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Velasco, Luis de

(Encyclopedia)Velasco, Luis de vāläsˈkō [key], d. 1564, Spanish administrator, second viceroy (1550–64) of New Spain (now Mexico), successor to Antonio de Mendoza. His rule was remarkably energetic, humanita...

Stephens, John Lloyd

(Encyclopedia)Stephens, John Lloyd, 1805–52, American author and traveler, b. Shrewsbury, N.J., grad. Columbia College, 1822. His travels (1834–36) in Europe, the Middle East, and Central America provided the m...

Chorotega

(Encyclopedia)Chorotega chōrōtāˈgä [key], aboriginal people and language group of Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica. Little is known of the Chorotega, primarily beause of the absence of extensive ruins. Cont...

Las Casas, Bartolomé de

(Encyclopedia)Las Casas, Bartolomé de bärtōlōmāˈ dā läs käˈsäs [key], 1474–1566, Spanish missionary and historian, called the apostle of the Indies. He went to Hispaniola with his father in 1502, and e...

Tenochtitlán

(Encyclopedia)Tenochtitlán tānōchtētlänˈ [key], ancient city in the central valley of Mexico. The capital of the Aztec, it was founded (c.a.d. 1345) on a marshy island in Lake Texcoco. It was a flourishing ci...

Palenque

(Encyclopedia)Palenque pälāngˈkĕ [key], ancient city of the Maya in Chiapas, S Mexico, in the Usumacinta Valley. Its architectural elegance, adapted to tropical and topographical conditions, was a high point in...

civilization

(Encyclopedia)civilization, culture with a relatively high degree of elaboration and technical development. The term civilization also designates that complex of cultural elements that first appeared in human histo...

Copán

(Encyclopedia)Copán kōpänˈ [key], ruined city of the Maya, W Honduras, in a small river valley of the same name. Copán is noted for its fine sculptured stele and majestic architecture. The ruins were the site ...

America, in music

(Encyclopedia)America, in music, a patriotic hymn of the United States. The words (beginning “My country, 'tis of thee”) were written in 1832 by Samuel Francis Smith while he was a theological student in Andove...

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