Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Massachusetts Bay Company, English chartered company that established the Massachusetts Bay colony in New England. Organized (1628) as the New England Company, it took over the Dorchester Company, whi...

(Encyclopedia) forum, market and meeting place in ancient Roman towns in Italy and later in the provinces, corresponding to the Greek agora. By extension the word forum often indicates the meeting itself in modern u...

(Encyclopedia) Strafford, Thomas Wentworth, 1st earl of, 1593–1641, English statesman. Regularly elected to Parliament from 1614 on, he became one of the critics of George Villiers, 1st duke of Buckingham, and of ...

(Encyclopedia) recognition, acknowledgment of the admission of new states into the international community by political action of states that are already members. Its derivation is found in the policy of the older E...

(Encyclopedia) Buckingham, George Villiers, 1st duke of vĭlˈyərz, bŭkˈĭng-əm [key], 1592–1628, English courtier and royal favorite. He arrived (1614) at the English court as James I was tiring of his favori...

(Encyclopedia) colleges and universities, institutions of higher education. Universities differ from colleges in that they are larger, have wider curricula, are involved in research activities, and grant graduate an...

(Encyclopedia) Northwest Passage, water routes through the Arctic Archipelago, N Canada, and along the northern coast of Alaska between the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. Even though the explorers of the 16th cent. de...

(Encyclopedia)  CE5 Jamaica jəmāˈkə [key], independent state within the Commonwealth (2015 est. pop. 2,872,000), 4,232 sq mi (10,962 sq km), coextensive with the island of Jamaica, West Indies, S of Cuba and W...

(Encyclopedia) Carson, Kit (Christopher Houston Carson), 1809–68, American frontiersman and guide, b. Madison co., Ky. In 1811 he moved with his family to the Missouri frontier. After his father's death, he was ap...

(Encyclopedia) Stanley, Sir Henry Morton, 1841–1904, Anglo-American journalist, explorer, and empire builder, b. Denbigh, Wales. He grew up in poverty and came to America as a worker on a ship, which he jumped (18...