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

Afghan Wars
Three wars waged between Britain and Afghanistan to counter the threat to British India from expanding Russian influence in Afghanistan. First Afghan War (1838-42): the British invaded Afghanistan...

Afghanistan
Mountainous, landlocked country in south-central Asia, bounded north by Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan, west by Iran, and south and east by Pakistan, India, and China. Government Under...

Afghanistan War
US-led military action against Afghanistan beginning 7 October 2001. This first strike in the war on terror followed the refusal of the Taliban regime to surrender Saudi-born terrorist Osama AFL-CIO
Abbreviation for American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations. ...

Afonso I
(1094-1185) King of Portugal from 1112. He made Portugal independent from León. ...

Afonso II
(1185-1223) King of Portugal 1211-23. He is noted chiefly for his endeavours to weaken the power of the clergy, in the course of which he was excommunicated, and for his code of law. ...

Afonso III
(1210-1279) King of Portugal 1248-79. His reign witnessed a notable increase in the effectiveness of royal administration, and was marked by frequent clashes with the church. ...

Afonso IV
(1291-1357) King of Portugal 1325-57. Wars with Castile and the Moors occupied most of his reign. Civil war broke out between him and his son, Pedro, as a result of the mur ...

Afonso V
(1432-1481) King of Portugal 1438-81. His father died in 1438 and, after a turbulent regency under his uncle Pedro, Afonso assumed the government in 1448. He conducted a successful campaign in Morocco against...

Afonso VI
(1643-1683) King of Portugal 1656-67, son of John IV. He was forced, on account of his alleged impotence, to abdicate 1667. He retired to Terceira where he died. ...

Africa, the scramble for
Drive by European nations to establish colonies in Africa. It began in the 1880s, and by 1914 only two African countries remained completely independent. They were Ethiopia, which had been a kingdom...

African
People who are native to or inhabitants of the continent of Africa, especially of sub-Saharan Africa. The region is culturally heterogeneous with numerous distinctive ethnic and sociolinguistic...

African art
Art of black African origin, in particular the sculpture and carving of the sub-Saharan domain, from prehistory to the art of ancient civilizations and post-imperialist Africa. Covering a vast...

African Development Bank
Organization founded 1963 to promote and finance economic development across the African continent. Its members include 51 African and 25 non-African countries. Its headquarters are in Abidja'n,...

African history
Africa is probably the continent in which humans originated (see human species, origins of). Classical connections One of...

African literature
African literature was mainly oral until the 20th century and oral traditions of proverbs, mythological narratives, and poetry persist and influence contemporary writing. There exists a wide variety...

African National Congress
South African political party, founded in 1912 as a multiracial nationalist organization with the aim of extending the franchise to the whole population and ending all racial discrimination. Its...

African nationalism
Political movement for the unification of Africa (Pan-Africanism) and for national self-determination. Early African political organizations included...

Afrifa, Okatakyie Akwasi Amankwa
(1936-1979) Ghanaian army officer, former head of state (from April to September 1969), and a principal leader of the coup of 1966 that overthrew Kwame Nkrumah. In 1969 he became chair of the National...

Afrika Korps
German army in the western desert of North Africa 1941-43 during World War II, commanded by Field Marshal Erwin Rommel. They were driven out of North Africa by May 1943. The Korps was formed as...

Afrikaner
Inhabitant of South Africa descended from the original Dutch, Flemish, and Huguenot settlers of the 17th century. Comprising approximately 60% of the white population in South Africa, Afrikaners...

Afro-Caribbean
West Indian people of African descent. Afro-Caribbeans are the descendants of West Africans captured or obtained in trade from African procurers. European slave traders then shipped them to the...

afterlife
Belief that life does not end with death but continues in some other form or in some other place, granting some form of immortality. Belief in an afterlife of some kind is a hallmark of all...

Afwerki, Issaias
(1945) Eritrean soldier and politician, president 1993-â€Æ`. He was appointed head of Eritrea's provisional government in 1991, after Ethiopian president Mengistu was overthrown, and was then elected...

aga
Title of nobility, applied by the Turks to military commanders and, in general, to men of high station in some Muslim countries. It is possibly of Tatar derivation. ...

Aga Khan IV, (Karim)
(1936) Spiritual head (imam) of the `Ismaili` Muslim sect (see Islam). He succeeded his grandfather in 1957. ...

Agadir Incident
International crisis provoked by Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany, July-November 1911. By sending the gunboat Panther to demand territorial concessions from...

Agamemnon
In Greek mythology, a Greek hero of the Trojan wars, son of Atreus, king of Mycenae, and brother of Menelaus. He sacrificed his daughter Iphigenia in order to secure favourable winds for the Greek...

Agasias
(lived 1st century BC) Two Greek sculptors of Ephesus. (1) Son of Dositheus. He signed the Borghese Warrior, now in the Louvre, a sculpture of two warriors in combat, one on foot and one on horseback; it was discovered at...

Agate, James (Evershed)
(1877-1947) English essayist and theatre critic. His reviews, many of which were published, were noted for their wit, clarity, and seriousness. He wrote Ego, a diary in nine volumes published 1935-49. Born in...

Agatha, St
(lived 3rd century AD) Patron saint of Catania, Sicily. According to legend she was a member of the Sicilian nobility who refused the attentions of the Roman prefect. She was sentenced to be burnt alive, but when the...

Agee, James (Rufus)
(1909-1955) US journalist, screenwriter, and author. He rose to national prominence as a result of his investigation of the plight of sharecroppers in the South during the Depression. In collaboration with the...

ageism
Prejudice against people because of their age. Ageism often takes the form of discrimination against older job applicants. In contrast to discrimination on the basis of gender, race, or disability,...

Agent Orange
Selective weedkiller, notorious for its use by US forces during the Vietnam War to eliminate ground cover that could protect enemy forces. It was subsequently discovered to...

aggregate demand
The total demand for goods and services in the economy. When aggregate demand or spending falls over a period of one to two years, the economy tends to go into recession, while a rise in aggregate...

aggression
In politics, an unprovoked attack often involving an escalating series of threats aimed at intimidating an opponent. The actions of Nazi Germany under Adolf Hitler in the 1930s, leading to World War...

Agheila, El
Small Libyan town on the south coast of the Gulf of Sidra, south of Benghazi. A thin strip of firm ground between the sea and extensive salt marshes, it forms a natural bottleneck and so during the...

Agincourt, Battle of
Battle fought on 25 October 1415 at Agincourt during the Hundred Years' War, between Henry V of England and a much larger force of French under a divided command. Henry completely defeated the...

Aglaia
One of the three Graces of classical mythology. ...

AGM
Abbreviation for annual general meeting. ...

Agnes, St
Christian martyr in the reign of the Roman emperor Diocletian. According to legend, at the age of 12 she was publicly humiliated and martyred in Rome for refusing the praetor's heathen son. Her...

Agnew, Spiro (Theodore)
(1918-1996) US vice-president 1969-73, a Republican. He was governor of Maryland 1966-69, and vice-president under Richard Nixon. Agnew took the lead in a campaign against the press and opponents of the...

Agni
In Hindu mythology, the god of fire, the guardian of homes, and the protector of humans against evil. ...

Agnon, Shmuel Yosef
(1888-1970) Israeli novelist. Born in Buczacz, Galicia (now part of western Ukraine), he made it the setting of his most celebrated work, Tmol Shilshom/A Guest for...

agnosticism
Belief that the existence of God cannot be proven; that in the nature of things the individual cannot know anything of what lies behind or beyond the world of natural phenomena. The term was co ...

agora
In an ancient Greek town, the public meeting place and market, equivalent to the Roman forum. The limits were marked with boundary stones, and trade there was regulated. The Agora at Athens...

Agostino Veneziano
(c. 1490-c. 1536) Venetian engraver. He was active mainly in Rome, and by engraving paintings by well-known artists helped disseminate Italian Renaissance themes and motifs throughout Europe. Originally active in...

agrarian revolution
Until the 1960s historians believed that there had been an 18th-century revolution in agriculture, similar to the revolution that occurred in industry. They claimed that there had been sweeping...

Agricola, Gnaeus Julius
(40-93) Roman general and politician. Born at Forum Julii (Fréjus) in Provence, he became consul in 77, and then governor of Britain 78-85. He extended Roman rule to the Firth of Forth in Scotland and in...

agricultural revolution
See agrarian revolution. ...

agriculture, 19th-century British
After a period of depression following the Napoleonic Wars, agriculture developed rapidly during the 19th century. The landed interests countered the post-war slump in agriculture with protective...

agriculture, medieval
In the Middle Ages, the open-field system system of communal farming was prevalent in England during the Saxon period and under the feudal system of landholding which became dominant after the...

Agrippa, Marcus Vipsanius
(c. 63-12 BC) Roman general and admiral. He was instrumental in the successful campaigns and rise to power of the emperor Augustus. He commanded the victorious fleet at the Battle of Actium and married Augustus'...

Aguinaldo, Emilio
(1869-1964) Filipino revolutionary leader. He became a militant nationalist on Luzon island during the 1890s and led a year-long insurrection against the Philippines' Spanish colonial rulers in 1896, which...

Aguiyi-Ironsi, Johnson
(1925-1966) Nigerian politician and soldier, head of state in 1966. He commanded the Nigerian contingent during the UN involvement in the Congo from 1960, and was appointed commander-in-chief in 1965. He...

AH
In the Muslim calendar, abbreviation for anno hegirae. ...

Ahab
(c. 875-854 BC) King of Israel. His empire included the suzerainty of Moab, and Judah was his subordinate ally, but his kingdom was weakened by constant wars with Syria. By his marriage with Jezebel, Princess of...

Ahasuerus
Name of several Persian kings in the Bible, notably the husband of Esther. Traditionally it was also the name of the Wandering Jew. ...

Ahern, Bertie Patrick Bartholemew
(1951) Irish politician, Taoiseach (prime minister) from 1997, leader of Fianna Fáil from 1994. After the May 1997 election he formed a minority coalition government with the Progressive Democrats as...

Aherne, Caroline
(1963) English comedian, writer, and actor. She co-wrote and acted in both The Mrs Merton Show (1995), a chat show in which she plays a pensioner who excels in insulting her guests, and the resulting...

Ahidjo, Ahmadou
(1924-1989) Cameroonian politician, president 1960-82. He became president following the amalgamation of most of the British Cameroons with the French Cameroons in 1960, and was re-elected to that post in...

ahimsa
In Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism, the doctrine of respect for all life (including the lowest forms and even the elements themselves) and consequently an extreme form of nonviolence. It arises in...

Ahlberg, Allan
(1938) English writer of numerous children's books, many of which were illustrated by his wife, Janet, who died in 1994. Having trained as a teacher, Ahlberg's work takes advantage of his knowledge of...

Ahmad Shah Durrani
(1724-1773) Founder and first ruler of Afghanistan. Elected shah in 1745, he had conquered the Punjab by 1751 and defeated the Maratha people's confederacy at Panipat, Punjab, in 1761. ...

Ahmadiyya
Islamic religious movement founded by Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (1835-1908). His followers reject the doctrine that Muhammad was the last of the prophets and accept Ahmad's claim to be the Mahdi and...

Ahoms
People who first named the province of Assam, northeast India, ruling from the 13th century until the Burmese invaded at the end of the 18th century. ...

Ahriman
In Zoroastrianism, the supreme evil spirit, lord of the darkness and death, waging war with his counterpart Ahura Mazda (Ormuzd) until a time when human beings choose to lead good lives and Ahriman...

Ahtisaari, Maarti
(1939) Finnish diplomat and politician, president 1994-2000. Prior to being chosen as the Social Democratic Party presidential candidate, he was undersecretary general of the Un ...

Ahura Mazda
In Zoroastrianism, the spirit of supreme good. As god of life and light he will finally prevail over his enemy, Ahriman. ...

aid
Financial or other assistance given or lent, on favourable terms, by richer, usually industrialized, countries to war-damaged or developing states. It may be given for political, commercial, or...

Aidan, St
(c. 600-651) Irish monk who converted Northumbria to Christianity and founded Lindisfarne monastery on Holy Island off the northeast coast of England. His feast day is 31 August. ...

aide-de-camp
Officer who acts as private secretary to a general, commander in chief, or air marshal, and would normally accompany them on any duty. Aides-de-camp are principally concerned with the...

Aidid, Muhammad Farah
(1936-1996) Somali soldier and politician. A one-time colleague of the Somali president Siad Barre, in 1990 he established an anti-Barre paramilitary organization, the United Somali Congress (USC), which...

Aidit, D N
(1923-1965) Indonesian politician, leader of the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) 1951-65. Under Aidit's leadership the PKI became one of the largest political parties in Indonesia. With an estimated 20...

Aidoo, Ama Ata
(1940) Ghanaian dramatist and writer. She writes in English about the challenges of modern women in traditional African cultures. Dilemma of a Ghost (1965), her best-known play, deals with the...

Aigun, Treaty of
Treaty between Russia and China signed in 1858 at the port of Aigun in China on the Amur River. The left bank was ceded to Russia, but this has since been repudiated by China. ...

Aiken, Conrad Potter
(1889-1973) US poet, novelist, and short-story writer. His Selected Poems (1929) won a Pulitzer Prize. His works were influenced by early psychoanalytic theory and the use of the stream-of-consciousness...

Aiken, Joan (Delano)
(1924) English novelist and writer of critically acclaimed historical and mystery books for children including The Wolves of Willoughby Chase (1962) and The Jewel Seed (1997). Her first publication was a...

Ailly, Pierre d'
(1350-1420) French geographer and theologian. As a cardinal he became involved in the Great Schism, arguing for the supremacy...

Ainsworth, William Harrison
(1805-1882) English historical novelist. He wrote more than 40 novels and helped popularize the legends of Dick Turpin in Rookwood (1834) and Herne the Hunter in Windsor Castle (1843). Ainsworth was born in...

Ainu
Aboriginal people of Japan, driven north in the 4th century AD by ancestors of the Japanese. They now number about 25,000, inhabiting Japanese and Russian territory on Sakhalin, Hokkaido, and the...

air force
A nation's fleet of fighting aircraft and the organization that maintains them. History The emergence of the aeroplane at first brought only limited recognition of its potential value as a means of...

air raid
Aerial attack, usually on a civilian target such as a factory, railway line, or communications centre (see also bomb). Air raids began during World War I with the advent of military aviation, but it...

airbrush
Small fine spray-gun used by artists, graphic designers, and photographic retouchers. Driven by air pressure from a compressor or pressurized can, it can apply a thin, very even layer of ink or...

aircraft carrier
Ocean-going naval vessel with a broad, flat-topped deck for launching and landing military aircraft; a floating military base for warplanes too far from home for refuelling, repairing,...

Airy, Anna
(1882-1964) English artist, etcher, and writer. London's riverside criminal haunts were the main source of her inspiration, recurrent themes being cockfighting, gambling, and boxing. Her paintings of munitions...

aisle
In church architecture, usually the areas running parallel to the nave, lying between it and the outer walls. In larger churches, the choir and transepts may be aisled; double aisles running between...

Aisne, Battles of
Three battles between Allied and German forces in northern France during World War I. The first battle in September 1914 was inconclusive and left both sides entrenched along lines they held for...

Ait Ahmed, Hocine
(1926) Algerian nationalist and politician. He was a member of the Front de Libération Nationale (FLN) and the Conseil National de la Révolution Algérienne (CNRA) during the liberation war. Arrested in...

Aitken, Jonathan (William Patrick)
(1942) British Conservative politician who was at the centre of a number of political scandals and in June 1999 became the only former member of Parliament in the 20th century to be jailed, for perjury and...

Aitmatov, Chingiz
(1928) Kirghiz novelist. His work, drawing on oral epic tradition (the Kirghiz language had no alphabet until 1928), dramatizes the conflict between the tribal customs of the Kirghiz nomads and the Western...

Ajanta
Village in Maharashtra state, India, known for its Buddhist cave temples dating from 200 BC to the 7th century AD. The Ajanta Caves boast some 28 chambers cut from solid granite, which are covered...

Ajax
Greek hero in Homer's Iliad. Son of Telamon, King of Salamis, he was second only to Achilles among the Greek heroes in the Trojan War. He fought Hector single-handed, defended the ships, and...

Akaka, Daniel Kahikina
(1924) US Democratic politician, senator for Hawaii from 1990. He was elected to the US House of Representatives, as a Democrat for Hawaii, in 1976 and became senator for Hawaii in 1990. He was the first...

Akal Takht
Site of Sikh pilgrimage at Amritsar, Punjab, India. It is one of the five takhts (eternal thrones) of Sikhism. The foundations of this site were laid by the sixth Sikh guru, Guru Hargobind, and...

Akayev, Askar
(1944) Kyrgyz politician, president from 1990. A reform-communist politician, he joined the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) in 1981 and became executive president in Kyrgyzstan in November...

Akbar-nama
Book of miniatures (Victoria and Albert Museum, London) painted by Basawan and Chatai about 1595 for ...

Akbar, Jalal ud-Din Muhammad
(1542-1605) Third Mogul emperor of North India from 1556, when he succeeded his father Humayun. He gradually established his rule throughout North India. He is considered...

Akhand Path
In Sikh worship, the continuous reading of the Guru Granth Sahib (holy book), from beginning to end. It usually lasts for 48 hours. People may take turns reading in relays, or provide food for the...

Akhenaton (or Ikhnaton)
King (pharaoh) of ancient Egypt of the 18th dynasty (c. 1353-1335 BC), who may have ruled jointly for a time with his father Amenhotep III. He developed the cult of the Sun, Aton, rather than the...