The Canadian Pacific Railway is a line of railway which traverses British North America from the St Lawrence to the Pacific. One of the conditions upon which the province of British Columbia in 1871 entered the Dominion of Canada was the construction of such a railway. Since that time more than one act had been passed empowering different companies to go on with the work. Eventually, however, it was completed, according to arrangement with the Canadian government, by a syndicate of London, Paris, and American capitalists, being opened for general traffic in June, 1886. Commencing at Montreal, the line goes on to Ottawa, thence round the north of the Great Lakes to Port Arthur at the head of Lake Superior, and thence to Winnipeg, Manitoba, thence to Stephen in the Rocky Mountains, then across British Columbia to Vancouver on the Pacific. Vancouver, now a thriving city, owes its existence to this railway. The line was of great importance not only as a means of communication between Europe and Eastern Asia and Australasia, but also as a military highway binding together the great masses of the British Empire during the late 19th century. Research Canadian Pacific Railway
Carbonari was the name of an Italian political secret society, which appears to have been formed by the Neapolitan republicans during the reign of Joachim (Murat), and had for its object the expulsion of the strangers and the establishment of a democratic government. The ritual of the Carbonari was taken from the trade of the charcoal-burner. A lodge was baracca (a hut); a meeting was vendita (a sale); an important meeting alta vendita.
There were four grades in the society; and the ceremonies of initiation were characterized by many mysticrites. The language of religion was much used to express their purposes. Christ was the lamb torn by the wolf and whom they were sworn to avenge. Clearing the wood of wolves (opposition to tyranny) became the symbolic expression of their aim. By this they are said to have meant at first only deliverance from foreign dominion; but in later times democratical and antimonarchical principles sprang up, which were discussed chiefly among the higher degrees. The order, soon after its foundation, contained from 24,000 to 30,000 members, and increased so rapidly that it spread through all Italy. In 1820, in the month of March alone, about 650,000 new members are said to have been admitted.
After the suppression of the Neapolitan and Piedmontese revolution in 1821, the Carbonari, throughout Italy, were declared guilty of high treason, and punished as such by the laws. Meantime societies of a similar kind had been formed in France, with which the Italian Carbonari amalgamated; and Paris became the head-quarters of Carbonarism. The organization took on more of a French character, and gradually alienated the sympathies of the Italian members, a number of whom dissolved connection with it, in order to form the party of 'Young Italy.' Research Carbonari
The Cherokee Nation v Georgia was an important case heard before the US Supreme Court, and decided in 1831. By the Hopewell treaty of 1785 the United States recognized the Cherokees as a nation capable of making peace and war, of governing its citizens and of owning and governing its lands. About 1826 the Georgia Legislature through Governor Troup declared these treaties not. binding upon the State, on the ground that Georgia and the Federal Government were equal and independent powers, and that disputes between them could not be decided by the Supreme Court, but by negotiation.
In 1830 an act was passed by the Georgia Legislature authorizing a survey and apportionment of the Cherokeelands within the State, their gold mines were seized and they were considered under the Slaters dominion, thus ousting the Cherokees from the lands solemnly guaranteed by the United States. The Cherokees. applied to President Jackson without success. Then they tried the Supreme Court. This court decided them not a foreign State, capable of maintaining an action in the court, but a domestic, dependent nation. The injunction was refused and the Cherokees relegated to the mercy of Georgia. Later, in the case of Worcester v Georgia, State authority in such matters was denied by the Supreme Court, Federal treaties being declared to have precedence. Research Cherokee Nation v Georgia
A colony is a settlement formed in one country by the inhabitants of another. Colonies may either be formed in dependence on the mother country or in independence. In the latter case the name of colony is retained only in a historical sense. Properly, perhaps, the term should be limited to a settlement which carries on a direct cultivation of the soil, as in the former British colonies of Canada and Australia in contrast to the former in Hindustan or Malta which were the mere superposition on the natives of a ruling race which took little or no part in the general industry of the country.
The motives which lead to the formation of colonies, and the manner of their formation, are various. Sometimes the ambition of extending territory and the desire of increasing wealth have been the chief impulses in colonization; but colonies became a necessity for the redundant population of European states in the 19th century.
Among ancient nations the principal promoters of colonization were the Phoenicians, the Greeks, and the Romans; the greatest colonizers in modern times have been the English and the Spaniards, next to whom may be reckoned the Portuguese, the Dutch, and the French. The Germans during the 19th century contributed largely to the tide of emigration, particularly in the direction of America;
but did little directly as colonizers.
The Phoenician colonies were partly caused by political dissensions and redundant population, but were chiefly commercial, serving as entrepots and ports of repair for Phoenician commerce along the coasts of Africa and Spain, in the latter of which they numbered, according to Strabo, more than two hundred. But it was in Africa that the most famous arose, Carthage, the greatest colonizing state of the ancient world.
The Greek colonies, which were widely spread in Asia Minor and the islands of the Mediterranean, the coasts of Macedonia and Thrace, in South Italy and Sicily, were commonly independent, and frequently soon surpassed the mother states in power and importance.
The colonies of Rome were chiefly military, and while the empire lasted were all in strict subordination to the central government. As the Roman power declined the remains of them amalgamated with the peoples among whom they were placed, thus forming in countries where they were sufficiently strong what are known as the Latin races, with languages (Spanish, Portuguese, French, and Italian) which are merely modifications of the old Roman tongue.
Before America and the way by sea to the East Indies were discovered, the only colonies belonging to European states were those of the Genoese, Pisans, and Venetians in the Levant and the Black Sea, flourishing establishments on which the mercantile greatness of Italy in those days was largely built.
The Portuguese were the first great colonizers among modern states. In 1419 they discovered Madeira, the Azores, and the Cape Verde Islands; the Congo and the Cape of Good Hope followed; and before the century was out Vasco de Gama had landed at Calicut on the Malabar coast of India. The first Portuguese colonies were garrisons along the coasts where they traded: Mozambique and Sofala on the east coast of Africa, Ormuz and Muscat in the Persian Gulf, Goa and Damao on the west coast of India. Colonies were established in Sri Lanka in 1505, in the Moluccas in 1510. Brazil was discovered in 1499, and this magnificent possession fell to Portugal, and was colonized about 1530. Bad government at home and the subjection of the country to Spain caused the loss of most of the Portuguese colonies.
Soon after the Portuguese the Spaniards commenced the work of colonization. In 1492 Columbus, on board of a Spanish vessel, discovered the island of San Salvador. Haiti, or San Domingo, Porto Rico, Jamaica, and Cuba were soon colonized, and before the middle of the 16th century Mexico, Ecuador, Venezuela, New Granada (Colombia), Peru, and Chili were subdued, and Spain took the first rank amongst the colonizing powers of Europe. But the Spaniards never really attempted to develop the industrial resources of the subject countries. The pursuit of mining for gold or silver occupied the colonists almost exclusively, and the enslaved natives were driven to work themselves to death in the mines. Cities were founded, at first along the coasts, for the sake of commerce and as military posts; afterwards also in the interior, in particular in the vicinity of the mines, as Vera Cruz, Cumana, Porto Bello, Carthagena, Valencia, Caracas; Acapuico and Panama, on the coast of the Pacific; Lima, Goncepcion, and Buenos Aires. The colonial intercourse with Spain was confined to the single port of Seville, afterwards to that of Cadiz, from which two squadrons started annually - the galleons, about twelve in number, for Porto Bello; and the fleet, of fifteen large vessels, for Vera Cruz. When the power of Spain declined, the colonies declared their independence, and thus were formed the republics of Mexico, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chili, etc. Cuba, Porto Rico, and the Philippine Islands passed to the United States in 1898; the Caroline Islands, etc, were sold to Germany in 1899; and by 1900 hardly any colony remained to Spain.
The hate of Philip II, who prohibited Dutch vessels from the port of Lisbon, forced the Dutch to import directly from India or lose the large carrying trade they had acquired. Several companies were soon formed, and in 1602 they were united into one, the Dutch East India Company, with a monopoly of the East Indiatrade and sovereign powers over all conquests and colonies in India. The Dutch now rapidly deprived the Portuguese of nearly all their East Indian territories, settled a colony at the Cape of Good Hope in 1650, established a West India Company, made extensive conquests in Brazil between 1623 and 1660, which were soon lost, and more permanent ones on some of-the smaller West India Islands, as San Eustatia, Curacoa, Saba, etc. The growing power of the British and the loss of Holland's independence during the Napoleonic wars were heavy blows to the colonial power of the nation. But the Dutch still possesed numerous colonies in the East Indies at the start of the 20th century, among which the more important were Java, Sumatra, Dutch Borneo, the Molucca Islands, and part of New Guinea, also several small islands in the West Indies, and Surinam.
No colonizing power of Europe had a career of such uniform prosperity as Great Britain. The English attempts at colonization began nearly at the same time with the Dutch. After many fruitless attempts to find a north-east or north-west passage to the East Indies, English vessels found their way round the Cape of Good Hope to the East Indies in 1591. The East India Company was established in 1600. English commerce with India, however, was not at first important, and they possessed only single factories on the continent up until the beginning of the 18th century. The ruin of the Mogul Empire in India after the death of Aurengzebe in 1707 afforded the opportunity for the growth of British power, as the British and French were compelled to interfere in the contentions of the native princes and governors. The French appeared at first to maintain the superiority; but the British in turn got the upper hand, and the victory of Clive at Plassey in 1756 laid the foundation of an exclusive British sovereignty in India. By the middle of the next century the British territory embraced, with the exception of a few dependent states, nearly the whole of India, and this vast territory was still under the government of the East India Company - a mercantile company, controlled indeed by parliament, but exercising many of the most important functions of an independent sovereignty. On the suppression of the Indian mutiny in 1857-1858 the government of India was transferred to the crown by act of parliament in 1858.
The discoveries of the Cabots, following soon after the voyages of Columbus, gave the English crown a claim to North America, which, though allowed to lie dormant for nearly a century, was never relinquished, and which, in the reign of Elizabeth I, led to colonization on a large scale. Walter Raleigh's settlement on Roanoke Island (North Carolina) in 1585 failed to become permanent, but in 1607 the colonists sent out by the London Company to Chesapeake Bay founded Jamestown, on the James River, in Virginia. The next great settlement was that of the Pilgrim Fathers, who landed on the 21st of December 1620, in Massachusetts Bay. The colonization of New Hampshire, Maine, New Jersey, Connecticut and Rhode Island, soon followed. In the State of New York and the Hudson River Territory the British found the Dutch already in possession; but in 1664 they seized the colony of New Amsterdam by force, changing its name to New York in honour of James, Duke of York. Pennsylvania was founded by William Penn, and colonized with Quakers in 1682; Maryland in 1631 by a party from Virginia; Carolina in 1670 and Georgia in 1732 by colonies from England.
Colonies were early established in the West India Islands, including Barbados, half of St. Christopher's in 1625, and soon after many smaller islands. Newfoundland was taken possession of in 1583, colonized in 1621 and 1633. Canada was surrendered to Britain at the Peace of Paris in 1763. In 1764 began the disputes between Britain and its North American colonies, which terminated with the acknowledgment of the independence of the United States, Canada remaining a British dependency.
Australia was discovered in the beginning of the 17th century. The first Australasian settlements of Britain were penal colonies. New South Wales, discovered in 1770, was established as a penal colony in 1788; Tasmania (Van Diemen's Land), discovered by Tasman in 1642, followed in 1803; West Australia, also first used as a penal settlement, became a free colony in 1829; Victoria was colonized in 1835, and made an independent colony in 1851; South Australia was settled in 1836. In 1851 the discovery of gold in Victoria gave a great impetus to the Australian Colonies. Queensland was made a separate colony from N.ew South Wales in 1859. New Zealand, discovered by Tasman in 1642, began to be used for whale-fishery about 1790, was settled in 1839, and made a colony in 1840. In 1874 the Fiji Islands, and in 1884 part of New Guinea, were annexed as crown colonies. In South AfricaCape Colony, first settled by the Dutch in 1652, finally became a British colony in 1815. Natal followed in 1843. Later annexations were Bechuanaland in 1885, Zululand in 1887, Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) in 1888-89, and the Orange River Colony and Transvaal in 1900. In Western Africa were the colonies of the Gold Coast, Gambia, and SierraLeone - ancient possessions of the British crown; with Lagos and Nigeria acquired in 1885 and after. Other possessions were British East Africa (Kenya), with Uganda and Somaliland. Gibraltar was acquired in 1704, Malta in 1800.
According to their government relations with the crown the colonies were arranged under three heads: (1.) Crown colonies, in which the crown had the entire control of legislation, while the administration was carried on by public officers under the control of the home government. (2.) Colonies possessing representative institutions but not responsible government, in which the crown had no more than a veto on legislation, but the home government retained the control of public officers. (3.) Colonies possessing representative institutions and responsible government, in which the crown had only a veto on legislation, and the home government had no control over any officer except the governor. All colonies were, however, disabled from such acts of independent sovereignty as the initiative in war, alliances, and diplomacy generally.
France was somewhat late in establishing colonies. Between 1627 and 1636 the West Indian islands of St Christopher's, Guadeloupe, and Martinique were colonized by private persons. Champlain was the pioneer of the French in the exploration of the North American continent, and founded Quebec in 1608. Colbert purchased several West India islands, as Martinique, Guadeloupe, St Lucia, etc, and sent out colonists in 1664 to Cayenne. In 1670 the East India Company formed by Colbert founded Pondicherry, which became the capital of extensive possessions in the East Indies. At the beginning of the 18th century France had extensive settlements in Canada, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland, the most flourishing of the West India islands, and she seemed to have a prosperous career before her in India. Ere long, however, the rival interests of British and French colonists brought about a conflict which terminated in the loss of Canada and other North American possessions, as well as many of the West India Islands, while the dominion of India passed into the hands of the British.
During the 19th century Germany made an effort to take rank as a colonial power, and acquired in Africa the territories of Damaraland, Great Nama Land, etc, on the south-west coast, north of Cape Colony; the Cameroons District; a large portion of territory formerly claimed by the Sultan of Zanzibar, extending inland to Victoria Nyanza, etc; also in the Pacific a portion of New Guinea, then subsequently called Kaiser Wilhelm's Land, the BismarckArchipelago, Marshall Islands, etc.
The term fur is sometimes distinctively applied to hairy animal skins when prepared for being made into articles of dress, etc, while the name of peltry is given to them in an unprepared state or when merely dried. The animals chiefly sought after for the sake of their furs were the beaver, raccoon, musk-rat, squirrel, hare, rabbit, the chinchilla, bear (black, grey, and brown), otter, sea-otter, seal, wolf, wolverine or glutton, marten, ermine, lynx, coypou (nutria), polecat (fitch), opossum, fox, etc. All the preparation that skins require before being sent to the market is to make them perfectly dry, so as to prevent them from putrefying. This is done by exposing them to the heat of the sun or a fire. The small skins are sometimes previously steeped in a solution of alum. When stored in large quantities they must be carefully preserved from dampness, as well as from moths. The fur-dresser, on receiving the skins, first subjects them to a softening process. He next cleans them from loose pieces of the integument by scraping them with a metalblade. Finally, the fur is cleaned and combed, after which it is handed over to the cutter, who cuts the furs out into the various shapes required to make different articles.
In Europe the furtrade was fed chiefly by Russia, which yielded great quantities of furs, especially in the Asiatic portion of her dominions. Austria, Turkey, Scandinavia, etc, also yielded a certain quantity.
The furtrade of America has long been highly important, and several great trading companies were engaged in it, of which the Dutch East India Company was first. The French early took up the furtrade in Canada, and their chain of forts and trading posts at one time extended from Hudson's Bay to New Orleans. Quebec and Montreal were at first trading posts. In 1670 Charles II granted to Prince Rupert and others a charter empowering them to trade exclusively with the aborigines of the Hudson's Bay region. A company, then and after called the Hudson's Bay Company, was formed, which for a period of nearly two centuries possessed a monopoly of the furtrade in the vast tract of country known as the Hudson's Bay Territory. In the winter of 1783-1784 another company was formed at Montreal, called, the North-west fur Company, which disputed the right of the Hudson's Bay Company, and actively opposed it. After a long and bitter rivalry the two companies united in 1821, retaining the name of Hudson's Bay Company. The monopoly which had hitherto been enjoyed by the original company about Hudson's Bay was much extended; but in 1868 an act of parliament was passed to make provision for the surrender, upon certain terms, of all the territories belonging to the company, and for their incorporation with the Dominion of Canada. In 1869 the surrender was carried out, Canada paying 300,000 pounds to the company by way of compensation. The company still possessed large stretches of valuable land, and many houses, forts, and posts in the region formerly belonging to it. Its operations even extended beyond British America into the United States and to the Sandwich Islands and Alaska. It employed a large staff of agents, traders, Indian hunters, etc. Some of its posts were situated far north, almost approaching the Arctic Ocean.
In the United States, the fur-trade, especially that trade in beaverfur, was an important element in the economic life of all the colonies in the seventeenth century, and in the struggle between England and France for the possession of North America, also in all negotiations respecting the northwest boundary of the United States. In 1809 John Jacob Astor secured the incorporation of the American Fur Company. He founded Astoria in Oregon, and attempted to connect it with Mackinaw by a line of posts and consolidate the whole north-western fur-trade. After the War of 1812 he renewed his attempt. In 1816 the American Congress passed an act excluding foreign fur-traders. Research Fur-Trade
Gnostics is a general name applied to early schools of speculators, which combined the fantastic notions of the oriental systems of religion with the ideas of the Greek philosophers and the doctrines of Christianity. They nearly all agreed on the points that God is incomprehensible; that matter is eternal and antagonistic to God; that creation is the work of the Demiurge, an emanation from the Supreme Deity, subordinate or opposed to God; and that the human nature of Christ was a mere deceptive appearance.
Certain forms of Gnosticism are mere adaptations of the Persian dualism to the solution of the problem of good and evil; while the pantheism of India seems to have been a pervading influence in others. Simon the magician (Simon Magus), of whom Luke speaks in the Acts of the Apostles, is generally looked on as the first of the Gnostics.
The dogmas of the earliest Gnostics may be reduced to the following heads: God, the highest intelligence, dwells at an infinite distance from this world, in the Abyss, removed from all connection with every work of temporal creation. He is the source of all good; matter, the crude, chaotic mass of which all things were made, is, like God, eternal, and is the source of all evil. From these two principles, before time commenced, emanated beings called aeons, which are described as divine spirits, inhabiting the Pleroma, or plenitude of light, which
surrounds the Abyss. The world and the human race were created out of matter by one aeon, the Demiurge, or, according to the later systems of the Gnostics, by several aeons and angels. The aeons made the bodies and the sensual soul of man of this matter; hence the origin of evil in man. God gave man the rational soul; hence the constant struggle of reason with sense. What are called gods by men (for instance, Jehovah, the God of the Jews) are merely such aeons or creators, under whose dominion man became more and more wicked and miserable. To destroy the power of these creators, and to free man from the power of matter, God sent the most exalted of all aeons, to which character Simon first made pretensions.
The Nicolaitans mentioned in the Revelation of St John, so called from Nicolas, a deacon of the church at Jerusalem, were one of the earliest sects, and are described as forerunners of the Cerinthians. Cerinthus, a Jew, of whom John the evangelist seems to have had some knowledge, combined such reveries with the doctrines of Christianity, and maintained that the most elevated aeon sent by God for the salvation of man, was Christ, who had descended upon Jesus, a Jew, in the form of a dove, and through him revealed the doctrines of Christianity, but before the crucifixion of Jesus separated from him, and at the resurrection of the dead will again be united with him, and lay the foundation of a kingdom of the most perfect earthly felicity, to continue 1000 years.
Carpocrates and the sect of the Ophites (beginning of the 2nd century), to whom the term Gnostic was first applied, saw in the Serpent a wise and good being, and carried to its extreme form the inversion of the biblical story. The later Gnostics have been divided into three schools. The first was the Syrian, founded by Menander, a pupil of Simon. This school emphasizes the conflict between Good and Evil - the Supreme Deity on the one hand, and the Demiurge and his angels or aeons on the other. The second was the school of Alexandria, represented by Basilides and Valentinus; the system of the latter being the most complete and ingenious of all. In that light or plenitude, which all the Gnostics speak of as surrounding the residence of the Supreme God, he has placed fifteen male and as many female aeons. The Supreme God, the Unbegotten, the Original Father, whom he also calls the Deep (Bathos), is the first of these aeons; Thinking Silence was his wife, and Intelligence, a male, and Truth, a female, were their children. These produced The Word and Life, the latter a female, who gave birth to mankind and society. These eight constituted the first class of the thirty aeons.
The second class, of five couples, at the end of which stood the Only Begotten, and the third, of six couples, at the head of which stood the Comforter, were, in a similar manner, descended from Mankind and Society, and consisted, like the first, of personified ideas. The officers of this heavenly state are four male aeons - Horus, who guards the boundaries of the region of light; Christ and the Holy Ghost, who instruct the other aeons in their duties; and Jesus, whom all the aeons of the kingdom of light begat in common, and endowed with their gifts. Man and the world were formed by a demiurge out of matter which was partly material, partly spiritual, partly soul-like. Christ, the Saviour of men, when he appeared on earth had a visible body made of the spiritual and the soul-like substance only. At his baptism the aeonJesus united itself with him, and instructed mankind.
A third school of Gnosticism, whose centre was Asia Minor, was represented by Marcion of Pontus, the son of a Christian bishop, who lived about the middle of the 2nd century. Marcion assigned to Christianity, as the one absolutely independent religion, a complete isolation from the Old Testament revelation, the author of which was, in his opinion, merely a just but not a good being. The true God begat many spirits, among which were the creator of the world, the righteous God, and the lawgiver of the Jews. The last, through the prophets, promised Christ; but Jesus, who actually appeared, and is the true Redeemer, was the Son of the truly good God, and not the Jewish Messiah.
Towards the end of the 2nd century Tatian, a Syrian Christian, adopted Gnostic doctrines, and founded a sect. Bardesanes, a Syrian, and Hermogenes, an African, who, in the reign of the Emperor Commodus, apostatized from Christianity, and established sects, bordered, in their hypotheses concerning the origin of good and evil, upon Gnosticism. There have been no Gnostic sects since the 5th century; but many of the principles of their system of emanations reappear in later philosophical systems, drawn from the same sources as theirs. Research Gnostics
The Nehru Report was a constitution drafted for India in 1928. After Indian nationalists rejected the Simon Commission of 1927, an all-party committee was set up, chaired by Motilal Nehru to map out a constitution. Established to counter British charges that Indians could not find a constitutional consensus among themselves, it advocated that India be given dominion status of complete internal self-government. Many members of the Congress preferred complete independence to dominion status, and in 1929 announced a campaign of civil disobedience to support their demands. Research Nehru Report
Cneius Julius Agricola was a Roman consul, general and colonial governor. He was born in 37 and died in 93. A Roman consul under the Emperor Vespasian, and governor in Britain, the greater part of which he reduced to the dominion of Rome he distinguished himself as a statesman and general. His life, written by his son-in-law, the historian Tacitus, gives the best extant account of Britain in the early part of the period of the Roman rule. He was the twelfth Roman general who had been in Britain, but was the only one who effectually subdued the southern portion of it and reconciled the Britons to the Roman yoke. This he did by teaching them the arts of civilization and to settle in towns. He constructed the chain of forts between the Forth and the Clyde, defeated Galgacus at the battle of the Grampians, and sailed round the island, discovering the Orkneys. Research Agricola
Alexandre Alberto De La Rocha Serpa Pinto was a Portuguese explorer. He was born in 1846 and died in 1900. He commanded a scientific expedition to South Africa, and in 1877 traversed the continent of Africa from west to east, recording his travels in a book entitled 'How I crossed Africa' and published in 1881. In 1884 he explored the country between Mozambique and Lake Nyasa, and in 1889 became governor of Mozambique, failing in his attempt to bring Matabeleland under the dominion of Portugal. Research Alexandre Serpa Pinto
The Probert Encyclopaedia was designed, edited and programed by
Matt and Leela Probert
Abbreviations
Research British North America Act
