Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Eastern Question

(Encyclopedia)Eastern Question, term designating the problem of European territory controlled by the decaying Ottoman Empire in the 18th, 19th, and early 20th cent. The Turkish threat to Europe was checked by the H...

Faneuil Hall

(Encyclopedia)Faneuil Hall fănˈəl, fănˈyəl [key], public market and hall in Boston, Mass. Given to the city by the merchant Peter Faneuil in 1742, the building burned in 1761 but was rebuilt. The scene of Rev...

Springfield

(Encyclopedia)Springfield. 1 City (1990 pop. 105,227), state capital and seat of Sangamon co., central Ill., on the Sangamon River; settled 1818, inc. as a city 1840. In a rich agricultural region (sorghum, corn, c...

Jersey City

(Encyclopedia)Jersey City, city (1990 pop. 228,537), seat of Hudson co., NE N.J., a port on a peninsula formed by the Hudson and Hackensack rivers and Upper New York Bay, opposite lower Manhattan; settled before 16...

ventilation

(Encyclopedia)ventilation, process of supplying fresh air to an enclosed space and removing from it air contaminated by odors, gases, or smoke. Proper ventilation requires also that there be a movement or circulati...

Moscow, grand duchy of

(Encyclopedia)Moscow or Muscovy, grand duchy of, state existing in W central Russia from the late 14th to mid-16th cent., with the city of Moscow as its nucleus. Its formation and eventual ascendancy over other Rus...

Chiapas

(Encyclopedia)Chiapas chēäˈpäs [key], state, 28,732 sq mi (74,416 sq km), SE Mexico, on the Pacific Ocean ...

Saxony

(Encyclopedia)Saxony săkˈsənē [key], Ger. Sachsen, Fr. Saxe, state (1994 pop. 4,901,000), 7,078 sq mi (18,337 sq km), E central Germany. Dresden is the capital. In its current form, Saxony is a federal state of...

Kanem

(Encyclopedia)Kanem känēmˈ [key], former empire in Africa in the areas near Lake Chad that are now part of Chad and N Nigeria. The empire began in the 9th cent., when the Sefawa migrated to the area from the Sah...

World's Columbian Exposition

(Encyclopedia)World's Columbian Exposition, held at Chicago, May–Nov., 1893, in commemoration of the 400th anniversary of the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus. Authorized (1890) by Congress, it was pl...

Browse by Subject