Living Nations of the World to-Day (part 2)

Berlin Suburbs.—In recent years there has been a remarkable expansion of the suburban districts of Berlin, residential sites have sprung up in the pine woods and by the lakes of the Havel to the northwest, and Spandau, Charlottenburg, and Potsdam may almost be regarded as suburbs.

THE BOURSE, OR EXCHANGE, BERLIN

Potsdam, “the Versailles of Prussia,” with its palaces and parks, is sixteen miles from Berlin, among wooded hills and the lakelike expanses of the Havel. Here is the Sans Souci Palace, built by Frederick the Great, and full of reminiscences of him. Near by are the Picture-Gallery, the Orangery (adorned with fine statuary), and the Sicilian Garden. The New Palace has two hundred richly adorned rooms, with fine paintings, and a noteworthy Marble Saloon.

The Marble Palace is north of Potsdam, and has many paintings. Babelsberg is a new Gothic palace, with rich art-treasures. The Royal Palace (1660) is full of relics of the Great Frederick. The Garrison Church contains his tomb and military trophies. The Church of Peace is a noble Ionic basilica, with masterpieces of sculpture. The famous Sans Souci fountains play on summer Sunday afternoons.

Industries of Berlin.—In its industries Berlin is almost as varied as London, but machinery, especially locomotive and electrical, woolens, dyeing, furniture and metal work are the chief. It is beginning to rival Leipzig in book production, and its breweries are large. Besides being the center of the great trade in corn and other cereals of Eastern Europe, its great banks exercise increasing international influence.

A Center of Education and Culture.—The famous Freidrich Wilhelm University, founded in 1810, now the largest in numbers in Germany, the splendid technical institution at Charlottenburg, and its numerous schools of all ranks, make Berlin one of the greatest intellectual and educational centers of the world. As the seat of the Imperial Court, and of the Imperial Parliament and administration, it is also the social center of the empire, and its modern wealth and luxury have made it a growing rival to Paris as a city of pleasure.

Since 1878 the city has been practically rebuilt; the sudden growth of population has resulted in much overcrowding and crushingly high rentals. Once deplorable, the sanitation, water supply, and public hygiene are now of the highest standard, and German scientific thoroughness has made it the most highly organized and best administered city in the world.

ST. HEDWIG’S CHURCH, BERLIN

THE NEW HOHENZOLLERN CATHEDRAL, BERLIN

Other Prussian Cities.—Breslau on the Oder, the capital of the mining districts of Silesia, has grown to be the second town of the kingdom, carrying on very extensive manufactures and a great trade by river and railway. It is also the emporium of the flax-growing district of Silesia. About the Rhenish coal fields, which yield half the supply of the kingdom, stand the manufacturing and trading towns of Cologne, Aachen or Aix, Barmen, Düsseldorf, Elberfeld, Crefeld and Dortmund, spinning cotton, wool, linen, and silk; and the famous iron and steel works of Solingen and Essen, where Krupp’s steel guns are made.

Magdeburg, on the Elbe, and Cassel, on the Fulda, are the great manufacturing and trading towns of central Prussia. Much of the internal trade of Germany is still carried on at great annual fairs, and in this respect the two Frankforts (on the Main to the west, and on the Oder to the east) hold the most important place. Hanover, on the Leine, is the point of exchange of the mineral products of the Harz for the goods which come in by Bremen on the Weser, and has important manufactures of its own.

The chief ports belonging to Prussia are the Baltic ones—Königsberg, Danzig, Stettin, Stralsund, Memel, Rostock, Wismar, and Kiel, on the Baltic; Altona, on the Elbe, next Hamburg. Posen, on the Warthe, was the ancient capital of Poland, and is the most important fortress towards the Russian frontier. Wiesbaden is the most important and the oldest of the watering-places which have grown up round the mineral springs of Nassau. Eisleben, where Luther was born, and Erfurt, where he resided, both in Prussian Saxony, are notable points in connection with the history of the Reformation in Germany.

THE NEW PALACE AT POTSDAM

Erected by Frederick the Great, at a cost of $2,250,000. The principal rooms are the Shell Saloon, the rooms of Frederick the Great, the Marble (concert) room, and ball room.

Dresden and Other Cities of Saxony.—Dresden, its capital, finely placed on both banks of the Elbe, famous for its art treasures, has also many varied manufactures. Its architecture and its art collections have given it the name of “the German Florence.”

The old bridge, Augustusbrücke (Augustus Bridge), may be taken as the center of the most interesting part of Dresden. Immediately to the east of the Augustusbrücke, on the Alstadt side, stretches the beautiful Brühl Terrasse, whence are fine views over the river. There are high-class concerts in the Belvedere on the Brühl Terrace. Near the flight of steps to the terrace, facing the Royal Palace and Catholic Church, is the Rathaus (Town Hall) with an equestrian statue of King Albert in front.

THE ZWINGER, DRESDEN, CONTAINING THE WORLD-RENOWNED GALLERY OF PAINTINGS

The Royal Palace, just south of the Augustusbrücke, will be discovered by its lofty tower, three hundred and thirty-one feet high.

The Zwinger, to the west of the Schloss, is a range of buildings of seven pavilions, with the Museum at one corner. In the Museum are the picture gallery, with collections of engravings and drawings, and mineralogical collections, with scientific instruments.

The Picture Gallery is of world renown, containing more than two thousand four hundred paintings, mostly by Italian and Flemish masters. The gem of the collection is Raphael’s “Sistine Madonna;” other masterpieces being Titian’s “Tribute Money,” and Correggio’s “Magdalene” and “La Notte.”

The Green Vault in the Royal Palace contains an unrivaled collection of precious stones, articles wrought in gold, silver, and ivory, etc. The new Hoftheater is one of the finest theaters in Europe. Of the churches the most noted are the Frauenkirche, with its lofty dome (three hundred and ten feet high).

The so-called “Dresden china” is made for the most part at Meissen, fifteen miles from Dresden.

Leipzig is not only the seat of a famous university and the great book market of Germany, but has one of the largest annual fairs in the world, to which merchants come from all parts of the earth, even from America and China.

Chemnitz and Zwickau, beside the Saxon coal field, are the great woolen and machine-manufacturing towns of the kingdom. Freiberg is famed for its school of mines.

Cities of Bavaria.—Munich (München), the capital, stands in the midst of a bare elevated plain on the left bank of the Isar, one thousand seven hundred feet above sea-level, but has risen to importance as the central point of the great grain-growing plateau of southern Bavaria. It is the great corn depot of the country, and the place of manufacture of its favorite beer. In recent times it has become celebrated as a seat of the fine arts and for its splendid buildings.

Ancient Nürnburg, with its double line of walls, where watches, first called Nürnberg eggs, were invented, is the great seat of industry and commerce in the north of Bavaria, exporting toys which go to all parts of the world. It stands on the Ludwigs Canal, the most important one in the kingdom, uniting the navigable tributaries of the Rhine and Danube.

Augsburg, on the Lech, northwest of Munich, where the Protestants presented the Confession of Faith to Charles V., is a chief center of Bavarian trade and exchange. Würzburg, on the Main, is the old capital of Franconia, the district which was peopled by colonies of Franks in the sixth century.

Speyer or Spire and the fortress of Landau are also important places in the palatinate.

Cities of Württemberg.—Stuttgart, where Hegel was born, and where Schiller spent his youth, is the capital, and stands next to Leipzig and Berlin in the printing arts and book trade. The fortress of Ulm, on the Danube, where it leaves Württemberg, has a large transit trade. Heilbronn is another important trading place. Tübingen is the university town.

THE PINAKOTHEK, MUNICH, FAMOUS GERMAN MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS

The little territory belonging to the house of Hohenzollern, which runs into Württemberg on the south, fell by inheritance to the king of Prussia in 1849.

Cities of Baden, and Elsass-Lothringen (Alsace-Lorraine).—Carlsruhe, the capital, and Mannheim, at the confluence of the Neckar and Rhine, are its largest towns. Heidelberg (north) and Freiburg (south) are the seats of universities. Baden-Baden in the center, the famous watering-place, gives its name to the Duchy.

The fortress of Strassburg, on the Rhine, in central Elsass, anciently a free imperial city of Germany, is the chief place in the Reichsland and its university town, noted also for its manufacture of leather-work and of beer. The cotton, wool and silk factories and machine works of the province center at Mülhausen in southern Elsass.

The fortresses of Metz and Diedenhofen or Thionville, memorable in the war of 1871, are the chief places in Lothringen.

Cities of the Smaller States.—Hamburg, Bremen and Lübeck, the remaining free Hanse towns, are republics, each governed by a senate and house of burgesses. Each of them has a small territory besides that occupied by the city.

They are the great gates of the external commerce of Germany, and from this have also become important centers for the preparation of foreign products, and of the necessaries of trading (tobacco, sugar-refining, cotton-spinning, shipbuilding). Besides the traffic brought to Hamburg and Bremen by their rivers, all the railways of the northwest converge toward them.

German Colonies.—At the commencement of the war these had a total area of 1,134,239 square miles, with a population of about 14,890,000, of whom 24,170 (including garrison and police) were whites. Of these whites about 18,500 were settled Germans.

The following is a list of the principal colonies and regions under the protection or influence of Germany, with approximate estimates of area and population:

Colonies
and
Dependencies Date
of
Acquisition Method of
Government Estimated
Area
Sq. Miles Estimated
Population

In Africa

Togoland 1884 Imperial Governor 33,700 1,000,000

Kamerun 1884 Imperial Governor 191,130 3,000,000

German South West Africa 1884-1890 Imperial Governor 322,450 120,000

German East Africa 1885-1890 Imperial Governor 384,180 10,000,000

Total African Possessions 1884-1890 931,460 14,120,000

In Asia

Kiauchau Bay 1897 Imperial Governor 200 33,000

In the Pacific

German New Guinea

Kaiser Wilhelm’s Land 1885-1886 - Imperial Governor - 70,000 - 300,000

Bismarck Archipelago 1885 20,000

Caroline Islands 1899 ...

Palau or Pelew Islands 1899 560 - 56,000

Marianne Islands 1899 250

Solomon Islands 1886 4,200

Marshall Islands, etc. 1886 150

Samoan Islands

Savii 1899 - Imperial Governor - 660 - 37,000

Upolu 1899 340

Total Pacific Possessions 1884-1899 96,160 393,000

PARLIAMENT BUILDINGS, BERLIN

History of Germany

The earliest information we have of the Germans, the peoples and the tribes who dwelt among the dense forests that stretched from the Rhine to the Vistula and from the Danube to the Baltic Sea, comes to us from the Romans.

First Contact with Romans.—The first tribes of Germanic race to come into collision with the arms of Rome were the Cimbri and Teutones, who in 113 B. C. had invaded Styria, and there met with defeat from the troops of the consul Papirius. When in 58 B. C. Cæsar began his campaigns in Gaul, he found several hordes of Germans, mostly Marcomanni and Suevi, settled between the Rhine and the Vosges, and even on the western side of these hills.

Appealed to by the Gauls of those regions to free them from their German oppressors, Cæsar inflicted a crushing defeat upon their ambitious chieftain, Ariovistus, and chased him and his followers across the Rhine. In the period 166-74 Aurelius was engaged in beating back a formidable incursion of the Marcomanni and Quadi into Roman territory. From the third century we no longer read of single tribes, but of great confederations of tribes, as the Goths, Alemanni, Franks, Frisians, Saxons, Thuringians, and others. Of the history of Germany itself we learn little more that is authentic until we come down to the times of the Franks, by whom the kingdoms of France and Germany were subsequently formed.

Henceforward, till the time of Charlemagne, Germany was occupied by a number of chieftains, who were perpetually at war with one another, except when invasions from without forced them into transitory alliance.

Charlemagne, or Charles the Great, the Frankish king, was crowned emperor of Rome by the pope in 800, and after his death his empire was partitioned among his four sons, and the result of the family struggles which followed was the separation of Germany from Gaul and of both from Burgundy and Italy by the Treaty of Verdun in 843. (See history of France; also Empire of Charlemagne.)

A separate kingdom of Germany was then formed under Lewis the German. A temporary reunion of the dominions of Charlemagne—with the exception of Burgundy—was effected under Charles the Fat in 884, but he was deposed in 887 and the final separation into the East and West Frankish kingdoms was accomplished.

The inroads of the Norsemen were checked in 891 by Arnulf, but they were followed by the savage attacks of the Hungarians during the reign of Louis the Child, with whom ended the race of Charlemagne in 911.

Under Feudal System.—The royal power had now almost vanished, and the system of granting fiefs had resulted in the formation of a class of powerful local rulers—the dukes of the great groups or confederations of tribes. The maintenance of central authority at all was probably due only to external danger from Slavs, Norsemen, and Magyars, and even this could not prevent constant warfare between the great feudal lords. Conrad of Franconia, elected by the leading nobles, was unable to enforce his authority, and was, at his own suggestion, succeeded by his great enemy, Henry, Duke of Saxony.

THE BRANDENBURG GATE

at the western terminus of the Unter den Linden, was erected 1789, at a cost of three hundred and seventy thousand dollars, after the Propylæa of Athens, and is regarded as the finest archway in Europe next to the Arc de Triomphe at Paris. The Quadriga or four-horse car of Victory, by Schadow, was taken to Paris by the French in 1806, and returned 1814.

Henry I. Establishes Order.—A born leader of men, statesman and general, Henry I. (919-936) introduced a new civil and military organization. He created the burgher class by the foundation of towns, compelling every tenth freeman to labor on buildings, and these towns he made the centers for judicial administration, ceremonies and festivals, markets, and trade. He broke the power of the Magyars, subdued Danes and Slavs, and before his death private war had ceased.

Otto the Great Revives the Holy Roman Empire.—His son, Otto the Great (936-973), consolidated the royal power, and reduced the great Duchies to submission, keeping them in his own hands or in those of members of his family. In 951 he entered Italy to settle the affairs of the Lombard kingdom, but returned to cope with a revolt terminated only by the vital danger of an invasion by the Magyars, whose power was finally crushed in 955. Crowned Emperor by the Pope in 962, he set an example to subsequent German kings, who claimed the Imperial and Lombard crowns as of right; but the precedent led also to the continued absences of the German rulers in Italy and the severance of their interests from those of their own proper dominions. The sense of German nationality grew in his reign, yet this was accompanied by a weakening of central authority and the development of the power of the great vassals, dukes, and princes, ecclesiastical and secular.

Under the House of Franconia.—After his death constant civil war increased their power until their growing independence was checked by Conrad II. (1024-1039), the first of the Franconian Emperors, who rendered the mediate nobles, vassals of the great lords, less dependent on their feudal superiors, and formed a close alliance with the towns. His son, Henry III. (1039-1056), further strengthened the royal power, put down private war, and in 1043 proclaimed a general peace.

Struggle with the Papacy.—His attempted reformation of the Papacy and appointment of four German popes in succession commenced the long and fierce struggle between the Emperors and the Popes. During the minority of his son, Henry IV., the great nobles recovered much of their power. His opposition to the famous decree of Pope Gregory VII. in 1075 against the marriage of the clergy and their investiture by laymen was followed by his summons to Rome, his deposition of the Pope through a synod of German bishops, his excommunication and complete humiliation at Canossa in 1077. The dispute was only settled under his son, Henry V., by a compromise, the “Concordat of Worms,” in 1122, but the power of the Papacy had been enormously strengthened. It had attempted to dispose of the Imperial Crown, and Innocent II. even claimed to have granted it to Lothar of Saxony (1125-1137) in 1133 as to a vassal.

Famous Hohenstaufen Line.—With Conrad III. of Franconia (1137-1152) commences the line of the famous Hohenstaufen Emperors. The two great parties supporting the Pope and the Emperor now first became known as Guelfs and Ghibelines (Welfs and Waiblings). His successor, the great Frederick Barbarossa (1152-1190), was occupied in Italy during long years with the now permanent struggle against the Popes and the Italian cities supporting them. In Germany Teutonic power was extended over the Slavonic countries along the Baltic by Henry the Lion of Saxony and Albert the Bear, to whom was granted the Mark of Brandenburg. Under Frederick II. (1212-1250) the struggle with the Papacy was continued. Sentence of excommunication was launched against him, and a rival king was elected, and his continued absence in Italy led to the utmost anarchy in Germany. Meanwhile the conquest of the Slavonic lands now forming a great part of Prussia progressed steadily under the Knights of the Teutonic Order and of the Order of the Sword.

The period of the Hohenstaufens was one of great brilliancy. Chivalry was promoted in the Crusades, literature was in full bloom in the works of the Minnesänger, Gothic architecture received its finest developments, the towns increased in prosperity, many serfs were freed, and codes of local customs and usages were compiled, such as the Sachsenspiegel and the Schwabenspiegel. On the other hand, the greater vassals became practically independent, and the principle of inheritance was applied to their lands and offices. The privileges usurped by the ecclesiastical and secular princes were confirmed by Frederick II. in the “Pragmatic Sanctions” of 1220 and 1232, and the right of electing the Emperor was confined to the Seven Electors.

The Interregnum.—The period of anarchy culminating in the “Great Interregnum” (1250-1273) is marked by the formation of the Rhenish Confederation of some seventy leading cities for mutual defense, and of the powerful Hanseatic League.

Beginning of the Hapsburg Line.—Rudolf of Hapsburg, elected in 1273, revived the royal authority and strictly enforced justice, but his rule was unfavorable to the growing privileges of the towns. In this respect his policy was reversed by his successor, Adolf of Nassau (1291-1298), and by his son, Albert I. (1298-1308), who even befriended the serfs and the Jews. The long struggle between the Empire and the Papacy practically ended under Louis IV. (1314-1347), by the formal declaration of the Electors in 1338 that the Papal sanction was not needed to the election of the emperor. Public peace was encouraged under Louis IV., and his friendship to the towns was constant. Industry and trade flourished more and more in the cities, and their government was now becoming more democratic through the victory of the craft-guilds over the old patrician families.

House of Luxemburg.—Charles IV. (1347-1378), the first emperor who retained his hereditary lands on election, by the “Golden Bull” in 1356 regulated the method of election and confirmed the complete sovereignty of the Electors in their own territories. In 1396 the foundations of Swiss independence were laid in the victory of the “Eidgenossen” over Duke Leopold of Austria at Sempach.

Reformation Foreshadowed.—In the reign of Sigismund (1410-1437), who united the dignities of King of Hungary, King of Bohemia, and Margrave of Brandenburg, and who was the last Emperor crowned at Rome, the Hussite war, consequent on the burning of John Huss by the Council of Constance in 1415, foreshadowed the Reformation. The Mark of Brandenburg now passed to the Hohenzollerns, under whom it was to grow into the kingdom of Prussia.

The reigns of Frederick IV. (1440-1493), and Maximilian I. (1493-1519), the husband of Mary, the heiress of Charles the Bold, last Duke of Burgundy, bring the Middle Ages to a close. The age of chivalry was ended by the invention of gunpowder and the use of mercenary troops; the realities of feudalism had passed away, the Imperial authority had dwindled to nominal control, and princes and cities had attained independence. But the Imperial dignity was now permanently connected with the House of Hapsburg and combined with great territorial possessions. The semblance and, to some extent, the reality of unity were established by the growing use of Roman law, by the constitution in 1495 of an Imperial Tribunal or Court of Appeal (the “Aulic Council”), and by the division of Germany in 1501 and 1512 into “Circles,” each with its own “States” charged to carry out the decisions of the Imperial Chamber.

Period of Charles V.—Luther’s denunciation of indulgences was made in 1517, but the full storm of the Reformation burst after the accession of Charles V. (1519-1555), who united to the Empire the entire possessions of the kingdom of Spain. At the Diet of Worms in 1521 he took up the defense of the Church, and condemned Luther as a heretic. At the same Diet an Imperial Administrative Council was established, and a “Matricula” drawn up, settling the contingents of troops to be raised by the States, both of which existed until the fall of the Empire. The Reformation now made irresistible progress; a common name, “Protestants,” was acquired by the Reformers at the Diet of Speyer in 1529, and in common statement of doctrines, the “Augsburg Confession,” was drawn up in 1530.

Thirty Years’ War.—The new and the old religions were put upon an equality by the Religious Peace of Augsburg in 1555, in which, however, the Calvinistic or Reformed Faith was not included. In the fearful struggle which followed the Reformation the Imperial authority was completely ruined. The reaction against the new doctrines, due mainly to the zeal of the Jesuits, gave fresh strength to the Catholic party, the Reformation was stamped out in Bohemia, and complete toleration was not acquired by Protestants (including both Lutherans and Calvinists) until the Peace of Westphalia in 1648.

This was at the close of the disastrous and merciless struggle known as the Thirty Years’ war. The result of the confused period commencing with the abdication of Charles V. in 1555 must be briefly summed up. The Empire in Germany was practically ended and was now attached to the hereditary dominions of the house of Hapsburg in Austria. The population of Germany was reduced by more than one-half; industry and trade had almost ceased to exist; enormous territorial losses had been suffered, and France and Sweden had made great acquisitions. Switzerland and the United Provinces were severed from the Empire, and had acquired complete independence. Germany emerged from the war a mere lax confederation of states, whose rulers—a race of absolute and, in most cases, coarse and selfish despots—were recognized by the Peace of Westphalia as independent. Even in the cities government had passed into the hands of local oligarchies. The only bond of union was the nominal authority remaining to the emperor, and now transferred to the Diet, of passing laws, concluding treaties, and making war and peace. One completely good result of the war was that amid the prevailing anarchy were laid, by Grotius, the foundations of a system of International Law.

Rise of Prussia to Power.—The Thirty Years’ war was followed by the rise of Prussia. Brandenburg had in 1611 become united to the Duchy of Prussia, part of the possessions of the Teutonic Order, which was in 1657 declared independent of Poland, of which it had been a fief, and received further accessions under the Great Elector, Frederick William. It grew steadily in power during the long struggle against the unscrupulous aggressions of Louis XIV., and in 1701 the son of the Great Elector, Frederick I., obtained from the Emperor the recognition of the Prussian Duchy as a kingdom. In 1713 a “Pragmatic Sanction” was drawn up by the Emperor Charles VI. (1711-1740), providing for the inheritance of the Austrian dominions by his daughter, Maria Theresa, and this was ultimately guaranteed by the leading powers.

Frederick the Great and the Seven Years’ War.—But his death in 1740 was the opportunity of Prussia, where Frederick II., better known as Frederick the Great, had just ascended the throne. He immediately occupied Silesia. Maria Theresa met with enthusiastic support in Hungary, and in 1745 her husband was elected emperor as Francis I. (1745-1765). An interval of peace was followed by the Seven Years’ war, at the conclusion of which, in 1763, Prussia was confirmed in the possession of Silesia, took rank as a great Power, and became definitely the rival of Austria in German politics.

In 1765 Joseph II. succeeded to the imperial crown, becoming at the same time co-regent with his mother of the Austrian hereditary dominions. He joined with Russia and Prussia in the first partition of Poland (1772). He was succeeded by his brother Leopold, who, having died in 1792, was succeeded by his son, Francis II., who joined in 1793 in the second partition of Poland. He took the command of his army against the French in 1794, concluded the peace of Campo Formio with Bonaparte (1797); joined the second coalition against France in 1799, and concluded the treaty of Lunéville (1801).

In 1804 Francis took the title of hereditary emperor of Austria, renouncing two years later that of head of the German Empire, which, indeed, had ceased to exist, owing to the conquests of Napoleon. The latter’s secularization of the ecclesiastical states, overthrow of Austria at Austerlitz (1805) and of Prussia at Jena and Auerstädt (1806), and formation of the Confederation of the Rhine, completed the extinction of the Holy Roman Empire.

The German Confederation.—The states of Germany were again united by the treaty of Vienna (1815), in a confederation called the German Confederation (der Deutsche Bund). In 1818 a general commercial league, called the Zollverein was projected by Prussia, and was gradually joined by most of the German states, exclusive of Austria. Revolutionary outbreaks caused great disturbances in various German states in 1830 and 1848, particularly the latter. The German Diet was restored in 1851 by the efforts of Prussia and Austria, who were latterly rivals for the supremacy in the confederation.

Beginning of Bismarck’s Power.—In 1861 William I. succeeded to the throne of Prussia, and the conflicts between the liberals and his ultra-reactionary government led in 1863 to the entrance into the ministry of Otto von Bismarck, who soon after became its president and the minister of foreign affairs. On the death of Frederick VII. of Denmark, Prussia and Austria disputed the claims of Christian IX., his successor, to the duchies of Schleswig and Holstein, and the war which followed (1864) resulted in the cession of Schleswig-Holstein, and Lauenburg to those powers jointly.

By the treaty of Gastein, Austria and Prussia agreed to a joint occupation of the Elbe duchies; but to prevent collision it was judged prudent that Austria should occupy Holstein, and Prussia Sleswick.

Contest Between Prussia and Austria.—Already a difference of policy had begun to show itself. Prussia was believed to have the intention of annexing the duchies; while Austria began to favor the claims of Prince Frederick of Augustemburg. In the meantime, both nations were making ready for the struggle; and Italy, looking upon the quarrel as a precious opportunity to strike a blow for the liberation of Venetia, had secretly entered into an alliance with Prussia.

On July 3, 1866, was fought the decisive battle of Sadowa, in which the Austrians were routed. Not till the victorious Prussians had pushed forward towards Vienna was a truce obtained through the agency of the Emperor of the French, the Peace of Prague (August 20). Italy, though more than half-inclined to stand out for the cession by Austria of the Trentino, as well as Venetia, reluctantly agreed to the armistice (August 12).

A brief campaign sufficed for the defeat of the minor states of Germany that had joined Austria, viz.: Bavaria, Württemberg, Baden and Hesse-Darmstadt; and, after peace had at last been arranged, some of them were forced to submit to a certain loss of territory.

Independence of Austria and Union of Germany.—The war completed the dissolution of the Confederation, and secured the reconstruction of Germany on an entirely new basis. Austria was excluded from Germany, and a new confederation, the North German, was formed of the states north of the Main, under the headship of the king of Prussia. Schleswig-Holstein, Hanover, Hesse-Cassel, Nassau, and Frankfort were incorporated with that kingdom. Efforts to secure a further consolidation were opposed by the South German states, but the final solution of the question was at length brought about by France, whose demands resulted in the War of 1870. (See under France.)

In this war Germany acquired Alsace and a part of Lorraine, and south Germany now waived any further opposition to a consolidation of all the German states under the leadership of Prussia.

Restoration of the German Empire.—On December 3 the king of Bavaria invited the king of Prussia to restore the dignity of German emperor. Most of the other states gave their assent and the North German Reichstag on December 10 adopted a motion for the establishment of the German empire under the king of Prussia. On January 18, 1871, the restoration of the imperial dignity was solemnly proclaimed by William I. at Versailles.

Subsequently the empire was largely organized under the vigorous administration of Prince Bismarck. The parliament of the new empire soon met at Berlin, and adopted the new constitution. The main result of his foreign policy was a cordial alliance with Austro-Hungary; an alliance, in 1872, between the emperors of Germany, Austria and Russia, in which, subsequently, Italy took the place of Russia, forming what is known in European politics as the Triple Alliance.

In domestic affairs many difficulties were encountered. With the birth of the new Empire commenced the long struggle of Prince Bismarck with the Papacy. The Jesuits were expelled in 1872, and in 1873 the famous “Falk Laws” imposed secular restrictions on all ecclesiastical appointments. The strict enforcement of these laws led to intense discontent and ill-feeling among Catholics. The contest ended with the grant of many concessions and the confession by Prince Bismarck in 1887 that his policy was practically changed. The democratic movement known as Socialism, aiming at the regulation and organization by the State of labor and production, grew rapidly in strength and importance, and inaugurated an era of “labor policy” by legislation compelling employers to institute a system of insurance in favor of their work-people, since followed by the adoption of an important state-aided scheme of insurance against death and old age.

In 1888 Emperor William I. died, and the premature death, after a reign of three months, of the beloved Crown Prince, who succeeded him as Frederick III., disappointed the hopes of those who had anticipated a Liberal policy on the part of the Crown.

Accession of William II.—His son and successor, William II., took a strong view of his functions as emperor and king. His reign was immediately characterized by the further development of the labor policy inaugurated by Prince Bismarck. The emperor was not, however, generally in accord with the views of the great Chancellor, whose resignation was accepted in 1891.

Caprivi now became chancellor, and managed to negotiate a series of commercial treaties, in 1892-1894, with the countries of Central Europe (Austria, Belgium, Switzerland, Italy), and later with Servia and Roumania, the purpose of which was to lower the import-duty on corn on condition that the foreign states favored German manufactures. These treaties at once induced the peasants to combine and in 1893 a great agricultural union was formed, called the Bund der Landwirte, with which an older association, the Deutsche Bauernbund, almost immediately coalesced.

Commercial and Colonial Expansion.—But the great features of recent German history have been the growth of German trade and commerce, the great colonial expansion in Africa and Polynesia, and the rapid increase of her navy.

MONUMENT OF VICTORY, BERLIN

Erected in the Königs Platz at the conclusion of the Franco-Prussian war of 1871. It consists of a circular temple surrounded with a colonnade of sixteen pillars, standing upon a square base or pedestal, and surmounted by a cylindrical shaft bearing a colossal gilt bronze Victory, winged and holding a wreath. The total height is one hundred and ninety-four feet. It may be ascended by an interior staircase. Upon the base are elaborate reliefs of the various campaigns commemorated.

In 1905 Germany intervened to disturb the French policy in Morocco, resulting in a conference of the powers interested at Algeciras. In 1911 Germany again intervened by sending a warship to Agadir for the protection of German property and German subjects. The action occasioned a complication of the European situation, and all but resulted in war. Germany’s claim for territorial compensation was not entertained by France, and Great Britain, as ally of France, claimed the right to be consulted if territory were to be conceded. The net result, after months of diplomatic intercommunication, was a readjustment of frontiers. (See German Colonial Possessions.)

The history of the German Empire since 1914 is chiefly that of the leading Teutonic power in the great European war of 1914-1917.

ST. PETER’S, ROME

St. Peter’s is the largest church in the world, covering two hundred and forty thousand square feet. It cost over sixty million dollars, took one hundred and seventy-six years to build; contains many vast and beautiful chapels, tombs of the popes, many paintings by great masters, and sculptures by Bernini, Michaelangelo, Canova and Thorwaldsen.

Kingdom of Italy

Modern Italy occupies the central of the three great peninsulas of southern Europe, together with Sicily, Sardinia, and some smaller islands. The peninsula, which at the Strait of Otranto approaches within less than fifty miles of Albania, is bounded west and south by that portion of the Mediterranean known as the Tyrrhenian Sea, east by the Adriatic, and north by the Alps, separating it from France, Switzerland and Austro-Hungary. The frontier with France is estimated at three hundred and seven miles; with Switzerland at four hundred and seven miles; and with Austria at four hundred and sixty-six miles. Its greatest length is seven hundred and ten miles; the breadth ranges from three hundred and fifty-one miles in the north to about twenty between the Gulfs of St. Eufemia and Squillace, but in most places is about ninety or one hundred miles. The seaboard of the peninsula extends to two thousand two hundred and seventy-two miles.

Mountains and General Configuration.—On the northern frontier the Alps sweep round in a mighty arc from Nice to Trieste, running out in places into Piedmont, Lombardy, and Venice. For the most part they rise steep and abrupt, except where their wall is pierced by long, deep valleys; and some of the loftiest peaks in the system, including Mont Blanc and Monte Rosa, belong to this mountain-girdle.

The highest mountain entirely within the kingdom is Gran Paradiso, the culminating point of the Graian Alps, in Piedmont. Between the Alps and the Apennines spreads the broad fertile Lombardo-Venetian plain, a nearly level country, which differs altogether in character from the peninsula to the south, and for a long period was politically distinct from it. Most of this great alluvial tract, which fills nearly the whole of northern Italy, belongs to the basin of the Po; it is irrigated by numerous streams and canals, and is one of the most fruitful and flourishing districts of Italy.

This great northern plain—generally but a few feet above sea-level—round which the Alps rise like a wall, is believed to have been at one period an extension of the Adriatic Gulf, which has been gradually filled up with rich alluvial soil worn down from the steep sides of the mountains by the snow-fed torrents.

The Apennines.—The form of all the more strictly peninsular part of Italy is given by the central range of the Apennines, which extends continuously through its length from the maritime Alps of France, round the head of the Gulf of Genoa, down to Cape Spartivento in the extreme south. The Apennines have their highest part, called the Gran Sasso d’Italia, “the great rock of Italy,” near the center of the long range. The slopes of these heights to the sea, northeast and southwest, are so short as to allow of only small rivers.

Nearly parallel with the southern part of the Apennine range, and westward of it, there appears a more recent chain of isolated volcanic heights. Chief of these, on the peninsula, is the cone of Vesuvius, which rises abruptly from the Campagna of Naples, above the old cities of Herculaneum and Pompeii, buried by its lava streams and ashes. North of Rome, in this volcanic region, the round lakes of Bolsena and Bracciano occupy the craters of old volcanoes. Carrying the line southward, across the Tyrrhenian Sea, we come to the volcanic group of the Lipari Islands, with the ever-active volcano of Stromboli; and farther on to Mount Etna, in Sicily, the highest of European volcanoes. Almost all the rest of Sicily, not volcanic, is covered with mountains of moderate elevation, the main line of which extends along the northern side of the island from east to west as if in continuation of the course of the Apennines across the narrow Straight of Messina.

Islands and their Surface.—The island of Sardinia, separated from Corsica by the Strait of Bonifacio, one hundred and fifty miles long from north to south, is for the most part mountainous, especially along the eastern side, in the middle of which rises the granitic Mount Gennargentu.

The island of Elba, famous as the place of Napoleon’s exile, between Corsica and the peninsula, eighteen miles long, is high, its western part being formed by Mount Capanne, which rises to three thousand three hundred and twenty-three feet. Capri, south of the Bay of Naples, where the Emperor Tiberius passed the last ten years of his life, and Caprera, Garibaldi’s home, on the north coast of Sardinia, are other noteworthy islands.

Rivers and Coast Waters.—The principal rivers are fed from the Alpine lakes. The Po, which descends from Monte Viso, on the western frontier, and, as it sweeps across the plain, receives the contributions of numerous important streams, ranks for its volume of water among the notable rivers of Europe. It is navigable for three hundred and twenty out of its four hundred and twenty miles, and several of its tributaries are also navigable. Many of the Po’s tributaries spread out at the foot of the Alps.

The province of Venice, to the north and east of the Po, is traversed by the Adige, Brenta, Piave and Tagliamento.

Along the coast of the Adriatic, north and south of the Po delta, there exist large tracts of salt water, known as lagoons, in a flat and marshy district. They are separated from the sea by narrow banks of sand in which are inlets, so that the lagoons serve as harbors. The chief of these is that in which Venice is situated. It extends over nearly forty miles from Torcello in the north to Chioggia and Brondolo in the south. The other coast-line of northern Italy is formed by a narrow strip of land, closed in by the steep, abrupt rocks of the Apennines, and known as the Italian Riviera.

The Arno, next to the Tiber the most considerable river of central Italy, rises on Mount Falterona, an offset of the Apennines, at four thousand four hundred and forty-four feet above sea-level, and twenty-five miles north of Arezzo. It flows one hundred and forty miles westward to the sea, eleven miles below Pisa. At Florence it is four hundred feet wide, but is fordable in summer.

The Tiber, the chief river of central Italy, and the most famous in the peninsula, rises in a dell of the Tuscan Apennines, eleven miles north of the village of Santo Stefano, whence it winds two hundred and sixty miles, and enters the Mediterranean by two branches, which enclose the Isola Sacra. Towns on or near its banks are Perugia, Orvieto, Rome and Ostia. It is navigable for boats of fifty tons to the confluence of the Nera, one hundred miles from its mouth. The Tiber is supplied mainly by turbid mountain-torrents, whence its liability to sudden overflowings. Its waters, too, are still discolored with yellow mud, as when the poet Horace described it.

Lakes.—To the south of the Alps, in the north of Lombardy and Venice, lie the beautiful Italian lakes, Lago di Garda, Maggiore, Como, Lugano, and Orto.

Lake of Como, the Lacus Larius of the Romans, is generally considered the most beautiful of the group. It is about thirty-six miles long, and its greatest width is three miles. Its shores are studded with picturesque villages and charming villas, with a background of forest and mountains, some of which are seven thousand feet high. The loveliest point is Bellagio, where the lake divides into two arms. Cadenabbia, on the western shore opposite Bellagio, is also a pleasant place.

Como, at the other extremity, is a thriving town of twenty-five thousand inhabitants, the birthplace of Pliny the Younger and of Volta. The cathedral is one of the best in Northern Italy.

Lake of Lugano, between Como and Maggiore, though much smaller than either, is scarcely their inferior in the loveliness of its scenery. It lies at the southern foot of the Alps, eight hundred and eighty-nine feet above sea-level. Its length is fourteen and one-half miles; average breadth one and one-quarter miles; area nineteen and one-half square miles; maximum depth nine hundred and fifteen feet, and average depth two hundred and forty-six feet.

Lake Maggiore (Madjō´ray), the largest of the Italian lakes, is about forty-five miles in length, averages three miles in breadth, lies six hundred and forty-six feet above sea-level, and has a maximum depth of one thousand two hundred and fifty feet. The river Ticino flows through it. In a southwestern expansion of the lake are the Borromean Isles. On the Isola Bella is the large palace built by Count Vitaleo Borromeo about a century ago, with terraced gardens, fountains, grottoes, etc., all very elaborate and artificial.

Lake Garda, a beautiful, clear lake, lies between Lombardy and Venetia, its northern end extending into the Austrian Tyrol. Situated two hundred and twenty-six feet above sea-level, it has an area of one hundred and fifteen square miles, a greatest length of thirty-five miles, a breadth of two to eleven miles, and a maximum depth of nine hundred and sixty-seven feet. The surface is studded with many islands. It is drained by the Mincio, a tributary of the Po. The mild climate and the beauty of the vicinity have caused its shores to be lined with villas.

Climatic and Landscape Features.—The north of Italy has the excessive climate of the temperate region of continental Europe; in the central parts of the peninsula the climate becomes more genial and sunny, and to the south almost tropical. The plain of Lombardy, with an average temperature of fifty-five degrees Fahrenheit, has winters which are as cold as those of the Scottish lowlands, and the lagoons of Venice have been frozen over; but its summers are as hot as those of Rome or Nice. The changes are few; rain lasts for weeks together in autumn, but in summer the blue sky is never clouded except when a violent thunder and hailstorm occurs.

About Florence the winters are much milder, with the same summer heat, and this difference between the seasons decreases still more to southward.

The summer of the Campagna of Rome, when a heat mist rises over the plain, is almost unbearable; in January the sky is blue, the mornings may be frosty, and fresh spring air blows over the land; in March the trees are already leafy, and in June the harvest begins; in July everything withers under the excessive heat, till the autumn rains revive the land.

In Naples and South Italy the sky is cloudless for months together, and the air is so pure that distant plains appear to be close at hand.

The chief faults of the Italian climate are the cold mountain winds called the Tramontana, like the mistral of south France, and the Bora of the north Adriatic, and, in contrast, the hot Sirocco, which occasionally blows from the African deserts, besides the malaria of the western coast marshes and of the Venetian lagoons.

Round the lakes at the base of the steep southern slope of the Alps, Mediterranean forms of vegetation appear; the chestnut reaches up to two thousand five hundred feet; above that comes the belt of beeches and oaks, still higher the pine woods, then the pretty alpine plants and high pastures. Scarcely any part of the world is so covered with irrigating canals as the highly cultivated plain of Lombardy, so that the whole of it appears like a great garden. At the northern base of the Apennines the Mediterranean flora of laurels and myrtles, cork oak and cypress, covers the first slopes; above that groups of oaks appear, then beech woods and the extensive summer pastures which reach all over the Apennine range. The Apennines have no permanent snows, but their highest summits are frequently snow-clad between October and May, and send down cold breezes into the warm valleys.

In Sicily the vegetation takes an African character, and many tropical forms flourish; it is not a well-wooded island, but forests occur here and there.

Riviera (Ree-vee-ay´ra “seashore”), is a term applied to the narrow strip of coast-land bordering the Gulf of Genoa, strictly from Nice to Spezzia, but generally understood to include the whole coast of the Alps Maritimes, and the Italian coast as far as Leghorn.

West of Genoa, and extending into France, it is called the Riviera di Ponente, or western coast, and beyond Genoa the Riviera di Levante, or eastern coast. From Hyères to Genoa is two hundred and three miles; from Genoa to Leghorn one hundred and twelve miles. Sheltered on the north by mountains, the district enjoys an exceptionally favored climate, no other region north of Palermo and Valencia being so mild in winter.

The western section is the mildest and most frequented. It abounds in the most striking and beautiful scenery, and is planted with numerous health and fashion resorts—Nice, Monaco, Mentone, Ventimiglia, San Remo, Bordighera, etc.; and west of Nice are Hyères, Fréjus, Cannes, Gresse, Antibes.

The famous Corniche (Ital. Cornice) road, widened by Napoleon I., leads along the Mediterranean coast from Nice to Genoa, and commands magnificent views.

Products and Industries.—Of the whole surface of Italy it is estimated that eighty-three per cent is suitable for cultivation. The greatest proportion of agricultural land, however, lies in the great plain of Lombardy and the Campagna Felice of Naples. Notwithstanding this, the supply of corn grown in Italy is not sufficient for its wants, and more is imported from Russia, Egypt and North America. Maize and wheat afford the staple food of the lower classes, as polenta and macaroni.

Agriculture and Stock-Raising.—A sixth of the area of the kingdom is covered with wood or bush, the island of Sardinia having the largest forests of all the kingdom—the districts of Lake Como, of southern Tuscany, and Genoa, being the best wooded parts of the mainland. The olive grows all over peninsular Italy, and enormous quantities of oil are produced, much being exported.

All parts of the country are suited to vine-growing. Most wine, however, is made in south Italy and Sicily. Most horses are bred in Lombardy, where cattle are also numerous on the dairy farms, which supply enormous quantities of cheese. Tuscany has most sheep; Sicily the finest mules and asses; Umbria the greatest number of swine. Coral fishers go out from Naples, Leghorn (Livorno), and Genoa to the coasts of the Balearic Isles and of Algeria and Tunis in large numbers.

Minerals.—The most important mineral product of Italy is the sulphur of Sicily; iron is widely distributed, but is obtained in most considerable quantity in Lombardy and Liguria; lead is an important product of Tuscany; sea salt of the vicinity of Cagliari, the chief town of the island of Sardinia. Famous pure white marble is quarried at Carrara and Massa, on the northwest coast-land of Tuscany.

Manufactures.—The zenith period of Italian manufactures, when Milan was famous for its wool-workers, Venice for its dyes, Florence for its cloth, has long since passed away, and in this respect Italy now occupies a low position.

Silk-growing, spinning, and weaving it, is now the most important branch, and in this the towns of Lombardy—Bergamo, Como, Milan, Turin—take the lead, followed by those in the plain round Naples, and by Catania and Palermo in Sicily. Glass-making has also fallen from its old position; the works at Intra, on Lake Maggiore, and the manufacture of beads and mosaics at Venice, are, however, still very important. Porcelain is made chiefly at Milan and Florence; straw hats at Vicenza, in Venetia, and in Tuscany, whence they come to us as Leghorn hats, from the port at which they are shipped.

People and Language.—The present Italian people have arisen from a perfect chaos of races. The ancient Ligurians of Iberian race and the Umbrians of the north were joined, from an unknown quarter, by the strange people called Etruscans or Tuscans by the Romans, who exercised such an immense influence on European civilization. The Greeks peopled the south, and held Sicily along with the Phœnicians; the Romans spread out from the center of the peninsula to extend their conquests far beyond its limits; then the Goths and Franks poured in from the north, and after them the Longobards, who gave their name to Lombardy. The Savoyards and Waldenses of the valleys of Piedmont along the French border appear to be of Gallic descent. Insular Sardinia was free from the irruptions of the northern people, but came under the influence of the Greeks, the Arabs, and then of the Spaniards.

Here, as in France and Spain, the Roman language endured and prevailed over all others, and now the people of Italy have one language and literature, the Italian, descended from the Latin. Its dialects show traces of the mixture of nationalities, but the Tuscan has now become classic, for the great writers, like Dante and Boccassio were Tuscans.

Religion.—The Roman Catholic Church is reorganized as the state church, but toleration is granted to all creeds. Over ninety-seven per cent of the population is Roman Catholic. By the Act of 1871 the rank of the Pope as a sovereign prince is recognized, the Vatican and Lateran palaces and the papal villa at Castel Gandolfo having the privilege of exterritoriality. Protestants number about sixty-six thousand, which include some twenty-two thousand Waldensians; and there are about thirty-eight thousand Jews, and about two thousand five hundred members of the Greek Orthodox Church.

Education is controlled by the state under a minister of public instruction, assisted by a council. Primary education is free and compulsory, and the state also maintains, partly or wholly, secondary, technical schools, and the universities. There are thirteen universities. Private schools may not be opened without state authorization.

Cities.—The largest city is Naples. Rome is the capital. Milan, Turin, Palermo, Genoa, Florence, rank next. There are four others with about one hundred and fifty thousand, and twenty-three towns over fifty thousand.

ROME, the “city of the seven hills,” contains more objects of interest than any other city in the world. It is situated mainly on the left or east bank of the Tiber, about fifteen miles from its mouth. The river, which has here an average breadth of two hundred feet, is spanned by eleven bridges in its course from north to south through the city.

The Seven Hills.—On the left bank rise the famous seven hills of ancient Rome, which, from north to south, are the Aventine, Cœlian, Palatine, Capitoline, Esquiline, Viminal, and Quirinal. These hills rise from eighty to one hundred and twenty feet above the river and the intervening valleys.

VIEW OF ROME FROM ST. PETER’S

The Royal Palace and chief public offices are upon, or adjoin, the Quirinal Hill. The Aventine and the Cœlian are, in large part, not built upon. The Esquiline and Viminal are modern industrial quarters. The Palatine, with the Forum below it on the east, are covered with important ancient ruins. The Capitoline, crowned by the Capitol, the most imposing of the hills, the center of ancient life and worships, has, apart from the new monument of Victor Emmanuel, suffered little change since the sixteenth century.

Mediæval and Rome occupies chiefly the plain, known as the Campus Martius of ancient times, nearer the river, and on the slopes of the Pincian Hill, to the north, extending thence eastward to the Quirinal and Viminal. The smaller part of Rome, on the right or west bank, comprises the Borgo, or district, containing St. Peter’s, the Vatican, the Castle of St. Angelo, and the Janiculum Hill, to the north, with the Trastevere quarter, to the south.

The entire city is surrounded by a wall fourteen miles in circuit, with thirteen gates, the wall on the left bank being substantially identical with Aurelian’s Wall, built in the third century; while the Leonine Wall round the Borgo was extended in the early sixteenth century.

Modern Features and Districts.—The business part of the city occupies the plain on the bank between the hills and river, traversed by the Via del Corso, the principal thoroughfare in Rome, about a mile in length, leading from the Porto del Popolo to the foot of the Capitoline Hill, where is situated the great National Monument to Victor Emmanuel. From the Piazza del Popolo two great streets diverge on either side of the Corso, the Via di Ripetta to the right, skirting the Tiber, and to the left the Via del Babuino, leading to the Piazza di Spagna, whence the Scala di Spagna, the resort of artists’ models, ascends to the Pincian Gardens, on the site of the gardens of Lucullus, which command a splendid view of the city, and form the fashionable drive and promenade.

Of the new streets the most important are the Via Venti Settembre, the Via Cavour, and the Via Nazionale. The older foreign quarter lay at the foot of the Pincian, around the Piazza di Spagna, but the healthier sites on the slopes and summits of the Quirinal and Esquiline are now more frequented.

Rome abounds in open Squares (Piazzas) adorned with fountains, obelisks, or statues. Eleven Egyptian obelisks still ornament the gardens and piazzas of Rome, brought by Augustus and others. That in the Piazza of St. John Lateran, one hundred and four feet in height, is the largest in existence. It was erected at Thebes by Thothmes III., and removed by Constantine to the Circus Maximus. The triumphal arches of Septimius Severus, of Titus, and of Constantine are still conspicuous. Of the bridges over the Tiber, three are ancient.

The antiquities are legion, some of the most interesting are clustered within the area from the Colosseum to the crest of the Capitoline Hill.

SITE OF THE FORUM OF TRAJAN

The Forum consisted of three parts: the forum proper, the huge Basilica Ulpie, and the temple of Trajan, with it colonnaded inclosure. It was once the grandest building in Rome. Trajan’s Column, still standing, is a Roman Doric column of marble, on a square basement, the total height, exclusive of the present statue of St. Peter, being one hundred and twenty-seven and one-half feet. The entire shaft is occupied by vigorous and lifelike reliefs ascending in a spiral, representing Trajan’s campaigns. The reliefs contain about two thousand five hundred human figures, besides those of animals and inanimate objects.

Famous Architectural Edifices, Ancient and Modern.—The remains of ancient Rome have suffered severely from the vandalism and the neglect of past centuries, but they are now carefully preserved. The Forum, in some places nearly forty feet below the present street level, has been in great part excavated, and near it are many vestiges of by-gone Roman splendor, including columns, arches and ruins of temples.

Roman Forum.—In remote times, the marshy ground which later became the site of this famous Forum served as neutral territory whereon both the Romans (who occupied the Palatine Hill), and the Sabines (who occupied the Capitoline Hill) could meet. Gradually it became a market-place and an exchange, till, at length, all the important business of Rome and of the Empire came to be concentrated in and about the Forum.

A portico was built around the Forum, the first story being devoted to shops and the second to offices for the collection of taxes. After some centuries, these were destroyed by fire, when various basilicas and temples were erected in their places. The Forum existed as such till the eleventh century, A. D., when it was totally destroyed by Robert Guiscard. Becoming then a waste, the rubbish of the city was thrown there until the entire space was filled to the depth of twenty-four feet and the location and names of the ancient buildings lost. In the revival of learning, in the sixteenth century, interest began to be awakened in the ruins of ancient Rome, and, in 1547, excavations of the Forum were commenced, under Paul III., which, with much irregularity have continued to the present day.

ARCH OF SEPTIMIUS SEVERUS

An arch in the Roman Forum, dedicated 203 A. D., in commemoration of victories over the Parthians. It is of Pentelic marble, with a central arch and two side arches, flanked by four Corinthian columns on each face. There are panels over the side arches and a frieze above all with reliefs of Roman triumphs.

ARCH OF CONSTANTINE

Built in 312 A. D. in honor of Constantine’s triumph over Maxentius. Much of its abundant sculpture was taken from the destroyed church of Trajan.

The most conspicuous remains of the Forum are the columns of the Temple of Saturn, the temples of Castor and Pollux and of Vesta, and on its northern side the arch of Septimius Severus, the Curia, the Basilica Æmilia, and the temples of Antoninus and Faustina and of Romulus. In the middle of the eastern part rose the temple and forum of Julius Cæsar. The more ancient and famous forum from which Cicero spoke was at the western end.

The latest excavations in the Roman Forum, including the stele and black stone of Romulus, the Basilica Æmilia, the Chapel of Santa Maria Antiqua, and the House of the Vestal Virgins, are of extraordinary interest.

It was traversed by the Via Sacra, a winding road which led from the southern gate of Rome to the Capitol, and was the route by which triumphal processions passed to the Temple of Jupiter. The Arch of Titus was at its summit. The great blocks of lava with which this road was paved still, for the most part, remain.

Beyond it stands the great Column of Trajan, one hundred and twenty-four feet in height, with spiral bas-reliefs representing scenes from Trajan’s campaigns against the Dacians, forming the most instructive historical monument in Rome.

Palaces and Art Collections.—The Vatican Palace, the residence of the pope, adjoining St. Peter’s, enjoys along with the Lateran the privilege of “exterritoriality.” The massive building, said to include eleven thousand apartments, contains the finest extant collection of ancient sculpture, with many celebrated statues, a rich gallery of paintings, a famous library, and other collections, besides the Sistine Chapel, adorned with frescoes by Michaelangelo and other masters, and the Stanze and Loggie, with paintings by Raphael and his contemporaries.

VATICAN PALACE AND GARDENS

THRONE ROOM OF THE POPE, VATICAN PALACE

The Quirinal Palace, another huge pile on the hill of that name, is occupied by the king. In the Piazza del Quirinale are two famous marble groups of Horse-Tamers.

The Villa Umberto Primo, formerly Borghese, outside the Porta del Popolo, is noted for its beautiful grounds, which are a favorite promenade connecting with that on the Pincian Hill by an embankment and bridge opened in 1908. The Casino contains the picture-gallery formerly in the Palazzo Borghese. It is now an important National Museum, and is arranged according to schools. Among the masterpieces are Titian’s Sacred and Profane Love, Raphael’s Entombment, Correggio’s Danaë, etc.

The Palazzo Barberini, built by Urban VIII., is a large and magnificent structure, but chiefly notable for a small picture-gallery, the gems of which are Raphael’s Fornarina, and Guido’s Beatrice Cenci. The library contains seven thousand manuscripts, many of which are rare.

Villa Medici (ma´de-che), was built in 1540, south of the Pincio, for Cardinal Ricci. About 1600 it came into the possession of the Medici family, and afterward into that of the grand dukes of Tuscany. Galileo was confined there 1630-1633. The French Academy of Art, founded by Louis XIV., was transferred to it in 1801, and it has a fine collection of casts.

Palaces of the Emperors.—On the western side of the Forum Romanum rises the Palatine Hill, its summit covered with the substructures of the Palaces of the Emperors, the Houses of Augustus, of Tiberius, of Livia, of Caligula, of Domitian, and of Hadrian. Most magnificent of all is the Palace of Septimius Severus, rising in seven stages of massive masonry, which form a southern extension of the Palatine Hill.

Besides these imperial palaces, the Palatine included a magnificent Stadium, the most perfect in existence, imperial reception halls, several temples, with gardens, baths, barracks for soldiers, and a basilica or hall of justice, in which St. Paul must have pleaded before the emperor.

The Golden House of Nero, built on the opposite side of the Forum, and occupying the greater portion of the Oppian Hill, was demolished to make room for the Colosseum and the Baths of Titus.

The Coliseum (or Colosseum), originally called the Flavian Amphitheatre, was begun by Vespasian in A. D. 72, and dedicated by Titus eight years later. It was built for gladiatorial exhibitions and for the combats of wild beasts. It is the largest structure of the kind ever built, being capable of seating from forty to fifty thousand spectators. Though scarcely a third of the original edifice remains, it is by far the most imposing monument of antiquity that the Imperial City has to show.

The Pantheon is the most perfect of the ancient buildings in Rome. It was built B. C. 27 by M. Agrippa, and restored by Septimius Severus and Caracalla about A. D. 202, and has suffered much since. The vast round walls of brick, twenty feet thick, were once covered with marble. The portico (now below, but once above, the square) has sixteen huge monolithic columns of Oriental granite, thirty-nine feet high, with Corinthian capitals of famed beauty. Statues of Augustus and Agrippa once stood here. The circular interior is very impressive, and is lighted from a place twenty-eight feet across in the center of the dome, open to the sky.

This unrivalled dome is one hundred and forty feet high and one hundred and forty feet across. The gilded bronze roof-tiles were carried to Constantinople in 655; and all the other bronzes were used in making cannon for the citadel and the canopy in St. Peter’s. The seven niches in which statues of the gods stood are now occupied by altars. Raphael is buried here, near his betrothed, Cardinal Bibiena’s niece; and here is the tomb of King Victor Emmanuel of Italy.

The Capitol, which is one hundred and sixty feet above the sea level and is best approached by the grand staircase known as La Cordonnata. At its foot are two lions of Egyptian porphyry; at its head the ancient colossal statues of Castor and Pollux. Beyond these on either side are the sculptures misnamed “the Trophies of Marius” and the statues of Constantine and his son from the Baths of Constantine on the Quirinal. The open space here is the Piazza del Campidoglio, the ancient Intermontium, where Brutus harangued the people after the murder of Cæsar. In the center is the celebrated statue of Marcus Aurelius, “the only perfect ancient equestrian statue in existence.” It owes its preservation to the fact that it was long supposed to be a statue of Constantine. On the right is the Palace of the Conservatori, on the left the Museum of the Capitol, both designed by Michaelangelo; between the two, occupying the third side of the square, is the Palace of the Senator, on the site of the ancient Tabularium. The fountain at the foot of the stairs is adorned with statues of river-gods, the Tiber and the Nile. The tower contains the great bell which is rung only to announce the opening of the carnival or the death of a pope.

The Capitoline Museum contains some of the most famous sculptures extant, as the Dying Gladiator, the Venus of the Capitol, the Faun of Praxiteles, the Antinous, etc. There is also the rich collection of busts and statues of Roman emperors and empresses, statesmen, philosophers, etc., “perhaps the most interesting portrait gallery in the world.”

VILLA UMBERTO PRIMO (FORMERLY VILLA BORGHESE), ROME

Has art collections considered only second in importance to that of the Vatican, and, despite the removal of many works, the number of really great paintings retains for the collection its old pre-eminence.

THE MAGNIFICENT VILLA MEDICI, ROME

Famous Churches.—Ancient Rome contained about three hundred temples, and modern Rome has about as many churches, eighty of which are dedicated to the Virgin. St. Peter’s, St. John Lateran, S. Maria Maggiore on the top of the Esquiline, S. Paolo fuori le Mura (“outside the walls”), perhaps the most gorgeously decorated church in Rome, and S. Lorenzo fuori le Mura are the five Patriarchal churches, to one or other of which all believers throughout the world are supposed to belong. With Santa Croce in Gerusalemme and S. Sebastiano, they make up the famous “Seven Churches of Rome” frequented by pilgrims. They are also unsurpassed in their rich architectural and art interests.

St. Peter’s, adjoining the Vatican, perhaps the most famous and certainly the largest church in the world, has an area nearly twice that of St. Paul’s in London, while its dome rises to the height of four hundred and three feet.

Many architects were concerned in the building of the Cathedral of St. Peter, but the principal credit is assigned to Bramante, the creator of the design, and to Michaelangelo, whose chief work is the dome. To the spectator, approaching from the Piazza di San Pietro, the majesty of the dome is lost behind the façade, erected at the instance of Pope Paul V. at the end of the nave lengthened by him in order to work out the idea of a Latin cross; the design of Bramante was a Greek cross.

CHURCH OF ST. JOHN LATERAN, ROME, THE MOTHER CHURCH OF CHRISTENDOM

The building was commenced in 1506, but was not completed until 1626; the total cost of erection was about fifty million dollars, and its maintenance absorbs annually about forty thousand dollars.

It covers about eighteen thousand square yards; the length is two hundred and thirty-two yards, of the transept one hundred and fifty yards; height of the nave one hundred and fifty-one feet; height of the dome from the pavement to the summit of the lantern four hundred and four feet; to the summit of the cross four hundred and thirty-four feet.

Besides the high altar there are twenty-nine other altars; the high altar being immediately over the Tomb of St. Peter. Round the Confessio are ninety-five lamps, always lighted. The bronze statue of St. Peter, on white marble, under a canopy, is by a pillar; the right foot of which is worn smooth by the kisses of worshipers.

St. John Lateran. (It. San Giovanni in Laterano), adjoining the papal palace of the Lateran, claims to be the mother-church of all Christendom. It was originally named from the Roman family Lateranus. Beside it are its ancient Baptistery and a building enclosing the Scala Santa, brought from Pilate’s palace in Jerusalem in 326.

Many other of the Roman churches contain treasures of art or are interesting for their structure or history. S. Maria Sopra Minerva is the only ancient Gothic church in the city. S. Pietro in Vincoli contains Michaelangelo’s famous statue of Moses; and S. Maria delle Pace Raphael’s beautiful frescoes of the Sibyls. The Gesù is the chief church of the Jesuits. San Carlo al Corso is the fashionable church.

Roads.—The roads leading out of Rome beyond the Servian Walls were bordered by tombs, many of which, on the erection of the Aurelian Wall, were included within the city. The most famous of these celebrated roads was the:

Appian Way (called Regina Viarum) was begun B. C. 312 by Appius Claudius, and ran to Capua, and afterwards to Brindisi, forming main route to southern Italy, Greece and Egypt. There are beautiful views all along, of Campagna, aqueducts, and Alban Mountains.

APPIAN WAY

A famous Roman military road, the skill with which it is taken through difficult country, over hills, ravines, and marshes, is remarkable. Horace, in his first satire, describes a journey along it, and St. Paul came this way into Rome (Acts xxviii. 15).

On Via Appia are Catacombs of S. Calixtus, with tombs of St. Cecilia and many second and third century popes and martyrs, and seventh-century Byzantine paintings. A quarter of a mile beyond is very ancient S. Sebastiano Church under which are extensive catacombs. On a hill still beyond stands the famous Tomb of Cæcilia Metella, round, sixty-five feet in diameter, and in thirteenth century a tower of now vanished castle of the Gaetani. Beyond, the Way is bordered by ancient tombs on either side, and the old Latin pavement is the road-bed.

At Trivoli is Hadrian’s Villa (Villa Adriana) an extensive ruin, with the gardens covering about 170 acres.

POPE PIUS X. IN THE BED IN WHICH HE DIED

(Picture by Cav. G. Felici)

PROCLAMATION OF POPE BENEDICT XV. (Cardinal della Chiesa) IN FRONT OF ST. PETER’S, ROME

(From a Painting)

Florence (Lat. Florentia Ital. Firenze), one of the most famous of Italian cities, is situated fifty miles from the sea, in the valley of the Arno, and is built on both sides of the river, but chiefly on the north. The outlying suburbs are singularly beautiful, and are surrounded by finely wooded hills, bright with gay villas and charming gardens. The old city itself is characterized by a somber grandness, and is full of fine buildings of historic and artistic interest.

The chief building in the city is the Duomo, or Cathedral, the foundations of which were laid with great solemnity in 1298; but not until 1887 was the completed façade uncovered. The church contains sculptures by Ghiberti, Luca della Robbia, Michælangelo, Sansovino, Bandinelli, and other famous artists.

At the side of the cathedral springs up the light and elegant Campanile, detached, according to the custom of the times. In front is the Baptistery in the form of an octagon, supporting a cupola and lantern. Three bronze gates in basso rilievo are a great additional adornment of the Baptistery; the two by Ghiberti have been immortalized by Michælangelo, with the name of Gates of Paradise.

The church of the Santa Croce, the Pantheon of Florence (built in 1294), contains monuments to Galileo, Dante, Macchiavelli, Michælangelo, Alfieri and others.

Among the numerous palaces Il Bargello, long a prison, but now restored and opened as a national museum, is one of the most ancient.

The Palazzo Vecchio, the seat of the republican government from its establishment till its abolition in 1530, is an imposing mass of building. Adjoining the palace is the Piazza della Signoria, a square containing a fine collection of statues, and a noble arcade, the Loggia dei Lanzi.

The Uffizi Palace is a handsome building adjoining the Palazzo Vecchio, founded by Cosmo I. On the second floor is contained the famous Florentine gallery of art. A splendid apartment, known as the Tribuna, contains the rarest treasures of the collection.

The Pitti Palace, formerly the grand-ducal residence, boasts of a superb gallery of paintings. Behind it are the beautiful Boboli Gardens royal. The Strozzi Palace is a fine type of Tuscan architecture.

Florence is the city of Dante, Petrarch, Michaelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Boccaccio, Machiavelli, Galileo and many more of Italy’s great men, and has a history of exceptional interest. It is an educational center, and carries on a trade in straw-plaiting and silk, sculptures, jewelry, and exquisite mosaics in rare stones.

Genoa (Ital. Genova), is situated on the Mediterranean gulf of the same name, at the foot of the Apennines, and is an important seaport. By rail it is eight hundred and one miles southeast of Paris, one hundred and seventy-one miles northeast of Marseilles, and ninety-three miles southwest of Milan. The slopes of the hills behind the city down to the shore are covered with buildings, terraced gardens, and orange and pomegranate groves; while the bleak summits of the loftier ranges, rising still farther back, are capped with strong forts, batteries, and outworks.

While strikingly grand as viewed from the sea, and so far worthy of being entitled “Genoa the Superb,” is in reality built awkwardly on irregular rising ground, and consists of a labyrinth of narrow and intricate lanes. Of the palaces the most famous are the former palace of the doges, now the meeting-place of the senate; and the Doria, presented in 1529 to the great Genoese citizen Andrea Doria. Foremost among the churches stands the Cathedral, a grand twelfth-century pile in the Italian Gothic style. The marble Municipal Palace and the palace of the Dogana must also be mentioned.

To Columbus and Mazzini, Genoa’s most famous sons, there are fine monuments.

It is the commercial outlet for a wide extent of country, of which the chief exports are rice, wine, olive-oil, silk goods, coral, paper, macaroni and marble. The principal industrial establishments of the city embrace ironworks, cotton and cloth mills, macaroni-works, tanneries, sugar-refineries, and vesta-match, filigree, and paper factories. Genoa benefited greatly by the opening of the St. Gothard Railway.

Milan (me-lan´, mil´an. Ital. Milano, mee-lah´no), the capital of Lombardy, is one of the largest and wealthiest cities of Italy. It was an important town under the Romans, was sacked by Attila in 452, totally destroyed by Frederic Barbarossa in 1162, and has figured prominently in more recent history.

The city, nearly circular in shape, is surrounded on three sides by walls, has a circuit of nearly eight miles, and is entered by fourteen gates.

Of the numerous churches the magnificent Gothic Cathedral is the most famous. It is second only to St. Peter’s and Seville Cathedrals in size and was built principally during the period 1386-1500. After many delays and interruptions, work was resumed under Napoleon I. in 1805, but is not yet fully completed. The façade has recently been restored. It is cruciform, with double aisles and transept-aisles, separated by fifty-two pillars, each twelve feet in diameter, with niches crowded with statues. Interior four hundred and seventy-seven feet long, one hundred and eighty-three feet wide and one hundred and fifty-five feet high. It contains six thousand statues, a pavement of marble mosaic, vast granite monoliths, superb stained windows, many tombs of magnates, St. Carlo Borromeo’s wooden crucifix and gorgeous tomb, and life-size silver statues of saints. The wonderful marble roof is studded with ninety-eight Gothic turrets, hundreds of pinnacles, and over two thousand life-size marble statues.

Of the other churches S. Maria delle Grazie (fifteenth century), partly the work of Bremante, was originally an abbey church, and the refectory in the rear contains Leonardo da Vinci’s celebrated fresco of the Last Supper, which, in 1909, was successfully restored.

The Brera Palace (twelfth century), formerly a Jesuit college, has now a great gallery of paintings by Raphael, Da Vinci, Luini, Mantegna, the Bellinis, Titian, Vandyck, and others, an academy of art, a collection of casts, the magnificent monument of Gaston de Foix, the National Library, an archaeological museum, and an observatory.

The colonnade of Victor Emmanuel Gallery is the finest arcade in the world, and was built in 1865-1867 at a cost of one million six hundred thousand dollars. It is nine hundred and sixty feet long, forty-eight feet wide, ninety-four feet high, surrounded by handsome shops, richly frescoed, and adorned with statues of Raphael, Galileo, Dante, Cavour, and twenty other famous Italians. The octagon under the dome (one hundred and eighty feet high) is brilliantly lighted at night, when it forms a favorite promenade.

On the adjacent Piazza della Scala is Leonardo da Vinci’s monument, and the massive Municipal Palace. The Arch of Peace, built of white marble, commemorates the exploits of Napoleon. The Della Scala Opera House is the second in size (after San Carlo at Naples) in Italy; and the Milan conservatoire is the most famous school of music in Europe.

Beccaria, Manzoni, the popes Pius IV. and Gregory XIV. were natives of Milan. The city now carries on a vast trade, much increased since the opening of the Gothard railroad, in raw silk, cotton, grain, rice, and cheese, and manufactures silks, velvets, gold, silver, and iron wares, railroad carriages, tobacco, porcelain, electrical apparatus, and is an active center of the printing trade.

Naples (Ital. Napoli nä´pō-lē´).—The capital of the province of Naples has a lovely situation within the bend of Naples Bay, spreading from the foreshore back upon wooded hills and rising terraces, behind which lie the snow-clad Apennines. To the east lies the old town with its historic Via di Roma and narrow crowded thoroughfares; the newer portion to the west is more spaciously laid out, and much has been done in recent years over the whole city to improve the sanitation and water supply. The National Museum, rich in Pompeii relics, the University, the National Library, the Cathedral and the four mediæval gateways are the chief architectural features.

Large quantities of wine, olive-oil, chemicals, perfumery, etc., are exported, while woolen, silk, linen, glove and other factories carry on a good home trade.

Naples became incorporated in the kingdom of Italy in 1861 after the Bourbon dynasty had been swept away by Garibaldi.

RUINS OF POMPEII, ITALY

Pompeii (pron. Pom-pay’yee), once a Greek seaport at the mouth of the Sarnus, is fifteen miles south of Naples; it fell into the possession of Rome about 80 B. C., and was converted into a watering-place, “the pleasure haunt of paganism.” The Romans erected many handsome public buildings, and their villas and theaters and baths were models of classic architecture and the scenes of unbounded luxury. The streets were narrow, provided with sidewalks, the walls often decorated with paintings, and the number of shops witnesses to the fashion and gaiety of the town. A terrible earthquake ruined it and drove out the inhabitants in A. D. 63; they returned and rebuilt it, however, in a tawdry and decadent style, and luxury and pleasure reigned as before till in A. D. 79 an eruption of Vesuvius buried everything in lava and ashes. The ruins were forgotten till accidentally discovered in 1748; since 1860 the city has been disinterred under the auspices of the Italian Government, and is now a favorite resort of tourists and archæologists.

BEAUTIFUL SORRENTO, ITALY

Herculaneum, so called from the local worship of Hercules, was situated at the northwestern base of Mount Vesuvius, five miles east of Naples. In 63 A. D. it was seriously injured by a violent earthquake, and, in 79 A. D., buried, along with Pompeii and Stabiæ, by the memorable eruption of Vesuvius. In 1738 systematic excavations were commenced, the chief building explored being the theater, which has eighteen rows of stone seats, and could accommodate eight thousand persons; part of the Forum with a colonnade, two small temples, and a villa have also been discovered, and from these buildings many beautiful statues and remarkable paintings have been obtained.

In 1880 ruins of extensive baths were brought to light. Among the art-relics of Herculaneum, which far exceed in value and interest those found at Pompeii, are the statues of Eschines, Agrippina, the Sleeping Faun, the Six Actresses, Mercury, the group of the Satyr and the Goat, the busts of Plato, Scipio Africanus, Augustus, Seneca and Demosthenes—mostly now in the National Museum at Naples.

VIEW OF THE CAMPANILE AND PALACE, VENICE, FROM THE GRAND CANAL

Palermo (pä-ler’mō), capital of the province of Palermo, Sicily, a seaport on the Bay of Palermo, at the foot of Monte Pellegrino, is picturesquely situated in the midst of a beautiful and fertile valley called the Golden Shell. It is a handsome town, with many public buildings and nearly three hundred churches in Moorish and Byzantine architecture, a university, art school, museum, and libraries.

The industries are unimportant, but a busy trade is done with Britain, France and the United States, exporting fruits, wine, sulphur, etc., and importing textiles, coal, machinery and grain.

VISTA ON THE GRAND CANAL, VENICE

Sorrento (sōr-ren’tō), a town in the province of Naples, beautifully situated on the Bay of Naples, sixteen miles south-southeast of Naples, is a favorite watering-place; was noted in antiquity for its wines; and was the birthplace of Tasso.

Turin (Ital. Torino tō-re’nō).—Capital of the province of Turin, Italy, is situated on the Po, near its junction with the Dora Riparia. It is regularly built, with many squares and broad streets; is the seat of important trade for northern Italy; has varied manufactures; and is rapidly growing. It contains a university, cathedral, castle (Palazzo Madama), royal palace (with the royal armory and library), Palazzo Carignano (former seat of Parliament, now containing collections in natural history), palace of the Academy of Sciences (with a museum of antiquities and picture-gallery), monument of Cavour, etc. Victor Emmanuel and Cavour were born there.

ST. MARK’S CATHEDRAL AND CAMPANILE FROM THE PLAZA

Turin was the ancient capital of the Taurini (whence the name); was captured by Hannibal in 218 B. C.; and has played an important part in the history of Europe. It figured prominently in the national movements of the nineteenth century, and was the capital of the kingdom of Italy 1859-1865.

Venice (ven’is Ital. Venezia), capital of the province of Venice, is situated in the Laguns (lagoons) in a bay of the Adriatic. Now Venice covers more than seventy-two islets, or rather mud-banks, its foundations being piles (“time-petrified”) and stone. Through its two unequal portions winds for over two miles the Grand Canal, spanned by the Rialto Bridge (of stone) and two others (of iron), and into it flow one hundred and forty-six lesser canals, all bridged at frequent intervals. This vast network of waterway is patrolled by countless gondolas, while the pedestrian has his choice of innumerable lanes (calli). A railway viaduct, two and one-eighth miles long, connects Venice with the mainland.

The Piazza di San Marco, a square five hundred and seventy-six feet long and one hundred and eighty-five to two hundred and seventy feet wide, paved with gray trachyte and white Istrian marble, surrounded by time-stained marble palaces and St. Mark’s Church is the picturesque center of Venetian life, especially at evening, when the bands play, and the cafés are crowded by thousands. Flocks of fat pigeons have been fed here by the city daily for seven hundred years. Palaces enclose three sides and the palace arcades are occupied by cafés and bric-à-brac shops.

Of its public buildings the following are the principal: the Ducal Palace, standing on the site of a former official residence of the Doges, which was burned in 976. Besides its painted ceilings and walls there are many pictures by the Italian masters; the Academy of Fine Arts whose twenty rooms are filled with some of the finest works of the Old Masters. Its principal churches are St. Marco, St. Giorgio Maggiore, and Sta. Maria della Salute, are all most highly decorated with frescoes, mosaics, and carvings, besides containing many world-famed pictures. The Campanile of St. Marco has been rebuilt since its fall, on July 14, 1902, after standing a thousand years. The palaces of the nobility on the Grand Canal and other canals contain priceless collections of pictures. The Arsenal contains many models of the old Venetian ships, armor, collections of weapons, and spoils of war.

Venice was noted for its textile manufactures as early as the fifteenth century; the principal manufactures at the present time are tapestry, brocades, Venetian laces, wood carving, artistic wrought-iron work, jewelry, bronzes, machinery, and clocks, and at Murano glass and glass beads.

Italian Seaports.—The chief seaports of Italy after Genoa, “the Superb,” which is the busiest of all, are in order round the coast—Livorno, or Leghorn, the port of Tuscany and Florence; Civita Vecchia, the port of Latium; Naples, with Castellamare on the south side of its bay; Messina, on the Sicilian side of the Strait named after it, with one of the finest harbors in Europe, beside the eddy which was feared as the whirlpool of Charybdis in ancient times; Palermo, “la Felice,” in the vale of the Golden Shell, on the north coast of Sicily; Catania, on the east coast of the island. Coming round to the Adriatic coasts we reach the port of Brindisi, a notable point in the most direct route from western Europe to Egypt and the East. The most important line of railway in Italy, that leads from the plain of Lombardy all down the east side of the peninsula, has the port of Brindisi as its objective point. Farther north in the middle of this coast is Ancona, the port of the Marches. Lastly we come to Chioggia and Venice, the city of canals and bridges, described above.

History of Italy

The ancient history of Italy will be found under Rome. The modern history begins with 476 A. D., when Odoacer, chief of the Herulians, a German tribe who had invaded the country, was proclaimed king of Italy. After a reign of twelve years he and his followers were overpowered by the Ostrogoths under Theodoric the Great. The Ostrogoths were in turn subdued by Byzantine troops, and Italy came under the dominion of the Eastern emperors, who ruled through an exarch residing at Ravenna.

The Lombards.—In 568 the Lombards (Langobardi), a German people originally from the Elbe, led by their king, Alboin, conquered the Po basin, and founded a kingdom which had its capital at Pavia. The kingdom of the Lombards included Upper Italy, Tuscany and Umbria, with some outlying districts. But on the northeast coast, the inhabitants of the lagoons still retained their independence, and in 697 elected their first doge, and founded the republic of Venice.

Ravenna, the seat of the exarch, with Romagna, Rimini, Ancona, and other maritime cities on the Adriatic, and almost all the coasts of Lower Italy, remained unconquered, together with Sicily and Rome. The slight dependence of this part of Italy on the court of Byzantium disappeared almost entirely in the beginning of the eighth century.

Rise of Papal Power.—The power of the pope, though at first recognized only as a kind of paternal authority of the bishop, grew steadily in these troubled times, especially in the struggle against the Lombard kings. In consideration of the aid expected against King Astolphus, Pope Stephen III. (754) not only anointed the king of the Franks, Pepin, but appointed him patrician or governor of Rome. In return Pepin presented the exarchate of Ravenna, with the five maritime cities, to the pope, thus laying the foundation of the temporal power of the Holy See. At the invitation of Pope Hadrian I. Charlemagne made war upon Desiderius, the king of the Lombards, took him prisoner in his capital, Pavia (774), and united his empire with the Frankish monarchy. Italy, with the exception of the duchy of Benevento and the republics of Lower Italy, thus became a constituent part of the Frankish monarchy, and the imperial crown of the West was bestowed on Charlemagne (800).

Port of the Holy Roman Empire.—On the breaking up of the Carlovingian empire, Italy became a separate kingdom, and the scene of strife between Teutonic invaders. At length Otto the Great was crowned emperor at Rome (961), and the year after became emperor of what was henceforth known as the Holy Roman Empire.

During the following centuries the towns and districts of North and Middle Italy gradually made themselves independent of the empire, and either formed themselves into separate republics or fell under the power of princes bearing various titles. A large part of Middle Italy at the same time was under the dominion of the popes, including the territory granted by Pepin, which was afterwards enlarged on several occasions.

Vicissitudes of Southern Italy.—In southern Italy there were in the time of Charlemagne several independent states. In the ninth century this part of the peninsula, as well as Sicily, was overrun by Saracens, and in the eleventh century by Normans, who ultimately founded a kingdom which embraced both Lower Italy and Sicily, and which though it more than once changed masters, continued to exist as an undivided kingdom till 1282. In that year Sicily freed herself from the oppression of the then rulers, the French, by the aid of Pedro of Aragon, and remained separate till 1435. It was again separate from 1458 to 1504, when both divisions were united with the crown of Spain. With Spain the kingdom remained till 1713, when Naples and Sicily were divided by the Treaty of Utrecht, the former being given to Austria, the latter to the Duke of Savoy. In 1720 they were again united under Austria, but in 1734 were conquered from Austria and passed under the dominion of a separate dynasty belonging to the Spanish house of Bourbon.

Mediæval Italy.—The history of mediæval Italy is much taken up with the party quarrels of the Guelfs and Ghibellines, and the quarrels and rivalries of the free republics of Middle and Upper Italy. In Tuscany the party of the Guelfs formed themselves into a league for the maintenance of the national freedom under the leadership of Florence; only Pisa and Arezzo remained attached to the Ghibelline cause. In Lombardy it was different, Milan, Novara, Lodi, Vercelli, Asti, and Cremona formed a Guelf confederacy, while the Ghibelline league comprised Verona, Mantua, Treviso, Parma, Piacenza, Reggio, Modena, and Brescia. Commercial rivalry impelled the maritime republics to mutual wars. At Meloria the Genoese annihilated (1284) the navy of the Pisans, and completed their dominion of the sea by a victory over the Venetians at Curzola (1298.)

Influences of Napoleon.—Up till the time of the Napoleonic wars Italy remained subject to foreign domination, or split up into separate republics and principalities. The different states were bandied to and fro by the changes and intrigues of war and diplomacy between Austria, Spain and the House of Savoy. During the career of Napoleon numerous changes took place in the map of Italy, and according to an act of the Congress of Vienna in 1815 the country was parcelled out among the following states:—(1) The Kingdom of Sardinia, consisting of the island of Sardinia, Savoy, and Piedmont, to which the Genoese territory was now added. (2) Austria, which received the provinces of Lombardy and Venetia, these having already been acquired by her either before or during the time of Napoleon. (3) The Duchy of Modena. (4) The Duchy of Parma. (5) The Grandduchy of Tuscany. (6) The Duchy of Lucca. (7) The States of the Church. (8) The Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. (9) The Republic of San Marino. (10) The Principality of Monaco.

Struggle for Independent Nationality.—The desire for union and independence had long existed in the hearts of the Italian people, and the governments at Naples, Rome, Lombardy, and other centers of tyranny were in continual conflict with secret political societies. The leading spirit in these agitations in the second quarter was Giuseppe Mazzini.

The year of revolutions, 1848, opened with a street massacre by the Austrians in Milan, on January 2. In February, 1849, the French Republic was declared, and then in Italy the party of Mazzini was for a moment supreme, when Charles Albert abdicated in favor of his son Victor Emmanuel. Meanwhile the pope had been driven from Rome, and a Roman republic had been established under Mazzini and Garibaldi, the leader of the volunteer bands of Italian patriots. Rome was, however, captured by the French, who came to the aid of the pope (July, 1849), who resumed his power in April, 1850, under the protection of the French, and the old absolutism was restored. Similar attempts at revolution in Sicily and Naples were also crushed, but the secret societies of the patriots continued their operations.

Establishment of the Present Kingdom.—In 1859, after the war of the French and Sardinians against Austria, the latter power was compelled to cede Lombardy to Sardinia, and in the same year Romagna, Modena, Parma, and Piacenza were annexed to that kingdom, which was, however, obliged to cede the provinces of Savoy and Nice to France. In the south the Sicilians revolted, and supported by a thousand volunteers, with whom Garibaldi sailed from Genoa to their aid, overthrew the Bourbon government in Sicily. Garibaldi was proclaimed dictator in the name of Victor Emmanuel. In August Garibaldi crossed to Naples, defeated the royal army there, drove Francis II. to Gaeta, and entered the capital on the 7th September. Sardinia intervened and completed the revolution, when Garibaldi, handing over his conquests to the royal troops, retired to Caprera. A plebiscite confirmed the union with Piedmont, and Victor Emmanuel was proclaimed king of Italy, thus suddenly united almost in Mazzini’s phrase, “from the Alps to the sea.”

Only Venice and the Papal State now remained to be joined to the new kingdom. To obtain Venice, Italy joined Prussia in her war against Austria in 1866; and though the Italians were beaten on land at Custozza and on sea at Lissa, the triumph of Prussia was so complete that, by the peace of Prague, Venice was surrendered to Italy.

Conquest of the Papal States.—Rome was less easy to secure, because of the opposition of Roman Catholic opinion throughout Europe. French soldiers had protected the pope ever since 1849. In 1862 Garibaldi prepared to make a dash on the Papal States, but the government felt obliged to stop him. He was surrounded on Mount Aspromonte and taken prisoner. The withdrawal of the French troops from Rome (1864) was only procured by a promise to respect the Papal States, and by the transference of the capital from Turin to Florence.

In spite of the prohibition of the government, Garibaldi made another attempt on Rome in 1867; but Napoleon sent more French troops, and Garibaldi was defeated at Mentana, and had to withdraw. It was not till the fall of the French Empire in 1871 that the Italian government could act freely. As Pius IX. refused to give up the temporal power, the Italian government took the capital by force, and Pius withdrew to the Vatican, where he remained in voluntary confinement, a course followed by his successor, Leo XIII. (1878-1903), and by the present Pope, Pius X.

Difficulties of Consolidation.—The consolidation of Italy, since the formation of the kingdom, has been slow and difficult owing to the great social differences between northern and southern Italy. The nation, too, has been ambitious to be recognized as one of the great powers of Europe, which involves a vast outlay in expenditure.

MONUMENT TO VICTOR EMMANUEL II., AT ROME. THIS MEMORIAL IS EMBLEMATIC OF ITALIAN UNITY AND WAS ERECTED AT AN EXPENDITURE OF $10,000,000.—THE COSTLIEST MEMORIAL IN THE WORLD, AND POSSIBLY THE MOST MAGNIFICENT

In 1878 Victor Emmanuel died, and was succeeded by Humbert I.; Pius IX. being succeeded by Leo XIII. in the same year. Humbert’s reign was marked by electoral reform and foreign colonization. Somaliland, along the northeast coast of Africa, was acquired between 1880 and 1890, and the dependency of Eritrea was founded in 1882. Italy’s claims to a protectorate over Abyssinia led to war, which ended in an Italian defeat at Adowa, 1896, and the restoration of all land to Abyssinia by the treaty of Adis Abeba.

In 1883 Italy entered the Triple Alliance with Germany and Austria, largely owing to her distrust of France. In 1900 King Humbert was assassinated by an anarchist, and was succeeded by his only son, Victor Emmanuel III. At the beginning of the new century more friendly relations were secured with France, the Triple Alliance being still maintained.

In the recent dissensions in Morocco (1906-1911) the government gave its support to France against Germany, while France acquiesced in Italian ambitions in Tripoli.

In September, 1911, war broke out between Italy and Turkey in connection with the rights and privileges of Italian subjects in Tripoli. In November of the same year the Italian government formally proclaimed the annexation of Tripoli and Cyrenaica, which was ratified by Turkey in the treaty of Ouchy in October, 1912. In the Balkan war (1912-1913) Italy’s sympathies were naturally with the allies against her recent enemies; the royal family, moreover, is connected with that of Montenegro, Queen Elena of Italy being the daughter of King Nicholas of Montenegro.

In May, 1915, Italy renounced the Triple Alliance and entered the European war on the side of Great Britain and France. War was declared upon Austria-Hungary, and Italian forces dispatched to the Trentino. No formal declaration of war was made against Germany until Aug. 27, 1916, subsequently, Italy requisitioned the German steamers interned in Italian ports.

Early in 1917, an important war conference was held in Rome by representatives of the Entente allies.

Books of Reference.—Gregorovius’s History of the City of Rome in the Middle Ages; Sismondi’s History of the Italian Republics; Symonds’ Age of the Despots; Burckhardt’s Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy; Creighton’s History of the Papacy During the Reformation; Ranke’s History of the Popes and his Latin and Teutonic Nations; King’s A History of Italian Unity; Stillman’s The Union of Italy; Orsi’s Modern Italy.

Austria-Hungary

Austria-Hungary belongs to the Germanic group of European states, because the dominant race is German. The Germans, however, do not form so much as a third of its varied population.
The usual name given to this great empire is Austria, a Latinized form of the German Oesterreich, meaning “Eastern Kingdom.”
Since 1867 the empire is composed of a union of two states under one emperor, but administratively distinct. The one is Austria, or Cisleithania (“on this side the Leitha,” a tributary of the Danube); the other, Hungary and the lands of the Hungarian crown, or Transleithania. The present article deals with the empire as a whole.

Location and Extent.—The Austrian dominions form geographically a compact territory with a circumference of about five thousand three hundred and fifty miles. The total area is greater than that of any other European state save Russia, and is nearly twice the area of Great Britain. The body of the empire lies in the interior of Europe, though it has about one thousand miles of sea-coast on the Adriatic. Austria borders on Italy, Switzerland, Bavaria, Saxony, Prussia, Russia, Roumania, Servia and Montenegro. With the sanction of the Berlin Congress of 1878, the small territory of Spizza, on the Montenegrin frontier and formerly Turkish, was incorporated with Dalmatia. The Turkish provinces of Bosnia and Herzegovina, thenceforward occupied and administered by Austria, were annexed by proclamation in 1908, and are now a part of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy.

Surface Features.—Austria-Hungary has been termed the “Empire of the Danube,” since it lies for the most part within the basin of that river, and embraces the whole of its upper plain, which lies at an elevation of about three hundred feet above the sea. But it is also, next to Switzerland, by far the most mountainous land in Europe, no less than four-fifths of its area being more than six thousand feet above the sea-level.

On the west, Austria embraces nearly half of the great mass of the Alps between the plateau of Bavaria and the plain of Lombardy, the mountain and valley scenery of Tyrol and Salzburg resembling that of Switzerland on a lesser scale. The highest point of all here is the Ortler Spitze. An eastern spur of these heights, the Bakony Wäld, runs into Hungary, compelling the Danube to form a sharp east-to-south bend or knee in its course. In the northwest the Bohmer Wäld, the Erz, and Riesen Gebirge, the Sudetic Mountains, and the Moravian heights, enclose the high basin of the Upper Elbe in Bohemia. Farther east the wooded Carpathians, with the high outlying granite mass of the Tatra rise round the north of the Hungarian plain. These are continued by the Transylvanian Alps, which form the southeastern frontier, next Roumania, and which, with their northern branch, the Biharia Mountains, enclose the highland of Transylvania or Siebenbürgen on the east of the Hungarian plain.

Rivers and Lakes.—The Danube, entering Austria from Bavaria as a considerable river, and flowing southeastward over the plain of Hungary, grows to more than half a mile in width before it leaves the Hungarian border to descend by the gorge of the Iron Gates into its lower plains. It is the great highway of the kingdom, and the great outlet to the Black Sea on the east. (See further under Danube.)

The Save, the southern boundary river of Hungary, and the Drave join the Danube in the south from the Eastern Alps, up to the base of which both are navigable.

The Theiss, winding south through the plain of Hungary from its source in the Carpathians, is its great northern tributary, also navigable, and so full of fish as to be popularly described as “two-thirds water and one-third fish.”

The March, from the Sudetic Mountains, corresponds to the Leitha from the south, forming part of the boundary between Austria and Hungary. The high basin of Bohemia, as before said, forms the upper basin of the Elbe, which escapes thence into Saxony.

The head stream of the Oder passes through Austrian Silesia; and the Vistula, draining like these to the Baltic, has its head streams in the northern slopes of the Carpathians in Galicia, the eastern portion of which province, however, drains to the Black Sea by the Dniester.

Lakes.—The two large lake basins of the country, which seem to be remnants of much more extensive inland waters, lie in Hungary between the Danube and the Drave. The larger, the Platten See or Balaton Lake, fifty miles long, shallow and stagnant, overflows into the surrounding marshes only in spring. The Lake of Constance, on the northern margin of the Alps, and Lake Garda, on the southern, touch upon Austrian territory.

Climate and Landscape.—Though from the variations of elevation the climates of different parts of Austria-Hungary are very diverse, three broad divisions may be recognized—(1) the climate of the countries which lie north of the Carpathian heights, in which the winters are long and cold, and in which the vine does not flourish; (2) that of the central plains and slopes of Hungary, favorable to wheat and vines; and (3) the Mediterranean climate of the Adriatic shores, which yield oil and silk.

Generally speaking, all the mountainous borders of Austria-Hungary are forest-covered, the woods occupying a third of the whole surface of those regions; the great plain of Hungary, on the other hand, is an open, treeless steppe.

Peoples and Races.—Austria-Hungary extends over the area in which many different races of Europe meet and interlace. Its population includes Germanic, Slavonic, Magyar, and Romanic elements, with their various tongues and dialects. The Germanic prevails in the Alpine regions and in the valley of the Danube in the west, and is widely mingled with the Slavonic and Magyar in the northern and central parts of the country.

The Slavs, the most numerous branch, forming about forty-five per cent of the whole population, appear in two divisions, a northern and southern; to the northern Slavs belong the Czechs of Bohemia, the Moravians and Slovaks, Poles and Ruthenians, or Russniaks of Galicia and Bukowina; to the southern Slavs belong the Slovenes, Croats and Servians, who occupy the southern border lands of Hungary, between the Drave and Save, westward to the peninsula of Istria and the Dalmatian coasts of the Adriatic. The Romanic element appears in the southeast on the Danube frontier, in southern Transylvania and eastern Bukowina (Wallachians), and in the southwest, where the Italians prevail in numbers on the borders of Venetia. The Magyars occupy the central plains of Hungary. The Szeklers of eastern Transylvania are a branch of the same family, by some believed to be the descendants of the once formidable Huns. Among minor elements of population, Jews are numerous in the northern provinces, Gypsies in Hungary, and Armenians in Transylvania and Galicia.

Religion and Education.—The state religion is the Roman Catholic, and this is professed by two-thirds of the population; a large proportion on the eastern borders next to Russia adhere to the Greek Church; Protestants are most numerous in Hungary and Transylvania, but form only a tenth part. General education, excepting in German Austria, where the compulsory system is enforced, is in a very backward state. There are, however, eleven universities in Austria-Hungary: Vienna, Prague (two), Budapest, Graz, Innsbruck, Cracow, Lemberg, Czernowitz, Klausenburg, and Agram.

Industries and National Resources.—The occupations of the country naturally divide themselves between the mining and pastoral industries of the mountains, and the agricultural and pastoral of the plains.

Agriculture employs by far the largest share of the population; and the lower lands of Austria-Hungary are among the most fertile portions of Europe. Oats, rye, barley, wheat, and maize, are the commonest grains; flax and hemp are widely grown; wines and tobacco chiefly in Hungary; hops in Bohemia.

Horticulture is carried to great perfection; and the orchards of Bohemia, Austria proper, Tyrol, and many parts of Hungary produce a profusion of fruit. Great quantities of cider are made in Upper Austria and Carinthia, and of plum-brandy in Slavonia. In Dalmatia, oranges, lemons and a few olives are produced.

In the production of wine, Austria is second only to France. With the exception of Galicia, Silesia, and Upper Austria, the vine is cultivated in all the provinces; but Hungary stands first, yielding not only the finest quality of wine, but four-fifths the total amount produced in the empire.

Animal Products.—The central Hungarian steppes are full of cattle, and those of the Alpine regions are an exceedingly fine breed. Merino sheep are carefully reared, especially in Moravia, Bohemia and Hungary. The river fisheries are important all over the land. The coast fisheries are of the utmost importance in rocky Dalmatia, where there is little cultivable land.

Minerals.—Its mineral wealth is not surpassed in any European country; it is only lately that Russia has exceeded it in the production of gold and silver. Mining has been an important pursuit in Austria for centuries, and has been encouraged and promoted by the government. Gold is found chiefly in Hungary and Transylvania, and in smaller quantity in Salzburg and Tyrol. The same countries, along with Bohemia, yield silver. Quicksilver is found in Hungary, Transylvania, Styria, and Carinthia. Copper is found in many districts, tin in Bohemia alone. Zinc is mined chiefly in Cracow and Carinthia. The most productive lead mines are in Carinthia. Iron is found in almost every province of the monarchy, though Styria, Carinthia, and Carniola are chief seats. Antimony is confined to Hungary; arsenic, cobalt, sulphur, and graphite are produced in various parts of the empire.

The useful earths and building-stones are to be had in great profusion; likewise marble, gypsum, chalk, etc. Rock-salt exists in immense beds on both sides of the Carpathians, chiefly at Wieliczka and Bochnia in Galicia, and in the county of Marmaros in Hungary, and in Transylvania. Salt is also made at state salt-works by evaporating the water of salt-springs. There are inexhaustible deposits of coal. Austria has abundance of valuable mineral springs; about sixteen hundred are enumerated, some of them of European reputation, as the sulphur baths of Baden in Lower Austria, the saline waters of Carlsbad, Marienbad, Franzensbad, Teplitz, etc., all in Bohemia.

Manufactures are most developed in the German portion of Bohemia, in the districts round Vienna, in Moravia and Austrian Silesia, and in Styria. The Magyar countries are far behind in this respect and Dalmatia and Bukowina have scarcely any manufactures at all. Weaving employs the largest number of hands; next in number come the metal, stone, glass and wood workers, then the workers in leather. Iron and steel goods are made in the Alps of Styria. Bohemia has a world-wide reputation for the manufacture of various kinds of glass, and the Tyrol has long been noted for the production of carved woodwork. Paper is made chiefly in Bohemia and in or near Vienna.

Cities and Towns.—The most important cities are the capital, Vienna, and eight other towns above one hundred thousand (Budapest, Trieste, Prague, Lemberg, Gratz, Cracow, Brün, Szegedin), and twenty-two others above fifty thousand.

Vienna (Ger. Wien, pron. Veen), the capital of the Austrian Empire, and (jointly with Budapest) of the dual monarchy, is situated in Lower Austria, on the Danube Canal, a south branch of the Danube, here joined by the small river Wien.

Chief Divisions.—Vienna proper consists of the Inner City and ten suburban districts surrounding it, formerly encircled by fortifications known as the Lines, which in 1892 were replaced by a boulevard, known as the Ringstrasse. The central point of the city is the Graben, a short street in the center of the inner city, a pleasant, well-built avenue, of greater width than usual for streets within the Ring. The Stadt is the fashionable quarter, where are the imperial palace, the residences of many of the nobility, the leading churches, museums, galleries, etc., and the most elegant shops.

PARLIAMENT BUILDINGS, VIENNA

The Ringstrasse is perhaps not surpassed in its architectural magnificence by any other street in Europe. Among the most conspicuous of the public buildings upon it are the Bourse; the University, founded in 1365 and renowned throughout the world as a medical school, has a teaching staff of five hundred and some ten thousand students; the new Rathhaus in the Gothic style, with a tower three hundred and twenty-eight feet high; the new Court Theater, the extensive and splendid Houses of Parliament; the Palace of Justice; the twin Imperial Museums of natural history and of art; the Imperial Opera House, sumptuous without and within; the Commercial Academy; the Palace of Archduke William; the Austrian Museum of Art and Industry, and the School for Art Industry.

Other institutions and buildings of interest are the Polytechnic Institute (with a Technological Museum); the Deaf and Dumb Asylum, founded by Maria Theresa; the splendid Public Hospital, the largest in Europe, and the Josephinum, a medical college founded in 1784, containing a large collection of anatomical models, etc.

Monuments and Parks.—Of the public monuments the most noteworthy are the equestrian statues of Joseph II., in the Josephsplatz, those of Archduke Charles and Prince Eugene, and that of Francis I. in the Hofgarten; the monument of Francis II., in the inner court of the Hofburg; the grand Maria Theresa monument; the Beethoven and the Schiller monuments; the Grill-parzer monument, etc. Of the many beautiful fountains the finest is that by Schwanthaler representing Austria, with the four rivers, Danube, Elbe, Vistula, and Po.

In the Volksgarten (bordering on the Ringstrasse) is the Temple of Theseus, modeled after that at Athens, and formerly containing Canova’s marble Theseus and the Minotaur, which is now in the Imperial Museum of Art.

IMPERIAL ART MUSEUM, VIENNA

The great park of Vienna is the Prater (four thousand two hundred and seventy acres), extending for nearly four miles between the Donau Canal (a narrow arm of the Danube) and the main stream of the river. It was the site of the Great Exhibition of 1873, some of the buildings of which are now used for exhibitions, concerts, etc.

GRAND OPERA HOUSE, VIENNA

Churches and Museums.—The ecclesiastical center and the historic church of the city, is St. Stephen’s Cathedral, adjacent to the Graben.

St. Stephen’s is one of the noblest Gothic edifices in Europe. It was founded in 1147, but was burned in 1258. The present edifice was begun soon after, but the tower was not finished until 1433. It has recently undergone extensive restorations, both without and within. The tower is four hundred and forty-nine feet high. The interior is rich in sculpture and in monuments; and the carved stalls in the choir and the stone pulpit are specially to be noted.

The Capuchin Church contains the burial-vault of the imperial family. The Duke of Reichstadt, son of Napoleon I., lies here among his maternal ancestors.

In the Minorite Church there is a fine mosaic copy of Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper; also the monument of the poet Metastasio.

THE IMPERIAL UNIVERSITY, VIENNA

The Augustine Church contains Canova’s monument of the Archduchess Maria Christina, one of his noblest works; and in the Loretto Chapel are the silver urns that hold the hearts of many members of the imperial family.

The Church of Maria-Stiegen is a Gothic structure of the fourteenth century restored in 1820, and second in beauty only to St. Stephen’s.

The elegant Karlskirche, or Church of St. Charles Borromeo, was erected in 1737 in fulfilment of a vow of Charles VI., when the plague raged in Vienna; it is in Italian style, with two slender spires, one hundred and forty-five feet high, near the porch.

The Imperial Museums now contain the Picture Gallery, arranged in schools. It is second only to the Dresden collection, is specially famous for its unrivaled examples of the Venetian school, Rubens, and Dürer, the Antiquities, comprising statuary, mosaics, inscriptions, etc., mostly Austrian; and the Ambras Collection, remarkable for its ancient armor, ivories and other carvings, etc.

Industries.—Vienna is the chief industrial city in the empire. Machinery, scientific and musical instruments, artistic goods in bronze, leather, terracotta, porcelain, furniture, meerschaum pipes, etc., are among the noted manufactures. As a center of trade and finance Vienna is no less important.

Schönbrunn, two miles from Vienna, is the seat of the magnificent Summer Palace of the Emperor, with extensive gardens and pleasure-grounds. From the marble colonnade of the Gloriette there is a fine view of the city and its suburbs. In the churchyard is Canova’s monument of Baroness Pillersdorf.

Prague (Ger. Prag; Czech Praha), the capital of Bohemia, is situated at the base and on the slope of the hills which skirt both sides of the isleted Moldau, two hundred and seventeen miles from Vienna and one hundred and eighteen miles from Dresden. It offers a highly picturesque appearance from the beauty of its site, and the numerous lofty towers (more than seventy in number) which rise above the palaces, public buildings, and bridges of the city.

STATUE OF THE POET GRILLPARZER IN VIENNA

The royal Burg, on the Hradschin (two hundred and forty feet), the ancient residence of the Dukes of Bohemia, dates mainly now from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and has four hundred and forty rooms. The neighboring Cathedral of St. Vitus is still unfinished, though building was resumed in 1867. Here are the splendid royal mausoleum and the shrine of St. John of Nepomuk, containing one and one-half tons of silver. Of forty-seven other Catholic Churches the chief are the domed Jesuit Church of St. Nicolas, and the Teyn Church (1407; the old Hussite Church), with Tycho Brahé’s grave, and its marble statue of the Slavonic martyrs, Cyril and Methodius.

ROYAL PALACE, SCHÖNBRUNN, NEAR VIENNA

Of five bridges and two railway viaducts the most striking is the Karlsbrücke, five hundred and forty-three yards long, with gate-towers at either end, and statues of John of Nepomuk and other saints. Other noteworthy objects are the town hall, the Pulverturm, the new Czech Theatre, the old Jewish graveyard, the vast Czerni Palace and the Picture Gallery.

Prague has numerous public gardens and walks, with several noble parks close by. The manufactures include machinery, chemicals, leather, cotton, linen, gloves, beer and spirits.

SALZBURG, AUSTRIA, ONE OF THE MOST CHARMING TOWNS IN EUROPE, AND BIRTHPLACE OF MOZART AND HAYDN

Salzburg (sälts’börg), is in Upper Austria, twenty-eight miles from Linz, near the Bavarian frontier, one thousand three hundred and fifty feet above sea, under some fine hills on the Salzach. It is considered one of the most beautifully situated towns of Europe. At this point the river passes between two extensive but isolated masses of rock, one of which, the Mönchsberg (Monk’s Hill), is crowned by the old citadel, dating originally from Roman times, but frequently rebuilt. This portion of the city contains the fine cathedral, with a white marble façade, and built in imitation of St. Peter’s at Rome.

Its industries are confined chiefly to the manufacture of musical instruments, marble ornaments.

Budapest (boo´da-pest; Hung. pron. boo´do-pesht´) is the capital of Hungary, and the second city of the Austrian Empire, consisting of Buda on the west bank of the Danube, and Pest on the opposite bank.

ROYAL PALACE AND SUSPENSION BRIDGE, BUDAPEST

These twin cities are joined by five bridges: a chain bridge between the two commercial quarters; the Queen Elizabeth Bridge; the Franz Josef Bridge; the Margaret Bridge; and a railway bridge.

Buda, the older and formerly the more important of the two parts, stands on and around two hills. On one stands the royal castle, erected by Maria Theresa, and a fortress, rebuilt after being destroyed by the Hungarians in 1849. The palace chapel of St. Sigismund contains the Hungarian regalia and the hand of St. Stephen. On the Blocksberg, to the south of this hill, stands the old citadel, while on a lower mound to the north is the Turkish mosque, built over the tomb of the saint Sheik Gül-Babas.

Other prominent buildings are the palace of Archduke Joseph, the residence of the Premier, and of the Minister of National Defense, all standing in the Georgsplatz, where is also a monument to General Hentzi, and the thirteenth-century parish church of St. John.

Pest, the more modern city, stands upon a sandy plain with fine quays along the Danube. The main streets radiate from the Belvaros, which is enclosed by boulevards replacing the old city walls.

The most notable buildings are the Houses of Parliament and Palaces of Justice, the Academy of Sciences, containing valuable art collections, and a fine library, the Bourse, and the Redoute buildings, all on the Franz Josef Quay; the National Museum Theatre and University on Museum Street; the Industrial Art Museum, on Ulloi Street; the Royal Military Academy, in the Orczy Gardens; and the Leopold Basilica on Andrassy Street, one of the most handsome thoroughfares in Europe. There are a parish Church, a Greek Church, and a Jewish synagogue, and numerous parks, including one on Margaret Island in the Danube.

Both towns have valuable baths and sulphur springs, and the united cities form a large manufacturing center for machinery, spirits, and tobacco, cutlery and metal-work, glass, etc. The most important industry is milling, the trade in grain and flour being enormous, and there is considerable commerce in cattle and swine, honey, wax, bacon and hides, timber, and coal.

Salzkammergut (Sahltzkammergoot´), called the Austrian Switzerland, one of the most picturesque regions of Europe, lies in a district famous for its salt mines and brine springs, and hence known as the Salzkammergut (“Estate of the Salt Office”). The scenery combines in rare beauty the features of valley, mountain and lake. The highest peak is the Dachstein (nine thousand eight hundred and thirty feet); of its lakes the most famous are Hallstatt, Traun or Gmünden, Atter, St. Wolfgang, Aber, Mond, and Zell. The chief seats of the salt-works are Ischl, Hallstatt, and Ebensee.

THE GOTHIC POWDER TOWER, PRAGUE

Other Important Places.—Trieste, the only great seaport of the Empire, is at the head of its gulf, on the North Adriatic. Pola, near the southern extremity of the peninsula of Istria, is the chief naval station of Austria.

Linz, on the Danube, is the seat of a considerable trade. Steyr, on the river Enns, is noted for its steel and iron industry.

Northern Styria is the center of the Austrian steel and iron industry, carried on more especially around Leoben. The capital, Graz, is a staple place for the manufacture of machinery, and one of the most agreeable of Austrian capitals, and a favorite place of residence.

Semmering, an Austrian Alpine pass (three thousand two hundred and nineteen feet) connecting Vienna with Graz, though the lowest of the Alpine passes, is traversed by the first railway (1854) to be carried across the Alps. The viaducts of the Semmering railway, some of them with several tiers of arches, are among the grandest works of engineering. The Semmering road begins at Gloggnitz, at an elevation of one thousand four hundred and twenty-six feet, and is carried along the face of abrupt precipices over bridges and through tunnels, affording views of the grandest and wildest scenery en route. This part of the road is twenty-five miles long, and cost more than seven millions of dollars.

Innsbruck, on the Inn, is the capital of the Tyrol, the most alpine part of the monarchy. Its principal rivers are the Inn, in the north, and the Etsch or Adige, in the south, the mountain range separating them being crossed by the Pass of the Brenner (five thousand eight hundred and sixty feet). On the Adige are Botzen, Trent, and Roveredo, the two last inhabited by Italians.

Reichenberg, in the north, is the center of the textile trades; Teplitz and Karlsbad, at the foot of the Erzgebirge, are famous watering-places; Pilsen, in the west, is noted for its beer. Königgrätz and Sadowa, where the battle was fought which decided the Seven Weeks’ war in 1866, are in the east.

Brünn is the great center of the Austrian woolen trade; near it is the old state prison, Spielberg. Olmütz is a strong fortress on the March.

Lemberg and Cracow (the ancient capital of Poland) are the centers of trade, and the marts for the agricultural produce.

Bukowina is a small duchy at the head of the Sereth and other rivers falling into the Black Sea, with Czernowitz for its capital. About forty per cent of the inhabitants are Roumanians.

Pressburg, near the eastern frontier, is the old coronation city; Komorn, lower down on the Danube, is famous as a fortress; Szegedin, the chief town on the Theiss, was almost wholly destroyed by floods in the year 1878.

Fiume, at the head of the Quarnero Gulf, is the chief seaport of Hungary.

History of Austria-Hungary

The empire of Austria arose from the smallest beginnings at the end of the eighth century. In 796 a Margraviate, called the Eastern Mark (i. e. “March” or frontier-land), was founded as an outpost of the empire of Charlemagne, in the country between the Enns and the Raab. The name Oesterreich appears first in 996.

Rise Under the Hapsburgs.—In 1156 the mark was raised to a duchy; and after coming into the possession of the House of Hapsburg in 1282, it began its period of growth toward a powerful state. The princes of that house extended their dominion by marriage, by purchase, and otherwise, over a number of other states, including the crowns of Bohemia and Hungary; and from 1438 down to the nineteenth century they held almost without interruption the throne of the German empire (nominally “the Holy Roman Empire”)—the emperor being the most conspicuous, if not always the most powerful personage among the crowned heads of Europe.

Hapsburg Power Through Marriage.—The most pronounced rise of Austria and of the House of Hapsburg to historical eminence may be said to date from the reign of Maximilian I. (1493-1519). By marrying Mary, daughter of Charles the Bold (1477), he acquired possession of the Netherlands. Through the marriage of their son Philip with Joanna of Spain, the Houses of Austria and Spain were united.

Passes to Charles V. of Germany.—As Philip died in 1506, his elder son, the celebrated Charles V., became heir to the united monarchies, and was elected emperor of Germany in 1519. Thus, by a succession of fortunate marriages, the House of Hapsburg became the most powerful dynasty in the world.

Charles V., however, resigned all his German territories to his younger brother, Ferdinand I., who was thus the continuation of the Austrian branch of the line. Under Ferdinand the power of Austria greatly increased.

Division of the Empire.—In the partition of the inheritance that took place among Ferdinand’s three sons, the eldest, Maximilian II., received the imperial crown along with Austria, Hungary and Bohemia; the second, Ferdinand, Tyrol and Upper Austria; the third, Charles, got Styria, Carinthia, etc. Maximilian II. was fond of peace, tolerant in religion, and a just ruler. He died in 1576; and of his five sons, the eldest, Rudolf II., became emperor.

Rudolf II. was negligent, leaving everything to his ministers and the Jesuits. His war with the Porte and Transylvania brought him little credit; and the Protestants of Bohemia, oppressed by the Jesuits, extorted from him a charter of religious liberty. In 1608 he was obliged to cede Hungary, and in 1611 Bohemia and Austria, to his brother Matthias.

Matthias, who became emperor in 1612, ceded Bohemia and Hungary to his cousin Ferdinand, son of the Archduke Charles of Styria, third son of Maximilian II. Matthias lived to see the outbreak of the Thirty Years’ war, and died in 1619.

Ferdinand II. and the Thirty Years’ War.—Bohemia refused to acknowledge his successor, Ferdinand II., to whom all the Austrian possessions had again reverted, and chose the Elector Palatine, Frederick V., the head of the Protestant Union, as king. This election gave the signal for the Thirty Years’ war, in which the House of Austria took the lead, both as the champion of Catholicism, and the head of a power which aimed at universal domination in Germany and in the Christian world. The battle of Prague (1620) subjected Bohemia to Ferdinand, who formally set about rooting out Protestantism in that country and in Moravia. The emperor also succeeded in extorting acknowledgment of his sovereignty from the states of Austria; and here, too, Protestantism, which had made great progress since the time of Luther, was mercilessly suppressed.

Under Ferdinand’s successor, the Emperor Ferdinand III. (1637-1657), Austria continued to be a theater of war; and at the peace of Westphalia (1648) had to cede Alsace to France.

Leopold I. and the War of the Spanish Succession.—Ferdinand III.’s son and successor, Leopold I., provoked the Hungarians to rebellion by his severity. The struggle between Leopold and Louis XIV. of France for the heirship to the king of Spain led to the War of the Spanish Succession, during which Leopold died, in 1705.

His eldest son and successor, the enlightened Joseph I., continued the war. He died childless in 1711, and was succeeded by his brother, Charles VI.

Hapsburg-Lorraine Line of Rulers.—With the death of Charles VI., in 1740, the male line of the Hapsburgs became extinct, and his daughter, Maria Theresa, who was married to the duke of Lorraine, assumed the government. For many years it had been the aim of Charles to secure the adhesion of the European powers to the Pragmatic Sanction, by which the possessions of the Austrian crown should pass to Maria Theresa. Those powers during his lifetime had promised to second his wishes, but he was no sooner in his grave than nearly all of them sought to profit by the accession of a female sovereign.

War of the Austrian Succession.—A great war arose, in which England alone sided with Maria. Frederick II. of Prussia conquered Silesia. The Elector of Bavaria was crowned king of Bohemia, and elected emperor as Charles VII. in 1742. The Hungarians, however, stood by their heroic queen, who was soon able to wage a fairly successful war against her numerous foes. At the death of the empress in 1780, the monarchy had an extent of two hundred and thirty-four thousand square miles, with a population of twenty-four millions. The administration of Maria Theresa was distinguished by unwonted unity and vigor, both in home and foreign affairs.

Her successor, Joseph II., was an active reformer in the spirit of the enlightened despotism of the times, though often rash and violent in his mode of proceeding. He was succeeded in the government by his brother, the grandduke of Tuscany—as German emperor, Leopold II.—who succeeded in pacifying the Netherlands and Hungary.

Austria and the French Revolution.—At the outbreak of the revolution in France the fate of Leopold’s sister, Marie Antoinette, and her husband, Louis XVI. of France, led him to an alliance with Prussia against France; but he died in 1792 before the war broke out. War was declared by France on his son, Francis II., the same year, and by the treaty of Campo Formio, 1797, Austria lost Lombardy and the Netherlands, receiving in lieu the Venetian territory.

In 1795, at the second partition of Poland, it had been augmented by western Galicia.

Francis, in alliance with Russia, renewed the war with France in 1799, which was ended by the peace of Lunéville. It is needless to follow all the alterations of boundary that the Austrian dominions underwent during these wars. The most serious was at the peace of Vienna (1809), which cost Austria forty-two thousand square miles of territory. It was in 1804, when Napoleon had been proclaimed emperor of France, that Francis declared himself hereditary emperor of Austria as Francis I. On the establishment of the Confederation of the Rhine, he laid down the dignity of German emperor, which his family had held for nearly four hundred years.

The humiliating peace of Vienna was followed (1809) by the marriage of Napoleon with the Archduchess Maria Louisa, and in 1812 Austria figured as the ally of Napoleon in his great campaign against Russia, but she did not give much active assistance. In August of the following year Austria joined the grand alliance against France and the Austrian general, Schwarzenberg, was entrusted with the chief command of the allied forces, which at the battle of Leipzig and in the campaign of 1814 broke the power of Napoleon.

Congress of Vienna and Subsequent Period of Metternich.—The sacrifices and great services rendered by Austria in the gigantic struggle received full consideration at the treaty of Vienna (1815). As recompense for the loss of the Netherlands she received Venice and Dalmatia, which afforded an outlet for her foreign trade.

After that time Austria, under the diplomatic guidance of Prince Metternich, exerted a powerful influence in European politics generally, and more especially in the German Confederation, of which her emperor was president. The death of Francis I. in 1835 made little alteration in the policy of Austria; Ferdinand I. trod in his father’s footsteps. The political alliance with Russia and Prussia was drawn closer by a personal conference of the emperor with Nicholas I. and Frederick-William III. at Teplitz in 1835.

Revolution of 1848.—In Austria, after the fall of Metternich from power, the revolutionary period of 1848-1849 was one of exceptional severity, the movement for constitutional freedom being complicated by the revival of the national spirit in Hungary, Italy and Bohemia. The time was everywhere ripe for revolt, when the fall of Louis-Philippe of France (February 24, 1848), gave the signal for the outbreak of the revolutionary elements all over Europe. Nowhere was the spirit of change stronger than in Vienna, which for many months became a scene of confusion.

The leaders of the popular movement in Vienna were in sympathy with Hungary, and when the imperial troops were ordered to suppress the national rising there, the citizens again rose in insurrection. In the meantime the military forces had withdrawn from the capital in order to prevent the Hungarians coming to the aid of the Viennese. Vienna was now besieged, and surrendered at the end of October, after a resistance of eight days.

Francis Joseph Emperor.—The reaction was triumphant, and the leaders of revolt severely punished; but as Ferdinand had not shown sufficient vigor in the great crisis, he was persuaded to abdicate, and Francis Joseph was declared emperor at the age of eighteen. Thus restored, the central authority had now to assert itself in Hungary and to complete the reconquest of northern Italy. With the surrender of Venice, which took place in August, the subjugation of Italy was complete.

Conquest of Hungary.—In Hungary, the Magyars, though the Germans and Slavs within the country itself were hostile to them, began the campaign of 1849 with decided success. But the government had already solicited the aid of Russia, whose armies, entering Transylvania and Hungary, added to the imperial cause the irresistible weight of numbers. Surrounded on every side by superior forces, the Hungarians were completely beaten. It was in vain that Kossuth transferred the dictatorship to General Görgei. Görgei, whether from treachery, as the other Magyar leaders maintained, or from necessity, as he himself averred, laid down his arms to the Russians at Vilagos (August 13). The surrender of Komorn, in September, completed the subjugation of Hungary, which was treated as a conquered country.

The ten years which followed on the revolutionary troubles of 1848 were a period of reaction and of absolutism. A constitution which had been granted in 1849 was soon annulled. The policy pursued was one of strong centralization under a bureaucratic government, by which the claims of nationality and of freedom were alike disregarded. Liberty of the press and trial by jury were set aside. A rigorous system of police was maintained. The aim was to Germanize the whole empire and to crush the aspirations of both Slavs and Hungarians. The Church pronounced against national freedom, and supported the central authority and received great privileges by the Concordat of 1855. The result of all these proceedings was only to irritate the national feeling in Hungary, Italy and Bohemia.

Struggle Between Austria and Prussia.—On the confused arena of German politics, the struggle for ascendancy was kept up between Austria and Prussia. In 1850 the two powers were armed and ready to come to blows with reference to the affairs of Hesse-Cassel; but the bold and determined policy of Schwarzenberg prevailed, and by the humiliating arrangement of Olmütz, Prussia gave way. For a few years longer the preponderance of Austria in the German Confederation was secured.

The rule of Austria in Italy had always been unsatisfactory. From her own provinces in Venice and Lombardy she controlled the policy of the courts of central and southern Italy, and her influence tended invariably towards the suppression of national feeling and popular liberty.

Loss of Italian Possessions.—Sardinia was the only state that worthily represented the spirit of the Italian people. In the spring of 1859 it began to arm against Austrian supremacy. Austria demanded immediate disarmament, on pain of war; but Sardinia refused. Austria accordingly commenced hostilities by crossing the Ticino at the end of April, 1859. Sardinia having secured the aid of France, the Austrians were defeated at Magenta, Solferino and elsewhere, and their emperor was fain to seek an armistice from Napoleon. On July 11 the two potentates met at Villafranca, and concluded a peace, ceding Lombardy to Sardinia. Venice was all that still remained of the Italian possessions of Austria.

Austro-Prussian War.—The rivalry of Prussia and Austria for influence in the Germanic body of states dated from the rise of Prussia to be a leading power. The arrangement of Olmütz in 1850 had left a painful feeling of humiliation in the minds of the Prussian statesmen. The long rivalry was now to be brought to a decisive issue. In 1864 the combined Prussian and Austrian forces drove the Danes out of Sleswick-Holstein, but the two victors quarreled about the subsequent arrangements. War was declared, and in 1866 the Austrian armies in Bohemia were completely beaten by the Prussians, in a campaign of seven days, which closed with the great defeat of Königgrätz or Sadowa.

Period of Reforms.—After the great war of 1866 the history of Austria has been concerned chiefly with two important interests. In the first place, the government had to attempt an arrangement of the conflicting claims and rights of the peoples constituting the empire; in the second place, it has had to establish working relations with the great neighboring powers, Germany and Russia, and especially with the latter, on the Eastern Question.

Union of Austria and Hungary.—Hungary’s claims to be recognized as a separate and distinct country were now, with great advantage, pressed forward. In 1867 its political rights were successful in being regarded as justified. This agreement was the famous Ausgleich, which has since been in force, and which has to a sufficient degree justified its adoption.

At the end of 1867 the first parliamentary ministry was formed. The Concordat was set aside. Education was freed from the control of the Church. Marriage was placed under the jurisdiction of the civil power. The press laws were relaxed. Finally, the Prussian system of military organization was introduced.

In the foreign affairs of Austria the chief aim was to arrive at a satisfactory understanding with Germany and Russia. After 1871 Bismarck arranged as between Germany, Austria and Russia a “Three Emperors’ Alliance,” which after the Russo-Turkish war of 1877-1878 was superseded by an alliance between Germany and Austria. This, by the inclusion of Italy, in 1882, became the Triple Alliance, which remained in full force down to the great European war of 1914.

During the Turkish revolution of 1908 Austria-Hungary annexed the Turkish provinces of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which the Treaty of Berlin had placed under Austro-Hungarian administration and military occupation in 1878.

Racial Difficulties Bearing Upon the European War, 1914-1917.—The multiplicity of races and their mutual jealousies rendered the task of the central government in Austria-Hungary both delicate and difficult. (See Peoples and Races.) Russia, as a Slav nation and a great power, had long exercised a predominant influence in the Balkans. Acting under this influence, Servia secretly fostered aspirations in the direction of a Pan-Slavic propaganda with the apparent object of not only lessening Austrian influence in the Balkans but of breaking up, through internal defections, the Austrian Empire; from the accomplishment of this Servia hoped to profit.

The Slavs are closely allied with Russia. The spread of Pan-Slavism constituted a menace to the very existence of the Dual Monarchy. The growth of German and Russian aspirations directed at expansion through the Balkan States had, therefore, a direct connection with the racial element of which Pan-Slavism was but one manifestation. As an evidence of the spread of the doctrine of “Pan-Slavic Unity” and of the bitterness of the racial antipathy which it engendered, the Austrian Archduke Francis Ferdinand and his wife, the Duchess of Hohenberg, were assassinated on June 28, 1914, at Sarajevo, the capital of the Austrian province of Bosnia. This act led directly to a declaration of war against Servia on July 28th, followed by an Austrian invasion on July 30th. (Further causes and details of the war will be found under the European War.)

Sovereigns of Austria-Hungary.

The following is a list of the Hapsburg rulers of Austria (Dukes and, from 1453, Archdukes of Austria, from 1526, also Kings of Hungary and Bohemia, from 1804 Emperors of Austria).

HOUSE OF HAPSBURG

Albert I. 1282

* Rudolf II. 1282

* Rudolf III. 1293

Frederick (III. as rival Imperial claimant) 1307

* Leopold I. 1314

* Albert II. 1314

* Rudolf IV. 1358

* Albert III. 1365

* Albert IV. 1395

Albert V. (II. as Emperor, King of Hungary and Bohemia) 1404

* Ladislaus (King of Hungary and Bohemia) 1439

Fredrick V. (III. as Emperor) 1457

Maximilian I. 1493

Charles I. (V. as Emperor) 1519

Ferdinand I. 1520

Maximilian II. 1564

Rudolf V. (II. as Emperor) 1576

Matthias 1611

Ferdinand II. 1619

Ferdinand III. 1637

Leopold I. 1658

Joseph I. 1705

Charles II. (VI. as Emperor, III. of Hungary) 1711

* Maria Theresa. 1740

HOUSE OF HAPSBURG-LORRAINE

Joseph II. 1780

Leopold II. 1790

Francis I. (II. as Emperor) 1792

* Ferdinand I. (V. of Hungary) 1835

* Francis Joseph I. 1848

Charles Francis Joseph 1916

* All except those marked with an asterisk likewise
filled the throne of the Holy Roman Empire.

The Russian Empire

Russia extends over eastern Europe, the whole of northern Asia, and a part of central Asia. This area, which is more than twice as large as Europe, and embraces one-sixth of the land-surface of the globe, has a population estimated at near one hundred and seventy-four millions. The Russian Empire consists of two well-defined parts: European Russia less than one-fourth of the whole but including nearly three-fourths of its population; and Asiatic Russia. The inhabitants of European Russia mostly belong to the Slavic branch of the human race.
The subdivisions are indicated in the following table:

Governments
and
Provinces Area
English
Square
Miles Population
Jan. 1912

European Russia:

Russia proper (50 Provs.) 1,862,524 122,550,700

Poland (10 Provs.) 49,018 12,776,100

Finland (Grand Duchy) 144,178 3,140,100

Asiatic Russia:

Caucasia (11 Provs.) 180,703 12,288,100

Central Asia (10 Provs. and Regions) 1,325,530 10,727,000

Siberia (8 Provs. and Regions) 4,786,730 9,577,900

Dependencies:

Khiva 26,028 800,000

Bokhara 78,524 1,500,000

Inland Lakes 317,468 ...

8,770,703 173,359,900

The various sections of European Russia differ greatly from one another, and have thereby given rise to certain popular divisions that are even better known generally than the strictly governmental provinces. These, with their distinguishing features, may be indicated as follows:
Great Russia (Muscovy).—All the central and northern regions to the Arctic shores. Chief towns: Moscow, Tula.
Except on its outskirts, this region presents everywhere the same aspects, wide, undulating plains covered with cornfields and dotted with small deciduous forests. The soil is of very moderate fertility in the north, but very fertile in the black earth belt of the south.
The Great Russians, numbering about fifty-five millions, are a vigorous and manly stock, usually rather light-haired, with blue or brown eyes, well-formed hands and feet, and a serious, kindly, but somewhat crafty, temperament, an inborn disposition for a wandering life, a very small regard to the value of time, and (especially in the peasantry) an extreme carelessness and slovenliness in all details of daily life.
Little Russia, or the Ukraine.—In the southwest. Chief town: Kieff.
The little Russians, over twenty-two millions in all, are settled in the Ukraine, which contains also in the borderlands some twelve per cent of Jews and six per cent of Poles. Their religion, like their love for music and poetry and their passion for country life, they share with their relations on the north and northeast, but in their developments of folklore and popular song, and in the more feminine character both of their physique and their intellect, they offer marked peculiarities. The Little Russians of the Dnieper basin are closely allied to the Ruthenians of Austria-Hungary.
The Ukraine comprises the governments of Tchernigoff, Kieff, Poltava, and part of Kharkoff, as well as Volhynia and Podolia on the spurs of the Carpathians, the richest and most populous parts of Russia. The soil is mostly a rich black earth, and assumes farther south the aspect of fine grassy steppes, or prairies, yielding rich crops of wheat.

PETER THE GREAT IN HOLLAND

The practical ambition of Peter the Great has probably never been surpassed by any sovereign in history. He began empire building with his travels in 1697. It was an unparalleled step for a young sovereign of twenty-five to take: to withdraw from his kingdom and journey abroad in order to learn the art of government. He was deeply interested in all branches of engineering, especially ship-building, which he first studied in Holland, working as an ordinary laborer in a dockyard. In 1698 Peter went to England to pursue his studies in the theory and practice of ship construction, which he did by visiting the dockyards of Woolwich, Chatham, and Deptford.

Eastern Russia.—Chief towns: Astrakhan, Kazan, Samara, Saratoff.
This part of the country is more elevated, but less effectively drained; and vast forests stretch from the upper Volga to the Urals.
The peoples are of Turkish origin and include the Tartars of Kazan; the Nogai Tartars of the Crimea in the south, and the Kirgiz on the Caspian. The Bashkirs, Chuvash, and others, in the Ural and Volga, are Tartarized Finns. The Kalmucks may be taken as the purest type of the Mongols; they are short, swarthy, broad-shouldered horsemen, black-haired and black-eyed, the eyes slanting down toward the flat nose.
South Russia.—Along the Black Sea. Chief towns: Odessa, Nikolayeff, Kisheneff.
This is chiefly the steppe-region, a belt more than two hundred miles wide along the littoral of the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, and extends east through the region of the lower Volga and Ural till it meets the steppes of central Asia.
Here are gently undulating plains, clothed with rich grass and coated with a thick layer of fertile black earth.
In order to people Bessarabia after its conquest in the eighteenth century without depriving the Russian landowners of their serfs, several races of foreigners, as Moldavians, Wallachians (Vlachs), Servians, Greeks, Germans, and even Scotch, were freely invited to settle there. The population of the steppe-region exceeds thirteen millions.
Western Russia.—Including the Lithuanian provinces of Kovno, Vilna, and part of Grodno and Vitebsk, drained by the Niemen and the upper Dwina, and other portions of the former kingdom of Poland. Chief town: Vilna.
Here dwell the White Russians, who number about six millions, but they are more mixed with Poles, Jews and Little Russians. In all essentials they are merely “poor relations” of the Great Russian family, living, on the whole, in a more degraded and undeveloped state than any other Russians.
The Baltic Provinces.—The coast-lands of the Gulfs of Finland and Riga. Chief towns: Petrograd (St. Petersburg), Revel, Riga.
These are four Russian governments bordering on the Baltic—viz., Courland, Livonia, Esthonia, and Petrograd; or in a restricted sense, often the first three. The Baltic provinces once belonged to Sweden, except Courland, which was a dependency of Poland. They came into the possession of Russia partly in the beginning of the eighteenth century through the conquests of Peter the Great, partly under Alexander in 1809.
They occupy an undulating plain three hundred to eight hundred feet above the sea. Owing to the influence of the sea, this region enjoys a milder climate than the rest of Russia, and has maintained its excellent forests, chiefly of oak. The soil is of moderate fertility.
The more important non-Slavic peoples of this region are the Lithuanians (one million two hundred and fifty thousand) and Letts (one million five hundred thousand), chiefly in Kovno, Vilna, Grodno, Vitebsk, Courland, and S. Livonia. The Germans (one million five hundred thousand) are mainly descendants of the mediæval conquerors of the east Baltic coasts (Teutonic Knights, Knights of the Sword, and their followers) and of the agricultural colonists brought by Catherine II.
The Grand-Duchy of Finland.—In the northwest, next Scandinavia. Chief towns: Viborg, Helsingfors, Abo.
Finland was ceded by the Swedes in 1809, but still retains an independent administration. The interior, chiefly elevated plateau, consists largely of forest land, and is well supplied with lakes, many of which are united by canals. (See also under Europe.)
Education is highly advanced; Swedish and Finnish are the two languages of the country, Russian being practically unknown. There is an excellent Saga literature, and the beginnings of a modern literature. The Finns came under the dominion of the Swedes in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, and were by them Christianized.
The Finnish race includes the Finns and the Karelians (two million four hundred thousand in Finland and three hundred and fifty thousand in European Russia); the Esthonians, the people of Livonia, and other Western Finns in the Baltic Provinces (about one million); the Lapps and the Samoyedes in the far north; and the Volga Finns and the Ugrians (one million seven hundred and fifty thousand in European Russia and fifty thousand in Siberia). The Eastern Finns are being rapidly absorbed by the Russians; but the Western Finns warmly cherish their nationality.

Poland.—In the west, next Germany. Chief town: Warsaw.

Surface Features.—In general these embody the plains of European Russia and the lowlands and plains that extend to the north of the two great plateaus of Asia—the high plateau of East Asia and the western plateau of Persia and Armenia.

In European Russia, apart from the Caucasus, the Urals, and the Crimea, the only districts rising above one thousand feet are the Valdai hills at head of the Volga, the Timan range (over three thousand feet) in the Pechora basin, several heights in Russian Lapland (over one thousand five hundred), and some in Ukraine (over one thousand). The main divisions of its landscape are the treeless northern tundras, frozen in winter, grassy in summer; the rock and lake plateau of Finland; the immense central forest region, the cultivated parts of which supply Europe with grain; and the treeless steppes, which lie across the south of the plain from the saline borders of the northern Caspian toward Roumania on the west.

In Western Asia, the Caucasus is a single chain, so narrow that the same summits may be seen from the steppes which reach out from its northern base, and from the deep valleys which separate it from the heights of Armenia on the south. It has thus no great valleys in the direction of its length. The spurs descending from the main chain have deep gorges or troughs between. The culminating points are the Elbruz peak and Koshtan Tau, towards the western end of the chain; and Mount Kazbek, near the middle of it—all rising grandly from deep valleys.

The two most important passes over it were called in ancient times the Caucasian and Albanian gates. The former, now called the Dariel Pass, lies close to the eastern base of the Kazbek, and is a narrow cleft eight thousand two hundred and fifteen feet above the sea, available for carriages in the summer. The latter skirts the eastern termination of the range on the shores of the Caspian.

Over the whole chain vegetation is vigorous, but more luxuriant on the warmer southern slopes. The valleys opening in that direction are highly fertile, producing rice and cotton and silk, indigo, tobacco, and vines, and luxuriant woods. The northern slopes, exposed to the keen winds of the steppes, are characterized by bare pasture-lands and scattered firwoods.

All Western Siberia, nearest the Ural belt and European Russia, is a vast plain rising almost imperceptibly from the shores of the Arctic Ocean to the Kirghiz steppes and the base of the Altai mountains, which spring up from it like a wall, forming the northern buttress of the great tableland of Central Asia. The northern border of this plain is occupied by the marshy frozen tundras; the broad central belt is covered with forest, in the cleared spaces of which the soil is fertile and well suited to agriculture; all the southern portion of it is occupied by treeless steppes which reach away south towards the Caspian and Aral Seas.

The chief elevation in eastern Siberia is a chain of volcanic mountains running down the center of the peninsula of Kamchatka, some of whose peaks reach an elevation of seventeen thousand feet.

Rivers.—The chief rivers of Russia are the Niemen, the Dwina, the Lovat (continued by the Volkhov and the Neva), the Onega, the Dnieper, the Don and the Volga. By means of three lines of canals and canalized rivers, which connect the upper tributaries of the Volga with the streams that flow into Lakes Onega and Ladoga, the real mouth of the Volga has been transferred from the Caspian to the Gulf of Finland—Petrograd being the chief port of the Volga basin. The upper Volga and the upper Kama are also connected by canals with the North Dwina, and the Dnieper with the Düna, the Niemen, and the Vistula.

The rainfall of Russia is small, and as part of it falls in the shape of snow, the rivers are flooded in spring and in early summer. During the winter navigation of course ceases.

The Lake District.—This region lies in the north, and includes the governments of Petrograd, Novgorod, and Finland. The lakes in the district are well-nigh innumerable, the government of Novgorod alone containing more than three thousand lakes. The chief lakes of Finland are the Enare and Saima. Lake Ladoga is the largest lake in Russian Europe. For a third of the year its surface is frozen. The lake abounds with fish, and has a peculiar species of seal. The Neva flows from the lake into the Gulf of Finland.

Lake Onega is joined up to the White Sea by means of a series of lakes and streams.

Lake Ilmen is formed by the meeting of a number of rivers in a shallow depression; the average depth does not exceed thirty feet.

Lake Peipus, a part of which is called the Lake of Pskov, connects with the Gulf of Riga and with the Gulf of Finland. This lake also is very shallow and does not in any part exceed a depth of ninety feet.

Seaboard and Islands.—The ports on the Arctic coast are of little importance, since for nearly three-quarters of the year the outlets are frozen.

The White Sea with its port, Archangel, had lost much of the importance which it formerly possessed until brought into use during the European war in 1916-1917.

The Bering Sea and the coasts which border on the Sea of Japan lose much of their value because they are bleak and inhospitable. The great gulf which has the town of Vladivostok at its head is separated by miles of waste land from the interior, and the value of one of the most magnificent harbors in the world suffers much from this fact.

The sea which is of most importance to Russia is the Baltic, with its gulfs of Bothnia, Riga, and Finland. The chief Russian ports are to be found situated on its banks, and yet it can in no respect be regarded as a purely Russian sea.

The chief islands of the Baltic are: the Aland Archipelago, Dago, Oesel, Mohn, Hochland, and Kotlin, which contains the fortress of Cronstadt.

The Black Sea is becoming of more and more importance every year. The coast lands are being developed, and as the produce of the interior becomes greater so the importance of the Black Sea increases.

The Sea of Azov is the greatest inlet of this sea, but on the whole the importance of the Black Sea is lessened by the fact that it has so few good ports. The best are those of the peninsula of the Crimea, but these are too remote to be of any great importance.

Odessa is the second port of Russia and the greatest port of the Black Sea. Sebastopol is the great naval station, and Batum owes its importance to the fact that it is the port of the oil fields of the Caucasus.

The great inland sea of Russia, the Caspian, lacks importance chiefly because of the fact that it is an inland sea. It forms a good means of communication from the Transcaucasian provinces to Central Asia, and also between Central Asia and Persia; but although attempts have been made to unite it with the Black Sea, the fact that it lies seventy feet below sea-level prevents any real good from being done. It is, however, of vast importance as a fishing center, and supplies almost the whole of Russia with fish.

Climate.—In European Russia, except in the Baltic provinces, the south of the Crimea, and a narrow strip of land on the Black Sea, the climate is continental. A very cold winter, followed by a spring which sets in rapidly; a hot summer; an autumn cooler than spring; early frosts; and a small rainfall, chiefly during the summer and autumn, are the main features. The winter is cold everywhere. All the rivers are frozen over early in December, and they remain under ice for from one hundred days in the south to one hundred and sixty days in the north.

Products and Industries.—Excepting along the tundra belt on the Arctic coasts, in Finland, and in the saline steppes of the southeast, the cultivation of grain extends all over the great Russian plains.

Agriculture and Forests.—Rye and barley, oats and flax, are the chief crops in the north; wheat and vines, hemp and tobacco, the products of the center and the south. The south central governments, extending from the Upper Oka to the Ukraine on the Dnieper, may be regarded as the granary of Russia, for they produce a third of all its corn supply. Russia is thus most important of all as a grain-producing country.

Its forests extend over about forty per cent of the surface—pine and fir and birch in the north; oak and elm and lime in the center and south. The timber is sent down the Niemen and Vistula to the Baltic, and to Archangel in the White Sea, in enormous quantities for the supply of western Europe. In Russia itself the larger portion of the houses are built of wood.

Live Stock and Fisheries.—The steppes of the south are the great pastoral lands of Russia, which possess more than forty-five millions of sheep, about twenty-five per cent yielding fine wool; twenty-five millions of cattle; and twenty millions of horses. Russian leather is famous. Swine are also kept in very large numbers all over the land; the export of bristles and brushes from Russia is very large. Reindeer form the wealth of the Lapps and Samoyeds in the north; camels of the Tartars in the southeastern steppes. Hunting the bear, wolf, fox, and deer, and trapping the sable in the forests for their skins, give employment to many. The Caspian, as well as the Sea of Azof, the Black Sea, and the great rivers, are rich in fish—tunny, sturgeon, salmon, anchovy. Most caviare is made at Astrakhan on the Caspian.

Minerals.—The Obdorsk and Ural Mountains contain very great mineral riches, and, with the Altai range, are the principal seat of mining and metallic industry, producing gold, platinum, copper, iron of very superior quality, rock-salt, marble, and kaolin, or china-clay. Silver, gold, and lead are also obtained in large quantities from the mines in the Altai Mountains. Russia is now the largest producer of petroleum in the world. Great supplies of petroleum and naptha are found in the Baku, Kerch, and Taman. An immense bed of coal, both steam and anthracite, and apparently inexhaustible, has been discovered in the basin of the Donetz (between the rivers Donetz and Dnieper). Other mineral products are: gold, platinum, pig iron, steel and rails, copper, quicksilver, salt and lead.

Education.—From the close of the sixteenth century onward till 1861, the greater portion of the inhabitants of Russia were serfs, belonging either to the crown or to private individuals. Under these circumstances it is not surprising that the masses of the people in Russia are without education. Finland is in advance of all other parts of the empire in respect of education; it possesses a separate system. Probably not more than ten per cent of the population have received instruction of any kind. The control and maintenance of primary schools is divided between the Ministry of Public Instruction and the Holy Synod. Conditions are, however, improving. Secondary institutions comprise gymnasia and good schools, but numbers and attendances are small. Special schools are increasing in number, especially in the European cities. There are universities at Kazan, Kieff, Kharkoff, Moscow, Odessa, Petrograd, Saratoff, Tomsk, Yurieff and Warsaw.

Religion.—The great bulk of the Russians—excepting a few White Russians professing the Union—belong to the Greek-Russian Church, or to one of its numberless sects of dissenters. The Poles and most of the Lithuanians are Roman Catholics; while the Finns, the Esthonians, and other Western Finns, the Swedes, and the Germans, are Protestant (about four millions).

Cities and Towns.—The largest towns in European Russia are Petrograd (2,018,596), Moscow (1,173,427), Warsaw (756,426), Riga (500,000), Odessa (449,673), Lodz (351,570), Kieff (329,000), Kharkoff (197,405), Vilna (162,633), Saratoff (143,431), Kazan (143,707), Ekaterinoslav (135,552), Rostoff (119,889), Astrakhan (121,580), Tula (109,279), and Kishineff (125,787); while Nijni Novgorod, Nikolaieff, Samara, and Minsk have populations between 90,000 and 95,000. In Asiatic Russia the Caucasus contains two towns with over 100,000 inhabitants: Baku (179,133), and Tiflis (160,645); Turkestan contains five large towns, Tashkend (156,000), Namangan, Samarkand, and Andijan; in Siberia Vladivostok has 90,000 (one-third Chinese), Tomsk, Irkutsk, and Ekaterinburg have each about 50,000 inhabitants. Nijni Novgorod, though small, is a station on the Trans-Siberian Railway, and has annually the largest fair in the world.

PALACE OF PETER THE GREAT, FOUNDER OF PETROGRAD

Petrograd, the splendid looking metropolis of the Russian Empire, is situated on the River Neva, near its entrance into the Gulf of Finland. The flat and low marshy ground upon which the city is built only recently emerged from the sea. The mighty Neva, which flows thirty-six miles from Lake Ladoga, subdivides into many branches, thus forming some one hundred islands.

VIEW OF PETROGRAD, RUSSIA, FROM THE ISLAND

Peter the Great began to build, in 1703, a small hut for himself, and some wooden hovels near the old fort. Now the quays form noble uninterrupted walks for several miles on each side of the broad, deep, rapid, and clear river. The climate is cold, damp, and changeable with a mean summer temperature of sixty-four degrees, mean winter temperature of fifteen degrees.

THE IMPERIAL WINTER PALACE, PETROGRAD

General Aspect and Divisions.—The main body of the city stands on the mainland, on the left bank of the Neva; and a beautiful granite quay, with a long series of palaces and mansions, stretches for two and one-half miles. Only three permanent bridges cross the Neva; a bridge of boats is constructed each spring and removed each autumn.

The island Vasilievsky, between the Great and Little Nevas, contains the Stock Exchange, the Academy of Sciences, the University, the Philological Institute, the Academy of Arts, and various schools and colleges.

On the Petrogradsky Island, between the Little Neva and the Great Neva, stands the old fortress and prison of St. Peter and St. Paul, facing the Winter Palace, and containing the mint and the cathedral wherein the members of the imperial family are buried, also the arsenal.

The Chief Center.—The main part of Petrograd has for its center the Old Admiralty. Its lofty gilded spire and the gilded dome of St. Isaac’s Cathedral are among the first sights caught on approaching Petrograd by sea. Three streets radiate from it, the first of them, the famous Nevsky Prospect. The street architecture, with its huge brick houses covered with stucco and mostly painted gray, is rigid and military in aspect.

A spacious square, planted with trees, encloses the Old Admiralty on three sides. To the east of it rise the magnificent mass of the Winter Palace, the Hermitage Gallery of Art, and the semicircular buildings of the general staff.

In the Petrogradsky Square is the well-known statue of Peter I. on an immense block of Finland granite. The richly decorated cathedral of St. Isaac of Dalmatia, erected by Nicholas I., is an almost cubic building (three hundred and thirty feet long, two hundred and ninety feet broad, and three hundred and ten feet high), surmounted by one large and lofty and four small gilded domes.

In Nevsky Prospect are the Kazan Cathedral, the Public Library, the square of Catherine II., and the Anitchkoff Palace.

The aristocratic quarter lies between the line of the Nevsky Prospect and the River Neva.

The principal places of interest are: the Imperial or Winter Palace, the Hermitage, St. Isaac’s Cathedral, the Kazan Cathedral, the Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul, the Smolnoi Church, the Academy of Science, the House of Peter the Great; and, in the environs, Tsarskoe Selo, and Peterhof. For most travelers the greatest attraction in Petrograd is:

The Hermitage.—It is connected with the Winter Palace, and was originally built by the Empress Catherine II. as a retreat. The present building, erected 1840-1852, by Klenze, is in the Greek style; it is a parallelogram, five hundred and twelve feet by three hundred and seventy-five feet, and for elegance of form as well as for beauty and costliness of materials employed has scarcely a rival in Europe.

Baedeker says: “The gallery of the Hermitage unquestionably stands among the first in Europe, not on account of its numbers (it boasts over one thousand nine hundred pictures) or on account of its completeness—the art of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries and the entire German school is lacking—but because it possesses such a number of masterpieces from the best periods of the various schools, that for the Spanish masters it ranks next to the Prado and the Louvre, in French masters it is surpassed only by the Louvre, in Flemish artists it stands on a level with the principal galleries, and it is the premier collection of the Dutch school, especially Rembrandt.”

Cathedral of St. Peter and St. Paul is in the fortress. It was erected 1714-1733, and was several times damaged by lightning. It has a beautiful spire, three hundred and two feet, the loftiest in Russia, except that at Reval. All sovereigns of Russia, including and since Peter the Great, except Peter II., who was interred at Moscow, lie buried here. The tomb of Peter the Great is near the south door. On the walls are many military trophies, keys of fortresses, flags, weapons, shields, etc. Nearby the Cathedral, in a brick building, is the boat of Peter the Great, preserved exactly as when it engaged the curious attention of Peter and so led to the creation of the Russian navy, of which it is facetiously called the “Grandfather.”

THE CATHEDRAL OF ST. ISAAC

The largest in Petrograd, was begun a century ago by Catherine II.; but was rebuilt in 1819-1858, by Montferrand, in the shape of a Greek cross. It is a simple but massive pile, with one hundred and twelve pillars in the four fronts. Those at the chief entrance are sixty feet high, and seven feet diameter—all round and highly polished granite monoliths from Finland. The dome, two hundred and ninety-six feet high, is surmounted by a golden cross and covered with copper, overlaid with gold. The Altar screen is of immense value and the entire edifice cost about fifty million dollars.

The Kazan Cathedral is situated upon the Nevsky Prospect, and is approached by a circular colonnade, in imitation of St. Peter’s at Rome. In front are fine statues of Smolenskoi and de Tolly. The interior corresponds in its magnificence and display to St. Isaac’s. The special object of interest is the image of “Our Lady of Kazan,” which is covered with gems, the diamonds of the crown being of exceeding value. Around the cathedral are banners of important victories won by Russian arms and valor.

STATUE OF PETER THE GREAT, PETROGRAD

A very striking equestrian statue, erected by Catherine II. in 1782. It is of colossal size, by Falconet, and stands on a huge pedestal of granite, between St. Isaac’s Church and the River Neva.

The Smolnoi Church, at the eastern extremity of the city, is peculiarly rich in its effects, the entire structure and all its decorations being of the purest white. In connection with this church is a celebrated seminary for young ladies of noble birth.

Cathedral and Monastery of St. Alexander Nevsky is at the extreme east end of the Nevsky Prospect. The buildings cover much ground, and include twelve churches, the monastery, and gardens. The Cathedral, which is that of the Metropolitan, dating from 1790, is enriched with marble and agate and paintings—the altarpiece, the Annunciation, is by Raphael Mengs. On pillars opposite the altar are large portraits of Peter the Great and Catherine II. The shrine of St. Alexander Nevsky is of silver, about two thousand pounds of the metal being used in the whole; near the tomb are suspended the keys of Adrianople. The Monastery has a rich collection of jeweled mitres, gold brocaded vestments, and a mass of valuables, also many objects of interest, including the crown of St. Alexander and the bed on which Peter the Great died.

Tsarskoe Selo (tsär’kō-ye sā´lō), about fifteen miles south of St. Petersburg, contains a famous imperial palace, a favorite summer residence of the court. The Old Palace, begun in 1744, is richly decorated, the walls of one room are incrusted with amber, those of another with lapis lazuli. The magnificent marble gallery, two hundred and seventy feet long, connects the palace with a detached building. The park is full of caprices, such as a Chinese tower and village, an Egyptian pyramid, a Turkish kiosk, and the so-called doll-houses of the royal princesses.

MONUMENT TO NICHOLAS I., PETROGRAD

Peterhof (pā´ter-hōf), near Oranienbaum, was begun in 1720, and built by Leblond for Peter the Great. A marine palace, with a long front, made to retain its original appearance, even its ancient yellow color has been continually renewed. It contains porcelain, malachite, tapestry, paintings of victories in the reign of Catherine II., and a collection of three hundred and sixty-eight portraits of women, painted by Count Rosali for the empress during a journey. All are in the national costume. The gardens are full of Neptunes and Tritons and good fountains. The well-wooded park has many curiosities:—Marli, a favorite resort of Peter the Great; the cottage of the Empress Catherine, brilliant with gold and mirrors; the Palais de Paille; the English Garden, with a ball-room.

THE HERMITAGE OR MUSEUM OF ART,

connected with the Winter Palace, is one of most famous in Europe and contains one thousand seven hundred paintings of all schools, among them being some by Murillo, Velasquez, Rubens, Van Dyke, Rembrandt, and Ruysdael.

Moscow (mŏs’kō), the ancient capital of the Russian Empire, is one of the most magnificent and interesting cities of the world. The city is gathered in a semi-circle around the citadel, or Kremlin, which stands immediately upon the river bank. The streets are exceedingly irregular, though generally presenting the appearance of broad, well-paved avenues of a modern European city. The innumerable white, semi-oriental structures which greet the vision from every commanding point, with their unnumbered domes, spires, belfries, towers, and minarets, give to the city a magnificence of beauty scarcely to be found elsewhere in the great cities of Europe.

The Kremlin.—The historic, as well as the most interesting part of the city, is within the walls of the Kremlin. It is associated with much that is held in deepest reverence by Russians—here the imperial power receives religious consecration, and the great bell of Ivan Veliky proclaims the new monarch. The Kremlin is an assemblage of many buildings, covering quite a section of the city—churches, palaces, arsenals, barracks, monuments—enclosed within a brick wall about a mile and a half in circuit. Upon the wall, which is sixty feet high, are twenty-one towers. The principal gate, the Gate of the Saviour, is on the east side. Over the passage of the gate is the venerated “Saviour” brought from Smolensk in 1685, and it is the custom for the passer-by to uncover his head.

The Tower of Ivan Veliky, or John the Great, built in 1600, and three hundred and twenty feet high, contains thirty-four bells, the largest of which weighs sixty-four tons. When all these bells are rung together at Easter the effect is wonderful. At the foot of this tower is the vast Tsar Kolokol, or Monarch of Bells. It once hung in a tower (burned in 1737), weighs four hundred and forty-four thousand pounds, and is twenty feet high and sixty feet round. The value of the metal in the bell is nearly two million dollars.

Outside the Kremlin is the Chinese town, so-called, founded by Helena. Here are the Romanoff Palace, the Iberian Gate and Chapel, the University, the great Riding School, the Theaters, and the largest Bazaar in Russia, except that of Nijni-Novgorod.

The Church of the Saviour, is conspicuous near the river, a quarter mile southwest of the Kremlin. This beautiful church, by the architect Thon, was erected 1837-1883, at a cost of more than eight million dollars. It has five cupolas, the principal being about one hundred feet in diameter; many figures in relief of patriarchs and saints upon the facade. The interior is elaborately decorated with marble and gilding; upon the walls are tablets relating to military events, admirable paintings and sculpture.

The Cathedral of St. Basil, erected 1554-1557, is a remarkable edifice, consisting of eleven chapels with as many cupolas, all different, but wonderfully proportioned.

Vladivostok (vlä-dē-vōs-tok´), capital (since 1903) of the vice-royalty of Eastern Asia, Siberia, is situated on the east shore of Amur Gulf. It has one of the finest harbors in the world, is a naval station, has an arsenal, and is a terminus of the Siberian railroad. It escaped attack during the Russo-Japanese war, but suffered from naval mutiny and unrest in the Russian disturbances of 1905-1906. Its climate is severe—the average annual temperature being only forty degrees Fahrenheit.

History of Russia

The races who peopled Russia were vaguely known to the ancients as Scythians, and their country as Sarmatia. It received its name from the Ruotsi or Russ, a tribe of Norse “rovers” or freebooters, who entered the country from the west about the eighth century. The name was later applied to the realm of Moscow, and modified to Russia.

Early Traditions.—Three brothers, Rurik, Sineus, and Truvor, Scandinavians, were invited, according to tradition, to come and protect territory in northwest Russia against the Finns and the Lithuanians. They and their successors built new forts, and took part in wars. The times of the “Sunny Vladimir” (980-1015) are the “heroic” epoch of early Russian history, and the feats and feasts of Vladimir and his “war companions” have been handed down through ages in legend and song; while his conversion to Christianity made him the hero of the annals written by monks.

Kieff the First Historic Center.—The first half of the eleventh century, during which Yaroslaff the Wise was grand prince at Kieff, was the most brilliant time for Kieff, then the “mother of the Russian towns.” The great cathedral of St. Sophia was built at that time; schools were opened, and the first written Russian law was compiled. At his death (1054) Yaroslaff was ruling over most of the Russian towns.

The next two centuries of Russian history correspond to the feudal period of Western Europe. The Russians at that time were steadily extending their territory toward the east; they colonized the Oka, the Don, and the Finnish territories in the northeast.

Settlements in and about Moscow.—Owing to the gradual colonization of the basin of the Oka and the upper Volga, a new Russian territory had grown in importance in the meantime. Suzdal and Rostoff were its chief centers. It differed from southwest Russia in many respects. Its inhabitants were Great Russians—a hard-working race, less poetical and less gifted, but more active than their southern brethren. Besides, a good many of its inhabitants were peasants, settled on the lands of the boyars, and the cities themselves, being of recent creation—like Vladimir and, later on, Moscow—had not those traditions of independence which characterized Kieff or Novgorod. It was therefore easier for the authority of the prince to develop in the northeast, under the guidance of the church and the boyars.

The first Suzdal prince, Andrei Bogolubsky (1157-1174), was the first representative of that policy. He invited many Kieff boyars to settle in the land of Suzdal, and finally he took and burnt Kieff (1169).

The supremacy of Kieff was thus destroyed, and the land of Suzdal became the Ile-de-France of Russia—the nucleus of the future Russian state. The Suzdal land continued to grow and to enjoy prosperity during the next fifty years; economical, educational and literary progress were marked, and the Russian territory extended farther eastward.

Tartar Invasion.—But in the thirteenth century a great calamity visited Russia: a Mongol invasion suddenly put a stop to the development of the country and threw it into a totally new direction.

The Tartars first appeared in 1224, but their real conquest, under Batu Khan, was made in 1238 and the years immediately following. They subdued all the little Slav states except the republic of Novgorod. Latterly the rulers or princes of Moscow gained an ascendency over the other states, and formed the nucleus of a central sovereignty.

Ivan III. Expels the Tartars.—The Tartar supremacy lasted till about 1480, when Ivan III. (1462-1505) succeeded in throwing off their yoke. He did much to consolidate and extend his kingdom, and conquered Novgorod in 1478. The reign of Ivan IV. “The Terrible” (1533-1584) is of great importance. In 1547 he assumed the title of Czar or Tsar, a variant of Cæsar. He conquered Kazan and Astrakhan, and the conquest of Siberia was begun in his reign. The epithet “terrible” has reference to his cruel persecution of the boyars, a kind of powerful baronial class.

House of Romanoff Established.—The accession of the still-reigning Romanoff house took place in 1613 when the States-General elected Michael Romanoff as ruler. Under Alexei (1645-1676), son of Michael, territory was won from Poland, the Cossacks of the Ukraine had to submit, and the power of Russia greatly increased. The reign of Alexei’s son, Feodor III. (1676-1682), witnessed a war with Turkey, but was signalized by many important reforms. His imbecile brother Ivan was heir apparent, but Feodor willed the throne to his half-brother Peter, known in history as the Great; but Peter only obtained sole power in 1689 after overthrowing Sophia, Ivan’s sister.

Under Peter the Great.—Peter the Great opened what may be called the European period of Russian history. (See Peter the Great.) He made his country a European state. He gave it a standing army, a navy on the Baltic, the embryo of a modern administration, a diplomatic service, and a financial organization. He made canals, encouraged industry, literature and art. The heart of Russia might remain at Moscow, but henceforth it was to have also a head that looked out westward from the Neva.

On the other hand, Peter increased taxation; his cruelty was oriental, and serfdom under him became more and more extensive.

He completed the conquest of Siberia, waged successful war with Charles XII. of Sweden, and by the treaty of Nystad in 1721 obtained Esthonia, Livonia, Ingermannland, and part of Finland, thus gaining a large maritime territory on the Baltic Sea. He founded Petrograd in 1703, and made it the capital in place of Moscow.

The Eighteenth Century in Russian history is a century of empresses. Peter the Great was succeeded by his wife, Catherine I. (1725-1727). A grandson of Peter the Great, Peter II., followed Catherine, reigning from 1727 to 1730. The next sovereign was Anna (1730-1740), whose reign was a period of German influence. Ivan VI. (1740-1741) was soon displaced by the anti-German party, and Elizabeth (1741-1762), daughter of Peter the Great, ascended the throne. A part of Finland was obtained by the treaty of Abo, and Russia took part against Prussia in the Seven Years’ war. The first Russian university, that of Moscow, was founded in 1755.

The death of Elizabeth and the accession of Peter III., in 1762, greatly relieved the hard-pressed Frederick the Great, because Peter at once reversed the Russian policy.

Catherine II.—In July, 1762, he was deposed by his wife, Catherine II. (1762-1796), whose reign is of great importance in the progress of Russian power.

Under Catherine II. successful wars were carried on against Turkey, Persia, Sweden and Poland, which largely extended the limits of the empire. The acquisition of the Crimea, which gave Russia a firm footing on the Black Sea, and the first partition of Poland, were two most important steps toward the consolidation of the empire.

Napoleonic Period.—Catherine’s son and successor, Paul I. (1796-1801), at first, through apprehension of the revolution in France, joined the Austrians and British against France, but soon after capriciously withdrew, and was about to commence war with Great Britain when his assassination took place. A palace conspiracy put an end to his reign and life.

His eldest son, Alexander I. (1801-1825), was at the outset desirous of peace, but was soon drawn into the vortex of the great struggle with France, in which he played a prominent part. (See Alexander I. and Napoleon.) The Holy Alliance and the example of conservative policy set by Austria exercised a pernicious influence on the later part of his reign; and the higher classes, who had looked for the introduction of at least a portion of the liberal institutions they had seen and admired in Western Europe, became so dissatisfied that, when his youngest brother, Nicholas I. (1825-1855), from whom they had nothing to hope, succeeded, they broke out into open rebellion, which was speedily crushed.

The Turkish Wars.—A full stop was now put to the intellectual development of Russia. Wars were declared with Persia and Turkey; and a long and deadly struggle commenced with the Caucasian mountaineers. The cession of Erivan and Nahitchevan by Persia, of the plain of the Kubañ, of the protectorate of the Danubian principalities, and of the free right of navigation of the Black Sea, the Dardanelles, and the Danube by Turkey only induced him to further prosecute his aim of conquering for Russia a free issue from the Black Sea in the Dardanelles.

In 1830 he converted Poland into a Russian province; in 1849 he aided Austria in quelling the insurrection of the Magyars; and in 1853 he began a war with Turkey which became the Crimean war, and in which, though the allies, Great Britain, France and Sardinia, did not obtain any decided success, Russia suffered immense loss.

Alexander II.—The accession of Nicholas’ son Alexander II. (1855-1881)—one of whose first acts was the conclusion of the peace of Paris (1856), by which Russia lost the right of navigation on the Danube, a strip of territory to the north of that river, and the right of keeping a navy in the Black Sea—was the signal for a general revival of intellectual life in Russia. Obligatory military service for all Russians was introduced in 1874.

The insurrection in Poland was suppressed with extreme severity, and in 1868 the last relics of Polish independence disappeared in the thorough incorporation of the kingdom with the Russian Empire. The subjugation of the Caucasus was completed in 1859. Russian supremacy was established over all the states of Turkestan. In 1876 the administration of the Baltic provinces was merged in that of the central government; but the autonomy of Finland was respected and even extended.

Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878.—In 1877 the Russo-Turkish war broke out. At first the Russian progress was rapid; but the energy displayed by the Turks during the summer, and the resolute defense of Plevna by Osman Pasha from July till December, checked the progress of the Russian army. During the winter, however, she crossed the Balkans, and her vanguard, reaching the Sea of Marmora, stood in view of Constantinople. The armistice signed in January, 1878, was followed in March by the treaty of San Stefano; and after diplomatic difficulties that seemed for a time not unlikely to issue in war between Russia and Great Britain, a Congress of the Great Powers met at Berlin in June, 1878, and sanctioned the cession to Russia of the part of Bessarabia given to Moldavia in 1856, as also of the port of Batoum, of Kars, and of Ardahan.

Rise of Nihilism.—The growth of revolutionary discontent, leading to severe repressive measures, was marked by several murders of high officials, and on March 13, 1881, Alexander II. was killed by the revolutionists.

Reactionary Reign of Alexander III.—The reign of Alexander III. (1881-1894) was in the main characterized, in contrast to the liberal reforms of the last reign, by reactionary steps. Press freedom disappeared completely, and the universities were again suppressed. The Dumas, or representative assemblies, were deprived of all real independence in 1892. Alexander II.’s judicial reforms were partly undone, and the village communities, known as mirs, were brought under the more direct control of the land-owners. Russification was vigorously pursued in Poland and the Baltic provinces, and in 1890 the first steps toward the Russification of Finland were taken.

Alexander III. was not friendly to Germany, but avoided hostilities more serious than those of a tariff war, although the Bulgarian crisis of 1885 subjected their relations to a severe strain. Russia and France now began to draw close together, but a Franco-Russian alliance was not officially admitted till 1896-1897, and its terms were secret. Merv was annexed in 1884, and the occupation of Penjdeh in 1885 nearly led to war with Great Britain. Alexander III. escaped several attempts at assassination, and died of disease in November, 1894.

Russia in the Far East.—After the reign of Alexander III. comes the fateful reign of his son, Nicholas II. In 1896 China granted permission to carry the Siberian railway (begun in 1889) through Manchuria to the far eastern Russian seaport of Vladivostok. In December, 1897, in consequence of the Germans having acquired Kiauchau from China, Russia occupied Port Arthur, and in the following year obtained from China a lease of it and some neighboring territory, although in 1895 she had taken the chief part in preventing Japan from taking it as a prize of victory. She shared in the international expedition to China in 1900, and herself suppressed risings in Manchuria with the utmost cruelty. Professing to be ready, and even anxious to evacuate Manchuria as soon as possible, she was preparing for virtual annexation; but her aggressive action in Korea aroused Japanese opposition, and led to the war of 1904-1905.

By treaty of Portsmouth (1905), which ended this war, Russia lost—for the time being at least—all influence in Manchuria, Korea, and China, and had to cede to Japan Port Arthur and its territory, and also southern Sakhalien.

The Imperial Duma.—In August, 1905, the czar issued a manifesto ordering the election of an Imperial Duma or Parliament. Count Witte was made president of a reorganized Council of Ministers, with instructions to form a reform cabinet. The general strike in Finland compelled the czar to restore Finland’s constitution and liberties previously taken away in 1903. The bureaucrats attempted to discredit the reform movement by instigating attacks on Jews, and other outrages, especially in Odessa, where the authorities permitted appalling atrocities.

The Imperial Duma, promised in 1905, was duly elected early in 1906, and held its first meeting on May 10 at Petrograd. It was dissolved later in the year because too liberal, and a second one, elected in 1907, met the same fate. By various devices the government managed to get a less advanced Duma elected late in 1907, which did some useful work in 1908. An important Anglo-Russian convention was signed in 1907, the signatories agreeing to respect the territorial integrity of Thibet and the suzerainty of China. Other conventions were signed (1910) between Russia and Japan respecting the status of Manchuria, and between Russia and Germany in 1911.

After declaration of war by Austria against Servia in 1914, Russia announced that her support would be given to Servia. Consequently Russia joined France and Great Britain in the conflict that followed. (See further under European war.)

Books of Reference.—Wallace’s Russia; Leroy-Beaulieu’s The Empire of the Tsars; Norman’s All the Russians; Drage’s Russian Affairs; Suvorin’s All Russia—a Directory of Industries, etc.; Stepniak’s King Log and King Stork; Krapotkin’s Memoirs of a Revolutionist; Morfill’s Russia; Villari’s Russia under the Great Shadow; Wellesley’s With the Russians in Peace and War; Ganz’s The Downfall of Russia; Milyoukov’s Russia and Its Crisis; Meakin’s Russia, Travels and Studies.

Sovereigns of Russia

A long list of dukes and grand dukes preceded the actual foundation of the Russian monarchy under the rule of a czar.

HOUSE OF RURIK

This royal house includes the descendants of Rurik, Grand Prince of Novgorod, the reputed founder of the Russian royalty. It became extinct in the person of Feodor in 1598.

1462-1505.—Ivan (Basilovitz), or John III., took the title of czar, 1482; Grand Duke of Moscow.

1505-1533.—Vasali IV., or Basil V., obtained the title of Emperor from Maximilian I.; son of Ivan the Great.

1533-1584.—Ivan IV. the Terrible; a tyrant; son of Vasily IV.

1584-1598.—Feodor, or Theodor, I.; and his son Demetrius, murdered by his successor; son of Ivan the Terrible: was elected to the throne.

1598-1604.—Boris-Godonof, who usurped the throne.

1605.—Feodor II., murdered.

1606.—Vasali-Chouiski, or Zouinski.

1606-1610.—Demetrius the Impostor, a young Polish monk; pretended to be the murdered prince Demetrius; put to death.

1610-1613.—Ladislaus of Poland; retired 1613.

HOUSE OF ROMANOFF—MALE LINE

1613-1645.—Michael-Feodorovitz, of the house of Romanoff, descended from the czar Ivan Basilovitz; unanimously elected czar.

1645-1676.—Alexis, styled the father of his country; son of Michael Feodorovitch.

1676-1682.—Feodor, or Theodor, II.; eldest son of Emperor Alexis.

1682-1689.—Ivan V.; Peter I., Ivan was the half-brother of Peter the Great, in whose favor he resigned.

1689-1725.—Peter I., the Great, alone; took the title of emperor October, 1721; founded St. Petersburg; son of Alexis.

1725-1727.—Catherine I., his widow, at first the wife of a Swedish dragoon, said to have been killed on the day of marriage; was married to Peter the Great in 1707.

1727-1730.—Peter II., son of Alexis Petrovitz, and grandson of Peter the Great; deposed.

HOUSE OF ROMANOFF—FEMALE LINE

The reign of the next three sovereigns of Russia, Anne, Ivan VI., and Elizabeth, of the female line of Romanoff, formed a transition period, which came to an end with the accession of Peter III., of the house of Holstein-Gottorp.

1730-1740.—Anne, duchess of Courland, daughter of the czar Ivan.

1740-1741.—Ivan VI., an infant, grand-nephew to Peter the Great; immured in a dungeon for eighteen years; murdered in 1764.

1741-1762.—Elizabeth, daughter of Peter the Great reigned during Ivan’s captivity.

HOUSE OF ROMANOFF-HOLSTEIN

All the subsequent emperors, without exception, connected themselves by marriage with German families. The wife and successor of Peter III., Catherine II., daughter of the Prince of Anhalt Zerbst, general in the Prussian army, left the crown to her only son Paul, who became the father of two emperors, Alexander I. and Nicholas, and the grandfather of a third, Alexander II. All these sovereigns married German princesses, creating intimate family alliances, among others, with the reigning houses of Württemberg, Baden, and Prussia.

1762.—Peter III., son of Anne and of Charles Frederick, duke of Holstein-Gottorp; deposed, and died soon after; supposed to have been murdered. Son of Charles Frederick, Duke of Holstein.

1762-1796.—Catherine II.; a great sovereign; extended the Russian territories on all sides; died 1796; wife of Peter III.

1796-1801.—Paul, her son; murdered, 1801; son of Peter III.

1801-1825.—Alexander I., died 1825; son of Paul.

1825-1855.—Nicholas I.; died 1855; third son of Paul.

1855-1881.—Alexander II., assassinated at St. Petersburg, March, 1881; son of Nicholas I.

1881-1894.—Alexander III.; died 1894; married Mary (formerly Dagmar), princess of Denmark; son of Alexander II.

1894.—Nicholas II., married princess Alix of Hesse-Darmstadt; son of Alexander III.

Secondary Powers of Europe

Belgium

BELGIUM (Fr. Belgique), one of the smaller European states, consists of the southern portion of the former kingdom of the Netherlands (as created by the Congress of Vienna), lying between France and Holland, the North Sea and Rhenish Prussia. Its greatest length from northwest to southeast is one hundred and seventy-three miles; and its greatest breadth from north to south one hundred and five miles.

Surface.—Belgium is, on the whole, a level, and even low lying, country; diversified, however, by hilly districts. The north and west of the country is low and level plain, like Holland, but the undulating forest plateaus of the Ardennes cover all the south and east, rising near the frontier in that direction to a height of two thousand feet above the sea. The Campine, composed of marshes, coal-bearing heaths, and irrigated lands, extends along the Dutch frontier. In Flanders dykes have been raised to check the encroachments of the sea.

Rivers.—The land slopes generally northward, and this is the direction of the numerous rivers and streams which water it. The great river of the country is the Meuse, which enters from France and passes out into Holland, being navigable all through Belgium. Its tributary, the Sambre, from France, which joins it on the left near the center of the country, is also a navigable stream; and the Ourthe, from the frontier of Luxemburg, which joins it lower down on the right, is navigable for half its course. The Escaut or Scheldt is the main river of the lowland in the west, and with its chief tributaries, the Lys on the left and the Rupel on the right, forms the waterway of the plain. These rivers and important tributaries, with canals make up one thousand four hundred miles of waterways.

Climate and Landscape.—Belgium has a climate which resembles that of England, opposite to it in the same latitude, but which is more excessive. The lowland of the north is foggy and damp, like Holland; the higher country south and east has clearer skies.

People.—Belgium is one of the most densely peopled countries of the world, only equaled in this respect by some parts of the plain of China, or of the valley of the Ganges in India, a result which is no doubt due to the combination of natural facilities for agriculture, manufactures, and trade, within its limits. The Flemings (of Teutonic stock) and Walloons (Celtic in origin) speak each their own dialects of Dutch and French; there are also numbers of Germans, Dutch, and French. East and West Flanders, Antwerp, and Limburg are almost wholly Flemish, and Brabant mainly so. The line between the Flemish and Walloon districts is sharply defined, the Flemish part being the richest and most cultivated. The French language has gained the ascendancy in educated society and in the offices of government, but the Flemish dialect prevails numerically in the proportion of nine to eight.

PALACE OF JUSTICE, OR PARLIAMENT BUILDINGS, AT BRUSSELS

Religion and Education.—Almost all the inhabitants of Belgium are Roman Catholics, though complete liberty and social equality is allowed to all religious confessions. Education is not yet generally diffused through the population, and was, until recently, almost entirely in the hands of the Roman Catholic clergy. There are state universities at Ghent and Liège, an independent liberal university at Brussels, and a Catholic university at Louvain.

Products and Industries.—About a fourth of all the inhabitants of Belgium are occupied in agriculture. Besides wheat, rye, and oats, hops are cultivated on a large scale, for export chiefly to France and England. Beetroot for the sugar factories, of which there are over a hundred in the country, is also a large crop, and flax is largely grown in the Flemish lowlands.

Two great coalfields extend across the central part of the country from west to east, along the valleys of the Meuse, but Belgium is essentially a manufacturing country, and it is largely dependent upon foreign supplies for its food. The mineral kingdom yields, beside coal, iron, zinc, lead and copper. The leading industries are collieries, quarries, and metal, glass, textiles, lace, flour and starch mills, sugar, distilleries, breweries, etc.

Government.—On the re-arrangement of European affairs, after the fall of Napoleon, Holland and Belgium were formed into the ill-assorted kingdom of the Netherlands under the family of Orange. The differences between the northern and southern divisions in race and language, in history, religion, and customs, proved too great.

In 1830 Belgium separated from Holland, and her neutrality was guaranteed by a conference of the European Powers, and by a further treaty, in 1839, signed by Austria, France, Great Britain, Prussia, the Netherlands, and Russia.

The Belgium constitution of 1831 jointly vests the legislative power in the king, the Senate, and the Chamber of Representatives. The one hundred and ten senators (with the exception of twenty-seven elected by the provincial councils) and one hundred and sixty-six representatives are elected by the people, the former for eight, the latter for four years. Universal male suffrage, with plural voting up to three votes by property and educational qualifications, was introduced by the electoral law of 1894, proportional representation being secured by an act of 1900. There are in addition representative Provincial and Communal Councils.

Cities.—Brussels, population, 1910, with suburbs, 720,347 inhabitants, is the capital. Other towns with over 100,000 inhabitants are Antwerp, the chief port (320,650 exclusive of suburbs); Ghent (165,149), the center of the iron industry, which has also large cotton and flax spinning mills, and is the second port of importance after Antwerp, while its flower shows are famous; and Liège (174,768).

Its great harbor and commercial city is Antwerp, a strongly fortified city on the Scheldt. The other harbors are Ghent, Bruges, Ostend, Nieuport, Blankenberg, and Zeebrugge.

Antwerp, the principal fortress, and Liège and Namur, also fortified, were designed to afford military protection on the line of the Meuse against a violation of neutrality by either France or Germany.

Brussels (Fr. Bruxelles), the capital of Belgium, is situated in a fertile plain on the ditch-like Senne, twenty-seven miles south of Antwerp, and one hundred and ninety-three miles northeast of Paris. It has a circumference of about five miles, and is built partly on the side of a hill. Though some of the streets are so steep that they can be ascended only by means of stairs, Brussels may on the whole be pronounced one of the finest cities in Europe.

The fashionable Upper Town, in which are the royal palace, public offices, and chief hotels, is much more healthy than the older Lower Town, which is greatly subject to fogs, owing to its intersection by canals and the Senne, although the stream now passes under an arched covering, which supports a boulevard. But the closely built old streets, with their numerous handsome buildings, formerly belonging to the Brabant nobility, and now occupied by successful merchants and traders, have a fine picturesque appearance, while some of the public edifices are unrivaled as specimens of Gothic architecture.

THE TOWN HALL, OR

Hôtel de Ville, in Grande Place, near the center of the city, 1402, is regarded as architecturally one of the finest structures in Europe. Its tower rises to the height of three hundred and seventy feet, and is placed somewhat to one side of the center of the building.

French is spoken in the upper division; but in the lower Flemish is the current language prevalent, and by many the Walloon dialect is spoken.

The walls which formerly surrounded Brussels have been removed, and their place is now occupied by pleasant boulevards extending all around the old town, and shaded by alleys of limes. The Allée Verte—a double avenue along the Scheldt Canal—forms a splendid promenade, and leads toward the country palace of Laeken, three miles north of the city.

Besides the fine park of thirty-two acres, in the Upper Town, ornamented with fountains and statues, and surrounded by the palace and other state buildings, Brussels has several other squares or places, among which are: the Place Royale, with its colossal monument of Godfrey of Bouillon; the Grande Place, in which is the hôtel-de-ville, a splendid Gothic structure of the fifteenth century, with a spire of open stonework three hundred and sixty-four feet high; and the Place des Martyrs, where a memorial has been erected to those who fell here in the revolution of 1830. The statue group of the Counts Egmont and Horn is notable. The cathedral of St. Gudule, dating from the thirteenth century, has many richly painted windows, and a pulpit considered to be the masterpiece of Verbruggen. The Palais des Beaux Arts contains the finest specimens of the Flemish school of painting and a sculpture gallery. The Royal Library adjoining has half a million volumes.

The Palais de Justice, built in 1866-1883 at a cost of more than ten million dollars, is one of the most magnificent buildings in Europe, dominating the lower town from the terraced slope of the upper town. The Royal Palace and the National Palace (for the chambers) are important buildings. Besides the University, there are schools of painting and sculpture, and a conservatory of music.

Brussels lace is particularly famous. Of the so-called Brussels carpets only a few are manufactured here, most of those of Belgian make being produced at Tournai. There are also manufactures of damask, linen, ribbons, embroidery, paper, jewelry, hats, soap, porcelain, carriages, etc.

History.—The history of Belgium as a kingdom can be said to date only from the time of the Congress of Vienna, in 1830, but its history as part of the Netherlands goes back to the time of the Romans.

The province of Belgica under the Romans passed under the sway of the Franks, and fell later to the Burgundian princes. On the death of Charles the Bold in 1477 it passed by marriage to the House of Hapsburg. The Spanish Netherlands remained (unlike the northern provinces which rebelled against Spain and became a Protestant republic) under the Spanish branch of the Hapsburgs, till in 1713 they were transferred to Austria. From 1794 Belgium was under French sway, but on the fall of Napoleon was united with the kingdom of the Netherlands. It rebelled in 1830, and since then, as above stated, has had a separate career as a limited constitutional monarchy. Again, in 1838, Holland and Belgium seemed on the brink of war, the cause being that Belgium had treated Lembourg and Luxembourg, which by the convention had been given to Holland, as if they were in reality a part of its territory. The crisis was terminated by the action of the Great Powers, who reduced Belgium’s share of the national debt of the Netherlands, and partitioned the territories again in dispute. The tranquillity of the country was again disturbed by the revolutionary spirit of 1848, but after 1850 the constitutional party began that series of reforms which gained for Belgium the position of one of the freest countries in Europe.

The question of Luxembourg threatened in 1861 the peace of Europe, and Belgium took part in the congress which prevented war breaking out. In 1870, on the outbreak of hostilities between France and Germany, Belgium, fearing invasion, mobilized her troops, but her neutrality was recognized and left inviolate by both parties. In 1885 the Congo Free State was acknowledged to be under the presidency of the king of Belgium, Leopold II., who had succeeded his father in 1865. The management of the colony gave cause for much bitterness, and led to a number of scandals. Leopold II. died in 1910, and was succeeded by his nephew, King Albert.

On August 2, 1914, the neutrality of Belgium was violated by the invasion of the German army at Visé, on the ground of military necessity. The German forces met with the most stubborn resistance from the valiant though numerically inferior Belgians at Liège and Namur. The country was subsequently completely overrun by German armies and subjected to military control. The Germans are at present (1917) in occupation of practically the whole country, where they are exercising civil government. The Belgian government has withdrawn temporarily to Havre, in France.

COLUMN OF THE CONGRESS, BRUSSELS

It is in Place du Congrès, two squares north from the Cathedral, was erected, 1850, in honor of the adoption, in 1831, of the present Constitution of Belgium. This is surmounted by a statue of the king. At the corners are allegorical figures of Liberty.

Bulgaria

BULGARIA, a monarchy in the northeast part of the Balkan Peninsula between the Danube and the Balkans, was created a principality by the treaty of Berlin in 1878, greatly extended by the incorporation of East Rumelia in 1885, and declared an independent kingdom in 1908.

The net result of the wars of 1912-1913 was the increase of Bulgarian territory from 33,600 square miles to about 45,000. The population increased by about 500,000, was in 1910 4,337,513—over three-fourths Bulgarians, 465,000 Turks, 121,000 Gypsies, 80,000 Roumanians, 43,000 Greeks, and 40,000 Jews. The Bulgarians now extend into Macedonia, Bessarabia, etc., their total number being about 8,000,000.

Surface.—The north of Bulgaria is fertile plain and hilly country; the south is wooded and mountainous. The country has a fine waterway on the northern boundary, a Black Sea and Ægean seaboard, a mild climate, an agricultural country capable of much, an abundance of iron and some coal, free institutions, a peasantry possessing the solid qualities and persevering industry of northern races, and an assured economic development.

Productions.—The chief occupation of the people is agriculture, which engages about seventy per cent of the population. Cereals (wheat, maize, rye, barley, oats) are the principal crops, and rank first among the exports. Wine is produced everywhere, especially near the Black Sea. Roses are cultivated to a large extent, especially round Kazanlik and Karlavo and on the north side of the Rhodope Mountains for attar of roses, which is largely exported. Silkworms are bred in Philippopolis and Haskaro. Tobacco is carefully cultivated. There is little industry apart from domestic branches such as native cloth, carpets, trimmings and ribbons; but there is some brewing and distilling, leather work at Sumen, copper work, and pottery-making. The chief exports are grain, live stock, butter, eggs, hides, and attar of roses, sent chiefly to Turkey, France, Great Britain, and Austria-Hungary.

People.—Education has been very zealously and steadily promoted. Elementary education is compulsory. There are few technical schools. Sofia has a university.

The old Bulgarian Slavonic tongue is closely allied to the great Russian, but some Servian, Greek, Romanic, Albanian, and Turkish elements have found their way into the language.

The Orthodox Greek Church counts seventy-seven per cent as its adherents, Islam twenty-one and one-half per cent, and the others are Jews.

Government.—Bulgaria possesses one of the freest and most democratic constitutions in Europe, largely modeled on the lines of the Belgian constitution, except that there is no second chamber; and election of the Sobranje or National Assembly is by universal manhood suffrage, in the proportion of one member to every twenty thousand of the population. The executive power is vested in eight ministers nominated by the king. The monarchy, independent since 1908, is hereditary.

STREET SCENE IN SOFIA CAPITAL OF BULGARIA

This modern city is quite American in its appearance. It typifies to Bulgarians the progress of their nation, and is substantial and practical rather than pleasing. The streets are broad, straight, electrically lighted, and well paved, while the houses in the newer sections are modern structures of dignified architecture. While Sofia may not impress the visitor with its beauty, it does impress him with the fact that there is a good deal of common sense and business efficiency in this part of the Balkans.

Cities.—The chief towns of Bulgaria are Sofia, Philippopolis, Rustchuk and Varna. Varna and Burgas are ports on the Black Sea, Dedeagatch on the Ægean.

Sofia (sofee´a), the capital since 1878 of Bulgaria, stands in a broad valley of the Balkans, on the railway from Constantinople to Belgrade and Vienna. It lies two hundred and six miles northwest of Belgrade, while Constantinople lies three hundred miles southeast. The valley at Sofia is an upland plateau, seventeen hundred feet above sea level, and near the heart of the peninsula, between the Vitosha Mountains and the main Balkan chain. At the end of almost every vista in the city are the distant hill masses, and fringing mountains.

The city early became important as a trade center, and probably would have developed into one of the great cities of Europe had not periodical destruction, almost continual dangers of war, and centuries of misrule held it back.

The rebuilding of Sofia began around 1880. It now has many creditable public buildings, electric lighting, an electric street railway and good sewerage and water systems.

It possesses the largest theater in southeastern Europe. The Bulgarian National Theater, with a competent corps of actors and singers, and offering the best in opera and drama, is a revelation of the strides that have been made in the Balkans since the Turks were driven back a brief generation ago. The theater is a handsome modern structure, planned with greater luxury of detail than most buildings in Sofia, and it cost four hundred thousand dollars.

Sofia has a public bathhouse which is one of the finest buildings of its kind in the world. It was built over a hot mineral spring, famed since the days of the Romans. This building, in Byzantine style, including in its interior appointments all of the most modern luxuries, cost the Bulgarians six hundred thousand dollars.

Their capital city is one of the peculiar prides of the hard-working, long-enduring, persistent Bulgarians. It typifies to them the promise of a great Bulgarian future, and they also look upon it as an earnest of their right to a respected place among the civilized nations of the West.

History.—The country now known as Bulgaria was originally inhabited by Thracians, and under the Romans formed the province of Mœsia. The Bulgars originally came from the banks of the Volga and crossed the Danube in the sixth century, and occupied the East. They overcame the Slavs, adopted their language and customs, and thus became a great Slav power; but by 1186 they had split up into three principalities, and from 1393 fell under the domination of the Turks. For close upon five hundred years the Bulgars were subject to the rule of the Ottoman Empire.

The first national awakening dates from the year 1762, when the monk Paysios, then at Mt. Athos, wrote the national chronicles, and revived memories of ancient glory. A new national literature began; the first Bulgarian school was opened in 1835, and was followed by others. A newspaper appeared in 1844. The Crimean war stirred up Slavonic sympathies which Russia sedulously and naturally cherished. In 1872 the Bulgarian Church and archbishop became again independent of the supremacy of the Greek patriarch.

In 1877 Russia, as guardian of the Slav races of Turkey, declared war. As a result of the war, Bulgaria was created by the treaty of Berlin. July 13, 1878, and in 1885 Eastern Rumelia was added to the newly created principality. In 1908 the country was declared to be an independent kingdom. In 1912-1913 a successful war of the Balkan League against Turkey increased the size of the kingdom, but in August, 1913, a short campaign against the remaining members of the League reduced the acquired area, and led to the surrender of about two thousand square miles to Roumania. In October, 1915, Bulgaria decided to participate in the European conflict, and sided with Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Turkey, and attacked Servia.

NEW QUARTERS OF COPENHAGEN, CAPITAL OF DENMARK

Denmark

DENMARK, the smallest of the three Scandinavian kingdoms, consists of the peninsula of Jutland and a group of islands in the Baltic, and is bounded by the Skager-Rak, the Cattegat, the Sound, the Baltic, the Little Belt, Sleswick, and the North Sea.

Surface.—Except in Bornholm, the surface of Denmark is very similar in every part of the kingdom, and is uniformly low, its highest point (in southeast Jutland) being only five hundred and sixty-four feet above sea-level. The coast is generally flat, skirted by sand-dunes and shallow lagoons, especially along the west side. Both the continental portion and the islands are penetrated deeply; by numerous fiords, the largest being Limfiord, which intersects Jutland, and has isolated the northern extremity of the peninsula since 1825, when it broke through the narrow isthmus which had separated it from the North Sea.

Rivers.—Denmark has numerous streams but no large rivers; the principal is the Guden, which flows northeast through Jutland into the Cattegat. It is navigable for part of its course. Less important streams are the Holm, the Lonborg, and the Stor Aa. All the others are insignificant brooks and streamlets.

The lakes are very numerous but not large, none exceeding five and one-half miles in length by about one and one-half miles broad. There are numerous winding inlets of the sea that penetrate far into the land. The largest of these, the Limfiord in Jutland, entering from the Cattegat by a narrow channel, winds its way through to the North Sea, thus making northern Jutland really an island. In this fiord, which widens out greatly in the interior and gives off various minor fiords, there are one large and various small islands.

Climate.—The climate is milder, and the air more humid than in the more southern but continental Germany; it is not unhealthy, except in the low lying islands, such as Laaland, where the short and sudden heat of the summer occasions fevers.

Production and Industry.—The common products are wheat, rye, oats, barley, potatoes, cattle, horses, pigs, sheep, and butter. Its manufactures are, for the most part, for home consumption. Its chief exports are agricultural produce, including wheat and barley, bacon, hams, flour, butter, eggs, hides, skins, corn meal and oil cake, horses and cattle.

People.—The population of Denmark is composed almost exclusively of Danes, with a few thousand Jews and others. The Danes have regular features, fair or brownish hair, and blue eyes. They still maintain their reputation for seafaring skill and hospitable customs. They belong to the Scandinavian branch of the Teutonic peoples, and speak the Danish form of the old Norse, which was fixed in writing about the time of the Reformation.

Since the Reformation the Danes have been adherents of the Lutheran Church. Education is well advanced, and there are very few people in the country who can neither read nor write.

Government.—The present constitution of Denmark dates from 1866. The executive power is vested in the king and his ministers, the legislative in the Rigsdag or Diet, comprising the Landsthing or Upper House, and the Folkething or House of Commons, partly nominated by the Crown, partly elected, indirectly, by the people.

Cities.—Copenhagen is the capital, population, 560,000; other chief towns are Odense, Aarhuus, Aalborg, Randers and Horsens.

FREDERICK’S CHURCH, COPENHAGEN

Copenhagen (kō-pen-hāgen; Dan. Kjöbenhavn, “Merchants Haven”), the capital of Denmark, is situated on the low-lying eastern shore of the island of Zealand, in the Sound, which is here about twelve miles broad. The channel forms a fine and capacious harbor, which is bridged over so as to connect the isolated suburb of Christianshavn and the main part of the city at two points. Copenhagen is still defended by the old citadel of Frederikshavn and by forts on the seaward side.

Among its buildings of historical interest or intrinsic beauty, the Cathedral, rebuilt after the bombardment of 1807, possesses statues of Christ and the Apostles, and a baptismal font, designed and in part executed by Thorwaldsen. Frederick’s Church, or Trinitatiskirke, is remarkable for its round tower, which is ascended by a spiral incline instead of steps.

The Royal Palace, called Christiansborg, was rebuilt between 1794 and 1828, but suffered greatly from fire in 1884. In the castle of Rosenborg are kept the regalia; the palace of Charlottenborg, is now used as an Academy of Arts. The University, founded by Christian I. in 1479, has a library of three hundred and fifty thousand volumes; the royal library contains six hundred thousand volumes.

Copenhagen is the center, not only of Danish, but of northern literature and art, and is the seat of the unrivaled Museum of Northern Antiquities, and the Thorwaldsen Museum.

The exports include grain, rape-seed, butter, cheese, beef, cattle, wool, etc.; and porcelain, pianos, clocks, watches, mathematical instruments, chemicals, sugar, beer, and tobacco are manufactured.

History.—The early history of Denmark is lost in the twilight of the Vikings and their valiant deeds. The Danes coming from the islands occupied the lands deserted by the Jutes and Angles who had in the fifth century migrated to England. The Danish monarchy was founded in 936 by Gorm the Old, whose son became a Christian. Waldemar I. (1157-1182) ruled Norway also, and conquered Mecklenburg and Pomerania; under his son Waldemar II. further conquests were made in German and Wendish lands, so that the Baltic became a Danish sea.

By the treaty of Calmar in 1397, Norway, Sweden and Denmark, already under one monarch, Margaret, were formally united into one state. In 1448 the Danes elected as king Christian of Oldenburg, a descendant of their royal family, who was also Duke of Sleswick and Holstein; and his line continued on the throne till 1863.

Sweden became independent in 1523. Lutheranism was introduced into Denmark in 1527. In 1815 Denmark had to cede Norway to Sweden; and in 1848 the Germanic peoples of the duchies Sleswick and Holstein rebelled against Denmark. For the time the Danes succeeded in retaining the duchies, but the controversy, renewed in 1863, led to the defeat of the Danes by Austria and Prussia (1864), followed by the incorporation of the duchies in the Germanic Confederation, and, after the Austro-Prussian war of 1866, in Prussia.

Denmark although reduced to the narrow limits of the islands and Jutland, has greatly prospered, in spite of the spread of socialistic opinions, and political dissensions. Christian IX. died January 29, 1906, and was succeeded by his son, Frederick VIII.

Greece

GREECE is a maritime kingdom in the southeast of Europe. The country is composed of a continental portion, almost separated into two parts by the gulfs of Patras and Lepanto on the west, and the gulf of Ægina on the east, the archipelago of the Ægean Sea and the Ionian Islands, and is divided into twenty-six provinces, called nomarchies.

Surface.—The mountain range which cuts off the peninsula from the continent of Europe is an extension of the Balkans. From it run chains from north-northwest to south-southeast, which form the skeleton of Greece. The western boundary of Thessaly is formed by Pindus, the main offshoot of the Balkans. The eastern boundary is also marked not only by the sea but by important mountains derived from the Balkan system. These are Olympus, Ossa, Mavrovuni, and Pelion. Othrys, a branch of Pindus, forms the south boundary of Thessaly. This branch is continued in the celebrated mountains Parnassus and Helicon, forms the land of Attica, and reappears as the islands of Ceos, Cythnos, Seriphos, and Siphnos. The Peloponnese, “the island of Pelops,” or by its modern name the Morea, is connected with northern Greece merely by the narrow isthmus of Corinth, now pierced by a canal; its highest point is Taygetus.

Rivers.—The rivers of Greece are unimportant. The chief in the Peloponnesus are the Eurotas (Basilipotamo), the Alpheus (Ruphia), draining Arcadia and Elis; and the Peneus draining Elis.

Climate.—The climate is generally mild, in the parts exposed to the sea equable and genial, but in the mountainous regions of the interior sometimes very cold. None of the mountains attain the limit of perpetual snow; but several retain it far into the summer. During summer rain scarcely ever falls, and the channels of the minor streams become dry. Toward the end of harvest rain becomes frequent and copious, and fevers become common.

Production and Industry.—The most important of the fruit trees are the olive, the vine, orange, lemon, fig, almond, citron, pomegranate, and currant grape. Its exports consist of currants, figs, olive oil, wine, cognac, tobacco, hides, lead, iron ore, magnesium, emery, marble, and sponges.

People.—The Greeks called themselves Hellenes, and the inhabitants of Italy called them Graeci. The modern Greeks are by no means pure-bred descendants of the ancient Greeks. Indeed, it has been maintained that from the seventh century A. D. there have been no pure Greeks in the country, but only Slavs. It is, however, pretty certain that the two and one-quarter million of modern inhabitants are descendants of the three races that occupied the soil at the time of the Roman conquest. They speak the modern Greek tongue, which is a greatly modified form of the old.

Education is free and compulsory, maintained by local taxation supplemented by State grants. Secondary education is somewhat backward, particularly in the country districts. There is a university of some repute at Athens, which is largely attended by Turks.

Government.—According to the constitution, which was framed by an assembly in 1864, the executive power is vested in the king and his responsible ministry; the legislature is a single chamber of deputies called the Boulé, elected by the people, and meets at Athens.

Cities.—Athens is the capital, population 167,500; the towns next in size are Patras, Piræus, and Trikhala, all above 20,000; and there are eight others between 20,000 and 10,000.

Athens, in the southeast of Attica, occupies an extensive area round the site and remains of the classical city, four and one-half miles from its harbor of Piræus, on the Gulf of Ægina. The city, which takes its name from Athena, “goddess of science, arts, and arms,” and its own patron divinity, was originally built on the Acropolis, a conspicuous limestone rock rising three hundred and twenty feet above the Attic plain, and afterwards spread out on the plain below. The Acropolis became the citadel and subsequently the site of a group of beautiful temples of the time of Pericles (fifth century, B. C.).

The ruins of the Parthenon, the Erechtheum, the temple of Nike Apteros (“Wingless Victory”), and the Propylæa, still remain to testify to the former glory of the Acropolis. Of the other ancient buildings the most notable are the Theseum (also of the Periclean period, and still almost perfect), and the fragments of the vast temple of Zeus (begun in 530 B. C. and finished by the Roman Emperor Hadrian), with the theater of Dionysus and other structures.

Not far from the Acropolis rose the hill Lycabettus (nine hundred and eleven feet), and the hillocks or ridges of the Pnyx and the Areopagus or Mars Hill. At a greater distance the plain is bounded by Hymettus (three thousand three hundred and sixty-eight feet), Pentelicus (three thousand six hundred and forty-one feet), and other ranges.

Athens was fabled to have been founded by the hero Cecrops. The most brilliant period of its history was when, after the Persian wars (fifth century, B. C.), Athens took the lead among the Greek states, became powerful by land and sea, was adorned by Pericles with most glorious buildings, and brought Greek literature and Greek philosophy to their highest development. Its decline dates from the disastrous conclusion of the Peloponnesian war (403 B. C.). It was plundered and ruined by Sulla in 87 B. C.; and neither under Byzantine nor Turkish rule ever attained any prosperity. In the days of its glory Athens had some one hundred thousand free inhabitants and twice as many slaves; when after the liberation of Greece Athens was made the capital of the new kingdom (1834), it was a wretched village of a few hundred houses. Since then it has had a prosperous growth, looks like a well built German town, with a fine royal palace, a marble stadium (restored), a university with over one hundred and fifty professors and lecturers and two thousand five hundred students, and a good deal of miscellaneous trade by the way of the Piræus. It is connected by rail also with Corinth, and the Athens-Larissa line brings Greece into railway communication with the rest of Europe. (See also under ancient Greece.)

History.—Modern Greece threw off the Turkish yoke in 1830 and was declared an independent kingdom and the boundaries were defined. The liberated state was at first governed by a national assembly, but the president, Count Capo D’Istrias, assumed autocratic powers, and sedition culminated in his assassination. Subsequently the Powers offered the throne to Prince Leopold (afterwards king of Belgium), but the offer was refused. The crown was then given to Otho, son of Louis I. of Bavaria. Throughout his reign discontent was rife, and an insurrection in 1862 resulted in the deposal of the king. George, second son of the king of Denmark, was then chosen king, and the Ionian Islands, at that time under British protection, were ceded unconditionally to the kingdom.

By the Berlin Congress of 1878, Greece was promised a modification of her frontier, and in 1881 a readjustment was accepted. The adjustment proved distasteful to the Hellenes, who demanded Crete, and hostilities commenced with Turkey in 1897. The war was short-lived, and was disastrous to the Greeks, and on the intervention of the Powers an armistice was concluded. By the Treaty of Constantinople Greece was compelled to pay an indemnity to submit to the readjustment of her frontier, and to accept the control of the Powers in financial affairs.

In October, 1912, war broke out in the Balkan states, known as the Balkan war. The permanent effects on the Greek frontier, owing to the Hellenic participation in the victory over the Turks, are not yet determinable, but all deeply affect Greek interests, and depend on the decision of the Great Powers. George, King of the Hellenes, was assassinated in Salonica by a maniac named Schinas in March, 1913. The perpetrator of the crime subsequently committed suicide. The present ruler is the late king’s eldest son, who was proclaimed King Constantine XII.

Holland

HOLLAND, the popular name of a country officially described as “Netherland,” or “The Netherlands,” is bounded by the North Sea, Prussia, and Belgium. Its greatest length, north to south, is one hundred and ninety-five miles, and its greatest breadth one hundred and ten miles. Luxemburg was, till 1890, connected with Holland.

Surface.—Almost the whole country is flat and low; the parts of it nearest the coasts are even below the sea level, the waters being kept out by dykes, which are maintained at a great annual cost. One stretch of fifty miles of the coast is guarded by a triple wall of piles driven into the soil, filled up between, and buttressed by huge granite blocks brought from Norway. If it were not for these dykes controlling the rivers and keeping out the sea, nearly half the country would be under water.

All the southern part of Holland belongs to the alluvial delta lands formed at the mouths of the Rhine (the chief branch of which is named the Waal), the Meuse or Maas, and Scheldt. Opening out into broad, shallow estuaries these river mouths form a number of islands, of which Walcheren and Beveland, Schouwen and Tholen, Over Flakkee, Voorne and Beyerland, are the largest.

Toward the north appears the great shallow gulf called the Zuider Zee (or South Sea, in distinction from the North Sea outside), which was formed in the thirteenth century by the bursting of the sea into a former inland lake called “Flevo” by the Roman geographers. Outside of it a chain of islands marks the line of the former coast of the mainland.

Rivers and Canals.—Besides the natural channels formed by the estuaries of the Scheldt, the Maas, and the delta branches of the Rhine (the Waal, Lek, Old Rhine, Vecht, Amstel, and Yssel) the country is intersected in all directions by Grachts or larger canals, lined with rows of trees, joining river to river. No country in the world has such a network of waterways; ships’ masts, and windmills with large sails, pumping the water from the smaller drainage canals, are seen everywhere.

Climate.—The general climate of Holland resembles that of England, opposite to it, in its rapid variations; but it is more humid. Dense sea fogs from the North Sea drive over it. In most winters the rivers and canals are frozen over for two or three months, when even women skate to market; in summer the thermometer rises to eighty or ninety degrees in the shade.

Production and Industry.—Cattle rearing, butter and cheese making, are the most general industries of the country, for the grazing meadows are far more extensive than the corn lands. In the latter, rye, barley, wheat, and potatoes, are the chief crops. Flax, and beet-root for sugar, chicory, and tobacco, are grown also to a considerable extent.

The principal manufactures are shipping, bricks, margarine, cocoa, chocolate, linen, rich damasks, cottons, woolens, cigars and other manufactured tobacco, candles, confectionery, earthenware and pottery, glass bottles and ware, chemical and pharmaceutical products, matches, perfumery, sugar, bicycles and automobiles, boots and shoes, starch, potato flour, engines, metal substances, works of art in gold and silver, incandescent lamps, machinery, motors, paper, printing, oils, beer, “geneva” and other liqueurs. Diamond cutting employs numerous hands in Amsterdam.

People.—Of the population, the greater part (seventy per cent) is formed by the Dutch or Batavians, the descendants of the Germanic tribe of the Batavi who occupied the delta of the Rhine in the time of the Roman conquest of the land. Frieslanders (fourteen per cent), descendants of the ancient Frisii, occupy the northern borders of the country, where the peasantry still speak a language closely allied to Anglo-Saxon; the Flemings (thirteen per cent) occupy the southeastern borders of the country. Their language differs little from the Dutch; but the dialects throughout the country are very numerous.

The majority, about three-fifths, belong to the several Reformed Churches; and the remainder are Roman Catholics, with about one hundred and seven thousand Jews.

Private state-aided primary instruction is encouraged rather than public, though the latter is provided, if required, by local taxation. Secondary schools for working classes are numerous, well equipped and attended. The principal universities are at Amsterdam, Groningen, Leiden, Utrecht.

Government.—The government of Holland is a limited constitutional monarchy. The crown is the executive power; legislation is vested in the States-general of two chambers, called the First Chamber and the Second Chamber. A State Council of fourteen members appointed by the Sovereign is consulted on all legislative and on most executive matters.

There is no state religion, but the state gives financial support to the different churches.

Cities.—The capital is The Hague with a population of 300,000; other cities exceeding 50,000 in 1913 were as follows: Amsterdam, 591,053; Rotterdam, 454,135; Utrecht, 123,457; Groningen, 78,670; Haarlem, 70,907; Arnhem, 64,760; Leiden, 59,297; Nymegen, 58,679; Tilburg, 54,216.

The Hague (Dutch Gravenhagen, “the count’s hedge”), the capital of the Netherlands is two miles from the North Sea and fifteen miles northwest of Rotterdam. It is intersected by canals and shady avenues of lime-trees, and has many fine public buildings and private houses.

In the center of it is the Vijver, or Fish-pond, to the south of which stands the old castle of the Counts of Holland, where the Dutch parliament sits. In its gatetower the brothers De Witt were confined till dragged thence and torn to pieces by the populace (1672). The picture-gallery has a splendid collection of works by native painters (Paul Potter’s “Bull” and Rembrandt’s “Lesson in Anatomy”); and there are the royal library with five hundred thousand volumes; the municipal and other museums; the Town-House, and the royal palaces.

Among the numerous statues are those of William I. (two in number), William II., Spinoza, Bernhard of Saxe-Weimar, and the monument which commemorates the deliverance from the French. Close to the town is the beautiful pleasure-park called “The Wood” (Bosch), in which stands a royal residence with the magnificent so-called “Orange Hall.”

PALACE IN THE WOOD,

or Dutch “White House,” is situated in a fine old plantation of beeches and oaks, round ornamental lakes and islands, is a plain building with a grand interior; and has Jordaen’s masterpiece, the Apotheosis of Prince Fred. Henry.

The great Peace Conference was held here in 1899; The Hague is the seat of the resulting arbitration courts, for which Mr. Carnegie provided permanent buildings of great architectural beauty. Industries are iron-founding, copper and lead smelting, cannon-founding, printing, furniture and carriage making, and the manufacture of gold and silver lace.

NATIONAL MONUMENT IN THE WILLEMS-PARK, THE HAGUE

History.—The ancient inhabitants of the country, the Batavians and the Frisians, became subjects or allies of the Romans in the first century A. D., and so remained till in the fourth century their territories were overrun by the Saxons and Salian Franks.

At the end of the eighth century the Low Countries submitted to Charlemagne, and various feudal dukedoms, counties, and lordships were gradually established (the countship of Holland in the eleventh century). In 1384 the earldom of Flanders passed to the Dukes of Burgundy, and Philip the Good (c. 1450) made the Low Countries as prosperous as any part of his Burgundian state.

The Emperor Charles V. inherited the Burgundian dominions; and under his son, Philip II. of Spain, broke out the bitter quarrel between Holland and Spain, between Dutch Protestantism and persistence and Spanish tyranny and persecution, which ended in 1581 in the establishment of the Dutch Republic as an independent state under William the Silent (of Orange), though the war continued with intervals till 1648, and the Belgian provinces abode by their allegiance to the kings of Spain.

In the seventeenth century Dutch commerce, especially at sea, Dutch science, Dutch classical scholarship, Dutch literature and Dutch art attained an eminence hardly afterwards equalled. The rivalry of Holland and England at sea led to the unfortunate wars of 1652-1654 and 1664-1667. The accession of William III. of Orange to the Stadtholdership of the United Provinces (1672) proved the salvation of the republic from France; in 1678 Louis XIV. signed the peace of Nymegen.

Ten years later William was hailed as the savior of English liberties, and became king of Great Britain and Ireland. On William’s death, the United Provinces became a pure republic once more, the stadtholdership was re-established in 1747 but it made no difference in the downward course.

The National Convention of France having declared war against Great Britain and the stadtholder of Holland in 1793, French armies overran Belgium (1794); they were welcomed by the so-called patriots of the United Provinces and William V. and his family (January 1795) were obliged to escape from Scheveningen to England in a fishing-smack and the French rule began. After several changes Louis Bonaparte, June 5, 1806, was appointed king of Holland, but, four years later, was obliged to resign because he refused to be a mere tool in the hands of the French emperor. Holland was then added to the empire.

The fall of Napoleon I. and the dismemberment of the French empire led to the recall of the Orange family and the formation of the southern and northern provinces into the ill-managed kingdom of the Netherlands, which in 1830 was broken up by the secession of Belgium. In 1839 peace was finally concluded with Belgium; but almost immediately after national discontent with the government showed itself, and William I. in 1840 abdicated in favor of his son.

Holland, being moved by the revolutionary fever of 1848, King William II. granted a new constitution, according to which new chambers were chosen, but they had scarcely met when he died, March, 1849, and William III. (born 1817) ascended the throne.

William III. having no living male issue, the succession to the crown was vested in the princess of Orange, Wilhelmina, the only child of the king’s second marriage, born in 1880. For many years the great question of internal politics was the new constitution, which, promulgated November 30, 1887, increased the electorate of Holland by no less than two hundred thousand voters. On the death of the king (November 23, 1890), when Luxemburg ceased to be connected with the crown of Holland, the Princess Wilhelmina became queen.

Queen Wilhelmina married Prince Henry of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, in 1901, and in 1909 a daughter (the Princess Juliana) was born to them.

Norway

NORWAY (Norweg. Norge), the western division of the Scandinavian peninsula, is one thousand one hundred and sixty miles in length (coast-line three thousand miles) and varies in width from twenty to one hundred miles north of 63° N. lat.; below that line it swells out to two hundred and sixty miles. The coast-line is extensive, deeply indented with numerous fiords, and fringed with an immense number of rocky islands. The surface is mountainous, consisting of elevated and barren tablelands, separated by deep and narrow valleys. The finest of the valleys stretching inland from the fiords is Romsdal, where the rounded pure gneiss mountains tower up to six thousand feet with almost perpendicular walls. The cultivated area is about one-thirtieth part of the country; forests cover nearly one-fourth; the rest consists of highland pastures or mountains.

Norway is separated from Sweden by the Kjolen Mountains (three thousand to six thousand feet), the backbone of the peninsula, which divide south of 63°; the western branch widens out into a broad plateau, undulating between two thousand and four thousand feet and embossed with mountain-knots—Dovre, Jotun, Lang, Fille, Hardanger Fjelde (fells)—the separate peaks of which shoot up to six thousand feet and higher.

Rivers.—The few important rivers that Norway can claim as exclusively her own have a southerly direction, and discharge themselves into the Skager-Rack; of these the chief are the Glommen (four hundred miles), and its affluent, the Lougen. The most important river in the north is the Tana, which forms part of the boundary between Russia and Norway, and falls into the Arctic Ocean. Lofty waterfalls are numerous. Lakes are extremely numerous but generally small. The principal is the Miösen Vand. The streams are turned to account in floating down the valuable timber of the forests, and their rapids give abundant mill power.

Production and Industry.—Agriculture, though pursued with some vigor of late, is unable to furnish sufficient products for home consumption; hence it has been necessary to import considerable quantities of corn, meat, and pork. The fisheries give employment to a large part of the population throughout the year. The most important are cod and herring. The mineral products are of late increasing.

The purely industrial establishments are grouped mainly around Christiania, and include textile factories, machine shops, chemical works, flour mills, breweries, etc. The use of water power for electrical enterprises is growing. The Norwegians rank among the busiest sea carriers of the world, the Norwegian mercantile marine ranking third among maritime nations, or first in proportion to population.

The chief exports consist of timber, matches, fish, oil, and other products of the fisheries, pulp, paper, skins and furs, nails, minerals, stone, ice, calcium carbide, condensed milk, butter, margarine, tinned goods, etc.

People.—The people of the peninsula are of Germanic race, with the exception of the small number of Finns and the Lapps in the north. The Norsemen of Norway, of middle stature, strong, generally blonde haired and blue eyed, seamen by choice, have adopted the Danish as the language of the towns and of literature, the modernized Old Norse being banished to the outlying country districts and unfrequented fiords.

Education is compulsory and free between the ages of seven and fourteen, schools being maintained by local taxation with state grants in aid. The attendance is high. Secondary schools are provided by the state, by local authorities, and privately. There are a number of special schools and industrial and technical institutes. The University of Christiania is an important institution for higher education.

Except 52,700 persons (including Methodists, Baptists, Roman Catholics, Jews, Mormons), the entire population belong to the Lutheran Church.

Government.—After the crisis of European affairs brought about by Napoleon’s wars, Denmark lost her hold over Norway, which had been united to it for more than four centuries, and that country was united to Sweden in exchange for Finland, which then passed under Russian sway. Norway, however, was again separated from Sweden as an independent kingdom under King Haakon VII. in 1905.

The Storthing or Parliament consists of one hundred and twenty-three members, women being eligible and electors (since 1907); and divides for legislative purposes into two chambers called “Odelsting” and “Lagting.”

The Norwegians share with the Swiss the distinction of being the most democratic people in Europe; all titles of nobility were abolished in 1821. In 1912 practically all offices except in the cabinet, diplomatic service, army, navy, and church, were thrown open to women.

Cities.—The chief cities are the capital, Christiania, and Bergen. Other important towns are Trondhjem, Stavanger, and Drammen.

Christiania, the modern capital and chief commercial town of Norway (the ancient capital is Trondhjem, “home of the throne,” where the kings are still crowned), is built on the northern end of the Christiania Fiord. Population, in 1910, 241,834. It is named after Christian IV., who commenced building it in 1624 after the destruction of the ancient city of Oslo by fire. It is the seat of Parliament, of the High Court of Judicature, and of the National University. Connected with this are the students’ garden, a library of four hundred and fifty thousand volumes, a botanical garden, zoological and other museums, laboratories, and observatory. The Meteorological Institute was established in 1866. There are two national and historical palaces here, one in the city quite near the university, and one, Oscarshall, beautifully situated two miles from the city on an eminence overlooking the fiord. There is a national picture-gallery, and a very interesting museum of northern antiquities. The Dom or Cathedral and Trinity Church are the principal ecclesiastical buildings. The old fortress Akershus Faestning still remains, but has little military value.

The staple industry of Christiania is its shipping trade; its chief export is timber. A considerable industry is the brewing of Christiania öl, a sort of lager beer, with resinous flavor, largely consumed throughout Norway, and exported. The minor manufactures are cotton, canvas, engine-works, nailworks, paper-mills, and cariole-making. The harbor is closed by ice for three or four months most winters.

History.—It is not until the ninth century that the story of Norway begins to emerge from the obscurities of myth and legend. At first it was occupied by Lapps and by several Gothic tribes, then became an independent kingdom, founded in 872, and was united to Denmark in 1380.

The Napoleonic crisis in Europe may be said to have severed the union, which had existed for more than four hundred years between Norway and Denmark. The latter country after having given unequivocal proofs of adhesion to the cause of Bonaparte, was compelled, after the war of 1813, to sign the treaty of Kiel in 1814, in which it was stipulated by the allied powers that she should resign Norway to Sweden. Charles XIII. was declared joint king of Sweden and Norway in 1818. From that time down to 1905 Norway remained in union with Sweden. In June of that year Norway declared the union dissolved, and the repeal of the union was signed in October of the same year. The throne was offered to and declined by a prince of the reigning house of Sweden, but was afterwards accepted by Prince Carl of Sweden, who was thereupon elected as King Haakon VII. In 1908 a treaty was signed by Great Britain, Germany, France, Russia, and Norway guaranteeing the integrity of the Norwegian kingdom.

Poland

Poland (called by the natives Polska, a word of the same root as Pole, “a plain”), a kingdom of Europe, proclaimed, in 1916, by the governments of Austria-Hungary and the German Empire as the result of conquests by the Central Powers, comprises substantially what is geographically known as Russian Poland (the kingdom of Poland formed in 1815) and Austrian Poland (or the Austrian province of Galicia). The former has an area of about 49,000 square miles, with a population of more than 12,000,000; the latter, an area of 30,300 square miles, and a population of 8,000,000.

Surface.—This extensive tract forms part of the great European central plain, and is crossed by only one range of hills, which run northeast from the Carpathians, forming the watershed between the Baltic and Black Seas.

Its principal streams are the Vistula, the Niemen, and the Dwina, all belonging to the basin of the Baltic; and the Dniester, South Bug, and Dnieper, with its tributary, Pripet, belonging to the basin of the Black Sea.

The physical configuration of the country makes it admirably adapted for agriculture. Next to grain and cattle its most important product is timber.

The soil is mostly a light fertile loam, though there are large barren tracts of sand, heath, and swamp, especially in the east. Much of the fertile soil is rich pasture land, and much is occupied with forests of pine, birch, oak, etc. Rye, wheat, barley, and other cereals, hemp, timber, honey, and wax, cattle, sheep, and horses, vast mines of salt and coal, some silver, iron, copper, and lead constitute the natural riches of the country.

People.—The present population of the provinces, included in the Poland of former days, consists chiefly of Poles, Lithuanians, Germans, Jews, Malo-Russians, Roumanians and Gypsies. The Poles, who number 10,000,000, form the bulk of the population; the Lithuanians, 2,100,000 in number, inhabit the northeast of the country; the Germans, of whom there are 2,000,000, live mostly in the towns; the Jews are very numerous being estimated, at 2,200,000.

Roman Catholics preponderate; then come in order the Greek Church, Protestants, Jews, and Armenians.

Cities.—The following are the populations of the chief cities: Capital, Warsaw, 800,000; Lodz, 400,000; Lemberg, 225,000; Cracow, 160,000; Przemysl, 60,000.

Warsaw (Polish Warszawa), the capital of Poland, stands on the Vistula’s left bank, three hundred and thirty miles east of Berlin by rail and seven hundred miles southwest of Petrograd. Two iron bridges lead to the suburb of Prague, on the opposite bank. Standing on a navigable river, with great railway lines to Moscow, Petrograd, Vienna, Danzig, and Berlin, Warsaw is one of the most important cities of eastern Europe, being smaller only than Petrograd and Moscow. Corn and flax are largely exported, and coal and manufactured goods imported. Warsaw itself manufactures electroplate, machinery, boots, woolens, pianos, carriages, tobacco, sugar, chemicals, beer, and spirits.

Of over one hundred Catholic churches the cathedral of St. John is the most notable; there are also several Greek churches, two Lutheran ones, and many synagogues. The castle is an imposing building, and there are many fine private palaces. The university, suppressed at various times, was reopened in 1915, and has seventy-five professors who now teach in Polish.

History.—The early history of Poland is legendary and obscure. The Poles, like the Russians, are a Slavonic race, and are first spoken of as the Polani, a tribe or people between the Vistula and Oder. The country was divided into small communities until the reign of Mieczyslaw I. (962-992) of the Piast dynasty, who renounced paganism in favor of Christianity, and was a vassal of the German emperor.

He was succeeded by Boleslaw the Great (992-1025), who raised Poland into an independent kingdom and increased its territories. In succeeding reigns the country was involved in war with Germany, the Prussians, the Teutonic knights, and with Russia. The last of the Piast dynasty was Casimir the Great (1364-1370), during whose reign the material prosperity of Poland greatly increased. He was succeeded by his nephew, Louis of Anjou, king of Hungary, whose daughter, Hedwig, was recognized as “king” in 1384, and having married Jagello, prince of Lithuania, thus established the dynasty of the Jagellons, which lasted from 1386 to 1572.

During this period Poland attained its most powerful and flourishing condition. In 1572 the Jagellon dynasty became extinct in the male line, and the monarchy, hitherto elective in theory, now became so in fact. The more important of the elective kings were Sigismund III. (1587-1637), Wladislaw or Ladislaus IV. (1632-1648), John Casimir, (1648-1669), and the Polish general Sobieski, who became king under the title of John III. (1674-1696). He was succeeded by Augustus II., Elector of Saxony, who got entangled in the war of Russia with Charles XII., and had as a rival in the kingdom Stanislaus Lesczynski. Augustus III. (1733-1763) followed, and by the end of his reign internal dissensions and other causes had brought the country into a state of helplessness.

In 1772 under the last feeble king Stanislaus Augustus (1764-1795), the first actual partition of Poland took place, when about a third of her territories were seized by Prussia, Austria, and Russia, the respective shares of the spoil being Prussia 13,415 square miles, Austria 27,000 square miles, Russia 42,000 square miles.

A second division between Russia and Prussia took place in 1793. Prussia received nearly all the present province of Posen, and the western part of what is now Russian Poland; Russia received all the territory east of about long. 44°. A third division between Russia, Prussia, and Austria occurred in 1795. Prussia took a large part of the present Russian Poland, including Warsaw; Austria received part of the present Russian Poland between the Bug, Vistula, and Pilica; and Russia received all the remainder, situated east of the Niemen and Bug.

An insurrection under Koszciusko had taken place in 1794, but he was defeated at the battle of Maciejowice and taken prisoner. Suvorov (Suwarrow), the Russian general, took Warsaw, and the Polish monarchy was at an end. King Stanislaus resigned his crown, and died at Petrograd in 1798.

Part of Poland was formed by Napoleon into the duchy of Warsaw. The Congress of Vienna in 1815 made a resettlement of the territory, creating a kingdom of Poland, under Russian rule, with a constitution. An insurrection which began in November, 1830, was suppressed in September, 1831; the constitution was abolished in 1832. From this time the independence of Poland was suppressed, and in 1832 it was declared an integral part of the Russian empire, with a separate administration, headed by a viceroy chosen by the Czar. On November 6, 1848, the republic of Cracow became Austrian; and the subsequent rebellion against Russian rule in 1863 only brought further humiliation on Polish hopes and aspirations.

During the European war Poland, in 1914, first suffered invasion and devastation by the Russian armies, and during the two following years was completely overrun by the Austro-German armies, and placed under the military rule of the latter. The proclamation of Poland as a new independent kingdom took effect in 1916.

Portugal

PORTUGAL (named from Portus Cale, the Roman name of Oporto), a republic of Europe, lying between Spain and the Atlantic, on the west side of the Iberian Peninsula, is three hundred and fifty miles in length and varies in width from seventy to one hundred and forty miles. The area is 36,038 square miles—a little larger than Ireland.

Surface and Climate.—The coast is mostly low and flat, except immediately north and south of the mouth of the Tagus, and at Cape St. Vincent. The north of Portugal is diversified by spurs (five thousand feet) of the mountains of Spanish Galicia. The Sierra da Estrella (six thousand five hundred and forty feet) is a westward continuation of the Spanish Sierra Guadarrama system. The Sierra Morena is continued westwards in southern Portugal.

The principal rivers of the country—the Guadiana in the south, the Tagus in the center, and the Douro and Minho in the north—are simply the lower courses of Spanish rivers; but the Mondego has its sources in the country.

The vicinity to the ocean tempers the climate and exempts it from the dry heat of Spain. The inequalities of the surface produce, however, diversities of climate; for, while snow falls abundantly on the mountains in the northern provinces, it is never seen in the southern lowlands. Rain falls abundantly throughout the year.

Production and Industry.—The chief products are wheat, barley, oats, maize, flax, hemp, and the vine in elevated tracts; in the lowlands, rice, olives, oranges, lemons, citrons, figs, and almonds. There are extensive forests of oak, chestnut, sea pine, and cork, the cultivation of the vine and the olive being among the chief branches of industry; the rich red wine known to us as “port” is shipped from Oporto. Its mineral products are important—copper, lead, tin, antimony, coal, manganese, iron, slate, and bay salt, which last, from its hardness and purity, is in demand. Its manufactures consist of gloves, silk, woolens, linen, and cotton fabrics, metal and earthenware goods, tobacco, cigars, etc. The exports consist to the extent of fifty per cent of wine, which is the chief industrial product of the country; others are cork, cattle, copper ore, fruits, oil, sardines, and salt.

People.—The Portuguese are a mixed race—original Iberian or Basque, with later Celtic admixture. Galician blood (derived from the ancient Gallaici, presumably Gallic invaders) predominates in the north; Jewish and Arabic blood are strongly present in the center, and African in the south.

The Portuguese differ widely from their Spanish brethren, whom they regard with inveterate hatred and jealousy, mainly on account of their attempts to subvert the independence of Portugal.

Education is free and nominally compulsory between the ages of seven and fifteen, but is not strictly enforced, and over seventy-five per cent of the population above seven years old are illiterate. Secondary education is conducted in state lyceums. There are also military, naval and other special schools. The University of Coimbra is the chief higher institution.

Government.—Portugal was a constitutional monarchy till 1910, when a republic was established. The constitution of 1911 provides a Senate, elected by municipal councils, and a National Council, by direct suffrage. The two chambers united constitute the Congress of the republic. The president of the republic is elected by both chambers for a period of four years. He cannot be re-elected.

Cities.—Capital, Lisbon, on the Tagus, population, 435,359. Oporto had a population (1911) of 194,664. There are no other large towns, but Braga, Loulé, Setubal, and Funchal (Madeira) had populations exceeding 20,000 in 1911.

Lisbon (Port. Lisboa), capital of Portugal, stands on the northern shore of a bottle-shaped expansion of the Tagus, nine miles from its mouth; it is four hundred and twelve miles by rail west by southwest of Madrid. The city extends for four or five miles along the shore, and climbs up the slopes of a low range of hills, occupying a site of imposing beauty.

The oldest part of Lisbon is that which escaped the earthquake of 1755; it lies on the east, round the citadel, and consists of narrow, intricate streets, not over clean. It is still known by its Moorish name of Alfama. The western portions were built after the earthquake, with wide and regular streets, fine squares, and good houses. The summits are mostly crowned with what were formerly large monasteries.

The gloomy cathedral of the “patriarch,” built in 1147, restored after 1755, has a Gothic facade and choir. The large church of St. Vincent contains the tombs of the former royal (Braganza) family. The church of Estrella is a reduced copy of St. Peter’s at Rome. In San Roque is a chapel thickly encrusted with mosaics and costly marbles. But the finest structure in the city is the Gothic monastery and church of Belem, a monument to the great seamen of Portugal; it was begun in 1500 on the spot from which Vasco da Gama embarked (1497) on his momentous voyage. Inside the church are tombs to Camoens and Vasco da Gama, and the grave of Catharine, wife of Charles II. of England.

A fine square facing the bay is surrounded with government offices, the handsome custom-house, and the marine arsenal. There are an academy of sciences, with a library of one hundred and twenty thousand volumes, a polytechnic school, a medical school, a conservatory of music, a public library of four hundred thousand volumes and two observatories.

A magnificent aqueduct brings water to the city from springs nine miles to the northwest.

A series of forts protect the seaward approaches. The harbor is one of the finest in the world, well sheltered, deep close to the quays, and capacious enough to hold all the navies of Europe at once.

History.—Like the rest of Iberia, Portugal (the southern part of which was known to the Romans as Lusitania, often taken as a poetical name for the whole country) was thoroughly Romanized after the conquest of the Carthaginians by the Romans in 138 B. C. Then the peninsula was overrun by the Visigoths, and next by the Saracens. Northern Portugal fell under the influence of Castile; but under Alfonso I. (1143) Portugal became an independent kingdom, though the Saracens were not conquered in the south till 1250. Wars with Castile were frequent.

Under John (1385-1433) began a close alliance between Portugal and England, and the Portuguese king John married John of Gaunt’s daughter. With their son, Prince Henry the Navigator, began the most brilliant era of discovery and conquest, including the acquisition of Madeira, the Azores, and the doubling of the Cape of Good Hope (1486), the reaching of India by sea and settlements there (1497), and the discovery and occupation of Brazil (1500).

In the sixteenth century Portugal was one of the most powerful monarchies of Europe, and most prosperous of commercial peoples; but its decline was swift, and Philip II. annexed Portugal to Spain for sixty years. English assistance secured the independence of the kingdom in 1640; but the glory had departed. Portugal shared in the troubles of the French occupation and the Peninsular war; after Napoleon’s defeat, the old family, which had taken refuge in Brazil, was restored, but the country was rent by intrigue, dissension, and civil war.

The rush of the European powers to occupy central and southern Africa stirred Portugal to cling tenaciously to her once great colonial empire in Africa; but the march of events has given to Britain, Germany, France, and Belgium much that Portugal once claimed as hers.

Popular discontent culminated in the assassination of King Carlos and his eldest son in the streets of Lisbon in February, 1908. His second son, Manoel, succeeded. In 1910 the murder of Dr. Bombarda, a republican, hastened on a revolution already arranged for. The army and navy assisted in deposing Manoel and setting up a provisional government, with Theophile Braga as provisional president. He retired in 1911, and in August of that year Dr. Manoel Arriaga was elected as the first president of the republic.

The republic was formally recognized by the United States upon the meeting of the Portuguese chambers in June, 1911, and by the other powers on the formation of the cabinet in September, 1911. In 1915 Portugal joined the Entente Allies in the European war.

Roumania

ROUMANIA, a kingdom in southeast Europe, lies mainly between the Carpathians, the Purth, and the Danube (the Dobruja being south of the Danube). It includes the strip added from Bulgaria as “compensation” for changes consequent on the Balkan war of 1912-1913, from a point on the Danube above Silistria to Cape Sabla on the Black Sea. Bordering on Hungary, Russia, Bulgaria, and Servia, its area is 52,000 square miles, and population 7,500,000.

Surface.—Roumania consists for the most part of a great treeless steppe-like plain, occupying nearly the whole of the northern watershed of the Lower Danube; behind this plain rise the wooded Transylvania Alps. Between the northern bend of the river to its marshy delta and the Black Sea there rises the bare plateau called the Dobruja, partly grass-covered, partly swampy, without tree or bush. This famous old battle-ground is crossed by Trajan’s double wall or rampart, built to keep the northern barbarians out of the Roman provinces.

Rivers.—All the rivers are tributaries of the Danube, and flow from the Carpathians and the Transylvanian Alps across the level steppe to join its left bank. The chief are the Pruth, which now forms the boundary towards Russia, the Sereth, and the Oltu (Aluta).

People.—Most of the Roumanians are supposed to be descendants of the race formed by the alliance of the Roman colonists with the original inhabitants of Dacia. The Roumanian language is derived mainly from Latin, with Slavonic, Hungarian, and other elements.

They are strong, well-knit men, with black hair, lively, but not very active. The mass of the people live in great poverty; a few thousand Boyars, nobles or landed proprietors, really form the nation. Large numbers of Jews and Gypsies live among the Roumanians. Almost the entire population belongs to the Greek Church, but religious equality prevails.

Government.—The constitution, voted by a popular assembly in 1866, vests the executive authority in the reigning king and his council of ministers; the legislative body consists of a Senate and a Chamber of Deputies.

Production and Industry.—The agricultural products consist of wheat, maize, millet, barley, rye, beans, and peas. Vines and fruits are abundant. The forests are of great extent and importance, but the riches of the country consist mainly in its cattle and sheep. Minerals and precious metals are said to be abundant, but only salt and petroleum are obtained.

Education is free and nominally compulsory, but owing to inadequate provision over sixty per cent of those above seven years of age are illiterate. Secondary education is relatively better, and the schools are well attended. There are also special schools and universities at Bucharest and Jassy. A government high school of commerce was opened in 1913.

Cities.—Capital, Bucharest, has a population (1912) of about 500,000. Other towns are: Jassy, 80,000; Galatz, 66,000; Braīla, 60,000; Ploesci, 50,000; Craiova, 46,000.

Bucharest (Bucuresci), the “Paris of the East,” stands two hundred and sixty-five feet above sea-level, in the fertile but treeless plain of the small, sluggish Dambovitza. By rail it is seven hundred and sixteen miles southeast of Vienna, forty miles north of Giurgevo on the Danube, and one hundred and seventy-nine miles northwest of Varna on the Black Sea. Viewed from the hills which lie to the west and southwest, Bucharest presents a most striking appearance. It is sprawled out on both banks of the river, occupying more than twenty square miles of territory in the slight depression through which the stream makes its way.

Most of its houses are low, not more than two stories, with flat roofs that shimmer in the sun. High above them rise almost innumerable towers, cupolas and minarets of churches, in which the city abounds. The Catholic Cathedral is a fine edifice, built 1875-1884.

Great spots and stretches of greenery mark the spacious parks and gardens and the great boulevards, some of which extend along the river bank, others out to the distant sections of the city.

Three of these thoroughfares skirt the river on the left, where the greater part of the city lies. They are the Plevna, Lipscani and Vacaresci, in order. From the Lipscani extend the Elizabeth Boulevard and Calea Victorie, the avenue of Victory, which connect with another broad highway extending nearly around the city on its outskirts.

Parks and drives are frequent. Then there are the botanical and zoological gardens, and a racecourse, where meets are held at least twice a year.

In these streets the East meets the West. Women gowned in the latest Paris creations and men in perfect European dress are in contrast with the wandering bands of gypsies, the brilliant-clad Roumanian country folk come in to market, the fez-topped Turk, and the distinctly dressed Russian cabmen.

Besides the parkways and busy thoroughfares there are many beautiful buildings—the National Bank, the Athenaeum, with its collection of rare antiques dating back to the days of the Roman conquest; the National Library and Theater; the University of Bucharest, founded in 1864; the many other schools and academies; the great home for the blind established by the late Queen Elizabeth, better known by her pen name “Carmen Sylvia”; a hundred-and-one other places that go to make the city notable as a center of learning, culture and modern progress.

Nearly all of these institutions have homes that are masterpieces of architecture. The Treasury Building and the Postoffice are notable examples. It is said that the Roumanian government has the finest home for its foreign ministry of any country in Europe.

Bucharest is the center for trade between Austria and the Balkan Peninsula, the chief articles of commerce being textile fabrics, grain, hides, metal, coal, timber, and cattle. It has been several times besieged; and between 1793 and 1812 suffered twice from earthquakes, twice from inundations, once from fire, and twice from pestilence.

History.—The Roumanians are descended from the ancient inhabitants—probably Thracians or Dacians—of the country, modified by elements derived from the Roman, Gothic, Bulgarian, and Slavonic invaders. Dacia was a Roman colony from 101 A.D. till 274, when it became the prey of successive swarms of wandering tribes.

Out of numerous small states, two, Wallachia and Moldavia, had become dominant, when they had to bow to the Turkish yoke, and became tributary to the Porte. They were governed by rulers nominated by the Porte, who were generally extortionate Greeks of Constantinople. Russian intervention during the eighteenth century somewhat improved the condition of the downtrodden principalities, which at times were wholly under Russian influence. In 1859 they elected the same prince, Couza. He ruled till he was deposed for misgovernment in 1866, and was succeeded by Prince Charles of Hohenzollern.

The Roumanians fought bravely on the Russian side in the Turkish war of 1877-1878, and at the end obtained complete independence, though they had to give Russia part of Bessarabia for the Dobruja. In 1881 the prince was recognized as a king.

Roumania is not a Balkan state, and took no part in the operations of the Balkan League (Bulgaria, Servia, Montenegro, and Greece) against the Ottoman Empire in 1912-1913; but during the second war (1913), when Bulgaria was in opposition to the remaining members of the League, Roumania was able to exact terms from Bulgaria at the Treaty of Bucharest, by which Bulgarian territory amounting to 7,609 square miles, with a population of 285,000, was surrendered to Roumania.

Servia

SERVIA (ser´vi-ä), a kingdom in the Balkan peninsula, southeastern Europe, is bounded by Austria-Hungary (separated by the Save and Danube) on the north, Roumania (separated by the Danube) and Bulgaria on the east, Turkey and Bosnia on the south, and Bosnia (mainly separated by the Drina) on the west.

Surface.—The greater part of the country is mountainous and wooded; it is full of forests and hills, hedged fields, and fresh meadows, forming pretty but never very grand landscapes. The principal river (besides the frontier rivers) is the Morava.

Production and Industry.—Nearly nine-tenths of the land is left under its primitive woods and pastures. The principal crops are maize for home consumption, and wheat for export; flax, hemp, and tobacco are also grown, and silk-culture is carried on to a limited extent. The exports consist of dried prunes, pigs, and wool, besides wheat, wine, hides, cattle, and horses. The bulk of the trade is with Austria. The mineral treasures of Servia are considerable; gold, copper, and zinc occur in the hills which reach towards the “Iron Gates” of the Danube, and coal beds extend along the river.

Fruit trees exist in very great abundance, especially plums, from which the brandy of the Servians (slovovitza) is extensively made.

People.—The Servians are a well-built, stalwart Slavonic (or perhaps in part Slavonized Albanian) race, proud and martial by temperament; the most striking feature of their social life is the family community or Zadruga. Their literature is rich in poetry, especially lyrics. The population, about 3,000,000 at the outbreak of the war of 1912-1913, was raised by conquests to about 5,000,000. Besides these the Montenegrins (450,000) are almost all pure Servians by race, as are also the Bosnians and Herzegovinians (2,000,000), not to speak of over 3,700,000 Servians in other parts of Austria-Hungary.

The people of Servia belong to the Greek Catholic Church. Education does not reach a very high standard, although a school exists in every commune. There is a university at Belgrade.

Government.—Servia is a constitutional and hereditary monarchy. The legislative power is vested in the king and the National Assembly. This last, called the Skupshtina, consists of one hundred and sixty deputies. Besides this body there is a senate of sixteen members, eight chosen by the king and eight by the National Assembly; this body acts as a permanent state council.

Cities.—Capital, Belgrade (Biograd, “White Fortress”) at the confluence of the Save and Danube, is now a modern city, with electric railways and light, and wide streets, containing the university, national museum and library, and the old Turkish citadel. Population (1910) 91,000. It lies opposite Semlin, at the confluence of the Save and Danube, two hundred and fifteen miles southeast of Budapesth. The walls disappeared in 1862; the last and finest of the five gates was demolished in 1868. Year by year the town is losing its old Turkish aspect, becoming more modern, more European. The royal palace, the residence of the metropolitan, the national theater (1871), and the public offices are the principal buildings. Opposite the theater is a bronze monument to the murdered Prince Michael III.

Belgrade has but trifling manufactures of arms, cutlery, saddlery, silk goods, carpets, etc. It is, however, an entrepôt of trade between Turkey and Austria.

Other towns are Nish, 25,000; Kragojevatz, 19,000; Leskovatz, 15,000; Podjeravatz, 14,000; Shabatz, 12,000; Vranya, 11,500; Pirot, 11,000; and Krutchevatz, 10,000.

The principal towns in the territories acquired in 1913 are Monastir, 60,000; Prisrend, 42,000; Uskub, 32,000; Prilip, 24,000; Istip, or Shtip, 21,000; Kalkandelen, or Tetovo, 20,000; Koprili, or Veles, 20,000; Dibra, 16,000; Pristina, 16,000; Kumanovo, 15,000; Ochrida, 15,000; and Novi Bazar, 13,000.

History.—The Servians came from the Carpathians in the seventh century, and founded a great state, which, about 1350, embraced Albania and much of Bulgaria and Macedonia; but at Kossovo in 1389 the Turks crushed the Servian power and made Servia first tributary and then a province of the Ottoman empire.

A national rising had some success under Kara George in 1807-1810 and through Russian influence it was arranged that Servia should have some measure of internal autonomy. Still more successful was a rising in 1815 under Obrenovich. Under his successors there was considerable progress; and after the Russo-Turkish war of 1877-1878 Servia obtained complete independence and became a kingdom. King Milan abdicated in 1889.

In 1903 a party of officers, representing a wide conspiracy, assassinated King Alexander and Queen Draga, and Peter Karageorgevitch was proclaimed king. In 1913 Servia, as a member of the Balkan League (Bulgaria, Greece, Servia, and Montenegro), waged a successful war against Turkey. In August, 1913, Servia and Greece were attacked by Bulgaria, their former ally, owing to disputes concerning the division of the spoils. The second war collapsed in a few weeks through the threatened intervention of Roumania, and ended in the Treaty of Bucharest. Servia also became involved with the Austro-Hungarian monarchy on a question of the Albanian frontier, where desultory fighting had taken place for some months, but eventually the smaller power withdrew from the disputed area. The outcome of the military operations was the inclusion of the whole of “Old Servia” (the greater part of Macedonia) within the Servian boundaries, which thus embrace an area (1914) of close on thirty-four thousand square miles, with a population estimated at five million.

The assassination of the Austrian heir presumptive, in June, 1914, brought about an invasion of Servia by the forces of Austria-Hungary, and started the Pan-European war that is still in progress.

Spain

SPAIN (Span. España), occupying the larger part of the southwestern peninsula of Europe, is bounded on the south and east by the Mediterranean, on the west by the Atlantic and Portugal, and on the north by the Bay of Biscay and France, from which it is separated by the Pyrenees. Its coast line extends 1,317 miles—712 formed by the Mediterranean and 605 by the Atlantic—and it comprises a total area of 196,700 English square miles, and a population (1910) of 19,588,688.

Surface.—The interior of the peninsula consists of an elevated tableland, surrounded and traversed by mountain ranges. The uniform coast line and the great elevation of its central plateau give Spain a more continental character in its extreme range of temperature than any of the other peninsulas of Europe.

Outside the plateau lie the highest summits in the country, the Pic de Néthou, in the Pyrenees, Mulhacen and Veleta in the Sierra Nevada, while the Picos de Europa in the Cantabrian Range attain over eight thousand feet. The plateau itself is traversed by four mountain ranges which separate the valley of the Ebro from that of the Douro; and the whole of it has a general slight inclination from east or northeast to southwest. Hence all the considerable rivers except the Ebro flow westward to the Atlantic.

These include the Guadalaviar, Júcar, and Segura, important rivers of the eastern watershed. The Minho, Douro, Tagus, Guadiana, and Guadalquivir drain the western valleys, which are formed between the mountain ranges of the Peninsula. The Tagus is the largest river of the Peninsula, the estuary of which forms a magnificent harbor. The Guadalquivir, though the shortest of the larger streams, is the most important on account of its fullness and its course through the most extensive lowland of the Peninsula. The effect of the tide in it is felt for several leagues above Seville, to which city it is navigable, eighty miles from the sea.

The configuration of the country renders the climate very varied. In parts of the northwest the rainfall is among the heaviest in Europe. In the east and southeast occasionally no rain falls in the whole year. The rainfall in the western Pyrenees is very great, yet on the northern slope of the valley of the Ebro there are districts almost rainless. The western side of the great plateau, speaking generally, is more humid and much colder than the eastern, where irrigation is necessary for successful cultivation.

Production and Industry.—Galicia is almost a cattle country; Estremadura possesses vast flocks of sheep and herds of swine. The country is generally fertile, and well adapted to agriculture and the cultivation of heat-loving fruits—as olives, oranges, lemons, almonds, pomegranates, and dates. The agricultural products comprise wheat, barley, maize, oats, rice, with hemp and flax of the best quality. The vine is cultivated in every province; in the southwest, Jerez, the well-known sherry and tent wines are made; in the southeast, the Malaga and Alicante.

Spain is rich in iron, copper and lead, but the mines have been only partially developed.

The seat of the manufacturing industries is chiefly Catalonia. Cotton and woolen manufactures engage many hands, and there are also considerable silk, paper, and cork industries.

The principal exports are wine, copper and copper ores, lead, iron ores, olive oil, raisins, oranges, cork, esparto grass, wool, salt, quicksilver, grapes, etc.

People.—The basis of the population of the whole Peninsula is that of the old Iberians, modified by the admixture of Celtic, Phœnician, Roman, Germanic, and Moorish (Arab) invaders who from time to time gained ascendency in the land and became intermixed with the ancient inhabitants.

Until lately the only religion tolerated was that of the state, the Roman Catholic; now a certain toleration is allowed to other denominations.

Education varies greatly among different classes and in different provinces. In the large towns and in some of the provinces a great effort is made to keep the higher and the technical schools on a level with the best in other European countries. In other parts the neglect is very great. There are ten universities: Madrid, Barcelona, Granada, Oviedo, Salamanca, Seville, Santiago, Valencia, Valladolid, and Saragossa. Primary education is by law compulsory, but the law is not strictly enforced, which accounts for the large percentage of illiterates.

Government.—The government of Spain is an hereditary monarchy founded on the constitution of 1876. The Cortes consists of two bodies—the Senate, of about three hundred and sixty members (one-half elected), and a Congress of Deputies, elected at the rate of one member to every fifty thousand inhabitants.

Cities.—The principal cities are Madrid, population 597,573; Barcelona, 587,219; Valencia, 233,348; Seville, 155,366; Malaga, 136,192; Murcia, 125,380; Saragossa, 111,701; Carthagena, 96,983; Bilbao, 93,536; and San Sebastian, 92,514; and there are also twelve towns with over 50,000 inhabitants.

THE ROYAL PALACE, MADRID,

one of the finest in Europe, has a frontage of four hundred and seventy feet, is one hundred feet high, and built of white stone. Among the thirty rooms on the first floor, the largest and finest is the Hall of the Ambassadors. The vault was painted by Tiepolo, and represents the exaltation of the Spanish monarchs. The walls are draped with velvet embroidered with gold, and twelve immense mirrors also decorate it. On the right of the throne, which is guarded by four gilded bronze lions, is a statue of Prudence, and on the left that of Justice. The chapel is extremely rich, but not very handsome. There is also a library, a theatre, and the magnificent collection of Flemish tapestries.

Madrid (Span. pron. Madh-reedh´), the capital of Spain, is situated in the department of Madrid (part of the ancient province of New Castile), eight hundred and eighty miles by rail from Paris. It is built on a treeless, ill-watered plateau, on the left bank of the Manzanares, two thousand and sixty feet above the sea-level.

The Manzanares is merely a mountain-torrent falling into the Jarama, a tributary of the Tagus; water is brought from the Guadarrama Mountains by an aqueduct forty-two miles in length.

The general aspect of the city is clean and gay, while the older parts are picturesque; no trace now remains of the mediæval city. The new streets are generally fine, broad, and planted with trees; the houses well built, lofty, and inhabited by several families living in flats. A great feature is the magnificent open spaces, chief of which is the Prado, running north and south through the eastern part of the city, and, with its continuations, three miles long. It contains four handsome fountains with groups of statuary, a fine obelisk to commemorate the gallant struggle with the French (May 2, 1808), monuments to Columbus, Isabel the Catholic, etc.

The picture-gallery here, founded by Charles III., is one of the finest in Europe, and contains many of the masterpieces of Velasquez, Murillo, Raphael, Tintoretto, Rubens, Teniers, and Van Dyck. Two other parks are the Buen Retiro, the fashionable promenade on the east of the city, and the Casa de Campo on the west. Midway between its extremities the Prado is crossed at right angles by the Calle de Alcala, the finest street in the city, about a mile in length, and leading from outside the fine triumphal arch rebuilt by Charles III. to the Puerta del Sol, the square which is the heart of Madrid; here converge the principal electric lines, and in it and the streets branching off from it are situated the principal shops and places of business.

The finest square is the Plaza Mayor, formerly the scene of bull-fights; it contains a gigantic equestrian statue of Philip III., its founder. On the west of the city are the new cathedral and the royal palace; the latter, commenced in 1738 to replace the ancient Alcazar, which had been burned down, was finished in 1764 at a cost of fifteen million dollars. Other fine buildings are the palace of justice, formerly a convent; the houses of parliament; Buena Vista Palace, now the ministry of war, and the new national bank.

Besides a flourishing university, founded by Cardinal Ximenes, and two high schools, Madrid contains numerous municipal schools. Madrid is well provided with newspapers and public libraries, the chief being the National Library, with more than half a million volumes, and the library of the university.