Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) States-General or Estates-General, diet or national assembly in which the chief estates (see estate) of a nation—usually clergy, nobles, and towns (or commons)—were represented as separate bodies....

(Encyclopedia) Tippecanoe tĭpˌəkəno͞oˈ [key], river, c.170 mi (270 km) long, rising in the lake district of NE Ind. and flowing SW to the Wabash River, near Lafayette. U.S. Gen. William Henry Harrison fought t...

(Encyclopedia) Garland, Augustus Hill, 1832–99, American lawyer and politician, b. Tipton co., Tenn. He became a prominent lawyer in Arkansas and during the Civil War served in the Confederate House of Representat...

(Encyclopedia) Barbary States, term used for the North African states of Tripolitania, Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco. From the 16th cent. Tripolitania, Tunisia, and Algeria were autonomous provinces of the Turkish E...

(Encyclopedia) balance of power, system of international relations in which nations seek to maintain an approximate equilibrium of power among many rivals, thus preventing the preponderance of any one state. Crucial...

(Encyclopedia) Hay-Pauncefote Treaties hā-pônsˈfo͝ot [key], negotiated in 1899 and 1901 by Secretary of State John Hay, for the United States, and Lord Pauncefote of Preston, British ambassador to the United Sta...

(Encyclopedia) National Security Council (NSC), federal executive council responsible for planning, coordinating, and evaluating the defense policies of the United States and also exercising direction over the Centr...

(Encyclopedia) Indianapolis ĭnˌdēənăˈpəlĭs [key], city (2020 pop. 887,642), state capital and seat of Marion co., ...

(Encyclopedia) Somoza, Anastasio änästäˈsyō sōmōˈsä [key], 1896–1956, president of Nicaragua (1937–47, 1950–56). After the end (1933) of U.S. military intervention in Nicaragua, he rose to power as he...

(Encyclopedia) Herriot, Édouard ādwärˈ ĕryōˈ [key], 1872–1957, French statesman and man of letters. After beginning an academic career he turned to politics. A moderate leftist, anticlerical, and antimilita...