Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

chartered companies

(Encyclopedia)chartered companies, associations for foreign trade, exploration, and colonization that came into existence with the formation of the European nation states and their overseas expansion. An associatio...

Yoshida, Shigeru

(Encyclopedia)Yoshida, Shigeru shēgāˈro͞o yōˈshēdä [key], 1878–1967, Japanese statesman. He was until 1954 the most powerful political figure in postwar Japan. He was ambassador to Italy (1930–32) and t...

Prozac

(Encyclopedia)Prozac, trade name for fluoxetine hydrochloride. See antidepressant. ...

Missouri Compromise

(Encyclopedia)Missouri Compromise, 1820–21, measures passed by the U.S. Congress to end the first of a series of crises concerning the extension of slavery. By 1818, Missouri Territory had gained sufficient popul...

Huntsville, town, Canada

(Encyclopedia)Huntsville, town, SE Ont., Canada, on the Muskoka River. It has lumber mills and a woodworking plant, but it is sustained mainly by its year-round touri...

Law, John

(Encyclopedia)Law, John, 1671–1729, Scottish financier in France, b. Edinburgh. After killing a man in a duel (1694) he fled to Amsterdam, where he studied banking. Returning to Scotland (1700), he proposed to Pa...

Kentville

(Encyclopedia)Kentville, town (1991 pop. 5,506), W N.S., Canada, on the Cornwallis River, NW of Halifax. It is a tourist and trade center in the Annapolis valley, a fruit-growing region. ...

Chouteau

(Encyclopedia)Chouteau sho͞otōˈ [key], family of American fur traders. René Auguste Chouteau, 1749–1829, b. New Orleans, accompanied (1763) his stepfather, Pierre Laclede, on a trading expedition to the Illin...

spice

(Encyclopedia)spice, aromatic vegetable product used as a flavoring or condiment. The term was formerly applied also to pungent or aromatic foods (e.g., gingerbread and currants), to ingredients of incense or perfu...

Browse by Subject