document_title: Conscription in the United States

question_text: when is the last time the us had a draft

question_tokens: when is the last time the us had a draft

text: Conscription in the United States

text: History[edit]

text: Colonial to 1862[edit]

text: In colonial times, the Thirteen Colonies used a militia system for defense. Colonial militia laws—and after independence those of the United States and the various states—required able-bodied males to enroll in the militia, to undergo a minimum of military training, and to serve for limited periods of time in war or emergency. This earliest form of conscription involved selective drafts of militiamen for service in particular campaigns. Following this system in its essentials, the Continental Congress in 1778 recommended that the states draft men from their militias for one year's service in the Continental army; this first national conscription was irregularly applied and failed to fill the Continental ranks.

text: For long-term operations, conscription was occasionally used when volunteers or paid substitutes were insufficient to raise the needed manpower. During the American Revolutionary War, the states sometimes drafted men for militia duty or to fill state Continental Army units, but the central government did not have the authority to conscript except for purposes of naval impressment. President James Madison and his Secretary of War James Monroe unsuccessfully attempted to create a national draft of 40,000 men during the War of 1812.[6] This proposal was fiercely criticized on the House floor by antiwar Congressman Daniel Webster of New Hampshire.[7]

text:
"The administration asserts the right to fill the ranks of the regular army by compulsion...Is this, sir, consistent with the character of a free government? Is this civil liberty? Is this the real character of our Constitution? No, sir, indeed it is not...Where is it written in the Constitution, in what article or section is it contained, that you may take children from their parents, and parents from their children, and compel them to fight the battles of any war, in which the folly or the wickedness of government may engage it? Under what concealment has this power lain hidden, which now for the first time comes forth, with a tremendous and baleful aspect, to trample down and destroy the dearest rights of personal liberty?

Daniel Webster (December 9, 1814 House of Representatives Address)

text: Civil War[edit]

text: The United States first employed national conscription during the American Civil War. The vast majority of troops were volunteers; of the 2,100,000 Union soldiers, about 2% were draftees, and another 6% were substitutes paid by draftees.[8][9]

text: The Confederacy had far fewer inhabitants than the Union, and Confederate President Jefferson Davis proposed the first conscription act on March 28, 1862; it was passed into law the next month.[10] Resistance was both widespread and violent, with comparisons made between conscription and slavery.

text: Both sides permitted conscripts to hire substitutes to serve in their place. In the Union, many states and cities offered bounties and bonuses for enlistment. They also arranged to take credit against their draft quota by claiming freed slaves who enlisted in the Union Army.

text: Although both sides resorted to conscription, the system did not work effectively in either.[11] The Confederate Congress on April 16, 1862, passed an act requiring military service for three years from all males aged eighteen to thirty-five not legally exempt; it later extended the obligation. The U.S. Congress followed with the Militia Act of 1862 authorizing a militia draft within a state when it could not meet its quota with volunteers.[citation needed] This state-administered system failed in practice and in 1863 Congress passed the Enrollment Act, the first genuine national conscription law, setting up under the Union Army an elaborate machinery for enrolling and drafting men between twenty and forty-five years of age. Quotas were assigned in each state, the deficiencies in volunteers required to be met by conscription.

text: Still, men drafted could provide substitutes, and until mid-1864 could even avoid service by paying commutation money. Many eligible men pooled their money to cover the cost of any one of them drafted. Families used the substitute provision to select which member should go into the army and which would stay home. The other popular means of procuring a substitute was to pay a soldier whose period of enlistment was about to expire - the advantage of this method was that the Army could retain a trained veteran in place of a raw recruit. Of the 168,649 men procured for the Union Army through the draft, 117,986 were substitutes, leaving only 50,663 who had their personal services conscripted. There was much evasion and overt resistance to the draft, and the New York City draft riots were in direct response to the draft and were the first large-scale resistance against the draft in the United States.

text: The problem of Confederate desertion was aggravated by the inequitable inclinations of conscription officers and local judges. The three conscription acts of the Confederacy exempted certain categories, most notably the planter class, and enrolling officers and local judges often practiced favoritism, sometimes accepting bribes. Attempts to effectively deal with the issue were frustrated by conflict between state and local governments on the one hand and the national government of the Confederacy.[12]

text: World War I[edit]

text: In 1917 the administration of President Woodrow Wilson decided to rely primarily on conscription, rather than voluntary enlistment, to raise military manpower for World War I when only 73,000 volunteers enlisted out of the initial 1 million target in the first six weeks of the war.[13] One claimed motivation was to head off the former President, Theodore Roosevelt, who proposed to raise a volunteer division, which would upstage Wilson. However, there is no evidence that even Roosevelt had the popularity to overcome the unpopular war, also, since Wilson had just started his second term in office the former President's prospects for substantial political gain would seem dubious.

text: The Selective Service Act of 1917 was carefully drawn to remedy the defects in the Civil War system and—by allowing exemptions for dependency, essential occupations, and religious scruples—to place each man in his proper niche in a national war effort. The act established a "liability for military service of all male citizens"; authorized a selective draft of all those between 21 and 31 years of age (later from 18 to 45); and prohibited all forms of bounties, substitutions, or purchase of exemptions. Administration was entrusted to local boards composed of leading civilians in each community. These boards issued draft calls in order of numbers drawn in a national lottery and determined exemptions.

text: In 1917 10 million men were registered. This was deemed to be inadequate, so age ranges were increased and exemptions reduced, and so by the end of 1918 this increased to 24 million men that were registered with nearly 3 million inducted into the military services, with little of the resistance that characterized the Civil War, thanks to a huge campaign by the government to build support for the war, and shut down newspapers and magazines that published articles against the war.[14][15]

text: The draft was universal and included blacks on the same terms as whites, although they served in different units. In all 367,710 black Americans were drafted (13.0% of the total), compared to 2,442,586 white (86.9%). Along with a general opposition to American involvement in a foreign conflict, Southern farmers objected to unfair conscription practices that exempted members of the upper class and industrial workers.

text: Draft boards were localized and based their decisions on social class: the poorest were the most often conscripted because they were considered the most expendable at home. African-Americans in particular were often disproportionately drafted, though they generally were conscripted as laborers and not sent into combat to avoid the tensions that would arise from mixing races in military units. Forms of resistance ranged from peaceful protest to violent demonstrations and from humble letter-writing campaigns asking for mercy to radical newspapers demanding reform. The most common tactics were dodging and desertion, and many communities sheltered and defended their draft dodgers as political heroes.

text: Nearly half a million immigrants were drafted, which forced the military to develop training procedures that took ethnic differences into account. Military leaders invited Progressive reformers and ethnic group leaders to assist in formulating new military policies. The military attempted to socialize and Americanize young immigrant recruits, not by forcing "angloconformity", but by showing remarkable sensitivity and respect for ethnic values and traditions and a concern for the morale of immigrant troops. Sports activities, keeping immigrant groups together, newspapers in various languages, the assistance of bilingual officers, and ethnic entertainment programs were all employed.[16]

text: Opposition[edit]

text: The Conscription Act of 1917 was passed in June. Conscripts were court-martialed by the Army if they refused to wear uniforms, bear arms, perform basic duties, or submit to military authority. Convicted objectors were often given long sentences of 20 years in Fort Leavenworth.[17] In 1918 Secretary Baker created the Board of Inquiry to question the conscientious objectors' sincerity.[18] Military tribunals tried men found by the Board to be insincere for a variety of offenses, sentencing 17 to death, 142 to life imprisonment, and 345 to penal labor camps.[18]

text: In 1917, a number of radicals and anarchists, including Emma Goldman, challenged the new draft law in federal court, arguing that it was a direct violation of the Thirteenth Amendment's prohibition against slavery and involuntary servitude. The Supreme Court unanimously upheld the constitutionality of the draft act in the Selective Draft Law Cases on January 7, 1918. The decision said the Constitution gave Congress the power to declare war and to raise and support armies. The Court, relying partly on Vattel's The Law of Nations, emphasized the principle of the reciprocal rights and duties of citizens:[19]

text: It may not be doubted that the very conception of a just government and its duty to the citizen includes the reciprocal obligation of the citizen to render military service in case of need, and the right to compel it. To do more than state the proposition is absolutely unnecessary in view of the practical illustration afforded by the almost universal legislation to that effect now in force.

text: Conscription was unpopular from left-wing sectors at the start, with many Socialists jailed for "obstructing the recruitment or enlistment service". The most famous was Eugene Debs, head of the Socialist Party of America, who ran for president in 1920 from his Atlanta prison cell. He had his sentence commuted to time served and was released on December 25, 1921, by President Warren G. Harding.

text: The Industrial Workers of the World mobilized to obstruct the war effort through strikes in war-related industries and not registering.

text: Conscientious objectors[edit]

text: Conscientious objector (CO) exemptions were allowed for the Amish, Mennonites, Quakers, and Church of the Brethren only. All other religious and political objectors were forced to participate. Some 64,700 men claimed conscientious objector status; local draft boards certified 57,000, of whom 30,000 passed the physical and 21,000 were inducted into the U.S. Army. About 80% of the 21,000 decided to abandon their objection and take up arms, but 3,989 drafted objectors refused to serve. Most belonged to historically pacifist denominations, especially Quakers, Mennonites, and Moravian Brethren, as well as a few Seventh-day Adventists and Jehovah's Witnesses. About 15% were religious objectors from non-pacifist churches.[20]

text: Ben Salmon was a nationally known political activist who encouraged men not to register and personally refused to comply with the draft procedures. He rejected the Army Review Board proposal that he do noncombatant farm work. Sentenced to 25 years in prison, he again refused a proposed desk job. He was pardoned and released in November 1920 with a "dishonorable discharge".[21]

text: Interwar[edit]

text: The draft ended in 1918 but the Army designed the modern draft mechanism in 1926 and built it based on military needs despite an era of pacifism. Working where Congress would not, it gathered a cadre of officers for its nascent Joint Army-Navy Selective Service Committee, most of whom were commissioned based on social standing rather than military experience.[22] This effort did not receive congressionally approved funding until 1934 when Major General Lewis B. Hershey was assigned to the organization. The passage of a conscription act was opposed by some, including Dorothy Day and George Barry O'Toole, who were concerned that such conscription would not provide adequate protection for the rights of conscientious objectors. However, much of Hershey's work was codified into law with the Selective Training and Service Act of 1940 (STSA).[23]

text: World War II[edit]

text: By the summer of 1940, as Germany conquered France, Americans supported the return of conscription. One national survey found that 67% of respondents believed that a German-Italian victory would endanger the United States, and that 71% supported "the immediate adoption of compulsory military training for all young men".[24] Similarly, a November 1942 survey of American high-school students found that 69% favored compulsory postwar military training.[25]

text: The World War I system served as a model for that of World War II. The 1940 STSA instituted national conscription in peacetime, requiring registration of all men between 21 and 35, with selection for one year's service by a national lottery. The term of service was extended by one year in August 1941. After Pearl Harbor the STSA was further amended (December 19, 1941), extending the term of service to the duration of the war and six months and requiring the registration of all men 18 to 64 years of age. In the massive draft of World War II, 49 million men were registered, 36 million classified[not in citation given], and 10 million inducted.[26] President Roosevelt's signing of the STSA on September 16, 1940, began the first peacetime draft in the United States. It also established the Selective Service System as an independent agency responsible for identifying and inducting young men into military service. Roosevelt named Hershey to head the Selective Service on July 31, 1941, where he remained until 1969.[23] This preparatory act came when other preparations, such as increased training and equipment production, had not yet been approved. Nevertheless, it served as the basis for the conscription programs that would continue to the present. The act set a cap of 900,000 men to be in training at any given time and limited military service to 12 months. An amendment increased this 18 more months in August 1941. Later legislation on December 20, 1942 amended the act to require all men from 18 to 64 to register, with those aged 20 to 44 being able for induction. 18 and 19 year olds were made liable for induction and the upper age limit for the draft was reduced to 37 beginning on November 13, 1942. Service commitments for inductees were set at the length of the war plus six months.[27]

text: As manpower need increased during World War II, draftees were inducted into the Army, Navy, and Marine Corps. The Navy and Marine Corps enlisted inductees and volunteers under the same service agreements, but with different service obligations, while the Army (and Army Air Forces) placed inductees into a special service component known as the Army of the United States, commonly known as the "AUS".[28]

text: By 1942, the Selective Service System moved away from administrative selection by its more than 6,000 local boards to a system of lottery selection. Rather than filling quotas by local selection, the boards now ensured proper processing of men selected by the national lottery.[22] On December 5, 1942, presidential Executive Order 9279 made it so that men from the ages of 18 to 37 could not voluntarily enlist even if they had not been drafted, providing protection for the nation's home front manpower pool. Paul V. McNutt, head of the War Manpower Commission, estimated that the changes would increase the ratio of men drafted from one out of nine to one out of five. The commission's goal was to have nine million men in the armed forces by the end of 1943.[29] This facilitated the massive requirement of up to 200,000 men per month and would remain the standard for the length of the war. The World War II draft operated from 1940 until 1947 when its legislative authorization expired without further extension by Congress. During this time, more than 10 million men had been inducted into military service. With the expiration, no inductions occurred in 1947.[30] However, the SSS remained intact.

text: Opposition[edit]

text: Scattered opposition was encountered especially in the northern cities where African-Americans protested the system. The young Nation of Islam was at the forefront, with many Black Muslims jailed for refusing the draft, and their leader Elijah Muhammed was sentenced to federal prison for 5 years for inciting draft resistance. Organized draft resistance also developed in the Japanese American internment camps, where groups like the Heart Mountain Fair Play Committee refused to serve unless they and their families were released. 300 Nisei men from eight of the ten War Relocation Authority camps were arrested and stood trial for felony draft evasion; most were sentenced to federal prison.[31] American Communists also opposed the war until Germany attacked the Soviet Union in June 1941, whereupon they became supporters.[32]

text: Conscientious objectors[edit]

text: Of the more than 72,000 men registering as conscientious objectors (CO), nearly 52,000 received CO status. Of these, over 25,000 entered the military in noncombatant roles, another 12,000 went to civilian work camps, and nearly 6,000 went to prison. Draft evasion only accounted for about 4% of the total inducted. About 373,000 alleged evaders were investigated with just over 16,000 being imprisoned.[33]

text: Cold War[edit]

text: The second peacetime draft began with passage of the Selective Service Act of 1948 after the STSA expired. The new law required all men, ages 18 to 26, to register. It also created the system for the "Doctor Draft" aimed at inducting health professionals into military service.[34] Unless otherwise exempted or deferred, these men could be called for up to 21 months of active duty and five years of reserve duty service. Congress further tweaked this act in 1950 although the post–World War II surplus of military manpower left little need for draft calls until Truman's declaration of national emergency in December 1950.[35] Only 20,348 men were inducted in 1948 and only 9,781 in 1949.

text: Between the Korean War's outbreak in June 1950 and the armistice agreement in 1953, Selective Service inducted over 1.5 million men.[30] Another 1.3 million volunteered, usually choosing the Navy or Air Force.[22][33] Congress passed the Universal Military Training and Service Act in 1951 to meet the demands of the war. It lowered the induction age to 18½ and extended active-duty service commitments to 24 months. Despite the early combat failures and later stalemate in Korea, the draft has been credited by some as playing a vital role in turning the tide of war.[22] A February 1953 Gallup Poll showed 70 percent of Americans surveyed felt the SSS handled the draft fairly. Notably, Gallup reported that 64 percent of the demographic group including all draft age men (males 21 to 29) believed the draft to be fair.[36]

text: To increase equity in the system, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed an executive order on July 11, 1953, that ended the paternity deferment for married men.[37] In large part, the change in the draft served the purposes of the burgeoning Cold War. From a program that had just barely passed congressional muster during the fearful prelude to World War II, a more robust draft continued as fears now focused on the Soviet threat. Nevertheless, some dissenting voices in Congress continued to appeal to the history of voluntary American military service as preferable for a democracy.[38][39] The Korean War was the first time any form of student deferment was used. During the Korean War a student carrying at least twelve semester hours was spared until the end of his current semester.[40]

text: The United States breathed easier with the Korean War Armistice on July 27, 1953; however, technology brought new promises and threats. U.S. air and nuclear power fueled the Eisenhower doctrine of "massive retaliation". This strategy demanded more machines and fewer foot soldiers, so the draft slipped to the back burner. However, the head of the SSS, Maj. Gen. Hershey, urged caution fearing the conflict looming in Vietnam. In May 1953, he told his state directors to do everything possible to keep SSS alive in order to meet upcoming needs.[41]

text: Following the 1953 Korean War Armistice, Congress passed the Reserve Forces Act of 1955 with the aim of improving National Guard and federal Reserve Component readiness while also constraining its use by the president. Towards this end, it mandated a six-year service commitment, in a combination of reserve and active duty time, for every line military member regardless of their means of entry. Meanwhile, the SSS kept itself alive by devising and managing a complex system of deferments for a swelling pool of candidates during a period of shrinking requirements. The greatest challenge to the draft came not from protesters but rather lobbyists seeking additional deferments for their constituency groups such as scientists and farmers.[23]

text: Government leaders felt the potential for a draft was a critical element in maintaining a constant flow of volunteers. On numerous occasions Gen. Hershey told Congress for every man drafted, three or four more were scared into volunteering.[42] Assuming his assessment was accurate, this would mean over 11 million men volunteered for service because of the draft between January 1954 and April 1975.[22]

text: The policy of using the draft as a club to force "voluntary" enlistment was unique in U.S. history. Previous drafts had not aimed at encouraging individuals to sign up in order to gain preferential placement or less dangerous postings. However, the incremental buildup of Vietnam without a clear threat to the country bolstered this.[22] Some estimates suggest conscription encompassed almost one-third of all eligible men during the period of 1965–69.[43][44] This group represented those without exemption or resources to avoid military service. During the active combat phase, the possibility of avoiding combat by selecting their service and military specialty led as many as four out of 11 eligible men to enlist.[45][46] The military relied upon this draft-induced volunteerism to make its quotas, especially the Army, which accounted for nearly 95 percent of all inductees during Vietnam. For example, defense recruiting reports show 34% of the recruits in 1964 up to 50% in 1970 indicated they joined to avoid placement uncertainty via the draft.[47][48][49] These rates dwindled to 24% in 1972 and 15% in 1973 after the change to a lottery system. Accounting for other factors, it can be argued up to 60 percent of those who served throughout the Vietnam War did so directly or indirectly because of the draft.[45]

text: In addition, deferments provided an incentive for men to follow pursuits considered useful to the state. This process, known as channeling, helped push men into educational, occupational, and family choices they might not otherwise have pursued. Undergraduate degrees were valued. Graduate work had varying value over time, though technical and religious training received near constant support. War industry support in the form of teaching, research, or skilled labor also received deferred or exempt status. Finally, marriage and family were exempted because of its positive social consequences.[23][50] This included using presidential orders to extend exemptions again to fathers and others.[51] Channeling was also seen as a means of preempting the early loss of the country's "best and brightest" who had historically joined and died early in war.[52]

text: In the only extended period of military conscription of U.S. males during a major peacetime period, the draft continued on a more limited basis during the late 1950s and early 1960s. While a far smaller percentage of eligible males were conscripted compared to war periods, draftees by law served in the Army for two years. Elvis Presley and Willie Mays were two of the most famous people drafted during this period.

text: Public protests in the United States were few during the Korean War. However, the percentage of CO exemptions for inductees grew to 1.5% compared to a rate of just 0.5% in the past two wars. The Justice Department also investigated more than 80,000 draft evasion cases.[44][53][54]

text: Vietnam War[edit]

text: President Kennedy's decision to send military troops to Vietnam as "advisors" was a signal that Selective Service Director Lewis B. Hershey needed to visit the Oval Office. From that visit emerged two wishes of JFK with regard to conscription. The first was that the names of married men with children should occupy the very bottom of the callup list. Just above them should be the names of men who are married. This Presidential policy, however, was not to be formally encoded into Selective Service Status. Men who fit into these categories became known as Kennedy Husbands. When President Lyndon Johnson decided to rescind this Kennedy policy, there was a last-minute rush to the altar by thousands of American couples.[citation needed]

text: Many early rank-and-file anti-conscription protesters had been allied with the National Committee for a SANE Nuclear Policy. The completion in 1963 of a Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty left a mass of undirected youth in search of a cause. Syndicated cartoonist Al Capp portrayed them as S.W.I.N.E, (Students Wildly Indignant About Nearly Everything). The catalyst for protest reconnection was the 1964 Gulf of Tonkin Resolution.

text: Consequently, there was some opposition to the draft even before the major U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War began. The large cohort of Baby Boomers who became eligible for military service during the Vietnam War was responsible for a steep increase in the number of exemptions and deferments, especially for college students. Besides being able to avoid the draft, college graduates who volunteered for military service (primarily as commissioned officers) had a much better chance of securing a preferential posting compared to less-educated inductees.

text: As U.S. troop strength in South Vietnam increased, more young men were drafted for service there, and many of those still at home sought means of avoiding the draft. Since only 15,000 National Guard and Reserve soldiers were sent to South Vietnam, enlistment in the Guard or the Reserves became a popular means of avoiding serving in a war zone. For those who could meet the more stringent enlistment standards, service in the Air Force, Navy, or Coast Guard was a means of reducing the chances of being killed. Vocations to the ministry and the rabbinate soared, because divinity students were exempt from the draft[citation needed]. Doctors and draft board members found themselves being pressured by relatives or family friends to exempt potential draftees.[citation needed]

text: The marriage deferment ended suddenly on August 26, 1965. Around 3:10pm President Johnson signed an order allowing the draft of men who married after midnight that day, then around 5pm he announced the change for the first time.[55]

text: Some conscientious objectors objected to the war based on the theory of Just War. One of these, Stephen Spiro, was convicted of avoiding the draft, but given a suspended sentence of five years. He was later pardoned by President Gerald Ford.[56]

text: There were 8,744,000 servicemembers between 1964 and 1975, of whom 3,403,000 were deployed to Southeast Asia.[57] From a pool of approximately 27 million, the draft raised 2,215,000 men for military service (in the United States, South Vietnam, and elsewhere) during the Vietnam War era. The majority of servicemembers deployed to South Vietnam were volunteers, even though hundreds of thousands of men opted to join the Army, Air Force, Navy, and Coast Guard (for three or four year terms of enlistment) rather than risk being drafted, serve for two years, and have no choice over their military occupational specialty (MOS).[58]

text: Of the nearly 16 million men not engaged in active military service, 57% were exempted (typically because of jobs including other military service), deferred (usually for educational reasons), or disqualified (usually for physical and mental deficiencies but also for criminal records including draft violations).[22] The requirements for obtaining and maintaining an educational deferment changed several times in the late 1960s. For several years, students were required to take an annual qualification test. In 1967 educational deferments were changed for graduate students. Those starting graduate studies in the fall of 1967 were given two semester deferments becoming eligible in June 1968. Those further along in their graduate study who entered prior to the summer of 1967 could continue to receive a deferment until they completed their studies. Peace Corps Volunteers were no longer given deferments and their induction was left to the discretion of their local boards. However most boards allowed Peace Corps Volunteers to complete their two years assignment before inducting them into the service. On December 1, 1969, a lottery was held to establish a draft priority for all those born between 1944 and 1950. Those with a high number no longer had to be concerned about the draft. Nearly 500,000 men were disqualified for criminal records, but less than 10,000 of them were convicted of draft violations.[33] Finally, as many as 100,000 draft eligible men fled the country.[59][60]

text: End of conscription[edit]

text: During the 1968 presidential election, Richard Nixon campaigned on a promise to end the draft.[61] He had first become interested in the idea of an all-volunteer army during his time out of office, based upon a paper by Martin Anderson of Columbia University.[62] Nixon also saw ending the draft as an effective way to undermine the anti-Vietnam war movement, since he believed affluent youths would stop protesting the war once their own probability of having to fight in it was gone.[63] There was opposition to the all-volunteer notion from both the Department of Defense and Congress, so Nixon took no immediate action towards ending the draft early in his presidency.[62]

text: Instead, the Gates Commission was formed, headed by Thomas S. Gates, Jr., a former Secretary of Defense in the Eisenhower administration. Gates initially opposed the all-volunteer army idea, but changed his mind during the course of the 15-member commission's work.[62] The Gates Commission issued its report in February 1970, describing how adequate military strength could be maintained without having conscription.[61][64] The existing draft law was expiring at the end of June 1971, but the Department of Defense and Nixon administration decided the draft needed to continue for at least some time.[64] In February 1971, the administration requested of Congress a two-year extension of the draft, to June 1973.[65][66]

text: Senatorial opponents of the war wanted to reduce this to a one-year extension, or eliminate the draft altogether, or tie the draft renewal to a timetable for troop withdrawal from Vietnam;[67] Senator Mike Gravel of Alaska took the most forceful approach, trying to filibuster the draft renewal legislation, shut down conscription, and directly force an end to the war.[68] Senators supporting Nixon's war efforts supported the bill, even though some had qualms about ending the draft.[66] After a prolonged battle in the Senate, in September 1971 cloture was achieved over the filibuster and the draft renewal bill was approved.[69] Meanwhile, military pay was increased as an incentive to attract volunteers, and television advertising for the U.S. Army began.[61] With the end of active U.S. ground participation in Vietnam, December 1972 saw the last men conscripted, who were born in 1952[70] and who reported for duty in June 1973. On February 2, 1972, a drawing was held to determine draft priority numbers for men born in 1953, but in early 1973 it was announced by Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird that no further draft orders would be issued.[71][72] In March 1973, 1974, and 1975, the Selective Service assigned draft priority numbers for all men born in 1954, 1955, and 1956, in case the draft was extended, but it never was.[73]

text: Command Sergeant Major Jeff Mellinger, believed to be the last drafted enlisted ranked soldier still on active duty, retired in 2011.[74][75]

text: Chief Warrant Officer 5 Ralph E. Rigby, the last Vietnam War-era drafted soldier of Warrant Officer rank, retired from the army in November 10, 2014 after a 42-year career.[76]

text: Post-1980 draft registration[edit]

text: On July 2, 1980, President Carter issued Presidential Proclamation 4771 and re-instated the requirement that young men register with the Selective Service System.[77] At that time it was required that all males, born on or after January 1, 1960, register with the Selective Service System. Those now in this category are male U.S. citizens and male immigrant non-citizens between the ages of 18 and 25, who are required to register within 30 days of their 18th birthday even if they are not eligible to join the military.

text: The Selective Service System describes its mission as "to serve the emergency manpower needs of the Military by conscripting untrained manpower, or personnel with professional health care skills, if directed by Congress and the President in a national crisis".[78] Registration forms are available either online or at any U.S. Post Office.

text: The Selective Service registration form states that failure to register is a felony punishable by up to five years imprisonment or a $250,000 fine.[79] In practice, no one has been prosecuted for failure to comply with draft registration since 1986,[80] in part because prosecutions of draft resisters proved counter-productive for the government, and in part because of the difficulty of proving that noncompliance with the law was "knowing and wilful". In interviews published in U.S. News & World Report in May 2016, current and former Selective Service System officials said that in 1988, the Department of Justice and Selective Service agreed to suspend any further prosecutions of nonregistrants.[81] Many men do not register at all, register late, or change addresses without notifying the Selective Service System.[82] Registration is a requirement for employment by the federal government and some states, as well as for receiving some state benefits such as driver's licenses.[83] Refusing to register can also cause a loss of eligibility for federal financial aid for college.[84]

text: Health care personnel[edit]

text: On December 1, 1989, Congress ordered the Selective Service System to put in place a system capable of drafting "persons qualified for practice or employment in a health care and professional occupation", if such a special-skills draft should be ordered by Congress.[85] In response, Selective Service published plans for the "Health Care Personnel Delivery System" (HCPDS) in 1989 and has had them ready ever since. The concept underwent a preliminary field exercise in Fiscal Year 1998, followed by a more extensive nationwide readiness exercise in Fiscal Year 1999. The HCPDS plans include women and men ages 20–54 in 57 different job categories.[86] As of May 2003, the Defense Department has said the most likely form of draft is a special skills draft, probably of health care workers.[87]

text: Legality[edit]

text: In 1918, the Supreme Court ruled that the World War I draft did not violate the United States Constitution in the Selective Draft Law Cases. The Court summarized the history of conscription in England and in colonial America, a history that it read as establishing that the Framers envisioned compulsory military service as a governmental power. It held that the Constitution's grant to Congress of the powers to declare war and to create standing armies included the power to mandate conscription. It rejected arguments based on states' rights, the 13th Amendment, and other provisions of the Constitution.

text: Later, during the Vietnam War, a lower appellate court also concluded that the draft was constitutional. United States v. Holmes, 387 F.2d 781 (7th Cir.), cert. denied, 391 U.S. 936 (1968).[88] Justice William O. Douglas, in voting to hear the appeal in Holmes, agreed that the government had the authority to employ conscription in wartime, but argued that the constitutionality of a draft in the absence of a declaration of war was an open question, which the Supreme Court should address.

text: During the World War I era, the Supreme Court allowed the government great latitude in suppressing criticism of the draft. Examples include Schenck v. United States, 249 U.S. 47 (1919)[89] and Gilbert v. Minnesota, 254 U.S. 325 (1920).[90] In subsequent decades, however, the Court has taken a much broader view of the extent to which advocacy speech is protected by the First Amendment. Thus, in 1971 the Court held it unconstitutional for a state to punish a man who entered a county courthouse wearing a jacket with the words "F*ck the Draft" visible on it. Cohen v. California, 403 U.S. 15 (1971).[91] Nevertheless, protesting the draft by the specific means of burning a draft registration card can be constitutionally prohibited, because of the government's interest in prohibiting the "nonspeech" element involved in destroying the card. United States v. O'Brien, 391 U.S. 367 (1968).[92]

text: Since the reinstatement of draft registration in 1980, the Supreme Court has heard and decided four cases related to the Military Selective Service Act: Rostker v. Goldberg, 453 U.S. 57 (1981), upholding the Constitutionality of requiring men but not women to register for the draft; Selective Service v. Minnesota Public Interest Research Group (MPIRG), 468 U.S. 841 (1984), upholding the Constitutionality of the first of the federal "Solomon Amendment" laws, which requires applicants for Federal student aid to certify that they have complied with draft registration, either by having registered or by not being required to register; Wayte v. United States, 470 U.S. 598 (1985), upholding the policies and procedures which the Supreme Court thought the government had used to select the "most vocal" nonregistrants for prosecution, after the government refused to comply with discovery orders by the trial court to produce documents and witnesses related to the selection of nonregistrants for prosecution; and Elgin v. Department of the Treasury, 567 U.S. ____ (2012), regarding procedures for judicial review of denial of Federal employment for nonregistrants.[93]

text: In 1981, several men filed lawsuit in the case Rostker v. Goldberg, alleging that the Military Selective Service Act violates the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment by requiring that men only and not also women register with the Selective Service System. The Supreme Court upheld the act, stating that Congress's "decision to exempt women was not the accidental byproduct of a traditional way of thinking about women", that "since women are excluded from combat service by statute or military policy, men and women are simply not similarly situated for purposes of a draft or registration for a draft, and Congress' decision to authorize the registration of only men therefore does not violate the Due Process Clause", and that "the argument for registering women was based on considerations of equity, but Congress was entitled, in the exercise of its constitutional powers, to focus on the question of military need, rather than 'equity.'"[94]

text: The Rostker v. Goldberg opinion's dependence upon deference on decision of the executive to exclude women from combat has garnered renewed scrutiny since the Department of Defense announced its decision in January 2013 to do away with most of the federal policies that have kept women from serving in combat roles in ground war situations. Both the U.S. Navy and the U.S. Air Force had by then already opened up virtually all positions in sea and air combat to women. At least two lawsuits have been filed challenging the continued Constitutionality of requiring men but not women to register with the Selective service System: National Coalition for Men v. Selective Service System (filed April 4, 2013, U.S. District Court for the Central District of California; dismissed by the District Court July 29, 2013 as not "ripe" for decision; appeal argued December 8, 2015 before the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals;[95] reversed and remanded February 19, 2016[96]), and Kyle v. Selective Service System (filed July 3, 2015, U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey), brought on behalf of Elizabeth Kyle-LaBell, who tried to register but was turned away because she is female.[97]

text: Conscientious objection[edit]

text: According to the Selective Service System,[98]

text: The Supreme Court has ruled in cases United States v. Seeger[99] (1965) and Welsh v. United States[100] (1970) that conscientious objection can be by non-religious beliefs as well as religious beliefs; but it has also ruled in Gillette v. United States (1971) against objections to specific wars as grounds for conscientious objection.[101]

text: There is currently no mechanism to indicate that one is a conscientious objector in the Selective Service system. According to the SSS, after a person is drafted, he can claim Conscientious Objector status and then justify it before the Local Board. This is criticized because during the times of a draft, when the country is in emergency conditions, there could be increased pressure for Local Boards to be more harsh on conscientious objector claims.

text: There are two types of status for conscientious objectors. If a person objects only to combat but not to service in the military, then the person could be given noncombatant service in the military without training of weapons. If the person objects to all military service, then the person could be ordered to "alternative service" with a job "deemed to make a meaningful contribution to the maintenance of the national health, safety, and interest".

text: Poverty Draft[edit]

text: The poverty draft is a controversial belief in some circles that low-income demographics are either intentionally targeted by the military for recruitment, or that their low socioeconomic status makes enlistment especially attractive, such that they are overrepresented in the armed forces. The "poverty draft" is a term describing U.S. military recruiters' purposeful tendency to focus their recruiting efforts on inner-city and poor rural schools. The low-income youth and young people of color who attend these schools generally have fewer good educational and job opportunities than middle-class and wealthy youth and are therefore more likely to enlist. Proponents of the poverty draft view often claim that because of this the U.S. armed forces are disproportionally men and women of color and from poor and working-class backgrounds.[102] [103]

text: Selective Service reforms[edit]

text: The Selective Service System has maintained that they have implemented several reforms that would make the draft more fair and equitable.

text: Some of the measures they have implemented include:[104]

text:
Before and during the Vietnam War, a young man could get a deferment by showing that he was a full-time student making satisfactory progress towards a degree; now deferment only lasts to the end of the semester. If the man is a senior he can defer until the end of the academic year.
The government has said that draft boards are now more representative of the local communities in areas such as race and national origin.
A lottery system would be used to determine the order of people being called up. Previously the oldest men who were found eligible for the draft would be taken first. In the new system, the men called first would be those who are or will turn 20 years old in the calendar year or those whose deferments will end in the calendar year. Each year after, the man will be placed on a lower priority status until his liability ends.

text: Conscription controversies since 2003[edit]

text: The effort to enforce Selective Service registration law was abandoned in 1986. Since then, no attempt to reinstate conscription has been able to attract much support in the legislature or among the public.[82] Since early 2003, when the Iraq War appeared imminent, there had been attempts through legislation and campaign rhetoric to begin a new public conversation on the topic. Public opinion since 1973 has been largely negative.

text: In 2003, several Democratic congressmen (Charles Rangel of New York, Jim McDermott of Washington, John Conyers of Michigan, John Lewis of Georgia, Pete Stark of California, Neil Abercrombie of Hawaii) introduced legislation that would draft both men and women into either military or civilian government service, should there be a draft in the future. The Republican majority leadership suddenly considered the bill, nine months after its introduction, without a report from the Armed Services Committee (to which it had been referred), and just one month prior to the 2004 presidential and congressional elections. The Republican leadership used an expedited parliamentary procedure that would have required a two-thirds vote for passage of the bill. The bill was defeated on October 5, 2004, with two members voting for it and 402 members voting against.

text: In 2004, the platforms of both the Democratic and Republican parties opposed military conscription, but neither party moved to end draft registration. John Kerry in one debate criticized Bush's policies, "You've got stop-loss policies so people can't get out when they were supposed to. You've got a backdoor draft right now."

text: This statement was in reference to the U.S. Department of Defense use of "stop-loss" orders, which have extended the Active Duty periods of some military personnel. All enlistees, upon entering the service, volunteer for a minimum eight-year Military Service Obligation (MSO). This MSO is split between a minimum active duty period, followed by a reserve period where enlistees may be called back to active duty for the remainder of the eight years.[105] Some of these active duty extensions have been for as long as two years. The Pentagon stated that as of August 24, 2004, 20,000 soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines had been affected.[106] As of January 31, 2006 it has been reported that more than 50,000 soldiers and reservists had been affected.[107]

text: Despite arguments by defense leaders that they had no interest in re-instituting the draft, Representative Neil Abercrombie's (D-HI) inclusion of a DOD memo in the Congressional Record which detailed a meeting by senior leaders signaled renewed interest. Though the conclusion of the meeting memo did not call for a reinstatement of the draft, it did suggest Selective Service Act modifications to include registration by women and self-reporting of critical skills that could serve to meet military, homeland-defense, and humanitarian needs.[108] This hinted at more targeted draft options being considered, perhaps like that of the "Doctor Draft" that began in the 1950s to provide nearly 66% of the medical professionals who served in the Army in Korea.[109] Once created, this manpower tool continued to be used through 1972. The meeting memo gave DOD's primary reason for opposing a draft as a matter of cost effectiveness and efficiency. Draftees with less than two years' retention were said to be a net drain on military resources providing insufficient benefit to offset overhead costs of using them.[22]

text: Mentions of the draft during the presidential campaign led to a resurgence of anti-draft and draft resistance organizing.[110] One poll of young voters in October 2004 found that 29% would resist if drafted.[111]

text: In November 2006, Representative Charles B. Rangel (D-NY) again called for the draft to be reinstated; Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi rejected the proposal.[112]

text: On December 19, 2006, President George W. Bush announced that he was considering sending more troops to Iraq. The next day, the Selective Service System's director for operations and chief information officer, Scott Campbell, announced plans for a "readiness exercise" to test the system's operations in 2006, for the first time since 1998.[113]

text: On December 21, 2006, Veterans Affairs Secretary Jim Nicholson, when asked by a reporter whether the draft should be reinstated to make the military more equal, said, "I think that our society would benefit from that, yes sir." Nicholson proceeded to relate his experience as a company commander in an infantry unit which brought together soldiers of different socioeconomic backgrounds and education levels, noting that the draft "does bring people from all quarters of our society together in the common purpose of serving". Nicholson later issued a statement saying he does not support reinstating the draft.[114]

text: On August 10, 2007, with National Public Radio on "All Things Considered", Lieutenant General Douglas Lute, National Security Adviser to the President and Congress for all matters pertaining to the United States Military efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan, expressed support for a draft to alleviate the stress on the Army's all-volunteer force. He cited the fact that repeated deployments place much strain upon one soldier's family and himself which, in turn, can affect retention.[115]

text: A similar bill to Rangel's 2003 one was introduced in 2007, called the Universal National Service Act of 2007 (H.R. 393), but it has not received a hearing or been scheduled for consideration.

text: At the end of June 2014 in Pennsylvania 14,250 letters of conscription were erroneously posted to men born in the 19th century calling upon them to register for the US military draft. This was attributed to a clerk at the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation who failed to select a century during a transfer of 400,000 records to the Selective Service. The Selective Service identified 27,218 records of men born in the 19th century made errantly applicable by the change of century and began sending out notices to them on June 30.[116]

text: On June 14, 2016, the Senate voted to require women to register for the draft, though language requiring this was dropped from later versions of the bill.[117]

text: Non-citizens[edit]

text: The Selective Service (and the draft) in the United States is not limited to citizens. Howard Stringer, for example, was drafted six weeks after arriving from his native Britain in 1965.[118][119] Today, non-citizen males of appropriate age in the United States, who are permanent residents (holders of green cards), seasonal agricultural workers not holding an H-2A Visa, refugees, parolees, asylees, and illegal immigrants, are required to register with the Selective Service System.[120] Refusal to do so is grounds for denial of a future citizenship application. In addition, immigrants who seek to naturalize as citizens must, as part of the Oath of Citizenship, swear to the following:

text: ... that I will bear arms on behalf of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform noncombatant service in the armed forces of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform work of national importance under civilian direction when required by the law;[121]

text: The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) website also states however:

text: However, since 1975, USCIS has allowed the oath to be taken without the clauses: ". . .that I will bear arms on behalf of the United States when required by law; that I will perform noncombatant service in the Armed Forces of the United States when required by law...."

text: Non-citizens who serve in the United States military enjoy several naturalization benefits which are unavailable to non-citizens who do not, such as a waiver of application fees.[122] Permanent resident aliens who die while serving in the U.S. Armed Forces may be naturalized posthumously, which may be beneficial to surviving family members.[123]


document_title: Boundaries between the continents of Earth

question_text: where does north america and south america meet

root

text: Europe and Africa[edit]

text:
The Mediterranean Sea

The Atlantic Ocean around the boundary

tag: table

text: The European and African mainlands are non-contiguous, and the delineation between these continents is thus merely a question of which islands are to be associated with which continent. At its nearest point, Morocco and the European portion of Spain are separated by only 13 kilometres (8.1 miles).

tag: p

text: The Portuguese Atlantic island possession of the Azores is 1,368 km (850 mi) from Europe and 1,507 km (936 mi) from Africa, and is usually grouped with Europe if grouped with any continent. By contrast, the Canary and Madeira islands off the Atlantic coast of Morocco are much closer to, and usually grouped with, Africa (the Canary Islands are only 100 km (62 mi) from the African coast at their closest point, while Madeira is 520 km (320 mi) from Africa and 1,000 km (620 mi) from Europe).[1]

text: The Mediterranean island nation of Malta is approximately 81 km (50 mi) from the coast of Sicily in Europe - much closer than the 288 km (179 mi) distance to the closest African coast. The nearby Italian island of Lampedusa is 207 km (129 mi) from Sicily while just 127 km (79 mi) from the African coast; similarly, Pantelleria is 100 km (62 mi) from Sicily and just 71 km (44 mi) from the African coast. All of these Mediterranean islands are actually located on the African plate, and may be considered part of the continent of Africa.[2][3] However, for political and historical reasons, maps generally display them as part of Europe.

text: Europe and Asia[edit]

text: The boundary between Europe and Asia is unusual among continental boundaries because of its largely mountain-and-river-based characteristics north and east of the Black Sea. The reason is historical, the division of Europe and Asia going back to the early Greek geographers. In the modern sense of the term "continent", Eurasia is more readily identifiable as a "continent", and Europe has occasionally been described as a subcontinent of Eurasia.[4]

text: History[edit]

text: The threefold division of the Old World into Europe, Asia and Africa has been in use since the 6th century BC, due to Greek geographers such as Anaximander and Hecataeus.

text: Anaximander placed the boundary between Asia and Europe along the Phasis River (the modern Rioni) in the Caucasus (from its mouth by Poti on the Black Sea coast, through the Surami Pass and along the Kura River to the Caspian Sea), a convention still followed by Herodotus in the 5th century BC.[5] As geographic knowledge of the Greeks increased during the Hellenistic period,[6] this archaic convention was revised, and the boundary between Europe and Asia was now considered to be the Tanais (the modern Don River). This is the convention used by Roman era authors such as Posidonius,[7] Strabo[8] and Ptolemy.[9]

text: Throughout the Middle Ages and into the 18th century, the traditional division of the landmass of Eurasia into two continents, Europe and Asia, followed Ptolemy, with the boundary following the Turkish Straits, the Black Sea, the Kerch Strait, the Sea of Azov and the Don (known in antiquity as the Tanais). But maps produced during the 16th to 18th centuries tended to differ in how to continue the boundary beyond the Don bend at Kalach-na-Donu (where it is closest to the Volga, now joined with it by the Volga–Don Canal), into territory not described in any detail by the ancient geographers.

text: Philip Johan von Strahlenberg in 1725 was the first to depart from the classical Don boundary by drawing the line along the Volga, following the Volga north until the Samara Bend, along Obshchy Syrt (the drainage divide between Volga and Ural) and then north along Ural Mountains.[10][11] The mapmakers continued to differ on the boundary between the lower Don and Samara well into the 19th century. The 1745 atlas published by the Russian Academy of Sciences has the boundary follow the Don beyond Kalach as far as Serafimovich before cutting north towards Arkhangelsk, while other 18th- to 19th-century mapmakers such as John Cary followed Strahlenberg's prescription. To the south, the Kuma–Manych Depression was identified circa 1773 by a German naturalist, Peter Simon Pallas, as a valley that, once upon a time, connected the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea,[11][12] and subsequently was proposed as a natural boundary between continents.

text: By the mid-19th century, there were three main conventions, one following the Don, the Volga–Don Canal and the Volga, the other following the Kuma–Manych Depression to the Caspian and then the Ural River, and the third abandoning the Don altogether, following the Greater Caucasus watershed to the Caspian. The question was still treated as a "controversy" in geographical literature of the 1860s, with Douglas Freshfield advocating the Caucasus crest boundary as the "best possible", citing support from various "modern geographers".[13]

text: In Russia and the Soviet Union, the boundary along the Kuma–Manych Depression was the most commonly used as early as 1906.[14] In 1958, the Soviet Geographical Society formally recommended that the boundary between the Europe and Asia be drawn in textbooks from Baydaratskaya Bay, on the Kara Sea, along the eastern foot of Ural Mountains, then following the Ural River until the Mugodzhar Hills, and then the Emba River; and Kuma–Manych Depression,[15] thus placing the Caucasus entirely in Asia and the Urals entirely in Europe.[16] However, most geographers in the Soviet Union favoured the boundary along the Caucasus crest[17] and this became the standard convention in the latter 20th century, although the Kuma–Manych boundary remained in use in some 20th-century maps.

text:
Maps

Map
Description

Map of the world according to Anaximander (6th century BC). Only the parts of Europe, Asia and Africa directly adjacent to the Mediterranean and the Black Sea are known. The Phasis River of the Caucasus is imagined as separating Europe from Asia, while the Nile separates Asia from Africa (Libya).

In this 1570 map of Asia (Asiae Nova Descriptio), the Tanais is used as continental boundary. Moscovia is represented as "transcontinental", having an Asiatic and a European part (labelled Europae pars).

This 1719 map of "ancient Asia" (Asia Vetus) divides Sarmatia into Sarmatia Europea and Sarmatia Asiatica. The continental boundary is drawn along the Tanais (Don), the Volga and the Northern Dvina.

Herman Moll (c. 1715) draws the boundary along the Don, the Volga, cutting across land from Samara to the Tobol River, following the lower Irtysh and finally the Ob River, placing Novaya Zemlya in Europe.

A German map of 1730 by Johann Christoph Homann has a similar boundary to the one shown by Moll, but following the full length of the Samara bend and then cutting across to the Irtysh directly, placing the Tobol and Tobolsk in Asia.

The "Academy Atlas" of the Russian Empire, published by The Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences in 1745, draws the boundary along the Don, but then west of the Volga to Arkhangelsk

1803 Cedid Atlas (Ottoman Empire), draws the boundary along the Don, Volga and River Kama and then cuts northwards to Khaypudyr Bay. Novaya Zemlya is in Europe.

1806 map of Asia by John Cary, boundary along the Don and then the Volga until Samara, and north of Perm following the Urals, placing Novaya Zemlya in Asia.

1827 map by Anthony Finley, showing the boundary as running along the Don, the Volga, passing between Perm and Ufa, and running north over land to the Sea of Kara, placing Novaya Zemlya in Europe.

1861 map by A. J. Johnson, illustrating the modern convention, Caucasus crest, Ural River, Urals.

1914 map showing the boundary along the Manych River, placing Stavropol Krai in Asia

Miles Clark in his 1992 "circumnavigation of Europe" followed the White Sea – Baltic Canal until Lake Onega and the Volga–Baltic Waterway to the Rybinsk Reservoir before joining the classical boundary along the Volga and Don rivers.[18][19]

text: Modern definition[edit]

text: The modern border between Asia and Europe remains a historical and cultural construct, defined only by convention. The modern border follows the Aegean Sea, the Dardanelles-Sea of Marmara-Bosphorus (together known as the Turkish Straits), the Black Sea, along the watershed of the Greater Caucasus, the northwestern portion of the Caspian Sea and along the Ural River and Ural Mountains to the Kara Sea, as mapped and listed in most atlases including that of the National Geographic Society and as described in the World Factbook.[20][21] According to this definition, Georgia and Azerbaijan both have most of their territory in Asia, although each has small parts of their northern borderlands north of the Greater Caucasus watershed and thus in Europe.[22]

text: Though most geographic sources assign the area south of the Caucasus Mountain crest to Southwest or West Asia,[23] no definition is entirely satisfactory, with it often becoming a matter of self-identification. Cultural influences in the area originate from both Asia and Europe. While geographers rarely define continents primarily politically, Georgia and to a lesser extent Armenia and Azerbaijan are increasingly in the 21st century politically oriented towards Europe, but Armenia has a great cultural diaspora to the south, and Azerbaijan shares a cultural affinity with Iranian Azerbaijan as well as with the Turkic countries of Central Asia.[24]

text: The Turkish city Istanbul lies in on both sides of the Bosporus (one of the Turkish Straits), making it a transcontinental city. Russia and Turkey are transcontinental countries with territory in both Europe and Asia by any definition except that of Eurasia as a single continent. While Russia is historically a European country with a history of imperial conquests in Asia, the situation for Turkey is inverse, as that of an Asian country with imperial conquests in Europe. Kazakhstan is also a transcontinental country by this definition, its West Kazakhstan and Atyrau provinces extending on either side of the Ural River.[25]

text: This Ural River delineation is the only segment not to follow a major mountain range or wide water body, both of which often truly separate populations. However, the Ural River is the most common division used by authorities,[20][25][26] is the most prominent natural feature in the region, and is the "most satisfactory of those (options) proposed"[27] which include the Emba River, a much smaller stream cutting further into Central Asian Kazakhstan. The Ural River bridge in Orenburg is even labeled with permanent monuments carved with the word "Europe" on one side, "Asia" on the other.[28]

text: The Kuma–Manych Depression (more precisely, the Manych River, the Kuma–Manych Canal and the Kuma River) remains cited less commonly as one possible natural boundary in contemporary sources.[29] This definition peaked in prominence in the 1800s, however it has declined in usage since then, as it places traditionally European areas of Russia such as Stavropol, Krasnodar, and even areas just south of Rostov-on-Don in Asia.

text: A lesser known definition for country grouping, is the definition used for statistical purposes by the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD):[30]

text:
listed as part of Eastern Europe: Russian Federation
listed as part of Central Asia: Kazakhstan
listed as part of Western Asia: Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Turkey

tag: ul

text: According to UNSD, the aforementioned "assignment of countries or areas to specific groupings is for statistical convenience and does not imply any assumption regarding political or other affiliation of countries or territories".[31] Furthermore, the UNSD classification often differs from those of other United Nations organizations. For instance, while UNSD includes Georgia and Cyprus in Western Asia, the United Nations Industrial Development Organization and UNESCO include both countries in Europe.[32][33]

text: The Council of Europe includes the Eurasian countries of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Cyprus, Georgia, Russia and Turkey. It notes that "two Council of Europe member States, Turkey and Russia, belong geographically to both Europe and Asia and are therefore Eurasian. Strictly speaking, the three South Caucasus States, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia are located in Asia, yet their membership of political Europe is no longer in doubt." [34]

text: Islands[edit]

text: Cyprus is an island of the Mediterranean located close to Asia Minor, so that it is usually associated with Asia and/or the Middle East, as in the World Factbook and the United Nations geoscheme, but the Republic of Cyprus was nevertheless admitted to the Council of Europe in 1961 and joined the EU in 2004. The northern part of the island functions as the unrecognized (except by Turkey) Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.

text: The Greek North Aegean Islands and the Dodecanese lie on the coast of the Asian part of Turkey (on the Asian continental shelf).

text: Europe and North America[edit]

text: Europe and North America are separated by the North Atlantic. In terms of associating islands with either continent, the boundary is usually drawn between Greenland and Iceland. The Norwegian islands of Jan Mayen and Svalbard in the Arctic Ocean are usually associated with Europe. Iceland and the Azores are protrusions of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and are associated with and peopled from Europe, even though they have areas on the North American Plate. (Definitions of "continents" are a physical and cultural construct dating back centuries, long before the advent or even knowledge of plate tectonics; thus, defining a "continent" falls into the realm of physical and cultural geography, while continental plate definitions fall under plate tectonics in the realm of geology.)

text: Islands[edit]

text: The geographical notion of a continent stands in opposition to islands and archipelagos.[35] Nevertheless, there are some islands that are considered part of Europe in a political sense. This most notably includes the British Isles (part of the European continental shelf and during the Ice Age of the continent itself), besides the islands of the North Sea, the Baltic Sea and the Mediterranean which are part of the territory of a country situated on the European mainland, and usually also the island states of Iceland and Malta.

text: Russia's Vaygach Island and Novaya Zemlya extend northward from the northern end of the Ural Mountains and are a continuation of that chain into the Arctic Ocean. While Novaya Zemlya was variously grouped with Europe or with Asia in 19th-century maps it is now usually grouped with Europe, the continental boundary considered to join the Arctic Ocean along the southern shore of the Kara Sea. The Russian Arctic archipelago of Franz Josef Land farther north is also associated with Europe.

text: Europe ends in the west at the Atlantic Ocean, although Iceland and the Azores archipelago (in the Atlantic, between Europe and North America) are usually considered European, as is the Norwegian Svalbard archipelago in the Arctic Ocean. Greenland is geographically part of North America, but politically associated with Europe as it is part of the Kingdom of Denmark, although it has extensive home rule and EU law no longer applies there.

text: Africa and Asia[edit]

text: Historically, in Greco-Roman geography, Africa (Libya) was taken to begin in Marmarica, at the Catabathmus Magnus, placing Egypt in Asia entirely. The idea of Egypt being an "African" country seems to develop in around the mid-19th century;[citation needed] the term Africa was classically reserved for what is now known as the Maghreb, to the explicit exclusion of Egypt, but with the exploration of Africa the shape of the African landmass (and Egypt's "natural" inclusion in that landmass) became apparent. In 1806, William George Browne still titled his travelogue Travels in Africa, Egypt, and Syria. Similarly, James Bruce in 1835 published Travels through part of Africa, Syria, Egypt, and Arabia. On the other hand, as early as 1670 John Ogilby under the title Africa published "an accurate Description of the Regions of Egypt, Barbary, Libya, and Billedulgerid, the Land of Negroes, Guinea, Æthiopia, and the Abyssines, with all the adjacent Islands, either in the Mediterranean, Atlantic, Southern, or Oriental Seas, belonging thereunto".

text: The usual line taken to divide Africa from Asia today is at the Isthmus of Suez, the narrowest gap between the Mediterranean and Gulf of Suez, the route today followed by the Suez Canal. This makes the Sinai Peninsula geographically Asian, and Egypt a transcontinental country.

text: Less than 2% of Egyptian population live in the Sinai, and hence Egypt even though technically transcontinental is usually considered an African country, as well as an Arab country. But when discussing the geopolitical region of the Middle East and North Africa, Egypt is usually grouped with the Western Asian countries as part of the Middle East, while Egypt's western neighbor Libya is grouped with the remaining North African countries as the Maghreb. However, they are both members of the Arab League as well as the African Union.

text: The Seychelles, Mauritius, and Comoros are island nations in the Indian Ocean associated with Africa. The island of Socotra may be considered African as it lies on this continent's shelf, but is part of Yemen, an Asian country.

text: North and South America[edit]

text: Mainland[edit]

text: The border between North America and South America is at some point on the Isthmus of Panama. The most common demarcation in atlases and other sources follows the Darién Mountains watershed divide along the Colombia-Panama border where the isthmus meets the South American continent. Virtually all atlases list Panama as a state falling entirely within North America and/or Central America.[36]

text: Islands[edit]

text: Often most of the Caribbean islands are considered part of North America, but Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao and Trinidad and Tobago lie on the continental shelf of South America. On the other hand, the Venezuelan Isla Aves and the Colombian San Andrés and Providencia lie on the North American shelf.

text: Asia and North America[edit]

text: This section does not cite any sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (April 2011) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

text: The Bering Strait and Bering Sea separate the landmasses of Asia and North America, as well as forming the international boundary between Russia and the United States. This national and continental boundary separates the Diomede Islands in the Bering Strait, with Big Diomede in Russia and Little Diomede in the US. The Aleutian Islands are an island chain extending westward from the Alaska Peninsula toward Russia's Komandorski Islands and Kamchatka Peninsula. Most of them are always associated with North America, except for the westernmost Near Islands group, which is on Asia's continental shelf beyond the North Aleutians Basin and on rare occasions could be associated with Asia, which could then allow the U.S. state of Alaska to be considered a transcontinental state.

text: St. Lawrence Island in the northern Bering Sea belongs to Alaska and may be associated with either continent but is almost always considered part of North America, as with the Rat Islands in the Aleutian chain. At their nearest points, Alaska and Russia are separated by only 4 kilometres (2.5 miles).

text: The Americas and Oceania[edit]

text: The Galápagos Islands and Malpelo Island in the eastern Pacific Ocean are possessions of Ecuador and Colombia, respectively, and associated with South America. The uninhabited French possession of Clipperton Island 1,000 kilometres (600 miles) off the Mexican coast is associated with North America.

text: Easter Island, a territory of Chile, is considered to be in Oceania, though politically it is associated with South America.

text: The United States of America controls numerous territories in Oceania, including the state of Hawaii and the territories of Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands and American Samoa.

text: Asia and Oceania[edit]

text: The Malay Archipelago is sometimes divided between Asia and Australasia, usually along the anthropologic Melanesian line or Weber's Line. Indonesia controls the western half of New Guinea, geographically part of Australasia. The eastern half of the island is part of Papua New Guinea which is considered to be part of the Oceania. Indonesia is commonly referred to as one of the Southeast Asian countries. East Timor, an independent state that was formerly a territory of Indonesia, which is geographically part of Asia, is classified by the United Nations as part of the "South-Eastern Asia" block. It is expected to join the Association of Southeast Asian Nations,[37] having been involved as an ASEAN Regional Forum member since independence, and has participated in the Southeast Asian Games since 2003. Occasionally, all of the Malay Archipelago is included in Oceania, although this is extremely rare, especially as most of the archipelago lies on the Asian continental shelf.

text: The Commonwealth of Australia includes island possessions in Oceania and islands closer to Indonesia than the Australian mainland.

text: Antarctica[edit]

text: Antarctica along with its outlying islands have no permanent population. All land claims south of 60°S latitude are held in abeyance by the Antarctic Treaty System.

text: The South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands are closer to Antarctica than to any other continent. However, they are politically associated with the inhabited Falkland Islands which are closer to South America. Furthermore, Argentina, a South American country, maintains its irredentist claims on the islands. The continental shelf boundary separates the two island groups.

text: The Prince Edward Islands are located between Africa and Antarctica, and are the territory of South Africa, an African country. The Australian Macquarie Island and the New Zealand Antipodes Islands, Auckland Islands, and Campbell Islands, are all located between the Oceanian countries of Australia and New Zealand and Antarctica.

text: Australia's Heard Island and McDonald Islands and the French Kerguelen Islands are located on the Kerguelen Plateau, on the Antarctic continental plate. The French Crozet Islands, Île Amsterdam, Île Saint-Paul, and the Norwegian Bouvet Island are also located on the Antarctic continental plate, and are not often associated with other continents.


document_title: Elena Gilbert

question_text: who does elena from vampire diaries end up with

text: Elena Gilbert

text: Casting and portrayal[edit]

text:
When I look in the mirror, I just feel different when I'm Katherine or when I'm Elena. My voice changes a little bit, I think, and even just mentally, I feel like I can get away with a lot more.[1]
“
”

—Dobrev

tag: div

text: On March 9, 2009, it was announced that Bulgarian-born Canadian actress Nina Dobrev, known for her portrayal of Mia Jones on Degrassi: The Next Generation, had joined the cast of The Vampire Diaries as Elena.[2] She was the second cast member to be announced following Steven R. McQueen, who plays Elena's brother Jeremy Gilbert.[3] Steve West Cinema Blend said the vampire brothers' battle over Elena will wreak havoc on the entire town.".[2] Executive producer Kevin Williamson recalled Dobrev auditioning while having the flu, which he described as the "worst audition ever", and they "didn't even look at her a second time". Dobrev went back home to Canada, yet, still wanting the part, she submitted a videotape audition, which saw her cast as Elena Gilbert.[4]

text: Dobrev said that after reading the script, she was drawn to Elena because she was "this average girl who was damaged in many ways".[5] Initially, she believed that she would be playing the "bad girl" Elena from the books, but the show wanted to go in a different direction for the character.[4] After researching, Dobrev discovered she would also play Elena's 534-year-old vampire doppelgänger Katherine Pierce whose characteristics are the "complete opposite".[5] Dobrev described this as "one of the rarest, coolest opportunities in television, to play two people on the same medium". She had confessed that she enjoys playing Katherine more than Elena.[5] Dobrev stated that she changes her appearance to distinguish Elena from her doppelgänger, Katherine; "Changing my hair helps me transform," she told Glamour.[6] Additionally, she said "I think I have one of the coolest characters on the show — I get to play two completely different people on opposite sides of the spectrum and I just have so much fun doing it".[4] Dobrev felt that her biggest challenge on The Vampire Diaries was distinguishing Katherine and Elena, and found it "interesting" to create a whole new character.[1] In the novels, Katherine originated from Germany. However, in the television series, she is Bulgarian, as is Dobrev, who can speak the language fluently . Dobrev said, "The writers heard me speaking Bulgarian to my mom on the phone while I was on set one day. One thing led to the other and voila".[7]

text: Development[edit]

text: Characterization[edit]

text: In the books, Elena is considered "one of the popular girls" at her high school and always gets "anything she wants".[8] Executive producer of the television show, Julie Plec, said the Elena from the books was "really kind of selfish". In The Vampire Diaries, Elena's "selfishness" in the books as a human was never explored, because it "didn't ever feel like a characteristic" the show wanted for their heroine.[9] Plec said "We kind of abandoned that queen-bee popular complex that in a lot of ways defined early Elena in the books", while feeling that Elena's actual flaw is her "deep, deep connection to other people".[9] In the books, Elena had blonde hair, but has brown hair in the television show.[10] Describing Elena from the books, Dobrev said she is "one of those mean girls that gets what she wants, popular . . . and she's blonde and blue eyed". Williamson told her that "the angle we wanted to go for was the relatable, nice, girl next door, who the audience roots for".[4] Katherine, on the other hand, is penned as a "conniving, narcissistic, bitch".[4] Describing Elena years later, Dobrev said she evolved from a "younger, naive, sad, young girl" to a "strong woman".[1]

text: Romances[edit]

text: Before The Vampire Diaries, Elena dated Matt Donovan (Zach Roerig), who was unable to move past his feelings for her initially after their break-up.[11] Elena began dating Stefan Salvatore (Paul Wesley), and later discovered he was a vampire.[12] As the episodes progressed, she developed a connection with Stefan's adventurous brother Damon Salvatore (Ian Somerhalder), who consumes human blood, unlike Stefan, who has an animal blood diet.[13] Speaking about the different qualities Stefan and Damon bring to Elena, Dobrev said they have "different qualities that are very appealing", which combined make "the perfect man". She said "Stefan is committed and sweet and protective and loving, and Damon is spontaneous and crazy and fun and exciting".[5]

text: After Elena became a vampire, she became sired to Damon and they slept together. According to Plec during an interview with TVLine, Elena "really believes what she feels is 100 percent genuine and real", and the couple "wants to be together and realizes that they shouldn’t, yet really wants to. So what do they do?"[14] Stefan became heartbroken, feeling angry and betrayed, and lashed out at Damon and Elena.[15] In the season 4 finale, an unsired Elena confirms that she is in love with Damon, and the two kiss passionately. At the end of season 6, the two plan to become human, get married, and have children together, but their dream is abruptly compromised by Kai, who puts Elena into a magical coma. Damon remains entirely devoted to Elena throughout the remaining two seasons as Elena sleeps peacefully. In the season 8 finale, she is revealed to be happily married to Damon. Elena considers Damon to be the love of her life and her soulmate.

text: Transition[edit]

text: Executive producers Julie Plec and Kevin Williamson agreed that in the book series, Elena was turned into a vampire too early, which was around page 200 of The Awakening.[16] Elena's transition into a vampire was planned for two years. Plec said: "That felt obviously too soon, and rushed, and we didn’t want to make a show about a teenage girl who instantly becomes a vampire. But we always knew that her journey would take her there eventually".[16] At the second season's conclusion, Elena was nearly turned into a vampire.[1] Dobrev was happy that she wasn't, because she felt "it would have been too soon", and also didn't think it was something Elena or she wanted.[1]

text: In the show's third season, Elena has a brain hemorrhage which was initially thought to be a concussion, and begins to die.[17] In what was described by the International Business Times as "the moment Vampire Diaries fans have been waiting for", Elena had to choose whether to be driven to Damon or Stefan to say goodbye to. At the time, Klaus was killed, meaning all vampires sprouting from his bloodline also die, which includes Damon and Stefan. She picks to say goodbye to Stefan.[17] However, all these vampires end up surviving when Klaus never really dies. To save her, Doctor Merideth Fell (Torrey DeVitto) fed Elena Damon's blood. Rebekah Mikaelson kills Elena on Wickery Bridge, unaware of the vampire blood in her system. She woke up as a vampire at the end of the season.[17] The Hollywood Reporter interviewed Plec, and described her transition as "monumental changes" which would have Elena in for a "wild ride". Plec said Elena becoming a vampire is "an awakening of a person who is about to go through a lot of changes", and "she is going to evolve as a person and her relationships are going to evolve accordingly".[18] While Stefan was afraid she would hurt someone, Damon thought it was inevitable and wanted to "rip the band-aid off".[18] Plec felt that "She’s, unfortunately, not getting the same advice from the two people she values most in the world. It’s going to make it more difficult for her",[18] while describing the situation as "a whole new Elena and it’s a whole new day. It’s a different dynamic between the three of them especially".[18]

text: Television series[edit]

text: Backstory[edit]

text: Elena Gilbert is born on June 22, 1992 in Mystic Falls, Virginia to John Gilbert (David Anders) and Isobel Flemming (Mia Kirshner) while they were still in highschool. With the help of John's brother Grayson, Isobel and John flee town days later, leaving Grayson and his wife Miranda to adopt Elena as their own. A doctor, Grayson fakes a birth certificate so that it appeared Elena was his daughter with Miranda. The next year, Miranda and Grayson had a child of their own, Jeremy Gilbert. Elena dates her childhood friend Matt Donovan, who was her first love. On 23 May 2009, Elena is picked up by her mother and father after getting in a fight with Matt while attending the party. The three of them later end up in a car accident, with their car driving off a bridge. Stefan Salvatore finds them, and saves Elena, but it was too late to save Grayson and Miranda, who died. It remained unknown for months who saved Elena, and it was considered a miracle that she lived. Her relationship with Matt ended when they broke up.

text: Storyline[edit]

text: Season 1[edit]

text: Elena, still empty after losing her parents, begins to fit back into school. She meets a mysterious new student named Stefan Salvatore. They connect instantly, and begin dating. She meets his older and malevolent brother, Damon. After researching, Elena realizes Stefan was alive in 1953. It is later revealed that he is a 162-year-old vampire. Damon also begins falling for Elena. After she and Stefan slept together, Elena finds a picture of a woman named Katherine Pierce who looks exactly like her. Stefan reveals that it is the woman who made him and Damon feud 145 years ago, and the person who turned them into vampires. He also told her that he is the person that saved her the night of her parents death. At the end of season one, Elena discovers that Grayson and Miranda weren't her biological parents, and that a woman named Isobel and her uncle John, who she grew up hating, were.

text: Season 2[edit]

text: In season two, she learns that she is a Petrova doppelgänger, having an appearance just like Katherine Pierce, which means that she has to be sacrificed to release Klaus' werewolf side. The sacrifice later happens, but Elena is saved, because John sacrificed himself for her after being put under a spell by Bonnie. However, her aunt Jenna is turned into a vampire and, as part of the sacrifice, is killed by Klaus, leaving Elena without a guardian. In the season two finale, while Damon is dying due to a werewolf bite, she forgives him for forcing her to drink his blood and kisses him with the thought that it might be Damon's last day, however Damon gets cured by drinking Klaus' blood.

text: Season 3[edit]

text: In season three, Elena does everything in her power to make Stefan get his humanity back, which was turned off by Klaus as payment for saving Damon from a werewolf bite in the latter part of season two. Meanwhile, she grows closer to Damon while working together on saving Stefan and trying to defeat Klaus, eventually even sharing a kiss. She later admits to Stefan that she has feelings for Damon as well but that she never stopped loving Stefan. While in Denver together, Elena kisses Damon, later telling him that she doesn't know how she feels about him. It is eventually revealed that Elena met Damon the night of her parent's death, though he compelled her to forget. She eventually chooses Stefan in the season finale but before she can tell him, Elena drowns while having vampire blood in her system. During the last moments of season three, she awakens as a vampire in transition.

text: Season 4[edit]

text: In season four, Elena is faced with the tough decision of whether to die or to feed on human blood so she can fully transition into a vampire. Elena, after realizing Stefan's desperation to keep her alive, decides to complete her transition. Her relationship with Stefan ends, allowing her to begin a proper romance with Damon. Although, it is later revealed there is a sire bond between them. Sometime later whilst searching for the cure for vampirism, Jeremy is fed to the immortal Silas by Katherine. As a result, Damon used the sire bond to convince her to turn off her humanity, due to her incredible grief over losing her brother and the last remaining member of her family. Elena became ruthless without her emotions, going on killing sprees and being very hateful towards her friends. Towards the end of season four, Damon kills Matt in front of Elena to trigger her grief. After revealing that Matt had the Gilbert Ring on, Elena's humanity was switched on and her emotions were focused on hate towards Katherine for killing Jeremy. Season four ended with Bonnie as a ghost after bringing Jeremy back to life and Elena fed Katherine the cure for vampirism in a moment of desperation as she was about to be killed. Elena had chosen Damon as the Salvatore that she loved.

text: Season 5[edit]

text: In season five, Elena starts at Whitmore College and is happy after spending the summer with Damon. There she realises that Silas has taken Stefan's place and that Stefan is in that safe in a river constantly drowning. She and Damon then find the safe, only to find a dead body there meaning that someone opened the safe and Stefan is a Ripper again. However, Qyetsiyah had fried Stefan's brain causing him to suffer amnesia. While trying to bring him back, they almost kiss meaning that she still feels something for him. Qyetsiyah soon brings back Stefan's memories and says that Elena and Stefan were always meant to be as the Universe had to unite the doppelgängers of Silas and Amara. This leaves Damon and Elena questioning their relationship. Later on she is kidnapped and experimented on by Wes Maxfield, and she learns that her father also used to experiment on vampires. Later, when Katherine is about to die as a result of all of her years catching up with her as a result of having the cure in her system, Katherine uses a spell and possesses Elena, a fact that her friends were initially unable to deduce. But once they did, they trapped Katherine and left her with no escape. Stefan stabbed her with the traveller dagger, but ghost Katherine reveals to Bonnie, shortly before trying to cross into the Other Side, that she had injected Dr. Maxfield's enhanced ripper/werewolf virus into Elena's body, infecting Elena. The gang is eventually able to find an antidote. She unfortunately loses trust in Damon, partly because he killed her friend Aaron, so they break up, but realise they cannot survive being apart and get back together. Once Markos and his traveller army begin to take over Mystic Falls, setting an anti-magic barrier around the town, the gang comes up with a plan to take out the travellers by killing them all at the same time, overpowering the anchor to the Other Side AKA Bonnie and creating a possible way out of the now-collapsing Other Side. Elena and Damon drive into the gas-filled Mystic Grill with most of the travellers in it, blowing it up and killing most of the people in it, including Elena and Damon. She wakes up as a ghost and finds her body, sending her to Bonnie, where she passes to the Other Side, and she and many others are able to pass back to the land of the living afterwards. But the spell that allows this is broken before Damon passes back through, and as Bonnie is the anchor, she is a part of the Other Side and shall therefore disappear along with it. This leaves the gang mourning the loss of Damon and Bonnie in the season finale.

text: Season 6[edit]

text: In season six, Elena starts back at Whitmore, and is unable to set foot in her hometown. She is also unable to recover from Damon's death and starts lurking the borders of Mystic Falls in order to grab civilians, drink their blood, then compel them to forget, but as spirit magic no longer works in Mystic Falls, any of her victims who cross into the town remember the ordeal, putting her identity as a vampire at risk when one of her victims, Sarah, comes to town. Elena begs Alaric to compel her to forget that she ever loved Damon, which Alaric is able to do, due to him being an Enhanced Original, with the ability to compel other vampires. She eventually wears him down and asks her friends to never remind her once the compulsion had been done. After a number of failed attempts, Alaric successfully compels her to forget her love for Damon. She however leaves Alaric with some of her reminders of Damon, should she ever need them again. She is told of her former feelings for Damon soon afterwards, but decides to stay the way she is, as she doesn't want to go back to being unhappy again. She starts to date her classmate, Liam. Once Damon comes back to life, Alaric tries to convince Elena to allow him to undo the compulsion, a decision she is reluctant to make. She eventually decides to have him undo it, but Alaric goes back to being human again after crossing into Mystic Falls, causing him to lose his vampire status (he only stayed alive because his once fatal human injuries were healed), meaning he will not be able to do so. She is then left to finally come face-to-face with Damon and see if she'll still feel the same way about him. They eventually rekindle their relationship,Elena takes the cure that Bonnie gave Damon. At Alaric's wedding Kai ruins their wedding and casts a sleeping spell on Elena, linking her life to Bonnie's. She makes a sacrifice to let Bonnie live out her life until it is her turn. She bids goodbye to her friends and loved ones before parting ways but knows that she will see Damon, Stefan and Caroline again one day.

text: Season 7[edit]

text: Elena doesn't make an appearance but is heard calling Damon's name when he visits the Armory vault. It was a way of Sybill, the Siren, luring him into a trap.

text: Season 8[edit]

text: In the final episode, Elena makes an appearance. When a weakened Bonnie dies from the sounding bell, she meets Elena in a dream-like forest. Elena hugs her and wonders if she really has died. Enzo appears and says it isn't her time and takes Bonnie back to the world of the living. When Bonnie wakes up, it was Stefan who resuscitated her. Elena, asleep, is then taken to the Mystic Falls High School by Katherine and places her in the boiler room. Stefan tries to rescue Elena, but Katherine had Kai spell the boiler room, so that Elena can't be taken out of the room. After Bonnie had deflected the hellfire back into the bell, Bonnie passes out. Elena wakes up and wanders the school. Stefan meets up with her. It looks like Bonnie has died, but in fact Elena is still sleeping and Stefan's ghost came to visit her in her dream. He had taken the place of killing Katherine instead of Damon, since Damon is human after Stefan gave him the cure. He came to say goodbye. After a tearful hug and saying goodbye, Stefan goes into afterlife. Elena finally wakes up because Bonnie has broken the spell over her. Elena reunites with Damon and the rest of the gang. Elena gives Caroline the message Stefan whispered into her ear, saying he did hear her voice message and will love her forever. In the epilogue, Elena continued to studying medical school. After finishing her education, she went back to Mystic Falls and lived together with Damon, happily married for a long time. After living out her life, she crosses over to the afterlife where she finally reunites with her parents, Aunt Jenna and Uncle John.

text: Reception[edit]

text: Elena has received mainly positive reviews. Steve West of the Cinema Blend compared the story of The Vampire Diaries and the character of Elena to the popular vampire franchise, Twilight, and its protagonist Bella Swan. West said "Clearly Elena is way hotter than Bella, she has two immortal vampires fighting over her".[2] After she transitioned into a vampire, Carina Adly MacKenzie of Zap2it hoped that the "fierce" and "ripper" side of Elena would emerge when "someone messes with the people she loves".[19] McKenzie noted that when a person becomes a vampire, "their strongest personality traits are heightened", and hoped that wouldn't see Elena's "compassion and selflessness" double into "helping old ladies with their groceries and nursing injured animals back to health".[19] Robyn Ross of TV Guide also hoped that after Elena "has had a taste for blood", she would lose control. Prior to her becoming a vampire, Ross thought she was less fun and "slightly boring", and wanted Elena to follow her instinct and "stop protecting everyone's feelings".[20]

text: Elena's romances with Stefan and Damon have become a popular craze with viewers, who have nicknamed them "Stelena" and "Delena".[21] Andy Swift of the website HollywoodLife praised Elena's relationship with Damon, which was a combination of real love and a sired bond, hoping they would live "happily ever after".[21] Vlada Gelman of TVLine, however, felt that their romance was "over in a rather mature way for a young love triangle" and questioned whether Elena was "ready to jump into a relationship with Damon right away" while Stefan was still in the picture.[22]

text: Merchandising[edit]

text: Tonner Doll Company, Inc. created dolls for Elena and Katherine along with Stefan and Damon, from 1864.[23][24]