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democracy

(Encyclopedia)democracy [Gr.,=rule of the people], term originating in ancient Greece to designate a government where the people share in directing the activities of the state, as distinct from governments controll...

Preemption Act

(Encyclopedia)Preemption Act, statute passed (1841) by the U.S. Congress in response to the demands of the Western states that squatters be allowed to preempt lands. Pioneers often settled on public lands before th...

Cameroon, country

(Encyclopedia) CE5 Cameroon kămˌəro͞onˈ [key], Fr. Cameroun, officially Republic of Cameroon, republ...

Peter II, king of Yugoslovia

(Encyclopedia)Peter II, 1923–70, king of Yugoslavia (1934–45). He succeeded under the regency of his cousin, Prince Paul, when his father, King Alexander, was assassinated in Marseilles. In World War II, when P...

Latvia

(Encyclopedia) CE5 Latvia lătˈvēə [key], Latvian Latvija, officially Republic of Latvia, republic (2015 est. pop. 1,993,000), 24,590 sq mi (63,688 sq km), north central Europe. It borders on Estonia in the no...

Guyana

(Encyclopedia) CE5 Guyana gīănˈə, –änˈ– [key], officially Co-operative Republic of Guyana, republic (2015 est. pop. 769,000), 83,000 sq mi (214,969 sq km), NE South America. It is bordered on the N by t...

Las Casas, Bartolomé de

(Encyclopedia)Las Casas, Bartolomé de bärtōlōmāˈ dā läs käˈsäs [key], 1474–1566, Spanish missionary and historian, called the apostle of the Indies. He went to Hispaniola with his father in 1502, and e...

Yukon, territory, Canada

(Encyclopedia) CE5 Yukon, territory (2001 pop. 28,674), 207,076 sq mi (536,327 sq km), NW Canada. The territory's history began with the explorations in the 1840s of Robert Campbell and John Bell, fur traders f...

Kiowa

(Encyclopedia)Kiowa kīˈəwə [key], Native North Americans whose language is thought to form a branch of the Aztec-Tanoan linguistic stock (see Native American languages). The Kiowa, a nomadic people of the Plain...

Hsia

(Encyclopedia)Hsia shēä [key], semilegendary first dynasty of China, which ruled, according to traditional dates, from c.2205 b.c. to c.1766 b.c. or, according to some modern scholars, from c.1994 b.c. to c.1523 ...
 

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