Višegrad ( Serbian Cyrillic : Вишеград , pronounced [ʋǐʃeɡraːd] ) is a town and municipality in Republika Srpska , Bosnia and Herzegovina . It rests at the confluence of the Drina and the Rzav river. As of 2013, the municipality has a population of 10,668 inhabitants, while the town of Višegrad has a population of 5,869 inhabitants.
152-498: The town includes the Ottoman -era Mehmed Paša Sokolović Bridge , a UNESCO world heritage site which was popularized by Ivo Andrić in his novel The Bridge on the Drina . A tourist site called Andrićgrad (Andrić Town) , dedicated to Andrić, is located near the bridge. Višegrad is a South Slavic toponym meaning "the upper town/castle/fort". Višegrad is located at the confluence of
304-477: A 1992 killing spree of Muslims. The following table gives a preview of total number of registered people employed in professional fields per their core activity (as of 2018): Andrićgrad , a town built by filmmaker Emir Kusturica that is dedicated to Ivo Andrić , was officially opened on 28 June 2014. The House of Culture was founded in 1953. Film screenings and other cultural activities take place in there, including amateur drama programs. The City Gallery, which
456-672: A calamitous end in 1683 when Grand Vizier Kara Mustafa Pasha led a huge army to attempt a second Ottoman siege of Vienna in the Great Turkish War of 1683–1699. The final assault being fatally delayed, the Ottoman forces were swept away by allied Habsburg, German, and Polish forces spearheaded by the Polish king John III Sobieski at the Battle of Vienna . The alliance of the Holy League pressed home
608-574: A constitutional monarchy. However, following the disastrous Balkan Wars , the CUP became increasingly radicalized and nationalistic, leading a coup d'état in 1913 that established a one-party regime. The CUP allied with the German Empire hoping to escape from the diplomatic isolation that had contributed to its recent territorial losses; it thus joined World War I on the side of the Central Powers . While
760-494: A coup, but he did see the need for military mobilization. In 1883, a German military mission under General Baron Colmar von der Goltz arrived to train the Ottoman Army, leading to the so-called "Goltz generation" of German-trained officers, who played a notable role in the politics of the empire's last years. From 1894 to 1896, between 100,000 and 300,000 Armenians living throughout the empire were killed in what became known as
912-491: A fairly modern conscripted army , banking system reforms, the decriminalization of homosexuality, the replacement of religious law with secular law, and guilds with modern factories. The Ottoman Ministry of Post was established in Istanbul in 1840. American inventor Samuel Morse received an Ottoman patent for the telegraph in 1847, issued by Sultan Abdülmecid , who personally tested the invention. The reformist period peaked with
1064-545: A figure that vastly exceeded the number of Muslim children in school at the time, who were further hindered by the amount of time spent learning Arabic and Islamic theology. Author Norman Stone suggests that the Arabic alphabet, in which Turkish was written until 1928 , was ill-suited to reflect the sounds of Turkish (which is a Turkic as opposed to Semitic language), which imposed further difficulty on Turkish children. In turn, Christians' higher educational levels allowed them to play
1216-631: A future connection to other lines, and the choice of track gauge was still a pragmatic decision based on local requirements and prejudices, and probably determined by existing local designs of (road) vehicles. Thus, the Monkland and Kirkintilloch Railway (1826) in the West of Scotland used 4 ft 6 in ( 1,372 mm ); the Dundee and Newtyle Railway (1831) in the north-east of Scotland adopted 4 ft 6 + 1 ⁄ 2 in ( 1,384 mm );
1368-508: A handful of survivors had returned to what is now a predominantly Serb town. On 5 August 2001, survivors of the massacre returned to Višegrad for the burial of 180 bodies exhumed from mass graves. The exhumation lasted for two years and the bodies were found in 19 different mass graves. The charges of mass rape were unapproved as the prosecutors failed to request them in time. The cousins Milan Lukić and Sredoje Lukić were convicted on 20 July 2009, to life in prison and 30 years, respectively, for
1520-509: A huge preponderance of standard gauge . When Bristol promoters planned a line from London, they employed the innovative engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel . He decided on a wider gauge, to give greater stability, and the Great Western Railway adopted a gauge of 7 ft ( 2,134 mm ), later eased to 7 ft 1 ⁄ 4 in ( 2,140 mm ). This became known as broad gauge . The Great Western Railway (GWR)
1672-503: A larger role in the economy, with the rise in prominence of groups such as the Sursock family indicative of this. In 1911, of the 654 wholesale companies in Istanbul, 528 were owned by ethnic Greeks. In many cases, Christians and Jews gained protection from European consuls and citizenship, meaning they were protected from Ottoman law and not subject to the same economic regulations as their Muslim counterparts. The Crimean War (1853–1856)
SECTION 10
#17328446466001824-664: A major center for its trade, contributing to its continued prosperity throughout the seventeenth and much of the eighteenth century. Under Ivan IV (1533–1584), the Tsardom of Russia expanded into the Volga and Caspian regions at the expense of the Tatar khanates. In 1571, the Crimean khan Devlet I Giray , commanded by the Ottomans, burned Moscow . The next year, the invasion was repeated but repelled at
1976-496: A new independent line was proposed to open up an unconnected area, the gauge was crucial in determining the allegiance that the line would adopt: if it was broad gauge, it must be friendly to the Great Western railway; if narrow (standard) gauge, it must favour the other companies. The battle to persuade or coerce that choice became very intense, and became referred to as "the gauge wars" . As passenger and freight transport between
2128-567: A novelty in the shape of a mixed-gauge goods train was introduced between Truro and Penzance. It was worked by a narrow-gauge engine, and behind the narrow-gauge trucks came a broad-gauge match-truck with wide buffers and sliding shackles, followed by the broad-gauge trucks. Such trains continued to run in West Cornwall until the abolition of the Broad Gauge; they had to stop or come down to walking pace at all stations where fixed points existed and
2280-421: A plateway, spaced these at 4 ft 4 in ( 1,321 mm ) over the outside of the upstands. The Penydarren Tramroad probably carried the first journey by a locomotive, in 1804, and it was successful for the locomotive, but unsuccessful for the track: the plates were not strong enough to carry its weight. A considerable progressive step was made when cast iron edge rails were first employed; these had
2432-520: A rape camp, in which Bosniak women and girls (some not yet 14 years old at the time), were brought to by police officers and paramilitary members ( White Eagles and Arkan's Tigers ). According to victims' reports some 3,000 Bosniaks were murdered in Višegrad and its surroundings, including some 600 women and 119 children. Bosniaks detained at Uzamnica were subjected to inhumane conditions, including regular beatings, torture and strenuous forced labour. Both of
2584-429: A required standard. A loading gauge is a two-dimensional profile that encompasses a cross-section of the track, a rail vehicle and a maximum-sized load: all rail vehicles and their loads must be contained in the corresponding envelope. A structure gauge specifies the outline into which structures (bridges, platforms, lineside equipment etc.) must not encroach. The most common use of the term "track gauge" refers to
2736-514: A sense of Turkish nationalism. In this period, the Ottoman Empire spent only small amounts of public funds on education; for example, in 1860–1861 only 0.2% of the total budget was invested in education. As the Ottoman state attempted to modernize its infrastructure and army in response to outside threats, it opened itself up to a different kind of threat: that of creditors. As the historian Eugene Rogan has written, "the single greatest threat to
2888-645: A slight variation from the nominal gauge for pragmatic reasons. The gauge is defined in imperial units , metric units or SI units. Imperial units were established in the United Kingdom by the Weights and Measures Act 1824 . The United States customary units for length did not agree with the imperial system until 1959, when one international yard was defined as 0.9144 meters and, as derived units, 1 foot (= 1 ⁄ 3 yd) as 0.3048 meter and 1 inch (= 1 ⁄ 36 yd) as 25.4 mm. The list shows
3040-638: A successful locomotive on the Killingworth Wagonway , where he worked. His designs were successful, and when the Stockton and Darlington Railway was opened in 1825, it used his locomotives, with the same gauge as the Killingworth line , 4 ft 8 in ( 1,422 mm ). The Stockton and Darlington line was very successful, and when the Liverpool and Manchester Railway , the first intercity line,
3192-454: A victory over the Ottoman fleet at the Battle of Lepanto (1571), off southwestern Greece; Catholic forces killed over 30,000 Turks and destroyed 200 of their ships. It was a startling, if mostly symbolic, blow to the image of Ottoman invincibility, an image which the victory of the Knights of Malta over the Ottoman invaders in the 1565 siege of Malta had recently set about eroding. The battle
SECTION 20
#17328446466003344-477: Is also used for the suburban railway systems in South Australia , and Victoria , Australia . The term "medium gauge" had different meanings throughout history, depending on the local dominant gauge in use. In 1840s, the 1,600 mm ( 5 ft 3 in ) Irish gauge was considered a medium gauge compared to Brunel's 7 ft 1 ⁄ 4 in ( 2,140 mm ) broad gauge and
3496-468: Is the distance between the two rails of a railway track . All vehicles on a rail network must have wheelsets that are compatible with the track gauge. Since many different track gauges exist worldwide, gauge differences often present a barrier to wider operation on railway networks. The term derives from the metal bar, or gauge, that is used to ensure the distance between the rails is correct. Railways also deploy two other gauges to ensure compliance with
3648-503: Is typically greater for track limited to slower speeds, and tighter for track where higher speeds are expected (as an example, in the US the gauge is allowed to vary between 4 ft 8 in (1,420 mm) to 4 ft 10 in (1,470 mm) for track limited to 10 mph (16 km/h), while 70 mph (110 km/h) track is allowed only 4 ft 8 in (1,420 mm) to 4 ft 9 + 1 ⁄ 2 in (1,460 mm). Given
3800-410: Is undertaken when no other alternative is available. The nominal track gauge is the distance between the inner faces of the rails. In current practice, it is specified at a certain distance below the rail head as the inner faces of the rail head (the gauge faces ) are not necessarily vertical. Some amount of tolerance is necessarily allowed from the nominal gauge to allow for wear, etc.; this tolerance
3952-547: Is used between China and Central Asia, and between Poland and Ukraine, using the SUW 2000 and INTERGAUGE variable axle systems. China and Poland use standard gauge, while Central Asia and Ukraine use 1,520 mm ( 4 ft 11 + 27 ⁄ 32 in ). When individual railway companies have chosen different gauges and have needed to share a route where space on the ground is limited, mixed gauge (or dual gauge) track, in which three (sometimes four) rails are supported in
4104-494: The 1,435 mm ( 4 ft 8 + 1 ⁄ 2 in ) narrow gauge, which became the modern standard gauge . In modern usage, the term "narrow gauge" generally refers to track spaced significantly narrower than 1,435 mm ( 4 ft 8 + 1 ⁄ 2 in ). Narrow gauge is the dominant or second dominant gauge in countries of Southern, Central Africa, East Africa, Southeast Asia, Japan, Taiwan, Philippines, Central America and South America, During
4256-618: The Anatolian Beyliks . One of these, in the region of Bithynia on the frontier of the Byzantine Empire, was led by the Turkish tribal leader Osman I ( d. 1323/4), a figure of obscure origins from whom the name Ottoman is derived. Osman's early followers consisted of Turkish tribal groups and Byzantine renegades, with many but not all converts to Islam. Osman extended control of his principality by conquering Byzantine towns along
4408-564: The Balkans by the mid-14th century, transforming their petty kingdom into a transcontinental empire. The Ottomans ended the Byzantine Empire with the conquest of Constantinople in 1453 by Mehmed II , which marked the Ottomans' emergence as a major regional power. Under Suleiman the Magnificent (1520–1566), the empire reached the peak of its power, prosperity, and political development. By
4560-458: The Battle of Molodi . The Ottoman Empire continued to invade Eastern Europe in a series of slave raids , and remained a significant power in Eastern Europe until the end of the 17th century. The Ottomans decided to conquer Venetian Cyprus and on 22 July 1570, Nicosia was besieged; 50,000 Christians died, and 180,000 were enslaved. On 15 September 1570, the Ottoman cavalry appeared before
4712-702: The Bosporus Strait made it difficult to conquer. In 1402, the Byzantines were temporarily relieved when the Turco-Mongol leader Timur , founder of the Timurid Empire , invaded Ottoman Anatolia from the east. In the Battle of Ankara in 1402, Timur defeated Ottoman forces and took Sultan Bayezid I as prisoner, throwing the empire into disorder. The ensuing civil war lasted from 1402 to 1413 as Bayezid's sons fought over succession. It ended when Mehmed I emerged as
Višegrad - Misplaced Pages Continue
4864-586: The Bratislava – Lviv train, and the Romania/Moldova border on the Chișinău – Bucharest train. A system developed by Talgo and Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles (CAF) of Spain uses variable gauge wheelsets ; at the border between France and Spain, through passenger trains are drawn slowly through an apparatus that alters the gauge of the wheels, which slide laterally on the axles. A similar system
5016-642: The Bulgarian Tsardom of Vidin in 1396, regarded as the last large-scale crusade of the Middle Ages , failed to stop the advance of the victorious Ottomans. As the Turks expanded into the Balkans, the conquest of Constantinople became a crucial objective. The Ottomans had already wrested control of nearly all former Byzantine lands surrounding the city, but the strong defense of Constantinople's strategic position on
5168-583: The Cape of Good Hope in 1488 initiated a series of Ottoman-Portuguese naval wars in the Indian Ocean throughout the 16th century. Despite the growing European presence in the Indian Ocean, Ottoman trade with the east continued to flourish. Cairo, in particular, benefitted from the rise of Yemeni coffee as a popular consumer commodity. As coffeehouses appeared in cities and towns across the empire, Cairo developed into
5320-485: The Constitution of the Ottoman Empire and brought in multi-party politics with a two-stage electoral system ( electoral law ) under the Ottoman parliament . The constitution offered hope by freeing the empire's citizens to modernise the state's institutions, rejuvenate its strength, and enable it to hold its own against outside powers. Its guarantee of liberties promised to dissolve inter-communal tensions and transform
5472-494: The Drina river and the Rzav river in eastern Bosnia and Herzegovina, on the road from Goražde and Ustiprača towards Užice , Serbia, which is part of the geographical region of Podrinje . It is also part of the historical region of Stari Vlah ; the immediate area surrounding the town was historically called "Višegradski Stari Vlah", noted as an ethnographic region in which the population
5624-808: The Great Northern War of 1700–1721). Charles XII persuaded the Ottoman Sultan Ahmed III to declare war on Russia, which resulted in an Ottoman victory in the Pruth River Campaign of 1710–1711, in Moldavia. After the Austro-Turkish War , the Treaty of Passarowitz confirmed the loss of the Banat, Serbia, and "Little Walachia" (Oltenia) to Austria. The Treaty also revealed that the Ottoman Empire
5776-534: The Greek revolt (1821–1829) that ultimately ended with the formal independence of Greece in 1830. It was a costly enterprise for Muhammad Ali, who had lost his fleet at the Battle of Navarino in 1827. Thus began the first Egyptian–Ottoman War (1831–1833) , during which the French-trained army of Muhammad Ali, under the command of his son Ibrahim Pasha , defeated the Ottoman Army as it marched into Anatolia , reaching
5928-769: The Greeks declared war on the Sultan. A rebellion that originated in Moldavia as a diversion was followed by the main revolution in the Peloponnese , which, along with the northern part of the Gulf of Corinth , became the first parts of the Ottoman Empire to achieve independence (in 1829). In 1830, the French invaded the Deylik of Algiers . The campaign that took 21 days, resulted in over 5,000 Algerian military casualties, and about 2,600 French ones. Before
6080-566: The Habsburg and Russian empires. The Ottomans consequently suffered severe military defeats in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, culminating in the loss of both territory and global prestige . This prompted a comprehensive process of reform and modernization known as the Tanzimat ; over the course of the 19th century, the Ottoman state became vastly more powerful and organized internally, despite suffering further territorial losses, especially in
6232-497: The Hamidian massacres . In 1897 the population was 19 million, of whom 14 million (74%) were Muslim. An additional 20 million lived in provinces that remained under the sultan's nominal suzerainty but were entirely outside his actual power. One by one the Porte lost nominal authority. They included Egypt, Tunisia, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Lebanon. As
Višegrad - Misplaced Pages Continue
6384-646: The Iberian Union . The Ottomans were holders of the Caliph title, meaning they were the leaders of Muslims worldwide. The Iberians were leaders of the Christian crusaders, and so the two fought in a worldwide conflict. There were zones of operations in the Mediterranean and Indian Ocean , where Iberians circumnavigated Africa to reach India and, on their way, wage war upon the Ottomans and their local Muslim allies. Likewise,
6536-690: The Köprülü era (1656–1703), effective control of the Empire was exercised by a sequence of grand viziers from the Köprülü family. The Köprülü Vizierate saw renewed military success with authority restored in Transylvania, the conquest of Crete completed in 1669, and expansion into Polish southern Ukraine , with the strongholds of Khotyn , and Kamianets-Podilskyi and the territory of Podolia ceding to Ottoman control in 1676. This period of renewed assertiveness came to
6688-620: The Oriental Crisis of 1840 . Muhammad Ali had close relations with France , and the prospect of him becoming the Sultan of Egypt was widely viewed as putting the entire Levant into the French sphere of influence. As the Sublime Porte had proved itself incapable of defeating Muhammad Ali, the British Empire and Austrian Empire provided military assistance, and the second Egyptian–Ottoman War (1839–1841) ended with Ottoman victory and
6840-584: The Redruth and Chasewater Railway (1825) in Cornwall chose 4 ft ( 1,219 mm ). The Arbroath and Forfar Railway opened in 1838 with a gauge of 5 ft 6 in ( 1,676 mm ), and the Ulster Railway of 1839 used 6 ft 2 in ( 1,880 mm ). Locomotives were being developed in the first decades of the 19th century; they took various forms, but George Stephenson developed
6992-527: The Sakarya River . A Byzantine defeat at the Battle of Bapheus in 1302 contributed to Osman's rise. It is not well understood how the early Ottomans came to dominate their neighbors, due to the lack of sources surviving. The Ghaza thesis popular during the 20th century credited their success to rallying religious warriors to fight for them in the name of Islam , but it is no longer generally accepted. No other hypothesis has attracted broad acceptance. In
7144-671: The Spanish garrison of Castelnuovo on the Adriatic coast ; the successful siege cost the Ottomans 8,000 casualties, but Venice agreed to terms in 1540, surrendering most of its empire in the Aegean and the Morea . France and the Ottoman Empire, united by mutual opposition to Habsburg rule, became allies. The French conquests of Nice (1543) and Corsica (1553) occurred as a joint venture between French king Francis I and Suleiman, and were commanded by
7296-422: The Transmongolian Railway , Russia and Mongolia use 1,520 mm ( 4 ft 11 + 27 ⁄ 32 in ) while China uses the standard gauge of 1,435 mm. At the border, each carriage is lifted and its bogies are changed . The operation can take several hours for a whole train of many carriages. Other examples include crossings into or out of the former Soviet Union: Ukraine/Slovakia border on
7448-454: The Treaty of Nasuh Pasha , which ceded the entire Caucasus, except westernmost Georgia, back into the possession of Safavid Iran . The treaty ending the Cretan War cost Venice much of Dalmatia , its Aegean island possessions, and Crete . (Losses from the war totalled 30,985 Venetian soldiers and 118,754 Turkish soldiers.) During his brief majority reign, Murad IV (1623–1640) reasserted central authority and recaptured Iraq (1639) from
7600-497: The Turkish Empire , was an imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe , West Asia , and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Central Europe , between the early 16th and early 18th centuries. The empire emerged from a beylik , or principality , founded in northwestern Anatolia in c. 1299 by the Turkoman tribal leader Osman I . His successors conquered much of Anatolia and expanded into
7752-537: The UNESCO World Heritage Site list. In 1875, the Serbs from the area between Višegrad and Novi Pazar revolted and formed a volunteer military corps, which fought in the valley of the River Ibar in 1876 . In 1882, a Jewish cemetery was established in Višegrad while in 1905, the first Jewish synagogue was built in the town. Višegrad remained under Ottoman rule until the Berlin Congress (1878), when Austria-Hungary took control of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Bosnian Eastern Railway from Sarajevo to Uvac and Vardište
SECTION 50
#17328446466007904-479: The Uzamnica camp as well as other strategic locations involved in the conflict. On 6 April 1992, JNA artillery bombarded the town, in particular Bosniak-inhabited neighbourhoods and nearby villages. Murat Šabanović and a group of Bosniak men took several local Serbs hostage and seized control of the hydroelectric dam, threatening to blow it up. Water was released from the dam causing flooding to some houses and streets. Eventually on 12 April, JNA commandos seized
8056-406: The Arabic name ʿUthmān ( عثمان ). In Ottoman Turkish , the empire was referred to as Devlet-i ʿAlīye-yi ʿO s mānīye ( دولت عليه عثمانیه ), lit. ' Sublime Ottoman State ' , or simply Devlet-i ʿO s mānīye ( دولت عثمانيه ), lit. ' Ottoman State ' . The Turkish word for "Ottoman" ( Osmanlı ) originally referred to the tribal followers of Osman in
8208-486: The Balkan Peninsula during the Congress of Berlin , and in return, Britain assumed the administration of Cyprus in 1878. Britain later sent troops to Egypt in 1882 to put down the Urabi Revolt (Sultan Abdul Hamid II was too paranoid to mobilize his own army, fearing this would result in a coup d'état), effectively gaining control in both territories. Abdul Hamid II was so fearful of a coup that he did not allow his army to conduct war games, lest this serve as cover for
8360-445: The Balkans . Osman's son, Orhan , captured the northwestern Anatolian city of Bursa in 1326, making it the new capital and supplanting Byzantine control in the region. The important port of Thessaloniki was captured from the Venetians in 1387 and sacked. The Ottoman victory in Kosovo in 1389 effectively marked the end of Serbian power in the region, paving the way for Ottoman expansion into Europe. The Battle of Nicopolis for
8512-402: The Balkans, where a number of new states emerged. Beginning in the late 19th century, various Ottoman intellectuals sought to further liberalize society and politics along European lines, culminating in the Young Turk Revolution of 1908 led by the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), which established the Second Constitutional Era and introduced competitive multi-party elections under
8664-402: The Bosnian forces. According to Turkish sources, in 1454, Višegrad was conquered by the Ottoman Empire led by Osman Pasha. The Mehmed Paša Sokolović Bridge was built by the Ottoman architect and engineer Mimar Sinan for Grand Vizier Sokollu Mehmed Pasha . Construction of the bridge took place between 1571 and 1577. It still stands, and it is now a tourist attraction, after being inscribed in
8816-446: The Conqueror , reorganized both state and military, and on 29 May 1453 conquered Constantinople , ending the Byzantine Empire. Mehmed allowed the Eastern Orthodox Church to maintain its autonomy and land in exchange for accepting Ottoman authority. Due to tension between the states of western Europe and the later Byzantine Empire, most of the Orthodox population accepted Ottoman rule, as preferable to Venetian rule. Albanian resistance
8968-444: The Constitution, called the Kanûn-u Esâsî . The empire's First Constitutional era was short-lived. The parliament survived for only two years before the sultan suspended it. The empire's Christian population, owing to their higher educational levels, started to pull ahead of the Muslim majority, leading to much resentment. In 1861, there were 571 primary and 94 secondary schools for Ottoman Christians, with 140,000 pupils in total,
9120-450: The Drina river. In 1942, about 6,000 Serbs were killed in the villages of Miloševići and Stari Brod near Rogatica . In November 1941, with the help of the Italians , the Serbian royalist Chetniks established a civil and military government in the area of Višegrad, and engaged in genocidal killing of local Bosniaks . Thousands of civilians were massacred in Višegrad in December. In March 1942, 42 Bosniak villagers were burned to death in
9272-482: The French invasion the total population of Algeria was most likely between 3,000,000 and 5,000,000. By 1873, the population of Algeria (excluding several hundred thousand newly arrived French settlers) had decreased to 2,172,000. In 1831, Muhammad Ali of Egypt revolted against Sultan Mahmud II due to the latter's refusal to grant him the governorships of Greater Syria and Crete , which the Sultan had promised him in exchange for sending military assistance to put down
SECTION 60
#17328446466009424-405: The GWR, there was an extended period between political intervention in 1846 that prevented major expansion of its 7 ft 1 ⁄ 4 in ( 2,140 mm ) broad gauge and the final gauge conversion to standard gauge in 1892. During this period, many locations practicality required mixed gauge operation, and in station areas the track configuration was extremely complex. This
9576-405: The Iberians passed through newly-Christianized Latin America and had sent expeditions that traversed the Pacific to Christianize the formerly Muslim Philippines and use it as a base to attack the Muslims in the Far East . In this case, the Ottomans sent armies to aid its easternmost vassal and territory, the Sultanate of Aceh in Southeast Asia. During the 1600s, the world conflict between
9728-664: The Islamic clergy successfully objected under the grounds of theodicy . In 1754 the artillery school was reopened on a semi-secret basis. In 1726, Ibrahim Muteferrika convinced the Grand Vizier Nevşehirli Damat Ibrahim Pasha , the Grand Mufti , and the clergy on the efficiency of the printing press, and Muteferrika was later granted by Sultan Ahmed III permission to publish non-religious books (despite opposition from some calligraphers and religious leaders). Muteferrika's press published its first book in 1729 and, by 1743, issued 17 works in 23 volumes, each having between 500 and 1,000 copies. In North Africa, Spain conquered Oran from
9880-413: The Janissary revolted . Selim's efforts cost him his throne and his life, but were resolved in spectacular and bloody fashion by his successor, the dynamic Mahmud II , who eliminated the Janissary corps in 1826. The Serbian revolution (1804–1815) marked the beginning of an era of national awakening in the Balkans during the Eastern Question . In 1811, the fundamentalist Wahhabis of Arabia, led by
10032-402: The Magnificent (1520–1566) captured Belgrade in 1521, conquered the southern and central parts of the Kingdom of Hungary as part of the Ottoman–Hungarian Wars , and, after his historic victory in the Battle of Mohács in 1526, he established Ottoman rule in the territory of present-day Hungary and other Central European territories. He then laid siege to Vienna in 1529, but failed to take
10184-466: The Middle East, and China. In modern usage, the term "broad gauge" generally refers to track spaced significantly wider than 1,435 mm ( 4 ft 8 + 1 ⁄ 2 in ). Broad gauge is the dominant gauge in countries in Indian subcontinent, the former Soviet Union ( CIS states, Baltic states, Georgia and Ukraine), Mongolia, Finland (which still uses the original Soviet Gauge of 1524mm), Spain, Portugal, Argentina, Chile and Ireland. It
10336-413: The Ottoman Caliphate and Iberian Union was a stalemate since both were at similar population , technology and economic levels. Nevertheless, the success of the Ottoman political and military establishment was compared to the Roman Empire , despite the difference in size, by the likes of contemporary Italian scholar Francesco Sansovino and French political philosopher Jean Bodin . In the second half of
10488-467: The Ottoman Empire gradually shrank, 7–9 million Muslims from its former territories in the Caucasus, Crimea , Balkans, and the Mediterranean islands migrated to Anatolia and Eastern Thrace . After the Empire lost the First Balkan War (1912–1913), it lost all its Balkan territories except East Thrace (European Turkey). This resulted in around 400,000 Muslims fleeing with the retreating Ottoman armies (with many dying from cholera brought by
10640-406: The Ottoman Empire was once thought to have entered a period of decline after the death of Suleiman the Magnificent, modern academic consensus posits that the empire continued to maintain a flexible and strong economy, society and military into much of the 18th century. However, during a long period of peace from 1740 to 1768, the Ottoman military system fell behind those of its chief European rivals,
10792-403: The Ottoman admirals Hayreddin Barbarossa and Dragut . France supported the Ottomans with an artillery unit during the 1543 Ottoman conquest of Esztergom in northern Hungary. After further advances by the Turks, the Habsburg ruler Ferdinand officially recognized Ottoman ascendancy in Hungary in 1547. Suleiman died of natural causes during the siege of Szigetvár in 1566. Following his death,
10944-532: The Ottoman economy, and used its position to ensure that European capital continued to penetrate the empire, often to the detriment of local Ottoman interests. The Ottoman bashi-bazouks suppressed the Bulgarian uprising of 1876, massacring up to 100,000 people in the process. The Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878) ended with a decisive victory for Russia. As a result, Ottoman holdings in Europe declined sharply: Bulgaria
11096-547: The Ottomans were said to be declining, although this has been rejected by many scholars. By the end of Suleiman's reign, the Empire spanned approximately 877,888 sq mi (2,273,720 km ), extending over three continents. The Empire became a dominant naval force, controlling much of the Mediterranean Sea . The Empire was now a major part of European politics. The Ottomans became involved in multi-continental religious wars when Spain and Portugal were united under
11248-574: The Russian Empire (2 November 1914) and its allies France (5 November 1914) and the British Empire (5 November 1914) declared war on the Ottoman Empire. Also on 5 November 1914, the British government changed the status of the Khedivate of Egypt and Cyprus , which were de jure Ottoman territories prior to the war, to British protectorates . Track gauge In rail transport , track gauge
11400-588: The Russian intervention, Sultan Mahmud II could have faced the risk of being overthrown and Muhammad Ali could have even become the new Sultan. These events marked the beginning of a recurring pattern where the Sublime Porte needed the help of foreign powers to protect itself. In 1839, the Sublime Porte attempted to take back what it lost to the de facto autonomous, but de jure still Ottoman Eyalet of Egypt , but its forces were initially defeated, which led to
11552-546: The Russians. After this treaty the Ottoman Empire was able to enjoy a generation of peace in Europe, as Austria and Russia were forced to deal with the rise of Prussia . Educational and technological reforms came about, including the establishment of higher education institutions such as the Istanbul Technical University . In 1734 an artillery school was established to impart Western-style artillery methods, but
11704-668: The Safavids. The resulting Treaty of Zuhab of that same year decisively divided the Caucasus and adjacent regions between the two neighbouring empires as it had already been defined in the 1555 Peace of Amasya. The Sultanate of Women (1533–1656) was a period in which the mothers of young sultans exercised power on behalf of their sons. The most prominent women of this period were Kösem Sultan and her daughter-in-law Turhan Hatice , whose political rivalry culminated in Kösem's murder in 1651. During
11856-744: The Serbian border. The town was strategically important during the conflict. A nearby hydroelectric dam provided electricity and also controlled the level of the River Drina, preventing flooding of downstream areas. The town is situated on the main road connecting Belgrade and Užice in Serbia with Goražde and Sarajevo in Bosnia and Herzegovina, a vital link for the Užice Corps of the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) with
12008-508: The Turks, but was again defeated at the Second Battle of Kosovo in 1448. According to modern historiography, there is a direct connection between the rapid Ottoman military advance and the consequences of the Black Death from the mid-fourteenth century onwards. Byzantine territories, where the initial Ottoman conquests were carried out, were exhausted demographically and militarily due to
12160-404: The actual distance between the rails lies within tolerances of a prescribed standard: on curves, for example, the spacing is wider than normal. Deriving from the name of the bar, the distance between these rails is also referred to as the track gauge. The earliest form of railway was a wooden wagonway, along which single wagons were manhandled, almost always in or from a mine or quarry. Initially
12312-574: The advantage of the defeat at Vienna, culminating in the Treaty of Karlowitz (26 January 1699), which ended the Great Turkish War. The Ottomans surrendered control of significant territories, many permanently. Mustafa II (1695–1703) led the counterattack of 1695–1696 against the Habsburgs in Hungary, but was undone at the disastrous defeat at Zenta (in modern Serbia), 11 September 1697. Aside from
12464-564: The al-Saud family, revolted against the Ottomans. Unable to defeat the Wahhabi rebels, the Sublime Porte had Muhammad Ali Pasha of Kavala , the vali (governor) of the Eyalet of Egypt , tasked with retaking Arabia, which ended with the destruction of the Emirate of Diriyah in 1818. The suzerainty of Serbia as a hereditary monarchy under its own dynasty was acknowledged de jure in 1830. In 1821,
12616-402: The allowed tolerance, it is a common practice to widen the gauge slightly in curves, particularly those of shorter radius (which are inherently slower speed curves). Rolling stock on the network must have running gear ( wheelsets ) that are compatible with the gauge, and therefore the gauge is a key parameter in determining interoperability, but there are many others – see below. In some cases in
12768-485: The autonomous Deylik of Algiers . The Bey of Oran received an army from Algiers, but it failed to recapture Oran ; the siege caused the deaths of 1,500 Spaniards, and even more Algerians. The Spanish also massacred many Muslim soldiers. In 1792, Spain abandoned Oran, selling it to the Deylik of Algiers. In 1768 Russian-backed Ukrainian Haidamakas , pursuing Polish confederates, entered Balta , an Ottoman-controlled town on
12920-579: The border of Bessarabia in Ukraine, massacred its citizens, and burned the town to the ground. This action provoked the Ottoman Empire into the Russo-Turkish War of 1768–1774 . The Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca of 1774 ended the war and provided freedom of worship for the Christian citizens of the Ottoman-controlled provinces of Wallachia and Moldavia. By the late 18th century, after a number of defeats in
13072-637: The century after Osman I, Ottoman rule had begun to extend over Anatolia and the Balkans . The earliest conflicts began during the Byzantine–Ottoman wars , waged in Anatolia in the late 13th century before entering Europe in the mid-14th century, followed by the Bulgarian–Ottoman wars and the Serbian–Ottoman wars in the mid-14th century. Much of this period was characterised by Ottoman expansion into
13224-448: The city of Kütahya within 320 km (200 mi) of the capital, Constantinople. In desperation, Sultan Mahmud II appealed to the empire's traditional arch-rival Russia for help, asking Emperor Nicholas I to send an expeditionary force to assist him. In return for signing the Treaty of Hünkâr İskelesi , the Russians sent the expeditionary force which deterred Ibrahim Pasha from marching any further towards Constantinople. Under
13376-611: The city. In 1532, he made another attack on Vienna, but was repulsed in the siege of Güns . Transylvania , Wallachia and, intermittently, Moldavia , became tributary principalities of the Empire. In the east, the Ottoman Turks took Baghdad from the Persians in 1535, gaining control of Mesopotamia and naval access to the Persian Gulf . In 1555, the Caucasus became partitioned for
13528-660: The civil strife, Austria-Hungary officially annexed Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1908. The last of the Ottoman censuses was performed in 1914 . Despite military reforms which reconstituted the Ottoman Modern Army , the Empire lost its North African territories and the Dodecanese in the Italo-Turkish War (1911) and almost all of its European territories in the Balkan Wars (1912–1913). The Empire faced continuous unrest in
13680-480: The club played different seasons in the 1st League of Srpska. KK Varda is a basketball club from Višegrad, currently playing in the 1st League of Srpska, having also had good seasons in the Premier League of Bosnia. Only womens club in the city is OK HE na Drini, a volleyball club, also with a long history, having played in the Premier League of Bosnia, the 1st League of Srpska and the 2nd League of Srpska, Winning
13832-557: The convenience in laying it and changing its location over unimproved ground. In restricted spaces such as tunnels, the temporary way might be double track even though the tunnel will ultimately be single track. The Airport Rail Link in Sydney had construction trains of 900 mm ( 2 ft 11 + 7 ⁄ 16 in ) gauge, which were replaced by permanent tracks of 1,435 mm ( 4 ft 8 + 1 ⁄ 2 in ) gauge. During World War I, trench warfare led to
13984-588: The dam. The next day the JNA's Užice Corps took control of Višegrad, positioning tanks and heavy artillery around the town. The population that had fled the town during the crisis returned and the climate in the town remained relatively calm and stable during the later part of April and the first two weeks of May. On 19 May 1992 the Užice Corps officially withdrew from the town and local Serb leaders established control over Višegrad and all municipal government offices. Soon after, local Serbs, police and paramilitaries began one of
14136-448: The earliest days of railways, the railway company saw itself as an infrastructure provider only, and independent hauliers provided wagons suited to the gauge. Colloquially the wagons might be referred to as "four-foot gauge wagons", say, if the track had a gauge of four feet. This nominal value does not equate to the flange spacing, as some freedom is allowed for. An infrastructure manager might specify new or replacement track components at
14288-630: The eastern and southern frontiers by defeating Shah Ismail of Safavid Iran , in the Battle of Chaldiran . Selim I established Ottoman rule in Egypt by defeating and annexing the Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt and created a naval presence on the Red Sea . After this Ottoman expansion, competition began between the Portuguese Empire and the Ottomans to become the dominant power in the region. Suleiman
14440-514: The empire into a more harmonious place. Instead, this period became the story of the twilight struggle of the Empire. Members of Young Turks movement who had once gone underground now established their parties. Among them " Committee of Union and Progress ", and " Freedom and Accord Party " were major parties. On the other end of the spectrum were ethnic parties, which included Poale Zion , Al-Fatat , and Armenian national movement organised under Armenian Revolutionary Federation . Profiting from
14592-624: The empire was able to largely hold its own during the conflict, it struggled with internal dissent, especially the Arab Revolt . During this period, the Ottoman government engaged in genocide against Armenians , Assyrians , and Greeks . In the aftermath of World War I , the victorious Allied Powers occupied and partitioned the Ottoman Empire, which lost its southern territories to the United Kingdom and France . The successful Turkish War of Independence , led by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk against
14744-531: The end of the Caucasian Wars , 90% of the Circassians were ethnically cleansed and exiled from their homelands in the Caucasus, fleeing to the Ottoman Empire, resulting in the settlement of 500,000 to 700,000 Circassians in the Ottoman Empire. Crimean Tatar refugees in the late 19th century played an especially notable role in seeking to modernise Ottoman education and in first promoting both Pan-Turkism and
14896-515: The end of the seventeenth century, and instead the word increasingly became associated with the Greek population of the empire, a meaning that it still bears in Turkey today. In Western Europe, the names Ottoman Empire, Turkish Empire and Turkey were often used interchangeably, with Turkey being increasingly favoured both in formal and informal situations. This dichotomy was officially ended in 1920–1923, when
15048-530: The estate of the Pavlović noble family . The settlement of Višegrad was mentioned in 1407, but started to be mentioned more often after 1427. In the period of 1433–37, a relatively short period, caravans crossed the settlement many times. Many people from Višegrad worked for the Republic of Ragusa . Srebrenica , Višegrad and their surroundings were again in Serbian hands in 1448 after the despot Đurađ Branković defeated
15200-480: The first time between the Safavids and the Ottomans, a status quo that remained until the end of the Russo-Turkish War (1768–1774) . By this partitioning as signed in the Peace of Amasya , Western Armenia , western Kurdistan , and Western Georgia fell into Ottoman hands, while southern Dagestan , Eastern Armenia , Eastern Georgia , and Azerbaijan remained Persian. In 1539, a 60,000-strong Ottoman army besieged
15352-456: The fourteenth century. The word subsequently came to be used to refer to the empire's military-administrative elite. In contrast, the term "Turk" ( Türk ) was used to refer to the Anatolian peasant and tribal population and was seen as a disparaging term when applied to urban, educated individuals. In the early modern period , an educated, urban-dwelling Turkish speaker who was not a member of
15504-423: The imperial and other units that have been used for track gauge definitions: A temporary way is the temporary track often used for construction, to be replaced by the permanent way (the structure consisting of the rails, fasteners, sleepers/ties and ballast (or slab track), plus the underlying subgrade) when construction nears completion. In many cases narrow-gauge track is used for a temporary way because of
15656-622: The independence of the Middle East" in the 19th century "was not the armies of Europe but its banks". The Ottoman state, which had begun taking on debt with the Crimean War, was forced to declare bankruptcy in 1875. By 1881, the Ottoman Empire agreed to have its debt controlled by the Ottoman Public Debt Administration , a council of European men with presidency alternating between France and Britain. The body controlled swaths of
15808-507: The last Venetian stronghold in Cyprus, Famagusta. The Venetian defenders held out for 11 months against a force that at its peak numbered 200,000 men with 145 cannons; 163,000 cannonballs struck the walls of Famagusta before it fell to the Ottomans in August 1571. The Siege of Famagusta claimed 50,000 Ottoman casualties. Meanwhile, the Holy League consisting of mostly Spanish and Venetian fleets won
15960-540: The late 16th and early 17th centuries. With the Empire's population reaching 30 million people by 1600, the shortage of land placed further pressure on the government. In spite of these problems, the Ottoman state remained strong, and its army did not collapse or suffer crushing defeats. The only exceptions were campaigns against the Safavid dynasty of Persia, where many of the Ottoman eastern provinces were lost, some permanently. This 1603–1618 war eventually resulted in
16112-518: The loss of the Banat and the temporary loss of Belgrade (1717–1739), the Ottoman border on the Danube and Sava remained stable during the eighteenth century. Russian expansion , however, presented a large and growing threat. Accordingly, King Charles XII of Sweden was welcomed as an ally in the Ottoman Empire following his defeat by the Russians at the Battle of Poltava of 1709 in central Ukraine (part of
16264-402: The major axis of the rail section configured vertically, giving a much stronger section to resist bending forces, and this was further improved when fish-belly rails were introduced. Edge rails required a close match between rail spacing and the configuration of the wheelsets, and the importance of the gauge was reinforced. Railways were still seen as local concerns: there was no appreciation of
16416-459: The military-administrative class typically referred to themselves neither as an Osmanlı nor as a Türk , but rather as a Rūmī ( رومى ), or "Roman", meaning an inhabitant of the territory of the former Byzantine Empire in the Balkans and Anatolia. The term Rūmī was also used to refer to Turkish speakers by the other Muslim peoples of the empire and beyond. As applied to Ottoman Turkish speakers, this term began to fall out of use at
16568-477: The most notorious campaigns of ethnic cleansing in the conflict. There were widespread looting and destruction of houses, and terrorizing of Bosniak civilians, with instances of rape, with a large number of Bosniaks killed in the town, with many bodies being dumped in the River Drina. Men were detained at the barracks at Uzamnica , the Vilina Vlas Hotel and other sites in the area. Vilina Vlas also served as
16720-404: The narrow portion side-stepped to right or left. In rare situations, three different gauges may converge on to a rail yard and triple-gauge track is needed to meet the operational needs of the break-of-gauge station – most commonly where there is insufficient space to do otherwise. Construction and operation of triple-gauge track and its signalling, however, involves immense cost and disruption, and
16872-537: The need for greater numbers of Ottoman infantry equipped with firearms, resulting in a relaxation of recruitment policy. This contributed to problems of indiscipline and outright rebelliousness within the corps, which were never fully solved. Irregular sharpshooters ( Sekban ) were also recruited, and on demobilisation turned to brigandage in the Celali rebellions (1590–1610), which engendered widespread anarchy in Anatolia in
17024-421: The new conditions of the seventeenth century and remain powerful, both militarily and economically. Historians of the mid-twentieth century once characterised this period as one of stagnation and decline, but this view is now rejected by the majority of academics. The discovery of new maritime trade routes by Western European states allowed them to avoid the Ottoman trade monopoly. The Portuguese discovery of
17176-459: The newly established Ankara -based Turkish government chose Turkey as the sole official name. At present, most scholarly historians avoid the terms "Turkey", "Turks", and "Turkish" when referring to the Ottomans, due to the empire's multinational character. As the Rum Sultanate declined in the 13th century, Anatolia was divided into a patchwork of independent Turkish principalities known as
17328-408: The occupying Allies, led to the emergence of the Republic of Turkey in the Anatolian heartland and the abolition of the Ottoman monarchy in 1922, formally ending the Ottoman Empire. The word Ottoman is a historical anglicisation of the name of Osman I , the founder of the Empire and of the ruling House of Osman (also known as the Ottoman dynasty). Osman's name in turn was the Turkish form of
17480-544: The period known as " the Battle of the gauges ", Stephenson's standard gauge was commonly known as "narrow gauge", while Brunel's railway's 7 ft 1 ⁄ 4 in ( 2,140 mm ) gauge was termed " broad gauge ". Many narrow gauge railways were built in mountainous regions such as Wales , the Rocky Mountains of North America, Central Europe and South America. Industrial railways and mine railways across
17632-406: The plague, which facilitated Ottoman expansion. In addition, slave hunting was the main economic driving force behind Ottoman conquest. Some 21st-century authors re-periodize conquest of the Balkans into the akıncı phase , which spanned 8 to 13 decades, characterized by continuous slave hunting and destruction, followed by administrative integration into the Empire. The son of Murad II, Mehmed
17784-563: The restoration of Ottoman suzerainty over Egypt Eyalet and the Levant . By the mid-19th century, the Ottoman Empire was called the " sick man of Europe ". Three suzerain states – the Principality of Serbia , Wallachia and Moldavia – moved towards de jure independence during the 1860s and 1870s. During the Tanzimat period (1839–1876), the government's series of constitutional reforms led to
17936-416: The same track structure, can be necessary. The most frequent need for such track was at the approaches to city terminals or at break-of-gauge stations. Tracks of multiple gauges involve considerable costs in construction (including signalling work) and complexities in track maintenance, and may require some speed restrictions. They are therefore built only when absolutely necessary. If the difference between
18088-467: The sixteenth century, the Ottoman Empire came under increasing strain from inflation and the rapidly rising costs of warfare that were impacting both Europe and the Middle East. These pressures led to a series of crises around the year 1600, placing great strain upon the Ottoman system of government. The empire underwent a series of transformations of its political and military institutions in response to these challenges, enabling it to successfully adapt to
18240-608: The soldiers), and 400,000 non-Muslims fled territory still under Ottoman rule. Justin McCarthy estimates that from 1821 to 1922, 5.5 million Muslims died in southeastern Europe, with the expulsion of 5 million. The defeat and dissolution of the Ottoman Empire (1908—1922) began with the Second Constitutional Era , a moment of hope and promise established with the Young Turk Revolution . It restored
18392-490: The space between the rails of a track is colloquially referred to as the "four-foot", and the space between two tracks the "six-foot", descriptions relating to the respective dimensions. In modern usage the term "standard gauge" refers to 1,435 mm ( 4 ft 8 + 1 ⁄ 2 in ). Standard gauge is dominant in a majority of countries, including those in North America, most of western Europe, North Africa,
18544-557: The start of the 17th century, the Ottomans presided over 32 provinces and numerous vassal states , which over time were either absorbed into the Empire or granted various degrees of autonomy. With its capital at Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul ) and control over a significant portion of the Mediterranean Basin , the Ottoman Empire was at the centre of interactions between the Middle East and Europe for six centuries. While
18696-663: The sultan and restored Ottoman power. The Balkan territories lost by the Ottomans after 1402, including Thessaloniki, Macedonia, and Kosovo, were later recovered by Murad II between the 1430s and 1450s. On 10 November 1444, Murad repelled the Crusade of Varna by defeating the Hungarian, Polish, and Wallachian armies under Władysław III of Poland and John Hunyadi at the Battle of Varna , although Albanians under Skanderbeg continued to resist. Four years later, John Hunyadi prepared another army of Hungarian and Wallachian forces to attack
18848-502: The terms of the Convention of Kütahya , signed on 5 May 1833, Muhammad Ali agreed to abandon his campaign against the Sultan, in exchange for which he was made the vali (governor) of the vilayets (provinces) of Crete , Aleppo , Tripoli , Damascus and Sidon (the latter four comprising modern Syria and Lebanon ), and given the right to collect taxes in Adana . Had it not been for
19000-665: The time. This line was eventually extended to Belgrade in 1928. Višegrad is today part of the narrow-gauge heritage railway Šargan Eight . On 18 April 1941 Ustashe murdered ten Serbs including Dragiša Jakšić, the president of the Dobrun municipality. Many Serbs were executed by the fascist Ustashe regime along the Drina Valley for a month during the Genocide of Serbs , especially near Višegrad. Jure Francetić 's Black Legion killed thousands of Bosnian Serb civilians and threw their bodies into
19152-875: The title in 2023/2024 in the 2nd League of Srpska, From 2024/2025 season, they will be back to the 1st League of Srpska. Other sports clubs are Handball Club Višegrad, founded in 2002, currently playing in the 1st League of Srpska, a futsal club founded in 2023, playing in the 2nd League of Srpska and karate and judo clubs. [REDACTED] Media related to Višegrad at Wikimedia Commons [REDACTED] Una-Sana [REDACTED] Central Bosnia [REDACTED] Posavina [REDACTED] Herzegovina-Neretva [REDACTED] Tuzla [REDACTED] West Herzegovina [REDACTED] Zenica-Doboj [REDACTED] Sarajevo [REDACTED] Bosnian Podrinje [REDACTED] Canton 10 Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire ( / ˈ ɒ t ə m ə n / ), also called
19304-597: The town's mosques were razed. According to the Research and Documentation Center , at least 1,661 Bosniaks were killed/missing in Višegrad. With the Dayton Agreement , which put an end to the war, Bosnia and Herzegovina was divided into two entities, the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Republika Srpska , the latter which Višegrad became part of. Before the war, 63% of the town residents were Bosniak. In 2009, only
19456-420: The transverse distance between the inside surfaces of the two load-bearing rails of a railway track , usually measured at 12.7 millimetres (0.50 inches) to 15.9 millimetres (0.63 inches) below the top of the rail head in order to clear worn corners and allow for rail heads having sloping sides. The term derives from the "gauge", a metal bar with a precisely positioned lug at each end that track crews use to ensure
19608-543: The two areas became increasingly important, the difficulty of moving from one gauge to the other—the break of gauge —became more prominent and more objectionable. In 1845 a Royal Commission on Railway Gauges was created to look into the growing problem, and this led to the Regulating the Gauge of Railways Act 1846 , which forbade the construction of broad gauge lines unconnected with the broad gauge network. The broad gauge network
19760-612: The two gauges is large enough – for example between 1,435 mm ( 4 ft 8 + 1 ⁄ 2 in ) standard gauge and 3 ft 6 in ( 1,067 mm ) – three-rail dual-gauge is possible, but if not – for example between 3 ft 6 in ( 1,067 mm ) and 1,000 mm ( 3 ft 3 + 3 ⁄ 8 in ) metre gauge – four rails must be used. Dual-gauge rail lines occur (or have occurred) in Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Japan, North Korea, Spain, Switzerland, Tunisia and Vietnam. On
19912-567: The village of Drakan. During the Battle for Višegrad in October 1943, the Chetniks attacked a German garrison and captured the town whose Axis garrison had 350 dead and 400 wounded soldiers. 2,000 Bosniak civilians were killed after the capture of Višegrad. The Yugoslav Partisans took control of Višegrad on 14 February 1945. Višegrad is one of several towns along the River Drina in close proximity to
20064-507: The wagon wheels. As the guidance of the wagons was improved, short strings of wagons could be connected and pulled by teams of horses, and the track could be extended from the immediate vicinity of the mine or quarry, typically to a navigable waterway. The wagons were built to a consistent pattern and the track would be made to suit the needs of the horses and wagons: the gauge was more critical. The Penydarren Tramroad of 1802 in South Wales,
20216-441: The wagons were guided by human muscle power; subsequently by various mechanical methods. Timber rails wore rapidly: later, flat cast-iron plates were provided to limit the wear. In some localities, the plates were made L-shaped, with the vertical part of the L guiding the wheels; this is generally referred to as a "plateway". Flanged wheels eventually became universal, and the spacing between the rails had to be compatible with that of
20368-466: The wars with Russia, some people in the Ottoman Empire began to conclude that the reforms of Peter the Great had given the Russians an edge, and the Ottomans would have to keep up with Western technology in order to avoid further defeats. Selim III (1789–1807) made the first major attempts to modernise the army , but his reforms were hampered by the religious leadership and the Janissary corps. Jealous of their privileges and firmly opposed to change,
20520-826: The world are often narrow gauge. Sugar cane and banana plantations are mostly served by narrow gauges. Very narrow gauges of under 2 feet (610 mm) were used for some industrial railways in space-restricted environments such as mines or farms. The French company Decauville developed 500 mm ( 19 + 3 ⁄ 4 in ) and 400 mm ( 15 + 3 ⁄ 4 in ) tracks, mainly for mines; Heywood developed 15 in ( 381 mm ) gauge for estate railways . The most common minimum gauges were 15 in ( 381 mm ), 400 mm ( 15 + 3 ⁄ 4 in ), 16 in ( 406 mm ), 18 in ( 457 mm ), 500 mm ( 19 + 3 ⁄ 4 in ) or 20 in ( 508 mm ). Through operation between railway networks with different gauges
20672-410: The years leading up to World War I , including the 31 March Incident and two further coups in 1912 and 1913 . The Ottoman Empire entered World War I on the side of the Central Powers and was ultimately defeated. The Ottoman participation in the war began with the combined German-Ottoman surprise attack on the Black Sea coast of the Russian Empire on 29 October 1914. Following the attack,
20824-400: Was a major obstacle to Ottoman expansion on the Italian peninsula. In the 15th and 16th centuries, the Ottoman Empire entered a period of expansion . The Empire prospered under the rule of a line of committed and effective Sultans . It flourished economically due to its control of the major overland trade routes between Europe and Asia. Sultan Selim I (1512–1520) dramatically expanded
20976-427: Was a place within the border area with Bosnia, on the road towards Višegrad. After the death of emperor Stefan Dušan (r. 1331–55), the region came under the rule of magnate Vojislav Vojinović , and then his nephew, župan (count) Nikola Altomanović . The Dobrun Monastery was founded by župan Pribil and his family, some time before the 1370s. The area then came under the rule of the Kingdom of Bosnia , part of
21128-443: Was adopted, but many countries or companies chose a different gauge as their national gauge, either by governmental policy, or as a matter of individual choice. Standard gauge is generally known world-wide as being 1,435 mm ( 4 ft 8 + 1 ⁄ 2 in ). Terms such as broad gauge and narrow gauge do not have any fixed meaning beyond being materially wider or narrower than standard. In British practice,
21280-410: Was built through Višegrad during the Austro-Hungarian rule in Bosnia and Herzegovina . Construction of the line started in 1903. It was completed in 1906, using a 760 mm ( 2 ft 5 + 15 ⁄ 16 in ) track gauge . Having costed 75 million gold crowns, which is approximately 450 thousand gold crowns per kilometer, it was one of the most expensive railways in the world built at
21432-420: Was closer to Užice , located on the Serbian side of the River Drina, than to the surrounding areas. Višegrad has a temperate climate ( Köppen : Cfb/Cfa ) with cold winters, hot summers, and moderate precipitation year-round. The area was part of the medieval Serbian state of the Nemanjić dynasty; it was part of the Grand Principality of Serbia under Stefan Nemanja (r. 1166–96). In the Middle Ages, Dobrun
21584-441: Was compounded by the common rail having to be at the platform side in stations; therefore, in many cases, standard-gauge trains needed to be switched from one side of the track to the other at the approach. A special fixed point arrangement was devised for the purpose, where the track layout was simple enough. In some cases, mixed gauge trains were operated with wagons of both gauges. For example, MacDermot wrote: In November 1871
21736-414: Was established as an independent principality inside the Ottoman Empire; Romania achieved full independence; and Serbia and Montenegro finally gained complete independence, but with smaller territories. In 1878, Austria-Hungary unilaterally occupied the Ottoman provinces of Bosnia-Herzegovina and Novi Pazar . British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli advocated restoring the Ottoman territories on
21888-464: Was eventually converted—a progressive process completed in 1892, called gauge conversion . The same Act mandated the gauge of 5 ft 3 in ( 1,600 mm ) for use in Ireland. As railways were built in other countries, the gauge selection was pragmatic: the track would have to fit the rolling stock. If locomotives were imported from elsewhere, especially in the early days, the track would be built to fit them. In some cases standard gauge
22040-484: Was far more damaging to the Ottoman navy in sapping experienced manpower than the loss of ships, which were rapidly replaced. The Ottoman navy recovered quickly, persuading Venice to sign a peace treaty in 1573, allowing the Ottomans to expand and consolidate their position in North Africa. By contrast, the Habsburg frontier had settled somewhat, a stalemate caused by a stiffening of the Habsburg defenses. The Long Turkish War against Habsburg Austria (1593–1606) created
22192-409: Was on the defensive and unlikely to present any further aggression in Europe. The Austro-Russian–Turkish War (1735–1739), which was ended by the Treaty of Belgrade in 1739, resulted in the Ottoman recovery of northern Bosnia , Habsburg Serbia (including Belgrade), Oltenia and the southern parts of the Banat of Temeswar ; but the Empire lost the port of Azov , north of the Crimean Peninsula, to
22344-407: Was opened in 1830, it used the same gauge. It too was very successful, and the gauge, widened to 4 ft 8 + 1 ⁄ 2 in or 1,435 mm and named " standard gauge ", was well on its way to becoming the established norm. The Liverpool and Manchester was quickly followed by other trunk railways, with the Grand Junction Railway and the London and Birmingham Railway forming
22496-434: Was opened in 1996, is located in the House of Culture. There is also a folk dance ensemble operating in Višegrad under the name KUD "Bikavac". The Serbian Orthodox Dobrun Monastery is one of the most notable monasteries of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Višegrad is also known for various sports clubs. The local football club is FK Drina HE Višegrad , which competes in the 2nd League of Srpska . In its long history, (1924-2024)
22648-469: Was originally impossible; goods had to be transshipped and passengers had to change trains. This was obviously a major obstacle to convenient transport, and in Great Britain, led to political intervention. On narrow gauge lines, rollbocks or transporter wagons are used: standard gauge wagons are carried on narrow gauge lines on these special vehicles, generally with rails of the wider gauge to enable those vehicles to roll on and off at transfer points. On
22800-423: Was part of a long-running contest between the major European powers for influence over territories of the declining Ottoman Empire. The financial burden of the war led the Ottoman state to issue foreign loans amounting to 5 million pounds sterling on 4 August 1854. The war caused an exodus of the Crimean Tatars , about 200,000 of whom moved to the Ottoman Empire in continuing waves of emigration. Toward
22952-421: Was referred to as "narrow gauge" to indicate the contrast. Some smaller concerns selected other non-standard gauges: the Eastern Counties Railway adopted 5 ft ( 1,524 mm ). Most of them converted to standard gauge at an early date, but the GWR's broad gauge continued to grow. The larger railway companies wished to expand geographically, and large areas were considered to be under their control. When
23104-449: Was successful and was greatly expanded, directly and through friendly associated companies, widening the scope of broad gauge. At the same time, other parts of Britain built railways to standard gauge, and British technology was exported to European countries and parts of North America, also using standard gauge. Britain polarised into two areas: those that used broad gauge and those that used standard gauge. In this context, standard gauge
#599400