Britannica Concise 2005

(1941).

York, Cape Northern point of Cape York Peninsula, Queensland, Aus¬ tralia. Australia’s northernmost point, it is about 15 mi (25 km) long and 12 mi (19 km) wide; it juts into the Torres Strait. Cape York was named in 1770 by Capt. James Cook for the duke of York, brother of King George III.

York, house of Younger branch of the Plantagenet dynasty, descended from Edward Ill’s fifth son, Edmund of Langley (1341-1402), 1st duke of York. In the 15th century the Yorkists took the throne from the house of Lancaster; the Yorkist kings were Edward IV, Edward V, and Richard III. The Wars of the Roses between the two houses continued until Richard’s death at the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1453. The marriage of Henry VII, the first Tudor king, to the daughter of Edward IV, merged the house of York with the house of Tudor.

York plays Cycle of 48 plays performed in the Middle Ages by craft guilds in York, Eng. The York cycle, which dates from the 14th century, is of unknown authorship; it covers the story of the Fall of Man and his redemption, from the creation of the angels to the Final Judgment. The plays, performed on the summer feast day of Corpus Christi, were given in chronological order, on pageant wagons proceeding from one selected place to another. See also mystery pay.

York University Privately endowed university in North York, Ont., Can., founded in 1959. It has faculties of administrative studies, arts, edu¬ cation, environmental studies, fine arts, and graduate studies as well as schools of law, business, and of pure and applied science. Among its research units are centres for the study of refugees, atmospheric chemis¬ try, law and public policy, and computers in education.

Yorke Peninsula Promontory, southeastern South Australia. It is located between Spencer Gulf to the west and Gulf Saint Vincent and Investigator Strait to the east and south. It extends southward 160 mi (260 km) and is 20-35 mi (32-56 km) wide. Sighted by the English in 1802, it was named for Charles P. Yorke, first lord of the Admiralty.

Yorkshire Vy6rk-,shir\ Historic county, northern England. Yorkshire was divided into three administrative counties—North Riding, East Riding, and West Riding—and the city of York. For most purposes the ridings were separate administrative units for a thousand years; Yorkshire and the ridings, comprising the country’s largest county, ceased to exist with the administrative reorganization of 1974. Yorkshire was an agricul¬ tural, fishing, and manufacturing centre. Its main cities and towns include Leeds, Sheffield, Kingston upon Hull, Bradford, and Wakefield.

Yorkshire terrier or Yorkie Breed of toy dog developed in the mid- 19th century in Yorkshire and Lancashire, Eng. Its lineage appears to include terriers such as the Skye and Dandie Dinmont. Its outstanding fea¬ ture is its straight, silky coat, parted on the back from nose to tail and long enough to sweep the ground. Its coat colour is dark blue-gray, with tan on the head and chest. It may grow to 9 in. (23 cm) tall and weigh up to 7 lb (3 kg).

Yorktown, Siege of (1781) American-French land and sea campaign against the British that virtually ended the American Revolution. About 7,500 British troops under Charles Cornwallis occupied defensive posi¬ tions at the coastal port of Yorktown, Va., on Aug. 1, 1781. They were opposed by a smaller American force under the marquis de Lafayette, assisted by Anthony Wayne and Frederick Steuben. From New York, George Washington ordered Lafayette to prevent Cornwallis’s escape by land. French troops under the count de Rochambeau joined Washington’s forces and marched south. Linking up with a French fleet at the head of Chesa¬ peake Bay, they joined Lafayette’s forces on September 28, and the

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2098 I Yoruba ► Young

14,000 troops besieged the British position. Cornwallis waited for Brit¬ ish reinforcements under Henry Clinton to arrive by sea; but now outnum¬ bered, outgunned, and running low on food, he surrendered his 8,000 men and 240 guns on October 19. The siege ended fighting in the war and virtually guaranteed success to the American cause.

Yoruba Vyor-o-boN One of Nigeria’s three largest ethnic groups, num¬ bering more than 22 million. The many dialects comprising the Yoruba language belong to the Benue-Congo branch of the Niger-Congo family. The Yoruba states, including the Oyo empire, were built in the 11th-16th centuries. Yorubaland remains divided into politically autonomous king¬ doms, each centred on a capital city or town and headed by a hereditary king ( oba ), traditionally considered sacred. Most Yoruba men are farm¬ ers, growing yams, corn, and millet as staples; cocoa is a cash crop. Yoruba women control much of the complex market system. Craftsmen work in blacksmithing, weaving, leatherworking, glassmaking, bronze casting, and ivory- and wood-carving. Though some Yoruba are now Christians or Muslims, belief in their traditional religion continues, and it remains alive, too, in the New World countries to which may Yoruba were transported to work as slaves (see Candomble; Macumba; Santeria; vodun). The Yoruba language has an extensive literature of poetry, short stories, myths, and proverbs.

Yorubaland Vyor-u-bo-.landN Area of western Africa, in present-day Nigeria. It once comprised several states headed by individual Yoruba kings. It flourished for centuries before disputes between minor rulers, difficulties in maintaining trade routes, and invasions led to its decline, beginning in the late 18th century. Oyo, Ife, Ibadan, and Oshogbo are cities with historical Yoruba background.

Yosemite \yo-'se-m3-te\ Falls Two waterfalls, Yosemite National Park, central California, U.S. Formed by creeks tumbling into the Yosemite River valley, the upper falls drop 1,430 ft (436 m) and the lower, 320 ft (98 m). With the cascades between, the total drop from the crest of the upper to the base of the lower is 2,425 ft (739 m), one of the world’s longest cataracts.

Yosemite National Park National preserve, central California, U.S. Made a national park in 1890, it encompasses 761,320 ac (308,106 ha) in the Sierra Nevada range. Its many features include giant redwood groves with trees thousands of years old, Yosemite Falls, Bridal veil Fall (620 ft [189 m]), and huge domes and peaks; the greatest of these is El Capitan, a granite buttress that is 3,604 ft (1,098 m) high.

Yoshida Shigeru Vyo-she-da-she-'ge-riA (b. Sept. 22, 1878, Tokyo, Japan—d. Oct. 20, 1967, Oiso) Japanese prime minister after World War II. He served as ambassador to Britain in the 1930s. Late in the war (June 1945) he was arrested for attempting to force an early Japanese surren¬ der; he was not freed until the start of the Allied occupation (September). He first became prime minister in 1946. Between 1946 and 1954 he formed five separate cabinets, guiding Japan back to economic prosper¬ ity and setting a course for postwar cooperation with the U.S. and Europe. In 1951 he negotiated the peace treaty that ended World War II; he also negotiated a security pact between Japan and the U.S. He retired from politics in 1955. See also Showa period.

Yoshida Shoin Vyo-she-da-'sho-en\ (b. Sept. 20, 1830, Nagato prov¬ ince, Japan—d. Nov. 21, 1859, Edo) Japanese teacher of military tactics in the domain of ChoshO. He studied “Dutch learning” (European stud¬ ies) in Nagasaki and Edo (modern Tokyo) and was deeply influenced by the pro-emperor thinkers in the domain of Mito. His radical pro-emperor stance influenced young samurai in Choshu to overthrow the Tokugawa shogunate. He was executed for an assassination plot against the shogun’s representative in Kyoto. See also Kido Takayoshi; Tokugawa period.