Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Bermejo

(Encyclopedia)Bermejo bərmāˈhō [key], river, c.650 mi (1,050 km) long, rising in N central Argentina, flowing SE along the border with Bolivia and through N Argentina to Pilar, Paraguay. Through much of its cou...

Makemie, Francis

(Encyclopedia)Makemie, Francis məkĕˈmē [key], c.1658–1708, American clergyman, considered the founder of Presbyterianism in America. Born in Ireland, he studied in Scotland and c.1682 was ordained a missionar...

Head, Bessie

(Encyclopedia)Head, Bessie, 1937–86, South African writer. Born in South Africa to a white mother and black father, she was placed in foster homes and orphanages as a child. After 1964, she lived in exile in Bots...

Caracas

(Encyclopedia)Caracas kərăˈkəs, kəräˈ–, Span. käräˈkäs ...

sumac

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Poison sumac, Rhus vernix sumac or sumach sho͞oˈmăk, so͞oˈ– [key], common name for some members of the Anacardiaceae, a family of trees and shrubs native chiefly to the tropics but rang...

sanction

(Encyclopedia)sanction, in law and ethics, any inducement to individuals or groups to follow or refrain from following a particular course of conduct. All societies impose sanctions on their members in order to enc...

Rosas, Juan Manuel de

(Encyclopedia)Rosas, Juan Manuel de hwän mänwĕlˈ dā rôˈsäs [key], 1793–1877, Argentine dictator, governor of Buenos Aires prov. (1829–32, 1835–52). As a boy he served under Jacques de Liniers against ...

Americas, antiquity and prehistory of the

(Encyclopedia)Americas, antiquity and prehistory of the, study of the origins of the aboriginal peoples of the Americas. Archaeologists believe humans had entered and occupied much of the Americas by the end of the...

Cooke, Alistair

(Encyclopedia)Cooke, Alistair, 1908–2004, Anglo-American journalist, b. Salford, England, as Alfred Cooke; grad. Cambridge, 1930, where he officially adopted the name Alistair. Cooke became famous in Britain for ...

bantustan

(Encyclopedia)bantustan, in 20th-century South African history, territory that was set aside under apartheid for black South Africans and slated for eventual independence. Ten bantustans (later generally referred t...