Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Balts

(Encyclopedia)Balts bôlts [key], peoples of the east coast of the Baltic Sea. They include the Latvians, the Lithuanians, and the now extinct Old Prussians. Their original home was farther east, but from the 6th c...

Marshall Plan

(Encyclopedia)Marshall Plan or European Recovery Program, project instituted at the Paris Economic Conference (July, 1947) to foster economic recovery in certain European countries after World War II. The Marshall ...

Ireland, Republic of

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Ireland, Republic of, Gaelic, Eire, republic (2015 est. pop. 4,700,000), 27,136 sq mi (70,282 sq km). It occupies all but the northeastern corner of the island of Ireland in the British Isles. ...

Konev, Ivan Stepanovich

(Encyclopedia)Konev, Ivan Stepanovich ēvänˈ styĭpäˈnəvĭch kôˈnyĭf [key], 1897–1973, Soviet field marshal. In World War II he reconquered (1944–45) Ukraine and S Poland from the Germans, took Silesia,...

Lafargue, Paul

(Encyclopedia)Lafargue, Paul pôl läfärgˈ [key], 1842–1911, French socialist, b. Cuba; son-in-law of Karl Marx. With Jules Guesde he helped found a Marxist socialist party in France. His many writings, which w...

Prokhorov, Aleksandr Mikhailovich

(Encyclopedia)Prokhorov, Aleksandr Mikhailovich əlyĭksänˈdər mēkhīˈləvĭch prôˈkhərəf [key], 1916–2002, Russian physicist, b. Atherton, Queensland, Australia. In 1923 he was taken to the Soviet Union...

Radić, Stjepan

(Encyclopedia)Radić, Stjepan stĕˈfän [key], 1871–1928, Croatian politician. Of peasant origin, he early became active in politics and founded (1905) the Croatian Peasant party. In 1918 he opposed the union of...

foreign aid

(Encyclopedia)foreign aid, economic, military, technical, and financial assistance given on an international, and usually intergovernmental level. U.S. foreign aid programs have included at least three different ob...

secret police

(Encyclopedia)secret police, policing organization operating in secrecy for the political purposes of its government, often with terroristic procedures. Many states, including Chile, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Romania,...

Butler, Benjamin Franklin, 1818–93, American politician and Union general in the Civil War

(Encyclopedia)Butler, Benjamin Franklin, 1818–93, American politician and Union general in the Civil War, b. Deerfield, N.H. He moved to Lowell, Mass., as a youth and later practiced law there and in Boston. He w...