Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Aragón, house of

(Encyclopedia)Aragón, house of, family that ruled in Aragón, Catalonia, Majorca, Sicily, Naples, Sardinia, Athens, and other territories in the Middle Ages. It was descended from Ramiro I of Aragón (1035–63), ...

sphere of influence

(Encyclopedia)sphere of influence, term formerly applied to an area over which an outside power claims hegemony with the intention of subsequently gaining more definite control, as in colonization, or with the inte...

Jashar, Book of

(Encyclopedia)Jashar or Jasher, Book of both: jăshˈər [key], lost Hebrew work, apparently a collection of songs celebrating national events. Fragments appear in the books of Joshua and Second Samuel. ...

Hatta, Mohammad

(Encyclopedia)Hatta, Mohammad hătˈə [key], 1902–80, Indonesian political leader. He was born on Sumatra into an aristocratic family. Interested in economics, he went to the Netherlands to study. There he joine...

Shidehara, Kijuro

(Encyclopedia)Shidehara, Kijuro kēˌjo͞orōˈ shēdāˈhärä [key], 1872–1951, Japanese statesman. A career diplomat, he was ambassador to the Netherlands (1914–15), vice foreign minister (1915), and ambassa...

Nicaea, empire of

(Encyclopedia)Nicaea, empire of, 1204–61. In 1204 the armies of the Fourth Crusade set up the Latin Empire of Constantinople, but the Crusaders' influence did not extend over the entire Byzantine Empire. Several ...

Bar, Confederation of

(Encyclopedia)Bar, Confederation of, union formed in 1768 at Bar, in Podolia (now in W Ukraine), by a number of Polish nobles to oppose the interference of Catherine II of Russia in Polish affairs. Headed by the Pu...

prisoner of war

(Encyclopedia)prisoner of war, in international law, person captured by a belligerent while fighting in the military. International law includes rules on the treatment of prisoners of war but extends protection onl...

Louis XVI, king of France

(Encyclopedia)Louis XVI, 1754–93, king of France (1774–92), third son of the dauphin (Louis) and Marie Josèphe of Saxony, grandson and successor of King Louis XV. In 1770 he married the Austrian archduchess Ma...

rotation of crops

(Encyclopedia)rotation of crops, agricultural practice of varying the crops on a piece of land in a planned series, to save or increase the mineral or organic content of the soil, to increase crop yields, and to er...