Human history is marred by conflict, and sometimes it’s between factions in the same country. Civil wars tear apart families and friends based on religious, political, or cultural differences.
The definitions of just what makes a civil war as opposed to empire building or revolution differ. This article will address the five most deadliest civil wars of all time in the context of different definitions.
The An Lushan Rebellion
During the Tang Dynasty in China, former general An Lushan named himself emperor and started the Yan Dynasty in Northern China. The rebellion turned into a civil war that lasted from December of 755 through February 763. The conflict killed an estimated 30 to 35 million people, a huge number for that time period which represented almost 15 percent of the total world population.
The Taiping Rebellion, The Dungan revolt
Over it’s history China was witness to many conflicts which rank high on the list for total casualties. For the purposes of this article, I’ve combined two of the biggest because they happened at the same time in history. Each independently could rank high for total casualties.
The Taiping Rebellion began in 1850 after Hong Xiuquan, a Christian, declared himself the brother of of Jesus Christ. His followers began a civil war in Southern China that killed an estimated 20 to 30 million people. While that conflict was raging, the Dungan revolt began to the north in 1862. It lasted until 1877 and saw casualties of around 10 million.
Russian Civil War
When Tsar Nicholas II was deposed as Russia’s leader in 1917, a provisional government was set up that was toothless and doomed to failure. Only a few months passed before the Bolsheviks seized power under the leadership of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin. Supporters of the old regime, backed by Great Britain after the end of World War I, fought the Bolsheviks savagely.
Before Lenin and his supporters completely consolidated power in 1922, about nine million Russians had died. The Russian Civil War helped Josef Stalin get into a position to centralize his power after the death of Lenin, bring more misery to the Russian people.
Korean War
It was the first hot conflict of the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the Western powers, and it was also a civil war. Japan occupied Korea, and the fate of the Korean peninsula was decided by the Allies before the end of WWII. The peninsula was divided, with a Stalinist regime in the North and an American-backed government in the South.
The people of the country found themselves divided, much as Germany was. The desire for reunification came to military action from 1950 to 1953, just five years after the end of WWII. The conflict drew in forces from many countries under the auspices of the United Nations fighting with the South, and China for the North, along with Soviet military equipment. When it was over, there were at least four million dead.
Second Sudanese Civil War
The second civil war in Sudan came just eleven years after the end of the first. It raged from 1983 to 2005 and cost the lives of an estimated two million people. The British administered Sudan as two separate entities as colonies, but unified them in 1946. The terms of the unification were seen as detrimental to leaders in Southern Sudan.
The discovery of big oil deposits in the South further increased tensions until a civil war erupted. The ramifications of the unrest still influence the region, and further conflict is not out of the question.
Joe Ramsey is a military historian and guest author at MilitaryEducation.org, a site with guides and information about the best military friendly colleges.
You want to go on a vacation, but not just any vacation. You want to travel to the most unique, exotic, and cool destinations you can find. You canâ??t always locate the best places on any traditional map or travel guide; you need a little help from fellow travelers. Here are some awesome apps that you can download and keep with you on your journeys.
Youâ??ll get the inside scoop on unique and lesser-known places, restaurants, museums, and much more to make your trip truly one-of-a-kind.
Discoverful; Free
Discoverful is a community of worldwide users who love to explore. Everyone is on a quest to discover new places and things. This app allows you to see and read about the things over people discover, and it allows you to upload and share your own discoveries, too. With Discoverful, you can search for discoveries near you or anywhere around the world. You can also create lists of the discoveries you want to check out for yourself, which is perfect for travelling.
Roadside America; $2.99 and Up
When traveling in the United States and Canada, this app will help you experience a truly unique trip. This app is a guide to offbeat, unusual, quirky, odd, and just plain weird attractions and sites all over. No matter where you are, this app will locate the hidden gems of cool places nearby, including museums, eateries, landmarks, and much more. You must download this app if youâ??re going on a road trip through the U.S. or Canada and want to make the most out of your journey.
Lunchbox; Free
The Lunchbox app developers call it the â??Pinterest of food.â? With Lunchbox, you can locate the best restaurants, bars, and coffee shops in every city. Users can upload photos and comments, and Lunchbox pulls reviews and ratings from Foursquare and Yelp to help you decide on the best place to eat.
Google Earth; Free
Google Earth allows you to explore anywhere in the world through geo-located satellite and aerial photographs. The high-resolution images give a unique experience like no other. You view your current location or any location you choose, right down to one particular street corner. With Google Earth you can visually locate new and unique places yourself. You can also search for cities, places, and businesses, as well as get connected to relevant Wikipedia articles for any location.
TripColor; Free
TripColor is an app that allows you to keep a blog or journal about your trip and all the unique things you find and experience along the way. You can upload photos, take notes, write stories, mark spots on the map, and more. Itâ??s an excellent way to record your travels for yourself, but also for sharing with other people. When youâ??re ready, you can share your journal through Facebook, Twitter, or email. The best part is that you can browse other peopleâ??s trip journals. Youâ??ll be able to see places through other travelersâ?? eyes, and you might discover a cool new place to check out.
Jason Gladeux is a freelance writer and travel agent who knows how to get great deals on vacations. He loves to write about everything from what to pack to finding bargains at Bahamas luxury hotels.
What do you do when summer holidays are coming? Check out this complete offline maps and travel guide for everything you’ll ever need on your next adventure.
Start looking for guides and offline maps that let you fully experience the place you visit.
How much do those travel books weigh? A lot. How much do they cost? A lot. What’s the best solution then? bohoGuides! Downloading a 2.99$ app gets you access to over 1000 guides and offline travel maps from places all around the world. It’s really simple – you download guides and maps while you’re at home via wifi. You go abroad and use guides+maps 100% offline. You have all the advantages of paper guides inside your iPhone/iPad and have maps with GPS localization (which means no roaming fees – app doesn’t use an internet connection). Inside bohoGuides app there are no advertisements and no hidden charges. You pay only once – 2.99$ and you have access to over 1000 guides and offline maps and free updates. Simply everything you need to maximize your boho experience. Have fun! 🙂
The PGA which stands for the Professional Golfers Association and was originally started in 1901 in the UK, this was the first of its kind. Not long afterwards, PGA of America was formed . . .
The UK PGA aimed to train and promote club professionals. It wasnâ??t until 15 years later that the American PGA was formed for similar reasons. They are stationed in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida and are currently working to elevate the level of golf played and create further interest in it.
In 1916 a store manager gathered several golfing professionals and amateurs to propose the idea of forming a national golfing association. This was taken with interest and after several meetings, a couple of months later the PGA of America was successfully created. This is how it started and it had several goals that the organisation was formed around and should strive to obtain.
These goals were to encourage the enjoyment and popularity of golf in America. They wanted to improve the level of ability of the current professional players by offering several training courses. Their main goals were to make golf more accessible to people around the country. Doing this should create a larger talent pool and allow for the game to become more exciting.
The original PGA of America group was very small but it has now grown to a national level. The PGA professionals partake in rigorous training and education so that they know the sport inside and out. This means that members of the PGA and American PGA have great knowledge of everything to do with the sport making it more likely to move in a positive direction.
This growth in talent and money has allowed the PGA to hold several golfing championships for all types of professionals. There are now championships for elder golfers to compete in the Senior PGA championship but the most famous remains the PGA championship which pits the best golfers in the world against each other.
The PGA of America may have come from small beginnings but it has grown massively over the years allowing it to host many championships and continue their original goals. These goals were to create a higher level of golfing competition and they have done this by enabling PGA members not only to excel at the game through rigorous training but add a level of education to ensure that the golfers are completely optimised in skills and knowledge related with the sport. This has allows the PGA of America to become a dominant force in the golfing world and provide great entertainment for their millions of fans.
If you need a swing analysis by a PGA professional, player and golf teacher. I’d recommend the link below . . . Jay Golden has worked with many golf professionals including Arnold Palmer, Steve Marino and Sandy Lyle.
‘On The Hop’ The jumper game where jumpers must jump from one sphere to another to complete the level.
This game has over 90 levels for jumpers and also bonus levels too. There is even a death mode which is harder than the standard mode.
Different times of the day are depicted in the graphics so that the jumper is jumping against varied backgrounds. The object of the game is to jump across to each sphere to reach the end of the level. You can collect coins as you go to unlock those bonus levels.
The jumper can choose to hunt for coins at dawn or dusk and the feel of the game changes with each time of the day. There are many obstacles along the way for the jumper to navigate around and jumpers must collect energy particles to save a village from destruction.
Cassiop developers have done a really great job with this game as there are many levels but the download size is very small for the amount of gameplay jumpers will get. This game is not hard but enough of a challenge for the jumper to have a lot of fun.
Apple was founded in the 1970â??s by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak after they built their first computer, the Apple I. It started production in Steve Jobsâ?? dadsâ?? Garage and from these humble beginnings it has eventually become a multibillion dollar company that has changed the world. Together with the Apple Store.
Appleâ??s success is nothing short of remarkable and through Steve jobs vision and Steve Wozniakâ??s engineering capabilities they became almost instant successes in the world of computers.
Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak built their first computer, the Apple I in 1976. This computer was sold to a local computer shop called the byte shop and only 200 were made. The money made because of this paved the way for the Apple II. The Apple II was a much better machine than its predecessor because of this additional funding. Although a stark contrast to today’s Apple products and the Apple Store.
Apple as a company was officially formed on April 1, 1976 after receiving a 250,000 bank loan co-signed by Mr Markkula. It was named Apple because of its location in the phonebook compared to Atari giving it an advantage as it would be first alphabetically. Apple finally released the Apple II in 1979 which was a huge success in the market and has even been credited as creating the home computer market.
This high was not to last though as although Apple had some success with the Macintosh, this was the beginning of a slow decline until the mid-90â??s
Macintosh was a success that Apple needed, after the failed attempts to crack the business market with the overpriced Lisa computer. Some of the Macintoshâ??s success is owed to its iconic 1984 ad which appeared in the Super bowl, directed by Ridley Scott and is now considered one of the greatest advertisements of all time. The Macintosh computers success although large was rejected by some key demographics as it was sometimes thought of as a â??toyâ?? and not a serious computer.
In 1985 Steve Jobs, one of the founders of Apple was forced out and moved on to start other companies but his role in Apple was nowhere near over.
Although Apple had some successes between Steve Jobsâ?? dismissal and return, it also had quite a few failures. The Mac branch of the company continued with several new computers leading up to their attempt at a portable computer. The portable Macintosh was a failure but the PowerBook that followed became a huge success and set up the format for all future laptops.
During the 1990â??s Apple and its competitors were outdone by IBM which became increasingly popular, this was due to several factors including the fact that Apple was possibly the worst managed business of that time. They ruined the simple nature Apple had worked so hard to create with long and pointless model names, too many variations on products and even just too many products been sold. Apple was losing business fast and after their buying out of NeXT technology this put Steve Jobs back in the scene allowing him to re-join the Apple team and after a boardroom decision take over as CEO. This was a huge change the way Apple worked and began the turning around of Apple to become the multibillion dollar company it is today.
This involved several steps and a bailout from Microsoft that allows Microsoft Office to be featured on the Mac and a $150 million investment. This was the start of Apples rise to dominance with new ideas like the iMac, iBook, and Power Mac G4 which allowed them to get back on top of the market.
In 2001 Apple released one of the most popular pieces of technology that has help make the business what is today. This is of course the iPod which sparked a huge change in the music industry. The iPod was a huge development and sparked the developing of things like iTunes, IOS and even the iPhone and iPad. The Apple Store began selling apps to cater for these new devices.
From 2001 onwards Apple began the â??Iâ?? era creating several products including the iPhone, iPad and iTunes which are all extremely popular now and have helped Apple reach its place at the top. The ‘I’era really transformed and shaped a new era in technology.
The iPhone was a revolution in the phone world as they added touchscreen capabilities to a great operating system. This was a huge seller and became an icon, to the extent that it outsells every other phone on the market by far. This success has made it control the phone market putting serious strain on android phones trying to compete. This success wasnâ??t enough and Apple moved to revolutionise the Tablet PC in the form of the iPad.
Apple has had a long career with many ups and downs but it has really come into itself with the return of Steve Jobs. Apple changed the computer market for ever with things like the PowerBook, the iPod and their whole range of â??Iâ?? innovations. This is how Apple has established itself today as a multibillion dollar company, with a cutting edge range of products and range of apps on the Apple Store.
Guest post.
Just How Big Is Apple?
The infographic below will put you in the picture . . .
‘Bag It!’ The strategic shopping mall bag filling app that’s hugely popular.
‘Bag It!’ is an app that’s receiving great reviews and is one of those strategic games that is more fun to play than it actually looks.
The aim of the game in this great app by Hiidden Variable Studios is to cram as much shopping into your shopping bag as possible. Be careful though as there are breakable objects to, such as eggs. If you pack them in the wrong way they can break. Each shopping item has cute eyes that blink and there are constant new objects and features popping up as you get deeper into the game. It’s a virtual shopping mall shopping experience without having to spend a dime or a penny.
You are awarded up to three stars in the game depending on your performance. On the game screen the shopping objects are on a conveyor belt moving across the top of the screen, and on the bottom of the screen is where your shopping bag is, waiting to be crammed full of shopping items.
This game is so addictive that it has made it into the featured section of the website. This game is free to download at the time of this review. There are achievements that you can earn in the game and also different game modes such as, ‘Rampage’, ‘Standard’ and ‘Power Surge’ modes. There are also three endless modes that you can play.
When you are cramming your shopping bag full of goodies you can also earn extra points for scoring combos, such as putting two happy watermelons together. Why? I don’t know, but perhaps the fruit, which is about to be eaten may feel lonely on its way to the kitchen of death and might need the company of another victim.
So, the more hardy items must go on the bottom with the fragile items being better placed on top.
Check out the check out in ‘Bag It!’
Warning: You will not want to put this shopping mall bag filling app down once you start playing it!
Efren Reyes is considered one the best billiards player ever to play the game of pool by just about every billiards magazine or professional billiards player.
He has become famous for his use of â??kickingâ? which he used with pinpoint accuracy to win many tournaments and titles. He had numerous accolades from his distinguished style and ability to win making most people believe the man from the Philippines is the best billiards/pool player ever.
Efren Reyes was born in Pampanga in 1954 but at the age of only 5 he moved to Manila with his family. This is where he had his first experience with billiards as he worked in his Uncleâ??s billiards hall. This is also where he gained his famous nickname Bata which means kid, used to distinguish him from the older Efren who frequented there.
This is where he started playing billiards and learnt his unique style. He continued playing in the Philippines and was considered a one of the best there before he was ever heard of in the USA.
His career in the game of pool has been a long one spanning many decades but he only became famous when he went to America and won the US open Nine Ball Championship in 1994.
This began his career in the western world as he won numerous titles throughout, becoming the first Filipino to win the US championship in 9 ball and several other titles previously only held by western citizens. For over 4 years he won the most money in billiards history, competing in competitions with record breaking payouts. His solo achievements include winning the first televised WPA World 9-ball championship, the international billiards tournament in 2001, the WPA World eight ball championship in 2004 making him the first man to win WPA championships in two different types of billiards. These achievements have made him world famous.
He has also had his share of combined championships earning the world championship for the Philippines with Francisco Bustamante when they beat the US team of Earl Strickland and Rodney Morris in 2006. They then backed this up by beating the German team of Ralf Souquet and Thorsten Hohmann in a very close match in 2009.
Throughout his career Efren Reyes has won a lot of competitions in the game of pool, rising up from winning in the Philippines to winning all the major events in the USA and rest of the world. Winning world titles for himself and his country he has established himself as the best billiards player ever to play the game.
Just for fun, this is a review of an app that slides sliders and will truly amaze and confuse your friends. Perhaps even more so than the latest 3D top grossing apps out there. Why? Because they’ll be rolling about laughing and won’t be able to resist having a go.
This game is so simple that if you don’t get how to play the game, then professional help needs to be sought. You simply slide the sliders across as fast as you can. Yep, that’s it.
This review is sure to make you chuckle, but also sure to make your eyes widen when I tell you that this has been a top 100 app in more than 25 countries?!
Sometimes simplicity and fun win over other more involved apps out there. I think that part of its appeal will be that it is an attention grabber for sure. Imagine sitting near friends and frantically swiping your iPhone like a crazed nutter. People are bound to look over with concern and be bemused by your odd behaviour.
You can choose from different slider slides options such as from right to left or left to right and you can even upgrade to gold sliders with the in-app purchase option. Friends will think you have definitely lost the plot purchasing gold sliders, so it would be worth the $1 just to see their reactions.
There are also different game modes such as ‘Doubles’ or ‘Achievements’ modes.
Fair play to the developer who put this addictive app together. The developer has made use of the iPhone’s slider button slides capabilities and produced a game that is a hit and a classic.
Apple was founded in the 1970â??s by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak after they built their first computer, the Apple I. It started production in Steve Jobsâ?? dadsâ?? Garage and from these humble beginnings it has eventually become a multibillion dollar company that has changed the world. Together with the Apple Store.
Efren Reyes is considered one the best billiards player ever to play the game of pool by just about every billiards magazine or professional billiards player.
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