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The Order of Cistercians (Latin: Ordo Cisterciensis or, alternatively, O.C.S.O. for the Trappists [Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance]) is a Catholic religious order of enclosed monks and nuns. They are sometimes also called the Bernardines or the White Monks, in reference to the colour of the habit, over which a black scapular is worn.<br/><br/> The emphasis of Cistercian life is on manual labour and self-sufficiency, and many abbeys have traditionally supported themselves through activities such as agriculture and brewing ales.
The kingdom of Laos existed from the 14th to the 18th centuries, then split into three separate kingdoms.<br/><br/> In 1893, it became a French protectorate, with the three kingdoms—Luang Prabang, Vientiane and Champasak—uniting to form what is now known as Laos. The country briefly gained independence in 1945 after Japanese occupation, but returned to French rule until it was granted autonomy in 1949.<br/><br/> Laos became independent in 1954, with a constitutional monarchy under King Sisavang Vong. Shortly after independence, a long civil war ended the monarchy, when the Communist Pathet Lao movement came to power in 1975.
The royal coat of arms of the Kingdom of Cambodia is the symbol of the Cambodian monarchy. It has existed in some form close to the one depicted since the establishment of the independent Kingdom of Cambodia in 1953. It is the symbol on the Royal Standard of the reigning monarch of Cambodia, Norodom Sihamoni (ascended 2004).
Sri Lanka had always been an important port and trading post in the ancient world, and was increasingly frequented by merchant ships from the Middle East, Persia, Burma, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and other parts of Southeast Asia. The islands were known to the first European explorers of South Asia and settled by many groups of Arab and Malay merchants.<br/><br/> A Portuguese colonial mission arrived on the island in 1505 headed by Lourenço de Almeida, the son of Francisco de Almeida. At that point the island consisted of three kingdoms, namely Kandy in the central hills, Kotte at the Western coast, and Yarlpanam (Anglicised Jaffna) in the north. The Dutch arrived in the 17th century. The British East India Company took over the coastal regions controlled by the Dutch in 1796, and in 1802 these provinces were declared a crown colony under direct rule of the British government, therefore the island was not part of the British Raj. The annexation of the Kingdom of Kandy in 1815 by the Kandyan convention, unified the island under British rule.<br/><br/> European colonists established a series of cinnamon, sugar, coffee, indigo cultivation followed by tea and rubber plantations and graphite mining. The British also brought a large number of indentured workers from Tamil Nadu to work in the plantation economy. The city of Colombo was developed as the administrative centre and commercial heart with its harbor, and the British established modern schools, colleges, roads and churches that introduced Western-style education and culture to the Ceylonese.<br/><br/> On 4 February 1948 the country gained its independence as the Dominion of Ceylon. It changed its name to Sri Lanka in 1972.
Situated some 900 km east of Madagascar, the island of Mauritius was a tantalizingly ideal port for medieval European explorers en route to India and the East Indies. It was also unpopulated but for animals, including the dodo bird. First came the Dutch: Wybrant van Warwijk claimed the island of Mauritius for Holland on Sept. 20, 1598. They abandoned it until 1638 when the Dutch East India Company (VOC) returned to stake their claim on the island; it remained colonized by the Netherlands until 1710. The French East India Company then claimed the island in 1721; it held Mauritius as a colony until the British seized it in 1810. Mauritius finally gained independence in 1968.
Vasco da Gama (1460 or 1469 – 1524) was a Portuguese explorer, one of the most successful in the Age of Discovery, and the commander of the first ships to sail directly from Europe to India. Under the reign of King Manuel I, Portugal discovered Brazil in 1500. Meanwhile, da Gama set sail from Lisbon on July 8, 1497, with a fleet of four ships and 170 men. He sailed around the Cape of Good Hope, impersonated a Muslim in Mozambique, resorted to piracy in Kenya, and finally landed in Calicut in India on May 20, 1498. For a short time in 1524, he was Governor of Portuguese India under the title of Viceroy.
Coat of arms of Charles III, Charles IV, Ferdinand VII, Isabella II, Alfonso XII and Alfonso XIII of Spain.
The British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) or Chagos Islands (formerly the Oil Islands) is an overseas territory of the United Kingdom situated in the Indian Ocean, halfway between Africa and Indonesia. The territory comprises a group of seven atolls comprising more than 60 individual islands, situated some 500 kilometres (310 mi) due south of the Maldives archipelago. The largest island is Diego Garcia (area 44 km squared), the site of a joint military facility of the United Kingdom and the United States. Following the eviction of the native population (Chagossians) in the 1960s, the only inhabitants are US and British military personnel and associated contractors, who collectively number around 4,000 (2004 figures).
Baron Roman Nikolai Maximilian von Ungern-Sternberg (December 29, 1885 – September 15, 1921) was a Baltic Swedish-Russian Yesaul (Cossack Captain), a Russian hero of World War I and Lieutenant-general at the time of civil war in Russia and Mongolia, who 'liberated' Mongolia from Chinese rule in February - March 1921. In June he invaded Southern Siberia trying to raise an anti-communist rebellion, but was defeated by the Red Army in August 1921.<br/><br/> An independent and brutal warlord in pursuit of pan-monarchist goals in Mongolia and territories east of Lake Baikal during the Russian Civil War that followed the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, Ungern von-Sternberg's goals included restoring the Russian monarchy under Michael Alexandrovich Romanov and the Great Mongol Empire, with Outer Mongolia under Bogd Khan as part of it. His opponents were mainly Communists.<br/><br/> Ungern-Sternberg often persecuted those who were helping his foes: all Reds and especially Jews. Following his Asiatic Cavalry Division collapse in Mongolia, Ungern-Sternberg was left by his Russian officers and taken prisoner by the Bolshevik's Red Army. He was tried and executed for his counter-revolutionary involvement in Novosibirsk.