Manapouri Lake \,ma-na-'pur-e\ Lake, southwestern South Island, New Zealand. With a maximum depth of 1,455 ft (444 m), it is the deep¬ est lake in the country. It is one of the Southern Lakes, located in Fiord¬ land National Park. Its name derives from a Maori word meaning “lake of the sorrowing heart,” and legend holds that its waters are the tears of dying sisters. It has an area of 55 sq mi (142 sq km) and drains a basin of 1,785 sq mi (4,623 sq km).
Manasarowar See Mapam Yumco
Manasseh ben Israel Xmo-'na-so-ben-'iz-re-oL orig. Manoel Dias
Soeiro (b. 1604, Lisbon?—d. Nov. 20, 1657, Middelburg, United Prov¬ inces of the Netherlands) Portuguese-born Dutch Hebrew scholar and Jewish leader. He was born to a family of Marranos whom persecution drove to Amsterdam. A brilliant theology student, he became rabbi of a Portuguese congregation in Amsterdam in 1622 and established the first Hebrew printing press there in 1626. In the belief that the MESSIAH would come only when the Jews were dispersed throughout the world, he lob¬ bied the English government to allow Jews to live in England, and he wrote Vindication of the Jews (1656). His efforts led to unofficial English acceptance of Jewish settlement and, after his death, to the granting of an official charter of protection to the Jews of England in 1664.
manatee Any of three species (family Trichechidae) of slow-moving, shallow-water herbivorous mammals. Manatees have a tapered body end¬ ing in a rounded flipper, no hind flippers, and foreflippers near the head. The Caribbean manatee ( Trichechus manatus) lives along coasts of the southeastern U.S. and northern South America; the Amazonian manatee (T. inunguis ) and the West African manatee ( T. senegalensis) inhabit riv¬ ers and estuaries. Adults are 8-15 ft (2.5-4.5 m) long and weigh up to 1,500 lbs (700 kg). Manatees live singly or in small herds and are pro¬ tected by law in most areas. The manatee or its relative, the dugong, may have given rise to the folklore of mermaids. See also sea cow.
Manaus \ma-'naus\ City (pop., 2003 est.: 1,517,500), northwestern Bra¬ zil. Located in the heart of the Amazon rainforest, it lies along the north¬ ern bank of the Negro River above its junction with the Amazon River. The first European settlement was a small fort built in 1669. The village, called Villa da Barra, became the capital of the Rio Negro captaincy general in 1809. It prospered from 1890 to 1920 as the hub for the region’s only supply of rubber, after which it declined. Though 900 mi (1,450 km) from
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the sea, it again became a major inland port and commercial centre, reviv¬ ing economically in the mid-20th century. It has botanical gardens and an opera house, and the National Research Institute of Amazonia (INPA) and the Federal University of Amazonas are located there.
Manawatu \,ma-na- , wa-tii\ River River, south-central North Island, New Zealand. The Manawatu flows northwest to pass between the Rua- hine and Tararua ranges. It then runs southwest past Palmerston North to enter the South Taranaki Bight of the Tasman Sea. It is 113 mi (182 km) long.
Mance \'ma n s\, Jeanne (b. Nov. 12, 1606, Langres, France—d. June 1673, Montreal) French founder of the first hospital in Montreal. A mem¬ ber of a French association that planned a utopian colony at Montreal, she sailed with the first settlers in 1641 and founded the Hotel-Dieu de Mon¬ treal in 1644. After a trip to France (1657), she returned with Sisters Hos¬ pitallers to staff the hospital.
Mancha, La See Castilla-La Mancha Manche, La See English Channel
Manchester City and metropolitan borough (pop., 1999: 431,000), in the metropolitan county of Greater Manchester, northwestern England. Lying northwest of London and east of Liverpool, it was the site of a Roman fort (ad 78-86) but was abandoned after the 4th century. By 919 the town of Manchester had sprung up nearby. In the 16th century it was impor¬ tant in the wool trade, and with the onset of the Industrial Revolution in the 18th century it became an important manufacturing city known for its textile production. The world’s first modem railroad, the Liverpool and Manchester, opened in 1830. The city was beset by urban and industrial problems in the second half of the 20th century; thereafter it was rede¬ veloped, ushering in a cultural renaissance. Its many educational institu¬ tions include the University of Manchester.
Manchester City (pop., 2000: 107,006), southern New Hampshire, U.S. Located on the Merrimack River, it is the state’s largest city. It was settled in 1722-23 and incorporated as the town of Derryfield in 1751. One of America’s first textile mills was built there in 1805, beginning a period of rapid industrial growth. Renamed Manchester in 1810, it was incorporated as a city in 1846. Canal systems built in the early 19th cen¬ tury opened navigation to Boston. The textile industry’s decline in the 1930s spurred industrial diversification. It is the seat of St. Anselm Col¬ lege, Notre Dame College, and New Hampshire College.
Manchester, (Victoria) University of Public university in Manchester, England. It has its origins in a nonsectarian college for men founded in 1851. It became a university in 1880, having established col¬ leges in Leeds and Liverpool which later (1903) became universities in their own right. Ernest Rutherford conducted important research on atomic physics at Manchester, and one of the first modem computers was built there in the late 1940s. The university grants undergraduate and advanced academic and professional degrees in a broad range of subjects.
Manchester school Political and economic school of thought led by Richard Cobden and John Bright that originated in meetings of the Manchester Chamber of Commerce in 1820 and dominated the British Liberal Party in the mid-19th century. Its followers believed in laissez-faire economic policies, including free trade, free competition, and freedom of contract, and were isolationist in foreign affairs. Its adherents tended to be businessmen, not theorists.
Manchu People, many of Juchen ancestry, who acquired a Manchu iden¬ tity in the 17th century before conquering China and forming the Qing dynasty (1644-1911/12). Though official policy aimed to maintain the Manchus as a distinct people, this did not prevent considerable intermar¬ riage and adoption of Chinese customs in areas of maximum contact with Chinese. China today recognizes the Manchu as a distinct ethnic group with over 10 million members living mainly in northeastern China.
Manchu dynasty See Qing dynasty
Manchu-Tungus V.man-'chii-tuq-'guzX languages or Tungusic languages Family of about 10 Altaic languages spoken by fewer than 55,000 people in Siberia, Mongolia, and northern China. All the languages have been losing ground for centuries as their speakers switch to the lan¬ guages of surrounding populations—Russian and Yakut in Siberia, and Chinese, Turkic, and Mongolian languages in China. Evenki has about 10,000 speakers in Siberia and far northeastern China. Even has fewer
than 6,000 speakers in northeastern Siberia and the Kamchatka Peninsula. Nanai has fewer than 7,000 speakers near the lower Amur River. Juchen, the tribal language of the founders of the Juchen dynasty, is now extinct, and Manchu is spoken by fewer than 100 people, though some 10 mil¬ lion inhabitants of northeastern China count themselves as ethnically Manchu. Effectively a dialect of Manchu is Xibe, spoken by 10,000 descendants of Manchu-speaking soldiers garrisoned at 18th-century mili¬ tary outposts.
Manchukuo Vman-'chii-'gwoX or Manchuguo Puppet state created in 1932 by Japan out of the three historic provinces of Manchuria. After the Russo-Japanese War (1895), Japan gained control of the Russian-built South Manchurian Railway, and its army established a presence in the area; expansion in Manchuria was seen as necessary for Japan’s status as an emerging world power. In 1931 the Japanese army created an excuse to attack Chinese troops there, and in 1932 Manchukuo was proclaimed an independent state. The last Qing emperor was brought out of retire¬ ment and made Manchukuo’s ruler, but the state was actually rigidly con¬ trolled by the Japanese, who used it as their base for expansion into Asia. An underground guerrilla movement composed of Manchurian soldiers, armed civilians, and Chinese communists opposed the occupying Japa¬ nese, many of whom had come over to settle in the new colony. After Japan’s defeat in 1945 the settlers were repatriated.