their extraordinary capacity as shipbuilders and sailors inspired their adventures. In 865 Vikings conquered East Anglia, Northumbria, and much of Mercia. Wessex under Alfred the Great made a truce in 878 that led to Danish control of much of England. Alfred defeated fresh Viking armies (892-899), and his son continued his reconquest, recovering lands in Mercia and East Anglia by 924; Viking Northumbria fell in 954. Renewed raids in 980 brought England into the empire of Canute, and it remained as such until 1042, when native rule was restored.The Vikings permanently affected English social structure, dialect, and names. In the western seas, Vikings had settled in Iceland by 900, whence they traveled to Greenland and North America. They invaded Ireland in 795, establish¬ ing kingdoms at Dublin, Limerick, and Waterford. The Battle of Clontarf (1014) ended the threat of Scandinavian rule. France suffered periodic Viking raids but no domination. In Russia Vikings briefly dominated Novgorod, Kiev, and other centres, but they were quickly absorbed by the Slav population. As traders they made commercial treaties with the Byz¬ antines (912, 945), and they served as mercenaries in Constantinople. Viking activity ended in the 11th century.
Viking ship See longship Vikramaditya See Chandra Gupta II
Vila \ve-'la\ or Port-Vila \,p6r-ve-'la\ Seaport, capital, and largest town (pop., 2003 est.: 33,987) of Vanuatu, southwestern South Pacific Ocean. Although French in appearance, the town has a multinational population including British, French, and Vietnamese. It served as a base for the U.S. in World War II and subsequently became the commercial centre of Van¬ uatu.
villa Country estate, complete with house, grounds, and subsidiary build¬ ings. The term particularly applies to the suburban summer residences of the ancient Romans and their later Italian imitators. Roman villas fre¬ quently were asymmetrical in plan and built with elaborate terracing on hillsides; they had long colonnades, towers, gardens with reflecting pools and fountains, and extensive reservoirs. In Britain the term has come to mean a small detached or semidetached suburban home. See also Hadri¬ an's Villa, Andrea Palladio.
Villa Vve-yo\, Pancho orig. Doroteo Arango (b. June 5, 1878, Hacienda de Rfo Grande, San Juan del Rfo, Mex.—d. June 20, 1923, Par- ral) Mexican guerrilla leader. He was orphaned at a young age and spent his adolescence as a fugitive, having murdered a landowner in revenge for an assault on his sister. An advocate of radical land reform, he joined Francisco Madero’s uprising against Porfirio Diaz. His Division del Norte joined forces with Venustiano Carranza to overthrow Victoriano Huerta (1854-1916), but he soon broke with the moderate Carranza and in 1914 was forced to flee with Emiliano Zapata. In 1916, to demonstrate that Car¬ ranza did not control the north, he raided a town in New Mexico. A U.S. force led by Gen. John Pershing was sent against him, but his popularity and knowledge of his home territory made him impossible to capture. He was granted a pardon after Carranza’s overthrow (1920) but was assas¬ sinated three years later. See also Mexican Revolution; Alvaro Obregon.
Villa-Lobos V.ve-b-'lo-boshV Heitor (b. March 5, 1887, Rio de Jan¬ eiro, Braz.—d. Nov. 17, 1959, Rio de Janeiro) Brazilian composer. He was exposed to folk music as a child, and his later extensive ethnomu- sicological studies (1905-12) had great influence on his own works. Self- taught as a composer, he met Darius Milhaud in 1917, and Artur Rubinstein later promoted his music and helped support him. A “week of modem art” in Sao Paulo (1922) brought his music to national attention, and he was given a grant to go to Paris (1923-30), where his music was received enthusiastically. On his return he became a leader in musical education— founding the Ministry of Education conservatory (1942) and the Brazil¬ ian Academy of Music (1945)—and Brazil’s semiofficial ambassador to the world. His many works include his 9 Bachianas brasileiras for vari¬ ous ensembles and his 14 Choros, based on a popular form of street music.
Villafranca \,ve-la-'fraq-ka\ A Peace of (1859) Preliminary peace treaty between France’s Napoleon III and Austria’s emperor Francis Joseph that ended the Franco-Piedmontese war against Austria. Napoleon III made peace after the costly Battle of Solferino without consulting the Piedmontese king, Victor Emmanuel II. By the peace terms, Lombardy was ceded to France and then to Piedmont, and the dukes of Parma, Modena, and Tuscany were restored to their thrones after being deposed by nation¬ alists. Though decried by Italian nationalists, the peace marked the begin¬ ning of Italy’s unification under Piedmontese leadership.
Vijnanavada See Yogacara
Viking Either of two unmanned U.S. spacecraft launched by NASA in 1975. After nearly yearlong jour¬ neys, Vikings 1 and 2 entered orbits around Mars and released landers that touched down on the planet and relayed measurements of properties of its atmosphere and soil, as well as colour photographs of its surface.
Experiments designed to detect evi¬ dence of living organisms provided no convincing evidence of life on the surface. The orbiters transmitted photographs of large expanses of the Martian surface.
Viking or Norseman Member of the Scandinavian seafaring war¬ riors who raided and colonized wide areas of Europe from the 9th to the 11th century. Overpopulation at home, ease of conquest abroad, and
Viking 2 lander (foreground) on Mars, photographed by one of the space¬ craft's own cameras, 1976.
NASA/JPL
© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
2006 I Villahermosa ► Vincent de Paul
Villahermosa V.be-ya-er-'mo-saV City (pop., 2000: 330,846), capital of Tabasco state, southeastern Mexico. Founded in 1596 as Villa Felipe II, it has also been known as San Juan de Villa Hermosa and as San Juan Bau¬ tista; it was given its present name in 1915. The cathedral was built in 1614. The archaeological museum is one of the best in Mexico. Villaher¬ mosa is the state’s chief distributing, processing, and agricultural city. There are Maya archaeological ruins in the area.
Villanovan \,vi-l9-'no-v9n\ culture Early Iron Age culture in Italy, named after the village where the first site was found in 1853. It appeared in the 10th or 9th century bc as a branch of the Urnfield cultures. Its dead were cremated and the ashes put in a decorated pottery two-story urn cov¬ ered with a bowl or a helmet-shaped lid, or in a so-called hut urn, a terra¬ cotta vessel. Expert metalworkers, the Villanovans controlled Tuscany’s copper and iron mines. In the later 8th century bc their art and burials were influenced by Greece. Their culture began to fade in the 7th century.
Villard de Honnecourt We-'lar-do-o-no-'ktirX (b. c. 1225, Picardy, France—d. c. 1250) French architect. He is remembered mainly for the sketchbook he compiled while traveling in search of work as a master mason. The book contains sketches and writings concerning architectural practices of the time. He includes sections on technical procedures and mechanical devices, as well as notes on the buildings and monuments he had seen, offering insights into the variety of interests and work of the 13th-century master mason and providing an explanation for the spread of Gothic architecture in Europe.
Villard \v3-'lard\, Henry orig. Ferdinand Heinrich Gustav Hil- gard (b. April 10, 1835, Speyer, Bavaria—d. Nov. 12, 1900, Dobbs Ferry, N.Y., U.S.) German-born U.S. journalist and financier. In 1853 he immigrated to the U.S., where he first found work with German-language newspapers. During the Civil War he was a correspondent for two New York City newspapers. In 1881 he purchased the Nation magazine and the New York Evening Post. In the 1870s he organized several railroads in Oregon, and from 1881 to 1884 he was president of the Northern Pacific, a transcontinental railroad completed under his management despite large cost overruns; he later served as chairman of the board (1888-93). He bought two Edison companies and created the Edison General Electric Co. in 1889, serving as president until its reorganization in 1892 as the General Electric Co.