it the Cape of Storms because of the
weather he had battled on the voyage
Before doctors
began to give
insulin to
people with
diabetes
mellitus in the
1920s, many
people died
soon after
developing the
disease.
Bartolomeu Dias
44 Diana BRITANNICA STUDENT ENCYCLOPEDIA
out. It was later renamed the Cape of
Good Hope. Dias returned to Portugal
in December 1488. In 1497 another
Portuguese explorer, Vasco da Gama,
continued along the same route and
reached India.
In 1500 Dias commanded a ship in an
expedition led by Pedro Alvares Cabral.
Cabral’s fleet veered far from Africa and
sighted land that turned out to be Brazil.
Dias died at the Cape of Good Hope in
May 1500, when his ship sank in a
storm.
#More to explore
Gama, Vasco da
Dickens, Charles
Charles Dickens was one of the most
famous English writers of the 1800s.
Although his books are often very funny,
they show many of the difficulties of
living in his time. His books are still
very popular today.
Charles Dickens was born on February
7, 1812, in Portsmouth, England. His
family moved to London in 1822. The
Dickens family often had money problems.
For a while Charles had to leave
school to work in a factory. He later
wrote about the difficult working conditions
he experienced.
Dickens finished school for good at age
15 and went to work. He wrote stories
and articles for magazines and newspapers.
His first novel, The Pickwick
Papers, was published in 1837.
He wrote many famous books. Oliver
Twist (1838) tells the story of an orphan
boy in London. A Christmas Carol
(1843) became one of the most popular
Christmas stories of all time. Another
novel, called David Copperfield (1850),
was based partly on Dickens’ childhood.
In many of his later books, Dickens
wrote about social problems that worried
him. For example, his book Hard
Times (1854) is about problems faced by
factory workers.
In his later years, Dickens wrote less. He
had grown tired. He published A Tale of
Two Cities in 1859. It is a novel about
the French Revolution. Great Expectations
was published from 1860 to 1861.
Dickens died on June 9, 1870.
#More to explore
Book and Bookmaking • Literature
Most of
Dickens’ novels
were first
published as
serials. They
appeared a
few chapters
at a time in a
magazine.
Charles Dickens
BRITANNICA STUDENT ENCYCLOPEDIA Dickens, Charles 45
Dictatorship
A dictatorship is a form of government
in which a person or a small group rules
with almost unlimited power. The ruler
of a dictatorship is called a dictator.
Absolute monarchs (kings) are another
type of ruler with unlimited power. But
monarchs usually inherit their position.
By contrast, dictators take power by
force or by misleading the people.
How Dictators Rule
Dictators may come to power in free
elections and gradually take over the
entire government. Or they may use
force to throw out the current ruler.
This is called a coup. When an army
commander or a group of army officers
takes power, it is called a military
dictatorship.
Once in power, dictators use the police
or the army to keep control. They often
take away people’s freedoms. In addition,
many dictators cancel or control
elections so that the people cannot vote
them out of office.
A special form of dictatorship is totalitarianism.
Totalitarian dictators control
all parts of society. Schools, businesses,
newspapers, and even the arts must follow
the government’s wishes. Anyone
who displeases the dictator may be
killed. The worst totalitarian governments
of the 1900s were those of Adolf
Hitler in Germany and Joseph Stalin in
the Soviet Union.
History
The word dictator was first used in the
ancient Roman Republic. At that time a
dictator was a temporary leader. His
great power lasted only during times of
trouble. But one Roman leader, Julius
Caesar, became dictator for life.
Dictatorships became common during
the 1800s and 1900s. In those years
many colonies of foreign nations gained
their independence. As they did so they
either became democracies or dictatorships.
Many dictatorships arose in Latin
America in the 1800s and in Africa in
the late 1900s.
#More to explore
Democracy • Government • Monarchy
Digestive System
Animals need food for energy and
growth. To use the food they eat, they
General Augusto Pinochet overthrew Chile’s
president and became dictator in 1973. He
ruled with military force.
46 Dictatorship BRITANNICA STUDENT ENCYCLOPEDIA
must change it into a form that the body
can use. This process is called digestion.
The different organs, or body parts, that
are involved in this process make up the
digestive system.
In humans the main organs of the digestive
system are the mouth, the esophagus,
the stomach, the small intestine,
and the large intestine. The liver and the
pancreas also help in the process of
digestion.
Mouth
Digestion begins in the mouth, where
the teeth chew the food. Glands in the
mouth produce a digestive juice called
saliva. The tongue mixes the food particles
with the saliva. The saliva moistens
and softens the food so that it can be
swallowed easily. When a person swallows
food it passes through the pharynx,
or throat, into the esophagus.
Esophagus
The esophagus is a tube that connects
