when did the us send military advisers to vietnam

In September 1950, US President Harry Truman sent the Military Assistance Advisory Group (MAAG) to Vietnam to assist the French in the First Indochina War. The President claimed they were not sent as combat troops, but to supervise the use of $10 million worth of US military equipment to support the French in their effort to fight the Viet Minh forces. By 1953, aid increased dramatically to $350 million to replace old military equipment owned by the French.[2]

Military Assistance Advisory Group

Military Assistance Advisory Group (MAAG) is a designation for United States military advisers sent to other countries to assist in the training of conventional armed forces and facilitate military aid. Although numerous MAAGs operated around the world throughout the 1940sâ€“1970s, the most famous MAAGs were those active in Southeast Asia before and during the Vietnam War. Typically, the personnel of MAAGs were considered to be technical staff attached to, and enjoying the privileges of, the US diplomatic mission in a country.[1] Although the term is not as widespread as it once was, the functions performed by MAAGs continue to be performed by successor organizations attached to embassies, often called United States Military Groups (USMILGP or MILGRP). The term MAAG may still occasionally be used for such organizations helping promote military partnerships with several Latin American countries such as Peru and the Dominican Republic as well as in African countries such as Liberia.[citation needed]

The French Army however, was reluctant to take U.S. advice, and would not allow the Vietnamese army to be trained to use the new equipment, because it went against French policy. They were supposed to not only defeat enemy forces but to solidify themselves as a colonial power, and they could not do this with a Vietnamese Army. French commanders were so reluctant to accept advice that would weaken their time-honored colonial role that they got in the way of the various attempts by the MAAG to observe where the equipment was being sent and how it was being used. Eventually the French decided to cooperate, but at that point it was too late.[2]

In 1954 the commanding general of French forces in Indochina, General Henri Navarre, allowed the United States to send liaison officers to Vietnamese forces. But it was too late, because of the siege and fall of Dien Bien Phu in the spring. As stated by the Geneva Accords, France was forced to surrender the northern half of Vietnam and to withdraw from South Vietnam by April 1956.[3]

At a conference in Washington, D.C. on February 12, 1955, between officials of the U.S. State Department and the French Minister of Overseas Affairs, it was agreed that all U.S. aid would be funneled directly to South Vietnam and that all major military responsibilities would be transferred from the French to the MAAG under the command of Lieutenant General John O'Daniel. A problem arose however, because the French Expeditionary Force had to depart from South Vietnam in April 1956 pursuant to the Accords. After the French defeat, it was renamed the MAAG Vietnam in 1955, as the United States became more deeply involved in what would come to be known as the Vietnam War.

The next few years saw the rise of a Communist insurgency in South Vietnam, and President Diem looked increasingly to US military assistance to strengthen his position, albeit with certain reservations. Attacks on US military advisers in Vietnam became more frequent. On October 22, 1957, MAAG Vietnam and USIS installations in Saigon were bombed, injuring US military advisers.[4] In the summer of 1959, Communist guerrillas staged an attack on a Vietnamese military base in Bien Hoa, killing and wounding several MAAG personnel.[5] During this time, American advisers were not put in high-ranking positions, and President Diem was reluctant to allow American advisers into Vietnamese tactical units. He was afraid that the United States would gain control or influence over his forces if Americans got into the ranks of the army. The first signs that his position was beginning to shift came in 1960, when the number of official US military advisers in the country was increased from 327 to 685 at the request of the South Vietnamese government.[5] By 1961, communist guerrillas were becoming stronger and more active. This increased enemy contacts in size and intensity throughout South Vietnam. At this point, Diem was under pressure from US authorities to liberalize his regime and implement reforms. Although key elements in the US administration were resisting his requests for increased military funding and Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) troop ceilings, MAAG Vietnam played a significant role in advocating for a greater US presence in the country.[6] Throughout this period relations between the MAAG Vietnam and Diem were described as "excellent", even though the advisers were doubtful of his ability to hold off the insurgency.[7]

Newly elected President John F. Kennedy agreed with MAAG Vietnam's calls for increases in ARVN troop levels and the U.S. military commitment in both equipment and men. In response, Kennedy provided $28.4 million in funding for ARVN, and overall military aid increased from $50 million per year to $144 million in 1961. In the first year of the Kennedy administration, MAAG Vietnam worked closely with administration officials, USOM, and the US Information Service to develop a counterinsurgency plan (CIP). The CIP's main initiatives included the strengthening of ARVN to combat the Communist insurgency, which had the corollary effect of strengthening Diem's political position.[8] At the same time President Diem agreed to the assignment of advisers to battalion level, significantly increasing the number of advisers; from 746 in 1961 to over 3,400 before MAAG Vietnam was placed under U.S. Military Assistance Command Vietnam (MACV) and renamed the Field Advisory Element, Vietnam. At the peak of the war in 1968, 9,430 Army personnel acted as advisors down to the district and battalion level to train, advise and mentor the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN), Republic of Vietnam Marine Corps, Republic of Vietnam Navy and the Republic of Vietnam Air Force.

MAAG Indochina had three commanders: BG Francis G. Brink, October 1950 – August 1952; MG Thomas J. H. Trapnell, August 1952 – April 1954; and LTG John W. O'Daniel, April 1954 – November 1955. MAAG Vietnam was commanded by LTG Samuel T. Williams, November 1955 – September 1960; LTG Lionel C. McGarr, September 1960 – January 1962; and GEN Paul D. Harkins, January 1962 – June 1964.

As part of the military outreach of the USA to friendly countries in Southeast Asia, a MAAG was established in Bangkok, Thailand in September 1950.

It was replaced by the Joint US Military Advisory Group Thailand (JUSMAGTHAI) in September 1953, which operates until today.[9][10]

MAAG Laos was preceded by the Programs Evaluation Office, established on 15 December 1955. Due to the limitations emplaced by international treaty, the PEO was set up with civilian personnel instead of a MAAG with a military staff. When political changes superseded the treaty, MAAG Laos was established in 1961 to replace the Programs Evaluation Office in its support of the Royal Lao Army's fight against the communist Pathet Lao. On July 23, 1962, several interested countries agreed in Geneva to guarantee the neutrality and independence of Laos. As such, the US removed the MAAG, replacing it with a Requirements Office, which served as a convenient cover for the CIA activities.[11]

One of MAAG Laos' commanders was Reuben Tucker.

MAAG Cambodia was established on June 4, 1955, pursuant to the United States-Royal Government of Cambodia agreement of May 16, 1955. This agreement included the introduction of high-ranking US military personnel to advise the Cambodian armed forces as non-combatants.[12] The advisory group was staffed mainly by army personnel, with smaller contingents of navy and air force personnel.

As Cambodia's leadership took an official policy of neutrality in the Cold War, MAAG Cambodia's involvement in the country was terminated on November 20, 1963, by General Order 6, MAAG Cambodia, following the Cambodian government's cancellation of all U.S. aid.[13]

In Taiwan, U.S. Military Advisory Group generally refers to the United States Armed Forces in the Republic of China (Taiwan) from April 1951 to December 1978. The commander of these forces was U.S. Major General William C. Chase until his retirement in 1955 at which time he was succeeded by U.S. Brigadier General Lester Bork[14] American military advisers were tasked with providing arms and military advice, assisting with Taiwanese military training, implementation of the Sino-American Mutual Defense Treaty, maintaining military contacts, and monitoring Republic of China forces. In 1957 there were 10,000 Americans in Taiwan, the great majority being CIA and military personnel and their families.[15]

Since 1979, the site of MAAG headquarters in Taipei has been occupied by American Institute in Taiwan/Taipei branch, which is scheduled to move to a new office complex in 2015.


why the east india company was interested in penang/singapore

Aware of this situation, Light formed friendly relations with the then Sultan of Kedah, Sultan Muhammad Jiwa Zainal Adilin II, and promised British military protection.[26][27] As part of his promises, Light assisted in the quelling of the Bugis revolt by recapturing a Bugis-held fort for the Sultan.[1] The Sultan reciprocated by offering Penang Island to Light.[1][2][28] Light subsequently wrote to his superiors regarding the offer, arguing that Penang Island could serve as a "convenient magazine for trade" and its strategic location would allow the British to check Dutch and French territorial gains in Southeast Asia. He also made the case that, with the other ports in the region, such as Aceh and Phuket, riddled with piracy and despotic governments, the British East India Company could seize the opportunity to establish a tranquil harbour on Penang Island conducive for free trade, noting that if "Malay, Bugis and Chinese will come to reside here, it will become the Exchange of the East if not loaded with impositions and restrictions".[27]

History of Penang

The State of Penang, one of the most developed and urbanised Malaysian states, is located at the nation's northwest coast along the Malacca Strait. Unlike most Malaysian states, the history of modern Penang was shaped by British colonialism, beginning with the acquisition of Penang Island from the Sultanate of Kedah by the British East India Company in 1786.[1][2] Developed into a free port, the city state was subsequently governed as part of the Straits Settlements, together with Singapore and Malacca; the state capital, George Town, briefly became the capital of this political entity between 1826 and 1832.[3][4] By the end of the 19th century, George Town prospered and became one of the major entrepôts in Southeast Asia.

During World War II, Penang was conquered and occupied by the Japanese Empire from 1941 to 1945. At the end of the war, Penang was also the first state in the Malay Peninsula to be liberated by the British, under Operation Jurist. The Straits Settlements was dissolved in the following year and Penang was merged into the Federation of Malaya. In spite of a secessionist movement within Penang, the merger with Malaya went ahead and the federation attained independence from the British Empire in 1957.[5][6][7][8] Malaya later evolved into the present-day Malaysia in 1963.

Following the revocation of George Town's free port status in the 1960s, the state suffered economic decline and massive unemployment.[7][9][10] The state government at the time led a push to reorient the economy towards hi-tech manufacturing, successfully recovering Penang's economy and lending the state its moniker the 'Silicon Valley of the East'.[7][11] Growing recognition of George Town as a bustling tourist destination, particularly since the city's inscription as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2008, also boosted the state's services sector, and today, both the manufacturing and services sectors are the two strongest economic pillars of Penang.[12][13][14] Moreover, the state enjoys one of the lowest unemployment rates and Gini coefficients within Malaysia, as well as the second highest gross domestic product (GDP) per capita within the country after Kuala Lumpur.[15][16][17]

Evidence of prehistoric human settlement in what is now Penang has been discovered in Guar Kepah within Seberang Perai (formerly Province Wellesley), the mainland half of Penang.[18][19] Human remains, dating back to about 5,000 to 6,000 years ago, have been found at the site south of the Muda River, along with seashells, pottery and hunting tools. These indicate that Seberang Perai had been inhabited by nomadic Melanesians from as early as the Neolithic era.[20]

Seberang Perai also became part of the Bujang Valley civilisation. The Cherok Tok Kun megalith in Bukit Mertajam, discovered in 1845, contains Pali inscriptions, indicating that an early Hindu-Buddhist political entity in what is now Kedah had established control over parts of Seberang Perai sometime between the 5th and 6th centuries.[21] The entirety of what is now Penang would later form part of the Sultanate of Kedah up until the late 18th century.

Meanwhile, Penang Island was first documented by Chinese sailors of the Ming dynasty in the 15th century. At the time, Ming Emperor Yongle was in the midst of launching naval expeditions that would eventually reach all the way to eastern Africa. The island, known as Bīnláng Yù (simplified Chinese: 梹榔屿; traditional Chinese: 梹榔嶼), was mapped by Admiral Zheng He's fleet in the 'Nautical Charts of Zheng He'.

One of the first Englishmen to arrive on Penang Island was the privateer Sir James Lancaster who commanded the Edward Bonadventure. He landed at Batu Ferringhi in June 1592 and remained on the island until September, pillaging every vessel he encountered.[22]

Penang Island was also indicated as Pulo Pinaom in Portuguese historian Emanuel Godinho de Eredia's 1613 map of the Malay Peninsula.[23]

In the early 18th century, ethnic Minangkabaus from Sumatra, led by Haji Muhammad Salleh (also known as Nakhoda Intan), landed on Penang Island, establishing a seaside settlement at Batu Uban in 1734.[24] They were followed by the Arabs, who subsequently intermarried with the Minangkabau; this gave rise to the Arab-Minangkabau admixture now described as Malay, as they have assimilated into the local Malay community.

The history of modern Penang only began in earnest in the late 18th century. Up until then, the Sultanate of Kedah, which had control over Penang, had maintained turbulent diplomatic relations with Siam to the north. In the 1770s, the British East India Company instructed Francis Light to establish trade relations in the Malay Peninsula.[1][2] Light subsequently landed in Kedah, which at that point was threatened by both Siam and Burma, as well as an internal Bugis rebellion.[1][25]

However, nothing transpired until 1786, when by that point the British were fighting the Thirteen American Colonies, which were backed by France and the Netherlands.[1] Faced with the Dutch dominance of the East Indies (now Indonesia) and a growing French threat, Light, who by then had risen to the rank of Captain, was ordered to acquire Penang Island from Kedah.[26][28] The British East India Company sought control of Penang Island as a Royal Navy base, and a trading post between China and the Indian subcontinent.[2]

Light negotiated with the new Sultan of Kedah, Sultan Abdullah Mukarram Shah, regarding the cession of Penang Island to the British East India Company in exchange for British military assistance and a lease of 6,000 Spanish dollars to cancel Kedah's debts to Siam.[1][2][27][29] With the agreement between Light and the Kedah Sultan successfully concluded, Light and his entourage sailed on to Penang Island, where they arrived on 17 July 1786.[30][31] Fort Cornwallis would later be built at the spot where Light first set foot.

The area where Light first landed was originally a mangrove swamp covered in thick jungle.[1][2] Once enough land was cleared, creating what is now the Esplanade, a ceremony was held on 11 August, during which the Union Jack was raised for the first time. This signified the formal possession of Penang Island by the British East India Company in the name of King George III.[32] The island was renamed the Prince of Wales Island after the heir to the British throne, while the new settlement of George Town was established in honour of King George III. Thus, George Town became the first British settlement in Southeast Asia and a springboard for future British territorial expansion in the region, while its establishment by the British East India Company marked the start of a period of British imperialism in the Malay Peninsula.[27]

Unbeknownst to the Kedah Sultan, however, Light had acted without the authority or consent of his superiors in India.[1][2][29] When Light reneged on his promise of British military protection against Siam, the Kedah Sultan in 1791 assembled an army in what is now Seberang Perai to retake the Prince of Wales Island. The Sultan's force was also assisted by a fleet of pirates.[1] Fortunately for Light, his garrison on the island was reinforced by two companies from Calcutta. After failing to persuade the Sultan to disband his forces, the British East India Company launched amphibious assaults at night, destroying Kedah's military installations in Perai, and defeating both the pirates and the Sultan's army.[1][37]

In 1800, the first Lieutenant-Governor of the Prince of Wales Island, Sir George Leith, gained a 189.3 km2 (73.1 sq mi) strip of Seberang Perai from the Kedah Sultan and renamed it Province Wellesley.[2][38] The newly acquired land covered an area south of the Perai River, turning the river into the international border between the British-controlled Province Wellesley and Kedah.[39] At the time, Province Wellesley was heavily forested and sparsely populated, with a total population of only 5,000.[38] In exchange to this acquisition, the annual payment to the Kedah Sultan was increased to 10,000 Spanish dollars per annum. To this day, the Malaysian federal government still pays Kedah, on behalf of Penang, RM10,000 annually as a symbolic gesture.[40][41]

Following the original acquisition in 1800, Province Wellesley was gradually expanded up to its present-day boundaries in 1874, when the Pangkor Treaty, which included the delineation of Province Wellesley's southern borders, was signed between the British and the neighbouring Sultanate of Perak.[42][43][44]

Light died from malaria in 1794 and was buried within the Old Protestant Cemetery in George Town. To this day, Light is honoured as the founding father of Penang.

Francis Light had established George Town as a free port, thus allowing merchants to trade without having to pay any form of tax or duties. In effect, this measure was intended to entice merchants from the Dutch ports in the region.[45] As a result, the number of incoming vessels increased exponentially from 85 in 1786 to 3,569 in 1802; George Town's population had also risen to 10,000 by 1792.[46][47][48] Immigrants came from various parts of Asia; in 1801, the then Lieutenant-Governor of the Prince of Wales Island, Sir George Leith, remarked that "there is not, probably, any part of the world where, in so small a space, so many different people are assembled together or so great a variety of languages spoken".[27] A committee of assessors was also established for George Town in 1800, making it the first local government to be established within British Malaya.[49]

The Prince of Wales Island, together with Province Wellesley, had been administered under the Bengal Presidency until 1805, when Penang was made a separate Presidency on par with Madras, Bombay and Bengal.[27] By then, Penang also served as a penal station; in 1796, 700 Indian convicts were shipped in from the Andaman Islands.[37][50] The practice of employing Indian convicts continued throughout the 19th century as a means to provide the necessary labour for public infrastructure works, such as the construction of roads, drains and public buildings.[37][51]

In 1807, a Royal Charter to provide for the establishment of a Supreme Court and a police force in Penang was granted. The Supreme Court of Penang was first opened at Fort Cornwallis in George Town in 1808, with Edmond Stanley assuming office as its first Recorder (Judge).[52][53] In the decades that followed, Penang's judiciary and the police force were progressively applied to the Straits Settlements, and later copied throughout British Malaya.[54][55] Hence, Penang was the birthplace of the present-day Malaysian judiciary system, as well as the Royal Malaysian Police.[52][53][54][55]

In the early 19th century, Penang became a centre of spice production and trade within Southeast Asia. The cultivation of pepper began soon after the founding of George Town in 1786.[56] The production of spices, including nutmeg and clove, gradually grew more varied and the booming spice trade led to the opening of spice farms all over Penang. The export of spices through the Port of Penang also enabled the British East India Company to cover the administrative costs of Penang.[51][57] Furthermore, the agricultural plantations would fuel the growth of several villages, such as Air Itam and Balik Pulau on the island, and Bukit Mertajam in Province Wellesley.[51][57][58] Malay refugees fleeing the Siamese invasion of Kedah and Chinese immigrants formed the bulk of workers in these agricultural estates. Other areas, such as Bayan Lepas on the island and Kepala Batas in Province Wellesley, were founded as rice-producing estates.

In 1826, the British East India Company amalgamated the territories of Penang, Singapore (acquired from Johor in 1819) and Malacca (acquired from the Netherlands in 1824) into a single political entity, the Straits Settlements. George Town was made the administrative and judicial capital of the new entity. However, owing to Singapore's more strategic geographical location between the Malacca Strait and the South China Sea, the Port of Singapore rapidly surpassed the Port of Penang as the preeminent harbour in the region. Consequently, Singapore replaced George Town as the capital of the Straits Settlements in 1832.[61]

Nonetheless, George Town continued to retain its importance as a vital British entrepôt by funneling the exports meant for global shipping lines which had bypassed other regional harbours.[62][63] In the latter half of the 19th century, the tin mining boom within the neighbouring Sultanate of Perak and Siam brought more prosperity to Penang. Tin produced from within the Kinta Valley and southern Siam were transported to George Town for smelting, before being exported via the Port of Penang to European and American industries.[62] The Port of Penang subsequently became a major tin-exporting harbour within British Malaya, directly challenging the Port of Singapore.[64][59] The opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 and the advent of steamships further cemented the Port of Penang's importance as a major entrepôt within British Malaya.[62] By the end of the 19th century, George Town also evolved into a leading financial centre of British Malaya, as mercantile firms and international banks, including Standard Chartered and HSBC, flocked into the city.[31][59]

By then, Penang became home to a myriad of ethnicities and religious affinities. Aside from the sizeable Chinese, Malay, Indian, Peranakan, Eurasian and Siamese communities, the colony's multi-ethnic and multi-religious society included significant minorities of Burmese, British, Javanese, Japanese, Sinhalese, Jewish, German and Armenian origin.[37][62][59][65]

At the time, each ethnic community had a tendency to specialise in specific trades and economic sectors.[37] While the Europeans predominated in the various professional fields, as well as occupying managerial positions in mercantile and shipping firms, the Peranakans and the Eurasians tended to enter the nascent civil service as lawyers, engineers, architects and clerks. Some of the newer Chinese arrivals, labelled condescendingly by the Peranakans as 'Sinkheh' (Chinese: 新客; meaning new guests), were coolies and agricultural farmers, although many eventually entered into commercial, trading and real estate enterprises within the city; certain dialect communities, such as the Cantonese and the Hakka, predominated as artisans, blacksmiths, carpenters and cooks. The Indians, who were first brought in as convict workers for public works, also began competing with the Chinese in commercial, trading and shipping stevedore activities.[37][51] Ethnic Malays, meanwhile, were primarily engaged in agricultural occupations, including rice farming and fishing. Other ethnic communities, such as the Jews and the Armenians, were mainly engaged in mercantile and commercial ventures; the latter community was notable for the establishment of the Eastern & Oriental Hotel, for instance.

The rapid population growth that resulted from the booming economy led to several social problems, chiefly the inadequate sanitation and public health facilities, as well as rampant crime. The latter was brought about by an influx of Chinese immigrants, which led to the formation of feuding triads and secret societies.[62][66] Turf wars between the triads worsened, and when the Straits Settlements authorities attempted to put a stop to the triad activities in 1857, the Chinese triads came into conflict against the British-led police force as well. This culminated in the Penang Riots of 1867 in the streets of George Town, when the Kean Teik Tong, led by Khoo Thean Teik and the Red Flag, clashed against the alliance of the Ghee Hin Kongsi and the White Flag.[67][68] The resulting civil unrest lasted for 10 days, before the turf war was eventually quelled by the Straits Settlements authorities under newly appointed Lieutenant-Governor Edward Anson, who were assisted by European residents and reinforcements from Singapore.[69][70]

Also in the same year, the Straits Settlements was made a British crown colony, thereby placing the administration of Penang, Singapore and Malacca directly under the Colonial Office in London.[71][72] Direct British rule meant better enforcement of the rule of law, as Penang's police force was vastly beefed up and the secret societies that had plagued George Town during the preceding decades were gradually outlawed.[62][66]

Meanwhile, in Province Wellesley, new railway lines were being constructed, with the first railroad being the Bukit Mertajam-Perai line in 1899.[73] The town of Butterworth was also established in the mid-19th century as the transportation hub within Province Wellesley. In 1894, the first cross-strait ferry service between George Town and Butterworth commenced operations, and would eventually evolve into the present-day Rapid Ferry.[74]

With improved access to education and rising living standards, Penang soon enjoyed substantial press freedom and there was a greater degree of participation in municipal affairs by its Asian residents.[9][27][62] Penang's representatives in the Straits Settlements Legislative Council gained a reputation for their assertive contestation of the policies made by the Singapore-based British authorities, which sometimes went against Penang's interests.

On top of that, George Town, perceived as being more intellectually receptive than Singapore, also served as a magnet for well known English authors, Asian intellectuals and reformists.[9][27][62][75] For instance, the Chinese revolutionary leader, Sun Yat-sen, chose to relocate his Southeast Asian base from Singapore to George Town, where he continued his efforts to reorganise and raise funds for the Chinese revolutionary movement against the Qing dynasty.[27][62][76] These efforts culminated in the famous 1910 Penang conference, which paved the way to the ultimately triumphant Wuchang uprising that overthrew the Manchu imperial government of China.[51][77]

On 28 October 1914, the Battle of Penang occurred, during which an Imperial German Navy cruiser, SMS Emden, covertly sailed into George Town and sank the Imperial Russian Navy cruiser, Zhemchug. The French Navy destroyer, Mousquet, set off in pursuit, before being sunk by SMS Emden as well off the northwestern tip of Penang Island. 147 French and Russian sailors perished, while the survivors were rescued by local Malay fishermen.[78]

Aside from the naval battle, Penang, as well as the Straits Settlements, was largely unaffected by the events of World War I.

World War II, on the other hand, unleashed unprecedented social and political upheaval to Penang. The swift British retreat, coupled with the brutal massacres of Penang's Chinese residents, would severely dent British sense of prestige and dominance in the eyes of the locals.

From 9 until 18 December 1941, Japanese warplanes indiscriminately strafed and bombed George Town, in the process eliminating the obsolete Royal Air Force and Royal Australian Air Force squadrons based in RAF Butterworth and the Bayan Lepas Aerodrome (now Penang International Airport).[79][80] It was estimated that 600 civilians were killed as a result of the Japanese bombardment, with an additional 1,100 wounded.

Notwithstanding the fact that the British Army had earlier designated Penang Island as a fortress, Lieutenant-General Arthur Percival then ordered a withdrawal from Penang. Not only did the British Army abandon the Batu Maung Fort on the island, they also surreptitiously evacuated Penang's European population, leaving the colony's Asian populace to the mercy of the impending Japanese occupation.[81] To this day, it has been agreed that the withdrawal and the covert evacuation of Europeans led to the loss of the British sense of invincibility, and that "the moral collapse of British rule in Southeast Asia came not in Singapore, but in Penang".[82]

Penang fell to the Imperial Japanese Army on 19 December 1941, marking the start of a period of Japanese occupation.[79][83] Penang Island was renamed Tojo-to, after the Japanese Prime Minister at the time, Hideki Tojo.[82] George Town's harbour facilities were also put to use as a major Axis submarine base in Southeast Asia.[84][85][86][87][88]

The Japanese enacted dissimilar policies with each ethnic community. Ethnic Chinese residents arguably suffered the most brutal treatment, as the Imperial Japanese Army massacred thousands of Chinese as part of the Sook Ching campaign to rid what was perceived as anti-Japanese elements in the society.[89] Penang's womenfolk were also coerced to work as comfort women by the Imperial Japanese Army.[90][91]

Penang's residents also had to endure economic hardship during the Japanese occupation, with hyperinflation caused by the oversupply of the Japanese-issued 'banana' dollars, and the acute shortage of food and raw materials, due to a combination of Japanese wartime rationing and an Allied blockade of Japanese shipping.[92][93][94] Households were forced to turn to secondary crops such as sweet potatoes, yam and tapioca for their own subsistence. Beginning in 1942, a standardised Japanese curricula was enforced in all schools throughout Penang, with Japanese as the official language. In fact, social lifestyles were also greatly impacted, as it became compulsory to bow to Japanese soldiers on guard duty and to sing the Japanese national anthem, whilst whole streets and shops were renamed in Japanese.[95]

Between 1944 and 1945, Royal Air Force and United States Army Air Force bomber squadrons based in India repeatedly launched bombing raids on George Town, seeking to destroy naval and administrative facilities.[79] The destruction of the Penang Secretariat building by the Allied bombardment caused the loss of a large part of the British and Japanese records concerning Penang Island, complicating post-war efforts to compile a comprehensive history of Penang.[96] The Penang Strait was also mined as part of efforts to constrict Japanese shipping.[97]

Following the Japanese surrender on 15 August 1945, the Penang Shimbun, a Japanese newspaper, published the proclamation of surrender issued by the Emperor of Japan. Under Operation Jurist, a British Royal Navy fleet accepted the surrender of the Japanese garrison in Penang on 2 September 1945. A British Royal Marines contingent recaptured Penang Island on the following day, making George Town the first city in Malaya to be liberated at the end of the war.

Penang was placed under a military administration until 1946, as the British sought to restore order in the face of an emerging Communist insurgency.[79] The British also dissolved the Straits Settlements in April 1946, with Sir Shenton Thomas being its last Governor.

Subsequently, the now separate crown colonies of Penang and Malacca were merged with the Federated Malay States and the Unfederated Malay States to form a new federation, the Malayan Union; the Crown Colony of Singapore, excluded from this union, was to remain firmly under British rule. The Malayan Union was replaced by the Federation of Malaya in 1948. As the gradual withdrawal of the Western colonial powers in Southeast Asia continued taking shape, the independence of Malaya as a united political entity seemed a foregone conclusion.

However, the merger of the British crown colony of Penang into the vast Malay heartland alarmed some quarters of Penang's population. Questions were raised over economic and ethnic issues, such as the citizenship of non-Malays, greater trade regulations imposed on Penang by the central government in Kuala Lumpur and the introduction of export duties for trade with the rest of Malaya.[5] Consequently, the Penang Secession Committee, formed in 1948, proposed to exclude Penang from the Federation of Malaya, which would allow Penang to either retain its links with the British Empire or form a political union with Singapore.[5][6][8] The movement was led by D.A. Mackay, then the chairman of the Penang Chamber of Commerce, and included the Penang Muslim Chamber of Commerce, the Penang Chinese Chamber of Commerce, the Penang Straits Chinese Association, the Penang Eurasian Association and the Penang Indian Chamber of Commerce.[5][6][7][98][99]

Ultimately, the Penang Secession Committee failed to attain its goals and petered out. A secession motion tabled in the Penang Settlement Council in 1949 was narrowly dismissed by British official votes, while another petition sent to London in 1951 also met with British disapproval.[5][6][7][8] While some British and American observers were sympathetic to the secessionists' cause, the British administrators were reluctant to jeopardise their own plans to gradually grant independence to a united Malayan polity. Moreover, the British government allayed the fears raised by the secessionists by guaranteeing George Town's free port status and by reintroducing municipal elections for the city in 1951.[6]

On 1 January 1957, George Town, the capital of Penang, was granted city status by Queen Elizabeth II in 1957, becoming the first city within the Federation of Malaya, and by extension, Malaysia. George Town continued to be the only city within Malaysia (other than Singapore between 1963 and its Separation in 1965) until 1972, when Kuala Lumpur was also conferred city status.

Penang, as part of the Federation of Malaya, gained independence from the British Empire on 31 August 1957, and subsequently became a member state of Malaysia in 1963.

Penang's political landscape immediately after the independence of Malaya became relatively fractured. The new Penang state government was dominated by the Alliance coalition (now succeeded by Barisan Nasional), the same ruling coalition that controlled the Malayan federal government. Wong Pow Nee of the Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA), one of the major component parties of the Alliance, became Penang's first Chief Minister, a position that he held until 1969. On the other hand, the Labour Party, a left-wing opposition party, took control of the George Town City Council soon after the Malayan independence.[63] Penang's voters tended to leave the control of the state government in the hands of the Alliance, while consistently electing the Labour Party to run the city council.

At the time, the George Town City Council was the only fully elected local authority in Malaya, as well as the country's richest, with an annual revenue that was double that of the Penang state government by 1965.[100] This solidified the financial autonomy of the city council, with its revenue going into social welfare projects within George Town.[63][101] Meanwhile, the Penang state government attempted to boost the state's manufacturing sector by opening new industrial estates in Seberang Perai, such as in Perai and Mak Mandin.[63][102] Exacerbated by the opposing political affinities and ideologies, conflicts frequently arose between the state government and the city council over differences in policies and budget allocations.[63][101][103]

As previously guaranteed by the British authorities, George Town's free port status was untouched in the years immediately after the Malayan independence. The earlier fears by the secessionists eventually came true, however, when in 1969, the free port status was suddenly revoked by the Malaysian federal government.[7][9][104] Consequently, 16.4% of Penang's working population became unemployed as the Port of Penang's trade volume plummeted, adversely affecting George Town's services sector.[105][106] In the long run, this also marked the beginning of George Town's slow, decades-long decline, which was only recently reversed.[107]

The revocation of George Town's free port status, coupled with an unsuccessful, bloody strike by Penang's unions in 1967, led to a loss of popular support for the Alliance amongst Penangites.[108] During the 1969 State Elections, Gerakan, then an opposition party, was voted into power in Penang, replacing the Alliance. The party's founder, Lim Chong Eu, succeeded Wong Pow Nee as the Chief Minister of Penang. However, the violent race riots in Kuala Lumpur following the concurrent Malaysian General Elections led to the nationwide imposition of martial law and the functions of the Penang state government were taken over by the National Operations Council until 1971.

In 1973, Gerakan joined Barisan Nasional, thus returning the Penang state government back into the hands of the ruling coalition.[105][113]

To revive Penang's economy, Lim Chong Eu created the Bayan Lepas Free Industrial Zone and courted foreign multinational corporations for investments.[105][113][114] Pioneer tax status was granted to multinational firms seeking to establish assembly plants within Bayan Lepas, which was formerly the rice bowl of Penang.[105] Major electronic and engineering firms, including Motorola, Bosch, Hewlett-Packard and Hitachi, flocked in, setting up assembly plants within the area. Complemented by cheap labour, the Bayan Lepas Free Industrial Zone, one of the major electronics manufacturing zones in Asia, grew to become the Silicon Valley of the East and was instrumental in pulling Penang out from its economic slump, greatly propelling the state's economy as one of the main economic powerhouses within Malaysia.[11][105][113][114] To this day, manufacturing remains one of Penang's two largest economic sectors, contributing as much as 47.4% of Penang's GDP as of  2015[update].[115]

During Lim's tenure, several major infrastructure projects were completed. The Penang Bridge, then the longest bridge in Southeast Asia, was completed in 1985, thus providing for the first time a road link between Penang Island and the Malay Peninsula. More controversial was the 250 m (820 ft)-tall Komtar in George Town, to this day the tallest skyscraper in Penang. Launched in 1974 as part of his vision to reverse George Town's declining fortunes, Komtar was constructed in the expense of hundreds of shophouses, schools and temples, as well as whole streets, which were bulldozed for the project.[9] However, instead of arresting George Town's decline, Komtar itself became a white elephant by the early 2000s.[116][117][118]

Meanwhile, in 1974, the Port of Penang was relocated from George Town to the town of Butterworth, directly across the Penang Strait, to allow for the berthing of larger container and cargo vessels.[112] By then, the maritime traffic through Penang had been greatly diminished since the revocation of George Town's free port status, with increasing volumes of maritime trade being directed towards Port Klang near Kuala Lumpur instead.[119][120]

Throughout the 1970s and 80s, the Malaysian federal government proceeded with the rapid development of Kuala Lumpur and nearby Port Klang, by controlling investments in communication, transport, education and health.[9] Kuala Lumpur soon outstripped George Town as Malaysia's largest city and financial centre, while Port Klang quickly became the country's busiest seaport. Consequently, Penang began to suffer considerable brain drain as younger Penangites started emigrating for better employment opportunities.[106][121][122][123]

In 1974, the George Town City Council was merged with the Penang Island Rural District Council to form the Penang Island Municipal Council, while the five local authorities within Seberang Perai, including the Butterworth and Bukit Mertajam town councils, were merged into the Seberang Perai Municipal Council.[124] By then, local elections, suspended since 1965, became a thing of the past, with the municipal councillors being appointed by the Penang state government ever since.[101] The merger of the local governments on Penang Island also led to a decades-long dispute over George Town's city status.[125][126]

In the 1990 State Elections, Lim Chong Eu as the incumbent lost the Padang Kota constituency to Lim Kit Siang of the Democratic Action Party (DAP), forcing him into retirement. Although Barisan Nasional remained in power, Lim Chong Eu was succeeded by Koh Tsu Koon as the Chief Minister of Penang.

Koh Tsu Koon's tenure as the Chief Minister of Penang was marked by inept development and urban planning policies, rampant pollution, and the deteriorating general state of affairs within Penang. Political tussles complicated development policies, while simmering discontent from Penang's vocal non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and residents over the state's decline would eventually lead to an unprecedented political change within the state.[9][29]

In the early 1990s, plans for the development of Penang Hill were drawn up by the Penang state government, drawing considerable backlash from Penang's civil societies over the potential environmental degradation of the forested hill.[9] The plan was eventually axed. Meanwhile, the Rent Control Act, which until then had protected the low-income residents within the George Town city centre from eviction by preventing any arbitrary hike in rents, was repealed by 2001.[9][127] This consequently led to the further hollowing out of the city centre, as residents, and smaller businesses, were unable to cope with the rental hikes and moved out. Unscrupulous private developers began demolishing several pre-war heritage buildings within the city centre for redevelopment, while other historic buildings fell under disrepair. Concerned over the impending loss of George Town's heritage architecture, NGOs based within the city started to mobilise public support for the conservation of these historic buildings.

By the early 2000s, Penang's economic growth began to lose steam, with the city-state recording the lowest monthly household income growth rate amongst the Malaysian states.[128] The decades of brain drain also took its toll. For instance, while Kuala Lumpur was granted several mega-projects, including the Petronas Towers and the Kuala Lumpur International Airport, Penang suffered a shortage of qualified engineers and architects as professionals continued gravitating towards the Greater Kuala Lumpur area.[111][29] Moreover, the lack of a coherent urban planning policy and poor traffic management meant that little was done to curb the worsening traffic congestion within Penang.[129] Even the state's reputation for cleanliness was not spared, as reports of coastal pollution and dirty streets within Penang made headline news.[129] As early as 1996, the then Malaysian Prime Mninister, Mahathir Mohamad, had even labelled Penang a "garbage state".[130][131]

Widespread dissatisfaction over Penang's decline and neglect sparked a media campaign to restore Penang to its former glory in 2004.[129][132][133][134][135] It has since been speculated that the public outcry over the neglect of the city once known as the 'Pearl of the Orient', combined with Penang's relatively lively political scene, contributed to the defeat of Barisan Nasional in the 2008 State Election by the federal opposition pact, Pakatan Rakyat.[63][29][136] The opposition coalition, led by the DAP, subsequently took over the Penang state government, with Lim Guan Eng succeeding Koh as the Chief Minister of Penang.

In late 2004, Penang was hit by the massive Indian Ocean tsunami. Out of the 68 deaths within Malaysia, 52 were in Penang.[129] Northern coastal areas, such as Batu Ferringhi and Gurney Drive in George Town, were among the worst hit places within the state. In the aftermath of the tsunami, a network of sirens has been installed throughout Penang as part of a national tsunami warning system designed to alert the public of such calamities in the future.[137]

The swearing in of the new Penang state government, now led by Pakatan Rakyat, in 2008, heralded various positive policy changes. During that year, the George Town city centre, along with Malacca, was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, as a result of years of conservation efforts led by the city's NGOs. The new state government subsequently spearheaded efforts to improve hygiene, cleanliness and pedestrianisation, as well as the use of public transportation and the promotion of the city's cultural diversity.[138][139][140] By 2010, George Town was ranked the most liveable city in Malaysia by ECA International, coming in at eighth place within Asia as well.[141] Moreover, in 2017, the city was also ranked the second cleanest within Malaysia, behind only Ipoh.[142]

In the economic front, the present state government has emphasised efforts to attract foreign direct investments and to push Penang up the economic value chain, as well as policies to root out corruption.[143][144][145][146] In 2010, Penang recorded the highest amount of capital investments within Malaysia, attracting RM12.2 billion, or 26%, of the nation's total investments.[147] Penang's stunning economic recovery, particularly since 2008, was described by Bloomberg as Malaysia's "biggest economic success" despite the Malaysian federal government's focus on other states such as Johor and Sarawak.[148] On top of that, the Penang state government was able to decrease Penang's public debt by 95%, from RM630 million in 2008 to RM30 million by late 2011.[149] In addition, in 2016, George Town was rated as the most attractive destination for commercial property investment within Malaysia by Knight Frank, surpassing even Kuala Lumpur.[150]

In 2015, the Malaysian federal government elevated the Penang Island Municipal Council into the present-day Penang Island City Council, thereby expanding the jurisdiction of George Town to encompass the entire Penang Island, as well as five of the surrounding islets.[151] This also made George Town the only Malaysian city to have been conferred its city status twice.

The Second Penang Bridge, currently the longest bridge in Southeast Asia, was opened in 2013. Straddling a length of 24 km (15 mi), it provides a second road link between Penang Island and Seberang Perai, and has spurred the development of new industrial areas such as Batu Kawan.


how far is seguin texas from san antonio texas

Seguin is located in the center of Guadalupe County at 29°34′28″N 97°57′55″W / 29.57444°N 97.96528°W / 29.57444; -97.96528 (29.574329, -97.965332).[21] It is 35 miles (56 km) east-by-northeast of downtown San Antonio, on Interstate 10, which serves Seguin with five exit. It is about 50 miles (80 km) south of Austin on Highway 123, via Interstate 35, or 62 miles (100 km) by Highway 130, a toll road.

Seguin, Texas

Seguin (/sɪˈɡiːn/ sig-EEN) is a city in and the county seat of Guadalupe County, Texas, United States.[3] As of the 2010 census, the population was 25,175.[4] By 2015, the population was estimated to be 27,864.[5]

Seguin is one of the oldest towns in Texas, founded just 16 months after the Texas Revolution. The frontier settlement was a cradle of the Texas Rangers and home to the celebrated Captain Jack Hays, perhaps the most famous Ranger of all.[6]

Seguin was the home of Dr. John E. Park, who experimented in construction using concrete made from local materials. The nearly 100 structures—the courthouse, schools, churches, homes, cisterns, walls, etc.—made up the largest concentration of early 19th-century concrete buildings in the United States.[7] About 20 of them remain standing.

The use of concrete largely ended when the railroad arrived in 1876, bringing cheap lumber and the equipment needed for brick-making. The town had five brickworks, and the wooden buildings of downtown were completely replaced with brick by the beginning of World War I.

For almost 100 years, the town was dependent on the rich surrounding farmland and ranches. Then an oil boom came just as the Great Depression was taking down other towns and cities. Seguin could raise enough tax money to match the federal grants for "make-work" projects. The New Deal transformed the city's public face with Art Deco-style city hall, courthouse, jail, and fountain, as well as storm sewers, sidewalks, and three swimming pools (one for Anglos, one for Blacks, one for Hispanics). The town commemorated its centennial by opening Max Starcke Park, with a golf course, a pavilion, picnic tables, and BBQ pits along a scenic river drive, and a curving dam that created a waterfall.

To preserve some of the historic character of the town, Seguin became one of the state's first Main Street cities, and the downtown district was placed on the National Register of Historic Places. Fine homes by leading architects J. Reily Gordon, Solon McAdoo, Leo M.J. Dielman, Atlee B. Ayers, and Marvin Eickenroht dating from the late 19th century and the first half of the 20th century can be found on many streets. However, the city does not have any officially designated historic residential districts.

The postwar era haad industrial development, including a minimill that turned scrap metal into construction products. A plant was built by Motorola in 1972 to produce car electronics. It was bought by Continental AG in 2006.[8] A Caterpillar diesel engine assembly plant was opened in 2008.[9]

On the northern edge of the South Texas Plains, Seguin enjoys a mild winter. The sunny days of spring bring on spectacular shows of wildflowers March into June. Most of Texas suffers hot, dry summers from June into September. Then cold fronts pushing down from the north usually trigger precipitation and make October a rainy month, bringing "a second spring" of wildflowers. At their worst, fall and winter have "northers", fast-moving cold fronts with wind, often rain, and rapid drops of temperature, frequently falling 30Â° or more during one day. Northers give way to warm spells, right through the winter.

Seguin's three large annual parades are regionally recognized.

The traditional route heads south on Austin St. from College St. (or further north), passing through the Historic Downtown District to break up at the Fairgrounds.

Mid-Texas Symphony is the area's only professional orchestra. Performances occur in venues in both Comal and Guadalupe counties. MTS produces four free children's concerts each season; two in Seguin and two in New Braunfels. More than 3600 fourth and fifth grade students attend a free symphonic concert each season. The symphony was founded in 1978 by Anita Windecker, a music professor at Texas Lutheran University, with the support of leaders of both communities. In 2016, David Mairs marked his 20th season as Maestro of the Mid-Texas Symphony.

Guadalupe County has about a dozen sites listed on the National Register of Historic Places, most of them in Seguin:[19]

In addition, the county boasts 80 Texas State Historical Markers,[20] with about 25 of those within Seguin's city limits.

Seguin was represented in the Texas House of Representatives from 1983 to 2010 by the Republican Edmund Kuempel. He was noted for helping to get the State of Texas to restore the 19th century mansion called Sebastopol and operate it as a Historic Site for 25 years. A native of Austin, businessman Kuempel died in office two days after being unopposed for reelection. John Kuempel, Edmund Kuempel's son, won the special election on December 14 of that year to succeed his father in the District 44 seat in the Texas House. He was reelected in 2012 and 2014.

Democrat Ruben Hinojosa has represented Guadalupe County in the U.S. House of Representatives as part of Texas' 15th Congressional District, since 2012. One of the "fajita" districts, the 15th runs in a narrow strip from Seguin down to McAllen in the Lower Rio Grande Valley.

According to the United States Census Bureau, Seguin has a total area of 34.7 square miles (89.8 km2), of which 34.5 square miles (89.3 km2) are land and 0.2 square miles (0.5 km2), or 0.57%, are water.[4] The Guadalupe River flows through the southern side of the city, reaching the Gulf of Mexico south of Victoria.

The elevation at the courthouse is 522 feet (159Â m) above sea level.

As of the census[1] of 2010, there were 25,175 people, up from 22,011 in 2000. There were 8,794 households, and 5,968 families residing in the city. In 2000, the population density was 1,157.2 people per square mile (446.8/km²)., and there were 8,164 housing units at an average density of 429.2 per square mile (165.7/km²). The racial makeup of the city in 2000 was 75.9% White, 8.0% African American, 0.61% Native American, 0.9% Asian, 0.0% Pacific Islander, 13.6% from other races, and 2.6% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 55.4% of the population.

There were 8,794 households out of which 29.3% had their own children under the age of 18 living with them, 43.9% were married couples living together, 17.9% had a female householder with no husband present, and 32.1% were non-families. Individuals made up 27.3% of all households and 13.1% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.68 and the average family size was 3.25.

The population was spread out with 25.4% under the age of 18, 8.3% from 20 to 24, 23.0% from 25 to 44, 23.2% from 45 to 64, and 16.0% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 35.3 years. Females were 51.7%, and males were 48.3% of the populations.

In 2000, the median income for a household in the city was $31,618, and the median income for a family was $36,931. Males in 2000 had a median income of $27,007 versus $19,690 for females. The per capita income for the city was $13,740. About 13.2% of families and 17.2% of the population were below the poverty line, including 22.3% of those under age 18 and 13.6% of those age 65 or over.

The city is served by the Seguin Independent School District, with about 8,000 students in 14 schools:

Under the 2013 accountability ratings released by the Texas Education Agency, Seguin ISD and each of its campuses received "Met Standard" ratings based upon the new performance standards.

The performance index-based rating system applies one of two labels to districts and public schools across the state: Met Standard and Improvement Required.

In addition, Barnes Middle School received all three Distinction Designations: Academic Achievement in Reading/English language art, in Math, and in Student Progress. Briesemeister Middle School earned Distinction Designations for Academic Achievement in Reading/ELA and Student Progress. Saegert 6th Grade Center received the Distinction Designation for Academic Achievement in Reading, as did Koennecke Elementary School.[26]

The Seguin High football team, the Matadors, enjoys a traditional rivalry with New Braunfels H.S. Unicorns, lasting since 1923, making it a claimant for the longest series of football games in the state.

St. James Catholic School [27] A Historical Marker notes original concrete portion from 1854 makes this the oldest continuously occupied school building in Texas.

Navarro Independent School District [28] Serves students in northern Seguin and rural areas beyond.

Emanuel's Lutheran Day School, for students 18 months thru four years [30]

Seguin Lifegate Christian School [31]

Texas Lutheran University, with about 1,400 students, is affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.[32] TLU was ranked #3 among the Best West Regional universities by U.S. News & World Report 2013.[33] It has a diverse student body, with 27% Hispanic, 10% African-American, and only 20% describing themselves as Lutheran.[34] Texas Lutheran recently joined the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference, NCAA Division III, so its teams play Austin College, Colorado College, Centenary College in Shreveport, Schreiner University, Southwestern University, Trinity University, and the University of Dallas.[35]

Central Texas Technology Center, one of The Alamo Colleges, is located north of Seguin. CTTC offers specialized education and workforce skill development to meet the needs of existing and prospective employers. Seguin's Economic Development Corp. also funds CTTC's Manufacturing Technology Academy, which offers dual credit courses and internships for high school juniors and seniors.[36][37]

The Guadalupe Regional Medical Center (GMRC) is a new, ultramodern, state-of-the-art facility, with double the space it had before a recent $100 million expansion. Now one of the finest hospitals in Central Texas, with 750 employees supporting 65 physician specialists.

GRMC's services include an expansive Emergency Department, a Wellness Center, and a nationally recognized orthopedic surgery department.

GRMC has also earned the American Nurses Credentialing Center's prestigious "Pathway to Excellence" redesignations, among other awards.

The city operates the free Seguin-Guadalupe County Public Library at 707 E. College St. The Blumberg Library at TLU is also open to for use by adults who pay a $15 annual membership.

Seguin is one of the very few cities in the country with competing daily papers. The Gazette, a broadsheet, has been publishing for more than 125 years, since 1888. It is now part of the Southern Newspapers chain. The Daily News is part of the news operation of the locally owned and independently programmed radio station KWED.

The U.S. Air Force's 12th Flying Training Wing operates an airfield for practice approaches and touch-and-go landings, known as Randolph AFB Auxiliary Field/Seguin Field. It was originally constructed with three runways about 12 miles east-northeast of Randolph AFB, in 1941. Today it has a single active 8350-ft runway. Normally unattended, it is supported by a manned runway supervisor unit and aircraft rescue and fire fighting vehicles when conducting flight operations.

The main offices of the Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority are located on East Court St. in Seguin. The GBRA manages Canyon Dam, upstream on the Guadalupe, as well as four small dams in the county and other facilities.[39]

The Schertz-Seguin Local Government Corporation, half owned by each city, was created in 1998 to develop and operate a wholesale water supply system. Using wells in the Carrizo Aquifer in Gonzales County, production began in September 2002. It now also supplies Selma, Universal City, and Converse, as well as Springs Hill Water Supply Corp., and the San Antonio Water System. Its offices are in Starcke Park, near the Seguin waterworks.

The Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) operates a Parole Office in Seguin.[40]

The United States Postal Service operates the Seguin Post Office at 531 West Court St. and the Seguin Annex at 1500 East Court, in the mall next to Bealls.[41][42]

Greyhound offers daily service to Houston and San Antonio.

Tri City Taxi Service is based in Seguin.

The Seguin area was once inhabited by the native hunter-gatherer Indians of Texas. An ongoing archeological dig indicates campgrounds dating back 10,000 years or so, with trade items from Mexico and Arizona. The early visitors may have come to gather pecans, because the native trees bearing the tasty nut thrive in the river bottoms of the Guadalupe River. By the time the first European explorers passed through, predominantly Tonkawas lived in the area, camping around the Guadalupe and other streams in the area. Eventually Spanish, Mexican, and Anglo settlers started farms and ranches in the location that would become Seguin.

Jose Antonio Navarro, one of the earliest settlers and an important figure of Texas history, developed a ranch near Seguin.[43] In 1831, land was granted to Umphries Branch by the Mexican government. The Branch and John Newton Sowell Sr. families settled in 1833 in the western part of Green DeWitt's colony.[44] Sowell was a farmer, and in 1833 he and his brothers became the first Anglo-American immigrants to raise corn in future Guadalupe County.[45]

Between 1827 and 1835, twenty-two families came to the area as part of the DeWitt Colony; by 1833 there were forty land titles in the region, fourteen of which received grants directly from the Mexican government.[46] In 1836, John Gladden King lived near Seguin. His farm neighbored the Sowells on the northwest and Branch on the southeast. A son, William Philip King, reportedly was part of a cannon crew and was the youngest defender killed during the battle of the Alamo.[47] These homesteads were abandoned in the Runaway Scrape.

The town of Seguin was founded August 12, 1838, 16 months after Texas won its independence at the Battle of San Jacinto, making it one of the oldest towns in Texas. Members of Mathew Caldwell's Gonzales Rangers acquired land originally granted to Umphries Branch, who had departed during the Runaway Scrape and sold his land to Joseph S. Martin.[48]

At this time the Seguin area was a part of Gonzales County. The Rangers had found this was a good halfway stop between their patrol points. The big oaks and walnut groves along the Walnut Branch (aka Nogales means 'nuts' in Spanish), had become a familiar and pleasant location. It had been maintained as a base camp by the rangers since the early founding of the Dewitt Colony.[49]

Under an ancient live oak, thirty-three Rangers signed the charter for the town. Many were surveyors who joined Joseph Martin in laying out the lots for the town. Its original name was Walnut Springs, but was changed just six months later to honor San Jacinto veteran and then a Senator of the Republic of Texas, Juan Seguín.[44] The surveyors' plan for the city included a main north–south street that ran straight and flat for a mile and more. The streets form a grid, around a central square of two blocks, today's Courthouse Square and Central Park, formerly known as Market Square.

Manuel Flores, veteran of San Jacinto and brother-in-law of Juan Seguin, established a ranch just south of Seguin in 1838.[50] It became a safe-haven for San Antonio families and a staging point for counterattack when Bexar was overrun in 1842 by Santa Anna's forces under Ráfael Vásquez [51] and Adrian Woll.[52]

Leading the resistance forces from this location was Texas Ranger John Coffee "Jack" Hays. When duty allowed, Jack Hays would be a familiar resident of Seguin. In 1843, Hays set up a gathering point at the "station" in Seguin, where the classic Ranger character would be born.[53] He met Susan Calvert, whose father owned the Magnolia Hotel, where they married in April, 1847.[54]

Serving under Hays were two other famous Ranger residents of Seguin: Henry McCulloch and Ben McCulloch. Their home known as "Hardscramble" still stands and was designated a Texas State Centennial historic site in 1936.[55] Colonel James Clinton Neill, commander of the Alamo, was known to be buried here. The site was also historically marked during the 1936 Texas Centennial Exposition.[56]

Seguin was named the county seat, and Guadalupe County was organized, early in 1845, as Texas became a state. The first county judge was Michael H. Erskine. The town was incorporated in 1853, and a city government was organized under acting Mayor John R. King, until elections were held later that year and John D. Anderson became the first elected mayor.

A few years later, another town was laid out on the west side of Seguin, on land that had been titled by the Alamo defender, Thomas R. Miller and sold in 1840 to Ranger James Campbell in partnership with Arthur Swift and Andrew Neill.[57] This area became part of Seguin within a few years, but 150 years later the eastâ€“west streets still do not match up to cross through the old Guadalupe Street border.

When Prince Carl of Solms-Braunfels and his German colonists were making their way in 1845 to the land they had bought to settle, Calvin Turner and Asa Sowell from Seguin were hired to guide them. Later Seguin became a stopping point and trade center for German immigrants along their route from the ports of Indianola and Galveston to the German settlements around New Braunfels and Fredericksburg.[58] Many Germans en route heard of the hard times in those Hill Country settlements and decided instead to buy land and settle around Seguin.

After Texas became a state, many settlers arrived from the Old South, bringing in total hundreds of slaves, though only a few plantation owners held more than a dozen slaves. Most of the slaves lived on small farms with their owners, who remained subsistence farmers for years after settling their land. The contributions of African Americans to building the community are all but ignored in local histories written during the period when slavery was still being excused as justifiable due to the alleged low development of those enslaved. But in fact, for the first 50 years, and probably for the first 100 years of the town, blacks did most of the construction work, including the main concrete buildings such as Sebastopol. (see below).

Education was important to the town. By 1849, it chartered a school. The first schoolhouse was built in 1850; it burned and was soon replaced by a two-story limecrete building. This Guadalupe High School, now a part of the St James parochial school, was recognized by a historical marker in 1962 as the oldest continuously used school building in Texas.

Seguin was home to Dr. John E. Park's concrete (limecrete). Called "the Mother of Concrete Cities" in the 1870s, the town once had nearly 100 structures made of limecrete, including the courthouse, schools, churches, houses, cisterns, and many walls. There were so many limecrete walls and corrals that Seguin gave the effect of being a walled city. This was the largest and most significant concentration of 19th-Century concrete buildings in the U.S.[7] About 20 of these vintage buildings survive today.

In 1857, Frederick Law Olmsted, later famous as the landscape architect of New York's Central Park, toured Texas, writing dispatches to the New York Times. Olmsted exclaimed at the concrete structures he found here, almost on the edge of the frontier, and described the city as "the prettiest town in Texas."

One surviving concrete home, the Sebastopol House;[59] built in 1856, is a Texas Historical Commission Landmark and is on the National Register of Historic Places due to its unusual limecrete construction and architectural style.[60]

Stagecoaches began to serve the town in 1848, connecting coastal ports to San Antonio and points west. The Magnolia Hotel was an overnight stop for the exhausted, hungry, and dirt-covered riders. A young slave had the honor of standing on a stone to pull the bell rope alerting the community to the arrival of the stage, which brought visitors, the mail, newspapers, and special merchandise. Heading west from the Magnolia, the stage route went through town, passing the courthouse. Today a mural commemorates its path. During the Great Depression, workers from the Civilian Conservation Corps traced part of the route with stone walls, showing how it moved downhill, crossed Walnut Branch (a spring-fed tributary of the Guadalupe River), and climbed the other side.

The historic Wilson Pottery site is on Capote Road, near Seguin. The pottery was the first successful business in Texas owned and operated by freed slaves, beginning in 1869.[61]

During Reconstruction, the freed slaves in Seguin organized their own congregation, the Second Baptist Church, and, in 1876, a school that came to be known as the Lincoln School. In 1887 they established Guadalupe College, comparable to a junior college today, with a heavy concentration on vocational education. These institutions were begun with the help of Rev. Leonard Ilsley, an abolitionist minister from Maine. But William Baton Ball, himself an ex-slave, Union soldier in the Civil War, and former Buffalo Soldier, became their leader. He was greatly assisted by his friend and benefactor George Brackenridge of San Antonio. (The main buildings of Guadalupe College burned due to a boiler malfunction during a bitterly cold night in 1936, and the life of the college ended.)

The railroad reached Seguin in 1876 en route to San Antonio, when the oldest railway in Texas, the Galveston, Harrisburg and San Antonio Railroad chartered on February 11, 1850, as the Buffalo Bayou, Brazos and Colorado Railway Company built the first Seguin depot. It became part of the Southern Pacific Railroad, and now the main southern line of the Union Pacific.[62]

John Ireland was mayor of Seguin in 1858. Elected the 18th Governor of Texas 1883–1887, he had an important part in the construction of the Texas State Capitol—insisting on using native stone, red granite from the Hill Country, instead of limestone imported from Indiana. He also presided over the opening of the University of Texas at Austin.

From before the Civil War until at least World War II, cotton was the money crop of the local farms, and the county had at least a dozen gins, with three in the town of Seguin. But agriculture was more diversified than in many counties where cotton was king, with corn, peanuts, hogs, and cattle, as well as wheat, oats, sugar cane, and most notably pecans. The tiny but tasty native nuts were an early export. The crops improved as the bottomlands were converted to orchards, and eventually bigger varieties of nuts were grafted onto the local trees. This was one of the first counties to have a pecan growers' association, and in 1921 its leader, P.K. DeLaney, helped start the Texas Pecan Growers Association. The county remains one of the state's leading producers. Seguin has been called 'a big orchard with a small town in it' because almost every house is shaded by a pecan tree in the yard. A tribute to the nut's importance is "The World's Largest Pecan" erected on the Courthouse lawn.

Small mills were put on the Guadalupe River even before the Civil War. William Saffold established a mill at what is today Max Starcke Park. Later Henry Troell made major improvements there, and in 1894 used hydroelectric power to light the town. The City of Seguin took over the dam and electric plant in 1907. The supply of cheap and reliable electricity helped to make possible several gins, mills, silos, an ice plant and ice cream maker, a cold meat storage facility, and other types of agribusiness.

In 1912, citizens of Seguin lured a struggling church school to the city with cash, and 15 acres of land donated by Louis Fritz. It grew to a junior college into a four-year college to become today's Texas Lutheran University, with some 1,400 students and boasting high rankings on the U.S. News & World Report comparisons of universities.[63]

During the 1920s, the county began to enjoy a fore-taste of an oil boom. While the first fields were at the far edge of the county, near Luling, the paperwork of deeds and leases (as well as any resulting lawsuits) passed through the Guadalupe County Courthouse. Then in December 1929, the Darst Creek Field was opened, only 15 miles east of Seguin. (The creek had been named for colonist and landowner Jacob C. Darst. He was one of the original "Old Eighteen", defenders of the Gonzales cannon and then a member of the Gonzales Ranging Company relief force to the Alamo during the siege in 1836.)

With the Darst Field, Seguin became a supply center, and residents were able to rent out rooms to oil field workers for cash even during the worst years of the Great Depression of the 1930s. As a result, Seguin was able to collect taxes when other towns just had to give up. It used the money to match federal grants for what some derided as "make-work" projects. Under the leadership of the popular mayor, Max Starcke, Seguin was transformed, with a new post office, a new Art Deco City Hall, courthouse, jailhouse and fountain in Central Park, new storm sewers and sidewalks, and a small park along Walnut Branch, with rustic stone walls that protected the historic springs and traced the route of the stagecoach as it headed west through town. The little city had three swimming pools, one for whites, one for blacks at the segregated high school, and one for Spanish speaking citizens at the Juan Seguin school.

Max Starcke's biggest achievement was a large park along the Guadalupe River, designed by Robert H.H. Hugman, famous now as "the Father of the River Walk" in San Antonio. The park featured a handsome Art Deco recreation building designed by Hugman [64] (now offices) with changing rooms for the swimming pool. The nine-hole course was designed by John Bredemus, a prolific course designer who has been called "the father of Texas golf". The park offered picnic tables and bar-be-que pits between a scenic river drive and the river. Most of all, at a disused mill, Hugman and the young men of the National Youth Administration put a curving dam. As the 1938 dedication marker tells, funds were raised in part by public subscription. Dozens of groups and individuals made contributions to build the park that the town named for its popular mayor, who was moving on to, and soon to head, the Lower Colorado River Authority in Austin.

After World War II, entrepreneurs fresh out of the university used electric furnaces to melt scrap into reinforcing bars with a company then called Structural Metals. The mini-mill (now CMC Steel) has been joined by manufacturers including Alamo Group, building roadside mowing equipment; Continental Automotive Systems (was Motorola), making electronic powertrain control modules and emissions sensors; Hexcel, producing reinforcements for composites using glass fiber, carbon fiber, aramids, and specialty yarns;[65] Minigrip, manufacturing re-closeable plastic bags for food and home storage; Tyson Foods, processing chicken. In 2009 Caterpillar opened a plant assembling diesel engines. Most recently Rave Gears, a make of precisions gears, opened a plant and headquarters.

Seguin has three sister cities, as designated by Sister Cities International, Inc (SCI):[66]


what kind of animals live in a nest known as dre's

Many mammals, including raccoons and skunks, seek natural cavities in the ground or in trees to build their nests. Tree squirrels build their nests (dreys) in trees, while voles nest in tall grass.[7] In some species, the nest serve as homes for adults while in others they are used to raise young. The duck-billed platypus and the echidna lay eggs in nests.[3]

Nest

A nest is a structure built by certain animals to hold eggs, offspring, and, occasionally, the animal itself. Although nests are most closely associated with birds, members of all classes of vertebrates and some invertebrates construct nests. They may be composed of organic material such as twigs, grass, and leaves, or may be a simple depression in the ground, or a hole in a rock, tree, or building. Human-made materials, such as string, plastic, cloth, or paper, may also be used. Nests can be found in all types of habitat.

Nest building is driven by a biological urge known as the nesting instinct in birds and mammals. Generally each species has a distinctive style of nest. Nest complexity is roughly correlated with the level of parental care by adults. Nest building is considered a key adaptive advantage among birds, and they exhibit the most variation in their nests ranging from simple holes in the ground to elaborate communal nests hosting hundreds of individuals. Nests of prairie dogs and several social insects can host millions of individuals.

Nest building is often driven by a biological urge in pregnant animals to protect one's offspring known as the nesting instinct. Animals build nests to protect their eggs, their offspring, or themselves from danger. The simplest nests are designed to hide eggs from predators, shield them from the sun or other environmental factors, or simply keep them from being scattered in ocean currents. In some cases, nests also help provide safety in numbers for egg-laying animals.[1]

Many nest builders provide parental care to their young, while others simply lay their eggs and leave. Brooding (incubating eggs by sitting on them) is common among birds. In general, nest complexity increases in relation to the level of parental care provided.[1] Nest building reinforces social behavior, allowing for larger populations in small spaces to the point of increasing the carrying capacity of an environment. Insects that exhibit the most complex nest building also exhibit the greatest social structure. Among mammals, the naked mole-rat displays a caste structure similar to the social insects while building extensive burrows that house hundreds of individuals.[2]

At the most basic level, there are only two types of nest building: sculpting and assembly. Sculpting is the process of removing material to achieve a desired outcome. Most commonly this entails burrowing into the ground or plant matter to create a nesting site. Assembly entails gathering, transporting, and arranging materials to create a novel structure. Transportation has the greatest time and energy cost so animals are usually adapted to build with materials available in their immediate environment. Versatility in use of construction material may be an adaptive advantage (less energy used to gather materials) or a disadvantage (less ability to specialize construction). The available evidence suggests that natural selection more often favors specialization over flexibility in nest construction.[2]

Plant matter is the most common construction material for nests. Other common materials include fur or feathers, perhaps from the animal itself, mud or dirt, fecal matter, and specialized secretions from the animal's body. Nest building can have a substantial impact on the environment in which animals live. The combined digging activity of termites and mole-rats in South Africa has created a "mima prairie" landscape marked by huge areas of flat land punctuated by mounds 30 metres (98 ft) wide and 2 metres (6.6 ft) high. Similar structures exist in the United States (created by pocket gophers) and Argentina (rodents of the Ctenomys genus). Nests constructed by megapode birds have been mistaken for anthropological features by professionals, due to their exceptional height (10 metres [33 ft]) and abundance (hundreds in a single location).[2]

Nest architecture may be as useful for distinguishing species as the animals' physical appearance. Species identified through such means are called ethospecies. This is especially common in wasps and termites, but also can apply to birds. In most animals, there is some variation in nest construction between individuals. Whether these differences are driven by genetics or learned behavior is unknown.[2]

With the exception of a few tunneling mammals, nest builders exhibit no specialized anatomy, instead making use of body parts primarily used for other purposes. This is possibly due to the sporadic nature of nest building, minimizing the selective pressures of anatomy used for nest building.[2]

In general, birds are the most skilled nest builders, although not all species of birds build nests, some laying their eggs directly onto rock ledges or bare soil without first modifying the area. Complex nest building is considered to be one of the key adaptive advantages of birds.[1] Nests help regulate temperature and reduce predation risks, thus increasing the chance that offspring live to adulthood.[2]

Bird nests vary from simple depressions in the ground known as scrapes to largely unstructured collections of branches to elaborately woven pendants or spheres. The megapodes, one of the few groups who do not directly brood their young, incubate their young in a mound of decomposing vegetation. One species, Macrocephalon maleo, uses volcanic sand warmed by geothermal heat to keep its eggs warm.[1] Among the simple nest builders are falcons, owls, and many shorebirds. The weavers exhibit perhaps the most elaborate nests, complete with strands of grass tied into knots. Most bird nests lie somewhere in the middle, with the majority building cup-shaped nests using some combination of mud, twigs and leaves, and feathers. Some birds, such flamingos and swifts, use saliva to help hold their nest together. The edible-nest swiftlet uses saliva alone to construct their nests.[3] The rufous hornero nest is composed entirely of mud and feces, which is placed on tree branches to allow the sun to harden it into a usable structure.[4] The tailorbirds stitch together leaves to provide cover for their nest sites.[1]

The sociable weaver builds large communal nests in which many individual nests reside. They divide the nest using walls of grass placed atop a base of large sticks. At the entrances to the nest, sharp sticks are placed to ward off intruders.[4] A single communal site can measure 2 metres (6.6 ft) in height and 8 metres (26 ft) in width. As many as 300 mating pairs may reside in the structure.[5] Other birds often built their own nests on top of Weaver nest sites.[4]

Some birds build nests in trees, some (such as vultures, eagles, and many seabirds) will build them on rocky ledges, and others nest on the ground or in burrows.[3] Each species has a characteristic nest style, but few are particular about where they build their nests. Most species will choose whatever site in their environment best protects their nest, taking into account the nest's style. Several species will build on a cactus whenever possible. The bushtit and Bullock's oriole will suspend their nests from the tips of slender branches.[1] The oropendolas take hanging nests to the extreme, constructing pouches up to 1.8 metres (5.9Â ft) tall using hanging vines as their base.[1][4] The hanging nest is attached to thin tree branches, discouraging predation.[4] Other species seek out crevices, using buildings or birdhouses when tree holes are not available.[1]

Typical bird nests range from 2 centimetres (0.79 in) in size (hummingbirds) to 2 metres (6.6 ft) (eagles) in diameter.[3] The largest nest on record was made by a pair of bald eagles. It was 2.9 metres (9.5 ft) in diameter, 6 metres (20 ft) deep and was estimated to weigh more than 2 tonnes (4,400 lb).[6] The lightest bird nests may weigh only a few grams.[3] Incubation mounds of the mallee fowl can reach heights of 4.57 metres (15.0 ft) and widths of 10.6 metres (35 ft). It is estimated the animal uses as much as 300 tonnes (660,000 lb) of material in its construction.[5] The extinct Sylviornis neocaledoniae may have constructed nesting mounds 50 metres (160 ft) in diameter.[2]

Many species of small mammals such as rodents, rabbits, and ground squirrels dig burrows into the ground to protect themselves and their young.[7] Prairie dogs build an elaborate system of tunnels which can span large stretches of land. One such structure, called a town, spanned 25,000 square miles (65,000Â km2) and held an estimate 400 million individuals. Their homes are designed to withstand large (above-ground) temperature variation, floods, and fire. Their young are raised in the deepest chambers where the temperature is the most stable.[4]

Gorillas build fresh nests daily out of leaves and other vegetation in which they sleep at night. They sometimes also build nests during the day for resting in. The smaller species of gorilla build their nests in trees, while the larger are confined to the ground. Nests of the western gorilla, the largest species, measure about 1 metre (3.3Â ft) in diameter.[8]

Some species of frog build nests ranging from simple to modest complexity.[3] Many stream-dwelling frogs lay their eggs in a gelatinous mass which they attach to underwater vegetation. The jelly structure prevents the eggs from washing away.[1]

Fish engage in nest building activities ranging from simply scooping out sediment to building enclosed structures out of plant matter. Male sticklebacks produce a special enzyme in their kidneys that they use to bind plants together.[3]

The American Alligator is known for its parenting skills. They build large nests of mud and vegetation on river banks or vegetation mats. The female digs a hole in the center to lay her eggs, covers them, and then guards them for two months until they hatch. When eggs start to hatch, she breaks open the nest which has hardened over time and leads the young to the water where she continues to care for them for another year. Alligators are very particular about their nesting sites and will abandon a site if things go wrong.[1]

Cobras use leaves and other debris to build nests in which they lay eggs that both sexes guard. They carry the vegetation to the nest site by kinking their necks.[3] Sea turtles dig a hole in the sand above the high tide line in which they lay their eggs. They then cover the soft eggs to protect them from the sun and predators and leave.[1]

From the fossil record, it is known that many, or perhaps all, dinosaurs laid eggs. Paleontologists have identified a number of features that allow them to distinguish a nesting site from a random clustering of eggs. Those include regular clustering patterns, the co-occurrence of whole eggs with broken eggs and/or hatchlings, and the occurrence of physical features such as evidence of excavation.[1]

The Oviraptor nests of Mongolia are perhaps the most famous case of dinosaur nesting. One specimen was found fossilized atop a nest in a brooding posture, proving the animal had been poorly named (Oviraptor means "egg taker").[1]

A site known as Egg Mountain in Montana provides exceptional evidence of dinosaur nesting behavior. The site features dozens of nests each with 20 or more eggs belonging to the Maiasaura. Juvenile teeth at the site exhibit signs of wear, while the leg bones are not developed enough to walk. This allowed scientists to conclude that the species provided extensive parental care for its young. It is likely the species covered its nests with sand and vegetation to keep them warm and nested in colonies for increased protection.[1]

Social insects, including most species of ants, bees, termites, and wasps, are nest builders. Their often elaborate nests may be found above or below ground. Features often include ventilation systems and separate chambers for the queen, her eggs, and developing individuals.[3]

Bees and hornets often seek out natural cavities in which to construct their nests, also known as hives, in which they store food and raise their young. Other species of bee and some wasps dig holes in the ground or chew through wood.[7] In the species Megachile rotundata, for example, females construct tubular-shaped nests in rotting wood as well as small holes in the ground, creating, each cell made from circular disks cut from plant leaves using the bee's mandibles.[9] Bee nests are founded upon the wax the secrete from their bodies, while those of wasps are dependent on their ability to turn plant water into paper using their saliva.[2] Nests often exhibit divided living, with eggs and food stores kept in distinct parts of the hive.[7] Vespid wasps build complex nests from paper-like material where they lay eggs in individual cells. When the young hatch, their parents feed them chewed up larvae. Different species exhibit different nest structures. Paper wasp nesting consist of a single tier of cells, while yellow jacket nests can be many layers thick, reaching up to 30 centimetres (0.98 ft) in diameter.[1] Nesting strategies can be plastic, for instance the wasp Parischnogaster mellyi will significant vary its nest construction based on environmental conditions, and the wasp Mischocyttarus mexicanus is known to nest in groups or alone depending on the distribution of potential nest sites in the area.[2][10] Nest sizes vary dramatically and the largest wasp nest on record measured 1.75 metres (5.7 ft) in diameter and was 3.7 metres (12 ft) tall. Found in New Zealand, it was likely built by the German wasp.[11]

Termites build elaborate nests that span multiple generations and may last decades.[2] Using chewed wood, mud, and feces they build large mounds which may extend well into the air.[4] The largest nests, built by members of Amitermes genus, stand nearly 7 metres (23Â ft) tall with a similar circumference at the base, and host millions of individuals.[2] Termite mounds are constructed to allow for excellent air flow, regulating the mound temperature. The mounds protect against drying and predation allowing many species to lose ancestral traits such as hard bodies, skin pigmentation, and good eyesight. Magnetic termites construct their nests with flattened sides along the North-South axis to ensure maximum warming during the winter, while exposing minimal surface area to the harshest mid-day sunshine.[2] Other termite species use their nests to farm fungi.[4]

Ant nests feature an elaborate colony structure that may extend 2 metres (6.6Â ft) or more underground. As the structure gets further underground, individual chambers become farther and farther apart indicating that the ant is aware of its depth. It is hypothesized that they accomplish this by sensing the level of carbon dioxide in the soil.[4] The leaf cutter ant builds a complex nest which can house 8 million individuals. Its nests feature numerous chambers, most notably garden chambers where they farm fungus on leaves they harvest from the forest.[2]

Species such as the carpenter ant and the wasp Polistes exclamans build "satellite nests" - smaller nests near, but separate from, the main nest.[12][13] These satellite nests are used as an insurance against predators and parasites; if the original nest is attacked, surviving members can move the satellite nest.[12] Other species such as the Black hover wasp, Parischnogaster alternata, construct nests in clusters with the central core composed of older colonies surrounded by younger colonies.[14]

The Eastern carpenter bee, Xylocopa virginica, is unique in that individuals of that species build their nests in wood, bamboo culms, agave stalks, and other similar materials, although their preferred nesting material is pine or cedar lumber. When digging the nests, they use the wood shavings scraped from the wall to create partitions within the tunnels. The nests are usually round and have about 1-4 tunnels, each with multiple branches. Because these materials are often useful for humans in construction, X. virgininica's nesting behavior presents the disadvantage of weakening wood in manmade structures.[15]

The abundance of biological resources within the nest has led to a number of specialized predators. The aardvark and the ant eater use long tongues to prey upon termite and ant nests. Birds such as the honey buzzard specialize on wasp and bee nests, a resource also targeted by the tropical hornet. Symbiosis, ranging from feeding on waste to obligate parasitism, is common within the nest. Ant nests alone support symbiotes spanning six classes of arthropods which includes 35 families just from the beetles.[2]