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

Mann Act
US Act of Congress of 1910 that was introduced by Republican Representative James Mann, in response to fears of trafficking in women (the `white slave trade`). The Act made it an offence to...

Mann, Heinrich
(1871-1950) German novelist. He left Nazi Germany in 1937 with his brother Thomas Mann and went to the USA. His books include Im Schlaraffenland/In the Land of Cockaigne (1901) and Professor Unrat/The Blue...

Mann, Horace
(1796-1859) US political leader and education reformer. Resigning from the Massachusetts state legislature 1937, he served as secretary of the state school board 1837-48. In that position he helped raise the...

Mann, James (Robert)
(1856-1922) US politician. A successful attorney from Chicago, he was a Republican congressman (1897-22). He was skilled in legislation and parliamentary tactics. Among the acts he sponsored are the...

Mann, Margaret
(1873-1960) US cataloguer. She taught library science at her alma mater, Chicago's Armour Institute, and was a cataloguer at the Carnegie Library in Pittsburgh (1903-19). She organized and recatalogued the...

Mann, Thomas
(1875-1955) German novelist and critic. A largely subjective artist, he drew his themes from his own experiences and inner thoughts. He was constantly preoccupied...

Mann, Tom
(1856-1941) English labour leader. One of the leaders of a dock strike of 1889, he was president of the International Ship, Dock and River Workers 1892-96, and general secretary of the Amalgamated Engineering...

manna
Sweetish exudation obtained from many trees such as the ash and larch, and used in medicine. The Old Testament (Exodus ch. 16) relates that God provided manna for the Israelites in the desert when...

Mannerheim, Carl Gustav Emil von
(1867-1951) Finnish general and politician, leader of the conservative forces in the civil war 1917-18 and regent 1918-19. He commanded the Finnish army 1939-40 and 1941-44, and was...

Mannerism
In a general sense, any affectation (unnatural imitation or exaggeration) of a style or manner in art, though the term is usually used with reference to Italian painting in the 16th century and...

Manners
Family name of the dukes of Rutland; seated at Belvoir Castle, Lincolnshire, England. ...

Mannin, Ethel Edith
(1900-1984) English novelist and travel writer. Her first novel, Martha (1922), was followed by many others, including Sounding Brass (1925), The Pure Flame (1936), The Blossoming Bough (1943), Late Have I...

Manning, (Elizabeth) Leah
(1886-1977) British Labour politician. She was a member of Parliament in the Labour governments of 1929-31 and 1945-50, and a champion of the Republican cause during the Spanish Civil War (1936-39). Her...

Manning, Ernest Charles
(1908-1996) Canadian politician, founder member of the Social Credit Party. He was premier of Alberta 1943-69; he also held the posts of provincial secretary 1944-55, and minister of...

Manning, Henry Edward
(1808-1892) English priest, one of the leaders of the Oxford Movement. In 1851 he was converted from the Church of England to Roman Catholicism, and in 1865 became archbishop of Westminster. He was created a...

Manning, Olivia Mary
(1908-1980) English novelist. Among her books are the semi-autobiographical series set during World War II. These include The Great Fortune (1960), The Spoilt City (1962), and Friends and Heroes (1965),...

Manning, Patrick Augustus Mervyn
(1946) Trinidadian centrist politician, prime minister 1991-95. Manning took over leadership of the People's National Movement (PNM) after corruption scandals and a crushing electoral defeat in 1986...

Manning, Robert
(c. 1264-c. 1340) English poet. He wrote Handlyng Synne, a translation of the Manuel des Pechiez of William of Wadington, and The Chronicle of England, a new version in octosyllabic rhyme of Robert Wace'sBrut...

Manning, Warren Henry
(1860-1938) US landscape architect. He joined the Olmsteds as a horticulturalist in 1888, becoming a design assistant before opening his own firm (1896-1938). Enormously successful, he delighted in training...

Mannlicher rifle
Austrian rifle, standard arm of the Austro-Hungarian, Romanian, Bulgarian, Greek, and Balkan armies in World War I. The Austro-Hungarian weapon was an 8-mm calibre weapon and used an unusual...

Mannyng, Robert
Alternative spelling of Robert Manning, English poet. ...

manoeuvre
In warfare, to move around the battlefield so as to gain an advantage over the enemy. It implies rapid movement, shock action, and surprise. Bold manoeuvre warfare can...

Manpower Services Commission
Former name of the Training Agency, UK organization for retraining the unemployed. ...

Manrique, Jorge
(c. 1440-1479) Spanish Castilian poet and soldier. Only 49 poems are attributed with any certainty to Manrique. His most acclaimed work, Coplas que fizo por la muerte de su padre/Verses Composed on the Death of...

Mansart, Jules Hardouin-
French architect; see Jules Hardouin-Mansart. ...

Mansfeld, Peter Ernst (II), Count
(1580-1626) German soldier. He was one of the most important generals in the early years of the Thirty Years' War and supported Frederick V against the Habsburgs. After defeat by Wallenstein in 1625, however,...

Mansfield judgment
Legal ruling in 1772 delivered by the Lord Chief Justice, the Earl of Mansfield, which effectively abolished slavery in England and Wales. Mansfield ruled that the runaway slave James Somersett was...

Mansfield, Katherine
(1888-1923) New Zealand writer. She lived most of her life in England. Her delicate artistry emerges not only in her volumes of short stories - such as In a German Pension (1911), Bliss (1920), and The Garden...

Mansfield, Mike
(1903-2001) US educator, politician, and diplomat. He dropped out of school at age 14 and served with the US military 1917-22. He earned a BA and an MA from Montana State University, where he then taught...

Mansfield, Richard
(1854-1907) German-born English stage actor. He first attracted attention in light opera productions in London, England, then moved over to the New York theatre in 1883. One of the last practitioners of the...

Mansi
Member of a people of northwestern Siberia, numbering about 7,000. They live in the taiga, and the oil industry has disrupted their traditional way of life, breeding reindeer and horses, and...

Mansion House
Official residence of the Lord Mayor of London, opposite the Bank of England. It was built 1739-53 by George Dance the Elder on the site of the old Stocks Market. ...

manslaughter
In English law, the unlawful killing of a human being in circumstances less culpable than murder- for example, when the killer suffers extreme provocation, is in some way mentally ill (diminished...

manslaughter, corporate
In English law, the crime of manslaughter in which the accused is alleged to be responsible for the deaths of many people. The first case of this kind in Britain was brought against Townsend...

Manson, Charles
(1934) US cult leader. Released from prison in 1967, he set up a commune based on free love and devotion to himself. Members of his cult conducted a series of grisly murders in California in 1969. He and...

Manstein, (Fritz) Erich von
(1887-1973) German field marshal. He served as Chief of Staff to von Rundstedt in the Polish and French campaigns 1939-40 and commanded a Panzer corps in the invasion...

Manston
RAF aerodrome in Kent, England, a major diversionary aerodrome for aircraft (civil or military) in distress. It was much used during the Battle of Britain in World War II. ...

Mansur
(lived c. 1700) Mogul painter. He started work at the court of Akbar, contributing several miniatures to the Mant, Richard
(1776-1848) English-born Church of Ireland bishop and leader of the High Church revival in Ireland. Mant was successively bishop of Killaloe (1820-32) and bishop of Down, Connor, and Dromore (1823-48). He...

Mantegna, Andrea
(c. 1431-1506) Italian painter and engraver. He painted religious and mythological subjects, his works noted for their all'antica style taking elements from Roman antique architecture and sculpture, and for their...

Mantel, Hilary
(1952) English writer. She lived in Botswana for five years from 1977, and then in Saudi Arabia for three years. Her writing covers a varied subject matter from historical fiction...

Mantes-la-Jolie
French town in the département of Yvelines, on the River Seine; population (1990) 48,000. Paper, musical instruments, and bricks are manufactured here and it is a commuter town for Paris. Mantes...

Mantinea
Ancient city in Arcadia, southern Greece, founded about 500 BC by the merging of five villages. It was the scene of an important victory by Sparta over the Argives in 418 BC, of the victory of the...

mantra
In Hindu and Buddhist belief, a word or phrase repeatedly intoned during meditation to assist concentration and develop spiritual power; for example, `Om` or `Aum`, which represents the...

Manuel Deutsch, Nicolaus
(1484-1530) Swiss painter, poet, and reformer. His works included a Dance of Death (of which only copies exist) for a monastery in Bern and the Beheading of John the Baptist (Basel) in an ornate and fanciful...

Manuel II
(1889-1932) King of Portugal 1908-10. He ascended the throne on the assassination of his father, Carlos I, but was driven out by a revolution in 1910, and lived in England. ...

Manueline style
A style in Portuguese architecture associated with the reign of King Manuel I (1495-1521), under whom numerous monasteries and churches were built. A richly ornate style, it is characterized by a...

Manuelito
(c. 1818-1894) US Navajo war leader. He was the last chief to hold out against a scorched-earth campaign by the US government to defeat the Navajo. After surrendering his starving people in 1865, he led them to...

manufacturing base
Share of the total output in a country's economy contributed by the manufacturing sector. This sector has greater potential for productivity growth than the service sector, which is...

manufacturing industry
Industry that involves the processing of raw materials or the assembly of components. Examples are aluminium smelting, car assembly, and computer assembly. In the UK many traditional manufacturing...

manumission
In medieval England, the act of freeing a villein or serf from his or her bondage. The process took place in a county court and freedom could either be bought or granted as a reward for services...

Manzoni, Alessandro
(1785-1873) Italian poet and novelist. He was the author of the historical romance I promessi sposi/The Betrothed (1825-27, revised 1842), set in Spanish-occupied Milan during the 17th century. He is...

Mao Dun (or Mao Tun)
(1896-1981) Chinese writer. He wrote a trilogy of novellas, published as Shi (Eclipse) (1930); a best-selling novel, Ziye (Midnight) (1932), about financial exploiters in the decadent Shanghai of the time;...

Mao Tse-tung
Alternative transcription of Mao Zedong. ...

Maoism
Form of communism based on the ideas and teachings of the Chinese communist leader Mao Zedong. It involves an adaptation of Marxism to suit conditions in China and apportions a much greater role to...

Maori
Member of the Polynesian people of New Zealand. They number 435,000, about 15% of the total population, and around 89% live in the North Island. Maori civilization had particular strengths in...

Maori religion
The religion of the original inhabitants of New Zealand, having the god Io at its peak, who acts through an array of gods, spirits, and ancestors. The world of the dead is seen as the most dangerous...

Maori Wars
Bitter conflict in New Zealand 1860-72. The insatiable European settler demand for land brought war with a number of Maori tribes. The failure of several campaigns against determined and highly...

Map (or Mapes), Walter
(c. 1140-c. 1209) Welsh cleric and satirist. He was in the service of Henry II, frequently being employed as an itinerant justice in England, and was an envoy to Alexander III of Scotland. His De Nugis...

Mapai
Israeli Workers' Party or Labour Party, founded in 1930. Its leading figure until 1965 was David Ben-Gurion. In 1968, the party allied with two other democratic socialist parties to form the...

Mapp v. Ohio
US Supreme Court decision of 1961 dealing with the admission into criminal trials of evidence procured through illegal searches and seizures. Mapp, a Cleveland woman, was arrested for the possession...

Mappa Mundi
13th-century symbolic map of the world. It is circular and shows Asia at the top, with Europe and Africa below and Jerusalem at the centre (reflecting Christian religious rather than geographical...

Mapu, Abraham
(1808-1867) Novelist born in Lithuania (then part of Russia) who wrote in Hebrew. Mapu was the author of the first novel to be written in Hebrew, Ahavat Zion/Love of Zion 1853, a romance set in biblical times,...

Maquis
French resistance movement that fought against the German occupation during World War II. ...

Mar, John Erskine, 11th Earl of
(1672-1732) Scottish noble and leader of the Jacobite rising of 1715. He raised an army of episcopalian and Catholic highlanders in support of James Edward Stuart, the Old Pretender, after being dismissed from...

Mara
In Buddhism, a supernatural being who attempted to distract the Buddha from the meditations that led to his enlightenment. He embodies all distractions from the Buddhist path. In Hinduism, it is a...

Mara, Ratu Kamisese
(1920-2004) Fijian politician, prime minister 1970-92 and president 1994-2000. He founded the moderate nationalist Alliance Party in 1960 and, as its leader, led the Fijian delegation to a constitutional...

Maraçesti, Battle of
World War I defeat of Austro-German force by combined Russian and Romanian forces in August 1917; the greatest battle fought by the Romanian army during the war. After defeating the Russians in...

Marat, Jean Paul
(1743-1793) Swiss-born French Revolutionary leader, physician, and journalist. He was elected to the National Convention in 1792, where, as leader of the radical Montagnard faction, he carried on a long...

Maratha
Member of a people living mainly in Maharashtra state, western India. There are about 40 million speakers of Marathi, a language belonging to the Indo-European family. The Marathas are mostly...

Marathon, Battle of
Battle fought in September 490 BC at the start of the Persian Wars in which the Athenians and their allies from Plataea resoundingly defeated the Persian king Darius' invasion force. Fought on the...

Maratta (or Maratti), Carlo
(1625-1713) Italian baroque painter. Reacting against the theatricality of much baroque painting, he worked in a classical style derived from his teacher Andrea Sacchi and a study of Raphael Sanzio. He produced...

Marble Arch
Triumphal arch in London in the style of the Arch of Constantine. It was designed by John Nash and John Flaxman (1755-1826) in 1828 to commemorate Nelson's and Wellington's victories, and was...

marbling
Decoration technique for fabric. Marbling relies on the fact that oil and water do not mix. Oil-based fabric paints are dropped on to the surface of a basin or tray of water. The paint is gently...

Marburg, Colloquy of
A conference held in 1529 in Marburg, Germany, in an attempt to reconcile the Zwinglian and Lutheran evangelical movements. Summoned by Philip, Landgrave of Hesse, it was attended by Luther and...

Marbury v. Madison
US Supreme Court decision of 1803 that affirmed the doctrine of judicial review, establishing the court's authority to declare laws unconstitutional. The plaintiff, William Marbury, had been...

Marc, Franz
(1880-1916) German expressionist painter. He was associated with Wassily Kandinsky in founding the Blaue Reiter movement. Animals played an essential part in his view of the world, and bold semi-abstracts of...

Marcabru (or Marcabrun)
(lived c. 1130-50) Provençal troubadour. He was one of the earliest of the troubadours, a Gascon of humble origins (tradition has it that he was a foundling). Many of his poems are in a satirical, moralizing, and...

Marcantonio
Alternative name for Italian engraver Raimondi. ...

Marcantonio, Vito (Anthony)
(1902-1954) US politician. A political activist in high school, he became Fiorello La Guardia's protégé. He w ...

Marceau, Marcel
(1923) French mime artist. A central figure in the development of the art of mime, he is the creator of the clown-harlequin Bip and mime sequences such as `Youth, Maturity, Old Age, and Death`. Famed...

Marcel, Gabriel
(1889-1973) French dramatist and philosopher. His philosophy, which has been described as a Christian version of existentialism, owes much to Bergson, Nietzsche, and Dostoevski. Among his plays are La Chapelle...

Marcellus I, St
(died 309) Pope 308-09. He succeeded Marcellinus, probably in May 308. He imposed such severe penances upon all Christians who had abandoned their faith under persecution that he was banished by popular...

Marcellus, Marcus Claudius
(42-23 BC) Roman noble, nephew and son-in-law of the emperor Augustus. Marcellus was the son of Octavia, sister of Augustus, and Claudius Marcellus (consul 50 BC). In 25 BC he was adopted by Augustus and...

March on Rome, the
Means by which fascist leader Benito Mussolini came to power in Italy in 1922. A protracted crisis in government and the threat of civil war enabled him to demand the formation of a fascist...

Marchais, Georges
(1920-1997) French communist politician. As general secretary of the French Communist Party (PCF) 1972-94, Marchais presided over his party's decline, its vote dropping in parliamentary elections from 21% in...

Marchand, Jean Baptiste
(1863-1934) French general and explorer. In 1898, he headed an expedition in Africa from the French Congo, which occupied the town of Fashoda (now Kodok) on the White Nile. The subsequent arrival of British...

Marcher Lords
Semi-independent nobles on the Welsh-English border, granted special privileges in return for protecting the border area. In William (I) the Conqueror's reign, strong lords were placed in...

Marcian
(396-457) Eastern Roman emperor 450-457. He was a general who married Pulcheria, sister of Theodosius II; he became emperor on Theodosius' death. He convened the...

Marciana, Biblioteca (Florence)
The library of the Dominican convent of San Marco in Florence. The basis of the collection was the library of some 800 volumes accumulated by the scholar Niccolò Niccoli. On his death the...

Marciana, Biblioteca (Venice)
The library housed in the Libreria Sansoviniana (Sansovino Library) in Piazzetta San Marco, Venice. The foundation of the collection was the gift of manuscripts made by Cardinal Bessarion to the...

Marco Polo
Venetian traveller and writer; see Marco Polo. ...

Marco Polo bridge incident
Conflict in 1937 between Chinese and Japanese army troops on the border of Japanese-controlled Manchukuo and China that led to full-scale war between the two states. It lasted until the Japanese...

Marconi Scandal
Scandal in 1912 in which UK chancellor Lloyd George and two other government ministers were found by a French newspaper to have dealt in shares of the US Marconi company shortly before it was...

Marcos, Ferdinand Edralin
(1917-1989) Filipino right-wing politician, dictator-president 1965-86, when he was forced into exile in Hawaii by a popular front led by Corazon Aquino. Born in Sarrat, Marcos was convicted, while a law...

Marcos, Imelda Romualdez
(1930) Filipino politician and socialite, wife of Ferdinand Marcos (president 1965-86), and known as the `Iron Butterfly`. A politically active first lady, she took a leading role in prestige...

Marcus Aurelius
(AD 121-180) Roman emperor from 161 and Stoic philosopher who wrote the philosophical Meditations. He fought a series of campaigns against the Germanic tribes on the Rhine-Danube frontier, known collectively...

Marcuse, Herbert
(1898-1979) German-born US political philosopher. His theories combining Marxism and Freudianism influenced radical thought in the 1960s and 1970s. He preached the overthrow of the existing social order by...

Marcy, William Learned
(1786-1857) US Democratic politician. He was a senator 1831-32, governor of New York 1833-38, secretary of war under James Polk 1845-49, and secretary of state under Franklin Pierce 1853-57. Marcy was...

Mardi Gras
From the custom of using up all the fat in the household before the beginning of Lent) on Shrove Tuesday. A festival was traditionally held on this day in Paris, and there are carnivals in many...