Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Paston Letters

(Encyclopedia)Paston Letters, collection of personal and business correspondence, mostly among members of the Paston family of Norfolk, England. The letters cover the years from 1422 to 1529, together with deeds an...

Aniakchak National Monument and Preserve

(Encyclopedia)Aniakchak National Monument and Preserve ănēăkˈchăk [key], on the Alaska Peninsula, SW Alaska. Located in the Aleutian Range, the monument (137,176 acres/55,556 hectares) and surrounding preserve...

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...

Georgia, Strait of

(Encyclopedia)Georgia, Strait of, channel, c.150 mi (240 km) long, between the mainland of British Columbia and Vancouver Island, Canada, between Puget Sound and Queen Charlotte Sound. It forms part of the inland s...

Aleutian Range

(Encyclopedia)Aleutian Range, volcanic mountain chain, c.1,600 mi (2,600 km) long, SW Alaska, extending W from Anchorage along the Alaska Peninsula, and continuing, partly submerged as the Aleutian Islands, to Attu...

Russian American Company

(Encyclopedia)Russian American Company, colonial trading company, chartered by Czar Paul I in 1799. The charter granted the merchant-dominated company monopoly trading privileges in Russian America, which included ...

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 ...

Denali

(Encyclopedia)Denali, formerly Mount McKinley, peak, 20,310 ft (6,190 m) high, S central Alaska, in the Alaska Range; highest point in North America. Permanent snowfields cover more than half the mountain and feed ...

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...

public ownership

(Encyclopedia)public ownership, government ownership of lands, streets, public buildings, utilities, and other business enterprises. The theory that all land and its resources belong ultimately to the people and th...