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Union of Soviet Socialist Republics

2007-05-23T15:43:08Z

Karl: /* Rise of Stalin and Collapse */

[[Image:600px-Flag_of_the_Soviet_Union.svg.png||thumb|right|200px|Flag of the Soviet Union]]
The '''Soviet Union''' (Russian: Советский Союз, ''Sovyetskiy Soyuz''), formally the '''Union of Soviet Socialist Republics''' (USSR) (Russian: Союз Советских Социалистических Республик, ''Soyuz Sovietskykh Sotsialisticheskykh Respublik'', abbreviated ''СССР'') was one of the most powerful established [[socialist]] states in history.

==Founding==
The USSR, the primary member of which was [[Russia]], was established by [[Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov]] (Russian: Владимир Ильич Улянов) in 1922 following the overthrow of the tsarist [[Russian Empire]] in the [[Russian Revolution]], and the ensuing [[Russian Civil War]]. It allowed one central government under Lenin to control many republics, including the original members of [[Ukraine]], [[Belarus]], [[Russia]] and the republics of the Trans-Caucasian region. The '''Soviet Union''' became a multi-national entity that eventually included 15 republics: Russia (the RSFSR), [[Latvia]], [[Lithuania]], [[Estonia]], [[Ukraine]], [[Belarus]], [[Georgia]], [[Azerbaijan]], [[Armenia]], [[Uzbekistan]], [[Tajikistan]], [[Kyrgyzstan]], [[Turkmenistan]], [[Kazakhstan]], and [[Moldova]].

==Rise of Stalin and Collapse==
Upon Lenin's death, a power struggle ensued between Leon Trotsky and [[Joseph Stalin]], two influential communists during Lenins tenure. Stalin eventually gained the sickle in the fight, and ostracised [[Trotsky]] to [[Mexico]]. He had him assassinated. The USSR became infamous for Joseph Stalin's violations of human rights during the [[Great Purge]], in which he disposed of all followers of Lenin and Trotsky. The Soviet Union eventually imploded after a series of economic and political reforms known as [[Glasnost]] and perestroika introduced by the last Chairman of the [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union]] (CPSU), [[Mikhail Gorbachov]], in the 1980s. The USSR was formally dissolved in 1991 by [[Boris Yeltsin]]. The [[successor state|successor states]] to the Soviet Union are the [[Russian Federation]], and the other members of the [[Commonwealth of Independent States]].

==See Also==
[[Nazi Germany]]

[[Category:History]]
[[Category:Former Countries]]
[[Category:Warsaw Pact members]]

Maine

2007-05-23T15:41:10Z

Karl: /* Vikings in Maine */

[[Image:Maine_State_Flag.gif|thumb|right|The state flag of Maine.]]

'''Maine''' was the twenty-third state to enter into the union.

The rocks of Maine are one of the oldest parts of the US, dating from the Devonian period.<ref>http://www.statefossils.com/me/me.html</ref> The last glaciers of the ice age shaped the coastline into the many peninsulas we see today and formed Maine's 2,000 islands.

==The earliest Mainers==

Descendants of Ice Age hunters, the earliest Mainers were nicknamed Red Paint People, because they lined the graves of their dead with red clay. These graves are thought to date back five thousand years. There are also large heaps of oyster shells on the coast that are thought to date back to the Red Paint People.

The two earliest Native American tribes of Maine were the Micmacs in eastern Maine and the Abanakis, who are also sometimes called Wabanakis. The former were warlike, but the latter were mainly peaceful farmers and fishers. The only remaining Native Americans today, of the many tribes who once inhabited Maine, are 1500 Passamaquoddies, who live on two reservations, and 1200 Penobscots, who live on Indian Island in the Penobscot River. <ref>http://www.mainehistory.info/history.html</ref>

==Vikings in Maine==

Five hundred years earlier than [[Columbus]], the Viking raider Qeif Ericson with a crew of 30 sailors are thought to have explored the Maine coast and possibly tried to establish a settlement here. They definitely bred with the Native Americans. The only piece of real evidence for this is the finding of an 11th century Norse coin in Brooklin, Maine along with other artifacts when a former Native American trading center was excavated. This is not conclusive though, as the coin may have been used in trade from Newfoundland or may have been brought very much later by the English or Portuguese.<ref>http://www.answers.com/topic/leif-ericson</ref>

==Colonization==

In 1498 John Cabot, who was employed by King Henry VII of England, may have explored the Maine coast, although there is no concrete evidence of his visit. A hundred years later, some European ships came ashore to repair the ships and gather fresh supplies.

The [[Plymouth Company]] established the first settlement at Popham in 1607, the same year that the Jamestown, VA, settlement was established. However, the severe Maine winter defeated the Popham colony so Jamestown is considered the first permanent settlement in America. The rigors of climate, difficulties of agriculture and attacks by Indians also wiped out many later English settlements that were established in the 1620s.

By 1700 there were only six surviving settlements. Massachusetts had acquired most of the land claims in Maine by that time, and this arrangement continued until Maine acquired its own statehood in 1820. <ref>http://www.mainehistory.info/timeline.html</ref>

==Disputes over ownership==

England and France disputed the ownership of Maine during the early eighteenth century. The French actively supported Indian raids on white settlements, thinking this would drive English settlers out.

William Pepperell of Kittery led Maine forces in the capture of the French fort at Louisburg, NS, in 1745. In 1763 the French surrendered all claims to the territory in the 1763 Treaty of Paris.

Massachusetts offered free 100-acre lots to prospective settlers once the Indian threat subsided and the French had withdrawn, and the population of Maine doubled to 24,000 by 1763, and to over 150,000 by 1800. <ref>http://www.mainehistory.info/history.html</ref>

==Maine during the Revolutionary War==

Mainers resisted the oppressive British taxes ten years before the Revolutionary War, seizing tax stamps at what was then called Falmouth but is now [[Portland]]. Customs agents were frequently attacked. A version of the [[Boston Tea Party]] happened in York, Maine in 1774 when a tea shipment was burned in York.

Hundreds of Mainers joined the struggle for independence. About 1,000 men died, sea trade was almost destroyed, and the British bombarded Falmouth (Portland). Maine's share of the Revolutionary War debt was higher than that later incurred by Maine's debt from the Civil War.

In 1775 the first naval battle of the Revolutionary War occurred off the coast of Machias and [[Benedict Arnold]] marched a band of revolutionaries through Maine in a valiant but doomed attempt at capturing [[Quebec City]] and [[Montreal]]. <ref>http://www.mainehistory.info/timeline.html</ref>

==Becoming a State==

After the [[Revolutionary War]], settlers on what was then a frontier area resented being ruled from 'away' in Boston and campaigned for separation from Massachusetts.

Politically powerful merchants resisted the separation movement until after the 1812 War, when [[Massachusetts]] proved unable or unwilling to protect Mainers against the British.

Maine eventually became the 23rd State under the [[Missouri Compromise]] of 1820. Maine's position as a free state balanced Missouri's entry as a slave state the following year. The state constitution was
rooted in political independence, religious freedom and popular control of government.

William King, who served as president of the Constitutional Convention, was a shipbuilder and merchant from Bath. He subsequently became Maine's first governor.

At first Portland was the state capital, but in 1832 the capital was moved to [[Augusta]] because of its more central location. <ref>http://www.maine.gov/portal/facts_history/</ref>

==Maine and the Abolitionist movement==

Maine was admitted to the Union as a free state, but some Mainers were involved in activities related to [[slavery]], such as the [[Triangle Trade]].

However, the famous abolitionist speaker and writer [[William Lloyd Garrison]] made a speaking tour of Maine in 1832 arousing discussion and dispute. By 1834 there were branches of the American Antislavery Society in Maine and state and local organizations were taking part in antislavery activities and the dissemination of information.

Some Mainers, especially those who depended on southern trade, felt that the issue was best left alone, as a dispute might endanger the union, and felt that the South would abolish slavery in its own time if the North left it alone.

In 1836 the mayor of [[Portland]] refused permission for the Antislavery Society to meet in City Hall, but the meeting was held at the [[Quaker]] meetinghouse instead, despite being the target anti-abolition mobs. Similar disputes broke out in other towns, but public opinion began to be swayed by the information put out by antislavery societies.

In the spring of 1837, Maine and Georgia nearly came to blows over abolitionism after a group of Maine seamen took a runaway slave named Atticus home with them. Atticus was eventually betrayed back to his owner, but many Mainers played a subsequent part as stops on the the [[Underground Railway]] that saw many slaves safely away from captivity.<ref>http://imaginemaine.com/mainestories/Atticus.html</ref>

Hannibal Hamlin was a Democratic Senator. However, he left the party in 1854 over the slavery issue and was a leading force in the formation of the Republican Party in Maine. He served as the state's first Republican governor and became the nation's first Republican vice president after the election of [[Abraham Lincoln]].

==Maine and Prohibition==

The world's first Total Abstinence Society was founded in Portland in 1815 and other temperance societies over the next two decades. Eventually, a state law prohibiting the sale of alcohol except for "medicinal and mechanical purposes" was passed. By 1851 a law banning the manufacture and sale of liquor was passed in 1851 and not repealed until 1934, along with the repeal of Prohibition in the rest of the United States.

==Maine and the Civil War==

Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote "Uncle Tom's Cabin" at Brunswick, where her husband was a professor at Bowdoin College. The popular book aroused anti-slavery feelings throughout the northern states in the 1850s.

Around 73,000 Mainers served with the Union army, and about one in ten died during the Civil War.

Two great generals, Oliver Otis Howard and Joshua L Chamberlain. Howard distinguished himself at Gettysburg and Bull Run, and Chamberlain is remembered for his heroism at Little Round Top and for commanding the Union troops to whom Lee surrendered at Appomattox. After the war, Chamberlain became governor of Maine.

Howard was one of the main founders of Howard University and was its first president. Chamberlain later became president of Bowdoin College.

==Maine Politics==

Maine politics was dominated by the Republican Party from 1854 until the Democrat [[Edmund S. Muskie ]] became governor in 1954. He and others broadened the Democratic base.

Muskie became one of Maine's Senators in 1958. He was prominent in the environmental movement and also considered expert in urban legislation and budget control. He was Hubert Humphrey's Vice Presidential nominee in 1968, and in 1972 was a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination. President [[Jimmy Carter]] appointed Senator Muskie Secretary of State in 1979.

Senator George Mitchell of Waterville succeeded Senator Muskie, and becane Senate majority leader from 1988 until he retired in 1994. After his retirement, he was much respected for his attempts to work with both sides of the dispute to bring peace to Northern Ireland.

[[Margaret Chase Smith]] of Skowhegan was the first American woman elected to both houses of Congress. She was in the House of Representatives for nearly ten years, and then a Senator. A Republican, she was notably honest, independent and courageous. She is remembered for her famous [[Declararation of Conscience]] in the 1950 in which she said:

<blockquote>The Democratic Administration has greatly lost the confidence of the American people by its complacency to the threat of communism here at home and the leak of vital secrets to Russia [[Venona|through key officials of the Democratic administration]]. There are enough proved cases to make this point without diluting our criticism with unproved charges.</blockquote>

<blockquote>Surely these are sufficient reasons to make it clear to the American people that it is time for a change and that a Republican victory is necessary to the security of this country. Surely it is clear that this nation will continue to suffer as long as it is governed by the present ineffective Democratic Administration.</blockquote>

<blockquote>Yet to displace it with a Republican regime embracing a philosophy that lacks political integrity or intellectual honesty would prove equally disastrous to this nation. The nation sorely needs a Republican victory. But I don’t want to see the Republican Party ride to political victory on the Four Horsemen of Calumny—Fear, Ignorance, Bigotry, and Smear.</blockquote>

<blockquote>I doubt if the Republican Party could—simply because I don’t believe the American people will uphold any political party that puts political exploitation above national interest. Surely we Republicans aren’t that desperate for victory.</blockquote>

<blockquote>I don’t want to see the Republican Party win that way. While it might be a fleeting victory for the Republican Party, it would be a more lasting defeat for the American people. Surely it would ultimately be suicide for the Republican Party and the two-party system that has protected our American liberties from the dictatorship of a one party system.<ref>http://americanrhetoric.com/speeches/margaretchasesmithconscience.html</ref>
</blockquote>

Maine is a hotbed of independent voters, who outnumber both enrolled Democrats and Republicans and determine the outcome of most elections today. Two political independents have been governors of Maine: James B Longley of Lewiston in 1974, and Angus S King of Brunswick in 1994.

Maine's current Senators, [[Olympia Snowe]] and [[Susan Collins]], are both Republicans. The current Representatives, [[Mike Michaud]] and [[Tom Allen]], are both Democrats.<ref>http://www.maine.gov/portal/facts_history/</ref>

==Notable people from Maine==

[[Joshua Chamberlain]], a Union officer during the Civil War who quite possibly saved the Union in the Battle of Gettysburg with his "swinging gate maneuver", was born in Brewer and served as Maine's governor.

[[James G. Blaine]] dominated state and national Republican politics from the mid-1860s to the end of the century. He was speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Maine's senator, and served three Republican presidents as secretary of state. He was the presidential candidate for the Republican Party in 1884, but lost by a narrow margin to [[Grover Cleveland]].

[[Thomas B. Reed]] was Speaker of the House for three terms. He campaigned for reforms in House rules and wrote Reed's Rules of Order, which are still used in the Maine Legislature.

[[Margaret Chase Smith]] of Skowhegan was the first American woman elected to both houses of Congress.

[[George Mitchell]], a well-respected former senator. Instrumental in the Good Friday Agreement in Northern Ireland.

[[Stephen King]], a wildly popular horror novelist, is a lifelong resident of Maine and sets many of his novels in the state.

[[E.B. White]], a writer best known for his children's books ''Stuart Little'' and ''Charlotte's Web'', lived in North Brooklin.

==References==
<references/>

[[Category:US state]]

Talk:Mexico

2007-05-23T14:42:04Z

Karl: VERY LITTLE ABOUT ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS

Thanks for doing the merge, Scott. It's not simply a matter of copy and paste, or I would have done it myself instead of tagging the articles. --[[User:Ed Poor|Ed Poor]] 09:53, 9 April 2007 (EDT)

:No worries - I hope the information is correct - I don't know enough about Mexico to tell, but I've fixed a few pretty dodgy country pages today. --[[User:Scott|Scott]] 10:14, 9 April 2007 (EDT)

Are American style tacos really the best representative picture for the Mexico article? [[User:Czolgolz|Czolgolz]] 22:59, 11 April 2007 (EDT)

:Probably not - especially since they're not mentioned in the text. Should they be removed, or have text or caption increased to create some connection? Please do whatever is best, and if you have a better picture, please add it. --[[User:Scott|Scott]] 10:51, 14 April 2007 (EDT)

== Emigration ==

This new paragraph

''== Emigration ==''

''Many Americans (from US) have become angry at tendency for Mexicans to go to the United States, where there is a perception that they are welcome to go and use this healthy economy to make money. Because many aspects of such a culture (such as the common unwillingness to learn or speak English) which are incompatible with American (from US) values, these people are often unwelcome, especially those who immigrate illegally. Groups such as the Minutemen have been active in stopping this influx (sometimes killing them), but it is still a problem with which the US must contend.''

is not in the proper article. This matter concern basically to the United States and ''there'' it should be. Not in an article about Mexico.

--[[User:Joaquín Martínez]], [[User talk:Joaquín Martínez|talk]] 18:53, 12 May 2007 (EDT)

I'm prone to disagree. Remember that Conservapedia seeks to illuminate the American perspective, so it makes sense that such a huge issue should at least be mentioned. To suggest otherwise would imply a bias for those who choose to come to this country illegally.
[[User:ATB|ATB]] 18:51, 16 May 2007 (EDT)

A common unwillingness to learn to speak English? I guess the three years I spent teaching English in Mexico was a fluke. [[User:Czolgolz|Czolgolz]] 20:02, 16 May 2007 (EDT)

I must point out that those were the ones who weren't coming over here. [[User:ATB|ATB]] 10:49, 19 May 2007 (EDT)

== VERY LITTLE ABOUT ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS ==

WHY?

Mexico

2007-05-23T14:40:26Z

Karl:

[[Image:Mexicof3b.gif‎ |thumbnail|right|0px|The Mexican flag.]]

'''Mexico''' is a country in [[North America]], directly south of the [[United States]]; bordering the North Pacific Ocean is between Guatemala and the US and bordering the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico, between Belize and the US. Mexico is a federal republic with 31 states and 1 federal district. It's capital is Mexico City. At present Mexico's territory covers almost 2 million square kilometers with a population of about 108 million (2007).

The states of [[Texas]], [[New Mexico]], [[California]], [[Arizona]], [[Nevada]], [[Utah]], and parts of [[Wyoming]], and [[Colorado]], were part of Mexico until the [[Mexican American War]]. Many U. S. citizens in this region speak Spanish as their native language. This is because people from all over the world sneak into America through the boarder while liberals employ them to cut their yard and hard working christian conservatives (the salt of the earth) suffer needlessly.

[[Image:Cu11.jpg|thumb|right|The University of Mexico City]]
<br>
== Economy ==

Mexico has a free market economy. Per capita income is one-fourth that of the U. S.; income distribution remains highly unequal.

It is a newly industrialized country, meaning it is in the intermediate stage between third world and full development. However, some parts of the country (mostly in the south) are noted because of a poor economy, causing it to be the main contributor of [[illegal immigration]] to the [[United States]] to find work.

The Oil production is estimated as 3.6 million bbl/day (2007).

== Government ==
Mexico's government is representative, democratic and republican. It's chief of state and head of government is President [[Felipe Calderon | Felipe de Jesús Calderón Hinojosa]] (since 1 December, 2006). The current president is from the PAN or National Action Party. Calderon and the PAN are [[conservative]].

==Religion==
[[Image:Guadalupe ch.jpg|right]]

The dominant Religion of Mexico is [[Roman Catholic]]ism. Mexican society tend to be [[conservative]] in certain aspects, such as family values.
<br><br>

== See also ==

*[[Mexican History]]
*[[Our Lady of Guadalupe]]

== External links ==

*[http://www.theodora.com/wfbcurrent/mexico/index.html Mexico - 2007] Facts and more
*[http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node=Mexico Mexico at "Everything2"]

[[Category:North American Countries]]
[[Category:Mexico]]
[[Category:Mexicans on Conservapedia]]