pardo Spanish "brown" In Venezuela, a person of mixed African, European, and Indian ancestry. In the colonial period, pardos, like all nonwhites, were kept in a state of servitude, with no hope of gaining wealth or political power. Nevertheless, most pardos remained royalists during much of the war for independence because they relied on Spain for protection in their conflicts with the Venezuelan-born whites, toward whom the European Spaniards took a superior attitude. In Brazil a pardo is a person of mixed European and African descent.
pardon In law, release from guilt or remission of punishment. The power to pardon is generally exercised by the state’s chief executive officer. A pardon may be full or conditional. A conditional pardon imposes a lesser punishment or some other obligation. Some states still bar par¬ doned offenders from holding public office or obtaining professional licenses.
Pare \pa-'ra\, Ambroise (b. 1510, Bourg-Hersent, France—d. Dec. 20, 1590, Paris) French physician and surgeon. Employed as an army sur¬ geon in 1537, Pare preferred measures less drastic than those of other sur¬ geons at the time (whose techniques included castration in hernia surgery and searing large arteries with hot irons during amputation) and operated only when necessary. He introduced the implantation of gold and silver teeth, artificial limbs, and artificial eyes (see prosthesis) and invented many instruments, popularized the truss for hernias, and first suggested that syphilis caused aneurysms. He published books on a wide variety of medical matters; his surgical works were especially influential.
Pareto \pa-'re-to\, Vilfredo (b. July 15, 1848, Paris, France—d. Aug. 19, 1923, Geneva, Switz.) Italian economist and sociologist. Educated at the University of Turin, he worked as an engineer and later served as a director of a large Italian railway. He taught at the University of Lausanne from 1893. His law of income distribution used a complex mathematical formula to trace historical patterns in the distribution of wealth. In 1906 he laid the foundation of modern welfare economics with his Pareto Opti¬ mum, which stated that a society’s resources are not optimally allocated as long as it is possible to make at least one person better off while keep¬ ing others as well off as before.
Parhae \'p6-'hl\ Chinese Pohai Vpo-'hA State established in the 8th century ad in northern Manchuria and northern Korea. Founded by a former Korean general, Tae Cho-yang, it was considered a successor state to Koguryo, which had occupied much of the same territory before its con¬ quest by Silla in 668. Like Silla, Parhae was a tributary state of Tang-dynasty China. It traded with the nomadic tribes of the north and with China and Japan. Parhae was conquered in 926 by the Khitan tribes almost 20 years after their creation of the Liao dynasty on China’s northern borders.
pari-mutuel V.par-i-'myii-cho-woB Betting pool in which those who bet on competitors finishing in the first three places share the total amount bet minus a percentage for the management. First introduced in France c. 1870, it soon became one of the most popular methods of betting on horse races internationally. Today computers calculate betting pools and current odds on each horse and flash the figures to the public at regular intervals. The system is used largely for off-track betting. Pari-mutuel betting is also practiced in dog racing and jai alai.
Pari a \p3-'re-9\, Gulf of Inlet of the Caribbean Sea, between Venezu¬ ela and Trinidad. Extending about 100 mi (160 km) from east to west and 40 mi (65 km) from north to south, it is linked with the Caribbean to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the south. Its ports, including Port-of- Spain, Trinidad, handle shipments of petroleum, iron ore, and agricultural products. In 1498, on his third voyage to the Western Hemisphere, Chris¬ topher Columbus probably first sighted South America when he sailed into the gulf.
Paricutin \pa-'re-ku-,ten\ Volcano, western Michoacan state, west- central Mexico. It is about 9,210 ft (2,808 m) high and is one of the youngest volcanoes on Earth. It began to erupt in an open field in 1943 and buried the village of Paricutin. The eruption finally ceased in 1952.
Parilia \p3-'ri-le-9\ Ancient Roman festival celebrated annually on April 21 in honor of the goddess Pales, protector of flocks and herds. It was celebrated first by the early kings of Rome and later by the pontifex max- imus. The Vestal Virgins opened the festival by distributing straw and the
ashes and blood of sacrificed animals. Ritual cleaning, anointing, and adornment of herds and stalls followed. The celebrants jumped over a bonfire three times to complete the rite of purification.
Paris In Greek mythology, a son of King Priam of Troy and his wife, Hecuba. An evil portent prompted his parents to abandon him as an infant. Unknown to them, he was raised as a shepherd, and as a young man he was received home again after winning a boxing contest against Priam’s other sons. Zeus chose him to determine which of three goddesses was most beautiful— Hera, Athena, or Aphrodite. In the famous “judgment of Paris,” he chose Aphrodite because she offered to help him win the most beautiful woman alive. His seduction of Helen was the cause of the Tro¬ jan War. Near the end of the war, Paris shot the arrow that killed Achilles and soon afterward was himself killed.
Paris City (pop., 1999: 2,125,246; metro, area, 9,644,507), river port, capital of France. It is now located on both banks of the Seine River. The original settlement from which Paris evolved, Lutetia, was in existence by the late 3rd century bc on an island in the Seine. Lutetia was captured and fortified by the Romans in 52 bc. During the 1st century ad the city spread to the left bank of the Seine. By the early 4th century it was known as Paris. It withstood several Viking sieges (885-87) and became the capital of France in 987, when Hugh Capet, the count of Paris, became king. The city was improved during the reign of Philip II. who formally recognized the University of Paris c. 1200. In the 14th-15th centuries its development was hindered by the Black Death and the Hundred Years' War. In the 17th—18th centuries it was improved and beautified. Leading events of the French Revolution took place in Paris (1789-99). Napoleon III com¬ missioned Georges-Eugene Haussmann to modernize the city’s infrastruc¬ ture and add several new bridges over the Seine. The city was the site of the Paris Peace Conference, which ended World War I. During World War II Paris was occupied by German troops. It is now the financial, com¬ mercial, transportation, artistic, and intellectual centre of France. The city’s many attractions include the Eiffel Tower, Notre-Dame de Paris, the Louvre, the Pantheon, Pompidou Centre, and the Paris Opera, as well as boulevards, public parks, and gardens.
Paris, Congress of (1856) Conference in Paris to produce the treaty that ended the Crimean War. The treaty was signed between Russia on one side and France, Britain, Sardinia-Piedmont, and Turkey on the other. It guaranteed the independence and territorial integrity of Turkey. Russia was forced to surrender Bessarabia to Moldavia, warships of all nations were barred from the Black Sea, and the Danube River was opened to shipping of all countries. The congress also adopted the first codified law of the sea, which banned privateering and defined a legal naval blockade.
Paris, Treaty of (1229) Treaty by which Raymond VII of Toulouse con¬ ceded defeat to Louis IX of France after the Albigensian Crusade. It arranged the marriage of Raymond’s daughter and Louis’s brother and provided for the eventual return of Languedoc to the crown, thus destroying the independence of the princes of the south.
Paris, Treaty of (1259) Peace treaty signed by Henry III of England and Louis IX of France. It allowed the English to keep Aquitaine and nearby territories but obliged Henry to acknowledge himself the vassal of the French king. The agreement kept peace between England and France until the outbreak of the Hundred Years' War in 1337.