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

Yugoslavia
Former country in the Balkans, in southeast Europe, consisting of a federation of constituent republics:Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Slovenia, and Macedonia. In the period...

Yukagir
Member of a people living in northeastern Siberia. Until recently they lived by hunting wild reindeer and fishing; today they breed domesticated reindeer and continue to fish. Their religion is...

Yuma
Alternative name for a member of the American Indian Yuman people. ...

Yuman
Member of an American Indian people living in the lower Colorado River valley by the mid-16th century. They gave their name to the Yuman branch of the Hokan linguistic family, a group of American...

Yunkers, Adja
(1900-1983) Latvian printmaker and painter. Considered an important woodcut artist working in colour, he used a painterly approach to his medium, as seen in the polyptych called Magnificat (1953). Born in Riga,...

Yunus, Muhammad
(1940) Bangladeshi economist and banker, pioneer of microcredit financial services to the poor, and joint winner with his Grameen Bank of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 for helping to alleviate poverty. His...

yurt
Mongolian term for a circular tent made of felt bound onto a wicker frame, having a low conical roof with a central vent for smoke from the fire. ...

Yü-huang
In Taoism and Chinese folk religion, the `Jade Emperor`, supreme amongst the gods, and the lord of creation. ...

Yüan Shikai
(1859-1916) Chinese soldier and politician, leader of Republican China 1911-16. He assumed dictatorial powers in 1912, dissolving parliament and suppressing Sun Zhong Shan's...

za'im
In Lebanon, a political leader, originally the holder of a feudal office. The office is largely hereditary; an example is the Jumblatt family, traditional leaders of the Druze party. The pattern of...

Zabarella, Jacopo
(1533-1589) Italian philosopher. A professor of logic at Padua, he was a leading Aristotelian of his time. His works on logic were published as Opera logica (1578), his work on natural history (which included...

Zabid
City in Yemen, on the Tihama coastal plain 80 km/50 mi southeast of Hodeidah; population (2001 est) 55,000. The capital of Yemen from the 13th to the 15th century, Zabid was of great importance in...

Zacharias, St (or St Zachary)
(died 752) Pope AD 741-52, successor to Gregory III. He wielded considerable political influence, negotiating peace between the Lombards and the Greeks, and confirming Pepin the Short as king of the Franks....

Zadkine, Ossip
(1890-1967) French cubist sculptor. Born in Russia, he was active in Paris from 1909. His art represented the human form in dramatic, semi-abstract terms, as in the monument To a Destroyed City 1953...

Zaghlul, Saad
(1857-1927) Egyptian nationalist and politician, prime minister in 1924. Leader of the Wafd party, he came to be regarded as the `father` of an independent Egyptian nation-state. His intransigent,...

Zahir Shah, Muhammad
(1914) King of Afghanistan 1933-73. Zahir, educated in Kabul and Paris, served in the government 1932-33 before being crowned king. He was overthrown in 1973 by a republican coup and went into exile....

Zahir ud-Din Muhammad
First Mogul emperor of India; see Babur. ...

Zahm, John (Augustine)
(1851-1921) US Catholic priest, science educator, and author. He lectured widely, defending the compatibility between Christian doctrine and evolutionary theory, but his study Evolution and Dogma (1896) was...

zaibatsu
Japanese industrial conglomerate (see cartel). By the end of the 20th century these conglomerates had been replaced by keiretsu, meaning networks of companies that are entwined. The old,...

zakat
In Islam, the obligatory duty to pay annually a percentage of income as alms; it is the third of the Five Pillars of Islam The payment `cleanses` the income of possessiveness, and reminds...

Zama, Battle of
Battle fought 202 BC in Numidia (now Algeria), in which the Carthaginians under Hannibal were defeated by the Romans under the younger Scipio, so ending the Second Punic War. The Carthaginians were...

Zambia
Landlocked country in southern central Africa, bounded north by the Democratic Republic of Congo (formerly Zaire) and Tanzania, east by Malawi, south by Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana,...

Zamfirescu, Duiliu
(1858-1922) Romanian poet, novelist, and diplomat. He wrote a cycle of five novels based on an aristocratic family, Viaţa la ţar&acaron; 1895, T&acaron;nase Scatiu 1896, In r&acaron;zboi 1898,...

Zampieri, Domenico
Italian baroque painter, known as Domenichino. ...

Zamyatin, Evgeni Ivanovich
(1884-1937) Russian writer, dramatist, and critic. Although a Bolshevik in his youth, he was critical of the postrevolutionary government. In 1921, he founded an important group of writers, the Serapion...

Zangwill, Israel
(1864-1926) English writer. He published a series of masterly sketches of Jewish life in Children of the Ghetto (1892). Other works include The King of...

ZANU
Political organization founded in 1963 by the Reverend Ndabaningi Sithole and later led by Robert Mugabe. It was banned in 1964 by Ian Smith's Rhodesi ...

Zanzotto, Andrea
(1921) Italian poet. A teacher from the Veneto, he has published much verse, including the collection La beltà/Beauty (1968), with a strong metaphysical element. ...

Zapata, Emiliano
(1879-1919) Mexican Indian revolutionary leader. He led a revolt against dictator Porfirio Díaz from 1910 under the slogan `Land and Liberty`, to repossess for the indigenous Mexicans the land taken by the...

Zapatista National Liberation Army
Guerrilla movement in Mexico, led by the mysterious masked figure of Subcomandante Marcos. It has campaigned especially for the rights of indigenous Maya people in the southeast province of Chiapas...

Zapotec
An American Indian people of southern Mexico, now numbering approximately 250,000, living mainly in Oaxaca. The Zapotec language, which belongs to the Oto-Mangean family, has nine dialects. The...

ZAPU
Political organization founded by Joshua Nkomo in 1961 and banned in 1962 by the Rhodesian government. It engaged in a guerrilla war in alliance with ZANU against the Rhodesian regime until late...

Zarathustra
Another name for the Persian religious leader Zoroaster. ...

Zarudnu, Sergei Ivanovich
(1821-1887) Russian jurist who, as head of the law department of the State Council (from 1861), played a major part in Tsar Alexander II's legal reform programme of 1864. This completely overhauled and...

Zaturenska, Marya
(1902-1982) US poet. Born in Kiev, Russia, she emigrated to the USA in 1909, and studied at Valparaiso University (1922-23) and the University of Wisconsin (1923-25). She married the poet Horace Gregory in...

Zayas, Alfredo
(1861-1934) Cuban Liberal politician, president 1921-25. He served as vice president 1909-13 of the centrist Liberal Party under José Miguel Gómez, but in 1920 challenged him for the presidency after...

zazen
Formal seated meditation in Zen Buddhism. Correct posture and breathing are necessary. ...

Zealot
Member of a revolutionary Jewish nationalist group in Roman Palestine, which broke away from the Pharisees. ...

Zeami, Motokiyo
(1363-1443) Japanese dramatist and drama theorist. He developed the dramatic dance form practised by his father Kan'ami into No drama, for which he wrote over 100 plays, many of which are still in the...

Zedekiah
(lived early 6th century) Last king of Judah 597-586 BC. Placed on the throne by Nebuchadnezzar, he rebelled, was forced to witness his sons' execution, then was blinded and sent to Babylon. The witness to...

Zedillo Ponce de León, Ernesto
(1951) Mexican politician, president 1994-2000. With the assassination of Eduardo Colosio in March 1994, Zedillo was chosen as the new candidate of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and...

Zeebrugge raid
In World War I, daring British attack on German naval base on the coast of Belgium April 1918. Zeebrugge, a Belgian coastal town in the province of West Fl ...

Zeisler, Claire
(1903-1991) US weaver; She was among the first to introduce multiple off-loom techniques to make free-standing sculptural fiber forms; she was also noted for her large three-dimensional hangings. Born in...

Zeitgeist
Spirit of the age. The term was used as the title of an exhibition of neo-expressionist paintings held in Berlin in 1982. ...

Zeitzler, Kurt
(1895-1963) German general in World War II. A favourite of Hitler, in 1942 as chief of the general staff he supported von Paulus's request to withdraw from Stalingrad. Hitler refused, von Paulus was destroyed,...

Zelaya, José Santos
(1853-1919) Nicaraguan politician, leader of the Liberal Party, president 1893-1909. He ended 30 years of political dominance by the Conservatives and established an effective dictatorship. In 1894 Zelaya...

zemstvo
Russian provincial or district council established by Tsar Alexander II 1864. These councils were responsible for local administration until the revolution of 1917. ...

Zen
Form of Buddhism introduced from India to Japan via China from the 12th century. Rinzai Zen (founded 1191) features koan (paradoxical questions), intense meditation, and sudden enlightenment...

Zenale, Bernardino
(1436-1526) Italian painter. He was a friend of Leonardo da Vinci, whose influence appears in some of his work. On the polyptych in the Church of S Martino, Treviglio, he collaborated with Bernardino Butinone. ...

Zenawi, Meles
(1955) Ethiopian politician and former guerrilla fighter, prime minister from 1995. He was the leader of the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) which overthrew the regime of Mengistu...

Zend-Avesta
Sacred scriptures of Zoroastrianism, today practised by the Parsees. They comprise the Avesta (liturgical books for the priests); the Gathas (the discourses and revelations of Zoroaster); and the...

Zeng Guofan (or Tseng Kuo-fan)
(1811-1872) Chinese imperial official who played a crucial role in crushing the Taiping Rebellion. He raised the Hunan army in 1852 to organize resistance to this revolt, eventually capturing Nanjing in 1864....

Zenger, John Peter
(1697-1746) American colonial printer and newspaper editor. In 1733 he founded the New York Weekly Journal through which he publicized his opposition to New York governor William Cosby. In 1734 he was arrested...

Zeno
(426-491) Byzantine emperor from AD 474. His reign was disturbed by revolts and foreign wars, and his attempt to reconcile the Orthodox Church with the breakaway Monophysite churches failed, causing a schism...

Zeno of Elea
(c. 490-c. 430 BC) Greek philosopher. He pointed out several paradoxes that raised `modern` problems of space and time. For example, motion is an illusion, since an arrow in flight must occupy a determin ...

Zenobia
(lived 3rd century) Queen of Palmyra AD 266-272. She assumed the crown as regent for her sons, after the death of her husband Odaenathus, and in 272 was defeated at Emesa (now Homs) by Aurelian and...

Zenta, Battle of
In the Ottoman Wars, Turkish defeat on 11 September 1679 by the Austrians under Prince Eugène of Savoy after which the Turks were finally expelled from Hungary. The battle took place just outside...

Zentrumspartei
German name for the Centre Party 1871-1933. ...

Zephaniah, Benjamin Obadiah Iqbal
(1958) English poet, novelist, performer, and cultural commentator. In 1983 he released his first poetry album, RASTA. Other albums include Free South Africa (1986), Back to Roots (1995), and Belly of De...

Zephyrus
In Greek mythology, the god of the west wind, husband of Iris, and father of the horses of Achilles in Homer's Iliad. He was said to have abducted the Greek maiden Chloris, who began to sprout...

zero-based budgeting
Management technique requiring that no resources for a new period of a programme are approved and/or released unless their justification can be demonstrated against alternative options. ...

Zeroual, Lamine
(1941) Algerian politician and soldier, president 1994-99. He was brought into government in 1993 as defence minister, and the following year became commander-in-chief of the armed forces. Appointed...

Zeus
In Greek mythology, the chief of the Olympian gods (Roman Jupiter). He was...

Zeuxis
(lived 5th century BC) Greek painter. He is said to have excelled in the subtle use of colour and shading, and painted imaginative portraits of such mythical figures as Penelope. His reputed masterpiece was the picture of...

Zeyer, Julius
(1841-1901) Czech poet, novelist, and dramatist. His epic verse includes adaptations of Czech mythology and of the Charlemagne legends. In prose, his masterpiece is the novel Jan Maria Plojhar 1891. Zeyer was...

Zhang Chunqiao
(1917-2005) Chinese communist politician, member of the ultra-leftist Gang of Four. Zhang was elected to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Politburo in 1969,...

Zhao Ziyang
(1919-2005) Chinese politician, prime minister 1980-87 and leader of the Chinese Communist Party 1987-89. His reforms included self-management and incentives for workers and factories. He lost his...

Zhdanov, Andrei Aleksandrovich
(1896-1948) Soviet politician. As Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party from 1934 onwards, he was largely responsible for formulating the ideology of Stalinism. During World War II, he...

Zhelev, Zhelyu
(1935) Bulgarian politician, president 1990-96. In 1989 he became head of the opposition Union Democratic Forces (UDF) coalition. He was a proponent of market-centred economic...

Zheng He
(c.1371-1435) Chinese admiral and emperor during the Ming dynasty. A Muslim court eunuch, he undertook maritime expeditions 1405-33 to India,...

Zhirinovsky, Vladimir
(1946) Russian politician, leader of the far-right Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR) from 1991. His strong, sometimes bizarre views, advocating...

Zhivkov, Todor Hristo
(1911-1998) Bulgarian Communist Party (BCP) leader 1954-89, prime minister 1962-71, and president 1971-89. His period in office was one of caution and conservatism. In 1990 he was charged with...

Zhou dynasty (or Chou dynasty)
Chinese succession of rulers c. 1066-256 BC, during which cities emerged and philosophy flourished. The dynasty was established by the Zhou, a semi-nomadic people from the Wei Valley region,...

Zhou Enlai (or Chou En-lai)
(1898-1976) Chinese communist politician. Zhou, a member of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from the 1920s, was prime minister 1949-76 and foreign minister 1949-58. He was a moderate Maoist and wea ...

Zhu De (or Chu The)
(1886-1976) Chinese communist military leader, `father` and commander of the Chinese Red Army 1931-54. He devised the tactic of mobile guerrilla warfare and organized the Long March to Shaanxi 1934-36....

Zhu Rongji
(1928) Chinese communist politician, vice premier from 1991 and prime minister 1998-2003. He rose to prominence 1988-91 when, as mayor of Shanghai, he promoted market-centred economic reforms and...

Zhukov, Georgi Konstantinovich
(1896-1974) Marshal of the USSR in World War II and minister of defence 1955-57. As chief of staff from 1941, he defended Moscow in 1941, counter-attacked at Stalingrad (now Volgograd) in 1942, organized...

Zhukovski, Vasili Andreevich
(1783-1852) Russian writer and translator. He was the leading poet of pre-Romanticism in Russia, and wrote the ballad Svetlana 1811. Zhukovski was tutor to Tsar Alexander II and often used his influence at...

Zi Xi (or Tz'u-his)
(c. 1834-1908) Empress dowager of China. She was presented as a concubine to the emperor Xianfeng. On his death in 1861 she became regent for her young son Tongzhi (1856-1875) until 1873 and, after his death,...

Zia ul-Haq, Muhammad
(1924-1988) Pakistani general, in power from 1977 until his death, probably an assassination, in an aircraft explosion. He became army chief of staff in 1976, led the military coup aga ...

Zia, Begum Khaleda
(1945) Bangladeshi conservative politician, prime minister 1991-96. As leader of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) from 1984, she successfully oversaw the transition from presidential to democratic...

Ziegfeld, Florenz, Jr
(1867-1932) US theatre manager and producer. Best known as creator of the Ziegfeld Follies in 1907, he was also responsible for many other Broadway productions, staged after 1927 in the Ziegfeld Theatre....

ziggurat
In ancient Babylonia and Assyria, a step pyramid of sun-baked brick faced with glazed bricks or tiles on which stood a shrine. The Tower of Babel as described in the Bible may...

Zimbabwe
Landlocked country in south central Africa, bounded north by Zambia, east by Mozambique, south by South Africa, and west by Botswana. Government Zimbabwe is an independent republic within the...

Zimbabwe
Extensive stone architectural ruins 27 km/17 mi southeast of Victoria in Mashonaland, Zimbabwe. The site was occupied from the 3rd century AD, but the massive stone structures date from the...

Zimmerman, Arthur
(1864-1940) German politician. As foreign secretary, he sent the notorious Zimmermann Telegram to the German minister in Mexico in January 1917. It contained the terms of an alliance between Mexico and Germany,...

Zimmermann Telegram
In World War I, ciphered telegram sent by Alfred Zimmermann, German foreign secretary, discussing alliance against the USA with Mexico. The message was deciphered by British Naval Intelligence and...

Zimmermann, Johann Georg von
(1728-1795) Swiss writer and philosopher. He was the author of ÃÅ`ber die Einsamkeit/On Solitude 1756-85 and Vom Nationalstolz/On National Pride 1758. He was also a successful physician and wrote the medical...

Zinn, Howard
(1922) US historian and social activist. Active in social and political affairs throughout his life and an authority on the history of American civil disobedience, he participated with the Student...

Zinovyev, Alexander Aleksandrovich
(1922-2006) Russian satirical writer and mathematician. His first book Ziyayushchie vysoty/Yawning Heights (1976), a surreal, chaotic narrative, represents a formal negation of...

Ziolkowski, Korczak
(1908-1982) US sculptor. Born in Boston, Massachusetts, he was the assistant to sculptor Gutzon Borglum in the creation of the National Monument at Mount Rushmore. In 1948, Ziolkowski began his own life-work:...

Zion
Jebusite (Amorites of Canaan) stronghold in Jerusalem captured by King David, and the hill on which he built the Temple, symbol of Jerusalem and of Jewish national life. ...

Zion Mule Corps
In World War I, a wholly Jewish unit of the British Army. It served with distinction in Gallipoli 1915, carrying rations and ammunition to the forward troops, and after the evacuation of the...

Zionism
National liberation movement advocating the re-establishment of a Jewish homeland (the Eretz Israel) in Palestine. Here, in the `Promised Land` of the Bible, its adherents called for the...

Zircon
Codename for a British signals-intelligence satellite originally intended to be launched in 1988. The revelation of the existence of the Zircon project (which had been concealed by the...

Ziryab of Abu-al-Hasan Abi ibn-Nafi
Influential cultural aide of the court of Abd-ar-Rahman II, Emir of Córdoba AD 822-852. A man of diverse talents, he was a highly gifted musician, as well as being a geographer, astronomer,...

Zita, St
(1215-1272) Patron saint of domestic servants. Born at Monsagrati, near Lucca, Italy, from the age of 12 until her death she was a maid-servant to a family there, and was renowned for her charity to the poor....

Ziusudra
In Sumerian legend, the hero of the Flood story. There were many versions of the epic in which the legend was handed down; in the Epic of Gilgamesh the hero's name is Utanapishtim. ...

Zoë
(c. 978-1050) Byzantine empress who ruled from 1028 until 1050. She gained the title by marriage to the heir apparent Romanus III Argyrus, but was reputed to have poisoned him (1034) in order to marry her lover...

Zoffany, Johann (or John)
(1733-1810) German portrait painter who worked in London from about 1761. Under the patronage of George III he painted many portraits of the royal family and the English aristocracy, and became a...