The Cossacks are a peasant people of mixed descent, especially from among the Slavs and TURKICS, who have inhabited over the course of their history parts of eastern Europe, especially present-day Russia (see Russians: nationality). They mainly inhabited steppe country extending from the region north of the Black Sea and the Caucasus Mountains and the Caspian Sea eastward to the Altai Mountains in Siberia in Asia. The term Cossack is derived from the Turkish word kazak, for “free person” or “adventurer.”
COSSACKS
Location:
Russia; Ukraine
Time period:
14th century C. E. to present
Ancestry:
Slavic; Turkic
Language:
Russian; Polish; Ukrainian; Turkic
The Cornish were one of the Celtic peoples of the British isles who, because of their relative isolation on the Cornish peninsula far to the southwest of most of Britain, maintained their Celtic language and identity for centuries after the rest of Europe was dominated by Germanic peoples. The Cornish, who for most of the Celtic period were on the far periphery of the Celtic world, helped to preserve the Celtic culture, so much of which has been lost. At the same time the importance of mining in Cornwall led to the invention and development there of devices important to the progress of the industrial Revolution, including the inclined plane and steam-powered transportation.
Further Reading
Philip J. Payton, ed. Cornish Studies (Exeter, U. K.: University of Exeter Press, 1998).
Mark Stoyle. West Britons: Cornish Identities and the Early Modern British State (Exeter, U. K.: University of Exeter Press, 2002).
Craig Weatherhill. Cornish Place Names and Language (Wilmslow, U. K.: Sigma Leisure, 1995).
World History
