ETYM Latin centralis, from centrum: cf. French central. Related to Center.
1. Centrally located and easy to reach.
2. Constituting a center or having controlling authority; where all the important decisions are made.
3. In or near a center or constituting a center.
4. Used in the description of a place that in the middle of another place.

Množina: centrals

ETYM New Lat. centrale, from Latin centralis.
A telecommunications facility; SYN. telephone exchange, exchange.

Množina: Central African Republics

Landlocked country in Central Africa, bordered NE and E by Sudan, S by Zaire and the Congo, W by Cameroon, and NW by Chad.
government
The 1995 constitution provides for a president, elected by universal suffrage for a six-year term, who is head of state. There is a 85-member national assembly similarly elected for a five-year term.
history
A French colony from the late 19th century, the territory of Ubangi-Shari became self-governing within French Equatorial Africa in 1958 and two years later achieved full independence. Barthélémy Boganda, who had founded the Movement for the Social Evolution of Black Africa (MESAN), had been a leading figure in the campaign for independence and became the country's first prime minister. A year before full independence he was killed in an airplane crash and was succeeded by his nephew, David Dacko, who became president 1960 and 1962 established a one-party state, with MESAN as the only political organization.
Bokassa’s rule
Dacko was overthrown in a military coup Dec 1965, and the commander in chief of the army, Col Jean-Bédel Bokassa, assumed power. Bokassa annulled the constitution and made himself president for life 1972 and marshal of the republic 1974. An authoritarian regime was established, and in 1976 ex-president Dacko was recalled to be the president's personal adviser. At the end of that year the republic was restyled the Central African Empire, and in 1977 Bokassa was crowned emperor at a lavish ceremony his country could ill afford. His rule became increasingly dictatorial and idiosyncratic, leading to revolts by students and, in April 1979, by schoolchildren who objected to the compulsory wearing of school uniforms made by a company owned by the Bokassa family. Many of the children were imprisoned, and it is estimated that at least 100 were killed, with the emperor allegedly personally involved.
Dacko’s coup
In Sept 1979, while Bokassa was in Libya, Dacko ousted him in a bloodless coup, backed by France. The country became a republic again, with Dacko as president. He initially retained a number of Bokassa's former ministers but, following student unrest, they were dropped, and in Feb 1981 a new constitution was adopted, with an elected national assembly. Dacko was elected president for a six-year term in March, but opposition to him grew and in Sept 1981 he was deposed in another bloodless coup, led by the armed forces' Chief of Staff, General André Kolingba.
military government
The constitution and all political organizations were suspended, and a military government was installed. Undercover opposition to the Kolingba regime continued, with some French support, but relations with France were improved by an unofficial visit by President Mitterrand Oct 1982. The leaders of the banned political parties were granted an amnesty, and at the end of the year the French president paid a state visit. In Jan 1985 proposals for a new constitution were announced and in Sept civilians were included in Kolingba's administration. In 1986 Bokassa returned from exile in France, expecting to be returned to power. Instead, he was tried for his part in the killing of the schoolchildren in 1979 and condemned to death; the sentence was commuted to life imprisonment 1988. In 1991, in response to widespread demonstrations calling for a return to a multiparty system, the government lifted the ban on political parties and announced that it would convene a national conference to discuss the future of the coun
try. The conference was held Jan 1992, but abandoned after opposition groups walked out.
civilian rule
In Sept 1993 Ange Patasse was elected president in a second-round run-off election, ending twelve years of military dictatorship. Jean-Luc Mandaba became prime minister. Former dictator Jean-Bédel Bokassa was stripped of his rank and ordered to leave his military headquarters Nov 1993. A new constitution was adopted Jan 1995.

Množina: Central Americas

The part of North America south of the United States.
The part of the Americas that links Mexico with the Isthmus of Panama, comprising Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama.
It is also an isthmus, crossed by mountains that form part of the Cordilleras, rising to a maximum height of 4,220 m/13,845 ft. There are numerous active volcanoes. Central America is about 523,000 sq km/200,000 sq mi in area and has a estimated at 22,700,000, mostly Indians or mestizos (of mixed white-Indian ancestry). Tropical agricultural products and other basic commodities and raw materials are exported.
Much of Central America formed part of the Maya civilization. Christopher Columbus first reached the isthmus 1502. Spanish settlers married indigenous women, and the area remained out of the mainstream of Spanish Empire history. When the Spanish Empire collapsed in the early 1800s, the area formed the Central American Federation, with a constitution based on that of the US. The federation disintegrated 1840. Completion of the Panama Canal 1914 enhanced the region's position as a strategic international crossroads. Demand for cash crops (bananas, coffee, cotton), especially from the US, created a strong landowning class controlling a serflike peasantry by military means. There has been US military intervention in the area, for example, in Nicaragua, where the dynasty of General Anastasio Somoza was founded. President Carter reversed support for such regimes, but in the 1980s, the Reagan and Bush administrations again favored military and financial aid to right-wing political groups, including the Contras in Ni
caragua. Continuing US interest was underscored by its invasion of Panama Dec 1989.

Množina: Central Americans

A native or inhabitant of Central America.