Paris, Treaty of (1763) Treaty concluding the Seven Years' War (including the French and Indian War). It was signed by Britain and Hanover on one side and France and Spain on the other. France renounced to Britain the mainland of North America east of the Mississippi, its con¬ quests in India since 1749, and four West Indian islands. Britain restored to France four other West Indian islands and the West African colony of Goree (Senegal). In return for recovering Havana and Manila, Spain ceded Florida to Britain and received Louisiana from the French.
Paris, Treaty of (1814) Treaty signed in Paris that ended the Napo¬ leonic Wars between France and the Allies (Austria, Britain, Prussia, Rus¬ sia, Spain, Sweden, and Portugal). The terms were generous to France, since Napoleon had abdicated and the Bourbon dynasty was restored. France was allowed to retain its boundaries of 1792 and ceded only sev¬ eral islands to Britain. Other terms were left to be discussed later.
Paris, Treaty of (1815) Second treaty between France and the Allies, following Napoleon’s Hundred Days and final defeat. It was harsher than the first Treaty of Paris (1814). France was required to return to its bor¬ ders of 1790 and was stripped of the Saar and Savoy regions; it was also
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obliged to pay an indemnity of 700 million francs and to support a 150,000-man army of occupation for three to five years.
Paris, University of Second oldest European university (after the University of Bologna), founded c. 1170 in France. It grew out of the cathedral schools of Notre-Dame and, with papal support, soon became a great centre of Christian orthodox teaching. In the medieval period its professors included St. Bonaventure, Albertus Magnus, and Thomas Aquinas. Its most celebrated early college was the Sorbonne, founded c. 1257. The university declined somewhat under the impact of the Refor¬ mation and Counter-Reformation. With the French Revolution and Napo¬ leon’s reforms, teaching became more independent of religion and politics. By the mid-20th century the university had again become a pre¬ eminent scientific and intellectual centre. In May 1968 a Sorbonne stu¬ dent protest grew into a serious national crisis. This led to decentralizing reforms, the old university being replaced in 1970 by a system in Paris and its suburbs called the Universities of Paris I-XIII.
Paris Commune or Commune of Paris (March 18-May 28, 1871) Insurrection of Paris against the French government. After France’s defeat in the Franco-Prussian War and the collapse of the Second Empire, the republican Parisians feared that the conservative majority in the National Assembly would restore the monarchy. On March 18 the National Guard in Paris resisted orders to disarm, and after municipal elections were won by the revolutionaries, they formed the Commune government. Factions included the so-called Jacobins, who wanted the Paris Commune to control the revolution (as its namesake had in the French Revolution); the Proud- honists, socialist followers of Pierre-Joseph Proudhon who supported a fed¬ eration of communes; and the Blanquistes, socialist followers of Auguste Blanqui who demanded violent action. Government forces quickly sup¬ pressed communes elsewhere in France, then entered Paris on May 21. In a week of fierce fighting, they crushed the Communards, who had set up barricades in the streets and burned public buildings, including the Tuile- ries Palace. About 20,000 insurrectionists and 750 government troops were killed. In the aftermath, the government took harsh repressive action; 38,000 suspects were arrested and more than 7,000 were deported.
Paris-Match \pa-re-'mach\ Weekly pictorial magazine published in France since 1949 as the successor to L’Illustration (1843-1944). A popu¬ lar news and current-events magazine aimed at the middle class, it fea¬ tures picture-stories on such subjects as public affairs, entertainment, fashion, and consumer products. Its format resembles that of Life, and it is similarly noted for topicality and outstanding photography. Under the ownership of Jean Prouvost (d. 1978), it achieved prestige and financial success. It is now published by Hachette Filipacchi Medias, one of the world’s largest magazine publishers.
Paris Opera or Opera Gamier \o-per-'a-garn-'ya\ also Theatre Nationale de I/Opera Opera house in Paris designed by Charles Gamier (1825-98). The extraordinarily lavish building, considered one of the masterpieces of the Second Empire (Beaux-Arts style), was begun in 1861 and opened in 1875. The floor plan is as elaborate as the exterior. The interior features generous circulation space, including a grand stair¬ case and numerous richly decorated galleries, foyers, and corridors. The designation also applies to the opera company in Paris that for more than two centuries was the chief performer of serious operas and musical dra¬ mas in the French language. One of the most venerable operatic institu¬ tions in the world, it occupied Gamier’s building until 1990.
Paris Peace Conference (1919-20) Meeting that inaugurated the international settlement after World War I. It opened on Jan. 12, 1919, with representatives from more than 30 countries. The principal delegates were France’s Georges Clemenceau, Britain’s David Lloyd George, the U.S.’s Woodrow Wilson, and Italy’s Vittorio Emanuele Orlando, who with their foreign ministers formed a Supreme Council. Commissions were appointed to study specific financial and territorial questions, including reparations. The major products of the conference were the League of Nations; the Treaty of Versailles, presented to Germany; the Treaty of Saint-Germain, presented to Austria; and the Treaty of Neuilly, presented to Bulgaria. The inauguration of the League of Nations on Jan. 16, 1920, brought the conference to a close. Treaties were subsequently concluded with Hungary (Treaty of Trianon, 1920) and Turkey (Treaties of Sevres, 1920, and Lausanne, 1923).
parity In economics, equality in price, rate of exchange, purchasing power, or wages. In international exchange, parity exists when the exchange rate between two currencies makes the purchasing power of both
currencies equal. Adjustments to maintain parity can occur in the mar¬ ketplace as prices change in response to supply and demand, or through the intervention of national governments or international agencies such as the International Monetary Fund. In U.S. agricultural economics, the term parity is used for a system of regulating the prices of farm commodities, usually by government price supports and production quotas, to guaran¬ tee farmers the purchasing power they had in a past base period. Parity is also used in personnel administration to establish equitable wage rates for various classes of employees.
parity In physics, a property related to the symmetry of the wave func¬ tion representing a system of fundamental particles. It plays an important role in quantum mechanics in the description of a physical system. Parity transformation replaces a system with a type of mirror image in which the spatial coordinates describing the system are inverted, so that the coor¬ dinates x, y, and z are replaced with -x, -y, and —z. If a system is iden¬ tical to the original system after parity transformation, its parity is even. If the image is the negative of the original, its parity is odd. In either case, the physical observables of the system remain unchanged. In 1957 Chien- Shiung Wu (1912-1997) and coworkers made the surprising discovery that beta decay reactions do not conserve parity; in other words, the inverted image of the process does not exist in nature. This is a general property of the WEAK FORCE.
park Large outdoor area set aside for recreation. The earliest parks were hunting grounds of the Persian kings; such reserves became shaped by riding paths and shelters. A second type of park derived from the open- air meeting places of Greece, where the functions of an area for exercise, social concourse, and athletes’ training ground were combined with ele¬ ments of a sculpture gallery and religious centre. Parks of post- Renaissance times featured extensive woods, raised galleries, and often elaborate aviaries and cages for wild animals. What often differentiates present-day parks from parks of the past is their accommodation for active recreation; facilities may include outdoor theatres, zoos, concert shells, concessions for dining and dancing, amusement areas, boating areas, and areas for sports. See also national park.