the local elections in December 2001, the PSD's criticism of PS's heavy public spending allowed the PSD to take control of the key cities of Lisbon, Oporto, and Coimbra. Guterres resigned, and parliamentary elections were brought forward from 2004 to March 2002. The PSD won a narrow victory with 40 percent of the votes, and Jose Durão Barroso became prime minister. Having failed to win a majority of the seats in parliament forced the PSD to govern in coalition with the right-wing Popular Party (PP) led by Paulo Portas. Durão Barroso set about reducing government spending by cutting the budgets of local authorities, freezing civil service hiring, and reviving the economy by accelerating privatization of state-owned enterprises. These measures provoked a 24-hour strike by public-sector workers. Durão Barroso reacted with vows to press ahead with budget-cutting measures and imposed a wage freeze on all employees earning more than €1,000, which affected more than one-half of Portugal's work force.
       In June 2004, Durão Barroso was invited by Romano Prodi to succeed him as president of the European Commission. Durão Barroso accepted and resigned the prime ministership in July. Pedro Santana Lopes, the leader of the PSD, became prime minister. Already unpopular at the time of Durão Barroso's resignation, the PSD-led government became increasingly unpopular under Santana Lopes. A month-long delay in the start of the school year and confusion over his plan to cut taxes and raise public-sector salaries, eroded confidence even more. By November, Santana Lopes's government was so unpopular that President Jorge Sampaio was obliged to dissolve parliament and hold new elections, two years ahead of schedule.
       Parliamentary elections were held on 20 February 2005. The PS, which had promised the electorate disciplined and transparent governance, educational reform, the alleviation of poverty, and a boost in employment, won 45 percent of the vote and the majority of the seats in parliament. The leader of the PS, José Sôcrates became prime minister on 12 March 2005. In the regularly scheduled presidential elections held on 6 January 2006, the former leader of the PSD and prime minister, Aníbal Cavaco Silva, won a narrow victory and became president on 9 March 2006. With a mass protest, public teachers' strike, and street demonstrations in March 2008, Portugal's media, educational, and social systems experienced more severe pressures. With the spreading global recession beginning in September 2008, Portugal's economic and financial systems became more troubled.
       Owing to its geographic location on the southwestern most edge of continental Europe, Portugal has been historically in but not of Europe. Almost from the beginning of its existence in the 12th century as an independent monarchy, Portugal turned its back on Europe and oriented itself toward the Atlantic Ocean. After carving out a Christian kingdom on the western portion of the Iberian peninsula, Portuguese kings gradually built and maintained a vast seaborne global empire that became central to the way Portugal understood its individuality as a nation-state. While the creation of this empire allows Portugal to claim an unusual number of "firsts" or distinctions in world and Western history, it also retarded Portugal's economic, social, and political development. It can be reasonably argued that the Revolution of 25 April 1974 was the most decisive event in Portugal's long history because it finally ended Portugal's oceanic mission and view of itself as an imperial power. After the 1974 Revolution, Portugal turned away from its global mission and vigorously reoriented itself toward Europe. Contemporary Portugal is now both in and of Europe.
       The turn toward Europe began immediately after 25 April 1974. Portugal granted independence to its African colonies in 1975. It was admitted to the European Council and took the first steps toward accession to the European Economic Community (EEC) in 1976. On 28 March 1977, the Portuguese government officially applied for EEC membership. Because of Portugal's economic and social backwardness, which would require vast sums of EEC money to overcome, negotiations for membership were long and difficult. Finally, a treaty of accession was signed on 12 June 1985. Portugal officially joined the EEC (the European Union [EU] since 1993) on 1 January 1986. Since becoming a full-fledged member of the EU, Portugal has been steadily overcoming the economic and social underdevelopment caused by its imperial past and is becoming more like the rest of Europe.
       Membership in the EU has speeded up the structural transformation of Portugal's economy, which actually began during the Estado Novo. Investments made by the Estado Novo in Portugal's economy began to shift employment out of the agricultural sector, which, in 1950, accounted for 50 percent of Portugal's economically active population. Today, only 10 percent of the economically active population is employed in the agricultural sector (the highest among EU member states); 30 percent in the industrial sector (also the highest among EU member states); and 60 percent in the service sector (the lowest among EU member states). The economically active population numbers about 5,000,000 employed, 56 percent of whom are women. Women workers are the majority of the workforce in the agricultural and service sectors (the highest among the EU member states). The expansion of the service sector has been primarily in health care and education. Portugal has had the lowest unemployment rates among EU member states, with the overall rate never being more than 10 percent of the active population. Since joining the EU, the number of employers increased from 2.6 percent to 5.8 percent of the active population; self-employed from 16 to 19 percent; and employees from 65 to 70 percent. Twenty-six percent of the employers are women. Unemployment tends to hit younger workers in industry and transportation, women employed in domestic service, workers on short-term contracts, and poorly educated workers. Salaried workers earn only 63 percent of the EU average, and hourly workers only one-third to one-half of that earned by their EU counterparts. Despite having had the second highest growth of gross national product (GNP) per inhabitant (after Ireland) among EU member states, the above data suggest that while much has been accomplished in terms of modernizing the Portuguese economy, much remains to be done to bring Portugal's economy up to the level of the "average" EU member state.
       Membership in the EU has also speeded up changes in Portuguese society. Over the last 30 years, coastalization and urbanization have intensified. Fully 50 percent of Portuguese live in the coastal urban conurbations of Lisbon, Oporto, Braga, Aveiro, Coimbra, Viseu, Évora, and Faro. The Portuguese population is one of the oldest among EU member states (17.3 percent are 65 years of age or older) thanks to a considerable increase in life expectancy at birth (77.87 years for the total population, 74.6 years for men, 81.36 years for women) and one of the lowest birthrates (10.59 births/1,000) in Europe. Family size averages 2.8 persons per household, with the strict nuclear family (one or two generations) in which both parents work being typical. Common law marriages, cohabitating couples, and single-parent households are more and more common. The divorce rate has also increased. "Youth Culture" has developed. The young have their own meeting places, leisure-time activities, and nightlife (bars, clubs, and discos).
       All Portuguese citizens, whether they have contributed or not, have a right to an old-age pension, invalidity benefits, widowed persons' pension, as well as payments for disabilities, children, unemployment, and large families. There is a national minimum wage (€385 per month), which is low by EU standards. The rapid aging of Portugal's population has changed the ratio of contributors to pensioners to 1.7, the lowest in the EU. This has created deficits in Portugal's social security fund.
       The adult literacy rate is about 92 percent. Illiteracy is still found among the elderly. Although universal compulsory education up to grade 9 was achieved in 1980, only 21.2 percent of the population aged 25-64 had undergone secondary education, compared to an EU average of 65.7 percent. Portugal's higher education system currently consists of 14 state universities and 14 private universities, 15 state polytechnic institutions, one Catholic university, and one military academy. All in all, Portugal spends a greater percentage of its state budget on education than most EU member states. Despite this high level of expenditure, the troubled Portuguese education system does not perform well. Early leaving and repetition rates are among the highest among EU member states.
       After the Revolution of 25 April 1974, Portugal created a National Health Service, which today consists of 221 hospitals and 512 medical centers employing 33,751 doctors and 41,799 nurses. Like its education system, Portugal's medical system is inefficient. There are long waiting lists for appointments with specialists and for surgical procedures.
       Structural changes in Portugal's economy and society mean that social life in Portugal is not too different from that in other EU member states. A mass consumption society has been created. Televisions, telephones, refrigerators, cars, music equipment, mobile phones, and personal computers are commonplace. Sixty percent of Portuguese households possess at least one automobile, and 65 percent of Portuguese own their own home. Portuguese citizens are more aware of their legal rights than ever before. This has resulted in a trebling of the number of legal proceeding since 1960 and an eight-fold increase in the number of lawyers. In general, Portuguese society has become more permissive and secular; the Catholic Church and the armed forces are much less influential than in the past. Portugal's population is also much more culturally, religiously, and ethnically diverse, a consequence of the coming to Portugal of hundreds of thousands of immigrants, mainly from former African colonies.
       Portuguese are becoming more cosmopolitan and sophisticated through the impact of world media, the Internet, and the World Wide Web. A prime case in point came in the summer and early fall of 1999, with the extraordinary events in East Timor and the massive Portuguese popular responses. An internationally monitored referendum in East Timor, Portugal's former colony in the Indonesian archipelago and under Indonesian occupation from late 1975 to summer 1999, resulted in a vote of 78.5 percent for rejecting integration with Indonesia and for independence. When Indonesian prointegration gangs, aided by the Indonesian military, responded to the referendum with widespread brutality and threatened to reverse the verdict of the referendum, there was a spontaneous popular outpouring of protest in the cities and towns of Portugal. An avalanche of Portuguese e-mail fell on leaders and groups in the UN and in certain countries around the world as Portugal's diplomats, perhaps to compensate for the weak initial response to Indonesian armed aggression in 1975, called for the protection of East Timor as an independent state and for UN intervention to thwart Indonesian action. Using global communications networks, the Portuguese were able to mobilize UN and world public opinion against Indonesian actions and aided the eventual independence of East Timor on 20 May 2002.
       From the Revolution of 25 April 1974 until the 1990s, Portugal had a large number of political parties, one of the largest Communist parties in western Europe, frequent elections, and endemic cabinet instability. Since the 1990s, the number of political parties has been dramatically reduced and cabinet stability increased. Gradually, the Portuguese electorate has concentrated around two larger parties, the right-of-center Social Democrats (PSD) and the left-of-center Socialist (PS). In the 1980s, these two parties together garnered 65 percent of the vote and 70 percent of the seats in parliament. In 2005, these percentages had risen to 74 percent and 85 percent, respectively. In effect, Portugal is currently a two-party dominant system in which the two largest parties — PS and PSD—alternate in and out of power, not unlike the rotation of the two main political parties (the Regenerators and the Historicals) during the last decades (1850s to 1880s) of the liberal constitutional monarchy. As Portugal's democracy has consolidated, turnout rates for the eligible electorate have declined. In the 1970s, turnout was 85 percent. In Portugal's most recent parliamentary election (2005), turnout had fallen to 65 percent of the eligible electorate.
       Portugal has benefited greatly from membership in the EU, and whatever doubts remain about the price paid for membership, no Portuguese government in the near future can afford to sever this connection. The vast majority of Portuguese citizens see membership in the EU as a "good thing" and strongly believe that Portugal has benefited from membership. Only the Communist Party opposed membership because it reduces national sovereignty, serves the interests of capitalists not workers, and suffers from a democratic deficit. Despite the high level of support for the EU, Portuguese voters are increasingly not voting in elections for the European Parliament, however. Turnout for European Parliament elections fell from 40 percent of the eligible electorate in the 1999 elections to 38 percent in the 2004 elections.
       In sum, Portugal's turn toward Europe has done much to overcome its backwardness. However, despite the economic, social, and political progress made since 1986, Portugal has a long way to go before it can claim to be on a par with the level found even in Spain, much less the rest of western Europe. As Portugal struggles to move from underde-velopment, especially in the rural areas away from the coast, it must keep in mind the perils of too rapid modern development, which could damage two of its most precious assets: its scenery and environment. The growth and future prosperity of the economy will depend on the degree to which the government and the private sector will remain stewards of clean air, soil, water, and other finite resources on which the tourism industry depends and on which Portugal's world image as a unique place to visit rests. Currently, Portugal is investing heavily in renewable energy from solar, wind, and wave power in order to account for about 50 percent of its electricity needs by 2010. Portugal opened the world's largest solar power plant and the world's first commercial wave power farm in 2006.
       An American documentary film on Portugal produced in the 1970s described this little country as having "a Past in Search of a Future." In the years after the Revolution of 25 April 1974, it could be said that Portugal is now living in "a Present in Search of a Future." Increasingly, that future lies in Europe as an active and productive member of the EU.

    Historical dictionary of Portugal > Historical Portugal

  • 4 bear

    I noun
    1) Bär, der
    2) (Astron.)

    Great/Little Bear — Großer/Kleiner Bär

    II 1. transitive verb,
    1) (show) tragen [Wappen, Inschrift, Unterschrift]; aufweisen, zeigen [Merkmal, Spuren, Ähnlichkeit, Verwandtschaft]

    bear a resemblance or likeness to somebody — Ähnlichkeit mit jemandem haben

    2) (be known by) tragen, führen [Namen, Titel]
    3)

    bear some/little relation to something — einen gewissen/wenig Bezug zu etwas haben

    4) (poet./formal): (carry) tragen [Waffe, Last]; mit sich führen [Geschenk, Botschaft]

    I was borne along by the fierce current — die starke Strömung trug mich mit [sich]

    5) (endure, tolerate) ertragen [Schmerz, Kummer]; with neg. aushalten [Schmerz]; ausstehen [Geruch, Lärm, Speise]
    6) (sustain) tragen, übernehmen [Verantwortlichkeit, Kosten]; auf sich (Akk.) nehmen [Schuld]; tragen, aushalten [Gewicht]
    7) (be fit for) vertragen

    it does not bear repeating or repetition — das lässt sich unmöglich wiederholen

    bear comparison with something — den od. einen Vergleich mit etwas aushalten

    8) (give birth to) gebären [Kind, Junges]; see also academic.ru/8296/born">born
    9) (yield) tragen [Blumen, Früchte usw.]

    bear fruit — (fig.) Früchte tragen (geh.)

    2. intransitive verb,
    bore, borne
    1)

    bear left — [Person:] sich links halten

    2)

    bring to bear — aufbieten [Kraft, Energie]; ausüben [Druck]

    Phrasal Verbs:
    - bear away
    - bear down
    - bear off
    - bear on
    - bear out
    - bear up
    - bear upon
    - bear with
    * * *
    I [beə] past tense - bore; verb
    1) ((usually with cannot, could not etc) to put up with or endure: I couldn't bear it if he left.) ertragen
    2) (to be able to support: Will the table bear my weight?)
    3) ((past participle in passive born [bo:n]) to produce (children): She has borne (him) several children; She was born on July 7.) gebären,geboren
    4) (to carry: He was borne shoulder-high after his victory.) tragen
    5) (to have: The cheque bore his signature.) tragen
    6) (to turn or fork: The road bears left here.) führen
    •
    - bearable
    - bearer
    - bearing
    - bearings
    - bear down on
    - bear fruit
    - bear out
    - bear up
    - bear with
    - find/get one's bearings
    - lose one's bearings     II [beə] noun
    (a large heavy animal with thick fur and hooked claws.) der Bär
    * * *
    bear1
    [beəʳ, AM ber]
    I. n
    1. (animal) Bär m
    black/brown \bear Schwarz-/Braunbär m
    she-\bear Bärin f
    to be like a \bear with a sore head [or AM like a real \bear] ( fig fam) ein richtiger Brummbär sein fam
    2. STOCKEX (sb calculatedly selling stocks) Baissier m, Baissespekulant(in) m(f), Bär(in) m(f), Bear m
    covered \bear gedeckter Baissier
    uncovered \bear Baissier m, der seine Position noch nicht glattstellen konnte
    3.
    ▶ it's a \bear to do sth es ist kompliziert, etw zu tun
    II. vi STOCKEX auf Baisse [o à la Baisse] spekulieren
    bear2
    <bore, borne or AM also born>
    [beəʳ, AM ber]
    I. vt
    ▪ to \bear sth etw tragen; ( liter):
    he was borne backwards by a large wave er wurde von einer großen Welle zurückgerissen
    to \bear arms ( form) Waffen tragen
    to \bear gifts ( form) Geschenke mitbringen
    to \bear tidings ( old liter) Neuigkeiten überbringen
    2. (display)
    to \bear a date/an imprint/an inscription ein Datum/einen Aufdruck/eine Aufschrift tragen
    to \bear sb's name jds Namen tragen [o geh führen
    4. (behave)
    ▪ to \bear oneself:
    5. (support)
    to \bear the load/the weight die Last/das Gewicht tragen; ( fig)
    to \bear the cost die Kosten tragen
    6. (endure, shoulder)
    ▪ to \bear sth etw ertragen [o erdulden]
    what might have happened doesn't \bear thinking about man darf gar nicht daran denken, was hätte passieren können
    he said something so awful that it doesn't \bear repeating er sagte so etwas Schreckliches, dass ich es gar nicht wiederholen möchte
    to \bear the blame die Schuld auf sich akk nehmen
    to \bear the [burden of] responsibility die [Last der] Verantwortung tragen
    to \bear one's cross sein Kreuz tragen fig
    to \bear the discomfort/hardship die Unbequemlichkeit/Mühe auf sich akk nehmen
    to \bear the pain/tribulation den Schmerz/Kummer ertragen
    ▪ to not be able to \bear sb/sth jdn/etw nicht ertragen [o ausstehen] können
    ▪ to not be able to \bear the boredom/suspense Langeweile/Spannung nicht aushalten
    ▪ to not be able to \bear jokes/criticism Spaß/Kritik nicht vertragen
    ▪ to not \bear to do sth es nicht ertragen können, etw zu tun
    8. (harbour resentments)
    to \bear sb a grudge einen Groll gegen jdn hegen geh
    to \bear sb ill-feeling auf jdn nicht gut zu sprechen sein
    to not \bear any ill-feeling against sb nichts gegen jdn haben
    to \bear sb ill-will jdm gegenüber nachtragend sein
    to \bear no ill-will keine Feindschaft empfinden
    9. (possess)
    to \bear an [uncanny] likeness [or similarity] to sb [unheimliche] Ähnlichkeit mit jdm haben
    to \bear a [strong] resemblance to sb [große] Ähnlichkeit mit jdm haben, jdm sehr ähnlich sehen
    to \bear the [or a] scar eine Narbe davontragen fig, gezeichnet sein geh
    10. (keep)
    I'll \bear that in mind ich werde das mit berücksichtigen
    to \bear a baby ein Kind gebären [o zur Welt bringen]
    to \bear sb a child jdm ein Kind gebären
    his wife bore him a son seine Frau schenkte ihm einen Sohn
    I was born in April ich bin im April geboren
    to \bear cubs/foals/young ZOOL Welpen/Fohlen/Junge bekommen
    12. AGR, BOT
    to \bear fruit ( also fig) Früchte tragen a. fig; FIN, ECON
    to \bear interest at 8% 8 % Zinsen bringen, mit 8 % verzinst sein
    13.
    to \bear testimony [or witness] Zeugnis ablegen
    to \bear witness to sth von etw dat Zeugnis ablegen, etw bezeugen
    to \bear false witness ( old) falsches Zeugnis ablegen veraltend
    II. vi
    1. (tend)
    to \bear left/right sich akk links/rechts halten
    2. (be patient)
    ▪ to \bear with sb mit jdm Geduld [o Nachsicht] haben
    3. (press) drücken
    to \bear on a lever einen Hebel betätigen
    ▪ to \bear down on [or upon] sb/sth auf jdn/etw zusteuern
    5. (be relevant)
    ▪ to \bear on sth etw betreffen; (have affect on) etw beeinflussen
    6. (put pressure on)
    to bring pressure to \bear on sb/sth Druck m auf jdn/etw ausüben
    * * *
    I [bɛə(r)] pret bore, ptp borne
    1. vt
    1) (= carry) burden, arms tragen; gift, message bei sich tragen, mit sich führen

    to bear away/back — mitnehmen/mit (sich) zurücknehmen; (through the air)

    the music was borne/borne away on the wind (liter) — die Musik wurde vom Wind weiter-/weggetragen

    2) (= show) inscription, signature tragen; mark, traces also, likeness, relation aufweisen, zeigen → witness
    See:
    3) (= be known by) name, title tragen, führen
    4) (= have in heart or mind) love empfinden, in sich (dat) tragen; hatred, grudge also hegen (geh)

    the love/hatred he bore her — die Liebe, die er für sie empfand/der Hass, den er gegen sie hegte (geh) or empfand

    See:
    → mind
    5) (lit, fig: support, sustain) weight, expense, responsibility tragen

    to bear examination/comparison — einer Prüfung/einem Vergleich standhalten

    it doesn't bear thinking about — man darf gar nicht daran denken

    6) (= endure, tolerate) ertragen; (with neg also) ausstehen, leiden; pain aushalten; criticism, joking vertragen; smell, noise etc aushalten, vertragen

    she can't bear being laughed at —

    7) (= produce, yield fruit etc) tragen → interest
    See:
    8) (= give birth to) gebären → born
    See:
    → born
    2. vi
    1)

    (= move) to bear right/left/north — sich rechts/links/nach Norden halten

    2) (fruit tree etc) tragen
    3)

    to bring one's energies/powers of persuasion to bear — seine Energie/Überzeugungskraft aufwenden (on für)

    to bring pressure to bear on sb/sth — Druck auf jdn/etw ausüben

    3. vr
    sich halten

    he bore himself with dignity — er hat Würde gezeigt

    II
    1. n
    1) Bär m; (fig = person) Brummbär m (inf)
    2) (ASTRON)

    the Great/Little Bear — der Große/Kleine Bär or Wagen

    3) (ST EX) Baissespekulant m, Baissier m
    2. vi (ST EX)
    auf Baisse spekulieren
    * * *
    bear1 [beə(r)] prät bore [bɔː(r); US auch ˈbəʊər], obs bare [beə(r)], pperf borne [bɔː(r)n; US auch ˈbəʊərn], bei 4born [bɔː(r)n; US auch ˈbəʊərn]
    A v/t
    1. Lasten etc tragen
    2. fig Kosten, einen Verlust, die Verantwortung, die Folgen etc tragen
    3. Blumen, Früchte, auch Zinsen etc tragen: → fruit A 2, interest A 11 (und andere Verbindungen mit Substantiven)
    4. (pperf borne oder born;
    Letzteres nur in der passiven Bedeutung: geboren [werden], sofern nicht by … von … folgt) zur Welt bringen, gebären:
    a) ein Kind gebären,
    b) ein Kind (unter dem Herzen) tragen;
    the children borne to him by this woman die ihm von dieser Frau geborenen Kinder;
    be born geboren werden;
    he was born in 1941 auch er ist Jahrgang 1941;
    he was born into a rich family er kam als Kind reicher Eltern zur Welt oder auf die Welt;
    I wasn’t born yesterday ich bin doch nicht von gestern;
    there’s one born every minute umg die Dummen werden nicht alle oder weniger; → park A 1, silver spoon
    5. einen Namen, einen Titel, auch Waffen etc tragen, führen:
    bear arms against Krieg führen gegen; → arm2 Bes Redew
    6. ein Amt etc innehaben, ausüben
    7. ein Datum, einen Stempel, ein Zeichen etc tragen, aufweisen:
    bear a proportion to in einem Verhältnis stehen zu; → resemblance
    8. eine Bedeutung etc haben, in sich schließen
    9. ein Gefühl hegen:
    bear sb love jemandem Liebe entgegenbringen; → grudge C, malice 2, will2 A 6
    10. eine Rolle spielen (in bei)
    11. Schmerzen etc ertragen, (er)dulden, (er)leiden
    12. aushalten, einer Prüfung etc standhalten:
    that doesn’t bear thinking about man darf gar nicht daran denken; → comparison 1, repeat A 1, repetition 1
    13. (meist neg) ausstehen, leiden, einen Gedanken ertragen
    14. eine Nachricht etc überbringen
    15. Gehorsam etc leisten, Lob zollen (to dat):
    bear sb a hand jemandem helfen oder zur Hand gehen; → company A 1
    16. Zeugnis ablegen:
    bear witness ( oder evidence) zeugen (to für)
    17. bear o.s. sich betragen, sich benehmen
    B v/i
    1. tragen, (sicher) halten (Balken, Eis etc)
    2. (on, upon) schwer lasten oder liegen (auf dat), drücken, einen Druck ausüben (auf akk)
    3. (against) drücken, sich lehnen (gegen), anliegen (an dat)
    4. (on, upon)
    a) einwirken, Einfluss haben (auf akk)
    b) sich beziehen, Bezug haben (auf akk), im Zusammenhang stehen (mit), betreffen (akk):
    how does this bear on …? in welchem Zusammenhang steht das mit …?;
    bring to bear (up)on
    a) einwirken lassen auf (akk),
    b) richten oder anwenden auf (akk);
    bear hard on sehr zusetzen (dat), hart treffen, arg mitnehmen (akk); → pressure A 5
    5. eine Richtung einschlagen, sich halten:
    bear (to the) left sich links halten;
    bear to a star FLUG, SCHIFF ein Gestirn anpeilen;
    the beacon bears 240 degrees die Bake liegt bei oder auf 240°
    6. SCHIFF
    a) abfahren, absegeln ( beide:
    to nach)
    b) abfallen
    7. sich erstrecken
    8. bear with Nachsicht haben oder üben mit, (geduldig) ertragen (akk):
    would ( oder could) you bear with me for a second? einen kleinen Augenblick, bitte, TEL auch bleiben Sie bitte einen kleinen Moment am Apparat
    9. BOT (Früchte) tragen
    10. ZOOL tragen, trächtig sein (Tier)
    11. MIL tragen (Geschütz):
    bear on beschießen (akk)
    bear2 [beə(r)]
    A s
    1. ZOOL Bär m:
    he’s like (od umg [as] cross as) a bear with a sore head today er ist heute unausstehlich oder in einer Stinklaune; → hungry A 1
    2. fig
    a) Bär m, Tollpatsch m
    b) Brummbär m, Ekel n pej
    c) US umg Kanone f (at, for in dat)
    3. WIRTSCH Bear m, Baissier m, Baissespekulant(in):
    4. ASTRON
    a) the Greater ( oder Great) Bear der Große Bär
    b) the Lesser ( oder Little) Bear der Kleine Bär
    5. METALL Eisenklumpen m, Bodensau f
    B v/i WIRTSCH auf Baisse spekulieren, fixen
    C v/t bear the market WIRTSCH die Kurse drücken oder zu drücken versuchen
    D adj WIRTSCH
    a) flau (Markt), fallend (Preise)
    b) Baisse…:
    bear campaign Angriff m der Baissepartei;
    bear market Baisse f;
    bear operation Baissespekulation f;
    bear sale Leerverkauf m
    * * *
    I noun
    1) Bär, der
    2) (Astron.)

    Great/Little Bear — Großer/Kleiner Bär

    II 1. transitive verb,
    1) (show) tragen [Wappen, Inschrift, Unterschrift]; aufweisen, zeigen [Merkmal, Spuren, Ähnlichkeit, Verwandtschaft]

    bear a resemblance or likeness to somebody — Ähnlichkeit mit jemandem haben

    2) (be known by) tragen, führen [Namen, Titel]
    3)

    bear some/little relation to something — einen gewissen/wenig Bezug zu etwas haben

    4) (poet./formal): (carry) tragen [Waffe, Last]; mit sich führen [Geschenk, Botschaft]

    I was borne along by the fierce current — die starke Strömung trug mich mit [sich]

    5) (endure, tolerate) ertragen [Schmerz, Kummer]; with neg. aushalten [Schmerz]; ausstehen [Geruch, Lärm, Speise]
    6) (sustain) tragen, übernehmen [Verantwortlichkeit, Kosten]; auf sich (Akk.) nehmen [Schuld]; tragen, aushalten [Gewicht]
    7) (be fit for) vertragen

    it does not bear repeating or repetition — das lässt sich unmöglich wiederholen

    bear comparison with something — den od. einen Vergleich mit etwas aushalten

    8) (give birth to) gebären [Kind, Junges]; see also born
    9) (yield) tragen [Blumen, Früchte usw.]

    bear fruit — (fig.) Früchte tragen (geh.)

    2. intransitive verb,
    bore, borne
    1)

    bear left — [Person:] sich links halten

    2)

    bring to bear — aufbieten [Kraft, Energie]; ausüben [Druck]

    Phrasal Verbs:
    * * *
    (stock exchange) n.
    Börsenspekulant -en m. n.
    Baissier -s m.
    Bär -en m. (on) v.
    betreffen v.
    sich beziehen (auf) v. (to give birth to) v.
    zur Welt bringen ausdr. v.
    (§ p.,p.p.: bore, borne)
    = aushalten v.
    ausstehen v.
    ausüben v.
    ertragen v.
    gebären v.
    (§ p.,pp.: gebar, geboren)
    halten v.
    (§ p.,pp.: hielt, gehalten)
    lasten v.
    tragen v.
    (§ p.,pp.: trug, getragen)

    English-german dictionary > bear

  • 5 first

    first [fɜ:st]
    • first things first! les choses importantes d'abord !
       a. ( = at first) d'abord ; ( = firstly) premièrement ; ( = in the beginning) au début ; ( = as a preliminary) tout d'abord
    • to come first ( = arrive) arriver le premier ; (in exam, competition) être reçu premier
       b. ( = for the first time) pour la première fois
       c. ( = in preference) plutôt
    • I'd die first! plutôt mourir !
    3. noun
       a. premier m, - ière f
    • first in, first out premier entré, premier sorti
    • the first I heard of it was when... la première fois que j'en ai entendu parler, c'est quand...
       b. ( = first gear) première f (vitesse)
       c. (British) ( = degree) he got a first ≈ il a eu sa licence avec mention très bien
    premier-né m, première-née f
    ► first cousin noun cousin (e) m(f) germain
    • on the first floor (British) au premier (étage) ; (US) au rez-de-chaussée ► first form noun (British) ≈ (classe f de) sixième f
    ► first-hand adjective [news, information] de première main
    ( = novice) débutant (e) m(f)
    * * *
    [fɜːst] 1.
    1) (of series, group) premier/première m/f ( to do à faire)
    2) ( of month)
    5) ( beginning) début m
    6) ( new experience) première f

    a first for somebody/something — une première pour quelqu'un/quelque chose

    7) Automobile ( gear) première f; gear
    8) GB University ( degree) ≈ mention f très bien (à la licence)
    2.
    1) (of series, group) premier/-ière (before n)

    the first three pages or the three first pages — les trois premières pages

    at first glance ou sight — à première vue

    3) ( slightest)
    3.
    1) ( before others) [arrive, leave] le premier/la première

    to come first — Games, Sport terminer premier/première (in à); fig [career, family] passer avant tout

    2) ( to begin with) d'abord

    first she tells me one thing, then something else — elle commence par me dire une chose puis elle me dit le contraire

    there are two reasons: first... — il y a deux raisons: d'abord...

    3) ( for the first time) pour la première fois
    4) ( rather) plutôt
    ••

    English-French dictionary > first

  • 6 Edison, Thomas Alva

    [br]
    b. 11 February 1847 Milan, Ohio, USA
    d. 18 October 1931 Glenmont
    [br]
    American inventor and pioneer electrical developer.
    [br]
    He was the son of Samuel Edison, who was in the timber business. His schooling was delayed due to scarlet fever until 1855, when he was 8½ years old, but he was an avid reader. By the age of 14 he had a job as a newsboy on the railway from Port Huron to Detroit, a distance of sixty-three miles (101 km). He worked a fourteen-hour day with a stopover of five hours, which he spent in the Detroit Free Library. He also sold sweets on the train and, later, fruit and vegetables, and was soon making a profit of $20 a week. He then started two stores in Port Huron and used a spare freight car as a laboratory. He added a hand-printing press to produce 400 copies weekly of The Grand Trunk Herald, most of which he compiled and edited himself. He set himself to learn telegraphy from the station agent at Mount Clements, whose son he had saved from being run over by a freight car.
    At the age of 16 he became a telegraphist at Port Huron. In 1863 he became railway telegraphist at the busy Stratford Junction of the Grand Trunk Railroad, arranging a clock with a notched wheel to give the hourly signal which was to prove that he was awake and at his post! He left hurriedly after failing to hold a train which was nearly involved in a head-on collision. He usually worked the night shift, allowing himself time for experiments during the day. His first invention was an arrangement of two Morse registers so that a high-speed input could be decoded at a slower speed. Moving from place to place he held many positions as a telegraphist. In Boston he invented an automatic vote recorder for Congress and patented it, but the idea was rejected. This was the first of a total of 1180 patents that he was to take out during his lifetime. After six years he resigned from the Western Union Company to devote all his time to invention, his next idea being an improved ticker-tape machine for stockbrokers. He developed a duplex telegraphy system, but this was turned down by the Western Union Company. He then moved to New York.
    Edison found accommodation in the battery room of Law's Gold Reporting Company, sleeping in the cellar, and there his repair of a broken transmitter marked him as someone of special talents. His superior soon resigned, and he was promoted with a salary of $300 a month. Western Union paid him $40,000 for the sole rights on future improvements on the duplex telegraph, and he moved to Ward Street, Newark, New Jersey, where he employed a gathering of specialist engineers. Within a year, he married one of his employees, Mary Stilwell, when she was only 16: a daughter, Marion, was born in 1872, and two sons, Thomas and William, in 1876 and 1879, respectively.
    He continued to work on the automatic telegraph, a device to send out messages faster than they could be tapped out by hand: that is, over fifty words per minute or so. An earlier machine by Alexander Bain worked at up to 400 words per minute, but was not good over long distances. Edison agreed to work on improving this feature of Bain's machine for the Automatic Telegraph Company (ATC) for $40,000. He improved it to a working speed of 500 words per minute and ran a test between Washington and New York. Hoping to sell their equipment to the Post Office in Britain, ATC sent Edison to England in 1873 to negotiate. A 500-word message was to be sent from Liverpool to London every half-hour for six hours, followed by tests on 2,200 miles (3,540 km) of cable at Greenwich. Only confused results were obtained due to induction in the cable, which lay coiled in a water tank. Edison returned to New York, where he worked on his quadruplex telegraph system, tests of which proved a success between New York and Albany in December 1874. Unfortunately, simultaneous negotiation with Western Union and ATC resulted in a lawsuit.
    Alexander Graham Bell was granted a patent for a telephone in March 1876 while Edison was still working on the same idea. His improvements allowed the device to operate over a distance of hundreds of miles instead of only a few miles. Tests were carried out over the 106 miles (170 km) between New York and Philadelphia. Edison applied for a patent on the carbon-button transmitter in April 1877, Western Union agreeing to pay him $6,000 a year for the seventeen-year duration of the patent. In these years he was also working on the development of the electric lamp and on a duplicating machine which would make up to 3,000 copies from a stencil. In 1876–7 he moved from Newark to Menlo Park, twenty-four miles (39 km) from New York on the Pennsylvania Railway, near Elizabeth. He had bought a house there around which he built the premises that would become his "inventions factory". It was there that he began the use of his 200- page pocket notebooks, each of which lasted him about two weeks, so prolific were his ideas. When he died he left 3,400 of them filled with notes and sketches.
    Late in 1877 he applied for a patent for a phonograph which was granted on 19 February 1878, and by the end of the year he had formed a company to manufacture this totally new product. At the time, Edison saw the device primarily as a business aid rather than for entertainment, rather as a dictating machine. In August 1878 he was granted a British patent. In July 1878 he tried to measure the heat from the solar corona at a solar eclipse viewed from Rawlins, Wyoming, but his "tasimeter" was too sensitive.
    Probably his greatest achievement was "The Subdivision of the Electric Light" or the "glow bulb". He tried many materials for the filament before settling on carbon. He gave a demonstration of electric light by lighting up Menlo Park and inviting the public. Edison was, of course, faced with the problem of inventing and producing all the ancillaries which go to make up the electrical system of generation and distribution-meters, fuses, insulation, switches, cabling—even generators had to be designed and built; everything was new. He started a number of manufacturing companies to produce the various components needed.
    In 1881 he built the world's largest generator, which weighed 27 tons, to light 1,200 lamps at the Paris Exhibition. It was later moved to England to be used in the world's first central power station with steam engine drive at Holborn Viaduct, London. In September 1882 he started up his Pearl Street Generating Station in New York, which led to a worldwide increase in the application of electric power, particularly for lighting. At the same time as these developments, he built a 1,300yd (1,190m) electric railway at Menlo Park.
    On 9 August 1884 his wife died of typhoid. Using his telegraphic skills, he proposed to 19-year-old Mina Miller in Morse code while in the company of others on a train. He married her in February 1885 before buying a new house and estate at West Orange, New Jersey, building a new laboratory not far away in the Orange Valley.
    Edison used direct current which was limited to around 250 volts. Alternating current was largely developed by George Westinghouse and Nicola Tesla, using transformers to step up the current to a higher voltage for long-distance transmission. The use of AC gradually overtook the Edison DC system.
    In autumn 1888 he patented a form of cinephotography, the kinetoscope, obtaining film-stock from George Eastman. In 1893 he set up the first film studio, which was pivoted so as to catch the sun, with a hinged roof which could be raised. In 1894 kinetoscope parlours with "peep shows" were starting up in cities all over America. Competition came from the Latham Brothers with a screen-projection machine, which Edison answered with his "Vitascope", shown in New York in 1896. This showed pictures with accompanying sound, but there was some difficulty with synchronization. Edison also experimented with captions at this early date.
    In 1880 he filed a patent for a magnetic ore separator, the first of nearly sixty. He bought up deposits of low-grade iron ore which had been developed in the north of New Jersey. The process was a commercial success until the discovery of iron-rich ore in Minnesota rendered it uneconomic and uncompetitive. In 1898 cement rock was discovered in New Village, west of West Orange. Edison bought the land and started cement manufacture, using kilns twice the normal length and using half as much fuel to heat them as the normal type of kiln. In 1893 he met Henry Ford, who was building his second car, at an Edison convention. This started him on the development of a battery for an electric car on which he made over 9,000 experiments. In 1903 he sold his patent for wireless telegraphy "for a song" to Guglielmo Marconi.
    In 1910 Edison designed a prefabricated concrete house. In December 1914 fire destroyed three-quarters of the West Orange plant, but it was at once rebuilt, and with the threat of war Edison started to set up his own plants for making all the chemicals that he had previously been buying from Europe, such as carbolic acid, phenol, benzol, aniline dyes, etc. He was appointed President of the Navy Consulting Board, for whom, he said, he made some forty-five inventions, "but they were pigeonholed, every one of them". Thus did Edison find that the Navy did not take kindly to civilian interference.
    In 1927 he started the Edison Botanic Research Company, founded with similar investment from Ford and Firestone with the object of finding a substitute for overseas-produced rubber. In the first year he tested no fewer than 3,327 possible plants, in the second year, over 1,400, eventually developing a variety of Golden Rod which grew to 14 ft (4.3 m) in height. However, all this effort and money was wasted, due to the discovery of synthetic rubber.
    In October 1929 he was present at Henry Ford's opening of his Dearborn Museum to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the incandescent lamp, including a replica of the Menlo Park laboratory. He was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal and was elected to the American Academy of Sciences. He died in 1931 at his home, Glenmont; throughout the USA, lights were dimmed temporarily on the day of his funeral.
    [br]
    Principal Honours and Distinctions
    Member of the American Academy of Sciences. Congressional Gold Medal.
    Further Reading
    M.Josephson, 1951, Edison, Eyre \& Spottiswode.
    R.W.Clark, 1977, Edison, the Man who Made the Future, Macdonald \& Jane.
    IMcN

    Biographical history of technology > Edison, Thomas Alva

  • 7 Carlos I, King

    (1863-1908)
       The second to last reigning king of Portugal and second to last of the Braganza dynasty to rule. Born in 1863, the son of King Luis I, Carlos was well-educated and became an accomplished sailor, as well as an artist of maritime scenes in oil paintings. A selection of his paintings remains on display in various museums and halls. His reign began in 1889, when his father died, and was immediately marked by controversy and conflict. In January 1890, the monarchy was weakened and Carlos's authority placed in question in the crisis of the " English Ultimatum" (see also Ultimatum, English) Portugal's oldest ally, Great Britain, threatened an end to the 517-year-old alliance, and hostilities arose over the question of territorial expansion in the "Scramble for Africa." Although Carlos was a talented diplomat who managed to repair the damaged Anglo-Portuguese Alliance and to promote other foreign policy initiatives, his reign was marked by the failure of monarchist politics, the weakening monarchy, and rising republicanism. As monarchist politics became more unstable and corrupt, the republic opposition grew stronger and more violent. Carlos's appointment of the dictatorial João Franco government in 1907 and Franco's measures of January 1908 repressing the opposition were, in effect, the king's death warrant. While returning from a royal trip to the Alentejo on 1 February, 1908, King Carlos and his heir apparent, Prince Luís, were shot in their open carriage in Lisbon by carbonaria (anarchist republicans). Although their two murderers were killed by guards on the spot, the official investigation of their murders was never completed.

    Historical dictionary of Portugal > Carlos I, King

  • 8 Carnot, Nicolas Léonard Sadi

    [br]
    b. 1 June 1796 Paris, France
    d. 24 August 1831 Paris, France
    [br]
    French laid the foundations for modern thermodynamics through his book Réflexions sur la puissance motrice du feu when he stated that the efficiency of an engine depended on the working substance and the temperature drop between the incoming and outgoing steam.
    [br]
    Sadi was the eldest son of Lazare Carnot, who was prominent as one of Napoleon's military and civil advisers. Sadi was born in the Palais du Petit Luxembourg and grew up during the Napoleonic wars. He was tutored by his father until in 1812, at the minimum age of 16, he entered the Ecole Polytechnique to study stress analysis, mechanics, descriptive geometry and chemistry. He organized the students to fight against the allies at Vincennes in 1814. He left the Polytechnique that October and went to the Ecole du Génie at Metz as a student second lieutenant. While there, he wrote several scientific papers, but on the Restoration in 1815 he was regarded with suspicion because of the support his father had given Napoleon. In 1816, on completion of his studies, Sadi became a second lieutenant in the Metz engineering regiment and spent his time in garrison duty, drawing up plans of fortifications. He seized the chance to escape from this dull routine in 1819 through an appointment to the army general staff corps in Paris, where he took leave of absence on half pay and began further courses of study at the Sorbonne, Collège de France, Ecole des Mines and the Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers. He was inter-ested in industrial development, political economy, tax reform and the fine arts.
    It was not until 1821 that he began to concentrate on the steam-engine, and he soon proposed his early form of the Carnot cycle. He sought to find a general solution to cover all types of steam-engine, and reduced their operation to three basic stages: an isothermal expansion as the steam entered the cylinder; an adiabatic expansion; and an isothermal compression in the condenser. In 1824 he published his Réflexions sur la puissance motrice du feu, which was well received at the time but quickly forgotten. In it he accepted the caloric theory of heat but pointed out the impossibility of perpetual motion. His main contribution to a correct understanding of a heat engine, however, lay in his suggestion that power can be produced only where there exists a temperature difference due "not to an actual consumption of caloric but to its transportation from a warm body to a cold body". He used the analogy of a water-wheel with the water falling around its circumference. He proposed the true Carnot cycle with the addition of a final adiabatic compression in which motive power was con sumed to heat the gas to its original incoming temperature and so closed the cycle. He realized the importance of beginning with the temperature of the fire and not the steam in the boiler. These ideas were not taken up in the study of thermodynartiics until after Sadi's death when B.P.E.Clapeyron discovered his book in 1834.
    In 1824 Sadi was recalled to military service as a staff captain, but he resigned in 1828 to devote his time to physics and economics. He continued his work on steam-engines and began to develop a kinetic theory of heat. In 1831 he was investigating the physical properties of gases and vapours, especially the relationship between temperature and pressure. In June 1832 he contracted scarlet fever, which was followed by "brain fever". He made a partial recovery, but that August he fell victim to a cholera epidemic to which he quickly succumbed.
    [br]
    Bibliography
    1824, Réflexions sur la puissance motrice du feu; pub. 1960, trans. R.H.Thurston, New York: Dover Publications; pub. 1978, trans. Robert Fox, Paris (full biographical accounts are provided in the introductions of the translated editions).
    Further Reading
    Dictionary of Scientific Biography, 1971, Vol. III, New York: C.Scribner's Sons. T.I.Williams (ed.), 1969, A Biographical Dictionary of Scientists, London: A. \& C.
    Black.
    Chambers Concise Dictionary of Scientists, 1989, Cambridge.
    D.S.L.Cardwell, 1971, from Watt to Clausius. The Rise of Thermodynamics in the Early Industrial Age, London: Heinemann (discusses Carnot's theories of heat).
    RLH

    Biographical history of technology > Carnot, Nicolas Léonard Sadi

  • 9 Pedro IV, king

    (also Emperor Pedro I of Brazil)
    (1798-1834)
       The first emperor of Brazil and restorer of the liberal, constitutional monarchy, as well as of the throne of his daughter, Queen Maria II. Born in Queluz Palace, the second son of the regent João VI and Queen Carlota Joaquina, Pedro at age nine accompanied his parents and the remainder of the Braganza royal family to Brazil, fleeing the French invasion of Portugal in late 1807. Raised and educated in Brazil, following the return of his father to Portugal, Pedro declared the independence of Brazil from Portugal in the famous "cry of Ipiranga," on 7 September 1822. As Emperor Pedro I of Brazil, he ruled that fledgling nation-state-empire from 1822 to 1831, when he abdicated in favor of his son Pedro, and then went to Portugal and the Azores.
       Pedro's absolutist brother, Dom Miguel, following the death of their father João VI in 1826, had broken his word on defending Portugal's constitution and had carried out an absolutist counterrevolution, which was supported by his reactionary mother Carlota Joaquina. Pedro's daughter, Queen Maria II, who was too young to assume the duties of monarch of Portugal, had lost her throne to King Miguel, in effect, and Pedro spent the remainder of his life restoring the constitutional monarchy and his young daughter to the throne of Portugal. In the 1832-34 War of the Brothers, Pedro IV's armed forces triumphed over those of Dom Miguel and the latter fled to exile in Austria. Exhausted from the effort, Pedro died on 24 September 1834, and was buried in Lisbon. In 1972, his remains were moved to Ipiranga, Brazil.

    Historical dictionary of Portugal > Pedro IV, king

  • 10 Simeon

    1) Общая лексика: Семен, Симеон (мужское имя)
    2) Религия: (A devout man of Jerusalem held to have uttered the Nunc Dimittis on seeing the infant Jesus in the temple) Симеон Богоприимец, (One of the 12 tribes of Israel that in biblical times comprised the people of Israel who later became the Jewish people) колено Симеоново, (The second son born to Jacob and his first wife, Leah) Симеон

    Универсальный англо-русский словарь > Simeon

  • 11 first

    fə:st
    1. adjective, adverb
    (before all others in place, time or rank: the first person to arrive; The boy spoke first.) primero

    2. adverb
    (before doing anything else: `Shall we eat now?' `Wash your hands first!) primero

    3. noun
    (the person, animal etc that does something before any other person, animal etc: the first to arrive.) primero
    - first aid
    - first-born
    - first-class
    - first-hand
    - first-rate
    - at first
    - at first hand
    - first and foremost
    - first of all
    first1 adj primero
    first2 adv
    1. primero
    he came first in the race llegó el primero en la carrera / ganó la carrera
    you play later, first you must finish your lunch podrás jugar luego, primero acaba de comer
    2. por primera vez
    tr[fɜːst]
    1 primero,-a
    ■ what was your first job? ¿cuál fue tu primer trabajo?
    ■ who was the first man on the moon? ¿quién fue el primer hombre que pisó la luna?
    ■ for the first time in my life... por primera vez en mi vida...
    ■ my first reaction was to... mi reacción inicial fue...
    ■ when you get up, what do you do first? al levantarte, ¿qué es lo primero que haces?
    ■ first, I have to go to the bank primero, tengo que ir al banco
    2 (for the first time) por primera vez
    ■ when we first met, he hated me cuando nos conocimos, me odiaba
    3 (in first place) primero, en primer lugar
    ■ there are several reasons: first,... hay varias razones: en primer lugar,...
    ■ he said he'd die first dijo que antes, preferiría morir
    1 la primera vez
    ■ it's a first for me too! ¡es la primera vez para mí también!
    1 el primero, la primera, lo primero
    2 (gear) primera
    \
    SMALLIDIOMATIC EXPRESSION/SMALL
    at first al principio
    at first sight a primera vista
    to come first (in race) llegar el primero 2 (in order) estar primero
    first come, first served el que llega primero tiene prioridad
    first of all en primer lugar
    first thing a primera hora (de la mañana)
    first things first lo primero es lo primero
    from the first desde el principio
    from first to last de principio a fin, desde el principio hasta el final
    First Communion primera comunión nombre femenino
    first floor SMALLBRITISH ENGLISH/SMALL primer piso 2 SMALLAMERICAN ENGLISH/SMALL planta baja
    First Lady Primera Dama
    first night estreno
    first offender delincuente nombre masculino sin antecedentes
    first person SMALLLINGUISTICS/SMALL primera persona
    First World War Primera Guerra Mundial
    first ['fərst] adv
    1) : primero
    finish your homework first: primero termina tu tarea
    first and foremost: ante todo
    first of all: en primer lugar
    2) : por primera vez
    I saw it first in Boston: lo vi por primera vez en Boston
    first adj
    1) : primero
    the first time: la primera vez
    at first sight: a primera vista
    in the first place: en primer lugar
    the first ten applicants: los diez primeros candidatos
    2) foremost: principal, primero
    first tenor: tenor principal
    1) : primero m, -ra f (en una serie)
    2) : primero m, primera parte f
    3) or first gear : primera f
    4)
    at first : al principio
    adj.
    • delantero, -a adj.
    • original adj.
    • primer adj.
    • primero, -a adj.
    • principal adj.
    adv.
    • primera velocidad adv.
    • primero adv.
    n.
    • primero s.m.

    I fɜːrst, fɜːst
    1)
    a) ( initial) primero [primero becomes primer when it precedes a masculine singular noun]

    Henry I — (léase: Henry the First) Enrique I (read as: Enrique primero)

    who's going to be first? — ¿quién va a ser el primero?

    b) (in seniority, standing) primero

    the first eleven/fifteen — (BrE) el equipo titular

    she's first in line to the throne — está primera or es la primera en la línea de sucesión al trono

    he/she was the first to arrive — fue el primero/la primera en llegar

    the first she knew about it was when... — la primera noticia que tuvo de ello fue cuando...

    from the first — desde el principio, desde el primer momento


    II
    1)
    a) ( ahead of others) primero

    which comes first, your family or your career? — ¿para ti qué está primero, tu familia o tu carrera?

    first come, first served: tickets will be available on a first come, first served basis — se adjudicará(n) las entradas por riguroso orden de solicitud (or llegada etc)

    b) (before other actions, events) primero, en primer lugar

    first, I want to thank everyone for coming — en primer lugar or primero quiero agradecerles a todos que hayan venido

    c) ( beforehand) antes, primero
    d) ( for the first time) por primera vez
    e) ( rather) antes

    form a coalition? I'd resign first — ¿formar una coalición? antes (que eso) renuncio!

    first of all — en primer lugar, antes que nada


    III
    a) first (gear) ( Auto) (no art) primera f
    b) (original idea, accomplishment) primicia f
    [fɜːst]
    1.
    ADJ primero; (before m sing n) primer

    I was first! — ¡yo iba or estaba primero!

    • at first — al principio

    • on the first floor — (Brit) en el primer piso; (US) en la planta baja

    • from first to last — de principio a fin

    • in the first place — en primer lugar

    to win first place — (in competition) conseguir el primer puesto, ganar

    • to win first prize — ganar el primer premio

    • first strike weapon — arma f de primer golpe

    • the first time — la primera vez

    instance 1., 2), thing 2)
    2. ADV
    1) (in place, priority) primero

    first one, then another — primero uno, después otro

    we arrived first — fuimos los primeros en llegar, llegamos los primeros

    women and children first! — ¡las mujeres y los niños primero!

    • first of all — ante todo, antes que nada

    • to come first — (in race) ganar, llegar el primero; (=have priority) estar primero, tener prioridad

    the customer/your homework must come first — el cliente es lo primero/tus deberes son lo primero

    • first and foremost — ante todo, antes que nada

    • to get in first — (in conversation, process) adelantarse

    • you go first! — ¡tú primero!, ¡pasa tú!

    • head first — de cabeza

    • you have to put your children's needs first — primero están las necesidades de tus hijos

    free tickets, on a first-come-first-served basis — entradas gratis, por riguroso orden de llegada

    2) (in time) (=before anything else) primero, antes de nada

    first, I need a drink — primero or antes de nada or antes que nada, necesito una copa

    first, I don't like it, second, I haven't got the money — lo primero: no me gusta, lo segundo: no dispongo del dinero

    • first and last — (=above all) por encima de todo

    • first off * — primero de todo, antes de nada

    3) (=for the first time) por primera vez
    4) (=rather) primero, antes

    let him in this house? I'd kill him first! — ¿dejarle pisar esta casa? ¡primero or antes lo mato!

    I'd die first! — ¡antes me muero!

    3.
    PRON

    the first of January — el primero de enero, el uno de enero

    it's the first I've heard of it — ahora me entero, no lo sabía

    • he came in an easy first — llegó el primero con ventaja

    • from the (very) first — desde el principio

    • to be the first to do sth — ser el primero en hacer algo

    they were the first to arrive — fueron los primeros en llegar, llegaron los primeros

    4. N
    1) (Aut) primera f
    2) (Brit) (Univ) ≈ sobresaliente m

    he got a first in French — ≈ se ha licenciado en francés con una media de sobresaliente

    See:
    5.
    CPD
    first-aid

    first base N — (Baseball) primera base f

    • to draw first blood — anotar el primer tanto

    • first blood to sb — primer tanto para algn

    first cousin N — primo(-a) m / f hermano(-a)

    first edition N — primera edición f ; [of early or rare book] edición f príncipe

    first family N (US) [of president] —

    first form or year N — (Scol) primer curso de secundaria

    first-year student — (Univ) estudiante mf de primer año (de carrera universitaria)

    first gear N — (Aut) primera f

    first grade N — (US) primero m de primaria; first-grade

    first hand N —

    • at first hand — directamente

    - see sth at first hand

    first lady N — (US) primera dama f

    first language N — (=mother tongue) lengua f materna; [of country] lengua f principal

    first lieutenant N — (US) (Aer) teniente mf ; (Brit) (Naut) teniente mf de navío

    first light N — amanecer m, alba f

    • at first light — al amanecer, al alba

    first mate N — primer oficial m, primera oficial f

    first minister N — (in Scotland) primer(a) ministro(-a) m / f

    first name N — nombre m (de pila)

    first night N — (Theat) estreno m

    first offender N — (Jur) delincuente mf sin antecedentes penales

    first officer N — primer oficial m, primera oficial f

    first performance N — (Theat, Mus) estreno m

    first person N — (Ling) primera persona f

    first person plural N (Gram) —

    first school N — (Brit) escuela para niños entre cinco y nueve años

    first secretary, First Secretary N — (in Wales) primer(a) ministro(-a) m / f de Gales

    first violin N — primer violín m, primera violín f

    First World War battlefield N — campo m de batalla de la Primera Guerra Mundial

    first year N (Scol) — = first form

    * * *

    I [fɜːrst, fɜːst]
    1)
    a) ( initial) primero [primero becomes primer when it precedes a masculine singular noun]

    Henry I — (léase: Henry the First) Enrique I (read as: Enrique primero)

    who's going to be first? — ¿quién va a ser el primero?

    b) (in seniority, standing) primero

    the first eleven/fifteen — (BrE) el equipo titular

    she's first in line to the throne — está primera or es la primera en la línea de sucesión al trono

    he/she was the first to arrive — fue el primero/la primera en llegar

    the first she knew about it was when... — la primera noticia que tuvo de ello fue cuando...

    from the first — desde el principio, desde el primer momento


    II
    1)
    a) ( ahead of others) primero

    which comes first, your family or your career? — ¿para ti qué está primero, tu familia o tu carrera?

    first come, first served: tickets will be available on a first come, first served basis — se adjudicará(n) las entradas por riguroso orden de solicitud (or llegada etc)

    b) (before other actions, events) primero, en primer lugar

    first, I want to thank everyone for coming — en primer lugar or primero quiero agradecerles a todos que hayan venido

    c) ( beforehand) antes, primero
    d) ( for the first time) por primera vez
    e) ( rather) antes

    form a coalition? I'd resign first — ¿formar una coalición? antes (que eso) renuncio!

    first of all — en primer lugar, antes que nada


    III
    a) first (gear) ( Auto) (no art) primera f
    b) (original idea, accomplishment) primicia f

    English-spanish dictionary > first

  • 12 Salazar, Antônio de Oliveira

    (1889-1970)
       The Coimbra University professor of finance and economics and one of the founders of the Estado Novo, who came to dominate Western Europe's longest surviving authoritarian system. Salazar was born on 28 April 1889, in Vimieiro, Beira Alta province, the son of a peasant estate manager and a shopkeeper. Most of his first 39 years were spent as a student, and later as a teacher in a secondary school and a professor at Coimbra University's law school. Nine formative years were spent at Viseu's Catholic Seminary (1900-09), preparing for the Catholic priesthood, but the serious, studious Salazar decided to enter Coimbra University instead in 1910, the year the Braganza monarchy was overthrown and replaced by the First Republic. Salazar received some of the highest marks of his generation of students and, in 1918, was awarded a doctoral degree in finance and economics. Pleading inexperience, Salazar rejected an invitation in August 1918 to become finance minister in the "New Republic" government of President Sidónio Pais.
       As a celebrated academic who was deeply involved in Coimbra University politics, publishing works on the troubled finances of the besieged First Republic, and a leader of Catholic organizations, Sala-zar was not as modest, reclusive, or unknown as later official propaganda led the public to believe. In 1921, as a Catholic deputy, he briefly served in the First Republic's turbulent congress (parliament) but resigned shortly after witnessing but one stormy session. Salazar taught at Coimbra University as of 1916, and continued teaching until April 1928. When the military overthrew the First Republic in May 1926, Salazar was offered the Ministry of Finance and held office for several days. The ascetic academic, however, resigned his post when he discovered the degree of disorder in Lisbon's government and when his demands for budget authority were rejected.
       As the military dictatorship failed to reform finances in the following years, Salazar was reinvited to become minister of finances in April 1928. Since his conditions for acceptance—authority over all budget expenditures, among other powers—were accepted, Salazar entered the government. Using the Ministry of Finance as a power base, following several years of successful financial reforms, Salazar was named interim minister of colonies (1930) and soon garnered sufficient prestige and authority to become head of the entire government. In July 1932, Salazar was named prime minister, the first civilian to hold that post since the 1926 military coup.
       Salazar gathered around him a team of largely academic experts in the cabinet during the period 1930-33. His government featured several key policies: Portuguese nationalism, colonialism (rebuilding an empire in shambles), Catholicism, and conservative fiscal management. Salazar's government came to be called the Estado Novo. It went through three basic phases during Salazar's long tenure in office, and Salazar's role underwent changes as well. In the early years (1928-44), Salazar and the Estado Novo enjoyed greater vigor and popularity than later. During the middle years (1944—58), the regime's popularity waned, methods of repression increased and hardened, and Salazar grew more dogmatic in his policies and ways. During the late years (1958-68), the regime experienced its most serious colonial problems, ruling circles—including Salazar—aged and increasingly failed, and opposition burgeoned and grew bolder.
       Salazar's plans for stabilizing the economy and strengthening social and financial programs were shaken with the impact of the civil war (1936-39) in neighboring Spain. Salazar strongly supported General Francisco Franco's Nationalist rebels, the eventual victors in the war. But, as the civil war ended and World War II began in September 1939, Salazar's domestic plans had to be adjusted. As Salazar came to monopolize Lisbon's power and authority—indeed to embody the Estado Novo itself—during crises that threatened the future of the regime, he assumed ever more key cabinet posts. At various times between 1936 and 1944, he took over the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and of War (Defense), until the crises passed. At the end of the exhausting period of World War II, there were rumors that the former professor would resign from government and return to Coimbra University, but Salazar continued as the increasingly isolated, dominating "recluse of São Bento," that part of the parliament's buildings housing the prime minister's offices and residence.
       Salazar dominated the Estado Novo's government in several ways: in day-to-day governance, although this diminished as he delegated wider powers to others after 1944, and in long-range policy decisions, as well as in the spirit and image of the system. He also launched and dominated the single party, the União Nacional. A lifelong bachelor who had once stated that he could not leave for Lisbon because he had to care for his aged mother, Salazar never married, but lived with a beloved housekeeper from his Coimbra years and two adopted daughters. During his 36-year tenure as prime minister, Salazar engineered the important cabinet reshuffles that reflect the history of the Estado Novo and of Portugal.
       A number of times, in connection with significant events, Salazar decided on important cabinet officer changes: 11 April 1933 (the adoption of the Estado Novo's new 1933 Constitution); 18 January 1936 (the approach of civil war in Spain and the growing threat of international intervention in Iberian affairs during the unstable Second Spanish Republic of 1931-36); 4 September 1944 (the Allied invasion of Europe at Normandy and the increasing likelihood of a defeat of the Fascists by the Allies, which included the Soviet Union); 14 August 1958 (increased domestic dissent and opposition following the May-June 1958 presidential elections in which oppositionist and former regime stalwart-loyalist General Humberto Delgado garnered at least 25 percent of the national vote, but lost to regime candidate, Admiral Américo Tomás); 13 April 1961 (following the shock of anticolonial African insurgency in Portugal's colony of Angola in January-February 1961, the oppositionist hijacking of a Portuguese ocean liner off South America by Henrique Galvão, and an abortive military coup that failed to oust Salazar from office); and 19 August 1968 (the aging of key leaders in the government, including the now gravely ill Salazar, and the defection of key younger followers).
       In response to the 1961 crisis in Africa and to threats to Portuguese India from the Indian government, Salazar assumed the post of minister of defense (April 1961-December 1962). The failing leader, whose true state of health was kept from the public for as long as possible, appointed a group of younger cabinet officers in the 1960s, but no likely successors were groomed to take his place. Two of the older generation, Teotónio Pereira, who was in bad health, and Marcello Caetano, who preferred to remain at the University of Lisbon or in private law practice, remained in the political wilderness.
       As the colonial wars in three African territories grew more costly, Salazar became more isolated from reality. On 3 August 1968, while resting at his summer residence, the Fortress of São João do Estoril outside Lisbon, a deck chair collapsed beneath Salazar and his head struck the hard floor. Some weeks later, as a result, Salazar was incapacitated by a stroke and cerebral hemorrhage, was hospitalized, and became an invalid. While hesitating to fill the power vacuum that had unexpectedly appeared, President Tomás finally replaced Salazar as prime minister on 27 September 1968, with his former protégé and colleague, Marcello Caetano. Salazar was not informed that he no longer headed the government, but he never recovered his health. On 27 July 1970, Salazar died in Lisbon and was buried at Santa Comba Dão, Vimieiro, his village and place of birth.

    Historical dictionary of Portugal > Salazar, Antônio de Oliveira

  • 13 Bardeen, John

    [br]
    b. 23 May 1908 Madison, Wisconsin, USA
    d. 30 January 1991 Boston, Massachusetts, USA
    [br]
    American physicist, the first to win the Nobel Prize for Physics twice.
    [br]
    Born the son of a professor of anatomy, he studied electrical engineering at the University of Wisconsin. He then worked for three years as a geophysicist at the Gulf Research Laboratories before taking a PhD in mathematical physics at Princeton, where he was a graduate student. For some time he held appointments at the University of Minnesota and at Harvard, and during the Second World War he joined the US Naval Ordnance Laboratory. In 1945 he joined the Bell Telephone Laboratories to head a new department to work on solid-state devices. While there, he and W.H. Brattain in 1948 published a paper that introduced the transistor. For this he, Brattain and Shockley won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1956. In 1951 he moved to the University of Illinois as Professor of Physics and Electrical Engineering. There he worked on superconductivity, a phenomenon described in 1911 by Kamerling-Onnes. Bardeen worked with L.N. Cooper and J.A.Schrieffer, and in 1972 they were awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics for the "BCS Theory", which suggested that, under certain circumstances at very low temperatures, electrons can form bound pairs.
    [br]
    Principal Honours and Distinctions
    Nobel Prize for Physics (jointly with Brattain and Shockley) 1956, (jointly with Cooper and Schrieffer) 1972.
    Further Reading
    Isaacs and E.Martin (eds), 1985, Longmans Dictionary of 20th Century Biography.
    IMcN

    Biographical history of technology > Bardeen, John

  • 14 Jeanneret, Charles-Edouard (Le Corbusier)

    [br]
    b. 6 October 1887 La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland
    d. 27 August 1965 Cap Martin, France
    [br]
    Swiss/French architect.
    [br]
    The name of Le Corbusier is synonymous with the International style of modern architecture and city planning, one utilizing functionalist designs carried out in twentieth-century materials with modern methods of construction. Charles-Edouard Jeanneret, born in the watch-making town of La Chaux-de-Fonds in the Jura mountain region, was the son of a watch engraver and dial painter. In the years before 1918 he travelled widely, studying building in many countries. He learned about the use of reinforced concrete in the studio of Auguste Perret and about industrial construction under Peter Behrens. In 1917 he went to live in Paris and spent the rest of his life in France; in 1920 he adopted the name of Le Corbusier, one derived from that of his ancestors (Le Corbesier), and ten years later became a French citizen.
    Le Corbusier's long working life spanned a career divided into three distinct parts. Between 1905 and 1916 he designed a number of simple and increasingly modern houses; the years 1921 to 1940 were ones of research and debate; and the twenty years from 1945 saw the blossoming of his genius. After 1917 Le Corbusier gained a reputation in Paris as an architect of advanced originality. He was particularly interested in low-cost housing and in improving accommodation for the poor. In 1923 he published Vers une architecture, in which he planned estates of mass-produced houses where all extraneous and unnecessary features were stripped away and the houses had flat roofs and plain walls: his concept of "a machine for living in". These white boxes were lifted up on stilts, his pilotis, and double-height living space was provided internally, enclosed by large areas of factory glazing. In 1922 Le Corbusier exhibited a city plan, La Ville contemporaine, in which tall blocks made from steel and concrete were set amongst large areas of parkland, replacing the older concept of city slums with the light and air of modern living. In 1925 he published Urbanisme, further developing his socialist ideals. These constituted a major reform of the industrial-city pattern, but the ideas were not taken up at that time. The Depression years of the 1930s severely curtailed architectural activity in France. Le Corbusier designed houses for the wealthy there, but most of his work prior to 1945 was overseas: his Centrosoyus Administration Building in Moscow (1929–36) and the Ministry of Education Building in Rio de Janeiro (1943) are examples. Immediately after the end of the Second World War Le Corbusier won international fame for his Unité d'habitation theme, the first example of which was built in the boulevard Michelet in Marseille in 1947–52. His answer to the problem of accommodating large numbers of people in a small space at low cost was to construct an immense all-purpose block of pre-cast concrete slabs carried on a row of massive central supports. The Marseille Unité contains 350 apartments in eight double storeys, with a storey for shops half-way up and communal facilities on the roof. In 1950 he published Le Modular, which described a system of measurement based upon the human male figure. From this was derived a relationship of human and mathematical proportions; this concept, together with the extensive use of various forms of concrete, was fundamental to Le Corbusier's later work. In the world-famous and highly personal Pilgrimage Church of Notre Dame du Haut at Ronchamp (1950–5), Le Corbusier's work was in Expressionist form, a plastic design in massive rough-cast concrete, its interior brilliantly designed and lit. His other equally famous, though less popular, ecclesiastical commission showed a contrasting theme, of "brutalist" concrete construction with uncompromisingly stark, rectangular forms. This is the Dominican Convent of Sainte Marie de la Tourette at Eveux-sur-l'Arbresle near Lyon, begun in 1956. The interior, in particular, is carefully worked out, and the lighting, from both natural and artificial sources, is indirect, angled in many directions to illuminate vistas and planes. All surfaces are carefully sloped, the angles meticulously calculated to give optimum visual effect. The crypt, below the raised choir, is painted in bright colours and lit from ceiling oculi.
    One of Le Corbusier's late works, the Convent is a tour de force.
    [br]
    Principal Honours and Distinctions
    Honorary Doctorate Zurich University 1933. Honorary Member RIBA 1937. Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur 1937. American Institute of Architects Gold Medal 1961. Honorary Degree University of Geneva 1964.
    Bibliography
    His chief publications, all of which have been numerously reprinted and translated, are: 1923, Vers une architecture.
    1935, La Ville radieuse.
    1946, Propos d'urbanisme.
    1950, Le Modular.
    Further Reading
    P.Blake, 1963, Le Corbusier: Architecture and Form, Penguin. R.Furneaux-Jordan, 1972, Le Corbusier, Dent.
    W.Boesiger, 1970, Le Corbusier, 8 vols, Thames and Hudson.
    ——1987, Le Corbusier: Architect of the Century, Arts Council of Great Britain.
    DY

    Biographical history of technology > Jeanneret, Charles-Edouard (Le Corbusier)

  • 15 Maxim, Sir Hiram Stevens

    [br]
    b. 5 February 1840 Brockway's Mills, Maine, USA
    d. 24 November 1916 Streatham, London, England
    [br]
    American (naturalized British) inventor; designer of the first fully automatic machine gun and of an experimental steam-powered aircraft.
    [br]
    Maxim was born the son of a pioneer farmer who later became a wood turner. Young Maxim was first apprenticed to a carriage maker and then embarked on a succession of jobs before joining his uncle in his engineering firm in Massachusetts in 1864. As a young man he gained a reputation as a boxer, but it was his uncle who first identified and encouraged Hiram's latent talent for invention.
    It was not, however, until 1878, when Maxim joined the first electric-light company to be established in the USA, as its Chief Engineer, that he began to make a name for himself. He developed an improved light filament and his electric pressure regulator not only won a prize at the first International Electrical Exhibition, held in Paris in 1881, but also resulted in his being made a Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur. While in Europe he was advised that weapons development was a more lucrative field than electricity; consequently, he moved to England and established a small laboratory at Hatton Garden, London. He began by investigating improvements to the Gatling gun in order to produce a weapon with a faster rate of fire and which was more accurate. In 1883, by adapting a Winchester carbine, he successfully produced a semi-automatic weapon, which used the recoil to cock the gun automatically after firing. The following year he took this concept a stage further and produced a fully automatic belt-fed weapon. The recoil drove barrel and breechblock to the vent. The barrel then halted, while the breechblock, now unlocked from the former, continued rearwards, extracting the spent case and recocking the firing mechanism. The return spring, which it had been compressing, then drove the breechblock forward again, chambering the next round, which had been fed from the belt, as it did so. Keeping the trigger pressed enabled the gun to continue firing until the belt was expended. The Maxim gun, as it became known, was adopted by almost every army within the decade, and was to remain in service for nearly fifty years. Maxim himself joined forces with the large British armaments firm of Vickers, and the Vickers machine gun, which served the British Army during two world wars, was merely a refined version of the Maxim gun.
    Maxim's interests continued to occupy several fields of technology, including flight. In 1891 he took out a patent for a steam-powered aeroplane fitted with a pendulous gyroscopic stabilizer which would maintain the pitch of the aeroplane at any desired inclination (basically, a simple autopilot). Maxim decided to test the relationship between power, thrust and lift before moving on to stability and control. He designed a lightweight steam-engine which developed 180 hp (135 kW) and drove a propeller measuring 17 ft 10 in. (5.44 m) in diameter. He fitted two of these engines into his huge flying machine testrig, which needed a wing span of 104 ft (31.7 m) to generate enough lift to overcome a total weight of 4 tons. The machine was not designed for free flight, but ran on one set of rails with a second set to prevent it rising more than about 2 ft (61 cm). At Baldwyn's Park in Kent on 31 July 1894 the huge machine, carrying Maxim and his crew, reached a speed of 42 mph (67.6 km/h) and lifted off its rails. Unfortunately, one of the restraining axles broke and the machine was extensively damaged. Although it was subsequently repaired and further trials carried out, these experiments were very expensive. Maxim eventually abandoned the flying machine and did not develop his idea for a stabilizer, turning instead to other projects. At the age of almost 70 he returned to the problems of flight and designed a biplane with a petrol engine: it was built in 1910 but never left the ground.
    In all, Maxim registered 122 US and 149 British patents on objects ranging from mousetraps to automatic spindles. Included among them was a 1901 patent for a foot-operated suction cleaner. In 1900 he became a British subject and he was knighted the following year. He remained a larger-than-life figure, both physically and in character, until the end of his life.
    [br]
    Principal Honours and Distinctions
    Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur 1881. Knighted 1901.
    Bibliography
    1908, Natural and Artificial Flight, London. 1915, My Life, London: Methuen (autobiography).
    Further Reading
    Obituary, 1916, Engineer (1 December).
    Obituary, 1916, Engineering (1 December).
    P.F.Mottelay, 1920, The Life and Work of Sir Hiram Maxim, London and New York: John Lane.
    Dictionary of National Biography, 1912–1921, 1927, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
    CM / JDS

    Biographical history of technology > Maxim, Sir Hiram Stevens

  • 16 Morris, William Richard, Viscount Nuffield

    [br]
    b. 10 October 1877 Worcester, England
    d. 22 August 1963 Nuffield Place, England
    [br]
    English industrialist, car manufacturer and philanthropist.
    [br]
    Morris was the son of Frederick Morris, then a draper. He was the eldest of a family of seven, all of whom, except for one sister, died in childhood. When he was 3 years old, his father moved to Cowley, near Oxford, where he attended the village school. After a short time with a local bicycle firm he set up on his own at the age of 16 with a capital of £4. He manufactured pedal cycles and by 1902 he had designed a motor cycle and was doing car-repair work. By 1912, at the Motor Show, he was able to announce his first car, the 8.9 hp, two-seater Morris Oxford with its characteristic "bull-nose". It could perform at up to 50 mph (80 km/h) and 50 mpg (5.65 1/100 km). It cost £165.
    Though untrained, Morris was a born engineer as well as a natural judge of character. This enabled him to build up a reliable team of assistants in his growing business, with an order for four hundred cars at the Motor Show in 1912. Much of his business was built up in the assembly of components manufactured by outside suppliers. In he moved out of his initial premises by New College in Longwall and bought land at Cowley, where he brought out his second model, the 11.9hp Morris Oxford. This was after the First World War, during which car production was reduced to allow the manufacture of tanks and munitions. He was awarded the OBE in 1917 for his war work. Morris Motors Ltd was incorporated in 1919, and within fifteen months sales of cars had reached over 3,000 a year. By 1923 he was producing 20,000 cars a year, and in 1926 50,000, equivalent to about one-third of Britain's output. With the slump, a substantial overdraft, and a large stock of unsold cars, Morris took the bold decision to cut the prices of cars in stock, which then sold out within three weeks. Other makers followed suit, but Morris was ahead of them.
    Morris was part-founder of the Pressed Steel Company, set up to produce car bodies at Cowley. A clever operation with the shareholding of the Morris Motors Company allowed Morris a substantial overall profit to provide expansion capital. By 1931 his "empire" comprised, in addition to Morris Motors, the MG Car Company, the Wolseley Company, the SU Carburettor Company and Morris Commercial Cars. In 1936, the value of Morris's financial interest in the business was put at some £16 million.
    William Morris was a frugal man and uncomplicated, having little use for all the money he made except to channel it to charitable purposes. It is said that in all he gave away some £30 million during his lifetime, much of it invested by the recipients to provide long-term benefits. He married Elizabeth Anstey in 1904 and lived for thirty years at Nuffield Place. He lived modestly, and even after retirement, when Honorary President of the British Motor Corporation, the result of a merger between Morris Motors and the Austin Motor Company, he drove himself to work in a modest 10 hp Wolseley. His generosity benefited many hospitals in London, Oxford, Birmingham and elsewhere. Oxford Colleges were another class of beneficiary from his largesse.
    [br]
    Principal Honours and Distinctions
    Viscount 1938; Baron (Lord Nuffield) 1934; Baronet 1929; OBE 1917; GBE 1941; CH 1958. FRS 1939. He was a doctor of seven universities and an honorary freeman of seven towns.
    Further Reading
    R.Jackson, 1964, The Nuffield Story.
    P.W.S.Andrews and E.Brunner, The Life of Lord Nuffield.
    IMcN

    Biographical history of technology > Morris, William Richard, Viscount Nuffield

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