Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Kagame, Paul

(Encyclopedia)Kagame, Paul kägäˈmə [key], 1957–, Rwandan political leader. Kagame was born into a Tutsi family that fled (1960) ethnic violence in Rwanda. Raised in Uganda, he became a member of Yoweri Museve...

Maxentius

(Encyclopedia)Maxentius (Marcus Aurelius Valerius Maxentius) măksĕnˈshəs [key], d. 312, Roman emperor (306–12), son of Maximian. After Diocletian and Maximian had retired, the successor to Maximian, Constanti...

Niyazov, Saparmurat

(Encyclopedia)Niyazov, Saparmurat säpärˈmo͞orätˌ nēyäˈzôf [key], 1940–2006, Soviet and Turkmen political leader, president of Turkmenistan (1991–2006). An engineer and member of the Communist party, h...

Pazzi conspiracy

(Encyclopedia)Pazzi conspiracy pätˈtsē [key], 1478, plot against Lorenzo de' Medici (Lorenzo il Magnifico) and his brother Giuliano, designed to end the hegemony of the Medici in the Florentine state and to enla...

Magnus VI

(Encyclopedia)Magnus VI (Magnus the Law Mender), 1238–80, king of Norway (1263–80), son of Haakon IV. A man of peace, he brought an end to the Scottish war by ceding (1266) the Hebrides and the Isle of Man to A...

Ardashir I

(Encyclopedia)Ardashir I ärdäshērˈ [key] [another form of Artaxerxes], d. 240, king of Persia (226?–240). He overthrew the last Parthian king, Artabanus IV, entered Ctesiphon, and reunited Persia out of the c...

Agrippina the Younger

(Encyclopedia)Agrippina the Younger, d. a.d. 59, Roman matron; daughter of Germanicus Caesar and Agrippina the Elder. By her first husband, Cneius Domitius Ahenobarbus, she was the mother of Nero. After her brother...

Aetolian League

(Encyclopedia)Aetolian League, confederation centering in the cities of Aetolia. It was formed in the 4th cent. b.c. and began to gain power in the 3d cent. in opposing the Achaean League and the Macedonians. At it...

Sorel, Georges

(Encyclopedia)Sorel, Georges sôrĕlˈ [key], 1847–1922, French social philosopher. An engineer before he devoted himself to writing, Sorel found in the political and social life of bourgeois democracy the trium...

Togo, Heihachiro

(Encyclopedia)Togo, Heihachiro hāˈhächĭrōˈ tōˈgō [key], 1846–1934, Japanese admiral, Japan's greatest naval hero. He studied naval science in England (1871–78), gained international recognition for his...