Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) war, laws of, in international law, rules and principles regulating an armed conflict between nations. These laws are designed to minimize the destruction of life and property, to proscribe cruel trea...

(Encyclopedia) Aristoxenus of Tarentum ărĭstŏkˈsənəs, tərĕnˈtəm [key], fl. 4th cent. b.c., pupil of Aristotle. He marks a turning point in Greek musical theory by being the first to base theory on analysis...

(Encyclopedia) Westminster, Statute of, 1931, in British imperial history, an act of the British Parliament that gave formal recognition to the autonomy of the dominions of the British Empire and was in effect the f...

(Encyclopedia) Sisters of Charity, in the Roman Catholic Church, name of many independent communities of women. Most of them owe their origin to the institute of St. Vincent de Paul, founded (1634) for works of merc...

(Encyclopedia) prisoner of war, in international law, person captured by a belligerent while fighting in the military. International law includes rules on the treatment of prisoners of war but extends protection onl...

(Encyclopedia) Clarendon, Constitutions of, 1164, articles issued by King Henry II of England at the Council of Clarendon defining the customs governing relations between church and state. In the anarchic conditions...

(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) Catherine of Braganza brəgănˈzə [key], 1638–1705, queen consort of Charles II of England, daughter of John IV of Portugal. She was married to Charles in 1662. As part of her dowry England secure...

(Encyclopedia) Cleves, duchy of, former state, W Germany, on both sides of the lower Rhine, bordering on the Netherlands. Cleves was the capital. A county from late Carolingian times, it acquired (late 14th cent.) t...

(Encyclopedia) Doctrine of Signatures, the concept that the key to humanity's use of various plants was indicated by the form of the plant. The red sap of the bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis), for instance, was be...