Research Results For 'Mainland'

ISTHMUS

An isthmus is a narrow strip of land joining two large land areas or joining a peninsula to the mainland. Examples: the isthmuses of Panama and Suez.
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LAKES

Lakes are accumulations of water in hollows on the earth's surface. When they are drained by rivers their waters are fresh, but when they have no outlet they are salty, e.g. the Dead Sea, Sea of Aral, etc.
Lakes may owe their origin to:

1. The formation of a barrier across a river.


2. Earth movements.


3. Ice erosion.


4. Volcanic action.

The nehrungs of East Prussia are sand-spits which enclose the shallow salt-water lagoons or halls, such as Kurische Haff. Earth movements cause lake formation when subsidence occurs. This is most easily seen in rift valleys. Examples of rift valley lakes are the Dead Sea, Lakes Nyasa and Tanganyika in Africa, and Lake Torrens in Australia. These are all long, narrow, and very deep lakes.
In Cheshire, the removal of underground beds of salt has caused subsidence resulting in the 'meres' of the Weaver Valley. The 'folding' of the earth across the line of a river valley may partially block a river and help to form a lake. The study of a good physical map will reveal the connection between mountain building and the formation of Lake Geneva and Lake Constance in Switzerland. Where there are large areas of depressed lowland wide and shallow lakes are formed in the lowest part of the depression, for example the Sea of Aral in Asiatic Russia, Lake Balaton in Hungary, and Lake Eyre in Australia. Ice sheets and valley glaciers may scoop out hollows to form 'rock basins'. Mountain tarns and corrie lakes in North Wales and Scotland have been formed in this way. Water also accumulates in the hollows of unevenly- distributed glacial drift. Such are the lakes of East Prussia, and also those of the Cheshire-Shropshire borders near Ellesmere. Subsidence of the land surface and consequent lake formation may be directly related to volcanic action. Lough Neagh in Northern Ireland is a shallow lake formed by subsidence of this type. Lakes are often formed by the accumulation of water in the craters of extinct volcanoes, for example the Laachersee in the Eifel region of Germany.
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NORTHWEST BOUNDARY QUESTION

The Northwest Boundary Question was a historic territorial dispute in North America. The territory bounded north by latitude 54 degrees 40 minutes, east by the Rocky Mountains, south by latitude 42 degrees, and west by the Pacific Ocean has been claimed at various times and to various extents by Russia, Spain, Great Britain and the United States. The Russian claim, which rested mainly upon occupation by fur traders, was settled by a treaty made on January 11, 1825. Under this treaty the United States were to make no-settlements north of latitude 54 degrees 40 minutes and Russia none south of that latitude. England and Russia agreed upon the same terms.

The Spanish claims were confined south of latitude 42 degrees by the treaty which ceded Florida in 1819. Great Britain had little or no claim by discovery. The United States' claim rested upon the voyage of Gray up the Columbia River in 1792, and the explorations of Lewis and Clark through the Rocky Mountains and through the Oregon country in 1805-06, under the orders of Jefferson. By the treaty of October the 20th, 1818, the whole territory west of the Rocky Mountains was to be opened to both countries for ten years, and, in 1827, the joint occupation for an indefinite period was agreed upon. Later this produced dissatisfaction, and after considerable negotiation, Great Britain was induced in 1846 to accept latitude 49 degrees as the boundary from the Rocky Mountains to the channel between Vancouver's Island and the mainland.
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SAN JUAN QUESTION

In negotiating the treaty of 1846, by which the forty-ninth parallel, from the Rocky Mountains to the sea, was made the boundary between the American and British possessions, a controversy arose concerning the course of the line through the channel which divides Vancouver Island from the mainland. The Americans contended for the Canal de Haro, the British for the Rosario Strait. To avoid conflict, it was decided that both nations occupy the island of San Juan at opposite ends. In 1872 the German Emperor, acting as arbitrator, decided for America.
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PAPILLON

The Papillon is a small companion dog believed to originate from Spain. They were very popular among the nobles of mainland Europe during the 17th century. They are an intelligent, tough and easy to train breed.
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ALEXANDER III

Alexander III was King of Scotland from 1249 to 1286. He succeeded his father, Alexander II when just a boy of eight. In 1251 he married Margaret, eldest daughter of Henry III of England. Like his father, Alexander II, he was eager to bring the Hebrides under his sway, and this he was enabled to accomplish in a few years after the defeat of the Norse King Haco at Largs, in 1263. The mainland and islands of Scotland were now under one sovereign, though Orkney and Shetland still belonged to Norway. Alexander III was strenuous in asserting the independence both of the Scottish kingdom and the Scottish church against England. He died in 1285 by the falling of his horse while he was riding in the dark between Burntisland and Kinghorn. He left as his heiress Margaret, the Maiden of Norway, daughter of Eric of Norway, and of Alexander's daughter, Margaret. Under him Scotland enjoyed greater prosperity than for generations afterwards.

Alexander III was an Emperor (Tsar) of Russia. The son of Alexander II, he was born in 1845 and died in 1894 of kidney disease. He became heir to the throne on the death of his eldest brother, Nicholas in 1865, and succeeded in 1881, on the assassination of his father, being crowned in Moscow in 1883. He gave up the reforms begun by his father, and ruled in the old autocratic fashion, restricting the liberties of Finland and the Baltic Provinces, and encouraging persecution of the Jews. He spent much time in the closely-guarded castle of Gatchina, to be safe from Nihilistic attempts, several of which he narrowly escaped. 'He endeavoured to put down corruption and underhand dealing among the bureaucracy, and in his own habits gave an example of simplicity and economy. While showing himself suspicious of Germany and Austria-Hungary, he entered on friendly relations with France. He began to suffer from disease of the kidneys in 1893, and died at Livadia in 1894.
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CROESUS

Croesus was the last King of Lydia. He reigned from 560 BC until 546 BC, conquered Ionia extending the empire from the northern and western coasts of Asia Minor to the Halys on the east and Mount Taurus on the south, including the Greek colonies of the mainland. and became an ally of Sparta. His riches, obtained chiefly from mines and the gold-dust of the river Pactolus, were greater than those of any king before him, so that his wealth became proverbial. Croesus joined with Nabonidus of Babylon to oppose Cyrus of Persia, but was overthrown by him at Sardis in 546 BC. The date of his death is unknown, but he survived his captor, and is referred to in the reign of Cambyses.
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GIUSEPPE GARIBALDI

Giuseppe Garibaldi was an Italian patriot and liberator. He was born in 1807 at Nice and died in 1882. His father being a poor fisherman, he received little education, and for a number of years was a sailor on various trading vessels. In 1834 he became a member of the 'Young Italy' party, and being condemned to death for his share in the schemes of Mazzini, escaped to Marseilles, took service in the fleet of the Bey of Tunis, and finally Went to South America. In the service of the Republic of Rio Grande against the Brazilians he became known as a brilliant leader, and with his famous Italian legion he subsequently gave the Monte Videans such effective aid against Buenos Aires as to earn the title of 'hero of Monte Video.'

In 1848 he returned to Italy, raised a band of volunteers, and harassed the Austrians until the cessation of hostilities and re-establishment of Austrian supremacy in Lombardy. He then retired to Switzerland, but in the spring of 1849 proceeded to Rome to support Mazzini's republic.

He was appointed to command the forces, but the odds were overwhelming, and after a desperate defence of thirty days Garibaldi escaped from Rome with 4000 of his followers. In the course of his flight his wife Anita died from fatigue and privations. He reached the United States, and was for some years in command of a merchant vessel. He then purchased a part of the small island of Caprera, off the north coast of Sardinia, and made this his home for the rest of his life. Latterly the subscriptions of his admirers enabled him to become owner of the whole island.

In the war of 1859, in which Sardinia recovered Lombardy, Garibaldi and his Chasseurs of the Alps did splendid service; and on the re volt of the Sicilians in 1860 he crossed to the island, wrested it after a fierce struggle from the King of Naples, re-crossed to the mainland and occupied Naples, where he was proclaimed Dictator of the Two Sicilies. It was now feared that Garibaldi might prove untrue to his motto - Italy and Victor Emmanuel - but he readily acquiesced in the annexation of the Two Sicilies to Italy, and declining all honours retired to his island farm.

In 1862 he endeavoured to force the Roman question to a solution, and entered Calabria with a small following, but was taken prisoner at Aspromonte by the royal troops. He was soon released, however, and returned to Caprera. In 1864 he received an enthusiastic welcome in Britain. In 1866 he commanded a volunteer force against the Austrians in the Italian Tyrol, but failed to accomplish anything of consequence. Next year he attempted the liberation of Rome, but near Montana was defeated by the French and pontifical troops, and was again imprisoned by the Italian government, but soon pardoned and released.

In 1870 he gave his services to the French republican government against the Germans, and with his 20,000 men rendered valuable assistance in the south-east. At the end of the war he was elected a member of the French assembly, but speedily resigned his seat and returned to Caprera. Rome now became the capital of united Italy, and here in January, 1875, Garibaldi took his seat in the Italian parliament. The latter part of his life was spent quietly at Caprera. After 1870 he wrote two or three novels - very mediocre productions.
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JACQUES CARTIER

Jacques Cartier was a French navigator. He was born in 1494 at St. Malo and died after 1552. He commanded an expedition to North America in 1534, entered the Straits of Belle Isle, and took possession of the mainland of Canada in the name of Francis I. Next year he sailed up the St Lawrence as far as the present Montreal. He subsequently went to found a settlement in Canada, and built a fort near the site of Quebec.
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SABAEANS

The Sabaeans were a South Arabian people who attained a position of great wealth and importance as the commercial intermediaries between the East and the Mediterranean lands. They were especially flourishing from the 11th to the 1st century BC; and as early as 1000 BC. They had numerous colonies on the African mainland, and laid the foundations of the Ethiopian empire. Around the 8th century BC they were tributary to Assyria, and around the period of the foundation of the Roman empire they became subordinate to, though allied with the Himyarites; and from the 2nd to the 7th century AD they were subject to Abyssinia.
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