Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Republican party, American political party. In 1980, the conservative Ronald Reagan, a former supporter of Barry Goldwater, regained the presidency for the Republicans and reversed long-standi...

(Encyclopedia) Natives, South American, aboriginal peoples of South America. In the land mass extending from the Isthmus of Panama to Tierra del Fuego, Native American civilizations developed long before the coming ...

(Encyclopedia) Washington, George, 1732–99, 1st President of the United States (1789–97), commander in chief of the Continental army in the American Revolution, called the Father of His Country. The Univ. of V...

(Encyclopedia) Boone, Daniel, 1734–1820, American frontiersman, b. Oley (now Exeter) township, near Reading, Pa. The Boones, English Quakers, left Pennsylvania in 1750 and settled (1751 or 1752) in the Yadkin vall...

(Encyclopedia) Cabeza de Vaca, Álvar Núñez älˈvär no͞oˈnyāth käbāˈthä dā väˈkä [key], c.1490–c.1557, Spanish explorer. Cabeza de Vaca [cow's head] was not actually a surname but a hereditary title...

(Encyclopedia) Rio Grande rēˈō grănd, rēˈō gränˈdē [key], river, c.1,885 mi (3,000 km) long, rising in SW Colo. in the San Juan Mts. and flowing south through the middle of N.Mex., past Albuquerque, then c...

(Encyclopedia) British Empire, overseas territories linked to Great Britain in a variety of constitutional relationships, established over a period of three centuries. The establishment of the empire resulted primar...

(Encyclopedia)  CE5 Maryland mârˈələnd [key], one of the Middle Atlantic states of the United States. It is bounded by Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean (E), the District of Columbia (S), Virginia and West Virgi...

(Encyclopedia) fascism făshˈĭzəm [key], totalitarian philosophy of government that glorifies the state and nation and assigns to the state control over every aspect of national life. The name was first used by t...

(Encyclopedia) Powhatan Confederacy, group of Native North Americans belonging to the Algonquian branch of the Algonquian-Wakashan linguistic stock (see Native American languages). Their area embraced most of tidewa...