Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Hertzog, James Barry Munnik hûrtˈsŏg, hĕrtˈsôkh [key], 1866–1942, South African military and political leader. Before the South African War, in which he commanded a division of the Boer forces...

(Encyclopedia) Mughal art and architecture, a characteristic Indo-Islamic-Persian style that flourished on the Indian subcontinent during the Mughal empire (1526–1857). This new style combined elements of Islamic ...

(Encyclopedia) Punjab pŭnˌjäbˈ [key] [Pers.,=five rivers], historic region in the NW of the Indian subcontinent. Since 1947 it has been separated into an Indian state and a Pakistani province bearing the same na...

(Encyclopedia) Cyrus the Great sīˈrəs [key], d. 529 b.c., king of Persia, founder of the greatness of the Achaemenids and of the Persian Empire. According to Herodotus, he was the son of an Iranian noble, the eld...

(Encyclopedia) transcontinental railroad, in U.S. history, rail connection with the Pacific coast. In 1845, Asa Whitney presented to Congress a plan for the federal government to subsidize the building of a railroad...

(Encyclopedia) convict labor, work of prison inmates. Until the 19th cent., labor was introduced in prisons chiefly as punishment. Such work is now considered a necessary part of the rehabilitation of the criminal; ...

(Encyclopedia) Work Projects Administration (WPA), former U.S. government agency, established in 1935 by executive order of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt as the Works Progress Administration; it was renamed th...

(Encyclopedia) Washington Monument, obelisk-shaped tower, 555 ft 51⁄9 in. (169.3 m) high, located on a 106-acre (43-hectare) site at the west end of the Mall, Washington, D.C.; dedicated 1885. The world's tallest ...

(Encyclopedia) Tripura trĭˈpo͝orä [key], state (2001 provisional pop. 3,191,168), 4,036 sq mi (10,453 sq km), NE India, bordered by Bangladesh on the north, west, and south, and on the east by the states of Assa...

(Encyclopedia) Inca ĭngˈkə [key], pre-Columbian empire, W South America. The name Inca may specifically refer to the emperor, but is generally used to mean the empire or the people. When Francisco Pizarro lande...