Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Suffren de Saint-Tropez, Pierre André de

(Encyclopedia)Suffren de Saint-Tropez, Pierre André de pyĕr äNdrāˈ də süfrĕnˈ də săN-trôpāˈ [key], 1726–88, French admiral. He participated in naval warfare in the War of the Austrian Succession and...

Tlaxcala , state, Mexico

(Encyclopedia)Tlaxcala tläskäˈlä [key], state (1990 pop. 761,277), 1,555 sq mi (4,027 sq km), E central Mexico. Tlaxcala is the capital. It is the smallest and one of the most densely populated Mexican states. ...

banner system

(Encyclopedia)banner system, Manchu conscription system. Companies of Manchu warriors were grouped (1601) into brigades, each with a distinctive banner. The banner system integrated former tribal units into a burea...

Sassou-Nguesso, Denis

(Encyclopedia)Sassou-Nguesso, Denis dĕˈnē säsˈō-əngāˈsō [key], 1943?–, Congolese army officer and president (1979–92, 1997–) of Congo (Brazzaville). He served (1977–79) as the minister of national...

Rough Riders

(Encyclopedia)Rough Riders, popular name for the 1st Regiment of U.S. Cavalry Volunteers, organized largely by Theodore Roosevelt in the Spanish-American War (1898). Its members were mostly ranchers and cowboys fro...

Samarra

(Encyclopedia)Samarra sämärˈrä [key], town, N central Iraq, on the Tigris River. It is on the site of an ancient settlement and has given its name to a type of Neolithic pottery of the 5th millennium b.c. The p...

Cateau, Le

(Encyclopedia)Cateau, Le -käNbrāzēˈ [key], town (1993 est. pop. 7,789), Nord dept., N France, in French Flanders. It has textile, metallurgical, and ceramic industries. The Treaty of Cateau-Cambrésis (1559) re...

Quy Nhon

(Encyclopedia)Quy Nhon or Qui Nhon both: kwē nyôn [key], city (1989 est. pop. 201,972), SE Vietnam, on the South China Sea coast. Quy Nhon is a growing commercial and industrial center that produces textiles, pro...

Rajk, Laszlo

(Encyclopedia)Rajk, Laszlo läsˈlō roik [key], 1909–49, Hungarian Communist leader. After fighting in the Spanish civil war of 1936–39 he was interned (1939) in a French camp for Spanish Loyalists. Rajk retur...

Riboud, Marc

(Encyclopedia)Riboud, Marc, 1923–2016, French photojournalist. After fighting in the resistance during World War II, he studied engineering. In 1952 he moved to Paris, where he met Henri Cartier-Bresson, who beca...