Tocantins \,to-ka n -'te n s\ River River, east-central and northeastern Bra¬ zil. It rises in several headstreams, including the Parana River, and flows north and west to join the Araguaia River. It again turns north and flows into the ParA River after a course of 1,677 mi (2,699 km). Frequently inter¬ rupted by rapids and waterfalls, it is mainly unnavigable.
Tocharian \to-'kar-e-on\ languages or Tokharian languages
Two extinct Indo-European languages, Tocharian A and Tocharian B, for¬ merly spoken in the Tarim River Basin in China. Documents date back to ad 500-700. Tocharian literature, written in a northern Indian syllabary derived from Brahmi (see Indic writing systems), was preserved in Bud¬ dhist monasteries. Spoken at the eastern frontier of the Indo-European world, Tocharian shows the influence of Indo-Aryan and Iranian languages but seems closer to western Indo-European languages in vocabulary and grammar.
tocopherol See vitamin E
Tocqueville Vtok-.vil, tok-'vel\, Alexis (-Charles-Henri- Maurice Clerel) de (b. July 29,
1805, Paris, France—d. April 16,
1859, Cannes) French political sci¬ entist, historian, and politician. Born into an aristocratic family, he entered government service by choice. After the July Revolution of 1830, his position became precarious because of his family’s ties to the ousted king, and he undertook a nine-month study trip to the U.S. with his friend Gustave de Beaumont. Out of it came his best-known work, Democ¬ racy in America , 4 vol. (1835—40), a highly perceptive and prescient analysis of the American political and social system, as well as of the vitality, excesses, and potential future of democracy, with attention to the situation in France. He was elected to the Chamber of Deputies in 1839 and held various political offices after the Revolution of 1848.
The Old Regime and the Revolution (1856), a pessimistic analysis of French political tendencies, was the first volume of his unfinished study of the French Revolution.
Tddai Temple Vto-,dI\ Japanese Todai-ji Monumental temple of the Kegon sect of Japanese Buddhism, located in Nara, Japan. The main buildings were constructed in 745-752 under the emperor Shomu, mark¬ ing the adoption of Buddhism as a state religion. The Great Buddha Hall, built within a 2-sq-mi (5-sq-km) enclosure, measured about 288 by 169 ft (88 by 52 m) and, as restored today, is the largest wooden building in the world. The 53-ft (16-m) Great Sun Buddha was installed in 752. The
Shosoin is a repository for more than 9,000 works of art from the Nara period and more than 600 personal effects of Shomu.
Todos los Santos, Lake Lake, south-central Chile. It is located north of Puerto Montt. With neighbouring Lake Llanquihue, it is the best-known of Chilean lakes and is in a popular resort area.
tofu Soft, bland, custardlike food product made from soybeans. Believed to date from China’s Han dynasty (206 bc-ad 220), tofu is today an impor¬ tant source of protein in the cuisines of East and Southeast Asia. It is made from dried soybeans that are soaked in water, crushed, and boiled to pro¬ duce a solid pulp and liquid soy “milk.” Coagulants are then added to the milk to separate the curds from the whey. The resulting soft cakes are cut into squares and stored in water.
toga Loose, draped outer garment adopted by the Romans from the Etrus¬ cans. It was originally worn by both sexes of all classes, but was gradu¬ ally abandoned by women, then by labourers, and finally by patricians, but throughout the history of the empire it remained the state dress, the garment of the emperor and high officials. Made from an oval piece of fabric, the toga had voluminous folds that made activity difficult and thus became the distinctive garment of the upper classes. The colour of the toga worn depended on class, age, and the character of such special events as mourning and triumphs.
togavirus \,to-g3-'vi-r3s\ Any of three genera of arboviruses: Alphavi- rus, Rubivirus (which causes rubella), and Pestivirus (which infects only animals). Some Alphavi- rus species produce a severe equine encephalitis that has a mortality rate of up to 90% in horses and 10% in humans.
toggle mechanism Combina¬ tion of solid, usually metallic links (bars), connected by pin (hinge) joints arranged so that a small force applied at one point can create a much larger force at another point. See also LINKAGE.
Toghril Beg \t6g-'rel-'beg\ (b. c. 990—d. Sept. 4, 1063, Rayy, Iran) Founder of the SeuOq dynasty. He and his brother Chagri took refuge in Khwarezm in Central Asia after being defeated by MahmOd of Ghazna. Later they entered Khorasan (northeastern Iran), where they gradually built a power base, returning to defeat Mahmud’s son (1040). Chagri took over Khorasan, and Toghri'1 prepared to conquer the rest of Iran. In the 1040s he extended his authority to Rayy, Hamadan, and Esfahan, and in 1055 he entered Baghdad, where he had been commissioned by the caliph of the ‘Abbasid dynasty to overthrow the ShTite Fajimid dynasty. In 1060 Toghri'1 crushed a rebellion in Baghdad.
Toghto Vt6g-,to\ (fl. 1340-55, China) High government official during the later years of China’s Yuan dynasty (1206-1368). He followed his uncle as minister of the right (1340-44) and favoured a centralized approach to government. Under him, positions that had been closed to the Chinese were reopened, many literati returned to the capital, and the Chi¬ nese examination system was restored. He was called back to office for another term (1349-55), during which time he oversaw projects to reroute the Huang He (Yellow River) and to develop an apparatus for quelling the many popular uprisings of the 1350s.
Togliatti \tol-'ya-te\, Palmiro (b. March 26, 1893, Genoa—d. Aug. 21, 1964, Yalta, Ukraine, U.S.S.R.) Italian communist leader. After serv¬ ing in World War I, in 1919 he helped found the left-wing weekly L'Ordine Nuovo (“New Order”), which became a rallying point for the breakaway communist wing of the Socialist Party (1921). He edited the Communist Party newspaper and was a member of the party’s central committee from 1924. He was in Moscow when the party was banned in Italy (1926); he remained in exile and became a member of the Comin¬ tern secretariat (1935). He returned to Italy in 1944 and served in a coa-
Alexis de Tocqueville, detail of an oil painting by T. Chasseriau; in the Ver¬ sailles Museum.
H. ROGER-VIOLLET
© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
1918 I Togo ► Tokugawa period
lition government as vice premier (1945). He advocated a national, democratically oriented form of communism and made the Italian Com¬ munist Party the largest in western Europe. See also Democratic Party of the Left.
Togo officially Togolese Republic Republic, western Africa. Area: 21,925 sq mi (56,785 sq km). Population (2005 est.): 5,400,000. Capitaclass="underline" Lome. It has some 30 ethnic groups; the Ewe is the largest. Languages:
French (official), Ewe, other indigenous languages. Religions: Christianity (mostly Roman Catholic), traditional beliefs, Islam.
Currency: CFA franc. Togo occupies a strip of land about 70 mi (115 km) wide that
extends about 320 mi (515 km) inland from the Gulf of Guinea. Regions include a swampy coastal plain, a northern savanna, and a central moun¬ tain range. The developing economy is based largely on agriculture. Chief crops are cassava, yams, com, cotton, coffee, and cocoa. It is one of the world’s leading producers of phosphates; food products, beverages, and cement are also important. Togo is a republic with one legislative house; its chief of state is the president, supported by the military, and the head of government is the prime minister. Until 1884 what is now Togo was an intermediate zone between the states of Asante and Dahomey, and its various ethnic groups lived in general isolation from each other. In 1884 it became part of the Togoland German protectorate, which was occupied by British and French forces in 1914. In 1922 the League of Nations assigned eastern Togoland to France and the western portion to Britain. In 1946 the British and French governments placed the territories under UN trusteeship. Ten years later British Togoland was incorporated into the Gold Coast, and French Togoland became an autonomous republic within the French Union. Togo gained independence in 1960. It suspended its constitution from 1967 to 1980. A constitution providing for multi¬ party government was approved in 1992, but the political situation remained unstable.