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Amazon River
A dense, green forest lines the riverbanks. Monkeys chatter in the trees. Off to the side, a big crocodile sticks its eyes and nose out of the water. This is what a boat trip on the Amazon River can be like. Be careful not to fall overboard! Fish called piranhas may be swimming near the boat. A group of piranhas can gobble up a large animal in minutes.

THE MIGHTY AMAZON

The Amazon is a long river in South America. The river starts in snow and tiny streams, high in the Andes Mountains in Peru. It flows east through Brazil. After 4,000 miles (6,400 kilometers), the Amazon empties into the Atlantic Ocean. Along its route, hundreds of streams and smaller rivers empty into the Amazon. As a result, the Amazon carries more water than any other river in the world. Although the Amazon is the largest river in the world, it is not the longest. Only the Nile River in Africa is longer than the Amazon. The Amazon changes size through the year. It is biggest from January to June, when heavy rains fall in Brazil. During the rainy season, the river is more than 50 miles (80 kilometers) wide in some places. The Amazon dumps several million tons of mud, sand, and other sediment in the Atlantic Ocean every day. Much of this sediment has washed down from the Andes Mountains. It turns the Amazon a muddy yellowish color. The sediment changes the color of the Atlantic for about 200 miles (about 320 kilometers) from the mouth of the Amazon.

WHAT ANIMALS LIVE IN THE AMAZON?

The Amazon is home to many interesting animals. The piranha is an Amazon fish with a bad reputation. One species (kind) of piranha has powerful jaws and sharp teeth that can tear flesh from bones. However, most piranhas eat plants. Stingrays and electric eels live in the Amazon, too. Stingrays have poisonous stingers on their tails. Snakelike electric eels use their electricity to stun prey. Giant otters, river dolphins, and manatees are among the mammals found in the Amazon. Crocodiles called caimans and giant turtles also live in the river.

THE AMAZON RAIN FOREST

A vast tropical rain forest lies next to the Amazon River in Brazil and neighboring countries. More than seven times the size of Texas, it is the largest rain forest in the world. The Amazon rain forest is home to colorful scarlet macaws, stealthy jaguars, noisy howler monkeys, bloodsucking vampire bats, three-toed sloths, long-nosed tapirs, and powerful anaconda snakes. Many useful plants grow in the Amazon rain forest. They provide food, building materials, rubber, medicines, and other products.
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Canals
Until 1914, ships traveling between New York City and San Francisco had to sail all the way around the tip of South America. That adds up to a distance of more than 13,000 miles (21,000 kilometers). The opening of the Panama Canal in 1914 changed all that. The canal cuts across Panama in Central America. It created a shortcut that saves ships nearly 8,000 miles (13,000 kilometers) and weeks of travel time!

WHAT IS A CANAL?
Canals are waterways dug across land. A canal looks like a giant ditch. The bottom is flat and the sides are usually sloped. Some canals are lined with concrete or stone. That helps prevent water from eroding (wearing away) the sides. It can also keep water from seeping out of the canal and into the ground.

TWO KINDS OF CANALS

There are two main kinds of canals. One kind is used for carrying water from one place to another. Farmers rely on irrigation canals to bring water to their crops. Many cities rely on canals for their water supply. Another kind of canal, called a navigation canal, is used by boats. Navigation canals may connect different waterways, such as major rivers or lakes. They may also connect inland port cities to a sea, lake, or major river. Navigation canals allow ships to take short, direct routes, instead of long, inconvenient ones. In some cities, such as Amsterdam and Venice, a network of navigation canals are used like streets. Some navigation canals are deep and wide. They are often called ship canals because they are big enough for large, ocean-going ships to sail through. Barge canals are much shallower. Barges are flat-bottomed boats that sit high in the water, so barge canals are often just a few feet deep.

A HILLY PROBLEM
For a long time, the main drawback with navigation canals was that they could only cross flat land. Unlike roads, navigation canals could not go uphill or downhill. The water would all run to the lowest point, leaving the rest of the canal dry.

CANAL LOCKS

The invention of canal locks in the late 1400s solved the hill problem. A lock is a section of a canal that can be closed off by water gates at both ends. The water level in a lock can be raised or lowered to match the level in a higher or lower section of the canal. In this way, a boat can travel uphill or downhill. To travel uphill, a boat enters the lock and the gates are closed behind it. Then water from the upper section of the canal gently enters the lock so the water level rises. When the water level in the lock is the same as the upper section of the canal, the gates ahead are opened and the boat can leave. The same process in reverse lets a boat travel downhill.

AN OLD IDEA
People have dug canals for thousands of years. Nearly 3,500 years ago, the ancient Egyptians built a navigation canal that linked the Nile River with the Red Sea. Thousands of years earlier, in a region of the Middle East called Mesopotamia, people began to dig irrigation canals. The canals helped the Mesopotamians build productive farms and a rich civilization. One of the worlds most impressive canals is the Grand Canal of China. The first part of the canal was completed by the AD 600s. Construction continued for the next 600 years. The canal, which links Beijing to Hangzhou, is still in use today. It extends for 1,200 miles (1,900 kilometers) and is the longest canal system ever built. Building a canal is hard work. It was especially difficult long ago, before the age of modern machines. Even in Europe in the 1800s, canals were still dug by people using shovels. Can you imagine the amount of work needed to dig a canal that extended hundreds of miles?

PANAMA AND SUEZ CANALS

In many countries, canals form important inland waterway systems. But the worlds most important canals are the Panama and Suez canals. The Panama Canal cuts across Central America and links the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. The canal is 40 miles (64 kilometers) long and was completed in 1914. Today, the Panama Canal is one of the worlds busiest canals. The Suez Canal runs across northeastern Egypt and connects the Mediterranean Sea with the Red Sea. The Suez canal is 121 miles (195 kilometers) long and first opened in 1869. It provides a shortcut for ships traveling between European ports and ports in the Americas, Asia, and Africa.
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Caribbean Islands

What would you see if you took a cruise to the Caribbean Islands? Palm trees and coconuts? White beaches and clear, blue ocean? Colorful corals and even more colorful fishes and birds? You bet. There are thousands of islands in the Caribbean Sea. They are famous for their warm, tropical climate and great natural beauty.

A CHAIN OF ISLANDS
The Caribbean Islands form a chain that separates the Caribbean Sea from the rest of the Atlantic Ocean. Theyre like a long necklace that stretches between North and South America. Many of the islands were formed by the eruption of ancient volcanoes. Others are low-lying coral islands that gradually rose from the ocean.

SEVERAL NAMES

The Caribbean Islands are known by several names. The earliest name used by Europeans is the Indies, later changed to the West Indies. The explorer Christopher Columbus called the islands the Indies in 1492 because he thought he was near the coast of India. Later, Spain and France called the islands the Antilles.

LARGE ISLANDS, SMALL ISLANDS

There are four large islands in the Caribbean Sea. They are Cuba, Puerto Rico, Jamaica, and Hispaniola. (Hispaniola is divided into Haiti and the Dominican Republic.) These four islands are often called the Greater Antilles. Together, they account for about 90 percent of the land area of the Caribbean Islands. The rest of the Caribbean Islands are much smaller. They are often called the Lesser Antilles. Some of these islands are no more than tiny slivers of exposed coral. You can see why pirates such as the famous Blackbeard sailed these waters. There are countless small islands to bury treasure or hide on.

ALMOST PARADISE
The weather of the Caribbean Sea is almost always warm and sunny. Sandy beaches line the coasts of many islands. This is why millions of tourists visit the islands each year. Many tourists arrive on cruise ships. But life in the Caribbean Islands is not always paradise. Violent hurricanes or volcanic eruptions can make the islands a very dangerous place to be.

HURRICANES AND VOLCANOES

In the summer months, hurricanes can sweep in from the Atlantic Ocean, bringing destructive winds to the islands. If a

hurricane hits an island, look out! A hurricane can cause terrible damage. There are many active volcanoes in the Caribbean Islands. In 1997, a volcano erupted on the island of Montserrat and destroyed its capital city.

MANY COUNTRIES AND CULTURES

There are 13 independent countries in the Caribbean Islands. Many of the smaller islands belong to the United States, France, The Netherlands, Venezuela, and the United Kingdom. The people youll meet in the Caribbean Islands are a mix of many different cultures. The first people to live there were the native Taino and Carib Indians. Most native Indians died long ago after people from Europe arrived and formed colonies. The Europeans brought millions of slaves from Africa to work their huge sugarcane plantations. Still later, people from India and China came to the islands to find work. Today, most people in the Caribbean speak Spanish, but French, Dutch, and English are widely used, too. Nearly half the people work the land as farmers. Many still work on large sugarcane or coffee plantations. Other important crops include bananas, citrus fruits, cotton, and tobacco.

Pacific Islands
Imagine a region the size of the United States. Now imagine that most of it is underwater. Picture tiny dots of land spread far and wide across an enormous patch of blue. What youre imagining really exists. Millions of people live there. This region is called the Pacific Islands. It also goes by the name of Oceania.

WHAT ARE THE PACIFIC ISLANDS?

The Pacific Islands are more than 25,000 islands in the western and central Pacific Ocean. The islands lie across millions of square miles of ocean. Yet, if you added the land of all the islands together, you would have less land than the state of Alaska. More than 90 percent of this land is found in the islands of Hawaii, New Guinea, and New Zealand.

MANY KINDS OF GOVERNMENTS

The governments of the Pacific Islands vary greatly. They include 13 independent nations that govern themselves. These are the Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji Islands, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, New Zealand, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, and Samoa. Other islands are part of other nations. Hawaii is a state of the United States. Easter Island is part of Chile. Still other islands are dependent on a larger country. The Cook Islands, for example, is self-governing, but it looks to the country of New Zealand to provide defense.

MELANESIA, MICRONESIA, AND POLYNESIA

Geographers often divide the Pacific Islands into three regions. An arc of islands off the northern and eastern coast of Australia is called Melanesia. North of Melanesia and east of Asia are the many tiny islands making up Micronesia. Larger than those two regions combined is Polynesia. The Polynesian islands are in a big triangle. The points of the triangle are New Zealand, Easter Island, and Hawaii.

HIGH ISLANDS AND LOW ISLANDS

The Pacific Islands cover a huge area, and they are all different. But most islands are one of two types: high islands and low islands. High islands are the tops of undersea mountains. Many of these are volcanoes. Some high mountains even have snow on top of their peaks in winter, such as Mauna Kea on the island of Hawaii. They may have rivers that flow to the sea. Some low islands form when volcanic islands erode away to just above sea level. Others are atolls. Atolls form on underwater mountains. They are built up by underwater coral reefs. Atolls are usually ring-shaped and rise less than 20 feet (6 meters) above sea level. The water in the middle of the atoll is called a lagoon. Low islands have no mountains or rivers.

WHATS THE WEATHER LIKE?

The Pacific Islands are all in or near the tropics. So the weather is warm and often wet. Temperatures average 80 Fahrenheit (27 Celsius) most of the year. On high mountains, the temperatures are cooler. Most islands have winds that change direction once a year. These winds are called monsoons. The winds carry moist air part of the year and dry air the other part. On high islands, monsoons create a wet and a dry season. This is because the mountains trap the moist air, causing rain. Low islands are usually dry because there are no mountains to catch the air. Tropical storms hit the islands yearly. Sometimes the storms bring heavy wind and rains. The storms can cause severe damage.

ANIMAL LIFE

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Since most of the islands are far from other land, few land animals live on them. Fish, birds, and insects are the main natural residents. But the larger islands near Australia have many more types of animal species. One of the most unusual land animals native to the Pacific Islands is the coconut crab. This large crab climbs coconut palms to get coconuts. It uses powerful pincers to break open coconuts to eat. The waters around the islands are rich with life. There you can find turtles, lobsters, giant clams, sharks, octopuses, and squid, and many kinds of fish.

THE PEOPLE OF THE ISLANDS

The people of the islands speak a huge number of languages, about 1,200 in all! New Guinea alone is home to more than 700 languages. There, dense jungles and high mountains have isolated communities for long periods of time. This has allowed different languages to develop. Today, many islands use English or French as the official language. But most native islanders speak a local language, too. The people of the Pacific Islands can be as different as the languages they speak. But many share a common lifestyle. Most islanders live in rural areas. They farm small plots of land and harvest seafood. Bread is made from the soft center of the sago palm. Coconuts are an important food source. Clothing is usually very light, for comfort in the warm weather.

Rivers
Have you ever taken a ride on a river? Some rivers flow slowly and gently. You can hop into a tube that looks like a

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big rubber doughnut and take a relaxing float down this kind of river. Some rivers rush over rocks making foaming whitewater rapids. You can have a wild ride in a rubber raft on this kind of river. The kind of river you ride on depends on many things, including where the river is, what the water flows over, and how wide the river is. Rivers that flow through flat plains are usually wider and deeper than rivers higher up. These rivers usually flow lazily and are good for floating down. Rivers in mountains often flow through narrow channels. Water moves swiftly through these channels. Rivers on high hills or mountains usually flow over rocky river beds. Fast-flowing water rushing over a rock-filled riverbed makes rapids. Shallow, rocky rivers are the best rivers for whitewater rafting. The Worlds Longest Rivers
River Location miles kilometers

Nile Amazon

Africa South America Asia North America Asia

4,160 6,700 3,980 6,400

Yangtze Mississippi-Missouri

3,910 6,300 3,710 5,970

Yenisey-Angara

3,450 5,550

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The Worlds Longest Rivers

River Huang He (Yellow River) Ob-Irtysh Location Asia miles kilometers 3,400 5,460

Asia

3,360 5,410

*Some figures include major tributaries.

WHAT MAKES A RIVER?

All rivers are made of fresh water. The water usually comes from rain or melted snow. Sometimes the water comes from underground springs. The water that eventually forms a river collects in an area called the watershed. You would probably need rubber boots to walk in a watershed in springtime. The ground would be soggy with spring rains or melted snow. Watersheds are usually high up on hills or mountains. Rain and melting snow trickle through the watershed and form tiny streams. As the streams flow downhill, they join together. The place where a river begins is called its headwaters.

WHY ARE SOME RIVERS SO BIG?

Rivers get bigger when streams flow into them. These streams are called tributaries. A smaller river also can be a tributary of a larger river. A big river and its tributaries form a river system. The area that the river system flows through is called the drainage basin. Drainage basins can cover thousands of square kilometers. The size of a river depends on the size of its basin

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and the amount of rain that falls in the basin. The Mississippi River has the largest drainage basin in North America. The Missouri, which drains into the Mississippi, is the longest river on the continent. A river system drains into a lake or ocean, where the big river ends. The end of a river is called its mouth. Some rivers flow right into a lake or sea. The fresh water of a river that meets the sea mixes with the salt water of the sea. The part of the river with a mixture of salt water and fresh water is called an estuary.

WHAT DO RIVERS DO?

As water flows through a river channel, it erodes (washes away) the riverbanks. The water wears away rock and soil and carries the material downstream. Heavier pieces of rock and soil fall to the riverbed. These pieces on the riverbed are called sediment. Tiny pieces of eroded material float in the water and sometimes make the water look muddy and murky. The Colorado River made the Grand Canyon in Arizona by erosion. It took millions of years, but that river cut through layers of rock to make a canyon about 0.9 mile (1.5 kilometers) deep and about 277 miles (446 kilometers) long. Sometimes a delta forms at the mouth of a river. Deltas are made of sedimentsthe sand, soil, and other materials carried by the river water. Deltas are like big, wide islands with small streams running through them. River sediments make the soil on deltas good for farmland. The Mississippi River has created a vast delta in southeastern Louisiana, where it empties into the Gulf of Mexico.

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WHY DO RIVERS FLOOD?

Have you ever seen a flood? Maybe you have seen pictures of floods in the newspaper or on television. A flood happens when a river overflows its banks. Too much rain or melted snow can cause flooding. When rivers overflow, they deposit sediments on the flat land alongside the riverbanks. The flat land can be in a valley or on a plain. It is called the floodplain. All rivers have floodplains. These plains can spread out hundreds of miles from a river. People build farms and towns on floodplains because the sediments deposited on the plains are fertile and make great farmland. If the river overflows its banks, however, the farms and towns get flooded.

WHY ARE RIVERS IMPORTANT?

Rivers have always been important to people. The first civilizations formed between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in the Middle East and along the Nile River in Egypt. People built near rivers because rivers provided water for drinking, fish for food, and transportation routes. People used water from rivers to grow crops and sailed boats down the rivers for transportation. Today people still use rivers for water and transportation. They also learned how to control rivers. They build walls called levees along rivers to keep them from overflowing. They build dams to harness the power of water for making electricity. They build reservoirs to collect water for drinking and for industries to use. They have even straightened out bends in rivers called meanders. Some things that people did have harmed rivers. Some factories built along rivers polluted river water. Some of the dams prevent rivers from carrying sediment to the sea. Some dams have changed the way animals live in the rivers. For

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example, dams can prevent salmon from swimming upstream to spawn. People have taken steps to protect rivers. They passed laws to prevent factories from polluting rivers. Some dams are being taken down to let the water flow freely. People now know that rivers are important and must be protected.

Ships
Every day, huge ships made of steel cross the oceans and travel the worlds great rivers and lakes. Powerful engines turn propellers that make the ships go. Ships transport people and goods to all parts of the world. Ships are very important to the way we live. Ships carry oil that is made into gasoline for our cars. They bring in much of the food we eat and the clothes we wear. They carry computers, furniture, and televisions for our homes. Look around you. Many of the things you see traveled to where you are on a ship.

THE PARTS OF A SHIP

Ships may look very different from each other, but they all have the same basic parts. All ships float in water. The part that floats is called the hull. Inside the hull there are decks. Decks are like the floors in a building. You can go up and down from one deck to another.

HOW SHIPS MOVE THROUGH WATER

The front of a ship is called the bow. The back is called the stern. Attached to the stern is a wooden or metal plate called the rudder. A steering wheel or a stick called a tiller makes the rudder swing back and forth. Moving the rudder makes the ship turn.

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Some ships use sails to move. Sails are big sheets of fabric. The sails hang from a long pole called a mast. Ships with sails use the energy of blowing wind to move through the water. Most modern ships have engines that burn fuel. Engines make power to turn propellers at the stern. Propellers make ships go through the water.

THE AGE OF SAILING SHIPS

By about 5,000 years ago, the Egyptians were building some of the first sailing ships. They made them by tying bundles of reeds to a wooden frame. The ships carried cargo and had one or two square sails. The best ancient shipbuilders were the Phoenicians. They made cargo ships and warships called galleys. Galleys had sails and many oars. The ancient Greeks fought with the Phoenicians. The Greeks added a big spike to the front of their galleys. They used the spike to ram into Phoenician ships. In China and other parts of Asia, builders made cargo ships called junks. Junks had a flat bottom, a square bow, and a rudder. The sails had pieces of bamboo in them to make them stiffer. Arab builders began to use triangular sails called lateens. A ship with lateen sails could sail almost directly into the wind. In the 1200s, Europeans began building ships with three masts and many square and triangular sails. These ships were called full-rigged ships, or square-riggers. Starting in the 1400s, European explorers set off on voyages in these ships to faraway parts of the world. Christopher Columbus, Vasco da Gama, and other explorers used square-rigged ships.

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In the 1600s, the Spanish built huge ships called galleons. In the 1700s and 1800s, the British built big sailing ships that they used to fight sea battles. The fastest sailing cargo ships were the clipper ships of the mid-1800s. They had sleek, narrow hulls and as many as six sails on each tall mast.

MODERN SHIPS
During the 1800s, iron and steel hulls replaced wooden hulls. New types of engines were also developed. For the first time, ships could move without wind or human-powered oars. Steam engines fueled by coal replaced sails. Later, engines that used oil as a fuel replaced steam engines. Today, most ships have steel hulls and are driven by powerful motors that turn big propellers.

CARGO SHIPS
There are many kinds of cargo ships. Container ships carry cargo in huge boxes the size of railroad cars. Oil tankers and supertankers carry oil in their hulls. Freighters transport tons of coal, grain, and ore.

PASSENGER SHIPS
There were no passenger ships in ancient times. Travelers had to look for space on a cargo ship. Most passengers slept wherever they could find a spot on the deck. After Europeans learned about the Americas and Australia, settlers wanted to move to these new lands. Full-rigged ships carried passengers along with cargo. It was not very comfortable traveling on those wooden sailing ships.

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By the mid-1800s, shipping companies began to offer regular passenger service. Companies competed with each other for passengers. They built luxurious ocean liners that could cross the Atlantic Ocean in just a few days. In the 1950s, airplanes became more popular than ships for traveling over oceans. Today, most passenger ships are cruise ships. You can take a vacation aboard big cruise ships.

NAVY SHIPS
For many years, battleships were the biggest warships. They were used in World War I and World War II. Today, aircraft carriers are the biggest warships. The largest carriers can hold 85 airplanes. They have crews of more than 5,500 people. Modern navies have many other kinds of ships. Submarines are ships that can dive underwater. Some submarines carry missiles to attack enemy ships. Cruisers escort and defend aircraft carriers from attack by planes and submarines. Destroyers defend carriers and merchant ships from air and submarine attacks. Frigates escort and defend ships from submarines.

THE NEWEST SHIPS

Shipbuilders are looking for ways to build big ships that go faster and carry more cargo. They are looking for new hull shapes that go faster in the water. They are also looking for better engines. Water jet engines may replace propellers. A jet boat engine works by shooting out water, just as a jet plane engine shoots out air.

Niagara Falls

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Other waterfalls are higher than Niagara Falls, but Niagara Falls is one of the most famous. Why? Because the great beauty and immense size of Niagara Falls make it one of North Americas most spectacular natural wonders!

WHERE IS NIAGARA FALLS?

Niagara Falls is part of the Niagara River. The Niagara is a short river, just 35 miles (56 kilometers) long. It connects Lake Erie and Lake Ontario in eastern North America. East of the river is the United States. West of the river is Canada. About halfway between the two lakes, a sharp drop in the river makes Niagara Falls.

TWO GIANT WATERFALLS

Niagara Falls is actually two giant waterfalls and one smaller one. Goat Island, in New York State, lies between the two main falls. One big waterfall, called American Falls, is on the U.S. side of the river. American Falls has a fairly straight edge. The waterfall is 1,075 feet (328 meters) wide and 182 feet (55 meters) high. A small part of American Falls, located near Goat Island, is called Bridal Veil Falls. The bigger of the two giant waterfalls is in Canada and is known as the Canadian Falls. Its also called the Horseshoe Falls because of its horseshoe shape. The curved edge of the Canadian Falls measures 2,200 feet (670 meters) wide and the water drops 187 feet (57 meters). The Canadian Falls carries nine times more water than the American Falls!

VISITING NIAGARA FALLS

Niagara Falls is a popular tourist attraction. Millions of people come each year to watch the spectacular waterfalls. You can take a boat trip to see the falls from below. You can also watch

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from observation decks above or beside the falls. You can even enter the Cave of the Winds, a path that takes you to the base of Bridal Veil Falls. Visitors must wear bright-yellow rain jackets to stay dry! Niagara Falls makes an enormous, ground-shaking roar and a huge cloud of water mist. Rainbows shine through the mist. At night, the falls are lit with colored lights, creating a brilliant display!

Great Lakes
The Great Lakes are so large, you could easily see them if you stood on the Moon! Theyre the worlds largest group of freshwater lakes, and theyre found in North America. Five lakes make up the Great Lakes. They are Lake Superior, Lake Michigan, Lake Huron, Lake Erie, and Lake Ontario.

WHERE ARE THE GREAT LAKES?

The Great Lakes are located in the eastern half of North America along the United States-Canadian border. The lakes are a part of both countries and are shared by both. Only Lake Michigan lies entirely within the United States. Eight American states border the lakes to the south. They are New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. The big Canadian province of Ontario is on the north side of the lakes. Four of North Americas largest cities are located on the edge of the Great Lakes. They are Chicago, Detroit, Toronto, and Cleveland.

HOW DID THE GREAT LAKES FORM?

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Huge glaciers moving over the land dug out the Great Lakes. The glaciers melted away about 10,000 years ago. Before the glaciers came, the area now covered by the lakes was made up of plains, broad valleys, and rivers.

HOW BIG ARE THEY?

The five lakes cover an area 94,250 square miles (244,100 square kilometers). That makes them larger than the states of Indiana and Illinois combined! All together, the lakes hold about 20 percent of all the fresh water on the Earths surface. Lake Superior is the biggest of the Great Lakes. In fact, its the worlds largest body of fresh water. It is 350 miles (560 kilometers) long and it reaches a depth of 1,332 feet (406 meters). Lake Ontario is the smallest of the Great Lakes.

SHIPPING AND RECREATION ON THE GREAT LAKES

The five Great Lakes are linked by rivers and canals. These allow ships to sail from lake to lake. The St. Lawrence River provides an outlet for large vessels to the Atlantic Ocean. The Great Lakes, together with the St. Lawrence River, form one of the most important inland waterway systems in the world. Today, the Great Lakes are among the worlds busiest shipping routes. Farms, factories, and businesses ship iron ore, coal, grain, steel, automobiles, and other goods across the lakes and beyond. The Great Lakes are also popular for recreation. There are thousands of homes and cabins on the shores. Millions of people flock to the lakes in the summer to water-ski, sail, fish, and swim.

Adolf Hitler

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Adolf Hitler was a struggling young artist who became a feared dictator. He led his country into a bloody war that killed millions of people. Hitler rose to power in Germany in the 1930s. He eventually started World War II (1939-1945), a conflict that left Europe in ruins.

HITLERS CHILDHOOD
Adolf Hitler was born in 1889. He came from a well-to-do family in Austria-Hungary. His father was an important government worker. After his father died, Hitler quit school in the ninth grade. He decided to become an artist but had trouble finding work.

WORLD WAR I
Hitler volunteered for the German army during World War I (1914-1918) and served the whole war. Germany lost the war, and the country suffered terribly. Many Germans became jobless and poor. The people wanted someone to lead them back to glory again. Hitler wanted to be that person.

RISE TO POWER
After the war, Hitler joined the National German Socialists Workers Party. Many people called it the Nazi Party, for short. Hitler was an excellent public speaker. He appealed to German pride by constantly speaking about their racial superiority. This was the idea that one type of people is naturally better than others. He blamed other people, especially Jews, for Germanys problems. His speeches attracted thousands of people who thought Hitler could be a great leader. The Nazi Party grew rapidly. Hitler ran for political office in Germany and was elected in 1930. Three years later, in January 1933, Hitler became

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Germanys chancellor, which was similar to a president. He immediately passed laws giving him total power. Soon, Hitler had become a dictator. He controlled Germanys government completely. Hitler passed laws to get rid of people he did not like. They included his political enemies and Germans who were disabled or Jewish. Many of these people were sent to large camps, where they were held prisoner. Huge numbers of people were killed.

WORLD WAR II
Hitler also began rebuilding Germanys military. He wanted a powerful army so he could conquer other countries, and eventually take over the world. He started by declaring Germany's union with the neighboring country of Austria. Then he ordered German troops to occupy all of Czechoslovakia. When Hitlers army invaded Poland in 1939, Great Britain and France declared war on Germany. World War II had begun. Germanys mighty army soon captured France and began bombing England. In 1941, Hitlers armies also invaded the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), often called Russia. This turned out to be a big mistake because the German army had trouble fighting in several countries at once.

THE HOLOCAUST
Hitlers soldiers forced tens of thousands of Jews in Poland into small sections of the cities, known as ghettos. The Jews were not given adequate food, and many of them starved to death. Hitlers army also sent millions of Jews from Germany and other countries to concentration camps. There, many were killed. The deaths of millions of Jews under Hitler are known as the Holocaust. About one-third of the worlds 18 million Jews died in the Holocaust, one of historys greatest tragedies.

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HITLERS SUICIDE
The United States entered World War II in December 1941. Slowly, Germany began to lose the war. America and its allies launched the D-Day invasion of western Europe on June 6, 1944. They fought their way through France and into Germany in 1945. Facing defeat, Hitler killed himself. His reign of terror was finally over.

Anne Frank
Anne Franks life was short and tragic. Yet her brave spirit has survived in her diary. She wrote this diary while hiding from the Nazis during World War II (1939-1945). Anne Frank was born in Frankfurt, Germany, on June 12, 1929. Her family was Jewish. In 1933, the Nazi Party came to power in Germany. The Nazis blamed Jews for the nations problems and began a campaign against Jews. The Frank family moved to Amsterdam in The Netherlands to escape the Nazis. But in 1940, Germany invaded The Netherlands, and Jewish people there began to suffer under anti-Jewish policies.

HIDDEN AWAY
Annes father prepared a hiding place for his family. He sealed off several rooms at the back of his office building, and he covered the entrance with a movable bookcase. In July 1942, Anne, her mother and father, her sister Margot, and four Jewish friends stepped behind the bookcase into the hidden rooms. The Frank family and their friends stayed shut away in secret for over two years. Brave friends risked their lives to bring them food. But constant fear and loss of freedom were hard to bear. For comfort, Anne started to write a diary. She was very good at expressing her thoughts and feelings in words.

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HOPES FOR THE FUTURE

Anne was 13 when she started to write. Her diary reveals that, just like other teenagers, she looked forward to adult life. She hoped to have a career as a writer, and she longed to find love. She had high ideals and wished to be useful or give pleasure to people around me. Throughout her time in hiding, Anne maintained her faith in human nature. She wrote, In spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart.

BETRAYED
In 1944, the Frank familys hiding place was betrayed to the Gestapo (German secret police). Anne was sent to the BergenBelsen prison camp in Germany. She died at the camp in 1945 at the age of 15. Otto, Annes father, was the only member of the Frank family to survive the war. He published her diary in 1947. Since then, it has been published in more than 50 languages. Millions of people have visited the familys hiding place in Amsterdam. Anne Franks story still inspires people to fight against all kinds of discrimination.
.

Cold War

People once thought the Cold War would never end. Sometimes they feared nuclear bombs would blow up the world. Now the Cold War has faded to a distant memory. The Cold War was a conflict primarily between the United States and the Soviet Union. Each power brought other countries into the conflict on its side. The Cold War lasted more than 40 years, from the mid-1940s to the end of the 1980s.

26

Why was the war cold? Because the United States and the Soviet Union never got into armed combata shooting or hot warwith each other.

HOW DID THE COLD WAR BEGIN?

The Cold War began soon after World War II ended in 1945. The United States and the Soviet Union had been allies (friends) in defeating Nazi Germany in that war. The Soviet army had invaded Germany from the east. After the war, the Soviet Union kept control of countries in Eastern Europe that it had freed from German control. Those countries included Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, and Romania. An iron curtain fell across Europe. Thats how Winston Churchill, Britains leader during World War II, described the division of Europe. There was no actual curtain, but there were strong barriers between Soviet-controlled Eastern Europe and largely democratic Western Europe. The Soviet Union insisted on that. Barbed wire and armed soldiers at borders kept Eastern Europe separate from Western Europe during the Cold War. Defeated Germany was split into East Germany under Soviet control, and West Germany. Berlin, Germanys former capital, was a divided city. In 1961, a concrete wall went up in Berlin, along the dividing line. Broken glass on top of the Berlin Wall kept people from going over it and escaping to West Germany.

WHAT WAS THE CONFLICT ABOUT?

During the Cold War, the Soviet Union and the United States had different political and economic systems. The Soviet system was called communism. The United States and its allies feared that the Soviet Union wanted to spread communism to the rest of the world. They disliked this system.

27

The goal of communism was to end private ownership of property. Under communism, the people would own everything communally (jointly). They would make decisions as a group. But things didnt work out that way in the Soviet Union. Instead, the country became a dictatorship under the control of the Communist Party. Many freedoms were lost. Millions of people who disagreed with the Communist Party were arrested and sent to prison camps. The United States and most of the countries of Western Europe had democratic governments rather than dictatorships. They valued freedoms that had been lost in the Soviet Union. Their economic systemcapitalismwas based on private ownership and on individual rather than group effort. At times during the Cold War, the United States lost some freedoms because of fear of communism. During the 1950s, many Americans who were suspected of sympathy for communism lost their jobs.

WHAT WAS THE ARMS RACE?

During the Cold War, each side built up its arsenal of weapons, especially nuclear weaponsatomic bombs and hydrogen bombs. These weapons could destroy cities and kill hundreds of thousands of people. Each side was afraid the other would start a nuclear war first. A nuclear arms race began. Each side said it needed more weapons to retaliate (fight back) in case of a nuclear attack. Both sides believed that if they had enough weapons the other side wouldn't dare start a nuclear war. If it did, it would face total destruction in retaliation.

HOW DID THE COLD WAR SPREAD?

The Soviet Union had put Communist governments in power in Eastern Europe. Communist leaders had come to power in

28

China. The Soviet Union and China backed groups that tried to take power in other countries. Wars broke out. The United States entered wars to stop the spread of communism. With the Korean War (1950-1953), the Cold War reached Asia. China backed North Korea, and the United States supported South Korea. Korea was still divided when fighting stopped in 1953, and it remains divided today. In 1962, the Cold War brought the world to the edge of nuclear war. The United States discovered that the Soviet Union had installed nuclear missiles in Cuba. The missiles were pointed at the United States. War seemed certain, but the Soviet Union backed down and removed the missiles. The United States fought the spread of communism in the Vietnam War (1959-1975). The U.S. government feared that if one Asian country fell to communism, the rest of Asia would become communist as well. The war ended with a communist victory in Vietnam. But communism did not spread throughout Asia.

HOW DID THE COLD WAR END?

The Soviet Union nearly went broke as a result of the Cold War weapons race. The Soviet people had given up hope of a better life ahead. In the mid-1980s, a new leader came to power in the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev. Gorbachev was determined to improve life in his country. In the process, he helped bring the Cold War to an end. Gorbachev called for more freedom for his people. He and U.S. president Ronald Reagan agreed to destroy many of the weapons their countries had built. Gorbachev encouraged change in Eastern Europe, and he said that Soviet troops would no longer keep communist governments in power there. One after another, the countries of Eastern Europe got rid of their communist leaders. In 1989, the Berlin Wall came down.

29

Europe was no longer divided. Finally, parts of the Soviet Union declared their independence. The Cold War ended with the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe in 1989, and the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991.

Cold War
People once thought the Cold War would never end. Sometimes they feared nuclear bombs would blow up the world. Now the Cold War has faded to a distant memory. The Cold War was a conflict primarily between the United States and the Soviet Union. Each power brought other countries into the conflict on its side. The Cold War lasted more than 40 years, from the mid-1940s to the end of the 1980s. Why was the war cold? Because the United States and the Soviet Union never got into armed combata shooting or hot warwith each other.

HOW DID THE COLD WAR BEGIN?

The Cold War began soon after World War II ended in 1945. The United States and the Soviet Union had been allies (friends) in defeating Nazi Germany in that war. The Soviet army had invaded Germany from the east. After the war, the Soviet Union kept control of countries in Eastern Europe that it had freed from German control. Those countries included Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, and Romania. An iron curtain fell across Europe. Thats how Winston Churchill, Britains leader during World War II, described the division of Europe. There was no actual curtain, but there were strong

30

barriers between Soviet-controlled Eastern Europe and largely democratic Western Europe. The Soviet Union insisted on that. Barbed wire and armed soldiers at borders kept Eastern Europe separate from Western Europe during the Cold War. Defeated Germany was split into East Germany under Soviet control, and West Germany. Berlin, Germanys former capital, was a divided city. In 1961, a concrete wall went up in Berlin, along the dividing line. Broken glass on top of the Berlin Wall kept people from going over it and escaping to West Germany.

WHAT WAS THE CONFLICT ABOUT?

During the Cold War, the Soviet Union and the United States had different political and economic systems. The Soviet system was called communism. The United States and its allies feared that the Soviet Union wanted to spread communism to the rest of the world. They disliked this system. The goal of communism was to end private ownership of property. Under communism, the people would own everything communally (jointly). They would make decisions as a group. But things didnt work out that way in the Soviet Union. Instead, the country became a dictatorship under the control of the Communist Party. Many freedoms were lost. Millions of people who disagreed with the Communist Party were arrested and sent to prison camps. The United States and most of the countries of Western Europe had democratic governments rather than dictatorships. They valued freedoms that had been lost in the Soviet Union. Their economic systemcapitalismwas based on private ownership and on individual rather than group effort. At times during the Cold War, the United States lost some freedoms because of fear of communism. During the 1950s, many Americans who were suspected of sympathy for communism lost their jobs.

31

WHAT WAS THE ARMS RACE?

During the Cold War, each side built up its arsenal of weapons, especially nuclear weaponsatomic bombs and hydrogen bombs. These weapons could destroy cities and kill hundreds of thousands of people. Each side was afraid the other would start a nuclear war first. A nuclear arms race began. Each side said it needed more weapons to retaliate (fight back) in case of a nuclear attack. Both sides believed that if they had enough weapons the other side wouldn't dare start a nuclear war. If it did, it would face total destruction in retaliation.

HOW DID THE COLD WAR SPREAD?

The Soviet Union had put Communist governments in power in Eastern Europe. Communist leaders had come to power in China. The Soviet Union and China backed groups that tried to take power in other countries. Wars broke out. The United States entered wars to stop the spread of communism. With the Korean War (1950-1953), the Cold War reached Asia. China backed North Korea, and the United States supported South Korea. Korea was still divided when fighting stopped in 1953, and it remains divided today. In 1962, the Cold War brought the world to the edge of nuclear war. The United States discovered that the Soviet Union had installed nuclear missiles in Cuba. The missiles were pointed at the United States. War seemed certain, but the Soviet Union backed down and removed the missiles. The United States fought the spread of communism in the Vietnam War (1959-1975). The U.S. government feared that if one Asian country fell to communism, the rest of Asia would become communist as well. The war ended with a communist victory in Vietnam. But communism did not spread throughout Asia.

32

HOW DID THE COLD WAR END?

The Soviet Union nearly went broke as a result of the Cold War weapons race. The Soviet people had given up hope of a better life ahead. In the mid-1980s, a new leader came to power in the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev. Gorbachev was determined to improve life in his country. In the process, he helped bring the Cold War to an end. Gorbachev called for more freedom for his people. He and U.S. president Ronald Reagan agreed to destroy many of the weapons their countries had built. Gorbachev encouraged change in Eastern Europe, and he said that Soviet troops would no longer keep communist governments in power there. One after another, the countries of Eastern Europe got rid of their communist leaders. In 1989, the Berlin Wall came down. Europe was no longer divided. Finally, parts of the Soviet Union declared their independence. The Cold War ended with the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe in 1989, and the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991.

Florence Nightingale
Florence Nightingale revolutionized the job of nursing. She cared for sick and wounded British soldiers during the Crimean War (1853-1856), and she saved many lives. Her success in improving nursing care brought her great fame.

A PASSION FOR NURSING

Florence Nightingale was born in 1820 to a wealthy English family. She decided in her teens to become a nurse, even though her parents disapproved. At that time, most nurses were from poor families and had little or no training. But Nightingale was determined to have her way. In 1850 and 1851, she received training at hospitals in Egypt and Germany.

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In 1853, Nightingale took charge of a hospital in London, England. Here she showed skills as a nurse and an organizer. She had bells put beside patients beds. When patients needed a nurse, they rang their bell. Nobody had thought of this idea before.

THE CRIMEAN WAR

In 1853, Britain, France, and Turkey went to war against Russia. The fighting took place in a part of Russia called the Crimean Peninsula. A newspaper story described how sick and wounded British soldiers were neglected. The British government soon acted. It sent Nightingale and 38 nurses to a military hospital in Turkey. Conditions at the hospital were filthy, and there were few medical supplies. Nightingale organized the hospital. She got bandages and medicines, had drains cleaned, and improved the water supply. Patients were given clean sheets and healthy food. Nightingale became the soldiers friend. They called her the Lady with the Lamp, after the lantern she carried at night.

AFTER THE WAR

The Crimean War ended in 1856, and Nightingale returned to Britain. She was a national hero, but she disliked all the attention. She saw that many problems remained in health care. Nightingale devoted the rest of her long life to improving public health and educating people about the importance of good hygiene. Britains hospitals accepted her ideas, and they became cleaner, healthier places. In 1860, Nightingale set up a training school for nurses in London. The Nightingale nurses, as its graduates were called, helped spread Nightingales ideas around the world. Nightingale died in 1910 at the age of 90.

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Cleopatra
Cleopatra was queen of Egypt about 2,000 years ago. She was intelligent, proud, strong-willed, and she was determined to keep her country free from invaders. When Egypts army was defeated by the Romans, Cleopatra decided she would rather die than be taken captive. According to legend, she held a poisonous snake to her body. The snake bit her, and she died.

A CLEVER QUEEN IN TROUBLED TIMES

Cleopatra was the daughter of the pharaoh (ruler) of Egypt. In 51 BC, when Cleopatra was 17 or 18, her father died. Cleopatra and her 12-year-old brother became the rulers of Egypt. Three years later, her brother declared that he should be the only ruler. He forced Cleopatra to leave Egypt. Cleopatra started putting together an army to fight her brother. But before war began, Roman general Julius Caesar arrived in Egypt. Cleopatra decided to ask Caesar for help. But how was she going to get back into Egypt, past her brothers guards? She came up with a clever plan. Her servants rolled her into a carpet, and delivered it as a gift to Caesar. When the carpet was unrolled, out stepped Cleopatra. Cleopatras plan succeeded. Caesar helped Cleopatra defeat her brother. She was again Egypts queen. Caesar fell in love with Cleopatra. When Caesar returned to Rome, Cleopatra visited him there. Caesar promised that the Roman army would not invade Egypt. Then in 44 BC, Caesar was murdered, and Cleopatra returned to Egypt.

ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA

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After her return, Cleopatra ruled Egypt without interference for several years. In 41 BC, however, Roman general Mark Antony demanded that Cleopatra meet with him. Cleopatra was in a difficult situation. She knew that the powerful Roman army could invade Egypt at any time. Cleopatra agreed to meet with Antony, but surprised him by arriving on a magnificent ship, seated on her royal throne. Antony, too, fell in love with the proud queen. In 35 BC, Antony married Cleopatra and they lived in Egypt. The next year, they announced that they were the rulers of the eastern part of the Roman Empire. This included Egypt and most of the Middle East. The Roman rulers were angered by this. Roman general Octavian declared war on Antony and Cleopatra. In 31 BC, Octavian won the war and took over Egypt. Both Antony and Cleopatra killed themselves.

Kings and Queens

Rule by a king or queen is a very old form of government. The first kings whose names we know ruled thousands of years ago in Mesopotamia and Egypt. Today, many countries in Europe still have kings or queens. These countries include England, Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, and Sweden. But kings and queens today have much less power than such rulers once had.

MONARCHY AND ROYALTY

Rule by a king or queen is known as monarchy. When a monarch (king or queen) comes to power, we say that he or she takes the throne. A throne is a special chair used by a monarch on formal occasions.

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The ceremony in which the monarch takes the throne is called a coronation. At the coronation, a crown is placed on the monarchs head. Some countries still hold an elaborate coronation when a new monarch takes the throne. Britain did in 1953, when Queen Elizabeth II was crowned. The word royal is used to describe people who are related to a monarch. The members of a monarchs immediate family are known as the royal family. The son of a king or queen is called a prince. The daughter is a princess.

PASSING ON THE CROWN

A monarch has the right to rule until the end of his or her life. Kings and queens also have the right to pass on the crown to one of their children, usually the oldest son. The son who expects to inherit the throne is called the crown prince. If a king has no sons, his oldest daughter may take the throne as queen after his death. But most queens have gotten their title by marrying a king. A ruling family is known as a dynasty when it stays in power long enough and many from that family take the throne. However, sometimes a monarch was not very good. If somebody else gained enough support, that person could overthrow the monarch and take his or her place. The newcomers family then became the royal family and started a new dynasty.

KINGS, EMPERORS, KAISERS, AND TSARS

A king or queen usually rules a single nation. Throughout history, many monarchs have tried to extend their rule over other lands. A monarch who rules many lands is sometimes called an emperor or empress. The territory of an emperor or empress is their empire.

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There have been other names for emperors through history. The rulers of the Roman Empire disliked the title of emperor. They preferred to be known as caesars after the family name of one of their early leaders, Julius Caesar. The word caesar became kaiser in German. Germanys emperors in the 1800s were known as kaisers. The name tsar (or czar) for the traditional rulers of Russia also comes from caesar.

ABSOLUTE MONARCHY
Kings and queens once ruled with absolute (total) power. Their word was law, and they could do whatever they liked. Some kings developed the idea that they ruled by divine right. According to this idea, a king had a special relationship with God. He could therefore rule without interference from anybody else.

CHANGES IN MONARCHY
Through the years, the absolute power and divine right of kings was reduced. In time, an elected president replaced the monarch in many countries. Other countries kept their monarchs but limited their powers to govern. The American colonies were ruled by the king of Britain until the American Revolution (1775-1783) ended the king's rule over them. In France, the French Revolution (1789-1799) got rid of the monarchy. In Russia, the monarchy lasted until the Russian Revolution of 1917. Germany had a monarch until World War I ended in 1918. Today, the duties of kings and queens in Europe are largely ceremonial.