Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

cold war

(Encyclopedia)cold war, term used to describe the shifting struggle for power and prestige between the Western powers and the Communist bloc from the end of World War II until 1989. Of worldwide proportions, the co...

prisoner of war

(Encyclopedia)prisoner of war, in international law, person captured by a belligerent while fighting in the military. International law includes rules on the treatment of prisoners of war but extends protection onl...

war, laws of

(Encyclopedia)war, laws of, in international law, rules and principles regulating an armed conflict between nations. These laws are designed to minimize the destruction of life and property, to proscribe cruel trea...

Algerine War

(Encyclopedia)Algerine War ălˈjərēnˌ [key], early 19th-century conflict between Algiers and the United States. The Tripolitan War (1801–5) had brought a temporary halt to the pirate activities of the Barbary...

Gulf War

(Encyclopedia)Gulf War: see Persian Gulf War; Iran-Iraq War. ...

World War I

(Encyclopedia)World War I, 1914–18, also known as the Great War, conflict, chiefly in Europe, among most of the great Western powers. It was the largest war the world had yet seen. World War I and the resul...

Korean War

(Encyclopedia)Korean War, conflict between Communist and non-Communist forces in Korea from June 25, 1950, to July 27, 1953. At the end of World War II, Korea was divided at the 38th parallel into Soviet (North Kor...

Marsic War

(Encyclopedia)Marsic War: see Social War.

Great War

(Encyclopedia)Great War: see World War I.

Boer War

(Encyclopedia)Boer War: see South African War.

Browse by Subject