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Sikh Wars

(Encyclopedia)Sikh Wars (1845–49), two conflicts preceding the British annexation of the Punjab. By a treaty with the British in 1809, the Sikh ruler of the Punjab, Ranjit Singh, had accepted the Sutlej River as ...

Śivaji

(Encyclopedia)Śivaji or Shivaji shĭväˈjē [key], 1627–80, Indian ruler, leader of the Marathas. The son of a Maratha chieftain, he was imbued from early childhood with hatred of the Mughal empire, which contr...

Sher Khan

(Encyclopedia)Sher Khan shä [key], 1486–1545, Afghan ruler in N India. He enlisted in the service of the Mughal leader Babur when the latter invaded India and became governor of Bihar. After Babur's death, howev...

Caesar, Julius

(Encyclopedia)Caesar, Julius (Caius Julius Caesar), 100? b.c.–44 b.c., Roman statesman and general. Caesar has always been one of the most controversial characters of history. His admirers have seen in him the ...

Chaeronea

(Encyclopedia)Chaeronea kĕrənēˈə [key], ancient town of Boeotia, Greece, in the Cephissus (now Kifisós) River valley and NW of Thebes. There the Athenians and Thebans were defeated (338 b.c.) by the Macedonia...

Fieschi, Giuseppe

(Encyclopedia)Fieschi, Giuseppe jo͞ozĕpˈpā fyāˈskē [key], 1790–1836, French conspirator, b. Corsica. He was a soldier in the Napoleonic army. A radical, he attempted in July, 1835, to assassinate King Loui...

Mutesa I

(Encyclopedia)Mutesa I mo͞otāˈsə [key], d. 1884, kabaka, or king, of Buganda (now in Uganda), c.1857–84. He brought Buganda to its height by increasing the autocratic powers of the kabaka, strengthening the a...

Offutt Air Force Base

(Encyclopedia)Offutt Air Force Base, U.S. military installation, 1,907 acres (772 hectares), E Neb., S of Omaha; est. 1896 as Fort Crook, an army base. Converted to an airbase in the early 1900s and renamed in 1924...

Neuilly, Treaty of

(Encyclopedia)Neuilly, Treaty of nöyēˈ [key], 1919, peace treaty concluded between the Allies and Bulgaria after World War I. It was signed at Neuilly-sur-Seine, France. Bulgaria ceded part of W Thrace to Greece...

Kayibanda, Grégoire

(Encyclopedia)Kayibanda, Grégoire grāgwärˈ kīēbänˈdā [key], 1924–76, political leader in Rwanda. A Hutu, he worked as a journalist and later founded the Ruanda (now Rwanda) Cooperative Movement (1952), t...