Britannica Student Encyclopedia - 2010

BRITANNICA STUDENT ENCYCLOPEDIA War of 1812 13

 

Warsaw

Population

(2008 estimate)

1,706,620

Warsaw is the capital of Poland, a country

in eastern Europe. It is Poland’s largest

city and center of culture.Warsaw

lies on a flat plain. The Vistula River

cuts through the city.

Many people inWarsaw work in service

industries such as trade, insurance, education,

and tourism. The city is Poland’s

center of banking. Factories inWarsaw

make electronics, cars, processed foods,

and other products.

Warsaw was once a small trading settlement.

The town grew after a castle was

built there in the late 1200s. It became

the capital of Poland in 1596.

Warsaw survived great destruction several

times. Sweden attacked the city in

the 1650s. Russia invadedWarsaw in the

1790s.

Poland fell under foreign rule in the late

1700s. In 1918, afterWorldWar I, it

became an independent country again.

Warsaw was its capital.

Nazi troops from Germany ruled Poland

during WorldWar II, from 1939 to

1945. They murdered hundreds of thousands

of Jews, Poles, and other people

fromWarsaw. This was part of a mass

killing called the Holocaust.

The Nazis forcedWarsaw’s Jews to live

in terrible conditions in an area called a

ghetto. In 1943 the Jews fought an

uprising against the Nazis. The Jews

were greatly outnumbered, however. The

Nazis recaptured the ghetto and

destroyed it.

The people ofWarsaw fought the Nazis

again in 1944, but they lost. The Nazis

then destroyed most of the city.

After the warWarsaw was rebuilt. By the

end of the 20th century the city’s population

was larger than it had been before

the war.

..More to explore

Holocaust • Nazi Party • Poland

Most of the buildings in the older section of

Warsaw, Poland, were rebuilt after World

War II. The builders made them look just

like the old buildings that were destroyed in

the war.

14 Warsaw BRITANNICA STUDENT ENCYCLOPEDIA

 

Washington

The U.S. state ofWashington is called

the Evergreen State because of its great

fir, pine, and hemlock forests. It is also

sometimes called the Chinook State,

after a Native American tribe of the

Columbia River area.Washington is the

only state named after a president—

GeorgeWashington. Olympia is the

capital.

Geography

Washington lies in the northwestern

United States. On the north the state

borders the Canadian province of British

Columbia. Idaho is to the east, and

Oregon is to the south. The Pacific

Ocean lies to the west. Puget Sound is

an arm of the Pacific that reaches into

the state.

The greatest physical feature ofWashington

is the Cascade Range, or the Cascades.

This mountain chain has the

highest point in the state, Mount

Rainier. It rises 14,410 feet (4,392

meters). The Cascades divideWashington

into two parts. About one third of

the state lies west of the Cascades. The

area around Puget Sound is a lowland

where more than half of the state’s

people live. Much of the land east of the

Cascades is high, flat land called a plateau.

The main river inWashington is

the Columbia.

The climate in westernWashington is

wet and mild. EasternWashington is

much drier, with hot summers and cold

winters.

People

During the 1800s many settlers

came toWashington along the route

called the Oregon Trail. Most of them

were from the Midwest. Immigrants

from Canada and northern Europe

arrived later.

Today whites make up about four fifths

ofWashington’s population. Hispanics

and Asians are the largest minority

groups. More than 90,000 Native

Americans live in the state, too.

Economy

Washington’s economy depends mostly

on manufacturing and services. The

Boeing Company makes aircraft and

spacecraft in a huge factory near Seattle.

The Microsoft Corporation, in Redmond,

is a leader in the production of

computer software. Service industries

such as real estate and tourism grew

quickly in the late 20th century.

Bonneville

Dam

Grand

Coulee

Dam

BRITANNICA STUDENT ENCYCLOPEDIA Washington 15

 

Other industries inWashington include

the making of wood products and the

processing of seafood and farm products.

The main farm goods are apples, dairy

products, and cattle. Fishing boats bring

in salmon, crabs, and other seafood.

History

Native American tribes lived in the

Washington region long before white

settlers arrived. They included the Chinook,

the Salish, and the Yakima. In

1792 both Great Britain and the United

States claimed the region. The U.S.

claim was strengthened in 1805, when

the explorers Meriwether Lewis and

William Clark arrived.

The region’s early settlers made their

living mainly by fur trading. Beginning

in 1826 logging camps and sawmills

were established. In 1846 Britain and

the United States signed a treaty that set

the border between Canada and the

United States. In 1853 the U.S. Congress

established theWashington Territory

north of the Columbia River.

Washington became the 42nd state in

1889.

In the 1890s a gold rush in Alaska

spurred the growth of cities and shipping

ports on Puget Sound. Early in the

1900sWashington began projects to

improve navigation and create power

plants on the Columbia River. The Bonneville

and Grand Coulee dams were

built in the 1930s and 1940s.

In the second half of the 1900s the