James Monroe, oil sketch by E.O. Sully, 1836, after a contemporary portrait by Thomas Sully; in Independence National Historical Park, Philadelphia.
COURTESY OF THE INDEPENDENCE NATIONAL HISTORICAL PARK COLLECTION, PHILADELPHIA
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served two terms as president, presiding in a period that became known as the Era of Good Feelings. He oversaw the Seminole War of 1817-18 and the acquisition of the Floridas (1819-21), and he signed the Missouri Compromise (1820). With Secretary of State John Quincy Adams, he devel¬ oped the principles of U.S. foreign policy later called the Monroe Doc¬ trine.
Monroe, Marilyn orig. Norma 1926, Los Angeles, Calif., U.S.—d.
Aug. 5, 1962, Los Angeles) U.S. film actress. She endured a loveless child¬ hood and a brief teenage marriage.
After working as a photographer’s model, she made her screen debut in 1948 and won bit parts in The Asphalt Jungle (1950) and All About Eve (1950). She achieved stardom as a blonde sex symbol in the comedies Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953),
How to Marry a Millionaire (1953), and The Seven Year Itch (1955).
After studying at the Actors Studio, she starred in more-ambitious films, including Bus Stop (1956), Some Like It Hot (1959), and The Misfits (1961). Her private life, which included marriages to Joe DiMaggio and Arthur Miller, was widely publi¬ cized. She died at age 36 of an appar¬ ently self-administered barbiturate overdose. Her vulnerability and sen¬ suousness combined with her death raised her to the status of an Ameri¬ can cultural icon.
Monroe Doctrine U.S. foreign-policy statement first enunciated by Pres. James Monroe on Dec. 2, 1823, declaring the Western Hemisphere off-limits to European colonization. Concerned that the European powers would attempt to restore Spain’s former colonies, he declared, inter alia, that any attempt by a European power to control any nation in the West¬ ern Hemisphere would be viewed as a hostile act against the U.S. It was reiterated in 1845 and 1848 by Pres. James K. Polk to discourage Spain and Britain from establishing footholds in Oregon, California, or on Mexi¬ co’s Yucatan Peninsula. In 1865 the U.S. massed troops on the Rio Grande to back up demands that France withdraw from Mexico. In 1904 Pres. Theodore Roosevelt added the Roosevelt Corollary, stating that in the event of flagrant wrongdoing by a Latin AMERiCAn state, the U.S. had the right to intervene in its internal affairs. As the U.S. became a world power, the Monroe Doctrine came to define the Western Hemisphere as a U.S. sphere of influence. See also Good Neighbor Policy.
Monrovia Port city (pop., 1999 est.: metro, area, 479,000), capital of Liberia, located on the Atlantic coast. It was founded in 1822 by the Ameri¬ can Colonization Society as a settlement for freed U.S. slaves and named for Pres. James Monroe. Bushrod Island contains the artificial harbour and free port of Monrovia, the only such port in West Africa. It is Liberia’s largest city and its administrative and commercial centre. Many of the city’s buildings were damaged during the civil war that began in 1990, and its increased population includes many formerly rural people dis¬ placed by the war. It is the seat of the University of Liberia.
Monsarrat \,man-s3-'rat\, Nicholas (John Turney) (b. March 22, 1910, Liverpool, Eng.—d. Aug. 8, 1979, London) British novelist. Trained in law, he served with the Royal Navy (1940-46), chiefly on dangerous Atlantic convoy runs. He put his experience to account in such books as H.M. Corvette (1942) and his best-known work, The Cruel Sea (1951), a best-seller that vividly captures life aboard a small ship in wartime. His later work includes The Story of Esther Costello (1953) and Smith and Jones (1963).
monsoon Major wind system that seasonally reverses its direction (e.g., one that blows for six months from the northeast and six months from the southwest). The most prominent examples occur in Africa and southern Asia. The primary cause of monsoons is the difference between annual temperature trends over land and sea. Seasonal changes in temperature are large over land but small over oceans. A monsoon blows from cold toward warm regions: from sea toward land in summer and from land
toward sea in winter. Most summer monsoons produce copious amounts of rain; winter monsoons tend to cause drought.
Mont, Allen Du See Allen B. Du Mont Mont Blanc See Mont Blanc
Mont-Saint-Michel \mo n -sa n -me-'shel\ Rocky, almost circular islet rising out of Mont-Saint-Michel Bay between Brittany and Normandy, northwestern France. It only becomes an island at high tide. Around its base are medieval walls and towers, above which rise the village’s clus¬ tered buildings, with an ancient abbey crowning the mount. Over the cen¬ turies it has been a pilgrimage center, fortress, and prison. The fine abbey church has an imposing 11th-century Romanesque nave and an elegant Flamboyant-style Gothic choir. The exterior walls of the Gothic monastery building combine the power of a military fortress and the simplicity of a religious building. Some of the houses bordering the island’s narrow, winding streets date back to the 15 th century.
montage \man-'tazh\ French "mounting" Pictorial technique in which cut-out illustrations, or fragments of them, are arranged together and mounted on a support, producing a composite picture made from sev¬ eral different pictures. It differs from collage in using only ready-made images chosen for their subject or message. The technique is widely used in advertising. Photomontage uses photographs only. In motion pictures, montage is the sequential assembling of separate pieces of thematically related film by the director, film editor, and visual and sound technicians, who cut and fit each part with the others to produce visual juxtapositions and complex audio patterns.
Montagnais and Naskapi \ l man-t3n-'ya... , nas-k3-pe\ Two related North American Indian peoples living in Quebec and Labrador, Can. They speak almost identical Algonquian dialects. The Montagnais, whose name is French, meaning “Mountaineers,” traditionally occupied a large for¬ ested area above the northern shores of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. They lived in birch-bark wigwams and subsisted on moose, salmon, eel, and seal. The Naskapi, whose name is derived from a Montagnais word mean¬ ing “savage,” lived farther north on the Labrador plateau, where they hunted caribou and fished. Both groups used canoes in summer and sleds and snowshoes in winter. Religious belief centred on manitou, or super¬ natural power; much importance was attached to nature and animal spir¬ its. The basic social unit was the nomadic band. Both groups now call themselves Innu—not to be confused with Inuit (see Eskimo) —meaning “People.” Together the Montagnais and Naskapi total some 20,000, the vast majority of whom are Montagnais.
Montagnard \ 1 mo n -,tan- , yar\ French "Mountain Man" Radical deputy in the National Convention during the French Revolution. The Mon- tagnards were so called because they sat on the higher benches (the “Moun¬ tain”) above the uncommitted deputies of the “Plain.” The Montagnards emerged in 1792 as opponents of the moderate Girondins and later asso¬ ciated with the radical Jacobin Club in the Committee of Public Safety. After the Thermidorian Reaction, many Montagnards were executed or purged from the convention, and they became a minority called the crete (“crest”).
Montagu Vman-t3-,gyu\ / Lady Mary Wortley orig. Lady Mary Pierrepont (baptized May 26, 1689, London, Eng.—d. Aug. 21, 1762, London) English writer, the most colourful Englishwoman of her time. A prolific letter writer, Montagu is remembered chiefly for 52 superb letters chronicling her stay in Constantinople, where her husband was ambassa¬ dor from 1716 to 1718. On their return, they introduced the Middle East¬ ern practice of smallpox vaccination into England. Also a poet, essayist, feminist, and eccentric, she was a friend of John Gay and Alexander Pope, who later turned against and satirized her. Among her writings are six “town eclogues,” witty adaptations of Virgil; a lively attack on Jonathan Swift (1734); and essays dealing with feminism and the moral cynicism of her time.