945 résultats pour "américan"

• Immigration - U.

  1655, only to lose all of their North American colonies to the British in 1664. These early colonies were often quite cosmopolitan, drawing settlers from many nations.When the English seized New Amsterdam, the city was home to perhaps 1500 residents, including Walloons, Huguenots, Swedes, Dutchmen, and African Americans. C The French and Spanish The French and Spanish also established colonies in North America. The Spanish established the oldest permanent European settlement in Saint Augustine,...

• Bolivia - country.

  E Plants and Animals Because of the wide variations in elevation, plant and animal species of nearly every climatic zone are found in Bolivia. A coarse grass, called ichu, grows on the largelybarren high plateau in the west. Para rubber trees, more than 2,000 species of hardwood trees, and vanilla, sarsaparilla, and saffron plants are common in the tropicalforests of the east. The llama, found chiefly on the Altiplano, is an efficient beast of burden. Alpacas and vicuñas also inhabit the platea...

• Mark Twain.

  father, who keeps him prisoner in an isolated cabin. The boy escapes and, together with a runaway slave, Jim, sails down the Mississippi on a raft. During their trip,Huck and Jim encounter many unusual characters, including two families involved in a senseless feud and a pair of scoundrels who swindle innocent townspeople. Theirexperiences bring about a strong friendship between the boy and the slave, but their adventures end when Jim is captured and held at the farm of Tom Sawyer’s AuntSally. W...

• Mark Twain - USA History.

  father, who keeps him prisoner in an isolated cabin. The boy escapes and, together with a runaway slave, Jim, sails down the Mississippi on a raft. During their trip,Huck and Jim encounter many unusual characters, including two families involved in a senseless feud and a pair of scoundrels who swindle innocent townspeople. Theirexperiences bring about a strong friendship between the boy and the slave, but their adventures end when Jim is captured and held at the farm of Tom Sawyer’s AuntSally. W...

• Public Education in the United States.

  opportunities for them to break out from whatever social or economic circumstances constrained their development. IV HIGHER EDUCATION During the 20th century participation in higher or postsecondary education in the United States increased as dramatically as it did in American high schools. At thebeginning of the century about 2 percent of Americans from the ages of 18 to 24 were enrolled in a college. There were fewer than 1,000 colleges then, with enrollmenttotaling about 157,000 students. N...

• British Empire .

  B1 The Seven Years’ War During the Seven Years’ War in Europe (1756-1763), Britain made large imperial gains at the expense of France. The North American segment of the Seven Years’ Warwas known as the French and Indian War. It was launched by the British against French possessions in North America in 1754, and in 1758 the British captured theFrench fortress of Louisbourg, which gave them access to French territory in the St. Lawrence Valley. In the following year Québec was captured, marking t...

• Abolitionist Movement.

  The American Revolution (1775-1783) and the French Revolution (1789-1799), widely seen as revolutions by citizens against oppressive rulers, transformed thisEnlightenment assertion into a call for universal liberty and freedom. The successful slave revolt that began in the French colony of Saint-Domingue in 1791 was part of this revolutionary age. Led by François Dominique ToussaintLouverture, black rebels overthrew the colonial government, ended slavery in the colony, and in 1804 established th...

• Abolitionist Movement - U.

  The American Revolution (1775-1783) and the French Revolution (1789-1799), widely seen as revolutions by citizens against oppressive rulers, transformed thisEnlightenment assertion into a call for universal liberty and freedom. The successful slave revolt that began in the French colony of Saint-Domingue in 1791 was part of this revolutionary age. Led by François Dominique ToussaintLouverture, black rebels overthrew the colonial government, ended slavery in the colony, and in 1804 established th...

• 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...

• El Salvador - country.

  III PEOPLE The Spanish subjugated the native population of El Salvador in the 16th century. Few Spanish women came to the country, however, so many Spanish men took NativeAmerican women as their mates. Today nearly 90 percent of the population is mestizo , of mixed European and Native American descent. People of purely Native American descent represent about 5 to 10 percent of the population, while people of European descent represent only about 1 percent. El Salvador’s population, 5.2 millio...

• American Ballet Theater.

• John Quincy Adams.

  man of my whole country.” When President Thomas Jefferson requested Senate approval of his treaty for the purchase of the French colony of Louisiana, Adams was the only New EnglandFederalist to vote in favor of it. He realized that the power and influence of his own New England would be reduced if the vast territory were added to the nation, but hewas convinced that the national interest would best be served by the purchase of Louisiana ( see Louisiana Purchase). Adams again broke with his New...

• John Quincy Adams

  man of my whole country.” When President Thomas Jefferson requested Senate approval of his treaty for the purchase of the French colony of Louisiana, Adams was the only New EnglandFederalist to vote in favor of it. He realized that the power and influence of his own New England would be reduced if the vast territory were added to the nation, but hewas convinced that the national interest would best be served by the purchase of Louisiana ( see Louisiana Purchase). Adams again broke with his New...

• L'Afro-américanisme

  Répondant à ceux qui mettent en avant le pourcentage d'échecs plus élevé chez les Noirs que chez les Blancs, les activistes noirs en rejettent la faute sur J'inadaptation des universités. 5 Des chaires d'études afro-américaines ont eté ouvertes dans quelque vingt-cinq grandes universités. Certaines, comme San Diego ou Stanford, délivrent même des licen­ ces dans cette discipline. Les cours sont fréquentés sou­ vent par une maJorité d'4tudlants blan...

• Museum.

  History museums are dedicated to promoting a greater appreciation and knowledge of history and its importance to understanding the present and anticipating thefuture. They range from historic sites and small historic house museums to large, encyclopedic institutions such as the Smithsonian’s National Museum of AmericanHistory in Washington, D.C. Many cities and states have historical societies that operate museums or historic sites. History museums usually collect a wide range ofobjects, includi...

• Ecuador - country.

  F Natural Resources Ecuador’s main mineral wealth is in petroleum. Other mineral resources of the country include gold, silver, copper, lead, and zinc. Forests cover 38.3 percent of thecountry. G Plants and Animals Along the northern part of the Ecuador coast, and within the inner portion of the southern coast, tropical jungles abound. In some places the jungles extend up theslopes of the Andes as wet, mossy forests. Dense forests cover both flanks of the Cordilleras, as well as the Oriente, u...

• Christmas.

  The new custom of Christmas gift giving allowed the marketplace to exert an unprecedented influence on holiday celebrations. Commercial innovations such asdepartment stores and mass advertising further expanded the custom of exchanging Christmas gifts. Seasonal retail sales helped fuel the economy, causing merchantsand advertisers to become some of the season’s most ardent promoters. Many holiday celebrants regretted these changes, however, and began voicing the nowcommon lament that Christmas h...

• Great Depression in the United States - U.

  prices would continue to rise and they could soon sell their stocks at a profit. The widespread belief that anyone could get rich led many less affluent Americans into the market as well. Investors bought millions of shares of stock “on margin,” arisky practice similar to buying products on credit. They paid only a small part of the price and borrowed the rest, gambling that they could sell the stock at a highenough price to repay the loan and make a profit. For a time this was true: In 1928 the...

• Olympic Games.

  the next decade nearly all the ISFs abolished the distinction between amateurs and professionals, accepting so-called open Games. One of the most visible examples of the policy change came in 1992, when professional players from the National Basketball Association (NBA) were permitted to play inthe Summer Games in Barcelona, Spain. Professionals from the National Hockey League (NHL) became eligible to participate beginning with the 1998 Winter Olympics inNagano, Japan. V CEREMONIES The Olymp...

• Folktales I INTRODUCTION "Little Red Riding Hood" The popular children's story "Little Red Riding

  seemed important to them. Thus, the Grimms postulated a common Indo-European origin for folktales, and the German philologist Theodor Benfey as well as theScottish writer William Clouston believed that stories diffused by way of travelers migrating east and west from India. Such theories, however, have proven incompleteand inadequate. Nevertheless, the research of these and other scholars greatly stimulated interest in folklore and folktales. The German scholar Max Muller held thatmyths originat...

• Comics I INTRODUCTION Comics, series of drawings arranged to tell a story.

  is still used to refer to sensationalistic techniques that publishers use to draw more readers to their newspapers. Outcault finally won the right to continue his strip andgradually adopted the panel style and balloon narration that mark “The Yellow Kid” as the first true comic strip. Other early comics included “Little Bears” by JamesSwinnerton, which first appeared in the San Francisco Examiner in 1892, and “The Katzenjammer Kids” by Rudolph Dirks, which first appeared in The American Humo...

• Martin Luther King, Jr.

  disorder that local white officials would be forced to end segregation to restore normal business relations. The strategy did not work in Albany. During months ofprotests, Albany’s police chief jailed hundreds of demonstrators without visible police violence. Eventually the protesters’ energy, and the money to bail out protesters,ran out. The strategy did work, however, in Birmingham, Alabama, when SCLC joined a local protest during the spring of 1963. The protest was led by SCLC member FredShut...

• Martin Luther King, Jr.

  disorder that local white officials would be forced to end segregation to restore normal business relations. The strategy did not work in Albany. During months ofprotests, Albany’s police chief jailed hundreds of demonstrators without visible police violence. Eventually the protesters’ energy, and the money to bail out protesters,ran out. The strategy did work, however, in Birmingham, Alabama, when SCLC joined a local protest during the spring of 1963. The protest was led by SCLC member FredShut...

• Los Angeles - geography.

  (2006 population, 472,494), located east of the Port of Los Angeles. The city of Compton (95,701) is located north of Long Beach, on the east side of the AlamedaCorridor. On the other side of the corridor are the cities of Torrance (142,350) and Inglewood (114,914). Northwest of Inglewood and west of downtown Los Angeles are the wealthy and fashionable Santa Monica (88,050) and Beverly Hills (34,979). Both cities are enclaves:Santa Monica is surrounded by the City of Los Angeles to the north, ea...

• Los Angeles - geography.

  (2006 population, 472,494), located east of the Port of Los Angeles. The city of Compton (95,701) is located north of Long Beach, on the east side of the AlamedaCorridor. On the other side of the corridor are the cities of Torrance (142,350) and Inglewood (114,914). Northwest of Inglewood and west of downtown Los Angeles are the wealthy and fashionable Santa Monica (88,050) and Beverly Hills (34,979). Both cities are enclaves:Santa Monica is surrounded by the City of Los Angeles to the north, ea...

• Declaration of Independence.

  communication networks to publicize British actions and encourage demonstrations of defiance. Soon these committees and some colonial legislatures issued a call for anall-colony congress to discuss other appropriate responses to Britain’s actions. The Continental Congress first met in Philadelphia from September to the end of October1774. This body did not plan for war; instead, it debated the extent to which the colonies should carry their resistance to Great Britain. The First Continental Cong...

• Declaration of Independence - U.

  communication networks to publicize British actions and encourage demonstrations of defiance. Soon these committees and some colonial legislatures issued a call for anall-colony congress to discuss other appropriate responses to Britain’s actions. The Continental Congress first met in Philadelphia from September to the end of October1774. This body did not plan for war; instead, it debated the extent to which the colonies should carry their resistance to Great Britain. The First Continental Cong...

• Eleanor Roosevelt.

  disliked Washington, D.C., which she found only slightly less provincial than Albany. Moreover, she feared that the role of first lady would be a confining one. “I neverwanted to be a president’s wife,” she privately declared just after the election. At the time of Franklin’s election Eleanor was an independent journalist, making money from a monthly column in Woman's Home Companion and from radio broadcasts, where she regularly spoke out on controversial political issues. She sat on the board...

• Eleanor Roosevelt - USA History.

  disliked Washington, D.C., which she found only slightly less provincial than Albany. Moreover, she feared that the role of first lady would be a confining one. “I neverwanted to be a president’s wife,” she privately declared just after the election. At the time of Franklin’s election Eleanor was an independent journalist, making money from a monthly column in Woman's Home Companion and from radio broadcasts, where she regularly spoke out on controversial political issues. She sat on the board...

• Boston - geography.

  The neighborhoods of Allston and Brighton occupy the northwest corner of the city to the west of Fenway. The Allston-Brighton area is bordered to the east, north, andwest by the Charles River and to the south by the Massachusetts Turnpike and the town of Brookline. It is an industrial and residential neighborhood that is also thelocation of Boston College and Harvard University Business School. Boston has been unsuccessful in annexing Brookline, the birthplace of U.S. president John F.Kennedy an...

• Iran-Iraq War - History.

  The Iranian offensives of 1982 set a pattern that continued for the rest of the war. Exploiting their superiority in numbers, Iran sent its Revolutionary Guard on theattack, supported by regular military forces. Outnumbered Iraqi forces inflicted heavy losses on the Iranians but ultimately fell back. As soon as the initial Iranian thrusthad exhausted itself, however, the Iraqi army exploited Iranian disorganization and lack of equipment to retake much of the lost territory. As the war continued,...

• Seattle - geography.

  Mountains. The area includes the suburban cities of Bellevue, Kirkland, Redmond, Renton, and Issaquah. The Eastside has become home to dozens of high-technologyindustries including Microsoft Corporation, ATL Ultrasound, Nintendo of America, divisions of The Boeing Company, and many other firms. In the 1960s commutersheaded to Seattle jobs from homes on the Eastside. Today, the “reverse commute” from Seattle homes to jobs on the Eastside is just as heavy, and both streams oftraffic cross the same...

• San Francisco - geography.

  recognized symbol of the city, opened in 1937. It connects San Francisco to Marin County to the north, one of the wealthiest suburban areas in the nation. With the construction of the Bay and Golden Gate bridges and other links from the city to its suburbs, the San Francisco Bay area has become one large metropolitanregion. San Francisco itself is only 122 sq km (47 sq mi) of land area, but the city’s Primary Metropolitan Statistical Area (defined by the Census Bureau as SanFrancisco, San Mateo,...

• Spanish Empire.

  Spain’s royal government quickly imposed its own officials, first to collect taxes and then to administer the colony. Its goal was to assert royal control over both settlersand indigenous peoples. In Spain the government established a House of Trade to supervise colonial affairs and to oversee, license, and tax all trade and commerce. Asthe royal government asserted more authority over colonial activities, Columbus lost effective power, and was eventually replaced by other colonial governors. Wi...

• Spanish Empire .

  Spain’s royal government quickly imposed its own officials, first to collect taxes and then to administer the colony. Its goal was to assert royal control over both settlersand indigenous peoples. In Spain the government established a House of Trade to supervise colonial affairs and to oversee, license, and tax all trade and commerce. Asthe royal government asserted more authority over colonial activities, Columbus lost effective power, and was eventually replaced by other colonial governors. Wi...

• Golf. I INTRODUCTION Golf, outdoor game in which individual players use specially designed

  caddie or caddy. (Caddies, once an integral feature of the game, have now been replaced on many courses by motorized carts and pull carts.) In England the game was made popular by the attention given it by James VI of Scotland, later James I of England, and his son Charles I. In the 18th century the first golf associations were established. They included the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers (founded 1744) in Edinburgh, Scotland;the Saint Andrews Society of Golfers (1754) in Saint Andrew...

• South America - Geography.

  South America is dominated by relatively warm climatic regimes. Spanning nearly the entire continent along the equator is a belt of humid tropical climate that grades tothe north and south into broad zones where the length of the rainy season and the amount of rainfall diminish. These zones have wet summers and dry winters and aresubject to prolonged droughts. Droughts are a particularly serious problem in northeastern Brazil and along the northern coast of Venezuela and Colombia. The areas ofra...

• Electronic Music I INTRODUCTION Electronic Music, music that requires the use of electronic devices to produce or manipulate sound during its composition and performance.

  III SYNTHESIZERS AND OTHER ELECTRONIC TECHNOLOGY Moog SynthesizerThe musical synthesizer was invented by American Robert Moog. Soon after Moog introduced an early version in 1964, itbecame known as the “Moog Synthesizer,” and then simply as the “Moog.” Here, Japanese composer Isao Tomita uses aMoog synthesizer in his studio.Huynh Cong/AP/Wide World Photos In the 1950s sound synthesizers were developed, principally in the United States. Synthesizers enabled composers to produce sounds electroni...

• 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...

• Modern Dance I 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...

• Bear - biology.

  programs sponsored by zoos or other breeding centers have attempted to breed giant pandas in captivity, although most of these programs have proved unsuccessful.Among the difficulties faced by captive breeders has been the problem of encouraging a female giant panda to mate with a selected male during the two to three daysof the year when she is most fertile, a period known as estrus. B Spectacled Bear Creamy-white rings surrounding the eyes give the spectacled bear its name. Its shaggy coat of...

• Dwight D.

  maneuvers in Louisiana in 1941, he played a leading role as a staff officer, adding to his reputation and securing him a promotion to brigadier general. On December 7,1941, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and the next day the United States entered World War II against the Axis Powers (Japan, Germany, and Italy). A weeklater, the army’s new chief of staff, General George C. Marshall, called Eisenhower to Washington, D.C., and put him in charge of the War Plans Division. Opinions differed on...

• Washington, D.

  structures built according to L’Enfant’s plan. During the War of 1812, British troops set fire to the White House, destroying its interior. President James Madison and hisfamily lived in the Octagon while the White House was being rebuilt. South of the Federal Triangle is the Mall, a narrow park stretching roughly 1.6 km (1 mi) from the Capitol to the Washington Monument. Although the Mall officially endsat 14th Street, landscaped greenery extends to the Potomac. The Washington Monument, whose m...

• Benjamin Franklin.

  Copley Medal for distinguished contributions to experimental science. Franklin also exerted a great influence on education in Pennsylvania. In 1749 he wrote thepamphlet Proposals Relating to the Education of Youth in Pennsylvania; its publication led to the establishment in 1751 of the Academy of Philadelphia, later to become the University of Pennsylvania. The curriculum he suggested departed considerably from the study of the Greek and Roman classics then in vogue. Instead itemphasized Engl...

• Benjamin Franklin - USA History.

  Copley Medal for distinguished contributions to experimental science. Franklin also exerted a great influence on education in Pennsylvania. In 1749 he wrote thepamphlet Proposals Relating to the Education of Youth in Pennsylvania; its publication led to the establishment in 1751 of the Academy of Philadelphia, later to become the University of Pennsylvania. The curriculum he suggested departed considerably from the study of the Greek and Roman classics then in vogue. Instead itemphasized Engl...

• 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...

• Cosmology - astronomy.

  In 1917 American scientist Harlow Shapley measured the distance to several groups of stars known as globular clusters. He measured these distances by using amethod developed in 1912 by American astronomer Henrietta Leavitt. Leavitt’s method relates distance to variations in brightness of Cepheid variables, a class of starsthat vary periodically in brightness. Shapley’s distance measurements showed that the clusters were centered around a point far from the Sun. The arrangement of theclusters was...

• Labor Union.

  B The Legal Environment The legal environment, which permits certain types of union activities and prohibits others, also influences the extent of union organization. States with right-to-worklaws have much lower unionization rates than other states. In the United States, the states with the lowest unionization rates are North Carolina, South Carolina, SouthDakota, and Arkansas—states that have right-to-work laws. In 2000 the unionization rate in these states ranged from 4.44 percent to 6.7 per...

• US Beats USSR in Hockey.

  The two sides once again exchanged goals during the first period. Sergei Makarov briefly gave the Soviets a lead when he beat Craig. The goal outraged many in thecrowd who felt that referee Karl Kaisla of Finland missed a holding violation by a USSR player in front of the net. Controversy also played a role in the Americans'game-tying goal at the end of the period. With a few seconds left on the clock, Ken Morrow unleashed an 80-foot slap shot that ricocheted to center Mark Johnson,who deposited...

• Election.

  majority systems usually reduce the number of competitive political parties—for example, the mostly two-party system in the United States. Proportional representation systems boost participation by increasing the value of a vote to smaller or more marginal portions of a national population. In the UnitedStates, plurality or majority systems have reduced the incentive to vote of citizens who do not identify closely with the Democratic or Republican Party. Disillusionmentwith the major parties and...