Encyclopædia Britannica Australia -

Encyclopedias since 1768

0-9

Maina ... Makalu

Maina: peninsula of the southern Peloponnese (Peloponnisos), in the nomos (department) of Laconia, Greece. The area has been set aside as a historical district by the government. The rugged, rather isolated peninsula, 28 miles (45 km) long, is an extension of ...
Mainassara, Ibrahim Bare: soldier, diplomat, and politician who orchestrated a coup in 1996 that overthrew Niger's first democratically elected government. He subsequently served as president (1996-99) until his assassination.
Maine: constituent state of the United States of America. The largest of the six New England states in area, it lies at the northeastern tip of the country. Its 33,265 square miles (86,156 square kilometres), including 2,270 square miles of inland ...
Maine: historic region encompassing the western French departements of Mayenne and Sarthe and coextensive with the former province of Maine. The two Gallo-Roman civitates of the Cenomani and of the Diablintes were merged in the middle of the 5th century into ...
Maine de Biran, Marie-Francois-Pierre: French statesman, empiricist philosopher, and prolific writer who stressed the inner life of man, against the prevalent emphasis on external sense experience, as a prerequisite for understanding the human self. Born with the surname Gonthier de Biran, he adopted Maine ...
Maine River: river, Maine-et-Loire departement, western France, 7 mi (12 km) long, formed by the confluence of the Mayenne, the Sarthe, and the Loire rivers. Within 6 mi (north) of Angers, the Loire, meandering from the east, joins the southward-flowing Sarthe River, ...
Maine, destruction of the: (Feb. 15, 1898), an incident preceding the Spanish-American War in which a mysterious explosion sank the U.S. battleship Maine in the harbour of Havana. The destruction of the Maine was one of a series of incidents that precipitated the United ...
Maine, Louis-Auguste de Bourbon, duc du: illegitimate son of King Louis XIV of France who attempted without success to wrest control of the government from Philippe II, Duke d'Orleans, who was the regent (1715-23) for Louis XIV's successor, Louis XV.
Maine, Sir Henry: British jurist and legal historian who pioneered the study of comparative law, notably primitive law and anthropological jurisprudence.
Maine, University of: state university system of Maine, U.S. It comprises seven coeducational institutions, including the University of Southern Maine. The University of Maine is a land-grant and sea-grant university based in Orono. It offers a wide range of undergraduate, graduate, and professional ...
Mainichi shimbun: national daily newspaper, one of Japan's "big three" dailies, which publishes morning and evening editions in Tokyo, Osaka, and three other regional centres.
Mainit, Lake: lake on the border of Surigao del Norte and Agusan del Sur provinces, northeastern Mindanao, Philippines. It is the country's fourth largest lake and has an area of 58 sq mi (150 sq km). Its outlet is the Tubay River, ...
Mainland: central and largest of the Orkney Islands of Scotland, which lie off the northern tip of the Scottish mainland. The shores of this irregularly shaped island are deeply indented (from north and south, respectively) by the inlets of Kirkwall Bay ...
Mainpuri: town, administrative headquarters of Mainpuri district, Uttar Pradesh state, northern India, east of Agra. Mainpuri and the surrounding territory were part of the kingdom of Kannauj (Kanauj) and became splintered politically when the kingdom fell. The town was conquered by ...
Maintenon, Francoise d'Aubigne, marquise de: second wife (from either 1683 or 1697) and untitled queen of King Louis XIV of France. She encouraged an atmosphere of dignity and piety at court and founded an educational institution for poor girls at Saint-Cyr (1686).
Mainz: city, capital of Rhineland-Palatinate Land (state), west-central Germany. It is a port on the left bank of the Rhine River opposite Wiesbaden and the mouth of the Main River.
Maio Island: island of Cape Verde, in the Atlantic Ocean, between the islands of Boa Vista and Santiago, about 400 miles (640 km) off the West African coast. It has an area of 104 square miles (269 square km) and rises to ...
Maipu, Battle of: (April 5, 1818), during the South American wars of independence, a victory won by South American rebels, commanded by Jose de San Martin, leader of the resistance to Spain in southern South America, over Spanish royalists, near Santiago, Chile.
Maiquetia: city, northern Distrito Federal, northern Venezuela, on the narrow strip of land between the coastal hills and the Caribbean Sea, just west of La Guaira. It is a leading port of Venezuela and a popular beach resort. Industries include a ...
Mairet, Jean: classical French dramatist, the forerunner and rival of Pierre Corneille. Mairet's characters, his verse, and his situations were freely borrowed by his contemporaries. Before Corneille, he brought to the stage the famous Cornelian figures Sophonisbe and Pulcherie, and he anticipated ...
Maironis: poet considered to be the bard of the Lithuanian national renaissance.
Maisi, Cape: cape, Guantanamo provincia, eastern Cuba, jutting out from the Purial Mountains to form the easternmost extremity of the island. To the southeast, across the Windward Passage, lies Cheval Blanc Point, Haiti, at a distance of approximately 35 miles (56 km); ...
Maison-Carree: Roman temple at Nimes, Fr., in remarkably good repair. According to an inscription, it was dedicated to Gaius and Lucius Caesar, adopted sons of Augustus, and dates from the beginning of the Christian era.
Maistre, Casimir-Leon: soldier and explorer who took part in the first thorough European exploration of Madagascar and led expeditions into previously unexplored regions of Central Africa, thereby extending French influence there.
Maistre, Joseph de: French polemical author, moralist, and diplomat who, after being uprooted by the French Revolution in 1789, became a great exponent of the conservative tradition.
Maitani, Lorenzo: Italian architect and sculptor primarily responsible for the construction and decoration of the facade of Orvieto Cathedral.
Maithil Brahman: caste of Brahmans in Bihar, India (the area of the ancient kingdom of Mithila), well known for their orthodoxy and interest in learning. The names of these Brahmans are usually followed by the appellation Misra; many great scholars have been ...
Maitland: city, eastern New South Wales, Australia, in the Hunter River valley. Founded as a settlement for convicts (1818-21), it was called in turn The Camp, Molly Morgan Plains, and Wallis Plains. A second town, surveyed in 1829 on higher ground ...
Maitland, Frederic William: English jurist and historian of English law whose special contribution was to bring historical and comparative methods to bear on the study of English institutions.
Maitland, John Maitland, 1st Lord: lord chancellor of Scotland from 1587 to 1595 and chief adviser to King James VI (later James I of Great Britain). His father was the poet and statesman Sir Richard Maitland of Lethington, East Lothian, and his brother, William Maitland, ...
Maitland, Sir Richard, Lord Lethington: Scottish poet, lawyer, statesman, and compiler of one of the earliest and most important collections of Scottish poetry.
Maitland, William: Scottish statesman and staunch supporter of Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots. In the conflict between Scotland's Protestant nobility and the Roman Catholic Mary, Maitland often defied the queen when her actions threatened to undermine her chances of remaining in power. ...
Maitraka Dynasty: Indian dynasty that ruled in Gujarat and Saurashtra (Kathiawar) from the 5th to the 8th century AD. Its founder, Bhatarka, was a general who, taking advantage of the decay of the Gupta empire, established himself as ruler of Gujarat and ...
Maitreya: in Buddhist tradition, the future Buddha, presently a bodhisattva residing in the Tusita heaven, who will descend to earth to preach anew the dharma ("law") when the teachings of Gautama Buddha have completely decayed. Maitreya is the earliest bodhisattva around ...
maitri: (Sanskrit), in Buddhism, the perfect virtue of sympathy. See brahmavihara.
Maizuru: city, Kyoto fu (urban prefecture), Honshu, Japan, facing Wakasa Bay. The city-then called Tanabe-developed around a castle built during the Muromachi period (1338-1573). It has one of the best natural ports on the Sea of Japan (East Sea) coast and ...
Maj circle: group of young Czech writers of the mid-19th century whose aim was to create a new Czech literature that would reflect their liberalism and practical nationalism. They published in an almanac called Maj (1858; "May") after the lyrical epic poem ...
Majapahit empire: the last Indianized kingdom in Indonesia; based in eastern Java, it existed between the 13th and 16th centuries. The founder of the empire was Vijaya, a prince of Singhasari (q.v.), who escaped when Jayakatwang, the ruler of Kadiri, seized the ...
Majardah, Wadi: main river of Tunisia. It rises in northeastern Algeria in the Medjerda Mountains and flows northeastward for 290 miles (460 km) to the Gulf of Tunis, draining an area of about 8,880 square miles (23,000 square km) before it enters ...
Majdanek: Nazi German concentration and extermination camp on the southeastern outskirts of the city of Lublin, Poland. In October 1941 it received its first prisoners, mainly Soviet prisoners of war, virtually all of whom died of hunger and exposure. Within a ...
Majdanpek: town, northeastern Serbia, Yugoslavia. It lies along the Pek River in the Homoljske Mountains. Majdanpek has been an important mining centre since Roman times, when gold was mined; by the 20th century, iron and copper were the most important minerals. ...
majolica: tin-glazed earthenware produced from the 15th century at such Italian centres as Faenza, Deruta, Urbino, Orvieto, Gubbio, Florence, and Savona. Tin-glazed earthenware-also made in other countries, where it is called faience, or delft-was introduced into Italy from Moorish Spain by ...
major histocompatibility complex: group of genes that code for proteins found on the surfaces of cells that help the immune system recognize foreign substances. MHC proteins are found in all higher vertebrates. In human beings the complex is also called the human leukocyte ...
major scale: in music, stepped arrangement of notes following the classical Greek Ionian mode (though mistaken nomenclature in the 16th century has since caused it to be referred to as the Lydian mode). In a major scale the intervals between successive notes ...
Major, John: British politician and public official who was prime minister of the United Kingdom from 1990 to 1997.
Majorca: island, Baleares provincia and comunidad autonoma ("autonomous community"), Spain. Majorca is the largest of the Balearic Islands, which lie in the western Mediterranean Sea. It is 1,405 square miles (3,640 square km) in area and contains two mountainous regions, each ...
Majorelle, Louis: French artist, cabinetmaker, furniture designer, and ironworker who was one of the leading exponents of the Art Nouveau style.
Majorian: Western Roman emperor from 457 to 461, the only man to hold that office in the 5th century who had some claim to greatness.
Majuro: atoll in the Ratak (eastern) chain of the Marshall Islands and capital of the Republic of the Marshall Islands, in the western Pacific Ocean. The atoll comprises 64 islets on an elliptically shaped reef 25 miles (40 km) long and ...
majuscule: in calligraphy, capital, uppercase, or large letter in most alphabets, in contrast to the minuscule, lowercase, or small letter. All the letters in a majuscule script are contained between a single pair of (real or theoretical) horizontal lines. The Latin, ...
Makalu: one of the world's highest mountains (27,766 feet [8,463 m]), in the Himalayas on the Nepalese-Tibetan (Chinese) border. It lies 14 miles (23 km) east-southeast of Mount Everest. Makalu had been observed by climbers of Mount Everest, but attempts to ...