Thirteen Colonies on the Atlantic coast of North America

18 February 2023 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  7 minutes

© Richard Zietz/cc-by-sa-3.0

© Richard Zietz/cc-by-sa-3.0

The Thirteen Colonies, also known as the Thirteen British Colonies, the Thirteen American Colonies, or later as the United Colonies, were a group of British colonies on the Atlantic coast of North America. Founded in the 17th and 18th centuries, they began fighting the American Revolutionary War in April 1775 and formed the United States of America by declaring full independence in July 1776. Just prior to declaring independence, the Thirteen Colonies in their traditional groupings were: New England (New Hampshire; Massachusetts; Rhode Island; Connecticut); Middle (New York; New Jersey; Pennsylvania; Delaware); Southern (Maryland; Virginia; North Carolina; South Carolina; and Georgia). The Thirteen Colonies came to have very similar political, constitutional, and legal systems, dominated by Protestant English-speakers. The first of these colonies was Virginia Colony in 1607, a Southern colony. While all these colonies needed to become economically viable, the founding of the New England colonies, as well as the colonies of Maryland and Pennsylvania, were substantially motivated by their founders’ concerns related to the practice of religion. The other colonies were founded for business and economic expansion. The Middle Colonies were established on an earlier Dutch colony, New Netherland. All the Thirteen Colonies were part of Britain’s possessions in the New World, which also included territory in Canada, Florida, and the Caribbean.   read more…

The European Union: European Neighbourhood Policy

8 January 2023 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Editorial, EU blog post series, European Union Reading Time:  11 minutes

Flag_of_Europe The European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) is a foreign relations instrument of the European Union (EU) which seeks to tie those countries to the east and south of the European territory of the EU to the Union. These countries, primarily developing countries, include some who seek to one day become either a member state of the European Union, or more closely integrated with the European Union. The ENP does not apply to neighbours of the EU’s outermost regions, specifically France‘s territories in South America, but only to those countries close to EU member states’ territories in mainland Europe.   read more…

Theme Week Georgia – Tbilisi

28 November 2020 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  8 minutes

View from Narikala fortress © Marcin Konsek/cc-by-sa-4.0

View from Narikala fortress © Marcin Konsek/cc-by-sa-4.0

Tbilisi, in some countries also still known by its pre-1936 international designation, Tiflis, is the capital and the largest city of Georgia, lying on the banks of the Kura River with a population of approximately 1.5 million people. Tbilisi was founded in the 5th century AD by Vakhtang I of Iberia, and since then has served as the capital of various Georgian kingdoms and republics. Between 1801 and 1917, then part of the Russian Empire, Tbilisi was the seat of the Imperial Viceroy, governing both Southern and Northern Caucasus.   read more…

Theme Week Georgia – Kutaisi

27 November 2020 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, UNESCO World Heritage Reading Time:  9 minutes

Downtown Kutaisi and White Bridge as seen from Mount Gora © Kober/cc-by-sa-3.0

Downtown Kutaisi and White Bridge as seen from Mount Gora © Kober/cc-by-sa-3.0

Kutaisi is one of the most ancient cities in the world and the third-most populous city in Georgia, traditionally, second in importance, after the capital city of Tbilisi. Situated 221 kilometres (137 miles) west of Tbilisi, on the Rioni River, it is the capital of the western region of Imereti.   read more…

Theme Week Georgia – Tskhinvali

26 November 2020 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  9 minutes

Tskhinvali balcony © Alaexis/cc-by-sa-4.0

Tskhinvali balcony © Alaexis/cc-by-sa-4.0

Tskhinvali is a city in the independent region of South Ossetia, Georgia Transcaucasia and the capital of the Republic of South Ossetia (which has been recognised by the Russian Federation and four other UN member states only) and the former Soviet Georgian South Ossetian Autonomous Oblast. The city had been administratively divided into the region (mkhare) of Shida Kartli by Georgia after the revocation of the autonomous oblast. It’s located on the Great Liakhvi River approximately 100 kilometres (62 mi) northwest of the Georgian capital Tbilisi.   read more…

Theme Week Georgia – Batumi

25 November 2020 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  8 minutes

Coastline with Batumi on the horizon © flickr.com - Jagermesh/cc-by-sa-2.0

Coastline with Batumi on the horizon © flickr.com – Jagermesh/cc-by-sa-2.0

Batumi is the second largest city of Georgia and the capital of the Adjara, located on the coast of the Black Sea in Georgia’s southwest. It is situated in a subtropical zone at the foot of the Caucasus. Much of Batumi’s economy revolves around tourism and gambling (it is nicknamed “The Las Vegas of the Black Sea”), but the city is also an important sea port and includes industries like shipbuilding, food processing and light manufacturing. Since 2010, Batumi has been transformed by the construction of modern high-rise buildings, as well as the restoration of classical 19th-century edifices lining its historic Old Town.   read more…

Theme Week Georgia – Sukhumi

24 November 2020 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  9 minutes

© panoramio.com - Владимир К/cc-by-3.0

© panoramio.com – Владимир К/cc-by-3.0

Sukhumi is a city on the Black Sea coast, on the Soviet Riviera. It is the capital of the unrecognised Republic of Abkhazia, which has controlled it since the 1992–93 war in Abkhazia, although most of the international community considers it legally part of Georgia. Sukhumi’s history can be traced back to the 6th century BC, when it was settled by Greeks, who named it Dioscurias. During this time and the subsequent Roman period, much of the city disappeared under the Black Sea. The city was named Tskhumi when it became part of the Kingdom of Abkhazia and then the Kingdom of Georgia. Contested by local princes, it became part of the Ottoman Empire in the 1570s, where it remained until it was conquered by the Russian Empire in 1810. Following a period of conflict during the Russian Civil War, it became part of the independent Georgia, which included Abkhazia, in 1918. In 1921, the Democratic Republic of Georgia was occupied by the Soviet Bolshevik forces from Russia. Within the Soviet Union, it was regarded as a holiday resort. As the Soviet Union broke up in the early 1990s, the city suffered significant damage during the Abkhaz–Georgian conflict. The present-day population of 60,000 is only half of the population living there towards the end of Soviet rule.   read more…

Theme Week Georgia

23 November 2020 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Bon voyage, Theme Weeks, UNESCO World Heritage Reading Time:  9 minutes

Changing skyline of Batumi © flickr.com - jagermesh/cc-by-sa-2.0

Changing skyline of Batumi © flickr.com – jagermesh/cc-by-sa-2.0

Georgia is a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded to the west by the Black Sea, to the north by Russia, to the east by Azerbaijan, and to the south by Armenia and Turkey. The capital and largest city is Tbilisi. Georgia covers a territory of 69,700 square kilometres (26,911 sq mi), and its approximate population is about 4 million. Georgia is a unitary parliamentary republic, with the government elected through a representative democracy.   read more…

Old Tbilisi in Georgia

10 April 2020 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, UNESCO World Heritage Reading Time:  7 minutes

Narikala Fortress © panoramio.com - David Holt/cc-by-sa-3.0

Narikala Fortress © panoramio.com – David Holt/cc-by-sa-3.0

Old Tbilisi was an administrative district (raioni) in Tbilisi, capital of Georgia, from 2007 to 2013. Although the term “Old Tbilisi” has long been used to denote a historical part of the city, it was only in 2007 that it became a distinct administrative entity to incorporate several historical neighbourhoods formerly included in the districts of Mtatsminda-Krtsanisi, Isani-Samgori, and Didube-Chughureti. The district was abolished in 2013, with its territories allotted to several other divisions of the capital.   read more…

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