Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

road

(Encyclopedia)road, strip of land used for transportation. The history of roads has been related to the centralizing of populations in powerful cities, which the roads have served for military purposes and for trad...

Opium Wars

(Encyclopedia)Opium Wars, 1839–42 and 1856–60, two wars between China and Western countries that marked the shift of wealth and power from East to West. The first was between Great Britain and China. Early in t...

corrupt practices

(Encyclopedia)corrupt practices, in politics, fraud connected with elections. The term also refers to various offenses by public officials, including bribery, the sale of offices, granting of public contracts to fa...

extraterritoriality

(Encyclopedia)extraterritoriality or exterritoriality, privilege of immunity from local law enforcement enjoyed by certain aliens. Although physically present upon the territory of a foreign nation, those aliens po...

Pan-Americanism

(Encyclopedia)Pan-Americanism, movement toward commercial, social, economic, military, and political cooperation among the nations of North, Central, and South America. In the early 20th cent., U.S. manipulation ...

corporation

(Encyclopedia)corporation, in law, organization enjoying legal personality for the purpose of carrying on certain activities. Most corporations are businesses for profit; they are usually organized by three or more...

Boeotia

(Encyclopedia)Boeotia bēōˈshə [key], region of ancient Greece. It lay N of Attica, Megaris, and the Gulf of Corinth. The early inhabitants were from Thessaly. A number of small cities scattered over the rough c...

Gilded Age

(Encyclopedia)Gilded Age, a term used to describe a period in United States history—from roughly 1870 to 1900—when the wealthy elite consisted of industrialists w...

pension

(Encyclopedia)pension, periodic payments to one who has retired from work because of age or disability. Pensions, originally thought of as charity, are now viewed as an essential part of the social responsibility o...

Modjeska, Helena

(Encyclopedia)Modjeska, Helena məjĕˈskə [key], 1844–1909, Polish actress who achieved fame in the United States primarily for her Shakespearean interpretations. After initial acclaim in Warsaw, she emigrated ...
 

Browse by Subject