Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

91 results found

Trujillo Molina, Rafael Leonidas

(Encyclopedia)Trujillo Molina, Rafael Leonidas räfäĕlˈ lāōnēˈᵺäs tro͞ohēˈyō mōlēˈnä [key], 1891–1961, president of the Dominican Republic (1930–38, 1942–52). Trained by U.S. marines during ...

emperor

(Encyclopedia)emperor [Lat. imperator=one holding supreme power, especially applied to generals], the sovereign head of an empire. In the Roman republic the term imperator referred to the chief military commander a...

boat people

(Encyclopedia)boat people, term used to describe the Indochinese refugees who fled Communist rule after the Vietnam War (1975) in small boats and the many ethnic Chinese who left Vietnam similarly after China's inv...

Billaud-Varenne, Jean Nicolas

(Encyclopedia)Billaud-Varenne, Jean Nicolas zhäk nēkōläˈ bēyōˈ-värĕnˈ [key], 1756–1819, French revolutionary. A violent antimonarchist in the Convention, the revolutionary national assembly, he and Jea...

Organization of American States

(Encyclopedia)Organization of American States (OAS), international organization, created Apr. 30, 1948, at Bogotá, Colombia, by agreement of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, the Dominican R...

marines

(Encyclopedia)marines, troops that serve on board ships of war or in conjunction with naval operation. A British marine corps was established in 1664, and the need for skilled riflemen aboard military vessels broug...

Dominican Republic

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Dominican Republic dəmĭnˈĭkən [key], republic (2015 est. pop. 10,528,000), 18,700 sq mi (48,442 sq km), West Indies, on the eastern two thirds of the island of Hispaniola. The capital and ...

Phips, Sir William

(Encyclopedia)Phips, Sir William, 1651–95, American colonial governor. Born in what is today Maine, he was a carpenter and shipbuilder in Boston and became interested in sunken treasure. On his second hunt for tr...

tody

(Encyclopedia)tody tōˈdē [key], common name for small (3–4 in./9–10 cm) West Indian birds of the family Todidae, comprising the single genus Todus. Bright green above with red throats, they are forest birds ...

Third World

(Encyclopedia)Third World, the technologically less advanced, or developing, nations of Asia, Africa, and Latin America, generally characterized as poor, having economies distorted by their dependence on the export...

Browse by Subject