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Western European Union

(Encyclopedia)Western European Union (WEU), European security and defense organization. It was set up in Brussels in 1955 as a defensive, economic, social, and cultural organization, consisting of Belgium, France, ...

seas, freedom of the

(Encyclopedia)seas, freedom of the, in international law, the principle that outside its territorial waters (see waters, territorial) a state may not claim sovereignty over the seas, except with respect to its own ...

Pessoa, Fernando

(Encyclopedia)Pessoa, Fernando (Fernando António Nogueira Pessoa) pĕsˈwä [key], 1888–1935, Portuguese poet, b. Lisbon. He moved to Durban, South Africa, as a child, becoming bilingual (Portuguese, English); i...

Philip III, king of Spain, Naples, and Sicily

(Encyclopedia)Philip III, 1578–1621, king of Spain, Naples, and Sicily (1598–1621) and, as Philip II, king of Portugal (1598–1621); son and successor of Philip II of Spain. He was as pious as his father, but ...

Camões, Luís de

(Encyclopedia)Camões or Camoens, Luís de both: lo͞oēshˈ dĭ kəmoiNshˈ [key], 1524?–1580, Portuguese poet, the greatest figure in Portuguese literature. Born of a poor family, Camões gained wide familiarit...

Utrecht, Peace of

(Encyclopedia)Utrecht, Peace of, series of treaties that concluded the War of the Spanish Succession. It put an end to French expansion and signaled the rise of the British Empire. By the treaty between England and...

Charles III, king of Spain, and of Naples and Sicily

(Encyclopedia)Charles III, 1716–88, king of Spain (1759–88) and of Naples and Sicily (1735–59), son of Philip V and Elizabeth Farnese. Recognized as duke of Parma and Piacenza in 1731, he relinquished the duc...

Fielding, Henry

(Encyclopedia)Fielding, Henry, 1707–54, English novelist and dramatist. Born of a distinguished family, he was educated at Eton and studied law at Leiden. Settling in London in 1729, he began writing comedies, fa...

ghetto

(Encyclopedia)ghetto gĕtˈō [key], originally, a section of a city in which Jews lived; it has come to mean a section of a city where members of any racial group are segregated. In the early Middle Ages the segre...

Gama, Vasco da

(Encyclopedia)Gama, Vasco da văˈskō də găˈmə, Port. väshˈkō dä gäˈmə [key], c.1469–1524, Portuguese navigator, the first European to journey by sea to India. His epochal voyage (1497–99) was made ...