China, Korea and the Sino-Japanese War

After the Meiji Restoration, Japan made many efforts, all in vain, to open new and direct intercourse with

Slavic Languages, Innovations

Each branch of Slavic originally developed from Proto-Slavic, the ancestral parent language of the group, which in turn developed from an earlier language that was also the antecedent of the Proto-Baltic language. Both Slavic and Baltic share with the eastern Indo-European languages (called satem languages) the same change of Indo-European palatal k and g sounds (consonants

Masdevallia

They have short stems and erect or slightly spreading leaves. The sepals are united at their bases and have one or more long taillike extensions.

Schaerbeek

Flemish  Schaarbeek  municipality, Brabant province, central Belgium. A village until 1795, it is now an industrial suburb northeast of Brussels and one of the 19 communes that make up Greater Brussels. A rail junction with switch and freight yards, it has an electric power station and manufactures clothing, chemicals, and machinery. The conspicuous domed Church of Sainte-Marie (1845–53) is built in the

Lowe, Doug

Lowe was a champion runner at Highgate School and also at the University of Cambridge, where he studied law. He came in fourth in the 1,500-metre race at the 1924 Olympics. After his final Olympics performance, he went to Berlin

Pacific, War Of The

Spanish  Guerra Del Pacífico  (1879–83), conflict involving Chile, Bolivia, and Peru, which resulted in Chilean annexation of valuable disputed territory on the Pacific coast. It grew out of a dispute between Chile and Bolivia over control of a part of the Atacama Desert that lies between the 23rd and 26th parallels on the Pacific coast of South America. The territory contained valuable mineral resources, particularly

Congo

Congo's many ethnic groups and regions have developed a mosaic of traditional arts, including painting, sculpture, music, and dance. There has been a tendency to classify sculpture and carving according to the styles of the areas from which they originate. The South-West Group is represented by the Kongo people and is known for stone and nail-studded statues; the Yaka,

Aleksin

City, Tula oblast (province), western Russia, on the Oka River, 40 miles (65 km) northwest of Tula city. Aleksin, first documented in 1236, was at first a fortress, then a river port. The decline of river trade adversely affected the city, but since the October Revolution (1917) it has become a significant industrial centre, with engineering and building-materials industries. Pop. (1991 est.) 74,200.

Bahr, Hermann

After studying at Austrian and German universities, he settled in Vienna, where he worked on a number of newspapers. His early critical works Zur Kritik der Moderne (1890; “On Criticism of Modernity”) and Die Überwindung des

Great Bahama Canyon

Submarine canyon in the Atlantic Ocean off the Bahamas, one of the greatest yet discovered. It lies northeast of the Great Bahama Bank, between Great Abaco and Eleuthera islands. Two main branches, the Tongue of the Ocean and Northwest Providence, merge to form the canyon itself. The vertical rock walls of the Great Bahama Canyon rise 14,060 feet (4,285 m) from the canyon floor to the

Abyssal Hill

Small, topographically well-defined submarine hill that may rise from several metres to several hundred metres above the abyssal seafloor, in water 3,000 to 6,000 m (10,000 to 20,000 feet) deep. Typical hills have diameters of several to several hundred metres. Abyssal-hill provinces, areas of abyssal seafloor occupied exclusively by such hills, characteristically occur seaward of the