Bois, W.E.B. Du See W.E.B. Du Bois
Boise \'boi-ze\ City (pop., 2000: 185,787), capital of Idaho, U.S. The largest city in the state, it lies on the Boise River. Following the 1862 gold rush to the river basin. Fort Boise was established in 1863, and a community developed to provide services for the mines. It became the capital of Idaho Territory in 1864, and of the state in 1890. Agricultural expansion and the growth of the lumber industry contributed to its rapid growth. Boise is the headquarters of the Boise National Forest.
Resurrection, panel painting by the Master of Wittingau, c. 1380-90; in the National Gallery, Prague.
GIRAUDON/ART RESOURCE, NEW YORK
© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
Boito ► Bolivia I 243
Boito Vbo-e-toV Arrigo orig. Enrico Giuseppe Giovanni Boito
(b. Feb. 24, 1842, Padua, Lombardy-Venetia—d. June 10, 1918, Milan, Italy) Italian composer and librettist. As a composer, he is remembered for his opera Mefistofele (1868). He wrote the text for Giuseppe Verdi’s Inno delle nazioni (1862) and revised the libretto for his Simon Boccanegra (1881), tasks that led to his writing the celebrated texts for Verdi’s mas- terworks Otello (1887) and Falstajf { 1893). He was also the librettist of Amilcare Ponchielli’s La Gioconda (1876). His own opera Nerone was left unfinished at his death.
Bojador V.bo-jo-'dorX, Cape Cape, West Africa. It extends into the Atlantic Ocean off Western Sahara south of the Canary Islands. After 1434 the Portuguese began exploiting the region, particularly for slaves. Later the area was disputed by Spain and Portugal; Spain finally gained con¬ trol in 1860 and annexed it in 1884. After Spain’s withdrawal from West¬ ern Sahara in 1976, Morocco claimed the cape, garrisoned troops there, and made the area a province.
BojanglesSee Bill Robinson
Bok, Edward (William) (b. Oct. 9, 1863, Den Helder, Neth.—d. Jan. 9, 1930, Lake Wales, Fla., U.S.)
Dutch-bom U.S. editor. Raised in a poor immigrant family in Brooklyn,
N.Y., Bok pursued a career in book and magazine publishing. As editor of the Ladies’ Home Journal (1889—
1919) he devised departments to inform women on diverse subjects and led campaigns for public health and beautification. His decision to stop accepting patent-medicine advertising helped bring about the Pure Food and Drug Act (1906). He also broke the taboo against the printed mention of venereal disease.
His last years were devoted to work¬ ing for civic improvement and world peace. He wrote a notable autobiog¬ raphy, The Americanization of Edward Bok (1920, Pulitzer Prize).
bok choy or Chinese mustard
Brassica chinensis, one of two types of Chinese cabbage. It has glossy dark green leaves and thick, crisp white stalks in a loose head. Its yellow¬ flowering centre is especially prized. See also brassica; mustard family.
Bokassa \bo-'kas-3\, Jean-Bedel or Bokassa I (b. Feb. 22, 1921, Bobangui [Central African Republic]—d. Nov. 3, 1996, Bangui, Central African Republic) President of the Central African Republic (1966-77) and self-proclaimed emperor of the Central African Empire (1977-79). Son of a village chief, Bokassa joined the French army in 1939 and later received the Croix de Guerre for his service in Indochina. In 1961 he returned to head the army of the newly independent Central African Republic; five years later he overthrew the president, his cousin David Dacko. In 1977 he had himself crowned emperor. When he was found to have participated in the massacre of 100 schoolchildren and was accused of cannibalism, French paratroops removed him in a coup and reestab¬ lished the republic. Bokassa settled in Cote d’Ivoire. He was sentenced to death in absentia in 1980, but his death sentence was later commuted.
Bokhara See Bukhara
Bokn Fjord \ , biik- 3 n- , fyord\ Inlet of the North Sea, southwestern Nor¬ way. It is about 28 mi (45 km) long and 12 mi (20 km) wide. Its branches include other fjords, and it is dotted by many islands and islets. The major settlement along the fjord is Stavanger, a centre for offshore oil drilling.
Boleyn, Anne See Anne Boleyn
Bolingbroke Vba-liq-.briikV Henry Saint John, 1 st Viscount (b.
Sept. 16,1678, probably Wiltshire, Eng.—d. Dec. 12,1751, Battersea, near London) British politician. After entering Parliament in 1701, he became a prominent Tory in the reign of Queen Anne, serving as secretary of war (1704-08) and of state (1710-15). He was dismissed from office by George I and, fearing impeachment because of his intrigues with the Jacobites, he fled to France in 1715. He returned to England in 1725 and became the centre of a literary circle that included Jonathan Swift, Alexander Pope, and
Edward Bok, photograph by Pirie Mac¬ Donald, 1909.
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, WASHINGTON, D.C.
John Gay. He waged an influential propaganda campaign in opposition to the Whigs and their leader, Robert Walpole, and also wrote several historical and philosophical works, including The Idea of a Patriot King (published secretly by Pope in 1744 and as a corrected version in 1749).
The Liberator (b. July 24,
Bolivar \bo-'le-var\, Simon known 1783, Caracas, New Granada—d.
Dec. 17, 1830, near Santa Maria,
Colombia) South American soldier and statesman who led the revolu¬ tions against Spanish rule in New Granada (now Colombia, Venezu¬ ela, and Ecuador), Peru, and Upper Peru (now Bolivia). The son of a Venezuelan aristocrat, Bolivar received a European education.
Influenced by European rationalism, he joined Venezuela’s independence movement and became a prominent political and military leader. The revolutionaries expelled Venezuela’s Spanish governor (1810) and declared the nation’s independence in 1811. The young republic was defeated by the Spanish in 1814, and Bolivar went into exile. In 1819 he undertook a daring attack on New Granada, leading some 2,500 men over routes considered impassable. Taking the Spanish by surprise, he defeated them quickly. With the help of Antonio Sucre, he secured the indepen¬ dence of Ecuador in 1822. He completed Jose de San Martin’s revolution¬ ary work in Peru, freeing that country in 1824. On Bolivar’s orders, Sucre liberated Upper Peru (1825). As president of both Colombia (1821-30) and Peru (1823-29), Bolivar oversaw the creation in 1826 of a league of Hispanic American states, but the new states soon began warring among themselves. Less successful at ruling countries than at liberating them, Bolivar exiled himself and died on his way to Europe.
Simon Bolivar, detail of an engraving by C.G. Childs.
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, WASHINGTON, D.C.
Bolivar \bo-'le-var\ Peak or Pico Bolivar or La Columna Moun¬ tain, Venezuela. It is located in Sierra Nevada National Park. Rising 16,427 ft (5,007 m), it is the highest mountain in the Cordillera de Mer¬ ida (a northeastern spur of the Andes Mountains) and in Venezuela.
Bolivia officially Republic of Bolivia Country, west-central South America. Area: 424,164 sq mi (1,098,581 sq km). Population (2005 est.): 8,858,000. Capitals: La Paz (administrative), Sucre (judicial). The popu¬ lation consists of three principal groups: Indians, largely Aymara and Que- chua; mestizos; and descendants of Europeans. Languages: Spanish, Aymara, Quechua (all official). Religions: Christianity (predominantly Roman Catholic [official]; also Protestant); also vestiges of pre- Columbian religion. Currency: boliviano. Bolivia may be divided into three major regions. The southwestern highlands, or Altiplano, where Lake Titicaca is located, extends through southwestern Bolivia. It is enclosed by the second region, the western and eastern branches of the Andes Mountains. Much of the eastern branch is heavily forested terrain, with many deep river valleys; the western branch is a high plateau bordered by volcanoes, including the country’s highest peak, Mount Sajama, which rises to 21,463 ft (6,542 m). The third region is a lowland area that com¬ prises the northern and eastern two-thirds of the country; its rivers include the Guapore, Mamore, Beni, and upper Pilcomayo. Bolivia has a develop¬ ing mixed economy based on the production of natural gas and agricul¬ tural foodstuffs. It is a republic with two legislative houses; its head of state and government is the president. The Bolivian highlands were the location of the advanced Tiwanaku culture in the 7th—11th centuries and, with its passing, became the home of the Aymara, an Indian group con¬ quered by the Inca in the 15th century. The Inca were overrun by the invading Spanish conquistadorcs under Francisco Pizarro in the 1530s. By 1600 Spain had established the cities of Charcas (now Sucre), La Paz, Santa Cruz, and what would become Cochabamba and had begun to exploit the silver wealth of Potosf. Bolivia flourished in the 17th century, and for a time Potosf was the largest city in the Americas. By the end of the cen¬ tury, the mineral wealth had been depleted. Talk of independence began as early as 1809, but not until 1825 were Spanish forces finally defeated. Bolivia shrank in size when it lost Atacama province to Chile in 1884 at the end of the War of the Pacific and again when it lost most of Gran Chaco to Paraguay in 1938 as a result of the Chaco War. One of South