Britannica Concise 2005

Wordsworth, Dorothy (b. Dec. 25, 1771, Cockermouth, Cumber¬ land, Eng.—d. Jan. 25, 1855, Rydal Mount, Westmorland) English writer. An inspiring influence on her brother William Wordsworth, she lived with him from 1795 onward. Her Alfoxden Journal 1798 (1897)—from the period when he and Samuel Taylor Coleridge produced Lyrical Ballads (1798)—and Grasmere Journals 1800-03 (1897) are intimate records of their lives. Both are appreciated for their imaginative descriptions of nature, their perfection of style, and their revelation of her personality as well as for the light they throw on her brother. In 1829 severe illness left her an invalid, and her mind was clouded in her last 20 years.

Wordsworth, William (b. April 7, 1770, Cockermouth, Cumberland, Eng.—d. April 23, 1850, Rydal Mount, Westmorland) English poet. Orphaned at age 13, Wordsworth attended Cambridge University, but he

remained rootless and virtually penniless until 1795, when a legacy made possible a reunion with his sister Dorothy Wordsworth. He became friends with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, with whom he wrote Lyrical Ballads (1798), the collection often considered to have launched the English Romantic movement. Wordsworth’s contributions include “Tintern Abbey” and many lyrics controversial for their common, everyday lan¬ guage. About 1798 he began writing The Prelude (1850), the epic auto¬ biographical poem that would absorb him intermittently for the next 40 years. His second verse collection. Poems, in Two Volumes (1807), includes many of the rest of his finest works, including “Ode: Intimations of Immortality.” His poetry is perhaps most original in its vision of the organic relation between man and the natural world, a vision that culmi¬ nated in the sweeping metaphor of nature as emblematic of the mind of God. The most memorable poems of his middle and late years were often cast in elegaic mode; few match the best of his earlier works. By the time he became widely appreciated by the critics and the public, his poetry had lost much of its force and his radical politics had yielded to conservatism. In 1843 he became England’s poet laureate. He is regarded as the central figure in the initiation of English Romanticism.

work In economics and sociology, the activities and labour necessary for the survival of society. As early as 40,000 bc, hunters worked in groups to track and kill animals, while younger or weaker members of the tribe gathered food. When agriculture replaced hunting and gathering, the resulting surplus of food allowed early societies to develop and some of its members to pursue crafts such as pottery, weaving, and metallurgy. Historically, rigid social hierarchies caused nobles, clergy, merchants, arti¬ sans, and peasants to pursue occupations defined largely by hereditary social class. Craft guilds, influential in the economic development of medi¬ eval Europe, limited the supply of labour in each profession and controlled production. The establishment of towns led to the creation of new occu¬ pations in commerce, law, medicine, and defense. The coming of the Industrial Revolution, spurred by technological advances such as steam power, changed working life profoundly. Factories divided the work once done by a single craftsman into a number of distinct tasks performed by unskilled or semiskilled workers (see division of labour). Manufacturing firms grew larger in the 19th century as standardized parts and machine tools came into use, and ever-more-specialized positions for managers, supervisors, accountants, engineers, technicians, and salesmen became necessary. The trend toward specialization continued into the 21st cen¬ tury, giving rise to a number of disciplines concerned with the manage¬ ment and design of work, including production management, industrial relations, personnel administration, and systems engineering. By the turn of the 21st century, automation and technology had spurred tremendous growth in service industries.

work In physics, the measure of energy transfer that occurs when an object is moved over a distance by an external force, some component of which is applied in the direction of displacement. For a constant force, work W is equal to the magnitude of the force F times the displacement d of the object, or W = Fd. Work is also done by compressing a gas, by rotating a shaft, and by causing invisible motions of particles within a body by an external magnetic force. No work is accomplished by simply holding a heavy stationary object, because there is no transfer of energy and no displacement. Work done on a body is equal to the increase in energy of the body. Work is expressed in units called joules (J). One joule is equivalent to the energy transferred when a force of one newton is applied over a distance of one metre.

workers' compensation Program through which employers bear some of the cost of their employees’ work-related injuries and occupa¬ tional illnesses or disabilities. It was first introduced in Germany in 1884. In Britain and the U.S. in the late 19th century, there was a movement to secure the right of injured workers to compensation and to improve work¬ ing conditions through court decisions, employer liability statutes, and safety codes. By the mid-20th century most countries in the world had adopted some sort of workers’ compensation. Some systems take the form of compulsory social insurance; in others the employer is legally required to provide certain benefits, but insurance is voluntary. The system of workers’ compensation serves as an economic incentive for employers to prevent accidents and illness among employees, since liability for medi¬ cal costs and the income lost by placing workers in hazardous environ¬ ments can easily exceed the costs of establishing safe working conditions.

Workers' Opposition (1920-21) Group within the Soviet Union’s Communist Party that championed workers’ rights and trade-union control

© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.

2076 I working dog ► World Trade Center

over industry. It was formed in 1919 to resist the central party’s increas¬ ing control over local party units and trade unions. In 1920 it objected to Leon Trotsky’s plan to transform trade unions into state organs. Led by Aleksandra Kollontay and others, the group insisted that the unions, as true representatives of the proletariat, should control the national economy. At the 10th Party Congress (1921), its platform was rejected and it was ordered to disperse.

working dog Any of various breeds of dog bred as guard, herding, draft, or rescue animals. Breeds range from medium to large, but all are sturdy and muscular, intelligent and loyal. Guard breeds include the Akita, boxer, bullmastiff, Doberman pinscher, giant and standard schnauzers, Great Dane, mastiff, and Rottweiler. Livestock guard breeds include the Great Pyrenees, komondor (Hungary), kuvasz (Tibet), and Pyrenean mountain dogs (Britain). Herding dogs include the German shepherd, Shetland sheep¬ dog, and Welsh corgi. Breeds developed for hauling and rescue work include the Bernese mountain dog, Portuguese water dog, Newfoundland, St. Bernard, and sled dog.

Workingmen's Party First labour-oriented U.S. political party. It was formed in Philadelphia (1828) and New York (1829) by craftsmen, skilled journeymen, and reformers who demanded a 10-hour workday, free public education, abolition of debtor imprisonment, and an end to competition from prison contract labour. Leaders included Thomas Skid¬ more, Fanny Wright, Robert Dale Owen, and George H. Evans, who estab¬ lished the Working Man’s Advocate, the first labour newspaper, in 1829. Factional disputes split the party in the 1830s, and many in New York joined the reform Locofoco Party.

Works Progress Administration See WPA

workstation Computer intended for use by one person, but with a much faster processor and more memory than an ordinary personal computer. Workstations are designed for powerful business applications that do large numbers of calculations or require high-speed graphical displays; the requirements of CAD/CAM systems were one reason for their initial development. Because of their need for computing power, they are often based on RISC processors and generally use UNIX as their operating sys¬ tem. An early workstation was introduced in 1987 by Sun Microsystems; workstations introduced in 1988 from Apollo, Ardent, and Stellar were aimed at 3D graphics applications. The term workstation is also sometimes used to mean a personal computer connected to a mainframe computer, to distinguish it from “dumb” display terminals with limited applications.

World Bank Specialized agency of the United Nations system, estab¬ lished at the Bretton Woods Conference for postwar reconstruction. It is the principal international development institution. Its five divisions are the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD; its main component), the International Development Association (IDA), the Inter¬ national Finance Corporation (IFC), the Multilateral Investment Guaran¬ tee Agency (MIGA), and the International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID). The IDA (founded 1960) makes interest- free loans to the bank’s poorest member countries. The IFC (founded 1956) lends to private businesses in developing countries. The MIGA (founded 1985) supports national and private agencies that encourage for¬ eign direct investment by offering insurance against noncommercial risks. The ICSID (founded 1966) was developed to relieve the IBRD of the bur¬ den of settling investment disputes. See also International Monetary Fund.

World Council of Churches (WCC) Christian ecumenical organi¬ zation founded in 1948 in Amsterdam. It functions as a forum for Prot¬ estant and Eastern Orthodox denominations, which cooperate through the WCC on a variety of undertakings and explore doctrinal similarities and differences. It grew out of two post-World War I ecumenical efforts, the Life and Work Movement (which concentrated on practical activities) and the Faith and Order Movement (which focused on doctrinal issues and the possibility of reunion). The impetus for these two organizations sprang from the International Missionary Conference in Edinburgh in 1910, the first such cooperative effort since the Reformation. The Roman Catholic church, though not a member of the WCC, sends representatives to its conferences. The more fundamentalist Protestant denominations have also refused to join.

World Court See International Court of Justice

World Cup Major international football (soccer) competition. The tour¬ nament brings together 32 qualifying national teams from around the world, culminating in a match between the two top teams. It has been

held every fourth year since 1930 (except during World War II). Followed and watched by billions of people worldwide, it has by far the greatest audience of any single sporting event in the world. Several competitions in other sports also use the name “world cup.”

World Food Programme (WFP) Organization established in 1961 by the United Nations to help alleviate world hunger. The world’s largest food-aid organization (providing food aid to some 75 million people annu¬ ally), the WFP aims to assist the approximately 15% of the world’s popu¬ lation that is hungry. Its Food-for-Life program aids victims of both natural and man-made disasters by collecting and transporting food to crisis areas. Contributions of commodities, cash, and services (primarily shipping) help beneficiaries to maintain balanced diets. Its Food-for- Growth programs are directed at vulnerable groups—including children, pregnant and nursing women, and the elderly—and its Food-for-Work program encourages self-reliance by providing food in return for labour. Its headquarters are in Rome.

World Health Organization (WHO) Public-health agency of the UN, established in Geneva in 1948 to succeed two earlier agencies. Its mandate is to promote “the highest possible level of health” in all peoples. Its work falls into three categories. It provides a clearinghouse for infor¬ mation on the latest developments in disease and health care and estab¬ lishes international sanitary standards and quarantine measures. It sponsors measures for the control of epidemic and endemic disease (including immunization campaigns and assistance in providing sources of pure water). Finally, it encourages the strengthening of public-health programs in member nations. Its greatest success to date has been the worldwide eradication of smallpox (1980).

World Heritage site Any of various areas or objects designated as having “outstanding universal value” under the Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage. This conven¬ tion, adopted by UNESCO in 1972, provides for international coopera¬ tion in preserving and protecting cultural and natural treasures throughout the world. Each site on the list is under strict legal protection by the gov¬ ernment of the nation in which it is situated. Among the cultural sites are many of the world’s most famous buildings. The ratio of cultural to natu¬ ral sites on the list is roughly three to one. See table opposite.

world music Musical genre incorporating diverse styles from Africa, eastern Europe, Asia, South and Central America, the Caribbean, and nonmainstream Western folk sources. The term was first coined largely in response to the sudden increase of recordings in non-English languages that were released in Great Britain and the United States in the 1980s, but by the early 1990s world music had become a bona fide musical genre and counterpoint to the increasingly synthetic sounds of Western pop music. Initially, African popular music and world music were virtually synonymous, and the genre’s biggest stars included the Nigerians King Sunny Ade and Fela Anikulapo Kuti and the Senegalese Youssou N’Dour. Moreover, one of its earliest advocates was the Cameroonian-born Frenchman Francis Bebey. By the 21st century world music encompassed everything from Pakistani singer Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and the pop- flamenco of the French group the Gipsy Kings to “ambient-global” projects that merged so-called ethnic voice samples with state-of-the-art rhythm programming.

World Series Annual championship of U.S. major league baseball, played between the top team of the American League (AL) and that of the National League (NL). First held in 1903, it was canceled the following year after the New York Giants (NL) refused to play Boston (AL). The series resumed in 1905 and continued annually until a players’ strike in 1994 forced its cancellation that year. A seven-game series has been stan¬ dard since 1922.

World Trade Center Complex formerly consisting of seven buildings around a central plaza, near the southern tip of Manhattan. Its huge twin towers (completed 1970-72) were designed by Minoru Yamasaki (1912— 86). At 1,368 ft (417 m) and 1,362 ft (415 m) tall, they were the world’s tallest buildings until surpassed in 1973 by the Sears Tower in Chicago. The towers were notable for the relationship of their simple, light embel¬ lishment to their underlying structure. In 1993 a bomb planted by terror¬ ists exploded in the underground garage, killing several people and injuring some 1,000. A much more massive attack occurred on Sept. 11, 2001, when first One World Trade Center and then Two World Trade Center were struck by hijacked commercial airliners that were deliber¬ ately flown into them. Shortly thereafter both of the heavily damaged

© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.

2077

Selected UNESCO World Heritage sites

site*

country

notes

site*

country

notes

Africa

Europe

Abu Ruwaysh

Egypt

archaeological remains

Acropolis of Athens

Greece

complex of monuments

Aksum

Ethiopia

historic monuments

Alhambra

Spain

Moorish palace and fortress

Carthage

Tunisia

remains of ancient city

Altamira

Spain

prehistoric cave paintings

Dahshur

Egypt

pyramids and funerary complex

Amiens Cathedral

France

Romanesque and Gothic styles

Giza

Egypt

pyramids and funerary complex

Arles

France

Roman, Romanesque monuments

Goree Island

Senegal

slave-trading depot

Auschwitz

Poland

Nazi concentration camp

Great Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe

ruins of Shona capital

Avebury

England

prehistoric megalith group

Hadar

Ethiopia

early hominid remains

Bergen

Norway

Hanseatic wharf

Karnak

Egypt

Theban temple ruins

Bern

Switzerland

medieval city center

Kilimanjaro

Tanzania

montane national park and reserve

Canterbury

England

cathedral and abbey

Kings, Valley of the

Egypt

Theban necropolis

Chartres Cathedral

France

Gothic architecture

Lalibela

Ethiopia

rock-hewn medieval churches

Delphi

Greece

remains of sanctuary complex

Leptis Magna

Libya

remains of Roman architecture

Ferrara

Italy

Renaissance architecture

Luxor

Egypt

Theban ruins

Florence

Italy

historic city center

Marrakech

Morocco

historic medina

Fontainebleau

France

royal chateau and gardens

Memphis

Egypt

remains of ancient city

Giant's Causeway

Northern Ireland

coastal rock formations

Mount Kenya

Kenya

national park and forest reserve

Granada

Spain

Moorish, Andalusian structures

Ngorongoro

Tanzania

wildlife conservation area

Hadrian's Wall

England

Roman fortification

Olduvai Gorge

Tanzania

early hominid remains

Herculaneum

Italy

ruins of Vesuvius-destroyed town

Philae

Egypt

Nubian monuments

Istanbul

Turkey

numerous historic sites

Saqqarah

Egypt

step pyramid and funerary complex

Krakow (Cracow)

Poland

medieval city center

Serengeti

Tanzania

national park, wildlife refuge

Lascaux Grotto

France

prehistoric cave paintings

Thebes

Egypt

ruins of ancient Egyptian capital

Lubeck

Germany

Hanseatic architecture

Timbuktu

Mali

medieval center of Islamic culture

Luxembourg city

Luxembourg

fortifications and old city

Victoria Falls

Zambia

national parks, cataracts, Zambezi River,

Meteora

Greece

Orthodox Christian monasteries

and Zimbabwe

rainforest, and wildlife

Mont-Saint-Michel

France

medieval village and abbey

Virunga

Congo (Kinshasa)

national park, diversity of habitats

Moscow

Russia

Kremlin and Red Square

Naples

Italy

historic city center

Asia

Olympia

Greece

ruins of ancient sacred city

Ajanta Caves

India

rock-cut Buddhist monasteries

Palatine Chapel

Germany

imperial chapel of Charlemagne,

Angkor

Cambodia

archaeological remains

(Aachen Cathedral)

Carolingian and Gothic styles

Ayutthaya

Thailand

ruins of capital complex

Paris

France

banks of Seine River

Baikal, Lake

Russia

unique freshwater environment

Pompeii

Italy

ruins of Vesuvius-destroyed town

Borobudur

Indonesia

Buddhist temple compound

Porto (Oporto)

Portugal

historic city center

Chogha Zanbil

Iran

ruins of Elamite city

Prague

Czech Republic

historic city center

Damascus

Syria

historic city center

Reims Cathedral

France

High Gothic architecture

Delhi

India

historic monuments and tomb

Rhodes

Greece

medieval city center

Elephanta Island

India

Hindu cave temple

Rila Monastery

Bulgaria

cradle of Bulgarian "National Revival"

Ellora Caves

India

Hindu, Buddhist, Jaina cave temples

Saint Petersburg

Russia

historic city center and monuments

Everest, Mount

Nepal

montane national park

Salzburg

Austria

historic city center

Forbidden City

China

imperial palace in Beijing

Samos

Greece

ancient port and temple remains

Great Wall of China

China

extensive fortification

Santiago

Spain

old city and pilgrimage route

Ha Long Bay

Vietnam

picturesque island group

Segovia

Spain

old town and Roman aqueduct

Hatra

Iraq

ruins of Parthian city

Split

Croatia

Roman palace, other monuments

Hiroshima

Japan

peace memorial

Stonehenge

England

prehistoric megalith group

Horyu Temple

Japan

Buddhist monuments

Tallinn

Estonia

historic city center

Hue

Vietnam

imperial citadel

Toledo

Spain

historic structures

Jerusalem

Israel

Jewish, Islamic, Christian holy city

Transylvania

Romania

Saxon fortified churches, villages

Kandy

Sri Lanka

sacred Buddhist city

Vatican City

Vatican City

seat of Roman Catholic church

Khiva

Uzbekistan

Islamic architecture

Venice

Italy

island city and surrounding lagoon

Kyoto

Japan

historic imperial capital

Versailles

France

royal palace and park

Lahore

Pakistan

Mughal fortress, palace, gardens

Visby

Sweden

historic Hanseatic town

Palmyra

Syria

ruins of ancient city

Petra

Jordan

remains of ancient city

North America

Potala Palace

China

former residence of the Dalai Lama, in

Banff

Canada

national park, Rocky Mountains

Lhasa, Tibet

Chaco Canyon

United States

historical park, Pueblo ruins

Qin tomb

China

archaeological site, terra-cotta army

Chichen Itza

Mexico

Mayan-Toltec architecture

San'a'

Yemen

historic architecture

Cocos Island

Costa Rica

national park, forest and marine life

Sundarbans

Bangladesh

national park (India), sanctuary,

Copan

Honduras

remains of major Mayan city

and India

mangrove forest and wetlands

Glacier Bay

United States

subarctic national park, preserve

Taj Mahal

India

monumental funerary complex

Grand Canyon

United States

national park

Tyre

Lebanon

ruins of three millennia of habitation

Havana

Cuba

colonial city center

Ujong-Kulon

Indonesia

national park and reserve on Java

Hawaii Volcanoes

United States

national park

Zhoukoudian

China

early hominid habitation

Jasper

Canada

national park, Rocky Mountains

Kluane

Canada

subarctic national park

Australia and Oceania

Kootenay

Canada

national park, Rocky Mountains

Great Barrier Reef

Australia

marine national park

L'Anse aux

Canada

remains of medieval Norse settlement in

Lord Howe Island

Australia

diversity of habitats

Meadows

Newfoundland

Rennell Island

Solomon Islands

unique island ecosystem

Mammoth Cave

United States

cave system and national park

Shark Bay

Australia

rare marine and terrestrial life-forms

Mesa Verde

United States

prehistoric cliff dwellings

Uluru (Ayers Rock)

Australia

national park, sandstone monolith

Mexico City

Mexico

historic city center

Palenque

Mexico

national park, Mayan city

© 2006 Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc.

2078 I World Trade Organization ► World War II

Selected UNESCO World Heritage sites (continued)

site*

country

notes

site*

country

notes

North America (continued)

South America (continued)

Santo Domingo

Dominican Rep.

colonial city

Cordoba

Argentina

Jesuit institutions and estates

Statue of Liberty

United States

national monument

Coro

Venezuela

Spanish, Dutch, local architecture

Teotihuacan

Mexico

extensive pre-Hispanic ruins

Cuzco

Peru

Inca and colonial architecture

Tikal

Guatemala

national park, Mayan ruins

Easter Island

Chile

monumental sculptures

Uxmal

Mexico

Mayan city and ceremonial center

Galapagos Islands

Ecuador

national park, unique ecosystem

Wrangell-St. Elias

United States

subarctic national park, preserve

Huascaran, Mount

Peru

montane national park

Xochimilco

Mexico

Aztec canals and floating gardens

Iguacu (Iquazu)

Brazil and

national parks, waterfalls, subtropical

Yellowstone

United States

national park, geothermal formations

Argentina

rainforests

Yoho

Canada

national park, Rocky Mountains

Los Kaitos

Colombia

national parks on the frontier, rainforest,

and Darien

and Panama

wetlands

South America

Machu Picchu

Peru

Inca ruins

Arequipa

Peru

colonial architecture

Nazca Lines

Peru

extensive geoglyphs

Brasilia

Brazil

urban planning and architecture

Pantanal

Brazil

freshwater wetland ecosystem

Cartagena

Colombia

colonial port, fortresses, monuments

Potosi

Bolivia

colonial industrial city

Chan Chan

Peru

ruins of pre-Inca Chimu capital

Quito

Ecuador

colonial city center

Colonia del

Uruguay

Portuguese, Spanish colonial

Valdes Peninsula

Argentina

seals, whales

Sacramento

architecture

*The spelling or styling of place-names in this table may differ from those given on the World Heritage List; in addition, some place-names represent one or more constituent parts of larger World Heritage sites.

towers, as well as adjacent buildings, collapsed into enormous piles of debris. The attacks claimed the lives of some 2,750 people. Thousands more were injured. See September 11 attacks.

World Trade Organization (WTO) International organization based in Geneva that supervises world trade. It was created in 1995 to replace the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). Like its prede¬ cessor, it aims to lower trade barriers and encourage multilateral trade. It monitors members’ adherence to GATT agreements and negotiates and implements new agreements. Critics of the WTO, including many oppo¬ nents of economic globalization, have charged that it undermines national sovereignty by promoting the interests of large multinational corporations and that the trade liberalization it encourages leads to environmental dam¬ age and declining living standards for low-skilled workers in developing countries. By the early 21st century, the WTO had more than 145 members.

world tree Centre of the world, a widespread motif in myths and folk¬ tales among various peoples, especially in Asia, Australia, and North America. There are two main forms. In the vertical tradition, the tree extends between and connects earth, heaven, and the underworld; oracles, judgments, and other prophetic activities are performed at its base. In the horizontal tradition, the tree is planted at the centre of the world and is protected by supernatural guardians; it is the source of terrestrial fertility and life.

World War I or First World War (1914-18) International conflict between the Central Powers —Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Turkey— and the Allied Powers —mainly France, Britain, Russia, Italy, Japan, and (from 1917) the U.S. After a Serbian nationalist assassinated Archduke Francis Ferdinand of Austria in June 1914, a chain of threats and mobili¬ zations resulted in a general war between the antagonists by mid-August. Prepared to fight a war on two fronts, based on the Scfiueffen Plan, Ger¬ many first swept through neutral Belgium and invaded France. After the First Battle of the Marne (1914), the Allied defensive lines were stabilized in France, and a war of attrition began. Fought from lines of trenches and supported by modern artillery and machine guns, infantry assaults gained little ground and were enormously costly in human life, especially at the Battles of Verdun and the Somme (1916). On the Eastern Front, Russian forces initially drove deep into East Prussia and German Poland (1914) but were stopped by German and Austrian forces at the Battle of Tannen- berg and forced back into Russia (1915). After several offensives, the Russian army failed to break through the German defensive lines. Rus¬ sia’s poor performance and enormous losses caused widespread domes¬ tic discontent that led to the Russian Revolution of 1917. Other fronts in the war included the Dardanelles Campaign, in which British and Domin¬ ion forces were unsuccessful against Turkey; the Caucasus and Iran (Per¬ sia), where Russia fought Turkey; Mesopotamia and Egypt, where British forces fought the Turks; and northern Italy, where Italian and Austrian troops fought the costly Battles of the Isonzo. At sea, the German and Brit¬ ish fleets fought the inconclusive Battle of Jutland, and Germany’s use of

the submarine against neutral shipping eventually brought the U.S. into the war in 1917. Though Russia’s armistice with Germany in December 1917 released German troops to fight on the Western Front, the Allies were reinforced by U.S. troops in early 1918. Germany’s unsuccessful offensive in the Second Battle of the Marne was countered by the Allies’ steady advance, which recovered most of France and Belgium by Octo¬ ber 1918 and led to the November Armistice. Total casualties were esti¬ mated at 10 million dead, 21 million wounded, and 7.7 million missing or imprisoned. See also Battles of Caporetto and Ypres; Fourteen Points; Lusitania; Paris Peace Conference; Treaties of Brest-Litovsk, Neuilly, Saint- Germain, Sevres, Trianon, and Versailles; Edmund H.H. Allenby, Ferdinand Foch, John French, Douglas Haig, Paul von Hindenburg, Joseph-Jacques- Cesaire Joffre, Erich Ludendorff, John Pershing.

World War II or Second World War (1939^15) International con¬ flict principally between the Axis Powers —Germany, Italy, and Japan— and the Allied Powers —France, Britain, the U.S., the Soviet Union, and China. Political and economic instability in Germany, combined with bit¬ terness over its defeat in World War I and the harsh conditions of the Treaty of Versailles, allowed Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party to rise to power. In the mid-1930s Hitler began secretly to rearm Germany, in vio¬ lation of the treaty. He signed alliances with Italy and Japan to oppose the Soviet Union and intervened in the Spanish Civil War in the name of anti¬ communism. Capitalizing on the reluctance of other European powers to oppose him by force, he sent troops to occupy Austria in 1938 (see Anschluss) and to annex Czechoslovakia in 1939. After signing the German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact, Germany invaded Poland on Sept. 1, 1939. Two days later France and Britain declared war on Germany. Poland’s defeat was followed by a period of military inactivity on the Western Front (see Phony War). At sea Germany conducted a damaging submarine campaign by U-BOAT against merchant shipping bound for Brit¬ ain. By early 1940 the Soviet Union had divided Poland with Germany, occupied the Baltic states, and subdued Finland in the Russo-Finnish War. In April 1940 Germany overwhelmed Denmark and began its conquest of Norway. In May German forces swept through The Netherlands and Bel¬ gium on their blitzkrieg invasion of France, forcing it to capitulate in June and establish the Vichy France regime. Germany then launched massive bombing raids on Britain in preparation for a cross-Channel invasion, but, after losing the Battle of Britain, Hitler postponed the invasion indefinitely. By early 1941 Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria had joined the Axis, and German troops quickly overran Yugoslavia and Greece in April. In June Hitler abandoned his pact with the Soviet Union and launched a massive surprise invasion of Russia, reaching the outskirts of Moscow before Soviet counterattacks and winter weather halted the advance. In East Asia Japan expanded its war with China and seized European colonial hold¬ ings. In December 1941 Japan attacked U.S. bases at Pearl Harbor and in the Philippines. The U.S. declared war on Japan, and the war became truly global when the other Axis Powers declared war on the U.S. Japan quickly invaded and occupied most of Southeast Asia, Burma, the Neth-

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World Wide Web ► Worth I 2079

erlands East Indies, and many Pacific islands. After the crucial U.S. naval victory at the Battle of Midway (1942), U.S. forces began to advance up the chains of islands toward Japan. In the North Africa Campaigns the British and Americans defeated Italian and German forces by 1943. The Allies then invaded Sicily and Italy, forcing the overthrow of the fascist government in July 1943, though fighting against the Germans continued in Italy until 1945. In the Soviet Union the Battle of Stalingrad (1943) marked the end of the German advance, and Soviet reinforcements in great numbers gradually pushed the German armies back. The massive Allied invasion of western Europe began with the Normandy Campaign in western France (1944), and the Allies’ steady advance ended in the occu¬ pation of Germany in 1945. After Soviet troops pushed German forces out of the Soviet Union, they advanced into Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and Romania and had occupied the eastern third of Germany by the time the surrender of Germany was signed on May 8, 1945. In the Pacific an Allied invasion of the Philippines (1944) was followed by the successful Battle of Leyte Gulf and the costly Battles of Iwo Jima and Oki¬ nawa (1945). Atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945, and Japan’s formal surrender on September 2 ended the war. Estimates of total military and civilian casualties varied from 35 million to 60 million killed, including about 6 million Jews who died in the Holo¬ caust. Millions more civilians were wounded and made homeless through¬ out Europe and East Asia. See also Anti-Comintern Pact; Atlantic Charter; Battles of El Alamein, the Atlantic, the Bulge, Guadalcanal, and the Phil¬ ippine Sea; Casablanca, Potsdam, Tehran, and Yalta conferences; Dunkirk Evacuation; lend-lease; Munich agreement; NOrnberg Trials; Siege of Lenin¬ grad; Sino-Japanese Wars; Omar Bradley, Winston Churchill, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Douglas MacArthur, Bernard Law Montgomery, Benito Mus¬ solini, George Patton, Erwin Rommel, Franklin Roosevelt, Joseph Staun, Yamamoto Isoroku, Georgy K. Zhukov.

World Wide Web (WWW) or Web Leading information-exchange service of the Internet. It was created by Tim Berners-Lee and his colleagues at CERN and introduced to the world in 1991. The Web gives users access to a vast array of documents that are connected to each other by means of hypertext or hyperlinks. A hypertext document with its corresponding text and hyperlinks is written in HTML and is assigned an on-line address, or URL. The Web operates within the Internet’s basic client-server archi¬ tecture. Individual HTML files with unique electronic addresses are called Web pages, and a collection of Web pages and related files (such as graphics files, scripted programs, and other resources) sharing a set of similar addresses (see domain name) is called a Web site. The main or intro¬ ductory page of a Web site is usually called the site’s home page. Users may access any page by typing in the appropriate address, search for pages related to a topic of interest by using a search engine, or move quickly between pages by clicking on hyperlinks incorporated into them. Though introduced in 1991, the Web did not become truly popular until the intro¬ duction of Mosaic, a browser with a graphical interface, in 1993. Subse¬ quently, browsers produced by Netscape and Microsoft have become predominant.

World Wildlife Fund or World Wide Fund for Nature Larg¬ est privately supported international conservation organization in the world. Founded in 1961 by a small group of European scientists, natu¬ ralists, and business and political leaders, including Peter Markham Scott, the organization raises funds and channels them to other conservation groups. It directs its efforts toward protecting endangered environments such as coral reefs, saving endangered species, and addressing global threats such as pollution. It has helped establish and manage parks and reserves, and was instrumental in saving the giant panda (whose image it uses as its symbol) and other endangered species.

world's fair Specially constructed attraction showcasing the science, technology, and culture of participating countries and enterprises. World fairs have often featured outstanding architectural designs and introduced significant inventions. The first was held in England in 1756; more than 300 have been held since. The most notable include the 1851 Crystal Pal¬ ace Exhibition (London), the 1876 U.S. International Centennial Exposi¬ tion (Philadelphia), the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition (Chicago), the 1901 Pan-American Exposition (Buffalo, N.Y.), the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair, the 1910 Brussels World’s Fair, the 1933-34 Century of Progress (Chicago), the 1939-40 Golden Gate Exposition (San Fran¬ cisco), the 1939^40 New York World’s Fair, the 1964-65 New York World’s Fair, the 1967 Montreal Exposition, and the 1998 World Expo¬ sition (Lisbon).

worm Any of thousands of species of unrelated invertebrate animals that typically have a soft, slender, elongated body with no appendages. The major phyla are Platyhelminthes (flatworms), Annelida (annelids, or seg¬ mented worms), Nemertea (ribbon worms), Acanthocephala (spiny- headed worms), and Aschelminthes (nematodes and others). There are several minor phyla. Length ranges from microscopic (e.g., some aschel- minths) to more than 100 ft (30 m) (some ribbon worms). Worms are found worldwide on land and in water. They may be parasitic or free- living and are important as soil conditioners, parasites, and a link in the food chain in all ecosystems. See also fluke, pinworm, polychaete, rotifer,

TAPEWORM, TUBE WORM.

Worm ley Conference (Feb. 26, 1877) Meeting to resolve the dis¬ puted U.S. presidential election of 1876 between Samuel Tilden and Ruth¬ erford B. Hayes. Leaders of the Democratic and Republican parties met at Wormley’s Hotel in Washington, D.C., to reach a compromise that would forestall the Democrats’ protest of the Electoral Commission’s decision to award the disputed electoral votes from three Southern states to Hayes, enabling him to defeat Tilden 185 to 184. In return for the Democrats’ acquiescence in the decision, Republicans promised to withdraw troops from the South, end Reconstruction and Northern interference in South¬ ern politics, and vote for railroad construction and other internal improve¬ ments in the South. The compromise satisfied the Southern Democrats, and Hayes was declared the winner on March 2, 1877.

Worms Worms,\ English VwormzV Concordat of (1122) Compro¬ mise between Pope Calixtus II and Emperor Henry V (r. 1106-25) to settle the Investiture Controversy, reached at Worms, Germany. It marked the end of the first phase of conflict between Rome and what was becoming the Holy Roman Empire and made a clear distinction between the spiritual side of a prelate’s office and his position as a landed magnate and vassal of the crown. Bishops and abbots were to be chosen by the clergy, but the emperor was to decide contested elections. Those selected were to be invested first with the powers and privileges of their office as vassal (granted by the emperor) and then with their ecclesiastical powers and lands (granted by church authority).

Worms, Diet of Meeting of the Diet (assembly) of the Holy Roman Empire at Worms, Ger., in 1521, where Martin Luther defended the prin¬ ciples of the Reformation. Luther had already been excommunicated by Pope Leo X, but Emperor Charles V granted him safe conduct to a hearing at the Diet. On April 17, 1521, Luther refused to recant his views. Dis¬ order broke out, the emperor adjourned the proceedings, and Luther was obliged to go into hiding. In May the Diet issued the Edict of Worms, declaring Luther an outlaw and a heretic and banning his writings.

worsted Vwus-tod, ‘wor-stodV Wool yarn made of long-staple fibres that have been combed to remove unwanted short fibres and make them lie parallel. In the spinning operation, which gives the necessary twist to hold the fibres together, worsted yams are more tightly twisted than are the bulkier woolen yams. The soft, heavy yam is strong and durable and is often used for sweaters. Worsteds are also used for fine dress fabrics and suit material.

Worth, Charles Frederick (b. Oct. 13, 1825, Bourne, Lincolnshire, Eng.—d. March 10, 1895, Paris,

France) British-born French fashion designer. In 1845 he left England, where he had been a bookkeeper, and worked in a Paris dress accessories shop. In 1858 he opened his own ladies’ tailor shop and soon gained the patronage of the empress Eugenie.

He was a pioneer of the “fashion show” (the preparation and showing of a collection), the first man to become prominent in the field of fashion, and the first designer to cre¬ ate dresses intended to be copied and distributed throughout the world. He became the dictator of Paris fashion and was especially noted for his elegant Second Empire gowns. He invented the bustle, which became standard in women’s fashion in the 1870s and ’80s.

Charles Frederick Worth, detail of an engraving

BBC HULTON PICTURE LIBRARY

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2080 I Wotan ► Wren

Wotan See Odin

Wouk \'wok\, Herman (b. May 27, 1915, New York, N.Y., U.S.) U.S. novelist. His experience serving aboard a destroyer-minesweeper in World War II provided material for The Caine Mutiny (1951, Pulitzer Prize; film, 1954), a drama of naval tradition that presented the unforgettable char¬ acter Captain Queeg. The Winds of War (1971) and War and Remembrance (1978) together represent a two-volume novel of the war. His other nov¬ els include Marjorie Morningstar (1955) and The Glory (1994).

wound or trauma Break in any body tissue due to external action (including surgery). It may be closed (blunt trauma) or open (penetrating trauma). Blood vessels, nerves, muscles, bones, joints, and internal organs may be damaged. A closed wound can be caused by impact, twisting, bending, or deceleration (as in a car crash). It can range from a minor bruise or sprain to a skull fracture with brain damage or a spinal-cord injury with paralysis. In an open wound, foreign matter such as bacteria, dirt, and clothing fragments entering through broken skin or mucous membrane may result in infection. Other factors affecting severity include depth, surface area, degree of tearing, and structures damaged. Minor wounds need only first aid. For others, after examination and perhaps diagnostic imaging and exploratory surgery, treatment may include fluid replacement or drainage, sterilization and antibiotics, tetanus antitoxin, and repair of damaged structures. A closed wound may need to be opened or an open one sutured closed. See also burn, coagulation, crush injury, DISLOCATION, SCAR.

Wounded Knee Hamlet and creek in southwestern South Dakota, the site of two conflicts between the Sioux Indians and the U.S. government. In 1890 the Sioux had been inspired by the Ghost Dance movement to take up arms and reclaim their heritage, but federal military intervention quelled the rebellion. On December 29 a young brave became involved in a scuffle while surrendering, and a trooper was killed. Soldiers fired at the Indians, killing more than 200 men, women, and children. Thirty sol¬ diers also died. The so-called Battle of Wounded Knee is regarded as the final episode in the conquest of the North American Indian. In 1973 some 200 members of the American Indian Movement took the reservation ham¬ let by force, declared it an independent nation, and vowed to stay until the government agreed to address Indian grievances; a siege by federal marshals ended when the Indians surrendered in exchange for a promise of negotiations.

Wovoka \wo-'vo-k9\ (b. 18587, Utah Territory, U.S.—d. October 1932, Walker River Indian Reservation, Nev.) Paiute religious leader. In 1889 Wovoka announced that during a trance God had told him that his peo¬ ple’s ancestors would rise from the dead, buffalo would return to the plains, and the white man would vanish if the people would perform a ritual dance. The Ghost Dance cult arose and quickly spread to other tribes, notably the militant Sioux, and Wovoka was worshiped as a new messiah. After the Wounded Knee massacre, Wovoka’s following dissi¬ pated and the movement died out.

Wozniak, Stephen G(ary) (b. Aug. 11, 1950, San Jose, Calif., U.S.) U.S. computer engineer. He designed electronic devices and games while still in his teens. In the 1970s he worked for Hewlett-Packard. In 1976 he and Steven Jobs founded Apple Computer, Inc. Badly injured in a 1981 plane crash, he took a leave from Apple, but he returned to work on the revolutionary Macintosh computer. He left Apple for good in 1985, the year he was awarded the National Medal of Technology. He has since taught in elementary school.

WPA in full Works Progress Administration later ( 1939-43) Work Projects Administration U.S. work program for the unem¬ ployed. Created in 1935 under the New Deal, it aimed to stimulate the economy during the Great Depression and preserve the skills and self- respect of unemployed persons by providing them useful work. During its existence, it employed 8.5 million people in the construction of 650,000 mi (1,046,000 km) of roads, 125,000 public buildings, 75,000 bridges, 8,000 parks, and 800 airports. The WPA also administered the WPA Federal Art Project, the Theater Project, and the Writers’ Project, which provided jobs for unemployed artists, actors, and writers. In 1943, with the virtual elimination of unemployment by the wartime economy, the WPA was terminated.

WPA Federal Art Project Extensive visual-arts project, part of the Works Progress Administration established by Franklin D. Roosevelt dur¬ ing the Great Depression. It employed artists with a wide range of expe¬

rience and styles and had great influence on subsequent U.S. movements. At its peak in 1936, it provided work for more than 5,000 artists from relief rolls. Over the eight years of its existence, its employees produced 2,566 murals, more than 100,000 easel paintings, about 17,700 sculptures, and nearly 300,000 fine prints. The project also developed an audience by establishing more than 100 community art centres and galleries in regions where art was generally unknown. The total federal investment was about $35 million. It was the first major attempt at U.S. government patronage of the visual arts.

Wrangel, Pyotr (Nikolayevich), Baron (b. Aug. 27,1878, Novo- Aleksandrovsk, Lith., Russian Empire—d. April 25, 1928, Brussels, Belg.) Russian general who led the anti-BoLSHEViK forces in the Russian Civil War. A member of an old German baronial family, he served in the Russian imperial guards and commanded a Cossack division in World War I. After the Russian Revolution of 1917, he joined the anti-Bolshevik “White” forces of Anton Denikin. After capturing Tsaritsyn (now Volgo¬ grad) in 1919, he became commander of the Whites in April 1920 and tried to rally support from the peasants and Cossacks. He launched an offensive in Ukraine in June, but by November the Red Army had defeated the Whites and forced them to retreat to the Crimea. After evacuating his troops to Constantinople, he lived in exile in western Europe.

Wrangel Island Island, northeastern Russia. Located in the Arctic Ocean, it is crossed by the 180th meridian. It has an area of some 2,800 sq mi (7,300 sq km). Although it reaches an altitude of 3,596 ft (1,096 m) at Sovetskaya Mountain, there are no glaciers. The Russian explorer Ferdinand P. Wrangel, for whom the island was later named, determined its location from accounts of Siberian natives but did not land there dur¬ ing his mapping of the Siberian coast in the early 1820s. Russian fur trad¬ ers subsequently visited the island, and it was sighted by U.S. vessels in 1867 and 1881. Survivors of a sunken Canadian ship reached Wrangel in 1914, and the leader of the expedition created an international incident in the early 1920s when he claimed Wrangel for Canada without authoriza¬ tion. The Soviet Union then annexed the island, and permanent occupa¬ tion began in 1926. Wrangel Island State Reserve, established in 1976, occupies 1,730,000 ac (700,000 ha).

Wrangell Mountains Range, southern Alaska, U.S. It extends south for about 100 mi (160 km) from the Copper River to the Saint Elias Mountains near the Yukon border. Many peaks exceed 10,000 ft (3,000 m); the highest are Mount Blackburn (16,390 ft [4,990 m]). Mount Bona (16,500 ft [5,029 m]), and Mount Sanford (16,237 ft [4,950 m]). Most of the summits are extinct volcanoes. Snowfields drain into glaciers as long as 45 mi (72 km). The range forms a major part of Wrangell-Saint Elias National Park.

Wrangell-Saint Elias National Park National park, southeastern Alaska, U.S. Proclaimed a national monument in 1978, the area under¬ went boundary and name changes in 1980. The largest park in the U.S. national park system, it has an area of 12,318,000 ac (4,987,000 ha). At the convergence of the Chugach, Wrangell, and Saint Elias mountain ranges, it includes the largest assemblage of glaciers and the greatest col¬ lection of peaks above 16,000 ft (4,880 m) on the continent.

wrasse \'ras\ Any of some 300 species (family Labridae) of slender, often brilliantly coloured, fishes, found worldwide in tropical and tem¬ perate seas, often on coral reefs. Species range from 2 in. (5 cm) to 7 ft (2 m) long. Wrasses have thick lips, large scales, long fins, and large, often protruding, canine teeth. Most eat invertebrates; some species, called cleaner wrasses, pick off and eat the external parasites of larger fishes. The tautaug ( Tautoga onitis) is an edible species.

wren Any of 59 species (family Troglodytidae) of chunky songbirds, found in the Western Hemisphere. One species, Troglodytes troglodytes, has spread to the Old World; typical of the family, it is about 4 in. (10 cm) long and dark-barred brown, with a short, slightly downcurved bill, short rounded wings, and short cocked tail. Common throughout the West¬ ern Hemisphere is the house wren. The largest U.S. species (8 in., or 20 cm, long) is the cactus wren of southwestern deserts. Wrens hunt insects in marshes, rocky wastes, or shrubbery, revealing their presence by chat¬ ter and loud song. They nest in holes, in thickets, or on ledges.

Wren, Sir Christopher (b. Oct. 20, 1632, East Knoyle, Wiltshire, Eng.—d. Feb. 25, 1723, London) British architect, astronomer, and geo¬ metrician. He taught astronomy at Gresham College, London (1657-61) and Oxford (1661-73), and did not turn to architecture until 1662, when

© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.

wrench ► writ I 2081

he was engaged to design the Shel- donian Theatre at Oxford. Though Classical in form, the theatre was roofed with novel wood trusses that were the product of Wren’s scholarly and empirical approach. As King’s Surveyor of Works (1669-1718), he had a hand in the rebuilding of more than 50 churches destroyed in the Great Fire of London. Meanwhile, he was evolving designs for Saint Paul's Cathedral, a work that occupied him until its completion in 1710. Other works, generally in the English Baroque style, include the classical Trinity College library, Cambridge (1676-84), additions to Hampton Court (begun 1689), and Greenwich Hospital (begun 1696). Wren was buried in Saint Paul’s; nearby is the famous inscription: “Reader, if you seek a monument, look around.”

wrench or spanner Tool, usu¬ ally operated by hand, for tightening bolts and nuts. A wrench basically consists of a lever with a notch at one or both ends for gripping the bolt or nut so that it can be twisted by a pull at right angles to the axes of the lever and the bolt or nut. Open-end wrenches have ends with straight¬ sided slots that fit over the part being tightened; box-end wrenches have ends that enclose the nut and have six, eight, 12, or 16 points inside the head. A socket wrench is essentially a short pipe with a square or hex¬ agonal hole and either a permanent or a removable handle.

wrestling Sport in which two competitors grapple with and strive to trip or throw each other down or off-balance. It is practiced in various styles, including freestyle wrestling, in which contestants can use holds above and below the waist, and Greco-Roman wrestling, which allows only holds above the waist. Sambo is a style of Russian origin employ¬ ing judo techniques. Sumo wrestling is a specialized Japanese variety. U.S. professional wrestling is today among the most popular of all spectator sports, though it principally involves wildly flamboyant showmanship, including such nonclassical moves as kicks to the head that would be lethal if they were not actually pulled.

Wright, Sir Almroth Edward (b. Aug. 10, 1861, Middleton Tyas, Yorkshire, Eng.—d. April 30, 1947, Farnham Common, Buckingham¬ shire) British bacteriologist and immunologist. While teaching at the Army Medical School in Netley (from 1892), he developed a typhoid immunization that used killed typhoid bacilli. It made Britain the only country with troops immunized against typhoid at the start of World War I, the first war in which fewer British soldiers died of infection than from trauma. He also developed vaccines against enteric tuberculosis and pneu¬ monia. He was well known for advancing autogenous vaccines (vaccines prepared from a patient’s own bacteria).

Wright, Frances known as Fanny Wright (b. Sept. 6, 1795, Dundee, Angus, Scot.—d. Dec. 13, 1852, Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S.) Scottish-bom American social reformer. After travels in the U.S., she published Views of Society and Manners in America (1821), which was widely read and praised. Returning to the U.S. in 1824, she bought and freed slaves and settled them at Nashoba, a socialist, interracial commu¬ nity she established in Tennessee (1825-28). She worked with Robert Dale Owen in New York (1829) and defied convention by lecturing widely, attacking slavery, religion, traditional marriage, and the unequal treatment of women. She was a co-leader of the Workingmen's Party. After marry¬ ing and living in France (1831-35), she returned to the U.S. and became a supporter of Andrew Jackson and the Democratic Party.

Wright, Frank Lloyd (b. June 8, 1867, Richland Center, Wis., U.S.—d. April 9, 1959, Phoenix, Ariz.) U.S. architect. After studying engineering briefly at the University of Wisconsin, he worked for the firm of Dankmar Adler (1844-1900) and Louis Sullivan in Chicago before open¬ ing his own practice there in 1893. Wright became the chief practitioner of the Prairie school, building about 50 Prairie houses from 1900 to 1910.

Early nonresidential buildings include the forward-looking Larkin Build¬ ing in Buffalo, N.Y. (1904; destroyed 1950), and Unity Temple in Oak Park, Ill. (1906). In 1911 he began work on his own house, Taliesin, near Spring Green, Wis. The lavish Imperial Hotel in Tokyo (1915-22, dis¬ mantled 1967) was significant for its revolutionary floating cantilever construction, which made it one of the only large buildings to withstand the earthquake of 1923. In the 1930s he designed his low-cost Usonian houses, but his most admired house, Fallingwater, in Bear Run, Pa. (1936), is an extravagant country retreat cantilevered over a waterfall. His Johnson Wax Building (1936-39), an example of humane workplace design, touched off an avalanche of major commissions. Of particular note is the Guggenheim Museum (1956-59), which has no separate floor levels but instead uses a spiral ramp, realizing Wright’s ideal of a continuous space. Throughout his career he retained the use of ornamental detail, earthy colours, and rich textural effects. His sensitive use of materials helped to control and perfect his dynamic expression of space, which opened a new era in American architecture. Often considered the great¬ est U.S. architect of all time, his greatest legacy is “organic architecture,” or the idea that buildings harmonize both with their inhabitants and with their environment.

Wright, Mickey orig. Mary Kathryn Wright (b. Feb. 14, 1935, San Diego, Calif., U.S.) U.S. golfer. Noted for her classic swing, her long drives, and her superior iron play, she won a record number of LPGA tournaments (82), including an unmatched 13 in one season (1963), and remains the only four-time winner of the LPGA Championship (1958, 1960, 1961, 1963). Twice named Woman Athlete of the Year by the Asso¬ ciated Press (1963, 1964), she has been called the greatest woman golfer of all time.

Wright, Richard (b. Sept. 4, 1908, near Natchez, Miss., U.S.—d. Nov. 28, 1960, Paris, France) U.S. novelist and short-story writer. Wright, whose grandparents had been slaves, grew up in poverty. After migrating north he joined the Federal Writers’ Project in Chicago, then moved to New York City in 1937. He was a member of the Communist Party in the years 1932-44. He first came to wide attention with a volume of novel¬ las, Uncle Tom’s Children (1938). His novel Native Son (1940), though considered shocking and violent, became a best-seller. The fictionalized autobiography Black Boy (1945) vividly describes his often harsh child¬ hood and youth. After World War II he settled in Paris. He is remembered as one of the first African American writers to protest white treatment of blacks.

Wright, Sewall (b. Dec. 21, 1889, Melrose, Mass., U.S.—d. March 3, 1988, Madison, Wis.) U.S. geneticist. He earned his doctorate at Harvard University. His earliest studies included investigation of the effects of inbreeding and crossbreeding on guinea pigs, animals he later used in studying the effects of gene action on coat and eye colour. With J.B.S. Haldane and R.A. Fisher, he developed a mathematical basis for modem evolutionary theory using statistical techniques. He originated a theory that could guide the use of inbreeding and crossbreeding in livestock improvement. He is perhaps best known for his concept of genetic drift.

Wright, Wilbur; and Wright, Orville (respectively b. April 16, 1867, near Millville, Ind., U.S.—d. May 30, 1912, Dayton, Ohio; b. Aug. 19, 1871, Dayton, Ohio, U.S.—d. Jan. 30, 1948, Dayton) U.S. inventors who achieved the first powered, sustained, and controlled airplane flight. The brothers first worked in printing-machinery design and later in bicycle manufacturing, which financed their early experiments in airplane design. To test flight control, essential to successful powered flight, they built and flew three biplane gliders (1900-02). Propeller and engine innovations led to their first powered airplane, which Orville flew successfully for 12 seconds and Wilbur later flew for 59 seconds at Kill Devil Hills, N.C. (near the village of Kitty Hawk), on Dec. 17, 1903. Their flyer of 1905 could turn, bank, circle, and remain airborne for over 35 minutes. They demonstrated their planes in Europe and the U.S.; in 1908 Wilbur gave over 100 exhibition flights in France, setting a duration record of 2 hours and 20 minutes. They established an aircraft company and produced planes for the U.S. Army. After Wilbur’s death from typhoid, Orville sold his interest in the company, which later merged with the company of Glenn H. Curtiss.

Wriothesley, Thomas See 1st Earl of Southampton

writ In common law, an order issued in the name of a sovereign or court commanding a person to perform or refrain from performing a specified act. It was a vital official instrument in Old English law. A plaintiff would

Sir Christopher Wren, detail of an oil painting by Sir Godfrey Kneller, 1711; in the National Portrait Gallery, Lon¬ don.

COURTESY OF THE NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY, LONDON

© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.

2082 I writing ► Wupatki National Monument

commence a suit by choosing the proper form of action and obtaining a writ appropriate to the remedy sought; its issuance forced the defendant to comply or to appear in court. Writs were also constantly in use for financial and political purposes of government. Though the writ no longer governs civil pleading and has lost many of its applications, the extraor¬ dinary writs, especially of habeas corpus, mandamus (commanding the performance of a ministerial act), prohibition (commanding an inferior court to stay within its jurisdiction), and certiorari, reflect its historical importance as an instrument of judicial authority.

writing System of human visual communication using signs or symbols associated by convention with units of language —meanings or sounds— and recorded on materials such as paper, stone, or clay. Its precursor was pictography. Logography, in which symbols stand for individual words, typically develops from pictography. Logography requires thousands of symbols for all possible words and names. In phonographic systems, the symbol associated with a word also stands for similar- or identical- sounding words. Phonographic systems may evolve to the point where symbols represent syllables, constituting a syllabary. An alphabet provides symbols for all the consonants and vowels.

Writs of Assistance See Writs of Assistance

Wroctaw \'vr6t-,swaf\ German Breslau City (pop., 2000 est.: 633,857), southwestern Poland. Located on the Oder River, it originated in the 10th century at the crossroads of the trade route linking the Black Sea to western Europe. In 1138 it became the first capital of Silesia. The Tartars destroyed Wroclaw in 1241. Rebuilt, it passed to Bohemia with the rest of Silesia in 1335 and to the Habsburgs in 1526. In 1741 it fell to Prussia under the rule of Frederick II (the Great), and it eventually became part of Germany. During World War II Wroclaw was besieged (1945) by Soviet troops. The city was assigned to Poland by the Potsdam Confer¬ ence of 1945. Heavily damaged during the war, it was rebuilt and is now a major commercial city.

wrought iron One of the two forms in which iron is obtained by smelt¬ ing. Wrought iron is a soft, easily worked, fibrous metal. It usually contains less than 0.1% carbon and 1-2% slag. It is superior for most purposes to cast iron, which is hard and brittle because of its higher carbon content. In antiquity, iron was smelted directly by heating ore in a forge with charcoal, which served both as fuel and reducing agent. While still hot, the iron-and- slag mixture was removed as a lump and worked (wrought) with a hammer to expel most of the slag and weld the iron into a coherent mass. Wrought iron began to take the place of bronze (being far more available) in Asia Minor in the 2nd millennium bc; its use for tools and weapons was estab¬ lished in China, India, and the Mediterranean by the 3rd century bc. Later, in Europe, wrought iron was produced indirectly from cast iron (see pud¬ dling process). With the invention of the Bessemer process and open-hearth process, steel supplanted wrought iron for structural purposes, and its use in the 20th century has been principally decorative.

wu Fundamental Daoist philosophical concept. Wu (“not-being”), you (“being”), wuming (“the nameless”), and youming (“the named”) are inter¬ dependent and grow out of one another. Wu and you are two aspects of the DAO. Not-being does not mean nothingness but rather the absence of perceptible qualities; in Laozi’s view, it is superior to being. It is the void that harbours in itself all potentialities and without which even being lacks its efficacy. According to the scholar He Yan (d. 249), wu is beyond name and form and hence is absolute, complete, and capable of accomplishing anything. See also Daoism.

Wu Cheng'en or Wu Ch'eng-en Vwu-'chsq-'onX (b. c. 1500, Shan- yang, Huaian, China—d. c. 1582, Huaian) Chinese novelist and poet. He received a traditional Confucian education and became known for his clever poetry and prose composition in the classical style. Interested in bizarre stories, he used oral and written folktales as the basis of the novel Xiyouji (Journey to the West, also partially translated as Monkey), pub¬ lished anonymously in 1592. It relates the comic mishaps and adventures of the 7th-century monk Xuanzang, who traveled to India looking for sacred texts, and his entourage of three animal spirits: a monkey, a pig, and a fish. It satirizes Chinese society and government and contains religious and philosophical elements drawn from Buddhism, Daoism, and Neo- Confucianism. Only two volumes of his other writings have survived.

Wu-lu-mu-ch'i See Urumqi

Wu Sangui or Wu San-kuei Vwii-'san-’gwaX (b. 1612, Liaodong, China—d. Oct. 2, 1678, Hengzhou, Hunan province) Chinese general who

invited the Manchu into China and helped them establish the Qing dynasty. Though he had for many years battled the Manchu on China’s northeast¬ ern frontier, he turned to them for aid when the Ming-dynasty capital at Beijing fell to rebel leader L Zicheng. The Manchu forces defeated Li and then set up their own dynasty, in which Wu served many years. Only when he was put in charge of eliminating the remnants of Ming resistance in southwestern China did he break away, creating his own state in the area of Yunnan and Guizhou. Two other commanders had set up similar states in neighbouring southern provinces; in 1673 Wu led the three in rebel¬ lion. After Wu’s death, his grandson continued the rebellion until 1681, when it was finally crushed. See also Dorgon.

Wu-ti See Wudi Wu Zetian See Wuhou

Wuchang Ywii-'chaqV or Wu-ch'ang Industrial city (pop., 1999 est.: 227,856), part of the tri-city conurbation of Wuhan, Hubei province, cen¬ tral China. It is the oldest of the Wuhan cities, probably dating from the Han dynasty. It was the capital of the kingdom of Wu in the 3rd century ad, as well as capital of an administrative district under the Yuan dynasty (1279-1368) and later capital of Hubei province (until 1950). In 1911 it was the starting point of the revolution against the imperial regime. The Japanese occupied the city in 1938—45; the Chinese communists took it in 1949. It became part of Wuhan in 1950.

Wudi or Wu-ti Vwu-'de\ orig. Liu Che (b. 156 bc —d. March 29, 87 bc) Emperor of the Chinese Han dynasty who vastly increased its author¬ ity and its influence abroad and made Confucianism China’s state religion. Under Wudi, China’s armies drove back the nomadic Xiongnu tribes that plagued the northern border, incorporated southern China and northern and central Vietnam into the empire, and reconquered Korea. Their far¬ thest expedition was to Fergana (in modern Uzbekistan). Wudi’s military campaigns strained the state’s reserves; seeking new income, he decreed new taxes and established state monopolies on salt, iron, and wine.

Wuhan \'wu-'han\ or Wu-han City (pop., 1999 est.: 3,911,824), capi¬ tal of Hubei province, east-central China. It is located at the confluence of the Han and Yangtze (Chang) rivers and is a conurbation of three cities that merged in 1950: Hankou, on the north bank of the Yangtze; Hanyang, across the Han; and Wuchang, on the south bank of the Yangtze. The chief industrial and commercial centre of central China, it is a hub of maritime, river, rail, and road transportation. It serves as the collection and distri¬ bution point for the products of the middle Yangtze valley and for west¬ ern and southwestern China. It has numerous industries, including iron- and steel-producing complexes. It is the seat of Wuhan University and the Central China Technical University.

Wuhou or Wu-hou Vwu-'ho\ or Wu Zetian \'wu-dz3-'tyan\ (b. 624, Wenshui, Shanxi province, China—d. Dec. 16, 705, Louyang) Empress of China during the Tang dynasty. She began her career as the concubine of the emperor Taizong but became the consort of his son. She eliminated her female rivals and became empress in 655. By 660, through dismissal, exile, and execution, she had eliminated those who opposed her. Because the emperor was sickly, Wuhou was able to rule in his name; after his death she ruled in the name of her sons, at last declaring herself ruler in her own name in 690. To support her reign, she claimed to be an incar¬ nation of the bodhisattva Maitreya. Though long vilified for her cruelty and her methods of maintaining power, she supported the development of a scholarly bureaucracy to replace rule by aristocratic families, stabilized the dynasty, and unified the empire.

Wundt Vvunt\, Wilhelm (b.Aug. 16, 1832, Neckarau, near Mannheim, Baden—d. Aug. 31, 1920, Grossbothen, Ger.) German physiologist and psychologist, the founder of experimental psychology. After earning a medi¬ cal degree, he studied briefly with Johannes Peter MOller and later assisted Hermann von Helmholtz. At the University of Heidelberg in 1862, follow¬ ing publication of his Contributions to the Theory of Sense Perception (1858-62), he gave the first course in scientific psychology. In Principles of Physiological Psychology (1873-74) he claimed that psychology must be based directly on experience and that its proper method was that of controlled introspection. At the University of Leipzig (1875-1917), he established the first psychological laboratory (1879) and founded the first journal of psychology (1881). His later works include Outline of Psychol¬ ogy (1896) and Ethnic Psychology (10 vol., 1900-20).

Wupatki \wu-'pat-ke\ National Monument National monument, north-central Arizona, U.S. Situated along the Little Colorado River, the

© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.

Wuppertal ► Wyeth I 2083

monument was established in 1924 and comprises more than 800 red sandstone pueblos built during the 11th—13th centuries. It has an area of 55 sq mi (142 sq km).

Wuppertal Vvu-por-,tal\ City (pop, 2002 est.: 364,784), northwestern Germany. Located on the Wupper River, it was formed as Barmen- Elberfeld in 1929 through the amalgamation of the towns of Barmen, Elberfeld, Beyenburg, Cronenberg, Ronsdorf, and Vohwinkel. Its name was changed to Wuppertal in 1930. The region was noted for its textile production as early as the 16th century, and the modem city remains a textile-manufacturing centre. Other industrial products include chemicals, rubber, and machinery. Wuppertal has numerous parks and public gardens and a well-known zoo.

Wurlitzer, (Franz) Rudolph (b. Jan. 30, 1831, Schoneck, Saxony—d. Jan. 14, 1914, Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S.) German-born U.S. musical instrument manufacturer. He immigrated to the U.S. in 1853 and with his brother founded the Wurlitzer Co. in 1872. His son Howard (1871-1928) introduced the innovation of automatic instruments, which led to the firm’s production of self-playing organs, electronically con¬ trolled organs, and finally the organs it is best known for, in which vibrat¬ ing reeds rather than pipes produce the sound.

Wurttemberg Vvuer-tom-.berkA English Vwur-tom-.borgV Former state, Germany. Its territory approximated the central and eastern areas of the present-day German state of Baden-Wurttemberg. The capital was Stuttgart. Originally inhabited by Celts, Wurttemberg was occupied suc¬ cessively by Suevi, Romans, Alemanni, and Franks. In the Middle Ages it was part of Swabia. Wurttemberg became an electorate in 1803 and a kingdom in 1806. A constitutional monarchy (1819-1918), it became an independent republic in 1918 but joined the Weimar Republic in 1919. Wurt¬ temberg came under the control of the Third Reich in 1934. During World War II the Allies overran it (1945). It was made part of Baden- Wtirttemberg in 1952.

Wuwang or Wu-wang Vwu-'waq\ (fl. 11th century bc, China) Founder and first ruler of the Zhou dynasty. After establishing the Zhou dynasty, Wuwang, assisted by his brother, Zhougong, consolidated his rule by establishing a feudalistic form of government in which territory was bestowed on relatives and vassals willing to acknowledge Zhou suzer¬ ainty. He was regarded by later Confucians as a wise king.

Wyandot or Huron North American Indian people living in Lorette, north of Quebec city, Que., and in southwestern Ontario, Can.; and in Kansas and Oklahoma, U.S. Their language is of the Iroquoian family. At first contact, the people who mostly call themselves Wyandot lived in Ouendake (Huronia), between Georgian Bay and Lake Simcoe. Their vil¬ lages, sometimes palisaded, consisted of large, bark-covered dwellings that housed several families related through maternal descent. Crops included com, beans, squash, sunflowers, and tobacco. Hunting and fish¬ ing were of lesser importance. Villages were divided into clans, the chiefs of which formed councils. Women were influential in clan affairs, and clan matrons had the responsibility of selecting political leaders. The Wyandot were bitter enemies of tribes of the Iroquois Confederacy, with whom they competed in the fur trade. Iroquois invasions in 1648-50 dev¬ astated the tribe, forcing a remnant westward. Today the Wyandot, or Wyandotte, as they are known in the U.S. number about 6,800 in the U.S. and Canada.

Wyat, Thomas or Thomas Wyatt later Sir Thomas (b. 1503, Allington, near Maidstone, Kent, Eng.—d. Oct. 6, 1542, Sherborne, Dor¬ set) English poet. A member of the court circle of Henry VIII, he was apparently admired for his skill in music, languages, and arms. He served a number of diplomatic missions, but his reputation rests on his poetic achievements, especially his introduction into English literature of the Italian sonnet and terza rima verse form and the French rondeau. His works, unusual for their time in carrying a strong sense of individuality, include Certayne Psalmes ...drawen into Englyshe meter (1549), three satires, and songs.

Wyatt, John (b. April 1700, Lichfield, Staffordshire, Eng.—d. Nov. 29, 1766, Birmingham, Warwickshire) British mechanic who contributed to the development of power spinning. He began his career as a carpenter, but by 1730, with financial support from Lewis Paul, he was working on machines for boring metal and making files. The spinning machine (see drawing frame), first patented in 1738, was almost certainly Paul’s idea, with Wyatt providing technical skill; its principle was to draw the fibres

through sets of rollers turning at different speeds. It was superseded by Richard Arkwright’s water frame in the 1770s.

Wycherley Vwi-chor-leV William (b. 1640, Clive, near Shrewsbury, Shropshire, Eng.—d. Jan. 1, 1716, London) English dramatist. After attending Oxford and studying law, Wycherley became a man-about-town with an interest in theatre. Within the framework of the comedy of man¬ ners, he attempted to reconcile a deep-seated puritanism with his ardent physical nature. Love in a Wood (1671) first won him favour in the Res¬ toration court, and The Plain-Dealer (1676) satirized rapacious greed. In The Country-Wife (1675), perhaps his best work, a satirical comment on excessive jealousy and complacency is blended with a richly comic and bawdy presentation. He eventually lost favour at court and spent seven years in debtor’s prison until he was rescued by James II.

Wycliffe Vwi- I klif\ / John (c. 1330-1384) British theologian, philoso¬ pher, and church reformer. He earned a doctor-of-divinity degree from Oxford in 1372. Named by Edward III to a deputation to discuss English differences with the papacy, he represented the government in its attempts to limit the church’s power in England. His preaching against church policies, in which he argued that the church itself was sinful and should relinquish its possessions and return to evangelical poverty, attracted wide attention, and in 1377 the pope called for his arrest. In 1379 he began systematically attacking the foundations of Roman Catholicism, notably by repudiating the doctrine of transubstantiation and by denying that the church hierarchy represented a line of authoritative succession from Jesus. In 1380 he became involved in a translation of the Bible into English, seeking to bypass the church in making the law of God accessible to all literate people. His followers were known as Lollards. He was blamed by his ecclesiastical superiors for inciting the Peasants' Revolt (1381); many of his works were subsequently banned. His writings later inspired the leaders of the Reformation, most notably Martin Luther.

Wye, River River, eastern Wales and western England. It flows from the moorlands of central Wales southeast across the English border and continues south into the estuary of the River Severn. It is about 130 mi (210 km) long. The ruins of Tintern Abbey (the inspiration for William Wordsworth’s poem) are on its banks. It has rich salmon fisheries.

Wyeth Vwl-3th\, Andrew (Newell) (b. July 12, 1917, Chadds Ford, Pa., U.S.) U.S. painter. He was trained by his father, N.C. Wyeth. His subject matter comes almost entirely from the area around Chadds Ford and around his summer home in Cushing, Maine. Though his technique is precise and detailed, he uses it to achieve an unreal, visionary quality. His palette is restricted largely to earth colours. His famous Christina’s World (1948), depicting a polio victim seemingly trying to climb a hill, exemplifies his mastery of unusual angles and his use of light to pinpoint time. Between 1971 and 1985 Wyeth secretly painted Helga Testorf, his neighbour in Chadds Ford, creating hundreds of images of her, including nudes. He was the first painter ever awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom (1963) and the first artist to receive the Congressional Gold Medal (1990). His son Jamie (b. 1946) has also had a successful painting career.

Christina's World, tempera on gesso panel by Andrew Wyeth, 1948; in the Museum of Modern Art, New York City.

COURTESY OF THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART, NEW YORK CITY

© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.

2084 I Wyeth ► Wythe

Wyeth, N(ewell) C(onvers) (b. Oct. 22, 1882, Needham, Mass., U.S.—d. Oct. 19, 1945, Chadds Ford, Pa.) U.S. illustrator and muralist. Raised on a farm, he learned drafting and illustration in Boston before studying with the master illustrator Howard Pyle (1853-1911). He first found success in depicting the American West. During his career he con¬ tributed his memorable illustrations to more than 100 books, including a famous series of children’s classics, including Treasure Island, Kid¬ napped, King Arthur, Robin Hood, and The Black Arrow, and he also pro¬ duced numerous murals in public buildings. He was the teacher of his son, the painter Andrew Wyeth.

Wyler, William (b. July 1, 1902, Mulhouse, France—d. July 27, 1981, Beverly Hills, Calif., U.S.) French-born U.S. film director. After studies in France and Switzerland, he immigrated to New York in 1920. Work¬ ing for Universal Pictures, he became a director of low-budget westerns, but he established a serious reputation with Counsellor-at-Law (1933) and went on to direct successes such as Dodsworth (1936), Wuthering Heights (1939), and The Little Foxes (1941). His films are noted for their clear narrative style and sensitive handling of human relationships. He won Academy Awards for Mrs. Miniver (1942) and The Best Years of Our Lives (1946), and he later directed popular movies such as Roman Holiday (1953), Ben-Hur (1959, Academy Award), and Funny Girl (1968).

Wynelte \wl-'net\, Tammy orig. Virginia Wynette Pugh (b.

May 5, 1942, Itawamba county, Miss., U.S.—d. April 6, 1998, Nashville, Tenn.) U.S. country music singer. Her father, a musician, died when she was an infant, and her mother left her to be raised by grandparents. She worked as a beautician before appearing on Porter Wagoner’s country music television show. In 1967-68 she had hits with “Your Good Girl’s Gonna Go Bad,” “D-I-V-O-R-C-E,” and her anthem, “Stand by Your Man.” She was married to George Jones (1969-75), with whom she recorded many duet hits; despite their divorce, they continued to collabo¬ rate on recordings, including her last album, One (1996). She recorded 20 number-one country hits and 50 albums.

Wyoming State (pop., 2000: 493,782), western U.S. It covers an area of 97,813 sq mi (253,334 sq km); its capital is Cheyenne. Wyoming is bor¬ dered on the north and northwest by Montana, on the east by South Dakota and Nebraska, on the south by Colorado, on the southwest by Utah, and on the west by Idaho. It contains part of the Great Plains and the Black Hills. Its ranges of the Rocky Mountains include the Bighorn, Tetons, and Wind River. Wyoming’s highest point is Gannett Peak, at 13,804 ft (4,207 m). The Continental Divide crosses the state northwest to southeast. About three-fourths of its rivers drain eastward into the Missouri-Mississippi system. Its largest lake is Yellowstone Lake. Wyoming was already inhab¬ ited by Plains Indians, including the Shoshone, when it was first visited by European explorers during the 18th century. The Oregon and Over¬ land trails crossed it. Most of the area was acquired by the U.S. from France in the Louisiana Purchase. The Lewis and Clark Expedition did not cross the area, but a member of the group, John Colter, strayed from the

expedition and spent time in Wyoming. It was included in several U.S. territories before the organization of the Wyoming Territory in 1868. It adopted woman suffrage in 1869 and in 1889 was the first state to include that right in its constitution. In the years preceding statehood, it devel¬ oped a thriving cattle industry. It was admitted to the Union in 1890 as the 44th state. In 1924 it elected the first U.S. woman governor, Nellie Tayloe Ross. Though livestock is still important to its modern economy, mining is increasingly influential and tourism is growing.

Wyoming Massacre (July 3, 1778) Killing of American settlers by the British in the Wyoming Valley of Pennsylvania. In the American Revo¬ lution, British Col. John Butler led a force of 1,000 loyalists and Iroquois allies against 5,000 settlers in the valley, many of whom were gathered at Forty Fort. A band of men and boys left the fort to meet the attackers and was defeated; 360 settlers were killed, and others who escaped to the woods died of starvation. Butler’s forces continued their raids on frontier settlements in New York, which led to American action against the Iro¬ quois. See also Iroquois Confederacy.

Wyszynski Xvi-'shin-skeX, Stefan (b. Aug. 3, 1901, Zuzela, near Lomza, Pol., Russian Empire—d. May 28, 1981, Warsaw, Pol.) Polish cardinal and primate of Poland. Ordained in 1924, he was assigned to the basilica at Wloclawek. He founded and directed the Christian Workers University (1935-39), then joined the Polish resistance in World War II. He was appointed successively bishop of Lublin (1946), primate of Poland (1948), and cardinal (1952). For refusing to consent to communist demands, he was placed under house arrest (1953-56). After his release, he reached a compromise on church and state matters with WtADYStAW Gomulka that avoided a potential Soviet invasion of Poland, and he there¬ after maintained the unity of the church in an uneasy coexistence with the communist government. He later lent cautious support to such Polish movements as the Workers’ Defense Committee, Solidarity, and Rural Solidarity, which sought greater freedom from the late 1970s onward. A doctrinal conservative, his last major act was to negotiate with the Polish authorities over the visit of Pope John Paul II to Poland in 1979.

Wythe Vwith\, George (b. 1726, Elizabeth City county, Va.—d. June 8, 1806, Richmond, Va., U.S.) U.S. jurist and statesman. Admitted to the bar in 1746, he was a member (1754-55, 1758-68) and clerk (1769-75) of the Virginia House of Burgesses. He practiced law in Williamsburg, Va., where he taught Thomas Jefferson. At the College of William and Mary (1779-89) he became the first professor of law in the U.S.; among his pupils was John Marshall. A delegate to the Continental Congress, he signed the Declaration of Independence. In 1776 he was appointed, with Jefferson and two others, to revise the laws of Virginia. As a chancery judge (1778-1806), he asserted, in Commonwealth v. Caton (1782), the power of courts to refuse to enforce unconstitutional laws. He was a member of the Constitutional Convention (1787) and of the Virginia con¬ vention (1788) that ratified the Constitution of the United States.

© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.

X-ray ► Xenophon I 2085

X-ray Electromagnetic radiation of extremely short wavelength (100 nanometres to 0.001 nanometre) produced by the deceleration of charged particles or the transitions of electrons in atoms. X-rays travel at the speed of light and exhibit phenomena associated with waves, but experiments indicate that they can also behave like particles (see wave-particle duality). On the electromagnetic spectrum, they lie between gamma rays and ultra¬ violet radiation. They were discovered in 1895 by Wilhelm Conrad Ront- gen, who named them X-rays for their unknown nature. They are used in medicine to diagnose bone fractures, dental cavities, and cancer; to locate foreign objects in the body; and to stop the spread of malignant tumours. In industry, they are used to analyze and detect flaws in structures. See illustration below.

X-ray astronomy Study of astronomical objects and phenomena that emit radiation at X-ray wavelengths. Because Earth’s atmosphere absorbs most X-rays, X-ray telescopes and detectors are taken to high altitudes or into space by balloons and spacecraft. In 1949 detectors aboard sounding rockets showed that the Sun gives off X-rays, but it is a weak source; it took 30 more years to clearly detect X-rays from other ordinary stars. Beginning with the Uhuru X-ray satellite (launched 1970), a succession of space observatories carried increasingly sophisticated instruments into Earth orbit. Astronomers discovered that most types of stars emit X-rays but usually as a tiny fraction of their energy output.

Supernova remnants are more powerful X-ray sources; the strongest sources known in the Milky Way Galaxy are certain binary stars in which one star is probably a black hole. In addition to myriad point sources, astronomers have found a diffuse background of X-ray radiation ema¬ nating from all directions; unlike cosmic background radiation, it appears to have many distant individual sources. The Chandra X-Ray Observatory and XMM-Newton X-ray satellite (both launched 1999) have made numerous discoveries relating to the nature and quantity of black holes in the universe, the evolution of stars and galaxies, and the composition and activity of supernova remnants.

X-ray diffraction Phenomenon in which the atoms of a crystal, by virtue of their uniform spacing, cause an interference pattern of the waves in an incident beam of X-rays. The crystal’s atomic planes act on the X-rays in the same way a uniformly ruled grating acts on a beam of light (see polarization). The interference pattern is specific to each substance and gives information on the structure of the atoms or molecules in the crystal. See also William Henry Bragg.

Xanthus Vzan-thssX or Xanthos Ancient city of Lycia, Anatolia. Situ¬ ated near the mouth of the Xanthus (modem Esen Cayi) River in present- day southwestern Turkey, its ruins include a theatre, temples, and tombs. A number of pieces were taken for the British Museum. The ancient city

electrons

X-rays

An X-ray tube. Electrons "boil" off the cathode when the filament is heated by a current. A high voltage between cathode and anode causes the electrons to acceler¬ ate toward the anode, which rotates to avoid overheating of the target. When the electrons strike the anode's target area, X-rays are emitted.

© MERRIAM-WEBSTER INC.

was twice besieged and destroyed: in 540 bc by the Persians of the Achae- menian dynasty and in 42 bc by the Romans. The ruins were designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1988.

Xavier Vza-ve-orV, Saint Francis (b. April 7, 1506, Xavier Castle, near Sangiiesa, Navarre—d. Dec. 3, 1552, Sancian Island, China; canon¬ ized March 12, 1622; feast day December 3) Spanish-born French mis¬ sionary to the Far East. Born into a noble Basque family, he was educated at the University of Paris, where he met Ignatius of Loyola and became one of the first seven members of the Jesuits. He was ordained in 1537, and in 1542 he embarked on a three-year mission to India. In 1545 he established missions in the Malay Archipelago, and in 1549 he traveled to Japan, where he was the first to introduce Chris¬ tianity systematically. He returned to India in 1551 and died the following year while attempting to secure entrance to China. He is believed to have bap¬ tized about 30,000 converts; his success was partly due to adaptation to local cultures. In 1927 he was named patron of all missions.

Xenakis \zen-a-‘kes,\ English \ze-'na-kis\, Iannis (b. May 29, 1922, Braila, Rom.—d. Feb. 4, 2001, Paris, France) Romanian- born Greek-French composer. His Greek family returned to Greece in 1932, and he studied engineering. A wartime resis¬ tance fighter, he was forced to flee Greece in 1947 when he was denounced as a communist. He worked closely with the architect Le Corbusier (1947-59), while studying com¬ position with Olivier Messiaen and others. Interested in expressing mathematical structures in music, he used the term “stochastic music” to refer to situa¬ tions in which the number of elements precludes prediction of what each element will do but the overall behaviour of the group is determinate (see stochastic process). He often based his compositions on standard concepts of mathematics and physics, such as the Fibonacci sequence ( Metastasis , 1954), the Boltzmann constant (. Pithoprakta , 1956), and Markov chains {Analogique A and Analogique B, 1958-59).

Xenocrates \zi-'nak-r3-,tez\ (d. 314 bc, Athens) Greek philosopher. A pupil of Plato, he succeeded Speusippus (d. 339/338 bc) as head of Pla¬ to’s Academy. His writings are lost except for fragments, but his doc¬ trines, as reported by Aristotle, appear to resemble those of Plato. He divided all of reality into three realms: the sensibles, or objects of sen¬ sation; the intelligibles, or objects of true knowledge, such as Plato’s forms (see form); and the bodies of the heavens, which mediate between the sensibles and the intelligibles and are therefore objects of “opinion.” A second threefold division separated gods, men, and “demons.” He main¬ tained that the origin of philosophy lies in mankind’s desire to be happy, happiness being defined as the acquisition of the perfection that is pecu¬ liar and proper to mankind (see eudaemonism).

xenon \'ze-,nan\ Chemical element, chemical symbol Xe, atomic num¬ ber 54. One of the noble gases, it is colourless, odourless, tasteless, and nearly inert, combining only with fluorine and oxygen and in complexes (see bonding). Xenon occurs in slight traces in Earth’s atmosphere and in rocks. Obtained by fractional distillation of liquefied air, it is used in lumi¬ nescent tubes (see electric discharge lamp), flash lamps, lasers, and tracer studies and as an anesthetic.

Xenophanes of Colophon \zi-'naf-9- I nez... , ka-b-f9n\ (b. c. 560, Colophon, Ionia—d. c. 478 bc) Greek poet, religious thinker, and reputed precursor of philosophy of the Eleatics. Though some critics consider Par¬ menides the founder of the Eleatic school, Xenophanes’ philosophy, which found expression primarily in the poetry he recited on his travels, prob¬ ably anticipated Parmenides’ views. Fragments of his epics reflect his contempt for anthropomorphism and for popular acceptance of Homeric mythology.

Xenophon Yzen-a-,fan\ (b. 431, Attica, Greece—d. shortly before 350 bc, Attica) Greek historian. Bom of a well-to-do Athenian family, Xeno¬ phon was critical of extreme democracy and for a time was exiled as a trai¬ tor. He served with the Greek mercenaries of the Persian prince Cyrus, an experience on which he based his best-known work, the Anabasis. Its prose was highly regarded in antiquity and exerted a strong influence on Latin literature. His other works include On Horsemanship ; On Hunting ; Cyro- paedia, a historical novel about Cyrus II; Oeconomicus , a treatise on estate management; and his completion of a work by the historian Thucydides.

© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.

2086 I xerography ► Xia Gui

Light shining on the item to be copied is reflected off a mirror, through a lens, and off a second mirror to form an image on a photosensitive (selenium-coated) drum. The drum's surface charge varies with the light and dark areas of the image. The toner drum delivers tiny black particles (toner) to the dark, charged areas of the image. The toner-based image is then transferred to paper rolled onto the drum, the negatively charged toner particles being attracted by a positive charge under the sheet, and the paper is heated to set the toner. The copy paper itself originally provided the treated surface, but the innovation of the selenium-coated drum permitted the use of ordinary paper. Light projection permits the printed image to be enlarged or reduced by any desired percentage.

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xerography \zo-'ra-gr9-fe\ Image-forming process that relies on a photoconductive substance whose electrical resistance decreases when light falls on it. Xerography is the basis of the most widely used document-copying machines (see photocopier). The process was invented in the 1930s by U.S. physicist Chester F. Carlson (1906-1968) and devel¬ oped in the 1940s and ’50s by Xerox Corp. (then called Haloid). Light passing through or reflected from a document reaches a selenium-coated drum surface onto which negatively charged particles of ink (toner) are sprayed, forming an image of the document on the drum. As a sheet of paper is passed close to the drum, a positive electric charge under the sheet attracts the negatively charged ink particles, transferring the image to the copy paper. Heat briefly applied fuses the ink particles to the paper. The first commercially successful xerographic copier was introduced in 1959.

Xerox Corp. Major U.S. corporation. It was founded as Haloid Co. in 1906 to make and sell photographic paper. It changed its name to Haloid Xerox Co. in 1958, and to Xerox Corp. in 1961. Xerox marketed the first xerographic, plain-paper copier in 1960 (see xerography), and the product was so successful that the company has had to wage a continuing campaign to prevent the trademark Xerox from becoming a generic term. In addition to copiers, Xerox sells scanners, fax machines, printers, software, and serv¬ ers for networked printing. Its headquarters are in Stamford, Conn.

Xerxes I Vz3rk-,sez\ Persian Khshayarsha (b. c. 519 bc —d. 465 bc, Persepolis) Persian king (486-465 bc) of the Achaemenian dynasty. The son of Darius I, he had been governor of Babylon before his succession. He ferociously suppressed rebellions in Egypt (484) and Babylonia (482). To avenge Darius’s defeat by the Greeks at the Battle of Marathon, he spent three years raising a massive army and navy. When a storm destroyed the bridges he had built to cross the Hellespont, he had them rebuilt and for seven days oversaw the crossing of his army, numbering 360,000 troops by modern estimates, supported by more than 700 ships. The Persians broke through at the Battle of Thermopylae and pillaged Ath¬ ens, but then lost their navy at the Battle of Salamis (480). Xerxes returned

to Asia, leaving the army behind; it withdrew after its defeat at the Battle of Plataea (479). In Persia he began an extensive building campaign at Persepolis. Drawn unwittingly into palace intrigues, he killed his broth¬ er’s family at the queen’s demand. He was murdered by members of his court. His setback in Greece was regarded as the beginning of the decline of the Achaemenid dynasty. See photograph below.

Xhosa \'ko-s9\ People living pri¬ marily in East Cape province, South Africa. They form part of the south¬ ern Nguni group of Bantu-speaking peoples. In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, the series of conflicts called the Kaffir (“Infidel”) Wars engaged the Xhosa against the Euro¬ pean settlers. Eventually the Xhosa were defeated and their territory annexed. Between 1959 and 1961 the Xhosa inhabited the nonindependent black states of Transkei and Ciskei cre¬ ated by the white South African gov¬ ernment. In the 1960s many Xhosa became migrant labourers. Today they number some 7.8 million. See photograph on opposite page.

Xi Vshe, 'shi\ River Chinese Xi Jiang or Hsi Chiang English West River River system, south¬ ern China. Known as the Nanpan and then the Hongshui in its upper course, the Xi proper begins as it enters Guangdong province from eastern Guangxi autonomous region. It flows east through Guangdong and then through the vast Pearl River delta before entering the South China Sea west of Hong Kong near Macau; the city of Guangzhou (Canton) is in its delta. It is about 1,200 mi (1,930 km) long, shorter than other important Chinese rivers, but its volume of flow is second only to that of the Yangtze River (Chang Jiang). It is the great commercial waterway of southern China, linking the delta cities with the interior.

Xi Xia or Hsi Hsia \'she-she-'a\ Kingdom of Tangut tribes that was established in the 11th century and flourished through the early 13th.

Founded by Li Yuanhao, who named it after the ancient Chinese state of Xia, it existed in an uneasy truce with China’s Southern Song dynasty and the Liao dynasty of the Inner Asian Khitan tribes until it was con¬ quered by Genghis Khan.

Xia dynasty or Hsia \she-'a\ dynasty (c. 2070-c. 1600 bc) Quasi-legendary first dynasty of China, preceding the Shang. In Chi¬ nese histories it is said to have been founded by Yu and to have had 17 rulers. Archaeological sites in Henan and Shanxi provinces in northeastern and eastern China have been tenta¬ tively identified with Xia culture. See also Erlitou culture.

Xia Gui or Hsia Kuei (fl. 1195— 1224, Qiantang, Zhejiang province, China) Chinese master of landscape painting. Xia served in the Imperial Painting Academy, and most sources

Xerxes I, detail of a bas-relief of the north courtyard in the treasury at Per¬ sepolis, late 6th -early 5th century bc; in the Archaeological Museum, Tehran.

COURTESY OF THE ORIENTAL INSTITUTE, THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO

© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.

Xi'an ► Xiwangmu I 2087

Xhosa women dancing as they return to their village from the fields.

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agree that he followed the stylistic tradition of an earlier landscapist in the academy, L Tang. Xia and his contemporary, Ma Yuan, were the most influential members of the academy, and a school of painting inspired by them came to be known as the Ma-Xia school. Most of Xia’s surviving works are album leaves painted on silk. A typical work by him is exquis¬ itely calculated and perfectly balanced, conveying with great precision a scene glimpsed through haze, sharply focused at a few points but obscured at others. Chinese writers spoke of his use of a “split brush” (i.e., the brush tip divided so as to make two or more strokes at once) in painting tree foliage and of his freehand drawing “without employing a ruler.” While his influence was considerable, it was only in modern times that he came to be recognized as one of the leading masters of Chinese landscape painting and one of art’s great interpreters of nature.

Xi'an Vshe-'an\ or Hsi-an conventional Sian City (pop., 2003 est.: 2,657,900), capital of Shaanxi province, east-central China. Located on the Wei River, the site served as the capital of several dynasties beginning in the 11th century bc. It became one of the most splendid cities of the ancient world during the Tang dynasty (ad 618-907) and was a thriving commercial centre. Marco Polo visited in the 13th century. It was an entry point in the 1920s for communist ideology from the Soviet Union. In 1936, after Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek had been kidnapped there (see Xi'an Incident), the communists and Nationalists formed a united front against Japanese invaders. It is the site of several educational institutions and numerous temples and pagodas. It became an important tourist des¬ tination after the discovery of the nearby tomb of Emperor Shihuangdi, with its army of 6,000 life-size terra-cotta warriors (designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1987).

Xi'an Incident or Sian Vshyan\ Incident (1936) Seizure of Nation¬ alist leader Chiang Kai-shek by one of his generals, Chang Hsiieh-liang (Zhang Xueliang; 1898-2001), in order to persuade Chiang to postpone his war on the Chinese communists until the invading Japanese had been defeated. As a result of the incident, the Nationalists and communists formed an alliance that turned its attention to the Japanese in Manchuria. See also Manchukuo; People's Liberation Army.

Xiang Vshyaq\ River or Hsiang River conventional Siang River

River, Hunan province, southeastern China. One of the principal tributar¬ ies of the Yangtze River (Chang Jiang), it flows 500 mi (800 km) from the mountains in northern Guangxi autonomous region, through Hunan prov¬ ince, into Dongting Lake, and then into the Yangtze. Large vessels from the Yangtze can reach as far as Changsha via the Xiang. The river has been a north-south trade route for centuries.

Xiang Yu or Hsiang Yu \she-'aq-'yue\ (b. 232 bc, state of Chu, China—d. 202 bc, Anhui province) Chinese aristocratic general and cul¬ tural hero. He overthrew the Qin dynasty and tried to return China to a pre-Qin ruling system. His forces were overwhelmed by Liu Bang (Gaozu), founder of the Han dynasty, and Xiang Yu chose suicide over capture. His heroism has been glorified in Chinese stories and poetry.

xiao or hsiao \'shyau\ Chinese "filial piety" In Confucianism, the attitude of obedience, devotion, and care toward one’s parents and other elders considered fundamental to moral conduct. Originally rooted in the hierarchical ideology of Chinese feudalism, it was raised to a moral pre¬ cept by Confucius, who cited it as the basis of ren. It is seen as the basis not only of family harmony but of social and political stability.

Xibo See Wenwang Xin See Wang Mang Xingkai Hu See Lake Khanka

Xingu \'sheq-'gu\ River River, central and northern Brazil. Formed by several headstreams, it flows north through northeastern Mato Grosso state and central Para state into the Amazon River near its mouth. Though approximately 1,300 mi (2,100 km) long, it is navigable for only about 125 mi (200 km) upstream from where it joins the Amazon; its central part is a series of rapids 400 mi (644 km) long. In the 1950s Xingu National Park was designated as a preserve for Brazil’s Indians, includ¬ ing the Tchikao, who were threatened by extinction.

Xining Vshe-'niqX or Hsi-ning City (pop., 1999 est.: 604,812), capital of Qinghai province, western China. Located in a valley of the Huang River, on what was traditionally the main trade route from northern China into Tibet, the region was a frontier county under the Han dynasty and again under the Sui and Tang. In 763 it was taken by Tibetans and called Qing- tangcheng. It was recovered by the Song dynasty in 1104 and renamed Xi¬ ning (meaning “peace in the west”). It became an important religious centre under the Tibetans, and Qinghai’s largest lamasery was nearby. It was named provincial capital when Qinghai became an independent province in 1928. Its industries include leather processing plants and steelworks.

Xinjiang Yshin-'jyaq'X or Hsin-chiang conventional Sinkiang in full Uygur Autonomous Region of Xinjiang Autonomous region (pop., 2002 est.: 19,050,000), northwestern China. It is bordered by the Kashmir region, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Russia, and Mongolia, Gansu and Qinghai provinces, and Tibet. China’s largest politi¬ cal unit, it covers some 635,900 sq mi (1,646,900 sq km). The capital is Urumqi. Inhabited since early times by nomad tribes, it is an area of rug¬ ged mountains and desert basins. The Silk Road traversed the region. It came under the control of local leaders with the fall of the Han dynasty in the 3rd century ad and was regained by China in the 7th century. It was successively subject to the Tibetans, Uighurs, and Arabs and was con¬ quered by Genghis Khan in the 13th century. Again under Chinese rule during the Manchu dynasty, it was established as Xinjiang province c. 1884. It came under Chinese communist rule in 1949. It was reconstituted as an autonomous region in 1955. It has mineral resources, heavy indus¬ try (including iron and steel works), and some agricultural production.

Xiongnu or Hsiung-nu Vshe-'uq-'niA Nomadic pastoral people of Central Asia. The Xiongnu at the end of the 3rd century bc formed a great tribal league that dominated much of Central Asia for more than 500 years. Their threat to the northern Chinese frontier throughout this period led to China’s eventual conquest of northern Korea and southern Manchuria during the Han dynasty. Excavation of Xiongnu graves has revealed remains of Chinese, Iranian, and Greek textiles, indicating a wide trade with distant peoples.

Xipe Totec Vshe-pa-'to-tek, 'he-pa-'to-tek\ Pre-Columbian Mexican god of spring and of new vegetation; he is also the patron of precious metals. Originating with the Zapotec Indians, he was adopted by the Aztecs. A sym¬ bol of new vegetation, he is always depicted in art wearing a freshly flayed skin, representing the “new skin” that covers the earth in spring. In the sec¬ ond ritual month of the Aztec calendar, priests sacrificed human victims by removing their hearts or shooting them with arrows, flayed the bodies, and put on the skins, which were dyed yellow and called “golden clothes.”

Xiuhtecuhtli \ .she-ii-'ta-kut-leV Aztec god of fire and creator of all life. With Chantico, his feminine counterpart, he was believed to be a repre¬ sentation of Ometecuhtli. Xiuhtecuhtli’ s festivals coincided with the two extremes in the climatological cycle, the heat of August and the cold of January. He was also the centre of a ritual transfer of fire from temple to temple that occurred once every 52 years, at the end of the Aztec calen¬ dar cycle.

Xiwangmu Vshe-'waq-'miiX or Hsi Wang-Mu In ancient Chinese Daoist mythology, the queen of the female immortals. A former mountain spirit who had been transformed into a beautiful woman, she ruled a para-

© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.

2088 I XML ► XYZ Affair

dise called West Flower, while her husband, Mu Gong, guarded males in his East Flower paradise. Her garden contained rare flowers and the peach of immortality, which blooms once in 3,000 years.

XML in full Extensible Markup Language. Markup language developed to be a simplified and more structural version of SGML. It incorporates features of HTML (e.g., hypertext linking), but is designed to overcome some of HTML’s limitations. For example, it is designed to be extensible (i.e., designed to allow the creation of customized markup tags), which HTML is not. It is also designed to represent data by mean¬ ing rather than by layout (as it is represented in HTML). Like SGML, it is a metalanguage (a language for dealing with languages); it allows users to create a language tailored specifically to their needs.

Xochicalco \,sb-che-'kal-ko\ Ancient Toltec city known for its impres¬ sive ruins and feathered-serpent pyramid. It is located on several hilltops near Cuernavaca, Morelos state, Mex. Built mainly in the 8th-9th cen¬ tury, it became an important trading centre and religious centre, and it was turned into a defensive stronghold before the Spanish conquest (c. 1520). The main temple pyramid is known for its lower facing of intri¬ cately carved stones. The reliefs, which show a strong Mayan influence, portray plumed serpents, priests with elaborate headdresses, squatting warriors, calendar glyphs, and fire symbols.

Xu Beihong or Hsu Pei-hung (b. July 19, 1895, Yixing, Jiangsu province, China—d. Sept. 26, 1953, Beijing) Chinese artist and art edu¬ cator. Xu became an itinerant professional painter in his early teens and an art teacher before reaching age 20. He first visited Shanghai in 1912, and over the next few years he studied Western-style painting. In 1918 Xu traveled to Beiping (now Beijing), where he was appointed a teacher at the Beiping University’s Art Research Association. During this period Xu began to teach that only the realist approach from recent Western painting could revive Chinese painting. After studying in Paris and Ber¬ lin, Xu held a large-scale, one-person exhibition in Shanghai in 1926 that firmly established his fame as a modem Chinese master. He was best known for his history paintings, portraits, and pictures of horses, cats, and other animals, and he was competent both in Western media and in the traditional Chinese ink-and-wash method. His rigorous and stylish illus¬ trations of horses were especially highly acclaimed by Chinese critics and connoisseurs and helped gain him an international reputation. In 1927 Xu returned permanently to China, where he continued to teach.

Xu Yue (b. c. 185, Donglai, China—d. c. 227, China) Chinese astrono¬ mer and mathematician. He wrote several books, of which only Shushu jiyi (“Memoir on the Methods of Numbering”) is extant; some scholars question its authenticity. The treatise was used as an auxiliary mathemat¬ ics textbook in the Tang (618-907) and Song (960-1279) state universi¬ ties. Its first part provides three methods of assigning the powers of 10 up to 10 4,096 to traditionally established terms for “large numbers” and alludes to a method of indefinite generation of even larger numbers. The second part contains descriptions of various devices for representing, if not actually manipulating, large numbers. Among them the book men¬ tions a device resembling the abacus, which some scholars believe origi¬ nated in China.

Xuanxue or hsuan-hsueh \'shwan-'shwe\ Chinese "Dark Learn¬ ing" Intellectual movement in China in the 3rd-4th century that arose during a period of disenchantment with Confucianism. Founded by Wang Bi (226-249), the movement drastically reinterpreted Confucian sources and incorporated aspects of Daoism. Wang and his followers tried to deter¬ mine whether the nature of ultimate reality was being or nothingness and sought to discover if the principle underlying a thing was universal or particular. The movement played an important role in the development of Chinese Buddhism.

Xuanzang or Hsuan-tsang \'shwan-'dzaq\ (b. 600, Guoshi, China—d. 664, Chang’an) Chinese Buddhist monk and pilgrim to India. He received a classical Confucian education before converting to Bud¬ dhism. Troubled by discrepancies in the sacred texts, he left for India in 629 to study the religion at its source. He traveled by foot across Central Asia and reached India in 633. After study at the famous Nalanda mon¬ astery, he returned home in 645 to a hero’s welcome, bringing back hun¬ dreds of Buddhist texts, including some of the most important Mahayana scriptures, and spent the rest of his life translating. Influenced by the Yogacara school, he established the Weishi (“Ideation Only”) school of Buddhism, which won many followers in Japan as the Hosso school. The classic novel Xiyou ji was inspired by his life.

Xuanzong or Hsuan-tsung VshiEn-'dzuqX orig. Li Longji (b. 685, Louyang, China—d. April 762, Chang’an) Sixth emperor (r. 712-756) of the Tang dynasty of China, which during his reign achieved its greatest prosperity and cultural brilliance. Xuanzong reformed the bureaucracy, increased tax revenues through reregistering the population, improved the transportation system, and established a permanent military force along China’s northern frontiers. Toward the end of his reign, he withdrew increasingly from government and came under the influence of his con¬ sorts, including the notorious beauty Yang Guifei. The An Lushan Rebel¬ lion of 755-756 forced him to flee the capital, Chang 7 an (modern Xi’an), and he abdicated in favour of the heir apparent.

Xunzi or Hsun-tzu Vshuen-'dzoV (b. c. 300, Zhao kingdom, China—d. c. 230 bce, Lanling, Chu kingdom) Chinese scholar and philosopher. He belonged to the academy of philosophy in the state of Qi before becom¬ ing magistrate of a district in Chu in 255. His major work, the Xunzi, taught that humanity is evil by nature and can become good only through rigorous training. This view provoked much controversy because it opposed the teachings of Mencius, who believed in innate human good¬ ness. Xunzi’s teachings were later eclipsed when the Mencius became a Confucian classic. Xunzi is regarded as one of the three great philoso¬ phers of the classical period of Confucianism in China.

XX, Les See Les Vingt

xylem VzI-lomV Part of a plant’s vascular system that conveys water and dissolved minerals from the roots to the rest of the plant and fur¬ nishes mechanical support. Xylem constitutes the major part of a mature woody stem or root and the wood of a tree, and consists of specialized water-conducting tissues made up mostly of several types of narrow, elongate, hollow cells. Xylem for¬ mation begins when the actively dividing cells of growing root and shoot tips give rise to primary xylem.

Eventually the primary xylem is cov¬ ered by secondary xylem produced by the cambium. The primary xylem cells die, forming a hard skeleton that supports the plant but loses its conducting function. Thus, only the outer part of the wood (secondary xylem) serves in water conduction.

xylophone Percussion instrument consisting of a set of tuned wooden bars that are struck with mallets.

Primitive xylophones may consist of logs of graded length laid across two supporting logs; a pit may be dug underneath to serve as a resonator.

The xylophone has long been one of the principal instruments of African music; it is also important in the Indonesian gamelan. The marimba is a Latin American xylophone. In the modern orchestral xylophone, the bars are laid out on a stand in key¬ board arrangement, with vertical resonating tubes suspended under each bar. See also glockenspiel; vibra¬ phone.

XYZ Affair (1797-98) Diplomatic incident between the U.S. and France. Pres. John Adams sent special envoys Elbridge Gerry and John Marshall to France to help Charles C. Pinckney negotiate an agreement to protect U.S. shipping from French pri¬ vateers. Before the three could meet with Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand, they were approached by three of his agents—called X, Y, and Z in dip¬ lomatic correspondence to Adams—who suggested a bribe of $250,000 to Talleyrand and a loan of $10 million to France as preconditions for negotiations. Adams rejected the French demands and reported the mis¬ sion had failed. When he was forced to reveal the correspondence, pub¬ lic outrage was followed by calls for war with France. The Alien and Sedition Acts were passed to restrict potential French sympathizers. The Convention of 1800 ended a period of undeclared naval warfare between the U.S. and France.

Cross section of oak xylem

J.M. LANGHAM

African log amadinda xylophone; property of the Uganda Museum, Kam¬ pala

HILLEGEIST/KUBIK

© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.

Y2K bug ► Yalu River I 2089

Y2K bug or Year 2000 bug or millennium bug Potential prob¬ lem in computers and computer networks at the beginning of the year 2000. Until the 1990s, most computer programs used only the last two digits to designate the year, the first two digits being fixed at 19. As the year 2000 approached, many programs had to be partly rewritten or replaced to prevent interpretation of “00” as 1900 rather than 2000. It was feared that such a misreading would lead to software and hardware fail¬ ures in computers used in such important areas as banking, utilities sys¬ tems, government records, and so on, with the potential for widespread chaos on and following Jan. 1, 2000. Up to $200 billion may have been spent (half in the U.S.) to upgrade computers and application programs to be Y2K-compliant. Despite international alarm, few major failures occurred, partly because these measures were effec¬ tive and partly because the likely incidence of fail¬ ure was exaggerated.

Ya-lung River See Yalong River

yacht \'yat\ Sail- or motor-driven vessel used for racing or recreation. The term is popularly applied to large recre¬ ational engine-powered boats; the sailboats known as yachts and used for racing are usually light and comparatively small.

Until the mid-19th century, yachts were designed along the lines of naval craft such as schooners and cutters. Yacht design was greatly affected by the 1851 success of the America in the race that established the America's Cup. In the 20th century, notably after World War II, smaller racing and recreational craft became more common. See also sailing.

yachting See sailing

Yagoda \y3-'go-d3\, Genrikh (Grigoryevich) (b. 1891,

Lodz, Pol., Russian Empire—d. March 15, 1938, Moscow,

Russia, U.S.S.R.) Soviet politician. A leader of the Cheka secret police (1920-24) and its successor, the OGPU (1924-34), and a close associate of Joseph Stalin, he organized the Soviet’s forced-labour camps from 1930 and became a member of the Communist Party’s Central Committee in 1934. As head of the Commissariat of Internal Affairs, or NKVD, he pre¬ pared the first of the purge trials (1936). In 1937 he was replaced as police chief by Nikolay Yezhov and himself became a victim of the widespread purges. Accused of being a member of a “Trotskyite” conspiracy intent on destroying the Soviet Union through sabotage, he was convicted, sen¬ tenced to death, and executed.

yahrzeit or jahrzeit Vyar-.tsitX In Judaism, the anniversary of the death of a parent or close relative, commonly observed by burning a candle for an entire day. On that day, the Kaddish is recited in the synagogue, and the Torah is read. Some mark the anniversary by studying portions of the Mishna, choosing those sections from the sixth division that begin with letters from the name of the deceased. Yahrzeit developed from an early Jewish custom of fasting on the anniversaries of deaths of certain lead¬ ers, and some Jews still fast on yahrzeit.

Yahweh See Tetragrammaton

yak Massive ox (Bos grunniens mutus ) of high Tibetan plateaus. Bulls grow to 6 ft (1.8 m) at the shoulder hump. The wild yak’s hair is black and short, except for a long, shaggy fringe on the flanks and tail. The horns spread outward and upward; the head is held low. Wild females and young live in large herds; mature bulls form smaller groups. Yaks graze on grass and require much water, eating snow in winter. Wild yaks are now endangered. Domestic yaks, which breed freely with domestic cattle, are used as pack, draft, milk, and beef animals. The hide provides leather; the tail, fly whisks; the fringe hair, ropes; the dried dung, fuel.

Yakima Vya-ko-.mo, 'ya-k9-m3\ River River, south-central Washing¬ ton, U.S. Rising in the Cascade Range, it flows southeast for about 200 mi (320 km) to join the Columbia River near Kennewick. The Yakima and its tributaries irrigate about 460,000 acres (190,000 hectares) in the river valley.

yakuza Vya-ku-z3\ Japanese gangsters. Yakuza, who trace their roots back to ronin (masterless samurai), often adopt samurai-like rituals and identify themselves with elaborate body tattoos. They traditionally engage in such organized-crime pursuits as extortion, blackmail, smuggling, pros¬ titution, drugs, and gambling, and they control many restaurants, bars, trucking companies, and taxi fleets in Japanese cities. In the 1980s they also became involved in land speculation, fueling the “bubble economy” that burst by the end of the decade. From a high of more than 180,000 in the early 1960s, their membership has dropped to less than half that num¬ ber. They are organized into some 2,000 gangs, most affiliated under the umbrella of one of a dozen or fewer conglomerate gangs. Yakuza gangs are rigidly hierarchical and follow strict codes of behaviour.

Yale University Private university in New Haven, Conn., a traditional member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1701, it is the third-oldest institu¬ tion of higher learning in the U.S. Yale’s initial curricu¬ lum emphasized classical studies and strict adherence to orthodox Puritanism. Medical, divinity, and law schools were added in 1810, 1822, and 1824. The geologist Benjamin Silliman (1779-1864), who taught at Yale from 1802 to 1853, did much to expand the experimental and applied sciences. Beginning in the mid 19th century, schools of architecture, art, drama, forestry, graduate studies, management, music, and nursing were organized. Yale’s library, with more than 10 million volumes, is one of the largest in the U.S. Its extensive art galleries were established in 1832. The Peabody Museum of Natural History houses important collections of paleontology, archaeology, and ethnology. Yale is one of the most highly regarded schools in the nation; its graduates have included several U.S. presi¬ dents.

Yalong \'ya-luq\ River or Ya-lung River River, Sichuan province, southern China. It rises in mountains at an elevation of nearly 16,500 ft (5,000 m) in Qinghai province and flows into the Yangtze River (Chang Jiang) on the Yunnan border. It is 822 mi (1,323 km) long. It is torrential for most of its course and is unnavigable.

Yalow\'ya-lo\, Rosalyn (Sussman) orig. Rosalyn Sussman (b.

July 19, 1921, New York, N.Y., U.S.) U.S. medical physicist. She received a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Illinois. She developed the technique of radioimmunoassay (RIA) by combining techniques from radioisotope tracing and immunology. RIA proved a very sensitive and simple way to measure tiny concentrations of biological substances or drugs in blood or other body fluids. She originally applied RIA to study blood insulin levels in diabetes mellitus (1959), but the method soon found hundreds of other applications. In 1976 she became the first woman awarded the Albert Lasker Prize, and in 1977 she shared a Nobel Prize with Andrew V. Schally and Roger C.L. Guillemin.

Yalta City (pop., 2001: 82,000), southern Crimea, Ukraine. It faces the Black Sea on the southern shore of the Crimean Peninsula. Settlement on the site dates from prehistoric times, but modern Yalta developed only in the early 19th century, becoming a town in 1838. Its mild winters and scenic location between sea and mountains have made it one of the most popular vacation and health resorts of Ukraine. In 1945 during World War II it was the site of the Allied leaders’ Yalta Conference.

Yalta Conference (Feb. 4-11, 1945) Conference of Allied leaders at Yalta to plan Germany’s defeat in World War II. Franklin Roosevelt, Win¬ ston Churchill, and Joseph Stalin discussed the postwar occupation of Ger¬ many, postwar assistance to the German people, German disarmament, war-crimes trials, the fate of the defeated or liberated states of eastern Europe, voting in the future United Nations Security Council, and German reparations. Stalin agreed to enter the war against Japan after the German surrender. Roosevelt died two months later, and Stalin broke his promise to allow democratic elections in eastern Europe. See also Potsdam Con¬ ference; Tehran Conference.

Yalu \'ya-lii\ River Chinese Yalu Jiang or Ya-lii Chiang Korean Amnok Vam-.nskV -kang River, eastern Asia, between northeastern China and North Korea. Some 491 mi (790 km) long, it rises on the northern border of North Korea, then flows to Korea Bay. It is an impor¬ tant source of hydroelectric power and is navigable by smaller vessels for most of its course. It became a political boundary in the 14th century. During the Korean War, as UN forces battled toward it in 1950, Chinese troops crossed it, in effect marking their entry into the war.

Yak (Bos grunniens).

RUSS KINNE/PHOTO RESEARCHERS

© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.

2090 I yam ► Yangdi

yam Any of several plant species of the genus Dioscorea (family Dioscoreaceae, or yam family), native to warmer regions of both hemi¬ spheres. A number of species are cultivated for food in the tropics; in cer¬ tain tropical cultures, notably of West Africa and New Guinea, the yam is the primary agricultural commodity and the focal point of elaborate ritual. The edible tuberous roots, which vary in taste from sweet to bitter to tasteless, are eaten as cooked starchy vegetables. Often boiled and then mashed, they may also be fried, roasted, or baked. True yams are botani- cally distinct from the sweet potato, though in the U.S. the names are commonly interchanged. Dioscorea mexicana contains a chemical that can suppress ovulation in humans and is used as the basis for birth-control pills. The so-called yam bean is the legume jicama.

Yama Vyo-moX In Indian mythology, the lord of death. The Vedas describe him as the first man who died. The son of the sun god Surya, he presides over the resting place of the dead. In the Vedas, he was a cheer¬ ful king of the departed ancestors, but in later mythology he became known as the just judge who punished the deceased for their sins.

Yamagata Aritomo X.ya-mo-'ga-to-.ar-e-'to-moX (b. Aug. 3, 1838, Hagi, Japan—d. Feb 1, 1922, Tokyo) First prime minister under Japan’s parliamentary regime (1889-91,1898-1900). As a samurai youth in ChoshO province, Yamagata was among those who answered the foreign threat with the slogan “Sonno joi” (“Revere the emperor, expel the barbarians”). In 1864 Western gunboats bombarded the Choshu coast, convincing him of the need for modem armaments. After participating in the Meiji Restoration, he went abroad to research military institutions, returning to become com¬ mander of an imperial force of 10,000 troops. When he introduced con¬ scription, bearing arms ceased to be the exclusive prerogative of a warrior class. His forces defeated Saigo Takamori’s rebellion in 1877. In politics he was more conservative than his contemporary ho Hirobumi, favouring a strong executive. As prime minister, his policies were expansionist; Japan sent the largest of all foreign forces to China to quell the Boxer Rebellion. He increased the autonomy of the military and tried to suppress an incipient social-labour movement. After retirement, he continued to wield power as a genro (elder statesman). See also Meiji Constitution; Meiji period.

Yamal Xyo-'malX Peninsula Peninsula between the Kara Sea and the Gulf of Ob, northwestern Siberia, west-central Russia. It has a total length of 435 mi (700 km), a maximum width of 150 m (240 km), and an area of 47,100 sq mi (122,000 sq km). There are large natural gas deposits on its western coast.

Yamamoto Isoroku \ 1 ya-ma- , mo-to-,e-so- , ro-ku\ (b. April 4, 1884, Nagaoka, Japan—d. April 18, 1943, Solomon Islands) Japanese naval officer. He fought in the Russo-Japanese War and thereafter rose to become commander in chief of Japan’s Combined Fleet in 1941. When it was decided to go to war with the U.S., Yamamoto asserted that the only chance for a Japanese victory lay in a surprise attack that would cripple U.S. naval forces in the Pacific and conceived of the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. He then sought to destroy the remnants of the U.S. fleet, principally its aircraft carriers, but the Japanese lost the resulting Battle of Midway in June 1942. His campaign in the Solomon Islands was also unsuccessful. He was killed when the U.S. (which had broken the Japa¬ nese communications codes) discovered his whereabouts and shot down his plane over Bougainville island.

Yamasee Vya-ms-seX War (1715-16) Conflict between Indians and American colonists. Indian resentment of colonial settlers and traders in South Carolina led a group of Yamasee Indians to kill 90 whites in 1715. Other tribes soon joined the Yamasee in their raids on trading posts and plantations. Colonial military assistance from neighbouring colonies and war supplies from New England helped end the raids. Many defeated Indians escaped to Florida, where they joined runaway black slaves and other Indians to form what later became known as the Seminole tribe.

Yamato Takeru Xya-'ma-to-ta-'ke-riiX Japanese folk hero who may have lived in the 2nd century ad. The son of the 12th emperor, Keiko, he was responsible for expanding the territory of the Yamato court. In stories, he subdued two Kumaso warriors by disguising himself as a woman and killing them while they were drunk. With a miraculous sword he then cut away the burning grass fire set by the Ainu tribesmen and escaped. On the plains of Tagi, he became ill, changed into a white plover, and disap¬ peared. His tomb at Ise is known as the Mausoleum of the White Plover.

Yamazaki Ansai X'ya-ma-.za-ke-'an-.siX (b. Jan. 24, 1619, Kyoto, Japan—d. Oct. 16, 1682, Kyoto) Japanese exponent of the philosophy of

the Chinese Neo-Confucianist Zhu Xi. Early in life he was a Buddhist monk, but he gradually rejected Buddhism in favour of Confucianism, which he began to teach to thousands of students. He reduced Neo- Confucianism to a simple moral code, which he then blended with native Shinto religious doctrines. He equated Neo-Confucian principles and theories with Shinto legends and divinity, creating a philosophical system that took on greater authority than its sources possessed alone. His thought was one of the sources of the extreme nationalism and emperor worship that developed later in Japan.

Yamm X'yamX Ancient West Semitic deity who ruled the oceans, rivers, lakes, and underground springs. At the beginning of time, Yamm was awarded the divine kingship by El, the head of the pantheon. One day, Yamm’s messengers requested that the gods send Baal to become Yamm’s servant. Baal refused to go, and engaged Yamm in battle. After a furious fight, Yamm was slain and the kingship was given to Baal. Yamm may have been the same deity as Lotan (Hebrew: “Leviathan”), who was rep¬ resented as a dragon or serpent.

Yamoussoukro X.ya-mti-'su-kroX Town (pop., 1995 est.: 110,000), capital designate of Cote d’Ivoire. From 1960 to 1993 it served as the coun¬ try’s “second capital” because it was the birthplace, home, and unofficial headquarters of Pres. Felix Houphouet-Boigny. It was designated the official capital in 1983 and shares some of the functions of the former national capital, Abidjan. Fishing and forestry are important to its economy. It is the site of the basilica of Notre-Dame de la Paix, the world’s largest Christian church, an almost exact replica of St. Peter’s in Rome.

Yamuna X'yo-mo-noX River River, north-central India. Rising in the Himalayas, it flows south and southeast 855 mi (1,376 km) into the Ganges River at Allahabad; their confluence is a sacred place to Hindus. The Yamu¬ na’s upper course forms a long section of the border between Uttar Pradesh and Haryana states.

Yancey, William Lowndes (b. Aug. 10, 1814, Warren county, Ga., U.S.—d. July 27, 1863, Montgomery, Ala.) U.S. politician. He was admit¬ ted to the bar and served as editor of the Greenville Mountaineer. During the nullification crisis, he took a firm Unionist stand. He served in the U.S. House of Representatives (1844-46), and in response to the Wilmot Proviso he drafted the Alabama Platform (1848), which asserted slave¬ holders’ rights to take their chattel with them to the new territories. He later added secession to the platform. He helped create the League of United Southerners (1858) and supported the Southern Democrats in their nomination of John C. Breckinridge for president (1860). He drafted Ala¬ bama’s secession ordinance and served in the Confederate government

(1861-63).

Yang, Chen Ning known as Frank Yang (b. Sept. 22, 1922, Hofei, Anhwei, China) Chinese-born U.S. theoretical physicist. He immigrated to the U.S. in 1945 and studied with Edward Teller at the University of Chicago. He showed that parity is violated when elementary particles decay. This and other work in particle physics earned him and Tsung-Dao Lee (b. 1926) a 1957 Nobel Prize. His research focused mostly on inter¬ actions involving the weak force among elementary particles. He also worked in statistical mechanics.

Yang Hui literary name Qianguang (fl. c. 1261-75, Qiantang, Zhe¬ jiang province, China) Mathematician active in the great flowering of Chinese mathematics during the Southern Song dynasty. His books are among the few contemporary Chinese mathematics works to survive. A collected edition of his works (1378) was transmitted farther to the east, where it was particularly influential. In Korea it was reprinted during the reign of Sejong in 1433, and it was copied again by the Japanese math¬ ematician Seki Takakazu.

yang ban X'yaq-.banX Korean y/ 1wo groups" Highest social class of the Korean Choson dynasty (1392-1910). It consisted of both munban (civilian officials) and muban (military officials). Though the term origi¬ nated in the Koryo dynasty (935-1392), it was only later applied to the highest of four social classes. The yangban were granted land and sti¬ pends and were the only social class permitted to take the civil service examinations. The yangban system was discarded in 1894.

Yangdi or Yang-ti X'yaq-'deX orig. Yang Guang (b. 569, China—d. 618, Jiangdu, Jiangsu province) Second ruler of the Chinese Sui dynasty. Under Yangdi, canals were built and great palaces erected. In 608 he built a great canal linking the rice-producing areas in the south with the densely populated north, and he extended this system in 610, contributing to what

© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.

Yangon ► Yarqon River i 2091

was to become the Grand Canal network. He embarked on military cam¬ paigns in Vietnam and Inner Asia. Three expeditions to Korea were so disastrous that the Chinese people turned against him; he was assassinated in southern China. One of his former officials reunited the empire and established the Tang dynasty. See also Wendi.

Yangon N.yaq-'gonV formerly Rangoon City (pop., 2004 est.: 4,455,500), principal port, and capital of Myanmar (Burma), on the Yangon River. It was a fishing village until the present city was founded in the mid-1750s by King Alaungpaya; he developed it as a port. The British occupied it 1824-26 during the First Anglo-Burmese War and again took it in 1852 during the Second Anglo-Burmese War. After the British annexation of all of Burma in 1886, Rangoon became the capital city. During World War II the Japanese advanced on and occupied the city, and it suffered considerable damage. It handles more than four-fifths of Myan¬ mar’s foreign commerce. In 2005 Myanmar government offices began to be moved to a new administrative centre at Pyinmana, some 200 mi (320 km) north of Yangon.

Yangshao culture Vyaq-'shaiA (5000-3000 bc) Prehistoric culture of China’s Huang He (Yellow River) basin, represented by several sites at which painted pottery has been uncovered. In Yangshao culture, millet was cultivated, some animals were domesticated, chipped and polished stone tools were used, silk was produced, and pottery was fired in kilns dug into the ground. See also Banpo.

Yangtze Gorges Dam Project See Three Gorges Dam Project

Yangtze Vyaq-'ts3\ River Chinese Chang \'chaq\ Jiang or Ch'ang Chiang River, China. Rising in the Tanggula Mountains in west-central China, it flows southeast before turning northeast and then generally east across south-central and east-central China to the East China Sea near Shanghai. It is known as the Jinsha in its upper course. It is the world’s third longest river, 3,915 mi (6,300 km) long. Its chief tributaries are the Yalong, Min, Jialing, Han, and Wu rivers. Several large cities, including Shanghai, Nanjing, Wuhan, and Chongqing, lie in the river’s basin, which is known as the granary of China. Large ships can sail to Wuhan, and smaller vessels can reach Yichang; it becomes harder to navigate above Yichang because of the gorges that occur between Chongqing and Yichang. Work on the con¬ troversial Three Gorges Dam Project —first discussed in the 1920s and pro¬ moted in the 1950s by Mao Zedong —was inaugurated in 1994. Located west of Yichang, it will enable freighters to navigate 1,400 mi (2,250 km) inland from the East China Sea to Chongqing.

Yanofsky \ya-'n6f-ske\, Charles (b. April 17, 1925, New York, N.Y., U.S.) U.S. geneticist. He received his Ph.D. from Yale University. He was part of the research team that first demonstrated that certain mutant genes produce inactive proteins. Later, working with E. coli, he showed that the sequence of the nitrogenous bases that form part of the structure of the genetic material corresponds to the amino acid sequence of proteins. Investigating the biochemical actions of suppressor mutations (changes in a gene that reverse the visible effects of mutation in a second gene), he found that suppression restored the ability to form an active enzyme in a mutant that had previously produced an inactive protein.

Yanomami or Yanomamo South American Indians who live in the remote forest of the Orinoco River basin in southern Venezuela and the northern reaches of the Amazon River basin in Brazil. They are hunters and gatherers who also grow crops in gardens by practicing shifting cul¬ tivation. Their reputation as a fierce people perpetually at war has been challenged since the late 20th century. Because their survival was threat¬ ened by incursions of Brazilian miners, in 1991 the Brazilian government set aside an area of 36,000 sq mi (93,000 sq km) as a homeland.

Yao Vyau\ Various Bantu-speaking peoples inhabiting southern Tanza¬ nia, northern Mozambique, and southern Malawi. In the colonial era the Yao were prominent as slave traders. They were never completely united but lived as small groups ruled by chiefs. By 1900 they had come under German, Portuguese, or British rule. Today numbering 2.2 million, the Yao practice shifting (slash-and-burn) horticulture. Most are Muslims.

Yao Yyau\ In Chinese mythology, one of three legendary emperors, along with Shun and Dayu, of the golden age of antiquity (c. 24th century bc). All three were exalted by Confucius as models of virtue, righteousness, and unselfish devotion. See photograph opposite.

Yaounde \yaun-'da\ City (pop., 2001 est.: urban agglom., 1,481,000), capital of Cameroon. It was founded in 1888 while Cameroon was a Ger¬

man protectorate. The area came under French control, and it was declared the capital of French Cameroun in 1922. In 1940-46 it was replaced as the capital by Douala, but, after Cameroon achieved independence in 1960, it again became the seat. It contains several small manufacturing and processing industries (sawmills and printing presses), and it is the area’s agricultural market.

Yaqui \'ya-ke\ American Indian people living in southern Sonora state on the west coast of Mexico. They were settled agriculturalists who offered stubborn resistance to the first Spanish invaders and only gradu¬ ally came under mission influence. In the 19th century they fought against Mexican encroachment on their fertile lands, and they were finally quelled with difficulty in 1887. Thousands were subsequently deported. In the 1930s much of their land was returned to them. Irrigation projects have led to a shift from subsistence agriculture to cash cropping (wheat, cot¬ ton, and crops for vegetable oil). They number about 25,000 in Mexico and more than 9,000 in Arizona.

Yarborough Yyar-.bur-oV Cale in full William Caleb Yarbor¬ ough (b. March 27, 1939, Timmonsvilie, S.C., U.S.) U.S. stock-car racer. He began racing stock cars in the early 1960s. He was the first to win the NASCAR championships for three consecutive years (1976-78). He also won the Daytona 500 three times (1968, 1977, 1983) and the Atlanta 500 four times (1967, 1968, 1974, 1981).

yard Unit of length equal to 36 iNCHes, or 3 feet (see foot), in the U.S. Customary System or 0.9144 metre in the International System of Units. A cloth yard, used to measure cloth, is 37 in. long; it was also the standard length for arrows. In casual speech, a yard (e.g., of concrete, gravel, or topsoil) may refer to a cubic yard.

Yarmuk \yar-'muk\ River River, northwestern Jordan. It rises in south¬ western Syria and flows southwest to its confluence with the Jordan River. For most of its total course of about 50 mi (80 km), it forms the bound¬ ary between Syria and Jordan. A major battle along the river between invading Muslim Arabs and Byzantine forces in 636 ad established Mus¬ lim dominance in Palestine. That dominance, broken only by the period of the Crusades (1099-1291), lasted until World War I (1914-18). Since the Six-Day War of 1967, the lower river valley has been under Israeli control.

yarn Continuous strand of fibres grouped or twisted together and used to construct textile fabrics. Yams are made from both natural and synthetic fibres, in filament or staple form. Filament is very long fibre, including the natural fibre SILK and the synthetic fibres. Most fibres that occur in nature are fairly short, or staple, and synthetic fibres may be cut into short, uniform lengths to form staple. Spinning is the process of drawing out and twisting a mass of cleaned, prepared fibres. Filament yarns generally require less twist than do staple yarns. More twist produces stronger yam; low twist produces softer, shinier yam. Two or more single strands may be twisted together to form ply yarn. Knitting yams have less twist than weaving yams. Thread, used for sewing, is a tightly twisted ply yarn.

Yaroslav \y3-re-'slaf\ known as Yaroslav the Wise (b. 980—d. Feb. 2, 1054) Grand prince of Kiev (1019-54). A son of Vladimir I, he defeated

his brother Svyatopolk the Accursed to become ruler of Kiev. He consoli¬ dated the state through administra¬ tive reforms and military campaigns, codified laws, and promoted the spread of Christianity. He also built many fortifications and churches in the Byzantine style, including the Cathedral of St. Sophia. Yaroslav regained Galicia from the Poles and expanded Kievan possessions in the Baltic region, but his military cam¬ paign against Constantinople was a failure (1043).

Yarqon \yar-'kon\ River River, west-central Israel. It rises near Rosh Ha-Ayin and flows westward for about 16 mi (26 km) to the Mediter¬ ranean Sea near northern Tel Aviv- Jaffa. It marks the boundary between the Plain of Sharon and the coastal

& *

rq

Yao, imaginative portrait by an artist of the Ch'ien-lung period (1735-96); in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City.

COURTESY OF THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART, NEW YORK, GIF OF MRS. EDWARD S. HARKNESS, 1947

© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.

2092 I yarrow ► Yekaterinburg

lowlands. Since the construction and expansion of the Yarqon-Negev Project in the 1950s (see Negev), the water level has gone down, and pol¬ lution has increased. During World War I (1914-18), it was the site of several important British victories over the Ottoman Empire in the Allied Powers’ conquest of Palestine.

yarrow \'yar-o\ Any of about 80 species of perennial herbs that make up the genus Achillea in the compos¬ ite family, native mainly to the north¬ ern temperate zone. Some species are cultivated as garden ornamentals.

They have toothed, often finely cut, sometimes aromatic leaves. Many small white, yellow, or pink flowers are often grouped into flat-topped clusters, which can be dried for win¬ ter bouquets.

Yasin \ya-'sen\, ‘Abd al-Salam

(b. 1928) Moroccan religious leader.

A former school inspector fluent in English and French, he began prac¬ ticing Sufism in the 1960s. By the early 1970s he had adopted a more political view of Islam and was influ¬ enced by the writings of the Egyp¬ tian Islamists Hasan al-BANNA and Sayyid Qujb. After sending a letter to the king of Morocco advocating the establishment of an Islamic state—a consistent theme in his work—he was confined to a mental institution (1974-77), and in 1986 he founded a movement, Charity and Justice. From 1989 he was under house arrest.

yaws or frambesia \fram-'be-zho\ Contagious tropical disease, caused by a variant of the spirochete that causes syphilis. Yaws spreads mainly by discharge from skin sores, not sexual activity. It is common in children, who usually become immune. In the first stage, a skin sore starts as a wartlike thickening, cracks open, leaks fluid, and bleeds easily. A month or more later, multiple sores erupt. The third stage (much rarer than in syphilis) involves destruction of skin, mucous membranes, and bones. Penicillin cures early-stage yaws. Prevention requires isolation and prompt treatment and personal and group hygiene.

Yayoi Vya-,y6i\ culture (c. 250 bc-c. ad 250) Prehistoric culture of Japan subsequent to Jomon culture. It arose on the island of Kyushu and spread northeastward across Honshu. The Yayoi people mastered bronze and iron casting, wove hemp, and employed a Chinese method of wet- paddy rice cultivation. Yayoi pottery is unglazed; early examples have incised decorations, but pieces produced in the last stage of the period are often undecorated. Chinese-style bronze mirrors and coins indicate con¬ tact with Han-dynasty China.

YazTd \ya-'zed\ I (b. c. 645, Arabian Peninsula—d. 683, Damascus, Syria) Second caliph (680-683) of the Umayyad dynasty. He oversaw the events at the Battle of Karbala’ (680), which contributed to the eventual split of Islam into Sunnite and ShTite sects. He succeeded his father, Mua'wiyah I, as caliph, keeping Mua'wiyah’s advisers and retaining most of his policies, while reforming the financial system, adjusting tax policy, and improving the irrigation system of the Damascus oasis. See also fit- nah; al-HusAYN ibn c Au.

YazTdi \'ya-zi-de\ Middle Eastern religion, a syncretic combination of Zoroastrian, Manichaean, Jewish, Nestorian Christian, and Islamic ele¬ ments. Its adherents, numbering fewer than 100,000, are found in Iraq, Turkey, Syria, Armenia, the Caucasus, and Iran. Most speak Kurdish. They believe that they were created separately from the rest of human¬ kind and segregate themselves from the rest of society. In Yazld! belief, seven angels, subordinate to a supreme but uninvolved God, rule the uni¬ verse. The belief that God restored the Devil to his position as chief of the angels upon the Devil’s repentance has earned the Yazld! an unde¬ served reputation as Devil worshipers. Their chief saint is Sheikh c AdI, a 12th-century Muslim mystic. Their name derives from YazId I (c. 645- 683), from whose supporters they may be descended.

Yazoo land fraud \ya-'zii\ (1795-1814) Scheme to sell land in Geor¬ gia. After legislators were bribed to sell Georgia’s western land claims

around the Yazoo River to four land companies for $500,000, public anger forced a newly elected Georgia legislature to rescind the act (1796) and return the money. Much of the land had meanwhile been resold to third parties, who refused the money and maintained their claim to the prop¬ erty. The state ceded its claim to the U.S. in 1802. In 1810 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the 1796 rescinding law was an unconstitutional infringement on a contract. By 1814 the U.S. government assumed pos¬ session of the territory and awarded the claimants over $4 million.

Yazoo \ya-'zii\ River River, west-central Mississippi, U.S. Formed by the confluence of the Tallahatchie and Yalobusha rivers north of Green¬ wood, Miss., it meanders 189 mi (304 km) south and southwest to join the Mississippi River above Vicksburg. Its basin is protected from flooding by an extensive system of levees.

Yeager Vya-gorV, Chuck orig. Charles Elwood Yeager (b. Feb. 13, 1923, Myra, W.Va., U.S.) U.S. test pilot. He served as a fighter pilot in World War II and became a flight instructor and test pilot after the war. Chosen to test-fly the secret experimental X-l aircraft, on Oct. 14, 1947, he became the first person to break the sound barrier in flight, which was approximately 662 mph (1,066 km/hr) at an altitude of 40,000 ft (12,000 m). A brash and colourful personality, he retired with the rank of brigadier general in 1975 and received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1985.

year Time required for the Earth to travel once around the Sun, slightly less than 36514 days. This fractional number makes necessary the peri¬ odic adjustment of days in any calendar that is to be kept in step with the seasons. In the Gregorian calendar, a common year contains 365 days, and every fourth year is a leap year of 366 days except for any year that is divisible by 100 but not divisible by 400 (e.g., 1900 was not a leap year).

Year 2000 bug See Y2K bug

yeast Any of certain economically important and usually single-celled fungi (see fungus), most of which are classified as ascomycetes. Found worldwide in soils and on plant surfaces, yeasts are especially abundant in sugary mediums such as flower nectar and fruits. The types commonly used in the production of bread, beer, and wine are selected strains of Saccharomyces cerevisiae, the small cakes and packets used contain bil¬ lions of individual yeast cells, each of which can ferment approximately its own weight of glucose per hour. Dried yeast is 50% protein and is rich in B vitamins; brewer’s yeast is sometimes taken as a vitamin supple¬ ment. Some yeasts are mild to dangerous pathogens of humans and other animals. Candida albicans, for example, irritates oral and vaginal linings, and Histoplasma and Blastomyces cause persistent lung infections.

Yeats \'yats\, William Butler (b. June 13, 1865, Sandymount, Dublin, Ire.—d. Jan. 28, 1939, Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, France) Irish poet, dra¬ matist, and prose writer. The son of a well-known painter, Yeats early developed an interest in mysticism and visionary traditions as well as in Irish folklore, and both interests would continue to be sources of poetic imagery for him. His early volumes include the poetry volume The Wan¬ derings of Oisin (1889) and the essay collection The Celtic Twilight (1893). In 1889 he fell in love with Maud Gonne, a brilliant, beautiful Irish patriot who inspired his involvement in Irish nationalism but did not recip¬ rocate his feelings. With Lady Augusta Gregory and others, he founded the theatre that became the Abbey Theatre; throughout his life he would remain one of its directors. He contributed plays to its repertoire, including The Countess Cathleen (1899), On Baile’s Strand (1905), and Deirdre (1907). His poetry changed decisively in the years 1909-14: the other¬ worldly, ecstatic atmosphere of the early lyrics cleared and his work gained in concreteness and complexity, often dealing with political themes, though his interest in mysticism and his passion for Maud Gonne continued unabated. With Responsibilities (1914) and The Wild Swans at Coole (1917) he began the period of his highest achievement. Some of his greatest verse appeal's in The Tower { 1928), The Winding Stair (1929), and Last Poems (1939). The individual poems of the latter are largely held together by the system of symbolism he developed in A Vision (1925), which used astrological images to link individual psychology with the larger patterns of history. Yeats was a member of the Irish Senate (1922- 28). He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1923, and he is regarded by some as the greatest English-language poet of the 20th century.

Yeh-lii Ch'u-ts'ai See Yelu Chucai

Yekaterinburg \yi-,ka-ti-ran-'hQrk\ formerly (1924-91) Sverd¬ lovsk \sfyird-'lofsk\ City (pop., 2001 est.: 1,256,900), west-central Rus-

Yarrow (Achillea millefolium variety lanulosa )

DENNIS E. ANDERSON

© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.

Yelizavetpol ► Yeltsin I 2093

sia. An ironworks was established in 1721, and a fortress, named after Empress Catherine I, was founded there in 1722. It grew as the centre for all the ironworks of the Ural Mountains region, and its importance increased with the building of a highway (1783) and the Trans-Siberian Railroad. It achieved notoriety as the place where Tsar Nicholas II and his family were held prisoner and executed by the Bolsheviks in 1918. In 1924 it was renamed Sverdlovsk in honour of Yakov Sverdlov. The city reverted to its original name after the breakup of the U.S.S.R. in 1991. It is a major industrial centre, especially for heavy machinery.

Yelizavetpol See Ganca yellow bunting See yellowhammer

Yellow Emperor See Huangdi

yellow fever Acute infectious tropical disease, sometimes occurring in temperate zones. Abrupt onset of headache, backache, fever, nausea, and vomiting is followed by either recovery with immunity or by higher fever, slow pulse, and vomiting of blood. Patients may die in a week. Jaundice is common (hence the name). One of the world’s great plagues for 300 years, it is caused by a virus transmitted by several species of mosquitoes. Carlos Finlay suggested and Walter Reed proved this means of spread, leading to near elimination of the disease through mosquito control (see William Gor- gas). Treatment consists of supportive care, particularly fever reduction. Control of mosquitoes near cities and live-virus vaccines—developed by Max Theiler (1899-1972), who won a 1951 Nobel Prize for his work— have made yellow fever completely preventable.

yellow jacket Any of 35-40 species (genus Dolichovespula or Vesp- ula ) of social wasps, principally of the Northern Hemisphere, named for the black bands on its yellow abdomen. They differ from other wasps in having their wings folded longitudinally when at rest. Dolichovespula species typically build exposed nests. Vespula species build concealed nests underground or in protected cavities; when a nest is stepped on, the colony may erupt in an angry, stinging swarm. Nest size varies widely; some nests can be held in one hand, whereas nests in warmer climates may weigh half a ton.

yellow journalism In newspaper publishing, the use of lurid features and sensationalized news in newspaper publishing to attract readers and increase circulation. The phrase was coined in the 1890s to describe tac¬ tics employed in the furious competition between two New York papers, Joseph Puutzer’s World and William Randolph Hearst’s Journal. When Hearst hired away from Pulitzer a cartoonist who had drawn the immensely popular comic strip “The Yellow Kid,” another cartoonist was hired to draw the comic for the World ; the rivalry excited so much atten¬ tion that the competition was dubbed yellow journalism. Techniques of the period that became permanent features of U.S. journalism include banner headlines, coloured comics, and copious illustrations.

yellow poplar See tulip tree Yellow River See Huang He

Yellow Sea Chinese Huang Hai Vhwaq-'hlX Large inlet of the west¬ ern North Pacific Ocean, between northeastern China and the Korean peninsula. Renowned for its fishing grounds, it connects with the East China Sea on the south; the Shandong Peninsula extends into it from the west. Two major arms of it are the Bo Hai (northwest) and Korea Bay (north). Excluding the Bo Hai, it has an area of about 161,000 sq mi (417,000 sq km) and a maximum depth of 338 ft (103 m). It derives its name from the colour of the silt-laden water discharged into it by major Chinese rivers, including the Liao and the Huang He (Yellow River), both of which flow into the Bo Hai. Leading port cities include Qingdao and Dalian in China, Inch'on in South Korea, and Namp’o in North Korea.

Yellow Turbans Chinese secret society founded during a time of pes¬ tilence (2nd century ad). The rebels’ yellow headdresses signified their association with the earth element, which they believed would succeed the (red) fire element that represented Han rule. The sect was Daoist in inspiration, like the contemporaneous Five Pecks of Rice sect. Its rebellion (ad 184-c. 204) against the tyrannical eunuchs who influenced the emperor contributed to the fall of the Han dynasty. See also Daoism.

yellowhammer or yellow bunting Songbird species ( Emberiza citrinella, family Emberizidae) found from Britain to central Asia. The name is derived from the German Ammer (“bunting”). Yellowhammers are 6 in. (16 cm) long and have a streaked brown body, yellow-tinged

head and breast, and a rapid song. In the southern U.S., the yellow-shafted fucker is called yellowhammer because of its drumming.

Yellowknife City (pop., 2001: 16,541), capital of Northwest Territo¬ ries, Canada. Lying on the northwestern shore of the Great Slave Lake near the mouth of the Yellowknife River, the city was founded in 1935, one year after gold was discovered in the area. It took its name from the Yel¬ lowknife band of Athabascan Indians. Gold mining remains the chief eco¬ nomic activity. There are also reserves of diamonds in the region. The capital since 1967, it is the largest community and the chief administra¬ tive, commercial, and educational centre in the territories.

yellowlegs Either of two species (genus Tringa, family Scolopacidae) of shorebirds. They have trim, gray- brown and white streaked bodies; long bills; and long, bright yellow legs. Both species breed in Canada and winter in South America and eat small fish and other aquatic crea¬ tures. The lesser yellowlegs ( T. fla- vipes), about 10 in. (25 cm) long, appeal's in sizable flocks on mudflats during migration; it has a flat call of one or two notes. Less common is the greater yellowlegs ( T. melano- leuca ), which is about 14 in. (35 cm) long and has a longer, stouter, slightly upturned bill; its call is a clear three-note whistle.

Yellowstone Lake Lake, Yellow¬ stone National Park, northwestern Wyoming, U.S. It lies at 7,731 ft (2,356 m) above sea level, the largest body of water in North America at so high an altitude. It is fed and drained by the Yellowstone River. About 20 mi (32 km) long and 14 mi (23 km) wide, it has a maximum depth of 390 ft (119 m) and a surface area of 137 sq mi (354 sq km). It is a haven for rare species of waterbirds, including trumpeter swans, and is prized for trout fishing.

Yellowstone National Park National preserve in northwestern Wyoming, southern Montana, and eastern Idaho, U.S. The oldest national park in the U.S. (and in the world), it was established by the U.S. Congress in 1872; it covers 3,468 sq mi (8,983 sq km). The Gallatin, Absaroka, and Teton mountain ranges extend into it. Yellowstone has unusual geologic features, including fossil forests and eroded basaltic lava flows. It also has 10,000 hot springs, which erupt as steam vents, fumaroles, and geysers. Old Faithful, the park’s most famous geyser, erupts every 33 to 120 min¬ utes. There are many lakes and rivers, including Yellowstone Lake, Shos¬ hone Lake, the Snake River, and the Yellowstone River. In 1988 an extensive series of forest fires temporarily laid waste to large areas of the park.

Yellowstone River River, northwestern Wyoming and southern and eastern Montana, U.S. The river rises in Wyoming. It enters Yellowstone National Park and feeds into Yellowstone Lake, below which it plunges 422 feet (129 m) in two spectacular waterfalls and enters the Grand Can¬ yon of the Yellowstone River. It then continues north into Montana. There it flows northeast into the Missouri River on the Montana-North Dakota boundary. It is 692 mi (1,114 km) long and has been developed exten¬ sively for irrigation. Its principal tributaries are the Bighorn, Tongue, and Powder rivers. It was first explored in 1806 during the Lewis and Clark Expedition.

Yeltsin, Boris (Nikolayevich) (b. Feb. 1, 1931, Sverdlovsk, Russia, U.S.S.R.) Russian politician and president of Russia (1990-99). After attending the Urals Polytechnic Institute, he worked at construction projects in western Russia (1955-68). He became Communist Party leader in Sverdlovsk in 1976, and he was an ally of Mikhail Gorbachev. Gor¬ bachev later charged Yeltsin with eliminating corruption in the Moscow party organization, and as first secretary (mayor) of Moscow (1985-87) he proved a determined reformer. His criticism of the slow pace of reform led to a break with Gorbachev, and Yeltsin lost his position. In 1989 he was elected to the new Soviet parliament by a landslide, then became president of the Russian Republic (1990) and resigned from the Commu¬ nist Party. In 1991 he won the presidency again in the first popular elec¬ tion in Russian history. When communist hard-liners staged a coup against Gorbachev, Yeltsin successfully opposed it, facing down its leaders with a dramatic outdoor speech in Moscow. He led the establishment of the

Lesser yellowlegs (Tringa flavipes)

MARY M. TREMAINE-ROOT RESOURCES

© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.

2094 I Yelii Chucai ► Yeshiva University

Commonwealth of Independent States (1991) and began to transform Rus¬ sia’s economy into one based on free markets and private enterprise. Hard¬ liners staged an unsuccessful coup against Yeltsin in 1993. When Chechnya unilaterally declared inde¬ pendence, Yeltsin sent troops to fight the rebels (1994). The Chechnya situation and Russia’s deepening economic distress lessened his popu¬ larity, but he won reelection over a Communist Party challenger in 1996. After suffering a heart attack, he spent several months recovering.

Continuing poor health led to his res¬ ignation on Dec. 31, 1999. He was succeeded by Vladimir Putin.

Yelii Chucai or Yeh-lii Ch'u- ts'ai Vye-’liE-'chiit-'slX (b. 1190—d.

1244) Chinese statesman of Khitan extraction, adviser to Genghis Khan and his son Ogodei. He established a formal bureaucracy and rationalized taxation system for the Mongol- controlled portions of China. By persuading Ogodei to spare the inhab¬ itants of northern China in order to utilize their wealth and skills, Yelii gave the Mongols access to the Chinese weapons that later enabled them to conquer the Song dynasty. See also Mongol; Yuan dynasty.

Yemen Vye-monX officially Republic of Yemen Country, Middle East, southwestern Asia. It occupies the southern tip of the Arabian Pen¬ insula and also includes the island of Socotra in the Indian Ocean and the

Arabic (official). Religion: Islam (official;

mostly Sunni). Currency: Yemeni rial. From the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea, a narrow coastal plain leads to highlands that cover most of the coun¬ try. The northern region extends into the southern and southwestern Rub' al-Khali desert. Mineral resources include iron ore, salt, petroleum, and natural gas, all of which are exploited. Agriculture is important; industries include petroleum and salt production. Yemen is a republic with two leg¬ islative houses; its head of state is the president, and the head of govern¬ ment is the prime minister. Tribal affiliations remain strong and directly

affect local and national policy. Yemen was the home of ancient Minaean, Sabaean, and Himyarite kingdoms. The Romans invaded the region in the 1st century ad. In the 6th century it was conquered by Ethiopians and Per¬ sians. Following the adoption of Islam in the 7th century, it was ruled nomi¬ nally under a caliphate. The Egyptian AyyGbid dynasty ruled there in the late 12th-early 13th century, after which the region passed to the Rasulids. From c. 1520 through 1918 the Ottoman Empire maintained varying degrees of control, especially in the northwestern section. A boundary agreement was reached in 1934 between the northwestern territory (controlled by a local religious leader), which subsequently became the Yemen Arab Republic (North Yemen), and the southeastern British-controlled territory, which subsequently became the People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen (South Yemen). Relations between the two Yemens remained tense and were marked by conflict throughout the 1970s and ’80s. The two officially united as the Republic of Yemen in 1990. Its 1993 elections were the first free, multiparty general elections held in the Arabian Peninsula, and they were the first in which women participated. In 1994, after a two-month civil war, a new constitution was approved.

Yeniceri See Janissary

Yenisey \yi-ni-'sa\ River River, central Russia. One of the longest riv¬ ers in Asia, it rises in the borderland of south-central Russia and Mon¬ golia and flows generally north along the edge of the West Siberian Plain to empty into the Kara Sea. Along its course it receives numerous tribu¬ taries, including the Angara River. Approximately 1,900 mi (3,000 km) of the river’s 2,540-mi (4,090-km) course (calculated from the Great Yeni¬ sey River) are navigable.

yerba mate See mate

Yerevan formerly Erivan \,yer-3-'van\ City (pop., 2004 est.: 1,101,900), capital of Armenia. Fortified since the 8th century bc and part of Armenia since the 6th century bc, it developed as an important centre of the caravan trade. Over the centuries, its rulers have included the Romans, Arabs, Turks, and Russians; it fell to the latter in 1827. In 1920 it became the capital of independent Armenia and remained so during the period of Soviet rule and after independence was restored. Its industries include those producing chemicals, aluminum, automobiles, and electri¬ cal machinery.

Yermak Timofeyevich (d. Aug. 6, 1584/85, Siberia) Cossack leader. In 1579 he was enlisted by the merchant Stroganov family to defend its possessions against attacks by Siberian tribesmen. He set out with an expeditionary force of 840 Cossacks and reached the central Tatar khanate of Sibir in 1582. With their firearms, Yermak and his army defeated the numerically superior forces of Khan Kuchum and occupied the capital, Sibir. Though later killed in a revolt of Kuchum’s forces, Yermak was con¬ sidered the conqueror of Siberia and became a hero of Russian folklore.

Yerushalayim See Jerusalem

Yesenin \yi-'s y en y -in\, Sergey (Aleksandrovich) or Sergey Esenin (b. Oct. 3, 1895, Konstantinovo, Ryazan province, Russia—d. Dec. 27, 1925, Leningrad) Russian poet. From a peasant family, he cel¬ ebrated what he called “wooden Russia” (traditional culture) over mod¬ em, industrialized society in works beginning with Radunitsa (1916), and he believed the Revolution of 1917 would lead to the peasant millennium he envisioned. Taking up the life of a rowdy and blasphemous exhibi¬ tionist, he wrote cynical, swaggering tavern verse such as that contained in Ispoved khuligana (1921; “Confessions of a Hooligan”). In 1922 he married dancer Isadora Duncan, though neither could speak the other’s language. His efforts to adjust to the revolutionary era were unsuccess¬ ful, and he hanged himself at age 30. Though frowned on by the authori¬ ties, he was very popular in Russia both during his life and afterward.

yeshiva Vyo-'she-voX Academy of higher Talmudic learning. Through its biblical and legal exegesis and application of scripture, the yeshiva has defined and regulated Judaism for centuries. Traditionally, it is the setting for the training and ordination of rabbis. Following the destruction of the Second Temple of Jerusalem, a series of yeshivas were set up around the Levant to codify and explain centuries of Jewish scholarship. In medieval times, yeshivas flourished in Europe wherever there were large popula¬ tions of Jews. The first yeshiva in the U.S., ‘Etz Hayyim (1886), later became Yeshiva University (1945).

Yeshiva University Private university in New York City. It was estab¬ lished in 1886 as Yeshiva Eitz Chaim; in 1915 it merged with a Jewish

Boris Yeltsin, 1991.

VARIO PRESS-CAMERA PRESS/GLOBE PHOTOS

© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.

Yeti ► Yiddish language I 2095

theological seminary. Today the university is independent, although its curriculum emphasizes Jewish culture and history. Yeshiva consists of a liberal arts college, a college for women, a college of Hebraic studies, and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, as well as schools of Judaic studies, Talmudic studies, business, law (the Cardozo School), social work, education, and graduate studies, among others.

Yeti See Abominable Snowman

Yevtushenko \yif-tu-'shen-ko\, Yevgeny (Aleksandrovich) (b.

July 18, 1933, Zima, Irkutsk oblast, Russian S.F.S.R.) Russian poet. The descendant of Ukrainians exiled to Siberia, he grew up in Moscow and in the small town that is the setting of his first important narrative poem, Zima Junction (1956). He became the spokesman for the post-Stalin gen¬ eration of Russian poets with his internationally publicized demands for greater artistic freedom, which signaled an easing of Soviet control over artists in the late 1950s and ’60s. He revived brash, slangy language and traditions such as love lyrics and personal lyrics, frowned upon under Stalinism. His poem “Baby Yar” (1961) was an attack on lingering Soviet anti-Semitism; his most ambitious cycle of poems is Bratsk Station (1966). He became famous worldwide for his passionate recitations.

yew Any of about eight species of ornamental evergreens in the genus Taxus, family Taxaceae (the yew family), distributed throughout the Northern Hemisphere. Two species are always shrubby, but the others may reach heights of 77 ft (25 m). The plants have many branches, covered with needlelike leaves. Yew wood is hard, fine-grained, and heavy, with white or creamy sapwood and amber to brown heartwood. Once popular for cabinetwork, implements, and archery bows, it is used more today for articles either carved or turned on a lathe. Other trees called yew but not in this family are the plum-yew (family Cephalotaxaceae) and Prince Albeit yew (family Podocarpaceae).

Yezhov \yi-'zhof\, Nikolay (Ivanovich) (b. 1895, St. Petersburg, Russia—d. after January 1939) Soviet secret-police chief. He joined the Communist Party in March 1917 and was a political commissar in the Red Army during the Russian Civil War. Thereafter he rose through politi¬ cal posts, and by 1927 he was a functionary for the Moscow party’s cen¬ tral committee and a favourite of Joseph Stalin. He became a member of the party’s Central Committee (1934) and succeeded Genrikh Yagoda as chief of the Soviet security police, or NKVD (1936). He instituted the most severe stage of the Great Purge (see purge trials), known as Yezhovsh- china. By 1938 he had become the object of Stalin’s suspicions and was replaced by Lavrenty Beria as head of the NKVD. He disappeared in 1939 and was probably executed.

Yggdrasill Vig-dro-.siL In Norse mythology, the world tree. One of its roots extended into the underworld, another into the land of the giants, and the third into Asgard. At its base were three wells: the Well of Fate, from which the tree was watered by the Fates; the Roaring Kettle, in which dwelt Nidhogg, the monster that gnawed the tree’s roots; and Mimir’s Well, the source of wisdom, for whose water Odin sacrificed an eye. After the Ragn- arok, Yggdrasill, though badly shaken, is to be the source of new life.

Yi dynasty See Choson dynasty

Yi Hwang \'e-'hwar)\ (b. 1501—d. 1570) Korean religious leader, the foremost Korean Confucian. He helped shape the character of Korean Confucianism through his creative interpretation of Zhu Xi’s teaching. His To Become a Sage: The Ten Diagrams on Sage Learning, an aid for edu¬ cating the king, offered a depiction of all the major concepts in Song- dynasty learning. He elevated the level of Confucian dialogue to a new height of intellectual sophistication through his correspondence with Ki Taesung (1527-72). In their so-called four-seven debate, they discussed the relationship between Mencius’s four basic human feelings (commis¬ eration, shame, modesty, right versus wrong) and seven emotions.

Yi Song-gye Vye-'surj-'gyeV or T'aejo Vtl-'j6\ (b. 1335—d. 1408) Founder of the Korean Choson dynasty (1392-1910). A military leader in the Koryo dynasty, he rose through the ranks by battling invading forces. He defeated his rivals and drove out the last king of the Koryo dynasty, taking the throne in 1392. He established his capital at Hanyang (now Seoul). He and his successors redistributed land, which had been con¬ centrated in the hands of a few high-ranking bureaucrats, throughout the various levels of officialdom. In a break with the past, he made Neo- Confucianism the state religion, replacing Buddhism. Farming was made the centre of the economy. In foreign relations, he maintained a close relationship with China’s Ming dynasty.

Yi Sun-shin Vye-'sim-'shinX (b. April 28, 1545, Seoul, Korea—d. Dec. 16, 1598, off Noryang) Korean admiral and national hero. He worked on developing the kobukson (“turtle ship”), thought to be the first ironclad battleship. As a result of Yi’s preparations, his forces, unlike most of the Korean military, were ready to fight when the Japanese under Toyotomi Hideyoshi invaded in 1592. His sea victories effectively cut off the Japa¬ nese troops in Korea from their supplies. In 1597 he was falsely accused of disloyalty and demoted to the rank of common soldier. When the Japa¬ nese launched a second invasion and largely destroyed the Korean navy, Yi was reinstated and soon restored Korea’s control of the seas. He was killed by a stray bullet as he pursued the retreating Japanese.

Yibin Ye -'bin\ or l-pin conventional Suchow Ysii-'joV City (pop., 2003 est.: 312,462), southern Sichuan province, south-central China. It is located at the junction of the Min and Yangtze (Chang) rivers. A county administration was set up there in the 2nd century bc. It first received the name Yibin in ad 742. The Chinese hold expanded there during the Song dynasty (960-1279). By the Qing dynasty (1644-1911) it was Xuzhou (Hsii-chou) superior prefecture, known to Europeans as Suifu. In 1912 it reverted to Yibin. In 1913 steamship communication with Chongqing was opened, and Yibin grew into a major collection and distribution centre. It has long been known for its salt deposits, which now supply a large chemical plant.

Yichang \'e-'chaq\ or l-ch'ang City (pop., 1999 est.: 481,277), west¬ ern Hubei province, east-central China. An ancient city, it is located at the head of navigation on the Yangtze River (Chang Jiang), below the entrance to the gorges of the Daba Mountains. As the gateway to the rich prov¬ ince of Sichuan, it was often disputed during times of Chinese political turmoil. It was made a treaty port for foreign trade in 1877; a Western quarter grew beside it, and many Western commercial firms established branches there. It was occupied by the Japanese and badly damaged dur¬ ing World War II, but the city and its shipyards have been rebuilt. It is now an industrial centre and a distribution point for the region’s manu¬ factured goods.

Yiddish drama Productions of the professional Yiddish theatre. Euro¬ pean Jewish drama originated in the Middle Ages, when dancers and jest¬ ers entertained at Purim celebrations. By the 16th century, these entertainments had become elaborate plays performed in Yiddish, the lan¬ guage of the majority of central and eastern European Jews. The profes¬ sional Yiddish theatre dates from 1876, when Abraham Goldfaden (1840-

1908) wrote a well-received musical sketch in Romania and organized a troupe to perform his songs and plays. In 1883 anti-Semitic laws in Rus¬ sia that forbade Yiddish plays compelled many actors and playwrights to immigrate to England and the U.S. The playwright Jacob Gordin (1853—

1909) brought new material and adaptations to the U.S. Yiddish theatre, including The Jewish King Lear (1892), starring Jacob P. Adler, founder of a family of Yiddish- and English-speaking actors. In 1918 Maurice Schwartz founded and directed the Yiddish Art Theatre, which trained actors such as Jacob Ben-Ami and Muni Weisenfreund (later known as Paul Muni). World War II destroyed most Yiddish culture in eastern Europe, and by the late 20th century only a few Yiddish theatres survived in New York City, London, Bucharest, and Warsaw.

Yiddish language Language of Ashkenazic Jews and their descen¬ dants (see Ashkenazi), written in the Hebrew alphabet. Yiddish developed from southeastern dialects of Middle High German carried into central and eastern Europe beginning in the 12th century; it has been strongly influenced by Hebrew and Aramaic, from which it draws 12-20% of its lexicon. The isolation of eastern European speakers from High German and their exposure to Slavic languages, particularly Polish and Ukrainian, led to a primary distinction between West and East Yiddish dialects. From the late 18th century most Jews remaining in central Europe gave up Yid¬ dish in favour of German; it has now virtually died out. East Yiddish dia¬ lects differ markedly in realization of vowels; there are central, northeastern, and southeastern dialects. A flourishing literary language in the 19th and early 20th century, Yiddish declined dramatically due to sup¬ pression, massive migration, assimilation, and Nazi genocide. The lan¬ guage nevertheless continues to flourish among the ultra-Orthodox Hasidim in numerous countries and among secular students of Yiddish at leading universities, including Columbia University (New York), Hebrew University (Jerusalem), McGill University (Montreal), the University of Oxford, and the University of Paris. Yiddish is spoken by three million people worldwide.

© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.

2096 I Yijing ► Yongjo

Yijing or I Ching Ve-'jiqX Chinese "Book of Changes" Ancient Chinese text, one of the Five Classics of Confucianism. The main body of the work, traditionally attributed to Wenwang, contains a discussion of the divinatory system used by wizards in the Zhou dynasty. A supplementary section of “commentaries,” believed to date from the Warring States period (475-221 bc), is a philosophical exposition that attempts to explain the world and its ethical principles. The book’s cosmology, which involves humans and nature in a single system, has made it universally popular.

Yima \ya-'ma, 'ye-m9\ In ancient Iranian religion, the first man, son of the Sun, and progenitor of the human race. In one legend, Yima became king in a golden age in which need, death, disease, aging, and extremes of temperature were banished from the earth because of his virtue. This golden age ended when Ahura Mazda foretold a terrible winter. Yima was instructed to build an underground domain, take in the best individuals from each species to preserve their seed, and then reemerge after the win¬ ter to repopulate the earth. In Zoroastrian legends, Yima was replaced by Gayomart.

Yin dynasty See Shang dynasty

yin-yang In East Asian thought, the two complementary forces or prin¬ ciples that make up all aspects and phenomena of life. Yin is earth, female, dark, passive, and absorbing; it is present in even numbers and in valleys and streams and is represented by the tiger, the colour orange, and a bro¬ ken line. Yang is heaven, male, light, active, and penetrating; it is present in odd numbers and mountains and is represented by the dragon, the colour azure, and an unbroken line. Together they express the interde¬ pendence of opposites.

Yinchuan Vyin-'chwanV or Yin-ch'uan City (pop., 1999 est.: 469,180), capital of Ningxia autonomous region, north-central China. It is located near the western end of the Great Wall. Originally a county in the 1st century bc, it became the capital of the Xi Xia dynasty in 907 ad. In 1227 it came under the Mongol dynasty and was later under the Ming and the Qing dynasties. In 1928 it became the capital of the newly formed Ningxia province. In 1954 when Ningxia province was abolished, the city became part of Gansu province. With the establishment of the Ningxia autonomous region in 1958, Yinchuan once again became the capital. Largely nonindustrial, it is the chief agricultural market and distribution centre for the area.

ylang-ylang or ilang-ilang V.e-.laq-'e-.laqV South Asian evergreen tree ( Cananga odorata ) of the custard apple family. The name means “flower of flowers” in the Tagalog language. Tall (77 ft, or 25 m) and slim, it has smooth bark and is covered year-round with drooping, long- stalked, rich-scented flowers that have six narrow, greenish-yellow petals. The pointed oval leaves have wavy edges. Clustered, oval black fruits hang from long stalks. Leis are made from the blooms, and a delicate fragrance is distilled from the flowers. The woody ylang-ylang vine ( Art - abotrys odoratissimus), in the same family, is popular on trellises and patios in warm, moist climates.

YMCA in full Young Men's Christian Association Nonsectarian, nonpolitical Christian lay movement that aims to develop high standards of Christian character among its members. It originated in London in 1844 when 12 young men formed a club to improve the spiritual condition of young tradesmen. The first U.S. club was formed in Boston in the 1850s. YMCA programs include sports and physical education, camping, formal and informal education, and citizenship activities. It also runs hotels, resi¬ dence halls, and cafeterias. National councils are members of the World Alliance of YMCAs (established 1855), headquartered in Geneva. The YMCA was charged with sponsoring educational and recreational facili¬ ties in prisoner-of-war camps by the Geneva Convention of 1929. It now operates in dozens of countries. The Young Women’s Christian Associa¬ tion (YWCA) was founded in Britain (1877) to address the needs of women from rural areas who came to the cities to find work; in the U.S. (founded 1906), it has championed racial equality. The Young Men’s and Young Women’s Hebrew Association (YM-YWHA) developed in the mid-19th century from Jewish men’s literary societies in the U.S. and now exists in some 20 other countries worldwide.

Ymir See Aurgelmir

Yoga One of the six orthodox systems (darshans) of Indian philosophy, which has had widespread influence on many schools of Indian thought. It is better known through its practical aspect than its intellectual content, which is largely based on the philosophy of Samkhya. Holding that the

evolution of the world occurred in stages. Yoga attempts to reverse this order so that a person reenters his or her state of purity and conscious¬ ness. Generally, the Yoga process involves eight stages, which may require several lifetimes to pass through. The first two stages are ethical prepa¬ rations emphasizing morality, cleanliness, and devotion to God. The next two stages are physical preparations that condition the body to make it supple, flexible, and healthy; the physical aspects of Yoga have been most successfully popularized in the West. The fifth stage involves control of the mind and senses to withdraw from outward objects. The remaining three stages entail the cultivation of increasingly concentrated states of awareness, which will ultimately lead to release from the cycle of rebirth. See also chakra, kundalini.

Yogacara \'y6-ga-'cha-ra\ or Vijnanavada \vij-,na-n3-'va-d9\ Ide¬ alistic school of Mahayana Buddhism. It rejects the complete realism of Theravada Buddhism and the practical realism of the Madhyamika school, preferring a more complicated position in which the reality perceived by humans does not exist but only appears to do so by virtue of the capacity of the mind to perceive patterns of continuity and regularity. Yogacara emerged in India about the 2nd century and was introduced into China in the 7th century by Xuanzang. It was transmitted to Japan in the mid-7th century as Hosso.

yogurt Semisolid, fermented, often flavoured milk food. Yogurt is known and consumed in almost all parts of the world. It is traditionally made by adding common strains of Streptococcus and Lactobacillus bacteria to raw milk. The culture is produced by taking a portion of a previous batch. In modern commercial yogurt making, a blend of concentrated sterilized milk and milk solids is inoculated with the two bacteria; sometimes L. acidophilus or a lactose-fermenting yeast is also added. The product is then incubated four or five hours at 110-112 °F (43-44 °C) until curd forms. Various flavours and sweetening may be added.

Yoho National Park National park, southeastern British Columbia, Canada. It occupies 507 sq mi (1,313 sq km) of the western and central slopes of the Rocky Mountains and is adjacent to Banff and Kootenay national parks. Known for the Burgess Shale archaeological site, geologic treasures, diverse wildlife, and scenic landscape, it was established as a national park in 1886. Features include glaciers, ice fields, steep moun¬ tains, and broad valleys. Black and grizzly bears, moose, mule deer, wapiti (elk), and mountain goats inhabit the park.

Yojoa \yo-'ho-a. Lake Lake, central Honduras. The country’s largest inland lake, it has an area of 110 sq mi (285 sq km). It is volcanic in ori¬ gin and sits at an elevation of 2,133 ft (650 m). It and the surrounding region are popular tourist destinations.

Yokohama Seaport city (pop., 2003 est.: 3,466,875), east-central Hon¬ shu, Japan. The country’s principal port and second largest city, it is located on the western shore of Tokyo Bay and is part of the Tokyo urban- industrial complex. It was a small fishing village when U.S. naval officer Matthew Perry visited in 1854 to negotiate Japanese trading possibilities. In 1859 it was opened for foreign settlement and trade. Yokohama was destroyed by earthquake and fire in 1923 and severely damaged by U.S. air raids in 1945 during World War II, but it was rebuilt both times. It produces textiles, chemicals, ships, machinery, petroleum products, and automobiles.

Yom Kippur N.yom-ke-'pur, .yam-'ki-porV English Day of Atone¬ ment Jewish religious holiday, observed on the 10th day of the lunar month of Tishri (in late September or early October). It concludes the 10 days of repentance that begin with Rosh Hashanah. Its purpose is to purify the individual and community by forgiving the sins of others and by repenting one’s own sins against God. Before the destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem, the high priest performed a sacrificial ceremony that concluded with the death of a scapegoat. Today it is marked by fasting and abstention from sex. Its eve, when the Kol Nidre is recited, and the entire day of Yom Kippur, are spent in prayer and meditation.

Yongding River or Yung-ting River River, northeastern China. It rises beyond the Great Wall in Hebei province and flows southeastward through Beijing municipality. It continues through Tianjin municipality, where it becomes the principal stream forming the Hai River, which flows from the Yongding’s junction with the Grand Canal to its mouth at the Bo Hai. About 300 mi (500 km) long, it is navigable in its lower reaches.

Yongjo \'yoq-jo\ (r. 1724-76) King of the Korean Choson dynasty. A reformer, Yongjo reinstated the universal military service tax but then

© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.

Yongle emperor ► Yorktown I 2097

reduced it by half, making up the deficiency with other taxes. He adopted an accounting system and reduced an onerous cloth tax. Yongjo upgraded the status of the offspring of commoners, but his social reforms could not keep up with the speed of societal change.

Yongle emperor or Yung-lo emperor \'yuq-Te\ orig. Zhu Di (b.

May 2, 1360, Yingtian [Nanjing], China—d. Aug. 5, 1424, Yumuchuan, Inner Mongolia) Third emperor of China’s Ming dynasty, which he raised to its greatest power. Son of the Hongwu emperor, founder of the Ming, he was his father’s favourite. He was enfeoffed as the Prince of Yan (the region around present-day Beijing) and spent his youth patrolling the northern frontier and keeping the Mongols fragmented. When his nephew succeeded to the throne, Zhu Di rebelled and became emperor in 1402. As emperor, he worked to extend China’s sway. He sent out ships of exploration, most notably under Zheng He; these returned with envoys bearing tribute to acknowledge China’s overlordship. He became the only ruler in Chinese history to be acknowledged suzerain by the Japanese. A foray into Annam (now Vietnam), which he attempted to incorporate into China, led to years of guerrilla warfare. He five times led large armies north to the Gobi Desert, forestalling the creation of a Mongol confed¬ eration that might have threatened China. He transferred China’s capital from Nanjing to Beijing. He built the Forbidden City and repaired the Grand Canal so that Beijing could be provisioned without relying on sea transport. He sponsored the compilation and publication of the Confucian Classics and the preparation of the Yongle dadian (“Great Canon of the Yongle Era”), an 11,000-volume compendium.

yoni \'yo-ne\ In Hinduism, a representation of the female sexual organ and feminine generative power, the symbol of the goddess Shakti (see shakti). The yoni is often associated with the phallic linga, the symbol of the god Shiva. The linga is depicted in art as resting in the yoni, their union representing the eternal process of creation and regeneration.

Yonkers City (pop., 2000: 196,086), southeastern New York, U.S. It is located on the Hudson River north of New York City. Once the site of an American Indian village, it was part of a purchase made by the Dutch West India Co. from the Indians in 1639. In 1646 it was included in a grant of land made to “Jonkheer” Adriaen van der Donck. The southern portion of old Yonkers was annexed to what later became the Bronx in 1874. Industry is well diversified and includes printing and publishing and the manufacture of elevators, chemicals, electronic components, and clothing.

Yonne \'yon\ River River, north-central France. It flows north out of Nievre departement into the Seine River at Montereau-faut-Yonne. The Yonne is 182 mi (293 km) long and is navigable for 70 mi (113 km) downstream from Auxerre.

Yorck von Wartenburg Vyork-fon-'var-ton-.burkV, Johann (David Ludwig), Count (b. Sept. 26,1759, Potsdam, Prussia—d. Oct. 4, 1830, Klein-Ols, Silesia) Prussian army commander. After serving with the Prussian army (1772-79) and Dutch army (1779-87), he rejoined the Prussian army and fought in Poland (1794) and later in the war against France (1806). Promoted to major general, he helped reorganize the army, developing the tactics of the infantry scout and the line of skirmishes. In 1812 he led the Prussian contingent of Napoleon’s invading army into Russia. During the French retreat, he concluded an accord with Russia that opened the way for Prussia to join the Allied powers against Napo¬ leon. He was made a count in 1814 and a field marshal in 1821.

Yoritomo See Minamoto Yoritomo

York Former city (pop., 2001: 150,255), southeastern Ontario, Canada. In 1998 it joined the cities of Toronto, Etobicoke, Scarborough, and North York and the borough of East York to become the City of Toronto. Occu¬ pying an area of 9 sq mi (23 sq km), York was established in 1967 through the amalgamation of the former township of York and the town of Weston. The original York township was formed in 1793.

York ancient Eboracum City and unitary authority (pop., 2001: 181,131), geographic county of North Yorkshire, historic county of York¬ shire, England. Located at the confluence of the Ouse and Foss rivers, it is the cathedral city of the archbishop of York and was historically the ecclesiastical capital of northern England. It was also the seat of the his¬ toric county of Yorkshire. York was a Celtic and then a Roman settle¬ ment. Constantine I was proclaimed Roman emperor in York in ad 306. It was conquered by the Danes in 867. York suffered severely in the Nor¬ man conquest of northern England in the 11th century. During the Middle

Ages it was a prosperous wool-trading town and the performance site of the York plays. It has a manufacturing economy and a tourist industry fos¬ tered by its medieval sites.

York, Alvin C(ullum) (b. Dec. 13, 1887, Pall Mall, Tenn., U.S.—d. Sept. 2, 1964, Nashville, Tenn.) U.S. World War I hero. He worked as a blacksmith and was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1917 after being denied conscientious-objector status. In the Meuse-Argonne offensive (October 1918), his patrol of 17 men was ordered to attack a German machine-gun nest. Pinned down behind enemy lines, he advanced alone to attack the enemy gunners, killing 25 and forcing the others to surrender. As he marched them back to U.S. lines, he captured more German soldiers for a total of 132 prisoners. He received the Congressional Medal of Honor, and his autobiography (1928) was the basis of the movie Sergeant York