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Banat

(Encyclopedia)Banat bäˈnät [key], region extending across W Romania, NE Serbia, and S Hungary. The term banat originally referred to any of several frontier provinces of Hungary and Croatia that were ruled by ba...

European Commission

(Encyclopedia)European Commission (EC), institution of the European Union (EU) invested with executive powers; it also is the main EU institution that initiates legislation. Located in Brussels, Belgium, it was fou...

Armagnacs and Burgundians

(Encyclopedia)Armagnacs and Burgundians, opposing factions that fought to control France in the early 15th cent. The rivalry for power between Louis d'Orléans, brother of the recurrently insane King Charles VI, an...

Poincaré, Raymond

(Encyclopedia)Poincaré, Raymond pwăNkärāˈ [key], 1860–1934, French statesman, president of France (1913–20); cousin of Jules Henri Poincaré. A member of the chamber of deputies from 1887, he held numerou...

Charles VI, Holy Roman emperor

(Encyclopedia)Charles VI, 1685–1740, Holy Roman emperor (1711–40), king of Bohemia (1711–40) and, as Charles III, king of Hungary (1712–40); brother and successor of Holy Roman Emperor Joseph I. Charles was...

Louisiana Purchase

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Louisiana Purchase (1803) Louisiana Purchase, 1803, American acquisition from France of the formerly Spanish region of Louisiana. Jefferson instructed Livingston to attempt to purchase the �...

Confederation, Articles of

(Encyclopedia)Confederation, Articles of, in U.S. history, ratified in 1781 and superseded by the Constitution of the United States in 1789. The imperative need for unity among the new states created by the America...

Alfonso II, king of Aragón

(Encyclopedia)Alfonso II, 1152–96, king of Aragón (1162–96) and, as Raymond Berengar V, count of Barcelona (1162–96); son and successor of Raymond Berengar IV of Barcelona and Petronilla of Aragón. He inher...

Mustafa III

(Encyclopedia)Mustafa III, 1717–73, Ottoman sultan (1757–73), son of Ahmed III. He succeeded his cousin Osman III to the throne of the Ottoman Empire (Turkey). The chief event of his reign was the war of 1768�...

Oliva, Peace of

(Encyclopedia)Oliva, Peace of ōlēˈvə, –vä [key], 1660, treaty signed at Oliva (now a suburb of Gdańsk) by Poland and Sweden. John II of Poland renounced the theoretical claim of his line to the Swedish crow...