Encyclopædia Britannica Australia -

Encyclopedias since 1768

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Campbelltown ... Canada West

Campbelltown: city within the Sydney metropolitan area, eastern New South Wales, southeastern Australia. In 1810 it was proclaimed the town of Airds by Governor Lachlan Macquarie, who renamed it in 1820 after his wife, Elizabeth Campbell. In 1882 it became a ...
Campbeltown: small royal burgh (town) and seaport, Argyll and Bute council area, historic county of Argyllshire, western Scotland. Campbeltown is the main centre of the Peninsula of Kintyre, which is 40 miles (65 km) long and protrudes into the Atlantic. By ...
Campeche: city, port on the Gulf of Mexico, and capital of Campeche estado (state), southeastern Mexico. It lies on the Yucatan Peninsula at the western end of a fertile plain in a natural amphitheatre formed by hills overlooking ...
Campeche: estado ("state"), southeastern Mexico, on the Yucatan Peninsula. It is bounded north and east by the state of Yucatan, from which it seceded in 1857; northwest by the Gulf of Mexico; east by the state of Quintana Roo; south by ...
Campeche, Bay of: bay, southern Mexico, bounded east by the Yucatan Peninsula, south by the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, and west by southern Veracruz. An inlet of the Gulf of Mexico, the bay, which covers an area of about 6,000 square miles (15,540 square ...
Campeggio, Lorenzo: Italian cardinal, humanist, and lawyer who, upon entering the service of the church in 1510, became one of the most valued representatives of the papacy.
Campen, Jacob van: Dutch architect, one of the leaders of a group of architects who created a restrained architectural style that was suited to the social and political climate of the Netherlands.
Campephagidae: songbird family, order Passeriformes, including cuckoo-shrikes and minivets. The 70 species, found from Africa to the Pacific Islands, are 13 to 35 cm (5 to 14 inches) in length and have slightly hooked bills, rather long tails, and fluffy plumage ...
camphor: an organic compound of penetrating, somewhat musty aroma, used for many centuries as a component of incense and as a medicinal. Modern uses of camphor have been as a plasticizer for cellulose nitrate and as an insect repellent, particularly for ...
Campi, Giulio: Italian painter and architect who led the formation of the Cremonese school. His work, and that of his followers, was elegant and eclectic. Campi was a prolific painter, working in both oil and fresco; at its best his work was ...
Campidano: narrow, low-lying plain, about 20 mi (32 km) wide, in southwestern Sardinia, Italy, extending inland about 70 mi (110 km) from the Golfo di (Gulf of) Oristano. It separates Sardinia's small southwestern highland, Iglesiente, from the greater Eastern Highlands, which ...
Campin, Robert: one of the earliest and greatest masters of Flemish painting. He has been identified with the Master of Flemalle on stylistic and other grounds. Characterized by a naturalistic conception of form and a poetic representation of the objects of daily ...
Campina Grande: city, eastern Paraiba estado (state), northeastern Brazil, in the Bacamarte Mountains, at 1,804 feet (550 metres) above sea level. Located on the site of an Ariu Indian village, it was originally called Porta do Sertao (Gateway to ...
Campinas: city, eastern Sao Paulo estado (state), southeastern Brazil, in the highlands near the Atibaia River at 2,274 feet (693 metres) above sea level. Formerly known as Nossa Senhora da Conceicao de Campinas de Mato Grosso and as ...
camping: recreational activity in which participants take up temporary residence in the outdoors, usually using tents or specially designed or adapted vehicles for shelter. Camping was at one time only a rough, back-to-nature pastime for hardy open-air lovers, but it later ...
campion: common name for ornamental rock-garden or border plants constituting the genus Silene, of the pink family (Caryophyllaceae), consisting of about 500 species of herbaceous plants distributed throughout the world. Campion and catchfly also are names for members of the genus ...
Campion, Saint Edmund: English Jesuit martyred by the government of Queen Elizabeth I.
Campion, Thomas: English poet, composer, musical and literary theorist, physician, and one of the outstanding songwriters of the brilliant English lutenist school of the late 16th and early 17th centuries. His lyric poetry reflects his musical abilities in its subtle mastery of ...
Campo Formio, Treaty of: (Oct. 17, 1797), a peace settlement between France and Austria, signed at Campo Formio (now Campoformido, Italy), a village in Venezia Giulia southwest of Udine, following the defeat of Austria in Napoleon Bonaparte's first Italian campaign.
Campo Grande: city, capital of Mato Grosso do Sul estado (state), southwestern Brazil, lying near the headwaters of the Anhandui River, in the Maracaju Mountains, at 1,770 feet (540 metres) above sea level. Campo Grande is the largest city ...
Campo, Estanislao del: Argentine poet and journalist whose Fausto is one of the major works of gaucho poetry.
Campoamor y Campoosorio, Ramon de: Spanish poet whose value lies in his expression of contemporary social attitudes.
Campobasso: city, capital of Molise regione (region), south-central Italy, northeast of Naples. The old town on a hill was abandoned in 1732 by its inhabitants, who built a new town on a lower fertile plain. The Castello Monforte ...
Campobello Island: second largest island (9 miles [14 km] long by 3 miles [5 km] wide), after Grand Manan, of a small island group at the entrance to Passamaquoddy Bay (an inlet of the Bay of Fundy), southwestern New Brunswick, southeastern Canada. ...
Campos: city, northeastern Rio de Janeiro estado (state), eastern Brazil. It is located 35 miles (56 km) up the Paraiba do Sul River from its mouth on the Atlantic coast of eastern Brazil, at 43 feet (13 metres) ...
Campos do Jordao: city, southeastern Sao Paulo estado ("state"), Brazil, in the Mantiqueira Mountains, at an elevation of 5,500 feet (1,700 m). Founded as early as 1700, the city has developed as a health resort and tourist centre. Fruit growing (papayas, mangoes, guavas, ...
Campos, Haroldo de; and Campos, Augusto de: poets and literary critics, best known as the prime movers in the creation of Brazilian concrete poetry in the 1950s.
Campra, Andre: most important French composer of operas between Jean-Baptiste Lully and Jean-Philippe Rameau.
Camptosaurus: large herbivorous dinosaurs found as fossils in western Europe and western North America that lived from the Late Jurassic to the Early Cretaceous Period.
Campulung: town, Arges judet (county), south-central Romania. It lies along the Targului River at the foot of the Iezer and Papusa mountains of the Transylvanian Alps. Originally it was a frontier post on a strategic road (now a highway) that crossed ...
Campus Martius: in ancient Rome, a floodplain of the Tiber River, the site of the altar of Mars and the temple of Apollo in the 5th century BC. Originally used primarily as a military exercise ground, it was later drained and, by ...
campylobacter: group of spiral-shaped bacteria that can cause human diseases such as campylobacter enteritis (campylobacteriosis), which begins abruptly with fever, headache, diarrhea, and significant abdominal pain.
Camrose: city, south-central Alberta, Canada, on Camrose Creek near Bittern Lake, 58 miles (93 km) southeast of Edmonton. Founded in 1905 as the village of Sparling, after the Methodist clergyman Joseph W. Sparling (1843-1912), it was incorporated (1907) as a town ...
camshaft: in internal-combustion engines, rotating shaft with attached disks of irregular shape (the cams), which actuate the intake and exhaust valves of the cylinders. The cams and the camshaft are usually formed as a unit, with the cams set at angles ...
Camu River: river in north-central and northeastern Dominican Republic. Its headstreams rise in the Cordillera Central near La Vega. Other tributaries flow from the Cordillera Septentrional near Moca. The Camu, about 50 miles (80 km) long, flows generally eastward across the fertile ...
Camus, Albert: French novelist, essayist, and playwright, best known for such novels as L'Etranger (1942; The Stranger), La Peste (1947; The Plague), and La Chute (1956; The Fall) and for his work in leftist causes. He received the 1957 Nobel Prize for ...
Camus, Marcel: French motion-picture director who won international acclaim for his second film, Orfeu Negro (Black Orpheus) in 1958. The film was praised for its use of exotic settings and brilliant spectacle and won first prize at both the Cannes and Venice ...
Can Tho: city, southeastern Vietnam. Situated on the left bank of the Hau Giang River, 90 miles (145 km) southwest of Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon), it is an industrial centre and the largest city of the flat delta region, which ...
Canaan: area variously defined in historical and biblical literature, but always centred on Palestine. Its original pre-Israelite inhabitants were called Canaanites. The names Canaan and Canaanite occur in cuneiform, Egyptian, and Phoenician writings from about the 15th century BC as well ...
Canaan dog: breed of herding dog developed in Israel in the 20th century from semiwild pariah dogs that were the descendants of animals present in the region since biblical times. Over time they had been utilized as guardians and hunting dogs, but ...
Canaanite inscriptions: a group of 11 inscriptions recovered from bowls and other utensils found in several archaeological sites in Palestine dating from approximately the 16th to 13th century BC. Because they have not as yet been satisfactorily deciphered, it is unclear whether ...
Canaanite languages: group of Northern Central or Northwestern Semitic languages including Hebrew, Moabite, Phoenician, and Punic. They were spoken in ancient times in Palestine, on the coast of Syria, and in scattered colonies elsewhere around the Mediterranean. An early form of Canaanite ...
Canaanite religion: beliefs and practices prevalent in ancient Palestine and Syria during the 2nd and 1st millennia BC, centring primarily on the deities El, Baal, and Anath (qq.v.). From time to time it subverted the essential monotheism of the Israelites after they ...
Canada: second largest country in the world in area (after Russia), occupying roughly the northern two-fifths of the continent of North America.
Canada Act: 1982, Canada's constitution approved by the British Parliament on March 25, 1982, and proclaimed by Queen Elizabeth II on April 17, 1982, making Canada wholly independent. The document contains the original statute that established the Canadian Confederation in 1867 (the ...
Canada balsam: oleoresin consisting of a viscous yellowish to greenish liquid exuded by the balsam fir of North America, Abies balsamea. It is actually a turpentine, belonging to the class of oleoresins (natural products consisting of a resin dissolved in an essential ...
Canada Company: organization instrumental in colonizing much of the western part of Upper Canada (now Ontario). Many residents of Upper Canada had incurred losses during the War of 1812 and subsequently claimed an indemnity from the British government. The latter agreed to ...
Canada Day: the national holiday of Canada. The possibility of a confederation between the colonies of British North America was discussed throughout the mid 1800s. On July 1, 1867, a dominion was formed through the British North America Act as approved by ...
Canada East: in Canadian history, the region in Canada now known as Quebec. From 1791 to 1841 the region was known as Lower Canada and from 1841 to 1867 as Canada East, though the two names continued to be used interchangeably.
Canada goose: a brown-backed, light-breasted goose with a black head and neck. It has white cheeks that flash when the bird shakes its head before taking flight. The various subspecies range in size from 2 kg (4.4 pounds) in the cackling goose ...
Canada West: in Canadian history, the region in Canada now known as Ontario. From 1791 to 1841 the region was known as Upper Canada and from 1841 to 1867 as Canada West, though the two names continued to be employed interchangeably.