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99ce3e27426b3ae1a4691f9fc2d61f15 | https://www.britannica.com/place/Canada/Local-government | Local government | Local government
Because municipal government falls under the jurisdiction of the provinces, there are 10 distinct systems of municipal government in Canada, as well as many variations within each system. The variations are attributable to differences in historical development and in area and population density. Thus, the legislature of each province has divided its territory into geographic areas known generally as municipalities and, more particularly, as counties, cities, towns, villages, townships, rural municipalities, or municipal districts.
The county system as understood in Britain or the United States exists only in southern Ontario and southern Quebec. County councils are composed of representatives from rural townships, towns, and villages and provide a second level of services for the whole county. This two-tiered municipal government was first extended to urban areas when Metropolitan Toronto was established in 1953. A number of other highly urbanized areas in Ontario have since adopted a metropolitan or regional form of government to deal with common areawide problems. More recently, cities such as Toronto have been further amalgamated with their surrounding districts; at the same time, the number of representative councillors has been reduced.
The more than 4,500 incorporated municipalities and local government districts in Canada have various powers and responsibilities suited to their classification. A municipality is governed by an elected council. The responsibilities of the municipalities are generally those most closely associated with the citizens’ everyday life, well-being, and protection. In addition to local municipal government, there are numerous local boards and commissions, some elected and others appointed, to administer education, utilities, libraries, and other local services.
The sparsely populated areas of the provinces are usually administered as territories by the provincial governments. Aboriginal self-government became an increasingly important issue during the last two decades of the 20th century.
Canadian courts of law are independent bodies. Each province has its police, division, county, and superior courts, with the right of appeal being available throughout provincial courts and to the federal Supreme Court of Canada. At the federal level, the Federal Court has civil and criminal jurisdictions with appeal and trial divisions. All judges, except police magistrates and judges of the courts of probate in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, are appointed by the governor-general in council, and their salaries, allowances, and pensions are fixed and paid by the federal Parliament. Judges serve in office until age 75, at which time they are required to retire. Criminal law legislation and procedure in criminal matters is under the jurisdiction of the Parliament of Canada. The provinces administer justice within their boundaries, including organizing civil and criminal codes and establishing civil procedure. Since 1982, when the Charter of Rights and Freedoms was incorporated into the constitution, the interpretative role of the Supreme Court has increased significantly.
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467b87cee61e96816ccf987abb260e90 | https://www.britannica.com/place/Canada/National-growth-in-the-early-19th-century | National growth in the early 19th century | National growth in the early 19th century
The influx of loyalists changed the composition of the population of the British North American colonies by adding elements at once American yet profoundly attached to British institutions; it also increased the population by some 6,000 in the old province of Quebec. To these were to be added the unknown numbers of “late loyalists”—settlers, primarily land seekers, who arrived from the northern states as late as 1812. Some 80,000 came to Nova Scotia, although not all remained; of these, about 20,000 settled in what became New Brunswick, and a few hundred on Prince Edward Island.
The newcomers also added to the growing diversity of the population of the colonies. In Newfoundland there were already the West Country English and a growing number of Irish—a total of more than 26,000 by 1806. Nova Scotia had, in addition to New Englanders, loyalists, and Yorkshiremen, the Germans of Lunenburg and the Highland Scots of Pictou county and of Cape Breton Island—in all, an estimated 65,000 in 1806, with 2,513 on Cape Breton Island. New Brunswick had a population of about 35,000 in 1806, mostly loyalists or of loyalist descent, but already the southern Irish, drawn by the timber trade, were beginning to appear on the rivers of the north shore. Prince Edward Island, with a population of 9,676 in 1806, had some Acadians, some loyalists, some English, Scots, and Irish. In Upper Canada in 1806 the population numbered 70,718; in Lower Canada it was estimated at 250,000.
The first Canadian population mosaic had taken shape as it was to remain for a century, a mixture of British, French, and German. The British element was to be steadily reinforced by northern English (coming by way of Liverpool), Highland and Lowland Scots, and southern and northern Irish. The result was the creation of a society in which religious liberty and a great measure of social equality were necessary for social cohesion and common effort.
Until 1815, however, the number of immigrants was small: Highlanders for Glengarry county in Upper Canada, disbanded soldiers in Lanark county south of the Ottawa River, and a straggle of Irish after the rebellion of 1798 was crushed. Nor did the numbers increase appreciably after 1815; not until 1830 did the English, Scottish, and Irish begin coming to the British North American colonies in great volume. Thereafter, thousands arrived each year. The British North American colonies became predominantly British in population, except in Lower Canada, a fact that was to determine the course of Canadian history for the next 100 years.
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42fe6eb8833b8a7a27a8dcd2efa2a875 | https://www.britannica.com/place/Canada/Political-process | Political process | Political process
The 308 members of the House of Commons, from which the prime minister is selected, are elected for a maximum term of five years by universal suffrage in single-member districts (known in Canada as ridings). The prime minister may dissolve the House of Commons and call new elections at any time within the five-year period. The Senate consists of 105 members who are appointed on a provincial basis by the governor-general on the advice of the prime minister and who may hold office until they reach 75 years of age.
All Canadian citizens at least 18 years of age are eligible to vote. Traditionally, voter participation in Canada was fairly high, with some two-thirds of eligible voters regularly casting ballots; however, as in many established democracies, turnout declined significantly in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Women received the right to vote in federal elections in 1918, but men have generally predominated in federal elections and appointments. During the 1990s, however, Kim Campbell became Canada’s first woman prime minister; women now generally constitute about one-fifth of all members of the House of Commons. The first woman governor-general was Jeanne Sauvé, who served from 1984 to 1990. In 1999 Adrienne Clarkson became Canada’s first governor-general of Asian ancestry.
During much of the 20th century, Canada had two major political parties: the Progressive Conservatives and the Liberals. Although both parties were ideologically diverse, the Progressive Conservatives tended to be slightly to the right, while the Liberals were generally regarded as centre-left. These two parties formed all of Canada’s national governments. From the 1930s to the ’80s both the Progressive Conservatives and the Liberals became somewhat more liberal regarding social and health welfare policies and government intervention in the economy. Under the leadership of Brian Mulroney, who became prime minister in 1984, the Progressive Conservative government underwent a distinctly conservative shift, which included selling crown corporations, deregulating many industries, and granting tax advantages to corporations and the wealthy. However, after Mulroney’s retirement in 1993, his party suffered a cataclysmic decline in the House of Commons, their number of seats being reduced from 169 to 2 in October 1993. At the same time, the Liberals increased their representation from 83 to 178. In particular, the Liberals dominated federal elections in Ontario, which elects one-third of all members of the House of Commons; in 2000, for example, the Liberals won 100 of Ontario’s 103 seats, though they won only half of the overall popular vote and failed to control the provincial government. Beginning with a loss in the 2006 election, however, the Liberals went into something of a tailspin that culminated in a third-place finish in 2011.
Throughout much of the 20th century, the main third party was the New Democratic Party (NDP), its support largely concentrated in western Canada. The NDP occupies a left-of-centre position, advocating an extension of the welfare state. It often won 30 to 40 seats in the House of Commons, but it too saw its representation cut dramatically in the 1990s. In particular, the decline of the NDP and Progressive Conservatives was the result of the regionalization of Canada’s elections. In 2011, however, the NDP made historic gains, capturing 102 seats to become the official opposition, largely as the result of its sweeping success in Quebec. The Bloc Québécois, which supports Quebec’s independence and maintains links with the provincial Parti Québécois, won 54 seats in the House of Commons in 1993 and became the official opposition. In 1997, however, the conservative and western-based Reform Party of Canada, which opposed concessions to Quebec, won 60 seats to become the official opposition. In 2000 the Reform Party was replaced by the conservative Canadian Alliance—formed by elements of the old Reform Party and disgruntled Progressive Conservatives—which subsequently became the official opposition. The Canadian Alliance merged in 2003 with the remaining Progressive Conservatives to create the Conservative Party of Canada, which continued in opposition until 2006, when the party rebounded and recorded the first of three consecutive federal election victories, beginning Stephen Harper’s long tenure as prime minister.
The issue of Quebec’s autonomy dominated Canadian politics for the last decades of the 20th century. Through various historical constitutional guarantees, Quebec, which is the sole Canadian province where citizens of French origin are in the majority, has developed a distinctive culture that differs in many respects from that of the rest of Canada—and, indeed, from the rest of North America. Although there are many in Quebec who support the confederation with the English-speaking provinces, many French Quebecers have endorsed separatism and secession from the rest of Canada as a means to ensure not only material prosperity and liberty but also ethnic survival. As a consequence, they have tended to act as a cohesive unit in national matters and to support those political parties most supportive of their claims. In 1976 Quebec’s voters elected the Parti Québécois, whose major policy platform was “sovereignty association,” a form of separation from Canada but with close economic ties, to form its provincial government. In 1980, however, three-fifths of Quebecers voted against outright separation; in 1995 a proposition aimed at separation—or at least a major restructuring of Quebec’s relationship with Canada—was defeated again, though by a margin of only 1 percent. The 1995 referendum highlighted Quebec’s internal divisions, as nine-tenths of English speakers opposed separation while three-fifths of French speakers supported it.
There have been several unsuccessful efforts to entice Quebec to approve the constitution formally and to develop a balance of powers acceptable to both Quebec and the rest of Canada. For example, the Meech Lake Accord (1987), which would have recognized Quebec’s status as a distinct society and would have re-created a provincial veto power, failed to win support in Manitoba and Newfoundland, and the Charlottetown Accord (1992), which addressed greater autonomy for both Quebec and the aboriginal population, was rejected in a national referendum (it lost decisively in Quebec and the western provinces). The Clarity Act (2000) produced an agreement between Quebec and the federal government that any future referendum must have a clear majority, be based on an unambiguous question, and have the approval of the federal House of Commons.
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c571ef38ad6617e5d9c95805c3d73e57 | https://www.britannica.com/place/Canada/Resources-and-power | Resources and power | Resources and power
Canada is rich in mineral resources. The vast Canadian Shield, with its masses of igneous and metamorphic rocks, contains numerous large deposits. Metallic minerals are also found in such rock types in the Western Cordillera and the Appalachians. Although there are some metallic mineral and fossil fuel deposits in sedimentary rocks in the Western Cordillera and the Appalachians (including the adjacent seabed), the largest volume of coal and petroleum has so far been found in the interior plains of western Canada. Mining has been a key factor in the development of Canada’s northlands. In many areas, roads and railroads built to serve new mining operations have encouraged the subsequent development of forest and recreational resources. Development has often been accompanied by environmental damage.
Canada has long ranked among the world leaders in the production of uranium, zinc, nickel, potash, asbestos, sulfur, cadmium, and titanium. It is also a major producer of iron ore, coal, petroleum, gold, copper, silver, lead, and a number of ferroalloys. Diamond mining, particularly in the Northwest Territories, is significant as well. As mining is no longer as labour-intensive as it once was, it now employs only a small portion of the Canadian labour force; however, mining-related industries (e.g., iron and steel and transportation) account for a much larger share. Because Canada exports a large proportion of its mineral production, the mining industry is sensitive to world price fluctuations. During times of high demand, prices rise, and mining companies increase their production and open new mines; when demand falls, production is cut, mines close, and workers are laid off. Single-industry communities typically become ghost towns when mines are closed.
Canada is richly endowed with hydroelectric power resources. It has about one-sixth of the world’s total installed hydroelectric generating capacity. However, most of the suitable hydroelectric sites have already been highly developed, with three-fifths of Canada’s power generated from hydroelectric sources. Increasingly, the country has turned to coal-fueled thermal energy, especially as nuclear power generation—which provides about one-eighth of Canada’s power—has declined because of safety concerns. Canada also has vast coal reserves, particularly in the western provinces (except Manitoba) and in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. Canada can meet its own petroleum needs and has a surplus of natural gas and electricity. The largest producing oil and gas fields are in Alberta, but potential reserves lie both in the Arctic and off the east coast. There are also large deposits of uranium and of oil and coal mixed in sands.
Manufacturing accounts for about one-fifth of Canada’s gross national product and employs about one-seventh of the labour force. Canada’s iron and steel industry is modern and efficient and produces steel products for the manufacture of such durable goods as motor vehicles, mining equipment, and household appliances. The United States and Canada negotiated an automotive products agreement in the mid-1960s, after which the Canadian automobile industry expanded dramatically. Until Japanese automakers began building plants in Canada in the 1980s, the industry consisted of branch plants of U.S. firms. The high-technology and electronics industries experienced rapid growth in the last two decades of the 20th century. Although there is some manufacturing in all large cities, more than three-fourths of Canadian manufacturing employment is located in the heartland, which extends from Quebec city to Windsor, Ontario, on the periphery of the U.S. automobile-manufacturing centre, Detroit, Michigan. Overall, manufacturing growth has been led by exports—principally to the United States. Both large and small manufacturers have benefited, particularly from free trade agreements, though employment in the sector declined as a result of automation.
Canadian financial services have exhibited a great deal of flexibility in responding to the monetary needs of the economy. To operate in Canada, a commercial bank must be individually chartered by the federal government. Most normal central-banking functions are fulfilled by the Bank of Canada, which has substantial autonomy in determining monetary policy. The official currency is the Canadian dollar, which is designed and distributed by the Bank of Canada. The national bank implements its monetary policies through its relations with the country’s large chartered (commercial) banks, which are highly developed and form the centre of the financial system. Other financial institutions—for example, credit unions, provincial savings banks, and trust and mortgage-loan companies—increasingly have amalgamated. However, the large banks, which are relatively free from controls on activities involving foreign exchange, still remain the main financial institutions.
Canada has stock exchanges in Montreal, Toronto, and Winnipeg; exchanges in Alberta and Vancouver merged in 1999 to form the Canadian Venture Exchange. There is extensive interpenetration between Canadian and U.S. stock exchanges. In the bond market the role of government-sector borrowing traditionally has been dominant. The degree of foreign ownership of Canadian industry is very high, accounting for as much as half of the primary resource sector (except agriculture) and manufacturing. The largest portion of the foreign investment is from the United States.
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2d283f7547756d9587e6b9b878be5ea5 | https://www.britannica.com/place/Canada/Royal-control | Royal control | Royal control
New France, though a proprietary colony, was governed by the company, which appointed governors for Canada and Acadia, and a few dependent officers. The kings of France remained interested in the colony, both because of the vast potential wealth of the area and because the crown might have to resume the powers of government given to the Hundred Associates. Government was, in fact, very much what it would have been if the colony had been directly under the rule of the crown. In 1647 a council was established in New France that included the governor, the chief religious authority, the superior of the Jesuits, and the governor of Montreal. During the brief rule of the Community of Habitants, representatives (syndics) of the people of Quebec, Trois Rivières, and Montreal were consulted on local matters. However, this was the nearest approach to anything resembling representative government; by and large, government in New France was authoritarian and highly paternalistic.
The assumption of direct royal control by Louis XIV in 1663 and the colonial ambitions of his great finance minister, Jean-Baptiste Colbert, led to a recasting of French colonial policy and of the government of New France. Colbert entrusted commercial policy to a new Company of the West Indies. Politically, he made New France a royal province, governed much like a province of France itself. New France was to be controlled by three persons: a governor, an intendant, and a bishop. The governor was the largely titular head of this triumvirate, although he was responsible for matters of defense and relations with the First Nations. He was aided in his decision making by the Superior Council (at first called the Sovereign Council), which was to advise him during the long periods when he had no communication with France. The intendant was responsible for internal matters, and the bishop administered mission work and the church. Both the intendant and the bishop were members of the council. Bitter rivalries were not unknown among these officials, particularly as the governor was an aristocrat and the intendant from the bourgeoisie.
Colbert’s reorganization generally gave New France firm and rational government, which was strongly centralized and efficient for the times. Acadia was an exception; torn by feuds among French rivals, claimed by England, and occupied by New Englanders eager to exploit its fishery, Acadia did not again become an effective part of New France until 1667–70. The strength of the royal government was in inverse proportion to the weakness of a small and scattered population. Great efforts made by the first intendant, Jean Talon, resulted in the influx of thousands of settlers (including hundreds of women) to New France in the 1660s and early ’70s. In 1666 the population reached 3,215, and a decade later it was about 8,500; thereafter, however, the population grew largely by natural increase, though at a prodigious rate. Most of the population lived in the three towns (Montreal, Quebec, and Trois Rivières) and in seigneuries along the banks of the St. Lawrence between Quebec and Montreal. However, scores of the men went inland with trading canoes, and some of these voyageurs remained inland permanently, marrying First Nations women and fathering the Métis, people of mixed French and First Nations ancestry.
The frontier of New France was not a broad front of advance but rather a penetration of the wilderness via the rivers in search of furs and strategic position. It was necessary to continue alliances with First Nations, and those alliances were constantly challenged by the Iroquois, who controlled the region south of Lakes Ontario and Erie in the 1650s. War with the Iroquois continued, as did the push into the interior, and in 1673 the explorers Louis Jolliet and Jacques Marquette, a Jesuit priest, traveled down the Mississippi River as far as its confluence with the Arkansas River.
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597a0c57d49f82cc274bb9ff24faca9d | https://www.britannica.com/place/Canada/Second-premiership | Second premiership | Second premiership
Although Trudeau had contemplated stepping down as Liberal leader after his electoral defeat in May 1979, he once again became prime minister in February 1980. His continued opposition to separatism was evident when he campaigned actively in Quebec against separation in a May 1980 referendum, which the Parti Québécois government called in an attempt to secure a provincial mandate to negotiate sovereignty-association with the rest of Canada. Trudeau’s intervention helped tilt the balance against the pro-separatism forces, and sovereignty-association ultimately received the support of only two-fifths of Quebec voters.
After the referendum the Trudeau government renewed its efforts to secure constitution reform. The issue centred on the revision and patriation of the British North America Act of 1867, which could be amended only by the British Parliament on Canada’s behalf. The debate was complicated by the need to adopt an amending process acceptable to the federal government as well as to the 10 provinces. On December 2, 1981, an amending process and a bill of rights (Charter of Rights and Freedoms) were accepted by all the provinces except Quebec. Nevertheless, on March 25, 1982, the British Parliament approved the resolution, and on April 17 Queen Elizabeth II issued a proclamation making Canada fully independent and recognizing the new Constitution Act (Canada Act). The patriation of the constitution and the adoption of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms was a political triumph for Trudeau and the culmination of a career-long campaign to place civil rights and liberties above the reach of the federal or provincial legislatures.
Canada’s economic performance during Trudeau’s last years in power was less successful. The country suffered greatly in the worldwide recession of 1981–82, but the impact was made worse by Ottawa’s failure to control its spending and its miscalculation in anticipating that future increases in energy prices would help pay its bills. That expectation was the basis of the National Energy Program (NEP), introduced in the fall of 1980, which was designed to speed up the “Canadianization” of the energy industry and vastly increase Ottawa’s share of energy revenues. The NEP created a fierce conflict between the central government and the energy-producing provinces (particularly Alberta), chased private investment capital out of Canada, and drastically reduced exploration for oil and gas. When oil prices declined, NEP policies made the recession even deeper in Alberta.
In foreign policy, Trudeau’s approach to the Americans and the Cold War changed little after the Clark interregnum, as he maintained his professed disdain for the U.S. preoccupation with the Cold War. Nonetheless, in 1983 Trudeau’s government—over the strenuous objections of peace groups and environmentalists—granted the United States permission to test cruise missile guidance systems in the Canadian North. Perhaps to balance his decision on the cruise missiles, Trudeau later that year mounted a well-publicized global peace mission to the capitals of countries possessing nuclear weapons to press for greater international cooperation on nuclear arms control and reduction. His trip gained little, and his initiative clearly annoyed U.S. President Ronald Reagan and British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.
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e6137c4c0837843d3e9121137a6acf9a | https://www.britannica.com/place/Canada/Security | Security of Canada | Security of Canada
The police forces of Canada are organized into three groups: the federal force, called the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP); provincial police; and municipal police. The RCMP, or Mounties—one of Canada’s best-known organizations—was established in 1873 for service in the Northwest Territories of that time. It is still the primary police force in Yukon, the Northwest Territories, and Nunavut, but it also has complete jurisdiction of the enforcement of federal statutes throughout Canada, which includes the control of narcotics. The maintenance of peace, order, and public safety and the prevention and investigation of criminal offenses and of violation of provincial laws are provincial responsibilities. Ontario and Quebec have their own provincial police forces, but all other provinces engage the RCMP to perform these functions. Provincial legislation makes it mandatory for cities and towns and for villages and townships with sufficient population density and real property to furnish adequate policing for the maintenance of law and order in their communities. Most large municipalities maintain their own forces, but others engage the provincial police or the RCMP, under contract, to attend to police matters. In 1984 the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) was created to replace the security service previously provided by the RCMP. The CSIS’s purpose is to conduct security investigations within Canada related to subversion, terrorism, and foreign espionage.
Matters relating to national defense, including the armed forces, are the responsibility of the minister of national defense. Canada’s armed forces constitute a considerably smaller proportion of the Canadian labour force than do the armed forces of its allies in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), and its defense spending is lower per capita than that of most of its allies. Except during wartime, military strength has never been central to Canada’s national security efforts. Instead, the country has participated in peacekeeping efforts through the United Nations and has formed strong alliances with the United States and NATO. The Canadian military maintains separate army, navy, and air force divisions within a unified command structure. The Royal Military College of Canada is the country’s service academy.
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5d0c9daa5fe1334ccffe80dc7fc06a41 | https://www.britannica.com/place/Canada/Settlement-patterns | Settlement patterns | Settlement patterns
When Europeans began exploring and developing resources in what is now Canada, they found the land sparsely populated by many different First Nations in the south and the Inuit in the north. The indigenous peoples were primarily hunters and gatherers and often were nomadic. Because they were few in number, the indigenous peoples made little impact on the natural environment: they harvested only the resources needed for their own consumption, and there were no large settlements. Even though the indigenous peoples had lived in the area for thousands of years, the Europeans perceived that they had found a pristine country with rich resources that awaited exploitation.
Different groups of Europeans came at different times to develop and export the abundant fish, furs, forests, and minerals. With the development of each new resource, new settlements were established. Most of the settlements based on these resources remained small, however, and some of them disappeared when their resources were depleted. A few port cities—including the eastern cities of St. John’s, Newfoundland; Halifax, Nova Scotia; and Saint John, New Brunswick—continued to grow as they benefited from the export of successive resources. Montreal owed its early growth to the fur trade, but later it became an important entrepôt for exporting a succession of raw and processed materials and importing manufactured goods from Europe. Later Toronto and the west-coast city of Vancouver also grew quickly because of entrepôt activities. Winnipeg, Manitoba, owed its early growth to its gateway role in the agricultural development of the interior plains.
Except for the port cities, Canada’s most densely settled areas and largest cities developed in the areas with good agricultural land. Some nine-tenths of the population lives within a narrow strip of land along the U.S.-Canadian border—an area that constitutes only about one-tenth of Canada’s total land area. Intensive commercial agriculture in the Great Lakes–St. Lawrence lowlands gave rise to a dense network of villages, towns, and cities. Later, manufacturing and service industries reinforced population growth in this region, making it Canada’s urban, industrial, and financial heartland. Villages, towns, and cities also evolved from the agricultural pursuits in the western grasslands, but, because the manufacturing and service sectors did not grow, those areas were much less intensively urbanized. The development of the petroleum industry there, however, did stimulate the growth of two large cities, Edmonton and Calgary in Alberta.
At the beginning of the 20th century, about one-third of Canadians lived in urban areas, but by the end of the century four-fifths of the population lived in communities of more than 10,000 people and nearly three-fifths resided in metropolitan areas of 100,000 or more.
The growth of most of Canada’s large cities on good farmland, characterized by a low-density pattern of urban sprawl, has aroused considerable public concern about reducing Canada’s limited agricultural land resources. In the Niagara Peninsula of southwestern Ontario, the area with the best climate in Canada for producing soft fruits and grapes, urbanization has destroyed some one-third of the fruit land. To prevent further reduction, the Ontario Municipal Board in the 1980s delineated permanent urban boundaries and ordered that urban growth be directed away from fruit-growing areas.
Settlement did not proceed sequentially westward from an Atlantic beginning. Permanent settlement depended on agricultural land—which in Canada occurs in patches, separated by physical barriers. Different patches were settled by people from various European countries, so that a diversity of cultures and settlement patterns developed across the country.
In the Appalachian region, farms are spaced along the roads at irregular intervals wherever land can be cultivated. In Quebec the first settlers laid off long, narrow tillage strips from the shores of the Gulf of St. Lawrence or the St. Lawrence River into the interior. As settlement moved farther inland, roads were built parallel to the waterways, from which further narrow lots extended on either side. The same pattern occurred in the Red River valley of Manitoba and even parts of Ontario, where the early settlers were also French.
In most of Ontario and the eastern townships of Quebec, land subdivision was made according to British and American surveying practices. The townships were more or less square, but the grid became irregular because it was started from a number of different points, each of which used a differently oriented base. In the Prairies, on the interior plains, the grid is much more regular, partly as a result of the topography and partly because a plan for the subdivision of the whole region was laid out before it was settled, and based rigidly on lines of latitude and longitude.
Settlement patterns in mountainous British Columbia were greatly influenced by water access routes.
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493d17f070e3943aff48f78425242c02 | https://www.britannica.com/place/Canada/The-administrations-of-Jean-Chretien-and-Paul-Martin-1993-2006 | The administrations of Jean Chrétien and Paul Martin, 1993–2006 | The administrations of Jean Chrétien and Paul Martin, 1993–2006
The new Liberal government faced several challenges, including an ongoing recession, political fragmentation along regional lines, and a resurgence of the independence movement in Quebec. In early 1995 Canada’s self-image was tarnished when the government disbanded the Canadian Airborne Regiment, which had been tainted by charges of torture and murder while serving in Somalia. Shortly thereafter Canada became involved in a dispute with Spain over Spanish commercial fishing in Canadian waters off Newfoundland. A Spanish fishing boat was seized, and tensions mounted between the two countries before an international agreement was negotiated to govern access and assure that depleted stocks would not be overfished.
In October 1995 the country came closer than ever before to political partition. Quebec held another referendum on secession, and this time the separatists were only narrowly defeated, by a margin of 50.6 to 49.4 percent. The independence movement benefited from the charismatic personality of federal representative Lucien Bouchard, who took over the leadership of the Parti Québécois and became premier of Quebec in 1996. As prosperity returned to the country, enthusiasm for independence in Quebec waned, and Bouchard became more pragmatic in his dealings with the federal government and his fellow provincial premiers. The goal remained the same, but, unless secession actually seemed likely, confrontation was to be avoided. In the meantime the federal government attempted to mollify Quebec by pursuing a policy of “distinct status” for the province but assuring, through legislation called the Clarity Bill, that any future referendum would require federal approval and involvement.
A new generation of Canadians—both inside and outside Quebec—seemed less concerned with the sovereignty issue and more interested in the opportunities that had emerged with NAFTA and its resultant prosperity. Economic growth—and the tax bounty that accompanied it—permitted provincial governments and the federal government to secure their fiscal position, though not without considerable rancour. Payments from Ottawa to the provinces were reduced as Chrétien was determined to balance the federal budget; in similar fashion, provincial governments shifted costs to municipal governments and individual citizens, who frequently found themselves without services they had come to expect or, in some cases, paying for those services with increased or new taxes and user fees. Prosperity camouflaged many problems encountered by the middle and upper classes, but working-class and unemployed Canadians found themselves without support. In some provinces, particularly Alberta and Ontario, both under the leadership of Progressive Conservatives, the cost cutting was ideological, deep, and divisive. Tax cuts in these provinces, particularly for wealthier citizens, were viewed as a panacea for Canada’s economic and social ills.
Although opposition parties enjoyed electoral success at the provincial level, they rarely won nationally. The Liberal Party, seen by many Canadians as the natural governing party, secured its position through its accommodating positions and its strength, particularly in the ridings (districts) of Ontario. Chrétien’s leadership was not dynamic, but it appeared competent and satisfactory, especially because his term was accompanied by a buoyant economy. In 1997 the Liberals were reelected. Although they won fewer than two-fifths of the vote, they captured 101 of Ontario’s 103 seats in the House of Commons and secured a governing majority. The Reform Party, which won 57 of the 74 ridings in Alberta, British Columbia, and Saskatchewan, supplanted the Bloc Québécois to become the official opposition party. Chrétien’s popularity began to wane in the late 1990s; by 2000, efforts to unite Canada’s conservatives bore some fruit with the creation of the Canadian Alliance, which elected as its leader Alberta’s former provincial treasurer Stockwell Day, who became the leader of the opposition in Ottawa. Nonetheless, the opposition was still split, consisting of parties as disparate as the conservative Canadian Alliance, the nationalist Bloc Québécois, and the socialist New Democratic Party (NDP), and in the 2000 election the Liberals were able to achieve a comfortable majority in the House of Commons, securing a third term for Chrétien—Canada’s first prime minister to win three successive majorities since 1945.
Chrétien stepped down as leader in 2003 to be replaced by his former finance minister, Paul Martin. Almost immediately, a series of financial scandals broke regarding massive government largesse to certain advertising firms in Quebec, notably at the time of and following the 1995 referendum. In addition, the Canadian Alliance and the Progressive Conservatives joined forces as the Conservative Party of Canada, forming a more unified opposition to the Liberals. The Liberals, however, won a fourth consecutive electoral victory in 2004, though Martin was denied an overall majority.
Martin’s Liberal minority government struggled to maintain power, but it nevertheless pursued major reforms of health care policy and legalized same-sex marriage. Hanging over the government, however, was the financial scandal in Quebec. A report on it from the Gomery Commission in November 2005 confirmed that the Liberals and their supporters had received excessive payments and was critical of Chrétien, though Martin himself was personally exonerated. Later that month the Liberals lost a vote-of-confidence motion in the House of Commons, and in the subsequent election in January 2006 the Conservatives were elected to oversee a minority government; their leader, Stephen Harper, became prime minister.
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eaddf266eaf7aeac64f1ad71259c051f | https://www.britannica.com/place/Canada/The-arts | The arts of Canada | The arts of Canada
The first truly Canadian literary works were written in French by explorers, missionaries, and settlers, and many of them became the inspiration for subsequent writings. Some were notable literature, such as Marc Lescarbot’s Histoire de la Nouvelle France (1609; History of New France). The first major contribution in English was made by Thomas Haliburton of Nova Scotia, with his The Clockmaker; or, The Sayings and Doings of Samuel Slick of Slickville (1836). The years following were also marked by some works that have become classics—for example, William Kirby’s Golden Dog (1877), Robert W. Service’s Trail of ’98 (1910), Sara Jeannette Duncan’s The Imperialist (1904), the humorous works of Stephen Leacock, and the long series of Jalna novels by Mazo de la Roche. From roughly the mid-16th to the mid-18th century, the colonial literature of New France was published in France and intended for European readers. The first French books to be published in Canada appeared only in the 1830s. Much writing thereafter was influenced by the strongly Roman Catholic Quebec movement.
Several first-rate Canadian writers emerged in the 1940s. Hugh MacLennan established an international reputation with Barometer Rising (1941) and Two Solitudes (1945), Thomas Raddall with His Majesty’s Yankees (1942), and W.O. Mitchell with Who Has Seen the Wind? (1947). Gabrielle Roy’s novel Bonheur d’occasion (1945; “Secondhand Happiness”; Eng. trans. The Tin Flute) was an immediate success, and Germaine Guèvremont’s Le Survenant and Marie-Didace (1945 and 1947; published together as The Outlander) placed her in the forefront of French-language novelists, in both Montreal and Paris. Still later came the novels of Robertson Davies and the satires of Mordecai Richler. The French Canadian novel came into its own with Marie-Claire Blais’s La Belle Bête (1959; Mad Shadows) and the notable works of Jacques Godbout, such as L’Aquarium (1962), and Hubert Aquin’s Prochain Épisode (1965; “Next Episode”). In 1979 the Prix Goncourt, one of France’s most prominent literary awards, was won by Acadian writer Antonine Maillet for her novel Pélagie-la-charrette (Eng. trans. Pélagie).
In the 1960s and ’70s other writers such as Margaret Laurence, Alice Munro, and Margaret Atwood gained international prominence. In the 1980s Davies wrote a successful trilogy of novels, and Richler produced his most ambitious work, Solomon Gursky Was Here (1989). Contemporary practitioners with international followings include Timothy Findlay, who captured the Governor General’s Literary Award for The Wars (1977), and Newfoundland-born Wayne Johnston. The immigrant’s recollection of new and old societies and the difficulty of transition has been well explored by Michael Ondaatje, Nino Ricci, Rohinton Mistry, and others.
Although the growth of novel writing was the main feature of Canada’s literary scene after World War I, marked changes also took place in the work of Canadian poets during that period. John McCrae’s “In Flanders Fields” (1915) was the best-known Canadian verse related to World War I, but since then E.J. Pratt, Earle Birney, Irving Layton, Anne Hébert, James Reaney, Al Purdy, and Ralph Gustafson, among others, have attracted widespread attention. To their achievements should be added newer voices such as those of Patrick Lane, Susan Musgrave, and Dionne Brand. There has also been a growing movement to collect the literature of Canada’s indigenous peoples, as exemplified by the work of American-born Canadian poet and typographer Robert Bringhurst.
Canadian playwriting experienced something of a renaissance beginning in the 1960s. Toronto has now become the third largest production centre in the English-speaking world after London and New York City. Leading playwrights include the prolific Michel Tremblay, who has been a force since his groundbreaking Les Belles-Soeurs (1968; “The Sisters-in-Law”), and John Gray, who established his reputation with Billy Bishop Goes to War (1981).
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c24fcdd6cbcc2d5e04c6b0db28b6d347 | https://www.britannica.com/place/Canada/The-French-and-Indian-Seven-Years-War | The French and Indian (Seven Years’) War | The French and Indian (Seven Years’) War
The French had also been active on the Ohio and had opened a line of communication from Lake Erie to the Forks. The rivals clashed on the Monongahela, and Washington was forced to surrender and retreat. This clash marked the beginning of the Anglo-French war known in America as the French and Indian War (1754–63) and in Europe and Canada as the Seven Years’ War (1756–63).
At the start of the war, the two sides seemed grossly mismatched. The English colonies contained more than 1,000,000 people, compared with the 70,000 of New France, and were prospering, with strong agricultural economies and growing trade ties with the West Indies and Britain. Their location along the Atlantic coast, the size of their population, and the large area they encompassed meant that the best France could hope for in the war was the maintenance of the status quo. New France was economically weak, dependent on France for trade and defense, and strategically vulnerable, with but two seaward outlets to its continental empire, New Orleans and Quebec. Nonetheless, the French and the local militia were excellent soldiers, experienced in forest warfare and supported by several thousand men from their First Nations allies. They also received military help from France in 1756 in the form of 12 battalions of regular troops (about 7,000 soldiers), a contingent of artillery, and the command of Louis-Joseph de Montcalm-Grozon, marquis de Montcalm, who was an excellent field general.
The conflict was pursued around the globe, with fighting in India, North America, Europe, and elsewhere as well as on the high seas. Britain, which was primarily a sea power, initially did not have the land army resources to overwhelm the French in America, and instead it was forced to rely heavily on the colonial militia. However, the colonies were politically disunited, and their militia forces were neither as well organized nor as well trained as those of New France. Thus, early victories went to the French, who captured Fort Oswego and Fort William Henry in 1757 and sternly repulsed the British at Fort Carillon (Fort Ticonderoga) in 1758. Then greater numbers of troops and supplies and more skillful British generalship began to turn the tide. In 1758 the British captured and razed Louisbourg on Cape Breton Island, and the following year Sir Jeffrey Amherst began a cautious but irresistible advance from Fort William Henry by way of Fort Carillon to Lake Champlain. Also in 1759 an expedition under General James Wolfe sailed up the St. Lawrence and besieged Quebec, which fell to the British after the celebrated Battle of the Plains of Abraham. Sir William Johnson took Niagara, and John Forbes took the Forks of the Ohio. New France was caught in cruelly closing pincers. In 1760 Amherst closed in on Montreal, and New France capitulated. By the terms of the Treaty of Paris in 1763, all of French North America east of the Mississippi River was ceded to Britain, with the exception of the tiny islands of Saint-Pierre and Miquelon off Newfoundland.
The British victory produced three major results. First, the danger from New France to the American colonies was ended, thus weakening their dependence on Britain. Second, the British (largely Scots with some Americans) took over and expanded the Canadian fur trade. And, third, Britain now possessed a colony populated almost wholly by persons of alien descent and Roman Catholic religion.
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72a2e1677d78c939f58d0d06c59cfe8d | https://www.britannica.com/place/Canada/The-growth-of-Anglo-French-rivalry | The growth of Anglo-French rivalry | The growth of Anglo-French rivalry
In the 1660s two voyageurs, Médard Chouart des Groseilliers and Pierre Esprit Radisson fled to New England, exasperated by the high cost of the long haul back to Quebec and by the heavy tax on fur pelts. From there they were escorted to England, where in 1668 they persuaded a group of London merchants to attempt to gain the fur trade of the mid-continent by way of Hudson Bay. The Hudson’s Bay Company, incorporated in 1670 as a proprietary company (i.e., one that owned the land outright), was given exclusive trading rights in all the territory draining into Hudson Bay. New France now found itself caught between the Iroquois, supported by the Dutch and English, to the south and the Hudson’s Bay Company to the north. After he arrived in 1672, Louis de Buade, comte de Palluau et de Frontenac, the governor of New France, made a vigorous push into the continental interior. Frontenac had been directed to concentrate settlement in areas with easy sea access to France, but he defied those instructions in search of profits from furs. For this and other transgressions he was recalled in 1682.
Over the next three decades the French struggled—sometimes with success—to improve their strategic position in America. The British failed in an assault on Quebec in 1690 and were almost completely expelled from Hudson Bay by 1700, while in the late 1690s Frontenac (who had returned as governor in 1689) finally defeated the Iroquois, who sued for peace. Much of this success was lost, however, by the Treaty of Utrecht, which ended Queen Anne’s War (1702–13) between the British and French in North America, as well as the War of the Spanish Succession. Under the treaty’s terms, France lost its claim to Hudson Bay, its hold on Acadia, and its position in Newfoundland. After Queen Anne’s War there was a generation of peace, during which the governors of New France built a line of fortified posts: Louisbourg on Cape Breton Island, Chambly on the Richelieu River, and Carillon (Ticonderoga) on the portage from Lake George to Lake Champlain; the trading posts of Niagara, Toronto, Detroit, and Michilimackinac extended the line to the west. At the same time, French priests and military emissaries kept the Acadians and the First Nations allies of New France aware of their former ties with New France. The Acadians, claiming to be neutral, obstinately refused to take the oath of allegiance to the British crown.
New France enjoyed steady growth during the early 18th century. French défrichements (“clearings”) spread along the St. Lawrence between Quebec and Montreal, the iron forges at Saint-Maurice produced iron for Quebec stoves and even cannons, and shipbuilding flourished. The colony nevertheless remained largely dependent on the fur trade, which, in turn, relied on keeping the west open. Access to the far west was frustrated, however, by three wars with the Fox (1714–42), who strove to close the Wisconsin portages to French traders. Then Pierre Gaultier de Varennes et de La Vérendrye turned the flanks of the Fox and Sioux by proceeding by way of Lake Superior and the Rainy River to the Lake of the Woods and the Red and Saskatchewan river country. There he found a new region for the French fur trade and also cut into the English trade in the area of Hudson Bay and the Hayes River.
The expansion of New France in these years was challenged, however, by the outbreak of the War of the Austrian Succession in Europe in 1740 (the war’s American phase is called King George’s War [1744–48]). Fighting broke out again in Acadia, on Lake Champlain, and among the English and French First Nations allies in the Great Lakes region and the Ohio River valley. It was a confused conflict of raids and reprisals marked by only one action of major significance—the capture of Louisbourg (Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia) by an expedition from New England. Holding the St. Lawrence River valley, the Great Lakes, and the mouth of the Mississippi River, the French commanded the better strategic position in America, though the English colonies were far wealthier and more populous.
All this was understood by Roland-Michel Barrin, marquis de La Galissonière, the exceptionally able governor of New France (1747–49). He declared in a memorandum to the French court that New France must restore its position by a bold advance into the Ohio River valley, which theretofore had not been claimed by New France or its First Nations allies. His policy was adopted by his successors, and in 1749 Pierre-Joseph Céloron de Blainville led an expedition down the Ohio to claim the valley for France and to confine English colonists and their fur trade to the east of the Allegheny Mountains. The British colonists from New York to Virginia immediately felt the threat to their trade, expansion, and settlement. In 1749 the Ohio Company was formed in London with English and American support, and the fortress of Halifax in Nova Scotia was built to counter the French fort at Louisbourg, which had been restored to New France by the peace of 1748 ending King George’s War. In 1753 an American expedition under George Washington (later the first president of the United States) was sent to the Forks of the Ohio to make good the English claim.
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7ce6e95f2343018be9f0217cb6a75219 | https://www.britannica.com/place/Canada/The-Laurier-era | The Laurier era | The Laurier era
For 15 years Wilfrid Laurier’s Liberal government reflected the acquiescent politics of prosperity and progress, but it also fostered a degree of social activism inspired by the growing Progressive movement in the United States. Many Canadian religious leaders, intellectuals, journalists, educators, politicians, and business leaders concluded that government action was necessary to alleviate poverty, establish safe and sanitary working conditions, improve urban life, and moderate some of the worst excesses of what was then a virtually unbridled capitalism. Progressive policies enacted by the Laurier government and its successors included woman suffrage, the regulation or public ownership of utilities, public health programs, improved and universal education, and government action against the growing number of monopolies and trusts. Although Laurier himself showed little understanding of Progressivism, several of his ministers became convinced Progressives. W.L. Mackenzie King, Canada’s first labour minister, drew up Canada’s first labour relations legislation, adopted in 1907, and its first antimonopoly legislation, passed in 1910.
Canada entered the 20th century in a confident mood, best exemplified by a vast and extravagant expansion of the railway network in response to the settlement of the west and the initial development of the mineral and forest wealth of the nearer, or middle, north. The Laurier government built one transcontinental railway from Quebec to a point east of Winnipeg; from there to Prince Rupert a well-subsidized Grand Trunk Railway of eastern Canada built a subsidiary line, the Grand Trunk Pacific. Not to be deterred by two transcontinental railways in a country that was yet little more than a narrow corridor from east to west, two Canadian private entrepreneurs, William Mackenzie and Donald Mann, built or bought the Canadian Northern bit by bit with lavish subsidies from provincial governments. By 1914 Canada had one long, established, coast-to-coast railway (the Canadian Pacific) and two railway lines from Montreal to the Pacific toiling to complete their tracks in the Rocky Mountains. In such a wealth of easy capital and easy prosperity, governments were not likely to be defeated.
Yet two factors—one as old as Canada and one relatively new—soon disturbed the smooth current of prosperity. The former was the position of the French in a predominantly English-speaking Canada, a never-quite-settled issue that again arose over participation in what some French considered Britain’s wars—first the South African War in 1899 and then World War I. As a result, a new nationalist movement, led by Henri Bourassa, arose among French Canadian clerics and intellectuals, who articulated their views in Le Devoir, a newspaper founded in 1910. The second factor was the impingement of the world on a Canada intensely absorbed in its own development and troubles. The two were to combine to end the Laurier regime and bring Canada, still troubled, into the world at large.
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3977d3b9d0457f5d35d1b756950614f3 | https://www.britannica.com/place/Canada/The-Montreal-fur-traders | The Montreal fur traders | The Montreal fur traders
The redivision of the continent begun by the American Revolution had been intensified by rivalry in the fur trade. The French fur trade of Montreal had been taken over by British American traders who conducted the trade with the aid of French experience and skill. The British supplied the capital, and the French voyageurs supplied the skill of canoeists and the knowledge of the country and the First Nations. These “Montrealers” pushed the trade with great boldness southwest from Montreal, where they had persuaded the British government not to surrender the fur posts after 1783 on the ground that debts to loyalists had not been paid by the new United States. Thus, the trade of the lands lost by France in 1763 and by Britain in 1783 was kept tributary to Montreal rather than to New York and Philadelphia.
In 1783 the Montreal fur traders established the North West Company to challenge the Hudson’s Bay Company for dominance in the northwest. They organized a regular system of canoe convoys from Montreal to the western plains and what is now Canada’s Northwest Territories, building a chain of fur-trading posts across the west and sending explorers as far as the Pacific coast. The rivalry with the Hudson’s Bay Company sometimes degenerated into violence and even murder. The fur trade was lucrative for both companies and had a profound impact on the First Nations of the area. As the Hudson’s Bay Company pushed inland to meet the challenge of its new rival, contacts between whites and First Nations expanded, and the Métis population grew and began to develop a distinct culture and its own national ambition.
In 1812 Thomas Douglas, 5th earl of Selkirk, who then was a coproprietor of the Hudson’s Bay Company, established the Red River Settlement in southern Manitoba along the main canoe routes of the North West Company. Acting primarily out of charitable motives, Selkirk recruited poor and indigent settlers from Scotland to farm the land. The Métis, many of whom were North West Company employees, saw the Red River settlers as rivals and the settlement as a threat to their livelihood. Tensions between the two groups reached a climax when the Métis attacked the settlers in 1816 in what came to be known as the Seven Oaks Massacre. That clash and a number of other incidents led to a truce between the two companies and subsequently to a merger in 1821. As a result of the merger (or, more accurately, North West’s acquisition by Hudson’s Bay), the canoe expeditions from Montreal to the west were terminated, and Montreal’s nearly two centuries as an entrepôt of the fur trade ended.
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d6eb06bd112b1f0773d9007bdb3dd99e | https://www.britannica.com/place/Canada/The-War-of-1812 | The War of 1812 | The War of 1812
The War of 1812 can largely be traced to the Anglo-U.S. rivalry in the fur trade. British traders and soldiers had supplied Native Americans and afforded them moral support in their contest with the advancing U.S. frontier. Britain had surrendered the western posts by the Jay Treaty of 1794, but the cause of the Canadian fur trade and of the First Nationsremained the same: preserving the wilderness. Certainly, apart from single-ship actions and privateering, the war was fought for the conquest of Canada and elimination of the British as an ally of the First Nations. In the end, the war was a stalemate and closed with no concession by either side. However, it did push back the indigenous peoples’ frontier, increase the breach between the United States and the British North American colonies, and confirm the U.S.-Canadian boundary. It also gave Canadians a stake in their land; they had fought for it, sometimes English and French together, and successfully staved off invasion.
The U.S.-Canadian border had been fixed in 1783 by a line running generally westward from the mouth of the St. Croix River to the “high lands” dividing Quebec from Maine; then by the mountains between the St. Lawrence and Connecticut river valleys to latitude 45° N; by that line to the St. Lawrence; and then by the centre line of the river and the Great Lakes and the Pigeon and Rainy rivers to the northwest angle of the Lake of the Woods. The Treaty of Ghent (1814) confirmed this demarcation, although the location of the Maine–New Brunswick boundary remained in dispute until the Webster-Ashburton Treaty of 1842. A convention in 1818 reduced the rights of U.S. fishermen along the shores of the Atlantic colonies and made latitude 49° N (the 49th parallel) the boundary from the Lake of the Woods to the Rocky Mountains. Beyond, the Oregon Territory was to be jointly occupied for a period of 10 years, an occupation ended, after some threat of war over the U.S. claim to the whole, by the Oregon Treaty of 1846, which divided the territory and extended the boundary westward along the 49th parallel to the coast.
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d7983fc4d68c130cb7ee25c6a48cde0e | https://www.britannica.com/place/Canada/U-S-Canadian-relations | U.S.-Canadian relations | U.S.-Canadian relations
The policy of the Liberal government (in power since 1935), wartime cooperation, and the close economic interconnections between Canada and the United States had brought the two neighbours into a more intimate relationship than ever before. After World War II Canada’s special relations with the United States continued and expanded. Two new trends proved significant. One was the growth of “continentalism,” a special relationship that challenged the theory of national independence. The second was the unequal rate of economic and technological development, especially after 1950. The United States, the world leader in industrial capacity and technology, was nearing the limits to which it could exploit some of its natural resources. Canada, within the inner defense orbit of the United States, had many such resources undeveloped and available. The interest of the United States was, therefore, to have assured access to these resources as they were developed, largely with U.S. capital. This U.S. policy, however, tended to keep Canada a producer of primary commodities and a country of relatively low income. Canada’s national development—as well as its hope of educational and cultural development—required the continued growth, under Canadian control, of its manufacturing industries. Yet its provinces—owners of the natural resources of the country, except for those controlled by the Northwest Territories, and driven by the need to secure revenue and to satisfy the popular demand for development—were eager to sell their resources to foreign, usually U.S., investors. This disparity of aim made U.S.-Canadian relations, if much better diplomatically than in the days of territorial expansion and boundary settlements, much more subtle and complicated than ever before.
Still, the special relationship with the United States continued, rooted in geography and common interest. Ties between the two countries were tested, however, by the September 11 attacks of 2001. Quickly visible was a tightening of security along the U.S.-Canadian border. Perhaps the greatest challenge came with Canada’s refusal to support the United States in Iraq, which brought to the surface strains in relations that had actually existed for some time.
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aa7504974c21335ff0e2e11f46be4ec5 | https://www.britannica.com/place/Canada/Visual-arts | Visual arts | Visual arts
Sculpture and handicrafts have existed since Canada’s earliest history, though it was only in the 20th century that museums and scholars began to take note of important works of art such as the stone carvings of the Inuit and the totem-pole carvings of the Northwest Coast indigenous peoples. Since then, new kinds of Inuit sculpture and graphic work have flourished, as artists have built on their own history and also borrowed elements from Western tradition. (For more on these traditions, see arts, Native American.)
Painting has been the focus of most Canadian artists since the arrival of the Europeans. Canadian painters were greatly influenced by the styles of their European roots, but their subject matter increasingly came to be Canadian locales and landscapes. In the mid-19th century Paul Kane, an immigrant from Ireland, traveled across Canada and painted numerous canvases depicting Canadian landscapes and the lives of indigenous people, fur traders, and missionaries, all rendered in a contemporary European genre and style. During the same period, Cornelius Krieghoff, of German descent, painted more than 2,000 canvases of anecdotal scenes in Quebec. His paintings brought new dimensions to the Canadian scene and a colourful romanticism—influenced by contemporary German trends—unsurpassed by other Canadian artists of the time. Homer Watson continued the exploration of landscapes in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, reflecting the influence of the American Hudson River school in his work.
After the Dominion of Canada was created in 1867, many Canadian artists attempted to form exhibiting groups that espoused a distinctly Canadian painting style free from American and European influences. In 1907 the Canadian Art Club, a small society of painters, was formed in Toronto. Beginning in 1913, another group of painters in Toronto sought to develop a national form of painting, taking their inspiration from the Canadian landscape and the work in particular of the Canadian painter Tom Thomson. A.Y. Jackson is among the best-known of this group, which took the name Group of Seven after an exhibit in 1920. Emily Carr, a contemporary of the Group of Seven, depicted indigenous Northwest Coast people in her art.
After the 1930s, Canadian painters generally moved away from the landscape theme. In Quebec, where art tended to be more theoretical than in the other provinces, painting evolved through a number of movements. A Surrealist-influenced group in Montreal known as Les Automatistes dominated the Canadian art scene in the 1940s, with members such as Jean-Paul Riopelle and Fernand Leduc gaining prominence. In reaction to that movement, Montreal artists such as Guido Molinari and Claude Tonsignant in the mid-1950s freed contemporary painting from its Surrealist style and directed it toward an emphasis on structure and colour. Similar trends occurred in the 1950s in Toronto, where a group called Painters Eleven, led by Harold Town and Jack Bush, promoted abstract art. By the 1960s, contemporary European and American trends—such as Pop art and conceptual art—dominated Canadian painting. Still, landscape remained the favourite theme of many painters, whether in a traditional or an avant-garde style.
Sculpture in Canada was for many years much less avidly pursued than painting. The works that were produced consisted largely of carved figures made of wood, stone, or bronze. However, beginning in the 1960s, sculptors challenged the traditional notions of form, content, and technique and took up international sculptural genres and styles such as earth art and Minimalism. Artists such as Les Levine and Michael Snow also worked as painters, but their three-dimensional work established their reputations.
In the 1970s and ’80s artists in all media explored a wide range of styles: major artists included Betty Goodwin, known for her mixed-media work and drawings; Ivan Eyre, known for his graphic figurative paintings; and Roland Poulin, known for his abstract concrete sculptures. During this period a new tradition of constructed sculpture developed in which abstract shapes were created from a variety of materials, including steel, aluminum, and plastic, and Canadian sculptors began to collaborate with architects in the design of public buildings.
By the end of the 20th century, new media such as video art and performance art were challenging the dominance of painting and traditional forms of sculpture. An increasing number of museum and gallery spaces were being opened to promote the work of contemporary Canadian artists; particularly notable was the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art, which opened in Toronto in 1999. At the beginning of the 21st century, art in Canada was marked by a questioning of the nature of art, as well as by experimentation and innovation. The resulting work has ranged from the intensely personal to public discourses about social and environmental issues.
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24317a6d5ac6080d4845c850086ba961 | https://www.britannica.com/place/Canada/World-War-II | World War II | World War II
On September 9, 1939, eight days after Germany’s invasion of Poland, Canada’s Parliament voted to declare war on Germany, which the country did the next day. (Its separate declaration of war was a measure of the independence granted it in the 1931 Statute of Westminster; in 1914 there had been no such independence and no separate declaration of war.) The vote was nearly unanimous, a result that rested on the assumption that there was to be a “limited liability” war effort that would consist primarily of supplying raw materials, foodstuffs, and munitions and the training of Commonwealth air crews, mainly for the Royal Air Force. Canadian men were to be actively discouraged from serving in the infantry, which was expected to take high casualties, and it was anticipated that few infantry units would be formed. If this plan were followed, King and other government leaders reasoned, conscription would be unnecessary. King and the leader of the Conservative opposition had both pledged themselves to a “no conscription” policy even before the war began.
The expulsion of the British from the Continent and the fall of France in the spring of 1940 totally changed the circumstances. Canada’s overseas allies had fallen or were in danger of doing so, and the country immediately concluded an agreement at Ogdensburg, New York, with the United States for the defense of North America. Moreover, Canada now stood in the forefront of the war. After Britain, it was (prior to the U.S. entry into the war in December 1941) the second most powerful of Germany’s adversaries. The emphasis on supply gave way to a focus on combat forces. King’s “no conscription” policy had been modified in 1940 when the government introduced conscription for home defense, but at the same time King renewed his pledge not to send conscripts overseas for “active” duty. In 1942 the King government called a national plebiscite asking Canadian voters to release it from that pledge; nearly two-thirds of Canadian voters supported conscription, though in Quebec three-fourths opposed it. Thereafter the government enforced compulsory service for home defense, but King, fearing an Anglo-French cleavage, did not send conscripts overseas during the early years of the war, preferring to avoid such a move unless absolutely necessary.
Still, Canadians were deeply enmeshed in the war. Under increased pressure from military leaders to move Canadian troops into battle, two battalions were sent to help defend Hong Kong (then a British colony), but the results were disastrous, as the Japanese imperial forces swept to victory. An ill-planned and poorly executed raid on the German-occupied French port of Dieppe was attempted, largely by Canadian troops, in August 1942, with significant casualties. Lessons learned from the disaster, however, later proved useful during the planning for the Normandy (France) Invasion in 1944. What became known as the Battle of the Atlantic marked one of Canada’s largest commitments. Canadian escorts helped protect the convoys that traversed the Atlantic bringing supplies to Britain. Again Canada suffered many casualties, both in the naval service and in the merchant marine. Under the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan, Canadians flew in both Royal Canadian Air Force and combined Royal Air Force (RAF) squadrons from the Battle of Britain through the bombing campaigns over Germany to eventual victory. Aircrew losses were particularly heavy in the RAF Bomber Command.
At Normandy in June 1944, Canada was assigned one of the five invasion beaches. Casualties began to mount quickly as the offensive in France dragged on, and the Canadian army became strapped for infantry reinforcements. The Canadian army, which had been fighting in Sicily and Italy since July 1943, was crippled by particularly high infantry casualties in late summer and early fall 1944. King’s minister of national defense, J.L. Ralston, supported sending conscripts overseas and was forced to resign as a result. Ralston’s resignation precipitated a cabinet crisis, which was resolved in November 1944 when King relented and agreed to send conscripts to the front to reinforce the army’s infantry units.
Not only was Canada’s war effort in World War II far more extensive than that in World War I, but it also had a much more lasting impact on Canadian society. By the end of the war, more than 1,000,000 Canadians (about 50,000 of whom were women) had served in the three services. Although total casualties were lower than in the previous war, still some 42,000 were killed or died in service, and 54,400 were wounded. The domestic war effort was no less significant. Canada hosted, and paid much of the cost of, the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan, which trained more than 100,000 Commonwealth airmen. Canadian factories turned out everything from rifles to Lancaster heavy bombers, and Canadian scientists, technicians, and engineers worked on advanced weapons technology, including the atomic bomb (for which Canada supplied the uranium ore). Canadian foods, direct cash contributions to Britain, and munitions for the Allies, including the Soviet Union, contributed to the overall war effort.
The government intervened in almost all aspects of Canadian life to regulate the war effort, ensure a smooth flow of troops and supplies, and curtail inflation. Agencies such as the Wartime Prices and Trade Board and the National War Labour Board represented a massive growth in the federal government, bringing a surge of government spending and a vast increase in the civil service. Toward the end of the war, the King government launched even further social welfare policies, introducing a major veterans’ benefits program, family allowances, farm price supports, compulsory collective bargaining, and a national housing program. It would undoubtedly have gone even further than it did in 1945 and 1946—a national health insurance plan was under consideration—but for the opposition of provincial governments, particularly Ontario and Quebec. Despite that opposition, however, the war produced a significant shift of power toward Ottawa. World War II had been a watershed in Canadian history, as the role of the federal government in engineering national economic growth had been considerably strengthened.
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78c1159c72ee6e1d258312c3fc53053a | https://www.britannica.com/place/Canaveral-National-Seashore | Canaveral National Seashore | Canaveral National Seashore
…of the wildlife refuge overlaps Canaveral National Seashore, established in 1975. The national seashore covers an area of 90 square miles (233 square km) between New Smyrna Beach (north) and the space centre (south) and includes 24 miles (39 km) of undeveloped barrier beaches between the Atlantic on the east…
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d634de119c2374294b64b4a31c9fcb7a | https://www.britannica.com/place/Cangas-de-Onis | Cangas de Onís | Cangas de Onís
…kingdom with its capital at Cangas de Onís. The stories and relics of Pelayo associated with the nearby shrine of Covadonga, the preserved site of the first major victory against the Moors (722), belong to legend rather than to fact; it was, however, in this legendary guise that he became…
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95030d2c906e7ecd2f37f2da326816b4 | https://www.britannica.com/place/Cape-Cod | Cape Cod | Cape Cod
Cape Cod, hooked sandy peninsula of glacial origin encompassing most of Barnstable county, southeastern Massachusetts, U.S. It extends 65 miles (105 km) into the Atlantic Ocean, has a breadth of between 1 and 20 miles (1.6 and 32 km), and is bounded by Cape Cod Bay (north and west), Buzzards Bay (west), and Vineyard and Nantucket sounds (south). The Elizabeth Islands are located to the southwest, and the islands of Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket lie to the south. The Cape Cod Canal, 17.5 miles (28 km) long, cuts across the base of the peninsula, separating it from the mainland; it shortens the shipping distance between New York City and Boston by more than 75 miles (120 km).
Cape Cod was named by Bartholomew Gosnold, an English explorer who visited its shores in 1602 and took aboard a “great store of codfish.” In 1620 the Pilgrims landed at the site of Provincetown, on the hooked tip of Cape Cod, before proceeding to Plymouth.
The cape’s climate is influenced by its overall proximity to the Atlantic Ocean and the presence of both the Gulf Stream current and the Labrador Current; the climate tends to be moderate compared with that of the mainland, with warmer winters and cooler summers. Plant life includes beach grasses, heath, and trees such as white cedar, red maple, pitch pine, and beech. Shorebirds and seabirds such as piping plovers and terns are abundant. The cape’s favourable climate, scenic beauty, and proximity to the Eastern Seaboard’s major urban areas have made it one of the country’s premier tourist and vacation destinations. During the summer coastal towns and villages such as Barnstable, Bourne, Chatham, Dennis, Eastham, Falmouth, Harwich, Hyannis, Provincetown, Sandwich, Truro, Wellfleet, and Woods Hole become densely populated resorts and busy fishing ports. There is a major oceanographic institution at Woods Hole, established in 1930. An airport and summer ferries link Provincetown, the northernmost town, to Boston; ferries also connect Provincetown and other points on the cape with Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket, both also major tourist and vacation destinations. The economy of Cape Cod is boosted by Otis Air National Guard Base (in Bourne, Mashpee, and Sandwich). Limited farming produces extensive crops of cranberries, as well as asparagus.
The northern and eastern sides of the cape’s hook were designated Cape Cod National Seashore in 1961. Monomoy National Wildlife Refuge is located on islands off the southeastern tip of the cape.
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6d3841fc03e0257d912bf447d5f45386 | https://www.britannica.com/place/Cape-Fear-River | Cape Fear River | Cape Fear River
Cape Fear River, river in central and southeastern North Carolina, U.S., formed by the confluence of the Deep and Haw rivers along the boundary between Chatham and Lee counties. It flows generally southeast past Fayetteville, Elizabethtown, and Wilmington and enters the Atlantic Ocean at Southport, opposite Smith Island, after a course of about 200 miles (320 km). The chief tributary, the South River, joins the Cape Fear River just above the latter’s estuary. The southern portion of the estuary forms part of the Intracoastal Waterway. A series of locks and dams makes the river navigable from Wilmington to Fayetteville. The river is named for Cape Fear, at the southern tip of Smith Island, the site of dangerous shoals. The river and its region are the setting for the popular Hollywood film noir Cape Fear (originally made in 1962 and remade in 1991), which is based on the novel The Executioner (1958) by John MacDonald.
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e9c6a029fd697214f46772588fe20501 | https://www.britannica.com/place/Cape-Girardeau | Cape Girardeau | Cape Girardeau
Cape Girardeau, city, Cape Girardeau county, southeastern Missouri, U.S. It lies along the Mississippi River (there bridged to Illinois) at the southeast edge of the Ozark Plateau, 100 miles (160 km) south of St. Louis. Established before 1793 by the French Canadian Louis Lorimier, it was named for Jean Baptiste Girardot (or Girardeau), who had built a trading post (c. 1733) at nearby Cape Rock. Until its occupation by Union troops during the American Civil War, it was a bustling river port; abundant waterpower fueled flour mills and sawmills. A bitter struggle to obtain adequate rail service ended when Louis Houck, a lawyer and historian, organized the Gulf System (1902) and linked Cape Girardeau with the West (via St. Louis) and the Gulf of Mexico. The city’s manufactures include paper products, clothing, storage systems, shoes, and automotive components. The city is the seat of Southeast Missouri State University (1873). Trail of Tears State Park, commemorating the forced migration of the Cherokee Indians to Oklahoma, is to the north. Inc. town, 1808; city, 1843. Pop. (2000) 35,349; Cape Girardeau–Jackson Metro Area, 90,312; (2010) 37,941; Cape Girardeau–Jackson Metro Area, 96,275.
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c800682602b4c136111cb0d5c4fb237d | https://www.britannica.com/place/Cape-Gracias-a-Dios | Cape Gracias a Dios | Cape Gracias a Dios
Cape Gracias a Dios, Spanish Cabo Gracias a Dios, extreme southeastern Honduras and northeastern Nicaragua, on an island forming part of the Coco River delta. It marks the end of the most noticeable protrusion of land into the Caribbean Sea between the Yucatán Peninsula and the South American mainland. It lies in the northern section of the Mosquito Coast, which was claimed by both Nicaragua and Honduras until the boundary was settled in 1960.
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1d3a344e954bc8c294249e8f639fdd6b | https://www.britannica.com/place/Cape-Lookout-National-Seashore | Cape Lookout National Seashore | Cape Lookout National Seashore
Cape Lookout National Seashore, scenic coastal area on the barrier islands of the southern Outer Banks, eastern North Carolina, U.S. The national seashore, created in 1966, has an area of 44 square miles (114 square km). The three islands—North Core Banks, South Core Banks, and Shackleford Banks—that make up the park extend 55 miles (90 km) from Ocracoke Inlet in the north to Beaufort Inlet in the southwest, fronting the Atlantic Ocean to the east and Pamlico and Core sounds to the west. These low, narrow barrier islands consist of beaches, low dunes, and flat grasslands along the Atlantic with salt marshes along Pamlico and Core sounds. Shackleford Banks has some maritime forests. Among the various beach grasses the sea oats, protected by law, have deep roots that anchor the sand. The islands are also a haven for the threatened loggerhead sea turtle and for many species of aquatic birds.
Access to the national seashore is by ferry or private boat only. Portsmouth Village, chartered in 1753 and now a restored village on the National Register of Historic Places, lies on the northern tip of North Core Banks. A lighthouse at Cape Lookout on the southern tip of South Core Banks dates to 1859 and is still operational. The islands were used for fishing and whaling for centuries, and the surrounding waters have long been known for their dangerous shoals. Just to the north is Ocracoke Island, which is part of Cape Hatteras National Seashore. Fort Macon State Park lies just to the west across Beaufort Inlet on the northeastern tip of Bogue Banks.
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75c7fd087211df555eb37e85fd6989a6 | https://www.britannica.com/place/Cape-San-Lucas | Cape San Lucas | Cape San Lucas
Cape San Lucas, Spanish Cabo San Lucas, extreme southern tip of the Baja California peninsula, Mexico. The rocky headland forms the southern extremity of the Sierra de San Lazaro and includes the western shore of San Lucas Bay. The isolated town of San Lucas lies 2 miles (3 km) north of the cape. The area is popular with tourists, and many resorts and hotels have been built there.
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28448d08c9210a4f69b58c5eb407fb9e | https://www.britannica.com/place/Cape-Sao-Roque | Cape São Roque | Cape São Roque
Cape São Roque, Portuguese Cabo de São Roque, headland on the northeastern Atlantic coast of Brazil, Rio Grande do Norte state, 20 miles (32 km) north of Natal, the state capital. It is frequently called the easternmost point of the South American continent (at 5°29′ S 35°13′ W), but the true eastern extremity is at Cape Branco (Cabo Branco), to the south-southeast (at 7°9′ S 34°47′ W).
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fbffe42bd24241b1c371a7f9b8766311 | https://www.britannica.com/place/Cape-Town/The-people | The people of Cape Town | The people of Cape Town
More than half of the residents of the city and metropolitan area are Coloured (the former official term for people of mixed race), about one-fourth are white, about one-fifth are Black, and the remainder are of Asian—primarily Indian—origin. In the metropolitan area Afrikaans is the first language of almost half the Coloureds and whites. Almost one-quarter speak English as a first language, and another quarter are equally at home in both languages. The Blacks are predominantly Xhosa-speaking. The majority of the residents are members of Protestant churches, but there are also sizable communities of Roman Catholics and Muslims.
South Africa’s Group Areas Act of 1966 consolidated earlier acts aimed at enforcing the policy of racial segregation known as apartheid, and it provided for the reservation of certain areas for residence and occupation by specific racial groups within the population. The act brought about many changes in Cape Town’s residential areas; for example, a mixed but predominantly Coloured neighbourhood known as District Six, south of the Castle, was cleared by bulldozers. Special legislation permitted Coloureds who were living in Cape Town’s Malay Quarter to remain, but other Coloured and Indian families were forced to move to designated areas, mostly east of the Cape Town–Muizenberg railway line and onto the Cape Flats. According to figures submitted to Parliament, by the end of 1980 some 29,300 Coloured and 1,500 Indian families, but only 195 white families, had been resettled on the Cape Peninsula. Because housing in the prescribed areas was inadequate, in 1975 the city undertook construction with government funding of a model township of 40,000 houses for Coloured families at Mitchells Plain, southeast of the city. Indian families were installed at Rylands and Pelikan Park. In 1990 the government did an about-face over District Six, opening it to residence by all sections of the Cape Town community.
Nearly all Blacks in Cape Town were confined to Guguletu and Nyanga West within the city limits and to neighbouring Nyanga and Langa. With the abolition of influx controls in the 1980s, a great movement of Blacks into Cape Town and other urban areas from impoverished Black states began, and camps of squatters were soon overcrowded. The government established a township for Blacks at Khayelitsha, east of Mitchells Plain, and squatter camps were then demolished in 1986 in an attempt to direct the Blacks there.
Cape Town was South Africa’s economic base until the discovery and exploitation of minerals in the interior; today it is one of the nation’s most important industrial centres and a major seaport. About nine-tenths of the fish eaten in South Africa is distributed through Cape Town, and Table Bay is one of the world’s largest fruit-exporting harbours. A petroleum refinery and chemical, fertilizer, cement, and automobile-assembly factories are situated in the metropolitan area. In the city the basic industries are connected with ship repair and maintenance, food processing, and wine making and with the manufacture of clothing, plastics, and leather goods. Tourism is of growing importance.
Cape Town is well served by department stores and supermarkets. A number of nationwide commercial concerns have their head offices in Cape Town, including oil and insurance companies.
The port of Cape Town handles some five million tons of cargo annually. The port does not admit ships of more than 40-foot draft at low tide, but its repair facilities and dry dock are important to interoceanic traffic. The Ben Schoeman Dock accommodates container traffic.
Cape Town International Airport has regular flights to Europe and North and South America. The bulk of its flights, however, are domestic. Cape Town is the terminus of a railway network that extends northward to Zimbabwe and beyond.
Two main radial freeways lead southward to False Bay. Supplementing these are two national routes and a beltway circling the central business district. An elevated freeway extends across the city’s shore area. Most whites and the more prosperous Coloureds and Blacks own motor vehicles. Public transport is particularly important for those who live far from their place of employment. Spoornet, which operates suburban trains, and a private bus company serve the Cape Town area. There also are minibuses that provide cheap, fast transportation.
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c9da2f594330db631f80570f4087ac59 | https://www.britannica.com/place/Capricornus | Capricornus | Capricornus
Capricornus, (Latin: “Goat-horned”) , also called the Goat, in astronomy, zodiacal constellation lying in the southern sky between Aquarius and Sagittarius, at about 21 hours right ascension and 20° south declination. Its stars are faint; Deneb Algedi (Arabic for “kid’s tail”) is the brightest star, with a magnitude of 2.9.
In astrology, Capricornus (also called Capricorn) is the 10th sign of the zodiac, considered as governing the period from about December 22 to about January 19. One explanation of the fishtail with which the goat is often represented is found in the Greek myth of Pan, who, to avoid the monster Typhon, jumped into the water just as he was changing into animal shape. The half above water assumed the shape of a goat while the lower half, the tail, assumed the shape of a fish.
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e939c8df17a4c8f33180933f68ad39c0 | https://www.britannica.com/place/Caratasca-Lagoon | Caratasca Lagoon | Caratasca Lagoon
Caratasca Lagoon, Spanish Laguna de Caratasca, lagoon in northeastern Honduras. The country’s largest lagoon, Caratasca extends inland from the Caribbean Sea for approximately 25 miles (40 km) and measures up to 55 miles (88 km) from northwest to southeast. It is linked to the Caribbean by a 3-mile (5-kilometre) channel, on the bank of which stands the village of Caratasca. Many islands, the largest of which is Tansín, dot its waters, and its low-lying shores are lined with dense tropical rainforests, which yield mahogany and cedar; shrimp are caught in the lagoon. The principal town is Puerto Lempira, on the southern shore.
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50c40b62ead93b36a682b2ed726b4f2a | https://www.britannica.com/place/Carchemish | Carchemish | Carchemish
Carchemish, Roman Europus, ancient city-state located in what is now southern Turkey, along the border with Syria. Carchemish lay on the west bank of the Euphrates River near the modern town of Jarābulus northern Syria, and 38 miles (61 km) southeast of Gaziantep, Turkey. It commanded a strategic crossing of the Euphrates River for caravans engaged in Syrian, Mesopotamian, and Anatolian trade. The site, occupying more than 230 acres (93 hectares), was excavated in 1911–20 by David G. Hogarth and later by Sir Leonard Woolley.
Carchemish was first occupied in the Neolithic Period (c. 7000 bc), as evidenced by the discovery of obsidian and flint blades and black burnished pottery at the lowest level of the excavations. Finds from subsequent eras included Uruk-Jamdat Nasr pottery, which was a typical product of Sumerian cities in the southern Euphrates River valley in about 3000 bc. Tombs have been dated to the end of the Early Bronze Age (c. 2300 bc) and the Middle and Late Bronze Age (c. 2300–1550 bc; c. 1550–1200 bc).Written records concerning Carchemish first appear in the Mari letters (royal archives of Mari, c. 18th century bc), which include a mention of a king named Aplahanda. At that time the city was a trade centre for wood most likely involved in shipping Anatolian timber down the Euphrates.
Later, the Hittite conqueror Suppiluliumas (c. 1375–35 bc) established his son as king of the city, which he used as a buffer state against Assyria, Mitanni, and Egypt. With the fall of the Hittite empire, Carchemish was probably overrun by the Sea Peoples who invaded the area at the end of the Bronze Age. The city gradually came under the control of Assyria, paying a heavy tribute to the Assyrian king Shalmaneser III (reigned 858–824 bc) and finally capitulating to Sargon II in 717 bc. The last important historical event in which Carchemish figured was the battle fought in 605 bc at which the Babylonian king Nebuchadrezzar II expelled the Egyptians from the area.
Carchemish was defended by thick double walls with strong towered gates, and in the centre of town stood a high citadel overlooking the river. Excavators have found the remains of a palace and temple on the citadel, as well as a rich series of orthostates (stone slabs set at the bottom of mud-brick walls) whose reliefs were carved in an eclectic style peculiar to northern Syria. Remnants of Roman villas and characteristic traits of Assyrian art, possibly brought by Hurrians from northern Syria, have also been found at Carchemish.
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737418d23244029fb2fe47b8de8e87d4 | https://www.britannica.com/place/Caria | Caria | Caria
Caria, ancient district of southwestern Anatolia. One of the most thoroughly Hellenized districts, its territory included Greek cities along its Aegean shore and a mountainous interior bounded by Lydia in the north and by Phrygia and Lycia in the east. The non-Greek Carians of the interior considered themselves an indigenous people and claimed kinship with the Lydians and Mysians, with whom they shared a common worship. Caria passed from Lydian to Persian rule about 546 bc. West Carian dynasts joined in the unsuccessful Ionian revolt against the Persian king Darius I (c. 499–493 bc), and the coastal cities were later drawn into the Greek Delian League. Early in the 4th century bc all of Caria was rejoined to Persia’s Achaemenian Empire as a separate satrapy under the rule of the native Hecatomnid dynasty. One of the rulers, Mausolus (c. 377–353 bc), transferred the capital from Mylasa to Halicarnassus, where his tomb came to rank as one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. After Alexander the Great, the history of Caria is one of autonomous cities and communes under the suzerainty of a succession of Hellenistic rulers until the entire region was incorporated into the Roman province of Asia (129 bc).
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240e39937fe4d30cfc7cc1c492e52fda | https://www.britannica.com/place/Carmel-Canyon | Carmel Canyon | Carmel Canyon
…east-west off Moss Landing, and Carmel Canyon to the south. Carmel Canyon, the principal tributary, trends north-northwest to join the main valley at an axial depth of 6,000 feet (1,800 metres). Below its junction with Carmel Canyon the Monterey Canyon trends sinuously southwestward and westward down to an axial depth…
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455157a63870a366cf009683579840bf | https://www.britannica.com/place/Caroline-Islands | Caroline Islands | Caroline Islands
Caroline Islands, archipelago in the western Pacific Ocean, the islands of which make up the republics of Palau and the Federated States of Micronesia. The Carolines may be divided into two physiographic units: coral caps surmount mountains of volcanic origin to the east, while to the west the islands are sections of Earth’s crust that have been folded and pushed above the surface of the ocean. Both units have formations rising to elevations of more than 500 feet (150 metres). The total land area is about 500 square miles (1,300 square km). The climate is tropical, with mean monthly temperatures in the high 70s to low 80s F (about 26 to 28 °C). Precipitation is evenly distributed throughout the year and generally exceeds 120 inches (3,050 mm) annually on populated islands. It may exceed 180 inches (4,570 mm) on the windward sides of high islands. In an average year more than 20 typhoons (tropical cyclones) originate in the Carolines.
The eastern Carolines were probably settled earlier than the 2nd century ce, and there is evidence indicating that Chinese trade goods had reached the western islands by the 7th century. Visited in the 16th century by Spanish navigators who named the islands for their king, Charles II, the Carolines were colonized by Spain only in the 19th century. They were sold to Germany after the Spanish-American War (1898), but in 1914 they were seized by Japan, which held them after 1919 as a League of Nations mandate. During World War II the islands, which had been heavily fortified by Japan, were occupied by the United States; in 1947 they became part of a UN trust territory under U.S. jurisdiction. The trust territory was dissolved in 1986.
Copra is the chief export, with handicrafts second. Tourism has been encouraged. The high western islands were mined during Japanese occupation. Some islands support tuna fishing, which has grown in importance because of the 200-mile (320-km) exclusive economic zone (EEZ) around each island group.
Great diversity of physical types, cultures, and languages prevails within the Carolines, with the western islands exhibiting an intermingling of Melanesian and Philippine influences and the eastern showing Polynesian characteristics. Nukuoro and Kapingamarangi atolls, part of the Federated States of Micronesia, represent western outliers of Polynesian culture. Pop. (2007 est.) 131,200.
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cc31cd0daff584ea9c76e94aeea0bfff | https://www.britannica.com/place/Cartagena-Colombia | Cartagena | Cartagena
Cartagena, capital of Bolívar departamento, northern Colombia, at the northern end of Cartagena Bay. The old walled sections, including the 17th-century fortress of San Felipe de Barajas, lie on a peninsula and the island of Getsemaní, but the city now spreads over the islands of Manga and Manzanillo and the mainland below La Popa Hill. In the old section are the ornate cathedral, the Church of San Pedro Claver (1603), the Palace of the Inquisition (1706), the main plaza, and the University of Cartagena (1827).
Founded in 1533, Cartagena de Indias gained fame after the mid-16th century when great fleets stopped annually to take on gold and other products of northern South America for convoy to Spain. The city became a centre for the Inquisition and a major slave market.
In 1811 the province of Cartagena declared its independence from Spain, and years of fighting followed. After falling into Spanish hands from 1815 to 1821, the city was recaptured by patriot forces. In the early national period, Cartagena continued as Colombia’s leading port, but it was handicapped by inadequate connections with the interior. By the 1840s it had declined in population and commerce. In the 20th century it experienced renewed growth and is now Colombia’s fifth largest city. Probably the most significant factor in Cartagena’s revitalization was the opening of petroleum fields in the Magdalena River valley after 1917. The completion of the pipeline from Barrancabermeja to the Bahía de Cartagena in 1926, and the building of an oil refinery, helped make the city the country’s chief oil port; platinum and coffee are other important exports. Manufactures include sugar, tobacco products, cosmetics, textiles, fertilizer, and leather goods. Tourism is of increasing importance. Pop. (2011 est.) 911,300.
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a40b379537d69bad1ff8a0bb0b7f1ca5 | https://www.britannica.com/place/Carupano | Carúpano | Carúpano
Carúpano, city, northern Sucre estado (state), northeastern Venezuela. It was founded in 1647 to be a centre of cacao production and trade; African slaves provided the necessary labour and contributed to the region’s rich folklore. Carúpano is famous for having one of the liveliest Carnival celebrations in the country.
Lying on the Caribbean Sea, near the centre of the twin peninsulas Araya and Paria, Carúpano is the commercial nucleus and principal port of an agricultural area, the principal export of which is still cacao. Many fertile valleys in the highlands around Carúpano and throughout Sucre (representing a high percentage of the state’s land area) are under cultivation. The city has grown slowly, as has all of Sucre. There is much out-migration to the national capital, Caracas, and to other states. Carúpano is accessible by highway and air as well as by sea. Pop. (2001) 117,878; (2011) 133,970.
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ac0d275ead4926c6dfd57f33da31cbd8 | https://www.britannica.com/place/Casa-Batllo | Casa Batlló | Casa Batlló
…multistoried Barcelona apartment buildings: the Casa Batlló (1904–06), a renovation that incorporated new equilibrated elements, notably the facade; and the Casa Milá (1905–10), the several floors of which are structured like clusters of tile lily pads with steel-beam veins. As was so often his practice, he designed the two buildings,…
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2dd5ab917923daedcccf7645b0a1f0e7 | https://www.britannica.com/place/Casa-de-las-Conchas | Casa de las Conchas | Casa de las Conchas
Cyprian; and the 16th-century Casa de las Conchas, the outside walls of which are covered with carvings of scallop shells, the symbol of the military Order of Santiago of which its first owner, Talavera Maldonado, was chancellor.
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65bf6920b56ab1bda1d706e5a3c4efc0 | https://www.britannica.com/place/Casiquiare | Casiquiare | Casiquiare
Casiquiare, also spelled Cassiquiare, navigable waterway in southern Venezuela. It branches off from the Orinoco River downstream from La Esmeralda and meanders generally southwestward for approximately 140 miles (225 km), joining the Guainía River to form the Negro River, a major affluent of the Amazon, across from Sardina, Colombia.
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2e0eb8651d1ac7fa095b1fd71629b0e9 | https://www.britannica.com/place/Caspian-Sea | Caspian Sea | Caspian Sea
Caspian Sea, Russian Kaspiyskoye More, Persian Darya-ye Khezer, world’s largest inland body of water. It lies to the east of the Caucasus Mountains and to the west of the vast steppe of Central Asia. The sea’s name derives from the ancient Kaspi peoples, who once lived in Transcaucasia to the west. Among its other historical names, Khazarsk and Khvalynsk derive from former peoples of the region, while Girkansk stems from Girkanos, “Country of the Wolves.”
The elongated sea sprawls for nearly 750 miles (1,200 km) from north to south, although its average width is only 200 miles (320 km). It covers an area of about 149,200 square miles (386,400 square km)—larger than the area of Japan—and its surface lies some 90 feet (27 metres) below sea level. The maximum depth, toward the south, is 3,360 feet (1,025 metres) below the sea’s surface. The drainage basin of the sea covers some 1,400,000 square miles (3,625,000 square km). The sea contains some 63,400,000,000 acre-feet or 18,800 cubic miles (78,200 cubic km) of water—about one-third of Earth’s inland surface water. The sea is bordered in the northeast by Kazakhstan, in the southeast by Turkmenistan, in the south by Iran, in the southwest by Azerbaijan, and in the northwest by Russia.
The Caspian is the largest salt lake in the world, but that has not always been true. Scientific studies have shown that until relatively recent geologic times, approximately 11 million years ago, it was linked, via the Sea of Azov, the Black Sea, and the Mediterranean Sea, to the world ocean. The Caspian is of exceptional scientific interest, because its history—particularly former fluctuations in both area and depth—offers clues to the complex geologic and climatic evolution of the region. Human-made changes, notably those resulting from the construction of dams, reservoirs, and canals on the immense Volga River system (which drains into the Caspian from the north), have affected the contemporary hydrologic balance. Caspian shipping and fisheries play an important role in the region’s economy, as does the production of petroleum and natural gas in the Caspian basin. The sea’s splendid sandy beaches also serve as health and recreation resorts.
The Caspian basin, as a whole, is usually divided into the northern, middle, and southern Caspian, based partly on underwater relief and partly on hydrologic characteristics. The sea contains as many as 50 islands, most of them small. The largest are Chechen, Tyuleny, Morskoy, Kulaly, Zhiloy, and Ogurchin.
The shores of the northern Caspian are low and reflect the great accumulation of alluvial material washed down by the Ural, Terek, and, above all, Volga rivers, whose deltas are extensive. The western shore of the middle Caspian is hilly. The foothills of the Greater Caucasus Mountains loom close but are separated from the coast by a narrow marine plain. The Abşeron Peninsula, on which the city of Baku is sited, thrusts out into the sea there, while just to its south the floodplain of the Kura and Aras rivers forms the Kura-Aras Lowland along the western shore of the southern Caspian. The southwestern and southern Caspian shores are formed of the sediments of the Länkäran and Gīlān-Māzanderān lowlands, with the high peaks of the Talish and Elburz ranges rearing up close inland. The eastern shore of the southern Caspian is low, formed partly by sediments derived from the erosion of the cliffs along the sea. The shoreline there is broken sharply by the low, hilly Cheleken and Türkmenbashi peninsulas. Just to the north, behind the east shore of the middle Caspian, is the Kara-Bogaz-Gol (Garabogazköl), formerly a shallow gulf of the Caspian but now a large lagoonlike embayment that is separated from the sea by a man-made embankment. For the most part, the eastern shore of the middle Caspian is precipitous, with the sea destroying the margin of the limestone plateaus of Tüpqaraghan and Kendyrli-Kayasansk.
The major rivers—the Volga, Ural, and Terek—empty into the northern Caspian, with their combined annual flow accounting for about 88 percent of all river water entering the sea. The Sulak, Samur, Kura, and a number of smaller rivers flow in on the western shore of the middle and southern Caspian, contributing about 7 percent of the total flow into the sea. The remainder comes in from the rivers of the southern, Iranian shore. Apart from the Atrak (Atrek) River of southern Turkmenistan, the sea’s arid eastern shore is notable for a complete lack of permanent streams.
The northern Caspian, with an area of 38,380 square miles (99,404 square km), is the shallowest portion of the sea, with an average depth of 13 to 26 feet (4 to 8 metres), reaching a maximum of 66 feet (20 metres) along the boundary with the middle Caspian. The bottom is formed of a monotonously rippling sedimentary plain, broken only by a line of southern bars and shoals—some of which constitute the foundations for Tyuleny and Kulaly islands and the Zhemchuzhny shoals—reflecting underlying structural rises. Beyond that belt, known as the Mangyshlak Bank, the middle Caspian, 53,250 square miles (137,917 square km) in area, forms an irregular depression with an abrupt western slope and a gentler eastern gradient. The shallowest portion—a shelf with depths reaching 330 to 460 feet (100 to 140 metres)—extends along both shores, with the western slope furrowed by submerged landslides and canyons. The remains of ancient river valleys have been discovered on the gentler eastern slope; the bottom of the depression comprises a plain that deepens to the west. The Abşeron Bank, a belt of shoals and islands rising from submerged elevations of older rocks, marks the transition to the southern Caspian, a depression covering about 57,570 square miles (149,106 square km). That depression is fringed by a shelf that is narrow to the west and south but widens to the east. A series of submerged ridges breaks up the relief to the north, but otherwise the bottom of the depression is a flat plain and contains the Caspian’s greatest depths.
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2365e4f93958168ffd828e97f6a86419 | https://www.britannica.com/place/Caspian-Sea/Geology | Geology of the Caspian Sea | Geology of the Caspian Sea
The relief of the Caspian Sea reflects its complex geologic structure. The northern Caspian Sea bottom is extremely old, dating to Precambrian times, or at least about 541 million years ago. The bottom of the northern and middle Caspian has a continental-type crustal structure. The northern portion is a section of the northern Caspian tectonic depression, a vast downwarp in the great ancient structural block known as the Russian Platform. The Mangyshlak Bank links the mountainous Tüpqaraghan Peninsula to the east with underlying western shore structures; those are the remnants of an outlying structural uplift of the Hercynian mountain-building movement, which occurred some 300 million years ago. It has been suggested that the middle Caspian depression resulted from a sagging at the edge of those ancient structures that occurred in late Paleozoic times, before about 252 million years ago. The bottom of the middle Caspian is highly complex. To the west the submarine shelf is part of the sagging edge of the Greater Caucasus Geosyncline (a downwarp of Earth’s crust), while the submerged Turan Platform in the east swells up in the feature known as the Kara-Bogaz (Garabogaz) Swell. The features of the Abşeron Peninsula region, along with the folded structures on the western side of the southern Caspian depression, derive from the Alpine mountain-building and folding processes (dating from some 26 to 10 million years ago) that created the Caucasus ranges. The border between the middle and southern Caspian is, in fact, still experiencing folding activity. The entire southern Caspian rests on a very ancient suboceanic-type basalt crustal structure, although that rock is covered in the south by huge accumulations of sedimentary layers many miles thick.
Until the beginning of the late Miocene Epoch (about 13.8 million years ago), the sea basin of the Caspian was connected to the Black Sea through the structural depression known as the Manych Trench (or Kuma-Manych Depression). After a late Miocene uplift, the Caspian became an enclosed body, with oceanic submarine characteristics preserved today only in the southern Caspian. The ocean connection was temporarily reestablished in the early Pleistocene Epoch (about 2.6 million years ago), and it is possible that there also was a link north across the Russian Plain to the Barents Sea of the Arctic Ocean.
Since about 2 million years ago, glaciers have advanced and retreated across the Russian Plain, and the Caspian Sea itself—in successive phases known as Baku, Khazar, and Khvalyn—alternately shrank and expanded. That process left a legacy in the form of peripheral terraces that mark old shorelines and can also be traced in the geologically recent underlying sedimentary layers.
The Caspian Sea bottom is now coated with recent sediments, finely grained in the shallow north but with shell deposits and oolitic sand—reflecting the high lime content of the Caspian waters—widespread in other coastal areas. Calcium carbonate also affects the composition of the much deeper bottom layers.
The northern Caspian lies in a moderately continental climate zone, while the middle (and most of the southern) Caspian lies in the warm continental belt. The southwest is touched by subtropical influences, and that remarkable variety is completed by the desert climate prevailing on the eastern shore. Atmospheric circulation is dominated in winter by the cold, clear air of the Asiatic anticyclone, while in summer spurs of the Azores high-pressure and the South Asian low-pressure centres are influential. Complicating factors are the cyclonic disturbances rippling in from the west and the tendency of the Caucasus Mountains to block them. As a result of those factors, northerlies and northwesterlies (nearly one-third of occurrences) and southeasterlies (more than one-third) dominate circulation patterns. Savage storms are associated with northerly and southeasterly winds.
Summer air temperatures are fairly evenly distributed—average July to August figures range between 75 and 79 °F (24 and 26 °C), with a maximum of 111 °F (44 °C) on the sunbaked eastern shore—but winter monthly average temperatures range from 14 °F (−10 °C) in the north to 50 °F (10 °C) in the south. Average annual precipitation, falling mainly in winter and spring, varies from 8 to 67 inches (200 to 1,700 mm) over the sea, with the least falling in the east and the most in the southwestern region. Evaporation from the sea surface is high, reaching 40 inches (1,015 mm) per year. Ice formation affects the northern Caspian, which usually freezes completely by January, and in exceptionally cold years ice that floats along the western shore comes as far south as the Abşeron Peninsula.
Short-term wind-induced fluctuations in the sea level can measure up to 7 feet (2 metres), though their average is about 2 feet (60 cm). Seiches (free or standing-wave oscillation of the sea surface mainly caused by winds and local changes in atmospheric pressure) are typically less pronounced. Tidal changes are but a few inches (or centimetres), and seasonal rises induced by high spring water in the rivers are not much greater.
One of the more-fascinating aspects of study of the Caspian has been the reconstruction of long-term fluctuations over the centuries from archaeological, geological, and historical evidence. It seems that since the 1st century bce the Caspian’s water level has fluctuated by at least 23 feet (7 metres). The main reasons for the long-term fluctuations are climatic changes that determine a balance between water gains (river influx and precipitation) and losses (evaporation). During the first three decades of the 20th century, the level of the Caspian was close to 86 feet (26 metres) below sea level, but in 1977 it dropped to 96 feet (29 metres), the lowest level noted during the past 400 to 500 years. A rapid rise in water level began in 1978—in the mid-1990s the sea was at 87 feet (26.5 metres) below sea level—but after 1995 the sea’s water level fell slightly, only to rebound again in the early 21st century. The lowering that took place between 1929 and 1977 was attributed to climatic changes that increased evaporation and reduced river influx—amplified by reservoir construction on the Volga to supply river water for irrigation and industry. The rise in water level after 1978 also resulted from climate change causing an increase in the inflow from the Volga, which during some years was considerably greater than average. An increase in precipitation over the sea itself and decrease of evaporation also contributed to the phenomenon. In 1980 Soviet hydrologists stemmed the outflow into the Kara-Bogaz-Gol by constructing sand barricades between the Caspian and the lagoon. Planners have given serious attention to the feasibility of other measures for stabilizing the Caspian’s water level.
In summer the average surface temperature of the Caspian ranges from 75 to 79 °F (24 to 26 °C), with the south a little warmer. There are, however, significant winter contrasts, from 32 to 45 °F (0 to 7 °C) in the north to 46 to 50 °F (8 to 10 °C) in the south. Upwellings of deep water at the eastern shore—a result of prevailing-wind activity—can also bring a marked drop in summer temperature.
Salinity in the Caspian is about 12.8 parts per thousand on average, but that figure conceals a variation from a mere 1 part per thousand near the Volga outlet to a high of 200 parts per thousand in the Kara-Bogaz-Gol, where intense evaporation occurs. In the open sea, distribution of salinity is markedly uniform; from the surface to the bottom it increases by only 0.1 to 0.2 part per thousand. Caspian waters differ from those of the ocean in their high sulfate, calcium, and magnesium carbonate content and—as a result of river inflow—lower chloride content.
Circulation of water masses occurs, basically, in a counterclockwise movement (north-to-south along the western shore), with a complex pattern developing farther south, where there are several subsidiary movements. Currents can be speeded up where they coincide with strong winds, and the sea surface is often ruffled by wave action. The maximum storm waves, occurring near the Abşeron Peninsula, have been measured at more than 30 feet (9 metres).
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b7d0f960691995b35373d1798ba16a4a | https://www.britannica.com/place/Cassiar-Mountains | Cassiar Mountains | Cassiar Mountains
…in the south to the Cassiar Mountains and the Yukon Plateau in the north, mostly lying at elevations of about 2,400 feet (700 metres) but with ridges above 8,000 feet (2,400 metres), (4) the Coast Mountains, extending north into the Alaska Range and including lofty volcanoes in the north, (5)…
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cb30047db4b2d365748e91cbabf7b8a9 | https://www.britannica.com/place/Castello-del-Buon-Consiglio | Castello del Buon Consiglio | Castello del Buon Consiglio
…Maria Maggiore (1520), and the Castello del Buon Consiglio. The latter, dating from the 13th century, served as the seat of the prince-bishops from the 15th century; in 1528–36 a palace and splendid Renaissance courtyard were added to the castle, which is now a national museum.
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f439cc3c31ed036df0c695b247dc8f44 | https://www.britannica.com/place/Castle-Hill-Budapest-Hungary | Castle Hill | Castle Hill
In a central position is Castle Hill (Várhegy), 551 feet (168 metres) above sea level and crowned by the restored Buda Castle (Budai vár, commonly called the Royal Palace). In the 13th century a fortress was built on the site and was replaced by a large Baroque palace during the…
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280fda03c8506fff9a2d4de47f9d1fcb | https://www.britannica.com/place/Castlebar | Castlebar | Castlebar
Castlebar, Irish Caisleán an Bharraigh, market and county town, County Mayo, Ireland, at the head of Lough (lake) Castlebar. The town was founded early in the 17th century and was incorporated in 1613. It is now an active angling centre and has bacon-curing and hat-making factories and a small airport. Pop. (2006) 10,655; (2011) 10,826.
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586a35c3e81f11155131048137961834 | https://www.britannica.com/place/Castlemaine | Castlemaine | Castlemaine
Castlemaine, city in central Victoria, southeastern Australia, located 8 miles (13 km) east of the Loddon River and 78 miles (126 km) northwest of Melbourne. In 1836 the area was crossed by Major Thomas Mitchell, and in 1851 gold was found in Specimen Valley. The mining settlement employed about 30,000 miners and was called alternatively Forest Creek and Mount Alexander. Captain William Wright, the chief goldfields commissioner, later named the settlement for his uncle, Viscount Castlemaine. By the 1880s the gold deposits were depleted. Today Castlemaine is the centre of a farming and fruit-growing district and has light manufacturing. The city has a botanical garden, a provincial art gallery, and a restored market (built 1861–62) that serves as a museum. Inc. town, 1950. Pop. (2001) 6,835; (2011) gazetted locality, 9,124.
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14e433d9fc17f213a326890933c000b4 | https://www.britannica.com/place/Castor-star | Castor | Castor
Castor, also called Alpha Geminorum, multiple star having six component stars, in the zodiacal constellation Gemini. The stars Castor and Pollux are named for the twins of Greek mythology. Castor’s combined apparent visual magnitude is 1.58. It appears as a bright visual binary, of which both members are spectroscopic binaries. An additional two component stars form an eclipsing binary system of red dwarfs revolving around each other in less than a day and orbiting the four main stars in a period of 14,000 years. The system is 51.5 light-years from Earth.
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35bfa506704d635529fa70b873993bca | https://www.britannica.com/place/Castro-Chile | Castro | Castro
Castro, town, southern Chile. It lies 45 miles (72 km) south of the town of Ancud, on the east coast of Chiloé Island.
Castro was founded in 1567 and regrew after being destroyed by an earthquake in 1837. Apart from being a port and agricultural centre (potatoes, wheat, livestock), it also has a timber industry and sawmills. Pop. (2002) 29,148; (2017) municipality, 43,807.
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460ed0280172b9b639fef4d2564bc51b | https://www.britannica.com/place/Catalhuyuk | Çatalhüyük | Çatalhüyük
Çatalhüyük, major Neolithic site in the Middle East, located near Konya in south-central Turkey. Excavations (1961–65) by the British archaeologist James Mellaart have shown that Anatolia in Neolithic times was the centre of an advanced culture. The earliest building period at Çatalhüyük is tentatively dated to about 6700 bc and the latest to about 5650 bc. The inhabitants lived in rectangular mud-brick houses probably entered from roof level, presumably by a wooden ladder. In addition to a hearth and an oven, houses had platforms for sleeping, sitting, or working.
Edible grains and oil-producing seeds and nuts were extensively cultivated, and animal husbandry was probably practiced.
Excavation of the religious quarter produced a series of shrines with wall paintings of exceptional brilliance. These are of interest for their link with Upper Paleolithic art.
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ce21bfa7dcf582c0f7a92b272b78da90 | https://www.britannica.com/place/Catatumbo-River | Catatumbo River | Catatumbo River
Catatumbo River, Spanish Río Catatumbo, river rising in northern Colombia. It flows northeast across the Venezuelan border, crosses rich oil-bearing regions in the Maracaibo Lowland, and empties into Lake Maracaibo after a course of about 210 miles (338 km). It is navigable in its lower course and receives Zulia River 4 miles (6 km) west of Encontrados, Venez., in the Maracaibo Lowland.
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4eb6aecc2eb8f649410448eba0a0a793 | https://www.britannica.com/place/Cathedral-of-Our-Lady | Cathedral of Our Lady | Cathedral of Our Lady
This area contains the Cathedral of Our Lady, begun in the 14th century and restored in the 19th and 20th centuries; it is one of the nation’s finest Gothic buildings. The 19th-century city, with broader and substantially right-angled streets, stretches beyond the old city and merges with some of…
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afa876aaaa0f96ac7ec27cbaa8faaa07 | https://www.britannica.com/place/Cathedral-of-Saint-Etienne | Cathedral of Saint-Étienne | Cathedral of Saint-Étienne
Auxerre’s most notable landmark, the cathedral of Saint-Étienne (13th–16th-century Gothic), has three sculptured doorways and a rose window on the west front. A massive tower rises in the northwest corner. The early Gothic choir and the apsidal chapel contain some of the best 13th-century stained glass in France. The church…
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6404f58c03fea7f587cb3e718e29c52f | https://www.britannica.com/place/Cathedral-of-Saint-Peter | Cathedral of Saint Peter | Cathedral of Saint Peter
The nave clerestory windows in York Minster contain some reused panels from a series of narrative windows, one of which depicted the life of St. Benedict (c. 1140–60). Another panel, a single figure of a king from a Jesse tree, shows some affinity in style with the glass at Saint-Denis…
York’s Cathedral (Minster) of St. Peter, the largest Gothic church in England, was built between the 13th and the 15th century. Other medieval buildings include the Guildhall (1446–48; restored after bombing in World War II), the Merchant Adventurers’ Hall (1357), St. William’s College (1453; founded for…
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27ce4f84b4705afb90c95e27f861f4bb | https://www.britannica.com/place/Cathedral-of-Saint-Pierre-cathedral-Beauvais-France | Cathedral of Saint-Pierre | Cathedral of Saint-Pierre
The cathedral of Saint-Pierre was ambitiously conceived as the largest in Europe; the apse and transept have survived several collapses, and the choir (157 feet [48 metres]) remains the loftiest ever built. The whole dates from the 10th to the 16th century, with the Romanesque church…
…last of these gigantic buildings, Beauvais Cathedral, had a disastrous history, which included the collapse of its vaults, and it was never completed. In about 1230 architects became less interested in size and more interested in decoration. The result was the birth of what is known as the Rayonnant style…
…high, and finally in 1347 Beauvais Cathedral reached the maximum height of 48 metres (157 feet), but its vaults soon collapsed and had to be rebuilt. The spans of the naves of Gothic churches remained fairly small, about 13 to 16 metres (45 to 55 feet); only a few late…
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ecec83fc158e3ce61f1c2766f8152ec7 | https://www.britannica.com/place/Cathedral-of-Saint-Sophia-cathedral-Novgorod-Russia | Cathedral of Saint Sophia | Cathedral of Saint Sophia
…of Novgorod began with the cathedral of St. Sophia. It was built in 1045–52, replacing a wooden, 13-dome church of the same name. The new cathedral followed its Kievan namesake in plan, but the divergences from the Byzantine pattern are quite apparent; it has double aisles but only three apses.…
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cbddea0dd8fe3c2360935c72310ae4e9 | https://www.britannica.com/place/cathedral-of-Saints-Maurice-and-Catherine | Cathedral of Saints Maurice and Catherine | Cathedral of Saints Maurice and Catherine
…Gothic cathedral (1209–1520) dedicated to Saints Maurice and Catherine has survived, and the Monastery of Our Lady (begun c. 1070), the oldest church in the city, has been restored. The Magdeburg Rider, the oldest German equestrian statue (c. 1240), showing Otto the Great, can be seen in Magdeburg’s Cultural History…
…gestures are also found at Magdeburg cathedral in a series of Wise and Foolish Virgins (c. 1245) left over from some abandoned sculptural scheme. Influenced by Reims rather than Chartres, the sculpture of Bamberg cathedral (c. 1230–35) feels like a heavier version of the Muldenstil than that at Strasbourg.
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7fb9d2db8da6b1970b93e7b0a5bbe2ed | https://www.britannica.com/place/Cathedral-of-Saints-Peter-and-Paul-cathedral-Naumburg-Germany | Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul | Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul
1250) of Naumburg cathedral. Here, the desire for dramatic tension is exploited to good effect, since the figures—a series of lay founders in contemporary costume—are given a realistic place in the architecture, alongside a triforium gallery. Naumburg also has a notable amount of extremely realistic foliage carving.
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dc5666d07a8d12387d4138f1b28579f6 | https://www.britannica.com/place/Cathedral-of-San-Ciriaco | Cathedral of San Ciriaco | Cathedral of San Ciriaco
…and the 12th- to 13th-century Cathedral of San Ciriaco, which is supposed to occupy the site of a Roman temple of Venus and incorporates the remains of a basilica of the 5th–6th century. The city has many fine Gothic buildings and is the site of the National Museum of Marche,…
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46a6ec6ded6175574ab1f30731e17ff0 | https://www.britannica.com/place/Cathedral-of-St-Stephen | Cathedral of St. Stephen | Cathedral of St. Stephen
Kaptol has the Gothic Cathedral of St. Stephen (13th–15th century), whose sacristy contains a 13th-century fresco; the cathedral was restored at the end of the 19th century. Near the cathedral is the Baroque palace of the archbishops of Zagreb, with a chapel of St. Stephen (mid-13th century).
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a135572f0431134926c52d83a1f5fd0e | https://www.britannica.com/place/Catskill-Delta | Catskill Delta | Catskill Delta
Catskill Delta, structure that was deposited in the northeastern United States during the Middle and Late Devonian Period (the Devonian Period began about 416 million years ago and lasted about 57 million years); it is named for exposures studied in the Catskill Mountains of New York. During Middle and Late Devonian time, numerous streams flowing from the Appalachian Highlands to the east constructed a large compound delta along the northeastern regions of the United States. Late in the Devonian Period, the shoreline was pushed back to western New York and northwestern Pennsylvania. A broad coastal lowland, extending more than 320 km (200 miles) across, was formed; at the same time, the submerged portion of the delta was growing and extended into Ohio.
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921fc69aa1507260e6234a603482117e | https://www.britannica.com/place/Catskill-Game-Farm-Inc | Catskill Game Farm, Inc. | Catskill Game Farm, Inc.
Catskill Game Farm, Inc., privately owned zoo opened in 1933 in Catskill, New York, U.S. It occupied more than 914 acres (370 hectares), of which 135 acres (55 hectares) were open to the public from May to October. The remainder of the zoo grounds were maintained as a breeding preserve. The Catskill Game Farm provided other zoos throughout the world with many varieties of captive-bred animals. The strength of its collection was what may have been the world’s largest breeding stock of rare or threatened ungulates, among which were scimitar-horned oryx, mountain zebra, onager, and dozens of other species. The zoo closed in 2006 due to financial difficulties.
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e7d92c4ae67b1f7d92e5ebe447b1ce53 | https://www.britannica.com/place/Caudine-Forks | Caudine Forks | Caudine Forks
Caudine Forks, Latin Furculae Caudinae, narrow mountain pass near Beneventum in ancient Samnium (near modern Montesarchio, Campania, southern Italy). In the Battle of Caudine Forks the Samnites under Gavius Pontius defeated and captured a Roman army in 321 bc, during the Second Samnite War. The Roman army surrendered, and acknowledged that they had been defeated by passing under a “yoke” of Samnite spears, a unique disgrace.
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c044f5d84a69286ff1739b3addd7aaa9 | https://www.britannica.com/place/Cavendish-Laboratory | Cavendish Laboratory | Cavendish Laboratory
…head of the highly successful Cavendish Laboratory. (It was there that he met Rose Elizabeth Paget, whom he married in 1890.) He not only administered the research projects but also financed two additions to the laboratory buildings primarily from students’ fees, with little support from the university and colleges. Except…
…conduct biological research at the Cavendish Laboratory of the University of Cambridge, England. He worked on applications of electron microscopy until he retired in 1984. In the 1990s the U.S. government declassified portions of its postwar decryption program, and Hall’s wartime espionage became known. Hall never described his actions in…
He was head of the Cavendish Laboratory at Cambridge from 1997 to 2005; he later served as the lab’s director of development (2007–11).
…to do research at the Cavendish Laboratory at the University of Cambridge, which, under the leadership of Lord Ernest Rutherford, had an international reputation for its pioneering studies on atomic structure. At the Cavendish, Oppenheimer had the opportunity to collaborate with the British scientific community in its efforts to advance…
…continue his study at the Cavendish Laboratory of the University of Cambridge, which J.J. Thomson, Europe’s leading expert on electromagnetic radiation, had taken over in 1884.
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b7c68a909c90ef25bcf4b6a9658673c5 | https://www.britannica.com/place/Caxias-do-Sul | Caxias do Sul | Caxias do Sul
Caxias do Sul, city, northeastern Rio Grande do Sul estado (state), southern Brazil. It lies 2,490 feet (760 metres) above sea level on the range of hills separating the Antas and Caí river valleys.
It was founded in 1875 by Italian colonists and given city status in 1910. Metallurgic industries—including the manufacture of auto parts, truck chassis, farm equipment, and motorcycles—and viticulture are the city’s economic mainstays; the vineyards of the surrounding area are considered Brazil’s best. The Universidade de Caxias do Sul (1967) is located there, as are two football (soccer) stadiums. As Rio Grande do Sul’s second largest city, Caxias do Sul has several transportation links, including an airfield, and is the terminus of a branch railway line from Porto Alegre, the state capital, to the south. It also lies on a major highway running north to São Paulo. Pop. (2010) 435,564.
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27d2bc4a7e23e69675cfcc40dcca3d7a | https://www.britannica.com/place/Cayman-Brac | Cayman Brac | Cayman Brac
…Grand Cayman, Little Cayman, and Cayman Brac, situated about 180 miles (290 km) northwest of Jamaica. The islands are the outcroppings of a submarine mountain range that extends northeastward from Belize to Cuba. The capital is George Town, on Grand Cayman.
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f31af4c3060ef81ffec23a4d90637e38 | https://www.britannica.com/place/Cayman-Ridge | Cayman Ridge | Cayman Ridge
…from the Yucatán Basin by Cayman Ridge, an incomplete fingerlike ridge that extends from the southern part of Cuba toward Guatemala, rising above the surface at one point to form the Cayman Islands. The Nicaraguan Rise, a wide triangular ridge with a sill depth of about 4,000 feet (1,200 metres),…
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c12137f036ab9cd8db91bc0a164f2e32 | https://www.britannica.com/place/Cayman-Trench | Cayman Trench | Cayman Trench
Cayman Trench, also called Bartlett Deep, or Bartlett Trough, submarine trench on the floor of the western Caribbean Sea between Jamaica and the Cayman Islands. It extends from the Windward Passage at the southeastern tip of Cuba toward Guatemala. The relatively narrow trough trends east-northeast to west-southwest and has a maximum depth of 25,216 feet (7,686 m), the deepest point in the Caribbean Sea. The Cayman Ridge separates the trough from the Yucatan Basin in the north, and the Jamaica Ridge, which supports the island of Jamaica, separates it from the Colombian Basin farther south. Submarine earthquakes sometimes occur around the edges of the trench.
Some of the world’s deepest deep-sea vents are found in the Cayman Trench some 5 km (3.1 miles) below the surface of the ocean.
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472a46900b10bc1dc0856726c80f46a2 | https://www.britannica.com/place/Cayor-historical-state-Africa | Cayor | Cayor
…which the most important was Cayor. During the 15th century Wolof was a powerful empire, on the border of which lay the tributary state of Sine-Solum, ruled by the Serer, a kindred people to the Wolof.
…by the neighbouring state of Cayor, which controlled it until 1686. Late in the 17th century, Wolof invaded Cayor, causing many of its inhabitants to flee to Baol. The rulers of Baol were able to withstand European attempts at conquest until the French occupied their territory in the mid-19th century.
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8a36d8f289c1003e37a42a8bba233900 | https://www.britannica.com/place/CBS-Building | CBS Building | CBS Building
…Kevin Roche in the 35-story CBS Building (1964) in New York City, and the system was further developed by Khan in the 221-metre (725-foot) Shell Oil Building (1967) in Houston.
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906334790b1112cbd0262e5a1890b735 | https://www.britannica.com/place/Celebes | Celebes | Celebes
Celebes, Indonesian Sulawesi, one of the four Greater Sunda Islands, Indonesia. A curiously shaped island with four distinct peninsulas that form three major gulfs—Tomini (the largest) on the northeast, Tolo on the east, and Bone on the south—Celebes has a coastline of 3,404 miles (5,478 km). Area including adjacent islands, 72,789 square miles (188,522 square km). Pop. including adjacent islands (2000) 14,946,488; (2010) 17,371,782.
The island is highly mountainous, with some active volcanoes, but there are large plains on the southern peninsula and in the south-central part of the island on which rice is grown. The highest peak is Mount Rantekombola, or Mario, at 11,335 feet (3,455 metres). Major deep lakes (danau) are Towuti, Poso, and Matana, the latter having been sounded to 1,936 feet (590 metres). The rivers are short and unimportant.
Celebes lies between the two shelves of the Australian and Asian continents. The broad central block is a complex of igneous rocks, in the southeastern corner of which is a broad band of volcanic detritus, known as tuff, more than 65 million years old; it is fringed occasionally by coral limestone. The southern ridge of Celebes has an axis of schist and quartzite, while the volcanic Minahasa area differs structurally from any other part of the island. The climate is hot but tempered by sea winds; annual rainfall varies from 160 inches (4,060 mm) in Rantepao (southwest-central section) to 21 inches (530 mm) in Palu (a rift valley near the western coast).
Generally, the fauna is more Asian than Australian. Species unique to Celebes include the babirusa, or pig deer; the black-crested baboon; and the anoa, or dwarf buffalo. A distinct difference exists between the freshwater fish of Borneo and Celebes. Much of Celebes is still heavily forested, showing many floral resemblances to the Philippines but more Asian in the west and more Australian in the east.
Seven major ethnic groups inhabit Celebes: the Toala, Toraja, Buginese, Makassarese, Minahasan, Mori, and Gorontalese. The Toala, who live throughout the island, are nomadic, shy jungle dwellers with their own language. The Toraja, inhabiting central, southeastern, and eastern Celebes, are of Austronesian (Malayo-Polynesian) ancestry; they have their own language and are primarily agriculturists. Most of them are Christians, although they still retain many traditional practices. The Buginese and Makassarese are Muslims who live in southern Celebes and are extremely industrious, especially in the manufacture of plaited goods and in weaving, gold and silver work, and shipbuilding. The Minahasan inhabit the area around Manado and are the most Westernized of the island peoples: they live in European style, each village having its Christian church and school. The Mori are a highland people inhabiting much of the eastern part of the island. The Gorontalese, in the west and south-central part of the northeastern peninsula, are Muslims.
Celebes and neighbouring islands are divided into six provinces (propinsi or provinsi). The most economically advanced regions are the southern peninsula and the tip of the northeastern peninsula. In the south, wet rice is cultivated, and corn (maize), cassava, yams, and beans are raised. Some tobacco is cultivated, and salt is produced on the coast. Grain is raised on the alluvial plain around Tempe and Sidenreng lakes. There is a hydroelectric-power station located on the Sawito River east of Parepare. In the northeast, copra, forest products, and some sulfur are produced; there is also much fishing.
The eastern peninsula is largely undeveloped, with sparse population and predominantly subsistence agriculture. The southwestern peninsula and the central part of the island are centres for settlement programs, by means of which the national government has sponsored plans to resettle large numbers of people from Bali and Java to reduce population pressure on those islands. These areas of Celebes have thus become both more diverse and more highly developed. Roads link the principal towns of the southwestern peninsula, but elsewhere—with the exception of the Manado-Kema, the Kendari-Kolaka, and the Toraja highlands roads—they are limited to the coast. The major airports are at Makassar, Manado, Gorontalo, Kendari, Poso, and Palu.
The earliest traces of human habitation on Celebes are stone implements of the Toalian culture. Muslim sultanates of coastal Malay were established in the southern Celebes in the century before the arrival of the Europeans. The Portuguese arrived about 1512 in pursuit of a spice-trade monopoly, and the Dutch built a settlement at Macassar (Makassar) in 1607. Dutch control gradually spread until the states of Bone and Gowa lost their independence in 1905 and 1911, respectively.
Occupied by Japan during World War II, the island joined the Republic of Indonesia in 1950. Political disturbances and rebellions have flared on occasion. One response of the central government has been to form two more provinces on the island: Gorontalo (2001) in the northeast and West Sulawesi (2004) in the west.
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1aa191f0d9a15e17114005ccb2d8b5f9 | https://www.britannica.com/place/Celje | Celje | Celje
Celje, Italian and German Cilli, city, central Slovenia, on the Savinja River about 35 miles (56 km) northeast of Ljubljana, Slovenia’s capital. Founded as Claudia Celeia by the Roman emperor Claudius in the 1st century ce, it was home in the 3rd century to a Christian bishop later canonized as St. Maximilian. It later became the feudal capital (1333–1456) of the counts of Celje. There are remains of walls that surrounded the medieval town, medieval churches, and the old fort, which is now a major tourist attraction. Also notable is St. Daniel Church, which was originally built in the 14th century and has undergone several additions and renovations. At the beginning of the 20th century, Celje contained a significant German minority. The modern city emerged in the late 20th century as an important cultural and economic centre. Industries include chemical processing, building materials, textiles, and metal processing. Agriculture, particularly the trade in hops and dairy production, is also important. Notable cultural facilities include a regional museum, a museum of modern history, a museum for children, and a gallery of modern art. Celje hosts numerous fairs each year, including a large international trade fair. Pop. (2011) 37,520; (2017 est.) 38,079.
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4fbdd802029fca53586c58380975147f | https://www.britannica.com/place/Cento | Cento | Cento
Cento, town, Emilia-Romagna regione, north-central Italy, on the Reno River, 15 miles (24 km) northwest of Bologna. A chapel was built in the church of Santa Maria del Rosario for the 17th-century Baroque painter Guercino (G.F. Barbieri), who is represented in the local art gallery and was born in Cento. Several churches, notably the Santa Maria del Rosario, also contain the painter’s works. The town, which is overlooked by the Rocca (a 14th-century castle), was founded on an island formed by the Reno and Po rivers. A little more than a mile beyond the Reno is Pieve di Cento, to which Cento was formerly joined. The town has hemp and metal industries. Pop. (2006 est.) mun., 32,204.
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a7d744ce091eb80fae0849bd7ea722ef | https://www.britannica.com/place/central-Africa/Early-society-and-economy | Early society and economy | Early society and economy
The population of Central Africa has evolved in three broad time zones. During the earliest, which covered a million years, early humans sought food and shelter throughout the savanna regions and probably in the forest as well, though the forest may have been much thinner in the great dry phases of Africa’s climatic history. In the second phase Homo sapiens, modern man and woman, appeared in the region and absorbed or eclipsed the thinly scattered original inhabitants over a 100,000-year stretch. The third phase covered less than 10,000 years and brought the development of the societies that have become familiar to modern history. These societies arose from a blend of old populations familiar with the environment and new immigrants with fresh skills to impart.
The oldest population of Central Africa is known almost exclusively from the evidence of its tools. Humankind had made a great intellectual step beyond its fellow primates by learning how to fashion and use tools of a regular form for a specific purpose. The most famous of the Paleolithic tools are the Acheulian knives, oddly known to scientists as “hand axes,” used to skin animals and cut meat into chunks that could be chewed raw. Those used in Central Africa bear an uncanny resemblance to those used in many other parts of the Old World, which suggests that learning was an intercontinental phenomenon, however slow the transfer of technology may have been. Some of the tools used in Central Africa bear marks of local specialization and adaptation, but Central Africa was broadly integrated into the culture of the Paleolithic Period.
The middle phase of Central Africa’s prehistory saw significant changes, but again the changes suggest that the region was linked to development in other parts of the world. The use of fire to roast vegetable foods as well as meats increased the range of diet and probably resulted in greater human health and fertility. The expanding population may have benefited from new skills in communication. The first use of language enabled societies to become more organized and efficient in their command of natural resources. Mobility in search of food was still the norm, but speech allowed the coordination of effort on a scale that animals could not achieve despite their powers of instinct. Tools became ever more varied, though the great majority were probably made of wood or vegetable and animal fibre and so have not survived in the archaeological record. The stone weapons, on the other hand, have survived and show a growing inventiveness among the scattered small bands of Central African peoples who survived for millennia in competition with their much fiercer and stronger animal neighbours.
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40bb85d8b2b5defe61ba6fd7766a1301 | https://www.britannica.com/place/Central-African-Plateau | Central African Plateau | Central African Plateau
…from its source on the Central African Plateau to empty into the Indian Ocean. With its tributaries, it drains an area of more than 500,000 square miles (1,300,000 square kilometres). The Zambezi (meaning “Great River” in the language of the Tonga people) includes along its course the Victoria Falls, one…
…Uganda is situated on a plateau, a large expanse that drops gently from about 5,000 feet (1,500 metres) in the south to approximately 3,000 feet (900 metres) in the north. The limits of Uganda’s plateau region are marked by mountains and valleys.
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3621099535bff0d32b1c4b9ea0b1f962 | https://www.britannica.com/place/Central-African-Republic/Ethnic-groups | Ethnic groups | Ethnic groups
The people of the Central African Republic range from the hunting-and-gathering forest Pygmy peoples, the Aka, to state-forming groups such as the Zande and Nzakara. Prior to the arrival of Europeans in the late 19th century, distinctions between different groups were highly fluid. Many thought of themselves as members of a clan rather than of a broader ethnic group. Interactions with those who spoke different languages and had different cultural practices ranged from peaceful trade and intermarriage to war and enslavement.
The attempts by colonial administrators and ethnographers to divide Central Africans into definite ethnic groups have never been viable. However, French colonizers did promote ethnic and regional distinctions among their Central African subjects. Drawing from populations of such southern riverine people as the Ngbaka (Mbaka), Yakoma, and Ubangi, the French helped to create an elite group, which emerged as an indigenous ruling group for the whole country and has held most political positions since independence. Regional affiliations have increased the complexity of this political terrain. Other, nonriverine Central Africans, who are far more numerous, have tended to resent this situation and have occasionally taken leadership roles themselves. Although people living in the country’s northern regions have gained more political power since independence, southern peoples still remain an important presence in national politics.
A minority of Greek, Portuguese, and Yemeni traders are scattered around the country, and a small French population lives in Bangui. Diamond traders from western Africa and Chad, merchants from various African countries, and refugees from nearby countries, such as the Democratic Republic of the Congo, also reside in Bangui and the hinterlands.
Central Africans currently speak a wide variety of languages, including Baya (Gbaya), Banda, Ngbaka, Sara, Mbum, Kare, and Mandjia. French and Sango are the official languages. Sango is a lingua franca spoken by nearly nine-tenths of the population. It was originally the language of a people from the Ubangi River region, but Christian missionaries adopted, simplified, and disseminated it in the 1940s and ’50s to their followers throughout the country.
Roughly four-fifths of the population professes Christianity; there is a sizable minority of unaffiliated Christians, while Roman Catholics, Protestants, and independents constitute the rest. About one-tenth of the population continues to practice traditional religions. There is a growing number of Sunni Muslims. A small minority declares no religious affiliation.
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96d9135af8c69e6799b9eb588df0f269 | https://www.britannica.com/place/Central-America/The-Habsburg-period-1524-1700 | The Habsburg period (1524–1700) | The Habsburg period (1524–1700)
Political jurisdiction over Central America under Spanish rule evolved slowly because of the rivalries between conquistadores. These rivalries led to violence and civil war among the Spaniards in the early years of colonial rule and retarded the unification of Central America. Decentralization of authority characterized the Habsburg period, despite royal efforts to maintain close control through its agents. Municipal councils (ayuntamientos) were the most important governing units in the early days. By 1530 Guatemala, Nicaragua, Honduras, Chiapas, and Panama all functioned under separate royal orders, but the death of Pedrarias in 1531 and the prestige of Alvarado contributed to the unification of the isthmus thereafter. In 1535 the establishment of the Viceroyalty of New Spain at Mexico City included the northern portion of Central America, but the establishment of an audiencia at Panama in the same year continued the confusion over jurisdiction in Nicaragua. In 1543 Spain unified the entire isthmus from Tabasco and Yucatán to Panama as the Audiencia de los Confines, with its capital centrally located in Honduras in 1544 at the gold-mining boomtown of Gracias. The gold soon gave out, however, and the town was otherwise isolated and remote. Responding to protests from Panama City and Santiago de Guatemala, in 1548 the crown moved the capital back to Santiago de Guatemala. Philip II moved the capital to Panama from 1563 to 1567, but finally, after removing Panama, Tabasco, and Yucatán from Santiago de Guatemala’s jurisdiction, he restored Santiago as the capital of the Kingdom of Guatemala, which stretched from Chiapas to Costa Rica.
Santiago grew to become, for a time, the third largest city in the hemisphere (after Mexico City and Lima) and established itself as a bureaucratic, ecclesiastical, and commercial metropolis. The Creole elite that emerged there favoured the development of Guatemala over the other provinces of the kingdom, causing provincial resentment and contributing to the eventual political fragmentation of the isthmus. Royal authority over the region was exercised by an audiencia, presided over by the royally appointed president, who also carried the titles of governor and captain general. Creole power was centred in the municipal council of Santiago and in their control of the land and labour of the Indians through the institutions of encomienda and repartimiento, which involved the collection of tribute and forced labour. While Creole elites developed in each province and their bloodlines often were connected to the Guatemalan elite, the provincial elites were less wealthy and powerful than their Guatemalan counterparts. The Roman Catholic Church participated closely with the state in developing colonial Central America, but it was strongest near the seats of authority and weakest in remote areas such as Costa Rica.
Spain encouraged the mining of precious metals, but Central American deposits were thin, and agriculture came to dominate the economy of the colony. Cacao (the source of cocoa beans), mostly grown on the Pacific coast, was the principal export of the 16th century, but in the 17th century it declined because of competition from areas with better access to markets. Indigo eventually replaced it as the principal Central American export. Yet most people were involved only in subsistence agriculture, and large haciendas, in feudal style, raised cattle and grains for the local population. In the 17th century especially, as European rivals and Caribbean-based buccaneers raided Spanish commerce and shore settlements, the Kingdom of Guatemala withdrew into a self-sufficient, feudal-like existence.
The colonial social structure that became entrenched during the Habsburg period thus comprised two small upper classes, one representing official Spanish administrative and ecclesiastical authority and the other the Creole landholding elite, with a large mass of Indian or mestizo rural workers tied to the land. There were also small numbers of African slaves brought during the colonial period. In the cities there were small middle sectors of artisans, provisioners, and wage labourers, but they did not constitute a true middle class. Nor were the professionals of the cities a middle class, for they were more clearly associated with one or the other of the two upper classes.
In Panama the river and mule trail across the isthmus was the principal economic resource for the commercial and bureaucratic elite that developed there. As the link between Europe and the rich mines of Peru, Panama was of strategic importance and received considerable military protection against attacks from marauding buccaneers such as the Welshman Henry Morgan, whose destruction of Panama City caused the Spanish to move the city several miles away and rebuild it in 1671. Politically, Panama was tied to the Viceroyalty of Peru until the 18th century, when it was included in the new Viceroyalty of New Granada, with its capital at Santa Fé (present-day Bogotá). Panama’s importance as a commercial and slave-trading centre justified its having its own audiencia from 1753.
Accession to the Spanish throne by the Bourbon Philip V at the beginning of the 18th century plunged the empire into a costly war, opening a century in which war and international rivalry seriously altered Central American history. The close relations of the Bourbons to France and the penetration of Central America by English traders, especially via their settlements at Belize and the Mosquito Coast, brought significant foreign commercial, administrative, military, and ideological influences. While the Spanish may have diffused the Enlightenment, it nonetheless contributed to vital changes in Creole thinking. Bourbon policy, especially after 1750, was directly responsible for much of the change, as it centralized authority and reasserted the royal control that had diminished during the previous century, while beginning to limit the political and economic power of the clergy. It also built up the military and promoted agricultural exports, especially of Salvadoran indigo but also of Costa Rican cacao and tobacco. The Bourbon emphasis on exports began a trend in Central American economic history that would continue to the present. Indeed, the Bourbon reforms not only laid the foundation for much of Central America’s political and economic development in the 19th century but they also heightened the strong regionalism on the isthmus, as provincial elites resisted the growing power of the Guatemalan mercantile and bureaucratic establishment.
An earthquake destroyed Santiago de Guatemala in 1773, causing the capital to be moved to the present site of Guatemala City in 1776. As the century closed, the growing preference of the crown for appointment of Spaniards contributed to Creole resentment of royal policy. At the same time, there emerged in the Guatemalan capital a group of progressive Central Americans who promoted liberal economic and political ideas, especially through the publication of the Gazeta de Guatemala (“Guatemala Gazette”) beginning in 1793 and through the establishment of an economic society in 1795.
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410c92b541f26534f5df417689cfb09e | https://www.britannica.com/place/Central-Andes | Central Andes | Central Andes
The Central Andes begin at latitude 35° S, at a point where the cordillera undergoes a sharp change of character. Its width increases to about 50 miles, and it becomes arid and higher; the passes, too, are higher and more difficult to cross.…
The Central Andes lie between the Gulfs of Guayaquil and Penas and thus encompass southern Ecuador, Peru, western Bolivia, and northern and central Argentina and Chile. They are characterized by their continental basement rocks and by an absence of oceanic and metamorphic rocks.…
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b1de9483b47848ebf1d8c13f9b0db018 | https://www.britannica.com/place/Central-Brahui-Range | Central Brāhui Range | Central Brāhui Range
Central Brāhui Range, southern offshoot of the Himalayas, lying in the centre of the Balochistān plateau, Pakistan. It extends southward for about 225 miles (360 km) from the Pishīn Lora and Zhob rivers to the Mūla River. The range is a series of parallel limestone ridges covered with juniper forests and hemming in narrow valleys, and its trend is north-south between Mūla and Quetta but turns sharply east-southeast just north of Quetta to meet the Sulaimān Range. Summits generally exceed 6,000 feet (1,800 m) and gradually decline toward the south; the highest peaks are Khalifat (11,440 feet [3,487 m]) and Zarghūn (11,738 feet [3,578 m]) north of Quetta. The Bolān, Harnai, and Mūla are the principal passes. Brahui tribes are predominant in the south, as are Pashtuns, with chiefly Kākaṛs in the north.
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548ee2023892dfe7da90682f3885c591 | https://www.britannica.com/place/Central-German-Uplands | Central German Uplands | Central German Uplands
Geographically, the Central German Uplands form a region of great complexity. Under the impact of the Alpine orogeny, the planed-off remnants of the former Hercynian mountains were shattered and portions thrust upward to form block mountains, with sedimentary rocks preserved between them…
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c49d346a9df94bb50aad5172b9f62421 | https://www.britannica.com/place/central-highlands | Central highlands | Central highlands
The central highlands—actually a part of the Himalayan chain—include the main Hindu Kush range. Its area of about 160,000 square miles (414,000 square km) is a region of deep, narrow valleys and lofty mountains, some peaks of which rise above 21,000 feet (6,400 metres). High mountain…
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0b997b85c7ec74ace6659851bc1b9b71 | https://www.britannica.com/place/Central-Kalahari-Game-Reserve | Central Kalahari Game Reserve | Central Kalahari Game Reserve
…distinct, the G/wi of the Central Kalahari Game Reserve can be considered an example of the traditional San hunter-gatherer way of life.
The Central Kalahari Game Reserve, the largest of Botswana’s wildlife reserves, is inhabited by San (Bushmen) and has black-backed jackals, elephants, foxes, ostriches, springboks, and zebras. Besides Ghanzi, other important villages in the region are Kalkfontein, Matapa, and Ncojane. Pop. (2001) 9,934; (2011) 14,809.
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885d65f5d7332a7b2a1c6c620a549c59 | https://www.britannica.com/place/Central-Maryland | Central Maryland | Central Maryland
Central Maryland comprises the city of Baltimore and five counties. Four of the counties contain most of Baltimore’s suburbs; the fifth is Montgomery, on the northwestern edge of Washington, D.C. Only about one-sixth of Marylanders live outside metropolitan areas. Central Maryland is one long, contiguous…
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9f471995f2098c76975d276bd1424c00 | https://www.britannica.com/place/Central-Museum-of-Indonesian-Culture | Central Museum of Indonesian Culture | Central Museum of Indonesian Culture
…1778, eventually to become the Central Museum of Indonesian Culture and finally part of the National Museum. The origins of the Indian Museum in Kolkata (formerly Calcutta) were similar, based on the collections of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, which commenced in 1784. In South America a number of national…
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5ed9595bb047dabd32629bb519685ea7 | https://www.britannica.com/place/Central-Museum-of-the-Revolution | Central Museum of the Revolution | Central Museum of the Revolution
Petersburg); after 1924 the Central Museum of the Revolution in Moscow became the focal point for these collections. Another type was the memorial museum housing the personal effects of well-known figures. Sometimes, as with the Central Lenin Museum in Moscow (1936–93), they were means of communicating political propaganda.
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4cde32e1aa66653d95524e178c5393b3 | https://www.britannica.com/place/Central-Music-Hall | Central Music Hall | Central Music Hall
…an independent architect Adler designed Central Music Hall in Chicago (1879), which was the prototype of theatres later designed by the firm of Adler and Sullivan. Adler was a consultant on acoustics and in his later years was a writer on the technical and legal aspects of architecture.
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513a77d7ba0561fa9ea91fd30548a8aa | https://www.britannica.com/place/Central-National-Herbarium-of-the-Botanical-Survey-of-India | Central National Herbarium of the Botanical Survey of India | Central National Herbarium of the Botanical Survey of India
…plant specimens eventually became the Central National Herbarium of the Botanical Survey of India, which comprises 2.5 million items. Over the years attractive display gardens for the public have been developed and many kinds of plants have been cultivated for scientific observation. During the 1970s the garden initiated a program…
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35852ead010b434654454b2e2bbc8ca4 | https://www.britannica.com/place/Central-Netherlands-Urban-Ring | Central Netherlands Urban Ring | Central Netherlands Urban Ring
…Eindhoven), thus forming the so-called Central Netherlands Urban Ring. Other urban centres are Groningen in the northeast, Enschede and Hengelo in the east, and Maastricht and Heerlen in the southeast. It is government policy to keep traditional towns and cities separated by strips of agricultural or recreational land.
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904fcda225179aea3addb1268ac2a887 | https://www.britannica.com/place/Central-Region-Plateau | Central Region Plateau | Central Region Plateau
Central Region Plateau, also called Lilongwe Plain, largest continuous tableland in Malaŵi. Its area of 9,000 square miles (23,310 square km) is bordered by the Chimaliro Hills and Viphya Mountains on the north, the Great Rift Valley on the east, the Dwangwa River on the west, and the Kirk and Dzalanyama ranges on the south. The highlands, rising out of the east-central area, have a gently undulating surface with heights varying from 2,500 feet (760 m) to 4,500 feet (1,400 m). The highlands’ west-central area is dotted with hills of remarkably uniform elevations of 4,700 (1,430 m) to 5,000 feet (1,500 m). The broad valleys of the Lilongwe, Bua, and Dwangwa rivers traverse the region in an east-northeast direction. Their tributaries spread out in nadambo (bogs), offering little free-flowing water. The greater part of the Central Region Plateau has poor, sandy soils supporting grasslands and a sparse agricultural population. The fertile clays of the Lilongwe area, however, produce Malaŵi’s major tobacco crop.
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53499f0720a950ea38144e3fdd69a82e | https://www.britannica.com/place/Central-University-of-Venezuela | Central University of Venezuela | Central University of Venezuela
…state-supported tropical garden occupying a 65-hectare (160-acre) site in Caracas, Venez. The garden has excellent collections of palms, cacti, aroids, bromeliads, pandanuses, and other groups of tropical plants of considerable botanical interest; also important is a large, untouched tract of the original mountainside vegetation. The herbarium maintained by the research…
…of higher education is the Central University of Venezuela (also known as the University of Caracas), founded in 1725. Construction of a new campus, called Ciudad Universitaria (University City), began in 1945. Designed by Carlos Raúl Villanueva, Ciudad Universitaria was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2000 in recognition…
…the main campus of the Central University of Venezuela (c. 1944–60), designed by Villanueva. Formed by nearly 40 buildings on about 500 acres (about 200 hectares), it represents an extremely effective use of architecture and landscape to create an environment of intellectual freedom and creativity. Originally modeled after a traditional…
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548dfb03ae523b0ca51ecc6fa78d5531 | https://www.britannica.com/place/Centre-Canal | Centre Canal | Centre Canal
The Centre Canal serves the district and has antique canal lifts of archaeological interest. At Mariemont, north of Morlanwelz, the 16th-century castle built by Mary of Hungary, Charles V’s sister, is open to the public.
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076efa374fd5d9db9f151c64d4d48ecd | https://www.britannica.com/place/Centula | Centula | Centula
Some churches, such as Centula (Saint-Riquier, France), which is known only through pictures, had a second choir on the west side. A fairly well-preserved west choir, forerunner of the later Romanesque westwork, is to be found in the church of Corvey, in Germany (873–885). Notable also is the gatehouse…
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0d38612ffb999c203792c3aab2f5d3a6 | https://www.britannica.com/place/Cerro-Blanco | Cerro Blanco | Cerro Blanco
Cerro Blanco is a massive platform of conical adobes and stones, supporting rooms with walls bearing Chavín decoration, including eyes and feline fangs, modeled in mud plaster in low relief and painted red and greenish yellow. Punkurí has a low, terraced platform with a wide…
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ed0696ed95881e297d7120b887b2c9b1 | https://www.britannica.com/place/Cerro-Castillo | Cerro Castillo | Cerro Castillo
The Cerro Castillo, summer palace of Chilean presidents, was erected on a coastal bluff. The city is linked by bus and rail with Santiago, the national capital, about 75 miles (120 km) southeast. In the mid-20th century Viña del Mar grew rapidly as a residential suburb…
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f1183c27ad115b69d06ad22f052e9b7f | https://www.britannica.com/place/Ceuta | Ceuta | Ceuta
Ceuta, Spanish exclave, military post, and free port on the coast of Morocco, at the Mediterranean entrance to the Strait of Gibraltar. Ceuta is an autonomous city administered by Spain. Ceuta, Melilla (also an exclave), and other tiny islets along the coast of North Africa constitute the territories of Spanish North Africa. The city is on a narrow isthmus that connects Mount Hacho (also held by Spain) to the mainland. (Mount Hacho has been identified as possibly the southern Pillar of Heracles, of the ancient Mediterranean world; Jebel Moussa [Musa] in Morocco is another possibility.) On the summit of Mount Hacho is a fort used by the Spanish military.
Successively colonized by Carthaginians, Greeks, and Romans, Ceuta became independent under the Byzantine governor Count Julian. Because of Ceuta’s commercial importance in ivory, gold, and slaves, it was continually disputed until Portugal gained control (1415). The port passed to Spain in 1580 and was assigned to Spain in the Treaty of Lisbon (1688). At the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War (1936), Gen. Francisco Franco dispatched an expedition to Spain from Ceuta. In 1995 the Spanish government approved statutes of autonomy for Ceuta, replacing the city council with an assembly similar to those of Spain’s other autonomous communities.
Five centuries of Spanish Christian occupation have given the place a European rather than Moorish appearance. (Only about a third of the population is Muslim.) Lying south of the isthmus, the port consists of a small bay enclosed by two breakwaters. With the construction of modern port facilities, Ceuta grew as a military, transport, and commercial centre. Ceuta is surrounded by a double fence with barbed wire to secure its borders. In 2006 the fence was raised and Ceuta’s military personnel and number of weapons were increased. Even so, thousands of immigrants, mainly African refugees, unsuccessfully try to cross the border every year.
Public administration is the city’s main economic activity. Fishing and the drying and processing of the catch are important industries, as are brewing, metallurgy, and machine repairs. Tourism has gradually become significant. There is ferry service to Algeciras on the European side of the Strait of Gibraltar. A teacher-training college, business school, and administrative school are affiliated with the University of Granada. Pop. (2018 est.) city, 85,144.
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306827d38812d3100702d228892fd11f | https://www.britannica.com/place/Chad/Economy | Economy of Chad | Economy of Chad
Cotton is one of Chad’s important agricultural products. Although it is basically an export crop, the processing of raw cotton provides employment for a majority of those in industry and accounts for some of Chad’s export earnings. Most of the cotton fibre ginned in Chad’s processing plants is exported to Europe and the United States.
Chad’s livestock constitutes another important economic resource and is primarily distributed across central Chad. Much of this wealth is not reflected in the national cash economy, however, and livestock products form about one-tenth of exports. There is a refrigerated meat-processing plant at Sarh. The government has tried to improve livestock by introducing stronger breeds and production by building new slaughterhouses.
Rice is produced in the Chari valley and in southwestern Chad, and wheat is grown along the shores of Lake Chad; little of either crop is processed commercially.
About half the fish caught is salted and dried for export. Most fish are caught in the Lake Chad, Chari, and Logone basins.
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d88719274437bdd63ce0b9d76ed93811 | https://www.britannica.com/place/Chad/History | History of Chad | History of Chad
The region of the eastern Sahara and Sudan from Fezzan, Bilma, and Chad in the west to the Nile valley in the east was well peopled in Neolithic times, as discovered sites attest. Probably typical of the earliest populations were the dark-skinned cave dwellers described by Herodotus as inhabiting the country south of Fezzan. The ethnographic history of the region is that of gradual modification of this basic stock by the continual infiltration of nomadic and increasingly Arabicized white African elements, entering from the north via Fezzan and Tibesti and, especially after the 14th century, from the Nile valley via Darfur. According to legend, the country around Lake Chad was originally occupied by the Sao. This vanished people is probably represented today by the Kotoko, in whose country, along the banks of the Logone and Chari, was unearthed in the 1950s a medieval culture notable for work in terra-cotta and bronze.
The relatively large and politically sophisticated kingdoms of the central Sudan were the creation of Saharan Imazighen (Berbers), drawn southward by their continuous search for pasturage and easily able to impose their hegemony on the fragmentary indigenous societies of agriculturalists. This process was intensified by the expansion of Islam. There are indications of a large immigration of pagan Imazighen into the central Sudan early in the 8th century.
The most important of these states, Kanem-Bornu, which was at the height of its power in the later 16th century, owed its preeminence to its command of the southern terminus of the trans-Saharan trade route to Tripoli.
Products of the Islamized Sudanic culture diffused from Kanem were the kingdoms of Bagirmi and Ouaddaï, which emerged in the early years of the 17th century out of the process of conversion to Islam. In the 18th century the Arab dynasty of Ouaddaï was able to throw off the suzerainty of Darfur and extend its territories by the conquest of eastern Kanem. Slave raiding at the expense of animist populations to the south constituted an important element in the prosperity of all these Muslim states. In the 19th century, however, they were in full decline, torn by wars and internecine feuds. In the years 1883–93 they all fell to the Sudanese adventurer Rābiḥ az-Zubayr.
By this time the partition of Africa among the European powers was entering its final phase. Rābiḥ was overthrown in 1900, and the traditional Kanembu dynasty was reestablished under French protection. Chad became part of the federation of French Equatorial Africa in 1910. The pacification of the whole area of the present republic was barely completed by 1914, and between the wars French rule was unprogressive. A pact between Italy and France that would have ceded the Aozou Strip to Italian-ruled Libya was never ratified by the French National Assembly, but it provided a pretext for Libya to seize the territory in 1973. During World War II Chad gave unhesitating support to the Free French cause. After 1945 the territory shared in the constitutional advance of French Equatorial Africa. In 1946 it became an overseas territory of the French Republic.
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91e4e40a7bb2bdf39a93760347440dec | https://www.britannica.com/place/Chagres-River | Chagres River | Chagres River
Chagres River, Spanish Río Chagres, stream in Panama forming part of the Panama Canal system. It rises in the Cordillera de San Blas, flows south-southwest, and broadens to form Madden Lake (22 square miles [57 square km]) at Madden Dam, which was built in 1935 for navigation, flood control, and hydroelectric power. Below the dam it continues southwest to Gamboa, where it joins the Panama Canal at the north end of the Gaillard Cut. Its course then turns northward through Gatún Lake, created by the Gatún Dam (1912) with which are associated locks and a hydroelectric plant. The Chagres there leaves the canal and flows into the Caribbean Sea west of Limón Bay. Originally characterized by rapids throughout, the river is navigable only in its canalized portions. The river supplies much of the water needed to operate the canal, and it is the source for most of Panama City’s water supply. Its resources are increasingly strained and the water quality threatened. Deforestation around the river basin has been a problem. Deforested slopes cannot absorb heavy rains, which overflow into Gatún Lake and out to the sea, making lockage difficult and causing eroded sediment to fill up the lake bottom.
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43b8c5fc79bd7825e76e7ba88534348e | https://www.britannica.com/place/Chaillu-Massif?anchor=ref215424 | Chaillu Massif | Chaillu Massif
Chaillu Massif, mountain range in south-central Gabon, which rises to more than 3,300 feet (1,000 m) between the Ngounié and the Ogooué rivers and forms the country’s main watershed. The range contains Mount Milondo (3,346 feet [1,020 m]), which is 53 miles (85 km) southwest of Koula-Moutou. Other high points in the range are Mount Iboundji (3,215 feet [980 m]) and Mount Mimongo (2,822 feet [860 m]). The granite massif is named for the explorer Paul du Chaillu, who noted the mountains during his journeys up the Ngounié River (1855–65).
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73a3c4bb7b3c9304da68db5c3ef3960d | https://www.britannica.com/place/Chalatenango | Chalatenango | Chalatenango
Chalatenango, city, northern El Salvador. It lies along the Tamulasco and Cholco rivers at an elevation of 1,660 feet (506 metres). Originally an Indian settlement, it was placed under the Spanish colonial governor Carardalet in 1791 and was declared a town in 1847 and a city in 1871. The city’s annual agricultural fair is a national event. Wheat, sugarcane, cassava, sisal (for cordage), indigo, coffee, and fruits are grown in the surrounding area. There is also some light industrial development (pottery, rope making, and indigo processing) in Chalatenango itself. The city was damaged during clashes between government troops and leftist guerrillas in the early 1980s. Chalatenango was one of the main strongholds of the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (Frente Farabundo Martí para la Liberación Nacional; FMLN) guerrillas in the 1980s. Pop. (2005 est.) urban area, 16,200.
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7324536227f53a4f9dd92dd84a299811 | https://www.britannica.com/place/Chambly | Chambly | Chambly
Chambly, city, Montérégie region, southern Quebec province, Canada. The city lies along the Chambly Basin—a widening of the Richelieu River. Its site, 14 miles (23 km) east of Montreal city, was first occupied by Fort-Chambly, a wooden stockade built in 1665 by Captain Jacques de Chambly, a French army officer and leader of the Carignan Regiment. Destroyed by Iroquois Indians in 1702, it was later rebuilt in stone. Surrendered to the British in 1760, the fort played an important part during the American invasion of 1775 and during the War of 1812.
The city is now an agricultural market centre of a cash-crop, dairying, and fruit-growing region. A nearby hydroelectric plant supplies power for Chambly and much of Montreal. Among the city’s many historical sites are Fort-Chambly National Historic Park, the monument and home of Colonel de Salaberry (a hero of the War of 1812), and Jacques-de-Chambly Historical Village, a collection of 18th- and 19th-century buildings. Inc. 1951. Pop. (2006) 22,608; (2011) 25,571.
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