Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

256 results found

revitalization movement

(Encyclopedia)revitalization movement, political-religious movements promising deliverance from deprivation, the elimination of foreign domination, and a new interpretation of the human condition based on tradition...

Volta

(Encyclopedia)Volta vólˈtə [key], river, c.290 mi (470 km) long, formed in central Ghana, W Africa, by the confluence of the Black Volta (or Mouhon, c.840 mi/1,350 km long) and the White Volta (or Nakambe, c.450...

Spínola, António Sebastião Ribeiro de

(Encyclopedia)Spínola, António Sebastião Ribeiro de əntôˈnyo͝o səbəstyouNˈ rēbĕēˈro͝o dĭ spēˈno͝olə [key], 1910–96, Portuguese army officer and political leader. Active in the colonial wars in...

boat people

(Encyclopedia)boat people, term used to describe the Indochinese refugees who fled Communist rule after the Vietnam War (1975) in small boats and the many ethnic Chinese who left Vietnam similarly after China's inv...

mammal

(Encyclopedia)mammal, an animal of the highest class of vertebrates, the Mammalia. The female has mammary glands, which secrete milk for the nourishment of the young after birth. In the majority of mammals the body...

Sephardim

(Encyclopedia)Sephardim səfärˈdəm [key], one of the two major geographic divisions of the Jewish people, consisting of those Jews whose forebears in the Middle Ages resided in the Iberian Peninsula, as distingu...

Malayo-Polynesian languages

(Encyclopedia)Malayo-Polynesian languages ôˌstrōnēˈzhən [key], family of languages estimated at from 300 to 500 tongues and understood by approximately 300 million people in Madagascar; the Malay Peninsula; I...

Abidjan

(Encyclopedia)Abidjan ăbĭjänˈ [key], city (2021 est. pop. 27,263,180 ), former capital of Côte d'Ivoire, a port on the Ébrié Lagoon (an arm of the Gulf of Guinea). Abidjan is Cô...

Ramos-Horta, José

(Encyclopedia)Ramos-Horta, José, 1949–, East Timorese independence advocate and political leader; co-recipient, with Carlos Belo, of the 1996 Nobel Peace Prize. After engaging in anti-Portuguese activities, he w...

bird of paradise

(Encyclopedia)bird of paradise, common name for any of 43 species of medium- to crow-sized passerine birds of New Guinea and the adjacent islands, known for the bright plumage, elongated tail feathers called wires,...

Browse by Subject