Westphalia, Peace of (1648) European settlements that ended the Thirty Years' War, negotiated in the Westphalian towns of Munster and Osnabriick. The deliberations began in 1644 and ended in 1648 with two assemblies that produced the treaty between Spain and the Dutch (signed January 30) and another between Emperor Ferdinand III, the other German princes, France, and Sweden (signed October 24). Territorial changes gave Sweden control of the Baltic Sea, ensured France a firm frontier west of the Rhine River, and provided their allies with additional lands. Indepen¬ dence was confirmed for the United Provinces of the Netherlands and for the Swiss Confederation. The treaties also confirmed the Peace of Augs¬ burg and extended the religious toleration of Lutherans to include tolera¬
tion of the Reformed (Calvinist) Church. The Holy Roman Empire was forced to recognize its German princes as absolute sovereigns in their own dominions, which greatly weakened its central authority.
Wetar Vwe-,tar\ Island, Indonesia. Lying 35 mi (56 km) north of East Timor, it is 80 mi (130 km) long, 28 mi (45 km) wide, and has an area of 1,400 sq mi (3,600 sq km). In its interior, rugged mountains covered with tropical rain forests rise to 4,632 ft (1,412 m). Subsistence farming and fishing are the main occupations of the few islanders.
Weyden Vvi-d 3 n, 'va-d 3 n\, Rogier van der (b. 1399/1400, Tournai, France—d. June 18, 1464, Brussels) Flemish painter. He seems to have begun his painting career at the rather advanced age of 27, when he entered the studio of Robert Campin. In early paintings he combined Camp- in’s bold style with the elegance and subtle visual refinements he admired in the art of Jan van Eyck. By 1435 he moved to Brussels and the next year was appointed city painter. During that period (c. 1435—40) he executed the celebrated panel of the Descent from the Cross for the chapel of the Archers’ Guild of Louvain. His international reputation grew, his work being particularly admired in Italy. Though most of his work was religious, he produced secular paintings (now lost) and some sensitive portraits. His art affected generations of Flemish artists and introduced the Flemish style throughout Europe.
Weyerhaeuser YwI-or-.hau-zorV Frederick orig. Friedrich Weyerhaeuser (b. Nov. 21, 1834, Nieder Saulheim, Hesse—d. April 4, 1914, Pasadena, Calif., U.S.) German-bom U.S. lumber magnate. He immigrated to the U.S. at age 18 and found work in an Illinois sawmill, which he and his brother-in-law bought in 1857. He traveled constantly to buy stands of timber and acquired an interest in many logging and milling operations. In 1872 he organized the Mississippi River Boom and Logging Co., a huge confederation that handled all the logs milled on the Mississippi. In 1900 he bought 900,000 acres of timberland in the Pacific Northwest and founded the Weyerhaeuser Timber Co. (now Weyerhaeu¬ ser Co.), centred in Tacoma, Wash. During his lifetime the company bought almost two million acres of land.
Weygand \va-'ga n \, Maxime (b. Jan. 21, 1867, Brussels, Belg.—d. Jan. 28, 1965, Paris, France) Belgian-born French army officer. He was educated in France and taught at the French cavalry school. He served as chief of staff to Gen. Ferdinand Foch (1914-23), as high commissioner in Syria (1923-24), and as inspector general of the army (1931-35) before retiring in 1935. In May 1940 he was recalled to take command of the French armies; unable to prevent a German victory, he advised capitula¬ tion in June. After the Allied invasion of North Africa (1942) he sought to fly to Algiers but was caught by the Germans and imprisoned in an Austrian castle. Released by U.S. troops in 1945, he was arrested by the French under the orders of Charles de Gaulle. He was exonerated by de Gaulle in 1948.
whale Any of dozens of species of exclusively aquatic mammals found in oceans, seas, rivers, and estuaries worldwide but especially numerous in the Antarctic Ocean. Whales are commonly distinguished from the smaller porpoises and dolphins and sometimes from narwhals, but they are all cetaceans. See also baleen whale; toothed whale.
whale shark Species (Rhincodon typus) of gigantic but harmless shark found worldwide but mainly in the tropics. The largest of living fishes, it often grows to about 30 ft (9 m) long and may reach twice that size. It is gray or brown with a pale undersurface and is distinctively marked with small spots and narrow vertical lines of yellow or white. It has tiny teeth, and eats plankton and small fishes. A sluggish animal, it generally swims slowly near the surface and has been hit by ships.
Whales, Bay of Former inlet of the Ross Sea, Ross Ice Shelf, Antarc¬ tica. It was first seen by the British explorer James C. Ross in 1842. The bay was the continent’s most southerly open harbour in summer and was the site of several important bases for Antarctic exploration. More than 10 mi (16 km) wide in 1911, it gradually narrowed as advancing ice sheets collided. It disappeared entirely in 1987 when an iceberg 99 mi (159 km) long broke off from the Ross Ice Shelf.
whaling Hunting of whales for food, oil, or both. Whaling dates to pre¬ historic times, when Arctic peoples used stone tools to hunt whales. They used the entire animal, a feat not accomplished by Western commercial whalers until the advent of floating factories in the 20th century. The Basque were the first Europeans to hunt whales commercially; when sea¬ worthy oceangoing vessels began to be made, they took to the open seas
Edward Weston at Point Lobos, Carmel Bay, Calif., 1945
IMOGEN CUNNINGHAM
© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
Wharton ► Whig Party i 2051
(14th—16th century). They were followed by the Dutch and the Germans in the 17th century and the British and their colonists in the 18th century. In 1712 the first sperm whale was killed; its oil proved more valuable than that of the right whale, which had hitherto been the object of whaling ven¬ tures. Whaling expeditions in pursuit of the free-ranging sperm whale could last for four years. The discovery of petroleum (1859), overfishing, the use of vegetable oil, and the substitution of steel for whalebones in corsets led to a steep decline in whaling in the later 19th century, but Nor¬ wegian innovations made hunting the hitherto “wrong” whales (rorquals, including the blue whale and the sei whale; so called because they sank when killed) commercially feasible, and the number of whales killed rose from under 2,000 to over 20,000 between 1900 and 1911. The Norwe¬ gians and the British dominated whaling into the mid 20th century, when overfishing again made it unprofitable for most nations, though not Japan and the Soviet Union, which became the chief whaling nations. Concern over the near extinction of many species led to the establishment in 1946 of the International Whaling Commission. Commercial whaling was pro¬ hibited altogether in 1986, but several nations refused to comply. At the beginning of the 21st century, Norway and Japan continued to hunt hun¬ dreds of nonendangered whales annually.
Wharton, Edith (Newbold) orig. Edith Newbold Jones (b.
Jan. 24, 1862, New York, N.Y., U.S.—d. Aug. 11, 1937, Saint-Brice-sous- Foret, near Paris, France) U.S. novelist and short-story writer. Born into upper-class society, she began writing a few years after her marriage in 1885. She lived in France after 1908 and was divorced in 1913. Her works examine the barriers of social convention, especially in the upper class, that stand in the way of individual happiness. Her close friendship with the older novelist Henry James did much to support and shape her work. The critical and popular success of her novel The House of Mirth (1905; film, 1918, 2000; for television, 1981) established her as a leading writer. She is perhaps best known for Ethan Frome (1911), which exploits the grimmer possibilities of New England farm life. Her other books include the novels The Custom of the Country (1913), The Age of Innocence (1920, Pulitzer Prize), and The Buccaneers (1938).
wheat Any of various cereal grasses in the genus Triticum of the Poaceae (or Gramineae) family, one of the oldest and most important of the cereal crops. More of the world’s farmland is devoted to wheat than to any other food crop; China is the largest wheat producer. The plant has long, slen¬ der leaves, hollow stems in most varieties, and flowers grouped together in spikelets. Of the thousands of varieties known, the most important are T. aestivum, used to make bread; T. durum , used in making pasta; and T. compactum (club wheat), a softer type used for cake, crackers, cookies, pastries, and household flours. Winter wheat (sown in fall) and spring wheat (sown in spring or, where winters are mild, sometimes fall) are the two major types. The greatest portion of wheat flour is used for bread¬ making. Small quantities are used in the production of starch, malt, glu¬ ten, alcohol, and other products. Inferior and surplus wheats and various milling by-products are used for livestock feeds.