Federal Reserve System

Federal Reserve System

It was a conspiracy theorists’ dream come upwards true: a grouping of wealthy bankers, supported past times academics as well as politicians, skulking off to a secluded isle to concoct a consummate transformation of the U.S. banking system. The coming together inwards Nov 1910 on Jekyll Island, Georgia, which established the pattern for the Federal Reserve System, played to long-held Populist fears of “Eastern Money Interests,” Jews, as well as large banks. When the programme was presented to Congress, it effectively increased the potency of the federal government—at least, indirectly—over the nation’s banking system.

Ever since concerns nigh “foreign interests” inwards the First as well as Second Banks of the United States, about Americans had viewed banks suspiciously. Writers such every bit William Gouge as well as politicians such every bit Thomas Hart “Old Bullion” Benton advocated a metallic element criterion of aureate as well as silvery money only. These “hard money” proponents supported Andrew Jackson’s “war” on the Bank of the US as well as distrusted all forms of newspaper money.

Although “hard money” advocates were inwards the minority inwards most states, they appealed to farmers as well as laborers who distrusted moneyed elites. After the Civil War, ironically, this same distrust evidenced itself inwards a demand for newspaper money (“Greenbackism”) and/or for coinage of silver, a seat best associated with William Jennings Bryan.


By the tardily 1800s, however, although most Americans were satisfied with the nature of the banking system, they realized that of import weaknesses existed. The banking organization was non sufficiently “elastic,” pregnant that it could non expand or contract the money provide when economical weather condition changed.

Another occupation concern for those familiar with the financial sector was that inwards several panics—1873, 1893, as well as 1907—a unmarried banker, J. P. Morgan, had stepped inwards with a consortium of bankers to rescue the system. After the 1907 panic, fifty-fifty Morgan admitted that whatever hereafter banking concern runs mightiness live beyond his powerfulness to contain.

Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 serial of commissions as well as studies past times the American Bankers Association as well as the federal authorities produced a number of recommendations, most notably the demand for a fundamental banking concern as well as nationwide interstate branch banking. (Many states did non permit intrastate branch banking, as well as interstate branch banking was viewed every bit illegal, although no limited challenges to interstate banking had occurred.)

Virtually all of these studies concluded that whatever reforms inwards the banking organization would require a powerful national banking concern capable of acting every bit a “lender of final resort” as well as tasked with providing liquidity to the banking organization every bit a whole to permit for greater “elasticity.”

An unstated, but widely held, destination of many of the reformers was also to bound or bring down the powerfulness of the New York banks, such every bit National City Bank, J. P. Morgan, as well as Kuhn, Loeb, as well as Company. Despite the fact that Morgan himself as well as most of the officers of National City were Protestants, a widely held suspicion existed inwards the rural US that the New York banks were dominated past times Jews. (The presence of Paul Warburg of Kuhn, Loeb with the Jekyll Island grouping of “conspirators” reinforced the fright of “powerful New York Jews.”)

Federal reserve building

Whether many Americans indeed feared a Jewish chemical factor inwards the “money power” or not, a pop innovation was that banks inwards New York wielded inordinate power. Thus, the reformers’ plans also involved dissimilar strategies for minimizing the influence of the New York banks.

By 1913, the US had what is termed a “dual banking” organization consisting of state-chartered banks (which could non number money), as well as national banks, chartered past times the federal government, which could number banknotes. The comptroller of the currency had potency over all national banks, piece nation authorities (bank examiners as well as such) supervised the nation banks. There was no fundamental banking concern or “lender of final resort,” or whatever national origin of credit expansion.

Following J. P. Morgan’s formation of a consortium of banks to bail out the banking organization during the panic of 1907, concerns arose over the “consolidation” of banking power, particularly inwards New York. Congressman Arsene Pujo’s House Banking as well as Currency Committee, which convened inwards 1911, investigated Morgan as well as First National’s George F. Baker, as well as concluded that New York banks controlled far to a greater extent than financial assets than they truly owned through diverse investments, interlocking directorates, as well as trust companies. New York, Pujo claimed, controlled 43 per centum of the money inwards the United States.

When the Jekyll Island coming together took place, all of these concerns played upon the reforms to which the participants agreed. The fundamental individuals who drafted the reason of the Federal Reserve Bank organization were Senator Nelson Aldrich (head of the National Monetary Commission); Henry P. Davison of J. P. Morgan; Charles D. Norton of First National Bank; Paul Warburg of Kuhn, Loeb; as well as Colonel Edward House (one of President Woodrow Wilson’s closest advisors).

Not solely was this a little group, but conspiracy-minded people could betoken to the fact that Warburg was Jewish, or that House had connections to London banks as well as that he had written a futuristic novel Philip Dru, Administrator, a story inwards which Marxist socialism triumphed. Worse, the coming together took house inwards secret. Aldrich, especially, was concerned that if a programme was non drafted inwards secret, “special interest” lobbyists would nitpick it to death.

Aldrich’s presence convinced about that John D. Rockefeller was manipulating the meeting. Morgan, according to i conspiracy view, was a “Rockefeller stooge”—an astonishing claim nigh i of the richest men inwards the world. Morgan controlled the Fed nib through Aldrich, his “floor broker inwards the Senate”.

Rockefeller as well as so used the Fed, according to this view, to “bankroll” the Bolshevik Revolution inwards Russia, manipulate stock prices through inflation, as well as force the agenda of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) as well as Trilateral Commission inwards afterwards years.

There is no query with historians that the Jekyll Island coming together resulted inwards the essence of the Federal Reserve Act, introduced past times Congressman Carter Glass of Virginia, chairman of the House Committee on Banking. Far from beingness drafted inwards secrecy, the Federal Reserve Act was debated extensively as well as was subjected to much compromise earlier beingness passed overwhelmingly past times the House (298 to 60) as well as the Senate (43 to 25).

Under the act, twelve Federal Reserve District Banks were established inwards dissimilar regions across the United States. Each of these banks was a corporation owned past times the fellow member banks inwards its district, as well as piece all national banks had to live members, nation banks were non required to bring together the Federal Reserve System.

Member banks had to house six per centum of their uppercase as well as surplus inwards the district bank. One of the important factors of the human activeness was the location of the district banks: New York, of course, had one, every bit did Philadelphia as well as Boston.

But Minneapolis, Dallas, San Francisco, Chicago, Atlanta, Cleveland, as well as Richmond all had district banks, as well as the nation of Missouri—the pump of the Midwest—had ii (St. Louis as well as Kansas City). Clearly, Congress had gone out of its agency to dilute the “money power” of New York.

Any district banking concern could human activeness to halt runs past times providing emergency cash from its vaults, as well as inwards theory, if i entire district was inwards trouble, other districts would come upwards to its aid. The “elasticity” work was addressed through the Fed’s manipulation of discount rates to lend money to fellow member banks to either expand, or contract, credit.

In reality, though, New York retained its powerfulness through its overall influence, its dominant leadership, as well as its connections to corporate America. Congress intended that a Federal Reserve Board of Governors should live instituted, made upwards of v members appointed past times the president as well as confirmed past times the Senate, every bit good every bit the comptroller as well as the secretarial assistant of the Treasury.

The Banking Act of 1935 changed this past times moving key decisions to the Federal Open Market Committee, composed of 7 members of the Board of Governors as well as v of the twelve district banking concern presidents, including the New York president.

The Federal Reserve Act was established on the supposition that the nation’s money provide would rest tied to gold, as well as so its open-market activities were e'er balanced with an oculus toward the aureate stockpiles. When the stock marketplace crashed inwards 1929, many contended that the Federal Reserve had encouraged the stock marketplace “boom” past times providing “easy credit.”

Subsequent inquiry has shown that if anything the Fed failed to expand the money provide inwards proportion to the rapid growth inwards the industrial sector, as well as that a irksome but destructive deflation had occurred. After 1930, the Federal Reserve engaged inwards a deliberate massive credit contraction that helped plunge the nation into the Great Depression, silent nether the supposition that the Great Bull Market had resulted from “loose money.”

The contraction also ensued, however, because every bit other nations left the aureate standard, as well as every bit the aureate backing of U.S. banks eroded, depositors withdrew funds at an alarming rate. President Franklin Roosevelt took the US off the aureate standard, stabilizing the banks. But his prohibition of private aureate ownership inwards 1934 was viewed every bit percentage of the conspiracy to house all financial powerfulness inwards the hands of the Federal Reserve System.

The entire aureate criterion disceptation pits a number of conspiracy theories against i another. For example, if the Bank of England sought command over the U.S. economy, it mightiness receive got attempted to weaken the economic scheme past times leaving the aureate standard. With the US left every bit the solely nation inwards the the world whose currency was silent tied to gold, U.S. aureate reserves would receive got flooded out, as well as U.S. banks would receive got collapsed—as nearly happened.

On the other hand, the solution, as well as the path taken past times Franklin Roosevelt, was to secure the banking system’s aureate asset base of operations past times prohibiting private aureate ownership, except for jewelers as well as dentists. Yet this is viewed past times other conspiracy theorists every bit bear witness of Roosevelt’s programme to centralize the economic scheme as well as brand citizens dependent on worthless newspaper money.

In fact, solely a perfectly coordinated international conspiracy, assisted past times the deliberate actions of totalitarian states that hated each other—Germany as well as the Soviet Union—could receive got mayhap manipulated such events. Not solely would the Bank of England as well as the Federal Reserve System receive got needed to operate inwards unison, but so would the Bank of France, the Reichsbank, as well as virtually every other fundamental banking concern inwards the world, all coordinating vastly dissimilar command-and-control structures, governance systems, as well as national goals.

Over these conspiracies, i tin give the sack stretch yet about other layer, namely that of “international Jewry,” which was manipulating economical developments to its ain ends, about inwards concert with, as well as about antithetical to scenarios involving the British or a Roosevelt dictatorship.

Since World War II, about receive got been convinced that the Federal Reserve’s open-market activities were designed to ensure that those presidents favored past times the Fed maintained their office, as well as those who displeased the Fed lost theirs. Despite the Fed’s supposed independent status, many struggle that it has conveniently lowered rates to back upwards the economic scheme of leaders to whom it was favorably disposed.

Yet i of the most despised presidents of modern times, Bill Clinton (whom conspiracists receive got defendant of beingness a “Trilateralist as well as Bilderberger”), witnessed multiple interest-rate hikes past times the Fed during his two-term presidency. Thus, either he had no command over the Fed, or the Fed was working inwards direct opposition to the ends of the Trilateral Commission, the Council on Foreign Relations, as well as the Bilderberger group.

In the post–World War II era, the Bretton Woods understanding pegged unusual currencies to the dollar, as well as although the dollar was legally required to live convertible into gold, it was nevertheless pegged to aureate inwards price. That organization collapsed inwards 1968 after consistent federal budget deficits made it impossible for the dollar to grip its value. After that, the world’s currencies entered a to a greater extent than competitive era inwards which they “floated,” or competed, against each other.

Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 to a greater extent than consistent criticism of the Federal Reserve is that it has virtually eliminated aureate as well as silvery coinage, supposedly inwards violation of the Constitution. With all newspaper money inwards the command of the federal government, the economic scheme would live at the mercy of either the White House or the Fed, as well as individuals would move slaves to “fiat money.” For to a greater extent than than ii decades after the Great Depression, the prohibition against asset aureate remained inwards place, but inwards the early on 1970s, the authorities in i lawsuit once again allowed individuals to purchase as well as sell aureate coins.

Although the value of Canadian Maple Leafs as well as other pop aureate coins fluctuated wildly with the cost hikes inwards stone oil emanating from OPEC, inwards the 1980s the Fed’s anti-inflation policies nearly eliminated whatever premium on gold. For the side past times side xx years, aureate hovered steadily at historically depression prices, causing consternation with those who pointed to aureate every bit a key indicator of government-generated inflation.

If anything, the Fed has consistently lost command of the banking organization as well as seen its influence over the economic scheme weakened. The appearance of electronic funds transfers as well as high-speed satellite transmissions made data on financial markets available anywhere inwards the world, instantaneously.

No authorities could shroud weaknesses inwards its monetary or financial policy for to a greater extent than than a few hours. Meanwhile, the speed of banking transactions brought the United States— as well as the world—increasingly closer to competitive money, if non inwards actual newspaper form, at to the lowest degree inwards electronic cast as well as inwards credit/debit bill of fare substitutes.

Space Exploration

the first satellite, the Russian Sputnik, launched by rocket on October 4, 1957

Humankind’s exploration of space began in the 1950s, with the first satellite, the Russian Sputnik, launched by rocket on October 4, 1957. It was followed on November 3 by another, carrying a dog named Laika.

The United States moved into space exploration on February 1, 1958, with Explorer I. A stream of similar robotic craft followed from both countries, carrying instruments that made various important discoveries.

Early space pioneering efforts built on the works of pre–World War II inventors such as the Russian schoolmaster Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, whose writings set out the basic principles for rocket propulsion, suggested multistage vehicles, and proposed liquid hydrogen as a fuel.


In the United States, Professor Robert Goddard suggested a method for reaching the moon. Goddard built rockets too, and in 1935 successfully launched one that reached a height of two kilometers.

Rocketry in World War II saw the invention of the V2 missile, with a range of around 300 kilometers, a top speed of 6,000 KPH, and a payload of over a ton. Following the war many German rocket engineers, including Wernher von Braun, were brought to the United States, while Soviet forces captured personnel and equipment from the V2 launching site of Peenemunde.

On April 12, 1961, the Soviets again led the way with the launch of Yuri Gagarin, a Russian cosmonaut, into space to become the first human to leave Earth. His mission lasted 1 hour and 48 minutes; he made a single orbit of the planet. The United States countered with a Mercury space capsule carrying Alan B. Shepard on May 5.

The effects of space travel on humans were of course largely unknown. The early manned missions resulted in considerable study of the physical damage of g-force, radiation, and weightlessness.

Rapid developments in hundreds of areas followed, as spacesuits, living quarters, and methodologies for delivering food were all pioneered, along with rapid improvements in the speed, range, and payload of rockets.

The first ever man made thing to be sent to the Moon was the USSR’s Luna 2 in 1959

Meanwhile, robot explorers were recovering more data to inform manned missions. The first probe to journey to the Moon was launched on September 12, 1959, by the Soviet Union. Luna 2 reached its destination in 34 hours. The U.S. probes in the main were spurred by President John F. Kennedy’s address to the U.S. Congress on May 25, 1961.

The Ranger probes explored the Moon’s surface, photographing it before crashing into it; the probe therefore provided transmitted data that resolved images of around half a meter across, in contrast to the best telescopes of the time, which could only resolve to around 500 meters.

There was much debate on what the surface of the Moon actually looked like and whether it could support the landing of a heavy manned craft. Was the surface so rough no spacecraft could touch down without damage? Was the Moon dust so thick that any spacecraft would sink into huge drifts?

The Lunar Orbiter series of probes were designed to map the surface of the Moon so the best sites for exploration could be chosen. By the end of the five missions, 99 percent of the moon had been photographed to a resolution of 66 meters or better, and smaller areas had been photographed to within one meter.

The space race saw the Americans and the Russians competing as to who could reach the moon first; the dual projects were underscored by the cold war and the military implications of mastering space flight. In the end, the Russians never put a man onto the surface of the Moon but instead landed several robot explorers.

Lift-off of the Saturn V rocket.

Both sides were, by the mid-1960s, progressing further down the road of manned spacecraft that could carry more than one astronaut. The rockets to launch the progressively heavier spacecraft began to increase in size, with the eventual development of the Saturn series, which still remain some of the most powerful lifting devices ever built.

In the United States, the Mercury one-person spacecraft was followed by the two-person Gemini craft. The three-person Apollo vehicles were developed, a two-part craft that included a lunar lander as well as a command section that would stay in orbit while the lander descended to the Moon’s surface.

The Russian jadwal saw many achievements. The first female in space was Valentina Tereshkova, who completed 48 orbits in the Soviet Union’s Vostok 6 on June 16, 1963. The first space walk—a weightless venture outside a capsule—was achieved by Aleksei Leonov on March 18, 1965. The walk lasted for 10 minutes.

However, the Soviet Union’s space jadwal was not without human cost: On April 23, 1967, the landing parachutes of the Soyuz 1 space capsule failed and cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov was killed. On January 27, 1967, the new U.S. Apollo jadwal experienced tragedy when a fire broke out in the command module during a launch of the first piloted flight, designated AS-204.

Three astronauts died: Mercury and Gemini mission veteran Virgil Grissom; Edward White; and Roger Chaffee, an astronaut preparing for his first spaceflight. The subsequent investigation and report saw substantial improvements to mission safety. The AS-204 mission craft was renamed Apollo 1 in honor of the crew.

Powered by the enormous Saturn V three-stage rockets, the Apollo missions grew in their ability to take the astronauts further from the surface of Earth. On October 11, 1968, the first manned Apollo mission flew successfully; around the same time Russian spacecraft carrying live animals were successfully orbiting the Moon before returning to Earth.

Apollo 8 made the first human-manned circumnavigation of the Moon in December 1968. Apollo 10 was a "full dress rehearsal" of the proposed landing and carried out all of the proposed operations short of an actual descent to the lunar surface, although it descended to within nine miles of the Moon in the detached lunar module.

On July 20, 1969, after a four-day trip, Apollo 11’s lander separated from the main spacecraft with astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin on board, while Michael Collins remained in orbit. The lunar module, named Eagle, successfully touched down, and, shortly afterward, filmed by the remotely controlled camera attached to the outside of the spacecraft, Armstrong emerged to back down the short ladder to the surface.

His steps were watched by millions of people via a television signal beamed back to Earth, with many millions more listening via radio. As Armstrong’s foot touched the surface of the Moon, he spoke the words, "That’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind". Mankind had reached another world.

Neil Armstrong becomes the first astronaut to step onto
the lunar surface, July 20, 1969.

A total of seven lunar landings were made, with significant achievements made on each mission. Some 381.6 kilograms of lunar rocks were brought back to Earth, and each successive landing after Apollo 11 left behind an automated surface laboratory. The last three missions carried extremely sophisticated mapping cameras, and other instruments measured magnetic fields, chemical composition, and radioactivity.

Craft Failure

Apollo 13’s mission was aborted due to craft failure. An oxygen tank on the spacecraft had blown up and the normal supply of electricity, light, and water to the craft was lost around 200,000 miles from Earth.

A unique and innovative jadwal of rigged repairs and procedure invention followed, resulting in the eventual safe return of the three astronauts to Earth. Apollo missions continued until December 1972, with different sites visited and a wheeled lunar rover successfully deployed to carry astronauts further from the spacecraft.

The missions increased the duration of time spent on the surface from hours to days. Twelve astronauts walked on the lunar surface. The last astronaut to leave the Moon was scientist Jack Schmitt.

Apollo-Soyuz Test Project

Further space exploration programs commenced with Skylab, a section of a Saturn V rocket that was successfully placed in orbit and visited on several occasions by teams of astronaut/scientists who stayed in residence for ever-lengthening periods to conduct experiments. The jadwal terminated in 1979.

A Soviet-American rendezvous in space, the Apollo-Soyuz mission, took place in 1975. The development of the space shuttle, a reusable craft capable of returning in a glide to Earth’s surface, began in 1970, centering around the idea of a cheaper alternative to previous craft.

The jadwal used these spacecraft from their first flight in 1981 until the present. The shuttle fleet can each carry a payload of 30,000 kilograms to orbit. Mission loads have consisted of satellites, experiments, and materials for the International Space Station.

The Russian Space Station MIR

The Soviets also pursued a permanent presence in space. A series of space stations called Salyut were launched, using Soyuz spacecraft on ferry missions. In 1986 Salyut was followed by the modular space station Mir.

Following improved relations between Russia and other nations at the end of the cold war, Russian cosmonauts joined with the other countries contributing to, and working within, the International Space Station.

Stark Reminder

Space flight is not without its hazards, as was discovered in the early days of space exploration with the loss of the Soyuz 1 and Apollo 1 crews. Improvements in safety through redesign and development of spacecraft and propulsion systems have greatly reduced risk of catastrophic failure.

Nevertheless, the severe stresses placed on spacecraft and their systems, together with the risk associated with the application of cutting-edge technology, continue to make manned spaceflight inherently dangerous. Stark reminders of this were the loss of the spacecraft and crew of the space shuttles Challenger and Columbia.

Hubble Space Telescope

The Hubble Space Telescope is the largest astronomical telescope ever sent into space. Launched in 1990 by a space shuttle, the telescope’s placement outside Earth’s atmosphere gives it a unique view of the universe.

Hubble Space Telescope

Built by the Lockheed Missiles and space company, the space telescope has a length of 13.3 meters, or 43 feet 6 inches; a diameter of 3.1–4.3 meters, or 10–14 feet; and a weight of 11,600 kilograms, or 25,500 pounds.

NASA named the world's first space-based optical telescope after the U.S. astronomer Edwin P. Hubble. Dr. Hubble confirmed an "expanding" universe, which provided the foundation for the big bang theory.

With a mission duration of up to 20 years, Hubble is visited regularly by space shuttle crews for regular servicing. At an altitude of 380 miles (612 kilometers) in a low-Earth orbit, the telescope completes an orbit of Earth every 97 minutes. Sensitive to ultraviolet through near infrared light, the telescope relays to Earth three to four gigabytes of information per day.

Powered by two 25-foot solar panels, the telescope has revealed new information on the age of the universe, made findings on black holes, and provided visual proof that dust disks around young stars are common, reinforcing the assumption that planetary systems are plentiful in the universe.

Hubble's Replacement

Scheduled for launch in 2011, the James Webb Space Telescope is intended to replace Hubble. This telescope will see objects 400 times fainter than those visible with Earth-based telescopes. By contrast, the Hubble can see objects 60 times fainter than those visible with Earth-based telescopes.

The first components for the International Space Station were taken into orbit in 1998, and the station received its first crew on November 2, 2000, marking the first day a permanent human presence in space was achieved.

The space station has grown and evolved into an unprecedented laboratory complex. Offering a microgravity environment that cannot be duplicated on Earth, the station furthers knowledge of science and of how the human body functions for extended periods of time in space.

By the time the station had been operating for five years, 89 scientific investigations had been conducted. A complete characterization study of the radiation environment in the station was done, with evaluation of models of radiation shielding by the station’s structure.

With 15,000 cubic feet of habitable volume assembled by late 2005, the space station at that point had more room than a conventional three-bedroom house. Astronauts and scientists from a variety of nations have visited and worked in the space station.

Civilian and private missions into space have been achieved. The California millionaire and former NASA rocket scientist Dennis Tito was the first private space tourist to visit the ISS for a 10-day excursion in April 2001.

Test pilot Mike Melvill took the privately built rocket plane SpaceShip One to an altitude of more than 100 kilometers, the acknowledged point at which space begins, on July, 12, 2004.

Robot explorers have also achieved an enormous amount in the conquest of space. The first interplanetary explorer, the United States’ Mariner II, was launched on August, 26, 1962, to explore Venus and successfully reported a high surface temperature and the absence of a magnetic field.
 

In January 2004 two NASA robot explorers named Spirit and Opportunity landed on Mars. The six- wheeled craft crawled over the surface, measuring, photographing, and analyzing, and surprised their controllers by continuing to function for over a year, during which time they traveled for several miles.

On December 25, 2004, the NASA Cassini spacecraft, nearing Saturn, released the European Space Agency’s Huygens probe toward the surface of the ringed planet’s largest moon, Titan. Parachuting to the Moon’s surface, the probe’s cameras and spectrometers analyzed the chemical composition of Titan and transmitted data back to scientists on Earth.

Other probes have been sent to all of the planets in the solar system, including distant Pluto with the launch of the New Horizons probe in January 2006. Some probes have had lengthy careers and considerable success.

The Pioneer space probe, launched on March 2, 1972, was the first spacecraft to travel through the asteroid belt and the first spacecraft to make direct observations and obtain close-up images of Jupiter. It made its closest encounter with Jupiter on December 3, 1973, passing within 81,000 miles.

Pioneer’s last, very weak signal was received on January 23, 2003. Pioneer 10 continues into interstellar space, heading for the red star Aldebaran, about 68 light years away. It will take Pioneer over 2 million years to reach its destination.

Another development of the post-Moon jadwal has been the space community’s understandings of asteroid dangers. A "dinosaur-killer" strike is now thought to be avoidable, due to a jadwal of surveying and tracking all heavenly bodies.

Such ambitious ideas have been supported by the success of missions such as the Stardust spacecraft, launched in 1999. This mission managed to capture particles from a comet beyond the Earth-Moon orbit and return them to Earth.

Other aspects of space exploration are numerous. The discovery of other planets orbiting distant stars has been made possible; the Earth is ringed by satellites enabling advanced communications and a Global Positioning System (GPS); and superior meteorology and detailed imaging have been developed. Various spin-offs from the space jadwal for the everyday world include such variables as the development of freeze-dried foods and materials such as Teflon.

Progress has been not as fast as science fiction written from the 1930s to the 1980s depicted—space flight has proved expensive and difficult, and the manned Moon bases and Martian cities have not happened.

However, other nations besides the United States and the Soviet Union—a collective European approach and manned missions from China—have begun space exploration and plans are under way to see a human presence on both the Moon and Mars.

Two basic difficulties have to be overcome if human exploration of other stars and their solar systems is to succeed. The first is the speed of the spacecraft. The fastest vessel ever built (by 2006) was the New Horizons probe, which achieved a speed shortly after launch of 10.07 miles per second, or 36,256 MPH. The nuclear-powered craft crossed the Moon’s orbit around nine hours after liftoff. Even at this speed, the estimated mission duration to Pluto is around nine years.

If the mission were manned, this would mean an overall duration of 18 years traveling plus the exploration time. If this craft’s speed were applied to reach the nearest star system to Earth, the mission time would be hundreds of years. Therein lies the second major problem—the duration humans can withstand space conditions.

The long-term effects of weightless space flight are still being studied, but it is doubtful that such missions could be withstood by a human crew. Scientists believe the craft would have to have some sort of gravitational compensation. A manned, one-way, long-term mission is also an unknown, although science fiction has done a great deal to explore both of these issues.

Indeed, space flight may have provided some answers by extrapolating various scenarios from the work of physicists that may get around interstellar exploration problems.

If space is not an empty vacuum and contains distortions, as has been proved, then the "warps" in space may provide points where great distances can be surpassed, rather in the way a fly can travel from one end of a curved scarf to the other end by simply flying between the two points rather than walking the entire length of the scarf.

There may also be ways to build spacecraft that fly at much faster speeds; light sails, antimatter rockets, and drives utilizing alternative theories of gravity and electromagnetism might allow much greater speeds. But then other problems arise: that of the relativity time-space equation, for example, and how to get humans to cope with the acceleration and deceleration speeds such a spacecraft would demand.

Although the difficulties of exploring beyond the solar system are great, they may not be insurmountable. One fact remains: If humans want to survive beyond the certain degradation of our own star and its planetary system, then space exploration must be continued.

Chappaquiddick

On the nighttime of xviii July 1969, Mary Jo Kopechne died when the auto inwards which she was riding plunged off a depression span on the Massachusetts isle of Chappaquiddick together with landed on its roof inwards the H2O below. Senator Edward M. Kennedy reported to local police trace the next forenoon that he had been driving the auto at the fourth dimension of the accident.

Charged with leaving the scene of an accident, he pleaded guilty together with was given a suspended sentence. H5N1 coroner’s inquest into Kopechne’s expiry held inwards Jan 1970 together with a subsequent grand jury investigation held inwards March of that twelvemonth produced no novel legal developments.

The final official outcome of the instance was the revocation of Kennedy’s driver’s license inwards May 1970 after a routine fatal-accident investigation yesteryear the Registry of Motor Vehicles. The hearing examiner, similar the gauge who had sentenced Kennedy, concluded that he had been driving besides fast.


Kennedy made no populace controversy until the calendar week next the accident, when he spoke inwards a alive boob tube broadcast from his home. He stated inwards that broadcast, together with has maintained always since, that he was driving (but non intoxicated) on the nighttime of the accident together with that after the auto went into the H2O he made vigorous (but unsuccessful) efforts to rescue Kopechne.

All conspiracy theories close the accident turn down this version of events. The theories autumn into 3 groups that allege, respectively, a conspiracy to identify blame on Kennedy, a conspiracy to divert blame from Kennedy, together with a conspiracy to embrace upwardly an before criminal offense yesteryear staging the “accident.”

The Setting together with the Accident

The isle of Martha’s Vineyard lies vii miles off the southeastern coast of Massachusetts. It is divided into half-dozen towns, of which Edgartown (at the far eastern cease of the island) is the oldest, largest, together with most visibly prosperous. Chappaquiddick, where the accident took place, is a political together with cultural appendage of Edgartown.

Functionally an isle itself, it is separated from Edgartown proper yesteryear a 500-foot-wide channel crossed yesteryear a small, bargelike auto ferry. The eastern border of Chappaquiddick is a long, at i time sea beach backed yesteryear a narrow torso of H2O known as Poucha Pond.

Dyke Bridge, the site of the accident, arches over the pond, connecting Chappaquiddick’s small-scale route scheme to the parking lot behind the beach. The span (since demolished together with rebuilt) angled 27 degrees to the left of the route leading to it. It had, inwards 1969, solely 4-inch strips of timber to grade the edges of its deck.

Kennedy together with Kopechne—a old fellow member of Senator Robert F. Kennedy’s staff—arrived separately at a political party held at a rented cottage on Chappaquiddick on the nighttime of xviii July. Leaving the cottage together soon before 12:45 A.M., they drove northward inwards a dark 1967 Oldsmobile 88 toward Chappaquiddick’s principal intersection. H5N1 left plow at the intersection, next Chappaquiddick’s sole paved road, would take away hold taken them to the ferry landing— their intended destination, according to Kennedy.

Instead, upon reaching the intersection, they turned correct onto the gravel route leading to Dyke Bridge together with the beach beyond. Deputy Sheriff Christopher Look, a Chappaquiddick resident on his agency home, reached the intersection at the same fourth dimension together with witnessed the turn. Moments later, the auto carrying Kennedy together with Kopechne reached the span together with failed to negotiate it.


Traveling at 20–25 miles per hour, it jumped the depression guard rails together with ran off the correct side of the bridge, hitting the H2O on its correct side together with rolling inverted as it sank into 8–10 feet of water. Kennedy, apparently washed out of the auto yesteryear the in-rushing water, escaped. Kopechne, trapped as the auto rolled over, drowned.

Conspiracy to Blame Kennedy

Heir to the greatest political dynasty inwards twentieth-century U.S. history, Edward Kennedy was considered a rigid competitor for the Democratic presidential nomination inwards 1972. The accident effectively ended his chances of winning the nomination, together with he announced inwards 1970 that he would non run. Conspiracy theorists of the political Left speculated, as a result, that the “accident” had been staged yesteryear agents of the Right to hand exactly that goal.

Kennedy, according to this theory, was kidnapped, drugged, placed inwards the auto with Kopechne, together with pushed off the bridge—leaving him (if he survived) to explicate why he was headed for a deserted beach at midnight with a adult woman who was non his wife.

Allegations of rightwing involvement inwards the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy inwards 1963 together with leading presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy inwards 1968 lent a mensurate of plausibility to such theories. So, after 1973, did revelations that the Nixon management had employed “dirty tricks,” some of them illegal, against its political enemies.

Few believers inwards a right-wing framing of Kennedy take away hold developed the theory inwards depth. The principal exception is R. B. Cutler, 1973 whose self-published majority You, The Jury outlines a complex scenario involving 3 separate groups of agents together with a Kennedy look-alike used as a temporary decoy.

Cutler’s majority blames the framing on unspecified individuals or organizations determined to bar Kennedy from the presidency. Richard Nixon, his aides, together with his sympathizers are never named as coconspirators, merely readers are left gratis to infer their involvement.

The express popularity of frame-up theories close the accident is due inwards percentage to their primal implausibility. Why, critics reasonably ask, would Kennedy non protestation that he was beingness framed? Why would he plead guilty before a local gauge the calendar week after the accident?

Why would he publicly acknowledge guilt inwards his televised vocalization communication subsequently the same day? Why, inwards other words, would Kennedy make the conspirators’ locomote for them yesteryear confessing to a reputation-damaging human activity that he knew he did non commit?

Conspiracy to Shield Kennedy

The most widely held conspiracy theories close the accident suggest that Kennedy conspired with others to embrace upwardly the truthful extent of his guilt. Their popularity reflects the widespread see that the wealthy, the powerful, together with the well-connected tin easily escape penalization for their crimes. The Kennedy household unit of measurement possessed wealth, power, together with connections inwards abundance, together with their willingness to role all 3 to their wages is good established.

The perceived incongruity of criminal offense together with penalization inwards the Chappaquiddick case—a two-month suspended judgement for acts resulting inwards the expiry of a immature woman—led many to conclude that wealth together with privilege had triumphed again. These perceptions ran peculiarly rigid alongside longtime residents of Martha’s Vineyard, fueled yesteryear suspicion of wealthy, privileged vacationers from the mainland.

One variation of this theory has Kennedy conspiring with associates to arts and crafts an “official” floor close the accident that would minimize his guilt. Washington Post columnist Jack Anderson suggested inwards 1969, for example, that Kennedy asked Joseph Gargan together with Hugh Markham—two longtime associates who were also at the party—to prevarication to police trace together with say that Gargan or Kopechne herself had been at the bicycle of the car. Leo Damore gave the theory novel life inwards his 1988 majority Senatorial Privilege.

Many residents of Martha’s Vineyard reckon testify of a similar conspiracy inwards Kennedy’s claims that he turned toward the span without realizing it, dived on the wreck inwards an endeavour to salvage Kopechne, together with subsequently swam the channel separating Chappaquiddick from Edgartown.

They believe that the claims are plainly absurd—a heroic fiction created yesteryear Kennedy together with others to embrace an uglier reality inwards which Kennedy, drunk, fled the scene of the accident together with used his connections to slip dorsum quietly to his Edgartown hotel without rousing the ferryman together with attracting attention.

H5N1 2nd variation of the theory suggests that the Kennedy household unit of measurement used their wealth, power, or political connections to subvert, divert, or obstruct official investigations of the accident.

Commentators who believe inwards such a conspiracy debate that the postaccident investigations were inadequate at best together with negligent at worst—failings best explained non yesteryear disinterest merely yesteryear active tampering. Why, they ask, did the Edgartown police trace non thoroughly search the surface area some the accident scene for telltale physical evidence?

Why did the nation police trace lieutenant who headed the investigation for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts neglect to inquiry key witnesses together with discourage the district attorney from ordering an autopsy? Why did the gauge inwards accuse of the grand jury investigation laid the Blue Planet rules inwards such ways that virtually guaranteed it would live ineffective?

The slipshod investigation together with prosecution were, they argue, orchestrated yesteryear Kennedy together with others inwards a serial of telephone calls made inwards the fourth dimension betwixt the accident together with the kickoff study of it to the police. The extent of the family’s ability over Massachusetts politics made it possible for them to rapidly together with efficiently subvert the criminal judge system.

Theories close conspiracies to conceal the nature of Kennedy’s offense together with deflect the total forcefulness of the law from him are the to the lowest degree spectacular of the 3 types. They are also the most plausible: the investigation was, inwards retrospect, seriously flawed.

Conspiracy-theory critics such as James Lange together with Katherine DeWitt take away hold noted, however, that the flaws are non inwards themselves proof of conspiracy. They tin live explained as good yesteryear to a greater extent than mundane causes: incompetence, laziness, the distraction of to a greater extent than pressing cases, or the biases of item individuals.

Conspiracy to Stage the Incident

The 3rd type of conspiracy theory combines elements of the kickoff ii types. Like the kickoff type of theory, it proposes that the accident was staged; similar the second, it accuses Kennedy of conspiring to embrace upwardly the truthful extent of his guilt. Specifically, the 3rd type of theory suggests that Kennedy together with several unopen friends engineered the “accident” inwards lodge to embrace upwardly other misdeeds.

Kenneth Kappel, inwards his 1989 majority Chappaquiddick Revealed, begins with the premise that Kennedy must take away hold been drunkard yesteryear the fourth dimension he together with Kopechne got into the car. He suggests that an alcohol-impaired Kennedy ran the auto off the route (not the bridge), causing it to curl over, leaving Kennedy wound together with Kopechne unconscious.

Kennedy together with several friends, believing that Kopechne was already dead, righted the auto together with pushed it off the span into the pond inwards lodge to cover the testify long plenty for Kennedy to sober up. Kopechne regained consciousness after the auto striking the pond and, unable to escape, drowned. Kappel’s theory therefore has Kennedy together with his coconspirators unintentionally committing manslaughter inwards the procedure of trying to cover the much less (legally) serious criminal offense of drunken driving.

H5N1 2nd variation of this theory takes it significantly further, positing that Kennedy murdered Kopechne together with and so drove (or pushed) the auto off the span to conceal the fact. Many commentators on the accident assume that (despite his denials) Kennedy had or sought sexual activity with Kopechne.

Adherents of the murder-cover-up theory oft expand that supposition into the speculation that the couplet had a prior sexual come across that left Kopechne pregnant. Pregnancy would, the adherents argue, supply Kennedy with a motive for the alleged murder together with cover-up. Zad Rust’s 1971 majority Teddy Bare strongly implies—but, presumably to avoid a libel suit, does non explicitly claim—both pregnancy together with murder, covered upwardly yesteryear a staged accident.

Neither Kappell, nor Rust, nor whatever of the less prominent advocates of such theories tin adequately concern human relationship for how Kennedy together with a few friends could force the auto into the water. The bridge’s 4-inch-high rails—though no barrier to a vehicle driven at twenty miles per hour—would live a substantial obstruction to a 2-ton vehicle beingness pushed uphill yesteryear 3 or 4 men struggling to divulge buy on a dirt-and-gravel route inwards casual shoes.

Nor tin such theories concern human relationship for the dark tire marks that law enforcement officers observed on the span deck the forenoon after the accident. The marks suggest a auto skidding with locked brakes—an icon fully compatible with an accident, merely virtually impossible to phase on the spur of the moment.

Allegations that Kopechne was strangled to expiry are as hard to reconcile with the failure of the local medical examiner to divulge whatever marks on her pharynx when he examined her torso the forenoon after the accident. Allegations that she was important yesteryear Kennedy are as dubious, together with as inconsistent with established facts.

Mary I (Bloody Mary)

Mary I, queen of England, was born on February 18, 1516, in Greenwich Palace in London, England. Her father, Henry VIII, of the House of Tudor, had also been born at Greenwich on June 28, 1491. Mary was the fifth child of Henry and his first wife, Catherine of Aragon.

Although there was jubilation at Greenwich at Mary’s birth, Henry VIII was disappointed in that Catherine of Aragon had failed to deliver a son. Mary would be the only one of Catherine and Henry VIII’s children who would live to adulthood. In an age when monarchs were preferably men, young Mary’s purpose diplomatically was to secure a strategic nuptial alliance for her father.

In Henry VIII’s eyes, the only way to secure the throne in the Tudor family—and to make it a true dynasty—was to have a male son who would succeed him as king. Consequently, Henry began his quest to divorce Catherine of Aragon to marry again in the hopes of producing a male Tudor heir.

However, to assure the succession of the Tudors to the throne, Mary was recognized by her father as princess of Wales, which meant that, should her father die without male issue, she would succeed him as Queen Mary I.


In the end, Henry had his marriage to Catherine of Aragon dissolved, and he wed his mistress Anne Boleyn, who was crowned queen of England in 1533. Pregnant at the time of her marriage to Henry, she gave birth to the princess Elizabeth, the future Elizabeth I, in September 1533. Still the king determined to have his way in all things, Henry was frustrated in his pursuit of a male Tudor heir.

In 1534, Henry had Parliament pass the Act of Supremacy, which made him the head of the Roman Catholic Church in England, known as the Church of England. As far as Princess Mary was concerned, she was placed in almost double jeopardy, because she still held out for her mother and for the Catholic Church.

Boleyn was her bitter enemy, especially after the birth of Elizabeth as Mary’s rival for the throne, and it was feared that Boleyn would demand Mary’s execution. Finally, under the entreaty of the king’s chief minister, Thomas Cromwell, Mary assented to the Act of Supremacy.

When Anne Boleyn was executed for adultery in May 1536, much of the danger passed for Mary. Henry’s next wife, Jane Seymour, finally provided a male heir, Edward VI, in October 1537. Seymour began a reconciliation with Mary, who still had a spot in her father’s heart as his “chiefest jewel.”

Tragically, Jane would die soon after childbirth and Edward would only rule from 1547 to 1553, at which time Mary became queen. When Mary ascended the throne in July 1553, she trod lightly at first on the issue of religion, not wishing to shake England by revoking the Act of Settlement and the new order that had come with it.

However, Mary did have Henry’s divorce from her mother declared invalid, legally making Elizabeth a bastard. The half sisters carried on harsh competition for a rightful claim to the throne. Elizabeth was implicated in two plots against Mary, one led by Sir Thomas Wyatt in 1554 that caused Elizabeth to be sent temporarily to the Tower of London.

Eventually Mary’s affection for the Catholic Church brought personal disaster. In November 1554, Reginald Cardinal Poole brought from the Vatican the terms by which Rome would accept England back into the church—all those who had carried out the Act of Settlement must be judged as heretics and condemned to execution. Almost 300 would be executed, including Thomas Cranmer, archbishop of Canterbury, who had also approved of the divorce of Henry VIII from Catherine.

Mary sacrificed the affection of her people, not a few of whom had supported her during her years of exile. She compounded her error by marrying Philip II of Spain in July 1554. Mary’s legacy in England included the loss of Calais to France’s king Henry II in January 1558. It was the last possession England had left in France from the Hundred Years’ War.

Indeed, there is much reason to think that Philip only wed Mary to draw England into the enduring feud between Spain and France, hoping to tip the balance in favor of Spain. Plagued by ill health and foreign adventures, Mary I died in November 1558. Before her death, she had provided that Elizabeth would succeed her on the throne as the rightful queen.

John Locke

John Locke

Of all of the thinkers of modern times, few have had the wide impact of John Locke. Locke was born in Wrington, in Somerset, England, on August 29, 1632, during the political ferment that preceded the English Civil War (1642–49). At the time, Charles I was ruling without Parliament and exercising his firm belief in the doctrine of the divine right of kings.

This basically held that the king, anointed with holy oil at his coronation, was the representative of God on Earth and thus could commit no wrong in his rule. The idea of limiting the power of the monarch would dominate England through the rest of the 17th century and form the seminal basis of much of Locke’s great work.

Locke’s first significant educational experience was gained in the Westminster School, in 1646, while the English Civil War was at its height. Among noteworthy graduates of Westminster School were Jeremy Bentham (father of the utilitarian school of philosophy), Robert Cotton (founder of the Cottonian Library), England’s great poet John Dryden, and the historian Edward Gibbon, author of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. At Westminster, Locke was one of the gifted King’s Scholars.

Locke was a ingusan student at Christ Church College, at Oxford University, in 1652, where he studied medicine, although he did not receive his bachelor’s in medicine until 1674. At Oxford, Locke became acquainted with the leading minds of his day, including Robert Boyle and Sir Isaac Netwon.


They left an indelible imprint upon Locke, who had found the medieval approach of studies of the ancient Greek philosophy Aristotle to be sterile and devoid of meaning for his times.

Initially, there was little to indicate that Locke would make his greatest contribution to the emerging study of the philosophy of politics. In 1666, while at Oxford, Locke met Anthony Ashley Cooper, the later earl of Shaftesbury, certainly one of the boldest—and most unscrupulous—figures in the great age of English political intrigue.

As Shaftesbury’s ambition launched him on what became a drive for power, Locke loyally followed his patron. Shaftesbury’s eventual fall from grace led Locke to return to complete his studies at Oxford for his bachelor’s degree in medicine. This was followed by a 15-month tour of France, which may have been occasioned in part by his close identification with the fallen earl.

In Holland, Locke actively joined English exiles seeking to bring down King Charles and his brother. Charles’s agents infiltrated the group. When Charles II died in 1685, James II began a reign that would lead to the Glorious Revolution and the rule of William and Mary.

It is likely that Locke, with his wide contacts, played a role in the intrigue that came to a climax upon William’s and Mary’s landing in England. The extent of Locke’s role in the machinations seems clear from the fact that he sailed on board the same ship with William and Mary as a close counselor.

Back in England, Locke penned two works that would shape the future of philosophy and government. In An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690), he posited that human beings gain almost all knowledge through experience. Consequently, Locke became one of the founders of the empirical school of knowledge.

In helping to propagate the empirical view, he helped shape modern philosophy, removing forever the primacy of the teachings of Aristotle (against which he had rebelled years ago as a student at Oxford) and the medieval view of Thomas Aquinas.

Locke also looked at the political turmoil of his kala and attempted to apply his perspective of reason to government. He produced a clearly written document free from the use of biblical Scripture and frequent appeals to ancient guides like Aristotle. Locke’s views are related in Two Treatises on Government.

In the First Treatise, he attacks the divine right of kings, which formed the basis of the governments of Charles I, and to a lesser extent that of his son, James II. The Second Treatise on Government would have important relevance to the American Revolution because America’s founders based much of their opposition to the tyranny of George III on the writings of Locke.

Locke’s theory of government holds that man, once in a state of nature, where arbitrary force ruled, agreed to government as a way to seek protection for all from the willful use of force to dominate them, to replace the law of the jungle with the rule of law.

With his Two Treatises on Government, Locke had used the political turmoil of his time to write a document that would transcend his time. No more would people accept willful, dictatorial governing.

Instead, all administrations would govern under the revolutionary concept that their government was done by the consent of those they governed. Locke died on October 28, 1704, at Oates in the home of his friends, Sir Francis and Lady Masham.

George II - King of England

George II - King of England

George II was born into the House of Hanover in 1683 in the Schloss (Castle) Herrenhausen, which had been the seat of the dynasty since George, the duke of Brunswick-Luneberg, moved to Hanover during the Thirty Years’ War. When George II’s father became king of England, the court moved from Herrenhausen to London.

Unlike George I, who had a bevy of mistresses, George II was devoted to his wife, Caroline of Anspach, whom he wed in 1705. Caroline, the daughter of the margrave of Brandenburg-Anspach, accompanied her husband to England when his father, usually known as the elector of Hanover, became king of England in 1714.

Caroline of Anspach was one of the most illustrious women of her age and a patroness of science and philosophy. When the great philosopher Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz (1646–1716) was at Schloss Herrenhausen, Caroline was his best student.

The rule of George I featured a stormy relationship between George I and his son. In a dispute over British policy in Germany, the future George II broke with his father when Robert Walpole, George I’s prime minister, felt that British interests were being subordinated to those of Hanover in Europe.


With Caroline’s help, the future George II set up what amounted to a government in exile at Leicester House, where Caroline established a learned salon similar to what she had at Schloss Herrenhausen. However, father and son were reconciled and in 1720, Walpole returned to the government.

When George I died in Germany in 1727, his son immediately became king, as much a testimony to the skill of Walpole as to the Act of Succession of 1701. When James Edward Stuart, the son of James II, invaded Scotland in 1715 and 1719, it showed the value of his legislation in the eyes of those who favored the Hanovers over the Stuarts.

For the duration of George I’s reign and much of George II’s, the threat of a Stuart restoration to the throne was real. In 1745, the son of James Edward, Bonnie Prince Charlie, did in fact land in Scotland and administer two stinging defeats to the Hanoverian army at Prestonpans and Falkirk and occupied Scotland.

This precipitated the greatest crisis of George II’s kingship. Bonnie Prince Charlie reached as far south as Derby in England, but concerned about a lack of support among the English, he began his retreat north again.

George II, who at Dettingen in 1743 in the War of the Austrian Succession (1740–48) had been the last British king to take part in a battle, sent his son, George Augustus, duke of Cumberland, in pursuit of Bonnie Prince Charlie. At Culloden Moor in April 1746, Cumberland defeated him in a decisive engagement.

Aside from the Stuart threat, the kingdom, which included Scotland and Ireland, enjoyed peace and stability, shown by the rise of the middle class and the birth of modern English literature. Henry Fielding gained prominence in the reign of George II.

Fielding’s satiric plays incurred the wrath of Walpole, who set about closing Fielding’s theater. Rebounding from this defeat, he would go on to write his greatest novel, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling (1749), which perhaps better than any other work presents life in the time of the second George. Daniel Defoe had an active career through the reigns of Queen Anne, George I, and George II.

In 1756, Britain became involved in the Seven Years’ War, which had actually begun in the conflict between the British and French colonies in North America in 1754. The war soon spread to encompass much of the world, although the decisive battles would be fought in Europe and America. Britain’s greatest ally was Frederick the Great of Prussia, an admirer of the French field marshal Maurice de Saxe.

The use of English money as a subsidy, an inheritance from Walpole’s passionate pursuit of mercantilism, enabled Frederick to field an army that, along with his undisputed military genius, would keep at bay the combined forces of France, the Austrian Empire, and Russia.

William Pitt was an accomplished and reliable wartime prime minister for England. He strategically strengthened the British navy, sent fleets where they would be most effective, and oversaw supply exchanges with allies. After several years of reverses, British arms in 1758 scored several victories against France, earning both the king and Pitt great popularity among the people.

In 1760, at the height of his power, George tragically succumbed to a stroke. Since his son Frederic Louis had died in 1751, his grandson succeeded him on the throne as George III. From his grandfather, George III inherited a monarchy—and an empire—at the height of its power and prestige.