Britannica Student Encyclopedia - 2010

country. Rangoon remained its capital.

In 1989 the country’s government

requested that people call the city

Yangon and the country Myanmar. In

2006 the government moved the capital

north to Naypyidaw, a site near the

town of Pyinmana.

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Myanmar

Yangtze River

The Yangtze is the longest river in China

and in all of Asia. It is also the third

longest river in the world, after the Nile

(in Africa) and the Amazon (in South

America). It is 3,915 miles (6,300 kilometers)

long.

The Yangtze, which is also called the

Chang Jiang, begins in the mountains of

Tibet, a region of western China. It runs

through mountains for most of its

length. Near the end of its course it

flows through wide, low plains. More

than 700 streams and rivers flow into

the Yangtze. The most important of

these are the Yalong, Min, Jialing, Han,

andWu rivers. The Yangtze empties into

the East China Sea near Shanghai in

east-central China.

People have lived in the area around the

Yangtze River for thousands of years.

The Sule Pagoda is one of the important

Buddhist temple buildings in Yangon,

Myanmar. Modern buildings surround the

pagoda.

86 Yangon BRITANNICA STUDENT ENCYCLOPEDIA

 

Many people live on the plains of the

lower Yangtze, where the soil is rich and

good for farming. Nearly half of China’s

crops are grown in this area. They

include rice, cotton, wheat, barley, corn,

beans, and hemp. Many other people

make a living by fishing in the Yangtze.

Carp, bream, Chinese perch, lamprey,

flatfish, and sturgeon are among the

catch.

The Yangtze has been an important

traffic route since the 1200s. The river

connects inland and coastal ports with

major cities, including Nanjing,

Wuhan, and Chongqing. China’s Grand

Canal joins the Yangtze to other river

routes.

Dams on the Yangtze help to control

flooding. They also produce electric

power. In additon, they allow large ships

to travel farther inland on the river.

In 1994 workers began building the

huge Three Gorges Dam across the

Yangtze. People in hundreds of towns in

the river valley left their homes to make

way for the project.Workers finished the

main part of the construction in 2006.

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China • Dam • River

Yaounde

Population

(2004 estimate)

1,434,700

Yaounde is the capital of Cameroon, a

country in west-central Africa. The city

lies on hilly land between the Nyong

and Sanaga rivers.

Several research institutes and schools of

higher learning are located in Yaounde.

The city is a center of transportation,

trade, banking, communications, and

other service industries. Factories in

Yaounde produce lumber, cigarettes,

processed foods, and other products.

Yaounde was founded in 1888, when

Germany ruled the Cameroon region. In

The Yangtze River makes a wide bend as it

flows through southwestern China.

BRITANNICA STUDENT ENCYCLOPEDIA Yaounde 87

 

the early 1920s France took control of

most of Cameroon. From then on

Yaounde served as the capital of the

French colony, except for a period in the

1940s. In 1960 Cameroon became an

independent country with Yaounde as

its capital.

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Cameroon

Yaqui

The Yaqui are a group of Native Americans

who originally lived in northwestern

Mexico. Today the tribe is still

centered there, in the state of Sonora.

Many Yaqui also live in the United

States, in the state of Arizona.

The Yaqui traditionally built domeshaped,

wooden homes. They covered

their homes with mats made of plant

material. They grew corn, beans, and

squash. They also hunted, fished, and

gathered wild plants.

Spanish explorers arrived in Yaqui

territory in 1533. Over the next several

hundred years the Yaqui fought the

Spanish, and later the Mexicans, for

control of their land. In the 1880s the

Mexican government took over the

tribe’s territory. The government sent

thousands of Yaqui to southern Mexico,

far from their homeland. Some Yaqui

escaped and returned home. Others fled

Mexico for the United States. They

made new settlements in what is now

southern Arizona.

In the 1930s the Mexican government

returned much of the Yaqui’s original

territory to the tribe. Many Yaqui then

moved back to Sonora. At the end of the

20th century there were more than

25,000 Yaqui in Mexico. Another

15,000 Yaqui lived in the United States.

The tribe has a reservation near Tucson,

A photograph from about 1907 shows a

Yaqui girl.

The interesting design of some of Yaounde’s

public buildings makes them stand out from

the other buildings in the city.

88 Yaqui BRITANNICA STUDENT ENCYCLOPEDIA

 

Arizona. The group living on the reservation

is known as the Pascua Yaqui

Tribe of Arizona.

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Native Americans

Yeltsin, Boris

Boris Yeltsin led Russia through its last

days as a part of the Union of Soviet

Socialist Republics, or Soviet Union.

From 1991 through 1999 Yeltsin served

as president of the independent country

of Russia.

Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin was born in

Sverdlovsk (now Yekaterinburg), Russia,

on February 1, 1931. He became an

engineer as a young man.

In the 1960s Yeltsin joined the Communist

Party—the political group that controlled

the Soviet Union. In 1976 the

party put him in charge of the Sverdlovsk

region.