Prior to this time, Judah had been a vassal of the Assyrian empire, but the rapid decline of Assyria after c. 630 led Josiah to assert his independence and institute a religious reform stressing loyalty to Yahweh, the national God.

Prior to achieving its independence, Cuba was a colony of Spain.

Prior to independence, Makarios-by virtue of his post as Archbishop of Cyprus and head of the Cypriot Orthodox Church-was the Greek Cypriot Ethnarch, or de facto leader of the community.

Prior to independence as Zimbabwe, the nation had been known by several names: Rhodesia, Southern Rhodesia, and Zimbabwe-Rhodesia.

Prior to Lesotho's independence in 1966, the only paved road in the country was the Kingsway in the capital, Maseru, between the Mejametalana Airport and the Royal Palace.

Prior to independence, the French establishment and Catholic Church feared Opangault's radicalism and favored the rise of Fulbert Youlou, a former priest.

Prior to Belarus gaining its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, the language was known in English as Byelorussian or Belorussian, transliterating the Russian name,, or alternatively as White Ruthenian or White Russian.

Prior to independence, the act allowed the U. S to maintain military forces in the Philippines and to call all military forces of the Philippine government into U. S. military service.

Prior to independence, " Harare " was the name of the Black residential area now known as Mbare.

Prior to Mozambique's independence in 1975, thousands of tourists from South Africa and Rhodesia ( now Zimbabwe ) frequented the city and its scenic beaches, high-quality hotels, restaurants, casinos and brothels.

Prior to Texas's independence from Mexico in 1836, the town was listed as under the jurisdiction of the town of Mier, Tamaulipas, and prior to Mexican independence existed under Spanish rule.

Prior to independence, the People's Republic of China supported the country's indigenous movement for independence against the Portuguese Empire and the relationship continued after independence.

Prior to independence, Al Ain was part of the Arabian slave trade network that extended from east Africa into the Persian Gulf.

Prior to independence, funaná was denigrated by colonial authorities, who considered it African.

Prior to June 1776, the New Jersey delegation in the First Continental Congress was opposed to independence.

Prior to the independence of Liberia in 1847, executive power in the Commonwealth of Liberia was held by the Governor of Liberia, who was appointed by the American Colonization Society.

Prior to independence, Tunku Abdul Rahman managed to convince the sultans to cede some states ' powers to the federal government.

Prior to independence it was expanded to form one contiguous territory, with a total land area of 6, 807 km².

Prior to being president, he led the Eritrean People's Liberation Front ( EPLF ) to victory in May 1991, thus ending the 30-year-old armed liberation struggle for Eritrean independence.

Prior to this, he was a leading figure in the independence movement and then the new government, and played a crucial role in facilitating and protecting Botswana ’ s steady financial growth and development.

Prior to independence, the districts of Hoshiarpur and Gurdaspur were home to a large number of Muslim Maliks.

Prior to modern times, there was no distinction between architects, engineers and often artists, and the title used varied depending on geographical location.

Prior to this, in Old and Middle English, the word was usually spelled Crist the i being pronounced either as, preserved in the names of churches such as St Katherine Cree, or as a short, preserved in the modern pronunciation of Christmas.

Prior to the modern proliferation of environmental regulation, the doctrines of nuisance ( public or private ), trespass, negligence, and strict liability apportioned harm and assigned liability for activities that today would be considered pollution and likely governed by regulatory regimes.

Prior to the introduction of modern reinforced-soil gravity walls, cantilevered walls were the most common type of taller retaining wall.

Prior to System / 360, IBM also sold computers smaller in scale that were not considered mainframes, though they were still bulky and expensive by modern standards.

Prior to the modern history of science, scientific questions were addressed as a part of metaphysics known as natural philosophy.

Prior to its expansion under Philip II, the ancient kingdom of Macedonia, to which the modern region owes its name, lay entirely within the current Greek province of Macedonia.

Prior to the adoption of the modern binomial system of naming species, a scientific name consisted of a generic name combined with a specific name that was from one to several words long.

Prior to the 4th century BC, the kingdom covered a region approximately corresponding to the Western and Central parts of province of Macedonia in modern Greece.

Prior to the advent of modern dams in China, the Yellow River was extremely prone to flooding.

Prior to the arrival of Māori settlers in the 13th century, much of the modern Canterbury region was covered in scrub and beech forests.

His personality reflects more modern, pragmatic attitudes and progressive ethics than those of his time, which often puts him in conflict with his brethren, particularly with his superior Prior Robert and Robert's clerk Brother Jerome, who disapprove of Cadfael for his casual attitude toward rules and for the privileges that are allowed him by their Abbot.

" Prior to this modern meaning, " enharmonic " referred to relations in which ( using traditional notation ) there is no exact equivalence between a sharpened note and the flattened note., as in enharmonic scale.

Prior to becoming a village, the area that constitutes modern day Brockport was primarily occupied by the Muoio Indian tribe ( A branch of the Seneca ).

This consists of an animal management centre and a modern building, the Priory Centre, which is shared with Prior Pursglove College

Prior to the 13th century, Tai kingdoms had existed on the northern highlands including the Ngoenyang ( centered on Chiang Saen ; predecessor of Lanna ) kingdom and the Heokam ( centered on Chiang Hung, modern Jinghong in China ) kingdom of Tai Lue people.

Prior to the formation of the modern Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the native population of Nejd consisted mainly of members of several Arabian tribes, who were either nomads ( bedouins ), or sedentary farmers and merchants.

Prior to the modern POS, all of these functions were done independently and required the manual re-keying of information, which resulted in a lot of errors.

Prior to modern times, children were considered " little " adults, rather than today's conception of them as " unformed " adults.

A. N. Prior created modern temporal logic, closely related to modal logic, in 1957 by adding modal operators and meaning " eventually " and " previously ".

Prior to modern archaeological studies, most Biblical scholars held the opinion that the Jebusites were identical to the Hittites, which continues to be the case, though less so.

Prior to modern times, the three main branches of the current corporate family tree were for many years themselves systems: Norfolk and Western, formed in 1881, Southern Railway System in 1894, and Conrail, formed much later, in 1976 .< ref name = trainsmag >

Prior to the advent of modern methods of verifying death, people feared that they would be buried alive.

Prior to the advent of modern military pontoon bridge-building equipment, floating bridges were typically constructed using wood.