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Pärnu

(Encyclopedia)Pärnu pärˈno͞o [key], Ger. Pernau, Rus. Pyarnu, city (1994 pop. 51,963), SW Estonia, on the Gulf of Riga. A seaport, it exports timber and flax and is also a beach and health resort. It was founde...

vivisection

(Encyclopedia)vivisection vĭvˌĭsĕkˈshən [key], dissection of living animals for experimental purposes. The use of the term in recent years has been expanded to include all experimentation on living animals, r...

Nzinga

(Encyclopedia)Nzinga or Njinga, c.1583–1663, queen of the Mbundu people in what is now Angola. In 1622, she represented her brother, King Mbande of Ndongo, in talks with the Portuguese, who had established a fort...

Northern War

(Encyclopedia)Northern War, 1700–1721, general European conflict, fought in N and E Europe at the same time that the War of the Spanish Succession was fought in the west and the south. It arose chiefly from the d...

yeoman

(Encyclopedia)yeoman yōˈmən [key], class in English society. The term has always been ill-defined, but generally it means a freeholder of a lower status than gentleman who cultivates his own land. With the break...

Dahlberg, Erik Jönsson, Count

(Encyclopedia)Dahlberg, Erik Jönsson, Count āˈrēk yönˈsən dälˈbĕrg [key], 1625–1703, Swedish military engineer, field marshal, and architect. In 1658 he conveyed the army of Charles X of Sweden across t...

Vättern

(Encyclopedia)Vättern vĕˈtərn [key], lake, 733 sq mi (1,898 sq km), c.80 mi (130 km) long and up to 20 mi (32 km) wide, S central Sweden, drained by the Motala Ström E into the Baltic Sea. It is the second lar...

Oliva, Peace of

(Encyclopedia)Oliva, Peace of ōlēˈvə, –vä [key], 1660, treaty signed at Oliva (now a suburb of Gdańsk) by Poland and Sweden. John II of Poland renounced the theoretical claim of his line to the Swedish crow...

Hsia

(Encyclopedia)Hsia shēä [key], semilegendary first dynasty of China, which ruled, according to traditional dates, from c.2205 b.c. to c.1766 b.c. or, according to some modern scholars, from c.1994 b.c. to c.1523 ...

Maori

(Encyclopedia)Maori mäˈōrē [key], people of New Zealand and the Cook Islands, believed to have migrated in early times from other islands of Polynesia. Maori tradition asserts that seven canoes brought their an...