Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Yamagata, Aritomo

(Encyclopedia)Yamagata, Aritomo ärēˈtōmō yämäˈgätä [key], 1838–1922, Japanese soldier and statesman, chief founder of the modern Japanese army. A samurai of Choshu, he took part in the Meiji restoration...

Yüan Shih-kai

(Encyclopedia)Yüan Shih-kai yüänˈ shēˈ-kīˈ [key], 1859–1916, president of China (1912–16). From 1885 to 1894 he was the Chinese resident in Korea, then under Chinese suzerainty. He supported the dowager...

Gutenberg, Johann

(Encyclopedia)Gutenberg, Johann go͞oˈtənbərg, Ger. yōˈhän go͞oˈtənbĕrk [key], c.1397–1468, German inventor and printer, long credited with the invention of a method of printing from movable type, inclu...

fisheries

(Encyclopedia)fisheries. From earliest times and in practically all countries, fisheries have been of industrial and commercial importance. In the large N Atlantic fishing grounds off Newfoundland and Labrador, for...

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...

concentration camp

(Encyclopedia)concentration camp, a detention site outside the normal prison system created for military or political purposes to confine, terrorize, and, in some cases, kill civilians. The term was first used to d...

Acheson, Dean Gooderham

(Encyclopedia)Acheson, Dean Gooderham ăchˈĭsən [key], 1893–1971, U.S. secretary of state (1949–53), b. Middletown, Conn., grad. Yale, Harvard Law School. He was (1919–21) private secretary to Louis Brande...

Trump, Donald John

(Encyclopedia)Trump, Donald John, 1946–, 45th President of the United States (2017–21), b. New York City. Prior to his election as president in 2016, Trump was a ...

Dalian

(Encyclopedia)Dalian or Talien both: däˈlyĕnˈ [key], Rus. Dalny, Jap. Dairen, city (1994 est. pop. 1,855,200), S Liaoning prov., China, on the Liaodong peninsula in the Bay of Korea. It has annexed Lüshun (Por...

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...