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West Coast: regional council in west-central South Island, New Zealand. It is bounded by the Tasman Sea (west), the unitary authority of Tasman (north), and the regional councils of Canterbury and Otago (east) and Southland (south). The Southern Alps, with their towering peaks and rugged terrain, contribute to its isolation and varied ...
West Coast Desert zone: (from the article "climate") An interesting variant of tropical and subtropical deserts are the so-called West Coast Desert areas found on the western coastal margins of the regions discussed above (e.g., in the Sonoran Desert of North America, the Peru and Atacama deserts of South America, and the Sahara [Moroccan part] and Namib deserts ...
West Coast Eagles: (from the article "Football") For the second successive year, the Sydney Swans played the West Coast Eagles in the Australian Football League (AFL) Grand Final, but in 2006 there was a different result. On September 30, in front of a crowd of 97,431 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, the Eagles won by one point. ...
West Coast jazz: (from the article "Brubeck, Dave") popular American jazz pianist who brought elements of classical music into jazz and whose style epitomized that of the "West Coast movement."cool jazzcool jazz...surrounded a community of white jazz musicians, including Gerry Mulligan, Dave Brubeck, Shorty Rogers, and o
West Coast offense: (from the article "Walsh, Bill") Walsh believed in "scripting"-selecting ahead of time-the first 25 plays of a game. His "West Coast offense" was a ball-control offense that featured short passes and quick slanting pass routes by receivers and running backs. This resulted in coverage mismatches and space for the backs and receivers to break long ...
West Covina: city, Los Angeles county, southern California, U.S. It lies at the eastern end of the San Gabriel Valley and is about 20 miles (30 km) east of the city centre of Los Angeles. Settled in 1905, it began as an agricultural community surrounded by citrus and walnut groves. After World ...
West Cuvette: (from the article "Cuvette") ...of northern Congo (Brazzaville), west-central Africa. Since 1997 it has been divided into two regions: East Cuvette (Cuvette Est), bordered by Congo (Kinshasa) to the southeast; and West Cuvette (Cuvette Oueste), bordered by Gabon to the west. The capital of East Cuvette is Owando, while the capital of West Cuvette ...
West Des Moines: city and suburb of Des Moines (which lies immediately to the east), Polk county, central Iowa, U.S. The area was settled in the 1840s and became an important rail junction in the 1850s called Valley Junction. James Cunningham Jordan, the town's first settler, operated a station on the Underground Railroad ...
West Devon: borough (district), administrative and historic county of Devon, southwestern England. The borough lies directly north of the city of Plymouth. West Devon encompasses most of Dartmoor in the county's southeast and is separated from the county of Cornwall on the west by the narrow, lowland valley of the River Tamar.
West Dorset: district, administrative county of Dorset, southern England. The district lies almost entirely within the historic county of Dorset, except for small areas along the northern border that belong to the historic county of Somerset. It occupies an area bordering on Lyme Bay of the English Channel and surrounds to landward ...
West Dunbartonshire: council area, west-central Scotland, along the north bank of the lower River Clyde, northwest of Glasgow. It extends north to the shore of Loch Lomond, Scotland's largest lake, and encompasses an area of lowlands surrounding the Kilpatrick Hills, which stand in the centre of the council area. West Dunbartonshire lies ...
West End: in London, loosely defined area in the boroughs of Westminster and Kensington and Chelsea. Because many of its neighbourhoods and retail districts are among the more affluent of the metropolis, the West End is considered the fashionable end of London. For centuries it has been known for its royal palaces, ...
West Falkland: one of the two major islands of the Falkland Islands in the South Atlantic Ocean. It is 80 miles (130 km) long and 45 miles (70 km) wide and rises to 2,297 feet (700 metres) at Mount Adam. The coastline is deeply indented, and the settlement of Port Stephens is ...
West Flanders: (from the article "Belgium") ...Brabant, and Luxembourg), and Flemings, a Flemish- (Netherlandic-) speaking people (more than one-half of the total population), who are concentrated in the five northern and northeastern provinces (West Flanders, East Flanders [West-Vlaanderen, Oost-Vlaanderen], Flemish Brabant, Antwerp, and Limburg). Just north of the boundary between Walloon Brabant (Brabant Walloon) and Flemish ...
West Florida Controversy: in U.S. history, dispute over the status of the territory lying on the Gulf of Mexico between the Apalachicola and Mississippi rivers. Though Spain claimed the area as part of its New World discovery in 1492, France occupied it as a portion of Louisiana after 1695. Under the Treaty of ... [2 Related Articles]
West Florida Republic: (from the article "Mississippi, flag of") Part of what is today the state of Mississippi was included in the West Florida Republic, which was proclaimed in 1810 by American settlers in opposition to Spanish rule. Their flag had a blue background with a single white star in the centre. (A similar design was used in the ...
West Francia: (from the article "Europe, history of") Charlemagne's kingdoms, but not the imperial title, were divided after the death of his son Louis I (the Pious) in 840 into the regions of West Francia, the Middle Kingdom, and East Francia. The last of these regions gradually assumed control over the Middle Kingdom north of the Alps. In ...
West Frisian Islands: part of the chain of Frisian Islands (q.v.), which lie in the North Sea just off the coast of northwestern Europe. They belong to The Netherlands. [2 Related Articles]
West Frisian language: (from the article "West Germanic languages") The following remarks refer to the more or less standard West Frisian that is developing in the province of Friesland.
West Germanic languages: group of Germanic languages that developed in the region of the North Sea, Rhine-Weser, and Elbe. Out of the many local West Germanic dialects the following six modern standard languages have arisen: English, Frisian, Netherlandic (Dutch-Flemish), Afrikaans, German, and Yiddish. [2 Related Articles]
West Greenland Current: (from the article "West Greenland Current") cool flow of water proceeding northward along the west coast of Greenland. See Greenland Current.Davis StraitDavis Strait...through the Canadian Arctic Archipelago linking the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. It is appr
West Hartford: urban town (township), Hartford county, central Connecticut, U.S. Founded in 1679 as an agricultural community, it was known as West Division Parish or West Society. It became a wealthy residential suburb of Hartford, was named West Hartford in 1806, and was separately incorporated in 1854. Industry is restricted to a ...
West Haven: city, coextensive with the town (township) of West Haven, New Haven county, southwestern Connecticut, U.S. It lies on New Haven Harbor and across the West River from New Haven. Early settlement began in the 1640s, when the area was called West Farms. Additional land was divided among veterans of King ...
West Highland white terrier: breed of terrier that probably originated at Poltalloch, in the former county of Argyll, Scotland. It was bred there for many years by the Malcolm family, whose dogs appear to be traceable back to the time of King James I of England. Typically hardy and gay-spirited, the West Highland white ...
West Indian boxwood: (from the article "boxwood") ...also refers to many other woods with a similar density and grain, such as Venezuelan boxwood, or zapatero (Gossypiospermum praecox), a South American tree of the family Flacourtiaceae; West Indian boxwood, a North American lumber trade name for wood from two tropical American trees, Phyllostylon brasiliensis of the family Ulmaceae ...
West Indies: crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles (3,200 km) long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north. From the peninsula of Florida on the mainland of the United States, the islands stretch 1,200 ... [56 Related Articles]
West Indies: (from the article "Lara, Brian") ...a natural athlete, and a member of the national under-(age)14 football (soccer) team, Lara was expected from an early age to be the next great West Indian cricketer. He was first selected for the West Indies national team in 1990 at age 21, but he did not make his mark ...
West Indies Act: (from the article "Antigua and Barbuda") ...and in 1958 Antigua joined the West Indies Federation. When the federation was dissolved in 1962, Antigua persevered with discussions of alternative forms of federation. Provision was made in the West Indies Act of 1967 for Antigua to assume a status of association with the United Kingdom on February 27, ...
West Indies Associated States: former political organization of islands in the Caribbean Sea that were British colonies whose status changed to free association with the United Kingdom in 1967. This status provided for internal self-government, with Britain responsible for external affairs and defense. The islands attempted several kinds of federation between 1958 and 1966 ...
West Indies Federation: (from the article "Dominica") ...a separate colony. It was rejoined administratively to the Leewards in 1883 and remained thus until 1940, when it was transferred to the Windwards as a separate colony. In 1958 Dominica joined the West Indies Federation. After the federation was dissolved in 1962, discussions for alternative forms of federation took ...
West Indies Royal Commission: (from the article "Anguilla") A series of labour disturbances throughout the British West Indies in the 1930s spurred the creation of a royal commission (popularly known as the Moyne Commission) to examine social and economic conditions in the islands. The commission advocated political and social reforms, and its findings hastened the democratization of the ...
West Indies, history of: (from the article "American Revolution") Despite allied supremacy in the Channel in 1779, the threat of invasion, and the loss of islands in the West Indies, the British maintained control of the North American seaboard for most of 1779 and 1780, which made possible their southern land campaigns. They also reinforced Gibraltar, which the Spaniards ...
West Indies, University of the: (from the article "Selected universities and colleges of the world") ...and vocational education, including a polytechnic school, a community college, and a teacher's college. Education is compulsory to age 16. Most study at the university level is done at the University of the West Indies, which maintains a Barbados campus at Cave Hill, near Bridgetown.
West Indies, University of the: (from the article "Selected universities and colleges of the world") ...World War II the island profited greatly from the Colonial Development and Welfare Act and from outside investment. Colonial Development grants financed the building of the Jamaican branch of the University of the West Indies (established 1947), which became an important factor in the preparation for independence. A sugar refinery, ...
West Indies, University of the: (from the article "Selected universities and colleges of the world") Education is free at the primary and secondary levels and compulsory between the ages of 6 and 12. A campus of the University of the West Indies, offering courses in engineering, business administration, law, medicine, social science, natural science, education, agriculture, and humanities, is located in St. Augustine, about 10 ...
West Irian Jaya: (from the article "Papua") ...broke out periodically. By 2002 Indonesia had changed the name of the province to Papua and granted it more autonomy. Efforts were also made to divide Papua into three provinces, one of which, West Irian Jaya (Irian Jaya Barat), was declared in 2003.
West Island: (from the article "Cocos Islands") ...located about 15 miles (24 km) north of the main lagoon (South Lagoon), which is surrounded by the numerous islets of the South Keeling Islands. The principal islands of the South Keelings include West Island (the largest in the territory, with a length of 6 miles [10 km]), South, Home, ...
West Japan Volcanic Belt: (from the article "Japan") The Ryukyu Islands Region constitutes the main portion of the Ryukyu arc, which penetrates into Kyushu as the West Japan Volcanic Belt and terminates at Mount Aso. The influence of the arc is also seen in the trend of the many elongated islands off western Kyushu, including the Koshiki, Goto, ...
West Jersey: (from the article "United States") ...colony to two Quakers, who in turn placed the management of the colony in the hands of three trustees, one of whom was Penn. The area was then divided into East Jersey, controlled by Carteret, and West Jersey, controlled by Penn and the other Quaker trustees. In 1682 the Quakers ...
West Kipchak group: (from the article "Turkic languages") ...group (NWⁿ) consists of Tatar (Tatarstan, Russia; China; Romania; Bulgaria; and so on), Bashkir (Bashkortostan, Russia), and West Siberian dialects (Tepter, Tobol, Irtysh, and so on). The West Kipchak group (NW^w) today consists of small, partly endangered languages, Kumyk (Dagestan), Karachay and Balkar (North Caucasus), Crimean Tatar, and Karaim. The ...
West Lafayette: city, Tippecanoe county, west-central Indiana, U.S. It lies along the Wabash River (bridged) opposite Lafayette. A town was platted on the west bank of the Wabash in 1836, but it failed to attract settlers because it was located in an area prone to flooding. A second settlement was founded on ... [1 Related Articles]
West Lancashire: district, administrative and historic county of Lancashire, northwestern England, north of the city of Liverpool. West Lancashire is separated from the Irish Sea by the narrow coastal strip of Sefton except in the north at the mouth of the River Ribble. The district is essentially a low-lying coastal plain, much ...
West Liberty State College: public, coeducational institution of higher learning in West Liberty, West Virginia, U.S. It is a four-year liberal arts college that confers two-year associate as well as bachelor's degrees. The campus is on a hilltop in a rural region of northern West Virginia that is near the metropolitan areas of Pittsburgh, ...
West Lindsey: district, administrative and historic county of Lincolnshire, east-central England, north of the city of Lincoln. West Lindsey district comprises two low-lying fertile clay valleys at an elevation of less than 100 feet (30 metres) split by the Lincoln Edge, a narrow limestone ridge 200 feet (60 metres) high that extends ...
West Lothian: (from the article "West Lothian") council area and historic county, southeastern Scotland, on the southern shore of the River Forth estuary and the Firth of Forth just west of Edinburgh. The council area and historic county occupy somewhat different areas. The historic county borders the Forth from Bo'ness to the mouth of the River Almond ...
West Lothian: council area and historic county, southeastern Scotland, on the southern shore of the River Forth estuary and the Firth of Forth just west of Edinburgh. The council area and historic county occupy somewhat different areas. The historic county borders the Forth from Bo'ness to the mouth of the River Almond ...
West Memphis: city, Crittenden county, eastern Arkansas, U.S. It lies along the west bank of the Mississippi River opposite Memphis, Tennessee (with which it is linked by bridges). It was founded in 1910 as a logging camp, near the site of Fort Esperanza (built by the Spanish in 1797), and was known ...
West Midlands: metropolitan county of England, comprising seven metropolitan boroughs: the city of Birmingham (England's second largest city), the city of Coventry, and the boroughs of Dudley, Sandwell, Solihull, Walsall, and Wolverhampton. The metropolitan county incorporates parts of three historic counties. In the northwest, the boroughs of Wolverhampton and Walsall and parts ...
West Morava: (from the article "Morava River") The West Morava originates in southern Serbia and Macedonia on the west-facing slope of Golija Mountain. Three hydroelectric stations are located along its 185-mile (298-kilometre) course. The South Morava is 198 miles (319 km) long from its source at the union of the Binacka Morava and Moravica rivers. Lake Vlasina ...
West New York: town, Hudson county, northeastern New Jersey, U.S. It lies along the Hudson River, adjacent to Weehawken. The area, originally settled by the Dutch in 1790, was alternately a part of Guttenberg and North Bergen until 1898, when it was detached from North Bergen as a separate town. Situated about 4 ...
West Nile virus: virus belonging to the family Flaviviridae, related to viruses that can cause yellow fever and dengue and more closely to viruses that can cause encephalitis (inflammation of the brain). Predominantly an infection of birds, West Nile virus is highly fatal for many avian species (e.g., crows and other corvids). A ... [2 Related Articles]