NEW YORK CITY YUGOSLAVIA KING QUEEN 1948 NEGATIVE AT TOWN HALL PETER ALEXANDRA

Description: GEORGE DENNY OF TOWN HALL, GREETS KING PETER AND QUEEN ALEXANDRA OF YUGOSLAVIA. THE KING SPOKE AT TOWN HALL MEETING. NEGATIVES MEASURES 4X5 INCHES AND IS BY PHOTOGRAPHER JOHN DEBIASE AND WAS TAKEN IN 12-15-48 ACCOMPANIED WITH ORIGINAL NEGATIVE ENVELOPE AND PAPER DESCRIPTION OF NEGATIVE Peter II was the last king of Yugoslavia, reigning from October 1934 until his deposition in November 1945. He was the last reigning member of the Karađorđević dynasty. Alexandra of Yugoslavia (Greek: Αλεξάνδρα, Serbo-Croatian: Александра/Aleksandra; 25 March 1921 – 30 January 1993) was, by marriage to King Peter II, the last Queen of Yugoslavia. Posthumous daughter of King Alexander of Greece and his morganatic wife Aspasia Manos, Alexandra was not part of the Greek royal family until July 1922, when at the behest of Queen Sophia, a law was passed which retroactively recognized marriages of members of the royal family, although on a non-dynastic basis; in consequence, she obtained the style and name of Her Royal Highness Princess Alexandra of Greece and Denmark. At the same time, a serious political and military crisis, linked to the defeat of Greece by Turkey in Anatolia, led to the deposition and exile of the royal family, beginning in 1924. Being the only members of the dynasty allowed to remain in the country by the Second Hellenic Republic, the princess and her mother later found refuge in Italy, with Dowager Queen Sophia. George V. Denny Jr. (1899–1959) was the long-time moderator of one of radio's first talk shows, America's Town Meeting of the Air, as well as the executive director of the League for Political Education/Town Hall, which produced the program. Denny moderated America's Town Meeting of the Air from 1935 to 1952 and had a major role in choosing weekly topics. Alexandra of Yugoslavia (Greek: Αλεξάνδρα, Serbo-Croatian: Александра/Aleksandra; 25 March 1921 – 30 January 1993) was, by marriage to King Peter II, the last Queen of Yugoslavia. Posthumous daughter of King Alexander of Greece and his morganatic wife Aspasia Manos, Alexandra was not part of the Greek royal family until July 1922, when at the behest of Queen Sophia, a law was passed which retroactively recognized marriages of members of the royal family, although on a non-dynastic basis; in consequence, she obtained the style and name of Her Royal Highness Princess Alexandra of Greece and Denmark. At the same time, a serious political and military crisis, linked to the defeat of Greece by Turkey in Anatolia, led to the deposition and exile of the royal family, beginning in 1924. Being the only members of the dynasty allowed to remain in the country by the Second Hellenic Republic, the princess and her mother later found refuge in Italy, with Dowager Queen Sophia. After three years with her paternal grandmother, Alexandra left Florence to continue her studies in the United Kingdom, while her mother settled in Venice. Separated from her mother, the princess fell ill, forcing Aspasia to make her leave the boarding school where she was studying. After the restoration of her uncle, King George II, on the Hellenic throne in 1935, Alexandra stayed in her native country several times but the outbreak of the Greco-Italian War, in 1940, forced her and her mother to settle in Athens. The invasion of Greece by the Axis powers in April–May 1941, however, led to their moving to the United Kingdom. Again exiled, Alexandra met in London the young King Peter II of Yugoslavia, who also went into exile after the invasion of his country by the Germans. Quickly, Alexandra and Peter II fell in love and planned to marry. Opposition from both Peter's mother, Maria, and the Yugoslav government in exile forced the couple to delay their marriage plans until 1944, when they finally celebrated their wedding. A year later, Alexandra gave birth to her only son, Alexander, Crown Prince of Yugoslavia. However, the happiness of the family was short-lived: on 29 November 1945, Marshal Tito proclaimed the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and Alexandra, who had never set foot in her adopted country, was left without a crown. The abolition of the Yugoslav monarchy had very serious consequences for the royal couple. Penniless and unable to adapt to the role of citizen, Peter II turned to alcoholism and multiple affairs with other women. Depressed by the behavior of her husband, Alexandra neglected her son and made several suicide attempts. After the death of Peter II in 1970, Alexandra's health continued to deteriorate. She died of cancer in 1993 and her remains were buried in the Royal Cemetery Plot in the park of Tatoi in Greece, before being transferred to the Royal Mausoleum of Oplenac in 2013. Contents1Life1.1A birth surrounded by intrigues1.1.1The issue of the Greek succession1.1.2Integration into the royal family1.2Childhood in exile1.2.1From Athens to Florence1.2.2From London to Venice1.3Restoration of the Greek monarchy1.3.1Between Greece and Venice1.3.2First marriage proposal1.4World War II1.4.1From Venice to London1.4.2Love and marriage1.5Queen in exile1.5.1Liberation of Yugoslavia and the communist victory1.5.2Birth of Crown Prince Alexander and Peter II's deposition1.6Marital problems and suicide attempts1.6.1Financial and marital difficulties1.6.2Divorce attempt and reconciliation1.7Last years2Honours3Ancestry4Notes5References6Sources7External linksLifeA birth surrounded by intriguesThe issue of the Greek succession Lithograph of King Alexander of Greece and Aspasia Manos, Alexandra's parents, ca. 1920.Born Princess Alexandra of Greece and Denmark, she was brought into a difficult environment. Five months before her birth, her father, King Alexander, died of sepsis following a monkey bite which occurred in the gardens of Tatoi.[1][2] The unexpected death of the sovereign caused a serious political crisis in Greece, at a time when public opinion was already divided by the events of the World War I and the Greco-Turkish War. The King had concluded an unequal marriage with Aspasia Manos,[a][5] and, in consequence, their offspring was not dynastic. Due to the lack of another candidate for the throne, Prime Minister Eleftherios Venizelos was soon forced to accept the restoration of his enemy, King Constantine I, on 19 December 1920.[6][7] Alexander's brief reign was officially treated as a regency, which meant that his marriage, contracted without his father's permission, was technically illegal, the marriage void, and the couple's posthumous child illegitimate. The last months of pregnancy of Aspasia are surrounded by intrigue. In the case that she gave birth a boy (who would be named Philip, as the father of Alexander the Great),[8] rumours soon assured that she was determined to place him on the throne after his birth.[9][10] True or not, this possibility worried the Greek royal family, whose fears about the birth of a male child were exploited by the Venizelists to revive the succession crisis. The birth of a girl, on 25 March 1921, was a great relief for the dynasty,[b] and both King Constantine I and his mother, Queen Dowager Olga, agreed to be the godparents of the newborn.[12][13] Integration into the royal family Queen Sophia of Greece holding her granddaughter Alexandra, April 1921.Still, neither Alexandra nor Aspasia received more official recognition: from a legal point of view, they were commoners without any rights in the royal family. Things changed from July 1922 when, after the intervention of Queen Sophia, was passed a law which retroactively recognized marriages of members of the Royal Family, although on a non-dynastic basis; with this legal subterfuge, the little princess obtained the style of Royal Highness and the title of Princess of Greece and Denmark. Thus, Alexandra's birth became legitimate in the eyes of Greek law, but since the marriage was recognized on a 'non-dynastic basis', her royal status was tenuous at best; however, this belated recognition made it possible for her to later make an advantageous marriage, which would not have been possible if she was nothing more than the daughter of the King's morganatic spouse.[14][15] Aspasia, however, was not mentioned in the law and remained a commoner in the eyes of protocol.[16] Humiliated by this difference in treatment, she begged Prince Christopher (whose commoner wife, Nancy Stewart Worthington Leeds, was entitled to be known as a Princess of Greece and Denmark), to intercede on her behalf. Moved by the arguments of his niece-in-law, he approached Queen Sophia, who eventually changed her opinion. Under pressures from his wife, King Constantine I issued a decree, gazetted 10 September 1922 under which Aspasia received the title Princess of Greece and Denmark and the style of Royal Highness.[16][17][18] Childhood in exileFrom Athens to FlorenceDespite these positive developments, the situation of Alexandra and her mother did not improve. Indeed, Greece experiencing a series of military defeats by Turkey and a coup d'état soon forced King Constantine I to abdicate again, this time in favor of his eldest son, Crown Prince George, on 27 September 1922.[19][20] Things went from bad to worse for the country; a further coup forced the new king, his wife and his brother to leave the country on 19 December 1923. On 25 March 1924, Alexandra's third birthday, the Second Hellenic Republic was proclaimed and both Aspasia and Alexandra were then the only members of the dynasty allowed to stay in Greece.[16][21][22] Penniless, Aspasia chose to take the path of exile with her daughter in early 1924. The two princesses found refuge with Queen Sophia, who had moved to the Villa Bobolina near Florence, shortly after the death of her husband on 11 January 1923. The now dowager queen, who loved Alexandra, was thrilled, even if her financial situation was also precarious.[23][24] With her paternal grandmother, the princess spent a happy childhood with her aunts Crown Princess Helen of Romania, Princesses Irene and Katherine of Greece, and her cousins Prince Philip of Greece (the future Duke of Edinburgh) and Prince Michael of Romania, who were her playmates during holidays.[25] From London to VeniceSee also: Garden of Eden (Venice) The Garden of Eden, Venice.In 1927, Alexandra and her mother moved to Ascot, Berkshire, in the United Kingdom. They were greeted by Sir James Horlick, 4th Baronet, and his family, who harbored them in their castle near the hippodrome.[26] Now seven years old, Alexandra was enrolled in boarding schools in Westfield and Heathfield, as was the custom for the upper class. However, the Princess took very badly to this experience:[10][27] separated from her mother, she stopped eating and eventually contracted tuberculosis. Alarmed, Aspasia thus moved her daughter to Switzerland for treatment.[10] Later, Alexandra was educated in a Parisian finishing school, during which time she and her mother stayed at the Hotel Crillon.[5][28] Eventually, the two princesses settled on the Island of Giudecca in Venice, where Aspasia acquired a small property with her savings and Horlick's financial support. The former home of Caroline Eden, great-aunt of British Prime Minister Anthony Eden, the villa and its 3.6 hectares of landscaped grounds were nicknamed the Garden of Eden, which delighted the Greek Princesses.[29][30] Restoration of the Greek monarchyBetween Greece and VeniceIn 1935, the Second Hellenic Republic was abolished and King George II (Alexandra's uncle) was restored to the throne after a referendum organized by General Georgios Kondylis.[31] Alexandra was then allowed to return to Greece, a country she had not seen since 1924. Although she continued to reside in Venice with her mother (who still suffered the ostracism of the royal family), the princess was invited to all the great ceremonies that punctuate the life of the dynasty. In 1936, she participated in the official ceremonies who marked the reburial in Tatoi of the remains of King Constantine I, Queen Sophia and Dowager Queen Olga, all three died in exile in Italy. Two years later, in 1938, she was invited to the wedding of her uncle, Crown Prince Paul, with Princess Frederica of Hanover.[32] Despite her participation in the ceremonies of the Greek royal family, at that time Alexandra understood that she was not a full member of the European royalty. Her mother had to claim in her name the share of the inheritance of Alexandra's paternal grandparents. Especially, the princess had to deal with the fact that her mother had no site in the royal necropolis of Tatoi. In fact, during the 1936 ceremonies, a chapel was arranged in the park of the palace for the remains of King Constantine I and Queen Sophia. The remains of King Alexander, previously based in the gardens next to his grandfather King George I, were then transferred at the side of his parents in the chapel, with no space reserved for Aspasia.[32] First marriage proposalNow a teenager, Alexandra began to attract the gaze of men. In 1936, the fifteen-years-old Princess received her first marriage proposal: King Zog I of Albania, who wished to marry a member of the European royalty in order to consolidate his position, asked her hand. However, the Greek diplomacy, which maintained complex relations with the Kingdom of Albania because of the possession of Northern Epirus, rejected this proposal and King Zog I eventually married the Hungarian Countess Géraldine Apponyi de Nagy-Appony in 1938.[33] Like all women of her age, Alexandra attended numerous dances, which aimed to introduce her to the European elite. In 1937 she was presented in Paris, where she danced with her cousin, the Duke of Windsor, then residing in France with his wife, the Duchess, after his abdication and subsequent marriage.[33][34] World War IIFrom Venice to LondonThe outbreak of the Greco-Italian War on 28 October 1940 forced Alexandra and her mother suddenly to leave Venice and fascist Italy. They settled with the rest of the Royal Family in Athens. Eager to serve their country in this difficult moment, both Princesses became nurses alongside the other women of the Royal Family.[29][35] However, after several months of victorious battles against the Italian forces, Greece was invaded by the army of the Nazi Germany on 6 April 1941. Alexandra and the majority of the members of the Royal Family left the country a few days later, on 22 April. After a brief stay in Crete, where they received a German bombing, the Greek Royal Family departed for Egypt and South Africa.[36][37] While several members of the Royal Family were forced to spend World War II in South Africa, Alexandra and her mother obtained the permission of King George II of Greece and the British government to move to the United Kingdom.[38] They arrived at Liverpool in the autumn of 1941 and settled in London in the district of Mayfair. In the British capital, the Greek princesses resumed their activities in the Red Cross.[32] Better accepted than in their own country, they were regular guests of the Duchess of Kent (born Princess Marina of Greece) and of the future Duke of Edinburgh (born Prince Philip of Greece), who was rumoured to be briefly engaged to Alexandra.[39] Love and marriage King Peter II and Queen Alexandra at their wedding day, 20 March 1944. From left to right: King George VI of the United Kingdom, King Peter II, Queen Alexandra and King George II of Greece.However, it was not her cousin Philip whom Alexandra finally married. In 1942, the Princess met her third cousin,[c] King Peter II of Yugoslavia in an officers' gala at Grosvenor House. The 19-year-old sovereign had lived in exile in London since the invasion of his country by the Axis powers on 6 April 1941. Quickly, they fell in love with each other and considered marriage, which greatly delighted Princess Aspasia. However, the sharp opposition of Queen Maria of Yugoslavia, Peter II's mother, and the Yugoslav government-in-exile, which deemed it indecent to celebrate a wedding while Yugoslavia was dismembered and occupied, prevented for a while the marital project. For two years, the lovers had only brief meetings in the residence of the Duchess of Kent.[40][41] After a brief stay of Peter II in Cairo, Egypt, the couple finally married on 20 March 1944. The ceremony, at which the King's mother refused to participate, was held at the Yugoslav embassy in London.[42] Marked by restrictions due to the war, Alexandra wore a wedding dress that was lent her by Lady Mary Lygon, wife of Prince Vsevolod Ivanovich of Russia (himself the son of King Peter's aunt Princess Helen of Serbia). Among the guests at the ceremony, there were four reigning monarchs (George VI of the United Kingdom, George II of Greece, Haakon VII of Norway and Wilhelmina of the Netherlands) and several other members of European royalty, including the two brothers of the groom (Prince Tomislav and Prince Andrew), the mother of the bride, Prince Bernhard of Lippe-Biesterfeld, the British Queen Elizabeth, Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester and Princess Marina, Duchess of Kent.[41][43][44] Queen in exileLiberation of Yugoslavia and the communist victoryNow queen of Yugoslavia, Alexandra, however, had tenuous links with her new country, living under the Nazi occupation. In 1941, a large portion of the Yugoslav territory was annexed by the Axis powers. Crown Prince Michael of Montenegro refused to resurrect his ancient Kingdom under Italian and German protection and guidance, and thus the region of Montenegro had been transformed into a governorate by fascist Italy.[45] Finally, the other two main parts of Yugoslavia were reduced to puppet states: the Serbia of General Milan Nedić and the Croatian Kingdom of the Ustaše.[d] As all over occupied Europe, Yugoslav civilians suffered the abuses of the invaders and collaborators who supported them.[46] Two groups emerged in the country: the Chetniks, led by General monarchist Draža Mihailović, and the Partisans, led by the communist Marshal Josip Broz Tito.[47] From London, the Yugoslav government-in-exile supported the struggle of the royalist forces and appointed General Mihailović as Chief Minister of War.[48] However, the importance of the Partisans pushed the allied forces to trust the Communists and give increasingly limited help to Mihailović, who was accused of collaborating with the Axis powers to shoot communist guerrillas.[49] After the Tehran Conference (1943), the Allies finally broke their ties with the Chetniks,[50] forcing the Yugoslav government-in-exile to recognize the preeminence of the Partisans. In June 1944, Prime Minister Ivan Šubašić officially appointed Marshal Tito as the head of the Yugoslav resistance and Mihailović was dismissed.[51] In October 1944, Churchill and Stalin concluded an agreement to split Yugoslavia into two occupation zones, but after the liberation of Belgrade by the Red Army and the Partisans, it became clear the Communists predominated in the country.[52] A harsh treatment, which affected the monarchists, took place;[52] at the request of Churchill, Tito agreed in March 1945 to recognize a Regency Council (which had almost no activity) but opposed the return of King Peter II,[53] who had to remain in exile with Alexandra while a government coalition dominated by the Communists was constituted in Belgrade.[54] Birth of Crown Prince Alexander and Peter II's deposition Queen Alexandra with her son, Crown Prince Alexander, c. 1946.In this turbulent context, Alexandra gave birth to an heir, named Alexander after his two grandfathers, Alexander of Yugoslavia and Alexander of Greece. The birth took place in Suite 212 of Claridge's Hotel in Brook Street, London, on 17 July 1945. To enable the child to be born on Yugoslav soil, the British Prime Minister Winston Churchill reportedly asked King George VI to issue a decree transforming, for a day, Suite 212 into Yugoslav territory,[55][56] which was to be the only time Alexandra was in Yugoslavia as queen.[5] Some time later, the newborn Crown Prince was baptized by the Serbian Patriarch Gavrilo V in Westminster Abbey, with King George VI and his elder daughter (the future Queen Elizabeth II) acting as godparents.[57] The festivities marking the birth of the crown prince, however, were short-lived. Less than eight months after joining the coalition government, Milan Grol and Ivan Šubašić resigned their offices of Vice-Prime Minister (18 August) and Foreign Minister (8 October), respectively, to mark their political disagreement with Marshal Tito. Faced with the rise of the Communists, King Peter II decided, to withdraw his confidence from the Regency Council and regain all his sovereign prerogatives in Yugoslavia (8 August). Tito responded by immediately depriving the Royal Family of the civil list, which was soon to have dramatic consequences in the lives of the royal couple. Especially, Tito ordered the organization of early elections to a Constituent Assembly. The campaign took place in an irregular way, in the middle of pressures and violence of all kinds, with the opposition deciding to boycott the poll.[58] On 24 November 1945 a single list presented by the communists was proposed to voters: while there were hardly more than 10,000 Communists throughout Yugoslavia before the war, their candidates list obtained more than 90% of the votes in the referendum.[59] In their first meeting on 29 November 1945, the Constituent Assembly voted immediately to abolish the monarchy and proclaimed the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.[59] While no referendum accompanied this institutional change, the new regime was quickly recognized by virtually all of the international countries (except Francoist Spain).[60] Marital problems and suicide attemptsFinancial and marital difficulties Claridge's Hotel, London.Now without income and any prospect of returning to Yugoslavia, Peter II and Alexandra resolved to leave Claridge's Hotel and moved to a mansion in the Borough of Runnymede. Abandoned by the British government, they settled for a time in France, between Paris and Monte Carlo, then in Switzerland at St. Moritz. Increasingly penniless, they ended up leaving Europe and in 1949, they settled in New York City, where the former King hoped to complete a financial project. Still penniless, the couple was forced to sell Alexandra's necklace of emeralds and other pieces of her jewelry to pay their accumulated debts.[55] In addition to these difficulties was the fact that they were unable to manage a budget. As Alexandra wrote in her autobiography, she had no idea of the value of things, and she quickly proved incapable of maintaining a home.[61] In the United States, Peter II soon drifted away. Having made poor financial investments, he lost the little money he had left. Unable to adapt to the daily life of a normal citizen, he turned to alcohol and affairs with younger women. For her part, Alexandra's love for her husband turned to obsession.[62] Likely prone to anorexia for years.[10] Increasingly unstable, she made her first suicide attempt during a visit to her mother in Venice during the summer of 1950.[61] The relations of the royal couple went from bad to worse. Alexandra used her son to put pressure on her husband and the child witnessed very violent scenes between his parents. Thanks to the intervention of his maternal grandmother, the 4-year-old former Crown Prince Alexander was sent to Italy with the Count and Countess of Robilant, friends of the royal couple. The child then grew up in an atmosphere much more stable and loving, with only a few visits from his parents.[63] Divorce attempt and reconciliationThe year 1952 was marked by further financial problems due to bad investments of Peter II. Alexandra also suffered a miscarriage. The couple returned to France, where the situation did not improve. In 1953, Alexandra made another suicide attempt in Paris, which she survived thanks to a phone call from her aunt, Queen Frederica of Greece.[61] Tired by the mental instability of his wife, Peter II finally launched a process of divorce in the French courts. The intervention of his son the crown prince and the king and queen of Greece convinced him, however, to abandon his intentions.[64] Peter II and Alexandra, 1963.The couple reconciled and for a time they lived a second honeymoon. However, the need for money continued to be felt and Alexandra was persuaded by a British publisher to write her autobiography. With the help of the ghostwriter Joan Reeder, in 1956 she published For Love of a King (translated into French the following year under the title Pour l'Amour d'un Roi).[65] Alexandra was always in financial need despite the relative success of the book. In 1959, she co-wrote a second book, this time about her cousin, the Duke of Edinburgh.[66] Though it revealed nothing compromising about the Duke of Edinburgh, the book prompted the British Royal Family to distance itself from Alexandra.[67] For some time, the couple moved to Cannes, while Peter II maintained a chancellery in Monte Carlo. Considering himself still King of Yugoslavia, the former sovereign continued to award titles and decorations. Supported by some monarchists as the "Duke of Saint-Bar",[67] he even maintained an embassy in Madrid.[60] However, the reconciliation of the royal couple finally soured and Peter II returned to live in the United States while Alexandra moved with her mother to the Garden of Eden.[67] In 1963, on 1 September or before,[68] Alexandra made another suicide attempt in Venice. Narrowly saved by her son former Crown Prince Alexander, she spent a long period of convalescence under the constant care of her sister-in-law, Princess Margarita of Baden (wife of Peter II's brother Prince Tomislav of Yugoslavia).[69] Once recovered, Alexandra reconciled again with Peter II and the couple returned to live in the French capital in 1967. But, as before, the reconciliation was temporary and soon Peter II returned to live permanently in the United States while Alexandra settled in her mother's residence.[67] Last yearsPeter II died on 3 November 1970 in Denver, United States, during an attempted liver transplant. Lacking resources, his remains were buried in Saint Sava Monastery Church at Libertyville, Illinois, making him the only European monarch so far to have been buried in America. Still unstable and impoverished, Alexandra did not attend the ceremony, which took place in relative privacy.[70] Two years later, on 1 July 1972, former Crown Prince Alexander of Yugoslavia (now Head of the House of Karađorđević), married at Villamanrique de la Condesa, near Seville, Spain, Princess Maria da Glória of Orléans-Braganza, daughter of Brazilian Imperial pretender Prince Pedro Gastão of Orléans-Braganza and first cousin of King Juan Carlos I of Spain. Too fragile emotionally, Alexandra did not attend the wedding of her son and it was her father's cousin Princess Olga of Greece (wife of Prince-Regent Paul of Yugoslavia), who escorted the groom to the altar.[71] One month later, on 7 August 1972, Alexandra's mother Princess Aspasia died.[70] Now alone, she finally sold the Garden of Eden in 1979[30] and returned to the United Kingdom because of her health problems. She died of cancer at Burgess Hill, West Sussex, on 30 January 1993.[5][42][70] The funeral of Alexandra was held in London, in the presence of her son, her three grandsons (Hereditary Prince Peter, Prince Philip and Prince Alexander) and several members of the Greek royal family, including the former King Constantine II and Queen Anne-Marie. Alexandra's remains were then buried in the Royal cemetery park at Tatoi, Greece, next to her mother.[72] On 26 May 2013, Alexandra's remains were transferred to Serbia for reburial in the crypt of the Royal Mausoleum at Oplenac. With her, the remains of her husband King Peter II, her mother-in-law Queen Mother Maria and brother-in-law Prince Andrew were also reburied at the same time in an official ceremony which was attended by Serbian President Tomislav Nikolić and his government.[73][74] Honours Royal Standard of the QueenGreece Greek Royal Family: Dame Grand Cross of the Order of Saints Olga and Sophia[75]Kingdom of Yugoslavia House of Karađorđević: Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Star of Karađorđe[76]Kingdom of Yugoslavia House of Karađorđević: Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the White Eagle[76]Kingdom of Yugoslavia House of Karađorđević: Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St. Sava[77]Kingdom of Yugoslavia House of Karađorđević: Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Yugoslav Crown Queen Alexandra was the daughter of HM King Alexander of the Hellenes and HRH Princess Aspasia of Greece and Denmark (née Aspasia Manos). Queen Alexandra born in Athens Greece 25 March 1921 and died 30 January 1993 in East Sussex England. The Queen was educated at Westfield, the junior school of Heathfield, then she went to Heathfield. Following schooling in England Queen Alexandra went to Mademoiselle Ozanne in Paris. Queen Alexandra met HM King Peter II of Yugoslavia in London in 1942 and they married in March 1944 and their son HRH Crown Prince Alexander was born in London 17 July 1945. The Queen was buried at Tatoi Palace Royal Cemetery near Athens and and reburied on Sunday 26 May 2013 in Serbia at the Royal Family Mausoleum at Oplenac. Yugoslavia (/ˌjuːɡoʊˈslɑːviə/; Serbo-Croatian: Jugoslavija / Југославија [juɡǒslaːʋija]; Slovene: Jugoslavija [juɡɔˈslàːʋija]; Macedonian: Југославија [juɡɔˈsɫavija];[A] lit. 'South Slavic Land') was a country in Southeast Europe and Central Europe for most of the 20th century. It came into existence after World War I in 1918[B] under the name of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes by the merger of the provisional State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs (which was formed from territories of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire) with the Kingdom of Serbia, and constituted the first union of the South Slavic people as a sovereign state, following centuries in which the region had been part of the Ottoman Empire and Austria-Hungary. Peter I of Serbia was its first sovereign. The kingdom gained international recognition on 13 July 1922 at the Conference of Ambassadors in Paris.[2] The official name of the state was changed to Kingdom of Yugoslavia on 3 October 1929. Yugoslavia was invaded by the Axis powers on 6 April 1941. In 1943, a Democratic Federal Yugoslavia was proclaimed by the Partisan resistance. In 1944 King Peter II, then living in exile, recognised it as the legitimate government. The monarchy was subsequently abolished in November 1945. Yugoslavia was renamed the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia in 1946, when a communist government was established. It acquired the territories of Istria, Rijeka, and Zadar from Italy. Partisan leader Josip Broz Tito ruled the country as president until his death in 1980. In 1963, the country was renamed again, as the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY). The six constituent republics that made up the SFRY were the SR Bosnia and Herzegovina, SR Croatia, SR Macedonia, SR Montenegro, SR Serbia, and SR Slovenia. Serbia contained two Socialist Autonomous Provinces, Vojvodina and Kosovo, which after 1974 were largely equal to the other members of the federation.[3][4] After an economic and political crisis in the 1980s and the rise of nationalism, Yugoslavia broke up along its republics' borders, at first into five countries, leading to the Yugoslav Wars. From 1993 to 2017, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia tried political and military leaders from the former Yugoslavia for war crimes, genocide, and other crimes committed during those wars. After the breakup, the republics of Montenegro and Serbia formed a reduced federative state, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY), known from 2003 to 2006 as Serbia and Montenegro. This state aspired to the status of sole legal successor to the SFRY, but those claims were opposed by the other former republics. Eventually, it accepted the opinion of the Badinter Arbitration Committee about shared succession[5] and in 2003 its official name was changed to Serbia and Montenegro. This state dissolved when Montenegro and Serbia each became independent states in 2006, while Kosovo proclaimed its independence from Serbia in 2008. Contents1Background2Kingdom of Yugoslavia2.1King Alexander2.21934–19413World War II4FPR Yugoslavia4.1The 1948 Yugoslavia–Soviet split5SFR Yugoslavia5.1Ethnic tensions and economic crisis6Breakup6.1Yugoslav Wars6.2Timeline7New states7.1Succession, 1992–20037.2Succession, 2006–present7.3Yugosphere8Demographics9See also10Notes and references10.1Notes10.2References11Further reading11.1Historiography12External linksBackgroundMain article: Creation of YugoslaviaThe concept of Yugoslavia, as a single state for all South Slavic peoples, emerged in the late 17th century and gained prominence through the Illyrian Movement of the 19th century. The name was created by the combination of the Slavic words "jug" (south) and "slaveni" (Slavs). Yugoslavia was the result of the Corfu Declaration, as a joint project of the Slovene and Croatian intellectuals and the Serbian Royal Parliament in exile and the Serbian royal Karađorđević dynasty, who became the Yugoslav royal dynasty following the foundation of the state. Kingdom of YugoslaviaMain article: Kingdom of Yugoslavia Banovinas of Yugoslavia, 1929–39. After 1939 the Sava and Littoral banovinas were merged into the Banovina of Croatia.The country was formed in 1918 immediately after World War I as the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes by union of the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs and the Kingdom of Serbia. It was commonly referred to at the time as the "Versailles state". Later, the government renamed the country leading to the first official use of Yugoslavia in 1929. King AlexanderSee also: 6 January DictatorshipOn 20 June 1928, Serb deputy Puniša Račić shot at five members of the opposition Croatian Peasant Party in the National Assembly, resulting in the death of two deputies on the spot and that of leader Stjepan Radić a few weeks later.[6] On 6 January 1929, King Alexander I got rid of the constitution, banned national political parties, assumed executive power, and renamed the country Yugoslavia.[7] He hoped to curb separatist tendencies and mitigate nationalist passions. He imposed a new constitution and relinquished his dictatorship in 1931.[8] However, Alexander's policies later encountered opposition from other European powers stemming from developments in Italy and Germany, where Fascists and Nazis rose to power, and the Soviet Union, where Joseph Stalin became absolute ruler. None of these three regimes favored the policy pursued by Alexander I. In fact, Italy and Germany wanted to revise the international treaties signed after World War I, and the Soviets were determined to regain their positions in Europe and pursue a more active international policy. Alexander attempted to create a centralised Yugoslavia. He decided to abolish Yugoslavia's historic regions, and new internal boundaries were drawn for provinces or banovinas. The banovinas were named after rivers. Many politicians were jailed or kept under police surveillance. The effect of Alexander's dictatorship was to further alienate the non-Serbs from the idea of unity.[9] During his reign the flags of Yugoslav nations were banned. Communist ideas were banned also. The king was assassinated in Marseille during an official visit to France in 1934 by Vlado Chernozemski, an experienced marksman from Ivan Mihailov's Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization with the cooperation of the Ustaše, a Croatian fascist revolutionary organisation. Alexander was succeeded by his eleven-year-old son Peter II and a regency council headed by his cousin, Prince Paul. 1934–1941The international political scene in the late 1930s was marked by growing intolerance between the principal figures, by the aggressive attitude of the totalitarian regimes and by the certainty that the order set up after World War I was losing its strongholds and its sponsors were losing their strength. Supported and pressured by Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany, Croatian leader Vladko Maček and his party managed the creation of the Banovina of Croatia (Autonomous Region with significant internal self-government) in 1939. The agreement specified that Croatia was to remain part of Yugoslavia, but it was hurriedly building an independent political identity in international relations. The entire kingdom was to be federalised but World War II stopped the fulfillment of those plans. Prince Paul submitted to the fascist pressure and signed the Tripartite Pact in Vienna on 25 March 1941, hoping to still keep Yugoslavia out of the war. But this was at the expense of popular support for Paul's regency. Senior military officers were also opposed to the treaty and launched a coup d'état when the king returned on 27 March. Army General Dušan Simović seized power, arrested the Vienna delegation, exiled Paul, and ended the regency, giving 17-year-old King Peter full powers. Hitler then decided to attack Yugoslavia on 6 April 1941, followed immediately by an invasion of Greece where Mussolini had previously been repelled.[10][11] World War IIMain article: World War II in Yugoslavia This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (May 2018) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) Partisan Stjepan Filipović shouting "Death to fascism, freedom to the people!" shortly before his executionAt 5:12 a.m. on 6 April 1941, German, Italian and Hungarian forces invaded Yugoslavia.[12] The German Air Force (Luftwaffe) bombed Belgrade and other major Yugoslav cities. On 17 April, representatives of Yugoslavia's various regions signed an armistice with Germany in Belgrade, ending eleven days of resistance against the invading German forces.[13] More than 300,000 Yugoslav officers and soldiers were taken prisoner.[14] The Axis Powers occupied Yugoslavia and split it up. The Independent State of Croatia was established as a Nazi satellite state, ruled by the fascist militia known as the Ustaše that came into existence in 1929, but was relatively limited in its activities until 1941. German troops occupied Bosnia and Herzegovina as well as part of Serbia and Slovenia, while other parts of the country were occupied by Bulgaria, Hungary, and Italy. From 1941 to 1945, the Croatian Ustaše regime murdered around 500,000 people, 250,000 were expelled, and another 200,000 were forced to convert to Catholicism. From the start, the Yugoslav resistance forces consisted of two factions: the communist-led Yugoslav Partisans and the royalist Chetniks, with the former receiving Allied recognition only at the Tehran conference (1943). The heavily pro-Serbian Chetniks were led by Draža Mihajlović, while the pan-Yugoslav oriented Partisans were led by Josip Broz Tito. The Partisans initiated a guerrilla campaign that developed into the largest resistance army in occupied Western and Central Europe. The Chetniks were initially supported by the exiled royal government and the Allies, but they soon focused increasingly on combating the Partisans rather than the occupying Axis forces. By the end of the war, the Chetnik movement transformed into a collaborationist Serb nationalist militia completely dependent on Axis supplies.[15] The highly mobile Partisans, however, carried on their guerrilla warfare with great success. Most notable of the victories against the occupying forces were the battles of Neretva and Sutjeska. On 25 November 1942, the Anti-Fascist Council of National Liberation of Yugoslavia was convened in Bihać, modern day Bosnia and Herzegovina. The council reconvened on 29 November 1943, in Jajce, also in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and established the basis for post-war organisation of the country, establishing a federation (this date was celebrated as Republic Day after the war). The Yugoslav Partisans were able to expel the Axis from Serbia in 1944 and the rest of Yugoslavia in 1945. The Red Army provided limited assistance with the liberation of Belgrade and withdrew after the war was over. In May 1945, the Partisans met with Allied forces outside former Yugoslav borders, after also taking over Trieste and parts of the southern Austrian provinces of Styria and Carinthia. However, the Partisans withdrew from Trieste in June of the same year under heavy pressure from Stalin, who did not want a confrontation with the other Allies. Western attempts to reunite the Partisans, who denied the supremacy of the old government of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, and the émigrés loyal to the king led to the Tito-Šubašić Agreement in June 1944; however, Marshal Josip Broz Tito was in control and was determined to lead an independent communist state, starting as a prime minister. He had the support of Moscow and London and led by far the strongest partisan force with 800,000 men.[16][17] The official Yugoslav post-war estimate of victims in Yugoslavia during World War II is 1,704,000. Subsequent data gathering in the 1980s by historians Vladimir Žerjavić and Bogoljub Kočović showed that the actual number of dead was about 1 million. FPR YugoslaviaMain article: Federal People's Republic of YugoslaviaOn 11 November 1945, elections were held with only the Communist-led People's Front appearing on the ballot, securing all 354 seats. On 29 November, while still in exile, King Peter II was deposed by Yugoslavia's Constituent Assembly, and the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia was declared.[18] However, he refused to abdicate. Marshal Tito was now in full control, and all opposition elements were eliminated.[19] On 31 January 1946, the new constitution of the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia, modelled after the constitution of the Soviet Union, established six republics, an autonomous province, and an autonomous district that were part of Serbia. The federal capital was Belgrade. The policy focused on a strong central government under the control of the Communist Party, and on recognition of the multiple nationalities.[19] The flags of the republics used versions of the red flag or Slavic tricolor, with a red star in the centre or in the canton. NameCapitalFlagCoat of armsLocationSocialist Republic of Bosnia and HerzegovinaSarajevoFlag of SR Bosnia and Herzegovina.svgCoat of Arms of the Socialist Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina.svgSR SloveniaSR CroatiaSR Bosnia andHerzegovinaSRMontenegroSR MacedoniaSR SerbiaSAPVojvodinaSAPKosovoSocialist Republic of CroatiaZagrebFlag of SR Croatia.svgCoat of Arms of the Socialist Republic of Croatia.svgSocialist Republic of MacedoniaSkopjeFlag of North Macedonia (1946–1992).svgCoat of arms of Macedonia (1946-2009).svgSocialist Republic of MontenegroTitogradFlag of the Socialist Republic of Montenegro.svgCoat of Arms of the Socialist Republic of Montenegro.svgSocialist Republic of SerbiaSAP KosovoSAP VojvodinaBelgradePrištinaNovi SadFlag of SR Serbia.svgCoat of Arms of the Socialist Republic of Serbia.svgSocialist Republic of SloveniaLjubljanaFlag of Slovenia (1945-1991).svgCoat of Arms of the Socialist Republic of Slovenia.svgTito's regional goal was to expand south and take control of Albania and parts of Greece. In 1947, negotiations between Yugoslavia and Bulgaria led to the Bled agreement, which proposed to form a close relationship between the two Communist countries, and enable Yugoslavia to start a civil war in Greece and use Albania and Bulgaria as bases. Stalin vetoed this agreement and it was never realised. The break between Belgrade and Moscow was now imminent.[20] Yugoslavia solved the national issue of nations and nationalities (national minorities) in a way that all nations and nationalities had the same rights. However, most of the German minority of Yugoslavia, most of whom had collaborated during the occupation and had been recruited to German forces, were expelled towards Germany or Austria.[21] The 1948 Yugoslavia–Soviet splitFurther information: Tito–Stalin Split This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (September 2020) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)The country distanced itself from the Soviets in 1948 (cf. Cominform and Informbiro) and started to build its own way to socialism under the strong political leadership of Josip Broz Tito. Accordingly, the constitution was heavily amended to replace the emphasis on democratic centralism with workers' self-management and decentralization. The Communist Party was renamed to the League of Communists and adopted Titoism at its congress the previous year. All the Communist European Countries had deferred to Stalin and rejected the Marshall Plan aid in 1947. Tito, at first went along and rejected the Marshall plan. However, in 1948 Tito broke decisively with Stalin on other issues, making Yugoslavia an independent communist state. Yugoslavia requested American aid. American leaders were internally divided, but finally agreed and began sending money on a small scale in 1949, and on a much larger scale 1950–53. The American aid was not part of the Marshall plan.[22] Tito criticised both Eastern Bloc and NATO nations and, together with India and other countries, started the Non-Aligned Movement in 1961, which remained the official affiliation of the country until it dissolved. In 1974, the two provinces of Vojvodina and Kosovo-Metohija (for the latter had by then been upgraded to the status of a province), as well as the republics of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro, were granted greater autonomy to the point that Albanian and Hungarian became nationally recognised minority languages, and the Serbo-Croat of Bosnia and Montenegro altered to a form based on the speech of the local people and not on the standards of Zagreb and Belgrade. In Slovenia the recognized minorities were Hungarians and Italians. Vojvodina and Kosovo-Metohija formed a part of the Republic of Serbia but those provinces also formed part of the federation, which led to the unique situation that Central Serbia did not have its own assembly but a joint assembly with its provinces represented in it. SFR YugoslaviaMain article: Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (September 2020) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) Marshal Josip Broz TitoOn 7 April 1963, the nation changed its official name to Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and Josip Broz Tito was named President for life. In the SFRY, each republic and province had its own constitution, supreme court, parliament, president and prime minister. At the top of the Yugoslav government were the President (Tito), the federal Prime Minister, and the federal Parliament (a collective Presidency was formed after Tito's death in 1980). Also important were the Communist Party general secretaries for each republic and province, and the general secretary of Central Committee of the Communist Party. Tito was the most powerful person in the country, followed by republican and provincial premiers and presidents, and Communist Party presidents. Slobodan Penezić Krcun, Tito's chief of secret police in Serbia, fell victim to a dubious traffic incident after he started to complain about Tito's politics. Minister of the interior Aleksandar Ranković lost all of his titles and rights after a major disagreement with Tito regarding state politics. Some influential ministers in government, such as Edvard Kardelj or Stane Dolanc, were more important than the Prime Minister. First cracks in the tightly governed system surfaced when students in Belgrade and several other cities joined the worldwide protests of 1968. President Josip Broz Tito gradually stopped the protests by giving in to some of the students' demands and saying that "students are right" during a televised speech. But in the following years, he dealt with the leaders of the protests by sacking them from university and Communist party posts.[23] A more severe sign of disobedience was so-called Croatian Spring of 1970 and 1971, when students in Zagreb organised demonstrations for greater civil liberties and greater Croatian autonomy, followed by mass manifestations across Croatia. The regime stifled the public protest and incarcerated the leaders, but many key Croatian representatives in the Party silently supported this cause, lobbying within the Party ranks for a reorganisation of the country. As a result, a new Constitution was ratified in 1974, which gave more rights to the individual republics in Yugoslavia and provinces in Serbia. Ethnic tensions and economic crisis This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (September 2020) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)The Yugoslav federation was constructed against a double background: an inter-war Yugoslavia which had been dominated by the Serbian ruling class; and a war-time division of the country, as Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany split the country apart and endorsed an extreme Croatian nationalist faction called the Ustaše. A small faction of Bosniak nationalists joined the Axis forces and attacked Serbs while extreme Serb nationalists engaged in attacks on Bosniaks and Croats. Yugoslav Partisans took over the country at the end of the war and banned nationalism from being publicly promoted. Overall relative peace was retained under Tito's rule, though nationalist protests did occur, but these were usually repressed and nationalist leaders were arrested and some were executed by Yugoslav officials. However, the "Croatian Spring" protest in the 1970s was backed by large numbers of Croats who claimed that Yugoslavia remained a Serb hegemony and demanded that Serbia's powers be reduced. Tito, whose home republic was Croatia, was concerned over the stability of the country and responded in a manner to appease both Croats and Serbs: he ordered the arrest of the Croat protestors, while at the same time conceding to some of their demands. In 1974, Serbia's influence in the country was significantly reduced as autonomous provinces were created in ethnic Albanian-majority populated Kosovo and the mixed-populated Vojvodina. These autonomous provinces held the same voting power as the republics but unlike the republics, they could not legally separate from Yugoslavia. This concession satisfied Croatia and Slovenia, but in Serbia and in the new autonomous province of Kosovo, reaction was different. Serbs saw the new constitution as conceding to Croat and ethnic Albanian nationalists. Ethnic Albanians in Kosovo saw the creation of an autonomous province as not being enough, and demanded that Kosovo become a constituent republic with the right to separate from Yugoslavia. This created tensions within the Communist leadership, particularly among Communist Serb officials who resented the 1974 constitution as weakening Serbia's influence and jeopardising the unity of the country by allowing the republics the right to separate. According to official statistics, from the 1950s to the early 1980s, Yugoslavia was among the fastest growing countries, approaching the ranges reported in South Korea and other miracle countries. The unique socialist system in Yugoslavia, where factories were worker cooperatives and decision-making was less centralized than in other socialist countries, may have led to the stronger growth. However, even if the absolute value of the growth rates was not as high as indicated by the official statistics, both the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia were characterized by surprisingly high growth rates of both income and education during the 1950s. The period of European growth ended after the oil price shock in 1970s. Following that, in Yugoslavia an economic crisis erupted, and that as a product of disastrous errors by Yugoslav governments, such as borrowing vast amounts of Western capital in order to fund growth through exports.[24] At the same time, Western economies went into recession, decreasing demand for Yugoslav imports, creating a large debt problem. In 1989, according to official sources[who?], 248 firms were declared bankrupt or were liquidated and 89,400 workers were laid off. During the first nine months of 1990 directly following the adoption of the IMF programme, another 889 enterprises with a combined work-force of 525,000 workers suffered the same fate. In other words, in less than two years "the trigger mechanism" (under the Financial Operations Act) had led to the layoff of more than 600,000 workers out of a total industrial workforce of the order of 2.7 million. An additional 20% of the work force, or half a million people, were not paid wages during the early months of 1990 as enterprises sought to avoid bankruptcy. The largest concentrations of bankrupt firms and lay-offs were in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia and Kosovo. Real earnings were in a free fall and social programmes had collapsed; creating within the population an atmosphere of social despair and hopelessness. This was a critical turning point in the events to follow.[citation needed] BreakupMain article: Breakup of Yugoslavia This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (September 2020) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) Breakup of YugoslaviaThough the 1974 Constitution reduced the power of the federal government, Tito's authority substituted for this weakness until his death in 1980. After Tito's death on 4 May 1980, ethnic tensions grew in Yugoslavia. The legacy of the Constitution of 1974 was used to throw the system of decision-making into a state of paralysis, made all the more hopeless as the conflict of interests had become irreconcilable. The Albanian majority in Kosovo demanded the status of a republic in the 1981 protests in Kosovo while Serbian authorities suppressed this sentiment and proceeded to reduce the province's autonomy.[25] In 1986, the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts drafted a memorandum addressing some burning issues concerning the position of Serbs as the most numerous people in Yugoslavia. The largest Yugoslav republic in territory and population, Serbia's influence over the regions of Kosovo and Vojvodina was reduced by the 1974 Constitution. Because its two autonomous provinces had de facto prerogatives of full-fledged republics, Serbia found that its hands were tied, for the republican government was restricted in making and carrying out decisions that would apply to the provinces. Since the provinces had a vote in the Federal Presidency Council (an eight-member council composed of representatives from the six republics and the two autonomous provinces), they sometimes even entered into coalition with other republics, thus outvoting Serbia. Serbia's political impotence made it possible for others to exert pressure on the 2 million Serbs (20% of the total Serbian population) living outside Serbia. Serbian communist leader Slobodan Milošević sought to restore pre-1974 Serbian sovereignty. After Tito's death, Milošević made his way to becoming the next superior figure and political official for Serbia.[26] Other republics, especially Slovenia and Croatia, denounced this move as a revival of greater Serbian hegemonism. Through a series of moves known as the "anti-bureaucratic revolution", Milošević succeeded in reducing the autonomy of Vojvodina and of Kosovo and Metohija, but both entities retained a vote in the Yugoslav Presidency Council. The very instrument that reduced Serbian influence before was now used to increase it: in the eight-member Council, Serbia could now count on four votes at a minimum: Serbia proper, then-loyal Montenegro, Vojvodina, and Kosovo. As a result of these events, ethnic Albanian miners in Kosovo organised the 1989 Kosovo miners' strike, which dovetailed into ethnic conflict between the Albanians and the non-Albanians in the province. At around 80% of the population of Kosovo in the 1980s, ethnic-Albanians were the majority. With Milosevic gaining control over Kosovo in 1989, the original residency changed drastically leaving only a minimum amount of Serbians left in the region.[26] The number of Slavs in Kosovo (mainly Serbs) was quickly declining for several reasons, among them the ever-increasing ethnic tensions and subsequent emigration from the area. By 1999 the Slavs formed as little as 10% of the total population in Kosovo. Meanwhile, Slovenia, under the presidency of Milan Kučan, and Croatia supported the Albanian miners and their struggle for formal recognition. Initial strikes turned into widespread demonstrations demanding a Kosovan republic. This angered Serbia's leadership which proceeded to use police force, and later even the Federal Army was sent to the province by the order of the Serbia-held majority in the Yugoslav Presidency Council. In January 1990, the extraordinary 14th Congress of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia was convened. For most of the time, the Slovene and Serbian delegations were arguing over the future of the League of Communists and Yugoslavia. The Serbian delegation, led by Milošević, insisted on a policy of "one person, one vote", which would empower the plurality population, the Serbs. In turn, the Slovenes, supported by Croats, sought to reform Yugoslavia by devolving even more power to republics, but were voted down. As a result, the Slovene and Croatian delegations left the Congress and the all-Yugoslav Communist party was dissolved. The constitutional crisis that inevitably followed resulted in a rise of nationalism in all republics: Slovenia and Croatia voiced demands for looser ties within the Federation. Following the fall of communism in Eastern Europe, each of the republics held multi-party elections in 1990. Slovenia and Croatia held the elections in April since their communist parties chose to cede power peacefully. Other Yugoslav republics—especially Serbia—were more or less dissatisfied with the democratisation in two of the republics and proposed different sanctions (e.g. Serbian "customs tax" for Slovene products) against the two, but as the year progressed, other republics' communist parties saw the inevitability of the democratisation process; in December, as the last member of the federation, Serbia held parliamentary elections which confirmed former communists' rule in this republic. The unresolved issues however remained. In particular, Slovenia and Croatia elected governments oriented towards greater autonomy of the republics (under Milan Kučan and Franjo Tuđman, respectively), since it became clear that Serbian domination attempts and increasingly different levels of democratic standards were becoming increasingly incompatible. Serbia and Montenegro elected candidates who favoured Yugoslav unity. The Croat quest for independence led to large Serb communities within Croatia rebelling and trying to secede from the Croat republic. Serbs in Croatia would not accept a status of a national minority in a sovereign Croatia, since they would be demoted from the status of a constituent nation of the entirety of Yugoslavia. Yugoslav WarsMain article: Yugoslav Wars This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (September 2020) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)The war broke out when the new regimes tried to replace Yugoslav civilian and military forces with secessionist forces. When, in August 1990, Croatia attempted to replace police in the Serb populated Croat Krajina by force, the population first looked for refuge in the Yugoslav Army barracks, while the army remained passive. The civilians then organised armed resistance. These armed conflicts between the Croatian armed forces ("police") and civilians mark the beginning of the Yugoslav war that inflamed the region. Similarly, the attempt to replace Yugoslav frontier police by Slovene police forces provoked regional armed conflicts which finished with a minimal number of victims.[27] A similar attempt in Bosnia and Herzegovina led to a war that lasted more than three years (see below). The results of all these conflicts are almost complete emigration of the Serbs from all three regions, massive displacement of the populations in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and establishment of the three new independent states. The separation of Macedonia was peaceful, although the Yugoslav Army occupied the peak of the Straža mountain on the Macedonian soil. Serbian uprisings in Croatia began in August 1990 by blocking roads leading from the Dalmatian coast towards the interior almost a year before Croatian leadership made any move towards independence. These uprisings were more or less discreetly backed up by the Serb-dominated federal army (JNA). The Serbs in Croatia proclaimed "Serb autonomous areas", later united into the Republic of Serb Krajina. The federal army tried to disarm the territorial defence forces of Slovenia (republics had their local defence forces similar to the Home Guard) in 1990 but was not completely successful. Still, Slovenia began to covertly import arms to replenish its armed forces. Croatia also embarked upon the illegal import of arms, (following the disarmament of the republics' armed forces by the federal army) mainly from Hungary, and were under constant surveillance which produced a video of a secret meeting between the Croatian Defence minister Martin Špegelj and the two men, filmed by the Yugoslav counter-intelligence (KOS, Kontra-obavještajna služba). Špegelj announced that they were at war with the army and gave instructions about arms smuggling as well as methods of dealing with the Yugoslav Army's officers stationed in Croatian cities. Serbia and JNA used this discovery of Croatian rearmament for propaganda purposes. Guns were also fired from army bases through Croatia. Elsewhere, tensions were running high. In the same month, the Army leaders met with the Presidency of Yugoslavia in an attempt to get them to declare a state of emergency which would allow for the army to take control of the country. The army was seen as an arm of the Serbian government by that time so the consequence feared by the other republics was to be total Serbian domination of the union. The representatives of Serbia, Montenegro, Kosovo, and Vojvodina voted for the decision, while all other republics, Croatia, Slovenia, Macedonia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, voted against. The tie delayed an escalation of conflicts, but not for long.[27] Following the first multi-party election results, in the autumn of 1990, the republics of Slovenia and Croatia proposed transforming Yugoslavia into a loose confederation of six republics. By this proposal, republics would have right to self-determination. However Milošević rejected all such proposals, arguing that like Slovenes and Croats, the Serbs (having in mind Croatian Serbs) should also have a right to self-determination. On 9 March 1991, demonstrations were held against Slobodan Milošević in Belgrade, but the police and the military were deployed in the streets to restore order, killing two people. In late March 1991, the Plitvice Lakes incident was one of the first sparks of open war in Croatia. The Yugoslav People's Army (JNA), whose superior officers were mainly of Serbian ethnicity, maintained an impression of being neutral, but as time went on, they got more and more involved in state politics. On 25 June 1991, Slovenia and Croatia became the first republics to declare independence from Yugoslavia. The federal customs officers in Slovenia on the border crossings with Italy, Austria, and Hungary mainly just changed uniforms since most of them were local Slovenes. The following day (26 June), the Federal Executive Council specifically ordered the army to take control of the "internationally recognized borders", leading to the Ten-Day War. As Slovenia and Croatia fought towards independence, the Serbian and Croatian forces indulged into a violent and perilous rivalry. [26] The Yugoslav People's Army forces, based in barracks in Slovenia and Croatia, attempted to carry out the task within the next 48 hours. However, because of misinformation given to the Yugoslav Army conscripts that the Federation was under attack by foreign forces and the fact that the majority of them did not wish to engage in a war on the ground where they served their conscription, the Slovene territorial defence forces retook most of the posts within several days with only minimal loss of life on both sides. There was a suspected incident of a war crime, as the Austrian ORF TV network showed footage of three Yugoslav Army soldiers surrendering to the territorial defence force, before gunfire was heard and the troops were seen falling down. However, none were killed in the incident. There were however numerous cases of destruction of civilian property and civilian life by the Yugoslav People's Army, including houses and a church. A civilian airport, along with a hangar and aircraft inside the hangar, was bombarded; truck drivers on the road from Ljubljana to Zagreb and Austrian journalists at the Ljubljana Airport were killed. A ceasefire was eventually agreed upon. According to the Brioni Agreement, recognised by representatives of all republics, the international community pressured Slovenia and Croatia to place a three-month moratorium on their independence. During these three months, the Yugoslav Army completed its pull-out from Slovenia, but in Croatia, a bloody war broke out in the autumn of 1991. Ethnic Serbs, who had created their own state Republic of Serbian Krajina in heavily Serb-populated regions resisted the police forces of the Republic of Croatia who were trying to bring that breakaway region back under Croatian jurisdiction. In some strategic places, the Yugoslav Army acted as a buffer zone; in most others it was protecting or aiding Serbs with resources and even manpower in their confrontation with the new Croatian army and their police force. In September 1991, the Republic of Macedonia also declared independence, becoming the only former republic to gain sovereignty without resistance from the Belgrade-based Yugoslav authorities. 500 US soldiers were then deployed under the UN banner to monitor Macedonia's northern borders with the Republic of Serbia. Macedonia's first president, Kiro Gligorov, maintained good relations with Belgrade and the other breakaway republics and there have to date been no problems between Macedonian and Serbian border police even though small pockets of Kosovo and the Preševo valley complete the northern reaches of the historical region known as Macedonia (Prohor Pčinjski part), which would otherwise create a border dispute if ever Macedonian nationalism should resurface (see VMRO). This was despite the fact that the Yugoslav Army refused to abandon its military infrastructure on the top of the Straža Mountain up to the year 2000. As a result of the conflict, the United Nations Security Council unanimously adopted UN Security Council Resolution 721 on 27 November 1991, which paved the way to the establishment of peacekeeping operations in Yugoslavia.[28] In Bosnia and Herzegovina in November 1991, the Bosnian Serbs held a referendum which resulted in an overwhelming vote in favour of forming a Serbian republic within the borders of Bosnia and Herzegovina and staying in a common state with Serbia and Montenegro. On 9 January 1992, the self-proclaimed Bosnian Serb assembly proclaimed a separate "Republic of the Serb people of Bosnia and Herzegovina". The referendum and creation of SARs were proclaimed unconstitutional by the government of Bosnia and Herzegovina and declared illegal and invalid. However, in February–March 1992, the government held a national referendum on Bosnian independence from Yugoslavia. That referendum was in turn declared contrary to the BiH and the Federal constitution by the federal Constitutional Court in Belgrade and the newly established Bosnian Serb government. The referendum was largely boycotted by the Bosnian Serbs. The Federal court in Belgrade did not decide on the matter of the referendum of the Bosnian Serbs. The turnout was somewhere between 64 and 67% and 98% of the voters voted for independence. It was not clear what the two-thirds majority requirement actually meant and whether it was satisfied. The republic's government declared its independence on 5 April, and the Serbs immediately declared the independence of Republika Srpska. The war in Bosnia followed shortly thereafter. Timeline This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (September 2020) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)Various dates are considered the end of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia: 25 June 1991, when Croatia and Slovenia declared independence8 September 1991: following a referendum the Republic of Macedonia declared independence8 October 1991, when the 9 July moratorium on Slovene and Croatian secession ended and Croatia restated its independence in the Croatian Parliament (that day is celebrated as Independence Day in Croatia)6 April 1992: full recognition of Bosnia and Herzegovina's independence by the U.S. and most European states28 April 1992: the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia is formed14 December 1995: the Dayton Agreement is signed by the leaders of FR Yugoslavia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and CroatiaNew statesSuccession, 1992–2003 Yugoslavia at the time of its dissolution, early 1992 The state of affairs of the territory of the former Yugoslavia, 2008As the Yugoslav Wars raged through Croatia and Bosnia, the republics of Serbia and Montenegro, which remained relatively untouched by the war, formed a rump state known as the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) in 1992. The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia aspired to be a sole legal successor to the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, but those claims were opposed by the other former republics. The United Nations also denied its request to automatically continue the membership of the former state.[29] In 2000, Milošević was prosecuted for atrocities committed in his ten-year rule in Serbia and the Yugoslav Wars.[26] Eventually, after the overthrow of Slobodan Milošević from power as president of the federation in 2000, the country dropped those aspirations, accepted the opinion of the Badinter Arbitration Committee about shared succession, and reapplied for and gained UN membership on 2 November 2000.[5] From 1992 to 2000, some countries, including the United States, had referred to the FRY as Serbia and Montenegro[30] as they viewed its claim to Yugoslavia's successorship as illegitimate.[31] In April 2001, the five successor states extant at the time drafted an Agreement on Succession Issues, signing the agreement in June 2001.[32][33] Marking an important transition in its history, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was officially renamed Serbia and Montenegro in 2003. According to the Succession Agreement signed in Vienna on 29 June 2001, all assets of former Yugoslavia were divided between five successor states:[33] NameCapitalFlagCoat of armsDeclared date of independenceUnited Nations membership[34]Federal Republic of Yugoslavia[C]BelgradeFlag of Serbia and Montenegro.svgCoat of arms of Serbia and Montenegro.svg27 April 1992[D]1 November 2000[E]Republic of CroatiaZagrebFlag of Croatia.svgCoat of arms of Croatia.svg25 June 199122 May 1992Republic of SloveniaLjubljanaFlag of Slovenia.svgCoat of Arms of Slovenia.svg25 June 199122 May 1992Republic of MacedoniaSkopjeFlag of Macedonia (1992–1995).svgCoat of arms of Macedonia (1946-2009).svg8 September 19918 April 1993Republic of Bosnia and HerzegovinaSarajevoFlag of Bosnia and Herzegovina (1992–1998).svgCoat of arms of Bosnia and Herzegovina (1992–1998).svg1 March 199222 May 1992Succession, 2006–presentIn June 2006, Montenegro became an independent nation after the results of a May 2006 referendum, therefore rendering Serbia and Montenegro no longer existent. After Montenegro's independence, Serbia became the legal successor of Serbia and Montenegro, while Montenegro re-applied for membership in international organisations. In February 2008, the Republic of Kosovo declared independence from Serbia, leading to an ongoing dispute on whether Kosovo is a legally recognised state. Kosovo is not a member of the United Nations, but 115 states, including the United States and various members of the European Union, have recognised Kosovo as a sovereign state. Bosnia and HerzegovinaCroatiaKosovo[F]MontenegroNorth MacedoniaSerbiaSloveniaFlagBosnia and HerzegovinaCroatiaKosovoMontenegroNorth MacedoniaSerbiaSloveniaCoat of armsBosnia and HerzegovinaCoat of arms of Croatia.svgKosovoCoat of arms of Montenegro.svgCoat of arms of North Macedonia.svgCoat of arms of Serbia.svgSloveniaCapitalSarajevoZagrebPristinaPodgoricaSkopjeBelgradeLjubljanaIndependence1 March,199225 June,199117 February,20083 June,20068 September,19915 June,200625 June,1991Population (2018)3,301,7794,109,6691,886,259622,3592,068,9796,988,2212,086,525Area51,197 km256,594 km210,908 km213,812 km225,713 km288,361 km220,273 km2Density69/km274/km2159/km245/km281/km291/km2102/km2Water area (%)0.02%1.1%1.00%2.61%1.09%0.13%0.6%GDP (nominal) total (2018)$19.782 billion$60.806 billion$7.947 billion$5.45 billion$12.762 billion$50.508 billion$54.235 billionGDP (PPP) per capita (2018)$14,291$27,664$11,505$18,261$15,977$16,063$36,566Gini Index (2018[35])33.029.723.233.243.229.725.6HDI (2018)0.768 (High)0.831 (Very High)0.786 (High)0.807 (Very High)0.748 (High)0.776 (High)0.896 (Very High)Internet TLD.ba.hr.xk.me.mk.rs.siCalling code+387+385+383+382+389+381+386YugosphereIn 2009, The Economist coined the term Yugosphere to describe the present-day physical areas that formed Yugoslavia, as well as its culture and influence.[clarification needed][36][37] The similarity of the languages and the long history of common life have left many ties among the peoples of the new states, even though the individual state policies of the new states favour differentiation, particularly in language. The Serbo-Croatian language is linguistically a single language, with several literary and spoken variants since the language of the government was imposed where other languages dominated (Slovenia, Macedonia). Now, separate sociolinguistic standards exist for the Bosnian, Croatian, Montenegrin and Serbian languages. Remembrance of the time of the joint state and its positive attributes is referred to as Yugonostalgia. Many aspects of Yugonostalgia refer to the socialist system and the sense of social security it provided. There are still people from the former Yugoslavia who self-identify as Yugoslavs; this identifier is commonly seen in demographics relating to ethnicity in today's independent states. DemographicsMain articles: Demographics of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia and Demographics of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Ethnic map of Yugoslavia based on 1991 census data, published by CIA in 1992Yugoslavia had always been a home to a very diverse population, not only in terms of national affiliation, but also religious affiliation. Of the many religions, Islam, Roman Catholicism, Judaism, and Protestantism, as well as various Eastern Orthodox faiths, composed the religions of Yugoslavia, comprising over 40 in all. The religious demographics of Yugoslavia changed dramatically since World War II. A census taken in 1921 and later in 1948 show that 99% of the population appeared to be deeply involved with their religion and practices. With postwar government programs of modernisation and urbanisation, the percentage of religious believers took a dramatic plunge. Connections between religious belief and nationality posed a serious threat to the post-war Communist government's policies on national unity and state structure.[38] After the rise of communism, a survey taken in 1964 showed that just over 70% of the total population of Yugoslavia considered themselves to be religious believers. The places of highest religious concentration were that of Kosovo with 91% and Bosnia and Herzegovina with 83.8%. The places of lowest religious concentration were Slovenia 65.4%, Serbia with 63.7% and Croatia with 63.6%. Religious differences between Orthodox Serbs and Macedonians, Catholic Croats and Slovenes, and Muslim Bosniaks and Albanians alongside the rise of nationalism contributed to the collapse of Yugoslavia in 1991.[38] Peter II (Serbian: Петар II Карађорђевић, romanized: Petar II Karađorđević; 6 September 1923 – 3 November 1970) was the last king of Yugoslavia, reigning from October 1934 until his deposition in November 1945. He was the last reigning member of the Karađorđević dynasty. The eldest child of King Alexander I and Maria of Romania, Peter succeeded to the Yugoslav throne in 1934 at the age of 11 after his father was assassinated during a state visit to France. A regency was set up under his cousin Prince Paul. After Paul declared Yugoslavia's accession to the Tripartite Pact in late March 1941, a pro-British coup d'état deposed the regent and declared Peter of age. In response, Axis forces invaded Yugoslavia ten days later and quickly overran the country, forcing the king and his ministers into exile. A government-in-exile was set up in June 1941 following Peter's arrival at London. In March 1944, he married Princess Alexandra of Greece and Denmark. Their only son, Alexander, was born a year later. In November 1945, the Yugoslav Constituent Assembly formally deposed Peter and proclaimed Yugoslavia a republic. Peter settled in the United States after his deposition. Suffering from depression and alcoholism later in his life, he died of cirrhosis in November 1970 at the age of 47. His remains were buried at the Saint Sava Monastery Church in Libertyville, Illinois, before being transferred to the Royal Mausoleum of Oplenac in 2013. Contents1Early life2Second World War2.1Government in exile3Marriage4Deposition and exile5Final years and death6Return of remains and state funeral7Honours8Bibliography9References10External linksEarly lifePeter II was born on 6 September 1923 in Belgrade, Yugoslavia. He was the eldest son of Alexander I of Yugoslavia and Maria of Romania. His godparents were Queen Elizabeth Of Greece, King Ferdinand of Romania, and King George VI of the United Kingdom.[1] Peter with his mother Maria in 1923 (left) and as a child in 1926 (right)Prince Peter was initially tutored at the Royal Palace, Belgrade, before attending Sandroyd School then in Cobham, Surrey where Reed's School now stands. When he was 11 years old, Prince Peter succeeded to the Yugoslav throne in 1934 upon the assassination of his father King Alexander I in Marseille during a state visit to France. In view of the new monarch's young age, a regency was set up under his father's cousin Prince Paul. Prince Regent Paul took the view that he must not change the kingdom from the way that King Alexander had left it so that his son could take possession of it unaltered when he turned 18 in September 1941, and resisted any attempts to revise the 1931 constitution.[2] On 20 August 1939, Paul permitted the prime minister, Dragiša Cvetković, to sign an agreement with Vladko Maček, the leader of the Croatian Peasant Party, which created a new Banovina of Croatia with substantial autonomy and a much greater size, covering much of what is now Bosnia and Herzegovina, and satisfying at least in part the long-standing demands of the Croats.[3] The agreement was very unpopular with the Serbs, especially when reports emerged that the prečani Serbs were being discriminated against by the authorities of the autonomous banovina.[3] The tense international situation of August 1939 with the Danzig crisis pushing Europe to the brink of war meant Paul wanted to settle one of the more debilitating internal disputes in order to make Yugoslavia more capable of surviving the coming storm.[4] The agreement came at the cost of both Paul and Cvetković being condemned by Serbian public opinion for "selling out" to the Croats, all the more so as many Croats made it clear that they saw the banovina of Croatia as only a stepping stone towards independence.[4] The unpopularity of the agreement and the Cvetković government, was one of the reasons for the coup d'état of 27 March 1941 as many Serbs believed that Peter, the son of King Alexander, would continue with his father's centralising policies when he reached his majority.[5] Second World War 11-year-old King Peter II, Queen Maria and Prince Paul (right) at King Alexander's funeral in 1934 in BelgradePrince Regent Paul declared that the kingdom of Yugoslavia would join the Tripartite Pact on 25 March 1941. Two days later, King Peter, at age 17, was proclaimed of age after a pro-British coup d'état. The initially bloodless coup was led by General Dušan Simović on 27 March 1941 in the name of Peter. As General Simović led his men toward the Royal Compound, which was surrounded by guards loyal to the Regent, Peter climbed down a drain-pipe to greet the rebels.[6] As the Regent's guards surrendered without fighting, Simović arrived to tell Peter: "Your Majesty, I salute you as King of Yugoslavia. From this moment you will exercise your full sovereign power".[6] The coup was very popular in Belgrade and Peter was well received by the crowds.[5] The people who had come out in Belgrade to show their support for the coup had a very pro-Allied character, many of the protesters waving British and French flags.[5] The crowds in Belgrade cheered Peter wildly as the 17-year-old king drove his car down the streets without his bodyguards to be greeted by his subjects.[6] The new government that Peter swore in on 27 March 1941 was headed by General Simović and comprised members of the People's Radical Party, the Croatian Peasant Party, the Democratic Party, the Croatian Independent Democrats, the Slovene People's Party, the Yugoslav Muslim Organization, the Agrarian Party and the Yugoslav National Party.[7] With the exception of the Yugoslav Radical Alliance and the banned Yugoslav Communist Party and the Ustashe, all of the main political parties were represented in the new government.[7] Postponing Operation Barbarossa, Nazi Germany simultaneously attacked Yugoslavia and Greece on 6 April 1941, Orthodox Easter Sunday. The Luftwaffe bombed Belgrade, killing between 3,000 and 4,000 people.[8] Within a week, Germany, Bulgaria, Hungary and Italy invaded Yugoslavia, and the government was forced to surrender on 17 April. Parts of Yugoslavia were annexed by Italy, Bulgaria, Hungary and Germany. The remaining parts were governed by two German-controlled puppet governments, the Independent State of Croatia and the Serbian Government of National Salvation. Prime Minister Dušan Simović, Peter II and Court Minister M. Knezevic on 21 June 1941Peter left the country with the Royal Yugoslav Government's ministers following the Axis invasion.[9] Initially the Yugoslav king and his government ministers went to Greece where they refuelled at a British airfield in rural Greece where locals did not at first believe that he was king of Yugoslavia.[6] They then went to British-ruled Jerusalem in Mandatory Palestine, and Cairo in Egypt. In Athens on 16 April 1941, Peter issued a press statement saying he would fight until victory before fleeing Greece.[10] In Jerusalem on 4 May 1941, Peter affirmed in a press statement the Cvetković–Maček agreement of 23 August 1939, which turned Yugoslavia into a semi-federation as the basis of the post-war political system he was planning to introduce once his nation was liberated.[7] Of the 22 men Peter had sworn in as ministers on 27 March 1941, two were killed during the German invasion and another five chose not to go into exile.[7] Džafer Kulenović of the Yugoslav Muslim Organization switched sides and went over to the Ustashe, urging Bosnian Muslims to join the Croats in killing Serbs; Father Franc Kulovec of the Slovene People's Party was killed during the bombing of Belgrade; and Vladko Maček of the Croatian Peasant Party decided not to go into exile.[11] As a result, the Yugoslav government-in-exile was dominated by Serb ministers.[11] The constitutional basis of the government-in-exile was always murky as the government had come into power as a result of a coup d'état yet it professed to be based on the 1931 constitution which made the king the chief executive officer of the state with ministers only responsible to the Crown.[12] The politicians took the view that the 1941 coup d'état had been a popular revolution which had restored democracy, but as long as the 1931 constitution was technically still in effect, King Peter had very broad executive powers.[12] Government in exile Royal Palace in Belgrade, the residence of Peter IIIn June 1941, King Peter arrived in London, where he joined other governments in exile from Nazi-occupied Europe.[13] When Peter and his government landed in London they were greeted as heroes by the British media.[14] The British press presented what the Serbian historian Stevan K. Pavlowitch called a "romanticized" picture of the young Peter, who became a "symbol of his country's struggle to keep its freedom in alliance with Great Britain". He was supplied with a Lendrum & Hartman Limited Buick delivered to his exile home near Cambridge. [14] A sign of the initial high regard for Peter in the neutral United States, he was featured as a hero in October 1941 edition of the comic book Military Comics: Stories of the Army and Navy, which presented a somewhat fictionalized version of the 27 March 1941 coup d'état in Belgrade, in which a group of high-school students upset by Yugoslavia's signing of the Tripartite Pact rally for the king and overthrow the regent.[15] Peter quickly learned that the degree of attention the British were willing to give to the governments-in-exile was directly related to what assets the government-in-exile could bring to the Allied cause. As only a few hundred Yugoslav soldiers had escaped to Egypt, the Yugoslav government-in-exile did not have much to contribute.[16] Initially, the government-in-exile planned to make good its losses by recruiting an army from Yugoslav immigrants in the neutral United States, but the American government objected to this plan, and instead the government-in-exile had to recruit from the ethnic Slovene POWs captured while fighting with the Royal Italian Army.[16] From the British POW camps, enough ethnic Slovenes volunteered to provide one infantry battalion, who were reluctant to fight against the Italians as they would be executed for treason if captured.[16] In terms of military forces available in the Middle East, Yugoslavia was as Pavlowitch put it the "least important of the allies".[16] The Yugoslav officer corps in Egypt was prone to feuding between younger officers who blamed the senior officers for Yugoslavia's swift defeat in April 1941, and such was the extent of the in-fighting that the government-in-exile had to ask the British military police to impose its will on its own army.[16] In this context, when King Peter and the rest of the government-in-exile heard reports in mid-1941 that a guerrilla movement called the Chetniks led by Colonel Draža Mihailović were fighting the Germans, he triumphantly seized upon these reports as proving that he did have an asset to the Allied cause that was tying down German forces that otherwise would be fighting on the other fronts.[17] It was not until October 1941 that the government-in-exile was finally able to establish contact with General Mihailović.[17] In September 1941, a liaison mission from the Special Operations Executive (SOE) parachuted into Yugoslavia to meet Mihailović, and afterwards, became the main means which Mihailović communicated with the Allies.[18] It was through the SOE mission attached with the Chetniks that King Peter and the rest of government-in-exile communicated with Mihailović.[17] General Bernard Montgomery, 17-year-old King Peter II and Winston Churchill in July 1941The news that the Croat fascists of the Ustashe had started a campaign to exterminate one-third of the prečani Serbs in the Krajina region and in Bosnia, expel another one-third and force the rest to convert to Roman Catholicism brought tensions in the government-in-exile between the Serb ministers and the few remaining Croat ministers to the boiling point and by October–November 1941, the cabinet almost collapsed.[19] Adding to the tension was that the Croatian ministers refused to believe the reports about Ustashe atrocities, dismissing them as anti-Croat "Serb propaganda", which infuriated the Serbian ministers.[19] Several Serb ministers told King Peter that after hearing about the Ustashe were doing to the prečani Serbs that they found it difficult to be in the same room as the Croat ministers who were so airily dismissive of the reports of the Ustashe killing Serbs in a variety of gruesome ways.[19] It was felt necessary to retain the Croat ministers in order to maintain the claim that the Yugoslav government-in-exile spoke for all the peoples of Yugoslavia while the Croat ministers were afraid if they resigned, then it would lead to a Serb-dominated government returning after the war, and for these reasons the crisis passed as neither the Croat nor Serb ministers were willing to see the cabinet collapse, through relations between the Croat and Serb ministers remained notably cold and distant.[19] Disagreements had emerged over who was to head the government-in-exile. General Borivoje Mirković wanted a cabinet of generals headed by himself, which was opposed by all of the politicians and Simović.[10] Radoje Knežević wanted a coalition government of the political parties whose leaders had chosen to go into exile.[10] General Simović wanted a "government of national salvation" made up of "distinguished personalities" from all walks of life which he would lead, which would exclude most of the politicians.[10] Simović as Prime Minister had an authoritarian manner and a disdain for politicians and was soon feuding with the rest of his cabinet, who started writing letters to Peter asking him to dismiss his overbearing prime minister.[20] The leader of the anti-Simović group was the historian Slobodan Jovanović who served as deputy prime minister, who was widely respected as an distinguished scholar, a liberal and a Serb opposed to the more chauvinistic Serb nationalists, giving him a degree of credibility with the non-Serb ministers.[20] Peter's own relations with Simović became strained as he found Simović to be too dominating and resented being "lectured" by his prime minister, who felt he had a duty to "tutor" the teenage king in the ways of statecraft and politics.[21] Peter in 1942Outside of the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia was the only place in Europe in 1941 that a full-scale guerrilla war was being waged against the Axis, leading as Pavlowitch put for Mihailović "...being built up by Yugoslav and British propaganda into an Allied superman".[17] The popularity of Mihailović in Britain helped to seal the end of Simović's political career as the latter had been turned into a hero by the British press for leading the 27 March coup d'état, which made Peter for a long time reluctant to dismiss him.[22] But with another Yugoslav hero in the form of Mihailović, Peter could dispense with Simović without fear of Fleet Street.[17] The instructions given by the prime minister Slobodan Jovanović to Mihailović in January 1942 were to protect the prečani Serbs from the massacres being waged by the Ustashe, but otherwise he was not to engage in any actions that would bring down reprisals against civilians unless absolutely necessary while at the same time he was to build up his forces to engage in a general uprising when the Allies landed in the Balkans.[23] In October 1941, Mihailović had already decided upon a policy of limiting the Chetniks to sabotage attacks and of building up his forces for an uprising when the Allies returned to the Balkans.[18] The German policy that for every German soldier killed, 100 Serb civilians would be shot in reprisal and for every wounded German soldier, 50 Serb civilians would be shot in reprisal worked to deter Chetniks from attacking the Wehrmacht after October 1941 as Mihailović concluded that guerrilla attacks were not worth the reprisals.[18] The Chetniks were most active in Serbia and Montenegro while the Communist Partisans drew most of their support from the prečani Serbs in Bosnia and in the Krajina and from anti-fascist Croats, Slovenes and Bosnian Muslims.[24] Unlike the Chetniks who had a narrowly Serbian and Orthodox nationalist message, the Partisans were a pan-Yugoslav force.[24] The Partisans were considerably better organized than the Chetniks and were more willing to accept the reprisals committed against innocent civilians by the Axis when they staged guerrilla attacks, leading to a situation where the Partisans ended up doing more of the fighting against the occupiers and the collaborators, an aspect of the war in Yugoslavia which caused Britain and the United States to ultimately favor the Partisans.[25] At the same time, British policy in Yugoslavia was increasingly for the resistance to engage in maximum violence against the Axis in order to tie down German and Italian divisions that would otherwise be fighting the Allies, no matter what the cost in reprisals to innocent civilians, a policy that clashed with the Chetnik policy of waiting for the Allies to return to Yugoslavia before engaging in a general uprising.[26] The very way in which Mihailović and the Chetniks had been built up in 1941 in the British media, partly by the Yugoslav government-in-exile itself, as a force of ferocious guerrillas fiercely fighting the Germans at every turn, led to very grave disappointments by 1942 when it emerged at very best the Chetniks were waiting for the British to return to the Balkans before they were willing to engage in heavy fighting.[27] The King completed his education at Cambridge University before being commissioned in the Royal Air Force. In mid-1941, the Yugoslav government-in-exile opened talks with the Greek government-in-exile for a post-war confederation––the Balkan Union––that would unite Yugoslavia, Greece and Bulgaria once King Boris III of Bulgaria was overthrown.[28] The Greek prime minister Emmanouil Tsouderos supported the confederation plan, but objected to the Yugoslav plans to bring in Bulgaria and for the proposed confederation to have an executive government in charge of all economic, foreign policy and military questions, leading Tsouderous to ask the British Foreign Secretary Sir Anthony Eden to mediate.[29] In July 1941, the Yugoslav government-in-exile recognized the Czechoslovak government-in-exile, and starting in September 1941 Peter regularly met with President Edvard Beneš to discuss a new Yugoslav-Czechoslovak alliance to replace the Little Entente that Beneš had negotiated with Peter's father, King Alexander, in 1921.[30] On 31 December 1941, the Greek-Yugoslav talks concluded and on 15 January 1942 the Accord entre le Royaume de Yougoslavie et le Royaume Grèce concernant la constitution de l'Union balkanique was signed in London.[31] The accord committed Yugoslavia and Greece after the war to have a common currency; a customs union; to co-ordinate their foreign policies; for a military alliance with joint staff talks for a common defense plan; and a committee consisting of the Yugoslav and Greek finance ministers, foreign ministers, and defense ministers to meet regularly to plan policies for the Balkan Union.[31] Peter II inspecting the Guard of Honour of a battalion of the Dorset Regiment in EnglandAfter signing the accord, King Peter and King George II of Greece spoke to the British press at a luncheon where the two kings spoke of the "Balkan Union" as being open to all of the states of the Balkans.[30] On 11 January 1942, Peter dismissed his prime minister, General Dušan Simović, who proved himself to be an inept politician who was unable to get along with his cabinet, which had been threatening to all jointly resign since late 1941 if General Simović continued as prime minister.[20] The new prime minister was Slobodan Jovanović, a widely respected historian.[32] At the same time that Peter dismissed Simović, he appointed Mihailović minister of war; as Mihailović remained in Yugoslavia, his position in the cabinet was purely symbolic.[16] On 19 January 1942 at the Dorchester Hotel in London, the king and President Beneš together with the rest of the Yugoslav and Czechoslovak cabinets had lunch together to discuss a post-war regional association.[33] Peter in his speech noted that he was happy that two of the men who negotiated the Little Entente, Momčilo Ninčić and Edvard Beneš "are here today" in this room.[33] The plans to ally the proposed Greek-Yugoslav confederation with the proposed Czechoslovak-Polish confederation that Beneš had signed with General Władysław Sikorski, the leader of the Polish government-in-exile, drew intense objections from the Soviet Union which preferred the states of eastern Europe remain separate to keep them weak.[33] As in Yugoslavia, the Greek resistance was divided between communists and royalists, and Tsouderos objected to Peter that his friendship with Beneš and his plans to link the "Balkan Union" with the Polish-Czechoslovak confederation would cause the Soviets to cease recognizing George II as the king of the Hellenes.[33] Tsouderos's fear was that the Soviet Union would recognize the Communist-dominated EAM as the legitimate government of Greece, and for this reason, wanted to do nothing that would antagonize Moscow.[34] It was largely because of opposition from Tsouderos that Peter shelved his plans for a post-war Polish-Czechoslovak-Yugoslav-Greek alliance.[34] The very dependence of the government-in-exile on the British was a source of much tension, and Peter in 1942 tried to involve the Soviet Union and the United States as counter-balances.[35] In 1942 Peter made a diplomatic visit to America and Canada, where he met American President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Canadian Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King. The whirlwind tour was unsuccessful in securing Allied support for the exiled Yugoslav monarchist cause. Roosevelt and Churchill had already engaged the support of the Communist Yugoslav Government in the Allied effort to defeat Nazi Germany, with a view to ending the Second World War. Roosevelt made Yugoslavia eligible for Lend-Lease aid during Peter's visit, but given the small size of the Yugoslav forces in exile, this was not of much assistance.[36] During his visit to the United States, King Peter met the Serbian-American scientist Nikola Tesla on 8 July 1942 and wrote in his diary: "I visited Dr Nikola Tesla, in his apartment in the Hotel New Yorker. After I had greeted him the aged scientist said: 'It is my greatest honour. I am glad you are in your youth, and I am content that you will be a great ruler. I believe I will live until you come back to free Yugoslavia.' From your father you have received his last worlds: "Guard Yugoslavia. I am proud to be a Serbian and a Yugoslav. Our people cannot perish. Preserve the unity of all Yugoslavs - the Serbs, the Croats and the Slovenes."[37] Peter II and Prime Minister Ivan ŠubašićIn order to obtain support from Britain, Peter put his hopes for restoration on General Draža Mihailović, the leader of the Chetniks.[38] On 10 June 1942, Peter promoted Mihailović to full general and made him the Chief of Staff of the Royal Yugoslav Army.[17] Pavlowitch summarized the importance of Mihailović to King Peter by noting: "There was no other instance of the leader of a resistance movement being taken directly into an exiled government while remaining in occupied territory".[17] Peter and the rest of the government-in-exile failed to appreciate the Serb nationalism of Mihailović and the other Chetnik leaders was extremely offensive to the other peoples of Yugoslavia, all the more so as when reports of massacres committed by the Chetniks against Croats and Bosnian Muslims emerged.[39] For the peoples of Yugoslavia who were not Serbian, the king's support for the Chetniks seemed to suggest that after the war he was planning to establish a state that would be dominated by chauvinistic Serb nationalists, which led to those who wanted to resist the Axis occupation to support the Partisans who at least promised to establish a state where all the peoples of Yugoslavia would be equal.[39] The intense Serb nationalism of the Chetniks also caused alarm in London and Washington, sparking fears about the stability of Yugoslavia if it were restructured as a Serb-dominated state, which caused some decision-makers to feel that Yugoslavia would be more stable if ruled by the Croatian Communist Josip Broz Tito.[24] Peter's efforts to have the United States as a counterbalance failed as the Americans shared the British frustration with the unwillingness of the Chetniks to engage in maximum violence against the Germans and were increasingly troubled by the reports that the Chetniks were collaborating with the Germans.[36] The Chetnik movement was motivated by a strong sense of resentment against all of the pre-war elites who were felt to have failed Yugoslavia in April 1941, and Mihailović did not have full control of his movement, being in many cases more of a figurehead whom many Chetnik commanders ignored whenever it was convenient for them.[39] Besides for foreign policy considerations, the government-in-exile felt threatened by the anti-elitist and populist sentiments of the Chetniks and wanted to harness Mihailović to keep the Chetniks in a conservative direction.[39] The government-in-exile in London saw the Chetniks as a military movement whereas the Chetnik commanders saw their movement as both political and military.[39] All of the Chetnik commanders professed to be monarchists who were loyal to King Peter, but in many cases the monarchism of the Chetniks was only superficial, being more of a legitimising device for the Chetnik leaders who justified their actions in the name of the distant king in London.[39] Finally, the allegations, which first appeared in the press in 1942, that the Chetniks were not engaging in resistance, but instead collaborating with the Germans and the Italians in order to fight against the Communist Partisans proved to be extremely damaging to the image of King Peter in the West.[23] The government-in-exile tried its best to prevent the civil war between the Partisans and the Chetniks, but with no control over either the communists or the royalists, its efforts were futile.[23] Jovanović at first tried to mediate an end to the civil war, arguing the Partisans and Chetniks should be co-operating in fighting the Axis instead of each other, and when that failed, he tried to promote a "neutrality" agreement that would commit both movements from refraining from attacking each other that was likewise futile.[23] King Peter did not know much about what was happening in occupied Yugoslavia and his statements in 1942 that the Chetniks were all engaging in resistance were made in good faith.[23] By 1943, the evidence that at least some Chetnik commanders were co-operating with the Axis was much stronger and Peter's insistence on defending the Chetniks was to do his reputation enormous damage in both Britain and the United States.[23] Peter also did nothing to silence those ministers in his government who told the Anglo-American press that the Chetniks should crush the Communist Partisans to save the pre-1941 social order, which gave the impression that the government-in-exile cared more about restoring the social order than it did about winning the war.[23] Pavlowitch described Peter as an "immature" young man who was easily manipulated by the feuding politicians within the cabinet of his government-in-exile, and as a result, he was highly inconsistent in his policies as he changed his mind depending on who had last spoken to him.[21] The Croat ministers preferred to talk directly to the king rather than their Serb counterparts while generally none of the Serb ministers were prepared to openly challenge the king, instead of flattening his ego.[21] Peter always spoke of enjoying "ruling" rather more than he did the duty of "reigning", and did not behave as a strict constitutional monarch, becoming the focal point of the culture of intrigue which characterised the cabinet of the government-in-exile.[21] Marriage King Peter II and Queen Alexandra at their wedding day, 20 March 1944, with George VI, King of United Kingdom and the British Dominions (left) and George II, King of Greece (right)The Chicago Tribune reported on 1 August 1943 about the royal romance in London between King Peter and Princess Alexandra of Greece and Denmark that: "The princess, a pretty, dark-haired girl, used to serve waffles and coffee to American officers and nurses over a snack bar at the London Red Cross club. There she met King Peter, a slender young man in naval uniform who often dropped in to listen to the music of a United States infantry band".[40] In April 1942, Peter proposed marriage to Princess Alexandra after a few weeks of courtship and she accepted.[41] While the Western media portrayed a "fairy tale romance" across the backdrop of wartime London between the young Yugoslav king and a Greek princess, the announcement of Peter's engagement to Alexandra in July 1943 caused immense controversy in his homeland.[42] According to Serbian tradition, a leader must not marry during a national emergency, and the news that Peter had become engaged while his homeland was torn by war caused a backlash against him.[42] This was all the more so because of the catastrophic turn in Yugoslavia starting in April 1941 with war, genocide, revolution, civil war and a disastrous collapse in living standards, in what had been before 1941 one of Europe's poorest and most backward countries, all ravaging the land.[43] However much Peter was in love with Alexandra, his engagement and "fairy tale" wedding in the relative comfort of London while his subjects were suffering so much was seen as a callous break with Serbian traditions.[44] The cabinet in a rare show of unity had all objected to Peter's plans for a wedding in wartime when the issue was first discussed in April 1942, and the issue was not raised again until April 1943.[41] Again, when the matter was discussed in early 1943 the Serb ministers had objected while from Serbia itself General Mihailović reported that public opinion strongly disapproved.[41] The Prime Minister, Slobodan Jovanović, was opposed to announcing the engagement while Yugoslavia was still occupied, predicting the news would discredit the monarchy in Serbia, and rather than postpone the engagement, which was announced in July 1943, Peter dismissed Jovanović on 26 June 1943.[45] In early 1944, the British Prime Minister Winston Churchill applied strong pressure on Peter to dismiss his prime minister, Božidar Purić, whom almost everybody viewed as incompetent, and to sever his links with General Mihailović, whom Churchill was convinced by this point was a collaborator.[46] At the same time, the British threatened to stop arms shipments to Josip Broz Tito's Partisans unless he recognized King Peter as the rightful king of Yugoslavia.[46] Churchill wanted to preserve the Yugoslav monarchy to keep the country in the western sphere of influence after the war while incorporating the Partisans into the royalist government-in-exile.[46] Peter married Alexandra in London on 20 March 1944. Attending the wedding which was held at the Yugoslav legation in London was King George VI who served as Peter's best man together with King Haakon VII of Norway, King George II of Greece, and Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands all attending.[47] They had one son, Crown Prince Alexander, who was born on 17 July 1945. The news that King Peter had married in wartime did much to discredit him with his people, and becoming very unsettled as it started to sink in that he might have sacrificed his throne for love, Peter became unusually open to British "advice" in early 1944.[46] Churchill had announced in the House of Commons in May 1944 that Peter had dismissed Purić as Prime Minister and Mihailović as Chief of Staff and the new prime minister was Ivan Šubašić, when none of these things had actually happened.[46] After a week of strong British pressure, Peter capitulated and on 1 June 1944 appointed Šubašić prime minister.[46] The mandate of the new Šubašić government was to form a coalition with Marshal Tito's People's Liberation Movement.[48] On 10 June 1944, Šubašić flew to the island of Vis to meet Tito for talks, and on 16 June 1944 it was announced that the Partisans were the only recognized agents of the government-in-exile in Yugoslavia and the governing bodies set up by the Communists were the provisional government of Yugoslavia.[49] Šubašić did not consult with King Peter and presented the agreement with Tito as a fait accompli to the king.[49] The cabinet announced by Šubašić was very left-wing and on 29 August 1944 Mihailović was dismissed as chief of staff.[49] On 12 September 1944, King Peter went on the BBC to appeal to all his subjects to support Tito and warned that the "stigma of treason" would stick to those who refused this command.[49] At the same time, Stalin, anxious to allay Western fears about the future of Eastern Europe, ordered a very reluctant Tito, in a meeting in Moscow, to allow Peter to return to Yugoslavia though with the advice that he "should slip a knife into his back at the appropriate moment".[44] Deposition and exile King Peter II and Queen AlexandraThough the war ended, Peter was not allowed to return home. Prime Minister Šubašić arrived in Belgrade in November 1944 and shortly afterwards went to Moscow to negotiate an agreement with Stalin that Peter would not be allowed to return until a plebiscite was held on if Yugoslavia should become a republic or remain a monarchy.[44] Šubašić also agreed to Stalin's demand for a three-man regency council to govern until the plebiscite, which enraged Peter who noted that he was 21 years old and not a minor anymore.[44] Peter also objected to the regents who numbered 1 Croat, 1 Slovene and 1 Serb as they were all nominated by Tito, complaining the regents were biased against him.[44] In March 1945, the regency council started to govern in Belgrade while a cabinet was formed what was now called the Democratic Federation of Yugoslavia numbering 28 men, of whom 23 were Partisans.[44] The National Liberation Front government was in theory a coalition, but in fact it was a Communist-dominated regime with the non-communist ministers there only as a "window dressing" to disguise the extent of Communist dominance.[44] The new government attempted to freeze Peter's assets abroad, claiming that they were stolen.[40] Peter and Tito took to denouncing each other with Tito telling the press that he was creating a democracy in Yugoslavia while Peter accused him of creating a communist dictatorship.[40] In the elections for the constituent assembly on 11 November 1945 there was widespread voting fraud and intimidation and opposition newspapers were prevented from publishing by the government denying them paper.[44] Peter was deposed by Yugoslavia's Communist Constituent Assembly on 29 November 1945 with Yugoslavia proclaimed a republic.[50] After that, he settled in the United States. In 1948, Peter visited Chicago, staying at the Drake hotel, visited the Inland Steel works and Armour stockyards "where many Yugoslavs work" and spent much time at the Serbian Orthodox Seminary of St. Sava.[40] As a king without a throne, Peter was something of a novelty for Americans, and addressed various civic groups in the Midwest, for example in 1949 it was reported that the “young, modern, democratic monarch who refused to accept the situation in his country” spoke to the Kohler Woman's club in Sheboygan on the subject of "My kingdom for freedom".[40] In 1951, Peter went on the Ford Festival TV show, where he was described as a "sad-eyed youth" who was "a flop as a TV personality" as he was noticeably nervous in front of the TV cameras and was quickly dismissed by the host, James Melton.[40] Right up until his death, Peter continued to nurture hopes that one day he would be restored to the Yugoslav throne, in the words of the American journalist Peter Hockenos being a "forlorn figure" while "rival emigre groups drew the hapless king into their incessant schemings and quarrels. The royalist community resembled a bad caricature of a powerless, squabbling diaspora".[51] A romantic, impractical man, Peter held to a completely unrealistic hope that there were still bands of Chetniks active in the rural areas of central Serbia who would rise up at the right moment when Peter led an army of emigres in an invasion of Yugoslavia, and together they would overthrow Marshal Tito.[51] Peter and Mayor of Wellington Frank Kitts in 1960In 1953, the Sunday Express newspaper in London reported that Peter who was living in France was suffering from a "money tangles", had a "cheque bounce in Paris" and was involved in an "unpleasant scene" in a party in Biarritz hosted by the Marquis de Cuevas.[40] Peter filed for divorce in 1953.[52] He hired attorney René de Chambrun, the son-in-law of former Vichy French Prime Minister Pierre Laval.[52] The couple reconciled in 1955.[53] While living in France in the 1950s, Peter whose life style was beyond his means, had a problem with the "bouncing cheques" he kept writing and which led him to being banned from the expensive French restaurants and hotels he loved so much, as he spent money that he did not have.[40] The actress Ilka Chase who met the former king and queen Alexandra on the French Riveria in 1955, and wrote: "Much of his behavior in futile pursuit of his lost throne was so shabby, ill-advised, and stupid as to seem incredible. I should think the poor devil would hate to see it in black and white, but apparently he did squander his entire fortune, accumulate staggering debts, desert his wife, lie to her, try to have their son taken from her, and in general behave in a manner far from loveable. But she loved him. After estrangement and desertion they once more are reunited and are living in a four room apartment in Cannes, when I went to call on them. They are candid in explaining that their income is from Serbians living in exile who contribute weekly whatever they can spare so that their king and queen may maintain a home."[40] In 1956, Queen Alexandra published a memoir, For the Love of a King, which one American reviewer described as: “an impatient regret for the waste of talent and enormous sums of money such a useless upbringing permits and a sturdy swing toward that funny system derided by Europeans as the American way of life. In this time of agonized reappraisal of the evils of P.S. 102, the self-satisfaction this book will induce among its alumni is well worth reading it for.”[40] In 1959, the Chicago Tribune reported about Peter's visit to the Chicago suburb of Waukegan: "The 34 year old monarch was greeted in a drizzling rain by Mayor Robert Sabonjian and City Clerk Howard Guthrie and taken through a marine engine plant and the city’s new Thomas Jefferson Junior High school. He was treated to a dinner of Lake Michigan trout, with sturgeon and smoked chubs as appetizers, and pronounced the meal "most exquisite." The former king also met Waukegan’s weather prophet, Mathon Kryitsis, a fisherman who for many years has forecast the severity of the winter by gauging the depth at which perch are feeding".[40] Peter in 1966Final years and deathFrom 1964 to his death Peter served as the Royal Patron of the Sovereign Military Order of the Temple of Jerusalem in the United States.[54] In 1963, Alexandra, who was suffering from severe depression, tried to commit suicide.[40] Peter himself suffered from depression and alcoholism, and his heavy drinking caused him to suffer from liver cirrhosis.[55] As the Chicago area had a substantial Yugoslav immigrant population, Peter spent much of his exile in Chicago, where he maintained ties with anti-communist Serbian emigres, especially with the Serbian National Defense Council.[40] The Non-Aligned Movement of the Third World nations, which had as one of its leaders Marshal Tito of Yugoslavia, was felt to be useful for American foreign policy in the Cold War as being disruptive to the Soviet bloc, creating the example of a communist regime in eastern Europe that was independent of the Soviet Union.[40] The United States did not wish to push Tito towards the Kremlin by supporting the Serb royalist movement. In 1963, Peter told the Chicago Tribunal: "The State Department has told me that I am a guest in your country, and so I must not discuss American foreign policy towards Yugoslavia."[40] Instead, Peter frequently attended various civic events in the Chicago area, speaking at a fundraiser for the Knights of Malta in 1964, hosting the local meeting of the Alliance Francaise in 1965, attending a memorial for General Mihailović at the Milhailovich Memorial Home in 1966 and in 1967 attending an event for the Knights of Malta where he knighted "50 persons from Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin”.[40] In 1967, Peter took on a job for the first time in his life, working for the Sterling Savings & Loan Association in Los Angeles.[40] When asked about the press if working for a living would hurt his image as a king, Peter replied: "I think it raises my stature a little."[40] After many years of suffering from cirrhosis of the liver,[56] he died in Denver, Colorado, on 3 November 1970, after a failed liver transplant. He was interred in Saint Sava Monastery Church at Libertyville, Illinois, the only European monarch so far to have been buried in the United States.[57][58] In the 1980s, the American soap opera Dynasty was dubbed into Serbo-Croatian and shown on Yugoslav television.[40] As one of the stars of Dynasty, the actress Catherine Oxenberg, is descended from the House of Karađorđević, being the granddaughter of the Prince Regent Paul, this sparked immense national pride in Serbia and by 1990 led to a major revival of popular interest in the House of Karađorđević, which was exploited by the regime of Slobodan Milošević to burnish its nationalist line.[59] The revival of Karađorđević nostalgia led to something of a popular rehabilitation of King Peter, whose death in 1970 had been barely noticed in his homeland.[40] Return of remains and state funeral The graves of Peter and Alexandra in the crypt of the church of St.George at Oplenac, SerbiaOn 4 March 2007, former Crown Prince Alexander announced plans to have his father's remains repatriated to Serbia. Peter II had chosen St. Sava Serbian Orthodox Monastery as his interim resting place because of the extenuating circumstances that afflicted his homeland.[60] After talks with the Serbian government, the move was confirmed in January 2013 with the burial place being the Royal Family Mausoleum in Oplenac.[61] On 22 January 2013, Peter's remains were returned to Belgrade.[62] He lay in state in the Royal Chapel in Dedinje before being buried in the Royal Family Mausoleum at Oplenac on 26 May 2013 along with his wife, Queen Alexandra. His mother, Queen Maria, and his brother, Prince Andrej, lie nearby. The Serbian Royal Regalia were placed over Peter's coffin. Present at the return ceremony were the Prime Minister Ivica Dačić, Peter's son Alexander with his family, and Serbian Patriarch Irinej.[13][63] The latter openly advocated for the restoration of the Serbian monarchy.[64] Honours 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. (January 2021) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)Kingdom of YugoslaviaOrder of Saint Prince Lazarus, Sovereign and CollarOrder of Karađorđe's Star, Grand Master and Grand CrossOrder of Karađorđe's Star with Swords, Grand MasterOrder of the White Eagle, Grand Master and Grand CrossOrder of the White Eagle with Swords, Grand MasterOrder of the Yugoslav Crown, Grand Master and Grand CrossOrder of Saint Sava, Grand Master and Grand CrossInternational and Foreign AwardsLegion of Honour, Grand Cross (France)Order of the Redeemer, Grand Cross (Greece)Order of the Most Holy Annunciation, Collar (Italy)Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus, Bailiff Grand Cross (Italy)Order of the Crown of Italy, Knight Grand Cross (Italy)Order of the White Lion, Collar (Czechoslovakia)Constantinian Order of Saint George, Bailiff Grand Cross (Two Sicilies)Order of Saint-Charles, Knight Grand Cross (Monaco)Order of Malta, Bailiff Grand Cross (SMOM)Order pro merito Melitensi, Collar (SMOM) Peter II, Serbo-Croatian in full Petar Karađorđevič, (born September 6, 1923, Belgrade, Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes [now in Serbia]—died November 3, 1970, Los Angeles, California, U.S.), the last king of Yugoslavia. Peter IIPeter IiSee all mediaAlso Known As: Petar KaraðorðevićBorn: September 6, 1923 Belgrade SerbiaDied: November 3, 1970 Los Angeles CaliforniaTitle / Office: king (1941-1945), YugoslaviaThe son of Alexander I, who was assassinated during a visit to France on October 9, 1934, Peter became titular king at age 11, but the actual rule was in the hands of a regent, his uncle Prince Paul. After Paul was deposed by a coup of officers led by Gen. Dušan Simović on March 27, 1941, Peter ruled for a few weeks until Axis troops invaded. He then fled into exile in London, where he led an émigré government. In 1944 he married Princess Alexandra of Greece, and, after the Yugoslav monarchy was abolished by Tito in 1945, he settled in the United States. He wrote A King’s Heritage (1955) and worked in public relations in New York. George V. Denny Jr. (1899–1959) was the long-time moderator of one of radio's first talk shows, America's Town Meeting of the Air, as well as the executive director of the League for Political Education/Town Hall, which produced the program. Denny moderated America's Town Meeting of the Air from 1935 to 1952 and had a major role in choosing weekly topics. Contents1Biography1.1Early life and education1.2Early career and the League for Political Education1.3America's Town Meeting of the Air1.4Later life and death2Personal life3ReferencesBiographyEarly life and educationDenny was born August 29, 1899, in Washington, North Carolina, graduating from the University of North Carolina (UNC) in 1922.[3] Early career and the League for Political EducationDenny was a professor of drama production at UNC from 1924–1926, and then moved to New York, working as an actor on Broadway for one season.[3] He managed the W. B. Feakins lecture bureau for a year, and then became the director of Columbia University's Institute of Arts and Sciences from 1928–1930.[3] In 1931, Denny became the associate director of the League for Political Education, becoming full director in 1937.[3] America's Town Meeting of the AirIn his role, by 1935 Denny worried that an uninformed public was bad for democracy;[4] and that American society had become so polarized that the average person didn't listen to other points of view.[5] His goal was to create a new kind of educational program, one that would be entertaining as well as mentally challenging, while exposing listeners to various perspectives on the issues of the day. He wanted to create a program that would replicate the town meetings that were held in the early days of the United States.[6] He believed that a radio town meeting could enhance the public's interest in current events. Explaining the rationale behind a radio town meeting, Denny wrote that it was "... a device which is designed to attract [the average American's] attention and stimulate his [sic] interest in the complex economic, social and political problems which he must have a hand in solving."[7] Originally carried by the NBC Blue Network, America's Town Meeting of the Air began as a six-week experiment, and NBC itself didn't expect much from it.[8] Broadcast live from New York City's Town Hall (the League for Political Education's headquarters), America's Town Meeting of the Air debuted on Thursday May 30, 1935, and only 18 of NBC's affiliates carried it.[3] The topic for that first show was "Which Way America: Fascism, Communism, Socialism or Democracy?”[9] As Denny had hoped, listeners not only enjoyed hearing famous newsmakers engaging in discussion but they also enjoyed hearing members of the audience challenging these newsmakers. It wasn't long before Denny was receiving fan mail: much to his surprise, his first broadcast received about 3,000 letters.[10] By the 1937-8 season, mail averaged between 2,000 and 4,000 letters a week, an amazing number for an educational program.[11] It also inspired listeners to form "listener clubs," where members would listen as a group and then discuss the topic themselves.[12] America's Town Meeting became so popular in the public discourse that during the late 1930s and into the early 40s, Denny wrote a monthly column for Current History magazine, in which he gave summaries of the major points made by some of his Town Meeting guests, and then gave readers news quizzes. And educators found it so useful that Denny and NBC put program listings and what the speakers had said into booklet form, which was disseminated to public school civics teachers.[8] Over the years, America's Town Meeting became known for its interesting guests, many of whom were important newsmakers. Denny did not shy away from controversy: his panelists included Socialist presidential candidate Norman Thomas, American Communist Party leader Earl Browder, and civil libertarian Morris Ernst. The topics were meant to inspire discussion, and Denny tried to select subjects that would get people talking long after the show was over. Among them were discussions about whether America truly had freedom of the press (and whether censorship was sometimes necessary); whether the United States should enter World War II or remain neutral; and why the United States public schools weren't doing a better job.[13][14] But during World War II, Denny repeatedly encountered what he had most sought to avoid: angry audience members who didn't want to listen to other viewpoints and who wanted to criticize, rather than debate. Worse still, some audience members expressed isolationist and anti-Semitic views. Denny struggled to maintain the show's openness and objectivity, but it became increasingly difficult to do so.[15] The 1930s were definitely the heyday of America's Town Meeting, although it remained on the air throughout the 1940s and sometimes still inspired the kinds of passionate discussions Denny had hoped for. But Town Meeting underwent a number of time changes during the 1940s. Some were the result of changes at NBC — the network that had been called the NBC Blue Network was sold in 1943, and it first became known as the "Blue Network," and then was re-named the American Broadcasting Company in late 1945. Some of the programs on the new network were shifted around, and not only did Town Meeting get a new timeslot—it was moved from 9:30pm to 8:30pm—but by 1944, it even got a sponsor—Reader's Digest.[3] At times, the show was 60 minutes, sometimes 45 minutes and sometimes only a half-hour.[16] And when television came along, interest in Denny's radio program gradually faded. Denny resigned his position at the League for Political Education (then known as Town Hall, Inc.) in 1951;[3] by 1952, he had been replaced as moderator — the show was finally canceled on July 1, 1956. Later life and deathDenny, who continued to believe in educational media, joined an organization that planned international seminars, and he hoped to create an international version of Town Meeting.[3] He died of a cerebral hemorrhage on November 11, 1959, at the age of 60.[3] Personal lifeDenny was married to Mary Traill Yellott 12 from June 1924 until their 1943 divorce. They had three children.[1] In April 1944 he married the former Jean Sarasy; they remained married until his death.[3] Yugoslavia (/ˌjuːɡoʊˈslɑːviə/; Serbo-Croatian: Jugoslavija / Југославија [juɡǒslaːʋija]; Slovene: Jugoslavija [juɡɔˈslàːʋija]; Macedonian: Југославија [juɡɔˈsɫavija];[A] lit. 'South Slavic Land') was a country in Southeast Europe and Central Europe for most of the 20th century. It came into existence after World War I in 1918[B] under the name of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes by the merger of the provisional State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs (which was formed from territories of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire) with the Kingdom of Serbia, and constituted the first union of the South Slavic people as a sovereign state, following centuries in which the region had been part of the Ottoman Empire and Austria-Hungary. Peter I of Serbia was its first sovereign. The kingdom gained international recognition on 13 July 1922 at the Conference of Ambassadors in Paris.[2] The official name of the state was changed to Kingdom of Yugoslavia on 3 October 1929. Yugoslavia was invaded by the Axis powers on 6 April 1941. In 1943, a Democratic Federal Yugoslavia was proclaimed by the Partisan resistance. In 1944 King Peter II, then living in exile, recognised it as the legitimate government. The monarchy was subsequently abolished in November 1945. Yugoslavia was renamed the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia in 1945, when a communist government was established. It acquired the territories of Istria, Rijeka, and Zadar from Italy. Partisan leader Josip Broz Tito ruled the country as president until his death in 1980. In 1963, the country was renamed again, as the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY). The six constituent republics that made up the SFRY were the SR Bosnia and Herzegovina, SR Croatia, SR Macedonia, SR Montenegro, SR Serbia, and SR Slovenia. Serbia contained two Socialist Autonomous Provinces, Vojvodina and Kosovo, which after 1974 were largely equal to the other members of the federation.[3][4] After an economic and political crisis in the 1980s and the rise of nationalism, Yugoslavia broke up along its republics' borders, at first into five countries, leading to the Yugoslav Wars. From 1993 to 2017, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia tried political and military leaders from the former Yugoslavia for war crimes, genocide, and other crimes committed during those wars. After the breakup, the republics of Montenegro and Serbia formed a reduced federative state, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY), known from 2003 to 2006 as Serbia and Montenegro. This state aspired to the status of sole legal successor to the SFRY, but those claims were opposed by the other former republics. Eventually, it accepted the opinion of the Badinter Arbitration Committee about shared succession[5] and in 2003 its official name was changed to Serbia and Montenegro. This state dissolved when Montenegro and Serbia each became independent states in 2006, with Kosovo[a] having an ongoing dispute over its declaration of independence in 2008. Contents1Background2Kingdom of Yugoslavia2.1King Alexander2.21934–19413World War II4FPR Yugoslavia4.1The 1948 Yugoslavia–Soviet split5SFR Yugoslavia5.1Ethnic tensions and economic crisis6Breakup6.1Yugoslav Wars6.2Timeline7New states7.1Succession, 1992–20037.2Succession, 2006–present7.3Languages7.4Yugo-nostalgia8Demographics9See also10Notes and references10.1Notes10.2References11Further reading11.1Historiography12External linksBackgroundMain article: Creation of YugoslaviaThe concept of Yugoslavia, as a single state for all South Slavic peoples, emerged in the late 17th century and gained prominence through the Illyrian Movement of the 19th century. The name was created by the combination of the Slavic words "jug" (south) and "slaveni" (Slavs). Yugoslavia was the result of the Corfu Declaration, as a joint project of the Slovene and Croatian intellectuals and the Serbian Royal Parliament in exile and the Serbian royal Karađorđević dynasty, who became the Yugoslav royal dynasty following the foundation of the state. Kingdom of YugoslaviaMain article: Kingdom of Yugoslavia Banovinas of Yugoslavia, 1929–39. After 1939 the Sava and Littoral banovinas were merged into the Banovina of Croatia.The country was formed in 1918 immediately after World War I as the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes by union of the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs and the Kingdom of Serbia.[6] It was commonly referred to at the time as the "Versailles state". Later, the government renamed the country leading to the first official use of Yugoslavia in 1929. King AlexanderSee also: 6 January DictatorshipOn 20 June 1928, Serb deputy Puniša Račić shot at five members of the opposition Croatian Peasant Party in the National Assembly, resulting in the death of two deputies on the spot and that of leader Stjepan Radić a few weeks later.[7] On 6 January 1929, King Alexander I got rid of the constitution, banned national political parties, assumed executive power, and renamed the country Yugoslavia.[8] He hoped to curb separatist tendencies and mitigate nationalist passions. He imposed a new constitution and relinquished his dictatorship in 1931.[9] However, Alexander's policies later encountered opposition from other European powers stemming from developments in Italy and Germany, where Fascists and Nazis rose to power, and the Soviet Union, where Joseph Stalin became absolute ruler. None of these three regimes favored the policy pursued by Alexander I. In fact, Italy and Germany wanted to revise the international treaties signed after World War I, and the Soviets were determined to regain their positions in Europe and pursue a more active international policy. Alexander attempted to create a centralised Yugoslavia. He decided to abolish Yugoslavia's historic regions, and new internal boundaries were drawn for provinces or banovinas. The banovinas were named after rivers. Many politicians were jailed or kept under police surveillance. The effect of Alexander's dictatorship was to further alienate the non-Serbs from the idea of unity.[10] During his reign the flags of Yugoslav nations were banned. Communist ideas were banned also. The king was assassinated in Marseille during an official visit to France in 1934 by Vlado Chernozemski, an experienced marksman from Ivan Mihailov's Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization with the cooperation of the Ustaše, a Croatian fascist revolutionary organisation. Alexander was succeeded by his eleven-year-old son Peter II and a regency council headed by his cousin, Prince Paul. 1934–1941The international political scene in the late 1930s was marked by growing intolerance between the principal figures, by the aggressive attitude of the totalitarian regimes and by the certainty that the order set up after World War I was losing its strongholds and its sponsors were losing their strength. Supported and pressured by Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany, Croatian leader Vladko Maček and his party managed the creation of the Banovina of Croatia (Autonomous Region with significant internal self-government) in 1939. The agreement specified that Croatia was to remain part of Yugoslavia, but it was hurriedly building an independent political identity in international relations. The entire kingdom was to be federalised but World War II stopped the fulfillment of those plans. Prince Paul submitted to the fascist pressure and signed the Tripartite Pact in Vienna on 25 March 1941, hoping to still keep Yugoslavia out of the war. But this was at the expense of popular support for Paul's regency. Senior military officers were also opposed to the treaty and launched a coup d'état when the king returned on 27 March. Army General Dušan Simović seized power, arrested the Vienna delegation, exiled Paul, and ended the regency, giving 17-year-old King Peter full powers. Hitler then decided to attack Yugoslavia on 6 April 1941, followed immediately by an invasion of Greece where Mussolini had previously been repelled.[11][12] World War IIMain article: World War II in Yugoslavia This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (May 2018) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) Partisan Stjepan Filipović shouting "Death to fascism, freedom to the people!" shortly before his executionAt 5:12 a.m. on 6 April 1941, German, Italian and Hungarian forces invaded Yugoslavia.[13] The German Air Force (Luftwaffe) bombed Belgrade and other major Yugoslav cities. On 17 April, representatives of Yugoslavia's various regions signed an armistice with Germany in Belgrade, ending eleven days of resistance against the invading German forces.[14] More than 300,000 Yugoslav officers and soldiers were taken prisoner.[15] The Axis Powers occupied Yugoslavia and split it up. The Independent State of Croatia was established as a Nazi satellite state, ruled by the fascist militia known as the Ustaše that came into existence in 1929, but was relatively limited in its activities until 1941. German troops occupied Bosnia and Herzegovina as well as part of Serbia and Slovenia, while other parts of the country were occupied by Bulgaria, Hungary, and Italy. From 1941 to 1945, the Croatian Ustaše regime murdered around 500,000 people, 250,000 were expelled, and another 200,000 were forced to convert to Catholicism. From the start, the Yugoslav resistance forces consisted of two factions: the communist-led Yugoslav Partisans and the royalist Chetniks, with the former receiving Allied recognition only at the Tehran conference (1943). The heavily pro-Serbian Chetniks were led by Draža Mihajlović, while the pan-Yugoslav oriented Partisans were led by Josip Broz Tito. The Partisans initiated a guerrilla campaign that developed into the largest resistance army in occupied Western and Central Europe. The Chetniks were initially supported by the exiled royal government and the Allies, but they soon focused increasingly on combating the Partisans rather than the occupying Axis forces. By the end of the war, the Chetnik movement transformed into a collaborationist Serb nationalist militia completely dependent on Axis supplies.[16] The highly mobile Partisans, however, carried on their guerrilla warfare with great success. Most notable of the victories against the occupying forces were the battles of Neretva and Sutjeska. On 25 November 1942, the Anti-Fascist Council of National Liberation of Yugoslavia was convened in Bihać, modern day Bosnia and Herzegovina. The council reconvened on 29 November 1943, in Jajce, also in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and established the basis for post-war organisation of the country, establishing a federation (this date was celebrated as Republic Day after the war). The Yugoslav Partisans were able to expel the Axis from Serbia in 1944 and the rest of Yugoslavia in 1945. The Red Army provided limited assistance with the liberation of Belgrade and withdrew after the war was over. In May 1945, the Partisans met with Allied forces outside former Yugoslav borders, after also taking over Trieste and parts of the southern Austrian provinces of Styria and Carinthia. However, the Partisans withdrew from Trieste in June of the same year under heavy pressure from Stalin, who did not want a confrontation with the other Allies. Western attempts to reunite the Partisans, who denied the supremacy of the old government of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, and the émigrés loyal to the king led to the Tito-Šubašić Agreement in June 1944; however, Marshal Josip Broz Tito was in control and was determined to lead an independent communist state, starting as a prime minister. He had the support of Moscow and London and led by far the strongest partisan force with 800,000 men.[17][18] The official Yugoslav post-war estimate of victims in Yugoslavia during World War II is 1,704,000. Subsequent data gathering in the 1980s by historians Vladimir Žerjavić and Bogoljub Kočović showed that the actual number of dead was about 1 million. FPR YugoslaviaMain article: Federal People's Republic of YugoslaviaOn 11 November 1945, elections were held with only the Communist-led People's Front appearing on the ballot, securing all 354 seats. On 29 November, while still in exile, King Peter II was deposed by Yugoslavia's Constituent Assembly, and the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia was declared.[19] However, he refused to abdicate. Marshal Tito was now in full control, and all opposition elements were eliminated.[20] On 31 January 1946, the new constitution of the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia, modelled after the constitution of the Soviet Union, established six republics, an autonomous province, and an autonomous district that were part of Serbia. The federal capital was Belgrade. The policy focused on a strong central government under the control of the Communist Party, and on recognition of the multiple nationalities.[20] The flags of the republics used versions of the red flag or Slavic tricolor, with a red star in the centre or in the canton. NameCapitalFlagCoat of armsLocationSocialist Republic of Bosnia and HerzegovinaSarajevoFlag of SR Bosnia and Herzegovina.svgCoat of Arms of the Socialist Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina.svgSR SloveniaSR CroatiaSR Bosnia andHerzegovinaSRMontenegroSR MacedoniaSR SerbiaSAPVojvodinaSAPKosovoSocialist Republic of CroatiaZagrebFlag of SR Croatia.svgCoat of Arms of the Socialist Republic of Croatia.svgSocialist Republic of MacedoniaSkopjeFlag of North Macedonia (1946–1992).svgCoat of arms of Macedonia (1946-2009).svgSocialist Republic of MontenegroTitogradFlag of the Socialist Republic of Montenegro.svgCoat of Arms of the Socialist Republic of Montenegro.svgSocialist Republic of SerbiaSAP KosovoSAP VojvodinaBelgradePrištinaNovi SadFlag of SR Serbia.svgCoat of Arms of the Socialist Republic of Serbia.svgSocialist Republic of SloveniaLjubljanaFlag of Slovenia (1945-1991).svgCoat of Arms of the Socialist Republic of Slovenia.svgTito's regional goal was to expand south and take control of Albania and parts of Greece. In 1947, negotiations between Yugoslavia and Bulgaria led to the Bled agreement, which proposed to form a close relationship between the two Communist countries, and enable Yugoslavia to start a civil war in Greece and use Albania and Bulgaria as bases. Stalin vetoed this agreement and it was never realised. The break between Belgrade and Moscow was now imminent.[21] Yugoslavia solved the national issue of nations and nationalities (national minorities) in a way that all nations and nationalities had the same rights. However, most of the German minority of Yugoslavia, most of whom had collaborated during the occupation and had been recruited to German forces, were expelled towards Germany or Austria.[22] The 1948 Yugoslavia–Soviet splitFurther information: Tito–Stalin Split This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (September 2020) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)The country distanced itself from the Soviets in 1948 (cf. Cominform and Informbiro) and started to build its own way to socialism under the strong political leadership of Josip Broz Tito. Accordingly, the constitution was heavily amended to replace the emphasis on democratic centralism with workers' self-management and decentralization. The Communist Party was renamed to the League of Communists and adopted Titoism at its congress the previous year. All the Communist European Countries had deferred to Stalin and rejected the Marshall Plan aid in 1947. Tito, at first went along and rejected the Marshall plan. However, in 1948 Tito broke decisively with Stalin on other issues, making Yugoslavia an independent communist state. Yugoslavia requested American aid. American leaders were internally divided, but finally agreed and began sending money on a small scale in 1949, and on a much larger scale 1950–53. The American aid was not part of the Marshall plan.[23] Tito criticised both Eastern Bloc and NATO nations and, together with India and other countries, started the Non-Aligned Movement in 1961, which remained the official affiliation of the country until it dissolved. In 1974, the two provinces of Vojvodina and Kosovo-Metohija (for the latter had by then been upgraded to the status of a province), as well as the republics of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro, were granted greater autonomy to the point that Albanian and Hungarian became nationally recognised minority languages, and the Serbo-Croat of Bosnia and Montenegro altered to a form based on the speech of the local people and not on the standards of Zagreb and Belgrade. In Slovenia the recognized minorities were Hungarians and Italians. Vojvodina and Kosovo-Metohija formed a part of the Republic of Serbia but those provinces also formed part of the federation, which led to the unique situation that Central Serbia did not have its own assembly but a joint assembly with its provinces represented in it. SFR YugoslaviaMain article: Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (September 2020) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) Marshal Josip Broz TitoOn 7 April 1963, the nation changed its official name to Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and Josip Broz Tito was named President for life. In the SFRY, each republic and province had its own constitution, supreme court, parliament, president and prime minister. At the top of the Yugoslav government were the President (Tito), the federal Prime Minister, and the federal Parliament (a collective Presidency was formed after Tito's death in 1980). Also important were the Communist Party general secretaries for each republic and province, and the general secretary of Central Committee of the Communist Party. Tito was the most powerful person in the country, followed by republican and provincial premiers and presidents, and Communist Party presidents. Slobodan Penezić Krcun, Tito's chief of secret police in Serbia, fell victim to a dubious traffic incident after he started to complain about Tito's politics. Minister of the interior Aleksandar Ranković lost all of his titles and rights after a major disagreement with Tito regarding state politics. Some influential ministers in government, such as Edvard Kardelj or Stane Dolanc, were more important than the Prime Minister. First cracks in the tightly governed system surfaced when students in Belgrade and several other cities joined the worldwide protests of 1968. President Josip Broz Tito gradually stopped the protests by giving in to some of the students' demands and saying that "students are right" during a televised speech. But in the following years, he dealt with the leaders of the protests by sacking them from university and Communist party posts.[24] A more severe sign of disobedience was so-called Croatian Spring of 1970 and 1971, when students in Zagreb organised demonstrations for greater civil liberties and greater Croatian autonomy, followed by mass manifestations across Croatia. The regime stifled the public protest and incarcerated the leaders, but many key Croatian representatives in the Party silently supported this cause, lobbying within the Party ranks for a reorganisation of the country. As a result, a new Constitution was ratified in 1974, which gave more rights to the individual republics in Yugoslavia and provinces in Serbia. Ethnic tensions and economic crisis This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (September 2020) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)The Yugoslav federation was constructed against a double background: an inter-war Yugoslavia which had been dominated by the Serbian ruling class; and a war-time division of the country, as Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany split the country apart and endorsed an extreme Croatian nationalist faction called the Ustaše. A small faction of Bosniak nationalists joined the Axis forces and attacked Serbs while extreme Serb nationalists engaged in attacks on Bosniaks and Croats. Yugoslav Partisans took over the country at the end of the war and banned nationalism from being publicly promoted. Overall relative peace was retained under Tito's rule, though nationalist protests did occur, but these were usually repressed and nationalist leaders were arrested and some were executed by Yugoslav officials. However, the "Croatian Spring" protest in the 1970s was backed by large numbers of Croats who claimed that Yugoslavia remained a Serb hegemony and demanded that Serbia's powers be reduced. Tito, whose home republic was Croatia, was concerned over the stability of the country and responded in a manner to appease both Croats and Serbs: he ordered the arrest of the Croat protestors, while at the same time conceding to some of their demands. In 1974, Serbia's influence in the country was significantly reduced as autonomous provinces were created in ethnic Albanian-majority populated Kosovo and the mixed-populated Vojvodina. These autonomous provinces held the same voting power as the republics but unlike the republics, they could not legally separate from Yugoslavia. This concession satisfied Croatia and Slovenia, but in Serbia and in the new autonomous province of Kosovo, reaction was different. Serbs saw the new constitution as conceding to Croat and ethnic Albanian nationalists. Ethnic Albanians in Kosovo saw the creation of an autonomous province as not being enough, and demanded that Kosovo become a constituent republic with the right to separate from Yugoslavia. This created tensions within the Communist leadership, particularly among Communist Serb officials who resented the 1974 constitution as weakening Serbia's influence and jeopardising the unity of the country by allowing the republics the right to separate. According to official statistics, from the 1950s to the early 1980s, Yugoslavia was among the fastest growing countries, approaching the ranges reported in South Korea and other miracle countries. The unique socialist system in Yugoslavia, where factories were worker cooperatives and decision-making was less centralized than in other socialist countries, may have led to the stronger growth. However, even if the absolute value of the growth rates was not as high as indicated by the official statistics, both the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia were characterized by surprisingly high growth rates of both income and education during the 1950s. The period of European growth ended after the oil price shock in 1970s. Following that, in Yugoslavia an economic crisis erupted, and that as a product of disastrous errors by Yugoslav governments, such as borrowing vast amounts of Western capital to fund growth through exports.[25] At the same time, Western economies went into recession, decreasing demand for Yugoslav imports, creating a large debt problem. In 1989, according to official sources[who?], 248 firms were declared bankrupt or were liquidated and 89,400 workers were laid off. During the first nine months of 1990 directly following the adoption of the IMF programme, another 889 enterprises with a combined work-force of 525,000 workers suffered the same fate. In other words, in less than two years "the trigger mechanism" (under the Financial Operations Act) had led to the layoff of more than 600,000 workers out of a total industrial workforce of the order of 2.7 million. An additional 20% of the work force, or half a million people, were not paid wages during the early months of 1990 as enterprises sought to avoid bankruptcy. The largest concentrations of bankrupt firms and lay-offs were in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia and Kosovo. Real earnings were in a free fall and social programmes had collapsed; creating within the population an atmosphere of social despair and hopelessness. This was a critical turning point in the events to follow.[citation needed] BreakupMain article: Breakup of Yugoslavia This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (September 2020) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) Breakup of YugoslaviaAfter Tito's death on 4 May 1980, ethnic tensions grew in Yugoslavia. The legacy of the Constitution of 1974 was used to throw the system of decision-making into a state of paralysis, made all the more hopeless as the conflict of interests had become irreconcilable. The Albanian majority in Kosovo demanded the status of a republic in the 1981 protests in Kosovo while Serbian authorities suppressed this sentiment and proceeded to reduce the province's autonomy.[26] In 1986, the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts drafted a memorandum addressing some burning issues concerning the position of Serbs as the most numerous people in Yugoslavia. The largest Yugoslav republic in territory and population, Serbia's influence over the regions of Kosovo and Vojvodina was reduced by the 1974 Constitution. Because its two autonomous provinces had de facto prerogatives of full-fledged republics, Serbia found that its hands were tied, for the republican government was restricted in making and carrying out decisions that would apply to the provinces. Since the provinces had a vote in the Federal Presidency Council (an eight-member council composed of representatives from the six republics and the two autonomous provinces), they sometimes even entered into coalition with other republics, thus outvoting Serbia. Serbia's political impotence made it possible for others to exert pressure on the 2 million Serbs (20% of the total Serbian population) living outside Serbia. Serbian communist leader Slobodan Milošević sought to restore pre-1974 Serbian sovereignty. After Tito's death, Milošević made his way to becoming the next superior figure and political official for Serbia.[27] Other republics, especially Slovenia and Croatia, denounced this move as a revival of greater Serbian hegemonism. Through a series of moves known as the "anti-bureaucratic revolution", Milošević succeeded in reducing the autonomy of Vojvodina and of Kosovo and Metohija, but both entities retained a vote in the Yugoslav Presidency Council. The very instrument that reduced Serbian influence before was now used to increase it: in the eight-member Council, Serbia could now count on four votes at a minimum: Serbia proper, then-loyal Montenegro, Vojvodina, and Kosovo. As a result of these events, ethnic Albanian miners in Kosovo organised the 1989 Kosovo miners' strike, which dovetailed into ethnic conflict between the Albanians and the non-Albanians in the province. At around 80% of the population of Kosovo in the 1980s, ethnic-Albanians were the majority. With Milosevic gaining control over Kosovo in 1989, the original residency changed drastically leaving only a minimum amount of Serbians left in the region.[27] The number of Slavs in Kosovo (mainly Serbs) was quickly declining for several reasons, among them the ever-increasing ethnic tensions and subsequent emigration from the area. By 1999 the Slavs formed as little as 10% of the total population in Kosovo. Meanwhile, Slovenia, under the presidency of Milan Kučan, and Croatia supported the Albanian miners and their struggle for formal recognition. Initial strikes turned into widespread demonstrations demanding a Kosovan republic. This angered Serbia's leadership which proceeded to use police force, and later even the Federal Army was sent to the province by the order of the Serbia-held majority in the Yugoslav Presidency Council. In January 1990, the extraordinary 14th Congress of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia was convened. For most of the time, the Slovene and Serbian delegations were arguing over the future of the League of Communists and Yugoslavia. The Serbian delegation, led by Milošević, insisted on a policy of "one person, one vote", which would empower the plurality population, the Serbs. In turn, the Slovenes, supported by Croats, sought to reform Yugoslavia by devolving even more power to republics, but were voted down. As a result, the Slovene and Croatian delegations left the Congress and the all-Yugoslav Communist party was dissolved. The constitutional crisis that inevitably followed resulted in a rise of nationalism in all republics: Slovenia and Croatia voiced demands for looser ties within the Federation. Following the fall of communism in Eastern Europe, each of the republics held multi-party elections in 1990. Slovenia and Croatia held the elections in April since their communist parties chose to cede power peacefully. Other Yugoslav republics—especially Serbia—were more or less dissatisfied with the democratisation in two of the republics and proposed different sanctions (e.g. Serbian "customs tax" for Slovene products) against the two, but as the year progressed, other republics' communist parties saw the inevitability of the democratisation process; in December, as the last member of the federation, Serbia held parliamentary elections which confirmed former communists' rule in this republic. Unresolved issues remained. In particular, Slovenia and Croatia elected governments oriented towards greater autonomy of the republics (under Milan Kučan and Franjo Tuđman, respectively), since it became clear that Serbian domination attempts and increasingly different levels of democratic standards were becoming increasingly incompatible. Serbia and Montenegro elected candidates who favoured Yugoslav unity. The Croat quest for independence led to large Serb communities within Croatia rebelling and trying to secede from the Croat republic. Serbs in Croatia would not accept a status of a national minority in a sovereign Croatia, since they would be demoted from the status of a constituent nation of the entirety of Yugoslavia. Yugoslav WarsMain article: Yugoslav Wars This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (September 2020) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)The war broke out when the new regimes tried to replace Yugoslav civilian and military forces with secessionist forces. When, in August 1990, Croatia attempted to replace police in the Serb populated Croat Krajina by force, the population first looked for refuge in the Yugoslav Army barracks, while the army remained passive. The civilians then organised armed resistance. These armed conflicts between the Croatian armed forces ("police") and civilians mark the beginning of the Yugoslav war that inflamed the region. Similarly, the attempt to replace Yugoslav frontier police by Slovene police forces provoked regional armed conflicts which finished with a minimal number of victims.[28] A similar attempt in Bosnia and Herzegovina led to a war that lasted more than three years (see below). The results of all these conflicts are almost complete emigration of the Serbs from all three regions, massive displacement of the populations in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and establishment of the three new independent states. The separation of Macedonia was peaceful, although the Yugoslav Army occupied the peak of the Straža mountain on the Macedonian soil. Serbian uprisings in Croatia began in August 1990 by blocking roads leading from the Dalmatian coast towards the interior almost a year before Croatian leadership made any move towards independence. These uprisings were more or less discreetly backed up by the Serb-dominated federal army (JNA). The Serbs in Croatia proclaimed "Serb autonomous areas", later united into the Republic of Serb Krajina. The federal army tried to disarm the territorial defence forces of Slovenia (republics had their local defence forces similar to the Home Guard) in 1990 but was not completely successful. Still, Slovenia began to covertly import arms to replenish its armed forces. Croatia also embarked upon the illegal import of arms, (following the disarmament of the republics' armed forces by the federal army) mainly from Hungary, and were under constant surveillance which produced a video of a secret meeting between the Croatian Defence minister Martin Špegelj and the two men, filmed by the Yugoslav counter-intelligence (KOS, Kontra-obavještajna služba). Špegelj announced that they were at war with the army and gave instructions about arms smuggling as well as methods of dealing with the Yugoslav Army's officers stationed in Croatian cities. Serbia and JNA used this discovery of Croatian rearmament for propaganda purposes. Guns were also fired from army bases through Croatia. Elsewhere, tensions were running high. In the same month, the Army leaders met with the Presidency of Yugoslavia in an attempt to get them to declare a state of emergency which would allow for the army to take control of the country. The army was seen as an arm of the Serbian government by that time so the consequence feared by the other republics was to be total Serbian domination of the union. The representatives of Serbia, Montenegro, Kosovo, and Vojvodina voted for the decision, while all other republics, Croatia, Slovenia, Macedonia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, voted against. The tie delayed an escalation of conflicts, but not for long.[28] Following the first multi-party election results, in the autumn of 1990, the republics of Slovenia and Croatia proposed transforming Yugoslavia into a loose confederation of six republics. By this proposal, republics would have right to self-determination. However Milošević rejected all such proposals, arguing that like Slovenes and Croats, the Serbs (having in mind Croatian Serbs) should also have a right to self-determination. On 9 March 1991, demonstrations were held against Slobodan Milošević in Belgrade, but the police and the military were deployed in the streets to restore order, killing two people. In late March 1991, the Plitvice Lakes incident was one of the first sparks of open war in Croatia. The Yugoslav People's Army (JNA), whose superior officers were mainly of Serbian ethnicity, maintained an impression of being neutral, but as time went on, they got more and more involved in state politics. On 25 June 1991, Slovenia and Croatia became the first republics to declare independence from Yugoslavia. The federal customs officers in Slovenia on the border crossings with Italy, Austria, and Hungary mainly just changed uniforms since most of them were local Slovenes. The following day (26 June), the Federal Executive Council specifically ordered the army to take control of the "internationally recognized borders", leading to the Ten-Day War. As Slovenia and Croatia fought towards independence, the Serbian and Croatian forces indulged into a violent and perilous rivalry.[27] The Yugoslav People's Army forces, based in barracks in Slovenia and Croatia, attempted to carry out the task within the next 48 hours. However, because of misinformation given to the Yugoslav Army conscripts that the Federation was under attack by foreign forces and the fact that the majority of them did not wish to engage in a war on the ground where they served their conscription, the Slovene territorial defence forces retook most of the posts within several days with only minimal loss of life on both sides. There was a suspected incident of a war crime, as the Austrian ORF TV network showed footage of three Yugoslav Army soldiers surrendering to the territorial defence force, before gunfire was heard and the troops were seen falling down. None were killed in the incident yet there were numerous cases of destruction of civilian property and civilian life by the Yugoslav People's Army, including houses and a church. A civilian airport, along with a hangar and aircraft inside the hangar, was bombarded; truck drivers on the road from Ljubljana to Zagreb and Austrian journalists at the Ljubljana Airport were killed. A ceasefire was eventually agreed upon. According to the Brioni Agreement, recognised by representatives of all republics, the international community pressured Slovenia and Croatia to place a three-month moratorium on their independence. During these three months, the Yugoslav Army completed its pull-out from Slovenia, but in Croatia, a bloody war broke out in the autumn of 1991. Ethnic Serbs, who had created their own state Republic of Serbian Krajina in heavily Serb-populated regions resisted the police forces of the Republic of Croatia who were trying to bring that breakaway region back under Croatian jurisdiction. In some strategic places, the Yugoslav Army acted as a buffer zone; in most others it was protecting or aiding Serbs with resources and even manpower in their confrontation with the new Croatian army and their police force. In September 1991, the Republic of Macedonia also declared independence, becoming the only former republic to gain sovereignty without resistance from the Belgrade-based Yugoslav authorities. 500 US soldiers were then deployed under the UN banner to monitor Macedonia's northern borders with the Republic of Serbia. Macedonia's first president, Kiro Gligorov, maintained good relations with Belgrade and the other breakaway republics and there have to date been no problems between Macedonian and Serbian border police even though small pockets of Kosovo and the Preševo valley complete the northern reaches of the historical region known as Macedonia (Prohor Pčinjski part), which would otherwise create a border dispute if ever Macedonian nationalism should resurface (see VMRO). This was despite the fact that the Yugoslav Army refused to abandon its military infrastructure on the top of the Straža Mountain up to the year 2000. As a result of the conflict, the United Nations Security Council unanimously adopted UN Security Council Resolution 721 on 27 November 1991, which paved the way to the establishment of peacekeeping operations in Yugoslavia.[29] In Bosnia and Herzegovina in November 1991, the Bosnian Serbs held a referendum which resulted in an overwhelming vote in favour of forming a Serbian republic within the borders of Bosnia and Herzegovina and staying in a common state with Serbia and Montenegro. On 9 January 1992, the self-proclaimed Bosnian Serb assembly proclaimed a separate "Republic of the Serb people of Bosnia and Herzegovina". The referendum and creation of SARs were proclaimed unconstitutional by the government of Bosnia and Herzegovina and declared illegal and invalid. In February–March 1992, the government held a national referendum on Bosnian independence from Yugoslavia. That referendum was in turn declared contrary to the BiH and the Federal constitution by the federal Constitutional Court in Belgrade and the newly established Bosnian Serb government. The referendum was largely boycotted by the Bosnian Serbs. The Federal court in Belgrade did not decide on the matter of the referendum of the Bosnian Serbs. The turnout was somewhere between 64 and 67% and 98% of the voters voted for independence. It was not clear what the two-thirds majority requirement actually meant and whether it was satisfied. The republic's government declared its independence on 5 April, and the Serbs immediately declared the independence of Republika Srpska. The war in Bosnia followed shortly thereafter. Timeline This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (September 2020) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)Various dates are considered the end of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia: 25 June 1991, when Croatia and Slovenia declared independence8 September 1991: following a referendum the Republic of Macedonia declared independence8 October 1991, when the 9 July moratorium on Slovene and Croatian secession ended and Croatia restated its independence in the Croatian Parliament (that day is celebrated as Independence Day in Croatia)6 April 1992: full recognition of Bosnia and Herzegovina's independence by the U.S. and most European states28 April 1992: the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia is formed14 December 1995: the Dayton Agreement is signed by the leaders of FR Yugoslavia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and CroatiaNew statesSuccession, 1992–2003 Yugoslavia at the time of its dissolution, early 1992 The state of affairs of the territory of the former Yugoslavia, 2008As the Yugoslav Wars raged through Croatia and Bosnia, the republics of Serbia and Montenegro, which remained relatively untouched by the war, formed a rump state known as the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) in 1992. The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia aspired to be a sole legal successor to the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, but those claims were opposed by the other former republics. The United Nations also denied its request to automatically continue the membership of the former state.[30] In 2000, Milošević was prosecuted for atrocities committed in his ten-year rule in Serbia and the Yugoslav Wars.[27] Eventually, after the overthrow of Slobodan Milošević from power as president of the federation in 2000, the country dropped those aspirations, accepted the opinion of the Badinter Arbitration Committee about shared succession, and reapplied for and gained UN membership on 2 November 2000.[5] From 1992 to 2000, some countries, including the United States, had referred to the FRY as Serbia and Montenegro[31] as they viewed its claim to Yugoslavia's successorship as illegitimate.[32] In April 2001, the five successor states extant at the time drafted an Agreement on Succession Issues, signing the agreement in June 2001.[33][34] Marking an important transition in its history, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was officially renamed Serbia and Montenegro in 2003. According to the Succession Agreement signed in Vienna on 29 June 2001, all assets of former Yugoslavia were divided between five successor states:[34] NameCapitalFlagCoat of armsDeclared date of independenceUnited Nations membership[35]Federal Republic of Yugoslavia[C]BelgradeFlag of Serbia and Montenegro.svgCoat of arms of Serbia and Montenegro.svg27 April 1992[D]1 November 2000[E]Republic of CroatiaZagrebFlag of Croatia.svgCoat of arms of Croatia.svg25 June 199122 May 1992Republic of SloveniaLjubljanaFlag of Slovenia.svgCoat of arms of Slovenia.svg25 June 199122 May 1992Republic of MacedoniaSkopjeFlag of Macedonia (1992–1995).svgCoat of arms of Macedonia (1946-2009).svg8 September 19918 April 1993Republic of Bosnia and HerzegovinaSarajevoFlag of Bosnia and Herzegovina (1992–1998).svgCoat of arms of Bosnia and Herzegovina (1992–1998).svg3 March 199222 May 1992Succession, 2006–presentIn June 2006, Montenegro became an independent nation after the results of a May 2006 referendum, therefore rendering Serbia and Montenegro no longer existent. After Montenegro's independence, Serbia became the legal successor of Serbia and Montenegro, while Montenegro re-applied for membership in international organisations. In February 2008, the Republic of Kosovo declared independence from Serbia, leading to an ongoing dispute on whether Kosovo is a legally recognised state. Kosovo is not a member of the United Nations, but a number of states, including the United States and various members of the European Union, have recognised Kosovo as a sovereign state. Bosnia and HerzegovinaCroatiaKosovo[F]MontenegroNorth MacedoniaSerbiaSloveniaFlagBosnia and HerzegovinaCroatiaKosovoMontenegroNorth MacedoniaSerbiaSloveniaCoat of armsBosnia and HerzegovinaCoat of arms of Croatia.svgKosovoCoat of arms of Montenegro.svgCoat of arms of North Macedonia.svgCoat of arms of Serbia.svgSloveniaCapitalSarajevoZagrebPristinaPodgoricaSkopjeBelgradeLjubljanaIndependence3 March,199225 June,199117 February,20083 June,20068 September,19915 June,200625 June,1991Population (2018)3,301,7794,109,6691,886,259622,3592,068,9796,988,2212,086,525Area51,197 km256,594 km210,908 km213,812 km225,713 km288,361 km220,273 km2Density69/km274/km2159/km245/km281/km291/km2102/km2Water area (%)0.02%1.1%1.00%2.61%1.09%0.13%0.6%GDP (nominal) total (2018)$19.782 billion$60.806 billion$7.947 billion$5.45 billion$12.762 billion$50.508 billion$54.235 billionGDP (PPP) per capita (2018)$14,291$27,664$11,505$18,261$15,977$16,063$36,566Gini Index (2018[36])33.029.723.233.243.229.725.6HDI (2018)0.768 (High)0.831 (Very High)0.786 (High)0.807 (Very High)0.748 (High)0.776 (High)0.896 (Very High)Internet TLD.ba.hr.xk.me.mk.rs.siCalling code+387+385+383+382+389+381+386LanguagesThe similarity of the languages and the long history of common life have left many ties among the peoples of the new states, even though the individual state policies of the new states favour differentiation, particularly in language. The Serbo-Croatian language is linguistically a single language, with several literary and spoken variants since the language of the government was imposed where other languages dominated (Slovenia, Macedonia). Now, separate sociolinguistic standards exist for the Bosnian, Croatian, Montenegrin and Serbian languages. Yugo-nostalgiaMain article: Yugo-nostalgiaRemembrance of the time of the joint state and its positive attributes is referred to as Yugo-nostalgia. Many aspects of Yugo-nostalgia refer to the socialist system and the sense of social security it provided. There are still people from the former Yugoslavia who self-identify as Yugoslavs; this identifier is commonly seen in demographics relating to ethnicity in today's independent states. DemographicsMain articles: Demographics of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia and Demographics of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Ethnic map of Yugoslavia based on 1991 census data, published by CIA in 1992Yugoslavia had always been a home to a very diverse population, not only in terms of national affiliation, but also religious affiliation. Of the many religions, Islam, Roman Catholicism, Judaism, and Protestantism, as well as various Eastern Orthodox faiths, composed the religions of Yugoslavia, comprising over 40 in all. The religious demographics of Yugoslavia changed dramatically since World War II. A census taken in 1921 and later in 1948 show that 99% of the population appeared to be deeply involved with their religion and practices. With postwar government programs of modernisation and urbanisation, the percentage of religious believers took a dramatic plunge. Connections between religious belief and nationality posed a serious threat to the post-war Communist government's policies on national unity and state structure.[37] Although Yugoslavia became a nominally atheist state, in contrast to other socialist states of the time, Catholic Church maintained an active role in society of Yugoslavia,[38] the Holy See normalized its relations with Yugoslavia by 1967 and worked together on stopping the Vietnam War.[39] Likewise, the Serbian Orthodox Church received favorable treatment, and Yugoslavia did not did not engage in anti-religious campaigns to the extent of other countries in the Eastern Bloc.[40] After the rise of communism, a survey taken in 1964 showed that just over 70% of the total population of Yugoslavia considered themselves to be religious believers. The places of highest religious concentration were that of Kosovo with 91% and Bosnia and Herzegovina with 83.8%. The places of lowest religious concentration were Slovenia 65.4%, Serbia with 63.7% and Croatia with 63.6%. Religious differences between Orthodox Serbs and Macedonians, Catholic Croats and Slovenes, and Muslim Bosniaks and Albanians alongside the rise of nationalism contributed to the collapse of Yugoslavia in 1991.[37] The Kingdom of Yugoslavia had unitary policies, suppressed autonomy and proclaimed the official ideology to be that Serbs, Croats, Bosniaks, Montenegrins, Macedonians and Slovenes were tribes of one nation of Yugoslavs (see Yugoslavism), to the heavy disagreement and resistance from Croats and other ethnic groups; this was interpreted as gradual Serbianization of Yugoslavia's non-Serb population. The ruling Communist Party of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was ideologically opposed to ethnic unitarism and royal hegemony, and instead promoted ethnic diversity and social Yugoslavism within the notion of "brotherhood and unity", while organizing the country as a federation.[41] New York, often called New York City (NYC) to distinguish it from the State of New York, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over 300.46 square miles (778.2 km2), New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the United States. Located at the southern tip of the state of New York, the city is the center of the New York metropolitan area, the largest metropolitan area in the world by urban landmass.[9] With over 20.1 million people in its metropolitan statistical area and 23.5 million in its combined statistical area as of 2020, New York is one of the world's most populous megacities. New York City is a global cultural, financial, and media center with a significant influence on commerce, entertainment, research, technology,[10] education, politics, tourism, dining, art, fashion, and sports. New York is the most photographed city in the world.[11] Home to the headquarters of the United Nations, New York is an important center for international diplomacy,[12][13] an established safe haven for global investors,[14] and is sometimes described as the capital of the world. Situated on one of the world's largest natural harbors, with water covering 36.4% of its surface area, New York City is composed of five boroughs, each of which is coextensive with a respective county of the state of New York. The five boroughs—Brooklyn (Kings County), Queens (Queens County), Manhattan (New York County), the Bronx (Bronx County), and Staten Island (Richmond County)—were created when local governments were consolidated into a single municipal entity in 1898.[15] The city and its metropolitan area constitute the premier gateway for legal immigration to the United States. As many as 800 languages are spoken in New York,[16] making it the most linguistically diverse city in the world. New York is home to more than 3.2 million residents born outside the United States, the largest foreign-born population of any city in the world as of 2016.[17][18] As of 2018, the New York metropolitan area is estimated to produce a gross metropolitan product (GMP) of nearly $1.8 trillion, ranking it first in the United States. If the New York metropolitan area were a sovereign state, it would have the eighth-largest economy in the world. New York is home to the highest number of billionaires of any city in the world.[19] New York City traces its origins to a trading post founded on the southern tip of Manhattan Island by Dutch colonists in approximately 1624. The settlement was named New Amsterdam (Dutch: Nieuw Amsterdam) in 1626 and was chartered as a city in 1653. The city came under English control in 1664 and was renamed New York after King Charles II of England granted the lands to his brother, the Duke of York.[20][21] The city was regained by the Dutch in July 1673 and was renamed New Orange for one year and three months; the city has been continuously named New York since November 1674. New York City was the capital of the United States from 1785 until 1790,[22] and has been the largest U.S. city since 1790. The Statue of Liberty greeted millions of immigrants as they came to the U.S. by ship in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and is a symbol of the U.S. and its ideals of liberty and peace.[23] In the 21st century, New York has emerged as a global node of creativity, entrepreneurship,[24] and environmental sustainability,[25][26] and as a symbol of freedom and cultural diversity.[27] In 2019, New York was voted the greatest city in the world per a survey of over 30,000 people from 48 cities worldwide, citing its cultural diversity.[28] Many districts and monuments in New York City are major landmarks, including three of the world's ten most visited tourist attractions in 2013.[29] A record 66.6 million tourists visited New York City in 2019. Times Square is the brightly illuminated hub of the Broadway Theater District,[30] one of the world's busiest pedestrian intersections,[29][31] and a major center of the world's entertainment industry.[32] Many of the city's landmarks, skyscrapers, and parks are known around the world, as is the city's fast pace, spawning the term New York minute. The Empire State Building has become the global standard of reference to describe the height and length of other structures.[33] Manhattan's real estate market is among the most expensive in the world.[34][35] Providing continuous 24/7 service and contributing to the nickname The City That Never Sleeps, the New York City Subway is the largest single-operator rapid transit system worldwide, with 472 passenger rail stations; and Penn Station in Midtown Manhattan is the busiest transportation hub in the Western Hemisphere.[36] The city has over 120 colleges and universities, including Columbia University, New York University, and the City University of New York system, which is the largest urban public university system in the United States. Anchored by Wall Street in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan, New York City has been called both the world's leading financial center and the most powerful city in the world,[37] and is home to the world's two largest stock exchanges by total market capitalization, the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq.[38][39] Contents1Etymology2History2.1Early history2.2Dutch rule2.3English rule2.4Province of New York2.5American Revolution2.6Nineteenth century2.7Modern history3Geography3.1Boroughs3.2Architecture3.3Climate3.4Parks3.5Military installations4Demographics4.1Population density4.2Race and ethnicity4.3Sexual orientation and gender identity4.4Religion4.5Wealth and income disparity5Economy5.1Wall Street5.2Tech and biotech5.3Real estate5.4Tourism5.5Media and entertainment6Education6.1Primary and secondary education6.2Higher education and research7Human resources7.1Public health7.2Public safety7.3Public library system8Culture and contemporary life8.1Pace8.2Arts8.3Cuisine8.4Parades8.5Accent and dialect8.6Sports9Environment9.1Environmental impact reduction9.2Water purity and availability9.3Air quality9.4Environmental revitalization10Government and politics10.1Government10.2Politics11Transportation11.1Rapid transit11.2Air11.3Ferries11.4Taxis, vehicles for hire, and trams11.5Streets and highways11.6Cycling network12Notable people13Global outreach14See also15Notes16References17Further reading18External linksEtymologyIn 1664, the city was named in honor of the Duke of York, who would become King James II of England.[40] James's elder brother, King Charles II, appointed the Duke proprietor of the former territory of New Netherland, including the city of New Amsterdam, when England seized it from Dutch control.[41] HistoryMain articles: History of New York City and Timeline of New York CityEarly historyIn the pre-Columbian era, the area of present-day New York City was inhabited by Algonquian Native Americans, including the Lenape. Their homeland, known as Lenapehoking, included Staten Island, Manhattan, the Bronx, the western portion of Long Island (including the areas that would later become the boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens), and the Lower Hudson Valley.[42] The first documented visit into New York Harbor by a European was in 1524 by Italian Giovanni da Verrazzano, an explorer from Florence in the service of the French crown.[43] He claimed the area for France and named it Nouvelle Angoulême (New Angoulême).[44] A Spanish expedition, led by the Portuguese captain Estêvão Gomes sailing for Emperor Charles V, arrived in New York Harbor in January 1525 and charted the mouth of the Hudson River, which he named Río de San Antonio ('Saint Anthony's River'). The Padrón Real of 1527, the first scientific map to show the East Coast of North America continuously, was informed by Gomes' expedition and labeled the northeastern United States as Tierra de Esteban Gómez in his honor.[45] In 1609, the English explorer Henry Hudson rediscovered New York Harbor while searching for the Northwest Passage to the Orient for the Dutch East India Company.[46] He proceeded to sail up what the Dutch would name the North River (now the Hudson River), named first by Hudson as the Mauritius after Maurice, Prince of Orange. Hudson's first mate described the harbor as "a very good Harbour for all windes" and the river as "a mile broad" and "full of fish".[47] Hudson sailed roughly 150 miles (240 km) north,[48] past the site of the present-day New York State capital city of Albany, in the belief that it might be an oceanic tributary before the river became too shallow to continue.[47] He made a ten-day exploration of the area and claimed the region for the Dutch East India Company. In 1614, the area between Cape Cod and Delaware Bay was claimed by the Netherlands and called Nieuw-Nederland ('New Netherland'). The first non–Native American inhabitant of what would eventually become New York City was Juan Rodriguez (transliterated to Dutch as Jan Rodrigues), a merchant from Santo Domingo. Born in Santo Domingo of Portuguese and African descent, he arrived in Manhattan during the winter of 1613–14, trapping for pelts and trading with the local population as a representative of the Dutch. Broadway, from 159th Street to 218th Street in Upper Manhattan, is named Juan Rodriguez Way in his honor.[49][50] Dutch rule New Amsterdam, centered in the eventual Lower Manhattan, in 1664, the year England took control and renamed it "New York"A permanent European presence near New York Harbor began in 1624—making New York the 12th oldest continuously occupied European-established settlement in the continental United States[51]—with the founding of a Dutch fur trading settlement on Governors Island. In 1625, construction was started on a citadel and Fort Amsterdam, later called Nieuw Amsterdam (New Amsterdam), on present-day Manhattan Island.[52][53] The colony of New Amsterdam was centered on what would ultimately be known as Lower Manhattan. It extended from the southern tip of Manhattan to modern day Wall Street, where a 12-foot wooden stockade was built in 1653 to protect against Native American and British raids.[54] In 1626, the Dutch colonial Director-General Peter Minuit, acting as charged by the Dutch West India Company, purchased the island of Manhattan from the Canarsie, a small Lenape band,[55] for "the value of 60 guilders"[56] (about $900 in 2018).[57] A disproved legend claims that Manhattan was purchased for $24 worth of glass beads.[58][59] Following the purchase, New Amsterdam grew slowly.[21] To attract settlers, the Dutch instituted the patroon system in 1628, whereby wealthy Dutchmen (patroons, or patrons) who brought 50 colonists to New Netherland would be awarded swaths of land, along with local political autonomy and rights to participate in the lucrative fur trade. This program had little success.[60] Since 1621, the Dutch West India Company had operated as a monopoly in New Netherland, on authority granted by the Dutch States General. In 1639–1640, in an effort to bolster economic growth, the Dutch West India Company relinquished its monopoly over the fur trade, leading to growth in the production and trade of food, timber, tobacco, and slaves (particularly with the Dutch West Indies).[21][61] In 1647, Peter Stuyvesant began his tenure as the last Director-General of New Netherland. During his tenure, the population of New Netherland grew from 2,000 to 8,000.[62][63] Stuyvesant has been credited with improving law and order in the colony; however, he also earned a reputation as a despotic leader. He instituted regulations on liquor sales, attempted to assert control over the Dutch Reformed Church, and blocked other religious groups (including Quakers, Jews, and Lutherans) from establishing houses of worship.[64] The Dutch West India Company would eventually attempt to ease tensions between Stuyvesant and residents of New Amsterdam.[65] English ruleA painting of a ship firing its cannons in a harbor.Fort George and the City of New York c. 1731. Royal Navy ships of the line are seen guarding what would become New York Harbor.In 1664, unable to summon any significant resistance, Stuyvesant surrendered New Amsterdam to English troops, led by Colonel Richard Nicolls, without bloodshed.[64][65] The terms of the surrender permitted Dutch residents to remain in the colony and allowed for religious freedom.[66] In 1667, during negotiations leading to the Treaty of Breda after the Second Anglo-Dutch War, the Dutch decided to keep the nascent plantation colony of what is now Suriname (on the northern South American coast) they had gained from the English; and in return, the English kept New Amsterdam. The fledgling settlement was promptly renamed "New York" after the Duke of York (the future King James II and VII), who would eventually be deposed in the Glorious Revolution.[67] After the founding, the duke gave part of the colony to proprietors George Carteret and John Berkeley. Fort Orange, 150 miles (240 km) north on the Hudson River, was renamed Albany after James's Scottish title.[68] The transfer was confirmed in 1667 by the Treaty of Breda, which concluded the Second Anglo-Dutch War.[69] On August 24, 1673, during the Third Anglo-Dutch War, Dutch captain Anthony Colve seized the colony of New York from the English at the behest of Cornelis Evertsen the Youngest and rechristened it "New Orange" after William III, the Prince of Orange.[70] The Dutch would soon return the island to England under the Treaty of Westminster of November 1674.[71][72] Several intertribal wars among the Native Americans and some epidemics brought on by contact with the Europeans caused sizeable population losses for the Lenape between the years 1660 and 1670.[73] By 1700, the Lenape population had diminished to 200.[74] New York experienced several yellow fever epidemics in the 18th century, losing ten percent of its population to the disease in 1702 alone.[75][76] Province of New York Columbia University was founded by royal charter in 1754 under the name of King's College.New York grew in importance as a trading port while as a part of the colony of New York in the early 1700s.[77] It also became a center of slavery, with 42% of households holding slaves by 1730, the highest percentage outside Charleston, South Carolina.[78] Most slaveholders held a few or several domestic slaves, but others hired them out to work at labor. Slavery became integrally tied to New York's economy through the labor of slaves throughout the port, and the banking and shipping industries trading with the American South. Discovery of the African Burying Ground in the 1990s, during construction of a new federal courthouse near Foley Square, revealed that tens of thousands of Africans had been buried in the area in the colonial period.[79] The 1735 trial and acquittal in Manhattan of John Peter Zenger, who had been accused of seditious libel after criticizing colonial governor William Cosby, helped to establish the freedom of the press in North America.[80] In 1754, Columbia University was founded under charter by King George II as King's College in Lower Manhattan.[81] American RevolutionThe Stamp Act Congress met in New York in October 1765, as the Sons of Liberty, organized in the city, skirmished over the next ten years with British troops stationed there.[82] The Battle of Long Island, the largest battle of the American Revolutionary War, was fought in August 1776 within the modern-day borough of Brooklyn.[83] After the battle, in which the Americans were defeated, the British made the city their military and political base of operations in North America. The city was a haven for Loyalist refugees and escaped slaves who joined the British lines for freedom newly promised by the Crown for all fighters. As many as 10,000 escaped slaves crowded into the city during the British occupation. When the British forces evacuated at the close of the war in 1783, they transported 3,000 freedmen for resettlement in Nova Scotia.[84] They resettled other freedmen in England and the Caribbean. The Battle of Long Island, the largest battle of the American Revolution, took place in Brooklyn in 1776.The only attempt at a peaceful solution to the war took place at the Conference House on Staten Island between American delegates, including Benjamin Franklin, and British general Lord Howe on September 11, 1776. Shortly after the British occupation began, the Great Fire of New York occurred, a large conflagration on the West Side of Lower Manhattan, which destroyed about a quarter of the buildings in the city, including Trinity Church.[85] In 1785, the assembly of the Congress of the Confederation made New York City the national capital shortly after the war. New York was the last capital of the U.S. under the Articles of Confederation and the first capital under the Constitution of the United States. New York City as the U.S. capital hosted several events of national scope in 1789—the first President of the United States, George Washington, was inaugurated; the first United States Congress and the Supreme Court of the United States each assembled for the first time; and the United States Bill of Rights was drafted, all at Federal Hall on Wall Street.[86] By 1790, New York had surpassed Philadelphia to become the largest city in the United States, but by the end of that year, pursuant to the Residence Act, the national capital was moved to Philadelphia.[87][88] Nineteenth centuryA painting of a snowy city street with horse-drawn sleds and a 19th-century fire truck under blue skyBroadway follows the Native American Wecquaesgeek Trail through Manhattan.[89]Over the course of the nineteenth century, New York City's population grew from 60,000 to 3.43 million.[90] Under New York State's abolition act of 1799, children of slave mothers were to be eventually liberated but to be held in indentured servitude until their mid-to-late twenties.[91][92] Together with slaves freed by their masters after the Revolutionary War and escaped slaves, a significant free-Black population gradually developed in Manhattan. Under such influential United States founders as Alexander Hamilton and John Jay, the New York Manumission Society worked for abolition and established the African Free School to educate Black children.[93] It was not until 1827 that slavery was completely abolished in the state, and free Blacks struggled afterward with discrimination. New York interracial abolitionist activism continued; among its leaders were graduates of the African Free School. New York city's population jumped from 123,706 in 1820 to 312,710 by 1840, 16,000 of whom were Black.[94][95] In the 19th century, the city was transformed by both commercial and residential development relating to its status as a national and international trading center, as well as by European immigration, respectively.[96] The city adopted the Commissioners' Plan of 1811, which expanded the city street grid to encompass almost all of Manhattan. The 1825 completion of the Erie Canal through central New York connected the Atlantic port to the agricultural markets and commodities of the North American interior via the Hudson River and the Great Lakes.[97] Local politics became dominated by Tammany Hall, a political machine supported by Irish and German immigrants.[98] The current five boroughs of Greater New York as they appeared in 1814. The Bronx was in Westchester County, Queens County included modern Nassau County, Kings County had six towns, one of which was Brooklyn, and New York City is shown by hatching in southern New York County on the island of Manhattan, and Richmond County on Staten Island.Several prominent American literary figures lived in New York during the 1830s and 1840s, including William Cullen Bryant, Washington Irving, Herman Melville, Rufus Wilmot Griswold, John Keese, Nathaniel Parker Willis, and Edgar Allan Poe. Public-minded members of the contemporaneous business elite lobbied for the establishment of Central Park, which in 1857 became the first landscaped park in an American city. The Great Irish Famine brought a large influx of Irish immigrants; more than 200,000 were living in New York by 1860, upwards of a quarter of the city's population.[99] There was also extensive immigration from the German provinces, where revolutions had disrupted societies, and Germans comprised another 25% of New York's population by 1860.[100] Democratic Party candidates were consistently elected to local office, increasing the city's ties to the South and its dominant party. In 1861, Mayor Fernando Wood called upon the aldermen to declare independence from Albany and the United States after the South seceded, but his proposal was not acted on.[93] Anger at new military conscription laws during the American Civil War (1861–1865), which spared wealthier men who could afford to pay a $300 (equivalent to $6,602 in 2021) commutation fee to hire a substitute,[101] led to the Draft Riots of 1863, whose most visible participants were ethnic Irish working class.[93] The draft riots deteriorated into attacks on New York's elite, followed by attacks on Black New Yorkers and their property after fierce competition for a decade between Irish immigrants and Black people for work. Rioters burned the Colored Orphan Asylum to the ground, with more than 200 children escaping harm due to efforts of the New York Police Department, which was mainly made up of Irish immigrants.[100] At least 120 people were killed.[102] Eleven Black men were lynched over five days, and the riots forced hundreds of Blacks to flee the city for Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and New Jersey. The Black population in Manhattan fell below 10,000 by 1865, which it had last been in 1820. The White working class had established dominance.[100][102] Violence by longshoremen against Black men was especially fierce in the docks area.[100] It was one of the worst incidents of civil unrest in American history.[103] Modern historyA man working on a steel girder high about a city skyline.A construction worker atop the Empire State Building as it was being built in 1930. The Chrysler Building is behind him.In 1898, the modern City of New York was formed with the consolidation of Brooklyn (until then a separate city), the County of New York (which then included parts of the Bronx), the County of Richmond, and the western portion of the County of Queens.[104] The opening of the subway in 1904, first built as separate private systems, helped bind the new city together.[105] Throughout the first half of the 20th century, the city became a world center for industry, commerce, and communication.[106] In 1904, the steamship General Slocum caught fire in the East River, killing 1,021 people on board.[107] In 1911, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, the city's worst industrial disaster, took the lives of 146 garment workers and spurred the growth of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union and major improvements in factory safety standards.[108] New York's non-White population was 36,620 in 1890.[109] New York City was a prime destination in the early twentieth century for African Americans during the Great Migration from the American South, and by 1916, New York City had become home to the largest urban African diaspora in North America.[110] The Harlem Renaissance of literary and cultural life flourished during the era of Prohibition.[111] The larger economic boom generated construction of skyscrapers competing in height and creating an identifiable skyline. Manhattan's Little Italy, Lower East Side, circa 1900New York became the most populous urbanized area in the world in the early 1920s, overtaking London. The metropolitan area surpassed the 10 million mark in the early 1930s, becoming the first megacity in human history.[112] The difficult years of the Great Depression saw the election of reformer Fiorello La Guardia as mayor and the fall of Tammany Hall after eighty years of political dominance.[113] Returning World War II veterans created a post-war economic boom and the development of large housing tracts in eastern Queens and Nassau County as well as similar suburban areas in New Jersey. New York emerged from the war unscathed as the leading city of the world, with Wall Street leading America's place as the world's dominant economic power. The United Nations Headquarters was completed in 1952, solidifying New York's global geopolitical influence, and the rise of abstract expressionism in the city precipitated New York's displacement of Paris as the center of the art world.[114] A two-story building with brick on the first floor, with two arched doorways, and gray stucco on the second floor off of which hang numerous rainbow flags.The Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village, a designated U.S. National Historic Landmark and National Monument, as the site of the June 1969 Stonewall riots and the cradle of the modern gay rights movement[115][116][117]The Stonewall riots were a series of spontaneous, violent protests by members of the gay community against a police raid that took place in the early morning hours of June 28, 1969, at the Stonewall Inn in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Lower Manhattan.[118] They are widely considered to constitute the single most important event leading to the gay liberation movement[115][119][120][121] and the modern fight for LGBT rights.[122][123] Wayne R. Dynes, author of the Encyclopedia of Homosexuality, wrote that drag queens were the only "transgender folks around" during the June 1969 Stonewall riots. The transgender community in New York City played a significant role in fighting for LGBT equality during the period of the Stonewall riots and thereafter.[124] In the 1970s, job losses due to industrial restructuring caused New York City to suffer from economic problems and rising crime rates.[125] While a resurgence in the financial industry greatly improved the city's economic health in the 1980s, New York's crime rate continued to increase through that decade and into the beginning of the 1990s.[126] By the mid 1990s, crime rates started to drop dramatically due to revised police strategies, improving economic opportunities, gentrification, and new residents, both American transplants and new immigrants from Asia and Latin America. Important new sectors, such as Silicon Alley, emerged in the city's economy.[127] New York's population reached all-time highs in the 2000 census and then again in the 2010 census. Two tall, gray, rectangular buildings spewing black smoke and flames, particularly from the left of the two.United Airlines Flight 175 hits the South Tower of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.New York City suffered the bulk of the economic damage and largest loss of human life in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001, attacks.[128] Two of the four airliners hijacked that day were flown into the twin towers of the World Trade Center, destroying the towers and killing 2,192 civilians, 343 firefighters, and 71 law enforcement officers. The North Tower became the tallest building ever to be destroyed anywhere then or subsequently.[129] The area was rebuilt with a new One World Trade Center, a 9/11 memorial and museum, and other new buildings and infrastructure.[130] The World Trade Center PATH station, which had opened on July 19, 1909, as the Hudson Terminal, was also destroyed in the attacks. A temporary station was built and opened on November 23, 2003. An 800,000-square-foot (74,000 m2) permanent rail station designed by Santiago Calatrava, the World Trade Center Transportation Hub, the city's third-largest hub, was completed in 2016.[131] The new One World Trade Center is the tallest skyscraper in the Western Hemisphere[132] and the seventh-tallest building in the world by pinnacle height, with its spire reaching a symbolic 1,776 feet (541.3 m) in reference to the year of U.S. independence.[133][134][135][136] The Occupy Wall Street protests in Zuccotti Park in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan began on September 17, 2011, receiving global attention and popularizing the Occupy movement against social and economic inequality worldwide.[137] In March 2020, the first case of -19 in the city was confirmed in Manhattan.[138] The city rapidly replaced Wuhan, China to become the global epicenter of the pandemic during the early phase, before the infection became widespread across the world and the rest of the nation. As of March 2021, New York City had recorded over 30,000 deaths from 19-related complications. In 2022, the LGBT community in New York City became the epicenter of the monkeypox outbreak in the Western Hemisphere, prompting New York Governor Kathy Hochul and New York City Mayor Eric Adams declared corresponding public health emergencies in the state and city, respectively, in July 2022.[139] GeographyMain articles: Geography of New York City and Geography of New York–New Jersey Harbor Estuary The core of the New York City metropolitan area, with Manhattan Island at its centerDuring the Wisconsin glaciation, 75,000 to 11,000 years ago, the New York City area was situated at the edge of a large ice sheet over 2,000 feet (610 m) in depth.[140] The erosive forward movement of the ice (and its subsequent retreat) contributed to the separation of what is now Long Island and Staten Island. That action also left bedrock at a relatively shallow depth, providing a solid foundation for most of Manhattan's skyscrapers.[141] New York City is situated in the northeastern United States, in southeastern New York State, approximately halfway between Washington, D.C. and Boston. The location at the mouth of the Hudson River, which feeds into a naturally sheltered harbor and then into the Atlantic Ocean, has helped the city grow in significance as a trading port. Most of New York City is built on the three islands of Long Island, Manhattan, and Staten Island. The Hudson River flows through the Hudson Valley into New York Bay. Between New York City and Troy, New York, the river is an estuary.[142] The Hudson River separates the city from the U.S. state of New Jersey. The East River—a tidal strait—flows from Long Island Sound and separates the Bronx and Manhattan from Long Island. The Harlem River, another tidal strait between the East and Hudson rivers, separates most of Manhattan from the Bronx. The Bronx River, which flows through the Bronx and Westchester County, is the only entirely freshwater river in the city.[143] The city's land has been altered substantially by human intervention, with considerable land reclamation along the waterfronts since Dutch colonial times; reclamation is most prominent in Lower Manhattan, with developments such as Battery Park City in the 1970s and 1980s.[144] Some of the natural relief in topography has been evened out, especially in Manhattan.[145] The city's total area is 468.484 square miles (1,213.37 km2); 302.643 sq mi (783.84 km2) of the city is land and 165.841 sq mi (429.53 km2) of this is water.[146][147] The highest point in the city is Todt Hill on Staten Island, which, at 409.8 feet (124.9 m) above sea level, is the highest point on the eastern seaboard south of Maine.[148] The summit of the ridge is mostly covered in woodlands as part of the Staten Island Greenbelt.[149] BoroughsMain articles: Boroughs of New York City and Neighborhoods in New York CityA map showing five boroughs in different colors. 1. Manhattan 2. Brooklyn 3. Queens 4. The Bronx 5. Staten IslandNew York City's five boroughsvteJurisdictionPopulationGDP †Land areaDensity of populationBoroughCountyCensus(2020)billions(2012 US$)squaremilessquarekmpersons/mi2persons/km2The BronxBronx1,472,654$ 36.93842.2109.334,92013,482BrooklynKings2,736,074$ 86.15169.4179.739,43815,227ManhattanNew York1,694,263$ 610.38622.758.874,78128,872QueensQueens2,405,464$ 82.328108.7281.522,1258,542Staten IslandRichmond495,747$ 14.27057.5148.98,6183,327City of New York8,804,190$ 830.072302.6783.829,09511,234State of New York20,215,751$ 1,724.75947,126.4122,056.8429166† GDP = Gross Domestic Product Sources:[150][151][152][153] and see individual borough articles.New York City is sometimes referred to collectively as the Five Boroughs.[154] Each borough is coextensive with a respective county of New York State, making New York City one of the U.S. municipalities in multiple counties. There are hundreds of distinct neighborhoods throughout the boroughs, many with a definable history and character. If the boroughs were each independent cities, four of the boroughs (Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, and the Bronx) would be among the ten most populous cities in the United States (Staten Island would be ranked 37th as of 2020); these same boroughs are coterminous with the four most densely populated counties in the United States: New York (Manhattan), Kings (Brooklyn), Bronx, and Queens. Manhattan Lower and Midtown Manhattan, as seen by a SkySat satellite in 2017Manhattan (New York County) is the geographically smallest and most densely populated borough. It is home to Central Park and most of the city's skyscrapers, and is sometimes locally known as The City.[155] Manhattan's population density of 72,033 people per square mile (27,812/km2) in 2015 makes it the highest of any county in the United States and higher than the density of any individual American city.[156] Manhattan is the cultural, administrative, and financial center of New York City and contains the headquarters of many major multinational corporations, the United Nations Headquarters, Wall Street, and a number of important universities. The borough of Manhattan is often described as the financial and cultural center of the world.[157][158] Most of the borough is situated on Manhattan Island, at the mouth of the Hudson River and the East River, and its southern tip, at the confluence of the two rivers, represents the birthplace of New York City itself. Several small islands also compose part of the borough of Manhattan, including Randall's Island, Wards Island, and Roosevelt Island in the East River, and Governors Island and Liberty Island to the south in New York Harbor. Manhattan Island is loosely divided into the Lower, Midtown, and Uptown regions. Uptown Manhattan is divided by Central Park into the Upper East Side and the Upper West Side, and above the park is Harlem, bordering the Bronx (Bronx County). Harlem was predominantly occupied by Jewish and Italian Americans in the 19th century until the Great Migration. It was the center of the Harlem Renaissance. The borough of Manhattan also includes a small neighborhood on the mainland, called Marble Hill, which is contiguous with the Bronx. New York City's remaining four boroughs are collectively referred to as the Outer Boroughs. Ten mile (16km) Manhattan skyline panorama from 120th Street to the Battery, taken in February 2018 from across the Hudson River in Weehawken, New JerseyRiverside ChurchDeutsche Bank Center220 Central Park SouthCentral Park TowerOne57432 Park Avenue53W53Chrysler BuildingBank of America Tower4 Times SquareThe New York Times BuildingEmpire State BuildingManhattan Westa: 55 Hudson Yards, 14b: 35 Hudson Yards, 14c: 10 Hudson Yards, 14d: 15 Hudson Yards56 Leonard Street8 Spruce StreetWoolworth Building70 Pine StreetFour Seasons Downtown40 Wall Street3 World Trade Center4 World Trade CenterOne World Trade CenterBrooklynBrooklyn (Kings County), on the western tip of Long Island, is the city's most populous borough. Brooklyn is known for its cultural, social, and ethnic diversity, an independent art scene, distinct neighborhoods, and a distinctive architectural heritage. Downtown Brooklyn is the largest central core neighborhood in the Outer Boroughs. The borough has a long beachfront shoreline including Coney Island, established in the 1870s as one of the earliest amusement grounds in the U.S.[159] Marine Park and Prospect Park are the two largest parks in Brooklyn.[160] Since 2010, Brooklyn has evolved into a thriving hub of entrepreneurship and high technology startup firms,[161][162] and of postmodern art and design.[162][163] Downtown Brooklyn skyline from Governors Island in September 2016QueensQueens (Queens County), on Long Island north and east of Brooklyn, is geographically the largest borough, the most ethnically diverse county in the United States,[164] and the most ethnically diverse urban area in the world.[165][166] Historically a collection of small towns and villages founded by the Dutch, the borough has since developed both commercial and residential prominence. Downtown Flushing has become one of the busiest central core neighborhoods in the outer boroughs. Queens is the site of Citi Field, the baseball stadium of the New York Mets, and hosts the annual U.S. Open tennis tournament at Flushing Meadows-Corona Park. Additionally, two of the three busiest airports serving the New York metropolitan area, John F. Kennedy International Airport and LaGuardia Airport, are located in Queens. The third is Newark Liberty International Airport in Newark, New Jersey. The BronxThe Bronx (Bronx County) is both New York City's northernmost borough, and the only one that is mostly on the mainland. It is the location of Yankee Stadium, the baseball park of the New York Yankees, and home to the largest cooperatively-owned housing complex in the United States, Co-op City.[167] It is also home to the Bronx Zoo, the world's largest metropolitan zoo,[168] which spans 265 acres (1.07 km2) and houses more than 6,000 animals.[169] The Bronx is also the birthplace of hip hop music and culture.[170] Pelham Bay Park is the largest park in New York City, at 2,772 acres (1,122 ha).[171] Staten IslandStaten Island (Richmond County) is the most suburban in character of the five boroughs. Staten Island is connected to Brooklyn by the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, and to Manhattan by way of the free Staten Island Ferry, a daily commuter ferry which provides unobstructed views of the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, and Lower Manhattan. In central Staten Island, the Staten Island Greenbelt spans approximately 2,500 acres (10 km2), including 28 miles (45 km) of walking trails and one of the last undisturbed forests in the city.[172] Designated in 1984 to protect the island's natural lands, the Greenbelt comprises seven city parks. The growing skyline of Long Island City, Queens (background),[173] facing the East River and Manhattan in May 2017The growing skyline of Long Island City, Queens (background),[173] facing the East River and Manhattan in May 2017 The Grand Concourse in the Bronx, foreground, with Manhattan in the background in February 2018The Grand Concourse in the Bronx, foreground, with Manhattan in the background in February 2018 St. George, Staten Island as seen from the Staten Island Ferry, the world's busiest passenger-only ferry system, shuttling passengers between Manhattan and Staten IslandSt. George, Staten Island as seen from the Staten Island Ferry, the world's busiest passenger-only ferry system, shuttling passengers between Manhattan and Staten Island ArchitectureFurther information: Architecture of New York City; List of buildings, sites, and monuments in New York City; List of tallest buildings in New York City; and List of hotels in New York City Clockwise, from upper left: the Empire State Building as a solitary icon of New York, defined by its setbacks, Art Deco details, and spire as the world's tallest building from 1931 to 1970; the Chrysler Building, built in 1930, also a Manhattan icon in the Art Deco style, with ornamental hubcaps and its spire; modernist architecture juxtaposed with Gothic Revival architecture in Midtown Manhattan; and landmark 19th-century rowhouses, including brownstones, on tree-lined Kent Street in the Greenpoint Historic District, BrooklynNew York has architecturally noteworthy buildings in a wide range of styles and from distinct time periods, from the Dutch Colonial Pieter Claesen Wyckoff House in Brooklyn, the oldest section of which dates to 1656, to the modern One World Trade Center, the skyscraper at Ground Zero in Lower Manhattan and the most expensive office tower in the world by construction cost.[174] Manhattan's skyline, with its many skyscrapers, is universally recognized, and the city has been home to several of the tallest buildings in the world. As of 2019, New York City had 6,455 high-rise buildings, the third most in the world after Hong Kong and Seoul.[175] Of these, as of 2011, 550 completed structures were at least 330 feet (100 m) high, with more than fifty completed skyscrapers taller than 656 feet (200 m). These include the Woolworth Building, an early example of Gothic Revival architecture in skyscraper design, built with massively scaled Gothic detailing; completed in 1913, for 17 years it was the world's tallest building.[176] The 1916 Zoning Resolution required setbacks in new buildings and restricted towers to a percentage of the lot size, to allow sunlight to reach the streets below.[177] The Art Deco style of the Chrysler Building (1930) and Empire State Building (1931), with their tapered tops and steel spires, reflected the zoning requirements. The buildings have distinctive ornamentation, such as the eagles at the corners of the 61st floor on the Chrysler Building, and are considered some of the finest examples of the Art Deco style.[178] A highly influential example of the international style in the United States is the Seagram Building (1957), distinctive for its façade using visible bronze-toned I-beams to evoke the building's structure. The Condé Nast Building (2000) is a prominent example of green design in American skyscrapers[179] and has received an award from the American Institute of Architects and AIA New York State for its design. The character of New York's large residential districts is often defined by the elegant brownstone rowhouses and townhouses and shabby tenements that were built during a period of rapid expansion from 1870 to 1930.[180] In contrast, New York City also has neighborhoods that are less densely populated and feature free-standing dwellings. In neighborhoods such as Riverdale (in the Bronx), Ditmas Park (in Brooklyn), and Douglaston (in Queens), large single-family homes are common in various architectural styles such as Tudor Revival and Victorian.[181][182][183] Stone and brick became the city's building materials of choice after the construction of wood-frame houses was limited in the aftermath of the Great Fire of 1835.[184] A distinctive feature of many of the city's buildings is the roof-mounted wooden water tower. In the 1800s, the city required their installation on buildings higher than six stories to prevent the need for excessively high water pressures at lower elevations, which could break municipal water pipes.[185] Garden apartments became popular during the 1920s in outlying areas, such as Jackson Heights.[186] According to the United States Geological Survey, an updated analysis of seismic hazard in July 2014 revealed a "slightly lower hazard for tall buildings" in New York City than previously assessed. Scientists estimated this lessened risk based upon a lower likelihood than previously thought of slow shaking near the city, which would be more likely to cause damage to taller structures from an earthquake in the vicinity of the city.[187] ClimateMain article: Climate of New York CityNew York CityClimate chart (explanation)JFMAMJJASOND 3.6 4028 3.2 4230 4.3 5036 4.1 6246 4 7155 4.5 8064 4.6 8570 4.6 8369 4.3 7662 4.4 6551 3.6 5442 4.4 4434Average max. and min. temperatures in °FPrecipitation totals in inchesMetric conversionUnder the Köppen climate classification, using the 0 °C (32 °F) isotherm, New York City features a humid subtropical climate (Cfa), and is thus the northernmost major city on the North American continent with this categorization. The suburbs to the immediate north and west lie in the transitional zone between humid subtropical and humid continental climates (Dfa).[188][189] By the Trewartha classification, the city is defined as having an oceanic climate (Do).[190][191] Annually, the city averages 234 days with at least some sunshine.[192] The city lies in the USDA 7b plant hardiness zone.[193] Central Park in Winter by Raymond Speers, in Munsey's Magazine, February 1900Winters are chilly and damp, and prevailing wind patterns that blow sea breezes offshore temper the moderating effects of the Atlantic Ocean; yet the Atlantic and the partial shielding from colder air by the Appalachian Mountains keep the city warmer in the winter than inland North American cities at similar or lesser latitudes such as Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, and Indianapolis. The daily mean temperature in January, the area's coldest month, is 33.3 °F (0.7 °C).[194] Temperatures usually drop to 10 °F (−12 °C) several times per winter,[195] yet can also reach 60 °F (16 °C) for several days even in the coldest winter month. Spring and autumn are unpredictable and can range from cool to warm, although they are usually mild with low humidity. Summers are typically hot and humid, with a daily mean temperature of 77.5 °F (25.3 °C) in July.[194] Nighttime temperatures are often enhanced due to the urban heat island effect. Daytime temperatures exceed 90 °F (32 °C) on average of 17 days each summer and in some years exceed 100 °F (38 °C), although this is a rare achievement, last occurring on July 18, 2012.[196] Similarly, readings of 0 °F (−18 °C) are also extremely rare, last occurring on February 14, 2016.[197] Extreme temperatures have ranged from −15 °F (−26 °C), recorded on February 9, 1934, up to 106 °F (41 °C) on July 9, 1936;[194] the coldest recorded wind chill was −37 °F (−38 °C) on the same day as the all-time record low.[198] The record cold daily maximum was 2 °F (−17 °C) on December 30, 1917, while, conversely, the record warm daily minimum was 87 °F (31 °C), on July 2, 1903.[196] The average water temperature of the nearby Atlantic Ocean ranges from 39.7 °F (4.3 °C) in February to 74.1 °F (23.4 °C) in August.[199] The city receives 49.5 inches (1,260 mm) of precipitation annually, which is relatively evenly spread throughout the year. Average winter snowfall between 1991 and 2020 has been 29.8 inches (76 cm); this varies considerably between years. Hurricanes and tropical storms are rare in the New York area.[200] Hurricane Sandy brought a destructive storm surge to New York City on the evening of October 29, 2012, flooding numerous streets, tunnels, and subway lines in Lower Manhattan and other areas of the city and cutting off electricity in many parts of the city and its suburbs.[201] The storm and its profound impacts have prompted the discussion of constructing seawalls and other coastal barriers around the shorelines of the city and the metropolitan area to minimize the risk of destructive consequences from another such event in the future.[202][203] The coldest month on record is January 1857, with a mean temperature of 19.6 °F (−6.9 °C) whereas the warmest months on record are July 1825 and July 1999, both with a mean temperature of 81.4 °F (27.4 °C).[204] The warmest years on record are 2012 and 2020, both with mean temperatures of 57.1 °F (13.9 °C). The coldest year is 1836, with a mean temperature of 47.3 °F (8.5 °C).[204][205] The driest month on record is June 1949, with 0.02 inches (0.51 mm) of rainfall. The wettest month was August 2011, with 18.95 inches (481 mm) of rainfall. The driest year on record is 1965, with 26.09 inches (663 mm) of rainfall. The wettest year was 1983, with 80.56 inches (2,046 mm) of rainfall.[206] The snowiest month on record is February 2010, with 36.9 inches (94 cm) of snowfall. The snowiest season (Jul–Jun) on record is 1995–1996, with 75.6 inches (192 cm) of snowfall. The least snowy season was 1972–1973, with 2.3 inches (5.8 cm) of snowfall.[207] The earliest seasonal trace of snowfall occurred on October 10, in both 1979 and 1925. The latest seasonal trace of snowfall occurred on May 9, in both 2020 and 1977.[208] vteClimate data for New York (Belvedere Castle, Central Park), 1991–2020 normals,[a] extremes 1869–present[b]Sea temperature data for New YorkSee or edit raw graph data. ParksA spherical sculpture and several attractions line a park during a World's Fair.Flushing Meadows–Corona Park was used in both the 1939 and 1964 New York World's Fair, with the Unisphere as the centerpiece of the latter and which remains today.The city of New York has a complex park system, with various lands operated by the National Park Service, the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, and the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation. In its 2018 ParkScore ranking, The Trust for Public Land reported that the park system in New York City was the ninth-best park system among the fifty most populous U.S. cities.[213] ParkScore ranks urban park systems by a formula that analyzes median park size, park acres as percent of city area, the percent of city residents within a half-mile of a park, spending of park services per resident, and the number of playgrounds per 10,000 residents. National parksMain article: National Park Service The Statue of Liberty on Liberty Island in New York Harbor is a symbol of the United States and its ideals of freedom, democracy, and opportunity.[23]Gateway National Recreation Area contains over 26,000 acres (110 km2) in total, most of it surrounded by New York City,[214] including the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge. In Brooklyn and Queens, the park contains over 9,000 acres (36 km2) of salt marsh, wetlands, islands, and water, including most of Jamaica Bay. Also in Queens, the park includes a significant portion of the western Rockaway Peninsula, most notably Jacob Riis Park and Fort Tilden. In Staten Island, Gateway National Recreation Area includes Fort Wadsworth, with historic pre-Civil War era Battery Weed and Fort Tompkins, and Great Kills Park, with beaches, trails, and a marina. The Statue of Liberty National Monument and Ellis Island Immigration Museum are managed by the National Park Service and are in both the states of New York and New Jersey. They are joined in the harbor by Governors Island National Monument, in New York. Historic sites under federal management on Manhattan Island include Castle Clinton National Monument; Federal Hall National Memorial; Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace National Historic Site; General Grant National Memorial ("Grant's Tomb"); African Burial Ground National Monument; and Hamilton Grange National Memorial. Hundreds of private properties are listed on the National Register of Historic Places or as a National Historic Landmark such as, for example, the Stonewall Inn, part of the Stonewall National Monument in Greenwich Village, as the catalyst of the modern gay rights movement.[119][120][121][122][123] State parksMain article: New York State ParksThere are seven state parks within the confines of New York City. Some of them include: The Clay Pit Ponds State Park Preserve is a natural area that includes extensive riding trails.Riverbank State Park is a 28-acre (11 ha) facility that rises 69 feet (21 m) over the Hudson River.[215]Marsha P. Johnson State Park is a state park in Brooklyn and Manhattan that borders the East River that was renamed in honor of Marsha P. Johnson.[216]City parksSee also: Parks and recreation in New York City View of The Pond and Midtown Manhattan from the Gapstow Bridge in Central Park, one of the world's most visited tourist attractions, in 2019New York City has over 28,000 acres (110 km2) of municipal parkland and 14 miles (23 km) of public beaches.[217] The largest municipal park in the city is Pelham Bay Park in the Bronx, with 2,772 acres (1,122 ha).[171][218] Central Park, an 843-acre (3.41 km2)[171] park in middle-upper Manhattan, is the most visited urban park in the United States and one of the most filmed locations in the world, with 40 million visitors in 2013.[219] The park has a wide range of attractions; there are several lakes and ponds, two ice-skating rinks, the Central Park Zoo, the Central Park Conservatory Garden, and the 106-acre (0.43 km2) Jackie Onassis Reservoir.[220] Indoor attractions include Belvedere Castle with its nature center, the Swedish Cottage Marionette Theater, and the historic Carousel. On October 23, 2012, hedge fund manager John A. Paulson announced a $100 million gift to the Central Park Conservancy, the largest ever monetary donation to New York City's park system.[221]Washington Square Park is a prominent landmark in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Lower Manhattan. The Washington Square Arch at the northern gateway to the park is an iconic symbol of both New York University and Greenwich Village.Prospect Park in Brooklyn has a 90-acre (36 ha) meadow, a lake, and extensive woodlands. Within the park is the historic Battle Pass, prominent in the Battle of Long Island.[222]Flushing Meadows–Corona Park in Queens, with its 897 acres (363 ha) making it the city's fourth largest park,[223] was the setting for the 1939 World's Fair and the 1964 World's Fair[224] and is host to the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center and the annual U.S. Open Tennis Championships tournament.[225] The Asia gate entrance to the Bronx Zoo, the world's largest metropolitan zoo.[168]Over a fifth of the Bronx's area, 7,000 acres (28 km2), is given over to open space and parks, including Pelham Bay Park, Van Cortlandt Park, the Bronx Zoo, and the New York Botanical Gardens.[226]In Staten Island, the Conference House Park contains the historic Conference House, site of the only attempt of a peaceful resolution to the American Revolution which was conducted in September 1775, attended by Benjamin Franklin representing the Americans and Lord Howe representing the British Crown.[227] The historic Burial Ridge, the largest Native American burial ground within New York City, is within the park.[228]Military installationsBrooklyn is home to Fort Hamilton, the U.S. military's only active duty installation within New York City,[229] aside from Coast Guard operations. The facility was established in 1825 on the site of a small battery utilized during the American Revolution, and it is one of America's longest serving military forts.[230] Today, Fort Hamilton serves as the headquarters of the North Atlantic Division of the United States Army Corps of Engineers and for the New York City Recruiting Battalion. It also houses the 1179th Transportation Brigade, the 722nd Aeromedical Staging Squadron, and a military entrance processing station. Other formerly active military reservations still utilized for National Guard and military training or reserve operations in the city include Fort Wadsworth in Staten Island and Fort Totten in Queens. DemographicsHistorical populationYearPop.±%16984,937— 17125,840+18.3%17237,248+24.1%173710,664+47.1%174611,717+9.9%175613,046+11.3%177121,863+67.6%179049,401+126.0%180079,216+60.4%1810119,734+51.1%1820152,056+27.0%1830242,278+59.3%1840391,114+61.4%1850696,115+78.0%18601,174,779+68.8%18701,478,103+25.8%18801,911,698+29.3%18902,507,414+31.2%19003,437,202+37.1%19104,766,883+38.7%19205,620,048+17.9%19306,930,446+23.3%19407,454,995+7.6%19507,891,957+5.9%19607,781,984−1.4%19707,894,862+1.5%19807,071,639−10.4%19907,322,564+3.5%20008,008,278+9.4%20108,175,133+2.1%20208,804,190+7.7%Note: Census figures (1790–2010) cover the present area of all five boroughs, before and after the 1898 consolidation. For New York City itself before annexing part of the Bronx in 1874, see Manhattan#Demographics.[231]Source: U.S. Decennial Census;[232]1698–1771[233] 1790–1890[231][234]1900–1990[235] 2000–2010[236][237][238]2010–2020[4]Main articles: Demographics of New York City, New York City ethnic enclaves, and Demographic profile of New York CityHistorical demographics2020[239]2010[240]1990[241]1970[241]1940[241]New York City is the most populous city in the United States,[242] with 8,804,190 residents[4] incorporating more immigration into the city than outmigration since the 2010 United States census.[243][244] More than twice as many people live in New York City as compared to Los Angeles, the second-most populous U.S. city,[242] and within a smaller area. New York City gained more residents between 2010 and 2020 (629,000) than any other U.S. city, and a greater amount than the total sum of the gains over the same decade of the next four largest U.S. cities, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, and Phoenix, Arizona combined.[245][246] New York City's population is about 44% of New York State's population,[247] and about 39% of the population of the New York metropolitan area.[248] The majority of New York City residents in 2020 (5,141,538, or 58.4%) were living on Long Island, in Brooklyn, or in Queens.[249] Population densityLooking at crowds down BroadwayLooking down Broadway in Midtown Manhattan. New York City had an estimated population density of 29,302.37 inhabitants per square mile (11,313.71/km2) in 2020, as the most densely populated major U.S. city. Manhattan (New York County) alone was home to 74,870.7 inhabitants per square mile (28,907.7/km2), rendering it the most densely populated municipality in the United States.In 2020, the city had an estimated population density of 29,302.37 inhabitants per square mile (11,313.71/km2), rendering it the nation's most densely populated of all larger municipalities (those with more than 100,000 residents), with several small cities (of fewer than 100,000) in adjacent Hudson County, New Jersey having greater density, as per the 2010 census.[250] Geographically co-extensive with New York County, the borough of Manhattan's 2017 population density of 72,918 inhabitants per square mile (28,154/km2) makes it the highest of any county in the United States and higher than the density of any individual American city.[251][252][253][254] The next three densest counties in the United States, placing second through fourth, are also New York boroughs: Brooklyn, the Bronx, and Queens respectively.[255] Race and ethnicityFurther information: Category:Ethnic groups in New York City, Bangladeshis in New York City, Caribbeans in New York City, Chinese in New York City, Filipinos in New York City, Fuzhounese in New York City, Indians in New York City, Irish in New York City, Italians in New York City, Japanese in New York City, Koreans in New York City, Puerto Ricans in New York City, Russians in New York City, and Ukrainians in New York City The Spanish Harlem Orchestra. New York City is home to nearly 3 million Latino Americans, the largest Hispanic population of any city outside Latin America and Spain.The city's population in 2020 was 30.9% White (non-Hispanic), 28.7% Hispanic or Latino, 20.2% Black or African American (non-Hispanic), 15.6% Asian, and 0.2% Native American (non-Hispanic).[256] A total of 3.4% of the non-Hispanic population identified with more than one race. Throughout its history, New York has been a major port of entry for immigrants into the United States. More than 12 million European immigrants were received at Ellis Island between 1892 and 1924.[257] The term "melting pot" was first coined to describe densely populated immigrant neighborhoods on the Lower East Side. By 1900, Germans constituted the largest immigrant group, followed by the Irish, Jews, and Italians.[258] In 1940, Whites represented 92% of the city's population.[241] Approximately 37% of the city's population is foreign born, and more than half of all children are born to mothers who are immigrants as of 2013.[259][260] In New York, no single country or region of origin dominates.[259] The ten largest sources of foreign-born individuals in the city as of 2011 were the Dominican Republic, China, Mexico, Guyana, Jamaica, Ecuador, Haiti, India, Russia, and Trinidad and Tobago,[261] while the Bangladeshi-born immigrant population has become one of the fastest growing in the city, counting over 74,000 by 2011.[17][262] Clockwise, from upper left: the Manhattan Chinatown; Lower Manhattan's Little Italy; Upper Manhattan's Spanish Harlem; Little India, Queens; Brooklyn's Little Russia; Midtown Manhattan's KoreatownAsian Americans in New York City, according to the 2010 census, number more than one million, greater than the combined totals of San Francisco and Los Angeles.[263] New York contains the highest total Asian population of any U.S. city proper.[264] The New York City borough of Queens is home to the state's largest Asian American population and the largest Andean (Colombian, Ecuadorian, Peruvian, and Bolivian) populations in the United States, and is also the most ethnically diverse urban area in the world.[165][166] The Chinese population constitutes the fastest-growing nationality in New York State; multiple satellites of the original Manhattan Chinatown, in Brooklyn, and around Flushing, Queens, are thriving as traditionally urban enclaves—while also expanding rapidly eastward into suburban Nassau County[265] on Long Island,[266] as the New York metropolitan region and New York State have become the top destinations for new Chinese immigrants, respectively, and large-scale Chinese immigration continues into New York City and surrounding areas,[267][268][269][270][271][272] with the largest metropolitan Chinese diaspora outside Asia,[17][273] including an estimated 812,410 individuals in 2015.[274] In 2012, 6.3% of New York City was of Chinese ethnicity, with nearly three-fourths living in either Queens or Brooklyn, geographically on Long Island.[275] A community numbering 20,000 Korean-Chinese (Chaoxianzu or Joseonjok) is centered in Flushing, Queens, while New York City is also home to the largest Tibetan population outside China, India, and Nepal, also centered in Queens.[276] Koreans made up 1.2% of the city's population, and Japanese 0.3%. Filipinos were the largest Southeast Asian ethnic group at 0.8%, followed by Vietnamese, who made up 0.2% of New York City's population in 2010. Indians are the largest South Asian group, comprising 2.4% of the city's population, with Bangladeshis and Pakistanis at 0.7% and 0.5%, respectively.[277] Queens is the preferred borough of settlement for Asian Indians, Koreans, Filipinos and Malaysians,[278][267] and other Southeast Asians;[279] while Brooklyn is receiving large numbers of both West Indian and Asian Indian immigrants. New York City has the largest European and non-Hispanic White population of any American city. At 2.7 million in 2012, New York's non-Hispanic White population is larger than the non-Hispanic White populations of Los Angeles (1.1 million), Chicago (865,000), and Houston (550,000) combined.[280] The non-Hispanic White population was 6.6 million in 1940.[281] The non-Hispanic White population has begun to increase since 2010.[282] The European diaspora residing in the city is very diverse. According to 2012 census estimates, there were roughly 560,000 Italian Americans, 385,000 Irish Americans, 253,000 German Americans, 223,000 Russian Americans, 201,000 Polish Americans, and 137,000 English Americans. Additionally, Greek and French Americans numbered 65,000 each, with those of Hungarian descent estimated at 60,000 people. Ukrainian and Scottish Americans numbered 55,000 and 35,000, respectively. People identifying ancestry from Spain numbered 30,838 total in 2010.[283] People of Norwegian and Swedish descent both stood at about 20,000 each, while people of Czech, Lithuanian, Portuguese, Scotch-Irish, and Welsh descent all numbered between 12,000 and 14,000.[284] Arab Americans number over 160,000 in New York City,[285] with the highest concentration in Brooklyn. Central Asians, primarily Uzbek Americans, are a rapidly growing segment of the city's non-Hispanic White population, enumerating over 30,000, and including more than half of all Central Asian immigrants to the United States,[286] most settling in Queens or Brooklyn. Albanian Americans are most highly concentrated in the Bronx.[287] The wider New York City metropolitan statistical area, with more than twenty million people, about fifty percent more than second-place Los Angeles,[288] is also ethnically diverse,[289] with the largest foreign-born population of any metropolitan region in the world. The New York region continues to be by far the leading metropolitan gateway for legal immigrants admitted into the United States, substantially exceeding the combined totals of Los Angeles and Miami.[267] It is home to the largest Jewish and Israeli communities outside Israel, with the Jewish population in the region numbering over 1.5 million in 2012 and including many diverse Jewish sects, predominantly from around the Middle East and Eastern Europe, and including a rapidly growing Orthodox Jewish population, the largest outside Israel.[276] The metropolitan area is also home to 20% of the nation's Indian Americans and at least 20 Little India enclaves, and 15% of all Korean Americans and four Koreatowns;[290] the largest Asian Indian population in the Western Hemisphere; the largest Russian American,[268] Italian American, and African American populations; the largest Dominican American, Puerto Rican American, and South American[268] and second-largest overall Hispanic population in the United States, numbering 4.8 million;[283] and includes multiple established Chinatowns within New York City alone.[291] Ecuador, Colombia, Guyana, Peru, and Brazil were the top source countries from South America for legal immigrants to the New York City region in 2013; the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Haiti, and Trinidad and Tobago in the Caribbean; Egypt, Ghana, and Nigeria from Africa; and El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala in Central America.[292] Amidst a resurgence of Puerto Rican migration to New York City, this population had increased to approximately 1.3 million in the metropolitan area as of 2013. In 2022, New York City began receiving thousands of Latino immigrants bused from the state of Texas, mostly originating from Venezuela, Ecuador, Columbia, and Honduras.[293] Since 2010, Little Australia has emerged and is growing rapidly, representing the Australasian presence in Nolita, Manhattan.[294][295][296][297] In 2011, there were an estimated 20,000 Australian residents of New York City, nearly quadruple the 5,537 in 2005.[298][299] Qantas Airways of Australia and Air New Zealand have been exploring the possibilities of long-haul flights from New York to Sydney and Auckland, respectively, which would both rank among the longest non-stop flights in the world.[300] A Little Sri Lanka has developed in the Tompkinsville neighborhood of Staten Island.[301] Le Petit Sénégal, or Little Senegal, is based in Harlem. Richmond Hill, Queens is often thought of as "Little Guyana" for its large Guyanese community,[302] as well as Punjab Avenue (ਪੰਜਾਬ ਐਵੇਨਿਊ), or Little Punjab, for its high concentration of Punjabi people. Little Poland is expanding rapidly in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Sexual orientation and gender identityMain articles: LGBT culture in New York City, Stonewall riots, NYC Pride March, and List of LGBT people from New York CityFurther information: New York City Drag March, Queens Liberation Front, Queens Pride Parade, and Same-sex marriage in New York Clockwise, from upper left: Philippine-born Geena Rocero introducing International Transgender Day of Visibility; Caribbean NYC-LGBTQ Equality Project; Spectators at a BDSM street fair in Lower Manhattan; the Multicultural Festival at the 2018 Queens Pride Parade; NYC Pride March in Manhattan, the world's largest;[28][303] and the NYC Dyke March, the world’s largest celebration of lesbian pride and culture[304]The New York metropolitan area is home to about 570,000 self-identifying gay and bisexual people, the largest in the United States and one of the world's largest.[305][306] Same-sex sexual activity between consenting adults has been legal in New York since the New York v. Onofre case in 1980 which invalidated the state's sodomy law.[307] Same-sex marriages in New York were legalized on June 24, 2011, and were authorized to take place on July 23, 2011.[308] Brian Silverman, the author of Frommer's New York City from $90 a Day, wrote the city has "one of the world's largest, loudest, and most powerful LGBT communities", and "Gay and lesbian culture is as much a part of New York's basic identity as yellow cabs, high-rise buildings, and Broadway theatre".[309] LGBT travel guide Queer in the World states, "The fabulosity of Gay New York is unrivaled on Earth, and queer culture seeps into every corner of its five boroughs".[310] LGBT advocate and entertainer Madonna stated metaphorically, "Anyways, not only is New York City the best place in the world because of the queer people here. Let me tell you something, if you can make it here, then you must be queer."[311] The annual New York City Pride March (or gay pride parade) traverses southward down Fifth Avenue and ends at Greenwich Village in Lower Manhattan; the parade rivals the Sao Paulo Gay Pride Parade as the largest pride parade in the world, attracting tens of thousands of participants and millions of sidewalk spectators each June.[312][28] The annual Queens Pride Parade is held in Jackson Heights and is accompanied by the ensuing Multicultural Parade.[313] Stonewall 50 – WorldPride NYC 2019 was the largest international Pride celebration in history, produced by Heritage of Pride and enhanced through a partnership with the I ❤ NY program's LGBT division, commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall uprising, with 150,000 participants and five million spectators attending in Manhattan alone.[314] New York City is also home to the largest transgender population in the world, estimated at more than 50,000 in 2018, concentrated in Manhattan and Queens; however, until the June 1969 Stonewall riots, this community had felt marginalized and neglected by the gay community.[313][124] Brooklyn Liberation March, the largest transgender-rights demonstration in LGBTQ history, took place on June 14, 2020, stretching from Grand Army Plaza to Fort Greene, Brooklyn, focused on supporting Black transgender lives, drawing an estimated 15,000 to 20,000 participants.[315][316] ReligionReligious affiliation (2014)[317][318]Christian 59%Catholic 33%Protestant 23%Other Christian 3%Unaffiliated 24%Jewish 8%Hindu 3%Muslim 3%Buddhist 1%Other faiths 1%ChristianityFurther information: St. Patrick's Cathedral (Midtown Manhattan), Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree, and Christmas in New York The landmark Neo-Gothic Roman Catholic St. Patrick's Cathedral, Midtown ManhattanLargely a result of Western European missionary work and colonialism, Christianity is the largest religion in New York City.[317] Roman Catholicism is the largest Christian denomination (33%), followed by Protestantism (23%), and other Christians (3%). The Roman Catholic population are primarily served by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York and Diocese of Brooklyn. Eastern Catholics are divided into numerous jurisdictions throughout the city. Evangelical Protestantism is the largest branch of Protestantism in the city (9%), followed by Mainline Protestantism (8%), while the converse is usually true for other cities and metropolitan areas.[318] In Evangelicalism, Baptists are the largest group; in Mainline Protestantism, Reformed Protestants compose the largest subset. The majority of historically African American churches are affiliated with the National Baptist Convention (USA) and Progressive National Baptist Convention. The Church of God in Christ is one of the largest predominantly Black Pentecostal denominations in the area. Approximately 1% of the population is Mormon. The Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America and other Orthodox Christians (mainstream and independent) were the largest Eastern Christian groups. The American Orthodox Catholic Church (initially led by Aftimios Ofiesh) was founded in New York City in 1927. JudaismMain article: Judaism in New York City Ultra-Orthodox Jewish residents in Brooklyn, nicknamed "the most Jewish spot on Earth",[319] and home to the largest Jewish community outside Israel, with approximately 600,000 adherents living in the borough[320]Judaism, with approximately 1.1 million adherents,[321][322] more than half of whom live in Brooklyn, is the second largest religion practiced in New York City and represents the largest metropolitan Jewish population outside Tel Aviv, Israel.[320][319] The ethno-religious population makes up 18.4% of the city and its religious demographic makes up 8%.[323] The first recorded Jewish settler was Jacob Barsimson, who arrived in August 1654 on a passport from the Dutch West India Company.[324] Following the assassination of Alexander II of Russia, for which many blamed "the Jews", the 36 years beginning in 1881 experienced the largest wave of Jewish immigration to the United States.[325] In 2012, the largest Jewish denominations were Orthodox, Haredi, and Conservative Judaism.[326] Reform Jewish communities are prevalent through the area. Congregation Emanu-El of New York in Manhattan is the largest Reform synagogue in the world. Islam The Islamic Cultural Center of New York in Upper Manhattan was the first mosque built in New York City.Main article: Islam in New York CityIslam ranks as the third largest religion in New York City, following Christianity and Judaism, with estimates ranging between 600,000 and 1,000,000 observers of Islam, including 10% of the city's public school children.[327] Approximately 22.3% of American Muslims live in New York City, with 1.5 million Muslims in the greater New York metropolitan area representing the largest metropolitan Muslim population in the Western Hemisphere.[328] Powers Street Mosque in Brooklyn is one of the oldest continuously operating mosques in the U.S., and represents the first Islamic organization in both the city and the state of New York.[329][330] Hinduism and other religious affiliationsFurther information: Hindu Temple Society of North America Ganesh Temple in Flushing, Queens, is the oldest Hindu temple in the Western Hemisphere.Following these three largest religious groups in New York City are Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, Zoroastrianism, and a variety of other religions, as well as atheism. In 2014, 24% of New Yorkers identified with no organized religious affiliation; a little over 3% of New Yorkers were atheist.[317] Wealth and income disparityNew York City, like other large cities, has a high degree of income disparity, as indicated by its Gini coefficient of 0.55 as of 2017.[331] In the first quarter of 2014, the average weekly wage in New York County (Manhattan) was $2,749, representing the highest total among large counties in the United States.[332] As of 2017, New York City was home to the highest number of billionaires of any city in the world at 103,[333] including former Mayor Michael Bloomberg.[334] New York also had the highest density of millionaires per capita among major U.S. cities in 2014, at 4.6% of residents.[335] New York City is one of the relatively few American cities levying an income tax (about 3%) on its residents.[336][337][338] As of 2018, there were 78,676 homeless people in New York City.[339] EconomyMain article: Economy of New York CityFurther information: Economy of Long Island and Economy of New York StateTop publicly traded companies in New York City(ranked by 2015 revenues) with city and US ranks NYCCorporationUS1Verizon Communications132JPMorgan Chase233Citigroup294MetLife405American International Group496Pfizer (pharmaceuticals)557New York Life618Goldman Sachs749Morgan Stanley7810TIAA (Teachers Ins. & Annuity)8211INTL FCStone8312American Express85Every firm's revenue exceeded $30 billionFinancial services firms in greenFull table at Economy of New York CitySource: Fortune 500[340]New York City is a global hub of business and commerce and an established safe haven for global investors,[14] and is sometimes described as the capital of the world. The city is a center for worldwide banking and finance, retailing, world trade, transportation, tourism, real estate, new media, traditional media, advertising, legal services, accountancy, insurance, theater, fashion, and the arts in the United States; while Silicon Alley, metonymous for New York's broad-spectrum high technology sphere, continues to expand. The Port of New York and New Jersey is also a major economic engine, handling record cargo volume in 2017, over 6.7 million TEUs.[341] Many Fortune 500 corporations are headquartered in New York City,[342] as are a large number of multinational corporations. One out of ten private sector jobs in the city is with a foreign company.[343] New York City has been ranked first among cities across the globe in attracting capital, business, and tourists.[344][345] New York City's role as the top global center for the advertising industry is metonymously reflected as "Madison Avenue".[346] The city's fashion industry provides approximately 180,000 employees with $11 billion in annual wages.[347] Other important economic sectors include medical research and technology, non-profit institutions, and universities. Manufacturing accounts for a significant but declining share of employment. The city's apparel and garment industry, historically centered on the Garment District in Manhattan, peaked in 1950, when more than 323,000 workers were employed in the industry in New York. In 2015, fewer than 23,000 New York City residents were employed in the manufacture of garments, accessories, and finished textiles, although efforts to revive the industry were underway.[348] Food processing is a $5 billion industry that employs more than 19,000 residents. Chocolate is New York City's leading specialty-food export, with up to $234 million worth of exports each year.[349] Entrepreneurs were forming a "Chocolate District" in Brooklyn as of 2014,[350] while Godiva, one of the world's largest chocolatiers, continues to be headquartered in Manhattan.[351] Wall StreetMain article: Wall Streetsee captionThe Financial District of Lower Manhattan including Wall Street, the world's principal financial center[352]New York City's most important economic sector lies in its role as the headquarters for the U.S. financial industry, metonymously known as Wall Street. The city's securities industry continues to form the largest segment of the city's financial sector and is an important economic engine. Many large financial companies are headquartered in New York City, and the city is also home to a burgeoning number of financial startup companies. Lower Manhattan is home to the New York Stock Exchange, at 11 Wall Street, and the Nasdaq, at 165 Broadway, representing the world's largest and second largest stock exchanges, respectively, when measured both by overall average daily trading volume and by total market capitalization of their listed companies in 2013.[353][354] Investment banking fees on Wall Street totaled approximately $40 billion in 2012,[355] while in 2013, senior New York City bank officers who manage risk and compliance functions earned as much as $324,000 annually.[356] In fiscal year 2013–14, Wall Street's securities industry generated 19% of New York State's tax revenue.[357] New York City remains the largest global center for trading in public equity and debt capital markets, driven in part by the size and financial development of the U.S. economy.[358]: 31–32 [359] New York also leads in hedge fund management; private equity; and the monetary volume of mergers and acquisitions. Several investment banks and investment managers headquartered in Manhattan are important participants in other global financial centers.[358]: 34–35  New York is also the principal commercial banking center of the United States.[360] Many of the world's largest media conglomerates are also based in the city. Manhattan contained over 500 million square feet (46.5 million m2) of office space in 2018,[361] making it the largest office market in the United States,[362] while Midtown Manhattan, with 400 million square feet (37.2 million m2) in 2018,[361] is the largest central business district in the world.[363] Tech and biotechFurther information: Tech:NYC, Tech companies in New York City, Biotech companies in New York City, and Silicon AlleySilicon Alley, centered in New York, has evolved into a metonym for the sphere encompassing the metropolitan region's high technology industries[364] involving the internet, new media, financial technology (fintech) and cryptocurrency, telecommunications, digital media, software development, biotechnology, game design, and other fields within information technology that are supported by its entrepreneurship ecosystem and venture capital investments. High technology startup companies and employment are growing in New York City and the region. The technology sector has been claiming a greater share of New York City's economy since 2010.[365] Tech:NYC, founded in 2016, is a non-profit organization which represents New York City's technology industry with government, civic institutions, in business, and in the media, and whose primary goals are to further augment New York's substantial tech talent base and to advocate for policies that will nurture tech companies to grow in the city.[366] The biotechnology sector is also growing in New York City, based upon the city's strength in academic scientific research and public and commercial financial support. On December 19, 2011, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg announced his choice of Cornell University and Technion-Israel Institute of Technology to build a $2 billion graduate school of applied sciences called Cornell Tech on Roosevelt Island with the goal of transforming New York City into the world's premier technology capital.[367][368] By mid-2014, Accelerator, a biotech investment firm, had raised more than $30 million from investors, including Eli Lilly and Company, Pfizer, and Johnson & Johnson, for initial funding to create biotechnology startups at the Alexandria Center for Life Science, which encompasses more than 700,000 square feet (65,000 m2) on East 29th Street and promotes collaboration among scientists and entrepreneurs at the center and with nearby academic, medical, and research institutions. The New York City Economic Development Corporation's Early Stage Life Sciences Funding Initiative and venture capital partners, including Celgene, General Electric Ventures, and Eli Lilly, committed a minimum of $100 million to help launch 15 to 20 ventures in life sciences and biotechnology.[369] Real estate The Deutsche Bank Center as viewed from Central Park WestReal estate is a major force in the city's economy, as the total value of all New York City property was assessed at US$1.072 trillion for the 2017 fiscal year, an increase of 10.6% from the previous year, with 89% of the increase coming from market effects.[370] The Deutsche Bank Center is the property with the highest-listed market value in the city, at $1.1 billion in 2006.[370] New York City is home to some of the nation's—and the world's—most valuable real estate. 450 Park Avenue was sold on July 2, 2007, for $510 million, about $1,589 per square foot ($17,104/m2), breaking the barely month-old record for an American office building of $1,476 per square foot ($15,887/m2) set in the June 2007 sale of 660 Madison Avenue.[371] In 2014, Manhattan was home to six of the top ten ZIP codes in the United States by median housing price.[372] Fifth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan commands the highest retail rents in the world, at $3,000 per square foot ($32,000/m2) in 2017.[373] In 2019, the most expensive home sale ever in the United States achieved completion in Manhattan, at a selling price of $238 million, for a 24,000 square feet (2,200 m2) penthouse apartment overlooking Central Park.[374] In 2022, one-bedroom apartments in Manhattan rented at a median monthly price of US$3,600.00, one of the world's highest. TourismMain article: Tourism in New York City Times Square is the hub of the Broadway theater district and a media center. It also has one of the highest annual attendance rates of any tourist attraction in the world, estimated at 50 million.[29]Tourism is a vital industry for New York City, which has witnessed a growing combined volume of international and domestic tourists, receiving an eighth consecutive annual record of approximately 62.8 million visitors in 2017.[375] Tourism had generated an all-time high $61.3 billion in overall economic impact for New York City in 2014,[375] pending 2015 statistics. Approximately 12 million visitors to New York City were from outside the United States, with the highest numbers from the United Kingdom, Canada, Brazil, and China. The I Love New York logo, designed by Milton Glaser in 1977I Love New York (stylized I ❤ NY) is both a logo and a song that are the basis of an advertising campaign and have been used since 1977 to promote tourism in New York City,[376] and later to promote New York State as well. The trademarked logo, owned by New York State Empire State Development,[377] appears in souvenir shops and brochures throughout the city and state, some licensed, many not. The song is the state song of New York. Major tourist destinations in Manhattan include Times Square; Broadway theater productions; the Empire State Building; the Statue of Liberty; Ellis Island; the United Nations Headquarters; the World Trade Center (including the National September 11 Museum and One World Trade Center); the art museums along Museum Mile; green spaces such as Central Park and Washington Square Park; the Stonewall Inn; Rockefeller Center; ethnic enclaves including the Manhattan Chinatown, Koreatown, Curry Hill, Harlem, Spanish Harlem, Little Italy, and Little Australia; luxury shopping along Fifth and Madison Avenues; and events such as the Halloween Parade in Greenwich Village; the Brooklyn Bridge (shared with Brooklyn); the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade; the lighting of the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree; the St. Patrick's Day parade; seasonal activities such as ice skating in Central Park in the wintertime; the Tribeca Film Festival; and free performances in Central Park at Summerstage.[378] Points of interest in the boroughs outside Manhattan include numerous ethnic enclaves; Flushing Meadows-Corona Park and the Unisphere in Queens; the Bronx Zoo; Coney Island, Brooklyn; and the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx. Manhattan was on track to have an estimated 90,000 hotel rooms at the end of 2014, a 10% increase from 2013.[379] In October 2014, the Anbang Insurance Group, based in China, purchased the Waldorf Astoria New York for $1.95 billion, making it the world's most expensive hotel ever sold.[380] Media and entertainmentMain article: Media in New York CityFurther information: New Yorkers in journalism Rockefeller Center is one of Manhattan's media and entertainment hubs.New York City has been described as the digital media capital of the world.[381][382] The city is a prominent location for the American entertainment industry, with many films, television series, books, and other media being set there.[383] As of 2012, New York City was the second largest center for filmmaking and television production in the United States, producing about 200 feature films annually, employing 130,000 individuals. The filmed entertainment industry has been growing in New York, contributing nearly $9 billion to the New York City economy alone as of 2015.[384] By volume, New York is the world leader in independent film production—one-third of all American independent films are produced there.[385][386] The Association of Independent Commercial Producers is also based in New York.[387] In the first five months of 2014 alone, location filming for television pilots in New York City exceeded the record production levels for all of 2013,[388] with New York surpassing Los Angeles as the top North American city for the same distinction during the 2013–2014 cycle.[389] New York City is the center for the advertising, music, newspaper, digital media, and publishing industries and is also the largest media market in North America.[390] Some of the city's media conglomerates and institutions include Warner Bros. Discovery, the Thomson Reuters Corporation, the Associated Press, Bloomberg L.P., the News Corp, The New York Times Company, NBCUniversal, the Hearst Corporation, AOL, Fox Corporation, and Paramount Global. Seven of the world's top eight global advertising agency networks have their headquarters in New York.[391] Two of the top three record labels' headquarters are in New York: Sony Music Entertainment and Warner Music Group. Universal Music Group also has offices in New York. New media enterprises are contributing an increasingly important component to the city's central role in the media sphere. Times Square Studios is situated at the "Crossroads of the World".More than 200 newspapers and 350 consumer magazines have an office in the city,[386] and the publishing industry employs about 25,000 people.[392] Two of the three national daily newspapers with the largest circulations in the United States are published in New York: The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times, which has won the most Pulitzer Prizes for journalism and is considered the U.S. media's "newspaper of record".[393] Tabloid newspapers in the city include The New York Daily News, which was founded in 1919 by Joseph Medill Patterson,[394] and The New York Post, founded in 1801 by Alexander Hamilton.[395] The city also has a comprehensive ethnic press, with 270 newspapers and magazines published in more than 40 languages.[396] El Diario La Prensa is New York's largest Spanish-language daily and the oldest in the nation.[397] The New York Amsterdam News, published in Harlem, is a prominent African American newspaper. The Village Voice, historically the largest alternative newspaper in the United States, announced in 2017 that it would cease publication of its print edition and convert to a fully digital venture.[398] The television and radio industry developed in New York and is a significant employer in the city's economy. The three major American broadcast networks are all headquartered in New York: ABC, CBS, and NBC. Many cable networks are based in the city as well, including CNN, MSNBC, MTV, Fox News, HBO, Showtime, Bravo, Food Network, AMC, and Comedy Central. News 12 Networks operated News 12 The Bronx and News 12 Brooklyn. The City of New York operates a public broadcast service, NYC Media,[399] which has produced several original Emmy Award-winning shows covering music and culture in city neighborhoods and city government. WBAI, with news and information programming, is one of the few socialist radio stations operating in the United States. New York is also a major center for non-commercial educational media. The oldest public-access television channel in the United States is the Manhattan Neighborhood Network, founded in 1971.[400] WNET is the city's major public television station and a primary source of national Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) television programming. WNYC, a public radio station owned by the city until 1997, has the largest public radio audience in the United States.[401] EducationMain article: Education in New York CityPrimary and secondary educationThe New York City Public Schools system, managed by the New York City Department of Education, is the largest public school system in the United States, serving about 1.1 million students in more than 1,700 separate primary and secondary schools.[402] The city's public school system includes nine specialized high schools to serve academically and artistically gifted students. The city government pays the Pelham Public Schools to educate a very small, detached section of the Bronx.[403] The New York City Charter School Center assists the setup of new charter schools.[404] There are approximately 900 additional privately run secular and religious schools in the city.[405] Higher education and research Butler Library at Columbia University, described as one of the most beautiful college libraries in the United States[406] The Washington Square Arch, an unofficial icon of both New York University (NYU) and its Greenwich Village neighborhoodMore than a million students, the highest number of any city in the United States,[407] are enrolled in New York City's more than 120 higher education institutions, with more than half a million in the City University of New York (CUNY) system alone as of 2020, including both degree and professional programs.[408] According to Academic Ranking of World Universities, New York City has, on average, the best higher education institutions of any global city.[409] The public CUNY system is one of the largest universities in the nation, comprising 25 institutions across all five boroughs: senior colleges, community colleges, and other graduate/professional schools. The public State University of New York (SUNY) system includes campuses in New York City, including: Downstate Health Sciences University, Fashion Institute of Technology, Maritime College, and the College of Optometry. New York City is home to such notable private universities as Barnard College, Columbia University, Cooper Union, Fordham University, New York University, New York Institute of Technology, Rockefeller University, and Yeshiva University; several of these universities are ranked among the top universities in the world,[410][411] while some of the world's most prestigious instituions like Princeton University and Yale University remain in the New York metropolitan area. The city also hosts other smaller private colleges and universities, including many religious and special-purpose institutions, such as: Pace University, St. John's University, The Juilliard School, Manhattan College, Adelphi University - Manhattan, Mercy College (New York), The College of Mount Saint Vincent, Parsons School of Design, The New School, Pratt Institute, New York Film Academy, The School of Visual Arts, The King's College, Marymount Manhattan College, and Wagner College. Much of the scientific research in the city is done in medicine and the life sciences. In 2019, the New York metropolitan area ranked first on the list of cities and metropolitan areas by share of published articles in life sciences.[412] New York City has the most postgraduate life sciences degrees awarded annually in the United States, with 127 Nobel laureates having roots in local institutions as of 2005;[413] while in 2012, 43,523 licensed physicians were practicing in New York City.[414] Major biomedical research institutions include Memorial Sloan–Kettering Cancer Center, Rockefeller University, SUNY Downstate Medical Center, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, and Weill Cornell Medical College, being joined by the Cornell University/Technion-Israel Institute of Technology venture on Roosevelt Island. The graduates of SUNY Maritime College in the Bronx earned the highest average annual salary of any university graduates in the United States, $144,000 as of 2017.[415] Human resourcesPublic healthMain articles: New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation and New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene New York-Presbyterian Hospital, affiliated with Columbia University and Cornell University, the largest hospital and largest private employer in New York City and one of the world's busiest[416]The New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation (HHC) operates the public hospitals and clinics in New York City. A public benefit corporation with $6.7 billion in annual revenues, HHC is the largest municipal healthcare system in the United States serving 1.4 million patients, including more than 475,000 uninsured city residents.[417] HHC was created in 1969 by the New York State Legislature as a public benefit corporation (Chapter 1016 of the Laws 1969).[418] HHC operates 11 acute care hospitals, five nursing homes, six diagnostic and treatment centers, and more than 70 community-based primary care sites, serving primarily the poor and working class. HHC's MetroPlus Health Plan is one of the New York area's largest providers of government-sponsored health insurance and is the plan of choice for nearly half a million New Yorkers.[419] HHC's facilities annually provide millions of New Yorkers services interpreted in more than 190 languages.[420] The most well-known hospital in the HHC system is Bellevue Hospital, the oldest public hospital in the United States. Bellevue is the designated hospital for treatment of the President of the United States and other world leaders if they become sick or injured while in New York City.[421] The president of HHC is Ramanathan Raju, MD, a surgeon and former CEO of the Cook County health system in Illinois.[422] In August 2017, Mayor Bill de Blasio signed legislation outlawing pharmacies from selling cigarettes once their existing licenses to do so expired, beginning in 2018.[423] Public safetyPolice and law enforcementMain articles: New York City Police Department and Law enforcement in New York CityFurther information: Police surveillance in New York City and Crime in New York City The New York Police Department (NYPD) is the largest police force in the United States.The New York Police Department (NYPD) has been the largest police force in the United States by a significant margin, with more than 35,000 sworn officers.[424] Members of the NYPD are frequently referred to by politicians, the media, and their own police cars by the nickname, New York's Finest. Crime overall has trended downward in New York City since the 1990s.[425] In 2012, the NYPD came under scrutiny for its use of a stop-and-frisk program,[426][427][428] which has undergone several policy revisions since then. In 2014, New York City had the third lowest murder rate among the largest U.S. cities,[429] having become significantly safer after a spike in crime in the 1970s through 1990s.[430] Violent crime in New York City decreased more than 75% from 1993 to 2005, and continued decreasing during periods when the nation as a whole saw increases.[431] By 2002, New York City was ranked 197th in crime among the 216 U.S. cities with populations greater than 100,000.[431] In 1992, the city recorded 2,245 murders.[432] In 2005, the homicide rate was at its lowest level since 1966,[433] and in 2009, the city recorded fewer than 461 homicides for the first time ever since crime statistics were first published in 1963.[432] In 2017, 60.1% of violent crime suspects were Black, 29.6% Hispanic, 6.5% White, 3.6% Asian and 0.2% American Indian.[434] New York City experienced 292 homicides in 2017.[435] Police officers of New York Police Department (NYPD)Sociologists and criminologists have not reached consensus on the explanation for the dramatic long-term decrease in the city's crime rate. Some attribute the phenomenon to new tactics used by the NYPD,[436] including its use of CompStat and the broken windows theory.[437] Others cite the end of the crack epidemic and demographic changes,[438] including from immigration.[439] Another theory is that widespread exposure to lead pollution from automobile exhaust, which can lower intelligence and increase aggression levels, incited the initial crime wave in the mid-20th century, most acutely affecting heavily trafficked cities like New York. A strong correlation was found demonstrating that violent crime rates in New York and other big cities began to fall after lead was removed from American gasoline in the 1970s.[440] Another theory cited to explain New York City's falling homicide rate is the inverse correlation between the number of murders and the increasingly wet climate in the city.[441] Organized crime has long been associated with New York City, beginning with the Forty Thieves and the Roach Guards in the Five Points neighborhood in the 1820s, followed by the Tongs in the same neighborhood, which ultimately evolved into Chinatown, Manhattan. The 20th century saw a rise in the Mafia, dominated by the Five Families, as well as in gangs, including the Black Spades.[442] The Mafia and gang presence has declined in the city in the 21st century.[443][444] FirefightingMain article: New York City Fire Department The Fire Department of New York (FDNY) is the largest municipal fire department in the United States.The Fire Department of New York (FDNY) provides fire protection, technical rescue, primary response to biological, chemical, and radioactive hazards, and emergency medical services for the five boroughs of New York City. The FDNY is the largest municipal fire department in the United States and the second largest in the world after the Tokyo Fire Department. The FDNY employs approximately 11,080 uniformed firefighters and more than 3,300 uniformed EMTs and paramedics. The FDNY's motto is New York's Bravest. The fire department faces multifaceted firefighting challenges in many ways unique to New York. In addition to responding to building types that range from wood-frame single family homes to high-rise structures, the FDNY also responds to fires that occur in the New York City Subway.[445] Secluded bridges and tunnels, as well as large parks and wooded areas that can give rise to brush fires, also present challenges. The FDNY headquarters is located at 9 MetroTech Center in Downtown Brooklyn,[446] and the FDNY Fire Academy is located on Randalls Island.[447] There are three Bureau of Fire Communications alarm offices which receive and dispatch alarms to appropriate units. One office, at 11 Metrotech Center in Brooklyn, houses Manhattan/Citywide, Brooklyn, and Staten Island Fire Communications; the Bronx and Queens offices are in separate buildings. Public library system The Stephen A. Schwarzman Headquarters Building of the New York Public Library, at 5th Avenue and 42nd StreetThe New York Public Library (NYPL), which has the largest collection of any public library system in the United States, serves Manhattan, the Bronx, and Staten Island.[448] Queens is served by the Queens Borough Public Library (QPL), the nation's second largest public library system, while the Brooklyn Public Library (BPL) serves Brooklyn.[448] In 2013, the New York Public Library and the Brooklyn Public Library announced that they would merge their technical services departments into a new department called BookOps. This proposed merger anticipated a savings of $2 million for the Brooklyn Public Library and $1.5 million for the New York Public Library. Although not currently part of the merger, it is expected that the Queens Public Library will eventually share some resources with the other city libraries.[449][450] Culture and contemporary lifeMain article: Culture of New York CityFurther information: Broadway theatre, LGBT culture in New York City, List of museums and cultural institutions in New York City, Music of New York City, List of nightclubs in New York City, List of LGBT people from New York City, List of people from New York City, New York Fashion Week, and Met GalaNew York City has been described as the cultural capital of the world by Manhattan's Baruch College.[451] A book containing a series of essays titled New York, Culture Capital of the World, 1940–1965 has also been published as showcased by the National Library of Australia.[452] In describing New York, author Tom Wolfe said, "Culture just seems to be in the air, like part of the weather."[453] Numerous major American cultural movements began in the city, such as the Harlem Renaissance, which established the African-American literary canon in the United States.[454][455] The city became the center of stand-up comedy in the early 20th century, jazz[456] in the 1940s, abstract expressionism in the 1950s, and the birthplace of hip hop in the 1970s.[457] The city's punk[458] and hardcore[459] scenes were influential in the 1970s and 1980s. New York has long had a flourishing scene for Jewish American literature. The city is the birthplace of many cultural movements, including the Harlem Renaissance in literature and visual art; abstract expressionism (also known as the New York School) in painting; and hip hop,[170] punk, salsa, freestyle, Tin Pan Alley, certain forms of jazz, and (along with Philadelphia) disco in music. New York City has been considered the dance capital of the world.[460][461] The city is also frequently the setting for novels, movies (see List of films set in New York City), and television programs. New York Fashion Week is one of the world's preeminent fashion events and is afforded extensive coverage by the media.[462][463] New York has also frequently been ranked the top fashion capital of the world on the annual list compiled by the Global Language Monitor.[464] Pace The fast-paced streets of New York City, January 2020One of the most common traits attributed to New York City is its fast pace,[465][466][467] which spawned the term New York minute.[468] Journalist Walt Whitman characterized New York's streets as being traversed by "hurrying, feverish, electric crowds".[467] ArtsNew York City has more than 2,000 arts and cultural organizations and more than 500 art galleries.[469] The city government funds the arts with a larger annual budget than the National Endowment for the Arts.[469] Wealthy business magnates in the 19th century built a network of major cultural institutions, such as Carnegie Hall and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which have become internationally renowned. The advent of electric lighting led to elaborate theater productions, and in the 1880s, New York City theaters on Broadway and along 42nd Street began featuring a new stage form that became known as the Broadway musical. Strongly influenced by the city's immigrants, productions such as those of Harrigan and Hart, George M. Cohan, and others used song in narratives that often reflected themes of hope and ambition. New York City itself is the subject or background of many plays and musicals. Performing artsMain articles: Broadway theatre and Music of New York CityThe corner of a lit up plaza with a fountain in the center and the ends of two brightly lit buildings with tall arches on the square.Lincoln Center for the Performing ArtsBroadway theatre is one of the premier forms of English-language theatre in the world, named after Broadway, the major thoroughfare that crosses Times Square,[470] also sometimes referred to as "The Great White Way".[471][472][473] Forty-one venues in Midtown Manhattan's Theatre District, each with at least 500 seats, are classified as Broadway theatres. According to The Broadway League, Broadway shows sold approximately $1.27 billion worth of tickets in the 2013–2014 season, an 11.4% increase from $1.139 billion in the 2012–2013 season. Attendance in 2013–2014 stood at 12.21 million, representing a 5.5% increase from the 2012–2013 season's 11.57 million.[474] Performance artists displaying diverse skills are ubiquitous on the streets of Manhattan. Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, anchoring Lincoln Square on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, is home to numerous influential arts organizations, including the Metropolitan Opera, New York City Opera, New York Philharmonic, and New York City Ballet, as well as the Vivian Beaumont Theater, the Juilliard School, Jazz at Lincoln Center, and Alice Tully Hall. The Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute is in Union Square, and Tisch School of the Arts is based at New York University, while Central Park SummerStage presents free music concerts in Central Park.[475] The Metropolitan Museum of Art, part of Museum Mile, is one of the largest museums in the world.[476]Visual artsMain article: List of museums and cultural institutions in New York CityNew York City is home to hundreds of cultural institutions and historic sites. Museum Mile is the name for a section of Fifth Avenue running from 82nd to 105th streets on the Upper East Side of Manhattan,[477] in an area sometimes called Upper Carnegie Hill.[478] The Mile, which contains one of the densest displays of culture in the world, is actually three blocks longer than one mile (1.6 km). Ten museums occupy the length of this section of Fifth Avenue.[479] The tenth museum, the Museum for African Art, joined the ensemble in 2009, although its museum at 110th Street, the first new museum constructed on the Mile since the Guggenheim in 1959,[480] opened in late 2012. In addition to other programming, the museums collaborate for the annual Museum Mile Festival, held each year in June, to promote the museums and increase visitation.[481] Many of the world's most lucrative art auctions are held in New York City.[482][483] CuisineMain articles: Cuisine of New York City and List of restaurants in New York CityPeople crowd around white tents in the foreground next to a red brick wall with arched windows. Above and to the left is a towering stone bridge.Smorgasburg opened in 2011 as an open-air food market and is part of the Brooklyn Flea.[484]New York City's food culture includes an array of international cuisines influenced by the city's immigrant history. Central and Eastern European immigrants, especially Jewish immigrants from those regions, brought bagels, cheesecake, hot dogs, knishes, and delicatessens (or delis) to the city. Italian immigrants brought New York-style pizza and Italian cuisine into the city, while Jewish immigrants and Irish immigrants brought pastrami[485] and corned beef,[486] respectively. Chinese and other Asian restaurants, sandwich joints, trattorias, diners, and coffeehouses are ubiquitous throughout the city. Some 4,000 mobile food vendors licensed by the city, many immigrant-owned, have made Middle Eastern foods such as falafel and kebabs[487] examples of modern New York street food. The city is home to "nearly one thousand of the finest and most diverse haute cuisine restaurants in the world", according to Michelin.[488] The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene assigns letter grades to the city's restaurants based upon their inspection results.[489] As of 2019, there were 27,043 restaurants in the city, up from 24,865 in 2017.[490] The Queens Night Market in Flushing Meadows–Corona Park attracts more than ten thousand people nightly to sample food from more than 85 countries.[491] Parades Clockwise, from upper left: the annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, the world's largest parade;[492] the annual Halloween Parade in Greenwich Village; the annual Philippine Independence Day Parade; and the ticker-tape parade for the Apollo 11 astronautsNew York City is well known for its street parades, which celebrate a broad array of themes, including holidays, nationalities, human rights, and major league sports team championship victories. The majority of parades are held in Manhattan. The primary orientation of the annual street parades is typically from north to south, marching along major avenues. The annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade is the world's largest parade,[492] beginning alongside Central Park and processing southward to the flagship Macy's Herald Square store;[493] the parade is viewed on telecasts worldwide and draws millions of spectators in person.[492] Other notable parades including the annual New York City St. Patrick's Day Parade in March, the LGBT Pride March in June, the Greenwich Village Halloween Parade in October, and numerous parades commemorating the independence days of many nations. Ticker-tape parades celebrating championships won by sports teams as well as other heroic accomplishments march northward along the Canyon of Heroes on Broadway from Bowling Green to City Hall Park in Lower Manhattan. Accent and dialectMain articles: New York City English and New York accentThe New York area is home to a distinctive regional speech pattern called the New York dialect, alternatively known as Brooklynese or New Yorkese. It has generally been considered one of the most recognizable accents within American English.[494] The traditional New York area accent is characterized as non-rhotic, so that the sound [ɹ] does not appear at the end of a syllable or immediately before a consonant; therefore the pronunciation of the city name as "New Yawk."[495] There is no [ɹ] in words like park [pɑək] or [pɒək] (with vowel backed and diphthongized due to the low-back chain shift), butter [bʌɾə], or here [hiə]. In another feature called the low back chain shift, the [ɔ] vowel sound of words like talk, law, cross, chocolate, and coffee and the often homophonous [ɔr] in core and more are tensed and usually raised more than in General American English. In the most old-fashioned and extreme versions of the New York dialect, the vowel sounds of words like "girl" and of words like "oil" became a diphthong [ɜɪ]. This is often misperceived by speakers of other accents as a reversal of the er and oy sounds, so that girl is pronounced "goil" and oil is pronounced "erl"; this leads to the caricature of New Yorkers saying things like "Joizey" (Jersey), "Toidy-Toid Street" (33rd St.) and "terlet" (toilet).[495] The character Archie Bunker from the 1970s television sitcom All in the Family was an example of having used this pattern of speech. The classic version of the New York City dialect is generally centered on middle and working-class New Yorkers. The influx of non-European immigrants in recent decades has led to changes in this distinctive dialect,[495] and the traditional form of this speech pattern is no longer as prevalent among general New Yorkers as it has been in the past.[495] SportsMain article: Sports in the New York metropolitan areaThree runners in a race down a street where onlookers are cheering behind barriers.The New York Marathon is the largest marathon in the world.[496]A tennis stadium pack with fans watching a grass court.The U.S. Open Tennis Championships are held every August and September in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, Queens.A baseball stadium from behind home plate in the evening.Citi Field, also in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, has been home to the New York Mets since 2009. Yankee Stadium in The Bronx is home to the New York Yankees and New York City FC. Madison Square Garden in Midtown Manhattan is home to the New York Knicks, New York Rangers, and St. John's Red Storm.New York City is home to the headquarters of the National Football League,[497] Major League Baseball,[498] the National Basketball Association,[499] the National Hockey League,[500] and Major League Soccer.[501] The New York metropolitan area hosts the most sports teams in the four major North American professional sports leagues with nine, one more than Los Angeles, and has 11 top-level professional sports teams if Major League Soccer is included, also one more than Los Angeles. Participation in professional sports in the city predates all professional leagues, and the city has been continuously hosting professional sports since the birth of the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1882. The city has played host to more than forty major professional teams in the five sports and their respective competing leagues. Four of the ten most expensive stadiums ever built worldwide (MetLife Stadium, the new Yankee Stadium, Madison Square Garden, and Citi Field) are located in the New York metropolitan area.[502] Madison Square Garden, its predecessor, the original Yankee Stadium and Ebbets Field, are sporting venues located in New York City, the latter two having been commemorated on U.S. postage stamps. New York was the first of eight American cities to have won titles in all four major leagues (MLB, NHL, NFL and NBA), having done so following the Knicks' 1970 title. In 1972, it became the first city to win titles in five sports when the Cosmos won the NASL final. New York has been described as the "Capital of Baseball".[503] There have been 35 Major League Baseball World Series and 73 pennants won by New York teams. It is one of only five metro areas (Los Angeles, Chicago, Baltimore–Washington, and the San Francisco Bay Area being the others) to have two baseball teams. Additionally, there have been 14 World Series in which two New York City teams played each other, known as a Subway Series and occurring most recently in 2000. No other metropolitan area has had this happen more than once (Chicago in 1906, St. Louis in 1944, and the San Francisco Bay Area in 1989). The city's two Major League Baseball teams are the New York Mets, who play at Citi Field in Queens,[504] and the New York Yankees, who play at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx. These teams compete in six games of interleague play every regular season that has also come to be called the Subway Series. The Yankees have won a record 27 championships,[505] while the Mets have won the World Series twice.[506] The city also was once home to the Brooklyn Dodgers (now the Los Angeles Dodgers), who won the World Series once,[507] and the New York Giants (now the San Francisco Giants), who won the World Series five times. Both teams moved to California in 1958.[508] There is also one Minor League Baseball team in the city, the Mets-affiliated Brooklyn Cyclones,[509] and the city will gain a club in the independent Atlantic League when the Staten Island FerryHawks begin play in 2022.[510] The city is represented in the National Football League by the New York Giants and the New York Jets, although both teams play their home games at MetLife Stadium in nearby East Rutherford, New Jersey,[511] which hosted Super Bowl XLVIII in 2014.[512] The metropolitan area is home to three National Hockey League teams. The New York Rangers, the traditional representative of the city itself and one of the league's Original Six, play at Madison Square Garden in Manhattan. The New York Islanders, traditionally representing Nassau and Suffolk Counties of Long Island, play in UBS Arena in Elmont, New York, and played in Brooklyn's Barclays Center from 2015 to 2020. The New Jersey Devils play at Prudential Center in nearby Newark, New Jersey and traditionally represent the counties of neighboring New Jersey which are coextensive with the boundaries of the New York metropolitan area and media market. The city's National Basketball Association teams are the Brooklyn Nets (previously known as the New York Nets and New Jersey Nets as they moved around the metropolitan area) and the New York Knicks, while the New York Liberty is the city's Women's National Basketball Association team. The first national college-level basketball championship, the National Invitation Tournament, was held in New York in 1938 and remains in the city.[513] The city is well known for its links to basketball, which is played in nearly every park in the city by local youth, many of whom have gone on to play for major college programs and in the NBA. In soccer, New York City is represented by New York City FC of Major League Soccer, who play their home games at Yankee Stadium[514] and the New York Red Bulls, who play their home games at Red Bull Arena in nearby Harrison, New Jersey.[515] NJ/NY Gotham FC also plays their home games in Red Bull Arena, representing the metropolitan area in the National Women's Soccer League. Historically, the city is known for the New York Cosmos, the highly successful former professional soccer team which was the American home of Pelé. A new version of the New York Cosmos was formed in 2010, and most recently played in the third-division National Independent Soccer Association before going on hiatus in January 2021. New York will be one of eleven US host cities for the 2026 FIFA World Cup. The annual United States Open Tennis Championships is one of the world's four Grand Slam tennis tournaments and is held at the National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, Queens.[516] The New York City Marathon, which courses through all five boroughs, is the world's largest running marathon,[496] with 51,394 finishers in 2016[517] and 98,247 applicants for the 2017 race.[496] The Millrose Games is an annual track and field meet whose featured event is the Wanamaker Mile. Boxing is also a prominent part of the city's sporting scene, with events like the Amateur Boxing Golden Gloves being held at Madison Square Garden each year.[518] The city is also considered the host of the Belmont Stakes, the last, longest and oldest of horse racing's Triple Crown races, held just over the city's border at Belmont Park on the first or second Sunday of June. The city also hosted the 1932 U.S. Open golf tournament and the 1930 and 1939 PGA Championships, and has been host city for both events several times, most notably for nearby Winged Foot Golf Club. The Gaelic games are played in Riverdale, Bronx at Gaelic Park, home to the New York GAA, the only North American team to compete at the senior inter-county level. EnvironmentMain article: Environmental issues in New York CityTwo yellow taxis on a narrow street lined with shops.As of 2012, the city had about 6,000 hybrid taxis (shown) in service, the largest number of any city in North America.[519]Environmental issues in New York City are affected by the city's size, density, abundant public transportation infrastructure, and location at the mouth of the Hudson River. For example, it is both one of the country's biggest sources of pollution, and has the lowest per-capita greenhouse gas emissions rate and electricity usage. Environmental impact reductionNew York City has focused on reducing its environmental impact and carbon footprint.[520] Mass transit use in New York City is the highest in the United States. Also, by 2010, the city had 3,715 hybrid taxis and other clean diesel vehicles, representing around 28% of New York's taxi fleet in service, the most of any city in North America.[521] New York City is the host of Climate Week NYC, the largest Climate Week to take place globally and regarded as major annual climate summit. New York's high rate of public transit use, more than 200,000 daily cyclists as of 2014,[522] and many pedestrian commuters make it the most energy-efficient major city in the United States.[523] Walk and bicycle modes of travel account for 21% of all modes for trips in the city; nationally the rate for metro regions is about 8%.[524] In both its 2011 and 2015 rankings, Walk Score named New York City the most walkable large city in the United States,[525][526][527] and in 2018, Stacker ranked New York the most walkable U.S. city.[528] Citibank sponsored the introduction of 10,000 public bicycles for the city's bike-share project in the summer of 2013.[529] New York City's numerical "in-season cycling indicator" of bicycling in the city had hit an all-time high of 437 when measured in 2014.[530] The city government was a petitioner in the landmark Massachusetts v. Environmental Protection Agency Supreme Court case forcing the EPA to regulate greenhouse gases as pollutants. The city is a leader in the construction of energy-efficient green office buildings, including the Hearst Tower among others.[179] Mayor Bill de Blasio has committed to an 80% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions between 2014 and 2050 to reduce the city's contributions to climate change, beginning with a comprehensive "Green Buildings" plan.[520] Water purity and availabilityMain articles: Food and water in New York City and New York City water supply systemThe New York City drinking water supply is extracted from the protected Catskill Mountains watershed.[531] As a result of the watershed's integrity and undisturbed natural water filtration system, New York is one of only four major cities in the United States the majority of whose drinking water is pure enough not to require purification through water treatment plants.[532] The city's municipal water system is the largest in the United States, moving over one billion gallons of water per day;[533] a leak in the Delaware aqueduct results in some 20 million gallons a day being lost under the Hudson River.[534] The Croton Watershed north of the city is undergoing construction of a $3.2 billion water purification plant to augment New York City's water supply by an estimated 290 million gallons daily, representing a greater than 20% addition to the city's current availability of water.[535] The ongoing expansion of New York City Water Tunnel No. 3, an integral part of the New York City water supply system, is the largest capital construction project in the city's history,[536] with segments serving Manhattan and the Bronx completed, and with segments serving Brooklyn and Queens planned for construction in 2020.[537] In 2018, New York City announced a $1 billion investment to protect the integrity of its water system and to maintain the purity of its unfiltered water supply.[533] Air qualityAccording to the 2016 World Health Organization Global Urban Ambient Air Pollution Database,[538] the annual average concentration in New York City's air of particulate matter measuring 2.5 micrometers or less (PM2.5) was 7.0 micrograms per cubic meter, or 3.0 micrograms within the recommended limit of the WHO Air Quality Guidelines for the annual mean PM2.5.[539] The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, in partnership with Queens College, conducts the New York Community Air Survey to measure pollutants at about 150 locations.[540] Environmental revitalizationNewtown Creek, a 3.5-mile (6-kilometer) a long estuary that forms part of the border between the boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens, has been designated a Superfund site for environmental clean-up and remediation of the waterway's recreational and economic resources for many communities.[541] One of the most heavily used bodies of water in the Port of New York and New Jersey, it had been one of the most contaminated industrial sites in the country,[542] containing years of discarded toxins, an estimated 30 million US gallons (110,000 m3) of spilled oil, including the Greenpoint oil spill, raw sewage from New York City's sewer system,[542] and other accumulation. Government and politicsMain articles: Government of New York City and Politics of New York CityGovernment New York City Hall is the oldest City Hall in the United States that still houses its original governmental functions.New York City has been a metropolitan municipality with a Strong mayor–council form of government[543] since its consolidation in 1898. In New York City, the city government is responsible for public education, correctional institutions, public safety, recreational facilities, sanitation, water supply, and welfare services. The mayor and council members are elected to four-year terms. The City Council is a unicameral body consisting of 51 council members whose districts are defined by geographic population boundaries.[544] Each term for the mayor and council members lasts four years and has a two consecutive-term limit,[545] which is reset after a four-year break. The New York City Administrative Code, the New York City Rules, and the City Record are the code of local laws, compilation of regulations, and official journal, respectively.[546][547] The New York County Courthouse houses the New York Supreme Court and other offices.Each borough is coextensive with a judicial district of the state Unified Court System, of which the Criminal Court and the Civil Court are the local courts, while the New York Supreme Court conducts major trials and appeals. Manhattan hosts the First Department of the Supreme Court, Appellate Division while Brooklyn hosts the Second Department. There are also several extrajudicial administrative courts, which are executive agencies and not part of the state Unified Court System. Uniquely among major American cities, New York is divided between, and is host to the main branches of, two different U.S. district courts: the District Court for the Southern District of New York, whose main courthouse is on Foley Square near City Hall in Manhattan and whose jurisdiction includes Manhattan and the Bronx; and the District Court for the Eastern District of New York, whose main courthouse is in Brooklyn and whose jurisdiction includes Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and U.S. Court of International Trade are also based in New York, also on Foley Square in Manhattan. Politics Eric Adams, the current and 110th Mayor of New York CityThe present mayor is Eric Adams. He was elected in 2021 with 67% of the vote, and assumed office on January 1, 2022. The Democratic Party holds the majority of public offices. As of April 2016, 69% of registered voters in the city are Democrats and 10% are Republicans.[548] New York City has not been carried by a Republican in a statewide or presidential election since President Calvin Coolidge won the five boroughs in 1924. In 2012, Democrat Barack Obama became the first presidential candidate of any party to receive more than 80% of the overall vote in New York City, sweeping all five boroughs. Party platforms center on affordable housing, education, and economic development, and labor politics are of importance in the city. Thirteen out of 27 U.S. congressional districts in the state of New York include portions of New York City.[549] New York is one of the most important sources of political fundraising in the United States. At least four of the top five ZIP Codes in the nation for political contributions were in Manhattan for the 2004, 2006, and 2008 elections. The top ZIP Code, 10021 on the Upper East Side, generated the most money for the 2004 presidential campaigns of George W. Bush and John Kerry.[550] The city has a strong imbalance of payments with the national and state governments. It receives 83 cents in services for every $1 it sends to the federal government in taxes (or annually sends $11.4 billion more than it receives back). City residents and businesses also sent an additional $4.1 billion in the 2009–2010 fiscal year to the state of New York than the city received in return.[551] TransportationMain article: Transportation in New York CityA row of yellow taxis in front of a multi-story ornate stone building with three huge arched windows.New York City is home to the two busiest train stations in the U.S., including Grand Central Terminal.New York City's comprehensive transportation system is both complex and extensive. Rapid transitMass transit in New York City, most of which runs 24 hours a day, accounts for one in every three users of mass transit in the United States, and two-thirds of the nation's rail riders live in the New York City metropolitan area.[552][553] RailThe iconic New York City Subway system is the largest rapid transit system in the world when measured by stations in operation, with 472, and by length of routes. Nearly all of New York's subway system is open 24 hours a day, in contrast to the overnight shutdown common to systems in most cities, including Hong Kong,[554][555] London, Paris, Seoul,[556][557] and Tokyo. The New York City Subway is also the busiest metropolitan rail transit system in the Western Hemisphere, with 1.76 billion passenger rides in 2015,[558] while Grand Central Terminal, also referred to as "Grand Central Station", is the world's largest railway station by number of train platforms. The front end of a subway train, with a red E on a LED display on the top. To the right of the train is a platform with a group of people waiting for their train.The New York City Subway is the world's largest rapid transit system by number of stations.Public transport is essential in New York City. 54.6% of New Yorkers commuted to work in 2005 using mass transit.[559] This is in contrast to the rest of the United States, where 91% of commuters travel in automobiles to their workplace.[560] According to the New York City Comptroller, workers in the New York City area spend an average of 6 hours and 18 minutes getting to work each week, the longest commute time in the nation among large cities.[561] New York is the only U.S. city in which a majority (52%) of households do not have a car; only 22% of Manhattanites own a car.[562] Due to their high usage of mass transit, New Yorkers spend less of their household income on transportation than the national average, saving $19 billion annually on transportation compared to other urban Americans.[563] New York City's commuter rail network is the largest in North America.[552] The rail network, connecting New York City to its suburbs, consists of the Long Island Rail Road, Metro-North Railroad, and New Jersey Transit. The combined systems converge at Grand Central Terminal and Pennsylvania Station and contain more than 250 stations and 20 rail lines.[552] In Queens, the elevated AirTrain people mover system connects 24 hours a day JFK International Airport to the New York City Subway and the Long Island Rail Road; a separate AirTrain system is planned alongside the Grand Central Parkway to connect LaGuardia Airport to these transit systems.[564][565] For intercity rail, New York City is served by Amtrak, whose busiest station by a significant margin is Pennsylvania Station on the West Side of Manhattan, from which Amtrak provides connections to Boston, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C. along the Northeast Corridor, and long-distance train service to other North American cities.[566] The Staten Island Railway rapid transit system solely serves Staten Island, operating 24 hours a day. The Port Authority Trans-Hudson (PATH train) links Midtown and Lower Manhattan to northeastern New Jersey, primarily Hoboken, Jersey City, and Newark. Like the New York City Subway, the PATH operates 24 hours a day; meaning three of the six rapid transit systems in the world which operate on 24-hour schedules are wholly or partly in New York (the others are a portion of the Chicago 'L', the PATCO Speedline serving Philadelphia, and the Copenhagen Metro). Multibillion-dollar heavy rail transit projects under construction in New York City include the Second Avenue Subway, and the East Side Access project.[567] Buses The Port Authority Bus Terminal, the world's busiest bus station, at 8th Avenue and 42nd Street[568]New York City's public bus fleet runs 24/7 and is the largest in North America.[569] The Port Authority Bus Terminal, the main intercity bus terminal of the city, serves 7,000 buses and 200,000 commuters daily, making it the busiest bus station in the world.[568] AirNew York's airspace is the busiest in the United States and one of the world's busiest air transportation corridors. The three busiest airports in the New York metropolitan area include John F. Kennedy International Airport, Newark Liberty International Airport, and LaGuardia Airport; 130.5 million travelers used these three airports in 2016.[570] JFK and Newark Liberty were the busiest and fourth busiest U.S. gateways for international air passengers, respectively, in 2012; as of 2011, JFK was the busiest airport for international passengers in North America.[571] Five jumbo airplanes wait in a line on a runway next to a small body of water. Behind them in the distance is the airport and control tower.John F. Kennedy Airport in Queens, the busiest international air passenger gateway to the United StatesPlans have advanced to expand passenger volume at a fourth airport, Stewart International Airport near Newburgh, New York, by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.[572] Plans were announced in July 2015 to entirely rebuild LaGuardia Airport in a multibillion-dollar project to replace its aging facilities.[573] Other commercial airports in or serving the New York metropolitan area include Long Island MacArthur Airport, Trenton–Mercer Airport and Westchester County Airport. The primary general aviation airport serving the area is Teterboro Airport. Ferries The Staten Island Ferry shuttles commuters between Manhattan and Staten Island.The Staten Island Ferry is the world's busiest ferry route, carrying more than 23 million passengers from July 2015 through June 2016 on the 5.2-mile (8.4 km) route between Staten Island and Lower Manhattan and running 24 hours a day.[574] Other ferry systems shuttle commuters between Manhattan and other locales within the city and the metropolitan area. NYC Ferry, a NYCEDC initiative with routes planned to travel to all five boroughs, was launched in 2017, with second graders choosing the names of the ferries.[575] Meanwhile, Seastreak ferry announced construction of a 600-passenger high-speed luxury ferry in September 2016, to shuttle riders between the Jersey Shore and Manhattan, anticipated to start service in 2017; this would be the largest vessel in its class.[576] Taxis, vehicles for hire, and tramsSee also: Taxicabs of New York City Yellow medallion taxicabs are widely recognized icons of the city.Other features of the city's transportation infrastructure encompass 13,587 yellow taxicabs;[577] other vehicle for hire companies;[578][579] and the Roosevelt Island Tramway, an aerial tramway that transports commuters between Roosevelt Island and Manhattan Island. Streets and highways 8th Avenue, looking northward ("uptown"). Most streets and avenues in Manhattan's grid plan incorporate a one-way traffic configuration.Despite New York's heavy reliance on its vast public transit system, streets are a defining feature of the city. The Commissioners' Plan of 1811 greatly influenced the city's physical development. Several of the city's streets and avenues, including Broadway,[580] Wall Street,[581] Madison Avenue,[346] and Seventh Avenue are also used as metonyms for national industries there: the theater, finance, advertising, and fashion organizations, respectively. New York City also has an extensive web of freeways and parkways, which link the city's boroughs to each other and to North Jersey, Westchester County, Long Island, and southwestern Connecticut through various bridges and tunnels. Because these highways serve millions of outer borough and suburban residents who commute into Manhattan, it is quite common for motorists to be stranded for hours in traffic congestion that are a daily occurrence, particularly during rush hour.[582][583] Congestion pricing in New York City will go into effect in 2022 at the earliest.[584][585][586] New York City is also known for its rules regarding turning at red lights. Unlike the rest of the United States, New York State prohibits right or left turns on red in cities with a population greater than one million, to reduce traffic collisions and increase pedestrian safety. In New York City, therefore, all turns at red lights are illegal unless a sign permitting such maneuvers is present.[587] River crossings The George Washington Bridge, connecting Upper Manhattan (background) from Fort Lee, New Jersey across the Hudson River, is the world's busiest motor vehicle bridge.[588][589]New York City is located on one of the world's largest natural harbors,[590] and the boroughs of Manhattan and Staten Island are primarily coterminous with islands of the same names, while Queens and Brooklyn are located at the west end of the larger Long Island, and the Bronx is located on New York State's mainland. This situation of boroughs separated by water led to the development of an extensive infrastructure of bridges and tunnels. The George Washington Bridge is the world's busiest motor vehicle bridge,[588][589] connecting Manhattan to Bergen County, New Jersey. The Verrazano-Narrows Bridge is the longest suspension bridge in the Americas and one of the world's longest.[591][592] The Brooklyn Bridge is an icon of the city itself. The towers of the Brooklyn Bridge are built of limestone, granite, and Rosendale cement, and their architectural style is neo-Gothic, with characteristic pointed arches above the passageways through the stone towers. This bridge was also the longest suspension bridge in the world from its opening until 1903, and is the first steel-wire suspension bridge. The Queensboro Bridge is an important piece of cantilever architecture. The Manhattan Bridge, opened in 1909, is considered to be the forerunner of modern suspension bridges, and its design served as the model for many of the long-span suspension bridges around the world; the Manhattan Bridge, Throgs Neck Bridge, Triborough Bridge, and Verrazano-Narrows Bridge are all examples of structural expressionism.[593][594] Manhattan Island is linked to New York City's outer boroughs and New Jersey by several tunnels as well. The Lincoln Tunnel, which carries 120,000 vehicles a day under the Hudson River between New Jersey and Midtown Manhattan, is the busiest vehicular tunnel in the world.[595] The tunnel was built instead of a bridge to allow unfettered passage of large passenger and cargo ships that sailed through New York Harbor and up the Hudson River to Manhattan's piers. The Holland Tunnel, connecting Lower Manhattan to Jersey City, New Jersey, was the world's first mechanically ventilated vehicular tunnel when it opened in 1927.[596][597] The Queens-Midtown Tunnel, built to relieve congestion on the bridges connecting Manhattan with Queens and Brooklyn, was the largest non-federal project in its time when it was completed in 1940.[598] President Franklin D. Roosevelt was the first person to drive through it.[599] The Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel (officially known as the Hugh L. Carey Tunnel) runs underneath Battery Park and connects the Financial District at the southern tip of Manhattan to Red Hook in Brooklyn. Cycling networkMain article: Cycling in New York CityCycling in New York City is associated with mixed cycling conditions that include urban density, relatively flat terrain, congested roadways with "stop-and-go" traffic, and many pedestrians. The city's large cycling population includes utility cyclists, such as delivery and messenger services; cycling clubs for recreational cyclists; and increasingly commuters.[600] Cycling is increasingly popular in New York City; in 2017 there were approximately 450,000 daily bike trips, compared with 170,000 daily bike trips in 2005.[601] As of 2017, New York City had 1,333 miles (2,145 km) of bike lanes, compared to 513 miles (826 km) of bike lanes in 2006.[601] As of 2019, there are 126 miles (203 km) of segregated or "protected" bike lanes citywide.[602] Notable peopleMain article: List of people from New York CityGlobal outreachMain article: List of sister cities of New York CityIn 2006, the Sister City Program of the City of New York, Inc.[603] was restructured and renamed New York City Global Partners. Through this program, New York City has expanded its international outreach to a network of cities worldwide, promoting the exchange of ideas and innovation between their citizenry and policymakers. New York's historic sister cities are denoted below by the year they joined New York City's partnership network.[604]The Farm Security Administration (FSA) was a New Deal agency created in 1937 to combat rural poverty during the Great Depression in the United States. It succeeded the Resettlement Administration (1935–1937).[1] The FSA is famous for its small but highly influential photography program, 1935–44, that portrayed the challenges of rural poverty. The photographs in the FSA/Office of War Information Photograph Collection form an extensive pictorial record of American life between 1935 and 1944. This U.S. government photography project was headed for most of its existence by Roy Stryker, who guided the effort in a succession of government agencies: the Resettlement Administration (1935–1937), the Farm Security Administration (1937–1942), and the Office of War Information (1942–1944). The collection also includes photographs acquired from other governmental and nongovernmental sources, including the News Bureau at the Offices of Emergency Management (OEM), various branches of the military, and industrial corporations.[2] In total, the black-and-white portion of the collection consists of about 175,000 black-and-white film negatives, encompassing both negatives that were printed for FSA-OWI use and those that were not printed at the time. Color transparencies also made by the FSA/OWI are available in a separate section of the catalog: FSA/OWI Color Photographs.[2] The FSA stressed "rural rehabilitation" efforts to improve the lifestyle of very poor landowning farmers, and a program to purchase submarginal land owned by poor farmers and resettle them in group farms on land more suitable for efficient farming. Reactionary critics, including the Farm Bureau, strongly opposed the FSA as an alleged experiment in collectivizing agriculture—that is, in bringing farmers together to work on large government-owned farms using modern techniques under the supervision of experts. After the Conservative coalition took control of Congress, it transformed the FSA into a program to help poor farmers buy land, and that program continues to operate in the 21st century as the Farmers Home Administration. Origins Walker Evans portrait of Allie Mae Burroughs (1936) Arthur Rothstein photograph "Dust Bowl Cimarron County, Oklahoma" of a farmer and two sons during a dust storm in Cimarron County, Oklahoma (1936) Dorothea Lange photograph of an Arkansas squatter of three years near Bakersfield, California (1935)The projects that were combined in 1935 to form the Resettlement Administration (RA) started in 1933 as an assortment of programs tried out by the Federal Emergency Relief Administration. The RA was headed by Rexford Tugwell, an economic advisor to President Franklin D. Roosevelt.[3] However, Tugwell's goal moving 650,000 people into 100,000,000 acres (400,000 km2) of exhausted, worn-out land was unpopular among the majority in Congress.[3] This goal seemed socialistic to some and threatened to deprive powerful farm proprietors of their tenant workforce.[3] The RA was thus left with only enough resources to relocate a few thousand people from 9 million acres (36,000 km2) and build several greenbelt cities,[3] which planners admired as models for a cooperative future that never arrived.[3] The main focus of the RA was to now build relief camps in California for migratory workers, especially refugees from the drought-stricken Dust Bowl of the Southwest.[3] This move was resisted by a large share of Californians, who did not want destitute migrants to settle in their midst.[3] The RA managed to construct 95 camps that gave migrants unaccustomed clean quarters with running water and other amenities,[3] but the 75,000 people who had the benefit of these camps were a small share of those in need and could only stay temporarily.[3] After facing enormous criticism for his poor management of the RA, Tugwell resigned in 1936.[3] On January 1, 1937,[4] with hopes of making the RA more effective, the RA was transferred to the Department of Agriculture through executive order 7530.[4] On July 22, 1937,[5] Congress passed the Bankhead-Jones Farm Tenant Act.[5] This law authorized a modest credit program to assist tenant farmers to purchase land,[5] and it was the culmination of a long effort to secure legislation for their benefit.[5] Following the passage of the act, Congress passed the Farm Security Act into law. The Farm Security Act officially transformed the RA into the Farm Security Administration (FSA).[3] The FSA expanded through funds given by the Bankhead-Jones Farm Tenant Act.[3] Relief workOne of the activities performed by the RA and FSA was the buying out of small farms that were not economically viable, and the setting up of 34 subsistence homestead communities, in which groups of farmers lived together under the guidance of government experts and worked a common area. They were not allowed to purchase their farms for fear that they would fall back into inefficient practices not guided by RA and FSA experts.[6] The Dust Bowl in the Great Plains displaced thousands of tenant farmers, sharecroppers, and laborers, many of whom (known as "Okies" or "Arkies") moved on to California. The FSA operated camps for them, such as Weedpatch Camp as depicted in The Grapes of Wrath. The RA and the FSA gave educational aid to 455,000 farm families during the period 1936-1943. In June, 1936, Roosevelt wrote: "You are right about the farmers who suffer through their own fault... I wish you would have a talk with Tugwell about what he is doing to educate this type of farmer to become self-sustaining. During the past year, his organization has made 104,000 farm families practically self-sustaining by supervision and education along practical lines. That is a pretty good record!"[7] The FSA's primary mission was not to aid farm production or prices. Roosevelt's agricultural policy had, in fact, been to try to decrease agricultural production to increase prices. When production was discouraged, though, the tenant farmers and small holders suffered most by not being able to ship enough to market to pay rents. Many renters wanted money to buy farms, but the Agriculture Department realized there already were too many farmers, and did not have a program for farm purchases. Instead, they used education to help the poor stretch their money further. Congress, however, demanded that the FSA help tenant farmers purchase farms, and purchase loans of $191 million were made, which were eventually repaid. A much larger program was $778 million in loans (at effective rates of about 1% interest) to 950,000 tenant farmers. The goal was to make the farmer more efficient so the loans were used for new machinery, trucks, or animals, or to repay old debts. At all times, the borrower was closely advised by a government agent. Family needs were on the agenda, as the FSA set up a health insurance program and taught farm wives how to cook and raise children. Upward of a third of the amount was never repaid, as the tenants moved to much better opportunities in the cities.[8] The FSA was also one of the authorities administering relief efforts in the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico during the Great Depression. Between 1938 and 1945, under the Puerto Rico Reconstruction Administration, it oversaw the purchase of 590 farms with the intent of distributing land to working and middle-class Puerto Ricans.[9] ModernizationThe FSA resettlement communities appear in the literature as efforts to ameliorate the wretched condition of southern sharecroppers and tenants, but those evicted to make way for the new settlers are virtually invisible in the historic record. The resettlement projects were part of larger efforts to modernize rural America. The removal of former tenants and their replacement by FSA clients in the lower Mississippi alluvial plain—the Delta—reveals core elements of New Deal modernizing policies. The key concepts that guided the FSA's tenant removals were: the definition of rural poverty as rooted in the problem of tenancy; the belief that economic success entailed particular cultural practices and social forms; and the commitment by those with political power to gain local support. These assumptions undergirded acceptance of racial segregation and the criteria used to select new settlers. Alternatives could only become visible through political or legal action—capacities sharecroppers seldom had. In succeeding decades, though, these modernizing assumptions created conditions for Delta African Americans on resettlement projects to challenge white supremacy.[10] FSA and its contribution to societyThe documentary photography genre describes photographs that would work as a time capsule for evidence in the future or a certain method that a person can use for a frame of reference. Facts presented in a photograph can speak for themselves after the viewer gets time to analyze it. The motto of the FSA was simply, as Beaumont Newhall insists, "not to inform us, but to move us."[citation needed] Those photographers wanted the government to move and give a hand to the people, as they were completely neglected and overlooked, thus they decided to start taking photographs in a style that we today call "documentary photography." The FSA photography has been influential due to its realist point of view, and because it works as a frame of reference and an educational tool from which later generations could learn. Society has benefited and will benefit from it for more years to come, as this photography can unveil the ambiguous and question the conditions that are taking place.[11] Photography programThe RA and FSA are well known for the influence of their photography program, 1935–1944. Photographers and writers were hired to report and document the plight of poor farmers. The Information Division (ID) of the FSA was responsible for providing educational materials and press information to the public. Under Roy Stryker, the ID of the FSA adopted a goal of "introducing America to Americans." Many of the most famous Depression-era photographers were fostered by the FSA project. Walker Evans, Dorothea Lange, and Gordon Parks were three of the most famous FSA alumni.[12] The FSA was also cited in Gordon Parks' autobiographical novel, A Choice of Weapons. The FSA's photography was one of the first large-scale visual documentations of the lives of African-Americans.[13] These images were widely disseminated through the Twelve Million Black Voices collection, published in October 1941, which combined FSA photographs selected by Edwin Rosskam and text by author and poet Richard Wright. PhotographersFifteen photographers (ordered by year of hire) would produce the bulk of work on this project. Their diverse, visual documentation elevated government's mission from the "relocation" tactics of a Resettlement Administration to strategic solutions which would depend on America recognizing rural and already poor Americans, facing death by depression and dust. FSA photographers: Arthur Rothstein (1935), Theodor Jung (1935), Ben Shahn (1935), Walker Evans (1935), Dorothea Lange (1935), Carl Mydans (1935), Russell Lee (1936), Marion Post Wolcott (1936), John Vachon (1936, photo assignments began in 1938), Jack Delano (1940), John Collier (1941), Marjory Collins (1941), Louise Rosskam (1941), Gordon Parks (1942) and Esther Bubley (1942). With America's entry into World War II, FSA would focus on a different kind of relocation as orders were issued for internment of Japanese Americans. FSA photographers would be transferred to the Office of War Information during the last years of the war and completely disbanded at the war's end. Photographers like Howard R. Hollem, Alfred T. Palmer, Arthur Siegel and OWI's Chief of Photographers John Rous were working in OWI before FSA's reorganization there. As a result of both teams coming under one unit name, these other individuals are sometimes associated with RA-FSA's pre-war images of American life. Though collectively credited with thousands of Library of Congress images, military ordered, positive-spin assignments like these four received starting in 1942, should be separately considered from pre-war, depression triggered imagery. FSA photographers were able to take time to study local circumstances and discuss editorial approaches with each other before capturing that first image. Each one talented in her or his own right, equal credit belongs to Roy Stryker who recognized, hired and empowered that talent. John Collier Jr.John Collier Jr. Jack DelanoJack Delano Walker EvansWalker Evans Dorothea LangeDorothea Lange Russell LeeRussell Lee Carl MydansCarl Mydans Gordon ParksGordon Parks Arthur RothsteinArthur Rothstein John VachonJohn Vachon Marion Post WolcottMarion Post Wolcott These 15 photographers, some shown above, all played a significant role, not only in producing images for this project, but also in molding the resulting images in the final project through conversations held between the group members. The photographers produced images that breathed a humanistic social visual catalyst of the sort found in novels, theatrical productions, and music of the time. Their images are now regarded as a "national treasure" in the United States, which is why this project is regarded as a work of art.[14] Photograph of Chicago's rail yards by Jack Delano, circa 1943Together with John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath (not a government project) and documentary prose (for example Walker Evans and James Agee's Let Us Now Praise Famous Men), the FSA photography project is most responsible for creating the image of the Depression in the United States. Many of the images appeared in popular magazines. The photographers were under instruction from Washington, DC, as to what overall impression the New Deal wanted to portray. Stryker's agenda focused on his faith in social engineering, the poor conditions among tenant cotton farmers, and the very poor conditions among migrant farm workers; above all, he was committed to social reform through New Deal intervention in people's lives. Stryker demanded photographs that "related people to the land and vice versa" because these photographs reinforced the RA's position that poverty could be controlled by "changing land practices." Though Stryker did not dictate to his photographers how they should compose the shots, he did send them lists of desirable themes, for example, "church", "court day", and "barns". Stryker sought photographs of migratory workers that would tell a story about how they lived day-to-day. He asked Dorothea Lange to emphasize cooking, sleeping, praying, and socializing.[15] RA-FSA made 250,000 images of rural poverty. Fewer than half of those images survive and are housed in the Prints and Photographs Division of the Library of Congress. The library has placed all 164,000 developed negatives online.[16] From these, some 77,000 different finished photographic prints were originally made for the press, plus 644 color images, from 1600 negatives. Documentary filmsThe RA also funded two documentary films by Pare Lorentz: The Plow That Broke the Plains, about the creation of the Dust Bowl, and The River, about the importance of the Mississippi River. The films were deemed "culturally significant" by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry. World War II activitiesDuring World War II, the FSA was assigned to work under the purview of the Wartime Civil Control Administration, a subagency of the War Relocation Authority. These agencies were responsible for relocating Japanese Americans from their homes on the West Coast to Internment camps. The FSA controlled the agricultural part of the evacuation. Starting in March 1942 they were responsible for transferring the farms owned and operated by Japanese Americans to alternate operators. They were given the dual mandate of ensuring fair compensation for Japanese Americans, and for maintaining correct use of the agricultural land. During this period, Lawrence Hewes Jr was the regional director and in charge of these activities.[17] Reformers ousted; Farmers Home AdministrationAfter the war started and millions of factory jobs in the cities were unfilled, no need for FSA remained.[citation needed] In late 1942, Roosevelt moved the housing programs to the National Housing Agency, and in 1943, Congress greatly reduced FSA's activities. The photographic unit was subsumed by the Office of War Information for one year, then disbanded. Finally in 1946, all the social reformers had left and FSA was replaced by a new agency, the Farmers Home Administration, which had the goal of helping finance farm purchases by tenants—and especially by war veterans—with no personal oversight by experts. It became part of Lyndon Johnson's war on poverty in the 1960s, with a greatly expanded budget to facilitate loans to low-income rural families and cooperatives, injecting $4.2 billion into rural America.[18] The Great DepressionThe Great Depression began in August 1929, when the United States economy first went into an economic recession. Although the country spent two months with declining GDP, the effects of a declining economy were not felt until the Wall Street Crash in October 1929, and a major worldwide economic downturn ensued. Although its causes are still uncertain and controversial, the net effect was a sudden and general loss of confidence in the economic future and a reduction in living standards for most ordinary Americans. The market crash highlighted a decade of high unemployment, poverty, low profits for industrial firms, deflation, plunging farm incomes, and lost opportunities for economic growth.[19]

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Year of Production: 1948

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