Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Grand Alliance, War of the

(Encyclopedia)Grand Alliance, War of the, 1688–97, war between France and a coalition of European powers, known as the League of Augsburg (and, after 1689, as the Grand Alliance). Louis XIV of France took advanta...

Polish Succession, War of the

(Encyclopedia)Polish Succession, War of the, 1733–35. On the death (1733) of Augustus II of Poland, Stanislaus I sought to reascend the Polish throne. He was supported by his son-in-law, Louis XV of France. The r...

Austrian Succession, War of the

(Encyclopedia)Austrian Succession, War of the, 1740–48, general European war. In 1744 Frederick II, fearing the rising power of Austria, started the Second Silesian War by invading Bohemia; he was soon expell...

Triple Alliance, War of the

(Encyclopedia)Triple Alliance, War of the, 1865–70, fought between Paraguay on one side and an alliance of Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay on the other. Brazil's military reprisals for injuries to Brazilian subjec...

Bavarian Succession, War of the

(Encyclopedia)Bavarian Succession, War of the, between Austria and Prussia, 1778–79. With the extinction of the Bavarian line of the house of Wittelsbach on the death of Elector Maximilian Joseph in 1777, the duc...

Spanish Succession, War of the

(Encyclopedia)Spanish Succession, War of the, 1701–14, last of the general European wars caused by the efforts of King Louis XIV to extend French power. The conflict in America corresponding to the period of the ...

Breton Succession, War of the

(Encyclopedia)Breton Succession, War of the, 1341–65, an important episode of the Hundred Years War. Duke John III of Brittany died in 1341 without heirs. The succession was contested by his half-brother, John de...

Judaea

(Encyclopedia)Judaea or Judea both: jo͞odēˈə [key] [Lat. from Judah], region, Greco-Roman name for S Palestine. It varied in size in different periods. In the time of Jesus it was both part of the province of S...

Glubb, Sir John Bagot

(Encyclopedia)Glubb, Sir John Bagot băgˈət [key], 1897–1986, British soldier. He served in France during World War I and in 1920 was posted to Iraq, where he lived among Arab Bedouins and studied their languag...

Pan-Arabism

(Encyclopedia)Pan-Arabism, general term for the modern movement for political unification among the Arab nations of the Middle East. Since the Ottoman Turks rose to power in the 14th cent., there have been stirring...