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**Anarchism** is a political philosophy and movement that seeks to abolish all institutions that perpetuate authority, coercion, or hierarchy, primarily targeting the state and capitalism. Anarchism advocates for the replacement of the state with stateless societies and voluntary free associations. A historically left-wing movement, anarchism is usually described as the libertarian wing of the socialist movement (libertarian socialism).
Although traces of anarchist ideas are found all throughout history, modern anarchism emerged from the Enlightenment. During the latter half of the 19th and the first decades of the 20th century, the anarchist movement flourished in most parts of the world and had a significant role in workers\' struggles for emancipation. Various anarchist schools of thought formed during this period. Anarchists have taken part in several revolutions, most notably in the Paris Commune, the Russian Civil War and the Spanish Civil War, whose end marked the end of the classical era of anarchism. In the last decades of the 20th and into the 21st century, the anarchist movement has been resurgent once more, growing in popularity and influence within anti-capitalist, anti-war and anti-globalisation movements.
Anarchists employ diverse approaches, which may be generally divided into revolutionary and evolutionary strategies; there is significant overlap between the two. Evolutionary methods try to simulate what an anarchist society might be like, but revolutionary tactics, which have historically taken a violent turn, aim to overthrow authority and the state. Many facets of human civilization have been influenced by anarchist theory, critique, and praxis. `{{Toc limit|3}}`{=mediawiki}
## Etymology, terminology, and definition {#etymology_terminology_and_definition}
The etymological origin of *anarchism* is from the Ancient Greek *anarkhia* (ἀναρχία), meaning \"without a ruler\", composed of the prefix *an-* (\"without\") and the word *arkhos* (\"leader\" or \"ruler\"). The suffix *-ism* denotes the ideological current that favours anarchy. *Anarchism* appears in English from 1642 as *anarchisme* and *anarchy* from 1539; early English usages emphasised a sense of disorder. Various factions within the French Revolution labelled their opponents as *anarchists*, although few such accused shared many views with later anarchists. Many revolutionaries of the 19th century such as William Godwin (1756--1836) and Wilhelm Weitling (1808--1871) would contribute to the anarchist doctrines of the next generation but did not use *anarchist* or *anarchism* in describing themselves or their beliefs.
The first political philosopher to call himself an *anarchist* (*anarchiste*) was Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (1809--1865), marking the formal birth of anarchism in the mid-19th century. Since the 1890s and beginning in France, *libertarianism* has often been used as a synonym for anarchism; its use as a synonym is still common outside the United States. Some usages of *libertarianism* refer to individualistic free-market philosophy only, and free-market anarchism in particular is termed *libertarian anarchism*.
While the term *libertarian* has been largely synonymous with anarchism, its meaning has more recently been diluted by wider adoption from ideologically disparate groups, including both the New Left and libertarian Marxists, who do not associate themselves with authoritarian socialists or a vanguard party, and extreme cultural liberals, who are primarily concerned with civil liberties. Additionally, some anarchists use *libertarian socialist* to avoid anarchism\'s negative connotations and emphasise its connections with socialism. *Anarchism* is broadly used to describe the anti-authoritarian wing of the socialist movement. Anarchism is contrasted to socialist forms which are state-oriented or from above. Scholars of anarchism generally highlight anarchism\'s socialist credentials and criticise attempts at creating dichotomies between the two. Some scholars describe anarchism as having many influences from liberalism, and being both liberal and socialist but more so. Many scholars reject anarcho-capitalism as a misunderstanding of anarchist principles.
While opposition to the state is central to anarchist thought, defining *anarchism* is not an easy task for scholars, as there is a lot of discussion among scholars and anarchists on the matter, and various currents perceive anarchism slightly differently. Major definitional elements include the will for a non-coercive society, the rejection of the state apparatus, the belief that human nature allows humans to exist in or progress toward such a non-coercive society, and a suggestion on how to act to pursue the ideal of anarchy.
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## History
### Pre-modern era {#pre_modern_era}
thumb\|upright=.7\|Zeno of Citium (c. 334), whose *Republic* inspired Peter Kropotkin The most notable precursors to anarchism in the ancient world were in China and Greece. In China, philosophical anarchism (the discussion on the legitimacy of the state) was delineated by Taoist philosophers Zhuang Zhou and Laozi. Alongside Stoicism, Taoism has been said to have had \"significant anticipations\" of anarchism.
Anarchic attitudes were also articulated by tragedians and philosophers in Greece. Aeschylus and Sophocles used the myth of Antigone to illustrate the conflict between laws imposed by the state and personal autonomy. Socrates questioned Athenian authorities constantly and insisted on the right of individual freedom of conscience. Cynics dismissed human law (*nomos*) and associated authorities while trying to live according to nature (*physis*). Stoics were supportive of a society based on unofficial and friendly relations among its citizens without the presence of a state.
In medieval Europe, there was no anarchistic activity except some ascetic religious movements. These, and other Muslim movements, later gave birth to religious anarchism. In the Sasanian Empire, Mazdak called for an egalitarian society and the abolition of monarchy, only to be soon executed by Emperor Kavad I. In Basra, religious sects preached against the state. In Europe, various religious sects developed anti-state and libertarian tendencies.
Renewed interest in antiquity during the Renaissance and in private judgment during the Reformation restored elements of anti-authoritarian secularism in Europe, particularly in France. Enlightenment challenges to intellectual authority (secular and religious) and the revolutions of the 1790s and 1848 all spurred the ideological development of what became the era of classical anarchism.
### Modern era {#modern_era}
During the French Revolution, partisan groups such as the Enragés and the *\[\[sans-culottes\]\]* saw a turning point in the fermentation of anti-state and federalist sentiments. The first anarchist currents developed throughout the 19th century as William Godwin espoused philosophical anarchism in England, morally delegitimising the state, Max Stirner\'s thinking paved the way to individualism and Pierre-Joseph Proudhon\'s theory of mutualism found fertile soil in France. By the late 1870s, various anarchist schools of thought had become well-defined and a wave of then-unprecedented globalisation occurred from 1880 to 1914. This era of classical anarchism lasted until the end of the Spanish Civil War and is considered the golden age of anarchism.
Drawing from mutualism, Mikhail Bakunin founded collectivist anarchism and entered the International Workingmen\'s Association, a class worker union later known as the First International that formed in 1864 to unite diverse revolutionary currents. The International became a significant political force, with Karl Marx being a leading figure and a member of its General Council. Bakunin\'s faction (the Jura Federation) and Proudhon\'s followers (the mutualists) opposed state socialism, advocating political abstentionism and small property holdings. After bitter disputes, the Bakuninists were expelled from the International by the Marxists at the 1872 Hague Congress. Anarchists were treated similarly in the Second International, being ultimately expelled in 1896. Bakunin predicted that if revolutionaries gained power by Marx\'s terms, they would end up the new tyrants of workers. In response to their expulsion from the First International, anarchists formed the St. Imier International. Under the influence of Peter Kropotkin, a Russian philosopher and scientist, anarcho-communism overlapped with collectivism. Anarcho-communists, who drew inspiration from the 1871 Paris Commune, advocated for free federation and for the distribution of goods according to one\'s needs.
During this time, a minority of anarchists adopted tactics of revolutionary political violence, known as propaganda of the deed. The dismemberment of the French socialist movement into many groups and the execution and exile of many Communards to penal colonies following the suppression of the Paris Commune favoured individualist political expression and acts. Even though many anarchists distanced themselves from these terrorist acts, infamy came upon the movement and attempts were made to prevent anarchists immigrating to the US, including the *Immigration Act of 1903*, also called the Anarchist Exclusion Act. Illegalism was another strategy which some anarchists adopted during this period.
By the turn of the 20th century, the terrorist movement had died down, giving way to anarchist communism and syndicalism, while anarchism had spread all over the world. In China, small groups of students imported the humanistic pro-science version of anarcho-communism. Tokyo was a hotspot for rebellious youth from East Asian countries, who moved to the Japanese capital to study. In Latin America, Argentina was a stronghold for anarcho-syndicalism, where it became the most prominent left-wing ideology. Anarchists were involved in the Strandzha Commune and Krusevo Republic established in Macedonia in Ilinden--Preobrazhenie Uprising of 1903, and in the Mexican Revolution of 1910. The revolutionary wave of 1917--23 saw varying degrees of active participation by anarchists.
Despite concerns, anarchists enthusiastically participated in the Russian Revolution in opposition to the White movement, especially in the Makhnovshchina. Seeing the victories of the Bolsheviks in the October Revolution and the resulting Russian Civil War, many workers and activists turned to Communist parties, which grew at the expense of anarchism and other socialist movements. In France and the United States, members of major syndicalist movements such as the General Confederation of Labour and the Industrial Workers of the World left their organisations and joined the Communist International. However, anarchists met harsh suppression after the Bolshevik government had stabilised, including during the Kronstadt rebellion. Several anarchists from Petrograd and Moscow fled to Ukraine, before the Bolsheviks crushed the anarchist movement there too. With the anarchists being repressed in Russia, two new antithetical currents emerged, namely platformism and synthesis anarchism. The former sought to create a coherent group that would push for revolution while the latter were against anything that would resemble a political party.
In the Spanish Civil War of 1936--39, anarchists and syndicalists (CNT and FAI) once again allied themselves with various currents of leftists. A long tradition of Spanish anarchism led to anarchists playing a pivotal role in the war, and particularly in the Spanish Revolution of 1936. In response to the army rebellion, an anarchist-inspired movement of peasants and workers, supported by armed militias, took control of Barcelona and of large areas of rural Spain, where they collectivised the land. The Soviet Union provided some limited assistance at the beginning of the war, but the result was a bitter fight between communists and other leftists in a series of events known as the May Days, as Joseph Stalin asserted Soviet control of the Republican government, ending in another defeat of anarchists at the hands of the communists.
#### Post-WWII {#post_wwii}
By the end of World War II, the anarchist movement had been severely weakened. The 1960s witnessed a revival of anarchism, likely caused by a perceived failure of Marxism--Leninism and tensions built by the Cold War. During this time, anarchism found a presence in other movements critical towards both capitalism and the state such as the anti-nuclear, environmental, and peace movements, the counterculture of the 1960s, and the New Left. It also saw a transition from its previous revolutionary nature to provocative anti-capitalist reformism. Anarchism became associated with punk subculture as exemplified by bands such as Crass and the Sex Pistols. The established feminist tendencies of anarcha-feminism returned with vigour during the second wave of feminism. Black anarchism began to take form at this time and influenced anarchism\'s move from a Eurocentric demographic. This coincided with its failure to gain traction in Northern Europe and its unprecedented height in Latin America.
Around the turn of the 21st century, anarchism grew in popularity and influence within anti-capitalist, anti-war and anti-globalisation movements. Interest in the anarchist movement developed alongside momentum in the anti-globalisation movement, whose leading activist networks were anarchist in orientation. Anarchists became known for their involvement in protests against the World Trade Organization (WTO), the Group of Eight and the World Economic Forum. During the protests, *ad hoc* leaderless anonymous cadres known as black blocs engaged in rioting, property destruction and violent confrontations with the police. Other organisational tactics pioneered at this time include affinity groups, security culture and the use of decentralised technologies such as the Internet. A significant event of this period was the confrontations at the 1999 Seattle WTO conference. As the movement shaped 21st century radicalism, wider embrace of anarchist principles signaled a revival of interest. Contemporary news coverage which emphasizes black bloc demonstrations has reinforced anarchism\'s historical association with chaos and violence.
While having revolutionary aspirations, many contemporary forms of anarchism are not confrontational. Instead, they are trying to build an alternative way of social organization (following the theories of dual power), based on mutual interdependence and voluntary cooperation, for instance in groups such as Food Not Bombs and in self-managed social centers.
Anarchism\'s publicity has also led more scholars in fields such as anthropology and history to engage with the anarchist movement, although contemporary anarchism favours actions over academic theory. Anarchist ideas have been influential in the development of the Zapatistas in Mexico and the Democratic Federation of Northern Syria, more commonly known as Rojava, a *de facto* autonomous region in northern Syria.
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## Schools of thought {#schools_of_thought}
Anarchist schools of thought have been generally grouped into two main historical traditions, social anarchism and individualist anarchism, owing to their different origins, values and evolution. The individualist current emphasises negative liberty in opposing restraints upon the free individual, while the social current emphasises positive liberty in aiming to achieve the free potential of society through equality and social ownership. In a chronological sense, anarchism can be segmented by the classical currents of the late 19th century and the post-classical currents (anarcha-feminism, green anarchism, and post-anarchism) developed thereafter.
Anarchism\'s emphasis on anti-capitalism, egalitarianism, and for the extension of community and individuality sets it apart from anarcho-capitalism and other types of economic libertarianism. Anarchism is usually placed on the far-left of the political spectrum, though many reject state authority from conservative principles, such as anarcho-capitalists. Much of its economics and legal philosophy reflect anti-authoritarian, anti-statist, libertarian, and radical interpretations of left-wing and socialist politics such as collectivism, communism, individualism, mutualism, and syndicalism, among other libertarian socialist economic theories.
As anarchism does not offer a fixed body of doctrine from a single particular worldview, many anarchist types and traditions exist and varieties of anarchy diverge widely. One reaction against sectarianism within the anarchist milieu was anarchism without adjectives, a call for toleration and unity among anarchists first adopted by Fernando Tarrida del Mármol in 1889 in response to the bitter debates of anarchist theory at the time. Despite separation, the various anarchist schools of thought are not seen as distinct entities but rather as tendencies that intermingle and are connected through a set of shared principles such as autonomy, mutual aid, anti-authoritarianism and decentralisation.
Beyond the specific factions of anarchist political movements which constitute political anarchism lies philosophical anarchism, which holds that the state lacks moral legitimacy, without necessarily accepting the imperative of revolution to eliminate it. A component especially of individualist anarchism, philosophical anarchism may tolerate the existence of a minimal state but claims that citizens have no moral obligation to obey government when it conflicts with individual autonomy. Philosophical currents as diverse as Objectivism and Kantianism have provided arguments drawn on in favor of philosophical anarchism, including Wolff\'s defense of anarchism against formal methods for legitimating it. Anarchism pays significant attention to moral arguments since ethics have a central role in anarchist philosophy. Belief in political nihilism has been espoused by anarchists.
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## Schools of thought {#schools_of_thought}
### Classical
*Main article: Individualist anarchism, Mutualism (economic theory), Collectivist anarchism, Anarchist communism, Anarcho-syndicalism*
Inceptive currents among classical anarchist currents were mutualism and individualism. They were followed by the major currents of social anarchism (collectivist, communist and syndicalist). They differ on organisational and economic aspects of their ideal society.
Mutualism is an 18th-century economic theory that was developed into anarchist theory by Pierre-Joseph Proudhon. Its aims include \"abolishing the state\", reciprocity, free association, voluntary contract, federation and monetary reform of both credit and currency that would be regulated by a bank of the people. Mutualism has been retrospectively characterised as ideologically situated between individualist and collectivist forms of anarchism. In *What Is Property?* (1840), Proudhon first characterised his goal as a \"third form of society, the synthesis of communism and property.\" Collectivist anarchism is a revolutionary socialist form of anarchism commonly associated with Mikhail Bakunin. Collectivist anarchists advocate collective ownership of the means of production which is theorised to be achieved through violent revolution and that workers be paid according to time worked, rather than goods being distributed according to need as in communism. Collectivist anarchism arose alongside Marxism but rejected the dictatorship of the proletariat despite the stated Marxist goal of a collectivist stateless society.
Anarcho-communism is a theory of anarchism that advocates a communist society with common ownership of the means of production, held by a federal network of voluntary associations, with production and consumption based on the guiding principle \"From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.\" Anarcho-communism developed from radical socialist currents after the French Revolution but was first formulated as such in the Italian section of the First International. It was later expanded upon in the theoretical work of Peter Kropotkin, whose specific style would go onto become the dominating view of anarchists by the late 19th century. Anarcho-syndicalism is a branch of anarchism that views labour syndicates as a potential force for revolutionary social change, replacing capitalism and the state with a new society democratically self-managed by workers. The basic principles of anarcho-syndicalism are direct action, workers\' solidarity and workers\' self-management.
Individualist anarchism is a set of several traditions of thought within the anarchist movement that emphasise the individual and their will over any kinds of external determinants. Early influences on individualist forms of anarchism include William Godwin, Max Stirner, and Henry David Thoreau. Through many countries, individualist anarchism attracted a small yet diverse following of Bohemian artists and intellectuals as well as young anarchist outlaws in what became known as illegalism and individual reclamation.
### Post-classical and contemporary {#post_classical_and_contemporary}
Anarchism has continued to generate many philosophies and movements, at times eclectic, drawing upon various sources and combining disparate concepts to create new philosophical approaches. The anti-capitalist tradition of classical anarchism has remained prominent within contemporary currents.
Various anarchist groups, tendencies, and schools of thought exist today, making it difficult to describe the contemporary anarchist movement. While theorists and activists have established \"relatively stable constellations of anarchist principles\", there is no consensus on which principles are core and commentators describe multiple *anarchisms*, rather than a singular *anarchism*, in which common principles are shared between schools of anarchism while each group prioritizes those principles differently. Gender equality can be a common principle, although it ranks as a higher priority to anarcha-feminists than anarcho-communists.
Anarchists are generally committed against coercive authority in all forms, namely \"all centralized and hierarchical forms of government (e.g., monarchy, representative democracy, state socialism, etc.), economic class systems (e.g., capitalism, Bolshevism, feudalism, slavery, etc.), autocratic religions (e.g., fundamentalist Islam, Roman Catholicism, etc.), patriarchy, heterosexism, white supremacy, and imperialism.\" Anarchist schools disagree on the methods by which these forms should be opposed.
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## Tactics
Anarchists\' tactics take various forms but in general serve two major goals, namely, to first oppose the Establishment and secondly to promote anarchist ethics and reflect an anarchist vision of society, illustrating the unity of means and ends. A broad categorisation can be made between aims to destroy oppressive states and institutions by revolutionary means on one hand and aims to change society through evolutionary means on the other. Evolutionary tactics embrace nonviolence and take a gradual approach to anarchist aims, although there is significant overlap between the two.
Anarchist tactics have shifted during the course of the last century. Anarchists during the early 20th century focused more on strikes and militancy while contemporary anarchists use a broader array of approaches.
### Classical era {#classical_era}
During the classical era, anarchists had a militant tendency. Not only did they confront state armed forces, as in Spain and Ukraine, but some of them also employed terrorism as propaganda of the deed. Assassination attempts were carried out against heads of state, some of which were successful. Anarchists also took part in revolutions. Many anarchists, especially the Galleanists, believed that these attempts would be the impetus for a revolution against capitalism and the state. Many of these attacks were done by individual assailants and the majority took place in the late 1870s, the early 1880s and the 1890s, with some still occurring in the early 1900s. Their decrease in prevalence was the result of further judicial power and of targeting and cataloging by state institutions.
Anarchist perspectives towards violence have always been controversial. Anarcho-pacifists advocate for non-violence means to achieve their stateless, nonviolent ends. Other anarchist groups advocate direct action, a tactic which can include acts of sabotage or terrorism. This attitude was quite prominent a century ago when seeing the state as a tyrant and some anarchists believing that they had every right to oppose its oppression by any means possible. Emma Goldman and Errico Malatesta, who were proponents of limited use of violence, stated that violence is merely a reaction to state violence as a necessary evil.
Anarchists took an active role in strike actions, although they tended to be antipathetic to formal syndicalism, seeing it as reformist. They saw it as a part of the movement which sought to overthrow the state and capitalism. Anarchists also reinforced their propaganda within the arts, some of whom practiced naturism and nudism. Those anarchists also built communities which were based on friendship and were involved in the news media.
### Revolutionary and insurrectionary {#revolutionary_and_insurrectionary}
In the current era, Italian anarchist Alfredo Bonanno, a proponent of insurrectionary anarchism, has reinstated the debate on violence by rejecting the nonviolence tactic adopted since the late 19th century by Kropotkin and other prominent anarchists afterwards. Both Bonanno and the French group The Invisible Committee advocate for small, informal affiliation groups, where each member is responsible for their own actions but works together to bring down oppression using sabotage and other violent means against state, capitalism, and other enemies. Members of The Invisible Committee were arrested in 2008 on various charges, terrorism included.
Overall, contemporary anarchists are much less violent and militant than their ideological ancestors. They mostly engage in confronting the police during demonstrations and riots, especially in countries such as Canada, Greece, and Mexico. Militant black bloc protest groups are known for clashing with the police; however, anarchists not only clash with state operators, they also engage in the struggle against fascists, racists, and other bigots, taking anti-fascist action and mobilizing to prevent hate rallies from happening.
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## Tactics
### Evolutionary
Anarchists commonly employ direct action. This can take the form of disrupting and protesting against unjust hierarchy, or the form of self-managing their lives through the creation of counter-institutions such as communes and non-hierarchical collectives. Decision-making is often handled in an anti-authoritarian way, with everyone having equal say in each decision, an approach known as horizontalism. Contemporary-era anarchists have been engaging with various grassroots movements that are more or less based on horizontalism, although not explicitly anarchist, respecting personal autonomy and participating in mass activism such as strikes and demonstrations. In contrast with the \"big-A Anarchism\" of the classical era, the newly coined term \"small-a anarchism\" signals their tendency not to base their thoughts and actions on classical-era anarchism or to refer to classical anarchists such as Peter Kropotkin and Pierre-Joseph Proudhon to justify their opinions. Those anarchists would rather base their thought and praxis on their own experience, which they will later theorize.
The concept of prefigurative politics is enacted by many contemporary anarchist groups, striving to embody the principles, organization and tactics of the changed social structure they hope to bring about. As part of this the decision-making process of small anarchist affinity groups plays a significant tactical role. Anarchists have employed various methods to build a rough consensus among members of their group without the need of a leader or a leading group. One way is for an individual from the group to play the role of facilitator to help achieve a consensus without taking part in the discussion themselves or promoting a specific point. Minorities usually accept rough consensus, except when they feel the proposal contradicts anarchist ethics, goals and values. Anarchists usually form small groups (5--20 individuals) to enhance autonomy and friendships among their members. These kinds of groups more often than not interconnect with each other, forming larger networks. Anarchists still support and participate in strikes, especially wildcat strikes as these are leaderless strikes not organised centrally by a syndicate.
As in the past, newspapers and journals are used, and anarchists have gone online to spread their message. Anarchists have found it easier to create websites because of distributional and other difficulties, hosting electronic libraries and other portals. Anarchists were also involved in developing various software that are available for free. The way these hacktivists work to develop and distribute resembles the anarchist ideals, especially when it comes to preserving users\' privacy from state surveillance.
Anarchists organize themselves to squat and reclaim public spaces. During important events such as protests and when spaces are being occupied, they are often called Temporary Autonomous Zones (TAZ), spaces where art, poetry, and surrealism are blended to display the anarchist ideal. As seen by anarchists, squatting is a way to regain urban space from the capitalist market, serving pragmatical needs and also being an exemplary direct action. Acquiring space enables anarchists to experiment with their ideas and build social bonds. Adding up these tactics while having in mind that not all anarchists share the same attitudes towards them, along with various forms of protesting at highly symbolic events, make up a carnivalesque atmosphere that is part of contemporary anarchist vividity.
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## Key issues {#key_issues}
As anarchism is a philosophy that embodies many diverse attitudes, tendencies, and schools of thought, disagreement over questions of values, ideology, and tactics is common. Its diversity has led to widely different uses of identical terms among different anarchist traditions which has created a number of definitional concerns in anarchist theory. The compatibility of capitalism, nationalism, and religion with anarchism is widely disputed, and anarchism enjoys complex relationships with ideologies such as communism, collectivism, Marxism, and trade unionism. Anarchists may be motivated by humanism, divine authority, enlightened self-interest, veganism, or any number of alternative ethical doctrines. Phenomena such as civilisation, technology (e.g. within anarcho-primitivism), and the democratic process may be sharply criticised within some anarchist tendencies and simultaneously lauded in others.
### The state {#the_state}
Objection to the state and its institutions is a *sine qua non* of anarchism. Anarchists consider the state as a tool of domination and believe it to be illegitimate regardless of its political tendencies. Instead of people being able to control the aspects of their life, major decisions are taken by a small elite. Authority ultimately rests solely on power, regardless of whether that power is open or transparent, as it still has the ability to coerce people. Another anarchist argument against states is that the people constituting a government, even the most altruistic among officials, will unavoidably seek to gain more power, leading to corruption. Anarchists consider the idea that the state is the collective will of the people to be an unachievable fiction due to the fact that the ruling class is distinct from the rest of society.
Specific anarchist attitudes towards the state vary. Robert Paul Wolff believed that the tension between authority and autonomy would mean the state could never be legitimate. Bakunin saw the state as meaning \"coercion, domination by means of coercion, camouflaged if possible but unceremonious and overt if need be.\" A. John Simmons and Leslie Green, who leaned toward philosophical anarchism, believed that the state could be legitimate if it is governed by consensus, although they saw this as highly unlikely. Beliefs on how to abolish the state also differ.
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## Key issues {#key_issues}
### Gender, sexuality, and free love {#gender_sexuality_and_free_love}
As gender and sexuality carry along them dynamics of hierarchy, many anarchists address, analyse, and oppose the suppression of one\'s autonomy imposed by gender roles.
thumb\|upright=1.2\|Collection of anarcha-feminist protests, symbols, and flags Sexuality was not often discussed by classical anarchists but the few that did felt that an anarchist society would lead to sexuality naturally developing. Sexual violence was a concern for anarchists such as Benjamin Tucker, who opposed age-of-consent laws, believing they would benefit predatory men. A historical current that arose and flourished during 1890 and 1920 within anarchism was free love. In contemporary anarchism, this current survives as a tendency to support polyamory, relationship anarchy, and queer anarchism. Free love advocates were against marriage, which they saw as a way of men imposing authority over women, largely because marriage law greatly favoured the power of men. The notion of free love was much broader and included a critique of the established order that limited women\'s sexual freedom and pleasure. Those free love movements contributed to the establishment of communal houses, where large groups of travelers, anarchists and other activists slept in beds together. Free love had roots both in Europe and the United States; however, some anarchists struggled with the jealousy that arose from free love. Anarchist feminists were advocates of free love, against marriage, and pro-choice (using a contemporary term), and had a similar agenda. Anarchist and non-anarchist feminists differed on suffrage but were supportive of one another.
During the second half of the 20th century, anarchism intermingled with the second wave of feminism, radicalising some currents of the feminist movement and being influenced as well. By the latest decades of the 20th century, anarchists and feminists were advocating for the rights and autonomy of women, LGBT people, and other marginalised groups, with some feminist thinkers suggesting a fusion of the two currents. With the third wave of feminism, sexual identity and compulsory heterosexuality became a subject of study for anarchists, yielding a post-structuralist critique of sexual normality. Some anarchists distanced themselves from this line of thinking, suggesting that it leaned towards an individualism that was dropping the cause of social liberation.
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## Key issues {#key_issues}
### Education
Anarchist education State education
------------ ------------------------------------ --------------------------------------
Concept Education as self-mastery Education as service
Management Community based State run
Methods Practice-based learning Vocational training
Aims Being a critical member of society Being a productive member of society
: Anarchist vs. statist perspectives on education\
The interest of anarchists in education stretches back to the first emergence of classical anarchism. Anarchists consider proper education, one which sets the foundations of the future autonomy of the individual and the society, to be an act of mutual aid. Anarchist writers such as William Godwin (*Political Justice*) and Max Stirner (\"The False Principle of Our Education\") attacked both state education and private education as another means by which the ruling class replicate their privileges.
In 1901, Catalan anarchist and free thinker Francisco Ferrer established the Escuela Moderna in Barcelona as an opposition to the established education system which was dictated largely by the Catholic Church. Ferrer\'s approach was secular, rejecting both state and church involvement in the educational process while giving pupils large amounts of autonomy in planning their work and attendance. Ferrer aimed to educate the working class and explicitly sought to foster class consciousness among students. The school closed after constant harassment by the state and Ferrer was later arrested. Nonetheless, his ideas formed the inspiration for a series of modern schools around the world. Christian anarchist Leo Tolstoy, who published the essay *Education and Culture*, also established a similar school with its founding principle being that \"for education to be effective it had to be free.\" In a similar token, A. S. Neill founded what became the Summerhill School in 1921, also declaring being free from coercion.
Anarchist education is based largely on the idea that a child\'s right to develop freely and without manipulation ought to be respected and that rationality would lead children to morally good conclusions; however, there has been little consensus among anarchist figures as to what constitutes manipulation. Ferrer believed that moral indoctrination was necessary and explicitly taught pupils that equality, liberty and social justice were not possible under capitalism, along with other critiques of government and nationalism.
Late 20th century and contemporary anarchist writers (Paul Goodman, Herbert Read, and Colin Ward) intensified and expanded the anarchist critique of state education, largely focusing on the need for a system that focuses on children\'s creativity rather than on their ability to attain a career or participate in consumerism as part of a consumer society. Contemporary anarchists such as Ward claim that state education serves to perpetuate socioeconomic inequality.
While few anarchist education institutions have survived to the modern-day, major tenets of anarchist schools, among them respect for child autonomy and relying on reasoning rather than indoctrination as a teaching method, have spread among mainstream educational institutions. Judith Suissa names three schools as explicitly anarchists\' schools, namely the Free Skool Santa Cruz in the United States which is part of a wider American-Canadian network of schools, the Self-Managed Learning College in Brighton, England, and the Paideia School in Spain.
### The arts {#the_arts}
The connection between anarchism and art was quite profound during the classical era of anarchism, especially among artistic currents that were developing during that era such as futurists, surrealists and others. In literature, anarchism was mostly associated with the New Apocalyptics and the neo-romanticism movement. In music, anarchism has been associated with music scenes such as punk. Anarchists such as Leo Tolstoy and Herbert Read stated that the border between the artist and the non-artist, what separates art from a daily act, is a construct produced by the alienation caused by capitalism and it prevents humans from living a joyful life.
Other anarchists advocated for or used art as a means to achieve anarchist ends. In his book *Breaking the Spell: A History of Anarchist Filmmakers, Videotape Guerrillas, and Digital Ninjas*, Chris Robé claims that \"anarchist-inflected practices have increasingly structured movement-based video activism.\" Throughout the 20th century, many prominent anarchists (Peter Kropotkin, Emma Goldman, Gustav Landauer and Camillo Berneri) and publications such as *Anarchy* wrote about matters pertaining to the arts.
Three overlapping properties made art useful to anarchists. It could depict a critique of existing society and hierarchies, serve as a prefigurative tool to reflect the anarchist ideal society and even turn into a means of direct action such as in protests. As it appeals to both emotion and reason, art could appeal to the whole human and have a powerful effect. The 19th-century neo-impressionist movement had an ecological aesthetic and offered an example of an anarchist perception of the road towards socialism. In *Les chataigniers a Osny* by anarchist painter Camille Pissarro, the blending of aesthetic and social harmony is prefiguring an ideal anarchistic agrarian community.
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## Criticism
The most common critique of anarchism is the assertion that humans cannot self-govern and so a state is necessary for human survival. Philosopher Bertrand Russell supported this critique, stating that \"\[p\]eace and war, tariffs, regulations of sanitary conditions and the sale of noxious drugs, the preservation of a just system of distribution: these, among others, are functions which could hardly be performed in a community in which there was no central government.\" Another common criticism of anarchism is that it fits a world of isolation in which only the small enough entities can be self-governing; a response would be that major anarchist thinkers advocated anarchist federalism.
Another criticism of anarchism is the belief that it is inherently unstable: that an anarchist society would inevitably evolve back into a state. Thomas Hobbes and other early social contract theorists argued that the state emerges in response to natural anarchy to protect the people\'s interests and keep order. Philosopher Robert Nozick argued that a \"night-watchman state\", or minarchy, would emerge from anarchy through the process of an invisible hand, in which people would exercise their liberty and buy protection from protection agencies, evolving into a minimal state. Anarchists reject these criticisms by arguing that humans in a state of nature would not just be in a state of war. Anarcho-primitivists in particular argue that humans were better off in a state of nature in small tribes living close to the land, while anarchists in general argue that the negatives of state organization, such as hierarchies, monopolies and inequality, outweigh the benefits.
Philosophy lecturer Andrew G. Fiala composed a list of common arguments against anarchism which includes critiques such as that anarchism is innately related to violence and destruction, not only in the pragmatic world, such as at protests, but in the world of ethics as well. Secondly, anarchism is evaluated as unfeasible or utopian since the state cannot be defeated practically. This line of arguments most often calls for political action within the system to reform it. The third argument is that anarchism is self-contradictory as a ruling theory that has no ruling theory. Anarchism also calls for collective action while endorsing the autonomy of the individual, hence no collective action can be taken. Lastly, Fiala mentions a critique towards philosophical anarchism of being ineffective (all talk and thoughts) and in the meantime capitalism and bourgeois class remains strong.
One of the earliest criticisms is that anarchism defies and fails to understand the biological inclination to authority. Joseph Raz states that the acceptance of authority implies the belief that following their instructions will afford more success. Raz believes that this argument is true in following both authorities\' successful and mistaken instruction. Anarchists reject this criticism because challenging or disobeying authority does not entail the disappearance of its advantages by acknowledging authority such as doctors or lawyers as reliable, nor does it involve a complete surrender of independent judgment. Anarchist perception of human nature, rejection of the state, and commitment to social revolution has been criticised by academics as naive, overly simplistic, and unrealistic, respectively. Classical anarchism has been criticised for relying too heavily on the belief that the abolition of the state will lead to human cooperation prospering.
Karl Marx, considered to be one of the principal founders of Marxism, criticised anarchism as the movement of the \"petty bourgeois\", i.e. of formerly self-employed craftsmen and artisans who had been ruined by capitalistic industrialization or even war and then driven to factories; even so, they refused to subject themselves to factory discipline, party leadership, and State control, were prone to violence when frustrated, and advocated seizing factories only to break down mass production and return to craftsmanship. Friedrich Engels, who is considered Marxism\'s other principal founder, criticised anarchism\'s anti-authoritarianism as inherently counter-revolutionary because in his view a revolution is by itself authoritarian. A Socialist Workers Party pamphlet by John Molyneux, *Anarchism: A Marxist Criticism* argues that \"anarchism cannot win\", believing that it lacks the ability to properly implement its ideas. Another Marxist criticism of anarchism is that it has a utopian character because all individuals should have anarchist views and values. According to this Marxist view, that a social idea would follow directly from this human ideal and out of the free will of every individual formed its essence. Marxists state that this contradiction was responsible for their inability to act. In the anarchist vision, the conflict between liberty and equality was resolved through coexistence and intertwining
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**Albedo** (`{{IPAc-en|æ|l|ˈ|b|iː|d|oʊ|audio=LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-albedo.wav}}`{=mediawiki} `{{respell|al|BEE|doh}}`{=mediawiki}; `{{etymology|la|albedo|whiteness}}`{=mediawiki}) is the fraction of sunlight that is diffusely reflected by a body. It is measured on a scale from 0 (corresponding to a black body that absorbs all incident radiation) to 1 (corresponding to a body that reflects all incident radiation). *Surface albedo* is defined as the ratio of radiosity *J*~e~ to the irradiance *E*~e~ (flux per unit area) received by a surface. The proportion reflected is not only determined by properties of the surface itself, but also by the spectral and angular distribution of solar radiation reaching the Earth\'s surface. These factors vary with atmospheric composition, geographic location, and time (see position of the Sun).
While directional-hemispherical reflectance factor is calculated for a single angle of incidence (i.e., for a given position of the Sun), albedo is the directional integration of reflectance over all solar angles in a given period. The temporal resolution may range from seconds (as obtained from flux measurements) to daily, monthly, or annual averages.
Unless given for a specific wavelength (spectral albedo), albedo refers to the entire spectrum of solar radiation. Due to measurement constraints, it is often given for the spectrum in which most solar energy reaches the surface (between 0.3 and 3 μm). This spectrum includes visible light (0.4--0.7 μm), which explains why surfaces with a low albedo appear dark (e.g., trees absorb most radiation), whereas surfaces with a high albedo appear bright (e.g., snow reflects most radiation).
Ice--albedo feedback is a positive feedback climate process where a change in the area of ice caps, glaciers, and sea ice alters the albedo and surface temperature of a planet. Ice is very reflective, therefore it reflects far more solar energy back to space than the other types of land area or open water. Ice--albedo feedback plays an important role in global climate change. Albedo is an important concept in climate science.
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## Terrestrial albedo {#terrestrial_albedo}
+------------------+---------------------+
| Surface | Typical\ |
| | albedo |
+==================+=====================+
| Fresh asphalt | 0.04{{cite web |
+------------------+---------------------+
| Open ocean | 0.06 |
+------------------+---------------------+
| Worn asphalt | 0.12 |
+------------------+---------------------+
| Conifer forest,\ | 0.08,{{Cite journal |
| summer | |
+------------------+---------------------+
| Deciduous forest | 0.15 to 0.18 |
+------------------+---------------------+
| Bare soil | 0.17{{Cite book |
+------------------+---------------------+
| Green grass | 0.25 |
+------------------+---------------------+
| Desert sand | 0.40{{Cite book |
+------------------+---------------------+
| New concrete | 0.55 |
+------------------+---------------------+
| Ocean ice | 0.50 to 0.70 |
+------------------+---------------------+
| Fresh snow | 0.80 |
+------------------+---------------------+
| Aluminium | 0.85 |
+------------------+---------------------+
: Sample albedos
Any albedo in visible light falls within a range of about 0.9 for fresh snow to about 0.04 for charcoal, one of the darkest substances. Deeply shadowed cavities can achieve an effective albedo approaching the zero of a black body. When seen from a distance, the ocean surface has a low albedo, as do most forests, whereas desert areas have some of the highest albedos among landforms. Most land areas are in an albedo range of 0.1 to 0.4. The average albedo of Earth is about 0.3. This is far higher than for the ocean primarily because of the contribution of clouds.
Earth\'s surface albedo is regularly estimated via Earth observation satellite sensors such as NASA\'s MODIS instruments on board the Terra and Aqua satellites, and the CERES instrument on the Suomi NPP and JPSS. As the amount of reflected radiation is only measured for a single direction by satellite, not all directions, a mathematical model is used to translate a sample set of satellite reflectance measurements into estimates of directional-hemispherical reflectance and bi-hemispherical reflectance (e.g.,). These calculations are based on the bidirectional reflectance distribution function (BRDF), which describes how the reflectance of a given surface depends on the view angle of the observer and the solar angle. BDRF can facilitate translations of observations of reflectance into albedo.
Earth\'s average surface temperature due to its albedo and the greenhouse effect is currently about 15 C. If Earth were frozen entirely (and hence be more reflective), the average temperature of the planet would drop below −40 C. If only the continental land masses became covered by glaciers, the mean temperature of the planet would drop to about 0 C. In contrast, if the entire Earth was covered by water -- a so-called ocean planet -- the average temperature on the planet would rise to almost 27 C.
In 2021, scientists reported that Earth dimmed by \~0.5% over two decades (1998--2017) as measured by earthshine using modern photometric techniques. This may have both been co-caused by climate change as well as a substantial increase in global warming. However, the link to climate change has not been explored to date and it is unclear whether or not this represents an ongoing trend.
### White-sky, black-sky, and blue-sky albedo {#white_sky_black_sky_and_blue_sky_albedo}
For land surfaces, it has been shown that the albedo at a particular solar zenith angle *θ*~*i*~ can be approximated by the proportionate sum of two terms:
- the directional-hemispherical reflectance at that solar zenith angle, ${\bar \alpha(\theta_i)}$, sometimes referred to as black-sky albedo, and
- the bi-hemispherical reflectance, $\bar{ \bar \alpha}$, sometimes referred to as white-sky albedo.
with ${1-D}$ being the proportion of direct radiation from a given solar angle, and ${D}$ being the proportion of diffuse illumination, the actual albedo ${\alpha}$ (also called blue-sky albedo) can then be given as:
$$\alpha = (1 - D) \bar\alpha(\theta_i) + D \bar{\bar\alpha}.$$
This formula is important because it allows the albedo to be calculated for any given illumination conditions from a knowledge of the intrinsic properties of the surface.
### Changes to albedo due to human activities {#changes_to_albedo_due_to_human_activities}
Human activities (e.g., deforestation, farming, and urbanization) change the albedo of various areas around the globe. Human impacts to \"the physical properties of the land surface can perturb the climate by altering the Earth's radiative energy balance\" even on a small scale or when undetected by satellites.
Urbanization generally decreases albedo (commonly being 0.01--0.02 lower than adjacent croplands), which contributes to global warming. Deliberately increasing albedo in urban areas can mitigate the urban heat island effect. An estimate in 2022 found that on a global scale, \"an albedo increase of 0.1 in worldwide urban areas would result in a cooling effect that is equivalent to absorbing \~44 Gt of CO~2~ emissions.\"
Intentionally enhancing the albedo of the Earth\'s surface, along with its daytime thermal emittance, has been proposed as a solar radiation management strategy to mitigate energy crises and global warming known as passive daytime radiative cooling (PDRC). Efforts toward widespread implementation of PDRCs may focus on maximizing the albedo of surfaces from very low to high values, so long as a thermal emittance of at least 90% can be achieved.
The tens of thousands of hectares of greenhouses in Almería, Spain form a large expanse of whitened plastic roofs. A 2008 study found that this anthropogenic change lowered the local surface area temperature of the high-albedo area, although changes were localized. A follow-up study found that \"CO2-eq. emissions associated to changes in surface albedo are a consequence of land transformation\" and can reduce surface temperature increases associated with climate change.
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## Examples of terrestrial albedo effects {#examples_of_terrestrial_albedo_effects}
thumb\|upright=1.3\|The percentage of diffusely reflected sunlight relative to various surface conditions
### Illumination
Albedo is not directly dependent on the illumination because changing the amount of incoming light proportionally changes the amount of reflected light, except in circumstances where a change in illumination induces a change in the Earth\'s surface at that location (e.g. through melting of reflective ice). However, albedo and illumination both vary by latitude. Albedo is highest near the poles and lowest in the subtropics, with a local maximum in the tropics.
### Insolation effects {#insolation_effects}
The intensity of albedo temperature effects depends on the amount of albedo and the level of local insolation (solar irradiance); high albedo areas in the Arctic and Antarctic regions are cold due to low insolation, whereas areas such as the Sahara Desert, which also have a relatively high albedo, will be hotter due to high insolation. Tropical and sub-tropical rainforest areas have low albedo, and are much hotter than their temperate forest counterparts, which have lower insolation. Because insolation plays such a big role in the heating and cooling effects of albedo, high insolation areas like the tropics will tend to show a more pronounced fluctuation in local temperature when local albedo changes.
Arctic regions notably release more heat back into space than what they absorb, effectively cooling the Earth. This has been a concern since arctic ice and snow has been melting at higher rates due to higher temperatures, creating regions in the arctic that are notably darker (being water or ground which is darker color) and reflects less heat back into space. This feedback loop results in a reduced albedo effect.
### Climate and weather {#climate_and_weather}
thumb\|right\|upright=1.5\| Some effects of global warming can either enhance (positive feedbacks such as the ice-albedo feedback) or inhibit (negative feedbacks) warming. Albedo affects climate by determining how much radiation a planet absorbs. The uneven heating of Earth from albedo variations between land, ice, or ocean surfaces can drive weather.
The response of the climate system to an initial forcing is modified by feedbacks: increased by \"self-reinforcing\" or \"positive\" feedbacks and reduced by \"balancing\" or \"negative\" feedbacks. The main reinforcing feedbacks are the water-vapour feedback, the ice--albedo feedback, and the net effect of clouds.
### Albedo--temperature feedback {#albedotemperature_feedback}
When an area\'s albedo changes due to snowfall, a snow--temperature feedback results. A layer of snowfall increases local albedo, reflecting away sunlight, leading to local cooling. In principle, if no outside temperature change affects this area (e.g., a warm air mass), the raised albedo and lower temperature would maintain the current snow and invite further snowfall, deepening the snow--temperature feedback. However, because local weather is dynamic due to the change of seasons, eventually warm air masses and a more direct angle of sunlight (higher insolation) cause melting. When the melted area reveals surfaces with lower albedo, such as grass, soil, or ocean, the effect is reversed: the darkening surface lowers albedo, increasing local temperatures, which induces more melting and thus reducing the albedo further, resulting in still more heating.
### Snow
Snow albedo is highly variable, ranging from as high as 0.9 for freshly fallen snow, to about 0.4 for melting snow, and as low as 0.2 for dirty snow. Over Antarctica, snow albedo averages a little more than 0.8. If a marginally snow-covered area warms, snow tends to melt, lowering the albedo, and hence leading to more snowmelt because more radiation is being absorbed by the snowpack (referred to as the ice--albedo positive feedback).
In Switzerland, the citizens have been protecting their glaciers with large white tarpaulins to slow down the ice melt. These large white sheets are helping to reject the rays from the sun and defecting the heat. Although this method is very expensive, it has been shown to work, reducing snow and ice melt by 60%.
Just as fresh snow has a higher albedo than does dirty snow, the albedo of snow-covered sea ice is far higher than that of sea water. Sea water absorbs more solar radiation than would the same surface covered with reflective snow. When sea ice melts, either due to a rise in sea temperature or in response to increased solar radiation from above, the snow-covered surface is reduced, and more surface of sea water is exposed, so the rate of energy absorption increases. The extra absorbed energy heats the sea water, which in turn increases the rate at which sea ice melts. As with the preceding example of snowmelt, the process of melting of sea ice is thus another example of a positive feedback. Both positive feedback loops have long been recognized as important for global warming.
Cryoconite, powdery windblown dust containing soot, sometimes reduces albedo on glaciers and ice sheets.
The dynamical nature of albedo in response to positive feedback, together with the effects of small errors in the measurement of albedo, can lead to large errors in energy estimates. Because of this, in order to reduce the error of energy estimates, it is important to measure the albedo of snow-covered areas through remote sensing techniques rather than applying a single value for albedo over broad regions.
### Small-scale effects {#small_scale_effects}
Albedo works on a smaller scale, too. In sunlight, dark clothes absorb more heat and light-coloured clothes reflect it better, thus allowing some control over body temperature by exploiting the albedo effect of the colour of external clothing.
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## Examples of terrestrial albedo effects {#examples_of_terrestrial_albedo_effects}
### Solar photovoltaic effects {#solar_photovoltaic_effects}
Albedo can affect the electrical energy output of solar photovoltaic devices. For example, the effects of a spectrally responsive albedo are illustrated by the differences between the spectrally weighted albedo of solar photovoltaic technology based on hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) and crystalline silicon (c-Si)-based compared to traditional spectral-integrated albedo predictions. Research showed impacts of over 10% for vertically (90°) mounted systems, but such effects were substantially lower for systems with lower surface tilts. Spectral albedo strongly affects the performance of bifacial solar cells where rear surface performance gains of over 20% have been observed for c-Si cells installed above healthy vegetation. An analysis on the bias due to the specular reflectivity of 22 commonly occurring surface materials (both human-made and natural) provided effective albedo values for simulating the performance of seven photovoltaic materials mounted on three common photovoltaic system topologies: industrial (solar farms), commercial flat rooftops and residential pitched-roof applications.
### Trees
Forests generally have a low albedo because the majority of the ultraviolet and visible spectrum is absorbed through photosynthesis. For this reason, the greater heat absorption by trees could offset some of the carbon benefits of afforestation (or offset the negative climate impacts of deforestation). In other words: The climate change mitigation effect of carbon sequestration by forests is partially counterbalanced in that reforestation can decrease the reflection of sunlight (albedo).
In the case of evergreen forests with seasonal snow cover, albedo reduction may be significant enough for deforestation to cause a net cooling effect. Trees also impact climate in extremely complicated ways through evapotranspiration. The water vapor causes cooling on the land surface, causes heating where it condenses, acts as strong greenhouse gas, and can increase albedo when it condenses into clouds. Scientists generally treat evapotranspiration as a net cooling impact, and the net climate impact of albedo and evapotranspiration changes from deforestation depends greatly on local climate.
Mid-to-high-latitude forests have a much lower albedo during snow seasons than flat ground, thus contributing to warming. Modeling that compares the effects of albedo differences between forests and grasslands suggests that expanding the land area of forests in temperate zones offers only a temporary mitigation benefit.
In seasonally snow-covered zones, winter albedos of treeless areas are 10% to 50% higher than nearby forested areas because snow does not cover the trees as readily. Deciduous trees have an albedo value of about 0.15 to 0.18 whereas coniferous trees have a value of about 0.09 to 0.15. Variation in summer albedo across both forest types is associated with maximum rates of photosynthesis because plants with high growth capacity display a greater fraction of their foliage for direct interception of incoming radiation in the upper canopy. The result is that wavelengths of light not used in photosynthesis are more likely to be reflected back to space rather than being absorbed by other surfaces lower in the canopy.
Studies by the Hadley Centre have investigated the relative (generally warming) effect of albedo change and (cooling) effect of carbon sequestration on planting forests. They found that new forests in tropical and midlatitude areas tended to cool; new forests in high latitudes (e.g., Siberia) were neutral or perhaps warming.
Research in 2023, drawing from 176 flux stations globally, revealed a climate trade-off: increased carbon uptake from afforestation results in reduced albedo. Initially, this reduction may lead to moderate global warming over a span of approximately 20 years, but it is expected to transition into significant cooling thereafter.
### Water
thumb\|upright=1.3\|Reflectivity of smooth water at 20 C (refractive index=1.333) Water reflects light very differently from typical terrestrial materials. The reflectivity of a water surface is calculated using the Fresnel equations.
At the scale of the wavelength of light even wavy water is always smooth so the light is reflected in a locally specular manner (not diffusely). The glint of light off water is a commonplace effect of this. At small angles of incident light, waviness results in reduced reflectivity because of the steepness of the reflectivity-vs.-incident-angle curve and a locally increased average incident angle.
Although the reflectivity of water is very low at low and medium angles of incident light, it becomes very high at high angles of incident light such as those that occur on the illuminated side of Earth near the terminator (early morning, late afternoon, and near the poles). However, as mentioned above, waviness causes an appreciable reduction. Because light specularly reflected from water does not usually reach the viewer, water is usually considered to have a very low albedo in spite of its high reflectivity at high angles of incident light.
Note that white caps on waves look white (and have high albedo) because the water is foamed up, so there are many superimposed bubble surfaces which reflect, adding up their reflectivities. Fresh \'black\' ice exhibits Fresnel reflection. Snow on top of this sea ice increases the albedo to 0.9.
### Clouds
Cloud albedo has substantial influence over atmospheric temperatures. Different types of clouds exhibit different reflectivity, theoretically ranging in albedo from a minimum of near 0 to a maximum approaching 0.8. \"On any given day, about half of Earth is covered by clouds, which reflect more sunlight than land and water. Clouds keep Earth cool by reflecting sunlight, but they can also serve as blankets to trap warmth.\"
Albedo and climate in some areas are affected by artificial clouds, such as those created by the contrails of heavy commercial airliner traffic. A study following the burning of the Kuwaiti oil fields during Iraqi occupation showed that temperatures under the burning oil fires were as much as 10 C-change colder than temperatures several miles away under clear skies.
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## Examples of terrestrial albedo effects {#examples_of_terrestrial_albedo_effects}
### Aerosol effects {#aerosol_effects}
Aerosols (very fine particles/droplets in the atmosphere) have both direct and indirect effects on Earth\'s radiative balance. The direct (albedo) effect is generally to cool the planet; the indirect effect (the particles act as cloud condensation nuclei and thereby change cloud properties) is less certain.
### Black carbon {#black_carbon}
Another albedo-related effect on the climate is from black carbon particles. The size of this effect is difficult to quantify: the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimates that the global mean radiative forcing for black carbon aerosols from fossil fuels is +0.2 W m^−2^, with a range +0.1 to +0.4 W m^−2^. Black carbon is a bigger cause of the melting of the polar ice cap in the Arctic than carbon dioxide due to its effect on the albedo.`{{Failed verification|date=January 2020}}`{=mediawiki}
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## Astronomical albedo {#astronomical_albedo}
thumb\|upright=1.2\|The moon Titan is darker than Saturn even though they receive the same amount of sunlight. This is due to a difference in albedo (0.22 versus 0.499 in geometric albedo).In astronomy, the term **albedo** can be defined in several different ways, depending upon the application and the wavelength of electromagnetic radiation involved.
### Optical or visual albedo {#optical_or_visual_albedo}
The albedos of planets, satellites and minor planets such as asteroids can be used to infer much about their properties. The study of albedos, their dependence on wavelength, lighting angle (\"phase angle\"), and variation in time composes a major part of the astronomical field of photometry. For small and far objects that cannot be resolved by telescopes, much of what we know comes from the study of their albedos. For example, the absolute albedo can indicate the surface ice content of outer Solar System objects, the variation of albedo with phase angle gives information about regolith properties, whereas unusually high radar albedo is indicative of high metal content in asteroids.
Enceladus, a moon of Saturn, has one of the highest known optical albedos of any body in the Solar System, with an albedo of 0.99. Another notable high-albedo body is Eris, with an albedo of 0.96. Many small objects in the outer Solar System and asteroid belt have low albedos down to about 0.05. A typical comet nucleus has an albedo of 0.04. Such a dark surface is thought to be indicative of a primitive and heavily space weathered surface containing some organic compounds.
The overall albedo of the Moon is measured to be around 0.14, but it is strongly directional and non-Lambertian, displaying also a strong opposition effect. Although such reflectance properties are different from those of any terrestrial terrains, they are typical of the regolith surfaces of airless Solar System bodies.
Two common optical albedos that are used in astronomy are the (V-band) geometric albedo (measuring brightness when illumination comes from directly behind the observer) and the Bond albedo (measuring total proportion of electromagnetic energy reflected). Their values can differ significantly, which is a common source of confusion.
Planet Geometric Bond
--------- ----------- ------------------------------------
Mercury 0.142 0.088 or 0.068
Venus 0.689 0.76 or 0.77
Earth 0.434 0.294
Mars 0.170 0.250
Jupiter 0.538 0.343±0.032 and also 0.503±0.012
Saturn 0.499 0.342
Uranus 0.488 0.300
Neptune 0.442 0.290
In detailed studies, the directional reflectance properties of astronomical bodies are often expressed in terms of the five Hapke parameters which semi-empirically describe the variation of albedo with phase angle, including a characterization of the opposition effect of regolith surfaces. One of these five parameters is yet another type of albedo called the single-scattering albedo. It is used to define scattering of electromagnetic waves on small particles. It depends on properties of the material (refractive index), the size of the particle, and the wavelength of the incoming radiation.
An important relationship between an object\'s astronomical (geometric) albedo, absolute magnitude and diameter is given by: $A =\left ( \frac{1329\times10^{-H/5}}{D} \right ) ^2,$ where $A$ is the astronomical albedo, $D$ is the diameter in kilometers, and $H$ is the absolute magnitude.
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## Astronomical albedo {#astronomical_albedo}
### Radar albedo {#radar_albedo}
In planetary radar astronomy, a microwave (or radar) pulse is transmitted toward a planetary target (e.g. Moon, asteroid, etc.) and the echo from the target is measured. In most instances, the transmitted pulse is circularly polarized and the received pulse is measured in the same sense of polarization as the transmitted pulse (SC) and the opposite sense (OC). The echo power is measured in terms of radar cross-section, ${\sigma}_{OC}$, ${\sigma}_{SC}$, or ${\sigma}_{T}$ (total power, SC + OC) and is equal to the cross-sectional area of a metallic sphere (perfect reflector) at the same distance as the target that would return the same echo power.
Those components of the received echo that return from first-surface reflections (as from a smooth or mirror-like surface) are dominated by the OC component as there is a reversal in polarization upon reflection. If the surface is rough at the wavelength scale or there is significant penetration into the regolith, there will be a significant SC component in the echo caused by multiple scattering.
For most objects in the solar system, the OC echo dominates and the most commonly reported radar albedo parameter is the (normalized) OC radar albedo (often shortened to radar albedo): $\hat{\sigma}_\text{OC} = \frac{{\sigma}_\text{OC}}{\pi r^2}$
where the denominator is the effective cross-sectional area of the target object with mean radius, $r$. A smooth metallic sphere would have $\hat{\sigma}_\text{OC} = 1$.
#### Radar albedos of Solar System objects {#radar_albedos_of_solar_system_objects}
Object $\hat{\sigma}_\text{OC}$
---------------------- --------------------------
Moon 0.06
Mercury 0.05
Venus 0.10
Mars 0.06
Avg. S-type asteroid 0.14
Avg. C-type asteroid 0.13
Avg. M-type asteroid 0.26
Comet P/2005 JQ5 0.02
The values reported for the Moon, Mercury, Mars, Venus, and Comet P/2005 JQ5 are derived from the total (OC+SC) radar albedo reported in those references.
#### Relationship to surface bulk density {#relationship_to_surface_bulk_density}
In the event that most of the echo is from first surface reflections ($\hat{\sigma}_\text{OC} < 0.1$ or so), the OC radar albedo is a first-order approximation of the Fresnel reflection coefficient (aka reflectivity) and can be used to estimate the bulk density of a planetary surface to a depth of a meter or so (a few wavelengths of the radar wavelength which is typically at the decimeter scale) using the following empirical relationships:
$$\rho = \begin{cases}
3.20 \text{ g cm}^{-3} \ln \left( \frac{1 + \sqrt{0.83 \hat{\sigma}_\text{OC}}}{1 - \sqrt{0.83 \hat{\sigma}_\text{OC}}} \right) & \text{for } \hat{\sigma}_\text{OC} \le 0.07 \\
(6.944 \hat{\sigma}_\text{OC} + 1.083) \text{ g cm}^{-3} & \text{for } \hat{\sigma}_\text{OC} > 0.07
\end{cases}$$.
## History
The term albedo was introduced into optics by Johann Heinrich Lambert in his 1760 work *Photometria*
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| typedesc = ic
| language = [[Latin language]]
| phonemes = {{flex list|width=2em|[{{IPAlink|a}}]|[{{IPAlink|ɑ}}]|[{{IPAlink|ɒ}}]|[{{IPAlink|æ}}]|[{{IPAlink|ə}}]|[{{IPAlink|ɛ}}]|[{{IPAlink|oː}}]|[{{IPAlink|ɔ}}]|[{{IPAlink|e}}]|[{{IPAlink|ʕ}}]|[{{IPAlink|ʌ}}] [{{IPAlink|ɐ}}] |{{IPAc-en|eɪ}}}}
| unicode = U+0041, U+0061
| alphanumber = 1
| fam1 = <hiero>F1</hiero>
| fam2 = [[File:Proto-semiticA-01.svg|class=skin-invert-image|20px|Proto-Sinaitic 'alp]]
| fam3 = [[File:Protoalef.svg|class=skin-invert-image|20px|Proto-Caananite aleph]]
| fam4 = [[File:Phoenician_aleph.svg|class=skin-invert-image|20px|Phoenician aleph]]
| fam5 = [[Alpha|Α α]]
| fam6 = [[𐌀]][[File:Greek-uncial-1.jpg|class=skin-invert-image|20px|Greek classical uncial]]
| fam7 = [[File:Semitic-2.jpg|class=skin-invert-image|20px|Early Latin A]][[File:Latin-uncial-1.jpg|class=skin-invert-image|20px|Latin 300 AD uncial, version 1]]
| usageperiod = {{circa|700 BCE}}{{snd}}present
| children = {{flex list|
* [[Æ]]
* [[Ä]]
* [[Â]]
* [[Ɑ]]
* [[Ʌ]]
* [[Ɐ]]
* [[ª]]
* [[Å]]
* [[₳]]
* [[@]]
* [[Ⓐ]]
* [[ⓐ]]
* [[⒜]]
* {{not a typo|[[🅰]]}}}}
| sisters = {{flex list|width=3em|
* [[𐌰]]
* [[А]]
* [[Ә]]
* [[Ӑ]]
* [[Aleph|<span>א</span> <span>ا</span> <span>ܐ</span>]]
* [[ࠀ]]
* [[𐎀]]
* [[ℵ]]
* [[አ]]
* [[ء]]
* [[Ա|Ա ա]]
* [[અ]]
* [[अ]]
* [[অ]]}}
| associates = [[List of Latin-script digraphs#A|a(x)]], [[Ae (digraph)|ae]], [[Eau (trigraph)|eau]], [[Au (digraph)|au]]
| direction = Left-to-right
| image = Latin_letter_A.svg
| imageclass = skin-invert-image
}}`{=mediawiki} `{{Latin letter info|a}}`{=mediawiki}
**A**, or **a**, is the first letter and the first vowel letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, and others worldwide. Its name in English is *a* (pronounced `{{IPAc-en|'|eɪ|audio=LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-A.wav}}`{=mediawiki} `{{respell|AY}}`{=mediawiki}), plural *aes*.`{{refn|group=nb|''Aes'' is the plural of the name of the letter. The plural of the letter itself is rendered ''A''s, A's, ''a''s, or a's.}}`{=mediawiki}
It is similar in shape to the Ancient Greek letter alpha, from which it derives. The uppercase version consists of the two slanting sides of a triangle, crossed in the middle by a horizontal bar. The lowercase version is often written in one of two forms: the double-storey \|a\| and single-storey \|ɑ\|. The latter is commonly used in handwriting and fonts based on it, especially fonts intended to be read by children, and is also found in italic type.
In English, *a* is the indefinite article, with the alternative form *an*.
## Name
In English, the name of the letter is the *long A* sound, pronounced `{{IPAc-en|'|eɪ}}`{=mediawiki}. Its name in most other languages matches the letter\'s pronunciation in open syllables. `{{wide image|Pronunciation of the name of the letter ⟨a⟩ in European languages.png|460px|Pronunciation of the name of the letter {{angbr|a}} in European languages. {{IPA|/a/}} and {{IPA|/aː/}} can differ phonetically between {{IPAblink|a}}, {{IPAblink|ä}}, {{IPAblink|æ}} and {{IPAblink|ɑ}} depending on the language.}}`{=mediawiki}
| 414 |
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## History
The earliest known ancestor of A is *aleph*---the first letter of the Phoenician alphabet---where it represented a glottal stop `{{IPA|[ʔ]}}`{=mediawiki}, as Phoenician only used consonantal letters. In turn, the ancestor of aleph may have been a pictogram of an ox head in proto-Sinaitic script influenced by Egyptian hieroglyphs, styled as a triangular head with two horns extended.
When the ancient Greeks adopted the alphabet, they had no use for a letter representing a glottal stop---so they adapted the sign to represent the vowel `{{IPAslink|a}}`{=mediawiki}, calling the letter by the similar name *alpha*. In the earliest Greek inscriptions dating to the 8th century BC following the Greek Dark Ages, the letter rests upon its side. However, in the later Greek alphabet it generally resembles the modern capital form---though many local varieties can be distinguished by the shortening of one leg, or by the angle at which the cross line is set.
The Etruscans brought the Greek alphabet to the Italian Peninsula, and left the form of alpha unchanged. When the Romans adopted the Etruscan alphabet to write Latin, the resulting form used in the Latin script would come to be used to write many other languages, including English.
Egyptian Proto-Sinaitic Proto-Canaanite Phoenician Western Greek Etruscan Latin
---------- ---------------- ----------------- ------------ --------------- ---------- -------
### Typographic variants {#typographic_variants}
class=skin-invert-image\|thumb\|upright=0.55\|Different glyphs of the lowercase letter `{{angbr|a}}`{=mediawiki} thumb\|upright=0.55\|Allographs include a double-storey `{{angbr|a}}`{=mediawiki} and single-storey `{{angbr|ɑ}}`{=mediawiki}. `{{stack end}}`{=mediawiki} During Roman times, there were many variant forms of the letter A. First was the monumental or lapidary style, which was used when inscribing on stone or other more permanent media. There was also a cursive style used for everyday or utilitarian writing, which was done on more perishable surfaces. Due to the perishable nature of these surfaces, there are not as many examples of this style as there are of the monumental, but there are still many surviving examples of different types of cursive, such as majuscule cursive, minuscule cursive, and semi-cursive minuscule. Variants also existed that were intermediate between the monumental and cursive styles. The known variants include the early semi-uncial (`{{cx|3rd century}}`{=mediawiki}), the uncial (`{{cx|4th–8th centuries}}`{=mediawiki}), and the late semi-uncial (`{{cx|6th–8th centuries}}`{=mediawiki}).
------------- ---------
Blackletter Uncial
Roman Italic
------------- ---------
At the end of the Roman Empire (5th century AD), several variants of the cursive minuscule developed through Western Europe. Among these were the semi-cursive minuscule of Italy, the Merovingian script in France, the Visigothic script in Spain, and the Insular or Anglo-Irish semi-uncial or Anglo-Saxon majuscule of Great Britain. By the ninth century, the Caroline script, which was very similar to the present-day form, was the principal form used in book-making, before the advent of the printing press. This form was derived through a combining of prior forms.
15th-century Italy saw the formation of the two main variants that are known today. These variants, the *Italic* and *Roman* forms, were derived from the Caroline Script version. The Italic form `{{angbr|ɑ}}`{=mediawiki}, also called *script a*, is often used in handwriting; it consists of a circle with a vertical stroke on its right. In the hands of medieval Irish and English writers, this form gradually developed from a 5th-century form resembling the Greek letter tau `{{angbr|τ}}`{=mediawiki}. The Roman form `{{angbr|a}}`{=mediawiki} is found in most printed material, and consists of a small loop with an arc over it. Both derive from the majuscule form `{{angbr|A}}`{=mediawiki}. In Greek handwriting, it was common to join the left leg and horizontal stroke into a single loop, as demonstrated by the uncial version shown. Many fonts then made the right leg vertical. In some of these, the serif that began the right leg stroke developed into an arc, resulting in the printed form, while in others it was dropped, resulting in the modern handwritten form. Graphic designers refer to the *Italic* and *Roman* forms as *single-decker a* and *double decker a* respectively.
Italic type is commonly used to mark emphasis or more generally to distinguish one part of a text from the rest set in Roman type. There are some other cases aside from italic type where *script a* `{{angbr|ɑ}}`{=mediawiki}, also called *Latin alpha*, is used in contrast with Latin `{{angbr|a}}`{=mediawiki}, such as in the International Phonetic Alphabet.
| 700 |
A
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## Use in writing systems {#use_in_writing_systems}
Orthography Phonemes
------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(pinyin)
English , `{{IPAslink|ɑː}}`{=mediawiki}, `{{IPAslink|ɒ}}`{=mediawiki}, `{{IPAslink|ɔː}}`{=mediawiki}, `{{IPA link|ɛ|/ɛː/}}`{=mediawiki}, `{{IPA|/eɪ/}}`{=mediawiki}, `{{IPAslink|ə}}`{=mediawiki}
French , `{{IPAslink|ɑ}}`{=mediawiki}
German , `{{IPAslink|aː}}`{=mediawiki}
Portuguese , `{{IPAslink|ɐ}}`{=mediawiki}
Saanich
Spanish
Turkish
: Pronunciation of `{{angbr|a}}`{=mediawiki} by language
Phone Orthography
------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chuvash, Croatian, French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Malay, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, Stavangersk Norwegian, Swedish, Tagalog, Turkish, Utrecht Dutch
Dutch (doubled), German
Afrikaans, Bulgarian, Spanish
New Zealand English, Lithuanian, Limburgish (doubled), Luxembourgish
Catalan, Czech, French, Northern England English, Terengganu Malay, Polish
West Frisian (doubled)
Bashkir, Spanish, Dutch, Finnish, French, Kaingang, Limburgish, Norwegian, Russian, West Frisian
Afrikaans (doubled), Danish, German, Southern England English, Kurdish, Norwegian
Azerbaijani, Kazakh, Luxembourgish
Southern England English, Hungarian, Kedah Malay
Hungarian
Swedish
Maastrichtian Limburgish, Ulster Irish
Danish, English, Russian, Zeta--Raška Serbian
Australian English, Bulgarian, Central Catalan, Emilian, Galician, Lithuanian, Portuguese, Tagalog, Ukrainian
Mapudungun
New Zealand English, Perak Malay
Chemnitz German, Transylvanian Romanian
Chemnitz German
Southern England English
English, Eastern Catalan
Saanich
English
: Cross-linguistic variation of `{{angbr|a}}`{=mediawiki} pronunciation
### English
In modern English orthography, the letter `{{angbr|a}}`{=mediawiki} represents at least seven different vowel sounds, here represented using the vowels of Received Pronunciation, with effects of `{{angbr|r}}`{=mediawiki} ignored and mergers in General American mentioned where relevant:
- the near-open front unrounded vowel `{{IPA|/æ/}}`{=mediawiki} as in *pad*
- the open back unrounded vowel `{{IPA|/ɑː/}}`{=mediawiki} as in *father*---merged with `{{IPAslink|ɒ}}`{=mediawiki} as `{{IPAslink|ɑ}}`{=mediawiki} in General American---which is closer to its original Latin and Greek sound
- the open back rounded vowel `{{IPA|/ɒ/}}`{=mediawiki} (merged with `{{IPA|/ɑː/}}`{=mediawiki} as `{{IPAslink|ɑ}}`{=mediawiki} in General American) in *was* and *what*
- the open-mid back rounded vowel `{{IPA|/ɔː/}}`{=mediawiki} in *water*
- the diphthong `{{IPA|/eɪ/}}`{=mediawiki} as in *ace* and *major*, usually when `{{vr|a}}`{=mediawiki} is followed by one, or occasionally two, consonants and then another vowel letter---this results from Middle English lengthening followed by the Great Vowel Shift
- a schwa `{{IPA|/ə/}}`{=mediawiki} in many unstressed syllables, as in *about*, *comma*, *solar*
The double `{{angbr|aa}}`{=mediawiki} sequence does not occur in native English words, but is found in some words derived from foreign languages such as *Aaron* and *aardvark*. However, `{{vr|a}}`{=mediawiki} occurs in many common digraphs, all with their own sound or sounds, particularly `{{vr|ai}}`{=mediawiki}, `{{vr|au}}`{=mediawiki}, `{{vr|aw}}`{=mediawiki}, `{{vr|ay}}`{=mediawiki}, `{{vr|ea}}`{=mediawiki} and `{{vr|oa}}`{=mediawiki}.
is the third-most-commonly used letter in English after `{{angbr|e}}`{=mediawiki} and `{{angbr|t}}`{=mediawiki}, as well as in French; it is the second most common in Spanish, and the most common in Portuguese. `{{angbr|a}}`{=mediawiki} represents approximately 8.2% of letters as used in English texts; the figure is around 7.6% in French 11.5% in Spanish, and 14.6% in Portuguese.
### Other languages {#other_languages}
In most languages that use the Latin alphabet, `{{angbr|a}}`{=mediawiki} denotes an open unrounded vowel, such as `{{IPAslink|a}}`{=mediawiki}, `{{IPAslink|ä}}`{=mediawiki}, or `{{IPAslink|ɑ}}`{=mediawiki}. An exception is Saanich, in which `{{angbr|a}}`{=mediawiki}---and the glyph `{{angbr|[[Á]]}}`{=mediawiki}---stands for a close-mid front unrounded vowel `{{IPA|/e/}}`{=mediawiki}.
### Other systems {#other_systems}
- In the International Phonetic Alphabet, `{{angbr IPA|a}}`{=mediawiki} is used for the open front unrounded vowel, `{{angbr IPA|ä}}`{=mediawiki} is used for the open central unrounded vowel, and `{{angbr IPA|ɑ}}`{=mediawiki} is used for the open back unrounded vowel.
- In X-SAMPA, `{{angbr|a}}`{=mediawiki} is used for the open front unrounded vowel and `{{angbr|A}}`{=mediawiki} is used for the open back unrounded vowel.
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## Other uses {#other_uses}
- When using base-16 notation, A or a is the conventional numeral corresponding to the number 10.
- In algebra, the letter *a* along with various other letters of the alphabet is often used to denote a variable, with various conventional meanings in different areas of mathematics. In 1637, René Descartes \"invented the convention of representing unknowns in equations by x, y, and z, and knowns by a, b, and c\", and this convention is still often followed, especially in elementary algebra.
- In geometry, capital Latin letters are used to denote objects including line segments, lines, and rays A capital A is also typically used as one of the letters to represent an angle in a triangle, the lowercase a representing the side opposite angle A.
- A is often used to denote something or someone of a better or more prestigious quality or status: A−, A or A+, the best grade that can be assigned by teachers for students\' schoolwork; \"A grade\" for clean restaurants; A-list celebrities, A1 at Lloyd\'s for shipping, etc. Such associations can have a motivating effect, as exposure to the letter A has been found to improve performance, when compared with other letters.
- A is used to denote size, as in a narrow size shoe, or a small cup size in a brassiere.
## Related characters {#related_characters}
### Latin alphabet {#latin_alphabet}
- `{{angbr|Æ æ}}`{=mediawiki}: a ligature of `{{angbr|AE}}`{=mediawiki} originally used in Latin
- with diacritics: Å å Ǻ ǻ Ḁ ḁ ẚ Ă ă Ặ ặ Ắ ắ Ằ ằ Ẳ ẳ Ẵ ẵ Ȃ ȃ Â â Ậ ậ Ấ ấ Ầ ầ Ẫ ẫ Ẩ ẩ Ả ả Ǎ ǎ Ⱥ ⱥ Ȧ ȧ Ǡ ǡ Ạ ạ Ä ä Ǟ ǟ À à Ȁ ȁ Á á Ā ā Ā̀ ā̀ Ã ã Ą ą Ą́ ą́ Ą̃ ą̃ A̲ a̲ ᶏ
- Phonetic alphabet symbols related to A---the International Phonetic Alphabet only uses lowercase, but uppercase forms are used in some other writing systems:
- : Latin alpha, represents an open back unrounded vowel in the IPA
- : Latin small alpha with a retroflex hook
- : Turned A, represents a near-open central vowel in the IPA
- : Turned V, represents an open-mid back unrounded vowel in IPA
- : Turned alpha or script A, represents an open back rounded vowel in the IPA
- : Modifier letter small turned alpha
- : Small capital A, an obsolete or non-standard symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet used to represent various sounds (mainly open vowels)
- : Modifier letters are used in the Uralic Phonetic Alphabet (UPA), sometimes encoded with Unicode subscripts and superscripts
- : Subscript small a is used in Indo-European studies
- : Small letter a reversed-schwa is used in the Teuthonista phonetic transcription system
- : Glottal A, used in the transliteration of Ugaritic
### Derived signs, symbols and abbreviations {#derived_signs_symbols_and_abbreviations}
- : ordinal indicator
- : Ångström sign
- : turned capital letter A, used in predicate logic to specify universal quantification (\"for all\")
- : At sign
- : Argentine austral
- : anarchy symbol
### Ancestor and sibling letters {#ancestor_and_sibling_letters}
- : Phoenician aleph, from which the following symbols originally derive:
- : Greek letter alpha, from which the following letters derive:
- : Cyrillic letter A
- : Coptic letter alpha
- : Old Italic A, the ancestor of modern Latin A
- : Runic letter ansuz, which probably derives from old Italic A
- : Gothic letter aza
- : Armenian letter ayb
## Other representations {#other_representations}
### Computing
The Latin letters `{{angbr|A}}`{=mediawiki} and `{{angbr|a}}`{=mediawiki} have Unicode encodings `{{unichar|0041|Latin capital letter A}}`{=mediawiki} and `{{unichar|0061|Latin small letter a}}`{=mediawiki}. These are the same code points as those used in ASCII and ISO 8859. There are also precomposed character encodings for `{{angbr|A}}`{=mediawiki} and `{{angbr|a}}`{=mediawiki} with diacritics, for most of those listed above; the remainder are produced using combining diacritics.
Variant forms of the letter have unique code points for specialist use: the alphanumeric symbols set in mathematics and science, Latin alpha in linguistics, and halfwidth and fullwidth forms for legacy CJK font compatibility. The Cyrillic and Greek homoglyphs of the Latin `{{angbr|A}}`{=mediawiki} have separate encodings `{{unichar|0410|Cyrillic capital letter A|nlink=A (Cyrillic)}}`{=mediawiki} and `{{unichar|0391|Greek capital letter alpha|nlink=Alpha}}`{=mediawiki}
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Error at (line 330, column 46):
unexpected ';'
{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible" ; text-align:right; font-size:80%;"
^
``
| 20 |
Alabama
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In Greek mythology, **Achilles** (`{{IPAc-en|ə|ˈ|k|ɪ|l|iː|z|audio=LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-Achilles.wav}}`{=mediawiki} `{{respell|ə|KIL|eez}}`{=mediawiki}) or **Achilleus** (*Achilleús*) was a hero of the Trojan War who was known as being the greatest of all the Greek warriors. The central character in Homer\'s *Iliad*, he was the son of the Nereid Thetis and Peleus, king of Phthia and famous Argonaut. Achilles was raised in Phthia along with his childhood companion Patroclus and received his education by the centaur Chiron. In the *Iliad*, he is presented as the commander of the mythical tribe of the Myrmidons.
Achilles\' most notable feat during the Trojan War was the slaying of the Trojan prince Hector outside the gates of Troy. Although the death of Achilles is not presented in the *Iliad*, other sources concur that he was killed near the end of the Trojan War by Paris, who shot him with an arrow. Later legends (beginning with Statius\' unfinished epic *Achilleid*, written in the first century CE) state that Achilles was invulnerable in all of his body except for one heel. According to that myth, when his mother Thetis dipped him in the river Styx as an infant, she held him by one of his heels, leaving it untouched by the waters and thus his only vulnerable body part.
Alluding to these legends, the term *Achilles\' heel* has come to mean a point of weakness which can lead to downfall, especially in someone or something with an otherwise strong constitution. The Achilles tendon is named after him following the same legend.
## Etymology
Linear B tablets attest to the personal name *Achilleus* in the forms *a-ki-re-u* and *a-ki-re-we*, the latter being the dative of the former. The name grew more popular, becoming common soon after the seventh century BCE and was also turned into the female form *Ἀχιλλεία* (*Achilleía*), attested in Attica in the fourth century BCE (IG II² 1617) and, in the form *Achillia*, on a stele in Halicarnassus as the name of a female gladiator fighting an \"Amazon\".
Achilles\' name can be analyzed as a combination of *ἄχος* (*`{{transliteration|grc|áchos}}`{=mediawiki}*), \'distress, pain, sorrow, grief\' and *λαός* (`{{transliteration|grc|laós}}`{=mediawiki}), \'people, soldiers, nation\', resulting in a proto-form *\*Akhí-lāu̯os*, \'he who has the people distressed\' or \'he whose people have distress\'. The grief or distress of the people is a theme raised numerous times in the *Iliad* (and frequently by Achilles himself). Achilles\' role as the hero of grief or distress forms an ironic juxtaposition with the conventional view of him as the hero of *κλέος* `{{transliteration|grc|kléos}}`{=mediawiki} (\'glory\', usually in war). Furthermore, `{{transliteration|grc|laós}}`{=mediawiki} has been construed by Gregory Nagy, following Leonard Palmer, to mean \'a corps of soldiers\', a muster. With this derivation, the name obtains a double meaning in the poem: when the hero is functioning rightly, his men bring distress to the enemy, but when wrongly, his men get the grief of war. The poem is in part about the misdirection of anger on the part of leadership.
Some researchers deem the name a loan word, possibly from a Pre-Greek language. Achilles\' descent from the Nereid Thetis and a similarity of his name with those of river deities such as Acheron and Achelous have led to speculations about his being an old water divinity `{{see below|{{section link||Worship and heroic cult}}, below}}`{=mediawiki}. Robert S. P. Beekes has suggested a Pre-Greek origin of the name, based among other things on the coexistence of *-λλ-* and *-λ-* in epic language, which may account for a palatalized phoneme /l^y^/ in the original language.
### Other names {#other_names}
Among the appellations under which Achilles is generally known are the following:
- **Pyrisous**, \"saved from the fire\", his first name, which seems to favour the tradition in which his mortal parts were burned by his mother Thetis
- **Aeacides**, from his grandfather Aeacus
- **Aemonius**, from Aemonia, a country which afterwards acquired the name of Thessaly
- **Aspetos**, \"inimitable\" or \"vast\", his name at Epirus
- **Larissaeus**, from Larissa (also called Cremaste), a town of Achaia Phthiotis in Thessaly
- **Ligyron**, his original name
- **Nereius**, from his mother Thetis, one of the Nereids
- **Pelides**, from his father, Peleus
- **Phthius**, from his birthplace, Phthia
- **Podarkes**, \"swift-footed\", from the wings of Arke (*label=none*) being attached to his feet (`{{wikt-lang|grc|πόδες}}`{=mediawiki}, `{{translit|grc|podes}}`{=mediawiki})Ptolemy Hephaestion, *New History*, Book 6 (summary from Photius, *Myriobiblon* 190, trans. Pearse):
\"It is said \... that he \[Akhilleus (Achilles)\] was called Podarkes (Podarces, Swift-Footed) by the Poet \[i.e. Homer\], because, it is said, Thetis gave the newborn child the wings of Arke (Arce) and Podarkes means that his feet had the wings of Arke. And Arke was the daughter of Thaumas and her sister was Iris; both had wings, but, during the struggle of the gods against the Titanes (Titans), Arke flew out of the camp of the gods and joined the Titanes. After the victory Zeus removed her wings before throwing her into Tartaros and, when he came to the wedding of Peleus and Thetis, he brought these wings as a gift for Thetis.\"
| 831 |
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## Birth and early years {#birth_and_early_years}
thumb\|left\|upright=1.2\|*Thetis Dipping the Infant Achilles into the River Styx* by Peter Paul Rubens (c. 1625; Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam)
Achilles was the son of Thetis---a Nereid and daughter of the Old Man of the Sea---and Peleus, the king of the Myrmidons. Zeus and Poseidon had been rivals for Thetis\'s hand in marriage until Prometheus, the fore-thinker, warned Zeus of a prophecy (originally uttered by Themis, goddess of divine law) that Thetis would bear a son greater than his father. For this reason, the two gods withdrew their pursuit, and had her wed Peleus.
There is a tale which offers an alternative version of these events: In the *Argonautica* (4.760) Zeus\' sister and wife Hera alludes to Thetis\' chaste resistance to the advances of Zeus, pointing out that Thetis was so loyal to Hera\'s marriage bond that she coolly rejected the father of gods. Thetis, although a daughter of the sea-god Nereus, was also brought up by Hera, further explaining her resistance to the advances of Zeus. Zeus was furious and decreed that she would never marry an immortal.
According to the *Achilleid*, written by Statius in the first century CE, and to non-surviving previous sources, when Achilles was born Thetis tried to make him immortal by dipping him in the river Styx; however, he was left vulnerable at the part of the body by which she held him: his left heel `{{Crossreference|(see [[Achilles' heel]], [[Achilles tendon]])}}`{=mediawiki}. It is not clear if this version of events was known earlier. In another version of this story, Thetis anointed the boy in ambrosia and put him on top of a fire in order to burn away the mortal parts of his body. She was interrupted by Peleus and abandoned both father and son in a rage.
None of the sources before Statius make any reference to this general invulnerability. To the contrary, in the *Iliad*, Homer mentions Achilles being wounded: in Book 21 the Paeonian hero Asteropaios, son of Pelagon, challenged Achilles by the river Scamander. He was ambidextrous, and cast a spear from each hand; one grazed Achilles\' elbow, \"drawing a spurt of blood\". In the few fragmentary poems of the Epic Cycle which describe the hero\'s death (i.e. the *Cypria*, the *Little Iliad* by Lesches of Pyrrha, the *Aethiopis* and *Iliupersis* by Arctinus of Miletus), there is no trace of any reference to his general invulnerability or his famous weakness at the heel. In the later vase paintings presenting the death of Achilles, the arrow (or in many cases, arrows) hit his torso.
Peleus entrusted Achilles to Chiron, who lived on Mount Pelion and was known as the most righteous of the Centaurs, to be reared. In some accounts, Achilles\' original name was \"Ligyron\" and he was later named *Achilles* by his tutor Chiron. According to Homer, Achilles grew up in Phthia with his childhood companion Patroclus. Homer further writes that Achilles taught Patroclus what he himself had been taught by Chiron, including the medical arts. Thetis foretold that her son\'s fate was either to gain glory and die young, or to live a long but uneventful life in obscurity. Achilles chose the former, and decided to take part in the Trojan War.
According to Photius, the sixth book of the *New History* by Ptolemy Hephaestion reported that Thetis burned in a secret place the children she had by Peleus. When she had Achilles, Peleus noticed, tore him from the flames with only a burnt foot, and confided him to the centaur Chiron. Later Chiron exhumed the body of the Damysus, who was the fastest of all the giants, removed the ankle, and incorporated it into Achilles\' burnt foot.
### Physical description {#physical_description}
In Homer\'s *Iliad*, Achilles is portrayed as tall and striking, with strength and looks that were unmatched among the Greek warriors. Homer describes him as having long hair or a mane (*χαίτη*). Along with some other characters, his hair is described with the word *xanthḗ* (*ξανθή*), which meant \'yellow\' and was used for light hair, including blond, brown, tawny (light brown) and auburn. A later Latin account, probably from the fifth century CE, falsely attributed to Dares Phrygius described Achilles as having \"\... a large chest, a fine mouth, and powerfully formed arms and legs. His head was covered with long wavy chestnut-colored hair (*capillo myrteo*, color of myrtus bark or myrrh). Though mild in manner, he was very fierce in battle. His face showed the joy of a man richly endowed.\"
### Hidden on Skyros {#hidden_on_skyros}
Some post-Homeric sources claim that in order to keep Achilles safe from the war, Thetis (or, in some versions, Peleus) hid the young man dressed as a princess or at least a girl at the court of Lycomedes, king of Skyros.
There, Achilles, properly disguised, lived among Lycomedes\' daughters, perhaps under the name \"Pyrrha\" (the red-haired girl), Cercysera or Aissa (\"swift\"). With Lycomedes\' daughter Deidamia, with whom he had begun a relationship, Achilles there fathered two sons, Neoptolemus (also called Pyrrhus, after his father\'s possible alias) and Oneiros. According to this story, Odysseus learned from the prophet Calchas that the Achaeans would be unable to capture Troy without Achilles\' aid. Odysseus went to Skyros in the guise of a pedlar selling women\'s clothes and jewellery and placed a shield and spear among his goods. When Achilles instantly took up the spear, Odysseus saw through his disguise and convinced him to join the Greek campaign. In another version of the story, Odysseus arranged for a trumpet alarm to be sounded while he was with Lycomedes\' women. While the women fled in panic, Achilles prepared to defend the court, thus giving his identity away.
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## In the Trojan War {#in_the_trojan_war}
thumb\|upright=1.3\|A marble representation of Achilles at the court of King Lycomedes, c. 240 CE
According to the *Iliad*, Achilles arrived at Troy with 50 ships, each carrying 50 Myrmidons. He appointed five leaders (each leader commanding 500 Myrmidons): Menesthius, Eudorus, Peisander, Phoenix and Alcimedon.
### Telephus
When the Greeks left for the Trojan War, they accidentally stopped in Mysia, ruled by King Telephus. In the resulting battle, Achilles gave Telephus a wound that would not heal; Telephus consulted an oracle, who stated that \"he that wounded shall heal\". Guided by the oracle, he arrived at Argos, where Achilles healed him in order that he might become their guide for the voyage to Troy.
According to other reports in Euripides\' lost play about Telephus, he went to Aulis pretending to be a beggar and asked Achilles to heal his wound. Achilles refused, claiming to have no medical knowledge. Alternatively, Telephus held Orestes for ransom, the ransom being Achilles\' aid in healing the wound. Odysseus reasoned that the spear had inflicted the wound; therefore, the spear must be able to heal it. Pieces of the spear were scraped off onto the wound and Telephus was healed.
### Troilus
According to the *Cypria* (the part of the Epic Cycle that tells the events of the Trojan War before Achilles\' wrath), when the Achaeans desired to return home, they were restrained by Achilles, who afterwards attacked the cattle of Aeneas, sacked neighbouring cities (such as Pedasus and Lyrnessus, where the Greeks capture the queen Briseis) and killed Tenes, a son of Apollo, as well as Priam\'s son Troilus in the sanctuary of Apollo Thymbraios; however, the romance between Troilus and Chryseis described in Geoffrey Chaucer\'s *Troilus and Criseyde* and in William Shakespeare\'s *Troilus and Cressida* is a medieval invention.
In Dares Phrygius\' *Account of the Destruction of Troy*, the Latin summary through which the story of Achilles was transmitted to medieval Europe, as well as in older accounts, Troilus was a young Trojan prince, the youngest of King Priam\'s and Hecuba\'s five legitimate sons (or according other sources, another son of Apollo). Despite his youth, he was one of the main Trojan war leaders, a \"horse fighter\" or \"chariot fighter\" according to Homer. Prophecies linked Troilus\' fate to that of Troy and so he was ambushed in an attempt to capture him. Yet Achilles, struck by the beauty of both Troilus and his sister Polyxena, and overcome with lust, directed his sexual attentions on the youth---who, refusing to yield, instead found himself decapitated upon an altar-omphalos of Apollo Thymbraios. Later versions of the story suggested Troilus was accidentally killed by Achilles in an over-ardent lovers\' embrace. In this version of the myth, Achilles\' death therefore came in retribution for this sacrilege. Ancient writers treated Troilus as the epitome of a dead child mourned by his parents. Had Troilus lived to adulthood, the First Vatican Mythographer claimed, Troy would have been invincible; however, the motif is older and found already in Plautus\' *Bacchides*.
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## In the Trojan War {#in_the_trojan_war}
### In the *Iliad* {#in_the_iliad}
Homer\'s *Iliad* is the most famous narrative of Achilles\' deeds in the Trojan War. Achilles\' wrath (*μῆνις Ἀχιλλέως*, *mênis Achilléōs*) is the central theme of the poem. The first two lines of the *Iliad* read:
+----------------------------------------------------+--------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Μῆνιν ἄειδε θεὰ Πηληιάδεω Ἀχιλῆος\ | Sing, Goddess, of the rage of Peleus\' son Achilles,\ |
| οὐλομένην, ἣ μυρί\' Ἀχαιοῖς ἄλγε\' ἔθηκε, \[\...\] | the accursed rage that brought great suffering to the Achaeans, \[\...\] |
+----------------------------------------------------+--------------------------------------------------------------------------+
The Homeric epic only covers a few weeks of the decade-long war, and does not narrate Achilles\' death. It begins with Achilles\' withdrawal from battle after being dishonoured by Agamemnon, the commander of the Achaean forces. Agamemnon has taken a woman named Chryseis as his slave. Her father Chryses, a priest of Apollo, begs Agamemnon to return her to him. Agamemnon refuses, and Apollo sends a plague amongst the Greeks. The prophet Calchas correctly determines the source of the troubles but will not speak unless Achilles vows to protect him. Achilles does so, and Calchas declares that Chryseis must be returned to her father. Agamemnon consents, but then commands that Achilles\' slave Briseis, the daughter of Briseus, be brought to him to replace Chryseis. Angry at the dishonour of having his plunder and glory taken away (and, as he says later, because he loves Briseis), with the urging of his mother Thetis, Achilles refuses to fight or lead his troops alongside the other Greek forces. At the same time, burning with rage over Agamemnon\'s theft, Achilles prays to Thetis to convince Zeus to help the Trojans gain ground in the war, so that he may regain his honour.
As the battle turns against the Greeks, thanks to the influence of Zeus, Nestor declares that the Trojans are winning because Agamemnon has angered Achilles, and urges the king to appease the warrior. Agamemnon agrees and sends Odysseus and two other chieftains, Ajax and Phoenix. They promise that, if Achilles returns to battle, Agamemnon will return the captive Briseis and other gifts. Achilles rejects all Agamemnon offers him and simply urges the Greeks to sail home as he is planning to do.
The Trojans, led by Hector, subsequently push the Greek army back toward the beaches and assault the Greek ships. With the Greek forces on the verge of absolute destruction, Patroclus leads the Myrmidons into battle, wearing Achilles\' armour, although Achilles remains at his camp. Patroclus succeeds in pushing the Trojans back from the beaches, but is killed by Hector before he can lead a proper assault on the city of Troy.
After receiving the news of the death of Patroclus from Antilochus, the son of Nestor, Achilles grieves over his beloved companion\'s death. His mother Thetis comes to comfort the distraught Achilles. She persuades Hephaestus to make new armour for him, in place of the armour that Patroclus had been wearing, which was taken by Hector. The new armour includes the Shield of Achilles, described in great detail in the poem.
Enraged over the death of Patroclus, Achilles ends his refusal to fight and takes the field, killing many men in his rage but always seeking out Hector. Achilles even engages in battle with the river god Scamander, who has become angry that Achilles is choking his waters with all the men he has killed. The god tries to drown Achilles but is stopped by Hera and Hephaestus. Zeus himself takes note of Achilles\' rage and sends the gods to restrain him so that he will not go on to sack Troy itself before the time allotted for its destruction, seeming to show that the unhindered rage of Achilles can defy fate itself. Finally, Achilles finds his prey.
thumb\|upright=1.7\|*The Triumph of Achilles*, fresco by Franz von Matsch in the Achilleion, Greece
Achilles chases Hector around the wall of Troy three times before Athena, in the form of Hector\'s favorite and dearest brother, Deiphobus, persuades Hector to stop running and fight Achilles face to face. After Hector realizes the trick, he knows the battle is inevitable. Wanting to go down fighting, he charges at Achilles with his only weapon, his sword, but misses. Accepting his fate, Hector begs Achilles not to spare his life, but to treat his body with respect after killing him. Achilles tells Hector it is hopeless to expect that of him, declaring that, \"my rage, my fury would drive me now to hack your flesh away and eat you raw -- such agonies you have caused me.\" Achilles then kills Hector and drags his corpse by its heels behind his chariot. After having a dream where Patroclus begs Achilles to hold his funeral, Achilles hosts a series of funeral games in honour of his companion.
At the onset of his duel with Hector, Achilles is referred to as the brightest star in the sky, which comes on in the autumn, Orion\'s dog (Sirius); a sign of evil. During the cremation of Patroclus, he is compared to Hesperus, the evening/western star (Venus), while the burning of the funeral pyre lasts until Phosphorus, the morning/eastern star (also Venus) has set (descended).
With the assistance of the god Hermes (Argeiphontes), Hector\'s father Priam goes to Achilles\' tent to plead with Achilles for the return of Hector\'s body so that he can be buried. Achilles relents and promises a truce for the duration of the funeral, lasting 9 days with a burial on the 10th (in the tradition of Niobe\'s offspring). The poem ends with a description of Hector\'s funeral, with the doom of Troy and Achilles himself still to come.
### Penthesilea and Memnon {#penthesilea_and_memnon}
Later works, including the *Aethiopis* (seventh century BCE) and a work named *Posthomerica*, composed by Quintus of Smyrna in the fourth century CE, relate further events from the Trojan War. When Penthesilea, queen of the Amazons and daughter of Ares, arrives in Troy, Priam hopes that she will defeat Achilles. After his temporary truce with Priam, Achilles fights and kills the warrior queen, only to grieve over her death later. Initially taken aback, he did not fight as intensely as usual. Once he realized that his distraction was endangering his life, he refocused and killed her.
Following the death of Patroclus, Nestor\'s son Antilochus becomes Achilles\' closest companion. Achilles already loved Antilochus, so Menelaus thought Antilochus would be the best person to inform Achilles of Patroclus\' death. Later, Memnon, son of the Dawn Goddess Eos and king of Ethiopia, slays Antilochus as he sacrifices himself to save his father. According to Philostratus\' *Imagines*, Achilles laments his death on the battlefield, promising Antilochus a glorious funeral and vengeance. Achilles once more obtains revenge on the battlefield, killing Memnon. Consequently, Eos will not let the sun rise until Zeus persuades her. The fight between Achilles and Memnon over Antilochus echoes that of Achilles and Hector over Patroclus, except that Memnon (unlike Hector) was also the son of a goddess.
Many Homeric scholars argued that episode inspired many details in the *Iliad*{{\'}}s description of the death of Patroclus and Achilles\' reaction to it. The episode then formed the basis of the cyclic epic *Aethiopis*, which was composed after the *Iliad*, possibly in the seventh century BCE. The *Aethiopis* is now lost, except for scattered fragments quoted by later authors.
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## In the Trojan War {#in_the_trojan_war}
### Achilles and Patroclus {#achilles_and_patroclus}
The exact nature of Achilles\' relationship with Patroclus has been a subject of dispute in both the classical period and modern times. In the *Iliad*, it appears to be the model of a deep and loyal friendship. Homer does not suggest that Achilles and his close friend Patroclus had sexual relations. Although there is no direct evidence in the text of the *Iliad* that Achilles and Patroclus were lovers, this theory was expressed by some later authors. Commentators from classical antiquity to the present have often interpreted the relationship through the lens of their own cultures. In fifth-century BCE Athens, the intense bond was often viewed in light of the Greek custom of *paiderasteia*, which is the relationship between an older male and a younger one, usually a teenager. In Plato\'s *Symposium*, the participants in a dialogue about love assume that Achilles and Patroclus were a couple; Phaedrus argues that Achilles was the younger and more beautiful one so he was the beloved and Patroclus was the lover. In Xenophon\'s *Symposium*, Socrates says that Achilles and Patroclus were not lovers but had a platonic relationship. Kenneth Dover argues that ancient Greek had no words to distinguish heterosexual and homosexual, and it was assumed that a man could both desire handsome young men and have sex with women. Many pairs of men throughout history have been compared to Achilles and Patroclus to imply a homosexual relationship.
### Death
The death of Achilles, even if considered solely as it occurred in the oldest sources, is a complex one, with many different versions. Starting with the oldest account, In book 22 of the *Iliad*, Hector predicts with his last dying breath that Paris and Apollo will slay him at the Scaean Gates leading to Troy (with an arrow to the heel according to Statius). In book 23, the sad spirit of dead Patroclus visits Achilles just as he drifts off into slumber, requesting that his bones be placed with those of Achilles in his golden vase, a gift of his mother.
In book 11 of the *Odyssey*, Odysseus sails to the underworld and converses with the shades. One of these is Achilles, who when greeted as \"blessed in life, blessed in death\", responds that he would rather be a slave to the worst of masters than be king of all the dead. But Achilles then asks Odysseus of his son\'s exploits in the Trojan war, and Odysseus tells him of Neoptolemus\' actions.
Book 24 of *Odyssey* gives dead King Agamemnon\'s ghostly account of Achilles\' death: the bleached bones from Achilles\' funeral pyre had been mixed with those of Patroclus and put into his mother\'s golden vase. Also, the bones of Antilochus, who had become closer to Achilles than any other following Patroclus\' death, were separately enclosed. The customary funeral games of a hero were performed, and a massive tomb or mound was built on the Hellespont for approaching seagoers to celebrate.
Achilles was represented in the *Aethiopis* as living after his death in the island of Leuke at the mouth of the river Danube. Another version of Achilles\' death is that he fell deeply in love with one of the Trojan princesses, Polyxena. Achilles asks Priam for Polyxena\'s hand in marriage. Priam is willing because it would mean the end of the war and an alliance with the world\'s greatest warrior. But while Priam is overseeing the private marriage of Polyxena and Achilles, Paris, who would have to give up Helen if Achilles married his sister, hides in the bushes and shoots Achilles with a divine arrow, killing him. According to some accounts, he had married Medea in life, so that after both their deaths they were united in the Elysian Fields of Hades---as Hera promised Thetis in Apollonius\' *Argonautica* (third century BCE).
### Fate of Achilles\' armour {#fate_of_achilles_armour}
Achilles\' armour was the object of a feud between Odysseus and Ajax the Great. They competed for it by giving speeches on why they were the bravest after Achilles to their Trojan prisoners, who, after considering both men\'s presentations, decided Odysseus was more deserving of the armour. Furious, Ajax cursed Odysseus, which earned him the ire of Athena, who temporarily made Ajax so mad with grief and anguish that he began killing sheep, thinking them his comrades. After a while, when Athena lifted his madness and Ajax realized that he had actually been killing sheep, he was so ashamed that he committed suicide. Odysseus eventually gave the armour to Neoptolemus, the son of Achilles. When Odysseus encounters the shade of Ajax much later in the House of Hades (*Odyssey* 11.543--566), Ajax is still so angry about the outcome of the competition that he refuses to speak to Odysseus.
The armour they fought for was made by Hephaestus and thus much stronger and more beautiful than any armour a mortal could craft. Thetis had the gear made for Achilles because his first set was worn by Patroclus when he went to battle and taken by Hector when he killed Patroclus. The Shield of Achilles was also made by the fire god. His legendary spear was given to him by his mentor Chiron before he participated in the Trojan War. It was called the Pelian Spear, which allegedly no other man could wield.
A relic claimed to be Achilles\' bronze-headed spear was preserved for centuries in the temple of Athena on the acropolis of Phaselis, Lycia, a port on the Pamphylian Gulf. The city was visited in 333 BCE by Alexander the Great, who envisioned himself as the new Achilles and carried the *Iliad* with him, but his court biographers do not mention the spear; however, it was shown in the time of Pausanias in the second century CE.
### Achilles, Ajax and a game of *petteia* {#achilles_ajax_and_a_game_of_petteia}
Numerous paintings on pottery have suggested a tale not mentioned in the literary traditions. At some point in the war, Achilles and Ajax were playing a board game (*petteia*). They were absorbed in the game and oblivious to the surrounding battle. The Trojans attacked and reached the heroes, who were saved only by an intervention of Athena.
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## Worship and heroic cult {#worship_and_heroic_cult}
The tomb of Achilles, extant throughout antiquity in the Troad, was venerated by Thessalians, but also by Persian expeditionary forces, as well as by Alexander the Great and the Roman emperor Caracalla. Achilles\' cult was also to be found at other places, e. g. on the island of Astypalaea in the Sporades, in Sparta which had a sanctuary, in Elis and in Achilles\' homeland Thessaly, as well as in the Magna Graecia cities of Tarentum, Locri and Croton, accounting for an almost Panhellenic cult to the hero.
The cult of Achilles is illustrated in the Polyxena sarcophagus (500 BCE), which depicts the sacrifice of Polyxena near the tumulus of Achilles. Strabo (13.1.32) also suggested that such a cult of Achilles existed in Troad:
The spread and intensity of the hero\'s veneration among the Greeks that had settled on the northern coast of the Pontus Euxinus, today\'s Black Sea, appears to have been remarkable. An archaic cult is attested for the Milesian colony of Olbia as well as for an island in the middle of the Black Sea, today identified with Snake Island (*Зміїний*, *Zmiinyi*, near Kiliia, Ukraine). Early dedicatory inscriptions from the Greek colonies on the Black Sea (graffiti and inscribed clay disks, these possibly being votive offerings, from Olbia, the area of Berezan Island and the Tauric Chersonese) attest the existence of a heroic cult of Achilles from the sixth century BCE onwards. The cult was still thriving in the third century CE, when dedicatory stelae from Olbia refer to an *Achilles Pontárchēs* (Ποντάρχης, roughly \'lord of the sea\', or \'lord of the Pontus Euxinus\'), who was invoked as a protector of the city of Olbia, venerated on par with Olympian gods such as the local Apollo Prostates, Hermes Agoraeus, or Poseidon.
Pliny the Elder (23--79 CE) in his *Natural History* mentions a \"port of the Achæi\" and an \"island of Achilles\", famous for the tomb of that \"man\" (*portus Achaeorum, insula Achillis, tumulo eius viri clara*), situated somewhat nearby Olbia and the Dnieper-Bug Estuary; furthermore, at 125 Roman miles from this island, he places a peninsula \"which stretches forth in the shape of a sword\" obliquely, called *Dromos Achilleos* (Ἀχιλλέως δρόμος, *Achilléōs drómos*, \'the Race-course of Achilles\') and considered the place of the hero\'s exercise or of games instituted by him. This last feature of Pliny\'s account is considered to be the iconic spit, called today *Tendra* (or *Kosa Tendra* and *Kosa Djarilgatch*), situated between the mouth of the Dnieper and Karkinit Bay, but which is hardly 125 Roman miles (around 185 km) away from the Dnieper-Bug estuary, as Pliny states (to the \"Race-course\" he gives a length of 80 miles, whereas the spit measures around 70 km today).
In the following chapter of his book, Pliny refers to the same island as *Achillea* and introduces two further names for it: *Leuce* or *Macaron* (from Greek *\[νῆσος\] μακαρῶν*, \'island of the blest\'). The \"present day\" measures, he gives at this point, seem to account for an identification of *Achillea* or *Leuce* with today\'s Snake Island. Pliny\'s contemporary Pomponius Mela (c. 43 CE) tells that Achilles was buried on an island named *Achillea*, situated between the Borysthenes and the Ister, adding to the geographical confusion. Ruins of a square temple, measuring 30 meters to a side, possibly that dedicated to Achilles, were discovered by Captain Nikolay Kritsky in 1823 on Snake Island. A second exploration in 1840 showed that the construction of a lighthouse had destroyed all traces of this temple. A fifth-century BCE black-glazed lekythos inscription, found on the island in 1840, reads: \"Glaukos, son of Poseidon, dedicated me to Achilles, lord of Leuke.\" In another inscription from the fifth or fourth centuries BCE, a statue is dedicated to Achilles, lord of Leuke, by a citizen of Olbia, while in a further dedication, the city of Olbia confirms its continuous maintenance of the island\'s cult, again suggesting its quality as a place of a supra-regional hero veneration.
The heroic cult dedicated to Achilles on *Leuce* seems to go back to an account from the lost epic *Aethiopis* according to which, after his untimely death, Thetis had snatched her son from the funeral pyre and removed him to a mythical *Λεύκη Νῆσος* (*Leúkē Nêsos*, \'White Island\'). Already in the fifth century BCE, Pindar had mentioned a cult of Achilles on a \"bright island\" (*φαεννά νᾶσος*, *phaenná nâsos*) of the Black Sea, while in another of his works, Pindar would retell the story of the immortalized Achilles living on a geographically indefinite Island of the Blest together with other heroes such as his father Peleus and Cadmus. Well known is the connection of these mythological Fortunate Isles (μακαρῶν νῆσοι, *makárôn nêsoi*) or the Homeric Elysium with the stream Oceanus which according to Greek mythology surrounds the inhabited world, which should have accounted for the identification of the northern strands of the Euxine with it. Guy Hedreen has found further evidence for this connection of Achilles with the northern margin of the inhabited world in a poem by Alcaeus, speaking of \"Achilles lord of Scythia\" and the opposition of North and South, as evoked by Achilles\' fight against the Aethiopian prince Memnon, who in his turn would be removed to his homeland by his mother Eos after his death.
The *Periplus of the Euxine Sea* (c. 130 CE) gives the following details:
The Greek geographer Dionysius Periegetes, who probably lived during the first century CE, wrote that the island was called *Leuce* \"because the wild animals which live there are white. It is said that there, in Leuce island, reside the souls of Achilles and other heroes, and that they wander through the uninhabited valleys of this island; this is how Jove rewarded the men who had distinguished themselves through their virtues, because through virtue they had acquired everlasting honour.\" Similarly, others relate the island\'s name to its white cliffs, snakes or birds dwelling there. Pausanias has been told that the island is \"covered with forests and full of animals, some wild, some tame. In this island there is also Achilles\' temple and his statue.\" Leuce had also a reputation as a place of healing. Pausanias reports that the Delphic Pythia sent a lord of Croton to be cured of a chest wound. Ammianus Marcellinus attributes the healing to waters (*aquae*) on the island.
Strabo mentioned that the cape of the Racecourse of Achilles was sacred to Achilles and although it was treeless, was called Alsos (ἄλσος). *Alsos* in Greek means \'grove\'.
A number of important commercial port cities of the Greek waters were dedicated to Achilles. Herodotus, Pliny the Elder and Strabo reported on the existence of a town *Achílleion* (*Ἀχίλλειον*), built by settlers from Mytilene in the sixth century BCE, close to the hero\'s presumed burial mound in the Troad. Later attestations point to an *Achílleion* in Messenia (according to Stephanus Byzantinus) and an *Achílleios* (Ἀχίλλειος) in Laconia. Nicolae Densuşianu recognized a connection to Achilles in the names of Aquileia and of the northern arm of the Danube delta, called Chilia (presumably from an older *Achileii*), although his conclusion, that Leuce had sovereign rights over the Black Sea, evokes modern rather than archaic sea-law.
The kings of Epirus claimed to be descended from Achilles through his son, Neoptolemus. Alexander the Great, son of the Epirote princess Olympias, could therefore also claim this descent, and in many ways strove to be like his great ancestor. He is said to have visited the tomb of Achilles at Achilleion while passing Troy. In 216, the Roman emperor Caracalla, while on his way to war against Parthia, emulated Alexander by holding games around Achilles\' tumulus.
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## Reception during antiquity {#reception_during_antiquity}
### In Greek tragedy {#in_greek_tragedy}
The Greek tragedian Aeschylus wrote a trilogy of plays about Achilles, given the title *Achilleis* by modern scholars. The tragedies relate the deeds of Achilles during the Trojan War, including his defeat of Hector and eventual death when an arrow shot by Paris and guided by Apollo punctures his heel. Extant fragments of the *Achilleis* and other Aeschylean fragments have been assembled to produce a workable modern play. The first part of the *Achilleis* trilogy, *The Myrmidons*, focused on the relationship between Achilles and chorus, who represent the Achaean army and try to convince Achilles to give up his quarrel with Agamemnon; only a few lines survive today. In Plato\'s *Symposium*, Phaedrus points out that Aeschylus portrayed Achilles as the lover and Patroclus as the beloved; Phaedrus argues that this is incorrect because Achilles, being the younger and more beautiful of the two, was the beloved, who loved his lover so much that he chose to die to avenge him.
The tragedian Sophocles also wrote *The Lovers of Achilles*, a play with Achilles as the main character. Only a few fragments survive.
Towards the end of the fifth century BCE, a more negative view of Achilles emerges in Greek drama; Euripides refers to Achilles in a bitter or ironic tone in *Hecuba*, *Electra*, and *Iphigenia in Aulis*.
Other contemporary tragedians, such as Astydamas, wrote works on Achilles that are completely lost today.
### In Greek philosophy {#in_greek_philosophy}
#### Zeno
The philosopher Zeno of Elea centred one of his paradoxes on an imaginary footrace between \"swift-footed\" Achilles and a tortoise, by which he attempted to show that Achilles could not catch up to a tortoise with a head start, and therefore that motion and change were impossible. As a student of the monist Parmenides and a member of the Eleatic school, Zeno believed time and motion to be illusions.
#### Plato
In *Hippias Minor*, a Socratic dialogue attributed to Plato, an arrogant man named Hippias argues with Socrates. The two get into a discussion about lying. They decide that a person who is intentionally false must be \"better\" than a person who is unintentionally false, on the basis that someone who lies intentionally must understand the subject about which they are lying. Socrates uses various analogies, discussing athletics and the sciences to prove his point. The two also reference Homer extensively. Socrates and Hippias agree that Odysseus, who concocted a number of lies throughout the *Odyssey* and other stories in the Trojan War Cycle, was false intentionally. Achilles, like Odysseus, told numerous falsehoods. Hippias believes that Achilles was a generally honest man, while Socrates believes that Achilles lied for his own benefit. The two argue over whether it is better to lie on purpose or by accident. Socrates eventually abandons Homeric arguments and makes sports analogies to drive home the point: someone who does wrong on purpose is a better person than someone who does wrong unintentionally.
### In Roman and medieval literature {#in_roman_and_medieval_literature}
The Romans, who traditionally traced their lineage to Troy, took a highly negative view of Achilles. Virgil refers to Achilles as a savage and a merciless butcher of men, while Horace portrays Achilles ruthlessly slaying women and children. Other writers, such as Catullus, Propertius, and Ovid, represent a second strand of disparagement, with an emphasis on Achilles\' erotic career. This strand continues in Latin accounts of the Trojan War by writers such as Dictys Cretensis and Dares Phrygius and in Benoît de Sainte-Maure\'s *\[\[Roman de Troie\]\]* and Guido delle Colonne\'s *Historia destructionis Troiae*, which remained the most widely read and retold versions of the Matter of Troy until the seventeenth century.
Achilles was described by the Byzantine chronicler Leo the Deacon, not as Hellene, but as Scythian, while according to the Byzantine author John Malalas, his army was made up of a tribe previously known as Myrmidons and later as Bulgars.
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## In modern literature and arts {#in_modern_literature_and_arts}
thumb\|upright=1.3\|Achilles and Agamemnon by Gottlieb Schick (1801)
### Literature
- Achilles appears in Dante\'s *Inferno* (composed 1308--1320). He is seen in Hell\'s second circle, that of lust.
- Achilles is portrayed as a former hero who has become lazy and devoted to the love of Patroclus, in William Shakespeare\'s *Troilus and Cressida* (1602). Despicably, he has his Myrmidons murder the unarmed Hector, and then gets them to announce that Achilles himself has slain Hector, as if it had been in a fair fight (Act 5.9.5-14).
- The French dramatist Thomas Corneille wrote a tragedy *La Mort d\'Achille* (1673).
- Achilles is the subject of the poem *Achilleis* (1799), a fragment by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
- In 1899, the Polish playwright, painter and poet Stanisław Wyspiański published a national drama, based on Polish history, named *Achilles*.
- In 1921, Edward Shanks published *The Island of Youth and Other Poems*, concerned among others with Achilles.
- The 1983 novel *Kassandra* by Christa Wolf also treats the death of Achilles.
- H.D.\'s 1961 long poem *Helen in Egypt* features Achilles prominently as a figure whose irrational hatred of Helen traumatizes her, the bulk of the poem\'s plot being about her recovery.
- Achilles is killed by a poisoned Centaur arrow shot by Cassandra in Marion Zimmer Bradley\'s novel *The Firebrand* (1987).
- Achilles is one of various \'narrators\' in Colleen McCullough\'s novel *The Song of Troy* (1998).
- *The Death of Achilles* (*Смерть Ахиллеса*, 1998) is an historical detective novel by Russian writer Boris Akunin that alludes to various figures and motifs from the *Iliad*.
- The character Achilles in *Ender\'s Shadow* (1999), by Orson Scott Card, shares his namesake\'s cunning mind and ruthless attitude.
- Achilles is one of the main characters in Dan Simmons\'s novels *Ilium* (2003) and *Olympos* (2005).
- Achilles is a major supporting character in David Gemmell\'s *Troy* series of books (2005--2007).
- Achilles is the main character in David Malouf\'s novel *Ransom* (2009).
- The ghost of Achilles appears in Rick Riordan\'s *The Last Olympian* (2009). He warns Percy Jackson about the Curse of Achilles and its side effects.
- Achilles is a main character in Terence Hawkins\' 2009 novel *The Rage of Achilles*.
- Achilles is a major character in Madeline Miller\'s debut novel, *The Song of Achilles* (2011), which won the 2012 Orange Prize for Fiction. The novel explores the relationship between Patroclus and Achilles from boyhood to the fateful events of the *Iliad*.
- Achilles appears in the light novel series *Fate/Apocrypha* (2012--2014) as the Rider of Red.
- Achilles is a main character in Pat Barker\'s 2018 novel *The Silence of the Girls*, much of which is narrated by his slave Briseis.
### Visual arts {#visual_arts}
- *Achilles with the Daughters of Lycomedes* is a subject treated in paintings by Anthony van Dyck (before 1618; Museo del Prado, Madrid) and Nicolas Poussin (c. 1652; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston) among others.
- Peter Paul Rubens has authored a series of works on the life of Achilles, comprising the titles: *Thetis dipping the infant Achilles into the river Styx*, *Achilles educated by the centaur Chiron*, *Achilles recognized among the daughters of Lycomedes*, *The wrath of Achilles*, *The death of Hector*, *Thetis receiving the arms of Achilles from Vulcanus*, *The death of Achilles* (Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam), and *Briseis restored to Achilles* (Detroit Institute of Arts; all c. 1630--1635)
- Pieter van Lint, \"Achilles Discovered among the Daughters of Lycomedes\", 1645, at the Israel Museum, Jerusalem
- *Dying Achilles* is a sculpture created by Christophe Veyrier (c. 1683; Victoria and Albert Museum, London).
- *The Rage of Achilles* is a fresco by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo (1757, Villa Valmarana Ai Nani, Vicenza).
- Eugène Delacroix painted a version of *The Education of Achilles* for the ceiling of the Paris Palais Bourbon (1833--1847), one of the seats of the French Parliament.
- created a statue group *Achilles and Penthesilea* (1895; Vienna).
- *Achilleus* (1908) is a lithography by Max Slevogt.
### Music
Achilles has been frequently the subject of operas, ballets and related genres.
- Operas titled *Deidamia* were composed by Francesco Cavalli (1644) and George Frideric Handel (1739).
- *Achille et Polyxène* (Paris 1687) is an opera begun by Jean-Baptiste Lully and finished by Pascal Collasse.
- *Achille et Déidamie* (Paris 1735) is an opera composed by André Campra.
- *Achilles* (London 1733) is a ballad opera, written by John Gay, parodied by Thomas Arne as *Achilles in petticoats* in 1773.
- *Achille in Sciro* is a libretto by Metastasio, composed by Domenico Sarro for the inauguration of the Teatro di San Carlo (Naples, 4 November 1737). An even earlier composition is from Antonio Caldara (Vienna 1736). Later operas on the same libretto were composed by Leonardo Leo (Turin 1739), Niccolò Jommelli (Vienna 1749 and Rome 1772), Giuseppe Sarti (Copenhagen 1759 and Florence 1779), Johann Adolph Hasse (Naples 1759), Giovanni Paisiello (St. Petersburg 1772), Giuseppe Gazzaniga (Palermo 1781) and many others. It has also been set to music as *Il Trionfo della gloria*.
- *Achille* (Vienna 1801) is an opera by Ferdinando Paër on a libretto by Giovanni de Gamerra.
- *Achille à Scyros* (Paris 1804) is a ballet by Pierre Gardel, composed by Luigi Cherubini.
- *Achilles, oder Das zerstörte Troja* (\"Achilles, or Troy Destroyed\", Bonn 1885) is an oratorio by the German composer Max Bruch.
- *Achilles auf Skyros* (Stuttgart 1926) is a ballet by the Austrian-British composer and musicologist Egon Wellesz.
- *Achilles\' Wrath* is a concert piece by Sean O\'Loughlin.
- *Temporary Like Achilles* is a song on the 1966 double-album *Blonde on Blonde* by Bob Dylan
- *Achilles Last Stand* is a song on the 1976 Led Zeppelin album *Presence*.
- *Achilles, Agony and Ecstasy in Eight Parts* is the first song on the 1992 Manowar album *The Triumph of Steel*.
- *Achilles Come Down* is a song on the 2017 Gang of Youths album *Go Farther in Lightness*.
### Film and television {#film_and_television}
Achilles has been portrayed in the following films and television series:
- The 1924 film *Helena* by Carlo Aldini
- The 1954 film *Ulysses* by Piero Lulli
- The 1956 film *Helen of Troy* by Stanley Baker
- The 1961 film *The Trojan Horse* by Arturo Dominici
- The 1962 film *The Fury of Achilles* by Gordon Mitchell
- The 1997 television miniseries *The Odyssey* by Richard Trewett
- The 2003 television miniseries *Helen of Troy* by Joe Montana
- The 2004 film *Troy* by Brad Pitt
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## In modern literature and arts {#in_modern_literature_and_arts}
### Architecture
- In 1890, Elisabeth of Bavaria, Empress of Austria, had a summer palace built in Corfu. The building is named the Achilleion, after Achilles. Its paintings and statuary depict scenes from the Trojan War, with particular focus on Achilles.
- The Wellington Monument is a statue representing Achilles erected in 1822 as a memorial to Arthur Wellesley, the first duke of Wellington, and his victories in the Peninsular War and the latter stages of the Napoleonic Wars.
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## Namesakes
- The name of Achilles has been used for at least nine Royal Navy warships since 1744---both as `{{HMS|Achilles}}`{=mediawiki} and with the French spelling `{{HMS|Achille}}`{=mediawiki}. A 60-gun ship of that name served at the Battle of Belleisle in 1761 while a 74-gun ship served at the Battle of Trafalgar. Other battle honours include Walcheren 1809. An armored cruiser of that name served in the Royal Navy during the First World War.
- was a `{{sclass|Leander|cruiser|1||1931}}`{=mediawiki} which served with the Royal New Zealand Navy in World War II. It became famous for its part in the Battle of the River Plate, alongside `{{HMS|Ajax|22|6}}`{=mediawiki} and `{{HMS|Exeter|68|6}}`{=mediawiki}. In addition to earning the battle honour \'River Plate\', HMNZS *Achilles* also served at Guadalcanal 1942--1943 and Okinawa in 1945. After returning to the Royal Navy, the ship was sold to the Indian Navy in 1948, but when she was scrapped parts of the ship were saved and preserved in New Zealand.
- A species of lizard, *Anolis achilles*, which has widened heel plates, is named for Achilles.
## Gallery
<File:Achilles> departure Eretria Painter CdM Paris 851.jpg\|Achilles and the Nereid Cymothoe, Attic red-figure kantharos from Volci (Cabinet des Médailles, Bibliothèque nationale, Paris) <File:Akhilleus> embassy Staatliche Antikensammlungen 8770.jpg\|The embassy to Achilles, Attic red-figure hydria, c. 480 BCE (Staatliche Antikensammlungen, Berlin) <File:AmbrosianIliadPict47Achilles.jpg%7CAchilles> sacrificing to Zeus for Patroclus\' safe return, from the *Ambrosian Iliad*, a fifth-century illuminated manuscript <File:Bell-krater> Akhilleus Penthesileia MAN.jpg\|Achilles and Penthesilea fighting, Lucanian red-figure bell-krater, late fifth century BCE <File:Akhilleus> Penthesileia Staatliche Antikensammlungen 2688.jpg\|Achilles killing Penthesilea, tondo of an Attic red-figure kylix, c. 465 BCE, from Vulci <File:Mourning> of Akhilleus Louvre E643.jpg\|Thetis and the Nereids mourning Achilles, Corinthian black-figure hydria, c. 555 BCE (Louvre, Paris) <File:Aias> Achilles game Musei Capitolini MC6.jpg\|Achilles and Ajax playing the board game *petteia*, black-figure oinochoe, c. 530 BCE (Capitoline Museums, Rome) <File:Achilles-01.jpg%7CHead> of Achilles depicted on a fourth-century BCE coin from Kremaste, Phthia. Reverse: Thetis, wearing and holding the shield of Achilles with his AX monogram <File:Getty> Villa - Collection (3151231788)
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USS *President Lincoln*}} `{{Good article}}`{=mediawiki} `{{Pp|small=yes}}`{=mediawiki} `{{Pp-move}}`{=mediawiki} `{{Use American English|date=November 2024}}`{=mediawiki} `{{Use mdy dates|date=November 2024}}`{=mediawiki} **Abraham Lincoln** (February 12, 1809 -- April 15, 1865) was the 16th president of the United States, serving from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. He led the United States through the American Civil War, defeating the Confederate States of America and playing a major role in the abolition of slavery.
Lincoln was born into poverty in Kentucky and raised on the frontier. He was self-educated and became a lawyer, Illinois state legislator, and U.S. representative. Angered by the Kansas--Nebraska Act of 1854, which opened the territories to slavery, he became a leader of the new Republican Party. He reached a national audience in the 1858 Senate campaign debates against Stephen A. Douglas. Lincoln won the 1860 presidential election, which the South viewed as a further threat to states\' rights and slavery, and Southern states began seceding to form the Confederate States of America. A month after Lincoln assumed the presidency, Confederate forces attacked Fort Sumter, starting the Civil War.
Lincoln, a moderate Republican, had to navigate a contentious array of factions in managing conflicting political opinion during the war effort. Lincoln closely supervised the strategy and tactics in the war effort, including the selection of generals, and implemented a naval blockade of Southern ports. He suspended the writ of *habeas corpus* in April 1861, an action that Chief Justice Roger Taney found unconstitutional in *Ex parte Merryman*, and he averted war with Britain by defusing the *Trent* Affair. On January 1, 1863, he issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which declared the slaves in the states \"in rebellion\" to be free. On November 19, 1863, he delivered the Gettysburg Address, which became one of the most famous speeches in American history. He promoted the Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which, in 1865, abolished slavery, except as punishment for a crime. Re-elected in 1864, he sought to heal the war-torn nation through Reconstruction.
On April 14, 1865, five days after the Confederate surrender at Appomattox, he was attending a play at Ford\'s Theatre in Washington, D.C., when he was fatally shot by Confederate sympathizer John Wilkes Booth. Lincoln is remembered as a martyr and a national hero for his wartime leadership and for his efforts to preserve the Union and abolish slavery. He is often ranked in both popular and scholarly polls as the greatest president in American history.`{{TOC limit|5}}`{=mediawiki} `{{Abraham Lincoln series}}`{=mediawiki}
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## Family and childhood {#family_and_childhood}
### Early life {#early_life}
Abraham Lincoln was born on February 12, 1809, in a log cabin on Sinking Spring Farm near Hodgenville, Kentucky. The second child of Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks Lincoln, he was a descendant of Samuel Lincoln, an Englishman who migrated from England to Massachusetts in 1638, and of the Harrison family of Virginia. His paternal grandfather and namesake, Captain Abraham Lincoln, moved the family from Virginia to Kentucky. The captain was killed in a Native American raid in 1786. Thomas, Abraham\'s father, then worked at odd jobs in Kentucky and Tennessee before the family settled in Hardin County, Kentucky, in the early 1800s. Lincoln\'s mother Nancy is widely assumed to have been the daughter of Lucy Hanks. Thomas and Nancy married on June 12, 1806, and moved to Elizabethtown, Kentucky. They had three children: Sarah, Abraham, and Thomas; Thomas died as an infant.
Thomas Lincoln bought multiple farms in Kentucky but could not get clear property titles to any, losing hundreds of acres in legal disputes. In 1816, the family moved to Indiana, where land titles were more reliable. They settled on a forested plot in Little Pigeon Creek Community, Indiana. In Kentucky and Indiana, Thomas worked as a farmer, cabinetmaker, and carpenter. At various times he owned farms, livestock, and town lots, appraised estates, and served on county patrols. Thomas and Nancy were members of a Separate Baptist Church, a pious evangelical group whose members largely condemned slavery. Overcoming financial challenges, Thomas obtained clear title to 80 acre in Little Pigeon Creek Community in 1827.
On October 5, 1818, Nancy Lincoln died from milk sickness, leaving 11-year-old Sarah in charge of a household including her father, 9-year-old Abraham, and Nancy\'s 19-year-old orphan cousin, Dennis Hanks. Ten years later, on January 20, 1828, Sarah died in childbirth, devastating Lincoln. On December 2, 1819, Thomas married Sarah Bush Johnston, a widow with three children of her own. Abraham became close to his stepmother and called her \"Mama\".
### Education and move to Illinois {#education_and_move_to_illinois}
Lincoln was largely self-educated. His formal schooling was from itinerant teachers. It included two short stints in Kentucky, where he learned to read, but probably not to write. After moving to Indiana at age seven, he attended school only sporadically, for a total of less than 12 months by age 15. Nonetheless, he was an avid reader and retained a lifelong interest in learning.
When Lincoln was a teenager his father relied heavily on him for farmwork and for supplementary income, hiring the boy out to area farmers and pocketing the money, as was allowed by law at the time. Lincoln and some friends took goods by flatboat to New Orleans, Louisiana, where he first witnessed slave markets.
In March 1830, fearing another milk-sickness outbreak, several members of the extended Lincoln family, including Abraham, moved west to Illinois and settled in Macon County. Abraham became increasingly distant from Thomas, in part due to his father\'s lack of interest in education; he would later refuse to attend his father\'s deathbed or funeral in 1851.
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## Family and childhood {#family_and_childhood}
### Marriage and children {#marriage_and_children}
Some historians, such as Michael Burlingame, identify Lincoln\'s first romantic interest as Ann Rutledge, a young woman also from Kentucky whom he met when he moved to New Salem, Illinois. Lewis Gannett, however, disputes that the evidence supports a romantic relationship between the two. David Herbert Donald states that \"How that friendship \[between Lincoln and Rutledge\] developed into a romance cannot be reconstructed from the record\". Rutledge died on August 25, 1835, of typhoid fever. Lincoln took her death very hard, sinking into a serious depression and contemplating suicide.
In the early 1830s, he met Mary Owens from Kentucky. Late in 1836, Lincoln agreed to a match with Owens if she returned to New Salem. Owens arrived that November and he courted her, but they both had second thoughts. On August 16, 1837, he wrote Owens a letter saying he would not blame her if she ended the relationship, and she declined to marry him. In 1839, Lincoln met Mary Todd in Springfield, Illinois, and the following year they became engaged. She was the daughter of Robert Smith Todd, a wealthy lawyer and businessman in Lexington, Kentucky. Lincoln initially broke off the engagement in early 1841, but the two were reconciled and married on November 4, 1842. In 1844, the couple bought a house in Springfield near his law office.
The marriage was turbulent; Mary was verbally abusive and at times physically violent towards her husband. They had four sons. The eldest, Robert Todd Lincoln, was born in 1843, and was the only child to live to maturity. Edward Baker Lincoln (Eddie), born in 1846, died February 1, 1850, probably of tuberculosis. Lincoln\'s third son, \"Willie\" Lincoln, was born on December 21, 1850, and died of a fever at the White House on February 20, 1862. The youngest, Thomas \"Tad\" Lincoln, was born on April 4, 1853, and died of edema at age 18 on July 16, 1871. Lincoln loved children, and the Lincolns were not considered to be strict with their own. The deaths of Eddie and Willie had profound effects on both parents. Lincoln suffered from \"melancholy\", a condition now thought to be clinical depression.
### Early vocations and militia service {#early_vocations_and_militia_service}
In 1831, Thomas moved the family to a new homestead in Coles County, Illinois, after which Abraham struck out on his own. He made his home in New Salem, Illinois, for six years. During 1831 and 1832, Lincoln worked at a general store in New Salem. He gained a reputation for strength and courage after winning a wrestling match with the leader of a group of ruffians known as the Clary\'s Grove boys. In 1832, he declared his candidacy for the Illinois House of Representatives, though he interrupted his campaign to serve as a captain in the Illinois Militia during the Black Hawk War. He was elected the captain of his militia company but did not see combat. In his political campaigning, Lincoln advocated for navigational improvements on the Sangamon River. He drew crowds as a raconteur, but he lacked name recognition, powerful friends, and money, and he lost the election.
When Lincoln returned home from the war, he planned to become a blacksmith but instead purchased a New Salem general store in partnership with William Berry. Because a license was required to sell customers alcoholic beverages, Berry obtained bartending licenses for Lincoln and himself, and in 1833 the Lincoln--Berry General Store became a tavern as well. But according to Burlingame, Berry was \"an undisciplined, hard-drinking fellow\", and Lincoln \"was too soft-hearted to deny anyone credit\"; although the economy was booming, the business struggled and went into debt, prompting Lincoln to sell his share.
Lincoln served as New Salem\'s postmaster and later as county surveyor, but he continued his voracious reading and decided to become a lawyer. Rather than studying in the office of an established attorney, as was customary, Lincoln read law on his own, borrowing legal texts, including Blackstone\'s *Commentaries* and Chitty\'s *Pleadings*, from attorney John Todd Stuart. He later said of his legal education that he \"studied with nobody.\"
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## Early political offices and prairie lawyer {#early_political_offices_and_prairie_lawyer}
### Illinois state legislature (1834--1842) {#illinois_state_legislature_18341842}
In Lincoln\'s second state house campaign in 1834, this time as a Whig and supporter of Whig leader Henry Clay, he finished second among thirteen candidates running for four places. Lincoln echoed Clay\'s support for the American Colonization Society, which advocated abolition in conjunction with settling freed slaves in Liberia. The Whigs also favored economic modernization in banking, tariffs to fund internal improvements such as railroads, and urbanization.
Lincoln served four terms in the Illinois House of Representatives for Sangamon County. In this role, he championed construction of the Illinois and Michigan Canal. Lincoln also voted to expand suffrage beyond White landowners to all White men. Lincoln was admitted to the Illinois bar on September 9, 1836. He moved to Springfield and began to practice law under John T. Stuart, Mary Todd\'s cousin. He partnered for several years with Stephen T. Logan and, in 1844, began his practice with William Herndon.
On January 27, 1838, Lincoln delivered a significant speech at the Lyceum in Springfield, after the murder of the anti-slavery newspaper editor Elijah Parish Lovejoy. In this ostensibly non-partisan speech Lincoln indirectly attacked Stephen Douglas and the Democratic Party, who the Whigs argued were supporting \"mobocracy\"; he also attacked anti-abolitionism and racial bigotry. He was criticized in the press for a planned duel with James Shields, whom he had ridiculed in letters published under the name \"Aunt Rebecca\"; though the duel ultimately did not take place, Burlingame noted that \"the affair embarrassed Lincoln terribly\".
### U.S. House of Representatives (1847--1849) {#u.s._house_of_representatives_18471849}
In 1843, Lincoln sought the Whig nomination for Illinois\'s 7th district seat in the U.S. House of Representatives; John J. Hardin was the winning candidate, though Lincoln convinced the party convention to limit Hardin to one term. Lincoln not only gained the nomination in 1846, but also won the election. The only Whig in the Illinois delegation, he was assigned to the Committee on Post Office and Post Roads and the Committee on Expenditures in the War Department. Lincoln teamed with Joshua R. Giddings on a bill to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia, but dropped the bill when it failed to attract support from most other Whigs.
Lincoln spoke against the Mexican--American War (1846--1848), for which he said President James K. Polk \"had some strong motive \... to involve the two countries in a war, and trusting to escape scrutiny, by fixing the public gaze upon the exceeding brightness of military glory---that attractive rainbow, that rises in showers of blood\". He supported the Wilmot Proviso, a failed 1846 proposal to ban slavery in any U.S. territory won from Mexico. Polk insisted that Mexican soldiers had begun the war by \"invading the territory of the State of Texas \... and shedding the blood of our citizens on our own soil\". In his 1847 \"spot resolutions\", Lincoln rhetorically demanded that Polk tell Congress the exact \"spot\" where this occurred, but the Polk administration did not respond. His approach and rhetoric cost Lincoln political support in his district, and newspapers derisively nicknamed him \"spotty Lincoln\".
Lincoln had pledged in 1846 to serve only one term in the House. Realizing Henry Clay was unlikely to win the presidency, he supported Zachary Taylor for the Whig nomination in the 1848 presidential election. Taylor won and Lincoln hoped in vain to be appointed commissioner of the United States General Land Office. The administration offered to appoint him secretary of the Oregon Territory instead. This would have disrupted his legal and political career in Illinois, so he declined and resumed his law practice.
### Prairie lawyer {#prairie_lawyer}
In his Springfield practice, according to Donald, Lincoln handled \"virtually every kind of business that could come before a prairie lawyer\". He dealt with many transportation cases in the midst of the nation\'s western expansion, particularly river barge conflicts under the new railroad bridges. In 1849 he received a patent for a flotation device for the movement of riverboats in shallow water and Lincoln initially favored riverboat legal interests, but he represented whoever hired him. He represented a bridge company against a riverboat company in *Hurd v. Rock Island Bridge Company*, a landmark case involving a canal boat that sank after hitting a bridge. His patent was never commercialized, but it made Lincoln the only president to hold a patent. Lincoln appeared before the Illinois Supreme Court in 411 cases. From 1853 to 1860, one of his largest clients was the Illinois Central Railroad, who Lincoln successfully sued to recover his legal fees.
Lincoln represented William \"Duff\" Armstrong in his 1858 trial for the murder of James Preston Metzker. The case is famous for Lincoln\'s use of a fact established by judicial notice to challenge the credibility of an eyewitness. After a witness testified to seeing the crime in the moonlight, Lincoln produced a *Farmers\' Almanac* showing the Moon was at a low angle, drastically reducing visibility. Armstrong was acquitted. In an 1859 murder case, he defended \"Peachy\" Quinn Harrison, the grandson of Peter Cartwright, Lincoln\'s political opponent. Harrison was charged with the murder of Greek Crafton who, according to Cartwright, said as he lay dying that he had \"brought it upon myself\" and that he forgave Harrison. Lincoln angrily protested the judge\'s initial decision to exclude Cartwright\'s claim as hearsay. Lincoln argued that the testimony involved a dying declaration and so was not subject to the hearsay rule. Instead of holding Lincoln in contempt of court as expected, the judge, a Democrat, admitted the testimony into evidence, resulting in Harrison\'s acquittal.
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## Republican politics (1854--1860) {#republican_politics_18541860}
### Emergence as Republican leader {#emergence_as_republican_leader}
The Compromise of 1850 failed to alleviate tensions over slavery between the slave-holding South and the free North. As the slavery debate in the Nebraska and Kansas territories became particularly acrimonious, Illinois Senator Stephen A. Douglas proposed popular sovereignty as a compromise; the measure would allow the electorate of each territory to decide the status of slavery. The legislation alarmed many Northerners, who sought to prevent the spread of slavery, but Douglas\'s Kansas--Nebraska Act narrowly passed Congress in May 1854. Lincoln\'s Peoria Speech of October 1854, in which he declared his opposition to slavery, was one of over 170 speeches he delivered in the next six years on the topic of excluding slavery from the territories. Lincoln\'s attacks on the Kansas--Nebraska Act marked his return to political life.
Nationally, the Whigs were irreparably split by the Kansas--Nebraska Act and other ineffective efforts to compromise on the slavery issue. Reflecting on the demise of his party, Lincoln wrote in 1855, \"I think I am a whig; but others say there are no whigs, and that I am an abolitionist\.... I now do no more than oppose the *extension* of slavery.\" The new Republican Party was formed as a northern party dedicated to anti-slavery, drawing from the anti-slavery wing of the Whig Party and combining Free Soil, Liberty, and anti-slavery Democratic Party members, Lincoln resisted early Republican entreaties, fearing that the new party would become a platform for extreme abolitionists. Lincoln held out hope for rejuvenating the Whigs, though he lamented his party\'s growing closeness with the nativist Know Nothing movement. In 1854, Lincoln was elected to the Illinois legislature, but before the term began he declined to take his seat so that he would be eligible to run in the upcoming U.S. Senate election. At that time, senators were elected by state legislatures. After leading in the first six rounds of voting, Lincoln was unable to obtain a majority. Lincoln instructed his backers to vote for Lyman Trumbull, an anti-slavery Democrat who had received few votes in the earlier ballots. Lincoln\'s decision to withdraw enabled his Whig supporters and Trumbull\'s anti-slavery Democrats to combine and defeat the mainstream Democratic candidate, Joel Aldrich Matteson.
#### 1856 campaign
Violent political confrontations in Kansas continued, and opposition to the Kansas--Nebraska Act remained strong throughout the North. As the 1856 elections approached, Lincoln joined the Republicans and attended the Bloomington Convention, where the Illinois Republican Party was established. The convention platform endorsed Congress\'s right to regulate slavery in the territories and backed the admission of Kansas as a free state. Lincoln gave the final speech of the convention, calling for the preservation of the Union. At the June 1856 Republican National Convention, Lincoln received support to run as vice president, but ultimately the party put forward a ticket of John C. Frémont and William Dayton, which Lincoln supported throughout Illinois. The Democrats nominated James Buchanan and the Know Nothings nominated Millard Fillmore. Buchanan prevailed, while Republican William Henry Bissell won election as Governor of Illinois, and Lincoln became a leading Republican in Illinois.
#### *Dred Scott v. Sandford* {#dred_scott_v._sandford}
Dred Scott was a slave whose master took him from a slave state to a territory that was free as a result of the Missouri Compromise. After Scott was returned to the slave state, he petitioned a federal court for his freedom. His petition was denied in *Dred Scott v. Sandford* (1857). Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger B. Taney wrote in his opinion that Black people were not citizens and derived no rights from the Constitution, and that the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional for infringing upon slave owners\' property rights. While many Democrats hoped that *Dred Scott* would end the dispute over slavery in the territories, the decision sparked further outrage in the North. Lincoln denounced it as the product of a conspiracy of Democrats to support the Slave Power. He argued that the decision was at variance with the Declaration of Independence, which stated that \"all men are created equal \... with certain unalienable rights\", among them \"life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness\".
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## Republican politics (1854--1860) {#republican_politics_18541860}
### Lincoln--Douglas debates and Cooper Union speech {#lincolndouglas_debates_and_cooper_union_speech}
Further information: Lincoln--Douglas debates, Cooper Union speech
In 1858, Douglas was up for re-election in the U.S. Senate, and Lincoln hoped to defeat him. Many in the party felt that a former Whig should be nominated in 1858, and Lincoln\'s 1856 campaigning and support of Trumbull had earned him a favor. For the first time, Illinois Republicans held a convention to agree upon a Senate candidate, and Lincoln won the nomination with little opposition. Lincoln accepted the nomination with great enthusiasm and zeal. After his nomination he delivered his House Divided Speech:
> \"A house divided against itself cannot stand.\" I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half *slave* and half *free*. I do not expect the Union to be *dissolved*---I do not expect the house to *fall*---but I *do* expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing, or all the other.
The speech created a stark image of the danger of disunion. When informed of Lincoln\'s nomination, Douglas stated, \"\[Lincoln\] is the strong man of the party \... and if I beat him, my victory will be hardly won.\"
The Senate campaign featured seven debates between Lincoln and Douglas; they had an atmosphere akin to a prizefight and drew thousands. Lincoln warned that the Slave Power was threatening the values of republicanism, and he accused Douglas of distorting Jefferson\'s premise that all men are created equal. In his Freeport Doctrine, Douglas argued that, despite the *Dred Scott* decision, which he claimed to support, local settlers, under popular sovereignty, should be free to choose whether to allow slavery in their territory. He accused Lincoln of having joined the abolitionists.
Though the Republican legislative candidates won more popular votes, the Democrats won more seats, and the legislature re-elected Douglas. However, Lincoln\'s articulation of the issues had given him a national political presence. In the aftermath of the 1858 election, newspapers frequently mentioned Lincoln as a potential Republican presidential candidate. While Lincoln was popular in the Midwest, he lacked support in the Northeast and was unsure whether to seek the office. In January 1860, Lincoln told a group of political allies that he would accept the presidential nomination if offered and, in the following months, William O. Stoddard\'s *Central Illinois Gazette*, the *Chicago Press & Tribune*, and other local papers endorsed his candidacy.
On February 27, 1860, powerful New York Republicans invited Lincoln to give a speech at the Cooper Union. In this address Lincoln argued that the Founding Fathers had little use for popular sovereignty and had repeatedly sought to restrict slavery; he insisted that morality required opposition to slavery and rejected any \"groping for some middle ground between the right and the wrong\". Many in the audience thought he appeared awkward and even ugly. But Lincoln demonstrated intellectual leadership, which brought him into contention for the presidency. Journalist Noah Brooks reported, \"No man ever before made such an impression on his first appeal to a New York audience\". Historian David Herbert Donald described the speech as \"a superb political move for an unannounced presidential aspirant.\" In response to an inquiry about his ambitions, Lincoln said, \"The taste *is* in my mouth a little\".
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## Republican politics (1854--1860) {#republican_politics_18541860}
### 1860 presidential election {#presidential_election}
On May 9--10, 1860, the Illinois Republican State Convention was held in Decatur. Exploiting his embellished frontier legend of clearing land and splitting fence rails, Lincoln\'s supporters adopted the label of \"The Rail Candidate\". On May 18 at the Republican National Convention in Chicago, Lincoln won the nomination on the third ballot. A former Democrat, Hannibal Hamlin of Maine, was nominated for vice president to balance the ticket.
Throughout the 1850s, Lincoln had doubted the prospects of civil war, and his supporters rejected claims that his election would incite secession. When Douglas was selected as the candidate of the Northern Democrats, delegates from the Southern slave states elected incumbent Vice President John C. Breckinridge as their candidate. A group of former Whigs and Know Nothings formed the Constitutional Union Party and nominated John Bell of Tennessee. Lincoln and Douglas competed for votes in the North, while Bell and Breckinridge primarily found support in the South. A nationwide militaristic Republican youth organization, the Wide Awakes, \"turned it into one of the most excited elections in American history\" and \"triggered massive popular enthusiasm\", according to the political historian Jon Grinspan. People of the Northern states knew the Southern states would vote against Lincoln and rallied supporters for him.
As Douglas and the other candidates campaigned, Lincoln gave no speeches, relying on the enthusiasm of the Republican Party. Republican speakers emphasized Lincoln\'s childhood poverty to demonstrate the power of \"free labor\", which allowed a common farm boy to work his way to the top by his own efforts. Though he did not give public appearances, many sought to visit and write to Lincoln. In the runup to the election, he took an office in the Illinois state capitol to deal with the influx of attention. He also hired John George Nicolay as his personal secretary, who would remain in that role during the presidency.
On November 6, 1860, Lincoln was elected as the first Republican president. His victory was entirely due to his support in the North and West. No ballots were cast for him in 10 of the 15 Southern slave states. Lincoln received 1,866,452 votes, or 39.8 percent of the total in a four-way race, carrying the free Northern states, as well as California and Oregon, and winning the electoral vote decisively.
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## Presidency (1861--1865) {#presidency_18611865}
### First term {#first_term}
#### Secession and inauguration {#secession_and_inauguration}
The South was outraged by Lincoln\'s election, and secessionists implemented plans to leave the Union before he took office in March 1861. On December 20, 1860, South Carolina adopted an ordinance of secession; by February 1, 1861, Florida, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas had followed. Six of these states declared themselves to be a sovereign nation, the Confederate States of America, selecting Jefferson Davis as its provisional president. The upper South and border states (Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri, and Arkansas) initially rejected the secessionist appeal. President Buchanan and President-elect Lincoln refused to recognize the Confederacy, declaring secession illegal. On February 11, 1861, Lincoln gave a particularly emotional farewell address upon leaving Springfield for Washington.
Lincoln and the Republicans rejected the proposed Crittenden Compromise as contrary to the party\'s platform of free-soil in the territories. Lincoln said, \"I will suffer death before I consent \... to any concession or compromise which looks like buying the privilege to take possession of this government to which we have a constitutional right\". Lincoln supported the Corwin Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which would have protected slavery in states where it already existed. The amendment passed Congress and was awaiting ratification by the required three-fourths of the states when Southern states began to secede. On March 4, 1861, in his first inaugural address, Lincoln said that, because he held \"such a provision to now be implied constitutional law, I have no objection to its being made express, and irrevocable\".
thumb\|upright=0.7\|alt=cartoon of Lincoln in a kilt and fancy hat doing a jig\|Lincoln was mocked by opposition papers falsely claiming that he snuck into Washington in disguise after the 1860 election.
Due to secessionist plots, Lincoln and his train received careful attention to security. The president-elect evaded suspected assassins in Baltimore. He traveled in disguise, wearing a soft felt hat instead of his customary stovepipe hat and draping an overcoat over his shoulders while hunching to conceal his height. On February 23, 1861, he arrived in Washington, D.C., which was placed under military guard. Many in the opposition press criticized his secretive journey; opposition newspapers mocked Lincoln with caricatures showing him sneaking into the capital. Lincoln directed his inaugural address to the South, proclaiming once again that he had no inclination to abolish slavery in the Southern states:
The president ended his address with an appeal to the people of the South: \"We are not enemies, but friends\.... The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield, and patriot grave, to every living heart and hearthstone \... will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched \... by the better angels of our nature\". According to Donald, the failure of the Peace Conference of 1861 to attract the attendance of seven of the Confederate states signaled that legislative compromise was not a practical expectation.
#### Personnel
In selecting his cabinet, Lincoln chose the men he found the most competent, even when they had been his opponents for the presidency. Lincoln commented on his thought process, \"We need the strongest men of the party in the Cabinet. We needed to hold our own people together. I had looked the party over and concluded that these were the very strongest men. Then I had no right to deprive the country of their services.\" Goodwin described the group in her biography of Lincoln as a \"team of rivals\". Lincoln named his main political opponent, William H. Seward, as Secretary of State.
Lincoln made five appointments to the Supreme Court. Noah Haynes Swayne, a prominent corporate lawyer from Ohio, replaced John McLean after the latter\'s death in April 1861. Like McLean, Swayne opposed slavery. Samuel Freeman Miller, who replaced Peter V. Daniel, was an avowed abolitionist and received widespread support from Iowa politicians. David Davis was Lincoln\'s campaign manager in 1860 and had served as a judge in the Illinois court circuit where Lincoln practiced. Democrat Stephen Johnson Field, a previous California Supreme Court justice, provided geographic and political balance. Finally, after the death of Roger B. Taney, Lincoln appointed his secretary of the treasury, Salmon P. Chase, to replace Taney as chief justice. Lincoln believed Chase was an able jurist who would support Reconstruction legislation and that his appointment would unite the Republican Party.
#### Commander-in-Chief {#commander_in_chief}
In early April 1861, Major Robert Anderson, commander of Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina, advised that he was nearly out of food. After considerable debate, Lincoln decided to send provisions; according to Michael Burlingame, he \"could not be sure that his decision would precipitate a war, though he had good reason to believe that it might\". On April 12, 1861, Confederate forces fired on Union troops at Fort Sumter. Donald concludes:
> His repeated efforts to avoid collision in the months between inauguration and the firing on Fort Sumter showed he adhered to his vow not to be the first to shed fraternal blood. But he had also vowed not to surrender the forts\.... The only resolution of these contradictory positions was for the Confederates to fire the first shot.
The April 12 and 13 attack on Fort Sumter rallied the people of the North to support military action against the South to defend the nation. On April 15, Lincoln called for 75,000 militiamen to recapture forts, protect Washington, and preserve the Union. This call forced states to choose whether to secede or to support the Union. North Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee, and Arkansas seceded. As the Northern states sent regiments south, on April 19 Baltimore mobs in control of the rail links attacked Union troops who were changing trains. Local leaders\' groups later burned critical rail bridges to the capital and the Army responded by arresting local Maryland officials. Lincoln suspended the writ of *habeas corpus*, allowing arrests without formal charges.
John Merryman, a Maryland officer arrested for hindering U.S. troop movements, successfully petitioned Supreme Court Chief Justice Taney to issue a writ of *habeas corpus*. In a written opinion titled *Ex parte Merryman*, Taney, not ruling on behalf of the Supreme Court, held that the Constitution authorized only Congress and not the president to suspend habeas corpus. But Lincoln engaged in nonacquiescence and persisted with the policy of suspension in select areas. Under various suspensions, 15,000 civilians were detained without trial; several, including the anti-war Democrat Clement L. Vallandigham, were tried in military courts for \"treasonable\" actions, an approach that was highly criticized.
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## Presidency (1861--1865) {#presidency_18611865}
### First term {#first_term}
#### Early Union military strategy {#early_union_military_strategy}
Lincoln took executive control of the war and shaped the Union military strategy. He responded to the unprecedented political and military crisis as commander-in-chief by exercising unprecedented authority. He expanded his war powers, imposed a naval blockade on Confederate ports, disbursed funds before appropriation by Congress, suspended *habeas corpus*, and arrested and imprisoned thousands of suspected Confederate sympathizers. Lincoln gained the support of Congress and the northern public for these actions. Lincoln also had to reinforce Union sympathies in the border slave states and keep the war from becoming an international conflict.
It was clear from the outset that bipartisan support was essential to success, and that any compromise alienated factions in both political parties. Copperheads (anti-war Democrats) criticized Lincoln for refusing to compromise on slavery; the Radical Republicans (who demanded harsh treatment against secession) criticized him for moving too slowly in abolishing slavery. On August 6, 1861, Lincoln signed the Confiscation Act, which authorized judicial proceedings to confiscate and free slaves who were used to support the Confederates. The law had little practical effect, but it signaled political support for abolishing slavery.
Lincoln\'s war strategy had two priorities: ensuring that Washington was well defended and conducting an aggressive war effort for a prompt, decisive victory. Twice a week, Lincoln met with his cabinet. Occasionally, Lincoln\'s wife, Mary, prevailed on him to take a carriage ride, concerned that he was working too hard. Early in the war, Lincoln selected civilian generals from varied political and ethnic backgrounds \"to secure their and their constituents\' support for the war effort and ensure that the war became a national struggle\". In January 1862, after complaints of inefficiency and profiteering in the War Department, Lincoln replaced War Secretary Simon Cameron with Edwin Stanton. Stanton worked more often and more closely with Lincoln than did any other senior official. According to Stanton\'s biographers Benjamin Thomas and Harold Hyman, \"Stanton and Lincoln virtually conducted the war together\".
For his edification Lincoln relied on a book by Henry Halleck, *Elements of Military Art and Science*. Lincoln began to appreciate the critical need to control strategic points, such as the Mississippi River. Lincoln saw the importance of Vicksburg and understood the necessity of defeating the enemy\'s army, rather than merely capturing territory. In directing the Union\'s war strategy, Lincoln valued the advice of Winfield Scott, even after his retirement as Commanding General of the United States Army. In 1861 Scott proposed the Anaconda Plan, which relied on port blockades and advancing down the Mississippi to subdue the South. In June 1862, Lincoln made an unannounced visit to West Point, where he spent five hours consulting with Scott regarding the handling of the war.
Internationally, Lincoln wanted to forestall foreign military aid to the Confederacy. He relied on his combative Secretary of State William Seward while working closely with Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman Charles Sumner. In 1861 the U.S. Navy illegally intercepted a British mail ship, the *RMS Trent*, on the high seas and seized two Confederate envoys. Although the North celebrated the seizure, Britain protested vehemently, and the Trent Affair threatened war between the Americans and the British. Lincoln ended the crisis by releasing the two diplomats.
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## Presidency (1861--1865) {#presidency_18611865}
### First term {#first_term}
#### McClellan
*Main article: George B. McClellan*
After the Union rout at Bull Run and Winfield Scott\'s retirement, Lincoln appointed George B. McClellan general-in-chief. Early in the war, McClellan created defenses for Washington that were almost impregnable: 48 forts and batteries, with 480 guns manned by 7,200 artillerists. He spent months planning his Virginia Peninsula Campaign. McClellan\'s slow progress and excessive precautions frustrated Lincoln. McClellan, in turn, blamed the failure of the campaign on Lincoln\'s cautiousness in having reserved troops for the capital. In 1862, Lincoln removed McClellan as general-in-chief because of the latter\'s continued inaction. He elevated Henry Halleck to the post and appointed John Pope as head of the new Army of Virginia. But in the summer of 1862 Pope was soundly defeated at the Second Battle of Bull Run, forcing him to retreat to Washington. Soon after, the Army of Virginia was disbanded.
Despite his dissatisfaction with McClellan\'s failure to reinforce Pope, Lincoln restored him to command of all forces around Washington, which included both the Army of the Potomac and the remains of the Army of Virginia. Two days later, Robert E. Lee\'s forces crossed the Potomac River into Maryland, leading to the Battle of Antietam. That battle, a Union victory, was among the bloodiest in American history. A crisis of command occurred for Lincoln when McClellan then resisted the president\'s demand that he pursue Lee\'s withdrawing army, while Don Carlos Buell likewise refused orders to move the Army of the Ohio against rebel forces in eastern Tennessee. Lincoln replaced Buell with William Rosecrans and McClellan with Ambrose Burnside, Rosencrans and Burnside both being politically neutral. Against presidential advice, Burnside launched an offensive across the Rappahannock River and was defeated by Lee at Fredericksburg in December. Facing low morale and discontent among the troops, Lincoln replaced Burnside with Joseph Hooker. Hooker endured heavy casualties at the Battle of Chancellorsville in May, then resigned in June and was replaced by George Meade. Meade followed Lee north into Pennsylvania and defeated him in the Gettysburg campaign but then failed to effectively block Lee\'s orderly retreat to Virginia, despite Lincoln\'s demands. At the same time, Ulysses S. Grant captured Vicksburg and gained control of the Mississippi River.
#### Emancipation Proclamation {#emancipation_proclamation}
<File:Emancipation> proclamation.jpg\|thumb\|upright=1.25\|*First Reading of the Emancipation Proclamation of President Lincoln*, an 1864 portrait by Francis Bicknell Carpenter*(clickable image---use cursor to identify)*\|alt=A dark-haired, bearded, middle-aged man holding documents is seated among seven other men.
poly 269 892 254 775 193 738 130 723 44 613 19 480 49 453 75 434 58 376 113 344 133 362 143 423 212 531 307 657 357 675 409 876 Edwin Stanton poly 169 282 172 244 244 201 244 148 265 117 292 125 305 166 304 204 321 235 355 296 374 348 338 395 341 469 Salmon Chase poly 569 893 535 708 427 613 357 562 377 456 393 404 468 351 451 317 473 259 520 256 544 283 530 339 526 374 559 401 594 431 639 494 715 542 692 551 693 579 672 546 623 552 596 617 698 629 680 852 Abraham Lincoln poly 692 514 740 441 788 407 772 350 800 303 831 297 861 329 867 381 868 409 913 430 913 471 847 532 816 533 709 533 Gideon Welles poly 703 783 752 769 825 627 907 620 929 569 905 538 886 563 833 563 873 502 930 450 1043 407 1043 389 1036 382 1042 363 1058 335 1052 333 1052 324 1081 318 1124 338 1133 374 1116 412 1132 466 1145 509 1117 588 1087 632 1083 706 William Seward poly 905 418 941 328 987 295 995 284 982 244 990 206 1036 207 1046 247 1047 284 1066 312 1071 314 1049 327 1044 354 1033 383 1033 407 921 453 Caleb Smith poly 1081 308 1102 255 1095 220 1093 181 1109 161 1145 160 1169 191 1153 227 1153 246 1199 268 1230 310 1239 377 1237 443 1220 486 1125 451 1118 412 1136 378 1124 342 Montgomery Blair poly 1224 479 1298 416 1304 379 1295 329 1325 310 1360 324 1370 359 1371 385 1371 397 1413 425 1422 497 1440 563 1348 555 1232 517 Edward Bates poly 625 555 595 620 699 625 730 550 Emancipation Proclamation poly 120 80 120 300 3 300 3 80 Portrait of Simon Cameron poly 752 196 961 189 948 8 735 10 Portrait of Andrew Jackson
Before Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, two Union generals issued their own emancipation orders, but Lincoln overrode both: he found that the decision to emancipate was not within the generals\' power, and that it might induce loyal border states to secede. However, in June 1862, Congress passed an act banning slavery in all federal territories, which Lincoln signed. In July, the Confiscation Act of 1862 was enacted, allowing the targeted seizure of slaves for those disloyal to the United States. On July 22, 1862, Lincoln reviewed a draft of the Emancipation Proclamation with his cabinet. Senator Willard Saulsbury Sr. criticized the proclamation, stating that it \"would light their author to dishonor through all future generations\". By contrast, Horace Greeley, editor of the *New-York Tribune*, in his public letter, \"The Prayer of Twenty Millions\", implored Lincoln to embrace emancipation. In a public letter of August 22, 1862, Lincoln replied to Greeley that while he personally wished all men could be free, his first obligation as president was to preserve the Union:
Buttressed by news of the recent Union victory at Antietam, on September 22, 1862, Lincoln issued the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation. On January 1, 1863, he issued the final version, freeing the slaves in 10 states not then under Union control, exempting areas under such control. Lincoln commented on signing the Proclamation: \"I never, in my life, felt more certain that I was doing right, than I do in signing this paper.\" On New Year\'s Eve in 1862, Black people -- enslaved and free -- gathered across the United States to hold Watch Night ceremonies for \"Freedom\'s Eve\", looking toward the promised fulfillment of the Proclamation. With the abolition of slavery in the rebel states now a military objective, Union armies advancing south enabled thousands to escape bondage.
As Lincoln had hoped, the Proclamation removed the threat that countries that opposed slavery, especially Britain and France, would support the Confederacy. The Proclamation was immediately denounced by Copperheads, who advocated restoring the union by allowing slavery. It was also seen as a betrayal of his promise to Southern Unionists not to tamper with slavery; Emerson Etheridge, then Clerk of the House of Representatives, joined an unsuccessful plot to give the Democrats and Southern Unionists control of the House. As a result of the Proclamation, enlisting freedmen became official policy. In a letter to Tennessee military governor Andrew Johnson, Lincoln wrote, \"The bare sight of fifty thousand armed, and drilled black soldiers on the banks of the Mississippi would end the rebellion at once\".
#### Gettysburg Address (1863) {#gettysburg_address_1863}
Lincoln spoke at the dedication of the Gettysburg battlefield cemetery on November 19, 1863. In 272 words, taking only three minutes, Lincoln asserted that the deaths of the \"brave men \... who struggled here\" would not be in vain, but that the nation \"shall have a new birth of freedom---and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth\". The Address became the most quoted speech in American history.
Following Admiral David Farragut\'s capture of New Orleans in 1862, and after victories at Gettysburg and Vicksburg, Lincoln proclaimed a national Thanksgiving holiday, to be celebrated on the 26th, the final Thursday of November 1863.
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