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New Granada

(Encyclopedia)New Granada grənäˈdə [key], former Spanish colony, N South America. It included at its greatest extent present Colombia, Ecuador, Panama, and Venezuela. Between 1499 and 1510 a host of conquerors ...

Reyes, Rafael

(Encyclopedia)Reyes, Rafael räfäĕlˈ rāˈyās [key], 1850–1921, president of Colombia (1904–9). As a young man, he explored the upper Amazon wilderness with his brother. Later he distinguished himself in th...

Little America

(Encyclopedia)Little America, base for Antarctic exploring expeditions, Antarctica, on the Ross Ice Shelf, S of the Bay of Whales. Richard E. Byrd, a U.S. explorer, established and named Little America in 1929 and ...

Penn Central Company

(Encyclopedia)Penn Central Company, former U.S. transportation company, formed in 1968 by the merger of the New York Central RR and the Pennsylvania RR. By the early 1970s the railroad was bankrupt; in 1976 the U.S...

Central Asian Republics

(Encyclopedia)Central Asian Republics, the countries of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. Constituent republics of the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, they all achieved i...

Central European Initiative

(Encyclopedia)Central European Initiative, organization founded in 1991 to promote economic and political cooperation in the region between the Adriatic and Baltic seas. Members include Austria, Bosnia and Herzegov...

Central Intelligence Agency

(Encyclopedia)Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), independent executive bureau of the U.S. government established by the National Security Act of 1947, replacing the wartime Office of Strategic Services (1942–45),...

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