document_title: Unicorn

question_text: where did the idea of a unicorn come from

text: Unicorn

text: History

text: In antiquity

text: Unicorns are not found in Greek mythology, but rather in the accounts of natural history, for Greek writers of natural history were convinced of the reality of unicorns, which they believed lived in India, a distant and fabulous realm for them. The earliest description is from Ctesias, who in his book Indika ("On India") described them as wild asses, fleet of foot, having a horn a cubit and a half (700 mm, 28 inches) in length, and colored white, red and black.[2] Aristotle must be following Ctesias when he mentions two one-horned animals, the oryx (a kind of antelope) and the so-called "Indian ass".[3][4] Strabo says that in the Caucasus there were one-horned horses with stag-like heads.[5] Pliny the Elder mentions the oryx and an Indian ox (perhaps a rhinoceros) as one-horned beasts, as well as "a very fierce animal called the monoceros which has the head of the stag, the feet of the elephant, and the tail of the boar, while the rest of the body is like that of the horse; it makes a deep lowing noise, and has a single black horn, which projects from the middle of its forehead, two cubits [900 mm, 35 inches] in length."[6] In On the Nature of Animals (Περὶ Ζῴων Ἰδιότητος, De natura animalium), Aelian, quoting Ctesias, adds that India produces also a one-horned horse (iii. 41; iv. 52),[7][8] and says (xvi. 20)[9] that the monoceros (Greek: μονόκερως) was sometimes called cartazonos (Greek: καρτάζωνος), which may be a form of the Arabic karkadann, meaning "rhinoceros".

text: Cosmas Indicopleustes, a merchant of Alexandria who lived in the 6th century, made a voyage to India and subsequently wrote works on cosmography. He gives a description of a unicorn based on four brass figures in the palace of the King of Ethiopia. He states, from report, that "it is impossible to take this ferocious beast alive; and that all its strength lies in its horn. When it finds itself pursued and in danger of capture, it throws itself from a precipice, and turns so aptly in falling, that it receives all the shock upon the horn, and so escapes safe and sound".[10][11]

text: A one-horned animal (which may be just a bull in profile) is found on some seals from the Indus Valley Civilization.[12] Seals with such a design are thought to be a mark of high social rank.[13]

text: Middle Ages and Renaissance

text: Medieval knowledge of the fabulous beast stemmed from biblical and ancient sources, and the creature was variously represented as a kind of wild ass, goat, or horse.

text: The predecessor of the medieval bestiary, compiled in Late Antiquity and known as Physiologus (Φυσιολόγος), popularized an elaborate allegory in which a unicorn, trapped by a maiden (representing the Virgin Mary), stood for the Incarnation. As soon as the unicorn sees her, it lays its head on her lap and falls asleep. This became a basic emblematic tag that underlies medieval notions of the unicorn, justifying its appearance in every form of religious art. Interpretations of the unicorn myth focus on the medieval lore of beguiled lovers,[citation needed] whereas some religious writers interpret the unicorn and its death as the Passion of Christ. The myths refer to a beast with one horn that can only be tamed by a virgin; subsequently, some writers translated this into an allegory for Christ's relationship with the Virgin Mary.

text: The unicorn also figured in courtly terms: for some 13th-century French authors such as Thibaut of Champagne and Richard de Fournival, the lover is attracted to his lady as the unicorn is to the virgin. With the rise of humanism, the unicorn also acquired more orthodox secular meanings, emblematic of chaste love and faithful marriage. It plays this role in Petrarch's Triumph of Chastity, and on the reverse of Piero della Francesca's portrait of Battista Strozzi, paired with that of her husband Federico da Montefeltro (painted c 1472-74), Bianca's triumphal car is drawn by a pair of unicorns.[14]

text: The Throne Chair of Denmark is made of "unicorn horns" – almost certainly narwhal tusks. The same material was used for ceremonial cups because the unicorn's horn continued to be believed to neutralize poison, following classical authors.

text: The unicorn, tamable only by a virgin woman, was well established in medieval lore by the time Marco Polo described them as "scarcely smaller than elephants. They have the hair of a buffalo and feet like an elephant's. They have a single large black horn in the middle of the forehead... They have a head like a wild boar's… They spend their time by preference wallowing in mud and slime. They are very ugly brutes to look at. They are not at all such as we describe them when we relate that they let themselves be captured by virgins, but clean contrary to our notions." It is clear that Marco Polo was describing a rhinoceros.[citation needed] In German, since the 16th century, Einhorn ("one-horn") has become a descriptor of the various species of rhinoceros.

text: Alicorn

text: The horn itself and the substance it was made of was called alicorn, and it was believed that the horn holds magical and medicinal properties. The Danish physician Ole Worm determined in 1638 that the alleged alicorns were the tusks of narwhals.[15] Such beliefs were examined wittily and at length in 1646 by Sir Thomas Browne in his Pseudodoxia Epidemica.[16]

text: False alicorn powder, made from the tusks of narwhals or horns of various animals, has been sold in Europe for medicinal purposes as late as 1741.[17] The alicorn was thought to cure many diseases and have the ability to detect poisons, and many physicians would make "cures" and sell them. Cups were made from alicorn for kings and given as a gift; these were usually made of ivory or walrus ivory. Entire horns were very precious in the Middle Ages and were often really the tusks of narwhals.[18]

text: Entrapment

text: One traditional method of hunting unicorns involved entrapment by a virgin.

text: In one of his notebooks Leonardo da Vinci wrote:

text: The unicorn, through its intemperance and not knowing how to control itself, for the love it bears to fair maidens forgets its ferocity and wildness; and laying aside all fear it will go up to a seated damsel and go to sleep in her lap, and thus the hunters take it.[19]

text: The famous late Gothic series of seven tapestry hangings The Hunt of the Unicorn are a high point in European tapestry manufacture, combining both secular and religious themes. The tapestries now hang in the Cloisters division of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. In the series, richly dressed noblemen, accompanied by huntsmen and hounds, pursue a unicorn against mille-fleur backgrounds or settings of buildings and gardens. They bring the animal to bay with the help of a maiden who traps it with her charms, appear to kill it, and bring it back to a castle; in the last and most famous panel, "The Unicorn in Captivity", the unicorn is shown alive again and happy, chained to a pomegranate tree surrounded by a fence, in a field of flowers. Scholars conjecture that the red stains on its flanks are not blood but rather the juice from pomegranates, which were a symbol of fertility. However, the true meaning of the mysterious resurrected unicorn in the last panel is unclear. The series was woven about 1500 in the Low Countries, probably Brussels or Liège, for an unknown patron. A set of six engravings on the same theme, treated rather differently, were engraved by the French artist Jean Duvet in the 1540s.

text: Another famous set of six tapestries of Dame à la licorne ("Lady with the unicorn") in the Musée de Cluny, Paris, were also woven in the Southern Netherlands before 1500, and show the five senses (the gateways to temptation) and finally Love ("A mon seul desir" the legend reads), with unicorns featured in each piece. Facsimiles of these unicorn tapestries were woven for permanent display in Stirling Castle, Scotland, to take the place of a set recorded in the castle in a 16th-century inventory.[20]

text: A rather rare, late-15th-century, variant depiction of the hortus conclusus in religious art combined the Annunciation to Mary with the themes of the Hunt of the Unicorn and Virgin and Unicorn, so popular in secular art. The unicorn already functioned as a symbol of the Incarnation and whether this meaning is intended in many prima facie secular depictions can be a difficult matter of scholarly interpretation. There is no such ambiguity in the scenes where the archangel Gabriel is shown blowing a horn, as hounds chase the unicorn into the Virgin's arms, and a little Christ Child descends on rays of light from God the Father. The Council of Trent finally banned this somewhat over-elaborated, if charming, depiction,[21] partly on the grounds of realism, as no one now believed the unicorn to be a real animal.

text: Shakespeare scholars describe unicorns being captured by a hunter standing in front of a tree, the unicorn goaded into charging; the hunter would step aside the last moment and the unicorn would embed its horn deeply into the tree (See annotations[22] of Timon of Athens, Act 4, scene 3, c. line 341: "wert thou the unicorn, pride and wrath would confound thee and make thine own self the conquest of thy fury".)

text: Heraldry

text: In heraldry, a unicorn is often depicted as a horse with a goat's cloven hooves and beard, a lion's tail, and a slender, spiral horn on its forehead[23] (non-equine attributes may be replaced with equine ones, as can be seen from the following gallery). Whether because it was an emblem of the Incarnation or of the fearsome animal passions of raw nature, the unicorn was not widely used in early heraldry, but became popular from the 15th century.[23] Though sometimes shown collared and chained, which may be taken as an indication that it has been tamed or tempered, it is more usually shown collared with a broken chain attached, showing that it has broken free from its bondage.

text: Scotland

text: In heraldry the unicorn is best known as the symbol of Scotland. The unicorn was chosen because it was seen as a proud and haughty beast which would rather die than be captured, just as Scots would fight to remain sovereign and unconquered.[24] Two unicorns supported the royal arms of the King of Scots, and since the 1707 union of England and Scotland, the royal arms of the United Kingdom have been supported by a unicorn along with an English lion. Two versions of the royal arms exist: that used in Scotland gives more emphasis to the Scottish elements, placing the unicorn on the left and giving it a crown, whereas the version used in England and elsewhere gives the English elements more prominence.

text: Golden coins known as the unicorn and half-unicorn, both with a unicorn on the obverse, were used in Scotland in the 15th and 16th century. In the same realm, carved unicorns were often used as finials on the pillars of Mercat crosses, and denoted that the settlement was a royal burgh. Certain noblemen such as the Earl of Kinnoull were given special permission to use the unicorn in their arms, as an augmentation of honour.[24] The crest for Clan Cunningham bears a unicorn head.[25]

text: Gallery

text: Unicorns as heraldic charges:

text:
Arms of John, King of Hungary (16th century)

Arms of the Kruedener family

Arms of the County of Roxburgh, Scotland

Arms of Saint-Lô, France

Arms of Líšnice, Czech Republic

Arms of Ramosch, Switzerland

Arms of Schwäbisch Gmünd, Germany

Arms of Giengen, Germany

Arms of Eger, Hungary

text: Unicorns as supporters:

text:
Scottish unicorn, flag and shield carved at Edinburgh Castle

Royal arms of Queen Elizabeth II, as used in England

Royal arms of Queen Elizabeth II as used in Scotland

Coat of arms of Nova Scotia

Arms of the Dutch city of Hoorn with a single unicorn as a supporter

text: Possible origins

text: Hunts for an actual animal as the basis of the unicorn myth, accepting the conception of writers in Antiquity that it really existed somewhere at the edge of the known earth, have added a further layer of mythologizing about the unicorn. These have taken various forms, interpreted in a scientific, rather than a wonder-filled manner, to accord with modern perceptions of reality.

text: Fabricated evidence

text: Among numerous finds of prehistoric bones found at Unicorn Cave in Germany's Harz Mountains, some were selected and reconstructed by the mayor of Magdeburg, Otto Von Guericke, as a unicorn in 1663 (illustration, right). Guericke's so-called unicorn had only two legs, and was constructed from fossil bones of a woolly rhinoceros and a mammoth, with the horn of a narwhal. The skeleton was examined by Gottfried Leibniz, who had previously doubted the existence of the unicorn, but was convinced by it.[26]

text: Baron Georges Cuvier maintained that, as the unicorn was cloven-hoofed, it must therefore have a cloven skull (making the growth of a single horn impossible); as if to disprove this, Dr. W. Franklin Dove, a University of Maine professor, artificially fused the horn buds of a calf together, creating the external appearance of a one-horned bull.[27][dubious – discuss]

text: Unicorn seals of the Indus Valley Civilization

text: The first objects unearthed from Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro, major sites of the Indus Valley Civilization, were small stone seals inscribed with elegant depictions of animals, including a unicorn-like figure, and marked with Indus script writing which still baffles scholars. These seals are dated back to 2500 B.C.[28]

text: The "unicorn" figures on the seals have been interpreted as representations of aurochs—a type of large wild cattle that formerly inhabited Europe, Asia and North Africa—or derivatives of aurochs. It is suggested that as the animal is always shown in profile, only one of the two horns is seen.[29]

text: Elasmotherium or rhinoceros

text: One suggestion is that the unicorn is based on the extinct rhinocerus species Elasmotherium, a huge Eurasian mammal native to the steppes, south of the range of the woolly rhinoceros of Ice Age Europe. Elasmotherium looked little like a horse, but it had a large single horn in its forehead. It became extinct about the same time as the rest of the glacial age megafauna.[30]

text: However, according to the Nordisk familjebok (Nordic Familybook) and science writer Willy Ley the animal may have survived long enough to be remembered in the legends of the native European peoples as a huge black bull with a single horn in the forehead.

text: In support of this claim, it has been noted that the 13th century traveller Marco Polo claimed to have seen a unicorn in Java, but his description makes it clear to the modern reader that he actually saw a Javan rhinoceros.

text: More recent findings seem to place humans and the Siberian elasmotherium in the same area at the same time.[31] The fragmentary skull of an Elasmotherium sibiricum was found in Kazakhstan and carbon-dated in 2015 as ca. 30,000 years old.[32] Skulls of modern humans found in the same area date back up to 45,000 years, this meaning that our species and this type of mammal possibly coexisted in Western Siberia for thousands of years.[31]

text: Single-horned goat

text: The connection that is sometimes made with a single-horned goat derives from the vision of Daniel:

text: And as I was considering, behold, a he-goat came from the west over the face of the whole earth, and touched not the ground: and the goat had a notable horn between his eyes. (Daniel 8:5)

text: Neo-Pagan antiquities researcher Timothy Zell and his wife Morning Glory also produced artificial unicorns dubbed "the Living Unicorn", remodelling the "horn buds" of goat kids in such a way that their horns grew together into a single one.[33] Zell theorized that this process might have been used in the past to create court curiosities and natural herd leaders, because the goat was able to use this long straight horn effectively as a weapon and a tool. Medieval art often depicts unicorns as small, with cloven hooves and beards, sometimes resembling goats more than horses with horns. This process is possible only with animals that naturally have horns. For a time, a few of these unicorns travelled with the Ringling Brothers Circus.[34]

text: Narwhals

text: The unicorn horns often found in cabinets of curiosities and other contexts in Medieval and Renaissance Europe, were very often examples of the distinctive straight spiral single tusks of narwhals (Monodon monoceros), an Arctic cetacean, as Danish zoologist Ole Worm established in 1638.[35] They were brought south as a very valuable trade, and sold as horns from the legendary unicorn; being of ivory, they passed the various tests intended to spot fake unicorn horns.[36] As these 'horns' were considered to have magic powers, Vikings and other northern traders were able to sell them for many times their weight in gold. Elizabeth I of England kept a "unicorn horn" in her cabinet of curiosities, brought back by Arctic explorer Martin Frobisher on his return from Labrador in 1577.[37] The usual depiction of the spiral unicorn horn in art, derives from these.

text: The truth of the tusk's origin developed gradually during the Age of Exploration, as explorers and naturalists began to visit regions themselves. In 1555, Olaus Magnus published a drawing of a fish-like creature with a "horn" on its forehead.

text: Oryx

text: Oryx are antelopes with two long, thin horns projecting from its forehead. Some have suggested that seen from the side and from a distance, they look something like horses with single horns (although the 'horn' projects backward, not forward as in the classic unicorn). Conceivably, travellers in Arabia could have derived the tale of the unicorn from these animals. However, classical authors seem to distinguish clearly between oryxes and unicorns. The Peregrinatio in terram sanctam, published in 1486, was the first printed illustrated travel-book, describing a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and thence to Egypt by way of Mount Sinai. It featured many large woodcuts by Erhard Reuwich, who went on the trip, mostly detailed and accurate views of cities. The book also contained pictures of animals seen on the journey, including a crocodile, camel, and unicorn—presumably an oryx, which they could easily have seen on their route.

text: Eland

text: In Southern Africa, the eland have somewhat mystical or spiritual connotations, perhaps at least partly because these very large antelopes will defend themselves against lions and are able to kill these fearsome predators. Eland are very frequently depicted in the rock art of the region, which implies they were viewed as having a strong connection to the other world, and in several languages the word for eland and for dance is the same; significant because shamans used dance as their means of drawing power from the other world. Eland fat was used when mixing the pigments for these pictographs, and in the preparation of many medicines.

text: This special regard for eland may well have been picked up by early travellers. There is a purported unicorn horn in the castle of the chief of the Clan MacLeod in Scotland, which has been identified as that of an eland.[citation needed]

text: Genetic disorders of horned or antlered animals

text: A new possibility for the inspiration of the unicorn came in 2008 with the discovery of a roe deer in Italy with a single antler. Single-antlered deer are not uncommon; however, the placement of the horn in the middle is very unusual. Fulvio Fraticelli, scientific director of Rome's zoo, has said "Generally, the horn is on one side (of the head) rather than being at the center. This looks like a complex case."[38] Fraticelli also acknowledges that the placement of the antler could have been the result of some type of trauma in the life of the deer.

text: A similar specimen was filmed in July 2017 near the Sibillini Mountains, in central Italy.[39]

text: Antlers are not horns, although this distinction was not always made historically.

text: Similar mythical animals

text: Biblical

text: An animal called the re’em (Hebrew: רְאֵם) is mentioned in several places in the Hebrew Bible, often as a metaphor representing strength. "The allusions to the re'em as a wild, un-tamable animal of great strength and agility, with mighty horn or horns (Job xxxix. 9–12; Ps. xxii. 21, xxix. 6; Num. xxiii. 22, xxiv. 8; Deut. xxxiii. 17; comp. Ps. xcii. 11), best fit the aurochs (Bos primigenius). This view is supported by the Assyrian rimu, which is often used as a metaphor of strength, and is depicted as a powerful, fierce, wild mountain bull with large horns."[40] This animal was often depicted in ancient Mesopotamian art in profile, with only one horn visible.

text: The translators of the Authorized King James Version of the Bible (1611) followed the Greek Septuagint (monokeros) and the Latin Vulgate (unicornis)[41] and employed unicorn to translate re'em, providing a recognizable animal that was proverbial for its un-tamable nature. The American Standard Version translates this term "wild ox" in each case.

text:
"God brought them out of Egypt; he hath as it were the strength of an unicorn."—Numbers 23:22
"God brought him forth out of Egypt; he hath as it were the strength of an unicorn."—Numbers 24:8
"His glory is like the firstling of his bullock, and his horns are like the horns of unicorns: with them he shall push the people together to the ends of the earth."—Deuteronomy 33:17
"Will the unicorn be willing to serve thee, or abide by thy crib? Canst thou bind the unicorn with his band in the furrow? or will he harrow the valleys after thee? Wilt thou trust him, because his strength is great? or wilt thou leave thy labour to him? Wilt thou believe him, that he will bring home thy seed, and gather it into thy barn?"—Job 39:9–12
"Save me from the lion's mouth; for thou hast heard me from the horns of unicorns."—Psalms 22:21
"He maketh them [the cedars of Lebanon] also to skip like a calf; Lebanon and Sirion like a young unicorn."—Psalms 29:6
"But my horn shalt thou exalt like the horn of the unicorn: I shall be anointed with fresh oil."—Psalms 92:10
"And the unicorns shall come down with them, and the bullocks with their bulls; and their land shall be soaked with blood, and their dust made fat with fatness."—Isaiah 34:7

text: The classical Jewish understanding of the Bible did not identify the Re'em animal as the unicorn. However, some rabbis in the Talmud debate the proposition that the Tahash animal (Exodus 25, 26, 35, 36 and 39; Numbers 4; and Ezekiel 16:10) was a domestic, single-horned kosher creature that existed in Moses' time, or that it was similar to the keresh animal described in Morris Jastrow's Talmudic dictionary as "a kind of antelope, unicorn".[42]

text: Chinese mythology

text: The qilin (Chinese: 麒麟), a creature in Chinese mythology, is sometimes called "the Chinese unicorn", and some ancient accounts describe a single horn as its defining feature. However, it is more accurately described as a hybrid animal that looks less unicorn than chimera, with the body of a deer, the head of a lion, green scales and a long forwardly-curved horn. The Japanese version (kirin) more closely resembles the Western unicorn, even though it is based on the Chinese qilin. The Quẻ Ly of Vietnamese myth, similarly sometimes mistranslated "unicorn" is a symbol of wealth and prosperity that made its first appearance during the Duong Dynasty, about 600 CE, to Emperor Duong Cao To, after a military victory which resulted in his conquest of Tây Nguyên. In November 2012 the History Institute of the DPRK Academy of Social Sciences, as well as the Korea News Service, reported that the Kiringul had been found, which is associated with a kirin ridden by King Dongmyeong of Goguryeo.[43][44]

text: Beginning in the Ming Dynasty, the qilin became associated with giraffes, after Zheng He's voyage to East Africa brought a pair of the long-necked animals and introduced them at court in Nanjing as qilin.[45] The resemblance to the qilin was noted in the giraffe's ossicones (bony protrusions from the skull resembling horns), graceful movements, and peaceful demeanor.[46]

text: Shanhaijing (117) also mentioned Bo-horse (Chinese: 駮馬; pinyin: bómǎ), a chimera horse with ox tail, single horn, white body, and its sound like person calling. The creature is lived at Honest-head Mountain. Guo Pu in his jiangfu said that Bo-horse able to walk on water. Another similar creature also mentioned in Shanhaijing (80) to live in Mount Winding-Centre as Bo (Chinese: 駮; pinyin: bó), but with black tail, tiger's teeth and claws, and also devour leopards and tigers.[47]


document_title: United Kingdom and the American Civil War

question_text: which battle ended britain's support for the south

question_tokens: which battle ended britain 's support for the south

root

text: Confederate policies[edit]

text: The Confederacy, such as President Jefferson Davis, believed from the beginning in "King Cotton": British dependence on cotton for its large textile industry would lead to diplomatic recognition and mediation or military intervention. The Confederates had not sent out agents ahead of time to ascertain if the King Cotton policy would be effective. Instead, by popular demand, not government action, shipments of cotton to Europe were ended in spring 1861. When the Confederate diplomats arrived, they tried to convince British leaders that the US naval blockade was an illegal paper blockade.[6] Historian Charles Hubbard writes:

tag: p

text: Hubbard added that Davis's policy was stubborn and coercive. The King Cotton strategy was resisted by the Europeans. Secretary of War Judah Benjamin and Secretary of the Treasury Christopher Memminger warned that cotton should be immediately exported to build up foreign credits.[8]

text: Union policies[edit]

text: The Union’s main goal in foreign affairs was to maintain friendly relations and large-scale trade with the world and to prevent any official recognition of the Confederacy by any country, especially Britain. Other concerns included preventing the Confederacy from buying foreign-made warships; gaining European support for policies against slavery; and attracting immigrant laborers, farmers and soldiers. There had been continuous improvement in Anglo-American relations throughout the 1850s. The issues of Oregon, Texas, and the Canada–US border had all been resolved, and trade was brisk.  Secretary of State William H. Seward, the primary architect of American foreign policy during the war, intended to maintain the policy principles that had served the country well since the American Revolution: "non-intervention by the United States in the affairs of other countries and resistance to foreign intervention in the affairs of the United States and other countries in this hemisphere."[9]

text: British policies[edit]

text: British public opinion was divided on the American Civil War. The Confederacy tended to have support from the elites--from the aristocracy and gentry, which identified with the landed plantation owners, and from Anglican clergy and some professionals who admired tradition, hierarchy and paternalism. The Union was favored by the middle classes, the Nonconformists in religion, intellectuals, reformers and most factory workers, who saw slavery and forced labor as a threat to the status of the workingman.  The cabinet made the decisions. Chancellor of the Exchequer William E Gladstone, whose family fortune was based on slavery in the West Indies before 1833, supported the Confederacy. Foreign Minister Lord Russell wanted neutrality. Prime Minister Lord Palmerston wavered between support for national independence, his opposition to slavery, and the strong economic advantages of Britain remaining neutral.[10]

text: Even before the war started, Lord Palmerston pursued a policy of neutrality.  His international concerns were centred in Europe, where he had to watch both Napoleon III’s ambitions in Europe and Otto von Bismarck's rise in Prussia. There were also serious problems involving Italy, Poland, Russia, Denmark and China.  British reactions to American events were shaped by past British policies and their own national interests, both strategically and economically. In the Western Hemisphere, as relations with the United States improved, Britain had become cautious about confronting it over issues in Central America. As a naval power, Britain had a long record of insisting that neutral nations abide by its blockades, a perspective that led from the earliest days of the war to de facto support for the Union blockade and frustration in the South.[11]

text: Diplomatic observers were suspicious of British motives. The Russian Minister in Washington, Eduard de Stoeckl, noted, "The Cabinet of London is watching attentively the internal dissensions of the Union and awaits the result with an impatience which it has difficulty in disguising.”" De Stoeckl advised his government that Britain would recognize the Confederacy at its earliest opportunity. Cassius Clay, the United States Minister in Russia, stated, "I saw at a glance where the feeling of England was. They hoped for our ruin! They are jealous of our power. They care neither for the South nor the North. They hate both."[12]

text: Lincoln appointed Charles Francis Adams, Sr., as minister to Britain. An important part of his mission was to make clear to the British that the war was strictly an internal insurrection and afforded the Confederacy no rights under international law. Any movement by Britain to recognizing the Confederacy officially would be considered an unfriendly act toward the US. Seward's instructions to Adams included the suggestion that it should be made clear to Britain that a nation with widely scattered possessions, as well as a homeland that included Scotland and Ireland, should be very wary of "set[ting] a dangerous precedent."[13]

text: Lord Lyons was appointed as the British minister to the United States in April 1859. An Oxford graduate, he had two decades of diplomatic experience before being given the American post. Lyons, like many British leaders, had reservations about Seward and shared them freely in his correspondence, which was widely circulated within the British government.[14][15] As early as January 7, 1861, well before the Lincoln administration had even assumed office, Lyons wrote to British Foreign Secretary Lord Russell about Seward:

text: I cannot help fearing that he will be a dangerous foreign minister.  His view of the relations between the United States and Britain had always been that they are a good material to make political capital of.... I do not think Mr. Seward would contemplate actually going to war with us, but he would be well disposed to play the old game of seeking popularity here by displaying violence toward us.[16]

text: Despite his distrust of Seward, throughout 1861, Lyons maintained a "calm and measured" diplomacy that contributed to a peaceful resolution to the Trent crisis.[15]

text: Slavery[edit]

text: The Confederate States came into existence after seven of the fifteen slave states seceded because of the election of Republican President Lincoln, whose party committed to the containment of slavery geographically and the weakening of slaveowners' political power. Slavery was the cornerstone of the South's plantation economy, although it was repugnant to the moral sensibilities of most people in Britain, which had abolished slavery in its Empire in 1833. Until the Fall of 1862, the immediate end of slavery was not an issue in the war; in fact, some Union states (Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri, Delaware, and what became West Virginia) allowed slavery. In 1861, Missouri had sought to extradite an escaped slave from Canada to face trial for a murder committed in his flight for which some in Britain falsely believed the punishment was to be burned alive.[17][18][19]

text: Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, announced in preliminary form in September 1862, made ending slavery an objective of the war and caused European intervention on the side of the South to be unpopular. However, some British leaders expected it would cause a large scale race war that might need foreign intervention. Pro-Southern leaders in Britain then spoke of mediation, which they understood to mean the independence of the Confederacy and the continuation of slavery.[20]

text: Trent Affair[edit]

text: Outright war was a possibility in late 1861, when the U.S. Navy took control of a British mail ship and seized two Confederate diplomats. Confederate President Jefferson Davis had named James M. Mason and John Slidell as commissioners to represent Confederate interests in England and France. They went to Havana, in Spanish Cuba, where they took passage for England on the British mail steamer Trent.[21]  The American warship USS San Jacinto under Captain Charles Wilkes was looking for them. It was generally then agreed that a nation at war had the right to stop and search a neutral merchant ship if it suspected that ship of carrying the enemy's dispatches. Mason and Slidell, Wilkes reasoned, were in effect Confederate dispatches and so he had the right to remove them. On November 8, 1861, he fired twice across the bow of the Trent, sent a boat's crew aboard, seized the Confederate commissioners, and bore them off in triumph to the US, where they were held prisoner in Boston. Wilkes was hailed as a national hero.

text: The violation of British neutral rights triggered an uproar in Britain. Britain sent 11,000 troops to Canada, the British fleet was put on a war footing, with plans to capture New York City if war broke out, and a sharp note was dispatched to Washington to demand return of the prisoners and an apology. Lincoln, concerned about Britain entering the war, ignored anti-British sentiment and issued what the British interpreted as an apology, without apologizing, and ordered the prisoners to be released.[21]

text: War was unlikely in any event, as the United States was providing Britain with over 40% of its wheat ("corn") imports during the war years, and suspension would have caused severe disruption to its food supply. Britain imported about 25-30% of its grain, and poor crops in 1861 and 1862 in France made Britain even more dependent on shiploads from New York City. Furthermore, British banks and financial institutions in the City of London had financed many projects such as railways in the US. There were fears that war would result in enormous financial losses as investments were lost and loans defaulted on.[22]

text: Britain's shortage of cotton was partially made up by imports from India and Egypt by 1863.[23] The Trent Affair led to the Lyons-Seward Treaty of 1862, an agreement to clamp down hard on the Atlantic slave trade by using the US Navy and the Royal Navy.

text: Possibility of recognizing Confederacy[edit]

text: The possibility of recognizing the Confederacy came to the fore late in the summer of 1862. At that time, as far as any European could see, the war seemed to be a stalemate. The US attempt to capture the Confederate capital had failed, and in the east and west alike, the Confederates were on the offensive. Charles Francis Adams, Sr., warned Washington that the British government might very soon offer to mediate the difficulty between North and South, which would be a polite but effective way of intimating that in the opinion of Britain, the fight had gone on long enough and should be ended by giving the South what it wanted. Recognition, as Adams warned, risked all-out war with the United States. War would involve an invasion of Canada, a full-scale American attack on British shipping interests worldwide, an end to American grain shipments that were providing a large part of the British food supply, and an end to British sales of machinery and supplies to the US.[24] The British leadership, however, thought that if the Union armies were decisively defeated, the US might soften its position and accept mediation.[25]

text: Earl Russell, British Foreign Secretary, had given Mason no encouragement, but after news of the Second Battle of Bull Run reached London in early September, Palmerston agreed that in late September, there could be a cabinet meeting at which Palmerston and Russell would ask approval of the mediation proposal. Then, Russell and Palmerston decided not to bring the plan before the cabinet until they got further word about Lee's invasion of the North. If the Northerners were beaten, the proposal would go through; if Lee failed, it might be well to wait a little longer before taking any action.[26]

text: The British working-class population, most notably the British cotton workers who suffered the Lancashire Cotton Famine, remained consistently opposed to the Confederacy. A resolution of support was passed by the inhabitants of Manchester and sent to Lincoln. His letter of reply has become famous:

text: I know and deeply deplore the sufferings which the working people of Manchester and in all Europe are called to endure in this crisis. It has been often and studiously represented that the attempt to overthrow this Government which was built on the foundation of human rights, and to substitute for it one which should rest exclusively on the basis of slavery, was likely to obtain the favor of Europe.

text: Through the action of disloyal citizens, the working people of Europe have been subjected to a severe trial for the purpose of forcing their sanction to that attempt. Under the circumstances I cannot but regard your decisive utterances on the question as an instance of sublime Christian heroism which has not been surpassed in any age or in any country. It is indeed an energetic and re-inspiring assurance of the inherent truth and of the ultimate and universal triumph of justice, humanity and freedom.

text: I hail this interchange of sentiments, therefore, as an augury that, whatever else may happen, whatever misfortune may befall your country or my own, the peace and friendship which now exists between the two nations will be, as it shall be my desire to make them, perpetual.

text: —Abraham Lincoln, 19 January 1863

text: There is now a statue of Lincoln in Manchester, with an extract from his letter carved on the plinth.

text: Lincoln became a hero amongst the British working class with progressive views. His portrait, often alongside that of Garibaldi, adorned many parlour walls. One can still be seen in the boyhood home of David Lloyd George, now part of the Lloyd George Museum.

text: The decisive factor, in the fall of 1862 and increasingly thereafter was the Battle of Antietam and what grew out of it. Lee's invasion was a failure at Antietam, and he barely escaped back to Virginia. It was now obvious that no final, conclusive Confederate triumph could be anticipated. The swift recession of the high Confederate tide was as visible in Britain as in America, and in the end, Palmerston and Russell dropped any notion of bringing a mediation-recognition program before the cabinet.

text: Emancipation Proclamation[edit]

text: During the late spring and early summer of 1862, Lincoln had come to see that he must broaden the base of the war. The Union itself was not enough; the undying vitality and drive of Northern anti-slavery men must be brought into full, vigorous support of the war effort and so the United States chose to declare itself officially against slavery. The Lincoln administration believed that slavery was the basis of the Confederate economy and leadership class and that victory required its destruction. Lincoln had drafted a plan and waited for a battlefield victory to announce it. The Battle of Antietam gave Lincoln victory, and on September 22, he gave the Confederacy 100 days notice to return to the Union or else on January 1, 1863, all slaves held in areas in rebellion would be free.[20] William Ewart Gladstone, the Chancellor of the Exchequer and a senior Liberal leader was accepting toward slavery in his youth; his family had grown wealthy through the ownership of slaves in the West Indies, however, the idea of slavery was abhorrent to him with his idea of civilising all nations.[27] He strongly spoke out for Confederate independence. When the Emancipation Proclamation was announced, he tried to make the counterargument that an independent Confederacy would do a better job of freeing the slaves than an invading northern army would. He warned that a race war was imminent and would justify British intervention.[28]  Emancipation also alarmed the British Foreign Secretary Lord John Russell, who expected a bloody slave uprising. The question then would be British intervention on humanitarian grounds.  However, there was no slave uprising and no race war.  The advice of the war minister against going to war with United States, and the tide of British public opinion, convinced the cabinet to take no action.[29]

text: Confederate diplomacy[edit]

text: Once the war with the US began, the best hope for the survival of the Confederacy was military intervention by Britain and France. The US realized that as well and made it clear that recognition of the Confederacy meant war and the end of food shipments into Britain. The Confederates who had believed in "King Cotton" (Britain had to support the Confederacy to obtain cotton for its industries) were proven wrong. Britain, in fact, had ample stores of cotton in 1861 and depended much more on grain from the US.[30]

text: During its existence, the Confederate government sent repeated delegations to Europe; historians do not give them high marks for diplomatic skills.  James M. Mason was sent to London as Confederate minister to Queen Victoria, and John Slidell was sent to Paris as minister to Napoleon III. Both were able to obtain private meetings with high British and French officials, but they failed to secure official recognition for the Confederacy. Britain and the US were at sword's point during the Trent Affair in late 1861. Mason and Slidell had been illegally seized from a British ship by an American warship. Queen Victoria's husband, Prince Albert, helped calm the situation, and Lincoln released Mason and Slidell and so the episode was no help to the Confederacy.[31]

text: Throughout the early years of the war, British foreign secretary Lord Russell, Napoleon III, and, to a lesser extent, British Prime Minister Lord Palmerston, explored the risks and advantages of recognition of the Confederacy or at least offering a mediation. Recognition meant certain war with the US, loss of American grain, loss of exports, loss of investments in American securities, potential invasion of Canada and other North American colonies, higher taxes, and a threat to the British merchant marine with little to gain in return. Many party leaders and the general public wanted no war with such high costs and meager benefits. Recognition was considered following the Second Battle of Manassas, when the British government was preparing to mediate in the conflict, but the Union victory at the Battle of Antietam and Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, combined with internal opposition, caused the government to back away.[32]

text: In 1863, the Confederacy expelled all foreign consuls (all of them British or French diplomats) for advising their subjects to refuse to serve in combat against the US.[33]

text: Throughout the war, all European powers adopted a policy of neutrality, meeting informally with Confederate diplomats but withholding diplomatic recognition. None ever sent an ambassador or official delegation to Richmond. However, they applied principles of international law and recognized both sides as belligerents. Canada allowed both Confederate and Union agents to work openly within its borders.[34]

text: Postwar adjustments and Alabama claims[edit]

text: Northerners were outraged at British tolerance of non-neutral acts, especially the building of warships. The United States demanded vast reparations for the damages caused by British-built commerce raiders, especially CSS Alabama, which Palmerston bluntly refused to pay.

text: The dispute continued for years after the war. After Palmerston's death, Prime Minister Gladstone agreed to include the US war claims in treaty discussions on other pending issues, such as fishing rights and border disputes. In 1872, pursuant to the resultant Treaty of Washington, an international arbitration board awarded $15,500,000 to the US, and the British apologized for the destruction caused by the British-built Confederate ships but admitted no guilt.[35]

text: Long-term impact[edit]

text: The Union victory emboldened the forces in Britain that demanded more democracy and public input into the political system. The resulting Reform Act 1867 enfranchised the urban male working class in England and Wales and weakened the upper-class landed gentry, who identified more with the Southern planters. Influential commentators included Walter Bagehot, Thomas Carlyle, John Stuart Mill, and Anthony Trollope.[36]  Additionally, many Irishmen saw service in both the Union and Confederate State Army.


document_title: Period 5 element

question_text: the atomic number of indium which belongs to 5th period is

text: Period 5 element

text: Physical properties[edit]

text: This period contains technetium, one of the two elements until lead that has no stable isotopes (along with promethium), as well as molybdenum and iodine, two of the heaviest elements with a known biological role,[1][2] and Niobium has the largest magnetic known penetration depth of all the elements. Zirconium is one of the main components of zircon crystals, currently the oldest known minerals in the earth's crust. Many later transition metals, such as rhodium, are very commonly used in jewelry due to the fact that they are incredibly shiny.[3]

text: This period is known to have a large number of exceptions to the Madelung rule.

text: Elements and their properties[edit]

text:
Chemical element
Chemical series
Electron configuration

37
Rb
Rubidium
Alkali metal
[Kr] 5s1

38
Sr
Strontium
Alkaline earth metal
[Kr] 5s2

39
Y
Yttrium
Transition metal
[Kr] 4d1 5s2

40
Zr
Zirconium
Transition metal
[Kr] 4d2 5s2

41
Nb
Niobium
Transition metal
[Kr] 4d4 5s1 (*)

42
Mo
Molybdenum
Transition metal
[Kr] 4d5 5s1 (*)

43
Tc
Technetium
Transition metal
[Kr] 4d5 5s2

44
Ru
Ruthenium
Transition metal
[Kr] 4d7 5s1 (*)

45
Rh
Rhodium
Transition metal
[Kr] 4d8 5s1 (*)

46
Pd
Palladium
Transition metal
[Kr] 4d10 (*)

47
Ag
Silver
Transition metal
[Kr] 4d10 5s1 (*)

48
Cd
Cadmium
Post-transition metal
[Kr] 4d10 5s2

49
In
Indium
Post-transition metal
[Kr] 4d10 5s2 5p1

50
Sn
Tin
Post-transition metal
[Kr] 4d10 5s2 5p2

51
Sb
Antimony
Metalloid
[Kr] 4d10 5s2 5p3

52
Te
Tellurium
Metalloid
[Kr] 4d10 5s2 5p4

53
I
Iodine
Reactive nonmetal
[Kr] 4d10 5s2 5p5

54
Xe
Xenon
Noble gas
[Kr] 4d10 5s2 5p6

tag: table

text: (*) Exception to the Madelung rule

text: s-block elements[edit]

text: Rubidium[edit]

text: Rubidium is the first element placed in period 5. It is an alkali metal, the most reactive group in the periodic table, having properties and similarities with both other alkali metals and other period 5 elements. For example, rubidium has 5 electron shells, a property found in all other period 5 elements, whereas its electron configuration's ending is similar to all other alkali metals: s1.[4] Rubidium also follows the trend of increasing reactivity as the atomic number increases in the alkali metals, for it is more reactive than potassium, but less so than caesium. In addition, both potassium and rubidium yield almost the same hue when ignited, so researchers must use different methods to differentiate between these two 1st group elements.[5] Rubidium is very susceptible to oxidation in air, similar to most of the other alkali metals, so it readily transforms into rubidium oxide, a yellow solid with the chemical formula Rb2O.[6]

text: Strontium[edit]

text: Strontium is the second element placed in the 5th period. It is an alkaline earth metal, a relatively reactive group, although not nearly as reactive as the alkali metals. Like rubidium, it has 5 electron shells or energy levels, and in accordance with the Madelung rule it has two electrons in its 5s subshell. Strontium is a soft metal and is extremely reactive upon contact with water. If it does come in contact with water, though, it will combine with the atoms of both oxygen and hydrogen to form strontium hydroxide and pure hydrogen gas which quickly diffuses in the air. In addition, strontium, like rubidium, oxidizes in air and turns a yellow color. When ignited, it will burn with a strong red flame.

text: d-block elements[edit]

text: Yttrium[edit]

text: Yttrium (/ˈɪtriəm/ IT-ree-əm) is a chemical element with symbol Y and atomic number 39. It is a silvery-metallic transition metal chemically similar to the lanthanides and it has often been classified as a "rare earth element".[7] Yttrium is almost always found combined with the lanthanides in rare earth minerals and is never found in nature as a free element. Its only stable isotope, 89Y, is also its only naturally occurring isotope.

text: In 1787, Carl Axel Arrhenius found a new mineral near Ytterby in Sweden and named it ytterbite, after the village. Johan Gadolin discovered yttrium's oxide in Arrhenius' sample in 1789,[8] and Anders Gustaf Ekeberg named the new oxide yttria. Elemental yttrium was first isolated in 1828 by Friedrich Wöhler.[9]

text: The most important use of yttrium is in making phosphors, such as the red ones used in television set cathode ray tube (CRT) displays and in LEDs.[10] Other uses include the production of electrodes, electrolytes, electronic filters, lasers and superconductors; various medical applications; and as traces in various materials to enhance their properties. Yttrium has no known biological role, and exposure to yttrium compounds can cause lung disease in humans.[11]

text: Zirconium[edit]

text: Zirconium (/zərˈkoʊniəm/ zər-KOH-nee-əm) is a chemical element with the symbol Zr and atomic number 40. The name of zirconium is taken from the mineral zircon. Its atomic mass is 91.224. It is a lustrous, gray-white, strong transition metal that resembles titanium. Zirconium is mainly used as a refractory and opacifier, although minor amounts are used as alloying agent for its strong resistance to corrosion. Zirconium is obtained mainly from the mineral zircon, which is the most important form of zirconium in use.

text: Zirconium forms a variety of inorganic and organometallic compounds such as zirconium dioxide and zirconocene dichloride, respectively. Five isotopes occur naturally, three of which are stable. Zirconium compounds have no biological role.

text: Niobium[edit]

text: Niobium /naɪˈoʊbiəm/ ny-OH-bee-əm or columbium (/kəˈlʌmbiəm/ kə-LUM-bee-əm), is a chemical element with the symbol Nb and atomic number 41. It is a soft, grey, ductile transition metal, which is often found in the pyrochlore mineral, the main commercial source for niobium, and columbite. The name comes from Greek mythology: Niobe, daughter of Tantalus.

text: Niobium has physical and chemical properties similar to those of the element tantalum, and the two are therefore difficult to distinguish. The English chemistCharles Hatchett reported a new element similar to tantalum in 1801, and named it columbium. In 1809, the English chemist William Hyde Wollaston wrongly concluded that tantalum and columbium were identical. The German chemist Heinrich Rose determined in 1846 that tantalum ores contain a second element, which he named niobium. In 1864 and 1865, a series of scientific findings clarified that niobium and columbium were the same element (as distinguished from tantalum), and for a century both names were used interchangeably. The name of the element was officially adopted as niobium in 1949.

text: It was not until the early 20th century that niobium was first used commercially. Brazil is the leading producer of niobium and ferroniobium, an alloy of niobium and iron. Niobium is used mostly in alloys, the largest part in special steel such as that used in gas pipelines. Although alloys contain only a maximum of 0.1%, that small percentage of niobium improves the strength of the steel. The temperature stability of niobium-containing superalloys is important for its use in jet and rocket engines. Niobium is used in various superconducting materials. These superconducting alloys, also containing titanium and tin, are widely used in the superconducting magnets of MRI scanners. Other applications of niobium include its use in welding, nuclear industries, electronics, optics, numismatics and jewelry. In the last two applications, niobium's low toxicity and ability to be colored by anodization are particular advantages.

text: Molybdenum[edit]

text: Molybdenum (/ˌmɒlɪbˈdiːnəm/ MOL-ib-DEE-nəm, /məˈlɪbdɪnəm/ mə-LIB-di-nəm), is a Group 6 chemical element with the symbol Mo and atomic number 42. The name is from Neo-Latin Molybdaenum, from Ancient GreekΜόλυβδος molybdos, meaning lead, itself proposed as a loanword from Anatolian Luvian and Lydian languages,[12] since its ores were confused with lead ores.[13] The free element, which is a silvery metal, has the sixth-highest melting point of any element. It readily forms hard, stable carbides, and for this reason it is often used in high-strength steel alloys. Molybdenum does not occur as a free metal on Earth, but rather in various oxidation states in minerals. Industrially, molybdenum compounds are used in high-pressure and high-temperature applications, as pigments and catalysts.

text: Molybdenum minerals have long been known, but the element was "discovered" (in the sense of differentiating it as a new entity from the mineral salts of other metals) in 1778 by Carl Wilhelm Scheele. The metal was first isolated in 1781 by Peter Jacob Hjelm.

text: Most molybdenum compounds have low solubility in water, but the molybdate ion MoO42− is soluble and forms when molybdenum-containing minerals are in contact with oxygen and water.

text: Technetium[edit]

text: Technetium (/tɛkˈniːʃiəm/ tek-NEE-shee-əm) is the chemical element with atomic number 43 and symbol Tc. It is the lowest atomic number element without any stable isotopes; every form of it is radioactive. Nearly all technetium is produced synthetically and only minute amounts are found in nature. Naturally occurring technetium occurs as a spontaneous fission product in uranium ore or by neutron capture in molybdenum ores. The chemical properties of this silvery gray, crystalline transition metal are intermediate between rhenium and manganese.

text: Many of technetium's properties were predicted by Dmitri Mendeleev before the element was discovered. Mendeleev noted a gap in his periodic table and gave the undiscovered element the provisional name ekamanganese (Em). In 1937 technetium (specifically the technetium-97 isotope) became the first predominantly artificial element to be produced, hence its name (from the Greek τεχνητός, meaning "artificial").

text: Its short-lived gamma ray-emitting nuclear isomer—technetium-99m—is used in nuclear medicine for a wide variety of diagnostic tests. Technetium-99 is used as a gamma ray-free source of beta particles. Long-lived technetium isotopes produced commercially are by-products of fission of uranium-235 in nuclear reactors and are extracted from nuclear fuel rods. Because no isotope of technetium has a half-life longer than 4.2 million years (technetium-98), its detection in red giants in 1952, which are billions of years old, helped bolster the theory that stars can produce heavier elements.

text: Ruthenium[edit]

text: Ruthenium (/ruːˈθiːniəm/ roo-THEE-nee-əm) is a chemical element with symbol Ru and atomic number 44. It is a rare transition metal belonging to the platinum group of the periodic table. Like the other metals of the platinum group, ruthenium is inert to most chemicals. The Russian scientist Karl Ernst Claus discovered the element in 1844 and named it after Ruthenia, the Latin word for Rus'. Ruthenium usually occurs as a minor component of platinum ores and its annual production is only about 12 tonnes worldwide. Most ruthenium is used for wear-resistant electrical contacts and the production of thick-film resistors. A minor application of ruthenium is its use in some platinum alloys.

text: Rhodium[edit]

text: Rhodium (/ˈroʊdiəm/ ROH-dee-əm) is a chemical element that is a rare, silvery-white, hard, and chemically inert transition metal and a member of the platinum group. It has the chemical symbol Rh and atomic number 45. It is composed of only one isotope,103Rh. Naturally occurring rhodium is found as the free metal, alloyed with similar metals, and never as a chemical compound. It is one of the rarest precious metals and one of the most costly (gold has since taken over the top spot of cost per ounce).

text: Rhodium is a so-called noble metal, resistant to corrosion, found in platinum- or nickel ores together with the other members of the platinum group metals. It was discovered in 1803 by William Hyde Wollaston in one such ore, and named for the rose color of one of its chlorine compounds, produced after it reacted with the powerful acid mixture aqua regia.

text: The element's major use (about 80% of world rhodium production) is as one of the catalysts in the three-way catalytic converters of automobiles. Because rhodium metal is inert against corrosion and most aggressive chemicals, and because of its rarity, rhodium is usually alloyed with platinum or palladium and applied in high-temperature and corrosion-resistive coatings. White gold is often plated with a thin rhodium layer to improve its optical impression while sterling silver is often rhodium plated for tarnish resistance.

text: Rhodium detectors are used in nuclear reactors to measure the neutron flux level.

text: Palladium[edit]

text: Palladium (/pəˈleɪdiəm/ pə-LAY-dee-əm) is a chemical element with the chemical symbol Pd and an atomic number of 46. It is a rare and lustrous silvery-white metal discovered in 1803 by William Hyde Wollaston. He named it after the asteroid Pallas, which was itself named after the epithet of the Greek goddess Athena, acquired by her when she slew Pallas. Palladium, platinum, rhodium, ruthenium, iridium and osmium form a group of elements referred to as the platinum group metals (PGMs). These have similar chemical properties, but palladium has the lowest melting point and is the least dense of them.

text: The unique properties of palladium and other platinum group metals account for their widespread use. A quarter of all goods manufactured today either contain PGMs or have a significant part in their manufacturing process played by PGMs.[14] Over half of the supply of palladium and its congener platinum goes into catalytic converters, which convert up to 90% of harmful gases from auto exhaust (hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide, and nitrogen dioxide) into less-harmful substances (nitrogen, carbon dioxide and water vapor). Palladium is also used in electronics, dentistry, medicine, hydrogen purification, chemical applications, and groundwater treatment. Palladium plays a key role in the technology used for fuel cells, which combine hydrogen and oxygen to produce electricity, heat, and water.

text: Ore deposits of palladium and other PGMs are rare, and the most extensive deposits have been found in the norite belt of the Bushveld Igneous Complex covering the Transvaal Basin in South Africa, the Stillwater Complex in Montana, United States, the Thunder Bay District of Ontario, Canada, and the Norilsk Complex in Russia. Recycling is also a source of palladium, mostly from scrapped catalytic converters. The numerous applications and limited supply sources of palladium result in the metal attracting considerable investment interest.

text: Silver[edit]

text: Silver (/ˈsɪlvər/ SIL-vər) is a metallic chemical element with the chemical symbol Ag (Latin: argentum, from the Indo-European root *arg- for "grey" or "shining") and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it has the highest electrical conductivity of any element and the highest thermal conductivity of any metal. The metal occurs naturally in its pure, free form (native silver), as an alloy with gold and other metals, and in minerals such as argentite and chlorargyrite. Most silver is produced as a byproduct of copper, gold, lead, and zinc refining.

text: Silver has long been valued as a precious metal, and it is used to make ornaments, jewelry, high-value tableware, utensils (hence the term silverware), and currency coins. Today, silver metal is also used in electrical contacts and conductors, in mirrors and in catalysis of chemical reactions. Its compounds are used in photographic film, and dilute silver nitrate solutions and other silver compounds are used as disinfectants and microbiocides. While many medical antimicrobial uses of silver have been supplanted by antibiotics, further research into clinical potential continues.

text: Cadmium[edit]

text: Cadmium (/ˈkædmiəm/ KAD-mee-əm) is a chemical element with the symbol Cd and atomic number 48. This soft, bluish-white metal is chemically similar to the two other stable metals in group 12, zinc and mercury. Like zinc, it prefers oxidation state +2 in most of its compounds and like mercury it shows a low melting point compared to transition metals. Cadmium and its congeners are not always considered transition metals, in that they do not have partly filled d or f electron shells in the elemental or common oxidation states. The average concentration of cadmium in the Earth's crust is between 0.1 and 0.5 parts per million (ppm). It was discovered in 1817 simultaneously by Stromeyer and Hermann, both in Germany, as an impurity in zinc carbonate.

text: Cadmium occurs as a minor component in most zinc ores and therefore is a byproduct of zinc production. It was used for a long time as a pigment and for corrosion resistant plating on steel while cadmium compounds were used to stabilize plastic. With the exception of its use in nickel–cadmium batteries and cadmium telluride solar panels, the use of cadmium is generally decreasing. These declines have been due to competing technologies, cadmium's toxicity in certain forms and concentration and resulting regulations.[15]

text: p-block elements[edit]

text: Indium[edit]

text: Indium (/ˈɪndiəm/ IN-dee-əm) is a chemical element with the symbol In and atomic number 49. This rare, very soft, malleable and easily fusible other metal is chemically similar to gallium and thallium, and shows the intermediate properties between these two. Indium was discovered in 1863 and named for the indigo blue line in its spectrum that was the first indication of its existence in zinc ores, as a new and unknown element. The metal was first isolated in the following year. Zinc ores continue to be the primary source of indium, where it is found in compound form. Very rarely the element can be found as grains of native (free) metal, but these are not of commercial importance.

text: Indium's current primary application is to form transparent electrodes from indium tin oxide in liquid crystal displays and touchscreens, and this use largely determines its global mining production. It is widely used in thin-films to form lubricated layers (during World War II it was widely used to coat bearings in high-performance aircraft). It is also used for making particularly low melting point alloys, and is a component in some lead-free solders.

text: Indium is not known to be used by any organism. In a similar way to aluminium salts, indium(III) ions can be toxic to the kidney when given by injection, but oral indium compounds do not have the chronic toxicity of salts of heavy metals, probably due to poor absorption in basic conditions. Radioactive indium-111 (in very small amounts on a chemical basis) is used in nuclear medicine tests, as a radiotracer to follow the movement of labeled proteins and white blood cells in the body.

text: Tin[edit]

text: Tin (/ˈtɪn/ TIN) is a chemical element with the symbol Sn (for Latin: stannum) and atomic number 50. It is a main group metal in group 14 of the periodic table. Tin shows chemical similarity to both neighboring group 14 elements, germanium and lead and has two possible oxidation states, +2 and the slightly more stable +4. Tin is the 49th most abundant element and has, with 10 stable isotopes, the largest number of stable isotopes in the periodic table. Tin is obtained chiefly from the mineral cassiterite, where it occurs as tin dioxide, SnO2.

text: This silvery, malleable other metal is not easily oxidized in air and is used to coat other metals to prevent corrosion. The firstalloy, used in large scale since 3000 BC, was bronze, an alloy of tin and copper. After 600 BC pure metallic tin was produced. Pewter, which is an alloy of 85–90% tin with the remainder commonly consisting of copper, antimony and lead, was used for tableware from the Bronze Age until the 20th century. In modern times tin is used in many alloys, most notably tin/lead soft solders, typically containing 60% or more of tin. Another large application for tin is corrosion-resistant tin plating of steel. Because of its low toxicity, tin-plated metal is also used for food packaging, giving the name to tin cans, which are made mostly of steel.

text: Antimony[edit]

text: Antimony (/ænˈtɪmoʊni/ ann-TIM-oh-nee, /ˈæntəˌmoʊni/ AN-tə-moh-nee; Latin: stibium) is a toxic chemical element with the symbol Sb and an atomic number of 51. A lustrous grey metalloid, it is found in nature mainly as the sulfide mineralstibnite (Sb2S3). Antimony compounds have been known since ancient times and were used for cosmetics, metallic antimony was also known but mostly identified as lead.

text: For some time China has been the largest producer of antimony and its compounds, with most production coming from the Xikuangshan Mine in Hunan. Antimony compounds are prominent additives for chlorine and bromine containing fire retardants found in many commercial and domestic products. The largest application for metallic antimony is as alloying material for lead and tin. It improves the properties of the alloys which are used as in solders, bullets and ball bearings. An emerging application is the use of antimony in microelectronics.

text: Tellurium[edit]

text: Tellurium (/tɪˈljuːriəm/ ti-LEW-ree-əm, /tɛ-/ teh-) is a chemical element that has the symbol Te and atomic number 52. A brittle, mildly toxic, rare, silver-white metalloid which looks similar to tin, tellurium is chemically related to selenium and sulfur. It is occasionally found in native form, as elemental crystals. Tellurium is far more common in the universe than on Earth. Its extreme rarity in the Earth's crust, comparable to that of platinum, is partly due to its high atomic number, but also due to its formation of a volatile hydride which caused the element to be lost to space as a gas during the hot nebular formation of the planet.

text: Tellurium was discovered in Transylvania (today part of Romania) in 1782 by Franz-Joseph Müller von Reichenstein in a mineral containing tellurium and gold. Martin Heinrich Klaproth named the new element in 1798 after the Latin word for "earth", tellus. Gold telluride minerals (responsible for the name of Telluride, Colorado) are the most notable natural gold compounds. However, they are not a commercially significant source of tellurium itself, which is normally extracted as by-product of copper and lead production.

text: Tellurium is commercially primarily used in alloys, foremost in steel and copper to improve machinability. Applications in solar panels and as a semiconductor material also consume a considerable fraction of tellurium production.

text: Iodine[edit]

text: Iodine is a chemical element with the symbol I and atomic number 53. The name is pronounced /ˈaɪ.oʊdaɪn/ EYE-oh-dyne, /ˈaɪ.oʊdɪn/ EYE-oh-din, or /ˈaɪ.oʊdiːn/ EYE-oh-deen in both American[16] and British[17] English.[18] The name is from Greek ἰοειδής ioeidēs, meaning violet or purple, due to the color of elemental iodine vapor.[19]

text: Iodine and its compounds are primarily used in nutrition, and industrially in the production of acetic acid and certain polymers. Iodine's relatively high atomic number, low toxicity, and ease of attachment to organic compounds have made it a part of many X-ray contrast materials in modern medicine. Iodine has only one stable isotope. A number of iodine radioisotopes are also used in medical applications.

text: Iodine is found on Earth mainly as the highly water-soluble iodide I−, which concentrates it in oceans and brine pools. Like the other halogens, free iodine occurs mainly as a diatomic molecule I2, and then only momentarily after being oxidized from iodide by an oxidant like free oxygen. In the universe and on Earth, iodine's high atomic number makes it a relatively rare element. However, its presence in ocean water has given it a role in biology (see below).

text: Xenon[edit]

text: Xenon is a chemical element with the symbol Xe and atomic number 54. The element name is pronounced/ˈzɛnɒn/ ZEN-on, /ˈziːnɒn/ ZEE-non. A colorless, heavy, odorless noble gas, xenon occurs in the Earth's atmospherein trace amounts.[20] Although generally unreactive, xenon can undergo a few chemical reactions such as the formation of xenon hexafluoroplatinate, the first noble gas compound to be synthesized.[21][22][23]

text: Naturally occurring xenon consists of nine stable isotopes. There are also over 40 unstable isotopes that undergo radioactive decay. The isotope ratios of xenon are an important tool for studying the early history of the Solar System.[24] Radioactive xenon-135 is produced from iodine-135 as a result of nuclear fission, and it acts as the most significant neutron absorber in nuclear reactors.[25]

text: Xenon is used in flash lamps[26] and arc lamps,[27] and as a general anesthetic.[28] The first excimer laser design used a xenon dimer molecule (Xe2) as its lasing medium,[29] and the earliest laser designs used xenon flash lamps as pumps.[30] Xenon is also being used to search for hypothetical weakly interacting massive particles[31] and as the propellant for ion thrusters in spacecraft.[32]

text: Biological role[edit]

text: Rubidium, strontium, yttrium, zirconium, and niobium have no biological role. Yttrium can cause lung disease in humans.

text: Molybdenum-containing enzymes are used as catalysts by some bacteria to break the chemical bond in atmospheric molecular nitrogen, allowing biological nitrogen fixation. At least 50 molybdenum-containing enzymes are now known in bacteria and animals, though only the bacterial and cyanobacterial enzymes are involved in nitrogen fixation. Owing to the diverse functions of the remainder of the enzymes, molybdenum is a required element for life in higher organisms (eukaryotes), though not in all bacteria.

text: Technetium, ruthenium, rhodium, palladium, silver, tin, and antimony have no biological role. Although cadmium has no known biological role in higher organisms, a cadmium-dependent carbonic anhydrase has been found in marine diatoms. Indium has no biological role and can be toxic as well as Antimony.

text: Tellurium has no biological role, although fungi can incorporate it in place of sulfur and selenium into amino acids such as tellurocysteine and telluromethionine.[33] In humans, tellurium is partly metabolized into dimethyl telluride, (CH3)2Te, a gas with a garlic-like odor which is exhaled in the breath of victims of tellurium toxicity or exposure.

text: Iodine is the heaviest essential element utilized widely by life in biological functions (only tungsten, employed in enzymes by a few species of bacteria, is heavier). Iodine's rarity in many soils, due to initial low abundance as a crust-element, and also leaching of soluble iodide by rainwater, has led to many deficiency problems in land animals and inland human populations. Iodine deficiency affects about two billion people and is the leading preventable cause of intellectual disabilities.[34] Iodine is required by higher animals, which use it to synthesize thyroid hormones, which contain the element. Because of this function, radioisotopes of iodine are concentrated in the thyroid gland along with nonradioactive iodine. The radioisotope iodine-131, which has a high fission product yield, concentrates in the thyroid, and is one of the most carcinogenic of nuclear fission products.

text: Xenon has no biological role, and is used as a general anaesthetic.

text: Notes[edit]


document_title: Soil food web

question_text: where does fungi go on a food web

question_tokens: where does fungi go on a food web

text: Soil food web

text: Above ground food webs[edit]

text: In above ground food webs, energy moves from producers (plants) to primary consumers (herbivores) and then to secondary consumers (predators). The phrase, trophic level, refers to the different levels or steps in the energy pathway. In other words, the producers, consumers, and decomposers are the main trophic levels. This chain of energy transferring from one species to another can continue several more times, but eventually ends. At the end of the food chain, decomposers such as bacteria and fungi break down dead plant and animal material into simple nutrients.

text: Methodology[edit]

text: The nature of soil makes direct observation of food webs difficult. Since soil organisms range in size from less than 0.1 mm (nematodes) to greater than 2 mm (earthworms) there are many different ways to extract them. Soil samples are often taken using a metal core. Larger macrofauna such as earthworms and insect larva can be removed by hand, but this is impossible for smaller nematodes and soil arthropods. Most methods to extract small organisms are dynamic; they depend on the ability of the organisms to move out of the soil. For example, a Berlese funnel, used to collect small arthropods, creates a light/heat gradient in the soil sample. As the microarthropods move down, away from the light and heat, they fall through a funnel and into a collection vial. A similar method, the Baermann funnel, is used for nematodes. The Baerman funnel is wet, however (while the Berlese funnel is dry) and does not depend on a light/heat gradient. Nematodes move out of the soil and to the bottom of the funnel because, as they move, they are denser than water and are unable to swim. Soil microbial communities are characterized in many different ways. The activity of microbes can be measured by their respiration and carbon dioxide release. The cellular components of microbes can be extracted from soil and genetically profiled, or microbial biomass can be calculated by weighing the soil before and after fumigation.

text: Types of food webs[edit]

text: There are three different types of food web representations: topological (or traditional) food webs, flow webs and interaction webs. These webs can describe systems both above and below ground.

text: Topological webs[edit]

text: Early food webs were topological; they were descriptive and provided a nonquantitative picture of consumers, resources and the links between them. Pimm et al. (1991) described these webs as a map of which organisms in a community eat which other kinds. The earliest topological food web, made in 1912, examined the predators and parasites of cotton boll weevil (reviewed by Pimm et al. 1991). Researchers analyzed and compared topological webs between ecosystems by measuring the web’s interaction chain lengths and connectivity.[5] One problem faced in standardizing such measurements is that there are often too many species for each to have a separate box. Depending on the author, the number of species aggregated or separated into functional groups may be different.[6] Authors may even eliminate some organisms. By convention, the dead material flowing back to detritus is not shown, as it would complicate the figure, but it is taken account in any calculations.[6]

text: Flow webs[edit]

text: Miosis build on interconnected food chains , adding quantitative information on the movement of carbon or other nutrients from producers to consumers. Hunt et al. (1987) published the first flow web for soil, describing the short grass prairie in Colorado, USA. The authors estimated nitrogen transferral rates through the soil food web and calculated nitrogen mineralization rates for a range of soil organisms. In another landmark study, researchers from the Lovinkhoeve Experimental Farm in the Netherlands examined the flow of carbon and illustrated transfer rates with arrows of different thicknesses.[7]

text: In order to create a flow web, a topological web is first constructed. After the members of the web are decided, the biomass of each functional group is calculated, usually in kg carbon/hectare. In order to calculate feeding rates, researchers assume that the population of the functional group is in equilibrium. At equilibrium, the reproduction of the group balances the rate at which members are lost through natural death and predation[8] When feeding rate is known, the efficiency with which nutrients are converted into organism biomass can be calculated. This energy stored in the organism represents the amount available to be passed on to the next trophic level.

text: After constructing the first soil flow webs, researchers discovered that nutrients and energy flowed from lower resources to higher trophic levels through three main channels.[7][8] The bacterial and fungal channels had the largest energy flow, while the herbivory channel, in which organisms directly consumed plant roots, was smaller. It is now widely recognized that bacteria and fungi are critical to the decomposition of carbon and nitrogen and play important roles in both the carbon cycle and nitrogen cycle.

text: Interaction web[edit]

text: An interaction web, shown above right,[9] is similar to a topological web, but instead of showing the movement of energy or materials, the arrows show how one group influences another. In interaction food web models, every link has two direct effects, one of the resource on the consumer and one of the consumer on the resource.[10] The effect of the resource on the consumer is positive, (the consumer gets to eat) and the effect on the resource by the consumer is negative (it is eaten). These direct, trophic, effects can lead to indirect effects. Indirect effects, represented by dashed lines, show the effect of one element on another to which it is not directly linked.[10] For example, in the simple interaction web below, when the predator eats the root herbivore, the plant eaten by the herbivore may increase in biomass. We would then say that the predator has a beneficial indirect effect on the plant roots.

text: Food web control[edit]

text: Bottom-up effects[edit]

text: Bottom-up effects occur when the density of a resource affects the density of its consumer.[11] For example, in the figure above, an increase in root density causes an increase in herbivore density that causes a corresponding increase in predator density. Correlations in abundance or biomass between consumers and their resources give evidence for bottom-up control.[11] An often-cited example of a bottom-up effect is the relationship between herbivores and the primary productivity of plants. In terrestrial ecosystems, the biomass of herbivores and detritivores increases with primary productivity. An increase in primary productivity will result in a larger influx of leaf litter into the soil ecosystem, which will provide more resources for bacterial and fungal populations to grow. More microbes will allow an increase in bacterial and fungal feeding nematodes, which are eaten by mites and other predatory nematodes. Thus, the entire food web swells as more resources are added to the base.[11] When ecologists use the term, bottom-up control, they are indicating that the biomass, abundance, or diversity of higher trophic levels depend on resources from lower trophic levels.[10]

text: Top-down effects[edit]

text: Ideas about top-down control are much more difficult to evaluate. Top-down effects occur when the population density of a consumer affects that of its resource;[10] for example, a predator affects the density of its prey. Top-down control, therefore, refers to situations where the abundance, diversity or biomass of lower trophic levels depends on effects from consumers at higher trophic levels.[10] A trophic cascade is a type of top-down interaction that describes the indirect effects of predators. In a trophic cascade, predators induce effects that cascade down food chain and affect biomass of organisms at least two links away.[10]

text: The importance of trophic cascades and top-down control in terrestrial ecosystems is actively debated in ecology (reviewed in Shurin et al. 2006) and the issue of whether trophic cascades occur in soils is no less complex[12] Trophic cascades do occur in both the bacterial and fungal energy channels.[13][14][15] However, cascades may be infrequent, because many other studies show no top-down effects of predators.[16][17] In Mikola and Setälä’s study, microbes eaten by nematodes grew faster when they were grazed upon frequently. This compensatory growth slowed when the microbe feeding nematodes were removed. Therefore, although top predators reduced the number of microbe feeding nematodes, there was no overall change in microbial biomass.

text: Besides the grazing effect, another barrier to top down control in soil ecosystems is widespread omnivory, which by increasing the number of trophic interactions, dampens effects from the top. The soil environment is also a matrix of different temperatures, moistures and nutrient levels, and many organisms are able to become dormant to withstand difficult times. Depending on conditions, predators may be separated from their potential prey by an insurmountable amount of space and time.

text: Any top-down effects that do occur will be limited in strength because soil food webs are donor controlled. Donor control means that consumers have little or no effect on the renewal or input of their resources.[10] For example, aboveground herbivores can overgraze an area and decrease the grass population, but decomposers cannot directly influence the rate of falling plant litter. They can only indirectly influence the rate of input into their system through nutrient recycling which, by helping plants to grow, eventually creates more litter and detritus to fall.[18] If the entire soil food web were completely donor controlled, however, bacterivores and fungivores would never greatly affect the bacteria and fungi they consume.

text: While bottom-up effects are no doubt important, many soil ecologists suspect that top-down effects are also sometimes significant. Certain predators or parasites, when added to the soil, can have a large effect on root herbivores and thereby indirectly affect plant fitness. For example, in a coastal shrubland food chain the native entomopathogenic nematode, Heterorhabditis marelatus, parasitized ghost moth caterpillars, and ghost moth caterpillars consumed the roots of bush lupine. The presence of H. marelatus correlated with lower caterpillar numbers and healthier plants. In addition, the researchers observed high mortality of bush lupine in the absence of entomopathogenic nematodes. These results implied that the nematode, as a natural enemy of the ghost moth caterpillar, protected the plant from damage. The authors even suggested that the interaction was strong enough to affect the population dynamics of bush lupine;[19] this was supported in later experimental work with naturally-growing populations of bush lupine.[20]

text: Top down control has applications in agriculture and is the principle behind biological control, the idea that plants can benefit from the application of their herbivore’s enemies. While wasps and ladybugs are commonly associated with biological control, parasitic nematodes and predatory mites are also added to the soil to suppress pest populations and preserve crop plants. In order to use such biological control agents effectively, a knowledge of the local soil food web is important.

text: Community matrix models[edit]

text: A community matrix model is a type of interaction web that uses differential equations to describe every link in the topological web. Using Lotka-Volterra equations, that describe predator-prey interactions, and food web energetics data such as biomass and feeding rate, the strength of interactions between groups is calculated.[21] Community matrix models can also show how small changes affect the overall stability of the web.

text: Stability of food webs[edit]

text: Mathematical modeling in food webs has raised the question of whether complex or simple food webs are more stable. Until the last decade, it was believed that soil food webs were relatively simple, with low degrees of connectance and omnivory.[12] These ideas stemmed from the mathematical models of May which predicted that complexity destabilized food webs. May used community matrices in which species were randomly linked with random interaction strength to show that local stability decreases with complexity (measured as connectance), diversity, and average interaction strength among species.[22]

text: The use of such random community matrices attracted much criticism. In other areas of ecology, it was realized that the food webs used to make these models were grossly oversimplified[23] and did not represent the complexity of real ecosystems. It also became clear that soil food webs did not conform to these predictions. Soil ecologists discovered that omnivory in food webs was common,[24] and that food chains could be long and complex[8] and still remain resistant to disturbance by drying, freezing, and fumigation.[12]

text: But why are complex food webs more stable? Many of the barriers to top-down trophic cascades also promote stability. Complex food webs may be more stable if the interaction strengths are weak[22] and soil food webs appear to consist of many weak interactions and a few strong ones.[21] Donor controlled food webs may be inherently more stable, because it is difficult for primary consumers to overtax their resources.[25] The structure of the soil also acts as a buffer, separating organisms and preventing strong interactions.[12] Many soil organisms, for example bacteria, can remain dormant through difficult times and reproduce quickly once conditions improve, making them resilient to disturbance.

text: Stability of the system is reduced by the use of nitrogen-containing inorganic and organic fertilizers, which cause soil acidification.

text: Interactions not included in food webs[edit]

text: Despite their complexity, some interactions between species in the soil are not easily classified by food webs. Litter transformers, mutualists, and ecosystem engineers all have strong impacts on their communities that cannot be characterized as either top-down or bottom-up.

text: Litter transformers, such as isopods, consume dead plants and excrete fecal pellets. While on the surface this may not seem impressive, the fecal pellets are moister and higher in nutrients than the surrounding soil, which favors colonization by bacteria and fungi. Decomposition of the fecal pellet by the microbes increases its nutrient value and the isopod is able to re-ingest the pellets. When the isopods consume nutrient-poor litter, the microbes enrich it for them and isopods prevented from eating their own feces can die.[26] This mutualistic relationship has been called an “external rumen”, similar to the mutualistic relationship between bacteria and cows. While the bacterial symbionts of cows live inside the rumen of their stomach, isopods depend on microbes outside their body.

text: Ecosystems engineers, such as earthworms, modify their environment and create habitat for other smaller organisms. Earthworms also stimulate microbial activity by increasing soil aeration and moisture, and transporting litter into the ground where it becomes available to other soil fauna.[12] Fungi create nutritional niche for other organisms by enriching nutritionally extremelly scarce food - the dead wood.[27] This allows xylophages to develop and in turn affect dead wood, contributing to wood decomposition and nutrient cycling in the forest floor.[28] In aboveground and aquatic food webs, the literature assumes that the most important interactions are competition and predation. While soil food webs fit these sorts of interactions well, future research needs to include more complex interactions such as mutualisms and habitat modification.

text: While they cannot characterize all interactions, soil food webs remain a useful tool for describing ecosystems. The interactions between species in the soil and their effect on decomposition continue to be well studied. Much remains unknown, however, about soil food webs stability and how food webs change over time.[12] This knowledge is critical to understanding how food webs affect important qualities such as soil fertility.


document_title: Botswana pula

question_text: when did the botswana currency first come into circulation

text: Botswana pula

text: History[edit]

text: The pula was introduced in 1976, replacing the South African rand at par. Despite a 12% devaluation in May 2005, the pula remains one of the strongest currencies in Africa.[citation needed]

text: Coins[edit]

text: In 1976, coins were introduced in denominations of 1, 5, 10, 25 and 50 thebe and 1 pula. The 1 thebe was struck in aluminium, with the 5 thebe in bronze and the others in cupro-nickel. These coins were round except for the scalloped 1 pula. Bronze, dodecagonal 2 thebe coins were introduced in 1981 and discontinued after 1985. In 1991, bronze-plated steel replaced bronze in the 5 thebe, nickel-plated steel replaced cupro-nickel in the 10, 25 and 50 thebe and the 1 pula changed to a smaller, nickel-brass, equilateral-curve seven-sided coin. A similarly shaped, nickel-brass 2 pula was introduced in 1994. In 2004, the composition was changed to brass-plated steel and the size was slightly reduced.[citation needed]

text: In 1998, following the withdrawal of the 1 and 2 thebe, smaller 5, 10, 25 and 50 thebe coins were introduced, with the 5 and 25 thebe coins being seven-sided and the 10 and 50 thebe coins remaining round. A bimetallic 5 pula depicting a mopane caterpillar and a branch of the mopane tree it feeds on was introduced in 2000 composed of a cupronickel center in a ring made of aluminium-nickel-bronze.[citation needed]

text: A new series of coins was introduced in 2013.[citation needed]

text: Banknotes[edit]

text: On August 23, 1976,[5] the Bank of Botswana introduced notes in denominations of 1, 2, 5, and 10 pula; a 20-pula note followed on February 16, 1978. The 1 and 2 pula notes were replaced by coins in 1991 and 1994, whilst the first 50 and 100 pula notes were introduced on May 29, 1990 and August 23, 1993, respectively.[5] The 5 pula note was replaced by a coin in 2000. The original 1, 2 and 5 pula banknotes were demonetized on 1 July 2011.

text: The previous series of notes was introduced on 23 August 2009[6] and contains for the first time, a 200-pula banknote.

text: The new P10 polymer banknote version was introduced on late November 2017, and released to the public on February 1, 2018.

text:
Banknotes of the Botswana pula (2009 issue)

Image
Value
Main color
Obverse
Reverse
Watermark

10 pula
Green
President Seretse Khama Ian Khama
Parliament building, Gaborone
Rampant zebra and electrotype 10

20 pula
Red
Kgalemang Tumediso Motsete
Mining equipment
Rampant zebra and electrotype 20

50 pula
Brown
President Sir Seretse Khama
Okavango Delta swamps, boat, fish eagle
Rampant zebra and electrotype 50

100 pula
Blue
Three chiefs (Sebele I, Bathoen I, Khama III)
Diamond sorting, open-pit diamond mine
Rampant zebra and electrotype 100

200 pula
Purple
Female teacher and children
Zebras
Rampant zebra and electrotype 200

text:
Current BWP exchange rates

From Google Finance:
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From Yahoo! Finance:
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From XE:
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From OANDA:
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From fxtop.com:
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text: Zimbabwe[edit]

text: Due to hyperinflation in Zimbabwe in 2006 to 2008, the government has allowed circulation of foreign currency since September 2008. Local currency became obsolete on April 12, 2009. Several currencies, including the South African rand and Botswana pula circulate in Zimbabwe,[2] along with the Zimbabwean Bond Coins.

text: Lesotho[edit]

text: The word Pula also serves as part of the national motto of the Kingdom of Lesotho. As in Botswana, it means "rain" in the Sotho language and is considered a synonym for blessing.

text: In literature[edit]

text: The Botswana Pula became widely known internationally through numerous references in the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith, making it possible for readers worldwide to get an idea of the Pula's purchasing power.[citation needed]