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The History Channel - Encyclopedia Category: History and Culture > History Date & country: 02/12/2007, UK Words: 25833

intentionality
In philosophy, the property of consciousness whereby it is directed towards an object, even when this object does not exist in reality (such as `the golden mountain`). Intentionality is a key...

Inter-American Development Bank
Bank founded in 1959, at the instigation of the Organization of American States (OAS), to finance economic and social development, particularly in the less wealthy regions of the Americas. Its...

interdependence
In economics, situation where an individual, business organization, or economy is economically reliant on others. Interdependence always occurs when specialization occurs. For example, the UK is...

interdict
In the Christian church, a punishment that excludes an individual, community, or realm from participation in spiritual activities except for communion. It was usually employed against heretics or...

interest
In finance, a sum of money paid by a borrower to a lender in return for the loan, usually expressed as a percentage per annum. Simple interest is interest calculated as a straight percentage of the...

interior design
The design, decoration, and furnishing of the inside of a building. In recent times the trend has been towards a less ornate and more functional style, fostered by the interaction of architects and...

interlude
In 16th-century England, a short dramatic work, often comical, performed in the intervals of a banquet or court pageant, or between the parts of mystery plays. The characters were usually...

Intermediate Nuclear Forces Treaty
Agreement signed 8 December 1987 between the USA and the USSR to eliminate all ground-based nuclear missiles in Europe that were capable of hitting only European targets (including European...

Intermediate Period
Periods in ancient Egyptian history between the three major phases of relative stability; the First Intermediate (2250-2035 BC), following the Old Kingdom, Second Intermediate (1720-1550 BC),...

intermedii (or intermezzi)
In 15th- and 16th-century Italy, musical or dramatic interludes played between the acts of a play or during the intervals of a banquet. The musical intermedii consisted of instrumental pieces...

internal economies of scale
Economies of scale that arise because of the change in the scale of production by a firm, which can be caused by automation, specialization, or bulk purchasing power. ...

Internal Security Act
US legislation passed in 1950 by Congress over the president's veto (amended 1951, 1952, and 1954). It restricted the civil rights of communists in the USA and barred anyone who had ever been a...

International Brigade
International volunteer force on the Republican side in the Spanish Civil War (1936-39). ...

International Court of Justice
Main judicial organ of the United Nations, in The Hague, the Netherlands. It hears international law disputes as well as playing an advisory role to UN organs. It was set up by the UN charter in...

International Finance Corporation
Agency of the United Nations affiliated to the World Bank. It was set up 1956 to facilitate loans for private investment to developing countries. ...

International Gothic
Late Gothic style of painting and sculpture flourishing in Europe in the late 14th and 15th centuries. It is characterized by bright colours, a courtly elegance, and a naturalistic rendering of...

international law
Body of rules generally accepted as governing the relations between countries, pioneered by Hugo Grotius, especially in matters of human rights, territory, and war. Nei ...

International Monetary Fund
Specialized agency of the United Nations, headquarters Washington, DC, established under the 1944 Bretton Woods agreement and operational since 1947. It seeks to promote international monetary...

International Settlements, Bank for
See Bank for International Settlements. ...

international style
Architectural style, an early and influential phase of the Modern Movement, originating in Western Europe in the 1920s but finding its fullest expression in the 1930s, notably in the USA. It is...

International, the
Coordinating body established by labour and socialist organizations, including:First International or International Working Men's Association (1864-72), formed in London under Karl Marx;Second...

Internationale
International revolutionary socialist anthem composed in 1870 and first sung in 1888. The words by Eugène Pottier (1816-1887) were written shortly after Napoleon III's surrender to Prussia; the...

internment
Detention of suspected criminals without trial. Internment had been practised since the 18th century in times of crisis under the suspension of the writ of habeus corpus. In the 20th century a...

internment
Detention of suspected criminals without trial. Foreign citizens are often interned during times of war or civil unrest. Internment was introduced for the detention of people suspected of terrorist...

internment, Japanese
The evacuation of all people of Japanese ancestry living on the West coast of the USA to detention centres in 1942, after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor during World War II. Anti-Japanese...

Interpol
Agency founded following the Second International Judicial Police Conference (1923) with its headquarters in Vienna, and reconstituted after World War II with its headquarters in Paris. It has an...

interregnum
Two periods in British history when the nation was temporarily without a monarch. The first interregnum covers both the Commonwealth and the Protectorate, starting with the execution of Charles I on...

interrex
In ancient Rome in the time of the kings (traditionally before 510 BC), an official appointed by the senators on the death of a king to hold supreme authority until the election of his successor....

Interstate Commerce Act
In US history, an act of Congress 1887 responding to public concern regarding profiteering and malpractice by railroad companies. It required all charges to be reasonable and fair, and established...

intertextuality
Theory in literary criticism that draws attention to the interdependence of literary texts. As part of a movement stemming from the work of the French philosopher Jacques Derrida, known as...

intestacy
Absence of a will at a person's death. Special legal rules apply on intestacy for appointing administrators to deal with the deceased person's affairs, and for disposing of the deceased person's...

Inti
Sun god of the Incas, from whom they believed they were descended. He was represented by the disc of the Sun with a human face, or as a trinity. ...

Intifada
Palestinian uprising, specifically between December 1987 and September 1993, during which time a loosely organized group of Palestinians (the Liberation Army of Palestine, also called Intifada)...

Intimism
In art, the painting of intimate domestic scenes. Essentially a development of genre painting, Intimism was developed in the late 19th century by the French painters Pierre Bonnard and Edouard...

intoning
Uttering prayers, sutras, and so on in the form of a musical recitative. The practice of intoning is very ancient and is practised among the great majority of cultures,...

intuition
Rapid, unconscious thought process. In philosophy, intuition is that knowledge of a concept which does not derive directly from the senses. Thus, we may be said to have an intuitive idea of God,...

Inuit
Member of am American Indian people inhabiting the Arctic coasts of Alaska, the eastern islands of the Canadian Arctic, Labrador, and the ice-free coasts of Greenland. Originating...

Inuit art
Art of the Inuit, a people inhabiting the coastal Arctic regions of northeast Siberia, North America, and Greenland. Although the scattered Inuit lived a hard life in a savage environment, they...

Inukai, Tsuyoshi
(1855-1932) Japanese politician, prime minister 1931-32. He first achieved a ministerial position in 1898 and after a long political career eventually became prime minister in 1931. His policies angered the...

inventory
List of goods owned. The owner of a furnished house which is rented out is likely to have an inventory of all the furniture, fixtures, and fittings in the house. In business studies, an inventory...

Invergordon Mutiny
Incident in the British Atlantic Fleet, Cromarty Firth, Scotland, on 15 September 1931. Ratings refused to prepare the ships for sea following the government's cuts in their pay; the cuts were...

investiture contest
Conflict between the papacy and the Holy Roman Empire between 1075 and 1122, which centred on the right of lay rulers to appoint prelates (investiture). It began with the decree of 1075 in which...

investment
In economics, the purchase of any asset with the potential to yield future financial benefit to the purchaser (such as a house, a work of art, stocks and shares, or even a private education). More...

investment trust
Public company that makes investments in other companies on behalf of its shareholders. It may issue shares to raise capital and issue fixed interest securities. ...

Invincible, HMS
British battle cruiser. In World War I, Invincible took part in the battles of Heligoland Bight and the Falkland Islands 1914, and was sunk at the battle of Jutland 31 May 1916. ...

invisible
In economics, term describing a service on the balance of payments account. Invisible exports are exports of services and invisible imports are imports of services. ...

Invisible Man
Novel (1952) by US writer Ralph Ellison about an unnamed hero who discovers that because of his blackness he lacks all social identity in post-war US society. ...

invoice
Bill sent to an individual or business organization for goods or services received. The invoice should state the amount of VAT (value-added tax) payable and how quickly the bill needs to be paid....

Inwood, Henry William
(1794-1843) English architect, the son of a London architect, under whom he trained. As his father's partner he won a competition in 1818 for the design of St Pancras Church, London (1819-22), which was a...

Inönü, Ismet
(1884-1973) Turkish politician and soldier, president 1938-50, and prime minister 1923-38 and 1961-65. He continued the modernization and westernization of Turkey begun by the republic's founder Kemal...

Io
In Greek mythology, the daughter of Inachus, first king of Argos; loved under the cover of dark clouds by Zeus, who transformed the princess into a white heifer to hide her from...

Iolaus
In Greek mythology, the nephew and charioteer of Heracles. He helped Heracles kill the monstrous Hydra and assisted the children of Heracles in their war with Eurystheus. ...

Ion
(c. 490-c. 421 BC) Greek poet of Chios, who also lived at Athens. His first tragedy was produced between 452 and 449 BC and he subsequently gained prizes for both his tragic works and dithyrambs (choral hymns). He is...

Ion
In Greek mythology, the son of the god Apollo and Creusa, daughter of King Erechtheus of Athens; ancestor of the Ionian or eastern Greeks. In Ion, by the Greek dramatist Euripides, he was carried...

Iona
Island in the Inner Hebrides; area 850 hectares/2,100 acres. A centre of early Christianity, it is the site of a monastery founded in 563 by St Columba. It later became a burial ground for Irish,...

Ionesco, Eugène
(1912-1994) Romanian-born French dramatist. He was a leading exponent of the Theatre of the Absurd. Most of his plays are in one act and concern the futility of language as a means of communication. These...

Ionia
In classical times the east coast of the Aegean Sea and the offshore islands, settled about 1000 BC by the Ionians; it included the cities of Ephesus, Miletus, and later Smyrna, and the islands of...

Ionian
Member of a Hellenic people from beyond the Black Sea who crossed the Balkans c. 1980 BC and invaded Asia Minor. Driven back by the Hittites, they settled all over mainland Greece, later being...

Ionian Revolt
Revolt started by the city of Miletus in western Asia Minor (Ionia) in 499 BC against the Persian Empire. Along with troops from Athens and Eretria (on the island of Euboea), the confederation of...

Ionic
In classical architecture, one of the five types of column; see order. ...

Iorga, Nicolae
(1871-1940) Romanian historian, writer, and politician. He was for many years chief of the Nationalist Party. Tutor and friend of Carol I, he was largely instrumental in securing his return from exile and...

IOU
Short for `I owe you`; written acknowledgment of debt, signed by the debtor. ...

Iphicrates
(c. 415-353 BC) Athenian general. An innovative military leader, he commanded a force of mercenary light infantry (`peltasts`), with which he annihilated a battalion of Spartan hoplites (heavy infantry) 390 BC....

Iphigenia
In Greek mythology, the daughter of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra; and the sister of Orestes. On the advice of the prophet Calchas, she was sacrificed by her father at Aulis to appease the goddess...

Ipsus, Battle of
Battle in 301 BC in which Antigonus I of Macedonia was defeated and killed by his fellow Macedonian generals Lysimachus, Ptolemy I, Cassander, and Seleucus. The battle took place at Ipsus, an...

Iqbal, Muhammad
(1876-1938) Islamic poet and thinker. His literary works, in Urdu and Persian, were mostly verse in the classical style, suitable for public recitation. He sought through his writings to arouse Muslims to take...

IRA
Abbreviation for Irish Republican Army. ...

Iran
Country in southwest Asia, bounded north by Armenia, Azerbaijan, the Caspian Sea, and Turkmenistan; east by Afghanistan and Pakistan; south and southwest by the Gulf of Oman and the Gulf; west by...

Iran-Iraq War
War between Iran and Iraq (1980-88), claimed by the former to have begun with the Iraqi offensive on 21 September 1980, and by the latter with the Iranian shelling of border posts on 4 September...

Irangate
US political scandal in 1987 involving senior members of the Reagan administration (the name echoes the Nixon administration's Watergate). Congressional hearings 1986-87 revealed that the US...

Iraq
Country in southwest Asia, bounded north by Turkey, east by Iran, southeast by the Gulf and Kuwait, south by Saudi Arabia, and west by Jordan and Syria. Government Under the 2005 constitution, Iraq...

Iraq War
War in 2003 between Iraq and an international coalition led by the USA and the UK. The conflict arose over issues surrounding the disarmament process accepted by Iraq as part of peace terms...

Iraq-i Ajam
Formerly a province of Persia (Iran), almost corresponding to ancient Media, stretching from the Mesopotamian plains on the west to the great desert of Persia on...

Iredell, James
(1751-1799) English-born US Supreme Court justice. He served as a North Carolina judge 1777-78 and as state attorney general 1779-81. At the age of 38, he was the youngest of the original six US Supreme...

Ireland, John
(1838-1919) Irish-born US prelate. He was a US Civil War chaplain and cathedral rector before being named coadjutor bishop of St Paul, Minnesota, in 1875. In 1884 he became bishop of St Paul, which was made...

Ireland, Northern
See Northern Ireland. ...

Ireland, Republic of
Country occupying the main part of the island of Ireland, in northwest Europe. It is bounded to the east by the Irish Sea, south and west by the Atlantic Ocean, and...

Ireland, William Henry
(1777-1835) English literary forger. He invented documents concerning Shakespeare and imitated his handwriting and signature. The forgeries were so well executed that they deceived the experts. Encouraged by...

Irene
In Greek mythology, the goddess of peace (Roman Pax). According to Hesiod she was one of the Horae, goddesses of the seasons, and the daughter of Zeus and Themis, the personification of order. A...

Irene, St
(c. 752-c. 803) Byzantine empress 797-802. The wife of Leo IV (750-80), she became regent for their son Constantine (771-805) on Leo's death. In 797 she deposed her son, had his eyes put out, and assumed the...

Ireton, Henry
(1611-1651) English general. During the Civil War he joined the parliamentary forces and fought at Edgehill in 1642, Gainsborough in 1643, and Irgun
Short for Irgun Zvai Leumi (National Military Society), a Jewish guerrilla group active against the British administration in Palestine (1946-48). Their bombing of the King David Hotel in...

Irigoyen (or Yrigoyen), Hipólito
(1850-1933) Argentine politician and president 1916-22 and 1928-30. He became leader of the Radical Civic Union Party (bourgeois reformist group) in 1896 and worked for electoral reform, which, when it came...

Iris
In Greek mythology, the goddess of the rainbow and messenger of the gods. She was the daughter of Thaumas and Electra, and sister of the Harpies. ...

Irish
People of Irish culture from Ireland or those of Irish descent. The Irish mainly speak English, though there are approximately 30,000-100,000 speakers of Irish Gaelic, a Celtic language belonging...

Irish Colleges
Network of seminaries set up throughout Europe from the end of the 16th century, at a time when Catholic education in Ireland was severely restricted by the Protestant Dublin government. Established...

Irish Free State
Name of the former state of southern Ireland 1922-37, established as a result of the Anglo-Irish Treaty (1921). It was replaced by Eire in 1937 and the Republic of Ireland in 1949. The treaty...

Irish Land Acts
Series of 19th-century laws designed to improve the lot of the Irish peasantry. The first act in 1870 awarded tenants compensation for improvements they had made to land, but offered no protection...

Irish Literary Theatre
Three-year theatre project of the contemporary Irish literary revival set up in Dublin, Republic of Ireland, in 1899 by W B Yeats, Lady Gregory, and Edward Martyn (1859-1923) to produce new...

Irish literature
Early Irish literature, in Gaelic, consists of the sagas, which are mainly in prose, and a considerable body of verse. The chief cycles are that of Ulster, which deals with the mythological...

Irish National Liberation Army
Guerrilla organization committed to the end of British rule in Northern Ireland and Irish reunification. The INLA, founded in 1974, is a left-wing offshoot of the Irish Republican Army (IRA)....

Irish nationalism
In Ireland, political and cultural expression of the concept of an Irish nation. Although a sense of Irishness probably existed in the Gaelic period before the 12th-century Norman invasion,...

Irish Republican Army
Militant Irish nationalist organization formed in 1919, the paramilitary wing of Sinn Fein. Its aim is to create a united Irish socialist republic including Ulster. To this end, the IRA has...

Irish Republican Brotherhood
Secret revolutionary society that grew out of the Fenian movement, in the wake of the failed insurrection of 1867, in an effort to reform its organization and improve its security precautions....

Irish republicanism
Extreme wing of the Irish nationalist cause. Like Irish nationalism, its aims are complete separation from British rule and a united 32-county republic. Republicanism, however, has generally been...

Irish revival
Movement that sought to create, promote, and sustain Irish art, starting in the late 19th century. An extraordinary period of artistic and cultural activity, it had its roots in the earlier Celtic...

Irish Volunteers
Irish national defence force formed at the Rotunda, Dublin, on 25 November 1913 to defend the principle of home rule. It took its name from the Volunteers, a part-time militia which had been...

Irmin
Irmin pillars were worshipped by the Saxons, and were said by later chroniclers to be erected in honour of a god Hermin (Mars). ...

Iron Age
Developmental stage of human technology when weapons and tools were made from iron. Preceded by the Stone and Bronze ages, it is the last technological stage in the Three Age System framework for...

iron and steel industry
The development of the iron and steel industry and its contribution to the Industrial Revolution is described in Industrial Revolution, iron and steel. ...