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Central American Federation

(Encyclopedia)Central American Federation or Central American Union, political confederation (1825–38) of the republics of Central America—Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Salvador. United under ...

Russian American Company

(Encyclopedia)Russian American Company, colonial trading company, chartered by Czar Paul I in 1799. The charter granted the merchant-dominated company monopoly trading privileges in Russian America, which included ...

Spanish-American literature

(Encyclopedia)Spanish-American literature, the writings of both the European explorers of Spanish America and its later inhabitants. See also Spanish literature; Portuguese literature; Brazilian literature. T...

Spanish-American War

(Encyclopedia)Spanish-American War, 1898, brief conflict between Spain and the United States arising out of Spanish policies in Cuba. It was, to a large degree, brought about by the efforts of U.S. expansionists. ...

National Marine Sanctuary Program

(Encyclopedia)National Marine Sanctuary Program, federally owned marine and Great Lakes reserves, administered by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The program consists of 13 marine sanctu...

Polynesia

(Encyclopedia)Polynesia pŏlĭnēˈzhə, –shə [key] [Gr.,=many islands], one of the three main divisions of Oceania, in the central and S Pacific Ocean. The larger islands are volcanic; the smaller ones are gene...

Mead, Margaret

(Encyclopedia)Mead, Margaret, 1901–78, American anthropologist, b. Philadelphia, grad. Barnard, 1923, Ph.D. Columbia, 1929. In 1926 she became assistant curator, in 1942 associate curator, and from 1964 to 1969 s...

Wallis and Futuna Islands

(Encyclopedia)Wallis and Futuna Islands wŏlˈĭs, fo͞oto͞oˈnä [key], officially Territory of the Wallis and Futuna Islands, French overseas territory (2015 est. pop. 12,000), 106 sq mi (274 sq km), S Pacific, ...

Duane, William, American journalist

(Encyclopedia)Duane, William, 1760–1835, American journalist, b. near Lake Champlain, N.Y., of Irish parentage. He learned the printer's trade in Ireland and in 1787 went to Calcutta (now Kolkata), where he edite...

Duane, William, American physicist

(Encyclopedia)Duane, William, 1872–1935, American physicist, b. Philadelphia, grad. Harvard, 1893, Ph.D. Univ. of Berlin, 1897. He taught at the Univ. of Colorado (1898–1907), worked at the Curie radium laborat...