Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Funston, Frederick

(Encyclopedia)Funston, Frederick, 1865–1917, U.S. general, b. New Carlisle, Ohio. He was a newspaper reporter and a field agent (1888–95) of the Dept. of Agriculture, exploring Death Valley and the Yukon. Love ...

John of Luxemburg

(Encyclopedia)John of Luxemburg, 1296–1346, king of Bohemia (1310–46). The son of Holy Roman Emperor Henry VII, he married Elizabeth, sister of Wenceslaus III of Bohemia, and in 1310 he was chosen king of Bohem...

blockade

(Encyclopedia)blockade, use of naval forces to cut off maritime communication and supply. Blockades may be used to prevent shipping from reaching enemy ports, or they may serve purposes of coercion. The term is rar...

Artaphernes

(Encyclopedia)Artaphernes ärˌtəfûrˈnēz [key]: see Persian Wars. ...

coolie labor

(Encyclopedia)coolie labor, term applied to unskilled laborers from Asia, especially from India and China. With the discontinuance of slavery, the use of Chinese and Indian contract labor in British and French colo...

Five Civilized Tribes

(Encyclopedia)Five Civilized Tribes, inclusive term used since mid-19th cent. for the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, and Seminole tribes of E Oklahoma. By 1850 some 60,000 members of these tribes were settled...

Jinnah, Muhammad Ali

(Encyclopedia)Jinnah, Muhammad Ali məhämˈəd älēˈ jĭnˈə [key], 1876–1948, founder of Pakistan, b. Karachi. After his admission to the bar in England, he returned to India to practice law. Early in his ca...

Buddhist literature

(Encyclopedia)Buddhist literature. During his lifetime the Buddha taught not in Vedic Sanskrit, which had become unintelligible to the people, but in his own NE Indian dialect; he also encouraged his monks to propa...

Lewis, Francis

(Encyclopedia)Lewis, Francis, 1713–1802?, political leader in the American Revolution, signer of the Declaration of Independence, b. Llandaff, Wales. As clothing contractor for British troops during the French an...

Ruvuma

(Encyclopedia)Ruvuma ro͞ovo͞oˈmə [key], river, c.450 mi (724 km) long, rising in N Mozambique, near Lake Nyasa and flowing E to the Indian Ocean. It forms most of the Tanzania-Mozambique border. In its lower co...