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sumptuary laws

(Encyclopedia)sumptuary laws sŭmpˈcho͞oĕˌrē [key], regulations based on social, religious, or moral grounds directed against overindulgence of luxury in diet and drink and extravagance in dress and mode of li...

Nicholas I, czar of Russia

(Encyclopedia)Nicholas I, 1796–1855, czar of Russia (1825–55), third son of Paul I. His brother and predecessor, Alexander I, died childless (1825). Constantine, Paul's second son, was next in succession but ha...

Díaz, Porfirio

(Encyclopedia)Díaz, Porfirio pôrfēˈryō dēˈäs [key], 1830–1915, Mexican statesman, a mestizo, christened José de la Cruz Porfirio Díaz. He gained prominence by supporting Benito Juárez and the liberals ...

communism

(Encyclopedia)communism, fundamentally, a system of social organization in which property (especially real property and the means of production) is held in common. Thus, the ejido system of the indigenous people of...

Chouans

(Encyclopedia)Chouans sho͞oˈənz, Fr. shwäN [key] [Norman Fr.,=owls], peasants of W France who rose against the French Revolutionary government in 1793. One of their first leaders was Jean Cottereau, traditional...

United Nations Commission for the Investigation of War Crimes

(Encyclopedia)United Nations Commission for the Investigation of War Crimes: see war crimes. ...

Stanislaus II

(Encyclopedia)Stanislaus II, 1732–98, last king of Poland (1764–95). He was born Stanislaus Augustus Poniatowski. His mother was a member of the powerful Czartoryski family, which furthered Stanislaus's career....

Andronicus I

(Encyclopedia)Andronicus I (Andronicus Comnenus) ăndrənīˈkəs kŏmnēˈnəs [key], 1120?–1185, Byzantine emperor (1183–85), nephew of John II. He acceded to the throne by strangling his cousin Alexius II. T...

Franko, Ivan

(Encyclopedia)Franko, Ivan ēˈvän fränˈkō [key], 1856–1916, Ukrainian writer and nationalist. His realistic novels Boryslav Laughs (1881–82) and Boa Constrictor (1878, tr. 1961) portray the harsh existence...

corvée

(Encyclopedia)corvée kôrvāˈ [key], under the feudal system, compulsory, unpaid labor demanded by a lord or king and the system of such labor in general. There were national and local variations, but in broad te...