Industrial Revolution In Europe Research Articles

Examination of Mehmet Refik Fenmen s Life in that Scientists and Educationist

From the 19th century, especially while living the positive effects of the European Industrial Revolution, also The Ottoman Empire who is considered by Western in Asiatic mode of production is in the quest. The Ottoman Empire realized that they need well-trained staff who high equipped in respect of technical and knowledge and educational institutions to train them and for this purpose have worked to eliminate the deficit in the field of education by reorganized the existing training institutions by brought the experts from abroad and on the other hand sending out select students. Returned to the country after completing their education and contributing to the state's development by opportunities they had gained, a team was formed which can be called “Last Ottoman-Young Intellectuals Republic of Turkey”. The subject of our study, Mehmet Refik FENMEN, perhaps one of the best examples of the students in this group. In this weak period of the Ottoman Empire, he is one of the great actors in turnout which preparation of infrastructure of progress which will arise in the development of science and technology in Republican era. Beside he is a scientist who is very well equipped and trained, Mehmet Refik FENMEN has taken to inform of the developments in Turkish society especially his students as a duty and with his book and articles he was able to catch all layers of community. Today, for the younger generations also for new generation of our scientists’ name of Mehmet Refik FENMEN is a model of intellectual that should be known and take as sample.

Evaluation of the Most Important Effective Factors on Sustainable Development in the New Towns: A Case Study in New Town of Parand

Abstract. Rapid population growth and increasing immigration which has led to population concentration in big cities has gone up to the explosion limit in some cities and brought about numerous problems for decision-makers as well as the residents of these cities. Uncontrolled expansion of cities on the one hand have made managers and planners face the problem of providing infrastructure and services to the residents of these cities and on the other hand have led to more alienation between human and environment and have left people alone with complex issues and erosive forces around and made them disable in dealing with the suffering and misfortune complexity and problems. Therefore, the overflow of mother metropolis crowds without depending on the metropolis is the first and foremost philosophy of creating new towns which as the symbol of modern civilization are considered as the most important and best new age phenomenon. The basic foundation of new towns are self-sufficiency, independence, balance of population and employment which have been historically present in the world due to political, security, economic and demographic reasons and along with industrial revolution in Europe and the US, new laws on urban planning was formed. New Town of Parand which has been established based on the two necessity of settlement of the overflow urban population of Tehran, as well as accommodating Imam Khomeini Airport staff, is regarded really important in the government policy of housing projects due to its favorable and relative position. If sustainable development is added to the process of the formation of these towns it can be considered more important with higher position. The present study was kind of descriptive and aimed at investigating the most important effective factors on sustainable development in the new towns with the case study of New Town of Parand.

Basic Variables of Economic and Social Development in Balkan Region (Regional Development -Industrialisation-Humanpower)

In this study, three subjects had been investigated. Firstly history of industry Balkan region, secondly basic variables economic and social development, thirdly relation to variables. Industry is basic element of development. In addition to in this paper theoretical and literal concept has been investigated. In this study is aimed at presenting the most important new trends of economic, social, political and institutional development of Balkan region with relation to four major factors shaping the regions countries. Industrial Revolution in Europe and made major investments in the first half of the 19th century particularly central Europe and Balkan region. Balkan regions represent complex and diverse reality. These regions are from Old Continent to Central Europe, South East Europe and Mediterranean. From Adriatic to Black Sea and Mediterranean also. In these regions there are some different economic, social and political events. I.e. Croatia moves to final round member of European Union some countries face to particular problems of political subjects.I offer framework analysis of the regional country by country based on the existing set of criteria, which are variables of social and economic development. Those variables are including (cluster industry, expenditure R&D od GDP, variations of capitals, population and market, some trade block which are impact of economic and social development)Proposed key pillars to support sustainable competitiveness in the Western Balkans. Sustaining competitiveness =Human capital development==Regional Cluster==SectorPolicy reforms.(OECD,2008)Key words. Balkan region, Social development, Globalisation, Sustainable development

Industrialization in the modern world: from the Industrial Revolution to the Internet

This unique two-volume work analyzes the Industrial Revolution from a global perspective and traces its influences up to the present day-encouraging students to rethink the significance of events past and present. * Enables students to analyze the causes and effects of industrialization * Takes a multidisciplinary approach that supports the National Standards for World History, as well as multicultural studies and business curricula * Allows for comparison and contrast of different industrializing societies in different eras * Helps readers make connections between the Industrial Revolution in Europe and the digital advances of today

Networking necessities in the world of big science

Networking necessities in the world of big science

Democratic Changes and Economic Growth

Today it must be admitted that there is no significant connection between the level of development of democratic institutes and the value of economic growth. This conclusion invariably stems from the vast amount of theoretical and empirical studies that have been conducted over the last 50 years. Why have developed democracies become economic leaders? Why is the US economy growing faster than the economy in Angola, but slower than the economy in Botswana? There are still no answers to these seemingly simple questions. In this paper the author attempts to theoretically justify and empirically confirm the link between the democratic changes in countries and their economic growth. This link becomes apparent if we assume that the amount of transaction costs of exchange depends on the level of political and economic freedom. In turn, transaction costs have a significant influence on the effective functioning of the economy. A decrease in costs of exchange speeds up economic growth and an increase in costs slows down growth. This kind of approach enables us to explain the economic successes of democracies, the lagging behind of many countries in Asia and Africa, the historical reasons for the beginning of the industrial revolution in Europe, the speeding up of economic growth in the 18 th -19 th centuries, the rapid development of production in China and many other occurrences.

Water Pollution History of Switzerland Recorded by Sediments of the Large and Deep Perialpine Lakes Lucerne and Geneva

This review addresses the quantification of anthropogenic pollutants in lacustrine sediments by multidisciplinary analyses including: chronostratigraphy using radioisotopes (137Cs) and radiocarbon dates (14C), trace metal analysis, faecal indicator analysis, as well as antibiotic-resistant genes by molecular analysis. Sediment cores from lakes Lucerne and Geneva that are located at a distance of 150 km from each other reveal a synchronous increase in anthropogenic trace metals (Pb, Cu, Zn, and Mn) following the industrial revolution in Europe about 1850. In both lakes, the peak of water pollution by toxic metals due to discharge of industrial wastewaters was reached in the middle of the twentieth century. During the second part of the twentieth century, both sites show a decrease in metal pollution following the implementation of wastewater treatment plants. On the contrary, the Vidy Bay of Lake Geneva where the treated wastewaters from the city of Lausanne are released since 1964 points out a dramatic increase in trace metal deposition. Later, a high increase in organic matter deposition, in bacteria (Escherichia coli and Enterococcus faecalis) activity as well as antibiotic-resistant genes and bacteria occurred into the bay, simultaneously with the eutrophication of the large and deep perialpine lakes in the 1970s due to excessive external nutrient loading.

Brick as a Construction Material in the Modernization Process of the Ottoman Architecture

Brick used with stone in an alternate order -especially on monumental masonry buildings- is one of the basic construction materials in Ottoman classical architecture. Parallel to the announcement of Tanzimat Declaration (1839), to the political and economical relations improved with European states and to the Industrial Revolution in Europe, an effective change had been seen on design concept and construction techniques in Ottoman architecture. Many new buildings were built using modern materials and imported techniques such as solid brick (in western norms) masonry walls, steel beams at the horizontal and vertical bearers, cement and concrete. The product of modern solid bricks in western standards had been realized in Ottoman territories in the last quarter of 19th century. The base of this research is constituted on 334 imported and local product solid bricks which remain to Zihni Göğer’s (firstly documented for this research), to Uzay Yergün’s, to Aynur Çiftçi’s and to the Yıldız Techical University, Department of Architectural Conservation’s private collections. Most of the bricks are in a good condition, clean and have stamps. From the stamps one learns where they were produced, in which country or even city, the names of the plants, the logos and the dates of product. During the documentation every brick is numerated, photographed and a catalogue is prepared including the dimensions of the bricks. The demolotion of the buildings made of solid brick masonry walls-especially those which are not registered as an essential cultural asset- the interventions undertaken and the use of new materials during restoration of bearer walls have damaged the original bricks. Finally they were not conserved and documented. The aim of this paper is to determine the change of the production and the standarts of the bricks, to indicate their varieties, their fields of use and their conservation problems before and after the modernisation period of Ottoman architecture. It is intended to take into consideration the conservation and documentation of this material during renovations reflecting the original construction technique of the period that belongs to monumental and civil architecture.

Historical Reconstruction of Mercury Pollution Across the Tibetan Plateau Using Lake Sediments

The Tibetan Plateau is described as the "Roof of the World" averaging over 4000 m above sea level; it is remote, isolated, and presumed to be a pristine region. In order to study the history of atmospheric mercury (Hg) pollution and its spatial variation across the Plateau, lakes were chosen from three areas forming a north to south transect. Sediment cores were taken from three sites in each area and dated using the radionuclides 210Pb and 137Cs. Analysis of the cores yielded the first comprehensive Hg reconstructions for the Plateau, showing clear Hg pollution at all sites. The first indication of Hg pollution is much earlier than the onset of the industrial revolution in Europe, but the most significant pollution increase is from the 1970s, followed by a further marked increase from the 1990s. The mean post-2000 atmospheric pollution Hg accumulation rates for the sampling sites were estimated at between 5.1 and 7.9 microg m(-2) yr(-1). The increase in Hg pollution over the last few decades is synchronous with the recent economic development in Asia (especially China and India), and pollution Hg levels continue to increase. Furthermore, contemporary sediment Hg accumulation rate data are in broad agreement with Hg deposition values derived from global models that attribute pollution to sources mainly within southeast Asia. As most of the sites are exceptionally remote and situated above the atmospheric boundary layer, these results underline the need to understand the local Hg cycle in both regional and global context.

Freiheit in Deutschland: Wettbewerb der Staaten, Einfluss der Kirche, amerikanisches Erbe – Versuch einer historischen Erklärung – / Freedom in Germany: Interjurisdictional Competition, the Influence of the Church, and the American Heritage – Sketch of a Historical Explanation

Zusammenfassung Der Aufsatz versucht das schwierige Verhältnis der Deutschen zur Freiheit mit ihren historischen Erfahrungen und den geographischen Gegebenheiten zu erklären. Wenn die Freiheit, der wissenschaftlich-technische Fortschritt und die industrielle Revolution in Europa - kurz: “das europäische Wunder” - auf die politische Fragmentierung und den Wettbewerb zwischen den Herrschern zurückzuführen war, würde man erwarten, dass dieses “Wunder” vor allem von Deutschland - dem am stärksten fragmentierten Sprachraum - ausgegangen wäre. Führend waren jedoch zumeist andere Länder. Der Aufsatz zeigt, dass der Wettbewerb der Fürsten auch in Deutschland der Freiheit und der wirtschaftlichen Entwicklung förderlich war; gleichzeitig gab es jedoch Sonderfaktoren, die retardierend wirkten. Dazu gehörte die prekäre Lage in der Mitte des Kontinents und der Mangel an natürlichen Grenzen, welche viele verlustreiche Kriege zur Folge hatten. Je zersplitterter die weltliche Macht, desto einflussreicher ist überdies die Kirche. Das Verhältnis der Kirche zur wirtschaftlichen Freiheit ist ambivalent. Was die Deutschen von ihren Nachbarn unterscheidet, ist daher der tiefe Zwiespalt zwischen den freiheitlichen Anforderungen der äußeren Verhältnisse und ihren historisch geprägten Wertvorstellungen. Nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg übernahm (West -) Deutschland von den Amerikanern zahlreiche Elemente einer freiheitlichen Wirtschaftspolitik. Die Analyse zeigt, dass das amerikanische Erbe nur in zwei dieser sieben Politikbereiche bewahrt wurde.

Sumatra’s Rubber Agroforests: Advent, Rise and Fall of a Sustainable Cropping System

Until the end of the nineteenth century primary forests covered nearly all the island of Sumatra. The first valorisation of this natural resource was hunting and gathering activities, followed by and later associated with swidden cultivation of upland rice. The industrial revolution in Europe and North America in the 1950s created increasing demand for rubber. Answering this new market opportunity, farmers introduced rubber seedlings in their swiddens amidst the upland rice. By doing so, they invented a new cropping system, i.e. rubber agroforests. Thanks to the continuously increasing demand for rubber by the developing industry, rubber agroforests spread over Sumatra’s eastern peneplains until the 1990s. Forest conversion to rubber agroforests conserves a high level of forest biodiversity and the agroforests act as a buffer zone around national parks. But with growing demographic pressure, market integration and household monetary needs, agroforests are increasingly endangered. New cropping systems have appeared and challenge agroforests’ dominance in the landscape. Since the mid-twentieth century, rubber monospecific plantations have been competing for land, with an undoubtedly higher profitability than agroforests. More recently, oil palm plantations have spread over the island, quickly becoming the new challenger to rubber agroforestry. Nevertheless, the international community shows more and more interest in forest and biodiversity conservation. Forest cover in Jambi province has nearly disappeared over the past 30 years. The only way to save the remnants of forests and agroforests seems to be the creation of market incentives through conservation programs such as reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation.

Global institutions: the World Health Organization (WHO)

This book is a short and very readable account of the origins and evolution of WHO as the United Nations specialized agency for global health. It will be of interest not only to scholars and practitioners of public health, but also to those interested in development and international relations. Starting with a brief review of the history of international cooperation aimed at prevention and control of the spread of communicable diseases across borders, the book traces the rise of social medicine and public health in response to recognition of social and economic determinants of the health of populations during the Industrial Revolution in Europe and subsequently into the 20th century on both sides of the Atlantic. Biomedical and social concepts of human health have led to tensions with regard to defining the scope and limits of public health and its amenability to scientific and technical or social and political action. The book discusses these tensions in relation to the foundation of WHO in the aftermath of the Second World War, starting with a definition of its mandate and constitution, which came into force on 7 April 1948. While the constitution adopts a broad notion of health, nevertheless the history of WHO in the subsequent 60 years reveals alternating and competing cycles that reflect ongoing debate and opinions on how best to promote the attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level of health. Following a brief review of the events leading up to WHO’s creation, the book analyses the structure, functions and governance of the Organization, all of which are intended to reflect universal membership as well as its role as the United Nations specialized agency for health. This chapter explains WHO’s unique regional and global structure that enables the Organization to carry out its dual normative and technical cooperation functions, the latter implemented through its 147 country offices. Two chapters are dedicated to analysing WHO’s approaches to competing pressures among its Member States on how best to improve and promote health. These pressures arise from two related dichotomies. The first relates to the relative effectiveness of focusing on specific diseases versus strengthening health systems. The second relates to the balance between focus on health and the health sector versus broader determinants of health and the need for health in all policies and intersectoral action. A chapter on global campaigns against specific diseases traces WHO action against malaria, smallpox, HIV/AIDS and poliomyelitis. It notes how disease control and eradication campaigns fire the public imagination and attract donors. For many people they epitomize the work of a world health organization. However, the author notes WHO’s mixed record and concludes that global disease campaigns are not in themselves an adequate fulfilment of WHO’s mandate to improve world health. A chapter on tackling the broad determinants of health examines attempts by the public health community to influence the work of WHO to better reflect its Constitution. It traces early work that focused on single factors such as water, sanitation, nutrition and housing before moving on to the primary health care movement of the 1970s and 1980s that drew international attention to health equity and the fundamental importance of ensuring universal access to services, including essential medicines. The author records the controversies and political tensions that have accompanied WHO’s work in these areas, including recent work on tobacco control, trade and health and prevention of chronic diseases in which strong vested interests have sought to oppose and undermine the work of the Organization. The final chapter describes pressure on WHO to respond to the realities of globalization by engaging with new stakeholders, beyond its member states, and addressing important cross-border health determinants. The author examines the pressures on the secretariat to embrace global health and the ensuing challenges to revisit WHO’s mandate, basic functions and even its underlying value system. In line with the higher-than-ever priority that has been accorded to public health in international affairs, WHO’s functions and governance have been the subject of repeated studies and calls for reform since the early 1990s. The book concludes that politics has been embedded in WHO throughout its history and is an obvious feature of an international organization mandated to promote the attainment of the highest possible level of health for all peoples. In that context, it is remarkably current at this juncture when human health and wellbeing face challenges as great as any since the Organization was established. ■

From the retailing revolution to the consumer revolution: Department stores in modern Shanghai

Following the Industrial Revolution in Europe and America, the market was flooded with manufacturing goods. To promote sales, the department store that stressed a “low profit, high volume” model appeared in Shanghai. Sellers lowered prices to encourage purchases, and used rapid and high volume turnover to make up for lower profits. To speed up turnover, department stores invented various devices to increase sales, including intensive media advertising, open and comfortable store spaces, and free and attentive services. The new sales philosophy and tactics not only brought about a breakthrough in the retailing, but also reshaped consumer life and urban culture. The Shanghai department store evinced the social and cultural meaning of consumption in its building and inner design, its application of new technology, and its promotional activities and products display. A consumer lifestyle centering on the department store also remolded the Shanghai society.

Challenges of Doing Sociology in a Globalizing South: Between Indigenization and Emergent Structures

As sociology emerged from the womb of the industrial revolution in Europe and the challenges of the anomic socio-economic environment, the concern of its founding fathers naturally gravitated around Western ideologies and challenges. The modernization paradigm facilitated the hegemonic ascendancy of Western sociology in the South until the recent ideological impasse, when the South began to grope for fresh insights. Currently, attention is still being drawn to the sociological significance of emancipation from systemic inequality created by social structural variables in the development process globally but particularly in poorer countries. This study, therefore, draws from Professor Peter Ekeh’s “Colonialism and Social Structure” and his theoretical statement on the two public to highlight the consequences of uncritical engagement in the Periphery with the sociology of the Core, the importance of agency in post-imperialistic thinking in sociology, and the implications for repositioning sociologists in the South for the task of a more creative local engagement with globalizing ideologies that are integral to mainstream sociology in the North. The paper also highlights the roles of international, regional, and national associations such as the International Sociological Association (ISA), the African Sociological Association (AFSA), the Nigerian Sociological and Anthropological Association (NASA), and the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) in setting the agenda.

FROM ‘NARCISSISTIC’ POSITIVE INTERNATIONAL LAW TO ‘UNIVERSAL’ NATURAL INTERNATIONAL LAW: THE DIALECTICS OF ‘ABSENTEE COLONIALISM’

The classic notions of antiquity had very imperfect notions of international justice. With the Greeks and Romans, ‘foreigners’ and ‘Barbarians’ or ‘enemy’ were synonymous in language and in fact. By their rude theory of public law, the persons of alien were doomed to slavery (…) piracy was unblushingly practised by the most civilized states which then existed (…) Grecian philosophers gravely assert that they (barbarians or foreigners) were intended by nature to be the slaves of the Greeks.1 ‘Colonialism’ has been the first gift of science to the non-European world. Developments in natural science through inventions set the pace for industrial revolution in Europe. The industrial revolution, further, set the sail for discovering new markets, resources and raw materials. An attempt to find markets and materials exposed the fragile Asian and African states to the imperial designs of colonisers, hidden in the garb of civilisers and merchants. The marriage of ‘mercantilism’ and ‘civilisationalism’ on the Asian and African soil fertilised by advances in science gave birth to colonialism. This ‘couple’ conceived many a time and brought forth ‘cultural’ and ‘military’ subjugation, servility, racism and interference into the sovereignty and society of the unexcavated soil of Asia and Africa. This family soon spread in the world what we now know as ‘the Empire’.

Teaching and Learning Guide for: Youth‐Subculture Studies: Sociological Traditions and Core Concepts

Studies of youth subcultures have been carried out for decades from varioustheoretical perspectives (including functionalism, social ecology, neo-Marxism,deviance and labeling, cultural studies, sports and leisure studies) as well as fromvarious methodological standpoints (e.g., deductive and inductive approaches,insider and outsider perspectives, ethnographic, historical comparative, and semiotics).The sociological study of youth subcultures thus offers a wide range of oppor-tunities to bring together an interesting topic for young people and theoreticalor methodological pedagogies.

Contemporary Master Planned Community Practice

Contemporary Master Planned Community Practice

Capitalism & Slavery and Caribbean Historiography: An Evaluation

Few works have undergone such detailed historical analysis as Eric Williams' Capitalism & Slavery, published almost sixty years ago. (1) This book has elicited both acclaim and criticism, especially over the last three and a half decades. However, despite its somewhat dated methodological framework, and its absence of modern statistical tools for historical analysis, no historian or economic analyst has been able to undermine its basic theses. Whenever historians have tried to challenge the work's findings, an academic physician emerges to breathe new life into its aging veins. Eric Williams made a major contribution to Caribbean history, politics, and society. Prior to the publication of Capitalism & Slavery, Caribbean history was written from the perspective associated with the British imperial school of historical writing. objective was to highlight European achievements in the Caribbean. Consequently, Eurocentric historians have concluded, without strong evidence, that the development of the Caribbean colonies resulted from the riches of Europe. They paid little attention to the contributions of the colonies, of the slave trade, or slavery, and the sugar industry to the development of the industrial economies of Europe, and downplayed the contribution of the Caribbean commodities to the formation and growth of modern capitalism. First produced as a doctoral thesis, entitled The Economic Aspect of the Abolition of the West Indian Slave Trade, for Oxford University in 1938, and expanded and rewritten while Williams taught at Howard University, Slavery & Capitalism attempted to make this connection. In so doing, Williams redefined the traditional orthodoxy, and argued that the wealth of Europe was derived from the exploitation of African labor through the slave trade and Caribbean slavery. Williams thus argued that British West Indian production was pivotal to the formation of capital in Britain and laid the foundations for the Industrial Revolution in Europe. study therefore placed the Caribbean at the center of the Atlantic economic system. even more revolutionary assertion was that the abolition of the slave trade and the emancipation of the slaves occurred less due to the role of the abolitionists and other humanitarians than to the overall decline of the British West Indian sugar economy at the end of the 18th century. With the separation of the United States at the end of the First British Empire, and the publication of Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations (1776), there emerged the enlightened belief that slave labor was inefficient, unprofitable, and an impediment to economic growth. Initially after the end of the American Revolution, British producers and manufacturers still controlled the American markets. However by the 1790s, colonies were considered burdens and the sugar planters, who were economically dependent, were a principal contributor to the decline of the Caribbean economy. At the same time, Capitalism & Slavery is much more than an economic study highlighting the contribution of the sugar industry to capital formation in the Caribbean, Britain, and Europe, demonstrating the contribution of the slave trade, slavery, and the sugar industry to the fueling of the growth of modern capitalism. It is a political document in which Eric Williams used his research on the economic contribution of the colonies to European economic growth to challenge colonialism itself and the continued control of the Caribbean by the imperial powers. It was an argument urging contemporary African Americans to take pride in their ancestors' period of servitude because they had contributed significantly to the greatness of the British Empire, despite their extreme exploitation and subjugation. That Williams was interested in making political statements with his scholarly publications can be seen in Negro in the Caribbean, published in 1942 before Capitalism & Slavery. …

"Universal Science" Versus "Chinese Science": The Changing Identity of Natural Studies in China, 1850-1930

Abstract This article is about the contested nature of "science" in "modern" China. The struggle over the meaning and significance of the specific types of natural studies brought by Protestants (1842-1895) occurred in a historical context in which natural studies in late imperial China were until 1900 part of a nativist imperial and literati project to master and control Western views on what constituted legitimate natural knowledge. After the industrial revolution in Europe, a weakened Qing government and its increasingly concerned Han Chinese and Manchu elites turned to "Western" models of science, medicine, and technology, which were disguised under the traditional terminology for natural studies. In the aftermath of the 1894-95 Sino-Japanese War, Chinese reformers, radicals, and revolutionaries turned to Japanese and Western science as an intellectual weapon to destroy the perceived backwardness of China. Until 1900, the Chinese had interpreted the transition from "Chinese science" to modern, universal scientific knowledge - and its new modes of industrial power - on their own terms. After 1900, the teleology of a universal and progressive "science" first invented in Europe replaced the Chinese notion that Western natural studies had their origins in ancient China, but this development was also challenged in the aftermath of World War One during the 1923 debate over "Science and the Philosophy of Life."

Two thousand years of atmospheric rare earth element (REE) deposition as revealed by an ombrotrophic peat bog profile, Jura Mountains, Switzerland.

A peat core from a Swiss bog represents 2110 14C years of peat accumulation and provides a continuous record of atmospheric rare earth element (REE) deposition. This is the first study providing a time-series of all REE originating from the atmosphere. Concentrations of the 14 REE (La, Ce, Pr, Nd, Sm, Eu, Gd, Tb, Dy, Ho, Er, Tm, Yb and Lu) were determined using inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) after dissolution of 200 mg aliquots of age-dated peat samples with 3 ml HNO3 and 0.1 ml HBF4 at 240 degrees C in a microwave autoclave. Strict quality control schemes were applied to ensure the accuracy of the applied analytical methodology. Previous analyses of selected REE by instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA) in the same set of peat samples revealed that INAA frequently under- or overestimated REE concentrations in a systematic manner. Concentration profiles obtained for all REE were almost identical, except for Ce and Eu. Calculation of enrichment factors (EF) revealed a distinct depletion of heavy REE relative to light REE in peat samples since the beginning of the 19th century which marks the onset of the Industrial Revolution in Europe, suggesting a pronounced influence by anthropogenic activities. Enrichments of REE calculated using Sc as a reference element exceeded unity, relative to the Upper Continental Crust. Overall, EF in all peat samples ranged from 1.96 for Sm to 2.34 for Gd, with considerably lower EF for Ce (1.82) and Eu (1.44), respectively. A significant enrichment of all REE which may have been caused by military activities, was observed in the peat sample dating from World War II (1944); this exceptional sample, however, is not enriched in Ce. The concentration profiles of REE were similar but not identical to those of other lithogenic, conservative reference elements such as Sc, Y, Al, Zr and Ti. While it has been suggested that individual REE concentrations or the sum of REE can be used as a reference parameter to calculate crustal EF in environmental samples the data presented here indicates that anthropogenic emissions of REE cannot simply be ignored.