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European Space Agency

(Encyclopedia)European Space Agency (ESA), multinational agency dedicated to the promotion, for exclusively peaceful purposes, of cooperation among European states in space research and technology. Member states in...

Brabant, duchy of

(Encyclopedia)Brabant, duchy of, former duchy, divided between Belgium (Brabant and Antwerp provs.) and the Netherlands (North Brabant prov.). Louvain, Brussels, and Antwerp were its chief cities. The duchy of Brab...

Golden Dawn, Hermetic Order of the

(Encyclopedia)Golden Dawn, Hermetic Order of the, occult-oriented fraternal organization established by the Freemasons in England (1888), led by S. L. MacGregor Mathers (1854–1917). The order's rituals were deriv...

Gisborne

(Encyclopedia)Gisborne gĭzˈbôrn [key], city, East Coast North Island, New Zealand, on Poverty Bay. It is a ...

Campo Formio, Treaty of

(Encyclopedia)Campo Formio, Treaty of kämˈpō fôrˈmyō [key], Oct., 1797, peace treaty between France and Austria, signed near Campo Formio, a village near Udine, NE Italy, then in Venetia. It marked the end of...

Commonwealth of Independent States

(Encyclopedia)Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), community of independent nations established by a treaty signed at Minsk, Belarus, on Dec. 8, 1991, by the heads of state of Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine. Bet...

State, United States Department of

(Encyclopedia)State, United States Department of, executive department of the federal government responsible, under the President's direction, for the making and execution of American foreign policy. Before and ...

Irvine, town, Scotland

(Encyclopedia)Irvine ûrˈvĭn [key], town, North Ayrshire, SW Scotland, on the Irvine River estuary. Indus...

Puerto de Santa María

(Encyclopedia)Puerto de Santa María ᵺā sänˈtä märēˈä [key], town (1990 pop. 64,849), Cádiz prov., S Spain, in Andalusia, on the Bay of Cádiz at the mouth of the Guadalete River. It is a commercial cent...

Economic Community of West African States

(Encyclopedia)Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), organization established in 1975 to increase economic cooperation and development in West Africa. Members include Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, C...