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Toulouse

(Encyclopedia)Toulouse to͞olo͞ozˈ [key], city (1990 pop. 365,933), capital of Haute-Garonne dept., S France, on the Garonne River. France's fastest growing region, it is one of France's great cultural and commer...

Champlain, Samuel de

(Encyclopedia)Champlain, Samuel de shămplānˈ, Fr. sämüĕlˈ də shäNplăNˈ [key], 1567–1635, French explorer, the chief founder of New France. After serving in France under Henry of Navarre (King Henry IV)...

Metz

(Encyclopedia)Metz Eng. and Ger. mĕts, Fr. mĕs [key], city (2010 est. pop. 127,000), capital of Moselle dept., NE France, on the Moselle River. It is a cultural, commercial, and transportation center of Lorraine,...

communism

(Encyclopedia)communism, fundamentally, a system of social organization in which property (especially real property and the means of production) is held in common. Thus, the ejido system of the indigenous people of...

Estienne

(Encyclopedia)Estienne, Étienne stĕfˈənəs [key], family of Parisian and Genevan printers of the 16th and 17th cent., distinguished through five generations in scholarship as well as in their craft. The first ...

Great Lakes, North America

(Encyclopedia)Great Lakes, group of five freshwater lakes, central North America, creating a natural border between the United States and Canada and forming the largest body of freshwater in the world, with a combi...

automobile industry

(Encyclopedia)automobile industry, the business of producing and selling self-powered vehicles, including passenger cars, trucks, farm equipment, and other commercial vehicles. By allowing consumers to commute long...

balloon

(Encyclopedia)balloon, lighter-than-air craft without a propulsion system, lifted by inflation of one or more containers with a gas lighter than air or with heated air. During flight, altitude may be gained by disc...

Louis XVI, king of France

(Encyclopedia)Louis XVI, 1754–93, king of France (1774–92), third son of the dauphin (Louis) and Marie Josèphe of Saxony, grandson and successor of King Louis XV. In 1770 he married the Austrian archduchess Ma...

States-General

(Encyclopedia)States-General or Estates-General, diet or national assembly in which the chief estates (see estate) of a nation—usually clergy, nobles, and towns (or commons)—were represented as separate bodies....