AMERICA

AMERICA. - A weekly periodical published in New York by Jesuits selected from the American provinces of the Order. Founded in 1909 to replace the monthly Messenger, it always retained the character of a “weekly review” from a Catholic perspective. To complement the more journalistic nature of A., in 1925 its editors launched a quarterly journal of high-level popularization, Thought (later transferred to Fordham University), and America Press became the publisher of a number of books on piety, religious formation, and American Church history. A. proved to be one of the most influential organs shaping Catholic opinion in the United States.

AMERICA. - One of the five largest continents of the earth, subdivided into three parts: North America, Central America, and South America.

OUTLINE: I. GEOGRAPHY: 1. North and Central America;

2. South America

II. ETHNOGRAPHY

III. ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY: 1. Pre-Columbian era; 2. North America; Canada; United States; 3. Spanish America; 4. Portuguese America.

I. GEOGRAPHY

I. NORTHERN AND CENTRAL AMERICA

Northern America is conventionally understood to include not only the great northern landmass of the New World from the Pole to the Tropic, but also the long, narrow isthmian region and the island arcs (Central America) that connect it to the similar continental mass extending south of the Equator. Within these limits (from 72° to 60° N., i.e., as far as the Isthmus of Darién) and including, as a rule, Greenland (which extends northward to 83° 23' N.), Northern America covers 24 million sq. km., of which more than a quarter is accounted for by its appendages (17% by islands, and of these 9% by Greenland itself). These appendages are mostly located in zones of little anthropic significance or even in anecumenical regions (circumpolar archipelago). The parts of the continent closest to the Old World are the northern ones, where the landmass assumes its greatest length (ca. 6,000 km.) from Alaska to Labrador; toward the south, however, it narrows (in the Isthmus of Panama the land bridge between the two oceans measures little more than 50 km.), while distances to Europe (3,200 km. from Iceland to Newfoundland instead of the 1,500 km. from Greenland to Norway) and to Asia (92 km. in the Bering Strait) increase. Between 30° and 10° N., on the western side of the continent, a broad Mediterranean Sea opens up, divided by island arcs into two basins (the Gulf of Mexico to the north and the Caribbean Sea to the south), which exerts a decisive influence on the life of the entire New World.

Northern America has, among all parts of the world, the highest percentage of coastline in relation to its surface area. Of the two sides facing the open oceans, the eastern is by far the more accessible and frequented, though it becomes flat south of Cape Cod, marshy beyond Cape Hatteras, and especially along the Gulf of Mexico. On the western side, mountains loom everywhere; south of California, there are more than two entirely significant ports.

The architecture of the continent rests on relatively simple lines. To the west stretches, from Alaska to the isthmian region, a series of elevations that can be grouped, in schematic terms, into a triple system of Cordilleras: two external ranges close and parallel to the Pacific (one of these coastal, separated by a series of depressions from a sub-coastal range, which has different names from zone to zone) and an internal range (the Rockies), which diverges the more it approaches its termination around the 35th parallel N. Between these, the first two ranges enclose plateaus and closed basins, often arid, traversed by deeply incised rivers (Alaska, Great Basin, Colorado Basin), which reach their greatest extent in the territory of the United States. All these mountains, although locally higher than the Alps (Mount McKinley, 6,187 m.), display in their culminating areas less rugged forms than the Alpine ones, as well as a lesser abundance of glaciers, waters, and forests, with the exception of the more northerly sections, where the external Cordilleras assume the typical glacial morphology and align a notable number of volcanic features.

Of quite different structure and character is the eastern relief (Allegheny or Appalachian), much less extensive in breadth (1,500 km in length, 80–100 km in width) and composed of folds and plateaus representing the remnants of older uplifts; with rounded ridges and summits, gentle forms and slopes, and a landscape therefore more hilly than mountainous (heights generally below 2,000 m).

Between the two elevated masses there opens, from Hudson Bay to the Gulf of Mexico, a broad flat zone, in its northern part worked by glaciers and thus hollowed into numerous lake basins (the most southerly of these forming a veritable inland sea that communicates with the Atlantic via the St. Lawrence), and in its southern part fringed by the alluvia of the greatest of the river systems flowing through it, the St. Lawrence–Mississippi.

South of the Rio Grande, structure and character change: a great plateau (Mexico), whose height ranges between 1,000 and 1,500 m, is enclosed on its sides by two mountain ramparts (Sierra Madre Occidental and Sierra Madre Oriental), which find their continuation on one side in the isthmian region and on the other in the insular region of the Antilles, in both cases with frequent interruptions and extensive volcanism, especially on the Pacific-facing slopes.

The fundamental features of the continent’s hydrography are clearly related to its structure. Areic and endorheic zones subtract barely 15% of the territory from surface circulation; elsewhere, a few but extensive river basins organize themselves in correspondence with the great zone of low interior lands, given the disposition of the reliefs and their proximity to the opposite shores of the two oceans.

But while the northern side of this region, broader and more rugged, divides its waters among the basins of the Mackenzie (1.7 million sq. km.; 4,600 km. in length), the St. Lawrence (1.2 and 700 respectively), the Nelson (1.1 and 650), and the Yukon (0.9 and 3,290), the southern side channels them into the single great system of the Missouri-Mississippi (3.2 and 6,300), in which, however, the most significant tributary is undoubtedly the Ohio, less long (1,560 km.) than the Missouri (4,800 km.), but with a flow more than double that of the latter. The Canadian rivers have abundant and steady waters, fed as they are by lakes, some of which rank among the largest on earth. The five that flow into the St. Lawrence, between 41° and 49° N. (at a latitude ranging from that of Naples to that of Paris), cover an area equal to twice that of the Adriatic, which largely compensates for the limited usefulness of the great river-lake systems in the regions north of 50°: it should not, however, be forgotten that their commercial outlet corresponds less to the mouth of the St. Lawrence, frozen for an average of five months a year, than to that of the Hudson, toward which it has been artificially diverted by means of canals.

Given its latitudinal extent (65°), the Northern Hemisphere exhibits considerable climatic variety. In general, compared to European climates, these are characterized first and foremost by greater continentality, from which only more or less narrow coastal margins are excluded. Apart from the periarctic zone (which has long and extremely harsh winters, short summers, and scarce precipitation), excessive thermal regimes with strong annual and seasonal variations are common even in temperate zones: New York, which is roughly at the latitude of Naples, has an average winter temperature of -1° and a summer average of 23° (Naples: 9°, 2°, and 23°, respectively), while Chicago (at the latitude of Rome) has averages of -4.6° and 22.4°, and Duluth, Minnesota (at the latitude of Bolzano), has -13.4° and 17.7°. Such conditions dominate the Atlantic slope under the influence of the cold Labrador Current and the central plains, where both cold northern currents and warm southern currents have free play. Along the Pacific, however (from approximately 50° to 35°), a Mediterranean-type climate prevails, with mild winters, cool summers, and predominantly winter rainfall. The remaining western lands have a dry and harsh climate; aridity, which generally increases from the two oceans toward the interior, reaches its maximum in the closed basins among the southern ranges of the Cordillera (Death Valley, Colorado and Gila Deserts). Arid but mild climates, with slight temperature variations, prevail in the interior of Mexico; on the Atlantic coasts, as in Central America and the West Indies, the climate is already tropical oceanic, with high average temperatures and abundant rainfall, locally exceeding 4,000 mm annually. Where altitude moderates thermal extremes (tierras templadas), settlement finds favorable conditions, even for Europeans, who instead poorly tolerate the unhealthy hot-humid climate of the coastal regions (tierras calientes).

The same zonal pattern, from north to south, is found in the vegetative landscape. Beyond the glacial desert of high latitudes (compact in the uniform plateau of Greenland), there follows first the subarctic tundra (mosses, lichens, dwarf shrubs; more extensive southward than on the ancient continent), and then the coniferous forest, which covers a large expanse of land in Canada and the western Cordilleras, while the deciduous forest, which once covered all the United States east of the 90th meridian, has nearly everywhere given way to cultivation. But most of the central plains region lies within the domain of the steppe, which passes from true treeless grassland to increasingly impoverished forms as one moves westward and southward. Finally, from Florida to Darien, the characteristic tropical vegetation rapidly develops, first in the form of savanna, then as forest: lush woodlands, with dense undergrowth, persist even in the tierras templadas regions.

The population of northern America within the limits set above is today over 200 million inhabitants; the resulting average density (8 inhabitants per sq. km) betrays a strong imbalance between vast regions that are entirely (Arctic islands, Greenland) or almost entirely (Alaska, northern Canada, arid western highlands) uninhabited and much smaller areas that are fairly (United States between the 37th and 44th parallel N.) or even very densely (Antilles) populated. The highest densities (Puerto Rico 200, Barbados 500 inhabitants per sq. km) are nevertheless far from the figures of Eurasian countries, also because the densities themselves are related to the varying antiquity of settlement and to the progress of colonization.

From this point of view there is a fundamental difference between temperate (Anglo-Saxon) northern America, where European colonization replaced the sparse pre-Columbian peoples—now almost entirely vanished—and, favored by exceptionally favorable environmental conditions, greatly increased population density, and tropical (Latin) America, which even before the discovery had known notable civilizations and complex political organizations. Here, on the mainland, the aborigines, more numerous and well protected by the climate, ended up absorbing the newcomers through interbreeding (a general tendency among the Spanish to unite with indigenous women); hence mestizos prevail almost everywhere over the whites. On the islands, instead, the original populations have entirely given way to European or colored (Negro) immigrants, who have then intermingled in various ways (mulattoes). In the extreme north, immune to any infiltration, the Eskimos have survived, migrating in small groups from Alaska to the northernmost tip of Greenland. The Negroes, descendants of slaves forcibly brought to the continent, tend to advance from the southern plantation regions toward the industrial and commercial areas at higher latitudes. Although precise statistical data are lacking, it can be

1039 AMERICA 1040

roughly estimated that over four-fifths of the continent’s population consists of whites, with the remainder divided equally between mestizos and Negroes and mulattoes, the number of other racial groups being negligible.

Even in religion the contrast is clearly reflected between the Catholic Neo-Latin civilization and the Anglo-Saxon one, which is predominantly (though not exclusively) Protestant. And since the area of the latter corresponds to the temperate regions of greatest demographic density, as against one-third of Catholics (especially in Mexico and Central America), northern America records about two-thirds of adherents to non-Catholic Christian confessions (Canada and the United States; in these

The last are subdivided into a very large number of sects). The Jews are relatively numerous (1.4%) especially in the eastern regions of the United States; animists (Indians, Eskimos, Negroes) are reduced to a few.

With the current political layout of North America:

A. NORTHERN AND CENTRAL

| States and possessions | Area (in sq. km.) | Population |
|-----------------------|-------------------|------------|
| Costa Rica | 49,827 | 746,500 |
| Cuba | 114,524 | 4,779,000 |
| Dominican Republic | 50,070 | 1,970,000 |
| Guatemala | 109,724 | 3,457,000 |
| Haiti | 27,844 | 3,500,000 |
| Honduras | 115,570 | 1,201,000 |
| Mexico | 1,963,677 | 22,227,000 |
| Nicaragua | 118,453 | 1,381,000 |
| Panama | 74,010 | 678,000 |
| El Salvador | 34,126 | 1,997,000 |
| United States | 7,997,000 | 141,229,000|
| Independent states | 10,654,825 | 183,355,000|
| Alaska | 1,518,717 | 134,000 |
| Puerto Rico | 8,896 | 2,083,000 |
| Canal Zone | 1,422 | 48,350 |
| Virgin Islands | 344 | 25,000 |
| Various dependencies | 133 | 1,000 |
| U.S. possessions | 1,529,512 | 2,291,000 |
| St.-Pierre et Miquelon| 241 | 4,300 |
| Guadeloupe and dependencies | 1,780 | 310,000 |
| Martinique | 1,106 | 255,000 |
| French possessions | 3,127 | 569,000 |
| Dutch Antilles | 76 | 4,200 |
| Dutch possessions | 76 | 4,200 |
| Greenland | 2,175,000 | 18,000 |
| Danish possessions | 2,175,000 | 18,000 |
| Dominion of Canada | 9,569,289 | 12,307,000 |
| Newfoundland | 110,677 | 300,000 |
| Labrador | 306,800 | 5,000 |
| British Honduras | 21,268 | 64,300 |
| Bermuda Islands | 49 | 34,400 |
| Bahamas Islands | 11,405 | 73,000 |
| Jamaica and dependencies | 12,225 | 1,250,000 |
| British Lesser Antilles | 3,651 | 600,000 |
| British possessions | 10,035,000 | 14,633,700 |
| TOTAL NORTH AND CENTRAL AMERICA | 24,397,540 | 198,859,900 |
AMERICA - Portal of the church of the Franciscan convent (16th cent.) - Xochimilco (Mexico).

The last are subdivided into a very large number of sects. The Jews are relatively numerous (1.4%) especially in the eastern regions of the United States; animists (Indians, Eskimos, Negroes) are reduced to a few (1.1% in all).

From the political point of view, while the northern countries are united in only two great federal organizations (Canada and the United States), each almost as large as all Europe, those in the south have seen the original Spanish dominion break up into numerous small units, more or less independent (in fact) or subject to other States, except for the extensive federal complex of Mexico. The territories of European dependency are reduced, apart from the Canadian Dominion, almost exclusively to islands; of these only the British ones (Newfoundland, Jamaica, Bermuda, the Antilles) retain any economic importance. Spain has been completely eliminated from these possessions; France and Holland retain only a few, while Denmark has the vast but icy Greenland.

North America has no rivals in economic development. Its inexhaustible natural resources have stimulated the use of the most modern and rational means of exploitation. Large-scale industry is represented by some of the most gigantic and efficient concentrations in the world. On the other hand, while the exploitation of its reserves is still capable of wide development (all the cold zones of the North and the arid zones of the West), its population is far from exhausting production, of which a more or less large margin feeds, in every sector, export currents.

Agriculture provides, of the total world production (average 1934-38): 16.6% of wheat; 48.8% of maize; 29.3% of oats; 43.7% of cotton; 29.5% of sugar cane; 22.5% of tobacco; 12.4% of barley; and considerable quantities of potatoes, rice, soya, peanuts, etc. This production is concentrated above all in the United States and in southern Canada. The same countries (regions of the West and North) hold almost all the richest forest reserves of the Continent (35.3% of the territorial surface in Canada; 26.1% in the United States). Canada and the United States alone contribute one-third of the world's timber exports.

Livestock raising is also practiced on a very large scale; the continent’s stock includes (in millions of head, with the percentage figures in parentheses relative to the 1934–38 world total): 92.8 (14.8) cattle; 63.7 (8.6) sheep; 16 (6.8) goats; 69.3 (20.9) swine; 16 (19.2) horses. The main livestock-raising regions are the vast prairies of the United States and Canada, where to the east mixed farming (combining agriculture) predominates on farms, while to the west open-range cattle raising prevails in the north and sheep raising in the south in the arid southern mountains. Fishing is also of considerable importance, both maritime—along the Pacific coast (northwest) as well as along the Atlantic (Canada and the United States)—and inland (Pacific tributaries) and lake fishing. At least two-eighths of the world’s maritime fishing products come from North America.

Northern America, and especially the United States, holds the lead in nearly all mineral products, particularly fuels; it produces 70% of the world’s petroleum (Texas, Pennsylvania, California; reserves account for more than 50% of the global total), 50% of fossil coal (Allegari, western Canada), four-eighths of sulfur (Texas, Louisiana), nearly two-fifths of iron ore (Allegari, Great Lakes), half of the lead, zinc, and aluminum, more than half of the copper, three-quarters of the silver (Mexico, Alaska, the Rockies), and one-third of the gold (Canada, Alaska, California).

Drawn from these immense resources, North American industries (though almost exclusively in the United States and Canada) have achieved decisive progress in every sector, imposing themselves through the modernity and grandeur of their technical equipment, the extensive and rational use of machinery, specialized and mass production, the alignment of products with demand, the high standard of living afforded to workers, and their concentration in districts and major centers. This has, in turn, generated active commercial currents toward every part of the earth. Such development has been possible thanks in part to the advances in communication networks, including railways (525,000 km; about two-fifths of the entire global network; eight major transcontinental lines allow travel from the Atlantic to the Pacific in 3–4 days), automobile services (North America produces over four-fifths of the world’s motor vehicles), and air communications, for which the continent likewise holds a global primacy (over 100,000 km of regularly operated routes). As for foreign trade, it suffices to note that North America today possesses more than half of the world’s ships (40.5 million tons of merchant shipping for the United States alone); among its ports, both on the Atlantic (New York, New Orleans, Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Montreal, Quebec, Havana, etc.) and on the Pacific (Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Portland, Panama), are counted among the busiest and most frequented in the world.

Scholarly estimates predict a possible population increase that could multiply the current population by four to six times.

GIUSEPPE CARACI

A. MERIDIONALE. – Despite forming a single continental mass with North America, to which it bears many resemblances, South America constitutes a distinctly separate continent: the most isolated from all others, reaching the highest southern latitude, the least articulated in its geography, and at the same time the site of the most pronounced contrast between its longitudinal extent (a maximum of 5,100 km between northern Peru and Brazil), which narrows toward the south, and its far more considerable latitudinal span (from 12° to 56° S; 7,500 km). Covering 18 million sq km, South America extends just over one-quarter of its territory south of the Tropic; the remaining 73% lies within the intertropical zones, of which the largest (56%) lies south of the Equator.

As in northern A., a median depression separates two marginal elevated sectors of different character.

America

The western sector stretches compactly along the Pacific without forming coastal plains. Extending from the Caribbean Sea to Tierra del Fuego, these western highlands (Andes or Cordillera) consist of several parallel ranges; at first arranged in a fan shape enclosing longitudinal valleys (Andes of Colombia), then widening to include more or less extensive and elevated (up to 3–4,000 m.) plateaus (Andes of Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia), and finally assuming the form of a single mass (Andes of Argentina-Chile and Patagonia). The Andes are almost everywhere bordered on the coast by lesser elevations, which, though discontinuous, locally attain considerable importance, especially in Chile, where between them and the main Cordillera lies a long longitudinal depression, submerged at its southern end. Toward the interior, too, alongside the true Andes in northwestern Argentina, pre-Cordilleran ranges isolate closed basins and river valleys. Narrower than the western ranges, the eastern ranges (Serra do Mar, Serra da Mantiqueira, etc.) descend toward the Atlantic in steep steps, enclosing a vast depression that extends from the Orinoco to the Paraguay-Paraná system in a single broad plain (not always of alluvial origin), averaging no more than 200 m. above sea level.

Of the three great river systems flowing into the Atlantic, the Amazon has by far the largest basin (over 7 million sq. km.), indeed the largest on earth; all three together occupy two-thirds of South A. and, with their tributaries—many of them larger than Europe’s greatest rivers—form superb navigable routes that allow passage from the Atlantic into the heart of the continent and to the foot of the Andes. Other Atlantic tributaries (Madeira, Uruguay, São Francisco, Magdalena, etc.) and their affluents, though interrupted by rapids where they cross the eastern plateau, are also of no small importance. Areas without outlet to the sea amount to less than one-quarter of the continent and are all located south of 15° S and west of 60° W.

Lakes are neither frequent nor large. The two largest (Titicaca and Poopó), of tectonic origin, lie on the Andean plateau; the most notable of the others occur in the terminal section of the same system (southern Andes).

Although more than two-thirds of South America lies within the torrid zone and thus falls under the influence of hot climates, it enjoys temperatures that are not excessive, thanks chiefly to the relief of the land, which allows the free play of oceanic influences. North of the Tropic, the Atlantic trade winds determine the rainfall regime, which is generally very abundant (from 2000 to 4000 mm annually along the northeastern coast and in the middle Amazon basin) and is concentrated either in a single season (which varies depending on whether one is north or south of the Equator) or in two periods separated by a brief dry interval (veranillo). South of the Tropic, temperatures decrease; seasonal contrasts increase, and the origin of the humid air currents is reversed. The westerly winds blowing from the Pacific drench the slopes facing that ocean with rain, while the side facing the interior plain receives little or none.

The extreme southern tip has a very harsh climate, with long winters; while rainfall ranges from 2000 to 4000 mm annually along the Chilean insular fringe, it drops to less than 300 mm throughout Patagonia. Aridity increases further, even along the Pacific, from central Chile (around 27°–28°) to northern Peru, and affects, together with the territories on the eastern slopes of the Andes stretching from the Bolivian tip to northwestern Argentina, a vast area in terms of latitude but relatively narrow. The deserts of South America (Atacama) are therefore of proportions hardly comparable to those of Africa. In the Andes, the exceptional elevation of the interposed highlands moderates, in the very heart of the torrid zone, the extremes of temperature: the countries of this sector enjoy a climate with minimal seasonal variation and were, in pre-Columbian times, seats of advanced peoples at the same latitudes as the Congo and Guinea.

The regions where rainfall averages 2000 mm or more annually are characterized by equatorial forest (selvas), which extends into the low eastern valleys and covers the Atlantic littoral from the Orinoco to the Tropic. The periodic zenithal rains correspond to a sparse forest, leafless in the dry season (the Brazilian catingas), which gradually gives way to savanna, often in the form of woodland with wide clearings (campos), and more or less lush with shrubs (carracos) or grasses (llanos vene-

The latter become thin or disappear altogether as aridity increases (e.g., the sertão of Brazil). The transition to temperate climates is marked by the grasslands (chaco), which gradually give way to the typical pampas with their tall grasses (Argentina), and these in turn yield on one side to the increasingly sparse and open formations of Patagonia and on the other to the salt flats of the Andean foothills. In these vegetation zones, cultivation and human settlement are arranged in broad altitudinal belts of roughly 1,000 meters each: tierras calientes, tierras templadas, and tierras frías; the tierras frías are sometimes covered with forests. Above 3,000 meters the high steppe of grasses and shrubs (paramos) usually begins.

The population of South America slightly exceeds 100 million. This yields an average density of about 6 persons per square kilometer, but the distribution is highly uneven. This unevenness relates less to differing opportunities for human activity than to the progress of colonization, which here—unlike in North America—is still in full swing. Only a few marginal areas are more thickly settled, namely southern Brazil, Uruguay, eastern Argentina, central Chile, and the Andean highlands; but most of the continent remains almost uninhabited or very sparsely populated. Of these 100 million inhabitants, more than half are white (Creoles and immigrants: 57–60 million), at least a quarter (25 million) are mestizos, and over one-tenth are Amerindians, descendants of the pre-Columbian Indians. The remainder (8 million) consists of Negroes and mulattoes. The forced importation of Negroes began in the 18th century and ended only in 1851. Later, Chinese and Japanese arrived in the South American states of the Pacific coast, and Hindus and Malays in the Guianas, alongside the Europeans; but their numbers are relatively small. It should be noted, however, that the relevant statistics, compiled under different criteria from country to country, are not always reliable and are not always comparable with one another. In general, the indigenous population has survived, despite contact with whites, in the tropical Andes; independent Indian groups remain in the Brazilian forest and in Tierra del Fuego. Creole, Spanish, and Portuguese populations, with considerable admixture of indigenous blood, occupy much of the eastern regions north of the tropic as well; Negroes are numerous in the areas once devoted to sugar cultivation and in the mining districts. Following the early Creole colonization, which was dense especially in the intertropical zone, European immigration at the end of the last century (facilitated by the development of large-scale steam navigation) turned toward the temperate regions, where it now also predominates numerically.

The southern continent is under the almost absolute dominion of the Neo-Latin peoples; its civilization is therefore essentially Latin and Catholic. Even among recent immigrants the contribution of Spaniards, Portuguese and especially Italians predominates, the latter now numbering over 4 million. Notable, in some states (southern Brazil, central Chile), is the influx of Germans. The spoken language is everywhere Spanish, except in Brazil, where the official language is Portuguese. Some indigenous languages nevertheless survive locally (inland Brazil, Andean region), such as Guaraní, Aymará, Quechua, Tupi, etc.

Religion remains everywhere Catholic (96% of the continent’s population), which continues to make converts among the Indians. These (Amazonian Brazil, Chaco, Patagonia) are, however, largely fetishists (2.6% of the total South American population). Protestants (0.8%) are essentially confined to German immigrants. Jews are absolutely insignificant in number, fewer even than the few recorded as having no religion (0.1%).

After its discovery, South America was sought chiefly for its wealth of precious metals (the Andean highlands north of the tropic); only relatively late did it first know plantation economies (sugar cane, tobacco, coffee, etc.) and then, still later (19th century), genuine agricultural colonization. Its enormous resources are therefore far from being fully or rationally exploited.

In mining, more than gold (Colombia), which is in sharp decline, silver (Peru, Bolivia: 10% of world production), a quarter of world output (Peru, Bolivia), zinc (Peru, Bolivia), nitrates (Chile), bauxite (Guiana), and above all petroleum—whose extraction (Venezuela, and at a great distance Trinidad, Argentina and Colombia) is rapidly increasing (12% of world total)—are important.

Today, however, the weight of agricultural production and livestock raising is far greater in the continent’s economy. Over three-quarters of the world’s coffee crop comes from South America, which also supplies large quantities of cocoa (26%), cane sugar (13%), cotton (9%), tobacco (5%), cereals, etc. Cattle (over 100 million head) represent 15% of the world total, sheep (100 million head) 14%, horses 20%, pigs 11%, etc.; substantial quantities of frozen and preserved meats, meat extracts (70% of world exports of beef, 17% of sheep, 11% of pork, and so on), hides, raw wool (18% of world exports), dairy products, etc., are produced by South America and, thanks to its modest consumption, can be exported.

Forest resources are immense (Brazil) and still barely tapped (rubber, timber, medicinal essences).

Despite all this, the South American economy remains centered on the surplus of widely consumed raw materials, which makes it possible to balance demand.

Nor are the truly magnificent river routes exploited as extensively as they might be, and in the inland regions the transport of goods is often entrusted to animals. The peripheral zones benefit from maritime navigation (made more active by the opening of the Panama Canal), which has developed good ports (Rio de Janeiro, Recife, Bahia, Santos, Buenos Aires, Valparaíso, Callao are among the busiest); regular air lines now connect all the major centers with one another as well as with North America and Europe.

With the exception of the three Guianas, the Falkland Islands, the island of Trinidad, and the Dutch Antilles, all of South America is independent (97.5% of the territory; 99% of the population). Of the ten states that constitute it, nine owe their origin to the fragmentation of the vast Spanish territory; one, by far the largest of all (Brazil), continues the unity achieved on the Atlantic side by Portugal. All these states have a republican form of government, with a federal constitution in three cases (Brazil, Argentina, Venezuela) and a unitary one in the others; none has external possessions. Although modeled on the United States, their constitutions differ in fact, given the different ethnic, social, and civil conditions. Economically and politically, the most solid units correspond to those in which the white element is most numerous and holds the reins of the state. Nevertheless, all the republics have seen their modern development hindered or delayed by repeated, ruinous internal revolutions and civil wars, which indicate a political structure that is still not entirely stable.

The population capacity of South America is still very large. It has been estimated to be from 15 to 40 times the current one, i.e., greater than that of all other continents (only Australia has a higher relative capacity, though not an absolute one).

Here is an overview of the current political subdivision:

### SOUTH AMERICA

| Area (in Kmq.) | Popolazione |
|----------------|-------------|
| Argentina | 2 797 113 |
| Bolivia | 1 085 000 |
| Brasile | 8 511 189 |
| Chile | 741 767 |
| Colombia | 1 139 155 |
| Ecuador | 256 000 |
| Paraguay | 404 444 |
| Perú | 1 421 864 |
| Uruguay | 186 926 |
| Venezuela | 912 050 |
| Stati indipendenti | 17 455 508 |
| 1. Trinidad e Tobago | 5 117 558 |
| Guayana britannica | 231 749 |
| 1. Maluine o Falkland | 11 960 |
| Possedimenti britannici | 248 826 |
| Antille olandesi dell'A. Mer. | 918 |
| Guayana o. Suriname | 156 141 |
| Possedimenti olandesi | 157 059 |
| Guayana francese | 91 000 |
| Possedimenti francesi | 91 000 |
| TOTALE A. MERIDIONALE | 17 952 313 |
| Vedi Tavv. LXXXV-LXXXIX. | 102 109 300 |

II. ETNOGRAFIA.

The question of the first anthropological-cultural settlement of the double American continent now seems settled in the sense that such settlement would have occurred through immigration from Asia across the Bering Strait. The period remains undetermined.

1. — The racial groups that can be enumerated are as follows: 1) the Eskimo group; 2) the Nordic group with its multiple types, of Mongolian character; 3) the central group with Eurasian characteristics; 4) the southern group with very notable variations, always of Mongolian character; 5) the Fuegian and Patagonian group.

2. — The northern and central linguistic groups are: 1) Nadene (Athapascan); 2) Algonquian; 3) Salish; 4) Siouan; 5) Sonoran-Aztec; 6) Maya; 7) isolated groups. The southern groups are: 1) Cibcha and Kicuo; 2) Carib; 3) Gé-Tapuya; 4) Tupi-Guarani; 5) Araucanian; 6) Chon; 7) Fuegian; 8) isolated groups.

The historical-cultural framework of the author is no less rich. 1) Primordial culture is found in the North among ancient tribes and some Paleo-Californian groups; in the South among the Ges-Tapuya and the Fuegians. 2) Totemistic culture is particular to the southwestern and northeastern tribes of North America (Sioux, Pawnee, etc.); in South America, along the Andes, as far as the Chaco (Arnachi, Caribs, Guarani-Tupi). 3) Matriarchal culture flourishes among the northwestern and southeastern tribes of North America, and in the South among the tribes of the Amazon and Orinoco basins. 4) Between these cultures lie zones of greater or lesser mixing. 5) The highly specialized cultures of the Aztecs, Maya, Chibcha, and Quechua.

These latter cultures, unlike the great mixed cultures of Asia, with which they nevertheless show evident affinities, have received no new impulse from contact with Western civilization, and being almost completely obliterated, fall within the domain of a particular branch of archaeology.

II. — W. Schmidt, Die Sprachfamilien und Sprachenkreise der Erde, vol. I and Atlas, Heidelberg 1942.
III. - W. Schmidt, Kulturkreise und Kulturschichten in Südamerika, Z. f. E., XLV, 1913; E. Nordenskiöld, Comparative ethnographica studies, Göteborg 1919-22; W. Schmidt and W. Koppers, Völker und Kulturen, Ratisbona 1924; W. Schmidt, Der Ursprung der Gottesidee, II, V, VI, VIII, Münster 1929-40. Bernardo Bernardi

III. ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY OF AMERICA

1943. PRE-COLUMBIAN ERA

Some maintain that the Gospel was preached in America before its discovery by Christopher Columbus in 1492. Excluding the diocese of Greenland, which we shall discuss later, this opinion lacks solid foundation. The supposed journey of the Apostle St. Thomas, which some have sought to identify with the mysterious Mexican Quetzalcoatl, is entirely legendary; the famous cross of Palenque has nothing to do with the sign of our redemption. It is certain, however, that Greenland was evangelized before 1492. The Normans had settled there while still pagan. One of their leaders, Leif, visited Norway in 990 and was converted by King Olaf Trygverson. Upon his return home with some Catholic missionaries, nearly all the inhabitants were converted, and in 1112 the diocese of Gurdar was established, successively suffragan to the metropolitan sees of Hamburg-Bremen, Lund, and Trondheim. Gams lists 17 bishops from 1112 to 1440. It appears that from that year Greenland remained cut off from Europe, and those Christians, left to themselves and intermarrying with the Eskimos, reverted to paganism, and Lutheranism was not introduced there until several centuries later.

Excluding Greenland, the ecclesiastical history of America can be divided into four parts, according to the four centers from which the Catholic Church spread across the American continent: namely, North America with its two centers, Canada and the United States; Spanish America; and Portuguese America (Brazil).

a) Canada. — Canada, once also called New France, though visited by various navigators, did not begin to be properly evangelized until the founding of Québec in 1608 by the Frenchman Samuel de Champlain. The colony and the Catholic Church developed gradually, with various Orders (Recollect Franciscans, Jesuits, Sulpicians, etc.) carrying out their activities there. This activity extended not only to all the regions around the Great Lakes, among the Algonquin, Huron, and fierce Iroquois tribes, but also to the valleys of the Illinois and Mississippi rivers, whose discovery was made famous by the Belgian Recollect Hennepin and the French Jesuit G. Marquette. Not a few missionaries met martyrdom in this arduous endeavor, but the Gospel also bore fruit of holiness among those neophytes, such as the Iroquois virgin Kateri Tekakwitha. The entire Church of Canada once depended on the Bishop of Rouen, until in 1659 the first bishop, François de Laval-Montmorency (1659–74), arrived there, first with the title of Apostolic Vicar and then as Bishop of Québec. He established the Church of Canada on solid foundations. The Diocese of Québec extended from Canada along the banks of the Mississippi to its mouth, where the city of New Orleans was founded. To evangelize this southern part of the diocese, missionaries were also sent directly from France. The cession of Acadia to England by the Treaty of Utrecht (1713) was an unfortunate event for the Church of Canada. Indeed, English Protestants persecuted Catholics there, and, unable to convert them to Protestantism, after several years, with an unprecedented example of cruelty, they exiled them en masse, dispersing them in the English colonies; a few were able to take refuge near New Orleans, where they strengthened that Catholic mission. In 1763, by the Treaty of Paris, all of Canada passed under English rule, and a period of struggle and oppression began for that Church. Yet the Catholics of Canada remained faithful to the nation that persecuted them during the War of American Independence.

(For further developments in ecclesiastical history V. CANADA).

b) United States. — The ecclesiastical history of the United States must be followed according to the different directions of Catholic penetration into what was first an agglomeration of Dutch, Spanish, English, and French colonies and now forms the Republic of the United States of America. Indeed, evangelization penetrated there from Mexico, the island of Cuba, Canada, directly from France, and even from England. From Mexico, in the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries, Catholic missionaries — among whom are

The famous missionaries included the Jesuit E. Chino and the Franciscan G. Serra, who preached the Gospel in the southwestern regions, namely Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, and California. From the island of Cuba in the 16th century, the first missionary expedition set out for Florida, only to be annihilated on the coast of Carolina; subsequent expeditions followed in the following centuries. French missionaries, descending from Canada as mentioned, and following the course of the Mississippi, reached the river’s mouth. To cultivate the Christian communities established there, new missionaries also arrived directly from France. Finally, some English Jesuits, accompanying Lord Baltimore in the 17th century, settled in Maryland and, on various occasions, penetrated into neighboring Protestant territories.

With the exception of the colonies of Maryland, Rhode Island, and Quaker Pennsylvania, Catholics enjoyed no religious freedom in the English colonies. Indeed, the Puritans of Massachusetts, the Dutch Calvinists of the New York colony, the Anglicans of Virginia, and others continually persecuted Catholics who happened to be among them. Yet they had before them the example of Catholic Maryland, which was tolerant toward all Protestants and, precisely because it was both Catholic and tolerant, suffered greatly at the hands of the Protestants in the other colonies.

All these diverse fields of evangelization had their ecclesiastical centers very far away: the missions of Mexico depended on the dioceses of that viceroyalty, first on that of Guadalajara (1552), then on the bishop of Guadiana or Durango (1620) and that of Sonora (1779), until the erection of the diocese of Monterrey (1840), to which California belonged. The missions of Florida, abandoned and sometimes visited by the bishops of Santiago de Cuba (founded in 1522) and of Havana (1787); those of the Mississippi had their center in Quebec until the erection of the diocese of New Orleans (1793); and finally, the Catholics of Maryland acknowledged as their ecclesiastical superior the Apostolic Vicar of London.

When the English colonies declared independence from England in 1776, the original 13 states, enclosed between the Mississippi and the Atlantic, Canada and Florida, were all placed under the jurisdiction of the diocese of Baltimore (1789). (For the latest developments, see in ecclesiastical history V. STATI UNITI (U.S.A.).)

3. A. SPAGNOLA. — The ecclesiastical history of Spanish America began with the landing of Christopher Columbus in 1492. Spanish explorers and conquerors were always accompanied by missionaries and priests, and worship began wherever they settled. All Spanish and almost all foreign missionaries destined for Spanish America departed from Spain, and almost exclusively from the port of Seville; the first missions and the first dioceses established in the Antilles, in Central America (Panama), in Mexico or New Spain, in Colombia (Popayán), and in Peru belonged to the metropolitan see of Seville. The new dioceses were too distant from Seville; discoveries and conquests continued to expand, so that in 1546, having been detached from Seville, three American ecclesiastical provinces were founded. With their suffragan dioceses, they became centers of religious life for the colonists, of missionary activity among the Indians, and of further development into new dioceses and ecclesiastical provinces. The first three archdioceses erected in 1546 were: Santo Domingo, with jurisdiction over all the Antilles and part of the mainland washed by the Caribbean Sea; Mexico, whose jurisdiction extended from Honduras to the north of the Rio Grande in the present-day United States; and Lima, the largest of all, with jurisdiction from Nicaragua southward along the entire Pacific coast to the Araucanians of Chile, and, penetrating inland, from Upper Peru (Bolivia) to Paraguay and Argentina. These ecclesiastical provinces, developing normally, were later subdivided into others, which included the archdioceses of Santiago de Cuba (1802), Guatemala (1743), Charcas (1609), and Bogotá (1564), so that by the time of independence there existed in Spanish America seven metropolitan sees with more than thirty suffragan dioceses.

The ecclesiastical history of Spanish America had special characteristics. First of all, the royal patronage granted by the Supreme Pontiffs to the kings of Spain, by which they were granted the right to elect bishops, delimit and divide dioceses, and many other privileges; however, canonical establishment through bulls had to come from Rome. From the patronage derived many benefits; suffice it to mention the evangelization of all those immense territories, aided by the government, the establishment of dioceses and ecclesiastical provinces, the erection of cathedrals and religious houses, and the union between civil and ecclesiastical authorities. There were also drawbacks, such as the lack of direct communication between the head of the Church and the bishops, the election of prelates who were almost all Spanish, few Creoles and none Indian, and the expulsion of the Jesuits in 1767 with irreparable damage to the missions.

Another characteristic is the Inquisition (v.). Here it suffices to say that it was a mixed ecclesiastical-civil tribunal which, with fewer than 200 death sentences, maintained religious peace for three centuries throughout the vast colonial territory. Compare this number of victims with the tens of thousands caused by the religious wars in Europe.

The Laws of the Indies (Leyes de Indias) are another peculiarity of Spanish America. While some of the conquistadors were ruthless and cruel, the presence of priests in the conquests and the establishment of so many religious orders, though not able to suppress all abuses and cruelties, enabled remonstrances and protests to be raised to the throne of the Spanish monarch, resulting in the famous Laws of the Indies, which were truly paternal in tone toward the Indians, though unfortunately not always observed.

Finally, the Paraguay Reductions demonstrated to what degree of civilization and effectiveness one can arrive when Church and State work together for the good of a people emerging from barbarism. There were, however, difficulties that sometimes hindered the tranquil propagation of the Gospel; such were: the wealth of the clergy, which, although almost always employed for the good of the Indians and the poor, in the founding of new parishes and missions, nevertheless, when religious spirit waned, gave occasion to various abuses; the question of alternation among religious superiors, who were to be chosen alternately from Spaniards and Creoles; some scandalous disputes between viceroys and bishops, such as that in Mexico at the beginning of the 17th century; or between bishops and religious, such as that of Palafox in Mexico and of Cárdenas in Paraguay. But all this did not hinder the powerful development of the Church. Well-organized missions were founded among the Indians of northern Mexico, the Orinoco River, Araucanía, Paraguay, etc.; provincial councils were held that remain famous in history, such as those in Mexico and Peru, and abundant fruits of holiness matured, such as St. Philip of Jesus, St. Rose of Lima, the Blessed Mariana of Quito, etc. (For further developments in the ecclesiastical history of the various nations that became independent, see the respective entries: MEXICO, PARAGUAY, etc.).

4. A. PORTUGUESE. — a) Before independence. — There is a notable parallel between the ecclesiastical history of the Spanish and Portuguese colonial systems. The kings of Portugal, like those of Spain, enjoyed the royal patronage with the same advantages and disadvantages indicated for the Spanish case. In the Portuguese American colonies, as in the Spanish, the first dioceses established, S. Salvador of Bahia (1551), S. Sebastian of Rio de Janeiro (1575), and the prelature of Olinda and Recife (1622), formed part of an ecclesiastical province (Lisbon) of the mother country, until the archdiocese of Bahia was erected (1676), beginning the province of the same name with the suffragan dioceses of Rio de Janeiro and Olinda-Recife, elevated to dioceses in the same year. The other dioceses founded in the 18th century, Goyaz, Cuiabá, S. Paulo, and Marianna (1745), entered into the said province of Bahia, and only those of Belem do Pará (1719) and S. Luigi del Maragnone (1677) remained attached to the province of Lisbon until the time of independence. In the Portuguese A., as in the Spanish, priests and missionaries accompanied the discoverers and conquerors; their presence at least restrained cruelty, if it could not protect the Indians from the abuses of the whites; they also obtained the promulgation of laws favorable to the Indians, and some became famous for their deeds and their love for the Indians, such as Fathers Anchieta, Nóbrega, and Antonio Vieira. Aranda, minister of Charles III, king of Spain, expelled the Jesuits from the Spanish A.; several years earlier, Pombal, minister of Joseph I, king of Portugal, had driven them from the Portuguese A., to the great detriment of the education of youth and of the missions among the Indians. In some respects, however, the parallel breaks down. In Brazil, various raids were organized to enslave not only pagan Indians but also Christians, such as those of the Paulistas or Mamelucos against the Christian Reductions of Paraguay. Likewise, because he opposed the enslavement of the Indians, Fr. Antonio Vieira was arrested and sent to Portugal by the colonists of Maragnone in 1661. Nothing of the kind ever happened in the Spanish colonies. Moreover, in the Spanish A., no foreign Protestant nation was able to establish itself, whereas in Brazil territories occupied by French Huguenots, settled in Rio de Janeiro (1555-67), and by Dutch Protestants, who were strong first in Bahia and later in Olinda (1624-25 and 1630-54), had to be reconquered.

5. For further developments in the ecclesiastical history of the various nations that became independent, see the relevant entries: BRAZIL, etc.

For the religion of primitive peoples, see PRIMITIVE, religion of.

Canada - Dominion Bureau of Statistics, Religious Denominations by racial origins, Ottawa 1933; Le Canada ecclesiastique, Montréal 1935; A. Fournet, S. V. Canada, in The Cath. Encycl., III, pp. 227-242.

The religious denominations in the United States, Their past history, present condition and doctrines, Filadelfia 1859; P. Guilday, Life and Times of John Carroll, Nuova York 1922; The official Catholic Directory for the year 1933, Nuova York; D. C. Schearer, Pontificia americana. A documentary history of the Catholic Church in the U. S., 1784-1884, Washington 1933; The Catholic Encyclopedia, artt. delle singole diocesi; Annuario pontificio 1948, Città del Vaticano.

F. J. Hernaez, Colección de Bulas, Breves y otros documentos relativos a la Iglesia de América y Filipinas, 2 voll., Bruxelles 1879.

R. Vargas Ugarte, Episcopologo de las Dió

cesis del antiguo Virreinato del Perí desde sus origenes hasta la emancipación, 1513-1874; L. Ayarraguay, La Iglesia en América y la dominación española, Buenos Aires 1920; M. Cuevas, Historia de la Iglesia en México, 5 voll., Messico 1923; Catálogo de los eclesiásticos de ambo
genes de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de las Dió genes de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de las Dióges de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de las Dió genes de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de las Dióges de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de las Dió genes de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de las Dióges de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de las Dió genes de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de las Dióges de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de las Dió genes de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de las Dióges de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de las Dió genes de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de las Dióges de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de las Dió genes de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de las Dióges de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de las Dió genes de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de las Dióges de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de las Dió genes de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de las Dióges de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de las Dió genes de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de las Dióges de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de las Dió genes de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de las Dióges de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de las Dió genes de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de las Dióges de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de las Dió genes de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de laDIOGENES

A Greek name borne by several figures in antiquity, the most notable of whom are:

**DIOGENES OF SINOPE**, the Cynic philosopher (4th century B.C.). Born in Sinope, a city on the Black Sea, he was the son of Hicesias, a banker. Accused of counterfeiting, he was exiled and moved to Athens, where he became a disciple of Antisthenes, the founder of the Cynic school. Diogenes adopted an extreme ascetic lifestyle, rejecting all social conventions and living in poverty. He is famously said to have lived in a barrel (or more precisely, a large storage jar) and to have carried a lantern in broad daylight, claiming to search for an honest man. His sharp wit and provocative behavior earned him the nickname "the Dog" (Κύων), from which the term "Cynic" derives. He died in Corinth, where he had moved in his later years. His teachings, though not systematically recorded, emphasized self-sufficiency, virtue, and the rejection of material wealth. Diogenes' life and sayings were later idealized by Stoic philosophers, who saw in him a model of moral integrity.

**DIOGENES OF APOLLONIA**, a pre-Socratic philosopher (5th century B.C.). A native of Apollonia in Crete, he was a follower of Anaximenes and is considered one of the last representatives of the Milesian school. He posited air as the fundamental principle (*arché*) of the universe, arguing that it was the source of all things and the basis of life and intelligence. His work *On Nature* (Περὶ φύσεως) is partially preserved in fragments and quotations by later authors, including Aristotle and Simplicius. Diogenes of Apollonia sought to reconcile the monism of Anaximenes with the teleological views of later thinkers, suggesting that air was not only the material cause of the cosmos but also its organizing principle.

**DIOGENES LAERTIUS**, a biographer and doxographer of Greek philosophers (3rd century A.D.). Little is known about his life, but his major work, *Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers* (Βίοι καὶ γνῶμαι τῶν ἐν φιλοσοφίᾳ εὐδοκιμησάντων), is an invaluable source for the history of Greek philosophy. The work is divided into ten books, each covering different schools and figures, from the pre-Socratics to the Hellenistic period. Though not always reliable in its details, Diogenes Laertius' compilation preserves fragments of lost works and provides insights into the lives, doctrines, and anecdotes of ancient philosophers. His style is anecdotal and often uncritical, but his work remains a fundamental reference for the study of ancient philosophy.

**DIOGENES OF OENOANDA**, an Epicurean philosopher (2nd century A.D.). Known for his monumental inscription at Oenoanda (in modern-day Turkey), which was discovered in fragments beginning in the 19th century. The inscription, carved on the walls of a stoa, was intended to propagate Epicurean philosophy to the public. It includes excerpts from Epicurus' works, as well as original writings by Diogenes on physics, ethics, and epistemology. The inscription is one of the most extensive surviving sources for Epicurean thought and provides valuable insights into the dissemination of philosophy in the Roman Empire.

BIBL.:
For Diogenes of Sinope: D. R. Dudley, *A History of Cynicism from Diogenes to the 6th Century A.D.* (London, 1937); G. Giannantoni, *I Cirenaci* (Naples, 1958); V. also ANTISTHENES and CYNICS.
For Diogenes of Apollonia: H. Diels, *Die Fragmente der Vorsokratiker*, 6th ed. (Berlin, 1951-52), vol. I, pp. 51-69; W. K. C. Guthrie, *A History of Greek Philosophy*, vol. II (Cambridge, 1965), pp. 362-381.
For Diogenes Laertius: H. S. Long, *Diogenis Laertii Vitae Philosophorum* (Oxford, 1964); M. Gigante, *Diogene Laerzio: Vite dei filosofi* (Bari, 1962).
For Diogenes of Oenoanda: M. F. Smith, *Diogenes of Oinoanda: The Epicurean Inscription* (Naples, 1993); V. also EPICUREANISM.

A. R.es de las Dió genes de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de las Dióges de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de las Dió genes de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de las Dióges de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de las Dió genes de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de las Dióges de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de las Diógenes de las DiógenesDIOGENES

The name of several figures in ancient history and legend, the most notable of whom is **Diogenes of Sinope**, the famous Cynic philosopher.

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**DIOGENES OF SINOPE** (Διογένης ὁ Σινωπεύς). Philosopher of the Cynic school, born in Sinope (modern Sinop, Turkey) around 412 B.C., died in Corinth in 323 B.C. He was the son of Hicesias, a banker, and was exiled from his homeland along with his father for counterfeiting currency. He moved to Athens, where he became a disciple of Antisthenes, the founder of the Cynic school, though the latter initially rejected him. Diogenes adopted and radicalized Antisthenes' teachings, embracing an extreme form of asceticism and a life of poverty. He lived in a barrel (or, according to some sources, a large jar) and renounced all material possessions, dedicating himself to a life of virtue and self-sufficiency. His provocative behavior and sharp wit made him a legendary figure in antiquity. He is said to have wandered the streets of Athens with a lantern in broad daylight, claiming to be searching for an honest man. His encounters with Alexander the Great, whom he reportedly told to "stand out of my sunlight," are among the most famous anecdotes of his life. Diogenes' philosophy emphasized the rejection of social conventions, the pursuit of natural simplicity, and the cultivation of inner freedom. His teachings were transmitted orally and through anecdotes, as he left no written works. His influence extended to later philosophical movements, including Stoicism.

BIBL.:
- D. R. Dudley, *A History of Cynicism*, London 1937;
- F. Sayre, *Diogenes of Sinope: A Study of Greek Cynicism*, Baltimore 1938;
- vedi CINISMO.

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**DIOGENES OF APOLLONIA** (Διογένης ὁ Ἀπολλωνιάτης). Pre-Socratic philosopher of the 5th century B.C., born in Apollonia (modern Sozopol, Bulgaria). He was a follower of Anaximenes and is known for his theory that air (*pneuma*) is the fundamental principle of the universe, from which all things derive. His work *On Nature* (Περὶ φύσεως) is partially preserved in fragments. Diogenes of Apollonia sought to reconcile the monism of Anaximenes with the pluralism of Empedocles, proposing that air is both the material and the intelligent principle governing the cosmos. His ideas influenced later medical and philosophical thought, particularly in the Hippocratic tradition.

BIBL.:
- H. Diels, *Die Fragmente der Vorsokratiker*, Berlin 1903, I, pp. 323-339;
- W. K. C. Guthrie, *A History of Greek Philosophy*, II, Cambridge 1965, pp. 362-381.

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**DIOGENES LAERTIUS** (Διογένης Λαέρτιος). Greek biographer and doxographer of the 3rd century A.D., author of *Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers* (Βίοι καὶ γνῶμαι τῶν ἐν φιλοσοφίᾳ εὐδοκιμησάντων), a ten-volume work that remains the primary source for the history of ancient Greek philosophy. Little is known about his life, but his work preserves invaluable biographical and doctrinal information about philosophers from Thales to Epicurus. Though his reliability has been questioned, Diogenes Laertius provides a comprehensive overview of philosophical schools and their key figures, often citing earlier sources now lost.

BIBL.:
- H. S. Long, *Diogenis Laertii Vitae philosophorum*, Oxford 1964;
- M. Gigante, *Diogene Laerzio: Vite dei filosofi*, Bari 1962.

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**DIOGENES OF OENOANDA** (Διογένης ὁ Οἰνοανδεύς). Epicurean philosopher of the 2nd century A.D., known for his monumental inscription at Oenoanda (modern İncealiler, Turkey), which preserved Epicurean teachings on ethics, physics, and epistemology. The inscription, discovered in fragments, was intended as a public declaration of Epicurean philosophy and a guide to living a life free from fear and pain. Diogenes of Oenoanda sought to disseminate Epicurus' ideas to a broader audience, emphasizing the importance of friendship, the pursuit of pleasure (understood as the absence of pain), and the rejection of superstition.

BIBL.:
- C. W. Chilton, *Diogenes of Oinoanda: The Fragments*, London 1971;
- M. F. Smith, *The Epicurean Inscription of Diogenes of Oinoanda*, Vienna 1993.

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**DIOGENES (SAINT)**. Early Christian martyr, venerated in the Eastern Church. According to tradition, he was a soldier in the Roman army who converted to Christianity and was martyred under Emperor Diocletian (late 3rd to early 4th century A.D.). His feast day is celebrated on August 16 in the Byzantine Rite. Little historical information survives about his life, but his cult spread in the Eastern Mediterranean, particularly in Asia Minor.

BIBL.:
- *Acta Sanctorum*, Augusti, III, pp. 234-236;
- vedi MARTIRIOLOGIO.DIOGENES OF APOLLONIA

A Greek philosopher of the 5th century B.C., native of Apollonia in Crete (or, according to some, in Thrace). He was a disciple of Anaximenes and, like him, considered air (*aer*) as the primordial element, the principle of all things. However, he introduced into this materialistic conception a teleological element, attributing to air not only the function of a physical principle but also that of a vital and intelligent force, which organizes and governs the universe. This doctrine, which recalls the *Nous* of Anaxagoras, represents an attempt to reconcile the Ionian tradition with the new philosophical currents of the time.

Diogenes of Apollonia is also known for his anatomical and physiological studies, particularly on the veins and the circulation of blood. His works, of which only fragments remain, were known to Aristotle and Theophrastus.

BIBL.:
H. Diels, *Die Fragmente der Vorsokratiker*, I, Berlin 1951, 51–67; J. Burnet, *Early Greek Philosophy*, London 1930, 359–364; W.K.C. Guthrie, *A History of Greek Philosophy*, II, Cambridge 1965, 362–379.

A. R.DIOGENES

A Greek name borne by several figures in antiquity, the most notable of whom is **Diogenes of Sinope**, the Cynic philosopher (v. CINISMO). Other individuals of the same name include:

1. **Diogenes of Apollonia**, a philosopher of the 5th century B.C., known for his theories on the nature of air as the fundamental principle of the universe. His thought represents a synthesis of earlier Ionian philosophy, particularly that of Anaximenes and Heraclitus. Only fragments of his work survive, primarily through later doxographers.

2. **Diogenes of Babylon**, a Stoic philosopher of the 2nd century B.C., successor to Chrysippus as head of the Stoic school in Athens. He contributed to the development of Stoic logic and ethics, though his works are largely lost.

3. **Diogenes Laertius**, a biographer of Greek philosophers, active in the 3rd century A.D. His *Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers* is a key source for the history of ancient philosophy, preserving biographical and doctrinal information about numerous thinkers.

4. **Diogenes of Oenoanda**, a wealthy Epicurean who, in the 2nd century A.D., inscribed a vast summary of Epicurean philosophy on a portico in his hometown to disseminate Epicurean teachings. Fragments of this inscription have been recovered.

BIBL.:
For Diogenes of Sinope, V. CINISMO; for Diogenes of Apollonia, *Diels-Kranz, Die Fragmente der Vorsokratiker*, I, Berlin 1951, 64; for Diogenes of Babylon, *von Arnim, Stoicorum Veterum Fragmenta*, III, Leipzig 1903, 210 ss.; for Diogenes Laertius, *Long, Diogenes Laertius: Lives of Eminent Philosophers*, Cambridge 1966; for Diogenes of Oenoanda, *Chilton, Diogenes of Oenoanda: The Fragments*, Oxford 1971.

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It aimed to facilitate and intensify conversions to the faith through a vast work of reconciliation and synthesis between the ancient Catholic tradition and the new thought and aspirations of modern religiosity. This movement, of which the missionary Fr. Isaac Thomas Hecker (q.v.)—founder of the religious Congregation of the Paulists—had become a leading figure, and which had already been discussed in the very circles in which it had arisen, gained wide resonance and provoked reactions of various kinds when it became known in the religious circles of Europe, especially in France. The liveliest controversies indeed arose in France. The event that sparked them was the publication of a life of Fr. I. T. Hecker written by W. Elliott, translated into French (Paris 1897) by F. Klein, which in a few months went through five editions.

In truth, the Americanists, though starting from the noble and praiseworthy intention of a more extensive and rapid diffusion of Catholicism, were endangering the unity of the Roman Church. For this reason, Leo XIII intervened with great promptness, condemning the error in the letter *Testem benevolentiae* of 22 January 1899, addressed to Cardinal Gibbons, an admirer and supporter of the Paulists. The good intentions and perfect orthodoxy of the promoters of the new theories are demonstrated unequivocally by their prompt and unconditional submission to the words of the Supreme Pontiff.