Despite suffering heavy defeats against the West Indies during the 1980s, England continued to do well in the Ashes.

Despite his success against the Gepids, Alboin had failed to greatly increase his power, and was now faced with a much stronger threat from the Avars.

Despite advances in the protection offered by ballistic armour against projectiles, as the name implies, modern ballistic body armour is much less impervious to stabbing weapons unless they are augmented with anti-knife / anti-stab armour ( usually a form of mail ).

Despite being offered the chance to remain as ruler of Bavaria ( under strict terms of an alliance with Austria ), the Elector left his country and family in order to continue the war against the Allies from the Spanish Netherlands where he still held the post of governor-general.

Despite the numerical advantage of the Persians, the hoplites proved devastatingly effective against the more lightly armed Persian infantry, routing the wings before turning in on the centre of the Persian line.

) Despite the general avoidance of the Imperatorial era, he penned a defense of Cicero against the charges of Asinius Gallus.

Despite the move away from the Valley, Charlton were promoted to the First Division as Second Division runners-up at the end of 1985 – 86, and remained at this level for four years ( achieving a highest league finish of 14th ) often with late escapes, most notably against Leeds in 1987, where the Addicks triumphed in extra-time of the play-off final replay to secure their top flight place.

Despite some early cooperative military successes against Japan, by the time that the Japanese surrendered in 1945 neither the CPC nor the KMT trusted each other or were actively cooperating.

Despite her continuing production and accolades, however, Beaux was working against the current of tastes and trends in art.

Despite the ban on factionalism, the Workers ' Opposition continued its open agitation against the policies of the Central Committee, and before the 11th Party Congress ( March 1922 ) the Workers ' Opposition made an ill-conceived bid to win support for their position in the Comintern.

Despite assurances against reprisals, the returning Spanish authorities proved to be merciless with the rebels and, in the process of ferreting out participants in the Quito revolt, jailed and abused many innocent citizens.

Despite recording the most successful home and away season in the game's history, the club went one win short of back-to-back premierships in losing the 2008 AFL Grand Final, but won the 2009 Grand Final against St Kilda.

Despite the testimony, persecution against Quakers and other dissenters continued.

Despite opposing the United States in favour of the Sandanistas on the country's northern border, stern warnings against the US Bay of Pigs invasion, along with repelling Nicaraguan dictator Somoza's invasion after turning to the Organization of American States, and border disputes with Nicaragua, Costa Rica has held firmly to its belief against ever having a military.

Despite a recovery in the results, Verona ended in an 18th place, thus being forced to play a two-legged playoff against 19th-placed Spezia in order to avert relegation.

Despite the fact that Michael Collins – the de facto leader of the IRA – had negotiated the Treaty, many IRA officers were against it.

Despite his opposition to Operation Barbarossa and a preference for focusing the war effort against Britain, on 28 June 1941, Ribbentrop began a sustained effort to have Japan attack the Soviet Union without bothering to inform Hitler first.

Despite these moves toward independence, economic realities seemed to work against secession from the Soviet Union In a referendum on the preservation of the USSR, in March 1991, 88. 7 % of the voters approved a proposal to remain part of the union as a " renewed federation.

Despite the coin's legal tender status, economic sanctions against South Africa for its policy of apartheid made the Krugerrand an illegal import in many Western countries during the 1970s and 1980s.

Despite the modern view that longbows had trouble penetrating high-quality plate armour after about 1350, as late as 1415 the hail of arrows created by massed ranks of thousands of longbowmen helped to win the battle against plate-armoured French knights at Agincourt.

Despite Mahathir's frequently anti-Western rhetoric he worked closely with Western countries, and led a crackdown against Islamic fundamentalists after the September 11, 2001 attacks.

Despite French and Moroccan military aid, Polisario raids against the Zouerate railway and mines threatened to bring about economic collapse, and there were deep misgivings in the military about the Saharan adventure.

Despite Gandhi's opposition, Bose won a second term as Congress President, against Gandhi's nominee, Dr. Pattabhi Sitaramayya ; but left the Congress when the All-India leaders resigned en masse in protest of his abandonment of the principles introduced by Gandhi.

Despite early problems with recruitment and training, it is becoming effective in fighting against the Taliban insurgency.

Despite its label as an England side, the team which toured South Africa in 1891 contained several Scots.

Despite having lost the test series to South Africa by game three, the Lions won the final test.

Despite a hotly contested South Carolina primary, none of the candidates appeared on the platform of BJU's Founders ' Memorial Amphitorium during the 2008 election cycle.

Despite the setbacks, Chaplin was soon writing a new film script, The Freak, a story of a winged girl found in South America, which he intended as a starring vehicle for his daughter, Victoria Chaplin.

Despite this, by September 1960, following the four-way division of the country, there were four separate armed forces: Mobotu's ANC itself, numbering about 12, 000, the South Kasai Constabulary loyal to Albert Kalonji ( 3, 000 or less ), the Katanga Gendarmerie which were part of Moise Tshombe's regime ( totalling about 10, 000 ), and the Stanleyville dissident ANC loyal to Antoine Gizenga ( numbering about 8, 000 ).

Despite being from the South, he did not become seriously interested in country music until his time at Harvard, where he heard Merle Haggard for the first time.

Despite this, South Africa lost all their matches.

Despite this paradigm shift, the government of South Africa was the first in the world to outlaw discrimination based on sexual orientation.

Despite being defined as the South African coast by the IHO, the western limit of the channel is more correctly defined as the coast of Southern Africa or, more specifically, of Mozambique.

Despite being a superpower and having a superior arsenal of weapons at its disposal, the United States was unable to make substantial gains against North Vietnam's proxy guerilla army in South Vietnam, the Viet Cong.

Despite this, North Korea maintained its hostile rhetoric against the U. S., South Korea and Japan.

Despite the South Korean economy's high growth potential and apparent structural stability, South Korea suffers perpetual damage to its credit rating in the stock market due to the belligerence of North Korea in times of deep military crises, which has an adverse effect on the financial markets of the South Korean economy.

Despite the global financial crisis, the South Korean economy, helped by timely stimulus measures and strong domestic consumption of products that compensated for a drop in exports, was able to avoid a recession unlike most industrialized economies, posting positive economic growth for two consecutive years of the crisis.

Despite the Sunshine Policy and efforts at reconciliation, the progress was complicated by North Korean missile tests in 1993, 1998, 2006 and 2009., relationships between North and South Korea were very tense ; North Korea had been reported to have deployed missiles, ended its former agreements with South Korea, and threatened South Korea and the United States not to interfere with a satellite launch it had planned.

Despite friction between the African National Congress and Biko throughout the 1970s the ANC has included Biko in the pantheon of struggle heroes, going as far as using his image for campaign posters in South Africa's first non-racial elections in 1994.

Despite the Ridgeway's artificial creation, the TV programme Seven Natural Wonders featured it in 2005 as one of the wonders of the South.

Despite the orthodox bishops ' predominance in CELAM, a more radical form of liberation theology remained much supported in South America.

Despite the ending of slavery in Great Britain, the United States continued to rely on it as an institution in the South, and the West Indian colonies of the British Empire also kept slavery.

Despite the move to the left, South America remains largely capitalist and is enjoying its best years of economic growth.

Despite the landslide victory, Johnson, who carried the South as a whole in the election, lost the Deep South states of Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia and South Carolina, the first time a Democratic candidate had done so since Reconstruction.