Victoria orig. Alexandrina Victoria (b. May 24, 1819, Kensing¬ ton Palace, London, Eng.—d. Jan. 22, 1901, Osborne, near Cowes, Isle of Wight) Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (1837-1901) and Empress of India (from 1876). The only child of Edward, duke of Kent, she succeeded her uncle, William IV, in 1837. She was first guided as queen by the Whig prime minister Lord Melbourne and then by her husband, Prince Albert, whom she married in 1840. Devoted to him, she accepted his decisions on all issues in the period sometimes called the “Albertine monarchy.” They had nine children, through whose marriages descended many of the royal families of Europe. From 1861 Victoria deeply mourned Albert’s death and thereafter made royal deci¬ sions as she believed he would have advised. She was frequently at odds with Prime Minister William E. Gladstone and welcomed his replacement by Benjamin Disraeli in 1874. Her reign, called the Victorian age, was marked by a period of British expansion and a restoration of dignity and
© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
2002 I Victoria ► video card
popularity to the monarchy, as shown by her Jubilees of 1887 and 1897. She remains the longest reigning monarch in British history.
Victoria State (pop., 2001: 4,822,663), southeastern Australia. It covers an area of 87,810 sq mi (227,420 sq km); its capital is Melbourne. The state’s western and northwestern parts are sandy desert and lowland, while the central and eastern parts are highlands forming the southern end of the Australian Alps. The southwestern coastal region is known as Gippsland. The Murray River forms almost the entire boundary between the state and New South Wales. Australian Aboriginal peoples had lived in the region for at least 40,000 years before contact with Europeans. Some 60 years after Capt. James Cook first sighted its coastline (1770), the area was settled by immigrants from Tasmania, who brought in their wake dis¬ eases that decimated much of the Aboriginal population. Victoria became a separate colony in 1851. In 1901 it became a state of the Common¬ wealth of Australia. Boosting its economy is a highly productive agricul¬ tural hinterland.
Victoria City (pop., 2001: metro, area, 311,902), capital of British Columbia, Canada. It is located on the southeastern tip of Vancouver Island, overlooking Juan de Fuca Strait. It was founded in 1843 by the Hudson's Bay Co. as a fur-trading post known as Fort Camosun; it was later renamed Fort Victoria to honour the English queen. It was selected as the capital in 1866 when Vancouver Island united with British Colum¬ bia. It is now one of the province’s largest business centres and a tourist resort and retirement community. A major port, it is the Pacific headquar¬ ters of the Canadian navy.
Victoria Seaport, urban district, administrative centre of Hong Kong special administrative region, China. It lies on the northern shore of Hong Kong Island (pop., 2001: 1,335,469). It has extensive wharves and is con¬ nected to the mainland by ferry and by automobile and railway tunnels. It is the chief administrative, commercial, and cultural centre of Hong Kong and is the headquarters for numerous international banks and cor¬ porations.
Victoria Town (pop., 1997: metro, area, 24,701), capital of the Repub¬ lic of Seychelles. Located on the northeastern coast of Mahe Island in the Indian Ocean, it is the only port of the archipelago and the only town of any size in Seychelles. It is the country’s business and cultural centre.
Victoria, Lake or Victoria Nyanza Largest lake in Africa and chief reservoir of the Nile River, east-central Africa. The southern half lies in Tanzania, the northern half in Uganda; it borders Kenya in the northeast. With an area of 26,828 sq mi (69,484 sq km), it is the second largest freshwater lake in the world (after Lake Superior in North America). It is about 210 mi (337 km) long, 150 mi (240 km) wide, and up to 270 ft (82 m) deep. Though the Kagera River is its largest tributary, the most impor¬ tant source of water for the lake is rainfall. Its only outlet is the Victoria Nile. John Hanning Speke, searching for the source of the Nile in 1858, was the first European to sight it. He named it for Queen Victoria; the Arabs had called it Ukerewe. Henry Morton Stanley circumnavigated it in 1875. It became a reservoir when the water level was raised after completion of Owen Falls Dam in 1954.
Victoria, Tomas Luis de (b. c. 1548, near Avila, Spain—d. Aug. 27, 1611, Madrid) Spanish composer. He went to Rome c. 1565 as an organ¬ ist and singer, and he may have studied with Giovanni Pierluigi da Pal¬ estrina, eventually becoming kapellmeister for a Jesuit congregation (1573-77). Ordained a priest (1575), he was associated with St. Philip Neri’s group (1578-85). During this time he published his books of motets, masses. Magnificats, and hymns. In 1587 he returned to Spain as chaplain to the dowager empress Maria, in whose convent he served as organist and choirmaster until his death. He wrote 21 masses (including a Pope Marcellus Mass), several Magnificats, and 44 motets (including O magnum mysterium). His music is mystical, impressive, and moving, and he was renowned as the greatest Spanish composer of the Renais¬ sance.
Victoria, University of Public university in Victoria, British Colum¬ bia, Canada, founded in 1903. It has faculties of arts and sciences, edu¬ cation, engineering, fine arts, graduate studies, human and social development, and law, as well as schools of business, music, nursing, and other specializations.
Victoria and Albert Museum Museum of decorative arts in Lon¬ don. It was conceived by Prince Albert as a way to improve the standards of British design by making the finest models available for study. The
core collection, consisting of objects purchased at the 1851 Crystal Pal¬ ace exhibition, was originally called the Museum of Ornamental Art and was opened by Queen Victoria in 1857. A new building was later designed by Sir Aston Webb, and the museum was renamed when Victoria laid the cornerstone in 1899; it was opened to the public by Edward VII in 1909. It houses vast collections of European sculpture, ceramics, furniture, met¬ alwork, jewelry, textiles, and musical instruments from medieval times to the present; remarkable Chinese ceramics, jade, and sculpture; the pre¬ mier collection of Italian Renaissance sculpture outside Italy; and the out¬ standing national collection of British watercolours, miniatures, prints, and drawings. It is regarded as the world’s greatest decorative-arts museum. Its branch museums include the Bethnal Green Museum of Childhood, the Theatre Museum, and the Wellington Museum.
Victoria Desert See Great Victoria Desert
Victoria Falls Waterfall, at the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe. Approximately twice as wide and twice as deep as Niagara Falls, the falls span the entire breadth of the Zambezi River at one of its widest points (more than 5,500 ft [1,700 m]). There the river plunges over a precipice, split by islands and promontories, to a drop of 355 ft (108 m). Two national parks, Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe and Mosi-oa-Tunya in Zambia, are adjacent to the falls. Victoria Falls was designated a World Heritage site in 1989. The first European sighting of the falls was in 1855 by David Livingstone, who named them after Queen Victoria.
Victoria Falls See Iguazu Falls
Victoria Island Second largest island of the Arctic Archipelago, Canada. About 320 mi (515 km) long and 170-370 mi (270-600 km) wide, it has an area of 83,896 sq mi (217,291 sq km). Discovered in 1838 by Thomas Simpson, it was named for Queen Victoria and was first explored by John Rae in 1851. It is divided administratively between the Northwest Territories and the territory of Nunavut.