Northern Ireland Map/Relevant Background Info
Historical Background:
The roots of the Troubles stretch back to the late 17th and 18th centuries, when successive English and British conquests and reconquests of Ireland stripped the native Irish and old English Catholics of ownership of the land and replaced them with English and Scottish settlers.
Key Events:
The Hunger Strikes
Loyalist Paramilitary Ceasefire
Witnesses to IRA Decommissioning
Clonard Monastery Negotiations
The roots of the Troubles stretch back to the late 17th and 18th centuries, when successive English and British conquests and reconquests of Ireland stripped the native Irish and old English Catholics of ownership of the land and replaced them with English and Scottish settlers.
Key Events:
The Hunger Strikes
Loyalist Paramilitary Ceasefire
Witnesses to IRA Decommissioning
Clonard Monastery Negotiations
Sudan Map/Relevant Background Info
Historical Background:
During the condominium period (1899-1953) of joint Egyptian- British influence, the North-South divide increased as development was focused mainly in the northern regions around the Nile River. The northern and southern regions were merged into a single administrative region, without major consultation with Southerners who feared being subsumed by the political power of the larger North.
Key Events:
1955 Equatoria Corps uprising in the South.
1956 Sudan formally gains independence.
1962 The first civil war begins and is led by the Anya Nya
movement.
1972 Addis Ababa Agreement signed. The First Sudanese
Civil War ends.
1983 President Numayri enacts sharia as state law; The
Second Sudanese Civil War breaks out again in the South
between government forces and the Sudan People’s Liberation
Movement (SPLM), led by John Garang.
1989 Omar al-Bashir takes control of the government
through a bloodless coup and suspends political parties.
Al-Bashir allies himself with the National Islamic Front,
which aimed to impose Islamic law throughout the country.
1993 John Paul II travels to Sudan and urges an end to
the violence of the Second Sudanese Civil War. He also
calls attention to the plight of Christians suffering in the
South and stresses the importance of ending religious persecution
in Sudan.
2005 Sudanese government and southern rebels sign the
Comprehensive Peace Agreement. The Second Sudanese
Civil War ends.
2009 The International Criminal Court's top prosecutor calls for the arrest of President Bashir for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in Darfur; the appeal is the first ever request to the ICC for the arrest of a sitting head of state. Sudan rejects the indictment.
During the condominium period (1899-1953) of joint Egyptian- British influence, the North-South divide increased as development was focused mainly in the northern regions around the Nile River. The northern and southern regions were merged into a single administrative region, without major consultation with Southerners who feared being subsumed by the political power of the larger North.
Key Events:
1955 Equatoria Corps uprising in the South.
1956 Sudan formally gains independence.
1962 The first civil war begins and is led by the Anya Nya
movement.
1972 Addis Ababa Agreement signed. The First Sudanese
Civil War ends.
1983 President Numayri enacts sharia as state law; The
Second Sudanese Civil War breaks out again in the South
between government forces and the Sudan People’s Liberation
Movement (SPLM), led by John Garang.
1989 Omar al-Bashir takes control of the government
through a bloodless coup and suspends political parties.
Al-Bashir allies himself with the National Islamic Front,
which aimed to impose Islamic law throughout the country.
1993 John Paul II travels to Sudan and urges an end to
the violence of the Second Sudanese Civil War. He also
calls attention to the plight of Christians suffering in the
South and stresses the importance of ending religious persecution
in Sudan.
2005 Sudanese government and southern rebels sign the
Comprehensive Peace Agreement. The Second Sudanese
Civil War ends.
2009 The International Criminal Court's top prosecutor calls for the arrest of President Bashir for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in Darfur; the appeal is the first ever request to the ICC for the arrest of a sitting head of state. Sudan rejects the indictment.
Kashmir Map/Relevant Background Info
Historical Background:
The conflict in Kashmir has been shaped by a complicated interplay between factors internal to Kashmir and the often- contentious relationship between India and Pakistan. The pivotal point in Kashmir’s modern history was the decision by the Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir, a Hindu, to join his Muslim-majority province to India, rather than Muslim- majority Pakistan, at the time of partition. From then on, Pakistan has contended that Muslims in Kashmir are being held captive by Hindu India, and the issue continues to resonate powerfully with the Pakistani public. In contrast, India insists that the Maharaja’s 1947 decision was in accordance with the internationally agreed-upon method of partition. War ensued between Pakistan and India, ending only with a UN-backed ceasefire that left Kashmir divided along the still-observed Line of Control.
Key Events:
1947 Partition and Indo-Pakistani War
1965 Kashmir War
1971 Indo-Pakistani War
1989 Insurgency Erupts
1989 Pandit Exodus
1999 Indo-Pakistani War
2000–2002 Attacks on Hindu Pilgrims
The conflict in Kashmir has been shaped by a complicated interplay between factors internal to Kashmir and the often- contentious relationship between India and Pakistan. The pivotal point in Kashmir’s modern history was the decision by the Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir, a Hindu, to join his Muslim-majority province to India, rather than Muslim- majority Pakistan, at the time of partition. From then on, Pakistan has contended that Muslims in Kashmir are being held captive by Hindu India, and the issue continues to resonate powerfully with the Pakistani public. In contrast, India insists that the Maharaja’s 1947 decision was in accordance with the internationally agreed-upon method of partition. War ensued between Pakistan and India, ending only with a UN-backed ceasefire that left Kashmir divided along the still-observed Line of Control.
Key Events:
1947 Partition and Indo-Pakistani War
1965 Kashmir War
1971 Indo-Pakistani War
1989 Insurgency Erupts
1989 Pandit Exodus
1999 Indo-Pakistani War
2000–2002 Attacks on Hindu Pilgrims