229 résultats pour "beginning"
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Ottoman Empire - history.
Süleyman ISüleyman I, the sultan of the Ottoman Empire during its zenith, became known in the western world as Süleyman the Magnificent. Hewas known among his own people as the Lawgiver because he revised the legal system of the empire. Süleyman had several sons,two of whom he executed after quarreling with them.Culver Pictures Bayazid died in captivity, a suicide according to some accounts, and a struggle for succession to the sultanate broke out among his sons. Muhammad I (reigned 1413-1421)ev...
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Odyssey
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INTRODUCTION
Odyssey, ancient Greek epic poem in 24 books attributed to the poet Homer.
Ulysses in the Cave of PolyphemusOn their return from the Trojan War, Odysseus (also known as Ulysses) and his men are taken prisoner by the one-eyedgiant Polyphemus, who is gradually eating them. After blinding Polyphemus, the remaining men escape by holding on tothe belly of the giant’s sheep. Knowing that the Greeks will try to escape, Polyphemus touches each sheep as it leaves thecave but fails to check underneath. This painting by 17th-century Flemish artist Jacob Jordaens is in the Pushkin...
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Genghis Khan
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INTRODUCTION
Genghis Khan (1167?
died in August 1227, in his summer quarters in the district of Qingshui south of the Liupan Shan (Liupan Mountains) in Gansu, China. IV THE MONGOL FORCES Genghis Khan unleashed a seemingly invincible military force. Although usually outnumbered, his forces prevailed on the battlefield through absolute discipline, a well-understood chain of command, superior mobility, and innovative military tactics. The Mongol forces were organized into several formations of 10,000 horse-mounted soldiers, the...
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Genghis Khan.
died in August 1227, in his summer quarters in the district of Qingshui south of the Liupan Shan (Liupan Mountains) in Gansu, China. IV THE MONGOL FORCES Genghis Khan unleashed a seemingly invincible military force. Although usually outnumbered, his forces prevailed on the battlefield through absolute discipline, a well-understood chain of command, superior mobility, and innovative military tactics. The Mongol forces were organized into several formations of 10,000 horse-mounted soldiers, the...
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Genghis Khan - History.
died in August 1227, in his summer quarters in the district of Qingshui south of the Liupan Shan (Liupan Mountains) in Gansu, China. IV THE MONGOL FORCES Genghis Khan unleashed a seemingly invincible military force. Although usually outnumbered, his forces prevailed on the battlefield through absolute discipline, a well-understood chain of command, superior mobility, and innovative military tactics. The Mongol forces were organized into several formations of 10,000 horse-mounted soldiers, the...
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Ice Ages.
B Future Ice Ages The record of previous glacial activity is the best indicator for future ice ages. Scientists examine the evidence for the numerous 100,000-year glacial-interglacial cycleswithin the present ice age to attempt a forecast of future ice ages. Since all previous ice ages lasted tens of millions of years, our present ice age will likely continue fora considerable amount of time. Each glaciation begins slowly and may take 80,000 years or more to reach its maximum extent. A rapid me...
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Portland - geography.
Garden arena, which opened in 1995. In 2000 the Portland Fire, an expansion Women's National Basketball Association team, began play in the Rose Garden as well. VI ECONOMY Portland enjoys a diversified economy. Major manufactured products include paper, transportation equipment, metal products, sportswear, and electronic componentsand equipment. Major corporations headquartered in the metropolitan region include Nike, a leader in the manufacture of sports footwear, in Beaverton; Louisiana-Paci...
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Frank Lloyd Wright
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INTRODUCTION
Robie House
The Frederick C.
Hills/DeCaro HouseAmerican architect Frank Lloyd Wright, a pioneer of modern architecture, lived and worked in the Chicago area during thelate 19th and early 20th centuries. He designed many single-family houses, known as prairie houses. The Hills/DeCarohouse in Oak Park, west of Chicago, is one of more than 20 houses Wright designed while living in the town between 1890and 1910.© 2007 Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / Photo: Mary Ann Hemphill/Photo Researc...
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Modern Dance
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INTRODUCTION
Modern Dance, tradition of theatrical dance unique to the 20th century.
Though both had their own interests and styles, their collaboration helped establish modern dance as a 20th-century artform. Shawn helped overcome prejudices against men in the new field of modern dance.E.O. Hoppé/Corbis Because a dance language involves elements such as posture, use of the body’s weight, and the character of movements (sinuous, angular, and so forth)—as well asspecific movements of the head, torso, hands, arms, legs, and feet—most creators of modern dance have considered it ess...
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Djibouti (country) - country.
l’Unité et de la Démocratie (FRUD; Front for the Renewal of Unity and Democracy) represents the Afar minority. The Parti National Démocratique (PND; Democratic National Party) and the Parti du Renouveau Démocratique (PRD; Democratic Renewal Party) are both small opposition parties favoring democratic reforms. VI HISTORY Djibouti lies at a major global crossroads where, some 100,000 years ago, early humans migrated from Africa to the Middle East. Livestock herding, which remainsimportant...
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?stanbul - geography.
İstanbul hosts a number of annual cultural events. The İstanbul Cultural Festival, held in the summer, offers music and dance performances in more than 50 venuesthroughout the city, including outdoors at Rumelihisar ı. The city also hosts a summer jazz festival. Turkey is one of the world’s largest producers of motion pictures, anda highly regarded international film festival takes place in İstanbul during the early months of the year. V RECREATION With increasing modernization, recreation is...
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Badminton.
Once play has started, players tend to hit straight, low-flying shots called drives. When the shuttle remains close to the center of the court, net shots can be a goodoption. Net shots can be hard-hit or delicate. They are aimed at the front area of the opponent’s court, forcing the opponent to play the shot close to the net. If the opponent manages to return a net shot, the return must be hit high to clear the net. This gives the player a chance for a smash—the deadliest attacking stroke inbadm...
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God.
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INTRODUCTION
God, the center and focus of religious faith, a holy
C Islam Islam arose as a powerful reaction against the ancient pagan cults of Arabia, and as a consequence it is the most starkly monotheistic of the three biblically rootedreligions. The name Allah means simply “the God.” He is personal, transcendent, and unique, and Muslims are forbidden to depict him in any creaturely form. The primary creed is that “There is no god but Allah, and Muhammad is the apostle of Allah.” Allah has seven basic attributes: life, knowledge, power, will, hearing, se...
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Ancient Egypt.
around 4500 BC. The style and decoration of the pottery found at these sites differ from those of pottery found in Upper Egypt. The northern type eventually fell out of use. Other differences between the peoples in Upper Egypt and Lower Egypt include the nature of their architecture and the arrangements for burial of the dead, thelatter perhaps signifying differing religious beliefs. B Unification and Early Dynastic Period By 3500 BC, the settlement of Hierakonpolis, located on the west bank...
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Coins and Coin Collecting.
U.S. coins dates from 1909, when the first Lincoln Cents appeared during the centennial of Abraham Lincoln’s birth. George Washington’s profile was used on thequarter-dollar of 1932, a coin originally intended as a one-year commemorative to honor the 200th anniversary of his birth. The design quickly became so popular thatit was retained for regular-issue quarters and is still being used today. Thomas Jefferson, Franklin D. Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, and Dwight D. Eisenhower are theother Americ...
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Jamaica - country.
majority, the Church of God, Baptists, Anglicans, Seventh-day Adventists, Pentecostalists, and Roman Catholics predominate. Several well-established Jewish, Muslim,and Hindu communities exist. A number of popular sects, such as Pocomania and Rastafarianism, are a significant and famous feature of the national religious life. C Education School attendance by children between the ages of 6 and 11 is nearly universal, and 84 percent of all 12- to 18-year-olds attend secondary institutions. In 2000...
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Indian Art and Architecture
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INTRODUCTION
Art on the Indian Subcontinent
This map highlights places in India and Pakistan where prominent examples of Indian art and architecture have been
produced.
Sun Temple of KonarakThis 13th-century relief depicting a wheel of the chariot of Indian sun god Surya is situated in the Konarak temple. Thetemple, dedicated to Surya, is situated at Puri in the Gulf of Bengal.Keren Su/Corbis The arts of India expressed in architecture, sculpture, painting, jewelry, pottery, metalwork, and textiles, were spread throughout the Far East with the diffusion ofBuddhism and Hinduism and exercised a strong influence on the arts of China, Japan, Myanmar (formerly known...
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Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
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INTRODUCTION
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, an 18th-century Austrian classical composer and one of the most famous musicians of all time,
came from a family of musicians that included his father and sister.
The opera, Mitridati, rè di Ponto (Mithridates, King of Pontus), was produced in 1770 in Milan under Mozart’s direction with success. Also that year the pope made Mozart a knight of the Order of the Golden Spur. A Salzburg and Germany From 1775 to 1780 Mozart was based mainly in Salzburg working for the archbishop Hieronymous von Colloredo. Although dissatisfied with the low pay and limitedopportunities his employment offered, Mozart composed many works during this period, including his first...
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Warfare.
organizations as the League of Nations in 1920 and the United Nations in 1945, and détente (suggested for scaling down the cold war). See Arms Control. Modern antiwar sentiment and organized peace movements are derived in large part from the beliefs of religious sects such as the Society of Friends and the MennoniteChurch. The first peace societies in history were established in the U.S. in 1815, and since then pacifists have actively opposed wars and conscription, and promoted thecause of con...
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Louis XIV
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INTRODUCTION
Louis XIV (1638-1715), king of France (1643-1715), known as the Sun King.
he could defend against attack from his enemies. In the first instance, Louis worked to tighten central control over the array of departments, regions, and duchies that together made up France. To this end, he revivedthe use of regional intendants, officials who were sent to the provinces with instructions to establish order and effective royal justice. Although agents of the centralgovernment, intendants worked closely with the local nobility and legal institutions to establish efficient admini...
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Louis XIV.
he could defend against attack from his enemies. In the first instance, Louis worked to tighten central control over the array of departments, regions, and duchies that together made up France. To this end, he revivedthe use of regional intendants, officials who were sent to the provinces with instructions to establish order and effective royal justice. Although agents of the centralgovernment, intendants worked closely with the local nobility and legal institutions to establish efficient admini...
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Michelangelo
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INTRODUCTION
Michelangelo (1475-1564), Italian painter, sculptor, architect, and poet whose artistic accomplishments exerted a tremendous influence on his contemporaries and on
subsequent European art.
(17 ft) tall, was carved from a block of stone that another sculptor had left unfinished. Michelangelo drew on the classical tradition in depicting David as a nude,standing with his weight on one leg, the other leg at rest ( see contrapposto). This pose suggests impending movement, and the entire sculpture shows tense waiting, as David sizes up his enemy and considers his course of action. While David reveals Michelangelo's expert knowledge of anatomy (he had been dissecting corpses for about...
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Michelangelo.
(17 ft) tall, was carved from a block of stone that another sculptor had left unfinished. Michelangelo drew on the classical tradition in depicting David as a nude,standing with his weight on one leg, the other leg at rest ( see contrapposto). This pose suggests impending movement, and the entire sculpture shows tense waiting, as David sizes up his enemy and considers his course of action. While David reveals Michelangelo's expert knowledge of anatomy (he had been dissecting corpses for about...
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Native American Literature.
Many Native American writers of the 19th century wrote histories of their tribes. One tribal historian was David Cusick (Tuscarora), whose Sketches of Ancient History of the Six Nations (1827) was the first published tribal history. Tribal histories explained the deep ties that tribes had to their ancestral homelands. Beginning in the 18th century, these ties took on special meaning because the United States government began removing Native Americans from their traditional lands. These removal...
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Chicago (city, Illinois) - geography.
VI EDUCATIONAL AND CULTURAL INSTITUTIONS Chicago has one of the largest public school systems in the United States. The Chicago Board of Education administers the system in a centralized fashion; in recentyears it has been experimenting with local school councils as a means of partial devolution of authority. These councils, established in 1989, have authority in severalareas, including the ability to approve budgets and curriculum. In addition, Chicago has many private schools, including larg...
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Pablo Picasso.
Color juxtapositions—between blue and orange, for instance—are intentionally strident and unharmonious. The representation of space is fragmented and discontinuous. While the left side of the canvas is largely Iberian-influenced, the right side is inspired by African masks, especially in its striped patterns and oval forms. Suchborrowings, which led to great simplification, distortion, and visual incongruities, were considered extremely daring in 1907. The head of the figure at the bottom right,...
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Chess.
There are two standard methods of recording chess moves: the algebraic system and the descriptive system. In both systems, the pieces are designated by capitalinitials: K for king, Q for queen, R for rook, B for bishop, and N for knight. The initial P for pawn is used in the descriptive system only. Castling is noted as either 0-0(“short” castling on the king’s side) or 0-0-0 (“long” castling on the queen’s side). Each square is part of both a file and a rank, and in the algebraic system, that u...
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Kyrgyzstan - country.
are Bishkek, the capital, located on the Chu River in the far north; and Osh, located in the Fergana Valley. A Ethnic Groups Ethnic Kyrgyz make up about 65 percent of the population of Kyrgyzstan. Uzbeks, who live primarily in the Fergana Valley, constitute about 14 percent of thepopulation. Russians, who live principally in Bishkek and other industrial centers, make up about 13 percent of the population. Other ethnic groups include Hui (ChineseMuslims, also known as Dungans), Ukrainians, Uygur...
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Vladimir Lenin
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INTRODUCTION
Vladimir Lenin (1870-1924), Russian revolutionary leader and theorist, who presided over the first government of Soviet Russia and then that of the Union of Soviet
Socialist Republics (USSR).
with Japan ( see Russo-Japanese War). A string of military defeats and the strains placed on society by the war made for a tense atmosphere in Saint Petersburg, and by the beginning of 1905 various segments of Russian society, including students and liberal members of the nobility, were calling for political reform. When an unarmedcrowd of workers marched to the city’s Winter Palace on January 9 (or January 22, in the Western, or New Style, calendar) to submit a petition to Emperor Nicholas II,s...
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Vladimir Lenin.
with Japan ( see Russo-Japanese War). A string of military defeats and the strains placed on society by the war made for a tense atmosphere in Saint Petersburg, and by the beginning of 1905 various segments of Russian society, including students and liberal members of the nobility, were calling for political reform. When an unarmedcrowd of workers marched to the city’s Winter Palace on January 9 (or January 22, in the Western, or New Style, calendar) to submit a petition to Emperor Nicholas II,s...
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Vladimir Lenin .
with Japan ( see Russo-Japanese War). A string of military defeats and the strains placed on society by the war made for a tense atmosphere in Saint Petersburg, and by the beginning of 1905 various segments of Russian society, including students and liberal members of the nobility, were calling for political reform. When an unarmedcrowd of workers marched to the city’s Winter Palace on January 9 (or January 22, in the Western, or New Style, calendar) to submit a petition to Emperor Nicholas II,s...
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Popular Music
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INTRODUCTION
Satchmo Sings "Back O' Town Blues"
One of the founders of instrumental jazz music, American Louis Armstrong, known as Satchmo, also profoundly influenced
vocal jazz and popular song.
disseminating popular music until the 1920s remained printed sheet music. By the late 19th century, the music-publishing business was centralized in New York City,particularly in an area of lower Manhattan called Tin Pan Alley. “After the Ball” (1892) by Charles K. Harris, the first popular song to sell 1 million copies—in this case, ofsheet music—inspired rapid growth in the music-publishing industry. Composers were hired to rapidly produce popular songs by the dozens, and the techniques ofFost...
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Ballet
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INTRODUCTION
Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker
The Nutcracker is a classic ballet with music by Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky.
Joffrey Ballet SchoolTraining for classical ballet dancers must begin when the students are very young. Here, teacher Dorothy Lister workswith her pre-ballet class of six-year-olds at the Joffrey Ballet School. These students are learning the five basic positions ofclassical ballet.Susan Kunklin/Photo Researchers, Inc. Different systems of ballet training have evolved, named after countries (Russia, France) or teachers (Italian dancer Enrico Cecchetti, Danish choreographer AugustBournonville). T...
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Crusades.
modern Lebanon; the Principality of Antioch, in modern Syria; and the County of Edessa, in modern northern Syria and southern Turkey. IV CRUSADES OF THE 12TH CENTURY The Crusades of the 12th century, through the end of the Third Crusade in 1192, illustrate the tensions and problems that plagued the enterprise as a whole. For thelords of Outremer a compromise with the residents and Muslim powers made sense; they could not live in constant warfare. And yet as European transplants theydepended on...
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Crusades .
modern Lebanon; the Principality of Antioch, in modern Syria; and the County of Edessa, in modern northern Syria and southern Turkey. IV CRUSADES OF THE 12TH CENTURY The Crusades of the 12th century, through the end of the Third Crusade in 1192, illustrate the tensions and problems that plagued the enterprise as a whole. For thelords of Outremer a compromise with the residents and Muslim powers made sense; they could not live in constant warfare. And yet as European transplants theydepended on...
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Serbia - country.
Minority groups speak their own languages, such as Albanian and Hungarian. Bosniaks generally speak Bosnian and write it with the Latin alphabet. Serbs are by tradition Orthodox Christians. The Roman Catholic and Protestant churches also have adherents in Serbia. Most of the ethnic Albanians of Kosovo areSunni Muslims ( see Sunni Islam), as are the Bosniaks of the Sandžak region. Bosniaks are descendants of Slavs who converted to Islam in the 15th and 16th centuries. B Education The leading in...
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Latvia - country.
The population of Latvia is about 2,245,423 (2008 estimate), yielding an average population density of 35 persons per sq km (91 per sq mi). Latvia is highly urbanized.Some 66 percent of the population lives in urban areas, with nearly one-third of the total population residing in the capital, Rīga. Other important cities includeDaugavpils, an industrial center in the southeast, on the Daugava River; Liep āja, an important port on the Baltic Sea; Jelgava, an industrial center near Rîga; J ūrmala,...
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Egyptian Art and Architecture - USA History.
The kings of the 1st Dynasty (2920 BC-2770 BC) were buried in the cemetery of their ancestors at Abydos in southern Egypt. Their burial sites were built of mud brick (bricks baked in the sun) and consisted of two parts: a tomb in the desert where the king was buried, and a rectangular funerary enclosure at the desert's edge, whererituals were performed. A pair of stone slabs called stelae marked the tombs and bore the name of the royal occupant. In the 2nd Dynasty (2770 BC-2649 BC), most r...
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Kazakhstan - country.
mismanagement. Between 1949 and 1991 the Soviet government conducted about 70 percent of all of its nuclear testing in Kazakhstan, mostly in the northeastern area near the city ofSemipalatinsk (now Semey). Nearly 500 nuclear explosions occurred both above and below ground near Semipalatinsk, while more than 40 nuclear detonationsoccurred at other testing grounds in western Kazakhstan and in the Qyzylqum desert. More than 1 million of Kazakhstan’s inhabitants were exposed to dangerous levelsof ra...
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United Nations.
and programs to carry out its recommendations. It elects members to serve on certain agencies and programs, and it coordinates those programs through variouscommittees. B Security Council The Security Council is the most powerful body in the UN. It is responsible for maintaining international peace, and for restoring peace when conflicts arise. Its decisionsare binding on all UN members and have the force of international law. The Security Council has the power to define what is a threat to sec...
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Cambodia - country.
The population of Cambodia is 14,241,640 (2008 estimate). Population growth per year is estimated at 1.8 percent, one of the highest rates in Asia. The rate of infantmortality is also high. The population density is 81 persons per sq km (209 per sq mi), with the densest concentrations on the heavily cultivated central plain. Themountainous regions of the country, where malaria is widespread, are thinly populated, as are the poorly watered northern provinces. During the late 1970s, under thebruta...
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Democratic Republic of the Congo - country.
Except in the high elevations, the country’s climate is very hot and humid. The average annual temperature in the low central area is about 27°C (about 80°F).Temperatures are considerably higher in February, the hottest month. At altitudes above about 1,500 m (about 5,000 ft) the average annual temperature is about 19°C(about 66°F). Average annual rainfall is about 1,500 mm (about 60 in) in the north and about 1,300 mm (about 50 in) in the south. Frequent heavy rains occur fromApril to November...
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Congress of the United States.
senator, a person must be at least 30 years old, a citizen for nine years, and a resident of the state from which he or she is elected. Most members of Congress haveserved in state legislatures, city councils, or other elected bodies. See United States Senate: Campaigning for the Senate ; United States House of Representatives: Campaigning for the House. The 435 House seats are divided among the states in proportion to each state’s population. Every state is guaranteed at least one seat. State...
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George Washington
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INTRODUCTION
George Washington (1732-1799), first president of the United States (1789-1797) and one of the most important leaders in United States history.
A2 Promotion This was Washington’s first experience with the difficulties of raising troops while lacking equipment, clothing, and funds. Apparently he thought his efforts worthy ofsome recognition and successfully applied to Dinwiddie for a lieutenant colonel’s commission. He left Alexandria, Virginia, early in April with about 150 poorly equippedand half-trained troops. A3 First Battles Before he had advanced very far, Washington received news that the French had driven Trent’s men back from...
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George Washington.
A2 Promotion This was Washington’s first experience with the difficulties of raising troops while lacking equipment, clothing, and funds. Apparently he thought his efforts worthy ofsome recognition and successfully applied to Dinwiddie for a lieutenant colonel’s commission. He left Alexandria, Virginia, early in April with about 150 poorly equippedand half-trained troops. A3 First Battles Before he had advanced very far, Washington received news that the French had driven Trent’s men back from...
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George Washington
A2 Promotion This was Washington’s first experience with the difficulties of raising troops while lacking equipment, clothing, and funds. Apparently he thought his efforts worthy ofsome recognition and successfully applied to Dinwiddie for a lieutenant colonel’s commission. He left Alexandria, Virginia, early in April with about 150 poorly equippedand half-trained troops. A3 First Battles Before he had advanced very far, Washington received news that the French had driven Trent’s men back from...
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Atom - chemistry.
Atoms have several properties that help distinguish one type of atom from another and determine how atoms change under certain conditions. A Atomic Number Each element has a unique number of protons in its atoms. This number is called the atomic number (abbreviated Z). Because atoms are normally electrically neutral,the atomic number also specifies how many electrons an atom will have. The number of electrons, in turn, determines many of the chemical and physical properties ofthe atom. The ligh...
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avion
Blitzkrieg and the Battle of Britain is the first air battle in history. The war unfortunately also mark the beginning of the bombing of civilian targets carried out with training hundreds of planes: first by Germany (raids on Rotterdam and Coventry in 1940) and Japan, followed by the United States and the United Kingdom from 1943 (raids on Hamburg, Tokyo, etc.).. Asia, World War II ends after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. 2/Description and the way it works Aircraft...
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Pan-Africanism.
(in New York City). These congresses were attended by increasing numbers of representatives from the United States, Europe, Africa, and the Caribbean. Severalimportant factors affected the growing popularity of the congresses. First, many delegates were sponsored by international labor movements, which were growing insize and power in the 1920s. A second factor was the growth of the black nationalist movement of Marcus Garvey. The Garvey movement was important in the UnitedStates as a popular ex...
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Pan-Africanism - history.
Edward Wilmot BlydenEdward Wilmot Blyden (1832-1912) was an early proponent of Pan-Africanism and a leading black intellectual and scholar of Africanculture. Born in the Virgin Islands, Blyden moved to the West African nation of Liberia in 1851 and promoted the repatriation of freeAmerican blacks to Liberia. He hoped that Liberia, as an independent black-ruled nation, would become a beacon of Pan-Africanism,displaying the great achievements of Africans and people of African descent.Library of Co...