Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

War Department, United States

(Encyclopedia)War Department, United States, federal executive department organized (1789) to administer the military establishment. It was reconstituted (1947) as the Dept. of the Army when the military administra...

knight

(Encyclopedia)knight, in ancient and medieval history, a noble who did military service as a mounted warrior. As the feudal system disintegrated, knight service was with growing frequency commuted into cash pay...

Joint Base Andrews

(Encyclopedia)Joint Base Andrews, officially Joint Base Andrews Naval Air Facility Washington, formerly Andrews Air Force Base, U.S. military installation, 4,279 acres (1,732 hectares), central Md., est. 1943. It i...

Wu P'ei-fu

(Encyclopedia)Wu P'ei-fu wo͞o pāˈ-fo͞o [key], 1874–1939, Chinese general and political leader. He had a distinguished military career under the Ch'ing dynasty and was an important figure in the republic. For ...

Vandenberg Air Force Base

(Encyclopedia)Vandenberg Air Force Base, U.S. military installation, 3,456 acres (1,399 hectares), SW Calif., near Lompoc; chief Pacific coast launch site for military satellites, and headquarters of the U.S. Space...

Vegetius

(Encyclopedia)Vegetius (Flavius Vegetius Renatus) vĭjēˈshəs [key], fl. c.385–400, Roman writer. He is the author of Epitoma rei militaris [a summary of military matters], which is an important source of infor...

primogeniture

(Encyclopedia)primogeniture, in law, the rule of inheritance whereby land descends to the oldest son. Under the feudal system of medieval Europe, primogeniture generally governed the inheritance of land held in mil...

Terauchi, Masatake

(Encyclopedia)Terauchi, Masatake, 1852–1919, Japanese army officer and political. He joined the army in 1871, became military attaché to France (1882), inspector general of military education (1898), and army mi...

Touré, Amadou Toumani

(Encyclopedia)Touré, Amadou Toumani, 1948–2020, Malian political and military leader. He graduated from military school in 1972 and received further military training in the Soviet Union and France. Promoted to ...

Douglas, Sir Howard

(Encyclopedia)Douglas, Sir Howard, 1776–1861, British general and colonial administrator. He was a distinguished teacher of military strategy and an important authority on military and naval engineering. After a ...

Browse by Subject